News Story not available This story has been published on: 2021-10-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. the complete review - fiction Desirable Body by Hubert Haddad general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author French title: Corps desirable Translated by Alyson Waters - Return to top of the page - Our Assessment: B : sharp writing but the story/issues too pared-down in its presentation See our review for fuller assessment. From the Reviews : "There is something dated about Haddads book: an effect as curious as it is, I am sure, deliberate, with piquant hints of Ian Fleming in his use of glamorous European locations. Its in its glancing, elliptical relationship to technology that Desirable Body takes its most curious backward step. Yet this elusive approach feels like a breath of fresh air after decades spent wading through big infrastructure-saturated fictions such as Don DeLillos Underworld and Richard Powerss The Overstory . (...) Desirable Body is about more than one decapitated mans unusual plight; its about how surprisingly little our choices have to do with our feelings and passions. A farce, then, and a sharp one: its funny to contemplate, but if you fell into its toils for a second, youd die screaming in horror." - Simon Ings, The Guardian takes its most curious backward step. Yet this elusive approach feels like a breath of fresh air after decades spent wading through big infrastructure-saturated fictions such as Don DeLillos and Richard Powerss . (...) is about more than one decapitated mans unusual plight; its about how surprisingly little our choices have to do with our feelings and passions. A farce, then, and a sharp one: its funny to contemplate, but if you fell into its toils for a second, youd die screaming in horror." - "Despite much satirical hyperbole, real and disturbing questions emerge about how scientific advances exacerbate our yearning for immortality." - The New Yorker "Haddads fabulously imagined, deeply intelligent, and vividly realized modern parable -- complete with moments of true horror -- sizzles as it grapples with the question of what makes a self, and if its ever possible to separate soul from flesh." - Publishers Weekly "Haddad weaves complex scientific musings within eloquent descriptions of turmoil with ease. The writers use of detail is, ironically, never too clinical to veil or outright sabotage his narrative. (...) Haddads work is terrifying without relying on horror conventions. Rather, it garners its momentum by simply cascading an idea as far as it can possibly tumble." - Daniel Bokemper, World Literature Today Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. - Return to top of the page - The complete review 's Review : Personal identity is already at the fore of Desirable Body early on: Cedric Allyn-Weberson is the son of an extremely wealthy pharmaceuticals tycoon, but after his mother's suicide he eventually cut all ties with his father and his past and changed his identity, becoming a journalist and living under the name Cedric Erg. While his father Morice, with his nearly unlimited resources, stays well-informed about his son, Cedric has long avoided any contact with him. With: "a new pair of glasses and a bearded chin, Cedric the renegade had completely transformed his face", as well; he had become another person. When the novel opens, Cedric has also found the love of his life, Lorna Leer -- "Ever since he'd met Lorna, he'd found stability and no longer questioned his identity". When they take a vacation on a sailing boat together, he is ready to settle down and marry her -- only to hear that she thinks they will break up. Identity is at the heart of it again: Lorna had just learned of Cedric's true identity -- not from him, who had always concealed it from everyone -- and to her this makes it seem that: Cedric had been cheating on her for years with himself, with a stranger. How can you believe in your own past, and even your emotions, when your body is haunted by another's history ? - M.A.Orthofer, 2 August 2018 - Return to top of the page - : - Return to top of the page - About the Author : French-writing author Hubert Haddad was born in Tunisia in 1947. - Return to top of the page - Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Central Pa. designer closes store to specialise in bridal line A central Pennsylvania prom dresses designer can shut her store in Mechanicsburg to specialise in the enlargement of her bridal line. A decade agone, Sheila Kauffman launched her own line of article of clothing, Sheila Frank, with attention on swimwear and ready-made article of clothing. In 2016, she opened a panopticon at fifty W. Main St. in Mechanicsburg and introduced a bridal assortment. But, simply 2 years once gap the shop, it'll go on Gregorian calendar month. Kauffman opened the shop to possess an area to figure with shoppers to customise their own wedding dresses, evening robes, promenade dresses and alternative special day dresses. But, she has set to alter the main target of her business. While closing a company's sole store in most cases would mean the top of a business, for Kauffman it suggests that she is going to be able to specialise in commerce to bridal prom dresses 2019 boutiques across the country and internationally. thus whereas Kauffman is closing the shop, the brand, Sheila Frank LLC, can go on. Frank is Kauffman's cognomen. With the closing of the shop, Kauffman can now not be taking custom shoppers, she has proclaimed. Kauffman aforementioned whereas she is going to now not offer bespoken dresses, she is going to still style and make assortment dresses for weddings and special occasions. wedding dresses are out there for purchase on-line and in specialty boutiques across the us starting next year, she proclaimed. BY promfast.com here now...so welcome. come on, more cheap bridesmaid dresses by us. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Segmentation The Global Coated Fabrics Market is segmented into the Product Type, Application and Region. On the Basis of the Type, the market is segmented into polymer coated fabrics, rubber coated fabrics, and fabric backed wall coverings. Among the various product type, polymer coated fabrics were the largest segment in 2016 and are anticipated to show the same trend during the forecast period. The growing applications of the product in automobile airbags and protective clothing is anticipated to be the major factor driving the growth of the segment. The demand for polymer-coated fabrics is expected to rise substantially in the developing economies in the Asia Pacific region. The fabric backed wall covering segment is expected to witness a considerable CAGR during the forecast period. The growing implications of the product in the commercial and urban housing sector is contributing to the segment growth positively. Get In-Depth Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6134 On the Basis of Application, the market is segregated into transportation, protective clothing, industrial, furniture, construction, and others. According to MRFR analysis, transportation is anticipated to be the largest segment for Coated Fabrics Market, which accounted for over 30% share of the market in 2017. The growing automobile sales in developing countries of the Middle East and Asia Pacific is contributing to the growth of the segment. Whereas, the protective clothing segment is likely to witness propelling growth owing to the growing demand for the product in the industrial sector. Competitive Analysis Some of the key players in the Global Coated Fabrics Market are Omnova Solutions Inc. (US), Takata Corporation (Japan), Saint-Gobain (France), Sioen Industries NV (Belgium)., Mauritzon Inc. (US) ContiTech AG (Germany) , Isotex SpA (Italy), Graniteville Specialty Fabrics (US), Serge Ferrari Group (France), Heytex Bramsche GmbH (Germany), and Trelleborg AB (Sweden). Regional Analysis Based on the Region , the market is segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific dominated the Coated Fabrics Market in 2017 and is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the review period, 2018-2033. Factors such as growing automobile sector and industrialization are the major factors driving the market growth. North America is anticipated to be the second largest market during the forecast years. The growing safety regulation in the region has propelled the demand for protective clothing, which is a major factor contributing to the market demand. Get Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/coated-fabrics-market-6134 About Market Research Future: At the Market Research Future (MRFR), we provide our customers to unearth the complexity of our industries through our Cooked Research Reports (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) ), and Market Research & Consulting Services. MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimal quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Applications, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enabling our clients to see more important questions. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Market Overview: The growing demand for organically produced foods is growing rapidly. Evolving consumer buying habits, growing consumers concerns regarding health, the environment, and animal welfare, along with their willingness to pay premium price for healthy food is fuelling the demand of organic food market in Asia-Pacific region. Even at the global level, market is driven by factors such as increasing consumer awareness towards benefits associated with its consumption, adoption of organic farming methods, and implementation of organic regulations. The presence of organic foods & beverages has increased over the years in conventional food supply chains due to the development of private labels and growing interest of large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco to sell organic products. The market players have increased their levels of investment in research to identify right formulation and to improve product functionality in order to capture lions share and create brand recognition in organic foods & beverages market. Also, government authorities, NGOs, and farmer organizations in developing countries are promoting organic farming by financial support, market information, and trends in organic food market. Developing countries are providing subsidies to small farmers for organic farming. NGOs, farmer organizations, traders are conducting training programs to encourage farmers for adopting organic farming. Government and non-government organizations such as FiBL (Switzerland), APEDA (India), and USDA (U.S.) support conventional farmers to switch to organic farming. All these efforts from government and NGOs are boosting the consumption of organic foods & beverages. Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2524 Latest Industry Updates: July 2017 General Mills, Inc. launched their new organic yogurt under the brand name of Oui March 2017 Hain Celestial launched organic bread products June 2016 General Mills, Inc. made a partnership with Organic Valley. The partnership will aid the organization to source organic dairy products March 2016 General Mills, Inc. introduced a line of organic whole milk yogurt, available in three varieties: berry, strawberry and vanilla. Leading Key Players: Global organic food market is undergoing a massive technological innovation over the last couple of years. Manufacturers invest in research and technical development and investigative activities to improve existing products and procedures in order to develop new products. Research and development will lead to development of new product to improve the quality and functionality by including better formulations. Key players have been developing better-for-you products to accommodate the healthy food movement in convenient packaging, with clean labels ensuring food safety. The key players profiled in organic food & beverages are Amys Kitchen Inc., Dean Food Company, General Mills Inc., Hain Celestial Group, Inc., SpartanNash Company, Kraft Foods Group Inc., The Kroger Co., and Whole Foods Market, Inc. among many others. The Organic Food & Beverages market is segmented under the following regions mentioned below: North America US Canada Europe Europe Germany France Italy Spain UK Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Australia Singapore Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the world Brazil Argentina Saudi Arabia South Africa Others Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/organic-food-beverages-market-2524 Regional Analysis: The global Organic Food & Beverages market is segmented into Europe, North America, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe is estimated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period of 2017-2023. The growth of the Europe is anticipated to be driven by the increasing busy lifestyles of the consumers coupled with the increasing launches of new products by the key players in Europe. Also, increasing awareness among the consumers related to the adverse effect of synthetic ingredients is propelling the sales of organic foods & beverages. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth as compared to the other regions. Increasing demand for clean label products, huge investments in R&D, and new product development by market players along with government initiatives and funds to support farmers to shift from conventional farming to organic farming has created lucrative opportunities for the growth of organic food & beverages market in Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. It's a great reveal, but totally falls apart under scrutiny. And we're not just talking about the insanely lifelike masks they can now manufacture with laptop-sized devices (presumably because in this universe, the CEO of Microsoft is a reformed Scooby-Doo villain). The movie specifically shows us that Cavill was leering at a surveillance video of Lane's cell the whole time. Meaning there was no way for the two to switch places without being super obvious about the whole thing. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Slate actually asked director Christopher McQuarrie about this scene, and it turns out ... yeah, it doesn't make any sense. McQuarrie admits that he spent "ages" trying to work out the logistics of the switch. While they did end up cobbling together a "sleight of hand" method for Benji to trade spots with Lane, the filmmakers concluded it would "kill the momentum" of the movie. They even shot some of these explanatory moments to satiate potential nitpickers, but according to editor Eddie Hamilton, test audiences "didn't give a fuck," and were "just dozing off during those scenes." So they took them out, and no one missed them. Mission accomplished. Continue Reading Below Advertisement You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter, or check out the podcast Rewatchability. Support your favorite Cracked writers with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you. For more, check out Chicago Restaurant To Hawaii: Stop Using The Word 'Aloha' and Is Guy Fieri An American Hero? (Yes, He Is). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to follow us on Facebook. Join the Cracked Movie Club Expand your movie and TV brain--get the weekly Cracked Movie Club newsletter! SIGN ME UP A woman was sitting on a bench after visiting her daughters grave when she was splattered with acid by a young thug engaged in a dispute with another rogue. Horribly burned, she died 11 days later. This unimaginably awful crime didnt take place in a godforsaken Brazilian favela or dark New York back alley. It happened in High Wycombe, a Buckinghamshire town not famous for ghastly acts of random violence. The assailant, Xeneral Webster, had travelled there from his home in West London to confront Saqib Hussain over a drugs dispute. Webster threatened Hussain with a bottle of acid. Hussain knocked it out of his hand and it hit Joanne Rand, a 47-year-old dementia nurse, several feet away. A woman was sitting on a bench after visiting her daughters grave when she was splattered with acid by a young thug engaged in a dispute with another rogue. Horribly burned, she died 11 days later. It happened in High Wycombe, a Buckinghamshire town not famous for ghastly acts of random violence The yob then cycled off, brazenly clutching the empty bottle, a hood covering his head and much of his face, without local police (surprise, surprise) having been aware of his presence on their patch. On Tuesday, Webster was jailed for 17 years for the manslaughter of Miss Rand. Long enough? I dont know. The measure of the man can be gauged by his crude outburst in court as he was sent down. All of you will probably be dead by the time Im out of here. F*** you, bro. Now we could regard this heart-rending incident as a one-in-a-million mishap that tells us nothing except the capacity some people have for committing evil. But we would be wrong to limit our reflections in such a way. It was that, of course a wicked act. But it was something more. It happened not where most of us certainly not poor Miss Rand would expect. High Wycombe is a pretty ordinary sort of place. Its not the Wild West, or Inner London. Yet this is the really horrifying thing I suspect we have become so used to the reality of violence in once law-abiding places that it is no longer especially shocking when we hear of it in somewhere like High Wycombe. Crime rates are rising everywhere, but the increase may be even sharper in rural areas than in metropolitan ones. According to the most recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, robberies rose by 49 per cent in Durham, 48 per cent in Warwickshire and 68 per cent in North Wales. The number of burglaries was also significantly up in rural counties. So was knife crime. Of this scourge, the ONS observed: These offences were concentrated in London and other metropolitan areas. However, the majority of police force areas saw a rise in this type of violent crime. What is going on? Drugs have a lot to do with it. For example, London gangs have been flooding neighbourhoods in the Medway towns and the Kentish seaside towns of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate to cultivate lucrative new markets. Ringleaders control phone numbers the so-called county lines to advertise drugs and hook up with buyers. Teenage mules carry heroin and crack cocaine out of the capital, and return with cash. So widespread has this menace become that the headmaster of a grammar school in Broadstairs was recently warned by the police that one of his pupils might be stabbed to death within 12 months because of the spread of drugs gangs. Of course, drugs are only part of the story. Mindless aggression can be a cause. In the Suffolk market town of Bury St Edmunds, police arrested four teenage boys a few days ago for pelting a disabled woman with eggs and flour. A celebratory photo of their gratuitous attack had been posted online. I believe Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was unwise to claim that violent crime in the capital has begun to stabilise And yesterday Donell Wilkins, 18, was sentenced to six years for an even worse unprovoked attack in Kingston upon Thames, a leafy London suburb. He had sprayed a corrosive substance into the face of another man after a dispute. If nothing else, the authorities must make it harder for young people to buy acid. Police figures suggest that the number of acid attacks has climbed from 400 in 2016 to 700 in 2017. The figure will be higher this year. But the issue of rising crime and the apparent inability of police to get to grips with it obviously call for much more extensive action than simply restricting the sale of acid. It is hardly surprising that, in the countryside, less than a third of people believe the police are doing a good job, according to figures from the annual National Rural Crime Survey that were published last week. On the one hand, crime is soaring in many rural and suburban areas. Yet, on the other, the police are solving a decreasing percentage of crimes. Nationwide and there is no reason to think the figures are significantly different outside the big cities police charged a suspect in only nine per cent of reported crimes last year. Three years ago the figure was 15 per cent. According to the polices own figures, in 3,000 neighbourhoods in England and Wales (just over a tenth of the total), officers did not solve a single burglary last year. Isnt that shameful? As we know, the usual police justification for their worsening performance in the face of rising crime is that their numbers have been cut by 14 per cent since the Coalition assumed power in 2010. But is this really credible? Surely the main problem is the virtual absence of police on the streets, especially in suburbia and smaller towns, where crime is so markedly on the increase. It was ever thus. I cant remember there being many, if any, more police on the streets back in 2010, when numbers stood at an all-time high. I would be more convinced by the argument that more resources are needed if I thought they would be sensibly deployed. After all, the boys and girls in blue have no difficulty in turning out in numbers when required to tackle hate crime, investigate bogus claims of sex offences said to have been committed by dead statesmen such as former prime minister Edward Heath, or arrest blameless tabloid journalists at six in the morning. By all means, let there be more police but, first of all, can the ones we have show they have their priorities straight? This entails, among other things, a greater presence on our streets. They cant be everywhere, I know. But if rogues such as acid attacker Xeneral Webster and Saqib Hussain had feared that police might be keeping watch on them, or at any rate be in the vicinity, it is possible Joanne Rand might be alive. Needless to say, I dont at all discount the severity of rising crime in London and our big cities. Indeed, I believe Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was unwise to claim on Tuesday that violent crime in the capital has begun to stabilise. There is no evidence it has. But if incidents of crime are increasing even more quickly outside the large conurbations, isnt it time our rulers showed they cared? Virtually the only recent contribution was the misguided suggestion by a junior justice minister that prison sentences of less than a year should be scrapped for all but the most serious offences. The sad truth is that theres no one in government or the upper echelons of the police who shows sufficient concern about rising crime, or has any idea how to deal with it. Bloggers are buying empty bottles to make it look like they own expensive beauty hauls, MailOnline can reveal. Dozens of eBay users are flogging used perfume and soap containers from luxury brands to bloggers seemingly desperate to keep up appearances by posting pictures of their 'high-end' beauty collections on Instagram. One seller listed an empty 30ml bottle of Jo Malone's popular Pomegranate Noir eau de cologne - describing it as the perfect 'prop' or 'flatlay' (a bird's eye view style photo popular with bloggers). Other items, like an empty box of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle eau de toilette, were selling for the equivalent of 19.95 including postage. MailOnline can reveal how bloggers are buying empty perfume and hand wash containers to make it look like they own expensive beauty collections (pictured: a 30ml bottle of Jo Malone's popular pomegranate noir eau de cologne described as the perfect 'prop' or 'flatlay') Trendy Australian brand Aesop also proved popular on eBay, with empty bottles of its hand wash - which normally retail at 27 each - selling for around 10 despite having their contents removed. While it may sound extreme, the tactic is nevertheless an eco-friendly one with increasing numbers of retailers now selling hand wash refills - that can be decanted into reusable bottles - in a bid to cut down on plastic waste. The trend also allows shoppers to make money from their second-hand products which would otherwise have ended up in the rubbish. The bizarre trend is thought to be linked to the rise of the 'shelfie' which sees bloggers showing off their sees perfectly arranged - and often colour co-ordinated - bathroom shelves stacked with envy-inducing products. Without the budget to splash thousands on expensive toiletries, it seems some cash-strapped bloggers are resorting to buying empty bottles instead. One eBay seller is flogging an empty box of Chanel Coco Mademoiselle eau de toilette, for the equivalent of 19.95 including postage. MailOnline identified a spate of eBay sellers from around the world flogging empty beauty containers to bloggers for their Instagram photos This Reverence Aromatique hand wash bottle, from Aussie brand Aesop, would normally retail at 27 - but bloggers are happy to spend almost 10 (including postage) for an empty one. MailOnline spotted several eBay sellers flogging empty beauty containers online Another Aesop product, a geranium leaf body cleanser that would normally sell at 31, is being sold for 11 on eBay. MailOnline identified a spate of sellers flogging empty bottles on eBay Lee Pycroft, makeup artist and therapist (leepycroft.com), told FEMAIL: 'As the trend on Instagram and blogs for shelfie images and flatlays gathers momentum, it makes sense that some bloggers are looking to create what is a seemingly desirable aesthetic by using these empty premium containers. 'Premium products tap into the need each human has to feel that they have status and significance; this is how many high-end brands market and sell their products, and we will also buy into the story of a brand that resonates with us.' Lee added: 'It's not uncommon for bloggers and influencers to market themselves to show the edited highlights of their life, as they are essentially selling their skills and services, and to make themselves attractive to brands that will collaborate with them. So-called 'shelfies' like this one, that see bloggers artfully arranging their enviable beauty and skincare collections, are sweeping social media and may be behind the trend for second-hand bottles and containers being flogged on eBay With bloggers flaunting their impressive beauty hauls on Instagram (pictured), it's thought that young women are feeling under pressure to keep up appearances by snapping up second-hand bottles and containers on sites like eBay instead of buying them brand new 'This trend for buying empty bottles to showcase a premium lifestyle is indeed resourceful, but not necessarily authentic, and questions the necessity to create an unrelenting and unrealistic image of what society deems to be a "perfect life". 'Young girls are often influenced by peers more than their parents, especially as the teenage years progress, and the exposure to relentless images of perfection and these premium brands can amplify their expectations for how their own lives 'should' be. 'The above issue of the new trend of buying empty premium containers is just one layer of many around the potential detrimental impact of social media exposure, when the viewer is not questioning the authenticity of what they are seeing.' Former Bachelorette and litigator, Rachel Lindsay, believes in the idea of dressing for success. 'People often think you cant be fashionable and be an attorney, or maybe it will take away from what you're doing or that you won't look as skillful or taken as seriously,' said the 33-year-old. 'I think its a power statement to be stylish in the courtroom.' The television personality explains why it's ok for women to express themselves through clothing regardless of their profession, shares her tops tips on making a great first impression, and more. Power moves: Former Bachelorette and litigator, Rachel Lindsay, says you can be professional in the courtroom and still be stylish. The 33-year-old showed off her phenomenal curves in an NBD top ($138) and skirt ($158) at #revolvesummer in Bermuda LOOK THE PART 'It's important to dress the part because your appearance says a lot about you,' shares the Dallas native. 'When you walk into a courtroom, the first thing they see is you. The jury they teach you this judges you from the first ten minutes of you talking to them. So if you dress the part and you look professional and you're not sloppy in your appearance, it really goes a long way and stands out. 'I hate to say it but as a woman they really are looking for you to look a certain way, and you can be sexy fully covered up with a pantsuit and a heel or a dress.' At work, the television star opts for a sleek trouser set or a pencil skirt paired with a blouse, and 4 inch heels (not stilettos). Her go-to: To feel sexy Rachel slips into a bodysuit. 'Its a staple piece and you can wear it with pants, a skirt, whatever. Seen here in an h:ours bodysuit ($108) and a House of Harlow 1960 skirt ($148) MAKE AN IMPRESSION 'I think jewelry really helps you stand out. You can wear a black dress to work but then going further into the evening, a big statement necklace dresses up the whole outfit and it changes it completely.' To go from desk to date, the Bachelor alum removes layers. 'Go to work in a pencil skirt and a sleeveless blouse topped with a blazer and accessorized with a necklace and a low heel. 'As you go into happy hour, maybe change into a higher heel, take the jacket off so your arms show and add an earring. Layering is key, and then you have on less as the night goes on.' Left: Linda Lariat by 8 Other Reasons, $55; revolve.com. Right: After Dark Necklace by Ettika, $66; revolve.com Own it: 'The body is beautiful, why do I have to cover up just because of my title or profession?' The Dallas native strikes a sultry pose in a white bikini by Lovers + Friends. Top ($78) Bottom ($68) IT'S OK TO BE SEXY 'The body is beautiful, why do I have to cover up just because of my title or profession? 'Im a lawyer, I worked hard for that but it doesnt mean that Im not a woman as well and I dont want to express myself in other ways.' To feel sexy the raven-haired beauty slips into a bodysuit. 'Its a staple piece and you can wear it with pants, a skirt, whatever.' Though she likes to dress flirty, she describes her look as tomboy chic. 'Kaitlyn Bristowe and I have similar styles. We both joke about being tomboys in this girly Bachelor world.' Twins: Though she likes to dress flirty, Rachel describes her look as tomboy chic. 'Kaitlyn Bristowe and I have similar styles. We both joke about being tomboys in this girly Bachelor world' SHOP SMART The reality star admits to being a slow adapter to internet shopping. 'I used to not be an online shopper because I have a weird shape. My body is two different people. From the waist up Im a totally different person from the waist down.' However, with her busy schedule, Rachel had to start perusing the world wide web. 'But I'm enjoying it a lot. Im actually addicted to it. I love REVOLVE, it has so many different brands that it captures all my styles.' Red hot: Rachel's fiance, Bryan Abasolo, whom she got engaged to on her season of the Bachlorette, has influenced her style in many ways ASK FOR AN OPINION Rachel's fiance, Bryan Abasolo, whom she got engaged to at the end of her Bachlorette season in 2017, has influenced her style in many ways. 'Hes really great because he gives me tips like "I think you would look sexy in this" or "You shouldn't wear that" it's a good balance.' Her wardrobe got a little brighter thanks to the chiropractor (A.K.A. Dr. Abs). 'I typically wear blacks and whites, but with him being from Miami, he likes to see me in a lot of color. 'Bryan likes my legs so when Im being sexy for him on date night, I would wear a bodysuit or a crop top and shorts.' Stepping out of her comfort zone: 'I typically wear blacks and whites, but with Bryan being from Miami, he likes to see me in a lot of color.' Here, she rocks a floral Majorelle top ($128) and bottom ($118) OPT FOR BARELY-THERE MAKEUP When it comes to beauty, Rachel loves lashes. 'I use mink lash extensions. Before the Bachelor all I owned was mascara, press powder and Vaseline. I didnt use any makeup but I learned so much. 'Thats what's so great about doing the show, you make these friendships with girls and they teach you how to do things.' While she now knows how to do her makeup, she still favors a more natural look. 'Eyebrows, mascara (if you dont have lashes) and lip gloss thats all you need!' She revealed that the reason she started getting lash extensions is because of people wanting to take pictures with her. 'You get tired of seeing yourself with no makeup on so at least my lashes are done.' While sitting down with the Daily Mail, Rachel was asked to take photos with at least 10 adoring fans, each of who professed their love for her. Think Twice Mink Lashes by Artemis Lash, $25; revolve.com Constance Hall isn't new to creating controversy and now she has expressed her outrage as a Facebook post of hers has disappeared. The blogger and mother-of-five from Perth took to Instagram to vent her frustration at the fact that a post about sexual education had 'violated community standards'. In the now deleted post she encouraged boys to 'find the cl**', told girls to 'never fake an orgasm' and for them to also take time to masturbate. 'Facebook legit just deleted my post on sex ed for young people. Seriously??? Said it violated their community standards... Unbelievable,' she wrote in an Instagram caption. 'Obviously too many people reported it. For f*** sakes.' Constance Hall took to Instagram to vent her frustration at the fact that a Facebook post about sexual education has disappeared as it violated community standards 'Facebook legit just deleted my post on sex ed for young people. Seriously??? Said it violated their community standards... Unbelievable,' she said The original post was designed for 'young boys and girls who don't want to listen to their parent's coz [sic] that's cringey'. Her first tip encouraged boys to teach themselves 'how to find the cl**, be it through Google or YouTube. 'There is little point in touching a vagina if you don't understand the cl**,' she said. Constance went on further to explain that girls should never fake an orgasm and boys shouldn't be upset if their penis alone doesn't do the job. 'Ask her to show you how she makes herself c***, if you can make a chick comfortable enough to show you that, you're a great shag,' Constance added. What did the now deleted post say? 1. Boys, find the the cl**. Google it, tube it There is little point in touching a vagina if you don't understand the cl**. 2. Girls, never fake an orgasm. Faking an orgasm is teaching boys that their egos play a bigger role in your sexuality than you do. 3. Boys, don't be upset if your d*** alone can't bring a girl to orgasm. Most girls need more, refer to point one. Ask her to show you how she makes herself c***, if you can make a chick comfortable enough to show you that, you're a great s**g. 4. Girls, masturbate. We all do it. Well if we ever get five minutes to ourselves we do it. It's the only thing on earth that men are better at talking about than us. Talk about it. 5. Boys, consent. If you go to touch, grab or pull down her undies and she pushes your hand away this does not mean try [again] in 30 seconds. It mean she's not consenting and is happy to keep it at the level it's at. The ball is officially in her court and you must wait until she either grabs your hand and moves it back or makes a move towards your pants. 6. Girls, your vagina. The smell, the taste, it's what makes you a woman. Do not let some 14 year old's school yard jokes about fish fingers give you vaginal paranoia. Boys love it. 7. Boys, the size of your d*** matters a lot less thank you think. Half the time even a massive kn** won't hit the spot. Girls generally care more about how you speak to them, the way you touch them and how you treat them afterwards rather than the size of your penis. 8. Girls, don't ever feel like you 'might as well do it because you've come this far'. You never have to, even half way though it you can get up and walk away. 9. Boys and girls, a girl is not a sl** for sleeping around. This is a term coined by the patriarchy and it's gross infatuation with virgins. 10. Boys and girls, laugh and have fun. Sex is meant to be fun, stop taking it so seriously. Some positions don't work, wet patches happen, fanny farts happen, d***s go soft, vaginas go dry. It's all part of what makes it fun. 11. Porn is a film with camera tricks, lighting and stunts. It's going to resemble your real sex life about as much as your actual life resembles Game of Thrones. To clarify, nobody wants to be f**ted. Advertisement The original post was designed for 'young boys and girls who don't want to listen to their parent's coz [sic] that's cringey' She told her followers that if they wanted to read the content that she claims Facebook doesn't allow, they'd have to buy her book She told her followers that if they wanted to read the content that she claims Facebook doesn't allow, they'd have to buy her book. The post went on to list eight points that the mum of five deems important for young people to know about sex largely in relation to the issue of consent and to women learning about their bodies. As vocal as ever, Constance's followers have taken to Instagram to express their own disbelief and irritation about the post being deleted. 'Ask her to show you how she makes herself c***, if you can make a chick comfortable enough to show you that, you're a great shag,' Constance added 'Are they for real!? Young people need realistic sexual education!!,' one person commented. 'Im glad I had a chance to see it. You are what the world needs Constance!!!,' said another. 'Now that is totally f***ed up! You inspire me and so many people every day!,' another person said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Facebook for comment. As vocal as ever, Constance's followers have taken to Instagram to express their own disbelief and irritation about the post being deleted On Wednesday, Constance also expressed her exasperation at the fact that she thought Bonds had taken too much inspiration from her own underwear line. The blogger owns an online clothing brand called Like A Queen and released an autobiography of the same name. When she was alerted to the fact underwear label Bonds had launched a new campaign asking women to 'join the Queendom' she was offended - and called them out for plagiarising her 'vibe'. Daily Mail Australia also contacted Bonds for comment. Bonds' new Originals range promotes the idea of women being Queens - and shows off a number of different sized models A sex columnist has revealed the lengths she would go for a first date as she once flew 900 kilometres to meet a man for the first time. Nadia Bokody, 34, from Sydney, said that after her divorce she was finding a thrill in acting as a 'slutty vigilante' when she came across a part-time bodybuilder on the dating app, Bumble. Although there were barriers in place, she was keen on adding him to her sex 'rotations', but the disastrous date wasn't quite what she hoped for. 'For starters, he was a decade younger than me and in the midst of back-packing around Australia with scant funds, while I was busting balls running a successful website raking in the coin,' Nadia told Mamamia. Nadia Bokody, 34, from Sydney, said that after her divorce she was finding a thrill in acting as a 'slutty vigilante' when she came across a part-time bodybuilder on the dating app, Bumble Although there were barriers in place, she was keen on having him in her sex 'rotations' 'Oh, and we were separated by about 900 kilometres,' she added. This didn't stop Nadia from following her urge to fly to the Gold Coast to meet the man. She knew that his trip was due to end in Sydney in six weeks' time which meant she was hopeful that if they started something up it had the potential to continue. Eventually they started exchanging messages over Bumble, then texts, and finally, phone calls. 'He was a decade younger than me and in the midst of back-packing around Australia with scant funds, while I was busting balls running a successful website raking in the coin,' she said 'He had a devastatingly endearing English accent and, according to his Instagram, the body of a cartoon prince (complete with inexplicably poofy hair and a jawline that could've doubled as a Swiss Army Knife), so I was cautious to remain f***girl cool and emotion-free,' she said. Then one evening when they were on the phone with each other he joked that she should 'chuck a sickie' and fly up to the Gold Coast to spend the day with him. Although she laughed off the idea, once the chat was over she found herself calling in sick to work and booking a flight for the next day. Eventually they started exchanging messages over Bumble, then texts and finally, phone calls Then one evening when they were on the phone with each other he joked that she should 'chuck a sickie' and fly up to the Gold Coast to spend the day with him Nadia didn't want the man to think she had lost her mind so she told him that she was rewarded a day off work for good behaviour and won free flights, which she said he believed. 'And so it was, I flew 900 kilometres to meet a total stranger I'd sworn not to develop feels for when I was meant to be at work and had in no way dealt with the fresh heartbreak of my divorce,' she said. At this stage Nadia said she was already thinking about this man as if he was a potential boyfriend. Although she laughed off the idea, once the chat was over she found herself calling in sick to work and booking a flight for the next day It didn't help that she found him even more attractive in person, even comparing him to a Calvin Klein model. 'Was this a bad time to tell him even though we'd only just met, I'd planned our wedding on the plane trip over and had strong opinions about how we should raise the children?' Nadia joked. Unfortunately the day didn't meet the romantic movie standards she had set up in her head. 'And so it was, I flew 900 kilometres to meet a total stranger I'd sworn not to develop feels for when I was meant to be at work and had in no way dealt with the fresh heartbreak of my divorce,' she said It didn't help that he was even more attractive in person, Nadia even comparing him to a Calvin Klein model 'He took me back to his dank, nine-bed hostel room where he tried to convince me to give him a quick blow job while someone slept on the top bunk above us and made me pay for my own lunch after I'd just spent $600 on flights to see him,' Nadia revealed. He even asked her if she could spare some change at the airport before she left. Nadia told FEMAIL that she realised after she had been charmed by the man, which is why she expected the weekend to be full of romance. 'I had an idea of this guy in my head for so long that it was honestly really difficult to accept the reality that he was just after one thing and not interested in getting to know me in any way,' she explained. Nadia told FEMAIL that she realised after she had been charmed by the man, which is why she expected the weekend to be full of romance 'While I was still emotionally invested he was giving all the signs he was only after one thing,' she continued. 'At the time though, like a lot of women who've been in that situation with an attractive, charismatic guy, I think I just wasn't ready to accept or believe that yet.' The two of them did meet up again however, this time in Sydney when the body-builder's trip brought him down to the city. But when she wouldn't sleep with him because Nadia said he was drunk at the time, he stormed out. 'Lesson learned, ladies. You can't teach a f***boy new tricks! Anyone who's ever been on the modern dating scene will relate because everyone has at some point come into contact with a f***boy,' she said. Read Nadia's weekly column 'Nadia Uncensored' every Saturday here. You might think you're able to say the names of all those fancy beauty brands, but there's a few that throw even the best of us. While some look easy enough to articulate, as it turns out they can be total tongue twisters or worse - phonetically impossible to pronounce. In a bid to make sure you always sound smart no matter where you shop, FEMAIL has put together a guide to help you always properly pronounce the names of your favourite brands. Scroll down for video While some brands look easy enough to articulate, as it turns out they can be total tongue twisters or worse - phonetically impossible to pronounce Biore Pronunciation: Bee-ORE-ay Biore is the only major skin product manufacturer that places pore care above all other areas of skin care. Using ingredients such as salicylic acid, which penetrates the follicle and tightens pores, the Biore range is capable of fighting against pore problems in the short and long-term. As an aside, while the name Biore may sound as if it belongs to a French beauty label, the brand is a subsidiary of the Japanese cosmetics company Kao Corporation. Skincare brand Biore (pictured left) is always said Bee-ORE-ay while US-based haircare company Briogeo (pictured right) is pronounced Bri-oh GEE-oh Briogeo Pronunciation: Bri-oh GEE-oh The New York-based brand Briogeo is revered for it's embrace of natural products for their hair formulations. Its range is free from sulphates, parabens, phthalates, silicones, DEA and synthetic colour. The brand is also 'green' focused. Not only is it packaging recyclable but it also uses recycled glass. And Briogeo products are cruelty-free, vegan and mostly gluten free, according to product information. Bvlgari (pictured) may nod to its Latin heritage as a stylistic choice ut to be clear it's said BULL-gur-ee Bella Hadid (pictured) was named as the 2018 ambassador for the luxury Italian brand Bvlgari Pronunciation: BULL-gur-ee Bvlgari may nod to its Latin heritage as a stylistic choice, but to be clear it's said BULL-gur-ee. The designer label is a luxury Italian brand known for its jewellery, watches, fragrances, accessories and leather goods. The brand has dressed some of the most fashionable celebrities from Rihanna, Zendaya, to actress Laura Harrier. It also favours stars for its ambassadorial roles; this year it named Bella Hadid as the face of its brand. Byredo - said By-RAY-do - is a Swedish company which offers a range of perfumes (pictured), home fragrances and body care products Byredo Pronunciation: By-RAY-do The company Byredo was founded by Ben Gorham in Stockholm in Sweden in 2006. It focuses on quality and all their products are made in Sweden. Their current line includes perfumes, home fragrances, body care products and accessories. According to product information, the unique perfume range is inspired by the founder's 'fragrant memories' and experiences from his past. French cosmetics brand Chantecaille (pictured), pronounced Chan-Te-Kai, brings together the very best of florals, botanicals and luxury Chantecaille Pronunciation: Chan-Te-Kai French cosmetics company Chantecaille is known for its exquisite use of florals and botanicals to create luxury products. Beauty favourite Ciate (pictured) formerly known for its nail polishes, now offers a pigment-packed long-wearing range The brand was founded two decades ago by a mother-daughter duo. The pair are renoun for being passionate advocates for animal rights, and regularly donate to this cause. 'As a beauty brand with a passion for naturals and a commitment to conservation, we put our love for flowers and their endless possibilities front and centre, along with a deep love for animals and the environment.' Ciate Pronunciation: See-ah-TAY British beauty favourite, formerly known for its nail polishes, now offers a pigment-packed long-wearing cosmetics range. Recently, the brand set the beauty world on fire with its Glitter Flip liquid lipstick. The lipstick goes on as a matte colour, then once you press your lips together it transforms into a glittering statement. 'The product delivers a big, bold Donna Summer pout, sans loose sparkle all over your face, plus it's long-wearing and comfortable,' product information reads. Cosrx pronounced K-OH-ser-EX,is a Korean beauty brand famed for its Pimple Master Patches (pictured left) while Glossier, said Glos-see-ay (pictured right) is revered by beauty editors worldwide Cosrx Pronunciation: K-OH-ser-EX This Korean skincare brand incorporates ingredients such as snail mucin, yeast ferment, and skin-renewing chemical exfoliants which it says transforms the skin. 'The moment your skin meets COSRX, you can expect more tomorrow,' a product statement reads. Its beauty claim to fame is Cosrx Acne Pimple Master Patches ($7). These are little stickers you put over a blemish just as it's coming to head. Diptyque (pictured), pronounced: Dip-tee-k, is a favourite of the new Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle Diptyque Pronunciation: Dip-tee-k Diptyque is a Paris-based luxury goods company that produces a high-end line of scented candles, perfumes, face and body care. Although a little on the pricey side, Diptyque produces are beautifully presented signature 'Oval' packaging and long-lasting. It has also recently been revealed that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry enlisted the help of this cult-favourite in the form of scented candles for their special day. While it's not known exactly what scents the couple chose, it has been reported the candles were chosen to add a fragrance the chapel the couple were married in - as well as scent the rooms they used to get ready. The Jurlique, said Jur-leek, range of hydrating mists, which include a lavender and rose infusion is a must-have in any makeup kit (rosewater balancing mist pictured) Glossier Pronunciation: Glos-see-ay Glossier products tend to be a much-loved favourite of beauty editors worldwide. The brand originally started as a blog Into The Gloss, one that got such a great response, it enabled its founder Emily Weiss to branch out into cosmetics. Famed for its minimal aesthetic and achingly hip New York vibe, the Glossier range is loved by young shoppers everywhere. According to makeup artist to the stars, Allison Boyle, who counts celebrities such as Miranda Kerr among her clients, Jurlique is one of her favourite beauty brands Jurlique Pronunciation: Jur-leek This Australian spa brand has been on beauty shelves since 1985. It is known for its use of natural ingredients and is sold in more than 19 countries around the world. Jurlique's range of hydrating mists, which include a lavender and rose infusion, is considered a must-have addition to any makeup kit. Australian makeup artist, Allison Boyle (who counts celebrities such as Miranda Kerr among her clients) said the brand is one of her favourites. 'Jurlique is a favourite. I love their Lavender Silk Finishing Powder and Lavender Hydrating Mist and they also do a great hand cream,' she told PopSugar. According to the Jurlique website, its rosewater balancing mist is it's number one best-seller globally. A mother who fell pregnant despite being fitted with a contraceptive coil proceeded with the high risk pregnancy despite being warned she had a 50 per cent chance of miscarriage. Care home deputy manager Rebecca Shephard, 27, of Dagenham, Essex realised she was expecting when she recognised signs of morning sickness, despite having a 10 year copper coil or IUD - deemed 99 per cent effective as a contraceptive - fitted. Doctors told Rebecca the coil was too 'dangerously close' to the baby to remove it, and she was given the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy. Although the pregnancy had come as a surprise, Rebecca and her partner, Jack Luckings, 26, who works for his family's timber business, were both determined to go ahead. However, Rebecca suffered a traumatic pregnancy and ended up bleeding so heavily she needed a blood transfusion, yet she still refused repeated suggestions by doctors to terminate. Eventually she gave birth to Charlie at 23 weeks, weighing just 1lb 4oz, in December 2017 and he was finally able to come home from hospital in April this year. Rebecca Shephard, 27, of Dagenham, Essex, has spoken of her shock when she fell pregnant while on the copper contraceptive coil, which nearly killed her and her unborn child (Clockwise: Jack Luckings, 26, Rebecca, little Charlie) Scans showed the coil was too close to the baby in the womb for it to be removed without causing Rebecca to miscarry, but she refused to have a termination Speaking about their traumatic journey, Rebecca explained: 'My pregnancy was incredibly high-risk and we are so lucky that our son, Charlie, survived against the odds. 'I lost so much blood I had to have blood transfusions and we were told time and time again that I would probably miscarry.' After having her daughter Bonnie, now eight, Rebecca wasn't ready for more children and had the IUD fitted, which works by releasing copper, rather than hormones like other coils, into the womb. The copper alters the cervical mucus, which makes it more difficult for sperm to reach an egg and survive and can also stop a fertilised egg from being able to implant itself. Rebecca's daughter Bonnie, eight, (right) and Jack's daughter Ava, six, (left) were excited about their new little brother (seen showing off the scan) Rebecca suffered a traumatic pregnancy, bleeding so heavily she needed a blood transfusion, and eventually gave birth to little Charlie at just 23 weeks pregnant, who weighed just 1lb 4oz When she met Jack through friends in 2016, they were happy together but it was too soon for them to start trying for children. But nature stepped in and Rebecca said: 'I started to feel sick in the morning and I just knew I was pregnant. I did a test and although it was a surprise, we were really happy. We weren't planning to have a baby at that point, as I already had Bonnie and Jack is a dad to Ava, six, but it was really exciting. 'I went to my doctor and mentioned the coil. I didn't know anyone who'd had a coil pregnancy and wanted to know if there were any risks to the baby. My GP wasn't sure, because it is so rare, so he recommended an early scan at seven weeks.' Seeing her baby for the first time, initially Rebecca was told by the sonographer that she could see no sign of the coil, so it had probably fallen out. Rebecca's first scan at seven weeks which shows the coil was too close to little Charlie to remove from Rebecca's womb Rebecca went into labour early and at just 23 weeks and three days in Rebecca's womb, little Charlie was born on 17 December 2017, weighing just 1lb 4oz -the same size as a tub of butter Charlie spent 116 days in hospital, battling a range of conditions including sepsis - a rare reaction to an infection, causing the body to attack itself,- and breathing difficulties Charlie seen at three months old when he was still being kept in hospital. The little boy battled a range of complications to make it through But just two weeks later, Rebecca started to bleed heavily for the first time. Making her way to Queen's Hospital, Romford, Essex, she lost so much blood that she collapsed in the hospital waiting room coming to in a hospital bed, with Jack beside her. WHAT IS AN IUD ? An intrauterine device (IUD) is a small, T-shaped plastic hormonal or copper device that is inserted in the uterus. How copper IUDs work: Sperm is repelled by copper, making it almost impossible for it to get to an egg. How hormonal IUDs work: The IUD releases a small amount of a progestin hormone called levonorgestrel each day. The hormone first thickens mucus that lives on the cervix, which blocks and traps the sperm. Second, it stops eggs from leaving the ovaries so any sperm that gets through has no egg to fertilize. Effectiveness: IUDs are 99 percent effective, meaning fewer than one out of 100 women will get pregnant each year. It can stay in your body between three and 12 years, depending on what kind you get. Side effects: Pain when the IUD is first inserted Cramping or backaches for a few days after the IUD is inserted Spotting between periods Irregular periods Heavier periods and worse menstrual cramps (ParaGard) When an IUD is inserted, a one- or two-inch string hangs from the end of it. To remove the IUD, a doctor or nurse will gently pull on the string, and the IUD's arms fold up and it will slip out. Source: Planned Parenthood Advertisement 'I was terrified,' she said. 'I felt awful and I was so worried about the baby. They did another scan and they said that the baby was still alive, but they could see that the coil was dangerously close to him. 'At that stage, I was offered a termination, but I wanted to give the baby a chance. I wasn't going to give up hope.' Rebecca was told that because of the position of the coil, close to the amniotic sac, there was a 50 per cent chance of her miscarrying and was instructed to rest. Suffering further bouts of excessive bleeding and being rushed to hospital at 11, 15 and 17 weeks, luckily, each time, the baby was alright. At 20 weeks, she started to bleed every day and was admitted to hospital to be monitored, where doctors discovered that a blood clot had formed around the coil, meaning she would probably suffer a late miscarriage. Two weeks later, after a day of light bleeding, Rebecca was allowed a temporary discharge to attend Bonnie's dance show. But, as the performance ended, she began to bleed heavily again and this time it was mixed with some amniotic fluid. Rushed back to hospital, she was told her waters were leaking, but she was not in active labour. With such serious complications, Rebecca was offered a termination again - but she refused. Five days later, after more blood loss, she was given another blood transfusion and told the pregnancy was making her ill. Still, she refused to abort her baby unless her life was at serious risk. Stabilised after her transfusion, doctors began to transfer her to the more specialist neonatal intensive care unit at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south west London. But Rebecca went into labour as she was being transferred and, after just 23 weeks and three days in Rebecca's womb, little Charlie was born on 17 December 2017, weighing just 1lb 4oz -the same size as a tub of butter. He spent 116 days in hospital, battling a range of conditions including sepsis - a rare reaction to an infection, causing the body to attack itself,- and breathing difficulties. Charlie seen on oxygen and various drips after being born on the 17th December 2017 at just 23 weeks in the womb Rebecca seen holding a tiny Charlie soon after he was born, with him being the size of a tub of butter But, eventually, everything turned out well and in April, Rebecca and Jack were able to take Charlie home for the first time. Rebecca said: 'Bringing him home was lovely, but it was hard. He was still on oxygen but he's such a fighter. He battled his way through all the twists and turns of his neonatal journey and is now slowly coming off oxygen. Charlie weighs 9lb 4oz and is full of fun. 'We know it might not be the end of the journey but we're so proud of him.' Now, Rebecca is keen to warn other coil users of the possible dangers if they fall pregnant. Eventually, everything turned out well and in April, Rebecca and Jack were able to take Charlie home for the first time While Charlie was initally still on oxygen when he was finally allowed home, he now weighs 9lb 4oz now and Rebecca describes him as being 'full of fun' She said: 'I would never use a coil again. If you have found out you are pregnant whilst on the coil, I would recommend a consultant led pregnancy and regular scans. I think more research needs to be done on IUD pregnancies. 'There were so many different opinions among the doctors because no one really knows the best course of action at the moment. 'I was told though that not every IUD pregnancy was as complicated as mine a lot of the time the coil can be removed or it can be positioned in a place that doesn't have any problems.' Dr Diana Mansour, Vice President for Clinical Quality, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), said: 'This is a rare case of a woman who made a good contraceptive choice but, unfortunately, experienced an unplanned pregnancy. Jack, Rebecca and Charlie seen after they were allowed to take him home. Now, Rebecca is keen to warn other coil users of the possible dangers if they fall pregnant 'FSRH recommends that women are informed about the very low failure rates associated with intrauterine contraception. If a pregnancy occurs with an intrauterine method in place, the device should be removed if its threads are visible. 'This will reduce the risk of infection inside the womb during that pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage or premature delivery. An ultrasound scan should also be performed to check that the pregnancy is in the womb rather than an ectopic pregnancy that can occur outside the womb. 'Women should always talk to their GPs, practice nurses or other healthcare professionals at their local contraception and sexual health clinic if problems arise while using any method of contraception.' It's been a whirlwind week of sightseeing, sailing and photo opportunities and last night the Spanish royals continued their summer festivities in Mallorca with a trip to a concert. Queen Letizia, 45, put on a glamorous display in a slinky white satin vest top, teamed with black trousers and strappy sandals. The royal teamed her outfit with silver hoop earrings and seemed to have dusted her arms and decolletage with a lightly sparkling highlighter to enhance her summer tan. Her mini-me daughters Princess Leonor, 12, and Princess Sofia, 11, looked every inch the young ladies for the outing to see violinist Ara Malikian perform. Aldo in attendance for the outing was Queen Sofia, the wife of former King Juan Carlos who abdicated in favour of his 48-year-old son, now King Felipe VI, in 2014. The former monarch looked relaxed in an electric blue shirt and striped trousers and doted on her granddaughters during the outing, holding on to Leonor's hand as they made their way to the concert at Port Adriano. King Felipe VI of Spain, Queen Letizia, Princess Sofia, Queen Sofia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Elena attend an Ara Malikian concert at Port Adriano in Mallorca during their annual summer break Queen Letizia looked chic for her night out in a slinky satin vest top, as her family holiday in Mallorca continues Doting grandmother Queen Sofia held on to Princess Leonor's hand as they made their way into the concert in Port Adriano in Mallorca King Felipe looked dapper for the occasion in a pale grey shirt and white chinos, teamed with brown loafers, as he posed proudly with his family. They were also joined for the outing by his older sister Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo. The 54-year-old looked summer in white trousers and a yellow shirt, wrapping a matching scarf around her shoulders to keep away the evening chill. The royal family traditionally spend their summer holiday at the Royal Palace of La Almudaina on the Balearic island. Growing up fast! Princess Leonor looked ever inch the young lady in her floral top and white jeans as she attended an evening concert in Mallorca with her family King Felipe of Spain looked smary in a pale grey shirt and white chinos as he enjoyed a family outing with his relatives in Mallorca Queen Letizia and her mother-in-law Sofia seem to be back on excellent terms after they hit the headlines over an altercation on Easter Sunday King Felipe's older sister Infants Elena joined her niece Leonor, mother Sofia, sister-in-law Letixia, niece Sofia and brother Felipe for the outing to see violinist Ara Malikian The Queen of Spain cut a stylish figure in a white vest and black trousers teamed with strappy block heeled sandals It's been a whirlwind week so far, kicking off with the family's annual summer photoshoot at the picturesque Royal Palace of La Almudaina. On Monday, King Felipe took the helm of a yacht during a regatta as he does every year during the family holiday, after attending a training session on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, Queen Letizia and her mother-in-law took the two princesses to the Olivar food market in Palma where they browsed the fresh produce on offer. The royals' busy week in Mallorca continued last night as the family attended a concernt by the well-known violinist Ara Malikian in Puerto Adriano, Mallorca The family looked relaxed as they mingled with the crowds on their way to the Ara Malikian concert in Puerto Adriano, Mallorca The united front comes after a clip emerged in April filmed at the Palma Cathedral in Majorca on Easter Sunday, which appeared to show a very awkward exchange between Letizia and Sofia. Queen Sofia was seen standing outside the church with both arms wrapped around her granddaughters' shoulders, encouraging them to pose for pictures. Letizia then joined the group and was seen trying to stroke eldest daughter Leonor's hair standing in front of the cameras, before Queen Sofia appeared to pull the little girl closer to her. King Felipe led the way, followed by his wife, daughters and mother, as his family made their way to the Ara Malikian concert in Puerto Adriano, Mallorca Doting grandmother Queen Sofia of Spain kept her granddaughter Leonor close by as they made their way into the concert in Palma Queen Letizia and Queen Sofia beamed for the cameras as they made their way to the concert in Palma, putting paid to any rumours of tension between the two women Leonor appeared to then push her grandmother's arm away, before King Felipe interjected. Speaking out following the incident, Letizia's former co-worker Imma Aguilar told El circulo at the time: 'I think they are the images of a mother worried about the image of her daughters. 'I talked to Queen Letizia a while ago, and she is worried and quite desolated by this situation; she is very committed to the care of her daughters, with the protection of their image, she worries who takes photos of them. 'She worries where they come from, who approaches them It's a very motherly reaction.' Aguilar added: 'It's been silly, it's not a serious issue, nothing has happened, it's just a natural gesture.' An education campaigner has been branded a 'dinosaur' for suggesting LGBT teachers should keep their private lives hidden from students in an interview on Good Morning Britain. Katie Ivens, who is the chairman of Campaign for Real Education, argued that schools should just be about teaching the core subjects, and teachers should not be discussing anything to do with their relationships or sexuality with pupils. Good Morning Britain was hosting a debate on the issue after two teachers from Brighton hosted an assembly about homophobia, during which came out to the students as gay. Ivens, who called homophobia a 'fashionable issue', said the job of teachers should only be making students 'knowledgeable people'. But viewers watching at home accused her of 'living in the dark ages' on Twitter - with one posting: 'It's 2018, sweetheart.' Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Katie Ivens, who is the chairman of Campaign for Real Education, (pictured) said teachers should keep their personal lives private Ivens works for Campaign for Real Education, which campaigns for the return of traditional schooling that gives teachers and parents more authority to discipline pupils. She said teachers need to keep their personal lives private from students and switch the focus to teaching at all times. Ivens said: 'They are teachers and their job is to teach. 'What children need is to be given knowledge through knowledge of subjects so they can become independent critical thinkers but knowledgeable people, and that is the job of teachers. 'The job of the teacher isn't to say ''me, me, me'' or ''I'm that'', whatever that may be, the job of the teacher is actually to teach and that's what children need from the teachers.' Her arguments were slammed by viewers on Twitter (pictured), with one accusing her of 'living in the dark ages' Teachers Pam Stallard and Luke Burgess, from Longhill High School in Brighton, said they held an assembly to teach children that homophobia is wrong. Ms Stallard said: 'We need to be educating them to be decent people, and part of that comes to saying we don't like homophobic language, we don't like gay used as a pejorative and then one per cent of that assembly is saying that's because I'm gay and because Luke is gay. 'I believe that's teaching them something fundamental that they cant quite get in a classroom.' However, Ivens said the focus of teaching should not be about social issues. Two teachers from Brighton recently hosted an assembly about homophobia in which they revealed they were LGBT themselves (pictured) Pam Stllard (pictured on the show), who was one of the teachers, said the assembly was to teach her students that homophobia is wrong Luke Burgess (pictured on the show with Ivens), the other teacher in the assembly, argued that teaching children to be ethical and moral is in an important part of the curriculum She continued: 'It should actually focus on the knowledge that children actually should have. That's where the focus should be, it's not be all over the place taking up fashionable issues.' Viewers took to Twitter to criticise Ivens' comments, and insist her argument was 'outdated'. One tweeted: 'Oh dear this teacher is living in the dark ages. We dont just teach a subject; we inspire, motivate, lead, encourage. Times have changed love, move with them.' This woman on GMB is everything that is wrong with education. She is an actual dinosaur,' another posted. Ms Stallard (pictured on the panel with the other guests, Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard) said teachers need to not give too much away Ms Stallard (pictured on the show) said there should be a wall 'made out of class bricks' between students and teachers, which allows them to see a bit of their personality but not too much Ivens thought teachers shouldn't be about 'me, me, me' but instead focus on teaching their students the curriculum A third wrote: 'Has this woman on GMB just referred to homophobia as a fashionable issue? Wow! First and last time I will be watching.' Mr Burgess argued that there are two curriculums being taught in schools; one is the academic teachings and the others are about teaching children to be 'moral and ethical'. Ms Stallard suggested there should be a line that doesn't get crossed when teachers speak to students about their personal lives. She explained: 'We have to have a wall between us and the students. A friend said to be its got to be made out of glass bricks, theyve got to be able to see a bit of your personality or they wont trust you enough to sit and learn.' A book agent has shared an 'adorable' submission sent to her by a little girl who is a budding author at five. Catherine Milne, head of fiction at Harper Collins, took to Twitter this week to share a picture of a 'manuscript' she received from a little girl called Lucy - scribbled entirely on Post-it Notes. Lucy had penned her tale of Ruby the rabbit - complete with her own illustrations - on the yellow sticky notes. Charmed, Catherine took a picture of Lucy's efforts and shared the snap on Twitter, writing: 'I wish we got more submissions like this.' 'Lucy, 5 years old has sent us a book shes written, about a rabbit named Ruby. Heart, melted,' she added. Catherine Milne, head of fiction at Harper Collins, took to Twitter this week to share a picture of a 'manuscript' she received from a-five-year girl called Lucy about a rabbit Ruby who saves his dog pal Lucy's manuscript arrived at the Harper Collins office with a cover letter, apparently written by Lucy's mother and signed by the young author. It said: 'Dear Sir/ Madam, Hello my name is Lucy and I am five years old. This is my first book I have written. It's about a rabbit that saves his friend the dog'. And the first sticky note shown, apparently smudged with the remnants of a snack, read: 'One day there was a rabbit and his name was Ruby.' An illustration was also visible, showing a rabbit, a house and a sun, with other notes from the book peeking from the stack. 'Adorable!' Twitter quickly reacted with wonder at the youngster's creativity, praising her unique approach to book-writing And Twitter users quickly reacted with delight at the youngster's creativity, praising her unique approach to book-writing. Racking up almost 200 likes and dozens of retweets, followers flooded the thread with comments. One of Catherine's followers said: 'Plus it is written on post-it notes with a snack stain - adorable!' Another joked: 'Thats how I write all my first drafts', and another seemed keen to know when it would be arriving in stores, asking: 'So, has it passed through acquisitions yet?'. Posting the picture, Catherine (pictured) tweeted: 'I wish we got more submissions like this: Lucy, 5 years old has sent us a book shes written, about a rabbit named Ruby. Heart, melted.' Admitting they could relate to the 5-year-old, one budding author tweeted: 'Well I'm having all the feels, because that is what my handwriting looks like and now I'm having to type it up.' Recommending an illustrated children's picture book, another added: 'Shes gunna love Graeme Bases Bumblebunnies! (sic)'. Another called it 'the absolute cutest', and said of the little girl: 'I hope she becomes a published writer one day.' Advertisement Goodwood revellers were seen letting their hair down this evening as the booze continued to flow on Ladies' Day at the famous event. Racegoers looked to be in high spirits as they soaked up the sunshine at the end of a day of racing at the Chichester course. It all seemed to get a bit much for some revellers, who looked rather worse for wear as they sprawled out on the floor following a day of drinking. Goodwood is one of the more relaxed race meetings when it comes to fashion, but today attendees made sure they pulled out all the stops in honour of Ladies Day. Time out! Revellers were seen sprawled out on the grass as the booze continued to flow at Goodwood this afternoon Having a good time! Racegoers looked to be in very high spirits as they enjoyed a day of sunshine at the famous event Letting their hair down! Goodwood revellers looked to be in high spirits as they soaked up the atmosphere on the racecourse Fun day out! Race-goers were seen enjoying glasses of Pimm's as they soaked up the sunshine on the famous Chichester racecourse Having a rest! A group of revellers looked relaxed as they took a break following a day of action at the Chichester course Heels off! One reveller kicked off her shoes as she and some friends soaked up the sunshine at the end of Ladies' Day Keeping cool! One reveller (left) was seen fanning herself in the heat, while another showed off her stylish printed frock Come on! Revellers were seen shouting from the sidelines as they were seen cheering on their horses at Goodwood Hugs all round! A couple were seen celebrating after one of their horses finished in first place during the meet today Earlier in the week, many went without hats and kept it simple in understated dresses, but this morning saw an explosion of glamorous looks and elaborate millinery at the Chichester course. Milliner Ilda Di Vido showed how to mix up race day style with a quirky touch while still remaining elegant in a strawberry print dress, teamed with a hat adorned with the ruby fruits. Ensuring the festival lives up to its 'Glorious Goodwood' nickname, ticket holders streamed through the gates in their chiciest dresses, high heels and hats. The action in West Sussex got underway with the ladies' amateur jockey race, the Magnolia Cup, presented by Swarovski, which will raise money for Cancer Research UK. Looking good! Female racegoers ensured that they donned their best frocks as they attended Ladies' Day at Goodwood Soaking up the sunshine! Revellers were lucky to have glorious weather at the racecourse in Chichester today Kicking back! Revellers looked relaxed as they enjoyed a break from the action on the racecourse at Goodwood Thumbs up! Despite it being Ladies' Day, male attendees also ensured they looked sharp as they turned out at the event Glorious sunshine! Spectators at Goodwood made sure to make the most of the incredible weather on the racecourse today The race, run over five-and-a-half-furlongs, features 'strong, inspirational women from the worlds of business, sport, fashion, medicine and media', who have become jockeys for the day to raise money. Jockeys in this year's event wore bespoke silks designed by Iranian-Swedish fashion designer and womens rights activist Morvarid Sahafi, whose designs are inspired by the Suffragette movement. Among the line-up was socialite Lady Alice Manners who was supported by her sisters Lady Alice. Once dubbed the 'Bad Manners' sisters for their raucous antics, fun-loving Violet, 24, Alice, 23, and Eliza Manners, 20, are a fixture of the London social scene. Here come the girls! A group of high spirited friends posed up a storm for the camera as they arrived for Ladies Day at the Qatar Goodwood festival in Chichester, West Sussex Milliner Ilda Di Vico showed off how to do quirky raceday style in a strawberry-themed outfit (left) as she joined two equally glamorous companions for Ladies Day at Goodwood Cheers to that! Friends started the festivities at the Chichester course with a tipple to celebrate the day of racing action. Another reveller opted for the monochrome look in a white dress with a ruffled hem and a dainty black fascinator (right) Belle of the ball! A reveller put on an eye-catching display in an elegant dove grey dress teamed with a statement black hat trimmed with feathers for her outing in West Sussex. Two friends mixed things up by teaming their outfits with rather quirky headpieces, including a VIP fascinator (right) It's Pimms o'clock! A reveller in an eye-catching striped dress enjoying an afternoon refreshment at the Goodwood Festival in West Sussex Say cheese! Friends smile for the camera as they capture a photo to commemorate their day at Goodwood races in West Sussex Raise your glasses! As the afternoon wore on, revellers paused to enjoy refreshments as they soaked up the sun in West Sussex. A woman in polka dots looked in great spirits as she enjoyed a drink and a chat with a friend at the Goodwood Festival Here comes the sun! Racegoers soaked up the sunshine in Sussex as they took time to relax on camping chairs in the picnic area before taking in the action on track Hat's the way to do it! A group of friends were in high spirits as they posed up a storm for the cameras on Ladies Day at Glorious Goodwood Start as you mean to continue! A racegoer enjoys a glass of bubbly on the Champagne Lawn at Goodwood racecourse in West Sussex. A lady in white cooled off with an ice cream cone as she strolled through the Chichester racing grounds Cheers ladies! A group of friends raised their glasses as they toasted to a fun afernoon of racing at the Qatar Goodwood Festival in Sussex Fabulous florals! A racegoer kept it traditional in a pink patterned dress and nude heels with a matching fascinator (left). Friends pulled out all the stops in ruffled dresses and elaborate hats as they posed up a storm at the Chichester course (right) Ladies Day is here! A gaggle of friends in a variety of brightly coloured outfits were ready for action and eager to turn head at Glorious Goodwood Daytripping! Revellers took a load off in the picnic area as they enjoyed snacks and drinks before heading for the track at the Qatar Goodwood Festival. Some racing fans were seen kicking off their heels as they relaxed in the Sussex sunshine Glam ladies! Famous faces attending today's Goodwood included Ashley James (left) and Sabrina Percy (right) Strike a pose! Pictured from left to right, Amy Williams, Faya Nilsson, Sabrina Percy, Ashley James, AJ Odudu, Olivia Wayne, Charlie Webster, Linnea Aarflot What great manners! Left to right: Lady Violet, Lady Alice, their mother the Duchess of Rutland and Lady Eliza Manners in the winner's enclosure at the Qatar Goodwood Festival Their parents, the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, have an unusual living arrangement, each residing in their own wing of Belvoir Castle with their respective lovers. The Qatar Goodwood Festival is touted as the sporting and social highlight of the calendar, with five thrilling days of world-class horse racing and elegant fashion for racing fans to enjoy. Racegoers will face increased measures to crack down on disorder, after bosses introduced sniffer dogs at every meeting to detect drugs, and limited alcohol. After a major fight broke out at the first fixture of 2018, officials decided to implement a four pint rule, meaning revellers will not be able to buy more than four drinks in any one trip to the bar. 'We have conducted a thorough and extensive review of everything that happened at our first fixture, of our existing policies and held a detailed consultation with our Safety Advisory Group and Sussex Police, Goodwood Racecourse general manager Alex Eade told Racing UK. Stylist Charlie Elmy-Britton looked eye catching in coral, while her friends also put on a colourful display in a vibrant outfits. One wore a show-stopping pink hat adorned with butterflies, while another opted for a fuchsia creation with elaborate plumes for the Qatar Goodwood Festival Ready for Ladies Day! Two Goodood racegoers were the picture of summery perfection in cute dresses and statement hats (left). A woman in a white maxi dress made sure to pick up a copy of the Racing Post so she could check out a few tips ahead of the day's action in Sussex Lady Violet Manners (centre) was on hand to support her sister Lady Alice who was taking part in the Magnolia Cup race at the Qatar Goodwood Festival to raise money for charity Pink ladies! Two friends ensured they stood out from the crowd on Ladies Day at Goodwood in striking pink and black ensembles (left). A racing fan took the Chichester course by storm in a strapless black dress with a lace trim and strappy sandals (right) It's not all about the horse racing! A man kept his two female companions entertained as they enjoyed the atmosphere at the Qatar Goodwood Festival One of the youngest racing fans looked adorable in a Queen of Hearts dress and a mini red fascinator. Floral fantasy! Two friends looked pretty as a picture as they prepared to enjoy a day of racing action at the Sussex course on day three of the Qatar Goodwood festival Milliner Ilda Di Vico places a bet at a Totepool station during day three of the Qatar Goodwood Festival at Goodwood Racecourse, Chichester. A Ladies Day reveller in a blue dress and white hat waved to onlookers as she arrived for a day of sporting action in West Sussex. Another Goodwood attendee was elegant in a simple black dress teamed with a statement yellow hat Friends paused for refreshements and soaked up the sun as they had a break on the grass during a hectic afternoon at the Goodwood Festival Hats off to them! Earlier in the weeks many decided to forgo headpieces, but on Ladies Day there was a variety of stunning millinery on display at the West Sussex course, including a woman who matched her blue number trimmed with feathers to her dress and her companion who was elegant in a yellow and black ensemble Sniffer dogs were previously used at some race meetings, but they will no be on patrol at every fixture and racegoers will be encouraged to use 'amnesty bins' if they are carrying any drugs. When it comes to fashion Goodwood is a lot more relaxed than the likes of Royal Ascot when it comes to the dress code, and hats are not compulsory in an of the enclosures. The style guide suggests that those who don't feel comfortable in millinery accessorise with a headband or beaded clip instead, to add a touch of finesse to their look. In the Richmond Enclosure, men must wear a jacket and tie or cravat, while the same is encouraged but not essential for the Gordon Enclosure. There's no formal dress code for the Lennox Enclosure, but fancy dress and sleeveless tops for men are not permitted anywhere on the racecourse. Here come the ladies! Attendees at Glorious Goodwood were eager to show off their race day finery on the most stylish day of the festival A woman added a splash of colour to her outfit with funky purple and pink platform shoes, while her companion kept it classic in a black dress (left). Another racegoer was vibrant in orange (right) as she stepped out with a friend for an afternoon of horse racing at Glorious Goodwood in West Sussex Taking a load off! Two stylish attendees took the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a drink before the racing got underway at Goodwood in West Sussex High society! Well-heeled revellers at Goodwood included (left to right) Eleanore Decaux, Lady Alexandra Gordon-Lennox , Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, Duke of Richmond and their guests A Ladies Day reveller put on a stunning display in a delicate pink ensemble for her afternoon at Goodwood races (left). A smartly-turned out pair were grinning from ear-to-ear as they arrived for a sunny day of sporting action in West Sussex (right) Although this woman decided not to opt for a hat for her Goodwood outing, she still looked striking in a yellow jumpsuit with a statement ruffle detail (left). Another reveller wore a pretty pink patterned dress and on-trend brogues for her day in West Sussex (centre). A racegoer ticked the trend for florals in a floaty dress, accessorised with hot pink accents (right) Vintage-inspired girl band Ella & The Pocket Belles showed off their fabulous floral frocks and white petticoats on Ladies Day at Goodwood in West Sussex Ivanka Trump seemed in high spirits as she left her home on Thursday morning to give an interview in Washington, D.C. The first daughter, 36, departed her house around 8 am wearing a $2,872 blue linen blazer by Swiss luxury fashion house Akris. She paired the pricey belted jacket with crisp tailored white pants and pale blue pointed pumps, finishing off her outfit with a white purse. Commute: Ivanka Trump seemed in high spirits as she left her home on Thursday morning to give an interview in Washington, D.C. Pricey: The first daughter, 36, departed her house around 8 am wearing a $2,872 blue linen blazer by Swiss luxury fashion house Akris Outfit: She paired the pricey belted jacket with crisp tailored white pants Cheerful: The first daughter smiled as she boarded the Secret Service SUV waiting for her Ivanka spruced up her blazer with a pearl brooch on her lapel and kept the rest of her accessories to a minimum. She wore a simple white top under the jacket, sticking to blue and white tones for her entire outfit. The White House adviser, who was on her way to the Newseum, a museum devoted to journalism where she was scheduled to give an interview for Axios, looked camera-ready as she left her house. She wore her hair down in a straight blowout and had her make-up done. Her eyes were emphasized thanks to a combination of black liner and eye shadow, while her cheeks appeared sculpted with blush. Ivanka completed her look with a touch of simple pink lipstick. Tones: Ivanka wore pale blue pointed pumps and finishing off her outfit with a white purse Finishing touches: She spruced up her blazer with a pearl brooch on her lapel and kept the rest of her accessories to a minimum Colors: Ivanka wore a simple white top under the jacket, sticking to blue and white tones for her entire outfit On the go: The White House adviser was on her way to the Newseum, a museum devoted to journalism where she was scheduled to give an interview for Axios Her husband and fellow White House adviser, Jared Kushner, 38, was seen leaving their home in the upscale neighborhood of Kalorama around 7:15. He stuck to his classics with a dark suit and a white button-down, which he paired with a green tie. During her interview at the Newseum, Ivanka addressed a variety of topics, from the Mueller investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election to paid family leave. She appeared to break with her father's administration about and its family separation policy, telling Axios: 'That was a low point... I feel very strongly about that. I am very vehemently against family separation.' Asked whether she believes media to be the enemy of the people, a claim reflected in her father's frequent attacks against the press, Ivanka replied: 'No, I do not.' Topics: During her interview at the Newseum, Ivanka addressed a variety of topics, from the Mueller investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election to paid family leave Opinion: Asked whether she believes media to be the enemy of the people, a claim reflected in her father's frequent attacks against the press, Ivanka replied: 'No, I do not' Heading out: Ivanka's husband and fellow White House adviser, Jared Kushner, 38, was seen leaving their home a little after 7:15 in a dark suit, white shirt and green tie While Ivanka appeared to split from her father's administration on those two topics on Thursday, she was there to support the president during his rally in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday. She was photographed before the gathering walking confidently across the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to get to the aircraft, strutting in a tailored cherry-red suit and matching pumps. The first daughter was dressed in unseasonably warm clothes, having bundled up in a double-breasted blazer and pleated slacks despite temperatures climbing into the low 80s in the area. She seemed unbothered by the heat, though, and didn't appear to break a sweat as she headed to the plane. Ivanka accessorized with a pair of pointy-toe red pumps, and what looked like a red string Kabballah bracelet on her left wrist. She also wore a gold and pearl brooch and small hoop earrings, while opting for a smoky eye and neutral lipstick. Lady in red: Ivanka was photographed heading out to her dad's campaign rally on Tuesday Leaving: She waved at the camera and smiled as she first left the White House and later boarded Air Force Once Duo: In Tampa, she joined her father onstage and stepped behind the lectern to introduce him Dress code? She was seen later on Tuesday returning from the rally with her brother Eric, 34, and his wife Lara Trump, 35, who was also wearing red The first daughter was accompanied by her younger brother Eric, 34, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, 60. While DeVos carried two bags with her, Ivanka was purse free though any carry-ons may have already been stored on the plane for her. Behind them walked White House Director of Social Media and Assistant to the President Dan Scavino, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Oval Office Operations Jordan Karem. The whole group first walked across the South Lawn to board Marine One before boarding Air Force Once for their flight. In Tampa, she joined her father onstage and stepped behind the lectern to introduce him. She was seen later on Tuesday returning from the rally with her brother Eric and his wife Lara Trump, 35. President Trump made headlines for attempting to justify his call for voter ID cards during his Tampa rally by saying photo identification is already a universal requirement to purchase groceries, which is untrue. 'If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID,' he said. 'You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture.' No photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards. A pair of entrepreneurial mothers have given new meaning to the phrase 'nursing a hangover' by marketing a brand of beer especially toward nursing moms and Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan. Au Liquid Gold so named because breast milk is often referred to as liquid gold is an oatmeal stout created for women who'd like to kick back with a cold one while breastfeeding. The brand cites lactation experts who recommend drinking beer to increase milk production while nursing, and says this particular brew is packed with ingredients that will boost mom's flow. Drink up? Au Liquid Gold is an oatmeal stout created for women who'd like to kick back with a cold one while breastfeeding Wisdom on drinking alcohol while breastfeeding is mixed, with most doctors and other experts saying all alcohol should be avoided while nursing and advising moms 'pump and dump' if they consume any. Others treat the subject a little more loosely, and a few doulas and lactation consultants recommend drinking beer in moderation while nursing to increase milk flow. There are also quite a few foods that are said to increase the amount of milk a nursing mom produces and Au Liquid Gold includes several of them. Naturally, the beer has hops, which the company says not only increases milk production but can also treat dry and cracked skin and work as an anti-inflammatory. It's made with oatmeal, which is said to be good for milk production, and can also help with inflammation. Other purported milk-boosting ingredients include fenugreek and red raspberry leaf, and they added other ingredients with health benefits like coconut milk and coriander seed. Tipple for nipples: The brand cites some doulas and lactation consultants who recommend beer for increased lactation 'Being a forward-thinking mama, youve probably heard that European women swear dark beer is one of the best ways to increase breast milk volume,' explains the brand. 'Hops, one of the main ingredients in beer, are a magic galactagogue. 'Galactagogue e is doctor speak for a food or drug that increases the flow of a mother's milk. 'Au Liquid Gold, as a galactagogue wonder-ale, was formulated in consultation with herbalists, brewers and nutritionists, by two boho, health-conscious nursing mamas just like you,' the site goes on. 'It's the brew wellness-obsessed moms grab for its refreshing deliciousness and superfood-laced nutritional profile. Its all about giving your body everything it needs to make the magic happen, to produce that liquid gold for your bebe.' But what about the alcohol? Though the brand says it's a low-alcohol stout, it's actually at 3.9 per cent. The average beer has between 4 and 6 per cent alcohol, making this brew a pretty typical one in terms of ABV. What's in it: It has ingredients that will purportedly help, like hops and oatmeal That's problematic for some experts, who point to research that suggests that it's better to completely avoid alcohol while breastfeeding. A recent study out of Macquarie University in Sydney found that exposure to any alcohol in breast milk reduces children's thinking and reasoning skills by the time they are six to seven years old. Alcohol is thought to damage babies' brain cells and could make breast milk less nutritious, leading to deficiencies, the researchers believe. Study author Louisa Gibson said: 'The safest option is to abstain from alcohol completely during both pregnancy and breastfeeding. 'This study suggests that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, with every extra drink causing a little bit more harm.' Sara Newman, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and postpartum doula in New York City, takes particular issue with the claim that beer is good for nursing mothers. 'This is actually one of my pet peeves,' she told The Cut in 2016. 'Yes, some of the ingredients in beer are galactagogues, but the presence of alcohol suppresses milk production. So, any benefit moms are getting from the beer is counteracted by the amount of alcohol in the beer.' It's also 3.9% alcohol, which is problematic for many doctors and researchers who say no alcohol is best while nursing 'Its fine if you want to have a beer at the end of the day. You probably deserve one. But dont think youre doing it to increase your milk supply,' she added. Jenny Walters, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and the Infant Feeding Coordinator at the University of Kansas Medical Center, agreed. 'I dont generally recommend beer due to the alcohol component because there are so many other options,' she said. 'But if a mom tells me she is using it safely, in moderation, and all that jazz and its working for her, Im certainly not going to recommend she stop.' Yet Au Liquid Gold's founders beg to differ. Araceli Valdes de McElroy and Demetra Chazanas were both new moms when they had the idea for the beer while searching for breastfeeding help on the internet. 'Wed heard that a dark stout was good for nursing moms. Could it be true? To our delight we found there was actually supporting scientific evidence! Oh the joy!' they wrote. 'And thats how Au Liquid Gold was born. We set out to take the ancient goodness of hops and supercharge the brew with tons of milk-enhancing ingredients, including healing, anti-inflammatory herbs that women have been using for centuries to speed postpartum healing and boost milk production... Followers: Gwyneth Paltrow plugged the beer on Goop this week 'Its basically a healing, anti-inflammatory, milk-enhancing elixir cleverly disguised as a beer,' the claim. While the beer wasn't around when Gwyneth Paltrow had her kids, Apple and Moses, she seems to be a fan of the idea. The actress included it in her Goop Guide to Breastfeeding, which was published today. Goop wrote: 'Most postpartum doulas and lactation consultants will tell you that a cold one is a great way to help boost prolactin, which in turn kicks up milk production. 'Au Liquid Gold's low-alcohol oatmeal stout is strategically formulated with extra milk-boosting properties. And as confirmed by both mothers and other non-nursing humans, it tastes great.' In 2006, Gwyneth sparked controversy when she was seen with then-husband Chris Martin at New York City restaurant, drinking a Guinness. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with Moses. According to People, a witness said patrons were staring at Gwyneth while she drank, and people on the internet shamed her for drinking anything while pregnant. A cat who helped his owner survive a potentially fatal blood clot has been named National Cat of the Year 2018. Eight-year-old Theo from Redditch, Worcestershire, had been seriously ill with cat flu as a tiny kitten, only surviving thanks to round-the-clock care from owner Charlotte Dixon. Years later, he repaid her when he detected a blood clot working its way through Charlotte's body in the middle of the night. By constantly pawing her and behaving erratically, Theo prevented Charlotte falling asleep action which probably saved her life. Theo has been named National Cat of the Year after he saved his owner Charlotte Dixon (pictured) from a potentially fatal blood clot Theo detected a blood clot working its way through Charlotte's body in the middle of the night and constantly pawed at her preventing her from Charlotte falling asleep action which probably saved her life Sadly Theo died just weeks before he could be presented with the award but Charlotte (pictured collecting his award) said that made his win more poignant Sadly Theo died just a week before the Awards which, according to Charlotte, has made his win all the more poignant. Charlotte said: 'All cats are amazing but I owe my life to Theo. We always had a close bond and I feel this award is a truly wonderful way to celebrate his life. 'When he was ill as a kitten, I wouldn't give up on him as I knew he had a real spark and a will to live. 'I fed him round the clock with liquidised food through a pipette, kept him warm and talked to him a lot. I think that's what's always made us so close. Theo 'repaid' Charlotte after she nursed him back to health after he was seriously ill with cat flu as a kitten Charlotte said she had always had a 'close bond' with Theo and she owes his life to him Theo was selected as National Cat of the Year by a panel of celebrity judges made up of actor Peter Egan, broadcaster Andrew Collins, actress Carley Stenson, and actor Paul Copley 'When I woke up in the night feeling unwell, I put it down to a virus. I was confused and shaky but thought I should just get some sleep. Theo wouldn't let me and was behaving very strangely and out of character. 'He kept batting me with his paw, meowing and jumping on me - keeping me awake. Eventually I decided to call my mum and she called an ambulance. 'The paramedic recognised the signs of a blood clot straight away and said it was a good thing I hadn't fallen asleep as I probably wouldn't have woken up.' Charlotte was rushed to hospital where she spent a week in the High Dependency Unit before making a full recovery. RUNNERS-UP Salem: Winner of Furr-ever Friends category, who helps 15-year-old Jared Bignold cope with living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Arthur: Winner of Most Caring Cat, who has helped owner Emily Hatton live independently after three a half years receiving specialist treatment for severe mental health issues. Toby: Winner of Hero Cat, who is able to detect when owner Annette Sterland-Burton is about to suffer a seizure as a result of a neurological condition. Lucky: Winner of Outstanding Rescue Cat, who has given owner Travis Tremayne the willpower and positivity to battle an aggressive form of cancer Advertisement 'I'm devastated that he's gone but I'm so proud of him for winning. It shows I'm not the only one who thinks he was a really special cat.' Theo was selected as National Cat of the Year by a panel of celebrity judges made up of actor Peter Egan, musician Rick Wakeman, animal behaviour expert Sarah Fisher, actor Anthony Head, broadcaster Andrew Collins, actress Carley Stenson, actor Danny Mac, actor Paul Copley and presenter and actress Jessica-Jane Stafford. He was chosen as overall winner after first winning a public vote in the Purina Better Together category, celebrating the special bond that can transform the lives of cats and their owners. Andrew Collins said: 'There's no greater, nor more selfless a bond than between Charlotte and Theo. That Theo was nursed to health by Charlotte and then he repaid her in kind is the epitome of the cat-human relationship.' Andrew presented an emotional Charlotte with Theo's trophy at an awards ceremony at London's Savoy on Thursday 2 August. Cats Protection's National Cat Awards, organised by the UK's largest cat charity and sponsored by PURINA, is an annual celebration of the real-life stories of heroism, loyalty and companionship in the feline world. 'The bond between Theo and Charlotte has really captured our hearts and being able to honour him with this award is a fitting tribute,' explained Cats Protection's awards organiser Kate Bunting. 'I hope the experience of today will be of some comfort to Charlotte at this difficult time.' Claire Robinson-Davies, Head of Corporate Communications at Purina, said: 'We hope the stories of this year's winners will inspire more people to welcome pets into their lives. This is the seventh time PURINA has sponsored the event and we are delighted to continue our partnership and support the wonderful work Cats Protection does.' Olympian Aly Raisman is bringing the confidence in her latest shoot for the underwear brand Aerie. The 24-year-old gymnast stars in new images released today from the brand's latest campaign. Lounging in bed, the gold medalist models Aerie's bras, underwear, and sweats in images that have been left entirely unretouched. Model athlete: Aly Raisman lounges in a bra and sweats for new Aerie campaign So proud! The 24-year-old posted the new images on Instagram today The Olympic gold medalist wrote: 'Thank you so much @aerie I love working with you guys more than youll ever know' Excited: She said she was 'still pinching' herself over the shoot Comfortable: The 24-year-old appears unretouched in each of the new images 'New @aerie campaign. Still pinching myself,' she wrote on Instagram today, captioning the images. 'Thank you so much @aerie I love working with you guys more than youll ever know.' Aerie model Iskra Lawrence, 27, also shared some new images on her account and raved about the 'the most magical shoot ever'. 'As always theres zero photoshop or retouching because the real you is good enough!' she wrote. In 2014, Aerie introduced a no-retouching policy in a bid to promote natural beauty and body positivity, and has earned even more fans for the inclusive move. The new images of Aly and Iskra join others released in July as part of a special campaign featuring women who aren't frequently represented in fashion photoshoots. Spokesmodel: Iskra Lawrence, 27, also appears in the new Aerie campaign, in which several Aerie fans will illnesses and disabilities were cast Face of the brand: Aerie's original role model, Iskra raved about the inclusive campaign Family: Wilma Lawrence, Iskra's mother, posed for the new campaign as well Body-positive advocate: Aly Raisman joined Aerie's line-up earlier this year The campaign spotlights women with illnesses, disabilities, and physical conditions that set them apart. Among the models featured in the new photos, which specifically showcase Aerie's bras and bralettes, is Special Olympic gymnast Chelsea Werner, who was born with Down syndrome. There is also 20-year-old marine biology student Abby Sams, who posed in her wheelchair. Iskra wrote on Instagram that she was thrilled about the campaign 'because representation matters and diversity and our uniqueness are what makes us all imperfectly perfect and beautiful. Its time to celebrate everyBODY!' she added. This campaign is to encourage you all to know YOU ARE MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH so shine bright like all these incredible women.' Aerie wanted to recruit women of diverse backgrounds, age, and body shapes, for its latest bra campaign, so it turned to social media and asked its fans to submit personal videos explaining why they wanted to pose for the brand. Model: Abby Sams is one of the people who have posed for the brand, sitting in her wheelchair Proud: Also featured is Gaylyn Henderson, who had her colon removed as a result of her battle against Crohn's disease. She now wears an ostomy bag and proudly showed it off Almost 2,000 women responded, and Aerie eventually assembled a cast of 57 models to advertise its bras. The new photos are now on the brand's website, which doubles as its online shopping platform. When customers look up Aerie's lace racerback bralette, they can see Abby happily posing in a gray model, flashing a bright smile into the camera. Iskra, Aerie's original role model, and Aly, who joined the brand's line-up earlier this year, posed in lingerie as part of the same campaign, as did Iskra's mother Wilma. Also featured is Gaylyn Henderson, who had her colon removed as a result of her battle against Crohn's disease and now wears an ostomy bag. Another model, Evelyn Riddell, has Type 1 diabetes, and thus posed with her glucose reader attached to her body. Lexus Morgan, meanwhile, has the skin condition vitiligo, and posed confidently while revealing the light patches of skin on her arms, face, and chest. Condition: Another model, Evelyn Riddell, has Type 1 diabetes, and thus posed with her glucose reader attached to her body Jennifer Van Dusen, who had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, also participated in the campaign. 'If someone told me two years ago when I having my double mastectomy and again a year later when reconstruction failed that there would be a woman modeling bras as part of a national campaign and that that woman would be me I would never believed them,' she wrote on Instagram. 'I am honored to represent any women who has had to amputate their breasts to save their life. When I was going through the horror of a breast cancer diagnosis and a double mastectomy I literally felt like I was in a dark tunnel. What kept me going was my deep faith that there would a a light at the end. I just NEVER imagined it would be this bright.' Rajee Aerie, who had polio as a child and once had to rely on a wheelchair, posed with her crutches in lingerie and activewear. She shared some of her snaps on Instagram, writing: 'My heart is so full right now! Just one day after @Aerie launched it's new campaign that includes everyBODY the amount of out-pour I have gotten from how much this has impacted people in such a positive way is amazing. Survivor: Jennifer Van Dusen, who had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, also participated in the campaign Reaching out: Aerie wanted to recruit women of diverse backgrounds, age, and body shapes, for its new bra campaign. It turned to social media, asking its fans to submit personal videos Overcoming self-doubts: One of the models, Catherine Coule, has fibromyalgia. She posed with visible body hair, and later opened up on Instagram about battling insecurities 'This is exactly the kind of change I want to see in the world and I know in order for the world to normalize and humanize people with disabilities in order to diminish the negative stereotype I had to make a change. 'But I am sure as a little girl with polio I never imagined I had to get down in my skivvies to show the world that beautiful, strong, confident and sexy women come in all forms. I'm blessed to be able to bring that to people through Aerie.' Another one of the models, Catherine Coule, has fibromyalgia. She posed with visible body hair, and later opened up on Instagram about battling insecurities. 'The @aerie photos are up on their site and I'm still squealing with delight and pride and gratitude, 24 hours later!!' she wrote. 'Delight because I feel so proud of all the battles I've fought and won against myself and my insecurities and the judgments of others. Pride because I am getting to represent body hair and fibromyalgia with an amazing company that three years ago I vowed I would one day model for, body hair and all.' Abby also gave the campaign a shout-out on Twitter, writing: '@Aerie just sneakily released some of my photos! Look at this disability representation people!!! Also look at me because I cant believe it's actually me so yeah.' Inclusive: Aerie has released unretouched campaigns since 2014, and since then has endeavored to represent various body types and shapes in its ads She added on Instagram: 'Earlier this summer I was chosen to be an #AerieREAL model for their newest campaign and the other night they surprised us all by releasing some of the products early. A wheelchair user is a model for a major company! I am PROUD to say I've done this. PROUD to be a part of it. PROUD to be a model representing a community of disabled and chronically ill people. PROUD to be comfortable in my own skin.' Also included is Jenna Kutcher, a photographer based in Wisconsin who has previously opened up about being body-shamed by people who didn't believe she could 'get' a man as hunky as her husband because she's 'curvy'. Aerie has released unretouched campaigns since 2014, and since then has endeavored to represent various body types and shapes in its ads. 'As a brand, Aerie has been a leader in empowering women and celebrating inclusivity and body positivity since our launch of #AerieREAL in 2014,' Aerie's global brand president Jennifer Foyle told DailyMail.com. 'Our newest bra models are part of our brand's ongoing commitment to show real, authentic and unretouched women, who are at the core of everything that we do.' Twitter users are putting Paul Manafort on blast for his crimes of fashion, arguing that the former Trump campaign chairman should be sent to jail just for having terrible style. Manafort, 69, is facing 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, and federal prosecutors spent the second day of his trial in Alexandria, Virginia, illustrating his expensive taste including his over-the-top suit collection. After the Justice Department released photos of everything from Manafort's $15,000 bomber made out of ostrich to his $18,500 python jacket on Wednesday, people have been flocking to Twitter to make fun of his eclectic luxury clothing. Questionable style: Twitter users are trolling Paul Manafort's style after the Justice Department released photos of his lavish clothes, including this $15,000 ostrich jacket Bummed: Many people admitted that they imagined that Manafort's ostrich jacket would have feathers Confused: Even Chrissy Teigen admitted that she thought the jacket would have feathers 'Leaving aside the corruption, illegality and selling off American democracy, I am really struggling to understand why Manafort spent so much money on so much ugly s**t,' Elizabeth McLaughlin tweeted, noting that he didn't even have 'one Tom Ford suit.' 'Paul Manafort serves as a reminder that money does not buy class or taste. But money does buy ostrich and python leather and Clairol Nice 'n Easy,' Ana Navarro added. Manafort spent more than $1 million on custom suits and bespoke clothing between 2010 and 2014, two luxury menswear retailers told a federal court in Virginia on Wednesday. Maximillian Katzman, the manager of New York-based retailer Alan Couture, and Ron Wald, the CFO of the Beverly Hill-based House of Bijan, described Manafort's pricey spending habits and and use of foreign wire transfers. Lifestyle: Manafort (pictured with his wife Kathleen), 69, is facing 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, and federal prosecutors have been illustrating his expensive taste at his trial Just saying: Ana Navarro joked that Manafort is a 'reminder that money does not buy class' Seriously? Elizabeth McLaughlin questioned how Manafort can spend over $1 million on his lavish wardrobe and not have 'one Tom Ford suit' Poking fun: Hayden Black joked that Manafort and ostriches are both 'flightless' Good for a laugh: Eric Columbus shared a picture of Big bird wearing a tie and joked it is a picture of Manafort in his ostrich jacket According to Katzman, Manafort spent $929,000 at Alan Couture which specializes in vicuna and silk custom-made suits over the course of the four years. He was one of the store's 'top five' clients and shilled out $444,000 on suits in 2013 alone. Wall, meanwhile, revealed that Manafort spent more than $334,000 at House of Bijan between 2010 and 2012. Many people were stunned by some of the garish designs Manafort had purchased, but none garnered more attention than his ostrich jacket. The black jacket was actually made from ostrich leather, but many were disappointed when they learned it didn't have any feathers on it. A woman named Kim shared a photo of the actual jacket alongside a picture of a fluffy feather coat, writing: Paul Manafort's ostrich coat in reality versus how I pictured it. Not that's a look: Manafort reportedly spent $18,500 on this brown python jacket Crimes of fashion: Alessandra Codinha couldn't get over the three-quarter length sleeves on the jacket Observation: Katherine Miller joked that the pictures of his clothes 'look like they're from a listing for an apartment sublet on Craigslist' Day two of his trial: One person compared Manafort to Smithers from the Simpsons Even Chrissy Teigen admitted that she thought the jacket would have feathers. 'Wait. NO FEATHERS???' she wrote. 'I thought there would be feathers. But of course not. Why did I think it would have feathers? Did anyone else thing feathers?' Meanwhile, Alessandra Codinha, a culture editor at Vogue.com, couldn't get over the three-quarter length sleeves on his brown python jacket. 'BRACELET SLEEVES????? she tweeted. 'This man should have gone to jail long ago.' New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin shared a photo of Manafort's blue and yellow plaid suit coat while also joking about his taste being a fashion crime. Yikes: effrey Toobin shared a photo of Manafort's blue and yellow plaid suit coat while also joking about his taste being a fashion crime Point made: Mat Johnson claimed Manafort's jackets could be found for $4 at a resale retailer Opinion: The Four Pins account said Manafort 'should be locked up for his bricked fits alone' Only if he gets acquitted: Rae Sanni said Manafort could replace on Carole Radziwill on Real Housewives of New York with his wardrobe Fashion risks: Susan Hennessey admitted that she is actually a fan of Manafort's garish style 'Paul #Manafort spent more than $500,000 on clothes. His purchases included this jacket, which must be some kind of felony,' he said. The Four Pins Twitter seemed to agree, writing: 'Paul Manafort should be locked up for his bricked fits alone tbh.' And political editor Katherine Miller joked: 'I love how all the Justice Department photos of Paul Manafort's clothes look like they're from a listing for an apartment sublet on Craigslist.' Despite the backlash, there is a at least one fan of Manafort's style. 'I recognize this is an unpopular opinion but I'm actually sort of into Manafort's wardrobe,' Susan Hennessy admitted. 'If you can't take fashion risks while parading around Easter Europe with millions of dollars in embezzled funds, when can you?!' If you enjoy the occasional evening tipple, its time to raise a glass. Middle-aged people who drink the equivalent of 175ml of wine a day are half as likely to develop dementia as those who abstain from alcohol, a study has found. Researchers said low amounts of alcohol can have a protective effect on the heart, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke though problem drinkers were at a far greater risk. Researchers said low amounts of alcohol can have a protective effect on the heart, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke though problem drinkers were at a far greater risk In the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers tracked more than 9,000 UK civil servants over 23 years to examine how alcohol intake during adulthood related to dementia. The participants, with an average age of 50, had the amount they drank monitored between 1985 and 2004. A total of 397 cases of dementia were later identified through hospital and mortality data. Scientists at the Universite Paris-Saclay in France found those who did not drink in middle age had a 47 per cent higher risk of dementia compared with those who consumed between one unit and the recommended limit of 14 units of alcohol per week. They suggested that this could attribute to a greater risk of conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke, reinforcing the message that low levels of alcohol may have protective effects. But Severine Sabia, who led the study, warned: This should not motivate people who do not drink to start drinking due to adverse effects of alcohol on mortality, cirrhosis of the liver and cancer. Experts cautioned that those who did not drink may have other health conditions, or could have been drinkers earlier in life. In the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers tracked more than 9,000 UK civil servants over 23 years to examine how alcohol intake during adulthood related to dementia At the greatest risk of dementia, researchers said, were individuals with a history of hospital admissions for alcohol-related diseases. Their risk was four times higher. Among excessive drinkers, who consumed more than 14 units per week experts found a heightened risk of dementia which increased the more a person drank. With every additional seven units consumed above the recommended limit, there was a 17 per cent increase in dementia risk. Dr Sara Imarisio, of Alzheimers Research UK, said: As this study only looked at peoples drinking in midlife, we dont know about their drinking habits earlier in adulthood, and it is possible that this may contribute to their later life dementia risk. People who completely abstain from alcohol may have a history of heavy drinking and this can make it difficult to interpret the links between drinking and health. Future research will need to examine drinking habits across a whole lifetime, and this will help to shed more light on the relationship between alcohol and dementia. Dr Doug Brown, chief policy and research officer at Alzheimers Society, said: While this study does throw up questions about alcohol and dementia, there could be other risk factors at play. What we do know is that excessive drinking is a proven cause of liver disease and cancers. We recommend that people enjoy a drink responsibly, but dont overdo it. Grieving families are at 'significant risk' of receiving the wrong body as a result of the `misidentification of the deceased', a report into NHS mortuaries has revealed. Dead bodies are stored in dirty fridges, damaged when they are moved and examined with rusty saws on broken post-mortem tables. One mortuary, at Torbay Hospital in Devon, had 'extensive rusting' on storage for post-mortem equipment, and bodily fluids pooled on the post-mortem exam table because the drainage system was broken. The report into the hospital's facilities and procedures also noted there was a `significant risk of the misidentification of the deceased'. Just 5.2 per cent of mortuaries passed an inspection without failing something in 2017-18, the report shows, a huge drop from 43.2 per cent in 2013-14. Some 58.6 per cent of inspections revealed serious failings in mortuaries, compared to 11.4 per cent in 2014. And figures released last year showed mortuaries release the wrong body several times a year, something that happened at least 25 times between 2002 and 2013. Experts say inspections have become more rigorous, which could account for some of the rise in failures, but that short-staffing and lack of money to repair facilities and equipment is a real problem. NHS mortuaries a The investigation by the Health Service Journal revealed the number of major failings at health service mortuaries has risen by more than 20 times in a single year from seven to 151. Some 510 overall shortfalls were found in Human Tissue Authority Inspections of 58 mortuaries in 2017-18, while only 59 were recorded in 2016-17. Eight 'critical' failings put human dignity at risk And eight of the shortfalls were considered critical failings which pose a significant risk to human safety or dignity. There were no critical failings recorded at all during the previous four years. Nicolette Harrison from the Human Tissue Authority told the Health Service Journal: 'We expect all establishments to meet our standards, to ensure public confidence that mortuaries are handling bodies with appropriate dignity and care.' Last year more than 300,000 bodies were sent to mortuaries in England and Wales and there were about 90,000 post-mortem exams. Bodies stored in a dirty fridge at freezing temperatures The HSJ's report revealed that at Alexandra Hospital in Worcestershire bodies were stored in a dirty fridge which was so cold bodies were at risk of freezing solid, The Telegraph reports. A separate report in November revealed the wrong bodies were released to funeral directors at least 25 times between 2002 and 2013, according to The Sun. And nine of those were buried or cremated before anybody realised the mistake had been made. Meanwhile post-mortems were performed on the wrong body 13 times, seven were disfigured because they were dropped or damaged in a mortuary, and 15 decomposed because they were not kept cold enough. Hard to improve equipment because it is expensive Dr Michael Osborne, of the Royal College of Pathologists, said it is harder to improve facilities than to train staff because it costs more money. 'Some things are more addressable than others,' he said. 'Governance and quality are things people can deal with. You can send staff on courses, and you can educate them to improve governance and quality. 'It is much harder to improve premises, facilities, and equipment because that often has a much larger capital overlay.' WOMAN FOUND ALIVE IN MORTUARY FRIDGE AFTER CRASH A woman was found alive in a mortuary fridge in South Africa after being in a car crash and showing 'no form of life' at the scene of the incident. The unnamed woman was taken to the morgue in gold-mining town Carletonville, in the Gauteng province near Johannesburg. She had been declared dead after the car smash, TimesLive reported in July, but when a member of mortuary staff checked on the body he found she was breathing. She was taken to hospital where she is now recovering from her ordeal, according to local reports. The ambulance company whose paramedics declared her dead have denied there is any proof of negligence. 'This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained,' said the operations manager of the firm, Distress Alert. He said that staff had followed protocols when checking for life which included looking for signs of a pulse and whether she was breathing. Local reports say the woman was among a number of people caught up in a car crash on June 24 which left two others dead. Advertisement Another Ebola outbreak has been declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo less than 10 days since the last one ended after killing 33 people. At least four people have tested positive for the deadly fever which causes people to haemorrhage blood and their organs to fail. The latest cases have been found in and near a town called Mangina, about 62 miles (100km) from the border with Uganda in the country's north-east. Experts from Congo's health ministry will arrive in the nearby city of Beni today, and the World Health Organisation has begun moving supplies to the area. Some 20 people are reported to have died of haemorrhagic fever in the area already, the ministry said, but it did not say when that happened and it is not clear whether the deaths were linked to the new outbreak. There are concerns if the outbreak spreads it will be near an active war zone in the region of North Kivu and in a place with close links to Rwanda and Uganda, increasing the risk of Ebola spreading across the border. The outbreak is some 1,553 miles (2,500km) from where 33 people died of the haemorrhagic fever in the northwest of the country and is not thought to be linked. New cases of the highly infectious and often fatal disease Ebola have been declared in the north-east of Congo (pictured: health workers with a girl suffering from Ebola in Liberia in 2014) This new outbreak of Ebola will be the 10th in Congo's history, more than twice as many as any other country. The viral disease was discovered near the Ebola River in the north of the country in 1976, and is thought to be spread by bats and caught by humans from bush meat meat from wild animals which is sold at markets to be eaten. It then spreads between people via contact with the bodily fluids of infected people. Ebola causes a fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding, and is often fatal because there is no cure. Congolese and international health officials were praised for a quick response to the last outbreak. They used an experimental vaccine being developed against the virus, but it is specific to one strain and the strain in the new outbreak has not been confirmed. 'We will fight this one as we did the last' The director general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: 'Ebola is a constant threat in DRC. What adds to our confidence in the countrys ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again. 'We will fight this one as we did the last.' The country's health minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga said: 'Although we did not expect to face a 10th epidemic so early, the detection of the virus is an indicator of the proper functioning of the surveillance system.' Travel into and out of Mangina has been blocked to try to contain the virus, and governor of the North Kivu region, Julien Paluku, called on residents to remain calm. Congo's east is volatile, with dozens of rebel groups staging attacks and vying for mineral-rich land. The ministry said it has put in place security to protect the deployed health care workers and the population. Ebola in Congo 'reminiscent' of 2014 disaster This year's Ebola outbreaks follow a devastating spread of the disease between 2013 and 2016 which killed 11,300 people in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. There were fears the outbreak, in Mbandaka and Bikoro, would spread to the port city of Kinshasa. At the time Dr Derek Gatherer, a virologist from Lancaster University, warned the outbreak was 'reminiscent' of the 2014 Ebola pandemic. In an editorial for a scientific journal, Dr Gatherer wrote: 'The current outbreak has the potential for rapid expansion in numbers. He added: 'Mbandaka is a port on the River Congo, the main arterial transport link from DRC's capital Kinshasa to inland cities. 'With poor to non-existent provision of running water, sewage and electricity, the similarities with the urban situation during the west African outbreak are obvious.' 'The risk of transmission to Kinshasa central Africa's main megacity either by river or by air from Mbandaka's regional airport, is a major concern.' Much quicker aid response The 2014 international response to the Ebola pandemic drew criticism for moving too slowly and prompted an apology from the WHO. Yet international aid teams moved much quicker in response in Congo, implementing vaccination campaigns in several regions. Hundreds of locals and frontline health workers in Bikoro, Iboko and Mbandaka were given the experimental vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV. There are no proven Ebola vaccines, however, the rVSV-ZEBOV has been shown to be effective in trials in Guinea during the pandemic. Pregnant women have been urged to ensure that they are protected against measles as cases of the infection continue to rise. Midwives from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust are encouraging expectant mothers to get up-to-date on their jabs, with previous research linking measles to stillbirths, miscarriages and premature labours. Janet Cairns, head of midwifery at the Trust, said: 'Now is the time to check if you are vaccinated against measles. 'If you are pregnant and have been in contact with someone with measles, please contact your GP or midwife'. This comes just weeks after the Royal College of Nursing urged European holidaymakers to ensure they are up-to-date before their travels, with Greece, Italy, Romania, Germany, France and Serbia all experiencing unusually high measles rates. In the UK, 781 confirmed cases occurred between the start of the year and July 22, compared to just 274 throughout 2017, according to Public Health England (PHE). Pregnant women have been urged to ensure that they are protected against measles (stock) WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF MEASLES DURING PREGNANCY? AND IS IT SERIOUS? Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads via contact with an infected person. If a pregnant woman who has not been vaccinated becomes infected, she is at greater risk of suffering a miscarriage, stillbirth or premature labour. Infected pregnant women suffer the same symptoms as other measles patients. These include fever, cold, cough and rashes, which are characterised by red spots and bumps on the skin. Pregnant women showing symptoms of measles, or those who have been in contact with an infected person, should contact their GP or midwife immediately. They will then undergo a blood test to determine if they are immune to measles. If not, they may require an injection to boost their immune-cell counts, which should help to reduce their measles symptoms and the impact of the infection on their babies. Advertisement 'Now is the time to check you are vaccinated against measles' Janet Cairns, head of midwifery at the Trust, said: 'Now is the right time to check if you and your family are vaccinated against the risk of measles. 'GPs can advise, and give vaccines to anyone who has not been adequately protected. Two doses of the MMR vaccine can prevent more than 95 per cent of cases of measles, mumps and rubella. 'If you are pregnant and have been in contact with someone with measles, which is infectious from a few days before the rash appears, please contact your GP or midwife, who can request a blood test to check whether you are immune.' Pregnant women who have not been vaccinated against measles experience the same symptoms as other sufferers. These include fever, cold, cough and rashes, which are characterised by red spots and bumps on the skin. If women suspect they have measles or have come into contact with an infected person, they should contact their GP or midwife immediately. Such women will then undergo a blood test to determine if they are immune to the infection. If not, they may require an injection to boost their immune-cell count, which will help to reduce their measles symptoms and the infection's impact on their pregnancy. MEASLES DECLARED 'ELIMINATED' FROM THE UK JUST FOUR MONTHS AGO The 'elimination' of measles has been achieved in the UK, global health leaders said in September. The elimination of measles or rubella can be verified once a country has sustained 'interruption of endemic transmission' for at least 36 months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The European Regional Verification Commission said the UK achieved elimination status for measles as of 2016. Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at Public Health England, said: 'We are delighted that the WHO has confirmed that the UK achieved measles elimination in 2016 and that rubella elimination continues to be sustained. 'In addition, national vaccine coverage of the first MMR dose in five year olds has hit the WHO's 95 per cent target. 'This is a huge achievement and a testament to all the hard work by our health professionals in the NHS to ensure that all children and adults are fully protected with two doses of the MMR vaccine. 'We need to ensure that this is sustained going forward by maintaining and improving coverage of the MMR vaccine in children and by catching up older children and young adults who missed out.' Advertisement WHAT WERE THE MEASLES, MUMPS AND RUBELLA VACCINATION RATES IN TWO-YEAR-OLDS ACROSS ENGLAND IN 2015-TO-2016? Region of England % vaccinated North East North West Yorkshire & Humber East Midlands West Midlands East of England London South East South West Source: NHS immunisation statistics 95 92.9 94 94.1 93.1 93.5 86.4 91.9 92.9 Some 781 confirmed cases occurred between the start of the year and January 22 (stock) Officials urge people to get vaccinated Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE previously said: 'The measles outbreaks we are currently seeing in England are linked to ongoing large outbreaks in Europe. 'The majority of cases we are seeing are in teenagers and young adults who missed out on their MMR vaccine when they were children. 'Anyone who missed out on their MMR vaccine in the past or are unsure if they had two doses should contact their GP practice to catch-up. 'This serves as an important reminder for parents to take up the offer of MMR vaccination for their children at 1 year of age and as a pre-school booster at three years and four months of age. She added: 'We'd also encourage people to ensure they are up to date with their MMR vaccine before travelling to countries with ongoing measles outbreaks. 'The UK recently achieved World Health Organization (WHO) measles elimination status and so the overall risk of measles to the UK population is low, however, we will continue to see cases in unimmunised individuals and limited onward spread can occur in communities with low MMR coverage and in age groups with very close mixing.' To prevent a measles outbreak, it is recommended that 95 per cent of the population is immunised against the infection. Only 91.9 per cent of children were vaccinated against measles between 2015 and 2016 compared to 94.2 per cent in 2014-to-2015 and 94.3 per cent in 2013-to-2014, according to NHS immunisation statistics. The World Health Organization claims people's fear of vaccines, along with complacency, means many, particularly young children, are unprotected. To prevent a measles outbreak, 95 per cent of the population should be vaccinated (stock) Epidemics in Europe Earlier this year, the WHO warned measles was spreading across Europe in regions where vaccination rates are low, such as Poland, Switzerland and Ukraine. Data published in November 2017 by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in the Communicable Disease Threat Report show that from January 2016 to November 2017, more than 19,000 measles cases were reported in the EU, including 46 deaths. The highest number of cases in 2017 were reported in Romania, where 7,759 people suffered, followed by Italy with 4,775 cases and Germany with 898 sufferers. Greece also experienced a measles outbreak, with at least 368 cases, and one death, since May 2017. Dr Ramsay said: 'Due to ongoing measles outbreaks within Europe, we will continue to see imported measles cases in the UK in unimmunised individuals. 'This serves as an important reminder for parents to take up the offer of MMR vaccination for their children when offered at one year of age and as a pre-school booster at three years, four months of age.' WHAT IS MEASLES, WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS AND HOW CAN YOU CATCH IT? Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads easily from an infected person by coughing, sneezing or even just breathing. Symptoms develop between six and 19 days after infection, and include a runny nose, cough, sore eyes, a fever and a rash. The rash appears as red and blotchy marks on the hairline that travel down over several days, turning brown and eventually fading. Some children complain of disliking bright lights or develop white spots with red backgrounds on their tongue. In one in 15 cases, measles can cause life-threatening complications including pneumonia, convulsions and encephalitis. Dr Ava Easton, chief executive of the Encephalitis Society told MailOnline: 'Measles can be very serious. '[It] can cause encephalitis which is inflammation of the brain. 'Encephalitis can result in death or disability.' Treatment focuses on staying hydrated, resting and taking painkillers, if necessary. Measles can be prevented by receiving two vaccinations, the first at 13 months old and the second at three years and four months to five years old. Source: Great Ormond Street Hospital Advertisement ARE AUTISTIC CHILDREN MISSING OUT ON VACCINATIONS? Autistic children are missing out on life-saving vaccinations, research suggested in March 2018. Only 81.6 per cent of those on the autism spectrum have received all the recommended vaccinations for children aged between four and six years old, a study found. For those without the developmental disability, 94.1 per cent have had the necessary jabs, including diptheria, polio, and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), the research adds. Lead author Dr Ousseny Zerbo, from Kaiser Permanente, California, said: 'These findings suggest that children with autism and their younger siblings may be at greater risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. 'Vaccine hesitancy or refusal may play a role in children not getting properly vaccinated.' Results further suggest just 89.1 per cent of children with autism have been vaccinated against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough, compared to 96.6 per cent of youngsters without the disorder. Only 84 per cent of autistic children are protected against MMR versus 95.9 per cent who do not suffer such developmental and behavioural challenges. The younger siblings of autism sufferers are also missing out, with 6.8 per cent receiving fewer vital jabs than their peers. Dr Nicholas Wood, from Sydney University, who was not involved in the study, added: 'Parents of autism spectrum disorder kids may be worried; they may still feel that the MMR vaccine led to autism. 'And that a second dose may cause a regression.' Advertisement Is Andrew Wakefield's discredited research to blame for low vaccination rates? In 1995 the gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a study in The Lancet showing children who had been vaccinated against MMR were more likely to have bowel disease and autism. He speculated that being injected with a 'dead' form of the measles virus causes disruption to intestinal tissue, leading to both of the disorders. After a 1998 paper further confirmed this finding, Wakefield said: 'The risk of this particular syndrome [which he termed autistic enterocolitis] developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single vaccines.' At the time, Wakefield had a patent for single MMR vaccines and was therefore accused of having a conflict of interest. Nonetheless, MMR vaccination rates in the US and UK plummeted, until, in 2004 the then-editor of The Lancet Dr Richard Horton described Wakefield's research as 'fundamentally flawed', adding he was paid by attorneys seeking lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet formally retracted Wakefield's research paper in 2010. Three months later, the General Medical Council banned Wakefield from practicing medicine in Britain, stating his research had shown a 'callous disregard' for children's health. On January 6 2011, The British Medical Journal published a report showing that of the 12 children included in Wakefield's 1995 study, at most two had autistic symptoms post vaccination, rather than the eight he claimed. At least two of the children also had developmental delays before they were vaccinated, yet Wakefield's paper claimed they were all 'previously normal'. Further findings revealed none of the children had autism, non-specific colitis or symptoms within days of receiving the MMR vaccine, yet the study claimed six of the participants suffered all three. Humans have gone unshod for millions of years; it is only in the last few centuries that people have started wearing shoes. However, a recent survey shows that shoe wearing among young boys isn't universal. German children and teenagers spend most of their day in shoes, while about 90 percent of their South African counterparts go barefoot. Aside from the obvious climate differences, it is tempting to think that South Africa's lower economic ranking, compared with Germany's, is the main reason for the absence of footwear. But this reasoning has been challenged by results from our recent survey. We gathered information on the footwear habits of 714 boys attending a secondary school in a wealthy part of Auckland, New Zealand. Almost half of the students (45 percent) spent most of their time barefoot. Many of the students in this study were even willing to run distances of 100 to 3,000 metres on a hard track surface without shoes. For more than a century, studies have shown that being barefoot in early life can have a significant impact on overall health down the line, Professor Peter Francis explains Foot structure Differences in foot structure between those who have never worn shoes and those who are usually in shoes have been described for over a century. In one seminal 1905 study, Phil Hoffman, warned how putting the fashionable desires of customers over the health of their feet had led to shoe design 'that more or less crowds the front of the foot'. The main developmental result of growing up in shoes appears to be a narrower foot and a lower arch. The result of this is more concentrated pressure at the heel and the ball of the foot during movement. By contrast, those who grow up barefoot have wider feet and have a more even distribution of pressure towards the outside edge of the foot and across the toes. Running as nature intended We don't know what effect growing up in shoes has on the development of movement skills, or the risk of injury in sport, but logic suggests that growing up barefoot is a good thing. The heel of the foot is highly sensitive to pain, meaning that when people run barefoot they tend to avoid landing on their heel and instead defer the pressure to the mid and forefoot. This allows a broader surface area to absorb force. In order to avoid a heel strike, the foot must never be too far in front of the body. As a result, barefoot runners tend to have a shorter stride. A shorter stride needs less leg extension, which is why barefoot runners have greater bend at the knee and a more pointed foot toward the floor. These joint positions allow muscles around the knee to help control landing and allow the ankle to behave in a more spring-like fashion. The problem with shoes Covering the heel of the foot reduces the sensation it experiences when coming into contact with the ground. The running shoe, containing a cushioned heel, allows the runner to land on the heel of the foot with an extended leg. This is perhaps why about 75 percent of runners nowadays are heel strikers. Running using an extended limb (overstriding) results in force being absorbed through the heel, bony structures and joints, with less assistance from muscle. This may be one of the reasons most running injuries are to structures that are not designed to absorb force (shins, feet and knees). Interestingly, when people remove their shoes, most revert to middle and forefoot striking. Children and teenagers who grow up mostly barefoot appear strong enough to run quickly and for long distances without shoes. The prevalence of leg pain in the New Zealand students we studied was at the lower end of that reported globally in students of a similar age. This finding, combined with an absence of evidence for the role of shoes in the prevention of injury, makes it seem reasonable to suggest that children should spend as much time as possible barefoot. Social acceptability is a barrier to barefoot activities in many Western countries, as a result, adults who did not grow up mostly barefoot may not have the same foot structure and leg strength to transition to barefoot activities quickly. Gradually building time spent walking and running in bare feet is key for people who are new to barefoot activities. The increasing availability of shoes that mimic the structure of the foot (minimalist shoes) and have little cushioning other than to cover the foot, may help people transition to being barefoot. The improving design of these shoes may also help to tackle the issue of social acceptability. More than 1,000 people were killed by Hurricane Maria, according to new figures - but the official death toll is still 64. The storm decimated Puerto Rico when it hit on September 20, 2017, leaving most of the US island without power, running water, hospital supplies and functioning emergency services for months. The local government counted only 'hurricane-related' deaths, from floods or in incidents caused by the brutal winds. However, researchers at Penn State University have now done a deep dive on Puerto Rico's own government figures to conclude that the total lives lost to be at least 1,139, accounting for deaths from disease or lack of water in the months after. Lead author Alexis Raul Santos-Lozada, PhD, warns this drastic disparity has prevented more swift action to repair the damage that still lingers, and prepare the island for future storms. The local government counted only 'hurricane-related' deaths, from floods or in incidents caused by the brutal winds. However, a new study shows hundreds more died from disease 'Unless we acknowledge that something happened, that this is still happening, we are not going to solve it,' Dr Santos told Daily Mail Online. 'We need to revise our emergency services protocols and policies so that, in the future, this kind of issue can be identified earlier, and more lives can be saved.' Dr Santos' team worked within the same time frame as the government data - September through to December - for their study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although one recent study suggested the figure to be more than 4,000, Dr Santos warns that study underestimated the pre-hurricane mortality rate and over-estimated the post-hurricane mortality rate - making the spike in deaths look extreme. There was certainly a sharp uptick, though. Dr Santos' team found that there were 1,139 more deaths than usual for that time period. There were an additional 459 deaths in September, 564 in October and 116 in November, before the death rate resumed to its usual levels in December. A Puerto Rican native, Dr Santos said he was hardly surprised by the disparity. His mother is a nurse, as are many of his friends, and 'following the hurricane the picture they painted was one of devastation'. 'It seemed clear to me that the number would be higher.' While Dr Santos insists he is a firm believer in the island's office of statistics, which is an independent body, he warns that there is a legacy of the government skewing data. Indeed, in 2016, Puerto Rican officials came under flack for saying the number of Zika cases was in the teens - when academics found it to be in the hundreds. In terms of Maria, beyond the misrepresentation of overall deaths, the soaring rate of suicides - which climbed 29 percent after the storm - has also been swept under the rug. The government has also been accused of underestimating the number of people that have contracted leptospirosis, a disease spread by animals' urine, likely through exposure to contaminated water. Last year, Governor Ricardo Rossello admitted four people had died and another six were sickened by leptospirosis. But a CNN/CPI investigation last month found the actual number to be much higher: 26 people died since the storm on September 20, 2017. Dr Santos said he, like many other Puerto Ricans, was driven to conduct the research after President Donald Trump's visit in October. The president was criticized for comparing the impact of Maria to Hurricane Katrina, suggesting the official death toll, which was 16 at the time, was minor. 'Sixteen versus literally thousands of people.' The island's government, too, has been accused of somewhat exaggerating how quickly and effectively emergency services responded to the worst natural disaster in Puerto Rico's history. 'Governments want to look good,' Dr Santos said. 'They evaluate themselves based on this data. Maybe there's some convenience saying that the numbers are lower because then you're proving you're effective.' But as the weather becomes more volatile, and the Caribbean faces more natural disasters, Dr Santos warns this type of marketing could have devastating consequences. Publishing his data publicly, he urges academics to collaborate more with local governments in the wake of disasters to spur policy changes. 'They have the power; we have the data and the knowledge. If we collaborate to make an alliance, we could make a difference.' Government-funded researchers today launched two of the most promising studies in male contraceptives - which could bring two products to the market in 2028. LA Biomed, a non-profit research group, has an oral contraceptive that has proved safe in preliminary trials, and a contraceptive gel, applied daily to the shoulder, that has both proved safe and effective in extensive trials. Now, in alliance with the National Institutes of Health, their team is overseeing trials of the gel in nine centers around the world, while testing the pill's effectiveness in trials at their base in California. Despite significant public interest for a male alternative to the Pill - almost 60 years after it was approved for women - this is one of the few concrete moves to actively move a product closer to consumers. LA Biomed is testing a contraceptive gel and a pill for men to use. The gel has proved effective and safe in six-month studies. The pill is in earlier stages; so far it has proved safe, but not yet effective. Pictured: file image of a female contraceptive Currently, the only options for male contraception are condoms or a vasectomy - as well as the ill-advised and highly ineffective 'withdrawal method'. LA Biomed's lead researcher Dr Christina Wang, of UCLA, told Daily Mail Online the gel and pill that she is working on is one of the most promising - if not one of the only - promising options to date. The gel, a combination of testosterone and progesterone, has proved just as effective as any female contraceptive, after six months of tests. It is applied to the shoulder, since this is the area deemed least likely to come into contact with women and/or children. Despite the rub risk, Dr Wang said the benefit of a gel is that it is absorbed very quickly into the blood vessels beneath the skin, and then is very gradually released into the body, lowering the risk of 'piques and troughs' in mood. 'We have shown that it suppressed the sperm if the man applies it every day; that it would be very, very unlikely to cause pregnancy to a female partner, just like a female contraceptive,' Dr Wang said. Now, the gel will be given to men in nine centers across four continents - North America, South America, Africa, and Europe (excluding Asia because it is too far away for FDA inspectors to monitor the two-year trial). By the end of it, they aim to prove that men who use it have a negligible risk of pregnancy with a female partner solely using the gel. They have high hopes for the pill, too, now that early trials have shown it is not harmful. 'Our initial studies [for the pill] were just on safety, and it passed those stages.' As these NIH-funded trials get going, Dr Wang also hopes to make some progress with an injection, akin to 'the depo-shot', which women can get every three months to prevent pregnancy. Dr Wang envisions a version for men that could be administered annually. 'What we are trying to do is to have quite a few options [on the market],' Dr Wang said. 'There is lots of interest from the general public but there [are] very, very few studies that are developing contraception for males.' Unlike the race to cure Alzheimer's, cancer, and high blood pressure, the biggest pharmaceutical companies are noticeably absent in the race to dose up men with contraceptives instead of women. According to Dr Wang there are three major obstacles. First, of course, is business. 'Big companies are also making the female contraceptive, like the Pill and IUD, so why would they want competition in their company? Why compete with themselves?' Second, and tied to the first, is a question that even Dr Wang is still grappling with: 'who will be the holder?' 'For females it's easy: you go to your gynecologist to get your pill or your IUD put in. But for the male... who are you going to send them to? I think probably your primary care, but it could be urologist or endocrinologist. That is something that is not clear.' Lastly, there is the issue with any drug in development: how do you make sure it has the least side effects as possible? With something like a contraceptive, used by millions if not billions of healthy people, that is key. The safety studies are ensuring that any potential contraceptive treatment for males would have the lowest risk of mood swings and physical reactions. While those side effects are common to all female contraceptives, manufacturers insist that we're in a different age now: the threshold for safety is different - and not retroactive - and going back to the drawing board now isn't the most lucrative course of action. Happily, for men, Dr Wang says the pill and particularly the gel seem to have barely any impact on the users. But, she adds, 'we will have no idea until it hits the market' - slated for 2028. A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne (Doubleday 14.99) A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne (Doubleday 14.99) The bestselling Irish author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas dishes up a dark morality tale in his latest novel, in the mould of Patricia Highsmith. It follows Maurice, a dashing novelist with a flair for plotting though not in the usual sense. We first meet him as a young barman making eyes at Erich, a gay writer who grew up in Nazi Germany. When Erich reveals that, as a boy, he denounced a Jewish family in an act of jealousy fuelled by unrequited love, Maurice makes the private confession the basis for his own first novel, wrecking Erichs career. As we track Maurice down the decades, his victims pile up, including his more talented wife, whose unpublished novel he brazenly steals. The story can feel mechanical developing characters for the sole purpose of showing how Maurice does the dirty on them but its consistently intriguing, pitched somewhere between book-world satire and psychological thriller. THE WATER THIEF by Claire Hajaj (Oneworld 12.99) THE WATER THIEF by Claire Hajaj (Oneworld 12.99) Jewish-Palestinian author Claire Hajaj follows her Middle Eastern-set debut, Ishmaels Oranges, with the engrossing story of Nick, an architect who, after the sudden death of his father, leaves his fiancee in London to help build a childrens hospital in an unspecified village in the Sahara. As he blunders into a vipers nest of conflicting interests, with Boko Haram luring local youths into extremism, he realises the scale of the task is even bigger than he imagined and falling for his hosts wife doesnt help. Hajaj tells us that the novel was inspired by the dilemmas she faced as an aid worker for the UN, delivering polio vaccines to a village on the desert border between Nigeria and Niger. With swathes of the story unfolding in italics, the novel might have been better organised, but it engages as a parable of a Westerner who, trying to do the right thing, finds that perhaps there is no right thing to be done. PRAGUE SPRING by Simon Mawer (Little, Brown 18.99) PRAGUE SPRING by Simon Mawer (Little, Brown 18.99) Mawer, shortlisted for the Booker with his World War II novel The Glass Room, returns to Czechoslovakia in this tense novel set during the countrys short-lived period of independence from Soviet rule in 1968. It follows a nervy, cross-class romance between Oxford undergraduates James and Ellie, who release some of the sexual tension theyve built up while co-starring in a student play when they hitch-hike across Europe for the summer. Visiting Prague to experience President Alexandr Dubceks dream of Communism without tyranny, the story of their testy relationship merges with that of Sam, a young British diplomat sampling local hospitality with student activist Lenka. If a slight air of duty hangs over Sams segments, which supply vital political context, James and Ellies sparring is always engaging, while Mawers prose is crisp, electrified by a sense of menace as the Soviets prepare to invade. BELIEVE ME by J. P. Delaney (Quercus 12.99) BELIEVE ME by J. P. Delaney (Quercus 12.99) A dark and haunting thriller from the author of the best-selling The Girl Before, this follows British drama student Claire, in New York, anxious to become an actress, but without the necessary Green Card to allow her to perform legally. An agent suggests she work for Manhattan divorce lawyers, as a honeytrap pretending to be a willing pick-up for straying husbands. The moment they take the bait Claire tells the wife, provides the audio evidence and legal proceedings begin. Then shes asked to entrap a rich husband, Patrick Folger, who steadfastly refuses to take her bait only for his wife to end up dead. No one can prove that he killed her, so the police ask Claire to trap him into a confession. At first she is reluctant, not least because she believes he is innocent, but then she falls in love with him . . . and thats when the complications begin. A superb evocation of conflicted emotions, this never lets you guess whats coming next. THE OTHER WIFE THE OTHER WIFE by Michael Robotham (Sphere 19.99) by Michael Robotham (Sphere 19.99) Childhood sweethearts William and Mary, he a successful surgeon, she a devoted wife and mother, have been married 60 years when he is brutally attacked. Their psychologist son Joe is summoned to intensive care only to find another woman sobbing at his bedside, covered in his blood. It turns out she is his other wife with whom he has been living part-time for the past 20 years while still married to Joes mother, who arrives at the hospital to discover her rival. Is she a fantasist? Or could William have been a bigamist? Gradually Joe discovers a far murkier truth about the father who never seemed to care for him and his mothers ability to conceal her emotions from them both. Superbly constructed and elegantly written, it has a breathtaking twist in its tail. THE BREAK LINE THE BREAK LINE by James Brabazon (Michael Joseph 12.99) by James Brabazon (Michael Joseph 12.99) This debut, from a documentary maker who wrote an acclaimed factual account of a mercenary, is the story of Max McLean, a man trained to kill by the SAS. He has been doing it for 23 years and never failed. Now he is given one last solo mission to destroy a high-value target in the jungles of Sierra Leone. There is the possibility he is not being told the truth about a task that sees him parachute into one of the most inhospitable countries in Africa, where there are rumours of white ghost warriors who feel no pain and cannot be stopped. There are echoes of Joseph Conrad and Frederick Forsyths The Dogs Of War: its not for the faint-hearted and is as ferocious a portrait of an assassin as you will find. ONE HOT SUMMER by Rosemary Ashton (Yale 10.99) ONE HOT SUMMER by Rosemary Ashton (Yale 10.99) The summer of 1858 was a scorcher. It was also, unfortunately for the population of London, a stinker. Sewage from the citys cesspits was discharged directly into the Thames, and it combined with the heat to produce what became known as the Great Stink. When even the politicians at Westminster began to suffer from what Disraeli described as a Stygian pool reeking with ineffable and unbearable horror, it was agreed that the time had come to act. Rosemary Ashtons fascinating history draws together the story of the Great Stink with a trio of personalities whose lives underwent dramatic events during that torrid summer. Charles Dickens fell in love with the young actress Ellen Ternan, Charles Darwin published a paper introducing the radical ideas of his book The Origin Of Species, and Disraeli introduced the Thames Purification Bill that would finally banish the Great Stink. MUSICOPHILIA MUSICOPHILIA by Oliver Sacks (Picador Classics 10.99) by Oliver Sacks (Picador Classics 10.99) The neurologist Oliver Sacks, who died in 2015, was a brilliantly entertaining writer on the infinite mysteries of the brain. His many books included The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and, in this tenth anniversary edition of Musicophilia, Sacks describes the remarkable power of music to affect the human mind. For virtually all of us, music has great power, whether or not we seek it out or think of ourselves as particularly musical. Central to every culture, its origins probably go back as far as the very beginnings of the human species. Even people whose cognition is severely impaired by disorders such as Alzheimers, autism or Tourettes syndrome can respond to music (and sometimes be brilliant musicians). A GOOD FACE FOR RADIO by Eddie Mair (Abacus 9.99) A GOOD FACE FOR RADIO by Eddie Mair (Abacus 9.99) Eddie Mair presented BBC Radio 4s PM programme for 20 years, collecting innumerable awards before leaving this month to join LBC. During his two decades at the PM microphone, he turned the news magazine programme into a distinctive mixture of tough reporting, whimsical asides and sensitive interviewing of people who had experienced often overwhelming events. Wildly entertaining and occasionally prickly, Mair chronicled the secrets of life at Broadcasting House in a series of columns for the Radio Times. These often surreal glimpses into the daily life of BBC journalism include the startling revelation that newsreader Corrie Corfield works part-time at the circus if Eddie is to be believed . . . BOOK OF THE WEEK MEMOIRS OF A WARTIME INTERPRETER by Elena Rzhevskaya (Greenhill Books 24.99) Picture a small burgundy-red jewellery box the kind that snaps shut and has a silky red lining. Now, open that box, and feel a bit sick. Because what it contains is not a necklace or brooch, but a set of terrible old teeth: Hitlers teeth. Or are they Hitlers teeth? This is what Elena Rzhevskaya, a Russian interpreter working for the Soviet army, was instructed to find out when she was entrusted with that box on May 9, 1945 and set off across the ruins of Berlin in search of Hitlers dentist, who she hoped would be able to verify them. God Almighty, is this happening to me? she remembers thinking, . . . Standing here at the moment Germany surrenders, with a box in my hands containing the indisputable remnants of Adolf Hitler? Russian interpreter Elena Rzhevskaya, gives a first hand account of working for the Soviet army to identify Hitler's (pictured) ruins. His teeth were given to her in a burgundy-red jewellery box for the task Yes, it was happening to her. But those remnants were not yet indisputable some, most notably Stalin, wanted to prolong the myth that Hitler was not dead, to continue the tension amongst the Allies. As she explains, if Hitler was alive, Nazism was not yet vanquished and the world was still in danger. I read this utterly gripping book by the coast in Sussex; the contrast between the glorious, shimmering sea and the horror of the petrol-doused, burnt bodies in the hellish courtyard of the Reich Chancellery could not have been more stark. Those bodies, wrapped in grey blankets, were removed for forensic examination by the Russians where they found that all that had survived intact was the set of teeth and dentures. E lena, carrying the teeth, was driven through the rubble of the ruined city in search of Hitlers dentist. The signposts had been destroyed. They asked for directions from German boys, who then clambered into the car to guide them, having no idea of the historic adventure in which they were bit-players. Amid this chaos, it seemed a miracle that they found 35-year-old dental assistant Kathe Heusermann, who knew exactly where the X-rays of Hitlers teeth would be: in the dentists room in the bunker beneath the Chancellery. So back they drove, then groped their way through the maze of underground corridors with a torch until, finally, they found Hitlers dental records. Kathe compared the records with the teeth in the red box and confirmed that they were indeed Hitlers teeth. Kathe would pay a heavy price for that helpful act. She would be held in solitary confinement in a Russian prison for six years, before being dispatched in a cattle truck to Siberia for a further four years of forced labour. The trumped-up charge against her? That, by being a dentist to Nazis, she had prolonged the war and helped the bourgeois German state. Elena Rzhevskaya (pictured centre) says she carried a burden of guilt after the dentist who confirmed the ruins belonged to Hitler was thrown in solitary confinement The burden of guilt will never leave me, Elena writes, for inflicting such suffering on Kathe. But if she had not found Kathe, Stalins plan would have been successful: Hitlers whereabouts might have remained a myth and a mystery to this day. As it was, Stalin instantly made the information about the teeth top secret. He ensured that the TASS news agency kept on reporting rumours that Hitler had been seen landing in Argentina dressed as a woman, or been spotted in Spain with Franco. Stalin, Elena writes, had no sense of responsibility to the historical record, to the people of the USSR, or to the world. Reality was reality only to the extent that it suited his pragmatic ends. That macabre episode is the culmination of Elena Rzhevskayas unforgettable memoir, full of deeply moving and intimate descriptions of the people and scenes she encountered as she travelled with the Russian army from Moscow in early 1942 all the way to Berlin in 1945. Elena became the first person to read the documents found in Hitler's bunker after being given the role to interpret items belonging to Germans. Pictured: A section of human jaw that experts believe belonged to Hitler Her job was to interpret interrogations of German prisoners of war and read the diaries found in their pockets. We travel with her through the snowy wastes of Russia, and are billeted with her in villages traumatised by the brief German occupation before their enforced winter retreat. Reaching a newly liberated Poland in early 1945, we hear with her the wonderful sound of Polish children allowed to raise their voices and sing after years of being forced to keep their voices down. You smell fields ploughed, at last in freedom, by Polish peasants. This story is strangely delicious and uplifting to read. Even when Elenas journey westward begins in early 1942, theres a strong sense that the Russians are winning. Slowly but surely they close in on Berlin. Theres some justice about the fact that the final act of the Third Reich was not a shoot-out but the double-suicide of the Fuhrer and his wife-of-one-day Eva Braun. Eva apparently insisted on Hitler marrying her as the condition for their suicide and the bride wore black. Elena was the first to read the documents found in the bunker: the ones for Hitler were all in a huge font, because his eyesight was so bad. Elena (pictured) was interpreting in the hospital of the Reich Chancellery when the doctor who gave fatal doses to children at the request of Minister Joseph Goebbels who also lived in Hitler's bunker gave his testimony In the document describing Mussolinis death on April 28, Hitler had underlined hung upside down. It was to avoid that fate that he demanded the garage man provide eight cans of petrol for the burning of his and Evas bodies. Appallingly, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, also living in the bunker, was so profoundly evil that his end required not only his and his wifes suicide but that they should put all six of their children to death first. A few days after that horrific event, Elena was interpreting in the hospital of the Reich Chancellery when the doctor who administered the fatal doses to the children gave his testimony. Goebbels had said to him, Doctor, I shall be very grateful if you will help my wife put the children to death. MEMOIRS OF A WARTIME INTERPRETER by Elena Rzhevskaya (Greenhill Books 24.99) After which Magda Goebbels had played patience for an hour, waiting for the doctor to prepare the morphine which would be given to the children before the cyanide ampoules were emptied into their sleeping mouths. Its fascinating to live all this through the eyes of a brilliantly observant and eloquent Russian woman. She portrays the Russians as the goodies and the Nazis as the baddies: its as simple as that, in her eyes. I couldnt, though, banish the shadow of Antony Beevors Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, which chronicled the mass-rapes of German women by Russian troops during those weeks. Elena gives us only one tiny glimpse of that: when she first meets Kathe and introduces herself as a Russian, Kathe bursts into tears, as she had already suffered from encountering Russian soldiers. Elena lived on in the Soviet Union for decades, and died in 2017. She knew she was lucky (as the teller of an unwanted truth) to avoid the punishment meted out to Kathe. She was vastly relieved to hear that Kathe eventually got out of the USSR aged 45 and lived another 40 years but her fiance had long-since thought she must be dead and married someone else. This is an astonishing first-hand account: a must-read. SOCIETY LIVE WORK WORK WORK DIE by Corey Pein (Scribe 9.99) For whats essentially a hothouse of techies, Silicon Valley in California has excellent PR. Were always hearing about these wonderful, benevolent companies, with their lavish headquarters in leafy suburbia, their games rooms, their casual clothes and their fridges full of beer. Corey Pein is a young American journalist of humorous inclinations who decided he wanted a piece of this particular pie. So he dropped everything and went to California, joining thousands of other mainly white, mainly male computer nerds who all want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Needless to say, he discovered the picture is not quite as rosy and sweet-smelling as its made out to be. His first discovery was that San Francisco has been changed utterly by the influx of nerds. Once a beautiful city full of hippies and bohemians, San Francisco is now an overpriced hell-hole geared entirely to rackety commerce. There is all-out war between the older generations and the newbie dweebs, who get drunk on public transport and have put up the price of accommodation by a factor of ten. Journalist Corey Pein uncovers life inside Silicon Valley's trendy new companies (file image) Systematically and faster than anyone expected, the city was being remade to cater to the tastes and prejudices of these callow child princes. Everywhere Pein goes he finds the same atmosphere of fear, desperation and overwhelming greed. Silicon Valley, he realises, is the new gold rush. But the people making the money are not the poor saps looking for the gold. Theyre the people selling you remarkably expensive shovels. Gradually, it dawns on Pein that these companies, and the people who work for them, are not benign pioneers of the new and shiny, but predatory capitalists of a very old-fashioned stripe. Very few of their products are actually new in any sense. All everyone is out to do is fashion a monopoly that eventually cant be challenged by anyone. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Uber: all have become too big to fail. Pein lists the extraordinary illegal scams and bits of crookery that these and other companies have carried out to reach the top. Amazon has avoided billions of dollars in taxes, has faced allegations of abuse of employment laws, and in Germany hired leather-clad thugs to police its warehouse workers. Google, as it has grown, has also shrunk, small enough to fit inside a mailbox in Bermuda, where it funnelled $14 billion in annual profits via an intricate series of transatlantic shell companies that allowed it to avoid an estimated $2 billion in taxes every year. When asked about this, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said: Its called capitalism. LIVE WORK WORK WORK DIE by Corey Pein (Scribe 9.99) As for the cab company Uber, Pein describes its general policy as break laws first, buy influence later. The list of its alleged dubious activities (which Uber deny) is staggering. Teaming up with the lobbying industry was only one aspect of Ubers expansion strategy. It also plotted skulduggery such as covertly tracking the movements of suspect journalists as well as digging up dirt on the personal lives of known critics and their family members, claims the book. Classy. Pein is a fluent writer who knows not to over-egg the jokes and sometimes let the material speak for itself. And that material, both researched and experienced, is magnificent. Without the humour, the book would be utterly depressing, for it paints a picture that would make a saint blush, although not the CEOs of these companies. Many of them are very strange men indeed. One bloke Pein met had got a job at Google, and on his first day he received a one-page document from Larry and Sergey, the two men who founded the company. All it said was What would it take to get Google inside your brain? He left soon afterwards. HISTORY THE STORY OF BRITAIN FROM THE ROMANS TO THE PRESENT by Roy Strong (W&N 30) With the mom-entous decision to leave the European Union, Sir Roy Strong justifiably thinks it a good time for everybody to be reminded of Britains magnificent history in a revised and updated edition of his acclaimed book. Combining an unsurpassed eye for detail with a visceral understanding of what it means to be British, Strong unfolds a saga of passionate intensity. If we start with the Romans, we end, in this new volume, with Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands, Tony Blair with Bush in the Middle East, and David Cameron giving us the chance to reflect on what we think about patriotism and power. The lesson I took away from Sir Roy Strongs epic digest of our islands history is that it is frankly a miracle any of us have survived down the years to tell the tale. When the time schemes are hectically compressed in this fashion, history is seen to be nothing except endless bloodthirsty cycles of politico-religious power struggles, with corpses rotting in the mud. Sir Roy Strong (pictured) recalls significant moments from Britain's history that have influenced modern life in a revised edition of his acclaimed book Strong begins in 55BC, when we were invaded by Roman legions who remained in Britain for 400 years, constructing cities and colonnaded villas. Recalled home finally to defend Italy from the Goths, the chaps in togas left Britain unprotected and devoid of any central authority. This made us prone to barbarian raiders the Anglo Saxons, Vikings and Norsemen. Everyone drank mead, recited boring poems about Beowulf and dressed in hairy animal pelts. Luckily, the Normans arrived in 1066, and people were put to more interesting work, building cathedrals and castles on inaccessible promontories. Taxation, or the compulsory grabbing of peoples private resources, was used to fund foreign wars and crusades. If ever there was a prosperous patch, however, it was never sustained. The population would boom, which led almost immediately to poverty and near-famine, when the food supply ran out, as they didnt have deep-freezers. Furthermore, as sanitation was non-existent, ditches and sewers thronged with rats, whose fleas carried the Black Death virus, which in 1349 claimed between a quarter and a third of the entire population. Crops perished as there was nobody to gather in the harvest. The Great Plague of London in 1665 was similar. Another unresolved source of dissent and death was the states envy of the wealth and power of the church. Whenever the king rejected papal authority, there would be an almighty clash as between Henry II and Thomas Becket or Henry VIII and Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. How popular is the name Mary? 25 per cent of British women in 1811 were called Mary Advertisement And so, The Story Of Britain grinds on: the Civil War in the 17th century, the execution of Charles I. Oliver Cromwell brought in a Puritan dictatorship. The Restoration was only superficially colourful. Maintaining the Empire, which burgeoned during the reign of Elizabeth I and reached a climax during the reign of Victoria when she had 400 million subjects across the globe, meant a multitude of military actions. The Crimean War was an attempt to subdue Russian expansionism. The Boer War, in South Africa, cost 300 million and 30,000 men were killed. That the Kaiser was Victorias grandson did not prevent the unprecedented carnage of the Great War, when hundreds of thousands were lost at Ypres. Sir Roys condensed account of the years 1939 to 1945 is stirring. Churchill is always good value: This was to be one of those rare moments when events and the man were to be perfectly matched. Churchill not only possessed a deep sense of the countrys history, but also had the passionate rhetorical skills to hold a people together, with his radio broadcasts and his oratory. In a sense, however, Sir Roys lurid, chronological account of kings, queens, battles, political upheaval and fragile moments of peace, is only half the story. For what interested me, and it is to be glimpsed in this book between the lines, is that, despite the chaos, civilisation and society nevertheless somehow evolved against the odds. THE STORY OF BRITAIN FROM THE ROMANS TO THE PRESENT by Roy Strong (W&N 30) In Roman days, new fruits and vegetables, breeds of cattle and the domestic cat were introduced. Later, guilds were formed for craftsmen. Records were kept on parchment scrolls. Caxton invented the printing press. Industry commenced lead, tin, coal and iron. Household goods appeared, imported from France: tablecloths, linen, cutlery. Commerce encouraged the exchange of contracts and the beginning of commercial legislation. Criminal law, too, began to be codified: every man should be tried before sentence was given, stipulated Magna Carta. The Civil Service grew to run the government departments, which bloomed as the Empire bloomed. Industry was aided by the invention of the steam pump, smelting process and, in textile manufacture, the flying shuttle. There was a national postal service, police force, newspapers, mass literacy, public libraries and museums; piped water and drainage; public hygiene and a transformation of nursing practice for which we have to thank Florence Nightingale. Surely wed reached a point when wed never had it so good? So why, in 2018, to bring Sir Roys study bang up to date, do more than a third of our marriages fail? Why is everyone on anti-depressants and in a state of anxiety? Why are so many people unhappy? If the story of Britain, as given here, is any clue, we thrive best when overcoming adversity. Too tranquil and we grow slack and bored, destroying ourselves from within, inventing things to worry about and growing to wildness. No one should be permitted to leave school until they have first read Sir Roys rich, thought-provoking and indispensable book. Thousands of homeowners stuck on high mortgage rates may be offered a lifeline as banks and building societies this week committed to helping them switch to something more affordable. Up to 10,000 homeowners could finally be able to switch to a cheaper deal thanks to the move. Before the financial crisis, it was much easier to get a mortgage and many people took one out that they would never be approved for today. In 2014, new stricter lending rules were introduced so that homeowners didn't risk overstretching themselves. 93 per cent of the UK's residential mortgage market have agreed to help eligible borrowers But the stricter criteria meant that some existing homeowners could not pass the eligibility tests of lenders, which meant that when their deals came to an end they were simply rolled over on to their existing lender's standard variable rate, which tends to be much more expensive. This week, trade body UK Finance confirmed that 59 lenders representing 93 per cent of the UK's residential mortgage market have agreed a list of common standards to help these borrowers. To qualify, customers will need to be existing borrowers of an active lender, be up to date with payments, have a minimum remaining term of two years, and have a minimum outstanding loan amount of 10,000. However, this won't help the estimated 20,000 homeowners that the City watchdog has identified as being with lenders that are no longer active in the market, and the 120,000 customers with unregulated mortgage lenders. Jackie Bennett, director of mortgages at UK Finance, said: 'Lenders have responded to the FCA's challenge and made a voluntary commitment to help these longstanding borrowers, offering them the ability to switch to an alternative product if they meet the agreed criteria. 'We expect more lenders to participate in the coming months. Furthermore, we will be working closely with the FCA and active lenders to see what might be possible for customers of inactive and unregulated lenders. 'Participating lenders will be contacting qualifying homeowners so for now, customers don't need to do anything but wait to hear from their mortgage provider.' At the watchdog's request, lenders will write to any qualifying borrowers by the end of the year to inform them of their options. Customers do not need to take any action and will not be obliged to switch if they don't want to. Paul Broadhead, of the Building Societies Association, said: 'By signing up to this voluntary agreement lenders will ensure that existing borrowers are not disadvantaged by the changes to mortgage regulation since the financial crisis. 'The agreement formalises the actions that many societies have been taking and provides clarity and confidence for all affected borrowers.' Homeowners will need to be existing borrowers of an active lender to be eligible for help The commitment is focused on customers with active lenders initially, with a view to next explore what might be possible for the 20,000 customers with inactive lenders and the 120,000 customers with unregulated mortgage owners. However, Rate Switch founder Lee Flavin believes more can already be done to help the homeowners with inactive lenders. He said: 'Like active lenders, some of the companies who now administer closed "inactive" mortgage books set their own standard variable rates - so they surely have the ability to reduce these for mortgage prisoners.' Which lenders didn't sign up, and why? Some customers, who would otherwise be eligible, won't qualify as their lender has not yet signed up to the agreement. UK Finance declined to provide a comprehensive list of which lenders hadn't signed up. A spokesman for the trade body said: 'The industry has only had a short time to consider this agreement. 'We expect more lenders to sign up to the agreement over the coming weeks and months and will be updating the list with further lenders as they join.' There are however some notable absentees on the list published this week. Customers of TSB Bank are not eligible, as the lender has not signed up - the only top 10 lender not to do so. The crisis hit bank said it was working with UK Finance and planned to join the initiative in the coming weeks. Another absentee was Precise mortgages, which boasts nearly two billion in lending across the UK. A spokesman said: 'In common with other lenders, we are evaluating whether it would be appropriate for us to subscribe to this agreement over the coming months.' The other notable lender not yet to sign up to the scheme is challenger bank Aldermore, which said: Aldermore is fully supportive of helping borrowers stuck on reversion rates in any way we can and welcome UK Finances call to action for the industry. 'We are currently reviewing our practices to best deliver on UK Finances criteria and will seek to outline support in the next few weeks.' Journalists covering the European Union have complained that Belgium is breaching media freedom after being told they will have to pay 50 euros ($58) to cover the next summit of EU leaders. They were joined in their protests on Wednesday by the EU executive which, like the European Council which runs summits, urged their Belgian government hosts to reconsider a new law that makes people pay to be vetted by its security services. Introduced on June 1, it came to journalists' attention on Tuesday when the Council issued a routine invitation to accredit for coverage of the next quarterly summit in October. Journalists have complained that Belgium is breaching media freedom after being told they will have to pay 50 euros to cover the next summit of EU leaders. File photo For the first time, it said that those based in Belgium must pay the Belgian authorities for their compulsory security screening. The Belgian journalists association AGJPB said close to 1,000 journalists would be affected and called it a breach of media freedom. It highlighted the plight of freelancers who did not have employers to pick up the bill and also noted the anomaly that those coming from abroad would not pay as their security screening is handled by other national governments. The fee came to journalists' attention on Tuesday when the Council issued a routine invitation to accredit for coverage of the next quarterly summit in October. A file photo shows Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis talks with the media The European Journalists Federation called for an exemption. Journalists accredited to the EU institutions have free access to the headquarters of the Council and Commission in Brussels but special security for summits means journalists and other visitors need additional six-monthly vetting to attend. A spokesman at the Belgian Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment. Three Ukrainians have been arrested on criminal hacking charges including stealing payment card numbers, in attacks on more than 100 U.S. companies that cost businesses tens of millions of dollars, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. US prosecutors alleged that the three Ukrainians, who were arrested in Europe between January and June, are members of FIN7, a notorious cyber crime gang. Victims include the Chipotle Mexican Grill, Emerald Queen Hotel and Casino in Washington state, Jason's Deli, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Sonic Drive-in and Taco John's, according to the Justice Department. The Emerald Queen stopped the attack and no customer data was stolen, prosecutors said in a press release. One of the three defendants, Fedir Hladyr, 33, has been transferred to Seattle from Dresden, Germany, where he was arrested. Authorities said they are seeking the extradition of the other two: Dmytro Fedorov, 44, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30 (stock) FIN7 has previously been linked to breaches of Trump Hotels, Whole Foods, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, according to cyber security firm Trend Micro. One of the three defendants, Fedir Hladyr, 33, has been transferred to Seattle from Dresden, Germany, where he was arrested. Authorities said they are seeking the extradition of the other two: Dmytro Fedorov, 44, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30. Hladyr has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing, according to his attorney, Arkady Bukh. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Emerald Queen Hotel and Casino, Jason's Deli, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Sonic Drive-in and Taco John's have been named as victims 'There is no clear decision at this time whether (we) will go to trial or will consider a plea,' Bukh said via email. Reuters could not reach lawyers for the other two. The three stole and sold payment card numbers and other data belonging to U.S. citizens and businesses, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement. FIN7 sent 'phishing' emails to companies, sometimes following up with phone calls urging employees to open tainted attachments, the indictments said. Ukrainian officials could not be reached for comment. FIN7, also widely known as Carbanak, employs dozens of individuals who handle highly specialized tasks such as breaking into networks, stealing payment card numbers and selling stolen data on underground criminal forums, said Adrian Nish, head of threat intelligence with BAE Systems. The three stole and sold payment card numbers and other data belonging to U.S. citizens and businesses, it is claimed The defendants used a front company named 'Combi Security' that claims to have offices in Moscow, Haifa and Odessa, to launch some intrusions, according to court documents. Combi Security's website describes it as an expert 'in the field of comprehensive protection of large information systems from modern cyber threats.' Cybersecurity firm FireEye said it found job advertisements for Combi Security posted to several different Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek job recruitment websites. FIN7 stole more than 15 million customer card records from U.S. businesses and also targeted companies in Australia, France and the United Kingdom, according to U.S. prosecutors. Fernando Magaz Negrete, 32, has been accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl staying at the Southwest Key migrant center A worker at a center for migrant children in Arizona that was visited by the First Lady amid the border separation crisis has been accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl staying there. Fernando Magaz Negrete kissed and fondled the girl in her bedroom at the Southwest Key facility on June 27 in an encounter witnessed by the girl's 16-year-old roommate, police said. They said surveillance video shows Magaz Negrete, 32, approaching the bedroom several times throughout the night, though the bedroom itself was outside the camera's view. It is not known if the girl was one of the thousands who were recently separated from her family on the border or not. Southwest Key looks after some of those children. The center called police after another child reported witnessing the alleged attacks. 'When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate,' Southwest Key spokesman Jeff Eller said. 'That's what happened in this case. 'Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted.' The nonprofit said it has fired Magaz Negrete. The facility where the alleged abuse occurred was visited on June 28 by first lady Melania Trump, who met with people directly affected by her husband's hard-line immigration policies. Negrete is filmed on surveillance footage allegedly making his way into the girl's room on June 27 On June 28, First Lady Melania Trump visited the center to discuss the separation of children from their families on the border Her visit was a day after the alleged attack. Shelters that house immigrant children have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration introduced a 'zero tolerance' policy toward illegal entries that has led to the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The news website ProPublica published a report in late July saying police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offenses at shelters that primarily serve immigrant children since 2014. The ProPublica report detailed a 2015 incident at a Tucson, Arizona, shelter operated by Southwest Key in which authorities said an employee touched a 15-year-old Honduran boy's penis from outside his clothing. The worker was fired and later convicted of molestation. Magaz Negrete was booked Tuesday on suspicion of child molestation, sexual abuse and aggravated assault. Efforts to find an attorney for Magaz Negrete through court records and from a court official were unsuccessful. Magaz Negrete made a brief court appearance Tuesday night, asking the court commissioner who presided over the bond hearing, 'Who is bringing up these charges?' Court Commissioner Tracy Nadzieja responded that Magaz Negrete's court-appointed attorney will explain the allegations against him at some point in the future. Magaz Negrete, whose bond was set at $150,000, remained in jail on Wednesday. Maths wiz Professor Akshay Venkatesh has become only the second Australian to be awarded the world's most prestigious mathematical award, the Fields Medal. The 36-year-old, who grew up in Perth and specialises in pure mathematics and number theory, was among four mathematicians from around the world to be awarded this year's medal, which is often described as the Nobel Prize of the field. Prof Venkatesh, who works at Stanford University in the US, received the medal overnight during an awards ceremony at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro. Scroll down for video Maths whizz Professor Akshay Venkatesh (left) has become only the second Australian to ever be awarded the world's most prestigious mathematical award, the Fields Medal Prof Venkatesh told The West Australian that he felt privileged to make a life from working on mathematical equations. 'A lot of the time when you do math, youre stuck, but at the same time there are all these moments where you feel privileged that you get to work with it,' he said. 'And you have got this sensation of transcendence, you feel like youve been part of something really meaningful.' After winning prestigious international maths prizes as a schoolboy, he began a science degree at the University of Western Australia when he was just 13 years old. After winning prestigious international maths prizes as a schoolboy, he began a science degree at the University of Western Australia when he was just 13 years old Three years later he became one of the university's youngest graduates after completing his degree, with first class honours, 12 months earlier than expected. His mother Svetha Venkatesh, a professor of computer science at Deakin University in Victoria, says her son was always a 'normal, happy child growing up in a normal family' who was good at maths but also loved sport, music and reading. 'I am thrilled he has got this award, it's the pinnacle of what he can achieve in this field,' she told ABC radio. The Fields Medal is only awarded once every four years to between two and four researchers under the age of 40 in recognition of their mathematical achievement 'And I'm actually very proud of the person he is.' Professor Venkatesh won a Hackett Scholarship from UWA to undertake a PhD at Princeton in 2002. He is currently working as a professor of mathematics at Stanford, and plans to return to Princeton University this year. A professor of mathematics at the University of Western Australia and a childhood friend and peer of Prof Venkatesh said trying to explain what his friend is capable of is no easy feat. Three years later Prof Venkatesh (centre) became one of the university's youngest graduates after completing his degree, with first class honours, 12 months earlier than expected Mr Venkatesh is currently working as a professor of mathematics at America's Stanford University, and plans to return to Princeton University this year 'If it was easy for me to explain it to you, he wouldn't have won the Fields,' he told ABC News. The Fields Medal is only awarded once every four years to between two and four researchers under the age of 40 in recognition of their mathematical achievement. Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute director Professor Geoff Prince said Professor Venkatesh was a worthy recipient of the award given his contribution to improving mathematicians' understanding of analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, and representation theory. 'Akshay is an exciting and innovative leader in his field whose work will continue to have wide-ranging implications for mathematics,' Prof Prince said. The only other Australian to have been awarded the Fields Medal was Professor Terrence Tao in 2006. Staff members of the Australian Border Force (ABF) will be required to cover their tattoos under new proposed policy, even if they're working in extreme heat or at sea. In a memo to staff, the ABF announced that all officers on duty with tattoos will have to wear long-sleeve shirts to cover their tattoos, regardless of weather conditions. Staff have until next week to comply with the change, and order their new uniforms. But the Community and Public Sector Union have attacked the proposal, telling The Australian it is 'frankly ridiculous'. Australian Border Force staff will be forced to wear long-sleeve uniforms to cover arm tattoos in a new policy change Members of the ABF frequently work in 40-degree temperatures, raising concerns that mandatory long sleeves could increase their risk of heat stroke Lisa Newman, the deputy president for the union, says that members feel 'extremely disrespected' at the prospect of having to remove or cover their tattoos. For a lot of the staff, this includes tattoos of their daughters' names and religious symbols like crucifixes. There are concerns that wearing long-sleeve shirts in scorching temperatures could increase the risk of heat stroke for ABF staff. Ms Newman also said that the policy is more extreme than any implemented by other government agencies like the Australian Federal Police. Under the AFP's uniform and presentation guidelines, staff are allowed to have visible tattoos as long as they aren't deemed 'offensive'. This excludes facial tattoos, which are only allowed if the owner can prove they have them for religious beliefs, the same policy that the Border Force currently employs. No exemptions will be made for staff (pictured) who work at sea, only those who have tattoos for religious beliefs The current policy allows visible tattoos, as long as they aren't deemed offensive (stock image) An ABF spokesman confirmed the proposed policy change to Daily Mail Australia, saying: 'To ensure a consistent law enforcement approach across the Home Affairs Portfolio, the ABF is currently consulting staff on an update to its tattoo policy. Under the proposed policy, tattoos would have to be covered when officers are in uniform. If a uniformed ABF officer is unable to comply with this requirement for religious, cultural or medical reasons, they can seek an exemption. All staff are being given an opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed tattoo policy.' Four men, including three teenagers, have rammed a police car with a stolen car in a desperate attempt to escape arrest after an alleged armed robbery spree. The dramatic incident unfolded in Alexandria, in Sydney's inner-south, shortly after 5.30pm Wednesday, with a resident videoing the ordeal from her window above. Shocking footage showed a black Mercedes cornered in a lane way by three unmarked police vehicles, before reversing and slamming into one's bonnet, Nine News reported. Four men, including three teenagers, have rammed a police car with a stolen car in a desperate attempt to escape arrest after an alleged armed robbery spree Police could be heard yelling 'get out of the car, get out of the f***ing car,' as one officer pounced on a man who tried to flee on foot. Another two men were wrestled from inside the vehicle, with an officer seen drawing his gun before both were pulled to the pavement and handcuffed. Two alleged offenders appeared to be punched in the head before having their handcuffs put on. 'They beat them all up, oh my god, I watched them beat them all up,' the woman said. A female officer inside the vehicle allegedly rammed by the Mercedes was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with a minor laceration to her head. The dramatic incident unfolded in Alexandria, in Sydney's inner-south, shortly after 5.30pm Wednesday, with a resident videoing the ordeal from her window above A Dog Unit vehicle was also hit and a male officer was treated by paramedics at the scene after he sustained lacerations to his arms and legs. Two 16-year-olds, a 17-year-old and a 22-year-old were arrested at the scene, after a string of alleged offences, including an attack on a man in the CBD with a sword. One 16-year-old was charged with armed robbery, take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, resist officer in execution of duty, and breach of bail. The second was charged with armed robbery, take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, resist officer in execution of duty, and aggravated break, enter and steal. Shocking footage showed a black Mercedes cornered in a lane way by three unmarked police vehicles, before reversing and slamming into one's bonnet The 17-year-old boy was charged with take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, and two counts of aggravated break, enter and steal. All were refused bail to appear at a Children's Court Thursday. The 22-year-old was charged with armed robbery with offensive weapon, use offensive weapon in company to prevent detention, take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, drive manner dangerous, never licensed person drive vehicle on road, resist officer in execution of duty, and possess prohibited drug. He too was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court Thursday. Twelve experienced advisers have quit the office of Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash amid claims her staff work up to 17 hours a day. Ms Cash has defended her office as being 'dedicated and hardworking' despite the high level of staff turnover. A dozen media and policy advisers have left Ms Cash's office since late 2017. It is well known among Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's staff that advisers working for Ms Cash often start the day at 6am and continue until 10 or 11pm, the Daily Telegraph reported. Twelve experienced staff members have quit the office of Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash as it is claimed her staff work up to 17 hours a day Ms Cash's senior media adviser David De Garis resigned in October 2017 after admitting tipping off media to Australian Federal Police raids at the Australian Workers Union headquarters. Mr De Garis had just started his role replacing Graham Mason, who resigned from Ms Cash's office only several months after agreeing to work for the Senator. Assistant media adviser Andrew Hudgson and new senior media adviser Rachelle Miller have also left her office. Ms Miller was counselled after she was unable to travel interstate for work because she had to look after her daughter. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's office became involved in dealing with the issue. A spokeswoman for Ms Cash said she has a 'dedicated and hardworking team'. 'Staff in political offices, of all persuasions, work incredibly hard. The Minister makes it a priority to ensure her staff have the best possible work-life balance.' Ms Cash has defended her office as being 'dedicated and hardworking' despite the high level of staff turnover A former staff member who declined to be named said Ms Cash's work ethic was 'an inspiration'. 'I never experienced her treating other staff with anything less than the utmost respect and courtesy.' Ms Cash is holding out against calls for her to quit after police investigations into the AWU raids were referred to the commonwealth prosecutor. The Australia Federal Police are under understood to have confirmed to the union it will have material with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in the next two weeks. Two men have been arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 600kg of cocaine into Australia with an estimated street value of more than $210million. The men, aged 36 and 53, were arrested off the coast of Byron Bay, after the boat they were travelling on was ambushed by police. The bust was the result of a collaboration between police and border patrol services, including Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (QJOCTF) and Maritime Border Command (MBC). Police retrieved the items from the sea, which was identified as containing more than 600 kilograms of cocaine The items containing cocaine were allegedly dumped into the ocean by two men who were attempting to smuggle them into Australia Police will allege that the men attempted to smuggle the huge haul of cocaine - concealed in black packages - before later trying to dispose of it into the ocean in order to avoid being caught. According to police, the men were first observed heading towards the mainland aboard a small vessel, which was being closely monitored by surveillance agents. As police officers approached the small boat, it's alleged the duo then discarded several black packages into the sea before attempting to make a speedy getaway. Police proceeded to chase the vehicle after the packages were retrieved from the ocean floor and it was discovered they contained 600 kilograms of cocaine. After air surveillance successfully pinpointed the duo's exact location, approximately 40 nautical miles east of Byron bay, the men were then arrested by Queensland police. In an statement released by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, Australian Federal Police Superintendent Andrew Donoghoe said officers were able to successfully stop the men from importing the drugs thanks to the collaborative efforts of police and border patrol services. Police charged the men after discovering the illicit substance, which the duo allegedly dumped into the sea The cocaine was discovered by the crew of Australian Defence Vessel Cape Fourcroy ADV Cape Fourcroy initially tried to approach the small craft before the two men discarded a number of items into the sea 'Not only was the syndicate involved in this operation up against the Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, they were also facing resources from Maritime Border Command and our international partners,' DS Donoghoe said. 'That we have stopped such a large amount of cocaine from hitting the streets of Australia is a testament to the combined efforts of all agencies involved.' Commander Maritime Border Command, Rear Admiral Peter Laver said illegal drugs are a national problem in Australia. But he added, the Australian Border Force is constantly monitoring for criminal activity. A police pursuit of the small vessel was initiated after crew of the ADV Cape Fourcroy retrieved the items from the sea The arrest of the two men was the result of a combined effort of Queensland Joint Organised Crime Taskforce (QJOCTF) and Maritime Border Command (MBC) 'Australias waters are vast, and we deploy a highly capable suite of ABF and Defence maritime surveillance and response assets at our disposal to detect and intercept illicit imports in collaboration with International, Federal and State Law enforcement and intelligence agencies,' he said. 'Our significant on-water presence has once again seen a large-scale importation of drugs thwarted, keeping hundreds of kilos of cocaine off Australian streets.' Australian Defence Force Acting Chief of Joint Operations Major General Greg Bilton added the seizure of the drugs and subsequent arrests was a 'great outcome for Australia'. The small boat was intercepted and the men arrested approximately 40 nautical miles east of Byron bay The two men were arrested by Queensland Police and have been charged with the possession of an illicit substance The men have been since been charged with possession of a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, and if found guilty, they could be sentenced to a maximum of life imprisonment. Investigations are still underway and additional arrests may occur. The men were expected to appear in Southport Magistrates Court on August 1, 2018. A gang kingpin (stock image) has been jailed for raping a prospect's girlfriend and telling her she was 'Black Power property' A gang kingpin has been jailed for raping a prospect's girlfriend and telling her she was 'Black Power property'. Dennis Craig Weston will spend nine-and-a-half years behind bars for raping and indecently assaulting the mother-of-four. The 57-year-old is the president of the Stratford chapter of New Zealand gang Black Power. The victim, whose partner was a gang prospect, was attacked by Weston on May 23, 2016 after they both travelled to a house together, Stuff reported. The court heard Weston then grabbed the woman by the throat and dragged her to a bedroom where he groped and raped her, telling her she was his 'dirty little secret'. Dennis Craig Weston (stock image of Black Power gang) will spend nine-and-a-half years behind bars for raping and indecently assaulting mother-of-four in May 2016 in New Zealand The court previously heard the Black Power president lured the woman to the house by offering her a place to stay. Weston was acquitted of an abduction charge. New Plymouth District Court heard the gang boss denied the allegations and showed no remorse for his actions. A relative of the 57-year-old was also found guilty after they breached a court suppression order when they published the rape victim's name online the day Weston was found guilty. Visas are being granted to men who took girls as young as 15 abroad and forced them to marry, it was reported last night. Figures revealed 88 women in forced marriages appealed to block visa applications last year, but almost half were still accepted by the Home Office. Last night ministers were accused of ignoring the problem, amid claims the department was afraid of being labelled racist. The Home Office was approached by 88 women in forced marriages last year seeking to block their husband's visa applications It is believed most teenagers who are forced into such marriages are taken to South Asia, where they are raped as families think having children will make it easier for the husband to obtain a visa. Some of the men have also been accused of beating their wives and making them live like slaves after they were allowed to settle in Britain. Freedom of Information requests made by The Times found 42 visas had been issued to men whose case had been flagged to the department either by a wife or an official. However, experts warn the number of victims may be far higher than recorded as wives are too scared to sign the public statement to block their spouse from getting a visa. Charity Karma Nirvana told the paper it receives almost 13,000 phone calls each year about forced marriage. Founder Jasvinder Sangehera accused officials of turning a blind eye to the issue and said they are less likely to act when they see tradition, culture or religion. Last night, a Welsh woman described being dressed up like a doll and taken to Bangladesh, where her uncle had started a bidding war for her hand in marriage. Rubie Marie was 15 when she was married to a 30-year-old man, but her family said she was 16 on visa forms. She told The Times: If you have a red passport you are worth a lot. Rubie, who now works as a model, said she initially took the contraceptive pill at the start of her marriage, but soon became pregnant after her husbands family found the medication. Yvette Cooper, pictured, told a home affairs select committee that the Home Office was failing girls being subjected to forced marriage She ran away after she gave birth to her first child and contacted the British High Commission in Bangladesh about her husband. Despite initially struggling to get a visa, he tracked her down after getting a UK work permit in 2011. He was later deported. Even though her ordeal ended six years ago, Rubie says the same things are happening to young girls. She said: Young girls are married off and then trapped because its too easy for the man to come over. The revelations came after Yvette Cooper yesterday told a home affairs select committee: Despite being warned to do more to help victims of forced marriage, it looks as though the Home Office has failed and put victims at risk. Forced marriage was made illegal in 2014, and those convicted of the crime can spend up to seven years in prison. Those who fear they could be at risk of being coerced into marriage can also apply for a forced marriage protection order. The government advise victims or those at risk to contact the Forced Marriage Unit or call 999 in an emergency. A Home Office spokesman said: There are a number of reasons why cases are referred to the Forced Marriage Unit, not all of which are the result of a reluctant sponsor getting in contact. In some cases it will be decided, following inquiries, that no further action is necessary and a visa will be issued. If an individual refuses to act as the sponsor for a visa application then under the immigration rules, that visa should not be issued. The Government is considering a tax on e-cigarettes as a way of funding the extra 20 billion promised to the NHS by the Treasury. Sources in Whitehall have said there will be an increase in 'sin taxes' in the next Budget when it is announced this autumn. A five per cent tax on the UK's three million vapers could bring in about 40 million. People who use e-cigarettes are thought to spend about 275 a year on average to pay for their habit 'Vapers are likely to be hit as they are not taxed at all,' a source told The Sun. People who use e-cigarettes are thought to spend about 275 a year on average to pay for their habit. The tax would add 13.75 to their spend. According to the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), the arrival of e-cigarettes on the British market preceded a sharp decline in smoking. The number of smokers in the country declined from 20.4 per cent in 2012 to 15.8 per cent in 2016. By 2016, the think tank reports, two million vapers had given up smoking. According to the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), the arrival of e-cigarettes on the British market preceded a sharp decline in smoking Supporters of the technology claim it is 95 per cent less damaging than smoking cigarettes. The IEA claims that the nine million smokers in Britain pay 9.5 million a year in duties on cigarettes. They also supposedly save the taxpayer 9.8 billion in benefit payments because they tend to die earlier than non-smokers. A romantic sketch left on a flight has sparked a worldwide search for the mystery couple pictured in the drawing. A realistic drawing of a man and a woman together was found on an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Nelson on July 2. The sketch was posted to the airline's Facebook page, asking people to identify the mystery subjects. A sketch of a man and a woman together was found on an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Nelson on July 2 The sketch was posted to the airline's Facebook page, asking people to identify the mystery subjects Alan Gare commented on the post after his wife Alice tagged in him in the comments section 'Once upon a time there was a couple actually, that's all we know about these two,' the post read. 'We need your help to finish this fairy tale. If these two look familiar, please [message] us.' It didn't take long for the couple at the centre of the sketch to come forward. Alan Gare commented on the post after his wife Alice tagged in him in the comments section. 'So happy, I thought it was gone forever,' Mrs Gare posted. '[It] was a gift from good friends of ours all the way from Bali.' Mrs Gare told Stuff the drawing was a gift from her bridesmaid Amy Moore, and was drawn from a photograph of the couple's wedding in April Mrs Gare told Stuff the drawing was a gift from her bridesmaid Amy Moore, and was drawn from a photograph of the couple's wedding in April. 'I couldn't work out where I had left it, I kind of panicked afterwards and tried to retrace my steps but it hadn't occurred to me it was on the plane. 'It's amazing when you see the power of social media. It was pretty out there.' Samantha Fraser's former husband has been charged with her murder just hours after police released chilling CCTV footage of a hooded man detectives are 'very confident' killed the mother-of-three. Investigators had been hunting Ms Fraser's killer after the 38-year-old's body was discovered in her garage on Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, last Monday. Her 41-year-old ex-husband Adrian Basham, who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning. Two hours earlier, police released CCTV footage showing a man lurking outside Ms Fraser's home and walking along her street between 9am and 12.02pm on the day of her alleged murder. Ms Fraser arrived home at about 11.30am, police said. The man was seen in the footage running away from her property at around midday. Police said they were investigating the possibility the hooded man was Basham. Scroll down for video CCTV footage shows a hooded man lurking outside the home where mother-of-three Samantha Fraser was found dead 'It's one of the hypotheses we are looking at. [But] we don't know who that man is and that's why we're appealing to the public,' Detective Inspector Tim Day said in an earlier statement, adding he was as 'very confident' the man in the footage killed Ms Fraser. The suspect was wearing a black hoodie with a distinctive dark blue band on the midriff and arms, dark pants and dark shoes. Detectives also released footage of a motorcycle seen in the area and are looking at the possibility the suspect used it as a getaway vehicle. Insp Day urged anyone who may have information about the identity of the man, the clothing or the motorcycle to come forward. 'At this stage we can't account for that man being in the street and are looking to find out who he is and why he was there,' he said. 'This sighting is of vital importance to this investigation. Police said they were investigating the possibility the man in the CCTV footage was Basham (pictured) Det Insp Day urged anyone who may have information about the identity of the man, the clothing or the motorcycle to come forward 'Detectives are also looking at whether he possibly bought the hoodie in the days or weeks before going to the property, which is why we're asking anyone who might recall selling a hoodie fitting this description to contact us. 'Any piece of information could be crucial in solving this murder.' Insp Day described Ms Fraser's death as a 'crime that strikes the heart of our own humanity'. 'How does society reconcile the slaying of an innocent young mother in her family home, thus leaving her children abandoned at the gate of their local school, never to see their mother again?' he said. 'This sighting is of vital importance to this investigation,' police said of the CCTV footage. Ms Fraser is pictured Detectives also released CCTV of a motorcycle seen in the area and are looking at the possibility the rider may be the same man captured lurking on Ms Fraser's street Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide. Authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon. A welfare check was conducted at her home on Seagrove Way, Cowes, where police found her dead. Her death came as a shock to the local community, who were notified of the police investigation four days after her body was found. A welfare check was conducted at her home on Seagrove Way, Cowes, where police found her dead in her garage (pictured) Ms Fraser has been described by friends, family and colleagues as a 'beautiful woman'. 'She was incredibly kind, nurturing and talented. Sam was articulate and passionate about everything she did,' a friend told the Herald Sun. Her father Trevor Fraser thanked hundreds of mourners who paid their respects at a vigil held in Cowes last week. 'There's really not much we can say at a time like this, [I'm] too emotional to have too much to say,' Mr Fraser said. 'She truly was a remarkable woman, a remarkable mother and a remarkable daughter. Thank you for standing up for Samantha.' Police were alerted when Ms Fraser (pictured) didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon The deputy mayor of an inner Sydney council is advocating for all those who run for local government to complete IQ tests, a psychiatric assessment, and a six-month education course. Julie Passas from Inner West Council thinks that those running for local government are wasting time getting caught up with state and federal political issues. 'Before you stand for local government you should have an IQ test and a psychiatric test before you stand and I think you should have to go to a six-month course on what local government is about,' she told The Daily Telegraph. The deputy mayor of an inner Sydney council is advocating for all those who run for local government to complete IQ tests, a psychiatric assessment, and a six month education course Julie Passas from Inner West Council thinks councillors should take IQ tests 'It's very easy to jump on the bandwagon for a popular issue at the time but the council isn't about that, it's about looking after everyone in the area and being accountable and responsible with ratepayers' money,' she said. Cr Passas recently voted against using $100,000 of taxpayer funds to establish the first 'Pride Centre' in NSW intended to be a community facility for LGBTIQ people. She unsuccessfully argued the centre was not needed as there are already community centres available for everyone to use. Mayor for Inner West Darcy Byrne said the centre was a social issue strongly supported in the community although he agreed politics at local government level should be less partisan. 'Local Government should be less partisan than state and federal politics and as Mayor I try to work with all elected representatives to get things done.' Rachel Reeves, the committees Labour chairman, said the biggest gender pay gaps were obscene and entirely unacceptable Controversial gender pay audits should be extended to all firms with more than 50 staff, MPs will say today. New laws forced all organisations with at least 250 staff to report on their pay structures this year. But the Commons business committee today urges ministers to go further saying the audit revealed obscene gaps of more than 40 per cent at some organisations. It said almost four out of five large firms have gender pay gaps in favour of men. Rachel Reeves, the committees Labour chairman, said the biggest gender pay gaps were obscene and entirely unacceptable. She said transparency about pay should be extended to smaller firms, and further action to close the gap was needed. The gender pay gap must be closed, not only in the interests of fairness and promoting diversity ... but also to improve the countrys economic performance and end a monstrous injustice, she will say. But critics have warned the audit is meaningless, as it takes no account of the fact men and women may be doing different jobs and said extending it would place an unfair financial burden for small firms. Ryanair, which reported a 72 per cent pay gap, said the differential was explained in part by the fact it employs few female pilots but many female cabin crew. Kate Andrews, of the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, said extending the audits will not help women. She described the committees report as an exercise in virtue-signalling that could even damage the job prospects of women starting out in their careers. Rather than making comparisons with like-for-like roles, the [audits] instead measure pay across organisations altogether, irrespective of different roles, age, or hours worked, she said Extending these requirements will result in more bogus statistics. This proposal will also create extra cost for small companies which do not have the resources or the capacity to deal with yet another bureaucratic burden. Todays report also calls for firms to publish annual progress reports, including action plans for tackling any wage gaps. The Government Equalities Office said it was publishing new guidance for companies to help them improve the recruitment and progression of women and close their gender pay gap. MPs said only half of the UKs workforce is expected to be covered by the present reporting requirements. The report concludes: The new reporting regime is a step forward, but its full potential has not yet been realised. We are calling for the Government to be more ambitious. Angry drivers played the bagpipes in Insulate Britain activists' faces and threatened to run them over today while others threw ink at them and confronted police as the eco mob returned to London's roads in rush hour. The campaigners split their action across two sides of the capital today, with one group sitting on the A40 in North Acton, West London, and others blocking a major roundabout next to the Dartford Crossing on the M25 in Kent. Some 17 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London, while Kent Police arrested 32. The demonstrations lasted about two hours - having both began at about 8am. The A40 was reopened by 10am, while one lane in Dartford was open by 10.30am. The protesters have brought chaos to motorways and A roads in the capital since mid-September with 146 people taking part in the campaign and 739 arrests made so far - but no one has yet been charged. The activists were effectively banned from all major roads in England on Monday after a landmark High Court ruling. In Dartford this morning, police held some of the drivers back and warned they could be arrested for assault if they touched the activists. One irate motorist was heard on Sky News telling an officer: 'I'll get the lorry down here and I'll run over them, I promise you, just saying. Drag them out the f***ing way mate, will you?' Meanwhile another driver got out a set of bagpipes and played them in the faces of protesters until police stopped him. A farmer has shared devastating photos of her bloodied, disfigured and dying ewe after a crow pecked her eye out as she lay starving in a dry field. Kellie Madden bitterly farewelled the driest July the state has endured in 16 years, as she struggles to feed the animals on her Woolbrook farm, in New South Wales. Scroll down for video Kellie Madden shared devastating photos of her bloodied, disfigured and dying ewe Madden said 'those bastard crows' pecked the ewe's eye out as she lay starving in a dry field on Tuesday 'I usually try to focus on the positive but it's hard to find any lately except for all of the amazing people out there who are fighting this bloody drought,' she wrote on Facebook. 'I'm sick. Sick with the flu, sick of all of this. I don't want to drive around the paddocks today, yesterday was hard, every day is hard. 'I'm off work because of the wretched flu, wish I could take a day off from this. 'Our ewes are lambing, poor girls, most are so weak once they are down they can't get up.' Ms Madden and her husband, Trevor Watson, are feeding their animals everything they can afford, but are crushed because nothing seems to help. On Tuesday, Ms Madden went to check up on her ewe which had just given birth and was shocked to find 'those bastard crows' had attacked two sheep. She rushed them to hospital where, 'one came good, the other had been down for a while, crows got part of leg as well as an eye.' Ms Madden was overcome with guilt as she couldn't bring herself to put the 'poor girl out of her misery', and waited instead for her husband to put the ewe down. 'Damn this bloody drought,' she concluded. Mrs Madden was overcome with guilt as she couldn't bring herself to put the 'poor girl out of her misery' The NSW Government announced a $500million emergency drought relief package on Tuesday as 99 per cent of the state suffers through the drought. A day after the announcement, animal rights group PETA said farmers are to blame for the premature slaughter of livestock as Australia suffers one of the worst droughts on record. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals published a provocative article accusing farmers of being greedy, despite rainfall being non-existent across the country. 'From the farmers' perspective, the problem is not that they have to kill animals since they were going to do that anyway but that they're not getting paid to do so,' their article titled, 'If You Can't Feed Them, Don't Breed Them' said. 'Each year, around 15 million newborn lambs die in Australia, mostly because of exposure to cold weather,' it said. 'Those who survive will likely be mulesed, ear-tagged, and castrated, all without pain relief, and will be repeatedly traumatised during shearing.' Busybody residents who called for an investigation into a noisy childcare centre have been put in their place. Fewer than 40 Queensland residents signed a petition over the noise coming from a daycare centre in Brisbane's north. Brisbane City Council members examined the petition, and found that the noise of the children playing had been investigated previously and was not deemed an environmental nuisance. Busybody residents who called for an investigation into a noisy childcare centre (stock image) have been put in their place Council committee chairman Peter Matic said there was nothing they could do to resolve the complaint because the noise was not breaking any laws, according to Brisbane Times. 'You can't regulate children playing,' councillor Matic said. A recommendation from the Brisbane City Plan 2014 outlined children's 'voices and playing' did meet legal provisions. The petition said there had been previous noise complaints about the childcare centre last year but an investigation decided the noise over a nine-day period was not deemed unlawful. Residents can however report 'leaf blowers' being used at the centre to the council. The childcare centre operates Monday to Friday from 6.30am to 6.30pm. Advertisement British tourists heading to Spain and Portugal this week are set to fry in unprecedented red-hot conditions, the Met Office has warned. Temperatures across the Iberian Peninsula could break the European continental record of 47.8C (118F) in the coming days. Although the highest temperatures will be inland, the coastal resorts where hundreds of thousands of Britons will be sunbathing are forecast to be seriously hot. The heatwave could have serious health implications for British holidaymakers, who have a reputation for staying out too long in the midday sun. Although the highest temperatures will be inland, the coastal resorts where hundreds of thousands of Britons will be sunbathing are forecast to be seriously hot. Pictured: Barcelona on Wednesday The heatwave could have serious health implications for British holidaymakers, who have a reputation for staying out too long in the midday sun. Pictured: Fun on the beach in Barcelona Children play with a ball while cooling off in a fountain during a hot summer day, in Pamplona, northern Spain, on Wednesday People fill bottles with water at the Barcaccia fountain in Spain Square as temperature soars throughout the country, in Rome, Italy The furnace-like high pressure system moving in from Africa is also set to send temperatures soaring dangerously high in south-west France (pictured above is Nice) another summer holiday hotspot The current heat record for Europe is 47.8C (118F) recorded in Athens in July 1977. Pictured: Venice on Wednesday, where temperatures hit 38C Locals and tourists refresh themselves in a fountain in downtown Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday as the hot weather scorches Europe Temperatures across the Iberian Peninsula could break the European continental record of 47.8C (118F) in the coming days. Pictured: Student, Anuschka Pinto, 21, takes a stroll along Bournemouth beach yesterday The Met forecast has warned parts of Spain and Portugal are set to sizzle with temperatures ranging between 104F (40C) and 118F (48C) in the coming days from the Iberian plume that's heating up the UK as well Britain has seen its driest first half of summer since 1961, as August has kicked off on a blistering note, stretching out July's heatwave that marked the longest in five years. Pictured: Bournemouth beach on Wednesday Locals refreshing themselves in the Lis River in Leiria, Portugal. The vulnerable are urged to apply high-factor sun cream, drink plenty of water and stay inside during the hottest hours The scorching weather is brought on by an Iberian plume that's melting Europe. Pictured: Sunrise at Rockford Common in The New Forest, near Ringwood on Wednesday The heatwave is back in full force in the southern regions of England, despite heavy downpours on Tuesday morning that wreaked havoc for hundreds of Ryanair flights. Pictured: A man tanning in St James Park yesterday afternoon The furnace-like high pressure system moving in from Africa is also set to send temperatures soaring dangerously high in south-west France another summer holiday hotspot. Flash flood in Corsica kills four, including young girl Four people including a seven-year-old girl were killed on Wednesday after being swept away by a flash flood in a canyon on the French island of Corsica. The dead included a father and his young daughter as well as their guide, local prosecutor Eric Bouillard said. One of those killed was yet to be identified. A fifth person was still missing while two others belonging to the same group - including the mother of the child who died - managed to escape, he added. Bouillard said a group of 12 people had been hiking along the Zoicu canyon in the region of Soccia, famous for its natural ravines and waterfalls, when some members were overwhelmed by a sudden rush of water. 'When the group got into difficulty, it first lost two people, then two more,' he said. 'This wave - we are talking about three metres (12 feet) high - overwhelmed them and carried them away. The search for one missing person was called off late Wednesday as darkness fell in the region. The flash flood is believed to have been caused by mountain storms, which have unleashed heavy rainfalls in recent days. Advertisement The current heat record for Europe is 47.8C (118F) recorded in Athens in July 1977. Spain's highest figure of 47.3C (117.1F) and Portugal's of 47.4C (117.3F) are not far behind, and forecasters claim all could be beaten by Sunday. For those staying at home, the hot conditions are set to continue, especially in the south of England, but temperatures are not expected to reach the recent highs. The Met Office has issued the warning for tourists, especially children and the elderly, heading to Europe. The vulnerable are urged to apply high-factor sun cream, drink plenty of water and stay inside during the hottest hours. Almost half of Spain has been put on alert by the Spanish meteorological office, Aemet. One red warning, the highest level, will be brought in for today in the province of Badajoz, bordering Portugal, where a temperature of 44C (111F) is expected. Even overnight temperatures will be no lower than 25C (77F) in many parts of the country, including the Mediterranean holiday islands of Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. The heatwave began at the weekend and was intensifying yesterday. Worst hit were the inland areas in the southern region of Andalucia, with Seville and Cordoba on orange alert, the second highest, and temperatures reaching 41C (106F). Londoners and tourists relaxed in St James Park on a warm and sunny day in the capital on Wednesday. According to The Met Office the heatwave is to return after a brief drop in temperature The heatwave is back in full force in the southern regions of England, despite heavy downpours on Tuesday morning that wreaked havoc for hundreds of Ryanair flights. Pictured: Boys playing in the water in Bournemouth Pictured: Parched section of the Wayoh Reservoir spanned by the Armsgrove Viaduct at Edgworth near Bolton on Wednesday Another heatwave has swept into Britain, driving temperatures in the south to highs of 77F on Wednesday. Pictured: Lenticular clouds form over Whitley Bay in North Tyneside on Wednesday morning The Iberian Plume has stretched into the UK, causing the south to brace for another heatwave this weekend as temperatures will peak at nearly 90F (31C) on Friday Madrid was enduring 40C (104F), and along the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca, both packed by hordes of British tourists, temperatures were only a degree or two lower. Today forecasters at Aemet have predicted it will be even hotter with temperatures rising further still tomorrow. The sizzling heat has also spread to other countries across Europe Germany experienced its highest temperatures of this year so far on Tuesday, with 39.2C (103F) recorded in the eastern town of Bernburg. Meanwhile, major European rivers such as the Rhine and the Elbe have soaked up so much heat that fish are beginning to suffocate. 'I'm expecting a tragedy as early as next week,' said Philipp Sicher from the Swiss Fishery Association. Although the country is facing a north/south weather split, County Durham enjoyed a fair day on Wednesday. Pictured: The beautiful surrounds of Cowshill Authorities in Poland last week banned swimming at more than 50 beaches along its Baltic coast, after hot weather led to the growth of toxic bacteria in the unusually warm sea. What is an Iberian plume? An Iberian plume is a weather pattern where warm air moves from the Iberian plateau or the Sahara into Europe and the UK. It is caused by high pressure air formed in the Iberian Peninsula, which then pushes and the heat up. Unlike a Spanish plume, this type of plume is much more stable and often doesn't cause thunderstorms. Advertisement Water temperatures in the Baltic Sea have been bath-like, exceeding 23C (73F) in places. It comes as a blistering heatwave nicknamed the Iberian Plume swept into Britain, driving temperatures from 77F yesterday towards a scorching 90F on Friday. Britain has seen its driest first half of summer since 1961, as August has kicked off on a blistering note, stretching out July's heatwave that marked the longest in five years. Last month was the third warmest July on record, provisional figures show. The mean average temperature across the UK was 17.2C (62.9F), behind the 2006 record of 17.8C (64.04F) and also 17.3C (63.14F) in 1983. The plume has stretched into the UK, causing the south to brace for another heatwave this weekend as temperatures will peak at nearly 90F (31C) on Friday. The crippling heat has withered the country's fields, and despite raining for the first time in weeks over the weekend, the 'tinderbox' conditions have reduced grass growth and 'depleted' some yields. The blazing hot and dry summer will lead to a 'brown and crispy' autumn, experts warned yesterday. Instead of leaves turning shades of red and yellow, we can expect a distinctly drab display, the Forestry Commission said. This is because without plenty of water, trees cannot build up the sugars in their leaves which create a colourful display of foliage. Just 4.4mm of rain, less than a fifth of an inch, fell this June at the National Arboretum at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire. An animated series about notorious ibis birds set in Australia's most populous city has received developmental funding from Screen Australia. The satirical adult series called 'Bin Chickens' explores three ibises and their experiences in Darling Harbour, Sydney. It follows Derek, Janice and Clive and 'their adventures in the chaos and corruption of the modern-day human city as they try to live life to the max,' the synopsis reads. The series already has three short episodes available online through Screen Australia and the ABC's Fresh Blood initiative. However, the plan is to turn the series into 30-minute episodes next year. 'Bin Chickens' (pictured) has received funding from Screen Australia to be produced into 30-minute episodes The animated series follows the adventures of three ibises in Sydney as they try to live life to the max in the chaos and corruption of the modern-day human city Screen Australia has spent over $800,000 funding 20 feature films, ten online series, one television drama and four talent development placements - which includes the production of 'Bin Chickens'. As 'Bin Chickens' previously received funding in 2017, the project will continue to develop as the creators are drafting a script and teaser for a complete online series. The series is being developed by Nikos Andronicos and Dave Carter who are best known for their Flickerfest-winning animation Fish With Legs. Andronicos said that the pair like characters that everyone hates and believes that the white ibis is a natural fit for the satirical genre, Fairfax reported. 'The bin chicken is the symbol of fighting against the city and trying to triumph against the odds, so we have a very soft spot for them,' he said. The creators researched the notorious birds in Sydney hot spots and were forced to think like an ibis To research the series they visited ibis hot spots around Sydney including Darling Harbour, Wynyard Park and the Sydney Fish Market car park. 'We had to learn to think like an ibis, to really get into their heads to make this show,' Andronicos said. They hope that 'Bin Chickens' brings more respect to the largely unpopular bird that saturates urban areas. 'The bin chicken is not that dissimiliar to your average Sydney punter trying to get through the day despite the myriad horrific things being done to us,' Andronicos said. Special Counsel Robert Mueller reportedly wants to interview Donald Trump in person about obstruction of justice and is prepared to reduce the number of questions the President will face. Sources told CNN on Wednesday that Mueller has offered to limit the number of obstruction-related questions Trump would be asked by investigators but doesn't want him to just provide written answers. Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said they are still establishing ground rules for the potential interview as Mueller investigates alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The President's legal team had offered to provide only written answers and tried to limit the scope of the interview to before the inauguration. Mueller's team outlined their intention to interview Trump in person when they responded on Tuesday to the President's legal team's proposal. It comes after Giuliani insisted that his client wanted to talk to Mueller. 'He's always been interested in testifying,' Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, told CNN during an appearance in New Hampshire on Wednesday. 'It's us, meaning the team of lawyers, including me, that have the most reservations about that.' President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists his client wants to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Giuliani is seen above talking to reporters in New Hampshire on Wednesday Giuliani told CNN that Trump's team of attorneys is now busy reviewing a proposal from the Special Counsel's office about the terms under which the president will be interviewed. Mueller is seen left and Trump is seen right Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that Mueller's team of federal prosecutors want to ask the president about obstruction of justice. When Trump was informed of this by his lawyers early Wednesday morning, he reacted angrily, lashing out on Twitter against the Justice Department and its head, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The White House said on Wednesday that Trump was not giving Sessions 'an order' when he mentioned the nation's top law enforcement officer by name and said he should 'stop' the Russia probe. Faced by a new round of accusations the president was deliberately trying to obstruct Mueller's probe, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president thinks it's time for the probe to 'come to an end' but was not instructing Sessions to end it. 'The president's stating his opinion. It's not an order,' said Sanders, engaging in a delicate rhetorical dance over the Russia probe even as Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is on trial for money laundering and tax charges. 'The president's stating his opinion. It's not an order,' said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when pressed about Trump's Twitter statement that his attorney general should end the Russia probe She allowed that it was pretty clear when Trump was giving her an order as opposed to simply stating his views. 'But he's been I think crystal clear about how he feels about the investigation from the beginning,' she said. Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions, which has gone on for more than a year, when he said he 'should' put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-running Russia probe 'Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now,' the president tweeted. 'Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!' Trump said on Wednesday that his attorney general should put an end to the special counsel probe into Russia's 2016 election interference. But the White House said he was merely stating his 'opinion'. The president later prayed with inner city pastors in the Cabinet Room Talks: Trump hosted a meeting with inner city pastors in the Cabinet Room shortly after his press secretary said it was his opinion not a formal demand to Jeff Sessions when he called on him to end the Robert Mueller probe Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions, which has gone on for more than a year, when he said he 'should' put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-running Russia probe White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was buffeted by questions about the Russia probe on Wednesday after Trump's latest comments attacking it Sanders referenced 'corruption' in the FBI, and said the probe was based on the golden showers dossier when in fact there were other strands of information at the start of the Russia probe, including warnings from overseas about the conduct of Trump foreign policy aides. 'The entire investigation is based off of a dirty discredited dossier that was paid for an opposing campaign and had a lot of corruption within the entity which was overseeing it, which was Peter Strzrok, James Comey, Andrew McCabe,' she said, reeling off high-level FBI officials who were there during the inception of the probe. 'The president has allowed this process to play out but he thinks it's time to come to an end,' said Sanders. She repeated: 'It's not an order, it's the president's opinion and it's ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty that's gone on with the launching of the witch hunt' using the same terminology Trump uses to attack the Russia probe. But amid calls from senior Republicans for Trump allow the independent probe to continue, Sanders would not state a specific date-certain when it must end something prosecutors don't commit to in advance. 'We certainly think it should be completed. We'd like it to be completed sooner rather than later. It's gone on for an extensive amount of time. They've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. We'd like to see it come to a close,' she said. 'Look, the president is not obstructing he's fighting back. The president is stating his opinion. He's stating it clearly. And he's certainly expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we've seen from people like Jim Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe,' she said. 'There's a reason that the president's angry and frankly most of America is angry as well and there's no reason he shouldn't be able to voice that opinion.' Trump's mention of 17 prosecution lawyers is a reference to what he claims is an abundance of Democrats on Mueller's staff. The special counsel himself is a Republican. Jeff Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from matters related to Russian election meddling because he was a Trump campaign advisor, and Trump has said he would not have picked him if he knew that would be the result Sessions, who was a Trump campapign adviser and the first sitting senator to endorse his candidacy, recused himself from the Russia probe in March 2016 because he expected the campaign to be one focus of the investigation. That gave the reins to his deputy Rod Rosenstein, who later appointed Mueller. Trump has publicly criticized Sessions before, tweeting in June that the Mueller 'witch hunt' was only proceeding 'because Jeff Sessions didn't tell me he was going to recuse himself.' 'I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined ... and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion' with the Kremlin,' he added. 'Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,' Trump tweeted Wednesday Trump went all-in barely a half-hour later, calling the focus of Mueller's investigation a 'TOTAL HOAX' The new tensions between the president and the nation's top law enforcer come as Mueller's team is prosecuting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on money laundering, tax evasion and bank fraud charges. The allegations in that trial, which began Tuesday, are related to Manafort's financial dealings long before he was involved in the 2016 election cycle. But firing Mueller would likely send a signal to Democrats that the White House is worried about potential blowback from a Manafort conviction just three months before the congressional midterm elections. Still, Trump went all-in with a new intensity onWednesday, opening up on Mueller and his team with both barrels of his massive Twitter following. 'Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX,' he wrote. 'The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!' Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a frequent Trump antagonist, said Wednesday that the president's tweets amounted to obstruction of justice Giuliani has been making the TV rounds and claiming that 'collusion is not a crime.' Trump doubled down on that assertion a day later. The word 'collusion' isn't part of any federal law forming the basis of Mueller's investigation, but he has reportedly been looking at some of the president's tweets to supplement circumstantial evidence of obstruction of justice. California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted a similar suggestion after Trump's morning burst. 'The President of the United States just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the President, his family and campaign may be implicated,' wrote Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. 'This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it.' The Home Secretary's eldest brother has died aged 51. Tariq Javid was one of four of Sajid Javid's brothers - who have in the past been hailed as 'power brothers' due to their rags to riches life stories. The Home Secretary's official spokesman last night confirmed Tariq Javid's death. Home Secretary Sajid Javid, pictured, announced last night his eldest brother Tariq has died 'I am very sad to confirm that Sajid lost his eldest brother Tariq this week, who will be sorely missed by the whole family,' the spokesman said. 'He would like to extend his thanks to the many people sending their condolences and good wishes. He would also ask that his privacy and that of his family, be respected at this time of grief.' Tariq Javid, who was the eldest out of the five boys, Sajid, Khalid, Basit and Atif managed a supermarket chain. His flair for retail was perhaps inspired by his father Abdul-Ghani Javid who owned a clothes shop in Bristol. Tariq Javid was one of four of Sajid Javid's (pictured) brothers - who have in the past been hailed as 'power brothers' due to their rags to riches life stories The Home Secretary has previously spoken of growing up with his brothers in a cramped two-bedroom flat in the port city, saying: 'Three brothers were in one bedroom, and myself and a younger brother were with my parents in the other.' Mr Javid Senior arrived in England with the boys' mother Zubaida with only 1 to his name in 1961. The couple settled in Rochdale but later moved to Bristol to pursue their retail business. His shop, Scallywags, was in the middle of a notoriously crime-ridden part of Bristol and the Home Secretary has previously joked about seeing a prostitute standing outside the shop as a child. Despite the five siblings' difficult start in life, all five brothers have gone on to greatness in their respective fields of business, politics and public sector roles. Sajid Javid was the first non-white person to hold one of Britain's offices of state. Meanwhile his brother Basit is a senior police officer, Khalis is a financial adviser and Atif is a multimillionaire property tycoon. Borce Ristevski will go to trial charged with the murder of his wife Karen. Ristevski, 54, allegedly killed his dress shop-owner wife, 47, at their Avondale Heights home in Melbourne on June 29, 2016 before dumping her body in the bush. Over almost two weeks in July, Ristevski faced a high-profile committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court to determine whether he would go to trial. Ristevski has entered a not guilty plea to the murder charge, and will stand trial in the Supreme Court, Nine News reported. Ristevski, 54, allegedly killed his dress shop-owner wife Karen, 47, at their Avondale Heights home in Melbourne on June 29, 2016 before dumping her body in the bush Prosecutors allege Ristevski intended to kill his wife of 27 years (pictured) and then drove her remains to Mount Macedon Regional Park Magistrate Suzanne Cameron found there was sufficient evidence that a jury could convict Ristevski, The Age reported. Prosecutors allege Ristevski intended to kill his wife of 27 years and then drove her remains to Mount Macedon Regional Park, where her body was found eight months after she disappeared. The cause of her death is yet to be determined, and Ristevski was charged with murder in December. His lawyers conceded there was enough evidence for him to go to trial but believed it was insufficient for him to be charged with murder. Ristevski told police he had argued with his wife about financial problems related to their clothing business Bella Bleu. Prosecutors wanted a murder trial and alleged in court that Ristevski's behaviour after the alleged killing gives rise to the required intent, including hiding the body and lying to police and family. 'This isn't just an accidental killing,' prosecutor Matt Fisher said in closing submissions. Dozens of witnesses testified during the hearing, including the couple's daughter Sarah Ristevski, who said her father was "never" aggressive towards her mother. Ms Ristevski's skeletal remains were found between two logs at Macedon Regional Parkin by two horticulturalists who had noticed a strange smell. A man has claimed he was refused entry to a bar for wearing a T-shirt in support of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. The young university student, who appeared to be sober and coherent, said he was turned away from the entrance at the Brisbane pub on Sunday night. He filmed the incident and claimed in a YouTube post that he had been wearing an orange One Nation T-shirt. A Pacific Islander bouncer at the door of the South Brisbane venue refused him entry by claiming he was 'being disrespectful'. A man was refused entry to a bar for wearing a T-shirt in support of Pauline Hanson. A Pacific Islander bouncer (pictured) claiming he was 'being disrespectful' The One Nation supporter had been handing out how-to-vote cards for his party's candidate Matthew Stephen the day before at the Longman by-election, in Brisbane's outer north. The man, who has declined to be identified, told the two Pacific Islander bouncers he had been to see right-wing Canadian activists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux on Sunday night at the nearby Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. He asked again why he was refused entry only to be told a reason didn't have to be specified. 'We have the right to refuse anyone,' the other bouncer said. 'We don't need a reason.' Asked if his shirt was the problem, this bouncer replied: 'I love the colour orange.' The man refused entry then asked about the message on the T-shirt. 'Do you love what it says,' he said. 'Can you read English?' The university student was turned away from the entrance at the Brisbane pub on Sunday night claiming it was because he was wearing a One Nation T-shirt (like this one pictured) This bouncer replied: 'You're a very smart guy. Thank you and have a lovely night.' At this point, the One Nation supporter vented his frustration without shouting. 'Thanks for refusing entry. Equal reasons. Equality. It's legal to be a bigot and refuse entry to someone who just wants to have a drink,' he said. In a YouTube note under the video, the man wearing the One Nation T-shirt said the bouncers had initially told him it was because the venue was shutting at 11pm, in 10 minutes' time. However, the footage showed the bouncers letting in other patrons at the bar, which closes at 2am. He claimed his refusal to be allowed into the bar was an example of a minority group discriminating against a white man with conservative views. 'The very tolerance these security guards demand we show them is apparently not to be afforded to us,' he said in a YouTube note. 'Our country is at a crossroads with the multiculturalism dialogue. 'No-go zones, parallel societies, buying-up of Australian land by foreign investors, and, pathetically, refusal of entry into bars for unjustly discriminatory reasons.' Another man who was with the One Nation supporter said he was discriminated against for being a supporter of Senator Pauline Hanson (pictured) The video has been viewed almost 1,700 times since it was uploaded on Sunday. Another man, who recorded the incident, said his friend was clearly sober and was looking to have his first drink for the evening. 'The security discriminated based on this gentleman's political alignment,' he said. Daily Mail Australia contacted the venue for comment. Coles has set a new deadline for handing out reusable plastic bags after widespread public backlash. The supermarket giant announced on Wednesday that all Australian stores would be giving away the reusable bags indefinitely as a customer 'transition period'. But in a stunning reversal, Thursday saw them announce August 29 as the date the bags will go back to costing customers 15 cents. Retail experts are dubbing the back-and-forth a 'PR disaster', claiming Coles' apparent backflipping makes them appear 'inconsistent' to customers. Coles have set a deadline for the cessation of free reusable plastic bags in their stores, with the date set as August 29 The transition from single-use plastic bags to reusable plastic bags in Coles and Woolworths took place on July 1. To ease customers in the change, both supermarket giants announced a grace period of a week, in which they handed out the bags for free. Woolworths have since stopped doing this, charging 15 cents for a bag. Coles has since changed its mind multiple times, setting different deadlines for when they would begin charging for bags. But they continue to give the bags away for free, saying customers suggesting they need more time to adjust to bringing their own bags to the supermarket. The supermarket giant has changed its mind on when they would start being charged, with retail experts saying the consistent indecision is a 'PR disaster' TIMELINE OF THE PLASTIC BAG SAGA October 2017 - The major Australian supermarkets announce plans to phase out single-use plastic bags July 1 - Original proposed date to ban single-use bags and introduce reusable for 15 cents July 8 - The weekend that both Coles and Woolworths extended the free bag until. Woolworths began charging 15 cents per bag, Coles continued to make them free for remainder of July August 1 - Coles announces reusable bags will be free indefinitely, causing backlash from environmentalists August 2 - Coles announces the August 29 deadline for free bags Advertisement Retail expert Gary Mortimer told the Australian Financial Review that the backflipping contributed to a PR nightmare for the supermarket, and only made them appear self-contradictory. 'While there is consumer frustration during this period of transition, this backflip flies in the face of their initial claim to be committed to reducing plastics in the environment,' he said. 'Complimentary bags are intended to be an interim measure to help customers make the transition to reusable bags,' a spokesperson for Coles said. August 29 has been announced as the day the interim measure will cease, with Coles' 'better bags' charging customers 15 cents each. Environmental groups had hit out at Coles since their decision to extend the give-away period indefinitely, saying it was an 'environmental disaster'. Environmental groups like Harris Farm Markets (pictured) hit out at Coles when they announced the bags would be free indefinitely on Wednesday Fresh-food grocer Harris Farm Markets hit out at Australia's second-largest supermarket on Facebook, after they went plastic free in January. They raised concerns that were mirrored by environment group Greenpeace, saying that giving away the thicker, reusable bags for no charge will lead to more of them ending up in waterways. In Harris Farm Markets' Facebook post, they appealed to Woolworths to continue charging for their bags. Woolworths stopped giving the bags away for free on July 8. 'Retailers need to step up and hold firm, shoppers need to step up ... and that way there's consistency in experience,' Dr Mortimer said. Advertisement Dozens of cases believed to contain the remains of missing American soldiers who died during the Korean War have finally returned to US soil - as President Trump praised North Korea's 'kind' Kim Jong-un for keeping his word to return them. In an emotional and solemn ceremony, Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the remains of the presumed casualties on Wednesday after they were flown from South Korea. American flags were draped over the 55 cases as they arrived in Hawaii and were escorted off an aircraft by military honor guards. 'Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten,' Pence said at the ceremony. 'Today, our boys are coming home.' Each of the 55 containers was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. They set them gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood alongside Admiral Phil Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command. Hours later, Trump took to Twitter to praise the 'beautiful ceremony' and to thank the North Korean leader for keeping his commitment after they reached an agreement during their recent summit. Scroll down for video Dozens of cases believed to contain the remains of missing American soldiers who died during the Korean War finally returned to US soil on Wednesday In an emotional and solemn ceremony, Vice President Mike Pence stood with his hand over his heart and Admiral Phil Davidson saluted as they welcomed the remains to Hawaii 'Incredibly beautiful ceremony as U.S. Korean War remains are returned to American soil. Thank you to Honolulu and all of our great Military participants on a job well done. A special thanks to Vice President Mike Pence on delivering a truly magnificent tribute!' Trump said in his initial tweet. He added about an hour later: 'Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!' President Trump took to Twitter late Wednesday to praise the return and later to thank Kim Jong-un for starting the process An exhaustive analysis and identification process will soon begin at a military laboratory in Hawaii to determine who the missing soldiers are. The US military believes the bones are those of American soldiers and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the US on behalf of South Korea during the war. The return to US soil comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. Sixteen other United Nations member countries fought alongside US service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said some remains could turn out to be those of missing from other nations. He said last week that the return was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. American flags were draped over the 55 cases as they arrived in Hawaii and were escorted off an aircraft by military honor guards Each of the 55 containers was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman The remains of the presumed casualties arrived in Hawaii on Wednesday after they were flown from South Korea They set each case gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart The US military believes the bones are those of American soldiers and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries An exhaustive analysis and identification process will soon begin at a military laboratory in Hawaii to determine who the missing soldier are 'Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen,' Pence said on Wednesday. 'Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure.' North Korea handed over the remains last week. A US military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases. Hanwell Kaakimaka's uncle, John Kaakimaka, is among those who never came home. 'We've been watching the news, and we've been hopeful that my uncle is among the remains,' he said, adding that it could bring his family some closure. His uncle, who was from Honolulu, was a corporal in the 31st Infantry Regiment of the Army's 7th Infantry Division. He went missing on or about December 2, 1950. Hanwell Kaakimaka said the story he heard from his dad was that his uncle was injured and was being brought back from the front when Chinese troops overran the area and attacked the convoy. The Kaakimaka family provided DNA samples to the US military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency over a decade ago, hoping officials would be able to make a match. The agency identifies remains of servicemen killed in past conflicts. It typically uses bones, teeth and DNA to identify remains along with any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings. North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. The Vice President addressed the crowd on Wednesday, saying: 'Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen' Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes Audience members stand during the National Anthem at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War Pence spoke during the emotional ceremony, saying: 'Today, our boys are coming home' Before the remains were put on military planes bound for Hawaii, hundreds of US and South Korean troops gathered at a hanger at the Osan base in South Korean for the repatriation ceremony. The repatriation is a breakthrough in a long-stalled US effort to obtain war remains from North Korea. There are 7,699 US service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. The bones' return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal US concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of US security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged US plans to attack it. North Korea handed over the remains last week. A US military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases The bones' return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Detectives have conducted raids on six properties in relation to the execution of former bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi earlier this year. Strike force detectives executed search warrants on properties in Bardwell Park, Beverly Hills, Brighton Le Sands, Carlton, Hurstville, and Padstow from 7am Thursday, Daily Telegraph reported. Assisted by Strike Force Raptor and the Public Order and Riot Squad, officers continued investigations into who killed the former Comanchero president in Sydney's south on February 15. Detectives have conducted raids on six properties in relation to the execution of former bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi earlier this year (detective speaking with man at Beverly Hills) It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi Strike force detectives executed search warrants on properties in Bardwell Park, Beverly Hills (car pictured), Brighton Le Sands, Carlton, Hurstville, and Padstow from 7am Thursday A man was pictured leaning on the balcony of a property in Beverly Hills that was raided Thursday morning. It is not suggested the man had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi In the raid of one property, investigators located a vehicle of interest which will be forensically examined for traces of evidence. A detective wielding a notebook was seen speaking with a man wearing a black 'Cougars' t-shirt outside a property in Beverly Hills. The man was accompanied by a younger looking male, who sipped on a bottle of flavoured chocolate milk. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting the men pictured had any knowledge of, or any involvement, in the murder of Hawi. A black BMW without registration plates was also seen squeezed into a narrow driveway down the side of the home. In the raid of one property, investigators located a vehicle of interest which will be forensically examined for traces of evidence (detectives leaving Beverly Hills property) A detective wielding a notebook was seen speaking with a man wearing a black 'Cougars' t-shirt (pictured) outside a property in Beverly Hills. It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi The man was accompanied by a younger looking male, who sipped on a bottle of flavoured chocolate milk. It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi A masked assassin fired several shots at Hawi through the window of his car which was parked outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale just after 12pm on February 15. The assailant fled on foot before getting in a grey Mercedes - stolen during a carjacking nine months earlier - which was later found torched nearby. Two men then left in a second getaway car, with a perpetrator still yet to be pinned down. There were reports Hawi may have had a bounty on his head when he was shot. It was said there was bad blood between him and current Comanchero leader Mark Buddle. A black BMW (pictured) without registration plates was also seen squeezed into a narrow driveway down the side of the home A masked assassin fired several shots at Hawi through the window of his car which was parked outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale just after 12pm on February 15 (detectives pictured) The assailant fled on foot before getting in a grey Mercedes - stolen during a carjacking nine months earlier - which was later found torched nearby (detective talks to man in Beverly Hills) It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi Hawi was remembered at a ceremony at Arncliffe's Al-Zahra mosque on February 22 exactly a week after he was killed. He became national president of the Comancheros at 22 - just four years after joining the club - but it wasn't until the infamous bikie brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009 that his name became more widely known. Passengers in the terminal froze in fear as dozens of Comancheros took on members of rival club the Hells Angels whose associate, Anthony Zervas, was bludgeoned to death with a bollard. Witnesses described the all-in brawl as chaotic, wild and uncontrolled. The men were 'raging', one said. Two men then left in a second getaway car, with a perpetrator still yet to be pinned down (detectives pictured leaving Beverly Hills property) A Padstow business with a blank front facade (pictured) was one of the properties to be raided A broom and dustpan were seen resting beside its fire door exit and green roller door The violent escalation became the impetus for NSW Police to establish Strikeforce Raptor to target bikie activity. Hawi served time in prison for his role in the killing, however, his murder conviction was quashed in 2014. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to at least three and a half years for that offence. He was released in 2015 taking into account time already served. A padlock to the Padstow business was seen cut open after the raids on the Sydney properties Besieged Labor MP Emma Husar has rejected claims she sexually harassed staff and exposed herself to another federal MP as 'absolute lies' aimed at ruining her career. Details of a letter from a Labor internal investigation sent to Ms Husar on May 16, containing a brief of allegations by staff of bullying and sexual harassment, was published by BuzzFeed on Thursday. 'This smear is completely and utterly untrue, unfair and hurtful beyond belief. 100 per cent false,' she tweeted. Besieged Labor MP Emma Husar (pictured) has rejected claims she sexually harassed staff and exposed herself to another federal MP as 'absolute lies' aimed at ruining her career In her tweets, the western Sydney MP publicly named and accused a former staffer and his father of fabrication. 'These are absolute lies that have been fabricated by [the ex-staffer], who's working with his father to leak against me and ruin my reputation,' she said on Twitter. 'I have done my best to cooperate with the investigation and clear my name, but it's clear these people will stop at nothing to destroy me.' The Labor investigation reportedly received an allegation Ms Husar flashed Labor frontbencher Jason Clare in his office. 'This smear is completely and utterly untrue, unfair and hurtful beyond belief. 100 per cent false,' tweeted Ms Husar (pictured) 'This is categorically untrue,' Mr Clare said. The investigation led by lawyer John Whelan spoke to more than 20 former staff as it prepared a brief of allegations. 'Several employees reported that you would discuss in the office who you found attractive and who you wanted to have sex with or who you have had sex with, including references to members of parliament and members of staff,' Mr Whelan wrote to Ms Husar, according to BuzzFeed. Ms Husar has also denied those allegations. NSW Labor said Mr Whelan's investigation was still continuing. The Labor investigation reportedly received an allegation Ms Husar flashed Labor frontbencher Jason Clare (pictured) in his office. Mr Clare said the claims were 'categorically untrue' 'The continued speculation about this matter in the public arena is of significant concern,' the party said in a statement. 'It is a cause of some delay to the process and is serving to escalate tensions in an environment where parties to the assessment have expressed concerns about the impact of this matter on their wellbeing.' The party expects Mr Whelan to provide a briefing about the investigation in coming weeks. A spokesman for Bill Shorten told AAP the Labor leader hadn't seen the letter referred to and nor was he aware of its existence before today. In her tweets (pictured, above), the western Sydney MP publicly named and accused a former staffer and his father of fabrication NSW Labor informed the opposition leader of the independent investigation on July 18. Treasurer Scott Morrison refused to believe Mr Shorten knew nothing about the investigation, given the letter was sent to Ms Husar in May. 'If he didn't know about them, what sort of indictment is that on him?' Mr Morrison told reporters. 'He either is incompetent or he's been covering it up.' Ms Husar holds the western Sydney seat of Lindsay on a margin of 1.1 per cent. The Justice Department released photos of Paul Manaforts $15,000 ostrich jacket as well as other pricey items that he bought while allegedly committing a litany of financial crimes, including tax fraud. The pictures were released by federal prosecutors on the same day that the judge admonished them for focusing too much on the wealth flouted by President Trumps former campaign manager. The pictures could be an attempt by prosecutors to get public opinion on its side after it seemingly struggled on the first day of Manaforts trial. Scroll down for video The Justice Department released photos of expensive clothes that were bought by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, who is now on trial for tax fraud. Above is the famed $15,000 jacket made of ostrich Manafort spent lavishly on outerwear jackets and suits from high-end stores. According to one invoice, he spent a total of $15,195 to buy just four suits and two trousers - among other purchases In 2013, Manafort spent $443,160 at the Alan Couture clothing store. The image on the right is an $18,500 python coat from Alan Couture Manafort stands in a court room sketch, on the opening day of his trial on bank and tax fraud charges on Tuesday Judge T.S. Ellis repeatedly admonished prosecutors for bringing up Manafort's wealth and lavish spending habits and accused them of asking irrelevant and meandering questions, on the second day of the former Trump campaign chairman's trial. Prosectors seemed to struggle to adjust their examination of witnesses in light of the judge's criticism - while outside the court, Trump compared Mueller's treatment of Manafort unfavorably to that of Al Capone. Ellis has repeatedly objected to the government's focus on Manafort's luxury spending saying it is not relevant to the 18 charges of tax fraud and bank fraud he is facing. The judge has also urged the prosecution to move the case along and banned them from calling Manafort's Ukrainian paymasters 'oligarchs' saying it is 'pejorative'. 'It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending,' said Judge Ellis after the prosecution's opening statement on Tuesday, which referenced Manafort's $6 million in real estate holdings and $15,000 custom ostrich suit. The judge continued to admonish the prosecutors on Wednesday, after they brought in two witnesses who worked at luxury menswear companies and testified that Manafort spent over $1.5 million on custom suits and other clothes. 'The government doesn't want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, right?' asked the judge. Key player: Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye (right) stunned judge T.S. Ellis III when he said Rick Gates 'may or may not' give evidence against his former boss Star witness: Rick Gates, Manafort's former deputy, seen in February, had been expected to give extensive evidence at the trial of the former Trump campaign chief on fraud charges but now prosecutors say they may not call him Property: This is the Bridgehampton, New York, property which Manafort spent $750,000 renovating in his spending spree which prosecutors say was financed by money he did not pay tax on Defense: Paul Manafort (right) will defend himself by saying that Gates prepared the tax documents and took advantage of him, and also pilfered millions, Manafort's attorney Tom Zehnle told the court Tuesday When prosecutors continued by asking one of the menswear employees to add up the list of prices for Manafort's suits, Judge Ellis snapped 'that's enough. [The jury] can add.' 'You have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he signed tax documents to show he knowingly didn't represent his true income,' he said brusquely at an another point. He refused to let prosecutors show pictures of Manafort's suits on the television screens in the court. The judge also interjected at several points and questioned witnesses himself when he believed the prosecution was meandering and taking too long to get to the point. On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Ellis said he expects the trial to wrap up 'much sooner' than the three weeks many estimated and seemed to lay the blame for any delays on the prosecution. Earlier in the afternoon the judge rebuked the government attorneys for asking a contractor who worked on Manafort's daughter's house to detail the work he did on the home. Doug Luca, an interior and exterior designer in Virginia, said he built an outdoor kitchen and pergola for Manafort's daughter that cost over $100,000. He said he was paid by a wire transfer from one of Manafort's offshore shell companies. But the detailed explanation of the lavish design work drew the ire of Judge Ellis. 'To have a witness come describe in exquisite detail what was done is hardly a good use of time,' said Ellis. The interventions prompted Asonye to dramatically announce that Mueller's prosecution 'may or may not' call Rick Gates, Manafort's deputy who had become a cooperating witness and was expected to be the star of the prosecution's case. Gates had been expected to provide first-hand testimony for the prosecution that Manafort willfully and intentionally defrauded the IRS and lenders to dodge taxes and obtain fraudulent loans. Asonye was responding to comments from Judge T.S. Ellis III, who said Asonye's questioning of an FBI agent witness, Matthew Mikuska, was unnecessary if Gates is called to testify. Paymaster: Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine, was a 'cash spigot' for Manafort, prosecutors say but they are banned from calling him an oligarch Asonye was in the course of asking Mikuska about a document which showed an agenda from a meeting involving Manafort and Gates in 2013 when the judge interrupted to say it was not relevant if Gates himself was called. Asonye told the court that the prosecution 'may or may not' call Gates to the stand during the trial. 'That was news to me,' responded the surprised judge. 'And about 25 other people who scurried our of here like rats out of a sinking ship.' The news sent numerous journalists scrambling out of the courtroom. When Asonye said the government team is still deciding on whether Gates's testimony is necessary, the judge seemed unconvinced. 'You know who you're going to call,' said Judge Ellis. 'If you're going to call Gates this [line of witness questioning] is a waste of time.' Although prosecutors offered no reason for not calling Gates, Manafort's defense attorney had told the court on Tuesday that his case was that Gates was responsible for the tax fraud and had also been pilfering from Manafort himself to the tune of millions. And he also said he was told that attorneys on both sides had been seen rolling their eyes after leaving the bench or in response to his rulings. The lawyers' facial expressions, Ellis said, appeared to show them thinking 'why do we have to put up with this idiot judge?' The FBI agent whose evidence prompted the dramatic announcement that Gates may not testify himself told the court that he participated in the federal raid on Manafort's Virginia condo in 2017. Agent Mikuska denied claims that it was a 'no-knock' raid, describing how he and a team of FBI agents knocked on Manafort's door three times and announced themselves before opening the door with a key they had obtained. Mikuska said he saw Manafort standing to his left as soon as he stepped inside the condo during the 6 a.m. raid. He described the condo as a 'large luxury unit' with large closets and three bedrooms and an open floor plan. Mikuska also confirmed that several documents showing loans taken out by Manafort were seized during the raid. Earlier on Wednesday the court heard testimony from political consultant Dan Rabin who discussed his work for Manafort in Ukraine. According to the testimony, Rabin worked with Manafort on TV ads to support the candidacy of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The testimony from Rabin, and political consultant Tad Devine late Tuesday, helped the prosecution establish the extent of Manafort's involvement with Yanukovych and his political party, the Ukrainian Party of Regions. The development came after Trump distanced himself from his former campaign manager. Trump is arguing the tax evasion and bank fraud charges Manafort is facing - which have to do with his business dealings from his lobbying firm and not his work with the Trump campaign - are 'old' and 'have nothing to do with collusion.' 'Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!,' the president tweeted Wednesday morning. Trump says Al Capone was treated better than his campaign manager Al Capone, left, spent time in Alcatraz while Paul Manafort, right, spent part of the time in the VIP section of his prison Trump distanced himself from his former campaign manager as Day Two of Manafort's trial began Trump pointed out Manafort only worked for him for a short time Manafort, seen here with Trump at the Republican National Convention in July 2016, worked for the campaign for about three months Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from his former campaign aide, saying Manafort was only with his team for a short time and has asked why he wasn't told there was an investigation into him when he worked for him. Manafort was with the Trump campaign for about three months and left when his work with the Ukraines, which he began in 2006, was revealed. Manafort's also scheduled for trial in Washington D.C. on September 17 on charges of money laundering and failing to register as a lobbyist in his work before 2014 on behalf of Ukraine's pro-Russian president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych. He formally registered as a lobbyist for Ukraine in June 2017, after his work for that country was revealed. Manafort has plead not guilty in both cases. The FBI reportedly began looking into him in 2014 after Yanukovych was disposed. But there are ties between Manafort and the Russia probe. Manafort, who was Trump's campaign chairman at the time, was at the infamous June Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who claimed to have information on Hillary Clinton. That meeting is now part of Mueller's look into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. On the first day of his trial, prosecutors claimed Manafort orchestrated a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to evade U.S. tax and banking laws, leaving behind a trail of lies as he lived a lavish lifestyle. Prosecutor Uzo Asonye told the jury during his opening statement Tuesday that Manafort considered himself above the law as he funneled tens of millions of dollars through offshore accounts. That 'secret income' was used to pay for personal expenses such as a $21,000 watch, a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich and more than $6 million worth of real estate paid for in cash, Asonye said. 'A man in this courtroom believed the law did not apply to him - not tax law, not banking law,' Asonye said as he sketched out the evidence gathered by special counsel Robert Mueller's team in Manafort's bank fraud and tax evasion trial. Kathleen Manafort, wife of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, arrives at the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse on Wednesday Manafort's trial is the first arising from Mueller's investigation into potential ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. It opened with extraordinary anticipation amid unresolved questions about whether Trump associates coordinated with the Kremlin to tip the election in the president's favor. But it was clear from the outset that the case would not address that question: Prosecutors did not once reference Manafort's work for the Trump campaign nor mention Mueller's broader and ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. Mueller was not present in the courtroom. Manafort, the lone American charged by Mueller who has opted to stand trial instead of cooperate with prosecutors, was described by his defense lawyer as a hugely successful international political consultant who left the details of his finances to others. He relied on a team of financial experts to keep track of the millions of dollars he earned from his Ukrainian political work and to ensure that that money was being properly reported, said attorney Thomas Zehnle. He especially trusted business associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty in Mueller's investigation and is now the government's star witness. But that trust was misplaced, Zehnle said in an opening statement that made clear that undermining the credibility of Gates - a former Trump campaign aide who spent years working for Manafort in Ukraine - is central to the defense strategy. Zehnle warned jurors that Gates could not be trusted and was the type of witness who would say anything he could to save himself from a lengthy prison sentence and a crippling financial penalty. 'Money's coming in fast. It's a lot, and Paul Manafort trusted that Rick Gates was keeping track of it,' Zehnle said. 'That's what Rick Gates was being paid to do.' The trial, decided by a jury of six men and six women who were seated after a brief selection process Tuesday, is expected to last several weeks. After opening statements, the jury heard from the government's first witness, Democratic strategist Tad Devine, who testified about his collaborations with Manafort on behalf of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions. Devine testified that Manafort ran a tightly disciplined, professional campaign that contributed to his candidate's victory. Central to the government's case are allegations that Manafort funneled more than $60 million in proceeds from his Ukrainian political consulting through offshore accounts, including in Cyprus, and hid a 'significant' portion of it from the IRS. He created 'bogus' loans, falsified documents and lied to his tax preparer and bookkeeper to conceal the money, which he obtained from Ukrainian oligarchs through a series of shell company transfers and later from fraudulently obtained bank loans in the U.S., prosecutors said. Kevin Downing (L) and Richard Westling, attorneys of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, arrive at the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse on Tuesday Paul Manafort's also scheduled for trial in Washington D.C. on September 17 on charges of money laundering and failing to register as a lobbyist But Zehnle said there was no evidence that Manafort ever intended to deceive the IRS. He denied allegations that Manafort had tried to conceal his earnings by storing money in bank accounts in Cyprus, saying that arrangement was not of Manafort's doing but was instead the preferred method of payment of the supporters of the pro-Russia Ukrainian political party who were paying his consulting fees. Defense lawyers also sought to address head-on Manafort's wealth and the images of a gaudy lifestyle that jurors are expected to see. 'Paul Manafort travels in circles that most people will never know and he's gotten handsomely rewarded for it,' Zehnle said. 'We do not dispute that.' Manafort has a second trial scheduled for September in the District of Columbia. It involves allegations that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests and made false statements to the U.S. government. The other 31 people charged by Mueller so far have either pleaded guilty or are Russians seen as unlikely to enter an American courtroom. Three Russian companies have also been charged. Manafort shopped at the 'world's most expensive men's store', spent $440,000 on suits in a year and paid by wire transfer from a foreign bank Paul Manafort spent over $1.5 million on custom suits and bespoke clothing between 2010 and 2014, often paying by foreign bank wire transfers, two luxury menswear retailers told a federal court in Virginia on Wednesday. Maximillian Katzman, the manager of New York-based retailer Alan Couture which specializes in vicuna and silk custom-made suits and Ron Wald, the CFO of the Beverly Hill-based House of Bijan, described Manafort's pricey spending habits and use of foreign wire transfers on the second day of Manafort's tax fraud trial. The 69-year-old former Trump campaign chairman is facing 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, which could add up to over 100 years in prison if he is convicted. Prosecutors said their testimony provided evidence on Manafort's income and his use of foreign bank accounts and shell companies, which they allege he used to dodge taxes and hide millions in income from his Ukrainian political clients. Katzman, whose father is the owner of Alan Couture, said Manafort's spent over $927,000 at his store between 2010 and 2014. Most expensive men's wear store in the world: House of Bijan is on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, CA, and boasts of the level of luxury it offers to by appointment only customers - including, his trial heard, Paul Manafort Only the wealthiest: Clients at House of Bijan have included Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, and Bill Clinton Where did you get that suit? Paul Manafort was one of the 'top five' clients of New York's Alan Couture, where he spent $444,000 in 2013 alone as well as the House of Bijan He said Manafort was one of the store's top five clients Alan Couture has around 40 regular clients and he primarily bought suits, neckwear and jackets. He spent $104,000 there in 2010, and more than $444,000 in 2013, the court heard. Katzman said Manafort was often late making payments, forcing Katzman to reach out to Manafort's former business partner Rick Gates for the money. Manafort was the only Alan Couture client to regularly pay by foreign wire transfer, according to Katzman. Wald, who was in charge of the financial records at House of Bijan known as the 'most expensive men's store in the world' said Manafort spent over $657,000 at the retailer between 2010 and 2013, according to his records. His purchases included $21,000 on a limited edition, black titanium and crystal watch. Wald said Manafort made payments through wire transfers from an account based in Cyprus. Manafort's defense countered during cross examination that Katzman was often unable to reach Manafort directly and instead went to his former business partner Gates for payments. They suggested that some of the foreign transfers could have been authorized by Gates. They also highlighted the fact that Wald has never had direct contact with Manafort. What to wear: Ultra-discreet Alan Couture is on the sixth floor of a midtown New York building, but inside offers handmade clothes including a suede vest with detachable cashmere sleeves and a jacket from Ermenegilo Zegna's I Preziosi cashmere, described as 'the best of the best' Also on offer: This three-piece suit with double-breasted vest in Loro Piana's Wish Super 170s Wool Flannel fabric, and paired with Thomas Mason shirt - which start at $150 a shirt - is one of Alan Couture's range. It is unclear where Manafort's suit he is wearing in court is from Mocking: Demonstrators outside the court on Tuesday had already made Manafort's lifestyle a focus of their mockery Manafort's attorneys have argued that Gates who has been cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice embezzled money from Manafort and then turned against him to save himself from jail time. Prosecutors also sought to publish photos of Manafort's suits on television screens in the courtroom. This drew a rebuke from Judge T.S. Ellis who has repeatedly objected to the prosecution's focus on Manafort's wealth and spending habits. 'The government doesn't want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, right?' asked the judge. When the prosecution attempted to continue the line of questioning, asking Katzman to add up the total amount Manafort spent at his store, the judge cut it off. 'I said that's enough,' Judge Ellis said sharply. '[The jury] can add.' Judge Ellis later told prosecutors that he can 'understand this effort to show [Manafort] lived lavishly,' but did not believe this was relevant to the government's tax evasion and bank fraud charges against the former Trump campaign chairman. A woman has revealed how she was almost scammed by an online Casanova while playing a popular online word game. Barbara El-Gamal was playing a harmless game of Words with Friends, when she was forced to play the word 'tit', as a result of poor letters. After taking her turn, she was surprised by her male component's response, that he bet 'she had the best ones going'. The Ukrainian user, who described himself as a private civilian doctor, was one of thousands of online scammers trying to trick women into sending cash over the internet. Barbara El-Gamal said the online scammer told her he was a Ukrainian private civilian doctor Ms El-Gamal, who previously worked with NSW Fair Trading, told The Sydney Morning Herald she's used to spotting online fraudsters and has noticed an increase in the number of people lurking on the app. But as it turn out, romance fraud is one of the biggest of all scams operating in Australia, with reported losses of $20.5million annually to Scamwatch, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg, with fraudsters, previously using dating apps, now preying on unsuspecting victims on gaming and social media sites. According to the ACCC website, dating and romance scams have increased by nearly 30 per cent in the last two years. 'Social media has overtaken online dating sites as the most common way for dating and romance scammers to contact potential victims,' Ms Rickard said. As Ms El-Gamal explained, genuine gamers don't use provocative jargon, and, for the most part, avoid conversation completely - aside from the dull hellos and goodbyes. Ms El-Gamal said genuine gamers, for the most part, avoid conversation completely - aside from the dull hellos and goodbyes Another online gamer called Sherrylc, who had a similar experience to Ms El-Gamal, reached out to other people on Zynga's online forum. Sherrylc told her fellow gamers that a scammer using the name Richard Bricks tried to scam her out of money by asking her to give him money in the form of iTune gift cards. It was only when Sherrylc did a random search of Richard that she realised his profile photo was of Argentinian actor Juan Soler. 'Ladies beware of Richard Bricks, his Words picture of him and his daughter is of Argentina Actor Juan Soler,' she wrote on the forum. One online gamer said that a man tried to scam her using a photo of Argentinian actor Juan Soler (pictured) Sherrylc told her fellow gamers that a scammer using the name Richard Bricks tried to scam her out of money by asking her to give him money in the form of iTune gift cards Sherrylc said the trickster would stop at nothing to get what he was after, and she added that unlike other scammers, 'Richard' has perfect spelling and can 'write a love letter like no other'. People need to take care when playing online games and be aware there are dishonest people out there, trolling online games and social media sites looking for unsuspecting victims, Ms Rickard said. She added, tricksters will stop at nothing to scam people, and she warned gamers to never give out personal information to strangers, such as money, gift cards, and credit card numbers. An Australian university will allow a controversial sex therapist to speak on campus despite her opinion that the sexual assault and rape crisis at universities around the country is a 'myth'. La Trobe University barred Bettina Arndt from presenting at an event organised by the Liberal Club due to her views. The university backflipped on their ban on Wednesday but have told the Liberal Club that they will have to pay for extra security. Sex therapist and psychologist Bettina Arndt (pictured) was banned from speaking at a La Trobe University event before the university backflipped on Wednesday Mrs Arndt controversially argued that the rape crisis on Australian university campuses is a myth (pictured: Mrs Arndt's Twitter) The August 14 event for 100 people may struggle to go ahead as the club fears they will be unable to afford the imposed security costs, The Australian reported. The sex therapist and psychologist had criticised a report by the Human Rights Commission that suggested sexual harassment was endemic to Australian campuses. Mrs Arndt is anticipated to question whether there is a rape crisis on campus by suggesting the report showed 'hardly any rape and only a lot of unwanted staring.' The university allegedly wanted to ban the event as its message doesn't align with the university's campaign to remove sexual violence and harassment from campus. A La Trobe University spokesperson said: 'The uni has put a lot of effort into (implementing changes recommended in the Human Rights Commission report) and what we're trying to do is create an environment on campus that's safe, respectful and inclusive. 'And while there were some concerns in some pockets about the event, we also prize free speech and we're big enough to include a diversity of opinions in our discussions.' The university had initially barred Mrs Arndt from presenting because her opinions did not align with La Trobe's campaign to end sexual violence on campus Mrs Arndt wrote an article on her website in response to La Trobe's intention to band her presentation. She addressed that the event she was 'belatedly' accepted to may not go through due to security costs, but maintained her stance on the issue. 'Lying to young women about their safety is a sorry start to higher education for our bright young women,' Mrs Arndt wrote. Students from the Liberal Club were disappointed in La Trobe's attempt to ban their chosen speaker. 'I'm ashamed (the university's) first instinct is to censor us and the first reaction is to stamp (controversial ideas) out rather than letting open debate happen,' said James Plozza, president of the La Trobe University Liberal Club. Plozza said that they've been mucked around by the university, which is making it difficult for them to host the event. A German supermarket giant is closing in on an enormous $20million Bunnings warehouse site in preparations for an Australia-wide launch. In the past year, Kaufland has secured building sites in Melbourne and Adelaide, with the investment into the Gold Coast warehouse on Wednesday their latest venture. An 'unrelated third party' agreed on an unconditional contract to buy the property for $19.7 million, the Courier Mail reports. Experts have said that the supermarket could rival German chain, Aldi, which has thrived since arriving in Australia in 2001. Kaufland Australia has reportedly secured a $20million Bunnings site on the Gold Coast in anticipation of an Australian launch The Bunnings in Burleigh Heads (pictured) reportedly sold for $19.7million to an 'unrelated third party' The Bunnings site has been used by different businesses since the building supply store moved to a new warehouse a few years ago. The Daily Telegraph revealed in December 2017 that Kaufland had spent $16.4millionbuying an old Bunnings Warehouse in Melbourne's Dandenong. The report also projected that in Kaufland's first full year it would generate sales of almost half a billion dollars. Kaufland is reported to be actively scoping sites in Sydney but doesn't appear to have settled at this stage. Opening it's 1000th store in 2011, Kaufland has locations in a number of countries including Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia. There is currently no date set for when the first superstore will open in Australia. Kaufland Australia has been contacted by Daily Mail Australia for comment. Advertisement Farmers have exposed themselves to the elements in a bid to raise awareness of mental health issues in rural Australia. A calendar featuring farmers posing as nude models is the brainchild of Ben Brooksby, 25, who works alongside his father and grandfather on their family farm in Saint Helens Plains in regional Victoria. The fifth-generation farmer has just completed from a trip across Australia with photographer Emma Cross collecting photographs for this year's edition. Farmers have exposed themselves to the elements in a bid to raise awareness of mental health issues in rural Australia A calendar featuring farmers posing as nude models is the brainchild of Ben Brooksby, 25, who works alongside his father and grandfather on their family farm in Saint Helens Plains in regional Victoria He has just completed from a trip across Australia with photographer Emma Cross collecting photographs for this year's edition Mr Brooksby runs an Instagram page showcasing naked farmers with the purpose of educating people from non-rural areas. The account quickly developed a strong following and Mr Brooksby was surprised at how easy it was to convince farmers to pose for photographs without their clothes. 'The idea behind it was to educate people where their food and fibre came from,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'But over the first few months I noticed a lot of farmers following the page. 'Thats when we thought it would be a great idea to do a calendar and raise money, to help and give back to farmers - the ones that go through so many hardships to put food on our table and fibre on our backs.' Mr Brooksby said he will be producing both male and female calendars for 2019, as well as a book. 'Surprisingly when we put it out there that we were going to do the tour a lot of farmers raised their hands. 'Mental health is something that affects so many people so it's something they really want to support any way they can. 'It takes guts to get your gear off as it does to talk about mental health.' The cause is personal for Mr Brooksby, as his family had been affected by suicide and he had lived with anxiety when he was younger. According to a Royal Flying Doctor Service research paper released in 2017, revealed Australians living in remote areas die from suicide at twice the rate of those in cities. Mr Brooksby runs an Instagram page showcasing naked farmers with the purpose of educating people from non-rural areas The account quickly developed a strong following and Mr Brooksby was surprised at how easy it was to convince farmers to pose for photographs without their clothes Mr Brooksby said he will be producing both male and female calendars for 2019, as well as a book to be published at a later date Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health program manager Tessa Caton said farmers experience unique stresses in their job. 'They often endure much longer periods of stress, particularly in times of adversity such as drought, bushfires and floods, which increases their likelihood of developing mood disorders like anxiety or depression.' Australian farmers are struggling through a severe drought, requiring $500million in emergency relief. The Bureau of Meteorology has declared April to June this year to be the fourth-driest patch since records began in 1900. The cause is personal for Mr Brooksby, as his family had been affected by suicide and he had lived with anxiety when he was younger Gen Hallot (pictured) has taken a massive blow to her superannuation account after leaving her balance unchecked for five years and discovering she'd been slugged thousands A woman has taken a massive blow to her superannuation account after leaving her balance unchecked for five years and discovering she'd been slugged thousands. Gen Hallot, from Auckland, opened a super fund while in Australia for work, but forgot about it on her return to New Zealand until five years later. The 36-year-old realised she had unknowingly been paying $109 in life insurance fees for every month she left her account ticking over, news.com.au reported. Over the course of five years, her fund was stripped of more than $5000, an amount she believed was unfairly taken because she 'never agreed to it'. 'They say the law didn't require them to explicitly ask me if I wanted to continue my cover,' Ms Hallot said. She was left baffled that companies could 'get away with taking fees' from clients without their permission. 'I was completely taken by surprise. I was extremely frustrated these were my savings that a company seemed to have carte blanche to dip into.' Ms Hallot has since requested the company lodge her complaint with the Ombudsman, but is still waiting to hear of an update. Ms Hallot (pictured) forgot about her Australian fund until five years after she returned to New Zealand The situation prompted her to check another of her old super funds which she opened as a young waitress, only to find she had been caught out again. 'It's a cash cow for these companies. The practices are not in their client's best interest,' she said. Ms Hallot joins 3.5 million Australians who could be unaware life insurance payments are coming out of their super fund automatically. In research revealed by finder.com.au, 23 per cent of Australians were found to be unsure of whether insurance payments were included in their super. Those not sure if they could be unknowingly getting fleeced have been urged to contact their super fund company to check on their account immediately. Over the course of five years, Ms Hallot's (right) fund was stripped of more than $5000, an amount she believed was unfairly taken because she 'never agreed to it' Insurance expert Bessie Hassan said it was common for insurance through a super fund to be less comprehensive than one in a stand-alone policy. She also noted it was easy for people to accidentally 'opt in' to life insurance when they first signed up to a super fund and warned. About 14.8 million Australians have a super fund account and 40 per cent have more than one. Most accounts have a default in-built insurance policy, meaning the true number of Australians paying fees without knowing could far exceed 3.5 million. The CEO of crowd-powered super platform, Zuper, called on an urgent crack-down within the $2.6 trillion superannuation industry. Jefferson Siegel/Pool/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Harvey Weinsteins attorneys plan to ask a Manhattan judge this week to dismiss the most serious sex assault charge filed against him, according to a new court filing. The lawyers are going to argue that the embattled movie mogul had an ongoing romantic relationship with the unnamed accuser whose account prompted Weinstein's indictment on rape charges. Weinsteins lawyers intend to argue that the first-degree rape charge is invalid because his relationship with an unnamed accuser continued after the date of the alleged attack. In order to demonstrate that the relationship was consensual, the lawyers want to submit to the judge in his criminal case a cache of several dozen emails Weinstein allegedly traded with the accuser. Weinsteins criminal attorney, Ben Brafman, faces a Friday deadline to file the pre-trial motion in New York seeking the dismissal of the rape charge. Defense attorneys intend to urge the criminal court judge to dismiss the top charge on the basis that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. did not follow rules requiring prosecutors to bring potentially exculpatory information to the grand jury before an indictment is voted on. A spokesperson for D.A. Vance declined comment. The new documents were filed Wednesday in a bankruptcy court in Delaware. The emails in question were allegedly sent and received through Weinsteins official company email account. After he was fired, his lawyers gained access to the emails, but a bankruptcy judge overseeing the dissolution of The Weinstein Co. issued a protective order banning the attorneys from disseminating them. Weinstein was indicted in May and July by a Manhattan grand jury on charges that he sexually assaulted three women. Among the charges is one count of first-degree rape and another for third-degree rape, both in connection with one alleged encounter on March 18, 2013, at a hotel on Manhattan's East Side. Weinstein is also facing additional sex assault charges, but those are not addressed in Wednesday's court filing. The emails are to be attached as exhibits to pre-trial motions -- which must be filed in the Supreme Court of New York County no later than August 3, 2018, seeking a dismissal of the indictment for, among other reasons, the failure of the prosecutor to advise the grand jury of the substance of exculpatory communications made by the one of three complaining witnesses underlying the counts of the indictment and contained in the emails, Weinsteins attorneys wrote in the bankruptcy court filing. It is Mr. Weinsteins belief that these emails are material and exculpatory, and the failure of the district attorney to provide this evidence to the grand jury warrants a dismissal of the indictment. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and has said through his attorneys that any sexual encounters he had with women over the years were consensual. Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. A longtime Metropolitan Museum of Art staffer who reportedly admitted to snapping upskirt photos joined his family and friends in a prayer circle before walking into a Manhattan court room to plead not guilty. Fred Caruso, 62, was arrested in April after a cop spotted him taking photos up a girl's skirt while waiting for the 6 train at 86th street. The New York Post reports that the girl looked to be around 16 years old. Caruso, who has worked as a collections manager at the Met for more than two decades, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday to plead not guilty to the charges. Before heading inside the courtroom, Caruso grabbed hands with family members and friends for a quick prayer. Fed Caruso, 62, is accused of taking photos up women's skirts, including a teenage girl Before pleading not guilty in a Manhattan court on Wednesday, Caruso joined friends for a prayer circle He previously told police that he is married and his behavior is going to ruin his life, according to the Post. 'I'm completely remorseful and mortified,' he said. 'I'm sorry. This is going to ruin my life'. Caruso was allegedly busted for using his iPhone to take upskirt photos of at least six women. According to court papers, he admitted to photographing at least 50. Caruso, who according to his Facebook page is also a musician, reportedly called the incidents 'an obsessive behavior' that he's developed over the last couple of years. Caruso reportedly told police that it has become an 'obsessive behavior' and he snapped photos of at least 50 woemn Caruso has worked as a collections manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than two decades 'I clicked on it and was holding it and trying to be nonchalant about it. My intent was a poor choice of amusement,' he said about the April 27 incident in which he snapped photos of the teen. Police said pictures of five other women taken days before that incident were found on his cellphone. One of them was reportedly snapped in front of the Met. Caruso was charged with six counts of felony unlawful surveillance and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He faces up to four years in prison if he's convicted of felony unlawful surveillance and up to a year for endangering the welfare of a child. His attorney Kenneth Aronson told the Post that they are 'looking forward to a successful resolution'. An extreme weather front has continued to wreak havoc on parts of Australia's west coast - with reports of snowfall, damaging winds and widespread hail. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for parts of south-west Western Australia, cautioning residents about strong winds, damaging surf, rain and wind gusts. That warning was lifted by BOM on Thursday but not before the storm front did major damage to parts of Western Australia. An extreme weather front has continued to wreak havoc on parts of the West Coast with reports of snowfall, damaging winds and widespread hail Cars were left damaged by hail and the state Emergency Service received 80 call outs, 59 came from Perth''s metropolitan areas. Wind gusts of up to 100km/h were reported across Perth, bringing down trees and power lines which in turn cut power to 9,000 homes. According to the Western Power website there are still 21 unplanned power outages across the state and in an official statement said they were working on getting power back to each site. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a sever weather warning for parts of South West Western Australia on July 31, cautioning residents about strong winds, damaging surf, rain and wind gusts A spokesperson for Main Roads told ABC News that 'more than a dozen cars' were damaged by potholes created from heavy rain. The heaviest rain fall was recorded in Beedelup, 322km south of Perth, which received 37mm. Western Australia Weather Forecast FRIDAY: Min 11, Max 18 (Showers increasing) SATURDAY: Min 11, Max 16 (Showers easing) SUNDAY: Min 7, Max 17 (Cloudy) MONDAY: Min 7, Max 18 (Cloudy) TUESDAY: Min 11, Max 20 (Possible shower) WEDNESDAY: Min 10, Max 20 (Showers and windy) Source: Bureau of Meteorology Advertisement However not all residents were put out by the effects of the storm, with snow falling on Western Australia's highest peak, drawing people to the summit. Bluff Knoll, 350 kilometres south-east of Perth, received a thin blanket of snow. The snow capped peak drew in dozens of people eager to see the rare site, including Albany man Mick Pedrocchi who told ABC News he woke up at 4am to take his daughter to Bluff Knoll. 'I'm loving it, it's been on the agenda for the last five years since we moved down to Albany, and I've never seen snow in my life, this ice here gives you a real adrenaline hit,' he said. The wild weather was caused by a cold southwesterly airstream which created 'squally showers, thunderstorms and small hail' according to a BOM statement. The storm also produced winds of up to 100km/ and damaging seas. Snow falls on the peak of Bluff Knoll around once a year and it brings photographers and snow chasers alike BOM also issued a fresh weather warning for farmers in areas of Western Australia on Thursday. 'Sheep graziers are warned that cold temperatures, showers and westerly winds are expected during today,' the statement read. 'Areas likely to be affected include the Central West, Lower West, South West, South Coastal, South East Coastal, Great Southern and Central Wheat Belt forecast districts.' 'There is a risk of losses of lambs and sheep exposed to these conditions.' An attempt by NSW Police to warn women about the dangers of first dates and personal safety through a Beyonce-inspired jingle has backfired. Thousands of angry followers have defended or criticised police in equal measure over the post, which imitates the popular 'All The Single Ladies' tune. Some have applauded the 'creative' and 'fun' safety suggestions, while others have labelled the advice as 'out of touch' and likened the lyrics to victim-blaming in the wake of murders such as the killing of Eurydice Dixon. 'All the single ladies ... Now put your hands up, up on your phone, surfing apps alone, doing your own little thing, youve decided to swipe, have a super like, now someones asking to meet,' the tune begins. 'Keep yourself safe (safe), tell a friend your meeting place (place), cause its only worth it if youre okay. You can't be playing with safety'. But many saw the suggestions as flawed advice which put the onus on women to stay safe, and was off-key in light of a spate of violent crimes against Australian women who had heeded safety advice. 'Wow! Do you have a cute song for how women can not get killed by their partners in their homes? Do you have enough songs to make a greatest hits, maybe a musical?' one women sarcastically replied. 'Where's the little ditty telling men not to attack women? ... or maybe you can do a catchy song about consent while youre at it,' another suggested. 'Cops missing the mark yet again. Women know how dangerous dating men is. Teach men to be better,' one young man said. 'This post was a fail. How about a catchy little tune about how men should stop assaulting women?' another critic asked. Others had a more pragmatic response and appreciated the lighthearted attempt to bring some humour to a serious issue. 'I dont think they're placing blame on victims, just giving what I think is good advice,' one person said. 'At the end of the day everyone should take responsibility for their safety anywhere....... in a car, on a date, or as a pedestrian,' another person suggested. 'Telling someone to be aware of a potentially threatening scenario is not victim blaming,' one woman said. 'If we apply the same logic you're all getting so worked up about, should we stop telling children not to talk to strangers? Should we be telling strangers not to talk to children? ... Both of those are reasonable, necessary things to do to make one side aware of risk, and the other side aware of consequence. Many said the advice put the onus on women to stay safe, and was off-key in light of a spate of violent crimes against Australia women such as Eurydice Dixon (pictured) who had heeded safety advice 'Victim blaming in 100 per cent a real thing, but this isn't it'. One woman countered the lyrics with her own, writing: 'All the single men. Now put your hands down.' 'Up on your phone, surfing apps alone, doing your own little thing, youve decided to swipe, have a super like, now someones asking to meet. 'Keep your hands to your self (self), show some decency and respect (respect), cause its only okay if she says yes. You can't be playing with anyone's consent'. The post has since been shared over 1,000 times. Vegemite has been asked to 'please explain' after featuring controversial Senator Pauline Hanson in its new ad campaign. The new ad, Tastes Like Australia, features a long line of Aussie talents and historical events to highlight what it means to be Australian. The ad shows former prime minister Tony Abbott biting into an onion, Steven Bradbury winning a gold medal and Aussie actress Rebel Wilson dancing on stage. But most controversially, the ad kicks off with One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson saying her now infamous line 'please explain'. Scroll down for video The new Vegemite ad shows former prime minister Tony Abbott biting into an onion While many have embraced the ad for its ingenuity, others have rubbished the brand for including the controversial Queensland senator. 'Seriously? Pauline Hanson "a whole lot wonderful". Vegemite is now supporting racist viewpoints. Still, I suppose that really is the true taste of Australia,' one critic said. 'Starting your ad with an openly racist halfwit who has done nothing but promote exclusion. Ever occur to you guys that maybe she's not a great brand ambassador?' another said. Senator Hanson infamously asked 'please explain' when she was asked if she was a xenophobe in 1996. The phrase has stuck with her since. The new ad, Tastes Like Australia, features a long line of Aussie talents and historical events to highlight what it means to be Australian The ad, released by agency Thinkerbell on Thursday, will be rolled out in cinemas on Friday and on the small screen on Sunday. Thinkerbell co-founder Adam Ferrier said the campaign was supposed to be 'topical and thought-provoking'. 'It aims to promote a discussion about national pride, difference and unity,' he said. The ad also flashes up the national anthem with a question mark, after the relevance of Advance Australia Fair was questioned. Co-founder Jim Ingram said the ad never meant to insult anyone, but to 'elevate a discussion about Australianism and, to be honest, it is all a bit of fun'. Police are investigating a possible sighting of a missing Iowa college student after a woman matching her description was spotted at a truck stop some 240 miles away from where she was last seen. Mollie Tibbetts, 20, vanished after she was last spotted jogging in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa on the evening of July 18. Her family reported her missing a day later when she failed to show for work and authorities have since embarked on a wide-scale search for the University of Iowa psychology major. Police in Kearney, Missouri say they received a report on July 26 that a woman matching Tibbetts' description had been spotted at a truck stop near I-35 and Missouri 92 Highway. The unconfirmed sighting is about 240 miles away from where Tibbetts was last seen. Scroll down for video Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old Iowa college student, vanished after she was last spotted jogging in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa on the evening of July 18 Police in Kearney, Missouri say they received a report on July 26 that a woman matching Tibbetts' description had been spotted at a truck stop near I-35 and Missouri 92 Highway Kearney police said the caller reported seeing a woman resembling Tibbetts with a white male but she didn't appear to be 'in any distress', Radar Online reports. Authorities conducted a thorough search of the area, spoke with possible witnesses and reviewed all available video footage before sending a report to Iowa investigators. Tibbetts had been staying at her boyfriend Dalton Jack's home in Brooklyn the night she disappeared. Jack shares the house with his brother Blake and his fiancee Aimee Houghton, who were due to marry in the Dominican Republic this week. They have since canceled their wedding as the search continues. The 20-year-old went out for a jog that night but is thought to have returned home and studied late into the evening. Dalton, who was working on a construction job 121 miles away at the time and has been cleared as a suspect, received a Snapchat from Tibbetts that night, which he opened at 10pm. It appeared to have been taken indoors but it is unclear when it was taken. Concerns were raised after Tibbetts failed to turn up to work at a daycare center in a nearby town the following day. Jack returned to the house that day after realizing she was missing. Tibbetts had been staying at her boyfriend Dalton Jack's home in Brooklyn while he was working a construction job 120 miles away. He said he received a Snapchat from her that night This is the house in Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts disappeared from on the night of July 18. Her boyfriend Jack shares the house with his brother Blake and his fiancee Aimee Houghton Authorities have embarked on a wide-scale search for the University of Iowa psychology major since she vanished on July 18 Her longtime boyfriend told Fox News on Wednesday that she had probably gone to bed without locking the doors given it's a rural town of about 1,400 people. 'It's Brooklyn. You don't lock your doors,' Dalton said. 'It's more than likely because you know, nobody ever thought there was a reason to. Again, it's Brooklyn. Nothing ever happens in Brooklyn. That's why it's such a blindsided situation.' Authorities have previously said there were no signs of a struggle or a break-in at the home. Dalton said early in the investigation he was calling his girlfriend's phone constantly in the hope that someone would pick up. 'I did for like the first week and a half. Not more recently. I was just trying to see literally if anybody would pick up. And then, yeah, straight to voicemail,' he said. Dalton's brother said he was visiting his fiancee Aimee in Ames, about 80 miles away, on the night Tibbetts disappeared. Blake has slammed claims that Tibbetts' family had any involvement in her disappearance, saying: 'The people in this community know the truth'. Mollie is pictured above on the left with her grandmother Judy Calderwood and her three brothers. Her family are pleading with the public to come forward with information Mollie's mother Laura Calderwood (pictured) revealed that giving up hope is 'not an option' in an interview with ABC News nine days after the 20-year-old's disappearance Investigators revealed on Friday that they had searched a pig farm about 15 minutes from Jack's home after receiving a tip - but found no sign of Tibbetts. After combing every field, barn and shed in the rural area for almost a week, local police called in for backup from the FBI on Tuesday. Federal officials, who have interviewed more than 200 people, announced they were zeroing in on Tibbetts' internet footprint, keeping tabs on her social media accounts, and analyzing activity recorded by her Fitbit tracker. 'She never takes it off,' Dalton said of his girlfriend's Fitbit. 'She uses it for the sleep tracker and all her runs.' Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said officials are getting 'a lot of information' from her digital footprint. 'We are very hopeful with the electronic data we are getting back,' he added. Mortvedt said officials have little to go on, but they're 'leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will'. The reward for the safe return of the missing woman has jumped to $30,000 thanks to donations. Tibbett's mother Laura Calderwood said on Sunday she was doing her best to stay positive. Mollie was due to attend the wedding of her boyfriend's brother Blake and fiancee Aimee Houghton (above) in the Dominican Republic this week. They have since canceled their wedding as the search continues 'If it were me that were missing, Mollie wouldn't give up hope - that's not even a thought,' she told ABC News. 'You won't see me giving up hope. That's not an option.' Her father, Rob Tibbetts, said someone out there knows something about his daughter's disappearance as he urged the public to come forward with information. When asked if he had a message for his daughter, he said: 'Just come home, pie. We're looking, we'll find you'. 'She's a brave girl. She'll be fine, just hang in there.' The father said investigators have told him 'again and again' that missing person cases similar to his daughter's have always been solved by a tip from the community. 'What we need is for people to tell their friends and neighbors that if they saw anything that seemed even remotely out of the ordinary to call authorities and they will run that down,' he said. Anyone with information is urged to contact the police tip lines at (800) 452-1111 or (515) 223-1400. The sheriff said the public can also send tips via email to tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com The leader of an Islamist extremist group that campaigned to bring Sharia law to Australia now wants taxpayers to free him from detention in the Middle East. Ismail al-Wahwah, a former taxi driver who is now the spiritual leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia, was detained in Jordan late last month. His son Anas al-Wahwah has revealed his father, who lived at Condell Park in Sydney's south-west, was granted refugee status by the Howard government 21 years ago. He has written to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop demanding she secure his father's release from a jail in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Queensland senator Fraser Anning, however, has called on the Australian government to 'leave him there to rot' in the Middle East. Scroll down for video The Sydney-based leader of an Islamist group campaigning for Sharia law and the overthrow of Western civilisation came to Australia as a refugee in 1997 Ismail al-Wahwah, a former taxi driver who is now the spiritual leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Australia, was detained at Jordan late last month Despite his father's hatred of democratic, Australian values Ismail al-Wahwah's family wants the Australian government to get him out of detention in Jordan. Anas al-Wahwah wrote to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Wednesday demanding her department secure his release. 'Ismail has not actively campaigned in Jordan since his departure in 1997,' he said in the letter seen by Daily Mail Australia. 'Moreover, when Ismail was granted political asylum in Australia in 1997, the government acknowledged Ismail's persecution at the hands of the Jordanian regime which holds little regard to basic principles of the rule of law. Ismail al-Wahwah's son Anas al-Wahwah has written to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop demanding her department secure his release. He revealed his father was a refugee in 1997 Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's department has confirmed it will provide consular assistance to Ismail al-Wahwah as he is locked up in Jordan 'The only conclusion one can reach is that Ismail is being held for a principled activism outside of Jordan.' Anas al-Wahwah's letter made no mention of how his father, known in the Muslim community as Abu Anas al-Wahwah, had previously been deported from Indonesia and travelled to Syria in 2013 in support of an Islamic caliphate. Ismail al-Wahwah was detained at Amman Airport on July 25 while travelling to the Arab nation in the Middle East with his wife. He was arrested upon arrival in the country and taken into custody by Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate without access to a lawyer. Senator Fraser Anning, who defected from Pauline Hanson's One Nation to Katter's Australian Party, said Islmail al-Wahwah was 'playing Australians for fools'. Fraser Anning: 'Leave him there to rot' ' Ismail Alwahwah came to this country as a so-called refugee in 1997. Since then he has been linked to Man Haron Monis, the Lindt cafe terrorist, he has called for a jihad on the Australian Jewish community, shown support for the Islamic State and continues to make anti-Australian and anti-Western comments,' he told Daily Mail Australia today. 'If he and his ilk hate Australia and the freedom it affords, why are they now searching for government assistance? 'I know that as a taxpayer I don't want to foot the bill for bringing this individual back into our country. 'He holds blatant extremist views which are incompatible with our Australian identity, I say leave him there to rot.' Ismail al-Wahwah was detained at Amman Airport on July 25 while travelling to the Arab nation in the Middle East with his wife A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Daily Mail Australia they were 'aware of the detention of an Australian citizen in Jordan' and were 'providing consular assistance to his family'. Hizb ut-Tahrir leader's family pleads with Julie Bishop to help him Ismail is an Australian citizen and we are requesting the Australian government expend every effort to secure Ismail's immediate release. His arbitrary detainment is the crime, independent of whatever charges the Jordanian regime may or may not subsequently invent. Ismail has not actively campaigned in Jordan since his departure in 1997. The only conclusion one can reach is that Ismail is being held for a principled activism outside of Jordan. Moreover, when Ismail was granted political asylum in Australia in 1997, the government acknowledged Ismail's persecution at the hands of the Jordanian regime which holds little regard to basic principles of the rule of law. Ismail was previously persecuted on the basis of entirely fabricated charges, received the death penalty as a result, and the sentence was only commuted on the morning the death penalty was supposed to have been enacted. Ismail could have lost his life on the basis of entirely fabricated charges. Given the Australian government is aware of Ismail's history of persecution in Jordan, and its agreement that Ismail is in need of protection from the Jordanian regime, the Australian government has a particular responsibility towards Ismail given his granting of political asylum. Given Ismail's arbitrary detention, the absence of the rule of law in Jordan and the real and immediate threats to the safety and well being of Ismail, we request the government expend every effort to secure Ismail's immediate release. I thank you for your time and look forward to your prompt reply. Anas al-Wahwah, son of Ismail al-Wahwah on behalf of the family of Ismail al-Wahwah Edited extract of his letter Advertisement 'Owing to privacy considerations we will not provide further comment,' she said. Ismail al-Wahwah's arrest in July occurred two years after he told a 'caliphate conference' at Ankara in Turkey that Muslims needed to lead 'the armies of jihad that will conquer Europe and America' where their enemies have 'black hearts'. A video from March 2016, translated and shared by the Middle East Research Institute, showed him ranting about the need to restore an Islamic caliphate. He called on the attendees at the Ankara conference to pledge 'before Allah to restore the caliphate, to raise the banner, to restore the Sharia, to unite the Islamic nation and to lead the armies of jihad that will conquer Europe and America so that the word of Allah will reign supreme'. In his speech, Ismail al-Wahwah also warned attendants not to trust their 'enemies' in America, Europe and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. 'They are all enemies. Their hearts are black. They hate you, your religion, your Muhammad, and your Quran,' he said. 'Start dealing with them, before they start dealing with you. Cut of their hands before they sow corruption on the land. 'You in Turkey are able to do that, Allah willing.' Hizb ut-Tahrir has been linked to the September 2015 shooting in Parramatta of accountant Curtis Cheng, following revelations it radicalised a 15-year-old boy who shot dead the father-of-two. Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammad reportedly listened to a talk by Hizb ut-Tahrir at Parramatta mosque in Sydney's west and changed into a black robe before he headed to the nearby New South Wales Police headquarters and shot Mr Cheng in the back of the head. The fundamentalist group he leads opposes democracy. Daily Mail Australia last year filmed a senior leader Uthman Badar declaring that ex-Muslims, also known as apostates, deserved death. Al-Wahwah has previously called Jews 'the most evil creatures of Allah'. In February 2016, mosques began banning the preacher who then resorted to renting halls and private spaces. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation reportedly visited a western Sydney mosque several times and caretaker Mohammed Elzamtar asked Ismail al-Wahwah to 'tone down' his sermons. 'I felt that our community is under a lot of pressure and I didn't want him to get into trouble,' he said. Lindt cafe shooter Man Haron Monis attended a Hizb ut-Tahrir presentation at their Lakemba headquarters in June 2014 and was photographed with their leaders. Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Sunni fundamentalist group campaigning for a global caliphate based on Sharia law, is so extreme it was last year banned in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has returned to the top job just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter. Ms Ardern, 37, will return to parliament next week after giving birth to baby Neve in June. She posed for for loving family photos cradling baby Neve next to partner Clarke Gayford at their home in Auckland on Thursday. Ms Ardern revealed the most surprising thing she experienced after becoming a new mother was to do with her daughter's digestive system. 'That a baby can go so long without pooing. There you go. That's the first thing that came to mind,' she told the New Zealand Herald. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has returned to the top job just six weeks after giving birth to her daughter Ms Ardern, 37, will return to parliament next week after giving birth to baby Neve in June 'I did not expect that. Apparently completely normal as well. I guess that's just an indication of what every parent experiences, you go down to being so focused on food, nappies and sleep. That's day in, day out.' Her partner Clarke Gayford will be a stay-at-home dad while Ms Ardern is working. Ms Ardern will move into Premier House with Neve and Mr Gayford on Saturday. Speaker Trevor Mallard has warned journalists they will be kicked out of parliament and stripped of their accreditation if they take photos of the baby. The Parliamentary Press Gallery has been told journalists who break the rules and take unauthorised photos would be kicked out, and their employer would also be penalised, Stuff reported. Photos and videos of the baby are only permitted in specified areas or by invitation as part of the new regulations. Mr Mallard is understood to have made the decision to limit coverage of Neve after discussions with Ms Ardern, in an attempt to make parliament more family friendly. Ms Ardern's return to Wellington comes six weeks after she gave birth to daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford in June. Her partner Clarke Gayford will be a stay-at-home dad while Ms Ardern is working Speaker Trevor Mallard has warned journalists they will be kicked out of parliament and stripped of their accreditation if they take photos of the baby Babies can be taken into the debating chamber at parliament with their parents but Ms Ardern said she doesn't think that will be necessary with Neve. 'There might be times when I might, but by and large I don't think I'll have to which will be very upsetting for the Speaker,' she said. 'We have MPs who have a very legitimate need already to have the children in the Debating Chamber, and they have. I don't think that should be something we have to make statements about. It should just be a natural thing.' She was the first world leader to have a baby in office in 30 years - and only the second ever. Ms Ardern announced the birth of her first child, weighing 7lb 3oz, on Instagram. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters led the Government in her absence. Police have said they found no evidence of an active shooter at a California hospital that was locked down on Wednesday night as SWAT teams searched the campus. Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield went into lockdown as police searched room-to-room and visitors barricaded themselves into rooms at 9.45pm, according to local media. Bakersfield Police tweeted around 10.50pm PDT to say an 'initial search' of the hospital had been completed which found no evidence of a shooter or any victims. Officers still told the public to avoid the area. Scroll down for video. Bakersfield Police have said they found no evidence of an active shooter at a California hospital that was locked down on Wednesday night as SWAT teams searched the campus. 'The initial search of the hospital has been completed and no evidence of any shots fired or victims located. Please continue to avoid the area. Further updates will follow,' the force tweeted. Reports of gunfire at around 8pm sparked a huge police response. Bakersfield Police tweeted at around 9pm: 'We are responding to SW Mercy Hospital. No shots have been fired while emergency personnel have been on scene. 'No victims located & officers are still searching the hospital. Please stay out of the area. More news to follow.' The pensioner who received a free meal from a tradesman in McDonalds has thanked the kind stranger in a private video message and heartwarming note. A Facebook video shows the moment Dave Love, 42, paid for 88-year-old Bert Bradley's meal as well as his own, before giving the pensioner $20 for his next coffee. With help from his grandson, Bert has since sent Dave a heartfelt video message thanking him for his kindness. Bert, a widower who has recently lost his daughter, is an extremely private man who does not want the footage shared publicly, but the video features the pensioner reading a thank you letter to Dave. 'I would like to thank David very much for his kindness shown to me in McDonald's , where I sit and have breakfast a few times a week,' he says. 'Thank you so much.' Hero tradie Dave Love (pictured) has revealed to Daily Mail Australia the reason why he paid for Bert's meal at McDonald's in Bendigo, Victoria With help from his grandson, Bert sent Dave a heartfelt message thanking him for his kindness Dave has since become an online sensation but he stresses that he simply did what anyone would do. 'When I looked at that man I saw my dad, who has passed away. I just had to help him,' Dave told Daily Mail Australia. 'Pensioners need our help. I just hope people who see the video remember to do a similar thing in the future.' The video was secretly filmed by Melanie Langley, Dave's partner of seven months, who says he does kind things all the time. 'He has the best heart - he always puts himself last and would do anything for anyone,' Melanie, 39, said. The couple met on Bumble and knew they were soulmates. Just months later they combined their two families and now share five kids. Dave's daughter Eliza (father and daughter are pictured together) said 'he does this stuff all the time' Dave (pictured left and right with his daughter Eliza) said he was passionate about helping the elderly Dave's eldest daughter Eliza said she was proud of her father. 'He does this stuff all the time, one day he was really broke but saw an old lady needed some money for food at the supermarket and gave her the rest of the money he had til payday,' the young girl said. Dave, wearing his hi-vis work clothing, had offered to pay for Bert's meal alongside his own morning coffee. As the pensioner put his change back in his pocket, the McDonald's server had jokingly said: 'That's gonna weigh you down now.' In the video, Bert thanked Dave profusely before moving away from the counter with his order number. But Dave then slipped a $20 note into his hand saying: 'That's for your next coffee.' Dave says he doesn't want to be hailed a hero. 'It's not about me - it is about helping people out. I didn't do this for attention but I'm glad it has made people realise how far a little kindness can go,' he said. Dave, 42, generously offered to pay for Bert's meal on Tuesday - and he quickly became an online sensation when a video of the kind deed went viral Dave (pictured left) noticed Bert sifting through a handful of coins and is shown paying for both orders with his card And he is passionate about helping the elderly. 'These people built our country so we can live the lives we have today - for my generation and the generation after us,' he said. 'If I was prime minister tomorrow I would fix the pension.' The tradie also made a comment about the other viral workman video from this week, where a man allegedly assaulted a stranger outside a pub. 'Not all tradies are bad people like the grub from Frankston who hit that bloke the other day,' he said. Bert had initially resisted Dave's offer but eventually gratefully accepted the money saying 'thank you very much you're a gentleman, thank you'. Bert thanked Dave for his kindness, saying 'there's still some nice people here' 'There's still some nice people here,' Bert had said to Dave. Bert has been given a year's supply of McDonald's. The heart-warming video has been shared more than 20,000 times on social media and has received many comments from people praising Dave's kind actions. 'I'm helping the old fella out, he's down on his last 20 bucks,' Dave said to Melanie in the video. 'He's standing there with a whole heap of change he's a pensioner and he's old, so I paid for his meal and I gave him 20 dollars. It is what it is, honey, it's life.' Speaking to The Today Show, Dave said that he had been inundated with lovely messages from people all over the world. 'Every single one of them is special and I've read them all,' he said. 'It's just made me realise how many beautiful people there are in the world.' Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to sign up to the full internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism might be explained by fears that he knows he has fallen foul of it himself. Several examples of the Labour leader likening the actions of Israel to the Nazis came to light yesterday. Doing so is a specific example of anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Most organisations, including the police and Crown Prosecution Service, have adopted the IHRA's definition. But Labour refuses to adopt the same guidelines in full, leading some critics to ask what Mr Corbyn is afraid of. Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to sign up to the full internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism might be explained by fears that he knows he has fallen foul of it himself How Corbyn is damned by his own words British support for Israel is an act of crass indifference to the violence of the Israeli military on a par with the 1930s Tory government's arms blockade to the Spanish republic which was desperately trying to fight off the Nazi-supported Franco forces.' Writing in the Morning Star newspaper, Jan, 2009 'I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the...psychological damage to a whole generation who've been imprisoned for as long as the [Nazi] siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place.' On video at the Israeli embassy, London, 2010 'He has spoken... very forcefully' On a Commons talk he hosted by Hajo Meyer repeatedly comparing the Nazi regime and Israeli policy, in 2010 Advertisement Yesterday examples were circulated of the Labour leader falling foul of the rule against 'comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis'. In 2010 Mr Corbyn was filmed outside the Israeli embassy in London comparing its blockade of Gaza to Nazi atrocities. Exhorting a crowd to rise up in anger, he said: 'I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the mortar shells that had gone through the school buildings, the destroyed UN establishments, burnt-out schools, the ruined homes, the destroyed lives, the imprisoned people, the psychological damage to a whole generation who've been imprisoned for as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place. This is a war crime that is being undertaken, but this time on live television.' During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, the Nazis killed more than a million people and wounded a further two million. The 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad in which Nazi forces directly targeted civilians in air-raid shelters is also one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with some two million people killed or wounded. Many Holocaust survivors regard it as insulting to compare the horrific atrocities inflicted by Adolf Hitler to the controversial policies of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians. In January 2010 on Holocaust Memorial Day Mr Corbyn hosted an event at the Commons comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis, The Times revealed yesterday. In January 2010 on Holocaust Memorial Day Mr Corbyn hosted an event at the Commons comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis, The Times revealed Anti-racist code party won't accept The definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance states: 'Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. 'Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.' The IHRA's working definition includes a list of behaviours likely to be regarded as anti-Semitic. Labour has copied word-for-word from the IHRA document but omits four examples listed by the Ammiance. They are: Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country. Claiming that Israel's existence as a state is a racist endeavour. Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations. Advertisement The event, at which he spoke, was part of a British tour called Never Again For Anyone Auschwitz To Gaza. A year earlier, in 2009, Mr Corbyn had indirectly compared the Israeli military to the Nazis. In an article for the hard-Left Morning Star newspaper, he likened the Palestinian cause to the republicans in the Spanish civil war who were under siege from Nazis supporting General Franco. He wrote that British support for Israel was 'an act of crass indifference to the violence of the Israeli military on a par with the 1930s Tory government's arms blockade to the Spanish republic, which was desperately trying to fight off the Nazi-supported Franco forces'. Last night, the Labour Party said Mr Corbyn's speech mentioning Leningrad and Stalingrad 'was not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the conditions of civilian populations in besieged cities in wartime'. And it said that his 2009 article regarding Franco was 'not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the actions of two Conservative governments, which supported blockades during conflict'. A spokesman added that Mr Corbyn had already apologised over the Holocaust Memorial Day meeting but pointed out the main speaker at that event was a Jewish Auschwitz survivor. A British court has recognised sharia law for the first time in a landmark decision as a judge ruled that a wife can claim her husband's assets in the split. The decision came about after Nasreen Akhter wanted a divorce from her husband Mohammed Shabaz Khan. The couple were wed in an Islamic faith marriage in 1998. Mr Khan wanted to block Mrs Akhter's divorce on the basis that they are 'not legally married' under English law and says they are married 'under Sharia law only'. The High Court ruling on Wednesday said their union should be recognised because their vows had similar expectations of a British marriage contract. Mr Justice Williams said the marriage was considered to be void under section 11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 due to it having been 'entered into in disregard of certain requirements as to the formation of marriage.' This meant that Mrs Akhter was 'entitled to a decree of nullity'. Previously, Nikah marriages had been deemed legally non-existent, meaning that any party wishing to terminate the marriage had no legal recourse for any division of assets. The implications of the judgment are that women married in an Islamic faith ceremony will have an easier time securing a divorce in the UK, paving the way for them to claim half their husband's assets. A British court has recognised sharia law for the first time in a landmark decision. The ruling came about after Nasreen Akhter (pictured) wanted a divorce from her husband Mohammed Shabaz Khan. They were wed in an Islamic faith marriage in 1998 The judge had heard that the couple, who have a Pakistani background, had taken part in a 'nikah' ceremony at a restaurant in Southall, west London, nearly 20 years ago and lived in Pinner, Middlesex. The judge heard evidence from Mrs Akhter, a solicitor and Mr Khan, who was involved in a property business and worked in Dubai. Mrs Akhter said the nikah ceremony was conducted by an Imam before about 150 guests. She said Mr Khan had become her 'husband' and he had considered her his 'wife'. 'From my limited understanding of Islam at the time it did comply with all the requirements,' she said. 'I saw him as my husband. There was no question in my mind at all.' She added: 'He always introduced me as his wife'. The High Court ruling on Wednesday said their union should be recognised because their vows had similar expectations of a British marriage contract. Pictured: Mohammed Shabaz Khan Barrister Paula Rhone-Adrien, who led Mr Khan's legal team, said issues being considered went to the heart of the understanding of the law of marriage and divorce in British society. She said the judge's ruling was likely to be 'considered in full' by Muslims. Prime Minister Theresa May had asked for a review when she was Home Secretary. She wanted to explore whether Sharia law was being applied in a way that was incompatible with domestic legislation. A panel of experts, which included an academic and lawyers, said Muslim couples should be required to undergo civil marriages in addition to Muslim ceremonies to bring Islamic marriage legally into line with Christian and Jewish marriage. A 26-year-old man has been charged with murder over the suspicious death of a toddler last month. Emergency crews were called to a house at Tarro, in the Hunter region of NSW, on June 19 after reports a 20-month-old girl was in cardiac arrest. The young girl was rushed to John Hunter Hospital but was unable to be revived. She suffered horrific injuries to her torso, head and internal organs. The man was in a de-facto relationship with the toddler's mother and had recently moved in to the family's home, according to the ABC. A man has been charged in relation to the suspicious death of a toddler seven weeks ago Police arrested the 26-year-old man (pictured centre) at a Tanilba Bay home on Thursday At about 8.30am on Thursday, homicide detectives swooped on a home in the nearby town on Tanilba Bay, where they arrested the heavily-tattooed 26-year-old man. He was taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he was charged with murder. Photos from the arrest show police knocking on the door the home before placing handcuffs on the man, who was wearing a gold crucifix necklace and had a shaved head. Detective Wayne Wolpole who led the investigation into the man's arrest had come after a special task force was set up to investigate the young girl's death. 'As a result of inquiries, Strike Force Nerium was formed with homicide investigators from Sydney and detectives from Port Stevens/Hunter police district,' he said shortly before the man was charged. The man was taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he was charged with murder 'Those investigations have been ongoing since that night and this morning at 8.30am it resulted in the arrest. 'That male has been brought to Raymond Terrace Police Station he is currently in the process of being charged with the murder of that little girl.' Detective Walpole said the man was due to face Newcastle Local Court on Friday and police were hoping to have any application for bail refused. An elderly woman is dead and a man has been rushed to hospital following a domestic violence incident north of Brisbane. Emergency services were called to a home in Topaz Drive in Mango Hill following a triple zero call at around 1pm on Thursday afternoon. Police found the body of a woman aged in her 70s when they arrived a short time later. Topaz Street (pictured) in Mango Hill, north of Brisbane has been taped off after a woman's body was found at a home 'A male in his 40s, known to the woman, was also located at the scene and had significant injuries,' a Queensland Police statement said. The man was taken to Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital for treatment of self-inflicted wounds. A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman described it as 'serious domestic violence incident'. Aerial footage of the tragic scene shows a large part of the street taped off as forensic investigators examine the property. Forensic police are examining the scene of a domestic violence incident A large bloodstain can be seen outside the front door of the home, the ABC reported. Police say they're not seeking any further suspects at this time. Mango Hill State School is near the scene and advised parents on its Facebook page to avoid Topaz Drive during pick-up. 'If your child is walking home via Topaz Drive, police will walk them through the blocked off area and safely to the other side. Staff members are on Topaz Drive assisting police,' the post states. 'There is no threat to the school or the public.' Police were called to the tragic scene at 1pm on Thursday afternoon Resident Shirley Anderson was shocked to hear what happened. 'It really is a lovely area it's just wrong. It's just unbelievable. It's so sad,' she told the ABC. Police are expected to provide a update later on Thursday. Anyone with information in relation to the incident should call Policelink on 131 444. If you or anyone around you is struggling and/or seeking support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 224 636. A 27-year-old student who convinced his Uber driver he was stuffing a dead body into the boot of his car could face criminal charges for wasting police resources. The man spent a night in custody after the prank in Brisbane's west sparked a full scale investigation involving 20 officers on Tuesday evening. Queensland Police are furious over the waste of resources, with 9 News reporting that the prank has cost taxpayers 'thousands of dollars'. The man could be charged with false representation causing a police investigation, which carries a maximum fine of more than $13,000. 20 police officers were involved in the full-scale investigation, which reportedly cost taxpayers 'thousands of dollars' in wasted resources 'We will be alleging that clothing was stuffed in a way to create the illusion that there was in fact a body,' Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said. 'We will be exploring whether there's a breach of the law in terms of false representation being made to police to cause a police investigation.' The incident happened on Tuesday night, where an Uber driver was called to a unit block on Oxley Road at Sherwood and two men tried to stuff a 'dead body' into the boot of his car. Police (pictured) remained at the scene in Brisbane's west for much of Wednesday before realising the incident was a hoax The shocked driver fled the scene and later called police. After finding what looked liked blood in several locations at the scene, police spent the night and most of Wednesday at the scene, before they identified the incident as a hoax around midday. A second man, believed to be a friend, was also questioned by police on Wednesday night, 7 News reported. Two men were questioned by police, with one spending a night in custody. The 27-year-old could face a charge with a maximum fine of more than $13,000 Queensland Police Service Crime and Intelligence coordinator Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming isn't laughing about the prank and described the incident as a waste of police resources. 'We deployed very significant resources immediately to the scene, that included detectives from South Brisbane, scenes of crime scientific intelligence and homicide detectives,' he told a press conference. Superintendent Fleming expressed concern about the pranking trend that has recently emerged on YouTube and social media platforms. He had this warning for anyone else thinking about joining in. Police launched a full scale investigation after finding splatters of what appeared to be blood at the scene (pictured) 'I get that some people might see this as funny; self evidently, we don't,' Supt Fleming said. 'It's not that we don't have a sense of humour, but as a result of the events of last night we have had significant resources tied up in investigating whether someone had been abducted or murdered.' He is concerned recent incidents have created a 'boy who cries wolf' environment. 'Pranks like this not only tie up resources, but actually create an environment where it creates some doubt in our mind and that's a situation that we want to avoid,' Supt Fleming said. A Russian man was killed after slipping in his bathroom and getting the handle of a toilet brush wedged in his skull through his eye socket. The 60-year-old was taken to a hospital near the Russian capital Moscow with the blood-soaked brush still jammed in his head. Surgeons had to 'open the man's skull' in an attempt to remove the handle which was embedded in his head through his right eye. But his condition deteriorated and he died days later. A Russian man was killed after slipping in his bathroom and getting the handle of a toilet brush wedged in his skull through his eye socket. The 60-year-old was taken to a hospital (pictured) near the Russian capital Moscow with the blood-soaked brush still jammed in his head The victim had slipped on the floor of his bathroom at his home in the town of Istra, reported Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) newspaper. He fell on top of the toilet brush. The man was given an MRI scan and X-ray plus strong antibiotics, according to reports. 'The toilet brush was cut off immediately above the eye of the patient but it was not possible to remove the handle straight away,' reported MK. During the accident a bone had broken that threatened brain damage, said doctors. 'Surgeons decided to open the skull and remove first the broken bones and then the handle of the toilet brush,' reported the newspaper. 'The surgery was performed and at first appeared to be successful, everything was removed, but the patient remained in a coma. 'He was moved to his local hospital in Istra town for further treatment but unfortunately some days later he died, still in a coma.' Healthy greyhounds that have retired from the track have been deemed unsuitable for adoption and are being put down for feeble reasons. New South Wales Greyhound Racing internal records reveal that the trainers of the retired racing dogs have peculiar justifications for euthanising the animals when they are no longer fit to compete on the track. Some vague reasons refer to the greyhounds' emotional personality as they were 'too timid,' 'too noisy' or 'anxious and fearful.' There were also incidents where the retired racing dogs were put down for chasing lizards and hating cats, The Guardian reported. Healthy greyhounds that have retired from the track are being put down for feeble reasons 'Can not walk the dog waiting on hip replacement, could not give away. Dog does not like cats and other animals,' one document from May 2017 read. The documents are being released as the Greens party voices concerns over NSW's weakened greyhound rehoming policy. Greyhound owners are required to show they've made reasonable attempts at finding a home for the healthy greyhound to justify having the animal euthanised. Before the change - which was introduced by the new Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission - greyhound owners had to seek the consent of the regulator. Mehreen Faruqi from the Greens said that the integrity commission was meant to fix the industry, not weaken the safeguards. Faruqi said that the regulator doesn't care about saving the lives of the retired dogs as moving away from a permission-based system to a notification system means there is no opportunity for intervention. New South Wales Internal Greyhound Racing records reveal that the retired dogs are being euthanised for being 'too timid,' 'too noisy' or 'anxious and fearful' 'Being too timid or barking at another dog shouldn't be a death sentence and the industry should take responsibility for the rehabilitation of greyhounds they have used and abused or made money from,' she said. Faruqi said that the records justifying euthanasia suggest the retired dogs had stopped turning a profit. A spokeswoman from the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission said the euthanasia policy had not been weakened and the commission would monitor owners those who were continuously unsuccessful at rehoming. 'GWIC's position is to increase owner responsibility and accountability for whole of life decisions,' the spokeswoman said in a statement. In 2016 the New South Wales government attempted to ban greyhound racing. On Tuesday, two years after the proposed ban, the same government announced they would provide $500,000 in prize money to the greyhound racing industry. A children's entertainer has been slammed by shocked parents after he spat marshmallows into a girl's face, squirted water at a child's crotch and encouraged them all to 'throw their undies at him' during a performance at a primary school. Australian entertainer Stig Wemyss performed for hundreds of children at Patea Area School in Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island on Tuesday. After bursting into the school hall Mr Wemyss demanded a 'rockstar welcome', telling the children: 'throw your undies at me!', Stuff reported. Australian entertainer Stig Wemyss (pictured) has been slammed by shocked parents over a performance at a New Zealand primary school During the performance he spat chewed-up marshmallow into a girl's face and squirted another child's crotch with a water bottle. Concerned parent Daniel Beattie said he wished he didn't take his five-year-old daughter to the performance. 'It was one thing after and another. I really wish I grabbed my daughter and took her out of there but she's only five so I'm hoping it went over her head, but she did ask me ''why did that man want my undies?''' he said. Mr Beattie said he had searched Mr Wemyss's name on the internet before the performance and did not see any red flags, but it only took four minutes of the 90 minute act for him to feel uncomfortable. 'It was filled with innuendo.' Waverley Primary School teacher Roger Moore was also in attendance at the performance, and said the beginning was 'a bit risky'. In a statement, Mr Wemyss's management said his show had always received positive feedback Mr Wemyss (pictured here at a previous performance in Australia) also told Daily Mail Australia he was disappointed with some of the feedback from his New Zealand show 'He squirted water into a child's crotch and yelled in kids faces, which someone that works with kids would never do,' he said. Mr Moore said the children appeared to enjoy the performance. In a statement, Mr Wemyss's management said his show had always received positive feedback. 'The event is created to entertain, to inspire children's imagination but most of all foster a love of books and reading. As always we are happy for the feedback and are happy to take it on board,' his employer Bolinda said in a statement. Mr Wemyss also told Daily Mail Australia he has adjusted his performance following the feedback. 'I was disappointed to read that one of my shows had offended a child. We make a point of telling libraries that the show is suitable for children aged eight-years-old and above but sometimes, younger children attend anyway,' he said. During the performance, it was reported Mr Wemyss spat chewed-up marshmallows into a girl's face and squirted another child's crotch with a water bottle He claimed some of what has previously been reported is 'simply inaccurate'. 'However, I value all feedback about my performance. I have taken on board some of the comments mentioned in the (Stuff) article and I have adjusted my performance accordingly,' he said. Mr Wemyss said his 'role is to excite children about books and reading through the use of audio books and 99.9 per cent of the time, we get that right'. He said it was his hope that every child who attends one of his performances recognises the value of audio books and signs up to the Borrow box App. 'If that means I have to continue to tweak my performance so as not to offend children, or parents, of any age, I will,' he said. A Brazilian man who brutally attacked a Pakistani student, leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries after she attempted to flee down a stairwell, will spend at least seven-and-a-half years in prison. Eduardo Santos Abrahao Filho, 28, had been charged with attempting to murder Mehreen Ahmad, 32, after she was found in a pool of blood at the Murray Street apartment building in Perth with serious head injuries on May 20 last year. But Filho instead pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and was sentenced in the WA Supreme Court on Thursday to nine-and-a-half years behind bars. Scroll down for video A Brazilian man who brutally attacked Mehreen Ahmad (pictured), leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries, will spend at least seven-and-a-half years in prison Eduardo Santos Abrahao Filho, 28, had been charged with attempting to murder Mehreen Ahmad, 32, (pictured) after she was found in a pool of blood at an apartment building in Perth Justice Bruno Fiannaca said the cause of their confrontation was not known given the only version of events came from Filho. The court heard the pair had met earlier that night and Ms Ahmad, a Pakistani national from the US who was studying primary education, had been out with friends when the group returned to her apartment. At some point in the evening, Ms Ahmad left to buy cigarettes but didn't return. During the stairwell confrontation she became distressed and began screaming when Filho put his hand over her mouth in a bid to silence her. He hit her head against the ground and she fell headfirst down the stairs trying to get away from him during the struggle. The court heard the pair had met earlier that night and Ms Ahmad, who was studying primary education, had been out with friends when the group returned to her apartment Filho fled the scene when witnesses arrived. Justice Fiannaca said although the brutal and unprovoked attack was out of character and not in the worst category of offending, it was not far below it. Filho's decision to flee was 'cowardly and callous' and panic was not an excuse. 'You showed no regard for her condition.' Justice Fiannaca accepted Filho was remorseful but said he had also diminished his acceptance of responsibility in statements he made in a letter to the court, to a psychologist and the author of the pre-sentence report. He said Filho was a low to moderate risk of reoffending, but if he did not accept he intended to harm her in his own conscience, not just through his guilty plea, there would always be a risk he would snap again. Ms Ahmad has been treated at one of the world's best rehabilitation centres for brain injuries in the US but still cannot move, communicate or feed herself and is incontinent. Justice Fiannaca said although the brutal and unprovoked attack was out of character and not in the worst category of offending, it was not far below it Filho hit her head against the ground and she fell headfirst down the stairs (pictured) trying to get away from him during the struggle She is not expected to substantially recover and needs 24-hour care. Ms Ahmad's parents watched court proceedings via video link in Pakistan. Justice Fiannaca described their victim impact statements as heart-wrenching, noting that while Ms Ahmad's life had been ravaged, theirs was also shattered. He said Ms Ahmad's mother made a particularly poignant comment about the impact on their lives. 'If she had died that day, we would, I think, have come to terms with that loss,' she said. 'We are instead trapped in what feels like a never-ending darkness.' Filho is expected to be deported after he serves his prison term. Advertisement The Warsaw Uprising was re-enacted by traditionalists to mark the 74th anniversary of the the city's ill-fated 1944 revolt against the Nazi occupation. Polish and Hungarian men and women took part in the re-enactment in downtown Budapest on Wednesday to remember the lives lost during the 63-day revolt organised by Poland's clandestine resistance movement, the Home Army. Although Hungarian soldiers did not join the fight, troops stationed near Warsaw - under instructions from Budapest - supplied ammunition, food and medication to the Poles, and also provided shelter to the wounded and refugees. By the time the two-month battle ended, 18,000 Polish fighters had died and some 180,000 civilians had also lost their lives. Scroll down for video The Warsaw Uprising was re-enacted by Polish and Hungarians traditionalists to mark the 74th anniversary of the the city's ill-fated 1944 revolt against the Nazi occupation Traditionalists re-enact the 1944 Warsaw Upising against the Nazi occupiers on the 74th anniversary of the revolt in downtown Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday The Warsaw Uprising claimed the lives of 18,000 Polish insurgents and some 180,000 civilians. Hungarian soldiers stationed nearby didn't join the fight, but they supplied ammunition, food and medication and also provided shelter for the wounded Meanwhile, in Warsaw, war veterans, residents and Poland's leaders stood at attention on Wednesday as sirens wailed during anniversary ceremonies honoring the fighters and victims. Warsaw traffic stopped for a minute's remembrance as the sirens sounded at 5pm, the exact hour when the August 1 revolt started 74 years ago. Earlier in the day, President Andrzej Duda laid a wreath at a memorial in Wola district, where German forces killed tens of thousands of civilians in early August 1944 in retaliation for the revolt. 'We pay homage not only to the fighters but also to those who were brutally murdered by the German forces - and the only reason was that they were Poles,' Duda said. Source: YouTube/Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego War veterans and residents gathered in downtown Warsaw to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising Warsaw residents stand with national flags and flares to observe a minute of silence for the fighters and victims of the revolt People light flares as they commemorate the 74th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in Warsaw, Poland Warsaw residents lit flares to remember the lives lost during the 63-day revolt organised by Poland's clandestine resistance movement, the Home Army Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki met with the few surviving veteran insurgents at a ceremony at the Warsaw Rising Museum. In a much welcomed declaration, he vowed that the government would take full responsibility for paying for the care of all known insurgents' graves and the search for those graves not yet found. Eugeniusz Tyrajski of the insurgent's association said it meant a lot to the veterans that their struggles and sacrifices have not been forgotten. German national flags were lowered to half-staff at Germany's diplomatic missions in Poland, in memory of the 'victims of unimaginable German cruelty,' Ambassador Rolf Nikel tweeted. Hungarian and Polish men take part in the re-enactment of the Warsaw Uprising after which the Nazis razed the Polish capital to the ground Jerzy Snopek, the Polish ambassador to Hungary, attends the reenactment of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupiers on the 74th anniversary of the revolt in downtown Budapest A man dressed in his costume wields a weapon before taking part in the re-enactment of the Warsaw Uprising in Budapest An estimated 50,000 young Polish men and women took up arms against the Nazis occupying the city during the 1944 revolt Around 50,000 young Poles took part in the Warsaw Rising, which was expected to take only a few days but lasted two months Among the many observances, groups of boy and girl scouts walked through the Mokotow district that saw some of the fiercest fighting. The police stopped a march by a nationalist organisation, National-Radical Camp, or ONR, which later held a non-violent rally. An estimated 50,000 young Poles took part in the Warsaw Rising, which was expected to take only a few days but lasted two months. Some 18,000 of them were killed and another 25,000 were injured in the 63 days of struggle against the well-armed German troops. Some 180,000 civilians were killed in German bombings and executions. Warsaw traffic stopped for a minute's remembrance as the sirens sounded at 5pm, the exact hour when the August 1 revolt started 74 years ago War veterans, residents and Poland's leaders stood at attention as sirens wailed during anniversary ceremonies honoring the fighters and victims on Wednesday People light flares to honour the lives lost during the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising, which began on August 1, 1944 and ended two months later A woman holds a flare during a ceremony to mark the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw's city centre People hold flares during a boat parade on the Vistula river to mark the 74th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE WARSAW UPRISING? An insurgent from the 'Gustaw' battalion near the church of the Garrison is pictured in Warsaw during the 63-day revolt to oust the Nazis The Warsaw Uprising saw an estimated 50,000 young Polish men and women take up arms against the Nazis occupying the city. The insurgents, known as the Home Army, were aiming to oust the Germans and take control of Warsaw before it was liberated by the advancing Soviet Army. It was expected to take only a few days, but lasted two months. The bloody 63-day battle, which broke out on August 1, 1944, saw some 18,000 of the insurgents killed and another 25,000 injured in the struggle against the well-armed Germans. Commanded by General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, the Home Army had managed to gain control of most of Warsaw within three days. But the Germans sent in reinforcements and forced the insurgents into a defensive position by bombarding them with artillery and air attacks over the course of two months. Without Allied support, the Home Army was split into small and disconnected units and was forced to surrender when its supplies ran out on October 2. By the time the uprising ended, some 180,000 civilians had also been killed in German bombings and executions. General Bor-Komorowski and his forces were taken as prisoners and the Nazis then razed the city. They also expelled around 500,000 remaining residents, sending some to the Auschwitz death camp. The revolt held up the westward advance of the Soviet Red Army, which waited across the Vistula River for its end. The failure of the uprising allowed the pro-Soviet Polish administration to gain control over the Polish government, who were in exile in London. During Nazi Germanys occupation of Poland during the Second World War, six million of its citizens died including three million Jews. Advertisement After the revolt, the Nazis razed the city of Warsaw (pictured in 1944) and expelled around 500,000 remaining residents, sending some to the Auschwitz death camp German soldiers walking by fires set in the Warsaw Ghetto, which was razed to the ground after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 When the Germans sent in reinforcements, it forced the Polish insurgents into a defensive position and they were bombarded with artillery and air attacks over the course of two months. Pictured, fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto The Nazis then razed the city and expelled some 500,000 remaining residents, sending some to the Auschwitz death camp. The revolt held up the westward advance of the Soviet Red Army, which waited across the Vistula River for its end. The Polish independence revolt was a taboo theme under four decades of communist rule that was imposed on Poland after the war. Democratic Poland, and especially the current conservative government, is taking efforts to bring the subject back into the national history and identity. In 1943, a separate yet also ill-fated uprising took place at the Warsaw Ghetto when young Jewish fighters put up resistance against the Nazis, who were sending residents to the death camps. Poland's President Andrzej Duda and Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz attend a ceremony to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising at the Powazki military cemetery Poland's President Andrzej Duda lays a wreath during a ceremony to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising at the Powazki military cemetery in Warsaw A group of young women who live in an upmarket high-rise claim their doorman sent them pictures of his penis after he abused his position to get their numbers. At least three women at the Tudor City Place high-rise in Midtown, New York City said they had received the photos from an anonymous number last weekend. One of the recipients, 27-year-old Christina, said when she replied to the messages asking who they were from the doorman told her to 'guess - guessing is the fun part'. The three women live in a high-rise on Tudor City Place in Midtown, New York City (pictured 'He said, "Your name is Christina and if I tell you, that's going to give it away." I was like, "The first picture you sent me was a photo of your penis and you're trying to act coy?!" He sent me another photo of him ejaculating.' According to Christina she had no idea it came from the doorman until she mentioned it to a neighbor who had received the same pictures. At the same time, a third recipient managed to get him to tell her that he works in her building along with a photo of his bare chest with a distinctive tattoo. 'He told me he knows me "professionally" that's when I asked one doorman, "Do you have access to our cellphone numbers?"' said the resident, who didn't want to give her name. 'I showed [the doorman] the picture, he said, "That's our locker room, and the brown box in the background is a shipment of new uniforms".' The women went to their super who revealed that the pics had come from one of the newer doormen who had been there just a few months - after identifying him by his tattoo. Officers from the NYPD allegedly told the women that the evidence they had gathered was not conclusive [file photo] The super told the women who then called the cops, but the police said they couldn't prove for certain that the texts had come from his phone as they were sent via an encrypted app. Police also allegedly told the women that the evidence they had gathered was not conclusive and the crime is not an 'arrestable offence'. The NYPD said Wednesday that it's still investigating the case, but that sending unwanted naked pics is considered harassment in the second degree, a violation, not an 'arrestable offense.' The worker was fired that day, the building's management company told the women. Dramatic footage has revealed the moment police stormed properties in early morning raids in relation to the execution of former bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi earlier this year. Strike force detectives executed search warrants on six properties across Sydney south and southwest in Bardwell Park, Beverly Hills, Brighton Le Sands, Carlton, Hurstville, and Padstow from 7am on Thursday. Assisted by Strike Force Raptor and the Public Order and Riot Squad, officers continued investigations into who killed the former Comanchero president in Sydney's south on February 15. Footage released by NSW Police on Thursday shows armed officers storming their way into a Padstow business and a Beverly Hills property. NSW Police released footage of armed officers raided a Beverley Hills home (pictured) in Sydney's south on Thursday The residents of this home received an early morning wake-up call from police (pictured) Investigators seized four vehicles of interest to their investigation, along with $22,000 cash, electronic storage devices, mobile phones, documentation, and a portable radio capable of monitoring operational police activity. No charges have yet been made in relation to Thursday morning's raids. In the raid of one property, investigators located a vehicle of interest which will be forensically examined for traces of evidence. A detective wielding a notebook was seen speaking with a man wearing a black 'Cougars' t-shirt outside a property in Beverly Hills. The man was accompanied by a younger looking male, who sipped on a bottle of flavoured chocolate milk. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting the men pictured had any knowledge of, or any involvement, in the murder of Hawi. A black BMW without registration plates was also seen squeezed into a narrow driveway down the side of the home. Police also released footage of their raid on a Padstow business (pictured) No charges have yet been made in relation to Thursday morning's raids (pictured) A man was pictured leaning on the balcony of a property in Beverly Hills that was raided Thursday morning. It is not suggested the man had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi Police are still piecing together the movements of those involved in Mr Hawi's death. They previously seized a Mercedes and Toyota Aurion allegedly used in the fatal shooting. 'Strike Force Amirs detectives have trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV and identified up to seven vehicles used to coordinate the shooting some of which we have already seized,' Criminal Groups Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace told a press conference on Thursday afternoon. 'The stolen Mercedes Benz that was used as the initial getaway car was located on fire a few streets away from the scene that day, and the vehicle driven from that scene a silver Toyota Aurion was located in March at Beaconsfield. Today's operation is a culmination of further inquiries to identify and locate the other vehicles we believe were used before, during, and/or after the shooting.' Detectives have conducted raids on six properties in relation to the execution of former bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi earlier this year (detective speaking with man at Beverly Hills) It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi Det Supt Wallace urged anyone with information that may assist the investigation to come forward. 'It is my belief that those who were involved in the actual murder are aware of our information and how close we are, and I believe they are feeling very vulnerable and very uncomfortable, as they should be,' Superintendent Wallace said. 'Obviously, we would love to hear from anyone who may be able to assist our inquiries and help bring us closer to providing answers to Mr Hawi's family.' In the raid of one property, investigators located a vehicle of interest which will be forensically examined for traces of evidence (detectives leaving Beverly Hills property) A detective wielding a notebook was seen speaking with a man wearing a black 'Cougars' t-shirt (pictured) outside a property in Beverly Hills. It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi The man was accompanied by a younger looking male, who sipped on a bottle of flavoured chocolate milk. It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi A masked assassin fired several shots at Hawi through the window of his car which was parked outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale just after 12pm on February 15. The assailant fled on foot before getting in a grey Mercedes - stolen during a carjacking nine months earlier - which was later found torched nearby. Two men then left in a second getaway car, with a perpetrator still yet to be pinned down. There were reports Hawi may have had a bounty on his head when he was shot. It was said there was bad blood between him and current Comanchero leader Mark Buddle. A black BMW (pictured) without registration plates was also seen squeezed into a narrow driveway down the side of the home A masked assassin fired several shots at Hawi through the window of his car which was parked outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale just after 12pm on February 15 (detectives pictured) The assailant fled on foot before getting in a grey Mercedes - stolen during a carjacking nine months earlier - which was later found torched nearby (detective talks to man in Beverly Hills) It is not suggested the men pictured had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the murder of Hawi Hawi was remembered at a ceremony at Arncliffe's Al-Zahra mosque on February 22 exactly a week after he was killed. He became national president of the Comancheros at 22 - just four years after joining the club - but it wasn't until the infamous bikie brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009 that his name became more widely known. Passengers in the terminal froze in fear as dozens of Comancheros took on members of rival club the Hells Angels whose associate, Anthony Zervas, was bludgeoned to death with a bollard. Witnesses described the all-in brawl as chaotic, wild and uncontrolled. The men were 'raging', one said. Two men then left in a second getaway car, with a perpetrator still yet to be pinned down (detectives pictured leaving Beverly Hills property) A Padstow business with a blank front facade (pictured) was one of the properties to be raided A broom and dustpan were seen resting beside its fire door exit and green roller door The violent escalation became the impetus for NSW Police to establish Strikeforce Raptor to target bikie activity. Hawi served time in prison for his role in the killing, however, his murder conviction was quashed in 2014. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to at least three and a half years for that offence. He was released in 2015 taking into account time already served. Strike force detectives executed search warrants on properties in Bardwell Park, Beverly Hills (car pictured), Brighton Le Sands, Carlton, Hurstville, and Padstow from 7am Thursday A padlock to the Padstow business was seen cut open after the raids on the Sydney properties This is the moment a pet dog was led from the home where it savagely mauled a 14-month-old child to death in the kitchen. Emergency services were called to Neerim North Road at Neerim Junction, 122km east of Melbourne, at about 6.20am on Thursday after the horrific attack. Footage shows a handler tightly clutching the animal by the scruff of the neck as they drag it towards the back of a police wagon. The German Wirehaired Pointer was later secured at the Municipal Animal Pound, with the family consenting for it to be destroyed. Scroll down for video This is the moment a pet dog was led from the home where it savagely mauled a 14-month-old child to death in the kitchen The German Wirehaired Pointer was later secured at the Municipal Animal Pound, with the family consenting for it to be destroyed Victoria Police Sgt Dean Waddell said the mother tried desperately to pull her baby from the six-year-old hunting dog's grip but was unable to stop the attack. 'Mum's tried to step in and she's pulled the dog away. Mum's received injuries as well, hand and leg injuries. She tried everything to save her child,' he said. 'It's devastating, it's a tragedy. We're gutted.' Paramedics worked for almost two hours to save the girl's life before she was pronounced dead at the scene. Emergency services were called to the property (pictured) Neerim North Road at Neerim Junction, 122km east of Melbourne, at about 6.20am on Thursday after the horrific attack The police said the German Wirehaired Pointer (stock) was seized by the local council and will be put down Victoria Police spokesman Alex Day confirmed the girl sustained life threatening injuries and died at the property. 'As you can imagine it's quite an emotionally charged scene,' he said. 'Everyone is in shock,' a neighbour told The Age. 'They're a nice family.' Another neighbour said the horrific mauling left her 'devastated'. The family-of-five reportedly only moved to the regional Victorian property just three months ago for a tree-change. Baw Baw Shire Mayor Joe Gauci said the tight-knit community was reeling from the news on Thursday. 'It's tragic. It's a new family that's moved into our local area, and I don't know how you put words to it. It's just a tragic event that's happened. And we'll just work through it,' he said. Mayor Gauci said the German hunting dog had been secured at the Municipal Animal Pound. He said the family had consented for it to be destroyed. The dog reportedly showed no signs of aggression before Thursday morning's fatal mauling. The police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal attack and a report will be prepared for the coroner. The attack happened in the regional town of Neerim Junction, 122km east of Melbourne (map pictured) Baw Baw Shire Council CEO Alison Leighton expressed her condolences to the family. 'Our thoughts are with the family and the tight-knit Neerim Junction community during this difficult time,' she said. Ms Leighton said the council was working with relevant support agencies to assist the family. Yarra Valley German Wirehaired Pointer breeder, Alex Krstic, said he worked with the breed for more than 30 years and would never sell them as a family pet. 'That's not to say they aren't all right for families but they are bred to hunt and they need to be managed properly,' he told the Herald Sun. 'They can make good pets but I don't sell them to the pet market because they have an amazing hunt drive.' Food delivery company Foodora has announced they will withdraw from the Australian market in just over two weeks. Foodora said that the decision to withdraw completely on August 20th was to 'shift in focus towards other markets where the company currently sees a higher potential for growth'. 'We wish to express our gratitude to all of our customers, contractors and employees for their dedication to Foodora Australia, and for allowing us to be a part of their everyday,' Foodora Australia manager Jeroen Willems said. Foodora said that the decision to withdraw completely on August 20th was to 'shift in focus towards other markets where the company currently sees a higher potential for growth' (stock image) In the company's statement, Foodora added that it will ensure that its employees will 'find suitable alternative roles, as well as support partners and contractors during this transition'. The delivery company's decision to pull out of the country comes as they prepare to face two FairWork Australia claims. One involves claims of unfair dismissal by former employee Josh Klooger, who claimed that when he complained about workers being paid as little as $8 an hour, he was sacked, the ABC reported. When Mr Klooger joined Foodora two years ago, he was paid $14 per hour plus $5 per delivery on an older contract. Mr Klooger claimed newer riders were paid rates of $7 per delivery and no hourly rate. In February, he told Seven News he was lucky to make $8 an hour. Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman also launched legal action against the company. Despite their decision to pull out of the Australian market, the company will still face two lawsuits, which involves an unfair dismissal case and sham contracting (stock image) The food delivery company was accused of sham contracting, which means that it treated its drivers as independent contractors, allowing them to avoid paying minimum wage and superannuation, as well as annual leave and sick leave. IBISWorld points out the massive competition faced by Foodora in the food delivery space as a reason for its exit, given the popularity of other food delivery services such as UberEats and Deliveroo. In light of these issues, Foodora spokesperson told the ABC that 'Foodora will continue to manage legal proceedings locally in Australia and will continue to treat them with the utmost importance'. 'As the matters are currently before the courts, it is not appropriate for Foodora to make any further comment at this time'. Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to confront the Jewish community over anti-Semitism, leading Jewish MP Dame Margaret Hodge (file) warned today Jeremy Corbyn is 'putting two fingers up' to the Jewish community over anti-Semitism, a leading Jewish MP warned today. Dame Margaret Hodge said the decision not to fully accept the internationally backed definition of racism against Jews was offensive. And speaking on the BBC's Women's Hour, Dame Margaret said the latest bitter row over anti-Semitism wracking Labour raised questions about Mr Corbyn's 'own attitude to Jews'. The Labour leader has faced intense criticism after it emerged a supporter of his ranted at the party's ruling committee about 'Jewish Trump fanatics' inventing the row. Mr Corbyn has refused to make any statement or answer questions on Peter Willsman, in a case which has set off an angry new clash with the Jewish community. Dame Margaret said it 'beggars belief' that she continues to face an investigation by Labour officials while Mr Willsman has escaped censure by apologising. Labour MPs warned today the party faced a 'full blown crisis' while former foreign secretary David Miliband warned Mr Corbyn's hypocrisy and denialism' was a 'threat to our purpose'. Dame Margaret said she had long believed Mr Corbyn was not personally anti-Semitic, but claimed he 'chose confrontation' by not accepting the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, including examples. Dame Margaret said it 'beggars belief' that she continues to face an investigation by Labour officials while Peter Willsman (file) has escaped censure by apologising That decision was 'offending' and 'putting two fingers up' to the Jewish community, she said on the Radio 4 programme. 'What on Earth does a man do choosing confrontation rather than consensus? 'What does that say about his own attitude to Jews?' Dame Margaret said Jewish people felt 'our identity and our values' were being challenged by the 'surge' in racism. She accused Mr Corbyn of 'allowing' it to happen and said: 'The row in itself does demonstrate rather graphically why I've never felt he [Corbyn] is the best person to be the leader of the Labour Party, but he is,' she said. 'I've given my life to the Labour Party,' Hodge added. 'I'm going to fight tooth and nail to bring it back to the values that brought me into it some 55 years ago. 'This was the natural home for people who wanted to fight oppression and racism, that's why I joined it.' Jeremy Corbyn (pictured yesterday ignoring questions) has refused to comment on a leaked tape of his friend and ally Peter Willsman ranting at a meeting of the party's ruling committee about 'Jewish Trump fanatics'. Former foreign secretary Mr Miliband today warned the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour is a 'threat our purpose' as he condemned Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The former foreign secretary urged Labour MPs not to 'lose the outrage' at the Labour leader over his 'hypocrisy and denialism'. Labour MPs have scrambled to warn there is a 'full blown crisis' in the party which is threatening to spiral out of control. Mr Corbyn has refused to comment on a leaked tape of his friend and ally Peter Willsman ranting at a meeting of the party's ruling committee about 'Jewish Trump fanatics'. David Miliband (file image) today warned the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour is a 'threat our purpose' The former foreign secretary urged Labour MPs not to 'lose the outrage' at the Labour leader over his 'hypocrisy and denialism' And it has emerged he hosted an event on Holocaust Memorial Day comparing Israel to the Nazis, signed parliamentary motions seen as minimising the slaughter of Jews. It also emerged today Mr Corbyn spoke at rallies comparing Israeli government action in Gaza to the Nazi siege of Stalingrad. The internationally recognised anti-racist code the Labour party won't accept The definition of anti-Semitism drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance states: 'Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. 'Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.' The IHRA's working definition includes a list of behaviours likely to be regarded as anti-Semitic. Labour has copied word-for-word from the IHRA document but omits four examples listed by the Ammiance. They are: Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country. Claiming that Israel's existence as a state is a racist endeavour. Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations. Advertisement While being slow to respond to allegations of anti-Semitism, Mr Corbyn is also under fire for not stopping investigation into Jewish MPs Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin over their angry protests about the leadership. As the crisis escalated rapidly, Mr Miliband warned: 'The Labour Party is full of good principled people like Ian Austin 'It is so important never to lose the outrage at what is being done to our party by its leadership. 'The hypocrisy and denial-ism are a threat to our whole purpose.' Mr Austin said he was 'deeply ashamed' at the state of his party, warning it was still having to suspend people for brazen anti-Semitism. Writing in the Evening Standard he said: 'Corbyn himself defended an appalling racist caricature on a mural in the East End. 'It took four days and an unprecedented protest by the Jewish community before he apologised. 'And yesterday we learned that he hosted an event at Parliament which compared the Israeli government to the Nazis on Holocaust Memorial Day.' He added: 'The Marxist Left blames every problem on the West and America and Israel. For them, the world is a simple place and the solutions are obvious. 'Thirty years in protest movements making the same speech to people who agree with him means Jeremy has never had to answer a tough question, or think about complex problems and difficult solutions.' Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock told the i: 'This is now a full-blown crisis for our party.' MP Ian Austin (file left) has said he is ashamed of his party while Stephen Kinnock (file right) today warned Labour faces a 'full blown crisis' Labour yesterday endured a fevered day of briefing and counter-briefing following the revelation that Mr Corbyn hosted an event comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis. And last night two new pieces of footage surfaced of the Labour leader making controversial comments, both praising the release of Hamas terrorists on Iranian TV in 2012, and two years earlier comparing Israel's blockade of Gaza to Nazi atrocities. It comes amid the fall-out from Mr Corbyn's refusal to sign up to the full internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism - which might be explained by fears that he knows he has fallen foul of it himself. Likening the actions of Israel to the Nazis, as Mr Corbyn did in the video that emerged yesterday, is a specific example of anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Most organisations, including the police and Crown Prosecution Service, have adopted the IHRA's definition. Jeremy Corbyn's refusal to sign up to the full internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism might be explained by fears that he knows he has fallen foul of it himself But Labour refuses to adopt the same guidelines in full, leading some critics to ask what Mr Corbyn is afraid of. Yesterday examples were circulated of the Labour leader falling foul of the rule against 'comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis'. In 2010 Mr Corbyn was filmed outside the Israeli embassy in London comparing its blockade of Gaza to Nazi atrocities. Exhorting a crowd to rise up in anger, he said: 'I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the mortar shells that had gone through the school buildings, the destroyed UN establishments, burnt-out schools, the ruined homes, the destroyed lives, the imprisoned people, the psychological damage to a whole generation who've been imprisoned for as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place. This is a war crime that is being undertaken, but this time on live television.' During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, the Nazis killed more than a million people and wounded a further two million. And the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad in which Nazi forces directly targeted civilians in air-raid shelters is also one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with some two million people killed or wounded. In 2010 Mr Corbyn was filmed outside the Israeli embassy in London comparing its blockade of Gaza to Nazi atrocities Many Holocaust survivors regard it as insulting to compare the horrific atrocities inflicted by Adolf Hitler to the controversial policies of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians. And there were further calls for Mr Corbyn to face a Labour probe after it emerged he praised the release of Hamas terrorists on Iranian state TV. Damned by his own words: Articles written by Labour leader likening situation in Israel to Nazi Germany British support for Israel is an act of crass indifference to the violence of the Israeli military on a par with the 1930s Tory government's arms blockade to the Spanish republic which was desperately trying to fight off the Nazi-supported Franco forces.' Writing in the Morning Star newspaper, Jan, 2009 'I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the...psychological damage to a whole generation who've been imprisoned for as long as the [Nazi] siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place.' On video at the Israeli embassy, London, 2010 'He has spoken... very forcefully' On a Commons talk he hosted by Hajo Meyer repeatedly comparing the Nazi regime and Israeli policy, in 2010 Advertisement On 'Remember Palestine' in 2012, he described more than 1,000 convicted terrorists who had been released by Israel in a prisoner swap as 'brothers'. He also questioned if there was a 'serious case' against any of those released, even though the group had been convicted of the murder of almost 600 Israelis. MP Joan Ryan, chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, demanded an investigation into his 'beyond abhorrent' comments. A Labour spokesman said: 'Jeremy was commenting on the prison conditions... He was in no way supporting or endorsing the actions of the prisoners, but defending their rights under international law, including those held without trial.' In January 2010 Mr Corbyn hosted an event at the Commons comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis on Holocaust Memorial Day, The Times revealed yesterday. He spoke at and opened a talk entitled 'Never Again For Anyone'. The event was part of a UK tour called 'Never Again For Anyone Auschwitz To Gaza'. A year earlier, in 2009, Mr Corbyn had indirectly compared the Israeli military to the Nazis. In an article for the hard-Left Morning Star newspaper, he likened the Palestinian cause to the republicans in the Spanish civil war who were under siege from Nazis supporting General Franco. He wrote that British support for Israel was 'an act of crass indifference to the violence of the Israeli military on a par with the 1930s Tory government's arms blockade to the Spanish republic, which was desperately trying to fight off the Nazi-supported Franco forces'. In 2016 a British charity supported by Mr Corbyn partly funded a 'festival of hate' in which children as young as seven staged a play about 'stabbing' Jews. In a video of the performance, a little girl dressed in a hijab is seen pretending to stab two boys dressed as Israeli soldiers, who respond by 'shooting' her. Then, amid cheers from the crowd, a boy dressed as a masked terrorist massacres the soldiers with a replica semi-automatic weapon. The festival was funded by Palestine support charity Interpal, which is supported by Labour MPs including Mr Corbyn. Last night the Labour Party said Mr Corbyn's speech mentioning Leningrad and Stalingrad 'was not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the conditions of civilian populations in besieged cities in wartime'. And it said that his 2009 article regarding Franco was 'not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the actions of two Conservative governments, which supported blockades during conflict'. A spokesman added that Mr Corbyn had already apologised over the Holocaust Memorial Day meeting but pointed out the main speaker at that event was a Jewish Auschwitz survivor. It also emerged last night that a leaflet handed out at the 2010 event hosted by Mr Corbyn branded people who participated in Holocaust Memorial Day hypocrites and claimed Israel had falsified genocide. The pamphlet created by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network said the state of Israel had 'manipulated' the Holocaust as 'a vehicle to gain state power'. It continued: 'We challenge the exceptionalising, falsifying and exploiting of this memory, which is an effort to justify and dismiss Israeli colonisation.' Last night Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on antisemitism, told the Times: 'This leaflet shows the contorted and twisted minds of the extremist left.' Mr Corbyn said he had 'no record or recollection of this leaflet'. Slug and Lettuce kitchen manager Angela Borsi, who asked for 'boys first' in a Facebook advert so they could do the heavy lifting A Slug and Lettuce kitchen manager has been slammed for posting a job advert asking for male candidates only - so they can do the heavy lifting. Angela Borsi, who works at the Bristol Harbourside branch of the bar chain, was criticised for requesting 'boys first' in a Facebook post. The advert, posted to the 'Jobs in Bristol and Surrounding Areas' page, read: 'Chef job! In Slug and Lettuce Bristol Harbourside. Boys first, if possible :)'. Ms Borsi was branded sexist and predatory for requesting male-only applicants. Natasha Mondon commented: 'Wow, if this isn't the most sexist post I've seen today'. Yaro Yarick asked: 'Are you looking for boyfriend of chef???' But Ms Borsi defended her advert, saying the 8-an-hour role for 40-45 hours a week required a strong person for the heavy lifting involved. She told BristolLive: 'I don't think it's nothing bad - the people are thinking bad about that, I didn't want a boyfriend. 'I have two girls in the kitchen already, one is me and the other is pregnant and we need a man for the heavy lifting, when we do an oil change, it is 20 litre containers and they are heavy - that's the reason I put 'boys first'.' Under UK law, employers must not show any form of gender discrimination without a 'genuine occupational requirement'. Guidance from employment agency Reed states: 'An employer cannot show a preference to hire someone of a particular gender without a genuine occupational requirement. 'Without one, any language in the job advert relating to gender preference could be viewed as discriminatory. Slug and Lettuce in Bristol Harbourside, where the 8-an-hour role for 40-45 hours a week is available 'Even with seemingly good intentions from a recruiter (such as trying to even up the gender split in the office, for example), favouring a man or woman for a particular role is generally not acceptable.' A Slug and Lettuce spokesperson said: 'Whilst this individual is a team member she does not handle our recruitment. 'The post was done proactively on a personal feed in her own time and certainly does not reflect company policy. 'We would like to apologise for any offence caused and reassure all applicants that our management team handles all recruitment to ensure the correct procedures are adhered to and it will be no different with this vacancy.' Ms Borsi has been contacted for comment. A recently-uncovered memo circulated after the filming of Monty Python's classic film The Life of Brian reveals the levels of infighting among the cast's top stars. Graham Chapman, who played the titular character, accused his fellow Pythons of greed and selfishness in a handwritten note sent before the film's release in 1979. The memo, sent to Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and John Cleese said the cast should be more concerned with the success of the film then their own stardom. A recently-uncovered memo circulated after the filming of Monty Python's classic film The Life of Brian reveals the levels of infighting among the cast's top stars. Left to right: Michael Palin, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones on the set in 1979 The Times reports it's been shared publicly for the first time as part of a huge deposit of sketches and letters handed over to the British Library by Palin ahead of an exhibition next week. Chapman called on the group to 'make a statement' by not only focusing on earning 'huge quantities of money to be incredibly comfortable and so cut off from the nastiness of the world'. The undated memo adds: 'Neither is personal stardom a laudable aim. 'I have noticed at recent meetings how very cleverly each one of us has been at disguising the fact that he is really more concerned with how he (or his material) fares in the film than with the film itself. Monty Python's Life Of Brian: Left to right, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman 'The only exception is Terry Jones and I would like him to be given a real opportunity as a director to produce the version he would like without one or other of us pestering for more of his action or for less of so-and-so's action. BLASPHEMY LAWS CAST SHADOW OVER PYTHONS' LIFE OF BRIAN Life of Brian contains themes of religious satire that were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy, and protests from some religious groups. Thirty-nine local authorities in the UK either imposed an outright ban, or imposed 18 certificate, effectively preventing the film from being shown, since the distributors said it could not be shown unless it was unedited and carried the original AA (14) certificate. Countries including Ireland and Norway banned its showing, with some of those bans lasting decades. The filmmakers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters in Sweden reading, 'So funny, it was banned in Norway!' One newly unearthed alternative ending sees Brian rescued from the cross and go on to reluctantly found the Roman Catholic church (Pictured: Eric Idle, Graham Chapman) Blasphemous libel was abolished in 2008, but for the Monty Python team it was a very real threat and could have resulted in the film never being released and members even ending up in jail. The early drafts of Life of Brian reveal much more inflammatory material which were later removed or toned down. One newly unearthed alternative ending sees Brian rescued from the cross and go on to reluctantly found the Roman Catholic church. The python's defence, approved by their lawyer, was that Brian was merely a man born on the same day as Jesus and is subsequently mistaken for the messiah. Advertisement 'We could have a film with a little subtlety and emotion as well as laughs F*** the number of minutes at this minute it is not the magnificent film it could be.' As well as personal memos, the recently-uncovered files include two unseen sketches written for the The Meaning Of Life and the Holy Grail. The files also contained dozens of unused script ideas. One sketch is about a Wild West bookshop while another features an 'amorous Pink Knight'. There are plans for them to go on display to the public along with more than 50 notebooks on Holy Grail and the 1979 film Life Of Brian. There are plans for the archives pieces to go on display to the public along with more than 50 notebooks on Holy Grail and the 1979 film Life Of Brian Scenes and jokes deemed controversial at the time were discarded while the Pink Knight material is very politically incorrect from a modern viewpoint. The archives also reveal how Holy Grail, a typically Pythonesque take on the exploits of King Arthur and his knights, was meant to have a different ending an epic battle scene but it was ditched to save money. Graham Chapman, who played the titular character, accused his fellow Pythons of greed and selfishness in a handwritten note sent before the film's release in 1979 In one of the unseen sketches a man appears from the desert in need of a beer only to find a Wild West saloon which is actually a bookshop. The Pink Knight sketch, which was written by Palin and Jones, begins with a knight standing 'in a slightly camp pose' while declaring that King Arthur cannot cross a bridge unless he gives him a kiss. Another unused script in the archive has a handwritten sequence for Sir Tristram, a knight who tries ineptly to track down the grail using scientific principles. Palin, 75, has given permission for the sketches to be reproduced and said the group often created more material than was needed. Among the more controversial draft sketches to come out of the archive is one which sees Lazarus visiting his doctor with 'post-death depression'. Written by Michael Palin, the sketch sees Lazarus's doctor criticise Jesus for resurrecting the dead, adding 'he has nothing against him personally.' But Palin himself abandoned the sketch, branding it 'as pat, neat and predictable as a bad university sketch.' Other documents reveal the Phythons' lawyer telling them he was 'a little nervous' about a scene in which a woman claims to have fallen pregnant by the Holy Spirit, branding it 'a horny little poltergeist.' He also told the team to cut a scene in which they refer to Jesus as 'some long-haired conjurer'. A former Respect party candidate advised there is 'nothing wrong' with fathers arranging marriages for some 15-year-olds as it emerged that husbands who rape and abuse their wives are let into the UK. Asama Javed is an immigration solicitor based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and was caught advising that girls could be married off if 'mentally or physically ready'. Footage of her suggestion emerged as a Freedom of Information request showed the Home Office received 175 inquiries about victims trying to block spouses' visas last year. George Galloway (pictured with Asama Javed) hailed her as a star when she deflected from Labour to Respect Of these, 88 became full cases, which included direct requests from victims, known as 'reluctant sponsors', requests from third parties or instances where an official suspected a forced marriage, The Times reports. It is two years since Mrs Javed resigned as a Labour councillor in the city, deflecting in a bid to become a Respect MP in nearby Halifax. Welcoming her to his party, George Galloway described the mother of four as a 'star' with 'prestige'. But The Times reports that one of its journalists was told he could marry off his 15-year-old daughter as he posed as a father seeking her advice. 'If she is mentally or physically ready and she is 15 or 16 years old, then there is no harm in it,' the 44-year-old told the Pakistani man in front of her. 'My [friend] was married when she was 15 but, by the grace of God, she was intelligent.' Telling him that her friend's daughters were also at 'the age of marriage' and will now be wed. As well as working at Reiss Solicitors, she sits on Bradford Council's fostering panel and is a school governor. The solicitor (pictured) unwittingly advised an undercover journalist that it was acceptable to marry some girls off aged 15 The paper deployed its undercover reporter in response to a credible force saying that they believed Mrs Javed was helping families obtain visas and arrange forced marriages. The journalist claimed to have a daughter aged 15 and another who had just turned 18. Telling Mrs Javed that the older daughter had been married in Pakistan and was pregnant, he claimed that he was hoping to bring her and the husband home to the UK despite telling her that the unhappy daughter did not want to man to come back with her. The solicitor (pictured at an event with George Galloway) was once a Labour councillor in Bradford She warned him that 'everybody will be in trouble' if UK authorities suspect a forced marriage has taken place before advising him to 'bribe' and 'spoil' his daughter to avoid her making a fuss and risking criminal charges for those involved. She advised him not to apply for a spousal visa for his son-in-law because that would need his daughter's backing. Instead Mrs Javed told him to bring his daughter back alone so she could have the baby. Then her husband could apply for entry as the baby's father and come to the UK without the girl knowing or giving him permission. The Home Office dealt with nearly 90 cases of forced marriage victims trying to block visas last year, although almost half were still issued. Speaking in a mixture of Urdu and English, she told him girls can be ready for marriage below the age of consent - but advised him to wait until his younger daughter was 16 to avoid trouble with the law. She asked the reporter if he believes his younger daughter is ready for marriage, to which he replies 'no'. Mrs Javed then responds by saying 'there is no harm in it' if the child is 'mentally and physically ready' and is aged 15 our 16. But she suggested it was more effective and less risky to win youngsters over by bribing them. The exchange was caught on film by the journalist and showed to forced marriage expert barrister Usha Sood. It is illegal to assist or simply to encourage an offence if you believe it will be committed. Ms Sood said it was a clear case of 'forced marriage-fixing' that reinforced criminal and immigration breaches and deceives the state while entrapping an individual. Mrs Javed switched from Labour to Respect - the party founded by George Galloway - in the hope of becoming MP in Halifax Former chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal suggested the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigate Mrs Javed. A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police thanked The Times for providing the information and said the force will review it. Bradford council has shared details of the exchange with the local fostering panel on which Mrs Javed sits as well as the school at which she is a governor. The SRA advised that every solicitor is required to uphold high professional standards and that it will take action where they fail to do so. Solicitor's visa advice on deceiving daughter Mrs Javed offered help to the undercover reporter in getting her supposed husband a visa without the usual support the wife is supposed to give. She did this by suggesting that the daughter be encouraged to come over alone to give birth to the man's child. This would then allow the husband to ignore his wife's preference and come to the UK as the child's father once it is born. Neither the permission nor the knowledge of the daughter would be required for him to come to the country in that instance. But she warned that if the authorities found out, there was still a risk the family would be split up, especially if the daughter reported her unhappy state to authorities. Although foreign parents can apply for visas if the have a child under 18 that is a British citizen, they should only do this if they are not eligible for spousal visas. Should a father be caught applying behind his wife's back and not declaring their marriage to the Home Office, they would be withholding crucial information. This could result in an applicant being banned from the country for 10 years. Advertisement Mrs Javed also has an unpaid county court judgment of 28,458 that Bradford county court issued her four years ago. MailOnline has contacted Mrs Javed and Mr Galloway for comment. Figures obtained by a Freedom of Information request by The Times showed the Home Office had received 175 inquiries about victims trying to block spouses' visas last year. Of these, 88 became full cases, which included direct requests from victims, known as 'reluctant sponsors', requests from third parties or instances where an official suspected a forced marriage. Forced marriage victim support charity Karma Nirvana said it was being alerted to cases nationally. Founder Jasvinder Sanghera told The Times: 'Even when officials know it's a forced marriage, they see tradition, culture or religion and they're reticent to deal with it. They are turning a blind eye.' Meanwhile, Aneeta Prem, founder of Freedom, which also supports victims, said it had seen 'a number of cases like this and they go unchallenged'. 'The girls are physically and sexually abused by the men that come over,' she told the paper. Laws making it illegal to force someone into marriage in England and Wales were introduced in 2014. Anyone found guilty of doing so can be jailed for up to seven years. As well as banning the practice, police were given powers to issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders to help protect victims, breaches of which are punishable by up to five years in prison. Speaking at the time, Theresa May, then Home Secretary, said forced marriage was 'a tragedy for each and every victim'. In 2013, the year before laws were introduced, the Government's Forced Marriage Unit gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage to more than 1,300 people. In 2017 the unit gave advice or support in 1,196 cases. The Home Office said today that the UK was a world-leader in tackling the 'horrendous crime of forced marriage'. A spokeswoman said: 'Work to combat it is an integral part of our cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published in March 2016. 'We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. If an individual refuses to act as the sponsor for a visa application then under the immigration rules, that visa should not be issued. 'There are a number of reasons why cases are referred to the forced marriage unit, not all of which are the result of a reluctant sponsor getting in contact. In some cases it will be decided, following enquiries, that no further action is necessary and a visa will be issued.' Labour MP Naz Shah said the situation seemed 'alarming'. She told Sky News: 'I certainly will be writing to the Home Secretary to make sure that we are looking at changing the law to protect the victims.' Ms Shah added: 'There is nothing racist about highlighting the fact that a girl is being forced into a marriage, or protecting that victim. 'Abuse is abuse regardless of any cultures, and that needs to be understood loudly and clearly.' Advertisement The hosepipe ban has been called off thanks to recent showers but a 90F heatwave will see a second Furnace Friday tomorrow as 118F 'Iberian plume' roasts Europe on the hottest day ever recorded on the continent. United Utilities was due to bring in the restrictions on August 5 but said that slightly cooler temperatures, recent rainfall and water-saving efforts by customers had meant it did not need to introduce them at the moment. The firm, which supplies 7 million people in the region, warned there was still a possibility of restrictions if more rain did not arrive in the coming weeks as water reserves are still low. But scorching temperatures will be back by tomorrow as a heatwave nicknamed the Iberian plume drives the heat up in Britain and causes Europe to melt in 118F (48C) temperatures, which could lead to hottest day the continent has ever seen. The blistering conditions could have serious health implications for British holidaymakers who have a reputation for staying out too long in the midday sun, causing the Met Office to issue a health warning for tourists. For those staying at home, the warm air from the plume, which is being pushed up to the UK's southern regions, will bring peak temperatures of 90F (32C) on Friday and continued warm weather over the weekend. People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach in Dorset, as high temperatures are set to return this weekend Paddle boarders enjoy the water on Thursday before scorching temperatures will be back tomorrow Lots of luggage: Festival fans lug their belongings into Lulworth, where they will enjoy a weekend of popular music acts Scorching temperatures will be back by tomorrow as a heatwave nicknamed the Iberian plume drives the heat up in Britain. Pictured: Brits celebrate Broadstairs Water Gala on Thursday morning Festival-goers gathering at the Lulworth estate in Dorset for Bestival 2018, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at the venue The mercury could climb back up to 90F (32C) in London and the South East this weekend the Met Office has said, with sunshine returning to most of the country. Pictured: People in the water in Broadstairs on Thursday Here come the Bestival crew: Scores of music fans squeeze into the queuing area of the Lulworth Castle venue Pictured: Cody Spacagna, 11, cools down with his surfboard in a river near Lyndhurst in the New Forest this morning as the UK is bracing for another hot weekend Horse riders let their horses cool down in a river near Lyndhurst in the New Forest during a ride this morning For those staying at home, the warm air from the plume is being pushed up to the southern regions of England, bringing with it peak temperatures of 90F on Friday and continued warm weather over the weekend. Pictured: Weather map for Thursday (left) and Friday (right) The Met forecast has warned parts of Spain and Portugal are set to sizzle with temperatures ranging between 104F (40C) and 118F (48C) in the coming days from the Iberian plume that's heating up the UK as well What is an Iberian plume? An Iberian plume is a weather pattern where warm air moves from the Iberian plateau or the Sahara into Europe and the UK. It is caused by high pressure air formed in the Iberian Peninsula, which then pushes and the heat up. Unlike a Spanish plume, this type of plume is much more stable and often doesn't cause thunderstorms. Advertisement The mercury could climb back up to 90F (32C) in London and the South East this weekend the Met Office has said, with sunshine returning to most of the country. But while London is set to sizzle again the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will enjoy temperatures in the mid-20s, with scatterings of rain. Thursday : Western areas often cloudy with rain and drizzle over west facing hills. Rain becoming heavier over Northern Ireland, later spreading into southwest Scotland. : Western areas often cloudy with rain and drizzle over west facing hills. Rain becoming heavier over Northern Ireland, later spreading into southwest Scotland. Elsewhere, very warm sunny spells but the chance of a shower in northeast Scotland. On Thursday night, rain and drizzle across the northwest, perhaps turning heavier towards dawn across the Scottish Borders and northwest England. Clear spells in central and southern parts with patchy mist and fog. Friday : Starting cloudy and damp in the north, but brightening up with sunshine and scattered heavy showers. Heavy rain across northern England, steadily easing later. Hot and sunny in the south. Saturday and Sunday: Many places dry with sunshine, although showers in the north on Saturday and perhaps more persistent rain in the northwest by Monday. Warm for most, locally hot in the southeast. The mercury could climb back up to 90F (32C) in London and the South East this weekend the Met Office has said, with sunshine returning to most of the country The UK has seen its driest first half of the summer on record, and last month was the third hottest July recorded, but much of the country saw cool, wet, windy weather last weekend. Pictured: Saddleworth Moor in the South Pennines on Thursday morning Cody Spacagna, 11, cools down with his surfboard in a river near Lyndhurst in the New Forest today United Utilities has called off its planned hosepipe ban for millions of customers in the north west of England today after recent downpours boosted Britain's water supplies. Pictured: A mother and son enjoying the water in Broadstairs United Utilities which supplies 7 million people in the region, warned there was still a possibility of restrictions if more rain did not arrive in the coming weeks as water reserves are still low. Pictured: Depleted water stocks in the North Pennines Much of the UK is expected to return to heat wave conditions as hotter air from Iberia heads north. Earlier today United Utilities 'called off' their planned hosepipe ban in the North West of England Britain's third warmest July on record Last month was the third warmest July on record, provisional figures show. The mean average temperature across the UK was 17.2C (62.9F), behind the 2006 record of 17.8C (64.04F) and also 17.3C (63.14F) in 1983. Much of the country endured a prolonged heatwave in July, with sizzling temperatures and weeks without rain. But cooler temperatures and widespread thunderstorms at the end of the month meant no nationwide records were broken, according to the Met Office. Northern Ireland ended up with 99% of its average total rainfall for July, thanks to torrential downpours over the weekend of July 28/29. The UK as a whole had 71% of its average rainfall, making it only the 16th driest July since records began in 1910. The summer heatwave still took its toll on many parts of the country, however. The dry spell was most prolonged in East Anglia and south-east England, where some places such as Heathrow and High Wycombe experienced 58 'dry days' in a row. Advertisement A spokesman for the Met Office said: 'Essentially at the end of the week we're looking at a bit of a north-west/south-east split in the weather. 'Northern and some western areas will often be cooler with some outbreaks of rain - particularly in Northern Ireland and that could spread in to the south and western Scotland.' On Friday, temperatures are likely to hit at least 84F (29C) and possibly 90F (32C) in southern parts of the UK, with temperatures elsewhere sitting at around 24C to 25C. The spokesman said: 'Temperatures will continue to build, but nothing quite as hot as what we saw towards the end of last week. He continued: 'This weekend is much more promising than last weekend - plenty of sunshine around although the north of England could see a few showers on Saturday. The heat is likely to continue into next week. 'Temperatures will remain pretty hot across at least the south of England but potentially more widely across the UK - we could see some wet weather coming across the north west, but still pretty hot,' the spokesman said. Holidaymakers heading to Spain and Portugal were warned of an extreme heatwave which could see the hottest-ever temperatures recorded in continental Europe. Luke Miall, a Met Office meteorologist, said the current record of 48C (118F) in Athens, Greece, in 1977 could be broken as wave of blisteringly hot air sweeps in from Africa. Temperatures crept into the low 40s on Wednesday and are expected to rise and peak at the weekend, with the highs expected inland rather than in coastal areas. He added: 'These sorts of temperatures are not only exceptional for the locals but people from the UK will never really have experienced them. 'Especially with it being the school holidays, and the very young and old being susceptible to heatstroke, we're advising tourists to keep out of the midday sun and protect themselves. 'Combined with high pressure in charge, blue skies every day, and the ground already warmed up, that leads to a day-on-day build, combining to give us these intense temperatures.' Temperatures in south-west France could also rise to the high 30s, he added. Holidaymakers heading to Spain and Portugal were warned of an extreme heatwave which could see the hottest-ever temperatures recorded in continental Europe. Pictured: Tourists flock to the sea in Ostia, west of Rome, Italy today Tourists use fans and hats to protect themselves from the sun during a hot summer day in front of the Ancient Colosseum in central Rome on Thursday A dog jumps after a ball in a public fountain in Vienna, Austria this afternoon Children play in a fountain in Nice, southern France as temperatures reached up to 32C as a spell of heat weather is going through Europe The bank of the Rhine river has been torn by the drought near Lobith as the water level decreases daily United Utilities called off its planned hosepipe ban after recent downpours offered a brief respite from the scorching temperatures. The UK has seen its driest first half of the summer on record, and last month was the third hottest July recorded, but much of the country saw cool, wet, windy weather last weekend. Dr Martin Padley, water services director, said: 'Given the improved position, helped by recent rainfall, we do not want to inconvenience customers unnecessarily at this time. 'However, the long-range forecast from the Met Office is one of relatively dry weather into the autumn, so future restrictions are still a possibility if more rain doesn't arrive.' On Monday, the water company said that the heavy downpours over the weekend was 'the wrong type of rain'. United Utilities said it needed lighter rain for a longer period of time to help water shortages because much of the water in heavy downpours is evaporated as it lies on hard-baked ground. Critics say instead of fixing leaks, water firm bosses have been giving out bumper payments to shareholders and awarding themselves bonuses. UU is the second worst at fixing leaks, losing 133 litres per property per day in 2016/17, according to figures from the Consumer Council for Water. The total daily figure across the North West region is 439 million litres - or more than 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of water down the plug hole every single day, according to figures compiled by the GMB Union. And across England and Wales, three billion litres of treated water were lost through leaks every single day in 2017, according to the union's figures. A child actor was put in blackface on the set of Seth Rogen's new film to match the skin tone of the star he was standing in for. The boy was photographed working as a double for 11-year-old Keith L Williams in comedy Good Boys last week on set in Vancouver. He had dark brown makeup applied to more closely resemble Williams, who has darker skin, along with wearing an afro-style wig and a fat suit. A child actor was put in blackface on the set of Seth Rogen's new film to match the skin tone of the star he was standing in for He had dark brown makeup applied to more closely resemble 11-year-old actor Keith L Williams (right), who has darker skin At least one person on set, which is shooting ahead of a 2019 release, was upset by the sight of the child and filed a complaint. Sources at the studio Good Universe told TMZ it was 'not uncommon for lighting purposes to match actors' skin tones'. They also said the actor's father 'a longtime stunt performer himself, who is also on the set, is offended by the [complaints] being made regarding his son'. But Rapper and Fast and Furious actor Common wasn't buying that excuse, saying it was 'never appropriate' to darken someone's face. At least one person on set, which is shooting ahead of a 2019 release, was upset by the sight of the child and filed a complaint Producers were aware of the complaint and in the process of addressing it. Seth Rogen (pictured) and Evan Goldberg are the film's credited producers 'C'mon man, it's 2018, when is that acceptable? I ain't with it,' he told TMZ. 'If I'm a black person on that set, I'm offended. And honestly, I think a white person should step up and say they feel uncomfortable and it's not appropriate. 'Black and white people gotta stand up when they see some bulls**t going on.' Common said the filmmakers should have picked a stand-in that matched Williams' skin tone without needing any makeup. Other industry insiders disputed that using makeup to change skin tone was frequently done, with stand-ins usually chosen to resemble actors. Rapper and Fast and Furious actor Common said it was 'never appropriate' to darken someone's face Producers were aware of the complaint and in the process of addressing it. Rogen and Evan Goldberg are the film's credited producers. Good Boys is in the same vein as the pair's earlier work including Superbad and Sausage Party. It tells the story of four 12-year-old boys who skip school and get in to trouble in an effort to fix a broken toy. Williams stars alongside Jacob Tremblay, Molly Gordon, and Brady Noon with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky directing. Animal rights activists filmed the moment they claim they were brutally attacked by donkey owners in Santorini for protesting the mistreatment of the animals. Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere had gathered on the Greek holiday island for a peaceful protest last week. But the campaigners claim they hadn't even started their demonstration when a group of 30-strong donkey owners viciously kicked, punched, shoved and spat on them. A shocking video of the incident shows a heavyset Greek man chasing the protesters down narrow cobbled steps in the island's capital Fira. Animal rights activists filmed the moment they claim they were brutally attacked by donkey owners in Santorini Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere had gathered on the Greek holiday island for a peaceful protest last week The man is seen grabbing their placards and hurling them to the ground before shoving and yelling at the activists. As the situation continued to escalate, the protesters claim they were unable to continue filming as they feared for their lives when the men continued to threaten and attack them. Some of their banners including one that showed a picture of an over-worked donkey and the words 'I need your voice were seen burned on the cobbled steps. Maria Skourta, 42, the leader of the Athens branch of the campaign group, said: 'I have been beaten up before, but never like that. 'As we started going down the stairs, they had already started to mock us. At first, they weren't violent but were just making fun of us. The campaigners claim they hadn't even started their demonstration when a group of 30-strong donkey owners viciously kicked, punched, shoved and spat on them The man is seen grabbing their placards and hurling them to the ground before shoving and yelling at the activists 'We kept walking and when we reached a point they considered safe, they ran behind us, grabbed our placards and burned them.' Then, she said, things took a violent turn. 'They started hitting us with their walking sticks,' Ms Skourta, a dancer, added. 'The two men of our group were thrown to the ground and got kicked. 'They were spitting on us and did not let us get our phones, they were also verbally violent. 'They were sticking their faces on our faces saying 'we are going to kill you.'' The activists were protesting the mistreatment of donkeys, which are made to carry tourists up the steep hills of Santorini One of the victims said a man had tried to throw her over a cliff until one of her fellow activists came to her rescue She added: 'They attacked me and pulled my hair. I even heard the hair coming out of my head and then threw me to the ground and started kicking me 'They grabbed my purse to get my phone. I quickly put it into my pocket.' Horrifying, she said that one of her attackers had tried to throw her over a cliff until one of her fellow activists came to her rescue. She said 'They threw my bag over the cliff and then lifted me up, ready to throw me too luckily one of the group came to save me. 'Even today I get anonymous calls saying ' I'm going to kill you and they'll never find you'. 'The next day we were walking in the centre and some of them kept threatening us saying 'you haven't learnt your lesson yet'. 'I have a pain in my back and my ribs because they were kicking me, and a headache but I was lucky in comparison to others. Members of the Athens branch of campaign group Direct Action Everywhere protest the vile treatment of Donkeys in Santorini 'They were chasing one of the poor girls she managed to escape after she gave her phone to a tourist to save the video.' Elisavet Chatzi, 45, from Athens, said the group of men even attacked her 16-year-old daughter. 'There were about 30 men that attacked us there was just 10 of us campaigners, most of us women,' she said. 'They were hitting us, punching us, kicking us, they even threw our phones and bags over the cliff. 'My 16-year-old daughter was with me and they even attacked her, she got punched in the face. 'One of the girls that was with us was on the ground, and they kept kicking her.' The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists She added that a disabled activist was hit so hard that she dislocated her shoulder that may require surgery. A spokesman for the Fira Police Department in Santorini said they were investigating the incident, but said the activists were only lightly injured. 'There hasn't been any official report to us,' the spokesman said. 'We went to the incident and questioned some people but since they haven't been arrested, we cannot charge them. 'We have spoken to the activists group, we informed them for their rights and heard their complaints. 'Other than that, we haven't had any communication with anyone about this incident.' Donkeys have traditionally been used to transport people over the areas which vehicles cannot access, such as in the capital One of the group's banners showed a picture of an over-worked donkey and the words 'I need your voice' The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists. Between the peak tourism months of May to October, up to five cruise ships a day bringing swarms of 1,200 tourists to the tiny island, which is known for its hilly terrain. Donkeys have traditionally been used to transport people over the areas which vehicles cannot access, such as in the capital. But animal rights campaigners claim with obesity on the rise, donkeys are being forced to carry ever-heavier loads up the steep cliffs of the idyllic island. Forced to carry tourists for seven days a week without shelter, rest and water is leaving them with spinal injuries and open wounds from ill-fitting saddles. The activists shared pictures showing the injuries they had been left with after the incident The activists said the donkey owners burned their banners on the cobbled steps in Santorini Charities also claim the rise of overweight tourists also means locals keen to get the most out of their animals are crossbreeding donkeys with horses to create mules, which are bigger and taller and can carry heavier loads. The protests and adverse publicity led to authorities in Santorini deciding to offer protection for the donkeys who carry tourists up a steep cliff, after facing. The town hall issued a statement Saturday saying a meeting had been held with animal rights groups and animal owners to ensure 'respect for the rights and well-being of donkeys'. After a video of an owner beating a donkey aired on social networks, four campaigning groups held a protest on Friday which ended in scuffles. Members of the Athens branch of Direct Action Everywhere pose for a picture on the holiday island before the incident A spokesman for the Fira Police Department in Santorini said they were investigating the incident, but said the activists were only lightly injured The town hall said all parties had accepted a series of measures including keeping the animals in the shade during rest periods and ensuring plenty of water and food. The load and hours of the donkeys would also be limited while owners who mistreat their animals would be banned. The statement said the rights activists 'declared themselves satisfied with these measures, as long they are followed'. Santorini, perched hundreds of metres above a bay in a volcanic crater, has struggled to cope with huge numbers of tourists who have flooded in over recent years. The town hall has imposed limits on the numbers of cruise liners and people allowed onto the island. The plight of donkeys in Santorini was brought to light last week when an investigation revealed the animals were being crippled by overweight tourists A toddler was murdered by her adoptive father under the noses of social workers and doctors who refused to accept he was anything other than a 'positive parent', a damning report revealed today. Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, from Cardiff, subjected 18-month-old Elsie Scully-Hicks to months of horrific assaults before killing her in an attack so severe her tiny body looked like it had been in a 'car crash'. Scully-Hicks, who was married to husband Craig, was visited 15 times by at least three social workers and he made numerous visits to the GP and A&E when he injured Elsie - but there was 'no concern' about his parenting. Professionals viewed him through a 'positive lens' and insisted her adoption to the middle class and well-educated gay couple was going well until she died, a Child Practice Review said. Today Vale of Glamorgan Council social services chief Lance Carver apologised to Elsie's natural family - who believe she would still be alive today if still in their care. But Mr Carver also admitted no social workers had been disciplined or sacked over the mistakes because it was 'not appropriate'. Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, from Cardiff, was able to subject 18-month-old Elsie Scully-Hicks to months of horrific assaults despite 15 visits from the authorities in that time and then murdered her Yet an official review into her death was published today and said social workers and doctors of lacked 'professional curiosity' about Elsie's injuries. The toddler suffered a broken leg, mystery bruising including one one her head that lasted for eight weeks and was even taken to hospital vomiting blood. But each time the injuries were written off as common accidents or illnesses after her 'articulate' attacker made up excused. On May 29 2016 Elsie died, four days after her adoptive father shook her so violently her brain and eyes started bleeding before he threw her her headfirst into the floor, fracturing her skull. Scully-Hicks was jailed for a minimum of 18 years after a trial last year but Elsie's biological grandmother Sian O'Brien said he 'got off lightly' and her granddaughter should have stayed with her. Today the NSPCC said: 'This was a needless and violent crime which took the life of a defenceless young toddler. 'Elsie suffered horrendous physical abuse at the hands of a man who should have protected her and who was viewed by authorities as a positive parent. 'This review is disturbingly clear that opportunities were missed and information was not shared appropriately'. Lance Carver, director of social services at the Vale of Glamorgan Council, accepted the findings of today's report and apologised for errors in Elsie's case. 'The findings do indicate that social workers and staff from all agencies saw the adoption as very positive,' Mr Carver told a press conference in Cardiff. 'They perceived the adoptive family as a really positive solution for Elsie. The report identifies issues that 'that positive lens' meant that they were not looking in the way they should have been. 'That's something as an organisation that we should have recognised and taken that fully on board.' 12 medical experts and six doctors who were able to outline her injuries inflicted in the months before she was murdered Mr Carver said no disciplinary actions had been taken against any members of staff as the report did not 'indicate that it would be appropriate'. Scully-Hicks and his husband Craig were viewed as 'very positive parents' for little Elsie after she was taken away from her drug addict natural mother. But as soon as she moved in her killer started secretly attacking her, branded her 'Satan in a babygro' and the 'exorcist' and heard calling her a 'silly little c***' inside their home in Llandaff. Eight months after entering his care, and two weeks after being officially adopted by Scully Hicks and his husband, Elsie was murdered. On May 25 2016 her adoptive father gripped her around the ribs and shook her so violently started bleeding behind the eyes and in two areas of the brain. She also fractured her skull when her head hit the floor when she was slammed to the ground. Little Elsie failed to recover from her ordeal and died in hospital on May 29. It still took a month for her killer to be interviewed by police, on June 27, after the authorities noticed all the suspicious injuries she had suffered since she broke her leg on November 5 2015. Six months after that police interview he was arrested on suspicion Elsie's murder and convicted in November 2017, almost two years to the day after he is first believed to have attacked her. Scully-Hicks, who sobbed when he was convicted, denied murdering her but was today found guilty by a jury after a four week trial and jailed for a minimum of 18 years. Matthew Scully-Hicks previously claimed Elsie had fallen down these stairs and hurt herself in the months before her death and it was written off as an accident Scully-Hicks said the baby gate (pictured) had just opened and that she had tumbled down the stairs Elsie's adoption was overseen by the Vale of Glamorgan Council - and senior figures have been quizzed over their handling of Scully-Hicks case. Today's Child Practice Review it was a 'tragic and untimely death of a child' who had been involved with social services since being born to a drug-using mother. Two Social Services executives retired in the months after Elsie's tragic death Director of social services Phil Evans retired last summer, just before Scully-Hicks's murder trial began Two top social services executives in the Welsh county in which Elsie was killed retired in the mouths after the toddler's tragic death. The team in Vale of Glamorgan missed several chances to save Elsie from her abusive adoptive father, Matthew Scully-Hicks. Hilary Southam, care leader at the Vale of Glamorgan social services, retired just three months after Elsie was murdered in May 2016. The 61-year-old has since worked for the council as an emergency duty social worker on a freelance basis. When approached about Scully-Hicks's trial outside her Barry, South Wales, home she said: 'I'm retired. I don't want to talk about it.' Her former colleague, director of social services Phil Evans retired last summer, just before Scully-Hicks's murder trial began at Cardiff crown court. Mr Evans's wife told reporters at the time: 'He is no longer at the Vale of Glamorgan council so it's not really his issue.' Advertisement But it said that the officials handling her adoption could not have predicted that she would be murdered by Scully-Hicks. It said: 'There was no information during the assessment stages of the parents that could or would have predicted what happened to this child. 'The assessment of them as adoptive parents was strong and robust and was compliant with good practice standards.' It said Scully-Hicks and his partner were 'perceived to be very positive parents for this child.' The report said: 'Given how strongly this view was held, the injuries that the child sustained were never considered as anything other than childhood accidents. 'Adoption is a positive outcome for almost every child. It is extremely rare for any child placed for adoption to be harmed by their parents. 'The parents, their extended family nor any of the professionals working with the child had recognised any concerns regarding possible harm. 'There were no reports to children's services of any such concern. As a result there is a lackof professional curiosity regardinn the child's experiences and injuries.' But it revealed how little Elsie was seen many times by social workers and adoption officers in her short life. It said: 'The child was not invisible to agencies at any time. 'The parents did not indicate at any stage that they were struggling to care for this child and did not require any additional support services. 'It is evident that during the child's placement with the parents the child was seen on many occasions by several professionals within the agencies.' It hit out at errors by not flagging up injuries suffered by Elsie before her death. The report states: 'The ommission of identifying the second fracture to the child's upper leg on the X-ray was a missed opportunity to raised safeguarding concerns and instigate child protection procedures. 'The observations and recording of the large bruise to the child's forehead both by children's services and health was absent. 'This resulted in the large bruise becoming 'invisible' to professionasl and did not form part of building an overal picture of what was happenign to the child before the final report to the court prior to the adoption order hearing being made. 'There is always learning to be gained and this case is no different. 'Some new information and the learning from it has been gained from other proceedings primarily through the criminal trial. The conclusion is that there are some systems and practices that should be improved.' When he was jailed Scully-Hicks looked on emotionless as Judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told him he had been 'entrusted to protect and care' for Elsie - but instead murdered her. In January 2015 Scully-Hicks and his husband Craig were visited by a adoption manager after expressing a desire to become fathers. Elsie was first put in the care of Scully-Hicks in September 2015 and the process was finalised nearly eight months later. Between the meeting and her death, social workers visited their home 15 times and the toddler suffered bruises on her head, face and body, had broken her leg and had fallen down the stairs at the house. Over the next seven months she also had mystery bruises on her head and was rushed to hospital in March last year after allegedly falling down the stairs. Social workers and health visitors noted various injuries to Elsie's body including bruises to her head and a broken ankle. Elsie was even rushed to hospital after vomiting blood - but Scully-Hicks claimed she had fallen down the stairs. Social workers visited the couple 15 times Matthew Scully-Hicks and his husband were seen on 15 occasions before her death January 9 2015 - Initial visit by adoption manager Bethan James February 20 - Initial visit by Laura Neal, social worker, with the couple for assessment as potential adopters March 9, 20 and 30 - Further visits by Laura Neal to assess the Scully-Hicks April 13 - Further assessment visit by Laura Neal July 30 - Laura Neal and Mark Lloyd-Selby, Elsie's social worker, visit the Scully-Hicks September 10 - Elsie moves in September 17 and 28 - Elsie observed during social work visits to the Scully-Hicks' home by Hillary Southam and Laura Neal September 29 - Adoption review at the house with social workers and independent reviewing officer Erol Bowers December 2 - Visit by social worker Cheryl Longley January 26 - Social worker visit with Cheryl Longley February 26 - Social worker visit with Cheryl Longley March 14 - Social worker visit with Cheryl Longley April 29 - Social worker visit by Laura Neal May 12 - Couple adopt Elsie May 29 - Toddler is murdered Advertisement But officials didn't raise any concerns which would have stopped the adoption process and potentially saved Elsie. Social workers missed bruise on Elsie's head - even though it was there for eight weeks Scully-Hicks had presented himself as a loving and doting father but he inflicted injury after injury on Elsie before he killed her In December 2015, Elsie suffered a large bruise to her forehead that lasted for eight weeks. Two social workers and an independent reviewing officer from the Vale of Glamorgan Council saw the bruise during an adoption review at the Scully-Hicks's home. They failed to make any note of the bruise and it was not brought to the attention of the adoption court, along with concerns that Elsie was developing a squint. Social services chief Lance Carver said: 'It is difficult to second-guess what would have happened if that had been recorded properly. It clearly wasn't recorded properly and that is inadequate. 'I would like to be clear that on behalf of the Vale I apologise for that. It should have been recorded properly. 'We have looked to see what improvements we can make in order to ensure that this recording is done properly in the future. 'We are going to ensure that the recommendations of this report are fully implemented.' The report revealed that no safeguarding concerns were raised despite Elsie suffering a number of injuries during her time with Scully-Hicks. Her parents were seen as a 'well-educated and articulate couple' who were 'very well regarded by each of the agencies as good parents who had already successfully adopted'. In November 2015, Elsie was referred to an orthopaedics outpatient clinic after suffering an injury to her leg and not weight-bearing for five days. An X-ray was taken but this was not examined by a specialist paediatric radiologist. A registrar spotted a lower leg fracture but not an upper leg fracture. 'Had both fractures been recognised on the x-ray, this would have raised safeguarding concerns that would have instigated the child protection process,' the report noted. 'This review indicated that it would be highly unusual for two separate bones to be broken from one minor fall.' Advertisement Neighbour Susan Bevan, who lived in the joining semi-detached house to the couple, said things changed when Elsie moved in. Cardiff Crown Court heard stay-at-home husband Scully-Hicks branded her 'a psycho', 'the exorcist' and 'Satan dressed up in a Babygro' in text messages. Mr Lewis said: 'On one occasion she heard a little girl crying and 'the one who stayed at home' having a rant and shouting 'shut up, shut up, shut the f*** up.'' Mrs Bevan's adult son, James, also heard Matthew Scully-Hicks shouting 'shut up you little f***ing brat' and 'shut up you silly little c***.' On the day of Elsie suffered fatal injuries, Scully-Hicks took her shopping for an outfit for her to wear at a party to celebrate her adoption at a party planned with family and friends. He sent pictures of outfits at Marks & Spencer to his husband and purchased one for Elsie to wear. But instead he shook her and then threw her to the ground, leaving his daughter fatally injured. The court heard the youngster suffered a string of injuries when she was alone with stay-at-home dad Scully-Hicks. Prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said Elsie was found unresponsive by paramedics after Scully-Hicks attacked her at his home. She died at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, after doctors decided she would not survive her traumatic head injuries. Elsie's birth family were left distraught by the little girl's death and said the family was 'numb with pain'. Speaking on behalf of the family, her birth grandmother Sian O'Brien said: 'I accept that at the time of giving birth my daughter was living a chaotic lifestyle and was not in a position to care for Shayla and she was removed from the hospital five days after birth by social services. 'As a family, we continued to have contact with Shayla whilst she was in the care of the foster family.' Ms O'Brien said all of Elsie's family were 'extremely attached to her and loved her very much'. She said: 'In January 2015, I started proceedings in the family court to become the legal guardian for Shayla. 'I wanted to bring her up in a happy, healthy and warm family environment, that was all taken away from me when social services and the family court decided I would not be able to cope.' The statement continued: 'We all continue to fight on even though every day we are numb with pain and hurt deep in the knowledge that Shayla was loved unconditionally by us all as a family and knowing that had she not been taken away from us, she would still be alive today.' Social services chief Lance Carver today apologised to tragic Elsie's natural family over her death. He promised that lessons will be learned over the death of the baby who was named Shayla O'Brien before being adopted by killer Scully-Hicks. Mr Carver said it was 'committed to learning lessons from its findings'. He said: 'The review found that the care planning and adoption assessment processes were followed correctly and were robust. 'As Director of Social Services, I acknowledge unreservedly that there must always be a thorough examination to learn lessons from such a tragic event and I fully accept the recommendations from the review. 'I do not underestimate the impact on those closely affected and we have thoroughly considered our own processes whilst the independent review was taking place. 'As a result of this, a number of actions have already been implemented to strengthen the monitoring arrangements once a child has been placed for adoption. 'These changes include additional professional oversight over and above normal supervision methods, an enhanced visiting schedule, and ensuring the robust recording and sharing of information. 'The death of a child within an adoptive placement is incredibly rare, but made no less shocking or distressing by its infrequency. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest sympathy to members of Elsie's birth and adoptive families. 'Implementing the recommendations of the independent review is a priority for the council and one we take incredibly seriously.' Suzanne Griffiths, Director for National Adoption Service for Wales, described it was 'tragic and extremely rare.' 'The report concludes that the key decisions regarding the approval of Elsie's adoptive parents and their subsequent matching with Elsie were thorough and robust. 'There is clearly a need to carefully consider the detail of the review and its recommendations of that policy and practice can be strengthened. 'The adoption process has remained highly regulated since sweeping reforms were introduced in the 1980s. Adoption offers permanence and good outcomes for the vast majority of children who leave care in this way. 'The process of approving prospective adopters and placing children for adoption is necessarily thorough and detailed. 'It places a duty on professionals to make enquiries and ask questions, in a sensitive and balanced way, in order to safeguard and promote a child's welfare.' Child Practice Review independent chair Wendy Rose said: 'We must not forget that the tragic death of a child is at the heart of this review. 'The review has been a particularly difficult and emotional process for the child's birth family and for members of her adoptive family. 'Their contribution to the review has been valuable and greatly appreciated. 'For the vast majority of children placed for adoption the outcome is positive and they go on to lead healthy and well-nurtured lives with motivated and committed parents. 'There was no indication that it would be any different for this child. 'In the tragic circumstances of this child's death it is imperative we learn from what happened to her.' From being an asylum seeker to winning one of the most prestigious academic awards, a Cambridge professor has made incredible strides since his arrival in Britain. In 2000 the Kurdish-Iranian refugee Caucher Birkar, 40, arrived in Nottingham - and yesterday he won the Fields medal - the mathematics equivalent of a Nobel prize. However, less than an hour had passed after being handed his 14-karat gold medal when his briefcase, with the award inside, went missing. Caucher Birkar (left), 40, grew up in a small mountain town in the ethnic Kurdish province of Marivan near the border between Iran and Iraq (Pictured: Professor Birkar receiving the Fields medal) The International Congress of Mathematics, who organised the event, said it 'profoundly regrets' the incident. Professor Birkar's mother had no education while his father had very little, but their son was drawn to mathematics. He had come from a small mountain town in the ethnic Kurdish province of Marivan near the border between Iran and Iraq, where the Iranian revolution was taking place in the 1980s. He told the International Congress of Mathematics as he collected his award that: 'Kurdistan was an unlikely place for a kid to develop an interest in mathematics. 'I'm hoping that this news will put a smile on the faces of those 40 million people.' Professor Birkar (centre) moved to Nottingham in 2000, applied for asylum and began a PhD at the University of Nottingham, which he finished in 2004 The Fields medal has been presented every four years, since 1936, to mathematicians who are under 40 at the start of the year - and they also receive a cash prize. The professor luckily only turned 40 in July. Professor Birkar won the award for his work on 'categorising different kinds of polynomial equations, proving that the infinite variety of such equations can be split into a finite number of classifications, a major breakthrough in the field of birational geometry', according to Cambridge University. Simply put, it is finding connections between seemingly unrelated equations. Eventually the former refugee (far left), whose parents were farmers, would become a professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University (Pictured: The four winners of the Fields medal) What is algebraic geometry? Algebraic geometry relates to the study of shapes and equations. Algebraic varieties can appear to have no order and so mathematicians try to impose this. Equations can sometimes be strange shapes and so it is important to understand how they may relate to other equations. Birkar told Quanta Magazine: 'The most important thing is the shape, the form, the structure of the set of solutions. 'The set of solutions is what we call roughly an algebraic variety.' Advertisement He is the 11th Cambridge University candidate to win the prize. As a young man he began to have a passion for maths, but it was algebraic geometry he chose as his field of study. While he attended secondary school he began to study the subject more seriously before attending the University of Tehran, where he recounts having looked up dreamily at portraits of past Fields winners. He told Quanta Magazine: 'To go from the point that I didn't imagine meeting these people to the point where someday I hold a medal myself -- I just couldn't imagine that this would come true.' In his final year of study Professor Birkar, who was born in 1978, visited England. He was determined to stay in the country and so he applied for political asylum. It would be a year before he would hear back over whether this would be granted. It was and he began his PhD study at the University of Nottingham, which he completed in 2004 with a thesis titled 'Topics in modern algebraic geometry'. One of his advisers, Professor Ivan Fesenko, told The Guardian: 'I thought I should give him some problem if he solves it, then this will be his PhD. Typically a PhD lasts three or four years. I gave him a problem and he solved it in three months.' 'He is very, very smart; you start to talk with him and you recognise that he can read your thoughts several steps ahead. But he never uses this to his advantage, he is very, very respectful and he gently helps people to develop further.' Professor Birkar won the award for his work on finding connections between seemingly unrelated equations (Pictured: Professor Birkar receiving the Fields medal) Three other members of the mathematical community, Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze and Akshay Venkatesh, were also honoured at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union in Rio de Janeiro. Two more women's rights activists have been arrested in Saudi Arabia - the latest to be swept up in a government crackdown on activists, clerics and journalists. Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah were detained in the past two days, adding to more than a dozen women activists who have been targeted since May, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Most campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom's male guardianship system, which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major decisions. But amid international concern over the detentions, reports have emerged that men are revolting over women being allowed to drive in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Last month, footage emerged of a car belonging to Salma Barakati engulfed in flames having been deliberately set alight by men 'opposed to women drivers'. Scroll down for video Two more women's rights activists have been arrested in Saudi Arabia. They include Samar Badawi, pictured here with former First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, receiving an award at the State Department's 2012 International Women of Courage Awards Nassima al-Sadah (pictured), from the restive Shi'ite-majority Qatif province, has also been arrested. She is known to have campaigned to abolish the guardianship system Last month, footage emerged of a car belonging to Salma Barakati engulfed in flames having been deliberately set alight by men 'opposed to women drivers' The arson attack came despite the Saudi government projecting a progressive image of the kingdom this year under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In June, officials ended a decades-old ban on women driving cars as part of a bid to diversify the economy away from oil and open up Saudis' cloistered lifestyles. But, the video of a woman's car burning appears to demonstrate that not all are behind the kingdom's new stance. Prince Mohammed has courted Western allies to support his economic reform plan, offering billions of dollars of arms sales and promising to fight radicalism in the kingdom. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments were discussed during his trips to the United States and Europe. But the latest arrests appear to be at odds with this progressive image. Badawi received the United States' International Women of Courage Award in 2012 for challenging the guardianship system, and was among the first women who signed a petition calling on the government to allow women to drive, vote and run in local elections. Sadah, from the restive Shi'ite-majority Qatif province, has also campaigned for the right to drive and to abolish the guardianship system. 'The arrests of Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah signal that the Saudi authorities see any peaceful dissent, whether past or present, as a threat to their autocratic rule,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. 'Saudi authorities have targeted and harassed Badawi for years. In addition to her advocacy for women's equality, she has campaigned energetically for both her former husband and her brother to be released from prison,' the statement added. Badawi's former husband is already in prison, serving a 15-year sentence for human rights activism, and her brother Raif Badawi, a prominent blogger, is serving a 10-year sentence for expressing controversial opinions online. Saudi authorities have barred her from travelling abroad since 2014. In May, authorities arrested 10 women's rights activists, including Eman al-Nafjan, Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Aisha al-Manea, Ibrahim Modeimigh and Mohammed al-Rabea. Officials said seven people had been arrested for suspicious contacts with foreign entities and offering financial support to 'enemies overseas', and that further arrests could be carried out as the investigation proceeded. Advertisement Gruesome early 20th Century crime scenes of New York's gangland murders, robberies gone wrong, and crimes of passion can be seen in color for the first time. The unnerving shots show the bodies of two thieves who fell down an elevator shaft in a failed robbery attempt, a bizarre murder-suicide, and a victim with a chalk outline drawn around him. The black and white crime scene photographs were painstakingly colorized by Frederic Duriez, 52, from Angres, France, to show what detectives would really have seen. 'I think that it's is a haunting collection of crime scene photographs never meant to be seen by the public in color,' he said. 'I like how picture was taken, just above the character, this increases the dramatic side of the scene. It is by chance that I discovered these pictures on the internet, they seemed fantastic. I thought, why not colorize them.' The images captured the rapidly changing city that New York was in the decade before the prohibition of 1920-33, which itself brought a fresh wave of violent crime. This photo was taken on June 17, 1915, and called Double Homicide - but actually depicts a bizarre murder-suicide. Barbara Cornelius, 25, was shot twice in the temple by her admirer George McAghon after he climbed into her first-floor apartment and surprised her about 1.15am. She struggled on the bed while on her knees until he shot her, then put another bullet in her head for good measure. McAghon then shot himself dead beside her, having been upset she had recently married. Her husband Carman was awoken by her screams but could not get to her in time. The coroner had little difficultly declaring the cause of death and the struggle that led to it, but the background proved difficult for police to untangle. McAghon was identified by his boss as an assistant railway yard manager and father of six, shocking his friend who never believed he could be capable of murder. Mr Cornelius said he never saw him before and the neighbors were similarly in the dark - but the victim's apartment turned up two postcards that became important clues. They were both addressed to 'Bessie', a nickname for Ms Cornelius, from McAghon and written in a familiar tone giving her well-wishes The bodies of Robert Green, 30, (right), an elevator operator, and Jacob Jagendorf, 31, (left), a building engineer, lie at the bottom of an elevator shaft November 24, 1915, following the pair's alleged failed robbery attempt which is believed to have ended with them falling down the shaft to their deaths. Jagendorf was the building's engineer and came up with a plan to use his access to rob a company on the fifth floor that sold expensive silks, but the plan somehow went awry and they died. $500 work of silk was found inside the elevator Other horrifying pictures show a man in a suit lying dead with his hat beside his head having been either shot or beaten to death. The photo was taken using a then-innovative technique designed by Alphonse Bertillon of setting up the bulky camera on three wooden tripods to get an overhead view of the crime scene that was often far more startling and insightful than other angles. It led to a revolution in crime scene photography that gave investigators a 'god's eye view' of the murder The body of Antonio Pemear who was murdered in his residence on Hudson Avenue, Brooklyn, in December 1915. His face was badly beaten and a pool of blood was clearly visible behind his head, next to a trail of splattered blood that may have come from one of the blows to his face. His shirt and jacket were pulled open and his trousers fitted loosely A man killed at what appears to be his front door lies where he fell surrounded by detectives who have spread his blood around the door by getting it on their shoes. His bowler hat fell to the floor beside him with his head laying a decorative tile set, some tiles the same color as the bloody footprints next to his head The photos like this one of a woman who was murdered in her own bed in a run-down apartment can now be seen in brilliant color, as with her purple dress, for the first time As Australia battles the worst drought many parts of the country has seen in over 100 years, a handful of creative campaigns are offering a way for city-dwellers to lend a hand. Farmers across the country are forced to watch as their paddocks are stripped bare, once plentiful dams lie empty and their livestock starve. One 10-year-old schoolboy is encouraging schools across the nation to hold a day where kids can dress as farmers in exchange for a five dollar donation to drought relief. As Australia battles the worst drought many parts of the country has seen in over 100 years, a handful of creative campaigns are offering a way for city-dwellers to lend a hand Jack Berne, (pictured) a 10-year-old schoolboy, is encouraging schools to hold a day where kids can dress as farmers in exchange for a five dollar donation to drought relief Jack Berne, from St John the Baptist Primary School in Freshwater on Sydney's Northern Beaches, said he was inspired to start the idea after learning that children his age were skipping school to help out on their farms. 'Let's band together and show them we care because if we don't help them, who will? It's all of our future,' he wrote over his GoFundMe page. The campaign has raised a staggering $27,000 in the space of two days and Jack hopes the launch the official 'dress as a farmer' day on August 13. Bunnings has also chipped in and are holding sausage sizzles throughout New South Wales and the ACT on Friday August 3. Bunnings has also chipped in and are holding sausage sizzles throughout New South Wales and the ACT on Friday August 3 For those in Queensland, Bunnings are will hold the sausage sizzle next Friday August 10 For those in Queensland, Bunnings are will hold the sausage sizzle next Friday August 10. Proceeds from the sizzle will go towards the Buy a Bale campaign run by Rural Aid that focuses on delivering essentials like hay to drought-affected farmers. Since the program began in 2013, 160,000 bales of hay have been delivered across four states in drought emergency conditions. Two sisters who grew up on a cattle station outside Mackay and understand first hand how the drought has affected farming communities, have started a 'Dresses for Drought' campaign to donate formal dresses to drought-affected teenagers. Anita Guyett and Tashoni Hardy started an informal Facebook group which now has thousands of eager members willing to send their dresses to those in need. Since the Buy a Bale campaign began in 2013, 160,000 bales of hay have been delivered across four states in drought emergency conditions Two sisters who grew up on a cattle station outside Mackay and understand first hand how the drought has affected farming communities, have started a 'Dresses for Drought' campaign to donate formal dresses to drought-affected teenagers 'Our Australian farming communities are going through some unprecedented tough times,' the pair wrote over their Facebook campaign page. 'There are so many women in Australia that have got spare dresses in their wardrobe. That's something that we can easily organise,' the pair said. Anita Guyett and Tashoni Hardy (pictured) started an informal Facebook group which now has thousands of eager members willing to send their dresses to those in need 'We could not sit back and watch the awful suffering happening in the country and the rise in mental health issues. The pair noted that as the formal and graduation season was approaching, many families were not able to buy expensive dresses or suits. 'As a young woman I distinctly remember big events like this and feeling absolutely beautiful. Although there are a lot of other major concerns within this drought, we would like to get together and take the burden off some of the parents. They deserve to have a night to remember, for all of the right reasons,' the women said. HOW MUCH RAIN HAVE FARMERS HAD? It has been the driest year in 116 years in many of NSW's farming regions. Broken Hill has had just 18.2mm their average is 149.6mm Cobar has had 24.6mm the average there is 237.6mm Dubbo has had 74mm their average yearly fall is 353.6mm Tamworth has had 93.4mm which is far less than the average of 356mm Advertisement In less than a week, the Facebook page now has thousands of followers and the sisters have been contacted by people across Australia wanting to donate. A collection point has been set up in Brisbane, and the sisters are arranging distribution throughout the country via drought relief groups. Currently, 98 per cent of NSW and around 66 per cent of Queensland are in drought or are drought-affected. Parts of NSW and QLD have been continuously in the grip of drought for as long as seven years. The NSW Government announced a $500million emergency drought relief package on Tuesday. Currently, 98 per cent of NSW and around 66 per cent of Queensland are in drought or are drought-affected (Pictured: a Tamworth farmer pulls a dead emu out of the dam) Advertisement A unique collection of dresses worn by former first ladies of the United States have gone on display at the Richard Nixon Museum in California. The incredible collection of famous gowns and garments was put together by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian and expert on presidential wives, and is called: 'Why They Wore It: The Politics and Pop Culture of First Ladies' Fashion.' The special exhibition opened at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum on Wednesday and will run for a month until September 1. Among the dresses on show is a sparkling, bell-sleeved Dolce & Gabbana dress worn by Melania Trump at a concert during the G7 Summit in Sicily last year. This is the first time one of Trump's dresses will be displayed in a museum since the Smithsonian received her inauguration gown last year. The last time a sitting first lady provided a dress for the library to display was in the 1990s, when Hillary Rodham Clinton lent her wedding dress. 'Clothing is the most immediate and emblematic way a first lady has to express herself,' Nixon Library exhibit guest curator Carl Sferrazza Anthony said. 'Even though they're dressing for the public, they're also dressing for themselves the person and the persona become blended in what they choose to wear.' Exact replicas of dresses worn by former First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter on display at the exhibition Original dresses and exact replicas of dresses worn by former First Ladies Barbara Bush, Nancy Davis Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Jacqueline Kennedy A group of tourists inspects the dresses worn by first ladies Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan at the museum opening on Wednesday A dress worn by former First Lady Lucy Ware Webb Hayes (left) and one worn by worn by former First Lady Marie Geneva Doud Eisenhower (right) First Lady Melania Trump dress on display in a glass cabinet in the exhibition. Mrs Trump wore the dress to the G7 summit in Sicily last year Melania wearing the iconic dress as she and her husband arrive at the ancient Theatre of Taormina at the G7 summit in Sicily Replicas of dresses worn by former First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Rosalynn Carter (left) and one of Mary Todd Lincoln's (right) Dresses worn by the Nixon daughters on display at the museum in California named in honor of their father Richard Nixon Labor MP Emma Husar has slammed allegations of sexual harassment published by Buzzfeed that also claim she exposed herself in Jason Clares office, in a similar way to how Sharon Stone did in the 1992 film Basic Instinct. Buzzfeed published details of a letter that was sent to Emma Husar from a Labor internal investigation into the allegations made by staff that the MP had bullied and sexually harassed staff in addition to having diverting thousands of dollars into her personal bank account. Labor MP Emma Husar has slammed allegations of sexual harassment published by Buzzfeed This smear is completely and utterly untrue, unfair and hurtful beyond belief. 100 per cent false, Husar tweeted and went on to accuse a former staffer of fabrication. These are absolute lies that have been fabricated by [the ex-staffer], whos working with his father to leak against me and ruin my reputation. I have done my best to cooperate with the investigation and clear my name, but its clear these people will stop at nothing to destroy me, she continued. The investigation, which has been led by lawyer John Joseph Whelan spoke to over 20 former staff before compiling the brief. Who is Emma Husar? Born on April 20, 1980 in Penrith, New South Wales, after working at McDonalds and Foot Locker, Emma trained as a school teacher before becoming an adviser to Labor MP Ed Husic and two years later, was selected to run as the ALPs candidate. Emma Husar was elected to the House of Representatives for Lindsay in 2016, for the Australian Labor Party (ALP) after being defeated during her run a year earlier for the Penrith seat. NSW ALP General Secretary Kaila Murnain said: Emma is one of the hardest working candidates I've ever seen. She is a single mum with three kids and she campaigned her heart out. Emma Husar speaks about her personal experience dealing with family domestic violence In the same year, the backbencher became the face of Australias domestic violence crisis after she revealed that she had suffered at the hands of her father for over 29 years, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald. Husars speech explored how her father had thrown food at the wall and purposely damaged the family car so that her mother had no way of escaping and how later, she and her three children, Zhalia, 14, Mitch, 9, and Evie, 8 were also entangled in the same violence that her mother had been. Speaking to Fairfax Media, Emma said: I had no idea when I wrote the speech that it would have the impact it has. I certainly wasnt ready for it. Its 24 hours later and still the swirl of nausea is quite strong. After her speech, her colleagues mentioned that they had also experienced domestic violence. I got a message from someone I went to school with who said, I wish Id known you were going through that because I was too and it would have been nice to have a friend who knew. At an Our Watch, domestic violence prevention group, event Bill Shorten also spoke about Emma Husar: You get moments in Parliament where the contribution of an individual takes it from being a place of work and law making to a place of inspiration. What I suspect, Emma, is that other women will feel the power to leave relationships, other kids will be able to talk about what's happened... you were simply magnificent and you reminded us all not only of family violence but why we do our jobs, Shorten said. Emma Husar bullying Throughout the month of July 2018, Emma Husar has been embroiled in a number of allegations, the first of which came from former staff who claimed that she had bullied and abused her staff, during a time in which senior party figures are closing ranks on her future in government. After the accusations were made, the Labor backbencher could now be involved in a probe that could lead to being disendorsed by the party before next years election, but Husar has strongly denied all of these allegations. One former staff member told The Australian that Emma Husar had crossed the line. To be told to do the dishes is one thing. The way youre told, and the way its presented, is a different thing. Everyone had a turn at being her slave. Staff also alleged that it was common for the MP to make them work as babysitters for two of three of her children, to wash dishes, walk her dog and clean up after her dogs. A male staffer also claimed that he was told to wash dishes to learn about his white male privilege. Others said that she had called them 'c***s' and 'f***wits'. Labor bosses have questioned how the backbenchers behaviour has been unchecked for so long with as many as 20 staff members having left in two years. In a statement sent from Bill Shortens office, Emma stated: The assertions that have been made do not reflect who I am or how my office operates. I was horrified to learn that complaints have been made. At no time has any staff member raised these issues with me. I am a single mum with three children, working hard and doing my best. If I have let anyone down, I apologise. I respect and am cooperating with the independent process that is underway, and will not be commenting any further. Days later, Emma Husar MP took personal leave and said: The best thing for me and my family right now is for us to be out of the spotlight so I can access support. A week after this, she broke her silence again to claim that she was the victim of an unfair pile-on of lies and smears. Emma Husar Bruno Mars concert A fresh scandal emerged when it was revealed that Emma took a taxpayer-funded trip to attend a Bruno Mars concert and had billed flights to Brisbane in March 2018, which she had gone to with her friend Chief Inspector Tracy Stone. Husar had attended an NDIS hearing in Cairns but decided to skip the second in Townsville to travel to Brisbane for the event with tickets that were paid by Stone and were a birthday present for Emma. Although she had no meetings in Brisbane, she charged taxpayers $114 for the use of a government-chauffeured Comcar. Their hotel stay was also claimed by Husar, in addition to the $492 flight back from Brisbane to Sydney. Her spokesman said: Of course no work expenses were used to attend a concert. Any assertion otherwise is preposterous. These meetings were relevant to Emmas role as Secretary of the Opposition Status of Women Caucus Committee and noting her involvement in domestic violence policy development. However, the spokesman did not respond when asked if the meetings had been organised before or after she had decided to attend the concert. 'There have been no allegations of misconduct in relation to Chief Inspector Stone concerning her policing responsibilities and her friendship with Ms Husar. As part of her responsibilities, Chief Inspector Stone is required to engage with leaders throughout the Command as part of our wider and varied partnerships for crime prevention.' To be abundantly clear, no work expenses were used to attend a concert. Was in Cairns on 14 March to attend a day-long committee hearing on the NDIS. On 15 March, I had two meetings in Brisbane with two organisations to discuss domestic violence policy issues. Emma Husar (@emma_husar) August 1, 2018 2/2 The concert tickets were a birthday present from a friend. Confident Ive always acted within the rules but have asked IPEA to double-check and review as I take the use of taxpayers money extremely seriously. Emma Husar (@emma_husar) August 1, 2018 Emma Husar sexual harassment claims In August 2018, Emma Husar was forced to reject claims that she sexually harassed staff and had exposed herself in Jason Clares office. The allegations, which were published in Buzzfeed, also stated that she bragged about who she was having sex with. Lawyer John Joseph Whelan said that Husar must appear in person to be interviewed about the list of allegations that have been made against her, which include workplace bullying, spreading false rumours and sexual harassment. Whelan wrote to Husar: Several employees reported that you would discuss in the office who you found attractive and who you wanted to have sex with or who you have had sex with including references to Members of Parliament and Members of Staff. The lawyer also made reference to an incident that occured on June 19, 2017 in frontbencher Jason Clares office, she performed a revealing leg-crossing move, similar to that made famous by Sharon Stone in the film Basic Instinct. It is alleged that you and [redacted] attended Mr Jason Clares office at Parliament. Mr Clare was sitting on the floor playing with his son. [Redacted] alleged that he was sitting opposite you and that on three occasions you spread your legs, revealing that you were not wearing any underwear. [Redacted] felt that your conduct was deliberate, proactive and targeted towards Mr Clare. Staff claimed Emma Husar performed a leg-crossing move, similar to Stone in Basic Instinct One staff member also said that the Labor MP had rubbed her body up against him and a month later, had rested her right breast on his arm. Whelans letter also outlined how Husar would misuse funding and entitlements. After a meeting was agreed upon with NSW Labor state organiser David Dobson and NSW Labor governance director Julie Sibraa to discuss Husars office environment and to do an audit after money was discovered in her personal bank account, Emma was allegedly aggressive and prevented a staff member from attending. Other allegations include staff being excluded from emails and events, with Husar opting to not speak to them at will and change their role/hours/days at will. Whelan continued: Staff members have reported that you were abusive and aggressive to staff, calling them stupid, not up to standard and throwing around papers. Staff members have reported that at various points in time you would also rip up their draft letter and swear at them. Staff members allege that they are required to work excessive work hours (e.g. 7am to 6:30pm and longer if Parliament was sitting) without lunch breaks. Staff members were reporting that these hours were longer than in more senior MPs offices. It has also been claimed that Husar said that staff were unable to cope with the workload for reasons that included suffering from domestic violence PTSD, were satanic or full of mental issues. Alongside this, she alleged that one employees son was gay and she was mentally unwell. In response, Emma took to Twitter to say: This smear is completely and utterly untrue, unfair and hurtful beyond belief. 100 per cent false, Husar tweeted and went on to accuse a former staffer of fabrication. These are absolute lies that have been fabricated by [the ex-staffer], whos working with his father to leak against me and ruin my reputation. I have done my best to cooperate with the investigation and clear my name, but its clear these people will stop at nothing to destroy me, she continued. This smear is completely and utterly untrue, unfair and hurtful beyond belief. 100 per cent false. These are absolute lies that have been fabricated by Jeremy Anderson, whos working with his father to leak against me and ruin my reputation. Emma Husar (@emma_husar) August 2, 2018 I have done my best to cooperate with the investigation and clear my name, but its clear these people will stop at nothing to destroy me. Emma Husar (@emma_husar) August 2, 2018 However, Chris Uhlmann, Political Editor at Nine News, revealed on the social media website that the 'Basic Instinct' was 'categorically untrue'. I have just spoken directly to @JasonClareMP who has told me that the report in Buzzfeed which refers to a Basic Instinct moment in a meeting with Emma Husar is categorically untrue. #auspol @9newsaus Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) August 2, 2018 If you or someone you know needs assistance with family violence call 1800 RESPECT. In an emergency, call 000. An elderly woman found dead at her home north of Brisbane on Thursday was allegedly killed by her son. The home in Topaz Drive, Mango Hill remains a crime scene, where police found the body of a woman, 75, on Thursday afternoon following a triple zero call made at around 1pm. A man, 50, was found at the scene suffering what police described as 'significant injuries', believed to be self-inflicted wounds. Much of Topaz Drive in Mango Hill north of Brisbane remains taped off after the body of a elderly woman was found at a home (pictured) He was taken to Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital under police guard, where he's now in a stable condition. Police confirmed he's known to the deceased woman but haven't confirmed media reports that he's the woman's son. 'He will be talking to police in due course,' Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Richard Hoffman told reporters on Thursday night. Police say they're not seeking any further suspects at this time. Large blood stains seen near the front door were covered up with sheets so neighbours, passers-by and school children returning home weren't confronted with the grisly scene. Located around the corner from the tragic scene, Mango Hill State School advised parents on its Facebook page to avoid Topaz Drive during pick-up but reassured there was no threat to the school or the public. Blood outside the home was later covered up so neighbours and schoolchildren returning home weren't confronted by the grisly scene Pupils were seen walking home from school, escorted by police through the blocked off area with the help of school staff. Residents were shocked to hear what happened. 'It's a safe family-orientated neighbourhood. This has just rocked everyone,' one neighbour told 9 News. Another woman added: 'I've seen the lady a few times outside, walking down the street and watering her plants. She was pretty nice.' Residents were shocked to see dozens of police (pictured) in what they described as a safe, family-orientated neighbourhood Shirley Anderson told the ABC: 'It really is a lovely area it's just wrong. It's just unbelievable. It's so sad. Children don't understand what's happening. It's not good at all.' Aerial footage of the tragic scene showed a large part of the street taped off as forensic investigators examined the property. Much of the street remained blocked off on Thursday night. Anyone with information in relation to the incident should call Policelink on 131 444. If you or anyone around you is struggling and/or seeking support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 224 636. The son of murdered British property tycoon Derek Arber has been arrested by Greek authorities at Athens International Airport. The young man went on the run hours after Mr Arber, 65, a popular and admired face in the local community, was discovered dead on the Greek island of Antiparos. According to local media, the businessman's son, the prime suspect in the murder, fled Greece before a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Derek Arber (right) with his wife Lilly. He owned several properties on the Greek island of Antiparos The suspect is said to have travelled to Spain in order to lay low but returned to Athens on Tuesday night and was swiftly arrested by authorities, ten days after his father's death. Derek Arber's son has been transferred to Syros, where the prosecutor for the area of the Cyclades will listen to his testimony. The arrest comes ten days after Mr Arber was found in a pool of blood at his residence in the small Cycladic island of Antiparos, where he was a permanent resident. Mr Arber was stabbed to death at his home in the town of Agios Georgios on the island of Antiparos, Greece Onlookers who knew Mr Arber said he had been out for dinner on Saturday with his son Robert, who The Times named as part of the murder investigation. Restaurant-goers said the pair seemed to have been engaged in a difficult conversation which descended into a full-blown argument. The two men then reportedly left the restaurant together. Mr Arber was found dead on Sunday 21 July at his house. Police said that he had been stabbed in the back with a sharp object, probably a screwdriver, while his neck bore marks of strangling. His son has been treated as the main suspect from the beginning of the murder investigation. Mr Arber and his wife were said to be well known among the local community on the island Eyewitnesses said that Mr Arber had last been seen with his son in a restaurant the night before his death. They said the two of them seemed to have been engaged in a heated conversation which became a full-blown argument. Locals added that father and son left the restaurant together. Derek Arber was well-known in the Antiparos business scene and was well liked by locals who praised his adventurous spirit and his intelligence, according to Greek media. Mr Arber and his wife are the owners of Lilly's Villas, a company which runs anumber of holiday properties on the island He owned Lilly's Villas, a group of independent houses built in the style of a small village on the hills of the town of Agios Georgios, with his wife Lilly Arber. His residence was located within the complex of houses. Arber had been living permanently on the island and was a British citizen. He reportedly also had a Greek passport. No one has yet been charged over the killing. A Massachusetts woman has been arrested for allegedly ramming a man's Jeep after becoming enraged by his bumper sticker supporting for President Donald Trump, in an incident that was caught on video. Chloe Wright, from Taunton, appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon. The 25-year-old also faces charges of vandalizing property and leaving the scene of property damage. Scroll down for video Enraged: Chloe Wright, 25 (left), is accused of damaging a man's SUV because it was decorated with a Trump bumper sticker. The victim (right) said Wright also called him a 'racist' Wright was driving in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on June 30 when she saw this silver Jeep in front of her sporting a 'Make America Great Again' decal The incident took place on June 30, but Wright was only taken into custody a month later after being pulled over during a traffic stop. The victim, who was identified by WBZ only as Brendan, said he was driving in Hyannis on the evening of June 30 and was stopped at a red light when the driver behind him began honking the horn. At the next red light, Brendan said he could hear the female driver behind him screaming something. Concerned that there might be something wrong with his SUV, Brendan pulled over and stepped out of the vehicle. The other driver, later identified as Wright, asked Brendan, 'Did you vote for Trump?' The man said he told the woman he did vote for him, which allegedly triggered the woman's violent response. Caught on camera: The owner of the Jeep recorded Wright driving around his Jeep in her Honda Civic 'I get out, and all of a sudden I hear, "You're racist," and a bunch of cuss words,' the victim recounted to WBZ. At that point, Brendan switched on the camera on his phone and recorded the incensed female motorist driving around his SUV. Brendan said Wright's Honda Civic rammed into his open door, bending it, and narrowly avoided crushing his feet. She also allegedly damaged the side of his Jeep. The Massachusetts State police arrested Wright on Monday after a random check of her license place showed that she was wanted on an open warrant, reported Cape Cod Times. Wright was released from jail after posting $1,250 bail and was ordered to stay away from the other driver. She is due back in court on August 28. A child prostitution ring where more than 250 underage girls were branded with tattoos by their 'owners' has been broken up after dramatic raids. Police arrested 18 people after the girls were lured into coming the Colombian resort of Cartagena under the pretence of working as models there. Among those detained was the alleged 'Madame' of the operation - Liliana del Carmen Campos Puello - and several unnamed Israelis who are believed to be the network's ringleaders. A child prostitution ring where more than 250 underage girls were branded with tattoos by their 'owners' has been broken up after dramatic raids. Pictured, the alleged 'Madame' Liliana del Carmen Campos Puello They allegedly raped and tattooed all their victims, who were aged between 14 and 17. Campos Puello was allegedly responsible for finding the girls from the poor neighbourhoods in Colombia and Venezuela. She allegedly helped them with passports and sent them money for expenses. But when the girls arrived in Cartagena, they were stripped of their documents and belongings and forced into prostitution. They were allegedly showcased in catalogues and forced to attend sex parties on luxury yachts and hotels. Campos Puello (pictured) was allegedly responsible for finding the girls from the poor neighbourhoods in Colombia and Venezuela She was arrested (above) along with several unnamed Israelis who are believed to be the network's ringleaders Campos Puello hired the girls and introduced them to the clients. Before each event, she would allegedly always select the best-suited girls from their list. At least 250 minors were reportedly lured to Cartagena in one year, in what is being called the city's largest sexual exploitation case. The Attorney General's Office said Campos Puello used her contacts to organise events they girls were forced to go to. Campos Puello allegedly helped the girls with passports and sent them money for expenses Campos Puello also has a record for heroin trafficking as well as for entering the United States illegally She also has a record for heroin trafficking as well as for entering the United States illegally. 'The Madame has a criminal record for heroin trafficking and illegal entrance into the United States. 'Additionally, she was in charge of operating a prostitution service in the beach area, as well as using international contacts to organise events where the girls were forced to perform.' The investigation continues. A former bikie member of the Black Uhlans has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a millionaire in the chest - with parents and school children watching close by. Steven Smith, 32, allegedly punched Gold Coast businessman Paul Picone and stabbed him in the chest. Smith reportedly worked in a cleaning business that Mr Picone and his family ran, according to 9 News. 9 News video footage also showed authorities tailing Smith's car, which ended in a tense moment when a police officer pointed his gun at the vehicle to apprehend the suspect. Scroll down for video Steven Smith, 32, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Gold Coast millionaire Paul Picone in the chest - with parents and school children watching close by Police alleged that Smith, who was driving a Mitsubishi Triton, confronted Mr Picone, who had parked his car at Firth Park in Mudgeeraba. A fight allegedly ensued between the two, which eventually led to the stabbing. Parents and children were reportedly present at the park for rugby training when the incident occurred. Bystanders intervened, with one witness allegedly going after Smith while another one came to Mr Picone's aid, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported. When the suspect was apprehended, police will also allege that Smith told them he had a camouflage handle knife in his waistband. Following his arrest, Smith was charged with affray, unlawful wounding and knife possession. In court, defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum asked for the case to be adjourned to the 7th of August to give way for a bail application for his client. Bystanders intervened, with one witness allegedly going after Smith while another one came to Mr Picone's aid Gold Coast billionaire and businessman Paul Picone (left) is currently in the Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment According to Gold Coast Bulletin, Mr MacCallum added, 'I note from the QP9 material that there has been no complaint made on the charges and whoever hears the application on Tuesday will want to be appraised whether the complaint was made'. Meanwhile, Mr Picone is in the Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment. MPs could be ordered to vote for a 'blind Brexit' as Brussels prepares to back a vague statement on future trade in a bid to finalise Britain's divorce deal and transition deal. EU officials have said the 'priority is to get the withdrawal agreement done' to ensure Britain does not crash out without a deal. It will still require a solution for the Irish border amid a months-long stand off on how to avoid infrastructure between the Republic and Northern Ireland. Theresa May will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron tomorrow in her latest effort to end the impasse and win support for her Chequers plan. Fudging the details of the future relationship is seen as a way of squaring concerns in Brussels. But any attempt to force the divorce through the UK Parliament without knowing the details of the final trade deal will prompt outrage among MPs in the UK. Brexiteers will refuse to hand over the 40billion divorce bill without guarantees on trade while Remain supporters want to postpone leaving altogether until it is clear how the future relationship will work. Theresa May (pictured on holiday in Italy on Sunday) could order MPs to vote for a 'blind Brexit' as Brussels prepares to back a vague statement on future trade in a bid to finalise Britain's divorce deal and transition deal Theresa May will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron tomorrow in her latest effort to end the impasse and win support for her Chequers plan (file image) What is in Theresa May's Brexit blueprint? These are some of the key features of the Chequers plan being pushed by the UK government: A new free trade area in goods, based on a 'common rulebook' of EU regulations necessary. This will require the UK to commit by treaty to match EU rules 'Mobility' rules which will end automatic freedom of movement, but still allow UK and EU citizens to travel without visas for tourism and temporary work. It will also enable businesses to move staff between countries. Continued UK participation in and funding of European agencies covering areas like chemicals, aviation safety and medicines A 'facilitated customs arrangement', removing the need for customs checks at UK-EU ports. It would allow differing UK and EU tariffs on goods from elsewhere in the world to be paid at the border, removing the need for rebates in the vast majority of cases. This is designed to avoid the need for a hard Irish border. But in theory it still allows Britain to sign trade deals. Keeping services - such as banking or legal support - outside of the common rule book, meaning the UK is completely free to set its own regulations. It accepts it will mean less trade in services between the UK and EU. Continued co-operation on energy and transport, a 'common rulebook' on state aid and commitments to maintain high standards of environmental and workplace protections. A security deal allowing continued UK participation in Europol and Eurojust, 'co-ordination' of UK and EU policies on foreign affairs, defence and development. Continued use of the EHIC health insurance card. Advertisement German sources played down the prospect today, telling the Guardian Berlin wanted a clear plan for the final UK-EU deal at the end of transition in 2020. But EU sources told the FT: 'The priority is to get the withdrawal agreement done. That will be the dignified farewell. 'The rest we can see after Brexit.' Another senior official hinted at concessions to get a deal through in time for exit day in March 2019. They said : 'The political declaration cannot violate our principles. But with the rest, whatever helps pass a withdrawal bill is fine.' A third EU government minister handling Brexit told the paper: 'We will do what is necessary to save the withdrawal treaty'. Officials believe much depends on how much detail Mrs May demands from the EU on the proposed trade agreement. The senior EU official said: 'Does she go for a more granular and detailed version or think fudge will help me here as well? 'The more that they insist on putting certain issues in the text, probably the more we will have to put in conditions.' In a signal of unrest at home, Labour MP and People's Vote supporter Chris Leslie said voting on exit without details of the final deal was not good enough. He said: 'A blind Brexit would take the UK to the same place as a no-deal Brexit, but without the clarity. 'The idea that the fundamental contradictions of the government's Brexit policy can be more easily resolved after the UK has left the EU is simply ludicrous. 'A blind Brexit is being talked about because some see it as a short-term face-saving deal for both the British government and the European Union, both of which are now terrified that concluding with a failure to agree a deal will result in a humiliating no-deal Brexit. 'With the EU27 governments and the EU commission wanting to spare Theresa May's blushes, there is a risk we end up with a fake deal to save face.' German sources played down the prospect today, insisting Berlin wanted a clear plan for the final UK-EU deal at the end of transition in 2020 What is a 'blind Brexit'? Fudging the details of the future relationship is seen as a way of squaring concerns in Brussels. Officials believe it means both sides can get out of the Article 50 process with Britain outside the EU but inside a transition on essentially the current terms. The details of the future trading relationship can then be sorted out later. But any attempt to force the divorce through the UK Parliament without knowing the details of the final trade deal will prompt outrage among MPs in the UK. Brexiteers will refuse to hand over the 40billion divorce bill without guarantees on trade while Remain supporters want to postpone leaving altogether until it is clear how the future relationship will work. The People's Vote campaign for a second referendum has already dubbed the idea of voting on the divorce treaty without knowing the long term final settlement a 'blind brexit'. Advertisement Mrs May has been warned not to expect a Brexit breakthrough in talks with Emmanuel Macron on Friday. The UK's former ambassador to France said Mr Macron was 'the last person' to want to break ranks with the rest of the European Union to push for a softer stance from Brussels. Lord Ricketts also criticised Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt's repeated warnings about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, saying it was obvious to continental leaders that the UK was not prepared for such a scenario. The Prime Minister will cut short her Italian holiday to hold talks with the French president at his country retreat. Lord Ricketts, who was the UK's ambassador in Paris from 2012 to 2016, said the staunchly pro-EU Mr Macron was unlikely to give ground and questioned the Government's plan of trying to deal directly with national leaders instead of the European Commission in Brussels. He said Mr Macron 'doesn't believe in softening' the position on Brexit as 'he is a passionate pro-European'. A shocking video shows a police crisis negotiator being forced to run towards a suicidal woman on a motorway bridge - after the hard shoulder was blocked by selfish motorists. A police car transporting the negotiator rushed to the scene of the incident near junction 45 of the M1 near Leeds. The footage shows the police car making its way along the hard shoulder past a long queue of traffic but it is forced to stop short of the scene as traffic is blocking the emergency stopping lane. The negotiator then jumps out of the vehicle and is seen running away towards the bridge in a desperate bid to reach the woman. The footage shows police car making its way along the hard shoulder past a queue of traffic The negotiator forced to jump out of the vehicle and is seen running towards the bridge Police today revealed that several drivers would be fined and reminded drivers not to use the hard shoulder for anything other than emergencies. @Traffic_Dave, of West Yorkshire's Road Policing Unit, took to social media to post the shocking footage yesterday, with the words: 'Tasked with getting our crisis negotiator, urgently to an incident on the M1. The man seen running away from the Traffic car is the negotiator. 'Our path was blocked by the cars on the hard shoulder. 'Please leave the shoulder clear for emergency services.' The clip shows panicked drivers running back to their cars to let the police vehicle past. The negotiator is picked up again about 100 metres down the hard shoulder and continues on his journey. It is understood the drivers of a BMW, Passat and Honda on the hard shoulder were given 100 fixed penalty notices. Another eight drivers will be sent letters warning them of possible prosecution for being on the hard shoulder. PC Dave Cant was the driver of the vehicle in the clip, tasked with taking the negotiator from his home address to the scene near junction 45 of the northbound carriageway. It is understood the negotiator, after talking to the woman for several hours, managed to talk her down. PC Cant said only: 'The footage says it all.' The officer added: 'The hard shoulder is for genuine emergencies only and to allow the emergency services, including Highways England to get access to those in need of assistance.' 'A life saved by the negotiator. . . with the help of about 30 others at the scene.' This is the courageous moment a junior police officer helped thwart an armed robbery when she tackled one of the criminals to the floor during a failed break-in attempt. CCTV footage shows PC Dell Owen taking down Kyle Bayliss, 31, and spraying him with pava spray in the One Stop Shop in Shiregreen, South Yorkshire. Just moments later, PC Ben Hawley stops and apprehends his accomplice Connor Roulson, 21, who brought a machete into the shop. Kyle Bayliss, 31, and Connor Roulson, 21, carried out a failed raid on a One Stop Shop in Shiregreen, South Yorkshire Both officers were hailed for their 'tremendous bravery' during the failed raid at around 10pm on May 29 earlier this year. The hooded criminals raided the shop armed with a machete in a bid to steal alcohol and cigarettes. Roulson pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and possession of a blade while Bayliss pleaded guilty to a single charge of aggravated burglary in connection with the incident. Bayliss was jailed for four years and eight months while Roulson was jailed for three years and four months at Sheffield Crown Court. Judge Rachel Harrison told the pair: 'This was a terrible offence committed at a shop where you knew staff would be locking up. 'It was committed against those who provide a vital community service by working in that shop.' Chief Inspector Helen Lewis from Sheffield said: 'I speak for the whole district when I say I am immensely proud of the professionalism and courage shown by the officers who responded to this incident. The robbers run away after the police enter the shop (left) but Kyle Bayliss, 31, is dragged to the ground by PC Dell Owen (right) 'They entered this business while the crime was in progress and one individual was in possession of a machete-type weapon an incredibly dangerous situation. 'PC Dell Owen, a student officer, displayed tremendous bravery in tackling Bayliss, putting herself in harm's way to safely apprehend this suspect. 'PC Ben Hawley confronted Roulson, who had tried to dispose of his weapon by hiding it in the shop, arresting him without causing harm or injury to anyone. 'Both officers' desire to protect the victim and the wider community of Shiregreen are commendable and as a result of their decisive actions, a dangerous weapon was taken off the streets and two individuals are now in prison for their crimes. 'Please can I also pass on my thanks to the investigating officer DC John Briers, whose meticulous investigation led to the conviction of both men.' Heathrow Airport border staff have thwarted a suspected attempt to fly missile parts from Britain to Iran. The UK Border Force intercepted at least two 'O rings' being flown from the international airport. The 'O rings' - which can be used to form seals in warheads, were detected during an inspection of the shipment. Heathrow Airport border intercepted at least two 'O rings' being flown from the international airport. O rings can be used to seal warheads (file photo of a surface to air missile in Syria) The small and inexpensive rocket components are pieces of rubber that go between tubes to stops leakage. Despite being sent for use in the Iranian oil industry, Border Force staff stopped the shipment after they became suspicious of the intended use. The force speculated the real intention for the O rings was to use them for missiles. According to the Evening Standard, an investigation in to the shipment is now underway which could lead to criminal action against those responsible for sending the parts. Border force staff stopped the shipment after they became suspicious of the intended use. An investigation is underway which could lead to criminal action (file photo) Monique Wrench, the UK Border Force's deputy director at Heathrow said: 'It is a component part. It looked like it was going to an oil refinery. But the dots don't quite join up here. 'They can be used in oil, but they can also be used for warheads and the like.' Ms Wrench declined to comment if any arrests had been made and said the added that HM Revenue and Customs had now taken over the investigation. The sale, supply, or transport of missile-related goods or technology is banned in the UK. The penalty can carry a hefty fine as well as a prison sentence. Carole Taylor, 70, was awarded 325,000 of her late partner's fortune. She had lived with James Redmond for seven years in Langley, Berkshire, before his death in 2014 Sisters who branded their late father's partner one of his many girlfriends must pay her 325,000 of their 1million inheritance. Jane Redmond and Lynn Leberknight denied Carole Taylor, 70, was due anything from James Redmond's fortune after he died from cancer in 2014. The pair claimed that Ms Taylor was not the jive dancer's only romantic partner and that he was 'not the marrying type'. But they have now been ordered to pay almost a third of their inheritance to Ms Taylor, who met gas safety manager Redmond at a jive evening in Slough, Berkshire. Judge Stephen Hockman QC said Mr Redmond 'clearly loved' Ms Taylor. 'I decline to infer that, during the period of his relationship with Ms Taylor, the deceased regarded any other relationship as truly romantic or as in any way comparable to his relationship with Ms Taylor,' he said. 'There was ample evidence that Mr Redmond regarded Ms Taylor as his partner, even though she preferred for the time being to remain unmarried.' The pair met at Slough Irish Club. At the time Ms Taylor was still married to her husband of 42 years and Mr Redmond was divorced. She moved into his Langley home in 2007 and cared for him during his illness until his death in October 2014. Mr Redmond had battled prostate cancer for 15 years and his death sparked a bitter feud over his inheritance. His will, written 20 years before he met Ms Taylor, left everything to his daughters. Jane Redmond (left outside court) and Lynn Leberknight denied Ms Taylor had any rights to their father's fortune because she was not the only woman in his life But Mrs Leberknight incorrectly claimed neither sister would benefit from the will in order to persuade Ms Taylor to move out of Mr Redmond's home and let them sell it. 'It is clear that the decision had been made to cause her to fend for herself and to leave the premises,' the judge said. 'Whilst it was not unlawful to take this stance, it could hardly be said that the matter was handled with sensitivity.' Ms Taylor moved out and went to live with her son in Grantham, Lincolnshire, but launched a court claim for a share of Mr Redmond's estate. Her lawyers claimed that, because they lived together as 'man and wife', it was wrong that Mr Redmond did not make 'reasonable provision' for her in his will. Mr Redmond and Ms Taylor, who lived together for seven years. She looked after him during his illness with prostate cancer However, the sisters denied that the relationship was akin to that of a devoted married couple. 'My father was very charismatic and he did love Carole, I'm not disputing that,' said HR director Mrs Redmond, of Ascot, Berkshire. 'But it wasn't an exclusive relationship. It was common knowledge that my father had a house and a girlfriend in Somerset.' He had also distanced himself from Ms Taylor in the latter stages of his life and had even asked her to move out, claimed the sisters. But giving evidence, Ms Taylor insisted she was the 'lucky one' of his lady friends because she was the only one invited to spend Christmas with his family. She said: 'We were very much in love, we didn't need to be married. I was his partner and he was mine.' Judge Hockman said even Mrs Leberknight had described Ms Taylor as her 'step-mother' in a letter. And hospital records suggested Mr Redmond himself described her as his partner, he said. 'I find it improbable in the extreme that Mr Redmond in the final months of his life, and in deteriorating health, chose to bring to an end a relationship which had for some years provided him with much intimacy and support, with a woman whom he clearly loved, and who equally clearly returned his affection,' he said. 'I am therefore satisfied that Ms Taylor did live with Mr Redmond in the same household as him...throughout the period in which they were together. 'I am equally satisfied that Mr Redmond and Ms Taylor lived together as man and wife, and in particular that Ms Taylor lived with Mr Redmond as his wife.' Ms Taylor and Mr Redmond dancing together at a jive club in Slough, Berkshire, where they first met He added: 'Mr Redmond clearly had an obligation and responsibility towards Ms Taylor as well as towards his daughters, and his will, in making no provision for her, therefore clearly failed to make reasonable financial provision.' The judge said Ms Taylor's pension and savings are 'limited', but that the sisters had confirmed they were both financially 'comfortable'. The judge ordered the sisters to pay 325,000 to Ms Taylor, but that 180,000 of that should be invested in a property for her to live in. Her interest in that property will revert to them on her death. The claim was heard last year at Central London County Court, but the ruling on the case has only now been made public. A funeral firm behind a number of advertisements banned by Transport for London has said it was trying to break the 'taboo' around death. The firm called Beyond released a holiday style ad which shows a couple running to the beach clutching surf boards shaped like coffins. It jokes in a small pop up box of 'low cost, no fuss cremation' and that the offer is 'once in a lifetime' with an asterisk pointing out the trip will be one way. The banned advert by funeral price comparison website Beyond shows a couple gleefully running across the golden sands clutching coffin shaped surfboards and the text promises a 'Once in a lifetime' break with 'roasting temperatures' Another banned advert shows a list of symptoms with a prompt at the end encouraging sick people they 'Better write your will then' It goes on to joke that it there are 'roasting temperatures' and you can 'depart from anywhere.' In another of the adverts a woman appears to be shopping for a coffin in a bridal shop. And one more bears a striking similarity an advert about flu medicine, but instead of the cure to your symptoms being a pill, it encourages you to 'Better write your will then.' Ian Strang, the co-founder of the company appeared the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, and questioned the decision by TfL to ban the proposed advertisements. He said: 'They've got (adverts) on payday loans, gambling...is a little bit of humour around death worse than all those products.' The funeral price comparison site claims that 'taboo' around death 'creates an environment where bad actors can operate'. This particular advert shows a salesman clutching his poodle, with the coffins surrounding him reminiscent of a used car lot In this advert the laughing patron appears to be buying a pink coffin from a bridal shop A statement about the campaign on Beyond's website reads: 'So, these adverts are a tad... edgier. 'And that's deliberate. 'You see we're all going to die. 'Yet in the UK, few people like to talk about it. 'When something is taboo, as with death, it creates an environment where bad actors can operate. 'And our fear of engaging on the subject - creating that shared code of silence - allows predators to rip us off. 'We pay too much for funerals, funeral plans and wills because we don't feel able to shop around.' TFL said it had a 'serious responsibility' over advertising and that after the advertisements were rejected they worked with Beyond to 'come up with a more acceptable campaign', which is currently running. The dramatic moment police cornered a gang of alleged criminals in an alleyway has been captured on film after a week-long pursuit and a string of violent robberies. Police vehicles swooped in on the carload of young men in a backstreet of Alexandria, in Sydney's inner west on Wednesday evening, as terrified onlookers watched from the balconies of nearby apartments. The alleged criminals, driving a stolen Mercedes SUV, reversed into a police car in an attempt to ram their way out as plain-clothed officers closed in, pulling their guns and barking orders. Scroll down for video Police vehicles swooped in on a carload of alleged criminals in a backstreet of Alexandria, in Sydney's inner west on Wednesday evening, as terrified onlookers watched from the balconies of nearby apartments The alleged criminals, driving a stolen Mercedes SUV, reverse into a police car in an attempt to ram their way out as plain-clothed officers close in, pulling their guns and barking orders 'Get out of the car, get out of the f***ing car,' police can be heard shouting in footage of the incident. One of the young men attempted to fight officers away while three others - including the driver - were dragged from the back of the vehicle and wrestled to the ground. 'When I looked out the window, that's when I was most frightened because I didn't know what was going on,' eyewitness Charles Graf recounted, in conversation with Ten News. 'My son was inside, he's only six I told him 'Just get down on the floor'. Obviously you don't know what's going to happen, but once the police officers identified themselves everything was okay.' Constable Mia Toutounji sustained a minor laceration on her head during the fracas, while Senior Constable Jackson Polak of the dog squad suffered cuts and bruises. The driver of the stolen car, 20-year-old Dean Saunders (pictured), was arrested at the scene along with three teenagers Police believe that Saunders (pictured) and his co-accused are responsible for a string of violent robberies that have taken place across Sydney in the past fortnight The driver of the stolen car, 20-year-old Dean Saunders, was arrested at the scene along with three teenagers: all of whom police believe were involved in a string of robberies across Sydney in the past fortnight. The Mercedes was stolen from Boronia Rd, in the affluent eastern Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill, on Tuesday July 24th. That same morning it was used in an attempted robbery in Ultimo and a bag snatch in Pyrmont, police allege. It is thought the group are also responsible for another theft that occurred a week later, on July 30th, in Haymarket. Here, at about 4am, a man was kicked, punched, and threatened with a sword by four males who stole his iPhone and allegedly fled in a silver Mercedes. The dramatic moment police cornered the gang of alleged criminals in an inner-city alleyway was captured on film That same Mercedes was spotted driving along the Anzac Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, with police later spotting it in the neighbouring suburb of Glebe and following it to Alexandria. 'They [the alleged criminals] were observed to make observations at an Omega convenience store,' Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton told reporters on Thursday. 'All the males were seen to put hoods and gloves on and police at that time acted to stop the car and detain the four occupants by blocking the stolen vehicle. 'The driver of the car has acted aggressively and driven into stationary police vehicles a number of times in an attempt to escape.' Saunders, the driver, has never held a licence, and appeared before Parramatta Local Court on Thursday while his three under-aged co-accused were mentioned in the children's court. All four young males were refused bail. Donald Trump fired a new digital salvo at the Koch brothers on Thursday, claiming one of the billionaire industrialists had fretted about his trade policy's impact on 'foreign workers.' 'Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to "foreign workers". He is correct, AMERICA FIRST!' the president tweeted. While the precise quote was invented, the sentiment was accurate. Koch, 82, told a conference of 500 six- and seven-figure political donors on Sunday that Trump's import tariffs and other protectionist policies were having negative impacts on countries outside the U.S. 'Yeah, it's unfair. It's unfair to their people,' Koch said, according to ABC News. Charles Koch, like his brother, directs massive amounts of money into Republican politics during each election cycle, but Trump is pushing back by describing them as apologists for America's trading adversaries He also suggested that a trade war, 'if its severe enough,' could trigger a new economic recession in the United States. Following ABC's report, conservative news website Breitbart.com wrote that 'plutocrat' Koch had complained Trump's policies were 'not fair to foreign countries and foreign workers.' That may have been where the president found that specific phrase. Koch argues in a video his donor network released Sunday that 'protectionism is perverting the key institutions of our society. Its created immense barriers that are holding people back.' 'So if we want to help all people realize their potential, we have to break these barriers.' David Koch recently announced his retirement from Koch Industries and political activities, but he and brother Charles are stirring the political pot as usual by refusing to support a key Republican U.S. Senate candidate It's those two words 'all people' that got the nationalistic Trump into a lather. White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement that the president believes all of America's trading partners should 'move toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies.' But 'until other countries move in that direction, stop engaging in unfair practices, and start playing by the rules, the President is going to take tough action.' Trump had lashed out Tuesday at Koch and his brother David, tweeting that they were a 'total joke in real Republican circles' and that he is 'a puppet for no one.' Trump also boasted that 'I made them richer,' painting them as ingrates. The Kochs did not endorse Trump in his 2016 presidential bid, and have become consistent critics of his spending plans and trade policies. On Monday, the political advocacy network created by the billionaire industrialists announced it would not back GOP candidate Kevin Cramer in November's North Dakota Senate race. The decision was a warning shot to fellow Republicans that they should do more to elect candidates who challenge government spending. 'The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade,' Trump tweeted. 'I never sought their support because I don't need their money or bad ideas.' He later added: 'I'm for America First & the American Worker a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas.' Trump unleashed a brutal attack on the Kochs Tuesday on Twitter Kramer is running against incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, an endangered Democrat in a deep-red state who should be easy pickings for Republicans. The Kochs decided that the two were largely indistinguishable on policy. Trump will travel to Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday to express support for his preferred candidate for governor in a competitive primary. The president plans a rally to support Congressman Ron DeSantis, who faces off against state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the state's Aug. 28 GOP primary. Another Trump ally, Gov. Rick Scott, is joining the president at a separate event earlier in the day. Scott is seeking to defeat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a high-profile Senate race. Trump has played a role in several Republican primaries, helping candidates in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina in recent weeks with endorsements that underscore his influence within the GOP. But the president's policies have been at odds with the Kochs' political arm, Americans for Prosperity. That group says it still plans to focus its resources on helping Republican Senate candidates in Tennessee, Florida and Wisconsin. President Donald wants Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota to win his race against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, providing him another key vote in the upper chamber of Congress The Kochs believe Heitkamp's views on government spending are largely indistinguishable from Cramer's, so they decided to put their political donations to work in other races Charles Koch told reporters in recent days that he cared little for party affiliation and regretted supporting some Republicans in the past who only paid lip service to conservative principles. Leaders of their network of groups repeatedly lashed out over the weekend at the Republican-backed $1.3 trillion spending bill adopted in March, which represented the largest government spending plan in history. The Trump White House's budget office now predicts next year's federal deficit will exceed $1 trillion, while reaching a combined $8 trillion over the next 10 years. The Kochs were equally concerned about the Trump administration's 'protectionist' trade policies, which have sparked an international trade war and could trigger a U.S. recession, Koch said. 'We're going to be much stricter if they say they're for the principles we espouse and then they aren't,' Koch vowed. 'We're going to more directly deal with that and hold people responsible for their commitments.' Sara Resko was arrested on Tuesday and charged with six counts of child neglect A Florida woman has been charged after police rescued six children covered in lice and with open sores on their faces from her filthy home. Sara Resko, an insurance agent from Ocala, Florida, is accused of neglecting the children and leaving them to live in 'deplorable' conditions while she went to work. Not all of the children are thought to be hers. They were discovered on Tuesday after a neighbor saw a two-year-old girl who was naked from the waist down wandering the streets near Resko's home and called police. The two-year-old was with a four-year-old boy who was also dirty and partially clothed. When police arrived at the scene and started speaking to them, four other children emerged from the house. The six children were living in a filthy, dog-feces infested home which had no electricity and no running water This was what was inside the fridge when police searched the property In a bedroom inside the home, stained mattresses lay in the middle of the floor between bunk beds Resko returned to the home while police were still there on Tuesday. She argued with police as they arrested her and declared the incident 'so f****** stupid' They were aged six, eight, nine and 13. They all had lice and told police that they had been left alone by Resko in a house down the street. Investigators went to the home and discovered that it was covered in feces. Resko was charged with six counts of child neglect and remains in jail There was no running water, no food and no electricity. The children slept on stained mattresses and there were flies swarming the property, according to police notes. Around 30 minutes after they arrived at the house, Resko returned. She tried to claim that she had left the children alone for under an hour and argued as she was put in handcuffs. 'Are you f****** kidding me!' she shrieked before declaring the arrest 'so f****** stupid'. She sobbed as she was put in the back of a patrol car and asked repeatedly to be let out of her handcuffs. At one stage, she claimed she could not enter the car in the way deputies told her to because she was wearing a dress. Resko was charged with six counts of child neglect. The children were all removed and will be placed in other homes. An influenza outbreak that has spread to almost 200 students and staff has forced a Brisbane school to close this Friday. Middle Park State School informed parents via Facebook and email on Thursday following a major outbreak of the virus in Brisbane's centenary suburbs. Almost one-third of the student population have been struck down, with around 182 students and 15 teachers sick on Thursday, 7 News reported. Middle Park State School (pictured) in Brisbane has urged parents to keep their kids at home on Friday Almost one-third of the school's student population have been struck down with the virus with the school forced to take drastic measures. Pictured is the school's Facebook post to parents 'We have an extraordinary outbreak of Influenza A & B and urge parents to keep their students home,' the school's Facebook post states. The closure of the school forced the cancellation of a year six excursion due to 'exceptional health issues'. 'Thanks for taking swift action,' one parent wrote. The school acknowledged earlier in the week it was aware of an outbreak in the area in Brisbanes southwest. 'Influenza has hit the Centenary Suburbs hard. Be assured we are doing everything possible to deal with the issue such as sending information on symptoms and exclusion periods. We have also allocated extra hours to cleaning to deal with exterminating infectious germs,' a post stated on Wednesday. There are three types of the virus with Influenza A more serious than B and C as it is the only type known to cause widespread outbreaks. There was a flu outbreak in Brisbanes centenary suburbs this week (stock image) Metro South Hospital and Health Service public health physician Kari Jarvinen told The Courier Mail he was aware of an outbreak at a primary school with a 'significantly large' number of staff and students affected. 'We note that a big challenge that they are facing is children who are unwell coming to school, or parents bringing sick kids to school,' he said. 'So we really want to emphasis, not just for this school, but generally if you are sick or your children are sick you need to stay home.' Workers at a Japanese shrimp factory dont have to do any work unless they feel like it. The Papua New Guinea Seafood processing plant made huge cuts to its workforce in a bid to improve efficiency five years ago. But instead of letting any employees go, they instead got rid of the concept of a schedule, according to SoroNews24. Workers at the Papua New Guinea Seafood plant in Osaka can work the hours they want Now, staff came come and go as they please all they have to do is let managers know how many hours they worked by writing it on a board before leaving. They can even take a day off when they choose without calling in. Some may think allowing staff to manage their own hours would lead to productivity plummeting or a regular shortage of staff. But reports say productivity is up and management costs are down by almost a third, according to the website. Jobs at the factory include thawing, weighing, sorting, de-shelling, cooking and vacuum sealing shrimp. All workers have to do is let managers know how many hours they worked by writing it on a board before leaving Over the course of five years, there was only one day when every single employee had taken the day off. Jobs at the factory include thawing, weighing, sorting, de-shelling, cooking and vacuum sealing shrimp. Liberty University president and Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr. joined the president's attack on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling him a 'phony' and saying it was hard to gin up students to go see him on the eve of the election. The Bible Belt slam on Sessions and his visit to Falwell's own school followed an earlier hit on the AG in March, and compounds pressure after Trump's latest Twitter attack telling Sessions to end the Russia probe. 'Strangely @jeffsessions appeared unannounced at @LibertyU the night before the 2016 election on a bus tour. I told students but could get almost none of them to come hear him. Could it be our students were the first to see he was a phony pretending to be pro- @realDonaldTrump ?' Falwell wrote. Jeff Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from matters related to Russian election meddling because he was a Trump campaign advisor. Jerry Falwell Jr. on Thursday called Sessions a 'phony' Falwell, the son of Rev. Jerry Falwell, used a handle that doesn't belong to Sessions or @TheJusticeDepartment. It was difficult to immediately verify his statement about Sessions' drop-by at Liberty. A video posted after the election by Liberty University College Republicans shows Sessions speaking to a small group of students accompanied by Falwell, who is holding a cup of coffee and engaging in the casual repartee. SO NICE OF YOU TO STOP BY: Falwell Jr. can be seen here with Sessions speaking to students days after the 2016 election Falwell went after Sessions on Twitter, although he used a Twitter handle (@jeffsessions) that the attorney general does not use Both men are casually interacting with students. 'My wife and I started a young Republican club at Huntington College. We were the first one they ever had,' Sessions tells them in the short clip. 'Thats sort of where I got interested in politics.' Falwell also attacked Sessions in March after he decided to rely on an inspector general rather than do his own probe on an intelligence gathering issue splitting with Trump, who called the action 'DISGRACEFUL!'. Falwell called Sessions part of the 'establishment.' "I couldn't agree more,' Falwell wrote in response to Trump. '@USAGSessions must be part of the Bush/Romney/McCain Republican Establishment. He probably supported @realdonaldtrump early in campaign to hide who he really is. Or he could just be a coward," the Trump supporter and lawyer wrote in a tweet. Falwell 'tagged' a Twitter account handle that is not run by Sessions or by the government. Trump had tweeted beforehand: 'Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!' Falwell's intervention comes at a critical time for Trump, as his former campaign chair Paul Manafort is on trial, and his lawyers are exchanging letters with special counsel Robert Mueller over the contours of a potential interview Trump may give. President Donald Trump, left, and Liberty University president, Jerry Falwell Jr., right, listen to music during commencement ceremonies at the school in Lynchburg, Va., Saturday, May 13, 2017 Falwell Jr., seen here visiting with Sessions and students, said he could barely get any to come see him on election eve. This conversation was posted days after the election Trump blasted Sessions on Wednesday, bringing to bear a new round of pressure. 'Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now,' the president tweeted. 'Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!' Trump wrote. The White House said afterward that Trump was not ordering Sessions to end the probe, just expressing his 'opinion.' Trump has fumed earlier that Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe. The recusal, based on Sessions' role as a key election advisor who had his own undisclosed meetings with Russians, allowed deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to oversee the probe and subsequently appoint Mueller. Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions, which has gone on for more than a year, when he said he 'should' put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-running Russia probe Local police chief James Hughes Jr (pictured) died of an opiate overdose in May. An investigation into his death suggests the 35-year-old may have been stealing fentanyl and other drugs from the station's evidence room An Ohio police chief who died of a drug overdose is believed to have stolen fentanyl from the station's evidence room. James Hughes Jr, 35, was found on the floor of his bathroom by his wife in May and was pronounced dead soon after. An investigation saw police seize three syringes; one with fentanyl inside, one which tested positive for the opiate, and one which was empty, as well as a sandwich bag which tested positive for cocaine. Reynoldsburg Police Department Lieutenant Ron Wright told the Detroit Free Press packaging also found at the scene indicated the drugs may have been evidence for the department's cases. Hughes, who had been chief for only two months, is believed to have acted alone in his theft. Wright told NBC along with the opened evidence package, closed packages of heroin, more fentanyl, and LSD were also found inside his Reynoldsburg home. The father of three became police chief less than a week after his predecessor quit. Hughes earned $14 an hour working 20 hours a week but the village had recently decided to increase his hours to 32 per week. Hughes, a father of three, had three syringes with him when he died. Two tested possible for fentanyl and one was empty. Officers also found heroin and LSD at the property. All drugs appeared to have been evidence in other cases Wright said if Hughes was found to have taken the drugs from the evidence room on his own, nobody could be charged over his death. After his investigation is complete, the Lieutenant intends to pass the case on to the state Attorney General's Office. 'It's kind of gone beyond our level. You're talking about another agency's property room,' he said. 'We think the state should probably intervene.' In the first three months of 2018, 111 people died from an overdose in Franklin County, the coroner's office said. Fentanyl was involved in 67.5 per cent of those deaths. A Russian billionaire told to pay his ex-wife 453million in Britain's costliest divorce case has been found in contempt of court in the latest skirmish in their bitter legal dispute. Oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov, 62, has yet to pay Tatiana Akhmedova 'one cent' of the money she is owed from 2016, the High Court heard today. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said Ms Akhmedova, 45, is being 'prejudiced' by continued delay and said the gas and oil tycoon was in contempt. He was speaking on Thursday when analysing the latest stage of the case in a hearing at the Family Division of the High Court in London. Oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov, 62, has yet to pay Tatiana Akhmedova, 45, (right this year) 'one cent' of the 453m she is owed from a 2016 divorce settlement Mr Justice Haddon-Cave ordered Mr Akhmedov, a former London oil and gas trader who built up a fortune in the Russian energy business, to pay Ms Akhmedova a 41.5 per cent share of his 1 billion-plus fortune in a ruling in December 2016. Russian oligarch who owes wife 453m: 'I can't get justice in Britain' Farkhad Akhmedov has complained of not being able to get 'justice' in Britain. The businessman says he married Tatiana Akhmedova in Russia and the marriage was dissolved in Russia - and he says British judges should not 'interfere'. He put his side of the case earlier this year following another court hearing. 'The British courts should never have sought to interfere in a former marriage which took place in Russia, between two Russian citizens and which had long been dissolved in that country with generous provision for my ex-wife,' he said. 'I shall continue to defend all my rights in other jurisdictions, as will those responsible for the trust holding my family's wealth.' Mr Akhmedov added: 'I believe other courts will act in a more reasonable and less partial manner than the British courts have done.' A spokesman for Mr Akhmedov said on Thursday: 'Mr Akhmedov has always insisted that the divorce settlement awarded by London's High Court lacks any legitimacy.' He added: 'The London matrimonial proceedings were first started in 2012 just days after Mr Akhmedov completed the sale for 1 billion of his 49% interest in Russian oil and gas company Northgas. 'The sale came 12 years after the couple divorced in Russia. 'During that time Tatiana was living in England - where her ex-husband provided generously for her until the English High Court award in 2016.' Advertisement Ms Akhmedova's lawyers say he has paid nothing but has 'moved' assets. 'Not a cent has been paid to Ms Akhmedova,' barrister Hodge Malek QC, who leads Ms Akhmedova's legal team, told the judge. 'It is clear though that assets have been moved.' Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said: 'Mr Akhmedov in any event remains in contempt of this court. It is Ms Akhmedova who is prejudiced by the continued delay in this case.' Ms Akhmedova was at the hearing, but Mr Akhmedov was not in court. The judge also criticised Mr Akhmedov earlier this year following another hearing. He said it was apparent that Mr Akhmedov had taken 'numerous elaborate steps' to 'conceal his wealth' and 'evade enforcement of the judgment'. The judge described the businessman's 'continuing campaign' to defeat Ms Akhmedova 'by concealing his assets in a web of offshore companies'. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave has heard how Ms Akhmedova has involved in litigation 'around the world' in her attempts to lay claim to assets. He also ordered one of Mr Akhmedov's former solicitors to make available documents relating to the businessman's finances. Solicitor Anthony Kerman complained of unfairness but failed in attempts to persuade Court of Appeal judges and Supreme Court justices to overturn the order. Mr Justice Haddon-Cave was told on Thursday that Mr Kerman had complied with the order and a number of documents had been given to Ms Akhmedova's lawyers. In July a High Court freezing order on Farkhad's 300m yacht Luna, which his wife had hoped to get her hands on, has been declared invalid by the judiciary in Dubai where the 377-footer had been impounded since February. In May web designer Mark Isle admitted having an affair Tatiana Akhmedova. Mr Isle was just 19 when he met the married mother-of-two outside her sons' school. In July a High Court freezing order on Farkhad's 300m yacht Luna, pictured, which his wife had hoped to get her hands on, was lifted in a victory for him The Luna which boasts the largest swimming pool on any of the world's super yachts is considered one of the prize assets of billionaire Akhmedov's fortune Ms Akhmedova, pictured with celebrity divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton, claims her ex-husband has moved his cash around the world to avoid paying her Of the relationship, he said: 'I know my name has been said in court as part of the divorce hearing but I'd rather not become involved I am really piggy in the middle of two people arguing over silly amounts of money.' 'All I will say for now is that I was single at the time and I have moved on with my life,' he told MailOnline. 'I am engaged now to a wonderful woman.' Mr Isle, 37, from Weybridge, Surrey, said he had not benefited financially from the affair, which began in 2000. Mr Akhmedov , a devout Muslim, claims he found out about it that year and divorced his ex-wife shortly afterwards in Moscow. Mrs Akhmedova's ex-husband spends only 90 days a year in the UK for tax purposes However, Mrs Akhmedova claims the marriage continued for another 14 years for the sake of their sons before she filed for divorce in 2014. Mrs Akhmedova claimed her husband had a series of affairs during this period. She told the court that although Mr Akhmedov spends only 90 days a year in the UK for tax purposes, when together they slept in the same bed and had sex. She added that they regularly went on holiday and her ex-husband supported her financially throughout this period. Having filed for divorce Mrs Akhmedova was granted a decree nisi - effectively approving a date for the split - by a British court in December 2015. The divorce was finalised in 2016 and she was awarded 453million. But since the hearing Mr Akhmedov and his ex-wife have been locked in a bitter legal dispute after the billionaire refused to hand over the money. Mr Akhmedov , who was born in Azerbaijan, says the British court ruling has no jurisdiction over the two Russians - despite his wife taking British citizenship and having lived here since 1993, the year they married. Mrs Akhmedova had struck up a friendship with Mr Isle on the school run. Her sons attended the same school as Mr Isle's younger brother. Mr Akhmedov claimed he and his ex-wife divorced in Moscow in 2000. His legal team produced documents claiming to prove this but Mrs Akhmedova's lawyers found no evidence in Moscow's official court records. The court judgment concluded the Russian divorce documents were forged. Mrs Akhmedova argued she was due half of her ex-husband's 1billion fortune because of 'equal contributions' to the family's welfare during the marriage. The billionaire made his fortune when he sold shares in Russian firm ZAO Northgas for almost 1billion in 2012. Mr Akhmedov and Ms Akhmedova are involved in litigation over a 350 million yacht called MV Luna. In April, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said ownership of the yacht should be transferred from Mr Akhmedov to Ms Akhmedova. He said the yacht had been in a dry dock in Dubai. A spokesman for Mr Akhmedov said on Thursday a fight over the yacht, which had a 50-strong crew, would continue in a Dubai sharia court. Advertisement Ultra-Orthodox Jews were blasted with a water cannon after they blocked a major junction in Jerusalem to protest the arrest of a draft-dodging student. Protesters taking part in the demonstration on Thursday said they had turned out in solidarity with an ultra-Orthodox man who had been arrested for avoiding the draft. The sit-in led to scuffles with police, who arrested 46 people for disturbing the peace, the Times of Israel reports. One female police officer was taken to hospital for treatment, according to the paper. Protesters staged a sit-in against the detention of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish student who evaded a military draft order Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are sprayed with a water cannon by Israeli police as they block a road during Thursday's protest Israeli Border Police arrest Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators that block the Light Rail track during a protest in Jerusalem A young Ultra-Orthodox Jew is carried away by Israeli security forces during the protest on Thursday in Jerusalem The protesters had blocked traffic at the western entrance to Jerusalem, leading to the Tel Aviv highway. Police urged residents to avoid the intersection of Jaffa and Sarei Yisrael roads as they worked to remove the protesters. Massive traffic jams were reported in the area due to the protest and the light rail transportation system was stopped. Authorities and residents were already braced for delays as they sit-in came ahead of Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride Parade, set to begin at 5.15pm local time. Water cannons were deployed against ultra-Orthodox Jews who blocked a major junction in Jerusalem to protest the arrest of a draft-dodging student Protesters also blocked a Light Rail track, causing the transport system to shut down in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon The group staging the sit-in protest were reportedly part of the Jerusalem Faction, a radical ultra-Orthodox group The group staging the sit-in were reportedly part of the Jerusalem Faction, a radical ultra-Orthodox group, according to the Times. The group says ultra-Orthodox Jews should receive a blanket exemption from military conscription. Israel has long exempted many of its ultra-Orthodox men from the draft, on the understanding they are better suited for seminary studies. A member of the Israeli mounted police unit tries to disperse an Ultra Orthodox Jewish demonstration in the city on Thursday Mounted Israeli police try to prevent ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from blocking a road as they protest against the detention of one of their community members An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is carried away by Israeli policemen as he takes part in a protest in Jerusalem on Thursday A mounted police officer attempts to disperse ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators that were blocking the Light Rail track The ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is holding ongoing protests against army recruitment in the country The sit-in led to scuffles with police, who arrested 46 people for disturbing the peace in Jerusalem on Thursday A wounded ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrator blocks the Light Rail track during a protest against army recruitment A young ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy brandishes a banner that reads: 'Stop the oppression of the religious minority in Israel' An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man sits on a road as he takes part in a protest against the detention of a fellow community member Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators block the road near the Jerusalem Light Rail track during a protest against army recruitment in central Jerusalem Political parties run by rabbis in the coalition government have helped preserve the arrangement in the face of criticism by secular Israelis. But some ultra-Orthodox men do not secure exemptions and, should they avoid call-ups, face possible prosecution. A police statement said it would 'take determined, firm-handed action against extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews who disrupt public order.' Israel has long exempted many of its ultra-Orthodox men from the draft, on the understanding they are better suited for seminary studies But some ultra-Orthodox men do not secure exemptions and, should they avoid call-ups, face possible prosecution Political parties run by rabbis in the coalition government have helped preserve the arrangement in the face of criticism by secular Israelis Police use water canon to disperse an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators that blocked the Light Rail track during a protest Ultra-Orthodox Jews, demonstrating against the detention of a draft-dodging student, scuffle with Israeli security forces A member of the Israeli mounted police unit tries to disperse an Ultra Orthodox Jewish demonstration in Jerusalem The Jerusalem Faction, who were reportedly behind the protest, say ultra-Orthodox Jews should receive a blanket exemption from military conscription Ultra-Orthodox Jews are sprayed with water cannons by Israeli security forces as they sat on a Light Rail track in Jerusalem on Thursday A pack of Texas teenagers have been caught on camera jumping and 'surfing' on cars. The group's wild antics were filmed by locals and the shocking clip displays the group howling as they sprint and jump onto passing cars, triumphantly dancing on top of the vehicles as disturbed drivers honk on Saturday. Locals of the Deep Ellum Dallas neighborhood complain that not only are the teens endangering themselves with the bold activity, they're frustrating business owners in the area. A group of teenagers were filmed wreaking havoc on a busy Dallas street on Saturday where they jumped on top of passing vehicles to 'car surf' and ran in the streets filled with traffic Disturbed drivers honked as the teens clambered on their cars and ran in street, in one shot several teens are seen hopping onto this silver car 'They don't really frequent any businesses -- they just like to sit outside and kind of do the stuff you saw in the video,' Jeremy Wickwire, who recorded the video, said to WFAA. The video was filmed by local business owner Jeremy Wickwire who says the teens gather there regularly for such antics 'It's frustrating for us. We want our customers to feel like they can come out and drink and see a show and have a good time and not have to worry about some guys jumping on their car for no reason,' he added. He says the large group of teenagers gather every weekend to 'car surf' in the area. Wickwire's video shows a tall teenage boy running into the street and clambering on top of a silver car. As he jumps on top, another teen sits on the car's hood and two other youngsters are seen running around the restaurant-lined street packed with vehicles. Partying away: In one part of the video a teenager is seen dancing on the roof of a car as the disturbed driver inside honks The car continues to drive, honking along the way, as the teen dances on top of the vehicle, seemingly unconcerned, before jumping off. Another local business owner named Darren Cameron says the teenagers' car 'surfing' worries him as it can potentially lead to injuries. 'I worry someone is going to get hurt out here. Who wants to come down and be in the middle of something like that?' Cameron, who owns Glazed Donut Works, said. 'We want people to be safe down here and enjoy themselves,' he added. Ivanka Trump appeared to split with her father's administration Thursday on the thorny topic of what to do with children who cross the border as part of illegal immigrant family units. The Justice Department has been prosecuting all adult border-jumpers since April, with the exception of many asylum-seekers, leaving their children in the hands of Health and Human Services caseworkers because minors can't be held in adult jails. Ivanka, the president's daughter and senior adviser, said during an event for the Axios news website that seeing the aftermath desperate mothers and distraught children was 'a low point for me.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO First daughter Ivanka Trump said Thursday that seeing illegal immigrant families split apart at the U.S.-Mexico border was 'a low point' in her White Houe tenure The Justice Department has been prosecuting all adult border-jumpers since April, with the exception of many asylum-seekers, leaving their children in the hands of HHS caseworkers 'I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children,' she said in an event at the Newseum in Washington. Ivanka is pictured in 1994 with mom Ivana Trump, who emigrated legally to the U.S. from Communist Czechoslovakia in 1976 'Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic. But we are a country of laws. So you know, she came to this country legally,' she continued. The first daughter cautioned, however, that going soft on illegals risks inspiring a new flood of Central Americans to make a hazardous trip through the length of Mexico in the hope of a hassle-free transition to American life. 'We have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone,' she said. 'These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country I experience them in a very emotional way,' she added, showing little emotion as she said it. Ms. Trump, 36, has largely been publicly silent about the issue since Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the 'zero tolerance' policy in April that gave bureaucrats little choice but to house parents and kids separately. The conditions in which children including toddlers were processed into the government's bureaucratic system have come under fire, especially from liberals who describe it as 'cages' She did publicly thank the president once in June after he signed an executive order aimed at ending the practice. 'Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values; the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families,' Ivanka tweeted. That executive order, however, was largely toothless: It ordered Sessions to seek a judge's exception to a two-decade-old ruling that put limits on how long the government can house illegal immigrant children. 'DAUGHTER OF AN IMMIGRANT': IVANA AND IVANKA'S ROOTS IVANA TRUMP, PICTURED IN 1994 Ivanka Trump's mother, born Ivana Zelnickova, entered the U.S. legally but may have broken Austria's immigration laws to escape Communist Czechoslovakia in 1972. At age 22 she married an Austrian real estate broker and obtained an Austrian passport, but left the country for Canada five months later. The marriage was reportedly never consummated. Once in Montreal, the organizers of the 1976 Summer Olympics there sent her to New York City to help promote the games. It was there that she met Donald Trump, and married him less than a year later. Three years after the wedding, Ivana became eligible for naturalization and U.S. citizenship. Advertisement Ivanka thanked her father in June for signing a toothless executive order that at first appeared to end the practice of family separations The administration had hoped a longer legal leash would permit them to find family-friendly housing for children and their parents who are awaiting court hearings to occupy together. The judge, Dolly Gee, roundly rejected the DOJ's arguments last month. Hours before Ivanka's tweet, The Washington Post reported that she had pressed her father privately on the issue. The president told congressional Republicans that day how she had described the heart-rending images of adults and children in crisis and begged: 'Can we do anything to stop this?' Two teen brothers are behind bars after they told police they beat their mother to death with a hammer and then buried her in the desert. Michael Wilson and Dakota Saldivar, both 17, confessed to the crime and said they murdered their mother Dawn Liebig because they didn't like her parenting style. The brothers, from Pahrump, Nevada, buried Liebig in a shallow grave after striking her in the head with a hammer 20 times and stabbing her neck, police said. Wilson and Saldivar were arrested on Wednesday and have been charged with open murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and domestic battery with a deadly weapon. Michael Wilson (left) and Dakota Saldivar (right), both 17, told police they beat their mother to death and then buried her in the desert because they didn't like her parenting style The brothers, from Pahrump, Nevada, buried Dawn Liebig (pictured) in a shallow grave after striking her in the head with a hammer 20 times and stabbing her neck, police said A man from Idaho had called the Nye County Sheriff's Office to ask about a welfare check he had requested on Liebig's home. The man told a detective that he did not trust her sons and, after it was discovered Liebig's cell phone was still in her home, police opened up a missing person report. Detectives then contacted another man who revealed that Saldivar and Wilson had different stories about their mother's disappearance, according to KVVU. The man, whose identity was not released, told police that Liebig, 46, had multiple disabilities and that he believed she was dead 'due to the type of family she is in'. Investigators returned to Liebig's home to speak with Wilson and Saldivar, who said they didn't know what had happened to their mother. The brothers (pictured here in a 2015 photo with their older brother Michael) first told police that Liebig was suicidal and had asked them to help kill her But detectives found that the brothers' stories were inconsistent and that Wilson had sent a text saying 'my mother passed away'. Wilson then claimed that Liebig had wanted to commit suicide and asked her sons to help kill her. He said the teens stabbed her to death and buried her in the desert. The brothers eventually confessed that they murdered Liebig after getting into a fight The brothers eventually confessed that they murdered their mother after getting into a fight, Sgt Adam Tippetts said during a press conference. They said they were tired of her parenting style and that they 'couldn't take her complaining'. Saldivar and Wilson waited for Liebig to fall asleep after the fight and had planned to stab her in the jugular vein so she would die fast, they told police. Wilson stabbed her in the neck and said she screamed 'No!' and fought for her life. Saldivar then struck her 20 times in the head with a hammer. He said his mother cried out for her sons during the half-hour attack, not realizing they were her killers. He only stopped after the hammer went through his mother's skull, police said. Saldivar then stabbed Liebig in the back of the neck with a pocket knife and the pair buried her body in the desert. One brother led detectives to Liebig's shallow grave, while the other showed investigators where they had buried the murder weapons. Saldivar (pictured) struck Liebig 20 times in the head with a hammer. He said his mother cried out for her sons during the half-hour attack, not realizing they were her killers The pair tried to justify the murder by telling police that their mother had wanted to be with her dead sister. Wilson told police he was adopted by Liebig and had lived with her for five years. It remains unknown if Saldivar was also adopted. Liebig wrote about her dedication to her sons in the 'Intro' section of her Facebook page The two also have an older brother, Michael Liebig, who was in prison at the time of their arrest. Wilson and Saldivar are being held as adults in the Nye County Detention Center. Saldivar uses 'Liebig' as his last name on his Facebook profile, which was full of comments from his mother writing about how much she loved him. 'I miss my sons terribly when they're gone,' she wrote on one of his posts. Liebig even wrote about her dedication to her sons in the 'Intro' section of her Facebook page. 'I'm a mom that hopes she did okay,' she write. 'I want my boys to become the men I hoped for. I live for them.' Advertisement Searing temperatures in Spain have claimed their first victim as a roadworker died in hospital after collapsing in 111F (44C) heat while working on a motorway. The 48-year-old, who passed away in hospital on Thursday afternoon, became the first person to die as temperatures reached an unbearable peak in some parts of the country. He was described as 'foreign' although he is not thought to be British. The unnamed man had been working on a new stretch of motorway when he collapsed from suspected heatstroke near the village of Los Ramos east of the provincial capital Murcia in south-east Spain. The heatwave has scorched the Costa del Sol with much of Spain covered by 'red alert' warnings as forecasters say the mercury may even pass 122F (50C) in what could be a record-breaking week. Temperatures could be set to eclipse the hottest ever on record in Europe if they rise beyond 48 degrees - the current peak for the European mainland measured in Athens on 10 July 1977. Scroll down for video The enormous tower blocks of Benidorm loom in the background as thousands of tourists and locals hit the beach to make the most of the weather Hundreds of revellers packed onto the beach in the Spanish coastal town of Benidorm on Thursday to soak up the harsh rays The American GFS model for predicting weather shows parts of Portugal near Lisbon will be the hottest - topping out at 50C near Lisbon Official forecasts for some parts of Iberia claim temperatures will reach 48 degrees over the weekend, but some forecasters warned that temperatures could rise to a whopping 51 degrees centigrade (124F). Based on the calculations of the American GFS model, which were tweeted by Dutch forecaster Meteogroup, it has predicted a temperature of over 51C this Saturday for the lowlands southeast of Lisbon. Hot air and high pressure coming in from the Sahara could also push the mercury above 48C in Spain, smashing the country's national record set just 11 months ago. Despite the searing heat, remarkable photos show the beaches of Benidorm packed out with sun-seekers as the weather in Europe hits its highest temperatures of the summer yet. Temperatures will be almost 20C hotter than they are in the UK - which will hover around the 30C mark for most of next week. Guadalquivir, in Spanish Andalusia and Beja in Portugal are expected to be the hottest places over the weekend and could possibly break the 50C barrier if conditions conspire against them. According to forecasters, hot air from Africa is bringing the new heatwave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures. The torrid weather meant public services were put on alert in the Iberian peninsula, where a hot air mass was moving northward from Africa, meteorologists said. Portuguese authorities issued a nationwide health warning, including for dust from the Sahara Desert. Warnings were also issued for 40 of Spain's 50 provinces as local governments issued a 'red alert' - meaning serious danger to life. Authorities are warning against venturing outdoors during the peak sunny hours of the day and advising citizens to drink water and keep houses and vehicles as cool as possible. Nearly 11,000 voluntary firefighters, police and soldiers are on standby in Portugal in case wildfires break out. The Met Office meanwhile has forecast that parts of Spain and Portugal will only see temperatures of 48 instead of the 50C predicted by the GFS Sunseekers packed the beaches with enormous umbrellas for shade leaving very little of the actual sand exposed for sunbathing Temperatures in Spain and Portugal could be set to top 50 degrees over the coming days as Saharan weather heads north Even the shallow waters of the bay were packed out with people seeking to cool down after spending time in the searing sun The Met Office is advising Britons to stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm. Those who are usually sensitive to the sun should re-consider their trip during the most intense weather, Mr Dewhurst recommended. UV levels are also higher in Spain than the UK so people are advised to wear strong sun cream. Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst told inews.co.uk: 'It's possible that increasing temperatures could see some records broken in Spain over the coming days. 'The highest temperature on Wednesday is 42C in Seville, Spain. But that's expected to rise in the coming days. 'Seville and Cordoba will be the hottest places, with temperatures creeping up to 45C on Friday. By Saturday that could hit 47C or 48C.' In Lisbon people were pictured cooling off in the Portuguese capital's many public fountains as the hottest of Europe's weather set in Children try to cool off in a fountain during a hot day in Pamplona, northern Spain on Wednesday afternoon this week A boy somersaults backwards into the water off a beach in Barcelona, northern Spain as hundreds of locals looked to the sea to beat the heat A woman tries to cool off with water at the Retiro park in central Madrid as temperatures soar throughout the countr Even in Barcelona in the country's North the beaches within reach of the city were packed out with locals and tourists alike People practice rowing in the Arga River during one of the hottest days of the year so far in Pamplona, northern Spain Two women fall asleep on the grass in a park in central Madrid as people all over the city sought out shade to hide from the sweltering sun A group of men exercise on a public beach in Barcelona on Thursday morning before the sun rose to its zenith in the afternoon Two tourists rest in the shade of a building in Madrid as they cool themselves with handheld fans to try and keep cool A child shields themselves from a blaze of sunlight as they are peddled around Madrid on Thursday in a buggy in the heat A tourist attempts to cool down using a handheld fan as she makes her way through the streets of Madrid on Thursday afternoon A dog drinks from a public water fountain in the city center to hydrate itself after walking around the sweltering Madrid streets Elsewhere in Europe, tourist in the Italian capital Rome could be seen struggling to deal with the heat outside the Colosseum A woman cools herself in a fountain near the Ara Pacis monument, in central Rome on Thursday afternoon in the peak of the heat A nun takes water from a kiosk designed in the style of the hexagonal newspaper stands in front of the Colosseum in central Rome People fill up water bottles from a centuries old fountain in the Piazza di Spagna in the center of Rome to try and beat the heatwave Outside the Colosseum members of the Italian Protezione Civile distribute water bottles among thirsty tourists meandering around the ancient ruins Advertisement A British endurance swimmer has tremendously neared halfway of his 350-mile slog to be the first person to swim the length of the English Channel. Lewis Pugh, 48, is attempting to swim along the English coastline from Land's End in Cornwall to Dover, Kent, in just Speedo swimming trunks, a cap and goggles, in what he said would be his 'toughest' swim yet. 'The Long Swim', which started on July 12, marks the start of a worldwide Action for Oceans campaign calling on governments to fully protect at least 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030. Breath-taking photos taken of the endurance swimmer since he launched his monumental challenge, show him battling through dark waters as he strives to make history. Despite being faced with choppy waters, cold conditions and battling through painful jelly fish stings, Mr Pugh is averaging five hours swimming and is covering between six to 12 miles each day. Lewis Pugh, 48, is attempting to swim 350 miles along the English coastline from Land's End in Cornwall to Dover, Kent, in just Speedo swimming trunks, a cap and goggles, in what he said would be his 'toughest' swim yet. Pictured: Mr Pugh swims across Mounts Bay, Cornwall on July 14 Despite being faced with choppy waters, cold conditions and battling through painful jelly fish stings, Mr Pugh is averaging five hours swimming and is covering between six to 12 miles a day. Pictured: Lewis after his first swim on July 12 'The Long Swim', which started on July 12, marks the start of a worldwide Action for Oceans campaign calling on governments to fully protect at least 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030. Pictured: Mr Pugh swimming past Start Point on July 27 Breath-taking photos taken of the endurance swimmer since he launched his monumental challenge, show him battling through dark waters as he strives to be the first man to swim the length of the English Channel. Pictured: Lewis Pugh at the start of The Long Swim campaign in Sennen Cove on July 12 Mr Pugh will be making the first attempt to swim the length of the Channel according to the Association's rules, without artificial aids and just wearing swimming trunks, cap and goggles. Pictured: Lewis Pugh swims south of Falmouth, Cornwall on July 17 The Channel Swimming Association, which has been authenticating cross-Channel swims since 1927, will observe and verify his swim. Mr Pugh will be making the first attempt to swim the length of the Channel according to the Association's rules, without artificial aids and just wearing swimming trunks, cap and goggles. Mr Pugh has previously used 'Speedo diplomacy' to help create the world's largest marine protected area in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, and has also swum in the Arctic and in the icy waters of South Georgia in the south Atlantic as part of his efforts to raise environmental awareness and protect nature. Mr Pugh is calling on the UK Government to urgently strengthen marine protected areas around the UK and its Overseas Territories. 'I've been swimming for 30 years in the world's oceans. And over a 30-year period, which is a long time in human life but in ecological terms such a small period of time, I've literally seen the oceans change. 'From the Arctic down to Antarctica, to coral reefs, everywhere I've seen oceans change. What I'm campaigning for now is clean and healthy seas,' he said at a press conference in London ahead of his swim. The campaigner and UN Patron of the Oceans said he saw more and more plastic pollution in the oceans, rising temperatures in Arctic seas, and coral reefs turned from the 'set of Nemo' to 'rubble' by warmer water conditions. The Channel Swimming Association, which has been authenticating cross-Channel swims since 1927, will observe and verify Mr Pugh's swim. Pictured: The endurance swimmer crossing Falmouth Bay on July 17 Lewis Pugh celebrates swimming 100km, near Eddystone Lighthouse during The Long Swim campaign on July 22 Renowned endurance swimmer and United Nation's Environment Programme's Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh runs into the water as he starts his Long Swim campaign in Sennen Cove on July 12 The endurance swimmer (pictured cutting through water around Lands End on July 12) said he was worried about all of the stages of the 'monumental' swim Mr Pugh has previously undertaken swims in the Arctic and Antarctic to raise awareness of ocean conservation and help secure protection of the seas. Pictured: Lewis Pugh planning his route in Mounts Bay on July 14 He continued: 'Unless we take action right now, the future for our oceans is not a bright one,' he warned. The endurance swimmer said he was worried about all of the stages of the 'monumental' swim. The most dangerous parts would be going round headlands with their treacherous conditions, while jellyfish blooms were also likely to be an issue. He said: 'I know I will get to Dover, I know I will see the White Cliffs of Dover, but the paradox is I just don't know how. 'You can get your body right but it's going to be the heart that gets me to Dover, it's going to be an enormous physical journey but it's going to be an enormous mental journey.' But he added: 'We are going to Dover because we've got a reason to get to Dover. 'It's shocking that a country which portrays itself as an ocean leader has only fully protected just seven square kilometres out of 750,000 square kilometres. 'It's also deeply disturbing that the single most important part of British soil, which is South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the single most important part from a biodiversity point of view, less than 2% of it is fully protected. We can do better and we must do better.' He has put on weight to prepare for the challenge and believes exhaustion and repeated exposure to cold will be his biggest problems, while the Channel is also 'the world's busiest shipping lane, and has plenty of jellyfish'. Pictured: Mr Pugh comes across a jellyfish in Mount Bay, Cornwall on July 13 Mr Pugh treats a jellyfish sting with vinegar in waters off of Mounts Bay on July 14 July Mr Pugh (pictured swimming across Lizard Point on July 15) is calling on the UK Government to urgently strengthen marine protected areas around the UK and its Overseas Territories Mr Pugh meeting with Prince Charles during his Long Swim campaign on July 16 Mr Pugh has previously undertaken swims in the Arctic and Antarctic to raise awareness of ocean conservation and help secure protection of the seas. These were short sprints in icy water 'on the edge of death', with the dangers of predators such as leopard seals. 'This swim on the other hand is the longest I have ever attempted and it requires a completely different mindset', he said. The British swimmer has been training in the cold, rough waters off South Africa and the Falkland Islands, swimming an average of seven kilometres (four miles) a day to prepare for the Channel swim. He has put on weight to prepare for the challenge and believes exhaustion and repeated exposure to cold will be his biggest problems, while the Channel is also 'the world's busiest shipping lane, and has plenty of jellyfish'. He added: 'There will be bad-weather days when I simply won't be able to swim. 'The English Channel also has very strong tides. I've got to get the timing right, or I could be going backwards.' President Donald Trump is explaining daughter Ivanka Trump's assertion that the media is not the 'enemy of the people,' saying that she meant the 'FAKE NEWS' is 'the enemy of the people.' 'They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!,' he wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon. He did not clarify how the press is distinguished between real and 'fake news.' The president first uncorked the controversial epithet less than a month into his presidency, tweeting that 'The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!' As with Thursday's pronouncement, he limited his griping to a subset of the political press. Ivanka Trump refused to join her father earlier in the day in bashing the media as the 'enemy of the people.' Trump backs daughter Ivanka but gets in a dig at the 'fake media' Ivanka Trump disagreed with her father on his characterization of the press, saying they are not the 'enemy of the people' President Trump has repeatedly criticized the 'fake news media' for stories he doesn't like She disagreed with her father's characterization of the 'fake news media,' saying she doesn't see the press as her enemy. 'No, I do not,' she said Thursday, when asked if she thinks, as the president does, that the media is 'the enemy of the people.' When a CNN correspondent asked White House press secretary Sarah Sanders at her briefing if she would follow Ivanka's suit, she deflected the question, saying she was at the briefing room podium to relay the president's views, not to state her own. 'I'm here to speak on behalf on the president. He's made his feelings clear,' Sanders said. President Trump has repeatedly referred to the 'fake news media' that way. He used it a few weeks ago to fire back on reports of his disastrous press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, writing on Twitter: 'The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.' Ivanka Trump acknowledged there have been stories about her in the media she doesn't feel to be 'fully accurate' but wouldn't go as far as her father in slamming the press. 'I have certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they're sort of feel targeted,' she said. 'But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people.' She made her comments during an interview with Axios' Mike Allen, at an event on workforce development, which is one of the first daughter's signature issues. She is also keeping her self out of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation on Russia's role in the 2016 election. Unlike her husband, Jared Kushner, or her brother Donald Jr., Ivanka Trump has not been tied to Mueller's probe. 'No and no,' she laughed when she was asked if she's spoken to Mueller's team or if she knew about the Trump Tower meeting and saw any of the people attending. She later added she had 'I've seen my husband. I've seen my brother but no.' Asked if she talked to the Russians, she laughed again: 'No.' The June 9, 2016 - during the heart of the presidential campaign - featured Kushner,Donald Trump Jr., and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton. It has a become a major headache for the president as the meeting and its fallout have become a major part of Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election and whether the president obstructed justice. Trump denied he had any advance knowledge of the meeting as reports emerged that his former personal attorney Michael Cohen was prepared to tell Mueller knew about the meeting ahead of time and approved it. Ivanka Trump is carving out a more public role for herself in her father's administration The president first called journalists 'the enemy of the American people' less than a month after Inauguration Day in 2017 She has been a more public presence of late, working on work force development issues as she did here when she joined President Donald Trump in Tampa on Tuesday She broke with her father a few times during her interview with Axios She split with her father on other issues in her nearly 45 minute interview. She appeared to break with him on the thorny topic of what to do with children who cross the border as part of illegal immigrant family units. She said seeing migrant children separated from their families was 'a low point for me.' 'I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children,' she said. 'Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic. But we are a country of laws. So you know, she came to this country legally,' she continued. Ivanka Trump is focusing on workplace development issues and family leave Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walk with their children Theodore and Joseph across the South Lawn as they return from a weekend stay in Bedminster, New Jersey Ivanka has ramped her public presence in recent weeks and appears committed to staying in Washington D.C. to work in her father's administration. She also has been carving out an identity for herself on issues that interest her: workplace development and family leave. The first daughter has stepped outside of the White House West Wing in the past month - going to Capitol Hill to talk to lawmakers about family leave, traveling with her father on official events, and joining him at Camp David with her husband, Jared Kushner, and her children. President Trump has touted her work. When she presented her workplace development ideas at a Cabinet meeting in mid July, he praised her delivery and said if her last name was 'Smith,' the press would say she was 'totally brilliant.' 'Wow. So if that were Ivanka 'Smith,' the press would say that was totally brilliant,' Trump joked to laughter from members of his cabinet. 'As Ivanka Trump they'll say, 'Oh, she was okay.' ' 'That was really great, unbelievable,' he added to his daughter, who smiled and said thank you. Ivanka Trump leaving her home Thursday morning Ivanka Trump accompanied her father to Tampa on Tuesday She has dropped the words 'first daughter' from her title She also joined her father on his last few trips, staying focused on her work place development issues. She was with President Trump last week at a swing through the midwest to meet with workers, speaking at a rally in Granite City, Illinois. 'This president loves its steel workers,' she told the cheering crowd. She also joined him on Tampa on Tuesday when he signed the 'Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act.' Additionally, she's been making stops on Capitol Hill. She was at a Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on paid family leave proposals in mid-July and met with lawmakers on the issue. Ivanka, who moved to Washington D.C. from New York City with her family after her father won the White House, appears to have committed to a career in his administration for the foreseeable future. One of the biggest signs was when she closed her clothing business last month. She also dropped 'first daughter' from her White House title. In a July report required by Congress on White House staffers titles and staffers, Ivanka Trump, who takes no pay for her work in the administration, had dropped 'first daughter' that was in her title last year and is now simply an 'assistant to the president.' Asked on Thursday if she will launch another clothing business, she chuckled. 'No, when? In my life?,' she said. 'I'm 36 years old. I have a long life ahead of me. I don't know what it holds for me. At some point I will likely turn to the private sector. I don't have a time table.' 'I'm really passionate about the work that I'm doing here and I'm really committed to it.' Life sentence: Mario Lemus, 44, will have to serve 105 years in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl before he is eligible for parole A 44-year-old Nevada man has been sentenced to a minimum of 105 years in prison after he was found guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting a female relative, beginning when she was seven years old. A Washoe County district judge sentenced Mario Lemus, of Sparks, on Tuesday for his May convictions on three counts of sexual assault and one count of lewdness with a child under 14. County prosecutors say Sparks police began investigating Lemus in July 2016 after Saint Marys Hospital in Reno reported the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl who was concerned she might be pregnant. The victim had told two female family members that she had been sexually assaulted by a male relative. Based on interviews and other evidence, detectives determined that the girl had been sexually assaulted by Lemus at various locations since the age of seven. Lemus had fled the country but was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2017 as he attempted to return to the US. Lemus was arrested at LAX in March 2017 upon his return to the US During Lemus' five-day trial in May, prosecutors called the victim to the witness stand and presented to the jury a video recording of Lemus' confession, ultimately resulting in his conviction on all counts. The 44-year-old convicted child molester will have to serve 105 years before he becomes eligible for parole. 'This sentence ensures that Lemus will not have the ability to sexually abuse another child victim in his lifetime,' Chief Deputy District Attorney Nicole Hicks said. Hicks praised the courage of the young victim in this case for speaking out. Reg Snowling (pictuered) was hailed a hero during the war for destroying two German tanks with a single shell A Second World War veteran believed to have been the shortest British soldier on D-Day has died at the age of 97. Reg Snowling, who was nicknamed Titch due to being just 4ft 11in tall, volunteered for the Army in 1940 when he turned 18. The former tank gunner sergeant was hailed a hero during the war for destroying two German tanks with a single shell. He also sank two Nazi submarines with one shot and was among the first British troops to reach the Belsen concentration camp. Mr Snowling, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was in the thick of the action after he landed on Gold Beach on D-Day on June 6, 1944 with the 24th Lancers. He was later transferred to the 23rd Hussars and destroyed two Panther tanks with the same shot while advancing into German-occupied Europe. Mr Snowling recalled in an interview: 'We looked through a hedge and saw these three tanks. They popped at us and missed, so we reversed back. 'We went forward and we were face-to-face with them. They fired again and missed, then I popped one off. The shell went right through one tank and into the next. Snowling (left), who was nicknamed Titch due to being just 4ft 11in tall, volunteered for the Army in 1940 when he turned 18 'The tanks just blew up. When our rifle brigade went up in their half-tracks to have a look, there was nobody left alive. Newspaper report on Titch's heroics 'Even with an armour-piercing shell fired from a 17-pdr gun, two Panther tanks with one shot is difficult to credit. It is even more difficult when one has seen a German Panther. 'Cpl. R. T. Snowling, of 7 Upper Branch Street, South Bank, who is the gunner in a Sherman tank, has this achievement to his credit. The incident took place near Argentan, when his tank commander gave him the range and direction of two Panther tanks parked side by side on a ridge some 1,000 yards away. The Sherman was admirably situated for firing, the Panthers for being fired at. 'Cpl. Snowlings A.P. shell caught the Panthers on the side their most vulnerable part. The shell seared through the one and penetrated the side of the second. Booth brewed up, and as no other shot was fired, Snowling realised what had happened. 'This success is recorded with other trophies, on the long wicked-looking barrel of The Saints 17-pdr. Gun. The Saint is the name of the Sherman and the Hun has found Cpl. Snowlings shooting anything but saint-like.' Advertisement 'The officer in charge of the rifle brigade came belting back to our tank to ask who fired the shot. When he found out it was me, he said, 'Make sure he gets the Military Medal.' 'A couple of days later we were having a break and got our billy cans out to make a cup of tea. 'Three reporters came running over, saying, 'Where's Titch?' They had heard about me destroying two tanks with one shot and wanted to interview me. 'They shook my hand so hard that they nearly shook me to death - but I never did get the Military Medal.' Father-of-three Mr Snowling who had six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, also recalled French citizens celebrating their liberation. He said: 'They would be standing on their doorsteps and throwing things at us like bottles of wine as they were so grateful. 'Some of our tank commanders had their heads poking out of their turrets and were left bleeding after being hit by flying bottles.' Later Mr Snowling was injured when his tank was hit by a shell, but he got pulled out of the wreckage and bandaged up. After being sent back home to England to recuperate for seven days he was sent back to the front line. He also told of the bizarre incident where he destroyed two German submarines in a canal while in his Comet tank in Holland. Father-of-three Mr Snowling (pictured top right) had six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren Mr Snowling said: 'We had stopped on a crossing over a canal and our tank was told to go up a track. 'We spotted a Jerry coming out of a house and then around six to eight more ran out. We then realised they were going to these submarines which we had not previously seen. Mr Snowling died on June 30 and his funeral was held in Ipswich on Tuesday 'We were on higher ground, but we could just get the gun down. My crew were saying, "Go on Titch, shoot, shoot", so I said "OK" and fired one high explosive shell. 'It blew both submarines and the sailors sky high.' Mr Snowling also recalled driving up to the gates of the infamous Belsen death camp and being confronted by thousands of bodies on April 15, 1945. Mr Snowling returned to his old job after the war as a shop assistant at a clothing store in Ipswich. Later he worked at a bacon factory and as a bakery delivery van driver before becoming assistant manager of a cash and carry. Mr Snowling, whose wife Agnes died in 2012 after 70 years of marriage, was awarded France's highest order of merit for the military, the Legion d'Honneur, in 2016. Mr Snowling died on June 30 and his funeral was held in Ipswich on Tuesday. The rare sight of a giraffe giving birth was witnessed by astonished tourist during a safari tour in South Africa. Giraffes are the tallest land mammals on the planet and give birth standing up. In a heartwarming clip posted on Newsflare, an adult giraffe is seen delivering a calf at Kruger National Park - with the moment met with gasps by those on the tour. Astonished tourists on a safari tour were able to witness a giraffe giving birth The heartwarming moment took place at the Kruger National Park in South Africa The person who recorded the footage on July 2, said: 'During a recent safari in the Kruger National Park, we came across one of the most astonishing and rare sight of a female giraffe giving birth in the African wild. 'Majority of the time the African wild is associated with the battle for survival and death by predators. 'To witness new life born into this world in such a hostile environment is incredibly fascinating and hardly ever seen while on safari.' A New York City woman, 25, had been advised by her mother not to travel back home to the Dominican Republic for liposuction surgery. Johana Gonzalez still went through with it against Yocalis Alvarezs wishes and died Tuesday morning while the medical team was prepping her for the operation at the Center for Plastic Surgery and Liposculpture (El Centro de Cirucia Plastica y and Lipoescultura, CECILIP) in Santo Domingo. She was my rock. She and I were daughters, sisters. Im devastated. Completely devastated, Alvarez said in an interview with Univision 41. I want to know what caused my daughters death, and if it was negligence [then] that doctor cant continue to kill more young women like he did with my daughter. According to a lawyer representing the family, Gonzalez entered the surgical room at 7am and apparently suffered a heart attack moments later. Johana Gonzalez, 25, (left and right) traveled from New York City to the Dominican Republic on July 25 and passed away Tuesday during a liposuction procedure at a clinic Johana Gonzalez (cente) , 25, traveled to the Dominican Republic on July 24 with her three kids and died on Tuesday during a liposuction procedure Dr. Argeny Mercedes (left) said he made no incision. Gonzalez's husband, Gensi Castro (right), said he has no idea why the clinic staff advised against obtaining an autopsy In a recorded conversation that has been published by various news outlets in the Dominican Republic since Gonzalezs death, Dr. Argeny Mercedes could be heard telling family members that all of the required exams heading into the liposuction surgery had been completed. She died before an incision was made. Gonzalezs husband, Gensi Castro, told Telemundo 47 that they had spoken with a doctor and received different versions of the story. Some other family members visited the clinic but their requests to meet with the doctor assigned to the procedure and the clinic's director were rebuffed. Gonzalez went through a routine medical exam late Monday prior to a liposuction surgery that was going to cost between US$5,000 and US$6,000 - significantly cheaper than the cost in the US. Yocalis Alvarez (pictured) pleaded plenty of times with her daughter Johana Gonzalez not to undergo liposuction. Gonzalez died Tuesday during the procedure in the Dominican Republic. Why was the process done so quickly like that? They performed them at seven at night and the next day at seven in the morning theyre operating her right away, Castro said. How are they going to have the results so quickly? Castro was puzzled as to why the clinic mentioned an autopsy wasnt necessary. He [the doctor] has to be scared, he said. Gonzalez left New York on July 24, on a one-way ticket for her summer vacation, bringing along her three children a boy, three; two girls, ages five and nine. The only thing the kids are telling me is that they want their mother to be picked up. Why isnt her mother being picked up? They want to return, their father said. DailyMail.com reached out to Dr. Mercedes office, but a representative said the doctor wasnt providing any public statements for now. As of Thursday morning, CECILIPs website had been shut down and the no phone calls were answered. This is the heartwarming moment two bears lovingly cuddle one of their carers. The playful footage of the Syrian bears was shot at the Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville, New York. One of the playful bears can be seen enjoying a backrub from a carer, believed to be Jim Kowalczik, and letting out purring sounds to let him knows they are enjoying the luxury treatment. The two Syrian brown bears can be seen playing with Jim Kowalczik, one of the people who runs the park Not to be outdone, another one of the gentle giants comes over to the person filming the touching moment and starts to lick their fingers. Mr Kowalczik pets the cub a few more times while rolling around on the floor with him, before the bear starts to sniff his leg. The carer is filmed rolling around on the floor with the animals, and the bears themselves start to play along with him. The footage finishes with Mr Kowalczik on the floor with one of the 15-year-old bears, who tries to nestle its head into the carer's armpit. Mr Kowalczik is one of only three people who help look after the animals The Orphaned Wildlife Centre is run by married couple Jim and Susan Kowalczik, who set up the project with the aim of rehabilitating animals and returning them to the wild. Mr and Mrs Kowalczik, along with Kerry Clair, are the only people who work at the centre, providing all the necessary care to the animals to help nurse them back to health. There are 11 bears of different species at the centre, which has been running since 2015. Not to be outdone by Mr Kowalczik, the person filming the adorable footage also gets a lick from one of the bears The mother of a toddler who died as a result of internal trauma has broken her silence over the horrific incident, as her ex-partner is charged with the young girl's murder. Emergency crews were called to a house at Tarro, in the Hunter region of NSW, on June 19 after reports a 20-month-old girl was in cardiac arrest. The young girl, Hayley Rose, was rushed to John Hunter Hospital with her mother, Jessica Greatorex, riding in the ambulance behind her. Hayley was unable to be revived. Hayley Rose (pictured), aged 20-months-old, died as a result of internal trauma after going into cardiac arrest and being rushed to hospital The girl's mother, Jessica Greatorex (pictured) has broken her silence over the horrific incident, describing her deceased daughter as a 'beautiful, happy, bubbly toddler' who 'always had a smile on her face' The child had suffered horrific injuries to her torso, head and internal organs, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung 'Not long after getting there I was then told that she didn't make it,' Ms Greatorex told Nine News. The child had suffered horrific injuries to her torso, head and internal organs, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Timothy Andrew Whiteley, 26, has since been charged with murder over the suspicious death. Mr Whiteley was in a de facto relationship with Ms Greatorex and had recently moved in to the family's home, according to the ABC. Commemorating her deceased child, Ms Greatorex described young Hayley as a 'beautiful, happy, bubbly toddler' who 'always had a smile on her face.' The bereaved mother also recalls the horrifying moment she realised something was wrong with her daughter. 'She went down for a sleep, and she just didn't wake back up.' Timothy Andrew Whiteley (pictured), 26, has since been charged with murder over the toddler's suspicious death Police arrested Mr Whiteley (pictured centre) at a Tanilba Bay home on Thursday morning Authorities immediately treated the death as suspicious. At about 8.30am on Thursday, homicide detectives swooped on a home in the nearby town on Tanilba Bay, where they arrested Mr Whiteley. He was taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he was charged with murder. Detective Wayne Wolpole, who led the investigation into the man's arrest, had come after a special task force was set up to investigate the young girl's death. 'As a result of inquiries, Strike Force Nerium was formed with homicide investigators from Sydney and detectives from Port Stevens/Hunter police district,' he said shortly before Mr Whiteley was charged. Mr Whiteley was taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station where he was charged with murder 'Those investigations have been ongoing since that night and this morning at 8.30am it resulted in the arrest. 'That male has been brought to Raymond Terrace Police Station, he is currently in the process of being charged with the murder of that little girl.' Detective Walpole confirmed Mr Whiteley was due to face Newcastle Local Court on Friday and police were hoping to have any application for bail refused. A German far-right youth leader has come underfire for saying the man tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler was a 'traitor'. Lars Steinke, regional head of Alternative for Germany's youth wing in the country's Lower Saxony state, posted the comment on his private Facebook page. Steinke is said to have described Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot to kill the dictator as 'a coward's shameful attempt to save his own skin from the oncoming victor.' Stauffenberg planted a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler's military headquarters in eastern Prussia on July 20, 1944. A German far-right youth leader has come underfire for saying the man tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler was a 'traitor'. Lars Steinke, regional head of Alternative for Germany's youth wing in the country's Lower Saxony state, posted the comment on his private Facebook page Protected by the heavy wooden table, Hitler suffered only minor injuries and Stauffenberg was executed that night with fellow conspirators. The conspirators, among the most prominent examples of German resistance against the Nazis, are now honoured annually on the anniversary of the assassination attempt. At the time of the assassination attempt, Nazi Germany was fighting a losing battle in World War Two with Soviet forces and the Western allies. Hitler survived the bombing and was able to continue his military campaign to conquer Europe and eradicate the continent's Jewish population for another year. The plot portrayed in films such as the 2008 Hollywood movie 'Valkyrie' helped establish a principle under which German soldiers today are encouraged to defy orders if they would result in a crime or violate human dignity. But Die Welt cited Steinke as saying anyone who wanted to 'wipe out' their country's leadership at a time of rearguard action and was prepared to risk the collapse of battle fronts and so the unhindered advance of the enemy was 'an enemy of the German soldier and civilian Germans and so an enemy of the German people and therefore also my enemy'. Stauffenberg (pictured) planted a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler's military headquarters in eastern Prussia on July 20, 1944 Die Welt said Steinke argued that 'the war was - contrary to today's propaganda - not a war primarily against Hitler, but against Germany and the German people,' and that Stauffenberg was 'no hero.' Speaking to Daily Star Online, he added: 'I would like to make it clear once again that I solely evaluate the actions of Stauffenberg and not the actions of Hitler. I do not see how a successful assassination attempt would have helped the Germans. 'It seems to me that Stauffenberg wanted to get a better position after the war. And someone who wants to gain an advantage at the expense of their own soldiers and civilians is a traitor to me.' Alternative for Germany co-leader Joerg Meuthen said Steinke's comments 'are completely unacceptable, show an absurd understanding of history and have absolutely no place' in the party. He said leaders of the party, known by its German acronym AfD, will consider the matter next week. 'Stauffenberg is a hero of German history,' said fellow leader Alexander Gauland. 'Steinke has disqualified himself from AfD. He should be expelled.' AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote to enter the German parliament last year on anti-migrant and anti-establishment sentiment. Stauffenberg (far left, as Adolf Hitler greets another officer) and three others were executed shortly after their July 20, 1944 plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb failed. The conspirators, among the most prominent examples of German resistance against the Nazis, are now honored annually on the anniversary of the assassination attempt A picture shows Hitler's conference room at Wolf's Lair after the failed attempt on his life on July 20, 1944 Questionable comments about the Nazi era by prominent members, and the leadership's handling of them, have been a recurring issue for the party. Other AfD members have also provoked outrage with their comments about the Nazi past. Last year Gauland said Germans should be proud of what their soldiers achieved during both world wars. In January 2017 regional AfD leader Bjoern Hoecke described the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as a 'monument of shame' and demanded a '180 degree turnaround' in the way Germany seeks to atone for Nazi crimes. The party decided this year not to expel him over the comments. The last two surviving members of the Heaven's Gate are fuming over rapper Lil Uzi Vert's album artwork emulating the cult, claiming it 'is not a fair use or parody.' The 24-year-old rapper - whose real name is Symere Woods - posted his 'Eternal Atake' artwork on Tuesday that pays homage to the galaxy and keyhole symbol of the infamous cult that lived in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Two former members based in Phoenix, Arizona, still run the UFO-based cult's website. The site shows the art belonging to the cult and shares teachings. Scroll down for video Lil Uzi Vert released his album artwork for 'Eternal Atake' on Tuesday that is similar to the galaxy and keyhole symbol used by Heaven's Gate Two former members based in Phoenix, Arizona, still run the UFO-based cult's website and were disgusted with the rapper's clear usage of the artwork 'He is using and adapting our copyrights and trademarks without our permission and the infringement will be taken up with our attorneys. This is not fair use or parody, it it a direct and clear infringement,' the representative said In an email statement, the two remaining members voiced their discontent with the rapper's usage of the artwork. 'He is using and adapting our copyrights and trademarks without our permission and the infringement will be taken up with our attorneys. This is not fair use or parody, it it a direct and clear infringement,' the representative said in an email to Genius. Lil Uzi Vert had previously shared a tweet with the album's name and changed his Instagram profile to Marshall Applewhite, the group's leader. Lil Uzi Vert had previously shared a tweet with the album's name and changed his Instagram profile to Marshall Applewhite, the group's leader Applewhite and Heaven's Gate believed that the Hale-Bopp comet actually indicated the arrival of a UFO that would take the select group away from earth for a higher level of existence while Earth reached its 'conclusion' The leader, along with 38 of his followers, committed ritual suicide on 1997 as the comet made its way past earth, sparking mass media coverage Applewhite and Heaven's Gate believed the Hale-Bopp comet actually indicated the arrival of a UFO that would take the select group away from earth for a higher level of existence while Earth reached its 'conclusion.' The leader, along with 38 of his followers, committed ritual suicide on 1997 as the comet made its way past earth, sparking mass media coverage. Heaven's Gate is often viewed as one of the first to dominate the new world of the Internet. On Wednesday, he shared a different post on Instagram featuring a cartoon version of himself wearing a shirt with the galaxy on it and a keyhole, similar to the cult's symbol The rapper shared the name of his album back in July The rapper, who grew up in Philadelphia, hasn't said much about the Eternal Atake release date. He did, however, tweeted about the album's tracklist and shared a sample of a song on his Instagram on June 16. On Wednesday, he shared a different post on Instagram featuring a cartoon version of himself wearing a shirt with the galaxy on it and a keyhole, similar to the cult's symbol. Advertisement It's sister festival Camp Bestival was cancelled on Sunday due to appalling weather conditions. But nothing could keep festival-goers from their music on Thursday as throngs of youngsters headed to Lulworth Castle in Dorset for round two. With temperatures expected to hit 30C on Saturday, Bestival fans wasted no time in scrambling for the best spots on the estate and pitching their tents for the four-day extravaganza. Filing into the enormous venue with plenty of luggage for the long weekend, some revellers even used trolleys to move their enormous piles of possessions. To celebrate its 15th anniversary, this year Bestival is employing a circus theme. Crowds can be seen filing past a huge red enclosure. With more than 20 stages, there will be no shortage of acts this weekend - including headliners London Grammar and M.I.A. Here come the Bestival crew: Scores of music fans squeeze into the queuing area of the Lulworth Castle venue Lots of luggage: Festival fans lug their belongings into Lulworth, where they will enjoy a weekend of popular music acts including London Grammar and M.I.A. Ready to party: A Bestival enthusiast takes a break in the long grass with her baggage ahead of the action-packed weekend Don't forget the suncream! Revellers enjoy the sunshine ahead of the music-filled four-day festival in Dorset, where its sister festival Camp Bestival was called off on Sunday Festival-goers gathering at the Lulworth estate in Dorset for Bestival 2018, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at the venue The party starts here: Bestival ticket-holders, carrying rolled mats and food supplies, prepare to nab the best vantage points at the Dorset venue Throngs of festival-goers queue up to get into the Lulworth estate, while others begin unpacking their luggage for the weekend of music Festival essentials: Two Bestival fans employ teamwork to get their inflatable mattress across the lawn near Lulworth Castle A large red enclosure erected at the enormous venue in Dorset was keeping with the summer festival's circus theme Two festival-goers work together to get a trusty IKEA bag full of clobber into the Lulworth estate, where revellers will camp out to watch their favourite music acts Time for a tan: A reveller can't resist sunning her legs outside her tent ahead of the music-packed weekend Efficiency: Some festival-goers used a trolley with wheels to maneuver their belongings into the field near Lulworth Castle An Australian Army officer was rescued after miraculously surviving for a week in blizzard conditions on a New Zealand mountain. The 29-year-old man, who was not named, was reportedly found alive 'with slight frostbite' by the alpine rescue team at 5pm, north of Mount Aspiring's Quarterdeck Pass. The army officer went on a solo climb in New Zealand's South Island last Friday but failed to return on Monday. According to Maritime New Zealand, he was said to have endured heavy snow and winds of up to 60 km/h. An Australian Army officer was rescued after miraculously surviving for a week in blizzard conditions on Mount Aspiring in New Zealand (stock image) In a statement by Maritime New Zealand, the climber was found 'in good spirits' and was immediately provided with hot food and drinks. His next of kin was also notified soon after he was found. The man, along with the rescue team, are expected to leave the mountain by Friday if weather conditions allow it. A friend notified the police on Monday that the man was missing, which triggered the rescue operation. According to The Herald Sun, the man also had a locator on him, which was seen to be moving for the next few days. This helped the rescue team keep constant tabs on the climber. Helicopters that were searching for the Australian man were facing severe weather conditions that delayed the rescue, such as strong winds, freezing temperatures and rainfall. The Rescue Coordination Centre's Coordinator, Mike Roberts, said it was 'extraordinary' that the climber was standing up and waving when the helicopters spotted him. The man, along with the rescue team, are expected to leave the mountain by Friday if weather conditions allow it Mr Roberts also praised everyone involved for their perseverance despite the odds. 'The pilots did an amazing job to fly in and out, despite the low cloud tonight. It has just hung around the mountain for days and hampered our search efforts,' He said. 'The helicopter crews, Wanaka Alpine Cliff Rescue team and police all deserve the highest praise for the work theyve done over the past two days - and particularly tonight'. Mount Aspiring, also known as Tititea, is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Mount Cook region. It stands at 3,033m (9,951ft). This young child has been labelled 'Popeye' after a mystery illness left him with a massive swollen bicep. Daniel Salvame, 11, first noticed a swelling on his upper left arm when he was just four-years-old. Daniel, who goes to school in Rizal, the Philippines, was bullied by classmates because of his arm, which now resembles that of a bodybuilder. His arm resembles that of Popeye, the muscular cartoon character popular with children But the youngster has hit back, saying he looks like the famous cartoon 'Popeye', who had bulging muscles himself. Daniel hopes to become a bodybuilder and martial arts expert when he grows up, to help prove his bullies wrong. Speaking yesterday, Daniel said: 'My friends have teased me because I look strange but it does not worry me. I have arms like Popeye! 'I will be a body builder and learn martial arts when I'm older. Then I can go back to them and say "look at me now'. They will be sorry!"' Daniel's grandmother Alicia, 65, is now looking after Daniel after his mother, Alice, moved to Hong Kong for work. Daniel Salvame, 11, first noticed a swelling on his upper left arm when he was just four-years-old Daniel's family took him to the doctors but have not received a proper diagnosis of his condition His family took Daniel to the doctors when he was five, where medics said he had an enlarged heart and blood vessels. Alicia claimed doctors thought the growth was around his biceps was muscle, and also took him to another hospital for a second opinion. Yet due to the high costs, the family have been left without a diagnosis on what his condition is. Alicia said: 'I started to worry when Daniel was four-years-old. It was growing unusually for his age. He also has a heart condition since birth. 'As a grandmother, I became worried for his health. I seeked the help of many doctors. Alicia claimed doctors thought the growth was around his left bicep (pictured) was muscle, and also took him to another hospital for a second opinion 'I even went to the Philippines Heart Center. They found out that his blood vessels were larger than normal. 'The growth on his arms were just muscles according to them. But it seems unclear, so we went to PGH (Philippine General Hospital) for a second opinion.' The family hope to raise another two or three thousand pound so they can return to the doctors for a proper diagnosis. She added: 'He is a happy child. He has a lot of friends. He is playful too, but he gets easily tired. 'When his cousins are here, he likes to sing and dance. 'Our house, even if it is small, it has a lot of vegetables like sigarilyas and nuts, bataw, patani, kundol, patola.' Marc Guy is pictured arriving at Newcastle Crown Court after Ewan's death A man has been jailed for manslaughter after a baby he shook almost two decades ago died as result of his injuries 18 years later. Marc Guy was locked up for 21 months after after admitting inflicting grievous bodily harm on six-month-old Ewan Marrin at his home in Seaham, County Durham, in 1998. Ewan was left with catastrophic brain injuries up until his death at the age of 18. He was severely disabled and had visual impairment, stiff limbs and unpredictable epileptic seizures. Newcastle Crown Court heard Ewan was found dead in his bed on May 28, 2016, at the age of 18 after suffering an epileptic seizure. The court heard that he needed 24-hour care, had the mental age of a four to five year old and endured countless operations. Guy, who had since married, had a child of his own and emigrated to Ireland, was arrested when he travelled back to the UK for a family funeral in November last year. The 43-year-old, of County Cork, pleaded guilty to Ewan's manslaughter and has now been jailed for another 21 months. Judge Paul Sloan said he accepted Guy was now a 'reformed character' but added that statements from Ewan's family detailed the suffering he endured during his life. The judge said: 'Their lives were turned upside down because of what you did 20 years ago.' Judge Sloan said the statement from Ewan's mother Michelle Coulson about her son's plight was 'heartbreaking'. Guy (left) was locked up for 21 months after he left six-month old Ewan Marrin (right) with catastrophic brain injuries at the baby's home in Seaham, County Durham, in 1998 The judge added: 'No sentence I am permitted by law to pass could ever begin to repair the harm you have caused.' Judge Sloan said Ewan's death has left a 'huge void' in the life of his step father Ian Coulson, who he lived with, and added: 'His love, patience and understanding stands in marked contrast to your violent loss of control all those years ago'. The court heard Guy had been in a relationship with Ewan's mother Michelle and had been left alone with him for around two hours on November 23, 1998. When Ewan's mother returned home, she realised her boy was seriously unwell and he was taken to hospital by ambulance. He underwent life-saving brain surgery. Guy claimed Ewan had accidentally off the sofa. But medics determined that the tot's injuries were from violent shaking while being gripped around the chest. Guy, who had previous convictions, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on April 23, 1999. The court heard Ewan's mother married Ian Coulson in 2001 and he became the boys' stepfather and guardian. Ewan remained living with his stepfather after the couple split in 2010. It was Mr Coulson who found Ewan dead in his bed on May 28, 2016. Ewan was left severely disabled up until his death at the age of 18, had visual impairment, stiff limbs and unpredictable epileptic seizures Prosecutor David Brooke told the court Ewan had suffered a bad fit that morning and then slept most of the day, which was not unusual after a seizure. Mr Brooke said: 'He seemed peaceful and asleep. Later that afternoon, Mr Coulson went upstairs at around 5pm. Ewan was face-down and cold to the touch.' 'A post-mortem revealed the cause of death was sudden and unexpected death in epilepsy. 'It is accepted by the plea to manslaughter, which the defendant has entered, that the death related to the non-accidental injuries sustained at the hands of the defendant in 1998.' In a victim statement, Mr Coulson said he felt like a father to Ewan and added: 'I was very proud to say he called me dad. 'I feel lost without him. His death has left a huge void.' Ewan's mother Michelle Coulson said her boy was loved by his family but his injuries changed the course of all of their lives forever. The court heard Guy had been in a relationship with Ewan's mother Michelle and had been left alone with him for around two hours on November 23, 1998 Mrs Coulson said: 'I never felt Mark Guy's sentence was any kind of punishment for what his actions caused that day. We, as a family, have served the longest sentence.' Peter Makepeace, defending, said Guy has undergone a 'metamorphosis' since he carried out the attack as a much younger man. Mr Makepeace said: 'The man who appears before this court today is not the man who, 20 years ago, committed this offence.' Mr Makepeace said Guy is now a devoted family man who runs a smallhold in Ireland, sells produce locally and is 'well respected'. Guy had returned to the UK in November last year to attend his grandmother's funeral. Mr Makepeace added: 'He returned to the airport and was just about to board the plane. He was arrested, literally, as he was getting on the plane.' A New York state college that had initially denied an accommodation request by a 19-year-old student with cerebral palsy now plans to work out a deal. Two days ago, SUNY Purchase was accused of denying Nick Astor an extra room for his longtime caregiver. Nick, who is unable to dress, bathe or feed himself, requested a larger dorm apartment at SUNY Purchase for him and his aide ahead of his fall start at the university. But that request was initially denied by the university, an action that threatened Nick's dream of going to college and majoring in political science. SUNY Purchase has agreed to approve an accommodation for Nick Astor (pictured) who requested an extra room for his aide Two days ago, SUNY Purchase was accused of denying Nick Astor an extra room for his longtime caregiver Nick, who is unable to dress, bathe or feed himself, requested a larger dorm apartment at SUNY Purchase for him and his aide ahead of his fall start at the university. But that request was initially denied by the university (pictured) Nick told the New York Post: 'I just won't be able to go to school. That's it.' But just days after the Post revealed Nick's situation, the university has decided to accommodate him. Nick's father, Michael Astor, told the newspaper that the college is working out a deal that would provide separate rooms for his son and his caregiver on the same floor as close to each other as possible. They are still waiting for an official proposal from the school. Nick's story all began when he was told just days before he was preparing to pack for college that his request for a place big enough for his caregiver had not been approved. And without his live-in aide, Nick wouldn't be able to get out of bed or go to the bathroom. After Nick's story made headlines and caught the attention of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who demanded SUNY Purchase approve the student's request. 'All students have a right to pursue a higher education regardless of disability. I applaud Nick Astor for his achievements and resolve, and I have urged SUNY Purchase to accommodate him,' Cuomo said in a statement. 'College is key to achieving the American dream, and in New York we are committed to helping make that dream a reality, with equal opportunity for all,' the governor added. Nick's father told the Post that his son excelled in school while attending Millennium Brooklyn HS. Astor called out SUNY Purchase, saying their denial of his son's request was 'not reasonable'. According to Astor, the university told the family that Nick and his aide would need to share a single room. The teen was told just days before he was preparing to pack for college that his request for a place big enough for his caregiver had not been approved After Nick's story made headlines, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo demanded SUNY Purchase approve the student's request. A Change.org petition was also started against the college, urging them to grant Nick the accommodations he needs to attend the school Nick, who also does stand-up comedy in his free time, said SUNY's initial stance violated 'human decency'. A Change.org petition was also started against SUNY Purchase, urging them to grant Nick the accommodations he needs to attend college. More than 2,300 people had signed the petition by Thursday morning. 'We are perplexed that any reasonable person cannot see that requiring a live-in aide to share the same room with my son 24/7 is unhealthy, unsafe as well as a likely violation of basic human rights and labor statutes,' Nick's father wrote in the petition. Several people who signed the petition, including Nick, shared the same sentiment that 'everyone should be able to go to college'. 'Nicholas was an amazing middle-school student, and I was lucky and honored to be his principal,' Nick's former principal, Lenore Berner, wrote in the petition. 'Please grant him this accommodation. He deserves this opportunity.' A DailyMail.com request for comment to SUNY Purchase was not immediately returned. Omarosa Manigault-Newman is about to rip the lid off what she deems the deteriorating mental condition of President Trump in her bombshell new book. In an exclusive excerpt obtained by DailyMail.com, Omarosa, 44, who first met Trump when she appeared on The Apprentice and later became an assistant to the president, tells of the dread she felt while watching Trump's interview with Lester Holt last May. 'While watching the interview I realized that something real and serious was going on in Donald's brain. His mental decline could not be denied,' she writes in Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House. 'Many didn't notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff. 'But I knew something wasn't right.' In an exclusive excerpt of her new book, Omarosa, who first met Trump when she appeared on The Apprentice and later became the president's Director of African-American Outreach, tells of her dread while watching Trump's interview with Lester Holt last May 'Many didn't notice it as keenly as I did because I knew him way back when. They thought Trump was being Trump, off the cuff,' Omarosa writes. 'But I knew something wasn't right' Omarosa was beside herself when the president contradicted the White House party line that FBI head James Comey was fired based on the recommendation by the Department of Justice. 'For the Lester Holt interview, I watched it on a small TV in the upper press room (the lower press room was built on top of the old swimming pool and turned into the briefing room) by the press secretary's office,' she writes. 'Throughout this erratic and contradictory interview, I kept thinking, 'Oh no! Oh no! This is bad! 'Donald rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next. 'Hope [Hicks, then communications director] had gone over the briefing with him a dozen times hitting the key point that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the DOJ which the vice president and other surrogates had been reinforcing for days.' But when questioned by Holt, the president contradicted previous reports about how the senior law-enforcement officer was dispatched from his office. Omarosa is the latest former Trump aide to land a book deal, DailyMail.com revealed on Wednesday, and it promises to be the juiciest yet. In the interview Trump called Comey a 'showboat' and revealed he asked Comey whether he was under investigation for alleged ties to Russia. Trump also told Holt that he asked Comey whether he was under investigation. He said that he spoke to Comey once over dinner and twice by phone. 'I said, 'If it is possible, would you let me know [if] I am under investigation'? He said, 'You are not under investigation.'' The White House had previously claimed that a Justice Department recommendation had spurred the President to oust the FBI chief. Reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, described the President's claim that Comey told him he was not under investigation as being false. Trump also said that he had been planning to fire Comey, apparently contradicting initial reports from the White House that it was a recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that spurred Comey's ouster. The White House did not respond to a request for comment by DailyMail.com. Omarosa is the latest former Trump aide to land a book deal, DailyMail.com revealed on and it promises to be the juiciest yet. The former assistant to the president signed a seven-figure deal with Gallery Books - a division of Simon & Schuster - seven months after her dramatic departure from the White House. According to the publisher, 'Their relationship has spanned fifteen yearsthrough four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. 'But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.' Former comms director Hope Hicks had gone over the briefing with the president a dozen times hitting the key point that he had fired Comey based on the recommendation by the DOJ before the Holt interview Former assistant to the president Omarosa Manigault landed the book deal with Simon & Schuster seven months after her dramatic departure from the White House Omarosa, who served as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison, was supposedly fired on December 13, 2017 following reports of an altercation with Chief of Staff John Kelly. Her controversial termination made headlines after it was reported that security had to carry her out of the White House. She later denied those claims and insisted she had resigned from her post. The former Apprentice star then appeared on Good Morning America in an exclusive interview with Michael Strahan where she repeatedly teased that she had a 'story' to tell. Omarosa served as Trump's assistant and as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison until her dramatic exit in December 2017 'I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally,' she said. Her dramatic interview, however, did not move GMA anchor Robin Roberts, who believed her appearance was her own shameless plug for a book deal and dismissed her antics with 'Bye, Felicia,' a pop culture catch-phrase. Omarosa is expected to include some of the stories she shared and the ones she teased to Strahan in the book. After departing the White House, Omarosa appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where she made headlines for comparing it to a plantation; saying she was 'haunted' by Trump's tweets 'every single day;' and telling house guest Ross Matthews that she didn't think America was in good hands. 'No, it's not gonna be okay,' she said, appearing to tear up. She ended up being the fifth runner-up on the show, evicted during the show's two-hour finale. But she had created plenty of headlines and melodrama along the way. Omarosa moved back to Jacksonville, Florida full time, where her husband, Pastor John Newman is based. He leads The Sanctuary at Mt. Calvary Church in Jacksonville. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Omarosa has been interviewed by federal investigators in the Trump-Cohen probe. Omarosa previously worked as an editor for OK! Magazine and now-defunct Reality Weekly - which is owned by American Media Inc - which has been accused of paying off former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story about her affair with the president. The WSJ reports that Cohen had handled a dispute between Omarosa and AMI after she sued the company over its coverage of her brother's murder in 2011. Incredible footage shows a huge gray whale scratching its back on pebbles just a few feet off the coast of north eastern Russia. The startling scenes were recorded from a drone in Cape Chaplino in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug by employees of Beringia national park. The care-free whale is first seen feeding and spraying water out of its blowhole, before scratching its back on the pebbles on the sea floor, gently gliding its body back and forth in the shallow water. Footage shows a huge gray whale scratching its back on pebbles off the Russian coast The eschrichtius robustus is also seen feeding and spraying water out of its blowhole Maxim Antipin, from the team of workers at the Beringia national park, said: 'You can see on this video how a gray whale is scooping (sucking it in) and filtering the ground, and at the same time he manages to scratch himself on the pebbles. Netizen 'Ne allyo' said: 'At least one cute piece of news today. Thank you for that, dear whale.' And 'Evgeniya' added: 'The ocean is large enough, but still no one can be found to scratch the whale's belly.' Gray whales can reach lengths of 14.9 meters (49 feet) and weigh up to 36 tonnes with a lifespan between 55 and 70 years. The whale feeds mainly on crustaceans, which it eats by turning on its side and scooping up sediment from the sea floor. In October 2015, a group of up to eight orca whales were captured on camera on a pebbly beach on the Powell River, British Columbia in Canada, rubbing themselves on a pebbly beach. Samantha Fraser's former husband was using a phone registered under a false name which was traced to Phillip Island the day she was killed, a court has been told. Adrian Basham, 41, who had previously been questioned by detectives, was charged with one count of murder on Thursday morning and appeared in court later that day. Investigators had been hunting Ms Fraser's killer after the 38-year-old's body was discovered in her garage in Cowes, the main township on Phillip Island, on July 23. Police allege Basham went to Cowes on his motorcycle to murder Ms Fraser, with the phone data recording it was on the island the day the mother-of-three was killed, the Herald Sun reported. CCTV footage had reportedly captured a similar motorcycle entering the island between 7am and 8am on July 23. The vehicle left again just after midday. Scroll down for video The estranged husband of Samantha Fraser (pictured) was using a phone registered under a false name which was traced to Phillip Island the day she was killed, a court has been told Adrian Basham, 41, Ms Fraser's ex-husband, faced court on Thursday after he was charged with one count of murder Police told the court Basham (pictured) had a scratch on his face when they interviewed him three days after Ms Fraser's death Police told the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court Basham had a scratch on his face when they interviewed him three days after Ms Fraser died. A friend of Basham's told police that when he saw him the night before the alleged murder, he had no facial injuries. 'On the 26th of July, 2018, the accused has attended at Melbourne West police complex he presented with a scratch on the bridge of his nose,' Detective Senior Constable Luke Farrell told the court. The court also heard police obtained DNA evidence from Basham's fingerprints which matched a forensic profile of samples obtained from the scene. Ms Fraser's body was discovered in her garage on Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, last Monday Ms Fraser's (pictured) death on July 23 came as a shock to the local community Police were alerted when Ms Fraser (pictured), a mother-of-three, didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon Basham will be forced to provide additional DNA. The Herald Sun reported police have been looking into whether the motive for the alleged murder was nine charges Basham was facing for attacking Ms Fraser. CCTV footage shows a hooded man lurking outside the home where mother-of-three Samantha Fraser was found dead He will next face court on January 10. Two hours before Basham was charged, police released CCTV footage showing a man lurking outside Ms Fraser's home and walking along her street between 9am and 12.02pm on the day of her alleged murder. Ms Fraser arrived home at about 11.30am, police said. The man was seen in the footage running away from her property at around midday. The suspect was wearing a black hoodie with a distinctive dark blue band on the midriff and arms, dark pants and dark shoes. The suspect was wearing a black hoodie with a distinctive dark blue band on the midriff and arms, dark pants and dark shoes Detectives also released CCTV of a motorcycle seen in the area and are looking at the possibility the rider may be the same man captured lurking on Ms Fraser's street Detectives also released footage of a motorcycle seen in the area and are looking at the possibility the suspect used it as a getaway vehicle. Police initially believed Ms Fraser, a respected psychologist, had committed suicide. Authorities were alerted when Ms Fraser didn't arrive to pick up her children from school in the afternoon. A welfare check was conducted at her home on Seagrove Way, Cowes, where police found her dead. Her death came as a shock to the local community, who were notified of the police investigation four days after her body was found. One of the worlds premier regatta events is slated to get underway soon. Cowes Week 2018 will soon be held off the Isle of Wight. One of the worlds largest and oldest regatta events, its famed throughout the world and is expected to attract thousands of spectators once again. Heres all you need to know about what Lendy Cowes Week is, when and where itll be held, ticket information and about the Red Arrows flyover and fireworks show. The celebrated Cowes Week regatta festival has been held almost every summer since 1826 What is Lendy Cowes Week? Lendy Cowes Week is an annual regatta known for being the largest of its kind in the world. First held in August 1826 in Cowes, UK, the regatta typically hosts 40 daily sailing races with up to 1,000 ships and 8,000 competitors taking part. The annual festival originated from King George IVs passion for yachting and has continued to attract thousands of spectators and competitors, both professional and amateur, for almost two centuries. When is Lendy Cowes Week 2018? Lendy Cowes Week 2018 will be held from Saturday, August 4 until Saturday, August 11. Traditionally, the event is held starting the first Saturday after the last Tuesday in July. The sailing regatta has been held annually since 1826 except during World War I and World War II. Where is Lendy Cowes Week? Lendy Cowes Week is held in Cowes, England on the Solent, a narrow strait separating the Isle of Wight from the English coastline. Cowes is located on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight on the western bank of the River Medina estuary. The town has a long and rich history of yacht racing, being the home of the Royal Yacht Squadron since its founding back in 1815. Lendy Cowes Week tickets Although spectators are able to watch the famed yacht race free of charge from the shoreline, spectator boats can also be hired by those seeking a closer view. The boats can be hired for hour-long trips from Trinity Landing at Cowes Parade and depart at 11am BST, 12:30pm BST and 2pm BST. Booking for the boats can be made on the Parade at the Regatta Centre. Lendy Cowes Week Red Arrows flyover and fireworks The Red Arrows flyover will begin at 7:30pm BST on Friday, August 10 followed by the Lendy Cowes Fireworks Display at 9:30pm BST. The display will last for approximately 20 minutes and take place off of the Parade. Prime viewing spots for the spectacular fireworks show include the Parade, the Green, the Esplanade and in neighboring East Cowes. Anne Lister, who became notorious for her lesbian love affairs in Yorkshire during the 1800s A civic trust who put up a plaque to remember Britain's first 'modern lesbian' are under pressure to take it down because it describes her as 'gender-nonconforming'. York Civic Trust teamed up with York LGBT Forum and The Churches Conservation Trust to erect the 1,000 Anne Lister tribute on July 24. It was hung at the entrance to Holy Trinity Church, where Lister and her partner Ann Walker stood side-by-side in a symbolic communion in 1834. Lister, a wealthy Yorkshire landowner, kept secret diaries stretching 27 volumes which chronicled her life and same-sex relationships in intimate detail - and were so explicit they remained hidden for years after her death. The BBC is planning a series about Lister, played by Suranne Jones, called Gentleman Jack. Lister was given the nickname because of her love of what were considered male pursuits at the time, such as shooting and riding. But the trust who tried to honour her memory with the plaque have come under fire for referring to her as gender-nonconforming instead of lesbian. The BBC is planning a series about Lister, played by Suranne Jones, called Gentleman Jack Adorned with a rainbow border in a nod to the LGBT rainbow flag, it acknowledges Lister's celebration of 'marital commitment' at Holy Trinity Church. It has provoked outrage, with more than 2,000 people signing a petition calling for the tribute to be taken down. Petition organiser Julie Furlong said: 'Anne is an iconic figure to lesbians throughout West Yorkshire particularly. 'This has quite rightly has offended and angered many people in York and West Yorkshire. 'A gender nonconforming woman can be many things because it only means that you do not conform to societal expectations. It has nothing to do with sexuality. 'Anne Lister was, most definitely, gender non-conforming all her life. She was also however, a lesbian. 'That is why she took vows with her girlfriend in that church, because they were in love with each other and wanted to express that same sex love - the very definition of lesbianism.' Controversial: A petition has been signed calling for the plaque to be taken down because it describes Lister as 'gender-nonconforming' rather than 'lesbian' Calling for more signatures, she added: 'Don't let them erase this iconic woman from our history. Anne Lister was a lesbian.' York Civic Trust said in a statement: 'The intention of the plaque is to recognise the impact Anne Lister has had on so many people and to celebrate an important figure and moment in LGBT history. 'While we've received many positive responses to the plaque, we are really sorry that there are also many people who feel let down by the plaque's wording. The ceremony to mark the unveiling of the plaque on July 24 outside Holy Trinity Church in York, where Lister and her partner Ann Walker cemented their union in 1834 'The wording was shaped by several open consultations held with York's LGBT community. 'It was intended to highlight Anne Lister and Ann Walker's deep commitment to each other, to reflect Anne's gender-nonconforming presentation, to raise the profile of queer history and to celebrate an LBGT icon. 'The phrase 'gender-nonconforming' was not intended to be read as a replacement for the word 'lesbian'. 'However, we understand and accept that it has been read in this way. We recognise that this has hurt people, and we apologise. 'We've heard the criticism and we're open to the idea of updating the plaque in the near future.' A tip suggesting missing college student Mollie Tibbetts (pictured) was found in Missouri was found to be incorrect A hog farmer with two prior stalking convictions had his home searched, his cell phone taken and was interviewed for two hours on Tuesday as police continue to search for missing Mollie Tibbett. Wayne Cheney told FOX news multiple officers took pictures of the inside of his home - which is walking distance from the hog farms police recently searched, and took him away from the property for an interview. 'I don't know who those two [officers] were but they took me down to the fire station Tuesday and questioned me for two hours.' he told the WHO13. 'I don`t remember what they asked me.' Police have declined to say if Cheney is a suspect. The farmer says he doesn't know the Tibbett family but said he hoped they would all be reunited soon. And officers aren't the only ones throwing themselves into the search. On Thursday, Mollie's mother Laura Calderwood told reporters a reward fund for information leading to the college student's safe return had skyrocketed to $172,000. The fund is growing through generous donations. Police photographed the inside of Wayne Cheney's home, took his cell phone overnight and took him away from the property to be questioned Ms Calderwood said can feel her daughter 'sitting on her shoulder', and is drawing strength from the 20-year-old. An anonymous tip line has received more than 200 calls since Monday, including one suggesting Mollie was seen at a truck stop in Missouri, about 240 miles from Brooklyn, Iowa, where she lives. The 20-year-old was thought to have been spotted at a truck stop near the near I-35 and Missouri 92 Highway - 240 miles from her boyfriend's home, where she was last seen two weeks ago. But the Kearney Missouri Police Department said in a statement while they: 'Conducted a thorough search of the area, spoke with all possible witnesses, and reviewed all available video footage', the sighting was a dud. Mollie Tibbetts' mother Laura Calderwood (pictured) announced a reward fund for information about the 20-year-old's whereabouts had hit $172,000 Cheney (pictured) has previous stalking convictions, but says he does not know anything about Mollie's disappearance Tibbetts was last spotted jogging in the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa on the evening of July 18. Her family reported her missing a day later when she failed to show up for work and authorities have since embarked on a wide-scale search for the University of Iowa psychology major. Despite the lack of information or substantiated sightings, the college student's father, Rob Tibbetts, and her boyfriend Dalton Jack, say they are still confident she will make it home. 'We couldn't keep going if we didn't think she was coming home,' Mr Tibbetts told the Des Moines Register. Mollie was thought to have been seen at a truck stop in Missouri - some 240 miles away from her home town, but the police could not find any substantial evidence she was ever there Tibbetts had been staying at her boyfriend Dalton Jack's home in Brooklyn while he was working a construction job 120 miles away. He said he received a Snapchat from her that night He said Jack and the Tibbetts family have spoken constantly about the missing woman and what they'll do when she's home. 'One of her brothers said yesterday: "We're going to make her watch every one of these interviews back to back",' Mr Tibbetts laughed. On Thursday, Mollie's father Rob Tibbetts announced an anonymous tip line with a $30,000 reward During Thursday's press conference, he told reporters the family had been waking up at 2-3am every day to continue the search, and pleaded for anyone who knew anything at all to call the line. 'If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, so come forward,' he said. 'Let's bring Mollie home.' Mollie had been staying at her boyfriend Dalton Jack's home in Brooklyn the night she disappeared. Jack shares the house with his brother Blake and his fiancee Aimee Houghton, who were due to marry in the Dominican Republic this week. They have since canceled their wedding as the search continues. Authorities have embarked on a wide-scale search for the University of Iowa psychology major since she vanished on July 18 Police in Kearney, Missouri say they received a report on July 26 that a woman matching Mollie's description had been spotted at a truck stop near I-35 and Missouri 92 Highway - but could not find any evidence she had been there This is the house in Brooklyn, Iowa, where Mollie disappeared from on the night of July 18. Her boyfriend Jack shares the house with his brother Blake and his fiancee Aimee Houghton The 20-year-old went out for a jog that night but is thought to have returned home and studied late into the evening. Dalton, who was working on a construction job 121 miles away at the time and has been cleared as a suspect, received a Snapchat from Mollie that night, which he opened at 10pm. It appeared to have been taken indoors but it is unclear when it was taken. Concerns were raised after Mollie failed to turn up to work at a daycare center in a nearby town the following day. Jack returned to the house that day after realizing she was missing. Her longtime boyfriend told Fox News on Wednesday that she had probably gone to bed without locking the doors given it's a rural town of about 1,400 people. 'It's Brooklyn. You don't lock your doors,' Dalton said. 'It's more than likely because you know, nobody ever thought there was a reason to. Again, it's Brooklyn. Nothing ever happens in Brooklyn. That's why it's such a blindsided situation.' Authorities have previously said there were no signs of a struggle or a break-in at the home. Dalton said early in the investigation he was calling his girlfriend's phone constantly in the hope that someone would pick up. 'I did for like the first week and a half. Not more recently. I was just trying to see literally if anybody would pick up. And then, yeah, straight to voicemail,' he said. Dalton's brother said he was visiting his fiancee Aimee in Ames, about 80 miles away, on the night Mollie disappeared. Blake has slammed claims that Mollie's family had any involvement in her disappearance, saying: 'The people in this community know the truth'. Mollie is pictured above on the left with her grandmother Judy Calderwood and her three brothers. Her family are pleading with the public to come forward with information Mollie's mother Laura Calderwood (pictured) said giving up hope is 'not an option' in an interview with ABC News nine days after the 20-year-old's disappearance Investigators revealed on Friday that they had searched a pig farm about 15 minutes from Jack's home after receiving a tip - but found no sign of Mollie. After combing every field, barn and shed in the rural area for almost a week, local police called in for backup from the FBI on Tuesday. Federal officials, who have interviewed more than 200 people, announced they were zeroing in on Mollie's internet footprint, keeping tabs on her social media accounts, and analyzing activity recorded by her Fitbit tracker. 'She never takes it off,' Dalton said of his girlfriend's Fitbit. 'She uses it for the sleep tracker and all her runs.' Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said officials are getting 'a lot of information' from her digital footprint. 'We are very hopeful with the electronic data we are getting back,' he added. Mortvedt said officials have little to go on, but they're 'leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will'. Tibbett's mother Laura Calderwood said on Sunday she was doing her best to stay positive. Mollie was due to attend the wedding of her boyfriend's brother Blake and fiancee Aimee Houghton (above) in the Dominican Republic this week. They have since canceled their wedding as the search continues 'If it were me that were missing, Mollie wouldn't give up hope - that's not even a thought,' she told ABC News. 'You won't see me giving up hope. That's not an option.' Her father said someone out there knows something about his daughter's disappearance as he urged the public to come forward with information. When asked if he had a message for his daughter, he said: 'Just come home, pie. We're looking, we'll find you'. 'She's a brave girl. She'll be fine, just hang in there.' The father said investigators have told him 'again and again' that missing person cases similar to his daughter's have always been solved by a tip from the community. 'What we need is for people to tell their friends and neighbors that if they saw anything that seemed even remotely out of the ordinary to call authorities and they will run that down,' he said. Anyone with information is urged to contact the police tip lines at (800) 452-1111 or (515) 223-1400. The sheriff said the public can also send tips via email to tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com A former hitman has revealed in chilling detail how he tortured rivals to death by 'cooking them alive' in a documentary that lifts the lid on the brutal world of drug cartels. Ex Special Forces solider Jason Fox comes face to face with cartel assassin nicknamed 'Wolf Boy' - now locked up in a Texas jail - for Channel 4's 'Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos' The programme sees the former Royal Marine Commando and Special Boat Service veteran investigate the billion dollar cartels and meet some of the drug kingpins who rule parts of South America. In the first episode, on last night on Channel 4, he meets the contract killer known as 'Wolf Boy' who grew up in Laredo, Texas, and at the age of just 12 was sent into the world of assassin training camps. Fox meets with a former hit-man, known as Wolf boy, who at the age of just 12, was sent into the world of cartel assassin training camps Jason Fox (right) tracks down one of the Sinaloan cartels lieutenants (left) tasked with protecting the family of cartel boss El Chapo He speaks to Jason from prison after finally turning himself into police when he realised the cartel had decided to kill him. Wolf Boy, real name Rosalio Reta, tells the documentary: 'I didn't like that job, especially when it get so bloody. 'I've done the simple stuff that everyone starts doing, pulling teeth out, cutting fingers, start cooking them alive, its stuff that will get them to talk in a certain way. 'I didn't enjoy it, but I tried to be the best at what I was doing. Fox speaks to one of the cartels security chiefs (pictured) a man who runs his own hundreds strong, heavily armed, army Jason joined the police in Acapulco, once a sought after tourist destination it now has the second highest murder rate in the world as rival cartels battle for control The documentary crew also visit a cemetery for the bosses of the drug cartels, which includes elaborate tombs that resemble houses and castles One of the memorials, which resembles a castle, with a balcony and turrets 'If I knew what I was going to do to survive in this life, this lifestyle, this world, I had to be the best.' The documentary first profiles Mexico, the home of the world's most powerful drug cartels,where violence linked to the gangs has caused the death or disappearance of 200,000 people since 2006. Fox, also star of Channel 4's SAS Who Dares Wins, is given unprecedented access into the most formidable of them all, the Sinaloa Cartel, speaking to one of its 'lieutenants' who was tasked with protecting the family of it's boss 'El Chapo.' The Mexican drug lord was extradited to the US in 2017. He also visits a so called 'graveyard' for some of the drug bosses slain in the cartel wars, with graves surrounded by lavish tombs, that resemble small houses and castles. He travels to Acapulco, and while out on patrol with police he witnesses the aftermath of a a murder - with the dismembered body of a man laid out in the street as a warning to others Fox travels into the Golden Triangle, the heroin and Crystal Meth producing heartland of the Sinaloan Cartel, to meet one of the Cartel's security chiefs (pictured with Fox) The crew also join police in Mexico on a drug raid His guide tells him: 'We have tombs here that are worth $700,000 US dollars, that's a whole lot of money for just a grave, for just a tomb. 'Why do they have bullet proof glass, why do they have marble that comes from Italy, it is just crazy. Its a sign of power. 'They have so much money they don''t know where to spend that money.' He also travels to what is dubbed the 'Golden Triangle' the Heroin and Crystal Meth producing heartland of the cartel to meet a security chief who runs his own army. Later he travels to Acapulco, and while out on patrol with police he witnesses the aftermath of a a murder - with the dismembered body of a man laid out in the street as a warning to others. Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos can be seen on Channel 4's on demand service All Four, the next episode is on Channel 4 next Tuesday, at 9pm. President Donald Trump is hinting he and Kim Jong-Un could have another meeting, thanking the North Korean leader for his recent letter and adding 'I look forward to seeing you soon.' Details of the letter haven't been released by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed a letter from Kim was received by the administration on August 1. She also said at her press briefing on Thursday that no second meeting has been scheduled. The letter was simply ongoing correspondence and Trump sent a response that is on its way to North Korea. 'The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK join statement,' she said in a statement Thursday. President Donald Trump is hinting he and Kim Jong-Un could have another meeting Trump consistently touts the Singapore Summit as a diplomatic success Vice President Pence was in Hawaii to greet the remains Sanders said the president's goal is the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. 'The president won't be satisfied until all of North Korea is denuclearized,' she said on Thursday at her briefing. 'We have seen steps of progress and continued we're incredibly grateful and thankful for the remains of the service members that were returned yesterday.' Trump has continually touted his June Singapore summit as a success and praised Kim. He also thanked the leader for returning the suspected remains of U.S. soldiers killed in Korean War. 'Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!,' the president tweeted Thursday morning. Vice President Mike Pence was in Hawaii to greet the returns. He said the return was a strong indication of the progress being made in the on-going negotiations with the communist nation. 'Very early in our administration President Trump took a strong stand and said that we would not tolerate the presence of nuclear weapons and missiles in the possession of North Korea that could threaten the United States or our allies,' Pence told Fox News Channel. 'Those negotiations and discussions are ongoing. As I said today, we saw this promise kept by North Korea as evidence of the progress that we are making and we continue to remain hopeful that we will achieve the aim that's eluded the world for decades a nuclear free Korean peninsula. And that we'll bring our boys home,' he said. He aded: 'We are very hopeful that in today's events there is further evidence that promises made in Singapore by North Korea will be kept.' Kim also sent a letter to Trump in mid-July in which the North Korean leader said he hoped there would be a second meeting between the two. A report from Axios last month said Trump could dangle a second meeting Kim this September as a reward for taking steps toward denuclearization. The timing would coincide with the U.N. General Assembly meeting when world leaders gather in New York City. Kim also wrote to Trump in mid-July to ask for a second meeting Vice President Mike Pence, back left, watches as military members carry transfer cases believed to be the remains of American service members who fell in the Korean War Trump and Kim could meet in New York in September as part of the U.N. Assembly meeting But there are reports North Korea continues to build nuclear missiles. U.S. intelligence agencies are seeing signs of construction of missiles at a factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, The Washington Post reported earlier this week, citing intel sources. Trump and Kim's deal in Singapore was criticized for a lack of specifics on the denuclearization process, no timetable for progress and no verification system. The administration said those details would be worked out a later date. A former NASCAR great is on trial this week after being accused of installing hidden cameras throughout his North Carolina home and not telling his then-wife and her mother about the devices. Greg Biffle, 48, is being sued for 'no less than $100,000' by his estranged wife Nicole, 42, who claims she spent the final two years of her marriage being surveilled by Biffle and his friend Ricky Matthew Reavis without her knowledge. It was not just her either, as Nicole's mother Sara Lunders was also filmed on these hidden cameras, having moved in with the couple in 2011 after the birth of their daughter. Scroll down for video Lawsuit: Greg Biffle is being sued for no less than $100,000 by his estranged wife Nicole and her mother Sara Lunders after filming them, allegedly without their knowledge (couple above in 2008) Mother-in-law: Nicole, 42, and Lunders (left) claim that they were unaware that Biffle, 50, had installed cameras in the master and guest bedrooms and master bathroom (Biffle right in 2000) Biffle is fighting back against these claims, and testified in court this week that his ex-wife knew about the cameras. He also stated that he believed his maids were stealing from him and thought he might catch them in the act with the cameras, which he could access anywhere and at any time on his cell phone. Nicole has said that she knew about other cameras on the property, but not the ones in the master bedroom, master bathroom and guest bedroom that were hidden out of sight. She believes that Biffle installed these cameras to catch her having an affair with another man. Nicole claims that both she and her husband had extramarital relationships over the course of their marriage, which is part of the reason that the two legally separated in 2015 after eight years. It was a year after they walked down the aisle that they began work on the home they would live in for the remainder of their marriage, and where Biffle would install the hidden cameras. 'During the construction process and with Plaintiff Biffle's knowledge and approval, Defendant Biffle had a security monitoring system installed on the property where the Doolie Road Home is situated. These cameras are visible, not hidden and are located primarily (if not solely) on the exterior of the property,' reads the civil summons that was filed in the case last June. 'Plaintiff Biffle was aware of the installation of this system and knew specifically the location of many of the cameras, motion detectors, and other external security monitoring devices. These cameras are conspicuous as they are drop globe cameras, visible to the naked eye.' The summons, which was obtained by DailyMail.com, goes on to state that Nicole was not aware of the additional surveillance that was later added around the house. 'Without Plaintiff Biffle's knowledge or authorization, Defendant Biffle requested, and Defendant Reavis caused to be installed hidden monitoring equipment and multiple hidden cameras inside the Home, including hidden cameras in the master bedroom, the master bathroom, and the guest bedroom,' reads the summons. 'The Hidden Cameras and the activated bedroom cameras connected to a digital video recording system located in Defendant Biffle's gun safe. Defendant Biffle and Defendant Reavis connected this system through an application (the App) on their mobile telephones which allowed each of them to access the live feed from said cameras twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.' Home sweet home: Biffle has testified that his wife knew about the cameras and that he only installed them to monitor the maids, who he thought were stealing (property where filming took place above) Those cameras were installed in 2013, meaning that Nicole and her mother were captured on video for three years. Biffle then captured and even uploaded some of the images to an internal server at his workplace claims the summons. 'Upon information and belief, Defendant Biffle has shown images captured by the hidden cameras to third persons,' states the summons, which also claims that anyone at Biffle's workplace could access the images via the company server. The workplace mentioned is Roush Fenway, which sponsored Biffle in his racing days. Nicole and her mother had originally included them as a defendant in the suit alongside Biffle and Reavis, but a judge agreed that the company could not be held responsible for the actions of an employee in his home earlier this year. The saga all began when the women discovered the cameras in 2015, just before Nicole and Biffle's legal separation. 'Prior to the date of filing of this lawsuit, Defendant Biffle proffered multiple and inconsistent/ reasons for the act of installing, maintaining, and allowing/ instructing a third party to access the images captured on Hidden Cameras and recording equipment located in the master bedroom and master bathroom/ closet area without Plaintiff's knowledge and/ or authorization,' states the complaint. Nicole and her mother both argue that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy in their bedrooms and bathroom. They are demanding at least $100,000, with both mother ad daughter stating that they have 'suffered loss of appetite, loss of sleep, pain in [their] abdomen[s], emotional distress, worry, humiliation, fear, loss of trust and sleep, concern and other anxiety related conditions as a result of [their] discovery of Defendant's surreptitious and unlawful actions. Biffle was one of the top drivers for two decades, pocketing over $69 million in prize money from the Sprince Cup Series alone and just as much in his deals with sponsors including Scotts Miracle-Gro and Cheez-Its. This girl developed delusions of grandeur after waking from having her wisdom teeth removed - believing she is Kylie Jenner. Opening her eyes to a dentist's surgery, Emma is convinced she is the reality TV star. With her mouth swollen from the anaesthetic and a look of disbelief on her face, the 13-year-old girl looks up at her mother and tries to make sense of it all. In the hilarious footage filmed in California, Emma, who is heavily sedated, asks her mother to take her back to her 'mansion' so she can have a nap. She is convinced she is the social media superstar. Her first response after waking is to berate her mother for not telling her she is Kylie Jenner sooner. 'I'm Kylie Jenner and you didn't tell me.' she says. Emma, 13, from California wakes from having her wisdom teeth removed believing she is reality TV star Kylie Jenner 'I can't believe this,' she adds. 'Why didn't you tell me?' Lying back in a dentist's chair, the girl begins to cry. But she isn't sure if she is happy or sad. Her mother wipes a tear from Emma's eye. The girl then asks: 'Are you Kris Jenner?' The video was taken on February 16, 2016, in San Benito County. Zimbabwe's opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has claimed vote-rigging was behind his election defeat - and said he intends to challenge the results. Chamisa on Friday insisted that he won the country's landmark election, calling the official results 'fraudulent, illegal, illegitimate and characterised by serious credibility gaps'. 'We won this election and we are ready to form the next government,' Chamisa told a press conference. Chamisa declared 'a day of mourning ... for democracy' after President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF was declared the victor with 50.8 percent of the vote. But Chamisa, who received over 44 percent of the vote, is alleging violence and harassment against his supporters and manipulation of the election results. He spoke at a press conference shortly after riot police briefly broke up journalists waiting for his statement. But Mnangagwa quickly condemned the police action, says the scenes of riot police dispersing journalists 'have no place in our society.' Zimbabwe's opposition leader Nelson Chamisa (pictured) has claimed vote-rigging was behind his election defeat He spoke at a press conference shortly after riot police briefly broke up journalists waiting for his statement On Twitter, Mnangagwa says authorities are 'urgently investigating' the events. Later on Friday, Mnangagwa said on Friday he wants an independent commission to establish what happened before an army crackdown on opposition supporters on Wednesday in which six people were killed in post-election violence. At his first media conference since being declared winner of the Monday presidential election, Mnangagwa was asked who gave the order to send soldiers onto the streets of Harare, but he said the commission of inquiry would look into the matter. Mnangagwa was declared the winner of the country's first election since the downfall of Robert Mugabe with just over 50 percent of the vote. He defended the landmark election in which he was declared victorious, despite claims from the opposition of vote-rigging. 'Here was a celebration of Zimbabwean democracy, a festival of unfettered freedom. With the eyes of the world on us we delivered a free, fair and credible election,' Mnangagwa told reporters. 'No democratic process is flawless,' he added, saying that Zimbabwe was 'no exception'. But Monday's election - the first since veteran autocrat Robert Mugabe was toppled last year - was 'open to the world like never before', Mnangagwa said. But Chamisa said the opposition has evidence of vote-rigging, but that the electoral commission 'didn't want to listen to us.' 'We won this election,' Chamisa claimed and urged Mnangagwa to acknowledge that. Meanwhile, Mnangagwa has called for peace after a poll marred by the deaths of six people in an army crackdown on opposition protests. This morning, the former spy chief called for a 'new beginning' despite the bloodshed in recent days, adding on Twitter: 'Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!' President Emmerson Mnangagwa (left) has defeated opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa (right) in Zimbabwe's first post-Robert Mugabe election But opposition leader Chamisa has told the country's electoral commission it should release 'proper and verified' results, complaining that 'the level of opaqueness, truth deficiency, moral decay & values deficit is baffling. The scandal of releasing unverified fake results is regrettable.' The ZANU-PF leader, known as The Crocodile, defeated his rival Nelson Chamisa by more than a quarter of a million votes in a poll marred by violence, bloodshed and accusations of fraud. Chamisa, the candidate of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), performed strongly in the urban strongholds of Harare and Bulawayo but Mnangagwa outpaced him in more rural Zimbabwe, the official results showed. The MDC launched an impromptu protest minutes before the final province declared its result, taking the stage to say the results were 'fake' and could not be verified. Riot police arrive at a press conference due to be addressed by Nelson Chamisa, ordering journalists out of the venue in Harare Mnangagwa quickly condemned the police action, says the scenes of riot police dispersing journalists 'have no place in our society' Members of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front celebrate the win of their party leader Emmerson Mnangagwa in presidential elections Six people died after troops fired at demonstrators during a protest against alleged electoral fraud on Wednesday, leading the army to clear the centre of 'ghost city' Harare on Thursday. Mnangagwa, who won six of the country's 10 provinces, needed more than 50 percent of the vote to secure victory without a second-round run-off. Announcing the results, Commission chair Priscilla Chigumba urged the country to 'move on' with the hopeful spirit of election day - which passed with little trouble - and beyond the 'blemishes' of Wednesday's chaos. The official tally put Mngangawa on 2.46million votes (50.8 per cent) and Chamisa on 2.15million (44.3 per cent), after an election which had been intended to move the country on from the Mugabe era. Mnangagwa said on Twitter: 'Thank you Zimbabwe! I am humbled to be elected President of the Second Republic of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's Justice Priscilla Chigumba (centre) addresses media representatives as she announces the results of Zimbabwe's presidential election in Harare Supporters of President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF party celebrate his re-election at the Harare International Convention Centre in the early hours of Friday Emmerson Mnangagwa thanked his supporters on Twitter after being declared the winner 'Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams. This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!' But Opposition MDC spokesman Morgan Komichi rejected the count, saying: 'The results that have been announced have not been verified by us... so the results are fake.' Meanwhile justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi paid tribute to the President and said 'the majority of Zimbabweans are working with us, save for a few who want to incite violence.' The President said on Twitter that he wanted an independent investigation into the killings, and that he sought to settle differences 'peacefully'. But Chamisa said the result was being faked, accusing the government of turning tanks and guns on voters and saying police had raided opposition headquarters in the capital and seized computers. On Thursday, soldiers guarded the headquarters of ZANU-PF, while armoured personnel carriers, water cannon trucks and police anti-riot vans took position outside MDC headquarters. ZANU-PF supporters celebrate their candidate's victory in Harare early on Friday morning Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Priscilla Chigumba announces the results of the country's presidential election in Harare Riot police block a road leading to the MDC headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Thursday Nelson Chamisa addresses members of the media at a hospital where protesters are treated The streets of Harare are deserted on Thursday as the country awaits the election results Zimbabwean troops are pictured in the deserted capital of Harare amid the disputed election 'What they have been trying to do of late is to play around,' MDC leader Chamisa told reporters on Thursday. 'That is rigging, that is manipulation, trying to b******ise the result, and that we will not allow.' Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told a press conference on Thursday that the death toll after Wednesday's protests had risen from three to six after further protesters succumbed to their injuries. There were 14 injured, police said, and 18 people were arrested at the offices of the main opposition party amid tensions over the election. Soldiers and police cleared central Harare on Thursday, shouting at pedestrians and traders to leave the area. Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the military's 'excessive' force in the capital. The president, who has called on the opposition to 'lose gracefully', said observers had told him they are 'disappointed with the events of yesterday.' A Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officer sits in a police truck in Harare on Thursday Riot police stand across a road leading to the headquarters of the opposition MDC today While the military has been criticised for the crackdown, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba blamed rioters, saying some were drunk and that they destroyed eight cars and 22 shops. About 4,000 opposition supporters, some carrying iron bars and stones, were 'besieging' downtown Harare, she said. The vote on Monday was meant to mark a new chapter after the end of the Mugabe era. Mnangagwa had promised a free and fair vote after the military ushered him to power with a credible vote meant to end Zimbabwe's international isolation and attract foreign investment to revive the shattered economy. But anger flared on Wednesday over alleged vote-rigging, prompting troops to use live rounds on protesters. The presidential race has pitted 75-year-old Mnangagwa, Mugabe's former ally in the ruling ZANU-PF party, against the MDC's leader Chamisa, 35 years his junior. Members of the Zimbabwean armed forces pictured in Harare following the protests An Zimbabwean army truck is seen as the country waits for the results of the election Soldiers brandishing assault rifles and police shouted at pedestrians and traders to leave central Harare, AFP journalists witnessed. In a late-night press conference on Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu warned further protests would not be tolerated. 'The opposition... are testing our resolve and I think they are making a big mistake,' he said. Chamisa ratcheted up pressure, saying he had won the presidential vote and that the result was being faked. 'What they have been trying to do of late is to play around... that is rigging, that is manipulation, trying to bastardise the result, and that we will not allow,' he told reporters. In official results from the parliamentary election, also held on Monday, ZANU-PF won easily - an early sign that Mnangagwa would be on course to retain the presidency. Opposition supporters tear down a Zanu-PF banner supporting President Mnangagwa Opposition supporters hold up a placard in support of their candidate Nelson Chamisa The MDC said the army had opened fire on Wednesday 'for no apparent reason,' killing unarmed civilians. 'It's disappointing - the government's reaction only made things worse. It was heavy-handed,' trader Timie Manuwere, 37, told AFP. 'But I didn't expect things to really change much with the elections. It was highly unlikely these guys would just give up power after eight months.' Election observers from the Commonwealth issued a statement Thursday to 'denounce the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians' while former colonial power Britain appealed for Zimbabwe to remove the army from the streets. Before the violence, European Union observers declared they found an 'un-level playing field and lack of trust' in the election process. Under Mugabe elections were often marred by fraud and deadly violence. ZEC chairwoman Priscilla Chigumba, a high court judge, has flatly rejected allegations of bias and rigging. Mugabe, 94, voted in Harare on Monday alongside his wife Grace after he stunned observers by calling for voters to reject ZANU-PF, his former party. Opposition MDC party supporters protest in the streets of Harare during clashes with police MDC supporters protest outside the offices of Zimbabwe's election authorities in Harare Mnangagwa was a longtime Mugabe ally before his firing in November led his allies in the military to step in and push Mugabe to resign after 37 years in power. The campaign and polling day were lauded as relatively peaceful and open. Mnangagwa was the clear election front-runner, benefitting from tacit military support and state resources. But Chamisa, a lawyer and pastor, sought to tap into the youth and urban vote. Mnangagwa was allegedly involved in violence and intimidation during the 2008 elections when then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off after attacks claimed the lives of at least 200 of his supporters. The president must now tackle mass unemployment and an economy shattered by the Mugabe-backed seizure of white-owned farms, the collapse of agriculture, hyperinflation and an investment exodus. Previously solid health and education services are in ruins and millions have fled abroad to seek work. Oliver Redmond (pictured), 37, of Portsmouth inflicted a six-month long campaign against a store owner causing him to lose his business An internet troll who claimed a businessman was a 'dirty paedophile' in a relentless barrage of online abuse, which caused his victim to lose his business and his hair from stress now faces jail for harassment. Oliver Redmond, 37, inflicted a six-month long campaign against vape store owner Paul Cheape, bombarding his friends and suppliers with messages falsely claiming the businessman had sex with underage Eastern European girls. Fearing he may come to the attention of vigilante paedophile hunters, Mr Cheape, 32, of Portsmouth, started suffering from anxiety, rapid onset alopecia and developed a 'deep fear' of being away from his home. Devastated Mr Cheape was forced to close his store 'Steamachine' after losing 75,000 in trade last year when customers' believed what was being said'. Portsmouth Magistrates' Court heard Redmond waged a 'hate campaign' against him and posted messages on a Facebook page claiming the store was 'fine' but he 'would not ask the owner to babysit'. In the message, Redmond, who uses a wheelchair, said: 'Steamachine is fine so long as you're not a 13 year old girl. 'I'm not saying the owner's a self-confessed predator of underage Eastern European children... but I wouldn't ask him to babysit.' In a phone call, Redmond said to Mr Cheape: 'Why don't you just fuck off back to Scotland you sheep shagger? You dirty paedophile jock.' He also said to him: 'I wouldn't ask a bearded, ginger, tweed-wearing pervert like you to ever babysit my kids. And that's a fact.' Fearing he may come to the attention of vigilante paedophile hunters, Paul Cheape, 32, of Portsmouth, started suffering from anxiety, rapid onset alopecia and developed a 'deep fear' of being away from his home. He lost 75,000 worth of earnings and had to close his vape store Redmond also claimed Mr Cheape 'bragged about having sex with underage Eastern European children'. Giving evidence in court, Mr Cheape said he realised he was being targeted by Redmond after he was shown messages by friends and suppliers sent to them by the father-of-three. The businessman told magistrates: 'I took both my laptops to Hampshire Constabulary and I said to them if I'm under investigation I'm offering my laptops to you now and I'm happy to hand myself in. 'They were unwilling to assist me - they said this was ridiculous. Genuinely at this point, I was scared. Portsmouth Magistrates' Court heard Redmond waged a 'hate campaign' and sent messages to a Facebook page claiming the store was 'fine' but he 'would not ask the owner to babysit'. Redmond admitted one count of harassment between June 1 last year and January 19, this year 'These days it doesn't take much for people to hound somebody. 'I genuinely feared that there was a concerted effort, an aggressive effort, from Mr Redmond to cause significant financial damage to the business and myself.' Scottish Mr Cheape told magistrates he found an address online linked to Redmond - only to find it was the internet troll's mother Nicola Redmond's home. Once there he told Mrs Redmond a 'white lie' that her son had left an expensive bit of vape kit in his shop. Borrowing her phone he called Redmond, leaving him a voicemail saying he needed to speak urgently to him. Redmond's mother also handed over her son's mobile phone number, allowing Mr Cheape to try and call the troll using a new SIM card he bought for that purpose. Magistrates heard Redmond did not answer but called the businessman back on September 25 last year, immediately launching a tirade of insults. Mr Cheape said: 'I didn't have a chance to immediately respond when Mr Redmond immediately launched a tirade of verbal insults regarding my nationality to the effect of, "why don't you fuck off back to Scotland you sheep shagger?"' 'Then I tried to respond and I was then insulted further by being called a "dirty paedophile jock."' Redmond, who claimed the phone call never happened, denied making a malicious communication but was convicted by magistrates. Dressed in a navy three-piece suit, Redmond, from Portsmouth, admitted one count of harassment between June 1 last year and January 19, this year. Redmond, who told the court his actions were 'silly', will be sentenced later this month, with Magistrate Sian Bamber telling him he could face up to 12 weeks in jail. Speaking outside court after the trial, Mr Cheape said: 'People like this don't have a place to hide. This is an internet troll being brought to justice. 'The business has suffered to the point where it's no longer viable because people believed what was being said. 'I've seen such a sharp decline in business.' He added: 'Not only have I had to let staff go but I've also suffered significant financial losses through the business. 'But that's just the beginning of things. I have developed rapid onset alopecia and lost large chunks of my hair. 'I've been sick, completely unable to eat food, stressed to the point where my body is feeling like it's giving in for months to the point where my partner has urged me to go to the hospital because of how deathly sick I look. 'It's been absolutely hell on earth.' Australian mathematician Akshay Venkatesh has just won the Fields Medal, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics. Venkatesh becomes just the second Australian to win the prestigious prize after Terence Tao, who won it in 2006. The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to up to four mathematicians under the age of forty, with a prize of CA$15,000 (8,750) given to each winner. Accepting the award on Thursday, August 3, Venkatesh said: A lot of the time when you do math, youre stuck, but at the same time there are all these moments where you feel privileged that you get to work with it. The Fields Medal winner Akshay Venkatesh, center, is awarded during the opening ceremony of the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro You have this sensation of transcendence, you feel like youve been part of something really meaningful. Here is all you need to know about Akshay Venkatesh including who he is and what he won the Fields Medal prize for. Who is Akshay Venkatesh? Akshay Venkatesh is an Australian mathematician who is currently a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. He was born in New Delhi but grew up in Perth, Australia, where his parents moved to when he was two-years-old. His mother is a professor of computer science at Deakin University. Venkatesh recalls having a fairly normal suburban existence growing up, despite being a maths prodigy. As a child, he won medals in the physics and maths Olympiads before becoming the youngest person to study at the University of Western Australia at the age of 13. He went straight into second year after proving that he could answer all of the exam questions on first-year subjects. One of his earliest mentors, Professor Cheryl Praeger, described him as extraordinary. At 16, Venkatesh graduated with first-class honours in pure mathematics and went on to study at Princeton. His adviser there, Peter Sarnak, also praised Venkatesh for his remarkable insights, telling Quanta: It was clear that it was just a matter of time before he was going to put things together in unusual ways. The Fields Medal winners pose for photos with some attendees during the opening ceremony of the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug 1, 2018 However, Venkatesh told the site that he felt like he did not have a happy time as a graduate student. I didnt really feel like I had added something very original. I dont think I got the sense out of graduate school that I can do research. Venkatesh tackled feeling down by reading maths texts on subjects far removed from his fielda coping mechanism that turned out to be the key to finding out what sort of mathematician he really wanted to be. A lot of his work features insights from other areas of mathematics. Venkatesh is married to Sarah Paden, who is finishing her doctoral dissertation in musicology at Princeton, and the couple have two children. What did Akshay Venkatesh win the Fields Medal for? The International Mathematical Union awarded Akshay Venkatesh the Fields Medal for: His synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory, which has resolved long-standing problems in areas such as the equidistribution of arithmetic objects. Venkatesh, however, was surprised at winning the prize. 'Its very difficult to grasp that Im one of them,' he told Quanta. He didn't expect to win because his work is conjectural, whereas the traditional Fields Medal winners are ones who have solved a famous problem. Who else won the Fields Medal 2018? This year's prize was also awarded to three other mathematicians: Italian Alessio Figalli from ETH Zurich, German Peter Scholze and Caucher Birkar, from Cambridge. Birkar is a Kurdish refugee who came to Britain who grew up in a Kurdish city in Iran to farmer parents. His 14-carat gold medal was reportedly stolen just minutes after he accepted it at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Brazil. Police were called on a black college student who was eating her lunch on campus this week by a college employee who said she looked 'out of place' in the latest in a string of racially charged confrontations that appear to be sweeping America. Oumou Kanoute was taking a break from her on-campus job at Smith College, a private college in Northampton, Massachusetts, on Tuesday when a white cop arrived to ask her what she was doing there. The New Yorker is an undergraduate at the college but is spending the summer working as a teaching assistant and residential adviser on one of its summer programs. As the students on the summer program ate in a dining hall on Tuesday, Kanoute decided to take her food to a common room and eat alone in peace. Within minutes of sitting down, she was confronted by a white police officer who asked: 'We were wondering what you were doing here?' after entering the common room. Kanoute, who filmed their exchange and put the video on Facebook, nervously responded: 'I was just eating my lunch.' The undergraduate student later claimed that she was told the person who called police said she looked like a 'suspicious black male' who was 'out of place'. Oumou Kanoute, the student, shared the video on Facebook 'This person didn't try to bring their concerns forward to me,but instead decided to call the police. 'I did nothing wrong, I wasn't making any noise or bothering anyone. 'All I did was be black. It's outrageous that some people question my being at Smith Collge, and my existence overall as a women of color. 'I was very nervous, and had a complete meltdown after this incident. It's just wrong and uncalled for,' she wrote. In a caption on her video, she wrote: 'So I'm sitting down minding my own damn business and someone calls the cops on me. 'This is why being black in America is scary.' The college said the incident has raised 'concerns' in the community but it is refusing to name the person who made the call. Their excuse is that it could stop others from calling the police in the future. 'This incident has raised concerns in our community about bias and equity. Such behavior can contribute to a climate of fear, hostility and exclusion that has no place in our community. 'We have reached out to the student to offer support and discuss next steps, and will conduct an investigation of the incident with the employee, with Human Resources and with Campus Police. The cop asked Kanoute: 'We were just wondering what you were doing here' before explaining that someone had called to say there was a 'suspicious black male' who looked 'out of place' Kanoute is an undergraduate at the college but she is spending the summer working as a teaching assistant on one of its summer programs 'We have received multiple requests to release the name of the individual who called Campus Police. 'Under college policy, any campus police records that are released must redact the names of parties involved. 'This policy recognizes the potentially adverse consequences of releasing identifying information, especially in those cases where doing so may discourage the use of this critical safety resource,' it said. Kanoute is now demanding that the release the person's name. 'I demanded that the administration share the name of the person who made the 911 call so that they can confront and acknowledge the harm done to me as a student. 'I worked my hardest to get into Smith, and I deserve to feel safe on my campus,' she fumed on Facebook. Kanoute's experience is one of a string of similar incidents that have been filmed across the country in the last several months. All involve a white person calling authorities to report a person of color who they felt was behaving suspiciously or potentially illegally. An American woman had to be dragged off a Korean Air flight bound for San Francisco after she upgraded herself to a business class seat and refused to move. The 30-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was on a flight departing Incheon International Airport in Seoul on Friday when she decided to change her own seat. She then put up a fight and screamed about nuclear disarmament as airport police officers struggled to remove her from the seat and take her off the flight. Footage of the bizarre incident, which was posted by Korea JoongAng Daily, captured the woman sitting in business class and loudly screaming 'US marshals! US marshals! US marshals!' An American woman had to be dragged off a Korean Air flight bound for San Francisco after she upgraded herself to a business class seat and refused to move She put up a fight and screamed about nuclear disarmament as airport police officers struggled to remove her from the seat and take her off the flight The officers struggled to remove her from the seat as she laughs in their face. 'I'm wearing a seat belt already,' she proudly tells them as they try to move her body. The officers then surround her from all sides as she continues to resist them, biting down and putting something in her mouth as they finally get her out. Passengers on the plane begin to clap as the officers carry the woman down the aisle before they all fall to the ground. The woman lays on the ground as the officers work together to lift her up. 'Korean Air stole my passport! Korean Air stole my passport!' she then starts to yell repeatedly as the officers lift her up and continue to carry her down the aisle. The officers struggled to remove her from the seat as she laughs in their face. 'I'm wearing a seat belt already,' she proudly tells them as they try to move her body The officers then surround her from all sides as she continues to resist them, biting down and putting something in her mouth as they finally get her out Passengers on the flight begin to clap as the officers carry the woman down the plane's aisle As the woman continues to scream about her passport, the officers briefly struggle to lift her up before they count together and put her in a wheelchair. She then tries to push the officers off of her as they buckle her in. 'DDOS Korean Air!' she begins to scream while throwing up peace signs. 'Nuclear disarmament!' DDOS, an acronym for 'Distributed Denial-Of-Service', is an electronic attack in which multiple sources overwhelm an online service in an attempt to make it unavailable. It is often used to target major corporations. At one point the woman stares directly at the person filming her and smiles wide. 'Meanwhile, at SpaceX', she says, referring to Elon Musk's aerospace company. The officers give the woman a blanket as she glares at them, before waving away goodbye and screaming 'I love you!' as she's finally taken out of the airplane. They all fall to the ground and the woman continues to lay there as the officers work together to lift her up and into a wheelchair At one point the woman stares directly at the person filming her and smiles wide. 'Meanwhile, at SpaceX', she says, referring to Elon Musk's aerospace company Korean Air's flight from Seoul to San Francisco, which was supposed to take-off at 8pm, was delayed an hour and 40 minutes due to the woman's disturbance. The airline told the San Francisco Chronicle that the woman was assigned to seat 40D in economy and moved to seat 14B in business class. Flight attendants tried to convince her to return to her assigned seat, but the woman refused. That's when the crew and captain decided to remove the passenger and contacted the National Intelligence Service and Airport Police. Authorities said the woman was transferred to the hospital first because she 'seemed to be suffering from a mental illness', according to Allkpop.com. Police plan to investigate the situation as soon as the hospital completes its examination. Mobile apps already mean we can order our favourite restaurant meals right to our door. Now we'll be able to cut the bill when we do go out to eat as long as we choose a quiet time of day. Entrepreneurs have developed an app which offers a discount of up to 50 per cent for restaurant bookings when the kitchen isn't busy. BigDish raised 2.2million when it hit the public markets to help fund its launch in the UK Diners will have to download BigDish on to their mobile phones in a 21st-century version of a discount card. The thinking behind it is that empty tables make no money, so even a reduced bill is ultimately better for the restaurant. The app will not make meals more expensive at popular times. However it is possible that restaurants could ramp up their regular prices in the expectation that more customers will choose discounted slots. It follows the success of apps such as Deliveroo, which allows diners to order takeaway deliveries from top restaurants. The founder of BigDish 48-year-old Briton Aidan Bishop, who is based in the Philippines has previously tried his hand at cocoa trading and gold mining. The surge pricing model became popular after American Airlines started using it in the 1970s He thinks his latest venture could help companies bring in new customers. He said: 'BigDish started life in Manila as a restaurant discount card, but we soon discovered this was an old-fashioned and outdated model with barriers to achieving scale and generating little data.' In 2016, he decided to change tack and switch his focus to technology. In Hong Kong which is one of three cities where the app currently operates, along with Manila and Jakarta there are 72 restaurants where diners can have reductions. At one particular champagne bar, a meal that would usually cost around 25 is reduced by 20 per cent after 8.30pm. At another restaurant in a busy shopping area, a 20-30 bill is slashed in half when the diner books a table for 1.30pm. The surge pricing model which Mr Bishop calls 'yield management' became popular after American Airlines started using it in the 1970s to make plane seats cheaper when there was little demand. But adoption of the idea among restaurants has been slow. Mr Bishop added: 'The food-tech sector is a hot space to be in, and our yield management platform is a niche that is gaining traction. 'Companies such as TripAdvisor and Airbnb have made recent investments in young food-tech start-ups and that trend looks likely to continue.' BigDish raised 2.2million when it hit the public markets yesterday to help fund its launch in the UK. Four California dentists, three of whom are brothers, have been arrested over accusations they gang raped a woman at their Las Vegas Strip hotel. Ali Badkoobehi, 30, Saman Edalat, 39, Sina Edalat, 34, and Poria Edalat, 30, are facing multiple charges including sexual assault and kidnapping over the alleged incident last Saturday. The California dentists all deny the claims and their lawyers says they have video evidence which contradicts the rape claim. 'This is a false allegation,' attorney Robert Draskovich told the Las Vegas Review Journal reports. Prosecutors dropped all charges during a hearing on October 1 before Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Eric Goodman. The alleged victim told police that she had been at a night club when she met Badkoobehi, Four California dentists, three of whom are brothers, have been arrested over accusations they gang raped a woman (left is Ali Badkoobehi and right is Saman Edalat) The dentists, including Sina Edalat, 34, (left) and Poria Edalat, 30, (right) are facing multiple charges including sexual assault and kidnapping over the alleged incident last Saturday She says she agreed to go back to his suite at the Wynn Las Vegas to carry on drinking and as they walked back, she says he was affectionate, hugging and kissing her. But when she got to his room, she says Badkoobehi pushed her onto a chair and climbed on top of her. At was at that point, the three other suspects entered the room, according to the police report. The victim claims she met Badkoobehi in a nightclub who invited her back to his Wynn Las Vegas hotel (pictured) suite to carry on drinking The woman claims they took turns raping her and holding her down as she tried to resist, but 't she was too intoxicated and overwhelmed because of how many people were attacking her and she could not fight back.' She said the assault continued in another room of the suite while a man stood in a doorway. '(The victim) then begged for them to stop, asking to leave,' the police report said. The woman reported the incident to Wynn Las Vegas security who contacted the police. She also went to hospital where doctors found evidence that she'd been gang raped, police say. The four suspects, who are all licensed dentists in Southern California, according to Dental Board of California records, were arrested. Pictured are Saman Edalat (second from left) Sina Edalat (second from right) and Poria Edalat (far right). Prosecutors dropped all charges against the suspects on October 1. The four suspects, who are all licensed dentists in Southern California, according to Dental Board of California records, were arrested. All four were booked into the Clark County Detention Center and each charged with one count of first-degree kidnapping and one count each of conspiracy to commit sexual assault. Badkoobehi faces three counts of sexual assault, while the rest face two. They have since been released from jail on their own recognizance, once they agreed to surrender their passports, after their lawyers presented a video which they say contradicts the rape claim. Craig Hendricks, who represents Poria Edalat, said the men had been held without bail since Saturday but had been released after the DA office was 'provided and reviewed exculpatory video evidence that clearly showed extremely different circumstances than what was represented by the alleged victim.' Draskovich insists Badkoobeh had consensual sex with the woman while a lawyer for Saman Edalat denied his client had any sexual contact with her. Poria Edalat told police he was in Las Vegas from Los Angeles to celebrate his birthday. The Edalats appear to come from a family of dentists and have another sibling, not connected to the incident, who works in the profession. Sina Edalat appears to work for West Coast Dental and Orthodontics in North Hills, California. His biography on the company website described him as being married ' to a beautiful wife' with a baby on the way. It described the Cal State University graduate as 'compassionate' and 'trustworthy' and someone who enjoys spending time with family and friends. All four were booked into the Clark County Detention Center where they each face one count each of first-degree kidnapping and one count each of conspiracy to commit sexual assault (left is Saman Edalat and right is Sina). Charges were dismissed on October 1. Poria Edalat also appears to work for West Coast Dental and Orthodontics, although in the West Coast Dental of Monrovia office. Also Cal State University graduate, his bio says he is 'very gentle' and works across all aspects of dentistry. Both are currently members of the American Dental Association and the California Dental Associations. Saman Edalat, who appears to be married, has his own practice, named Edalat Dental Group, in Whittier, California. There is very little information on Saman but the reviews on his website are overwhelmingly positive. The deputy office manager for Poria Edalat's dental practice declined any knowledge of the case and told us she was not sure whether the practice planned to suspect or fire the dentist amid the rape accusations. DailyMail.com also reached out to the dental offices of Saman Edalat and Sina Edalat. Seven gunmen stormed a supermarket in South Africa before loading a cash machine onto a 4x4 and driving off. Stunned shoppers fell to their knees or ran for cover as the gang raided the store just after opening time, firing several shots from pistols into the ceiling. The burly robbers then unplugged the cash point from the wall and shifted it towards a waiting 4x4 as another gunman brandishing a revolver covered them. In the shocking CCTV footage taken in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape, the full violent event can be seen in full. With the tailgate down it is a simple job for the gang to align the cash point with the waiting 4x4. They lift it up together and slide it on with a gun resting on top of it. They then race off with the cash point, which had been refilled that morning, containing R450,000 (26,000). In shocking footage recorded in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape, shows the gang storm the store The group are seen moving the ATM across the floor and towards the 4x4 The machine is owned by Cash Paymaster Services, which is used by the South African Social Security Agency to pay out benefits and grants. Store manager of the Spar store Vuyo Mbimbi told TimesLIVE that seven men barged into the shop just after 8am on Wednesday morning as it was filling with customers. He said: 'They pointed guns at the customers who were in the shop and then unplugged the ATM situated inside the shop before loading it into a bakkie that they drove into the shop. In footage filmed on Wednesday, the gang try to lift the machine onto the back of the truck The gang successful load the cash point, thought to contain 26,000, and make their escape 'One of them shot at one of the camera. The store was really busy with people withdrawing pension money. The police were called to the scene but thankfully nobody was injured'. Captain Namhla Mdleleni of the South African Police Service said: 'No arrests have been made at the moment but we are studying CCTV and there is a major police investigation underway'. Captain Mdleleni confirmed the robbers made in a silver Opel Corsa believed to have been fitted with false number plates. The late Steve Jobs is best-known for building Apple, the technology firm that recently became the worlds first trillion dollar company. However, the tech titan had a much more difficult time building his relationship with his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Brennan-Jobs has written a new book, Small Fry, slated to be released in September. In it, she recounts her fascinating and complex relationship with her late father, a man who drove around in luxury cars while her mother cleaned houses to barely scrape by. Lisa Brennan-Jobs had a complex relationship with her late father, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs But just who exactly is Lisa Brennan-Jobs? Heres a look at who she is and the relationship with her father Steve Jobs. Who is Lisa Brennan-Jobs? Lisa Brennan-Jobs is a writer and the daughter of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. She was born in Portland, Oregon on May 17, 1978. Her father and mother, Chrisann Brennan, first met in high school in Cupertino, California in 1972 and had an on-off relationship over roughly the next five years. Shortly after cofounding Apple in 1976, Brennan became pregnant with Lisa. Jobs, however, declined to take responsibility for her pregnancy, leading to the end of their relationship. After taking up cleaning houses and other menial jobs to survive financially, Brennan relocated to the All One Farm commune in 1978 and gave birth to Lisa shortly afterwards. Until I was two, my mother supplemented her welfare payments by cleaning houses and waitressing. My father didnt help, Brennan-Jobs wrote in her upcoming book. Though Jobs was not present for her birth, he did visit Brennan three days later as the parents settled on her name: Lisa. I Have a Secret. My Father Is Steve Jobs: Lisa Brennan-Jobs Recalls Memories of Her Famous Father https://t.co/ROeHBeWKFm Yuri van Geest (@vangeest) August 2, 2018 My father arrived a few days later. Its not my kid, he kept telling everyone at the farm, she wrote. Jobs initially continued to deny paternity, even though he named the Apple Lisa computer after her, claiming that it actually stood for Local Integrated Systems Architecture. Decades later, he publicly admitted that: 'Obviously, it was named for my daughter.' Still, the Apple cofounder continued to adamantly deny that he fathered Lisa with Brennan. My father responded by denying paternity, swearing in a deposition that he was sterile and naming another man he said was my father, Brennan-Jobs wrote. Ultimately, this led to a legal case in 1980 and paternity test that determined that he was indeed the father of Lisa. Though he paid Brennan child support, he continued to question the results of the paternity test. Finally, after leaving Apple, Jobs admitted to fathering Lisa and tried to reconcile with her when she was nine-years old. He apologized to her and she soon agreed to adopt his last name, legally changing it to Brennan-Jobs, a development that relieved the tech entrepreneur. Still, her relationship with her once-estranged father was very complex, as Jobs often appeared cold and distant towards her. Still, she remained fascinated by him. Their relationship remained very complicated right up until Jobs's death in October 2011. While visiting him when gravely ill with cancer just three months before his death, she took a moment to spray herself with rose-scented facial spray in the bathroom before returning to see him. Upon seeing her again, Jobs simply told her: 'You smell like a toilet.' Lisa Brennan-Jobs Shares Memories of Steve Jobs in New Small Fry Memoir Excerpt https://t.co/Xft2GPkAbC by @julipuli pic.twitter.com/ITRQ2qqySX MacRumors.com (@MacRumors) August 1, 2018 Brennan-Jobs later moved in with her father and attended high school in Palo Alto, California. She later enrolled in Harvard University and studied at Kings College London for one year before graduating in 2000. She later relocated to New York City after graduating to work as a writer, writing for Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Spiked, The Massachusetts Review and other publications. Her upcoming book, Small Fry, details her relationship with her father and will be released in September 2018. Small Fry will hit the stands on September 4, 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon. Steve Jobs net worth Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur best-known as the cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. Ultimately, he amassed a fortune worth billions thanks to his success as an entrepreneur and technology innovator. He was born in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955 and was later adopted by another family before being raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. After briefly attending Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1972, he traveled to India in 1974 to study Zen Buddhism and search for spiritual enlightenment. Apple cofounder Steve Jobs helped to revolutionize the information technology business After returning to the United States, he cofounded the technology company Apple Inc. in 1976 with Steve Wozniak. The company released the personal computer Apple II a year later to commercial success and later achieved even more success with the release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984. Jobs was soon forced out after a power struggle in 1985 and founded the computer and software firm NeXT later that year, before also helping to fund the computer graphics division of Star Wars creator George Lucass Lucasfilm in 1986. The company, Pixar, soon became known as one of the worlds premier computer animation film studios. After the merging of Apple and NeXT in 1997, Jobs returned to his former company and became CEO shortly afterwards. With the company on the edge of bankruptcy, Jobs engineered a stunning turnaround, famously punctuated with the Think different tagline. Under Jobss renewed leadership, Apple rolled out revolutionary new products and services like iTunes, iPod, iPhone, App Store and iPad, all of which helped to revive the business and played a critical role in its transformation into the largest information technology company in the world today. Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in October 2003 and resigned as CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011 due to his failing health. He died on October 5, 2011 from complications from the tumor, but not before completely revolutionizing the information technology business worldwide. At the time of his death, Steve Jobs's net worth was believed to be approximately $10.2 billion (7.6 billion), according to Celebrity Net Worth. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders visbly upset some journalists during a briefing on Thursday when she complained about physical dangers she has faced in her job and her unprecedented need for Secret Service protection, and blamed the reporters in the room for causing it. Challenging her directly, one reporter responded: 'Tell that to the five dead journalists in Maryland.' On June 28 a gunman stormed the newsroom at the Annapolis Capital newspaper and shot dead John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, Wendi Winters and Rebecca Smith. Another journalist at the White House Thursday griped afterward: 'Shes going to get us killed!' Sarah Sanders complained Thursday about the hypothetical dangers she faces in her job defending President Donald Trump, ignoring the murders of five journalists in Maryland just five weeks ago CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, a frequent critic and unapologetic skeptic of the Trump White House, demanded that Sanders disavow the president's claim that the media are 'the enemy of the people,' but she sidestepped his question President Donald Trump routinely slams the political press corps on Twitter and at poblic rallies like Monday night's event in Tampa, Florida Hours earlier Ivanka Trump had expressed disagreement with the President Donald Trump's repeated claim that the political media are 'the enemy of the people.' 'I have certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate,' the first daughter said during an event convened by the Axios news website, 'so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they sort of feel targeted.' 'But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people.' When a CNN correspondent asked Sanders if she would follow suit, she deflected the question. Donald Trump, however, split a hair online later in the afternoon. 'They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no,' he tweeter. 'It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!' The president first called journalists 'the enemy of the American people' less than a month after Inauguration Day in 2017 Ivanka Trump disagreed with her father about his characterization of the press on Thursday, saying they are not the 'enemy of the people' The president tried to close the chapter as he left for a Pennsylvania political rally, saying that a mere 'large percentage' of the media are Americans' enemies The president first uncorked the controversial epithet less than a month into his presidency, tweeting that 'The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!' As with Thursday's pronouncment, he limited his griping to a subset of the political press. Trump most recently used the incendiary phrase four days ago, in a tweet about his reported conversation with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. They '[s]pent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media,' Trump recalled on Sunday, '& how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, Enemy of the People. Sad!' He had announced on Twitter two weeks earlier, before a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin that drew critiques and catcalls from reporters, that '[m]uch of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people.' Sanders seemed to back up that sentiment on Thursday. She told the CNN reporter, Jim Acosta, that it was 'ironic' to see 'you and the media attack the president for his rhetoric when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country.' Acosta is among the network's most vocal and consistent Trump skeptics. Complaining about her own treatment that she sees as a consequence of media bias, she said some of the president's adversaries have 'said I should be harassed as a life sentence. That I should be choked.' The was a reference to CNN anchor Nicole Wallace, who apologized in May for asking White House correspondent Kristen Welker: 'How do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?' She also recalled comedienne Michelle Wolf's stand-up act at this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner, a vicious take-down that included a jab at her looks and an insulting characterization of her as 'a traitor to my own gender.' Sanders was thron out of this Lexington, Virginia restaurant, the Red Hen, in June because the establishment's staff objected to her affiliation with President Trump REAL DANGER: John McNamara and Wendi Winters (top); and Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman and Rebecca Smith (bottom) died June 28 when a gunman opened fire at the Annapolis Capital newspaper in Maryland Thursday's confrontation was just the latest in a series of clashes between the White House and the press corps that reports on its happenings American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan blasted the White House on instagram after the briefing 'That wasn't us!' a reporter retorted as Sanders continued to insist that 'the media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration.' 'And as far as I know,' Sanders said, 'I'm the first press secretary in the history of the United States that's required Secret Service protection.' Ultimately she sidestepped the question about 'enemy of the people' rhetoric, saying she was at the briefing room podium to relay the president's views, not to state her own. American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan posted an Instagram video afterward, declaring: 'Many in the media are very upset after this briefing.' 'Never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would be called an enemy of the people, or a press secretary would never take those words back, because we ask questions!' she said. 'Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people,' Trump boomed in a tweet last month on his way to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit in Finland Sanders has carried particular resentments toward the press corps since the April correspondents dinner when Wolf said she looked like the frumpy Anut Lydia character in the Hulu series 'A Handmaid's Tale.' Wold also called her 'really resourceful. She burns facts and uses the ash to create a perfect smokey eye. Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. It's probably lies.' And Wolf drew a mixture of hisses and guffaws by saying she wanted to coin a peculiar nickname for Sanders: 'What's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women?' Jeremy Corbyn's attempts to build bridges with the Jewish community spectacularly backfired last night. It emerged Labour had been in talks with the Jewish Museum in north London about Mr Corbyn using the venue to make a speech today addressing the party's anti-Semitism crisis. But amid opposition from Jewish organisations, officials at the museum last night refused the request without further reassurances about what the Labour leader planned to say. Labour are in talks with the Jewish Museum over a possible event involving Jeremy Corbyn Chief executive Abigail Morris said: 'We would want to be part of a healing process, not something that will make things worse.' Talks were said to be continuing last night about the possibility of the museum hosting Mr Corbyn's speech next week. Leadership may be anti-Semitic, says Margaret Hodge A Jewish Labour MP said she had come to the conclusion that her party's leadership may be anti-Semitic. Dame Margaret Hodge is facing disciplinary action after she confronted Jeremy Corbyn in parliament and told him he was perceived as a racist. She said on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: 'All of us feel our identity and our values are being challenged by this sudden surge in anti-Semitism, which is not only allowed by the leadership, but I've now come to the conclusion that may also be views held by the leadership themselves. 'The row in itself does demonstrate rather graphically why I've never felt he [Mr Corbyn] is the best person to be leader of the Labour Party.' She added: 'I've given my life to the Labour Party. I'm going to fight tooth and nail to bring it back to the values that brought me into it some 55 years ago.' Dame Margaret criticised the leadership for having failed to conclude investigations into other allegations of anti-Semitism by the end of July as promised. She said she had 'no idea' what the allegations against her were, and said it was 'ridiculous' how her case was handled compared to that of NEC member Peter Willsman. Mr Willsman was let off after making an apology for saying some members of the Jewish community were 'Trump fanatics' who made up anti-Semitism cases. Dame Margaret said she had chosen to confront Mr Corbyn in anger at what she said was the party's 'arrogance' over a new code of conduct on anti-Semitism. She denied reports she had sworn at him. A spokesman for the Labour Party said it 'follows a clear and fair process when we receive complaints'. Advertisement However, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard, said he had been bombarded with messages from people saying that if the Jewish Museum did host Mr Corbyn they would 'never set foot in it again'. The row came after the president of the Board of Deputies, which represents British Jews, demanded the Labour leader come out of 'hiding' and issue a proper apology. Anti-Semitism campaigners said they would not be satisfied by 'hollow promises delivered under duress'. Dame Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP who is under investigation by Labour after she confronted Mr Corbyn about anti-Semitism, said: 'This demonstrates the complete breakdown of trust between the leadership and the Jewish community. 'We don't need a speech; we need action adopting the full definition of anti-Semitism, lift the ridiculous action against us; and meet the commitment to investigate all outstanding claims of anti-Semitism.' As the Labour party descended further into civil war: It was revealed that the Palestinian 'brothers' whose release was welcomed by Jeremy Corbyn included plotters whose bombs killed dozens and the killer of an Israeli girl of 15; Dame Margaret said she had come to the conclusion that her party leadership may be anti-Semitic; It emerged Jeremy Corbyn organised an event in Parliament which ended up being addressed by a conspiracy theorist who believes the world is controlled by 'Jewish elders'; Momentum was in chaos after left-wingers criticised its decision to distance itself from Peter Willsman, the activist who was recorded ranting about Jews. Labour had approached the Jewish Museum to ask if Mr Corbyn could speak there today. It turned down the request, although it is believed it is now seeking reassurances about the nature of the speech. The BBC said the museum wants to ensure leading Jewish organisations are consulted and invited and also to make sure that Mr Corbyn addresses specific concerns about Labour's code of conduct. The Jewish Museum in Camden (pictured) said it did not know what Mr Corbyn was planning Jewish organisations are angry that Labour is refusing to adopt the full definition of anti-Semitism as agreed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA as part of the code of conduct. Abigail Morris, the chief executive of the Jewish Museum, said the situation was 'delicate'. She told The Jewish Chronicle: 'We are still trying to work out what (Mr Corbyn's office) is asking from us, whether it is a discussion, a statement or a speech.' A statement from the museum said it was 'interested in being a space that would facilitate genuine healing dialogue' with Labour. News about the search for a speech venue came after Marie van der Zyl, the President of the Board of Deputies, demanded Mr Corbyn come out of 'hiding' to address the anti-Semitism crisis. She also demanded he has equalities training. Mr Corbyn (pictured) is facing a growing party crisis over allegations of anti-Semitism She accused the Labour leader of breaching the IHRA's definition of anti-Semitism by 'comparing Israel's actions to those of the Nazis' a reference to a 2010 rally where Mr Corbyn compared the sufferings of the Palestinians to the Nazi sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad. Hard-left Momentum's civil war The hard-Left was tearing itself apart last night over Momentum's decision to withdraw its support for an activist who accused Jews of making up anti-Semitism claims. The faction, which supports Jeremy Corbyn, said on Wednesday night it would not back Peter Willsman's election bid to Labour's ruling NEC. But many accused Momentum of caving in to Mr Corbyn's enemies. Some said they were cancelling their membership. Usman Kayani said: 'I am now leaving Momentum and will endeavour to get others to do the same.' Sarah Grant said: 'This is so utterly disappointing. I have voted for Peter Willsman and stand by my vote.' Mr Willsman was caught on tape saying many people in the Jewish community were 'Trump fanatics' inventing anti-Semitism stories. Momentum said he would no longer be one of its 'JC9' slate of Left-wing candidates, saying: 'We must acknowledge the anger and upset.' Advertisement 'He must adopt the IHRA anti-semitism definition and all examples. He should expel Peter Willsman. He should stop ridiculous show trials of Hodge and Austin.' Dame Margaret and Ian Austin face disciplinary action for accusing the party leadership of not doing enough to tackle anti-Semitism. Labour denied its leader was comparing the actions of Israelis to the Nazis when he referred to Leningrad and Stalingrad. On Wednesday, Mr Corbyn apologised for sharing a platform with people who reportedly compared Israel to the Nazis. Gideon Falter, of Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: 'No matter what action Mr Corbyn promises, his track record demonstrates that he is an existential threat to British Jews.' It also emerged yesterday that Mr Corbyn had organised an event in Parliament addressed by a conspiracy theorist who believes the world is controlled by 'Jewish elders'. James Thring spoke at the meeting in October 2014. Critics call him a 'neo-Nazi' and he has won praise from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Labour said Mr Corbyn was not at the event itself. The party also said he had no prior knowledge that Mr Thring was going to speak. Labour leader praised... by the KKK When Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader in 2015, he received praise from an unexpected quarter David Duke, head of the Ku Klux Klan. Mr Duke told listeners to his radio show said it was good that 'people are beginning to recognise Zionist power and Jewish establishment power in Britain and the western world'. His website stated: 'Corbyn's landslide can be viewed as a positive sign that understanding of the harm being done to the world by Zionism in spreading.' A Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn 'completely rejects David Duke's racial hatred'. Last night, it emerged that the hard-Left was tearing itself apart over Momentum's withdrawal of support for activist Peter Willsman's election to Labour's NEC ruling body after he accused Jews of making up anti-Semitism claims. Momentum was accused of caving in to Mr Corbyn's enemies, with some members threatening to cancel their membership. Advertisement Now Labour MPs criticise Jeremy Corbyn for questioning Israel's right to exist in TV interview just four years ago Jeremy Corbyn questioned Israel's right to exist in a TV interview four years ago, it emerged last night. In comments likely to intensify Labour's anti-Semitism crisis, the Labour leader labelled Britain's decision to pledge a homeland to the Jewish community in 1917 as 'bizarre'. Discussing Middle Eastern history, Mr Corbyn told the Iraqi TV interviewer: 'Britain then signed the Balfour Declaration which bizarrely offered a homeland to Jewish people at the same time as a continuation for the Palestinian, the two things were mutually incompatible. 'And eventually the state of Israel was founded and the Palestinian people were driven out of that part of Palestine into exile.' But the Labour leader faced criticism from his own MPs over the comments. Labour MP John Mann said: 'If this was a history GCSE exam answer it would get marked as a fail.' Fellow backbencher Ian Austin added: 'The best advice anyone could give Jeremy Corbyn is that when you are in a hole, you should stop digging. He should listen to the Jewish community and apologise.' A Labour spokesman defended Corbyn, saying: 'Jeremy stated the following facts: Britain made promises to both Jews and Arabs during and at the end of the First World War, some of which cut across each other; the founding of the State of Israel led to the forced exile of part of the Palestinian population; there was always opposition to the idea of a Jewish state by some Jews.' And a Labour councillor faced disciplinary action for suggesting that allegations of anti-semitism in his party are a plot by Jewish Conservative members. Mike Pevitt, who represented the Claremont ward in Salford, took to Twitter to vent his frustration at a letter signed by dozens of rabbis criticising Labour over anti-semitism. The councillor tweeted: 'Nobody bats an eyelid about 350 mosques writing to the Tories about Islamophobia, but Labour get lead in polls and Tories instruct their Jewish members to write in.' The conspiratorial allegations by Councillor Pevitt triggered an emergency meeting by the executive of the local Labour group. He has since resigned from his position and apologised for the tweet - which has now been deleted. He said in a statement: 'I unreservedly apologise for my tweet. I do not in any way believe that the open letter from the 68 Rabbis to Labour was co-ordinated by the Conservative Party, nor that any significant number of British Rabbis are members of the Conservative Party or driven by factional political motivations on this matter.' How the monsters Jeremy Corbyn called 'brothers' included bomb plotters, a Hamas military chief and the killer of an Israeli schoolgirl Corbyn faces a party probe after he appeared on Press TV after a prisoner swap Then a backbenchers, he called convicts as 'brothers' on 'Remember Palestine' A Labour spokesperson said: 'The use of 'brother' is a respectful term for a male Muslim and in no way implies support for his actions' The Palestinian 'brothers' whose release was welcomed by Jeremy Corbyn included bomb plotters, a Hamas military chief and the killer of a 15-year-old Israeli schoolgirl. The Labour leader faces a party probe after he praised the release of the terrorists on an Iranian state broadcaster in 2012. Appearing on the Press TV show 'Remember Palestine', he described more than 1,000 convicted terrorists, who had recently been released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap, as 'brothers'. Chaos: Injured Israelis in the aftermath of the Haifa bus bombing Appearing on the Press TV show 'Remember Palestine', he described more than 1,000 convicted terrorists, who had recently been released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap, as 'brothers' The then-backbench MP also questioned whether there was a 'serious case' against any of the Palestinians released even though the members of the group had been convicted of the murder of almost 600 Israelis. The prisoners were released in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been captured and held in captivity by Hamas. Mr Corbyn said: 'You have to ask the question why they're in prison in the first place and since the releases that took place after the hunger strike I met many of the brothers ... when they came out of prison when I was in Doha earlier this year and you just realise that this mass imprisonment of Palestinians is actually part of a much bigger political game.' Destruction: Abdul Azia Umar prepared the suicide vest used in the Cafe Hillel bombing, killing seven Lynching: Abdu; Al-Aziz Salaha shows the blood of his victim on his hands as he is cheered by protestors A spokesman for Labour said: 'In 2012 Jeremy was commenting on the prison conditions of Palestinian prisoners ... he was of course in no way supporting or endorsing the actions of the prisoners. 'The use of 'brother' is a respectful term for a male Muslim and in no way implies support for his actions.' Those called brother by Jeremy Corbyn included: FANATIC WHO HELPED SUICIDE BOMBER Abdul Aziz Umar aided the preparation of a suicide vest which was detonated at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem on September 9, 2003, killing seven and wounding 64. He was given seven life sentences. THE GLEEFUL KILLER Ahlam Tamimi facilitated the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in 2001, where 15 Israelis were killed, including seven children. A further 130 were wounded. She later said that she was not sorry and expressed glee at the death toll rising in the aftermath. 'I wanted to hide my smile, but I just couldn't,' she said. THE HAMAS LOOKOUT Ahmed Mustafa Saleh Hamed Al-Najar was a Hamas member who served as a lookout during shootings that killed six Israelis. After his release, he ran the terror cell responsible for the 2015 Shvut Rachel shooting in which four Israelis were attacked, and one killed, on their way home from a basketball game. MURDERER OF TEEN Fuad Muhammad Abdulhadi Amrin was convicted of killing 15-year-old Israeli schoolgirl Helena Rapp on her way to school in the centre of the Israeli city of Bat Yam in 1992. THE LYNCHER Abdel Al-Aziz Salha took part in the 2000 Ramallah lynching, where two Israeli reservists were beaten to death in a police station. Salaha removed a knife from the back of one of the soldiers and stabbed him three more times, before proudly showing his bloodied hands to protesters. MONSTER GIVEN 36 LIFE SENTENCES Walid Anajas was sentenced to 36 life sentences for his role in three attacks: the Cafe Moment bombing in West Jerusalem, which killed 11 and wounded 54, the bombing of a pool hall in Rishon LeZion which killed 16 and wounded 60, and the Hebrew University bombing in 2002 which killed nine and wounded 100. KILLED MAN IN FRONT OF HIS CHILDREN In 2001 Majdi Muhammad Ahmed Amr shot dead 28-year-old David Cohen in front of his wife and children, and in 2002 he organised the attack on a bus in Haifa, which killed 17 and wounded a further 50. BURNED MOTHER AND CHILDREN ALIVE Ahmed Jibril Othman Al-Takuri carried out a firebomb attack on a bus in Jericho, in which a mother, her three children, and a soldier, were killed. MILITARY CHIEF WHO KIDNAPPED SOLDIER Yahya Sinwar established Hamas's military wing in Gaza and is now the leader of the group there. He was serving four life sentences for his role in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman. MASTERMIND BEHIND DISCO BOMBING Husam Ataf Ali Badran orchestrated the 2001 Dolphinarium disco suicide bombing which killed 21 and wounded 120, the 2001 Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing, and the 2002 Passover massacre which killed 30 and wounded 140. Michael Gove speaks at BBC Countryfile Live at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire yesterday Michael Gove has discussed 'parking' Britain in the European Economic Area if Brexit talks fail this autumn, it emerged yesterday. The former Vote Leave leader discussed the idea - which would involve the UK staying in the single market - at a private dinner with moderate Tories. An account of the dinner, leaked to the Financial Times, said Mr Gove talked about a scenario in which the UK remained 'parked' in the EEA in order to prevent a no deal Brexit. Mr Gove is said to have imitated the European Commission's controversial top civil servant Martin Selmayr as he ran through various potential outcomes from the Brexit talks this autumn, including EEA membership. One MP present at the meeting said: 'He was steering the conversation towards the EEA idea. There's no doubt about that.' Allies of Mr Gove confirmed he had discussed the idea at a meeting of the 'Green Chip' group of Tories in June. Allies of Mr Gove insisted he was fully committed to Theresa May's Chequers deal. The Prime Minister is pictured with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris last month But they insisted he was simply running through a range of potential scenarios, and said he was fully committed to Theresa May's Chequers deal. 'He wasn't advocating the EEA,' said one ally. 'He's totally behind the PM's Chequers deal. He's not considering any other option - he just enjoys discussing things. 'Anyone who knows Michael knows he doesn't want the EEA - he has never said that and he doesn't think that.' Some Tory moderates have advocated joining the EEA, like Norway, in order to prevent disruption to business while observing the letter, if not the spirit, of the 2016 referendum. Stewart Jackson, who served as chief of staff to Mr Davis, mocked Mr Gove's decision to even countenance the EEA yesterday But Brexiteer MPs warn it would deliver 'Brexit in name only', with the UK required to accept free movement, contribute billions to the Brussels budget and accept EU rules, while having no say in them. The Chequers deal prompted the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis. But Mr Gove is said to have argued that the faults of the deal, which includes agreeing a 'common rule book' with Brussels on goods and services, could be returned to after the UK leaves in March next year. Stewart Jackson, who served as chief of staff to Mr Davis, mocked Mr Gove's decision to even countenance the EEA yesterday. Commenting on Twitter, he said: 'Gove on manoeuvres? Never! You could knock me down with an Aberdeen wet fish.' Harvey Weinstein and his lawyer Ben Brafman are hoping to discredit some of the criminal charges that have been filed against the disgraced movie mogul before his case even heads to trial. Brafman filed an emergency request for a hearing on Wednesday, asking that the judge who is overseeing The Weinstein Company's bankruptcy case in Delaware allow for the release of 40 emails that were sent to his client by one of the three women who he has been criminally charged with assaulting. That hearing was granted, and on Thursday afternoon the judge ruled that Weinstein can have the emails, which he previously could not access because they were sent through his work account. Weinstein's reasons for wanting to file these emails as evidence in the case was outlined in Brafman's request for a hearing and then again on Thursday. 'They are endearing, intimate, pleasant, flattering, friendly emails between her and Mr. Weinstein,' Brafman told Judge Mary Walrath on Thursday. 'If the grand jury had these emails, they would not have indicted.' Scroll down for video Strategy: Harvey Weinstein is seeking to have his criminal case tossed out with the release of 40 emails between himself and one of his alleged victims (Weinstein and Brafman above in July) 'Following the review by his counsel of the e-mails that have been produced to date, Mr. Weinstein now has an immediate need to file certain of the e-mailsless than 40 in number and redacted to remove all identifying informationin conjunction with his defense against a criminal indictment filed and pending in the Supreme Court of New York,' read the filing submitted by Brafman. 'The emails are to be attached as exhibits to pre-trial motionswhich must be filed in the Supreme Court of New York County no later than August 3, 2018seeking a dismissal of the indictment for, among other reasons, the failure of the prosecutor to advise the grand jury of the substance of exculpatory communications made by the one of three complaining witnesses underlying the counts of the indictment and contained in the e-mails sought for use here.' TMZ was the first to report the story. Brafman had previously suggested that he would defend his client by showing in court that he and one of his alleged victims had been in a long-term relationship. He and Brafman are under strict orders however to not reveal any details about that person's identity, with the court granting the woman an order of protection during Weinstein's first court appearance back in May. HARVEY WEINSTEIN FACING LIFE IN PRISON ON CHARGES Predatory Sexual Assault (Class A-II Felony) - 10 years to life in prison A person is guilty of predatory sexual assault when: 1. In the course of the commission of the crime or the immediate flight therefrom, he or she: (a) Causes serious physical injury to the victim of such crime; or (b) Uses or threatens the immediate use of a dangerous instrument; or 2. He or she has engaged in conduct constituting the crime of rape in the first degree, criminal sexual act in the first degree, or aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree. Rape In the First Degree (Class B Felony) - Five to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 A person is guilty of rape in the first degree when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person: 1. By forcible compulsion; or 2. Who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless; or 3. Who is less than eleven years old; or 4. Who is less than thirteen years old and the actor is eighteen years old or more. Rape In the Third Degree (Class E Felony) - Up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine A person is guilty of rape in the third degree when: 1. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent by reason of some factor other than being less than seventeen years old; 2. Being twenty-one years old or more, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than seventeen years old; or 3. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person without such person`s consent where such lack of consent is by reason of some factor other than incapacity to consent. Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree (Class B Felony) - Up to 25 years in prison A person is guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree when he or she engages in oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct with another person: 1. By forcible compulsion; or 2. Who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless;or 3. Who is less than eleven years old; or 4. Who is less than thirteen years old and the actor is eighteen years old or more. Advertisement These emails could prove to be a problem if they were in fact not introduced during the grand jury deliberations, though it is unclear if the office even knew of their existence. Weinstein was indicted by a grand jury in June after declining to testify on his own behalf. Brafman complained at the time that Weinstein had been 'unfairly denied access to critical information about this case that was needed to defend him before the Grand Jury.' Brafman cited the fact that he and Weinstein did not know who the accusers were in this case as part of the issue, saying they only learned who the charges were linked to on the day of Weinstein's arrest. This despite the fact that both women shared their stories with The New Yorker. That is when Brafman told reporters after a court meeting that the woman who alleges she was raped by Weinstein multiple times during a 2013 incident in a midtown hotel was having a decade-long affair with the producer. 'This is an extraordinary case in my judgement where the only rape victim that Mr. Weinstein is accused of raping is someone with whom he has had a 10-year consensual sexual relationship - both before and after the alleged incident,' stated Brafman. He also called the woman's allegations 'absurd.' Brafman also said he had concerns about his client being able to get a fair trial. 'The ability for people to keep an open mind is of concern to me,' remarked Brafman. 'Demanding an indictment or prosecution is inappropriate pressure. It is unprecedented. It troubles me and I want to make those matters known to the court.' He then noted: 'I'm not certain that there's any remedy but I wanted to make clear I was unhappy with those issues.' Weinstein is six charges in total, with three new charges added last month: Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree for a forcible sexual act against a woman in 2006 as well as two counts of Predatory Sexual Assault. Predatory Sexual Assault carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars. Weinstein has been charged with Predatory Sexual Assault for for allegedly committing the crimes of Rape, Criminal Sexual Act and Aggravated Sexual Abuse in the first degree on two occasions in New York. 'A Manhattan Grand Jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New Yorks Penal Law,' said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance at the time. 'This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward. Our investigation continues. If you are a survivor of the predatory abuse with which Mr. Weinstein is charged, there is still time to pursue justice. Please call us at 212-335-9373.' Those new charges were added to the three charges the disgraced executive was already facing: Rape in the First and Third Degree and Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree. Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault by over 20 women, was arraigned on those initial three charges back in June. He entered a plea of not guilty. Lameness prevention: it's all in the head An understanding of how cows think, how they see the world and how they move is essential for lameness prevention. Select board members and some municipal staff toured the property last week. Scarborough Leader A bond for up to $1.9 million to renovate it will be on the Nov. 2 municipal ballot. The UK is experiencing an unprecedented shortage of Rose's Lime Cordial Lime lovers around the UK have been left scouring supermarket shelves for their favourite cordial after the country's current supply sold out. Rose's Lime Juice Cordial, a drink which recently made a come-back as an addition to spirit mixes for young people cannot be found in shops from Essex to Devon and even Lancashire. Coca Cola, which owns the brand, revealed factory fire in the Prince's factory in Bradford meant production has had to stop. More than 60 firefighters from Bradford and across West Yorkshire were called to the factory in June when a major blaze tore through it. The fire had started in an area of the factory containing machinery that produces plastic bottles. As a result, the production of Rose's Lime Cordial has been suspended for weeks. And the bad news, the juice making is suspended until the repairs at the factory are complete. Twitter users have revealed they are searching high and low for the cordial. Jonathan Charles said: Kicking off here. Asked two workers to show me where the lime cordial is - none. Not a roses one not even a Sainsbury's own. Paula is livid. Paul Scarrott said: Theres no Roses Lime cordial to be found anywhere! All the supermarkets are OOS!! How did this happen? I am on very short rations! Shoppers were baffled by the shortage until Coca Cola announced there had been a factory fire in a premises run by Prince's which halted production Alison Carter added: Can you reassure the UK that Rose's Lime Cordial will be back eventually? There is nothing like it and we miss it sorely. Thank you. Another woman said she has spent weeks searching for the product. She wrote on Twitter: Roses Lime Cordial, why is this becoming increasingly hard to find and purchase from supermarkets. My elderly mother loves this drink and is on her last bottle now and I've had no luck in locating any more for sale in the past couple of weeks. Ian Gee asked Coca Cola directly for help. He said: Why can I not find Roses Lime Cordial anywhere in Northern Devon? You cant make a good Gimlet without it! Help!' Lime lovers said they were rationing their juice and scouring shelves in their local shops for more. But Coca Cola said until damages are repaired in Bradford the shortage could continue Rose's, a drink now loved by generations of Britons, was patented in 1867 and has been used by the Royal Navy as daily rations of lime juice. Rose's has been part of the 'Schweppes' portfolio since 1969. In a statement Coca Cola said: 'Unfortunately, due to a fire at the factory where Roses is produced, production of all Roses drinks has been suspended while the factory undergoes necessary repairs. 'As a result of this, the supply of Roses to all retail outlets has been impacted.' Confirming production is set to stay at a standstill for several weeks at least, the company added: 'We hope production will be back up and running in the next few weeks. 'Whilst we don't have the exact timings at this stage we can confirm that our team is working hard to ensure this happens. If you have any questions please contact us on 0800 22 77 11.' Tourists fled the sea in panic after a shark appeared off a packed Majorcan beach and then watched as it swam near the shoreline. Police closed the beach early this afternoon after the fish swam just a few feet away from children in pedalos playing in the water. The 10-foot shark, thought to be a tintorera or blue shark, made its unexpected appearance at Cala Domingos, a sandy beach that gets crowded in August in Calas de Majorca on the island's east coast. Footage shows the animal moving through the clear blue water off the beach before coming in closer and forcing tourists out of the water. English and French speakers could be heard shouting out from rocks overlooking the sea where holidaymakers took refuge - and children screaming as the fish came in closer to where they were standing. Police were later filmed removing it from the water and dragging it along the sand as stunned youngsters looked on. The 10-foot shark drove screaming holiday makers from Cala Domingos beach in Calas de Majorca on the island's east coast English and French tourists gathered on the jutting rocks above the water after racing to safety away from the shark At least six men could be seen hauling it away. A local lifeguard organisation initially tweeted: 'Police together with lifeguards and staff from Palma Aquarium have removed the animal. We fear for its life. 'Cala Domingos beach was evacuated at 3pm.' The shark later died, despite initial claims from emergency services that it had survived and was sent back to sea. Workers at a nearby beach club said the incident had caused scenes of panic. Blue sharks are among the most common in Spain. One family, trapped on a pedalo watch as the shark circles just feet away from them Police pulled the shark from the water and dragged it up the beach in an apparent attempt to keep holidaymakers safe They have been blamed for a number of recent beach closures which have affected holidaymakers in Spain. In June one was spotted off the popular beach of Arenal d'en Castell in Menorca. Swimmers were banned from entering the water for the entire afternoon. One tourist could be heard saying in English as the shark appeared in the surf: 'It's coming. 'Oh my God, I think it's dead.' A woman, believed to be a relative, replied 'No, it's not dead' as other tourists were overheard screaming in the background before she added: 'Every time we go to the beach something happens.' Red flags were hoisted along several miles of coastline in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol after one was spotted in May. Last June bathers fled the sea in Cala Major near the Majorcan capital Palma. The shark was released back into the water alive as bystanders said the animal had look confused and may have had something stuck in its mouth The blue shark, also known as the tintorera, is commonly found in the area Extraordinary pictures showed terrified holidaymakers running out of the water as a blue shark described at the time as eight foot long headed towards families with children on lilos. Three beaches ended up being closed briefly over two days although no-one was hurt. The shark thought to be at the centre of the scare ended up being caught and taken to shore. Local reports at the time said it had a serious head injury, caused by a harpoon, believed to have led it to becoming disorientated and approaching packed holiday beaches instead of staying at high sea as is normal. The same type of shark was blamed for an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche near Alicante in July 2016. The 40-year-old victim was rushed to hospital and given stitches to a wound in his hand. First aiders described the bite as 'large' and said he had come out of the sea with blood streaming from the injury. It was not immediately clear why the latest scare with a tintorera had occurred, although local reports said the fish had appeared disorientated and appeared to have something in its mouth. David Milliner, 49, is accused of pretending to be a European prince to persuade young boys to send explicit photos of himself A Pennsylvania man pretended to be European royalty and close friends with celebrities in order to trick young boys into sending him graphic photos of themselves, federal authorities said. David Milliner, 49, was arrested earlier this year at his north Philadelphia home after creating the fake online persona Prince Daniel David DeRothschild to lure minors. Authorities said Milliner kept his true identity hidden behind photos of Michael Jackson's nephew TJ Jackson and pretended to be very close friends with George Clooney, Hillary Clinton and Nicki Minaj. In one Facebook post, he said he had attended president Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. According to an indictment, between September and November 2017 Milliner allegedly communicated with at least eight young boys online throughout the country. The youngest boy was six years old, authorities said, adding that Milliner's alleged relationships with the minors lasted for months. Milliner hid his true identity behind a photo of Michael Jackson's nephew TJ Jackson (pictured) Milliner allegedly posted numerous Facebook posts flaunting his lifestyle. Authorities said between September and November 2017, he allegedly communicated with at least eight boys, one as young as six Milliner wrote on his Facebook page that he was a 'trillionaire, movie mogul, producer, heir and CEO of Derothschild Global West' They said he used his fake persona to persuade the boys to send him explicit photos. When he was arrested he was chatting online with one alleged victim, investigators said. 'He convinced (his victims) that he was rich and famous,' Assistant US Attorney Michelle Rotella said. 'And he would never send them photos of his face'. Milliner created about eight different Facebook profiles under the name Prince Daniel David DeRothschild writing that he was a 'trillionaire, movie mogul, producer, heir and CEO of Derothschild Global West'. All of the profiles are littered with images of TJ Jackson. 'You are so very very extremely!! Unordinary. I'm looking forward too my white party, Until then! Stay Sexy,' he captioned a photo of Jackson pointing at the camera. In another post from last year Milliner said he needed a date to take to the Academy Awards. 'We will go to every after party and you will be dressed in Marquesa,' he wrote on Facebook, misspelling designer Marchesa. Authorities said Milliner allegedly pretended to be friends with celebrities like Nicki Minaj and George Clooney and said he was attending the Academy Awards In one post, Milliner allegedly wrote that he was attending a speech by president Donald Trump 'I promise you diamonds and exquisite antique jewelry that you get to keep. I'm drinking juice looking at the ocean thinking of you'. In an update, he said his date was a 16-year-old girl who would be staying at his mansion with her mother. 'She's been flown out here on my private jet,' the post read. 'I'm so excited & I thank all of the young ladies who participated all of you will receive a $500 gift card to Amazon.' Authorities said Milliner went as far as to create a fake publication called Rich and Royal Magazine to 'report' on his every move. In a bogus August 2017 article, a fake reporter named Ashton Alton Quartermaine III wrote that when Prince Derothschild visited Michael Jackson's grave photographers lined two blocks hoping to snap a photo of him. He shared fake photos of his 'motorcade' taking him to Jackson's grave site in Glendale, California. In another post, he posted a fake photos of his 'motorcade' taking him to Michael Jackson's grave site One of his last Facebook posts was condemning Harvey Weinstein over sexual assault allegations. 'I first want condemn the despicable and appalling Behavior perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein, in no way does Derothschild Global condone such behavior,' he wrote. 'To the victims of Harvey Weinstein's appalling behavior,let me express my heartfelt sadness and grief for the darkness you had to endure. We at Derothschild Global hope that you all find the healing and comfort that you deserve.' Milliner denied the allegations pleading not guilty to 16 offenses of child pornography during a federal court appearance on Thursday. If convicted he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and could be imprisoned the rest of his life, according to the Inquirer. A young mother in the Dominican Republic fell sick and passed away last Sunday after a night out with friends drinking liquor and smoking hookah. According to news reports, Jennifer Munoz, 26, had visited a bar when she started complaining of headaches, chest and back pains on July 27. Munoz, who described herself as a model on her Instagram account, was taken to the Munoz and Pichardo Medical Center, a clinic in her hometown of Esperanza, where her condition worsened when she had a bad reaction due to an injection. Jennifer Munoz (pictured) died on Sunday in the Dominican Republic after reporting headaches as well as back and chest pains. Jennifer Munoz (pictured) was a model in her native Dominican Republic. Numerous outlets have reported that she died Sunday after a night out of smoking hookah and drinking. She leaves behind a baby girl. Munoz, who leaves behind a baby girl, then was transported to the Union Medica clinic, located in Santiago, the night of July 27. According to a representative at the clinic that spoke with the DailyMail.com on Thursday, Munoz had already been placed in an induced coma due to complications with her lungs. The clinic representative said doctors said she passed away on July 29 at 3.15 PM local time. Doctors attributed her cause of death to an inflammation of the heart, multifocal pneumonia and septic shock. Jennifer Munoz (pictured) a model known as 'La Unica' [The Only One] had been out smoking and drinking with friends. A flurry of Instagram users have been commenting on her last social media post on July 20. The bad one and the good one while I continue to be alive, I will be his wish and her torment #yourpaincontinues, Munoz wrote. Her sister, Evelyn Rojas, flat out denied that Munoz has been at a bar smoking hookah and drinking liquor on a message posted on her Instagram page. In the United States, hookah, an ancient form of smoking, in which charcoal-heated tobacco or non-tobacco based shisha smoke is passed through water before inhalation, has through the years gained popularity among adolescents. Hookah smoking has gained a huge following in the United States. Over 100 hookah bars alone exist in New York City In numerous studies, doctors have expressed concerned about the grave danger that hookah smoking can pose. Studies estimate one hookah session can be the equivalent of smoking from 10 to 40 cigarettes. In 2016, Dr. Richard Hurt of the Mayo Clinic said that's because of the long duration of a hookah session. 'When you smoke a cigarette, a person smokes it maybe for just a few minutes and then you're through with it. 'But hookah sessions are social and people sit there for an hour or so kind of puffing on these things, thinking that the water is filtering out all the bad stuff, when the reality is it does not do that,' Hurt said. Police in New Jersey were called to remove a deer from a resident's swimming pool this week as it swam laps in a bid to escape the thick summer humidity. The animal was discovered splashing around in the water in the backyard of a home in Hamilton Township on Tuesday. The home owner was performing his usual morning routine of checking the pool for rodents when he was confronted with the much larger intruder. The animal was discovered splashing around in the water in the backyard of a home in Hamilton Township on Tuesday Unsure how to get it out of the water safely, he called the cops. Three officers from the Township of Hamilton Police Department arrived and fished it out. Rather than run away immediately, the deer took the opportunity to dry off in the sun. It then trotted off back in to the woods. Delighted by their morning task, the police department took to Facebook to share photographs of it. 'Imagine waking up on a warm and humid morning, taking a sip of your coffee and getting ready to take a quick dip in your refreshing pool before starting your day. You finish your breakfast, walk out to your back patio, and take a quick peek in your pool to make sure no rodents snuck in overnight. Three officers from the Township of Hamilton Police Department responded to rescue the deer The deer did not rush off and instead dried off in the sun before scurrying back off in to the woods 'Luckily there were no rodents, but something much larger! 'Yes, you find a deer doing laps in your swimming pool, getting in shape to start preparing for the cold winter weather! This morning, officers from the Township of Hamilton Police Department responded to the 2000 block of Skip Morgan Drive for exactly that! 'This little cutie decided that it was a bit too humid out today and was looking for some relief! 'Officers Thumhart, Bakker and McCarthy were able to use the deer rescue training they learned in the academy (not really) to safely remove the deer from the pool. 'It then decided to take in some sun and relax for a few minutes, before running back into the woods to spread the word! 'What will tomorrow morning bring...' they said playfully. A mum-of-two stumbled upon her 43-year-old childhood doll - and now it's creeping out the internet. The woman, originally from Leeds but now living in the US, recently returned to her childhood home in West Yorkshire and discovered the 1970s toy in a box. And to her amazement she found the blonde-haired, blue-eyed doll still winks, grins and grimaces when its left arm is rotated. A video of the macabre doll's facial contortions has proved a hit on social media - dividing opinion between those who think it cool and those who have urged: 'Burn it.' The clip of the Saucy Expressions Doll, brought out by Mattel in 1972, was tweeted by GammaCounter - who wishes to be known only as Alan from Chicago. Alan, his British-born wife and their two children visit the UK annually and during this year's trip the toy, bought in 1975, was rediscovered. Alan's daughter quickly fell in love with her mother's old doll. Alan posted the short clip to Twitter with the caption: 'My wife found her childhood doll amongst a bunch of old stuff. Look at the range of emotions it goes through.' The extremely creepy Saucy Expressions Doll was brought out by Mattel in 1972 It pulls an array of frightening faces when its left arm is rotated again and again The clip has been viewed over 52,000 times and had over 1,200 likes since it was uploaded yesterday evening. The clip begins with the blonde doll smiling, but as Alan rotates her left arm the doll's eyes begin to move from left to right - and her mouth begins to open. As Alan continues to rotate the arm, Gilly winks and her mouth is squished up into a strange and frightening expression. The doll's expressions continue to warp, and as her eyes move off to the side her mouth begins to turn down into a twisted grin. The doll then pops back in to a smile, crosses its eyes and opens its mouth in excitement. Scores of Twitter users were quick to share their unease over the doll. Debbie Mason said: 'Chuckie prototype. A lifetime of therapy right there.' Muttly added: 'Kill it with fire and never speak of it again.' Ninathedablack commented: 'Back when dolls were manufactured in the devil's workshop.' Sunnyflower20 wrote: 'Omg that's the stuff made of nightmares. Creepy doll. I can't unsee this and I'm worried I'll not sleep.' Some social media users have labelled the toy frightening and remarked on its resemblance to thew doll in the horror movie Chucky The doll was discovered by a woman living in the US after she returned to her childhood home in West Yorkshire Geek Cadet added: 'That's horrifying.' While Helen B said simply: 'I'm scared.' However, not all social media users were terrified by the doll. ArtyMoHawk said: 'That actually looks like fun to play with.' Shellyfairy1 added: 'I want one.' Mamtamertner commented: 'Oh my, I'm laughing so much. She is apparently a 'Saucy Expressions Doll' by Mattel. In Britain, saucy means sexually suggestive in a light-hearted and humorous way.' Carol Costello wrote: 'Bit spooky. But the final face is hilarious.' While Tashy McTashface joked: 'It's basically the original emojis.' Speaking today, Alan said the family love the doll. He said: 'We all agree it's 'creepy', and my daughter and her twin brother, they are seven, sometimes like to play on that angle. 'So I think that is part of the dynamic, maybe a kind of strange attraction, or something like that.' He added: 'It must have been tucked away for many years in her parents' house. We live in the US, but visit the UK at least once a year. 'This year, the doll turned up in the course of going through boxes of things. Our daughter loves the doll, and wishes to keep it.' Employees at a Safeway supermarket in Californias Bay Area called police last month accusing a black woman of shoplifting, even though all she was doing was helping the homeless. Erika Martin arrived at the Mountain View Safeway on Shoreline Boulevard, where she has been known to shop several times a week, on July 8 with her young son and six other family members with the intention to bring supplies for some people living on the streets. Martin, who lives in Sunnyvale and works at Google, got to the location first after attending a church service. She remained in her car and handed through the window a bag of dog food to a homeless man so he could feed his pit bull. Erika Martin (left and right) says she was racially profiled and mistaken for a shoplifter by employees at a Bay Area Safeway on July 8 as she was helping the homeless Cellphone video recorded by Martin's sister shows police officers standing outside her car in the Safeway parking lot Her two sisters later joined her, carrying care packages containing personal hygiene items for some homeless men they knew, reported Mercury News. Martin said as she was getting ready to leave the store parking lot, two police cars with five officers inside pulled up behind her car, blocking her way. Officers asked Martin why she was at the store and whether she had any open warrants, to which she replied that she has never even gotten a parking ticket. The woman's sister recorded a five-minute video on her cellphone showing the officers standing outside her car. Martin, who has worked at Google for more than five years, was told that employees at the Safeway allegedly saw a woman in a white top matching her description who made eye contact with a suspected male shoplifter who had stolen items from the store before and returned that evening. The mother was dressed in a grey T-shirt that had 'Y'all need Jesus' printed across the front. Martin also pointed out that she never even went inside the supermarket that day. Police later claimed the female suspect was dressed in a top that looked similar to Martins sisters outfit. An incident report obtained by Mountain View Voice later revealed that employees at the grocery store were under the impression that the family were using their children to steal items and sneak them out to the parking lot. Martin said police questioned her nine-year-old son (left), who was terrified and broke down in tears because he thought he will be arrested The officers told Martin that employees thought she made eye contact with a black male shoplifter inside the store Police searched Martin's sister's car and ultimately let all of them go Responding officers interviewed the family for 20 or 30 minutes, searched Martins sister's car, but ultimately concluded that no crime had taken place and let them all go. It made me really upset that somebody would accuse me of taking items knowing I was only there to do a good deed, but I was accused of doing something wrong, Martin told Mercury News. Martin said she had never seen her son, Christopher, so scared until that day, and described how the nine-year-old broke down in tears while explaining to the police that he and his cousin had looked behind the counter at the Safeway bakery to see if there were some free cookies available, which the store has been known to give away. Martin, who works at Google, said the shirt she had on did not match the description of the female suspect, and she had not even entered the store that day He thought the police were going to arrest him for looking behind the counter, she told CNN. To see my child in so much fear broke my heart. A Mountain View police spokesperson said the officers were polite, considerate and respectful during their interaction with the family. Our officers did their due diligence in investigating the theft report, as any of our officers would do in any situation to which they are called, said public information officer Katie Nelson. Martin later received an apology from a Safeway manager for what was characterized as a a misunderstanding, but she said no one from Safeway's headquarters has reached out to her. Safeway spokesperson Wendy Gutshall said the company did contact Martin to offer an apology and said an internal investigation into the incident is under way. Safeway is committed to fostering an environment of treating everyone with courtesy, dignity, and respect, Gutshall said in a statement. We have strong policies against racial discrimination and we do not tolerate violations to the policy. In recent months, there has been a spate of similar incidents across the country involving police being called on people of color, usually accusing them of suspicious or illegal conduct as they try to go about their day. Just this week, an African-American student at Smith College in Massachusetts was eating lunch on campus when she was confronted by police after someone had reported her, saying that she looked like a 'suspicious black male.' Police are searching for three suspects who were filmed robbing a Maryland wig store and assaulting the store's employees in the process. Surveillance footage shows the robbery and scuffle take place on July 27 at Esther's Beauty Salon/Supplies in Silver Springs at approximately 7pm. A 74-year-old man and 59-year-old woman working in the store tried to stop the trio as they wreaked havoc on the store, but they ultimately failed. Surveillance footage show the robbery and scuffle take place on July 27 at Esther's Beauty Salon/Supplies in Silver Springs at approximately 7pm In the clip of just over a minute, a man dressed in green snatches a wig off a mannequin's head as the male staffer blocks the way out. Two women walk to the door as the other employee tugs at the wig that the first trespasser took. Seeing that they've been locked inside, the two women begin scrapping at the door with the male staff. Aman dressed in green snatches a wig off a head mannequin's head as the male staffer blocks the way out Meanwhile, their conspirator starts scuffling with the other employee but she quickly focuses her attention on the door and the commotion there. The initial thief pulls out pepper spray, at this point, and his friends quickly move out of the way in anticipation for what's next. He sprays the older man, while his two friends focus on the door and the other employee phones for police. The two women finally get the door open and scamper off, but one of them quickly turns around and realizes that the door has locked back and her friend is still inside. A 74-year-old man and 59-year-old woman working in the store tried to stop the trio as they wreaked havoc on the store, but they ultimately failed Inside, the coworkers manage to keep the man inside but he soon starts swinging at them and all three wind up in a massive brawl. Almost losing his shirt, the thief takes hold of the man and pummels him in the head. His friends continue struggling with the door and the suspect has to keep tussling with the employees before he can get the door open and escape. But he quickly comes back, forcing the door open and kicking the older man, before scooping up the wig he fought so hard for. The man - dressed in a green shirt that he almost loses - uses pepper spray to ward off the employees while his two friends work to unlock the door According to Maryland Capitol Police, the older man sustained an injury to his head. Both victims were taken to a local hospital where they were treated with non-life-threatening injuries. Detectives released video of the robbery and ask that any information be directed to the Major Crimes Division at 240-773- 5070. Anonymous callers can contact the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest. A British Airways plane was involved in two emergency landings due to two separate faults - in just ten days. The Airbus A320 has caused a runway at Gatwick Airport to be closed twice in just over a week because of the issues, it has emerged. On July 20 the plane was en route from Naples to Gatwick when a problem was declared over a 'technical fault'. Airport officials were alerted to the need for a priority landing. On Monday, Gatwick had to be closed again after the BA2552 flight to Crete, this time on its way to Greece, returned 'as a precaution'. A runway was shut for 40 minutes while the aircraft was inspected. A British Airways plane was forced to make emergency landings twice in ten days In a statement the airline said: 'The safety of our customers and crew is always our priority. The aircraft had two unrelated minor technical issues over a two-week period. 'The first incident related to an issue with the wheel door, and the second was a steering issue. Gatwick Airport: A runway has been closed twice in ten days after faults on a British Airways airbus 'We carried out thorough maintenance checks after each of these instances, and would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so. 'There is absolutely no suggestion that this would affect other aircraft.' Flight delays were caused by the incidents. The Civil Aviation Authority said it did not comment on individual incidents but pointed out those that were reported related to 'safety-related events which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person'. A flight attendant has been sacked by Qantas over a $20,000 trip to hospital after too many peach martinis. The Fair Work Commission rejected an unfair dismissal claim by Luke Urso after he was fired from his 'dream job' for getting drunk with a colleague during a stopover in New York on July 22 last year. Mr Urso claimed his drink was spiked when he collapsed and started vomiting in the bathroom. A flight attendant has been sacked by Qantas over a $20,000 trip to hospital after too many peach martinis He required an ambulance to take him to hospital after drinking two peach martinis and three gin and tonics at the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in New York. When he arrived at Greenwich hospital his blood alcohol level was 0.205 per cent. When he was discharged from hospital he told his Qantas bosses he was too sick to work. The company paid $20,000 for his hospital stay. When Mr Urso was fired by Qantas he lodged an unfair dismissal claim. Fair Work deputy president Lyndall Dean found Mr Urso's conduct was in breach of Qantas policies, and he was not unfairly dismissed. He required an ambulance to take him to hospital after drinking two peach martinis and three gin and tonics at the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar (pictured) in New York Fair Work deputy president Lyndall Dean found Mr Urso's conduct was in breach of Qantas policies, and he was not unfairly dismissed Fair Work said Qantas was justified in firing the flight attendant because his drinking prevented him from performing his job the following day. 'Qantas was entitled to be able to have trust and confidence that their flight attendants can perform their safety critical roles in a safe manner,' Ms Dean said. 'Mr Urso's claim that he could have five alcoholic drinks without compromising his ability to operate the next day, in my view, was unfounded and was proved to be wrong. 'The evidence in my view clearly supports a finding that Mr Urso consumed an excessive amount of alcohol.' A 21-year-old girl has allegedly been raped by a man in his 50s at a Christian summer gathering run by 'London's poshest church'. Police were called in the early hours of Wednesday to the event, called Focus Festival 2018, which took place at Somerley Estate on the Hampshire-Dorset border. A 54-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of rape and is currently being quizzed by Hampshire Police. Focus Festival 2018 took place at Somerley Estate on the Hampshire-Dorset border (file image) Police were called in the early hours of Wednesday to the event at Somerley Estate (pictured) The event was hosted by the Kensington-based Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), which is famed for developing the Alpha course that explains the basics of Christianity. The event, billed as a summer festival, sees thousands of Christians gather for a week of teaching, worship and networking each year. Festival goers reported seeing police on site as those who were camping on the estate's grounds were packing up to leave the event, which finished on Tuesday. A police spokesman said: 'We were called at 05.06am on August 1 to a report of a 21-year-old woman being sexually assaulted at the Focus Festival which was being held at the Somerley Estate, north of Ringwood at some point between 1.30am and 2am. The Focus event has been running since 1992. This year's speakers included Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally and US speaker RT Kendall (file image taken from Focus website) Festival goers reported seeing police officers on site at the estate after the event (file image) 'The victim is receiving support from specialist officers. 'A 54 year-old man who is not from Hampshire has been arrested on suspicion of rape and remains in custody at this time.' The Focus event has been running since 1992. This year's speakers included Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally and US author and Christian speaker RT Kendall. David Cameron's speechwriter Danny Kruger once described HTB as 'the Finsbury Park mosque for well-off Londoners' and one of the 'posh white churches of central London'. MailOnline has contacted the event organisers for comment. HTB declined to comment, telling Premier Christian Radio it was a police matter. Amazon has slashed its UK tax bill just as it stands accused of fuelling the crisis on the high street. Despite soaring sales of close to 2 billion, the web giant's biggest UK arm yesterday revealed it had paid just 4.5 million in corporation tax last year. That was down from 7.4 million the previous year when its sales were actually lower. Amazon has introduced new food delivery services taking on competition from supermarkets across the UK - yet shops are furious about the company's tax bill How Amazon uses loophole to send 2bn in sales revenue out of the UK to avoid tax Amazon slashes its UK corporation tax bill by taking advantage over Britain's ageing tax laws and a complicated network of companies in the EU. The online giant funnelled cash made from sales across all its European businesses including 1.98billion from the UK through a company based in Luxembourg. This company then pays 'royalties' to another of its businesses based in the small European country. The American tech giant's then uses the costs of its branding and services to cut the remaining profits which it can be taxed for at a lower rate than in the UK. Meanwhile, the royalties paid to the separate entity are not taxed because it is a type of business not considered a tax resident in Luxembourg. Unlike some European countries, Britain also allows companies to take generous deductions for stock options and share awards and many companies, especially in the technology sector, use the rules to reduce their tax bills significantly. 'We pay all taxes required in the UK and every country where we operate,' Amazon said in a statement. Advertisement The news last night enraged retail campaigners, who believe Amazon's success has contributed to the high street crisis that has seen tens of thousands of jobs lost this year. They are angry that local shops are hammered by soaring business rates, while the web-based giant pays much lower rates on its out-of-town warehouses. The Mail has been campaigning for a review of business rates. Joshua Bamfield of the Centre for Retail Research, which analyses retail trends, said: 'People will be staggered by these figures. At a time when major British retailers are in difficulties and having to pay more corporation tax than Amazon, it seems wholly unfair. This shows that if you employ the finest City brains, you can get away with paying minimal amounts of tax but if you're like John Lewis or Sainsbury's, a UK brand employing hundreds of thousands of people all over the country, you've got no choice.' Wes Streeting, a Labour MP and member of the Treasury select committee, added: '4.5 million is a drop in the ocean given the size of Amazon's UK sales, and will stick in the throats of businesses on the high street who are struggling to pay their business rates particularly independent retailers and family-owned businesses.' 'It's time for the Chancellor to overhaul the system of business rates to save our high streets, and instead make sure that big multinational corporations like Amazon are paying their fair share of taxes.' Staff label and package items in the on-site dispatch hall inside one of Britain's largest Amazon warehouses in Dunfermline, Fife. The company has been accused of killing off British high street Amazon has been so popular in recent years shoppers are tuning to online retailers instead of shopping in stores Amazon has several registered companies in the UK, each for a different part of its empire. Yesterday, it published accounts for its Services division, which used to be called Amazon.co.uk. Essentially, this division looks after its warehouses and parcel delivery business. Financial statements released at Companies House revealed it had made 1.98 billion in sales in the UK in 2017, up from 1.46 billion the previous year. Operating profits in the UK tripled to 79 million last year. Yet its bill for corporation tax which is paid on profits plummeted from 7.4 million in 2016 to 4.56 million for 2017. Amazon products like the Echo device have seen profits soar in the UK but the company has paid a smaller corporation tax bill The tax payment was partly slashed because Amazon made shares payments to thousands of staff. These are counted as a cost and deducted from profits. Had Amazon paid the UK's standard rate of corporation tax, its Services subsidiary would have had to hand over 13.9 million, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. However, this still pales next to the web giant's 2 billion UK sales. Because companies pay corporation tax only on profits, many tech firms use accounting methods to reduce their tax liability. These include increasing costs by making payments to other companies within the same group often these can be in low-tax countries such as Luxembourg. They also hand out share awards. Earlier this year, the Mail launched a campaign for a review of the business rates system to help local stores and high street retailers. A Mail investigation earlier this year found that Amazon pays just 14 million a year in business rates for its 13 enormous warehouses far below the costs faced by traditional high street stores. Struggling House of Fraser, which has been forced to close scores of stores and put thousands of jobs at risks, pays an estimated 36.2 million a year. Marks & Spencer, meanwhile, shelled out 12 times more than Amazon. James Daunt, chief executive of high street book chain Waterstones, said last night: 'If tax bills fall disproportionately on one set of retailers, that's not a level playing field that applies to business rates and it applies to corporation tax. 'Big guys like us can look after ourselves, but small independent retailers can't, and it's particularly unfair on vulnerable companies and small ones.' As Amazon enjoys huge profits in the first half of this year alone, 50,000 retail jobs were cut across Britain's high street. This financial year, the taxman is expected to collect 30.8 billion in taxes from shops across the UK. Amazon bosses said the tax paid is based on profits and not revenues - defending the corporation tax bill In a world where online shopping is booming, many believe the business rates structure is outdated and reform is urgently needed. If not, there are fears streets could be left bare with retailers closing down and thousands of jobs lost. A spokesman for Amazon said: 'We pay all taxes required in the UK. 'Corporation tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits have remained low given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment.' 'We've invested over 9.3 billion in the UK since 2010, including last year opening a new head office in London alongside development centres in Cambridge and London. 'This year we plan create 2,500 permanent jobs across the country in research and development, our head office, customer service and fulfilment centres, to bring our total workforce in the UK to over 27,500.' A 61-year-old Genovese mobster nicknamed 'Johnny T' has been arrested over the 1997 murder of a police informer who was stabbed multiple times in the stomach outside a Yonkers bar, the FBI announced on Wednesday. John Tortora, 61, is accused of attacking 29-year-old Richard Ortiz outside the Mill Tavern after a fight spilled outside. He was found by a woman who initially thought he was a pile of old clothes and taken to hospital, where he died three hours later. Tortora has been charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering and murder for hire charges. He appeared in Manhattan federal court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. John Tortora, 61, is accused of attacking 29-year-old Richard Ortiz outside the Mill Tavern after a fight spilled outside. His arrest was announced in New York on Wednesday by local FBI assistant director William F. Sweeney Ortiz' family had long suspected he was murdered in retaliation for acting as a police informant, reported The Journal News. The high school dropout had his face battered in a day before he died but told relatives he had slipped and fell. Ortiz lived in a one-bedroom apartment on Lockwood Avenue, which used to be the location of the now-defunct Mill Tavern. The drinking spot was less than 100 feet away from the Saw Mill River Parkway underpass where he was left for dead. Four days after his death on November 11, 1997, police arrested former convict Abdill Saez, 31, but charges against him were dropped. If Tortora is convicted he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The murder in aid of racketeering and murder for hire charges carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison or execution, while the conspiracy charge has a maximum of life behind bars. 'The arrest of John Tortora should remind everyone that justice delayed is not justice denied,' FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney said in a press release. 'Whether a crime was allegedly committed decades ago or just day ago, the FBI will maintain the same tenacity and we will be relentless toward ensuring those who commit violent crimes be held accountable for their actions.' Yonkers Police Commissioner Charles Gardner said: 'This arrest for the 1997 murder of Mr Ortiz demonstrates the resolve and commitment of law enforcement to hold those accountable for their actions and serves as a warning to all members of La Cosa Nostra engaging in violent criminal activity in our communities. 'We will continue to work with our federal partners to aggressively target alleged criminals and criminal enterprises operating in our City. 'I would like to thank the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI for their invaluable support and efforts in this investigation.' Ortiz lived in a one-bedroom apartment on Lockwood Avenue, which used to be the location of the now-defunct Mill Tavern. The drinking spot was less than 100 feet away from the Saw Mill River Parkway underpass (pictured) where he was left for dead Ortiz is also accused on an indictment of a number of crimes on behalf of the Genovese family, including extortion, gambling, and narcotics trafficking. The organization is one of the 'Five Families' that dominate mafia activity in New York and New Jersey, although their influence has greatly declined in recent decades. The Genovese are the largest of the five, a position that has led to them being nicknamed the 'Rolls Royce' or 'Ivy League' of organized crime. They were founded by Charles 'Lucky' Luciano in the 1930s and focused on the West Side of Manhattan. Their boss, Vincent 'the Chin' Gigante, would feign insanity by walking around in a bathrobe and muttering to himself, a habit that earned him the nickname of 'Oddfather'. Recently the family has moved into Internet-based illegal gambling. Eleven alleged members of the gang were indicted in 2016 for a 'smorgasbord' of offences from loansharking to unlicensed check cashing and money laundering. Advertisement An artist has taken some of the defining historical moments of the past 150 years and brought them to life in 'colourised' photos. Brazilian artist Marina Amaral has transformed photos from around the world. The stunning collection of images capture emotive moments from both the past, including Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in traditional German lederhosen intended to encourage national pride. Ms Amaral has also breathed new life into celebrity photos, such as those of Elvis and of key historical figures. The following picutres are extracted from The Colour Of Time by Dan Jones and Marina Amaral, to be published on August 9. KNOBBLY KNEED NAZI: During the early 1920s, when this picture was taken, the Nazis and their leader Adolf Hitler were a rising force in Bavaria. Traditional German folk costumes such as the lederhosen Hitler is wearing here were co-opted by the fascists to help encourage national pride GI BLUES: In March 1958, Elvis Presley the king of rock was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving in West Germany with the 3rd Armoured Division. This photo dates from the end of his military career by which time he had been promoted to sergeant. Elvis was honourably discharged in 1960 A bad, bad Monk: Rasputin was the piercing-eyed, womanising mystic credited with healing Russias haemophiliac royal heir, 11-year-old Alexei. Rasputin held great power over the Romanovs until, on December 30, 1916, he was killed by noblemen in St Petersburg Dancing spy: Erotic dancer, circus performer, mistress and courtesan, Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in the Netherlands. She claimed to be a Hindu princess steeped in the art of dance. In truth, Mata Hari was more of an upmarket stripper. Shes pictured here aged 29 or 30 in 1906, just 11 years before she was accused of being a German spy and executed by French soldiers during World War I Egypt's golden boy: In November 1922 British Egyptologist Howard Carter stunned the world when he and his team found the tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun. Carter is pictured examining the gold sarcophagus that held the 19-year-old rulers remains Plutonium paradise: the detonation of a plutonium bomb nicknamed Helen of Bikini in the Marshall Islands on July 25, 1946. The remote Bikini Atoll in the Western Pacific became a favourite location for U.S. nuclear tests. Its 167 inhabitants never returned to their contaminated homeland The Palace of wonders in 1851, Britain launched the Great Exhibition. More than 100,000 items were displayed in a Crystal Palace erected in Londons Hyde Park. Over more than five months, nearly six million visitors viewed objects that included rare china, locomotives, porcelain and silks, a folding piano, a set of Cossack armour, jewels such as the huge Koh-i-Noor diamond and a 50kg lump of Chilean gold. Pictured here are two plaster-of-Paris colossi made from casts taken at the temple of Abu Simbel in Egypt Disastrous end to airship travel: The German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg had crossed the Atlantic in three days, carrying 36 passengers and around twice as many crew, when it came in to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Dozens of reporters and cameramen were waiting to capture a masterpiece of engineering. Instead, they watched in horror as the Hindenburg filled with highly flammable hydrogen gas caught fire, pitched backwards and crashed to the ground. Those on board leapt to escape, but in less than a minute the airship was destroyed, killing 13 passengers and 22 crew Extracted from The Colour Of Time by Dan Jones and Marina Amaral, to be published by Head Of Zeus on August 9 at 25. Dan Jones and Marina Amaral. To buy this book for 20 (20 per cent discount), call 0844 571 0640 or go to mailshop.co.uk/books. Offer valid until August 10, 2018, p&p free. Two Massachusetts police officers were injured when a Rhode Island officer's gun accidentally discharged at the funeral of a cop who was shot dead in the line of duty. Cranston Police Sgt. Michael Patnaud fired his gun soon after he was part of the honor guard at the funeral for Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna on July 20. Authorities said Patnaud was removing his gun from his holster to change out of his honor guard uniform on a bus just outside the Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree following the funeral. He accidentally dropped his gun and it fired when Patnaud tried to catch it. Cranston Police Sgt. Michael Patnaud fired his gun soon after he was part of the honor guard at the funeral (pictured above) for Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna on July 20 Two female officers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were struck by debris after the gun fired. 'It became apparent that a round had been discharged inside the bus and struck the ground near the MIT officers,' a police report stated. 'The impact sent debris up, striking the officers.' Chesna was shot dead on July 15 while he was investigating reports of an erratic driver and car crash near the end of his overnight shift One of the officers was hit in the hand, while the other was struck just above the eye. Both of the injured officers declined medical treatment. Braintree Police Chief Paul Shastany told the Patriot Ledger that holsters on honor guard uniforms are not designed for 'street wear' and are different to the everyday holsters. Shastany added that he had not disclosed the incident earlier because an ongoing investigation. No charges have been filed against Patnaud and he remains on duty. The incident took place at the funeral of the Weymouth police officer who was shot dead on July 15. Chesna had been investigating reports of an erratic driver and car crash near the end of his overnight shift. The man suspected of killing him, Emmanuel Lopes, allegedly threw a large rock at the officer, grabbed his gun and repeatedly shot him with it. Lopes also is also charged with killing a 77-year-old bystander, Vera Adams. He has pleaded not guilty. Donald Trump sided with House Republicans on Thursday in a congressional showdown over work requirements for food stamp recipients in the farm bill. The president tweeted that he hopes lawmakers 'will be able to leave the WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR FOOD STAMPS PROVISION that the House approved' in the final version of the legislation. Leaders from both houses of Congress are preparing to begin negotiations on the farm bill this fall. The House narrowly passed a bill in June that would significantly tighten work requirements for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. The Senate's version largely left the program alone. President Donald Trump wants able-bodied Americans on welfare to either work a half-time job or participate in career training as a condition of receiving the benefits Trump boomed his support on Twitter for 'WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR FOOD STAMPS House Speaker Paul Ryan is strongly backing the work requirements, but Senate leaders have said such provisions won't pass their chamber. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney pushed for the measure in May, giving reporters a blunt message for America's poor: 'If you're on food stamps and you're able-bodied, we need you to go to work.' Farm bill programs expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress acts. In his tweet, Trump reiterated a year-long wish that Senate Republicans would declare the 'filibuster' rule obsolete and pass ordinary bills my a simple majority vote. Beginning with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoking the so-called 'Nuclear Option' in 2013, the Senate has inched away from their rules' requirement of a 60-vote threshold to move a bill to a final vote. So far the new approach, which shifts power to the majority party, has only been applied in fights over presidential nominees. The bill requires able-bodied adults aged 18-59 to work or participate in job training for 20 hours a week in order to receive food stamp benefits that average about $450 a month for a family of four. Government auditors estimate that in 10 years, the SNAP caseload would shrink by about 1.2 million people in an average month if the bill becomes law. It also renews the safety net for farmers at a time when President Donald Trump's tough talk on tariffs threatens to close off foreign markets for many of their products. Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said he believed there were concerns among some GOP lawmakers about the amount of spending in the bill as well as changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. 'I knew it was going to be razor-thin,' Conaway said of the vote. Speaker Ryan had said the changes will 'close the skills gap, better equip our workforce, and encourage people to move from welfare to work, so more Americans have the opportunity to tap into the economic prosperity we're seeing right now.' The legislation has traditionally been bipartisan, blending support from urban Democrats supporting nutrition programs with farm-state lawmakers supporting crop insurance, farm credit, and land conservation. The House bill's position on work requirements for SNAP recipients is consistent with the Trump administration's priorities. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to enforce existing work requirements and review all programs, waivers and exemptions. The measure also limits circumstances under which families who qualify for other poverty programs can automatically be eligible for SNAP, and earmarks $1 billion to expand work training programs. Democrats have expressed outrage over the bill, with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi calling it 'cruel and destructive.' Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Agriculture Committee, said inJune that the bill 'simply doesn't do enough for the people it's supposed to serve.' 'It still leaves farmers and ranchers vulnerable, it worsens hunger and it fails rural communities,' Peterson said. The only sister of man (pictured) who shot dead his two children has revealed he was hated by his own family The only sister of man who shot dead his two children has revealed he was hated by his own family. Dianne, 64, spoke out after a private funeral service was held for Jack, 15, and Jennifer, 13, who were murdered by their father John Edwards, 67, in their Sydney home last month. She said she had nothing good to say about Edwards, who killed himself after storming into his ex-wife's home and firing bullets into his kids for several minutes. 'He's an awful man, horrible. Always has been,' Dianne told The Daily Telegraph. She said her whole family were horrified by the murders, which shocked the local community and led to calls for tougher gun checks. At age 16 Edwards ran away from the family home in Broken Hill, where he was known as DJ and was a 'nerd' at school. Dianne, 64, spoke out at a private funeral service for Jack (pictured, left), 15, and Jennifer (pictured, right), 13, who were murdered by their father A childhood friend of Dianne's said the siblings' father Jack lived in a granny flat and remembered Edwards' extensive toy soldier collection. Sydney-born Jack Edwards was a prisoner of war in World War II at Singpore's Changi prison before moving to Broken Hill to become a miner. 'There was something not right with the father's interaction with the whole family. He lived in the granny flat and didn't interact,' Dianne's friend said. Edwards' classmates from the 50s and 60s remembered him as an immaculately-dressed child who never got into fights - a rarity in the tough mining town at the time. He later joined the army but was discharged after two years, and later become obsessed with Russia, where he met his fifth wife, Olga (pictured) He later joined the army but was discharged after two years, and later become obsessed with Russia, where he met his fifth wife, Olga, 38, while on holiday. The pair married when she was just 19, and split up 18 months ago. Jack and Jennifer then moved into Olga's home in West Pennant Hills. A financial adviser, Edwards worked from home and according to local Post Office staff he was 'withdrawn and odd'. Edwards legally bought the powerful handguns used in the murders months earlier while he was involved in a drawn-out custody battle with Olga. Edwards was described as the 'most shocking person I have ever come across' by Olga's boss at her lower north shore law firm. He acquired a rare 'commissioner's' gun permit, which allowed him access to fire his licenced weapon at St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre. The July murders sparked calls for changes to gun licensing laws, with suggestions permits be reviewed if holders become involved in Family Court proceedings. Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to question the pop star son of an oligarch who helped set up the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting and talks are ongoing. Russian pop star Emin Agalarov helped set in motion the chain of events that led to the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russians in 2016, during the height of the campaign. His contact with British music exec Rob Goldstone prompted Goldstone to reach out to Trump Jr. with the offer of dirt on rival Hillary Clinton that he said came from Russia. Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to question pop star Emin Agalarov (right), the son of an oligarch who helped set up the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting Now, Emin's lawyers are confirming talks over the possible interview. Emin and Trump were connected enough that Trump did a cameo in one of his music videos, and Trump and Emin's father, Aras Agalarov, discussed a Trump Tower Moscow that never came to fruition. 'We've been having conversations with the special counsel for a potential interview for nearly a year,' Emin's lawyer Scott Balber told CNN. 'Those conversations are not new. They are ongoing. We haven't reached an agreement yet on any terms of such an interview and I can't predict whether we will reach agreement or not," said Scott Balber. Balber said the special counsel heading the Russia probe wants to discuss both the Moscow tower, which was a topic of conversation in Trump Organization emails through 2016, and the Trump Tower meeting, which included four Russians as well as Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. The June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, that Donald Trump Jr. participated in, is a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation Emin admits he was the force behind the meeting but says he wasn't trying to influence the election. 'I have been accused of influencing this is gonna sound very strange influencing the American election. Me, this guy here from Azerbaijan, living in Moscow. Because I know personally Mr. Donald Trump,' he told Vice News. 'It's quite a strange and ridiculous accusation.' Agalarov also said he doesn't know Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian attorney and admitted government informant who also attended the meeting. 'I never met her. I think my father met her a few times,' he told the news show. 'I think somebody asked him to help her set that meeting knowing that we were acquainted with the Trump family.' British music exec Rob Goldstone contacted Donald Trump Jr. by email after being contacted by Emin He said he doesn't know who asked his father to set up the Trump Tower meeting. He did admit, however, that he and Donald Trump Jr. spoke before it took place. 'I said, 'Listen, there's some people that want to meet you.' They obviously want something that could potentially help them resolve things that you could be interested in or maybe not. If you can spare a few minutes of your time, I'd be grateful. If not, no problem. Obviously Don Jr. obviously being Don Jr. said, 'Of course. I'll do it if you're asking,' Agalarov said. Trump Jr. had said he could not recall whether he and Agalarov spoke prior to the meeting, according to Senate Judiciary Committee testimony released in May. Emin was born in Baku, Azerbaijan on December 12, 1979. The son of billionaire business magnate Aras Agalarov, his family relocated to Moscow when he was four years old before he attended school at Switzerland at age 13. He later moved to the United States, settling in Tenafly, New Jersey and graduated from high school in 1997. Agalarov later graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City before moving back to Moscow in 2001. Advertisement Seattles landmark skyscraper is set to unveil the worlds first ever revolving glass floor. The Space Needle, the 605ft high observation tower, will allow visitors on Friday to test their tolerance of heights and feel like theyre literally walking on air. The rotating glass floor, which is known as the Loupe, will be one floor below the Space Needles traditional outdoor observation deck. The Space Needle, the 605ft high observation tower, will allow visitors on Friday to test their tolerance of heights and feel like theyre literally walking on air Seattles landmark skyscraper, the Space Needle (center), is set to unveil the worlds first ever revolving glass floor The rotating glass floor, which is known as the Loupe, will be one floor below the Space Needles traditional outdoor observation deck Richard Green, who designed the rotating glass floor attraction, says visitors will have nothing to worry about This has 10 layers of glass between us and 500 feet down and they are bonded together with a high strength inner layer, said Green That means that even if we get a crack in one of these pieces, it will still be fine, Green said Before the makeover, a wall and caging interrupted views from the 520 foot level Richard Green, who designed the rotating glass floor attraction, says visitors will have nothing to worry about. This has 10 layers of glass between us and 500 feet down and they are bonded together with a high strength inner layer, Green told KIRO-TV. That means that even if we get a crack in one of these pieces, it will still be fine. The newly built attraction at the Space Needle is part of a multi-million dollar renovation project that is coinciding with a tourism boom in the Emerald City. The newly built attraction at the Space Needle is part of a multi-million dollar renovation project that is coinciding with a tourism boom in the Emerald City Last month, the family-owned Space Needle unveiled the biggest renovation in its 56-year history, a $100 million investment in a single year of construction that transformed the structure's top viewing level with floor-to-ceiling glass Seattle's Wright family, which built and owns the Space Needle, is also installing glass in the observation deck's rotating floor and remodeling the restaurant in the first phase of the renovation Repainting the exterior of the 600-foot structure and replacing its three elevators will follow, according to Karen Olson, chief marketing officer at Space Needle Last month, the family-owned Space Needle unveiled the biggest renovation in its 56-year history, a $100 million investment in a single year of construction that transformed the structure's top viewing level with floor-to-ceiling glass. Seattle and King County benefited from $7.4billion of spending by a record 40 million visitors last year, a number that has grown annually since the 2008 recession, according to Visit Seattle, a nonprofit advocacy group for the tourism industry. Dozens of cranes that have become a mainstay of the city's skyline over the past decade aren't just building apartments and offices, but hotels to absorb the flood of arrivals at Seattle Tacoma International Airport. 'The environment is friendly with this type of investment. It wasn't a difficult thing at all to obtain financing,' said Ron Sevart, president and chief executive officer at Space Needle LLC. 'What we like to say is trends last 50 years. What this investment is more about is the next 50 years, and making sure the space needle stays relevant.' Hyatt Hotels Corp. is building a 1,260 room tower that's set to become the biggest hotel in the Northwest when it opens in the fall. In 2017, SeaTac Airport bucked the second year of declines in international arrivals to the U.S., posting a 5 percent increase, according to Visit Seattle. Seattle's Wright family, which built and owns the Space Needle, is also installing glass in the observation deck's rotating floor and remodeling the restaurant in the first phase of the renovation. Repainting the exterior of the 600-foot structure and replacing its three elevators will follow, according to Karen Olson, chief marketing officer at Space Needle. The project is being financed with a commercial loan, she said. 'Keeping your product well maintained and "fresh" increases desirability,' said Jeanne Liu, senior vice president of research at Longwoods International USA Inc., a consultancy that compiles tourism industry statistics for Visit Seattle. 'There are a lot of places to visit in this world, and those destinations with a solid tourism infrastructure that is well maintained can use that as a competitive advantage.' A suspected Russian spy went undetected at the American embassy in Moscow for more than a decade, new reports have revealed. The female Russian national reportedly worked for the Secret Service for years before raising suspicion during a routine State Department security review in 2016, according to the Guardian. Two Regional Security Office investigators conducting the screening found the woman was having regular, unauthorized meetings with the Russian intelligence service, the FSB. The agent is said to have had access to highly confidential material including the schedules of the president and the vice-president through the Secret Service intranet and email systems. A suspected Russian spy went undetected at the American embassy in Moscow, pictured, for more than a decade before being fired last year, according to new reports The Guardian reports that the RSO flagged the woman in January 2017, but that the Secret Service decided not to launch a full investigation of its own. Instead the woman was fired discretely months later, but it was overshadowed by the Kremlin's expulsion of more than 750 US personnel following sanctions from Washington. 'The Secret Service is trying to hide the breach by firing [her],' an RSO source told the Guardian. 'The damage was already done but the senior management of the Secret Service did not conduct any internal investigation to assess the damage and to see if [she] recruited any other employees to provide her with more information. 'Only an intense investigation by an outside source can determine the damage she has done.' A senior administration official told CNN: We figure that all of them are talking to the [Russian intelligence agency] FSB, but she was giving them way more information than she should have.' The official said after the suspected spy was discovered, the agency fed her specific information knowing that she would turn around and hand it to the FSB. 'We knew it was happening and it was just a process of playing it out,' they said. The Secret Service asserts that the woman did not have access to national security secrets, but did not deny that she was a potential mole. In a statement, the agency said: 'The US Secret Service recognizes that all Foreign Service Nationals (FSN) who provide services in furtherance of our mission, administrative or otherwise, can be subjected to foreign intelligence influence. 'This is of particular emphasis in Russia. As such, all foreign service nationals are managed accordingly to ensure that Secret Service and United States government interests are protected at all times. As a result, the duties are limited to translation, interpretation, cultural guidance, liaison and administrative support. 'It was specifically the duties of the FSN position in Moscow to assist our attaches and agency by engaging the Russian government, including the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian Ministry of the Interior (MVD), and the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) in furtherance of Secret Service interests. 'At no time, in any US Secret Service office, have FSNs been provided or placed in a position to obtain national security information.' The state department declined to comment on allegations related to the new reports, but said it was aware that 'US government employees, by virtue of their employment with the US government, may be targeted by foreign intelligence services when we identify an employee in violation of security directives, we take appropriate action at the appropriate time'. Tim Westwood has today been accused of making 'blood money' after a picture of the ex-Radio 1 DJ standing with two murdered drill rappers emerged and he is again drawn into a deadly gang feud. The 60-year-old son of a bishop has become caught up in violent gang music, with several drill videos he promotes ending in bloodshed. The DJ was pictured with Sidique Kamara, 23, also known as Incognito, and Rhyhiem Barton, 17, when their group Moscow17 appeared on his YouTube TV channel. Mr Kamara was stabbed to death in Camberwell, south-east London, on Wednesday, just weeks after releasing a tribute song to Mr Barton, who died on the same street after a shooting in May. Jen Lock, from the Lives Not Knives Ealing group, has repeatedly complained to Westwood, who insists he is just 'supporting rap groups not gangs'. Mrs Lock said: 'He knows exactly what effect its having. Hes making blood money off the hits its generating on YouTube. He has blood on his hands'. Tim Westwood, pictured with members of the Moscow17 Drill rap group including Sidique Kamara, circled left, and Rhyhiem Barton, circled right, who have both been murdered The anti-knife crime campaigner complained to Westwood directly in April. She told The Sun: 'I asked his team how he can justify getting gangs on to promote, glorify and encourage them. 'They said its an expression of art. It makes my blood boil that he tries to play innocent'. At the time of both Camberwell murders, Mr Westwood was hundreds of miles away from the scene of the murder, in which he played no part. But the latest death of a rapper he promoted has again thrown into question his role in feting drill videos that provoke violence. Drill music a form of rap with violent lyrics is associated with gangs, and many drill videos feature masked rappers threatening violence and bragging about drugs, knives and guns. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has linked its videos to an increase in knife and gun crime. Once one of the countrys best- known DJs, Mr Westwood has been criticised for featuring rap videos inciting violence on his YouTube channel. In June, a judge at Kingston Crown Court in west London singled him out for criticism as five members of the 1011 gang were jailed for a total of more than ten years for plotting a machete attack on the rival 12 World gang. Judge Ann Mulligan, who also banned the rap group from making their music, said: The defendants made an appearance on the TimWestwoodTV channel, introduced as the 1011 gang. It is fortunate that video is no longer publicly available. These are high-profile videos taunting and ridiculing the 12 World gang and referring to actual fights. They reference murders, stabbings, drug deals, as well as appalling attitude to women. The videos incite violence. A month earlier, Mr Westwood was mentioned at the Old Bailey by Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, who said drill music was putting innocent people in harms way as two gang members were convicted of murdering an innocent music producer following a feud played out in rap videos featured by the DJ. Both men were murdered only yards from each other on Warham Street, Camberwell Dean Pascal-Modeste, 21, was stabbed 14 times by Devone Pusey, 20, and Kai Stewart, 18, as he was on his way to a recording session on February 24 last year. He was hunted down in south-east London by members of the B Side gang from Lewisham because he was friends with their rivals the Splash gang, who were locked in a poisonous YouTube rap feud, exchanging barbs in their online videos on TimWestwoodTV. A Met Police database that tracks more than 600 suspected gangsters across 1,100 YouTube clips, names 32 videos on his channel that potentially incite violence. The DJ, who hosted the BBC Radio 1 Rap Show for 20 years until 2013, earns money from advertising on the channel. It has amassed 388million views by broadcasting clips including hundreds of rap videos from mainstream stars and suspected gang members. Many that show suspected gang members in balaclavas making threats against rivals are still on YouTube. This year, the family of a murdered teenager accused Mr Westwood of glamorising knife crime after he recorded a video with a gang celebrating the killing. Abdullahi Tarabi, 19, was stabbed after being chased through a west London estate in daylight on April 11 last year. Two 17-year-olds defendants were cleared following an Old Bailey trial last October. Around the same time, Mr Westwood posted a music video he had recorded with a rap gang when they boasted that the victim got splashed and I dont feel sorry for his mum. The victims mother, Fawziya Ahmed, said: This is hurtful. I cant believe someone would say that. It is no longer on TimWestwoodTV, but the song, Pray For The Pagans, is still on YouTube. The victims sister, Muna Tarabi, added: How have these boys been allowed to go on with Tim Westwood, who is promoting them on his TV channel? Its wrong. It is glamorising knife crime. They are actively celebrating it in this video and there is nothing we can do. Mr Westwood was hurt in a shooting in 1999 after a dispute with a south London gang that was trying to extort money from him. A spokesman for the DJ, whose late father William was the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, said he was unavailable to comment. But Mr Westwoods spokesman has previously said: TimWestwoodTV gives up-and-coming artists a platform to be heard by a wider audience. The YouTube channel provides a non-profit outlet for young artists to express their talent and help provide them with an opportunity to get into the music industry. A passenger on board the Southwest Airlines flight that blew an engine and left a woman dead after she was partially sucked out of a window is now suing the airline. Zachary Coleman filed the lawsuit against Southwest Airlines in New York on Thursday, claiming that he has been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder ever since the ill-fated flight in April. Coleman was one of the 149 passengers on board Flight 1380 from New York to Dallas on April 17 when one of the aircraft's twin engines suddenly exploded at 32,000 feet. Zachary Coleman, a passenger on board the Southwest Airlines flight that blew an engine and left a woman dead after she was partially sucked out of a window, filed a lawsuit against the airline in New York on Thursday The impact showered the jet with debris and shattered the window next to New Mexico bank executive Jennifer Riordan. The mother-of-two was fatally injured when she was sucked partway through the window, sending passengers scrambling to help her. Jennifer Riordan, 43, was fatally injured when she was sucked partway through the window, sending passengers scrambling to help her Coleman was sitting eight rows behind Riordan when the window shattered, according to the lawsuit obtained by DailyMail.com. The suit claims that Coleman has suffered 'severe personal injuries' since the ordeal. His injuries include, according to the suit: 'Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, emotional distress, depression, personal injuries to his body including the physical manifestations of the emotional and mental trauma he experienced and continues to suffer'. The court documents state that Coleman 'witnessed the horror' as Riordan was pulled through the shattered window and he also watched as passengers 'risked their lives' to pull her back in. 'The engine failure and breach of the window caused severe vibrations and the cabin environment to become a whirlwind of airflow and airborne debris which struck Mr Coleman and obstructed his breathing,' the lawsuit states. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia about 20 minutes into the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board believes one of the engine fan blades snapped 'The environment exacerbated Mr Coleman's panic and horror in the midst of the violent conditions within the cabin. 'He prayed and feared for his life, he heard other passengers using their cell phones to reach out to loved one to say their final goodbyes, and he thought he was going to die.' Coleman is seeking compensation for damages including loss of earnings, as well as the mental, emotional and physical pain and suffering he has endured. The lawsuit claims Southwest Airlines breached its duty of care by failing to inspect the plane's engines for 'signs of impending catastrophic failure'. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia about 20 minutes into the flight. Riordan was the only one of the 149 people on board who suffered fatal injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board believes one of the engine fan blades snapped. All passengers on the flight each received a $5,000 check from Southwest Airlines and a $1,000 gift voucher. The new head of the Armed Forces has vowed to 'stamp on' bogus allegations of murder made against Northern Ireland veterans. General Sir Nick Carter said 'vexatious claims' over decades-old deaths of IRA suspects at the hands of soldiers during the Troubles risks undermining Britain's fighting spirit now, adding: 'That will not happen on my watch.' The Police Service of Northern Ireland has sparked anger by re-examining every British Army killing during the conflict. General Sir Nick Carter, pictured, has vowed to 'stamp on' bogus claims against British soldiers accused of murder and manslaughter during the Northern Ireland troubles Hundreds of former soldiers, many now in their 60s and 70s, are potential murder or manslaughter suspects. The Daily Mail has led the call to end the witch-hunt against veterans who did their duty during the IRA's 30-year terrorism campaign. The Chief of the Defence Staff, who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, said he was personally committed to making sure veterans were treated as fairly as possible as the pursuit over historic allegations also risks harming moral among current troops. There was outrage when it was revealed in 2016 that hundreds of veterans some now suffering serious illnesses will be put through the ordeal. Speaking at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire yesterday, Sir Nick said: 'It is right and proper that if our soldiers have done something wrong then they should clearly be investigated. 'But only if they have done something wrong. We need to have standards, we need to have values that people are held against, otherwise we will lose the moral high-ground. 'What is fundamentally wrong, though, is if they're chased by people making vexatious claims and that will not happen on my watch. Absolutely not.' He added: 'If you end up with a clutch of vexatious claims then that undermines morale and has the risk of undermining our combat force and our fighting spirit. I would absolutely stamp on any of that sort of activity.' He said it was 'sad' that veterans were being subject to police investigations and that they would receive the full support of the military, including financing legal aid. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, pictured yesterday in Romania, has opened a unit in the Ministry of Defence to determine what legal protection can be given to the service personnel He added: 'That apart, I can do no more than give my personal commitment to them being as fairly treated and as properly looked after as they can be.' Before taking on his current job, Sir Nick served as the head of the army from 2014, during which time soldiers who had served in Iraq faced investigation by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team. The unit was handed 3,668 allegations of murder, torture and wrongdoing by British troops since 2010, when it was set up. It was forced to shut down last year after 'tank-chasing' lawyers deluged it with vexatious claims. Now Northern Ireland deaths are under the spotlight, with all 302 killings by troops in the Troubles being reviewed. Last month MPs attacked the Northern Ireland Secretary as 'close-minded' after she issued a 'blanket rejection' of their call for a statute of limitations or time limit which would have ensured veterans were protected legally from new investigations dating back to events decades ago. Karen Bradley had raised concerns that any protections given to soldiers would 'inevitably be extended to terrorists'. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson came under fire last month for backing pardons for IRA terrorists as a price to end the witch-hunt of British troops. He has since opened a unit within the Ministry of Defence to examine what legal protections soldiers can be given. Yesterday, Sir Nick said he hoped people would not forget the important role that the British Army has played in Northern Ireland's history. He said: 'What we must try to remind ourselves about this whole issue is actually what an extraordinarily amazing task the British Army did through 30 years in Northern Ireland.' Australians are flocking overseas for illegal transplants in record numbers. Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) president Toby Coats said about 11 people were on record having kidney transplants overseas each year. But he said the real numbers were likely much higher. Australians are flocking overseas for illegal transplants in record numbers (stock) Professor Coats his research suggested people were going overseas to have transplants done but were not recording it because the operations were illegal. He said the top three destinations for transplants were China, the Philippines and India. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade said organ trading generated more than $1 billion in profits each year. 'They are taking organs from very poor people, it's akin to a modern day form of slavery,' Prof Coates said. 'I don't think people understand the consequences to their health, they think it's going to be a quick fix.' Compared with so many of todays generation of political pygmies who idly plonk their posteriors on the leather benches of Parliament, Frank Field is a colossus. Greatly respected on both sides of the House of Commons, he is renowned as one of Westminsters most independent and fairest-minded MPs. Indeed, his colleagues are ready to applaud Field in the coming days when he is expected to be vindicated by a report which results from his heroic work as chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, which investigated the avaricious and shameful behaviour of retail tycoon Sir Philip Green. Compared with so many of todays generation of political pygmies who idly plonk their posteriors on the leather benches of Parliament, Frank Field is a colossus Dispute The businessman extracted vast sums from his High Street chain BHS before selling it for 1 to a serial bankrupt who drove the company into the ground with the loss of 11,000 jobs and leaving a huge black hole in the pension fund. Relations between Green and Field reached rock bottom with the businessman threatening the Labour MP with legal action. For his part, Field suggested Green should have his knighthood removed. In recent days, Field, 76, has been told that the Financial Reporting Council's report on the auditing of BHS which took place in 2014 will finally be published. Its an important victory for openness, he says. Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green threatened Field with legal action However, he will not be able to savour this triumph properly, as he is embroiled in a deeply unpleasant dispute with his own Birkenhead constituency Labour Party. Despite having served as an MP with distinction for nearly 40 years, a tiny minority of Left-wing agitators (less than 10 per cent of constituency party members) passed a vote of no confidence in him for siding with the Government over Brexit. Fields decision to join three other Labour MP rebels was based on his own long-standing Euroscepticism and the fact that his constituency on the Wirral voted in favour of Leave. The tragedy is that hard-Left Momentum activists have targeted a man who has campaigned on behalf of the poor for decades and whose moderate, Christian-based values are respected by the partys traditional voters. Of course, this is the same hate mob that is trying to deselect other moderate MPs, taking over Labour councils across the country, and which is riddled with bullies and anti-Semites whose behaviour is currently convulsing the party. If a man of Frank Fields principles is under threat of being deselected, then the kind of democracy that Britain has enjoyed since the last century is under threat, too. It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Frank Field affects us all. Field is a deep thinker, a man who is not cowed by the absurd conventions that govern todays tribal politics. How typical that two of his heroes are Labours Clement Attlee, whom he says showed extraordinary personal radicalism, and Tory war minister John Profumo who, Field says, demonstrated huge dignity and courage for the rest of his life after resigning for lying about his relationship with a call girl. Fields own bravery goes back to the Eighties when, just like now, he was challenged by the hard-Left in his constituency. Back then, just like Momentum, its modern-day equivalent, Trotskyite infiltrators under the banner of Militant tendency tried to remove Field as an MP. Over the years, he has survived three deselection attempts by militants and has vowed that Labours moderates will never give up without a fight, saying: They cant get all of us. We are not going away. It certainly goaded his enemies that he was happy for it to be known he was on good terms with Margaret Thatcher. Saying that she was certainly a hero, he once revealed: I still see Mrs T from time to time I always call her Mrs T, when I talk to her. Field is a deep thinker, a man who is not cowed by the absurd conventions that govern todays tribal politics The truth is that Frank Field is always honest. In every Commons vote on Brexit, he says he has sought to represent millions of Labour voters who voted to leave the EU, adding: Why should their voices be ignored in Westminster? Speaking up for the ignored has always been Fields mission. He became a councillor at the age of 24 before being made director of the Child Poverty Action Group, where his fervour and economic expertise coalesced into a lifelong crusade to help the poor and introduce welfare reforms. Elected MP for Birkenhead in 1979, he represented an area once dominated by the Cammell-Laird shipyard but which, since closures, has suffered terrible levels of unemployment and social deprivation. On countless issues he has spoken up for views in which many working-class Labour supporters believe. Hes called for balanced migration with a cap on the number of migrants from outside Europe entering Britain. He has been profoundly concerned that this country has seen an influx of immigrants that has been simply not sustainable. Hes tried to get a new law passed to tighten the rules on abortions and has urged that women contemplating abortion should be offered advice independent from the clinics that carry out terminations. Predictably, he was accused by Labour feminists of not being motivated by compassion, but by religious fervour. Influence He also opposed the Labour governments decision to allow 24-hour drinking, which has turned many town centres into alcohol-fuelled battlefields at weekends. When Tony Blair became PM in 1997, he appointed Field as social security minister to think the unthinkable on welfare reform. But he was blocked at every turn by the Treasury and a deeply frustrated Field quit after 18 months to return to the backbenches, where hes been ever since. Ironically, he has had more influence on government policy since the Tories took power in 2010. Labours Lord Adonis said this week: Frank Field is fearless in standing up in Parliament for what he believes is right, particularly the disadvantaged. Hes a brilliant MP. I disagree with him on Brexit. Utterly wrong to deselect him' Fields belief that good parenting is more important than income or schooling to a childs life chances chimed with the philosophy of Iain Duncan Smith, who achieved great results as work and pensions secretary. Fields thinking about the best ways to pull people out of a life of welfare dependency derived from the greatest influence during his early years his deeply religious mother, a classroom assistant, who instilled in him the High Church Anglicanism that has governed his whole life. From this faith comes his vision of moral and social duty. For years, a text hung on the wall of his office which read: Thou, God, seest me. Having served as a senior lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England, he brings a quiet dignity to Westminster. Perhaps that quiet dignity is the reason he realised he would never achieve an ambition of becoming Commons Speaker. When the post was last vacant, Field considered putting himself forward. But the job went to John Bercow whose belligerent and arrogant tenure of the seat is another reminder of how coarse modern politics has become. Warmth Such is the warmth with which Field is held by colleagues, that even those who vehemently oppose his Brexiteer stance have spoken up for him in his current predicament. Labours Lord Adonis said this week: Frank Field is fearless in standing up in Parliament for what he believes is right, particularly the disadvantaged. Hes a brilliant MP. I disagree with him on Brexit. Utterly wrong to deselect him. Messages of support have flooded in from the public in recent days but, significantly, there has been silence from Jeremy Corbyns office. For his part, Field has told friends that he will not change his ways. Refreshingly, he takes the view that MPs should not meekly obey their party machine or be intimidated by aggressive activists. A disciple of the old school, he believes a good MP exercises judgment and discretion on their constituents behalf. And, judging by his results, voters agree. Fields majority in last years general election was 25,500, up 9 per cent on the previous election and the highest since he was first elected to Parliament. It would be a terrible day for Parliament and democracy if Frank Field, one of the most morally impressive MPs of modern times, was forced out by a gang of unelected thugs. Theresa May will today warn Emmanuel Macron that the EU faces a choice of 'Chequers deal or no deal' in autumn Brexit talks. The Prime Minister cut short her holiday in Italy to travel to the French president's summer retreat Fort Bregancon in a bid to sell her controversial Chequers proposals to him. France's hard line on Brexit is seen in London as a major stumbling block to a successful negotiation this autumn. Theresa May cut short her holiday in Italy to travel to the French President Emmanuel Macron's summer retreat Fort Bregancon In a major diplomatic push this week, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Mrs May have all travelled to France to make the case for a softening of attitude. A government source last night said Mrs May's message to Mr Macron would be: 'It's the Chequers deal or no deal.' Tory sources said Mrs May would also point to the furious reaction the deal has caused in her own party, including the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis and warnings of a grassroots revolt. 'Anyone who looks at British politics now can see that she doesn't have any more room for manoeuvre on this,' a source said. Tory sources said Theresa May (pictured with her husband Philip while on holiday in Italy last Sunday) would point to the furious reaction the deal has caused in her own part Today's informal summit is the first opportunity Mrs May has had to brief Mr Macron in person on the Chequers proposal. Does Gove want a Norway deal? Michael Gove has discussed 'parking' Britain in the European Economic Area if Brexit talks fail this autumn, it has emerged. The former Vote Leave leader discussed the idea which would involve the UK, like Norway, staying in the single market but remaining outside the EU at a private dinner with moderate Tories. An account was leaked to the Financial Times. One MP present said: 'He was steering the conversation towards the EEA idea.' Allies of Mr Gove insisted he was simply running through a range of scenarios, and was committed to Theresa May's Chequers deal. Some Tory moderates advocate joining the EEA in order to prevent disruption to business. Advertisement She and her husband Philip will leave their summer holiday in the Italian lakes a day early to travel to the Mediterranean island off Toulon, which has served as the summer retreat for French presidents since 1968. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned last week that Brussels 'cannot and will not' accept the customs arrangements that lie at the heart of the Chequers plan. But ministers are now trying to appeal directly to EU member states to keep the deal alive warning that there is no viable alternative on the table. Mr Hunt prepared the ground for Mrs May's trip with a visit to Paris in which he warned it was a 'profound misunderstanding of us as a nation' to expect Britain to capitulate to the EU's demands. In an article yesterday Mr Barnier gave the first hint he is softening his position on the vexed question of how to guarantee there is no 'hard border' on the island of Ireland, even if trade talks fail. The EU's existing 'backstop' proposals would place a customs border down the Irish Sea, leading to claims that Northern Ireland would be 'annexed' by Brussels. Michel Barnier (pictured with Damian Hind) warned last week that Brussels 'cannot and will not' accept the customs arrangements that lie at the heart of the Chequers plan Mrs May has warned the plans would never be acceptable to any British government. WTO trade grows faster British exports to countries with no trade deal have risen three times faster than those to the EU, according to a report. The study by the Economists for Free Trade Group says trading on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms a so-called 'no deal Brexit' need not hold the economy back and could even be a boon. Controversial Treasury forecasts during the referendum campaign claimed GDP per household would be an average 5,200 lower than it would have been if the UK left on WTO terms. But today's report accuses the Treasury, then run by George Osborne, of making 'dishonest, incompetent and shamelessly partisan predictions.' Instead, the study said British exports to 111 countries with which we trade on WTO terms, have risen by 2.9 per cent a year over the last 23 years more than three times the average 0.9 per cent growth in exports to EU countries over the same period. Report author Michael Burrage said adopting WTO rules could be the 'very best' option for the UK, adding there was 'no evidence that EU membership has boosted economic growth.' He said the evidence suggested Britain would do better to make a clean break with the EU. Then the Government could concentrate on setting up free trade deals. Advertisement In a rare climbdown, Mr Barnier said Brussels was 'ready to improve the text of our proposal with the UK'. He added he remained 'confident' negotiations can 'reach a good outcome'. But Mr Barnier also repeated his opposition to Mrs May's customs plan, saying: 'Some UK proposals would undermine our single market which is one of the EU's biggest achievements.' Ahead of today's meeting, Lord Ricketts, Britain's former ambassador to France, said Mr Macron 'doesn't believe in softening' the position on Brexit as 'he is a passionate pro-European'. 'He is the last person to want to break ranks with what has been quite an impressively disciplined EU side,' he told the BBC. 'I'm all for Theresa May going and talking to Macron ... but I think we have got to accept we have got to do the hard yards of negotiating in Brussels, we are not going to find the French or any other major country wanting to break ranks.' Last night a senior government source claimed the French president is planning on rejecting Theresa May's plans for a softened Brexit until she receives the backing of MPs. They claimed Emmanuel Macron was reluctant to endorse any plan which could be defeated in the House of Commons. The source told the Sun: 'The French are watching what's going on in Westminster very closely. 'They don't think there is any reason to give any ground when hardcore Brexiteers or extreme Remainers could rip it all up in the Commons in the autumn.' Advertisement President Donald Trump lashed out at the 'fake, fake, disgusting news media' and 'low-IQ' Maxine Waters during a typically barnstorming speech at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday night. Trump asked rowdy supporters in the crowd to 'remember that incredible night' when he won the 2016 election. Then he re-hashed favorite topics including his summits with Kim Jong-un and President Putin; tax cuts; immigration policy; and NATO military spending. He also had a warning for Democrats, saying he was planning to shut down the government if Congress does not grant funding for his border wall, but admitted he was 'a bit torn' whether to do this before or after the midterms. During another attack on the media, Trump criticized news outlets for reporting he was 15 minutes late for a meeting for tea with the Queen during his visit to Britain. A protester was thrown out some 10 minutes into Trump's speech at the overheated arena in Wilkes-Barre as the President shouted 'get them out of here'. Images showed the woman being led away while giving the bird at angry Trump supporters. Donald Trump lashed out at the 'fake, fake, disgusting news media' and 'low-IQ' Maxine Waters during a typically passionate speech at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday night A protester was thrown out of the event after just 13 minutes as Trump shouted, 'Get them out of here'. The episode was played out numerous times during Trump rallies on the campaign trail Time and time again, Trump denounced the press for underselling his accomplishments and doubting his political rise. The President described how he told his wife Melania he had 'just stopped missiles from being launched every two seconds' or accomplished other things, and thought the media' was 'finally going to treat me so good,' but didn't. Trump continued his barrage against the press by commentators for saying he wasn't tough enough on Putin. WBRE/WYOU-TV reported Eric Deabill tweeted about the ejecting of the protester, who flipped the bird at angry Trump supporters as she was led away 'They wanted me to go up and have a boxing match,' he said. 'Whatever happened to diplomacy?' Trump described the meeting as 'great' and slammed the 'Russian hoax', claiming Russia was 'unhappy Trump won'. 'In Helsinki, I had a great meeting with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. We got along really well,' he said. 'By the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. Now, we're being hindered by the Russian hoax it's a hoax, ok?' Trump then moved on to his meeting with the Queen during his visit to Britain. He said: 'I was asked to have tea with the Queen, who is incredible by the way. Incredible. 'I landed [and] I'm on the ground and I'm waiting with the King's and the Queen's guards, wonderful people. I'm waiting. I was about 15 minutes early and I'm waiting with my wife and that's fine. Hey, it's the Queen, right? We can wait. But I'm a little early.' He added: 'So, I then go up and meet the Queen and she is fantastic. We then go up and we have tea. And I didn't know this - it was supposed to last 15 minutes but it lasted like an hour. Because we got along. And she liked our first lady and our first lady liked her. 'But we got along fantastically well. But the time went by - you know, sometimes you get along and the time goes by. 'So here was the story by the fake news: The president was 15 minutes late for the Queen. Wrong. 'And then, here's the rest of the story: The president overstayed. So I was late and I overstayed. But honestly, folks, it was such a beautiful, beautiful visit and afternoon. 'But they can make anything bad because they are the fake, fake, disgusting news.' He earlier said he has 'great respect for the UK - the United Kingdom. Great respect.' The president then discussed the country's names, explaining: 'People call it 'Britain', they call it 'Great Britain'. They used to call it 'England', different parts. But the UK - great respect.' Ratcheting up his attacks on the media, Trump then lambasted the 'fake, fake, disgusting news media' to chants of 'CNN sucks'. He also appeared to mock cancer-stricken senator John McCain over his 2017 vote against repealing Obamacare during a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday. 'I had Obamacare done except one guy at two o'clock in the morning. Went in and said. He went, thumbs down,' Trump told the crown in Wilkes-Barre while making an exaggerated thumbs-down gesture and grimacing. The President did not explicitly name McCain but the reference was clear as he was the sole GOP no vote. Trump criticized him for opposing the bill 'even though he campaigned for years' in support of repeal. 'Whatever happened to the free press? Whatever happened to honest reporting?' Trump asked, pointing to the media in the back of the hall. 'They don't report it. They only make up stories.' Trump said he had received 'good press' before becoming president, and said he 'didn't need' the job. The President was speaking in Wilkes-Barre to back Rep. Lou Barletta, who is running to unseat two-term incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey. Immigration was a key theme of the address, with the President referring to the truck attack in New York in October last year as evidence of the need for tougher entry restrictions. Trump defended ICE officers, calling them 'warriors' and slammed Democrats for what he described as they support for 'open borders and more crime'. He also referred to his recent threat to shut down the government if Congress did not grant more money for immigration projects including the border wall. The President cited Republican lawmakers who have told him that a government shutdown before the midterms is a bad idea, but followed this by saying how Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity thought it was a good one. Trump made several attacks on the Press, which at one point he branded the 'fake, fake, disgusting news media' to chants of 'CNN sucks' Trump waves to crowds as he arrives at Thursday's rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre Trump said he was 'a little bit torn' over when to shut down the government, but said he would 'personally prefer before' the midterm elections. 'Whether it's before or after, we're either getting it or we're closing down government,' he said. As an aside, he joked that he would use reverse psychology to convince Democrats to provide money for the wall. The President told the crowd he would say he did not want the wall and then, 'they'll insist on building it.' An attack on Hillary Clinton was greeted by chants of 'lock her up!' Trump preceded the rally with a tweet lauding his achievements and offering more praise for Barletta Trump responded to these by saying: 'Oh no. no. They only want to go after Republicans,' appearing to refer to the Justice Department. 'They don't want to do anything,' he said, before adding that things would be changing soon. Maxine Waters also came in for several attacks, with Trump calling the California representative 'low-IQ' following her attacks on his immigration policy. Though Barletta's bid was an undercard to the Trump's main event, savaging his opponents, the president did bless the congressman's bid, calling him a 'legend'. Trump, who has accelerated his campaign schedule in recent weeks to help the Republicans he favors both in primaries and November's midterms, was the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988. 'For years and years, they said Republicans should win the state of Pennsylvania,' Trump said. 'It always got away. But we won the state of Pennsylvania.' He and Barletta, who is trailing by double digits in the polls, share hard-line immigration views, and Trump lashed Casey with his own derogatory nickname: 'Sleeping Bob.' Trump lauded his meeting with the Queen during a recent visit to Britain, calling her a 'great woman' and criticizing media reports that he was late President Trump listens to Senate candidate Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., speak during Thursday's rally. He is known as a loyal Trump supporter But Trump's focus was defending his own accomplishments and beliefs. He pushed for tougher borders, overstating the threat posed by violent gangs like MS-13 and making the murderous group a stand-in for all immigrants in the United States illegally. He defended his approach to both Kim and Putin, saying, 'it would be a good thing, not a bad thing' to have warmer relations with the hostile powers and dismissing the talk that meeting with the autocrats elevated them on the world stage. He bashed the Democratic leadership of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and, curiously, suggested that his frequent foe Rep. Maxine Waters of California was 'a new star' of the party. He raved about the booming economy and said, without evidence, that his blue-collar supporters in states like Pennsylvania were the biggest beneficiaries. Trump hailed Republican tax cuts for boosting business and claimed they had led to US steel 'opening seven new plants. AP's fact checking service found the claim was inaccurate, as the Pittsburgh-based company has made no such announcement. US Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox declined to comment on Trump's claim but said any 'operational changes' such as the opening of new mills would be 'publicly announced' and 'made available on our website' if it occurred. Supporters cheer President Trump as he walks onto the stage at the arena in Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania The rally comes at a tumultuous time for Trump, who lashed out this week at the Russia probe that threatens his presidency Trump also looked ahead to his 2020 re-election campaign, touting his new slogan, 'Keep America Great Again' while musing whether he wanted Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he decried as 'Pocahontas,' or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom he flatly deemed 'crazy,' as his opponent. The rally came at a perilous time for the President, who the day before bluntly declared his attorney general should terminate 'right now' the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet was 'not an order' and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. 'It's the president's opinion,' she said. But Trump's tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. The rally came amid a backdrop of antagonism to journalists from the White House and hostility from the thousands packed into a loud, overheated Wilkes-Barre arena Trump waves to the fans, including one wearing a 'Board the Trump train' t-shirt, after speaking at the rally And it revived the idea that the president's tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Earlier in the day, Trump took to Twitter to explain his daughter Ivanka Trump's assertion that the media is not the 'enemy of the people,' saying that she meant the 'FAKE NEWS' is 'the enemy of the people.' 'They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!,' he wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon. Trump backs daughter Ivanka but gets in a dig at the 'fake media' Ivanka refused to join her father earlier in the day in bashing the media as the 'enemy of the people.' She disagreed with her father's characterization of the 'fake news media,' saying she doesn't see the press as her enemy. 'No, I do not,' she said Thursday, when asked if she thinks, as the president does, that the media is 'the enemy of the people.' More than 100 protesters lined up on either side of the sidewalk ahead of the rally, forcing Trump's supporters to walk a narrow gantlet on their way to the arena as protesters scream at them, 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' Thirty-six-year-old union laborer Jeff LaFrance held up one end of a giant 'Impeach Trump' sign and says he has no sympathy for the rally attendees. He said he thought 'it's shameful they could support someone the likes of Trump.' He also called Trump's supporters 'willfully ignorant' about issues like the separation of migrant children from their parents at the U.S. border. Most rallygoers ignored the taunts, but some engaged, yelling 'Trump! Trump!' or muttering epithets. One man replied cheerfully, 'I'm a proud Deplorable!' A newly renovated section of the Great Wall of China has collapsed after weeks of heavy rain in the northern region, prompting suggestions that recent repair works on the centuries-old structure are partly to blame. The damaged site is adjacent to the historically significant Yanmen Pass in Dai county, Shanxi province. The site has been closed since July 22 and local tourism authorities are now taking emergency measures to repair the section. Critics have suggested that the renovations projects at various part of the Great Wall have weakened the foundation of the structure, making it more susceptible to erosion and collapse. The damaged site (pictured) is adjacent to the historically significant Yanmen Pass in Dai county, north China's Shanxi province. The site has been closed since July 22 The Chinese government has been ramping up efforts to rebuild different sections of the wall A report by Global Times have pointed out that the 500-year-old Yanmen Pass has stood for centuries without 'help' from local officials. The mountain pass was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and sits in the Yanmen Mountains, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Dai county. Separately, a report on WeChat claimed that another construction site of the Great Wall along the Yellow River had collapsed due to heavy rainfall and construction. 'Sometimes, I would be thinking, why you [people renovating the Wall] can't take your job more seriously. Why can't you devote all your energy in repairing the wall?' read the article published by citizen journalist account Xiaozhanbianjibu. The article struck a chord with many netizens who are unsatisfied with the shoddy renovation projects along the Great Wall, which are reported to be rampant all over the country, according to Global Times. The reopening date of the collapsed section will be announced later, according to a notice released by the Yanmen Pass Scenic Area. The Yanmen Pass (pictured) is said to have stood for centuries without 'help' from officials The Yanmen Pass was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and sits in the Yanmen Mountains, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Dai county, Shanxi province 'Due to recent heavy rains, some areas of Yanmen Pass Scenic Area have collapsed. In order to maintain the safety of our tourists, the site will be closed for repairs from July 22,' the statement read. A staff worker at the tourist spot told MailOnline that restoration works are difficult to carry out as the site is located on a steep rocky slope. 'Heavy-duty vehicles won't be able to get to the site,' he said. 'Only small vehicles can get onto the slope. The bad weather is also hindering repair efforts.' The Great Wall of China, listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1987, was initially built in 7th century BC to keep invaders out of the Chinese Empire. The ancient heritage site stretches about 21,200 kilometers (13,000 miles) and spans 15 provincial areas. The Badaling Great Wall in Beijing, the most visited section, receives more than 20,000 visitors every day, according to Xinhua News. The Chinese government has been ramping up efforts to rebuild different sections of the wall to boost each region's tourism industry. However, experts have warned that inappropriate renovation could bring more damage than protection to the site. A DigitalGlobe satellite imagery of the Great Wall of China shows that the structure stretches about 21,200 kilometers (13,000 miles) and spans 15 provincial areas The Badaling Great Wall in Beijing (pictured) is the most visited section and receives more than 20,000 visitors every day, according to Xinhua News In June, online reports about a botched renovation of the Wall in Shanxi's Datong surfaced. The reports claimed that modern materials made to look like ancient brick were used in the repair work. Authorities have denied the reports and said that the materials were 'handmade bricks based on ancient methods.' In 2016, a repair team had paved a section of the wall in Liaoning province over with smooth cement, sparking outrage among the Chinese people. The local tourism administration later explained that the intention was to 'make it more suitable for tourists to walk on.' Xinhua also reported in 2004 that in the Baiyangyu section of the Great Wall at Qianan, Hebei Province, some 300 meters (984 feet) of the Wall was painted white by the construction team. Wang Guixiang, a professor of ancient architecture at Tsinghua University, told Global Times that some construction teams lack knowledge about the protection of cultural relics, adding that if damage happens during renovations, it would be 'irreversible'. A Chinese celebrity head abbot has been accused of sexually harassing nuns and coercing them into having sexual relations with him. Abbot Xuecheng, a high-ranking monk, reportedly sent illicit messages to nuns and manipulated them to have sex with him, according to a 95-page report written by two former monks at Beijing's prominent Longquan Temple, where he is based. Xuecheng is the latest prominent figure to face sexual misconduct allegations as part of a growing #MeToo movement in China. A 95-page document written by two former monks claims Abbot Xuecheng, the head of Longquan Monastery in Beijing, 'manipulated' nuns into having sex with him He is the youngest monk ever to head the Buddhist Association of China and a top government advisor. He also has more than one million followers on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. The allegations against Master Xuecheng and Longquan Temple burst into the public eye when a document written by two former monks, Xianjia and Xianqi emerged online earlier this week. They also claimed that the temple is in financial trouble. The abbot is accused of sending illicit text messages to at least six women, tempting or threatening them to have sex with him. Four gave in to Xuecheng's demands, the report said, adding that he tried to assert 'mind control' by claiming the sex was a part of their Buddhist studies. 'Xuecheng manipulated disciples to serve his "Buddhist Empire"... disciples under his control sacrificed their precious practices of Buddhist doctrines,' the document said. The temple and the abbot denounced the dossier and have denied all allegations on Wednesday in a Weibo statement. 'The falsified evidence is based on a deliberate attempt to frame Master Xuecheng, and can be considered a crime,' the monastery said in the statement. The Longquan Temple is located in the suburban area of Beijing, China 'This incident has its roots in revenge, an operation motivated by malice. Beijing Longquan Monastery calls on the government and religious affairs authorities to form an investigative team to look into the matter.' Beijing police and the religious affairs authorities could not be immediately reached for comment. The report and posts about it have been taken down or censored on social media. According to the state-run Global Times, Xuecheng had been brought in for questioning by authorities but later released. In a separate social media posting, one of the report's authors said he was forced to go public after the victims were ignored by authorities who said they could not investigate the matter. There is no legal definition of sexual harassment in China and no national regulations on how to handle sexual assault cases in schools and workplaces. Starbucks fanatics in China can soon get their coffees delivered straight to their doors. The US coffeehouse chain on Thursday announced a delivery venture with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, as two of the world's biggest names in retail join the growing competition in China's booming delivery industry. Deliveries will begin next month from 150 Starbucks in major cities Beijing and Shanghai, expanding to more than 2,000 outlets across 30 cities by year-end, the companies said. The US coffeehouse chain announced a delivery venture with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Starbucks products will be delivered by Ele.me, Alibaba's food-delivery unit Starbucks products ordered by mobile apps will be brought to customers by Ele.me, Alibaba's food-delivery unit with three million registered delivery riders. 'We truly believe that this enduring partnership will elevate the coffee culture in China,' Starbucks president and CEO Kevin Johnson said at a Shanghai news conference. Starbucks' tie-up with Alibaba comes as it faces an aggressive challenge from local upstart Luckin Coffee, which has grown rapidly on a business model of delivering beverages ordered via mobile apps. Launching about a year ago, Beijing-based Luckin has grown rapidly by offering cheap delivery and steep drink discounts. It has hundreds of outlets now and plans to grow to more than 2,000 by the end of this year. Traditionally tea-drinking China is seeing an explosion in coffee consumption, becoming Starbucks' key market after the US and its main source of new growth. Deliveries will begin next month from 150 Starbucks in major cities Beijing and Shanghai, expanding to more than 2,000 outlets across 30 cities by year-end, the companies said Starbucks has previously said that a new branch opens every 15 hours in China The coffee giant opened its first mainland China location in 1999 and currently has 3,400 outlets in 140 Chinese cities. It has previously said that a new Starbucks opens every 15 hours in China. However, the company has been facing intense competition. Its latest quarterly results indicated that Chinese sales declined 2 per cent, raising questions about its Chinese strategy. The companies said the new venture will give Starbucks access to Alibaba's consumer platforms including food delivery service Ele.me and online supermarket Hema. Hangzhou-based Alibaba, founded by entrepreneur Jack Ma, is the world's biggest e-commerce company by total value of the merchandise sold across its platforms. The bulk of those sales are business-to-business, but the company is increasingly expanding into consumer-oriented services. Hangzhou-based Alibaba, founded by entrepreneur Jack Ma, is the world's biggest e-commerce company by total value of the merchandise sold across its platforms Traditionally tea-drinking China is seeing an explosion in coffee consumption, becoming Starbucks' key market after the US and its main source of new growth 'Alibaba is thrilled to expand our existing partnership with Starbucks by leveraging our cutting-edge new retail infrastructure and digital power to enable an unprecedented experience for consumers,' Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of the Alibaba Group, said in a statement. 'We are breaking the physical and virtual barriers between the home, office, in-store and digital space,' said Belinda Wong, CEO of Starbucks China. China's meal-delivery sector has skyrocketed, fuelled by eager adoption of digital commerce and the rise of start-ups that employ millions of low-wage, scooter-mounted couriers and promise to whisk edibles to their buyers in under 30 minutes. Analysts, however, have warned to be careful betting on unproven Luckin and against Starbucks, which has brand recognition and decades of success in a range of markets worldwide. The last of the 30-ton main supports for Seattle's unique, revolving Space Needle restaurant is moved into place for final assembly on November 8, 1961 Before the Space Needle was ever built, it was a figment of the imagination of Edward Carlson. Carlson, a Seattle hotel executive who was in charge of planning for the 1962 Worlds Fair, visited Stuttgart, Germany in 1959. It was there that he took a glimpse at a broadcast tower that included a restaurant. With the Worlds Fair scheduled to take place in Seattle just three years later, Carlson wanted to come up with an innovation that would amaze visitors. The tower in Stuttgart inspired Carlson to take a napkin and begin sketching a tower with an observation floor near its summit. Carlson called it a Space Needle. There were many twists and turns needed to be taken for Carlsons vision to become a reality. Planners needed to first acquire a plot of land on the fairgrounds. They then needed to secure private financing. When a suitable plot of land was found and bought by investors for $75,000 in 1961, builders could get to work on the tower itself. The Howard S. Wright Construction Company blasted a hole 30feet deep and 120feet across. It was there that the towers foundation would be placed. Eight months later, the basic Space Needle tower was finished. It officially opened its doors on April 21, 1962 - which was also the first day of the Worlds Fair. The tower, which became a symbol of Seattle, was visited by celebrities including Elvis Presley, the Shah and Empress of Iran, Prince Philip of Great Britain, Bobby Kennedy, John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Walter Cronkite. Source: The Space Needle Marie van der Zyl (file), president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of 'hiding behind a half-hearted 'apology' Jewish leaders today demanded Jeremy Corbyn 'stop hiding' and end his silence on anti-Semitism with an 'abject apology in his own voice'. The Board of Deputies of UK Jews piled pressure on the Labour leader as even his own left-wing Momentum support group abandoned backing for Peter Willsman, the Labour official and ally of Mr Corbyn taped ranting about 'Jewish Trump fanatics'. It is now three days since the latest explosion in anti-Semitism allegations against Labour and a raft of new questions have been raised of Mr Corbyn's own attendance at events comparing the actions of Israel to the Nazis. Mr Corbyn is yet to make any comment on Mr Willsman and Labour HQ insists it does not comment on individual cases. The Labour leader has issued a specific apology for taking part in an event in 2010 yesterday. The party today denied a speech by Mr Corbyn in 2010 comparing the Israeli blockage of Gaza to Stalingrad was itself a comparison to the Nazis. But Mr Corbyn has not faced the cameras or made any general statement about anti-Semitism. He refused to answer questions when confront at his home yesterday. As the row continued today, Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, accused Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of 'hiding behind a half-hearted 'apology' no doubt crafted by his spin-doctors', and asked: 'Why are we not hearing from the man who's supposed to be the leader himself?' She added in a series of tweets: 'Jeremy Corbyn needs to stop hiding and make an abject apology to UK Jews in his own voice. 'He must adopt @TheIHRA anti-Semitism definition and all examples. He should expel Peter Willsman. He should stop ridiculous show trials of Hodge/Austin & refer himself to equalities training.' Jeremy Corbyn (file left) is under growing pressure after his ally Peter Willsman (file right) was taped ranting about 'Jewish Trump fanatics' inventing the anti-Semitism scandal Last night the Momentum campaign group run by Jon Lansmann (file) withdrew its support for Mr Willsman's re-election to Labour's National Executive Committee following his 'deeply insensitive' comments about Jews Ms van der Zyl added in a series of tweets: 'Jeremy Corbyn needs to stop hiding and make an abject apology to UK Jews in his own voice. Last night the Momentum campaign group withdrew its support for Mr Willsman's re-election to Labour's National Executive Committee following his 'deeply insensitive' comments about Jews. Momentum added it was 'inappropriate' to call some members of the Jewish community 'Trump fanatics' and also suggest they were 'making up' problems about anti-Semitism in the party. The grassroots campaign group also stressed the need to acknowledge the 'anger and upset' felt within the British Jewish community as it reaffirmed its commitment to 'rooting out' anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and across society. Momentum faced an angry backlash on social media for its stance as hard left activists insisted Mr Willsman should be protected. Derby North MP Chris Williamson led the backlash against Momentum, retweeting a raft of criticism of Momentum - which was born out of Mr Corbyn's own leadership campaign Hard-left activists lashed Momentum for a 'cowardly, undemocratic and politically inept decision' after the group pulled support for Mr Willsman's relection to Labour's ruling committee over the row Derby North MP Chris Williamson led the backlash, retweeting a raft of criticism of Momentum - which was born out of Mr Corbyn's own leadership campaign. Mr Williamson - who is opposed by many Labour MP colleagues as too extreme - claimed the decision 'forgot the basic Labour movement maxim that unity is strength'. Putting Mr Willsman at the top of his voting recommendations in the NEC election, Mr Williamson said he offered 'common sense socialism'. The latest blows to Mr Corbyn come a day after shadow chancellor John McDonnell tried unsuccessfully to draw a line by admitting the problems must be 'sorted out' by September. The latest blows to Mr Corbyn (pictured yesterday in Islington) come a day after shadow chancellor John McDonell tried unsuccessfully to draw a line by admitting the problems must be 'sorted out' by September John McDonnell (pictured yesterday on Sky News) warned Labour must 'sort out' its anti-Semitism problem In a second tape that emerged yesterday Mr Willsman also claimed in 2016 to have been a 'mate' of Mr Corbyn for 40 years and said the Labour leader was texting him from World War 1 commemorations on the Somme for advice on Shami Chakrabarti's report into Labour anti-Semitism Baroness Chakrabarti's report, which has been widely dismissed by Jewish Labour politicians, contained a series of recommendations for how Mr Corbyn should overhaul party rules to stamp out racism. What did Willsman warn Corbyn about? The two recommendations in the Chakrabarti report which Willsman claims he told Corbyn they needed to be 'careful' about were: 6. Beliefs out-with the Labour Party's values are not to be protected when considering whether a member has acted in a way which is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party. and 10. I recommend that the power of interim suspension be vested in the NCC and give guidance as to how it might be exercised more proportionately. Advertisement Mr Corbyn is said to have asked Mr Willsman for guidance on which of the recommendations 'we need to be a bit careful about'. Mr Willsman, a veteran left-winger who has served on Labour's ruling committees since 1981, said he cautioned Mr Corbyn about two recommendations. The first said members should not be protected by Labour for views outside of party values if they are 'prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the party'. The second was about handing power to suspend members to Labour's National Constitution Committee. On the tape leaked to Sky News, Mr Willsman told the NEC: 'The phone went and it was Jeremy. 'He was texting me. He said: ''I'm sitting on the Somme waiting to make a speech, I've got a few minutes, could you please text me the recommendations in Shami's report we need to be a bit careful about?''. 'By that point I'd read it and I texted him back, recommendations 10 and six which I'll come to in a moment. 'And I thought 'this is a chap who's cracking up, he's sending me texts from the Somme about Shami's report'. 'So I had a very good laugh.' Labour's Peter Willsman called some members of the Jewish community 'Trump fanatics' In other developments yesterday, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the anti-Semitism storm was a 'low moment' for Labour. He told the Independent: 'The issue for me is that it's upsetting but partly because you think how have we got ourselves in this situation? First the outburst, then the abject 'apology' What Willsman told the Labour National Executive on July 17: 'Some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump, they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it. So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up information without any evidence at all. 'So I think we should ask the 70 rabbis, 'Where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in this party?' Extracts from 'apology' he issued yesterday: 'I am sorry for my behaviour in the last meeting of Labour's NEC... I am of course aware of appalling instances of anti- Semitism within our party, and am wholly determined to rooting it out... 'I do not believe anti- Semitism is 'widespread' in the party, and that was what my comments were trying to refer to, but we do have a problem which needs stamping out. 'In diminishing the experiences of those who face anti-Semitism, I showed a lack of sensitivity... I will be referring myself [for] equalities training so I can better understand how to approach discussions of such issues in a respectful way.' Advertisement 'We've got to get this sorted it out but also in the life experiences of members of the Jewish community, while we have these disputes going on in the media and elsewhere, there isn't sufficient campaigning on the ground to tackle those.' He added: 'I thought we had got to a position where we are able to move on we're not we've got to resolve that by September. 'The discussion is taking place I think that will enable that to happen.' Mr Willsman issued a new apology for his tirade at July's meeting of the NEC on Tuesday night and said he was referring himself for diversity training. In the extraordinary rant he claimed 'some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it' before shouting: 'So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.' During the vile tirade he also questioned whether dozens of rabbis were telling the truth when they complained about allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour. In a statement on Tuesday Willsman said he will have 'equalities training'. He added: 'Having sat on the NEC for many years, I am of course aware of appalling instances of anti-Semitism within our party, and am wholly determined to rooting it out of our movement. 'I do not believe anti-Semitism is 'widespread' in the Labour Party, and that was what my comments were trying to refer to, but we do have a problem which needs stamping out. Who is Peter Willsman? Peter Willsman, the voice behind a shocking rant about anti-Semitism leaked from Labour's ruling committee, is a veteran left wing official inside the party. He has served on Labour's national committees since 1981 - and reports today suggested his rant about 'Jewish Trump fanatics' was far from the first time he had shouted down colleagues. A member kicked off the NEC in the last round of elections told the New Statesman the silver lining of defeat was 'at least I'll never have to hear Peter Willsman go off on one again'. He has so far kept his position on the far left Momentum-backed slate for the current NEC elections because he is chairman of Campaign for Labour Party Democracy. Created by Tony Benn, the CLPD was the left-wing outpost which survived inside Labour during the Blair years. Last year he was among left-wing activists demanding all Labour candidates sign a pledge of personal loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn before being allowed to stand in the General Election. Advertisement 'One anti-Semite is one too many. 'I recognise the offensive nature of my comments and that, in diminishing the experiences of those who face anti-Semitism in our party and society, I showed a lack of the sensitivity required for discussions around racism.' Mr Corbyn was at the meeting and heard Mr Willsman first hand. The Labour leader has made no comment since the tape leaked almost 24 hours ag. Labour headquarters has repeatedly insisted it does not comment on individual cases. Despite the rant being caught on tape, Mr Willsman insisted today that not all of his remarks had been accurately reported. Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson warned Mr Willsman has 'always been a loud mouth bully' while Jewish Labour MPs demanded he be suspended. Board of Deputies Preisdent Marie van der Zyl today demanded Mr Corbyn and Labour General Secretary Jennie Formby explain what response they gave at the meeting. Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said it was 'unacceptable and terrifying' for Corbyn to remain silent over Mr Willsman. 'This tirade did not happen in some stuffy room of a fringe gathering in the back of beyond,' she said. 'This happened at a meeting of the ruling body of a mainstream political party with its leader present. 'It is horrifying not only for its content but by the fact that the Labour leader and general secretary sat by, witnessed these disgusting, indefensible comments and said nothing.' Ms Formby wrote to Mr Willsman after a complaint was made to remind him of Labour rules but his apology meant no other action was taken. The comments were recorded at a meeting of the National Executive Committee and leaked to the Jewish Chronicle. He is secretary of the Campaign For Labour Democracy group, which supported Ken Livingstone over his controversial remarks about Hitler and Zionism. Tesla burnt through $739.5 million (565 million) in the last three months. As a result, the electric car company reported a net loss of $717.5 million (548 million) for its latest financial quarter, despite cranking out more vehicles than ever before. However, investors were buoyed by the news that Tesla still holds $2.2 billion (1.6 billion) in cash reserves enough to keep building cars without borrowing more. CEO Elon Musk also pledged to post a profit later this year, as he set the firm the ambitious new goal of producing 10,000 Model 3s each week by next year. Tesla has cut back on capital spending by changing its strategy to produce the sedan on existing assembly lines one of which is protected from the elements using a giant tent outside the factory rather than adding all-new lines. Despite the loss, shares jumped 10 percent to $331 (253.84) in pre-market trade on Thursday. The increase comes after Musk was able to convince investors Tesla could turn a profit, and after he apologized for his past incendiary remarks. In the previous quarter, Musk called questions posed by two analysts 'boring' and 'boneheaded', and refused to answer them - in a move that turned off investors and shareholders, and knocking $2 billion off the company's market cap. Scroll down for video Electric car maker Tesla churned through $739.5 million (565 million) in cash in the last quarter. The firm also reported a $717.5 million (548 million) net loss as it cranked out more electric cars The latest net loss posted by Tesla is more than double that of the same financial quarter one year ago, and slightly larger than the first quarter of this year. Even though the total net loss was less, Tesla did burn through more of its cash reserves in the previous quarter some $1.1 billion (841 million) for the three month period. On the latest earnings call, billionaire entrepreneur Musk said he expects the company to be 'essentially self-funding on a go-forward basis.' Tesla hopes to use money generated from sales to fund future large-scale projects, including an estimated $2 billion (1.5 billion) new factory in China and another production plant in Europe, Musk said. The company also said Model 3 gross profit margins turned slightly positive during the quarter as it worked out expensive kinks in its manufacturing system. Last quarter, Musk mistreated two analysts by calling their queries about the company's cash needs and Model 3 orders 'so dry' and 'not cool.' The call triggered a stock sell-off and raised questions about Musk's behaviour. CEO Elon Musk pledged to post net profits in future quarters, and on a conference call, he apologised to two analysts he cut off on the company's first-quarter call. Telsa's shares jumped 9.3 per cent to $328.85 (252.03) in after-hours trading Tesla hopes to use money generated from sales to fund big projects such as an estimated $2 billion (1.5 billion) new factory in China and another plant in Europe But during the latest earnings call on Wednesday, a contrite Musk apologised to both and said he was tired from working more than 110 hours per week last quarter. 'It's not right,' he told an analyst from RBC Capital Markets. 'Hope you accept my apologies.' In a statement released after the markets closed Wednesday, Tesla said it expects to produce 50,000 to 55,000 Model 3s in the third quarter, an increase of at least 75 per cent from the first quarter of the year. Tesla spent millions to reach its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week by the end of June. It now says production is steadily rising, with the goal of 6,000 per week by the end of August. The company expects to reach 10,000 Model 3s per week 'sometime next year.' Cash from selling the Model 3, which starts at $35,000 (27,000) but runs far higher with options, is key to holding off more borrowing and turning a profit. Tesla said it expects to produce 50,000 to 55,000 Model 3s (pictured) in the third quarter, an increase of at least 75 per cent from the first quarter. The company said it expects to reach 10,000 Model 3s per week 'sometime next year' WHAT DID ELON MUSK SAY TO STAFF AFTER TESLA REACHED LANDMARK 5,000 MODEL 3S PRODUCTION A WEEK? From: Elon Musk To: Everybody Subj. 7000 Jul. 1, 12:37 PM We did it!! What an incredible job by an amazing team. Couldnt be more proud to work with you. It is an honour. The level of dedication and creativity was mind-blowing. We either found a way or, by will and inventiveness, created entirely new solutions that were thought impossible. Intense in tents. Transporting entire production lines across the world in massive cargo planes. Whatever. It worked. Not only did we factory gate over 5000 Model 3s, but we also achieved the S & X production target for a combined 7000 vehicle week! Whats more, with the widespread productivity gains throughout Tesla and the new production lines spooling up, we are on track to reach 6k/week for Model 3 next month. I think we just became a real car company Thank you for your hard work and dedication, Elon Advertisement Tesla's cash balance fell to $2.2 billion (1.7 billion) in June, from 2 billion ($2.7 billion) in the first quarter. Musk said he expects the company to achieve sustained quarterly net profits from now on, barring an unforeseen event, supplier problems or economic downturn. He also said that he expects to make 750,000 vehicles in calendar year 2020. The company said it has cut back on capital spending by changing its strategy to produce the Model 3 on existing assembly lines, one in a giant tent, rather than adding all-new lines. Tesla projected total 2018 capital spending at just below $2.5 billion (1.9 billion) substantially less than the 2017 levels of $3.4 billion (2.6 billion). During the earnings call, Tesla also revealed that it is working on a new version of its Autopilot semi-autonomous software that will include better safety features. It revealed the update to its Autopilot system, which it claims will be the 'world's most advanced computer for autonomous driving', is scheduled to launch as an upgrade to current Tesla vehicle owners sometime next year. Despite the loss, shares jumped 10 percent to $331 (253.84) in pre-market trade on Thursday The upgrade uses a new chipset built in-house by the Tesla team and specifically designed for autonomous driving tasks. Previous efforts by the company, known as Autopilot 2.0, were powered by Nvidia-branded GPUs, which Musk said can process up to 200 frames per second to scout the road ahead and look for obstructions. According to Tesla, it's own hardware solution will be able to handle 2,000 frames per second with redundancy. Tesla has previously stated this upgrade will be offered for free since the company originally advertised its Autopilot 2.0 vehicles as being fully autonomous ready. Car owners will need to visit a dealership to swap out the current computer for the upgrade to Autopilot 3.0 During the second quarter, Tesla laid off 9 per cent of its workforce as it worked toward Musk's promise of making money. The company has never turned an annual profit and has had only two profitable quarters since becoming public in 2010. Tesla has also asked parts suppliers for refunds. Lemurs could soon be wiped from the face of the Earth, experts have warned. The animals, which are only found in the wild on the island of Madagascar, are now the most at-risk primates on Earth. According to new statistics from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 95 per cent of the animals are now 'on the brink of extinction.' Lemur populations have been decimated by rainforest destruction, unregulated agriculture and logging and mining, say experts. Scroll down for video Out of a total of 111 lemur species and subspecies, 105 are under threat, IUCN said in its first update on the animals since 2012. The unique animals are only found on the African island of Madagascar and are now the most endangered primates on Earth (stock) Out of a total of 111 lemur species and subspecies, 105 are under threat, the IUCN revealed in its first update on lemur populations since 2012. 'This is, without a doubt, the highest percentage of threat for any large group of mammals and for any large group of vertebrates,' Russ Mittermeier of IUCN's species survival commission said in a statement. The IUCN creates the 'red list' of endangered animals and categorises animals based on their stability. Among the most concerning trends is an 'increase in the level of hunting of lemurs taking place, including larger-scale commercial hunting,' Christoph Schwitzer, director of conservation at the Bristol Zoological Society, said in the statement. He described the hunting as 'unlike anything we have seen before in Madagascar.' Ninety-five percent of the world's lemur population is 'on the brink of extinction,' a leading conservation group has revealed. IUCN has said it is launching 'a major action plan for lemur conservation,' to help preserve the endangered primates (stock) One of the species identified as 'critically endangered' is the northern sportive lemur, of which there are thought to be only 50 individuals left. 'Lemurs are to Madagascar what giant pandas are to China - they are the goose that laid the golden egg, attracting tourists and nature lovers,' said Jonah Ratsimbazafy of the domestic primate research group known as GERP. Madagascar is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world. IUCN said it was launching 'a major action plan for lemur conservation,' to help preserve the endangered primates. Popular lip-syncing app Musical.ly is merging with homegrown competitor TikTok. The move was announced by Chinese internet giant Bytedance, which acquired Musical.ly for almost $1 billion in December. Musical.ly was no longer available as of Thursday, as Bytedance will instead move users to a revamped version of short-form video platform TikTok. Scroll down for video Musical.ly was no longer available as of Thursday, as Bytedance will instead move users to a revamped version of short-form video platform TikTok. Pictured is their combined logos Like Musical.ly, TikTok also enables users to create and share short singing and dancing videos that are set to well-known songs. Although both apps were developed in China, Musical.ly became a sensation among teenagers in the Americas and Europe, while TikTok took off among youth in Asia. Before being acquired by Bytedance, Musical.ly had tried to broaden its reach by introducing more social media features and announcing content partnerships with NBCUniversal, Hearst and Viacom, among others. Musical.ly recently reached 100 million monthly active users, according to a press release seen by Reuters on Wednesday. TikTok touted 500 million monthly active users in June. 'Combining musical.ly and TikTok is a natural fit given the shared mission of both experiences - to create a community where everyone can be a creator,' Alex Zhu, co-founder of musical.ly and senior vice president of TikTok, said in a press release. Like Musical.ly, TikTok also enables users to create and share short singing and dancing videos that are set to well-known songs. TikTok touted 500 million monthly active users in June Bytedance has ridden the success of Toutiao, a news aggregation app, to become one of the most highly valued startups in China's red-hot tech sector. But the company has faced mounting scrutiny from Chinas internet censors, with Toutiao temporarily taken off app stores for a cleanup in April while a separate joke app was permanently shut. Tik Tok had also been temporarily banned in Indonesia for inappropriate content. It maintains a separate app for China, known as Douyin. The new app will let users access content from new countries and viewing options that were only available on one of the apps, the company said in the release. Among new features is an alert for when users have spent more than two hours on the app, which is similar to an option social media giant Facebook introduced on Wednesday. The new app will let users access content from new countries and viewing options that were only available on one of the apps. It will also notify users how often they're using the app The press release said existing users' accounts and content would be moved 'to the new TikTok app,' which was expected to be available on app stores late Wednesday. Bytedance said in November that acquiring Musical.ly would help its users and advertisers tap into new markets. Last month, Musical.ly shut down Live.ly, a live streaming app it had developed prior to acquisition. The company told users to try out LiveMe, a rival app in which Bytedance is an investor. An amateur treasure hunter used a metal detector to unearth a 1,800-year-old gold Roman signet ring in Somerset. Pest control officer Jason Massey, 45, discovered the rare piece of jewellery, which features an engraving of the Roman goddess of Victory, in a field near Crewkerne. It is believed to have belonged to a 'high status' figure, potentially making it one of the most significant archaeological finds in Somerset's history. The current value of the ancient piece of jewellery is still being determined. Scroll down for video An amateur metal detectorist has unearthed a 1,800-year-old gold Roman signet ring in Somerset (pictured) The ring is now in the hands of experts at the British Museum in London. It is believed to date from 200 to 300 AD. Mr Massey, who served in the British armed forces from 1989 to 1992, made the find at a site believed to have once been a high-status Roman villa as part of a charitable dig with the 'Detecting for Veterans' group. 'The Somerset Archaeological team think we have found a very high status villa complex, but more investigative work is needed,' he told MailOnline. Mr Massey and the landowner will share 50 per cent of any profits made from the ring once British Museum researchers had determined its value. 'We have no idea how much [the ring] is worth there is nothing like it in the UK,' he said. Pest control officer Jason Massey (left), 45, discovered the rare piece of jewellery, which features an engraving of the Roman god Victory Detecting for Veterans unearthed 60 other Roman coins on Sunday as part of ongoing excavations at the Crewkerne site, which is south west of Yeovil. Bronze and silver coins are more common than their gold counterparts, which were typically owned by Romans of rich and powerful stature. Ciorstaidh Hayward-Trevarthen, finds liaison officer for South West Heritage Trust, told BBC News: 'There are a couple of gold rings of that sort of date from Somerset but they're not common. What a find! A metal detectorist has discovered a Roman signet pic.twitter.com/UVYO11CsR4 BBC Radio Somerset (@bbcsomerset) August 1, 2018 Mr Massey made the find at a site in Crewkerne, Somerset, that is believed to have been a high-status Roman villa 'Gold is ... an indication that the owner is fairly wealthy.' The newly-discovered ring features an engraving of Victoria, the Roman god of Victory, riding a chariot pulled by two horses. Victoria appears widely on Roman coins, jewellery, architecture, and other arts, and is often depicted with or in a chariot. An 'enormous' Roman settlement has been unearthed in the Channel Islands. The 3.7 acre settlement the largest ever discovered in the Channel Islands and nearby areas of France was preserved by drifts of sand for thousands of years. Excavations on Longis Common in Alderney have revealed walls, a stone courtyard, pottery and coins. Experts say the sand could have buried the island's first main settlement after its occupants moved to where the modern town is now located. The Roman settlement is built on an Iron Age burial site that dates back to the second century BC. The Romans didn't conquer Gaul modern day France until around 56 BC, but evidence discovered by the archaeologists suggests they were conducting trade on the nearby Channel Islands almost a century earlier. Scroll down for video An 'enormous' Roman settlement has been found preserved beneath sand in the Channel Islands University of Oxford archaeologist Dr Philip De Jersey said Iron Age burial sites in the area are far richer than other burials in the Channel Islands University of Oxford archaeologist Dr Philip De Jersey said Iron Age burial sites in the area are far richer than other burials in the Channel Islands. 'It suggests that at least some of the population had some wealth and social status - these were not all impoverished peasants living on the very edge of the Roman Empire,' he said. Dr Jason Monaghan, an archaeologist and Museums Director for the island of Guernsey, told MailOnline the team had hoped to study an Iron Age burial site. Instead, the team found the subterranean village by accident after starting their excavation. According to Dr Monaghan, the site dates back to the second century BC, around a century before the Romans successfully colonised France. Evidence suggests there was Roman trade activity on the Channel Islands from 150 BC, before they finally settled on the island 100 years later after the empire had conquered of Gaul, which is modern day France. Dr Monaghan said one of the unique things about the site was the way it was preserved. Experts say the sand could have buried the island's first main settlement after its occupants moved to where the modern town is now WHAT WAS ALDERNEY LIKE IN THE ROMAN ERA? Alderney is thought to have been part of the Roman Empire for 400 years. Alderney, or Riduna, was part of a group of islands the Romans called Insulae Lenuri. Based on finds, the island is thought to have been visited by ships from the Mediterranean carrying Roman pottery and wine as early as the 2nd Century BC. Longis, where evidence of the settlement was found, is thought to have been a 'natural harbour'. The late Roman fort built near Longis is thought to have been used to guard a naval base in the area. At some time after the fall of the Roman Empire the settlement at Longis is thought to have been abandoned. By the medieval period, St Anne, the island's only town, was occupied. Alderney (pictured) is thought to have been part of the Roman Empire for 400 years. Alderney, or Riduna, was part of a group of islands the Romans called Insulae Lenuri Advertisement Excavations on Longis Common in Alderney revealed walls, a stone courtyard, pottery and coins (pictured) In 2011, a building near the new settlement, known as the Nunnery, was found to be of Roman origin, dating to the 4th Century AD Excavations on Longis Common on the small Channel Island of Alderney revealed the hidden settlement 'Most Roman towns, when they fell into ruins, the locals nicked all the stones to build their farms and cathedrals and things,' he said. 'What has happened at Longis is the buildings have gone out of use, the sand has blown in and buried them under three, four feet of sand - everyone would have forgotten about them.' In 2011, a building near the new settlement, known as the Nunnery, was found to be of Roman origin, dating to the 4th Century AD. The walls of the tower were nine feet (2.8 metres) thick and the tower was about 58 sq feet (18 square metres). Dr Monaghan said at the time: 'It probably guarded the entrance to Longis Bay, Alderney's only natural harbour, and I think they would probably have based a couple of Roman warships there. 'It's only eight miles (12.8 km) to the French coast, you can see right the way across from there, and if you want to control that waterway and stop pirates or anybody else going past, that's the ideal place to do it. 'The fort protects the beach because we know there was a settlement as well, probably a little Roman village or little town underneath the sand of Longis.' Further research found that it is one of the best preserved small Roman forts in Britain. Archaeologists say the new settlement may have been connected to the fort at some point in its history. Archaeologists believe the new village is connected to Iron Age burial sites in the area which are much richer than other burials in the Channel Islands In 2011, a building near the new settlement, known as the Nunnery, was found to be of Roman origin from the 4th Century AD. Further research found that it is one of the best preserved small Roman forts in Britain The site may spread across 3.7 acres making it the largest settlement found in the Channel Islands and nearby areas of France Advertisement Ancient Welshmen are buried at Stonehenge, new analysis of cremated remains discovered at the prehistoric monument has revealed. It is now believed the Welshmen helped to build Stonehenge more than 5,000 years ago after helping to drag the stones from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, some 140 miles (225km) from the Wiltshire monument. Until now, little was known about the origin of the people who built the ancient stone circle, although the origin of the stones was already known. According to the University of Oxford research, 10 of the 25 cremated skull bones found at Stonehenge belong to people from 'western Britain', most likely Wales. Because the older 'bluestones' used to start building Stonehenge also come from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, it raises the possibility the dead people either helped to transport the building blocks, or were taken to the site from there to be buried. Stonehenge was built in several stages, with construction completed around 3,500 years ago. Researchers from Oxford University examined the strontium isotope composition in the cremated bones buried at the site between 3,180 and 2,380 BC to reveal where the ancient people spend most of their lives. In 10 of the fragments of skull, they found chemicals in the remains were consistent with people from western Britain, a region that includes west Wales the known source of Stonehenge's 'bluestones'. Scroll down for video An analysis of 25 skull bones left at the site between 3180 to 2380 BC revealed that at least 10 did not live near Stonehenge prior to their death. Pictured are three of the cremated cranial fragments used in the study Stonehenge is one of the most intensely studied prehistoric monuments. Historians believe it was built in several stages, with the first completed around 5,000 years ago by Neolithic Britons using primitive tools, possibly made from deer antlers. Construction of the prehistoric monument was not completed around 3,500 years ago. Over the years there has been much speculation around how and why Stonehenge was built, but the question of 'who' was behind the mysterious structure has received far less attention. Ancient Welshmen helped build Stonehenge more than 5,000 years ago, according to a new study. It was already known that some of the stones in the prehistoric monument (pictured) were sourced from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, some 140 miles (225km) away from its location in Wiltshire New research into cremated remains at the site has revealed a number of people moved to England with the Welsh 'bluestones' used in the early stages of construction. Pictured is their probable route from the Preseli Mountains These bone fragments come from cremated human bone from an early phase of the site's history at around 3000BC. The earliest cremation dates are very close to the date when the first bluestones were brought over, leading researchers to believe the bones could belong to this pioneering group. 'Some of the people buried at Stonehenge might have even been involved in moving the stones a journey of more than 180 miles', said Professor Parker Pearson from the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Scientists claim that Stonehenge may have been used as a graveyard as some of the remains were found in leather bags suggesting they may have been brought to the site from far away for religious purposes. The majority of the human remains discovered at the site were cremated, making it difficult for scientists to extract much useful information. However, scientists have now combined radiocarbon-dating with new developments in archaeological analysis pioneered by Christophe Snoeck during his doctoral research in the School of Archaeology at Oxford University. He carried out his study with an international team of researchers from UCL, Universite Libre de Bruxelles & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. Dr Snoeck demonstrated that looking at strontium isotope composition in cremated bones can reveal where people spent their lives. Strontium is absorbed by plants from the ground where they grow. So someone eating food gathered from the Stonehenge area, which is mostly chalkland, would have a different 'signature' in their bones from someone in west Wales where the highest strontium readings are found. Pictured are excavations at a bluestone quarries in Pembrokeshore. New research on cremated remains at the site has revealed that a number of people moved with these Welsh 'bluestones' used in the early stages of construction Stonehenge's bluestones made up the entirety of the monument's monoliths during one stage of construction. 'Bluehenge' featured a path that led worshippers to Stonehenge from the nearby river Avon. Ancient Britons later added other stones to the monument, and the bluestones now make up just the largest of the site's monoliths WHAT EVIDENCE DO WE HAVE THAT WELSHMEN HELPED BUILD STONEHENGE? It was already known some of the stones in the prehistoric monument were sourced from the Preseli Mountains of Wales, some 140 miles (225km) away from the Wiltshire monument. Now, new research on cremated remains at the site has revealed a number of people moved with these Welsh 'bluestones' used in the early stages of construction. Scientists found that looking at strontium isotope composition in cremated bones can reveal where people spent their lives. Analysis of 25 skull bones left at the site between 3,180 to 2,380 BC revealed that at least 10 did not live near Stonehenge prior to their death. Instead, they found the highest strontium isotope ratios in the remains were consistent with living in western Britain, a region that includes west Wales - the known source of Stonehenge's stones. The individuals with a 'local' strontium signal had also been burned in different conditions that those having a 'non-local' signal. Although strontium isotope ratios alone cannot distinguish between places with similar values, experts believe west Wales is the most likely origin of at least some of these people. While the Welsh connection was known for the stones, the study shows that people were also moving between west Wales and Wessex in the Late Neolithic period. The results emphasise the importance of inter-regional connections involved in the movement of both materials and people in the construction and use of Stonehenge. Advertisement 'The strontium isotopes measured in the bones originate from the food we eat and in particular the plants,' Dr Snoeck told MailOnline. 'They take their strontium from the soil and that strontium is then incorporated into our bones, reflecting the place where the plants grew. 'The values we measured on several individuals from Stonehenge were consistent with plants we analysed from Wales,' he said. Researchers analysed skull bones from 25 individuals, according to the paper published in Scientific Reports. These remains were originally excavated from a network of 56 pits in the 1920s, placed around the inner circumference and ditch of Stonehenge, known as 'Aubrey Holes'. Researchers found that at least 10 of the 25 people did not live near Stonehenge prior to their death. The individuals with a 'local' strontium signal had also been burned in different conditions than those having a 'non-local' signal. 'Furthermore, the report for the archaeologists excavating the site in the early 1920s suggest the cremated remains in the Aubrey Holes appeared to have been deposited in organic containers such as leather bags, leading them to suggest that they 'had apparently been brought from a distant place for interment',' said Dr Snoeck. 'Together, this suggests indeed, that some individuals were cremated away from Stonehenge (possibly in west Wales) and then, their cremated remains brought to the site.' Although strontium isotope ratios alone cannot distinguish between places with similar values, experts believe west Wales is the most likely origin of at least some of these people. These remains were originally excavated from a network of 56 pits in the 1920s, placed around the inner circumference and ditch of Stonehenge, known as 'Aubrey Holes' (pictured) The bone fragments in the Aubrey Holes come from cremated human bone from an early phase of the site's history around 3000BC when it was mainly used as a cemetery The individuals with a 'local' strontium signal had also been burned in different conditions that those having a 'non-local' signal. Pictured is an experimental pyre 'The powerful combination of stable isotopes and spatial technology gives us a new insight into the communities who built Stonehenge,' said John Pouncett, a lead author on the paper and Spatial Technology Officer at Oxford's School of Archaeology. 'The cremated remains from the enigmatic Aubrey Holes and updated mapping of the biosphere suggest that people from the Preseli Mountains not only supplied the bluestones used to build the stone circle, but moved with the stones and were buried there too.' Professor Pouncett added that the people buried at Stonehenge were likely to be 'high status'. He said that evidence from the quarrying site shows the bluestones were cut 500 years before they were erected in Wiltshire. While the Welsh connection was known for the stones, the study shows that people were also moving between west Wales and Wessex in the Late Neolithic time. The large standing stones at Stonehenge are made of local sandstone, but the smaller ones, known as 'bluestones', come from a quarry in west Wales (pictured) Researchers believe ancient Britons used a complex system of logs and rope pulleys to drag the monument's bluestones from west Wales. Pictured is a reconstruction of the practice STONEHENGE'S CONSTRUCTION REQUIRED GREAT INGENUITY Stonehenge was built thousands of years before machinery was invented. The heavy rocks weigh upwards of several tonnes each. Some of the stones are believed to have originated from a quarry in Wales, some 140 miles (225km) away from the Wiltshire monument. To do this would have required a high degree of ingenuity, and experts believe the ancient engineers used a pulley system over a shifting conveyor-belt of logs. Historians now think that the ring of stones was built in several different stages, with the first completed around 5,000 years ago by Neolithic Britons who used primitive tools, possibly made from deer antlers. Modern scientists now widely believe that Stonehenge was created by several different tribes over time. After the Neolithic Britons - likely natives of the British Isles - started the construction, it was continued centuries later by their descendants. Over time, the descendants developed a more communal way of life and better tools which helped in the erection of the stones. Bones, tools and other artefacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis. Advertisement The results emphasise the importance of inter-regional connections involved in the movement of both materials and people in the construction and use of Stonehenge. 'The recent discovery that some biological information survives the high temperatures reached during cremation (up to 1000 degrees Celsius) offered us the exciting possibility to finally study the origin of those buried at Stonehenge,' said Dr Snoeck. 'To me the really remarkable thing about our study is the ability of new developments in archaeological science to extract so much new information from such small and unpromising fragments of burnt bone,' said Rick Schulting, a lead author on the research and Associate Professor in Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology at Oxford. 'Some of the people's remains showed strontium isotope signals consistent with west Wales, the source of the bluestones that are now being seen as marking the earliest monumental phase of the site.' The technique could be used to improve our understanding of the past using previously excavated ancient collections. Stonehenge has been used as a centre for ceremonies throughout its 5,000-year-history. Pictured is an artist's impression of a Neolithic ceremony at the site circa 3,000 BC, when the monument was just a series of ditches without the monoliths it is known for today The Google Doodle for Thursday, August 2, 2018 celebrates Mount Olympus and the three climbers who scaled its summit 105 years ago. In 1913, Daniel Baud-Bovy and his photographer friend Frederic Boissonnas decided to ascend the 9,753-foot peak along with Greek hunter Christos Kakkalos, who knew the terrain exceptionally well. On July 29, 1913, the trio began the ascent, reaching the Agios Dionysios monastery at 820m the same day. They then continued north and set up camp in Petrostrouga at nearly 2000m. While the two Swiss men had some experience in mountaineering, Boissonnas had to carry the very heavy photographic equipment, so as a safety precaution, he and Baud-Dovy were tied together with rope. In the summer of 1913, three men decided to scale the Greek mountain's highest peak, Mytikas Meanwhile Kakkalos knew the terrain so well that he reportedly climbed its sharpest inclines barefoot. The weather turned, bringing with it severe fog. The climbers nevertheless persisted ascending a slender peak, which, thinking it was the highest peak of Mount Olympus, they named Victory Top. However, once the fog cleared, the three climbers saw a more impressive peak before them, and without hesitation decided to scale it. On August 2, 1913 at 10.25am, they climbed Mytikaswhich means nose in Greekthe highest peak on Mount Olympus at 2,918 metres or 9,573ft. Boissonnas later wrote that during their final climb, he was fuelled by the fire of the Titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gifted it to humans. Kakkalos later became an official guide for the mountain, last scaling the mountain in 1972, when he was 91-years-old. Where is Mount Olympus? Mount Olympus is a mountain in Greece that has the highest point in the country and the second highest peak in the Balkans, as well as one of the highest in Europe. Today marks the 105th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Olympus, known as 'the home of the gods', in Greece. #Onthisday in 1913, two Swiss friends and a local guide reached the 9,573 foot summit. Mount Olympus in the Distance, Edward Lear, 1872. pic.twitter.com/msPLJDVSvl Ashmolean Museum (@AshmoleanMuseum) August 2, 2018 The mountain actually has 52 peaks in total and is located on the border of Macedonia and Thessaly. Olympus covers roughly 500-square-kilometres and was declared a biosphere reserve by Unesco in 1981. Around 10,000 people climb the mountain every year, although most only reach the Skolio summit at 2,912 metres. Mount Olympus in Greek mythology In Greek Mythology, Mount Olympus was home to the ancient powerful Olympian gods. A total of 12 gods resided on Mount Olympus: the god of gods and the sky Zeus; his wife Hera the goddess of marriage; Poseidon, god of the sea; Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility; Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Apollo god of the sun; Artemis, goddess of hunting; Ares, the god of war; Hephaesteus, god of the forge; Hermes, messenger of the gods; Hestia, the goddess of hearth; and Dionysus the god of wine. Thousands of people make the journey to Mount Olympus #onthisday each year to mark the anniversary of the first time it was successfully climbed in 1913. It's a real place, but this painting shows the Mount Olympus of Greek mythology. https://t.co/81uUC2XEE7 @NorthamptonShoe pic.twitter.com/8uJvFGGHH0 Art UK (@artukdotorg) August 2, 2018 What is a Google Doodle? Mount Olympus and the first people to climb it have been honoured in the Google Doodle for August 2, 2018, on the 105th anniversary of the day they reached the mountain's highest peak, Mytikas. It says: 'Todays Doodle celebrates their accomplishment and the fire that inspired them.' Google Doodles are small illustrations or animations that appear in the Google logo on the search engine's homepage. The first time a Google Doodle was used was in 1998, when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin visited the 1998 Burning Man Festival. To commemorate their trip, the founders drew a stick-man standing behind the second o in the Google logo. Recent Google Doodles include Gerda Taro, Meena Kumari and Maria Rebecca Latigo de Hernandez. A brief burst of radio sent from an unknown source across the universe has been picked up by the state-of-the-art CHIME telescope in Canada. The signal, known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), lasted only a matter of milliseconds. Researchers claim the signal is the first radio emission received from across the universe with a frequency below 700 MHz the lowest frequency FRB ever recorded. As a result, scientists believe that whatever produced the signal, which has been branded 'FRB 180725A', is likely to be extremely powerful. FRBs are extremely uncommon, with the abrupt radio emissions first discovered in 2007 and only two dozen examples recorded since. Experts are still investigating what causes FRBs, with possible explanations including exploding black holes and advanced extra-terrestrial civilisations. Scroll down for video The short burst of radio waves detected by the state-of-the-art Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope The radio emission was first detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, which has been in operation for less than a year. The FRB was detected by CHIME's expansive, four 100-meter-long (328ft) U-shaped cylinders on July 25 2018. CHIME is designed to be able to record signals sent when the universe was between 6 billion and 11 billion years old. Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham, told MailOnline this discovery could help to pave the way for a greater understanding of what causes FRBs. 'We don't know their origin, they could be caused by a number of things,' he said. 'The fact the lower frequency FRB has been detected provides hope that we can understand more about where they come from and what causes them. 'They could be caused by exploding stars, supernova, exotic stars like pulsars, magnetars, neutron stars or massive black holes at the centre of distant galaxies. 'It could even be some other physical mechanism that we don't yet understand.' Patrick Boyle, of McGill University, first reported the detection of the low-frequency FRB with a post on the astronomical publication 'Astronomer's Telegram'. The post reads: 'During its ongoing commissioning, CHIME/FRM detected FRB 180725A on 2018 July 25 at 17:59:43.115 UTC (18:59:43.15 BST/13:59:43.15 ET). 'The event is clearly detected at frequencies as low as 580 MHz and represents the first detection of an FRB at radio frequencies below 700 MHz.' Professor Conselice told MailOnline that FBRs likely happen regularly, and probably reach Earth thousands of times a day. Until now however, human tools have only been able to detect the highest energy emissions. He said that CHIME's highly-sensitive tools made the discovery possible, and the short bursts of radio waves will become more commonly spotted as technology improves. The telescope that discovered the mystery signal is the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME, pictured) which has been open for less than a year According to researchers at CHIME, whatever produced the signal in the depths of space is likely to be extremely powerful. Whatever the source, it has produced the signal a number of times, scientists say. Research into FRBs is still in its infancy, with the first signals detected less than a decade ago. Since then, a mere two dozen FRBs have ever been detected from Earth, meaning there is little prior research for scientists build on. 'Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence,' said Avi Loeb, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics research institute. 'An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking.' The mystery around these signals stems from the fact that scientists cannot yet pinpoint what is capable of producing such a short and sharp radio wave burst. Mr Boyle adds: 'Additional FRBs have been found since FRB 180725A and some have flux at frequencies as low as 400 MHz. WHAT ARE FAST RADIO BURSTS? Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly, making them not only hard to find, but also hard to study. The mystery stems from the fact it is not known what could produce such a short and sharp burst. This has led some to speculate they could be anything from stars colliding to artificially created messages. The first FRB was spotted, or rather 'heard' by radio telescopes, back in 2007. But it was so temporary and seemingly random that it took years for astronomers to agree it wasn't a glitch in one of the telescope's instruments. Advertisement 'These events have occurred during both the day and night and their arrival times are not correlated with known on-site activities or other known sources of terrestrial RFI (radio frequency interference).' CHIME is 'half-pipe' design radio telescope that contains four 100-meter-long (328 foot) U-shaped cylinders, allowing it to detect signals from when the universe was between 6 and 11 billion years old. 'With the CHIME telescope we will measure the expansion history of the universe and we expect to further our understanding of the mysterious dark energy that drives the expansion ever faster,' said Dr Mark Halpern, of the University of British Columbia. 'This is a fundamental part of physics that we don't understand and it's a deep mystery. This is about better understanding how the universe began and what lies ahead.' WHAT IS THE CHIME TELESCOPE? The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (Chime) contains four 100-meter-long (328 foot) U-shaped cylinders, allowing it to detect signals from when the universe was between 6 and 11 billion years old. With its U-shaped cylinders made of metal mesh, the experts have compared it to the half-pipes used by snowboarders and skateboarders. Its unique design, coupled with advanced computing power, will serve as a 'time machine' to peer deep into the history of the universe. The Chime telescope will collect radio waves with wavelengths between 37 and 75 centimeters. Most of these signals come from the Milky Way, but, some began their journey billions of years ago. The telescope will receive a massive amount of data, with a rate equivalent to all the data in the world's mobile network. And, seven quadrillion computer operations will occur every second. Advertisement The 12.2 million ($16 million) in funding, CHIME sits in the mountains of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley at the NRC's Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory near Penticton. With its U-shaped cylinders made of metal mesh, it resembles the half-pipes used by snowboarders and skateboarders. Its unique design, coupled with advanced computing power, will serve as a 'time machine' to peer deep into the history of the universe. This could help scientists to better understand the history of the universe, mysterious fast radio bursts, and the detection of gravitational waves. 'CHIME's unique design will enable us to tackle one of the most puzzling new areas of astrophysics today Fast Radio Bursts,' said Dr Victoria Kaspi from McGill University. With its U-shaped cylinders made of metal mesh, experts have compared CHIME (pictured) to the half-pipes used by snowboarders and skateboarders. The radio signal it detected has been named FRB 180725A and is the first to be detected below 700 MHz 'The origin of these bizarre extragalactic events is presently a mystery, with only two dozen reported since their discovery a decade ago. 'CHIME is likely to detect many of these objects every day, providing a massive treasure trove of data that will put Canada at the forefront of this research.' CHIME will collect radio waves with wavelengths between 37 and 75 centimetres. This, according to the researchers, is similar to that used by cell phones, and will allow the telescope to pick up on extremely weak radio signals from the universe. Most of these signals come from the Milky Way, but, some began their journey billions of years ago. A single overheating laptop is capable of bringing down an entire airliner. That's according to a shocking new US government study, which found a battery fire in checked luggage is enough to overpower a plane's fire suppression system. An aircraft could quickly become engulfed in flames if a laptop fire combined with other flammable materials, such as gas in a deodorant can or cosmetics commonly carried by passengers, experts at the Federal Aviation Administration have warned. The research highlights the dangers of lithium batteries, which are increasingly used to power everything from handheld gaming gadgets to smartphones. Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the largest pilots union in North America, is currently debating whether it should recommend that battery-powered items, like laptops or tablets, be banned from luggage stored in the hold of the plane. Scroll down for video A single overheating laptop is capable of bringing down an entire airliner. That's according to a shocking new US government study, which found a battery fire in checked luggage is enough to overpower a plane's fire suppression system (stock image) The FAA study found that anti-fire halon gas expelled in aeroplane cargo areas in the event of a fire was not enough to extinguish a lithium battery fire. While the system prevented the fire from spreading to some nearby flammable materials, such as cardboard, it could not stop aerosol cans from exploding. Tests showed that even when bathed in halon gas, cans adjacent to a laptop fire are still capable of detonating. 'That could then cause an issue that would compromise the aircraft,' said Duane Pfund, an official at the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, speaking this week at an aviation safety forum in Washington. The study, conducted in June 2017, was discussed Wednesday at an annual conference run by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Experts highlighted the growing risk posed to flights by lithium batteries. An aircraft could quickly become engulfed in flames if a laptop fire combined with other flammable materials, such as gas in a deodorant can or cosmetics commonly carried by passengers, experts at the Federal Aviation Administration warned (stock image) WHY DO SMARTPHONE AND LAPTOP BATTERIES EXPLODE? Lithium batteries power most modern, portable gadgets - from smartphones to laptops and handheld gaming devices. The batteries are incredibly safe, but have been known to explode if they are faulty or overheat. Rechargeable batteries store an incredible amount of power in a small space, and are designed to release that power slowly over time. A faulty battery can lose its ability to deliver power in a controlled fashion, causing it to release this energy all at once, which can cause an explosion. Faulty batteries broadly fall into three categories. Some, such as the infamous Galaxy Note 7 battery, come with a design flaw that means they cannot store charge properly. Faults can also be picked up during normal usage, for instance if a device is splashed with water or left out in the sun too long. Counterfeit products are also a common source of battery explosions as they are designed and built on the cheap - often ignoring safety regulations. Advertisement 'One way or another, we have to deal with these hazards,' said Scott Schwartz, director of ALPA's hazardous goods program. Based on the results of the FAA study, the US government support a call for a United Nations ban on gadgets larger than a smartphone in checked bags. The effort ultimately fell short, and the FAA has not imposed any new restrictions on what passengers can store in the hold, Mr Pfund said. Lithium batteries are relatively safe, but have been known to explode if they are faulty or poorly designed. In April, a laptop spontaneously exploded and burnt down parts of an office in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Worker Steve Paffett's gadget set alight while on charge during the night when he was at home asleep. The intruder alarm on Mr Paffett's phone, which is linked to a sensor in his office which was set off by the fire, woke him and he quickly opened his CCTV app. Footage from the app shows Mr Paffett's desk ablaze as the flames spread through the room. Facebook is overhauling WhatsApp in a bid to make money from the messaging app following its own disastrous results last week. As Facebook shares tanked and Mark Zuckerberg's firm saw $150bn wiped off its value last week, the firm now hopes WhatsApp, which it bought for $19bn in 2014, can make it money. It plans to begin showing ads in users' status updates, and to charge big companies for sending messages to customers. Scroll down for video WhatsApp is set to introduce adverts to the platform for the first time. Firms will be able to pay WhatsApp to place adverts in a user's story next year, in a similar way to the way Instagram stories feature adverts (stock) FACEBOOK'S $150BILLION PLUNGE Facebook shares plunged last week after the tech giant failed to meet Wall Street's estimates for user growth and quarterly revenue. The disappointing results come after Facebook has been embroiled in a data scandal affecting millions of users - an event that the firm's top leadership acknowledged as a factor weighing on user growth during the second quarter. Shares of Facebook dipped more than 20%. By Wednesday evening, almost $150 billion had been wiped off of Facebook's market cap as a result of the stock's plunge. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth dive roughly $18.8 billion to $63.6 billion. At the closing bell on Wednesday, Zuckerberg was worth $82.4 billion, according to Forbes. Advertisement WhatsApp will charge companies between a half a penny and 9 cents (0.3p to 7p) for every message delivered to a potential customer, with prices varying by country. About 100 companies have been testing the feature, including Singapore Airlines and Uber, WhatsApp told The Wall Street Journal. Uber has trialed WhatsApp as a way to respond to drivers' questions in Mexico, India and Brazil. The move comes as growth at Facebooks main app is starting to decelerate. Facebook bought the messaging app over fears another rival would buy it - and after it was unable to buy Snapchat despite reportedly offering $3bn for the firm. At the time, Facebook pledged Whatsapp would remain independent. 'You can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication,' WhatsApp co-founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, told users when the purchase was announced. The pair, who started the app in 2009 before selling for $19 billion (14.5 billion) in 2014, have both now left left the firm after repeatedly resisting attempts to put ads into the app. The ability for businesses to message customers has started to roll-out worldwide, however WhatsApp has confirmed it will only be working with 'a few hundred' companies to implement the tools at launch, with more to follow later. WhatsApp is also poised to bring adverts to the app for the first time. Businesses will be able to pay WhatsApp to place adverts inside users' status from early next year. These sponsored posts will be placed at regular intervals amongst the slideshow of photos and videos that users can add to throughout their day. Facebook already includes adverts inside Instagram Stories in the same manner. WhatsApp has long resisted including advertisements inside its app. In an official blog post entitled 'Why We Don't Sell Ads', co-founder and then-chief executive Jan Koum said: 'Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. 'At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it's all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out... And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.' Koum left WhatsApp in April 2018 over disagreements with Facebook, which acquired the messaging service for $19 billion (14.5 billion ) in 2014. Three months later, WhatsApp has introduced its first plans to bring display advertisements into the messaging service. The adverts will be included in a similar manner to Instagram, which allows firms to include paid-for content inside the Story feature, the Wall Street Journal reports. WhatsApp Status is more popular than Instagram stories worldwide, with 450 million chat app users posting each day, compared to 400 million Instagram users. WhatsApp Status is more popular than Instagram stories however, with 450 million users creating a Status and only 400 million Instagram users making a Story. Like Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook, WhatsApp will be powered using its parent company's advertising platform. WhatsApp says there are around 60 billion messages sent every day within the app, but only a tiny proportion sent between companies and consumers. The messages will still be covered by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption, making it unreadable by the firm. However, the company that receives the messages could potentially store the messages in a decrypted state. A WhatsApp spokesperson said users will be able to opt-in to receiving messages from businesses. WhatsApp executives believe users will adapt to the new tools, a spokesman said, adding that the company has seen positive feedback from ads in Instagram Stories. 'We've seen it working well on Instagram and so we're learning a lot from that,' Mr Idema said. Fatbergs clogging up sewers beneath cities across the globe could soon provide homes with green energy, according to new research. A technique to break down the solid masses of congealed fat, wet wipes, nappies, oil and condoms has been developed by scientists. The resulting sludge can be treated to release methane gas, a renewable energy source that can be used to drive a turbine to generate power. Scroll down for video Fatbergs clogging up sewers in Britain's cities could soon provide homes with green energy. A technique to break down the solid masses of fats, oil grease (FOG) has been developed. The treatment (centre and right) broke down 80 per cent of solids in FOG samples (left) The new method could offer a use for pesky fatbergs flushed waste that can grow to enormous sizes in the sewers beneath bustling cities. Last year, a 130-ton, 250-metre-long (820ft) fatberg blocked up a Victorian tunnel in Whitechapel, east London. It took three weeks to clear. The mixture of fats, oil and grease, known collectively as FOG, could be heated to break them down, researchers at the University of British Columbia found. They heated clumps of FOG to temperatures between 90 and 110 degrees centigrade (194F-230F). Adding hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that kick-starts the breakdown of organic matter. Researchers said the treatment dramatically reduced the volume of solids in the FOG by as much as 80 per cent. The technique could offer a use for pesky fatbergs - flushed waste that can grow to enormous sizes. Last year, a 130-ton, 250-metre-long (820ft) fatberg blocked up a Victorian tunnel in Whitechapel, east London (pictured). It took three weeks to clear The mixture of fats, oil and grease, known collectively as FOG, that makes up fatbergs could be heated to break them down, researchers at the University of British Columbia found It also released fatty acids from the mixture that can be broken down by bacteria in the next stage of treatment. Engineer Dr Asha Srinivasan said: 'FOG is a terrific source of organic material that microorganisms can feed on to produce methane gas, which is a valuable, renewable energy source. 'But if it is too rich in organics, bacteria cannot handle it and the process breaks down. WHAT ARE FATBERGS? Fatbergs are blockages made up of flushed fat, oil, grease and other flushed waste such as wet wipes and illegal drugs. They form into huge concrete-like slabs and can be found beneath almost every UK city, growing larger with every flush. They also include food wrappers and human waste, blocking tunnels - and raising the risk of sewage flooding into homes. The biggest ever discovered in the UK was a 750-metre (2,460ft) monster found under London's South Bank in 2017 (pictured) They can grow metres tall and hundreds of metres long, with water providers last year declaring an epidemic of fatberg emergencies in 23 UK cities, costing tens of millions of pounds to remove. The biggest ever discovered in the UK was a 750-metre (2,460ft) monster found under London's South Bank in 2017. Fatbergs take weeks to remove and form when people put things they shouldn't down sinks and toilets. Advertisement 'By preheating it to the right temperature, we ensure that the FOG is ready for the final treatment and can make the maximum amount of methane.' Her team's method could enable farmers to load more FOG into their biogas digesters large tanks that treat farm wastes, including cow manure. Dr Srinivasan said: 'Farmers typically restrict FOG to less than 30 per cent of the overall feed. 'But now the FOG can be broken down into simpler forms, so you can use much more than that, up to 75 per cent of the overall feed. 'You would recycle more oil waste and produce more methane at the same time.' HOW MUCH DO 'FATBERGS' COST THE PUBLIC? Fatbergs congealed fat which clumps together with other waste products to form concrete-style blocks are becoming increasingly problematic in sewers across the UK, particularly in London. The capital's largest ever recorded fatberg, weighing in at 15 tonnes, was found in Kingston in August 2013. And in 2015 workers spent four days removing a fatberg the length of a jumbo jet from a sewer in Shepherd's Bush. In Bedfordshire a line of fatbergs clogged a 100-metre-long pipeline in 2016. Anglian Water had to ship in a specialist robot (pictured) with a high-pressured jet from Holland to blast the fatbergs so they would gradually disperse Among the most common causes of drain blockages are make-up and nappy wipes, fat and grease, chewing gum, dental floss, plasters and building debris. Staff from Thames Water usually use powerful suction equipment to break down the blockages and then high-powered water jets to clear the tunnels. The company spends approximately 1 million a month clearing fatbergs and blockages, dealing with 55,000 of them every year. It is a similar story for other water companies across the UK. Advertisement Lead researcher Professor Victor Lo said, ultimately, the technology can be used in municipal FOG management programmes. He added: 'The principle would be the same. You pretreat the FOG so it doesn't clog the pipes, and add it to sewage sludge to produce methane from the mix. 'To the best of our knowledge, this type of pretreatment for FOG has not been studied before, although simple chemical methods do exist to break down FOG. 'We are hoping to do more research to find the optimal ratio of FOG to dairy manure so they can be pretreated together.' The study was published in the journal Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. NASA's plans to send astronauts to the International Space Station in Boeing and SpaceX capsules has hit yet another delay. Boeing has confirmed there was an 'anomaly' during a recent test of the launch abort engines for its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle. Now it has revealed the issue has delayed testing of the capsule until next year. Scroll down for video A mockup of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said NASA needs a backup plan for getting astronauts to space, given additional delays on the horizon for new commercial crew capsules. WHEN COULD THE CAPSULES LAUNCH? The development programs for both companies' capsules have been delayed several times, with each currently expecting to complete uncrewed test launches in August at the earliest. NASA was expected to certify Boeing in December 2019 and January in 2020, according to analysis earlier this year, but the GAO says further delays are expected. The existing timeline already causes a one month gap, at minimum, in NASA's contracts for seats with Russia and the first launches of Boeing and SpaceX. Advertisement According to the most recent timeline, the Starliner was scheduled to take flight for the first time without a crew in August, followed by a crewed launch in November. Boeing now expects the vehicle to do its uncrewed test flight either later this year or in early 2019, according to a press call with reporters this afternoon. Then the first crewed test will occur in mid-2019. The incident happened during a hot-fire test of the engines used by Starliner's abort system, integrated into a spacecraft service module. It comes amid growing fears American astronauts could be stranded without a way to get to and from the International Space Station following a recent Government Accountability Office report. It comes as updates on commercial crew test schedules for both Boeing and SpaceX are expected to be released as soon as next week - and are expected to reveal delays to the project to blast astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeing's static test, took place in June at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. 'The engines successfully ignited and ran for the full duration,' the company said in a statement. 'During engine shutdown an anomaly occurred that resulted in a propellant leak.' Boeing didn't elaborate on the nature of the problem, but other sources, including social media postings several days before the official statement, claimed that a hydrazine valve in the propulsion system failed to close properly at the end of the test, causing the propellant to leak, according to SpaceNews. The incident happened during a hot-fire test of the engines used by Starliner's abort system, integrated into a spacecraft service module. 'We have been conducting a thorough investigation with assistance from our NASA and industry partners,' Boeing added in the statement. 'We are confident we found the cause and are moving forward with corrective action.' It warns NASA needs a backup plan for getting astronauts to space, given additional delays on the horizon for new commercial crew capsules from Boeing and SpaceX Both companies have been aiming for test flights by the end of this year, but the GAO says further delays are likely. If postponements keep mounting, the GAO fears there could be a gap in U.S. access to the International Space Station. 'Further delays are likely as the Commercial Crew Program's schedule risk analysis shows that the certification milestone is likely to slip,' the GAO said in the report. 'Additional delays could result in a gap in U.S. access to the space station as NASA has contracted for seats on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft only through November 2019,' the report says. NASA 'does not have a contingency plan for ensuring uninterrupted U.S. access.' When asked abut the potential problem, the GAO report claims 'NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations stated that he is 'brainstorming' other options to ensure access to the ISS but does not have a formal plan.' With its last shuttle flight seven years ago this month, NASA has been paying Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station. But that contract is up at the end of 2019. 'Senior NASA officials told us that sustaining a U.S. presence on the ISS is essential to maintain and operate integral systems, without which the ISS cannot function,' the GAO said. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (pictured) stands in front of the firm's manned spacecraft, the Dragon V2, in 2014. The aircraft is designed to ferry astronauts into space It was hoped SpaceX's Crew Dragon, along with Boeing's Starliner, were set to begin ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station within months. Elon Musk's space firm has revealed its capsule has already been delivered to NASA for its first, unmanned, test mission. 'Crew Dragon is at @NASA's Plum Brook Station testing facility in Ohio, home to the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world, to demonstrate its capability to withstand the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space,' it said on Instagram. WHAT IS ELON MUSK'S CREW DRAGON? SpaceX's Crew Dragon being loaded into NASA's Plum Brook Station testing facility in Ohio, home to the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world, to demonstrate its capability to withstand the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space The capsule measures about 20 feet tall by 12 feet in diameter, and will carry up to 7 astronauts at a time. The Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system (which was tested earlier this year) to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong, experiencing about the same G-forces as a ride at Disneyland. It also has an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that provides a comfortable and safe environment for crew members. Crew Dragon's displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft's capabilities, showing everything from Dragon's position in space, to possible destinations, to the environment on board. Crew Dragon's displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft's capabilities, showing everything from Dragon's position in space, to possible destinations Those CRS-2 Dragon missions will use 'propulsive' landings, where the capsule lands on a landing pad using its SuperDraco thrusters rather than splashing down in the ocean. That will allow NASA faster access to the cargo returned by those spacecraft, and also build up experience for propulsive landings of crewed Dragon spacecraft. Advertisement 'Once complete, Crew Dragon will travel to Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of its first flight,' he added. However, it is still unknown when the Dragon Crew will blast off. The project, part of NASA's Commercial Crew scheme, will see both Boeing and SpaceX launch unmanned craft first. 'I think we're going to get the [uncrewed] demo flights probably by the end of the year, maybe a little after that . . . and then the crew demo missions next year,' Commercial Crew astronaut Suni Williams recently said. The mysterious Mayan civilisation collapsed because of a severe drought, a study has confirmed. The people dominated Central and South America flourished until 800 AD building spectacular pyramids and temples but by 1000 AD had collapsed. And by the time Spanish conquistadors made contact with what was left in the 16th century, jungle vines were flourishing on abandoned limestone cities. Theories to explain the once mighty empire's drastic decline have included invasion by foreign powers, war, disease and a collapse in trade. Now researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Florida have found strong evidence that a long period of drought had devastating effects on this vast civilisation. They found this out by looking at water samples in Mexico's Lake Chichancanab where the Maya were based. Scroll down for video The mysterious Mayan civilisation collapsed because of a severe drought, a study has confirmed. Pictured is the Piramide de los Cinco Pisos (pyramid of the five storeys), located in the Great Plaza in Campeche, Mexico Scientists worked this out by measuring isotopes of water in gypsum a mineral which can form in lakes during times of drought. When gypsum forms, water molecules are incorporated directly into its crystalline structure, and this water records the different isotopes that were present in the ancient lake water at the time of its formation. 'In periods of drought, more water evaporates from lakes such as Chichancanab, and because the lighter isotopes of water evaporate faster, the water becomes heavier', Nick Evans, a PhD student in Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences and the paper's first author, told MailOnline. A higher proportion of the heavier isotopes, such as oxygen-18 and hydrogen-2 (deuterium), would therefore indicate drought conditions. 'By mapping the proportion of the different isotopes contained within each layer of gypsum, the researchers were able to build a model to estimate past changes in rainfall and relative humidity over the period of the Maya collapse', Mr Evans said. Based on these measurements, the researchers found that annual precipitation decreased between 41 per cent and 54 per cent during the period of the Maya civilisation's collapse, with periods of up to 70 per cent rainfall reduction during peak drought conditions. 'Prior results pointed to more modest reductions in rainfall but our new methodology using all stable isotopes in water reveals the droughts in northern Yucatan were more severe than previously thought', Mr Evans said. Pictured is a mask of the Maya rain God 'Chaac' on a building at Labna in the Puuc region of the northern Yucatan Peninsula. The prevalence of Chaac masks in the architecture throughout the Maya region is a testament to the importance of rainfall to the Maya Pictured is the sediment core used in this study shown versus depth below the bottom of the lake. The sediment layers consist of dark layers that are composed of organic-rich deposits, and light-coloured layers that are composed of the mineral gypsum. Gypsum forms when the lake level was lowered during times of drought THE MAYA: A POPULATION NOTED FOR ITS WRITTEN LANGUAGE, AGRICULTURAL AND CALENDARS The Maya civilisation thrived in Central America for nearly 3,000 years, reaching its height between AD 250 to 900. Noted for the only fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, the Mayas also had highly advanced art and architecture as well as mathematical and astronomical systems. During that time, the ancient people built incredible cities using advanced machinery and gained an understanding of astronomy, as well as developing advanced agricultural methods and accurate calendars. The Maya believed the cosmos shaped their everyday lives and they used astrological cycles to tell when to plant crops and set their calendars. This has led to theories that the Maya may have chosen to locate their cities in line with the stars. It is already known that the pyramid at Chichen Itza was built according to the suns location during the spring and autumn equinoxes. When the sun sets on these two days, the pyramid casts a shadow on itself that aligns with a carving of the head of the Mayan serpent god. The shadow makes the serpent's body so that as the sun sets, the terrifying god appears to slide towards the earth. Maya influence can be detected from Honduras, Guatemala, and western El Salvador to as far away as central Mexico, more than 1,000km from the Maya area. The Maya peoples never disappeared. Today their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area. They maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Advertisement 'The role of climate change in the collapse of Classic Maya civilisation is somewhat controversial, partly because previous records are limited to qualitative reconstructions, for example whether conditions were wetter or drier', he said. Climate change and drought were proposed in the 1990s but had remained contested. The study is the first to present statistically robust estimates of rainfall and humidity levels during the civilisation's downfall. Professor David Hodell, Director of Cambridge's Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research said: 'This method is highly accurate and is almost like measuring the water itself.' Pictured is the Piramide de los Cinco Pisos. Maya civilisation is divided into four main periods: the Preclassic (2000 BCE - 250 CE), Classic (250 CE - 800 CE), terminal Classic (800 - 1000 CE) and Postclassic (1000 CE - 1539 CE) Pictured is a view of Lake Chichancanab, the site of the study. During the 9th century however, there was a major political collapse in the central Maya region: their famous limestone cities were abandoned and dynasties ended Maya civilisation is divided into four main periods: the Preclassic (2000 BCE - 250 CE), Classic (250 CE - 800 CE), terminal Classic (800 - 1000 CE) and Postclassic (1000 CE - 1539 CE). The Classic period was marked by the construction of monumental architecture, intellectual and artistic development, and the growth of large city-states. During the 9th century however, there was a major political collapse in the central Maya region: their famous limestone cities were abandoned and dynasties ended. 'One of the problems of working out what happened to the Mayans was that their books were all burnt on the orders of Catholic priests', said Mr Evans. And while the Maya people survived beyond this period, their political and economic power was depleted, researchers write in the paper, published in the journal Science. Scientists studied water samples in Mexico's Lake Chichancanab where the Maya were based Two intervals of political disintegration have been identified in previous studies. The first corresponded to a period of political collapse at centres in the Puuc and other interior regions from AD 850925. The second interval of political collapse occurred around AD 1000 and featured the end of monumental construction and hieroglyphic inscriptions at some Puuc centers and at Chichen Itza around AD 10251050. The demise therefore occurred over a 200 to 300 year period. For many people, the act of consuming meat is done without much thought for where it comes from. But, when presented with images of baby farm animals, that appetite can quickly break down especially for women. Researchers have found that the feelings of tenderness and warmth sparked by baby animals is often enough to make women lose their hunger for meat, while men had less of a problem going on to chow down afterward. Scroll down for video For many people, the act of consuming meat is done without much thought for where it comes from. But, when presented with images of baby farm animals, that appetite can quickly break down. File photo Feeling tenderness towards a baby animal appears to be an oppositional force on appetite for meat for many people, especially women, said psychologist Dr Jared Piazza of Lancaster University in the UK. In the study, the researchers presented men and women with images of baby animals, including calves, joeys (baby kangaroos), piglets, and lambs. They were also shown an image of a cooked meat dish, and told it came from the animal it was paired with. Both men and women reacted to the animal images, and found them to be cute and vulnerable, the researchers say. Women, however, had a stronger response than men. We found that men and women differed in how appetizing they considered the meat dishes when the meat was paired with a baby animal image, with womens appetite for meat much lower than mens appetite, regardless of whether the meat was from a familiar or exotic source, Dr Piazza said. Researchers have found that the feelings of tenderness and warmth sparked by baby animals is often enough to make women lose their hunger for meat, while men had less of a problem going on to chow down afterward According to the researchers, the differences may come down to both natural inclinations and pressures that have developed from societal expectations. Our findings may reflect womens greater emotional attunement towards babies and, by extension, their tendency to empathize more with baby animals, says Dr Piazza. Also, meat is associated with masculinity and images of tough men who consume meat for muscle building protein, along with prehistoric ideas of the male as the hunter. Women have a much more ambivalent attitude towards meat and their identity is not bound up with it in the same way. According to the researchers, the differences in our attitudes towards meat may come down to both natural inclinations and pressures that have developed from societal expectations In a follow-up study, the researchers asked participants to rate their appetite for meat under different scenarios. For this, they were shown either a calf, a cow, or no animal at all. Again, the researchers found that meat was less appetising to people who had looked at images of the baby animal. But, there was little difference between those who were shown a grown cow and those who were not shown any animal. According to the researchers, the results highlight a tension within some omnivores between caring for baby animals and appetite for meat. It may not be long before you'll be able to unlock an iPad with your face. Apple's next tablet is expected to feature ultra-thin bezels and no home button, to make way for its facial recognition technology, called Face ID, according to 9to5Mac. The site spotted an icon that looked remarkably different from previous designs in Apple's iOS 12 bet 5 code. Scroll down for video Apple's next tablet is expected to feature ultra-thin bezels and no home button, to make way for its facial recognition technology, called Face ID, code in the iOS 12 beta 5 reveals It indicates that the iPad may be in for a significant overhaul. A tiny blue icon shows an iPad with thin bezels and a row of icons at the bottom of the device That differs from the current icon, which shows a front-facing camera at the top, in addition to a home button at the bottom. What's more, the new iPad icon appears to show the absence of a notch design. Apple introduced the notch on the iPhone X at its September event last year. The notch houses vital sensors and cameras that power Face ID, but it received from criticism from users who felt it obstructed the iPhone X's edge-to-edge screen. Analysts have been predicting that Apple will introduce facial recognition technology on the next iPad. Among the rumors, it's also expected to launch new 13-inch and 11-inch models It's possible that Apple will make the bezels wide enough so that they can fit the TrueDepth camera that enables facial recognition. In the past, iOS leaks have served as an accurate predictor of Apple releases. A HomePod firmware update in 2017 revealed the front-facing design of the iPhone X, so it's plausible that the iPad icon could serve as a solid indicator of what's to come. What's more, analysts have been predicting for the past several months that Apple will introduce a bezel-less screen and Face ID in the next iPad. They've also predicted that Apple may choose to ditch the headphone jack in the upcoming iPad Pro. A recent report from Japanese tech site Macotakara suggested that Apple will make its new lineup of iPads thinner, which would require it to eliminate the headphone jack. The new iPad icon appears to show the absence of a notch design. The notch houses vital sensors and cameras that power Face ID, but it received from criticism from users who felt it obstructed the iPhone X's edge-to-edge screen This means that users wouldn't be able to plug their headphones into the standard 3.5 millimeter jack. Instead, they'd have to purchase an adapter that can fit into a lightning cable port. Additionallly, longtime Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted last month that Apple will release new iPads, AirPods, Macs and MacBooks, alongside its rumored three-device lineup of iPhones, this fall. He expects new iPad Pro models that feature an edge-to-edge screen and Apple's facial recognition technology, FaceID. The home button would be removed to make way for a truly bezel-less screen, just like the iPhone X. Kuo believes that Apple will release two new iPads - a 11-inch model and a 12.9-inch model. The Eiffel Tower was turning away tourists for a second day on Thursday as workers pressed a strike over a new access policy which they say is causing unacceptably long wait times for visitors. The monument has been closed since Wednesday afternoon as unions locked horns with management over a decision to assign separate elevators to visitors with pre-booked tickets and those who buy them on site. They say the policy is responsible for 'monstrous' queues. The Eiffel Tower was turning away tourists for a second day on Thursday as workers pressed a strike over a new access policy which they say is causing unacceptably long wait times for visitors Workers say the changes have resulted in lopsided queues that can extend to three hours for those waiting to pay for tickets, and up to an hour for internet customers who are supposed to have reserved time slots. Since last month, the Eiffel Tower has been allowing half of its tickets to be booked in advance for scheduled entry times. Previously, pre-booked tickets accounted for around one-fifth of the entries. But the tower's management has also decided to reserve specific elevators for each type of ticket holder, a move which 'creates lines that are at times monstrous and often lopsided', the CGT union said in a statement. During off-peak times for pre-booked tickets, such as early afternoon or evening, the reserved elevator might be half empty - despite lines of up to three hours at the elevator for walk-ins. And high demand at the pre-booked elevator can cause backups that force people to wait long beyond their scheduled visit. One tourist, who spoke to AFP yesterday, was disappointed that her visit to the monument with her husband and two children could not go ahead. She said: 'We may or may not come again, because we spent so much money. 'It's not nice, for whatever reason they have the strike for, it's an injustice to visitors.' However, CGT union's Denis Vavassori explained: 'Beyond the waste in terms of efficiency, and the unhappy visitors... employees' patience has run out.' The monument has been closed since Wednesday afternoon as unions locked horns with management over a decision to assign separate elevators to visitors with pre-booked tickets and those who buy them on site. They say the policy is responsible for 'monstrous' queues Staff want all the elevators to be available to all visitors, no matter what kind of ticket they have bought. Negotiations to end the deadlock dragged on well into Wednesday night and resumed early on Thursday, when workers were supposed to vote on a proposal offered by the site's operator SETE, which is majority owned by the city of Paris. 'The SETE is well aware of the disappointment for visitors because of the monument's closure, and its negative impact on the image of both the city and country,' the company said in a statement Wednesday. The tower, which welcomed more than six million visitors last year, has been hit by repeated strikes by its 300-strong staff in recent years over issues ranging from pick-pocketing to maintenance work. It has also been beset with multiple security issues and just last month, a newly built perimeter defences were placed around the monument to protect against terror threats. Advertisement Airbnb has plenty of unique properties on its books, but perhaps none so unusual as this - a homestay on the Great Wall of China. Airbnb worked with historians and designers in Beijing to turn one of the landmark's ancient watch towers into a unique crash pad, complete with a master bedroom and bathroom. Images of the one-of-a-kind room show it decked out with luxury furnishings - including a four-poster bed and elegant dining table - and its open-air design allows guests to stare up at the starry night sky. Airbnb has plenty of unique properties on its books, but perhaps none so unusual as this - a homestay on the Great Wall of China Airbnb worked with historians and designers in Beijing to turn one of the landmark's ancient watch towers into a unique homestay, complete with a master bedroom and bathroom The house rules stipulate that guests mustn't play loud music or attempt to 'scale, skip, jump over, crawl under, or run the length of the wall' during their stay. The stunning two-person suite will be open for four nights this September to lucky competition winners. To enter, participants must write on the Great Wall Airbnb listing page why it is 'more important now than ever to break down barriers between cultures' and 'how you want to build new connections'. Entries must be submitted by 11:59pm (Beijing time zone/GMT+8) on August 11. Along with staying the night, winners will be treated to a gourmet Chinese dinner and a sunrise hike through China's breathtaking countryside while learning about the Great Wall and efforts to preserve it. Images of the one-of-a-kind room show it decked out with luxury furnishings - including a four-poster bed and elegant dining table - and its open-air design allows guests to stare up at the starry night sky The stunning two-person suite will only by open for four nights this September, as part of a competition. Above, an aerial view of the room To win a stay on the Wall entrants must write on the Great Wall Airbnb listing page why it is 'more important now than ever to break down barriers between cultures' and 'how you want to build new connections' There will also be an opportunity to learn some traditional calligraphy skills and the art of seal engraving. Commenting on the project, the chairman and co-founder of Airbnb China, Nathan Blecharczyk, said: 'It's been an honour to work with historians and preservationist groups in Beijing to bring this once-in-a-lifetime experience to the world. 'We are so proud to partner in this truly collective effort to highlight such an incredible landmark that now serves to unify people rather than divide them.' Known as one of the greatest architectural feats in human history, the Great Wall was built as a border to protect Chinese states against raids thousands of years ago. It is estimated to measure between 5,600 to 13,000 miles, depending on which sections are included. Along with staying the night, winners will be treated to a gourmet Chinese dinner and a sunrise hike through China's breathtaking countryside while learning about the Great Wall and efforts to preserve it The hotel room even features a cosy seating area with a window looking out over the countryside There will also be the opportunity to learn some traditional calligraphy skills and the art of seal engraving The exact location of the Great Wall Airbnb isn't known. Above, a chair in the room covered with a fur throw The best known section today is the Ming Wall, constructed from 1368 to 1644. The fortress covers approximately 5,500 miles from the Jiayu Pass in Gansu province and the Shanhai Pass in Hebei province. Today, the Great Wall is widely considered to be one of the seven wonders of the modern world, attracting visitors from all over the globe. To be in with a chance of winning a night's stay at the Great Wall visit https://www.airbnb.co.uk/night-at/thegreatwall and click the 'enter to win' button. The Airbnb homestay is a one-off, but there are companies that offer stays on the wall year-round, including www.greatwalladventure.com/sleep-overnight-on-great-wall.htm Guests staying in the quirky Airbnb can gaze up at the night sky, with soft lighting setting the mood The open-air suite has been decked out with plush furnishings and warm blankets to keep guests snug Known as one of the greatest architectural feats in human history, the Great Wall was built as a border to protect Chinese states against raids thousands of years ago The landmark is estimated to measure between 5,600 to 13,000 miles, depending on which sections are included The best known section today is the Ming Wall, constructed from 1368 to 1644. The fortress covers approximately 5,500 miles from the Jiayu Pass in Gansu province and the Shanhai Pass in Hebei province Ryanair's directly employed pilots in Ireland will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action next week. The pilots will walk out on August 10 - the fifth one-day walkout in the airline's home market. It is also expected that pilots employed in Germany and the Netherlands will walk out on the same day. Ryanair's directly employed pilots in Ireland will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action next week Ryanair has also suffered strikes in some of its other main markets such as Spain and Portugal as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements across Europe. The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, has responded with chief executive Michael O'Leary threatening to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages. It is beginning with Dublin where it cut its winter fleet by 20 per cent and put over 300 employees on preliminary notice. Trade union Forsa, which represents the Irish pilots, hit out at the airline following the warning. It said that the pilots continue to seek a 'fair and transparent method' to govern base transfers and related matters which they say is common practice in the industry. In a statement, Forsa said on Thursday: 'For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots' reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters. 'In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsa's repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. 'The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks. The airline's escalation of the dispute last Wednesday when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland - led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff. Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary has threatened to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages 'Company management met the union the day before the first one-day strike, and two days before the second one-day strike (on July 18). It then changed its position and said it would not negotiate while strike action was planned.' The union said that two weeks have passed since their last meeting with management and warned that a resolution to the dispute cannot be reached if the airline has 'precondition' talks. The union added: 'On a number of occasions in recent weeks and months, there have been suggestions that third-party facilitation could assist in reaching consensus on issues of disagreement. 'Forsa has today repeated to the company that it is willing to explore this option.' However, Ryaniar's cheif marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said: 'This fifth strike notice by Forsa is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and (a way of damaging) Ryanair's business. 'Forsa has called for meetings with Ryanair, yet during each of the past two weeks when Ryanair has invited Forsa to meet, Forsa has rejected these invitations and instead called a fourth strike tomorrow (3rd Aug), and now a fifth trike (Fri 10th Aug) by just 25 per cent of Irish pilots. Ryanair pilots in the Forsa union form a picket line outside the airline's headquarters in Swords, County Dublin, while on an earlier strike 'In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute. 'Even when Ryanair invites Forsa to more meetings, Forsa just calls more strikes. Forsa should now explain why another 3,500 Irish customers will have their flights and holidays next Friday disrupted when Forsa have refused not one, but two invitations to meet with Ryanair to resolve this dispute. 'Forsa should also explain why when Ryanair has agreed nine of their 11 requirements, they call strikes rather than negotiate.' Ryanair has cancelled around 20 of Friday's 300 Irish flights as a result of the strike, mainly on busy routes to and from Ireland and Britain, and has said impacted passengers have either been put on another flight or refunded. The carrier, which operates from 86 bases in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, decided to recognise unions for the first time in its 32-year history last December to avert widespread strikes before Christmas. Its shares fell further on Thursday and were 3.7 per cent lower at 13.00 euros by 1430 GMT, the lowest mark since November 2016 and eight per cent below the level they sunk to in December when Ryanair shocked the markets by recognising unions. She has been soaking up the sun in Europe with her family over the past few weeks, staying in five-star hotels, going on shopping sprees sailing across the Italian coast in a $376,000-a-week superyacht. But Roxy Jacenko's luxury holiday came to a screeching halt on Wednesday. Taking to Instagram, the Sweaty Betty PR founder revealed the trip ended on a less-than-glamorous note when her son, Hunter, four, 'puked on her' during the family's 23-hour flight home to Australia. Scroll down for video That's one way to end a holiday! Roxy Jacenko (left, with her daughter Pixie) revealed she was 'puked on by her son' Hunter (right) during the family's 23-hour flight from Europe to Sydney Roxy shared a photo of her children, Hunter and Pixie, and husband Oliver Curtis tucking into a birthday cake as a 'midnight feast' at their Sydney home. She wrote in the caption: 'And 23 hours later... we are home (even managed to get puked on mid flight, thanks Hunty).' In the snap, the youngsters appeared to be bright eyed and bushy tailed despite the long-haul flight from Europe. Good to be home! On Wednesday, Roxy shared a photo (above) of her children and husband Oliver Curtis tucking into a 'midnight feast' at their Sydney home. She wrote in the caption, 'And 23 hours later... we are home (even managed to get puked on mid flight, thanks Hunty)' The 'midnight feast' appeared to be a late birthday celebration for Oliver, who turned 33 last month while the family were sailing on a superyacht in Capri. Oliver was released from prison in June 2017 after serving 12 months of a two-year sentence behind bars for conspiracy to commit insider trading. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia earlier this month, Roxy remarked how the trip to Europe was 'a far cry from his last holiday' in prison. 'Ready for a rave': The 'midnight feast' appeared to be a late birthday celebration for Oliver, who turned 33 last month while the family were sailing on a superyacht in Capri Roxy and Oliver have been married since 2012 and became 're-engaged' last year following his release from prison. However, it is understood they will not be holding a vow renewal ceremony. They spent four weeks travelling overseas with the family and friends before returning to their home town of Sydney on Wednesday. She lost 30kg to become a TV bride on the last season of Married At First Sight. And Alycia Galbraith, 29, is now set to finally complete her incredible transformation by flying overseas and undergoing a surgical cosmetic procedure. Daily Mail Australia can reveal the popular Nine personality is heading to Bangkok, Thailand, for a secret breast augmentation. Scroll down for video EXCLUSIVE: Secret surgery! MAFS' Alycia Galbraith is heading to Bangkok for boob job to complete TV star transformation. The 29-year-old lost 30kg before appearing on the hit Channel Nine reality show. She is seen on the left before her transformation A source said: 'Alycia will fly over in the next couple of weeks to go under the knife.' 'She's been keeping the details quiet and hasn't told many people - but the procedure is not for vanity reasons.' The star recently embarked upon a social media silence and deactivated her Instagram account while taking a break from the spotlight. 'Alycia will return online in her own time,' the source added. Top secret: 'Alycia will fly over in the next couple of weeks to go under the knife but the procedure is not for vanity reasons,' a source told Daily Mail Australia Alycia rose to fame on Married At First Sight earlier this year alongside TV husband Matty Lockett. Although sparks failed to fly between the pair and they were one of the first couples to quit the Nine show, Alycia became a fan favourite among viewers. Before filming began for the social experiment, the star revealed she'd shed an impressive 30kg after struggling with her weight for yeas. Familiar face: Alycia rose to fame on Married At First Sight earlier this year alongside TV husband Matty Lockett during their temporary union Speaking to Woman's Day, the Sydney local revealed she'd dropped the weight over the last six years and had finally reached self-love. 'I used to get quite upset about my appearance, but I reached the epitome of self-love when we filmed the MAFS promo ad,' she said. 'I had a weird and wonderful experience when I saw my stunt double, and couldn't believe I looked like her.' And weighing a healthy 67 kilos now, Alycia said it was during a holiday to Thailand in 2011 that she decided once and for all to turn things around - due in part to criticism from a bad boyfriend. 'I was in a bad relationship, and he used to put me down about my weight,' she confessed to the publication. While the relationship didn't last, Alycia kept her word and enrolled in a fitness course to educate herself - before losing 12 kilos in the first three months. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Alycia for comment. The contestants of the latest season of The Block are renovating Melbourne's infamous Gatwick Hotel, where murders, stabbings and drug overdoses took place. And this week, the show's co-creator Julian Cress revealed that Prince Philip, 97, once stayed at the hotel. Speaking to TV Tonight, Julian said the royal stayed at the hotel when it was in its heyday, before it became a 'festering fleapit' and a home for Melbourne's down and out. Scroll down for video Fit for royalty? The Block's co-creator reveals Prince Philip once stayed at the infamous Gatwick Hotel (pictured)... where murders, stabbings and drug overdoses took place 'When it opened in the late '30s it was a pretty fancy hotel. I'm told Prince Phillip stayed here at one point,' Julian said 'When it opened in the late '30s it was a pretty fancy hotel. I'm told Prince Phillip stayed here at one point,' Julian said. He added: 'I believe he was billeted during the war.' The Gatwick - which is located on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda - became a boarding house in the 1970s. Rundown: The Gatwick - which is located on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda - became a boarding house in the 1970s The Gatwick became known as a 'festering fleapit' - a cheap St Kilda rooming house that was a refuge for Melbourne's down and out. It was a rooming house until it closed last year. A News.com.au report from May 2017 described it as 'a place where you can be murdered in your room, robbed, bashed or offered a variety of drugs among the cockroaches, addicts and prison parolees.' Not like its former glory days: It was once known as a 'festering fleapit' - a cheap St Kilda rooming house that was a refuge for Melbourne's down and out Controversial: In June, host of the show, Scott Cam (pictured), spoke about the hotel on the Today show and admitted: 'Some dodgy colourful colours lived there' In June, host of the show, Scott Cam, spoke about the hotel on the Today show and admitted: 'Some dodgy colourful colours lived there.' 'It was an iconic building in Melbourne. It was very famous in the thirties and fell into disrepair...we've bought it back to its former glory,' he stated. The hotel is being transformed into large units, which will no doubt sell for millions once completed and when they go under the hammer. He has been wowing audiences with his portrayal of an unhinged Irish terrorist in The Lieutenant Of Inishmore since June. And Aidan Turner was back to his usual, bright self on Wednesday, as he stepped out to meet with an adoring group of fans who waited patiently for him after the play. The Poldark star, 35, looked thrilled to be meeting theatregoers once again as he smiled brightly the moment he came out of the stage door. Happy to do it: Aidan Turner stepped out to meet a large group of adoring fans after another intense West End performance in The Lieutenant Of Inishmore on Wednesday The Irish actor donned a dark blue shirt over his muscular torso, which matched his dark jeans well and complemented his pair of black trainers. He looked dapper with his close-cropped beard and messy raven tresses, which sat in tight curls on his head. The Being Human actor took his time with his fans, making sure to sign as much as possible for the devoted mass so that they wouldn't be disappointed. Pleased to meet you: The Being Human actor took his time with his fans, making sure to sign as much as possible for the devoted mass so that they wouldn't be disappointed Dark role: Aidan plays Padraic, a young, unhinged terrorist who returns home and goes on a murderous rampage when he discovers his cat has been killed Aidan's fans rushed to the front the moment he left the stage door, and they stood as close to the barrier as possible in order to get the perfect picture of him. Speaking to each of them in turn, the actor seemed more than happy to get to know his fans as he signed things one by one. The play, set in 1993 on the island of Inishmore, County Galway, was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001 and was created by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri director Martin McDonagh. Dapper: The Irish actor donned a dark blue shirt over his muscular torso, which matched his dark jeans well and complemented his pair of black shoes Aidan plays Padraic, a young, unhinged terrorist who returns home and goes on a murderous rampage when he discovers his cat, who he refers to as his 'best friend in the whole world', has been killed. In true Martin McDonagh style, everything descends into chaos as Padraic storms back into his father Donny's (Denis Conway) home, and tries to exact his revenge but is then interrupted when fellow terrorists turn up on his doorstep. I think people will be surprised, the actor told the Daily Mail last year, while on a short break from filming the fourth and penultimate series of the top-rated BBC television Sunday night drama Poldark. Its the furthest I can get from Ross Poldark that I can possibly imagine. Taking his time: Speaking to each of them in turn, the actor seemed more than happy to get to know his fans as he signed things one by one Katie Holmes was spotted out in NYC with daughter Suri, 12, on Wednesday. The 39-year-old actress looked effortlessly chic in a white blouse and ballet flats, while Suri looked pretty in a pink dress and sneakers. Holmes shares her daughter with ex-husband Tom Cruise, 56. Quality time: Katie Holmes was spotted out in NYC with daughter Suri, 12, on Wednesday The Dawson's Creek vet teamed her outfit with mid-rise denim and a few pieces of gold jewelry. She wore her short locks in a tousled wave and appeared to be rocking a deep burgundy lip. Suri walked closely to her mom as they crossed the busy streets of the Big Apple. Mom duty: The 39-year-old actress looked effortlessly chic in a white blouse and ballet flats Summer in the city: Suri looked pretty in a pink dress and sneakers The mother-daughter street sighting came days after RadarOnline claimed Suri has reached out to her father Tom Cruise, who she has not been photographed in public with in four years, asking him to visit her. 'He wants her to know that he's thought of her all this time and that he got all of her messages. In fact, he read and listened to each and every word,' a source told the site. 'He feels like he's missed out so much. He wants her to be a part of his life. Tom couldn't reach out [to Suri] before because Katie fled the religion.' Family matters: The mother-daughter street sighting came days after RadarOnline claimed Suri has reached out to her father Tom Cruise, who she has not been photographed in public with in four years, asking him to visit her (pictured 2012) Katie's 56-year-old ex-husband just moved into a Clearwater condo located a block from the Church of Scientology's international headquarters in Florida - according to People. Katie was also reportedly banned from publicly dating anyone for five years due to a clause in her 2012 divorce settlement with Tom. Holmes is now openly seeing actor Jamie Foxx, whom she's been secretly dating for nearly five years. The trans model who was digitally erased from the cover of Travis Scott's forthcoming Astroworld record, which was designed by artist David LaChapelle, is holding her head high in the wake of the discouraging news. The cover of the recording is centered around an enormous gold rendering of Scott's head, flanked by a number of scantily-clad models. On the original album cover, Amanda Lepore, 50, was seen on the left side donning skimpy lingerie while leaned forward, but in a subsequent shot the Houston-based rapper, 26, posted to his social media page Wednesday, she was no longer in the photograph. Controversy: Trans model Amanda Lepore was digitally erased from the cover of Travis Scott's forthcoming Astroworld record. She was positioned on the left-hand side between a missile and a sculpture of Scott's head in the original shot, but digitally edited out in the second one (below) 'It was great being part of [LaChapelle's] incredible photograph of [Travis Scott's] album cover but Im curious why Im not on the picture [Scott] posted,' Lepore wrote on Instagram. 'A girl cant help it ... Too distracting for the eyes ... Upstaged everyone in the photograph ... Oh well.' Lepore said she still loves both the artist and the Antidote performer in spite of the issue. LaChapelle, according to TMZ, made clear that the editing of the photo was not a reflection of Lepore's work, adding that she 'just upstaged every one' and 'knows the T.' LaChapelle, according to the outlet, said that the call to remove Lepore from the artwork had 'nothing to do with hating.' The omission caused a backlash via Twitter, as some defended the artistic decision, while others said it reeked of transphobia. Sealed with a kiss: Amanda Lepore was snapped in NYC this past January Gearing up: Scott is set to release his new album Astroworld on Friday One user wrote of Lepore: 'Travis Scott is a transphobic piece of s***. Trans icon and mode @Amanda_Lepore was featured in his newest album cover, but the version he posted to Instagram has her edited out. Disgusting.' Another chimed in, 'Just because shes trans doesnt mean shes instantly given the unprecedented right to be in everyones art, if Travis didnt like the way she looked in his art then he is allowed to remove her so that he has achieved his creative process, it is his album after all, not Amandas.' Scott, who welcomed a daughter Stormi with Kylie Jenner earlier this year, has ramped up the merchandising for his nascent album, unveiling pieces of a 28-piece collection he's putting out that will be available for limited runs of 24 hours, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday. The items the Watch artist is selling will all be accompanied by a digital copy of the recording, which will be released Friday. Rumours of a split between seemingly inseparable Bachelor In Paradise couple Megan Marx and Jake Ellis began circulating last month. But Jake claims he and the blonde beauty 'couldn't be happier' and that speculation the pair are on the brink of a breakup couldn't be further than the truth. Speaking to Who Magazine on Thursday, the former reality star, 31, insisted: 'I don't know where that came from or who the source is but it's definitely not true!' 'We couldn't be happier': Bachelor In Paradise star Jake Ellis has hit back at rumours he's 'taking a break' from girlfriend Megan Marx after claims 'they've been having problems' Jake even boasted about his 29-year-old model girlfriend in the interview, gushing: 'I've definitely found the one!' The TV hunk said the pair have been through a lot in the past year after he lost his mother and his father became sick. 'She was thrown into the deep end with such a supportive role,' he explained. 'It made us stronger. It made what we have so much more real.' Meanwhile, Megan told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday: 'We're trying to work through our issues.' 'I've definitely found the one!' The former reality star, 31, insisted things were still perfect between the pair as he boasted about his supportive girlfriend in the interview 'They've been having problems for months': His denial comes after a source claimed Megan and Jake were 'taking a break' last month Indeed, a source close to Megan told Daily Mail Australia last month that things weren't great between the pair. 'They've been having problems for the past two months. Megan's really upset,' the source said. The insider revealed that the busty blonde moved back to Sydney on her own as the couple take time apart to reflect on their suitability. While the anonymous source said they were unsure if they would reunite in the near future, they said: 'They want things to work, and Jake appears to have a plan to win Megan back in the coming weeks. 'Moving back to Sydney was the right move for Megan, and she doesn't want to hurt Jake. He's been through a lot this year,' the friend said of the split, noting Jake's mother died earlier this year.' When Daily Mail Australia approached Jake for comment, he said the rumours were 'completely false', adding: 'Megan and I are very much still together.' 'She is in Sydney for some work for a few days and I am flying down to Sydney to be with her early next week,' he added. 'She was in tears': The alleged break, according to the friend, came after the couple fought publicly at Splendour In The Grass festival in Byron Bay last month Going solo: The insider revealed the busty blonde moved back to Sydney on her own, as the pair take time a part to reflect on their suitability The alleged break, according to the friend, came after the couple fought publicly at Splendour In The Grass festival in Byron Bay last month. 'She was in tears and completely embarrassed as people watched them have it out. To make things worse, some people were even filming it!' the source said. While on Bachelor In Paradise, Megan and Jake decided to end their relationship ahead of the final commitment ceremony. 'Jake appears to have a plan to win Megan back': The friend claimed the pair want to make things work, but need some time apart 'Moving back to Sydney was the right move for Megan': Last month, Megan cryptically posted a call out for a motorbike instructor in Sydney on her Instagram Story Megan, a model and social media influencer, had previously expressed doubts that Jake would remain faithful to her in the real world. However in May, Megan confirmed that they were back together and had been secretly dating for five months since filming wrapped. 'We're taking it as it comes. We're both very cruisey,' she said at the time to Brisbane's hit105's Stav, Abby and Matt. Megan also admitted she had 'been living out of a suitcase for two years' with no plans to slow down or move in with Jake, who resides in Queensland. Jake also told Now To Love at the time: 'She's basically living out of suitcase doing a lot of travel and I'm based on the Gold Coast. We're taking it as it comes and see each other when we can.' Will they reunite? The pair, who met on Bachelor In Paradise last year, recently celebrated their six-month anniversary in June In June, the pair celebrated their six-month anniversary in a Brisbane hotel room adorned with rose petals. Jake shared on social media: 'Today marks six months together, and everyday I fall more in love with you... My best friend, partner in crime and amazing girl.' The pair have become known for their saucy shenanigans, with Jake revealing in May that he broke his penis whilst having sex with Megan in a friend's bathroom. 'Immediately I knew I'd done some damage to myself, and told Megan I needed to go to the hospital straight away,' Jake told NW. After surgery and stitches, Jake told Daily Mail Australia that he had fully recovered. He has been on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel ever since it first began in 2004. So it comes as no surprise that Craig Revel Horwood has plenty show secrets to spill, in his upcoming autobiography. Speaking to the Mirror, the choreographer, 53, revealed he is penning a tell-all book about his life, which will cover his time on the popular BBC show as well as his past heartbreaks. Spilling all: Craig Revel Horwood is penning a third tell-all autobiography, which will cover his time on the popular BBC show as well as his past heartbreaks (pictured in April 2018) The book will be titled In Strictest Confidence, and will spill plenty of anecdotes and memories from behind the Strictly scenes, as well as more intimate details about his personal life. Craig said on Wednesday: 'It's wonderful to be writing another volume. I'm told I should slow down as I get older, which is ridiculous as I seem to have speeded up!' Opening up for his fans, the judge also revealed the book will focus on his turbulent romance with Damon Scott, which came to an end in early 2016. Dream team: Titled In Strictest Confidence, the book will spill plenty of anecdotes from behind the Strictly scenes (pictured with Darcey Bussell, Shirley Ballas and Bruno Tonioli) The pair parted ways after three years together, but things soon turned sour when puppeteer Damon blamed Craig's drinking for their split. Addressing his former flame, Craig went on: 'With my other lovers and boyfriends I've remained friends. But there's no way with Damon. 'There is nothing really you can do about it because there is a side to everybody's story, everyone's broken relationship.' 'I could never be friends with him': The book will also on his romance with Damon Scott, which came to a bitter end in early 2016 when Damon (R) claimed Craig was a heavy drinker Publishers also revealed the autobiography, which is set for release in October, will talk of 'the pain of losing his dad' in 2015. The book follows on from his existing books Tales From The Dance Floor and All Balls And Glitter - having lived a colourful life as a choreographer and TV personality. However, Craig is best known for his role on Strictly Come Dancing, and recently revealed he will be returning for its sixteenth series in September. Comeback kid: Craig is best known for his role on Strictly Come Dancing, and recently revealed he will be returning for its sixteenth series in September Speaking in June, he said excitedly: 'Yes, same judges. Shirley is back with us, which will be great. 'Bruno is back and being more Italian than ever. And of course the fabulous Darcey Bussell. I think it is a great team and it was really good last year, I can't wait to get back into it.' BBC One has yet to confirm anything about the 2018 cast, but rumours are swirling about Michelle Keegan, Mark Labbett, Cheryl, Nadiya Hussain and others appearing on the show. The Real Marigold Hotel Rating: Murder in Soho: Who killed Freddie Mills? Rating: Never mind accent, school or double-barrelled relatives. The true test of how posh you are is what youd be prepared to pay for a bottle of vino. Quiz host Alexander Armstrong airily declared, on a foodie show a while back, that nothing under 50 quid should be considered drinkable. A 20 bottle might be used for cooking, but anything cheaper wasnt fit for paint-stripping: A waste of alcohol units, he called it. Alexander, you see, is posh. Janette and Ian Tough, better known as The Krankies, are not. They were aghast at an off-licence in the Indian city of Udaipur, on The Real Marigold Hotel (BBC1) at the fortune their co-star Stanley Johnson was prepared to fork out for good plonk. Theres a broad mixture of classes as nine TV personalities are thrown together, from the aeriated Dynasty actress Stephanie Beacham Ye paid eight poon furra bottle a red wine? choked Janette, her Scottish brogue stretched to its limit by her distress. Stanley was baffled: hed cheerfully handed over fistfuls of rupees in the wine shop, convinced he was getting a bargain. Stanley, of course, is the eccentric father of former foreign secretary Boris Johnson. Maximum poshum est, as Bojo might say. Theres a broad mixture of classes as nine TV personalities are thrown together, from the aeriated Dynasty actress Stephanie Beacham to the old-fashioned Lancashire comic Syd Little. But they all seem likeable: previous parties have included a few prickly characters who could ruin your holiday just by staying in the same resort. Over a four-part series, the blandness of this years bunch might prove a mistake. The tension supplied by an awkward customer, albeit national treasures such as former Marigolders Bill Oddie and Miriam Margolyes, keeps the documentary on edge. A forgotten hero of old-fashioned Britain was saluted on Murder In Soho: Who Killed Freddie Mills? (BBC4) But for the first hour, it was refreshing to see everyone getting along. Syd, 75, was especially kindly: he befriended jockey Bob Champion when he realised the Grand National star had never tasted curry before and was struggling to eat spicy food for breakfast, lunch and tea. The duo hatched a plan to cook an English roast dinner. At the market, bartering for a couple of chickens, Syd was horrified to see the birds beheaded before his eyes. I suppose well have to buy them now, he fretted. Classic motors of the night Laboured it may be, with static scenes and stiff dialogue, but theres one good reason to enjoy The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (ITV) the period U.S. automobiles. From Packards to Buicks, its got some beauties. Advertisement Everyone tucked in greedily to their poultry platter. They didnt seem to realise they were wrecking the whole point of the show, which is to discover whether retirement in India would suit them. If they cant go three days without meat and two veg, the answer to that is No. A forgotten hero of old-fashioned Britain was saluted on Murder In Soho: Who Killed Freddie Mills? (BBC4). With the participation of his three children, and illustrated by dozens of clips from the boxers home movies, this reverent documentary traced his life and investigated his murder. Officially, it was suicide: the former world light-heavyweight champ supposedly shot himself through the eyeball with a fairground rifle, outside his nightclub, in July 1965. But there were signs of a struggle, and the rifle had been set down neatly after Mills died. Perhaps to keep the family on board, this probe skated over seedier allegations about Mills, including reports he beat up prostitutes during sex parties. It preferred to emphasise his short-lived career as a TV star. But the gentle treatment paid off, when a former underworld associate of Mills admitted that his father had organised the hit. Though theres more to be discovered, this shone a valuable light on some murky history. He lent his pipes for the theme song to his hit 1990's show Frazier. And Kelsey Grammer hasn't lost a beat as he was spotted on a karaoke stage at an after-party for the premiere of his film Like Father in Hollywood on Tuesday. The 63-year-old actor took control of the crowd as he channeled his inner David Bowie by singing the 1983 classic Let's Dance according to a video obtained by TMZ. Sing it! Kelsey Grammer, 63, was spotted on the karaoke stage at an after-party for the premiere of his film Like Father in Hollywood on Tuesday Daring to impress, the Cheers alum rocked a white button down shirt unbuttoned at the top as he belted out the song. Seth Rogen - Kelsey's costar in Netflix's Like Father - was reportedly sitting at the tiki bar during the impromptu performance. A source said Kelsey's wife Kayte Walsh performed Dolly Parton's Jolene before her husband of seven years stormed the stage. Classic: The actor took control of the crowd as he channeled his inner David Bowie by singing the 1983 classic Let's Dance Impressive: Daring to impress, the Cheers alum rocked a white button down shirt unbuttoned at the top as he belted out the song Kelsey sounded like a pro as he sunk his teeth into the lyrics: 'If you say run, I'll run with you. And if you say hide. We'll hide. Because my love for you. Would break my heart in two. If you should fall into my arms'. But even though he faltered on the line 'And tremble like a flower', Kelsey continued his performance as he is a veteran of lending his voice to projects. In 1993, Kelsey recorded the jazzy Tossed Salads & Scrambled Eggs for the theme song to his Cheers spin-off show Frazier. Famous friends: Seth Rogen - Kelsey's costar in Netflix's Like Father - was reportedly sitting at the tiki bar during the impromptu performance Hard act to follow: A source said Kelsey's wife Kayte Walsh performed Dolly Parton's Jolene before her husband of seven years stormed the stage Old pro: In 1993, Kelsey recorded the jazzy Tossed Salads & Scrambled Eggs for the theme song to his Cheers spin-off show Frazier Meanwhile, Kelsey and his co-stars - including Kristen Bell - attending the premiere of Like Father earlier in the night. In the film, Kristen plays a young executive who is left at the altar and takes her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with the last person she ever expected -- her estranged father, played by Kelsey. The film was written and directed by Lauren Miller. He's the former topless waiter who found fame on The Bachelor in 2014. And Blake Garvey, 35, looked different from his glory days in the spotlight while stepping out in Perth on Monday with a female companion. The rarely seen TV personality seemingly retired from from the celebrity world following his split from Bachie runner-up Louise Pillidge, 30, in 2016. Scroll down for video How you've changed! Rarely seen Blake Garvey looked different as he stepped out in Perth on Monday, right, in comparison from his days as The Bachelor and a sexy topless waiter, left Blake dressed smart for the outing in a figure hugging purple shirt with grey trousers and brown shoes. He appeared in good spirits as the pair shared a laugh while heading for lunch. The real estate agent looked different from his days of a topless waiter who flaunted his buff body at events during his younger years. Working man: Blake stepped out for lunch on Monday with a mystery brunette Having fun: He appeared in good spirits as they headed out for some food Keeping it classy: Blake dressed smart for the outing in a figure hugging purple shirt with grey trousers and brown shoes More than friends: Blake was recently linked to Crown Towers employee Tania Mondon, but didn't confirm their relationship, before stepping out with mystery brunette Sexy past: The real estate agent looked different from his days as a topless waiter who flaunted his buff body at events during his younger years Blake's outing follows claims he's been 'dating Crown Towers employee Tania Mondon for two years.' Despite neither Blake, or the part time model, confirming the status of their relationship, the pair were spotted enjoying a cosy date together earlier this year. At the time a source told Daily Mail Australia the couple 'got together' after his split from Louise in 2016. TV star: Blake found fame on The Bachelor in 2014 alongside Sam Frost Rarely seen: Blake seemingly retired from from the celebrity world following his split from Bachelor runner-up Louise Pillidge in 2016 No pictures: Blake has rarely been seen since his time in the spotlight Not so shy: Blake wasn't so camera shy during his younger days while reveling in the attention as a topless waiter Blake was branded a 'love rat' following his rise to fame on the Ten show in 2014. During the show's grand finale, the Bachelor proposed to Sam Frost - only to dump her weeks later for second runner-up Louise. The couple then went on to enjoy a two year relationship before splitting. He dropped off the celebrity radar shortly after separating from Louise. Discussing their decision to end things, Blake told New Idea: 'We were walking on eggshells around each other, always trying to say the right thing ... It was suffocating.' He's known for his environmentally-conscious stances. And now Leonardo DiCaprio has put his money where his mouth is, by investing in sustainable footwear brand Allbirds, the company announced on Wednesday. 'I am proud to join the company as an investor,' the 43-year-old said in a statement. Environmentally conscious: Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in sustainable footwear brand Allbirds, the company announced on Wednesday. He's seen here in April 2018 The Titanic actor's statement read: 'Creating sustainable consumer products requires a deep commitment from brands that understand the role they have in helping solve our environmental crisis.' 'Allbirds is on the forefront of developing new materials that will serve as a model for the footwear industry.' 'This kind of innovation is crucial for creating a more sustainable future.' Allbirds has recently launched their range of flip-flops, that are made with renewable sugarcane as opposed to plastic EVA foam. The product: Allbirds has recently launched their range of flip-flops, that are made with renewable sugarcane as opposed to plastic EVA foam On set: The 43-year-old Django Unchained star has been busy recently filming Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for writer-director Quentin Tarantino The Django Unchained star has been busy recently filming Once Upon A Time In Hollywood for writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film follows an actor by the name of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stunt double, played by Brad Pitt, as they attempt to make a name for themselves in the film industry. The main story runs parallel to the murder of actress Sharon Tate, played by Robbie, who, along with four friends, was slain by Charles Manson's cult followers. This is Tarantino's first movie based on true events and also stars Margot Robbie, Dakota Fanning and Al Pacino. It's a boy! Alex Murrel welcomed her second child with husband Kyle Jonhson as she gave birth in Newport Beach, California on Wednesday. The 31-year-old star of Laguna Beach posted adorable pictures to her Instagram with the caption: 'Kase Robert Johnson arrived this morning weighing 8lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long...' Arrival! Alex Murrel welcomed her second child with husband Kyle Jonhson as she gave birth in Newport Beach, California on Wednesday 'He wanted to stay in my belly an extra five days just so he could have his own birthday month and not compete with his older brother,' she added. Kase joins the couples 2-year-old son, Levi. In one photo, Alex cradles the newborn in her arms as she lays in a hospital bed. Another snap has Kyle holding their son Levi as he adorably kisses his new baby brother on the head. Welcome! The 31-year-old star of Laguna Beach posted adorable pictures to her Instagram with the caption: 'Kase Robert Johnson arrived this morning weighing 8lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long...' Too cute! Another snap has Kyle holding their son Levi as he adorably kisses his new baby brother on the head The last photo is a close up of Kase as he enjoys some quiet time in a bed. The couple said they struggled with naming the baby in an interview with ET. 'Boys' names have always been so hard for us,' the couple shared. 'Levi has such a strong name, so we felt a lot of pressure to give this baby the same type of name. 'We had a couple names picked out, but none of them felt right. The name came to us about a week before we had him. 'My husband was always known as "KJ" growing up, so we really wanted to have another little "KJ" and thats how we landed on Kase Johnson,' Alex explained. Tracey Jewel's ex Patrick Kedemos has broken his silence following their shocking split earlier this week. The couple's relationship collapsed in Berlin on Saturday after Patrick, 45, officially ended things leaving 35-year-old Tracey 'stranded as she 'had no money with her to pay for a return ticket home.' Patrick has since responded to an anonymous Instagram account dedicated to exposing the Married At First Sight star's alleged 'lies' in the wake of their break up. Scroll down for video No going back! Tracey Jewel's ex Patrick Kedemos has broken his silence following their split The account in question shared a screenshot of Patrick responding to them on Thursday after they'd sent him a string of messages. In the message, that the account shared to their Instagram story, Patrick broke his silence following the whole situation, writing: 'Time to join the club I guess.' Patrick was seemingly referring to the fact Tracey's other exes, Sean Thomsen and Malcolm Day, each follow the account already and have been interacting with it. When approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia about his interactions with the account, Patrick, who does not follow the page, said: 'I did not reach out to them. They reached out to me.' Subtle dig: The 45-year-old responded to an anonymous Instagram account dedicated to exposing the Married At First Sight star's alleged 'lies' New fan: The account shared a screenshot of Patrick replying to them on Thursday after they'd sent him a string of messages However, her MAFS 'husband' Dean Wells slammed the account while defending his ex after the pair formed a close bond on the hit Nine show. 'There's wars, famine, diseases and all kinds of injustice in this world, yet this is the cause you guys have decided to take on. Leave the poor girl alone,' Dean pleaded in the comment section of one of their posts. 'No ones perfect. Seriously you guys could be putting your energy into a lot more worthy causes.' No love lost: Patrick wrote, 'Time to join the club I guess', seemingly referring to the fact Tracey's other exes, Sean Thomsen (pictured) and Malcolm Day, already follow it 'Leave the poor girl alone': Tracey's MAFS 'husband' Dean Wells pleaded for the account to give Tracey alone and focus their efforts on something else The account has posted 62 times in the nine days it's been active so far - each one dedicated to things from Tracey's past and her various business dealings. The anonymous creator stated in one post: 'I never started this page to bully or troll.' 'I started this page as I began to notice deep inconsistencies with stories not adding up. The more information I dug, the more I found information contradictory to what we've been led to believe [by Tracey].' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Tracey for comment. She's known to have quite the famous friend list. So It wasn't surprising when Gwyneth Paltrow posted a photo in honor of National Friend's Day on Wednesday that showcased a lot of famous faces. The 45-year-old actress went makeup free in the picture that showed her atop a mountain with A-list gal pals like Cameron Diaz, 45, and Lake Bell. Celebrate: Gwyneth Paltrow, 45, posted a makeup free photo in honor of National Friend's Day on Wednesday that showcased a lot of famous faces like Cameron Diaz, 45, and Lake Bell, 39 'Its #nationalgirlfriendday and here are just a few of the incredible women who I am lucky enough to love and be loved by,' the author captioned the shot. In it she's wearing long, black leggings tucked into leg warmers and brown boots. On top the mother of two is wearing a puffy black vest with a black turtle neck underneath. The Goop founder's signature blonde hair was left down to freely flow and it was gathered on one shoulder for the pose. Reaching out: 'Its #nationalgirlfriendday and here are just a few of the incredible women who I am lucky enough to love and be loved by,' the author captioned the shot of her with her girlfriends Gwyneth appeared to be fresh faced and had no accessories on. By her side in a peach colored top, black leggings and sneakers as well was The Mask alum Cameron Diaz who looked happy in the photo smiling from ear to ear. The Bad Teacher actress had no makeup on, too. BFFs: By Paltrow's side in a peach colored top, black leggings and sneakers as well was The Mask alum Cameron Diaz, pictured here back in April, who looked happy in the photo smiling from ear to ear Her blonde tresses were tied back into a ponytail. Diaz had a purse slung across her and her arms were wrapped another one of their girlfriends. Also in the picture was actress Lake Bell, 39, who rocked a casual outfit. Casual cutie: Lake Bell, photographed here back in June, rocked a casual-hippie inspired outfit while hiking with her gal pals The Boston Legal alum wore a mustard-yellow sweater on top of black leggings. She wore tan colored sneakers with white, high-top socks. The Secret Life of Pets voiceover star wore her signature brown locks down and flowing past her shoulders as a brown floppy hat tried to hold them in place. This all-girl outing comes after Gwyneth recently talked about her relation to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal. Speaking out: This all-girl outing comes after Gwyneth recently talked about her relation to the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal She was one of his biggest stars, making 'three or four or five movies a year' with the mogul in the 1990s and 2000s. And the beauty spoke candidly about her relationship with her alleged sexual harasser in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in late July. 'He could be truly horrible and mean and then be incredibly generous. It was kind of like a classic abusive relationship,' Paltrow said. Past love: Cameron's then-boyfriend Brad Pitt allegedly told Weinstein 'If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, Ill kill you' upon finding out about the unwanted advances She previously spoke told Howard Stern that during the 1990s, Weinstein requested a massage from the then 22-year-old star. 'We had one incident in a hotel room where he tried to make a pass at me.' Her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt allegedly told Weinstein 'If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, Ill kill you' upon finding out about the unwanted advances. Scary: She previously spoke told Howard Stern that during the 1990s, Weinstein requested a massage from the then 22-year-old star Gwyneth also spoke of her marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, from whom she divorced in 2016. The Academy Award winning actress described feeling like 'were in a lot of pain, we failed at this; were going to try and do it in a different way.' 'I was so raw.' The pair were married in 2003 and share two children: Apple, 14, and Moses, 12. Ex-husband: Gwyneth married Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2003 and share two children: Apple, 14, and Moses, 12 In January 2018, the Se7en actress became engaged to 47-year-old TV writer Brad Falchuk. The actress' filmmaking output has decreased as she dedicates more time her lifestyle company, Goop. The company began as a free newsletter in 2008, encouraging readers to 'nourish the inner aspect'. According to the New York Times Magazine's sources, it is now worth $250 million. The Bachelor's Kirralee 'Kiki' Morris was allegedly involved in a domestic violence incident with her ex-boyfriend Jeremy Banks, Daily Mail Australia can exclusively reveal. According to court documents, the former glamour model, 30, was allegedly slapped and choked by Banks, 28, in the early hours of Saturday 5 May at their apartment in Manly, Sydney. Police were called after Morris fled to a neighbour's apartment and subsequently charged Banks with two counts of assault, however the charges were withdrawn last week. Ordeal: Former Bachelor star Kirralee 'Kiki' Morris (left, in Sydney on Tuesday) was involved in a domestic violence incident with her ex-boyfriend Jeremy Banks (right, on Monday), Daily Mail Australia can exclusively reveal Police served Banks with a Provisional Apprehended Violence Order following the incident, which was also withdrawn on 24 July. Court documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia state that on the evening of Friday 4 May, Morris and Banks were at their Manly apartment drinking alcohol with friends. Morris, who hails from Newcastle, NSW, claimed she began to feel unwell sometime during the evening and so took cold and flu tablets before going to bed. Assault: The former glamour model, 30, was allegedly slapped and choked by Jeremy, 28, in the early hours of Saturday 5 May at their apartment in Manly, Sydney She was allegedly woken at 5am the following morning to find Banks standing over her holding her mobile phone and screaming, according to court documents. Morris claimed that she remembered being dragged or pulled by Banks and thrown to the lounge and held down with physical force. In fear and unable to call for help due to the pressure on her throat, Morris banged on the floor hoping to arouse neighbours for assistance. Banks then slapped her and yelled at her to 'shut the f**k up' and 'answer the question', the documents further claimed. Morris told police she may have struck out at Banks around this time in self defence but couldn't be sure. Violent: Police were called after Morris fled to a neighbour's apartment and subsequently charged Banks with two counts of assault, however the charges were withdrawn last week. Pictured: Document outlining the charges Moving on: Kiki, who hails from Newcastle, NSW, looked downcast while in Sydney on Tuesday Ex-boyfriend: Jeremy also appeared strained as he stepped out in Sydney on Monday evening Morris eventually broke free and ran outside of the unit into the arms of a neighbour who ushered her into her apartment. Police were called and arrived a short time later. Banks was arrested and cautioned before being conveyed to Manly Police Station. The court documents stated that police officers observed bruising to Morris' eye, deep bruising to her inner lower lip and redness to her elbows. Account: In the early hours of the morning, Morris was woken at 5am to find Banks standing over her holding her mobile phone and screaming. Court documents (pictured) claim that Banks hit Morris and yelled at her to 'shut the f**k up' and 'answer the question' Banks was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm (domestic violence) and common assault (domestic violence). Police imposed bail conditions due to Banks having two prior assault charges, the 'nature and seriousness of the offence' and the injuries sustained by Morris. Morris and Banks began dating in 2016, following her appearance on Richie Strahan's season of The Bachelor Australia. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kiki Morris for comment. If you or someone you know is dealing with issues around sexual violence or domestic or family violence, you can call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 She's an actress best known for her role on Glee. He's the guitarist for the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons. And together on Wednesday Dianna Agron and husband Winston Marshall appeared to be a picture of contentment as they took a stroll to a restaurant for lunch in the Soho neighborhood of New York City. Lunch date: Dianna Agron and husband Winston Marshall were spotted heading to lunch in the Soho neighborhood of New York City on Wednesday Keeping up with her go-to fashion trend, Dianna went with a floral short sleeve dress that had just enough black trim along the edges to give it some extra pop. She seemed to walk at ease in a pair of black sandals while carrying a black bag over her shoulder. Her long blonde locks were pulled back into a ponytail as she appeared to be wearing minimal make-up. The British-born Winston also opted for one of his go-to fashion choices that consists of black jeans, a white t-shirt and black leather boots. And lets not forget his rock and roll hair, which flowed past his shoulders with a part on the left. Summer style: Dianna, 32, glowed in a long floral dress with black trim Fits like a glove: Dianna and Winston have styles that just work well together Not matter the occasion, the happy couple almost always seem to be in step with each other - when it comes to style and fashion. Dianna and Winston have been married since October 2016, and they have been living in New York City for more than a year now. Dianna released two movies in 2017: The Crash and Novitiate. Her acting resume also includes roles in CSI: NY, Veronica Mars and Heroes. Winston's band Mumford & Sons have released three stuido albums since forming in 2007. Their first one, Sigh No More (2009) peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the U.S. There proceeding albums, Babel (2012) and Wilder Mind (2015) debuted at number one in both countries. Eve has weighed in on the controversy Kim Kardashian found herself enmeshed in a Twitter spat with Tyson Beckford, jabbing back at with a remark some people found homophobic. After Beckford, 47, left a snide remark about her figure - writing, 'She's not real, doctor f***** up on her right hip' on an Instagram shot she posted, Kim's retort was, 'Sis we all know why you don't care for it,' offending many - but not Eve. 'I don't think it was homophobic,' the 39-year-old musical artist said on The Talk, adding: 'I think it was one of those things that's like, she probably was hurt by that statement. Scroll below for video Standing with Kim: Eve, 38, said on The Talk Wednesday Kim Kardashian was not being homophobic amid a Twitter spat she had with Tyson Beckford, calling him 'sis' The Grammy-winner said that Kim was likely coming from a defensive place after Beckford made unwelcome remarks about her body. 'I think she was coming back at somebody who was coming at her, that's how I feel,' said the Let Me Blow Ya Mind artist. 'I feel he said something to her first which made her feel like she had to clap back ... which I actually giggled about.' Eve, who's also acted and had her own fashion line, said she felt Kim 'probably was saying, "Let me find something that would hurt him, to get him"' with her response. 'I don't think it was homophobic,' she said. Feud: Kim Kardashian has been slammed on social media for her response at Tyson Beckford in which she insinuated that he was gay Hot topic: The panel on the show had varying takes on the social media controversy Counterpuncher: The Grammy-winner said that Kim was likely coming from a defensive place after Beckford made unwelcome remarks about her body Standing up for herself: Eve said that Kim was probably hurt by Beckford's jab at her Taken aback: Sheryl Underwood said that Kim's tone in the tweet was 'not the Kim she knows' Not everyone was on board with Kim's comeback: Sheryl Underwood called out the socialite for the inflammatory implication in the tone she used. 'I kinda wish she hadn't have done it,' she said, 'because it seems like you're saying something as if something's wrong with somebody.' Underwood said that Kim 'has a lot of gay people around her,' such as 'her glam squad' and 'the people in her life,' wondering how those individuals felt hearing her talk like that. 'I can't speak to it personally, it didn't feel right and it's not the Kim I know,' Underwood said. Twitter has been flooded with messages blasting the 37-year-old reality star as homophobic. Still swinging: Tyson also shared this meme of a photoshopped snap of Kim looking very muscular Not pleased: Several microbloggers took aim at the reality star As the 47-year-old model criticized her for her 'botched' body,' he took another shot at Kardashian on Instagram by posting a gym selfie video with the caption 'no surgery just gym it ladies.' It didn't stop there as Tyson also shared a meme of a photoshopped snap of Kim looking very muscular. It read: '"Hit the gym. Not the surgery," Becky said. @tysonbeckford but some hit the Photoshop.' This comes after Kim was lambasted on social media as one user wrote: 'I hope y'all get kim kardashian together for that homophobic response to Tyson Beckford.' Another microblogger got really personal with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star by bringing up the mental health of her husband Kanye West. They wrote: 'Kim Kardashian, you're questioning Tyson Beckford's sexuality, like being "gay" is something evil. How about you worry about your husband mental health because you should be more concerned about his well being than if someone is gay. The nerve of this woman. Not today Kimberly.' 'No surgery just gym it ladies': Tyson recorded the video from a gym as he sported a headband and a curly wig Someone else commented that they were a fan of the reality star until recently as they wrote: '@KimKardashian is trash!! I liked her until she used being gay as a drag on the shade room ig pg ... honey you do not get to imply that someone is in the closet just because he didn't like your outfit/body you don't do that girl since you employ an array of gay makeup artist/stylist.' This all began after the male model wrote insulting comments about her body on Instagram. After a paparazzi picture of the reality star was posted online Beckford criticized Kim's figure, writing that she's 'not real' and that the 'doctor f***ed up'. 'Sorry I don't care for it personally,' Tyson commented on the snap of Kim dressed up for Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles this week wearing black velour leggings and a tiny crop top. Hitting back: Kim clapped back at Beckford after he wrote critical comments about her body on Tuesday. She insinuating that he doesn't find her attractive because he is gay. Taking it a step further, the Into The Blue actor added another scathing comment about the appearance of her curves, 'She is not real, doctor f***ed up on her right hip.' Adding insult to injury the star added a green vomit emoji. The Shade Room shared the comments on its Instagram page allowing for the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star to see Tyson's unfiltered thoughts. Kim, 37, responded by insinuating that Tyson doesn't find her attractive because he is gay. 'Sis we all know why you don't care for it,' she wrote. The 47-year-old model criticized Kim's figure, saying the 'doctor f***ed up' and slammed her for being 'not real' after a paparazzi picture of the reality was posted online 'Don't care for it': Tyson made his thoughts clear on Kim's body, alluding to her being plastic and having gone under the knife Alongside Kim's comeback were the emojis for a cup of tea and a frog, in reference to the viral 'But that's none of my business' meme which is often used as a postscript online and features Kermit the Frog sipping a cup of tea. Kim's third emoji was a hand being painted with pink nail polish, a symbol usually used to express nonchalance. When Kim's response went viral Tyson was unapologetic as he took to his Instagram Stories later in the day. Not his thing: When Kim's response went viral Tyson was unapologetic as he took to his Instagram Stories later in the day. Having the last say: Tyson said he prefers Beyonce to Kim In the driver's seat: Kim was pictured leaving a studio in LA on Tuesday He wrote, 'Despite what @Theshaderoom might be tryna say, my opinion on women who do plastic surgery stays the same, not for me! I personally don't care for it! Done end of story!' In another post he wrote, 'Always gonna pick a Beyonce over anyone else' along with a cheeky tongue-out emoji. Kim has been plagued by plastic surgery rumors for most of her career but has always denied getting butt implants or a Brazilian butt lift. The E! star has been proudly showing off her weight loss recently after she dropped to 119lbs. Show off: Kim has been plagued by plastic surgery rumors for most of her career but has denied getting butt implants or a Brazilian butt lift Tan lines: Much like Kim, Tyson likes to flaunt his body on Instagram with shirtless selfies Below the belt: It's not the first time Tyson has taken aim at Kim as he posted this meme shortly after her Paris robbery ordeal in 2016 Much like Kim, Tyson loves to show off his body on Instagram. His latest racy mirror selfie came last week when he posed in Calvin Klein underwear and pulled them down low to reveal his tan line. The hunk previously dated Victoria's Secret beauty Shanina Shaik, 27. Earlier this year he was rumored to have married girlfriend Berniece Julien but has kept the relationship largely under wraps. He has a 20-year-old son, Jordan Beckford, from his previous relationship with celebrity stylist April Roomet. Working out: Tyson showed his muscular frame in an Instagram Stories on Wednesday Toned physique: The actor wore headphones, workout shorts, compression tights and sneakers He's recently been subject to split rumours with fiancee, Miley Cyrus. But Liam Hemsworth, 28, looked far from unhappy as he basked in the sunshine semi-naked amid a stunning ocean backdrop on Thursday. Sexy and shirtless, Liam took to Instagram to treat his fans with a snap of himself flaunting his buff rig and enviably-toned pecs. 'Man has had to fight nature to survive': Shirtless Liam Hemsworth, 28, basked in the sunshine semi-naked amid a stunning ocean backdrop on Thursday Wearing nothing but a pair of tiny black board shorts and a forward-facing cap, the Aussie actor sat on a surfboard while staring out into the distance. Quoting French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the caption of the post, Liam reflected on the intricacies of nature and humanity. 'For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it,' he wrote, followed by the hashtags '#protecttheocean, #protecttheearth'. It comes after the announcement of his paid partnership with Spanish infrastructure company Acciona, working on a campaign to help protect the environment. Meanwhile, Liam is about to star in a new movie. Deep: Quoting French explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau in the caption of the post, Liam reflected on the intricacies of nature and humanity Last week he landed a lead role in an upcoming drug trade film Arkansas, and will presumably be leaving Miley behind when production commences throughout August in Little Rock. The couple were recently the subject of split rumours after reports they have called off their wedding due to disagreements about when to have children. However earlier this month, Liam shared a light-hearted video of the pair together on social media, proving that the two are still very much together. He worked as a correctional officer in a women's prison before winning the 11th season of MasterChef Australia. And now Sashi Cheliah has revealed what really going on behind bars after being quizzed about prison romances by the hosts of Studio 10. 'Definitely, there have been cases like that, but as an officer you have to draw a line,' he explained when asked by Joe Hildebrand about affairs between officers and inmates. 'As an officer you have to draw a line': Former prison officer Sashi Cheliah revealed how jailhouse affairs really go down during an appearance on Studio 10 this week 'You can be friendly, but they're not your friends,' he added. Joe responded: 'How would it even happen, practically speaking? Where would it happen?' A cheeky Denise Drysdale then chimed in: 'Love finds a way!' 'You can be friendly, but they're not your friends,' said the MasterChef winner, who previously worked in a women's prison Further explaining the situation, Sashi said: 'People can be very manipulative. 'They can talk you into things you don't want to get involved in. If you're not mentally strong, you can be sucked into it very easily.' The 39-year-old then revealed that raunchy rendezvous can often happen outside of the prisons, away from prying eyes. 'They can talk you into things you don't want to get involved in,' explained the star. 'If you're not mentally strong, you can be sucked into it very easily' Sashi was crowned the winner of MasterChef's 11th season on Tuesday night, defeating rival Ben Borsht. The final score was 77 for Ben and 93 out of 100 for Sashi, making him the winner and giving him the highest score in the show's grand finale history. Sashi won $250,000 in prize money, a monthly column in Australia's leading food magazine, Delicious and the title of Australia's MasterChef. Winners are grinners! Sashi was crowned the winner of MasterChef's 11th season on Tuesday night, defeating rival Ben Borsht The Bachelor's Sam Wood recently revealed he plans to 'definitely' tie the knot with fiancee, Snezana Markoski 'late this year.' Now, the engaged duo have sparked speculation they may be walking down the aisle this month as the pair prepare to jet off to the brunette beauty's home country of Macedonia (FYROM). The 38-year-old fitness fanatic took to his Instagram story on Wednesday to document his genetically-blessed brood packing for their upcoming overseas jaunt. Scroll down for video Heading down the aisle? The Bachelor's Sam Wood (right) and Snezana Markoski (left) spark wedding rumours as they jet off to her home country of Macedonia... after he revealed the pair will 'definitely' tie the knot this year The first video he posted to the photo-sharing-app showed his stunning bride-to-be, 38, cuddling the couple's 10-month-old daughter Willow. The tiny tot appeared to be distracting the duo from their task at hand as fans could see an empty suitcase in the background. 'Packing for Macedonia and someone (is) making it very difficult!' Sam captioned the video. The hunk also posted a sweet snap of his beaming daughter sitting in an opened suitcase. 'Packing for Macedonia and someone making it very difficult!' The tiny tot (pictured) appeared to be distracting the duo from their task at hand as fans could see an empty suitcase in the background 'Carry on': Sam posted a sweet snap of his beaming daughter (pictured) sitting in an opened suitcase 'Formula, nappies, baby wipes': Sam filmed the Macedonian-born beauty packing a bag of baby essentials for daughter, Willow 'Carry on...?' he captioned the cute snap. Elsewhere, Sam filmed the Macedonian-born beauty packing a bag of baby essentials for Willow. 'What are you two doing? Look at this bag...formula, nappies, baby wipes and those little biscuit things that she eats...Willow is this your bag?' he exclaimed in the clip. Nuptials: 'We will definitely get married late, late this year. Snez is in full wedding organisation mode, and we're looking forward to it,' Sam told Daily Mail Australia last month In July, Sam toldDaily Mail Australia the couple plan to tie the knot 'late this year.' 'We will definitely get married late, late this year. Snez is in full wedding organisation mode and we're looking forward to it,' Sam told Daily Mail Australia. Sam, who shares Willow, 10 months, with Snezana, and who is stepfather to her daughter Eve, 13, also spoke of their plans to add to their brood. Baby maker: Sam also revealed that Snezana, 38, is keen on adding to their brood - and he is all for it, saying: 'If this little cutie [referring to daughter Willow, pictured] is anything to go by, I think it wouldn't be a bad move to have one more' 'If this little cutie [referring to daughter Willow] is anything to go by, I think it wouldn't be a bad move to have one more,' he added. Sam and Snezana welcomed daughter, Willow, in October 2017. Sam fell in love with Snezana Markoski in the 2015 season of The Bachelor and the pair became engaged at the end of that same year. Love Island star Ellie Brown has shown off her incredible image transformation after old pictures of the stunning star have emerged. The Newcastle-born beauty posed happily in images dating back to 2015, in which she flaunted a wholly different appearance to her current chiselled look. Throughout the eight-week stretch of the show, Ellie won hearts of both fans and her beau Charlie Brake thanks to her sassy personality and flawless good looks, meaning her stunning transformation will no doubt send jaws dropping. Who's that girl? Love Island star Ellie Brown has shown off her incredible image transformation after old pictures of the stunning star have emerged Ellie was a late entrant into the show, where she was involved in extreme drama after locking horns with co-star Georgia Steel and also finding love with Charlie. With her glowing skin and lengthy blonde locks, fans were enamoured with the natural beauty, however her shock transformation will no doubt shock fans. Posing on her pal's Instagram account in a host of pouting shots, it was plain to see a change in Ellie's good looks, despite looking stunning both before and after. What remained the same was her slick pout and preened style, yet it was clear to see a change in the stunner's looks over the past three years. Slide me Changing faces: Throughout the eight week stretch of the show, Ellie won hearts of both fans and her beau Charlie Brake thanks to her sassy personality and flawless good looks, meaning her stunning transformation will no doubt send jaws dropping Who? Ellie was a late entrant into the show, where she was involved in extreme drama after locking horns with co-star Georgia Steel and also finding love with Charlie Shocker: She looked stunning during her appearances on her Instagram MailOnline has contacted Ellie's representative for comment. Ellie's transformation is not all that's shocked fans, as throwback shots of her co-stars Megan Barton Hanson and Laura Anderson have been equally breathtaking. Glamour model Megan has had the most widely-discussed transformation after an image surfaced on Twitter last month showing a youthful Megan aged 12 as she posed in glasses and an oversized scarf. Fans rushed to social media to marvel at the transformation Megan has undergone, with many hailing the impressive and natural looking surgery, and since leaving the villa she has discussed the transformation. Way back when: What remained the same was her slick pout and preened style, yet it was clear to see a change in the stunner's looks over the past three years Transformed: She is currently living it up in Monaco with Charlie's family Shocker: Ellie's transformation is not all that's shocked fans, as throwback shots of her co-stars Megan Barton Hanson and Laura Anderson have been equally breathtaking In an interview with Mirror after leaving the villa, she said of her several procedures - rumoured to have cost 25,000, but estimated to have cost as much as 40,000: 'I have had loads. I dont think it should be a massive negative thing. If you want to do something to make you feel more comfortable and you can do it, then why not?... 'I didnt take these decisions trying to be a role model. I did it for me. Im not ashamed of it. Ive done what Ive done because it made me feel comfortable. 'Its like people getting their hair done to make them feel nice. Ill go get my lips done because it makes me feel better.' She's quickly becoming Hollywood's It girl. And Paris Jackson proved she's got what it takes as she flaunted her raw sensuality during an afternoon jaunt in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The 20-year-old daughter of legendary pop star Michael Jackson showed off her enviable figure in a casual ensemble of tie dye tee and denim shorts. She's got it! Paris Jackson proved she's got what it takes as she flaunted her raw sensuality during an afternoon jaunt in Los Angeles on Wednesday Daring to impress, the blonde bombshell swathed the top of her model figure in a orange and white Guns n' Roses tee. Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as the skimpy Daisy Dukes cut high on her hips. She gave onlookers a charge as presented her pert derriere with aplomb. Last week, Paris enjoyed a date night out with her pooch Koa. Rock n' roll: Daring to impress, the blonde bombshell swathed the top of her model figure in a orange and white Guns n' Roses tee She took to Instagram to gush about her favorite partner in crime, with pictures of Koa perched on a chair across the table. 'date night with my best friend, love of my life, and the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world,' she wrote. Paris recently took a leap into acting, playing the role Nelly in the dark Charlize Theron/ David Oyelowo comedy Gringo. Rear view: She gave onlookers a charge as presented her pert derriere with aplomb She also just released an ad campaign for the RE/DONE + Weejuns shoe collaboration collection. Earlier this year, romance rumors began to swirl when Paris was spotted kissing supermodel Cara Delevingne. Paris and her famous family have received praise and backlash through decades in the spotlight. Her father, Michael Jackson, died of cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. She recently revealed that she was 'deleting all of her social media accounts', before taking to Instagram to announce her return just days later. And it appears Ariel Winter has got back into the swing of keeping her fans updated, as she stepped out in Studio City, LA, with her phone in her hand on Wednesday. The Modern Family star, 20, stepped out looking fresh-faced as she ran errands in the sunshine, wearing a pair of 80's-inspired stonewash Guess jeans. Casual: Ariel Winter has got back into the swing of keeping her fans updated following her social media hiatus, as she stepped out in Studio City, LA, with her phone in her hand on Wednesday The actress ensured she teased her gym-honed midriff, by pairing her jeans with a form-fitting white crop top. She matched her bust-enhancing top with a pair of white trainers, meanwhile her outfit was accessory free, in keeping with her casual vibe. Ariel styled her sleek locks in a straight blown-out style, while opting for minimal make-up, sporting a radiant glow as she made her way to her car. Stepping out: The Modern Family star, 20, stepped out looking fresh-faced as she ran errands in the sunshine, wearing a pair of 80's-inspired stonewash jeans from Guess The star recently left Twitter following a self-imposed hiatus, however she didn't stay away for long as two weeks later she took to Twitter to announce her return. She penned on the social media site a short but sweet 'I'm back', on July 19 after leaving two weeks previously amid complaints about the paparazzi. Ariel also returned to Instagram following the break after an even shorter 10 day social-media free stint. Taking a break: The star recently left Twitter following a self-imposed hiatus, however she didn't stay away for long as two weeks later she took to Twitter to announce her return She marked her return with a sizzling throwback bikini snap that flaunted her more than ample assets, as she lounged on a sunbed on a beach in Playa del Carmen in Mexico. One person who will have no doubt enjoyed the sexy shot is her boyfriend of 20 months Levi Meaden, 30. Ariel has been playing Alex Dunphy on the ABC family sitcom Modern Family since its premiere in September 2009. Modern Family was renewed in May 2017 for a 10th season that will premiere on September 26. They will soon be celebrating ten years of marital bliss. And Portia de Rossi, 45, and Ellen DeGeneres, 60, proved they were more loved-up than ever before as they enjoyed a comedy show at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The actress looked sensational as she showed off her impressively toned arms in a black top as she enjoyed the evening with her comedian other half. Date night: Portia de Rossi, 45, and wife Ellen DeGeneres, 60, proved they were more loved-up than ever before as they enjoyed a comedy show at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on Wednesday Completing her look in a pair of grey skinny jeans and pointed heels, Portia looked every inch the blonde bombshell. The Arrested Development star opted for a simple slick of make-up and toted her belongings in a chic black handbag. She was joined by wife Ellen, who opted for a cool black jumper, matching jeans and a pair of comfortable white trainers. While the couple is set to celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary in August, Portia recently admitted she 'finally felt accepted' as a same-sex couple when divorce rumours began to swirl. Chic: The actress looked sensational as she showed off her impressively toned arms in a black top Trendy: Ellen opted for a cool black jumper, matching jeans and a pair of comfortable white trainers 'The divorce rumours came and then we really knew the perceptions (of same-sex marriage) had changed. I'm not kidding,' Portia told US Weekly. 'I know it sounds ridiculous, but when that started happening I thought, "Oh, now we're finally accepted". 'We get the same s**t as every celebrity couple,' she concluded. Portia and Ellen were married during an intimate candlelit ceremony at their Californian home on August 16, 2008, two months after same-sex marriage was legalized in Los Angeles. 'We get the same s**t as every celebrity couple': Portia recently admitted she 'finally felt accepted' as a same-sex couple when divorce rumours began to swirl Love: Portia and Ellen were married during an intimate candlelit ceremony at their Californian home on August 16, 2008, two months after same-sex marriage was legalised in Los Angeles The couple, who first met in 2004, have long been supporters of same-sex marriage, worldwide. Ellen has also spoken of the divorce rumours in the past, telling US Today back in 2015 that she's tired of the speculation. The comedian vented at the time, 'I'm just more flabbergasted by the fact that someone needs to make up a story.' All eyes were on the celebrity contestants on Tuesday night's premiere of Australian Survivor. But one contestant that managed to stand out from the stars was Fenella McGowan, who chose a rather unusual ensemble to compete in. The 33-year-old wore a denim overall dress, Converse sneakers, and a patterned top and socks, but now she's expressing regret over her bizarre sartorial selection. How old is she?! Australian Survivor's Fenella McGowan, 33, has expressed some regrets over her outfit choice on the show Taking to her Instagram page, the quirky interior designer wrote: 'To be honest, I'm having majorrrr [sic] regrets.' Fenalla is on the contenders tribe on Australian Survivor. 'I'm not scared facing off against the champions,' the red-haired designer told Tenplay. Taking to her Instagram page, the quirky interior designer wrote: 'To be honest, I'm having majorrrr [sic] regrets' 'I'm quite unassuming and nobody would think I'm fit but I am,' she continued. 'Mentally, I know how to work people from years of working in retail. I know how to lie to your face thanks to going to a private girls' school. I can manipulate from being the youngest child.' Despite bragging about her skills, Fenalla has also expressed her insecurities coming into Survivor. 'I'm not scared facing off against the champions,' the red-haired designer told Tenplay 'I can't keep secrets! I'm terrible at lying,' she said, despite claiming in her Survivor bio that she knows how to lie. 'I'm also really fiery and awkward in social scenarios if I'm nervous and I have the worst memory. So it's not going to be an easy win but I think play hard or go home.' Australian Survivor is currently airing on Channel Ten and Tenplay. They have professed their love for one another after just four weeks of meeting on Love Island - and things are hotting up between Kazimir Crossley and Josh Denzel. After cuddling a fan's baby and posting a video of the encounter on Instagram stories on Wednesday, Kaz asked fans if it was too soon for them to have their own. She wrote: 'Too soon?' with a cry face. Loaded question: Kazimir Crossley asked fans on Instagram on Wednesday if it's too soon for her and Josh Denzel to have babies... just four weeks after meeting on Love Island Kaz, 23, added a poll to ask her followers 'babies please' or 'Josh looks nervous' and it seems fans of the couple seemed undecided about how to vote. At the time of publication, 59% of Kaz's 751k followers had voted that she should just go for it. Kaz also shared a hilarious clip of herself and her good friend, DJ, Shae Reid, as they enjoyed a glass of wine together. Now that's awkward: Kaz also shared a video of her and her friend Shae Reid, who reminded her she had pinky promised at the start of the year to not get a boyfriend Sweet: Kaz and Josh fell for one another on the show when they met in Casa Amor and quickly became boyfriend and girlfriend Shae reminded Kaz that at the start of the year, they had made a pinky promise to not get a boyfriend this year. Kaz playfully replied: 'You know me, bro. Oops!' Kaz and Josh, 26, fell for one another and decided to become girlfriend and boyfriend after they met in Casa Amor. Josh was coupled with Georgia at the time but decided to recouple with Kaz, much to her ire and disappointment. Georgia was famously 'loyal' while Josh was away so was upset to learn that he had his head turned. However, she later recoupled with Sam Bird and the pair left the villa together after refusing to recouple with anyone else in the villa. However, Georgia has since cast doubt on her romance with Sam by saying she would never stay with him for her career... just a day after the final. Advertisement He originally put his five-bedroom luxury apartment up for sale in 2005 for an eye-watering $11million, (8,414,395) before relisting the property again seven years later for the same price. And Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, 60, has now knocked off a cool $1million from the price tag, marketing it at $9,925,000 (7,591,880), after trying to sell the plush New York pad for a total of 13 years. The music mogul has had a run of bad luck trying to sell the apartment, which is situated in the Financial District, and boasts stylish reception rooms and three sprawling terraces. Up for sale: Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, 60, has now knocked off a cool $1million from the price tag, after trying to sell the plush New York pad for a total of 13 years However despite its luxury price tag, it's hard to see why the lavish Lower Manhattan duplex hasn't sold, judging by its palatial-sized rooms and incredible interior. Russell certainly isn't short of space as his home features 7,175 square feet of interior space as well as a colossal 3,500 square feet of outdoor space split among his terraces. In the heart of the home is a neutrally-toned living space, which has bags of light pouring into the room, centring around a collection of statement coffee tables. Relaxing: One of the bedrooms, which appears to be a master suit, features a cushioned velvet wall, in keeping with the rooms grey theme, including bedding, a rug and a selection of chaise longue to lounge about on Luxury dining: Another bright and airy room in the luxury pad is the property's dining room, the focal point being a winding wooden staircase which takes you up to another level of the phenomenal apartment Denial: Earlier this year Russell was hit with several accusations of sexual misconduct and assault, which he vehemently denied in a statement The furniture in the room sits on a grey rug, which is elegantly placed over a dark hardwood floor, offering views out into the busting city. Russell's pad also boasts a smaller more intimate second reception room, described as the 'screening room', no doubt perfect for cosy film nights and hanging out with his pals. Another bright and airy room in the luxury pad, is the property's dining room, the focal point being a winding wooden staircase which takes you up to another level of the phenomenal apartment. Blush: Another of the five bedrooms follows a blush theme, with a plush looking bed which resembles a perfectly laid out hotel suit, rather than a guest room Luxury: The music mogul has had a run of bad luck trying to sell the apartment, which is situated in the Financial District, and boasts stylish reception rooms and three sprawling terraces One of the bedrooms, which appears to be a master suit, features a cushioned velvet wall, in keeping with the rooms grey theme, including bedding, a rug and a selection of chaise longue to lounge about on. The beautifully decorated room leads out onto a trendy terrace through french doors, which is covered in vibrant foliage, and includes orange outdoor seating. Another of the five bedrooms follows a blush theme, with a plush looking bed which resembles a perfectly laid out hotel suit, rather than a guest room. Modern living: On the main level of the penthouse is also a modern dark wood kitchen, with black granite worktops and splash back, which is lit with under lighting and decorative hanging lamps Living room: In the heart of the home is a neutrally-toned living space, which has bags of light pouring into the room, centring around a collection of statement coffee tables On the main level of the penthouse is also a modern dark wood kitchen, with black granite worktops and splash back, which is lit with under lighting and decorative hanging lamps. Earlier this year Russell was hit with several accusations of sexual misconduct and assault, which he vehemently denied in a statement. Following the revelations he also decided to sell his 'peaceful retreat' in Los Angeles for $8.25 million - which he purchased for a much lower $5.877 million in 2013, to be closer to his two daughters, Ming, 18, and Aoki, 15. Cosy: Russell's pad also boasts a smaller more intimate second reception room, described as the 'screening room' no doubt perfect for cosy film nights and hanging out with his pals She is preparing for the arrival of her first child with husband Frank Lampard next month. And Christine Lampard, who is currently hosting ITV's Lorraine, candidly discussed breastfeeding with guest Dr. Hilary Jones on Thursday instalment of the show. When questioned if she was planning on breast-feeding, the TV presenter, 39, confessed 'that she wanted to the best' but was aware that 'some women really struggle'. Mum to be: Pregnant Christine Lampard, who is currently hosting ITV's Lorraine, candidly discussed breastfeeding with guest Dr. Hilary Jones on Thursday instalment of the show Speaking about the potential of breastfeeding her first child, Christine, confessed: 'Of course you want to, to the best of your ability! 'But some women really struggle. The baby needs to be fed,' she revealed, before adding: 'I am in the middle, where I will need to do what I need to do.' Hilary went on to show the stunning brunette a breast feeding device which doubles as an app. Christine joked: 'Thats something Ill need to get used to. At 4am in the morning, that might just be a help.' Overwhelmed: When questioned if she was planning on breast-feeding, the TV presenter, 39, confessed 'that she wanted to the best' but was aware that 'some women really struggle' Clearly feeling overwhelmed, the TV star continued: Theres a lot to learn, isnt there? For a first time mum!' The app in question is called Start4Lifes Breastfeeding Friend and it was developed by Public Health England to offer trusted NHS advice during pregnancy, birth and parenthood so that mothers feel supported although the early days and beyond. The app is now available on both the Google Assistant and the Google Home device. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Christine proved she was every inch the glowing mother-to-be as she posted a sweet snap to Instagram of her cradling her baby bum. Looking chic in a Karen Millen navy off-the-shoulder dress decorated with pastel pink flowers, the presenter smiled as she rested her hand on her growing bump, just weeks before her due date. Bumping along: On Tuesday, Christine was every inch the glowing mother-to-be as she posted a sweet snap to Instagram of her cradling her baby bump The brunette beauty wore her locks in a stylish updo while her pretty features were enhanced with smoky shadow and liner. Joking about her evolving maternity style, she captioned the photo: 'Happiness is an elasticated waistband these days!' This comes after Christine spoke candidly about her relationship as she discussed taking over Lorraine, saying: 'We have been all over the place and have moved about 20 times during our relationship.' Flexible: This comes after Christine spoke about her relationship as she discussed taking over Lorraine, saying: 'We have been all over the place and have moved about 20 times during our relationship. 'You have to be adaptable but as long as your foundations dont change too much, you can work around everything. 'I wish sometimes I was more of a planner, but I dont seem to have that gene in me.' Christine and Frank tied the knot in 2015 and announced they were expecting their first child in May, while Frank has daughters Luna and Isla from his relationship with Spanish model Elen Rivas. Stronger together: She added, 'You have to be adaptable but as long as your foundations dont change too much, you can work around everything' Christine admitted that being a step-mum to Fran's daughters has helped her prepare for her baby's arrival, explaining: 'I have had the girls since they were 4 and 2 and they are 13 and 11 so I have been through all the toddler years, the primary and secondary school bit and teenagers are around the corner, that is preparation, although the baby years is all new to me! So Ill take it day by day really, like every other new mum.' 'People are telling me, and I would like to think Im like that anyway, but do your best to relax into it and dont put too much pressure on yourself.' 'Dont always be looking at everyone else and thinking, Its running perfectly for them, why isnt it for me? Give yourself a break. Ill take it hour by hour!' Family life: Christine and Frank tied the knot in 2015 and announced they were expecting their first child in May Hosting duties: The pregnant star has been standing in for Lorraine during the summer holidays and has won praise from fans for her role The pregnant star has been standing in for Lorraine during the summer holidays and has won praise from fans for her role. Of taking over the position, she said: 'Its not the first time, but its quite nice to have a chunk of time and knowing that Lorraine Kelly is off on her holidays having a nice time, too. 'Its a lovely family feel and Ive got to know the team. Its just a pleasure to do any little stint I can do.' Enjoying it: Of taking over the position, she said: 'Its not the first time, but its quite nice to have a chunk of time and knowing that Lorraine Kelly is off on her holidays' Fitting in: She said, 'Its a lovely family feel and Ive got to know the team. Its just a pleasure to do any little stint I can do' Worries: Of hosting, she admitted 'Its more scary presenting by yourself because if something goes wrong, its up to you to fix it While she's been praised for her skills as a host by viewers, Christine still feels apprehensive, as she said: 'Its more scary presenting by yourself because if something goes wrong, its up to you to fix it. 'You can kill a couple of minutes talking to another presenter, so its definitely more on edge when you are on your own. 'Its certainly more stressful. But, saying that, Lorraine is such a well-oiled machine. Lorraine has everything so perfectly organised.' Nothing to worry about: She added, 'Its certainly more stressful. But, saying that, Lorraine is such a well-oiled machine. Lorraine has everything so perfectly organised' Jack Osbourne allegedly 'punched' his estranged wife Lisa's new partner 'in the head' during a heated exchange believed to have taken place on Monday night. According to TMZ, the TV personality, 32, had gone to the home he shares with Lisa to talk to her, but the situation escalated when her boyfriend 'intervened'. It's claimed police were called to the incident, but no charges have been filed. Drama: Jack Osbourne, 32, allegedly punched his estranged wife Lisa Stelly's new partner 'in the head' during a heated exchange late Monday night Lisa's beau reportedly decided against pressing charges, with sources claiming Jack had been 'uncooperative with police'. MailOnline have contacted a representative for Jack Osbourne for comment. Sources close to the couple claimed to the gossip site that Jack has been committed to 'repairing his relationship' with Lisa in an attempt to 'fix' their marriage. Her new partner turning up reportedly 'threw' the father-of-three and things 'escalated'. Jack and Lisa split in May, with the star's wife filing for divorce just three months after the former couple welcomed their third and youngest child, daughter Minnie Theodora, now five months. Tense: According to TMZ, Jack had headed to the home he shares with Lisa to talk, but things escalated when her boyfriend intervened The name Theodora is a poignant tribute to the couple's late son Theo. Theo passed away in 2013 after Lisa tragically suffered a late-term miscarriage. Since splitting, Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, with the former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisting things have been working 'really well' between the estranged spouses in an interview back in June. Speaking to People TV, Jack said: 'It's great. It's all you can really ask for at this stage. The doting dad gushed about his daughters in the interview, calling them 'the most girly girls imaginable' and budding fashionistas. He said of daughter Andy: 'My middle one, Andy, will only wear, like, big gowns all day long - like she's going to a quinceanera every day.' Split: Jack and Lisa, who share three daughters together, confirmed their separation in May and revealed they have started divorce proceedings Moving forward: Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, since their split Amicable: The former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisted things have been working 'really well' between himself and his estranged wife in the wake of their separation His comments came just a month after Jack and Lisa confirmed they were starting divorce proceedings following their marriage split. The duo publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused, keeping their three daughters in mind. It read: 'So, first and foremost, we absolutely still love each other. Our family is the most important thing in our lives, and we tried everything we could for many years to make this work. 'What's best for our family right now is that we separate lovingly, and remain best friends who are committed to raising our children together.' Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' over how things turned out, they remained 'confident that we will continue to grow our relationship as co-parents and best friends.' Family orientated: Following their split, Jack and Lisa publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused with their daughters in mind Long-term: Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' about the split, they remained 'confident they will continue to grow as co-parents and best friends' They had been together for five and a half years at the time of their split, having tied the knot back in October 2012 in Hawaii. Jack had proposed to Lisa after just four months of the pair dating. Six months prior to their wedding, Jack and Lisa welcomed their first child, Pearl - who was born in the same period Jack had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, aged 26. Speaking about his diagnosis in October last year, Jack said: 'I look at my daughters and, not to get overly sappy, but there is that notion where if they get married, I might not be able to walk them down the aisle, I can get kind of heavy with it.' The star, however, insisted since his diagnosis five years ago, he's doing 'really well' and hasn't had any 'significant flare-ups in a long time'. In recent months, Jack has been busy filming for show Ozzy and Jack's World Detour! with his famous father Ozzy Osbourne. Happier times: Jack and estranged wife Lisa tied the knot in October 2012 in Hawaii - he had proposed just four months after the pair first began dating Billie Piper has been seen for the first time since she announced her pregnancy on Tuesday. The 35-year-old actress revealed earlier this week that she was expecting her third child with rocker beau Johnny Lloyd, who she has been dating for two years. Following her announcement, the pregnant beauty stepped out in North London on Thursday in a skin-flashing sheer pink lace dress which flashed a hint of her stomach. Stepping out: Billie Piper has been seen for the first time since she announced her pregnancy on Tuesday The Diary of a Call Girl star pushed the fashion boat out as she donned the spaghetti-strapped slip dress which flashed her Calvin Klein black underwear underneath. Soaking up the good weather, Billie, who shares sons Winston, nine, and Eugene, six, with ex-husband Laurence Fox, teased at her slender pins in the see-through garment. The glowing Olivier Award-winner remained coy during her outing as she carefully covered her blossoming bump with an oversized black tote bag. Glowing: Following her announcement, the pregnant beauty stepped out in North London on Thursday in a skin-flashing sheer pink lace dress which flashed a hint of her stomach Expecting: The 35-year-old actress revealed earlier this week that she was expecting her third child with rocker beau Johnny Lloyd, who she has been dating for two years Radiant: The Diary of a Call Girl star pushed the fashion boat out as she donned the spaghetti-strapped slip dress which flashed her Calvin Klein black underwear underneath Billie continued to hide her stomach as she wrapped a black jumper around her waist while making her way to her car. Looking radiant, she swept her blonde locks into a messy top knot and donned a pair of oversized shades for the morning. The nineties popstar showcased her glowing complexion with a natural make-up as she strolled along the road in her Nike sliders. Fashion forward: Soaking up the good weather, Billie, who shares sons Winston, nine, and Eugene, six, with ex-husband Laurence Fox, teased at her slender pins in the see-through garment Coy: The glowing Olivier Award-winner remained coy during her outing as she carefully covered her blossoming bump with an oversized black tote bag Wrapped up: Billie continued to hide her stomach as she wrapped a black jumper around her waist while making her way to her car Relaxed: Looking radiant, she swept her blonde locks into a messy top knot and donned a pair of oversized shades for the morning Her appearance comes after it was revealed that Billie was pregnant with her third child. A representative confirmed to MailOnline that the actress is expecting her first child with musician boyfriend Johnny. The former Doctor Who star already shares sons Winston, nine, and Eugene, six, with ex-husband Laurence Fox. Walk this way: The nineties popstar showcased her glowing complexion with a natural make-up as she strolled along the road in her Nike sliders Heading off: Billie hopped into her car as she carried on with her day Pregnant: Her appearance comes after it was revealed that Billie was pregnant with her third child (pictured in June 2018) A source also told the Mirror: 'Billie and Johnny are delighted. They can't wait to welcome the new addition to their family.' The British actress has been dating Johnny, who is the front man of rock band Tribes, for almost two years. She revealed she would love to have more children back in February, admitting: 'In my dream world I'd have loads.' Happy news: A representative confirmed to MailOnline that the actress is expecting her first child with musician boyfriend Johnny (pictured in February 2018) Three's a charm: The former Doctor Who star already shares sons Winston, nine, and Eugene, six, with ex-husband Laurence Fox (pictured in 2015) Before adding: 'I was one of four and its taxing for both parents and kids. I do like the idea of chaos.' Billie's relationship with Johnny comes after her divorce from husband Laurence, which was finalised in November 2017. The pair met when they performed together in the stage play Treats in 2006, and deemed it 'love at first sight'. They married on New Year's Eve in West Sussex the following year, and went on to welcome their two sons in 2008 and 2012. Still going strong: The British actress has been dating Johnny, who is the frontman of rock band Tribes, for almost two years (pictured in March 2018) However, the acting couple confirmed they were splitting in March 2016, and they were granted a decree-nisi late last year. Billie was previously married to radio host Chris Evans, who she wed secretly back in 2001 at the age of 18, sparking controversy due to their sixteen-year age gap. The couple divorced three years later in 2004, but have remained close friends ever since - with Chris' new wife Natasha Shishmanian currently expecting twins. Prior to her first marriage, Piper also dated EastEnders star Danny Dyer, having split from popstar Richie Neville. As one of Doctor Whos most famous assistants, fans also went wild when unconfirmed reports suggested Piper and Doctor Who lead, Matt Smith, went on a date in 2006. He enjoyed a whirlwind romance with Tracey Jewel before splitting with the controversial star in May. But despite enjoying some fun times with Tracey, Married At First Sight's Sean Thomsen says he now 'regrets' the relationship and has no plans to rescue her from Europe, where she's currently broke and stranded. 'I don't have regrets as far as going on the show but I regret the relationship I had with Tracey,' Sean told Yahoo7 Be. Regrets: MAFS' Sean Thomsen says he now 'regrets' his relationship with Tracey Jewel and has no plans to rescue her from Europe, where she's currently broke and stranded The 34-year-old also confirmed that he's dating the mystery blonde who recently appeared on his Instagram page, but he refused to reveal the blonde beauty's identity. Sean told the publication that they met in Melbourne, and that he's now planning to relocate from Perth to Melbourne 'to take the long distance factor out of dating.' While he said that he wasn't moving to the city for a couple of weeks yet, on Thursday the MAFS star documented himself waiting for a flight to Melbourne. Love: The 34-year-old also confirmed that he's dating the mystery blonde who recently appeared on his Instagram page (pictured), but he refused to reveal the blonde beauty's name Memories: Sean (L) enjoyed a whirlwind romance with Tracey (R) before splitting with the controversial star in May 'I've gone the super slicked look, just trying to fit in, Melbourne style,' said Sean as he flaunted his new hairstyle. He added: 'All packed, ready to go!' Meanwhile, as Sean enjoys his new romance with his mystery girlfriend, his ex Tracey is 'stranded' in Europe after being dumped in Berlin mid-vacation. 'I've gone the super slicked look, just trying to fit in, Melbourne style!' Sean is now moving to Melbourne to be closer to his new flame A source close to the broke brunette confirmed on Tuesday that the star split with boyfriend Patrick Kedemos while the pair were cruising around Europe together. German police were called by the self-help author following a falling out with Patrick on July 28 after the couple arrived in Berlin. The troubled bride was forced to turn to the Australian embassy after she was 'unable to pay for her own return flight home' following the split. A source close to Tracey, who confirmed her relationship with Patrick seven weeks ago, told Daily Mail Australia that the overseas holiday 'was too much too soon for both of them.' Tragic: Meanwhile, as Sean enjoys his new romance with his mystery girlfriend, his ex Tracey is 'stranded' in Europe after being dumped in Berlin mid-vacation 'Things reached breaking point on Saturday night when they had an almighty row -with Tracey moving into a separate hotel room to calm down,' said an insider. 'Patrick officially ended things and Tracey was then left to arrange her own return travel back home to Australia alone after they split. 'But she hadn't taken any money with her on the trip and was left stranded. The last friends heard she'd filed a complaint with the police was waiting for the Australian embassy to open on Monday so she could figure out what to do.' Sofia Richie, 19, and her older beau Scott Disick, 35, reunited for a glamorous date night in Malibu on Wednesday night. The catwalk star joined her boyfriend for a dinner for two at popular eatery Nobu and made sure to dress for the occasion in a glamorous ensemble that flaunted her model frame. Opting for a chic cropped shirt and ripped jeans, Sofia teased a look at her taut stomach while Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Scott favoured a much more casual getup for the evening. Beauty: Bella Hadid stunned on a date with boyfriend Scott Disick at Nobu restaurant in Malibu on Wednesday night Having returned from a recent trip to Tokyo, Sofia pulled out all the stops for her reunion with Scott and looked sensational in her date night attire. Her cropped black blouse tied together at the waist leaving her abs firmly on display, with the beauty adding height to her ensemble with a stylish pair of white leather mules. The beauty wore her brunette tresses down to graze her shoulders in loose waves and favoured a minimal beauty look for the date, highlighting her natural beauty with a dewy complexion and glossy lips. Scott, meanwhile, appeared to be dressed down for the occasion and stepped out sporting a pair of charcoal grey tracksuit trousers and an oversized sweatshirt with a blue motif printed on the front. Glamorous: The model, 19, flaunted her slender frame in a chic cropped blouse and ripped jeans that she paired together with white leather mules Dressed down: Her boyfriend Scott, 35, meanwhile took a more casual approach towards the evening in a pair of grey tracksuit trousers He donned a pair of trainers on his feet and brushed back his longer mane while making his way back to Sofia's vehicle, after dining out with his younger love - 16 years his junior. The couple seemed perfectly at ease back in each other's company, with Sofia pictured driving the duo away from the hotspot following their meal. Sofia and Scott first sparked rumours of a relationship when they were spotted together aboard a yacht in Cannes in May last year. Although, Sofia had made sure to downplay their relationship, tweeting in response to dating claims: 'Just so everyone can get their panties out of their aes, Scott and I are just homies.' Four months later in September, the couple made their relationship Instagram official. Relaxed: The father-of-three wore a white sweatshirt and was seen brushing back his longer mane as he headed home from the dinner At ease: Bella looked relaxed while out with her beau and sat patiently waiting for Scott in her car, before the couple drove off together Reunited: Scott was pictured back in the company of Sofia, following her return from a recent trip to Tokyo Despite reports claiming Sofia's father Lionel Richie had disapproved of her romance with Scott, she insisted he had been 'very supportive' of the couple, telling E! News: 'Hes been very cool. Hes very supportive, whatever that means.' Lionel then added: 'I am into her business and shes trying to keep me out of her business.' Sofia and Scott made their public debut as a couple in December 2017 at a party for DuJour magazine held in Miami. Scott previously dated Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kourtney and the couple share three children together; Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three. Serious: He and the teen catwalk star have been dating since last year - romance rumours first surfaced after the pair were pictured together on board a yacht in Cannes in May 2017 Going strong: They made their public debut as a couple in December, with Sofia hitting back at claims her famous father Lionel Richie 'disapproved' of her romance with her older beau Moving on: It was claimed the duo had split earlier this year, after pictures emerged of Scott with other women, but the stars put on a reunited front just weeks later proving they were back on track Drama: A source at the time claimed: 'Scott was really shocked when Sofia split up with him... now he's panicking it's really over' His relationship with Sofia hasn't been plain sailing, however, with the teen star reportedly dumping Scott earlier this year, after photographs of him with other women surfaced. A source said at the time: 'Scott was really shocked when Sofia split up with him, presumed it was just another row and that it would just take a little begging and cajoling to win her around again - but now he's panicking that it really is over. 'When Kourtney would break up with him, he'd be in the dog house for a week and they'd be back on. 'He thought it would be the same with Sofia - that he could charm her and she'd forgive him. But so far, it's not working. He's been non stop calling her, sending her messages and begging her to meet him - so far she's just not interested. Everyone thinks he'll win her over - but she's taken her things and moved out of his house.' Former flame: Scott previously dated Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kourtney and the couple share three children together; Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three Going it alone: Scott's latest outing with girlfriend Sofia comes after reports revealed the reality star has decided to branch out on his own and is planning to launch his own show Meanwhile, his latest outing with girlfriend Sofia comes after reports revealed the reality star has decided to branch out on his own and is planning to launch his own show based on him buying and selling properties. Speaking to PEOPLE.com, Scott said of the show: 'It will probably come out next year, and it's basically about me doing things that I'm interested in, which is buying and selling properties. I guess it's cool that people will be able to see something that's a little bit different, and it's cool for me because it's something I'm passionate about.' Scott is certainly no stranger to the cameras as he's appeared on his ex-girlfriend Kourtney's family show since its launch in 2007 and, although he's still close with them, he doesn't feature on the series as much now they're separated. Andrew Brady, 27, has appeared to have kept hold of his and Caroline Flack's French bulldog puppy, Ruby, after their high-profile split as he called her his 'daughter' on his Instagram on Wednesday. The former couple, who got engaged in April and separated for good in July after a whirlwind six month romance, were reportedly set for a custody battle over the pet pooch last month. With Caroline, 38, reported to have been left 'furious' after he was claimed to have taken Ruby without her permission before she headed back to Majorca to continue filming for Love Island. Doting 'dad': Andrew Brady, 27, has appeared to of kept hold of his and Caroline Flack's French bulldog puppy, Ruby, as he shared a photo of himself to Instagram on Wednesday Yet it now looks as though Andrew has kept hold of the puppy as he shared a photograph of himself posing with the adorable pooch on his Instagram on Wednesday, after several other posts too. In the photo, the cash-strapped former The Apprentice star cut a casual figure in dark jeans, a burgundy t-shirt and orange Ray-Ban sunglasses, he held Ruby on his lap. He captioned the sweet snap with: 'Dad and Daughter,' followed with a dog emoji. 'Custody battle': The former couple, who got engaged in April and separated for good in July after a whirlwind six month romance, were reportedly set for a custody battle over the pooch 'Angry': With Caroline, 38, reported to have been left 'furious' after he was claimed to have taken Ruby without her permission MailOnline has contacted Andrew's representative for comment. The photo comes after a source told The Sun earlier this month: 'The dog was the one thing they seemed able to agree on. 'She had been happy to share custody of the dog and for Andrew to disappear with it was out of order. Sweet: Yet it now looks as though Andrew has kept hold of the puppy as he shared a photograph of himself posing with the adorable pooch, after several other posts too Split: Just last week, Caroline was forced to fly back to London from filming in Majorca to kick her ex-fiance out of her home 'On top of everything else that's happened it was like a final kick in the teeth. She has gone to film again, but she hasn't accepted it.' Just last week, Caroline was forced to fly back to London from filming in Majorca to kick her ex-fiance out of her home. Andrew was seen huffily bundling a TV and his belongings into a rented Transit van and was clutching the 6,500 vintage diamond he proposed to Caroline with in April, after just three months of dating. Drama: A source said that Andrew, 27, insisted on taking the 6,500 vintage ring back, though Caroline had been wearing it albeit on her right hand ever since they split up on July 10 A source said that Andrew, 27, insisted on taking the ring back, though Caroline had been wearing it albeit on her right hand ever since they split up on July 10. They told MailOnline: 'She came back from the island to get him out. He wouldnt leave the house without the ring. 'She had been wearing it because she was quite fond of it and they were still speaking. They had a row and are no longer speaking. She had hoped they would work things out, but they wont now.' Also after their split last month, Andrew admitted that he's 'ashamed' of himself after meeting with Celebs Go Dating producers shortly after his split from fiancee Caroline, due to 'having no money', which he revealed in a heartfelt statement. They have been travelling through Europe for the past four weeks with their children Pixie, six, and Hunter, four. And on Thursday, Roxy Jacenko, 38, and her husband Oliver Curtis, 33, appeared fresh-faced just hours after their return to Sydney. Slipping straight back into work mode, the PR queen donned head-to-toe black and accessorised with one of her many Hermes handbags. That holiday glow! Fresh-faced Roxy Jacenko, 38, stepped back into work mode in Sydney on Thursday, as she and husband Oliver Curtis, 33, returned from their European getaway Roxy covered her petite upper frame in a black cashmere sweater, which she teamed with a black A-line skirt. The best-selling author ensured she was light on her feet, opting for black slip-on flats. Roxy appeared to go makeup-free and carried her belongings in a burnt orange Hermes handbag as well as a white tote with her PR company's branding. Her cropped blonde locks fell effortlessly as she beamed broadly while walking alongside Oliver. Chic: The PR queen covered her petite upper frame in a black cashmere sweater, which she teamed with a black A-line skirt and black slip-on flats Suave: Oliver opted for a pastel blue button-up shirt, slim-fit beige trousers, a tailored navy blazer and tan suede loafers Oliver cut a suave figure in a pastel blue button-up shirt, tucked into slim-fit beige trousers. The businessman, who is now employed by Sweaty Betty PR, accessorised with a tailored navy blazer and brown suede loafers. Showing off his holiday tan, Oliver carried his iPad, phone and a business manual. Roxy and Oliver returned to Sydney on Wednesday night, after having travelled through Europe with their two young children Pixie and Hunter. Vacation: Roxy and Oliver had been travelling through Europe with their two young children Pixie, six, and Hunter, four The family were also joined on vacation by Sweaty Betty PR employee and close friend, Grace Garrick. Oliver was released from prison in June last year after spending 12 months behind bars for conspiracy to commit insider trading. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia earlier this month, Roxy remarked how the lavish break is 'so nice for Oli. A far cry from his last holiday!' Roxy and Oliver have been married since 2012. Tabitha Willett made her first appearance on Made In Chelsea over the spring, making her mark on the show by getting involved in the Olivia Bentley/Digby Edgley relationship drama. And having jetted to Hvar for the show's summer season MIC: Croatia, the reality newbie has promised potential romance as well as the demise of one long-term relationship. Speaking to MailOnline, Tabitha said: 'Habbs [Sophie Habboo] and I just had such a laugh together. I only actually met her during filming last season but have fallen completely in love with her. New girl: Tabitha Willett has promised potential romance as well as the demise of one long-term relationship on MIC: Croatia 'We had such a giggle and for a time were the only two single girls in the cast so had fun with that too.' Discounting Sophie Hermann and Victoria Baker Harber, who tend to leave their love lives off-screen, the other female cast members involved in MIC: Croatia are Olivia Bentley, Heloise Agostinelli and Melisssa Tattem - who are in relationships with Digby Edgley, Jamie Laing and Harry Baron respectively. Tabitha's admission that she and Habbs were the only two single girls 'for a time' suggests there's trouble afoot for one of these unions. Liv and Digby hit a rocky patch in London when Liv casually suggested she was 'feeling the ick', which got back to him via the others gossiping - as is usually the case on Made In Chelsea. Troubled waters? Tabitha's admission that she and Habbs were the only two single girls 'for a time' suggests there's trouble afoot for one of these unions Who's in trouble? There are various blossoming romances, friendship crises and relationship hiccups on the horizon on MIC: Croatia They were back and forth, but ultimately got back together again ahead of Croatia. But could things go sour again? Similarly, the trailer for MIC: Croatia hints that Harry might have got up to no good in Vegas, behind Melissa's back. But this is all yet to unfold. Tabitha went on to explain her own romantic situation: 'I was seeing someone when I started the summer series but nothing was exclusive as we didn't want to put pressure on anything and just enjoy our summers. 'I have since been in a relationship and am now single again. I am not sure love is what I am looking for but I am open to anything.' Trouble afoot? Will Melisssa Tattem and Harry Baron [L] or Digby Edgley and Olivia Bentley [R] survive the MIC summer season romance curse? Blossoming or withering? Heloise Agostinelli and Jamie Laing's dalliance is relatively new - but will it last? Performing another quick elimination game with the male cast members suggests Tabitha's Croatian dalliance could have been with Miles Nazaire. When asked whether or not she had her eye on when they started filming for the summer, Tabitha said: 'There was someone actually, but I think it was more of a physical attraction rather than actually liking the guy.' When asked who shocked her the most on the trip, she revealed it was, in fact, Miles. 'Miles, probably, shocked me out of everyone. I think this is because this was dramatic for me.' What goes on between the pair is another plot twist yet to be revealed. Gal pals: Tabitha said 'Habbs [Sophie Habboo] and I just had such a laugh together. I only actually met her during filming last season but have fallen completely in love with her' Holiday romance? Performing another quick elimination game with the male cast members suggests Tabitha's Croatian dalliance could have been with Miles Nazaire Tabitha also spoke of her close friendships with Liv and Ollie Locke. She said: 'Ollie barely left my side and was such an amazing wing man. I have known him for years and years in London but never in such close encounters so it was incredible to hang out with him every day. 'The other person who I loved being with was Liv - I have known her my whole life so it was really like having a sister out there which was very nice during slight homesick moments.' Other than this, Tabitha admits she felt a bit like 'the new girl at school'. 'I was the only newbie this season which I think made it a little bit easier as people showed genuine interest in me and wanted to get to know me,' she explained. 'There are a lot of strong characters and I think it is important to embrace it and dive in head first. Close: Tabitha spoke of her close friendships with Ollie Locke and Sophie Habboo Water babes: 'I was the only newbie this season which I think made it a little bit easier as people showed genuine interest in me and wanted to get to know me,' Tabitha explained. 'There are a lot of strong characters and I think it is important to embrace it and dive in head first [pictured with Melissa and Habbs] 'Saying this, everyone is so welcoming and lovely that I feel like I fell into it very quickly. The benefit of having a soft entrance though is getting up to speed with everyone else's dramas as there is always a lot going on in Chelsea!' Tabitha - who already has a healthy social media following and is a marketing consultant and fashion and lifestyle blogger - asserted that she 'isn't hugely worried' about the attention being on MIC brings. She is more concerned with making sure people know she is 'nice'. 'I am quite positive relaxed about it actually. I think I am more worried about what my fellow cast mates think of me than the general public! It is important to remember that everyone will have their own opinion but I think I will take it all in my stride. Old friends: 'The other person who I loved being with was Liv - I have known her my whole life so it was really like having a sister out there which was very nice during slight homesick moments,' Tabitha said Soft entrance: Tabitha made her first appearance on Made In Chelsea over the spring, making her mark on the show by getting involved in the Olivia/Digby relationship drama Media girl: Tabitha already has a healthy social media following and is a marketing consultant and fashion and lifestyle blogger 'I want people to know that I am actually a nice person. I have a big heart and often wear my heart on my sleeve which doesn't always work out in my favour!' Citing former cast members Millie Mackintosh and Caggie Dunlop as her MIC heroes (as well as Stevie Johnson who she admits she 'always had a big sweet spot for'), Tabitha concluded by summing up MIC: Croatia in three words. 'Dramatic, naughty and fun,' she said wryly. Made in Chelsea returns to E4 on Monday 6th August at 9PM. Christian Slater, 48, has opened about shedding his 'exhausting' tough guy persona and how his dark experiences shaped the husband he is today. The Heathers star was labelled a 'bad boy' after a stream of gritty roles in the late eighties and nineties but soon life began imitating art for the A-lister, who has had a number of run-ins with the law over the years. The Interview With a Vampire actor has a well documented troubled past, which has included a drunk-driving car chase with police, a gun found in his luggage in JFK airport and being sent to prison for 90 days for an assault in 1997. 'Exhausting': Christian Slater, 48, has opened about shedding his 'exhausting' tough guy persona and how his dark experiences shaped the husband he is today Now speaking to MR PORTER, the Mr Robot actor, who has also battled addiction, admitted that he was left 'exhausted' trying keep up his tough guy persona and spent a lot of time trying to solve his issues. He began: 'Thats life. Or at least, thats my life. I definitely spent a lot of time beating myself up, living with useless emotion, guilt and shame. 'Feeling tortured and justifying that because the examples I had were other tortured actors. You put that on yourself and think thats how youre supposed to behave. There was a level of imitation going on. Adding: 'I think eventually you do get to a point where you just say, God, what a waste of energy. Its so damn exhausting.' Then: The Heathers star was labelled a 'bad boy' after a stream of gritty roles in the late eighties and nineties but soon life began imitating art for the A-lister, who has had a number of run-ins with the law over the years In the past: The Interview With a Vampire actor has a well documented troubled past, which has included a drunk-driving car chase with police, a gun found in his luggage in JFK airport and being sent to prison for 90 days for an assault in 1997 Reflecting on his attitude, Christian explained that a meeting with a fan helped change his outlook and gave him perspective on his blessed career. 'I mean, I remember somebody coming up to me and asking for a photo at a restaurant and I gave him attitude,' he said. 'Then that p***ed them off. And then I got scared. I thought, man, its just so much nicer to be gracious. Continuing: 'I didnt give up. I stuck with it. I came back and I started to understand what a gift it is to be able to escape and put on the shoes of somebody else. 'Thats something not to be taken for granted. I keep learning each and every day. And try to show up for things with as much of a smile as I possibly can.' Life: Now speaking to MR PORTER , the Mr Robot actor, who has also battled addiction, admitted that he was left 'exhausted' trying keep up his tough guy persona and spent a lot of time trying to solve his issues 'Shame': He began: 'Thats life. Or at least, thats my life. I definitely spent a lot of time beating myself up, living with useless emotion, guilt and shame. Feeling tortured and justifying that because the examples I had were other tortured actors' Happier than ever, the Hollywood star revealed that all his life lessons have led to his point and have shaped the husband he is to second wife Brittany Lopez, who he married in 2013. He began: 'I think, as you get older, you get a bit more settled into who it is you want to be. 'So when I get behind the closed door of my house, I have my chores. I do the dishes. I take the garbage out. I have my responsibilities. I show up for my kids. Reflection: Reflecting on his attitude, Christian explained that a meeting with a fan helped change his outlook and gave him perspective on his blessed career 'Attitude': 'I mean, I remember somebody coming up to me and asking for a photo at a restaurant and I gave him attitude,' he said. 'Then that p***ed them off. And then I got scared. I thought, man, its just so much nicer to be gracious' Adding: 'I try to be the best husband that I can be. I try to be a good, open, communicative partner. And at work, I choose to focus on people who take the work seriously, but dont take themselves seriously.' His comments come after Christian confessed he's a 'huge' Bachelorette fan and it's a way he bonds with his 16-year-old daughter Eliana (with ex-wife Ryan Haddon). The Golden Globe winner, who's Team Blake Horstmann, said the ABC dating competition has become 'a family event' even though some of his friends make fun of him for it. Read the full interview at www.mrporter.com Johnny Ruffo was diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2017. And twelve months on, the 30-year-old has relived the terrifying night he was rushed to hospital, where doctors discovered he had a a fist-sized tumor growing in his head. Speaking with Who magazine's podcast on Thursday, the former Home and Away star also credited his long-time girlfriend Tahnee Sims with saving his life. Scroll down for video 'Holy s**t, this is serious!' Johnny Ruffo spoke with Who magazine's podcast on Thursday and revealed he was just hours from death before doctors discovered a fist-sized tumour growing on his brain Johnny recalled that on the night of August 6, 2017, he was at home with Tahnee when he began suffering from a severe migraine. The blonde beauty insisted her actor beau head to the hospital, where he promptly underwent an MRI scan. Johnny's migraine was so bad that he soon slipped into a coma, and he told the podcast: 'The doctor said 'If you didn't come in (to the hospital), you would have gone to sleep and you would have been dead.' Brave: Johnny underwent surgery to remove the 7 cm long tumour, which medics claim had been growing from anywhere between two and ten years 'Holy s**t, this is serious!' Johnny's post-surgery scar stretches around one side of his face 'Holy s**t, this is serious!' the entertainer recalled thinking. Soon after, Johnny underwent surgery to remove the 7cm long tumour, which medics claim had been growing from anywhere between two and ten years. The star has since undergone six weeks of radiotherapy and seven months of chemotherapy. Battle: Following recovery from his surgery (pictured), Johnny faced months of chemotherapy She's a lifesaver! Johnny has been dating stunning blonde Tahnee Sims (left) for the past three years, and she insisted he go to the hospital on the night he slipped into a coma He told the podcast: 'I've still got five months (of chemo) to go.' 'I'm lucky enough to be able to do oral chemo, so it's just tablets, so I can do that from the comfort of my own home,' Johnny explained, revealing that the drugs have made him feel like 'dogs**t'. And while the star says he's looking forward to heading back into the studio to record more songs in the future, he says that for now his 'number one priority is to beat cancer'. More music in the future! Johnny says he's looking forward to heading back into the recording studio to record more songs She's known for looking preened to perfection both on and off the red carpet. And Olympia Valance cemented her sartorial credentials on Thursday, as she attended the opening night of the Melbourne International Film Festival. The former Neighbours actress, 25, looked impeccable in a chic tweed dress as she cosied up to her handsome Playing For Keeps co-star Jackson Gallagher. Scroll down for video Check her out! Olympia Valance paraded her sizzling figure in chic tweed dress at the star-studded Melbourne International Film Festival 2018 opening night on Thursday She certainly took centre-stage in her dress, which featured a racy front-split and a demure round neckline. Letting the statement garment do all the talking, she accessorised with a pair of round patent pumps and a stylish clutch. The brunette bombshell styled her glossy raven tresses in tumbling waves and framed her eyes with lashings of mascara. Double trouble: She cosied up to Jackson Gallagher, who she stars alongside in the Channel 10 drama Playing For Keeps Stunning: She certainly took centre-stage in her dress, which featured a racy front-split and a demure round neckline Olympia was joined by Jackson, who looked dapper in a black poloneck and a sharply tailored blazer teamed with tartan pants. Olympia plays glamorous AFL WAG Tahlia on Channel Ten's upcoming sporty drama show, Playing For Keeps. The actress stars alongside Home And away alum Jackson on the show, and recently raved about her handsome on-screen fiance's acting skills to OK! magazine. She's a bit of all white! Neighbours star Mavournee Hazel kept her look androgynous in a white tuxedo dress Monochrome maven: The 22-year-old actress donned barely-there mules and a monogrammed Fendi bag The brunette beauty teased saucy scenes between the pair, revealing Jackson as the best 'on-screen lover' she's ever had. 'I couldn't have asked for better on-screen lover. Best I've ever had!' she gushed. Playing the part as the glamorous socialite partner of a sporting team's captain, the dark-haired beauty said she was drawn to the show's 'fascinating' world and the 'fun' behind the scenes look at the lives of five AFL WAGs. Suited and booted: Actor Damian Walshe, 47, opted for a navy checked suit and a polka dot tie Dapper: Logie award winner Gyton Grantley cut a suave figure in chinos and a navy sweater The 25-year-old actress also noted how 'nice' it is to be on a show that 'revolves' around inspirational women, written by women for women, and yet will also appeal to men. Olympia's return of Australia has also sparked buzz about a possible return to Neighbours, where she played the role of Paige Novak for four years. While nothing has been confirmed, Olympia said that she's 'open' to return to the long-running soap opera. Ruth Langsford channelled Jennifer Lopez on This Morning on Thursday when she wore a copy of her fallen-down Versace denim thigh-high boots. The wife of Eamonn Holmes, 58, seemed rather taken with the striking footwear, teaming them with a form-fitting yellow midi dress. And it seems as though Ruth, also 58, channelled the dancing diva the minute she slipped her feet in as she treated Eamonn to some very sexy 'grind' moves. Ruthy From The Block: Ruth Langsford channeled J-Lo in her denim fall-down boots on This Morning on Thursday (as she treated husband Eamonn Holmes to a very saucy dance live on air) Jean genie-us! The boots were first worn by Jennifer on Friday as she was pictured doing promo in New York So taken with the boots, that Ruth left them on for much of the show, even when she was interviewing musical icon Leo Sayer. Eamonn told viewers: 'Ruth couldn't get them off so she's staying in them for the interview.' But fellow presenter Gok Wan was not a fan and said no one should be wearing them. Spot the difference: Ruth (right) channelled Jennifer's (left) dance moves in the boots as she was overcome with rhythm He's a fan: Eamonn seemed pretty pleased when Ruth revealed she was taking the boots home You Make Me Feel Like Dancing: So taken with the boots, that Ruth left them on for much of the show, even when she was interviewing musical icon Leo Sayer (not pictured) Ruth's version of the boots even had mini belts running around the top of them, just like 49-year-old Jen's and she said she was planning on taking them home. The boots were first worn by Jennifer on Friday as she was pictured doing promo in New York. She teamed the footwear, which came with the belt and back pockets with an oversized white shirt dress. A step back in time: Both sets of boots had belts looped around the top of them Wearing retro mirrored shades, she added a pop of colour to her look carrying a pink birthday card and a Birkin bag. Her hair was styled in a long slicked back ponytail and she wore hoop earrings as she channelled some years ago. The boots come from Italian brand Versace's pre-spring 2019 collection. She recently quit her radio gig in Wollongong to relocate to Sydney for a fresh start and an 'exciting' new opportunity. And now Mel Greig has officially found a swanky rental in Sydney, with the radio star taking to Instagram on Thursday to flaunt her new Bondi pad. The 36-year-old also addressed rumours that she's returned to Sydney to star in the upcoming season of Married At First Sight. Loving life! Mel Greig has moved into a new house in Bondi after leaving Woolongong behind for the bright lights of Sydney 'Ive been busy moving so I havent had a chance to respond to everyones text messages about Married At First Sight,' wrote the radio star. 'My first project is closer to the posted picture than it is to [bride emoji,' she continued, referencing a photo she posted of her hand holding a soft serve ice cream in front of a salad bar. The star added: 'If Im still single this time next year sign me up for ALL the dating shows.' 'Moved in all by myself like an independent woman or something!' The 36-year-old showed off her new Bondi pad 'If Im still single this time next year sign me up for ALL the dating shows!' The radio star indicated that she isn't starring on the new season of Married At First Sight, but would be open to reality TV dating next year Mel then shared a photo of her new home in Sydney's trendy Bondi. 'Moved in all by myself like an independent woman or something,' she boasted. 'Ready for summer and backyard BBQs in Bondi,' she continued, before adding a string of hashtags like 'Hotel Mel,' 'My happy place,' and 'Let the journey begin.' The 36-year-old recently revealed she was putting her 'health and happiness first' by relocating to Sydney and confessed she felt 'isolated' and alone in Woolongong. 'My first project is closer to the posted picture than it is to [bride emoji': Mel indicated that a photo she posted of an ice cream (pictured) was a hint towards her new project Mel said on air: 'So, you all know when I moved to the Illawarra, I was married, about to have babies... that didn't eventuate. I divorced [and] became quite isolated. 'The Illawarra is amazing, I love this place and have amazing friends here, but when you get up everyday at 3.20am, it takes its toll. 'This was a fresh start and it just didn't go to plan in the sense of what I pictured. That little family, going to nippers in a beautiful coastal town. 'I don't have a family, I don't have a partner, it's just me.' Seth Rogen has corroborated Judd Apatows tale of him teaching Tom Cruise of the existence of online porn. During the premiere of the Netflix film Life Father, the 36-year-old actor told his side of the story. He admitted that he didnt remember the incident, which occurred about 12 years ago by his account, until Judd brought it up again. He told Vulture: I obviously had no recollection of that, and then when I saw him tell it, I was like, Oh yeah! I told Tom Cruise that internet pornography exists, and he didnt know. Which is crazy! Seth Rogen has weighed in on Judd Apatow's claim he taught Tom Cruise about online porn Seth added: I probably was like, This is crazy you dont know this. I mean, I cant remember it was like 12 years ago or something like that. I think generally my reaction was, You are a very sheltered man. The Pineapple Express star shared new details about the story that hadnt previously come out. That day in Tom Cruises driveway, I got to his house, and I had to pee so bad, he shared. I very vividly remember this, and he has a very long, winding driveway, and I didnt want to show up at his house and just pee right away, because I thought it would be an awkward thing. Seth continued: So as I was driving up his driveway I stopped halfway through it and peed in a Snapple bottle I had in my car. And then sealed it up and finished the ride up the driveway, and greeted Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and his newborn baby Suri. It also, contextually, was the weirdest time to be meeting Tom Cruise. It was like the weirdest frenzy it was like a couple weeks after the couch-jumping thing. So it was Peak Tom Cruise. It was right when the baby was born, and no one had seen a picture of it yet, so literally there was a debate whether or not she was real. The actor said not only was Suri real, but he got up close and personal with her. I met the babyI pulled in the driveway and hes like, Heres [Suri]. I held her. It was just, like, instantaneous, Seth said. What else dont you know about Seth Rogen? Check it out. Who is Seth Rogen? Seth Rogen is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, writer, producer and director. Hes the child of Sandy and Mark Rogen and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. He started his career as a comedian in his teenage years before transitioning into acting. His first big role was in Freaks and Geeks, which was created by Judd Apatow. The show was cancelled after one season and Seth was forced to move on. Seth landed a job writing on Undeclared and Da Ali G Show and then landed his first movie role in Donnie Darko in 2001. He didnt score a major movie roll until The 40-year-old Virgin, which was directed by Judd. He went on to appear in other films Judd directed, including Knocked Up and Funny People. Seth developed the AMC series Preacher in 2016. He also works as a writer, executive producer and director alongside Evan Goldberg. The pair have a long history together. Theyve worked together on Superbad, Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet and This is the End. They co-directed This is the End and The Interview together as well. Seth was recently booked to play Timon alongside Billy Eichner as Pumbaa in The Lion King. In addition to his work in TV and film, Seth is a well-known advocate in the fight against Alzheimers. His wifes parents suffer from the disease, so its close to his heart. He appeared before Congress in 2014 to advocate for more funding for Alzheimers research and has started a fundraiser called Hilarity for Charity with a similar mission. Seth Rogen net worth Seth Rogens net worth is estimated at $55 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. How did Seth Rogen make his money? Seth Rogen has made the majority of his money as an actor, writer, producer and director. His acting career began in his teens. His first role was in Judd Apatows TV series, Freaks and Geeks. The show was cancelled after just one season and Seth moved on to Undeclared, which he acted in and wrote for. It was onward and upward from there. Me and Evan are being inducted in to Canadas Walk of Fame and we couldnt be more honoured. We made this special video to say thank you. (To non Canadians, this will make very little sense) @CWOFame #CWOF2018. pic.twitter.com/nulBpumPFd Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) July 23, 2018 Seth has written for Da Ali G Show, too. He landed his first movie role in 2001s Donnie Darko, but didnt land a major part in a film for years after. In 2005 he was cast in Apatows 40-year-old Virgin and went on to appear in many of his other movies including Knocked Up and Funny People. Hes written several other films including Superbad, This is The End, The Interview and more. In 2016 he developed the AMC series Preacher, which he writes, produces and directs. Seth Rogen wife Seth Rogen is married to writer/actress Lauren Miller. The pair met during his time at Da Ali G Show in 2004. They got engaged in September 2010 and married in October of the following year. Seth Rogen new movie Seth Rogens latest film is a Netflix original called Like Father. It stars Kristen Bell, Kelsey Grammer and Zach Appelman. Like Father is the story of a young woman who gets left at the altar. She decides to go on her Caribbean honeymoon cruise with her estranged father. The unexpected trip brings them together in the end, changing their relationship forever. Like Father was written and directed by Seths wife. Seth Rogen TTC voice Seth Rogen is one of a few celebrities chosen to do voice overs for the Toronto Transit Commission. His voice can be heard on different forms of public transit, reminding riders to be courteous to those around them. The messages Seth recorded relate to a variety of different problems people encounter on buses and trains. They include holding train doors, fare evasion, feet on seats, giving up your seat for elderly people or pregnant women, personal grooming, eating on trains and buses and so on. In a VERY concerted attempt to make everyones transit experience as wonderful as possible, Im thrilled to say that Ive recorded messages for Torontos TTC! Please stop clipping your toe nails on public transit! https://t.co/Csy4K3DpcD Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) July 31, 2018 In one message, Seth says: Hey TTC Riders. Fellow Canadian Seth Rogen here. Some of you listening to me right now did not pay your fare. You know who you are and its not cool. And I also want you to know, I can see you. No, I cant actually see you. I didnt mean to freak you out. But if I could see you, I would say, "Not cool." Just pay your fare like everyone else. Fare is fair get it? You can listen to the rest here. Her husband is lighting up stages across the globe as part of his critically-acclaimed Man of the Woods tour. And Jessica Biel showed her support for beau Justin Timberlake as the couple spent quality time together in Stockholm, Sweden, after his latest glittering show. The Sinner actress, 36, showcased her radiant complexion as she smiled for the cameras, with her brunette tresses pulled up into an elegant bun. Post-show: Jessica Biel showed her support for beau Justin Timberlake as the couple spent quality time together in Stockholm, Sweden, after his latest Man of the Woods tour show Her glowing visage was accentuated with fluttery lashes and a slick of nude lipgloss. Putting on a leggy display for her evening out, the 7th Heaven star slipped into a flirty scarlet mini dress which skimmed her toned pins. She layered a denim jacket over the skimpy dress and completed her outfit with metallic silver sandals. The actress was followed out by her Cry Me A River hitmaker husband, 37, who looked typically handsome in a black, white and blue t-shirt and jeans. Leggy: The Sinner actress, 36, showcased her radiant complexion as she smiled for the cameras, with her brunette tresses pulled up into an elegant bun He donned a mustard yellow cap and finished his ensemble with green trainers. Jessica shut down her kid friendly restaurant Au Fudge on Sunday after just two years in business. Jessica made an official announcement via the venue's Instagram page. Shocked staff had been informed a few days earlier and 'tearfully' greeted guests on their last day, according to Us Weekly. While the restaurant and full service bar, which was billed as 'fun for kids and kids at heart', is now closed, the company will do private events. Meanwhile, Jessica's acting career has been on an upswing after she was nominated for an Emmy for her role in The Sinner. Justin is currently on his Man Of The Woods world tour, and will next perform in Belgium on Wednesday. The couple tied the knot in 2012, after dating for five years. They share one son, Silas, aged three. She's rarely seen without her beloved pet pooch. And Daisy Lowe showed off her new hair transformation as she took her dog Monty for a sunny walk in Primrose Hill, London, on Thursday. The model, 29, rocked a summer chic ensemble as she showed off her slender frame in a black and white patterned sheer pinafore dress with a black bandeau top underneath. Work it: Daisy Lowe showed off her new hair transformation as she took her dog Monty for a sunny walk in Primrose Hill, London, on Thursday She accessorised her look with a black handbag, knee-high biker boots and a pair of aviator sunglasses. Daisy styled her new chopped bob hair transformation into a straightened hairdo, as she appeared to go make-up free. The former Strictly Come Dancing star appeared relaxed and care-free as she walked her dog Monty and listened to music on her phone. Chic: The model, 29, rocked a summer chic ensemble as she showed off her slender frame in a black and white patterned sheer pinafore dress with a black bandeau top Daisy's outing comes after she unveiled her new hairdo last week, opting for a miniature bob and box fringe after chopping off her long raven coloured locks. Just last month, the model announced her role with dating app Bumble in a lengthy Instagram post, where she shared her empathy with women who struggle with body image and mental health issues. The TV personality spoke out about her exciting new venture as she started the post: 'Today I am announcing my partnership with Bumble as their UK ambassador - something I feel great pride in sharing.' Before: Daisy's outing comes after she unveiled her new hairdo last week, opting for a miniature bob and box fringe after chopping off her long raven coloured locks (pictured in March with her previous longer hair) Daisy continued: 'Their values - of relationships rooted in kindness, equality and empowerment are something that I hope this year long ambassador role can help me to work with them to encourage.' 'As a woman who has gone through varying ups and downs, I stand with you. I've been through it. 'The weight struggles, the mental health challenges, the broken heart. I get it. I wanted to use this opportunity to tell anyone who ever needed it - you're going to [be] OK. More than OK.' Candid: Just last month, the model announced her role with dating app Bumble in a lengthy Instagram post, where she shared her empathy with women who struggle with body image The Strictly Come Dancing star detailed: 'These challenges make up the tapestry of who we are. They are the experiences that shape us, that teach us, that develop us into the best versions of our selves and build our resilience in ways we never thought possible.' Honing in her dedication to the role, she went on: 'Bumble's mission is to provide a safe place for women to feel empowered, supported, respected, and I am thrilled to be working with them on this journey in the UK. 'I've felt the opposite of all those components and I am committed, and geniunely honoured to be working with them to created an environiment where equality and mutual respect is a given.' Love Island 2018 has racked up a massive 4,195 complaints - the most in the history of the ITV2 reality show to date. Last year's third season had previously been the most complained about, but only received a paltry 135 grievances, according to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom. Season four smashed this tally by receiving 4060 complaints more than season three, with one incident alone prompting more than half of these. Controversial: Love Island 2018 has racked up a massive 4,195 complaints - the most in the history of the ITV2 reality show to date 2646 calls to Ofcom were prompted by the 'emotional abuse of Dani Dyer by showing her the video of Jack and his ex'. This incident saw her boyfriend Jack Fincham, along with the other men in the villa, transported to Casa Amor where they were made to mingle with a new batch of single women. One of these was Ellie Jones, the former flame of the Essex boy, whom he was just as shocked to see on the show as anyone else. A clip of Jack declaring that Ellie was his ex was then sent to Dani's phone, sending her into a tailspin of despair, without knowing the context. Tears: Last year's third season had previously been the most complained about, but only received a paltry 135 grievances - barely wieghing up against 2018's edition Shocking: Season four received 4060 complaints more than season three, with one incident alone prompting more than half of these Second place: At 632 complaints was the 'emotional abuse of Laura Anderson' [L]. She was left feeling betrayed and confused when she was told her friend Georgia Steel kissed Jack [R] This prompted a wash of viewers to call Ofcom and lodge a complaint again Love Island producers for taunting Dani and causing her distress. At 632 complaints was the 'emotional abuse of Laura Anderson'. This was not an isolated incident, and appears to refer to a series of issues that Laura faced during her two month stay in the Love Island villa. Unfair? 'Discrimination against Samira Mighty' was the third most complained about issue, totaling at 540 calls to Ofcom Serious: Another major incident during the 2018 edition of Love Island was the suggested 'emotional abuse' of Rosie Williams by Adam Collard - which sparked concerns with bosses at domestic abuse charity Women's Aid Cold: Adam locked horns with his partner Rosie in an explosive confrontation, during which he was widely-criticised by viewers for smirking throughout the argument and later leaving her in hysterical tears She was 'dumped' by Wes Nelson during the first few weeks, after he decided he preferred Megan Barton Hanson; and the same thing happened later on when Jack Fowler's head was turned by new Islander Laura Crane. In addition, she was left feeling betrayed and confused when she was told her friend Georgia Steel kissed Jack on a date. Jack admitted that Georgia had instigated the kiss, while Georgia vehemently denied it, leading to multiple arguments, all with Laura caught in the middle. 'Discrimination against Samira Mighty' was the third most complained about issue, totaling at 540 calls to Ofcom. Tantrums: Georgia Steel and Sam Bird were subject to a series of dramatic twists, at the hands of the producers Emotional: The girls of the villa were reduced to fits of tears on numerous occasions This appears to allude to speculation that her relationship with Frankie Foster was not shown to its full extent, instead favouring other Islanders. As a result, Frankie was voted off the Island, leaving Samira on her own. She quit two days later. Season four leads the way by miles, after season three gained 135 complaints in total, season two received 40 and season one procured just 15. Another major incident during the 2018 edition of Love Island was the suggested 'emotional abuse' of Rosie Williams by Adam Collard - which sparked concerns with bosses at domestic abuse charity Women's Aid. Love Island - Complaints Over The Years Top three most complained about issues from Love Island 2018: 1. Emotional abuse of Dani Dyer by showing her the video of Jack and his ex - 2646 2. Emotional abuse of Laura Anderson - 632 3. Discrimination against Samira Mighty 540 Total complaints: 4195 Love Island 2017 Total complaints: 135 Most complained about issue: 11 complaints objecting to smoking, 5 July 2017 Love Island 2016 Total complaints: 40 Most complained about issue: 9 complaints about sexual content, 30 June 2016 Love Island 2015 Total complaints: 15 Most complained about issue: no multiple complaints about same episode and issue Statistics provided by Ofcom and accurate on 2nd August 2018 Advertisement Adam locked horns with his partner Rosie in an explosive confrontation, during which he was widely-criticised by viewers for smirking throughout the argument and later leaving her in hysterical tears. Voicing concern over Adam's actions, Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of Womens Aid, said: 'On the latest series of Love Island, there are clear warning signs in Adams behaviour.' Adam had been coupled with Rosie, but turned his attentions to other women while still with her. Rosie then geared herself up to confront Adam, but he smirked his way through her tearful monologue - leading to fans branding the personal trainer 'a narcissist and sociopath' for his cold response. In light of the shocking scenes, Women's Aid urged viewers watching Adam's behaviour to recognise the warning signs and patterns. Hard to watch: Voicing concern over Adam's actions toward Rosie, Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of Womens Aid, said 'On the latest series of Love Island, there are clear warning signs in Adams behaviour' Terse: Ellie Brown was also caught up in furious arguments during her time on the series Releasing a statement in response to the show, bosses said: 'On the latest series of Love Island, there are clear warning signs in Adams behaviour. 'In a relationship, a partner questioning your memory of events, trivialising your thoughts or feelings, and turning things around to blame you can be part of pattern of gaslighting and emotional abuse. 'Last night, Rosie called out Adam's unacceptable behaviour on the show. We ask viewers to join her in recognising unhealthy behaviour in relationships and speaking out against all forms of domestic abuse emotional as well as physical. 'It is only when we make a stand together against abuse in relationships that we will see attitudes change and an end to domestic abuse.' They have been enjoying themselves in California this summer. And Gordon Ramsay, 51, looked like he was in good spirits as he headed to Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills with wife Tana, 44, and daughter Megan, 20, on Wednesday. The TV chef went for an all-black look, cladding his physique in a black top and skinny jeans as he enjoyed the family day out. Family day out: Gordon Ramsay, 51, looked like he was in good spirits as he headed to Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills with wife Tana, 43, and daughter Megan, 20, on Wednesday Gordon cut a trendy figure in an black top, jeans and comfortable trainers as he ventured out into the sunshine. He was joined by wife Tana who went for a more casually cool figure in a knitted backless top, skinny jeans and boots. Matilda also opted for a pretty dress and trainers as she headed to the hotspot with her parents. Looking good: The TV chef went for an all-black look, cladding his physique in a black top and skinny jeans as he enjoyed the family day out Clan: He was joined by daughter Megan and wife Tana, who went for a more casually cool figure in a knitted backless top, skinny jeans and boots Gordon and Tana are also parents to twins Holly and Jack, 18, as well as Matilda, Gordon first called Los Angeles home in 2004 after he became a huge success across the pond with US versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and MasterChef. But the star didn't mind treading on some toes after he recently credited his success in the United States to Americans knowing 'f**k' all about good food. The TV star opened up about his time in the US as he accepted an award for his success on both sides of the Atlantic at the Britweek Innovation Awards in May. Tight knit: Gordon and Tana are also parents to (L-R) Megan, 20, Matilda, 16, and Holly's twin brother Jack, 18 (pictured in November 2016) Winning: Gordon first called Los Angeles home in 2004 after he became a huge success across the pond with US versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares and MasterChef The chef spoke about his move to the States, when he saw a Los Angeles Times reporter to box up a Caesar salad for takeaway. Speaking about his foul-mouthed rant to the reporter, Gordon recalled: '[The reporter] boxed a Caesar salad and I said to her, "Do you have any idea how s**t a Caesar salad tastes 24 hours later? 'What will you do with that f***ing thing?" She said, "I'm going to eat it." 'I said, "But it's been dressed. We dressed it 20 minutes ago; it's sat there for 25 minutes. Why would you eat that?" She said, "It's delicious". 'That's when I knew Americans knew f**k all about good food. Right there and then.' Tyson Beckford is continuing his feud with Kim Kardashian as he not only shared snaps of his gym-honed physique but also insisted that he is not gay but does 'support' the LGBTQ community. The 47-year-old male model took to Instagram early Thursday morning to share shirtless snaps to show off his very muscular physique. Beckford has been slighting Kardashian over her figure which he referred to as 'botched' while insisting that the best way to get a desirable physique is in the gym. He also said that though he is not homosexual as Kim seemingly alluded to, he is supportive as he wrote: 'Train 5-6 days a wk,weights Martial Arts and Firearms and I defend those who cant defend themselves! Swole patrol: Tyson Beckford took to Instagram early Thursday morning to share shirtless snaps to show off his very muscular physique as he continued to add fuel to the fire of his feud with Kim Kardashian Still swinging:The posts came just hours after he shared a meme of the wife of Kanye West looking very muscular 'I support LGBTQ ,even though Im not Gay. Its just the Human thing to do. #blackexcellence #tysonbeckford #lgbt #superhero #realsuperhero.' The posts came just hours after he shared a meme of the wife of Kanye West looking very muscular with the caption: '"Hit the gym. Not the surgery," Becky said. @tysonbeckford but some hit the Photoshop.' Kardashian has been slammed on social media for insinuating that Beckford was gay and the model has also fired back. Ripped: Beckford has been slighting Kardashian over her figure which he referred to as 'botched' while insisting that the best way to get a desirable physique is in the gym. 'I support LGBTQ ,even though Im not Gay. Its just the Human thing to do': He also said that though he is not homosexual as Kim seemingly alluded to, he is supportive of the LGBTQ community Twitter has been flooded with messages blasting the 37-year-old reality star with some even calling her 'homophobic.' As the model criticized her for her 'botched' body,' he took another shot at Kardashian on Instagram by posting a gym selfie video with the caption 'no surgery just gym it ladies.' It didn't stop there as Tyson also shared a meme of a photoshopped snap of Kim looking very muscular Feud: Kardashian has been slammed on social media for her response at Beckford in which she insinuated that he was gay Ouch: Twitter has been flooded with messages blasting the 37-year-old reality star with some even calling her 'homophobic' Burn: As the 47-year-old model criticized her for her 'botched' body,' he took another shot at Kardashian on Instagram by posting a gym selfie video with the caption 'no surgery just gym it ladies' This comes after Kim was lambasted on social media as one user wrote: 'I hope y'all get kim kardashian together for that homophobic response to Tyson Beckford.' Another microblogger got really personal with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star by bringing up the mental health of her husband Kanye West. They wrote: 'Kim Kardashian, you're questioning Tyson Beckford's sexuality, like being "gay" is something evil. How about you worry about your husband mental health because you should be more concerned about his well being than if someone is gay. The nerve of this woman. Not today Kimberly.' Not pleased: Several microbloggers took aim at the reality star 'No surgery just gym it ladies': Tyson recorded the video from a gym as he sported a headband and a curly wig Someone else commented that they were a fan of the reality star until recently as they wrote: '@KimKardashian is trash!! I liked her until she used being gay as a drag on the shade room ig pg. 'honey you do not get to imply that someone is in the closet just because he didn't like your outfit/body you don't do that girl since you employ an array of gay makeup artist/stylist' This all began after the male model wrote insulting comments about her body on Instagram. After a paparazzi picture of the reality star was posted online Beckford criticized Kim's figure, writing that she's 'not real' and that the 'doctor f***ed up'. 'Sorry I don't care for it personally' Tyson commented on the snap of Kim dressed up for Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles this week wearing black velour leggings and a tiny crop top. Hitting back: Kim clapped back at Beckford after he wrote critical comments about her body on Tuesday. She insinuating that he doesn't find her attractive because he is gay. Taking it a step further, the Into The Blue actor added another scathing comment about the appearance of her curves, 'She is not real, doctor f***ed up on her right hip.' Adding insult to injury the star added a green vomit emoji. The Shade Room shared the comments on its Instagram page allowing for the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star to see Tyson's unfiltered thoughts. Kim, 37, responded by insinuating that Tyson doesn't find her attractive because he is gay. 'Sis we all know why you don't care for it,' she wrote. The 47-year-old model criticized Kim's figure, saying the 'doctor f***ed up' and slammed her for being 'not real' after a paparazzi picture of the reality was posted online 'Don't care for it': Tyson made his thoughts clear on Kim's body, alluding to her being plastic and having gone under the knife Alongside Kim's comeback were the emojis for a cup of tea and a frog, in reference to the viral 'But that's none of my business' meme which is often used as a postscript online and features Kermit the Frog sipping a cup of tea. Kim's third emoji was a hand being painted with pink nail polish, a symbol usually used to express nonchalance. When Kim's response went viral Tyson was unapologetic as he took to his Instagram Stories later in the day. Not his thing: When Kim's response went viral Tyson was unapologetic as he took to his Instagram Stories later in the day. Having the last say: Tyson said he prefers Beyonce to Kim In the driver's seat: Kim was pictured leaving a studio in LA on Tuesday He wrote 'Despite what @Theshaderoom might be tryna say, my opinion on women who do plastic surgery stays the same, not for me! I personally don't care for it! Done end of story!' In another post he wrote, 'Always gonna pick a Beyonce over anyone else' along with a cheeky tongue-out emoji. Kim has been plagued by plastic surgery rumors for most of her career but has always denied getting butt implants or a Brazilian butt lift. The E! star has been proudly showing off her weight loss recently after she dropped to 119lbs. Show off: Kim has been plagued by plastic surgery rumors for most of her career but has denied getting butt implants or a Brazilian butt lift Tan lines: Much like Kim, Tyson likes to flaunt his body on Instagram with shirtless selfies Much like Kim, Tyson loves to show off his body on Instagram. His latest racy mirror selfie came last week when he posed in Calvin Klein underwear and pulled them down low to reveal his tan line. The hunk previously dated Victoria's Secret beauty Shanina Shaik, 27. Earlier this year he was rumored to have married girlfriend Berniece Julien but has kept the relationship largely under wraps. He has a 20-year-old son, Jordan Beckford, from his previous relationship with celebrity stylist April Roomet. She rose to fame following her short-lived stint on this year's series of Love Island. And Hayley Hughes ensured she doesn't stray far from the spotlight, by arranging a business meeting to discuss her future at The Ivy Brasserie on Thursday. The reality star, 21, enjoyed the boozy working lunch in Soho after showing support for her co-star Zara McDermott, who was recently targeted online by trolls. Boozy lunch: Hayley Hughes ensured she doesn't stray far from the spotlight by arranging a business meeting to discuss her future at The Ivy Brasserie on Thursday Hayley rocked a tailored check jacket which gave her glamorous look more of a professional vibe, wearing it over a form-fitting black top. She teamed her stylish jacket with a pair of blue skinny high-waisted jeans, which she tucked into a pair of suede ankle boots. On her arm Hayley toted a black handbag, which featured Givenchy branding across the front in gold lettering. Stepping out: The reality star, 21, enjoyed the boozy working lunch in Soho after showing support for her co-star Zara McDermott, who was recently targeted online by trolls Smart casual: Hayley rocked a tailored check jacket which gave her glamorous look more of a professional vibe, wearing it over a form-fitting black top The Liverpool native wore her blonde tresses in tumbling waves, while shielding her eyes from the rays with a pair of mirrored aviator-style shades. Hayley confirmed the lunch meeting with businessman and financier Matt Haycox, which was presumably to discuss the next steps following her villa exit, on her Instagram story by sharing a clip of the food-filled table. Her outing came after her co-star Zara hit back at trolls who had told her she needed plastic surgery on her chest. Bottoms up! She teamed her stylish jacket with a pair of blue skinny high-waisted jeans, which she tucked into a pair of suede ankle boots Blonde beauty: The Liverpool native wore her blonde tresses in tumbling waves, while shielding her eyes from the rays with a pair of mirrored aviator-style shades The reality star, 21, took to her Instagram story on Wednesday to slam the 'disgusting' comments - which accused her of pushing her breasts together in her latest bikini snap, and encouraged her to have a boob job. The former government advisor branded the claims 'bullying' and 'unacceptable', and warned her followers that such posts can have serious impact on mental health. Zara shared a sizzling snap of herself in a skimpy bikini on Monday, during her family holiday in Bulgaria. Speaking out: The government advisor branded the claims 'unacceptable', and warned her followers that such posts can have serious impact on mental health Be kind: The beauty shared a photo of the interaction alongside a heartfelt message, which spoke out against bullying and encouraged her followers to always be 'kind' While the post was flooded with praise, a handful of users were not so kind - with Zara sharing an image of one of the most shocking comments to her story. It read: 'Looks like she smooshed her t**s together for the pic... why not just get a boob job to go with the other plastic?' Clearly with the comment, Zara responded fiercely: 'A disgusting thing to say tbh... why wish surgery on someone? I haven't got any other 'plastic' in my body by the way. I cannot stand people like you.' The beauty shared a photo of the interaction alongside a heartfelt message, which spoke out against bullying and encouraged her followers to always be 'kind'. She means business! Hayley confirmed the meeting, which was presumably to discuss the next steps following her villa exit, on her Instagram story by sharing a clip of the food-filled table Hitting back: Her outing came after her co-star Zara hit back at trolls who had told her she needed plastic surgery on her chest She wrote: 'If there's something I will never be able to understand about this industry; its the hate that people give out so freely on social media. 'People wonder why things such as depression and anxiety exist... THIS is the reason. Luckily I'm strong enough not to cave into these comments and get the surgery that thousands of people have suggested I get. 'But these comments were people down to the point of no return...' She went on: 'Bullying is NOT okay... to anyone, in any form. Being kind to others is actually the most gratifying feeling. End of.' Hayley showed her support for her pal by screenshotting her post and writing 'love this @zara_mcdermott. 'Well said beauty xxx.' Show of suppport: Hayley showed her support for her pal by screenshotting her post and writing 'love this @zara_mcdermott 'Well said beauty xxx' Hot on the heels of her celebrated performance in Foxtel's mini-series Picnic At Hanging Rock, Australian actress Madeleine Madden has nabbed her first Hollywood role. The 21-year-old granddaughter of indigenous activist Charles Perkins will star in the upcoming Dora The Explorer live action movie. American actress Isabela Moner will star in the titular role of a teenage Dora, while Madeleine will take the role of Dora's friend who she meets in high school. Grab your backpacks! Hot on the heels of her celebrated performance in Foxtel's mini-series Picnic At Hanging Rock, Australian actress Madeleine Madden, 21, (pictured) has nabbed a role in the upcoming Dora The Explorer live action film The Angry Birds Movie 2's Eugenio Derbez is also set to star in the film. Filmed in Queensland, the big-budget flick will follow a teenage Dora as she navigates high school. Dora is slated for release in August 2019 and will be directed by The Muppets director James Bobin. Growing up: Filmed in Queensland, the big-budget flick will follow a teenage Dora as she navigates high school Madeleine burst onto the scene at 13 as the face of Kevin Rudd's Generation One campaign, promoting positive perceptions of indigenous Australians. She has gone on to star in several dramas, and is set to hit the big time with period drama Picnic at Hanging Rock, which has been picked up by Amazon. Speaking of her rising status to JONES magazine earlier this year, the brunette beauty revealed that her diverse background helped her to deal with setbacks in the acting industry. Rise to fame: Madeleine burst onto the scene at 13 as the face of Kevin Rudd's Generation One campaign, promoting positive perceptions of indigenous Australians '[The rejection] is something you learn along the way,' she said. 'But my family are all in the arts, so they understand the competitive nature of it, the big wins and big losses. But it is really important in this industry to have good people in your life.' Madeleine is the daughter of art curator Hetti Perkins and niece of filmmaker Rachel Perkins. Lindy Klim and her British property developer fiance Adam Ellis married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Tuscany, Italy this week. The couple exchanged vows surrounded by friends and family, including Lindy's three children with ex-husband Michael Klim - Stella, 11, Rocco, nine, and Frankie, six - and her and Adam's eight-month-old daughter, Goldie. The ceremony took place at the luxury $1,000-a-night Conti di San Bonifacio wine resort, set among the region's olive groves and rolling green hills. Scroll down for video Happily ever after! Lindy Klim (centre) and her British property developer fiance Adam Ellis (second from left) married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Tuscany, Italy this week. Lindy is pictured on her wedding day with her three children from her marriage to Michael Klim - Stella, 11, Rocco, nine, and Frankie, six - and her and Adam's eight-month-old daughter, Goldie The picturesque estate is set on 125 hectares, with a winding pebble road leading to the main building: an historic sandstone fortress. On her special day, Lindy wore a stunning, semi-sheer Toni Maticevski gown and went barefoot. Meanwhile, Adam looked dapper in a tailored suit. Footage shared to Instagram showed Lindy holding hands with her children while her husband cradled baby Goldie moments after saying 'I do'. 'Most beautiful family': Footage shared to Instagram showed Lindy holding hands with her children while her husband cradled baby Goldie moments after saying 'I do' Lindy's ex-husband, retired competitive swimmer Michael Klim, did not appear to be invited to the ceremony. Following the nuptials, the bride, groom and their guests sat down for a four-course dinner against the backdrop of a breathtaking Tuscan sunset. Adam delivered a short speech before the meal, telling the crowd: 'To my mum and dad, and [Lindy's] mum and dad, and everybody, I just want to say how much I love you and how much I'm grateful for coming all this way.' Not on the guest list! Lindy's ex-husband, retired competitive swimmer Michael Klim, did not appear to be invited to the ceremony. Pictured: Lindy and a female wedding guest Let's eat! Following the nuptials, the bride, groom and their guests sat down for a four-course dinner against the backdrop of a breathtaking Tuscan sunset Man of the hour: Adam delivered a speech before the meal, telling the crowd: 'To my mum and dad, and [Lindy's] mum and dad, and everybody, I just want to say how much I love you and how much I'm grateful for coming all this way'. Right: Lindy in her Toni Maticevski dress How luxurious! The ceremony took place at the $1,000-a-night Conti di San Bonifacio wine resort, set among the region's olive groves and rolling green hills. Pictured: Lindy with two female wedding guests Mother-of-four Lindy was previously married to former Olympian Michael Klim, 40, for nearly a decade. The couple announced their separation in February 2016 after months of rumours their marriage was in trouble. Four months later, the Balinese princess confirmed she was dating Adam. They got engaged in October 2016 and welcomed their first child together, daughter Goldie, in late 2017. Blended family: One of the wedding guests captioned a video of Lindy, Adam and the children at the ceremony, 'Introducing Mr and Mrs Ellis'. Pictured: Lindy and daughter Stella (right) Love after heartbreak: Lindy confirmed she was dating Adam in 2016, just four months after announcing the end of her marriage to former Olympian Michael Klim. Pictured: Lindy and Adam on their wedding day alongside a female guest '[It's] completely not what I expected, to fall back into another relationship, but he's so lovely,' Lindy previously told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's about time I got on with my life... I didn't think anybody would want me. I've got three children and that's a lot to take on.' She added: 'Adam is amazing and I'm really fortunate that I found him. It's been a tough little while for me, but I'm really happy now.' Idyllic: The post-wedding dinner party took place on a grassed rooftop and featured four courses of local, seasonal produce Lavish: The dinner table was decorated with lovely floral arrangements, candles and fine china Lindy also recently claimed that she could not wait to take Adam's surname. 'I would love to get rid of "Klim", I really hate having that as a last name but for my children at the moment, that is what it is,' she told The Daily Telegraph in April. Following his separation from Lindy, Michael found love with fashion designer Desiree Devari. Incredible views: The picturesque Conti di San Bonifacio estate is set on 125 hectares, with a winding pebble road leading to the main building She is an actress playing an actress. And Kristen Stewart certainly nailed the look of Jean Seberg as she filmed in Hollywood on Thursday. The 28-year-old is taking on the role of the tragic film star in the upcoming Against All Enemies. Actress plays actress: Kristen Stewart transformed into Jean Seberg on the set of Against All Enemies on Thursday The LA native looked cute in a a baby blue A-line dress, cinched at the waist with a slim white belt. She finished the look in dainty white heels to match her manicure. Kristen's cropped blonde hair was hidden beneath a wig in the style of Seberg's trademark pixie cut. She later added a second holster belt, although that appeared to be more for practical reasons between takes. Cameras rolling: She looked cute in a a baby blue A-line dress, cinched at the waist with a slim white belt Gone too soon: It is the tragic actress' off-screen life that will make up much of the drama in the upcoming biopic; Jean seen in 1958's Bonjour Tristesse The Twilight star arrived to the set in a very different outfit, rocking black shorts, trainers and socks, with a cropped white Joy Division T-shirt. Seberg, who spent much of her life in France, broke through as the lead in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan, but it was her role in Jean-Luc Godard's directorial debut Breathless (A bout de souffle) for which she is best remembered on screen. However it her tragic off-screen life that will make up much of the drama in the upcoming biopic. During the late 1960s, Seberg provided financial support to various groups supporting civil rights, such as the NAACP, Native American school groups, and the Black panthers. Civvies: The Twilight star arrived to the set in a very different outfit, rocking black shorts, trainers and socks, with a cropped white Joy Division T-shirt She thus became a target of the The FBI's COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence programme) under J. Edgar Hoover, the project set up for surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. It planted a false story that the child she was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panthers. Shortly afterwards Seberg went into early labor caused by the stress of the malicious campaign, her husband later claimed and lost the baby two days later. She held a funeral in her hometown with an open casket that allowed reporters to see the infant's white skin, to disprove the rumors. Star: Seberg, who spent much of her life in France, broke through as the lead in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan Hit: It was her role in Jean-Luc Godard's directorial debut Breathless (A bout de souffle) for which she is best remembered on screen Nine years later in 1979, aged 40, Seberg disappeared; her body was discovered nine days later in what was ruled a 'probable suicide'. A year later, Paris police filed charges against 'persons unknown' in connection with her death, insisting she must have had help taking her life. Seberg's second husband Romain Gary, blamed the FBI for her mental health, claiming she repeatedly attempted suicide on her daughter's anniversary. Memos later released by the FBI under a Freedom Of Information act showed the organisation had set out to 'cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public'. Against All Enemies, which also stars Vince Vaughn, Anthony Mackie, Jack O'Connell, Zazie Beetz and Colm Meaney, is set for release in 2019. Amber Heard looked effortlessly stylish in New York on Thursday as she met up with ex-girlfriend Tasya van Ree. The 32-year-old Aquaman star was spotted out solo before meeting up with Tasya and another female pal for an outing in the Meat Packing District. The outing came a day after Amber reunited with boyfriend Vito Schnabel after jetting in from the west coast where the London Fields actress is based. Catching up: Amber Heard looked effortlessly stylish in New York on Thursday as she met up with ex-girlfriend Tasya van Ree Pals: She strolled with Tasya and another female companion Amber, who dated Tasya for five years, teamed a black midi skirt with sheer stripes with a cropped knitted tank top which flashed her toned tummy. She accessorized her look with matching black cat eye sunglasses and some chunky gold chains around her neck. Earlier in the day the blonde beauty was glued to her phone as she made her way to Sant Ambroeus Italian eatery solo. On Wednesday the actress was pictured heading into Vito's apartment just a few days after the art dealer was spotted at a French beach with pal Colby Mugrabi. The 32-year-old has in the past dated some of the Hollywood's most beautiful women, including supermodel Elle Macpherson, and actresses Demi Moore and Liv Tyler. Crossing the road: The ladies coordinated in black and Amber switched into some red lace up boots Flashing flesh: Amber went braless in a black knitted tank top which flashed her tummy Still close: Amber and Tasya dated for five years and the actress even legally changed her last name to van Ree during the relationship Beauty in black: Earlier in the day she was pictured out in West Village wearing black flats instead Simply stylish: The actress was seen in a midi skirt with sheer horizontal stripes and a cropped tank top The art expert was last linked to Heidi Klum, who he was on and off with for five years. Amber too herself has been in many high-profile relationships with big names including Elon Musk and photographer Tasya van Ree, not to mention her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. In May of 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp, and within a week won a restraining order against him, claiming he had verbally and physically abused her. Through a representative, Johnny dismissed abuse accusations as 'salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life.' Solo outing: The Aquaman star pinned her hair up as she went to Sant Ambroeus for lunch on her own Amber accessorized with gold chains around her neck and a small black handbag By that August, he and Amber reached an agreement whereby she would scrap the restraining order and get a $7 million divorce settlement, which she said she would give to charity. Johnny decided to give the money directly to the groups of her choice, Children's Hospital and the American Civil Liberties Union, according to TMZ. It was not lost on Amber's team that this meant he'd get the tax deduction, and they told TMZ Johnny ought to correct for this by doubling the $7 million to $14 million. Controversial online figure Jeffree Star gave Shane Dawson unprecedented access to his life for a YouTube documentary series thats currently dominating the Internet. The 32-year-old makeup mogul and beauty influencer allowed Shane to spend a day in his expensive shoes, learning what its like to be Jeffree. Shane filmed his experience and showed YouTube viewers another side to him. The Secret World of Jeffree Star provided an all-access look into one of three homes Jeffree and long-time boyfriend Nathan Schwandt own, his wardrobe and who he is as a person. Jeffree Star gave fans a glimpse into his life in a YouTube documentary put together by Shane Dawson Jeffree opened up to Shane about his 10 businesses, his family and his relationship with Nathan. He didnt dive into the many controversies hes been caught up in, however. Want to know more about Jeffree Star? Heres the lowdown. Who is Jeffree Star? Jeffree Star was born Jeffrey Lynn Steininger on November 15, 1985. Hes from Orange County, California. His parents names are Laurie and Glen Steininger. Jeffrees father died when he was six. He started experimenting with makeup as a pre-teen and decided to make a career of it. After high school he moved to Los Angeles, California where he did makeup and modelling jobs to make ends meet. Before there was Instagram, Jeffree made a name for himself on Myspace, which he used to promote his music career. He quickly amassed huge amounts of followers and began drawing attention for his appearance and attitude more than his music. Jeffrees music career didnt take off, but he remained a prominent public figure. He now has a following on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube on which he shares tutorials, product reviews and more. He has since launched his own cosmetics line, which began with liquid lipsticks and has grown to something much bigger. Jeffree now sells other makeup items, including highlighter palettes, eye shadows and other lip products, along with clothes and accessories. Jeffree is in a relationship with a man by the name of Nathan Schwandt. The pair live together and have five dogs called Diamond, Diva, Daddy, Delicious and Drama. The influencer revealed to YouTuber Shane Dawson that hes the first man Nathans ever been with. The Secret World of Jeffree Star Jeffree Star agreed to appear in a YouTube documentary put together by Shane Dawson. The documentary is called The Secret World of Jeffree Star. It provides an unfiltered look into Jeffrees daily dealings and his personal life. To film the documentary, Shane and his cameraman drove to Jeffrees Calabasas, California mansion situated between the homes of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters and other celebrities to find out what goes into being Jeffree Star and how he got to be so rich. Shane met Jeffrees boyfriend and dogs, learned about the inner workings of their relationship, saw Jeffrees many expensive amenities and spoke with him at length about his brands. The documentary is a little over 40-minutes long. Its currently the top trending video on YouTube and has been watched more than 6 million times. Jeffree Star net worth Jeffree Stars net worth is estimated at about $20 million (15.3m), according to Celebrity Net Worth. Nailbuzz estimated that Jeffree is worth $30 million (23m), however. How much does Jeffree Star make in a year? Nailbuzz crunched the numbers and found out about how much it pays to be Jeffree Star on any given day. From YouTube alone the site estimated that Jeffree makes about $4,500 per day. That adds up to about $1.7 million (1.3m) annually. In addition to his YouTube revenue, Jeffree has a successful cosmetics line, money from touring, collaborations with brands like Morphie brushes, and more. Its unclear exactly how much hes made from those avenues. Is Jeffree Star transgender? Jeffree Star is not transgender. He is an androgynous person, meaning he presents both male and female physical characteristics. Jeffree told Shane Dawson in his YouTube documentary that he didnt have preferred pronouns. Im just Jeffree. Everyone calls me he/she/whatever they want to call me, Im an alien, he said. Jeffree Star boyfriend Jeffree stars dating Nathan Schwandt. Theyve been together since before Jeffree was as wildly successful as he is now. He told Shane Dawson: Nate met me when I first started my brand, so we always make jokes because in the early stages of our relationship I let them in on the secret that Nate had never been with a guy before, hed only been with women previous to me. But then it turned into hes with you for the money. Nate didnt know who I was, or what my history was and when we met and started dating my brand took off. I wasnt even doing YouTube when we met. They now have three houses together, which Jeffree said they had never shown off until they agreed to do Shanes documentary, and share five dogs. Jeffree even purchased a home for Nathans family in Michigan to live in. Jeffree Star threesome Jeffree Star got extremely candid in Shane Dawsons Secret World of Jeffree Star, admitting that he and Nathan Schwandt are big fans of threesomes. They have rules, however. Never in our own bed, Jeffree said. Only in other parts of the world when were travelling, so we dont have to see them ever again. Their love of threesomes has backfired on them before though. Jeffree told Shane: The sad part about social media and the internet is that some people like to hold onto DMs, or videos, or things like that and then use them against us later. Jeffree told Shane that while they like to welcome people into their relationship for sex, he and Nathan are most certainly not in an open relationship. Jeffree Star teeth Jeffree Star has made no secret of the fact hes gone under the knife to alter his appearance. One such procedure included getting new teeth. He told Shane Dawson: I was born with really s***ty teeth, my mom actually had one of the worst dental cases in the 80s and I got her genes, so my teeth were really bad. Five years ago I got every tooth in my mouth re-done. They shaved them down to little points and put crowns over them, it was really painful but really worth it. He blames his sweet tooth, as well as his moms genes, for how bad his teeth were. Ive never tried alcohol before which people dont believe, Ive just smoked weed. Ive never tried coke, ecstasy, nothing. Ive never sipped a beer, never tried wine, but I have a sweet tooth, so all that sugar really accelerated how f**ked my teeth were. Jeffrees new teeth are made from zirconia crystals. Jeffree Star racist past Jeffree Star has been the subject of many controversies in the past, some of which involved racism. Hes feuded with Kat Von D after she announced shed cut professional and personal ties with him and with Kylie Jenner after he bashed the quality and price of her lip kits and the packaging she used for her foundations. After his initial falling out with Kat, Jeffree posted a video called Racism. In the video, Jeffree said he felt he owed his audience an explanation. For the last few years as I have joined the YouTube community, I have been subjected to a lot of drama and I get it, you know. I am a hot topic, I have always been outspoken, I am someone that looks different and I realize that with all that is going to come the negative, he said. Every time that I get into an online conflict, or confrontation, or some crazy feud, whether its with my ex-best friend, or a celebrity, or other YouTubers, a lot of stuff from my past constantly gets dragged up. Jeffree went on to reference several videos in which he made racist comments, saying: In these videos I say some really disgusting, vile, nasty and embarrassing things, and you know whats f**ked up? The past can never be erased. It is always going to be there and my past has been recorded, its been videoed, it has been exploited all over the Internet and those videos were 12 years ago. I look at them and it just makes me sick to my stomach because I dont know who that person was. Jeffrees racist comments continues to be a topic of discussion on social media. Jeffree Star Michelle Dy Jeffree Star is currently involved in yet another controversy, this time involving Filipino YouTuber Michelle Dy. Michelle created a channel called MD Approved, which was inspired by Jeffrees Jeffree Star Approved series. Jeffree claims he trademarked the phrase and has been bashing Michelle online for stealing. Youre full of complete s**t, he wrote in the comments on one of her online posts. Stealing my Approved series and trademarked title is patheticbut thats what boring unoriginal people do. My lawyer will reach out to you shortly. Jeffree Star Approved is copyrighted in America. Just for a morning tea: Jeffree Star is calling out a "not well known in America" Youtuber who stole his series concept of "Is It Jeffree Star Approved?" and all I know is Michelle Dy made her NEW SERIES "Is It MD Approved?" not too long ago... pic.twitter.com/Y2yDxA0fJe pam (@dksooranghaja) July 30, 2018 According to Hollywood Life, the series title isnt actually on the official list of registered trademarks in the United States. Jeffree posted an Instagram video in which he doubled down on his claims, saying: I know I didnt invent the world approved, but thats been my thing for two years now, trademarked, on merch dont try me. Sometimes I feel like people do that stuff on purpose like, let me use Jeffrees thing and hell cause a stir about it and Ill get more views and subscribers. B***hIm not even gonna mention your name. They are preparing for the Love Island reunion show on Sunday where the couple will join forces with their fellow islanders. But Zara McDermott and Adam Collard made the most of their break away in Bourgas, Burgas, Bulgaria on Thursday before catching a flight back to the UK. In a cosy Instagram snap, the dumped islanders were the picture of happiness as the muscle-bound Adonis pulled his swimsuit-clad ladylove closer to his chest by wrapping his arm around her small waist. Must be love (island): Love Island's Zara McDermott sizzled in a raunchy cut-out swimsuit as she cosied up to her beau Adam Collard on Bulgaria getaway on Thursday Zara showed off as much skin and villa tan as possible in her sexy cutaway costume, which featured a gigantic cut-out to reveal her toned tummy. The high-cut one-piece also was fitted with one-shoulder and designed to flaunt as much cleavage as possible with its titillating keyhole feature. Love Island's Zara pulled off a wet look as she shared a snap on her own social media account after she emerged from the sea with her beau. She made the cut! Zara showed off as much skin and villa tan as possible in her sexy cutaway costume, which featured a gigantic cut-out to reveal her toned tummy Exciting times: The inseparable duo will fly back to the UK following their sun-drenched trip to Bulgaria where they enjoyed quality alone time In the sexy snapshot, the reality star's styled curls hung around her pretty face in wet tendrils as she dried off in the sizzling Bulgarian sunshine. Meanwhile, Adam opted for neon orange swimming trunks for their fun-filled beach day out when he splashed around in the sea with his girlfriend. He wrote of their day: 'Keep a low profile... *pulls out the brighty tighty short shorts* Last beach day Home tonight for the reunion with the gang on Sunday.' Zara complained on her Instagram: 'My boyfriend makes me do all the water sports. Didnt fall in tho.' (sic) The reality stars have been using their new-found fame from Love Island to build their Instagram profiles and social media fan base. They haven't wasted a moment in sharing a slew of their sunny holiday pictures after they took their romance to Bulgaria in recent days. Feeling hot! The reality stars have been using their new-found fame from Love Island to build their Instagram profiles and social media fan base Locking lips: They haven't wasted a moment in sharing a slew of their sunny holiday pictures after they took their romance to Bulgaria in recent days Living the dream! The loved-up pair continued to flaunt their romance on their social media platforms as they posed together on their holiday The inseparable duo will fly back to the UK following their sun-drenched trip to Bulgaria where they enjoyed quality alone time. They watched their fellow islanders Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham crowned the winners of Love Island while holidaying abroad. The couple have been reaping the rewards of honeymoon-esque bliss ever since they left the villa in recent weeks. Journey: They are preparing for the Love Island reunion show on Sunday where the couple will join forces with their fellow islanders But it hasn't been complete bliss as Zara launched a venom-laden attack on internet trolls whose comments she branded 'disgusting' on Instagram. The keyboard warriors accused the beautiful brunette of pushing her breasts together in her bikini snap and encouraged her to have a boob job. It read: 'Looks like she smooshed her t**s together for the pic... why not just get a boob job to go with the other plastic?' Zara responded fiercely: 'A disgusting thing to say tbh... why wish surgery on someone? I haven't got any other 'plastic' in my body by the way. I cannot stand people like you.' (sic) Elle Fanning seems to have fallen for a new fellow. On Thursday the 20-year-old beautiful blonde Maleficent star was seen with her arms around 32-year-old Max Minghella of The Handmaid's Tale fame. The actors looked very smitten as they held hands, kissed and laughed up a storm while walking down a street in London. New love? Elle Fanning seems to have fallen for a new fellow. On Thursday the beautiful blonde Maleficent star was seen with her arms around 32-year-old Max Minghella of The Handmaid's Tale fame Flirty fun: The actors looked very smitten as they held hands, kissed and laughed up a storm while walking down a street in London. The two have worked together on the film Teen Spirit, about a shy teenager who bonds with her mentor. The movie is scheduled to be released in January 2019. Elle wore a black coat over a black dress with black slides. She added a punch of color with a bright blue YSL purse. The Super 8 star pulled her flaxen locks back into a low bun and wore minimal makeup with very little jewelry. Max was also casual in a black jacket over a black shirt with grey sweatpants and white sneakers. He kept looking at his phone. Date look: Elle wore a black coat over a black dress with black slides. She added a punch of color with a bright blue YSL purse Young look: The sister of Dakota Fanning pulled her flaxen locks back into a low bun and wore minimal makeup with very little jewelry Cute boy: Max was also casual in a black jacket over a black shirt with grey sweatpants and white sneakers. He kept looking at his phone Her past loves: Elle reportedly last dated Zalman Band in 2015; before that she was linked to Dylan Beck in 2014 The two were also seen together in December 2017. They were in the same car as they left a New Year's Eve party held at the famed Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. Elle last dated Zalman Band in 2015; before that she was linked to Dylan Beck in 2014. Max has been linked to Kate Mara, who he was with from 2010 until 2014. Before that he was with Leigh Lezark from 2006 until 2009. There were also rumours he got close to Blake Lively on the set of Elvis And Annabelle in 2007. His past loves: Max has been linked to Kate Mara, who he was with from 2010 until 2014. Before that he was with Leigh Lezark from 2006 until 2009; here she seemed to give Max a kiss That first love vibe: They seemed to be very touchy feely as if they were enamored with each other Born Max Giorgio Choa Minghella in Hampstead, London, he is famous for Anthony Minghella's Son. Elle also has a famous family member - her sister is Dakota Fanning, 24, of Twilight fame. She is now on the TV series The Alienist with Luke Evans. Fanning has been in London shooting Maleficent 2 with Angelina Jolie. The two worked together on the first installment, which was a massive hit for Disney. Lisa Stelly is pictured for the first time following Monday night's domestic altercation at the home she shares with estranged husband Jack Osbourne. Three days after Jack, 32, allegedly punched Lisa's new boyfriend Gabel during 'a heated exchange' the mother-of-three was spotted collecting some mail outside her home in Studio City, Los Angeles. Lisa, 31, sporting pink hair, went barefoot to the front gate of her home in a white T-shirt and leggings. Low profile: Lisa Stelly is pictured outside her home on Thursday after her estranged husband Jack Osbourne allegedly punched her new boyfriend in a heated altercation on Monday night Maintaining a low profile she kept her head down as she picked up a bundle of letters and papers and hotfooted it back indoors. On Monday night Jack is alleged to have 'punched' Lisa's new partner, an actor and model named Michael Gabel, 'in the head' during a heated exchange. According to TMZ, the TV personality, 32, had gone to the home he shares with Lisa to talk to her, but they started arguing and the situation escalated when her boyfriend 'intervened'. Stepping out: The mother-of-three was spotted collecting some mail outside her home in Studio City, Los Angeles Maintaining a low profile Lisa, 31, kept her head down as she picked up a bundle of letters and papers and hotfooted it back indoors Drama: Jack, 32, allegedly punched his estranged wife Lisa Stelly's new partner Michael Gabel 'in the head' during a heated exchange No charges: Gabel (pictured) reportedly decided against pressing charges, with sources claiming Jack had been 'uncooperative with police' Gabel reportedly decided against pressing charges, with sources claiming Jack had been 'uncooperative with police'. Sources close to the couple claimed to the gossip site that Jack has been committed to 'repairing his relationship' with Lisa in an attempt to 'fix' their marriage. Gabel turning up reportedly 'threw' the father-of-three and things 'escalated'. Jack and Lisa split in May, with the star's wife filing for divorce just three months after the former couple welcomed their third and youngest child, daughter Minnie Theodora, now five months. Tense: According to TMZ, Jack had headed to the home he shares with Lisa to talk, but things escalated when her boyfriend intervened The name Theodora is a poignant tribute to the couple's late son Theo. Theo passed away in 2013 after Lisa tragically suffered a late-term miscarriage. Since splitting, Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, with the former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisting things have been working 'really well' between the estranged spouses in an interview back in June. Speaking to People TV, Jack said: 'It's great. It's all you can really ask for at this stage. The doting dad gushed about his daughters in the interview, calling them 'the most girly girls imaginable' and budding fashionistas. He said of daughter Andy: 'My middle one, Andy, will only wear, like, big gowns all day long - like she's going to a quinceanera every day.' Split: Jack and Lisa, who share three daughters together, confirmed their separation in May and revealed they have started divorce proceedings Moving forward: Jack and Lisa have been co-parenting when it comes to looking after their brood; daughters Pearl, six, Andy Rose, three, and baby Minnie, since their split Amicable: The former Dancing With The Stars contestant insisted things have been working 'really well' between himself and his estranged wife in the wake of their separation His comments came just a month after Jack and Lisa confirmed they were starting divorce proceedings following their marriage split. The duo publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused, keeping their three daughters in mind. It read: 'So, first and foremost, we absolutely still love each other. Our family is the most important thing in our lives, and we tried everything we could for many years to make this work. 'What's best for our family right now is that we separate lovingly, and remain best friends who are committed to raising our children together.' Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' over how things turned out, they remained 'confident that we will continue to grow our relationship as co-parents and best friends.' Family orientated: Following their split, Jack and Lisa publicly revealed in a joint statement on social media that they would strive to stay friendly and focused with their daughters in mind Long-term: Jack and Lisa noted that while they were 'disappointed' about the split, they remained 'confident they will continue to grow as co-parents and best friends' They had been together for five and a half years at the time of their split, having tied the knot back in October 2012 in Hawaii. Jack had proposed to Lisa after just four months of the pair dating. Six months prior to their wedding, Jack and Lisa welcomed their first child, Pearl - who was born in the same period Jack had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, aged 26. Speaking about his diagnosis in October last year, Jack said: 'I look at my daughters and, not to get overly sappy, but there is that notion where if they get married, I might not be able to walk them down the aisle, I can get kind of heavy with it.' The star, however, insisted since his diagnosis five years ago, he's doing 'really well' and hasn't had any 'significant flare-ups in a long time'. In recent months, Jack has been busy filming for show Ozzy and Jack's World Detour! with his famous father Ozzy Osbourne. Happier times: Jack and estranged wife Lisa tied the knot in October 2012 in Hawaii - he had proposed just four months after the pair first began dating Paris Jackson has moved out of her home and beefed up her security in the wake of her former friend's creepy behavior towards her. Isaac Kappy is reportedly being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department for threatening her, and other celebrities. According to TMZ, Kappy allegedly choked Paris during a game night party and accused Seth Green of being a pedophile in a video posted online in July. Taking precaution: Paris Jackson has moved out of her home and beefed up her security in the wake of her former friend's creepy behavior towards her; seen in June The 20-year-old model has been receiving 'rambling and scary' texts from her former pal according to the site; sources claim she initially responded to them to help him because she though he was suicidal. She has now been forced to move home and hire extra bodyguards, and has since blocked his number. Police were apparently inspired to open the investigation after seeing a particularly menacing tweet that read: In light of the interesting traffic happening around my house I want to make something CRYSTAL CLEAR: While I am a VERY strong advocate of peaceful disclosure, make no mistake, assets are in place and if you kill me or even try, it will rain .50 cals in the Hollywood Hills. Isaac Kappy is an actor and writer, who had small roles in Thor, Fanboys and Terminator Salvation; he has never had a major role in a film and hasnt appeared in a movie or on TV since 2016. Attack: Isaac Kappy allegedly choked Paris during a game night party; seen in 2012 Per his Twitter account, Isaac appears to be on a crusade to take down people he believes are sexually abusing children. His timeline is full of retweeted news stories about pedophiles and rants about high-profile people accused of sex crimes and some who arent. He spent much of Tuesday calling out the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy for defending ousted director James Gunn and Bill Clinton. Kappy has also, according to his Twitter, tried to reach out to Corey Feldman to take on pedophilia together. Corey blocked him on Twitter and did not respond. Earlier this month Paris also obtained a restraining order against another man Nicholas Lewis Stevens who she claimed was stalking her and threatened her with a shotgun. The daughter of the late Michael Jackson, told a court that Stevens crossed her path at a recording studio last month when he informed her that he'd been by the studio numerous times, hanging out as long as 15 hours on one occasion to speak with her. The star told the court that when one of her pals asked Stevens what his purpose was to being there, Stevens said, 'What the f*** does it look like I'm doing here? I'm stalking your b***h.' Paris, the sister of Prince, 21, and Blanket, 16, said that Stevens said to her, 'By midnight it will all be over ... the way it ends is with her or with a shotgun.' Shahs of Sunset star Mercedes 'MJ' Javid made a shocking confession in a preview for Thursday's seventh season premiere that she once had sex with her openly gay, childhood BFF Reza Farahan. This, after flatly denying the bizarre hook-up in a 2012 episode of the Bravo reality series. 'Okay, fine,' the 45-year-old newlywed admitted in the new teaser. Scroll down for video Say what?! Shahs of Sunset star Mercedes 'MJ' Javid (R) made a shocking confession in a preview for Thursday's seventh season premiere that she once had sex with her openly gay, childhood BFF Reza Farahan (L) 'We were children. He was coming out of the closet and we actually, we were taking a shower.' When the CSUN grad asked her 44-year-old castmate if the 'sex was good,' he replied: 'I mean, we were so young! I don't remember.' As fans are well aware, Reza has been happily married to, American Crime Story assistant editor Adam Neely, since 2015. 'No!' This, after flatly denying the bizarre hook-up in a 2012 episode of the Bravo reality series The 45-year-old newlywed admitted: 'Okay, fine. We were children. He was coming out of the closet and we actually, we were taking a shower' When the CSUN grad asked her 44-year-old castmate if the 'sex was good,' he replied: 'I mean, we were so young! I don't remember' It's unclear if Javid's husband Tommy Feight was even aware of the weird tryst between the Persian real estate agents before the Farahans attended their April 21 nuptials. The diminutive brunette's eye-popping reveal came two days after she revealed she and the Blow & Drive Interlock marketing director - whom she met on Tinder in 2015 - 'are ready to have a baby.' 'We have almost completed the [IVF] process,' the Flat Tummy spokesmodel announced to Us Weekly on Tuesday. Still going strong! As fans are well aware, Reza has been happily married to, American Crime Story assistant editor Adam Neely (R), since 2015 'Wedding shenanigans with these fools!' It's unclear if Javid's husband Tommy Feight was even aware of the weird tryst between the Persian real estate agents before the Farahans attended their April 21 nuptials 'I hope, I pray that it's in the cards for me to be a mom very soon.' Mercedes underwent uterine surgery back on May 17 under the care of reproductive endocrinology specialist Dr. Shahin Ghadir in Beverly Hills. Met on Tinder in 2015: The diminutive brunette's eye-popping reveal came two days after she revealed she and the Blow & Drive Interlock marketing director 'are ready to have a baby' (pictured July 1) Fears are growing for Tracey Jewel's safety after she was left 'stranded' in Berlin, Germany over the weekend following her split with ex-boyfriend Patrick Kedemos. During an interview with fellow MAFS star Justin Fischer on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Friday, concerns were raised about her well-being. Jackie 'O' Henderson worried that Tracey could be 'lying in a ditch somewhere' after being dumped on Saturday without accommodation or money for a flight home. Scroll down for video 'No one's heard from her for three days': Fears are growing for Tracey Jewel's (pictured) safety after she was left 'stranded' in Germany by her ex-boyfriend and unable to afford a flight home Justin, who is apparently friends with Tracey, told Kyle and Jackie O that he hasn't heard from her 'for a couple of days' after reaching out to offer his assistance. 'She could be on her way home, I don't know,' he said, adding that he was travelling to Germany for a business trip on Saturday and hoped to track her down. Meanwhile, Kyle Sandilands sounded confused by the whole situation of Tracey being 'stranded' and unable to get home. 'No-one buys a one-way ticket unless you're planning on staying there,' he said. 'Lying in a ditch somewhere?' During an interview with fellow MAFS star Justin Fischer (right) on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Friday, concerns were raised about Tracey's well-being 'Hopefully she's OK,' Jackie replied, before telling Justin to 'let us know if you hear anything'. During the show, Kyle and Jackie unsuccessfully tried to contact Tracey by phone but reached a voicemail message claiming she could only be reached by email. 'If she's not home by the 14th [August], I'll send a search party out,' Kyle suggested. Stranded in Germany: On Tuesday, a source close to Tracey confirmed she split with boyfriend Patrick Kedemos (left) over the weekend while the pair were cruising around Europe together The conversation also turned to Tracey's seemingly abandoned Instagram account, which has not been updated for three days. 'No one's heard from her for three days?' asked a worried Kyle. 'Yeah, it's been three days,' Jackie responded. 'You know what European countries are like. Girls just vanish,' Kyle added, fearing the worst. 'You know what European countries are like. Girls just vanish': Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson expressed concern for Tracey's safety in Berlin after being dumped by Patrick On Tuesday, a source close to Tracey, 35, confirmed that she split with her boyfriend Patrick Kedemos while the pair were cruising around Europe together. German police were called after an argument between Tracey and Patrick, 45, that took place on July 28, following the pair's arrival in Berlin. The newly-single mother-of-one was then forced to turn to the Australian embassy after she was left stranded and 'unable to pay for her own return flight home'. Missing? Justin (pictured), who is apparently friends with Tracey, told Kyle and Jackie O that he hasn't heard from her 'for a couple of days' after reaching out to offer his assistance 'Things reached breaking point on Saturday night when they had an almighty row -with Tracey moving into a separate hotel room to calm down,' said an insider. 'Patrick officially ended things and Tracey was then left to arrange her own return travel back home to Australia alone after they split. 'But she hadn't taken any money with her on the trip and was left stranded. The last friends heard she'd filed a complaint with the police was waiting for the Australian embassy to open on Monday so she could figure out what to do.' 'No one's heard from her for three days?' The conversation also turned to Tracey's seemingly abandoned Instagram account, which has not been updated for three days. Pictured: Tracey's most recent post After Tracey's plight was exposed, Justin Fischer reportedly offered his services. A source told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday: 'He might go there and try and help her. He's in Dubai for a business trip and is planning to jet to Berlin in coming days for more meetings, so he'll be in Germany. 'He might reach out to her when he's there. He's friends with Tracey. It's a shame what's happened [with Patrick].' She's been enjoying a new romance with controversial former doctor Andrew Wakefield. But on Thursday night Elle Macpherson, 54, was back at work, showing off her famous body at the glitzy Remus Lifestyle Night in Mallorca, Spain. The model lived up to her nickname of The Body as she wowed in a colourful sequin gown for the annual summer party. Making an entrance: Elle Macpherson, 54, showed off her famous body at the glitzy Remus Lifestyle Night in Mallorca, Spain on Thursday night Elle dazzled in the sequinned number, which featured a bold cutaway front, showing off her cleavage. The rainbow-hued gown flaunted the model's toned curves, while she accessorised with gold statement sandals. A pair of shades added an extra diva touch, while the always glam star styled her blonde locks into tumbling waves. Wow factor: The model lived up to her nickname of The Body as she wowed in a colourful sequin gown for the annual summer party VIP: Elle dazzled in the sequinned number as she broke out her best poses for the cameras The model posed with real estate mogul and the party's host, Marcel Remus, smiling for the cameras as she made a return to the spotlight following the recent reveal of her new romance. Last month Elle was seen furniture shopping with Wakefield, the discredited former doctor and driving force of the anti-vaxxer movement. The couple, whose relationship was confirmed by exclusive photographs last month, were also seen holding hands as they enjoyed a day of shopping in Miami, Florida. Va va voom: Her dress featurd a bold cutaway front, showing off the model's cleavage Star guest: Elle had a big smile for the party's host real estate mogul Marcel Remus Party time: A pair of statement shades added an extra diva touch, while the always glam star styled her blonde locks into tumbling waves No plus one: There was no sign of Elle's new boyfriend Andrew Wakefield at the bash Wakefield, 61, was banned from practising medicine in his native Britain eight years ago after helping spawn the modern anti-vaccination movement with widely discredited research, claiming the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) jab causes autism and bowel disease. Earlier in July, DailyMail.com revealed that Wakefield had lost inches off his waistline after replacing his favorite foods with nutrition-packed 'wellness shakes' recommended by healthy-eating Elle. The married father-of-four has also swapped out his dowdy wardrobe with trendy linens and slim-fit outfits to impress his world famous girlfriend, according to close friends. Lying low: Elle was back on the party scene after a few weeks out of the spotlight enjoying the company of Andrew, the discredited ex doctor and driving force of the anti-vaxxer movement Back on the scene: Elle flashed a big smile as fans and paps snapped away Brian Burrowes, 48, who edited Wakefield's controversial 2016 documentary Vaxxed, said the former doctor started dating Macpherson after meeting her at an awards ceremony in November. But Wakefield's wife's brother revealed that he only told her that their relationship was over in April. Just over a year ago, Elle was awarded $53million in cash and a $26million home following her divorce from billionaire Jeffrey Soffer. A source previously told MailOnline that Wakefield separated from his wife Carmel in 2017 and first started seeing Elle in late 2017 after they met at an event in Orlando. The look of love: Elle has been quietly dating Andrew since last 2017 according to sources Beauty: Elle showed off her age-defying looks as she cosied up to her pal Marcel She's no stranger to the spotlight having previously appeared on Married At First Sight earlier this year. And author turned reality star, Tracey Jewel, 35, will soon be entertaining the masses once again after landing a top radio gig in Perth. The Western Australian native's exciting news was announced on Thursday. Scroll down for video The new Jackie O? MAFS' Tracey Jewel, 35, has landed a top radio job in Perth following her rise to fame on Married At First Sight Tracey is set to front new show, Hot Copy, on Boss Mode Radio in her home city, and will take to the airwaves mid August. 'We are very excited to welcome 3x Author, Copywriter, & Marketer, Tracey Jewel to the @Bossmoderadio lineup,' the station wrote on Instagram. 'Tracey will be the host of Hot Copy a brand new show dedicated to showing you how to write copy for your website and marketing that breaks through the noise.' Looking forward to her new role, Tracey gushed: 'Thank you I'm so excited!' Star power: Tracey is set to front new show, Hot Copy, on Boss Mode Radio in her home city Big news: Boss Mode Radio, a Perth-based 24/7 Online Radio Station, made the announcement on Instagram on Thursday Boss Mode Radio is a Perth-based 24/7 Online Radio Station for small business owners, freelancers, creatives and students. Having released her third book, This Goddess Means Business, earlier this year, it seems Trace is more than qualified to be fronting the show. 'Join the movement,' the station wrote on their Instagram bio. Tracey's new job echos Jackie 'O' Henderson's start to her successful radio career. The KIIS FM host also started off small, working as a 'phone girl' on FM104.7 in Canberra, before gradually becoming one of Australia's top rated broadcasters. Her inspiration? Tracey's new job echos Jackie 'O' Henderson's start to her successful radio career after also starting off small Where is she? Despite the exciting announcement, fears are growing for Tracey's safety after she was left 'stranded' in Berlin, Germany over the weekend following her split with ex-boyfriend Patrick Kedemos, 45 Despite the exciting announcement, fears are growing for Tracey's safety after she was left 'stranded' in Berlin, Germany, over the weekend following her split with ex-boyfriend Patrick Kedemos. During an interview with fellow MAFS star Justin Fischer on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Friday, concerns were raised about her well-being. Jackie worried that Tracey could be 'lying in a ditch somewhere' after being dumped on Saturday without accommodation or money for a flight home. Concerned: Tracey's MAFS co-star, Justin Fischer, revealed on The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Friday that he's been unable to get in contact with the star for several days now Justin, who is apparently friends with Tracey, told Kyle and Jackie O that he hasn't heard from her 'for a couple of days' after reaching out to offer his assistance. 'She could be on her way home, I don't know,' he said, adding that he was travelling to Germany for a business trip on Saturday and hoped to track her down. Meanwhile, Kyle Sandilands sounded confused by the whole situation of Tracey being 'stranded' and unable to get home. 'No-one buys a one-way ticket unless you're planning on staying there,' he said. Search party: 'You know what European countries are like. Girls just vanish,' Kyle added, fearing the worst The conversation also turned to Tracey's seemingly abandoned Instagram account, which has not been updated for three days. 'No one's heard from her for three days?' asked a worried Kyle. 'Yeah, it's been three days,' Jackie responded. 'You know what European countries are like. Girls just vanish,' Kyle added, fearing the worst. Over: On Tuesday, a source close to Tracey, confirmed that she split with her boyfriend Patrick while the pair were cruising around Europe together On Tuesday, a source close to Tracey, 35, confirmed that she split with her boyfriend Patrick Kedemos while the pair were cruising around Europe together. German police were called after an argument between Tracey and Patrick, 45, that took place on July 28, following the pair's arrival in Berlin. The newly-single mother-of-one was then forced to turn to the Australian embassy after she was left stranded and 'unable to pay for her own return flight home'. A search is continuing on South Australia's remote Eyre Peninsula for a 19-year-old man who has been missing for three months, as fears mount for his wellbeing. Adelaide man Scott Redman was reported missing on April 24 by an associate who had been arrested by police in relation to a pursuit. An area near Kimba was extensively searched in May following the discovery of an abandoned car near Secret Rocks, 40km east of the town. Subsequent enquiries and numerous checks in urban and regional areas have so far failed to find Mr Redman. On Wednesday about 30 police and State Emergency Service volunteers searched a new area in a bid to locate items believed to be linked to the missing man's associate. That search will continue on Thursday. Australia has vowed to vehemently oppose a Japanese proposal to relax a global ban on commercial whaling, calling on like-minded nations to join it. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia remained steadfastly against all forms of commercial and so-called scientific whaling and would continue to push for stronger protections against the practice. "The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them," Ms Bishop said on Thursday in a joint statement with Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg. Accused Melbourne wife-killer Borce Ristevski is set to find out whether he will stand trial charged with murdering his wife Karen Ristevski. Ristevski, 54, allegedly killed his dress shop-owner wife, 47, at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 before dumping her body in the bush. Over almost two weeks in July, Ristevski faced a high-profile committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court to determine whether he goes to trial charged with murder. Magistrate Suzanne Cameron is due to deliver her committal decision on Thursday. Dozens of witnesses testified during the hearing, including the couple's daughter Sarah Ristevski, who said her father was "never" aggressive towards her mother. After his wife vanished, Ristevski claimed she had gone for a walk to clear her mind and never returned. Eight months later, Ms Ristevski's skeletal remains were found between two logs at Macedon Regional Parkin by two horticulturalists who had noticed a strange smell. Ristevski, who was a pallbearer at his wife's funeral, was later charged with murder after a police investigation that involved phone taps, listening devices and CCTV footage analysis. The court heard Ms Ristevski's fashion store Bella Bleu was struggling financially at the time she vanished and she and her husband would occasionally argue over money. Ristevski's lawyers say the murder charge should be abandoned because even if a jury were to find he killed her, there is no evidence of "murderous intent". Although they do concede there is enough evidence for a manslaughter trial. Prosecutors want a murder trial and say Ristevski's deceitful behaviour after the alleged killing gives rise to the required intent, including hiding the body and lying to police and family. "This isn't just an accidental killing,' prosecutor Matt Fisher said in closing submissions. Nearly a dozen Victorian businesses and homes have been raided by the Australian Taxation Office over suspicious activity, including tax avoidance. More than 250 officers swooped on 11 sites across Melbourne and at Shepparton as part of a long-term investigation into "a range of tax mischief", deputy commissioner Jeremy Geale said on Thursday. "We are examining a group of tax agents suspected of facilitating phoenix activity and promoting avoidance of tax involving GST, income tax and the failure to remit pay-as-you-go withholding tax payments," he said in a statement. The Queensland Firebirds are prepared for an emotion-charged last round assignment as they aim to consolidate a Super Netball finals berth. Rosalee Jenke's side host the Collingwood Magpies on Saturday afternoon in what will be retiring former Diamonds captain Sharni Layton's final game. The Magpies are seventh and well out of finals contention. Queensland, who missed the inaugural Super Netball finals last season, sit fourth with a five-point gap on the Melbourne Vixens. But with eight points - four for a win and an extra incentive point for every quarter won - up for grabs, a dominant Vixens win and Firebirds flop could see them drop to fifth. The Firebirds are also just one point off third-placed Sunshine Coast Lightning and goal attack Gretel Tippett is comfortable with the scenario. "They've a lot to play for," Tippett said in regards to Layton's swansong. "But we had a little meeting before (playing in) Perth and said if we can't win these last three games we don't deserve to be in finals. "And it's kind of come down to that, so we just really need to nail this weekend's game." The Firebirds have won three national titles and lost two other grand finals since 2011. Tippett said a longer preseason and the return of another former Diamonds captain in Laura Geitz helped return that winning mentality after they were a step off the pace last season. "(Geitz) provides so much calmness and confidence in the group," she said. "I get inspired by every turnover she does and every time she gets that intercept we make a huge effort to make it pay on the scoreboard and get those points for her." A woman has been cut with a knife in a violent armed robbery of a Brisbane business. The 37-year-old woman disturbed a man who had entered the Morningside business around 5:45pm Wednesday and was taking items from the premises. He grabbed her and she bit him in the struggle, sustaining a cut on her arm before the man fled the scene. She was taken to the Mater hospital for treatment, while police are hunting for the man, described as Caucasian, 188cm tall, wearing dark clothing. Pipe bombs, a gun and drugs have been found at a South Australian property leading to the arrest of a man on a string of charges. The 29-year-old was refused police bail and will appear in the Berri Magistrates Court on August 6 charged with possessing explosives and an unlicensed gun, and with drug trafficking. Items found at his Loxton home included five pipe bombs, 24 cannabis plants, chemicals for the manufacture of explosives, homemade fireworks and 30 grams of methamphetamine, police allege. A Brazilian man who brutally attacked a Pakistani student in a Perth apartment building stairwell, causing catastrophic brain injuries from which she is not expected to recover, will spend at least seven-and-a-half years in prison. Eduardo Santos Abrahao Filho, 28, had been charged with attempting to murder Mehreen Ahmad, 32, after she was found in a pool of blood at the Murray Street flat with serious head injuries on May 20 last year. But Filho instead pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and was sentenced in the WA Supreme Court on Thursday to nine-and-a-half years behind bars. Justice Bruno Fiannaca said the cause of their confrontation was not known given the only version of events came from Filho. The court heard when Ms Ahmad became distressed and began screaming, Filho put his hand over her mouth in a bid to silence her. He hit her head against the ground and she fell down two sets of stairs during the struggle. Filho fled the scene when witnesses arrived. Justice Fiannaca said although the brutal and unprovoked attack was out of character and not in the worst category of offending, it was not far below it. Filho's decision to flee was "cowardly and callous" and panic was not an excuse. "You showed no regard for her condition." Justice Fiannaca accepted Filho was remorseful but said he had also diminished his acceptance of responsibility in statements he made in a letter to the court, to a psychologist and the author of the pre-sentence report. He said Filho was a low to moderate risk of reoffending, but if he did not accept he intended to harm her in his own conscience, not just through his guilty plea, there would always be a risk he would snap again. Ms Ahmad has been treated at one of the world's best rehabilitation centres for brain injuries in the US but still cannot move, communicate or feed herself and is incontinent. She is not expected to substantially recover and needs 24-hour care. Ms Ahmad's parents watched court proceedings via video link in Pakistan. Justice Fiannaca described their victim impact statements as heart-wrenching, noting that while Ms Ahmad's life had been ravaged, theirs was also shattered. He said Ms Ahmad's mother made a particularly poignant comment about the impact on their lives. "If she had died that day, we would, I think, have come to terms with that loss," she said. "We are instead trapped in what feels like a never-ending darkness." Filho is expected to be deported after he serves his prison term. Two teenagers accused of planning to attack a South Australian high school with guns and explosives will face a Supreme Court trial after pleading not guilty to conspiring to murder. The pair, aged 17 and 19, appeared before Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday over the plan, which is alleged to have targeted a school in the Riverland region. During the brief hearing, magistrate Elizabeth Sheppard ruled the younger of the two boys had a case to answer, despite his lawyer's earlier claims the case was just "attention-seeking behaviour" from two youths acting tough. Ms Sheppard ruled the boy "does pose an appreciable risk to the community", and should therefore be tried as an adult on the conspiracy to murder charge. The teenagers are each facing one count of conspiracy to commit murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, among other charges. They were arrested in November last year after police were alerted to the alleged plot. The court has previously heard the pair persuaded each other to commit mass murder and they intended to kill as many people as possible in the attack. Prosecutor Jim Pearce said at an earlier hearing it was the Crown case that the crime of conspiracy was committed "the minute you've got the meeting of minds". He said the youths had experimented with crude explosives, including Molotov cocktails and napalm-style incendiary devices, and that the pair had three or four conversations about shooting up a school. They were also "obsessed" with the infamous Columbine school massacre and other mass shootings in the United States, the court heard last month. However, counsel for the younger boy, Greg Mead, said much of the evidence against the youths was circumstantial and there was no evidence they had possession of, or access to, guns. He said Facebook conversations between the pair included some discussion about "shooting up a school", talk about suicide and made reference to a "plan", but there was no agreement. "It's more like two moody teenagers perhaps expressing their dissatisfaction with their lives and with the world," he said in no-case-to-answer submissions. "It's no more than contemplation, an overly dramatic way of expressing their apparent depressed state of mind." Those arguments were on Thursday rejected by Ms Sheppard, who remanded both youths in custody for arraignment in the Supreme Court in August. Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636 Food delivery service Foodora will cease its Australian operations with a key union suggesting the exit is an attempt to avoid paying workers millions of dollars owed in back pay. Workers will only be given one week of normal shifts before the company begins winding down. The company, in a statement released on Thursday, said it would "cease operations in response to a shift in focus towards other markets where the company currently sees a higher potential for growth". Foodora will shut down in Australia by August 20. The Fair Work Ombudsman took the company to the Federal Court in June alleging two Melbourne bike riders and a Sydney driver were classed as "independent contractors" when they did the work of full-time employees. Another rider appealed to the Fair Work Commission saying he was unfairly dismissed after speaking out over low pay and poor condition for delivery riders. His campaign attracted the attention of the Transport Workers Union who, on Thursday, accused Foodora of abandoning Australia while owing millions of dollars in back pay. "Ever since they arrived in Australia, Foodora, like other food delivery companies, has denied its riders fair rates, superannuation, workers compensation, annual leave, the right to collectively bargain and even forces them to work shifts for no pay at all," TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said in a statement. He called on the federal government to force Foodora to compensate workers for "18th-century conditions". Foodora denied the union's claim, insisting it will continue its legal battles in Australia and is also divesting from France, Italy and the Netherlands. "Foodora will continue to manage legal proceedings locally in Australia and will continue to treat them with the utmost importance," a spokeswoman told AAP on Thursday. A class action has been launched on behalf of the Northern Territory town of Katherine over residents' exposure to toxic chemicals used in firefighting foam at RAAF base Tindal. Joshua Aylward of Shine Lawyers said in a statement the action against the Department of Defence had been lodged on Thursday night and sought compensation for those harmed by the chemicals. "Today's action has been launched for the town of Katherine which has been devastated by the ongoing exposure to the toxic PFAS chemicals emanating from the Department of Defence base," he said. Mr Aylward said their research showed that PFAS chemicals had been spreading from the Tindal base for decades. "The toxic chemicals amass and persist in the environment and in the human body, and the levels seen in Katherine are exceedingly high and widespread." Mr Aylward said exposure to the chemicals had been linked to immune dysfunction, hormonal interference, thyroid disruption and certain types of cancer. "Many people in the community are trying to move their family out of this toxic area, but are stuck, unable to sell their property." Shine Lawyers would vigorously prosecute the case to hold Defence accountable, and seek compensation for residents who had been exposed to toxic chemicals, Mr Aylward said. The federal government faces other compensation claims from families affected by groundwater contamination from firefighting foam from a number of air force bases. The government allocated $55 million in this year's budget to a drinking water program for property owners surrounding defence bases at Tindal, Oakey in Queensland, Williamtown in NSW and Pearce in Western Australia. The government's independent expert health panel has concluded there is limited or no evidence exposure to Per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminations causes disease or increases cancer risks. But Defence is investigating other foam alternatives to PFAS chemicals. A new parliamentary inquiry has been set up to investigate the federal government's response to the contaminations. A 75-year-old woman has been killed at a home north of Brisbane with police waiting to speak with a man found injured at the property. A triple-zero call just after 1pm alerted police to the situation at the house on Topaz Street in Mango Hill. As well as the dead woman, police located a 50-year-old man with significant injuries. It's believed the pair are mother and son but police have refused to comment on any relationship between the two people. The man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a stable condition and police will speak to him after he has received treatment. The incident left a large pool of blood on the home's front porch, with students from nearby Mango Hill State School being escorted by police past the scene. "If your child is walking home via Topaz Drive, police will walk them through the blocked off area and safely to the other side," the school said on its Facebook page. Shocked neighbours said the street was a quiet, family area and the crime had left them stunned. "I'm honestly in shock, I can't believe somebody's just died at the end of our street," Emma Bowden told the Nine Network. Forensic officers are expected to remain at the scene on Friday. Foodora will wrap up its Australian operations in just over a fortnight but the union accuses it of abandoning underpaid workers. The company, in a statement released on Thursday, said it would cease operations by August 20 to focus on markets with "higher potential for growth". The Fair Work Ombudsman took the food delivery company to the Federal Court in June alleging two Melbourne bike riders and a Sydney driver were classed as "independent contractors" when they did the work of full-time employees. Another rider appealed to the Fair Work Commission saying he was unfairly dismissed after speaking out over low pay and poor condition for delivery riders. His campaign attracted the attention of the Transport Workers Union who, on Thursday, accused Foodora of abandoning Australia while owing millions of dollars in back pay. Foodora denied the accusations, noting it was divesting out of France, Italy and the Netherlands at the same time. The company is also committed to continuing its legal battles in Australia. Detectives are circling the people who killed Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, months after the former bikie boss was gunned down in Sydney. Police swooped on six properties in Sydney's south on Thursday, seizing four cars which they say were used in planning the daylight shooting which claimed Hawi's life in February. A total of six cars - including a burnt out Mercedes found near the crime scene a few hours after the attack - have now been seized. Some contained forensic evidence which made Thursday's raids possible. The properties targeted had no specific links to the Comancheros Motorcycle Club which Hawi once led, police said. "At the moment we would say there would be a number of people feeling very uncomfortable, and we would like them to feel uncomfortable," Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace said on Thursday. The sudden arrests of 17 people over Victorian Labor's rorts-for-votes scandal have some in the party hoping it'll be over quickly and there will be clear air before the state election. ALP field organisers were questioned in Melbourne, regional Victoria, NSW and the Northern Territory after dawn raids on Thursday by police in their investigation into Labor's systematic misuse of $388,000 in parliamentary allowances to partially fund its successful 2014 election campaign. State secretary Samuel Rae hit out at the fraud squad's tactics, saying the arrests were "completely unnecessary given those involved would have co-operated if asked." "We have also received a number of concerning reports about the raids, including that some of those questioned were told by Victoria Police that they did not need legal representation during the interview process," he said in a statement. "On behalf of our people, we reserve all rights in these matters." Lawyer Rob Stary is advising Labor and several of those arrested and also questioned the raids, but Victoria Police has stood by them. Police announced it was launching an investigation last Friday. Some within Labor are hoping it means a quick process, with one figure saying the decision to arrest 17 people in one day could be a sign the investigation will be over before the November state election. Premier Daniel Andrews' office declined to comment on Thursday. Skeletal remains found in bushland near Wollongong have been confirmed to be those of Vietnamese businessman Minh Phuoc "Paul" Nguyen. Mr Nguyen was last seen driving out of the Hilton Hotel in the CBD in a luxury golden hire car on the night of May 1, 2014. NSW Police suspect the 50-year-old was murdered at a Bankstown unit block, where a blood stain was found on the carpet. Two men were charged in 2015 over the murder of Mr Nguyen, who had underworld links. Detectives conducted a search of bushland at Cordeaux between Tuesday and Friday last week and an analysis of bones found at the site confirmed they belong to Mr Nguyen, whose family has requested privacy at this time. Four people have been arrested in western Sydney by police investigating the supply of illegal drugs. Officers arrested a 38-year-old man after stopping his car in Villawood about 11am on Thursday, with a search of the vehicle allegedly finding drugs believed to be heroin and ice. Detectives executed search warrants at homes in Canley Heights, St Johns Park, Fairfield Heights and Cabramatta and arrested two men and a woman, all of whom were refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Friday. Trapped by severe weather on a New Zealand mountain for nearly a week, an Australian man is set to be returned to safety. The 29-year-old was found alive and "with slight frostbite" on Mount Aspiring, in the South Island, on Thursday night after days of rescue efforts were frustrated by gales, sub-zero temperatures and snow. It was "extraordinary" he was standing and waving when a helicopter spotted him in the evening, Mike Roberts from the NZ Rescue Coordination Centre said. Four rescuers equipped with clothes, tents and much-needed food spent the night with the man. The group were on Friday morning waiting for a gap in the weather so they can be picked up by chopper from Quarterdeck Pass. "The climber has been sheltering for the past two nights at the pass and he has clearly made some good decisions to be able to survive the bad weather, heavy snow and high winds," search and rescue officer Geoff Lunt said. The man was described as being "in good spirits". The climber entered the national park on Friday and is thought to have left his heavier gear behind to make a quick ascent - not unusual practice - before being caught out by the weather. The alarm was raised on Monday and rescue crews watched his beacon moving around the mountain for days as concerns grew. During the nearly seven days he was out alone, the man endured winds of up to 60km/h, freezing conditions and at times heavy snow. "The pilots did an amazing job to fly in and out, despite the low cloud [on Thursday]," Mr Roberts said. More than 30 people are thought to have died around the popular national park in the past decade. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has told farmers to vote with their wallets, as he ratchets up the pressure on the Commonwealth Bank to help drought-stricken producers. Farm management deposits allow farmers to remove money from their taxable income during good years to later use during tough times. Mr Littleproud is disappointed the Commonwealth Bank isn't offering farmers the option to use the deposits as an offset against their loans. "I encourage farmers to vote with their wallets. If your bank doesn't offer an FMD offset product, tell them to go and take a running jump and go somewhere else," the minister said. Earlier in the week, the Commonwealth Bank donated $2 million to drought relief. That includes $1.75 million to the Australian Red Cross's national fundraising appeal while $250,000 will support charity Rural Aid's Buy a Bale program. The bank made nearly a $10 billion annual profit last year. "CBA can do better and I hope they have more serious announcements in the pipeline," Mr Littleproud said. "They've made a lot of money out of agriculture and it's now time to give back." The Queensland Nationals MP said the message on farm management deposits was sent loud and clear to the banks at a recent drought meeting in Canberra. "Government can't fix everything on its own - we all have a role to play helping rural communities in drought," he said. Commonwealth Bank has also joined, Rabobank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ in no longer charging drought-affected farmers penalty interest on loan repayments. Meanwhile, Labor is calling for better drought mitigation plans by using agricultural research and development corporations to help farmers build defences against climate change. Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon is also calling for a new drought relief agreement between the commonwealth and state and territory governments. A Sydney company and its director have been fined after an employee's hand was crushed while she was cleaning machinery. NSW Minister for Better Regulation Matt Kean said Rydalmere firm Zenger Pty Ltd was fined $60,000 and its director Yan Huai Wu $7,500 in court for failing to ensure the health and safety of workers after five fingers on a 51-year-old woman's hand were severed when she placed it inside a pillow-filling machine to clean it after use. "I'm appalled to hear this poor woman was not provided with appropriate training or information about the risks, or safety measures for using the machine," Mr Kean said, adding that SafeWork NSW will continue to go after those who aren't doing the right thing. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin (pictured April 2018) in early 2018 after a military operation which ousted a US-allied Kurdish militia that Ankara considers a terror group Amnesty International on Thursday accused Turkish forces of allowing Syrian armed groups to commit major rights abuses in the northern region of Afrin, urging Ankara to immediately end the violations. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin earlier this year after a military operation which ousted a Kurdish militia that is an ally of the United States but Ankara regards as a terror group. Amnesty said that, since the takeover, residents in Afrin had been "enduring a wide range of violations" which Turkish armed forces "turned a blind eye" to. "These violations include arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and confiscation of property and looting to which Turkey's armed forces have turned a blind eye," Amnesty said. Some of the Syrian groups as well as Turkish armed forces have taken over schools, Amnesty claimed, which it said disrupted education for thousands of children. Amnesty said residents told them that Afrin University was "completely shut down after it was destroyed and looted", adding only one school in Afrin city was accessible. The rights group said that when contacted for comment, the Turkish government questioned its impartiality for using the terminology of Kurdish-dominated forces to describe regions. Turkey says the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia it ousted from Afrin is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the European Union. In the case of one woman, her uncle has been missing since an armed group escorted him to his house after he returned to his village three months earlier. "They wouldn't tell his wife where they took him," the unnamed woman told Amnesty, denying the man, head of a local committee, had any links to the YPG. Amnesty said some homes have been "occupied" by displaced families from the central Homs province and the southern area of Eastern Ghouta which was recently recaptured by the Syrian regime. Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director, said the Syrian armed groups continued to "wreak havoc on civilians, unchecked by Turkish forces". She argued Turkey was responsible for the welfare of civilians as well as maintaining law and order since it was the "occupying power" in Afrin. "Without further delay, Turkey must end violations by pro-Turkish armed groups, hold perpetrators accountable, and commit to helping Afrin residents rebuild their lives," she added. Turkish officials insist that the takeover has proved popular, with Afrin residents tired of YPG rule and Turkey able to improve utilities services after similar operations in towns like Jarabulus and Al-Bab east of Afrin. New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern is only the second world leader to give birth while in office New Zealand Prime Minister and new mum Jacinda Ardern, only the second world leader to give birth while in office, ended her maternity leave Thursday and immediately announced baby Neve will accompany her to the United Nations next month. After six weeks bonding with her daughter, the 38-year-old said she was looking forward to getting back to work. "Absolutely," she told TVNZ as she marked her first day back with a round of media interviews. "I feel like I've been gifted by the New Zealand public, by my team and with the help of the acting prime minister this time to be with Neve, which has been wonderful. "But of course, this is a unique circumstance and I'm really very keen to get back to work." Ardern has opted to work from home in Auckland until the weekend when she will relocate to the capital Wellington. She said that while she and partner Clarke Gayford want to protect the baby's privacy "at the same time we want to be a family and I do a very public job". Gayford, a television fishing show host, plans to be a stay-at-home dad and the main caregiver for their daughter. Ardern told stuff.co.nz they would travel as a family to the United Nations in New York, where she is due to speak. "Perhaps fittingly the programme for (the UN meeting) is focused on things like women, children, and climate change -- very strong themes in those areas," she said. Rather than be concerned with affairs of state while on maternity leave, Ardern was "worrying about feeding, sleeping, and nappies and there's this overlay of (public) interest in what is actually something that is mundane". "Something that every parent has gone through and yet I absolutely accept this layer of interest because it's not our normal yet. But one day it will be." The birth capped an eventful year for Ardern, who became prime minister in October just three months after taking charge of the Labour Party as it languished in the polls. While she announced her pregnancy five months before the birth, Benazir Bhutto -- the first world leader to have a child while in office -- told almost no one she was pregnant until her daughter was born in January 1990. Unlike Ardern, who was able to take maternity leave, the Pakistani prime minister underwent a caesarean section and then returned to work. During Ardern's absence, her deputy Winston Peters led the country. She resumed control when he left overnight for an ASEAN foreign ministers summit in Singapore. Ardern said she will be "hitting the ground running" when she turns up at the office on Monday. Her first week back will focus on issues that "really matter to me", including mental health, the environment, trade-related affairs and an "employment-related announcement". With the veteran 73-year-old Peters at the helm, affairs of state ticked over quietly although business unease continues to quietly simmer in the background with a growing number of surveys showing a lack of confidence in the centre-left government. Ardern has said she is keen to work with business leaders and has been active in steps to rescue the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, with her government also pushing an aggressive trade agenda. Benoit Lecomte had organised the Pacific swim to raise awareness about ocean pollution Powerful storms have forced a Frenchman attempting to become the first person to swim cross the Pacific Ocean to suspend his bid, nearly two months into the mammoth undertaking. Ben Lecomte set off on June 5 from Choshi in Japan, planning to swim across the ocean in six to eight months. But after nearly two months swimming eight hours a day, severe storms forced the 51-year-old to head back to port in Japan, Seeker, a media company tracking the swim, said Wednesday. "Two typhoons, Jongdari and Wukong, have interrupted his momentum and forced the ship to head back to port in Japan -- a development that reflects the difficulty of the journey and the unpredictability of the ocean," Seeker said in a post that Lecomte also tweeted on his account. "Lecomte is as determined as ever to forge ahead with his historic trans-Pacific journey." Seeker did not say when the attempt might resume. Lecomte was 800 kilometres (500 miles) into the 9,000-km swim when the weather forced the crew to turn back. He consumed 8,000 calories a day to keep him going. Part adventurer, part environmentalist, Lecomte organised the swim to raise awareness of plastic contamination and ocean pollution. His support team conducted a raft of experiments on the trip, including collecting samples of plastic waste. "The trash is way worse than we thought it would be," Maria Amenabar, a research assistant with the crew, told Seeker. Lecomte said the scale of the pollution made him all the more determined to continue the swim. "It's more important now than ever that we make it to the Great Garbage Patch," he said, referring to a massive vortex of trash that floats between the US states of Hawaii and California. "I want to show people why our oceans are so important." The Nauru camp, which currently holds more than 240 men, women and children, is an economic lifeline for the isolated nation of 11,000 The tiny Pacific island of Nauru -- home to a Canberra-funded refugee detention camp dubbed "Australia's Guantanamo" -- is limiting media access to the region's largest diplomatic summit, sparking claims it is trying to muzzle the press. Reporters are usually warmly welcomed at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an annual gathering that allows leaders from 18 nations to air concerns about a region often overlooked on the global stage. There are no shortage of pressing stories to cover at the meeting, from the existential threat climate change poses for small island states to China's growing influence. But Nauru's government, which Australia's Lowy Institute think-tank says "has recently lurched towards authoritarianism", harbours a deep mistrust of the media and is limiting reporting opportunities at this year's summit, which it will host. Australia's national broadcaster ABC has been banned outright, accused by Nauru authorities of "harassment and lack of respect" in its coverage of the island. "It (Nauru) can hardly claim it is 'welcoming the media' if it dictates who that media will be and bans Australia's public broadcaster," said ABC News director Gaven Morris. AFP has also been denied accreditation. Few foreign journalists have had access to Nauru over the past few years, with many hampered by the nation's decision to charge Aus$8,000 (US$5,800) per visa application, non-refundable even if not granted. Under pressure to be more open after being named host of the 2018 PIF summit, Nauru has temporarily waived the fee for press seeking to attend the meeting, due to be held September 1-9. Australian artist and activist Arielle Gamble says the information blackout on Nauru is an attempt to prevent the media drawing attention to the plight of those in detention But it has severely limited how many journalists can cover the summit, restricting the total number to just 30, including photographers and camera operators as well as reporters. Nauru argues its small size means it can only accommodate a few journalists, and denies the measure amounts to "restriction of press freedom". "We are a small nation and have limited accommodation and facilities for the PIF, hence the well-publicised limitations," the government said in reaction to ABC being barred. "Media from across the world have respected this and have gone through the proper application process, however the ABC seems to believe it deserves special exemption from this process." But critics say Nauru's explanation is also an attempt to minimise negative attention. "While infrastructure constraints play a role in limited pooling numbers, we are appalled by this attempt to control media coverage," the New Zealand Parliamentary Press Gallery said. - 'Inhuman and degrading' - Nauru's aversion to media scrutiny stems from the asylum-seeker processing centre it hosts on Australia's behalf, activists claim. With the island only 21 square kilometres (eight square miles) in size, it is close to the summit venue. Under Canberra's hardline immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat are kept in offshore compounds -- single men go to Papua New Guinea's Manus Island; families, children and women to Nauru. The Nauru camp, which currently holds more than 240 men, women and children, is an economic lifeline for the isolated nation of 11,000, which has exhausted its previous source of wealth: phosphate deposits used as fertiliser. In an attempt to give asylum-seekers a human face, Australian artist Arielle Gamble organised an exhibition in Melbourne using images based on leaked official incident reports from the camp to illustrate their stories Nauru's government revenues ballooned from Aus$20 million in 2010-11 to Aus$115 million in 2015-16 largely due to fees paid by Canberra linked to the compound, official Australia data shows. In return, Canberra avoids having asylum-seekers step on Australian soil, instead processing them 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) offshore, away from prying eyes. However, that has not prevented rights groups and the United Nations from slamming conditions at a facility media has dubbed "Australia's Guantanamo". The UN has consistently raised concerns that indefinite detention of people who have committed no crime is unlawful. In a 2016 report, the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child cited "inhuman and degrading treatment" of minors in the camp, "including physical, psychological and sexual abuse". It also noted that the government's media restrictions were preventing journalists from properly researching children's treatment. Canberra argues its offshore detention centres save lives by discouraging people-smugglers from trying to ferry would-be refugees to Australia in dangerous vessels. Australian artist and activist Arielle Gamble says the information blackout on Nauru is an attempt to prevent the media drawing attention to the plight of those in detention. "It's been a conscious effort from the start, and it's worked because it's been a case of out of sight out of mind for the Australian public," she said. In an attempt to give asylum-seekers a human face, an exhibition Gamble organised, "All We Can't See", opened in Melbourne this week, using images based on leaked official incident reports from the camp to illustrate their stories. The confronting exhibition portrays mentally-distressed children who have maimed themselves by cutting their limbs or sewing their lips together. Japan says whale hunting is necessary for 'scientific research', a claim rubbished by Australia Australia Thursday vowed to "vehemently" oppose a new push by Japan to undermine a global moratorium on commercial whaling, and urged like-minded nations to stand firm against Tokyo. Japan has regularly sought an easing of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) prohibition on commercial whaling and continues to kill the animals under what it calls a "scientific research" programme despite international criticism. At September's IWC meeting in Brazil, Tokyo has said it plans to "propose setting a catch quota for species whose stocks are recognised as healthy by the IWC scientific committee". Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was concerned by the proposal. "We strongly support the 30-year global moratorium on commercial whaling and will vehemently oppose any attempts to undermine the processes that support it," she said. This included "through changed voting regimes or the establishment of catch-limits for commercial whaling". "At the commission meeting in September, Australia will be calling on like-minded nations to reject Japan's proposal," she added. Hideki Moronuki, an official in charge of whaling at Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP in June the proposal would not specify which whale species and how many mammals Japan wants to hunt. But he said the IWC classifies several species as no longer depleted. Japan also plans measures to change the body's decision-making process, lowering the threshold for proposals to pass from three quarters of members to half. Tokyo claims its "scientific research" is necessary to prove whale populations are large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting, but Bishop said this was not correct. "The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them," she said. Japan makes no secret of the fact that meat from the expeditions ends up on dinner tables, despite a significant decline in the popularity of whale meat. During its most recent annual whale hunt, Japan reported it caught 333 minkes, 122 of which were pregnant, sparking outrage among conservationists. Japanese officials said the high rate of pregnant whales showed the strength of the minke population. Japanese women are highly educated in general but the country's notoriously long work hours force many out of the workplace when they start families A Tokyo medical school for years altered the admission test results of female applicants to keep the number of women in the student body low, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday. The Yomiuri Shimbun daily said the manipulation came to light while prosecutors were investigating a separate scandal in which the Tokyo Medical University is accused of illicitly admitting the son of an education ministry bureaucrat. "Following the report this morning, we asked a law firm to launch an internal investigation into the reported issue," Fumio Azuma, a spokesman for the university told AFP, adding that it hopes to announce the result of the probe later this month. The law firm that will investigate the report already has an advisory contract with the university but its usual consulting lawyer will not be part of the investigating team, Azuma said. The Yomiuri, citing unnamed sources, said the university began lowering the admission test scores of female applicants to its medical school in 2011, after the 2010 results showed an increasing number of women were winning places. In 2010, around 40 percent of successful applicants were women, double the previous year. After that, the university began trying to keep the percentage of women admitted each year to around 30 percent of the incoming class. "Women often quit after graduating and becoming a doctor, when they get married and have a child," one source told the Yomiuri, in justifying the blanket alterations of admission scores. "There is a consensus inside the university that male doctors support the university hospital," which often requires emergency duties and long shifts, the source told the daily. The newspaper said the test scores of female applicants had been lowered across the board by administrators who applied a fixed coefficient to women's results. In 2018, the ratio of women accepted after the first round of tests was 14.5 percent, compared with 18.9 percent for men. In the second and final test stage, just 2.9 percent of female applicants were admitted, compared with 8.8 percent of male applicants. The newspaper did not give figures for the current gender breakdown of the school's student body. The university was reportedly already under investigation by the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office over claims the privately-run school wrongly admitted the son of an education ministry official. Japanese women are highly educated in general but the country's notoriously long work hours force many out of the workplace when they start families. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made "womenomics" -- or boosting women's participation in the workplace and promoting women to senior positions -- a priority, but the pace of progress has been slow. For many, Nairobi's 1930s McMillan library is a quiet refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city, despite its dilapidated state Despite the dilapidated state of Nairobi's McMillan library, a handful of Kenyans still seek out its 1930s neoclassical grandeur, complete with granite columns on its imposing facade. They are drawn more by the tranquil refuge offered from Nairobi's urban hubbub than for the meagre and chaotic array of books on its shelves. Soon though, if publisher Angela Wachuka and author Wanjiru Koinange have their way, the faded glory of the past will give way to modern amenities and a renovated space. The pair are working to restore three Nairobi libraries that have been neglected for decades. "I refuse to live in a city where children can actually grow up having never entered a library, which is the case of the Nairobi we are living in," Koinange, 32, who grew up in the Kenyan capital, told AFP. In 2017, the young women launched the "Book Bunk" scheme to modernise the McMillan Memorial Library, situated in Nairobi's buzzing business quarter, as well as the libraries at Makadara and Kaloleni in residential areas of the city. "The approach for all three libraries is the same -- it is just that the different libraries will target different demographics," said Koinange. The McMillan Memorial Library is one of three libraries in Nairobi targeted by the Book Bunk scheme for restoration to their former glory McMillan, the largest, will be general interest while Kaloleni will specialise in children's literature and Makadara will focus on offerings for teenagers. Despite the rundown state of the Makadara library, located in a 1970s building, it still pulls in 180 young readers a day, which, Koinange said, highlights the demand for literary services. In a vibrant, built-up city, people also crave the rare peace and quiet. "I have come to study and the library is calm, there is no noise," said 20-year-old student Caren Mumbua Musembi, as she visited for the first time. - 'Hard to get the exact books' - Bernard Ouma Ogutu, an accountancy student at Nairobi's Kenyatta University, whiles away his days in the library. Publisher Angela Wachuka and author Wanjiru Koinange launched the Book Bunk scheme in 2017 to modernise three Nairobi libraries "It might be hard to get the exact books that you want but... there is sufficient internet that you are able to do your stuff," he said. There is currently no index of the books or the impressive archive of Kenyan newspapers, and a comprehensive cataloguing exercise is badly needed. "Access for us, it is not just about people coming in through the doors, it is also about democratising the collection that is here," said Wachuka, 36, who has organised literary events under the Book Bunk brand. She added that was why it was so important to her to offer a wide range of books. Two imposing elephant tusks greet visitors to the McMillan, opened in 1931 to commemorate US explorer William Northrup McMillan. The building mostly contains books from the beginning of the 20th century, well before Kenya's independence in 1963. Readers can find works on the British aristocracy alongside volumes about the London black cab trade -- but few works by Kenyan authors. - 'Libraries are where stories live' - "It is very important to us that we have African authors represented here," said Wachuka, who wants to rejuvenate the collection rather than removing references to white colonialism. The Book Bunk scheme has identified the need for an indexing of the books and the archive of Kenyan newspapers "Book Bunk want to keep that history because it is important -- the building wouldn't be here if it was not for McMillan -- but also mix it with our history," added Koinange, surrounded by piles of books gathering dust in an archive room. The two Nairobians also want to integrate new forms of media like multimedia collections and podcasts. The ambitious pair have received the backing of Nairobi's city council for their Book Bunk project. "We got an agreement with the government that will allow us to fundraise, manage and restore this building and two more in the eastern part of Nairobi," said the author Koinange. They hope to launch an independent fundraising campaign in September to raise 100 million shillings ($1 million, 850,000 euros) for the project, to which they have dedicated five years of their lives. Wachuka and Koinange's goal is to allow Nairobi's residents to tell and share their own stories. "The goal is to increase the circulation of stories in the city," said Koinange. "Libraries are where stories live." Thailand's ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra was sentenced to five years in prison last year for failing to stop graft in a rice programme Thailand's junta wants Britain to extradite ousted leader Yingluck Shinawatra, according to a recent request seen by AFP, in a move denounced as "political". Yingluck, whose elected government was toppled in a 2014 coup, fled the country in August 2017 after being charged over her government's failed rice policy. She was sentenced in absentia a month later to five years in prison for failing to stop graft in the programme -- a case lambasted by her supporters as part of a junta effort to drive the ex-premier's family out of politics. Reports placed her in Dubai and then London, as rumours swirled that she was seeking asylum in Britain. Images of her purportedly in Japan, Singapore and China have cropped up on social media and in local reports. The government "hereby requests the extradition of Miss Yingluck Shinawatra, a Thai citizen, believed to reside within the United Kingdom," said a letter from the Thai embassy in London seen by AFP on Thursday. Britain, which has an extradition agreement with Thailand, does not comment on the immigration status of any individual. But Pheu Thai, the party formerly led by Yingluck, said the request dated July 5 was authentic. Yingluck and her brother Thaksin -- also a former prime minister who lives in exile -- embody one side of Thailand's fractured political landscape. Chaikasem Nititsiri, a senior member of Pheu Thai, said he does not believe the extradition request will be honoured because of the nature of the charges against Yingluck. "This case is clearly political since it began," he said. The wealthy Shinawatras are wildly popular in the country's rural heartlands, where voters wooed by their welfare schemes have helped them dominate elections for the past decade. But they have been branded corrupt opportunists by Bangkok's army-allied elite, who have used coups, court rulings and protests to bring down their administrations. Thailand's junta has promised elections will be held early next year but even with the polls, democracy will be limited. The junta drafted a charter that curbs the power of politicians and calls for an upper house whose members are appointed not elected. Seoul-based Shinil Group announced last month that it had discovered the wreckage of imperial vessel Dmitri Donskoi off South Korea's east coast, saying the ship was believed to contain gold bullion and coins worth $130 billion Police in Seoul requested an international arrest warrant for the founder of a Singapore-based firm Thursday after launching an investigation into the company and a South Korean start-up over false claims of discovering a long-lost Russian "treasure ship". Seoul-based Shinil Group announced last month that it had discovered the wreckage of imperial vessel Dmitri Donskoi off South Korea's east coast, saying the ship was believed to contain gold bullion and coins worth $130 billion. But since then, the firm has faced questions about whether the announcement was aimed at artificially boosting share prices, or luring investors into buying a virtual currency which a Singaporean company -- also named Shinil Group -- had recently started to issue. Financial regulators announced a probe into the South Korean firm, while police launched a criminal investigation last week, saying that the founder of the Singaporean Shinil Group, surnamed Ryu, was also wanted in connection with fraud allegations dating back to 2014. "He is the key figure in the suspected treasure ship scam," a police official told AFP Thursday, adding that the authorities had asked Interpol to issue a so-called red notice for Ryu. A red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest a person with a view to extradition. Police have been hunting for Ryu since 2014, when he fled the country during a separate investigation. "We are asking police in any relevant country to help locate and repatriate him at the earliest possible date", the official said, adding that South Korean authorities believed Ryu was now living in Vietnam. Following news of the financial probe, the CEO of the South Korean Shinil Group apologised last week, explaining that the firm may have gone overboard on the claims and saying that speculation on the value of treasure inside the ship was based on news reports and unverified documents. Choi Yong-seok also insisted Shinil Group in Singapore had nothing to do with Shinil Group in South Korea, although the two companies' founders are siblings, and the Singapore firm has been selling virtual coins, reportedly with a promise of handsome returns in case treasure is salvaged from the ship. The claims also caused share prices of Jeil Steel -- a company in which the founder of the South Korean Shinil Group had acquired a large stake -- to skyrocket initially. But Choi said the two firms were not associated with each other. Observers say in 2003 another firm sparked a stock bubble by announcing the discovery of the Donskoi, which sank in a 1905 naval battle against Japan. Experts have said imperial Russia would have no reason to load vast treasure on a ship that was going into battle and have also noted that there was a safer land route to Vladivostok, the treasure's supposed final destination. Three Filipinos and a South Korean, who were kidnapped in Libya in July, are shown in a screen grab taken from video provided by the SITE Intelligence Group Seoul said Thursday it had deployed a warship to Libya in an apparent show of force to secure the release of a South Korean national kidnapped along with three Filipinos in the North African country. The 4,000-tonne vessel, Munmu the Great, which takes part in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, was now on its way to Libya, officials said. In addition to "carrying out its duty of protecting commercial vessels, (the warship) is also preparing for all possibilities including the need for military support", a defence ministry spokesman told AFP, without elaborating further. The three Filipino engineers and a South Korean were abducted in an attack on a water project site in western Libya on July 6. Their governments confirmed they were featured in a video shared on social media this week. The video, also posted by the SITE Intelligence group, shows the four men addressing the camera in English. An armed guard is pictured squatting behind them in the sand, but their captors are not identified and the attack has not been claimed by any group. It was not clear when the video was shot. "The Philippine embassy in Tripoli has confirmed that the three men in the video are the three Filipino technicians who (were) taken by armed men in Libya last month," Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Elmer Cato told AFP. A spokesman for Seoul's presidential office said the government was doing "its utmost with all the resources the country has". "His country and his president have never once forgotten him," spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement. "The government has been maintaining a close cooperation system with the government of Libya and other allies, such as the Philippines and the United States, since the day of the incident for his safety and release," Kim said. Since former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted from power and killed in 2011, foreign workers and diplomatic missions have frequently been targeted by militias or jihadists such as the Islamic State group. Israel has reimposed a blockade of fuel deliveries to Gaza in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites across the border since it lifted it on July 24, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Israel reimposed a blockade of fuel supplies to Gaza on Thursday in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites across the border, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. Lieberman said the crackdown was in response to "the pursuit of terrorism" using fire kites and balloons amid persistent protests along the border. Israel already imposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza on July 17 but lifted it a week later in response to a reduction in the number of kites and balloons carrying firebombs into Israeli territory. Israel says the devices have sparked hundreds of fires since April and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Palestinians in Gaza see the kites and balloons as legitimate resistance against Israel's decade-long blockade of the territory. The coastal enclave suffers from a severe lack of electricity and relies on fuel-powered generators during outages that last hours at a time. Israel controls all access to and from the territory apart from a single crossing with Egypt which has been only rarely opened. It has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. UN officials have called repeatedly for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the territory, where some 80 percent of the two million population depend on aid. Mass protests for the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel began along the border on March 30, triggering a deadly response from the Israeli army. At least 157 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. One Israeli soldier has been killed. CAR authorities said the Russians were shot dead at a roadblock by a nine-man group Russia on Thursday said no sign of torture was found on the bodies of three Russian journalists killed during a reporting trip in the Central African Republic this week. "According to information given to the Russian embassy in CAR, during a first examination local doctors found no sign of torture, only gunshot wounds," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Journalists Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the strife-torn African country on Monday. They were reporting on the so-called Wagner Group, a company that sends Russian mercenaries to hotspots such as Syria and Ukraine that has been described as Moscow's shadow army. On Wednesday, CAR authorities said the Russians were shot dead at a roadblock by a nine-man group. In a statement on national television, CAR government spokesman Ange Maxime Kazagui said the nine "wore headscarves" and did not speak in French or Sango, two languages that are nationally used in the CAR. One of the journalists violently opposed the armed men, who wanted to steal their equipment, Kazagui said. One of the three died instantly and the two others died of their wounds, he said. These details come from their driver, who was wounded but survived, he added. An investigation into the incident has been opened by CAR, Russian federal authorities and the UN peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA. The killings took place north of the central town of Sibut, located on the main highway between Kaga Bandora and the capital Bangui, a MINUSCA source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A journalist who was investigating Wagner's activities in Syria in April died after falling from the balcony of his fifth-floor flat in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. But Kazagui said it was "very plausible" that the three journalists had been killed by "a roadblock team who belong to an armed group". "They took risks that, in my view, were badly underestimated." Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is poised to win all 125 parliamentary seats after the flawed poll that will see the strongman leader extend his 33-year rule, cementing the country's status as a one-party state Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said opposition calls to boycott elections failed as he celebrated his "crystal clear" victory in the uncontested vote in a speech to thousands of garment workers Thursday. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is poised to win all 125 parliamentary seats after the flawed poll that will see the strongman leader extend his 33-year rule, cementing the country's status as a one-party state. Opposition figures had called for a boycott of the vote with a so-called "sleep at home" or "clean finger" campaign after the most viable election contender, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved last year and barred from running. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen says that Cambodia's new parliament would convene on September 19 and the government would be formed a day later "The sleep-at-home campaign has already failed. More than 82 percent of Cambodians nationwide went to vote, it shows our Cambodians support the democratic process," he told a crowd of 14,000 workers in his first speech since the ballot. "It is crystal clear that the future Prime Minister of the new government... is Hun Sen again," he said to applause. He told the crowd that Cambodia's new parliament would convene on September 19 and the government would be formed a day later. Some 6.9 million votes were cast in Sunday's election -- but nearly 600,000 ballots were spoiled, in a sign of unhappy voters. - 'Terrible setback' - The United States and the European Union declined to send election observers to the poll because they said it lacked credibility with no viable opposition on the ticket. Instead it was monitored by members of far-right and populist parties from Britain, Italy, Belarus and India. The vote immediately drew condemnation from the EU and the US, while the self-exiled co-founder of the now disbanded CNRP Sam Rainsy told AFP this week it was a "terrible setback". Rainsy, who lives in France to avoid a litany of charges he faces in Cambodia, also urged the international community to reject the results. The CNRP, whose leader Kem Sokha is in jail on charges of treason, took 44 percent of the vote in the last elections in 2013, the most credible challenge to Hun Sen's grip on on power in decades. Hun Sen vowed on Thursday to double down on efforts to eliminate any remaining opposition in the country. "(Opposition parties) deserve to die, if they're alive, war could erupt," he said before posing for selfies with smiling supporters. The 65-year-old leader courted support from garment workers ahead of the election with his colourful speeches -- and envelopes of cash. The 65-year-old leader courted support from garment workers ahead of the election with his colourful speeches -- and envelopes of cash. He kept the tradition alive post polls handing each worker $5, and $200 for pregnant employees He kept the tradition alive Thursday handing each worker $5, and $200 for pregnant employees. The long serving leader is seen as a source of stability in a country with a tumultuous recent history of civil war and Vietnamese occupation. He's also won support with ambitious infrastructure projects across the country, many funded with soft loans from China which provides support without asking questions about human rights. Washington and the European Union, former allies who have retreated amid Hun Sen's slide toward outright authoritarianism, both condemned the election this week, while China congratulated the people of Cambodia. Kidnapping of Afghans and foreigners for ransom is common across Afghanistan where swathes of the country are infested with militant groups or criminal gangs Afghan police in Kabul Thursday recovered the bodies of three foreign nationals who they said had been abducted and killed, in the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital. "At this stage we think it is a terrorist incident," a police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told AFP, describing the incident as an abduction. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings. A spokesman from the interior ministry also confirmed the incident, saying the victims were from India, Macedonia and Malaysia. The three men were working for a logistics company in the capital. The incident happened after the group left their office with a car and driver Thursday. Just over an hour later their bodies were found in what appeared to be a different car by authorities in the rural outskirts of Kabul. "They had been shot inside the car," said Bahar Mehr with the interior ministry. Kabul is plagued by criminal gangs who stage abductions for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy locals, and sometimes hand them over to insurgent groups. Kidnapping of Afghans and foreigners is also common across Afghanistan where swathes of the country are infested with militant groups or criminal gangs. In August 2016, gunmen wearing military uniforms kidnapped two professors of the American University of Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul. The two, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, appeared looking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents later adding that King was in poor health. Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in violence in recent years. Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of the grinding conflict that began after the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. Militant attacks and suicide bombs were the leading causes of civilian deaths in the first half of 2018, a recent UN report showed. While the Taliban is Afghanistan's largest militant group and holds or contests more territory than any other insurgent outfit, the Islamic State has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to carry out devastating attacks in urban areas. The incident comes a day after more than 150 Islamic State fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country. Beijing suggests that China and the 10 ASEAN states should carry out joint military exercises in the disputed South China Sea, a move analysts say is aimed at the US China wants military exercises and energy exploration with Southeast Asian nations in disputed waters, according to a draft document, but insists on outside countries being excluded in what analysts said was a bid to diminish US influence. Beijing's suggestions are part of efforts to expand its influence in the South China Sea, which it claims almost entirely, and push back at Washington which has backed countries with overlapping claims to the waters. A code of conduct between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to govern behaviour in the strategic sea has been years in the making. The draft document, seen by AFP, outlines different countries' bargaining positions as they work towards an agreement, and analysts said it represented some initial progress. In the text, Vietnam offers the strongest opposition to Beijing's activities -- calling for countries to stop building artificial islands and establishing military installations. But there was little sign of serious resistance from other countries, signalling how opposition to China's aggressive expansion in the resource-rich waters has ebbed in recent years in Southeast Asia. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims to China's in the sea. Tensions have escalated in recent years due to Beijing building artificial islands that can host military bases. Meanwhile the US -- traditionally the dominant military power in the area -- has more frequently carried out patrols aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation. - Long-running tensions - In the draft text, Beijing suggests that China and the 10 ASEAN states should carry out joint military exercises regularly. However, the drills should not involve countries outside the region "unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection". The US has conducted freedom of navigation operations in the area, angering Beijing The suggestion to exclude outside countries "is obviously targeted at the US which has been dominating the waters of the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in particular", Hoang Thi Ha, from the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told AFP. By proposing joint military exercises, China is trying to send a "subtle message to the world that ASEAN and China could work together and things are progressing well, hence there is no need for external involvement in the South China Sea issue", said Ha. Beijing also suggested that China and ASEAN could carry out joint oil and gas exploration in the waters but again proposed that firms from countries outside the region be excluded from such activities, the document showed. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Singapore on Thursday, Beijing and ASEAN announced they had agreed on the negotiating text for the code. Vietnam has offered some of the stiffest resistance to China in the sea in recent times, regularly complaining about Beijing's activities on contested islands and in disputed waters. Tensions reached fever pitch in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi. However opposition has weakened in other parts of Southeast Asia, with analysts saying that countries are keen to attract Chinese investment and are worried about US commitment to the region under President Donald Trump. The Philippines, under previous president Benigno Aquino, had been a leading voice against China's expansion in the sea and used ASEAN events to pressure Beijing -- but current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has reversed that policy. A prominent Buddhist abbot and Communist Party member who was accused of coercing several nuns into having sex with him is now under investigation from China's top religious authority. The allegations against abbot Xuecheng and the Beijing Longquan Monastery burst into the public eye when a 95-page document written by two former monks at the temple emerged online earlier this week. Xuecheng is the latest prominent figure to face sexual misconduct allegations as part of a growing #MeToo movement in China. A 95-page document written by two former monks claims Abbot Xuecheng, the head of Longquan Monastery in Beijing, 'manipulated' nuns into having sex with him The abbot is accused of sending illicit text messages to at least six women, tempting or threatening them to have sex with him. Four gave in to Xuecheng's demands, the report written by former monks Xianjia and Xianqi said, adding that he tried to assert 'mind control' by claiming the sex was a part of their Buddhist studies. 'Xuecheng manipulated disciples to serve his "Buddhist Empire"... disciples under his control sacrificed their precious practices of Buddhist doctrines,' the document said. China's State Administration for Religious Affairs said it had started investigating the allegations. 'We have received the material involved in the report and have started work on investigating and verifying the claims,' the authority said in a statement on Thursday, adding that it takes the allegations 'very seriously'. Abbot Xuecheng is head of the Buddhist Association of China and a member of China's top political advisory body. He is seen attending an opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in China in March The Longquan Temple is located in the suburban area of Beijing, China The monastery had on Wednesday denounced the dossier, which it says falsified evidence, calling it an attempt to tarnish Xuecheng and the monastery's reputation. 'The falsified evidence is based on a deliberate attempt to frame Master Xuecheng, and can be considered a crime,' it said in a statement posted on Xuecheng's account on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. 'This incident has its roots in revenge, an operation motivated by malice.' The report and posts about it have been taken down or censored on social media. According to the state-run Global Times, Xuecheng had been brought in for questioning by authorities but later released. In a separate social media posting, one of the report's authors said he was forced to go public after the victims were ignored by authorities who said they could not investigate the matter. There is no legal definition of sexual harassment in China and no national regulations on how to handle sexual assault cases in schools and workplaces. The abbot is the latest public figure to face sexual misconduct allegations as part of a growing #MeToo movement in China. However, reports of the news have been removed on social media Xuecheng is a prominent personality in Chinese Buddhist life with a social media following of millions. He heads the Buddhist Association of China and is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory board. Located on the outskirts of Beijing, Longquan Monastery has made headlines for combining Buddhism with modern technology, launching last year a two-foot high robot monk that dispenses mantras and karmic advice. The #MeToo movement ignited in China earlier this year with more women starting to open up about sexual assaults, especially on university campuses. Unlike in the West, where #MeToo has forced resignations and sparked widespread public debate, authorities in China have sought to control the discussion, sometimes allowing and at other times censoring social media commentary. The 75-year-old retired general's plan to travel to London is bound to stir fresh doubts about his health and his ability to campaign for re-election at polls scheduled for February Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will begin a 10-day vacation in London from Friday, his office said, without disclosing whether he will also see his doctor there. "While the president is on vacation, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo will be in acting capacity. President Buhari will be in London for the holiday," presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said in a statement. He said the parliament had been notified about the president's trip, his latest of several to the British capital in recent months. In May, the Nigerian leader was in London for three days for medical reasons, having spent some five months last year receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. The development is bound to stir fresh doubts about the health of the 75-year-old retired general and his ability to campaign for re-election at polls scheduled for February. Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has always insisted Buhari is unwell and unfit to govern, but his aides have dismissed the claims. The health of the president is a sensitive issue in Nigeria following the death in office in 2010 of then president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, which followed months of treatment abroad and sparked political turmoil. The Israeli army on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gaza Strip with activists who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by the Jewish state on the Palestinian enclave for more than a decade The captain of a Norwegian boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists en route to Gaza has accused Israeli authorities of violating the law by boarding the vessel in international waters and using violent force against its crew who were arrested. Norway has asked Israel to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrests and "the allegations of excessive use of force," a Norwegian government spokesman told AFP on Thursday. "We were arrested in international waters and we were closer to Egypt than Israel," the boat's captain Herman Reksten said early Thursday when he returned to Norway after being held for three days in an Israeli prison. "Israel has broken all the rules, it's horrific that they board a Norwegian ship in international waters and force it to moor in Israel," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. The Israeli army on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gaza Strip with activists who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by the Jewish state on the Palestinian enclave for more than a decade. The Norwegian-flagged Karstein ship had 22 people on board. All of them have since been released and expelled from Israel or are in the process of being deported, according to Ship to Gaza Norway. The fate of one Canadian passenger with health problems was uncertain on Thursday. Arriving at Oslo International Airport, Karstein captain Reksten also accused Israeli soldiers of shocking the activists with tasers. "I still have a headache from being hit in prison," he added. The Israeli embassy in Oslo denied the accusations. "It's actually exactly the opposite: the ones that were acting against international law were those activists who were attempting to breach an internationally-recognised legal naval blockade over the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by an Islamic terror organisation, Hamas," Dan Poraz, a diplomat at the embassy, told AFP. "There was definitely not a use of excessive violence. There was use of a minimal and reasonable amount of force simply because the crew members ... were reluctant to cooperate and to follow orders from the (Israeli) navy," he added. Meanwhile, Norway has yet to receive an answer from Israel to shed light on the incident. "We've asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the course of events and on what basis they think they are entitled to intervene on the ship," Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Frode Andersen told AFP in an e-mail. "We will also raise the allegations of excessive use of force," he added. Israel reimposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza on Thursday citing a resurgence in kites carrying firebombs over the border. Israeli army vehicles patrol the border fence with Syria in the Golan Heights on July 4, 2018 An Israeli air strike has killed seven militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and seeking to infiltrate the country from the Syrian Golan Heights, the army said Thursday. The military carried out the missile strike late Wednesday after the militants crossed a ceasefire line and came within a few hundred metres of the fence in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists. An Israeli aircraft "struck those seven suspects, and today in searches that have been completed on the ground by Israeli troops we found seven bodies in that location, we found five AK-47 assault rifles, we found explosive vests as well as what appears to be grenades," Conricus said. A Syrian offensive in the country's south has resulted in IS-affiliated groups scattering in the area, Conricus said. Israeli forces monitored the militants' movements before carrying out the strike, he said. "Had they been able to continue, they would have come to the Israeli security fence," Conricus said. He said Israeli forces believed they were on a "terrorist mission" and "trying to infiltrate into Israel." "It did not seem as if they were fleeing, seeking refuge," Conricus said. "It seems as if they were moving in a combat formation, with combat equipment." He declined to say specifically where they were located, but said it was in the southern Golan, near the Jordanian border. Initial findings show they were linked to IS but it remains unconfirmed, said Conricus. - Rare incident - Conricus said there had been no coordination with Syria or Russia before the strike, adding that Israel was well within the bounds of a 1974 ceasefire agreement for the area in carrying it out. Israel has sought to remain out of direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it admits carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are deliveries of advanced weaponry to its Lebanese enemy Hezbollah. It has also pledged to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and a series of recent strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel. Confrontations with IS-linked fighters have been more rare. The only other similar incident since the start of Syria's seven-year civil war occurred in November 2016. In that incident, the army said Israeli soldiers were targeted with machinegun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to IS. Four of the militants were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his troops on Wednesday they were close to victory after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels. A series of blistering offensives backed by Moscow and Tehran has forced the rebels out of many of their strongholds, putting Assad's government back in control of nearly two-thirds of the country. Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. Pompeo will urge the region's leaders to enforce UN sanctions on North Korea, State Department officials have said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Malaysia Thursday, the first stop on a Southeast Asian tour expected to focus on North Korea's commitment to denuclearisation and simmering maritime and trade tensions with Beijing. Pompeo will push for sustained pressure on Pyongyang to destroy its nuclear arsenal, urging the region's leaders to enforce UN sanctions on the hermit state, State Department officials have said. The trip is also an opportunity for him to promote the United States' strategic vision for Asia at a time of friction with China over its moves to assert sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea. In Malaysia, Pompeo is set to hold talks with Mahathir Mohamad, 93, who was returned to power in May when the opposition won a historic election victory. Pompeo will also seek to promote the United States' strategic vision for Asia, as tensions with China rise over Beijing's moves to assert sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea Mahathir's triumph -- the first time the opposition had defeated the long-ruling government -- "says a lot for governance and democracy" in Malaysia, a senior State Department official said as Pompeo arrived in Kuala Lumpur. "Its a strong democratic member of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," the official added. Pompeo will then travel to Singapore to attend an annual forum Saturday that brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. His North Korean counterpart will also be at the gathering in the city-state, where US President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un held their historic summit on June 12. No meeting has been announced between Pompeo and Ri Yong Ho, but US officials have not ruled out the possibility of a discussion of commitments by Trump and Kim to the "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula". - Nuclear concerns - Pompeo is charged with nailing down the details of the Singapore agreement, including how and when the North's nuclear programme is to be dismantled. But lack of progress has been a source of concern for many observers, as international sanctions begin to ease and news reports indicate that North Korea is continuing its nuclear and ballistic programmes. Represented at the ASEAN meeting will be Russia and China, who two weeks ago put a six-month hold on a US request to the United Nations sanctions committee to halt all deliveries of refined oil products to North Korea. Escalating trade tensions between the US and China, the world's top two economies, will also be on the agenda after Washington warned it is considering hiking levies on $200 billion of Chinese goods, having already targeted imports worth $34 billion last month. In addition, the US secretary of state will focus on another major regional flashpoint at the forum -- rival claims in the South China Sea and China's growing presence there. China claims nearly all of the sea -- including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei -- and has in recent years expanded its presence there by building artificial islands capable of holding military bases. Pompeo's last stop will be in Jakarta, where he will seek to reinforce relations with a key US ally. More than seven years since the conflict began, regime forces have managed to retake entire regions from rebels and jihadists and now control nearly two-thirds of the country The Russian army on Thursday said the Syrian government had recaptured three of the country's southern provinces from rebels and jihadists, and regained control of the border zone with Jordan. "Syrian forces, supported by Russian aviation, liquidated (Islamic State) and former al-Nusra groups and retook control of Sweida, Daraa and Quneitra," Russian army general Sergei Rudskoy said at a briefing in Moscow. He praised the "unique operation" that allowed Syrian forces to retake "3,332 square kilometres" of territory from jihadist and rebel groups. The Moscow-supported Damascus regime "entirely retook control of the border between Syria and Jordan", Rudskoy said. He added that "conditions have been created for the resumption of the activities of UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights" near the border with Israel. Russia, which intervened military in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2015, will deploy "eight military police observation posts" in order "to prevent possible provocations." More than seven years since the conflict began, regime forces have managed to retake entire regions from rebels and jihadists and now control nearly two-thirds of the country. Syrian troops are supported military by their Russian and Iranian allies, as well as by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan militiamen. Zimbabwe since independence A timeline of developments since the ousting of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe last November to the rejection by the opposition of the election victory of his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa. - Mugabe out after 37 years - Tension builds following Mugabe's sacking of Emmerson Mnangagwa as his vice president in early November 2017, a move seen as positioning the veteran's president's wife to become his successor. Army tanks take up positions around the capital overnight November 14-15 and Mugabe is put under effective house arrest. Four days later the ruling ZANU-PF party sacks him as leader and expels his wife. On November 21 the 93-year-old Mugabe bows to pressure to quit and ends his 37-year grip on power. - New president pledges polls - On November 24 Mnangagwa is sworn in as president, promising that elections due in 2018 will go ahead. In February 2018 veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai dies of cancer; his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) picks former youth activist Nelson Chamisa to lead it into the election set for July 30. A record 23 presidential candidates are in June cleared to stand. On June 23 a bomb explodes as Mnangagwa leaves the podium at a ZANU-PF campaign rally in the opposition stronghold city of Bulawayo. He escapes unharmed but dozens of people are injured and two of his bodyguards are killed. - Historic vote - On the eve of the vote, Mugabe holds a surprise press conference at his home at which he stuns observers and calls for voters to reject the ZANU-PF, his former party. He even hints that he could vote for Chamisa. Voting on July 30 takes place in a peaceful atmosphere. Long lines form from the early morning outside polling stations and turnout is estimated at around 75 percent. The next day, as vote counting is under way, Chamisa says that he is "winning resoundingly". "We are ready to form the next government," he says. The government warns candidates they face prosecution and jail for prematurely announcing results. The much-criticised election authority meanwhile declares there has been no rigging, after the opposition repeatedly alleges the vote process was flawed. - Violence erupts - On August 1 the election commission announces that ZANU-PF has won most of the seats in parliament. It does not give the results for the presidential vote. The opposition cries foul, alleging fraud, and EU observers say the elections were held on an "un-level playing field". Opposition protestors take to the streets of Harare, burning tyres and pulling down street signs. Soldiers arrive and fire live rounds on opposition activists. At least six people are killed. As international condemnation pours in, the government warns it will "not tolerate" further unrest. - Mnangagwa declared winner - In the early hours of August 3, the electoral commission declares Mnangagwa the winner with 50.8 percent of the vote -- just enough to avoid a run-off against Chamisa, who scored 44.3 percent. The opposition rejects the results and says it will challenge them in court. - 'Fraudulent', 'illegitimate' - On August 3 Chamisa insists that he won the election, rejecting the results as "fraudulent, illegal, illegitimate" and vowing to challenge them in court. "We will pursue all means necessary, legal, constitutional, to make sure we protect the people's vote," he says. Mnangagwa defends a "free, fair and credible election". US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged a few letters since their June 12 summit in Singapore The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump had received a new letter from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, without disclosing its contents. With little public sign of progress toward Trump's aim of Korean denuclearization, the White House said the letter followed up on the pair's June 12 summit. "A letter to President Trump from Chairman Kim was received on August 1," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. "The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK joint statement." Sanders said a reply was being issued. Trump alluded to the letter in a late-night tweet thanking Kim for this week's return of remains of dozens of US soldiers killed during the Korean War. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump said. "Also, thank you for your nice letter -- l look forward to seeing you soon!" The White House later rowed back Trump's suggestion of a meeting. There is "no meeting planned," Sanders told reporters. "There is not a second meeting that is currently locked in or finalized. Certainly open to that discussion, but there isn't a meeting planned." "We have responded to Chairman Kim's letter, the president has. That letter will be delivered shortly," she added. Israeli army vehicles patrol the border fence with Syria in the Golan Heights on July 4, 2018 An Israeli air strike has killed seven militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and seeking to infiltrate the country from the Syrian Golan Heights, the army said Thursday. The rare incident came as Israel readied itself for Syria regaining complete control of the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. A Syrian offensive, backed by Russia, has seen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rout rebels and jihadists in the region, sending them fleeing. On Thursday, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Assad's gains present advantages for Israel since it would provide a level of stability in the Golan even though the two countries remain technically at war. Israel's army said there had been no coordination with Assad's government before the strike. The strike was carried out late Wednesday after the militants crossed a ceasefire line and came within a few hundred metres (yards) of the fence in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said. Later searches turned up the seven bodies, five AK-47 assault rifles, explosive vests and what appeared to be grenades, he added. - 'Moving in combat formation' - Israeli forces monitored the militants' movements before carrying out the strike, Conricus said. "Had they been able to continue, they would have come to the Israeli security fence," he said. Conricus said Israeli forces believed they were on a "terrorist mission" and "trying to infiltrate into Israel". "It did not seem as if they were fleeing, seeking refuge," Conricus said. "It seems as if they were moving in a combat formation, with combat equipment." He declined to say specifically where they were located, but said it was in the southern Golan, near the Jordanian border. Initial findings show they were linked to IS but it remains unconfirmed, said Conricus. Jordan's army also said Thursday it had killed a number of jihadists who tried to approach its northern border with Syria. Conricus said he was not aware of any coordination with the Jordanians. Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. - Rare incident - Conricus said there also had been no coordination with Syria or Russia before the strike, adding that Israel was within the bounds of a 1974 ceasefire agreement for the area in carrying it out. Israel has sought to remain out of direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it admits carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are deliveries of advanced weaponry to its Lebanese enemy Hezbollah. It has also pledged to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and a series of recent strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel. Confrontations with IS-linked fighters have been more rare. The only other similar incident since the start of Syria's seven-year civil war occurred in November 2016, when Israeli soldiers were targeted with machine gun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to IS. Four of the militants were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured. Assad told his troops on Wednesday they were close to victory after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels. A series of blistering offensives backed by Moscow and Tehran has forced the rebels out of many of their strongholds, putting Assad's government back in control of nearly two-thirds of the country. Russia will now deploy "eight military police observation posts" in the region, Russian army general Sergei Rudskoy said on Thursday. He added that "conditions have been created for the resumption of the activities of UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights". Israel has been pressing Russia to keep Iranian forces or its proxies far away from the Golan. Lieberman saw benefits in Assad consolidating his gains. "In Syria, as far as we are concerned, the situation is returning to the previous one before the civil war, meaning there is a clear address, there is responsibility and there is a central government," Lieberman said. A firefighter walks in a burned field near the Israeli city of Sderot close to the border with Gaza, on July 31 2018. The fire was caused by inflammable material attached to a balloon flown by Palestinian protesters from across the border Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put off a planned trip next week to Colombia to focus on developments along his country's border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said Thursday. He had been scheduled to fly to Bogata on Monday. "In light of the situation in the south, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to stay in this country next week and therefore he cancelled his trip to Colombia," they said on condition of anonymity, without elaborating. Israel reimposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Hamas-ruled Gaza on Thursday citing a resurgence in kites carrying firebombs over the border into southern Israel and signalling that a pause in tensions may be ending. Mass protests for the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes inside Israel erupted along the border on March 30. Israeli fire has since killed at least 157 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier has also died. There were two separate military flare-ups last month. The first, on July 14, saw dozens of Israeli air strikes that killed two Palestinians, while some 200 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from the enclave at Israel in response. It was the most serious exchange of fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war. On July 20, Israel unleashed a wave of strikes across the territory after a soldier was shot dead on the border. Three Hamas militants were killed in the strikes. UN officials and Egypt brokered a ceasefire after the July 20 violence that resulted in a drop in tensions. However, protests and clashes have continued along the border and the kite-borne firebombs did not stop completely as Israel demands. Israeli daily Haaretz linked the cancellation of the Bogota trip to reports of progress towards a new ceasefire in talks with Hamas being mediated by the United Nations and Egypt. Netanyahu was expected to convene his security cabinet on Sunday, "to discuss the efforts to reach a deal with Hamas", it said. Syrians on motorcycles drive past damaged buildings along a street in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on August 2, 2018 After recapturing most of Syria, President Bashar al-Assad is threatening to march on opposition forces in Idlib, the densely populated northwest province that shares a border with rebel ally Turkey. But a military assault would prove very costly, and analysts say Ankara and regime ally Moscow may ultimately choose to keep Assad's troops in check. - The last redoubt - Idlib is the last haven for Syria's fractured armed opposition, which this year alone lost key bastions near Damascus and in the south. The province shares a roughly 100-kilometre (60-mile) border with Turkey and fell to jihadists and rebels in 2015. Now, around 60 percent is held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by jihadists from Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate. The rest is controlled by rival Islamists and rebels, while regime forces hold a southeastern sliver. The province forms a "de-escalation zone" agreed in 2017 by Turkey, Russia, and fellow regime ally Iran meant to prevent hostilities there. It is the only such zone left, after Assad recaptured the other three this year. - Why does Assad want Idlib? - Throughout Syria's seven-year war, Assad has pledged to recapture every inch of the country. After Turkish troops intervened in 2016, Damascus regularly lambasted them as "occupiers". Last week, Assad said Idlib, where Turkey has forces deployed, is his next priority. Idlib's strategic importance for the regime lies at least in part in the M5 highway, which links second city Aleppo in the north to Damascus, and then south to the recently recaptured Nassib border crossing with Jordan. The stretch in Idlib cuts through rebel territory, but Turkish and Russian monitors are positioned along it. Assad's push for Idlib will primarily stem from his interest in the highway, says analyst Fabrice Balanche. - How likely is an assault? - Talk of a possible looming assault on Idlib is rife in government-held Syria, but analysts say there is cause to be cautious. First, Russia's own Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev said this week there was "no question of an operation" on Idlib. The regime's main obstacle, says Center for a New American Security analyst Nicholas Heras, is Ankara. "The greatest impediment to the Assad government in Idlib is Turkey and the Turkish government's policy toward northwest Syria," he says. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is wary an assault could push thousands of people to the frontier, much like what happened along the Jordanian border in June when troops began attacking southern Syria. "For the time being, Erdogan is pursuing an over-my-dead body policy toward Assad's potential military action in Syria," says Heras. Nasr al-Hariri, who heads Syria's mainstream opposition, told AFP last week Turkish "guarantees" would likely bar an assault. And Nawar Oliver of the Turkey-based Omran Centre expects Russia, Turkey, and Iran "will not allow any kind of large-scale war in the north, because that will affect everyone there". - But, what if? - If troops did attack Idlib, says Oliver, it would only be with the approval of all three powers. "If the regime moved on this goal, it's probably going to be in a deal. This deal is not finalised," he says. But that would spell catastrophe for the province's 2.5 million residents, half of them displaced from other Syrian provinces. Idlib's population has swelled with tens of thousands of rebels and civilians transferred there en masse from other towns recaptured by the regime. People would have nowhere to flee, UN regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria Panos Moumtzis said. "There is no other Idlib to take them out to," Moumtzis warned earlier this year. "Really, this is the last location." As a result, thousands if not more would rush to the border with Turkey to seek safety. - What about HTS? - Damascus and Moscow justify bombing Idlib by pointing to the presence of the jihadists from HTS, designated as "terrorists". Ankara wants to prevent the two countries from using the same excuse for a ground assault, says Heras. "The Turks are holding the line that HTS is Turkey's matter, and not an issue that Assad can use to launch a war on Idlib. But there is a time clock that is running now," says Heras. On Wednesday, Islamist heavyweights Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki merged with four other rebel factions opposed to HTS to form the National Liberation Front. "Sooner or later, if the Turks want to stay in Europe and America's good graces, Erdogan is going to have to act more decisively against the terrorist organisations in Idlib," Heras says. Lavrientev this week said Moscow hoped Ankara and its rebel allies would act to keep Idlib stable. Ultimately, to avoid a regime assault, Oliver says, Turkey may wage "a military operation inside Idlib to eliminate the hardliners among HTS and other extremist groups". The FBI said they arrested Xiaoqing Zheng, a General Electric engineer, and found a handbook explaining 'resources' China would people who provided it with technology A Chinese-American engineer faces charges of stealing valuable technology from General Electric, sneaking it out hidden in a picture of the sunset to take to China, the US Justice Department said. Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, a US citizen also believed to have Chinese nationality, was due to appear before a judge in Albany, New York on Thursday, a day after his arrest, according to federal prosecutors. Following a four-year investigation, the FBI arrested Xiaoqing Zheng after searching his home and finding, among other things, a handbook detailing "resources" Beijing would grant to individuals providing certain technologies. Zheng's arrest comes as President Donald Trump intensifies the trade war with Beijing, largely over complaints the country steals US technology or obliges American companies to share know-how in exchange for doing business in China. Trump imposed punishing tariffs on tens of billions in Chinese imports and plans more to ratchet up the pressure on Beijing to correct the pervasive industrial espionage. US investigators believe Zheng may have begun stealing thousands of files containing GE's industrial secrets as far back as 2014, according to court documents. And Zheng worked for or owned Chinese companies dealing in the same technologies produced by GE Power, which produces and markets energy generation techniques around the world, the FBI found. "The GE proprietary technologies on which Zheng works would have economic value to any of GE's business competitors," FBI Special Agent MD McDonald said in an affidavit. GE monitored Zheng as he allegedly transferred files containing turbine technology to his personal email account while hiding the data within the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, a process known as "steganography," according to McDonald. Following a search of Zheng's home in Niskayuna, New York, FBI agents said they retrieved the reward handbook and a passport showing five trips to China in the past two years. FBI agents questioned Zheng on Wednesday and say he acknowledged taking GE's proprietary information using steganography on around five to 10 occasions. Charged with a single count of theft of trade secrets, Zheng faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 as well as three years of supervised release, although punishments are frequently imposed at less than that. Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila Exiled opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who is seeking to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo to contest elections, will be refused entry to the country, Ghislain Robert Lubara, mayor of his former stronghold of Lubumbashi said Thursday. The former governor of the mineral-rich southern province of Katanga, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with President Joseph Kabila, had intended to fly home on Friday. But Lubara on Thursday announced that he could not allow him to return as planned to the southeastern city. "I regret to inform you that I cannot agree to your request," Lubara said, invoking "airspace and landing non authorization" and an "active judicial file" concerning Katumbi. "Lubumbashi is a city of peace and would like to consolidate this achievement," he added. Earlier Thursday, aides to Katumbi met with United Nations officials to discuss his return, sources said. He had filed flight plans to arrive in the provincial capital of Lubumbashi on Friday. If he does return, however, he faces possible arrest after being handed a three-year jail term in absentia in June 2016 in a case of alleged property fraud. He has also been accused of hiring mercenaries and for possessing an Italian passport -- Congolese law does not allow double nationality. He denies all charges. A leader of Katumbi's election party, Ensemble, said there was concern about "security risks" in the light of "events" that occurred on Wednesday, when former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba returned to Kinshasa. "There are risks of breakdowns which could put civilians and political figures such as Katumbi in danger," said Delly Sesanga, Ensemble's secretary general. The UN peacekeeping mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, confirmed a meeting had taken place, in the context of its "good offices" in the DRC. But MONUSCO'S spokeswoman, Florence Marchal, added that its "mission is not to ensure the protection of (individual) personalities". The Congolese NGO Association for Access to Justice (ACAJ) said in a statement that the minister of justice should "stop the political pressure" to "arbitrarily arrest" Katumbi. Kabila's 17-year rule has been criticised for rights abuses, corruption and incompetence. He was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause enabling him to remain in power until a successor is elected. He has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term in the vote. The elections, twice postponed, are due to take place on December 23. Dozens have died in anti-Kabila protests amid the mounting political uncertainty. On Wednesday, former warlord and ex-vice president Bemba -- another declared election contender -- flew into Kinshasa to a triumphant welcome from tens of thousands of supporters. The ex-rebel leader spent the last 11 years abroad, a decade of it behind bars. He travelled to the electoral commission on Thursday to file his candidacy for the presidential election. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague acquitted him of war-crimes charges in June. Russian journalists Alexander Rastorguyev, Kirill Radchenko and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the Central African Republic The three Russians killed in the Central African Republic had followed very different career paths before uniting on a daring journalistic assignment to report on the shadowy Russian mercenary group Wagner. Journalist Orkhan Dzhemal was an experienced war reporter who worked for liberal and opposition media, while cameraman Kirill Radchenko had worked in Syria for pro-Kremlin media. Director Alexander Rastorguyev had won awards for no-holds-barred documentaries about life in Russia. - 'I love war' - Journalist Dzhemal, who died at 51, suffered a serious leg injury from shelling in Libya in 2011 while reporting on the conflict for Izvestia newspaper. In one of his last interviews to Radio Liberty he said: "I love war. You go and you touch history." He recalled that after recovering from his injury in Libya, he went to eastern Ukraine, where he covered the conflict from both sides of the frontline. "If something blows up now somewhere, I will definitely go," he said, saying that for him "journalism is a profession that allows you to be free". He worked for Novaya Gazeta as a special correspondent and for many other newspapers and magazines. In 2008 he published a book about the brief war between Georgia and Russia. In a tribute video broadcast by independent television channel Dozhd on Wednesday, journalist Mikhail Fishman said Dzhemal had a "particular lack of fear". Dzhemal's late father Geidar was a philosopher and Muslim preacher. His former wife and the mother of his son Irina Gordiyenko is a Novaya Gazeta journalist. - 'Unflinching' - Director Rastorguyev, who died at 47, won awards for his documentaries, which also attracted plenty of criticism for shocking scenes. His film "Tender's Heat. Wild, Wild Beach," co-directed with Vitaly Mansky and Susanna Baranzhiyeva, followed an eccentric group of characters on Black Sea beaches. Variety called it "frequently grotesque but admirably unflinching" and it won a special jury award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival in 2006. Mansky told Dozhd's tribute video that Rastorguyev was "maybe the most outstanding chronicler of the crazy, in some ways pointless and cruel life in Russia." "I urge everyone now to drop everything and watch his films." Rastorguyev in a 2013 interview with The Village website said that "any art form tries to shed light on the real state of things, which is hidden from most people." He took part in a high-profile project called Srok, a series of short Internet films about the Russian protest movement including opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He was detained at a 2011 protest against Putin's return to the Kremlin. At the time of his death he was making a film with Pyotr Verzilov of the Pussy Riot punk group. He began his career working for television in his home town of Rostov-on-Don, where he continued to live and work and where his parents live. - 'Drawn to danger' - Cameraman Radchenko, who died at 33, was from Moscow. He spent months covering the frontline of the war in Syria for ANNA News, a media outlet registered in Abkhazia, a Russia-backed breakaway region of Georgia. His colleague at ANNA News, Sergei Shilov, wrote that "he was drawn to everything new and unknown and to danger. Evidently that was his main motive to film in Africa." His own political views were pro-opposition and he acted as an election observer in Chechnya for Navalny this year. That was also where he met Rastorguyev, who later asked him to come to the Central African Republic, Meduza reported. In Syria, he encountered Russian mercenaries and wanted to "tell why they are fighting, but our authorities actively do not admit to this," journalist Alexandra Bayeva told Meduza news site. Since starting out in a family garage in Silicon Valley more than 40 years ago, Apple has weathered boardroom drama, market missteps and even a close call with bankruptcy on its path to the $1 trillion mark Despite fears of sapped inspiration, slowing sales, tariffs and suffocating regulation, Apple is now shining brighter than any other private-sector company in history, as the first with a $1 trillion market value. Since starting out in a family garage in Silicon Valley more than 40 years ago, Apple weathered boardroom drama, market missteps, and even a close call with bankruptcy on its path to the milestone, thanks to products that radically transformed lifestyles and the way we communicate with each other. The symbolic stock market accomplishment is a "natural result" given Apple's winning steps, and is "certainly not the finish line," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi reasoned in an AFP interview. Apple has sold more than a billion iPhones. The handsets account for more than half of the Cupertino-based company's revenue. In the second quarter of this year, the company recorded profits that jumped more than 30 percent to $11.5 billion, besting market expectations despite selling slightly fewer iPhones than analysts projected. Apple's revenue in the fiscal third quarter soared 17 percent to $53.3 billion from the same period a year earlier on the back of sales of pricier iPhones, online services and wearable devices. - Waiting for magic - However, iPhones accounted for 14.7 percent of the smartphones sold in 2017, while South Korean consumer electronics behemoth Samsung had 21.6 percent of that market, according to industry tracker IDC. Apple shipped 41.3 million iPhones, claiming 12.1 percent of the global market compared to 20.9 percent for Samsung and 15.8 percent for Huawei. Apple has seen sales of Mac computers grow despite overall shrinking in the market. Since the death of legendary Apple co-founder and pitchman Steve Jobs in 2011, analysts have watched for the company to wow the world with the next "big thing" that will shake up culture and fuel revenue like the Macintosh, the iPod or the iPhone. While that kind of innovation has yet to reach store shelves, Apple has consistently defied dour predictions. In early May, Apple unveiled a new $100 billion share buyback plan, alleviating worries about the iPhone's prospects and a hit from US-China trade tensions. The company has managed to notch higher revenues, even when iPhone sales fall shy of expectations due to a trend of Apple making more money off each handset. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has remained firmly bullish, touting the company's product pipeline and championing good sales of the iPhone X, a recently unveiled model whose $1,000 price tag analysts worried would be excessive. Benedict Evans of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz saw strength in Apple's tendency to do the unexpected in a way of thinking it likely inherited from Jobs. "The tendency of so many people in tech to presume an Apple product will fail because it makes choices that they wouldnt have made is one of Apple's greatest competitive advantages," Evans said in a missive fired off on Twitter. And while online pre-orders and global product releases have whittled down the long, colorful queues at Apple shops on iPhone launch days, throngs still make pilgrimages to lay hands on devices. "The brand still stands for quality product, great design, ease of use and a customer-first approach to technology," analyst Milanesi said of Apple. - Privacy a 'religion' - Apple has managed to shine despite bruises to its image that included being accused of keeping young people addicted to smartphones, slowing performance of older iPhones to motivate upgrades and sidestepping taxes by nestling cash in offshore havens. The company has battled with the US government over making iPhones so secure that even police can't peek at data, and prides itself on not making money off people's personal information the way ad-targeting companies such as Facebook do. "Tim Cook has made privacy a religion at Apple," Gene Munster of Loup Ventures said in an online post early this year. "We expect over the next year investors will look favorably on Apple given the companys privacy-first ethos in an age where privacy is becoming a more prevalent topic." Apple has spotlighted the growing amount of money it takes in from music, applications, games, subscriptions and services it sells to people using its devices. Money made from services is seen as an important element of diversification away from having to rely heavily on selling iPhones. Rises in services revenue have come with jumps in Apple Pay, Apple Music and other programs. "It is not just about inventing new products, it is about delivering more value to current products through services and apps that can deliver revenue," said analyst Milanesi. "I think the biggest challenge for Apple will be the move to the cloud, as Apple does not own the cloud in the same way Google, Amazon and Microsoft do." Evans did not expected anything surprising from Apple in the near future, with many "boring quarters" in store before the company unveils smart glasses or high-tech cars. Two Iranian warships dock in the Sudanese Red Sea city of Port Sudan in this 2012 file photo Iran launched a naval exercise in the Gulf on Thursday, just days before the US reimposes sanctions on Tehran, a defense official told AFP. The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with US ships in the area, the official added. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said the US was "aware of an increase" in Iranian naval operations in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. "We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Urban said. The exercises come at a time of increased tension between Iran and the United States, which has pulled out of a historic nuclear pact and is slapping fresh sanctions on Tehran on Monday. US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But so far this year, to the befuddlement of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is a paramilitary force that answers directly to the Islamic republic's supreme leader. In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters. The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later. FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats dismissed suggestions that US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly denied Russia helped him get elected, is not taking the issue of election meddling seriously The US government on Thursday accused Russia of carrying out a "pervasive" campaign to influence public opinion and elections, in a public warning just months before crucial legislative elections. "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign from Russia to try and weaken and divide the United States," said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. A slew of top US officials including Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said they would continue to investigate and prosecute those who were trying to sway US opinion or carrying out what Wray described as "information warfare." "This is not just an election cycle threat," Wray said. "Our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether its election season or not." The two men dismissed suggestions that President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly denied Russia helped him get elected, is not taking the issue seriously. In a letter to Congress, National Security Advisor John Bolton said the administration had taken "extensive, historic action" to stop the threat. Trump has mulled easing sanctions against Russia. He has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to criticize him for meddling in the 2016 election. Former president George H.W. Bush, seen here with his son former president George W. Bush, called his murdered ex-cardiologist an "exceptional" doctor and mourned his killing over a suspected 20-year-old grudge Texas police were on the hunt Thursday for a former cop suspected of shooting dead an eminent doctor who once treated ex-US President George H.W. Bush, because of a 20-year grudge. Mark Hausknecht was killed two weeks ago while riding his bicycle to work. The 65-year-old cardiologist at Houston's Methodist Hospital treated the former president in 2000. Police were searching for a 62-year-old ex-law enforcement officer whose mother died on Hausknecht's operating table more than 20 years ago. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told a news conference Wednesday that that was the motive investigators believe drove Joseph James Pappas to allegedly murder the doctor in broad daylight. "The Houston Methodist family is still in shock about the senseless killing of one of our longtime physicians," the hospital's chief Marc Boom said in a statement. "We are relieved that the Houston Police Department has identified the suspect," he said. Pappas had been in law enforcement from 1983 until he ended his service as a reserve officer in 2013, according to NBC News. He was considered armed and dangerous, and authorities believed he could also be suicidal. "The suspect had not been heard from by people that know him for over 24 hours and there is a text that he sent someone that said he was going to kill himself," the police chief said. Based on surveillance images, police believe Pappas was on a bicycle just behind Hausknecht on the morning of July 20 as he rode to work. The former cop then went past the doctor, turned and fired two shots, police said. "There was a lot of planning that went into this. There was a lot of planning and, sadly, some skill," Acevedo said. Police on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Pappas and charged him with murder. They said he may be armed with multiple weapons. Hausknecht's memorial service was held Saturday. At the time of the doctor's death, former President Bush called him "a fantastic cardiologist and a good man." "I will always be grateful for his exceptional, compassionate care. His family is in our prayers," the 41st US president said in a statement quoted by US media. Jean-Pierre Bemba returned to launch his bid for the presidency after 11 years abroad -- a decade of it behind bars Ex-rebel DR Congo leader Jean-Pierre Bemba on Thursday officially launched his bid for the country's presidency, putting forward his candidacy for the long-delayed election in December. Another rival of long-serving President Joseph Kabila, opposition leader Moise Katumbi, was however barred from entering the country after saying he planned to return Friday to contest the election. Bemba filed his papers at the electoral commission offices in the capital Kinshasa, throwing down the gauntlet to Kabila, who has ruled for 17 years. "I can confirm that I indeed had a voting card and I filed all the papers," Bemba said outside the electoral commission headquarters. "Now it is up to the CENI (the national election board) to handle all the applications. For me, I have submitted the entire file, it is in order," he added. Bemba was accompanied by his wife and members of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a former rebel group turned political party that Bemba founded. The 55-year-old, also a former DRC vice president, only arrived back in the country on Wednesday after 11 years abroad -- a decade of it behind bars. He was greeted by large crowds of cheering supporters, many of them chanting anti-Kabila slogans. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague acquitted Bemba of war-crimes charges in June. - Uncertainty - Analysts say his return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. Former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba was greeted by large crowds of cheering supporters, many of them chanting anti-Kabila slogans Kabila was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause enabling him to remain in power until a successor is elected. His time in charge has been widely criticised for rights abuses, corruption and incompetence. Bemba lost presidential elections to Kabila in 2006 and was later accused of treason when his bodyguards clashed with the army in Kinshasa. In 2007, he fled to Belgium, where he had spent part of his youth. He was then arrested in Europe on a warrant by the ICC for war crimes committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic from 2002-3, when its then-president Ange-Felix Patasse sought his help to repel a coup attempt. He was sentenced in The Hague in 2016 to 18 years before the conviction was overturned in June on appeal. The ICC declared Bemba could not be held responsible for crimes committed by his troops. The court is due to issue a ruling in a separate case, in which Bemba was sentenced to jail and fined 300,000 euros ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his main trial. But legal experts expect him to be released definitively if time spent behind bars is taken into account. - 'Security risks' - Opposition leader Katumbi, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since May 2016 after falling out with Kabila, had planned to return Friday to his former stronghold of Lubumbashi but the city's mayor said he would be refused entry. Opposition leader Moise Katumbi has been barred from returning from self-imposed exile in Belgium If he does return, however, he faces possible arrest after being handed a three-year jail term in absentia in June 2016 in a case of alleged property fraud, charges he denies. A leader of Katumbi's party, Ensemble, said there was concern about "security risks" in the light of "events" that occurred when Bemba returned to Kinshasa. "There are risks of breakdowns which could put civilians and political figures such as Katumbi in danger," said Delly Sesanga, Ensemble's secretary general. Aides to Katumbi had met earlier Thursday with United Nations officials to discuss his return, sources said. The UN peacekeeping mission to the DRC, MONUSCO, confirmed a meeting had taken place, in the context of its "good offices" in the country. But MONUSCO spokeswoman Florence Marchal added that its "mission is not to ensure the protection of (individual) personalities". The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960 -- and some experts fear the current crisis may spiral into bloodshed. Two wars unfolded from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003 that sucked in other countries in central and southern Africa. Smaller, but still bloody, conflicts dog the centre and east of the vast country today. UN envoy Martin Griffiths urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotations in Yemen, whose war is described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis The United Nations will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations, the envoy announced on Thursday. Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available" and urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations. "These consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties, among other things, to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward," said Griffiths. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore the internationally recognized government to power and push back the Huthis, who still hold the capital Sanaa. The war has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. At least 20 people were killed Thursday in an air strike at the entrance to a hospital in the Red Sea port of Hodeida and the bombardment of a fish market in the city. Strikes have picked up around the city since the Saudis last week accused the Iran-aligned Huthis of attacking two oil tankers operated by one of the kingdom's companies in the waters of the Red Sea. Griffiths told the council that he was "still trying" to negotiate a deal to avoid a full-blown battle for Hodeida, which is a key entry point for humanitarian aid. Resolving the crisis over Hodeida would have to be part of a "comprehensive political settlement" between the rebels and the government, he said, suggesting that the talks would take place despite fighting on the ground. - Hodeida could be a flashpoint - The envoy expressed concern that "Hodeida could be a flashpoint" that could derail the push for talks in September and urged the council to support de-escalation in the port city and "keep the Red Sea out of the conflict." Appointed last year to lead UN peace efforts in Yemen, Griffiths said there had been progress in talks on a possible deal with the Huthis to turn over control of the port to the United Nations "but the gap is not closed." US Ambassador Nikki Haley voiced strong support for the UN effort to bring both sides to the table in Geneva, telling Griffiths that the parties must "understand that they need to work with you." The United States, along with France and Britain, have supported the Saudi coalition in its military campaign in Yemen, but has expressed concern over the heavy toll on civilians. "Civilians are at risk, infrastructure is at risk, and we as the international community have to demand that the two parties come together and understand the seriousness of this," said Haley. She added that airstrikes that almost crippled the water supply in Hodeida "are starting to show a disregard for the people on the ground in a time when they are already suffering so much." UN aid official John Ging described the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as "shocking, both in scale and severity." More than 22 million people - 75 percent of the population - are in dire need of aid including 8.4 million who are on the brink of famine, he said. Since June 1, violence in Hodeida has forced more than 340,000 people from their homes across the governorate. US troops carry the presumed remains of American Korean War soldiers during a repatriation ceremony in Pearl Harbor The remains of some of the presumed US troops that North Korea returned to America appear to be from the site of a famous Korean War battle, officials said Thursday. When Pyongyang handed over 55 sets of remains last month, North Korean officials included written information about where the bones had been found, providing researchers with vital clues. John Byrd, chief scientist at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), said a lot of the boxes came from a village called Sinhung-ri, in the vicinity of where the Battle of Chosin Reservoir took place in November and December 1950. The brutal battle between US and Chinese troops in northeast North Korea saw thousands of US Marine and Army casualties, with an estimated 1,000 Americans deemed missing afterward. "These are remains associated with the famous battle," Byrd told Pentagon reporters. The area around the site has yielded results previously, with remains being uncovered there during the 1990s and early 2000s. On Wednesday, 55 sets of remains were repatriated to the US, where they were received at a ceremony in Hawaii. Byrd cautioned that all analysis is still preliminary, but said evidence seen so far "is consistent" with the remains being American. Many nations fought in the Korean War, but war artifacts that came with the remains -- such as buttons, belts, canteens and boots -- point to the bones being American, he said. A US identity tag was also uncovered. It will be presented to relatives in Arlington, Virginia next week. - 'Guardedly optimistic' - Byrd said some of the remains appear to have come from the eastern side of the battle site, which was where mainly Army personnel fought. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Director Kelly McKeague (L) and chief scientist John Byrd (on screen) talk to Pentagon reporters The scientist said the remains were consistent with being from the Korean War. He noted that the North Koreans had taken great care with the body parts, though the bones themselves were in varying condition. "They had been very carefully packaged with padding and packaging that was done to I think a very high standard," Byrd said in a video call from Hawaii, where the DPAA has a large lab. "That surprised me a little bit, that they took put that kind of care into the effort." Wednesday's repatriation marked an important step after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a summit in June, during which Kim agreed to send home the war dead. The men also discussed launching new recovery efforts involving US-led teams going into North Korea, a process that was stopped more than a decade ago amid worsening tensions. "We are guardedly optimistic that this repatriation is the first step of others to account for the missing from the Korean War," DPAA director Kelly McKeague said. Scientists have a variety of tools to identify the dead, the most important being DNA samples that can be compared against a data base of relatives. But other techniques such as comparing teeth to dental records and bones to chest X-rays are also used. More than 5,300 US troops are still missing in North Korea. In the first round of Mali's presidential election incumbent Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won 41.42 percent of the vote, with opposition figure Soumaila Cisse polling 17.80 percent, according to provisional results Incumbent Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will face opposition figure Soumaila Cisse in the second round of Mali's presidential election on August 12, an official announced on Thursday. In Sunday's first round Keita won 41.42 percent of the vote, with Cisse polling 17.80 percent, according to provisional results, said Territorial Administration Minister Mohamed Ag Erlafk on ORTM public television. Turnout was 43.06 percent, he added. Businessman Aliou Diallo came in third with 7.95 percent of the vote and former transitional prime minister Cheick Modibo Diarra, an astrophysicist who held that office for eight months in 2012, completed the top four with 7.46 percent. Voters in the vast west African country had 24 candidates to choose from in the key poll for the region, which still faces a threat from jihadists despite the presence of 15,000 UN peacekeepers, 4,500 French troops and a much heralded five-nation anti-terror G5 Sahel force. Around 700 of the 23,000 polling stations -- mainly in the north and centre of the country -- were unable to open on Sunday due to violent incidents, but the polling "went ahead calmly" throughout the rest of the country, EU monitors said. Jihadist violence has spread from northern Mali to the centre and south of the country and spilt over into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often inflaming communal conflicts. Mali, considered a linchpin state in the troubled Sahel region, is one of the world's poorest countries, with most people living on less than $2 a day. A Russian national working for the US Secret Service at the American embassy in Moscow (pictured) was fired last year after she came under suspicion during a routine probe A suspected Russian spy worked at the US embassy in Moscow for a decade before being quietly dismissed last year, reports said Thursday. The woman, a Russian national, was hired by the Secret Service and came under suspicion following a routine security sweep carried out by the State Department, according to sources quoted by the Guardian, which broke the story, and CNN. The probe found she was having regular unauthorized meetings with the main Russian intelligence agency, the FSB. "We figure that all of them are talking to the FSB, but she was giving them way more information than she should have," an official told CNN. The woman had access to the Secret Service's intranet and email systems, the reports said, giving her a window into potentially sensitive data including the schedules of the US president and vice president. But "she did not have access to highly classified information," the source told CNN. The Guardian meanwhile reported the Secret Service attempted to contain the embarrassment by letting her go when Russia ordered the removal of 750 personnel from the American embassy during a diplomatic spat that followed allegations of Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election. "The Secret Service is trying to hide the breach by firing [her]," a source told the British newspaper. "The damage was already done but the senior management of the Secret Service did not conduct any internal investigation to assess the damage and to see if [she] recruited any other employees to provide her with more information." Queried by AFP, the US State Department said they were looking into the report but do not comment on intelligence matters. Relations between the US and Russia have been particularly fraught since the election of Donald Trump, despite the president's personal warmth with his counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Cold War era rivals are also deeply divided on issues ranging from the conflict in Syria to the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the Iran nuclear deal. HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities say two people have been charged after their car crashed feet from a crowded playground and they had to be treated with an overdose-fighting drug. News outlets report Huntington Police say 34-year-old Tabitha Wyrick's car smashed into a light pole near Huntington playground's sand pit Monday afternoon. Police say heroin was found in the car, and Tabitha Wyrick and 33-year-old Bradley Stephen Wyrick were treated with Narcan. They were taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries afterward. Police Chief Hank Dial says the two subsequently turned themselves over to police on Tuesday and were released after posting bail. Tabitha Wyrick was arrested on charges including driving under the influence. Bradley Stephen Wyrick was arrested on charges including possession of a controlled substance. It's unclear if either has a lawyer. WEEHAWKEN, N.J. (AP) - New York Jets linebacker Dylan Donahue has pleaded guilty to DWI charges in connection with a wrong-way crash in the Lincoln Tunnel. Donahue entered the plea Wednesday in Weehawken Municipal Court. As part of a plea deal, three other charges were dismissed. Donahue also will have to drive with an ignition interlock device for a year after his license is reinstated. Police say Donahue was drunk when he drove the wrong way in the tunnel on Feb. 26 and collided with a jitney bus, injuring four of the 15 people on board. It was his second DUI. FILE - This is a June 2018 photo of Dylan Donahue of the New York Jets NFL football team. Donahue has pleaded guilty to DWI charges in connection with a wrong-way crash in the Lincoln Tunnel. Donahue entered the plea Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, in Weehawken (N.J.) Municipal Court. As part of a plea deal, three other charges were dismissed. Donahue also will have to drive with an ignition interlock device for a year after his license is reinstated. (AP Photo, File) The 25-year-old checked into rehab earlier this year. Donahue was a fifth-round draft pick of the Jets last year and played in four games before he suffered a season-ending elbow injury. LAS VEGAS (AP) - Art Bell, a former syndicated AM radio host best known for nightly shows in the 1990s featuring paranormal themes and conspiracy theories, died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, authorities in Nevada said Wednesday. An autopsy found the 72-year-old Bell's death April 13 at home in rural Pahrump was from "multiple drug intoxication from his own lawfully prescribed prescriptions," Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly's office said in a brief Facebook announcement . It called the death an accidental overdose. Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg, whose office in Las Vegas handled the medical examination, said Bell had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, the sedative diazepam and the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol in his system. FILE - In this March 7, 1997, file photo, late night talk show host Art Bell sits near a satellite dish at his home in Pahrump, Nev. Authorities in Nevada say Bell, a syndicated radio host best known for nightly shows in the 1990s about paranormal themes and conspiracy theories, died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly posted a brief Facebook announcement Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, saying that an autopsy determined the 72-year-old Bell died April 13 at home in Pahrump of "multiple drug intoxication from his own lawfully prescribed prescriptions." (Aaron Mayes/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File) High blood pressure and the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder were additional "significant conditions" in Bell's death, Fudenberg said. The coroner said there was no indication of foul play. Bell produced, engineered and hosted his radio talk show, "Coast to Coast AM," from his radio station, KNYE, before he left the airwaves in 2002. Pahrump is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Las Vegas. The program focused on Bell's fascination with unexplained phenomenon such as UFOs and crop circles. At its peak, Bell's show was heard on about 500 radio stations nationwide. He retired more than once and had a brief run on SiriusXM satellite radio in 2013. He was inducted in 2008 into the National Radio Hall of Fame. WASHINGTON (AP) - The TSA is considering ending screening of passengers at smaller airports across the country to focus security efforts at the largest airports. It is unclear how advanced the proposal is and whether it will ever be adopted. Still, aviation-security experts reacted with alarm, saying that dropping security at smaller airports could make those flights an inviting target for terrorists. CNN reported that the Transportation Security Administration is considering whether to end passenger screening at about 150 airports that serve planes with 60 seats or fewer. The report cited senior agency officials and internal documents from June and July. In a statement, TSA said no decision has been made. The agency said that any changes "to better allocate limited taxpayer resources" would be preceded by "a risk assessment to ensure the security of the aviation system." Security experts said that while passengers would still be screened before boarding the largest jets - the types used in the September 2001 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon - terrorists could still target regional planes at small airports. Those flights still carry dozens of passengers. "I find that unbelievable, totally beyond comprehension," said Glen Winn, who spent more than 30 years in airline security, retiring as United's chief security officer, and now teaches security at the University of Southern California. Terrorists, he said, "will just begin their plans immediately." Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said TSA would save money by shutting down screening at smaller airports. The agency could take screeners who have a lot of time on their hands between flights at small airports and move them to bigger ones where there is more passenger traffic. Price said smaller planes that would go unscreened are lighter and carry less fuel, making them less dangerous as weapons in the hands of terrorists like those who crashed four planes on Sept. 11, 2001. But, Price added, a crash involving a smaller regional jet could still kill dozens of passengers. He said terrorists could also fly from an unprotected small airport and attack after reaching a bigger airport, where they would already be beyond the current ring of security checkpoints in terminals. Ending screening at smaller airports would reverse a trend of tighter security measures under the Trump administration. Since last year, the TSA has introduced new procedures to help screeners examine laptops and tablets that might contain bombs. TSA has backed away from controversial plans before. In 2013, the agency dropped a plan to let passengers carry small knives - something that was allowed before 9/11 - after an outcry from the public and flight attendants. Broaching the idea of cutting back screening could also help TSA argue for more money from Congress. The TSA said in its statement that as part of its yearly budget process, it is asked to discuss "potential operational efficiencies - this year is no different." DURANGO, Mexico (AP) - Just a day after a harrowing escape from a crashed and burning Aeromexico jetliner, many of its 103 passengers and crew went to work on resuming their travel, with some even boarding new flights from the same airport in western Mexico. Those who escaped serious injury scrambled to find clothing Wednesday, having lost their suitcases the previous afternoon when the plane plowed into a field shortly after takeoff during a violent storm. U.S. citizens who lost their passports met with consular officials who came to Durango to assist. Some passengers spoke of one survivor who had sworn to never get on another plane and planned to buy a car and drive back to the United States. Jose Luis Corral of Portland, Oregon, describes his experience of the crash of Aeromexico flight 2431 during an interview at an office where U.S. citizens who lost their passports in the crash and subsequent fire were receiving help from a consular official, in Durango, capital of Durango state, Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Authorities said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet that crashed Tuesday.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Jose Luis Corral, a 52-year-old business owner from Portland, Oregon, still wore a neck brace from injuries he suffered in the crash. "It's so fast, terrifying to see all the people screaming," recalled Corral, who was one of four people who helped the plane's badly injured pilot escape the blaze. The pilot suffered a serious neck injury and was in the hospital. Forty-eight others were also injured, and 22 remained hospitalized Wednesday. Miraculously, no one died. Aeromexico CEO Andres Conesa said late Wednesday that the pilot couldn't feel his feet when he was removed through a cockpit window, but after surgery had regained feeling throughout his legs. Alberto Herrera, a 35-year-old webpage engineer from Chicago, said the violent storm shook the plane as it took off and seemed to come from nowhere. "When we were sitting on the plane there was a little drizzle, but nothing to worry about. It was just a little light rain, super light, like barely hitting the windows," Herrera said. But another passenger, Ramin Parsa, 32, of Los Angeles, said the weather was ominous even before takeoff. "The airplane actually was shaking before we even moved so I knew it was dangerous weather," he said. "I thought that we were going to have a delay until the weather clears up, but the pilot began to move, so I thought that he knows what he is doing." "I think it was a mistake by the pilot. He should not have taken off," Parsa said. Durango state Gov. Jose Aispuro said it was too soon to speculate on the cause of the crash. Mechanical failure and human error could be factors, but certainly the weather wasn't favorable. Herrera said the takeoff went wrong seemingly in an instant. "You start gaining speed and as soon as you start taking off all of the sudden the plane starts struggling and it's getting hit with hail. The higher up we went into the storm, the heavier the hail got and more wind got to us," Herrera said. "Then all of a sudden the plane starts rocking and it starts seriously, seriously moving around and then hitting the ground," he said. "We skidded and hit a second time and you saw the flames. ...You're like 'This might be bad.'" Herrera had braced for impact and yelled for others to do the same. The woman seated next to him was able to hold onto her toddler, though the little girl suffered some scratches and may have hit her head on a seat. Officials said the impact ripped both engines off the Embraer 190 jetliner, and fire immediately broke out in the wings. "My window turned red because of the flames," Parsa said. He said he tried to kick out a window but couldn't. He searched for an exit and at first couldn't find one because of all the smoke. Then suddenly he felt fresh air on his face. He was in front of the exit. "Imagine you put 100 people in a room, in a dark room, pitch dark, filled with smoke and there's a small door, everybody's trying to find it. That's what the situation was," Parsa said. At the back exit, Herrera said the emergency slide deployed but the fuselage was at an odd angle, so it was unusable and people had to jump to the ground. The passengers walked back across the muddy field to the end of runway and waited there for emergency vehicles. Herrera credits the good outcome to both the pilot and to the fact that the plane had not gained much altitude when the storm broke. "The pilot had to execute a maneuver correctly and then we hit the storm at its peak while we were going up, and not while we were up in the air," he said. Mexico's Transport Department said the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board was sending two investigators to assist in the investigation, and the plane's manufacturer would also participate. The department did not immediately answer questions about whether the airport was equipped with a Low Level Wind Shear Alert System that can detect weather conditions like severe downdrafts or microbursts. Herrera got to the departure gate Wednesday evening just as a delay in his new flight was announced. Asked how he felt, he said: "Pure anxiety." He had sought to limit his waiting at the airport by arriving close to departure time. He was flying to Mexico City on a plane that also carried seven other survivors, then catching a red-eye flight home to Chicago. "I just want to get it out of the way," he said. Yet the normally jovial Herrera also joked about his situation. He noted he had seen one Mexican television station calling the crash "El Milagro de Durango - the Miracle of Durango. "That's going to be the hashtag for the rest of my life," he said. In this photo released by Red Cross Durango communications office, Red Cross workers and rescue workers carry an injured person on a stretcher, right, as airline workers, left, walk away from the site where an Aeromexico airliner crashed in a field near the airport in Durango, Mexico, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. The jetliner crashed while taking off during a severe storm, smacking down in a field nearly intact then catching fire, and officials said it appeared everyone on board escaped the flames. (Red Cross Durango via AP) Ramin Parsa, 32, from Los Angeles, hugs a fellow passenger of the Aeromexico flight 2431, as they meet again at an office where U.S. citizens who lost their passports in the crash were receiving help from a consular official, in Durango, capital of Durango state, Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Authorities said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet that crashed Tuesday.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Ramin Parsa, 32, from Los Angeles describes his experience of the crash of Aeromexico flight 2431 during an interview at an office where U.S. citizens who lost their passports in the crash and subsequent fire were receiving help from a consular official, in Durango, capital of Durango state, Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Authorities said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet that crashed Tuesday.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Jose Luis Corral of Portland, Oregon, talks on the phone with a representative from Aeromexico as he gets information on how the airline will help stranded survivors of the crash of flight 2431 in Durango, capital of Durango state, Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Authorities said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet that crashed Tuesday.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Alberto Herrera shows his boarding pass and water-damaged passport a day after surviving the crash of Aeromexico flight 2431 just after takeoff, in Durango, Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Herrera, a 35-year-old webpage engineer from Chicago, described the terrifying moments when the plane briefly became airborne before smacking belly-down onto a field beyond the edge of the runway. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Tuesday, July 31, 2018 photo provided by Alberto Herrera, a survivor stands in a rain shower in a field watching smoke billow from the downed Aeromexico jetliner he was traveling in, near the airport in Durango, Mexico. Authorities in Mexico said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet that crashed moments after takeoff in Durango, sending plumes of black and gray smoke into the sky. Rescuers took 49 people to hospitals; most of them had minor injuries. (Alberto Herrera via AP) RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Just two months ahead of Brazil's presidential election, leading candidates are struggling to find anybody willing to be their running mates. Big names who have shunned offers to run for vice president include generals, businessmen, an astronaut, a famous actor and even a descendent of Brazil's royal family. Even though three of the last five Brazilian leaders came to office as vice presidents, potential candidates this year have cited reasons ranging from family matters to opposition by their parties, all saying effectively, "Thanks, but no thanks." FILES - This combo of two file photos shows Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro accepting his party's nomination in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 22, 2018, left, and Brazilian Army Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira as commander of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on June 1, 2004. Heleno was one of Bolsonaro's early picks for running-mate, but Heleno said he had to decline because his party didn't approve the alliance. (AP Photos/Leo Correa and Andres Leighton, Files) The apparent disinterest in hitching one's reputation to any candidate comes at a time when the political class in Latin America's largest nation is deeply unpopular after years of corruption scandals. The race is also up in the air because poll-leading former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is in prison and likely to be barred from running. The candidate struggling most to find a viable running mate appears to be Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who presents himself as an outsider despite being in Congress since 1991. Promises to crack down on corruption and crime have gained him a large following and put him second in the polls, but he has come under strong criticism for numerous racist, sexist and homophobic comments over the years. Bolsonaro was fined for telling a female member of Congress in 2014 that she was so ugly she "didn't deserve to be raped." More recently, in April the attorney general charged him with racism and discrimination for comments about blacks, indigenous people, refugees, women and gays. Bolsonaro often defends himself by arguing the press takes his statements out of context. "The cost of associating with a candidate like him, homophobic and machista, is very high," said Sergio Praca, a political science professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university in Rio de Janeiro. "Being Bolsonaro's vice presidential candidate and losing (the election) would be bad for anybody." That apprehension was on display with one of Bolsonaro's early picks, reserve Gen. Augusto Heleno. After a public courtship by Bolsonaro, Heleno said last month that he had to decline because his party didn't approve the alliance. Coalitions are vital in Brazilian politics because there are more than three dozen parties - more than 20 of them large enough to have some representation in Congress. Presidential candidates often seek to cement those alliances with a vice presidential hopeful from a separate party. The size of the allied party also matters because the free campaign air time granted by law is based on current seats in Congress. Alliances can be risky though. Current President Michel Temer took over as vice president in 2016 when President Dilma Rousseff was impeached and removed for illegal management of the federal budget. Rousseff and others from her left-leaning Workers' Party accused Temer, from a large centrist party, of being part of the plot against her. Temer denies the accusations. Bolsonaro, who has promised to fill his government with current and former military people, has courted a second reserve general, Hamilton Mourao. Disagreements between the two men's parties initially nixed an alliance, though local reports say they are still discussing the possibility. Bolsonaro has also reportedly courted Marcos Pontes, who was Brazil's first astronaut; Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Braganca, an heir to Brazil's last emperor; and lawyer Janaina Paschoal, who wrote impeachment legislation that eventually led to the removal of Rousseff. A spokeswoman for Bolsonaro declined to comment on deliberations for a running mate. Bolsonaro is not the only one struggling. Marina Silva, a former environmental minister running third in the polls, reportedly tried to recruit actor Marcos Palmeira and was rejected. Geraldo Alckmin, former Sao Paulo governor, publicly tried to court Josue Gomes, who apart from being a successful businessman is also the son of former Vice President Jose Alencar. Gomes published an opinion piece in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo supporting Alckmin but declining to run for personal reasons. "In the case of Alckmin, he is struggling to show electoral viability," said Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro's state university. "He has not been able to convince people he is a good bet." Potential running mates can't be blamed for being skeptical. Silva ran for president in 2010 and 2014 and came in third both times. In his 2006 bid for president, Alckmin got fewer votes in the second-round runoff with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva than he did in the crowded first round. Alckmin's campaign declined comment on the search, and Silva's did not respond to messages. The race has a huge wild card in da Silva, who in April began serving a 12-year sentence for a corruption conviction. While he is barred from running by law, da Silva's Workers' Party insists he will be its candidate. However, many analysts believe party leaders may name former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad as the vice presidential pick and then make him the presidential candidate once Brazil's electoral court officially denies the candidacy of da Silva, universally called Lula by Brazilians. "The prospects for this election are still murky," said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper, a university in Sao Paulo. "The question mark is Lula, who should not be a candidate, but we don't know what will happen." FILE - In this May 23, 2018 file photo, Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil's presidential hopeful and former Sao Paulo governor, addresses the "In Defense of Muncipalities" Congress in Brasilia, Brazil. Alckmin publicly tried to court as his running-mate Josue Gomes, who apart from being a successful businessman is also the son of former Vice President Jose Alencar, but, Gomes declined for personal reasons. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File) CLEVELAND (AP) - It's been just over a year since a thief broke into the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Ohio and stole an 18-karat gold replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module and other artifacts that have yet to be recovered or suspects arrested. The replicas created by Cartier were given to Neil Armstrong, the first person to step onto the lunar surface, and to fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in Paris following their historic 1969 moon voyage. The theft from the Armstrong museum in Wapakoneta prompted fears that it would be melted down for its gold value, which remains around $40,000. The 5-inch-tall (12.7-centimeter) replica given to Aldrin sold at auction last November for nearly $150,000. FILE - In this July 24, 1969, file photo, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean and the crew waits to be picked up by U.S. Navy personnel after an eight day mission to the moon. A solid-gold replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module stolen in July 2017 from an Ohio museum honoring the late astronaut Neil Armstrong has yet to be recovered, a year later. (AP Photo/File) Wapakoneta Police Chief Calvin Schneider, a native son of Armstrong's birthplace in western Ohio, called the theft was a "body blow." He said an FBI analysis of evidence gathered after the theft last July could prove helpful in tracking suspects. "Once we get something back from the lab, we might be closer," Schneider said. The museum's interim director, Brittany Venturella, said the lunar module was one of more than 2,000 artifacts on display or stored at the museum. Joseph Gutheinz Jr., a former NASA investigator who has helped recover valuable moon rocks brought back from space, called the theft a "shame." He maintains that those involved were likely not sophisticated thieves and likely had it melted down for its gold value. The auction house that sold the replica given to Aldrin said it weighed 1.8 pounds (0.8 kilograms), or about 29 ounces. What struck Gutheinz is that the thieves did not steal a large moon rock from the museum that would have far more value on the black market and would be easier to sell. "To walk by that to go for something else is incredible," he said. Wapakoneta is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Columbus. Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82. ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Paul Manafort inflated his business income by millions of dollars and kept his bookkeeper in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy luxury items and pay personal expenses, according to testimony and documents during his trial Thursday. But he otherwise approved "every penny" of the personal bills bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn paid for him, she said during hours on the witness stand. That testimony is important to special counsel Robert Mueller's team as it looks to rebut defense arguments that Manafort can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others. That includes his longtime associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year and is expected to testify soon as the government's star witness. Paul Manafort's former bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn, left, walks to the Alexandria Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, to testify at President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Manafort's tax evasion and bank fraud trial. Washkuhn testified that Manafort kept her in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy millions in luxury items and personal expenses. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) "I would say he was very knowledgeable. He was very detail-oriented. He approved every penny of everything we paid," Washkuhn told jurors. With Washkuhn on the stand, prosecutors showed jurors a series of documents submitted by Manafort to obtain bank loans, including one in which he appeared to inflate the net income of his business by roughly $4 million. Prosecutors say he tried to pass the documents off as coming from her accounting firm. The fraudulent loan documents came after Manafort's political consulting work in the Ukraine had dried up and as he had begun to financially struggle, prosecutors say. Jurors saw a series of emails Washkuhn sent him in 2016 warning that he was behind on his payments, including to her, and that money was swiftly needed. Manafort faces charges of bank fraud and tax evasion that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. It's the first courtroom test of Mueller's team, which is tasked with looking into Russia's efforts to interfere with the U.S. election and whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Moscow to sway voters. While the question of collusion remains unanswered, Manafort's financial fraud trial has exposed the lucrative and secretive world of foreign lobbying that made Manafort rich. Other witnesses testifying this week said Manafort paid them millions from the offshore accounts tied to foreign shell companies for landscaping, expensive clothing and even a karaoke machine. When prosecutor Greg Andres read off some of the offshore companies to Manafort's bookkeeper, she said Manafort never told her about them. She said she would have documented them for tax purposes if he had. On cross-examination, Manafort attorney Thomas Zehnle tried to get Washkuhn to say Gates was heavily involved in approving expenses. The Manafort legal team has been working to convince the jury that Gates is to blame rather than their client. But Washkuhn said that while Gates dealt with some business matters for Manafort's consulting firm, "mainly Mr. Manafort was the approval source." The federal judge overseeing the trial has questioned the hundreds of exhibits prosecutors want to submit as evidence of Manafort's lavish spending. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Thursday that while the money was relevant, he didn't see the need for prosecutors to "gild the lily," especially considering Manafort's lawyers have not disputed that their client spent his money on luxury items. "This is a case in which the government has alleged that he underreported his income," Ellis said. Prosecutors told Ellis they expect to rest their case next week, noting that they are ahead of schedule. Manafort has a second trial scheduled for September in the District of Columbia. It would address allegations that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests and made false statements to the U.S. government. ___ Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report. ___ Follow Chad Day at https://twitter.com/ChadSDay and Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP Paul Manafort's former bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn, left, walks to the Alexandria Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, to testify at the trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman's tax evasion and bank fraud trial. Washkuhn testified that Manafort kept her in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy millions in luxury items and personal expenses. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Kathleen Manafort, left, walks to the Alexandria Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, to attend the trial of her husband, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort's tax evasion and bank fraud trial. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) A statue adorns the front of the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 in Alexandria, Va., where President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is on trial facing federal charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, seated right row second from right, together with his lawyers, the jury, seated left, and the U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III, back center, listening to Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye, standing, during opening arguments in the trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Manafort's on tax evasion and bank fraud charges. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Former Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn have been running their campaigns for a critical U.S. Senate seat like their matchup was assured. Voters made it official Thursday. Bredesen and Blackburn disposed of minimal opposition in their primary elections, kicking off what's expected to a bruising, expensive fight that could determine Democrats' chances of overturning the 51-49 Republican Senate majority. Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn campaigns Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at a cafe in Brentwood, Tenn. Blackburn is strongly embracing President Donald Trump as she claims the Republican nomination for Tennessee's open U.S. Senate seat. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Polls have indicated a close contest to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker. A general election win would be historic for Blackburn, who would become the first female U.S. senator ever elected in Tennessee. Voters faced a more competitive field in the race for the nomination to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Haslam. Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean won the Democratic primary, defeating state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh after outspending him $4.4 million to $984,800. Taking a page from Bredesen's playbook, Dean has touted himself as a leader who can break down partisan barriers and make divided government work during divisive political times. He told his supporters Thursday he intended to run a positive race focused on jobs, affordable health care and good education. Businessman Bill Lee won a bruising GOP primary. He mostly stayed out of the fray while other opponents savaged each other in attack ads. Lee billed himself as the race's only conservative outsider and emphasized his Christian faith. "I am someone who is not a politician, but I do have a vision for Tennessee to lead the nation," Lee told supporters during his victory speech. The field also included U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who began the campaign as the favorite and got the endorsement of Vice President Mike Pence but stumbled to a third-place finish. No Democrat has won statewide here since Bredesen was re-elected governor in 2006, when he clinched all 95 counties. It's been an even longer drought in the Senate, with the last Democratic victor former Vice President Al Gore in 1990. Bredesen, who remains popular, would again need to peel off support from moderate Republicans and independents. He is pledging to work across party lines, saying he will support Trump on policies that are good for the state, and oppose him when they aren't. He thanked his supporters Thursday night and vowed to be "the best damn senator you ever sent up to Washington." Blackburn is a strong Trump backer in a state that voted for the president by 26 percentage points in 2016. She has run in support of Trump's agenda, including his wall-building immigration crackdown and his U.S. Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh. "We know what Tennesseans say that they want to see in their next senator is somebody who is going to stand with President Trump to finish the agenda that they voted for when they elected him and sent him to Washington," she told her supporters, some of whom were wearing T-shirts emblazoned "Marsha Marsha Marsha." Blackburn has billed herself as a "hardcore, card-carrying Tennessee conservative" from the outset of her campaign. She has benefited from center-stage appearances alongside Trump and Pence in public events and fundraisers in Tennessee. Pence and Trump have already attacked Bredesen, saying he's too liberal for Tennessee and would fall in line with Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Bredesen has countered that his record as governor shows he's an independent thinker who won't cave to party leaders. Bredesen has criticized Trump's tariff policies, which threaten an estimated $1.4 billion in Tennessee exports, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a longtime Republican ally. The exports are linked to more than 850,000 jobs in the state related to farming, steel, baked goods, car manufacturing, whiskey distillers like Jack Daniel's, and more, the chamber said. Blackburn has expressed "grave concern" about the tariffs, but said she appreciates the administration's goal of punishing bad actors like China. She asked the commerce secretary to reconsider broad tariffs to avoid harm to Tennessee's economy. Blackburn has opposed Corker's proposal to require a congressional vote on tariffs issued in the name of national security, a move that fellow Tennessee GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander supports. Tennessee has a history of electing centrist senators. Corker, for one, has further complicated the race by saying he's supporting Blackburn but won't actively campaign against Bredesen, whom he has called a friend. Corker also has very publicly tussled with Trump, once saying he had turned the White House into an "adult day care center," with the president tweeting in response that Corker "couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee." Corker endured booing at a Trump-Blackburn rally in Nashville this spring. Heading into July, Blackburn maintained an early 2-to-1 cash advantage over Bredesen, with $7.3 million in her bank account. But Bredesen would be one of the wealthiest members of Congress if elected and has already loaned $3.5 million of his own money to his campaign. Former Gov. Phil Bredesen, front center, campaigns Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, in Memphis, Tenn., in his bid for U.S. Senate. Bredesen and Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn face only nominal primary opposition in their race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean thanks supporters at a victory party after winning the Democratic nomination for Tennessee governor Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Republican Tennessee Governor candidate Bill Lee celebrates with supporters at his primary election night party at the Factory in Franklin, Tenn., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Businessman Lee defeated three other Republicans in a bruising primary for Tennessee governor Thursday, setting the stage for a competitive fall contest against former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who cruised to the Democratic nomination. (Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP) WASHINGTON (AP) - When an audience member at a town hall asked California Sen. Kamala Harris earlier this year to reject corporate donations, her answer was decidedly non-committal. "Well, that depends," she said. "Wrong answer," the questioner responded, shrugging his shoulders. Harris wouldn't be wrong twice: Less than a month later, she reversed herself, telling the hosts of a morning radio show that she'd no longer accept checks from corporate political action committees. FILE - In this April 5, 2018, file photo, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks at a a town hall meeting in Sacramento, Calif. Corporate donations have emerged as a new litmus test for Democratic candidates. In ads, stump speeches and debates, scores of politicians are pledging to reject corporate PAC donations. But the pledge may be more symbolic than financial. "Money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation," Harris said on "The Breakfast Club," a program on a New York hip hop and R&B radio station. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) "Money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation," Harris said on "The Breakfast Club," a program on a New York hip hop and R&B radio station. Long considered a peripheral issue in midterm elections, money in politics is emerging as a new litmus test for Democratic candidates. In ads, stump speeches and debates, scores of politicians are pledging to reject corporate PAC donations. Their ranks include a handful of Democrats, including Harris, who are widely rumored to be exploring presidential bids: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Joining them is Vermont's independent senator, Bernie Sanders. In total, more than federal 170 candidates have said they're not accepting corporate PAC donations, according to a tally by the group End Citizens United, a political action committee dedicated to campaign finance reform. The groundswell of opposition to corporate PACs has developed quickly as Democrats aim to tap into the anti-establishment sentiment that President Donald Trump successfully harnessed in 2016. When Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., started the "NO PAC Caucus" in July 2017, only two members joined his cause - Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who's now challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, and Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, the party's gubernatorial nominee in Colorado. "There wasn't a lot of interest. I was told it would unnecessarily ruffle feathers," said Khanna. "But now it has really caught people's imagination across the country." The pledge may be more symbolic than financial: In a world of dark money and super PACs, corporate donations make up only a small percentage of the total dollars flooding into the political system. "Corporate PACs making contributions is not where the major campaign finance action is these days," said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine. "If you asked me to name the top 10 things wrong with campaign finance, I'm not sure corporate PAC money would be among them." Democrats have had a complicated relationship with corporate cash since Citizens United, the controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for the flood of anonymous corporate dollars into politics. While the party railed against the ruling, most Democrats have continued to court wealthy liberal donors and big business. But the 2016 presidential election showed that voter frustration with influence of money in politics may have become a powerful force in politics. Trump tapped into anger with a "rigged system," as did Sanders, who fueled a robust primary campaign against Hillary Clinton while largely eschewing big corporate dollars. While the two Democratic presidential candidates largely shared policies on regulating money in politics, advocates argue that Sanders' long-standing policy of rejecting corporate donations helped him own the issue. Nearly all Americans - 96 percent - blamed money in politics as a cause for some or a lot of the dysfunction in the U.S. political system, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted last October. The no-corporate PAC pledge is a fairly cheap way for candidates to signal their campaign finance bona fides, particularly for challengers who tend to get less from those groups. Corporate PACs are committees largely funded by individual employee contributions - not the company itself - and have a $5,000 per candidate, per election limit. Only a dozen candidates have rejected all PAC money, according to End Citizens United, meaning that the vast majority still accept donations from leadership, labor union and special interest group PACs. They don't plan to return corporate contribution or reject the support of super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts to help candidates. In the second quarter of 2018, 32 of the Democratic candidates taking the pledge outraised their incumbent opponents, according to End Citizens United. "It's a smart political move," says Trevor Potter, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission who has criticized the Citizens United ruling. "You're not giving up much by forswearing PAC contributions and you are able to make the political point that you are opposed to the Washington influence buying system." For senators, corporate PACs make up a relatively small amount of their total fundraising. Harris, who won her first term in 2016, has raised nearly $19.7 million. Only about $900,000, or 4.59 percent, came from PAC contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. Democrats argue that symbolism matters, particularly given their lack of legislative power in Washington. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., who announced last week that he'd no longer accept corporate PAC money, acknowledged that corporate dollars don't make up a big part of his campaign fundraising. "I just have come to the realization over time that as long as the Republicans are in charge, they're not going to move forward with any of the significant campaign finance reform," he said. "Maybe this is a small way, on your own, to make a difference." The issue has gained traction in part due to the work of organizations like End Citizens United, a Democratic advocacy group that formed in 2015. It's running $4 million in television ads attacking Republican candidates in Montana and Nevada for accepting corporate donations. The group argues that every dollar matters in close races: Democratic congressional candidates typically lose about $20,000 in donations and senators about a million dollars, according to the group. "But this isn't just about dollar amounts," says Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United. "This is about taking action to show voters that you're on their side." Republicans, too, see new opportunities in the no-PAC push. On Monday, Cruz attacked O'Rourke for accepting contributions collected by a political action committee that backs candidates who support a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. "Rep. Robert 'Beto' O'Rourke travels all over Texas claiming that PACs are corrupt, and he's made his alleged rejection of PAC influence a cornerstone of his campaign," said Cruz campaign spokeswoman Emily Miller. "But now we know that O'Rourke's actions have not matched his words." O'Rourke's campaign said the PAC did not contribute directly to his campaign but bundled hundreds of individual contributions. "What is important to know is that no special interests, no political action committee, no corporation has the ability to purchase influence or access," he told reporters at a town hall on Monday evening. FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - When the #MeToo movement swept across the country, triggering a national reckoning about sexual misconduct, some politicians lost their positions and power amid such allegations. Many others did not. As voters return to the polls this year, The Associated Press has found that scores of politicians accused of sexual misconduct are running again and poised to win - particularly in state races. That includes the deposed speaker of the House in Kentucky, who despite an ethics commission reprimand is running unopposed. WHAT'S HAPPENING Of the 25 state lawmakers who are running for re-election despite allegations of sexual misconduct, 15 have already advanced to the Nov. 6 general election. Seven did not even face a challenger in their primary. FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2018, file photo, Republican speaker of Kentucky's House of Representatives Rep. Jeff Hoover resigns fas speaker at the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. Hoover stepped down as Kentucky's House Speaker after acknowledging he signed a secret sexual harassment settlement outside of court. An ethics commission fined him $1,000 and publicly reprimanded him. Gov. Matt Bevin, a fellow Republican, called for him to resign his House seat. But Hoover did not resign. He's running for re-election, and no one filed to run against him. He is one of at least 25 state lawmakers across the country accused of sexual misconduct running for office this year, according to a recent analysis by the Associated Press. (AP Photo/Michael Reaves, File) One example is Jeff Hoover. A sexual harassment scandal cost the Kentucky House speaker his leadership position in January. An ethics commission fined him $1,000 and publicly reprimanded him. Gov. Matt Bevin, a fellow Republican, even called for him to resign his House seat. But after all that pressure, Hoover is running for re-election, and no one filed to run against him. ___ EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press reporters are on the ground around the country, covering political issues, people and races from places they live. The Ground Game series highlights that reporting, looking at politics from the ground up. Each week, in stories and a new podcast, AP reporters examine the political trends that will drive the national conversation tomorrow. ___ Kentucky has seen seven lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct since 2013. Hoover was one of four Republican lawmakers who signed a secret sexual harassment settlement outside of court. Of the other three, two opted not to run for re-election. One, Michael Meredith, easily won the GOP nomination in May with 65 percent of the vote. He will face a Democrat in November. Kentucky Democratic Party spokesman Brad Bowman said party leaders tried to recruit someone to challenge Hoover but the candidate got cold feet just before the deadline. Hoover's district has been a Republican stronghold for decades. Allegations against other Republican lawmakers have surfaced since the filing deadline. In March, a 2015 memo from the former chief of staff of the House Republican Caucus said a female state employee filed a complaint against Rep. Jim Stewart for "unwanted verbal advances." Stewart denies the complaint exists and state officials have refused to release any documents. Stewart faces Democrat Debra Ferguson Payne in November. Payne, a retired teacher, said she does not plan to use the accusations in her campaign. She said she despises negative campaigning and wants people to elect her for her own ideas. Plus, she said criticizing Stewart over the allegations would likely backfire. "We have 2 to 1 Republicans here," she said. "And I don't think they want to hear it." WHY IT MATTERS The extraordinary growth of the #MeToo movement led many to believe that accused office holders would be political pariahs, but that has not been borne out on the state level. By comparison, virtually every member of Congress accused of sexual harassment has resigned or opted against running for re-election. Kelly Dittmar, an assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University, said the relative political success of accused state lawmakers suggests that voters are unsure how to respond. Does a private failing disqualify someone from serving in public office? "We don't have an answer for that," Dittmar said. WHAT TO WATCH In California, of the six state lawmakers who faced misconduct allegations and ran for re-election or another office, four advanced to the general election. That includes two women. Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, an early advocate for legislative changes in support of the #MeToo movement, was the top vote-getter in a crowded June primary for her Los Angeles-area district. She took a three-month leave of absence earlier this year after a former legislative staffer accused her of groping him in 2014. Investigators initially cleared Garcia of the charge, but her accuser appealed the findings and the investigation has since been reopened. Garcia has denied any wrongdoing. In Arizona, former state Rep. Don Shooter was expelled from office after he was criticized for a pattern of sexually harassing women. He apologized, but now he's back, running in the Republican primary for a seat in the state Senate. His opponent in the August Republican primary, Sen. Sine Kerr, said she has no plans to highlight the allegations against Shooter. "I trust the voters of our district," Kerr said. "They're informed, and they'll make a good decision." DON'T MISS Advocates say lawmakers' success in these races is a reminder of a long history of legislators tolerating bad behavior among their colleagues and highlights the need for more accountability and equal representation in statehouses around the country - where women are just 1 of every 4 lawmakers. "Even if this year you are able to skate by," says Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center, "the spotlight will continue to be on this issue whether there are electoral consequences in 2018 or the next election cycle or beyond." ___ Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Follow Beam and Cassidy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adambeam and http://twitter.com/AP_Christina . Spotify has ditched episodes of the controversial podcast 'The Alex Jones Show' for violating its hate content policy. The move follows a severe backlash on social media that saw subscribers threaten to ditch their accounts after the streaming service continued to host Jones' 'Infowars' podcast despite block from rivals Facebook and YouTube. Days after the widespread complainst from its paid subscribers, Spotify has confirmed its decision to remove 'specific' Infowars episodes from its service. It's unclear exactly how many episodes have been ditched, although the vast majority of content created by Alex Jones, an Austin, Texas-based radio host and conspiracy theorist, remains available to Spotify users. Scroll down for video Spotify has removed episodes of the controversial podcast 'The Alex Jones Show' for violating its hate content policy. The move followed a backlash on social media after the streaming service continued to host Jones' (file photo) podcast 'We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,' the company said in a statement Wednesday. 'Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" podcast for violating our hate content policy,' it said. Jones says his shows, which are broadcast on radio, YouTube and other platforms, reach at least 70 million people a week. Responding to the Spotify action on his podcast, Jones said it was 'what I expect.' 'I was born in censorship. I was born being suppressed,' he said. Among other claims, Jones has called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting a hoax. The move followed a backlash on social media that saw subscribers threaten to ditch their accounts after Spotify continued to host Jones' 'Infowars' podcast 'He has no place on your platform,' Twitter user @FortRutledge shared on the social network in response to the controversy around the InfoWars host He was sued for defamation by families of some of the children killed in that attack, which left 20 children and six adults dead. He now admits the shooting occurred but says his claims were free speech. He has sought to have the lawsuit dismissed. Jones' profile has spread from the far-right fringe in recent years. While running for president in 2015, Donald Trump told Jones his reputation was 'amazing.' Subscribers voiced their outrage on Twitter with some saying they would cancel their account. Writer Greg Rucka tweeted 'Really kinda appalled by Spotify carrying Alex Jones' 'Seriously, I'm going to miss my Spotify subscription, but this is a bridge too far', tweeted another user under the handle @CopThese The move from Spotify follows similar blocks of Jones' content put in place by rivals YouTube and Facebook. The 44-year-old's personal Facebook account was blocked for 30 days earlier this week, while four of his YouTube clips were taken down last month. The right-wing conspiracy theorist was accused of spreading hate speech and encouraging physical harm on the platforms. The YouTube videos, which included footage of a man pushing a child to the ground, were shared by the Austin-based user on his InfoWars website. Among other claims, Jones has called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting a hoax. He was sued for defamation by families of some of the children killed in that attack, which left 20 children and six adults dead Infowars posted a statement claiming YouTube had slapped the Jones' channel with a 'community strike,' meaning he cannot broadcast live on YouTube for 90 days. Spotify users lambasted the service after it chose not to follow suit. Writer Greg Rucka tweeted last week: 'Really kinda appalled by Spotify carrying Alex Jones. 'I know countless writers and artists who use the service. Not anymore.' Another user, who tweets under the handle @CopThese, added: 'seriously, I'm going to miss my Spotify subscription, but this is a bridge too far.' The Sleeping Giants campaign, which aims to encourage companies to drop ads from media organisations that encourage bigotry, tweeted: 'Really, @Spotify? 'Alex Jones has been responsible for harassing parents of Sandy Hook children, Vegas shooting victims and threatening to kill the Special Counsel. 'And youre now hosting his podcasts??' HONOLULU (AP) - The U.S. military is beginning the painstaking process of analyzing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after the caskets arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. "They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbors - long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones," Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. Vice President Mike Pence and Navy Rear Adm. Jon Kreitz, deputy director of the POW/MIA Accounting Agency, right, watch as military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at their June summit in Singapore, for their return. Trump, in a tweet Wednesday night, thanked Kim "for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action." Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Pence said. "Today, our boys are coming home." The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. During his summit with Trump, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. ___ Kim Yong-Ho reported from Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence attends a ceremony with Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Phil Davidson marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence walks from the podium after speaking at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Robert Sanfilkippo, second right, sits next to his wife, Diana Brown Sanfilippo who has spent a lifetime searching for her father, 1st Lt. Frank Salazar who died 66 years ago in North Korea, who wipes her eyes as she sits in the audience with Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. Second from left is Rick Downes, who was three when his father Hal went off to the Korean War, and he has been missing ever since. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) People listen at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence attends a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a meeting with Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Phil Davidson during a visit to Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Pence is in Hawaii to speak at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War. North Korea handed over the remains last week.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) AURORA, Colo. (AP) - A decorated Vietnam War veteran woke up to the sound of his front door crashing in and saw a naked intruder attack his grandson, so he acted to protect his loved ones, according to his family's lawyer. As the man tried to choke and drown the boy in the bathroom, Richard Black and his son desperately tried to pull him off early Monday, even poking him in the eyes, before the 73-year-old grabbed his 9mm handgun and shot the intruder twice in the chest, lawyer Siddhartha H. Rathod said. Soon after, police responding to 911 calls shot and killed Black in his house outside Denver. In this Tuesday, July 31, 2018 photo workers clean up a home where a homeowner shot and killed an intruder and was then killed by police responding to calls of a disturbance in Aurora, Colo. just outside Denver. Police have released few details about the shooting so far, saying they need to balance transparency with ensuring a credible investigation. (AP Photo/Colleen Slevin) "Mr. Black did everything right. His actions saved his grandson's life. He should be in the mayor's office getting a commendation for his heroism. Instead he's in the morgue," Rathod said. It's the fourth police shooting in the city of Aurora in about a month. Police say the officer who killed Black also was involved in another fatal shooting on June 27 that is still being investigated. Police in Aurora - Colorado's third-largest city on the eastern edge of Denver - so far have released only some details as they investigate the shooting in the racially mixed neighborhood of mostly 1950s ranch homes, saying they need to balance transparency with ensuring a credible investigation. But they plan to release more information at a news conference Thursday. "We know how important it is for our community to know and understand what occurred the night of this officer-involved shooting and making sure you have the best information possible," Chief Nick Metz said in a video posted online Wednesday. He expressed frustration with unspecified false information that has spread in the absence of more details from police. He said police know what happened - based on evidence including 911 recordings, officer body camera footage and interviews. Metz also expressed his sympathy to members of Black's family. "This has been a very tragic situation and a very heartbreaking situation for everyone involved, and our hearts go out to the Black family," the chief said. Police have previously said officers responded to a "very chaotic and violent scene" and one 911 call said an intruder was breaking in to the home. Black's wife, Jeanette, called authorities from outside, describing her husband and son, who are white, and the intruder, who was black, Rathod said. Police said officers heard gunshots fired inside and "encountered an armed male." An officer opened fire, striking the man, who police say turned out to be the homeowner. They said a juvenile was found with serious injuries in the home's bathroom along with the dead intruder, identified by the Adams County coroner's office as 26-year-old Dajon Harper. The boy, whose age wasn't released, was expected to recover. Black's neighborhood is not far from the new, desirable Stapleton community built at Denver's former airport. The houses are smaller in the older area and some are not kept up as well as Black's home, where he was known for watering flowers and vegetables in raised beds and building a zip line for his grandchildren. Neighbors say crime - mainly robberies, shootings and drugs - is a problem and back Black's actions to defend his family, which is allowed under Colorado law. The state was one of the first to adopt a "Make My Day" law allowing people to shoot and kill intruders in self-defense in their homes. But neighbors' feelings about police vary. Last month, a woman was stabbed during an attempted robbery at her home nine blocks away. Neighbor Troy Jones said the ice cream man was robbed at gunpoint across the street from his home a few weeks ago. Jones said crime became more of a problem after many longtime residents died and their homes were turned into rentals. Jones, who owns his home, said he has a good relationship with the police officer assigned to the neighborhood and sometimes talks to officers who stop in the parking lot of the church next door. But he is concerned about police shootings in the city. "If they're scared in their jobs, they need to be in different jobs," he said. Mike Montgomery, a neighbor and retired Marine, said he tries to give police the benefit of the doubt during investigations and wonders what the officer who killed Black must be going through. He said anyone who is not armed in the neighborhood is crazy and that he would have done the same thing as Black to protect his family. "He was put in a bad situation, a situation he shouldn't have been put into. Nobody should," he said. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle Monroe and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report. BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - The younger brother of Olympic kayaker Nathan Baggaley is one of two men accused of throwing more than 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of cocaine overboard during a sea chase off the Australian coast, officials said Thursday. Dru Anthony Baggaley, 36, and Anthony Trevor Draper, 53, appeared Wednesday in a Gold Coast court charged with possessing a commercial quantity of drugs and drug importation. They face potential life prison sentences if convicted. Law enforcement agencies said in a joint statement that the pair were in a boat headed for the Australian mainland when they were spotted Wednesday by surveillance aircraft off the coast of northern New South Wales state. As a navy patrol boat approached, the men attempted to escape and threw items into the sea, the statement said. Officials fished parcels containing more than 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of the drug from the sea and intercepted the pair off the coast of Byron Bay, a premium tourist destination. Dru Baggaley and his two-time Olympic silver medalist brother Nathan Baggaley were sentenced to two years and three months in prison in 2015 for producing 18,000 pills of a party drug and trying to make methamphetamine. The former kayaker, who won medals in the K1 and K2 events over 500 meters at the 2004 Athens Games, and his brother both admitted making the pills, saying they thought the drug was safe and legal. Dru Baggaley and Draper were refused bail on Wednesday and will appear in court next on Aug. 20. They have not entered pleas. Police said the investigation is ongoing and more arrests could follow. They have not said where the boat was coming from, but say international partners were involved in the smuggling operation. "That we have stopped such a large amount of cocaine from hitting the streets of Australia is a testament to the combined efforts of all agencies involved," Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Andrew Donoghoe said in a statement. BAGHDAD (AP) - Qassim Sabaan Ali has spent the past 15 years tending to orchards in southern Iraq, only to see them wither or die as saltwater has seeped into the once-lush soil. The southern city of Basra was once known as the "Venice of the East" because of its freshwater canals, and Iraq itself is still known as the "Land Between the Two Rivers" - the Tigris and the Euphrates - which have nourished civilizations since antiquity. But upstream dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran have shrunk the rivers and their tributaries, seasonal rainfall has dropped and infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. The result is an acute lack of freshwater that has allowed a salty tide from the nearby Persian Gulf to advance north from the Shatt al-Arab waterway - the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates that Basra residents depend on - and seep into once-lush farmland. In this Saturday, July 28, photo, Qassim Sabaan Ali, 62, stands on on his dry farm caused by high salinity levels in the area of Siba in Basra, 340 miles (550 km) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq, historically known as The Land Between The Two Rivers, is struggling with the scarcity of water due to dams in Turkey and Iran, lack of rain and aging hydrological infrastructure. The decreased water levels have greatly affected agriculture and animal resources. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) Ali's fig, apple and palm trees are dying off, and the water from the taps is so salty and polluted it cannot even be used for cooking or washing. "It's an aching feeling when you see the hard work of years withering away and slipping through your fingers," Ali, who lives in the Siba district south of Basra, told The Associated Press by phone. "I'm left to watch the destruction and feel desperate, as I'm unable to do more than pray to God." The water woes, along with a lingering electricity crisis in the oil-rich region, contributed to last month's violent demonstrations in Basra and other southern provinces, in which protesters attacked and burned government and political party offices, prompting security forces to open fire. Several protesters were killed or wounded, while others were arrested. Iraq's government has scrambled to meet the growing demands for public services and jobs, but has been hindered by years of endemic corruption and a financial crisis fueled by diminished oil revenues and the costly war against the Islamic State group. The water crisis has affected the entire country, but Basra, at the mouth of the two rivers, has been hit the hardest. The rising salinity has shut down water purification systems, turned once-fertile areas to desert and killed off fish and livestock. The scenes recall those during the war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, when the orchards were burned to the ground, the land was littered with mines, and many farmers were forced to flee. The Gulf war and Shiite uprising of the early 1990s, and a decade of crippling international sanctions, hindered their return. Siba, the district where Ali lives, was once home to more than 65,000 people who farmed some 50 lush hectares (120 acres), but nearly all of them fled during the war. Around 18,000 people, including Ali and his brothers, came back after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, hoping new investment would revive the long-suffering region. But Nima Ghadhban al-Mansouri, the head of the local council, said most have been disappointed. "Life has become harsh for those who invested hefty money since 2003 in hope of reviving their lands," he said. "Even if they want to leave now, as they did in 1980s, they have no place to go. All of Iraq's southern areas are suffering." he added. Agriculture is the second largest economic sector in Iraq after oil. But the country is only able to farm 3-4 million hectares - about a third of its cultivable land - because of water shortages, soil salinity and political instability, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. In recent years, Iraq has had to reduce the cultivation of vital crops like rice and wheat because of water shortages in the south. Iraq has tried to reach agreements with its neighbors on sharing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, both of which originate outside its borders, but has had little success. The Islamic State takeover of much of northern and western Iraq in 2014, and the devastating war to drive the militants out, contributed to the loss of some 40 percent of Iraq's agricultural capacity in the last four years, according to the FAO. In Basra, hundreds of miles away from where the fighting took place, the threat comes not from jihadis, but from salt. The water in some areas contains an estimated 40,000 milligrams of total dissolved solids, a measure of salinity, compared to an acceptable level of 2,400 to 2,600, according to Alaa al-Badran, the head of the Agricultural Engineers Syndicate. The unprecedented salinity, along with the lack of water and nearby oil operations, has eliminated 87 percent of the province's 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 sq. miles) of arable land. The salinity has killed fish and cattle, and caused a dozen bird species to disappear from the area, al-Badran said. "It's an environmental crime," al-Badran said. "If the situation continues like this in the coming two months, I believe agriculture will be totally gone." Even those who don't directly rely on farming are wondering how much more they can take. Hussam Aouda's family, like many others, has to purchase two metric tons of water every two days at a cost of around $26 in order to meet all their needs. The 41-year-old teacher says the tap water is so salty and contaminated they cannot even use it for washing. That's despite the region's massive oil reserves, which seem to have been of little if any benefit to its long-suffering residents. "Can anyone believe that we are now in 2018 and don't have the minimum right of each citizen, the drinking water, while we sleep and walk on huge resources?" he asked. ___ Follow Sinan Salaheddin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sinansm . This Saturday, July 28, aerial photo shows a dry canal full of salt in the area of Siba in Basra, 340 miles (550 km) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq, historically known as The Land Between The Two Rivers, is struggling with the scarcity of water due to dams in Turkey and Iran, lack of rain and aging hydrological infrastructure. The decreased water levels have greatly affected agriculture and animal resources. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) In this Saturday, July 28, photo, dead trees tower over the area of Siba in Basra, 340 miles (550 km) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq, historically known as The Land Between The Two Rivers, is struggling with the scarcity of water due to dams in Turkey and Iran, lack of rain and aging hydrological infrastructure. The decreased water levels have greatly affected agriculture and animal resources. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) In this Saturday, July 28, photo, farmer Qassim Sabaan Ali, 62, a farmer shows dead figs in the area of Siba in Basra, 340 miles (550 km) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq, historically known as The Land Between The Two Rivers, is struggling with the scarcity of water due to dams in Turkey and Iran, lack of rain and aging hydrological infrastructure. The decreased water levels have greatly affected agriculture and animal resources. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - BMW's profit fell 6 percent in the second quarter as it spent more on developing new technologies for electric, autonomous and digitally connected automobiles, the luxury carmaker said Thursday. Net income came in at 2.08 billion euros ($2.42 billion), down from 2.22 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Revenues fell 2.9 percent to 25.02 billion euros. The company said it spent 2.61 billion euros on research and development over the first six months of the year, up 13.6 percent from a year earlier, and saw higher prices for raw materials. In its report, it highlighted its push into electric vehicles, saying it has sold 61,000 so far this year, an increase of 42 percent. FILE - In this Wednesday, March 21, 2018 file photo, the logo of German car manufacturer BMW is pictured at the headquarters in Munich, Germany. German carmaker BMW reports its second quarter earnings on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, file) Global automakers are spending heavily on new technologies that are changing the ways in which people get around, including ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft and car-sharing. Carmakers are trying to ward off competition from tech companies such as Waymo, which is developing autonomous vehicles. The company said its core business of selling luxury cars remained profitable, citing strong sales of its 1-Series compact car and X1 and X5 sport-utility vehicles. But the automotive profit margin, a key earnings metric, fell from 10.1 percent to 8.6 percent. That still remains within the company's target range of 8-10 percent. The company also took steps during the quarter to grow its business in China, agreeing to expand its joint venture with Brilliance Automotive. It has also agreed on a 50-50 joint venture with Great Wall Motor to make electric Mini compacts there. The company reaffirmed its financial target of unchanged group profit before tax. But investors pushed BMW shares down 2 percent after the announcement, to 79.80 euros. CEO Harald Krueger told journalists on a conference call that the recent agreement on trade between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was a "good step." Trump had threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on imported autos but agreed with Juncker to hold off ahead of further talks. Auto tariffs could have disrupted global automotive supply chains which frequently cross borders. "We have to wait and see how things go in the future," Krueger said. He underlined that BMW remains the largest U.S. auto exporter, shipping SUVs from its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the rest of the world. "The trade situation was certainly volatile. I hope the talks can be carried on in a constructive dialogue." BMW has said it will have to raise prices on U.S.-built vehicles it sends to China after Beijing raised tariffs on cars from the U.S. in retaliation against tariffs imposed by Trump. Krueger noted that BMW in any case produces 80 percent of its Chinese sales locally. The company said it was almost done certifying vehicles under the latest European standards by the Sept. 1 deadline. The new procedures require measuring emissions during real-world driving in addition to testing on stands. That contrasts with the performance of competitors Daimler and Volkswagen, both of whom have warned of production holdups. The real-world tests were instituted by the European Union after Volkswagen's scandal over illegally manipulated diesel emissions drew attention to the fact that other manufacturers' vehicles also emitted more pollution on the road than during tests. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A senior Turkish official accused U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday of jeopardizing the long-standing ties between Turkey and the United States by allowing sanctions on two Turkish ministers over the detention of an American pastor. The Turkish government called on the United States to reverse its decision to subject Turkey's interior and justice ministers to financial sanctions. Ankara also vowed to retaliate for Washington's move, which is aimed at pressuring NATO ally Turkey into releasing Pastor Andrew Brunson. The evangelical pastor originally from North Carolina is on trial in Turkey on espionage and terror-related charges. In this July 25, 2018 photo, Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, arrives at his house in Izmir, Turkey. Brunson, who had been jailed in Turkey for more than one and a half years on terror and espionage charges was released and will be put under house arrest as his trial continues. The White House is announcing that the Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on two Turkish officials over a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul) The sanctions have inflamed already tense relations between the two countries that are allied in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan but can no longer see eye-to-eye over a series of issues, including Washington's support to Syrian Kurdish militia that Ankara considers to be terrorists. Relations have also soured over the recent conviction in the U.S. of a Turkish banker of charges of helping Iran evade sanctions. Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told The Associated Press that Turkey was deliberating possible measures, but wanted to "minimize the damage." "Everyone's very disappointed. Nobody expected this kind of treatment (toward) two Cabinet ministers," Cevik said. "President Trump is taking a very small case and jeopardizing Turkish-American relations and Turkish-American friendship." "What the Turkish side is doing is not burning all the bridges but trying to keep the bridge intact and try to salvage whatever is left of the relations," he added. The White House said the sanctions would target Turkey's justice and interior ministers, the officials Washington held responsible for the pastor's arrest and detention. The Trump administration insists there is no evidence against Brunson and says he is being treated in an "unfair and unjust" manner. "President Trump insults the Turkish judicial system," Cevik said. "He says the pastor is being kept a hostage in Turkey. He is not a hostage - he is under trial in Turkey." Under the sanctions to be imposed by the Treasury Department, any property or interest in property belonging to Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul or Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu within U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked. Americans would generally be prohibited from doing business with them. Berat Albayrak, the Turkish treasury and finance minister and Erdogan's son-in-law, called the sanctions "unacceptable" Thursday, but said they would have "limited" effect on Turkey and its economy. News of the sanctions scared financial markets on Wednesday, causing the Turkish lira to drop to record lows. Soylu on Thursday mocked the sanctions, saying his only asset in the United States is U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016 and wants extradited. Brunson, 50, was arrested in December 2016 following the coup on charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage. He was recently released to home detention due to health reasons. He faces a prison sentence of up to 35 years if he is convicted on both counts at the end of his ongoing trial. The evangelical pastor, who is originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, has lived in Turkey for 23 years and leads the Izmir Resurrection Church. Erdogan has denied speculation that there had been an agreement to swap Brunson for Turkish citizens being held abroad, particularly 27-year-old Ebru Ozkan. Ozkan had been detained by Israel on terror-related charges, but was deported this month. The Turkish leader previously connected Brunson's return to the U.S. to Gulen's extradition. The cleric denies involvement in the coup. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the sanctions against the Turkish minister on his Twitter account, saying Washington's "addiction to sanctions knows no bounds." FILE - In this July 15, 2018 file photo, Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul attends an event on the second anniversary of 2016 failed coup, in Ankara, Turkey. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File) FILE - In this July 15, 2018 file photo, Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and his wife Ilknur Gul attend an event on the second anniversary of 2016 failed coup, in Ankara, Turkey. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Innterior Minister Suleyman Soylu, aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File) Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, center, and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, right, follow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, during a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Soylu, seemingly aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, left, and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, second left, follow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, front, during a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Soylu, seemingly aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) Ministers follow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, front, during a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, seemingly aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, second right, and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, right, stand with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, second left, during a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Soylu, seemingly aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul stands during a ceremony at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, seemingly aimed at pressuring its NATO ally into releasing a detained American pastor who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici) LOS ANGELES (AP) - The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will temporarily suspend the use of the media center's name: The Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center. In a statement Wednesday, Dean Willow Bay says, "In recognition of the sensitivities surrounding recent allegations against Mr. Moonves, he and Ms. Chen have requested that USC Annenberg temporarily suspend use of the media center's name until the investigation concludes." In an article last week in The New Yorker, six women alleged sexual harassment or misconduct by the CBS Corp. CEO between the 1980s and late 2000s. FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2017 file photo, Les Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation, poses at the premiere of the new television series "Star Trek: Discovery" in Los Angeles. Bucknell University has removed references on its website to alumnus and CBS chief executive Moonves amid sexual harassment allegations against him. The New Yorker magazine published the allegations from several women Friday, July 27, 2018. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) Moonves acknowledged making advances that may have made women uncomfortable but said he never misused his position to harm or hinder anyone's career. The state-of-the-art media center's name was changed in 2015 after a pledged gift from CBS, University of Southern California alumna Chen and her husband, Moonves. Moonves' alma mater, Bucknell University, has also removed some references to him on its website. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Scattered protests broke out in several Iranian cities on Thursday over the dramatic drop of the country's currency and other economic problems ahead of the imposition of renewed American sanctions, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported. About 100 people took to the streets in the northern city of Sari, as well as unspecified numbers in the cities of Shiraz, Ahavz and Mashhad, IRNA said. The agency reported all protests had taken place without official permission and were subsequently broken up by police. Authorities said by early evening, all protesters had dispersed. On Tuesday and Wednesday, about 200 people demonstrated in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, IRNA reported. Police said the demonstrators had attempted to damage public buildings but were unable to, IRNA said without providing further details. In videos circulated on social media and purporting to have been taken in the town of Gohardasht, a suburb of Karaj, dozens of demonstrators can be seen in the streets, setting fire to police vehicles and shouting "death to the dictator." Police respond with tear gas. The authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified. The Iranian rial has dropped to a new record low amid growing concerns of renewed American sanctions, due to kick in on Monday. Earlier, Iranian protesters had clashed with police outside parliament as the plunging rial triggered three days of protests last month in Tehran. MADRID (AP) - Spanish taxis have begun Thursday to offer rides after drivers abandoned a six-day long strike against app-based ride-hailing companies like Uber and Cabify that brought cities across the country to standstill. Cab drivers agreed late on Wednesday to end their protests after the Ministry of Development offered to transfer to regional governments the power to curb the number of licenses operated under the private car ride companies. The taxi drivers demand no more than one private driver for every 30 public taxi licenses. The ratio has tilted in recent years as the business of Uber and Cabify grew in Spain's main cities. People walk next to parked taxis blocking main Paseo Castellana avenue in Madrid, Tuesday, July 31, 2018. Traffic is still snarled in some of Spain's biggest cities as striking taxi drivers extend their protest against ride-hailing services. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Stationary white cabs blocked Madrid's Paseo de la Castellana and black-and-yellow vehicles Barcelona's Gran Via for days. Disruptions were specially felt in major airports, train stations and hospitals. BERLIN (AP) - The nationalist Alternative for Germany party distanced itself on Thursday from a member who reportedly described as a "traitor" a leader of a failed 1944 attempt by military officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The daily Die Welt reported that Lars Steinke, head of the party's youth wing in Lower Saxony state, said he posted the comment on his private Facebook page July 29. It said Steinke's post assailed the conspiracy's best-known figure, Col. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and described the plot as "a coward's shameful attempt to save his own skin from the oncoming victor." Stauffenberg and three others were executed shortly after their July 20, 1944 plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb failed. The conspirators, among the most prominent examples of German resistance against the Nazis, are now honored annually on the anniversary of the assassination attempt. In this Oct. 10, 2017 photo Lars Steinke, head of the Lower Saxony state youth wing of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, walks down a street in Osterode, Germany. The nationalist Alternative for Germany party is distancing itself from Steinke who reportedly described Stauffenberg as a "traitor" a leader of a failed 1944 attempt by officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. (Swen Pfoertner/dpa via AP, file) According to Die Welt, Steinke argued that "the war was - contrary to today's propaganda - not a war primarily against Hitler, but against Germany and the German people," and that Stauffenberg was "no hero." Alternative for Germany co-leader Joerg Meuthen said Steinke's comments "are completely unacceptable, show an absurd understanding of history and have absolutely no place" in the party. He said leaders of the party, known by its German acronym AfD, will consider the matter next week. "Stauffenberg is a hero of German history," said fellow leader Alexander Gauland. "Steinke has disqualified himself from AfD. He should be expelled." AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote to enter the German parliament last year on anti-migrant and anti-establishment sentiment. Questionable comments about the Nazi era by prominent members, and the leadership's handling of them, have been a recurring issue for the party. PARIS (AP) - Prominent French rappers Booba and Kaaris were in custody Thursday after video emerged of them fighting in a crowd inside Paris' Orly airport, according to a French prosecutor. Twelve others who were involved in the Wednesday afternoon disruptions that delayed flights were also in custody Thursday morning, official Laure Beccuau told AP. The video that was filmed and posted online by passengers shows multiple men scuffling, throwing punches and then ransacking a Duty Free store in the departure lounge in West Terminal's Hall 1. Booba, who grew up in Boulogne-Billancourt in the outskirts of Paris, is among France's most successful rap artists working today. He lives in Miami but has yet to achieve success on the US market. The fights saw the entourage of Booba pitted against that of his rival and former collaborator Kaaris, according to French media. Booba and Kaaris used to be close friends and collaborated on the hit 2012 track "Kalash." But their relationship soured following the release of the recording, as Booba said he felt his protege didn't support him in a feud with fellow rap musician, Rohff. Booba and Kaaris have since often traded barbs on social media. The 14 people were questioned for the violence by the French border police and held overnight. The body that runs Orly, Aeroports de Paris, told AP Thursday they are filing a complaint against the stars who were heading to Barcelona for a performance. ___ Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin contributed BEIJING (AP) - China's foreign minister said Thursday that U.S. threats to hike tariffs run against the trend toward globalization and will hurt U.S. businesses and consumers. "Well, I should point out that nowadays we live in a globalized world," Wang Yi said while attending a regional meeting in Singapore. "We're not doing 19th century trade," he said. "Goods flow from one country to another along the globalized industrial value chains," he said. "So is the United States trying to put tariffs on its own companies?" China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi pauses before a bilateral meeting with Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Cayetano on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair) China and the U.S. have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each other's goods over complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology. Wang's comments came after the U.S. Trade Representative announced Wednesday it was considering raising import duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods by 25 percent instead of the previously planned 10 percent. That reflected American frustration that Beijing retaliated by raising its own duties on U.S. imports in response to tariff hikes on Chinese goods over complaints the communist government steals or pressures companies to hand over technology Wang said Beijing recognizes that the U.S. side was trying to put pressure on China. "But we don't think such an approach will work," he said. "We hope that the trade policy makers in the United States will be cool-headed and listen to the voice of U.S. consumers and pay high attention to the voice of the American business community ..." he said, noting that higher tariffs will add to costs for U.S. companies operating in China and for consumers. In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said Beijing was open to dialogue but gave no indication about the status of possible negotiations. "Our door for dialogue is always open. But dialogue must be based on mutual respect, equality, rules and credibility," said Geng. "Now, the US coerces and pressures others unilaterally. It will only be counterproductive." ___ Liang reported from Singapore. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Three foreign workers were abducted and killed in Kabul on Thursday, their bodies later found in one of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods, officials said. Meanwhile, a Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan left three policemen dead. It was not known who was behind the Kabul abductions and killing and no militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault. Kabul police chief's spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzia, said the bodies were left in Mussahi, a volatile area of the Afghan capital. The police were investigating. According to police officer Jan Aga, the three worked as cooks at the Kabul airport and were of Indian, Malaysian and Macedonian nationality. No further details were immediately available. And in northern Balkh province, the Taliban attacked a police outpost on Wednesday night, killing three local policemen and wounding four others in Chamtal district, said Sher Jan Durani, the province's chief police spokesman. At least 10 Taliban fighters were also killed in the gunbattle that broke out, he said. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban. Elsewhere in Kabul province, an Afghan army helicopter crash landed on a river dam due to a technical malfunction on Thursday, killing the pilot and lightly injuring five other officers on board, according to Mohammad Radmanish, the Defense Ministry's spokesman. The crash landing took place Thursday in the district of Surobi, he said. MADRID (AP) - Hot air from Africa is bringing a new heatwave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that are forecast to peak at 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) in some southern areas. The torrid weather meant that public services were put on alert in Spain and Portugal. Temperatures were forecast to reach 44 degrees (111 Fahrenheit) Thursday in the Portuguese city of Evora, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of the capital of Lisbon, and in the Spanish province of Badajoz, across the border. A hot air mass was moving northward from Africa, authorities said, warning that the mercury could peak at 47 degrees Celsius this weekend in the southern Portuguese town of Beja. People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) Portuguese authorities issued a nationwide health warning, including for dust from the Sahara Desert. Warnings were also issued for 40 of Spain's 50 provinces. Up north in Sweden, the country's official tallest point is set to change amid record temperatures. Scientists said a glacier on Mount Kebne, the Scandinavian country's highest peak at 2,111 meters (6,925 feet, 10 inches), is melting and is no longer Sweden's tallest point. Gunhild Rosqvist, a Stockholm University professor in geography, said the glacier lost four meters (13 feet, 2 inches) of snow in July alone as Sweden endured record temperatures that triggered dozens of wildfires, even in the Arctic Circle. In neighboring Finland, a supermarket came up with a novel way of escaping the heat. The K-Supermarket said on its Facebook page that patrons hoping to cool down could sleep overnight in its air-conditioned store in Helsinki. Homes in Finland are designed to handle the extreme cold and damp typical of the Nordic region, not the recent high temperatures. In eastern Europe, Poland endured unusually high temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit), forcing its power plants to go into emergency mode to increase output due to the wide use of air conditioning and electric fans. In the streets of Warsaw, the Polish capital, authorities placed cooling water installations around and advised people to stay indoors. Dozens of the country's Baltic Sea beaches have "no swimming" warnings due to health risks from algae blooms. Farmers across the continent were battling the effects of drought, so the European Union offered to speed up funds to help them cope. German farmers have already asked their government for 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in financial aid to help cover losses from this year's poor harvest. ____ AP correspondents across Europe contributed to this report. People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A boy somersaults into the sea at a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A woman looks out from a balcony as the sun sets at the end of a hot summer day in Madrid, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Potatoes are harvested on a dry acre in Frankfurt, Germany, on a hot and sunny Thursday, Aug.2, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Harvest helpers harvest potatoes on a dry acre in Frankfurt, Germany, on a hot and sunny Thursday, Aug.2, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Rainbows are seen over Frankfurt, Germany, late Tuesday, July 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Harvest helpers harvest potatoes on a dry acre in Frankfurt, Germany, on a hot and sunny Thursday, Aug.2, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) People exercise on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A woman seated at a bar cools off with a fan during a hot summer day, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) EDS NOTE : SPANISH LAW REQUIRES THAT THE FACES OF MINORS ARE MASKED IN PUBLICATIONS WITHIN SPAIN. People practice rowing in the Arga River during a hot summer day, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2018.( Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) A worker of Spanish Post Office walks past between the shadow and sun light while checking an a street address of the old city during a hot summer day, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss police say five fans of Greek club PAOK Thessaloniki were hurt in an attack by local hooligans at a hotel in Basel. The incident on Wednesday came hours before Thessaloniki beat FC Basel 3-0 in a Champions League qualifying match, eliminating the Swiss team 5-1 on aggregate. City police said on Thursday about 20 men, some of them with Basel flags, used unspecified objects to attack about 50 fans of the Greek team who were in and outside a hotel lobby. Four men and a 15-year-old girl were hurt, and one of them had to be taken to a hospital. The assailants fled the scene. Police appealed to the public to come forward with any photos or video recordings. BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 4:30 p.m. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the United States and the West could do more to help rebuild war-torn Syria to improve the lives of refugees there. FILE - In this Thursday, July 26, 2018 file photo, Syrian soldiers arrive to Syria's Quneitra border crossing between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to Syria says Iran-backed fighters have withdrawn more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Syria's frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in order not to "irritate" Israel. Alexander Lavrentyev told the Russian Interfax news agency on Wednesday, Aug. 1, that an agreement was reached "with Russian guarantees," without elaborating. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File) Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Singapore, Lavrov said the U.S. and the EU are only willing to provide "basic humanitarian aid" in Syria, the state news agency reported. But Lavrov lamented that the U.S. is "is very cautious about reconstructing infrastructure facilities" in Syria. Such an effort is necessary to encourage people to resettle the areas, he said. Lavrov added that such an approach "will only punish people" living in government-controlled areas and those wanting to return to their homes. ___ 2:50 p.m. Israel's defense minister says the situation on the border with Syria has reverted to the way it was "before the civil war" now that Syrian government forces have recaptured the area. Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile battery in northern Israel on Thursday after Russia said it reached an agreement to keep Iranian forces 80 kilometers, or about 50 miles, away from the Syrian-Israeli frontier. Lieberman said that Israel had "no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory" if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement, and as long as Syria doesn't become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. ___ 2:05 p.m. The Israeli military says it targeted and killed seven "armed terror operatives" who had crossed into Israeli territory in the southern Golan Heights. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said on Thursday that Israel tracked the armed persons approaching the border on Wednesday night and a military aircraft struck as they attempted to cross a security fence on the Israeli size of the frontier. A subsequent search of the area yielded several assault rifles and explosives. He said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. The military troops were on "high alert and readiness" following the airstrike in the southern Golan Heights. The army's announcement came shortly after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile defense battery in northern Israel during a military preparedness drill. ___ 1:55 p.m. Russia's Defense Ministry says United Nations peacekeepers have returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for first time in years. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff says the U.N. peacekeepers, aided by Russian forces, conducted their first patrolling mission in the area on Thursday. Rudskoy talked to reporters at a press conference in Moscow. The peacekeeping mission was halted in 2014 amid the violence in Syrian's civil war. 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 LONDON (AP) - The president of one of the U.K.'s main Jewish groups called Thursday on the leader of the Labour Party to make an "abject apology" to British Jews for allowing anti-Semitism to fester in the left-of-center opposition party. Allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice within Labour have grown since veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015. Some in the party allege that Corbyn, a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, has allowed anti-Semitic abuse to go unchecked. Corbyn apologized this week for the "concerns and anxiety" caused before he became Labour's leader when, as a pro-Palestinian activist, he shared platforms with people "whose views I completely reject." FILE - In this file photo dated Monday, April 23, 2018, Britain's opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, after a Memorial Service to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London. The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl Tweeted Thursday Aug. 2, 2018, that Corbyn must make an "abject apology" to British Jews for allowing anti-Semitism to fester in the left-of-center party. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE) But Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl tweeted that Corbyn was "hiding behind a half-hearted 'apology' no doubt crafted by his spin-doctors." "Jeremy Corbyn needs to stop hiding & make an abject apology to UK Jews in his own voice," she wrote. The long-simmering dispute inside Labour recently boiled over after the party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differed from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The alliance says it is anti-Semitic to accuse Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than to their home countries, an example omitted from Labour's definition. The alliance also says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis, a view Labour did not endorse. Corbyn also has received personal criticism for his past appearances alongside alleged anti-Semites and for some of his statements, including a 2010 speech in which he compared Israel's blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany's sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during World War II. Labour's leadership is facing pressure to expel Peter Willsman, a party official who accused Jewish "Trump fanatics" of stirring up controversy around anti-Semitism. BEIRUT (AP) - U.N. peacekeepers returned Thursday for the first time in years to the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, conducting joint patrols with Russian military police in a reflection of Moscow's deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes in the volatile region. Israel has increasingly sought Russia's involvement in securing its frontier with Syria and in scaling back Iran's influence in the area. Moscow, Damascus's weightiest ally, has in turn sought coordination with Israel as a bridge with Washington in dealing with Syria's complex war. Israel considers Iran's growing influence in Syria - it has advisers and allied militias fighting alongside Syrian troops- as an existential threat and had looked for guarantees from Moscow to push pro-Iran fighters away from its frontiers. Col.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian Military General Staff speaks to the media as a screen shows the map of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Li bacon including Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Russia says UN peacekeepers return to frontier between Syria, Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for first time in years. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff said conditions have been created for the resumption of U.N. peacekeeping patrols along the area separating Syria and Israel. The U.N. peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 following an agreement to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. Rudskoy said Russian military police have accompanied the peacekeepers on patrols, adding that eight Russian-manned observation points opposite the U.N. points will be set up "to rule out possible provocations." When the situation stabilizes, Rudskoy said, the Russian-manned posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces. Israel acknowledged a return to normalcy along the frontier. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the situation on the Syrian side of the boundary had returned to its pre-2011 state after Syrian government forces, supported by Russia's military, regained control of the region from armed opposition that controlled since 2014. Lieberman said Israel will have "no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory" if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two sides - and as long as Syria doesn't become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The area, peaceful for decades since the agreement, became a fighting ground at the height of the Syrian civil war, finally pushing the U.N. peacekeeping force out in 2014 after al-Qaida militants kidnapped 45 U.N. peacekeepers. They were released two weeks later. The area had become particularly volatile in recent weeks amid a Syrian government offensive to retake territories controlled by the opposition adjacent to the frontier. Israel has also upped its strikes against suspected Iranian targets inside Syria. Late Thursday, Syrian media reported that its defenses foiled a "hostile attack" west of the capital Damascus. It didn't specify the target or the attacker but it has previously blamed Israel. A day before the joint Russia-U.N. patrols, Russia announced it reached an agreement with Israel to keep pro-Iranian fighters 85 kilometers (53 miles) from the volatile frontier. It was the first publicized results of Russian mediation. Russian officials announced that Moscow gave Israel guarantees that that zone would be clear of pro-Iranian fighters. Russia had warned it would be unrealistic to expect Iran to fully withdraw from Syria. During their summit in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump said they were exploring ways to protect Israel from the war in Syria. They didn't elaborate but later Putin said he agreed with Trump on securing Israel's border with Syria in line with the 1974 deal. A week later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to Jerusalem where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in talks that focused on the Iranian presence in Syria. Netanyahu stressed the "extraordinarily important" link between the two countries. The two sides discussed a Russian proposal that would see any forces linked to Iran distanced some 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from the Golan Heights. Reflecting the tension along the frontier, Israel's military said Thursday that its aircraft fired on "several armed terror operatives in the southern Syrian Golan Heights" overnight and that troops were on high alert. Israel's military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a telephone briefing with reporters that he could not immediately comment on the U.N. deployment on the Syrian side of the border. Conricus said the Israeli military targeted with a military aircraft and killed seven "armed terror operatives" who had attempted to cross into Israeli territory late Wednesday. He said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. Israeli troops were on "high alert and readiness" following the strike. The army's announcement came shortly after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile defense battery in northern Israel during a military preparedness drill. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Nuriel, former head of the Counterterror Bureau at Israel's Prime Minister's office, said Israel should be on alert in the area because Syrian government troops "from now and a year from now, they will not be able to control those who are trying to attack the State of Israel from that border." He said Israel will not accept any changes to the 1974 deal or the presence of any Syrian troops or allied militias inside the disengagement zone. In Amman, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the Syrian government has not officially requested the opening of the Syria-Jordan border after government forces recaptured its side of a crossing from rebels last month. Jordan has been in discussions with Russian authorities, Safadi said, and will respond to Syria's request "positively" in a way that supports Jordanian and Syrian interests. ___ Danilova contributed from Moscow. Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Philip Issa in Beirut, and Alice Su in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report. LONDON (AP) - British police sent two garbage bins to a defense research laboratory Thursday for testing as they probed the nerve-agent poisoning that killed one British woman and sickened her partner. London's Metropolitan Police force said the trash cans were removed from behind shops in the city of Salisbury, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London. The move follows conversations between detectives and 45-year-old Charlie Rowley, who is recovering from the June poisoning. His partner Dawn Sturgess, 44, died on July 8, just over a week after the pair were exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. British police think the couple accidently found and handled a bottle containing the military-grade nerve agent. Rowley has told broadcaster ITV that Sturgess sprayed an oily liquid from the bottle on her wrists, thinking it was perfume, and collapsed minutes later. He said he got some of the substance on his hands but washed it off fairly quickly. The same Soviet-developed toxin was used to attack former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March. They spent weeks hospitalized in critical condition and are now recovering in a secret location for their own protection. Britain blames the Russian government for the attack on the Skripals, a claim Moscow denies. Their poisoning ignited a diplomatic confrontation in which hundreds of envoys were expelled by both Russia and Western nations. WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - The elderly Catholic priest who was assaulted and doused in wine inside his church is out of the intensive care unit. News outlets report the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington released a statement Wednesday updating Rev. William Graney's condition. New Castle County police have charged 25-year-old Joshua August with assault after a worker at Resurrection Parish said she saw him punch, kick and beat Graney with the wine bottle Monday. He is also accused of spraying compressed air into Graney's mouth. Bishop W. Francis Malooly's statement says Graney had been trying to help the "troubled, homeless man" for a while. Court documents say August became upset over "weed that he wanted back" and "wanted to kill" Graney. A member of August's family previously told The Associated Press they had no comment. MADRID (AP) - The Latest on the heatwave in Europe (all times local): 4:15 p.m. A supermarket chain in Finland is inviting customers to spend the night at its air-conditioned store in Helsinki as Europe suffers through a heatwave. Rainbows are seen over Frankfurt, Germany, late Tuesday, July 31, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) K-Supermarket said on its Facebook page that patrons hoping to cool down could stay overnight at the northern Helsinki branch on Saturday and also get supper and breakfast on request. Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat quoted operations manager Marika Lindfors saying the idea for the sleepover came from customers who "told me half-jokingly that it'd be a great thing to be able to sleep at a cool supermarket." Lindfors said: "We always try to respond to client feedback, so why not here, too?" Apartments and homes in Finland are equipped to deal with the extreme cold and damp typical of the Nordic region, but few have air conditioning. Much of Europe is experiencing weeks of unusually hot weather. ___ This item has been updated to correct spelling of supermarket manager's name on second reference. ___ 2:20 p.m. The European Union is offering to speed up funds for farmers to help them cope with the effects of drought across the continent. The EU's executive Commission said Thursday that farmers could obtain at least 70 percent of their rural development funds from mid-October instead of December, so they can deal with any cash flow problems. The EU is also easing conditions that some farmers must meet to access money. In some cases, land required to be kept fallow and not used for production may be used grow animal feed. At least eight of the 28 member countries have appealed for flexibility in the application of Europe's crop diversification and environment rules due to the adverse weather. ___ 10:40 a.m. Hot air from Africa is bringing a new heatwave to Europe, prompting health warnings about Sahara Desert dust and exceptionally high temperatures that are forecast to peak at 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 Fahrenheit) in some southern areas. The torrid weather meant public services were put on alert in the Iberian peninsula, where temperatures were forecast to reach 44 degrees (111 Fahrenheit) Thursday in the Portuguese city of Evora, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Lisbon and the Spanish province of Badajoz across the border. A hot air mass was moving northward from Africa, authorities said, warning that the mercury could peak at 47 degrees Celsius this weekend in some areas of southern Portugal. Portuguese authorities issued a nationwide health warning, including for dust from the Sahara Desert. Warnings were also issued for 40 of Spain's 50 provinces. The southeastern Portuguese town of Beja is expected to see a peak of 47 degrees C on Saturday. ___ 10:40 a.m. Sweden's official tallest point is set to change amid record summer temperatures. Scientists said a glacier on Kebnekaise mountain, the Scandinavian country's highest peak at 2,111 meters (6,925 feet, 10 inches), is melting and is no longer Sweden's tallest point. Gunhild Rosqvist, a Stockholm University professor in geography, said the glacier lost four meters (13 feet, 2 inches) of snow in July alone as Sweden endured record temperatures that triggered dozens of wildfires, even in the Arctic Circle. In eastern Europe, Poland was also enduring unusually high temperatures as the hot African air pushed temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit). The country's power plants went into emergency mode to increase output due to wide use of air conditioning and electric fans. Authorities in Warsaw placed cooling water installations in the streets and advised people to stay indoors. Dozens of Baltic Sea beaches have "no swimming" warnings due to health risks from algae blooms. Harvest helpers harvest potatoes on a dry acre in Frankfurt, Germany, on a hot and sunny Thursday, Aug.2, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Harvest helpers harvest potatoes on a dry acre in Frankfurt, Germany, on a hot and sunny Thursday, Aug.2, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) A woman seated at a bar cools off with a fan during a hot summer day, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) A woman looks out from a balcony as the sun sets at the end of a hot summer day in Madrid, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A boy somersaults into the sea at a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) People exercise on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) People sunbathe on a beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Much of Spain is on alert as the country's weather agency warns that temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) due to a hot air mass moving northward from the African continent. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) People cool off as they walk along the fountain of Warsaw near Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug, 1, 2018. Temperatures in Paris are forecast to reach 3O degrees C (86 F) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) People cool off under showers at Paris Plage along the Seine River in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Temperatures in Paris are forecast to reach 3O degrees C (86 F) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Children cool off at the fountain of Warsaw near Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug, 1, 2018. Temperatures in Paris are forecast to reach 3O degrees C (86 F) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) People rest along the Seine river in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. Temperatures in Paris are forecast to reach 3O degrees C (86 F) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The mother of a missing Iowa college student pleaded Thursday with anyone who may know the whereabouts of her daughter, and begged for any potential kidnapper to let her go, noting the reward for her safe return had ballooned to $172,000 Laura Calderwood said during a news conference that she believes her daughter, 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, is alive but has potentially been kidnapped. She also announced the new reward amount, which spiked from $2,000 offered earlier this week after donations poured in from across the nation. Tibbetts' disappearance has baffled investigators since she went missing more than two weeks ago. Calderwood said the money would be paid to anyone who provides information that leads to her daughter's safe return. This undated photo released by the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation shows Mollie Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student who was reported missing from her hometown in the eastern Iowa city of Brooklyn on Thursday, July 19, 2018. Investigators say they have concluded that a woman spotted in northwest Missouri was not Tibbetts. Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Mike Krapfl confirmed Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 that the reported sighting of Mollie Tibbetts wasn't substantiated and has been ruled out by investigators. (Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation via AP) "If someone has abducted her, we are pleading with you to please release her," Calderwood said. "It is our greatest hope that if someone has her, that they would just release her and claim that money we have raised for her freedom." Tibbetts was last seen on the evening of July 18, when she went for a routine jog in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, a town of about 1,400 people in central Iowa. She was dog-sitting that evening for her boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother, who were out of town, at a home where she was living this summer after completing her second year at the University of Iowa. Tibbetts was reported missing the next morning when she didn't show up for work at a daycare in a nearby town. The FBI and dozens of investigators from state and local agencies are working on the case but have so far hit dead ends . The latest came Thursday, when police confirmed that a possible sighting of Tibbetts at a Missouri truck stop turned out not to be her. Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa spokesman Greg Willey promised to protect the anonymity of tipsters who call in or submit tips online, saying the group uses software that scrubs identifying information. He said the group exists for people who cannot come forward to police, including those who are guilty or involved in a crime. Mollie's father, Rob Tibbetts, praised the investigation, saying it has been large, sophisticated, aggressive and sensitive to the family. But he said he believes the case will be solved by someone who comes forward with new information. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Come forward, bring information to the authorities, and let's bring Mollie home," he said. PARIS (AP) - The August sun sparkles on the Seine River beyond the imposing Eiffel Tower. But the many visitors who descended on the beloved Paris monument Thursday at the peak of the summer tourist season had their hopes of climbing it thwarted. Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the landmark's new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues. Tourists walk past the Eiffel Tower, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 in Paris. The visitors descending on the Eiffel Tower at the peak of the August tourist season are voicing frustration that the beloved Paris monument is closed. Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues.(AP Photo/Michel Euler) Yet for many visitors whose stay is limited, long queues are better than no access at all. German tourist Nico Schulze Bilk, who had planned his visit to Paris eight months ago, voiced frustration. "This is my first time in Paris and I was really excited to see the Eiffel Tower and ... the city from the top, but now it is closed," he said. "I'm a little bit disappointed." Caroline Brawand, who was visiting with her family from Switzerland, had planned to share the magical view with her daughter for the first time. "We are very let down, because we booked one month in advance to go up to the last floor of the Eiffel Tower," she said. "At the same time we understand the employees who explained to us the state of the queues." Since last month, the Eiffel Tower has been allowing half of its tickets to be booked in advance for scheduled entry times. Previously, pre-booked tickets accounted for around one-fifth of the entries. But unions that represent the tower's some 300 employees complain that since different ticketholders are now being allocated separate elevators, this has created "monstrous" waiting times and management has not listened to their concerns. "There have been days with three-hour-long queues. Some elderly people fainted," said Eiffel Tower union representative Denis Vavassori. "We are exhausted and we do not want to relive that in August." The Eiffel Tower sees some six million visitors a year but has been beset by multiple strikes and security issues in recent years. "This strike will continue until we will reach an agreement to reopen the Eiffel Tower and welcome our visitors under the best possible conditions," Vavassori said. Tourists stand under the Eiffel Tower, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 in Paris. The visitors descending on the Eiffel Tower at the peak of the August tourist season are voicing frustration that the beloved Paris monument is closed. Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues.(AP Photo/Michel Euler) Tourists walk under the Eiffel Tower Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 in Paris. The visitors descending on the Eiffel Tower at the peak of the August tourist season are voicing frustration that the beloved Paris monument is closed. Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues.(AP Photo/Michel Euler) Tourists walk away from the Eiffel Tower Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 in Paris. The visitors descending on the Eiffel Tower at the peak of the August tourist season are voicing frustration that the beloved Paris monument is closed. Since Wednesday, Eiffel Tower workers have been on strike over the new visitor access policy, which they say is responsible for inordinately long queues.(AP Photo/Michel Euler) People cool off as they walk along the fountain of Warsaw near Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug, 1, 2018. Temperatures in Paris are forecast to reach 3O degrees C (86 F) on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence, following up on their Singapore summit, came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization. Trump early Thursday tweeted his thanks to the North Korean leader "for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!" The White House did not provide details on the specific content of the letter from Kim, received Wednesday, or of Trump's reply. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the letters addressed their commitment to work toward North Korea's "complete denuclearization." FILE - In this June. 12, 2018, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, in Singapore. The White House says President Donald Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday following up on their Singapore summit. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Sanders said no second meeting is "locked in" as a follow-up to the Singapore summit in June, but they remain open to discussions. Trump in his tweet expressed gratitude to Kim "for keeping your word" on the return of the remains of more than 50 American service members killed during the Korean War. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. military leaders received the remains in Hawaii during a somber ceremony on Wednesday. The latest letter from Kim arrived on the heels of concerns over North Korea's ballistic missile program and commitment to denuclearization. Senior Trump administration officials have urged patience, cautioning that the process of denuclearizing North Korea and removing the threat of its long-range missiles will take time. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was headed to an Asian security meeting in Singapore, where a meeting this weekend with North Korea's foreign minister was possible. Trump has sought to show progress from his June 12 summit with Kim. He said during a Tuesday rally in Tampa, Florida, that the U.S. was "doing well" with North Korea and noted the return of detained Americans and Pyongyang's ceasing of nuclear testing and missile tests. "A lot of good things are happening. No tests. No rockets flying. But we'll see what happens," Trump said. U.S. officials have been closely watching North Korea's willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that U.S. intelligence officials suspect that North Korea is continuing to build new missiles in the same research facility that manufactured the country's ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. The Post also reported that North Korean officials have talked about how they plan to deceive the U.S. about the size of their arsenal of missiles and nuclear warheads and facilities. __ On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Terrie White was happy as a retired teacher in western Kentucky who did not follow the news. But that was before a bill popped up in the state legislature that would have reduced the cost-of-living raises for her pension. Now, as Kentucky politicians prepare to launch their fall campaigns at the annual Fancy Farm picnic, White is preparing a launch of her own. She has ordered T-shirts, organized logistics and recruited others for what could be the largest teacher protest since spring, when thousands marched on the state Capitol. "I've sat back and didn't do anything," she said. "I've vowed to not let that happen again." This April 13, 2018 file photo shows teachers from across Kentucky at the state Capitol to rally for increased funding and to protest changes to their state funded pension system,in Frankfort, Ky. Some teachers in Kentucky plan to use a popular political picnic to launch a Fall offensive on the midterm elections. Leaders of the group #120Strong say they expect as many as 200 people to attend the Fancy Farm picnic on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File) As Republicans in Congress prepare for a possible backlash this fall against President Donald Trump, their counterparts in the Kentucky legislature are grappling with a similar threat from the state's teachers and public workers. The Republican-controlled legislature put billions of more dollars in the state retirement systems, but made some changes late in the session that prompted protests. The spring teacher protest shuttered more than 30 school districts across Kentucky and pressured lawmakers to remove some of the most hated proposals from a pension bill that would have removed cost-of-living raises. In May, a high school math teacher who had never run for office defeated the state House majority leader in a Republican primary. Now with at least 34 current and former educators on the ballot in November, teachers are preparing to launch their fall offensive Saturday at the annual Fancy Farm picnic. It's the traditional start of Kentucky's general election campaigns, where candidates for both parties share the stage before hundreds of hecklers in matching T-shirts, all being broadcast live on statewide television. "We want them to see us. We want them to know our faces and to know that we still are angry," said Nema Brewer, who works for the Fayette County school system and is a co-founder of #120strong. The group, whose name refers to Kentucky's 120 counties, says it could have up to 200 people at the picnic along with a red "moving truck" offering to help state lawmakers clean out their offices. Republican leaders dismiss the protests as noise from a small, but loud, minority of voters. They point to the GOP's impressive gains in voter registration, with Democrats now accounting for less than 50 percent of all registered voters. "I just don't see what having a bunch of screaming, angry people, how that classifies as momentum," state Senate Republican Leader Damon Thayer said. Blake Brickman, chief of staff for Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, said teachers should be angry at past Democratic leaders for not fully funding the pension system. "Gov. Bevin is the only governor in recent history to fully fund the pension system," he said. Although Fancy Farm could be the teachers' biggest show of force since their protests at the Capitol in March and April, the group hasn't been quiet since then. They have used social media to organize more protests at fundraisers for Republican candidates. In June, about 20 teachers demonstrated outside an Italian restaurant in Ashland that was hosting a fundraiser for Republican state Senate candidate Scott Sharp. And last week, Republican state Senate candidate Robby Mills decided to move his fundraiser from a restaurant in Henderson after the owners were worried about how planned protests could affect their business. The protests have unnerved Republicans, who have condemned them for hurting local businesses. In a news release earlier this week, the Republican Party of Kentucky lumped the protests in with other reported acts of vandalism, including a broken window at the Fayette County Republican Party headquarters and smashed mailbox at the home of Republican state Senate candidate Matt Castlen. "Something has come unglued on the left-hand side of the aisle and they need to get their people in order," GOP spokesman Tres Watson said. Brewer said her group did not vandalize property and never would. "They are trying to dismiss us as some radical group, which really isn't true," Brewer said. "If they won't look us in the eye at the Capitol during business hours, we'll come to them in fundraisers and ask them, 'Hey, why did you do this?'" Candidates are approaching the protests carefully. Sharp delivered pizza to the protesters at his fundraiser. Mills criticized the protests on social media, but said in an interview the teacher opposition is not to be taken lightly. "My political sense tells me that they could have a little bit of an effect," he said. "I think in all races they could have an effect." White said teachers can't go to the state Capitol every day, but "we were there when it mattered." "And we'll be there again," she said. UPPER LAKE, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on wildfires raging in California (all times local): 9:10 p.m. Authorities have ordered more evacuations in Northern California as fires continue to advance. CORRECTS TO SUZIE SCATENA FROM SUZIE SCALENE - Carol Smith, far right in blue, her daughter Suzie Scatena, third from right, and husband Tim, third from left, tour their fire-ravaged neighborhood along with support crews Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Redding, Calif. The Smith's home of 30 years was destroyed by a wildfire. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) The orders were issued Thursday night for an area along the boundary of Mendocino National Forest and along portions of the border between Lake and Colusa counties. The fires north of San Francisco have destroyed 16 homes and are threatening more than 8,000 buildings. State fire officials say the fires are in rugged terrain and continue to grow. KCRA-TV reports that about 14,000 people are under evacuation orders. The week-old fires have blackened more than 195 square miles (125,000 acres or 506 square kilometers). The fires are 39 percent contained but the U.S. Forest Service says they continue to grow rapidly thanks to hot, dry, windy weather and an abundance of tinder-dry brush. ___ 7:50 p.m. Australia and New Zealand are sending firefighters to the United States to battle wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington state. New South Wales state Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons was at the Sydney Airport to bid farewell to 40 members of his service who are among more than 100 due to leave Australia on Friday to spend up to six weeks in the United States. The New South Wales government says 188 from Australia and New Zealand will join the fight against wildfires blazing in the American West. Several rural areas in New South Wales have declared wildfire danger season has started two months early due to extraordinary drought conditions during the current Southern Hemisphere winter. ___ 12:15 p.m. Some people in Northern California are returning to their neighborhoods to find their homes reduced to rubble and with signs that warn them of hazardous materials. Carol Smith says going back Thursday to her neighborhood in the hills above Redding was overwhelming. She says she has lived in that neighborhood with her 80-year-old husband for 29 years. Standing before mangled melted metal and piles of bricks, the 77-year-old says they are not sure they will rebuild. The couple were met at their home by disaster relief volunteers who gave them hugs as they stood on the sidewalk staring in disbelief at what's left of their house. ___ 10:50 a.m. The last remaining evacuation orders have been lifted for communities around an arson-caused wildfire in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains. The so-called Cranston Fire is more than 90 percent contained Thursday after scorching more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) in the area around the town of Idyllwild and other small communities. The fire erupted July 25 and chased thousands from their homes. A dozen structures including homes were destroyed, five others were damaged and three firefighters suffered injuries. A 32-year-old man is charged with starting the fire and eight other blazes in the region about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of Los Angeles ___ 9:45 a.m. A new blaze in north-central Oregon nearly tripled in size overnight. The fire near the town of Dufur, about two hours southeast of Portland, spread to more than 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) early Thursday. The Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office says dozens of structures are threatened - some have burned - and at least 400 people have been told to evacuate. The fire, caused by humans rather than lightning, began Wednesday afternoon. By nightfall, Gov. Kate Brown declared it a conflagration, which authorizes the fire marshal to mobilize state-wide resources. It's the third major wildfire in the area this summer. One scorched 125 square miles (323 square kilometers) and killed a man. After an unusually warm July, firefighters caught a break with cooler temperatures Thursday. ___ 7:15 a.m. Fire officials say a massive blaze in Northern California that has killed six people and torched more than 1,000 homes grew overnight, fueled by wind. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday firefighters made some gains and the blaze is now a third contained. The fire burning for 11 days in and around the city of Redding is now 200 square miles (518 square kilometers). It is now the sixth most destructive wildfire in California history and is threatening another 1,600 homes. Fire crews battling another two wildfires burning 170 miles (273 kilometers) southwest of Redding made some progress thanks to increase humidity overnight. CalFire says the blazes about 14 miles (22 kilometers) apart are threatening 12,000 homes. Firefighters increased containment of those fires to almost 40 percent. ___ 6:45 a.m. Wildfires scorching Northern California from the Gold Country to the fringes of Yosemite National Park are also burning through California's firefighting budget. At least $125 million has been spent just a month into the state budget year. State fire spokesman Mike Mohler says that's more than a quarter of the state's annual fire budget. More than 13,000 firefighters are battling fires with the help of crews from as far away as Florida. Gov. Jerry Brown repeated predictions from fire officials that California can expect a future of devastating fires, in part because of the changing climate. The largest blaze burned in the Redding area, in Shasta County north of Sacramento. Six people, including two firefighters, have died and the fire has destroyed 1,058 homes and nearly 500 other buildings, including barns and warehouses. That makes it the sixth most destructive wildfire in California history. ___ Follow AP's wildfire coverage here: https://apnews.com/tag/Wildfires Tim Smith, at right, gets a first look at his wildfire-ravaged home alongside his daughter, Suzie Scatena, center, and aid worker Deborah Coombs Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) BERLIN (AP) - German authorities have arrested a Sri Lankan man suspected of involvement in killing captured government soldiers as a member of the Tamil Tigers rebel group a decade ago. Federal prosecutors said a judge ordered Thursday the 36-year-old, identified only as Sivatheeban B. because of German privacy rules, detained pending a potential indictment. He was arrested Wednesday in the Duesseldorf area, suspected of committing war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors say he belonged to the Tamil Tigers from 2006-2009. They allege that, in 2008, he tied up 16 soldiers and guarded them as they were driven to a site where they were shot. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when government forces defeated the rebels, who fought to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils. SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni medical officials said the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels conducted airstrikes in the rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Thursday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 70. But the coalition denied carrying out any attacks in the city. The airstrikes took place close to the city's main public hospital, al-Thawra, and near a popular fish market, the officials said. The wounded, mostly civilians, were hospitalized. The medical officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Rebel-run Al Masirah TV reported that airstrikes killed 52 people and left more than 100 wounded. The coalition's spokesman, Col. Turki al-Malki, told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news channel that it didn't carry out any attacks on Hodeida and blamed the attacks on the rebels, known as Houthis. He said the coalition "follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules international law." Ahmed Yehia, who witnessed the attack, said body parts were scattered in the area of the strike. "There is a pond of blood outside the hospital's building," he said. The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognized government has sought to expand control over rebel-held areas along Yemen's west coast, particularly in the vital Red Sea port city of Hodeida, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine. The coalition has been at war with the Iran-aligned Houthis since March 2015. U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has held talks with both sides in recent weeks in the hopes of preventing a full-scale coalition assault on Hodeida. He has been pushing to bring the warring parties to restart peace talks. Yemen's government maintains that the rebels' "unconditional withdrawal" from Hodeida is key to restarting the talks. Houthis have long refused to hand over the city. Later on Thursday, Griffiths announced plans to invite Yemen's warring parties to Geneva on Sept. 6 to hold the first round of consultations. He said on his official Twitter account that the consultations "will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward." The three-year stalemated war has killed over 10,000 people, badly damaged Yemen's infrastructure and crippled its health system. The country is now in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance. BEIJING (AP) - Starbucks and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced a coffee delivery venture on Thursday, joining the growing competition in China's booming delivery industry. Starbucks Coffee Co. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said the venture starts next month in Beijing and Shanghai. It will expand to 30 cities by the end of the year. Starbucks joins a booming Chinese delivery industry for goods ranging from clothes to groceries to cooked food. In this photo taken Wednesday, May 16, 2018, a woman hands over a watch to a man outside a Starbucks outlet under construction in Beijing, China. Starbucks and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced a coffee delivery venture on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, that adds to growing competition in China's booming delivery industry. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Its venture with Alibaba mimics Luckin Coffee, a Chinese upstart that opened this year and is challenging Starbucks by delivering coffee ordered over a mobile phone app. "In some ways this is rocket fuel for our digital flywheel strategy in China," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said at a press conference in Shanghai . Starbucks, which opened its first mainland China location in 1999, has 3,400 outlets in 140 Chinese cities but faces intense competition. The company said in its latest quarterly results Chinese sales declined 2 percent. Alibaba is the world's biggest e-commerce company by total value of the merchandise sold across its platforms. The bulk of those sales are business-to-business, but the company is increasingly expanding into consumer-oriented services. The companies said their partnership will give Starbucks access to Alibaba's consumer platforms including food delivery service Ele.me and online supermarket Hema. "We are breaking the physical and virtual barriers between the home, office, in-store and digital space," the CEO of Starbucks China, Belinda Wong, said in a statement. FILE - In this May 27, 2016, file photo, a woman rides a bike past the company logo outside the Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. Starbucks and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced a coffee delivery venture on Thursday that adds to growing competition in China's booming delivery industry. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) In this photo taken Wednesday, May 16, 2018, foreigners walk past a man and woman outside a Starbucks outlet under construction in Beijing, China. Starbucks and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced a coffee delivery venture on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, that adds to growing competition in China's booming delivery industry. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) BERLIN (AP) - Experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are condemning what they describe as "strategic" attacks on the press by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has broadly labeled news media the "enemy of the people" and regularly accuses reporters of spreading "fake news." In a joint statement, two experts on freedom of expression - David Kaye, appointed by the U.N. body, and the Inter-American Commission's Edison Lanza - wrote that "these attacks run counter to the country's obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law." FILE - In this July 31, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, Fla. Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels could be on stage in Ohio at the same time, some 90 miles apart on Saturday, Aug. 4. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) They said Trump's "attacks are strategic, designed to undermine confidence in reporting and raise doubts about verifiable facts." They added: "he has failed to show even once that specific reporting has been driven by any untoward motivations." SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's national holiday hasn't given the prime minister and president a day off from disagreeing about a deal to rename the country North Macedonia. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev urged Macedonians on Thursday - the 115th anniversary of a failed rebellion against Ottoman Turkey - to support the agreement with Greece in a Sept. 30 referendum. The deal would clear the way for Macedonia to start membership talks with NATO and the European Union. Zaev says the opportunity shouldn't be squandered. FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2017 file photo, Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, left, presents to President Gjorge Ivanov, right, the signatures from lawmakers to form a new government, in the capital, Skopje. Macedonia's prime minister and president have sparred Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, on the country's national holiday, over a deal to settle a dispute with neighboring Greece and rename Macedonia "North Macedonia." On the 115th anniversary of a failed rebellion against Ottoman Turkey, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev urged Macedonians to support the agreement in a Sept. 30 referendum. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski, File) President Gjorge Ivanov is refusing to sign off on the deal, which Macedonian lawmakers ratified last month. Ivanov says it would "delete" Macedonia's 27-year history as an independent nation. Greece has long objected to its northern neighbor being called Macedonia, the name of one of its provinces. ROME (AP) - A Spanish rescue boat has saved 87 migrants in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, and says it's in touch with several countries about where to bring them. Laura Lanuza, a spokeswoman for the aid group Proactiva Open Arms, says the boat rescued the migrants early Thursday about 54 miles (87 kilometers) off the Libyan coast. She says the migrants were mostly from Sudan and included eight minors. It was the first rescue by an aid group in several weeks, as European countries jockey over where to take those rescued at sea. The new Italian government has refused to let such humanitarian ships dock at their ports. A migrant swims frantically towards a rescue ship off the coast of Libya in the early hours of Thursday night, Aug. 2, 2018. Rescuers from the Spanish non -profit Open Arms saved 87 migrants off the coast of Libya in a dramatic nighttime operation. The group included eight minors. (AP Photo/Valerio Nicolosi) The aid group said it's talked with several countries, including Spain, to coordinate getting the rescued migrants to a safe port. Migrants wait to be rescued off the coast of Libya in the early hours of Thursday night, Aug. 2, 2018, as rescuers throw life jackets at them and urge them to stay calm. Rescuers from the Spanish non -profit Open Arms saved 87 migrants off the coast of Libya in a dramatic nighttime operation. The group included eight minors. (AP Photo/Valerio Nicolosi) Migrants wait to be rescued off the coast of Libya in the early hours of Thursday night, Aug. 2, 2018, as rescuers throw life jackets at them and urge them to stay calm. Rescuers from the Spanish non -profit Open Arms saved 87 migrants off the coast of Libya in a dramatic nighttime operation. The group included eight minors. (AP Photo/Valerio Nicolosi) ROME (AP) - Dozens of activists have gathered outside Italy's parliament on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day amid new concerns about discrimination against the minority community. Waving Roma flags and displaying signs reading "Stop xenophobia" and "No to pogroms," the activists gathered Thursday to remember past mistreatment and to protest current conditions in Italy. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini called for a census of the Roma population in June, and police closed a Roma camp in the Italian capital last month. Dozens of activists gather outside the parliament in Rome to protest on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, amid new concerns within the community about discrimination. Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Simone Somekh) In one of several recent attacks being investigated as possible acts of racism, a young Roma child was shot with an air gun in Rome and left partially paralyzed. Some of the protesters at Thursday's demonstration wore the brown, triangle-shaped badge that Germany's Nazis forced Roma people to wear. Dozens of activists gather outside the parliament in Rome to protest on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, amid new concerns within the community about discrimination. Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Simone Somekh) SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Authorities in Bosnia say an accident at a hydroelectric power plant has killed three workers from the state power company. A police spokesman, Adnan Beganovic, said one person also was seriously hurt Thursday at the plant located near the town of Bihac in northwest Bosnia. He says the man's injuries are not life-threatening. Bosnia's state power company, Elektroprivreda BiH, says the three workers were killed while performing routine maintenance on the power plant's drainage system. Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina says a gas leak is thought to have caused the accident, which was reported at around 1 p.m. local time. Police spokesman Beganovic says an investigation is underway. BEIRUT (AP) - For years, Yasser Khoulani sought news of his brothers Abdelsattar and Majd after they were hustled away by Syria's secret police at demonstrations against President Bashar Assad in 2011. He knew they were being held at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where inmates are routinely beaten, raped and starved, according to testimony from former guards and inmates collected by rights groups. His mother spent close to $2,000 on a bribe to see one of the brothers behind a glass pane for just three minutes in 2012. The family held out hope that the two of them were alive. But last week, Khoulani learned from their updated civil registries that Abdelsattar and Majd perished in prison in 2013 without a chance for the family to say goodbye. After years of silence on the issue, the Syrian government has started updating civil registries to reflect deaths among its incarcerated population, activists say. This combination photo of three undated portraits, shows the Khoulani brothers Mohammad, left, Majd, center, and Abdelsattar, from Daraya, near Damascus, Syria, who all died in prison this decade. The Syrian government has started updating civil registries to reflect deaths among its incarcerated population, activists say. They say they have learned of the passing of hundreds of detainees, including leading voices in the popular uprising against Assad, since the government began updating registries earlier this year, and they fear news of hundreds, if not thousands, of more deaths may soon follow. (Khoulani Family via AP) "You sense all of a sudden that you can no longer dream again," said Khoulani, who spoke to The Associated Press by phone from Gaziantep, Turkey, where he is a refugee. "I'd been living on the hope that maybe, one day, (my brothers) would leave prison." Activists say they have learned of the passing of hundreds of detainees, including leading voices in the popular uprising against Assad, since the government began updating registries earlier this year, and they fear news of hundreds, if not thousands, of more deaths may soon follow. For many families, it has been the first time they have received news of their loved ones in years. Four civil registry extracts seen by The Associated Press do not list any cause of death, but human rights groups say the sheer number of reports are further proof of a regime of abuse and mass killings in government prisons - a case investigators are ready to bring to war crimes tribunals if officials are apprehended. "This could add evidence to what we have already," said Mohammad al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, which has been compiling testimonies from survivors of the conditions inside Syrian prisons. The Syrian government has not commented on the recent revelations, and it has previously denied taking political prisoners. And with Assad's forces in a stronger position now than they ever been after seven years of civil war, officials are unlikely to worry about facing trial. But the question of detainees has been a contentious issue in U.N.-sponsored peace talks that the government hopes will restore its legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. Many Syrians speculate the government, unable to shake off pressure by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura to negotiate on detainees, is trying to wash its hands of the matter by issuing death certificates. "The government wants to say there are no missing persons. They died - let's move on," said al-Abdallah. "It's a Syrian government version of a solution." Rights groups say Syria's security agencies used arrests and torture to terrorize the population as Arab Spring-styled protests against President Assad and his family's 40-year reign swept through the country in 2011. Anyone participating in the demonstrations, or suspected of sympathizing with the popular movement, was liable to be picked up in the sweeping arrests. Photos smuggled out of Syrian military hospitals by a defecting officer known only by his alias, Caesar, and disclosed to the public in 2014, showed how more than 11,000 detainees met their fate in various detention centers around the capital, Damascus. The corpses were emaciated and their genitals mutilated. There were burn marks, gashes, and bruising visible across the bodies. Some had their eyes gauged out. Human Rights Watch said it was evidence of crimes against humanity. Amnesty International, in interviews with former detainees, doctors and prison guards who defected from Syria, estimated between 5,000 and 13,000 inmates were killed in Saydnaya prison alone between 2011 and 2015. Activists say hundreds of families have learned of the deaths of their loved ones since word started to spread that the country's security agencies were passing lists of the deceased to municipal registries around the country. Relatives have been instructed to take registry documents certifying their loved ones' deaths - documentation that is vital for matters of inheritance, title deeds, and social benefits. The Khoulani family's hometown, Daraya, was informed of the deaths of close to 1,000 of its residents, according to its exiled opposition council, which has been smuggling information out of the country through locals. The council said it expected more names to come. Daraya, just minutes away from the capital Damascus, was one of the hubs of the 2011 uprising. Government forces, unable to suppress the demonstrations through arrests, surrounded the town, cut off food and water, and bombed it by air. The last holdouts surrendered in 2016 and the government depopulated the town, once home to 300,000 people, thereafter. The nearby town of Moadamiya was informed of some 400 deaths, according to Dani Qappani, an exiled activist from there. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, some 82,000 Syrians have "disappeared" in government custody, meaning their families have no reliable information about where they are or whether they are still alive. Families and human rights groups say releasing death certificates is not enough. They say the government needs to release bodies, so that families can know how their loved ones died. Majd Khoulani, born in 1990, was one of the organizers of the demonstrations that shook Daraya, according to the exiled local council member Shadi Matar. He was arrested in August 2011. His older brother, Abdelsattar, born in 1980, had been arrested three weeks earlier. Their civil registries state both died on Jan. 15, 2013, the same day as five other activists from Daraya, a pattern that al-Abdallah said suggests a group execution, and not a coincidence. Two other brothers, Mohammad, born 1977, and Bilal, born 1985, were arrested later that year. Bilal, who survived prison and was released as part of a prisoner swap with rebels, reported to his family that he saw his brother Mohammad tortured to death in front of him in jail. His body later appeared in the photos smuggled out of Syria by Caesar. TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - Jane Fonda has been honored with a lifetime achievement award at a northern Michigan film festival founded by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. The actress, author and political activist accepted the award Wednesday at the 14th annual Traverse City Film Festival, where she screened her HBO documentary "Jane Fonda in Five Acts." Fonda also held a panel discussion with Moore in which she discussed gender equality, her concerns about President Donald Trump's administration and her activism. "If Trump hadn't been elected, I could have been gardening," said Fonda, who campaigned in Michigan last week with her "Grace and Frankie" co-star Lily Tomlin to call for raising the minimum wage for tipped employees. "I'm going to spend my 80s at the barricades again. It's not what I expected." Actress Jane Fonda, left, and director Michael Moore pose for photos outside the State Theatre before the "One-on-One With Jane Fonda," panel during the Traverse City Film Festival Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, in Traverse City, Mich. Fonda is receiving the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP) Dozens of Vietnam War veterans protested the festival over Fonda's anti-war activism in the 1970s. The actress drew heavy criticism after she was photographed atop an anti-aircraft gun during a controversial 1972 visit to North Vietnam. Traverse City veteran John Milks served with the Marine Corps in Vietnam from 1968-1969. He said during the protest Wednesday that he thinks Fonda's visit to Vietnam "raised the enemy's morale and lowered ours." "She defected to the enemy side," Milks said. "We felt pretty hurt by that." Fonda acknowledged making a "terrible mistake" by posing for the photo and has expressed regret over the message it sent to soldiers and their families. Veteran Calvin Murphy said protestors wanted Fonda to know that they haven't "forgotten what she did." Not all veterans feel that way about Fonda. "If I could, what I would do right now is I would come up to you and I would drape the Congressional Medal of Honor around you," said Tim Keenan, a Vietnam War veteran. "I'm so proud of you for all the work you've done and all that you have endured, the adversity and your courage." NEW YORK (AP) - Writer-director Barry Jenkins has unveiled the teaser trailer for his anticipated "Moonlight" follow-up, "If Beale Street Could Talk," on the birthday of author James Baldwin. "If Beale Street Could Talk" is based on Baldwin's celebrated 1974 novel. Debuting the trailer on Twitter , Jenkins wrote that the late author's birthday "has always been a day to pay tribute." The trailer features the first look at the tale of a young Harlem woman, played by KiKi Layne, whose fiance, played by Jesse Owens, is unjustly imprisoned. Baldwin's voice is heard over the trailer's images talking about wondering "what your role is in this country and what your future is in it." FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2017 file photo, director Barry Jenkins arrives at the Oscars in Los Angeles. Jenkins has unveiled the teaser trailer for his anticipated "Moonlight" follow-up, "If Beale Street Could Talk," based on the 1974 novel by James Baldwin. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) "If Beale Street Could Talk" will premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival and open in theaters November 30. WASHINGTON (AP) - The human rights arm of the Organization of American States said Thursday that 317 people have been killed during violence surrounding anti-government protests in Nicaragua that began in April. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the toll included 23 minors and 21 police officers. President Daniel Ortega has acknowledged 195 dead, while the independent Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Commission has reported 450. Demonstrators protest outside the Jesuit run Universidad Centroamericana, UCA, demanding the university's allocation of its share of 6% of the national budget, in Managua, Nicaragua, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Universities in Nicaragua are closed since mid-April as students are demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and the release of all political prisoners. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco) The report came as the OAS adopted a resolution calling for the creation of an OAS working group to promote nationwide dialogue for peace. Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada rejected the idea, calling it an "interventionist political maneuver." "This idea is raised when the attempted coup against President Ortega was already neutralized and while Nicaragua gradually restores its daily life and economy," he said. The OAS rights body said it had verified that Nicaragua's government has persecuted and criminalized protesters. It said that after protest barricades were forcibly removed between July 19 and 30, authorities used armed hooded men to execute arbitrary and violent arrests. Detainees were not informed of their rights or the charges against them, it added. The commission urged Nicaraguan officials "to promptly and seriously investigate each of these crimes." Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division for Human Rights Watch, praised the resolution adopted by OAS, calling it "the greatest institutional promotion in defense of democracy and human rights" by the regional body in recent times. The resolution was adopted by 20 votes in favor, eight abstentions and four votes against. The proposal was introduced by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and the United States. Mexican Ambassador Jorge Lomonaco noted that Nicaragua's government previously rejected other OAS initiatives but later accepted them. "This is the way diplomatic processes are. It is part of the negotiations," he said. He added that the resolution's adoption was important because that while several OAS bodies are already working in Nicaragua, "one ingredient was missing: the role of the united countries. This resolution adds that." The resolution came less than two weeks after the OAS condemned human rights violations committed by Nicaraguan police and pro-government armed civilian groups. In April, Ortega asked the Roman Catholic Church to mediate in the political unrest, but that effort was suspended after the president refused to give up power before elections scheduled for 2021. Ortega has since criticized church leaders, and his supporters have been accused of harassing and attacking priests. ___ This story corrects spelling of name to Vivanco. A girl covers her face with a bandana with colors of the Nicaraguan national flag during a protest outside the Jesuit run Universidad Centroamericana, UCA, demanding the university's allocation of its share of 6% of the national budget, in Managua, Nicaragua, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Universities in Nicaragua are closed since mid-April as students are demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and the release of all political prisoners. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco) Demonstrators set a tire of fire during a protest outside the Jesuit run Universidad Centroamericana, UCA, demanding the university's allocation of its share of 6% of the national budget, in Managua, Nicaragua, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Universities in Nicaragua are closed since mid-April as students are demanding the resignation of President Daniel Ortega and the release of all political prisoners. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco) SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A development company in Puerto Rico has been fined $3 million for discharging more than 29 million gallons of raw sewage into a storm water system. A judge on Thursday also ordered Mora Development Corporation to make restitution to a family whose children officials say were affected. A former project manager previously pled guilty in the case. The company was accused of discharging raw sewage from a residential development in the northern town of Toa Alta in 2012 and 2013 without a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Officials said the sewage made its way into a river that serves some 80,000 people in the U.S. territory. Company officials could not be immediately reached for comment. DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on an active shooter reported at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio (all times local): 5:45 p.m. Officials at an Ohio Air Force base say a training session exercise that included an active shooter scenario did not necessarily prompt the 911 call that an active shooter was at the base's hospital. People with their hands up come out amid reports of an active shooter at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (Marshall Gorby/Dayton Daily News via AP) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base says someone called 911 Thursday during the exercise that was at a separate location about a half-mile away. Base officials say it's not clear what prompted the call. Col. Thomas Sherman, who's the base commander, says security forces stopped the training and responded to the hospital. During their investigation, a security team member shot his firearm to open a locked door. That gun discharge happened after the active shooter reports. Security searched the hospital and determined there had been no active shooter. Sherman says security forces responded as they should have. ___ 3:50 p.m. An Air Force base in Ohio says there was "no real world active shooter incident" hours after authorities responded to reports of a shooter. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base says via Twitter that base personnel remain safe. The base said the report occurred during a "normal, scheduled installation exercise" that included an active shooter scenario. Security forces and other emergency responders had rushed Thursday to the hospital at Wright-Patterson near Dayton. Wright-Patterson had sent a tweet saying it was responding to a "reported Active Shooter incident." About two hours later, video from outside of the hospital showed service members and others standing outside the building. Some had come out with their hands in the air. ___ 3:35 p.m. Traffic is now coming and going at an Air Force base in Ohio hours after authorities responded to reports of an active shooter. Security forces and other emergency responders rushed Thursday to the hospital at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. Wright-Patterson has not said yet whether a lockdown at the base has been lifted. It said earlier in the afternoon via Twitter it was responding to "a reported active shooter incident" at the base's hospital. Video from outside of the hospital showed service members and others standing outside the building. Some had come out with their hands in the air. The sprawling base has about 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. ___ 2:10 p.m. Federal authorities say they're responding to reports of an active shooter at an Air Force base in Ohio, and the base is on lockdown. Security forces and other emergency responders are outside the hospital at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said via Twitter it's among several agencies responding to reports of an active shooter. Wright-Patterson sent a tweet saying it was responding to "a reported incident." Stacey Geiger in the base's public affairs office said the base was on lockdown but she had no other information to release. Local police were directing traffic away from the base. The Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police also had officers at the base that has about 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. ___ 1:35 p.m. Security forces and other emergency responders have been called to the hospital of an Air Force base in Ohio. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base stated via Twitter that they were responding to "a reported incident" at about 12:40 p.m. EDT Thursday. The tweet said no additional details were available immediately. The base Public Affairs office said it had no other information to release. The Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police were sending personnel to the base. The sprawling base is near Dayton in southwest Ohio. QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Officials in Ecuador say they are launching a security effort with the United States in a further sign that frosty relations between the two nations are thawing. Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin spoke Thursday in Quito, saying Ecuador is also buying weapons, radar sets, six helicopters and other equipment, but gave no details. Jarrin says cooperation with the U.S. will include training and intelligence sharing. It follows a June visit by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who agreed with Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno to improve relations. Relations were strained under former President Rafael Correa. Pence urged Moreno to hold a firm line against socialist President Nicolas Maduro in neighboring Venezuela. The cooperation also follows attacks by Colombian guerrillas that killed four soldiers and three newspaper employees. NEW YORK (AP) - New York City police say an off-duty sergeant who shot a man in the face on a Brooklyn street may have been thwarting an attempted robbery. Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the man confronted the sergeant in Brooklyn just before 5 a.m. Thursday and the sergeant fired two shots. Monahan said the 40-year-old sergeant and the 21-year-old man may have been involved in a prior dispute. The sergeant called 911. The man is hospitalized in stable condition. Police haven't released their names. It's not clear if the man was armed. Commissioner James O'Neill said no gun was found. Investigators are interviewing witnesses and looking at video from nearby cameras. Monahan said an initial review raised questions that compelled the department to put him on modified duty pending further investigation. WASHINGTON (AP) - Gathering strength for a brutal trade war with China, the United States appears to be trying to patch things up with its friends. U.S. and Mexican negotiators are meeting in Washington Thursday and Friday to work on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement - an effort that looked virtually dead a few months ago. And last week President Donald Trump announced a cease-fire in a potentially destructive dispute with the European Union over trade in cars, trucks and auto parts. Meanwhile, the Trump administration ratcheted up the pressure on China this week by proposing a doubling in tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing has vowed to counterpunch with trade sanctions of its own. FILE - In this Oct. 17, 2017 file photo, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, left, with Mexico's Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, right, speaks during the conclusion of the fourth round of negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Washington. Gathering strength for a potentially brutal trade war with China, the United States is trying to patch things up with its friends. U.S. and Mexican negotiators are meeting Thursday and Friday to work on a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- a deal that looked virtually dead a few months ago. And last week the Trump administration reached a cease-fire with Europe in a dispute over autos. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) "If you're going to take China on, you'd better make sure you've shored up your base with your allies and made sure you kept other markets open," said Michael Camunez, president of Monarch Global Strategies consultancy and a former U.S. Commerce Department official. Trump campaigned on a vow to overhaul the 24-year-old NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, a pact he called a job-killing disaster. NAFTA did away with most barriers, including tariffs, on trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Trump and other NAFTA critics say the agreement encouraged U.S. manufacturers to move factories - and jobs - south of the border to take advantage of lower-wage Mexican labor. He vowed to pull out of NAFTA if he couldn't a deal he liked. Talks on a new NAFTA began almost a year ago but got bogged down over the Trump team's insistence on measures that would discourage investment in Mexico and shift auto production to the United States. Momentum suddenly resumed after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won the Mexican presidential election last month and expressed support for overhauling NAFTA. The Mexican negotiators are hoping to reach an agreement this month with the United States, then bring Canada back into the negotiations. Canada's absence from this week's talks raised suspicions that the United States was pursuing a divide-and-conquer strategy with its two trading partners, isolating Canada to pressure it into agreeing with whatever the U.S. and Mexico came up with. But David MacNaughton, Canada's ambassador in Washington, told the AP it made sense for the U.S. and Mexico to negotiate first: "There are a couple of lingering issues between the U.S. and Mexico" that need to be settled "before we can move on," he said. The most obvious is Trump's push to require that autos contain more content made within the NAFTA trade bloc and specifically from countries that pay high wages (that is, not Mexico) to qualify for duty-free status under the agreement. But the two countries are whittling away at their differences. In June, Trump slapped taxes on imported steel and aluminum, hoping in part to pressure Canada and Mexico to agree to a NAFTA rewrite that was to his liking. But the two neighbors - and other U.S. allies and trading partners - have slapped back with tariffs of their own, often aimed at U.S. farmers who supported Trump in the 2016 election. The Mexicans, for example, targeted U.S. pork and cheese. The retaliation is beginning to take a toll. The Trump administration last week announced a $12 billion package to ease the pain on farmers. Daniel Ujczo, a lawyer with Dickinson Wright PLLC in Columbus, Ohio, said the U.S. has a big incentive to smooth over the differences with friendly countries and get the tit-for-tat tariffs removed. "The faster we get a deal with Mexico, the faster that relieves pressure on farm country," he said. The Trump administration last week pulled back from the brink of a trade war with the European Union, suspending planned tariffs on European autos while it talks with the EU about tearing down trade barriers. As tensions with U.S. allies seem to ease, tensions with China are rising. On Wednesday, the Trump administration proposed hiking planned tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent from an originally announced 10 percent. The world's two biggest economies are sparring over what Washington says are Beijing's predatory tactics to obtain American technology. Deals with allies like the EU, Mexico and Canada could give the administration "some breathing room on China and signal to the world that they aren't looking to fight with everyone," said Christine McDaniel, senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. ___ Follow Paul Wiseman on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PaulWisemanAP WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - The Delaware Department of Justice says a police officer was justified in fatally shooting a man who had fired a gun at him. Investigators concluded in a report dated Wednesday that New Castle County police Officer Sean Sweeney-Jones acted reasonably in shooting 21-year-old Keith Price in April 2017. Price was shot as officers sought to take him into custody on charges of attempted murder and gun charges, including possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, after an earlier shooting. Authorities say Price hit two police cars with his vehicle before driving away and then fled on foot after colliding with two other cars. Investigators say evidence shows that Price fired one shot at Sweeney-Jones from a 9 mm handgun. Sweeney-Jones responded by firing 11 shots, seven of which struck Price. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (all times local): 4:55 p.m. Former law clerks to retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy are praising high court candidate Brett Kavanaugh as a "fair-minded and conscientious successor." From left, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, hold a news conference to refute Senate Democrats who are intensifying their fight over documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's stint as staff secretary at the White House, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The GOP members of the Judiciary Committee used a wall of empty boxes to dramatize the amount of documents. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) The former clerks sent a letter Thursday to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, and Sen. Diane Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member. They describe Kavanaugh as "supremely qualified." They say, "Much like Justice Kennedy, Judge Kavanaugh has made clear that he holds both the law and the principle of judicial independence in the highest regard." Senators are currently reviewing Kavanaugh's record. President Donald Trump nominated him to fill Kennedy's seat last month. __ 4:10 p.m. The National Archives and Records Administration says it won't be able to finish reviewing nearly 1 million documents regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House until the end of October, a potential roadblock in GOP hopes for confirmation before the November election. Republican leaders in the Senate appeared unfazed by the updated timetable, determined to push forward with confirmation hearings on President Donald Trump's nominee next month, even if the documents are not fully available. The paper chase over Kavanaugh's lengthy public record is emerging as a key battleground as senators scrutinize the 53-year-old appellate judge, a conservative whose views on gay marriage, abortion and executive power could tip the court rightward for a generation. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined from left by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, holds a news conference to refute Senate Democrats who are intensifying their fight over documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's stint as staff secretary at the White House, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) LOS ANGELES (AP) - State prosecutors from California to Massachusetts blasted the Trump administration Thursday for proposing weaker auto fuel-efficiency standards they said would imperil clean air and increase greenhouse gases. Months after they pre-emptively sued to block anticipated efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back mileage regulations, Democratic attorneys general vowed to continue their fight in the courts. "The earth is not flat, and climate change is real," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, as he connected global warming to the deadly wildfires burning out of control throughout the state. "Can someone please inform the folks at the White House and our federal government of those facts?" California Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to reporters after a news conference at University of California, Los Angeles Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Becerra spoke about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Becerra also promised another lawsuit if the administration makes good on what he called "arbitrary and capricious" plans to revoke a longstanding waiver allowing California and other states to set their own stricter auto emissions standards. At least twelve other states and the District of Columbia follow California's rules. Officials in the Trump administration said their actions would make autos more affordable and that would make roads safer because more motorists would be driving newer cars with the latest safety features. Becerra and attorneys general from 16 other states sued in May to stop the EPA from scrapping standards that would have required vehicles by 2025 to achieve 36 miles per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standards. The Trump proposal would freeze standards at 2020 levels when vehicles will be required to hit an average of 30 miles per gallon (48 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving. States that joined the lawsuit said the change would end up costing more money at the pump because vehicles won't go as far on a gallon of gas, and more misery for those suffering pollution-exacerbated maladies such as asthma. "This has to be absolutely one of the most harmful and dumbest actions that the EPA has taken," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said. "It's going to cost drivers here and across the country hundreds of millions of dollars more at the pump." Pollution from cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles is the California's single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to state data. California has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. It met its 2020 goals four years early, but hitting the next target will be much harder without cleaner vehicles. The state has struggled to rein in vehicle pollution. Transportation is the only sector where greenhouse gas emissions went up in 2016, the most recent data available. The lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia alleged the plan to dump the mileage standards violated the federal Clean Air Act and didn't follow the agency's own regulations. The lawsuit is proceeding, and Becerra said lawyers will now pore over the documents filed with the proposal to help make their case. Other states that joined in the lawsuit were: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. All have Democratic attorneys general. ___ Associated Press writers Kathleen Ronayne and Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks at UCLA about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards in Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Deputy Attorney General David Zaft is on the right. (AP Photo/Brian Melley) California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks at UCLA about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards in Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Deputy Attorney General David Zaft is on the right. (AP Photo/Brian Melley) California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, center, walks on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Becerra spoke at a news conference about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) WASHINGTON (AP) - "I'm not in the theater business," Judge T.S. Ellis asserted during jury selection in Paul Manafort's financial fraud trial. "You have to be better-looking for that." Objection, Your Honor. The trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman has plenty of drama and it's coming from the judge. This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers in front of U.S. district Judge T.S. Ellis III, center rear, and the selected jury, seated left, during the jury selection of his trial at the Alexandria Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, July 31, 2018. A jury set to decide the fate of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Manafort was selected Tuesday, and opening statements in his tax evasion and bank fraud trial were expected in the afternoon. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) Easily exasperated, and with a sharp wit, the U.S. district judge called out attorneys for both sides this week when he heard they'd been rolling their eyes, apparently at him. The judge judged their expressions to mean, "Why do we have to put up with this idiot judge?" Privately, lawyers who have appeared before him say Thomas Selby Ellis III likes to be seen as the smartest person in the courtroom, not a huge leap for a judge. With his Princeton-Harvard-Oxford education and experience spanning consequential cases in an era of war and terrorism - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh's among them - Ellis is known to cut lawyers down to size, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. That's what happened when Justice Department attorney Michael Dreeben, a legend in legal circles, appeared at a pre-trial hearing in the Manafort case. As soon as Dreeben began making his arguments for the prosecution, Ellis cut in - "Would you spell your name for the record?" That's not a question he asks others appearing in his Washington-area Eastern District of Virginia court. In the Manafort trial, Ellis, 78, is trying to keep a handle on a case that centers on the Trump associate's consulting work for wealthy Ukrainian clients and whether he fraudulently hid millions from banks and the IRS. It stems from special counsel Robert Mueller's broad investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and any collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign. It's not about Trump or Russia, but that matter is the elephant in the room. In the pretrial hearing where Dreeben's presence made waves, Ellis supposed that the Manafort case was really about the government trying to make the defendant "sing" on Russia and the Trump campaign. Prosecutors "don't really care" about Manafort, he said, but instead care about getting information from him to go after Trump. That delighted the president, who called the judge "really something very special" in an NRA speech in May. But Trump's opinion about people can turn on a dime, and this week, without identifying the judge, he blasted the decision by Ellis to house Manafort in solitary confinement, a move the prosecution says was to keep him safe. Trump suggested the justice system might be treating Manafort more harshly than it did Al Capone, the legendary mob boss who went crazy in Alcatraz. An immigrant from Bogota, Colombia, Ellis came to the bench in 1987, nominated by President Ronald Reagan after an early career as a Navy aviator in the 1960s and a lawyer in private practice in the 1970s. He's welcomed new generations of immigrants as the presiding judge at naturalization ceremonies, addressing Spanish-speakers among them in his and their native language; his eyes have been known to grow moist in these proceedings. Long-ago associates nicknamed him Taz for his swirling Tasmanian Devil drive in law practice. In 2002, Ellis sentenced Lindh to 20 years in prison without parole in a plea deal for the American who fought with the Taliban, telling him, "You made a bad choice." In 2009, he dismissed lawsuits filed by alleged Iraqi victims of the contractor once known as Blackwater USA, ruling that a pattern of recklessness or a culture of lawlessness is not enough to sustain an allegation of war crimes under the federal law. But he allowed most of the plaintiffs to refile their lawsuits if they had a persuasive case that Blackwater employees engaged in intentional killings and beatings. The ruling essentially pleased both sides. In the Manafort trial, Ellis has shown impatience with meandering arguments from either side while being tougher on the prosecution out of the gate. When prosecutors addressed Manafort's relationship with Ukrainian "oligarchs," he told them to knock it off. Prosecutors are inferring that Manafort associates himself with "despicable people and therefore he's despicable," he said. "That's not the American way." Descriptions of Manafort's $15,000 ostrich-leather jacket, the $6 million in cash he put toward real estate and his $900,000 in purchases at a New York boutique also left the judge unimpressed. He may not like fancy-pants lawyers, but fancy pants in America are not against the law. "The government doesn't want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they?" Ellis asked. "Let's move on." Prosecutor Greg Andres countered: "Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr. Manafort lived lavishly. It's evidence of his income." The judge introduced a theatrical twist at an earlier hearing, telling prosecutors he did not want to see pictures of Manafort and others "at a cocktail party with scantily clad women," if they should happen to exist. No worries, Andres said. "There will be no pictures of scantily clad women, period." He also promised no photos of Russian flags and said it's unlikely any government witness "will utter the word 'Russia.'" ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat, Eric Tucker and Chad Day contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local): 8:15 p.m. President Donald Trump says he remains "a little bit torn" about whether it would be better to shut down the government before or after the midterm elections in an effort to secure funding for his long-promised border wall. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Trump said Thursday at a rally in Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree), Pennsylvania, that while many in the party disagree, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and Fox News personality Sean Hannity share his belief that a fall shutdown would be politically advantageous for Republicans in the midterms. Trump says that he's "a little torn myself" but that he "would personally prefer before." He adds, "Whether it's before or after, we're either getting it or we're closing down government." Trump has been threatening another government shutdown to pressure Congress to fund the wall they've so far denied him. ___ 7:55 p.m. President Donald Trump is continuing to air his grievances against the press, calling them "the fake, fake disgusting news." Trump told a rally crowd in Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree), Pennsylvania, on Thursday that the media refuses to give him credit for a long list of accomplishments, including his summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin. He's describing how he tells his wife about how he "just stopped missiles from being launched every two seconds" or accomplished other things, and thinks the media" is "finally going to treat me so good," but doesn't. He's also mocking the press for saying he wasn't tough enough on Putin. He says, "They wanted me to go up and have a boxing match," but asks: "Whatever happened to diplomacy?" ___ 7:30 p.m. President Donald Trump is hailing Senate candidate Lou Barletta as a "star" and a "legend" during a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump said Thursday in Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree) that Rep. Barletta is "smart, he's strong, he loves this state." And he says: "He's like a legend." Barletta is running to unseat two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, whom Trump blasted as "so overrated." Barletta claims that Casey has become one of the most liberal senators in Washington and says he no longer represents the values of the people of Pennsylvania. Barletta is a fervent Trump supporter who shares Trump's hard-line views on immigration. He tells Trump: "We're not tiring of winning, Mr. President. We're not tired of winning." ___ 7:25 p.m. President Donald Trump is once again fondly recalling the night of his 2016 election victory. Trump took the stage at a Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree), Pennsylvania, rally on Thursday by declaring: "I'm thrilled to be back in the state that gave us American independence." He's asking his supporters to "remember that incredible night" when he won the 2016 election. He's also accusing the "fake news" of dragging its feet and refusing to call the state in his favor sooner and blaming "suppression polls" for misrepresenting his support. There is no evidence either is the case. Trump was the first Republican presidential nominee to win Pennsylvania since 1988. ___ 5:45 p.m. More than 100 protesters are lined up on either side of the sidewalk ahead of President Donald Trump's appearance at a rally in Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree), Pennsylvania. It's forcing Trump's supporters to walk a narrow gantlet Thursday on their way to the arena as protesters scream at them, "Shame! Shame! Shame!" Thirty-six-year-old union laborer Jeff LaFrance held up one end of a giant "Impeach Trump" sign and says he has no sympathy for the rally attendees. He says he thinks "it's shameful they could support someone the likes of Trump." He's also calling Trump's supporters "willfully ignorant" about issues like the separation of migrant children from their parents at the U.S. border. Most rallygoers ignored the taunts, but some engaged, yelling "Trump! Trump!" or muttering epithets. One man replied cheerfully, "I'm a proud Deplorable!" ___ 2:30 p.m. President Donald Trump swiped Pennsylvania from the Democrats in 2016. Now he is trying to help Republicans take a Senate seat there. Trump is holding a rally Thursday evening in Wilkes-Barre to back Rep. Lou Barletta, who's running to unseat two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Barletta is a fervent Trump supporter who shares his hard-line views on immigration. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since 1988. Trump has accelerated his campaign schedule in recent weeks to help Republicans he favors both in primaries and November's midterms. The rally comes at a tumultuous time for Trump, who lashed out this week at the Russia probe that threatens his presidency. It also comes during a period of heightened antagonism from Trump and his supporters toward the media. President Donald Trump listens to Senate candidate Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., speak during a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump speaks at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President Donald Trump arrives at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Avoca, Pa., on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. (Jake Danna Stevens/The Times-Tribune via AP) LAS VEGAS (AP) - Police in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson say they're investigating a report that a truck and trailer containing about 400 firearms was stolen from a casino parking lot. Henderson Police Officer Rod Pena said Thursday that police could only release few details about theft because it could jeopardize the safety of officers in the ongoing investigation. Pena said he expected to have more updates later Thursday. He said the trailer was reported stolen at the Fiesta Henderson hotel-casino around noon Tuesday but that he couldn't explain who owned the trailer, why it was full of guns and whether police have any suspects. Pena says police are working with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Messages seeking comment from the ATF were not immediately returned. ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) - Kerri Walsh Jennings will call it a career in beach volleyball after the Tokyo Olympics in two years. She has big plans before her days on the sand are done, and for improving the long-term health and growth of the sport well into the future by creating new playing opportunities in the U.S. The three-time Olympic gold medalist absolutely expects to go out with another gold around her neck from the 2020 Games after she and partner April Ross wound up with bronze at Rio in 2016, a heartbreaking disappointment that still stings for Walsh Jennings yet fuels her at the same time. FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2016 file photo, United States' Kerri Walsh Jennings reacts while playing Brazil during the women's beach volleyball bronze medal match of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Walsh Jennings will call it a career in beach volleyball after the Tokyo Olympics in two years. And the three-time Olympic gold medalist absolutely plans to go out with another gold around her neck from the 2020 Games after she and partner April Ross wound up with bronze at Rio in 2016, a heartbreaking disappointment that still stings for Walsh Jennings yet fuels her at the same time. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) "I haven't shouted it from the mountaintops," Walsh Jennings said Thursday of her career timeline in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press. It may sound like a daunting task ahead: Walsh Jennings will turn 42 during the next Olympics. She has yet to settle on a partner though she has narrowed down her choice to two women. She is also coming off a pair of surgeries last year on her right shoulder and left ankle. Just three weeks ago she began using the shoulder to hit the ball with her usual power and motion. "I have no partner. I just came off two surgeries, and I know I'm going to win gold in Tokyo," she said emphatically of her Olympic hurrah despite her share of lows in recent years. "... It makes this one and this journey that much more meaningful." She is back home in the Bay Area to promote her upcoming beach volleyball extravaganza - "it's a movement" she says - to be held at the San Jose Earthquakes' Avaya Stadium in late September. The "p1440" event featuring volleyball, health and wellness resources and opportunities, music, kids' experiences and much more will go Sept. 28-30. Tickets went on sale Thursday, and additional events are scheduled for Las Vegas, San Diego and Huntington Beach this year and four more cities in 2019. Walsh Jennings and husband Casey are committed to living each day to the fullest, all 1,440 minutes, inspiring the name. "It's all about living in the moment," she said. "I certainly need to practice what I preach. It's knowing what I want in life." They have long wanted to have their own academy, and now p1440 will combine a competition environment with opportunities for personal development no matter someone's fitness level or physical challenge with the support of sports psychology and a technology platform and educational tools. Walsh Jennings is striving to be her best every day and is driven to "live in my strengths," whether that means being present for her husband and three children, dealing with her failures as well as her triumphs, or remembering to take a moment each morning and night to remind herself what she is most grateful for in her life. After failing to win gold in Rio, Walsh Jennings struggled to find her top form because she was "living in fear on the court." Even after earning bronze in '16, she carried the weight of her defeat with her for months and years. That had never happened before. Now, at last, she has come through that. With help from those close to her each step of the way, of course. "We are pure positivity," she said. "I really do believe happiness is a choice. I really believe staying positive is a choice." She had a falling out with the domestic professional tour AVP at the end of 2016 and has since ventured out on her own by taking on the formation of p1440 with huge aspirations of making it stick as a viable option for professionals. Walsh Jennings insists volleyball can be a sport that has a far greater reach than just the every-four-years Olympic chase when people tend to tune in to see one of the Summer Games' most popular events. That's why Walsh Jennings believes she still has so much to give in beach volleyball and far beyond. "I think I would have retired if we won gold in Rio," she said. "This is my platform. I'm not done with my platform. That loss is going to serve me in so many different ways." Losing in Rio while "performing terribly" has changed Walsh Jennings. She has learned from it and become better for it. "It's so liberating when your weaknesses are exposed," she said, "when you live your worst nightmare and survive." CHANNELVIEW, Texas (AP) - Authorities say officers rescued eight children from a Houston-area home day care after a suspect barricaded himself inside before eventually surrendering peacefully. Harris County Precinct 3 Constable Sherman Eagleton says the incident started around noon Thursday when the suspect ran a red light, starting a short car chase with deputies. The suspect, later identified as 19-year-old Jonas Dunlap, then crashed the vehicle and fled on foot, leaving a woman and child behind. Eagleton says the man fired two shots at deputies and darted into the home day care in Channelview, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) east of Houston. Chief Deputy Ed Toquica says the suspect surrendered about 30 minutes after the children's rescue. He says Dunlap was wanted in Arkansas on a burglary charge. No injuries were reported in either the standoff or the crash. NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts college president is apologizing after campus police were called to investigate a black student quietly eating her lunch in a common room. Smith College President Kathleen McCartney says in a letter Thursday the college is hiring a "third-party investigator" to review the incident and that every Smith staff member will undergo mandatory anti-bias training. Officials say an employee at the Northampton college called 911 Tuesday to report someone appeared "out of place" in the building. The school says there was nothing suspicious. McCartney has apologized to the undergraduate student, who is a teaching assistant this summer. The woman who has identified herself as the student posted on Facebook that it was outrageous she couldn't eat her lunch in peace. She added: "All I did was be black." Cops say they shot dead a Vietnam veteran with hearing loss, who was protecting his family from a naked intruder, after he failed to drop his gun despite at least five requests. Decorated veteran Richard Black, who had 'significant' hearing loss from his military service, had grabbed his handgun after Dajon Harper, 26, broke into his suburban Denver home and tried to kill his 11-year-old grandson. Moments later police responded to the family's desperate 911 calls about the break-in, and shot the heroic grandfather through the front door, before handcuffing him on the floor of his own home. Black died a short time later in hospital. Now Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz has admitted the police never identified themselves before the officer shot Black. And Black's stepson Chad Hayashi insists he never heard any of the 'five orders' from police for his stepfather to drop the gun before they shot him. Richard Black (pictured with his wife Jeannette) was shot dead by a cop after he failed to drop his gun despite being asked five times due to 'significant hearing loss' from the Vietnam War Aurora Police Chief Nicholas Metz (left) admits that police failed to identify themselves before opening fire, but Black's stepson Chad Hayashi (right) says he never even heard the orders for his stepdad to drop the gun 'I was told that he was told to drop the weapon and he didn't,' Hayashi said. 'I never heard anything about 'drop your weapon.' There was no warning at all. They should have been yelling from the moment they hit the driveway, 80 feet down. It's a long driveway. They should have been yelling, especially as many police officers as there were on scene.' 'They shot the first thing they saw moving, in my opinion,' Hayashi said. Evidence shows that the officers appear to have opened fire without even entering the house. A cop shot Black, four times, through the open front door. Even if they had told the 73-year-old, who was in his living room, to drop the gun, Metz admits it's likely that he wouldn't have been able to hear them because of the hearing loss he suffered in Vietnam. Hayashi says that after the shooting, they were rushed out of the house and were forced to leave Black, who was lying 'face down... and he's handcuffed.' 'I reach down, and I don't remember if I touched his shoulder or his face, but he looked at me and I got pushed off by an officer and out the door.' Black fought in the war in Vietnam where he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his bravery (pictured receiving the awards in 1960s) and where he also suffered damage to his hearing Dajon Harper, 26, (left) was killed by Black (right), who was then accidentally shot dead by police They were taken to police headquarters where they waited for hours and were questioned before they were finally told that Black was dead. The grandson was taken to hospital for serious but non life threatening injuries and Jeannette was also taken for treatment on a wound that reopened during the chaos. The family's lawyer Siddhartha H. Rathod insists that the 73-year-old 'did everything right'. 'His actions saved his grandson's life. He should be in the mayor's office getting a commendation for his heroism. Instead he's in the morgue,' Rathod said. The officers soon found the intruder - 26-year-old Harper - dead in a bathroom from shots Black fired to protect his grandson. Those were the shots officers heard after arriving at the chaotic scene. Police will not release bodycam footage yet, citing the wishes of the Black family and prosecutors who will decide whether to charge the unidentified officer who opened fire. Portions of the audio and video are hard to understand because of background noise, including screaming, but the police chief said a forensic review will try to clear it up. A family lawyer said Black's wife, Jeanette, gave an emergency dispatcher physical descriptions of Black, her son and the intruder, but Metz said those were not found on any of the 911 recordings. Black was white, and Harper was black. Black, and his stepson Chad Hayashi, woke up to find Harper strangling the homeowner's grandson on the bathroom of their suburban Denver house (pictured is an officer, in protective gear, at the scene of the shooting on Tuesday) The Black family said in a statement released by police that Jeanette Black's 911 call was difficult to understand and acknowledged the police department's position that the officers did not receive descriptions. Jeanette Black was heard on bodycam footage saying, 'He has a gun,' as police arrived, but Metz said he does not know if the officer heard that. In one of several 911 recordings released Thursday night, a woman who identified herself as Harper's mother told the dispatcher that her son was on drugs but was unarmed. 'He's literally kicked in some people across the street door. He's on some type of drug or something,' she said frantically. 'He's running through the neighborhood busting cars, busting in people's doors while they sleep. I don't know what he's on. He's bleeding.' The woman later said Harper is 'hurting this little baby. He kicked in their door.' Harper, who was released from prison in February after serving time for weapons and menacing charges, broke into the home by knocking open the front door. He had left a party across the street, where he became out of control, acting irrationally and damaging cars, Metz said. Metz said his officers responded how he would expect them to respond 'given the very limited information they had' Some partygoers followed him into Black's house to try to get Harper to come back, adding to the confusion. Others were standing outside with Black's wife when police arrived. The police chief said Black acted heroically to protect his family but also defended the actions of his officers, including the one who killed Black, a fellow military veteran who was involved in another fatal police shooting just over a month ago. The officer returned to duty 14 days after that shooting, which Metz said was much longer than the minimum three days of leave recommended by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. 'They were not reckless. These officers responded how I would expect them to respond, given the very limited information they had,' he said. Sighing and looking down at the floor, Metz said the body camera video was heartbreaking. 'I can tell you that when my folks sat around the table and first saw it - and I'm talking about police personnel who have been on the job 25, 30 years who have seen just about everything - there wasn't a dry eye around the table,' the chief said. 'It is very horrific to watch, not just from the standpoint of watching a man who saved his family get shot but also knowing what that little boy was subjected to,' he said. In their statement, the Black family urged people not to threaten or harass police because of what happened, noting that Richard Black deeply appreciated law enforcement. Hayashi became emotional as he described his stepfather as a 'hero' who saved their lives Black, who grew up in Anderson, South Carolina, graduated from The Citadel and fought in the war in Vietnam where he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his bravery. According to state records, he later held a license as a certified public accountant in Colorado from 1999 to 2008. He came from a military background and his father was a Staff Sgt. during WWII who fought at the Battle of the Bulge. 'He was a wonderful family man who loved spending time with his grandchildren and caring for his garden,' said his half sister Elisa Black-Taylor. An investigation is now underway, by the Aurora Police Major Crimes Unit and Denver Police Department. The 17th Judicial District Attorney's Office also released a statement saying that they will determine whether the officer involved in the shooting should face criminal charges. The shooting marked the second deadly encounter involving Aurora police in three days. NISKAYUNA, N.Y. (AP) - The lawyer for a General Electric engineer charged with stealing digital files says there's no evidence his client colluded with the Chinese government or sold secrets on the company's turbine technology. The U.S. attorney's office says 55-year-old Xiaoqing Zheng (JOW'-shing zehng) removed electronic files and hid them in a digital photograph. FBI agents took Zheng away in handcuffs Wednesday at his home in Niskayuna (nihs-kee-YOO'-nuh). The neighboring city of Schenectady (skeh-NEHK'-ta-dee) is home to Boston-based GE's power division, which makes turbines. The Albany Times Union reports attorney Kevin Luibrand said at a detention hearing Thursday that his client's reputation had been unnecessarily "destroyed." He said the data his client copied were programs of patented information that he had created. A federal judge Thursday ordered Zheng released on $100,000 bond. ___ Information from: Times Union, http://www.timesunion.com Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort personally directed millions of dollars in international wire transfers to pay for high-end suits and more than 3 million dollars (2.3 million) in improvements at his homes, witnesses have said at his trial. The testimony on the second day of his financial fraud trial on Wednesday was aimed at bolstering the prosecutions argument that Manafort hid millions of dollars in income from the IRS and used the funds for a lavish lifestyle. The witness accounts were also intended to contradict Manaforts lawyers, who have signalled they will pin blame for any illegal conduct on his longtime deputy, Rick Gates. The prosecutions focus on Manaforts personal finances at times laid out in painstaking detail underscored the vast amount of documents accumulated by special counsel Robert Muellers team in their case against the longtime political consultant. But it also tried the patience of US district judge TS Ellis III, who repeatedly scolded the governments lawyers for what he said was excessive and unnecessary information. This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers (Dana Verkouteren via AP) He warned prosecutors against using the word oligarchs to describe wealthy Ukrainians and admonished them for spending so much time documenting Manaforts extravagant lifestyle. The government doesnt want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they? he said, amid testimony that Manafort had spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) on clothing from a boutique retailer where he was one of only about 40 clients. The trial is the first courtroom test for the special counsel, who was tasked last year with investigating Russias efforts to sway the 2016 election and to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved. So far, Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion. However, the trial has pulled back the curtain on the former lobbyist who steered Trumps election efforts for a time. One witness, Maximillian Katzman, testified that Manafort spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) at his boutique retailer in New York. He said Manafort was the only business client of his who paid via international wire transfer. An FBI agent described the July 2017 raid on Manaforts Virginia condominium, and said searches found expensively tailored suits and documents related to other luxury items allegedly bought by Manafort, including two silk rugs bought for 160,000 dollars (122,000) paid from offshore accounts. But when prosecutors introduced photos of Manaforts high-end condo and expensive suits, the judge interrupted so as to limit the growing list of evidence jurors would have to consider. All this document shows is that Mr Manafort had a lavish lifestyle, he said. It isnt relevant. Prosecutor Greg Andres argued that documenting Manaforts spending for the jury was important to the case. Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr Manafort lived lavishly, Andres said. Its evidence of his income. The proceedings clearly caught the attention of president Donald Trump, who defended his 2016 hiring of Manafort and suggested Manafort was being treated worse than mobster Al Capone. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president indeed felt Manafort had been treated unfairly. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation, Trump tweeted on Wednesday. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax! Testimony was due to resume on Thursday morning with witnesses including bookkeepers and accountants. A seriously-ill 11-year-old girl was allowed out of hospital for two hours to make sure her parents had their dream wedding. Kayleigh Walsh left her bed in Sheffield Childrens Hospital to be bridesmaid at the nuptials of her mother and father, Paul and Lyndsey, in Doncaster. Then the family arrived back on ward six to find it transformed into a reception venue with food, flowers, live music from a string duo and a blessing ceremony from the hospital chaplain. Mrs Walsh, 35, said she was overwhelmed by the work put in by the nurses and other staff on the haematology and oncology ward. The hospital and The Childrens Hospital Charity involved a host of people with local businesses donating key parts of the day, including the flowers and the car which drove them to the ceremony. It was better than I ever could imagine, Mrs Walsh said. We were going for the wedding and then a close family meal and that was it. We never anticipated all of this. She said: This has made it so much more special. Its been amazing. From the bottom of my heart and from the bottom of Pauls, were both overwhelmed. Mrs Walsh explained how Kayleigh had 18 months of treatment for a neuroblastoma in her adrenal gland when she was 22 months old and had been in remission for nearly eight years when they got the heartbreaking news in June that she had a tumour in her liver. Mrs Walsh said: It was heartbreaking, absolutely heart breaking. Asked about Kayleighs treatment, she said: OK so far. Its touch-and-go whether its going to work or not because neuroblastoma is hard to treat the first time around, let alone a second time around. Kayleigh Walsh (right) at the wedding blessing ceremony for her parents (Lea Fountain Sheffield Childrens Hospital/PA) But the doctors seems hopeful that everythings going to plan. The couple, from Mexborough, South Yorkshire, have three other children, Caitlin, 14; Aimee-Leigh, three; and Jackson, 18 months, and they are expecting another child in February next year. Kayleigh has been in Sheffield Childrens Hospital for nearly six weeks with her father by her side constantly as Mrs Walsh has travelled backwards and forwards, looking after the rest of the family. They said that their first thought when they heard Kayleighs diagnosis was to cancel the wedding they had been planning since April. Mrs Walsh said: Kayleigh asked us to keep it going and the nurses actually suggested keeping it going because it gives Kayleigh something to look forward to, something to focus on, something to enjoy. She said: We only found out last week she could actually come out to come with us. That was a big surprise. They told us it would be a couple of hours at the most. Mr Walsh, 32, said Neither one of us actually thought today would happen with Kayleigh coming to the register office. Kayleigh has been in Sheffield Childrens Hospital for nearly six weeks (Danny Lawson/PA) He said: We cant thank everybody enough for what theyve done. His wife said she could not believe it when staff cheered them back on to the ward after the ceremony. Mrs Walsh said Kayleigh enjoyed the day more than anyone. Shes loved it. Shes smiled every second of it, she said. She walked me down the little aisle. That melted my heart, that did. Mrs Walsh said: Shes absolutely amazing. The couple have been together for 16 years and met when Mrs Walsh was 19 and Mr Walsh was 17. Hilary Quinton, the lead nurse for haematology and oncology at the hospital said: Its been a beautiful, beautiful day. Goosebumpy, I think, is the best way of describing it. She said: Kayleigh was crucial in the planning and everything has been with her say-so and approval. Weve involved everyone in the ward team, even and the children. The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) has kick-started its preparations for a hard Brexit, warning that the terms of the UKs exit are still unclear. The company has cautioned that a provisional agreement between negotiators in the UK and Brussels is yet to be approved by parliaments on both sides of the Channel, and could fall apart. In a statement, the LSE said: Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU continue but the UKs final exit terms are still unclear. The LSE welcomed a new chief executive this year (PA) The group is executing contingency plans to maintain continuity of market function and customer service in the event of a hard Brexit. .@LSEGplc announces 2018 Interim Results - strong financial performance with double digit revenue growth Information Services, Post Trade and Capital Markets https://t.co/p7SBOBWhJd LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) (@LSEGplc) August 2, 2018 These contingency plans include incorporation of new entities in the EU27 and applications for authorisation within the EU27 for certain group businesses. However, the complexity and the lack of clarity of the application of a hard Brexit may decrease the effectiveness or applicability of some of these contingency plans. The firm said that although a draft withdrawal agreement had been drawn up by both sides, with plans for a 21-month transition arrangement after Article 50 is triggered in March 2019, this agreement could not be relied upon at the current stage of negotiations. For the six months ended June 30, the LSEs revenue grew up 12% to 953 million, up from 853 million at the same point last year. .@LSEGplc well positioned to drive further growth as a diversified, global financial markets infrastructure business operating on an Open Access basis in partnership with customers https://t.co/BlT7Waswve pic.twitter.com/RjBrW1hhu5 LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) (@LSEGplc) August 2, 2018 Operating profit was up 29% from 305 million to 393 million, helping lift shares 2.6% or 115p to 4,472p. David Schwimmer, who was named as the LSEs new boss in April, said: I am delighted to join the group, which continues to deliver strong growth. The groups strategy, based on an open access and customer partnership approach, provides a great foundation for further success. A body found in a Dumfries river has been confirmed as that of missing woman Lynn Tyeson. The 48-year-old was last seen at around 3am on Sunday after a night out in the south of Scotland town. A large-scale search was launched by police and a body was found in the River Nith on Wednesday. Lynn Tyeson, 48, went missing in the Whitesands area of Dumfries in the early hours of Sunday (Police Scotland/PA) Ms Tyesons family thanked police and volunteers who took part in the searches for her. A statement released by Police Scotland said: The family of Lynn would like to thank everyone for their concern and messages of support over the past few days following Lynns disappearance. They would also like to thank all those involved in the search for Lynn, both in the emergency services and all those volunteers who spent time looking for her. A London drill rapper who was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday night recently admitted that the genre was contributing to violence in the capital. Moscow17 rapper Incognito, whose real name is believed to be Siddique Kamara, was stabbed to death in Warham Street in Camberwell in an incident which saw two other people taken to hospital by air ambulance. Two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested close to the scene on suspicion of murder, Scotland Yard said. The attack happened in the same street where 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton also a member of the collective was found with a fatal gunshot wound in May. The groups tracks have received hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Some featured references to other groups in the capital, including long-running rivals Zone 2 from Peckham. In one track, Moscow17 told Zone 2 to check the scoreboard, while another asked How you gonna make it even?. A Zone 2 lyric in response told their rivals they would roll up and burst them. Earlier this year, Kamara and another member of Moscow17 were cleared at the Old Bailey of murdering teenager Abdirahman Mohamed, a brother of a member of Zone 2. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has called on social media platforms such as YouTube to take down videos that glamorised violence, and, in an interview with Link Up TV earlier this year, Incognito spoke about the effect of drill music on crime in the capital. You see with the crime thats happening right now, music does influence it. Youve got to put your hands up and say drill music does influence it, he said. But knife crime and gun crime has been going on way before drill music, so if you want to talk about 10 years, 20 years, people were still getting cheffed up (attacked with knifes). He added: There (are) many ways to solve it you can bring out youth clubs, you can bring out many other things, invest money in other things to help the community, but you dont want to do that you just want to use an excuse with drill music. At the time of Rhyhiems death, his mother, Pretana Morgan, called for a halt to the wave of violence in the capital. Moscow17 rapper Incognito was killed and two others injured in the stabbing (Kirsty OConnor/PA) She said: Let my son be the last and be an example to everyone. Just let it stop. What must be, must be. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard, who is leading the latest investigation, said: Another young man has tragically and needlessly lost his life through an act of violence. We are keeping an open mind about the positive motive for this attack, but at this early stage one line of enquiry is this being gang-related. Id like to reassure the community that we have made two arrests and we are working around the clock to establish what happened and bring those responsible to justice. However, we cannot do this alone and Id appeal to any witnesses or anyone with information to get in touch with us as a matter of urgency. Speaking outside the family home on John Ruskin Street, close to the scene of the crime, the victims father Lamin Kama, said: Our family are in a lot of distress at the moment. He declined to comment further, saying only that Siddique had three brothers. The victim was just a few metres from the flats his family live in when he was killed. A murder investigation has been launched in #Camberwell after a man was stabbed to death last night. Two people have been arrested and detectives are appealing for witnesses and information. https://t.co/yGtvK13Aqq pic.twitter.com/JuOhz461j9 Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) August 2, 2018 A forensic tent was still in place at midday on Thursday at the spot where Siddique fell. A neighbour, who gave his name only as Andy, said: My dog was going crazy and when I looked out there was this guy lying on the floor. He said he did not see his injuries clearly, but there was blood. He must have been in his 20s. I didnt hear anything but I heard the helicopter and all the police cars. The road was all taped off. He continued: Its getting really rough around here. Ive lived here on and off for about 15 years. There was a shooting a few months ago. Another neighbour,Sidney Virgo, 80, said: I knew this was going to happen. As soon as kids start gathering thats when something like this happens. He said his neighbours son had been seriously stabbed on the estate just over a week ago. A woman whose two-year-old son was killed in the Grenfell Tower fire begged to join him before perishing in the flames while on the phone to a firefighter. Zainab Deen and toddler Jeremiah both died after becoming trapped on the 14th floor of the burning high-rise. Their harrowing final moments were relayed by firefighter Christopher Batcheldor, who heard ear-splitting screams which confirmed to him that was it. Mr Batcheldor, a crew manager at Fulham, reassured the frantic mother, who identified herself as Zenay, that they would be rescued after being handed a phone by her brother, Francis. Two-year-old Jeremiah died in the fire (Metropolitan Police/PA) He recalled hearing the little boy crying from the beginning of the call and said he was gagging to hear the door kicked in by fire crews. After about half an hour, the toddler stopped coughing and crying. In a written statement to the inquiry, he said: Zenay was crying My boys dead. She said I want to be with my son. I said Dont talk like that. We are coming for you. Dont give up. I then passed the phone back to Francis and said Tell her you love her and that you are waiting for her. Tell her to keep fighting. Zainab Deen died in the tower block (Metropolitan Police/PA) Mid-way through the call, which lasted more than an hour, Mr Batcheldor said he learned that crews were unable to get above floor 12. He said: I knew I couldnt tell her this. I just couldnt tell her that so I basically lied to her and continued to tell her that we were coming for her. It got to a point where she wasnt talking much. I could hear a bit of coughing and spluttering. I could hear that she was still there but she wasnt responding. I kept on chatting to her. For Francis, I had to keep up the pretence that she was OK. When she stopped responding I could hear a little whimpering but I kept talking to her in case she could hear my voice. After five to 10 minutes of silence, he heard ear-splitting screams for about 60 seconds as the fire got to her. He knew then that Ms Deen had died, but could not bring himself to break the devastating news to her brother. He said: I told him that we had got disconnected and perhaps her battery had gone. He asked me if she was out. I told him we (the fire brigade) were right there, trying to get to her. He added: Francis hugged me and thanked me. He said that Zenay would be really grateful. I knew that I had just lied to him. Afterwards, Mr Batcheldor told the unit collating information from emergency calls from trapped residents that the pair were dead. Some 72 people died as a result of the fire on June 14 last year. The inquiry, at Holborn Bars, central London, is hearing a last day of firefighter evidence before it pauses for a month. As gun and knife violence in London has appeared to intensify over the past year, so too has attention on an aggressive type of rap named drill music. Here are some key questions about the genre: What is it? Drill music is a type of hip hop characterised by its distinctive so-called trap-style beat and ominous sounds. It originated in Chicago, but the UK version began to become popular in south London from about 2012. Music videos posted online often feature hooded and masked gangs threatening each other, with lyrics about drugs, guns and stabbing rivals with knives. Why is it a problem? Notting Hill drill gang 1011 had restrictions on making music with violent lyrics imposed on them by a court (Metropolitan Police/PA) Drill music has been blamed, at least in part, for fuelling the surge of murders and other violent crimes. Gang disputes and postcode wars are played out online as rappers post videos mocking or threatening their rivals. Senior police officers, politicians and judges have suggested that threats made in videos posted on social media and comment threads have spilled over into real-life violent crime. Earlier this year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick called on social media platforms to take down drill videos that were inciting violence. Meanwhile, in June, five members of a west London drill group called 1011 had restrictions on making music with violent lyrics imposed on them by a court and were ordered to inform police of new videos and upcoming performances. Does everyone agree? Artists and fans deny drill music causes violence, arguing that the lyrics and themes are a reflection of the experiences of many young people growing up in deprived urban environments. Some videos start with a disclaimer stating: All characters and names are completely fictional and any similarity between any names or gang activity is false and completely coincidental. Before he was killed in a knife attack in Camberwell, drill rapper Incognito, from south-east Londons Moscow17, admitted in an interview that the genre does influence violent crime, but said it had been used as an excuse by authorities who had failed to provide opportunities for young people. There (are) many ways to solve it you can bring out youth clubs, you can bring out many other things, invest money in other things to help the community, but you dont want to do that you just want to use an excuse with drill music, he said. How popular is it? Abra Cadabra after winning the Best Song award at the 21st Mobo Awards at Glasgows SSE Hydro (Andrew Milligan/PA) Artists have achieved limited commercial success, with most gaining exposure by streaming their music online. But the most popular MCs have large followings and their videos have been viewed millions of times. One video by MC SL has racked up more than 17 million views on YouTube, while tracks by rappers Loski, Headie One and Skengdo regularly attract millions of viewers. Abra Cadabra has frequently appeared on BBC radio and won the Best Song award at 2016s Mobos. How easy is it to find? Hundreds of videos can be found on YouTube, social media sites and music streaming apps with a simple search. Few come with warnings about their explicit content or require any age-verification process to view. Comments underneath the videos often feature discussions of ongoing violence between rival groups. The Scottish Human Rights Commission has raised concerns over plans to evict more than 300 former asylum seekers from their homes in Glasgow. Commission chairwoman Judith Robertson warned locking people out of their homes and leaving them on the streets is a clear violation of these human rights responsibilities. She warned the Home Office and its accommodation providers for asylum seekers, Serco, of their need to protect the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Campaigners warned the Home Office and Serco, of their need to protect the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers (Andrew Milligan/PA) She said: The commission is deeply concerned about the human rights of people seeking asylum and those granted refugee status who are facing eviction from their homes in Glasgow. NEW: Statement on the human rights of those currently facing eviction in Glasgow. Both Home Office and Serco have obligations to respect & protect rights. https://t.co/fOm5jsvcur Scottish Human Rights Commission (@ScotHumanRights) August 2, 2018 Both the UK Government and the private firm Serco have human rights obligations and responsibilities to these groups. In particular, the UK Government has an obligation to ensure rights are upheld not only in law and policy, but through relevant procurement and contractual arrangements. Everyone has a right to a private and family life, to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment and, in terms of international law, a right to adequate housing. Locking people out of their homes, leaving them destitute and vulnerable on our streets, is a clear violation of these human rights responsibilities. She called on all parties to work together to ensure human rights are respected. Her call comes as two men enter the second day of a hunger protest against the planned evictions. Glasgow Sets Up Taskforce to Help Asylum Seekers Threatened with Lock Changeshttps://t.co/duOIpGv808 pic.twitter.com/JlyjkKq7au Glasgow City Council (@GlasgowCC) July 31, 2018 Afghan nationals Rahman Shah, 32, and Mirwais Ahmadzai, 27, are protesting outside the Home Office base in Glasgow. Both men said they are feeling sick, having had nothing to eat or drink. Mr Ahmadzai said: We are here on behalf of all asylum seekers. We want justice for all asylum seekers. Sercos plans to start changing the locks for asylum seekers refused refugee status was revealed at the weekend, sparking protests. On Wednesday, Serco chief executive Rupert Soames said lock-change notices would be given to no more than 10 people a week for the next four weeks. He said none of these would be families with children and all will be people who the Home Office considers to have exhausted their appeal process and no longer have right to remain. Letter from @rsoames about asylum seeker accommodation in Glasgow sent to Scottish politicians https://t.co/7uAFh9VQqT Serco Group (@SercoGroup) August 1, 2018 He made the concessions to Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken in response to a letter she wrote to Home Secretary Sajid Javid calling for a stop to the policy due to fears of a humanitarian crisis, co-signed by SNP, Labour and Green politicians. He said Serco is paying for accommodation in Glasgow for 330 people who are no longer receiving support from the Home Office. Chris Froome has become a father for the second time following the birth of his daughter Katie. The four-time Tour de France winner posted a picture on Instagram announcing that Katie had been born on Wednesday, just days after Froome returned home from this years Tour, where he finished third overall behind Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas and Team Sunwebs Tom Dumoulin. Froome and his wife Michelle already have a son Kellan, who was born in December 2015. Chris Froome has become a father for the second time (Ian Parker/PA) Froome started the Tour holding all three Grand Tour titles concurrently, and looking for a record-equalling fifth Tour triumph and a rare Giro-Tour double, last achieved by Marco Pantani in 1998. Days before the Tour began, Froome was cleared of wrongdoing after returning a test with high levels of Salbutamol in last years Vuelta a Espana. After a crash on the opening stage put him behind Thomas, the 33-year-old did not have the legs to make up time in the mountains and he instead switched his focus to helping the Welshman in the last few days of the race. In a sport with a history of acrimonious leadership battles within teams, Froomes attitude earned gratitude from Thomas in his victory speech in Paris on Sunday. Big respect to Froomey, Thomas said. It could have got awkward, there could have been tensions, but mate you were a great champion. A Japanese medical university has systematically discriminated against female applicants because women tend to quit as doctors after starting families, media reports said. The Yomiuri newspaper said Tokyo Medical University has manipulated the entrance exam results of women since about 2011 to keep the female student population low. Quoting unidentified sources, it said the manipulation started after the share of successful female applicants reached 38% of the total in 2010. The Tokyo Medical University is at the centre of controversy over applications (Ayaka Aizawa/Kyodo News via AP) Other Japanese media, including NHK public television and Kyodo News, also reported the exam manipulation. NHK said female applicants scores were slashed by about 10% in some years. The allegation surfaced during the schools probe of a separate scandal in which its former director was accused of granting admission to the son of a top education bureaucrat in exchange for a favour. The schools public affairs department said officials were surprised by the Yomiuri report and had no knowledge of the reported manipulation. It promised to look into the matter. Yoshiko Maeda, head of the Japan Medical Womens Association, said it was astonishing that women in Japan are still being stripped of their right to seek entry to the medical profession. Instead of worrying about women quitting jobs, they should do more to create an environment where women can keep working, Ms Maeda said. And we need working style reform, which is not just to prevent overwork deaths, but to create a workplace where everyone can perform to the best of their ability regardless of gender. In Japan, many women are college graduates but face discrimination in hiring and pay. Long working hours and lack of support in child rearing from their husbands often force them to give up their careers. As Japans population ages and birth rates remain low, many workplaces including hospitals are chronically short staffed. Earlier this year, a Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry panel urged medical institutions to allow more flexible working environments and support for female doctors so they can return to work after maternity leave and balance work and family. While women account for more than 40% of the overall workforce, the share of female doctors who have passed the national medical exam has plateaued at around 30% for more than 20 years. The slow progress in medicine has prompted speculation among some doctors about possible widespread interference in the school admissions process. Entrance exams that unfairly discriminate against women are absolutely not acceptable, Education Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. He said the ministry will decide on its response after receiving the results of an investigation from the school. In Japan, medical graduates usually end up working at school-affiliated hospitals. According to the Yomiuri, the school started to restrict the portion of females in each class to about 30% by manipulating the test scores to get more women to fail. Admissions records released to The Associated Press by the school show the percentage of women who passed the entrance exam rose from 24% in 2009 to 38% in 2010. The figure has since stayed below that level until decreasing to 18% this year. Scottish ministers have issued a fresh call for action to protect the status of unique food and drink products after Brexit. Under European law, products such as Scotch whisky, Stornoway black pudding and Arbroath smokies are protected by geographical indications (GI) that recognise their regional importance and distinctive characteristics. The UK Government has indicated it intends to establish its own GI scheme after leaving the EU. Stornoway black pudding is one of several products protected under EU law (Andrew Milligan/PA) In an article published on Thursday, the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the protection of geographical indications is one of the outstanding issues yet to be agreed. The Scottish Government has once again called for the issue to be resolved. Rural Affairs Secretary Fergus Ewing said: Maintaining our protected food names and other geographical indications following Brexit is vital this is something that we have been calling for the UK Government to do for a long time. Cab Sec @FergusEwingMSP says urgent action is needed from @GOVUK to protect Scotlands famous food and drink produce, in response to news from @MichelBarnier that @GOVUK have not yet agreed to protect Geographical Indications after #Brexit. Read more: https://t.co/BOGVdTXugH pic.twitter.com/SjEr4AU2Wk ScotGovEurope (@ScotGovEurope) August 2, 2018 The European Commissions chief negotiator recognises the significant contribution that these producers make to the wider economy. We have been pressing UK Government to agree a need for a UK GI system post-Brexit from the outset and, while we welcome confirmation in their White Paper of the plans to do so, there remains a question over maintaining the existing protection currently enjoyed by our producers within the EU through the mutual recognition of our protected products. It is extremely alarming that the EU says this has not yet been resolved and that the failure of the UK Government to reach agreement on this issue is being cited as one of the obstacles to reaching an overall withdrawal agreement. The UK Government must make it clear it is not preparing to ditch vital geographical indications to facilitate a future trade deal with the US. It must rule out no deal and reach an agreement that protects our world-class produce. A UK Government spokeswoman said negotiations on geographical indications are continuing. A spokeswoman said: GIs are very important to the UK, both culturally and economically, and that is why we will establish specific GI schemes to protect UK GIs in the future. This means favourites such as Scotch whisky, Scotch beef and lamb, Scottish wild salmon and all other current UK GI protected products will continue to be safeguarded in the UK when we leave the EU. A woman whose two-year-old son was killed in the Grenfell Tower fire begged to join him before perishing in the flames while on the phone to a firefighter. Zainab Deen and toddler Jeremiah both died after becoming trapped on the 14th floor of the burning high-rise. Their harrowing final moments were relayed by firefighter Christopher Batcheldor, who broke down as he recalled how he urged Ms Deen not to give up. Mr Batcheldor, a crew manager at Fulham, reassured the frantic mother, who identified herself as Zenay, that they would be rescued. He was speaking to her on a phone handed to him by a man called Francis who he believed was Ms Deens brother. He recalled hearing the little boy crying from the beginning of the call and said he was gagging to hear the door kicked in by fire crews. Zainab Deen died in the tower block (Metropolitan Police/PA) After about half an hour, the toddler stopped coughing and crying. In a written statement to the inquiry, he said: Zenay was crying My boys dead. She said I want to be with my son. I said Dont talk like that. We are coming for you. Dont give up. I then passed the phone back to Francis and said Tell her you love her and that you are waiting for her. Tell her to keep fighting. Mid-way through the call, which lasted more than an hour, Mr Batcheldor said he learned that crews were unable to get above floor 12. He said: I knew I couldnt tell her this. I just couldnt tell her that so I basically lied to her and continued to tell her that we were coming for her. It got to a point where she wasnt talking much. I could hear a bit of coughing and spluttering. The blaze at Grenfell Tower claimed 72 lives (Natalie Oxford/PA) I could hear that she was still there but she wasnt responding. I kept on chatting to her. For Francis, I had to keep up the pretence that she was OK. When she stopped responding I could hear a little whimpering but I kept talking to her in case she could hear my voice. After five to 10 minutes of quiet, he heard ear-splitting screams for about 60 seconds before silence fell once more. He knew then that Ms Deen had died, but could not bring himself to break the devastating news to Francis. Firefighters have been giving evidence to the inquiry (Jonathan Brady/PA) He said: I told him that we had got disconnected and perhaps her battery had gone. He asked me if she was out. I told him we (the fire brigade) were right there, trying to get to her. He added: Francis hugged me and thanked me. He said that Zenay would be really grateful. I knew that I had just lied to him. Afterwards, Mr Batcheldor told the unit collating information from emergency calls made by trapped residents that the pair were dead. Some 72 people died as a result of the fire on June 14 last year. Two-year-old Jeremiah died in the fire (Metropolitan Police/PA) The inquiry, at Holborn Bars, central London, has heard five weeks of evidence from London Fire Brigade personnel. It had intended to hear all firefighter evidence before August, when the inquiry will pause for a month, but further witnesses will now be called following a short procedural hearing on September 3. Michael Mansfield, on behalf of families he represents, asked chairman of the inquiry Sir Martin Moore-Bick if he would use the break to consider examples of manifestly obvious urgent requirements for precautions to be taken in similar tower blocks. He replied that the inquiry team would gratefully receive any submissions. Survivors, the bereaved and local community will be called in October, and expert witnesses in November. Sir Martin said he hoped all evidence would be heard by the end of the 2018 with an interim report released early in the new year. Dorothy Ellis, the final First World War widow whose late husband inspired the novel War Horse, has died aged 96, her family said. Mrs Ellis passed away on Wednesday in a nursing home, her niece Pauline Smith confirmed. She was the widow of veteran Wilfred Ellis, who was shot, gassed and left for dead on the front line in 1918. Mrs Ellis lays a wreath at the Gallipoli Memorial in 2013. The final First World War widow passed away Wednesday Wildred Ellis, whose memoir inspired the film War Horse Dorothy Ellis with members of the local British legion Dorothy Ellis, who was born on Armistice Day and is the widow of a soldier who inspired Michael Morpurgo's 'War Horse' His recount of the conflict inspired the novel, theatre production and movie War Horse, originally written by Michael Morpurgo, whom he befriended in later life. Paying tribute to her late aunt on Thursday, Ms Smith, 63, said: 'It feels very strange because we were brought up with her being our aunt up the road and then you find out all this history. 'It's quite surprising but it makes you very proud as well. 'She took a great interest in all the family, she didn't have any children, but in her nieces and nephews and then later on in life her great nieces and nephews, of which she had quite a few.' Mrs Ellis had been bound to the war since the start of her life despite not witnessing it as she was born on Armistice Day in 1921. She married her husband in 1942 and served in the women's home guard auxiliary during the Second World War. Mrs Ellis had been bound to the war since the start of her life despite not witnessing it as she was born on Armistice Day in 1921 Grave of Wilfred Ellis: His wife Dorothy outlived him for almost 37 years A 20-year age gap meant she outlived Mr Ellis, who died aged 82 in 1981, by almost four decades and remained in the home they shared together for more than 70 years. The pair met after Wilfred moved from Wimbledon in south west London, to her home village in Iddesleigh, Devon. They fell in love and wed in 1942 when Dorothy was 21 and Wilfred was 44. Though he served with the Norfolk Regiment during the war Wilfred rarely spoke about his experiences. That is until he met author Michael Morpurgo, who lived in the same village. His wartime exploits became the inspiration for Morpurgo's 1982 book War Horse, which he dedicated to Wilfred and fellow villagers Albert Weeks and Captain Arthur Walter Morland Budgett. Mrs Ellis' later years were defined by an indefatigable commitment to the memory of Britain's war dead, friend and Royal British Legion fundraiser Carole Arnold said. She added: 'Dorothy was a very special lady, she had this museum in her house about Wilfred, her husband, she kept everything because she was so proud of him. Dorothy Ellis with a white Peace Rose: her husband Wilfred Ellis served at the front and was shot and gassed but made it home to the village of Iddesleigh in Devon were later he married the young Dorothy Mrs Ellis was guest of honour at the Gallipoli Memorial in 2013 'She was so knowledgeable, so aware of what was going on because it is so important to remember World War One, to remember these veterans and she remembered them. 'She was such a supporter of the military, such a supporter of the legion, she was so, so proud of being part of the history.' The Royal British Legion had helped organise travel for Mrs Ellis to visit the National Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire for Armistice Day in 2013, where she was guest of honour. She considered it one of the best days of her later life, Mrs Arnold said. Wilfred Ellis' recount of the First World War inspired the novel War Horse - which later became a play and movie Mrs Ellis said at the time: 'My husband felt very strongly about Armistice Day and it was a day that was set aside as a solemn remembrance day. 'I noticed, he was always usually a very jolly person but on Armistice Day he would just go very quiet and at first I couldn't understand it but then I got to realise why he was being so quiet and silent. 'He said to me, 'you've got to remember this is the day that thousands of poor chaps died for us to keep us alive'.' A watchdog has expressed grave concern after potentially significant police records on the murder of a French filmmaker in Ireland went missing. Sophie Toscan du Plantier was beaten to death on a freezing night outside her holiday home on a remote west Cork hillside on December 23 1996. Ian Bailey, a former freelance journalist originally from the Manchester area, was arrested twice over the 39-year-olds murder. The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) said: It is GSOCs view, formed after an extensive investigation, that while there was evidence of a lack of administration and management of aspects of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, there was no evidence of the high-level corruption by gardai alleged by the complainants Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell. Ian Bailey leaving the Court of Appeal in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) A number of factors led to Ian Bailey being identified as a suspect at an early stage of the murder inquiry. His subsequent arrest and the arrest of his partner, Jules Thomas, therefore could not, as the complainants allege, have been construed as unlawful or illegal. Irish courts have repeatedly refused to extradite the former journalist to France for questioning over the murder. Mr Bailey denies any involvement in the killing near Schull in west Cork. The Commissions investigation reviewed a jobs book compiled by the police on the murder investigation. It said: The missing pages from the jobs book when Ian Bailey was identified as a suspect are of grave concern to GSOC. These books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident (or investigation) along with the rationale for the decisions made. The village of Schull, West Cork (Haydn West/PA) This concern is compounded further by the fact that the specific pages missing are from an area of the book when Ian Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect in the murder by gardai, and as such, they are potentially very significant. The significant amount of missing original garda documentation, witness statements, suspect files and physical exhibits in the garda murder investigation suggest to GSOC that there was a lack of administration and management of the incident room (even when viewed through the lens of the time) as opposed to clear evidence of malpractice or corruption. It added: The lack of forensic material obtained from the scene, particularly given the precise nature of the murder and the state in which the body of Madame Toscan Du Plantier was discovered, is also of concern to GSOC. The report found no evidence a key witness, Marie Farrell, was coerced or intimidated into making false statements against Mr Bailey. It said the review of telephone call recordings provided to GSOC during this investigation indicated that Ms Farrell had not been under pressure in her interactions with a detective garda to provide accounts, although the relationship appeared inappropriate at times. The Commission was not able to substantiate other serious allegations that a witness had been provided with illegal drugs by gardai, though the telephone calls which have been reviewed noted that drugs were mentioned by the witness himself. Another blast of hot weather is set to hit parts of the UK. Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said the mercury was likely to reach the high 20s and low 30s again, adding that despite the more comfortable temperatures in recent days it is not the end of the hot weather for the summer. Temperatures could climb back up to 31C in London this weekend, with sunshine returning to most of the country. The north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will enjoy temperatures in the mid-20s, with scatterings of rain. A Met Office spokesman told the Press Association: Essentially at the end of the week were looking at a bit of a north-west/south-east split in the weather. Northern and some western areas will often be cooler with some outbreaks of rain particularly in Northern Ireland and that could spread in to southern and western Scotland. Temperatures are likely to hit at least 32C and possibly 33C in parts of the south east on Friday, while south western parts of the UK could see 28C or 29C. The spokesman added: This weekend is much more promising than last weekend with plenty of sunshine around, although the north of England could see a few showers on Saturday. (PA Graphics) The heat is likely to continue into next week. Temperatures will remain pretty hot across at least the south of England but potentially more widely across the UK we could see some wet weather coming across the north west, but still pretty hot, the spokesman said. Holidaymakers heading to Spain and Portugal were warned of an extreme heatwave which could see the hottest temperatures ever recorded in continental Europe. Luke Miall, a Met Office meteorologist, said the current record of 48C (118F) in Athens, Greece, in 1977 could be broken as a wave of blisteringly hot air sweeps in from Africa. Temperatures crept into the low 40s on Wednesday and are predicted to rise and peak at the weekend, with the highs expected inland rather than in coastal areas. Paddle boarders enjoy the warm weather in Poole Harbour in Dorset (Andrew Matthews/PA) He added: These sorts of temperatures are not only exceptional for the locals but people from the UK will never really have experienced them. Especially with it being the school holidays, and the very young and old being susceptible to heatstroke, were advising tourists to keep out of the midday sun and protect themselves. Combined with high pressure in charge, blue skies every day, and the ground already warmed up, that leads to a day-on-day build, combining to give us these intense temperatures. Temperatures in south-west France could also rise to the high 30s, he added. By Amedee Mwarabu KINSHASA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of cheering supporters greeted opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba on Wednesday as he returned to Democratic Republic of Congo after a decade in prison to submit his candidacy for December's presidential election. Bemba, a former vice president and warlord whose war crimes convictions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague were quashed on appeal in May, is expected to pose a stiff challenge to President Joseph Kabila or his preferred successor. After arriving aboard a private jet at Kinshasa airport, Bemba, 55, dressed in a dark suit and a red tie, shook hands with family members and officials from his MLC party before driving off towards the city centre in a white SUV. Throngs of people -- many in T-shirts, hats and scarves bearing his likeness -- lined streets and peered down from pedestrian bridges to catch a glimpse of Bemba, who waved and thrust his fist into the air from the open top of his car. Police fired teargas near the airport and in the neighbourhood of Limite as they tried to clear the road, witnesses said. Bemba was scheduled to stay at his home in the wealthy riverside Gombe district but was prevented passage "for security reasons", the police said in a statement. He will instead stay in a hotel, it said. He is expected to file his candidacy with the electoral commission on Thursday, MLC official Jean-Jacques Mbungani told reporters. He will then fly to his family's hometown of Gemena in northwestern Congo to pay his respects to his late father. "Thank you with all my heart for your encouragement," Bemba tweeted along with a photo of himself looking out from MLC headquarters over thousands of supporters. "Know that my commitment to restore my country ... remains unchanged." His return is expected to energise opposition to Kabila, who has been in power since his father's assassination in 2001 and is barred by constitutional limits from standing for a new term. Kabila has refused to commit publicly to not contesting the election. That has kept the country in suspense over whether he will choose someone else to represent his ruling coalition, paving the way for Congo's first democratic transition, or try to run again and risk a violent backlash. Security forces have killed dozens of protesters since late 2016 when Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate, saying elections needed more time to be organised. Militia violence in the eastern borderlands has surged since then. Bemba's supporters showed little patience on Wednesday. "Kabila, know that Bemba is back," they chanted. ELIGIBLE TO RUN? The deadline to file candidacies is Aug. 8. Bemba said last week that he believes he is the strongest candidate to represent the opposition but would be willing to make way for another candidate. His eligibility could be challenged in the courts. The ruling coalition said last week he is disqualified from running by a witness tampering conviction at the ICC, even though convictions for murder, rape and pillage committed by his militia in neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002 were thrown out. Any invalidation of Bemba's candidacy would infuriate his supporters, especially in western Congo. After his loss to Kabila in the 2006 election, his militiamen and government troops fought gunbattles in the streets of Kinshasa. "If they try to exclude him, we know that's political," said Denise Vila, the provincial coordinator of the MLC's women's league. "We are going to fight so that Jean-Pierre Bemba stays in the race." Another opposition hopeful, millionaire businessman and former provincial governor Moise Katumbi, plans to return to Congo on Friday after two years in exile but risks arrest due to a conviction for real estate fraud in 2016. According to a poll released on Tuesday, Katumbi and fellow opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi lead the presidential race with 19 percent support each. Bemba got 17 percent and Kabila nine percent. (Additional reporting by Fiston Mahamba; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Janet Lawrence, William Maclean, Edward McAllister and David Stamp) By Mfuneko Toyana JOHANNESBURG, Aug 1 (Reuters) - South Africa's white farmers on Wednesday criticised the ruling African National Congress' (ANC) decision to endorse constitutional changes to allow the state to seize land without compensation, saying the move would be "catastrophic". On Tuesday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the decision by the ANC's top decision-making organ to push ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. More than two decades after the end of apartheid, whites still own most of South Africa's land and ownership remains a highly emotive subject. Investors said Ramaphosa's speech was aimed at winning political points ahead of an election in mid-2019. AfriForum, an organisation that mostly represents white South Africans on issues like affirmative action, said in a statement land expropriation without compensation would have "catastrophic results ... like in Venezuela and Zimbabwe". "History teaches us that international investors, regardless of what AfriForum or anyone else says, are unwilling to invest in a country where property rights are not protected," AfriForum's Chief Executive Kallie Kriel said. Analysts at investment giant Old Mutual said the president was aiming to control the narrative around land reform, which has so far been dominated by the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, before the election. "It could be a very clever chess move," Old Mutual Investment Group's managing director Khaya Gobodo said at a media briefing, adding that Ramaphosa was trying to reduce the possibility of negative outcome from the land expropriation exercise by clearly staking out ANC's plan on the matter. MARKETS FRET Market reaction to the speech was initially negative, with rand falling as much as 2 percent, but recovered almost half of those losses on Wednesday. The 2044 bond chalked up the steepest losses, falling nearly 1.4 cents to its lowest level in nearly four weeks, according to Tradeweb data. The cost of insuring exposure to South Africa's sovereign debt also rose with five year credit default swaps climbing as high as 188 basis points, an 8 bps jump from Tuesday's close and a near-three week high, according to data provider IHS Markit. South Africa's parliament in February passed a motion brought by the radical left party, the EFF, to carry out land expropriation without compensation. A team of lawmakers was then given the task of canvassing public opinion on whether section 25 of the Constitution needs amending to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. The process is still ongoing, and analysts said Ramaphosa's speech had pre-empted the lawmakers' work. Some analysts said it was not all doom and gloom and that eventually Ramaphosa will propose relatively limited amendments. "Land will not be nationalised, there will be no Zimbabwe-style land seizures and the constitution will only allow expropriation without compensation in a narrow set of circumstances," Ben Payton, Head of Africa at Verisk Maplecroft, said. (Additional reporting by Alexander Winning in Johannesburg and Karin Strohecker in London Editing by James Macharia and Angus MacSwan) By Kevin Mwanza NAIROBI, Aug 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hundreds of slum residents have asked a Kenyan court to stop them being evicted from state-owned land, their lawyer said on Wednesday, a week after authorities demolished the homes of 30,000 Nairobians living in one of Africa's largest slums. The National Building Inspectorate, a state agency in charge of housing safety, issued a notice to residents in six Nairobi slums on July 19 warning that their houses would be demolished in August. "We want them to be given time to move," said lawyer Soyinka Lempaa, who is representing about 300 slum residents. "(Evictions) should be done in accordance with the law and as humanely as possible," said Lempaa, who works with the Katiba Institute rights group. Moses Nyakiongora, secretary of the National Building Inspectorate, said in a phone interview that people had invaded and built on Kenya Railways and Kenya Power's land and resisted efforts to relocate them. "There is encroachment with impunity, even where orders have been given," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "People live very dangerously, even near railways and power lines, and when something happens they claim compensation from government. We need to do something now." International law regards forced eviction as a gross violation of human rights, regardless of whether or not the land was occupied legally, as it can push people deeper into poverty. Kenyan law says people illegally occupying public land should only be evicted after receiving three months notice, but it does not oblige the government to offer them alternative housing, the advocacy group Amnesty International says. Thousands of shanties were bulldozed last week in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum and home to some 400,000 people, to make way for a road. Amnesty International said the demolitions left 30,000 residents homeless, highlighting the difficulties faced by poor people living in slums as African cities expand rapidly. About half of Africa's 470 million city residents live in informal settlements, a figure that is expected to rise as the World Bank predicts the continent's urban population will double to 1 billion people by 2040. Kenya's rail and power companies own huge tracts of land nationwide as safety buffers where their lines pass and for future expansion, although much of it has been encroached on. (Reporting by Kevin Mwanza; editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/) Aug 1 (Reuters) - Molson Coors Brewing Co's Canadian arm will make cannabis-infused drinks along with marijuana producer Hydropothecary Corp, betting on a promising market as beer sales stagnate in North America. The brewer is the latest to capitalize on Canada's decision to legalize recreational marijuana later in the year, a market industry watchers say could be worth $5 billion to $10 billion. Last year, Corona beer-maker Constellation Brands Inc became the first major beer and spirits producer to partner with a Canadian marijuana producer, picking up a nearly 10 percent stake in Canopy Growth Corp. Molson Coors Canada said its joint venture with Hydropothecary, which will make non-alcoholic pot-based drinks, will be a standalone company with its own board of directors and an independent management team. The deal is expected to close before Sept. 30, just ahead of the proposed legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada. Marijuana products like toffees and drinks are expected to be legalized by 2019. The Canadian brewer will have a 57.5 percent controlling interest in the venture, with Hydropothecary owning the rest. Molson Coors, the No. 2 beer maker in North America, has seen global beer volumes fall in the latest quarter. In the United States, volumes dropped 4.8 percent as consumers shift to craft beers and wine. "There is a paradigm shift underway and cannabis has the potential to provide answers to the alcoholic drinks industry's existential questions," said Spiros Malandrakis, head of alcoholic drinks at Euromonitor. (Reporting by Shanti S Nair in Bengaluru Editing by Supriya Kurane and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) By David Ljunggren OTTAWA, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Canada is planning to scale back plans to impose a carbon tax on major emitters of greenhouse gases after businesses complained it would make them less competitive with the United States, officials said on Wednesday. The move underlines the challenges facing Canada as it tries to deal with Washington under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has slashed domestic corporate taxes and imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - which came to power in 2015 vowing to tackle climate change - had initially proposed a levy on 30 percent of industries' emissions in any of Canada's 10 provinces that did not introduce a carbon pricing system of their own. Firms complained this would make them less competitive, given the United States has no such carbon tax. The levy has now been cut to 20 percent for most sectors and 10 percent for vulnerable sectors such as iron, steel and cement. The initial charge of C$20 a tonne will start in January 2020 and rise to C$50 by 2022. "This really ensures our industries remain competitive but also that we are able to meet our emissions reductions targets," said Caroline Theriault, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. The news was first reported by the Globe and Mail newspaper. The move is significant because the new right-wing government in the province of Ontario - the heartland of Canadian industry - intends to scrap an existing carbon pricing system. This means heavy emitters in Ontario will need to pay the new federal tax. Theriault, speaking by phone, said Ottawa had consulted broadly with industry and would continue those talks before issuing a full set of draft proposals later this year. Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, said if the carbon tax was too high, firms would relocate their production to places without rules on emissions - a phenomenon known as carbon leakage. "These are ... costs that we would incur in Canada but our competing plants in the United States would not," he said by phone, noting that 93 percent of Canadian auto production was exported to the United States. "We are a prime candidate for carbon leakage ... you just pack up your business and go to someplace that doesn't have a carbon tax and you continue to produce vehicles." (Reporting by David Ljunggren) PARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale said it had agreed to sell its banks in Bulgaria and Albania to Hungary's OTP Bank, as part of its strategy to reorganize its assets. Societe Generale did not disclose the amount of the transaction, but said the sales together with the disposal of its Belgian private banking unit announced earlier this week would generate a profit. SocGen has said it intends to rejig its footprint by exiting from countries or businesses where it lacked critical size and consolidating its positions where it is already strong. (Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta) Stockholm (dpa), Aug 1 2018- Denmarks ban against the use of full-face veils in public spaces, called a burqa ban, went into effect on Wednesday. The Danish parliament approved the ban in May. It includes full-face veils like the niqab, balaclavas, face-covering ski masks, face masks and fake beards, but not protective masks. A first-time offender could risk a fine of 1,000 kroner(156 dollars) . Repeat offences would result in a higher fine. A fourth offence and any further violations would be met with a fine of 10,000 kroner. Protests against the ban were planned later Wednesday in the capital Copenhagen and the city of Aarhus. Police said protesters who planned to fully cover their faces at the demonstrations would not risk a fine. The demonstrations were considered part of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, Benny Ochkenholt of the Danish national police told public broadcaster DR. Fines could, however, be issued if participants were masked on their way to or from the demonstrations, he added. Question: Regarding my posts about the terrible perversion of Torah and halacha that Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky has engineered with his prod... Rosh(6:7): When a community agrees on some matter an individual has no right to protest. Concerning this the Torah states that one m... I received the following letter - as a response to my recent posting of the Chazon Ish's letter - with permission to publish it. ... We just had a sweater checked for shatnez in Jerusalem -it was claimed that every fiber was shatnez We donated it to a Shatnez checker in... Shulchan Aruch (C.M. 2) Every Court of Law, 2 Even a Court of Law outside the Land of Israel M.E. even [one whose members] are not duly ... Igros Moshe (Y.D. 3:88): Is it permitted to argue with the words of our Sages in public even in their communitie... We know Avraham was greatly concerned with justice. When his nephew was captured he risked his life to save him When Yishmael was kicked o... Important!! email - yadmoshe@gmail.com Private and public medical officers will launch a 24 hour work stoppage from 8 am tomorrow urging the authorities to resolve ten issues which impact health professionals and the general public. The GMOA last week called for a work stoppage over ten trade union demands including the revision of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Singapore and reduction of high taxation upon medical officers and private hospitals. Tomorrows strike will be launched in all districts, teaching and general hospitals except at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Apeksha Hospital Maharagama, De Soysa Maternity Hospital and National Blood and in the peripheral hospital units. GMOA Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge said although the demands were explained to President Maithripala Sirisena and the health authorities during the last two months, their issues were not addressed. Meanwhile, Dr. Naveen de Zoysa responding to a statement made by Minister of Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure and Foreign Employment Harin Fernando, invited him to join with the medical officers strike stating that struggle was not for GMOAs benefit but for the betterment of the patients. However, the GMOA said that it will call-off their strike at any moment if President Sirisena intervenes and gives them a written assurance to resolve their issues. (Thilanka Kanakarathna) Grooms will now take centre stage as they get ready for their big day with Hameedia. Sri Lankas leading menswear specialist recently introduced The Grooming Studio - a total range of grooming solutions under one roof for grooms-to-be. Available at Hameedia showrooms island-wide, and run by Hameedias expert team of grooming consultants, The Grooming Studio enables grooms to be completely wedding-ready and look their absolute best on the most important day of their lives. Hameedia will now offer the discerning groom two main typed of suit ranges at the The Grooming Studio. The Premium Suit range, which is available at the Envoy Mansion and all Hameedia outlets, includes four high-end suit packages, namely the Luxury Package which is priced at Rs. 500,000, the Esteem Package which is priced at Rs. 325,000, the Smart Package which is priced at Rs. 175,000 and the Classic Package which is priced at Rs. 100,000. The second range, the Budget Suit range, which is available at all Hameedia outlets comprises three suit packages, including Package 1 which is priced at Rs. 80,000, Package 2 which is priced at Rs. 60,000 and Package 3 which is priced at Rs. 40,000. Both the Premium Suit range and the Budget Suit range will be on offer until the 31st of August, 2018. Each of the packages feature timeless staples and suits made from the finest fabrics and adorned with plush finishes and embellishments. Commenting on Hameedias newest offering, Fouzul Hameed, Managing Director Hameedia stated: We are pleased to launch this new concept, The Grooming Studio, which is essentially a one-stop grooming solution for grooms-to-be from all walks of life. Our highly professional grooming consultants, who are well-versed in the art of dressing and preparing a groom for his big day, are well-geared to handpick the ideal outfit to suit the needs and style of each individual client, right down to the last detail. Hameedia also recently introduced a 6-12 month interest-free instalment scheme via Sampath Bank, for any suit within the price range of Rs. 10,000 - Rs. 250,000, in an effort to provide more flexible payment methods to its clientele. With its wide and exclusive range of tuxedos, linen suits, wedding national kits and wedding kurtas, Hameedia is able to meet the needs of any type of wedding, whether its a spectacular event on the beach, a lively Indian celebration, a vibrant traditional ceremony or a grand ballroom affair. In addition, Hameedia offer Bespoke Gifting solutions in this wedding season. Customers can include products from Hameedia, including gift vouchers or products from another supplier or even personal item, which they want to include - and Hameedia will create a delightful gift pack. The menswear brand is going the extra mile by offering its services to source any product or item as per customers requirements for added convenience during the busy season. This offer will allow customers to design personalised gift packs for their loved ones. The offer is valid until 31st August 2018 at selected Hameedia showrooms. Established in 1949, and with nearly 70 years of experience, Hameedia has grown to become a pioneer in the Sri Lankan retail fashion industry. The fashion store is renowned for delivering high quality custom tailoring under the bespoke category and ready-made clothes for gentlemen. The Hameedia, multi-brand retail stores house a collection of quality menswear brands such as Le Bond, Envoy London, Signature, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Park Avenue, Raymond, Lee and Adidas to name a few. Hameedia also prides itself on offering outstanding level of service to ensure that all clients enjoy a shopping experience that is positive and personalized. With a network covering most of the major cities across Sri Lanka and a large and experienced team, Hameedia has a strong local presence and has also extended its operations to the global fashion industry. For any inquiries, please contact the Hameedia team on +9477 787 3536 or +94 77 357 9415. The UKs Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has decided to suspend MP Ian Paisley from membership pending further investigation into his conduct, Belfast Live reported on Thursday. In the wake of the suspension, the DUP issued a statement saying: Officers of the Democratic Unionist Party have considered the report of the House of Commons Committee on Standards on Ian Paisley MP. Ian Paisley is now listed as an Independent MP on the British Parliament's website. The DUP MP was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days from September 4 following the major breach of parliamentary rules. He was found to have failed to declare the holidays, that cost more than 50,000, and to have lobbied on behalf of the Sri Lanka government who paid for the holidays. At the Daily Mirror, we believe that climate change is one of the greatest threats that we, as Sri Lankans, will face in the future. Therefore, we intend to provide our readers with local and international content with the objective to educate and inspire. We would also like to learn from our valued readers about any ongoing initiatives in making Sri Lanka a more sustainable nation. We aim to explore sustainable ways of living that have the most positive impact on not just our natural environment, but also for humans and animals. While topics such as global warming, pollution, and inequality are confronting, we believe it's time the media stopped shying away from these issues and became an active participant in finding solutions - and we hope you will join us. As in many Asian countries, rubbish (especially polythene) is causing areas of natural beauty to become unsightly and is killing our land and sea animals. It was because of this observation in Sri Lanka that, in early July, a team of five young female students from Spain, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Germany decided to tackle the issue of plastic waste. They focused on Mount Lavinia Beach, one of the busiest beaches due to its close proximity to Colombo. Here for only a short time, they dedicated their time in Sri Lanka in educating the local community about how to keep the beach clean. The project began with the creation of a 30-minute presentation for the local residents explaining why plastic pollution is such a threat to the environment. Included in the presentation were videos to show the community (including the children) how plastic affects the animals (by swallowing plastic bags or getting straws lodged in their body) and humans (people who eat seafood are consuming plastic secondhand due to the amount of plastic microparticles in seafood). Scientists believe that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Mirror For Hope spoke to one of the team, Tessia Kammerer about their work in Sri Lanka and what their focus was. Beach clean-ups were just a part of our work - another main focus of our work was on education. We went to several schools to teach them about plastic pollution and the 6 Rs of Sustainability (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Rethink, Refuse, Repair). We explained to the women as well on why you cant burn plastic (they release toxic chemicals into the air) and why they shouldnt throw their garbage on the beach. We made an illustrated book which tells a story about plastic for kids and gave it out to orphanages and schools. We bought trash bins for the beach in Mount Lavinia and made sign boards which read keep our beach clean in Sinhalese and English, and placed them next to the bins. We also painted a class room and two walls which are visible from the train with encouraging slogans to keep the beach clean. The students have already left Sri Lanka but they are hopeful that other communities can follow the example theyve started in Mount Lavinia. After the initial education and setup of garbage bins, all that is required is for someone in the community to collect the garbage from the trash bins on the beach and take it to the collection point for the government service, to dispose of. We asked Tessia how more locals and expats can get involved in a project at their local coastal area (or any area that has a garbage problem!). As were no longer in Sri Lanka, its up to you, the reader. You can always do a clean-up and you dont need to organize much to do it! All you need is a garbage bag and to identify the correct place to leave the trash. We just started collecting the plastic and trust me people will join you. During every clean-up we had a lot of people (locals and travellers) and kids join us, and they had a lot of fun trying to see who could pick up the most amount of plastic. You just need to show the kids what to collect (plastic) and what they can leave (organic garbage like leaves and coconut shells) and then theyll run over the beach like tornados!. For women as young as this to be tackling such a big problem such as waste management in a country they dont live in, without receiving any funding is highly commendable and hopefully, the Mount Lavinia beach will stay clean thanks to all their hard work with this project. Before After (Photos: Manul Rajapakshe) Speaker Karu Jayasuriya today said he had decided to consult UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera to get his opinion on appointing Joint Opposition Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardane as the Leader of Opposition. The Speaker in a statement said he had received a letter signed by eight members from the joint opposition requesting him to appoint Mr. Gunawardene as the Leader of the Opposition as he had the support of 70 members in the opposition benches. These 70 members are ones who had been elected to Parliament from the UPFA. Therefore the speaker is duty bound to ask for the official opinion of the UPFA with regard to the matter. Accordingly I have decided to seek the opinion of UPFA General Secretary Mahinda Amaraweera on the matter, the Speaker said in a statement. The current Leader of Opposition is the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R Sampanthan. TNA Spokesman Member of Parliament M. A Sumanthiran who commented on the matter said Mr. Gunawardanene and the Joint Opposition Group members are the ones who were elected from UPFA which is an ally of the government. If Mr. Gunawardene is claiming the post of Opposition Leader he and the others will have to give up the membership of UPFA, Mr. Sumanthiran said. Meanwhile the 16 member SLFP group in the opposition is also expected to back Mr. Gunawardene as the Opposition Leader. Member of this group MP Dayasiri Jayasekera said his group has no objection in appointing Mr. Gunawardene as the Leader of Opposition. Current Opposition Leader Mr. Sampanthan is only talking of the issues faced by the people in the North while keeping silent on other national issues. We want an opposition Leader who takes up issues faced by people all over the country, he said. (Yohan Perera) Leave cancellation of Police personnel serving in several areas in the Northern Province including Kopai, Chunnakam and Manipay had been extended by Jaffna Senior DIG. Police said this has been done considering the prevailing security situation in the area because of the increased activities of the Awa group and the Dhanurok group. They said special police operations are underway to arrest the members of the two groups and that the leave cancellation would be effective until the situation is brought under control. Leave of Police personnel serving in the Northern Province and Jaffna District had earlier been cancelled for two weeks. (Romesh Madushanka) When Sahan Kumara Dharmasiri from Samanalawatte, Balangoda went missing on July 20, many would have thought it was another of those incidents where a child has been up to some mischief. But when he went missing for the eighth day, search operations began and the Sri Lanka Army and Police combed the forests and tea estates surrounding his residence. With no clues found, the Army concluded their search. Although speculation was rife that the child was bitten by a leopard in the area there was no evidence to prove such a happening. Several other incidents were reported, but none of them had direct connections with this incident. When the Daily Mirror visited Samanalawatte, situated 11 km away from the Balangoda town, several residents from the area assisted us to locate Sahans house. It was an uphill drive through tea estates passing scenic views with a thick mist in the backdrop. With a climate similar to that of Horton Plains, the Samanalawatte area, although is under-developed, is home to estate workers and rubber tappers. The incident Sahan Kumara Dharmasiri, a grade five student at Samanalawatte School, was to sit for the 2018 Grade Five Scholarship Examination when he went missing on July 20. Sahan is the eldest in the family and lives with his mother, father and four-year-old sister. According to media reports, the boy had gone missing after he had returned home from school. It is said that the boy went in search of his father who had gone to fetch firewood. The boys whereabouts arent known yet. Statements from relatives and his friends leave no clues. When we inquired further about Sahans disappearance, there was speculation whether Sahan was sold to a family living outside the city in an attempt to meet the financial needs of the family or worse, whether he was given away as a human sacrifice! Human sacrifices With mining being one of the main industries in the area, possibilities of human sacrifices are high. According to myth and folklore, a human sacrifice is made in the name of Bahirawaya - a mythical deity. The human is literally thrown into the mine and the mine is then closed for a certain period of time. There is a belief that when the mine is reopened after this period, miners could expect valuable gems. For this purpose, in a majority of instances, it is the first born child in a family that meets the criteria as an ideal human sacrifice. However, whether this was the exact plight of Sahan is yet to be revealed. He goes to play after he returns home from school - Deepika According to his mother, Deepika Seneviratne, Sahan is a naughty child. Hes very stubborn and doesnt listen to us. When he returns home he usually goes to play. He was to sit for the Scholarship Exam, but he wasnt very keen on his studies. On the day Sahan went missing, his friends were also at school. We urge the authorities to help us find him, she said. In search of more clues, the Daily Mirror team inquired about his whereabouts from those in the neighbourhood, but we only met dead ends. Hes a tad bit mischievous - Dharmasiri I was not home when the incident took place, said H. Y Dharmasiri, Sahans father, whom we met while he was travelling. He had returned home before he went missing. Hes a tad bit mischievous, but this is the first time it has happened. There werent any regular places he went to, but he used to play with children in the neighbouring houses. It is rather sad that we lost our son. Im on the way for a pooja to seek help from God. I cant understand what happened to him. He doesnt study well, but understands what is being taught, he said. We then went further via the winding, rocky road until we reached his home. Sahans home is located at one corner of an enclosed neighbourhood with houses in close proximity. According to our observation its rather difficult for one to escape without anybodys notice. Sahans home has one bedroom and a space for the kitchen. He belongs to a family that is drowned in poverty and possesses only the basic amenities needed to live. Sahan was a slow-learner - School Principal Samanalawatte School Principal Deshapriya Suduwella, who was also Sahans class teacher, said that Sahan was identified as a slow-learner. He could remember what was taught and initially he had an issue with writing letters. But eventually he improved. He needed some guidance to improve the speed at which he was learning. Sahan mingled well with the rest of the children and was also involved in extra-curricular activities as well. On the day of the incident he came to school as usual and it was only later that we received the news. He usually comes to school with his friends and his parents dont come to drop or pick him up from school,said the school principal. "On the day of the incident he came to school as usual and it was only later that we received the news." Suduwella further said the school and everybody else focus on improving the learning capacities of children like Sahan. Since this is a rural school we want to strengthen the relationships within the school community. We also have an annual plan and complete all events which are lined up. During the past years 78% of our students passed their O/Ls and we possess a high rank within the zone. Parents dont get very much involved with the childrens school work because they are either less-educated or illiterate and focus more on earning an income. We try to promote togetherness among children, who come from all walks of life. This is the first such incident that has happened and our only hope is to find this child and see that he returns home soon, he said. We have introduced hotlines -Balangoda Police OIC Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Balangoda Police Officer-in-Charge said that so far there are no clues that would help locate the child. It has been 12 days since he went missing and were trying our best. The Army also called off their operations because there were no traces. Of course there were rumours about a person who came to the hospital with bite marks. There is also speculation about a leopard, but all that is deemed to be false.the OIC said. The role of the EC in holding elections to LG bodies proved it beyond doubt Why the EC has to abide by the existing laws and hold elections and need not wait for new laws or once Prof. G.L has said something worth discussing. He had told media last Monday, his party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) would file a petition in the Supreme Court requesting a Writ against the Elections Commission (EC) over its failure to hold elections for the dissolved Provincial Councils. The Sabaragamuwa, North Central and the Eastern Provincial Councils stand dissolved for 10 months now, since September 2017. In two months from now, the North, Wayamba and the Central Provincial Councils would stand dissolved. He has told media, legal action would be instituted when the Court vacation comes to an end in late August. Reason for not instituting legal action immediately as he says is because; it is only a week more for Court vacations to begin. For a politically valid intervention, to stay mute for a month is too cheap a ploy to buy. For a legal luminary in fulltime politics, a week would be more than enough, if the statement made is firm and genuine. Almost two months ago President Sirisena addressing his faction of the SLFP on June 2 had said the PC elections would be held before the year-end. The UNP decided at its Working Committee last week to request the EC to hold the PC elections without delay (!) either on the old or the new system of electing members. By then, the Chairman of the Commission Mahinda Deshapriya had on April 25 (2018) told the media (CDN) the Commission would hold elections to PCs in December, once the legal and Constitutional hindrances are swiftly resolved. Neither had they been resolved swiftly during the past three months. Nor has the Government chosen any of the four options Deshapriya told the CDN (Ceylon Daily News), Parliament could adopt, to have early PC elections. Firstly, Parliament can approve the delimitation report as it is, with a two-thirds majority. Secondly, MPs can opt to revise the report by a committee appointed by the Prime Minister. If not, they can change the 50-50 ratio and prepare an early and speedy delimitation report again. Or they can go back to the previous Preferential Ratio (PR) vote system, He told the CDN, that if Parliament could decide on any one of those options, the EC could hold elections in December before the GCE O/L examinations began. "The EC is playing with a vacillating and hesitant Government through publicity stunts, proposing options to keep the PC elections postponed" Now it is August and over three months after the options were spelt out by Chairman EC. No decision had been taken by the Government or by the two main allies in Government, the UNP and the SLFP of President Sirisena as to what option they would go with. Instead, the UNP wants the EC to hold elections anyway it can and President tells his men they would be December. In end June the same Minister, who kept tearing off calendar pages one after another for the LG elections, tells the new Delimitation Committee in the presence of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, it would be December (2018) when the Government could be ready with a Road Map for holding PC elections. He wouldnt surely decide on a Road Map for December, on his own. He is definitely in consultation with the President and the PM, is playing it soft with President, while on a collision course on many issues. As it goes, PC elections will not be held end 2018 with only a Road Map proposed. The hurdle President Sirisena fears to hold PC elections is no doubt the MR Factor. As Finance Minister SamaraweerasGam Peraliya thats rolled out with gusto to be given a fillip with a populist budget for the year 2019 in November indicates, the UNP is readying itself for the 2020 January Presidential Election and not for PC elections in December. For Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has in his hands the political network at the local level after LG polls, needs to have with him the next level of political networking at the provincial level to push for Parliamentary Elections in mid or late 2019. Elections Commission should be held responsible for denying the people their right to elections The EC that aids and abets the Yahapalana Government to further erode democracy This makes the ground easy for Rajapaksa to run a totalitarian rule if he returns There certainly is a difference in calculations within the JO too. Loners like Weerawansa and Gammanpila would want the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections as constitutionally scheduled for 2020 January and anytime after 2020 February, respectively. They need to be of importance in a Presidential poll to successfully contest Parliamentary Elections thereafter. Yet, MRs strategy that is worked on by Basil Rajapaksa is often heard through JO stalwarts like Dinesh Gunawardane and Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who also talk of Parliamentary Elections. This Government cannot rule a country and that needs to be changed before it is too late, goes their main argument. The Colombo protest last Wednesday led by the JO targeting the Government as anti-people is perhaps a beginning. At the rate, the Government is fumbling with every issue without clear decisions made and then the two partners in Government getting into contradicting positions on almost all issues and mega corruption no less than during the Rajapaksas, the frustration building up in urban and semi-urban societies is what MR seems to be banking on. He perhaps believes there will be the last straw on the camels back when people would want a change of Government before a change of presidency. Thats when the PCs also become important for MR. It would be a proverbial walk behind the goat, for MR to wait for his SLPP President Prof Peiris to go to Courts to provide him with the PC elections without any further delay. "Now it is August and no decision has been taken by the Government or by the two main allies in Government, the UNP and the SLFP of President Sirisena as to what option they would go with" It was this same Professor who was reported in the media a month ago on July 2 saying his SLPP would sue the FCID, the CID, the Rupavahini Corporation and the Associated Newspapers (Ceylon) Limited for a series of alleged defamatory stories that claimed China Harbour Engineering Limited had in 2014 provided US$ 07 million for Mahinda Rajapaksas Presidential Election campaign. At the same media briefing, he was also reported as having said the SLPP would take legal action against the New York Times, for publishing similar defamatory allegations. He doesnt seem to have done what he said he would, and taking time over Court vacations seems, he would go the same way with this proposed legal action against the EC as well. In short, it would not be anything more than his statement to media. Yet, the fact remains, for once, his argument is on solid grounds. Chapter I Article 03 of the Constitution is clear about the right of franchise being an inalienable right of peoples sovereignty.It says In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of Government, Fundamental Rights and the franchise. That, therefore, is a basic, Fundamental Right of the people, the EC is constitutionally bound to protect and give validity to. Read along with article 104B (1) of the Constitution, Article 104B (2) says, It shall be the duty of the Commission to secure the enforcement of all laws relating to the holding of any such election or the conduct of Referenda and it shall be the duty of all authorities of the State charged with the enforcement of such laws, to co-operate with the Commission to secure such enforcement. But has the EC been living with the Constitutional mandate? Sadly not as an Independent Commission constituted under Amendment 19. The role of the EC in holding elections to LG bodies proved it beyond doubt. According to the Constitution, the EC should treat franchise as an inalienable. Sovereign Right of the people and thus should secure the enforcement of all laws relating to the holding of any such election It means laws that are valid at the time an election should be duly held is what the EC has to abide by. It more than implies the EC need not wait for new laws the Government is contemplating in bringing or are still in the making. Thus, if Parliament has not made required law to hold elections on the mixed system of PR (Proportional Representation) and FFP (First-Past-the-Post) with whatever gender representation and with the new delimitation report approved in Parliament at the time the PCs were dissolved, it only means the existing law that allows elections on the PR system is the law the EC has to hold elections to those PCs. Instead, the EC is playing with a vacillating and hesitant Government through publicity stunts, proposing options to keep the PC elections postponed, violating its own mandate in the process. It is the EC that should now be held totally responsible for denying the people their right to elect representative bodies. It is the EC that aids and abets the Yahapalana Government to further erode democracy when it is there to safeguard democracy. And thanks to this EC and Yahapalanaya, we dont even have the procedural democracy there was under Rajapaksa. Perhaps they are making the ground easy for Rajapaksa to run a totalitarian rule if he returns. Advantech works with Tokyo Electron Device to promote edge computing for AIoT Advantech has disclosed it is working to strengthen its partnership with Tokyo Electron Device (TED) in striving to promote edge computing. With the aim of transforming the conventional business approach of dealing in single-unit embedded hardware to focus on AIoT solutions, Advantech and TED are cooperatively developing and promoting IoT edge computing solutions linked with Microsoft Azure. Advantech said the two companies have previously collaborated as partners in the embedded hardware business. Currently, Advantech is seeking to further expand its market share in Japan, while TED is seeking to bolster its sales in embedded hardware, design services, and AIoT solutions featuring Microsoft Azure Cloud Services. For the first round of efforts to promote edge computing, collaborative research is being conducted on the Plant Visualization Kit, which will streamline operations by visualizing the status of plant devices through linking Advantech's Tower Light Sensor, Edge Intelligence Server Series, and WISE-PaaS/EdgeSense together with Microsoft Azure, according to the Taiwan-based firm. Considerations are being made to launch this kit in the future, and verification tests are planned to commence at the headquarters of Aval Nagasaki Corporation, a consolidated TED subsidiary. According to Mike Koike, Advantech Japan's general manager, working with TED is a step in the right direction because the company has a wide sales network all over Japan and a high level of trust from its customers. "We are entering the AIoT era, which means that significant transformations are needed in the very way that business is conducted. To expand the sales of our IoT Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS as well as our hardware, Advantech needs a cooperative partner such as TED that can offer high marketing capabilities in order to sell AIoT solutions and that have strong technical support. This means providing solution services in a timely manner to meet customer requirements in bridging the gap between IT and OT. In a vital strategic partnership for the AIoT era, we will strive together to promote substantial developments in edge computing." Yasuo Hatsumi, vice president of TED, expressed excitement about cooperating with Advantech to offer transformational AIoT solutions to customers. "In addition to our existing hardware business, we will make efforts to further bolster our product and service functionality for AIoT markets." Subscriber content preview PORTLAND (AP) Shipbuilder Vigor Marine Inc. has been cited for 16 health and safety violations after employee complaints at the company's Portland, Oregon location. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday it is proposing more than $370,000 in fines. . . . Harold Hill created a lot of buildings and a lot of construction careers Journal Construction Editor By BENJAMIN MINNICK Journal Construction Editor Hill Harold Hill was involved in building and developing nearly 4,000 buildings, but perhaps his biggest accomplishment was mentoring others who would go on to start their own construction companies. Hill, a resident of Mercer Island, died last week at the age of 94. Some of the people he mentored were Jeff Foushee and Loch Anderson (Foushee & Associates), Roger Collins (Sierra Construction), Dick Winter (R.C. Winter Co.), George Minnear (Poe Construction), Gid Palmer (SDL, Trammell Crow and Microsoft), George Leyton (Seaborn Construction) and Joe Simmons (Joseph S. Simmons Construction). Harold was a great, great man, said Collins. Collins dug ditches for Hill during college, became an employee, and later partnered and built projects for him through Sierra Construction. Collins and his brother Bob founded Sierra in 1986 after he left Harold W. Hill Construction Co. Roger Collins said Hill was instrumental in bringing tilt-up concrete construction to the Northwest. Collins learned the technique from Hill and it remains Sierra's bread-and-butter today. Joe Simmons worked for seven years as an estimator and project manager for Hill, and at one point informed Hill that he wanted to spend his entire career working for him. In a 1998 DJC interview, Simmons said he was shocked when Hill told him he would have to leave that job someday. There was hardly anybody who didn't work for him who didn't go out and start his own business, Simmons said. He had no problem that you were going to work for him for awhile and then you were going to leave. Harold was really the guy who helped me so much, Simmons said. Hill was born Sept. 5, 1923, in Sedalia, Missouri, and started working at age 11, during the Depression. He attended the University of Kansas for two years but left to serve on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he returned to the university and earned degrees in architecture and engineering. He also met his wife of 69 years, Mary Frances Jennings, at the school. The couple moved to Montana after graduation, and Mary taught school in Great Falls. They married in 1949 in Bozeman and then moved to Seattle for a fresh start. The couple and their two sons, John and Stephen, settled into a small West Seattle house and spent summers in a cabin on Vashon Island. They bought a vacant lot on Mercer Island in 1963, and Hill designed their new home for it. Hill was hired by an international construction company and worked on high-profile projects such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct. He later joined Hugh Ferguson and became Ferguson's right-hand man at Hugh S. Ferguson Construction Co., an early adopter of tilt-up construction. Hill left Ferguson in 1968 to start Harold W. Hill Construction Co. and would later stop construction to focus on commercial development. He formed Hill-Raaum-Pietromonaco in 1975, which last year split into two companies: Hill Investment Co. and Pietromonaco Properties. Mark Scalzo, CEO of Hill Investment, said Hill liked making deals where everyone came out ahead. Nothing gave him more pleasure than to see other people succeed who he was affiliated with, Scalzo said. Scalzo said one of Hill's remarkable deals was buying the 1201 Building on First Avenue South in 1977 for $500,000, just after the Kingdome was built nearby. No one, including him, knew the impact of how the Sodo District would be transformed, Scalzo said. The building is across from Safeco Field and has been home to Pyramid Alehouse for nearly 25 years. Hill retired in the mid-1990s but continued to buy properties. He loved owning and building real estate but it's not how he defined himself in any way, Scalzo said. He referred to himself as a simple guy from Kansas. Collins said he learned from Hill that you can be successful in business and still be a good person and family man. Harold was a guy who treated people fairly throughout his life, Collins said. He was one of the good guys that did well. One obituary said the Hills had thousands of friends and an active social life, but Harold's idea of heaven was having cheap wine and pretzels on the porch of his Vashon cabin. Hill is survived by Mary, his sons, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Aug. 7 at Emmanuel Church on Mercer Island, at 4400 86th Ave. S.E. Benjamin Minnick can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272. Subscriber content preview Photo by Fortier Photography [enlarge] The five-story Voda opened last year, with 128 units, 220 parking spaces and about 13,400 square feet of retail/commercial space. The new Voda apartments, at 207 Park Lane in Kirkland, sold for $89.5 million, according to King County records. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE An industrial building at 4202 Sixth Ave. S. has sold for about $5.5 million, according to King County records. The seller was Retail Center LLC, associated with Leathers Home Furnishings of Issaquah, which acquired the property in December for $4.1 million. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE The Standard Queen Anne apartments, at 512 Fifth Ave. W., have sold for a little over $7 million, according to King County records. The seller was Kamae 04 LLC, which acquired the property in 2015 for almost $3.7 million. The buyer was Innovare-512 5th Ave W LLC, which is associated with a private local investor on Queen Anne. Public records indicate a loan from Opus Bank. . . . Subscriber content preview KENT The Timber Heights apartments, at 4822 S. 252nd Pl., have sold for a little over $6 million, according to King County records. The seller was Project S12, associated with George Webb's Stratford Co., which acquired the property in 2016 for $2.9 million. The buyer was Adread Inc., a Japanese corporation that could not immediately be traced. Public records indicate a loan from Symetra Life Insurance Co. . . . Subscriber content preview BETHEL, Alaska (AP) The Alaska National Guard is getting rid of dozens of armories located in cities and villages across the state, seeking to hand over ownership to local communities. KYUK-AM reports that over the next four years, the guard is planning to divest of more than 60 armories set up during the Cold War. About half of the buildings are located in communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska. . . . 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Around 1,300 Danes marched through Copenhagen on Wednesday in protest at a new ban on the wearing of face veils in public, accusing the government of infringing on womens right to dress as they choose. Denmarks parliament enacted the ban in May, joining France and some other EU countries to uphold what some politicians say are secular and democratic values. NON-MUSLIM DANES ALSO PARTICIPATED The protesters, many wearing the niqab veil or the all-enveloping, body-length burqa, marched from the central, left-wing district of Norrebro to Bellahoj police station on the outskirts of the capital. They formed a human chain around the station and then marched back to Norrebro before dispersing. The marchers included non-niqab-wearing Muslim women and non-Muslim Danes with faces covered. DENMARK POLICE'S SHOW Photo of a police officer speaking with a demonstrator in Copenhagen left its mark on the protests. The photo was criticised for not being sincere and interpreted as advertising. Fines will range from 1,000 Danish crowns ($160) for the first offense to 10,000 crowns for a fourth. Under the law, police will be able to instruct women to remove their veils or order them to leave public areas. Justice Minister Soren Pape Poulsen said officers would fine them and tell them to go home. This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? ELDERS senior management and staff joined together for their annual livestock and wool conference at the Trade Winds Hotel, Fremantle recently. State livestock manager Geoff Shipp said the agenda included business updates, a review of the year past, discussion on plans for the year ahead and was a chance to remember absent friends in Ray Norman and John Currie, Albany and Bill Kessell, Bridgetown, colleagues lost during the year. Mr Shipp also presented Elders Cranbrook agent Clark Skinner with a certificate of appreciation for 20 years service to the company and Mr Skinner responded saying it had been a great journey. I started when I was 17 thanks to Alec Williams who gave me a job, Mr Skinner said. We used to do three cattle sales in a week, Denmark, Mt Barker and Albany and I reckon I was given most of the driving, thanks Alec. I got my (drivers) licence soon after, he joked. Then I went to Bunbury as a trainee where I worked with the likes of Geoff Shipp and Doug Slater and stayed with (the late) John Bray. I was devastated when I was posted to Esperance but it was the best thing I ever did. Weve had some tough years in livestock and there were times when the cropping or merch side of the business looked more attractive, but youve gotta stick with it and things are pretty good for livestock now. And if you stay loyal to your company the rewards are good too, Mr Skinner said. THE Cattle Council of Australia has announced the State finalists for the 2019 NAB Agribusiness Rising Beef Industry Champion Initiative, which aims to empower and support young, passionate members of the Australian beef industry. On the list is Lucy Morris, a livestock marketing, export and production officer for TW Pearson and Son, a cattle company from Australind. Lucy is the fourth-generation of her family to be actively involved in beef production and has experience across nearly every aspect of the industry, from pastoral property management, to breeding and live export. She grew up on her familys pastoral station in the Kimberley and is committed to a career in the beef industry. Lucy is passionate about bridging the gap between consumers and farmers and promoting research into improving animal welfare outcomes. The other 2019 finalists were Emily Pullen, Charlton, Queensland, Tracey Gowen, Uralla, New South Wales, Ella Anderson, Mole Creek, Tasmania, James Campkin-Smith, Pound Creek, Victoria, Roley James, Katherine, Northern Territory and Kate Fairlie, Mount Gambier, South Australia. The Cattle Council Rising Champions program aims to develop the skills of the next generation of beef industry leaders. Cattle Council chief executive officer Margo Andrae said it was important that industry played a part in fostering their development. Its critical that we provide young people who have a passion for the beef industry with an opportunity to be directly involved in the decision making that will affect their futures and the future of their industry, Ms Andrae said. Many of last years Rising Champions finalists have gone on to be involved in industry organisations and its pleasing to see them growing and developing as leaders in the beef industry. NAB Agribusiness customer executive Neil Findlay said the bank was thrilled to again support the Rising Champions program , which was in its ninth year. Were firm believers in the importance of providing opportunities for young people in agribusiness and Im proud of our long-term support of the Rising Champions program, Mr Findlay said. The quality of the candidates this program attracts is high and its encouraging to see that the future of our beef industry is in the hands of such motivated and passionate young people. The seven State finalists will attend a four-day program in Canberra from Sunday, August 12 to Wednesday, August 15, where they will network with staff from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, tour and meet politicians at Parliament House, learn effective communication techniques, develop their leadership skills and participate in Cattle Council consultative committee meetings. The 2019 winner will be announced at the Cattle Council NAB Agribusiness Gala Dinner in Canberra on the final day of the program and will be sponsored to attend the 2019 International Beef Alliance conference. WOMEN from all corners of the State gathered at the Fremantle Sailing Club for the Country Womens Association (CWA) of WA 94th State Conference last week. More than 200 women with a shared passion for community, compassion and giving, attended the annual conference which is the biggest event for its members, with some travelling as far as Kununurra in the north and Condingup in the south east. This years conference was themed embracing diversity and working as one which CWA of WA president Heather Allen said was a reflection of (the associations) strategic direction. Our membership base is a wide range of women of different ages and backgrounds, Ms Allen said. I guess you could look at this theme in many ways, with the diversity of our farming lands and working as one to produce food for our nation. Ms Allen reflected on some of the organisations achievements over the past year, most notably when it was one of the main voices to stand up for regional students after the State government announced funding cuts to education. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would stand on the steps of Parliament House and speak to a crowd of people at a rally, but our association must stand up for what its aim states now and in the future, Ms Allen said. Our regional students matter, we do not know which of them will take up agriculture and quite a few visit the school camps to widen their horizons. The association presented various awards on the first night of the conference, starting with the Clarice Ruddock Memorial Award in recognition of the finest community effort over the past year, with dual winners being the Baldivis Belles and Bullsbrook and Districts branch. Baldivis Belles have been working hard to help people who have been affected by domestic violence with various initiatives in place. This includes donating $900 to the Rockingham General Hospital for an activity board in the waiting room and being involved in the grieving mother poppy tribute at the Comet Bay Village. Bullsbrook and Districts members were recognised for their community commitment with work including hosting the inaugural Bullsbrook Australia Day Breakfast at Lowery Park, Bullsbrook, organising a winter warming event to teach knitting and crotcheting and collect donations for the homeless, a local womens refuge and dog shelter as well as many other projects over the year. The committee was torn when trying to choose a recipient for the Young Volunteer of the Year Award, instead announcing two deserving winners. Through various volunteering activities in his local community, 17-year-old Margaret River Senior High School student David Lochore has encouraged more young people to volunteer as he has seen first-hand the positive impact it can have on peoples lives. Driven by his passion for social justice and adopting an empathetic leadership style, David has been volunteering since he was 11-years-old, something he is keen to continue. Being involved in diverse volunteering activities through Mazenod College and his Kulin community, Jake OBrien has been offering up his free time for as long as (he) could remember. After being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 14, Jake has become an advocate for those living with the condition at a State and Federal level with actions including being a Perth Diabetes Care Youth Advisory committee member and writing to politicians. He has hopes of one day running in the New York Marathon to raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as well as study medicine to become an endocrinologist. There was tough competition for other awards announced on the night as three CWA branches received community grants, being the Greenbushes Belles, Mt Barker and Nyabing. The Greenbushes Belles received $3000 for its Poppy Project, which aims to add ambience to the Greenbushes Dawn Service on Anzac Day. The project encouraged the community to be involved by making poppies for an installation, whether it be to remember a loved one or have a connection to the annual Anzac Day service. The branch hopes to have 5000 poppies installed on the wire fence behind the Greenbushes cenotaph for its next Anzac Day service. The Mt Barker branch received $3500 to install a wheelchair ramp in front of its building. This was considered necessary with six of the branchs 19 members aged between 90 and 99. The Nyabing branch aims to create a community mural welcome wall at the local primary school to utilise the students ideas on what it means to be a community that cares and incorporated the schools theme of Sowing seeds of success. This project focusses on encouraging the growth of the towns future leaders and received $2000. Supporting regional students has long been one of the CWAs objectives and each year the association awards three scholarships. Olivia Murfit, Geraldton, received the Emma Sherrington Scholarship of $1000 for her achievements while studying outdoor recreation at the University of Notre Dame. Olivia said the scholarship would help her use the outdoors as a way of encouraging young leaders to make changes and be involved in the community. Outdoor recreation is about using the outdoors in a way to recognise young leaders, promote them and help them realise their full potential which I believe CWA recognised in this degree, Olivia said. It was a huge honour to have CWA represent (regional students) at Parliament House this year, we were starting to lose our fight a little and the motion (CWA) put forward really put the wind back into our fight to save our camp schools. With this award, I hope to be able to enable other women to reach their full potential in a leadership role. The Rural Dental Scholarship went to The University of Western Australia dentistry student, Rani Flynn, Mandurah, who received $5000. With 18 months of her degree to go, Rani said she now managed 20 to 30 patients in the clinic, working five days a week, as well as juggling studying and various extra-curricular activities. This has definitely been the hardest I have studied and worked and without (CWAs) support I dont know if I would be making it through, Rani said. She also won the scholarship two years ago and said the continual CWA support helped her to become actively involved in the dental industry by being a class representative in the University Dental Student Society. In this role Rani attended the Australian Student Association Convention last year in Sydney and this year in Perth, which has given her valuable networking opportunities. Katherine Middleton, Geraldton, received the $10,000 Rural Medical Scholarship on the back of winning the same award last year. In her acceptance speech Katherine gave an update of her activities. I have been working hard the past two years to pay the scholarships forward, Katherine said. Some of her volunteering activities and achievements include being involved with Telethon and an advocate with the Australian Medical Students Association where she wrote policies about rural education in the medical curriculum and health implications of climate change. Katherine is the national project manager for climate change and health group, Code Green, increasing the awareness of climate change on health, which even put her on the world stage. As one of six students to be selected by the International Federation of Medical Students, Katherine attended a United Nations (UN) Conference in Germany earlier this year. I spoke to world leaders about the impact climate change is having on health and members of the World Health Organisation about what we are seeing happening in Australia, she said. Katherine said speaking on behalf of the Health Working Group at the UN press conference was one of her greatest highlights and her parents watched the live broadcast online in Australia. The most prestigious and highest award within CWA is honorary life membership which recognises at least 10 years of service, and was presented to a surprised Maureen Wilson of the Cottesloe branch. Ms Wilson has been with CWA since 1974 and has held various high-ranking positions including president, secretary and treasurer and has been a member of the CWA magazine where she was editor and continues to proof read, despite her fading eyesight. During her acceptance speech, an emotional Ms Wilson was quite modest of her dedication, claiming her commitments over the years were simply because she wanted to be involved. It sounds like I have done a lot but so have a lot of (other CWA members), Ms Wilson said. (They are) all workers, we are workers, Ive done what I have because I wanted to and I had fun doing it. You wouldnt believe the rewards you get back by doing something in this way, by helping people, making friends and its a fantastic association to be in. As the opening night drew to a close, the enthusiasm for volunteering and community involvement was evident in each of the attendees, and it was clear the following days were going to be full of activities that united them, while embracing their differences to work as one. The CWA recognised that every individuals experiences and ideas are crucial in the organisations achievements and the positive vibe throughout the event was certainly infectious, which is intriguing as to what the association might have planned for the future. WASHINGTON, D.C. Three weeks after announcing the completion of a seven-state sweep regarding compliance with its Used Car Rule, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Wednesday it has charged a group of four dealerships with a range of illegal activities, including falsifying consumers income and down payment information on credit applications and misrepresenting financial terms in vehicle advertisements. According to the regulator, this was the FTCs first action alleging income falsification by dealerships. Its complaint names Richard Berry as a defendant and Linda Tate as a relief defendant. They operate a group of four dealerships in Arizona and New Mexico, near the border of the Navajo Nation. Buying a car is one of the biggest purchases consumers make. When consumers tell an auto dealer how much they make and how much they can pay upfront, the dealer cant turn those facts into fiction, said Andrew Smith, the FTCs recently confirmed director of its Bureau of Consumer Protection. The FTC expects auto dealers to be honest with consumers from the first advertisement to the final purchase. Since at least 2014, according to the complaint, Tates Auto allegedly increased its sales by falsifying consumers monthly income and down payments on credit applications and finance contracts submitted to finance sources. The four dealerships named in the complaint are Tates Auto Center of Winslow, Tates Automotive, Tate Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, and Tates Auto Center of Gallup. The regulator charged that, during the sales process, Tates Autos asked consumers to provide personal information including their name, address, and monthly income and told them the information would be submitted to financing companies. But instead of using consumers actual information, the complaint alleges, Tates Auto falsely inflated the numbers, making it appear that applicants had higher monthly incomes than they really did. The dealerships also allegedly inflated the amount of a customers down payment. Were not talking about nickel-and-dime discrepancies, wrote Lesley Fair, senior attorney with the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection, in an Aug. 1 blog post on the FTCs website. According to just one of the examples in the complaint, a consumer told Tates she had a fixed monthly income of about $1,200, but a Tates staffer allegedly inflated it to $5,200 in the paperwork. Wouldnt consumers spot the false information? Not necessarily, Fair continued. The complaint charges that the defendants often used tactics that prevented people from reviewing the documents. Tates personnel allegedly rushed some consumers through the process; had them fill out forms over the phone or in places like grocery store parking lots or restaurants; or altered the documents after consumers signed them. The FTC charged that consumers, many of whom are members of the Navajo Nation, were approved for financing based on the false information the groups dealerships provided. These consumers, the regulator further alleged, defaulted at a higher rate than qualified buyers. The FTC also charged in its complaint that Tates Autos advertising deceived consumers about the nature and terms of financing or leasing offers. For example, the group allegedly advertised discounts and incentives without adequately disclosing limitations or restrictions that would prevent many customers from qualifying for the offers. The regulator also alleges that Tates Autos social media ads violated the FTC Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Consumer Leasing Act by failing to disclose required terms. The FTC is now seeking an injunction barring the defendants from such practices in the future. One YouTube ad claimed the featured car can be in your driveway for only $169 per month, Fair wrote in her blog. In fact, consumers cant buy that car for the advertised monthly payment. That amount applies only to a lease. Whats more, the FTC says the ad didnt clearly disclose that to get that monthly payment, consumers must shell out $2,899 plus other fees at lease signing. Then theres the online ad where the company touted an incentive discount of $5,250, Fair continued. But buried behind multiple hyperlinks was the fact that the discount was available only to consumers who trade in a 1995 or newer vehicle or terminate a lease from another car company 30 days before or 90 days after delivery. The FTCs complaint charges that Berry, acting as owner of the four dealerships, formulated, directed, controlled, had the authority to control, or participated in Tates Autos allegedly illegal conduct. The FTC also charges that Tate received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the other defendants, including funds directly connected to the alleged unlawful conduct. The complaint charges that over time, others in the industry got wise to what Tates was doing, Fair wrote in her blog. In December 2015, a major financing company that regularly worked with Tates conducted a review. The company reported inflated income on 17.9% of applications from Tates Auto Center of Gallup, 37.5% of applications from Tates Auto Center, 38.7% of applications from Tates Nissan Buick GMC, and 44.8% of applications from Tates Auto Center of Winslow. The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category HealthMyne, a Madison, Wis.-based provider of a platform bringing multiple enhanced clinical decision support (CDS) workflow modules to Radiology and the Oncology care continuum, raised $15M in Series B funding. The round was led by Ascension Ventures, with participation from existing institutional backers Venture Investors, 4490 Ventures, and WARF. The company intends to use the funds to expand its global commercialization efforts. Led by Arvind Subramanian, President & CEO, HealthMyne provides a FDA-cleared software Quantitative Imaging Decision Support (QIDS) platform for Radiology and Oncology to U.S.-based multi-hospital systems. The platforms novel Rapid Precise Metrics (RPM) algorithms deliver Point-of-Read image-derived curated metrics integrated with other clinical systems data (e.g. PACS, EMR, RT) into multiple Point-of-Care workflow modules to ensure timely clinical decision support (CDS) and precise patient management. The platform provides patient-centric reports and an integrated clinical and imaging dashboard to optimize collaboration among the multidisciplinary care team. Additionally, its discoverable database supports data mining and AI-based application development for Precision Medicine/Big Data initiatives and for innovative clinical, translational, and commercial research by both medical centers and pharmaceutical/biotech companies. Workflow modules include Cancer Screening, Tumor Board Management, Clinical Trials/Therapy Response Assessment, Incidental Findings, Thoracic Specialty, others. FinSMEs 01/08/2018 . UFC, - UFC 267 . . UFC . ... Lee County will get $700,000 from the state Department of Environmental Regulation to combat algae and remove it from various tributaries and canals along the Caloosahatchee River. This funding, ordered by Gov. Rick Scott, is part of the $3 million grant program through a July 9 Executive Order. The grant program is intended to help local governments clean up waterways affected by algal blooms. Last month, following a tour of the Caloosahatchee River, Scott issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Glades, Hendry, Lee, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie Counties to help combat algal blooms caused by the harmful federal water releases from Lake Okeechobee. DEP is committed to working with communities impacted by water quality issues, DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein said. DEP is committed to looking for opportunities to partner with local communities to address the impacts of algal blooms, now and in the future, he said in a prepared statement. Were pleased to provide Lee County this grant funding, and encourage other local counties to work with us to take advantage of this grant funding and to help us move forward with long-term solutions, including the EAA reservoir and rehabilitation of the Herbert Hoover Dike. Scott also announced Wednesday that the DEP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reached an agreement on a $50 million state investment to fund repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike. This agreement follows a $50 million investment made earlier this year, bringing the State of Floridas total investment in this federal project to $100 million. he funding will accelerate critical repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee. Once completed, this project will reduce the need for harmful water releases from the Army Corps of Engineers by allowing more water to be stored in Lake Okeechobee. As our communities once again face the threat of harmful algal blooms caused by water releases from Lake Okeechobee, we are continuing to find innovative ways to combat this serious problem and fix the federal governments years of inaction, Scott said in a prepared statement. For decades, Congress has refused to fully fund repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike, leaving our communities at risk. I became the first governor in Floridas history to fund the dike because we have to make sure that our families are safe and that these discharges stop Im glad that the federal government has finally provided funding to fix the dike, however more must be done. Congress must now approve the EAA Reservoir project. Im glad to provide this funding to clean up algal blooms and we will keep fighting to make sure that our communities are safe and that our natural resources are protected. Florida has now committed $100 million in state funding to ensure critical repairs to this federally operated dike are made to protect the states unique environment. DEPs grant funding is provided to help communities provide targeted clean-up efforts to quickly reduce and address impacts to significantly impacted areas, such as marinas, boat ramps and other public access areas. Funding from this grant program can be used for services including containment, removal, cleanup, elimination, transportation and disposal of harmful algal blooms in key areas identified by local governments. An Ohio man is facing criminal charges after breaking into a car to save two dogs inside from the heat. Richard Hill said he was walking through the lot of the Walmart in Parma on Saturday afternoon when he heard the cars alarm going off and noticed people standing around it. He told Fox 8 that when he approached, he saw there was large dog and a motionless puppy inside. Someone had already called 911 and was told police were on the way to check it out, but Hill decided to take matters into his own hands. "I wanted to get that puppy out of there and make sure that he was okay," said Richard Hill. "So at that point I decided to grab a hammer and went ahead and broke the window." But while Ohio has a Good Samaritan law that intended to protect people trying to help children and animals in hot car situations, police though Hill overreacted and charged him with criminal damaging after they arrived less than four minutes later. "The temperature that day was about 78 degrees," Sgt. Dan Ciryak said. "So we don't condone leaving dogs in hot cars but what's reasonable and not unreasonable." According to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, the cabin of a car sitting in 78 degree temperatures can heat up to over 100 degrees in less than 20 minutes. The dogs owner, Carly Hartman, had also left two windows and the sunroof cracked open as she went into the store for one item, Cleveland.com reported. She was not cited with any crimes. "I didn't know how long it was going to be for [police] to get here, and I truly felt that the puppy needed out," Hill told the website. "I've had to wait for police before and know that it can take 15, 20 minutes, or more than half an hour." Hill said that he has no regrets and plans to fight the charges in court. Nick Carter, a member of the popular boy band the Backstreet Boys, is under review by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in connection with a sex assault case. The case against Carter, 38, was presented by the Santa Monica Police Department on Tuesday, the district attorney's office confirmed to Fox News on Thursday. NICK CARTER DENIES SINGER'S CLAIM HE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER The investigation follows a police report filed against Carter in February. The report, in turn, arises from an an incident that's alleged to have taken place back in 2003. The Santa Monica police confirmed to Fox News earlier this year that a report was filed against Carter, and that an investigation was underway, but the department did not identify the person involved in the report. Around the same time, former pop star Melissa Schuman, of the girl band Dream, tweeted that she was "finally doing what I thought I could no longer do," seemingly confirming she'd filed the report against Carter. In November 2017, Schuman wrote in a blog post that she was "forced to engage in an act against my will," maintaining that Carter took her virginity when she was 18 and he was 22. "After kissing for a moment, he took my hand and brought me into the bathroom adjacent to his office," she wrote. "He shut the door and we continued to kiss. I asked him what we were doing in there. He didnt respond and continued to kiss me. "He then picked me up, put me on the bathroom counter and started to unbutton my pants. I told him I didnt want to go any further," she added. "He didnt listen. He didnt care." Carter said he was "shocked and saddened" by the accusations, and insisted that Schuman "never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual." Carter's representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. Fox News' Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report. CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves addressed investors -- but failed to mention sexual misconduct allegations that have been levied against him -- during the companys corporate earnings call on Thursday. A CBS executive opened the call by announcing that, on the advice of counsel, questions would be limited to earnings. Moonves then touted CBS increased revenue and growth, surprising insiders who expected him to address reporter Ronan Farrows latest #MeToo movement bombshell. Instead, Moonves went on a lengthy monologue about the companys success much to the chagrin of media watchdogs who'd anticipated fireworks. CBS earnings call is yet another example of how too many wall street analysts are in the bag for companies they cover. OK Moonves wont answer questions abt the sexual misconduct allegations, but these cowards wont even ask him about succession, which is important to investors, Fox Business Charlie Gasparino tweeted. Farrows report, which was published last week in The New Yorker, featured six woman accusing the longtime network exec of sexual harassment. In addition, more than two dozen company employees, past and present, detailed episodes involving harassment, gender discrimination or retaliation at the network between the 1980s and the 2000s. In Farrow's report, actress Illeana Douglas accused the high-powered Moonves of luring her to a hotel to talk business, only to make sexual advances and forcibly kiss her. Dinah Kirgo shared a similar story, in which Moonves is said to have feigned interest in a business meeting, only to pursue a dinner with her alone. Kirgo said she believed that rejecting the CBS CEOs advances had hurt her career. The network's board of directors didnt take immediate action following a meeting on Monday, instead announcing that outside counsel would conduct an independent investigation. CBS announced on Wednesday that its investigation would be led by some high-powered attorneys -- Nancy Kestenbaum of Covington & Burling, and Mary Jo White of Debevoise & Plimpton. Just reading between the lines here....Leslie Moonves isn't going anywhere, NBC News senior media reporter Claire Atkinson tweeted during the call. The 50-minute call concluded without anyone asking about the allegations. Last week, Moonves admitted to mistakes but denied using his powerful position as network chief for wrongdoing. "I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances," Moonves said in a statement to The New Yorker. "Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected -- and abided by the principle -- that 'no' means 'no,' and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone's career." Moonves wife, The Talk co-host Julie Chen, has stood by her husband. Fox News Benjamin Brown contributed to this report. CBS says it has hired two outside law firms to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against network chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves. Meanwhile, the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts has suspended Moonves from the schools board and removed his name from the student-led newsroom, the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves CBS Media Center, which opened in 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported. Moonves also voluntarily stepped down as a member of Anita Hills Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Despite the sexual misconduct allegations, Fox Business reported Wednesday that Moonves still planned to speak Thursday during the company's earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts. It was unclear if Moonves will address questions about the allegations he faces. CBS said Wednesday that its investigation would be led by Nancy Kestenbaum, of Covington & Burling, and Mary Jo White, of Debevoise & Plimpton. The investigators will not only focus on allegations against Moonves, but at CBS News and cultural issues at all levels of CBS the network, the company said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Last week six women accused Moonves of sexual misconduct in a report published by the New Yorker magazine, and more than two dozen company employees, past and present, detailed incidents of harassment, gender discrimination or retaliation at CBS, the report said. In response to the story, Moonves, 68, provided a statement to the New Yorker saying, "I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances." He added, Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected -- and abided by the principle -- that 'no' means 'no,' and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone's career." High-profile attorney Lisa Bloom tweeted late Thursday evening that she expected a wrist slap outcome for Moonves based on the two defense law firms CBS has hired. These are the types of firms we fight on behalf of harassment victims every day. They attack victims and defend perps and corporate inaction, she said. If Moonves, who has been at the helm of the company since 2003, chooses to leave CBS, the longtime executive would reportedly receive a severance package of roughly $210 million, according to reports. Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz contributed to this report. The cause of death for radio host Art Bell, famous for his show Coast to Coast AM and its "X-Files"-flavored focus on the paranormal, has been revealed as an accidental drug overdose. He was 72. According to the Nye County Sheriff's office, Bell's death "was the result of multiple drug intoxication from his own lawfully prescribed prescriptions." The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Bell "had four prescription medications in his system: the opioid oxycodone, the analgesic hydrocodone, diazepam, often marketed as Valium, and carisoprodol, a muscle-relaxant." Bell died at his Pahrump, Nev., home, on April 13, Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly announced in a Facebook post to the community. She described him as a longtime resident of the area. Coast to Coast AM confirmed the news on Twitter at the time, saying its staff was "profoundly saddened with the news that the creator and original host of Coast to Coast AM, Art Bell, has passed away at the age of 72." According to an obituary shared by the program, the show became syndicated across the country in 1993 and drew in listeners with its wee-hours chatter about conspiracy theories and aliens, shadow people and spectral energy. The obituary said that as Bell begins his journey on the Other Side, we take solace in the hope that he is now finding out all of the answers to the mysteries he pursued for so many nights with all of us. Even after relinquishing his title as host in the early 2000s, Bell returned to the airwaves now and then, and he also started a show for satellite radio, the obituary said. Before Coast to Coast AM began, Bell, who was born in 1945, was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and there he indulged his childhood passion for radio by operating a pirate radio station, according to the obituary. Bell broadcast Coast to Coast" from his radio station, KNYE, in Pahrump. During Bells National Radio Hall of Fame induction in 2008, his former business partner, Alan Corbeth, said no one was better than Bell at understanding how to create theater of the mind. Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and the Associated Press contributed to this report. The New York Times is standing by its hiring of tech writer Sarah Jeong despite several derogatory tweets of hers aimed at white people, which were recently unearthed on her Twitter account. Oh man it's kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men, Jeong wrote in July 2014 in one of several old messages that have gone viral. Social media reactions first flared on Wednesday with images of incendiary tweets from an unverified Twitter account that looked to belong to Jeong. They surfaced shortly after The Times announced she was joining the paper. The Times issued a statement on Thursday declaring that it had reviewed her social media history during the hiring process and was standing by the decision to bring her aboard. We hired Sarah Jeong because of the exceptional work she has done her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman have made her a subject of frequent online harassment. For a period of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers, The Times said in a statement. She regrets it, and The Times does not condone it. The paper said it had candid conversations with Jeong during the interview process that included a thorough vetting and review of her social media history. The Times said it is confident that she will be an important voice for the editorial board moving forward. Jeongs Twitter feed is filled with a host of messages that could be construed as racist and offensive. Jeong compared dumbass f-----g white people to dogs, said that old white men were lemmings, opined that white people would go extinct soon, and used the hashtag #CancelWhitePeople. Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins, she wrote in 2014 before adding a graph claiming that whiteness resulted in being awful. Jeong issued a statement on Thursday that echoed The Times. I engaged in what I thought of at the time as counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again, Jeong wrote. The Times on Wednesday issued a glowing press release announcing that Jeong would join the editorial board, touting her as staying ahead of every turn on the vast beat that is the internet. The South Korean-born Jeong, who previously worked at The Verge, was hired as the lead technology writer for the paper. Verge staffer Elizabeth Lopatto congratulated Jeong on the new gig but added, Just a shame for all of us her twitter is about to be a lot less fun. Jeongs account replied with the emoji of a face wearing a medical mask over its mouth. Jeong has sent more than 103,000 tweets since joining the social media platform in 2009. Many of the offensive comments are from 2014, and the account has recently been active with commentary on a variety of topical issues including 3D printers and Proposition 8. The offensive tweets have been highlighted in coverage by The Daily Caller, National Review, The Federalist and a variety of blogs and websites. Jeong isnt the first Gray Lady hire to come under fire for offensive rhetoric on social media. Back in February, the editorial board fired Quinn Norton hours after touting her as its next lead opinion writer to cover the "power, culture and consequences of technology" when old tweets she'd sent were unearthed. Norton had sent several controversial tweets, once claiming she was friends with various neo-Nazis and retweeting a word deemed derogatory to African-Americans. Once the offensive tweets surfaced, Times editorial page editor James Bennet issued a statement that Norton had been fired. After her termination, Norton called the situation a "context collapse" on Twitter, implying her views had been misinterpreted. No harm no foul," Norton wrote on Twitter. "Im sorry I cant do the work I wanted to do with them. I wish there had been a way, but ultimately, they need to feel safe with how the net will react to their opinion writers." Fox News columnist Stephen Miller tweeted on Thursday that he doesnt care about Jeong's dumb old tweets but its the Times themselves who set this standard, and he attached an image of Norton. Fox News Greg Norman contributed to this report. A production of the musical Titanic is setting sail near Atlanta, but theres a big twist. For the first time in history, the production is being staged on a lake and the ship is sinking into the water every night. Serenbe Playhouse is known for daring production components in 2016, they flew in a real helicopter for a production of Miss Saigon but the companys artistic director, Brian Clowdus, says he likes pushing the limits of what people think can be done. With this show, he said he always knew he wanted to actually sink the ship. From there, he said, we just figured it out! The shows set designer, Adam Koch, says his solution was to build a structure that would look like the blueprint of the ship, and then sink individual elements of that structure. Platforms on cables and pullies can be lowered into the water, a deck splits apart, and a massive 6.5-foot chandelier, custom built for the production, plunges fully into the lake. The actors in the production acknowledge the water can be daunting, but many of them find it amplifies their performances. Chris Sizemore, who plays the ships architect Thomas Andrews, says, often by the end of the show, theres not that much acting involved. I mean, you're living it. The musical first opened on Broadway in 1997. The original production won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Fan Bingbing, X-Men actress and one of Chinas biggest movie stars, sparked concern among fans after she disappeared from social media for about a month amid rumors the celebrity is being investigated for tax evasion. Fans began speculating the star was possibly in trouble after she went radio silent on Chinas main microblogging service Weibo, where she has more than 62 million followers. The Chinese actress is usually active on the service and posts regularly. Fan last posted on the social media service on June 2, the day after she was last seen in public visiting a childrens hospital, the South China Morning Post reported. Many people have commented on the June 2 post asking Fan to release a statement confirming shes okay. "We love you, Fan Bingbing," many Weibo users wrote, according to the BBC. "We are waiting for an answer." Others said the last time Fan was active on Weibo was on July 23, when she liked several posts. Though it remains a mystery why Fan has been avoiding the spotlight, several reports online claim the actress and her brother have been barred from leaving China as authorities look into reports Fan was given dual contracts for her work: a public one listing her official salary and a private one stating her actual, much higher, pay. The contracts, dubbed yin-yang contracts, are used to evade taxes. Chinese newspaper The Economic Observer reported Saturday that Fan and her brother Fan Chengcheng are involved in a tax evasion investigation that began in June. A person associated with a company linked to Fan is being accused of hiding and destroying evidence, a source told the newspaper. Several other people associated with Fan are being investigated. Her boyfriend, actor Li Chen, is also reportedly barred from leaving China. He has not updated his account since July 6. The report was posted on the newspapers website for about an hour before it was taken down but had already been widely shared on the internet, the South China Morning Post reported. Chinese media reports said neither Fan, her production company nor agent can be reached, boosting speculation that all have been caught up in the probe. Police rarely comment on such investigations until a conclusion has been reached. Fan's production company released a statement on June 3 saying Fan never signed a yin-yang contract. Fan has appeared in dozens of movies and TV series in China, but is best known internationally for her role as Blink in 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past." She is one of China's wealthiest entertainers, pulling down tens of millions of dollars for her roles, along with substantial amounts in appearance fees and product endorsements. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Some Long Island wineries are serving up a giant buzzkill for bachelorette parties by banning bridezillas and their minions from the premises. Owners of the businesses along the North and South Forks of Long Island, N.Y. long havens for brides-to-be and their sidekicks looking to let loose say declasse crowds of rowdy women are not exactly the clientele theyre going for. Wolffer Estate Vineyard in the Hamptons makes that clear on its website. 'HANDMAID'S TALE' WINE CANCELED FOLLOWING SOCIAL MEDIA BACKLASH "We are delighted when guests choose to celebrate an occasion with us. However, we do not allow bachelorette parties," it reads. "To be respectful to our other guests, we kindly request that any celebratory birthday or anniversary decor or accessories be left behind. Still, that didnt stop a group of women in tiaras and Bride Squad shirts and chanting Rose, all day! Rose, all day! from recently descending on the stately vineyard. "They would literally be doing a pyramid of women in the vineyard," retail sales director Suellen Tunney told the Wall Street Journal. You would have bridezilla after bridezilla. Some wineries are so serious about keeping the wedding riff-raff out, they warn ahead of time: Act up and face a $20-per-person penalty fee, CBS New York reported. MALDIVES RESORTS SICK OF INSTAGRAM MODELS REQUESTING FREE STAYS Brides-to-be balked at the idea of the ban. "I got the sense it was probably pretty good business for the wineries to have a bunch of bachelorette parties," Julie Adler, who is getting married soon, told CBS. She and her pals booked a limo to chauffeur them from winery to winery along the East End of Long Island. "I personally had a great time and didnt see anyone who was particularly wild or crazy," she said. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Its not just wineries that are fed up with the obnoxious bachelorette parties. Montauk Beach House desperately wants to avoid the "prom-queen tiara vibe" they bring to the beach-themed boutique hotel. "Its just not what we go for," operations manager Yannis Papagianni told the Journal. He groused about how the women often drink too much and cause a scene. "Half of them end up crying about something," he said. "It came to the point where, is it a bachelorette party or a carnival?" This article originally appeared in The New York Post. Someones having a party. Two men stole several cases of Patron tequila from a Sams Club in Florida last week. The Sanford Police Department released security cam images of the suspects yesterday, which appears to show one of the thieves pushing a shopping cart in the liquor aisle. ELDERLY MEN AT SOUTH CAROLINA COSTCO GET INTO PHYSICAL FIGHT OVER FREE SAMPLES The stolen cases contained 72 bottles of tequila worth $2,437.20. Its unclear how the men left the store undetected without paying for the goods, but police are asking anyone with information to contact them. A woman on Facebook who claims to be a Member Service Supervisor at the Sams Club, Elizabeth Connor Chatburn, wrote that the two men filled up their cart with the liquor and just walked out. Two customers who saw the suspects fleeing allegedly chased after them. Chatburn said the store was able to recover some of the stolen product that got left behind. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS The officers who posted the suspects photos on Facebook couldnt help but crack a couple jokes about it, hashtagging phrases such as Patrolling For Patron, One Tequila Two Tequila SeventyTwo Tequila Jail and No Reports of Limes Or Salt Stolen from Local Grocery Stores. Depending on how you look at it, police officers in New Jersey either rescued a deer from somebodys backyard pool, or they totally ruined its morning swim. CALIFORNIA PATROL OFFICER RESCUES FAWN FROM CARR FIRE Earlier this week, police in the Township of Hamilton reported responding to a call from a citizen who woke up to find the deer splashing around in the in-ground pool, and helping to safely extract the animal before sending it back into the wilderness. This little cutie decided that it was a bit too humid out today and was looking for some relief! the towns police department shared on Instagram and Facebook Tuesday, along with photos of the deer. WHY YOU SHOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT TAKING A DIP IN THE HOTEL POOL The caption also joked that responding officers McCarthy, Thumhart and Bakker were able to use the deer rescue training they learned in the academy (not really) to safely remove the deer from the pool. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Once out of the water, officers snapped a few pictures with the deer, who then decided to take in some sun and relax for a few minutes, before running back into the woods to spread the word, the post reads. The family of Natalie Rawnsley has filed a lawsuit after the 37-year-old mother-of-two from England died from eating uncooked chicken served by a hotel in Greece in August 2017. Rawnsley allegedly chose a piece of chicken from the Corfu hotel restaurants buffet, People reported. Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken, the chicken oozed red blood to which I commented it looked bloody, her husband, Steward, said in court, according to the Hertfordshire Mercury. She got up, took it back, replaced the chicken with a different piece, and came back and ate it. POLICE OFFICER WHO DIED DURING TRAINING EXERCISE HAD RARE CONDITION According to her grieving husband's testimony, the horror began at around 3 a.m. when Rawnsley became violently ill. A doctor who came to the hotel allegedly diagnosed Rawnsley with gastroenteritis, an intestinal infection marked by diarrhea, cramps, nausea, vomiting, and fever, and told her husband and children to avoid contact. But when her condition continued to worsen, Steward Rawnsley said he sought medical advice from another doctor. The second doctor said because she had been sick for so long she needed additional medical help, so she was going to the medical center a number of kilometers away from the hotel, her husband told the court, according to the Hertfordshire Mercury. Doctors allegedly wanted to airlift the woman to a hospital on Greeces mainland, but her condition was too unstable. There was pain in her legs and she also had a number of red blotches all over her, her husband said. MOM GIVEN EMERGENCY C-SECTION WITHOUT ANESTHESIA, LAWSUIT CLAIMS The family reportedly received a text message informing them that she had died at a hospital in Corfu. Professor Sebastein Lucas, an infections expect, testified that some people are genetically predisposed to have bad reactions to food poisoning, which can escalate into disseminated intravascular coagulation, which affects the bodys ability to clot blood and stop bleeding. The assistant coroner agreed that Natalie had contracted E. coli from uncooked chicken. A "super strain" of pink eye thats reportedly been on the rise in a southern city in Texas could make its way to the eastern part of the state, a local eye doctor warned. Dr. James Berg, who works at the Lehmann Eye Center in Nacogdoches, told KTRE the more aggressive strain has primarily been reported in Houston, but said it could stretch beyond that as people continue to travel during the remaining weeks of summer. Its able to evade the normal defense systems that our own bodies have, and medications; thats whats making this new strain the superbug somewhat unique to us, Berg told the news station, adding that more irritation and redness have been associated with this particular strain. PLASTIC CONTAINERS POSE HEALTH RISKS FOR CHILDREN, PEDIATRICIANS WARN Then the duration is probably whats really hanging up on people because its going for two to three weeks instead of your typical 10 to 14 days, he added. Pink eye, also known as conjunctivitis, is an inflammation of the conjunctiva, the thin, clear tissue that lines the inside of the eyelid and the white part of the eyeball, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Symptoms of the condition, which is highly contagious, include itchy, watery eyes, eye redness, eye discharge and crusting. 'RAT LUNGWORM' EXPLAINED: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PARASITIC ROUNDWORM Berg did not detail how many cases of the super strain he has treated thus far in East Texas, if any. However, one Houston eye doctor told Fox 46 that, on average, he treats one or two pink eye cases a month. But recently, he claims he's seen up to four patients a day who have been infected by the super strain. Pink eye is easily treated in most cases and can be avoided by washing your hands and not touching your eyes, according to the CDC. A Connecticut woman has made a full recovery after undergoing a life-saving operation in May that saw a 25-member surgical team safely remove a 132-pound ovarian tumor from her abdomen. The 38-year-old patient, who has chosen to remain anonymous, had sought help after she started gaining about 10 pounds per week. The patient, who was confined to a wheelchair due to the size of the tumor, was also extremely malnourished because of where the tumor was sitting. Her gynecologist referred her to specialist Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, of the Western Connecticut Medical Group, who put together the team of clinical specialists at Danbury Hospital. GEORGIA MAN REVEALS 100-POUND WEIGHT LOSS AFTER TRAINING TO BE COP I might expect to see a 25-pound ovarian tumor, but a 132-pound tumor is very rare, Andikyan said in a news release. When I met the patient, she was extremely malnourished because the tumor was sitting on her digestive tract, and she used a wheelchair because of the tumors weight. I wanted to help her, and I knew that we could at Danbury Hospital. Andikyans team worked for five hours to remove the tumor and reconstruct the patients abdomen while carefully avoiding a major blood vessel that the tumor had been sitting on, which posed a danger to her heart. The tumor was sent for genetic testing to determine what caused it to grow so rapidly. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! In the past week, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, now the chief lawyer and principal spokesman for President Donald Trump's legal team, has offered arguments more harmful to Trump than helpful. In a series of combative, disjointed and logically challenged television rants, Giuliani has essentially argued that Trump did not engage in any conspiracy with the Russians for them to provide help to his campaign and that even if he did, it wasn't criminal. In making this argument, Giuliani has played a word game in which he has effectively created a straw man and then denied it's real because it's made of straw. He has done this by avoiding the use of the word "conspiracy," substituting the word "collusion" and then arguing that there is no crime of collusion and therefore Trump did not commit a crime. This is an argument based on a false premise. Here is the back story. When the FBI received word from a former British intelligence source in June 2016 that Russian intelligence agents might be providing assistance to the Trump campaign, it began an investigation of the campaign. After the British source gave the FBI a dossier that alleged salacious behavior by Trump in Moscow in 2013 -- behavior he has denied -- and purported to corroborate awareness of the behavior by Russian government officials, the FBI used the dossier as part of a presentation to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorized surveillance of the Trump campaign. Because one of the Trump campaign officials under surveillance, Jeff Sessions, became the attorney general in January 2017, he recused himself from the investigation, and the Department of Justice appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller special counsel to head the investigation independent of the attorney general. Mueller discovered dozens of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians, many of them Russian intelligence agents. Mueller's grand juries have indicted over two dozen Russians, some Russian intelligence officials, for interfering with the 2016 presidential campaign, and President Trump imposed heavy financial sanctions on many of them. Mueller also discovered the existence of a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in New York between high-ranking campaign officials and Russian agents. When The New York Times revealed the meeting a year after it took place, the Trump folks claimed that the meeting was about the difficulties Americans were having adopting Russian children. Then emails emerged showing an offer to Donald Trump Jr. by a Russian agent to meet and provide help to the campaign in the form of dirt on Hillary Clinton. This was dirt allegedly obtained by hacking into her campaign's computers. This was an offer that Don Jr. accepted. The president has denied any knowledge of this meeting until it emerged publicly in July 2017, and Don Jr. has testified under oath before Congress that his father did not know of the meeting until the media revealed it. But last week, Michael Cohen, a lawyer who represented Trump for the 10 years preceding his inauguration and whose office was three doors down a hall from Trump's, told Mueller and the media that Trump knew of the meeting beforehand and encouraged his campaign folks, including Don Jr., to make it happen. Is any of this unlawful? That question brings us back to Giuliani. In Giuliani's zeal to represent his client, he has unleashed vitriolic verbal attacks on the credibility, morality and ethics of Cohen, using words and innuendo too lurid to recount here. Yet the ferocity of Giuliani's attacks is now a problem for Trump. That's because the rules of legal ethics prohibit lawyers from attacking the credibility of likely witnesses against their clients outside the courtroom. This is especially so for government witnesses. Government witnesses meet with prosecutors and testify before grand juries in secret. When defense counsel attacks those witnesses in public, the government often views that as witness tampering -- behavior that gives witnesses pause before testifying by freighting or threatening them. When defense counsel did that to government witnesses in cases that a young Rudy Giuliani prosecuted, he persuaded judges to remove those lawyers from the cases. That is the danger that confronts Giuliani and Trump now. If Mueller has enough ammo (all of it from Giuliani's mouth) to persuade a federal judge to bar Giuliani from continuing to represent Trump -- and it appears he does -- whoever replaces Giuliani will need to review and understand more than 1.4 million documents that the White House and the Trump campaign have surrendered to Mueller. That will be an enormous burden and a major financial, political and legal setback for Trump. The case Mueller is investigating is not about collusion. Collusion is a Hollywood and a media word. The case is about conspiracy -- and Giuliani knows this. A conspiracy is an agreement to commit a crime as a result of which at least one of those who agreed took at least one material step in furtherance of the agreement. Stated differently, Mueller is investigating an alleged agreement between Russian intelligence agents and Trump campaign officials for the Russians to provide dirt on Clinton to the campaign. The dirt need not have arrived -- and whatever may have arrived need not have been dirt -- for the crime of conspiracy to have taken place, because the essence of conspiracy is an agreement, whether consummated or not. In one of his more bizarre rants on Fox News Channel early this week, Giuliani said there may have been a meeting at Trump Tower to plan the meeting with the Russians. Why would he reveal this? Because Mueller knows it and will reveal it. And both know that such a meeting would be the beginning of an agreement, as well as a material step in furtherance of it. Sometimes even famous lawyers do more harm than good to their clients. The co-founder of a movement calling for California to secede from America -- after giving away nearly half the state to form an "autonomous Native American nation" -- suggested Wednesday that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren might not be welcome in the proposed new territory. Speaking on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," "Calexit" organizer Marcus Ruiz Evans said the issue ultimately would be up to the "brown-skinned" inhabitants of the California spinoff state. "Elizabeth Warren would not be able to come in there, unless the Native people of the area say she's welcome," Evans said. "If they didn't do that, it doesn't matter what she says; she wouldn't be allowed in." Warren has long been accused of falsely saying she is of Native American heritage to help in securing jobs, including one as a Harvard law professor. President Trump has repeatedly called Warren, a Wall Street critic and potential White House rival, Pocahontas, to highlight the controversy. 'REAL INDIAN' RUNNING AGAINST SEN. WARREN SUES AFTER CITY DEMANDS HE STOP CALLING HER 'FAKE INDIAN' Supporters of Trump, Evans said, shouldn't expect a much better reception. "The primarily Trump voters will have to do what brown-skinned people tell them to do, because brown-skinned people will be in charge," Evans told host Tucker Carlson. "And if they don't like that, they're welcome to leave California." Calexit's new plan to give Native Americans all federal lands in the state, running from the border with Mexico to the state boundary shared with Oregon, was announced earlier this week. Because most of the federal land would include conservative-leaning portions of California, the plan would create a buffer zone between Donald Trumps America and the new independent California Republic, Evans said in a statement Tuesday. Evans explained to Carlson that while eastern California admittedly isn't the state's prime real estate, giving it away would at least be a step in the right direction -- and, he claimed, a better system than existing Native American reservations, which he said remain subject to federal interference. TRUMP SUGGESTS SLOWLY TOSSING DNA TESTING KIT AT WARREN DURING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Another Calexit co-founder, Louis Marinelli, told Fox News he is well-aware that many conservatives support California leaving the rest of the country. We would love to see official numbers on nationwide support for Calexit, he said, adding that, on a constant basis ... people [are] emailing how they want California to secede, or as they put it: break off and fall into the ocean. Calexit is distinct from Cal 3, a prominent parallel effort to split California into three states, purportedly to improve its governance. The California Supreme Court earlier this month blocked the Cal 3 proposal from the November ballot, saying it was too significant a change to the states structure to be undertaken by a ballot initiative. Instead, the court ruled, the states constitution required action by the legislature. The move was a setback not just for Cal 3, but also for Calexit, whose organizers say is often confused for Cal 3 and could face similar legal objections. Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday the return of the remains of 55 Americans presumed dead from the Korean War was a sign of "tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula." Pence spoke at a ceremony at Hawaii's Hickam Air Force Base to mark the arrival of the remains on U.S. soil and the beginning of long process to identify them. "Today, they are known but to God," said Pence, whose father fought in Korea. "But soon we will know their names and we will tell their stories of courage." The return of the remains was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "I know President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim kept his word," Pence said. "But today is just a beginning, and our work will not be complete until all our fallen heroes are accounted for." North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases containing the remains. Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops gathered for a repatriation ceremony at the Osan base in South Korea before the cases were put on military planes bound for Hawaii. After Pence spoke Wednesday, the cases were removed from C-17 transport planes and placed on stanchions in a hangar as a military band played hymns. Each container was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. Pence watched the procession with his hand over his heart. Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, saluted. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that the return of the 55 cases was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. At the repatriation ceremony in South Korea, the cases were draped in United Nations flags in a possible sign of that uncertainty. On Wednesday, however, the cases were draped in U.S. flags. At one point in his remarks, the vice president pointedly said "we trust" the remains belong to "American heroes who fell in the Korean War." "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war,'" Pence said. "But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten. Today, our boys are coming home." There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, and some believed to have been taken to China. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has argued steadfastly that its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. Efforts to recover remains in North Korea have been fraught with political and other obstacles since the war's end. Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea unilaterally handed over 208 caskets to the U.S., which turned out to contain remains of far more than 208 individuals, although forensics specialists thus far have established 181 identities. A series of U.S.-North Korean recovery efforts, termed "joint field activities," between 1996 and 2005 yielded 229 caskets of remains, of which 153 have been identified, according to the Pentagon. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A bitter and expensive Tennessee gubernatorial primary comes to a close Thursday as Republicans will officially choose who will be their party's nominee. The top four GOP contenders have emerged as a congressman, state House speaker, local businessman and political outsider: Rep. Diane Black, state Rep. Beth Harwell, former state economic development commissioner Randy Boyd and Bill Lee. The four added $33 million in combined personal wealth to their campaigns and spent about that much, setting records and more than doubling what they've raised through donations. Current Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, is term limited. In the tense primary, the Republicans all share at least one commonality: loyalty to President Trump and his policies. Trump won Tennessee with more than 60 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election. Read on for a look at the GOP frontrunners ahead of Thursday's primary. Diane Black Rep. Diane Black announced her candidacy for governor exactly a year before the primary date. Touting her conservative record, Black promised not to back down when she announced she was throwing her hat into the ring. Black, 67, has represented Tennessees 6th congressional district since 2011. Shes a registered nurse and small businesswoman and was first in her family to earn a college degree. In the House, Black chaired the powerful Budget Committee for a year, stepping down to pursue the governorship. She also serves on the Ways and Means Committee. If elected, Black promises to lead Tennessee in favor of gun rights and against abortion. She also said she wants to lead the charge to shut down motel and massage parlors operating as dens of human trafficking in the state. FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTION HEADQUARTERS Black has earned the endorsement of Vice President Mike Pence. Trump hasnt formally backed anyone in the race, but he did say good luck to her while at a Nashville rally for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Senate candidate, in May. She has been endorsed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the American Conservative Union and the National Rifle Association. Black is the only candidate in the race who has served at the federal and state level, WBIR-TV reported. Considered to be an early frontrunner, Black has sought to balance her time in Washington, D.C., with how she would govern the state, according to The Tennessean. Shes been an ardent supporter of Trump and has introduced legislation that aligns with his agenda, including crowdfunding a border wall and designating illegal border crossing a felony. Randy Boyd Businessman Randy Boyd was one of the first to announce his intentions to run for governor. Aside from being CEO of Radio Systems Corp., the parent company of several pet products, including PetSafe and Invisible Fence, Boyd also helped start a state program that provides free community college as well as partners mentors with high school graduates, according to his campaign website. Boyd, 58, also served as an unpaid adviser on education for Haslam and was Tennessees Economic and Community Development Commissioner for two years. As commissioner, Boyd helped to bring in almost $11 billion in capital investments to Tennessee as well as 50,000 new job commitments, The Tennessean reported. BLACKBURN, BREDESEN LEAD CANDIDATES VYING FOR TENNESSEE SENATE SEAT As governor, Boyd said he wants to be chief salesman for the state and continue to push for a better economy and education, which includes a focus on technical trainings. To campaign, Boyd has jogged literally across part of Tennessee. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee endorsed Boyd in June, comparing him to the president while doing so. Huckabee said Boyd has spent his life building a company from scratch, and like President Trump, he knows what it takes to disrupt government-as-usual. Boyd has also been backed by more than 120 county and city mayors and more than 50 law enforcement leaders, his campaign said. Beth Harwell Calling herself a Ronald Reagan Republican, Beth Harwell has led the Tennessee House as speaker since 2011. In that role, she has been instrumental in ensuring Tennessee is one of the lowest taxed states, balancing the budget every year and fostering a business-friendly environment, according to her campaign website. As governor, I will lead on jobs, cutting taxes, guaranteeing every child has a great school and ensuring our Tennessee values are protected, Harwell, 61, said when she announced her candidacy last year. Harwell is also anti-abortion and a gun rights advocate. Harwell, too, is a Trump supporter and told Fox News her goals as speaker mirror that of Trumps in the White House: lowering taxes, ending sanctuary cities and alleviating debt. I believe I have the proven performance and results that conservatives in the state of Tennessee want, she said in contrasting her record with her opponents. She also credited a lot of Haslams legislative achievements to her speakership. According to her House biography, Harwell has pushed for stronger sexual abuse laws and victims rights, including increasing jail time for convicted rapists. TOP TENNESSEE DEM PARTY OFFICIAL SNUBS REACHING OUT TO TRUMP VOTERS, CALLS THEM IDIOTS Shes been honored with the Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Federation of Independent Businesses twice. The Tennessee Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education, the states teacher PAC, endorsed Harwell in May. Shes the only candidate who supports the legalization of medicinal marijuana, according to The Associated Press. Bill Lee As the only candidate without a political background, businessman Bill Lee has cast himself as an outsider in the race, which he has described as a calling. If elected, Lee, 58, would focus on jobs and rural communities as well as boosting the states education system while cracking down on illegal immigration. Like his GOP opponents, he is also a defender of gun rights and is anti-abortion. Lees first wife died in a horseback riding accident, and although hes since remarried, he hasnt shied away from talking about how her death impacted his outlook on life and business. At the time, his family air conditioning business was successful, but he decided to take a step back from it, appointing a new CEO, to spend time with his children, The Tennessean reported. My entire life had turned upside down, and I didnt much care about anything that Id previously cared about for a short period of time, and thats what disarray will do for you, Lee told the newspaper. I cared about my family, and that was my primary goal at the time. TRUMP ON CAMPAIGN BLITZ AS MIDTERM ELECTIONS NEAR After her death, he started working at a program geared toward at-risk youth and the Men of Valor, an organization that helps men who have been released from prison readapt into society, The Tennessean reports. According to his campaign website, Lee Company now garners an annual revenue of $215 million, has won numerous awards and employs more than 1,200 people. Lee also works with his familys large cattle farm, according to his campaign website. Nashville Predators captain Mike Fisher and NASCAR great Darrell Waltrip are honorary co-chairs on Lees campaign. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Well, that escalated quickly. The rise of democratic socialism has been one of the key developments in the Democratic Party in recent years, first with the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and more recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs primary win over party mainstay Rep. Joe Crowley in New York. One of the ways the movement is presented is with the claim that this is not your grandfathers socialism -- or the socialism of the former Soviet Union, Venezuela or other failed states. Its more Scandinavian health care than overthrowing the bourgeoisie. But now a democratic socialist writer is leveling with voters, telling them that actually, yes, they want to topple capitalism. "Im a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of [the Democratic Socialists of America], and heres the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. In an article for Vox, Meagan Day, a writer for the socialist magazine Jacobin and a democratic socialist, says the goal is to pursue a reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States. The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyones needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens, she says. OBAMA SNUBS OCASIO-CORTEZ IN ENDORSEMENT LIST Day goes on to reject the idea that democratic socialism is just a modern form of President Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal, as some have suggested. But we also want more than FDR did. A robust welfare state in an economy thats still organized around capitalists profits can mitigate the worst inequalities for a while, but its at best a temporary truce between bosses and workers and one that the former will look to scrap as soon as they can, she argues. In the meantime, she argues that the goals of democratic socialists should be to go and fight battles that will eventually rally people together to fight what she calls the capitalist Goliaths currently in charge of our society. The article comes after a rough few days for democratic socialists. Ocasio-Cortez was widely criticized for an interview with "The Daily Show" where she struggled to lay out exactly how shed fund her agenda. A new study found that the Medicare for All plan pushed by Sanders, and endorsed by a host of Democratic congressional and presidential hopefuls, would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years. On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama issued a list of midterm endorsements -- a list which notably did not include Ocasio-Cortez. Fox News Brooke Singman contributed to this report. A Republican Illinois lawmaker who was accused of posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend online without her permission has resigned. State Rep. Nick Sauer, who was running for his first re-election this year, said he was stepping down from office as a result of the allegations by his former girlfriend, calling them a distraction, the Chicago Tribune reported. After speaking with my family, I feel it best to step away from my public responsibilities, he said in his resignation letter. He did not admit to any wrongdoing in the letter. Sauer Resignation by Scott Fornek on Scribd Sauer, 35, allegedly used nude photos of his ex-girlfriend to catfish other men on a fake Instagram account, according to a complaint Kate Kelly filed with the states Office of the Legislative Inspector General that was obtained by Politico. Kelly, who also filed a report with the Chicago Police Department, said Sauer used the account to catfish other men using my privately shared naked photos. Nick would use this account to direct message men with my photos to engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature, she said. The men believed they were communicating with me and Nick shared private details of my life. INDIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY INAPPROPRAITE BEHAVIOR BY MULTIPLE WOMEN Sauer called himself a pro-growth, Jack Kemp style fiscal conservative, on his since-deleted Facebook page, referring to the late Republican congressman and vice presidential nominee. Corruption and unethical behavior has plagued Illinois past, but it does not need to define our future. Nick will work hard to lead by example and make decisions that honor the values of our district and the people he will represent, Sauer's website, which also appears to have been deleted, said. Sauer is listed as a member of the House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Force and represents the 51st congressional district, which includes parts of Cook and Lake Counties. He was elected to his first term in the state House in 2016 after serving more than a year on the Illinois Toll Highway Authority board as an appointee of Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Republican governor said he agreed that Sauer should resign. Harassment in any form is unacceptable and I applaud the victim in this case for having the courage to come forward and share her story. Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie House GOP leader Jim Durkin had called the allegations against Sauer troubling and called for an investigation by proper authorities. Harassment in any form is unacceptable and I applaud the victim in this case for having the courage to come forward and share her story, state Sen. Dan McConchie, a Republican, told the Chicago Tribune. It is incumbent upon all elected officials to hold themselves to the highest ethical standard and to ensure their government provides a harassment-free environment for all. TEXAS CONGRESSMAN SUGGESTS HES THE VICTIM OF REVENGE PORN No charges have been filed against Sauer, but a state law that took effect in June 2015 outlaws "revenge porn" and makes it a felony that carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Kelly said the two had met on a dating app in 2016, and she moved from California to Chicago in June 2017. However, they ended the relationship in March after Kelly claims she discovered he was seeing other women. The man I loved and honored for over two years unfortunately did not exist. Until I moved to Chicago to be closer to him, he and I would share very private photos with each other, as many couples do, Kelly told Politico, adding that Sauer eventually confessed to making the fake Instagram account. Sauer did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News. According to the Chicago Tribune, Sauer has not yet withdrawn his re-election candidacy. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The federal judge in the trial of ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team on Thursday they cannot prove a key part of their case unless prosecutors call Manaforts former business partner to the stand. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III issued the warning after prosecutors suggested Wednesday that Rick Gates who is cooperating with prosecutors and had been considered a potential star witness might not be called to the stand after all. Referencing Gates, Ellis told prosecutors in court they cant prove conspiracy without him. Not necessarily, Mueller prosecutor Greg Andres responded, before saying they still have every intention to call Gates to the stand. Ellis, a 78-year-old Reagan-appointed judge known for colorful comments, also quipped that his wife wasnt fooled by the prosecutions comments on Wednesday leaving open the option of not calling Gates suggesting he did not believe the prosecution was being serious about the possibility. MUELLER PROSECUTORS REBUKED REPEATEDLY BY TRIAL JUDGE WITH A HISTORY OF COLORFUL RULINGS During opening arguments this week, the defense team made it clear they intend to blame Gates, who handled some day-to-day business operations for Manafort, for many of the alleged reporting deficiencies Manafort is charged with. Manafort, facing charges of bank and tax fraud related to his work in Ukraine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Before the jury entered the courtroom on Thursday, there was renewed discussion about whether pictures of Manaforts clothing and other expensive purchases could be presented during the trial. Ellis repeated that he will not allow the prosecution to gild the lily. It could become relevant if there was a dispute of what the money was spent for, Ellis said, suggesting there is no dispute at this time. Manaforts bookkeeper, Heather Washkuhn, also testified Thursday that she had no knowledge that Manafort had any foreign holdings. When asked by prosecutor Greg Andres if that would be important for her to know, Washkuhn replied, yes. Washkuhn also said her firm charged Manafort about $100,000 a year and that she went to Gates when she couldnt reach Manafort. Prosecutors have introduced a bevy of exhibits and are in the process of calling several witnesses as part of their effort to paint Manafort as a tax scofflaw who failed to report money spent on luxury items -- then lied to get bank loans when his foreign consulting work dried up. But the Mueller team was rebuffed by Ellis on Wednesday when it first tried to introduce photos of Manaforts closets, filled with suits and other high-end articles of clothing. Ellis noted that those photos would eventually become fodder for the media, and called them "unnecessary" for jurors to see. Enough is enough. We dont convict people because they have a lot of money and throw it around, he said. In between periodic disputes with the judge, a new batch of witnesses was being brought to the stand on Thursday. Michael Regolizio from New Leaf Landscaping business testified that his business was paid more than $400,000 between 2010 and 2014 for landscaping work at Manaforts home in Bridgehampton. Regolizio said Manafort paid by check or international wire transfer from overseas. The trial had been expected to last three weeks. But Ellis surprised the courtroom late Wednesday when he said, "Im hoping to finish this case much sooner than anyone predicted. Fox News Peter Doocy, Jake Gibson and Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The National Archives said Thursday that it will not be able to completely review more than 900,000 pages of documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's time in the George W. Bush White House until the end of October. The documents, requested by Republicans, cover Kavanaugh's time in the White House counsel office and his nomination to be a judge. Democrats have sought a broader cache of files from Kavanaugh's time as Bush's staff secretary. Republicans have hoped to confirm Kavanaugh to replace the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy by the time the Supreme Court's next term begins Oct. 1. At a news conference Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hoped to hold a confirmation hearing "sometime in September." In response to the letter from Archives General Counsel Gary Stern, Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy said the Judiciary Committee will still be able to undertake its review along the same timeline set previously, which would put Kavanaugh on track for confirmation in early October. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the Archives letter "confirmed our worst fear" that even the documents requested by Republicans may be limited because they will be screened by Bush's lawyer under the Presidential Review Act. "This unprecedented process appears to be designed intentionally by Republicans to deny the Senate and the American people the information they need to evaluate this critically important nomination," Schumer said. At Thursday's news conference, Grassley and other Senate Republicans blasted the Democrats' demands as delay tactics. Standing before stacks of boxes that will be filled with documents from Kavanaugh's other jobs an initial cache of 125,000 documents is expected later this week Grassley and other top GOP senators argued there would be ample paperwork to review, including Kavanaugh's 300 cases as an appellate judge. Grassley called it probably the "deepest dive" ever conducted on a Supreme Court nominee. Since several Democratic senators already have announced their votes against Kavanaugh, he questioned "the sincerity of demands" for more. "What more do they need to know to vote no?" Grassley said. "It's just amazing to me they make such a farce of this," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. He urged the Senate not to continue "down this partisan, picky, stupid" path. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said the documents already being sought would stack as high as the Capitol dome. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said they would stretch 11.9 miles "Kavanaughtical" miles, he called them. At the White House, press secretary Sarah Sanders backed up the GOP senators: "We don't want a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition." The paperwork battle was expected to be the potential tripwire for the Yale-educated Kavanaugh, whose long record in public service comes with a document trail that could provide insight to his views on key issues. His job as staff secretary has been described as the president's inbox and outbox, touching more than 1 million pages that passed the commander in chief's desk including prominent Bush-era issues such as the detention and interrogation of terror suspects. Separately, Democrats have become particularly concerned about Kavanaugh's views on the special counsel law, views that were shaped by his experience on Kenneth Starr's team investigating President Bill Clinton. The issue has become more pressing as Trump tweets, as he did Wednesday, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should end special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Kavanaugh earlier had suggested such investigations could impede a president's ability to govern. As Kavanaugh visits with senators on Capitol Hill he has met with 47 senators so far, all but one of them Republicans questions about his approach to the special counsel law have been raised, senators said. Tillis said Kavanaugh did "a good job" in discussing the issue. Grassley said it remained his belief that Mueller should be allowed to finish his probe. Democrats said the additional documents they requested were crucial to understanding all aspects of Kavanaugh's background. But the dispute also could be seen as a way to slow the GOP's drive to confirm Kavanaugh and potentially build opposition. Protesters flooded some halls in the Capitol complex this week as Kavanaugh went door-to-door meeting with senators. "Getting the documents is especially important," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. He pointed to the recent confirmation battle over Ryan Bounds, whose judicial nomination was derailed after new writings were unearthed from his college days. Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report. A New York attorney general candidate wants to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and if shes elected, she said shell prosecute it too. Zephyr Teachout, who is running as a Democrat, said ICE has become a tool of fear and illegality in a video for Now This News where the Fordham University law professor stressed her support for abolishing the agency. As attorney general, I will continue to speak out against ICE. I will prosecute ICE for their criminal acts, Teachout said. We have stories of consistent abuse within ICE. The idea that we can call this 'law enforcement' is a real offense to the idea of law itself, Teachout continued. Teachout isnt the only Democrat especially in New York who has gotten behind the movement to abolish ICE, the agency that was created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S. in 2001. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have expressed desires to dismantle ICE. Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the September primary, has also said ICE, which she called a terrorist organization, should be dissolved. A LOOK AT THE DEMOCRATS WHO WANT TO ABOLISH ICE New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, too, have said its time to end the broken ICE. ICE has to be abolished. And I say that as somebody who is running for one of the top law enforcement jobs in the country, Teachout said in the video. I think its critical that law enforcement speak out and say this is a tool of cruelty, unconstitutional behavior, illegality. FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTIONS HEADQUARTERS Teachout unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo in the 2014 gubernatorial primary. Now, she is one of a handful of Democrats vying for the attorney general position since Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, resigned in May after multiple women accused him of assault. The New York attorney general primary election is on Sept. 13. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort racked up large bills but struggled to pay them in 2016, his bookkeeper testified in federal court Thursday. Heather Washkuhn of the bookkeeping firm NKFSB said Manafort was a client from 2011 to 2018, and that she was in frequent contact with him, emailing him several times a week. Washkuhn said her firm charged Manafort about $100,000 a year for its services. Did there come a time in 2016 when Mr. Manafort had trouble paying his bills? prosecutor Greg Andres asked the accountant in federal court in Alexandria, Va. Yes, Washkuhn replied. Manafort, facing charges of bank and tax fraud related to his work in Ukraine, has pleaded not guilty. He also faces charges in a separate federal case in Washington. He served as chairman of Trumps presidential campaign during the summer of 2016, though he was forced out in August of that year amid news stories about his ties to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Prosecutors have introduced a host of exhibits and are in the process of calling several witnesses as part of their effort to paint Manafort as a tax scofflaw who failed to report money spent on luxury items -- then lied to get bank loans when his foreign consulting work dried up. In court on Thursday, prosecutors showed an email from 2016, In it, Washkuhn sends Manafort a list of bills and asks him to go through the list and tell her which ones to pay, and how to fund them. They also went over an email from former Manafort partner Rick Gates asking Washkuhn if they could make a draw on a line of Manaforts credit against securities. She replied in the email that there was nothing available to draw from. During opening arguments this week, the defense team made it clear they intend to blame Gates, who handled some day-to-day business operations for Manafort, for many of the alleged reporting deficiencies. Washkuhn testified Thursday she went to Gates when she couldnt reach Manafort. Notably, Washkuhn also testified she had no knowledge of any foreign holdings owned by Manafort, including the 14 different foreign LLCs that the government has said were shell companies that he controlled. MANAFORT CASE JUDGE WARNS MUELLER TEAM THEY 'CAN'T PROVE CONSPIRACY' WITHOUT STAR WITNESS The government on Thursday also produced exhibits they say are false financial statements in 2015 that were doctored by Manafort to make it look like he had $4 million more than he did. The government says Manafort then used that document to apply for a loan from the Banc of California. Prosecutors on Thursday also questioned James Philip Ayliff, a CPA who prepared the tax returns the government claimed Manafort filed illegally. Prosecutors used Ayliffs testimony to establish that a CPA relies on the client to tell the truth about their financial information. We rely on that information to prepare the tax return, Ayliff said. Earlier Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III warned prosecutors that they could not prove a key part of their case unless prosecutors called Gates to the stand. Referencing Gates, Ellis told prosecutors in court they cant prove conspiracy without him. Gates has cooperated with prosecutors and had been considered a potential star witness. Prosecutors suggested Wednesday they might not call him to the stand after all. But on Thursday, Andres, the prosecutor, said the government still has every intention of calling Gates to testify. Manafort left the courthouse in a minivan, though he was not seen through the vehicles tinted windows. Fridays trial is set to continue with more testimony from Ayliff. Fox News Anne Ball, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The human remains returned to the U.S. by North Korea last week are "consistent with being Americans," according to an official who saw the contents of the 55 boxes. It's too early to know how many people are inside the boxes, John E. Byrd, a government scientist who oversees the laboratory examining the remains, told reporters Thursday. The remains are currently "undergoing forensic analysis" at the lab in Hawaii, another official said, adding that the U.S. is "guardedly optimistic" about the situation. The Pentagon exclusively showed Fox News military equipment that was found among the remains, including several pairs of boots, two helmets, several canteen bottles, dozens of buttons, buckles, a bayonet handle, socks and one pair of what appeared to be fingerless gloves. NORTH KOREA RETURNED 1 DOG TAG WITH 55 SETS OF SOLDIER REMAINS, US OFFICIAL SAYS One dog tag from a U.S. Army soldier was among the recovered equipment, and two sons of the deceased soldier will receive the dog tag next week. Most of the remains returned to the U.S. were from the village of Sinheung Ri, near the Chosin Reservoir. The site hosted a famous battle fought from November to December of 1950 during the Korean War. Byrd added that of all the possibilities, what surprised him most "was the great care that the North Koreans, the KPA, soldiers took in packaging and preparing those remains to be handed over to us." "They had been very carefully packaged with padding and packaging that was done to, I think, a very high standard," he said. Additionally, if any unarmed U.S. officials plan to return to North Korea to recover additional remains from the war, the Korean People's Army of the North will provide security, officials said. Vice President Pence said on Wednesday during a ceremony in Hawaii that the return of the remains is a sign of "tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula." Pence added that while the process of identifying the soldiers will be long "they are known but to God ... but soon we will know their names and we will tell their stories of courage." The remains were handed over as part of an agreement between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following their June summit. Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report. Underdog conservative outsider Bill Lee upset a crowded field of well-funded, better-known candidates to win Tennessee's Republican gubernatorial primary Thursday, sending shockwaves through a state where he was down double-digits in polls as recently as last month. U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who had the endorsement of Vice President Mike Pence, was the clear favorite in the race. Former state economic development chief Randy Boyd, who had the backing of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was widely considered Black's chief rival. But President Trump, who has a 56 percent approval rating in Tennessee, stopped short of endorsing any candidate in the race, including Black -- despite keeping her by his side and praising her at several events. Lee, a businessman whose poll numbers surged dramatically in the last week of the campaign, took advantage of infighting among his rivals, as he traveled the state and touted his Christian values while Boyd and Black sparred. On the eve of the primary vote, supporters of Black's campaign, perhaps realizing the threat posed by Lee's insurgent candidacy, released an attack advertisement suggesting Lee's company had terminated an employee and Army National Guard member for being deployed. Lee strongly denied the allegations, and his company sent out a cease-and-desist letter concerning the messaging. Harsh rhetoric in the campaign was backed by big money. The top four Republican contenders for governor, including Black, Lee, Boyd, and State House Speaker Beth Harwell, spent a combined $40 million of their own personal wealth fighting over who is more devoted to Trump, setting records and underscoring the president's continuing influence in state races. The candidates were seeking to replace the state's term-limited Gov. Bill Haslam. Lee reportedly spent roughly $7 million on the race overall, compared to nearly $14 million by Black and $21 million by Boyd. Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, a moderate, won the Democratic primary for the state's governorship, defeating state House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh in a mostly cordial race. But the surprising results in the Republican gubernatorial primary contest will reverberate nationally, serving as a bellwether for Trump enthusiasm and establishment influence in a state that supported the president by double digits in 2016. Meanwhile, the Democratic and Republican Senate primaries on Thursday provided less drama, but posed perhaps even greater national significance. U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican nomination in Tennessee's open U.S. Senate race to replace the retiring Sen. Bob Corker, which holds major implications for Democrats' chances for overturning the 51-49 Republican Senate majority in November. Blackburn easily overcame minimal opposition in Thursday's primary. She and former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who won the state's Democratic primary on Thursday, have long looked past the primaries to their upcoming general election matchup. Polls have shown Blackburn and Bredesen are neck-and-neck in the race, which Fox News currently assesses is a tossup. Blackburn could become the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate by Tennessee voters. She calls herself a "hardcore, card-carrying Tennessee conservative" who would fight for President Donald Trump's agenda. Bredesen is running as an independent thinker who says he will work with Trump when his ideas make sense for Tennessee and oppose him when they don't. MEET THE CANDIDATES: WHO ARE THE KEY PLAYERS IN TENNESSEE'S GUBERNATORIAL RACE? The Blackburn-Bredesen showdown is among several races crucial to Trumps plans to maintain control of the Senate, where Republicans are defending a narrow two-seat majority. If Democrats retake the Senate, it would deal a major blow to Trump's agenda, hampering his ability to appoint federal judges and all but killing the prospect of signature initiatives like a southern border wall. Trump has endorsed Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman, and traveled to Tennessee in May to campaign for her. Blackburn told Fox News at the time that Trump's support had helped her candidacy build "momentum." Blackburn served on Trumps transition team and has not shied away from embracing the president. She is one of the lawmakers who signed onto a letter nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. In a Thursday appearance, Governor Haslam touted Blackburn's candidacy. The governor suggested that keeping Republican Senate control is important in part because Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander would lose his health committee chairmanship, among other leadership changes. Bredesen, 74, has helped his viability in the red state by assuring voters that he is not hyperpartisan and promising he is not running against Trump. If elected, he will become the first Democrat to win a Senate campaign in the Volunteer State since Al Gore in 1990. BATTLE LINES DRAWN AS DEMOCRATS HOPE TO FLIP CRITICAL TENNESSEE SENATE SEAT A Harvard graduate worth tens of millions of dollars, Bredesen has touted his business credentials, saying they will help him win over economic Republicans, the more traditional-minded Republicans" in November. He also has received some high-profile support of his own. Corker, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, has praised Bredesen in the race, calling him a "very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person." By contrast, Corker has often had harsh words for Trump. In a dramatic moment at a hearing in July, for example, Corker pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to explain what he characterized as Trump's "purposeful" efforts to sow misinformation and discord. WATCH: POMPEO FIGHTS BACK AFTER CORKER HITS TRUMP FOR SOWING 'DISTRUST' ON PURPOSE Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has previously acknowledged his attacks on Trump might not be endearing him to many of his constituents. Tennessee, like its southern neighbors, was once dominated by Democrats. But it hasn't elected one to statewide office since 2006, and in 2012 Republicans secured supermajorities in both houses for the first time since Reconstruction. Voters also decided on nominees for nine House races on Thursday. Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn and The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trump mocked conservative mega-donor Charles Koch early Thursday for complaining that tariffs hurt foreign workers, telling the billionaire he is correct. Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to foreign workers. He is correct, AMERICA FIRST! Trump tweeted Thursday morning. The presidents tweet was in response to comments Koch made to reporters over the weekend. During a question-and-answer session on Sunday, Koch told reporters that the Trump administrations trade policies were unfair to the countries affected, adding that the conversation about tariffs has become ridiculous. This is ridiculous, we should just get rid of all barriers except on things that will hurt people, Koch said Sunday. Yeah, its unfair. Its unfair to their people. Trump has taken aim at the Koch network this week, blasting the Koch brothers as a total joke on Tuesday and promising he would be a puppet for no one amid rising tensions over his trade policies. TRUMP SLAMS 'TOTAL JOKE' KOCH BROTHERS, TAKING ON MEGA-DONOR NETWORK The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I dont need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more, Trump tweeted earlier this week. A spokesman for the Koch Network responded to the president's criticisms. "We support policies that help all people improve their lives," spokesman for the Koch network James Davis said in a statement to Fox News. "We look forward to working with anyone to do so." The Koch brothers have been highly critical of Republicans in recent months, slamming the GOP for not doing enough to curb government spending in their $1.3 trillion spending bill adopted in March. They have specifically criticized the White House over Trumps protectionist trade policies, which they fear could trigger a U.S. recession in addition to an international trade war. According to Forbes, each Koch brother is worth approximately $60 billion, tying for 8th richest person in the world. Top Trump administration officials warned Thursday that Russia is posing a sustained threat to American elections with its influence operations, saying democracy itself is in the crosshairs. Top national security and intelligence officials sounded the alarm during a high-powered White House press briefing, raising concern about foreign operations that pose a threat to the 2018 midterms and even the 2020 election. We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said. The briefing showed the administration renewing its public commitment to combating the Russian threat, just weeks after President Trump faced broad and bipartisan criticism for initially appearing to accept Russian President Vladimir Putins denial of meddling during their summit in Helsinki. But National Security Adviser John Bolton, in a new letter to senators, said Trump has directed a "vast, government-wide effort" to protect U.S. election integrity. "A single attack can have widespread and cascading consequences. ... It's not just risk to prosperity, privacy, and infrastructure," Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said. "Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs." Coats said the threat is "real" and "continuing" and "we're throwing everything at it." Our focus today is simply to tell the American people we acknowledge the threat, Coats said. It is real. It is continuing. And were doing everything we can to have a legitimate election. While the upcoming midterm elections are certainly a target for Russia and other nations with influence capabilities, FBI Director Christopher Wray stressed that this is not just an election cycle threat. Our adversaries are trying to undermine our countrywhether its election season or not, Wray said, noting that the intelligence community has met with top social media and technology companies to provide classified briefings so they can better monitor their platforms. Its going to take all of us working togetherthis threat is not going away. Wray added: As Ive said consistently, Russia attempted to interfere in the last election and continues to engage in malign influence operations and this needs to be taken extremely seriously. Coats said that current Russian efforts are not as robust as during the 2016 election cycle, but that Moscow has taken on numerous other strategies to influence public opinion -- through media, social media, bots and proxies -- with the intent to ... drive a wedge and undermine our democratic values. Earlier this week, Facebook uncovered sophisticated efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence American politics in advance of the midterms. The social media giant said in a blog post that it removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in coordinated political behavior and appeared to be fake. Facebook did not say the effort was explicitly aimed at the midterm elections, but said the timing could be a sign of an attempt. Other methods of cyber influence were revealed last week, when a report surfaced that Russian hackers allegedly targeted staff employed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., using a sophisticated password-stealing scheme. The hack was apparently unsuccessful, but an example of Russian meddling practices. Other U.S. officials and lawmakers have been targeted by foreign actors. Coats told reporters Wednesday that the intelligence community processed that type of information through House or Senate leadership, and then disseminated the findings down to the individual lawmakers targeted. Coats, though, said he could not release any other names. "The Russians are looking for every opportunity, regardless of party, whether it applies to the election, to continue pervasive efforts to undermine our fundamental values," Coats said. And last month, Maria Butina, a Russian national accused of working as a covert spy while in the U.S. on a student visa, was arrested. Butina is accused of attempting to infiltrate multiple organizations in the U.S. at the direction of an unnamed senior Kremlin official. She has pleaded not guilty to the allegations, but remains in jail as prosecutors argued she could be a flight risk. Fox News' Christopher Carbone, Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this report. As his former campaign chairman stands trial in the Robert Mueller investigation, President Trump went off yesterday, distancing himself from Paul Manafort and calling for the entire probe to be shut down. What was striking is that he asked Jeff Sessions to do it, even though the attorney general recused himself from the Russia investigation last yeara move that continues to anger the president. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" (No, I dont know how the 13 angry Democrats became 17 either.) In an interview yesterday, Rudy Giuliani told me that "no order followed or will follow" the presidents tweet, which were his "opinions," and that no one should be confused. "He didn't say anything different than I've said" on the air, which is that "the investigation should be concluded," the president's lawyer said. When I asked how Trump could even suggest that Sessions take action, since the attorney general has recused himself, Giuliani said: "I think he's talking more generic Justice Department," and that "it would have to be Rosenstein," the deputy attorney general, to take such action. Trump knows full well that for Sessions to pull the plug on the Mueller operation would create an enormous political firestorm. He undoubtedly knows that for Sessions to take that step, after saying it would be unethical for him as a former campaign surrogate to oversee the Russia probe, would destroy the AG's credibility. So it's possible that Trump is just venting here, using his Twitter platform to try to discredit Mueller and his team. White House officials have argued for a year that the media spend too much time on their Russia obsession while short-changing such developments as a European Union trade deal and 4.1 percent growth in the GDP. That is often truebut the president fuels the coverage of the investigation with his frequent Twitter attacks. The same goes for Giuliani and his latest television blitz. Trump very much wants the former mayor out there, but that spawns endless cable segments debating what he said (such as denying a pre-meeting before the Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer when no one was talking about whether there was one). Giuliani told me in the interview that he did so while trying to talk the New York Times out of running such a story (which the paper never did). And then, he said, "I thought it would come out anyway in a less reputable publication, so I wanted to get it out first." The Manafort trial is a classic case study. Of course it's big news that the man who ran Trump's campaign during a key period in 2016 is being tried for fraud and lying. But the words "Trump" and "Russia" have not been mentioned in the Alexandria courtroom. The Manafort indictment has virtually nothing to do with the campaign. He's charged with not paying taxes on millions of dollars from Ukraine and defrauding banks once that money spigot was cut offplus such crimes against nature as buying a $15,000 ostrich coat. The president weighed in with his barely-knew-the-guy tweet: "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation." And there was this: "Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?" (Manafort is in jail because a judge ruled he violated the terms of his bail.) Now it's true the Manafort trial (the first of two) is a test for Mueller, whose effort would be tarnished if he loses these cases. And critics can fairly question why Trump hired a veteran Washington lobbyist who turned out to be of questionable character. And yet the Manafort trial is rather boring, with testimony about bank loans and tax documents, with the only real drama whether his former deputy Rick Gateswho pleaded guilty and is cooperatingwill testify against him. But with the president tweeting about Paul Manafort and Al Capone, he has shined a bright spotlight on the trial that journalists find impossible to ignore. The federal judge presiding over Paul Manaforts case has rebuked Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation and chastised lawyers on both teams for behavior in the courtroom. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has said he hopes to finish this case much sooner than anyone predicted. Manafort faces tax and bank fraud-related charges for work unrelated to the Trump campaign. Attorneys on both sides got the brunt of Ellis criticism after lawyers were caught rolling their eyes in response to his rulings or after stepping back from the bench. Rein in your facial expressions, Ellis admonished. MUELLER PROSECUTORS REBUKED REPEATEDLY BY TRIAL JUDGE WITH A HISTORY OF COLORFUL RULINGS As Manaforts trial progresses and Ellis continues to make headlines read on for a look at the judges background. He took over the Manafort case in March Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Ellis began to preside over an indictment against Manafort in March. At the time, he suggested Manafort faced "the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. He also said Manafort poses a substantial flight risk due to his financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large. Throughout the trial thus far, the 78-year-old judge has criticized Muellers team for attempting to introduce evidence regarding Manaforts lavish spending habits. DAY ONE TRIAL RECAP: PROSECUTION CALLS FIRST WITNESS, WHO PRAISES MANAFORT'S WORK ETHIC Enough is enough. We dont convict people because they have a lot of money and throw it around, Ellis told prosecutors. Additionally, Ellis interjected during the prosecutors' opening statement to remind jurors that wealth alone is not criminal, and he rebuked a prosecutor in front of the jury for saying evidence will show Manafort is guilty. It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending, Ellis said. He also interrupted a defense attorney, prompting him to give evidence of Manafort's efforts to improve American international political outreach on the spot. Before the case even began, Ellis accused Muellers team of trying to take down Trump and seeking unfettered power in the investigation. You don't really care about Mr. Manafort, Ellis told Muellers team during the preliminary hearing in May. You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever." Ellis was appointed to the federal bench by Reagan Former President Ronald Reagan appointed Ellis to the federal bench in 1987 and was confirmed by the Senate that same year. He garnered senior status in 2007, according to the Federal Judicial Center. His past cases include the American Taliban Ellis sentenced John Walker Lindh, who was then 21 years old, to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges related to his activity with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Lindh, from California, told the judge he provided "services as a soldier to the Taliban ... and in the course of doing so [he] carried a rifle and two grenades. The judge also threw out a case in 2006 involving a German citizen who alleged he was taken and beaten by the CIA. Ellis rejected the suit, not necessarily because of the validity of the allegations, but because of national security. In times of war, our country, chiefly through the executive branch, must often take exceptional steps to thwart the enemy, Ellis said. He served in the Navy Ellis served in the U.S. Navy from 1961 to 1966, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Born in Bogota, Colombia, Ellis graduated from Princeton University before getting his J.D. from the Harvard School of Law. He also studied law at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. Fox News Jake Gibson, Gregg Re and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. "Fixer Upper" slammed the sliding barn door shut after five glorious seasons packed with shiplap. Yet the show's legacy lives on. Another renovation sensation from the design duo Chip and Joanna Gaines has just landed on the market in Crawford, TX. Cast your mind back to 2014, when "Fixer Upper" was in its debut season on HGTV. The Magnolia empire was still a glimmer in the Gaineses' eyes, but the decrepit farmhouse the couple renovated for a Baylor professor and his wife turned out to be one of their most impressive projects ever. Now the resulting gorgeous, rustic home can be yours for $475,000. Owners Devon and Hannah Jonklaas feared that the house might be a teardown when Chip and Joanna first showed it to them. However, they were soon convinced that the 3.65-acre lot and the wood and stone structure had potential, so they negotiated on the $220,000 asking price, eventually paying $197,000, and placed their trust in Chip and Jo. Smart move. Chip and Jo proceeded to spend close to $48,000 on the renovation. When all was said and done, Chip estimated the new resale value for the home to be around $305,000. But that was four long years ago. Now real estate prices in Waco, Texas and nearby areas are booming, thanks in no small part to "Fixer Upper" as well as the Gaines-led attractions like The Silos and Magnolia Table restaurant. The property's current price comes out to $164 per square foot, which isn't much higher than the median $148 for homes in Crawford. But your average Crawford home hasn't had the magic of a Chip and Joanna makeover. Their "Fixer Upper" crew was able to preserve the home's original charm and truly make it into a showpiece. The episode was titled "Country Farmhouse Goes From Scary to Sensational," and it's easy to vouch for its accuracy. The 2,889-square-foot home now has four bedrooms and three baths, but those are simple numbers. The true story is how Chip and Joanna worked their magic and made this farmhouse fabulous. The home's original cedar and stone exterior was brought back to life on the show with some pressure washing, sanding, staining and resealing. "Relatively little of the original wood had to be replaced," Chip said in the episode. They updated an outdated country kitchen by removing the wall separating it from the dining room. They then spruced up the space with new stainless-steel appliances, light blue-gray cabinetry, brushed-nickel hardware, and an island with a black granite countertop. The living room redo was also a work of art. They added sliding barn doors, scrubbed the stone fireplace and painted the built-in shelving white. They also replaced the blue carpeting with wood flooring, which made a world of difference. Other features were added, included exposed wood ceiling beams, a balcony off the master bedroom, a bonus room and an inviting front porch. Chip had deemed the project "a piece of paradise in the country." It will be fascinating to see how long it takes a buyer to snap it up. The article originally appeared on Realtor.com. Amazon took down the website of a gun rights coalition Wednesday after they posted the blueprints for 3D-printed weapons online. CodeisFreeSpeech.com was removed by Amazon Web Services after receiving a notice on the downloadable plans for The Liberator 3D-printed handgun, according to the New York Daily News. As of Thursday, the site was backup and running on different servers. The plans for a number of weapons appeared on CodeisFreeSpeech.com despite a federal judge on Tuesday stopping the release of the blueprints to make untraceable and undetectable 3D-printed plastic guns. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle put the plan on hold. Defense Distributed, a Austin, Texas-based non-profit defense firm, was behind the plans. In June, Defense Distributed reached a settlement with the federal government allowing it to make the plans for the guns available for download on Wednesday. The gun-rights activists created the website regardless of the judges ruling, citing the First Amendment. The purpose of this project is to allow people to share knowledge and empower them to exercise their fundamental, individual rights, the group said on the website. The Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation, the Calguns Foundation and the California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees are involved in the project, according to the website Advocates for gun control have argued that 3D-printed guns could also pose security challenges as they pass through airport X-ray machines. The website was up for about 12 hours before Amazon took it down, the Daily News reported. Fox News James Rogers contributed to this report. Astonishingly futuristic new tech creates a seemingly invisible, impenetrable, protective bubble around military armored vehicles making enemy attempts to fire at U.S. tanks pretty pointless those rounds wont hit the tank, theyll explode mid-air. Think of it almost like making a tank smart enough to defend itself. With the upgrade, tanks automatically protect the crew inside and prevent enemy rounds from making contact with the armor. Within the blink of an eye, this remarkable technology detects the enemy fire, locates it and launches a response that destroys the threat at a safe distance from the vehicle. It is sort of like a tiny missile defense system used to protect countries but one designed to ride along with armored vehicles. RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) and even Anti-Tank Guided Missiles that can slay tanks are stopped mid-air, precisely intercepted and prevented from hitting the U.S. military tank. Most types of enemy fire will never reach a tank protected with this tech. It will change warfare forever. STORMBREAKER: POWERFUL BOMB PENETRATES BAD WEATHER, SPELLS BAD NEWS FOR BAD GUYS The mind-blowing tech is called Active Protection Systems or APS. APS gives soldiers massively better protection, but without adding the weight of additional armor slowing down the vehicles speed and maneuverability. In the near term, the iconic main battle tank M1 Abrams will be the first to be kitted out with this remarkable new approach to keeping crews safe. The M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Strykers are also expected to receive this remarkable upgrade soon as well. Imagine the U.S. Army being able to send vehicles into battle that enemy forces cannot hit with their weapons. Every time they try, the tank automatically launches counter-measures destroying the would-be tank-slaying-round mid-air. Enemy fire would be futile. The U.S. Army would be even more unstoppable. Right now, two countries already have battle-proven APS: Russia and Israel. BLACK HAWK ARMY HELICOPTERS GET FUTURISTIC NEW COCKPIT The United States defense industry has lagged behind on developing this futuristic method of shielding. To find a solution, the U.S. Army selected three companies to collaborate and adapt their battle-tested tech for U.S. military vehicles. The Israeli company Rafaels Trophy system used by the Israel Defense Forces is being adapted for the Abrams and the Iron Fist from the Israeli IMI Systems for the Bradley. American company Artis Iron Curtain has been in development for use on the Stryker. In amazing news for Army families and soldiers, General Mark Milley recently told the Senate the Army intends to ultimately outfit the entire heavy force, all combat vehicles, with APS. WHAT DOES IT STOP? Basically, APS can stop weapons that are extremely destructive. Weapons that can potentially be lethal to tanks and other armored combat vehicles, even though they are protected by armor. The APS shields could protect U.S. forces from light antitank weapons, guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. Thus far, not every single weapon any enemy could wield would be stopped but certainly many of the most commonly used would be stopped before impact. This current generation of APS is very effective against lower-velocity explosive rounds fired by enemy aircraft and ground forces. PODCAST: SELF-RESCUE MASTER HOW TO SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE IF DANGER STRIKES WITH THIS INSIDER SWAT EXPERTISE HOW WILL IT PROTECT ABRAMS TANKS? The U.S. Army has awarded a $193 million APS contract to Leonardo DRS to protect the new M1A2 Abrams tanks. The Israel Defense Forces has been using Trophy to protect its Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle. ARMY'S NEW MACHINE GUN WILL BLAST LIKE BATTLE TANKS This APS Trophy uses a number of radars positioned around the tank. The radars help provide 360-degree detection of incoming fire. Around the clock, the radar scans the entire perimeter out to its maximum range. When a threat penetrates this monitored area, Trophy automatically detects and classifies that threat. Breathtakingly fast, its super smart computer works out the correct kill point in space to intercept before the weapon can hit the tank. Within milliseconds, Trophy has evaluated whether it is a real threat, sends a warning to the crew and nearby forces and also launches an EFP (Explosively Formed Projectile) to destroy the projectile. The counter-measure intercepts the incoming, say RPG, and collides with it mid-air at a safe distance from the vehicle. Translation threats cannot penetrate Trophys protection, keeping the tank and crew safe from strikes that could have been lethal. It is important to note that Trophy differentiates between serious and non-serious threats. For example, if a tank is rolling through a town and a child throws a rock at it Trophy will not fire at, and destroy, the rock. SO WHAT DOES IT FIRE? Insiders call it a hard kill approach to stopping incoming threats. INNOVATIVE PROJECT HARNESSES LEGOS AND SMARTPHONES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INVISIBLE, DEADLY WEAPONS The interceptors are launched from the top of the tank. With Trophy, the interceptors are a series of small, shaped charges. Trophy fires the small explosives at a specific point in space to exactly intercept and destroy the incoming enemy round. PODCAST: NO ONE IS COMING, ITS UP TO US HEAR THIS NAVY SEALS MOST AMAZING ADVENTURES EXPOSING CONCEALED ENEMY ATTACK POSITIONS Not only does the Trophy system stop the incoming rounds, it also pinpoints the position of the enemy firing at the tank. Trophy figures out the threats trajectory in order to successfully intercept the threat. Part of these calculations involves Trophy figuring out the incoming rounds point of origin. Trophy can instantly relay this location to the force, enabling quick targeting to stop the source of the threat as well. By doing so, Trophy provides an additional advantage. It rips away the enemys ability to conceal themselves. For example in an urban setting, once an enemy combatant fires an RPG from his hidden position in a building, the location will be exposed to the entire force by Trophy. The Army can quickly respond - and it will be the last time that enemy combatant ever tries to kill U.S. forces. BRADLEYS AND THE IRON FIRST LIGHT Trophy is not necessarily compatible with all U.S. Army combat vehicles. Power, size and weight are three key challenges to adapting APS to U.S. military vehicles. Active Protection Systems rely on lots of power and can be rather heavy. A Bradley has less power available than a tank and a cumbersome, heavy APS could undermine the Bradley speed and maneuverability that soldiers rely on. THIS ORANGE, SQUISHY BODY ARMOR MATERIAL COULD SAVE LIVES The Army selected IMIs Iron Fist for adaptation to the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. General Dynamics is collaborating with IMI Systems to provide Iron Fist Light. Potentially this APS could be used to upgrade protection not just on the Bradleys, but other vehicles, even light 4x4 vehicles. Like Trophy, it is designed to provide 360-degree protection. Iron Fist Light finds threats two ways: a search and track radar and a staring infrared sensor. It detects hostile fire and small arms ammunition burst. Iron Fist Light fires a small warhead to intercept the threat at a safe distance from the vehicle. It either destroys it or a shock-wave effect defeats it. DANGER TO DISMOUNTED TROOPS? Stopping incoming fire from ever hitting a tank is awesome to protect the crew inside- but what about the dismounted troops nearby? Will the explosion of the missile or RPG at a safe distance from the tank have the consequence of putting boots on the ground at increased risk? TANK-KILLING ROBOT REVEALED It is vital that soldiers near armored tanks are not put in further danger due to protection of the vehicles with APS. The explosion caused by the interceptor hitting the enemy round could result in threats like shrapnel raining down on dismounted troops. Active Protection Systems definitely pose a challenge, but solutions are available. The U.S. military will need to evolve and consider how they need to adapt tactics, techniques and procedures to the deployment of this futuristic technology. In fact, clever adaptation could lead to dismounted troops near armored vehicles gaining enhanced protection and becoming safer than ever before too thanks to this tech. Thus far, it seems as though Israel and Russia have largely been able to adapt, so solutions are readily available. If Russia can adapt, then the U.S. military most certainly can as well. WHATS NEXT? Right now, take the hypothetical extreme scenario of the U.S. forced to engage in battle against Russia. The U.S. Army would face armored vehicles that are protected by advanced APS as in, protected by these amazing futuristic shields. If the Russian military fired accurately on the U.S. Army vehicles, then the U.S. Army vehicles would be hit by potentially lethal rounds without APS to shield them. If the U.S. Army responded by targeting the Russian vehicles firing missiles and RPGs at them, then the American rounds could be ineffective. Russias APS could potentially stop U.S. lethal rounds from ever making contact with Russian APS protected vehicles. General Milley recently updated the Senate that within 24 months Active Protection Systems will be ready for operational use. Currently, there is only budget for four brigades to receive this life-saving, futuristic shield. Artis Iron Curtain is the only U.S. APS under consideration with the U.S. Army right now for the Stryker. Ultimately, the entire heavy force, all of the U.S. Army ground vehicles, including all the tanks, current combat vehicles and future combat vehicles will be ramped up with active protective systems. Down the line, Humvees, JLTVs and even U.S. Army helicopters might be outfitted with this remarkable tech. This is a rush transcript from "Your World," August 1, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The other day, we endorsed a great gentleman from Georgia. He was probably five points down. He won the election by 40 points. (END VIDEO CLIP) TRISH REGAN, GUEST HOST: That was President Trump talking about Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia. Now a tight race with Democrat rival Stacey Abrams. It's all part of a new push by the president to get out the vote for GOP candidates. Joining us right now is Georgia Republican Brian Kemp. We did call Stacey Abrams to come on the show as well. But she was unavailable today. So good to have you here, Brian. BRIAN KEMP, R-GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Great to be with you. REGAN: Is the president helping you? KEMP: Oh, yes. He helped us big in the primary. They're all in on this race. So we're looking forward to hopefully getting him back to Georgia. Hopefully, the vice president will be back. And we're on the ground already working hard. We had a great run-off victory. But we're back at work pushing hard to get the vote out. Tremendous excitement that I am seeing on the ground that, quite honestly, I hadn't seen in a long time here in Georgia. So we're ready to go. REGAN: What is fueling that? KEMP: I think just having a nominee on the Republican side that was kind of a come-from-behind kid, if you will, because I ran a campaign that was based on putting Georgians first ahead of the special interests, the status quo, the politically correct, and those that are here illegally. And I think people are ready for that. They're tired of the special interest. That's what the president ran on, and that's what I have run on is putting Georgians first. REGAN: So when you think about the issues that resonate most there in Georgia, and they're national issues as well, whether it be the economy, whether it be immigration, what are voters telling you is most important to them? KEMP: Well, I have traveled to all 159 counties in our state in my role as the secretary of state here. But I have also been in the private sector for 30 years literally as a hardworking Georgian and a small business guy in construction and agriculture. And when I go across the state, people are really asking the question, who is up there fighting for us? Who is fighting for us at the state capital for the little guy out here, for the working Georgian, for the Georgian family? Who is going to keep us safe? (CROSSTALK) REGAN: The economy. KEMP: It's the economy, but also keeping our families safe. We have a drug cartel problem here. It's one reason I have been so strong on tracking and deporting criminal illegals, going after street gangs. Certainly line up with the president on that when you think about gangs like MS-13, drugs, sex trafficking epidemics in our state. I'm going to keep our families safe. I'm a father of three teenage daughters. That's something my wife and I are concerned about. But I have also been a hardworking Georgian. And while the economy is great, there are still parts of our state that there's not a good focus there. It's the small, little guy or little lady, working Georgian out that needs the help. And that's why I have gone after cutting government regulations and putting Georgians first and making us number one for small business in the country. REGAN: Yes. No, that's a big deal. And small business really is the engine of this country. KEMP: It is. REGAN: Brian, let me ask you just about your opponent. And what is it that you think distinguishes you the most? Now, I guess the conservatives would say the fact that she's liberal. But walk me through sort of the biggest difference in policy. KEMP: Well, it's even worse than that. I think it's really a radical liberal. Stacey Abrams, very articulate, very smart, but she just has radical views on wanting to grow government, raising taxes, trying to have these big government policies that didn't work in the Barack Obama administration. They're bad for Georgia. Throwing more government money after these programs is not the solution we need. We need to open up private sector markets. We need to empower small business people, working Georgians and entrepreneurs. We need to run high-speed Internet that to all parts of our state. That is truly the next interstate of the 21st century. We need somebody that knows this state that will push those things and move our whole state forward vs. trying to please people in New York and California. REGAN: Let me go sort of big picture with you, because I think that this is perhaps a problem right now within the Democratic Party overall. I mean, I think, historically, they kind of represented more working-class, and they have gotten away from that, whether it be with Hillary Clinton, whether it be with Elizabeth Warren or perhaps your opponent there. You have also got Bernie Sanders, which has captivated a big part of the party. What does this mean for Republicans overall, I mean, not just your race, but as we go into midterms? Are the Democrats too far from center right now? KEMP: Well, I think they are. And, certainly, when you think about some of the people that have been elected around the country that have gotten national exposure that actually have a socialist agenda, I mean, that is just way too far. It's not going to play in Georgia. (LAUGHTER) REGAN: I got to leave it there. Forgive me. KEMP: Even with minority base... REGAN: We're up against a hard break. KEMP: Thank you. REGAN: Thank you so much, Brian, for joining us. END Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe A new bridge in Vietnam has caught the attention of many tourists because of its unique architecture. Cau Vang, or the Golden Bridge, located 3,280 feet above sea level in Vietnams Ba Na Hills, has attracted tourists from all over because of its unique design that features two larger-than-life hands holding up a pedestrian pathway dressed in gold. Vu Viet Anh, principal designer at TA Landscape Architecture, said the bridge was created to evoke the image of giant hands of Gods, pulling a strip of gold out of the land, Reuters reported. The Ba Na Hills area saw over 2.7 million visitors last year, the report said citing the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. The bridge, which opened in June, is expected to bring in even more tourists to the area. A heated fistfight between two rival French rappers at Paris' Orly Airport delayed flights up to 30 minutes and led to the temporary closure of a terminal on Wednesday. The brawl erupted between rap stars Booba and Kaaris, with both men kicking, punching and yelling at one another in the air hubs duty free cosmetics shop and waiting lounge, The Independent reports. Footage of the scuffle between the men, which the outlet identifies as two of the biggest stars of French rap, has since gone viral online. Police confirmed that nine members of the rappers' entourages were arrested in relation to the incident, as were Booba and Kaaris, Reuters reports. VEST DISPENSER AT SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT MAKING GOOD MONEY DESPITE PASSENGERS' MOCKING Though it remains unclear at this time what exactly sparked the brawl, the artists were both traveling to Barcelona for concerts and allegedly and unexpectedly crossed paths at Orly. Ironically, the rap stars were in fact once close friends. According to the Independent, 41-year-old Booba was credited for helping launch 38-year-old Kaaris to stardom, and the pair even collaborated on a 2012 track Kalash. The two men had a falling out in 2013, when Booba claimed Kaaris had not sided with him during a feud with another French rapper, Rohff. Reps for Orly confirmed that an airport terminal was temporarily closed in the wake of the incident, and that a few flights were delayed up to 30 minutes following the encounter. The waiting lounge was also briefly closed. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Moving forward, Boobas show at Barcelona club Pacha has been canceled, and fans have been offered refunds or access to the club as compensation, with the show rescheduled for a later August date. A driver in Texas on Monday snagged a photo of a cloud formation that he thinks looks like an angel over the horizon. Danny Ferraro shared the gleaming snapshot on Facebook, dubbing it the Texas Angel. This was the sunset as we were driving down Hwy 105, Ferraro wrote. How awesome is that! NEW MEXICO CHURCH MIRACLE? VIRGIN MARY STATUE APPEARS TO WEEP OLIVE OIL Ferraro was able to catch the image as he was enroute to handle a situation that he wasnt looking forward to, he told WFTS. But he told the outlet that he viewed the appearance of the angel-like cloud as a message that everything would turn out OK. Fox 10 Phoenix shared the photo on their Facebook page, asking viewers what they saw. Some seemed to agree with Ferraro in believing that it looked like an angel but other people viewed it differently. MICHIGAN MAN CLAIMS HIS SECURITY CAMERA CAPTURED AN ANGEL FLOATING OVER TRUCK One person wrote that it looked like a praying mantis with a dress on! while another said it bore a resemblance to Julie Andrews, in The Sound of Music. A similar incident happened to a man in Michigan in May, who claimed that his motion sensor security camera captured the image of an angel floating above his truck. Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this story. Florida sheriffs deputies on Wednesday said they arrested a woman who allegedly left six children by themselves at a home whose living conditions were described by authorities as some of the worst they had ever seen. Sara Nicole Resko was hit with six counts of child neglect, the Marion County Sheriffs Office announced on Facebook, after deputies responded to a call Tuesday about two young kids wandering in the road in the Porter Shores neighborhood. A 2-year-old girl who was not fully clothed, and a 4-year-old boy were found to be infested with lice and covered with open sores, the sheriffs office said. FLORIDA MOM WARNS OF LIQUID NITROGEN DRAGONS BREATH SNACK AFTER SONS HOSPITALIZED: HE COULD HAVE DIED As deputies worked to determine where the children had come from, they said four other kids, who were later found to be the older siblings, rode by on their bikes. The sheriffs department said the kids who were 6, 8, 9 and 13 years old told them that Resko left them by themselves while she was working. The residence lacked food, running water and electricity, the sheriff's department said, and the kids slept on bare mattresses on the floor. They said the home was also overrun with flies and littered with dog feces. The sheriff's department said that "all of the children were infested with lice and covered with open sores." LETTER ARRIVES FROM FLORIDA TEEN WHO VANISHED 5 YEARS AGO, FAMILY SAYS Resko returned home to find the deputies there and claimed to have only been out for a few minutes, the department said. However, they said she adjusted her story after learning that deputies had already been there for more than an hour. The sheriffs department said they discovered two prior incidents in April 2017 and February 2018 in which Reskos kids were left unsupervised. On the second occasion, officials with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) implemented a supervision plan with Resko. Deputies ultimately determined that Resko failed on multiple occasions to provide care and supervision for these children, the sheriffs department said, adding that the six kids were placed in DCF custody. A Georgia man apparently was texting when he ran over his 22-month-old son twice in his driveway, ultimately killing the boy, police said. Columbus police Officer Chad Daugherty testified on Tuesday that 24-year-old Trenton Cook waited until his girlfriends children went inside to pull into his driveway on May 8. That when he said Cook felt a bump and then another one while reversing. He discovered that he had run over the toddler, Zakai A. Cook. Cellphone data showed Cook sent a text while pulling in, Daugherty added. Police said they found no evidence of intent, and public defender Lindsey Brown called it an accident, the Sun Herald reported. Cook is being charged with second-degree homicide by vehicle and failing to exercise due care, both misdemeanor charges. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Residents of the Iowa town where Mollie Tibbetts vanished told Fox News on Wednesday they're still trying to come to grips with the dramatic case as police hunt for the student who was last seen on July 18. Julie Weiss, an employee at BGM, the local K-12 school, said her son graduated with Mollie and that they were casual friends. According to Weiss, her son was in total shock when he found out. Its just unbelievable that something like that could happen here, in a small town where everybody knows everybody. She was a very good student and very well-liked by all her classmates... Just well respected. Weiss was a part of the original search party. She said they broke up into groups of five to seven and searched country roads, ditches, backyards and garages of folks in town. She also spoke about Mollies boyfriend, Dalton Jack. I mean, nice family. I dont know them real well but I see them at the school. Nothing that I would have ever have suspected him of anything. I think hes just in as much shock as anybody. Jack, whom police have cleared as a possible suspect, told Fox News in an exclusive interview earlier Wednesday that the last time he spoke to his girlfriend was on July 17 before he left town for work. "I left for Dubuque, Iowa, which is about 100 miles away, on Tuesday morning at 5 in the morning," he said. "And I was staying there for work until what was supposed to be Friday. And then Thursday after we found out she was missing I drove home. So I was in Dubuque the entire time." He also said that early on in the search for Mollie, he kept calling her missing phone, hoping anyone would pick up. "I did for like the first week and a half. Not more recently. I was just trying to see literally if anybody would pick up. And then, yeah, straight to voicemail," he said. "I mean, everybody has their own theories, but Im just kind of leaving it up to the law enforcement trying to figure that one out," he said. "I dont want to go racking it through my brain thinking of what happened, what happened, what happened. Just driving myself insane." A pig farmer said seven FBI investigators arrived at his home last Friday and asked to search it without a warrant. They were there for nearly two hours, taking photos of the interior of the home and also searching his garage. He said investigators then asked to interview him off the property and kept his cell phone overnight to check his records. The farmer has not been charged with a crime and said he has nothing to hide. A bartender in Brooklyn, Jamie Manatt, recalled how it was especially quiet the night Tibbetts was last seen. She said the FBI later came to her home and questioned whether there were any unusual people in the bar that night. Usually when people come from out of state, this is where they stop, Manatt said. But there were no out-of-town people here in this bar that night. Manatt said she left the bar at around midnight that night and noticed that the True Value hardware store nearby had been vandalized. She said she alerted a deputy who then canvassed the area for the vandal but it was very quiet. Not many people were out. Fox News has confirmed that police have taken copies of all surveillance tapes associated with Mollie's disappearance from Caseys General Store. Mollie was last seen on July 18 when she left her boyfriends home to jog. The boyfriend shares the home with his brother and his fiance, and Tibbetts was staying there to watch his dogs while he was out of town on business. Fox News' Paulina Dedaj and Greg Norman contributed to this report. A convicted baby killer on death row in Texas filed a motion this week to waive his appeals and fire his attorney in hopes of expediting his execution because hes ready to accept his punishment. Travis Mullis, 31, was sentenced to death in 2011 after he admitted to molesting and then killing his 3-month-old son by stomping on the infants head when he wouldnt stop crying. Mullis told FOX26 on Wednesday he's ready for justice to be served and doesnt want to wait for his execution anymore. Im guilty of what I did and the death penalty is the legally justified and, I believe morally, sentence for what Ive done, Mullis told the news station. Im ready to accept my punishment. Mullis was 21 in 2008 when he killed his son. Just before the murder, Mullis brought a friends 8-year-old daughter to a school playground with the intention of molesting her. The girl started crying, so he took her home and left the house with his infant son. He started crying. I tried to console him. I thought it would work, but it didnt work. I sexually assaulted him and killed him, Mullis said. I put him on the side of the road and stomped on his skull until it collapsed. This weeks motion isnt the first time Mullis tried to expedite his impending death. He previously waived his direct appeal after being sentenced to death. In January, he again told the Houston Chronicle he wanted to die as quickly as possible. "I support my death sentence and want it carried out ASAP," he told the newspaper in a letter at the time. "I was sentenced to death, not indefinite detention." As the Carr Fire continued to rage in Redding, California, destroying more than 1,000 homes, the blaze also managed to create an unlikely friendship -- between a cat and a chicken. The two animals surprised California firefighters Monday when they were spotted huddling together in a doorway for safety and support in Redding as the Carr Fire continued to rage on in the neighborhood. CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER RESCUES FAWN FROM CARR FIRE, GOES VIRAL Grass Valley Fire Department said in a news release the cat and chicken were suffering from multiple burns, FOX40 reported. Firefighters gave them water and placed them in a crate to take them to the veterinarian. SIXTH CARR FIRE VICTIM ID'D AS CALIFORNIA CONTENDS WITH NEW BLAZES They made it to safety riding in the same crate. The bird and feline are expected to make full recoveries. The Carr Fire is now the sixth most destructive fire in the Golden State and has killed at least six people, including two firefighters, since the beginning July 23. Miller defends township clerks office Eight weeks ago, I was approached by concerned citizens to run as a candidate for the vacant clerk position in... Are we doing everything we can to protect our children? I was shocked and appalled to read that on Oct. 4, the Davison Board of Education passed a resolution requesting... Transparency should begin during campaign One of the candidates running for Davison Township Clerk states in her bio that she is a local businesswoman and... A Colorado Springs police officer was reportedly critically injured during an early morning shootout Thursday. Officers responded to multiple reports of shots fired around 3 a.m. Thursday near Swope Avenue and Union Boulevard on the east side of the city, FOX31 reported. OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2018 Upon their arrival, officials said they saw a man firing a weapon. An exchange of gunfire ensued, during which one cop was wounded. The officer, identified as 5-year veteran Cem Duzel, is currently in surgery and in critical condition, KRDO reported. The officer made news in 2015 for his help in rescuing a bear cub whose head got stuck inside a plastic protein powder bottle. The gunman was also shot and suffered injuries that are not life-threatening, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said. The family of a woman who was shot dead by LAPD cops while she was held hostage by a man at knifepoint filed a claim against the city and department Wednesday, alleging that officers did not de-escalate the situation before opening fire. The Los Angeles Police Department released the dramatic video on Tuesday showing the moment when Guillermo Perez tried to saw off Elizabeth Tollison's head before officers fired nearly 20 times, striking both of them. Tollison's family said at a news conference that officers showed no regard for her life while she was briefly held hostage. The family's attorney, Brian Dunn, detailed what he said were several failings by the officers on the scene, including yelling conflicting commands to the suspect and, ultimately, opening fire when doing so put Tollison's life in jeopardy "You had three officers firing, and we have accounted for 18 total rounds. And during the sequence of firing, the suspect is in very close proximity to my clients' mother," Dunn said. "It is illogical and inconceivable for an officer on the scene to not realize that she will certainly be shot if 18 rounds are fired, and they're fired from opposite directions." LAPD RELEASES VIDEO OF FATAL POLICE SHOOTING OF FEMALE HOSTAGE HELD AT KNIFEPOINT Police said they opened fire on Perez on June 16 only after he began cutting Tollison's throat, and witnesses reported he moved the knife in a "sawing motion against her throat and cut her throat." But Dunn said that a doctor told Tollison's son that she only had a cut on her cheek and that it was not life-threatening. In a news conference on Tuesday, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said that hostages' lives are a priority and recruits are generally taught to use a "precise head shot." He said an investigation will look at whether the officers' actions align with hostage training. The life of a hostage is paramount and protecting that individual from the threat of the assailant, Moore said. In doing that, the balancing act the officer has is how to protect them by stopping the suspects actions. A spokesperson at the LAPD's Media Relations office told FOX11 the department had no comment on the family's claim. The amount of damages sought was not disclosed. The shooting of Tollison was the first time in 13 years an innocent bystander or hostage was killed by LAPD gunfire. Nearly a month later on July 21, police tried to stop an armed man from entering a Trader Joe's store and fatally shot the supermarket's assistant manager who was standing nearby. If the city rejects the claim for damages by Tollison's family, they can proceed to court with a lawsuit. The contentious California professor who bashed former first lady Barbara Bush after her death shared a slew of hate mail she received in the months following the inflammatory remarks -- and blamed biased journalists for her inhumane treatment, a report said Wednesday. Randa Jarrar, an English professor at California State University, Fresno (aka Fresno State), declined an interview with the Fresno Bee, but not before telling the paper she forwarded the 54 email messages to show how its unethical reporting instigated violent public reaction against her. I want you to see how your papers unethical and biased reporting feeds into inhumane and cruel treatment towards the people you write about, Jarrar wrote. It is violent and inhumane. The Bee said that while it was unable to confirm the original senders of the forwarded emails, the content of many of the messages appeared threatening and harsh. They included derogatory remarks about Jarrar's Palestinian and Egyptian heritage. Some samples of the reader responses to Jarrar: Barbara Bush was a woman of Grace and compassion you on the other hand are fat Arab Pig you may not think youre going to get fired but I wouldnt bet that you wont wind up Underground youre a disgrace and should be punished appropriately, one email read, according to the Bee. I want you to see how your papers unethical and biased reporting feeds into inhumane and cruel treatment towards the people you write about. It is violent and inhumane. Randa Jarrar Another read: You belong in a cage as a sex-slave for ISIS & other Sunni jihadis. And if you ever want to return to your native slum, setup a go fund me account for a 1-way ticket to Cairo & ill give you $200. A third read: Youre an embarrassment to the university and contribute nothing at all to creating a better peaceful world. Heres hoping nothing but the worst for you fatty. But not everyone disagreed with Jarrars views. I support your honest statements on Bush, one email stated. Both her husband and son are war criminals. If I can be of help please let me know. It makes me sick that she is being hailed as some kind of kind funny hero. In April, Jarrar drew public backlash for calling Barbara Bush an amazing racist who raised a war criminal a reference to her son, President George W. Bush -- only an hour after the news of the former first lady's death was made public. [E]ither you are against these pieces of s--- and their genocidal ways or youre part of the problem, Jarrar said in a follow-up tweet. Im happy the witch is dead. cant wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. Jarrars Twitter had been set to private since Aprils comments, but last week Campus Reform captured a screenshot of a tweet demanding white editors resign from positions of power. We dont have to wait for them to f--- up, Jarrar allegedly wrote. The fact that they hold these positions is f--- up enough. According to the Bee, Jarrar is scheduled to resume teaching at the university in the fall. In April, Fresno State's president decided that Jarrar's views were protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Fox News Bradford Betz contributed to this report. Police are investigating after a Virginia woman reportedly fatally shot herself while handcuffed during a traffic stop last week. Sarah Wilson, 19, was a passenger when police pulled over her boyfriend's vehicle July 25 in South Norfolk, Va., the Virginian-Pilot reported. During the traffic stop, police handcuffed Wilson and left her to wait near the vehicle as police struggled to detain the boyfriend, identified as Holden Medlin, 27, police said. While officers dealt with Medlin, Wilson managed to get ahold of a gun and shoot herself in the head, Portmouth, Va.'s WAVY-TV reported. Wilson was still handcuffed when she fired the weapon, but a police spokesman told the station the gun was not a police firearm. It was not immediately clear how she was able to access the weapon. Wilsons death was ruled a suicide, the Virginian-Pilot reported. But Wilsons mother questioned the police version of events. Something went very, very wrong, Dawn Wilson told WRAL-TV of Raleigh, N.C. Even if their story is true they dropped the ball. My daughter is gone, Dawn Wilson said. Something went very, very wrong. Even if their story is true they dropped the ball. My daughter is gone. Dawn Wilson, mother of dead 19-year-old woman Police body-camera footage was not available because the system had been knocked offline during officers' struggle with Medlin, who was ultimately subdued and arrested with the use of a stun gun, the newspaper reported. He was charged with possession of oxycodone, suboxone and paraphernalia, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm with schedule I or II drugs and fleeing from police, WAVY reported. His arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 13. Even if the camera had been working, it likely wouldnt have captured Wilsons death because the officer wearing it had been working to detain Medlin, a police spokesman said. Police found several phones, ammunition, drug paraphernalia and a bag containing a .22-caliber rifle, while searching the vehicle, the newspaper reported, citing the search warrant. Virginia police are conducting an investigation, according to WRAL.com. No officers involved have been placed on leave. A Minnesota man gouged out a relatives eyes with his bare hands, officials said. Rochester police said they found Mahad Aziz, 18, straddling the 74-year-old victim in pool (of) blood, the citys FOX 47 reported. Both of the victims eyes were completely gouged out of their sockets and most of his teeth were knocked out, police said. Police said the eyes were nowhere to be found, adding that the victims eyes might have been absorbed into the mans body, Rochesters KIMT-TV reported. You lose your eyes theres no replacement, Rochester Police Capt. John Sherwin told FOX 47. Obviously this is an injury that is going to change this mans life. You lose your eyes theres no replacement. ... Obviously this is an injury that is going to change this mans life. John Sherwin, Rochester Police Captain The motive for the assault was not immediately known. Neighbors of the apartment complex where the attack happened said the suspect and victim are closely related, KIMT-TV reported, but their exact relationship was not immediately clear. William Barnaba, who knows the victim, told the station that he thinks a cultural stigma surrounding mental illness could be to blame. "A lot of mental illness, some people they don't talk," Barnaba said, "and you don't know exactly what is wrong with them, so I cannot blame the family that they never noticed that their child is sick." Barnaba, who said he gets coffee with the victim every day, referenced their Somalian culture. "In Africa, we don't really put it in consideration that mental illness is a problem," Barnaba said, "but after we came to the United States, we know it's a problem." Rochester is about 90 miles south of Minneapolis. A Minnesota man was arrested after picking up an 8-year-old boy and throwing him off a water slide platform Tuesday, causing the child to fall more than 30 feet, police said. Apple Valley Police told FOX9 the incident happened around 1:35 p.m. at the Apple Valley Aquatic Center, located about 20 miles south of Minneapolis. There was no argument, no pushing, no shoving, no words exchanged, just this individual walking up and throwing this poor kid off the top, Apple Valley Police Captain Nick Francis said. Police said that 18-year-old Roman Adams admitted to police in an interview to pushing the boy, saying the he was upset the line was taking too long, according to Francis. Investigators learned that Adams has cognitive disabilities and that a personal care assistant was with him at the water park, but it was unclear if the aide was with him in line, WCCO reported. KANSAS WATER PARK TO TEAR DOWN SLIDE 2 YEARS AFTER BOY'S BEHEADING The 8-year-old boy sustained multiple broken bones, and is in stable condition at a hospital after undergoing surgery. Adams is facing possible charges for third degree assault, according to FOX9. The waterpark was forced to close after the incident, posting on Twitter "Due to unforeseen circumstances the Apple Valley Family Aquatic Center is closing for today. We regret the inconvenience. Please join us another day for fun in the sun." Virginia police issued an Amber Alert on Thursday for a 12-year-old girl from China who they believe was abducted from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. JinJing Ma came to the U.S. with a tour group and is thought to have been taken by an unidentified Asian female who she encountered at the airport, Virginia State Police said in a Facebook post. She is believed to have been abducted around 8:15 a.m., according to the Amber Alert. She is approximately five-feet-tall with black hair, brown eyes and weighs 90 pounds, according to the post. She had on a white T-shirt, blue jeans and black jacket before she disappeared, police said. The girl split up from her group before checking in at the airport, police said. She was reported missing going through departures, a Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Police official said during a news conference. LETTER ARRIVES FROM FLORIDA TEEN WHO VANISHED 5 YEARS AGO, FAMILY SAYS She met up with an unknown, Asian female, who assisted the 12-year-old with changing clothes, the Facebook post said. The two then walked together to the Arrivals area of the airport, eventually disappearing from the camera view. Upon leaving the airport, the girl was seen entering a white Infiniti vehicle with New York tags, the official said, adding that she is considered to be "in extreme danger" due to her age. The suspected abductor is believed to be a middle-aged woman with black hair and a black dress on, police said. She was initially said to be in her 40s, however authorities later described her as being in her 50s. The woman was observed entering the airport with a male who was believed to be driving the vehicle, the police official said. The girl reportedly did not leave the building by force. Anyone with details are advised to call 911 or the Metro Washington Airport Authority Police at (703) 417-2400. Fox News' Ben Florance contributed to this report. Family members hoping missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts returns home announced Thursday that the reward for information leading to her whereabouts has risen to $172,000. Mollie's mother, Laura Calderwood, said "as of 10 this morning we have raised $172,000 that would be paid to you as soon as Mollie is safely home. We believe Mollie is still alive and if someone has abducted her we are pleading with you to please release her," she added, echoing past calls from family members for the public to come forward with any information. The reward is being offered through a fund set up at a local bank in Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts was last seen on July 18, and officials expect the amount to grow as donations come in. The Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa has posted forms on their website for those interested in donating. The desperate search for the University of Iowa sophomore has led investigators to question a pig farmer who reportedly twice pleaded guilty to stalking, while a suspect in an assault on a jogger in another Iowa city and a man seen surreptitiously snapping pics of young girls on a run have also been analyzed for any possible connections. But, so far, cops have come up empty. On Wednesday, a pig farmer in the area told Fox News seven FBI investigators arrived at his home last Friday and asked to search it without a warrant. Authorities probed the property for nearly two hours, taking photos of the interior of the home and also searching the man's garage. The farmer said investigators asked to interview him off the property and kept his cell phone overnight to check his records. He added he has nothing to hide as cops search for Tibbetts. WHO-DT reported that the farmer said in an interview that he doesnt know the family and hopes Mollie is tracked down soon. "I don't know who those two [officials] were but they took me down to the fire station Tuesday and questioned me for two hours, the farmer said. "I dont remember what they asked me. He added: I just thought it was a waste of time, but, oh well." WHO-DT, citing Iowa court documents, also reported that the farmer has entered guilty pleas for two instances of stalking one in Poweshiek County in 2009 and another in Marion County in 2014. The station named the farmer late Wednesday, but he spoke to Fox News on the condition that his identity would be withheld. Police have not identified any suspects in the case. Rob Tibbetts, her father, says he hopes the reward will be a "financial incentive" for people to come forward with information that they may otherwise be hesitant to reveal. "I'm thinking she is [alive] somewhere," Rob Tibbetts told Fox News on Thursday. "I'm thinking someone made a horrible mistake and they don't know what to do." The search for Mollie Tibbetts has involved numerous law enforcement agencies on the local, state and federal levels and for the first time Wednesday appeared to cross state lines as police in Kearney, Missouri, said they investigated a possible Tibbetts sighting. The Kearney Missouri Police Department did respond to a possible sighting on 7-26-2018 at a truck stop within our jurisdiction, Sgt. Joe Kantola said in a press release. Officers conducted a thorough search of the area, spoke with all possible witnesses, and reviewed all available video footage. A report was sent to the investigating task force regarding this possible sighting. Mollie was last seen when she left her boyfriends home to jog on the evening of July 18. The boyfriend, Dalton Jack, shares the house with his brother and his brother's fiance, and Tibbetts was staying there to watch Jack's dogs while he worked in Dubuque. Police have formally cleared Jack, who was in Dubuque at the time Mollie vanished. Police in Dubuque, which lies on the states border with Wisconsin and Illinois, said Wednesday they arrested a man accused of assaulting a jogger earlier this week although as of now, the case currently has no known ties to Tibbetts disappearance. Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Jensen told Fox News the jogger had stated to investigators she was running near the city's fire station on Sunday night when she was approached by a man who had offered her flowers and tried to grab her. The male subject, later identified as Greg Thomas Langel, 22, of Dubuque, grabbed the female victims arm when she refused to give him her phone number, the police department said in a statement. She was able to pull her arm away and kicked Langel when he tried to grab her again. The department said they tracked a suspicious vehicle observed by traffic cameras in the area of the reported assault back to Langel, who made limited admissions about the incident. He has been charged with simple assault and was taken into custody Wednesday on a warrant. In Pella, about an hours drive away from Brooklyn, police said Tuesday they took a man in for questioning after he was captured on surveillance footage last Friday taking pictures of female joggers. Pella Lt. Shane Cox told Fox News that during questioning the man revealed why he had taken the photos, but Cox said he would not disclose that information. Ive got the detectives fact checking everything hes given us," Cox said. "At this point there are no criminal charges." And, Cox added, he doesn't expect there to be any charges. Cox also told Fox News on Tuesday his department has been in contact with the Poweshiek County Sheriffs Office regarding the case but have not found it in any way linked to Tibbetts disappearance. Tibbetts father, brothers Jake and Scott, and her boyfriend have urged the public in a series of wide-ranging, exclusive interviews with Fox News Channel to send in tips to police. Just think. Think about what you saw and call the authorities. I really think thats how we are going to get Mollie back. I really do, Rob Tibbetts told Fox & Friends early Thursday morning. Fox News Cristina Corbin and Andrew Keiper contributed to this report. A missing Iowa college student who vanished two weeks ago may have been seen last week in the Kansas City area, police said Wednesday. Kearney, Mo., police said 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, whos been missing since July 18, was possibly spotted eight days later, July 26, at a local truck stop near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Highway 92, FOX4 Kansas City reported. Officers conducted a thorough search of the area, spoke with all possible witnesses, and reviewed all available video footage, a police statement said. A report was sent to the investigating task force regarding this possible sighting. Although Kearney police said they passed on the information that someone caught sight of a woman resembling Tibbetts, Sgt. Joe Kantola told Kansas City's KMBC-TV that if the missing University of Iowa student had been seen in surveillance video from the truck stop, it would have been mentioned in the statement. Kantola told the station that only one person at the truck stop claimed to catch a glimpse of the individual. KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, reported that several of its viewers sent in screenshots of a Facebook post of a possible sighting that said Tibbetts might have been drugged, looked disoriented and was with a truck driver. Authorities couldnt immediately confirm to the station whether the tip was legitimate. A TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN CASE OF MISSING STUDENT MOLLIE TIBBETTS Tibbetts was last seen jogging July 18 in Brooklyn, Iowa, a small town about an hours drive east of Des Moines, where she was staying at her boyfriends house to watch his dogs while he was out of town for work. Her boyfriend, Dalton Jack, and family reported Tibbetts missing the following day when she never showed up for work. Despite attempts to contact her cell phone, calls have gone straight to voice mail. Investigators have interviewed dozens of people and searched a nearby hog farm, cornfields and other properties for any trace of Tibbetts over the last two weeks but so far, their efforts have all come up short. A reward was increased to $30,000 Wednesday for any information leading to Tibbetts whereabouts, KCCI reported. A news conference was expected to be held Thursday regarding the reward, KMBC reported. Anyone with information is urged to contact police tip lines at (800) 452-1111 or (515) 223-1400. The sheriff's office in Poweshiek County, Iowa, said the public can also send tips via email to tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com. I've asked this already but will ask it again. IF the Dems were colluding with the Russians, WHY did the Russians double cross them ?? They hacked BOTH the DNC and the RNC yet ONLY released the DNC emails !!! Also if the Obama knew all this, WHY DIDN'T HE DECLARE THE ELECTIONS A FRAUD ?? I'm sure there's a process by which the election could be declared invalid and rescheduled. Others have said it, but it bears repeating. Trump can't tolerate the possibility that HE didn't get elected ALL BY HIMSELF !!!!! Even if he never directly colluded with the Russians, he simply can't accept that they may have swayed the election in his favor. He already lost the popular vote. Which he attributes to MILLIONS of illegal votes !!!! His electoral college win came down to just 87,000 votes in key states. States in which dems, angry with Hillary and the DNC, voted for independent candidates by an unusually high margin. Some where north of 200,000 votes over historical norms. Sorry, but the evidence that the Dems colluded with Russia is simply not there. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base confirmed Thursday there was no "real world active shooter incident" on base, following earlier reports of one. The base initially said emergency responders rushed to the scene of a "reported active shooter incident" at the medical center around 12:40 p.m. However, after further investigation, officials found that it wasn't "an actual active shooter incident." "This reported incident occurred during a normal, scheduled installation exercise which included an Active Shooter scenario at separate location in Area A," the base tweeted. The base said security forces arrived after someone who thought "a real-world incident" was ongoing called 911. "As a result, security forces responded to the scene and began a systematic sweep and clearing of the entire hospital," the tweet said. "In an attempt to breech a door that was locked, a security forces member discharged his firearm to open the door and continue the sweep of the facility. The base said the area was "declared safe," although it urged people to steer clear of the hospital area for the time being. Video earlier from outside the hospital showed service members and others standing outside the building about two hours after the active-shooter reports emerged. The Dayton Daily News reported people were seen leaving the building with their hands in the air. Local media reported an alert was sent to base personnel asking them to take cover, according to the Dayton Daily News. Wright State University and nearby schools temporarily went into lockdown after the first alerts went out. Approximately 20 minutes after the alert was issued, the university tweeted it had been told the incident was contained. Ohio Gov. John Kasich asked for prayers in a tweet regarding the incident, adding that he "instructed the State Highway Patrol to provide all possible support to the first responders managing the situation." Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman also issued statements on Twitter after the reports. People join us in keeping the first responders, Wright-Patt personnel and the entire Dayton community in our thoughts as we pray for the safety of everyone involved, Brown wrote. "Jane and I are following the events unfolding at Wright-Patt," Portman tweeted. "We thank our first responders for their efforts & are praying for a safe conclusion for everyone involved." The base was scheduled to hold quarterly exercises from July 30 to Aug. 3, the Dayton Daily News reported. The Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police were sending personnel to the base. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) tweeted that officials from their Columbus Field Division were responding to the base. The sprawling base is near Dayton in southwest Ohio and has about 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Authorities responding to a possible gunman at a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., late Wednesday evening said there was no evidence of any shots fired or victims located. The Bakersfield Police Department said in a tweet that authorities have finished searching the hospital, but asked people to continue to avoid the area. The location was Mercy Southwest Hospital in the southwestern portion of the city, and the facility was placed on lockdown, Bakersfield's FOX 58 reported. An Ohio police chief died from an accidental fentanyl overdose after the drugs were removed from his departments evidence room, officials said Wednesday. Kirkersville Police Chief James Hughes Jr. was found unresponsive in his home May 25 and pronounced dead shortly after, the Newark Advocate reported. An autopsy revealed he died from acute intoxication by fentanyl. Reynoldsburg Police Department Lt. Ron Wright, whose department is still investigating, told the newspaper that packaging was discovered that indicated that he was taking controlled substances from the evidence room. According to the coroners office, a plastic sandwich bag found where Hughes died tested positive for cocaine. A syringe was also determined to be positive for fentanyl, the Newark Advocate reported. Hughes, who was 35 years old, had only been on the job for a few months before he died. He was hired in March and wasnt here that long, but he kept me informed [about] what was going on, Kirkersville Mayor Terry Ashcraft told the Newark Advocate after Hughes death. A lot of stuff goes on in this town, and hed come and done his job and never had a complaint on him. FENTANYL BUST NETS ENOUGH DRUGS TO WIPE OUT POPULATION OF OHIO Hughes left behind a wife and three young children. A GoFundMe account was set up to help the family, and the Kirkersville Village Council provided $1,500 to help cover funeral expenses. Wright said he plans to contact the states attorney generals office once the investigation is completed so the state can look into the Kirkersville Police Departments practices, especially when it comes to the evidence room. ATLANTA POLICE OFFICER RESIGNS AFTER ARREST IN DRUG RAID, SORRY FOR SHAMEFUL ACT He also said this tragedy is proof that the heroin epidemic can affect anyone. Its happening at all different levels and walks of life, he told the newspaper. A new police chief has not yet been named. Kirkersville is less than 30 miles east of Columbus. JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (AP) _ Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. (PDM) on Wednesday reported a key measure of profitability in its second quarter. The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The Johns Creek, Georgia-based real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $53.1 million, or 41 cents per share, in the period. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 42 cents per share. Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization. The company said it had net income of $10.9 million, or 9 cents per share. The commercial real estate investment trust posted revenue of $129.2 million in the period, exceeding Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $125.1 million. Piedmont Office expects full-year funds from operations in the range of $1.69 to $1.75 per share. The company's shares have increased nearly 2 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has decreased 5.5 percent in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PDM at https://www.zacks.com/ap/PDM As several cities take aim at reducing their carbon footprint by banning plastic straws, one company says theres a new problem that could soon plague the U.S.: counterfeit reusable straws. FinalStraw sought to create a collapsible, stainless steel straw that consumers could reuse. The straw even comes with a carrying case. However, Emma Cohen, the companys co-founder, told BuzzFeed News on Monday that counterfeiters flooding websites like Amazon and eBay are creating an issue. The whole purpose was to reduce waste, Cohen said, adding the counterfeit straws created a bigger waste problem. Searches across Amazon and eBay found that knockoff stainless steel straws were prevalent, according to BuzzFeed News. While FinalStraw intends to sell its item for $20 apiece, other places were selling theirs for $10. Cohen and co-founder Miles Pepper reported more than 200 listings on Amazon, eBay and Alibaba were using FinalStraw's promotional photos to advertise the knockoffs. FinalStraw doesnt have a listing on these websites because its final product wont be ready until November, according to BuzzFeed News. Those who have bought the counterfeit straws have complained to FinalStraw about their purchases falling apart. People are just genuinely confused, Cohen told BuzzFeed News. Some are angry and upset. Pepper said the company plans to go after the straw sellers after its trademark and patent applications go through. The race for an alternative straw version was kicked off when cities like San Francisco and Seattle announced plans to reduce the use of plastic straws at restaurants. San Francisco became the largest U.S. city last month to ban restaurants and retailers from providing customers with plastic straws. Businesses in the city will have to meet the new guidelines by January 1, 2020. Disney and Starbucks have also announced plans to ban plastic straws. Fox News Chris Irvine contributed to this report. A Florida mother who allegedly threw her 4-year-old daughter into a river in Tampa, Florida, has been charged with murder, police said on Thursday. The girl, identified as Je'Hyrah Daniels, was thrown into the Hillsborough River around 4 p.m. after her mother waded into the water, according to the Tampa Bay Police Department. Rescue divers pulled the unconcious girl from the water nearly half an hour later and she was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police said the girl's mother, 26-year-old Shakayla Denson, had just stolen a Nissan Altima from an autoshop before she "waded" into the water with Daniels. "Roughly halfway across the river, she tossed the child and began wading out," police added. Denson was spotted walking nearby and was taken into custody. She's since been charged with first degree felony murder, aggravated child abuse and grand theft auto. Police Chief Brian Dugan called the incident "completely tragic." "It's a crazy world we live in," he said. Fox News' Allie Raffa and Keith Harden contributed to this report. As of this week, more than 300 people are now suing the University of Southern California over its alleged failure to prevent sexual abuse by a former campus gynecologist, reports said. And faculty members renewed a push Wednesday for the university's president to make good on his plans to resign. The gynecologist, Dr. George Tyndall, 71, was the subject of repeated complaints that he groped female students during campus office visits and made lewd, inappropriate comments about womens bodies during his three decades at the student health center. He also allegedly improperly photographed students. Complaints made as early as 1990 were not fully investigated until 2016, said California's state Department of Education, which is investigating USCs response to allegations against Tyndall. "It is unconscionable that a world-class institution like USC would ignore repeated red flags and allow Dr. Tyndall to remain in a position where he could continue his abuse of students," said Mike Arias, managing partner of a law firm that on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of 54 former USC students alleging sexual abuse. Meanwhile, in the two months since USC President C.L. Max Nikias agreed to step down, many faculty members have grown concerned that he might not be leaving, the Los Angeles Times reported. A petition dated Wednesday and signed by nearly 700 faculty members was addressed to the trustees. It said there had been no follow-up in naming an interim president or searching for a permanent replacement, the paper reported. We find ourselves in a state of turmoil and uncertainty, the petition said, noting that students return to campus in less than three weeks. President Nikias cannot be the one who stands up to greet new students at the Convocation. Faculty members had written two months ago that they wanted Nikias to step aside to allow new leaders to heal the damage to the university, restore trust of the community, and help us to move forward, the Washington Post reported. University board Chairman Rick Caruso could not be reached for comment Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the Post. Dr. Yaniv Bar-Cohen, president of the academic senate, told colleagues in a letter to the faculty Monday that there appears to be broad faculty consensus that it would be inappropriate for Nikias to continue in office during the search for a new permanent President, the Times reported. Its just not acceptable to go back on what was already announced two month ago. ... We really cant move forward until we have new leadership." Ariela Gross, USC law and history professor Its just not acceptable to go back on what was already announced two month ago, Ariela Gross, a USC law professor said. We really cant move forward until we have new leadership, the Post reported. A university spokeswoman declined to comment on Nikias status or whether trustees formed a presidential search committee, the report said. Tyndall could not be reached for comment this week, but he has previously denied wrongdoing. He has not been charged with a crime, but police were investigating allegations from dozens of women and more than 400 students who made complaints through a university hotline. USC has said it is cooperating with the investigations. "A blind eye was turned towards these women's pleas for help. ... USC's inexcusable inaction gave Dr. Tyndall the opportunity to abuse countless more patients over many years." Andy Rubenstein, attorney "A blind eye was turned towards these women's pleas for help," attorney Andy Rubenstein said in a statement this week. "USC's inexcusable inaction gave Dr. Tyndall the opportunity to abuse countless more patients over many years." The Times reported that in a secret deal last summer, top university administrators allowed Tyndall to resign quietly with a financial payout. USC also did not report Tyndall at the time to the Medical Board of California, the paper reported. The university told the Times in a statement that it was under no obligation to report him, but in hindsight, USC should have reported him. The Associated Press contributed to this report. About 3,000 Yemeni children are fleeing every day from the port city of Hodeida as fighting between a Saudi-led coalition and Yemen's Shiite rebels continues to rage along the country's west coast, an international aid group said Thursday. Save the Children estimated that 6,238 people half of them children leave Hodeida on average "every single day." But their trek to safer areas is perilous as families often find themselves "having to brave minefields, airstrikes and being forced to cross areas of active fighting all in a bid to escape" the fighting in Hodeida, a statement from the group said. The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemeni's internationally recognized government has been fighting to defeat the rebels, known as Houthis, since March 2015. It has been recently seeking to retake rebel-held areas along the country's western coast, including Hodeida, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine. In a bid to prevent an all-out fight in Hodeida, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen has been pushing to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table. Martin Griffiths has also held several meetings with both sides in recent weeks. Yemen's government has called for rebels' "unconditional withdrawal" from Hodeida but the Houthis have long refused to hand over the city. Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children's country director for Yemen, described the situation in Hodeida as that in a "ghost town," saying "the streets are empty even in the day and there are checkpoints everywhere. The devastation that airstrikes and shelling have caused is clear to see." He called for "an immediate cease-fire" and urged Yemen's warring parties to join U.N. peace efforts. The aid group also warned that a fresh wave of violence in the city is putting the lives of Yemeni children "in extreme danger." The U.N. says a total of 47,230 displaced households from Hodeida have been registered as of July 24. On Wednesday, the U.N. children's agency warned of the potential for another cholera outbreak after airstrikes hit water facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Hodeida. The three-year stalemated war has killed over 10,000 people, badly damaged Yemen's infrastructure and crippled its health system. The country is now the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance. Malnutrition, cholera and other diseases have killed or sickened thousands of civilians over the years. ___ Zaki reported from Cairo. Israeli restaurant owner, Yorai Feinberg, felt welcome in Berlin. Then he began to receive dozens of anti-Semitic hate emails. Jews will land in gas chambers, they said. The emails were all signed Ludwig Fischer, the pseudonym of one of Hitlers most notorious Nazi henchmen. Feinberg is one of the many victims of surging anti-Semitism in Germany. In June, a Jewish high school student at Berlins low-crime Friedenauer district was bullied, with swastikas left on his desk. He was subjected to a mock execution. His parents transferred him to a Jewish school. Weeks later, 16 pre-schools and day care centers in Munich received letters with swastikas and threats against the children, calling them biological waste. Anti-Semitic content on the Internet has jumped from 7.5 percent to over 30 percent in the decade between 2007 and 2018, according to a newly released study by Monica Schwarz-Friesel, a professor of cognitive science at the Technical University in Berlin and an expert on anti-Semitism. The study shows that anti-Semitism permeates mainstream German society. For the first time in modern anti-Semitism research our study gives empirical evidence that anti-Semitism is on the rise, Schwarz-Friesel said in an email. She said the study demonstrates the extent to which anti-Semitism is spreading on the Internet. It can be seen, heard, and read everywhere online, she said, and this leads to normalization. Anti-Semitism is ubiquitous in online communication, said Schwarz-Friesel. It has increased and intensified and provides links to photos, texts, songs, and films. According to the study, traditional hostility toward Jews remains the primary basis for todays anti-Semitism. It has always been there, but now it shows its face more openly. Daily online communications contain remarks such as these: Why are Jews always so mean? I hate Jews so very much. POLISH PRIEST SET FOR SAINTHOOD CRITICIZED FOR ANTI-SEMITISM These are comments from everyday online communications, not from extremist pages, or blogs. According to the German Interior Ministrys survey of police reports, there were 1,453 anti-Semitic incidents in 2017, amounting to four a day. Why these brazen displays of anti-Semitism in the country responsible for the Holocaust? Remembrance of the Nazi period is fading away, said Richard Herzinger, a columnist for Die Welt, a center-right newspaper in Berlin. "Young people dont know, or care, about this period", he said. "They ask: 'Why do Jews always impose the Jewish narrative of Holocaust memory on us? Germans suffered too. Why do we always have to hear the Jewish narrative?'" Attacks on Israel have become a vehicle for expressions of anti-Semitism that might otherwise be socially unacceptable. MILLIONS OF TWEETS SPREAD ANTI-SEMITIC MESSAGES, REPORT SAYS It is of great concern that virtually all anti-Semitic stereotypes are projected in various ways onto discussions of Israel, said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committees Berlin office. This expression of anti-Semitic hate speech substitutes terms like Zionists and influential circles for Jewish targets, said Berger. Xenophobic expressions of hatred against both Jews and Muslims have gained legitimacy with the rise of the ultra-nationalist party, Alternative for Germany (AFD), in the 2017 election. Anti-Semitism and racism find a voice in this right wing, populist party, that condemns German contrition for its Nazi past and decries the proliferation of Holocaust memorials. While the AFD had previous failed to gain the five percent necessary to be represented in the Bundestag elections, experts agree Chancellor Angela Merkels decision to admit 1.5 million refugees in 2015-16 increased anger at home. As a result, AFD saw 92 representatives elected in the 2017 national vote and it is now the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. Merkels Christian Democratic government is vehement in its opposition to the rising anti-Semitism. Merkel has appointed a cabinet level tsar to coordinate a national fight against anti-Semitism. To the far right ultra-nationalists, however, Merkel is seen as a puppet of a hidden Jewish conspiracy against the German people because of her support for the refugees. Who could have imagined that more than 70 years after World War II, Holocaust revisionism and even denial would be on the rise, as this study powerfully demonstrates, said Berger. My dad was an enlisted Marine with a wife and 3 children at the time; they don't get paid the big bucks, and airline tickets take a big chunk out of a budget for someone who doesn't get paid big bucks. Maybe it was (a) or maybe we were on some sort of stand-by list to get a cheaper rate & save money. I still recall also taking what were called "MAC flights" back then, whenever we could take the opportunity. My mother's from Colombia, and from what I understand, MAC flights were only available to military families who were traveling internationally; they couldn't take them for domestic flights, had to use commercial airlines. Maybe Hollywood knows more about that; I was a child and a dependent back then so I didn't deal with the paperwork, other than showing my military dependent's ID. Perhaps you might want to say that I'm being a little biased towards being insensitive to this couple because I'm envious that they have the luxury to afford to travel & complain like they are about what happened; if that's the case, that's fine, I'll accept that. Or, maybe it is (b) - worst travel agents in America. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 Egypt is trying to broker a broad cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers that is to pave the way for Gaza's reconstruction and an eventual prisoner swap, senior Hamas officials said Thursday. Repeated cease-fire deals over the years collapsed, but there were signs of possible momentum toward a new agreement, after weeks of escalation along the Gaza-Israel frontier. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to put off a trip to South America to keep an eye on the situation in Gaza, a government official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Separately, a high-level Hamas delegation planned to enter Gaza later Thursday after holding talks in Cairo, said the Palestine Information Center, a Hamas-linked website. Most of the Hamas leadership is based in Gaza but would be joined by exiled members of the group's political bureau, including Saleh Arouri, a founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank and a mastermind of violent attacks against Israelis in the past. "Permitting a delegation with this level to come to Gaza is a clear sign that there are first of all guarantees that the delegation will not be targeted by the Israelis, and a sign that there are serious meetings to be held in Gaza," said Bassem Naim, a Gaza-based Hamas official. He said Hamas officials would try to "conclude the progress that has been made on files such as the truce," as well as a U.N.-led rebuilding of Gaza and possible reconciliation between Hamas and its domestic political rival, West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Naim said the Hamas leaders would also talk about a possible prisoner swap with Israel. Two other senior Hamas officials confirmed the outlines of the deal proposed by Egypt. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details of closed-door negotiations. It's not clear what role Abbas would play in Gaza, if any. He has said in the past that he would only resume responsibility for Gaza if Hamas agrees to hand over all authority there, including over security. Hamas has been unwilling to do so. Gaza has endured a crippling border blockade by Israel and Egypt, imposed after Hamas seized the territory in 2007. In recent months, Hamas has become more desperate amid mounting financial pressure, including from Abbas. Gaza's 2 million people have had to contend with blockade-linked electricity shortages, rising unemployment and growing poverty. Despite renewed cease-fire efforts, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that, starting Thursday, he is halting shipments of fuel and natural gas to Gaza in response to incendiary balloons that have targeted southern Israel. Israel also suspended fuel shipments to Gaza temporarily in July for similar reasons. Incendiary balloons and kites, many set off during border protests organized by Hamas, have caused fires that have devastated southern Israel's farmland and forests. Since late March, thousands of Gaza residents have participated in frequent protests along Israel's perimeter fence, in part to try to break the blockade. In the past four months, 155 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire, including at least 117 in protests near the fence, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Gaza rights group Al Mezan. Others, including Hamas militants, have been killed in other incidents, including Israeli airstrikes. Last month, an Israeli soldier was killed by sniper fire from Gaza. For years, Yasser Khoulani sought news of his brothers Abdelsattar and Majd after they were hustled away by Syria's secret police at demonstrations against President Bashar Assad in 2011. He knew they were being held at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where inmates are routinely beaten, raped and starved, according to testimony from former guards and inmates collected by rights groups. His mother spent close to $2,000 on a bribe to see one of the brothers behind a glass pane for just three minutes in 2012. The family held out hope that the two of them were alive. But last week, Khoulani learned from their updated civil registries that Abdelsattar and Majd perished in prison in 2013 without a chance for the family to say goodbye. After years of silence on the issue, the Syrian government has started updating civil registries to reflect deaths among its incarcerated population, activists say. "You sense all of a sudden that you can no longer dream again," said Khoulani, who spoke to The Associated Press by phone from Gaziantep, Turkey, where he is a refugee. "I'd been living on the hope that maybe, one day, (my brothers) would leave prison." Activists say they have learned of the passing of hundreds of detainees, including leading voices in the popular uprising against Assad, since the government began updating registries earlier this year, and they fear news of hundreds, if not thousands, of more deaths may soon follow. For many families, it has been the first time they have received news of their loved ones in years. Four civil registry extracts seen by The Associated Press do not list any cause of death, but human rights groups say the sheer number of reports are further proof of a regime of abuse and mass killings in government prisons a case investigators are ready to bring to war crimes tribunals if officials are apprehended. "This could add evidence to what we have already," said Mohammad al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, which has been compiling testimonies from survivors of the conditions inside Syrian prisons. The Syrian government has not commented on the recent revelations, and it has previously denied taking political prisoners. And with Assad's forces in a stronger position now than they ever been after seven years of civil war, officials are unlikely to worry about facing trial. But the question of detainees has been a contentious issue in U.N.-sponsored peace talks that the government hopes will restore its legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. Many Syrians speculate the government, unable to shake off pressure by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura to negotiate on detainees, is trying to wash its hands of the matter by issuing death certificates. "The government wants to say there are no missing persons. They died - let's move on," said al-Abdallah. "It's a Syrian government version of a solution." Rights groups say Syria's security agencies used arrests and torture to terrorize the population as Arab Spring-styled protests against President Assad and his family's 40-year reign swept through the country in 2011. Anyone participating in the demonstrations, or suspected of sympathizing with the popular movement, was liable to be picked up in the sweeping arrests. Photos smuggled out of Syrian military hospitals by a defecting officer known only by his alias, Caesar, and disclosed to the public in 2014, showed how more than 11,000 detainees met their fate in various detention centers around the capital, Damascus. The corpses were emaciated and their genitals mutilated. There were burn marks, gashes, and bruising visible across the bodies. Some had their eyes gauged out. Human Rights Watch said it was evidence of crimes against humanity. Amnesty International, in interviews with former detainees, doctors and prison guards who defected from Syria, estimated between 5,000 and 13,000 inmates were killed in Saydnaya prison alone between 2011 and 2015. Activists say hundreds of families have learned of the deaths of their loved ones since word started to spread that the country's security agencies were passing lists of the deceased to municipal registries around the country. Relatives have been instructed to take registry documents certifying their loved ones' deaths documentation that is vital for matters of inheritance, title deeds, and social benefits. The Khoulani family's hometown, Daraya, was informed of the deaths of close to 1,000 of its residents, according to its exiled opposition council, which has been smuggling information out of the country through locals. The council said it expected more names to come. Daraya, just minutes away from the capital Damascus, was one of the hubs of the 2011 uprising. Government forces, unable to suppress the demonstrations through arrests, surrounded the town, cut off food and water, and bombed it by air. The last holdouts surrendered in 2016 and the government depopulated the town, once home to 300,000 people, thereafter. The nearby town of Moadamiya was informed of some 400 deaths, according to Dani Qappani, an exiled activist from there. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, some 82,000 Syrians have "disappeared" in government custody, meaning their families have no reliable information about where they are or whether they are still alive. Families and human rights groups say releasing death certificates is not enough. They say the government needs to release bodies, so that families can know how their loved ones died. Majd Khoulani, born in 1990, was one of the organizers of the demonstrations that shook Daraya, according to the exiled local council member Shadi Matar. He was arrested in August 2011. His older brother, Abdelsattar, born in 1980, had been arrested three weeks earlier. Their civil registries state both died on Jan. 15, 2013, the same day as five other activists from Daraya, a pattern that al-Abdallah said suggests a group execution, and not a coincidence. Iran began a large-scale exercise in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday involving more than 50 small boats, practicing swarming operations that could potentially shut down the vital water way if ever deployed for real, U.S. officials said. The drill, which officials anticipate will end in a matter of hours since the gun boats are small, comes after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of a landmark nuclear accord with Iran and leaders of both countries exchanged fiery rhetoric. "We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman," Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, said in a statement. "We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways. Roughly 10 percent of the worlds oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. officials say there has been no indication of any threats to American forces. Currently, the guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans is in the Persian Gulf. Some British and French warships are nearby in the region. There are also 10 American patrol craft based in Bahrain at the headquarters for the U.S. Navys 5th fleet. The U.S. destroyer is part of the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group, but the aircraft carrier is not in the Persian Gulf or surrounding area right now, having returned to Norfolk, Va. late last month following a three-month deployment. The Trump administration plans to impose more sanctions on Iran next week, drawing the ire of senior Iranian leaders. Trump said Monday, however, he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with no preconditions. Iranian officials the next day rejected Trump's overture. Since the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal, Irans currency has plummeted, drawing thousands of protesters across major cities in Iran in recent weeks. The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 2:50 p.m. Israel's defense minister says the situation on the border with Syria has reverted to the way it was "before the civil war" now that Syrian government forces have recaptured the area. Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile battery in northern Israel on Thursday after Russia said it reached an agreement to keep Iranian forces 80 kilometers, or about 50 miles, away from the Syrian-Israeli frontier. Lieberman said that Israel had "no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory" if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement, and as long as Syria doesn't become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. ___ 2:05 p.m. The Israeli military says it targeted and killed seven "armed terror operatives" who had crossed into Israeli territory in the southern Golan Heights. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said on Thursday that Israel tracked the armed persons approaching the border on Wednesday night and a military aircraft struck as they attempted to cross a security fence on the Israeli size of the frontier. A subsequent search of the area yielded several assault rifles and explosives. He said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. The military troops were on "high alert and readiness" following the airstrike in the southern Golan Heights. The army's announcement came shortly after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile defense battery in northern Israel during a military preparedness drill. ___ 1:55 p.m. Russia's Defense Ministry says United Nations peacekeepers have returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for first time in years. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff says the U.N. peacekeepers, aided by Russian forces, conducted their first patrolling mission in the area on Thursday. Rudskoy talked to reporters at a press conference in Moscow. The peacekeeping mission was halted in 2014 amid the violence in Syrian's civil war. U.N. peacekeepers returned on Thursday to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time in years, Russia's Defense Ministry announced Moscow's latest achievement in efforts to negotiate a solution to the crisis along the volatile border. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff told reporters at a press conference in Moscow that the U.N. peacekeepers, aided by Russian forces, conducted their first patrolling mission in the area earlier in the day. The development also marked the first time that Russian forces, a major ally of the Damascus government, where involved in the patrols. The peacekeeping mission was halted back in 2014 amid the violence in Syrian's civil war over security concerns. "As the situation stabilizes, these posts will be handed over to Syrian government forces," Rudskoy told reporters. The U.N. peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. After Syria's civil war erupted, clashes broke out between Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and rebels inside the disengagement zone. In 2014, al-Qaida militants in the area kidnapped 45 U.N. peacekeepers before releasing them after two weeks. The U.N. withdrew from many of its positions shortly after that incident. Israel's military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a telephone briefing with reporters that he could not immediately comment on the deployment on the Syrian side of the border. Also Thursday, Conricus said the Israeli military targeted and killed seven "armed terror operatives" who had crossed into Israeli territory in the southern Golan Heights. Israel tracked the armed infiltrators who approached the border on Wednesday night and a military aircraft struck as they attempted to cross a security fence on the Israeli side of the frontier. A subsequent search of the area yielded several assault rifles and explosives, Conricus added. He said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. Israeli troops were on "high alert and readiness" following the strike. The army's announcement came shortly after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile defense battery in northern Israel during a military preparedness drill. ___ Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem, and Sarah El Deeb and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report. The U.N. envoy for Yemen on Thursday invited the warring parties to talks in September aimed at ending the three-year conflict, saying the pace of fighting has increased and "the Red Sea is now a theater of war." Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that military experts say the rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeida "has become the center of gravity of the war" and avoiding a battle for the port and the city "has a better chance of being resolved within a comprehensive political settlement." He said the time is long past to resume the political process, and after consulting the internationally recognized government and Houthi Shiite rebels he plans to invite them for consultations in Geneva on Sept. 6, including to discuss a framework for peace negotiations. The Yemen conflict was sparked by the Houthi takeover of Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014, which routed the internationally recognized government. A Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen's civil war, which has displaced 2 million people and helped spawn a cholera epidemic. The conflict has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people 75 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid, including 8.4 million who don't know where their next meal will come from, according to the United Nations. Griffiths has been leading efforts to prevent a full-scale coalition assault on Hodeida, which is responsible for more than 70 percent of imports to Yemen and is a vital lifeline for a country already teetering on the brink of famine. U.N. director of humanitarian operations John Ging told the council the conflict in Hodeidah "has escalated significantly," saying violence has forced more than 340,000 people from their homes across Hodeida governorate since June 1. In the latest escalation, he pointed to reports that the coalition conducted airstrikes Thursday around the entrance to one of the few functioning hospitals and an adjacent fish market in Hodeida city, which Yemeni medical officials said killed at least 28 people and wounded at least 70. Griffiths said the U.N. is still trying to avoid a battle for Hodeida, but while the gap between the Houthis and the coalition has been narrowed considerably, "I am concerned that Hodeida could be a flashpoint." "My concern is to avoid any action with dire humanitarian consequences, and ... those which may undermine the resumption of the political process in September," he said. Griffiths called on the parties "to create a conducive environment to allow for this the happen," and he urged the Security Council "to resolve this conflict through negotiation rather than through military means." On a positive note, he said he was "greatly encouraged by the common desire of the parties to have prisoners of war released," adding "I want to see this moving forward before we meet in Geneva." Zimbabwe's president said Thursday his government has been in touch with the main opposition leader in an attempt to ease tensions after deadly election-related violence, a day after he accused the opposition of inciting it. Soldiers cleared people from the streets of downtown Harare after they swept in and used gunfire on Wednesday to disperse protesters angry over alleged vote-rigging in Monday's peaceful election, the first without longtime leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot. The Commonwealth joined other election observers in urging Zimbabwe to release results of the presidential vote as soon as possible to reduce the tensions, saying delays will increase speculation that results were manipulated. The electoral commission said the results would come "very soon." By law the commission has five days from the vote to release them, but both observers and the opposition have asked why presidential results were counted first but are being released last. In a series of posts on Twitter, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said "we have been in communication" with challenger Nelson Chamisa and that "we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear." The conciliatory remarks came a day after soldiers shot live rounds and beat demonstrators, many of whom threw rocks and set fires to protest alleged election fraud. The government has said three people were killed. The violence erupted after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the ruling ZANU-PF party won a majority in parliament. The commission has said the vote was free and fair. A credible vote is crucial to the lifting of international sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe so that its collapsed economy can recover. Elections under Mugabe's 37-year rule were marked by violence against the opposition and alleged fraud. Mnangagwa called for an "independent investigation" into the violence in Harare, saying those responsible "should be identified and brought to justice." Human rights activists and some international observers, meanwhile, criticized the military for opening fire on unarmed civilians in what they said was a disproportionate reaction to the protests and rioting. Soldiers fired "randomly" and beat up bystanders who were not involved in the protests, said the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. "Yesterday's events leave ordinary citizens with serious doubts that this government is any different from its predecessor, if not worse," the forum said, referring to the long rule of Mugabe, who resigned in November under military pressure. The head of the Commonwealth election observers in Zimbabwe, former Ghana leader John Dramani Mahama, condemned what he called the "excessive use of force" against protesters and said all sides should act with restraint. Britain's minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, said she was "deeply concerned" about the deadly violence and urged political leaders to ensure calm and restraint "at this critical moment." The U.S. Embassy appealed to Americans to avoid Harare's central business district and said "the political situation in Zimbabwe remains uncertain." There was a heavy police presence around the headquarters of Chamisa's opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. The military deployment was the first time that soldiers had appeared in the streets of the capital since Mugabe's departure in November. At that time, thousands of jubilant residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators. Now some Harare residents, standing amid the shattered windows of Wednesday's violence, expressed frustration and exhaustion. "We are tired of these people. They have to go, they have to go, the ZANU-PF regime," said a 23-year-old who gave his name only as Elliott. "Because 29 years of oppressing the people of Zimbabwe, we are tired, we are saying we are tired." Another resident, 29-year-old Sifas Gavanga, said: "We are a peaceful nation. We don't deserve the death we saw that happened yesterday." Zimbabwean authorities now say the military will remain in the capital until "this situation is over." Nowadays, online casinos are known as ideal gaming platforms that offer an immersive gaming experience for thousands of users around... Online casinos were considered a novelty in the 90s, and not many users were even familiar with the option to... The rise of social media has changed the way all industries run their businesses and commercial real estate is... Increasingly, homeowners are using smart technology to make their home lives easier. Smart thermostats allow you to set the temperature... I Agree This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy But I dont want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you cant help that," said the Cat: "were all mad here. Im mad. Youre mad." "How do you know Im mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldnt have come here. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland With freedom comes responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt Where swimming is banned in Bonn and the region : Security services keep swimmers away from prohibited areas BONN AND REGION Again and again, people drown in lakes where swimming is expressly prohibited. But the heat is propelling some people to go to areas that are off-limits anyway. Security services are keeping people away in some cases. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken The tree-lined waters of the Eschmarer Lake in Troisdorf shimmers in blue-green tones, an l-shaped body of water set in a rich green landscape with adjacent fields. Only a few years ago, around 300 people would come here on hot summer days to cool off, despite a strict ban on swimming in the lake. Today, a private security service with dogs patrols the area. Since then, swimmers do not end up there anymore. "Since the security service has been in operation, people are sticking to the ban," says businessman Franz Limbach. Swimming there is life-threatening, also because cold groundwater currents could catch swimmers off guard and lead to circulatory collapses. Two swimming accidents have occurred in recent years. One man became a paraplegic after diving into shallow water. Anyone who dares to go in the water there and gets caught faces trespassing charges. But having private security personnel has worked well, according to Limbach, and the word has spread around. At other lakes, security guards are also being used to keep people away. In Wulfrath, North Rhine-Westphalia, one security service has already filed 47 criminal charges. Swimming bans that are ignored are a common problem for cities, communities and private owners. When temperatures rise, people are attracted to the water. Outdoor pools are often overcrowded and man-made lakes are a tempting alternative. Often, there is a ban on swimming because of environmental protection, such as on Lake Sieglar. "There are many breeding grounds for birds that build their nests and these should not be disturbed," says city spokesman Peter Sonnet. Ordnungsdienst personnel (a branch of law enforcement charged with keeping public order) inspect the lake at irregular intervals. Anyone who does not adhere to the ban on swimming risks a fine. Swimming bans also apply to many other lakes in the Rhein-Sieg district, such as in Niederkassel on Mondorfer and Stockemer Lakes, in Bornheim on Lake Herseler and on Allner Lake in Hennef. For Bonn, swimming bans apply in particular for the Siegmundung, a nature preserve in Bonn with waters running through it, for the Dornhecken Lake, the Blauen Lake as well as the Marchen Lake in Ennert near Oberkassel; all of these fall under environmental protection. Swimming is also strictly prohibited in the Kottenforst, where some ponds are located. "Especially in the area ofthe Siegmundung, the swimming ban is ignored in many places on warm days," said a spokesman for the city. In many places, there is also illegal camping. The swimming ban at Dornheck Lake is also regularly ignored by people even though it is considered dangerous, according to the city. Those who swim where it is prohibited face a fine of 25 euros. Until now, the public order officers have mainly avoided collecting a fine and merely sent swimmers away. People die again and again in man-made lakes Despite the life-threatening risks, many do not shy away from diving into man-made lakes or other waters where swimming is strictly prohibited, and this leads to tragedy. In April, an 18-year-old drowned in a man-made lake in Neuss. In the Kaarster near Monchengladbach, a four-year-old and a nineteen-year-old were killed this summer. Also in the Bonn region, there have been swimming fatalities. Almost three years ago, a 19-year-old from Hennef died in a swimming accident in Lake Allner - in September of the same year, a fisherman discovered a body on Rotter Lake in Troisdorf. The dead man was a 35-year-old from Troisdorf, and police suspected a swimming accident. According to the German water rescue organization Deutschen Lebensrettungsgesellschaft (DLRG), a total of 404 people drowned nationwide last year, including 137 in lakes or ponds. However, DLRG can not say in how many of them swimming was forbidden. Water temperatures with suddenly icy cold spots or old machinery in dredging lakes pose dangers. Authorities emphasize that one should avoid areas that are prohibited. The danger of drowning there is many times higher than at a swimming pool with lifeguards. Wild boar in residential areas : Wild boar cause damage in the area REGION More and more wild boar are causing an increasing amount of damage in the region. Experts believe that further intensive hunting is necessary. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken It was a mild winter and there was enough food. Wild boars are multiplying in high numbers in the region. The NRW state hunting association even speaks of a record year. Without heavy winters or diseases, the wild boar population triples annually, leading district hunting advisor Norbert Mohlenbruch to call further intensive hunting "necessary". A reduction is not only desirable because of the damage to yards and fields, but also because of the threat of African swine fever (ASP). This epidemic can also affect domestic pigs and farmers urgently want to prevent it from entering and spreading in Central Europe. People do not contract the disease, but if the virus enters a domestic pig population, the entire stock must be killed. This can destroy entire existences on large-scale farms, says Christoph Konen, farming authority in Bonn / Rhein-Sieg. Threat of the spread of African swine fever So far, according to Konen, the swine fever that swept through Georgia and Russia to the Baltic States in 2017 and from there to Poland and the Czech Republic has not yet been found in Germany. Classic swine fever, which last occurred in 2009 in NRW, was suppressed by vaccine bait. ASP is transmitted by a completely different pathogen, for which a vaccine has not been developed. This leads Konen to welcome increased efforts to reduce the wild boar population, including in Rhine-Sieg. Many farmers in the region coordinate the management of land and hunting. Back yards are like fast food restaurants Because of the growing wild boar population, more and more damage is being caused by groups of the hungry wild animals. "People who live near forests, feel the increase of wild boars more and more," says hunting advisor Mohlenbruch. "As clever animals, they quickly realized that yards and residential areas offer shelter and food." In cities like Bad Honnef and Sankt Augustin, wild boars moved further and further into residential areas, and people could even observe them in broad daylight, wild boar families with young offspring. In some Eitorf back yards, the wild boars felt right at home. "Real protection against a visit (from the wild boar) is provided only by fences embedded in the ground", advises the expert from Hennef. Lutz Schorn, chair of the Bonn hunting association, likens some peoples back yards to fast food restaurants for wild boars, open around the clock. For example, often compost heaps are designed so that the hungry animals have an easy time to reach the tasty morsels. He advises people who live near forests to install a steel mesh fence dug 30 centimeters deep into the ground so the boar cannot dig through it. Wild boar go to back yards simply for food supplements. Large-scale cultivation of organic corn, rapeseed and other crops provide them generally with plenty of nutrition and room for retreat. And after they have eaten enough vegetables, they crave animal protein - such as worms. Schorn emphasizes that the hunting community is not looking for an extermination campaign against the wild boar. "They are fascinating and interesting wildlife," he says. Mohlenbruch comments similarly, Above all, they are not pests, but admirable, intelligent and courageous animals. Roubie Younkin / For the Courier From left to right Kortney Nelson, Brooke Westby, Cordell Younkin, Elise Strommen and Chaykota Christensen pose for a photo in front of the Nation's Capital in Washington, D.C. The group toured the East Coast to learn about citizenship and leadership from our nation's history and government leaders. Chase Redfield shoots for an eight second ride in this courtesy photo. Look for Redfield's ride at the northeast Montana fair. Chase Redfield, of Opheim, is looking forward to a few good rounds of bareback bronc riding this year on his home turf at the Northeast Montana Fair. Redfield has been riding pro for nine years qualifying for the Montana Pro-Rodeo circuit finals f... Peter John Myxter, 66, passed away in Marysville, Wash., on Thursday, July 19, 2018, after complications from a serious stroke suffered five years earlier. He was born May 29, 1952, in Glasgow, Mont. The Myxter family moved to Kirkland, Wash., during his school years, where he graduated from Lake Washington High School in 1970 and worked as a welder and pipefitter for Montana Dakota Utilities and Washington Natural Gas. In 1991 he set out on his own: He created and operated a successful installation and repair business for decades, headquartered in Kirkland for many years before moving the business to the Methow Valley in the early 2000s. He loved adventure and the outdoors. Interests throughout his life included hunting, fishing, boating, backpacking, snowmobiling, and traveling, and he tackled them all vigorously. Most recently Pete and his wife, Pam, found a recreational piece of land overlooking the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Pete spent months out of the year in Mexico and built a beach-front home there. After spending several years in Twisp, Wash., Pete and Pam settled in Omak, Wash., where he enjoyed spending time with his close friends in the AA community and with his beloved dogs. Following his stroke in 2013, he moved to a Marysville facility that provided the necessary round-the-clock care he needed. He received near-daily visits from friends and family, oftentimes with dogs in tow. He is preceded in death by his parents, Chet and Hazel (Bakken) Myxter and his nephew Kenny Myxter. He is survived by his wife, Pam; siblings, Mary and Russ; children and stepchildren, Jamie, Julie, and Joe, Tayllor and Dannielle, and Wyatt and Jessi; grandchildren, Jesse, Natalia, Charlie, Miles, Brynn, Owen, Justin, and Parker; and great-granddaughter, Lennon. He is also survived by his five nieces, Karen, Pam, Chris, Jenny, and Tracy. Donations can be made in Pete's name to the Animal Foster Care Cat Shelter, P.O. Box 3385, Omak, WA 98841, http://www.facebook.com/afccats. Washington, Aug 2 (efe-epa).- A research letter published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association places the death toll in the wake of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year at 1,130, well over the official figure of 64. "When the area is flooded and without power, that's not a safe environment for a grandmother on dialysis," lead author Alexis Raul Santos, assistant professor of human development and family studies at Penn State University, said. "That's not a safe environment for someone who has an asthma attack and may need therapy." Researchers compared the number of mortal victims over the three-month period following the Sept. 20, 2017 hurricane with past mortality rates and arrived at a new figure of 1,130 excess deaths. "Essentially, that's what we're trying to address," Santos said. "Not just the people who drowned or died in landslides, but also the people who died because they didn't have access to their basic needs." To illustrate, he added that as many as 459 people died in September, while the number of deaths were 564 in October and 115 in December, with January marking the return to normal rates. Maria caused economic losses estimated at $90 billion, making the phenomenon the third most expensive hurricane to hit the US and its commonwealth since 1900, after Harvey, which affected Texas in 2017, and Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. The Puerto Rican government has ordered an investigation independent from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, and is still collecting data, which is expected to be published by the end of summer. The figure stipulated by Santos's research approaches a study published by Harvard University in May, which put the number of deaths at 4,645. The marine environment is critical to Grenadas economy and closely linked to the islands income generating tourism sector. Grenadas tri-island ocean state is not just a hub of maritime activity, but also home to unique marine biodiversity Gov. Cuomo on Monday said he wants to codify Obamacare into New York law while at the same time directing the agency that oversees the insurance industry to reject proposed large health care rate hikes.The insurance industry is seeking to hike health premiums by an average of 24% on individual policies in 2019, which state regulators previously said were double what they otherwise would have been had the Republican-passed federal tax law not done away with individual mandate that required people to purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty.At a rally with a powerful health care union Monday, Cuomo announced that he'd directed the Department of Financial Services to reject any rate increases attributed to a drop in participation linked to the loss of the individual mandate.He said the increases would result in an average $1,500 increase per policyholder, and argued that insurers shouldn't opportunistically reap what he characterized as windfall profits enabled by the repeal of the individual mandate."If we allowed that rate increase to go through, it would be hundreds of millions of dollars as a bonanza to the private insurance companies," Cuomo said. "It would increase the cost to normal hardworking families. We're not going to let it happen."Cuomo added that "insurance premiums must be based on actual cost, and not political manipulations."But Eric Linzer, president and CEO of the state Health Plan Association that represents insurers, suggested Cuomo is the one doing the manipulating."We agree with Gov. Cuomo that decisions on health insurance premiums should be based on math, not politics," Linzer said, adding that insurer estimates for the loss of the individual mandate were moderate.He said both the state and federal government projected that loss of the individual mandate would drive up rates, in some cases by double digits."A key priority must be maintaining a stable marketplace in New York," Linzer said. "Politicizing the 2019 rate requests will not help in this effort."Meanwhile, Cuomo said at the rally that he wants to put into state law New York's health exchange, which he created by executive order after the Affordable Care Act took effect. Since then, the state's uninsured rate dropped to 5%, from 10%, he said. And 22% of those in New York who get health insurance get through the state health exchange."Trump is trying to collapse the ACA, he's trying to wreak havoc on our health care system," Cuomo said.He said the state has already banned insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting illnesses, required coverage of the 10 benefits laid out in the Affordable Care Act, and mandated an end to co-pays for breast cancer screenings.Critics, including Cuomo's Democratic primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, say he hasn't gone far enough.Nixon has called for passage of a state single-payer health care system, though she hasn't said how she'd pay for it.Cuomo budget spokesman Morris Peters recently told the Daily News a bill under discussion in the Legislature would cost as much as $200 billion while the state's budget this year is $170 billion.Cuomo last year said that he believes a national single-payer program is a good idea, though he also indicated he'd sign a state bill if it passed.GOP gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro said he would veto a single-payer health care bill. Amazon has already helped reshape the retail landscape for books, clothes and groceries. Now the online retail giant is moving into local government procurement. This new business venture is raising concerns that cities, school districts and counties will end up spending more money than they have to on supplies.Early last year, Amazon contracted with the Prince William County School District in Virginia and by extension earned a contract with U.S. Communities, a purchasing group with public-sector members in all 50 states. More than 1,500 public agencies have since signed on to buy products through Amazon Business, the B2B counterpart to the company's popular Prime service.While Amazon and U.S. Communities have touted their partnership as a cost-saver for public agencies and a boon for suppliers, a new report finds that Amazon Business does not always deliver the savings it promises. The report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a frequent critic of Amazon, also argues that Amazon is increasingly cornering the supply market by forcing vendors to sell their products through Amazon.Critics say the contract between U.S. Communities and Amazon is written in a way to favor the company and makes it next to impossible for vendors not on Amazon to compete for the job.On a press call about the report, Mike Mucha of the Government Finance Officers Association explained the contractual problems with an example of a government choosing a new type of software, in which Apple is expected to be one of the proposed vendors.You can structure that process so that you can truly evaluate the merits of [different companies] through a fair process. Or you can include a requirement in the RFP [request for proposal] that says, The logo must be in the shape of a fruit,'" he says. "Its not a real RFP.Prince William County Public Schools created a similar bid in 2016 when it required 10 product categories in an RFP for office supplies. Of the 12 firms that submitted bids, only Amazon was able to supply all 10 of the categories requested.Additionally, the Amazon contract differs dramatically from traditional procurement contracts between governments and businesses. While government purchases are usually based on fixed prices, the Amazon Business prices can vary by the day and even by the hour. The report analyzedpurchases made by a California school district and found that buying those supplies from a local vendor as opposed to Amazon would have saved the district between 10 and 12 percent.Amazon has added a feature that freezes the price for seven days after a product is added to a customers online cart. But critics contend that still doesnt come with the guarantees made by a contract with fixed prices from the time of signing.The pricing terms in the contract are based on the dynamic pricing that is found elsewhere at Amazon and Amazon Business, says Olivia Levecchia, senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self Reliance and the reports author.If public agencies have long-established relationships with certain vendors, they are now only allowed to continue buying from them if those vendors join Amazon's marketplace.Adding to the list of concerns about Amazon Business is the profits the online retailer is raking in. According to the report, Amazons dual role as both seller to government agencies and representative for third-party sellers gives the company a 15 percent cut, via a fee charged by Amazon, of all such sales. The company earned $31.8 billion in fees charged to government vendors in 2017.In response to the report, Amazon says that its practices insure the best prices and allow public agencies flexibility in purchasing.The competitively solicited contract helps education and public-sector organizations purchase directly from the Amazon Business marketplace, which includes small, local and socio-economically diverse businesses, Amazon said in a statement. More than 90,000 public-sector organizations, from individual schools to school districts to higher education institutions across the nation, can now access multiple purchasing categories in an online marketplace, as well as be confident that they are receiving dynamic and competitive pricing.U.S. Communities also defends the contract with Amazon, citing the company's track record in delivering lower total cost of procurement" as well as improved compliance and reporting. The Amazon marketplace, the group says, supports supplier diversity. A Republican state lawmaker tasked with helping find ways to prevent sexual harassment stepped down Wednesday following a report of accusations he sent nude photos of an ex-girlfriend to other men online.State Rep. Nick Sauer's resignation came several hours after Politico published a report about the allegations, which reportedly were detailed in complaints filed with the Chicago Police Department and the state legislative inspector general.In a resignation letter, the Lake Barrington lawmaker wrote that he decided to step down "as a result of the allegations" by "a former girlfriend" but did not address them further beyond calling them "a distraction.""After speaking with my family, I feel it best to step away from my public responsibilities," he wrote.Sauer could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Inspector General Julie Porter said she was "not able to talk about current investigations, including whether or not a complaint has been filed."The matter, though, quickly became political fodder. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said Sauer's departure was "the right thing to do" but said his political nemesis Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has fostered a culture of abuse at the Capitol.Sauer, who was appointed by Rauner to the Illinois Tollway board in 2015, is the first GOP lawmaker to be accused of inappropriate behavior amid a recent string of allegations against Democrats that have felled several top Madigan aides."There's no culture that I've created," Rauner said at an unrelated event Wednesday when asked about his past support for Sauer. "Madigan, in the legislature, has created a culture of abuse. People all around him have had to resign because they've been caught."Madigan chief of staff Jessica Basham said in a statement that the speaker "remains committed and focused on creating a positive culture and safe workplace, free from harassment of any kind."Basham replaced Madigan's longtime chief of staff Tim Mapes after he resigned this summer. A House employee said she endured years of harassment by Mapes, who also served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois.Sauer is a first-term lawmaker who had not withdrawn his re-election candidacy as of late Wednesday, according to the State Board of Elections. He was a member of the House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Force that Madigan formed late last year after several dozen women who work in and around Illinois government and politics signed on to an open letter outlining rampant sexual harassment at the Capitol and on the campaign trail.House Republican leader Jim Durkin called the allegations against Sauer "troubling," saying "we should allow the proper authorities to conduct their investigations."State Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, said Sauer "made the right decision to resign his seat" following the "abhorrent" allegations."Harassment in any form is unacceptable and I applaud the victim in this case for having the courage to come forward and share her story," McConchie said. "It is incumbent upon all elected officials to hold themselves to the highest ethical standard and to ensure their government provides a harassment-free environment for all."According to Politico, the accuser said she and Sauer met on a dating app and began a long-distance relationship. She moved to Chicago in 2017, but they broke up in March 2018 after she found out he was seeing other women. She said she later discovered an Instagram account with nude photos of her and said Sauer had been using the photos in conversations with other men.She contacted the department through the city's 311 center on July 12 to say she was told by someone about a "fraudulent Instagram account" containing "provocative and/or sexually explicit photographs" of her, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.The accuser told police she once shared those photographs privately with an ex-boyfriend, Guglielmi said, but she did not name the man in her report. A little more than a week later, the detective division picked up the case, Guglielmi said, but he did not say whether it has obtained the photos.Contacted by the Tribune on Wednesday, the woman said she stood by what Politico reported but was taking time to decide whether to talk further.The allegations against Sauer are the latest to cast questions on lawmakers and aides as the #MeToo movement seeks to highlight harassment and gender inequality and discrimination in industries across the nation.In October, victim rights advocate Denise Rotheimer accused Democratic state Sen. Ira Silverstein of using her advocacy for a crime victim rights bill as an opening to pursue a personal relationship.The inspector general concluded that Silverstein had acted in a way that was unbecoming of a lawmaker but said the case did not rise to the level of sexual harassment. He lost his primary election in March.In February, the Chicago Tribune disclosed sexual harassment allegations from Alaina Hampton, who was working on Democratic House campaigns and had received aggressive and inappropriate text messages from Kevin Quinn, a top aide in Speaker Madigan's political organization. Madigan then ousted Quinn, the brother of Ald. Marty Quinn, the point man in the speaker's 13th Ward.Days later, Shaw Decremer -- a lobbyist, former Madigan staffer and top campaign worker -- departed over what one lawmaker labeled abusive actions during House Democratic campaigns.While Rauner has tried to seize on the issue in an effort to oust Madigan, it has sometimes proved politically tricky.In her accusations against Mapes, House employee Sherri Garrett said he brushed aside complaints about harassment by lawmakers, including former Democratic Rep. Ken Dunkin of Chicago.Rauner appointed Dunkin, a former ally, to a $70,000-per-year job on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District in May. The governor has since called on Dunkin to step down, which he has refused to do. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed got another big get on Tuesday when 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, said he will come to Michigan to campaign for him just two days before the Aug. 7 primary election.Sanders, who is actually an Independent who narrowly won Michigan's presidential primary in 2016 before losing the nomination to Hillary Clinton, will attend rallies in Ypsilanti and Detroit on Sunday with El-Sayed.It will be the second big name liberal to try to give a boost to El-Sayed, who has been mired in third place in the polls and lagging in fundraising behind Democratic challengers former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer and retired businessman Shri Thanedar.On Saturday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described Democratic socialist who beat an incumbent Democratic congressman in New York last month, attracted big crowds at rallies with El-Sayed in Grand Rapids, Flint, Detroit and Ypsilanti."Bernie Sanders is one of the country's most important political leaders and the progressive standard-bearer, and I'm thankful that the senator has recognized that there is only one progressive running for governor of Michigan," El-Sayed said in a statement Tuesday evening.Whitmer has gotten most of the institutional support from the Democratic Party, including most of the major labor organizations, the five members of the state's congressional delegation, as well as Wayne County officials and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. And Thanedar had used his own money -- more than $10 million -- to blanket the airwaves with television ads to boost his name identification.But it's been El-Sayed who has attracted the enthusiasm from the liberal ranks of the Democratic Party.He'll appear at rallies with Sanders at 3 p.m. Sunday at Cobo Center in Detroit and in Ypsilanti at a time and venue to be announced. A federal appeals court decided Wednesday that the Trump administration may not withhold federal funds from California's immigrant-friendly "sanctuary" cities and counties.The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld a district judge's ruling in favor of San Francisco and Santa Clara County, which sued over the administration's threats to withhold money to jurisdictions that have passed laws limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.The ruling was a blow to the Trump administration's efforts to punish cities and states that fail to help enforce federal immigration law, a goal President Donald Trump announced shortly after he was sworn in.The administration did not comment on whether it intended to appeal the decision.But the 9th Circuit handed Trump one victory. It removed a nationwide injunction against his directive, concluding there was not enough evidence presented in the case so far to support blocking it beyond California.Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, called the ruling "a victory for criminal aliens in California, who can continue to commit crimes knowing that the state's leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers."O'Malley also declared that the removal of the nationwide injunction amounted to "another major victory for the rule of law."The case stemmed from an executive order issued by Trump shortly after taking office. He directed his administration to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions.The 9th Circuit said Trump exceeded his authority because only Congress can put conditions on federal funds."The United States Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President," wrote Chief 9th Circuit Judge Sidney R. Thomas, a Clinton appointee.The administration argued that the order was "all bluster and no bite, representing a perfectly legitimate use of the presidential 'bully pulpit,' without any real meaning _ 'gesture without motion,' as T.S. Eliot put it," Thomas wrote.But that explanation "strains credulity," Thomas said.The ruling quoted Trump expressing his opposition to sanctuary cities in a television interview after issuing his order."If we have to defund, we give tremendous amounts of money to California ... . California in many ways is out of control," the court quoted Trump as saying.The Justice Department later issued a memorandum interpreting Trump's order as affecting only three law enforcement grants historically conditioned on compliance with immigration law.But the 9th Circuit said that interpretation was unreasonable and inconsistent with the executive order.The court left the injunction in place for California because it found there was sufficient evidence that the counties and the state were "particular targets."But there was little to no evidence presented on the effect of the executive order outside California, the 9th Circuit said."The record as presently developed does not justify a nationwide injunction," the court said.Unless the Trump administration appeals, which legal analysts believe is likely, the case will return to the district court, where evidence could be presented to support a nationwide injunction.Ninth Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez, appointed by former President George H.W. Bush, dissented.He argued the case was not "ripe" for a decision, in part because no action has been taken against the counties."While the counties may be convinced that the Executive Order loosed a fearsome chimera upon them, that does not mean that the courts should take up arms to vanquish the imagined beast by slaying the executive order itself," Fernandez said.Wednesday's decision was the latest among several to block Trump from punishing sanctuary jurisdictions.Last month, a federal judge in Sacramento largely rejected a challenge by the Trump administration of three statewide California sanctuary laws.In April, a federal judge in Los Angeles sided with the city in a ruling that said the administration could not consider sanctuary policies in parsing out police grants.Chicago and Philadelphia also won court challenges of the administration's authority to yank law enforcement grants based on sanctuary policies. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in the Chicago case.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though, has allowed a Texas law requiring police chiefs and sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration officials to go into effect. Texas lawmakers passed the requirement in response to the sanctuary city movement.The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on the sanctuary policies or on the legality of the administration's effort to end protections from deportation for immigrants who came to the U.S. when they were young.The Supreme Court decided 5 to 4 in June to uphold Trump's travel ban, which was a revision of an executive order the president issued shortly after taking office.The order bans foreign visitors and immigrants from several mostly Muslim-majority nations. Lower courts had struck down the ban.Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams called Wednesday's decision "great news."He said all the courts that have examined lawsuits involving sanctuary polices have concluded that Congress, not the executive branch, controls federal spending."This opinion today is a huge reaffirmation of that very core bedrock principle of separation of powers," Williams said.Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, described the majority ruling as "deeply dishonest." The foundation sided with the Trump administration in the case.Scheidegger noted that Trump's order asked for compliance "consistent with law," which limited it to only a few grants, not all federal spending."This case is headed for rehearing by a larger 11-judge panel, at least, and probably to the Supreme Court," he said.San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera praised the ruling for blocking an unconstitutional "power grab" by Trump."San Francisco's sanctuary policies make our city safer by encouraging anyone who has been a victim or witness to a crime to tell police," Hererra said. "We are a safer community when people aren't afraid to call the Fire Department in an emergency." Description GIS - 02 August, 2018: The first edition of the National Youth Parliament (NYP), a platform for young citizens to discuss issues of national and international importance in a parliamentary set up,was launched this morning in the Chamber of the National Assembly. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, Mr Ivan Collendavelloo, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mrs Santi Bai Hanoomanjee and other personalities were present on the occasion. The NYP which will span over two days aims to developing an interest and understanding of parliamentary history, etiquette and procedure among the youth as well as developing their public speaking, presentation, leadership and decision-making skills so as to enhance their ability to network with fellow citizens for the achievement of common goals. In his address at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke of the ethics and principles of the National Assembly which have prevailed over the years. He called on the participants to work towards a solid and more unified Mauritian society by eliminating injustices and revamping the economy. He underlined the need to bring more women in the National Assembly and on that score Mr Collendavelloo encouraged young girls to join politics thereby contributing to a fairer and more equitable Parliament. For her part, the Speaker of the National Assembly recalled that the NYP is undoubtedly an invaluable instrument which can gauge the young peoples willingness to participate in the democratic process. The holding of youth parliaments is common in national parliaments throughout the world as a means of strengthening democracy, she said. Mrs Hanoomanjee expressed her confidence that the NYP will certainly provide a better understanding of the functions and operations of the legislature with regard to the Constitution, Standing Orders and Rules of the National Assembly, as well as parliamentary traditions, conventions and practice. The Office of the Speaker, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has been working on this long awaited project over the past two years The first edition of the NYP is a testimony of the importance the National Assembly attaches to reaching out to the young people in view to better informing them about the positive ideals of parliamentary democracy. The Opposition Whip, Mr Santaram Baboo pointed out that the NYP is a unique holistic learning platform where participants will learn to adhere to the Constitutional duties and discuss important national issues as members of the National Assembly. He called on the participants to make the most of this platform, by bringing new ideas and giving a fresh impetus to the economic development of the country. Some 379 applications were received for the first edition of the NYP from participants aged between 14 to 23, among whom 82 have been selected to role play as different members of the House. The participants have benefitted from a three-day induction course to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable them determine the business to be transacted and to carry on with the proceedings of the two-day session of the NYP. Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org (TNS) CLEVELAND, OHIO The administration of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish refuses to make public a draft of an internal audit report about its troubled IT Department or to even say why it wants the report kept secret.Responding to a cleveland.com public records request, county lawyers cited two sections of the Ohio Revised Code that they contend allows them to keep the draft a secret from taxpayers, an assertion disputed by an expert on Ohio's public records laws.The county lawyers contend the draft is a "working paper" that is exempt from public scrutiny. One of the sections cited by the lawyers relates to the distribution of "publications intended for general public use" and makes reference to branches of state government, but not county governments.Attorney David Marburger, who has written a book about Ohio's public records laws and has advised cleveland.com andon records issues in the past, called the county's secrecy claims "baloney."Marburger said the statutes cited by the county do not apply to the draft. He said the draft audit is a public record because it represents a completed task, in this case the creation of a document worth circulating for feedback.Cleveland.com sought the draft report in part because the county's IT Department and two of the department's top administrators have been a focus of an ongoing public corruption investigation by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.County Internal Auditor Cory Swaisgood began his audit of IT contracts last year as part of a routine review of county operations from July 2016 to June 2017. The audit was expanded to include all of 2017 after county officials learned of the corruption investigation.Since January of this year, corruption investigators have served 13 subpoenas on the county, primarily seeking communications and information related to contracts in the IT Department and communications by IT Director Scot Rourke and IT General Counsel Emily McNeeley.Budish placed Rourke and McNeeley on unpaid leave in April. On Wednesday, cleveland.com disclosed that McNeeley is now collecting pay for unused vacation and sick time. County officials said county policy allowed her to receive the pay after giving birth in June and becoming eligible for a leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.In a telephone interview, Swaisgood said his draft audit was sent to managers of the IT and Procurement departments nearly two months ago for their feedback, which is due back to him by Aug. 7. A final report is expected to be ready for the Audit Committee's Aug. 24 meeting.The Audit Committee also declined to release the draft report. The seven-person committee includes five voting members, four of whom are private citizens appointed by Budish and approved by the County Council. The fifth voting member is Trevor McAleer, legislative budget advisor to the Council, who serves on behalf of Council President Dan Brady.Budish and County Finance Director Dennis Kennedy serve on the committee as non-voting members.Committee Chairman Michael Abouserhal, a retired certified public accountant, told cleveland.com that he consulted with three voting members of the Audit Committee regarding the records request and only McAleer, who believed Ohio law required the document's release, favored turning it over.Abouserhal quoted the audit committee's charter as stating that "the "committee shall review and approve all significant findings in internal audit reports prior to their release to the public."Asked if internal policy trumps state law, Abouserhal said, "It's a great question," but one that he was not sure he could answer. He said David Lambert, an assistant county prosecutor, advised the committee that "there was a possibility" a court might not deem the draft a public record.While stating that he had not yet read the draft, Abouserhal said good "business reasons" exist for withholding the document, including that the draft "may change based upon the response from management," as well as from input provided by the committee.Marburger disagreed. If the document is ultimately revised, he said, the revisions constitute a second public document. (TNS) CLEVELAND Cleveland Councilman Kerry McCormack is a point person on the city council for looking at how the city can integrate smart technology to improve quality of life.And he has used part of council's summer recess to explore an app technology that he thinks could improve how Cleveland collects fees for on-street parking, make it easier for people to pay and perhaps boosting collections.While traveling this summer in Michigan, McCormack got a look at a system that allows parking-meter payments to be made via an app as well as with coins.Such a system could make on-street parking in Cleveland easier, he said. For example, motorists could put time on a meter via their cell phone and easily add more time, if needed, without having to return to their cars.Parking is a key issue in McCormack's ward, which includes much of the downtown the area around Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena, East Fourth Street, the Warehouse District and the Flats and trendy Ohio City and Tremont on the West Side."I've got to believe anecdotally, and I'd want to do more research on this, that you probably could raise more money in the long run," McCormack said. "I'd be curious to see what some of the other cities have found."McCormack has met with Mayor Frank Jackson's administration this summer to discuss technology.The city is in the process of replacing more than 60,000 street lights with high-tech LED lighting. The new lights will have the ability to carry other items, too, such as digital security cameras.McCormack has advocated that the city consider other uses of technology, too, such as sensors for monitoring air quality or equipment to provide neighborhood-wide Wi-Fi."The point is there's some low hanging fruit out there," McCormack said. Congress this week temporarily extended the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) until November, avoiding a lapse of the program but also avoiding any needed reforms.Up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the program was self-sustaining, for the most part, sometimes taking short-term loans to keep up. But Last year, the debt reached almost $25 billion, of which $16 billion was forgiven by Congress last November. The debt is now $20.5 billion.Critics believe the program, in its current form, is unsustainable and needs reforming. Otherwise, another season like last season, with hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, could require forgiving more debt.Weve been here before, going back to 2008 to 2012 of extensions without any attempt to reform, said R.J. Lehmann, director of finance, insurance and trade policy for the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank. Now our focus is on November in the lame-duck Congress to see if there is any chance for either chamber to get together and agree to some basic reform.Lehmann said that most people hit by devastating floods in recent years, think Harvey, didnt have flood insurance and werent in flood zones. Getting those people to buy coverage is important and thats where the private sector can help.Its possible to make adjustments to the program that will bring it on a better course, but youre never going to pay down the debt that it already has, and over the long term given changing flood patterns and climate change we would expect even bigger issues.He said private participation would help get those people to purchase insurance and help with things like investing in mitigation, building levees and damns, constructing natural infrastructure and even buying out properties that are repetitively flooded. Those multiple-loss properties account for less than 2 percent of NFIP policies but for 30 percent of claims.Laura Lightbody, Pew NFIP project director, addressed the subject of the private sector entering this space with Emergency Management in November. We all know that insurers will likely take on the lowest-risk properties. Thats why were really focused on the issue of repetitive and repeatedly flooded properties, knowing that those are a lot of the highest risk and represent the largest financial drain on the program, she said.Lehmann said there has been growth in the private insurance industry as of late, that in 2017 the number of policies grew by about 50 percent over the previous year. That represents about 15 percent of all flood insurance written in the country.He said there are obstacles to continued growth in the private sector, including clarity from lending regulators on what terms they will accept for mortgages that are federally related and have a flood insurance requirement.Theres also the issue that for private companies to offer NFIP policies through the Write Your Own program, they currently have a non-compete [provision] and cannot write their own private policy, Lehmann said. We think that should be lifted.The program, as it is now, undervalues the potential flood risk of many in harms way. The NFIP does not accurately measure or charge for flood risk, which means that tens of thousands of its policyholders are lulled into a false sense of security when they are really in harms way, Dallas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, wrote in an email to colleagues. The program also creates perverse incentives to build and rebuild homes in flood-prone areas.The extension was the sixth since December. Lehmann is hopeful, but not optimistic that reform can be accomplished rather than continuing the trend of extensions. Debt forgiveness is fine, he said, but some sort of compromise that aims for sustainability would have to be part of it next time.From our perspective, the money is already spent so how you account for it is not something Im terribly concerned with, but I dont want to perpetuate the cycle, he said. As part of a grand bargain where we invest in mitigation, invest in better flood maps, move policies to risk-based rates and encourage private insurance, then yes, you can do forgiveness. Storm Damage (TNS) Central Maine Power is making its smart-meter network less vulnerable to power outages, a weak link identified during last Octobers wind and rain storm that blacked out a record number of customers.The company said on Wednesday that key devices in the network are now wired for back-up generators, and that the utilty has increased the number of mobile generators available for use during extended outages. The performance of the smart meters was one of the key factors being scrutinized in investigations into CMPs response to the storm.Digital smart meters measure a homes power consumption and transmit that information to CMP. That communication was interrupted by the storm, contributing to confusion about where power was out and where it was restored.But the announcement drew quick criticism from Maines consumer utility watchdog, who called it spin.It also comes two days before the staff of the Maine Public Utilities Commission is set to file a report to the commissioners about its findings related to the storm response. Last December, the PUC opened an inquiry into whether Maines power and communications utilities were as prepared as they could have been, how they responded and what lessons can be learned.More than 450,000 CMP customers lost power at some point during the storm. Problems with CMPs communications network exacerbated the problem and hundreds of angry customers filed complaints over high bills and poor customer service in the wake of the storm. In addition to the PUC investigation, another audit of the companys response to high bills by an independent consultant is underway.Doug Herling, CMPs president and chief executive, said the smart-meter system has served customers well, but as technology changes, improvements will continue to be made.At the height of the October wind and rain storm, the smart meter system gave us excellent data on the scope of damage, and as repairs progressed, it allowed us to confirm restoration more efficiently, Herling saidCMPs assessment on the performance of its smart meters, however, differs dramatically from that of Maines Public Advocate.It sounds like theyre still in denial and trying to shine the apple, when the apple is a little rotten, said Barry Hobbins.In comments filed at the PUC in late June, Hobbins office stated that on Oct. 31, CMP was able to retrieve information from only 48 percent of the meters.AMI (smart meter) system did not return to full capability until Nov. 8, his office noted. Individual meters, pole top repeaters, collectors and gateway devices were all affected by the generalized loss of power. This affected the AMI outage incident and restoration data input to the CMP Outage Management System, partially compromising the outage status and predictive capabilities of the (system), as well as limiting CMPs ability to share accurate outage information with its customers.Hobbins said on Wednesday he was pleased that CMP was upgrading the system, but that Herlings statement on the networks good performance isnt accurate.This is like putting out fake news, Hobbins said. When 50 percent of the smart meters were lost in the storm, they should rewind back to what happened, before they put out press releases.Responding to Hobbins criticism, a CMP spokeswoman said while the system was compromised, it still performed a valuable function.Had the AMI system not been in place, it would likely have taken much longer to get an accurate handle on the extent of the outages from this storm, said Gail Rice.Herlings statement also drew fire from a persistent CMP critic, Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham. Berry, a co-chair of the committee that handles energy issues in the legislature, accused the utility of flip-flopping on the facts and said it should admit its mistakes to regain customer trust.That the storm had a major impact isnt in question. CMP reported thousands of trees broken or uprooted, most located outside the maintenance clearance zone. Damage occurred on nearly every distribution circuit, the company reported, resulting in more than 1,400 broken poles and more than 404,000 people without power at the storms peak on Oct. 30. It took 10 days for CMP to get everyone back on line, although 92 percent had their lights back within four days.One issue that surfaced early in the crisis is the role of CMPs Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI system, known as smart meters.The digitial meters, which transmit information over a wireless network, were installed seven years ago. The $200-million project was funded equally through a federal grant and customer charges.One anticipated benefit of the network is that it would help CMP collect instant information about outages and speed storm recovery.But when utility poles went down, radio transmitters for the wireless network also went out. Meters lost power, and battery backup power in centralized locations was drained.In an initial report to the PUC last January, CMP downplayed the impact of losing power to the smart grid network.The inability of some AMI devices to communicate had no appreciable negative impact on actual storm restoration, the company said.It summarized the impact this way:AMI devices on the two-way radio frequency mesh network need power to function and key devices have battery backup that lasts from one hour to eight hours depending on the type of device. When the battery backup was depleted, some AMI devices were no longer able to communicate.CMP added that as power was restored to the AMI devices, performance quickly rebounded, to 90 percent on Nov. 4, 95 percent on Nov. 5, reaching 100 percent on Nov. 8.It also said very few AMI devices were actually damaged, despite being on broken poles.It was loss of power to some devices that led to reduced network performance, the company said.In Wednesdays announcement, CMP also said it had enhanced its ability to perform minor repairs to smart meter equipment during a storm, and had completed a study of an alternate communications solution for use during extended telecommunications outages.In addition, CMP plans a pilot program this year using solar panels and extended battery backup as an alternative to traditional back-up generators.Taken together, the company said, these measures are expected to markedly improve functions of the smart meter network during storms or other outages. Cities hoping to serve as testbeds for new wireless technologies are asked to submit proposals for a round of funding and support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and private industry.The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) project has issued an RFP for proposals that spell out use-cases for advanced communication technology on a citywide scale. Up to two cities will each be awarded approximately $24 million in cash and in-kind services. The Project Office for the PAWR program is being co-led by Northeastern University and US Ignite , a non-profit charged with growing smart city projects and technologies. An industry consortium of 28 companies is contributing to the proram and will have access to the platforms down the line to be used in their own research.The RFP follows a previous round of NSF supplied funding for PAWR projects in New York City and Salt Lake City in April 2018.This version of the RFP round two were asking proposers to start with use cases, in areas like smart farming or public safety, or autonomous vehicles, said Bill Wallace, executive director of US Ignite, offering a few examples of study areas. And say, what fundamental breakthroughs in wireless technology are needed to enable that use case, and what cannot be done on todays technology?The project proposals should be structured as joint efforts by a city and university partner that specializes in wireless research, along with industry.A key factor in a city getting selected is, will it truly partner in a comprehensive way, such as providing resources in the form of communications infrastructure, back-of-house support services, helping with the permitting process, or other in-kind contributions, according to Wallace.And then also, thinking through with the cities, what is a real burning need in the city? he added.We can imagine a city coming in and saying, you know, we have a lot of agri-business, and were surrounded by a lot of farms. What can we do with advanced technologies to improve and enhance farming through [maybe] moisture monitoring or drones that cover a field and help identify yield across a whole field? That sort of thing.Winning teams need to explore creative, technology-driven solutions in partnership with a university which does not have to be located in the city to find some sort of wireless communication breakthrough that did not already exist.The winners are not going to be the ones that come in and say, heres a great use case, but we want to use Wi-Fi, for example, Wallace remarked.The research in Salt Lake City is exploring Massive MIMO, multi-input, multi-output, an essential component of both 5G and beyond 5G wireless networks, while the research in New York City is diving into millimeter-wave radio communications, which has the potential to open up more bandwidth to support, say, higher-quality media and video content. The idea is that all four testbed cities will be connected, allowing researchers to run remote experiments.Wireless providers like AT&T and Verizon are actively rolling out 5G communications technology in a number of cities, such as Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Sacramento, Calif. ; Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina; Oklahoma City, Okla. and others.Though just because a citys communication infrastructure has received the 5G upgrade, that in itself is not enough to earn a spot on the PAWR project, say organizers.What makes them a great candidate would be the willingness to make that 5G network available, and then contribute other in-kind resources, said Wallace.Preliminary proposals are due by Sept. 28, and final proposals must be submitted by Dec. 11, 2018. Finalists will be announced by the end of March 2019. The proposals will be evaluated by an independent panel made up of university, industry and city officials.PAWR is US Ignites biggest project and one that is representative of several of the public-private partnership programs the organization operates.We are really, across all of our programs, trying to facilitate how communities grow and figure out how these initiatives for better economic development, better quality of living, etc., how the private sector figures out a growth path for moving forward in a space thats relatively new for them, said Mari Silbey, US Ignite's director of communications. And then also, how to advance the technology to be able to support all of these things that are coming, or we want to see enabled in the future. (TNS) AT&T announced plans Thursday for expansion of rural Internet service across 51 Kentucky counties, including Daviess County.During a conference at the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce, AT&T Kentucky President Hood Harris said the company planned on using AT&Ts existing fiber connections and additional cellular towers to deliver increased access with fixed antennas by 2020.There is middle-mile fiber out there, folks, Harris said. The challenge is getting that last mile connection to peoples doors, especially in rural areas. The answer to that challenge is often technology.Harris presented one of AT&Ts fixed-wireless antennas, a relatively thin grey box that is attached to homes in order to receive and send wireless signals to and from cell sites connected to AT&Ts network by fiber optics. He also noted the company would reserve parts of its cellular spectrum specifically for fixed-wireless so customers dont have to worry about competing with phone users.AT&Ts plans are a part of its commitment with the FCC Connect America Fund, a program under the Federal Communications Commission that offers incentivizing subsidies to communication companies for expanding service to select rural areas.Harris said an estimated 84,000 additional locations would have access to high-speed Internet by the end of 2020.AT&T is offering $50 packages for fixed wireless Internet with 10 mbps download speeds and 1 mbps upload speeds. The package has a 170gb per month cap on data usage.Kentucky has some gaps in providing broadband Internet, a resource economic researchers often point to as an essential ingredient for boosting local economies. Looking at the entire population of the state, 7 percent of people don't have any access to broadband Internet, and almost 93 percent have access from only one provider.In Daviess County, 10.7 percent of the county doesn't have access to broadband, and 89 percent have access from only one provider, but the county stands as an oasis of broadband compared to neighboring areas. In Ohio County and Hancock County, 55 percent and 81 percent of people, respectively, have no access to broadband. A veteran of IT in state government starts a new job today: Ken Okuhara is the new chief technology officer for the city of Stockton, Calif.Okuhara started his IT career with the state of California in 2000, specializing in project management, and served various roles with the state Department of Education, the Office of Technology Services, and the California Department of Technology. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and received his bachelors in electrical engineering at California State University, Sacramento.Im looking forward to the opportunity, Okuhara told. My experience at CDT has certainly prepared me for this new challenge.Stocktons new CTO said: We have two main priorities: a major [enterprise resource planning] implementation, and a move from downtown to the waterfront.Okuharas responsibilities with the city will include oversight of app development, the project management office, the city data center and IT networks. He reports to Stocktons new CIO, Norbert Ruijling Okuhara said the move will also enable him to spend more time with his family. Realizing malwares growing sophistication and seemingly endless capacity for change, state and local governments are diversifying their security solutions against the evolving threat to one of their most vulnerable areas the endpoint.The fast-moving nature of attacker tools, techniques and procedures means that an organization's endpoint security strategy must be continually assessed and adapted, writers at the technology research company Gartner said in the Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms report earlier this year. Malwares malleability is a central issue in endpoint security, as bad actors write myriad variants into its code, altering its once unique digital signatures or enabling it to run fileless, without ever writing any code to a drive.The public sector remains at high risk and this year has seen some of the most resilient and devastating attacks ever against governments from Atlanta to Alaska . But information security officials at state and local agencies are mindful of the threat they face and are taking steps to guard against multiple types of malware. In Montana, Chief Information Security Officer Andy Hanks described the states cybersecurity posture as very fluid, based on the evolving threat landscape, and said its philosophy is that it will always have both signature-based and behavior-based anti-virus technology.The big difference Ive found between the private sector and the public sector is that in private sector, youre generally focused on (protecting) one or two areas, whereas in public sector, you pretty much need to focus on all of them, said Hanks, who came to the state in January from IBM where he had been global security program manager.You put multiple locks on the doors of things you want to keep safe, said Kevin Haley, director of product management for security technology and response at the cybersecurity firm Symantec. Endpoints should have multiple locks. Organizations should have multiple locks throughout the organization.Symantec has long included behavioral- and signature-based technology in its endpoint protection. In its report, Gartner rated the company one of three leaders, a designation signifying balanced and consistent progress and effort across all execution and vision categories.A tech official in Charlotte, N.C., said government, like other sectors, is increasingly aware the traditional perimeters once protected by network firewalls and security controls have shifted dramatically with the advent of online work.Over the past several years, that perspective has shifted to the realization that, with an increasingly mobile workforce, that perimeter often gets basically broken down to the endpoint being the perimeter. And so, the role of security on an endpoint has become increasingly important for us, said Cal Queener, information security supervisor for the Innovation & Technology department in Charlotte.Both Charlotte and the state of Montana deployed behavior-based anti-virus endpoint protection last year from SentinelOne, one of 12 companies Gartners report called visionaries for delivering leading-edge features that will be significant in the next generation of products. In Montana, the state did months of research, including consulting with other governments before choosing it based on its protection, remediation, forensics and cost. Officials in Charlotte did a broad search as well, considering technology from Carbon Black, Cylance and CrowdStrike before selecting SentinelOne for its behavioral focus, integration of cloud-based threat intel and open application programming interface (API) that allowed customization.SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten said a lack of maintenance and updates across broad enterprises combines with the human tendency to click through questionable emails to make governments a sometimes easy target. His companys solution, Weingarten said, utilizes machine learning with static AI to analyze malware files; and behavioral AI to scrutinize memory, network, file and registry operations for anomalies and exploits at work as malware takes hold. Deployed directly onto endpoint machines, its automated, autonomous and works in the background.What we call behavioral AI is the ability to really detect something and protect from an attack. Not by looking at signatures or at static indicators of compromise, its by actually looking at the nature of what it does, Weingarten said.In Charlotte, Queener said the agency used SentinelOne across its more than 20 departments; and, while it has resulted in some false positives, has caught threats we are absolutely certain would not have been caught by our legacy anti-virus vendor that we had in place before.Officials in Montana agreed, praising the solutions ease of installation, deep visibility for staff with varying skill levels and powerful potential against ransomware.The bad actors have evolved and gotten smarter on how to bypass security controls. We have researched and found that its very easy to bypass traditional-based (anti-virus). Thats why we felt the need to improve our security posture and pursue a next-generation (anti-virus) solution, said James Zito, incident response and technical security supervisor for the state of Montana. In the face of requests for power that total more than three times what they typically sell, Grant County PUD is considering raising electricity rates for "evolving industries" that suck up a lot of power, such as bitcoin mining operations. Atlas Blockchain Group Inc, formerly Atlas Cloud, is a Canada-based company that purchased the former Young's Welding building in Electric City to house such a facility, a decision made to take advantage of Grant County PUD's low electricity rates. Blockchain is a technology that, according to the company's website, enables "users to send money directly and safely from point to point, without going through a bank, a credit card company, or PayPal. Bitcoin or other digital currency isn't saved in a file somewhere; it's represented by transactions recorded in a blockchain - kind of like a global spreadsheet or ledger, which leverages the resources of a large peer-to-peer Bitcoin network to verify and approve each Bitcoin transaction. Rather than the internet of information, it's the internet of value, or the internet of money." "Our staff has proposed adding a new rate class for Evolving Industries for industrial sectors having risk profiles that could be detrimental to Grant PUD's other customers," said Chuck Allen, public affairs supervisor for Grant PUD. Such "risk profiles" include the likelihood of government regulation, volatile market conditions, lack of a proven track record and high concentration of similar customers in the county. "Because of these risk profiles and Grant PUD's costs to serve these customers, our staff is proposing rates that are almost three times what they would be paying now," Allen said Monday. Currently, the rate for such utility customers is $0.03 per kilowatt hour, and the PUD is considering rates closer to $0.13, or $0.07, depending on energy usage, for these industries. The computers used by the Bitcoin industry to "mine" Bitcoin use so much power that without a change in their rates, that added draw on the PUD's available electricity could cause rates to rise for residential, irrigation, and small business customers. "The new rate is the result of six months of Grant PUD analysis into how to handle an unprecedented 2,000 megawatts of inquiries for new power hookups," a July 10 Grant PUD Commissioners meeting recap states. "Two thousand megawatts of power is nearly three times Grant PUD's average county-wide load of 590 megawatts. It's enough to power some 900,000 Grant County homes." Some 1,500 of those 2,000 megawatts of inquiries are from cryptocurrency businesses. "We are also proposing to recover more of our up-front costs to provide them and other large-load customers a connection to our power system," Allen said. "They are also considering exempting Evolving Industries customers from the added protection of board policy, which declares that our residential, irrigation and small business customers will be the first in line for access to low-cost power benefits from the Priest Rapids Project if we have to bring in additional power resources to meet demand in the county. The Evolving Industries customers would not have this benefit." "Our commissioners have spent the past three commission meetings listening to staff recommendations, hearing from both cryptocurrency operators and members of the public with similar concerns," Allen noted. Atlas Blockchain Group Chief Operating Officer Fred Stearman said Thursday that raising the rates would "force everybody out." With a higher electricity rate, the businesses would no longer be profitable because of the large amount of electricity used by the electronic servers used to mine bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. PUD Commission President Terry Brewer called for options at the July 10 meeting. "There's nothing in the world I hate to see more than people losing jobs," he said. "We've heard from some of the people who work at these businesses - they're good jobs. I think we need to find an accommodation and work with them."He agreed that none of these new businesses, existing or prospective, should pay below the cost to provide their electricity. "Cryptocurrency companies use industrial amounts of electricity," the commissioners meeting recap continued. "Grant PUD's rate policy says industrial customer groups will pay above-cost rates to help subsidize the below-cost of rates of 'core' customer groups - residential, irrigation and small and medium-sized business." Cryptocurrency firms are often highly mobile and agile enough to quickly relocate if they find cheaper electricity elsewhere or shut down altogether if the price of their cryptocurrency falls too low. This makes it riskier for utilities to invest in costly, higher capacity power lines and substations to serve them. Allen said the commissioners would meet at a public workshop on Tuesday, and that no action would be taken concerning the rates until Aug. 14, at the earliest. "We have about 25 megawatts of power being used in Grant County for cryptocurrency mining right now, by about a dozen companies," Allen said, adding that the PUD is waiting to process the 1,500 megawatts requested by cryptocurrency companies until a decision is made on the rates. Stearman said the increased rates would change Atlas Blockchain Group's decision to move here, where they've already spent money purchasing and renovating their building. "We wouldn't open up there, wouldn't hire any people," Stearman said. "It's a paradox. It's discrimination against the industry. There could be a class-action lawsuit against the PUD." The company's website states that they are investing $2.3 million USD into the renovation of the Electric City building they purchased for $300,000. Robert Kubica says it's too early to assess the effectiveness of the new front wings for 2019. Several teams, including Williams, were running 2019-spec front wing designs at the post-Hungarian grand prix test this week. The wings are designed to help boost overtaking from next year. "It's wider and you can feel that," Polish test driver Kubica said in Budapest. "But it's too early to have a good opinion about it," he told sport.pl. "It was a test for our aerodynamic engineers so that they can collect data about how the air flow is affected and so on," said Kubica. (GMM) Jacques Villeneuve has played down quotes that suggested he thinks Lewis Hamilton behaves like Jesus Christ. The quotes spread like wildfire on the internet, but outspoken 1997 world champion Villeneuve says they were taken out of context. "I never made this statement in an interview with a media outlet," he told Le Journal de Montreal. "It was never an answer to a question." Villeneuve also backtracked on another story, in which he said his former team Williams is "dead". "I never said it was dead. I said it was dying. It's not the same thing," he said. "My comments were translated into German and then into another language. When you do that, the meaning can change. "When these are not organised interviews, there can be changes to the meaning that are enormous," Villeneuve added. Finally, the 47-year-old was asked about rumours linking fellow Canadian Lance Stroll with a move from Williams to Force India for 2019. "Honestly, it's not much more rosy than Force India, as that team is failing because of an owner who does not pay debts," Villeneuve said. "I even read that their main sponsor is not really giving support but rather a loan," he added. "If Stroll goes, it probably will not change his status a lot." (GMM) Genesis Alkali earned the Industrial Minerals Association-North America's Safety Achievement Award for Large Mines. Pictured are: Barbara Ritchie, Genesis Alkali EHS Director, Randy Johnson, Chairman of the Board of Directors for IMA and Fred von Ahrens, Vice President Manufacturing for Genesis Alkali. Genesis Alkali received the Industrial Minerals Association-North America Safety Achievement Award during the INA-NA's meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 8. The IMA-NA is a trade association representing industrial minerals industries in North America and is comprised of members working in the ball clay, barite, bentonite, borates, calcium carbonate, diatomite, feldspar, industrial sand, kaolin, soda ash, talc and other industrial minerals industries. According to a press release, Genesis Alkali earned the award in the large mine category, where Genesis Alkali reported working 1,712,568 em... A Green River woman accused of beating her child with a belt will have the felony child abuse charge dismissed if she can complete her probation. Ashley L. Todd, 28, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a sentencing hearing to the charge. She pleaded no contest to the charge, but the plea wasnt entered. Under Wyoming Statute 7-13-301, Todd can plead no contest and the charge will be dismissed if she can complete three years supervised probation. This statute can only used once and for certain charges. When a person pleads no contest they are neither admitting o... The famous Budweiser Clydesdales will be stopping in Green River Friday afternoon, giving residents a chance to see the horses and get a photo with them near the newly-installed mural on Flaming Gorge Way. According to Amanda Cavaz, communications administrator for Green River, the event is part of a two-day public relations campaign Western Wyoming Beverages is hosting in Rock Springs and Green River. The horses arrive in Green River at 1 p.m., at the Hitching Post Restaurant. Cavaz said the horses will make several stops at Green River bars during their three-hour visit to the city, posin... Two years ago in this space I told the story of a Mississippi woman, Katherine Green, who got caught in the unsavory business practices of the air ambulance industry that has trapped many more Americans since then. Green, a college history professor, chose to fight the company that transported her late husband to a Jackson hospital after he suffered a fatal fall in their home. The ambulance company Rocky Mountain Holdings, a subsidiary of Air Methods, billed her $50,950. Her husbands insurance company, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, which administered the State and School Em... During recent mine rescue competitions, Genesis Alkali teams took first place in more than one area. Each year, the teams attend two competitions and this year was no different. The Southeast Regional Mine Rescue Contest took place in Franklin, Tenn., May 21-24, while the Southwest Wyoming Mutual Aid Competition - Underground, took place June 11-15 in Rock Springs. The blue team received first place on the field and first place overall in Tennessee. They received second in first aid, second in tech and third on the field in Rock Springs. The teal team received first in tech, first on the... News UAE orders arrest of man, woman for immoral acts and words The Federal Office of Investigation previously submitted a report to the State's Attorney General on monitoring this clip, besides the investigations of the office which identified the account through which the clip was published on the "Snapchat" platform, and the owner of the account. Haiti - Economy : The BRH modifies the mode of constitution of the mandatory reserves of banks Following the decision of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) to modify the method of constitution of the mandatory bank reserves on the liabilities in "dollars" which will come into effect on August 18, 2018, the BRH in a note explains its decision and the implications for the Haitian banking system. Reserve requirements are a portion of the savers' deposits that commercial banks are required to keep available in their coffers and in their accounts domiciled at the BRH. Since December 2017, banking institutions operating in Haiti must apply the following coefficients: 44% for deposits in gourdes and 49.5% for those in "dollars". In the case of mandatory reserves in "dollars", the BRH may decide that a part of these reserves be established Gourdes instead of a mode of consitution of 100% in "dollars" Explanation of the decision : The decision of the BRH concerns only deposits denominated in "dollars". For these deposits, the method of constitution of reserve requirements will be as follows: 92.5% of the 49.5% in foreign currencies and 7.5% of the 49.5% in Gourdes. Prior to this decision, banks were required to set up reserves as follows: 95% of the 49.5% in dollars and 5% of the 49.5% in gourdes. As a result, the situation has become more restrictive on liquidities Gourdes because banks must constitute + 2.5% (7.5% -5% = 2.5%) of 49.5% compared to the previous situation. This decision will be effective August 18, 2018. Implications of the decision : a) The BRH absorbs 1.8 billion Gurdes liquidities (through the additional 2.5% from the 49.5%) of the banking system, which will no longer be available from 1 August, when the decision will take effect. b) The BRH releases $ 27.5 million (through the 2.5% released from the 49.5%) in the banking system, which increases the ability of banks to make this liquidity dollars available for the banking system c) The BRH makes less cash in Gourdes available for foreign exchange transactions. d) If a bank remains active in the foreign exchange market despite a shortage of reserves, it runs the risk of incurring penalties of 1/10th of 1% of the amount of the recorded reserve deficit each day. Note denomination "dollars" : The BRH points out that apart from the US dollar, foreign currency liabilities include other foreign currencies such as the euro and the Canadian dollar, but the US dollar is predominant. For simplicity, the use of the word "dollar" was preferred in this note to the term "foreign currencies". HL/ HaitiLibre Telanne on Wednesday commented on the controversy kindled by reports that Anttikoski was denied the position because her husband and child would not have moved with her to Tampere. Kai Telanne, the chief executive of Alma Media, says Paivi Anttikoski was not among the three final candidates for the position of senior editor-in-chief at Aamulehti, a daily newspaper published in Tampere by Alma Media. Family reasons have never been a selection criterion for us. They certainly didnt have any impact on this or any other recruitment process, he commented in an interview with Lannen Media on Wednesday. Also other applicants for the position have stated that they were asked personal questions in the interviews. Telanne underscored that personal matters were discussed only at the initiative of the applicants: The senior editor-in-chief candidates were simply asked if theyd be ready to move to the newspapers subscription area. An applicant may have told what the rest of the family plans to do in that context. Anttikoski, he added, was eliminated from consideration in the semi-final stage of the recruitment process. Anttikoski was appointed as the director of government communications by the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) on 19 December, 2017. She worked as a journalist, news producer and news editor-in-chief for MTV between 1998 and 2014, and as an editor-in-chief for Helsingin Sanomat between 2014 and early 2017. Police have opened an investigation to determine if the case meets the elements of employment discrimination. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Martti Kainulainen Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi Suspending the removals would be an absolutely disproportionate measure in light of the fact that questions about initial asylum decisions have been raised because of certain individual cases, he commented in an interview with YLE on Wednesday . Kai Mykkanen (NCP), the Minister of the Interior, has rejected calls for the suspension of the forced removals of unsuccessful asylum seekers. Mykkanen also reminded that the entire asylum system would be rendered irrelevant if it was impossible to remove applicants who have been denied asylum. Touko Aalto, the chairperson of the Green League, demanded earlier yesterday that the forced removals be suspended until it can be guaranteed that the legal protection, basic rights and human rights of asylum applicants are not jeopardised during the asylum process. He stated that he is particularly concerned about the deportations of unsuccessful applicants to Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Forced removals there must be suspended. No one should be sent to a place where their life is in danger, he pleaded on Twitter. The political debate about the legitimacy of forced removals was kindled earlier this week by Aino Pennanen, the legislative secretary of the Green League. Pennanen was escorted out of an aircraft awaiting take-off at Helsinki Airport on Tuesday after she refused to sit down in protest of the forcible return of a fellow passenger. No details as to where the passenger was being deported to and on what grounds have yet to emerge. The problem is not citizen activism in support of human rights but the governments cold-hearted and inhumane asylum policy, reiterated Aalto. He called attention to a number of decisions that he believes have jeopardised the legal protection of asylum seekers in Finland: Asylum seekers are no longer typically provided with a legal aid to the decisive hearing that is the asylum interview. The appeal periods have shortened and the remuneration levels adjusted, which is why it is difficult to find a knowledgeable lawyer to draft the appeal. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Roni Rekomaa Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. WASHINGTONSince 2010, the Humane Society of the United States Pets for Life program has addressed lack of access to pet resources in underserved communities around the country through outreach and support services to pet owners. The program operates in 36 markets, and has provided over 400,000 essential veterinary services, supplies and medications to people and pets who otherwise might not have received them. Last week, Pets for Life reached a major milestone: its 100,000 spay/neuter surgery performed at no cost to pet owners. Amanda Arrington, director of Pets for Life says, No one should ever be denied the opportunity to experience the benefits and joy that comes from the human-animal bond. Our program does everything possible to keep pets where they belongwith their families, by providing necessary services to keep animal healthy, including spay and neuter, at no charge to people in underserved areas. We are proud of the trust we and our partners have built in communities around the country, and for the collaboration with countless veterinarians and local groups that have made it possible to perform these critical 100,000 procedures. Through door-to-door outreach most every day, Pets for Life establishes a consistent on-going community presence and support, and provides a comprehensive follow-up process for every pet met. A few examples suggest the life-changing benefits of Pets for Life for families. Pets for Life started working with Patricia, her husband, their three dogs and five cats in Los Angeles in 2014 to provide free spay/neuter for their pets. In 2017, evicted from their home, they moved to a motor home with no electricity, running water or gas. Despite their struggle, their pets remain their priority, and Pets for Life continues to helpwith medicine for dermatitis, antibiotics for an infection, flea/tick preventative, shampoo, carriers, and food. Arrington says, Patricia and her husband are part of the PFL family and we will always be there for them to honor their love for their pets, even when we cant help with the larger challenges they face. PFL has never viewed them as anything but a couple providing a wonderful, loving home for their pets. Granville, who also lives in Los Angeles, not only cares for community cats in his neighborhood but also supports homeless people in the community by helping them with food, blankets and access to resources. When the Los Angeles Pets for Life team met him in 2015 they were pleased to support spay/neuter and vaccinations for the cats for which Granville caresover 30 to date. He recently built an area where they can go in and out as they please and stay warm at night. It is obvious the cats love him as much as he does them, Arrington said. Betty in Philadelphia, a client since 2012, has become an extended member of the Pets for Life team, as a community ambassador. Before meeting the team from Pets for Life, Betty always helped neighborhood dogs and cats however she could. After Pets for Life provided spay/neuter services at no cost for her seven dogs and five cats, she found a true mission: sharing information on free spay/neuter and pet wellness care in her community. Arrington says, Betty is responsible for introducing us to over 100 people and for helping more than 150 cats around her neighborhood. She now has her own traps and has standing, open spay/neuter appointments with the program anytime she needs them. She is tireless in advocating for both people and pets in her community. In addition to inspiring similar initiatives by local humane societies across the United States, the Pets for Life model has been the subject of several studies and professional journals. The program was recently part of a University of Denver research study, Race and ethnicity are not primary determinants in utilizing veterinary services in underserved communities in the United States published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (Sept. 29, 2017). In addition, the work was featured in the Development Law & Policy journal (Fall 2017), published by American University College of LawServing Pets in Poverty: A New Frontier for the Animal Welfare Movement. (PDF) Support the work for our Pets for Life Campaign. Donate Now MEDIA DOWNLOADS New reserve Police Officer Alexander Morse is sworn in on Wednesday by Town Clerk Holly Meczywor. Marijuana Cultivators Eye Adams Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan, right, fills in the board on current affairs. ADAMS, Mass. The town will be approached by a company that wants to establish a marijuana grow facility on Howland Avenue. Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan said representatives from LC Squared will meet with the board in the near future to discuss developing a grow facility at 173 Howland Ave. "They want to discuss their plan and they have indicated a desire to move forward quickly," Cesan said. "As you know it is a bit of the wild west out there. There is a lot of jockeying, but I was impressed with this company." Cesan said the company has secured the 40,000 square foot building that was formally Berkshire Outdoor and that plans are to renovate the facility. Mission Massachusetts has already been given permission to operate a retail facility, also on Howland Avenue, and the town is currently formalizing a host community agreement with it. Cesan said the LC Squared group has connections with Mission Massachusetts and with a proposed facility in North Adams, is looking to supply product to retailers throughout the county. She added that she was happy to see development in that part of town. "We are excited to see investment in that corridor and I think that is very important for the town in the future," she said. "So I look forward to the discussion." In other business, the town received $550,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to replace the heating and air conditioning system in the Memorial Building. Chairman John Duval said the Memorial Building subcommittee will meet soon to discuss the project. The Selectmen also ratified the appointment of reserve Police Officer Alexander Morse, who will help fill out the growing Adams Police Department reserve officer pool. "We found him to be a very impressive young man with very thoughtful answers," Police Chief Richard Tarsa said. "He presented him himself well and I think he will be a great police officer for the department and for the town as a whole." Morse is from Buckland but currently lives in North Adams. He graduated from Fitchburg State University with a criminal justice degree. He also is a graduate of the Franklin County Reserve Academy and interned with the state police. Cesan, who also interviewed Morse, said it was a pleasure to meet him and welcomed him to the town. "It was a pleasure to interview him his responses were excellent," Cesan said. "He is a very thoughtful individual." Because of the mandates Civil Service places on new hires, the department had a difficult time maintaining full staffing but since the town has dissolved its affiliation with Civil Service, the department has regularly been bringing on new officers. The debate at Conte Community School was well attended. District Attorney Candidates Display Differences in Lengthy Debate Andrea Harrington promised to be a leader who inspires others to address the issues. PITTSFIELD, Mass. Judith Knight says she has "shown you what I am." On Wednesday night, the candidate for district attorney boasted of some 30 years of work in the community. She stood as a defense attorney more than a dozen years ago for teenagers for whom she believed were inappropriately getting the book thrown at them from former District Attorney David Capeless for selling marijuana. When those from the West Side neighborhood felt the same injustice was being served on young woman in 2007, Knight showed up again. In 2008, there was a similar call. In 2012, after a melee at Third Thursday that resulted in three black men wrongly arrested, she again was there. She fought those cases on behalf of the community, she said, because that's what she feels is her calling -- to serve the community. "I have shown up for this community. For this community, for South County, for North County. That is called commitment," Knight said. "I've shown you what I am." Commitment is the one word she would use to describe her candidacy for the position. Paul Caccaviello uses the word "experience" for his. "I am not running on five months of being the district attorney. I am running on 29, nearly 30 years of service," Caccaviello said. The current district attorney, after being appointed the position when Capeless resigned early to allow him to run as an incumbent, has worked his way from the lowest level of the prosecutor's office to the top and is now seeking to be rightfully elected to the post. He says the experience he has gained along the way has taught him when to show compassion and when to demand consequences. "Often it is a mix, you learn that from doing this work and I've been doing that for 30 years," Caccaviello said. Tenacity. That's how Andrea Harrington characterizes her campaign. She grew up in a working-class family and went into law as a criminal defense attorney. She represented those on death row in the state of Florida and returned to the Berkshires to raise a family and continue on as a defense attorney. In that job, she's watched what she sees as the Berkshires going the wrong way in battling crime -- citing high incarceration rates and what she describes as the criminalization of people dealing with mental health issues or poverty. "I've been very disturbed by what I've been seeing in the courts in our community," Harrington said. "We need a district attorney that is going to work together with this community to address the most pressing issues we face here." She said the efforts under Capeless and Caccaviello haven't been effective. And if the county wants to see criminal justice reform, "they need a reformer." She gestured to a large number of people in the audience wearing campaign shirts and noted those holding signs on Onota Street outside of Conte Community School saying she is the one who can inspire reform and the leader in Berkshire County. "It is going to take somebody who has the energy, the ability to inspire people, and the work ethic in order to accomplish that," Harrington said. The three met Wednesday night in the school's packed gymnasium for a debate hosted by the local branch of the NAACP. For two hours, the three Democratic candidates made their case to voters as to why they should be elected. While Harrington attempted to make the case that new blood is needed in the office to get rid of "the old guard," she has been dogged throughout the campaign by the question of experience. Both Caccaviello and Knight stressed the importance of working as a prosecutor and both of them can boast of experiences doing that whereas Harrington cannot. "I am the only candidate here who has been on both sides of the courtroom," Knight said. Knight said somebody without experience as a prosecutor doesn't truly know what it takes to bring a case to trial. It is particularly important in Superior Court cases "that make us lock our doors at night." "It is easy to look from the outside and throw stones but when you are on the inside, you know how to change the criminal justice system," she said. Caccaviello said the district attorney's job isn't just any prosecutorial job, it is the county's top. He's prosecuted more than a dozen homicides and a number of rape and domestic violence cases. He's been at crime scenes at 2 a.m. because he's seen how that ultimately helps in the courtroom. "This is the chief prosecutor's job in the county. Just from a common sense standpoint, having experience in the field is of paramount importance," Caccaviello said. That experience is what grows relationships with the police investigating the crime, making sure they know they can count on the district attorney to get the job done, said Caccaviello, who just reeled in an endorsement from the Pittsfield Police unions. But what exactly has that experience brought to Berkshire County to date? Harrington said there is a "staggering" opioid crisis, that North Adams has the highest per capita crime rate in the state, that there are 23 percent more domestic-violence prevention order requests in the Berkshires than the rest of the state. Her experience has been that the current district attorney's office has had no interest in implementing different ideas, and had even fought against the state's criminal justice reform bill. "We've had a district attorney's office that doesn't have a diversion program," Harrington said. From her 15 years as an attorney, she said it is important to have a district attorney who doesn't rush to judgment, who has an understanding of an individual's circumstances and who has the integrity to be just in prosecution. Paul Caccaviello places most of his emphasis on his experience. She characterized the current district attorney's office as being too heavily focused on getting convictions than curbing crime from happening in the first place. "The old way of approaching criminal justice is not working for this community. I intend to take a broader approach," Harrington said. Harrington said there are disparities in how people are treated in the criminal justice system but the office has shown no interest in tracking that data and making adjustments. She said in Berkshire County, African-Americans pay five times the amount for bail than a white person and the rate of incarceration among African-Americans is higher. But the district attorney's office can't provide those numbers because it hadn't been tracking it, she said. "It is a black box. We really don't know if people are being treated fairly regardless of their race because that is not being tracked," she said. That's one of the things she'd do to correct it. She plans on collecting that data and she plans to have a citizens advisory committee in place to help go over those numbers and help address those disparities. Harrington will also end the practice of asking for bail too high for a person to afford as a means to keep them in jail before a trial. Knight said a lot of those issues stem from issues outside of the justice system. She said there is an inherent bias prevalent throughout society. "It bears out that people of color and people of poverty receive longer sentences," Knight said. She knows of clients who violate probation not out of defiance but because of poverty and personal struggles, which adds to charges and records. She wishes that wasn't the case but said the first step in addressing it is to recognize it and then start battling against it through training to eliminate that bias. Caccaviello somewhat agreed and credited the criminal justice reform bill as going after those disparities. He is supportive of training to rid law enforcement of inherent bias and said he's been talking about implementing such training after the reform bill had passed. "It is not going to be a sprint out of the problem," Caccaviello said. "By the time people end up in the criminal justice system, a lot of things have happened up until that point." All three candidates spoke in favor of ensuring that the personnel in the office reflects the demographics of the community. However, Caccaviello added that doing so can often be tricky because the wages in such an office are lower than other law jobs, which limits the number of applicants. He said hiring a diverse group is an important goal. In managing staff, Knight said she'd like to see the lower level assistant district attorneys stay in a district court longer. She said too often she'll be working on a case with one attorney from the office and then that attorney is shifted to another court. That delays the case even longer, she said. She'd put in a policy that the district court attorneys stay there for at least a year to limit the number of times a case is passed from attorney to attorney. "The stint in each court is just not long enough," Knight said. "Have them stay at least a year because that is the life of the case, the DA would know the cases well and be getting experience." Caccaviello said the newest hires start in Central Berkshire District Court because that is where there is the most support to answer questions and give advice. From there, the attorney moves to North Adams, where there is still support, but just not as much. And then the attorney goes to Great Barrington, where they are mostly on their own. "That is the best training ground," Caccaviello said of the district courts. Harrington, however, said she'd rather see newer attorneys start in the appellate court and then move to the district. "That's where you really start to learn the law and get to see what happened in trials that already occurred, you get to see what went well and what went poorly," Harrington said. She said it is important that there be strong training and oversight to help newer attorneys grow into stronger prosecutors. She wants an office where attorneys feel free to ask questions and continue to strive to improve. Knight agrees with Caccaviello that the best experience comes from the district court. Maybe of bigger importance to the community as a whole is the rights of victims. Harrington said in the past victims have been discredited and not supported. But, that has been changing nationwide. She cited the #MeToo movement as a sign of the community supporting and trusting victims to help end the cycle of violence. "We really need to work together to ensure victims get all of the support they need to go through a long and difficult process," Harrington said. Judith Knight boasts of having both the experience and the progressive ideas to change the office. She promised she would work closely with victims of a crime throughout the entire process and help them follow a case from beginning to end. She cited organizations like Bikers Against Child Abuse that works to empower children who are victims of abuse to not feel afraid as ones she'd like to incorporate in Berkshire County. Caccaviello said his office is "victim-oriented" and that the current staff is highly trained and works closely with community partners to support victims. He said he works hard to make sure a victim is well aware of the process each step of the way and feels supported. "It is a process that demands patience and it frustrates so many," he said. Knight said support is particularly important in domestic abuse cases. She said she'd implement a policy in which the prosecutor of such a case must stay on it until the end. She said she'd make sure there are mental health experts on staff to help victims and bring in training and teams focused on crimes like child abuse to do the same. Each of the candidates agree that a prosecutor's style ultimately leads to decisions on who gets charged, with what they get charged with, and what goes into a possible plea deal. In reference to the prosecution of her 2006 case of the teenagers selling marijuana, Knight said, "another DA's office wouldn't have done it." "It was mean and vindictive from the DA's office," she said. With recreational marijuana laws now passed, Knight said she wouldn't prosecute low-level marijuana crimes at all. "I would not prosecute these marijuana cases. I wouldn't do it. Marijuana is legal, let's not waste our time in the court system," she said. Caccaviello wouldn't go that far. He said if the police found enough illegal marijuana activity to arrest, then he'd take a careful look at the case and prosecute it on a case-by-case basis. Harrington split the middle. She said it is not appropriate or helpful to prosecute low-level marijuana cases. But she is also concerned about the youth's access to marijuana. She doesn't believe in throwing some children in jail for marijuna to protect other children, so she'd look to take another approach toward limiting access to children. Harrington said her style and decision making is why the race is so important. She said 95 percent of the cases in the courts are settled by a plea deal and parameters of jail time, bail amounts, and who and what to charge are all chosen by the office. "This race is so important because we have a very progressive, Democratic community here and it is important we have a district attorney that reflects that," she said. She said she would prioritize being tough on cases of sexual assault and child abuse, and not allow those to be pleaded down to probation time. Caccaviello described his style is fearless. He said he took on the challenge of convicting Damien Lamb of murder despite not having a body, going after former priest Gary Mercure for the rape of altar boys, and seeking convictions in the recent triple murder. "I will not shy away from a challenge. I think everyone deserves justice," Caccaviello said. And despite working closely with police departments, he said he wouldn't shy away from prosecuting an officer for misconduct or excessive force either. He said he has prosecuted officers for excessive force, misconduct, and embezzlement already. "It is a prosecutor's duty, it is their obligation to follow the facts and the law wherever it goes," he said. Knight said those cases are important in building trust because "they are held to a higher standard and they have to meet the goals we expect them to." She hopes to put in programs that avoid those conflicts in the first place. She said she'd work to bring in programs to ensure police are trained to deal with individuals with mental illness or handle domestic violence cases. She said there are many different situations officers find themselves in on a given day and they need to be well trained in how to avoid escalating the situation. Harrington said she wouldn't go after officers -- she'd have someone else do it. She said the district attorney and the local police work too closely together and the perception that the relationship prevents justice from beginning served against an officer is growing. She said she'd have a policy putting an outside agency in charge of the investigation to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in the investigation and prosecution. Harrington also promised to be transparent with the community. She said she'd be attending community events and speaking to people face to face so that the community knows what is happening in the office. Not only will she have a citizens advisory board, but she also promised to be open and honest with the press. "I do not see the press as the enemy and I will share information with them," she said. Knight agrees that when the media calls, as long as the questions don't jeopardize the investigation then the question should be answered. She also believes it is very important for the office to really show the community the importance of the office. The current district attorney's office hasn't had the most transparent operation. Caccaviello said early on he identified a need to connect with the community more. He said his first calls were to local officials and leaders. He met with them and talked about the issues. He said he then had the office's website revamped and he is starting a Facebook page. The candidates currently have three more debates scheduled -- on Aug. 14, Aug. 20, and Aug. 23 -- ahead of the Sept. 4 Democratic primary. There are no other candidates running so whoever wins the primary will be unopposed on the November ballot. iciHaiti - Port-au-Prince : The works of the place Carl Brouard progressing well Three weeks after the launch of the redevelopment of the Place Carl Brouard by the Port-au-Prince Town Hall, the works are progressing well and have been welcomed by the residents who congratulate the Town Hall for its vision and its desire to endow the capital with safe spaces for recreation. In addition, as part of this work, a transformer with a capacity of 25 kVA and a solar panel system were installed in the square. It should be noted that this redevelopment of Place Carl Brouard, which has led to the creation of temporary jobs (80% from residents of the area), is financed by Canada and carried out and supervised jointly by the Port-au-Prince Town Hall. Prince and the Haiti / Canada Municipal Cooperation Program (PCM). IH/ iciHaiti The US government is considering increasing the proposed import tariffs for a range of Chinese mineral commodities to 25% from the originally proposed 10% rate. There will now be a consultation period before the tariffs are imposed. The US government has extended its previous deadline for submission of comments from August 30... Proud of still maintaining majority with 53 senators, the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus rose from a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday and ordered defecting Senate President Bukola Saraki to resign. The National Chairman of APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, called for Sarakis resignation when he emerged from a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. Oshiomhole told State House correspondents in Abuja that the Senate President should as a matter of honour leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs. Some senators elected on the platform of the APC led by the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan were also at the meeting held with the President Buhari at the Presidential Villa. But whatever is the reason, we can decamp from the party but we cant decamp from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour, who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through. I mean you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family. It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to, Oshiomhole said. He maintains that the ruling party still has the largest party in the Senate. As it stands even now, APC is still the largest party in the Senate, we have 53 senators, that is much more than PDP has, or APGA has. I have been consistent with that during the campaign, I have been consistent since I was sworn in. I have made the points in my acceptance speech, I have emphasised this when I met with the Senate caucus and speech. I have emphasised this when I met with the House of Representatives caucus, that we are ready to do justice to anyone who is genuinely aggrieved and whose grievances are such that we can deal with them provided we enthrone justice, fairness and all sides purge themselves of any arrogance. To the best of my knowledge, all senators, house of reps members were happy, the ones that are not negotiable, there is nothing we can do about it. Oshiomhole also claimed that the defection is not surprising. According to him, the defectors had previously given clear signs before now. Nobody in the APC will be surprised about the development, in fact, they have stayed a little bit longer than we thought. Last week the Kwara has State Governor was alluded to have said he was leaving but he didnt say when. So, we are not surprised at all. Saraki defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday he party he and some of his supporters, including five governors left in 2014. He said his return to the party after winning the senate presidents seat on the platform of APC, according to him was to enjoy a greater sense of belonging and in the interest of a greater number of Nigerians. Similar to what happened in 2014, Saraki has left APC with governors of Kwara, Sokoto and Benue state for now also with his protege APC Spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi. A video surfaced online recently of a group of soldiers leading unarmed civilians of women and children to be exterminated. The video stirred public outrage and sympathy with commenters wondering why the African Union and United Nations have turned a blind eye to the menace. What led to the crackdown It started when there were calls from the Anglophone zone of Cameroon on the government for more integration or autonomy. The Anglophone separatists then declared independence from the French-speaking majority on October 1. but government stepped in with heavy-handed tactics. Security forces were deployed to the regions; protests were met with violence, arrests and killings. Hundreds of homes were razed. Why they felt marginalized Many in the Anglophone community feel marginalised by the French-speaking government in Yaounde, citing a lack of political representation, job opportunities and resources and the imposition of French in schools, official documents and courts, Aljazera reports. It was also stated that more than half of Cameroons gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the Anglophone regions, according to estimates. When they chose Cameroon instead of Nigeria Cameroon has a population of nearly 24 million people. An estimated 20 percent live in the Anglophone regions. Eight out of the countrys 10 administrative provinces are Francophone. After Francophone Cameroon secured independence in 1960, the UN facilitated a referendum that allowed regions under British mandate to either join Nigeria or the larger French-speaking Cameroon. Southern Cameroon the present-day northwest and southwest regions joined the Republic of Cameroon, but a national referendum in 1972 changed Cameroon into a unitary state. President Paul Biya, who came into office in 1982, and remains till date changed the countrys name in 1984 to the Republic of Cameroon, the initial Francophone territory name. A second yellow star on the green stripe of the flag was removed, with the government touting the move as a symbol of unity. How some Anglophone Cameroonians argue that the second yellow star that was removed symbolises the Anglo phone part. What the situation is now Many of them, over 21 thousand have fled into Nigeria for safety, according to NGOs, though local emergency officials say the number could be higher, at up to 50,000. The police in Abuja yesterday paraded eight suspected robbers and kidnappers, said to be allegedly responsible for the death of a former Commissioner in Katsina State, Prof. Halimatu Idris. They said 35 bandits had been arrested in Zamfara State, adding that six AK47 rifles, 15 locally-made guns, 183 AK47 live ammunition and seven cartridges were recovered from them. The suspected highway kidnappers were alleged to have been responsible for the attack on the Director, National Agricultural Research Extensions and Liaison Services, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Prof. Mohammed Othman, and abduction of a mum and her seven-month baby. The police said six of their victims were rescued and the suspects were caught after a gun battle with special forces. The suspects, Lawal Tukur, 40; Sulaiman Sani, 27; Abubakar Ahmad, 30; Abubakar Adamu, 33; Yahaya Musa, 33; Kabiru Bala, 23; Rufai Tukur, 26 and Shehu Audi, 32, had unleashed terror on road users on Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway before their arrest by operatives of Operation Absolute Sanity. Sani and Adamu confessed to have killed four persons, the police said, adding that Bala kidnapped Rahinatu Shehu, 51, a mother, Aisha Sani, 23, with her seven-month-old baby at their Mararaba Guga town, Giwa Local Government home. Police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said two AK47 rifles, three pairs of fake military uniforms, cutlasses, motorcycle as well as Shedda cloth and other items belonging to their victims were recovered from the suspects. He said their arrest followed an order by Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris (IG) that those responsible for the July 22 murder of the former commissioner and other heinous crimes in the axis should be arrested. Investigation is in progress and effort is being intensified to nab other suspects. They will be arraigned after investigation, said Moshood. He said operatives and equipment had been deployed in the axis to ensure safety, adding that the IG has directed the return to Kaduna State, the Police Mobile Force (PMF) squadrons in MOPOL 1, 47 and 61, who were on special duties outside. The spokesman said: PMF units of the Squadrons in MOPOL 1 Kaduna, MOPOL 47 Zaria and MOPOL 61 Kafanchan on special duties outside the state have been ordered by the IG to return to Kaduna State to tighten security, particularly on Kaduna-Abuja highway, Kaduna-Zaria-Kano, Kaduna-BirninGwari-Zamfara-Funtua-Zamfara highway and other flash points. On the situation in Zamfara, he said peace had been restored, adding that more policemen were deployed following the attack on Kodi village in Zurmi Local Government on July 24, during which four people were killed. Moshood said: The Force is embarking on police crime prevention, visibility and confidence building patrols. The people in the affected villages have started returning to their homes. Thirty-five bandits have been arrested in connection with the recent attacks in villages in Zamfara State. Six AK47 rifles, 15 locally-fabricated guns, 183 AK47 ammunition and seven live cartridges were recovered from the bandits. The suspects have made useful statements to the police and confessed to the killings. LeBron James is a Los Angeles Laker from Akron, Ohio. He has opened a completely free school in his hometown in Ohio. On Monday, before heading to Califoria, LeBron James unveiled his I Promise School, which will benefit at-risk students. It is public and part of Akron Public Schools, which paid $2.9 million from its general fund for the cost of most benefits, salaries, supplies and essential elements for the school, according to Akron Beacon Journal. James I Promise School built in Akron, Ohio, opened on Monday July 30th. The school will provide everything for free, including: Free tuition Free uniforms Free bicycle and helmet Free transportation within 2 miles Free breakfast, lunch, and snacks Free pantry for families Job placement services for parents Guaranteed tuition to the University of Akron for every student who graduates. The public school is considered the first of its kind and will serve low-income and at-risk students in Lebrons hometown. Lebron has done a lot to give back to his community but the I Promise School will be King James crown jewel. The 240-person population of third- and fourth-graders is made up of students identified by Akron Public Schools as behind in critical academic areas and other factors. He insisted that his institution be a public school, as he could relate to the pitfalls that Akron youth must face. Impressively, the school boasts a 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio, year-round programming and a 9-to-5 school day to keep its children engaged. Leave a Comment comments Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Iyiola Oyedepo and some other members, on Wednesday defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Publicity Secretary of the party, Rex Olawoye said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin. I hereby officially announce the exit of our members from PDP to APC, he said. According to Olawoye, the defection is due to Senate President Bukola Sarakis return back to the party and that the PDP members in the state could not work with him. The publicity secretary said with the defection, all political structures of the PDP at the ward, local government and state levels had moved to the APC. He also noted that the National chairman of the APC and Lai Mohammad have been met, as well as other chieftains of the APC. Saraki and his cronies have been in the saddle of leadership of the state in the past 15 years with nothing to show for it, he said. In 2013, he joined APRIL Canada in Montreal as chief financial officer before taking over as Quebec vice-president of the APRIL subsidiary in 2017. In his new role as CEO, Gabez has been tasked with accelerating the development of APRIL Canada in the property and liability lines, and coming up with new, innovative services for APRILs broker clients and insuring partners. Through his expertise, knowledge of the industry and his career within APRIL Canada Inc. since 2013, Sebastien Gabez will strengthen our position in the property and liability lines, building upon Nick Kidds accomplishments, and above all, commit APRIL Canada Inc. to strong and sustainable development, said Marc-Andre Dupont, CEO of APRILs property line. APRILs ambitions are strong in the Canadian market, as demonstrated by the recent integration of Benecaid within the group which confirms our will to develop our presence. Related stories: APRIL acquires health insurance MGU Brokers are gradually migrating towards the niche April Canada Discussions on auto insurance pricing and how to inject more fairness into the provinces rating system have been ongoing during the summer, added Byrne, and couldnt come any sooner for brokers. From a brokerage perspective, were at the front lines, said Shawn Fehr, IBABC board of directors president and commercial insurance broker at SeaFirst Insurance in Victoria. Were seeing customers daily coming in and theres a lot of concern about the directions the rate increases [are going in] and everyone knows its not sustainable, so were really working hard on trying to send the message that ICBC is on the right track and wanting to get to the promised land, whatever that is, with sustainability and affordability for everybody. Throughout the reform process, IBABC has worked to keep its members informed of progress being made so that its easier for a broker dealing with a client face-to-face to explain whats going on with their insurance, said Jeremy Lebsack, chair of IBABCs board of directors and director of operations for Waypoint Insurance Services. Having that foundation there and a full understanding for a frontline auto broker is key, he told Insurance Business. Its not all bad news for ICBC Byrne applauded aspects of the auto insurance system in the province that do work for drivers. Generally speaking, BC brokers and ICBC represent one of the most efficient auto billing insurance systems in the world, he said. We can insure anybody with any car in any place in the province in literally 10 minutes for auto-renewal, and only slightly more on a piece of new business. Private insurance markets really hum and haw about whos going to insure the so-so or worst drivers. Here, its universal and its almost automatic and, to that end, we want to see it succeed because really, its best for the consumer. Related stories: ICBC: 2017 saw a record-breaking 350,000 car collisions ICBC struggles with offensive vanity plates According to prosecutors, patients referred by their doctors to 1st Class for sleep studies were also solicited to participate in supplemental but medically unnecessary studies. Yi hid the scam by telling her employees not to send the results of those studies to doctors. She also told the patients there was no co-payment or co-insurance for the supplemental studies and cross-billed patients from each of the 1st Class entities, WTOP reported. Authorities said that Yi also encouraged her own employees to get unnecessary sleep studies. For example, three 1st Class employees had 27 sleep studies done among them in less than three years even though none of them had sleep apnea. Teams of workers also held competitions to see who could refer the most friends and relatives for unnecessary studies, WTOP reported. Authorities said that Yi used the money she made from the fraud to buy fur coats, luxury vehicles and real estate, including a $1.1 million house and a condo, as well as properties in Chicago and Honolulu. All the properties were booked as business expenses. She also created a fraudulent charity to hide the money from law enforcement, according to WTOP. When someone commits healthcare and tax fraud, it drives up the cost of care for everyone and creates an unlevel playing field, said US Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger. Yi misled patients and their doctors, falsified records to cover it up, and deducted millions in taxes she used to buy expensive properties and luxury goods. Yi will be sentenced in November. Related stories: QBE North America announces E&O coverage for architects, engineers and designers QBE invests in AI start-up that mines data hidden in documents TORONTO - August 2, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) ALGAE DYNAMICS CORP (OTC: ADYNF) (the "Company"), a company focused on the development of unique health products and nutraceuticals utilizing cannabis and botanical oil extracts, has secured a supply agreement to enable Canadian Licensed Producers and International Licensed Importers access to bulk cannabis deliveries in anticipation of licensing agreements for our proprietary Cannabis formulated products. Recent Developments in our Collaboration with Western University The researchers at Western University, the Company's scientific collaboration team, have developed a very unique formulation involving cannabis and other botanical extracts. Western University's Dr. Laviolette said, "We are pleased to report significant progress on our ongoing projects with Algae Dynamics. We are continuing to work out the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic modes of action for several unique cannabinoid formulations. These research projects are identifying safer and clinically superior cannabinoid formulations aimed at treating the symptoms of various psychiatric disorders, while eliminating the negative side effects associated with traditional marijuana formats." The invention will be assigned to Algae Dynamics Corp. free from any royalties and will become 100% owned by the company. We are in the process of filing a patent application prior to entering into domestic and international distribution agreements with Licensed Producers/Dealers (LPs/LDs) and Pharmaceutical companies. Our discussions with the perspective LP's/LD's have included the production, distribution and related collaborative initiatives involving our specially formulated products. We have an assignable supply agreement with a large-volume, high-quality cannabis grower to secure a source of cannabis material for our Licensed Partners producing and selling our Medical Cannabis formulations. We expect to generate revenue in 2018 from our agreements with our Licensed Partners. Paul Ramsay stated, "We are pleased that we can further support Dr. Steven Laviolette and his team at Western University by securing a high-quality and high-volume supply of Medical Cannabis for formulations applicable to mental health conditions." About Dr. Steven Laviolette The investigator leading the research is Dr. Steven Laviolette, a Professor and Neuroscientist in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University in London, Ontario. Dr. Laviolette is a leader in the study of cannabinoids in mental health and was recently awarded "Faculty Scholar" status at Western University. Dr. Laviolette's research team has previously made numerous fundamental discoveries related to how cannabinoids impact and may serve as treatments for mental health disorders including schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Dr. Laviolette's primary research focus is in characterizing how specific phytochemical derivatives of cannabis may interact with specific brain pathways and molecular mechanisms whereby they may improve symptoms associated with various mental health disorders. Research from Dr. Laviolette's team has been published in the top neuroscience and psychiatry journals in the world. His full profile may be seen on Western University's, website www.uwo.ca http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/anatomy/people/bios/faculty/laviolette_steve.html About Algae Dynamics Corp (ADC) ADC is engaged in the development of unique health products and nutraceuticals that utilize hemp, cannabis and algae oils. We have engaged two Canadian universities to provide research into the use of extracts from cannabis oil, which we plan to use to develop products that combine the significant health benefits of Omega-3s derived from algae oil and extracts from cannabis oil. Our research is focused on the use of cannabis oil in the context of cancer, and the use of cannabis derivatives for the development of novel pharmacotherapies for mental health. For more information, visit http://www.algaedynamics.com FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, use of proceeds and the development, costs and results of current or future actions and opportunities in the sector. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with new projects and development stage companies, our ability to raise the additional funding we will need to continue to pursue our exploration and development program, and our ability to retain important members of our management team and attract other qualified personnel. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders 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. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. 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/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp August 2, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Bancolombia reported net earnings of COP 591.7 bn, equivalent to a 9.5% y/y decline; more importantly, 2Q18 results came in slightly below our expectations (4.5% deviation). Profitability, measured in terms of ROAE, was 10.6% compared to our estimate of 10.8%. The lower-than-expected result was mainly driven by a weak result on NII and provision expenses higher than our valuation model. The adoption of IFRS 9 continued to have a negative effect on NII as COP 106 bn were not taken into account. Meanwhile, provision expenses were 11.7% above our forecast as SMEs and corporate clients required further provisioning. On the positive side, OPEX came in 5.2% below our expectations, and this figure was 1.2% lower than 2Q17. Finally, a lower-than-expected effective tax rate (23.8% vs 33.0%) partly mitigated the weak performance on the operating front. We reiterate that results came in below expectations, while operating trends maintained a weak performance. That said, we reaffirm our positive view and our BUY rating on the stock for the mid term; we expect a recovery in economic activity in Colombia, and profitability should gradually pickup in upcoming quarters. Higher loan growth and lower provision expenses, particularly coming from key corporate cases in Colombia, support our view. Also, recall that we see shares of Bancolombia as a proxy to invest in Colombian equities. We expect to adjust our TP in the short term. Loan growth remained weak. The bank's gross loan book increased only 3.2% y/y as loans in USD fell 2.4% y/y. On the other hand, growth continued to be driven by the consumer segment denominated in COP (+17.6% y/y). Asset quality showed initial signs of recovery, but the commercial segment remained a source of concern. The consumer NPL ratio fell 16 bps from 1Q18 (3.34% vs 3.18%), while the indicator within the mortgage segment remained unchanged at 3.65%. That said, the total NPL ratio increased 40 bps q/q, driven by a 65 bps q/q increase in the corporate segment. Mixed results in Central America. Net earnings in El Salvador increased 132.1% y/y, driven by a 60.3% y/y decline in provision expenses. Panama and Guatemala exhibited annual declines in net earnings. We continue to expect stronger delivery from these operations. No major changes in capital ratios. Bancolombia reported a solvency ratio of 13.5% with a Tier 1 ratio of 10.0%. The minimum requirement is 4.5%. For charts, tables and the full report, see the pdf file Sebastian Gallego +(571) 3394400 ext 1594 sgallego@credicorpcapital.com More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders 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. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. 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/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp August 2, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The global water market is projected to reach a total value of $914.9 billion in 2023, according to the latest 2018-2023 forecasts published by Global Water Intelligence (GWI). GWI's market research linked this growth to a recovering global economy, high commodity and oil prices, and major water quality and infrastructure plans such as those in Saudi Arabia, China, and Southeast Asia aimed at improving wastewater treatment and incentivising private finance in water. The forecasts are available to GWI WaterData subscribers and were published as part of a major update to the WaterData platform New forecasts published by GWI have projected that the value of the global water market, representing the sum of both operating and capital expenditures by utilities and industrial water users on water and wastewater, is expected to grow from $770 billion in 2018 to $914.9 billion by 2023. The 2018 - 2023 global water market forecasts, published as part of a major update to GWI WaterData - GWI's online market intelligence platform - featured: Updated 2018- 2023 outlooks for the water markets of 100 different countries. Water spending forecasts and analysis for utilities, technology markets, and a range of industrial sectors, including upstream oil & gas, mining, refining & petrochemicals and the microelectronics industry. Expanded coverage and analysis of the digital water solutions market. Christopher Gasson, Publisher at GWI commented that "The global water market is growing at a faster rate than at any time since 2010, driven by a buoyant global economy and a recovery in the oil price. That said, the rate of investment is still well below what is needed to maintain existing infrastructure and keep up with the demands of urbanisation, environmental protection and climate change." GWI's team of research analysts found that the projected increase in global capital expenditure on water and wastewater is being fuelled by a return to growth for key industry sectors such as mining, upstream oil & gas, and microelectronics. Commodity and oil prices experienced a rebound in 2017 off the back of successfully implemented OPEC production cuts and a growing global demand for commodities such as copper, lithium, and nickel as a result of increased demand for batteries and electric vehicles. GWI's analysts have forecast increases in spending on water and wastewater treatment systems, particularly in the oil & gas and mining sectors, over the next five years. The market for oil-water separation technologies for instance, is forecast to grow by 14.6% bringing new opportunities for technology suppliers and specialists in water management and treatment. Rising oil prices are facilitating a boom in the North American fracking industry, and the renewed exploitation of mature fields like the Permian Basin which increasingly have high water management and treatment requirements. GWI found that the average number of water barrels used per frack in the Permian Basin increased 434% between 2013 - 2016. The North American fracking boom is also creating a new market for "midstream" water management infrastructure where water is piped, managed and treated at plants in closer proximity to the fields, in order to more easily meet the water needs of the fracking industry. Similarly, GWI's analysts forecast that global capital expenditure on water and wastewater by the mining industry will increase by 23.5% to $1.64 billion by 2019, mirroring a sustained increase in the price of commodities such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and chromium worldwide, fuelling the expansion of mining operations as well as new projects. The new forecast updates suggest the growth of the mining industry, coupled with increasing competition for water resources between municipalities and industries in regions threatened with water scarcity, will create new opportunities for seawater desalination and water reuse projects, as the world's mining hubs act to secure their water needs. Chile for example, is set to become a key source of desalination project opportunities. A 128.5% increase in the use of seawater in the country's mining operations is expected over the next ten years, driven by continued investments in new mining projects, and the impact of a new regulation which makes desalination mandatory for mining operations with water needs exceeding 12,960m3/d. GWI's market analysis also found the introduction of more stringent water and wastewater quality regulations will have a significant impact on the dynamics and growth prospects of several key water markets over the next five years, especially in China and India. Increased regulatory powers of relevant agencies in both countries has resulted in stricter enforcement, and a clear uptick in project flow for wastewater treatment projects. In China, drives to tackle flooding and stormwater pollution under the sponge city' programme and to centralise and standardise industrial park wastewater treatment are coinciding, creating a diverse range of technology opportunities. India meanwhile is seeing a breakthrough in the adoption of reuse technologies, due to government directives demanding the use of treated sewage effluent in the power industry. GWI also expects a major uptick in reuse projects to occur in China, as the central government tightens water pollution regulations for both utilities and industry. The 13th Five-Year Plan calls for 90% of municipal sludge to be treated to new, tougher environmental standards by 2020, creating new opportunities for projects and technologies focused on sludge management in one of the world's largest water markets. Additionally, the forecast updates suggest that the international water market is experiencing the strongest pro-privatisation wave in two decades, following on from the major national water privatisation programme announced in Saudi Arabia in 2018. GWI's analysts highlighted the expansion of private finance models for water in Southeast Asia as a key part of this pro-privatisation trend. The string of IPOs carried out by Vietnam's utilities to raise the capital to expand wastewater treatment networks, the use of private finance for water beyond Metro Manila in the Philippines, and Indonesia's progressing national PPP plans all look to provide opportunities for international investors and companies working in wastewater. Alongside the 2018 - 2013 water market forecast updates, GWI's analysts also expanded the GWI WaterData platform's coverage of the digital water solutions market. The service now provides more data and analysis of digital solutions for water networks and treatment plants, as smart water metering and leakage management projects become more common around the world. More updates and market data will be published on the platform as crucial market developments emerge. Find out more about the GWI WaterData Global Water Market Forecasts for 2018 - 2023 here GWI WaterData: www.gwiwaterdata.com Notes to Editors: GWI WaterData (www.gwiwaterdata.com) is GWI's market intelligence platform, offering the richest, most accurate and most timely information service for validating strategy in the international water market. WaterData allows you to analyse the current size and growth rate of your market, assess the competitive and technological landscape in your market and identify potential customers, partners and routes to market. With regular updates, forecasts and webinars and extensive water industry databases on PSP projects, utilities, water tariffs and M&A deals, GWI WaterData is your single source of all data critical to business planning in the water industry. See an overview of the GWI WaterData Global Water Market Forecast Updates for 2018 - 2023 and a complete list of forecast categories here: https://globalwaterintel-info.com/p/36G3-40J/waterdata-global-water-market-updates Schedule a personalised demonstration of the GWI WaterData platform here: https://globalwaterintel-info.com/p/36G3-2RR/wd-demo Global Water Intelligence (GWI) researches and publishes business data and information about the water markets worldwide. Based in Oxford, UK it also has offices in Singapore and USA (Austin, Texas) and has researchers and office staff in many other countries. It publishes three subscription titles and a free weekly GWI Briefing email (http://www.globalwaterintel.com/accounts/mailinglist/) around four individual reports per year on particular water sectors/geographic regions and the GWI WaterData and DesalData market intelligence platforms. It also organises two major financial conferences for the water industry each year: the American Water Summit in Autumn and the Global Water Summit in Spring. GWI was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2011. Press contact: ashuttleworth@globalwaterintel.com, Media Analytics Ltd, Suite C, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford OX1 1XX, UK. Tel: +44 1865 204208 www.globalwaterintel.com Water-Stocks.com: investing ideas in water stocks Like Water Stocks? View our Water Stocks Directory More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders 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. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. 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/ and tickertagstocknews.com Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp Council backs expanded Gould cleanup The town council formally has asked its congressional delegation to develop a plan with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would accomplish a comprehensive restoration of Gould Island beyond... A FRESH COAT FOR WINTER Workers on the Dutch Island Lighthouse earlier this month restore the west and south sides before taking a winter break. Restoration on the east and north sides will begin in... Woman wins Pell Bridge race Annmarie Tuxbury, a Newport resident who ran track collegiately at Bryant University from 2012-15, became the first female to win the Citizens Pell Bridge Run after smashing the womens record... Focus on Lisa Netz, co-owner of The Lavish Loft Submitted by Haleh Rabizadeh Resnick, Federation Business and Community Development Director For the Voice What was your path to South Jersey? I grew up in... Focus on Peter Hecht Partner at Magna Legal Services Tell me about your connection to the South Jersey Jewish Community? I actually grew up in East Brunswick, Exit 9 off the Turnpike. But weve... Focus on Abigail Dahan: Owner of the Bake School Tell me a bit about your life in South Jersey. I grew up in Cherry Hill. We moved here from Paris when I was six... The launching ceremony (Source: CPV) Under the theme Vietnamese and Japanese youths joining hands in fostering friendship, the contest is part of various activities to mark the 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic relations. It aims to improve young peoples understanding of the bilateral ties as well as friendship between the two peoples, helping Japanese people and the youth in particular gain a deeper insight into Vietnams land and people in the integration process. All Vietnamese and Japanese amateur and professional photographers as well as reporters from press agencies of Vietnam and Japan are eligible for the contest. Each photo is required to capture the solidarity, friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Japan, diplomatic activities, cultural exchanges and economic and political events taking place in both countries, beautiful images of the land, people, customs, and the special cultural characteristics, national construction and socio-economic achievements of the two nations. Entries are sent to the organizing board by September 30th via post or email at cuocthianh45namvietnamnhatban@gmail.com./. Dara e Arqam CB-3 Kayghan Colony Campus Jobs Latest Dar e Arqam Schools Pakistan Teaching Posts Abbottabad 2021 Female Teacher for the Subject of Urdu having MA Degree from HEC Recognized University with teaching experience are required in Dara e Arqam CB-3 Kayghan Colony Campus in Abbottabad. How to Apply on Dar e Arqam Schools Pakistan Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. Mess Waiters Job in 630 EOD Unit Westridge Pakistan Army Latest Pakistan Army Posts Rawalpindi 2021 Mess Waiters are required in 630 EOD Unit Westridge Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi Cant. Candidate must have Primary Education with Experience in cooking. How to Apply on Pakistan Army Job Advertisement Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online. Official Website: https://www.joinpakarmy.gov.pk/ Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide in Singapore, Aug. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and Norway Wednesday pledged to joint hands to maintain the rule-based global free trade system. When meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide here, Chinese State Counselor Wang Yi said that China and Norway advocate free trade and both sides should accelerate negotiations for a free trade agreement to safeguard the rule-based global free trade system. Wang said China and Norway should mutually respect core interests and major concerns, consolidate mutual trust so as to continuously develop future for the bilateral relations. Soreide, for her part, said Norway is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with China, bear corresponding responsibility and jointly maintain the rule-based international order and multilateral trade regime. Norway is delighted to see both sides have made a rapid recovery and development after the normalization of bilateral ties, said the Norwegian foreign minister. Norway respects China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and respects China's core interests and major concerns, she said. Norway hopes to enhance high-level exchanges with China to boost cooperation in economy and trade, marine economy and winter sports, Soreide added. Enditem [ Editor: Zhang Zhou ] SYDNEY, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A 36-year-old Australian man has become the second person from the country to win what is described as the Nobel Prize for mathematics with fellow academics on Thursday, highlighting his prodigious talent and stellar achievements in the field. Western Australia's Akshay Venkatesh, now a professor of mathematics at Stanford University in the United States, received the Fields Medal, which is "awarded every four years to between two and four researchers under 40 years old to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement", according to a statement from the Australian Academy of Science. In 2006, mathematician Terence Tao was the first Australian to receive the accolade. "A lot of the time when you do math, you're stuck, but at the same time there are all these moments where you feel privileged that you get to work with it. And you have this sensation of transcendence, you feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," the academy quoted Venkatesh, who received his medal at a ceremony overnight in Brazil, as saying. Academy Fellow and University of Western Australia professor Cheryl Praeger, who has known Venkatesh since he was 12, said "He is extraordinary." "Akshay became the youngest ever student to study at UWA and went straight into second year maths units, writing exam papers over the summer for core first year maths courses he had never taken to demonstrate that he did not need to do those units." Venkatesh went on to earn a bachelor's in mathematics and physics with first class honors at the university in 1997, becoming the youngest to do so, according to the academy. When he was 16, the math prodigy left Australia for the United States, completing his PhD in math at Princeton University in 2002. He has since been recognized for "his synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology and representation theory." The medal is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields (1863-1932), who conceived the award "to celebrate the great achievements in the area." [ Editor: WPY ] In this aerial photo taken on Aug. 1, 2018, fishing boats depart for fishing in Xiangzhi Town in Shishi City, southeast China's Fujian Province. Fishing boats are ready to fish after the three-month fishing ban in Fujian. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong) 4 1 [ Editor: zyq ] PORTLAND, Ore. One of the highest federal law enforcement officials in Oregon had strong words on Thursday for the state's handling of legalized marijuana, following the release of a new interstate report on the legal marijuana industry. The recent HIDTA Insight Report on marijuana production, distribution, and consumption in Oregon confirms what we already knowit is out of control," said Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon in a statement. "The industrys considerable and negative impacts on land use, water, and underage consumption must be addressed immediately." The Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program was first instituted by the White House to help coordinate anti-drug law enforcement efforts in Oregon beginning in 1999. Areas of Idaho were added to the program in 2015. This year, the HIDTA released their "Insight Report," interrogating the results of Oregon's legalization of marijuana. "State officials should respond quickly and in a comprehensive manner to address the many concerns raised by this assessment," said Williams. "To date, weve seen insufficient progress from our state officials. We are alarmed by revelations from industry representatives, landowners, and law enforcement partners describing the insufficient and underfunded regulatory and enforcement structure governing both recreational and medical use. A weakly-regulated industry will continue to detract from the livability and health of communities throughout the state. The HIDTA report found that in Oregon "there is about one cannabis grow site for every 19 users," suggesting runaway overproduction of marijuana. Meanwhile, drafters of the report estimated that there were roughly 417,000 active marijuana users "of varying usage frequency" in the state at the time immediately following its legalizationequating to about 10 percent of the state's population. Some of the report's most dire conclusions took aim at the Rogue Valley in particular: "As a result of overproduction, impoverished counties that are heavily engaged in the cultivation of cannabis, such as Jackson, Josephine and Lane; face a critical economic risk from collapsing cannabis prices." The report also claimed that the "historic use" and "exponential growth" of marijuana grow operations in the Rogue River Basin put the area under "acute hydrologic strain." What is often lost in this discussion is the link between marijuana and serious, interstate criminal activity. Overproduction is rampant and the illegal transport of product out of statea violation of both state and federal lawcontinues unchecked. My ask continues to be for transparency, responsible regulation, adequate funding, and a willingness to work together. Its time for the state to wake up, slow down, and address these issues in a responsible and thoughtful manner, said Williams. The full HIDTA report is available to view or download HERE. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The Oregon Department of Justice will investigate a Portland man's complaint about an apparent deal by Gov. Kate Brown, Nike and public employee unions to keep an initiative off the ballot. The union-backed proposal would have required Nike and other large companies to disclose tax payments and other closely held business details. The unions later decided not to proceed. Around the same time, Nike donated $100,000 to a political action committee which is expected to campaign against two tax initiatives on the November ballot opposed by Brown and the unions. Richard Leonetti filed the complaint July 24 and it was first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting. His letter said the arrangement violated a state law against paying to hinder an initiative. He wrote that the Legislature passed the election law in question "to prohibit the payment of money in exchange for withdrawing initiatives, and if this practice is allowed then surely there will be a flood of initiatives filed with the sole motivation of securing payments to certain PACs or organizations in exchange for withdrawing initiatives." The complaint was submitted to the Secretary of State's office. It referred the matter to the Oregon Department of Justice to investigate standard protocol. Representatives for the unions and the governor's campaign told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the complaint has no merit. Nike declined comment. Last month, Brown's re-election campaign told OPB that she had brokered a deal with Nike and the public employee unions to keep the corporate transparency initiative off the ballot. But the unions disagree with that characterization. They said they dropped their initiative in order to focus on defeating the two anti-tax initiatives. "It was an internal decision," said Joe Baessler, political director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "We didn't withdraw the measure because of Nike." ___ Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com MERLIN, Ore. -- Today Fire Crews are working to keep the Taylor Creek Fire from jumping the Rogue River. One area of interest is the Northeast section, which is burning in Hellgate Canyon. This afternoon flames were slowly creeping towards the waters edge, with winds pushing them the other direction. Rich Tyler with the Oregon State Fire Marshall's Office says this is not concerning to firefighters, "As it burns down the hillside slowly, it actually burns back into what we call the black area, or the already burned area." What firefighters are concerned about is reducing the amount of fuels between the Taylor Creek Fire and the Rogue River. One way they can do this is by burning them, "Without it getting out of hand or without getting away from the control parameters that we give it," says Tyler. The Rogue River is a great natural barrier to the fire. Crews want to use it as an advantage to keep it from spreading farther Northeast. One way it could spread is through embers flying through the smoke and onto the other side of the river to start a spot fire, "There have not been any of those reported as of right now, and we continue to keep a close eye on it," says Tyler. Fire crews are being staged along the road watching for any embers. They say the faster they can get this Northeast corner under control, the faster they can reopen the closed section of the Rogue River. MERLIN, Ore. Oregon State Police (OSP) are asking for the public's help in finding the person responsible for two deer shot to death and left inside a fenced yard, possibly on July 22. Troopers from both Central Point and Grants Pass Fish & Wildlife received a call from the Merlin area on Tuesday, July 24 for a deer that was found dead in a resident's front yard. The caller suspected that it may have been poached. When the troopers arrived, they found two dead deer inside a fenced yard off Grouse Creek Road in the Colonial Valley, only 20 feet from someone's house. Both deer "had bullet holes in them." OSP says that shots were heard in that area on the evening of July 22 around 11 p.m. A reward is being offered by the Oregon Hunters Association through the Turn-in-Poachers (TIP) program for any information leading to an arrest in this or any other wildlife case. Callers can remain anonymous. The TIP program number is 1-800-452-7888. Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact either the TIP hotline at 1-800-452-7888 or by calling Oregon State Police Dispatch at 541-776-6111. OSP gave the following information on how to deal with suspected poaching activity: ** Report Wildlife and Habitat Law Violators** Poaching wildlife and damaging habitats affects present and future generations of wildlife, impacts communities and the economy, and creates enforcement challenges. The Turn-In-Poachers (TIP) reward is paid for information leading to the arrest/conviction of person(s) for the illegal possession, killing, taking, and/or waste of deer, elk, antelope, bear, cougar, wolf, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, moose, furbearers and/or game birds. TIP rewards can also be given for the illegal taking, netting, snagging, and/or dynamiting of salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and/or large numbers of any fish listed in Oregon statute as a game fish. * $1,000 Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat and Moose * $500 Elk, Deer and Antelope * $300 Bear, Cougar and Wolf * $300 Habitat Destruction * $100 Game Fish and Shellfish * $100 Upland Birds and Waterfowl * $100 Furbearers How to Report a Wildlife and/or Habitat Law Violation or Suspicious Activity: TIP Hotline: 1-800-452-7888 (24/7) TIP E-Mail: TIP@state.or.us (Monitored M-F 8:00AM - 5:00PM) The dairy companys brand value accounts for nearly 30% of the total brand value of the 40 companies on the list, up 30% from its brand value in 2017 and 50% from 2016. Such increases in Vinamilks brand value reflect the companys correct and sustainable strategy, with continual innovations and efforts to maintain its position as the top dairy producer in Vietnam. Last April, Vinamilk was Vietnams only producer of fast-moving consumer goods to make the Nikkei Asia Reviews list of the 300 top companies in Asia for the third year in a row. In May, Vinamilk was named as Vietnams most chosen brand by Kantar Worldpanel. This is the third time that Forbes Vietnam has compiled a list of the 40 most valuable brands in Vietnam, the total brand value of which reaches nearly US$8.1 billion. Among the 40 companies, consumer goods producers still make up a lot of the list but financial and banking firms have narrowed the gap since more and more banks are being listed on the stock market. This years second and third positions belong to the two telecoms companies Viettel and VNPT. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form EUGENE, Ore. -- Members from St. Vincent de Paul, city officials, and community members met Wednesday to express concerns and praise for a proposed home for homeless boys in west Eugene. The three listening sessions occurred throughout the day Wednesday at the Fairfield Baptist Church in Eugene. The multi-sided conversation included viewpoints about wanting the home to pave the way for future leaders, while others said the boys would be a disruption to the community. Neighbors in the Bethel area said they want to feel included in the vetting process for the kids that would be living in the home. One community member said the home will boost the city's economy and will help the average homeless age rise. Another community member, Gary Alloway, said with issues of bullying on the rise, mixing high school aged boys with grade school aged boys could only be trouble. "Out of 98 percent of kids, maybe two percent aren't going to make it or maybe they're going to go over there and bully kids or you know, you have concerns like that," Alloway said. "The way society is now, it's not like it was 30 years ago. It's totally different." Alloway and other community members said they wished they were informed earlier on in the process, but said the meeting answered a lot of questions they had. Some of those questions included security for the kids, the vetting process, and services for the boys. Project coordinator for St. Vincent de Paul Lane County, Paul Neville, said like the youth home for girls, there will be background checks required for the boys, night security to monitor them and a strict guest policy. Neville said there will be services offered to help the boys get on their feet such as education programs and jobs to introduce them into the workforce. Neville said he found Wednesday's meetings productive. "I thought it was really good that people on both sides of the issue showed up," Neville said. "People expressed themselves honestly and I thought -- my feeling is it ended with people feeling a new sense of respect and hearing each other, and that's kind of where relationships begin." City officials said they will use the feedback from the listening sessions to keep other neighbors in the loop and hope to continue more "door to door" outreach. More listening sessions will be held on Thursday and Friday. To attend, you must register here or call St. Vincent de Paul community engagement coordinator Ashely Hensley at 541-743-7147. EUGENE, Ore. -- St. Vincent de Paul will be giving shoes to hundreds of kids before school starts thanks to the Kicks for Kids campaign. Kicks for Kids has wrapped up this year's campaign after two months of collecting shoes. Trucks from five different Les Schwab stores in the Eugene area showed up at St. Vincent de Paul Wednesday morning to drop off those shoes. This year they're estimating they collected anywhere from 900 to 1,000 pairs of shoes. Jason Gale with the Eugene Santa Clara Les Schwab store said they're just doing what Les would want them to do. "Les always said be part of the communities in which you are actually working in, and so whenever we can reach out and ask for community support to help get involved in something like this, it just makes you feel good deep down," Gale said. Eileen Chanti, director of youth and family services with St. Vincent de Paul, said these shoes will go a long way to help families in need. "What people often don't realize is that our families, most of them are working, and yet they're still homeless," Chanti said. "So, things like shoes for kids before school, clothing, school supplies -- all of these things take the burden off the families so they can focus on being stabilized, getting housing and getting their lives back together." Officials with St. Vincent de Paul and Les Schwab said they hope they can double this year's numbers in next year's campaign. EUGENE, Ore. -- The Genesis Summer Reading Academy is making a difference in the lives of local children. Genesis is a joint collaboration -- a 6-week long summer camp for "at-risk" students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Thirty-seven students were selected from the Springfield Public Schools, Eugene 4J and Bethel school districts to attend the reading camp at Marist Catholic High School. The students have been identified as McKinney-Vento children. As such, their living arrangements meet the federal definition of homeless. "We know we've targeted students who are vulnerable students from a socio-economic perspective, and those student are far more vulnerable to falling victim things like the achievement gap and summer slide," said Bill Ferrari, English teacher at Marist Catholic High School. There is no cost to attend the Genesis Summer Reading Academy. The entire program was funded through community partnerships and donors including Catholic Community Services of Lane County, One Hope, the Eugene Public Library, the Westerman Foundation, the Miller Foundation and OnPoint Credit Union. Food For Lane County also helps by providing a nutritious breakfast and lunch. "The reading program at Marist High School is kind of unique because it's set up as a camp, and I just get to come with Food for Lane County and serve the kids, get them ready for the day," said Cassie Galentine, Food For Lane County site supervisor. The program was designed by the University of Oregon College of Education and is staffed by licensed teachers, teaching fellows and volunteers from Marist. "We've got very bright students. And the beauty of this program and the collaboration is we flood them with indidivual attention," Ferrari added. "If nothing else, we know that we've given students an academic environment for these last six weeks. They'll be able to hit the ground running when school starts." As part of the summer reading program, students will take a general tour of the University of Oregon. Theyll also visit the law school and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. A Texas mother was arrested after she allegedly passed out drunk in a car with her 10-year-old boy in the backseat during the triple digit temperatures. The incident happened on Saturday, July 21st during the peak afternoon hours in Lakeway, Texas. Lakeway Police arrested 34-year-old Adriane Grace Moss in the case. The boy called police and said that his mom was passed out drunk and that he was locked inside a hot car. Authorities say at the time of the call the temperature outside was about 104 degrees. While authorities were trying to locate the vehicle, they asked the boy to pass the phone to his mother. The boy says his mom was only going to hang up the phone. Police were able to eventually locate the vehicle and arrest Moss. A family member who did not want to come out camera says Moss has had multiple run-ins with the law and believes she should not have custody of the children. CPS says they could not comment on the case due to the ongoing investigation. Moss attorney says she does not have custody of her children and that her son is in the custody of a supervisor of her choice. At a government meeting on August 2, the PM warned that if the economy is not restructured, Vietnam will continue falling behind. The meeting was held to review one and a half years of the implementation of a government action programme, known as Resolution 27, on measures to restructure the economy and renew the growth model. PM Phuc stated that recent efforts have brought about certain results but significant challenges remain, as the economic growth model has shown little change, alongside slow public investment disbursement and sluggish agricultural reform. According to the cabinet leader, economic restructuring must bring into play the role of both the state and the market, noting that the governments mission is to fine-tune the market mechanism. PM Phuc emphasised that institutions and policies are the lever to make reform successful. According to Dr Nguyen Dinh Cung, an economic advisor to the PM, if Vietnam could achieve its restructuring targets, the economy would grow by up to 7.5% or higher annually until 2025. He suggested looking for new growth drivers within the domestic economy by fostering the three engines of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, which could add 0.5 percentage points to the overall growth if their economies grow by an additional 1 percentage point. Other officials also agreed that if growth continued to be based on old drivers, there would be no breakthroughs. The chairman of Da Nang underlined the leaderships strong determination which has been translated into an action plan and inspiration for the business community as a factor to promote the economic restructuring efforts. For his part, State Bank Governor, Le Minh Hung, stated that macroeconomic stability is of utmost importance when undertaking economic reform, adding that it is also necessary to attract social investment and develop the capital market. MASON CITY, Iowa - NIACC students will be officially allowed back in the dorms in a matter of weeks, but some are already training indoors and outdoors for fall sports. With the recent of news of Mollie Tibbetts' disappearance, it's had two student athletes saying they heightened their awareness of what's around them. Elizabeth Mennen and Rylie Smith are entering their sophomore years at NIACC. While working out, Mennen wants to ensure that she will be OK. "Whenever I go for a run like Mollie did, I always keep my phone on me. And it's always on, I make sure it's charged, I check my surroundings, and I know where I'm running and I always tell someone my path." Smith has a similar plan. "I always tell people I'm going on a run just in case anything happens, and I try to stay in areas where people are." Dr. Terri Ewers is the Vice President of Student Services at NIACC, and notes that student security is a top priority. "One of the first things we do is we review it every year. We update our campus security measures we have in our student handbook, and we also have the brochures and written documentation that we give to new students and also for visitors on campus." Hennen and Smith have some advice for those who are new or returning to school. "Just always be aware of your surroundings. Because you never know who, what, anywhere around you is...anything can happen," Hennen said. "Be careful who you talk to, don't run into anyone that you're not sure of, just try to run with people," Smith added. Ewers also mentions that the campus has a phone number that can be contacted at any time of the day if they are feeling unsafe, and is posted across campus. At the function, Indian Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra said the dialogue is an important mechanism for the two countries to implement agreements secured by their leaders in contribution to the development of Vietnam - India comprehensive strategic partnership. The Vietnam Defence Ministry considers cooperation with India a top priority and spares no effort to help it grow, stated Deputy Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh. The sides agreed that bilateral defence ties have been continuously boosted, bringing about practical outcomes. They highlighted their serious implementation of signed documents and agreements between Vietnamese and Indian defence leaders during their visits to each others nations. They said the two bodies have extended and promoted a series of cooperation mechanisms such as the deputy ministerial level defence policy dialogue, defence working group meeting, consultation between staff officers of the two navies, land and air forces; and exchange of young officers. They were said to maintain good collaboration between their armed forces and deepened relations in other fields like personnel training, defence industry, UN peacekeeping mission, strategy and intelligence research, and mutual support at multilateral forums. Senior Lieutenant General Vinh thanked India for its assistance to Vietnam, particularly in providing nonrefundable aid and preferential credit. The credit packages included US$500 million for defence industry development and US$100 million for building high-speed patrol vessels for the border guard, while nonrefundable aid packages were US$260,000 for an IT and foreign language centre project and US$5 million for the military software park phase II. In the coming period, the sides agreed to continue carrying out their sealed deals including a declaration on joint vision of Vietnam - India defence relations for 2015-2020. Delegation exchange, consultation and dialogue mechanisms as well as cooperation in human resources training, defence industry, IT, and peacekeeping mission will be increased, they said. The Vietnamese side noted it will speed up the distribution of the US$500 million and US$100 million credit packages and procedures to disburse the US$5 million non-refundable aid package. GARNER, Iowa- Iowa Congressman Steve King was in Garner on Wednesday where he discussed tariffs Chinese leaders put in place in response to President Trunps tariffs on steel and aluminum. Congressman King said farmers are already feeling the impacts of these tariffs despite President Trump saying he wont hurt agricultural. And King said North Iowa is feeling it the hardest. Despite $12 billion federal aid to farmers, King said he is not in support of the tariffs or changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement. He said the trade troubles probably wont end until an issue regarding the Chinese stealing intellectual property from the US is resolved. To the President, if he can resolve the theft of intellectual property by Chinese IP pirates, he can have a better chance of fixing the trade issue in Asia, Congressman King said. There seems to be a couple of little openings, but at this point I dont see momentum in that direction. Congressman King said he is still waiting to learn from the USDA when the $12 billion will be available for farmers and who will be able to access the aid. WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal authorities have issued a public health alert about more than two dozen beef, pork and poultry salad and wrap products as a precaution due to possible parasite contamination. The Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service says the products, distributed by Indianapolis-based Caito Foods may be contaminated with cyclospora. The parasite causes intestinal illness. The USDA says Caito Foods was notified from their lettuce supplier, Fresh Express, that the chopped romaine used in some of the salads was being recalled. The products were sold by grocery stores including Trader Joe's, Walgreens and Kroger. They have the establishment number "EST. 39985 or P-39985." The USDA has posted a complete list online . Consumers are urged to throw them away. FOREST CITY, Iowa- During a special city council meeting on Wednesday, the people of Forest City voiced their options on a current pit bull ban. Pit bulls are like a time bomb, one resident said. You wont convince me otherwise. The ban has been on the books for the last 10-12 years, according to city leaders, and in that time they said only one dog has been removed from the community. Six people spoke out in favor of keeping the ban in place, including the area's post master. I worked in Mason City for 5 years and I cannot tell you the number of times I had to fill out an accident report because of a dog bite, she said. Most of the time they are because of pit bulls. I have never had to do a report because of an animal bite in Forest City. Eight expressed their interest in making changes to the city code saying the current ban is discriminatory. If you are playing with a dog too rough the dog will let you know, said another resident. As long as you watch the body language. The council did not take action on the issue at Wednesdays meeting. City staff said the Safety Committee will meet before Monday nights council meeting and bring a recommendation to the council. STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) A Minnesota inmate serving time for murder has been charged in the death of a corrections officer at the prison last month. Prosecutors charged 42-year-old Edward Muhammad Johnson on Thursday with second-degree murder and second-degree assault. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday. Johnson is accused of fatally beating 45-year-old Officer Joseph Gomm with a hammer at Stillwater state prison on July 18. According to the complaint, Johnson is accused of bludgeoning Gomm with a hammer that Johnson had checked out of the prison shop. Gomm also was stabbed with a homemade knife. Johnson also is accused of swinging the hammer at a corrections employee who is a prison shop foreman. Johnson was serving a 29-year sentence for fatally stabbing his roommate in 2002. FLOYD COUNTY, Iowa A runaway juvenile from Orchard was taken into custody after the discovery of a stolen vehicle. The Floyd County Sheriffs Office said it responded to a truck in a ditch at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday north of Floyd on Highway 218. An investigation led authorities to find out it was stolen from a rural Floyd business. The business and a nearby residence were both broken into, authorities said. After a brief search of a cornfield south of Floyd, a runaway juvenile from Orchard was taken into custody around 7:30 am and transported to a detention center, the Sheriffs Office said. Charges in the case are pending. ROCHESTER, Minn. Dealing meth results in 30 years of probation for a Rochester man. Linh Chanhnoy, 41, pleaded guilty Monday to 1st degree sale of methamphetamine. The Rochester Police Department says Chanhnoy sold meth to a confidential police informant on December 29, 2017, and January 3, 2018. The combined sales totaled 27.8 grams of meth. Chanhnoy has been sentenced to 96 days in the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center, followed by three decades of probation, and must pay $880 in restitution and either do 50 hours of community work service or pay a $500 fine. Chanhnoy was one of over two dozen people arrested in May after a six-month drug investigation. MASON CITY, Iowa A Mason City man is accused of an attack that left a man with serious injuries. Juan Bendickson, 36, is facing a charge of assault causing serious injury after allegedly punching a victim in the back of his head. The victim suffered a broken wrist that required surgery during the attack. Bendickson continued to strike the victim in the back of the head several times while the victim was on the ground, the criminal complaint states. The attack, which occurred July 28 in the 600 block of East State St., was witnessed by two others. He is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on $10,000 bond. MASON CITY, Iowa - Iowa Sen. and candidate for Lt. Governor, Rita Hart, made a stop at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa to discuss womens healthcare in the state. Medical experts discussed the accessibility of care, including how Medicaid has impacted the number of women receiving care. This comes after the passing of the fetal heart beat law, which Hart said restricts women from receiving the care that they need. Those at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa also spoke about patients being turned away because of privatization of Medicaid, saying the state needs to broaden its coverage so people dont fall through the cracks. We know that the privatization of Medicaid has negatively impacted womens ability to get healthcare, she said. We know that recent efforts to curb womens accessibility is not good for the state. CLARION, Iowa A Wright County man is pleading guilty to sexual contact with an underage girl. Brandon Lee Fields, 23 of Eagle Grove, was arrested in January and charged with five counts of 3rd degree sexual abuse. Law enforcement says Fields had repeated sexual contact with a 14-year-old female in July and August of 2017 at his apartment. On Wednesday, Fields entered a guilty plea to one count of 3rd degree sexual abuse and his sentencing has been set for September 26. Signed the Letter of Intent in Stuttgart: Vice President Prof. Thomas Hirth, KIT, (left) and Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann (right) (Photo: (c) e-mobil BW / Studio KD Busch) CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-based passenger and freight transport largely contribute to climate change. Synthetic fuels so called reFuels may also be produced from non-fossil carbon sources, such as biogenic residues, in combination with the direct conversion of CO2 and renewable hydrogen and may help protect global climate. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) now plans to comprehensively study the opportunities associated with these fuels for society, industry, and the environment in cooperation with partners from automotive industry, automotive supply industry, and mineral oil industry and with the support of the Baden-Wurttemberg State Government. The corresponding letter of intent was recently signed in Stuttgart. The reFuels Rethinking Fuels project will focus on processes to produce on a large scale Otto and diesel fuels from sustainable resources, such as plant residues. Studies will also cover the impacts of regenerative fuels on pollutant emission of the existing fleet and on the function of the vehicles and their components. The ultimate goal of the project partners is to enhance the societys and consumers acceptance of these novel fuels. This is what the state government and KIT agreed upon at the annual meeting for the Policy Dialogue on Automotive Industry in Stuttgart in July. To reach the declared climate goals, we need a smart mix of alternative drives. Efficient synthetic fuels from sustainable sources may open up a climate-neutral perspective for the combustion engine in the medium and long term, said Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann. Together with partners from automotive and supply industries, mineral oil industry, and civil society, we will now intensify research and, thus, make an important step towards climate-compatible mobility. Baden-Wurttemberg Minister of Transport Winfried Hermann said: Synthetic fuels from regenerative sources might decisively contribute to the urgently required reduction of CO2 emissions in the transport sector in the future. Only when all instruments for climate protection in the transport sector will be used, can we reach the international goals agreed upon in Paris. Within the reFuels project, Baden-Wurttemberg will further develop the efficiency of such fuels and explore reasonable applications. reFuels are an important milestone in closing the CO2 cycle, said the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka. Climate change is one of the most urgent problems of society tackled by KIT. In the future, regenerative fuels may open up entirely new fields of business along the chain of values added, Hanselka continued. As efficiency gains of gasoline and diesel engines were balanced by the increase in traffic in the past years and combustion engines will continue to play an important role in the transport of heavy loads and on longer distances in the foreseeable future, environmentally friendly and engine-compatible synthetic fuels can substantially enhance the sustainability of the transport sector, said Professor Thomas Hirth, KIT Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs. With bioliq and the Energy Lab 2.0, KIT already has two facilities for the production of reFuels. The bioliq facility produces high-quality fuels from biogenic feedstocks and residues, such as straw. The Energy Lab 2.0 that is presently under construction will consist of several plants and combine technologies for the production and use of electrical, thermal, and chemical energy, such as gas turbines, power-to-methane technology, and water electrolysis. Here, various fuel components, such as diesel fuels or jet fuels, will be produced. The following partners already have agreed to participate in the reFuels project: AUDI AG, Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH (MWM), Daimler AG, Eberspacher GmbH & Co. KG, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, KS Kolbenschmidt GmbH, Mahle GmbH, Mann + Hummel GmbH, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, Rolls-Royce Powersystems AG (MTU), as well as EnBW AG and MiRO GmbH & Co. KG with the support of the Petroleum Industry Association (MWV). Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence. Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCC Commission for Communication and Education, Vo Van Thuong, made the remarks at a working session with the heads of Vietnamese representative missions in the 2018-2021 tenure. Politburo member Thuong, who is also head of the Central Steering Committee for External Information Service, emphasised that the 2018-2021 period will see many significant external activities conducted by the Party and State as well as national events. Overseas representative missions should become a bridge to consolidate the relationships between Vietnam and countries across the world, while mobilising political circles and international friends to boost relations with Vietnam, contributing to enhancing the country's position within the international arena, the Party official noted. Politburo member Thuong also advised the Vietnamese representative missions to foster the protection of overseas Vietnamese citizens and build plans to promote the Vietnamese culture, potential and strength to the world. At the working session, the heads of the Vietnamese representative missions discussed and shared experience on the advantages and difficulties while working abroad. Federal Minister Anja Karliczek (left), Baden-Wurttemberg Minister Theresia Bauer (right) and President Holger Hanselka. (Foto: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT) To further support and develop the scientific capacity of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the federal and state governments are determined to take the courageous merger of 2009 to the next level. During their joint visit of KIT today, Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek and the Baden-Wurttemberg Minister for Science, Research and the Arts Theresia Bauer agreed on the next steps. To exhaust the full potential in research, academic education, and innovation, administrative obstacles will be reduced among others. In addition, the use of funds will be flexibilized by the future establishment of a Joint Budget for the KIT. Together, we want to complete the merger of KITs university sector and large-scale research sector and strengthen the feeling of togetherness at KIT, said Federal Minister Anja Karliczek. All employees of KIT are to be subject to the same rules and able to make the same use of the infrastructure facilities available. This will be good for the staff of KIT and its scientific excellence. KIT is to fully develop its special development potential in both excellent research and academic education. KIT already is the only institution of its kind in Germany, said State Research Minister Bauer. It covers on an outstanding level the full spectrum from fundamental research to applied research; it offers excellent higher education and generates innovations. We want to further develop KIT as The Research University in the Helmholtz Association. In the legal completion of the merger we want to make the use of funds more flexible. This will strengthen KIT as a whole. In its Umbrella Strategy, KIT has declared the areas of energy, mobility, and information to be in the focus of its work. Important topics are covered, such as the implementation of the energy transition, tomorrows mobility or IT security. Future participation of all scientists in large-scale research and academic education will result in another advantage, namely excellent conditions for students, because staff-student ratios will become better. Since the establishment of KIT less than ten years ago, we have achieved a lot we are ready for the next milestone, said the President of KIT, Professor Holger Hanselka. In the Excellence Strategy competition, we have reached the final round. In the program-oriented funding competition of the Helmholtz Association, more than 100 international experts rated us as outstanding. We are constantly advancing our research-based teaching concept. Hanselka added that the excellence of KITs researchers is also reflected by honors and awards, such as the renowned Leibniz prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Moreover, a spinoff of KIT is nominated for the Deutscher Grunderpreis or German Entrepreneur Award. We have achieved all that, although we are still forced to work as a legal corporation with the different regulations applicable to our predecessor institutions. We are now ready for the next big step, for making use of the changed legal framework conditions and the full potential of the idea behind KIT, Hanselka underscored. Ministers Karliczek and Bauer at the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment KATRIN (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT) As soon as the merger will be completed in all business areas, KIT is expected to be able to contribute to the Helmholtz Association best competences for the solution of the grand challenges facing society. Both ministers and the President of KIT are convinced: The joint and forward-looking measures taken by the Federal Government and the State of Baden-Wurttemberg will make available resources presently bound by the management and control of two budgets to science. This will benefit the city of Karlsruhe as a location for science, the innovative strength of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg, and German cutting-edge research in the international context. For the further development of KIT, the federal and state governments, and KIT have decided to tackle the following topics in particular: increasing possibilities of a flexible use of the funds granted to KIT, integration of all scientists into program-oriented research activities of the Helmholtz Association, participation of all scientists in academic education under the same framework conditions, and a consistent remuneration and salary scheme. During their visit, the ministers informed themselves about selected research highlights of KIT, such as the Competence Center for Applied Security Technology KASTEL. KASTEL studies technologies for the digital transformation of society and industry, for example for future energy supply, Industrie 4.0, networked mobility, and smart environments. Visiting the KATRIN experiment (Foto: Amadeus Bramsiepe; KIT) Anja Karliczek, Federal Minister of Education and Research (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT) Theresia Bauer, Baden-Wurttemberg Minister for Science, Research and the Arts (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT) President Holger Hanselka (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT) Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence. (Adds details of mine dispute, production By Ernest Scheyder Aug 1 (Reuters) - Gold and silver miner Tahoe Resources Inc posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday that narrowly fell short of Wall Street's expectations, the result of a Guatemala mine dispute that shows now signs of abating. Nevada-based Tahoe posted a second-quarter loss of $15.6 million, or 5 cents per share, compared to a profit of $33.5 million, or 11 cents per share, in the year-ago period. By that measure, analysts expected a loss of 4 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Tahoe's flagship Escobal silver mine in Guatemala has been effectively mothballed since last year as part of a long-simmering dispute with the country's leadership. Guatemala's top court provisionally suspended Tahoe's license to operate after an anti-mining organization appealed to the court alleging that the country's Ministry of Energy and Mines had not consulted with the Xinca indigenous people before awarding the license to Tahoe's Guatemalan unit, Minera San Rafael. The dispute drained Tahoe's quarterly earnings by $15.6 million, and the company also spent $8.1 million on maintenance costs. "While we are disappointed that the Constitutional Court decision is still pending, we remain focused on those issues within our control," Tahoe Chief Executive Jim Voorhees, who took the company's top spot in June, said in a statement. Tahoe produced no silver during the second quarter as a result of the fracas. Its gold production slipped 8 percent to 103,000 ounces. The company also operates in Peru and Canada. Tahoe plans to hold a conference call to discuss the quarterly results on Thursday morning. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Sandra Maler) +1-713-210-8512; Reuters Messaging: ernest.scheyder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) (Kitco News) - Platinum prices are sharply higher on a day when the worlds second-largest producer announced plans to cut supply, and analysts say this may be just the catalyst the market needs to avoid falling any further through the recent lows. Most analysts have characterized the platinum market as being in a surplus this year, particularly as consumption of the metal is dinged by less demand for diesel-powered vehicles. Platinum is a critical component in catalytic converters. However, on Thursday, second-largest producer Impala Platinum also known as Implats -- said it plans to cut 13,400 jobs over the next two years. The company plans to reduce the number of shafts from 11 to six, with production falling to 520,000 ounces annually from 750,000. Resistance from the government and unions is expected in a nation with a high unemployment rate. Sibanye-Stillwater aims to cut jobs over three years at acquisition target Lonmin, according to news reports. Still, depending on what happens with investment demand, it certainly could move the market into a deficit, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy with TD Securities. This is a further sign that the platinum industry is finally reacting to the weaker fundamental environment seen over the past couple of years as diesel share of European power trains dropped significantly, said a research note from BMO Capital Markets. While the potential union pushback is yet to be seen, such rationalization of supply may well mark the bottom in platinum pricing. Melek offered a similar sentiment, although he cautioned this hinges on what happens with the escalating trade war. Should this hurt demand for autos, then demand for platinum would also fall. However, Melek said, all things being equal, we could have seen the worst of it [for platinum prices]. As of 11:09 a.m. EDT, Nymex October platinum was $18.90 higher to $836.10 an ounce, rising sharply even though precious-metals-sector leader gold was lower. In mid-July, the October platinum contract fell as far as $794.50 after having traded above $1,000 an ounce in January and February. George Gero, managing director with RBC Wealth Management, also commented that the Implats news could be the catalyst that the market needs to have finally established a bottom. One thing in the metals favor, he added, is that most supply comes from South Africa, thus demand presumably would not be hit by direct tariffs in the trade war between U.S. and China. The Chinese continue to use it, but its not something they purchase from the U.S. directly, Gero added. BEIJING, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The city of Chaoyang in China's northeastern province of Liaoning says it has cancelled a planned alumina project after a public consultation. The plant was proposed to process bauxite ore into 10 million tonnes per year of alumina, a compound smelted into aluminium, and would have supplanted Norsk Hydro's Alunorte project in Brazil as the world's biggest alumina refinery. The refinery was scrapped because of "differing opinions" from city residents on its environmental impact assessment, the Chaoyang government said on its website on Wednesday. It had been earmarked for 23 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) of investment as a joint project between State Power Investment Corp's (SPIC) aluminium arm, Jinzhou Port Co and the latter's subsidiary, Jinguo Investment, according to a Chaoyang government statement on May 8, which also said the plant would directly create 2,000 jobs. Jinzhou Port and SPIC did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. Liaoning was home to China's first aluminium smelter, at Fushun, which started up in the 1930s, but neither Liaoning or neighbouring provinces Heilongjiang and Jilin currently have any alumina production, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. ($1 = 6.8163 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) Coeur Mining, Inc. (NYSE: CDE) says it has agreed to acquire all shares in Northern Empire Resources Corp. (TSXV: NM) that Coeur does not already own. The all-stock deal was valued at $90 million and represents a premium to Northern Empires 20-day trailing volume-weighted average share price. Northern Empires principal asset is the Sterling gold project located in Nevada. Coeur says it will aim for a quick restart of the Sterling Mine while aggressively exploring the Crown Block and other targets. The transaction, which provides a unique opportunity for Coeur to leverage its operational expertise in Nevada, a leading mining jurisdiction, and add expected near-term, high-margin production and cash flow with minimal upfront capital, together with significant exploration potential, satisfies all of our acquisition criteria and is accretive on all key financial and operational metrics, says Mitchell Krebs, president and chief executive officer of Coeur. The transaction will be subject to two-thirds approval by Northern Empire shareholders at a special meeting planned for September, Coeur says. The company adds that both boards of directors have unanimously approved the merger. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Sandstorm Gold Reports 2Q Profit On Higher Sales Royalty company Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (NYSE American: SAND; TSX: SSL) moved back in the black during the second quarter. The company lists a net profit of $0.7 million, compared to a year-ago net loss of $1.9 million. Sandstorm says it sold 14,465 gold-equivalent ounces, compared to 12,750 a year ago. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Teranga Gold Reports Record Production, Increases Guidance Teranga Gold Corp. (TSX: TGZ) upped 2018 production guidance after record output in the second quarter. The company churned out 65,381 ounces in the April-June period, up from 57,557 in the second quarter of 2017. Teranga now lists full-year guidance of at least 230,000 ounces compared to the previous expectation of 210,000 to 225,000 ounces. Teranga reports an adjusted profit of $6.2 million for the second quarter, or 6 cents per share, compared to $9.7 million, or 9 cents, a year ago. Net income rose to $11.6 million, or 11 cents, from $9.6 million, or 9 cents. By the end of 2019, we expect to increase our annualized gold production by about 50% to between 300,000 and 350,000 ounces, diversifying our production base and adding significant scale with a second long-life mine Wahgnion, says Richard Young, president and chief executive officer. Additionally, we are prioritizing Golden Hill within our exploration portfolio given it has the potential to be our third mine and move us into the mid-tier producer category. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Alamos Adjusted Profit Lower Than Year Ago Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX, AGI) lists adjusted net earnings of $4.9 million, or a penny per share, for the second quarter. This reflects adjustments for unrealized foreign-exchange losses recorded within both deferred taxes and foreign exchange of $15.3 million, as well as other one-time items, Alamos says. The adjusted profit is down from $9.8 million a year ago. The company lists a net loss of $8.9 million, a turnaround from a $2.4 million profit a year ago. The loss was due largely to foreign-exchange movements, Alamos says. Cash costs rose to $832 an ounce from $784, which Alamos blames on lower grades and downtime at Young-Davidson. Alamos produced 126,500 ounces of gold, 19% higher than the second quarter of 2017. With near-record production in the second quarter, we came in slightly ahead of expectations and remain well positioned to achieve full-year guidance, says John A. McCluskey, president and chief executive officer. This reflected another strong outperformance from Mulatos and Island Gold, with production guidance for both mines increased for the second consecutive quarter. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Asanko Gold 2Q Adjusted Net Profit Rises Asanko Gold Inc. (TSX, NYSE American: AKG) reports a rise in its second-quarter adjusted profit and says output for the first half of 2018 was above guidance. The producer lists a net loss of $142.3 million, compared to net income of $0.6 million in the year-ago period. The red bottom line was due to a $144.6 million loss on reclassification of Ghanaian subsidiaries to net assets held for sale, resulting from the Gold Fields joint-venture transaction, Asanko says. Excluding special items, adjusted net income was $2.3 million, or a penny per share, up from $0.7 million, or zero cents, in the second quarter of 2017. The mines solid operational performance for the quarter, predominantly the mills fantastic performance and Nkran resuming steady-state operations, enabled us to beat the top end of our guidance for the first half of 2018, producing 101,731 ounces at [all-in sustaining costs] of $1,145/oz, says Peter Breese, president and chief executive officer. We are well positioned to meet our H2 2018 and full-year guidance. The company says April-June gold production of 53,501 ounces was up from 46,017 in the same quarter a year ago. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com Endeavour Silver Reports Net Loss, Higher Output Endeavour Silver Corp. (NYSE: EXK; TSX: EDR) lists a second-quarter loss due to factors such as foreign exchange, but reports higher production than in the same period a year ago. Endeavours net loss was $5.7 million, or 4 cents per share, compared to $16,000 loss in the second quarter of 2017, saying this was primarily due to higher depreciation and depletion charges and a foreign-exchange loss. Revenue increased 19% to $38.8 million. Silver production increased 19% to 1,355,895 ounces, while gold production increased 5% to 13,674 ounces, resulting in silver-equivalent output of 2.4 million. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Thursday that talks with the United States to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will cover all outstanding issues in the negotiations. Guajardo told reporters before a meeting at the U.S. Trade Representative office in Washington that there will not be a deal on controversial auto sector rules until all NAFTA issues are resolved. Everything will fall into place or nothing will fall into place, Guajardo said. Talks among Mexico, the United States and Canada to modernize the 1994 trade pact have dragged on since last year, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he wanted a better deal for U.S. business and workers. Guajardo added that he was keeping Canadas Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland informed on progress of discussions with the United States. He was scheduled to meet on Thursday with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, without Freeland, to focus on sticking points around autos and possibly wage hikes. Jesus Seade, the chief NAFTA negotiator for Mexicos President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said Thursdays meeting would cover A to the Z and everything in between. Before entering the trade office with Guajardo, he told reporters he felt confident that negotiators would be able to reach agreements if they move quickly, but said that auto sector rules are a central part of a deal. There wont be any deal until theres everything, he said. * Biggest round of mine job cuts in living memory * Conventional South African mines losing money * Lay-offs in past have stoked labour, social unrest (Recasts with details, quotes, exact number) JOHANNESBURG, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Platinum producer Impala Platinum will slash about a third of its workforce over two years in one of the biggest rounds of job cuts by one mining company in living memory in South Africa as the platinum industry faces a day of reckoning. The number of platinum miners employed in the world's largest producer of the precious metal has fallen from a peak of almost 200,000 in 2008 to 175,000 in the face of depressed prices and soaring costs, fuelling labour and social unrest. Implats' planned lay-offs announced on Thursday are focused on its labour-intensive, conventional Rustenburg operations, where the number of shafts will be reduced to six from 11 with production cut to 520,000 ounces per annum from 750,000 ounces. Its shares were around 4 percent higher at midday after earlier rising 6 percent, reflecting investor support for the tough moves. The company clarified that the number of planned job cuts was 13,400, not the 13,000 specified in its statement earlier, which it said was a rounded figure. The number of jobs on the line over two years, out of a workforce of about 40,000, is even steeper than plans by miner Sibanye-Stillwater to cut 12,600 at Lonmin over three years. Most of South Africas conventional platinum shafts are losing money, according to the Minerals Council South Africa, while the handful of mechanised ones are profitable. But an unforgiving geology makes mechanisation challenging in South Africa and is not an option at Rustenburg. "The only option for conventional producers today is to fundamentally restructure loss-making operations to address cash-burn and create lower-cost, profitable businesses that are able to sustain operations and employment in a lower metal price environment," Chief Executive Nico Muller said. POLITICALLY SENSITIVE The company narrowed its first-half loss in March by 70 percent to 21 cents per share and warned then that steep cost cuts were on the horizon as it reviewed Rustenburg, which has been a flashpoint of labour violence in the past. The company has not made a profit in six years. Muller told journalists an alternative would be to sell shafts it plans to close if buyers could be found, but that would not be easy. Sibanye-Stillwater is in the process of acquiring Lonmin's nearby operations but is unlikely to have the appetite for further acquisitions as it grapples with the fall-out from a spate of deaths at its gold mines. Job cuts are politically sensitive in South Africa, where data this week showed the unemployment rate rose to 27.2 percent in the second quarter from 26.7 percent in the first quarter. And the typical South African mine worker has around eight dependants, multiplying the social hardships associated with lay-offs in an economy still defined by glaring racial income disparities. Black workers will account for the vast majority of the job cuts. AMCU, the majority union at Implats, was not immediately available for comment. The union led a five-month strike in 2014 at the operations of the world's three largest platinum miners, including Implats. "We are very concerned about the social implications," Muller said. He said an initial 1,500 jobs will be cut in the first round, confirming a Reuters report on Wednesday. < South African platinum miners manage to maintain production despite job cuts > (Additional reporting by Zandi Shabalala in London Editing by Alexander Winning and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Under southern China's scorching sun, marines climb high walls with their bare hands and crawl under barbed wire nets, with referees carefully timing them. Three squads of Chinese marines won the top three positions among 13 teams from five countries in an obstacle course contest, the first event of the "Seaborne Assault" competition of the International Army Games, held in the southeastern city of Quanzhou Monday. "Military exchanges like this will enhance and improve our training, management, and education," said Kong Jun, commander of Marine Corps of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. "We will try new ways to strengthen our exchanges with our foreign counterparts." The marine division was added to the PLA in the 1950s and then reinstated in the 1980s. The PLA started with about 20,000 soldiers in the eastern city of Nanchang in an armed uprising on Aug. 1, 1927, and has grown to around two million servicemen and women in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and other services. Growing from a revolutionary army that fought against foreign invaders and for the liberation of Chinese people and the nation, the PLA is taking a "crucial leap" in the new era from being simply large to being strong. "We will make it our mission to see that by 2035, the modernization of our national defense and our forces is basically complete; and that by the mid-21st century our people's armed forces have been fully transformed into world-class forces," said President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of Central Military Commission (CMC), in the report to the 19th CPC National Congress. Under China's national defense policy which is defensive in nature, the PLA faces the complex task of reforming itself to be more loyal, disciplined and combat-capable in peacetime. INSTITUTIONAL, TECHNOLOGICAL REFORM In July this year, the PLA started recruiting "civilian personnel" to attract talent that are urgently needed. The recruitment drive, approved by the CMC, is the first of its kind since deeper reform was introduced to the national defense and armed forces in late 2015. Under the reform, military organizations were revamped, and the joint combat command mechanism was improved. The four military headquarters -- staff, politics, logistics, and armaments -- were reorganized into 15 agencies, while the seven military area commands were regrouped into five theater commands. In the meantime, the percentage of land forces' personnel among the entire PLA was cut to less than half for the first time, and the new Rocket Force and the Strategic Support Force were established. The number of PLA officers was also reduced by 30 percent, and hundreds of generals switched posts. The PLA also saw rapid technological upgrading. In the past five years, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier was launched; new transport aircraft and stealth jets were commissioned; and the latest missiles were unveiled. In July last year, Xi reviewed a massive military parade in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, attended by more than 12,000 service personnel with advanced weapons including stealth fighters and nuclear missiles on display. In April, he reviewed the PLA Navy in the South China Sea, the largest of its kind in the People's Republic of China since its founding in 1949. More than half of the vessels attending the review were commissioned after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. "In just a few years, the PLA has been deeply transformed," said He Xiaoming, daughter of He Long, late PLA Marshal who commanded the Nanchang Uprising. With enhanced strategic and combat capacity, the PLA not only effectively defends China's national interest but also plays an active role in international peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, contributing to regional stability and world peace. POLITICAL, DISCIPLINARY BUILDING Strengthening political loyalty has repeatedly been stressed over the past five years, with measures adopted to ensure the Party's leadership and nurture the faith and integrity of officers and soldiers. After the 19th CPC National Congress in October last year, the CMC released a guideline on the deep and comprehensive implementation of the system by which the chairman of the CMC has overall responsibility for the army. According to the guideline, China's military should use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as their guide, fully implement Xi's thinking on strengthening the military and follow the absolute leadership of the CPC. "With the system, the Party and the country can never end up in a mess, the army can always stay united, and conspirators will never find an opening," said Zou Yan, a 103-year-old veteran. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, more than 100 PLA officers at or above the corps-level, including two former CMC vice chairmen, have been investigated and punished. A new disciplinary commission and a commission for political and legal affairs were set up under the CMC on the orders of Xi, and more than 40 military statutes and regulations were adopted in a bid to preserve exemplary PLA conduct, strict discipline, and high morale. Servicemen and women, including high-ranking officers, have not only been under tighter scrutiny over their integrity, but also been closely supervised regarding their competence. On June 19, watched by over 3,600 officers and soldiers, the commanders of 13 army groups of the PLA were reviewed by the army command and experts from military academies regarding their leadership. "Each generation of servicemen has their own missions and responsibilities. Now the historical responsibility of building a strong military falls on our shoulders," said Wang Rui, a squad leader of the 74th Army Group of the PLA. Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. / AP Military members carry transfer cases from a C-17 at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. / AP U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attends a ceremony with Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Phil Davidson marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. / AP Decades after the end of the Korean War in 1953, the remains of dozens of presumed U.S. war returned Wednesday to Hawaii for analysis and identification. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a ceremony before the flag-draped containers carrying the remains were brought off airplanes in sets of four as solemn music played. ''Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen,'' Pence said. ''Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure.'' Each container was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. They set the caskets gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes. People listen at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. / AP Audience members stand during the National Anthem at a ceremony marking the arrival of the remains believed to be of American service members who fell in the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. North Korea handed over the remains last week. / AP North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases. About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War and about 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. Hanwell Kaakimaka's uncle, John Kaakimaka, is among those who never came home. ''We've been watching the news, and we've been hopeful that my uncle is among the remains,'' he said, adding that it could bring his family some closure. BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- A key meeting has signaled that China will put more focus on maintaining the stability of the economy in the second half of this year amid external uncertainties. China will keep its economy on a stable and healthy development track with proactive fiscal policies and prudent monetary policies in the second half, according to a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Tuesday. With a robust growth of 6.8 percent for the Chinese economy in the first half, the policy tone set by the CPC meeting will make sure that the country achieves its annual growth target of around 6.5 percent, economists believe. STABILITY: KEY THEME China's economy maintained steady growth with good momentum in the first half. However, "the economy faces some new problems and challenges, and the external environment has changed notably," said a statement released after the meeting. It said, "efforts should be made to keep employment, the financial sector, foreign trade, foreign and domestic investments, and expectations stable." China's GDP growth has stayed within the range of 6.7 to 6.9 percent for 12 straight quarters. But a slight weakening was spotted in June in industrial output and investment, and worries have been on the rise that escalating trade tensions could bite into the economy in the future. "The whole meeting sent a message that the country will move proactively to cope with changes. Stability will be the key policy tone and theme of the economic work in the second half," said Wang Jun, chief economist of the Zhongyuan Bank. Policy makers have already announced a basket of pro-growth policies from targeted lending to tax breaks. China's cabinet last week decided to roll out a 65-billion-yuan (nearly 10 billion U.S. dollars) tax cut to encourage businesses to spend more on R&D, on top of an initial goal of cutting taxes and fees by 1.1 trillion yuan this year. Fiscal policy should play a bigger role in expanding domestic demand and structural adjustments, according to the CPC meeting. It also pledged to maintain control over the floodgates of monetary supply and keep liquidity at a reasonable and ample level. REFORM: SOURCE OF VIGOR While external pressure increases, the vitality of the market could be boosted by further domestic structural reform and opening up. Supply-side structural reform should be pushed forward, according to the CPC meeting. Strengthening areas of weakness should be taken as an important task in the reform, it said. Zhang Yansheng, the chief researcher with China Center for International Economic Exchanges, believes new investment demand should be formed in such "weak areas" as innovation, green development, and social welfare. In reducing industrial capacity, another major front of the structural reform, "some deep-rooted problems should be solved, including disposing zombie firms and improving corporate efficiency," Wang said. Li Zuojun, deputy director of the resources and environment policy institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, highlighted reforms in areas including state-owned enterprises and land systems, which have both profound influence and quick effects. Wang Hongju with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) called for more rapid implementation of opening up policies. "Reforms in government services, property protection, market access, prices of production factors, and industrial policies will help China form new global competitiveness," he said. SUPPORTIVE FINANCE, CURB ON PROPERTY Policymakers aim to accomplish the dual-task of taming financial risks and promoting the sector to play a more significant role in bolstering the real economy, in particular, cash-hungry private and small businesses. "China must better combine the task of forestalling and defusing financial risks with serving the real economy," according to the meeting. Despite progress in risk control and deleveraging in the first half, the financing difficulties for private and small firms still lingered, and a reasonable liquidity level is needed, said Zeng Gang, a financial researcher with CASS. Analysts believe more efforts are required to precisely channel the capital into weak areas and prevent it from turning into hot money for the home or equity markets. Meanwhile, authorities showed firm resolve in regulating the property market. The CPC meeting said "rises in home prices should be firmly curbed," and that the establishment of a long-term mechanism to promote the stable and healthy development of the property market should be accelerated. Housing prices in major Chinese cities were stable in June due to property controls. However, structural problems remained as several third- and fourth-tier cities have experienced price spikes since the year's start. "The meeting demonstrated the central leadership's confidence and determination in resolving the problems in the property market," said Ni Pengfei with CASS. South Korea is doing all it can to win the safe release of a South Korean kidnapped in Libya, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday, noting the country's anti-piracy military unit stationed in the Gulf of Aden was already on its way to the North African country. "His country and his president have never once forgotten him," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement released one day after video footage showed the South Korean captive asking President Moon Jae-in to help win his release. "On the first day he was abducted, the president ordered the government to do its utmost with all resources the country has," Kim said. "The government has been maintaining a close cooperation system with the government of Libya and other allies, such as the Philippines and the United States, since the day of the incident for his safety and release." By Park Si-soo An Uzbek woman was sentenced to three years in prison for killing a senior citizen in a deadly hit and run. An appellate court in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, made the ruling Thursday, upholding a lower court's decision. It commuted the jail term to three years from three and a half years, citing the accused's financial difficulties and "sincere endeavor" to apologize and compensate the victim's family. The deadly accident happened at 9:40 a.m. on Oct. 30, 2017, near a mart in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. A sedan driven by the Uzbek struck a woman, 72, at a crosswalk. The driver ran away but was caught after two hours thanks to information from a cabby who witnessed the accident. The grandmother was taken to hospital but declared dead. Special prosecutors search the office of South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, Thursday. / Yonhap By Kim Hyun-bin Special prosecutors searched the office and residence of South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, Thursday, as part of an ongoing investigation into a massive online opinion rigging scandal run by a power blogger known as Druking.. Kim, who was elected governor in the June local elections allegedly frequently contacted Druking through messenger applications such as Telegram that are untraceable. However, the governor denied any involvement in the scanda. Druking, real name Kim Dong-won, has been arrested for manipulating clicks and commenting on news articles in favor of the then Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate Moon Jae-in during the presidential election. Prosecutors suspect Kim worked closely with Druking's group to increase the number of likes and comments on online news articles. They are accused of creating over 1.84 million repeated comments on 537 news articles using 2,286 Naver accounts. Special prosecutors led by Huh Ik-bum also obtained information that Druking was asked to help the governor during the June 13 local elections. According to the Hankook Ilbo, Thursday, prosecutors have obtained a testimony from Druking that Kim asked for help during the local elections, but it is unclear if Kim was requesting help for the ruling DPK in general or for himself. Prosecutors are said to have obtained enough evidence to summon the governor for formal questioning, which could come as early as this weekend. Prosecutors are expected to summon Kim for online opinion rigging and violation of Public Official Election Act. According to his office, Kim is currently on summer vacation but is scheduled to return soon. Special prosecutors asked for a search warrant for Kim's workplace and home but the first request was denied by a Seoul court, Tuesday. In Nov. 2016, Kim was allegedly shown a demonstration of a computer system designed to rig comments by Druking's team. The governor gave the green light to initiate the rigging and was briefed about the situation regularly. Druking turned his back on the ruling party, allegedly after the presidential office refused his personnel appointment requests. He demanded an acquaintance be appointed to a consul-general post in Osaka, Japan, in return for his online activities in support of Moon during the presidential election campaign. The allegations have become a hot topic as Kim is known for his close ties with President Moon. By Kim Bo-eun The government is set to continue accepting refugees requesting asylum here but toughen the screening process, as a means of dealing with rising complaints over a large influx of people into the country seeking refugee status this year. Public concern developed after a large number of Yemenis came to Jeju Island through a visa waiver system that is now no longer applicable to Yemeni nationals. Separately, the number of refugee applicants has grown from 1,574 in 2013 to 9,942 last year, according to data from Nancen, a human rights center for refugees. A recent survey showed most of the concerns centered on the issue of spending taxpayers' money on refugees, as well as possible conflicts arising from cultural differences and safety issues. However, a type of irrational prejudice against refugees and fear that they may pose security threats also appear to have developed. The government unveiled its plan as a response to a petition to Cheong Wa Dae with the largest number of supporters. The petition called for the refugee law, Jeju Island's visa waiver system and the permit system for refugee applicants to be abolished, or for stricter standards to be applied. A total of 714,875 people signed the petition. The government's stance is that it cannot abolish refugee laws or withdraw from the international convention on refugees. The Ministry of Justice, in charge of refugee policies, will seek for refugees to settle and find jobs here, instead of only providing support and protection. "If the Yemeni who arrived here are acknowledged as refugees, we will make it mandatory for them to receive education on South Korean laws, the culture and settlement, as well as introduce a mentoring system, to assist their settlement and take care of them," Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said. "We have decided to draw up policies so that the refugees do not passively receive assistance and protection but are able to obtain jobs and support themselves here," he said in response to the petition on Wednesday. The minister earlier said the government needed to consider its duty as a member state of an international convention on refugees, but that its priority is protecting its people, in a meeting with lawmakers of the legislation and judiciary committee last month. Meanwhile, the government will also seek to fix the existing refugee screening system, which has been criticized for taking too long. The ministry will increase the number of workers in the screening process including interpreters, Park said. At the same time, it will beef up the identification process for refugee applicants, as a means to screen "fake refugees," and conduct strict reviews on whether they were involved in drug trade or violent crimes. The ministry will also draw up articles that will punish brokers for facilitating illicit acts. "We need realistic and rational refugee policies that fit South Korea's circumstances and carry out the country's duty according to international conventions," he said, adding the ministry welcomes views from civic groups, the religious and legal sectors as well as local governments. By Kim Bo-eun Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa held bilateral meetings with her counterparts of China, Japan and Russia in Singapore, Thursday, beginning talks on North Korea's denuclearization with key states. Kang held a series of meetings with her counterparts from Russia, China and Japan _ Sergey Lavorv, Wang Yi and Taro Kono _ at the Singapore Expo Convention Center. It is to be seen whether Kang held discussions with Wang on ending the 1950-53 Korean War. Only the opening remarks were open to the press and the meeting took place behind closed doors. Attention had grown over prospects of discussions on ending the war taking place at meetings held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) this week, where foreign ministers of key states are gathering. The ARF is being hosted at a time North Korea has repeatedly been calling for the war to be ended as a means to protect its regime. The Panmunjeom Declaration reached at the inter-Korean summit in April states the Koreas and the U.S. hold tripartite meetings or the Koreas, the U.S. and China hold four-party talks with the aim to end the Korean War within the year. The U.S. and China are relevant parties in ending the war because they were signatories of the armistice. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho will arrive in Singapore today. However, schedules of meetings between ministers of key states have not been disclosed. The U.S. has maintained that North Korea needs to take concrete steps toward denuclearization before a declaration ending the war can be made. North Korea is seen to have taken measures to dismantle facilities at its Tongchang-ri missile testing site that it promised to shut down at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. However, the dismantlement remains to be verified. Meanwhile, U.S. war remains recovered and handed over by North Korea arrived in Hawaii, Thursday, creating a favorable mood between the two countries. Trump thanked Kim for fulfilling the promise he made at the June summit, to return U.S. War remains, and said he is "looking forward to seeing" him again soon. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Aug. 1, 2018. Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tweet earlier this morning urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down the ongoing Russia probe is an "opinion," not an "order." (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tweet earlier this morning urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down the ongoing Russia probe is an "opinion," not an "order." The response came hours after Trump said in a tweet that Sessions should stop the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, marking an escalation of his attacks against the wide-ranging inquiry and raising speculation about his intention. "It's not an order. It's the President's opinion." Sanders told a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon. "The President wants to - has watched this process play out. But he also wants to see it come to an end as he stated many times." Trump's tweet is viewed as the most direct call that demands Sessions intervene to end the probe, which critics say amounts to an attempt to obstruct justice, a claim that Sanders rejected. Sessions infuriated the president by recusing himself from the Russia investigation last March before Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who's overseeing the inquiry and has defended the special counsel. Asked whether Trump is aware that Sessions can't stop the investigation, Sanders said, "The President's very well aware of how the process works, once again, he's stating his opinion." Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Since beginning leading the probe from May 2017, Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people, including several former Trump campaign aides. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was indicted by Mueller last fall, is facing trial for bank and tax fraud in federal court in state of Virginia. Legal analysts say Mueller's primary aim in charging Manafort is to put pressure on him so that he would provide information about alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Reacting to the tweet about Sessions, Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president said "should," not "must" when talking about ending the Mueller investigation, and "no presidential order was issued or will be." The New York Times reported last month that Mueller is also investigating Trump's tweets criticizing Sessions as to whether the president has obstructed justice. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted Trump's tweets as "an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight." In other tweets, Trump repeated his attacks against the probe on Wednesday by calling it "a hoax," claiming that Mueller is "totally conflicted" and what' s his team is doing is "a disgrace" to the country. As the Russia probe continues, Trump and his political allies have ratcheted up pressure on Mueller and his team in recent months. Giuliani made headlines on Monday by saying that "collusion is not a crime," a claim reiterated by Trump a day later. Benign Sino-Malaysian relations benefit the development of Malaysia as well as regional peace and prosperity, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday when meeting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. An increasingly stronger China means more and bigger opportunities for Malaysia, said Mahathir, adding he expects to develop closer bilateral ties with China. The 93-year-old Malaysian leader also said he is looking forward to visiting China soon to demonstrate his administration's resolve to push forward with Sino-Malaysian relations, and learn from the experience of China's development. Mahathir recalled the great Chinese navigator Zheng He's visits to Malaysia. During China's Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century), Zheng led his fleet to come to Malacca for five times on his seven sea voyages. Zheng's fleet at that time brought friendship and cooperation abroad while today's China is working hard to make contributions to regional prosperity, said the prime minister. He reiterated his support for China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, saying it is a great opportunity for the region to realize common development and prosperity. Mahathir also expressed his hope that Chinese enterprises, especially high-tech firms can increase their investment in Malaysia. For his part, Wang praised Mahathir as "a good friend and old friend of the Chinese people," adding it was during Mahathir's first stint as prime minister that Sino-Malaysian relations gained rapid development. With the establishment of a new Malaysian government, Sino-Malaysian relations now stand at a new starting point. China is ready to work with Malaysia to take the opportunity of Mahathir's upcoming visit to China to make an all-round plan for future cooperation and open up new dimensions in bilateral ties, Wang said. China also appreciates Malaysia's support of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and believes that the active participation of Malaysia in the initiative will open up even greater prospects for cooperation between the two countries, promote the development of Malaysia and contribute to Asia's prosperity, said Wang. The two also exchanged views on the regional situation and the U.S.-China trade tensions. They shared the view that facing rising anti-globalization and protectionism, China and Malaysia should join hands with other regional nations to resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of emerging economies. In his two-day visit to Malaysia, Wang also met with Malaysia's Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng, Minister of Economic Affairs Azmin Ali, Minister of Transport Anthony Loke and had a dinner with members of the Council of Eminent Persons, led by the council's chairman Daim Zainuddin. An inspection team was dispatched to check the disposition of substandard DPT vaccines produced by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd. Wednesday. The team is jointly formed by members from departments including the State Drug Administration (SDA) and National Health Commission, and led by Li Li, deputy director of the SDA. DPT refers to a combination of vaccines for three infectious diseases: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. A batch of 400,520 doses of DPT vaccines produced by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co, Ltd. was found defective due to a short-term failure in the packaging equipment last year. The finding was disclosed to the public in November 2017. The biological company was fined, and its illegal gains were confiscated. Developing their kiwi fruit industry has helped villagers in counties around Liupanshui City, southwest Chinas Guizhou Province escape from poverty. The citys fruit is among the best of its kind in China, boasting rich nutritional value and great flavor. Since the city released policies to develop the industry in 2014, the fruit farming area has grown from the original 17,600 mu to 181,800 mu (12,120 hectares) by 2017. The farms here create a yearly output value of about 789 million yuan (about $115.6 million), which has directly helped 22,054 impoverished people overcome poverty. Developing the industry has not only made the local environment better, but helped the villagers become richer, an official with the local agricultural industrial park noted. Wang Shunyou, a villager from Shuicheng County, explained that previously he could only save around 20,000 yuan per year as a migrant worker, but can now earn around 150,000 yuan per year by planting kiwi fruit trees. Today, the city cooperates with over 20 e-commerce platforms and well-known enterprises such as Jingdong and Huawei, to sell its fruit products across China and to Canada and Thailand among other countries. Latin America's two key trade blocs, during the recent-concluded 13th Pacific Alliance Summit in Mexico's Pacific Coast resort of Puerto Vallarta, made a promise to promote free trade. The meeting is believed as great significance to accelerate integration of Latin American countries and propel them to jointly cope with prevailing trade protectionism. During the first official gathering of the two blocs, members of Pacific Alliance and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) signed a joint declaration and approved an action plan on propelling trade facilitation and personnel exchanges, helping small- and medium-sized companies access global markets and promoting the knowledge economy. A closer cooperation between the two blocs is a strong response to rising tide of trade protectionism, said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, adding that they will set an example for other countries by continuing their steps. President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico, which holds the rotating presidency of the Pacific Alliance, said that with an aim to strengthen the link between the two regional blocs and advance integration among Latin American countries, the meeting is a milestone for both the Pacific Alliance and the Mercosur. He added that both sides agreed to beef up economic and trade cooperation in areas of common interests and jointly explore a new model of cooperation. The Pacific Alliance has eliminated the tariffs on 96 percent of commodities traded among its members, and plans a zero tariff for all by 2030, while the Mercosur also sets lower or zero tariffs, and free trade as its target. A collaboration between the two blocs, against such background, is a key step on their road to Latin American integration. A total of 13 summits have been held since the Pacific Alliance was established more than seven years ago, and its members have strong desire for accelerated integration and free trade, Chinas Ambassador to Mexico Qiu Xiaoqi told Peoples Daily. The participation of heads of the Mercosur members in this summit has sent a positive signal to the integrated development of Latin America, Qiu said. Trade protectionism has had a long history, and the US President Donald Trumps choice is especially unacceptable, said Yeidckol Polevnsky Gurwitz, President of the National Regeneration Movement, Mexicos next ruling party. By increasing tariffs on foreign enterprises, the US has actually raised prices of commodities and damaged the interests of consumers, she told Peoples Daily, calling it an obvious mistake. By shutting its door to other markets and imposing higher tariffs on imported goods, the US presents a big threat to the Pacific Alliance and will severely hinder the economic development of its member states, stressed Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, Mexican Secretary of Economy. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera warned that if Trump aggravates tariff barriers, he will bring the global tariff system to the 1970s level. He suggested the Pacific Alliance speed up integration in wider and deeper sphere and look for international cooperation, especially with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Pacific Alliance, whose original goal is to strengthen Asia-Pacific trade and economic cooperation by using the members geographical advantages, is now taking active measures to absorb new allies in and out of the region. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore are preparing for accession to the alliance and South Korea and Ecuador are about to launch negotiations on joining the alliance. The Pacific Alliance has over 50 observer states. China has paid close attention to the development of the alliance since 2013 when it became an observer state. The country highly values the cooperation with the Pacific Alliance, said Qiu, pledging that China will firmly uphold multilateralism and economic globalization and strongly oppose trade protectionism, unilateralism and hegemonism. Chinas attitude and position were agreed and appreciated by the representatives attending the summit. The Chinese market is important for alliance states, especially for Chile, according to Sergio Torretti Costa, President of the Chilean Chamber of Construction. Hailing the increasingly stronger trade ties between Chile and China, he hopes his country could export more favored goods to China, enhance two-way investment and achieve win-win results with China. KAANAPALI The Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notification (EISPN) for the proposed Kaanapali Beach Restoration and Berm Enhancement project was published in the July 23 Bulletin of the Hawaii Office of Environmental Quality Control (OEQC) along with a link to the accompanying 78-plus-page report (oeqc2.doh.hawaii.gov/The_Environmental_Notice/2018-07-23-TEN.pdf). The Executive Summary for the estimated $9,275,000 project partially reads: K?anapali Beach has been negatively impacted by chronic erosion and extreme seasonal erosion over the previous four decades. The cumulative effect on the shoreline, the beach resource, and the sandy nearshore ecosystem has been negative. The State of Hawaii and the K?anapali Operators Association (KOA) have developed a plan to ensure the long-term viability of this sandy coastal resource that includes both beach restoration and berm enhancement. Beach restoration is proposed for the section of beach between Hanaka?? Beach Park and Hanaka?? Point (Hanaka?? Littoral Cell), and beach berm enhancement is proposed for the section of beach between Hanaka?? Point and Puu Kekaa (K?anapali Littoral Cell). Since 2006, KOA has been assessing the different mitigation methodologies with consultants Sea Engineering Inc. Wayne Hedani, president of KOA, explained that preliminary work to survey offshore areas for potential sand sources was successful in finding two sources of beach quality sand offshore. Beach restoration, Hedani observed, is the County of Mauis preferred alternative to shoreline hardening to address beach erosion, which will be getting more serious in the future with anticipated sea level rise of up to three feet by the end of the century. The project, Hedani advised, will entail moving sand from offshore sources onto the beach to reestablish shorelines as they existed in 1988 in the Hanaka?? sand cell (from Hanaka?? Beach Park through the Marriott) and to supplement beach berms in the K?anapali sand cell (from the K?anapali Alii to Black Rock at the Sheraton). The logistics are detailed in the EISPN: The approximately 75,000 cubic yards of sand needed for the proposed beach restoration and berm enhancement project would be recovered from an 8.5-acre sand deposit, located approximately 150 feet offshore of Puu Kekaa in 28 to 56 feet water depth. Construction would commence only after the multiple permits and approvals have been granted from the various county, state and federal agencies. Moreover, the permitting/approval process does not begin until after EIS protocol has been met. The requirement for an EIS is triggered when there is work within the State Conservation District. It is basically a lengthy three-step process. The EISPN is the first step leading to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The process is complex, and OEQC Spokesman Tom Eisen helped to clarify procedures for Lahaina News readers. With the EISPN published in the July 23 edition of the OEQC Bulletin, the public is given 30 days to comment, Eisen explained. This is just to help the authorities determine what the EIS should be studying, he added. Every comment that comes in needs a response, Eisen advised. A typical response to a comment that comes in on the Preparation Notice is: Thanks for bringing that to our attention; well look into it and address it in the Draft EIS (DEIS). In the DEIS, all of the correspondence will be compiled in a separate section, and it will be sent to the OEQC for publication. This initiates a 45-day comment period. Any comments generated during that period require a response as well and inclusion in the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Once finalized, the EIS is sent to the OEQC for publication to let the public know it is available, Eisen said. There is no comment period on the final EIS, but it does have to be formally accepted by the governor, Eisen continued. The governor or staff does an analysis to make sure that it has met the requirements of the law, Eisen explained. If they determine that it has met all the requirements of the law, then it is formally accepted, and the OEQC publishes notice of that acceptance. The EIS is a disclosure document. Its just presenting a lot of information, so that the decision-makers have this theoretically objective and vetted body of information about this specific project; it helps guide them in making their decisions, Eisen concluded. Then the permitting process begins. There are 16 permits which need to be secured, Hedani qualified. Its in the SMA (Special Management Area) area, so hearings will need to take place before the (Maui) Planning Commission. There will also be community outreach hearings is my guess. The project approving authority is the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The point person is Sam Lemmo. He can be reached by telephone at (808) 587-0377 or by e-mail at sam.j.lemmo@hawaii.gov. The consultant is Sea Engineering Inc. Their lead is Chris Conger. Comments can be e-mailed to Conger at cconger@seaengineering.com. The deadline to comment on phase one is Aug. 22. WEST MAUI Sixth District State Sen. Rosalyn Baker of Lahaina seeks re-election to work on issues that affect each one of us. Her opponent in the Democratic Primary on Aug. 11, Terez Amato of Kihei, explained that she is running to change the State Senate. Maui deserves a new senator who is working for the people, not for the corporations and lobbyists who have hijacked our political system, Amato added. Green Party candidate Melissah Shishido of Kihei will battle the primary winner in the Nov. 6 General Election. Amato and Baker faced off in the 2014 Democratic Primary, with incumbent Baker garnering 2,699 votes and Amato 2,213. Baker for the past 16 years has represented the Sixth Senatorial District (Makena, Wailea, Kihei, Maalaea, Lahaina, Kaanapali, Napili and Kapalua), and she wants to continue to be the strong, progressive voice that not only understands the things that matter to Maui people but also gets results for our district. As chair of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee, I have championed and helped pass landmark legislation to improve access to quality healthcare, preserve the environment, provide better learning facilities and advocate for women and seniors, she continued. Using my years of legislative experience and proven track record, I want to continue working with our Senate delegation to help make Maui and Hawaii a better place for all. Amato, who grew up on Maui and raised her four children here, said she is the only truly progressive candidate in this race. The people of Maui will always be assured that Im working for them not for special interests Im deeply honored that the Hawaii doctors, dentists, teachers and environmentalists the people we trust with our lives trust me, endorse me and choose me over my opponent, Amato commented. We must retire the old corporate political ways and do what is best for our community, our kupuna, our children and environment not just what insurance companies, developers and corporations mandate by donating to my opponent. That is why I refuse all corporate and lobbyists donations. I am working for the people, not corporations. Maui is not for sale. Hawaii does not belong to corporations. Our government must always serve the people. Together we must end the protection racket and remove corrupt politicians who are already in power. I am running for office to fight for your familys future. Residents have told Amato that the key state-related issues this election season are protecting seniors and fixing Mauis broken hospital system; working to fix overcrowded, dangerous roads; giving long overdue support to teachers and students; and protecting our jobs, environment and way of life. Amato noted, The health of people must come first; we must without further delay work to strengthen healthcare on Maui. Powerful insurance, medical corporations and drug lobbyists that donate to my opponent must no longer dictate what is best for patients or doctors. That is wrong. Maui deserves a new senator. Giant tax breaks and construction contracts in exchange for donations at the expense of our citizens cannot continue. It is time we put people first. If Maui can afford a questionable airport expansion and a new 5,000-car rental car garage that my opponent supported for industry, we can surely afford to have better hospitals and schools first! Sen. Baker said there are several issues relevant to West Maui residents, including roadway infrastructure: mitigating the effects of climate change on highways and making intersections safer. Because of rising sea levels, sections of Honoapiilani Highway need to be relocated away from the shoreline in many places, and the northern terminus of the Lahaina Bypass needs to be constructed with future climate threats in mind, Baker explained. This past term, I worked hard to secure the necessary $40,000,000 to fund construction of the Lahaina Bypass going north. I want to continue to press for needed highway improvements, including completing the conversion to smart intersections to make street crossings safer for pedestrians and vehicles alike, she continued. Another issue deals with increasing affordable housing on the West Side. Recently, the governor signed one of my bills to help Front Street Apartments stay affordable, as well as to provide $30,000,000 for 200 new affordable rentals at the Villages of Leialii to be built in Lahaina by 2019. I want to keep that momentum moving forward. We asked the candidates how the state can more effectively address these issues. Baker cited providing funding to rehabilitate public housing facilities and develop infrastructure projects to build more affordable housing and create jobs; continuing to allow Maui County to receive its share of the Transient Accommodations Tax; keeping policies in place to support renewable energy efforts and other technology industries, so that kamaaina can come back to Maui to work; and providing more education resources to every grade level and a highly qualified teacher in every classroom to help ensure the advancement of our students futures. Amatos solutions include lowering taxes for Maui residents while funding housing, roads, a new hospital and school improvements by being smart about revenue generation from nonresident investors and by dedicating a fraction of tourism hotel tax to these priorities. She said hotels and nonresident investors have unreasonably low property taxes; this should be addressed at the state and county levels. According to Amato, One example is the recent $1.1 billion Grand Wailea hotel sale. The property is assessed and taxed at a third of its actual value. Revenues from fair taxation can fund the Hawaii Employees Retirement System, improve medical care and reduce housing costs, she said. I support legalization of recreational marijuana for adults and taxing only nonresidents for its purchase. There are hundreds of millions at stake here. It is high time we stop overtaxing hardworking residents. Hawaii is missing the boat, Amato said. If re-elected, Bakers top goal is to find ways to grow and diversify the economy. By encouraging sustainable business and supporting entrepreneurs, I believe this approach will help create more quality jobs and encourage the right kind of economic development. Overall, though, I fight for working families, to increase living wages and create safe, healthy workplaces, she said. Improving education is another goal. Besides upgrading school facilities, I want to promote 21st century skillsets, especially in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and healthcare, so our young people can get higher paying jobs and come home to live and thrive in Hawaii, Baker continued. Finally, my goal is to build on my current initiatives to protect our environment. This includes preserving Lipoa Point in West Maui, protecting our coral reefs by banning sunscreens with harmful chemicals and providing pesticide-free buffer zones at our schools. I strongly believe we must become dedicated stewards of our islands and marine life or risk losing the spirit and specialness of Hawaii that define us all. If elected, Amato wants to bring back the tax dollars created here in our hotels and given away to Oahu. Lets reclaim the money we generate on Maui and use it here for roads, hospitals and affordable housing. Additional goals include canceling real estate investment trust (REIT) tax giveaways to giant corporations and ending the cycle of broken promises for a West Maui hospital and Kihei High School. My goal is to bring change and unprecedented transparency to the Senate. I will always refuse all corporate and lobbyist donations. I will put web cameras in my office the secret backroom deals will end on my watch! Its time for change time for honesty, transparency and to put your families first. I am working for the people. I am working for you, Amato said. When asked why voters should choose her, Amato responded, Its time for change time for real democracy, not an unethical protection racket. Maui deserves a senator who is working for the people, not corporations. We must stop government waste and gigantic tax breaks to giant real estate corporations like A&B money that comes out of our pockets. For example, $36 million a year for 15 years was lost, because my opponent stalled the REIT Tax in her committee. Mega-corporations gave her $60,000 in donations to get re-elected, but it cost all of us all over $540 million we have to pay in taxes to make up the lost revenue. That is a real disservice to our community. It is time our residents came first. Sen. Baker pointed to her track record at the Hawaii Legislature. During my collective years in public office, I have demonstrated a strong, proven track record of getting results for our communities, she said. Im not afraid to tackle tough, complicated problems like increasing access to healthcare, womens rights or affordable housing. I work collaboratively with my colleagues to pass laws that help small businesses succeed, provide jobs and protect our environment. Im part of an effective Senate team that has Maui at heart and delivers. Amato, 42, listed her occupation as an advocate for the people of Hawaii. She completed some college coursework. Her community resume includes serving as a member of the Sierra Club (former board member and treasurer), Kihei Community Association and Maui Farmers Union. She has volunteered for the Surfrider Foundation, Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, Leeward Haleakala Watershed Restoration Partnership and West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership. Amato has been endorsed by the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Medical Association Political Action Committee (PAC), Bernie Sanders Our Revolution Hawaii, Hawaii Dental Association PAC, Healthcare For All Hawaii, Direct Democracy Hawaii, Sustainable Action Fund for the Environment, Pono Hawaii Initiative, Maui Pono Network and Sierra Club Hawaii. To learn more about Amato and her campaign, visit www.TerezAmato.org. Baker, 71, has been a full-time state senator representing West and South Maui since 2002. Prior to that, she was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1988, appointed to the State Senate in November 1993 and elected to the Senate from 1994 to 1998. From 1999 to 2002, Baker worked as the economic development coordinator for the County of Maui. From 1980-87, as a small business owner on Maui, she also provided grant-writing services for several Maui non-profits. Prior to moving to Maui, Baker worked in government relations for the National Education Association in Washington, D.C., and spearheaded the national effort to pass and ratify the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that lowered the voting age to 18. Sen. Bakers community involvement includes serving in the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunrise (president in 2007-08 and current member); Maui Economic Development Board director; American Cancer Society Hawaii volunteer since 1984, former Hawaii-Pacific board chair and High Plains board member; Relay For Life team captainRotarians Walking for a Cure; Making Strides Against Breast Cancer volunteer/participant; organist and ukulele choir member of Lahaina United Methodist Church; and founder and co-chair of Maui Children and Youth Day held at Kihei Youth Center in October, now in its 12th year. Her endorsements and supporters at press time (there are some pending) include the State AFL-CIO; Hawaii Firefighters Association, Local 1463; ILWU, Local 142; Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, General Contractors Association of Hawaii; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1186; Operating Engineers, Local 3; Hawaii Association of Public Accountants (HAPA) PAC; Planned Parenthood Votes, Northwest and Hawaii; Patsy T. Mink PAC; Hawaii Association of Realtors PAC; Hawaii Dental Hygienists Association; and Maui Hotel and Lodging Association. To learn more about Sen. Baker and her campaign, visit www.RozBaker.com. LAHAINA Dr. Miguel Solis, taking on the role as the new principal at Sacred Hearts School, has relocated from Los Angeles, California, to Maui with his wife, Dr. Lisa Zamora, and their adorable two-year-old son, Noah. The family arrived last month. They are settling into their new home and busy at school preparing for the 2018-19 school year. Miguel, always with a warm and welcoming smile, has been busy preparing his new office and meeting with staff members and parents, often while Sister Monica, Mary or Rovy can be seen playing with rambunctious little Noah in the courtyard, or Wendy Coon walking the little guy around campus. The warm Solis presence has been a nice addition to the already charming little school nestled in the heart of Lahaina Town. There is much excitement for all that Dr. Solis will contribute to the school. He is a visionary man who knew he would one day be practicing in the islands. As most of his fellow University of Southern California classmates pursuing their Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership aspired to practice in the Los Angeles area after graduation, Miguel could not stop thinking about venturing to a Hawaii school to share his gifts. I grew up coming to Hawaii with my family, and it always held a special place in my heart, he said. So, when the opportunity for the leadership role at Sacred Hearts School surfaced, he knew he was ready to pursue his dream. Miguel, who received his Doctorate Degree from UCSs Rossier School of Education and a Masters Degree in Education from Loyola Marymount University, is eager to contribute new, innovative 21st century practices and programs to Sacred Hearts that will excite students and make then eager to learn. He understands that each child learns differently and encourages teaching outside of the box. He emphasizes the need to first and foremost learn about each student and genuinely make them feel they embody a key aspect within themselves that needs to be developed and nurtured. All of this is a process. He encourages individualized learning through Blended Learning and Flipping the Classroom methods vs. traditional whole learning. Im focused on being a positive role model for all of our students and meeting their educational needs, he said. Dr. Solis also believes that building leadership among school staff and students is essential for 21st century learning and leading, and he plans to work with seasoned teachers on leadership skills and working toward professional development training to keep up with Mainland teaching trends. Im eager to be working alongside educators who are dedicated and passionate about what they do, he added. With only a few days until the beginning of the new school year, kids begin to wind down from summer play, parents shuffle to gather school supplies and Dr. Solis waits with excitement to begin his new role as principal of Sacred Hearts School. I come to this position with energy and excitement as I look forward to meeting and working with all members of this school community, he concluded. Why expect change when electing the same people? It is with continued dismay and alarm that I read in a recent HuffPost article that Hawaii has the dubious distinction of also being the 50th in voter turnout in the 2016 election! Why this appalling apathy? Non-voters cynically say their votes will make no difference in the outcomes of elections nor in the overall conditions of our state. Isnt this shameful situation because we have a very lopsided government with one party domination: the Democratic Party? Akamai voters realize that without balance and a different common sense perspective in policies, the status quo continues. How can we expect any change when we keep voting the same people into office? Gov. Ige and Colleen Hanabusa have been lawmakers for over 70 years combined! What do we call it when we keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results? Auwe! Are we lolo or what? How very boring to watch Ige and Hanabusa vow to keep fighting to solve problems. Every election, we hear the same promises! Most residents are complaining about the excessive taxes, skyrocketing rents, dire lack of affordable housing and ominous out-migration of our doctors, teachers and families. Will your children and grandchildren be able to afford to live here? IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE! Vote Andria Tupola for governor! See VoteTupola.com. Vote Jeremy Low for lieutenant governor. Platform: government transparency, reducing waste and fiscal accountability. Vote Robert Helsham for U.S. Senate. See HNN story of his compassion in the 2014 campaign. SUSAN M. LUSSIER, Kahului County should crack down on cosmetics stores Why is the city allowing its visitors and locals to be accosted by aggressive and extremely rude cosmetics store workers? ENOUGH ALREADY!!! It is in the countys best interest to encourage return tourism, which these makeup stores have proven to discourage. Since the first makeup store opened, Ive received numerous complaints about these stores employees and owners, ranging from badgering to outright fraud. Who owns these stores? Are the employees legally allowed to work here? They seem to rotate every three months. Interestingly, this is the same length of time for a visitors visa in this country. Go ahead research them and their practices. Where are their General Excise Tax licenses and employee tax records? Are they paying taxes on the money they are making, or is it going straight off island and overseas? These stores have desecrated Santa Barbara. They lie to customers, saying they can return the products. When the customers try to make a return, they are promptly shown the fine print at the bottom of the receipt reading no returns. If you are going to live and work here, then get some aloha and pono or go home! Come on, city enforcement, do your job. Pass a law that employees cannot engage a person until the customer walks into the store. WE NEED ENFORCEMENT!!! NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST Hanabusa understands Hawaiian land issues This is an update on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands attempt to end-run our rights. In 2014 and 2015, DHHL facilitated an amendment to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) to give itself the ability to issue no-bid leases of our lands to the general public under Section 204. Current HHCA law states that DHHL must bid our lands if they want to issue it to non-beneficiaries. Only HHCA beneficiaries are eligible for no-bid transactions under Section 207. DHHL got an unsuspecting legislature to pass the HHCA amendment without telling any of us; without consultation with us. Frankly, it was done very secretively. Thats not hyperbole. Then DHHL advocated the federal government to approve it! Three federal laws require that any amendment at the state level must be reviewed by the federal government to ascertain if the change would decrease the rights or benefits of us, HHCA beneficiaries. Thats the only reason we were notified. Gov. Ige did not tell us the Federal Government did, as the three federal laws (1921 HHCA, 1959 Admissions Act and 1995 Hawaiian Home Land Recovery Act) required them to the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homeland Assembly, then coordinated a national consultation with HHCA beneficiaries to inform and compile manao about Act 173. We then communicated our opposition to Act 173, because it decreases our access to our own assets by allowing DHHL to do backroom deals with non-beneficiaries without public bid! In addition, DHHL has no business issuing our land to anyone when 27,000 of us wait for land to live, to farm, to ranch, to do mercantile. In January of this year, the federal government made a determination that Act 173, secretly put through by DHHL, which would allow DHHL to issue no-bid lands to the general public while 27,000 of us sit on the deathlist (waitlist), cannot become law without congressional consent. Yay! Policy matters. HHCA beneficiaries matter. Three federal laws matter. SCHHAs work matters. We want a governor that has read all three laws; that understands that Prince Kuhio wanted HHCA lands to be in HHCA beneficiary hands. We can build rentals, businesses, homes and an incredible farming/ranching economy. We can build our churches, community facilities, drug rehab and the like. Mahalo, Ke Akua. On July 15, the SCHHA deliberated and formally endorsed Colleen Hanabusa for governor. We know she has read the HHCA; we know she is not afraid to hear from and work with HHCA beneficiaries. We know this, because the SCHHA some 31 years ago taught her about the HHCA, and every year since. Colleen is an HHCA expert, as we are. She knows HHCA beneficiaries are the solution to the deplorable administration of DHHL over the last 59 years. We are the answer everyone has been scratching their heads about. Hawaiians can Kanaka Forward. ROBIN PUANANI DANNER, SCHHA Chair Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe The union representing more than 30,000 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District has already taken one significant step toward a strike. Now, it's poised to take another. Members of United Teachers Los Angeles will begin voting on Aug. 23 whether to authorize the union's leadership to call a strike, if necessary, this fall. UTLA's president, Alex Caputo-Pearl, announced plans for the vote at a gathering of more than 700 campus-based union leaders this week. "We as chapter leaders, at this defining moment, must lead our co-workers in an overwhelming 'yes' vote," Caputo-Pearl said in a speech. "Can we do this?" he called, prompting applause and audible responses of "Yes!" The voting will begin nine days after more than 480,000 students in LAUSD-run schools return to class. If the rank-and-file approves, the union's bargaining team would be empowered to call the first teacher strike in the district since 1989. UTLA members -- which also include the district's nurses, psychologists and librarians -- have been working without a contract for more than a year. Contract talks have dragged on for more than 18 months, with both sides accusing the other of refusing to negotiate on key issues, such as teacher salaries, student testing and class sizes. Last week, the union's bargaining team finally said negotiations on a new contract with L.A. Unified had reached an "impasse." That formal declaration got a state labor relations board involved. The two sides have already begun a mediation process. Technically, UTLA had already declared impasse once before: on July 2, union leaders said their differences with the district were irreconcilable. But just one week later, union leaders reversed themselves and returned to the bargaining table one last time. We're not likely to see a similar about-face this time. On July 24, UTLA leaders gave the district their "last, best and final" contract proposal. L.A. Unified officials said those proposals were unworkable. In a July 26 letter, the district's top labor negotiator said UTLA's final offer would increase the district's deficit by more than $813 million and cost more than $2.9 billion over the life of the agreement. The district's letter did not explicitly say UTLA leadership is already dead-set on a strike, but it comes close. "UTLA leadership began talking about a possible strike ... well before any negotiations on this contract began," the letter said, "and has continued to talk about a strike throughout the bargaining process." Caputo-Pearl said any suggestion the union isn't interested in reaching a deal isn't true. "We want an agreement. We've wanted an agreement from the beginning," Caputo-Pearl said by phone Wednesday. However, he added, "we are intent on getting an agreement that will not just narrowly be good for educators, but that actually improves the district ... We increasingly believe that the district doesn't want an agreement that improves the district." Caputo-Pearl also said LAUSD can afford the union's contract demands and cast doubt on the district's warnings that its budgets are plummeting into deficit. LAUSD officials, Caputo-Pearl said, have "consistently talked about falling off a fiscal cliff, and then a couple years later, have their projections off to the tune of a billion dollars. There's money there to make movement on these items. We need it for the kids." The week-long strike authorization vote will close on Aug. 30. News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now. Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe By Aaron Mendelson and Brian Frank It has been 12 days since a shootout at a Trader Joe's in Silver Lake left the store's manager dead, and the signs of that tragedy are all around: in the colorful public memorial out front; in the t-shirts and pins worn by employees commemorating the life of 27-year-old Melyda Corado; and in the billboard from Trader Joe's thanking the community for its support. But things started to get back to normal at the grocery store on Hyperion Avenue, which opened its doors to the public Thursday morning for the first time since the shooting. As store employees prepared to reopen, Trader Joe's executive Ben Myers delivered a short statement. "Today is a bittersweet day for the Trader Joe's family. While we remain heartbroken over the loss of Melyda Corado and the tragedy that occured here almost 2 weeks ago, we recognize that moving forward is important to support the healing of our crew and this community." The memorial for Melyda Corado, the store manager who was struck and killed by LAPD gunfire, remains outside pic.twitter.com/6uc84CP0f8 Aaron Mendelson (@a_mendelson) August 2, 2018 In recent days, the company installed new flooring and registers at the store, though the space looks much the same as it did before. Trader Joe's also purchased both sides of a billboard on Hyperion Avenue. On one side, the company delivers a message thanking the neighborhood for their support. On the other: the words "Silver Lake Always" against a tie-dye background. Several employees were wearing shirts with the same design and message. A spokeswoman told KPCC that employees from Trader Joe's stores across the area were working at the reopened store today. LAPD officers and private security were present as the store opened its doors for the first time since July 21. The store reopened without ceremony, a few minutes before scheduled at 8 AM. A handful of customers were on hand, including Michael Abel, who lives up the street. Abel was buying eggs, but couldn't shake the memory of what happened 12 days ago. "I was here the day that it happened. Had I been like five minutes earlier, I would have been right in the thick of it. So I'm fortunate," he said. Pila Boyd was also picking up groceries Thursday morning. He had spotted a change in the desk where managers work, and was relieved he no longer had to trek all the way to Hollywood and Vine to shop at his favored grocery chain. Still, the shooting was on his mind. "Things will never be the same in the neighborhood. I think we've always felt insulated, that these things don't happen here. But you know, they happen anywhere." Boyd and other customers said they were happy to see the store open again. Customers begin returning to the Trader Joe's on Hyperion Avenue in Silver Lake, which reopened Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. The grocery store closed last month after a police shootout in which LAPD officers fired at a pursuit suspect entering the store, but hit store manager Melyda Corado, killing her. (Photo by Aaron Mendelson/LAist) Employees were busy at work well before the store opened. Many where wearing a pin in remembrance of Melyda Corado, with her nickname 'Mely'. A memorial to Corado remains outside the store. Trader Joes has taken out a billboard in front of the store pic.twitter.com/QuLNRjyHYt Aaron Mendelson (@a_mendelson) August 2, 2018 A public funeral service for Corado was held Sunday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles Police Department said it was an officer's bullet that killed her. Corado was one of two people killed by accident by the LAPD during police shootings this summer. The officers who fired toward the busy store have been identified as Sinlen Tse and Sarah Winans, who have been on the force for six years and a little under two years, respectively. The LAPD chief, the civilian Board of Police Commissioners and the L.A. County District Attorney's office will be reviewing the investigation into whether the use of deadly force was appropriate and in policy. The gunman, identified as 28-year-old Gene Atkins, was arrested on suspicion of murder for his role in the incident. UPDATE: 12:28 p.m.: This article updated with a new top. 11:48 a.m.: This story updated throughout with reporting from the opening in Silver Lake. This article was originally published at 6 a.m. Do you have questions you want answered? Leave them below. News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now. Our Readers Write / Opinion / Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor from the Aug. 2, 2018 issue of La Jolla Light as La Jollans speak out on local issues: Wild, Wild Parkway: Every motorist for himself? I want to share this traffic dilemma in hopes of drawing attention to a potentially dangerous situation. Over the past couple of years, as the traffic along Torrey Pines Road and the La Jolla Parkway corridor has gotten worse and worse, more people have discovered the backroad to take down Azure Coast Drive. When the traffic light was installed by the new Ziana condominiums, it only compounded the issue and had traffic backed up even more. Now, people try to avoid the traffic on La Jolla Parkway by using this back road. When it gets clogged up by the Ziana complex, people get impatient and start driving over the center divider and sometimes form two lanes on the wrong side of the road (See picture above). Not only were we stopped here for 20 minutes right in front of our house (after almost getting in a head-on collision), but if an ambulance or firetruck tried to leave the fire station, it would not be able to get out. This is happening more frequently now and its just a matter of time before someone gets in a serious accident or someone cant get help because a firetruck and/or ambulance is trapped. My neighbors and I would love for you to post something in the paper to help draw attention to this. Dave Hood I assume that when the City was distributing traffic lights, all the dumb ones were given to La Jolla. Usually, I leave for work very early in the morning, and no matter how early and even when there is no traffic, the lights turn red (and often the pedestrian lights turn green for nobody). Not to mention there are some useless No turn on red signs where there are no blind spots for oncoming traffic. And as a tip to our finest, please send an officer somewhere in La Jolla Scenic Drive North to catch those whose time is more valuable than the rest of us, and who drive from La Jolla Parkway, make an illegal U-turn then force their way back onto the Parkway, or worse yet, make a left turn onto Hidden Valley Road. Amir More support for an independent La Jolla Exactly one year ago, I composed the following letter to the editor. Feeling hopeless, I never bothered submitting it. However, since then, things have only gotten worse. So after reading the recent comments from Melinda Merryweather and Sunny Jim, I hereby jump on their bandwagon by belatedly offering my own two cents: Browsing through the Light last week, reading about all thats wrong with our community, I couldnt avoid a recurring thought: Might it be time to re-visit the incorporation issue? It seems that every problem listed parking, dirty sidewalks, Parkway noise, disgusting trash bins, pathetic road conditions, thoughtless construction projects, seal poop, STVRs, and the list goes on stem from a lack of interest, and shockingly long stretches of inaction, by the City. Ive lived, played and practiced law in La Jolla for the better part of 45 years. If anyone doesnt think our quality of life has deteriorated dramatically (and continues to do so), they live in a fantasy world. We often drive through small incorporated cities in the state much less affluent places like Long Beach or Burbank and instantly notice how much nicer they maintain their streets, sidewalks and business districts compared to La Jolla. Yes, we may have location and less crime, but its sad and embarrassing to note the obvious infrastructure quality difference. I recognize the arguments against incorporating concerns over tax base, laws requiring city-wide approval, etc. that come up each time the subject is broached. But if the good people of Del Mar , Poway, Carlsbad , Solana Beach and Encinitas could pull it off, surely the smart, innovative and influential residents and business owners of La Jolla could, too! Isnt it at least worth discussing (again)? Just browse through the countless complaints in any issue of the Light, then imagine the same conversation if we controlled our own destiny. Better still, visit the streets and villages of, say, Del Mar or Carlsbad and compare those to ours. Peter Goldberger Short-term rental vote disappointing Based on all the rhetoric surrounding short-term rentals, every guest to San Diego is going to destroy the neighborhood. However, Ive seen the benefits of Airbnb. My cousin fit our entire family under one roof instead of renting four hotel rooms for her wedding guests. My friends and I were able to afford a trip we wouldnt have otherwise taken. My family rents out a home in order to help pay for tuition, mortgages and other expenses. Short-term rentals are not necessarily bad. I agree that short-term rentals should be regulated. But I dont believe in action for the sake of action. San Diego has passed perhaps the most restrictive regulations short of a complete ban (why not model after Tahoe? Monterey?), with City Council members targeting their own constituents (such as my family, who are not investors) to do so. This bad regulation will adversely impact the economy, visitors, and more importantly, families who are responsibly renting and depend on this income. The primary residence only clause hurts local families without reason and is frankly inefficient. Why not restrict based on who is renting or number of rental days/rentals/guests? Im disappointed by these regulations, which show San Diego as hostile to not just visitors, but also its own residents. Jenny Chen Car show could pay for La Jolla fireworks and concerts Heres an idea to consider: Let the spring La Jolla Concours dElegance Car Show pay for the fireworks and the summer park concerts. The car show takes over Scripps Park in La Jolla for 2.5 days, preventing access to people who would ordinarily use it. So it would be appropriate to for organizers to donate money to provide entertainment for those people on other days. Doug Burleigh Water bill fiasco serves as reminder I am very pleased to find that the La Jolla Light lives on. I was a UC San Diego student for four quarters from 1967 to 1969. If anyone has seen the huge anchor in the outdoor quad, south of the UCSD Revelle cafeteria, east of Argo Hall, that structure is partly my contribution to the campus, accomplished in spring 1968. After 50 years, the anchor probably has had 15 coats of paint. The 1,500-pound ships anchor was lifted from its desolate abandoned area on the old Camp Mathews in the middle of the night and dropped off in the quad at 3 a.m. when the night watchman was on break. I had eight accomplices that night, and luckily, my dads borrowed Chevy pickup didnt break an axle with the tremendous weight. Why did we do it? Partly from boredom with our studies, and partly to create our very own prank and memorial, while we resided there. We chose the anchor because it meshed with the Triton mascot theme, and because we were tired of having a much smaller anchor stolen multiple times from the Pacific Southwest Airlines fountain in the central Revelle Plaza. I have other anecdote, completely unrelated, but relevant to San Diegos recent big blunder with water meter overcharges. I lived for 17 years in the little hamlet of San Jacinto, Riverside County, while I worked for the Eastern Municipal Water District. At the water district, I learned that one unit of water, or 100 cubic feet, equals 748 gallons. After living in San Jacinto for eight years, the city did a complete meter change-out and my water charges jumped. I then decided to check the water meter feeding my home for accuracy. I first calibrated a five-gallon bucket to the nearest 8-ounce cup. Then I noted the digits on my particular meter, which would be the pretest read. I then drew 10 buckets of water, at 5 gallons each, for a total of 50 gallons. The meter digital read, should have advanced by 6.7 units, since meters can measure 1 cubic foot of water, while only the digits to the nearest 100 cubic feet, are recorded for billing purposes. Because this happened 30 years ago, I dont recall what the actual meter reading was, but I recall that the reading was at least 20 percent too high. I reported this to the city water department, gave the city a deposit for $13 to remove and check my meter, and waited for the results. The San Jacinto Water Department confirmed that my meter was reading too high and replaced it with another meter. They also refunded one month of estimated overcharged water (which was pretty chintzy) so I decided to check the new meter, too. The new meter also proved to be reading significantly higher than the true consumption. After that second infraction and insult from the citys flawed water metering, I wrote a letter to every one of the sitting city council members, admonishing both the water department and the citys lack of oversight for water metering accuracy. I checked the meters a few times after that, the meters were finally accurate. Gerald Lance Johannsen, Carlsbad Whats on YOUR mind? Letters published in La Jolla Light express views from readers in regard to community issues. To share your thoughts in this public forum, e-mail them with your name and city of residence to editor@lajollalight.com or mail them to La Jolla Light Editor, 565 Pearl St., Suite 300, La Jolla, CA 92037. Letters reflect the writers opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Who serves the best-known cocktail in town? The Bali Hai, hands down. The family-owned Shelter Island restaurant calls its concoction the World Famous Bali Hai Mai Tai and the bar menu touts it as Quite Possibly the Strongest Drink Youll Ever Consume. A lot of locals and tourists have consumed one in the Bali Hais 64-year history, too. Owner and family patriarch Larry Baumann estimates that more than two-and-a-half million Bali Hai Mai Tais have been sold 72,000 of them last year alone. The Bali Hais Mai Tai is made with two kinds of rum, dashes of Trader Vics Orgeat Syrup and Triple Sec, and a splash of Sweet & Sour. ( Susan DeMaggio ) Absolutely phenomenal, said Baumann of the drink made with two kinds of rum, dashes of Trader Vics Orgeat Syrup and Triple Sec, and a splash of Sweet & Sour. (Itll cost you $9.25, by the way.) While the Bali Hai Mai Tai may be a major draw, its far from the only reason the tiki-themed Polynesian restaurant on the north end of Shelter Island keeps going and going. Were blessed to be woven into the fabric of so many peoples lives, said Baumann, the son-in-law of Bali Hai founder Tom Ham, a legend in San Diegos community and business landscape. Besides being a longstanding choice for dining and cocktails, the Bali Hai has hosted countless birthday parties, class reunions, weddings and other special occasions since it opened in 1954, after originally debuting a year earlier as The Hut. We get to spend the best of times with people, Baumann said. Of course theres also the sweeping bay view, which few San Diego dining establishments can match and a casual, tropical atmosphere in which everyone has fun even the employees. They love coming here, said Baumann of his staff of more than 100. Polynesian decor fills Bali Hai restaurant. ( Susan DeMaggio ) The Bali Hai is a tiki temple, recognizable for its bursting colors, Polynesian artifacts and naturally its two famous tikis: the guy known as The Goof (name unexplained) who is perched on the restaurant roof, and Mr. Bali Hai, modeled after a South Pacific headhunter, who you cant miss when you enter. The ground floor is devoted to the Bali Hais special events, with general restaurant dining upstairs. Theres also an outside deck and pavilion for parties, and even a private dock for boating customers to pull up and order food and drinks. Larry Baumann, the son-in-law of Bali Hai founder Tom Ham ( David Coddon ) Baumann and wife, Susie, own the restaurant, while son Tom (named for his grandfather, Tom Ham) manages; Baumanns two other sons, Grant and Andy, run the familys other business, Tom Hams Lighthouse on Harbor Island. The restaurant is a tiki temple, yes, but its also a shrine of sorts to Tom Ham, a remarkable man whose biography is illustrated in a glass-encased narrative pictorial prominently displayed inside the front entrance. He was way ahead of his time, said Baumann, who never met Ham personally. His cronies talked about him with such reverence, and about what a leader he was. He really taught us that you need to give back to and be part of the community. Weve tried to do that at many levels. The philosophy that Baumann imparts to his staff is the same one passed on by Ham himself, who in the early days of the Bali Hai was known to dress like the rest of the employees, in a red-and-white Hawaiian shirt and white pants. I keep the message simple, said Baumann. People come here to have a good time. Just help em. While they come from out of town, Shelter Island being a popular attraction for tourists, we have more regulars than people would think, said Baumann, citing customers who frequent the Bali Hai as often as a couple times a week. Quite a few, he said, come from as far inland as La Mesa and Lemon Grove. This is like going on vacation for them. What once was a Cantonese menu in the fledgling days of the Bali Hai is now Pacific Rim style cuisine, according to Baumann. The farm fresh ingredients incorporate flavors from China and Japan as well as Hawaii. Seafood is a favorite, as it is in many San Diego restaurants. So are sushi and the ever-trendy poke. The latter, in fact, has led to an annual Poke-Fest held at the Bali Hai. Korean Chicken at Bali Hai restaurant is served with a house-made sauce, onions and rice. ( Susan DeMaggio ) The extensive dinner menu features everything from lamb and pork stir frys to fish to a variety of pupus (tasting dishes) for every taste. A Dinner Green menu offers meat-free options, from wasabi fries to salads to sweet & sour or Kung Pao tofu. A remodel in 2010 pumped $4 million of improvements and renovations into the restaurant, giving the Bali Hai the look of anything but a place that opened way back in the 50s. Other longtime San Diego dining destinations have disappeared, but the Bali Hai is among those still thriving. San Diego has more owner-operators in the restaurant industry than most cities, said Baumann, whose involvement with the Bali Hai goes back 41 years. San Diego is the biggest little town there is. One reason Baumann keeps at it is that connection with generations of families who patronize the Bali Hai. He smiled recalling a grandmother who brought her 21-year-old grandson in for his first legal drink. The drink? A Bali Hai Mai Tai. What else? Bali Hai Restaurant is at 2230 Shelter Island Drive in Point Loma, San Diego. Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. Happy Hour: 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. (619) 222-1181; balihairestaurant.com Waipuna Pork Stir Fry mixes green beans, edamame, snap peas, mushrooms, pork, mint, cilantro and spicy Szechuan ginger sauce. ( Susan DeMaggio) A plan costing up to $3 billion to replace Lindbergh Fields more than 50-year-old Terminal 1, as well as redevelop other parts of the airport, advanced last week with the release of a lengthy environmental analysis documenting potential impacts. The completion of the initial draft environmental report triggers a 45-day public comment period, a necessary step before the San Diego International Airport can proceed with actual construction, expected to start in 2020. The centerpiece of what will be the next phase of Lindbergh Fields redevelopment is the remaking of Terminal 1, which would eventually grow from its existing 19 gates to 30. Before the project can begin, a final environmental report must be completed and then certified by both the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board and the California Coastal Commission. Once completed, the overall development plan is expected to provide a far more comfortable and efficient process for the 28 million passengers who will eventually be navigating the airport. Last year, Lindbergh Field served a record 22 million passengers. This is the official launch of the most extensive improvement of San Diego International Airport (SAN) in its 90-year history, Kimberly J. Becker, CEO of the airport authority, said in a statement. Upon completion, San Diego residents and visitors will enjoy a truly 21st century airport for decades to come. The multi-phase project encompasses a number of elements, beginning with major changes for Terminal 1, which accounts for more than half of the total project cost. In addition to more gates, there would be a 7,500-space parking structure, a dual-level roadway in front of the terminal and a new airport entry road near the intersection of Laurel Street and North Harbor Drive, which is aimed at relieving congestion for those heading westbound to the airport. In a later phase, which would not be completed until 2035, Terminal 2 would undergo several changes, including modernization of the older, eastern portion of the terminal. The net effect of the planned changes would be to expand Lindbergh Fields current 51 gates to 61. Terminal 1, which opened in 1967, is in need of a makeover, the airport authority agreed a few years ago when it approved the current plan. It lacks efficient security screening areas, passenger services, separate arrival and departure roads, and other features typical of modern airports. Lindbergh Field has undergone a number of significant changes in recent years as it responds to growing demand for domestic and international air travel. Terminal 2 was expanded in 2013 at a cost of nearly $1 billion; in May, a 2,900-parking garage opened, and last month, the airport debuted a $229 million international arrivals facility. The environmental impact report, a voluminous document prepared over the last couple of years, covers numerous potential impacts, including some that are characterized as significant and unavoidable. Examples are cited in the areas of noise, air quality and traffic, where it is noted that there would be considerable impacts on multiple intersections and roadway and freeway segments. The initial phase of the Terminal 1 reconstruction is scheduled to open in 2023 with 22 gates, and eight more gates would be added three years later. If all goes as planned, the final environmental analysis would be completed and approved by the end of this year, and Coastal Commission review would take place sometime in 2019. The airport authority says it will cover most of the cost of the redevelopment with user fees. Editorial: China, US have little possibility to go into strategic confrontation The trade war ignited by the US against China has given rise to mounting worries in Chinese society that a prolonged downward trend or possible strategic deterioration of China-US ties may threaten the destiny of the younger generation. Whats happening now seems to be overturning the previous judgment held by the Chinese for long that the China-US relationship can never be too good or too bad. Both objective analysis and ideological sentiments have been made on the gloomy prospects of bilateral ties. Chinas online ecosystem is swept by not only pessimism caused by dissatisfaction on domestic policies and the fear for a worsened China-US relationship, but also the impulsive call for tit-for-tat measures against the US. The China-US relations are faced with severe challenges, and the trade war is in essence a process to redefine the China-US relationship amid a strength rebalance between the two countries and changing international arena. But it is almost impossible for China and the US to let their relations go all the way towards all-round confrontation. The US foreign policy is shaped by both its strategic aim of containing Chinas rise and the pursuit of maximizing interests for its citizens, while as the worlds biggest manufacturer, China has the largest market potential and a huge nuclear power capacity. Given such backdrop, the US will never contain China through simplistic methods such as isolation or military deterrence. Its strategy must be an innovative one in the 21st century. Under such circumstance, China has to stand firm, keep its orientation, avoid complacency and not be afraid of the US. With rationality, China should be humble and keep the defensive position, and should never provoke the US or boast its strengths in front of it. When pressured by the US, China must resolutely oppose and show zero tolerance toward the unreasonable conducts. Meanwhile, it should take reciprocal countermeasures but never overreact. China should try its best to avoid a military conflict with the US. In doing that, it should on one hand make sure that the Chinese military do not conduct military operations objected by the US for reasons beyond Chinas core interests, and on the other hand resolutely safeguard the bottom line of its core interests, speed up developing its strategic power including nuclear power capability, so that the US dont dare to challenge its core interests. China should also intensify cooperation on its core interests with the US. It should not take the initiative to confront the US, but fight the latters bullying behaviors through multilateral approaches. In addition, China should respect intellectual property rights, well handle the relationship between its industrial upgrading and the US wish of maintaining high-tech advantages. China should work hard to find a win-win approach to stabilize the situation and let time give both sides wisdom to ease the tensions. China should find a realistic way to prevent a zero-sum game between the two countries, and convince the US that Chinas rise is not to replace or defeat it. Washington must accept that China with a big population will ultimately outpace the US in terms of economic sum, and China should accept that the US will continue to be the worlds largest innovation center and possibly be ahead of China in many fields for a long time. The proper handling of such a relationship should be put on the top agenda for a China-US strategic dialogue. Under no circumstance should China start a global geopolitical game or strategic competition with the US, but it will not hesitate to safeguard its interests if facing with hegemonism. China will never give up its rights for proper development and under no circumstance will it stop progressing, be willing to fall behind and beg the US for peace. In a word, China does not proactively provoke the US, but it must raise the cost the US has to pay for containing it and seek a win-win situation with greatest sincerity. In this way, the US will prefer a cooperation with China rather than confrontation. It is also a way to prevent the China-US relations from becoming the 21st century version of the conflicts between the Soviet Union and the US. The China-US trade war, as an inevitable conflict, provides both sides a chance to retrospect. As scientific and democratic decision-making has taken the upper hand in the world, it is almost impossible for a major country to bet the fate of a whole nation as a stake. The Chinese society should have faith in its national strength and in the governments capability to deal with the complicated situation, holding a firm belief that todays China is not to be contained and any power trying to defeat it is nothing but wishful thinking. Ive always been a bit confused by these various centenary and multi-centenary celebrations that punctuate our discussions of literature, such as Thoreaus recent 200th birthday (2017), or the centenary of James Joyces Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (first published in 1917), or even the fourth centenary of the death of Cervantes (d. 1616), etc. (By the way, celebrating the anniversary of someones death strikes me as pretty grisly.) But while some writers seem to continually receive such posthumous honors, others suffer unfairly in silence. No cake, no candles, no old friends leaping out of closets, no nothing. And this year, that seems to be the case for one of Americas greatest and most original short story writers, Theodore Sturgeon, who was born on Feb. 26, 1918. From what I can tell, nobody has yet to pitch in and even buy him a decent card. Go ahead, google it. No articles or remembrances have appeared in significant literary or cultural magazines; no centennial editions of his work have been released in nice, shiny, uniform editions; and no academic or public conferences have been scheduled to discuss his current reputation apparently not even at the University of Kansas, where Sturgeons papers are stored, and the Sturgeon Award for best short story is annually announced. This simply isnt right. Book jacket for Theodore Sturgeons More Than Human 1953 with art by Richard M. Powers published by Farrar, Straus, and Young, with Ballantine Books. (Courtesy of KU Libraries) Advertisement Even if you think youve never heard of Theodore Sturgeon, you probably know more about him than you know you know. For example, youve almost certainly heard of Kilgore Trout, the hack sci-fi writer featured in such Vonnegut novels as Slaughterhouse-Five or God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. (Kil-gore/Theo-dore. Trout/Sturgeon. Get it? Vonnegut was a friend and great admirer of Sturgeon.) If you went to high school in the 60s or 70s when they could still be found on the curriculum, maybe you read one of Sturgeons novels such as Venus Plus X, a prescient utopian journey through an androgynous future society, or More Than Human, about a group of mutant children who are stronger together than the sum of their parts. Even if youve been living in quarantine all your life to protect your brain from knowing anything about the myriad Star Trek incarnations, you almost certainly know Live long and prosper, Spocks salutation, if not his seven-year violence-inducing compulsion to get laid. These ideas first appeared in Sturgeons script Amok Time, and the franchise has been riding high on them ever since. But despite a few strong novels and television scripts, Sturgeon was primarily a writer of great, unforgettable and always brilliantly constructed short stories and this is almost certainly why he isnt as well known today as he should be short story writers just dont get no respect. Unlike other genre writers such as Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov Sturgeon never transcended the sci-fi genre by publishing outside of it; he transcended it from the inside, beginning in the 30s as one of John W. Campbells most dependable writers for Unknown and Astounding, and spending the rest of his 50-year-plus career publishing mostly in digest sf magazines, with their very unliterary, garish color cover illustrations of multi-limbed alien emissaries and tautly clad space-women magazines such as Planet Stories, Startling Stories, If, Galaxy and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Like poor Kilgore Trout, Sturgeon often saw his best work emblazoned with awful titles conjured up by hasty editors titles such as The Incubi of Parallel X (which Sturgeon called the most horrible title to appear over my byline) or The Cosmic Rape or even the mega-awful The Synthetic Man, that cruel paperback retitling of Sturgeons greatest and most intricate novel, The Dreaming Jewels. At first glance, a typical Sturgeon collection might look from afar as awful as something by Kilgore Trout. But once you read the first page, you knew you were in the hands of someone who never wrote a bad sentence. If you ever find time to start collecting the massive and lovingly assembled 13-volume The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, edited by Paul Williams and published by North Atlantic Books, youll soon realize that Sturgeon wrote an abnormally large number of great stories and great sentences. Sturgeons The Dreaming Jewels (pictured, U.K. edition) was retitled The Synthetic Man in American paperback. (Book jacket for Theodore Sturgeons The Dreaming Jewels. London: Nova Publications, Ltd, 1955. Courtesy of Kansas University Libraries) While mediocre writers are often applauded for that so-called twist in the tail at the ends of their stories, Sturgeons greatest talent lay in his ability to compose opening lines that surprised and delighted you from the very start; then, once hooked, you were drawn along, one perfect sentence and narrative shift after another, until he landed you on the beach of an ending you didnt even know you were expecting until you got there. Take, for example, the opening of his brilliant (and often poorly imitated) 1941 novelette, Microcosmic God: Here is a story about a man who had too much power, and a man who took too much, but dont worry; Im not going political on you. The man who had the power was named James Kidder, and the other was his banker. Or this, from the aforementioned The Dreaming Jewels (1950): They caught the kid doing something disgusting under the bleachers at the high-school stadium, and he was sent home from the grammar school across the street. Or even this, from his haunting and beautiful story, The Man Who Lost the Sea (1959): Say youre a kid, and one dark night youre running along the cold sand with this helicopter in your hand, saying very fast witchy-witchy-witchy. Every opening plops you down bang in the middle of a story that is already happening and in the life of a character it is already happening to. And while many of his stories were collected in horror or suspense anthologies, they are rarely shocking or violent or grotesque. Instead, they begin by introducing you to a slightly strange world and a slightly strange character who lives there; then, before the story is over, you both feel at home in the world and compassion for the character who now lives there with you. The greatness of Sturgeons stories reside in their almost inflexible, relentless unfolding of strangely logical events and relationships; each sentence is as beautiful and convincing as the last; and the science-fictional inventions never rely on tricks or deus ex machinas to reach a satisfying resolution; instead, a Sturgeon story always resolves itself at the level of the all-too-human. In A Saucer of Loneliness, for example, those spinning silver discs in the night sky arent actually invading aliens from outer space, but simply errant, message-in-a-bottle-like expressions of someones impossibly distant desire to communicate with someone. In Extrapolation, the super-genius inventor, Wolf Reger, only pretends to betray the Earth in order to save it but not by affirming his belief in the human race (like many of Sturgeons genius-protagonists, Reger loathes people) but because he cant imagine any future without his wife in it. And in Bright Segment for my money, one of the few great American stories worth preserving in a spaceship after our stupid planet blows itself to bits a lonely, autistic man finds a woman lying on the street sliced up with a razor; he then carries her home and puts her back together with common, everyday objects sponges, needles, pliers, tweezers, needles and thread, adhesive tape and an alcohol torch. I fix everything, the man repeats, over and over; its the only way he can find sanity in a world without much sanity in it already. Until, like many Sturgeon characters, he eventually learns that fixing people (rather than things) isnt a purely mechanical business. Science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon circa 1960. (David Gerrold) There arent many writers whose stories have given me more pleasure, and on more readings, than the stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Richard Yates, William Trevor, Joyce Carol Oates and Thomas M. Disch come to mind. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Anton Chekhov. But the strange beauty of Sturgeons stories has something to do with the weird incongruity they share with their own generic intentions; the technophilic logic of his plots never quite jives with Sturgeons compassion for his most fallible, messy and illogical characters. On the one hand, Sturgeon knew how to build all the machinery his genre editors and readers wanted spaceships, future societies, conceptual puzzles which is probably why many of his fans were so-called hard sf writers, such as John W. Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke or even Robert A. Heinlein. But Sturgeons sense of the universe was never Manichaean, and its problems couldnt be repaired with a screwdriver. Humanitys biggest enemy, Sturgeons stories repeatedly confirmed, was humanity itself, and its hard to imagine any other sf writer in the 40s writing a novelette as powerful and surprising as Thunder and Roses (1947), which imagines what a nuclear war between superpowers might look like and concludes, OK, so they slaughtered us first now what do we do? For Sturgeon, there was only one logical answer: nothing. Just stop the killing. Go to bed. And dont wake me in the morning. In the late 70s and early 80s, I was lucky enough to find myself living next door to Ted in a pleasant, Bukowskian, Spanish-style courtyard apartment building on North Vendome Street in Silver Lake (imagine the one in Lynchs Mulholland Drive, but after a five-year sandstorm). Ted was often mysteriously arriving and departing in the middle of the night in the company of his seventh wife, Jayne, while driving a battered blueish Volkswagen Beetle. Teds pied a terre was more like half of a pied a terre, a tiny studio carved in the recesses beneath our building like one of those 60s-era bomb shelters. As I recall, you couldnt quite stand upright in it without banging your head on the ceiling; and the front door was this roundish little hobbit door that required you to stoop over to enter. According to legend, the first time Ted stepped into the apartment, he shouted into the courtyard, For the love of God, Montressor! straight out of Edgar Allan Poe. It was almost like living next door to my own imagination about how the world should operate, where great writers wandered around swapping tools and borrowing and returning instant coffee and although I never knew Ted very well, it was always nice to know he was around and thinking the same thoughts that had led him to invent so many wonderful stories over many productive decades. If Ted had lived longer and not succumbed to the lung fibrosis that killed him in 1985 Im sure he would have written many more of those great stories. And we would all still be reading them. There are multitudinous reasons why Sturgeon deserves to be better remembered than he already is, and we would probably require several conferences just to begin discussing them. For starters, there are all the writers he influenced from Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison and Peter S. Beagle to Michael Chabon and Jonathan Lethem and Katherine Dunn. And there are the stories themselves: Every time you read or even reread one, it feels like something you have never read before. The essence of almost every Sturgeon story is about what it means to be human and what happens when people stop being as human as they should be. His most dangerous characters (Monetre in The Dreaming Jewels or Rita, the virgin witch, in The Silken-Swift) are always those who isolate themselves from others; and the only salvation his characters ever achieve is to touch someone who wants to touch them back, regardless of gender, species or planet of natural origin. Unsurprisingly, Sturgeon wrote as convincingly of androgynous love (in Venus Plus X) and homosexual love (in The World Well Lost) as he did about the love of men and women for each other (always imperfect concepts for Sturgeon). And many of his best titles (the ones that werent destroyed by hack editors) attest to Sturgeons fascination with affection in all its animal forms: The Touch of Your Hand, Biancas Hands, Unite and Conquer, When You Care, When You Love, Make Room for Me, A Way Home and even A Touch of Strange. In Sturgeons universe, physical and emotional love are as irresistible as warp engines and fission reactors. You just need to remember to call them in the morning. Book jacket for Theodore Sturgeons Venus Plus X. Published by Pyramid Books, 1960 with art by Victor Kalin. (Courtesy of KU Libraries) In many ways, Sturgeon was the victim of his own multifarious talent. He was an accomplished guitarist; from a young age, he performed acrobatics and planned to join a circus before contracting rheumatic fever; he composed songs and sang them; and according to his lifelong friend Robert Heinlein, he could perform vocal impersonations of just about anything you threw at him traffic, trains, birds or even something as weirdly specific as a buzzsaw powered by a two-cycle engine cranked by a line. While he was a deeply loved man and a widely admired artist, he lived a vigorously aimless life that took him through several failed marriages and several peripatetic final years traveling among lectures, teaching gigs and temporary homes in Los Angeles, Hawaii, San Diego and Springfield, Ore. Sturgeon flitted about inconspicuously as the winds guided him. Whenever he paused for a moment to pop his head into the room, he left his mark on everyone he found there. Nothing was the same after he left. So OK, the Sturgeon centenary is still here for a few more months, but we almost missed it. Which means we need to get up bright and early for the next one, and heres my plan. Get your party hats organized, your crepe paper and tinsel. Wrap those presents and bake those cakes. Then well meet back here in 99.5 years and make sure we start the Sturgeon bicentenary off right. Is that a deal? Ill try to get here first and turn on all the lights. Bradfield is the author of a dozen books, including, most recently, the novel Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog. books@latimes.com CBS board members learned several months ago that the Los Angeles Police Department had investigated an alleged sexual assault by CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. Although no charges were filed, Moonves disclosed the existence of a police investigation to a committee of the board, which then hired an outside law firm to investigate the matter, the knowledgeable people said. The outside firm reviewed information about the allegations and police inquiry and concluded that no further investigation was warranted, according to one of the sources. Questions surrounding what CBS board members knew about allegations of misconduct by the longtime chief executive when they learned of the claims, and the action they took could further fuel the controversy over their handling of the matter. Advertisement Board members have faced criticism from corporate governance experts and others for not taking more aggressive action such as suspending Moonves in the wake of last weeks New Yorker magazine article, which contained allegations of six women who said that Moonves sexually harassed them. Board members on Monday said they would select an outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation. The board has hired two high-powered female attorneys to oversee the investigation into the allegations involving Moonves as well as executives within CBS News. Mary Jo White, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman, and Nancy Kestenbaum will head the investigation, CBS announced Wednesday night. The board has to separate the noise from the reality, said Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Allegations alone are not a reason to take action: There has to be something serious and credible for them to act. Moonves on Thursday is expected to address the allegations during a conference call with analysts to report the broadcasting companys second-quarter earnings. The Board noted that it takes these allegations seriously and is committed to acting in the best interest of the Company and all of its shareholders, CBS said in a statement Wednesday night. The police investigation began in November after an 81-year-old woman told detectives that Moonves sexually assaulted her three decades ago when they both worked at then-television powerhouse Lorimar Productions, the studio behind such shows as Dallas and Knots Landing. The woman claimed the TV executive, during a 1986 meeting in his office, demanded oral copulation. She told police about another incident, in 1988, when he allegedly exposed himself and assaulted her, sources said. Los Angeles County prosecutors said they declined to file charges in the case, saying the alleged incidents occurred more than 30 years ago and were thus beyond the statute of limitations. Prosecutors opted not to pursue the case in February. It is not clear precisely when CBS board members learned of the police inquiry, but they were aware that the district attorney had decided not to pursue the matter, one of the sources said. The New Yorker article detailed allegations of several women who said Moonves forcibly kissed them, and that they believed their careers had suffered after they spurned his advances. I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances, Moonves said in a statement last week. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected and abided by the principle that no means no, and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyones career. Moonves, who has been chief executive since 2006, has long enjoyed the support of most of the 14-member board. One knowledgeable person who was not authorized to comment said not all board members were aware of the short-lived police investigation. Informing the full board may not have been a necessary step, Elson said. But if the allegations are serious and credible, then it certainly should be a matter for the full board, Elson said. The controversy comes at a time when CBS board already is deeply divided over the management and future of the company. Since January, Moonves has been at odds with controlling shareholder Shari Redstone over the boards composition and whether CBS should merge with Viacom Inc., the other media company that the Redstone family controls. CBS board members were aware late last year that multiple news organizations were looking into Moonves conduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which exploded in October. The #MeToo movement began after the first wave of stories, which contained allegations that Weinstein had sexually assaulted dozens of women, dating back decades. Women came forward with their stories of past abuse, and reporters at multiple outlets began chasing tips about various Hollywood figures. CBS learned of such reporting efforts after journalists reached out to female executives and asked about their experiences with Moonves, a person close to the company said. meg.james@latimes.com @MegJamesLAT After criticism from two media watchdog groups, Paramount Pictures said Wednesday that it is making progress on the issue of Latino representation in its movies. Paramount was recently targeted by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Latino Media Council, which have said that the studio has failed to adequately include Latino talent both in front of and behind the camera. We recently met with NHMC in a good faith effort to see how we could partner as we further drive Paramounts culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging, a studio spokesperson said in a statement. Under our new leadership team, we continue to make progress including ensuring representation in front of and behind the camera in upcoming films such as Dora the Explorer, Instant Family, Bumblebee and Limited Partners and welcome the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with the Latinx creative community further. Advertisement Paramount is headed by Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Gianopulos, who took over the reins of the studio last year. The National Hispanic Media Coalition said Wednesday that Paramounts chief operating officer, Andrew Gumpert, declined to sign a memorandum of understanding at the June 25 meeting. The memo would have committed the studio to evaluating diversity and inclusion performance on an annual basis. We wanted to reach an agreement where they promised a safe space for our people to find work & have opportunities to better represent, the group said on Twitter. Latinos had only 3.1% of the speaking roles in the films released by the six major studios from 2007 to 2016, according to a USC study. The National Hispanic Media Coalition described Paramount as the worst studio in town in hiring Latino actors, writers, and directors. Paramount, which is a division of Viacom, is set to release Bumblebee a spinoff of its Transformers franchise in December. Dora the Explorer, Instant Family and Limited Partners are expected to be released in 2019. david.ng@latimes.com @DavidNgLAT U.S. astronauts face a longer wait before American-made crew capsules are ready to transport them to the International Space Station. The first flights of the two capsules, one being developed by Boeing Co. and the other by SpaceX under NASA contracts, have been delayed again, according to a flight test launch schedule released Thursday by NASA. Hawthorne-based SpaceXs flight test, without a human crew, is now scheduled for November and Boeings test is now set for late 2018 or early 2019. Both test flights were previously scheduled for August, though industry analysts expected those dates to slip. In June, a portion of Boeings test capsule suffered what was described as an anomaly during an engine test fire, leading to a propellant leak. The Chicago aerospace giant said at the time that it was confident it had found the cause and was moving forward with corrective action. Advertisement The flights are precursors to a second test flight with crew aboard. Those test flights which will mark the first time U.S. astronauts blast off to the space station from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011 are now scheduled for next year. Previously, they had been set for the end of this year. SpaceXs director of crew mission management, Benji Reed, said in a NASA statement that safely and reliably flying commercial crew missions was the companys highest priority. In that same statement, Boeing commercial crew program manager John Mulholland said the company was committed to the highest level of mission assurance and that the earliest time we can confidently do that will be mid-2019. The U.S. Government Accountability Office had warned in a report last month that certification of each capsule could be delayed, possibly leading to a gap in access to the space station for U.S. astronauts. The U.S. contract with Russia to transport astronauts extends only through November 2019. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com Twitter: @smasunaga UPDATES: 1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from SpaceX and Boeing from a NASA statement. This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m. Millions of Americans obsess over their careers and fret about saving, terrified they wont have enough to ever retire. The advice now being offered by some experts may surprise these worried souls: Take months or years off from work, travel the world and enjoy yourself. Theres prudent logic behind a relaxing mid-career break. With longer lives come longer careers and longer retirements the first so that you can afford the second. But a 40-year career, ending at age 60 or 65, is a very different prospect from a 50-year career ending at 70 or 75. Its just too grueling. We have to take breaks, says Lynda Gratton, a London Business School professor and coauthor of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity. Why wouldnt you want to take some of the retirement at the end of your life and distribute it to the middle of your life? The sabbatical a chance to recharge mid-career is hardly a new idea, and its still common in academia. But until recently most wouldnt dream of quitting their jobs just to have fun for a year or two. And, as Gratton acknowledges, doing so is still a financial impossibility for the vast majority of workers. Advertisement For well-paid workers in high-demand fields such as technology, however, the idea may be catching on. Wealthfront Inc., an online money manager based in Silicon Valley, launched a tool Wednesday that allows clients to estimate whether they can afford to take time off for travel. They can set a months- or years-long trip as a priority alongside other goals such as retirement or buying a home. Kyle Parrish and his wife, Kate, both in their early 30s and clients of Wealthfront, returned to San Francisco in November from a 15-month round-the-world trip. They visited 25 countries and every continent except Antarctica. They made friends, and kept costs low, by staying with locals working on farms in Slovenia and Patagonia. The trip cost $40,000 and required Parrish to quit a good, if intense, job in sales at Dropbox Inc., the San Francisco-based cloud storage company. They have no regrets. You only have one life, he said. As a human being, you have to stop and refresh. Wealthfront co-founder Dan Carroll, 36, said the attitudes of clients, particularly younger ones, have shifted: Retirement is no longer the ultimate goal. We want to live enriched lives today rather than waiting to begin life at retirement. When the robo-advisor surveyed its clients, more than half listed take time off to travel as a top priority, listing it ahead of all other goals except financial independence and early retirement. Taking a break to travel isnt a crazy move, especially for millennials, because it can help give workers the stamina for longer, more sustainable careers, says Jamie Hopkins, a professor and director of the retirement income program at the American College of Financial Services. The prospect of a future trip also gives young workers an extra reason to save, live within their means, and pay down debt an incentive thats far stronger than the dream of retiring in several decades time. Im not sure we can picture what retirement is going to look like in 30 or 40 years, Hopkins said. Of course, two years living in Paris in your mid-30s can make it a lot harder to afford your other long-term goals like sending children to college. For most Americans, a years-long sabbatical is impossible to imagine, at least until theyre older and Medicare and Social Security kick in. Half of working-age Americans are at risk of not having enough income when they retire, according to calculations by Boston Colleges Center for Retirement Research based on 2016 data. Thats up from 30% in 1989. Wealthfront tries to help customers assess the true financial costs of their travel dreams, allowing them to customize the costs of their trip and the amount of time theyll be away from work, and factor in other costs (such as continuing to pay a mortgage) or benefits (such as collecting rent) while theyre gone. The tool then calculates for clients whether their travel plans are comfortable, manageable or unaffordable. For example, the company estimates a 32-year-old who earns $250,000 a year, with $100,000 saved and a 20% savings rate, can comfortably afford a two-year trip costing $3,000 a month assuming the person keeps the same salary and savings rate after the trip. Those two years of lost income and the subsequent loss of years of compounding gains on those savings definitely come with a price. Wealthfront estimates this 24-month, $72,000 trip ultimately would reduce this hypothetical clients net worth at age 65 by $1.1 million, from $8.2 million to $7.1 million. Thats still more than enough to cover her estimated needs in retirement, however. A four-year trip would be unaffordable for this client, but a three-year trip could work with another couple years of saving, the firm estimates. When the Parrishes were envisioning their trip, the Wealthfront tool didnt exist yet, but they spent three years planning and saving. It helped that they already had a good start on retirement saving. In his early 20s, Kyle Parrish began putting as much as possible in his 401(k) plan, accumulating more than $150,000 by the time they left. While they traveled, they carefully tracked every expense in a spreadsheet so they didnt overspend. Theres one risk that Wealthfront cant help clients with: the possibility that a years-long break could derail their careers. As stay-at-home parents know well, a key worry for anyone leaving the job market is how to get back in. The U.S. unemployment rate is at near-record lows, but theres no guarantee that will last. It helps to work in an industry where employers arent turned off by gaps in your resume. In advertising, its to my benefit to be an interesting person, said Andrew Wind, 38. Three months into his trip, with a year to go, his plans are ambitious: visit about 30 countries and 45 cities, finish writing a book, some screenplays and TV pilots, and become conversational in French and Spanish. Im actually more productive when I travel than when Im home, he joked, on the phone from Munich, Germany. The Transportation Security Administration is playing down a news report that the agency is considering pulling its agents out of about 150 small and mid-sized airports to focus TSA resources on the countrys biggest. The TSA responded Thursday to a report by CNN citing senior agency officials and internal documents that said the proposal would save up to $115 million that could be deployed to airports with greater terrorism risks. It also quoted an internal agency report that said such a move would bring about a small (non-zero) undesirable increase in risk related to additional adversary opportunity. TSA spokesman Michael Bilello said the proposal for ending passenger screenings at airports serving planes with 60 or fewer seats was only part of an annual budget exercise to consider ways to improve efficiencies in the agency adding that a formal risk evaluation of the idea has not been completed. Every year as part of the federal budget process, the TSA is asked to discuss possible ways to be more efficient, Bilello said. This year is no different. Advertisement The TSA, with an annual budget of $7.58 billion, employs about 60,000 workers, screening passengers at 440 airports nationwide. But the CNN report, citing two senior agency officials unhappy with the proposal, suggested this year that the idea is being take more seriously, reflected by a TSA working group of 20 people including a representative of the agencys administrators office who met on June 21 to examine the potential risks of the policy change. Passengers from smaller airports taking connecting flights would be screened, along with their luggage, at their arrival at larger airports, which have more advanced security measures, according to documents cited by CNN. Bilello said budget efficiency meetings at the TSA are always taken seriously, but he added that no decisions has been made for the TSA to stop serving any airport. The report has spurred requests by lawmakers for more information and protests from unions representing TSA screeners, including the chapter that represents TSA agents at Los Angeles International Airport Not only is this extremely risky to the safety of the American flying public, but it is once again this administrations emboldening of anti-people policies placing profits over people, Bobby Orozco, vice president of the AFGE Council 100, said in an email to other union leaders. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss), ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, issued a statement saying the TSA proposal would undoubtedly create security gaps and may negatively impact the economy especially in rural America. The CNN report said terrorists have long identified smaller airports as weak points in the countrys security regime. It noted that two of the Sept. 11 terrorists first flew from Portland, Maine, to Boston, where they boarded American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The report said that although Portlands airport likely would not be included in the proposal because of its volume of passengers, the 9/11 attackers perceived the airport to be less secure because of its relatively small size. hugo.martin@latimes.com Twitter: @hugomartin In the 1966 Pink Panther cartoon short Pink, Plunk, Plink, the limber leopard tries his hand at conducting onstage at the Hollywood Bowl. He selects, in meta fashion, The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini. When the band finishes, the cartoon cuts to Mancini himself, in live action, applauding out in the bleachers. Mancini conducted at the Bowl 29 times before his death in 1994, and The Pink Panther Theme became one of his calling cards. How perfect, then, that the 1963 Blake Edwards film that spawned it, The Pink Panther, will screen at the Bowl on Wednesday, with Mancinis swinging score performed live by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in a way most have never heard before. Mancini, Edwards and comic actor Peter Sellers, who created the endearingly inept Inspector Clouseau, were indelibly linked to the farce, which starred David Niven as a jewel thief on the prowl for a diamond known as the Pink Panther because of its color and a catlike blemish. Mancini was nominated for an Oscar and won three Grammys for the score, and the slinky saxophone theme became a staple in hundreds of orchestra concerts he conducted around the world. Everybody just lit up when the theme started to play, said Ginny Mancini, the composers wife of 47 years. He played it worldwide and loved every note. Advertisement The theme also accompanied the films nine sequels and two 21st century reboots starring Steve Martin, along with the dozens of Pink Panther cartoon shorts. That little sucker lives. Ka-ching, ka-ching! quipped Ginny Mancini. The composer approves: Henry Mancini applauds his cartoon conductor in a still from Pink, Plunk, Plink (from the Pink Panther Cartoons, 1966). (MGM Studios) The music was special to the composer, largely because his relationship with Edwards 26 films together, including Breakfast at Tiffanys and Days of Wine and Roses, as well as the TV series Peter Gunn was special. They were kindred spirits, Ginny said. They were little boys who never grew up, and that comes out in every piece that they did together. The Bowl presentation is part of an exploding live-to-picture concert trend, joining the original Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back and Jaws in this seasons lineup. (The composer of those three pictures, John Williams, got his start playing piano on Mancinis scoring sessions.) But when a movie is 55 years old, the logistics can be tricky. The first question is: Wheres the score? said Robert Thompson, president of the company producing the event, Schirmer Theatrical. The second question is a little more technical, especially with older films: Are there separate DME stems? he said, referring to dialogue, music and effects. In this case, Mancini family members had no idea where the written score was located. They almost gave up and had someone transcribe it aurally, but then they remembered that the composer whom they knew as Hank had donated some of his archives to UCLA. We kind of became our own Inspector Clouseau, Thompson said with a laugh. We went to UCLA and put on the white gloves, and there, sitting among Italian and French Renaissance manuscripts, was the original score. Luckily, it was intact. Hank had taken meticulous notes. There was actually a guidebook to the score itself. The second problem was thornier: Music, dialogue and effects were all smooshed into one mono track on the film. Thats when the Culver City company Post Haste Digital came to the rescue with a proprietary service that scrubs music from the soundtrack without losing the other sound elements. The Pink Panther in Concert premiered in Boca Raton, Fla., in March, appropriately performed by the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, part of the University of Miamis Frost School of Music. I will never forget that moment of hearing the score live for the first time in over 50 years, exactly as Hank had notated it, Thompson said. It just jumped off of the page. And I realized: I havent heard this music before, and neither has anybody else. Monica Mancini, the composers daughter, had a similar reaction. It was like being at a jazz concert, she said. The experience of hearing it live is a revelation. Monica Mancini sang Meglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight), the song that her father wrote with lyricist Johnny Mercer and that Fran Jeffries performed in the film, at the revived scores premiere. Shell reprise the role at the Bowl. Another image from Pink, Plunk, Plink. (Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios) It was like being at a jazz concert. The experience of hearing it live is a revelation. Monica Mancini, composer Henry Mancinis daughter, on hearing The Pink Panther music in concert this year The score wasnt written for traditional symphony orchestra, but rather for Mancinis big band replete with five saxophones, four trombones and a rhythm section, plus strings. Its the only live-to-picture event thats part of the Bowls jazz series. Movie music is booming in an unprecedented way, with orchestras from Los Angeles to New York selling out symphonic screenings. The trend began with Howard Shores Lord of the Rings films a decade ago and shows no signs of slowing. Yet it was really Mancini who first introduced film composers to a wide audience, thanks to his earworm hits (Moon River), multiple gold records and appearances to conduct his own music in concert halls. The composers drawing huge crowds to live-to-picture concerts or rock-style shows Williams, Hans Zimmer or Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi owe some of their fandom to Hank. Mancini was preparing for what would have been his 30th appearance at the Bowl when he became ill and died. His wife said he would have been thrilled to not only experience this new way of bringing film scores to life but also because he would have been so happy standing onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, conducting it. In his 1989 autobiography, Mancini recounted a memory from 1935. His father took him to see Cecil B. DeMilles The Crusades in Pittsburgh, and 11-year-old Hank marveled at the knights in armor and the horses on the big screen in the first talkie hed ever seen. But what I remember most of all from that day is the music, the sound of a big orchestra. I had never heard anything like it, Mancini wrote. I had thought that there was a big orchestra behind the screen. His father corrected him, of course but that was the day Mancini decided he wanted to score films. I think it would come full circle for him to see it done this way, Monica Mancini said. Its like, Oh, this is how I thought it was done in the first place. I think hed love it. The Pink Panther In Concert Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., L.A. When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Cost: $9-$148 Info: (323) 850-2000, www.hollywoodbowl.com See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts. Our picks for this weekend include Independent Shakespeare Co.s Titus Andronicus, two world premieres from American Contemporary Ballet and the national tour of the hit musical Waitress. Also: Bon Iver and TU Dance team up at the Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Pops salutes the Fab Four and Jeff Lynnes ELO touches down at the Forum. Independent Shakespeares Titus Andronicus Hell hath no fury like Tamora, Queen of the Goths, against the Roman general who done her wrong in Titus Andronicus. Independent Shakespeare Company stages the Bards bloodiest tragedy as the second offering in the local troupes annual Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival. Company co-founder David Melville stars. The Old Zoo at Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, L.A. 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; other dates through Sept. 2. Free. www.iscla.org New works from American Contemporary Ballet For the all-new program Summer Premieres, American Contemporary Ballet presents dance set to Bernsteins Candide Overture and Schoenbergs Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), choreographed by artistic director Lincoln Jones. American Contemporary Ballet, 32nd floor, 700 S. Flower St., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; other dates through Aug. 12. $40-$105. www.acbdances.com American Contemporary Ballet will perform two new works at its performance space in downtown L.A. (Will Davidson) Advertisement Waitress at the Pantages An unhappily married small-town waitress and pie maker yearns for something better in Waitress. Writer-director Adrienne Shellys romantic 2007 comedy-drama film that starred Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion gets a musical makeover in this Broadway hit featuring songs by Sara Bareilles. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; other dates through Aug. 26. $49 and up. www.hollywoodpantages.com. (Also at Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, Nov. 13-25) Desi Oakley stars in the national touring production of Waitress at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. (Joan Marcus) Bon Iver with TU Dance Justin Vernons indie-folk outfit Bon Iver join forces with TU Dance, the Minnesota-based dance company founded by Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands. They present the West Coast premiere of their collaboration Come Through. Chamber orchestra Metropolis Ensemble and indie-rock duo Wye Oak also perform. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. 7 p.m. Sunday. $15-$160. www.hollywoodbowl.com Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver will share the stage with TU Dance at the Hollywood Bowl. (Los Angeles Times) Beatles tribute with Pasadena Pops With a little help from the Beatles tribute band Classical Mystery Tour, conductor Larry Blank and the Pasadena Pops offer a musical salute to the lads from Liverpool. The show pays special attention to Fab Fours classic 1968 two-disc set known as the White Album. Los Angeles County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $25 and up. www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org Beatles tribute band Classical Mystery Tour returns to SoCal for a performance backed by Pasadena Pops. (Classical Mystery Tour) Jeff Lynnes ELO at the Forum Do ya, do ya want to see Jeff Lynnes ELO? The 1970s-era classic-rock mainstay responsible for hits like Livin Thing and Mr. Blue Sky rolls into town for a pair of shows. Local band Dawes opens the show. The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $59 and up. www.ticketmaster.com The Darkest Minds is set in a future where the very few children who survive a mysterious pandemic are thrown into internment camps for gaining superpowers. But shooting the film was more like summer camp. At least it was according to the movies cast and crew. The Darkest Minds stars Amandla Stenberg, Miya Cech, Skylan Brooks and Harris Dickinson along with director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and author of the original novel Alexandra Bracken visited the L.A. Times studio at Comic-Con last month to discuss the adaptation. Nelson is perhaps best known for her work in animation. She directed Kung Fu Panda 2, becoming the first woman to solo-direct a big-budget Hollywood animated film, and she also directed Kung Fu Panda 3 (along with Alessandro Carloni). With The Darkest Minds, she jumped into the directing chair of a live-action film for the first time. Advertisement What made this movie really exciting for me was the great emotional core, said Nelson. Theres a tight group of characters that depend on each other, and its a very positive message. A lot of the filming took place outdoors, and Nelson commended her young cast for being troopers about it. Learn all about those challenges, and the characters special powers, in the video above. The Darkest Minds hits theaters Friday. FULL COVERAGE: San Diego Comic-Con 2018 The first China International Import and Export (CIIE), is expected to be held this November in the coastal city of Shanghai, the birth-place of the Communist Party of China. Chinese President Xi Jinping disclosed at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017 that China will hold beginning 2018 its international import exports. The CIIE is a policy initiative to open up the Chinese market to the rest of the world. During the event, over 80 countries are expected to showcase their development through trade, and investment, while 186 companies from African countries have agreed to participate, says Ms. Zhong Xiaomin, Deputy Organizer of the event. Ms. Zhong Xiaomin told journalists from Africa and Asia Pacific Countries that the CIIE is a significant initiative by the Chinese government to give firm support to trade liberalization and economic globalization and to actively open the Chinese market, facilitates countries and regions of the world and to strengthen economic cooperation and trade. She explained that the November event will promote global trade and contribute to the world economic growth through a world economy that is more open. The CIIE will provide new channels for countries and regions to do business, to strengthen cooperation and promote common prosperity, she adds. There would be opportunities for least-developed countries, while investment and business cooperation will be carried out in other areas. G20 members, BRICS and Belt and Road Countries have also been invited for the event. She indicated that over 150,000 domestic and foreign professional purchasers will presumably participate in the event, while some leverage would be given to products from coming from least developed countries. She also disclosed that China within the next five years is expected to import products and services valuing more than 10 trillion U.S. dollars. Currently, Africa is China largest trading partner with over 170 billion recorded in trade volume in 2017. Products from Africa sailing to China are mainly gold, diamonds, beef, crude oil, iron ore, timber, while China's exports to Africa is food products and clothing. Nehemiah Fensuah, a Liberian Economist has urged African countries to prioritize value addition in order to enhance their exports. Fensuah believes that with value addition, products from Africa will be accepted on the world market. Africa, he added, continues to be poor because value addition has not been prioritized over the years and that has led to the continent losing huge funds that increase revenue generation. As journalism in America struggles with withering cuts, decreased attention spans and wavering trust of media, podcasts are finding new audiences with their mix of news, commentary and personal stories. Culture-vultures are devouring them in record numbers. But can this increasingly popular form truly be defined as journalism? Veteran podcaster Nikki Silva, half of the longtime production team the Kitchen Sisters, says without hesitation that she and partner Davia Nelson are essentially public radio journalists. So many people are attracted to the podcasts that have grown out of public radio, says Silva. We hold ourselves to those same standards. Were not hard-news journalists. But I think our stories really hit on news that a lot of people wont listen to on topics such as homelessness or hunger. Advertisement Silva offers as an example a story they did for the podcast series Hidden Kitchens about how the George Foreman grill has become the stove of choice for many homeless people. This kind of story is a side way into a difficult issue, she says. We talked to George Foreman, and he just went, Wow, I didnt know that. And then he launched into his own story of hunger as a child. Ira Glass and his team at This American Life have been mixing hard-edged journalism with intensely personal stories since the 1990s. Glass and podcasters such as Roman Mars and the producers of Invisibilia have always talked this way: putting complicated topics into intimate, personal narratives that reveal something about American life. Three years ago, This American Life spinoff Serial garnered more listeners during its run than any podcast in history. Podcasters vary on how they see their journalistic role. I consider myself more of a storyteller who knows how to commit acts of journalism, says Tim Lloyd, who with Kameel Stanley produces the St. Louis Public Radio podcast We Live Here. The podcast came about after the protests in nearby Ferguson, Mo., in wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown. Both Stanley and Lloyd say they draw from journalism training to produce their podcast, which explores complicated issues of race and class through the stories of local residents. (Full disclosure: Lloyd is a former student of mine at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.) Lloyd says he identifies himself more as an audio storyteller than a journalist. For Al Letson, a longtime public radio producer and the host of the Center for Investigative Reportings podcast Reveal, the trajectory has gone in the opposite direction. Letson is a playwright and former poetry slam champion who came to public radio as an artist and feels he is now emerging as a journalist. When I first started in public radio, I didnt see myself as a journalist, he says by phone from the Bay Area-based center. But working at Reveal and being around journalists, I can proudly say that I think of myself as a journalist. Even as they draw from journalism standards and training, podcasters seem to embrace the idea that their tone, style and motivations go beyond traditional techniques, defining their craft in nonjournalistic terms such as intimacy and connection. And even in the case of Letson, poetry. On an oppressively hot Friday afternoon in St. Louis, Stanley and Lloyd are in a small studio preparing for what will be an intense two-hour interview with three members of the J.D. Shelley family, members of whom were part of a landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on housing discrimination and restrictive covenants. Like many people who work together, Stanley and Lloyd complete each others sentences and communicate with meaningful glances throughout the intense taping. Lloyd admits that jumping into the podcast immediately after the events in Ferguson, and the experience of covering race and class in the years since, has been exhausting. And Stanley, who was the only black reporter in the newsroom when she was hired, says the pair together have experienced growing pains with the show. While engineers set up their interview, Lloyd and Stanley contemplate the question of whether, in an era where citizen trust in media falls along partisan lines, the intimacy and compelling stories brought by podcasters can reinvigorate the journalism landscape, perhaps even bridge divides. Both are skeptical. Talking with Lloyd, its clear he is beginning to see his work as distanced from traditional journalism. In fact, the We Live Here podcast was moved from the newsroom to the stations programming department, a relocation Lloyd and Stanley are comfortable with. Both say it has allowed them to be freer and more experimental in their storytelling. They also see their storytelling going beyond headlines, the usual shorthand categories of race and politics, and getting at the deeper meanings . As with other podcasters, they chat with listeners at community events, including the occasional happy hour; Stanley says was taken aback to learn that at least one listener sees the show as self-care. I dont know exactly how to put my finger on it, Lloyd says, but I think there is something very special that Kameel and I are seeing firsthand, that resonates with people in a profoundly meaningful way. The mention of meaning causes Stanley to sit up in her chair and reflect: If youre not doing something thats meaningful for people, what are you doing? Attempting to make money! Lloyd volunteers, with a little sarcasm. He later adds that the We Live Here stories tend to begin when well get curious about something and start digging. It sounds a lot like journalism, he agrees, when its pointed out. Stanley adds, The sourcing muscle has not stopped working. Some indicators suggest that journalists are increasingly considering their work in terms of context and narrative exactly the kind of reporting produced through podcasts. Nichole Dahmen, an associate professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, is one of three researchers who conducted a 2016 study published in the academic journal Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism gauging the attitudes of 1,300 journalists on contextual reporting. For the last 50 years, Dahmen says, Weve seen this interest in stories that goes beyond breaking news. Reporting stories that help us get more in depth, more perspective. Dahmen says that according to the 2016 study, journalists still say accurately portraying the world is their first goal. But she says among participants in her recent research, particularly younger and female journalists, there is a motivation to get beyond the facts. When Dahmen talks about her research in contextual reporting, she sounds surprisingly like a podcaster, using words like voice, community, character. This is not just reporting on the problem and then shining the spotlight on something else, she says, and points to efforts like the Solutions Journalism Network. a website that connects journalists and trains them to do in-depth reporting. One of the beautiful things about radio and podcasting is you have the opportunity to hear the characters, the people who are in the community. The people involved in the story speak in their own voice. We take you into an experience and make you meet people that you might not meet in your daily life, says Kitchen Sister Silva, who launches a new NPR series, The Keepers, next month. right We want to make you laugh, make you cry, make you understand and go deeper. Although traditional reporting emphasizes the facts and lets readers draw their own conclusions, podcasters like Letson, Silva, Lloyd and Stanley are not shy about trying to change peoples minds. We have some pretty old-school journalists at Reveal, and they may bristle at the idea of journalism being activist, but I dont, says Letson. We are out there to make the world a better place, to make it more just. Its important in this media landscape that were in right now that we find ways to reach people. Janet Saidi is a public-radio producer and teacher at the Missouri School of Journalism. calendar@latimes.com Significant discussions and changes have emerged from the Times Up movement, both in the U.S. and in the U.K., but this week brings the first artistic work directly generated by the groups activism. Rebel Park Productions, a new company led by British actress Gemma Arterton, has released an eight-minute comedic short film titled Leading Lady Parts, in which several well-known actresses help address issues of gender inequality. Written and directed by Jessica Swale and produced by Rebel Park, which is composed of Arterton and producers Jessica Malik and Jessica Parker, Leading Lady Parts premiered Monday night on BBC4 in the U.K. and is now available globally on YouTube. The idea to make a creative statement arose after Arterton attended several meetings for Times Up earlier this year. It was just women in a room, chatting we felt everything was very serious, the actress says. There were really big issues being spoken about. We felt it would be fantastic to do something light-hearted and more comical that got the message out without beating anyone over the head. There was a room filled with all these creative, beautiful women and what better way to make a difference ... than all coming together and making something? She adds, Its one of the best things to come out of the Times Up meetings for me personally: Meeting people I would never usually meet. For example, Felicity Jones. I had this meeting in my house and Felicity came and she was the one [who] suggested Why dont we do something together? That was a very heartening thing. Advertisement After Swale sent Arterton her script, it took only three weeks to enlist the cast and secure funding for the project. The film, produced in association with the Fyzz Facility, Hanway Films and Popcorn Group, was shot in late March over a few days at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, outside London using donated studio space and equipment. Numerous actresses wanted to be part of the effort, and everyone worked for free. It was just a really organic process that had such enormous momentum behind it, Malik says. The final film features Jones, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Gemma Chan, Florence Pugh, Wunmi Mosaku and Stacy Martin as themselves as they audition for a film role known as the leading lady part. Arterton, along with Catherine Tate and Anthony Welsh, plays a casting director who demands seemingly ridiculous things of the actresses, including for them to lose weight, take off their clothes and wear more makeup. Tates character asks that biracial actress Chan be more white. Their treatment of Mosaku, a black actress, is even worse. In the end, the female protagonist role doesnt even go to a woman its handed to Tom Hiddleston. I personally have heard things like Could you lose a little bit of weight? Arterton says. I remember once getting into an audition and the casting director saying Dont wear that jacket. You look really hench [big, muscular] in that. All the actors did additional EPK interviews and its so funny hearing their stories. Everyone talks about being told to lose weight overnight and things that are so ridiculous. But since #MeToo and Times Up, I think people are way more aware in casting situations of what they can and cant say. And its not just women, by the way. Men get it worse to some extent. I remember Tom saying hes been told to just take off his shirt. Its so ridiculous in a job interview to be told Can you take your clothes off? Thats why its such a great comic subject, because its so ridiculous. What I would like for it to do is inspire people to know that they can challenge things or speak up. Gemma Arterton, actress and producer Leading Lady Parts is the first in a planned series of short films that will address gender imbalance in the workplace, both within the film industry and in other various industries. Arterton calls it Times Up-inspired since its not directly connected to Times Up, although the filmmakers hope to raise awareness for the Justice and Equality Fund, which was launched by Times Up U.K. to combat a culture of harassment, abuse and impunity in the workplace. But in dealing with serious topics, Arterton believes it was important to bring humor to the short. People are more likely to tune in and listen if its funny, she said. And its actually quite difficult. These subject matters we want to talk about in terms of workplace inequality are really serious. So it can be hard to find the comic angle. But there are ways if youre really thoughtful about it. We wanted the conversation to continue and we wanted to try and address the whole thing in a positive way, Malik adds. We wanted to use the skills we had to address the subjects people had been bringing up and to do so with humor and wit. The approach resonated with the BBC, who agreed to premiere the film on BBC Four as part of an hourlong program, Hear Her, celebrating 100 years of suffrage for women in the U.K. Initially, the broadcaster was hesitant to be involved because they need to remain impartial around political movements such as Times Up, but the producers argued that Leading Lady Parts is simply a project made by a group of people who want to raise a discussion. We sent it in and there was just an enormous amount of support internally, Malik says of the BBC. They wanted to see if there was a place where it would fit. Its very difficult when youre talking to a broadcaster about a piece thats eight minutes long. Cassian Harrison, at BBC Four, said Im going to build a one-hour program around your piece. It shows how the goodwill continues. Were a little blown away by the support. Its very validating and its a great home for the piece. A photograph of Gemma Arterton, Catherine Tate and Anthony Welsh from the short film Leading Lady Parts. (Rebel Park Productions) Leading Lady Parts is the first official project from Rebel Park Productions and represents a soft launch for the company, with plans to announce a larger slate in the coming months. Rebel Park came together about three years ago because, at the time, we felt that there was a lack of good female-centric stories, Arterton says. We also want to get more women behind the camera. Thats our agenda: Do more female-centric stuff. Not strictly, but thats [what] Im interested in. And she points to the behind the scenes gender dynamic as well. Leading Lady Parts is something like 98% female crew, she said. We had two men on the crew and two male actors. Theres been a lot of talk about gender parity with actresses and directors and writers, but crew-wise as well its really important. We want to give [women] more opportunity to those male-geared jobs. As for whether a small film like Leading Lady Parts can effect tangible change? Arterton says maybe. A film like Leading Lady Parts might inspire the actor to speak out or to know that that [behavior] is not acceptable, Arterton says. For myself as a young actor, I didnt feel comfortable or confident [enough] to be able to stand up for myself in situations where someone was telling me I needed to lose weight. What I would like for it to do is inspire people to know that they can challenge things or speak up. For real change to happen it has to happen within the companies that exist already, Malik adds. It has to happen within the studios. It has to happen within the distributors who pick up films and the choices they make ... broadcasters and what they show. Were a tiny part of it. calendar@latimes.com One man savagely attacks another, killing him on the spot then dousing the corpse with gasoline and setting it on fire. Opening a film with a scene like that would be business as usual for any number of directors, but Japans Hirokazu Kore-eda is not one of them. Kore-eda, who won this years Cannes Palme dOr for his latest film, Shoplifters, is known as Japans nonpareil humanist filmmaker, not someone who usually has murder on his cinematic mind. But Kore-eda is also a director who goes where his interests take him, no matter how unexpected; his filmography includes dramas like 2009s Air Doll, which has an inflatable sex toy as its center of interest. And because the filmmaker is who he is it figures that Third Murder is not your standard John Grisham knockoff legal thriller but a meditation on the elusiveness of truth and its relation to guilt, innocence and justice as it is administered by the Japanese legal system. Advertisement Is the murder of a Yokohama factory owner we have witnessed with our own eyes the murder that actually happened? How much can we believe what we think weve seen, or, for that matter, what people claim they saw? Yet because the sowing of disturbing confusion is Third Murders aim, experiencing it can be as frustrating as it is fascinating, maybe even more so. Though the story is not business as usual for him, Kore-eda has used two of his previous actors in key roles, starting with Masaharu Fukuyama, who was the put-upon parent in the directors exceptional Like Father, Like Son. Here Fukuyama plays high-powered defense attorney Shigemori, called in by a colleague to consult on the defense of Misumi (Koji Yakusho), the man who has confessed to the murder of the factory owner thats the films starting point. An all-business type who reminds an associate that they are defending Misumi, not becoming his friend, Shigemori thinks of himself as a pragmatist who cares not about the truth but about what a winning strategy might be, a belief system defending Misumi is going to test. Giving the case an unusual wrinkle is a unexpected connection between defendant and lawyer that dates back 30 years. At that time Misumi was convicted of murdering two other men (hence the films title), but Shigemoris father, who was the trial judge, sentenced him to 30 years in prison instead of death. In fact, Misumi was recently released from prison when the factory owner, who was his boss, was killed. Much about Misumi and his confession to murder and robbery seem straightforward, but the accused has the unnerving habit of frequently changing details of his confession, something which makes putting a defense together challenging. In fact it is a tribute to Yakushos performance that apparently straightforward Misumi comes off as an elusive, enigmatic character, difficult to pin down and harboring eccentricities like a deep passion for peanut butter. Because of the vagaries of the Japanese legal system (one of Kore-edas themes) it goes harder on a murderer if robbery is just an afterthought and not the motive, so Shigemori works diligently to establish a grudge against the factory owner as the reason. In line with this, the attorney pays a pro-forma visit to the murder victims angry widow, and also pays attention to the dead mans daughter Sakie, played by Suzu Hirose, outstanding in Kore-edas earlier Our Little Sister. A woman who walks with a pronounced limp, Sakie turns out to be as difficult to pin down as Misumi, telling different stories to different people about where that limp came from. Also figuring in the narrative are Shigemoris own family, including a teenage daughter who is acting out, and his father the judge, who pays his son a visit and is given to making provocative comments like psychiatry is not a science, its fiction and Some people are more beast than human. Kore-eda is too polished a filmmaker for The Third Murder not to be of interest, but its focus is finally too fuzzy to compel the way the best of the directors work does. With what happened on that fatal night and why increasingly difficult to know, we are forced to agree with the character who says well never know which is the truth, but that is not the most satisfying place to be. The Third Murder No MPAA rating. Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes. Playing Laemmles Royal, West Los Angeles. kenneth.turan@latimes.com @KennethTuran You can pinpoint the moment early on in What Will People Say, Iram Haqs tense and harrowing new movie, when 16-year-old Nisha (Maria Mozhdah) stops being a person in the eyes of her family and suddenly becomes a problem an outcast, a liability, a shameful wound in their side. It happens when her father, Mirza (Adil Hussain), finds her with a boy in her bedroom one night and flies into a rage. Leaping to the conclusion that the two have had sex, he savagely beats the boy, Daniel (Isak Lie Harr), and all but disowns his daughter on the spot. Its a tough, violent moment that rips a hole in the storys fabric, drawing the intervention of social workers and turning a familys private anguish into a painfully public spectacle. We cant face anyone anymore, mutters the girls mother, Najma (Ekavali Khanna), some time after the incident. Shes speaking about her fellow Pakistani emigres in their small, wintry Norwegian town, but the curious thing is that despite the familys deep fear of pariahdom a fear concisely articulated by the movies title we never really see them being shunned, ostracized or even gossiped about. Haq, who at times pushes her story to the brink of overstatement, proves smartly reticent on this matter. Is she shielding Nisha and the audience from the worst of it? Or is she suggesting that the familys concern might in fact be a kind of paranoia, a foolish overreaction to stigmas less real than imagined? That question makes for a rare zone of ambiguity in a story of otherwise blunt, palpable outrage. In dramatizing the fury with which Nishas parents respond to their daughters perceived self-abasement, Haq effectively throws it back in their faces. And when Nisha is suddenly kidnapped by her father and her older brother, Asif (Ali Arfan), and sent back to live with her aunt and uncle in Pakistan, the movie becomes something more than just another tale of cross-cultural, cross-generational misunderstanding: a harrowing drama of emotional abuse. Advertisement As Haq has said in interviews, the events of What Will People Say like those of her 2014 debut, I Am Yours, to which this film serves as a prequel of sorts are drawn from personal experience. (The director was only 14 when her parents sent her from Norway to Pakistan, and she remained estranged from them for years afterward.) You can sense Haqs precise hand and eye in the sympathetic etching of Nishas folks early on, and in her exquisite feel for the social precariousness of a minority community torn between the desire to assimilate and the refusal to give up its traditional values. Like so many children of immigrant parents, Nisha embodies that dilemma so acutely that it has effectively split her life in two. At home, she is respectful and obedient, not afraid to speak her mind, but always speaking it in her familys native Urdu. Elsewhere, she fully embraces her identity as a child of the West, returning Daniels affections and occasionally sneaking out to dance and party with her school friends. Nisha isnt the only one who feels this tension. In an early scene, her father, to whom she is especially close, enjoys loosening up and dancing to some 90s Indian pop with his family and friends, only to be scolded afterward by the more rigid Najma. Its one of the movies more nuanced observations, though nuance mostly goes out the window partly, though not entirely, by design once Nisha is sent back to the home country for re-education and punishment. Life in Pakistan its hot desert golds forging a stark visual contrast with the cooler, icier tones of Norway is both simpler and, as Nisha will learn in one terrifying scene on the streets at night, far more complicated. Despite the haughtily repressive treatment of her aunt (Sheeba Chaddha), she adapts easily enough to the different customs and climate, and also to the friendly overtures of her cousins. But as she plots her next move, torn between her desire to escape, her curiosity about her new home and the inconvenient matter of her still-burgeoning sexuality, What Will People Say lapses into a hurtling, melodramatic thriller mode that, whatever resemblance it may bear to real-life events, jettisons much of the first acts cultural and psychological intricacy. The emotional momentum, however, is carried along easily by Mozhdah, making a remarkable screen debut: In an instant, she can melt from trembling vulnerability to hair-pulling defiance, and in nearly every scene, we see her not just emoting but also thinking, continually renegotiating her position in a world that perceives her as tainted goods. The movie is with her at every step, though in truth it might have been an even sharper, more insightful one had it left her side on occasion, or pried open more of a window into her parents underlying motives. Audiences unaccustomed to seeing shame-based cultures addressed or depicted at length may well ask themselves: How could anyone treat their child this way? Its a question Haq seems to be asking as well. She doesnt make the mistake of depicting Nishas parents as cardboard villains, least of all her father. (In his quieter moments, Hussain makes clear that Nisha isnt the only one whos trapped by conservative, patriarchal mores.) Still, there are aspects of this familys character and ideology whether you call it ingrained sexism, a misguided understanding of honor or a deeply damaging fear of female sexuality that feel under-examined or at least unarticulated. Unable to confront or even mention these tough subjects, Nishas parents retreat into bludgeoning insults or resentful silence, falling back on the stock language of propriety and repression. Is this a failing of the film, or of the culture under scrutiny? Its hard to tell, and therein lies both the insight and the frustration of this tough, compelling movie: Its not about the dangers of what people say so much as what they wont. ------------ What Will People Say (In Urdu and Norwegian with English subtitles) Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Laemmles Music Hall 3, Beverly Hills (starts Aug. 3) and Laemmles Playhouse 7, Pasadena (starts Aug. 4) See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour justin.chang@latimes.com @JustinCChang Its tempting to turn The Sparrow Mart, British artist Lucy Sparrows latest exhibition, featuring more than 31,000 felted creations made to look like everyday supermarket items, into a commentary on American consumerism. But for the 32-year-old Sparrow, the interactive installation, currently on view at the Standard Hotel in downtown L.A., is merely escapist fun. (Expect long lines, as no visit is complete without a few selfies for Instagram.) Its not about consumerism, Sparrow says. Its about providing emotional and psychological well-being. Its about happiness and emotional responses and feeling like a kid again. Advertisement Working over 12 months with five assistants, Sparrow cut, stitched, stuffed and painted the items in her Felt Cave in Essex, England. If youre wondering how Sparrow could complete such a colossal project, the artist says she got up at 7 a.m. every day and worked until 4 p.m., averaging around 50 to 60 pieces a day while listening to true crime podcasts and Netflix shows. At British artist Lucy Sparrows Sparrow Mart, on view at the Standard Hotel in DTLA, seemingly everyday items are made entirely of felt. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) In terms of research, she walked through lots and lots of supermarkets and photographed shelves. She also asked locals what they liked. She chose the items based on the look of the label. It had to be bright and colorful and instantly noticeable, she says. Or have a funny name. The results are a delight as Sparrow has transformed mundane everyday items into collection pieces that will put a smile on your face. And you will definitely smile as you walk the aisles of the Sparrow Mart and encounter a hot dog bar, produce stand and frozen ice cream bin all made up of her exquisite felt creations. There is even a felt ATM on display along with felt Milk Duds and Lemonheads, Brillo pads and Pop-Tarts, Frosted Flakes and Tapatio hot sauce all just begging to be picked up and touched. Unique to the L.A. show, Sparrow says, are felt avocados, California rolls and lots of Mexican products as well as an 80s-inspired VHS movie section featuring Footloose, Dirty Dancing and Short Circuit. Each one of the 31,000 items is for sale, with prices ranging from $10 for a pack of chewing gum to $180 for a steak. And while the show is up through Aug. 31, you may want to visit soon. Sparrows last fully felted bodega, 8 Till Late, sold out in 16 days. Eliana Stratica, from Montreal, shops the Sparrow Mart at the Standard Hotel in DTLA. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) What: Sparrow Mart Where: The Standard Hotel, 550 S. Flower, downtown Los Angeles When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Ends Aug. 25. Cost: Free. No reservations. Guests should check in with the hotel lobby hosts before ascending the escalator to the second floor to enter Sparrow Mart. Info: sewyoursoul.co.uk lisa.boone@latimes.com Twitter: @lisaboone19 For an easy way to follow the L.A. scene, bookmark L.A. at Home and join us on our Facebook page for home design, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. ALSO: They dont own homes. They dont have kids. Why millennials are plant addicts Too hot to shop? Beat the heat at one of these local night markets They ditched pricey home ownership for a small house on wheels and they love it A woman wanted on suspicion of murder was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after she led police on a car chase through the streets of South Los Angeles, authorities said. The pursuit began around 11:45 a.m. near 88th Place and Main Street after police identified her vehicle as matching the description of a car that fled the scene of a fatal stabbing on Wednesday, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rosaria Herrera. Police tried to pull the vehicle over, but the driver refused to stop. Helicopter video footage showed a woman weaving in and out of traffic, at times driving erratically and toward oncoming traffic. Advertisement At one point, the driver lowered her window, slowed almost to a stop and appeared to chat with someone nearby. The chase ended about 30 minutes later when at least five police vehicles swarmed the suspects car in an intersection near 43rd Street and Avalon Boulevard and took her into custody. The woman was suspected of fatally stabbing a 27-year-old man around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday near Vernon and Central avenues in South Los Angeles, LAPD officers said. Police believe the suspect stabbed the man during an argument and fled in a car. melissa.etehad@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad Hotel employees are known to welcome a variety of weary travelers, but an unusual guest who appeared outside the front door of the Newport Beach Marriott Bayview early Saturday caught the staff by surprise. A 32-year-old ring-tailed lemur named Isaac was in a crate marked SA Zoo. Inside the crate was a handwritten note that read: This belongs to the Santa Ana Zoo. It was taken last night. Please bring it to police. Hotel staff called Newport Beach police shortly after 2 a.m. to report the finding. Officers retrieved Isaac and took him to the one of the Police Departments animal enclosures, where he could move around, said police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella. Manzella said Isaac, who was raised in captivity, was docile around officers. Advertisement A few hours later, Santa Ana Zoo staff discovered that an unknown number of intruders had entered the zoos 20-acre grounds overnight and cut through two enclosures one that houses lemurs, including Isaac, and another that houses capuchin monkeys, said zoo manager Ethan Fisher. Staff captured the primates that had left their enclosure and were roaming the property. But Isaac was missing. Employees called police shortly before 8 a.m. First we were very startled and we were just concerned for the lemur, Fisher said. We wanted to make sure that it was OK. About 30 minutes later, Newport Beach authorities called to report they had him. Isaac is now back at the zoo and is his usual mellow self, Fisher said. Isaac, the oldest of six lemurs at the Santa Ana Zoo, has lived there since 2000. Hes the second-oldest lemur in North America, Fisher said. Lemurs are found in the wild only on the island nation of Madagascar and are an endangered species. Taking an endangered species is a federal crime, authorities said. Fisher said zoo staff hadnt been able to determine why someone would take the lemur. People do all sorts of strange things, he said. Some people think it might have been a prank, others think maybe someone was trying to sell him. There are so many theories, but I cant begin to guess. Its also a mystery for authorities, who as of Wednesday had no suspects, said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. Anyone with information is asked to call Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (847-6227). Fry writes for Times Community News. Los Angeles could become the biggest city in the United States to ban businesses from selling fur, under a plan being vetted at City Hall. At a meeting Wednesday, animal welfare activists argued that the fur trade was brutal, inhumane and unnecessary. The bottom line is that humans do not need to wear the fur of another animal. Not in Los Angeles, not in any other city. To continue to allow the sale of fur is to condone violence, said Brian Ruppenkamp, a member of Los Angeles Animal Save. Under the proposal from Councilmen Bob Blumenfield and Paul Koretz, Los Angeles would prohibit businesses from selling fur products, including clothing, hats, handbags or key chains trimmed with real fur, unless they were selling used goods. Manufacturing fur products would also be forbidden. Advertisement More than a dozen people showed up Wednesday to urge the city to move forward with the ban, saying that L.A. needed to take a stand against cruelty. At one point, Marc Ching of the group Animal Hope in Legislation played a brief video, which he said showed a live fox at a fur farm in China screaming in pain as its fur was being pulled off. This is an industry thats based on the abuse and suffering of animals for very trivial ends, said Veronica Rafkind, who handles public policy for the group. Koretz, who was the sole councilman at the committee meeting, asked city staffers to come back with more information before the panel votes in a few weeks. If a law is ultimately passed, Los Angeles would be following West Hollywood, Berkeley and San Francisco, which have imposed similar rules. No one from fur companies spoke at the meeting. In the past, representatives of the fur industry have sharply disputed claims about animal mistreatment made by activists, saying that the industry is highly regulated and that some gruesome footage has been staged. When West Hollywood began implementing its ban on selling fur apparel, some shops lamented the decision. One sued the city, arguing that West Hollywood had overstepped its authority. West Hollywood eventually carved out an exception for fur products made from animals taken under a state trapping license, saying it made the ordinance easier to defend in court. Even before that happened, the West Hollywood ban was seen as largely symbolic because shoppers could easily head to neighboring Los Angeles or Beverly Hills for fur. So far, the city has issued three warnings under the ordinance, along with one citation that was ultimately dismissed, according to West Hollywood city spokesman Joshua Schare. What has the ban in West Hollywood really achieved? Nothing, said Keith Kaplan, spokesman for the Fur Information Council of America, a trade group that represents fur manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers. If they cant find it in West Hollywood, they go right outside West Hollywood to buy it. Kaplan argued that such bans hurt long-standing businesses, unfairly single out one industry and ignore the preferences of consumers. If Los Angeles passes its own ban, his group will probably take legal action, Kaplan said. In L.A.s Fashion District, a rainbow of fur boas, headbands, handbags, stoles and vests were arrayed Wednesday under the bright lights of one small shop. Yellow tags advertised $295 handbags, vests selling for $495 and $595, and a mink coat going for $2,495. Shop owner Paul Naim said it would be unfair to stop consumers from buying his products. First its what you wear, then its what you can eat, Naim said. Its not what democracy is supposed to be. The exact details of the proposed ban in Los Angeles are still to be determined. At Wednesdays meeting, Koretz asked staffers to report back on several issues, including whether to include the exemption for trapped animals that West Hollywood had adopted, and whether a ban would trigger legal issues surrounding the fur hats that Hasidic Jewish men often wear. Koretz also relayed several questions that he said had been posed by another council member, including what economic effects or job losses might result from banning fur sales. That didnt worry him personally, Koretz told the crowd. Animal cruelty is animal cruelty, and if we lose a few jobs, thats life, he said to applause. Banning fur would be the latest step that L.A. leaders have taken in the name of protecting animals. Four years ago, the City Council passed a law banning trainers from using bullhooks on circus elephants. Before that, lawmakers prohibited pet shops from selling commercially-bred dogs, cats and rabbits, arguing that they should offer only rescued pets for adoption. emily.alpert@latimes.com Twitter: @AlpertReyes A federal appeals court has for a second time upheld a $4.1-million award against Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies for shooting a homeless couple who were staying in a friends backyard shed. The 2010 shooting occurred during a search for a wanted parolee who had been spotted in the Lancaster neighborhood where the couple were staying. Angel Mendez and Jennifer Lynn Garcia, who had no permanent home, were napping in the plywood shed when two deputies entered without a warrant and without knocking or announcing themselves. One of the deputies spied what he thought was a gun and said he saw Mendez reaching for it. The deputies fired 15 bullets at the couple. Advertisement The shooting required Mendez to have one leg amputated below the knee. Garcia, who was five months pregnant, was shot once in back and suffered bullet wounds to her hand. The 9th Circuit upheld the award for the couple in 2016, but the county appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court in May 2017 sent the case back to the 9th Circuit, ruling the lower court had used the wrong analysis. Applying a different legal analysis, the 9th Circuit again upheld the award last week. Leonard J. Feldman, who represented the couple, said he did not believe the U.S. Supreme Court would review the latest decision because it hinged in part on California law. The Supreme Court doesnt typically grant review of issues of state law, Feldman said. The attorney representing Los Angeles County in the case could not be reached for comment. maura.dolan@latimes.com Twitter: @mauradolan Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, who risked retaliation from the Catholic Church hierarchy to become a tenacious advocate for victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, died July 18 at a rehabilitation clinic in Cincinnati. She was 79. The cause was viral encephalitis, said Paul Turlish, her brother and only immediate survivor. She was injured in May in a car accident near her home in New Castle, Del., and moved to Ohio for medical treatment, he said. Sister Maureen Paul long worked in Wilmington, Del., as an art teacher, not an activist. But in 2002, when a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the Boston Globe revealed years of sexual abuse in the priesthood and an accompanying coverup by Catholic Church officials, she launched a wide-ranging effort to support victims and bring their abusers to justice. At the time, she was the only religious woman that would publicly stand up for this issue, the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, a canon lawyer, recently told the National Catholic Reporters Global Sisters Report. She brought courage . . . she was not afraid to write or call [the clergy] on their duplicity. Advertisement Sister Maureen Paul at first used a pseudonym Sister M. Immaculata Dunn, drawn from her mothers maiden name to write searing letters to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. Published as letters to the editor, they decried a lack of moral leadership among Catholic bishops and called for alleged abusers to be brought to trial. We all wondered who she was, said Robert M. Hoatson, a former priest and an advocate for sexual abuse victims. She was driving the hierarchy crazy because they wanted to clamp down on her. They were going to write to her religious order, tell her superiors to knock it off. Sister Maureen Paul appeared at conferences for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, organized demonstrations outside the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and began publishing articles in her own name in 2005. She said she decided to go public that year after the release of a 418-page grand jury report in Philadelphia, which found that two cardinals concealed the decades-long abuse of hundreds of children by at least 63 priests. No one was charged, the report noted, because archdiocese officials had successfully buried reports of misconduct and managed to outlast any statutes of limitations. Its release marked a turning point for Sister Maureen Paul, who went on to co-found a pair of support groups for survivors, National Survivor Advocates Coalition and with a group that included Doyle and Hoatson Catholic Whistleblowers. She also focused her efforts on reforming the law. I didnt realize, not being a lawyer, that statutes of limitation regarding child abuse were different in every state. They were based on nothing and everything they were arbitrary and discriminatory, she said in a 2016 interview with the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus. According to Hoatson, Sister Maureen Paul played a pivotal role in the passage of the 2007 Delaware Child Victims Law, which removed the criminal statute of limitations for child sex abuse in that state and opened a two-year look-back window for survivors to file civil suits against their abusers. The bill, she said in testimony before Delawares House Judiciary Committee, is definitely not anti-Catholic and it is not Catholic bashing but aimed instead to give all victims of child sex abuse their day in court. Its passage resulted in more than 140 lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009 amid settlement talks with alleged victims. Sister Maureen Paul was less successful with reform efforts in Pennsylvania and New York, where she lobbied legislators but faced opposition from church officials and critics who believed she was singling out the Catholic Church for punishment. Her faith had not wavered, she said, but her belief in the institutions of the church had been shaken to the core. No longer am I the person I used to be even 10 or 12 years ago, she said in a 2011 speech at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. And although I cannot compare my loss with the loss suffered by victims of childhood sexual abuse, there is nevertheless loss. Something has been taken from me, as it has been taken from every member of the people of God. A part of me has died. Maureen Anne Turlish was born in Philadelphia on July 5, 1939. Her mother, the former Mary Immaculata Dunn, was a homemaker; her father, Paul Turlish, was a leader of a local bakery and confectionery union. He took Maureen to her first picket line when she was 9, giving her what she later called an early education in justice and peace issues. Maureen encountered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur for the first time while in high school, through an art history teacher who became a mentor, and was told by her father that she could join the order only after she turned 21, assuming her interest persisted. She did so in 1960, after working as a secretary at a childrens hospital, and changed her name to Maureen Paul to honor her father. At her first profession of vows she added a coda, promising a special dedication to women and children. After she went public with her identity, in 2005, she was reprimanded by members of her order, Hoatson said. She was basically pressured to stop, but she refused. She said, This is part of my vocation now. As the China-US trade conflict escalates, there has been confusion in markets and media. There are different terms including trade dispute, trade war, economic war and soft war to describe the ongoing bilateral row, indicating that China and the US have differences in understanding, which may influence China-US relations and global order. The two countries have misunderstandings about some important issues. China and the US misread the international order. It is admitted by international rules and most people in the world that the world is based on sovereign states. The West used to believe that concepts like democracy, liberty and human rights are superior to the sovereign states, but their claim failed to change the essence of the sovereign state system. The European Union was expected to eliminate differences among countries, but its function is now under scrutiny. Even the US, which used to advocate liberalism and internationalism, focuses on sovereignty and its own interests now. Countries represented by China overestimated the influence of economic cooperation. Some Chinese people believe that economic cooperation can surpass the boundary of sovereign states and help states resolve disputes caused by competition. Consequently, China used to stress global governance and proposed the Belt and Road initiative, trying to expand the interdependence between countries into the interdependence between regions and contribute to world peace and stability. But China has found out that economic cooperation can't fundamentally resolve the conflicts between countries and that the sovereign state system is still the underlying basis of relations. In this context, people instinctively oppose hegemony especially when the world is at peace. It is not good news for the US, but nonetheless has helped China's rise. However, if China tries to seek a leadership role, it will meet opposition too. In other words, people are not against the US, but hegemony and foreign control. Any country that wants to replace the US will be opposed by the international community. China and the US have misunderstandings in the trend of human society's development. Some people misread globalization. Integration and fragmentation have alternated in human society. The wave of globalization swept over after the end of the Cold War when barriers disappeared and countries were connected faster than ever. It was once unimaginable that the living condition of American farmers had something to do with that of Chinese farmers. The changes took place so fast that many governments couldn't adapt, causing serious problems in many countries including China and the US. In such a context, it was reasonable for populism and protectionism to rise. They halted the progress of globalization and also provided a chance for the world to adjust. It would be easier to understand many problems if we think in this way, including the rise of Donald Trump. Some people, especially American people, have blind faith in hegemony and believe that the US hegemony is reasonable and should be defended. However, it's quite common for major powers in history to experience vicissitudes, and China is one of them. As the US has been through founding, development, rise and hegemony, it's natural for it to be on the decline. Besides, the harder a hegemonic country defends its leading role, the faster it declines. That has been proved many times in the past century. For example, the German empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman empire and the Russia empire during World War I, the empire of Japan, Nazi Germany and fascist Italy during World War II, the colonial empires represented by France and Britain after World War II and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The US kept a low profile before World War II, and China was oppressed for a long time. However, these two countries survived and developed. China and the US also have misunderstandings about China's reform trends. Some people in the US believe that although the Chinese economy has integrated into the international community, China's political reform is lagging behind and even shows signs of slipping backwards. However, politics and economics are always an organic whole, and economic reform is the most important part of political reform no matter whether it is Marxist or Western capitalist. Another misunderstanding is that some Chinese people and pro-China foreigners believe that China has created a new "Beijing consensus" parallel with or even opposed to the Washington consensus. However, China's development in past decades was based on Marxism, Western capitalism and traditional Chinese culture. Marxism originated from the Soviet Union and legalizes the Chinese political system today. Western capitalism is also called market economics in China and China learned it from the West, especially from the US. Traditional Chinese culture is represented by Confucianism and stresses family. In other words, the market economy, the core of the Washington consensus, is also core of the "China model." More importantly, the "Beijing consensus" doesn't have universal values even if they really exist, as other countries don't satisfy the three above-mentioned concepts. The term "socialism with Chinese characteristics" indicates that the China model can only apply to China. The main problem between China and the US is not merely a trade war, but a complex issue of politics, economics and strategy. Some US complaints about China are somewhat reasonable, but the US countermeasures are hegemonic and unacceptable. China should acknowledge that it is the second-largest economy in the world and thus accept a higher standard of trade rules so that the US and the international community can get along with it better. The US should also change its mind and treat its relations with China and the world more rationally. If a large conflict breaks out in trade or any other area, China and the US will both suffer the consequences, and that's not what the two countries' leaders and people want to see. The author is a professor at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University. In 1975, the KGB summoned Vladimir Voinovich to a meeting. The Russian novelist had just completed The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, a World War II satire that the New York Times would later praise as a masterpiece and the Soviet Catch-22, as written by a latter-day Gogol. Yet the book was outlawed in the Soviet Union, where Voinovich had been blacklisted after criticizing state censorship and defending dissidents such as novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and physicist Andrei Sakharov. Booted from the Union of Soviet Writers, he was technically unemployed, leading one KGB agent to ask how, exactly, he was still going about his work. I explained that I write a few pages and then I hide them, Voinovich later told the Times. Then I write a few more and hide those, too. That is my general method. He was warned against publishing in the West and, he later said, given poisoned cigarettes that left him sick but unrepentant. Advertisement Through his subsequent exile in West Germany and the United States, his return to the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachevs liberalization policy of glasnost, and the rise of President Vladimir Putin, Voinovich remained one of Russias most mordant critics of authoritarianism and bureaucratic corruption. He died at 85 on July 28, according to the Tass news agency. Journalist Victor Davidoff reported in the Moscow Times that Voinovich had suffered a heart attack late the previous night. A onetime aviation mechanic, railway laborer, carpenter and construction worker, Voinovich achieved national renown in the early 1960s when he wrote a song for Radio Moscow loosely translated as Fourteen Minutes to Liftoff that became a favorite of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. His prose drew less praise from Communist Party officials and apparatchiks. I wanted to be a realist, writing about what I saw. Almost like journalism, Voinovich told the Washington Post in 1987. But when I published my work, which I thought was really true-to-life, they said, Youre writing satire. I wasnt, it was just life that was so absurd. The more Ive depicted life, the deeper Ive gone, the more Ive become a satirist. Or so they say. Perhaps his most celebrated work was Ivan Chonkin, about a bumbling private in the Red Army who, for good reason, spends much of his time talking to a horse. If you say the wrong thing to a person you can get yourself in hot water, he observes, but no matter what you say to a horse itll accept it. Assigned to guard a plane that has crashed near a collective farm, he is soon forgotten by his unit, and refuses to abandon his post even when a group of secret policemen arrive to arrest him. Excerpted in samizdat in the Soviet Union, the novel was published in Paris in 1975 and followed one year later by The Ivankiad, an autobiographical mock epic about Voinovichs quest for a two-room apartment in the Moscow Writers Housing Cooperative. The books release gave him international renown but further deteriorated his position in the Soviet Union. In 1980 he, his wife and their 7-year-old daughter hopped on a plane for Munich, expecting never to return. My departure, he later wrote, was voluntary like a person who voluntarily takes his wallet out of his pocket and hands it to a robber who is holding a knife to his throat. A decade later, after publishing the acclaimed dystopian novel Moscow 2042, Voinovich did return. His citizenship, stripped by Leonid Brezhnev, was restored under Gorbachev, and his books began to appear on library shelves in Moscow. As the Soviet Union gave way to the Russian Federation, Voinovich transformed from national pariah into literary hero, winning the State Prize for his 2000 novel, Monumental Propaganda, about a communist fanatic who rescues a statue of Stalin from demolition by moving it into her apartment. Two years later, he received the Sakharov Prize for Writers Civic Courage. But history, he noted, seemed to repeat itself. State support for Voinovich receded as he became an outspoken critic of the Putin regime, rebuking its attacks on the media, political crackdowns, war in Chechnya and imprisonment of Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot who was captured by pro-Russian militants amid fighting in eastern Ukraine. In a 2017 interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voinovich said that although Russia was not nearly as bad as it was under Stalins Great Terror, it was beginning to resemble the Soviet Union of the 1970s only the government was handing out two-year sentences for trumped-up charges, rather than seven. Vladimir Nikolaevich Voinovich was born in the Soviet city of Stalinabad now Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan on Sept. 26, 1932. His mother, of Jewish heritage, was a teacher; his father, of Serbian heritage, was a literary translator and journalist and was arrested in 1936 after making a critical remark about Stalin. He spent five years in forced-labor camps. When Id ask where he was, my mother would say, On a business trip, Voinovich once told the Post. In recent years, his novel Moscow 2042 drew renewed interest for what many critics described as its prophetic depiction of a not-too-distant Russia, ruled by a KGB veteran who consolidates power through the secret police and the Russian Orthodox Church. Indeed, Voinovich said, the parallels between novel and the present were pretty close. The Pentagon notified the family of a U.S. service member missing since the Korean War that his dog tags were among the human remains recently turned over by North Korea, officials said Thursday. The dog tags are the first sign that the 55 boxes of bones and other effects delivered last week by North Korea may contain the remains of U.S. service members, potentially bringing closure to families who have waited decades to know what happened to relatives who fought in the war. But Pentagon officials said that the painstaking process of identifying the remains is just beginning and could take months or in some cases years, as forensic scientists seek to match the remains with DNA samples, dental records and other identifying data. Where we have matches, compelling matches with DNA, we will get a very strong lead and be able to pursue identifications quickly, Dr. John Byrd, chief scientist of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. In other cases it could be months or even years before were able to narrow down the identity. Advertisement North Koreas handover of the remains is the only tangible result so far from the June summit in Singapore between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump thanked Kim for the remains on Thursday. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action, Trump said in a tweet. Some 7,699 U.S. service members remain unaccounted for from the Korean War, a three-year conflict that took the lives of more than 36,000 American troops. The Pentagon believes that approximately 5,300 of the missing Americans were lost in North Korea. It remains unclear whether all of the remains received are those of U.S. service members or how many sets of human remains are contained in the boxes because some of the skeletons are not well preserved and show signs of being commingled, Byrd said. He declined to identify the name on the dog tag only one of which was turned over by North Korea and said it was unknown whether the remains of that service member were contained in the boxes. Some of the remains, which were flown from South Korea to Hawaii this week, came with what appeared to be old U.S. equipment, such as bits of uniforms, canteens, boots and other gear from the Korean War era. Each box was marked with identifying information, including where the remains were found. Several of the boxes were said to contain remains from around the village of Sin Hung-Ri, which is near Chosin Reservoir, in northeastern North Korea, where U.S. Marines and Army soldiers fought a brutal battle in 1950. From a preliminary examination of the bones, many appear to have characteristics of European and African ancestry suggesting that they were Americans, Byrd said. All of the remains appear to be American, he said. In some cases there are complete bones that in size and shape, I feel confident, are quite likely to be American, while others are badly preserved and could be American. Some of the remains could also be of soldiers from other countries who sent troops to fight in Korea, including Australia and Britain, though the number of unaccounted-for soldiers from allied countries is far smaller than from the U.S. When remains are identified, it is likely to be a result in most cases of DNA analysis and examination of dental records or chest X-rays, experts said. But the success of those methods depends on the accuracy and completeness of records that are in some cases decades old. DNA samples will be taken and quickly compared to a database of DNA from family members of missing service members, Byrd said. Were going to begin DNA samples immediately. Any teeth will be immediately looked at, along with bones that might show up on chest X-rays that were done routinely for recruits during that era, Byrd said. Unlike todays soldiers, DNA samples werent taken for service members who fought in Korea because the capability didnt exist. But family members have provided DNA samples to the Defense Department for 92% of the unaccounted-for soldiers from Korea. The most common way the Pentagon identifies remains is by mitochondrial DNA, which is found in teeth or bones, and is identical to DNA from a mother, siblings and any other maternally related family members. But it also will conduct other forms of DNA testing, Byrd said, if initial tests do not produce a possible match. But DNA can degrade over time. If remains are commingled, as has occurred in the past with remains from North Korea, identification may be slowed substantially or impossible. Dental records are far less complete and definitive, officials said. Investigators will be working without other usual forensic information, such as burial location, making it harder to link remains to U.S. units known to have taken casualties in particular places. Many U.S. casualties in North Korea were buried by comrades where they died. Thousands of soldiers were transported to prisoner-of-war camps, where they faced starvation, exposure and torture. The remains will be examined initially at the agencys laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, one of the largest forensic facilities in the world. The DNA analysis will be done at a Pentagon laboratory in Delaware. The last time North Korea turned over remains to the U.S. was in 2007, when six boxes were turned over. From 1990 to 1994, 208 other containers of remains were handed over. The Pentagon has identified 80% of those remains, Byrd said. david.cloud@latimes.com Twitter: @davidcloudLAT Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Thursday, Aug. 2, and heres whats happening across California: TOP STORIES Once indulgent of major talent, studios and corporations are reacting to social media storms swiftly and radically. ABC fired Roseanne Barr in May after a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to President Obama. Paramount Pictures recently axed television president Amy Powell after she allegedly made offensive comments about black women during a conference call. And days after jokes that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn tweeted a decade ago about rape and pedophilia resurfaced, Disney fired him from the Guardians franchise. Los Angeles Times Fire, fire everywhere Advertisement Authorities said they did everything they could to alert residents to the coming danger of the Carr fire in Redding using social media, reverse 911 calls and public announcements. But, officials acknowledged, there may have been shortfalls given the ferocious nature of the fire that night. With temperatures ever warming and blazes burning faster and hotter, officials and experts say California needs to figure out how to improve its emergency alert system. Los Angeles Times -- As fire crews struggled to gain containment on more than a dozen wildfires raging across California Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown told reporters that large, destructive fires would probably continue and cost the state billions of dollars over the next decade. Los Angeles Times -- Searing temperatures plagued many parts of Southern California during the month of July as a massive heat wave set records in Death Valley, Los Angeles, Long Beach and other areas, according to the National Weather Service. Los Angeles Times A victory for sanctuary cities A federal appeals court decided 2-1 Wednesday that the Trump administration may not withhold federal funds from Californias immigrant-friendly sanctuary cities and counties. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judges ruling in favor of San Francisco and Santa Clara County, which sued over the administrations threats to withhold money to jurisdictions that have passed laws limiting local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. But the court removed a nationwide injunction issued by the judge, concluding that there was not enough evidence presented so far to justify it. Los Angeles Times More turmoil at USC A donation to USC from a political campaign fund of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas sparked an internal investigation by the university, which ultimately referred the matter to federal prosecutors. The $100,000 gift, sources said, ended up going to an outside nonprofit organization run by his son, former assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas. Los Angeles Times Get the Essential California newsletter His energy is like hes 18, says one of the many young hip-hop stars with whom 65-year-old Charlie Wilson has collaborated. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) L.A. STORIES Scooter wars: A Los Angeles city councilman said the zippy electric scooters that have popped up on street corners and sidewalks across Southern California should be banned in L.A. until the city begins issuing permits to the companies providing them. Los Angeles Times Plus: Bird scooters have been removed from Newport Beach under threat of criminal prosecution. Los Angeles Times Whats up at USC? The disposition of deposed USC President C.L. Max Nikias: Exactly when does his resignation kick in? Los Angeles Times That election-day snafu: Incompatible software was one of the reasons that 118,000 people were left off Los Angeles County voter rosters on election day in June, according to an outside review released Wednesday. Los Angeles Times IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER South of the border: Trump says Mexicos violence is a threat to the U.S. Here are three ways the U.S. helps drive that violence. Los Angeles Times POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT On the ballot: Opponents of expanding rent control in California raised nearly $10 million through the first half of this year, the beginning of whats expected to be one of the costliest fights on the states November ballot. Los Angeles Times Case closed: Legislative officials said Wednesday that they had closed the case on sexual harassment complaints against a former high-ranking Assembly staff member, six months after disclosing earlier allegations against him and other top staffers. Los Angeles Times Curveball: The activists behind the Calexit proposal to cleave California are scrapping their old plans in favor a new secessionist proposal, one that would create what organizers call an autonomous native nation within a new independent state. Los Angeles Times Following up: California lawmaker Matt Dababneh, who resigned after two women accused him of sexual harassment, transferred more than a million dollars into a 2022 lieutenant governor committee account this spring. Sacramento Bee CRIME AND COURTS See you in court: The family of a woman fatally shot by police during a standoff with a man who held a knife to her throat outside a Van Nuys homeless outreach center in June has filed a wrongful-death claim against the city, alleging that officers at the scene negligently discharged 18 rounds without properly assessing the circumstances. Los Angeles Times Settled: An Irvine call-center company has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle allegations of sexual harassment toward both male and female workers detailed in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a former employee. Los Angeles Times New culture, new laws: After a year of horror stories from women about alleged sexual misconduct at the hands of powerful men such as producer Harvey Weinstein and talk-show host Charlie Rose, California lawmakers are poised to revise a 1994 sexual harassment law to make clear it applies to producers and directors. Bloomberg #TBT: Robert Mueller and the San Francisco hash bust of 1978. San Francisco Chronicle THE ENVIRONMENT Great story! In the California desert, a farm baron is building a water and energy empire. Desert Sun CALIFORNIA CULTURE In it to win it: How Charlie Wilson became an old soul in demand and why hes finished with R. Kelly. Los Angeles Times New director, more problems: Now that the Museum of Contemporary Art has named Klaus Biesenbach the sixth director in its 39-year history, expect three immediate responses: Celebrity hipsters will be thrilled, the art world will do a collective eye-roll, and everyone else will just have to cross their fingers and hope for the best. Los Angeles Times Smelly: A reeking corpse flower is poised to bloom at the Huntington Library. Los Angeles Times Exciting: The stakes are high for the film Crazy Rich Asians. The Hollywood Reporter CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles area: sunny, 87, Thursday; sunny, 86, Friday. San Diego: sunny, 80, Thursday and Friday. San Francisco area: sunny, 63, Thursday; sunny, 66, Friday. San Jose: sunny, 80, Thursday; sunny, 83, Friday. Sacramento: sunny, 93, Thursday; sunny, 96, Friday. More weather is here. AND FINALLY Todays California memory comes from Roger Shimatsu: A Story Handed Down From My Father: I was about 3 years old in the fall of 1945, and it was the year we returned from the internment camps after VJ Day. My Dad brought us back to his native state of California after a few years working in an Arkansas Japanese Relocation Camp and a machine shop in St. Paul. He didnt want to spend another winter in Minnesota. To celebrate his homecoming, he said he needed a drink, so into a bustling bar he went. The bartender said, We dont serve Indians. As he turned to leave, my Dad raised his open right hand and said, How, Kimosabe. Then he walked out. So close to wars end, Gene Masato Shimatsu was not about to announce to a room full of red-blooded Americans that he himself was an American but of Japanese descent. Regardless of all the tribulations, California was home, and home is where the heart is. Both Mom and Dad were born in the San Gabriel Valley, and it has always felt as if Southern California is my familys home with roots going back to Grandpas U.S. arrival in 1905. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad. A few weeks ago I had dinner with 10 strangers of different races and ethnicities. The topic at the table was racism. We were brought together by L.A. City Council President Herb Wessons embRACE L.A. project, a series of intimate dinners in homes across the city held with the goal of fostering a healthy dialogue on race relations. As a black woman, I was prompted by curiosity to RSVP. If my experience is any indication, the story of race relations in Los Angeles isnt one of steady progress. There are still issues with police brutality, a major disparity in wealth, and the overwhelming problem of black people being gentrified out of their communities. I live in West Hollywood and I frequent Santa Monica for work, two predominantly white areas. Frankly, Angelenos are used to seeing black people in only certain parts of town. Once we step outside those spaces, dirty looks and aggression emerge. That said, I always want to learn more about the complexities of race in one of the worlds most diverse cities. I was hoping this dinner could help teach me. Advertisement We began the evening with a moderator asking us to speak about how racism has affected each of us and what we thought should be done about it. The first to speak was a racially ambiguous woman who appeared to be in her 50s. She talked about how most people cant tell shes 60% black at first glance. The topic of racial passing came to mind quickly, but to my surprise she didnt seem to realize the advantage this gave her. Instead of being open about the ways in which they benefit from systemic injustice, everyone took a turn playing the victim. The other black woman in the room spoke next. She looked to be in her 20s, like me, with a similar dark complexion. I presumed we would have comparable stories, but she told the group she had never experienced any overt forms of racism. I almost choked on my food. I wanted to hear more, but the conversation moved on to the white guy sitting next to her, who talked briefly about the challenges he and his wife, an Iranian woman, face. As we went further around the table, I found myself growing annoyed. Not to discredit anyones experiences, but I was surprised that not one person at the table had used the word privilege; the privilege of being a white man, or the privilege of being a black woman who can racially pass. Instead of being open about the ways in which they benefit from systemic injustice, everyone took a turn playing the victim. The next woman to speak was a white woman who recently moved to the Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw area. My attention was immediately piqued, as Crenshaw is one of the only predominantly black communities left in L.A. The woman began by sharing an interaction she had with a black woman on the street, who looked at her strangely and asked if she was lost. She then got emotional as she talked about her frustrations integrating into the community, and how she felt it best to just leave. As tears rolled down her face, I glanced around the table at the nodding and sympathetic faces. I felt like I was in the sunken place from Get Out. She was crying, and I was furious. Black people arent hateful, but you cant expect to be immediately welcomed with open arms into a community that is constantly being wounded and trying to heal. I spoke last, touching on the overt and covert racism that I experience every day in this city: the looks and stares I get walking down the street in my predominantly white neighborhood; how I wake up self-aware that the color of my skin is going to make my daily tasks that much harder; how appearing too black can be dangerous. There is a difference between tolerating blackness and accepting it. Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion Before my turn finished, I suggested that the crying white woman save her tears for the black boys and girls who not only have to worry about derogatory remarks, but about possibly losing their lives to racial bigotry. Still emotional, she nodded. I also made sure to acknowledge my own privilege. I had a seat at a table that many other black folks were not given. Soon after, the facilitator chimed in to let us know that our dinner was coming to an end. At this point, the group had barely touched on what we could do as a community to foster better racial understanding. We had made a bigger dent in the lasagna dish than we did race relations. Most of our dinner was spent just trying to process each others experiences, which I took as a testament to how much work needs to be done. If there is anything I hope my fellow diners took away with them that evening, its that we cant expect change without understanding both plight and privilege. Black people can be as open as they want about the racism they endure, but a real dialogue on race needs the honesty to go both ways. My evening consisted of trying to dissect racism in my daily life, patiently maneuvering around instances of white fragility, a group photo, and really good lasagna. We talked about racism, and then we ate cake. Nadra Widatalla is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter: @nadrawidatalla Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook To the editor: Weve had a family house in Idyllwild since the 1970s. It was my parents second home and is now a vacation house for our extended family. Weve left it largely as my parents had it, sweetly reminding us of them. As I watched the Cranston fire progress last week, I feared we would lose this family heirloom. I know this is a First World problem, and I would never compare the loss of a vacation cabin to leaving your country amid war or famine, but even with that awareness, it hurt to know that the place might burn to the ground. Thanks to the heroism and truly surgical skills of firefighters from all around Southern California, our house was saved, though the flames came within feet of our front door. To any firefighter who was part of the effort to save Idyllwild and the homes we love and cherish, we stand in gratitude and awe of your skills and bravery. Thank you. Dan Radlauer, Los Angeles Advertisement .. To the editor: The scorched apricot tree in my backyard reminds me of our 118-degree heat a few weeks back. A fire near Idyllwild, now largely under control, sends smoke over the Inland Empire, while more than a dozen fires rage across California. Climate change is real. If we want to return to a time when our climate was more predictable, we have to invest even more in renewable energy. Senate Bill 100 calls for Californias power grid to draw only from renewable energy sources by 2045. We know this is possible because the state energy grid is already 30% renewable and rising. California is blessed with sun, wind, water and waves, and we have the innovation and technology to make use of these natural resources for our energy at a competitive price. We have led the way on green energy while our economy has continued to thrive. Extreme weather, food shortages and human misery await us if we do not move to a 100% green energy future. Kris Lovekin, Riverside Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Newsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom then mayor of San Francisco contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California the fifth-largest economy in the world having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin young, vibrant taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave from six weeks to six months according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan $1.5 billion would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession more than 100 cases longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Advertisement Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Copy Link URL Copied! Print Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previously During a testy White House briefing Thursday, a reporter challenged Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to counter President Trumps claim that the American press is the enemy of the people. She wouldnt. The heated exchange between Sanders and CNNs chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, came near the end of a briefing on Russias attempted interference in the midterm elections, and just hours after Ivanka Trump unhesitatingly broke with her father in a public interview, telling her questioner that she does not believe that the media is the enemy. Acosta told Sanders, I think it would be a good thing if you were to say right here, at this briefing, that the press the people who are gathered in this room right now, doing their jobs every day, asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier are not the enemy of the people. I think we deserve that, he added. Advertisement I think the president has made his position known, Sanders replied, proceeding to express her own disdain at length. She told Acosta that it was ironic that you and the media attack the president for his rhetoric when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country. Sanders claimed that media outlets incite anger and have personally attacked her, adding that she was unfairly ridiculed at the White House Correspondents Assn. dinner in April by the comedian that the organization hired to headline the event. As far as I know, Im the first press secretary in the history of the United States thats required Secret Service protection, she said. Tell that to the five dead people in Annapolis! another reporter shouted, referring to the employees of the Capital newspaper who were shot dead in their Annapolis, Md., office in June. Acosta followed up, giving Sanders another chance to disavow Trumps claim. For the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what youre saying, Sarah, he told her. The president of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. Sanders didnt yield. She said she appreciated Acostas passion, but reiterated that Trump had made his position on the matter clear. Then she moved on to the next question. And, as the briefing ended, Acosta walked out. A much different exchange played out earlier in the day, when Ivanka Trump was interviewed before an audience in Washington by Mike Allen, the executive editor of Axios, a news website. Do you think that were the enemy of the people? Allen asked her. The presidents daughter, who is also his senior White House advisor but unlike Sanders doesnt have to be fearful of her job security, responded, No, I do not. Thats not a view thats shared in your family, Allen pressed, as the audience laughed. I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they feel targeted. But, no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people, Trump said. In a tweet later Wednesday, President Trump sought to suggest that he and his daughter were in complete agreement, and said that she had given the right response. But then he repeated the accusation: It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people! The latest from Washington @ElizaFawcett The Trump administration Thursday pushed ahead with plans to unravel the federal governments most effective action to fight climate change aggressive fuel economy standards aimed at getting the nations cars and trucks to average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. After months of discussion and drafts, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally unveiled their plan to rewrite those rules and replace them with ones so lax that even automakers are wary. The administrations plan would freeze mileage targets in 2020 for six years. It would also move to end Californias power to set its own, tougher greenhouse gas emissions standards and nullify the state mandate that automakers sell a specified number of electric vehicles. EPA officials sought to portray the proposal as the administrations opening bid in a negotiation with California. State officials, however, loudly denounced the plan as too extreme and threatened to fight it in court. California and the 13 other states that follow its more stringent rules argue the Clean Air Act empowers them to keep the Obama-era standards in place in their markets. Advertisement Together, California and the other 13 states account for more than a third of the vehicles sold nationwide. (Los Angeles Times) The rollback would undermine those states efforts to meet commitments the U.S. made in the Paris agreement on climate change. It would also worsen air quality problems in Southern California and other areas where officials are already struggling to clean smog and ease rates of asthma and other illnesses. The administration asserts that the fuel economy rules should not be used to attempt to solve climate change, even in part because such a goal is fundamentally different from the Clean Air Acts original purpose of addressing smog-related air quality problems. Californias attorney general is waging war against Trump. These are the battlefronts Administration officials acknowledged that flat-lining fuel economy improvements would come at the expense of pollution reductions and public health. If we lock in the 2020 standards, were not getting as much emissions reductions as we otherwise would, and that translates into incrementally less protection of health and the environment, said EPA Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum. But balanced against that we get substantial improvement in vehicle and highway safety, he said. The administration argues that fuel economy and safety are inevitably in tension, as Wehrum put it. The Obama administrations higher efficiency rules would raise vehicle prices and restrict the American people from being able to afford newer vehicles with more advanced safety features, they assert. More realistic standards can save lives while continuing to improve the environment, said acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Environmental advocates and many outside scientists dispute that reasoning, pointing to extensive studies done during the Obama years that found that higher fuel standards could be achieved without compromising safety. The EPAs own scientists also have questioned the administrations position. Wheeler, who took over the EPA after Scott Pruitt resigned in early July, warned during recent internal administration debates that the evidence behind the proposal was questionable and might not stand up in court, administration officials have said. The release of the administrations proposal was repeatedly delayed in recent weeks as officials debated how aggressively to push. In the end, the White House approved taking a hard line. Gov. Jerry Brown vowed to push back, saying California would fight the new plan in every conceivable way possible. For Trump to now destroy a law first enacted at the request of Ronald Reagan five decades ago is a betrayal and an assault on the health of Americans everywhere, Brown said, referring to the Clean Air Act. Under his reckless scheme, motorists will pay more at the pump, get worse gas mileage and breathe dirtier air. That combative stance seems likely to have broad support in the state. For example, Browns Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who championed efforts to combat global warming, blasted in an online post fake conservatives who believe in states rights to make their own policies as long as state policy is to pollute more. By contrast, the Trump administrations internal tensions were on display during a call with reporters Thursday as transportation officials steadfastly defended the proposal while the EPA emphasized that it was not final and that a compromise with California and the auto industry could be reached. Theres nothing about how greenhouse gases and potential climate change affects California thats any different than any other state in the country, Wehrum said, and he added theres no justification for California to have its own standards. But he left room for compromise: Having said that, this is just a proposed rule, and on the other hand we are committed to working with California to try to find a mutually agreeable set of regulations. The California Air Resources Board will submit comments on the proposal but has no meetings planned with the administration, a spokesman said. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said the state will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend todays national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them. The prospect of an extended legal fight has discomfited automakers, who had asked the administration to relax the Obama-era rules but dont want to see the U.S. market split in two, with different models of cars required in blue and red states. In letters to Brown and Trump, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Assn. of Global Automakers, the industrys two lobbying groups, repeated their desire for changes in the Obama-era rules but notably did not endorse the administrations proposal to freeze the fuel standards in 2020. The groups urged both sides to negotiate. In our eyes, a negotiated settlement is preferable to a bifurcated system and years of litigation, they wrote in the letter to Trump. Vehicles are the single largest source in the U.S. of emissions that cause global warming, recently surpassing the electricity sector. The plunge in natural gas prices and other market forces have steadily lowered the climate impact of utilities, but transportation is proving more stubborn. Electric cars and trucks still account for a tiny fraction of those sold, and driver preference for SUVs, along with relatively low gas prices, have inhibited progress. The existing federal fuel economy targets, which were championed by California, ensure automakers keep moving toward higher efficiency vehicles, as other nations also require. Those rules require automakers to meet fleet-wide averages of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025, which when factoring in credits and other flexibility options, translates to about 36 mpg in real-world driving conditions. In comparison, the Trump proposal would freeze real-world fuel economy at about 30 miles per gallon, according to projections by the Rhodium Group, a research firm that tracks the progress nations are making in meeting climate goals. The emissions impact of freezing those targets, as the administration favors, could be enormous. Official projections show the plan would increase daily fuel consumption by 2% to 3%, or about 500,000 barrels per day, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to the rise in global temperatures. The Bay Area firm Energy Innovation, which models the environmental impact of energy policies, projects the proposal would increase U.S. fuel use 20% by 2035. The firm projects the policy would cost the U.S. economy $457 billion and cause 13,000 deaths by 2050, as air quality suffers. The administration projects the efficiency rules would drive up the price of cars enough to push some buyers out of the market, leaving them to remain in older vehicles lacking life-saving new technologies like assisted braking and blind-spot warning. Flat-lining emissions standards, officials contend, would allow the auto industry to sell cars at lower prices, resulting in an additional 1 million new vehicle sales over the next decade. The argument may prove a tough sell in court, where attorneys for states and environmental groups will come armed with a wealth of data undermining it. The fleet of new vehicles today is the most fuel efficient ever, and they have gotten safer every year, said Luke Tonachel, director of clean vehicles and fuels at the Natural Resources Defense Council. These arguments are not new. They have failed before. Federal data show the increased cost consumers would pay for the more efficient vehicles is dwarfed by the amount of money they would save at the pump, undermining the argument that drivers will stay in older, unsafe vehicles, advocates for the tougher rules say. Trump administration officials conceded Thursday that labor, parts and other costs not fuel economy rules are the main reason cars and trucks are getting more expensive. Automakers themselves have also confirmed they can build lighter cars to meet tougher emissions standards without sacrificing safety, UCLA environmental law professor Ann Carlson wrote Thursday. The arguments about cost and safety are makeweights designed to provide cover for a proposal that is likely to be struck down in court. At a May meeting in the White House, auto firms appealed to Trump to tap the brakes on the administrations aggressive rollback plan. He assured them he would, ordering his EPA chief and Transportation secretary to try to broker a deal with California. Those negotiations have gone nowhere. California is confident the administration has no legal authority to revoke the waiver the state has been granted under the Clean Air Act allowing it to keep the Obama-era rules in place. In May, California and 16 other states filed a preemptive lawsuit arguing the rollback would be illegal. There is no precedent for revoking Californias waiver, said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign of the Center for Auto Safety, an advocacy group in Washington. There is no provision in the Clean Air Act for revoking a waiver. The world is looking to California to hold its ground. The latest look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington More stories from Evan Halper evan.halper@latimes.com | Twitter: @evanhalper UPDATES: 1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with quotes from letter by auto manufacturers to Trump. 12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and additional analysis. 8:15 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Wheeler and Wehrum. 6:50 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement by Gov. Jerry Brown. This article was originally published at 6:25 a.m. Democrat Gavin Newsom emerged from Californias gubernatorial primary with a prodigious financial advantage over Republican rival John Cox, banking more than seven times as much money for the general election. As of June 30, Californias two-term lieutenant governor and the front-runner in the race, has more than $11 million in the bank, while Cox has $1.5 million, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state Tuesday. Newsoms financial position is not surprising he has led in fundraising since he entered the race in 2015. He is also seeing a burst of new contributions from donors who supported Antonio Villaraigosa, his top Democratic rival in the primary. But Cox, a wealthy Rancho Santa Fe businessman who donated $5.5 million to his campaign, has been receiving larger donations since he consolidated the GOP vote to place second in the June 5 primary. And he could easily write more seven-figure checks to his campaign. Advertisement Newsoms dominance in fundraising and a recent post-primary opinion poll spell trouble for Cox, said Sacramento-based Republican strategist Rob Stutzman. Newsom had a 24-percentage-point lead over Cox in a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, and Californians have not elected a GOP candidate in a statewide race since 2006. To really be competitive and win, a Republican needs to run a $40-million to $60-million campaign for the fall, Stutzman said. Its a big challenge. Its not unique to Cox. Stutzman served as a senior advisor to Republican Meg Whitman in 2010 when the former eBay president and chief executive spent $178.5 million, including $144 million of her own money, on an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid. Whitman was trounced by Democrat Jerry Brown. The campaign finance reports released this week cover fundraising and spending between May 20 and June 30, a period that included the heated lead-up to the primary and the campaign bills that came due afterward. Newsom spent nearly $5 million during that period, while Cox spent $1.2 million, according to the reports. Villaraigosa spent nearly $1.2 million, but benefited from millions of dollars in spending by outside groups on his behalf during that period. But the spending largely didnt rejigger the race, and donors began shifting allegiances once they observed the direction the election was likely to take. Notable Villaraigosa supporters who donated to Newsom shortly before the primary or in the weeks after include music executive Clarence Avant, investor Robert Beyer, film producer Steve Bing, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and Paramount Pictures chairman and chief executive James Gianopulos. Perhaps the most notable donation came from Netflix founder Reed Hastings, who donated more than $7 million to pro-Villaraigosa and anti-Newsom efforts nearly all of which went to an independent-expenditure committee formed by charter-school backers that broke spending records, but ultimately proved ineffective. Three weeks after the primary on June 26, Hastings donated $29,200 the maximum allowed by law to Newsoms general election effort. Coverage of California politics Hastings did not respond to a request for comment. Villaraigosas supporters could be taking cues from the former Los Angeles mayor, who endorsed Newsom during his concession speech on June 5, and in person two weeks later. Some donors who contributed to the two candidates said both are well qualified to be the states next governor. Bill Bloomfield, a wealthy centrist South Bay donor who is registered no party preference, said he and his wife, Susan, maxed out their donations to Villaraigosa immediately after he launched his bid in November 2016 because of their preexisting relationship and Villaraigosas support of the education-reform movement. The couple also donated the maximum amount to Newsoms primary bid the following year. And after the primary, they each contributed $29,200 to Newsoms general election bid. Hes the only one left, so I maxed out to Gavin, Bloomfield said. They were both very well qualified to be governor, though obviously they ran different campaigns. When Cox entered the governors race in early 2017, he vowed not to run a self-funded campaign. But since then he has not hesitated to tap his substantial wealth. Of the $8.3 million he has raised since launching his bid for governor, $5.5 million came from Cox himself. Still, the Cox campaign saw a substantial increase in donations after his second-place finish in the primary. Excluding his own contributions, Cox raised $1.2 million in June alone. That haul was more than double the amount he raised in May, which, until then, had been his most successful fundraising month of the race, state campaign finance records show. Twenty-two supporters have written $29,200 checks to the Cox campaign since he advanced to the November election. Cox didnt receive a maximum contribution before then, state campaign finance records show. Those donors included the Lincoln Club of Orange County, but most have not been major financial players in previous gubernatorial campaigns. For the past two decades, California has been a political graveyard for wealthy, self-funded candidates running for governor. Republican Neel Kashkari dropped $3.1 million into his 2014 campaign for governor, which helped him survive past the primary only to be roundly defeated by Brown in the general election. Democrat Al Checchi, the former co-chairman of Northwest Airlines, spent $40 million in the 1998 governors race and came in second place to Gray Davis in the Democratic primary. Democrat Steve Westly, a former state controller and eBay executive, spent $35 million of his own money in a failed 2006 gubernatorial bid. And Republican Steve Poizner, a former state insurance commissioner, contributed $24 million in the 2010 governors race only to lose to Whitman in the GOP primary, who spent much more on her campaign. (Poizner is currently running for state insurance commissioner as an independent no party preference candidate.) Melinda Jackson, a political scientist from San Jose State University, said its a mistake to think that having a flush bank account and a crew of well-paid political consultants will pave a path to success. Even in mammoth California, where television ads have traditionally been the best way to reach the most voters, there are benefits to the retail politics of community fundraisers and campaign rallies. Its a real blind spot for some of these wealthy candidates, Jackson said. When youre self funding, youre not out talking to people and hearing what their concerns are. Times staff writers Maloy Moore and Ryan Menezes contributed to this report. Follow California politics by signing up for our email newsletter seema.mehta@latimes.com; phil.willon@latimes.com Follow @LATSeema and @philwillon on Twitter. Recently, more and more Japanese companies have taken actions that show their positive attitude about participating in the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, and Japanese leaders have also made some positive gestures. It seems that Japan's participation in the B&R initiative will open up new space for China-Japan economic cooperation and create new growth points. Promoting mutual cooperation in third-party markets is conducive to both the economic development of third parties and the expansion of China-Japan economic and trade cooperation. Positive statements by Japanese leaders seem to draw the country closer to the B&R initiative. But the real driving force is the inevitable historical trend. That is, from "Datsu-A Ron", which means "Goodbye, Asia" to "returning to Asia." Japan implemented "Datsu-A Ron" almost 150 years ago. One major reason was that Asia was clearly behind at that time and it was necessary for Japan to catch up with the industrial and technological revolutions in Europe. Although Japan's drive went the wrong way politically, the nation did seize the opportunity of developing science and technology. As a dominant force in world economic development, Asia plays an increasingly important role in globalization. Interest in participating in the B&R initiative shows Japan's growing realization of the importance of returning to Asia and jointly promoting the prosperity and development of Asia. Under the B&R initiative, international container trains run by China Railway Express have linked China with Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Since 2015, more than 100 trains have traveled on China Railway Express routes each month. This service has attracted more and more Japanese enterprises. For example, Nippon Express has begun to use the China-Europe freight trains, which offer multimodal transportation between Japan and Europe and greatly shorten delivery times. It means that the B&R initiative has helped set up closer ties between Japan and Europe. Both China and Japan have benefited from free trade, and both also defend it. With anti-globalization and anti-free trade sentiment in the international community instigated by some countries, Japan's participation in the B&R initiative will be a concrete step to protect the multilateral free trade system and a specific action to oppose protectionism and unilateralism. What's more, joining the B&R initiative is to the benefit of Japan as it seeks to further expand into the Asian and European markets. Some Japanese scholars believe that the crucial issue for the Japanese economy is that it lacks adequate markets despite its great success in some important technical fields. But if Japan can share its advanced technologies and experience in energy conservation, environmental protection, disaster management, infrastructure construction and high technology, the country can naturally and successfully expand its markets. Participating in the B&R initiative is an opportunity for Japan to achieve a dual success in terms of technology and markets. Countries and regions along the B&R route are in need of extensive infrastructure. Some Japanese entrepreneurs have even said that after China lays the initial roads and railways, they will use those facilities to enter those markets. Promoting infrastructure construction via the B&R initiative together with China can be expected to bring abundant business opportunities for Japanese companies. At the same time, we shouldn't only build the physical infrastructure in B&R economies - we should also build the intangible infrastructure, which means cultivating talented people with industrial and informational skills. By creating one advanced realm joining advanced economies in Europe and Asia, the B&R initiative will change the longstanding situation in which advanced Europe and less-developed Asia were separated from each other for centuries. As to some Japanese politicians who focus on short-term, narrow geopolitical considerations, and they need to take a longer-term view of the overall situation. Why not seize the B&R opportunities, which offer a historic chance to promote free trade and prosperity in the Eurasian continent? The author is an honorary academician of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and consultant of China Society of Sino-Japanese Relations History. Its been almost a year since Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, battering the U.S. territory with heavy rain, flash floods and winds that blew up to 155 mph. Officially, the death toll stands at 64. But a new report estimates that 1,139 people lost their lives as a result of the Category 4 storm. The figure, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., is based on mortality data from Puerto Ricos vital statistics system that was not previously available. Its among the higher estimates of hurricane-related deaths to emerge since the storm hit on Sept. 20, and its within the range reported in May by a team from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Their conclusion, based on face-to-face interviews of nearly 3,300 Puerto Rican residents, was that between 793 and 8,498 people died as a result of the storm, with 4,645 being in the middle of that range. Hurricane Marias death toll was 70 times higher than Puerto Rican officials have reported, study says Advertisement Some deaths were a direct consequence of Hurricane Maria, including residents who drowned in flooded streets or who were crushed in collapsing buildings. Other fatalities occurred days or weeks later as patients were forced to go without necessary medications, lost access to equipment such as dialysis machines or were unable to call for an ambulance following an otherwise treatable emergency as Puerto Rico struggled to recover from the storm. For the new study in JAMA, demographer Alexis Santos-Lozada of Pennsylvania State University and researcher Jeffrey Howard of the University of Texas at San Antonio examined official death counts for Puerto Rico between January 2010 and December 2017. First, the pair focused on the seven years before the hurricane hit to determine the baseline number of deaths for each month of the year. They averaged the figures from 2010 to 2016 and came up with a range that had a 95% chance of including the true mortality number. Then, for each month, they compared that range to the number of deaths in 2017. A woman adds shoes to a memorial display representing hurricane victims at the Puerto Rican capitol. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press) For all of the months between January and August, the 2017 death count was in line with the averages from the previous seven years. In four months (January, April, May and June) the 2017 figure was slightly above average, and in four months (February, March, July and August) it was slightly below. But in all those cases, the 2017 count was within the historical range. That changed in September, when Hurricane Maria made landfall. Between 2010 and 2016, the number of September deaths in Puerto Rico was between 2,297 and 2,469. In 2017, it was 2,928, according to the vital statistics system. To be conservative, Santos-Lozada and Howard compared the 2017 figure to the highest number in the range from previous years. That gave them an estimate of 459 excess deaths in the month the hurricane hit. Using the same method, they estimated there were 564 additional deaths in October and 116 in November. But by December, the 2017 death count (2,820) was back in the historical range (2,543 to 2,824). Altogether, the excess deaths from September through November totaled 1,139. Santos-Lozada and Howard had previously calculated that about 1,085 Puerto Ricans perished as a result of Hurricane Maria. That figure was based on official mortality data only through October 2017. The additional data suggest the territorys final hurricane-related fatality occurred in November. But theres no way to know for sure until more information is released by the Puerto Rican government, Santos-Lozada said. It is possible some deaths occurred in 2018 and that they are associated somehow with Hurricane Maria, but we do not have information on that matter and it would be irresponsible to speculate about it, he said. Members of the Harvard team have looked at official data for 2018, and they see signs that the hurricanes effects continued well into this year. When they obtained daily (rather than monthly) mortality data through May 2018, the immediate impact of the hurricane was clear: For about two weeks after Sept. 20, there were between 25 and 50 additional deaths per day, Harvard biostatistician Rafael Irizarry wrote on his blog. After making adjustments for the effects of Puerto Ricos shrinking and aging population, as well as seasonal effects on mortality, they found that that it took only a few days for Hurricane Marias death toll to reach 64. Their calculations showed that the number of excess daily deaths continued to rise until February. By then, about 2,000 additional Puerto Ricans had died since the hurricane made landfall, Irizarry said. The Puerto Rican government has asked researchers from George Washington University to determine how many people in the territory died as a result of the hurricane. That report is expected to be released before the end of the summer. Government officials have said they expect the number of deaths to be higher than 64. karen.kaplan@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook. MORE IN SCIENCE UPDATES: 1 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about deaths in Puerto Rico in 2018. This article was originally published at 8 a.m. Theres a new ministry at St. Robert Bellarmine Church and its purpose is to boost morale of Burbank police and fire first responders. Church members and husband and wife Brian and Courtney Ulrich are at the helm of S.I.R.E.N., which is an acronym for Supplication, Intercession, Rosaries, Encouragement and Needs. The couple saw a need for the ministry after reading local newspaper reports that surveys showed morale was low in the Burbank Police Department. Each word relates to what the group hopes to provide. Supplication and Intercession are both about prayer, Courtney Ulrich said. We want a just and fair police department, but we also want to intercede on their behalf for their protection and make sure we have a community that supports them, she said. We dont want their morale to be [low]. We want them to be proud of being a part of our community. A unique part of the ministry is that members create handmade rosaries that are blessed by a priest. Rosaries were presented to several members of the Burbank Police Department as part of a celebration of the feast day of St. Michael, the patron saint of police officers. There was a Mass held in the departments honor at St. Roberts Church, followed by a reception in the courtyard. Dads Donuts donated 17 dozen of the delectable delights and two local Starbucks provided coffee and cups. The rosaries are designed for police officers and the beads are blue, Courtney Ulrich said. We pray lovingly over each bead as they are being put together. The couples daughter, Luda Ulrich, is a cadet with the Burbank Police Department, so as parents of a prospective officer, they wanted to create a way to support first responders. Another Mass honoring the Burbank Fire Department will be held in May on the feast day of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters. Ministry volunteers raised funds for the rosaries with a bake sale and childrens boutique. They also made gift boxes for the police filled with hygiene items such as lip balm and hand sanitizer. The boxes included a wooden cross made by a group in Portland, Ore., led by Doug Naimo, who is a nephew of Bea Lockwood, a ministry member. The ministrys focus is on the local community, but members also raise funds for those in need in other states. Recently, they took up a special collection at the church, which was split between first responders and victims of the hurricane in Houston, Brian Ulrich said. In one precinct, they said that 80% of their firefighters had lost their own homes, he said. They were out working, and they were volunteer firefighters, so they were not being paid. On top of that, they were fueling up their trucks out of their own pocket. Leading the group of officers and staff attending the Mass at St. Roberts Church was Burbank Police Capt. Eric Deroian, a 27-year police veteran who has served five years with the local department. Deroian said the Mass held in honor of the police department shows what a supportive community Burbank is. This was just wonderful for them to bring us into their church and offer support to our police officers and their families in these times, he said. It makes us want to engage with the community more. It feels like a family here in Burbank. Brian Ulrich, who recently converted to Catholicism, credits Star Wars for the rosaries. Every Jedi has to construct his own light saber to complete his training, so the ministry leader thought he should learn how to make his own rosary and found instructions on YouTube. All of the beads are made of natural materials, such as agate. Thats the joy of it making it with nice things and finding someone who needs or wants one and giving it away, he said Another element of the ministry is the Golden Girls Cookie Brigade, co-chaired by Sally Peterson and Doris Owings. Once a month, eight volunteers make four dozen cookies that are delivered to the Burbank police and fire headquarters and the six fire stations. We hope that our sweet treats will let the first responders know that they are appreciated for their service and bravery in action, Peterson said. Fire Capt. Mike Malloy and police officer Paul Lin accepted the cookies delivered earlier this month at the downtown headquarters. Its very nice that the community supports its emergency services, Malloy said. It gives you a warm feeling in your heart and its much appreciated. Its really awesome! Lin said about the cookie delivery. Myself, as well as other officers and employees of the department, truly appreciate the community support and it definitely feels good to know that we have people who care for us and what we do. To volunteer, prospective Golden Girls can contact Peterson at (818) 843-6263. JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com. Since 2004, a dedicated organization known as 44 Women for Orangewood has focused its fundraising on much-needed scholarships for youths emancipated from the foster care system who wish to attend college but lack the financial and emotional support. Susan Samueli, activist, philanthropist and co-owner of the Anaheim Ducks, founded the group. She discovered this very real need, frankly a failure of the social services system in terms of helping foster youth transition to independent and successful lives when they turn 18. She rallied the troops, enlisting her close girlfriends, and 44 Women for Children was created. In recent years the organization has evolved into 44 Women for Orangewood as it has always been under the auspices of the organizations foundation. In the early years, Samueli invited her friends to an annual summer luncheon on the oceanfront lawn of her residence in Corona del Mar. The setting was spectacular, the program meaningful, yet the gathering was never glitzy, its serious message paramount. Shirley Pepys and Christine DAmbrosio take part in festivities at 44 Women for Orangewoods 14th annual scholarship luncheon. (Courtesy of Ann Chatillon) Samueli is direct and practical. Big money was never spent on a fancy luncheon; she served simple, one-course salads. Money raised went right into the scholarship fund. Then, as now, the number of former foster youth needing college assistance was extreme. But that never got in the way of helping young men and women, one at a time, evaluating each need separately with care and concern. As the years have progressed, so has the scope and reach of the organization. The annual luncheon now requires a major hotel ballroom. Recently, the 14th annual scholarship luncheon unfolded at the Fashion Island Hotel. Co-chaired by Jeanne Boyce and Yvette McCarthy, 300 ladies and gentlemen attended. Organizers invited Steve Pemberton, a corporate executive, youth advocate and author to share his life story. Pemberton had the crowd listening to his every word. His life experience resonated with the 44 Women message. As a boy, Pemberton was abandoned by his biological family and ended up in foster care. He suffered untold neglect. He told the audience that his foster family, in addition to not providing any love, support or the basic fundamental needs of a child growing up, had no real interest in his education or development. They didnt even allow him to read books, a pastime in which he was truly interested. Can you imagine the callousness of an adult guardian not allowing a child to read? Jenny Klein, Event Sponsor Shahrzad Bina representing Twila True with Orangewood board member Susan Samueli. (Courtesy of Ann Chatillon) Pemberton sought refuge in his elementary school. Apparently school becoming a place of hope and security is an experience shared among many foster youth. Pembertons overriding message was that three decent people came into his life and set him on course. One was a man who saw his potential and took him in when he had nowhere else to go. Today, Pemberton is happily married with three children and a successful corporate career. He is also the author of the autobiographical book, A Chance in the World. Talk to children in the language of their dreams, not that of their current circumstances, he said at the conclusion of his address. Joining Pemberton at the podium were youth speakers Orlando Roybal and Desiree Luna. Both delivered their upbeat messages with hope for their futures and sincere appreciation to 44 Women for scholarship assistance and mentoring. As a four-course luncheon was served by the Fashion Island Hotel, prominent guests, including event committee members Carey Clawson, Karen Goldhirsh, Judy Nicholls and Shahrzad Bina, were among the supporting women producing the event alongside co-chairs Boyce and McCarthy. Front and center were Kimberly Kirksey and title sponsor Hein Papaian. Shirley Pepys, a longtime dedicated advocate, joined Shannon Tarnutzer, Lupe Erwin, Sandi Jackson and Chris Simonsen, chief executive of the Orangewood Foundation. Alicia McCarthy and her father Kevin McCarthy at the annual scholarship luncheon. (Photos by Ann Chatillon /) Major sponsors and underwriters included Ducks executives Wendy Arciero and Gina Galasso. They joined foundation board members Bruce Fetter, Dan Houck and John Stratman. Reshma Block, Peggy Holt, Jenny Klein and Bob Theemling, chief program officer of the Orangewood Foundation, attended as well. Helping to raise money for the cause were Mike Shumard, handling the fund a need portion of the program. Generous sponsors underwrote an opportunity drawing with prizes provided by South Coast Plaza, the Los Angeles Angels, Oak Grill, Yves Saint Laurent, The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel and dermatologist Anne Marie McNeill. To learn more about the Orangewood Foundation and the 44 Women for Orangewood Auxiliary, visit 44WomenforOrangewood.org. B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. A Costa Mesa man is back home, fresh from completing a prestigious assignment: polishing the original Air Force One presidential jet. Guillermo Perez of Alpha Professional Detailing traveled to the Museum of Flight in Seattle for the annual project to shine up the historic plane July 15-22. Sixty-five workers participated, organized by Big Bear-based detailer Renny Doyle. In completing the work, Perez became a made man in Doyles group, the Detail Mafia. Thus he joined another Costa Mesa businessman, Joab Flores of Platinum Plus Mobile Detailing, who was inducted into the group last year and participated again this year. I was waiting for a year, and when they called me, it felt really good, Perez said. Perezs work on the Boeing 707-120 which was first used in 1959 and served Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, according to the Museum of Flight involved polishing and applying a sealant. In addition, he polished a World War II-era B-29 Superfortress and a Boeing 787 ZA003 Dreamliner. Perezs Alpha Professional Detailing is a mobile business that operates mainly in Newport Beach. He routinely works on cars, trucks, boats, RVs and motorcycles. The trip was his first time working on planes. It was an amazing opportunity to work on that plane, especially to preserve the history of it, Perez said. Its hard labor. Its intense polishing. Perez got into the business after learning from one of his Costa Mesa neighbors. Eventually, he became certified by the International Detailing Assn. and Doyles training company Detailing Success. Still, Perez, a Newport Harbor High School graduate, said he picked up new skills and knowledge during his time in Seattle. It was a great experience that we shared, he said. That was a good thing for me, knowing the other detailers. ... You never stop learning. You learn every day. Bradley Zint is a contributor to Times Community News. Despite unanimous City Council opposition, the city of Costa Mesa received notice this week that the California State Department of Public Health approved a mobile needle exchange program a block away from two elementary schools, surrounded by a residential area, and 1,500 businesses. While other council members could only make comments, some very deceptive, I did what lawyers do: I took action by working with lawyer and Councilman John Stephens and our city staff to develop a legal solution to stop the program from starting up in our city. While the Hepatitis C and the opioid epidemic are public health concerns that worry me, its shocking and disturbing that there is little to no regard for the families in Costa Mesa by a state agency assigned to protect the public. This needle exchange program is just one more instance where state agencies are making decisions or enacting policies that are detrimental to our quality of life without consulting us. In this case, it feels like Costa Mesa is being specifically targeted. First, our city is already impacted with the 92 drug rehab facility licenses in traditional neighborhoods; now it is hit with this needle program that will be detrimental to our quality of life. The city and our Police Department did our homework when we learned about the program application. I, along with the council, unanimously opposed it. We made a very strong case that the operators of the Orange County Needle Exchange Program were negligent when they operated their program at the Santa Ana Civic Center. They were good at distributing needles, but not so good at collecting used ones. And in their application to the state, the Orange County Needle Exchange Program made a startling admission. They stated that since opening in February 2016, We have collected over 2.25 million syringes, and distributed over 2.5 million syringes. Their own statements demonstrate they were responsible for approximately 250,000 unaccounted for syringes left within the Santa Ana community. Their application seeks to give 20 needles for every one collected. Thats simply irresponsible. The needle exchange operators conducted no public outreach in Costa Mesa on their poorly devised plan. In fact, we learned about it through social media. The application failed to disclose the 500 residences in the area and misled the state by claiming there were no homeowner associations. This area contains numerous single-family homes and apartment complexes, as well as several mobile home parks that are largely occupied by seniors. Whittier Elementary School and Carden Hall private school are also in this area. Not to mention, there are approximately 1,500 business licenses issued within the area. Its a travesty for Costa Mesa families to endure these poorly approved plans by a state agency that fails to consider our own police chiefs research and data. We are on a dangerous path. I promise you we are going to fight hard to protect the health and welfare of Costa Mesas families and business owners. Stephens and I bring our legal expertise and our relationships with the elected leaders and city attorneys of the other involved cities to the table. Together, with our sister city and county partners, we will stop this needle exchange program and force the state agency to protect the public. For now, these important community issues require thoughtful planning and a legal strategy, not a political one. Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley is a candidate for mayor. The Huntington Beach city clerk disqualified a candidate for city attorney this week because he didnt graduate from a law school accredited by the American Bar Assn. Jerry Friedman, who earned his law degree at the University of West Los Angeles in 2013, said City Clerk Robin Estanislau notified him by email Monday that he failed to meet one of four requirements to run for the office. While I hold no personal opinion of you or your worthiness as a candidate for the elected position of city attorney, based on the guidelines of Charter 309 I have no choice but to disqualify you from taking further action during the candidate nomination period for the Nov. 6, 2018, general municipal election, Estanislau wrote. Section 309 of the city charter requires a degree from an ABA-accredited school. Friedmans Inglewood-based alma mater lacks the ABAs endorsement, though it is accredited by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges and the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California. Even the state of California does not require its city attorney to have graduated from an ABA-accredited school, Friedman said, adding that he plans to pursue legal action. In other words, I am qualified to be Californias attorney general but, according to Huntington Beach, I am not qualified to be its city attorney. Friedman contends the ABA accreditation is an unconstitutional qualification by arbitrarily denying those like him. A school doesnt make someone a better or worse lawyer, he said. In Huntington Beach, candidates running for the city attorney role are required to submit paperwork stating their qualifications by Aug. 10. In response to the question about his education, Friedman wrote, unconstitutional, see letter attached, and included his attorneys rebuttal. City Attorney Michael Gates, who is running for reelection, said Estanislau made the call without his input. Since the charter is pretty plain in language about its requirement, it didnt need to come to me for interpretation, Gates said. This is really between him and the clerk. In 2010, the city reviewed possible amendments proposed by the Huntington Beach Charter Commission to clean up obsolete language, according to Estanislau. Voter-approved amendments included stricter qualifications for the city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer. This is Friedmans second recent dispute with the city. In April, Gates took legal action intended to stop Friedmans client, Daniel Horgan, from circulating a petition seeking a ban on semiautomatic and automatic guns in Huntington Beach. Gates argued that Horgans proposal was unconstitutional, invalid and not entitled to a place on the ballot. Friedman hit back in May by filing a motion accusing the city of violating his clients free-speech rights. At the end of May, Gates asked the court to drop the citys lawsuit after learning that Horgan wouldnt submit signatures from his gun petition, making the case moot. In July, Friedman filed a court motion seeking $14,385 from the city for 46 hours of work on behalf of his client. Priscella.Vega@latimes.com Twitter: @vegapriscella UPDATES: 1 p.m.: This article was updated with the background of Jerry Friedmans dispute with the city over Daniel Horgans proposed gun ban. This article was originally published at 11:55 a.m. A gang member was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a 19-year-old Huntington Beach woman whose body was found stuffed in a cooler in an abandoned car, authorities said. A Los Angeles County jury on July 12 convicted Anthony Robert Moreno, 40, of Hacienda Heights of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon in the 2015 slaying of Dawn Molly McEveety. Jurors also affirmed a special allegation that the killing was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang with the intent to promote its criminal conduct. Prosecutors said Moreno shot McEveety on Nov. 24, 2015, in the detached garage of a home in Artesia that was known as a gang hangout. Moreno placed the body in a cooler and took it to the Whittier area, where it was left in a stolen 1991 Toyota Celica hatchback, prosecutors said. Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies found McEveetys body in the Celica five days later. The car emitted a strong odor that indicated decomposition, authorities said. Moreno was identified as a suspect in 2016 when he was in state prison in an unrelated case. Moreno, whom authorities described as a documented gang member, previously was convicted of various firearms charges and driving a stolen vehicle. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @HannahFryTCN A 21-year-old Newport Beach man charged with murder in the stabbing death of former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein will also face a hate-crime sentencing enhancement allegation, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Thursday. Rackauckas said prosecutors believe Samuel Woodward killed Bernstein, 19, because Bernstein was gay. A hate-crime enhancement based on sexual orientation is appropriate due to the evidence developed by looking at Woodwards cellphone, laptop and social media, Rackauckas said. All of this revealed the dark side of Woodwards thoughts and intentions. Rackauckas declined to elaborate on specifics of the evidence, though he said theres a lot there that spews hatred toward many different groups of people. Samuel Woodward of Newport Beach is pictured at a hearing in Orange County Superior Court in January. He faces a murder charge and two sentencing enhancement allegations in the stabbing death of former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein. (File Photo / Los Angeles Times) The enhancement means that if Woodward is convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of life in state prison without parole. Before Thursdays announcement, the maximum he could have received was 26 years to life, according to prosecutors. Woodward has pleaded not guilty to murder and denied sentencing enhancement allegations of personal use of a knife. He is expected in court for a preliminary hearing Aug. 22, according to court records. Prosecutors allege Woodward stabbed Bernstein in early January and buried him in a shallow grave at Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch. Bernsteins body was found Jan. 9 with more than 20 stab wounds. Bernstein, a pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, was visiting his parents in Lake Forest during winter break when his family reported him missing Jan. 3. An image of Blaze Bernstein is shown at a memorial in January for the slain college student. (File Photo / Los Angeles Times) According to a 16-page affidavit filed in Orange County Superior Court, Woodward told investigators that Bernstein kissed him on the lips while they were sitting in a parked car Jan. 2. According to the affidavit, Woodward told authorities the kiss was unwanted and that he pushed Bernstein away, adding that he wanted to call him a faggot. DNA evidence at Borrego Park and in Woodwards car led to Woodwards arrest Jan. 12, authorities said. According to a report published in January by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative news organization, three people who knew Woodward said he was part of Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization that aims to overthrow the U.S. government through guerrilla tactics and terrorism. Rackauckas declined to comment about photographs that have been circulated online allegedly depicting Woodward with members of Atomwaffen Division. Bernsteins mother, Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, was seated in the front row during Thursdays news conference and closed her eyes as Rackauckas described the brutality of her sons slaying. Today we suffer an added layer of pain from learning that he was likely killed simply because of who he was as a human being, said Bernsteins father, Gideon Bernstein. Our only objective at this point is to make sure that maximum sentencing is an option to ensure that no one is ever hurt or killed again by hate. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @HannahFryTCN Zoe Cruz experiences the world through music. In fact, its probably fair to say her world is music. Zoe, who is 12, has cerebral palsy, a neurodevelopment disorder. She is blind and unable to speak. But when Zoe hears music, she opens up, her mother, Margaret Cruz, said. Shell react in various ways, depending on the type and quality of the music. She might listen intently or sway back and forth. She might giggle or get angry. She listens to music with a different purpose, Cruz said. Every time I put the radio on KROQ, she hated it. She would cry. She wanted to hear classical or rock. She hears rap and sometimes she laughs hysterically. But when she hears something really instrumental, she just stops. She really opens up. By the way, Zoe doesnt only listen to music. Shes quite the musician as well. Zoe is never without her transistor radio, which she holds up against one ear, and a recorder, which she holds against the other. Zoe also has a small electric keyboard and uses it to play the music she hears. She wont play on demand but when she is ready, she plays perfectly, her mother said. She doesnt like to give up her radio, Cruz said. She likes changing the channel. Zoe will find the music source, wherever it is, Cruz said, and she is particularly drawn to well-played instrumental music. Through a collaboration between Pacific Symphony Orchestras Heartstrings program and the Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Santa Ana, Pacific Symphony musicians perform for the centers families four times a year. (Courtesy of Pacific Symphony) Enter the Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Santa Ana and Orange Countys Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the resident symphony of the Segerstrom Concert Hall. Pacific Symphonys Heartstrings programs brings free, live orchestral music and music education to communities and groups who would otherwise not have access to such music, such as Boys & Girls Clubs, senior centers and homeless shelters. For the past four years, Hearstrings has also partnered with the Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders, staging family concert nights at the center. Whatever we did had to embrace the family, said Mary Hawkes, Pacific Symphonys director of community engagement. The goal is to ensure this beautiful art form is accessible to everyone. The concerts started with string instruments. Percussion, woodwind and brass were introduced one by one. The concerts have been hugely popular, said Cathy Brock, executive director of the center. To be able to have a space here where kids can interact with art and movement that is where Pacific Symphony comes in, Brock said. The idea is that there is so much more to a child than just therapy, and they are more than their diagnoses. Music is definitely that universal language. I love watching the joy on these parents faces. When Cruz, her husband, Hector, Zoe and her brother Kobe attended the Heartstrings concert at the center the first time, Cruz didnt know how Zoe would react. Zoe was mesmerized by the live orchestra. We were so worried because she doesnt like to go anywhere, and she doesnt like to give up her radio, Cruz said. She was fine turning it off. Now when she comes, she turns off her radio and hands it over. Thats about the only time she will give up her radio. Family outings in public places can be challenging for Zoe and her family, but recently they attended a Cirque for Kids! concert at Segerstrom, the first ever concert for Zoe. The show featured circus acrobats and dancers who perform while the Pacific Symphony Orchestra plays classical and contemporary tunes. Zoe sat and listened intently to the entire performance. Her ear for music and ability to play helps her to bond with people around her, Cruz said. Some of her cognitive skills, she scores like a 6-month old, Cruz said. But then shell play something on the piano and you know there is more in there. I think it definitely helps people relate. You forget there is something going on. Lou Ponsi is a contributor to Times Community News. On July 26, I received a call from a local number that originated in Russia. Russia is continuing its effort to influence the political and social state of affairs of our country. At no other time in our history would our government let this happen. Why is the current administration allowing this outside meddling to continue? What kind of country are we going to leave our children? A country that denies its citizens free speech. A country that denies its citizens the right to the religion of their choosing. A country that denies its citizens the right to a free press. A country that routinely lies to its citizens for the benefit of those in office. A country that seizes its citizens for noncriminal reasons. This is happening now. Edward Pacheco Fountain Valley * Why does congressman embrace Russia? In mentioning the Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) Showtime spoof and his reluctance to attend a Feet to the Fire candidates forum, Daily Pilot columnist Barbara Venezias piece on July 26 does ask a salient question: Will Rohrabacher ever answer some tough questions this election season? One of the most important for voters would be, Why all the contacts with key Russian figures, including a bistro dinner with alleged Russian spy, Maria Butina in 2017, a 2015 St. Petersburg meeting with Butina and a Russian oligarch, and hosting an inaugural event in January 2017, which attracted several key Russian guests? Its good that Rohrabachers losing an early 1990s Cold War arm wrestling contest with Vladimir Putin didnt count. One does wonder if he would beat Butina in such a contest. Jim Hoover Huntington Beach * America must secure itself There is not a day to waste when it comes to saving our democracy from Russian hacking. If nothing else, dont we owe it to those who died at Pearl Harbor, and during the 2001 terrorist attacks, to mount an aggressive cyber response of our own? Ill be anxious to see what Congress does next. Denny Freidenrich Laguna Beach How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length. China and the US are trying to restart talks to avert a full-blown trade war, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. It quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that representatives of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are having private meetings. Another Western media source reported that US President Donald Trump is considering raising the tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods. It seems that Trump is trying to force China to make its biggest concession by both carrot and stick. Negotiation between China and the US is not a bad thing. But obviously Trump's administration still lacks sincerity and is maximizing pressure on Beijing. This is not a regular trade war. Trump wants to establish his "America first" policy and the trade war is a head-on blow to the entire world. For Beijing and Washington, the trade war is a process to redefine bilateral ties amid a changing global balance of power. During the process both countries' trading power, comprehensive strength, will and cohesion will count. The redefinition of China-US relations will come sooner or later. Some American elites do not accept China's prosperity, believing the US can strategically contain the rise of China. They are eager to show their capability and force China to be a US economic vassal just like Japan when it accepted the Plaza Accord. If the Sino-US trade war is about economic interests, it won't be hard to resolve. When both sides suffer losses during the battle, they will eventually head toward negotiations and reach a compromise, which is much better than keeping on fighting. If both Washington and Beijing continuously raise the stakes, conflict becomes more of an overall redefinition of Sino-US relations. Does China have the right to further keep developing itself? Should it yield to the US, listen to Washington's command and reconstruct China's economic operation mode, making it conform to US interests? Should Beijing hand over most of its economic sovereignty to the US? China says "no" and is prepared to bear some painful results of the trade war. Repositioning ties between China and the US through a trade war, instead of a hot war or an overall Cold War is probably not a bad choice for Beijing. China's trading and economic power is precisely the strongest of all its strengths. Facing turmoil in Sino-US ties, the Chinese people do not need to panic. Washington has the initiative to launch and terminate the trade war. But once the trade war breaks out, the US has no ability to control its development. As long as the Chinese stay united, defensive battling could rock the US trade offensive. China must stay calm and fight this trade war like a protracted war until Washington agrees to solve bilateral trade disputes through equal negotiations and make the episode with China an example for future bilateral consultations. It is believed that China has considerable strength to keep fighting until that day comes. For the past 13 years Starr Frazier has been one of the first faces people see when they enter the offices of the La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce. As the organizations administration and member services manager, she wears multiple hats from receptionist and event coordinator to office manager and social media maven and finds the dynamism of the job suits her outgoing personality. I definitely enjoy the social aspect, Frazier says. I love socializing. But after Aug. 15, chamber officials and members will have to say goodbye as the 53-year-old La Canada resident retires in preparation for a move to Northern California with husband Rick and fox terriers Teenie, Ladybug and Peanut. Though colleagues knew for some time Frazier was considering a move that would bring her closer to her family, news of her departure Monday came with some measure of surprise, according to chamber president and chief executive Pat Anderson. I think it was the right now part that was the surprise, says Anderson. Shes the first person to answer the phone, so she really is sort of a welcome mat for the chamber. I keep telling myself, you cant replace her but you can fill the position. A full description of the positions duties and responsibilities is circulating throughout the business community, bringing into focus how the job has expanded during Fraziers tenure. Frazier first met Anderson shortly after she and Rick moved into La Canadas Paradise Valley neighborhood on Ocean View Boulevard in 1995. The pair hit it off, and before long Frazier put her dazzling people skills to work as a chamber ambassador. When an office position opened up Anderson thought Frazier, whod worked for years doing administrative work in the advertising and production industries, would be an excellent candidate. I told her this is the perfect job, and she thought so too, the chamber executive recalls. You need to be positive and energetic and outgoing. And [Starr] is always positive and is very helpful. For the next decade or more, Frazier worked closely with Anderson and co-worker June Beemer on a full calendar of chamber mixers and events such as Memorial Weekend Fiesta Days, Festival in Lights and the chambers installation gala and awards ceremony. Given her background, she especially enjoyed the annual LCF Night on the Red Carpet movie premier. Beemer, who heard the news when she came in to work on Tuesday, says she knew Fraziers move was imminent but was still dumbfounded to hear the news. Im going to miss her like crazy shes so good at everything and shes always so up and perky, Beemer adds. But sometimes youve got to do the carpe diem thing and seize the day. While Frazier looks forward to the next chapter of her life and what adventures lay in store, she admits shell always have a soft spot for La Canada Flintridge and the people shes met. Thats the hardest thing to leave, the friendships weve made over the years, she says. But then they know they have an open invitation to come visit. Be careful what you ask for, Beemer jokes in reply. sara.cardine@latimes.com Twitter: @SaraCardine About 70 educators, including some from as far away as Georgia, attended a sold-out educator workshop at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge Saturday morning to learn about rockets and engineering. Led by Brandon Rodriguez, an educator professional development specialist at JPL, along with coordinator Paula Partida, the three-hour workshop provided teachers with insight on how to get their students started using engineering design processes. Teachers of younger children were given tips on how to guide them toward building inexpensive homemade rockets. The Next General Science Standards concepts and aligned activities and lessons offered by JPLs Education Office Education Resource Center can be used in the fourth through 12th grades. Partida, who has been working at JPLs resource center for 20 years, said the teachers seem to be excited to participate in the workshop. Rodriguez works in his role at JPL in collaboration with Texas State University. Before working at JPL, he taught high school chemistry and physics. On Saturday, he stood on stage inside the labs von Karman Auditorium prepping the teachers on rocket construction. Rodriguez briefly referenced one or two graphics on a projection screen then had the teachers experiment in the field with their rocket designs that could be assembled with readily available, inexpensive supplies such as old PVC piping. The idea is to get young grade teachers to feel confident doing a hands-on activity, Rodriguez said. The educational workshops exist as a legacy project with the resource center. It had been folded due to lack of staffing, according to Rodriguez. But in the past three years, Rodriguez said he and Partida breathed new life into the program. Now registration for the Saturday workshops, which are scheduled about twice a month, fills up quickly. As the workshop moved outside with their stomp rockets, Rodriguez said the goal for the elementary and middle school teachers was to have successful launches. For the high school teachers, the goal was to predict how well the flight would go. You guys are just ready to rain rockets on JPL, Rodriguez jokingly told the group before the stomp rocket launch began. Many successfully launched 20 to 30 feet in the air, while some traveled higher. Michel Lacerda, a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology, was invited by Partida to visit JPL, and he was satisfied with the trajectory of his stomp rocket. At Georgia Tech, Lacerda is a tutor involved with an outreach program called Innovative Mars Exploration Education and Technology (IMEET), a project with 150 local high school students We are in the process of expanding the program to California, he said about hopeful future collaborations with JPL. It will impact the teaching of technology and space for high school students, including robotics, 3-D printing, programming and UAV control. We have a lot to bring back to Georgia. Wearing a replica graphic T-shirt stating Run EMC2, a scientific ode to 1980s hip-hop group Run DMC, Oscar Espinoza finished Saturdays workshop creating different straw rockets with the others seated at his table. Espinoza is a seventh-grade science teacher at KIPP Comienza Community Prep in Huntington Park and has participated in JPL Education Resource Center workshops before, including one for certification. Also, he added, some of his students have also had an opportunity to learn at summer space camps. Espinoza said that because Huntington Park is an under-served community, his students access and exposure to information and resources is limited. This [JPL offering] really brings it alive in what they can do, he said. Its exposing them to careers in aerospace. Matt Sanderson is a contributing writer to Times Community News. When I asked my Las Vegas friend Marian how she survived her citys beastly summer heat, she had two words for me: Mt. Charleston. This dense forest, officially the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, rises like an emerald from the scrubby Mojave Desert. Mt. Charleston, at an elevation of about 7,500 feet, is usually 20 degrees cooler than Las Vegas, and, at only about half an hour northwest of downtown, close enough that locals drive up after work to walk the dog. As Las Vegas sizzled during a September visit, my boyfriend and I headed for the mountain for a bit of hiking and cool mountain air. The tab for two gave us sticker shock in a good way: $176 for two nights lodging and $132 for breakfasts and dinners, beer included. (Lou Spirito For The Times) THE BED The 62-room Retreat on Charleston Peak, formerly known as the Resort on Mt. Charleston, is undergoing a face-lift to freshen a property that, as we found during a two-night stay, was tired and beset by indifferent service. The new owners promise minimal disruption during the makeover, which will add updated rustic decor, new flooring, a spa and a gym. The Retreat may lack the woodsy charm of the cabins at Mt. Charleston Lodge, but it has a lovely log facade, stacked-stone chimneys and a rooftop row of little green gables, all fronting a koi pond. Advertisement THE MEAL The restaurant at Mt. Charleston Lodge, perched on a canyon side at 7,717 feet, specializes in belly-filling fare for hungry hikers. We rewarded ourselves for the switchback-y slog up Cathedral Rock Trail (2.8 miles round trip) with a plate of barbecued ribs for me and beer-battered fish for my boyfriend. Inside, its all country cowboy a wagon-wheel chandelier hangs from the 20-foot, A-frame ceiling and guitar-picking crooners entertain Fridays through Sundays but timeless beauty reigns outside. The deck looks out on the windswept peak of Mummy Mountain. THE FIND The butterfly-roofed building on Kyle Canyon Road, on your left as you drive up the mountain, is the U.S. Forest Services fun and informative Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway. Interpretive material explains Mt. Charlestons remarkable biodiversity bristlecone pines that were tiny saplings during the days of King Arthur, towering limestone cliffs, an iridescent butterfly found nowhere else in the world. Ask about free, naturalist-led hikes, then wander behind the building to learn about the mountains tragic Cold War history. A memorial honors those killed in 1955 when a military aircraft carrying workers to test the U-2 spy plane at nearby Area 51 crashed into 11,918-foot Charleston Peak, the areas tallest mountain. THE LESSON LEARNED Set aside time to check out the desert-view overlook on Nevada158, about eight miles north of the visitor center, for a lesson in the areas stranger-than-fiction atomic-age history. It was here that thrill seekers watched atmospheric blasts at the forbidding landscape below, now called the Nevada National Security Site. Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway, 2525 Kyle Canyon Road, Las Vegas; (702) 872-5486. Open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. The building and some hiking trails are wheelchair accessible. The Retreat on Charleston Peak, 2275 Kyle Canyon Road, Las Vegas; (702) 872-5500. Two ground-floor guestrooms, restaurant, bar and spa are wheelchair accessible. Mt. Charleston Lodge, 5355 Kyle Canyon Road, Las Vegas; (702) 872-5408. Wheelchair accessible. Being a stranger in a strange land can be difficult, especially when its painfully obvious you are one. Bonjour. My name is Catharine Hamm, and Im the travel editor for the Los Angeles Times, which allows me to dream about all the great places where I want to spend more time. Paris is one of them, but I always feel sort of obviously American. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but getting under the skin in a city that holds its secrets closely makes a wonderful place even more so. Our story sends you in all the right directions. Of course youll want to rush right over to the Musee dOrsay or the Louvre, right? Not necessarily. Our story on living like a boulevardier someone who assesses a city by its thoroughfares makes a compelling case for forsaking the monuments and museums and assessing a citys character by a stroll down its street. As all travelers know, sometimes your destination, whether its the Continent or California, sends your plans down the drain because of the weather or other difficulties. Heres a Plan B that worked well for one Weekend Escape gone awry. Advertisement And for those of you who remember shouting Toga! Toga! Toga! in sync with Animal House, we look in on the celebration of the 40th anniversary of this iconic film with a visit to the University of Oregon in Eugene, which doesnt make a big deal of its affiliation with this institution of higher learning, perhaps out of an abundance of good judgment. These stories and much more, including our new All Systems Go Column, which addresses (and helps you overcome) the obstacles to travel, and On the Spot, the column that just marked its 11th anniversary and from which I learn every week. Amusez-vous bien! THE SECRET OF PARIS To outsiders and most of us are the City of Light can be a mystery. We know we dont fit in, but we also dont want to stand out. Peter Mandel, who lived in Paris, helps us peel back the citys layers so we might blend in and find the citys real soul. Heres a hint: It starts with the shoes. Evening sunlight on La Maison Rose in Montmartre, Paris. If youre eating out, eavesdrop a little and order what the person next to you is having. (Danita Delimont / Getty Images/Gallo Images) HEARD IT ON THE STREET Do you usually spend time on vacation in art or history museums? Do you go to the opera or classical music concerts? If not, why do so on vacation? A little bit of culture never hurts, but your time might be better spent ambling through the urban areas that have attracted us but havent quite revealed themselves fully. Writer George Hobica didnt agree with this philosophy the first time a friend suggested it, but he now embraces being a flaneur, a wanderer. Here are six cities he knows better just because he allowed himself to walk the walk. Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, Portugal, is made for ambling. (Thomas Roche / Getty Images) BEACH BLANKET PLAN B Youre doing a weekend away, and you have visions of stretching out on the sand. But the weather turns suddenly sulky, which is what happened to writer Sharon Boorstin. She and her husband, Paul, were planning to catch some rays on Orange Countys famous shores, but the sun gave them the slip. They found solace in Heisler Park, a cool hotel and, perhaps best of all, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, where adorable can overcome nearly any disappointment. If youre hoping to get away for a weekend (or more), check out our cache of Weekend Escapes. Whats not to love? Seals at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, an excursion that doesnt depend on the sun for fun. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) ANIMAL INSTINCTS Britains Guardian newspaper called Animal House the king of college comedy. The reporter recalled seeing it in a movie theater near the University of California at Santa Barbara and hearing a couple of rows of frat boys reciting the dialogue word for word. Only then did he realize it was a cult movie. Staff writer Christopher Reynolds traveled to Eugene, Ore., to see whats afoot for the 40th anniversary of this low-brow and often-tasteless comedy that nonetheless has endured. Its so offensive it makes you want to shout. A Universal Pictures publicity photo shows that cast of National Lampoons Animal House, shot in and around Eugene, Ore. (Universal Pictures) A PERFECT BEACH DAY Whats your favorite stretch of sand? If youre a wheelchair user, the answer need not be None. Yomi S. Wrong, who writes the new All Systems Go column that appears every fifth Sunday in Travel, helps travelers find beaches that rent or make beach wheelchairs available. Have a question about mobility and travel? Write to travel@latimes.com. Wrong is exploring new ways of opening the world to everyone. Jon Menzies pushes Sean Goral in a beach wheelchair alongside his dog, Spirit, in Santa Barbara (Josh Gill) A BITTER PILL A couple planned to visit Southeast Asia and wisely checked to see whether Adderall, sometimes prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, would pose a problem getting through customs. Answer: yes, much to my surprise. It isnt allowed in some countries because it is made up partly of amphetamine salts. And its not the only drug that can be a problem. Some over-the-counter meds violate another countrys rules. Heres what you need to know about carrying your meds with you. Its always a good idea to carry a letter from your doctor explaining what your meds are and the condition for which they are prescribed. (Mukhina1 / Getty Images/iStockphoto) USS ARIZONA CLOSED INTO FALL The USS Arizona, which was closed in May after its floating dock was damaged, remains closed until at least Oct. 1 and possibly longer. You still can see the Pearl Harbor memorial by taking a free Navy vessel, but you need a ticket. Writer Jay Jones tells you how. Repairs to the USS Arizonas floating dock will take longer than expected, closing the memorial at least until Oct. 1. (National Park Service) PICTURE YOUR SUMMER VACATION We hope youll share your summer vacation photos with us for possible inclusion in the Sept. 16 reader photo issue, in print and online. Give us your best shot, taken between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and share it with us at travel@latimes.com. Please put Summer Vacation Photo in the subject line. Or you can upload them to Flickr, or hashtag them on Instagram with #latimestravel2018. To see the guidelines, go to Summer Vacay Photo Issue. Reader Connie Frank of Beverly Hills photographed this cheetah in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. It was featured in our 2017 Reader Photo Issue. Yours could be in the 2018 issue, but the deadline approaches. (Connie Frank/For The Times) WHAT WERE READING AFAR magazine always looks at the world through differently colored glasses, which is what makes it so much fun to read. If youre an art lover, you should plan to go to Copenhagen (which it calls effortlessly cool) right now. Quartz thinks you need a vacation before and after your vacation. It recommends a transition day before and after your time away. It suggests clearing the decks before and after. Make sense or is that insane? Find out more by reading The Secret to Actually Enjoying Your Vacation Is the Day Before It Starts. The extension of the closure of parts of Yosemite National Park stems not from fire damage but from smoke and staging operations as firefighters battle the Ferguson fire, Mary Forgione reported Wednesday on the Los Angeles Times Travel website. Many of our favorite vacation spots are menaced by flames this summer. If it seems worse than its ever been, its because it is, Rong-Gong Lin II and Ruben Vives report in the Los Angeles Times. Blame heat like youve never known it. OK, admit it: You fib on those surveys about what you like to do on vacation. Shopping usually is listed as No. 4, but experts think its usually closer to No. 2. If retail therapy goes well with your vacation therapy, read the New York Times Five Places to Shop in New Orleans. Heres something Id like to buy: a plane ticket to Crescent City so I can sample the goods. Think Icelandic wool sweaters. (Ross Weinberg) COMING SUNDAY IN L.A. TIMES TRAVEL What is this critter to the left and what in the world does it have to do with a vacation in one of the coolest places in the world? To find out, check out the Sunday Travel section in print or online (on Sunday) for an article on an annual tradition that promises drinking, laughter and music. It is, says one participant, a fall party for countrymen. AND FINALLY You can subscribe for free to this or other L.A. Times newsletters on our newsletter website. You may also want to consider our monthly Vegas Escapes newsletter. The next one comes out Aug. 23. Send us your thoughts, your concerns about this newsletter, along with your Icelandic wool sweaters and your tickets to New Orleans to travel@latimes.com. Until next week, travel smartly and safely. Well be here to welcome you home. travel@latimes.com @latimestravel A new ruling by Pope Francis published Thursday saying that the death penalty is inadmissible in all circumstances, and that the church must try to abolish it, may generate opposition by conservative Roman Catholics in the U.S. and other countries. The Vatican announced Francis had updated the catechism of the Catholic Church which represents official Catholic teaching to exclude the death penalty, a move that reflects Francis focus on mercy. Before the popes update, the church accepted capital punishment under some circumstances, a position supported by many of its more than 1 billion members worldwide. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good, the updated section of the catechism says. It then adds that the church now views the death penalty as inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, and that it will work for its abolition worldwide. Advertisement Francis has opposed capital punishment for years and his predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, also argued against it. But Francis decided to leave no room for doubt in the catechism during a meeting this year with Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the head of the churchs Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The change reflects the clearer awareness of the church for the respect due to every human life, Ladaria said in an open letter Thursday. The church wanted to energize the campaign against the death penalty, he wrote. If the death penalty were once justified to keep the public safe from criminals, jails were now more secure and the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the criminal was now a higher priority, Ladaria wrote. Father Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and Vatican expert, said the change is expected to see some opposition from conservative Catholics in the United States. The loophole has until now been a reason not to speak up, but the next time there is a horrendous criminal due to be executed, perhaps for a school shooting, bishops will have a duty to say this shouldnt be done, he said. A conservative Catholic blog, Rorate Caeli, tweeted Thursday that Francis was In open violation of the authority recognized to him, and that no Catholic has any obligation of obedience to abuse of authority. Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, said the change might fuel discontent among U.S. conservative Catholics who are critical of Francis for his emphasis on mercy before rigid doctrine. Some people who said any disagreement with the catechism was dissent when Benedict and John Paul were popes seem to feel free to disagree with this now, he said in an interview. The change was welcomed by Mario Marazziti, the head of the campaign against the death penalty run by Rome-based SantEgidio, which is recognized by the church as a public lay association with tens of thousands of members worldwide. Now that the refusal of the death penalty is absolute, conservative Catholics who are pro-life and pro-death penalty will have to start questioning that and decide if they want to respect the popes authority or be disobedient Catholics, he said in a phone interview. People like the late Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia said the death penalty was consistent with Catholicism. Now that becomes impossible, he said. Marazziti said he expects more Catholics to increasingly oppose capital punishment. The death penalty only exists to please public opinion since it doesnt cut crime, and I believe public opinion will shift, he said. Other Christian denominations believe in retributive justice, taking a fundamentalist approach to the biblical statement about an eye for an eye, but Pope Francis believes there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, Marazziti said. The death penalty has long divided U.S. Catholics even though church leaders have frequently spoken out against it. A Pew survey this year found that 53% of American Catholics supported capital punishment and that 43% were against it. Still, a vocal minority of conservative Catholic priests has argued for putting criminals to death. Father C. John McCloskey III is an Opus Dei priest known for helping a number of Republican politicians, including then-Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Newt Gingrich, convert to Catholicism. It is a great grace to know the time of ones death, as it gives us the opportunity to get right with the Lord who will judge us at our death, McCloskey wrote in a 2015 article. Perhaps many people have been saved in this way by the death penalty. Who knows what would have happened if they had been allowed to linger in this life, one day possibly killing other people? Several U.S. bishops expressed their support of the popes decision via Twitter. Bishop Felipe J. Estevez of St. Augustine, Fla., described the news as one of hope and consolation for prisoners on death row. Today, our Catholic ministers officially console them with hope for when the day draws near when they no longer will be awaiting for the punishment of death, Estevez tweeted. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., said in a statement on Facebook that Francis has made even clearer the Churchs consistent life ethic. While it has become popular for people to accept capital punishment as a just consequence for heinous crimes, the death penalty is an act of revenge, DiMarzo wrote. Taking someones life, regardless of the reason, is an attack.... Capital punishment destroys the sanctity of life and diminishes us as a society. One of the nations most prominent activists against the death penalty, Sister Helen Prejean, tweeted that she was overjoyed and deeply grateful to the pope. Prejean, a nun in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in New Orleans, called it a great day for human rights. Special correspondent Kington reported from Rome and Times staff writer Kaleem from Los Angeles. UPDATES: 2:46 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with Times reporting. This article was originally published at 4:25 a.m. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday abruptly canceled an official visit to Central and South America as a possible agreement to halt the violence and ease tensions along its border with the Gaza Strip appeared to be emerging. In a statement, an Israeli government official said the trip, during which Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with the presidents of Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and Honduras, was being canceled due to the situation in the south. The Israeli government also announced it had set a security cabinet meeting for Sunday to discuss progress on a potential deal that the United Nations and Egypt are mediating with Hamas, the Islamist militia that rules the Palestinian Gaza Strip. One official called the negotiations a breakthrough. But previous efforts to achieve a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza have fallen apart, though this marked the first time that the Israeli government has made reference to a possible arrangement. No details were released on what the agreement might include. Advertisement A truce would end four months of deadly protests on the Gazan side of the border and would likely lift the onerous Israeli measures, both military and economic, that have aggravated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Some 136 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the protests began. Gaza has also been hurt by a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in a violent uprising in 2007, making life increasingly tough with electricity shortages, rising unemployment and growing poverty. President Trumps decision in January to slash American funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, an agency founded in 1949 to provide support for the Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, has deepened the level of hurt by reducing many basic services in Gaza. And in the latest crackdown, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday ordered that all fuel and gas imports to Gaza be halted, a directive that was in response to Hamas ongoing campaign of launching balloons and kites carrying incendiary devices into Israel. The aerial attack has been blamed for starting dozens of fires that have burned farmland and forests. A sunset over the Gaza Strip brings a bit of tranquility to an area battered by violence and discord. (Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images) The possibility of a truce first arose Sunday when Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, announced a productive day of meetings with Egyptian officials to de-escalate the situation in Gaza, resolve all humanitarian issues and support [the] Egyptian-led reconciliation process. In the last week, Mladenov has met with senior Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, in Jerusalem and with Hamas officials in Gaza. In another indication that a deal may be at hand, Hamas deputy leader, Saleh Arouri, arrived in Gaza late Thursday as part of a delegation of the organizations officials exiled in Qatar. Israeli media reported that Mladenov and Egypt gave Hamas reassurances that Israel would not attempt to detain or harm Arouri while he was in Gaza to discuss a possible truce. Israel contends Arouri was the mastermind behind several terrorists attacks and regards him as a criminal. Meanwhile, several initiatives to relieve the harsh living conditions in Gaza have been rolled out. Without announcement, the Trump administration recently released several million dollars in funds to Palestinian Authority security forces that cooperate with Israel to maintain security in the West Bank. And a State Department spokesperson told National Public Radio that it is scrutinizing other Palestinian aid projects to determine their value to U.S. taxpayers. On Thursday, Israeli defense confirmed it had approved the transfer of equipment and goods needed to complete the construction of a desalination plant and eight water reservoirs in Gaza. The development, which was first reported by the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, is being carried out by American companies operating with a Gazan contractor at a projected cost of $16 million. The reservoirs and desalination plant had been postponed for months because of security concerns in Gaza and Israels decision to ramp up the restrictions on goods moving into the Strip. Earlier this week, seven former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations some Democrats and some Republicans and a delegation of 70 Democratic members of Congress asked U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in a letter to restore U.S. funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza. We all recognize the serious security and political challenges in Gaza. However, U.S. support for the basic human rights of Palestinians living in Gaza must not be conditioned on progress on those fronts, they wrote. Special correspondent Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem. Special correspondent Hana Salah reported from Gaza City. A village housing project used as hotels Determination has been shown through a growing wave of projects initiated by local municipal governments across China, thanks to the central governments poverty alleviation agenda. The Chinese government has announced plans to raise the remaining 40 million people out of poverty by 2020. China has witnessed a successful poverty alleviation strategy so far, removing over 700 million people from poverty in the last 40 years. Plans are also in place to ensure that over 300 million Chinese are millionaires in the coming few years. Villagers in Haiping, of Shuicheng County, Liupanshui city have used local tourism to make more money. Locals quickly became involved with a housing construction project funded by the government to explore development through tourism. With an investment of RMB 263 million from the government, locals have blended traditional and western materials for the projects and also have integrated a traditional Yi style, taking design characteristics from the Yi minority such as earth walls, thatched grass and modern Yi architecture. The project also seeks to resettle an additional one thousand poor households from other towns and villages. They are expected to benefit from a range of deals which include settlement around relocation and property rights, as well as shares in the company operating the project. Wang Chao Wang Chao, an official from the Standing Committee of the Propaganda Department of the CPC, spoke to journalists during their 2018 Media Tour in Liupanshui Municipality, Guizhou Province. He revealed that the locals were farmers who sold fruit and vegetables prior to the start of the tourism development project. He added that the project provided jobs for locals in Shuicheng County through the construction of housing. With the tourism project, locals income will increase and their shares in the company will also increase, Mr. Wang said. He noted that most tourists visit the wild Jade Scenic area during summer and winter. However, he added that tourists also visit the scenic area during the Fire Festival and huge income is generated from their stay which lasts around three or four days. Prank Wrong Number Phone Call Locks Down Lincoln High (LINCOLNTON, GA) Lincoln County High School went into lockdown Wednesday following a wrong number threatening call. The caller intended the threat for Lincoln County... McCastle named District Teacher of the Year The Lincoln County Board of Education has named Elementary School Teacher of the Year Crystal McCastle as District Teacher of the Year during their October... Lincoln shaken by earthquake early Sunday (LINCOLNTON, GA) A 2.1 magnitude earthquake shook Lincoln County early Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The seismic event was located... Leverett appointed Deputy Whip (ATLANTA, GA) Lincoln Countys freshman representative in the Georgia House, Rob Leverett (R-33) of Elberton, has been appointed to serve as Chief Deputy Whip by... Health A new British-made sleep aid aimed at disrupting the pillow market is launched online 02.08.2018 18:57:48 - Kally Sleep strives to create innovative sleeping solutions that are overseen by experienced Osteopaths and sleep, doctors. A healthy sleeping position is a key to a deep and sound sleep, which is a requirement for helping the body recharge. Our mission is to improve your quality of sleep, whether you need a maternity pillow or a side sleeping pillow Kally Sleep have the solution for you. (live-PR.com) - Founded by lifestyle entrepreneur Ori Leslau, Kally Sleep has launched its ergonomic sleep pillow in collaboration with Harley Street osteopath Rick Hussein. Kally Sleep focuses on the booming billion-pound sleep market as the UK faces a sleeplessness epidemic from increasingly busy lifestyles and digitisation. The Kally Pillow was inspired by maternity pillows and side-sleepers, with its long 1.6m shape - Founded by lifestyle entrepreneur Ori Leslau, Kally Sleep has launched its ergonomic sleep pillow in collaboration with Harley Street osteopath Rick Hussein. Kally Sleep focuses on the booming billion-pound sleep market as the UK faces a sleeplessness epidemic from increasingly busy lifestyles and digitisation. The Kally Pillow was inspired by maternity pillows and side-sleepers, with its long 1.6m shape providing crucial support for the back, neck and spine to encourage deep sleep. London, July 2018. Ori Leslau, an entrepreneur with a history of personal care launches in frontier markets across the Middle-East, India and Africa, has entered the UK sleep industry with a pillow that encourages healthier sleep positions and deeper sleep. The hypoallergenic Kally Sleep pillow moulds to your body shape while providing critical support to your head, neck and spine. Benefits range from post-exercise recovery to aiding comfortable sleep when pregnant, also great if you just love to spoon! It was designed in collaboration with leading London osteopath Rick Hussein who has been helping sleep-deprived patients for 32 years. Using the wrong pillow, or not using the pillow correctly, can cause neck and shoulder trouble. This can manifest as headaches, jaw pain, tiredness, nerve irritation, pins and needles or numbness in the arms etc, said Hussein, who advises getting at least seven hours of sleep a night to maintain optimal health. The Kally Pillow, although 160cm x 35 cm, can be conveniently rolled up, and both the pillow and jersey cover are washable. The unisex product is safe for anyone over the age of seven. A good nights sleep helps our memory and our mood, said Leslau. Our new pillow offers customers the prospect of better, deeper and longer sleep. According to a 2017 McKinsey report, the sleep-health industry anything from bedding and sound control to sleep consultants and prescription sleep aids is collectively estimated to be worth between $30bn and $40bn and has historically grown by more than 8% a year, with few signs of slowing down. Britain is suffering an epidemic of sleeplessness, according to Professor Vicki Culpin, a clinical psychologist and author of The Business of Sleep. Earlier this year she warned: Never before have significant percentages of working adults been so sleep deprived. Children, in particular, are sleeping less. In the UK, hospital attendances for children under 14 with sleep disorders have tripled over the past ten years. The Kally Sleep pillow is available in five different colours, costs 49.99 and is manufactured in Bolton, Lancashire. For more information, contact Kally Sleep on +44207 499 6209 www.kallysleep.com Kally Sleep strives to create innovative sleeping solutions that are overseen by experienced Osteopaths and sleep, doctors. A healthy sleeping position is a key to a deep and sound sleep, which is a requirement for helping the body recharge. Our mission is to improve your quality of sleep, whether you need a maternity pillow or a side sleeping pillow Kally Sleep have the solution for you. All of our products are created by industry leading experts and manufactured using the highest quality components here in the UK. providing crucial support for the back, neck and spine to encourage deep sleep.London, July 2018.Ori Leslau, an entrepreneur with a history of personal care launches in frontier markets across the Middle-East, India and Africa, has entered the UK sleep industry with a pillow that encourages healthier sleep positions and deeper sleep.The hypoallergenic Kally Sleep pillow moulds to your body shape while providing critical support to your head, neck and spine. Benefits range from post-exercise recovery to aiding comfortable sleep when pregnant, also great if you just love to spoon! It was designed in collaboration with leading London osteopath Rick Hussein who has been helping sleep-deprived patients for 32 years.Using the wrong pillow, or not using the pillow correctly, can cause neck and shoulder trouble. This can manifest as headaches, jaw pain, tiredness, nerve irritation, pins and needles or numbness in the arms etc, said Hussein, who advises getting at least seven hours of sleep a night to maintain optimal health.The Kally Pillow, although 160cm x 35 cm, can be conveniently rolled up, and both the pillow and jersey cover are washable. The unisex product is safe for anyone over the age of seven.A good nights sleep helps our memory and our mood, said Leslau. Our new pillow offers customers the prospect of better, deeper and longer sleep.According to a 2017 McKinsey report, the sleep-health industry anything from bedding and sound control to sleep consultants and prescription sleep aids is collectively estimated to be worth between $30bn and $40bn and has historically grown by more than 8% a year, with few signs of slowing down. Britain is suffering an epidemic of sleeplessness, according to Professor Vicki Culpin, a clinical psychologist and author of The Business of Sleep. Earlier this year she warned: Never before have significant percentages of working adults been so sleep deprived. Children, in particular, are sleeping less. In the UK, hospital attendances for children under 14 with sleep disorders have tripled over the past ten years.The Kally Sleep pillow is available in five different colours, costs 49.99 and is manufactured in Bolton, Lancashire.For more information, contact Kally Sleep on +44207 499 6209www.kallysleep.comKally Sleep strives to create innovative sleeping solutions that are overseen by experienced Osteopaths and sleep, doctors. A healthy sleeping position is a key to a deep and sound sleep, which is a requirement for helping the body recharge. Our mission is to improve your quality of sleep, whether you need a maternity pillow or a side sleeping pillow Kally Sleep have the solution for you.All of our products are created by industry leading experts and manufactured using the highest quality components here in the UK. Press Information: Kally Sleep 18 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PJ Contact Person: Sorcha Byrne Marketing Manager Phone: +44207 499 6209 eMail: eMail Web: http://www.kallysleep.com 02.08.2018 18:57:48 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Health Dental Conferences 02.08.2018 11:50:34 - 2 Million Impressions at Global Dentistry Conferences, Dental Conferences, Pediatric Dental Conferences, Endodontics Meeting and Restorative Dentistry Events organized across 5 Major continents and countries including Asia, Europe, Middle East, USA (live-PR.com) - Dentists 2019 We would like to invite you to participate in 25th Global Dentists and Pediatric Dentistry Annual Meeting. It is our most conspicuous joy to welcome you to the official site of Dentists 2019, that goes for uniting the Dental experts, Investigators, Clinicians, professors, to give an overall examination to the dispersing of one of a kind investigation results, new - Dentists 2019We would like to invite you to participate in 25th Global Dentists and Pediatric Dentistry Annual Meeting.It is our most conspicuous joy to welcome you to the official site of Dentists 2019, that goes for uniting the Dental experts, Investigators, Clinicians, professors, to give an overall examination to the dispersing of one of a kind investigation results, new considerations and suitable change experiences which concentrate on both theory and practices in our Remedial social occasions. Dates: April 25-26, 2019 Venue: Rome, Italy For more details of this conference please have a glance on webpage: Dental Conferences | Dentistry Conferences For abstract submission: Theme Dentistry trends for todays lifestyle With Regards, Jessica William Program Manager | Dentists 2019 UK: Conference Series llc LTD 47 Churchfield Road, London, W3 6AY Toll Free: +44-800-014-8923 Email:dentists@dentistryconferences.com Dental Diseases are Europes most prevalent health problem. Dentistry is considered as private sector treatment in Italy, as only 4% of dental care is provided within the NHS. According to a 2013 study (Servizio Studi ANDI) based on ISTAT data, 39.7% Italians visited a dentist at least once a year, compared to 11.5% who never visited. Private dental expenditure was estimated in 2013 to be about 10 billion. It has been estimated that Dental services in Italy are provided through a network of 56,000 dentists and commercial laboratories are active, with 11,520 dental technicians operating either as owners or employees. In Italy, most dentists who practice on their own or as small groups, outside hospitals or schools, and provide a broad range of general treatments are said to be in Private Practice. Importance & Scope: Pediatric dentistry is a standout amongst the most essential branches of dentistry. Pediatric dentistry is a branch of dentistry that is concerned with the dental consideration and treatment of children. Worldwide 60-90% of the youngsters have dental pits. Pediatric Dentistry conference expects to unite driving scholarly researchers, analysts and examination researchers to trade and share their encounters and exploration comes about all parts of Pediatric dentistry. Pediatric dentistry additionally gives the opportunity to scientists, professionals and instructors to present and talk about the latest developments, patterns, and concerns, pragmatic difficulties experienced and the arrangements embraced in the fields of pediatric dentistry. Pediatric dentistry conference gathering is a worldwide stage for exhibiting research about pediatric Dental, trading thoughts regarding it and consequently, adds to the spread of learning in advertising for the advantage of both the educated community and business. We unite business, innovative, and innovation pioneers, Scholastics from the pediatric dentistry for the most present and applicable. Dentists 2019 is an uncommon occasion intended to International Dental Events & Pediatric Dentistry Conferences for dental and Oral well-being experts to encourage the dispersal and use of exploration discoveries identified with oral well-being and the collaborations in the middle of oral and systemic well-being. The gathering for the Global and Pediatric dentistry conference welcomes members from every driving university, clinical examination foundations and symptomatic organizations to share their exploration encounters on all parts of this quickly extending field and subsequently, giving a showcase of the most recent dental procedures. Global Dental Conference is one of the largest dental conferences in Europe offering a varied and contemporary selection of continuing education programs. considerations and suitable change experiences which concentrate on both theory and practices in our Remedial social occasions.Dates: April 25-26, 2019Venue: Rome, ItalyFor more details of this conference please have a glance on webpage: Dental Conferences | Dentistry ConferencesFor abstract submission: dentists.dentistryconferences.com/abstract-submission.php Theme Dentistry trends for todays lifestyleWith Regards,Jessica WilliamProgram Manager | Dentists 2019UK: Conference Series llc LTD47 Churchfield Road, London, W3 6AYToll Free: +44-800-014-8923Dental Diseases are Europes most prevalent health problem. Dentistry is considered as private sector treatment in Italy, as only 4% of dental care is provided within the NHS. According to a 2013 study (Servizio Studi ANDI) based on ISTAT data, 39.7% Italians visited a dentist at least once a year, compared to 11.5% who never visited. Private dental expenditure was estimated in 2013 to be about 10 billion. It has been estimated that Dental services in Italy are provided through a network of 56,000 dentists and commercial laboratories are active, with 11,520 dental technicians operating either as owners or employees. In Italy, most dentists who practice on their own or as small groups, outside hospitals or schools, and provide a broad range of general treatments are said to be in Private Practice.Importance & Scope:Pediatric dentistry is a standout amongst the most essential branches of dentistry. Pediatric dentistry is a branch of dentistry that is concerned with the dental consideration and treatment of children. Worldwide 60-90% of the youngsters have dental pits. Pediatric Dentistry conference expects to unite driving scholarly researchers, analysts and examination researchers to trade and share their encounters and exploration comes about all parts of Pediatric dentistry. Pediatric dentistry additionally gives the opportunity to scientists, professionals and instructors to present and talk about the latest developments, patterns, and concerns, pragmatic difficulties experienced and the arrangements embraced in the fields of pediatric dentistry.Pediatric dentistry conference gathering is a worldwide stage for exhibiting research about pediatric Dental, trading thoughts regarding it and consequently, adds to the spread of learning in advertising for the advantage of both the educated community and business. We unite business, innovative, and innovation pioneers, Scholastics from the pediatric dentistry for the most present and applicable.Dentists 2019 is an uncommon occasion intended to International Dental Events & Pediatric Dentistry Conferences for dental and Oral well-being experts to encourage the dispersal and use of exploration discoveries identified with oral well-being and the collaborations in the middle of oral and systemic well-being. The gathering for the Global and Pediatric dentistry conference welcomes members from every driving university, clinical examination foundations and symptomatic organizations to share their exploration encounters on all parts of this quickly extending field and subsequently, giving a showcase of the most recent dental procedures. Global Dental Conference is one of the largest dental conferences in Europe offering a varied and contemporary selection of continuing education programs. Press Information: Conference Series llc LTD 47 Churchfield Road, London, W3 6AY Contact Person: jessica Phone: 8000148923 eMail: eMail 02.08.2018 11:50:34 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Stock Market News Silver Price - Gold Prices Plunge Today, Silver Also Falls: 10 Things To Know 02-08-2018 04:17 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 Stock Market News ULVR Headlines - FTSE 100 preview: Index seen lower ahead of BoE decision 02-08-2018 00:12 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 Stock Market News USDJPY - Elliott wave Analysis: USDJPY Points Lower 02-08-2018 03:50 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 How High Will The Market Rally Before The Economic Collapse Begins? Last week, I wrote an article about how I view the potential effects of an economic collapse on American society. Unfortunately, many of our readers took it as an opportunity to post their perspectives on Trump and the democrats. Yes, I know the country is exceptionally divided. However, I brought this issue to light not because I see one party as being the savior for this country over the other. Rather, I brought this issue to light to show you that we are on a path of history repeating itself, as we have forgotten the lessons learned from the pain of the past. We all have to recognize that the United States took a big step down that slippery slope of socialism with the passage of The New Deal. Since then, it does not matter which party has been in power, as we have extended those socialistic policies when the masses thought it was needed. Thus, each generation since The New Deal has seen expanding socialistic policies. While you can argue whether you approve or disapprove of this progression, to ignore that we are on this path is foolish. Moreover, the reaction to the financial market shock experienced during the Great Recession has shown us that our government is willing to go further down the path of socialistic policies. So, I really do not have much doubt in my mind that this will be the go-to answer when we get into bigger trouble in the 2030s no matter who is in power. But, I digress. The main point of this update is a follow up on my last article to explain the potential that the market still has overhead before we top out in the coming years. As you have seen from our very long-term perspective in this chart, which covers over 100 years of time, we still think there is upside left in this market in the coming years. However, before we are going to set up for that final run in the early 2020s, I still think we will see a 20-30% correction begin in 2019. But, once that 20-30% correction completes, our expectation is that the DOW can reach at least 35,000 on the rally into the mid-2020s, with a potential blow off top taking us as high as the 66,000 region. In fact, the 66,000 region is the ideal target on the larger degree structure. While that is quite a large range, much will depend on how that rally takes shape after we complete the expected 20-30% correction. So, it is a bit premature to be able to hone in on the exact target region upon which to focus. But, as noted, our minimal expectation at this time is the 35,000 region, whereas the ideal target has been 66,000. So, as you can see, based upon our analysis which has kept us on the correct side of this market for many years, we still believe that this bull market has further to run. However, we are expecting a sizeable correction to begin in 2019 before that last leg of this bull market which began at the 2009 lows takes hold. And, after this last leg into the mid-2020s completes, then we will likely begin a 10-20 year bear market which can take the DOW back towards the 10,000 region. See expandable chart on the Dow. Avi Gilburt is a widely followed Elliott Wave technical analyst and author of ElliottWaveTrader.net (www.elliottwavetrader.net), a live Trading Room featuring his intraday market analysis (including emini S&P 500, metals, oil, USD & VXX), interactive member-analyst forum, and detailed library of Elliott Wave education. 2018 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. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Globalist I am often confused by events that happen and by things that people say. But then I think them over and they mostly become less confusing, even if often slivers of confusion remain. This was again the case yesterday morning. Donald Trump went after the Koch brothers, the one biggest symbol of everything thats wrong with American politics, and I expected the anti-Trump echo-chamber to finally agree on something with him. But no, what was I thinking? The echo-chamber has deafened and blinded its inhabitants for far too long and far too loudly for one single word of agreement to come out of it. Trump could sing the praises of Hillary Clinton tomorrow morning and it would be used against him. This is not new, its been going on for his entire presidency, and before, but its still good for people to acknowledge that its getting worse be the day or better perhaps in their eyes?! Still, if you want to call yourself a journalist, and want to be taken seriously as such, objectivity is the number one requirement. But who in the US or international press can claim to be objective when it comes to Trump? Trump sells, on all sides of the aisle. Be very much for him, or equally much against him, and your paper or TV channel can expect revenues to rise. Being neutral on him: not so much. Anyway, so Trump went after the Koch brothers. That must have shaken up a lot of the Republican party, because countless senators and congressmen and lower level politicians owe their seats more or less exclusively to the hundreds of millions the brothers throw at election campaigns. Trump does not. Heres how Tyler Durden covered the action: Two days after Charles Koch voiced his growing displeasure with Trumps domestic, foreign and economic policy, warning that Trump tariffs could trigger a US recession, President Trump responded on Tuesday by slamming the powerful Koch-led donor network as globalist and a total joke, rejecting the conservative group amid reports that the network was shifting away from him over trade and immigration issues. Trump alleged that his policies have made them richer and that they want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, while he supports the American worker. In another tweet Trump called them: Two nice guys with bad ideas. The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against strong borders and powerful trade. I never sought their support because I dont need their money or bad ideas, Trump said in a post on Twitter. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made them richer Trump continued his angry tirade: Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, Im for America First & the American Worker a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again! That seems obvious enough. The 82- and 78-year-old brothers have bought much of the GOP with their billions, but not Trump. Whether that is because they didnt want to, or couldnt, is largely irrelevant. One would think even the anti-Trumpers could feel some sense of gratification in the demise of the brothers pernicious influence over America as a country, but no, their hate of Trump trumps their dislike of the Koches. And you know what they found to rationalize this? The word globalist. Yesterday morning I was watching in amazement as my Twitter feed supplied one tweet after the other on the theme. It lasted just a few hours and then it was gone; this morning the whole thing has died out. But the message, or should I say the damage, had been conveyed. The allegation in these circles is that Globalist Equals Jew. And so you cant call anyone a globalist, or at least Trump cant, or you -and he- only can when someone s not Jewish. Now, globalism is a real thing, its a philosophy concerning how economies can and should be organized. And its sort of the opposite of Trumps America First and Make America Great Again. People who believe in globalism are opposed to Trumps trade tariffs. Not so much his proposal to the EU to drop all tariffs though, because that is what they also want. For Trump, globalism means the jobs America lost to people like the Koch brothers moving manufacturing to China et al. His view is that America needs those jobs back. These are simply different views of how economies and societies should be organized. Nothing more, nothing less. But by making the word Globalist the same as Jew, the discussion about the different views becomes impossible. You cannot call a Jewish person a globalist, even if that person believes in the concept of globalism. On the other hand, its fine to call non-Jewish people globalists. And this is because certain rightwing forces have at some point allegedly used the term as an anti-semitic slur, or dog-whistle. However, who decided to let the rightwing decide what a word means? See, Im sure those who bring this up didnt invent it out of thin air, but globalism is still a real thing, and since no-one wishes to equate globalism with Judaism one-on-one, Id say caution is required. Like this: If you cannot positively prove that someone is an antisemite, dont go there girlfriend. Its toxic. In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, 180 light years away from Trump politically, is the subject of an anti-semitism smear campaign at the same time. Though all hes ever done is be critical of Israeli policies vs the Palestinians. And if we cant criticize that kind of thing anymore, I dont know what we live in, but a democracy its certainly not. By the way, The Guardian ran a headline yesterday saying Corbyn Ally Says Jewish Trump Fanatics Making Up Antisemitism Claims. Wait, Jewish Trump fanatics? Oh, never mind And yes, we all know that Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner is Jewish, and his favorite daughter Ivanka has converted to orthodox Judaism when she married Kushner, and Trumps grandchildren by the couple are Jewish too. Still when economic adviser Gary Cohn left earlier this year, and Trump said hes a globalist, but I still like him, that is now being used against him. Trumps an antisemite. But Cohn would still be a globalist even if he werent Jewish. Which fits in nicely and seamlessly with Trump being a racist and misogynist and rapist and Putin-puppet and yada yada. But you know, the anti-Trump chamber has become so deafening its become fully dysfunctional. There is no information emanating from it anymore, even if many journalists reside in that chamber. Theres just a bunch of people trying to trump each other in their hate of the man. For them that seems to do the trick, but for anyone outside of the chamber, its just a whole lot of noise. It has taken Robert Mueller a year and a half to come up with absolutely nothing in the way of collusion, and he just keeps going. For what? He wants to make it the full 4-year Trump term? Im sure there are people out there who use Globalist as a slur for Jewish, but I have no way of being sure Trump uses it in that sense, and neither do his detractors. They have reached a stage where any allegation or rumor or innuendo seems for them to prove their unproven suspicions even and ever more, but they have long lost sight of what is actually true, and what is mere conjecture. Labeling someone an antisemite is one of the worst things one can accuse another person of, and it should therefore never be done lightly, let alone without any proof. Its just dirty smear if you have no evidence; and mere allegations dont cut it. Sure there are people who voted for Trump who fit the picture, but that doesnt make the man an antisemite. Nor does calling someone who believes in open borders everywhere, a globalist. Whether that person is Jewish or not. Dont just throw shit around hoping it will stick. Oh, and if you feel tempted to call me an antisemite now, heres something I wrote in January 2010 when Anne Franks friend Miep Gies died aged 100, about where I grew up: Miep Gies Died Today. Good luck with that. By Raul Ilargi Meijer Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory) 2018 Copyright Raul I Meijer - 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. Raul Ilargi Meijer Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Chinas new retail market is expected to hit 1.8 trillion yuan ($264 billion) in 2022, continuing to play its role as a major driver in consumption growth. It is estimated that this sector will see a compound growth of over 100 percent in the next few years. The concept of new retail was created by Jack Ma, executive chairman of Chinas e-commerce giant Alibaba, in 2016. His idea has been broadly accepted over the past two years. New retails contribution to economic growth was first confirmed by a twice-yearly economic report of eastern Chinas city of Hangzhou, which is also the base of Alibaba. The report said that new retail accelerated the fusion of online and offline businesses, which meant the citys three major appliance markets and ten major supermarkets saw a growth of 22.9 percent and 10.6 percent in sales volume respectively. The online-offline integration will enjoy huge potential in the digital era, and will inject new energy to consumption growth and economic development, said Zhang Xinhong, director of the Sharing Economy Research Institute under the State Information Center. On one hand, new retail is driving consumption upgrade; while on the other, consumption upgrade is also contributing to the rise of new retail. According to Chinas National Bureau of Statistics, final consumption contributed 78.5 percent of economic growth in the first half of 2018. Last year was also the 14th year in a row that China has seen a double-digit growth in total retail sales of consumer goods. At present, more and more capital is flowing into this rising sector, and e-commerce and tech giants in China are all planning new strategies centered on this concept. For instance, e-commerce platform JD acquired Yihaodian, Walmarts e-commerce marketplace in China in 2016, and is planning to open over a million convenience stores across the country in the next five years. A report on new retail showed that the sector received as much as 155.5 billion yuan in investment from 2017 to the first quarter of 2018. 505 investments were made during this period with each of them averaging 366 million yuan, 1.6 times the industry average. Happy August, MEDA Members and Partners The clock is ticking for you to submit your 2018 MEDA Awards. Click on the newsletter link to get full information. You may also find full information (agenda and registration) for the MEDA Unconference Unconventionally inspiring collaboration http://www.medamembers.org/media/userfiles/subsite_107/files/MEDAFall2018Agenda.pdf . Missoula Economic Partnership is hosting this unique unconference September 19 21, at the Holiday Inn Missoula Downtown. Check it all out in the August news! http://www.medamembers.org/media/userfiles/subsite_107/files/August%202018.pdf gloria June and July were very successful months for the economy of Butte-Silver Bow. At the end of June, the BLDC, City/County, and Butte Chamber hosted the 3rd annual Montana Young Professionals Summit. The summit attracted over 100 young professionals from all corners of the state (Sydney to Whitefish) which included a leadership training from Leadership Montana, keynote speakers, informative breakout sessions, and events tailored to showcasing Butte. Feedback from the event was incredibly positive, and numerous attendees have reached out since the event to share that they have come back to Butte to seek out similar experiences they partook in at the event. The event would not have been able to take place without our BLDC team, community leaders, business sponsors, and volunteers. We appreciate all of your support. More: https://mailchi.mp/bldc/the-impact-july-1484133?e=37811d99ce Each year, Holter Dam provides over 300 million kilowatts of electricity for Montana residents. To honor its facility 100th birthday, operator NorthWestern Energy held a celebration and public tour Tuesday. By John Riley MTN News http://www.kpax.com/story/38782250/holter-dam-celebrates-100-years-in-montana One of Montanas newest government offices established by Gov. Steve Bullock in 2017 aims to grow and enhance the states multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation economy. The Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation (ORE) http://business.mt.gov/Office-of-Outdoor-Recreation started their Great Outdoors Brewery Tour in Missoula on Wednesday. Montana is one of eight states that currently has an ORE agency but several other states are in the beginning stages of creating their own offices. The goal of ORE is to "oversee state efforts to grow and enhance Montanas $7 billion outdoor recreation economy." ORE director Rachel VanDeVoort says that means the outdoor recreation economy for tourists and locals who might not even realize that they are a part of that group. More than 71,000 jobs are created by the outdoor recreation industry making it the second largest economic sector in Montana. By Connor McCauley http://www.kpax.com/story/38796106/missoula-tour-spotlights-montanas-outdoor-recreation-economy Although Wilmot Collins beat four-term incumbent Jim Smith to become Helenas mayor last November, his story does not begin with the 2017 mayoral election. His life story begins in Liberia, extends to Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and finally lands in the United States. It includes his struggles as a refugee, his first-hand knowledge of applying for and gaining U.S. citizenship, and also his decision to run for mayor in the town he calls home. On Monday evening, Collins told a crowd, gathered at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Great Falls for an event hosted by Great Falls Rising, about his life experiences. By Natalie McAlpine MTN News http://www.kbzk.com/story/38791259/helena-mayor-wilmot-collins-shares-his-life-story The Native American Development Coorporation held a conference that focuses on businesses within Native American tribes, promote healthcare, and present those who have succeeded in the business world. Cora Kay Chandler is the business manager for NADC and said a fashion show was held to showcase two women who have roots in Indian Country and have made a name for themselves. "We have Della Big Hair Stump and she has actually been a feature in Teen Vogue Fashion Magazine," Chandler said. "We also have Norma Flying Hearts Baker and she actually had her first Oscar gown appearance. So she was the first Native American to have that. By Briana Monte, KULR http://www.kulr8.com/story/38792989/conference-aims-to-work-on-on-economic-development-among-native-american-community California Governor Jerry Brown wasnt shy when it came to identifying the underlying culprit responsible for the glut of wildfires raging across the state: climate change. "The fire season is so much longer and the fires are so much bigger," Brown said Wednesday when asked about the biggest difference between his management of fires now versus when he was first governor in the 1970s. "There are more fires to come, there will be more for a long time until we shift the weather back to where it historically was." By Matthew Renda *** Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change NY Times http://www.matr.net/article-84054.html *** With values on the line, Missoula City Council adopts Zero Waste Plan http://www.matr.net/article-84072.html Investment company Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CV VC) visited Mauritius as part of a delegation led by the Swiss Blockchain Federation and organised by the Swiss Embassy on 21-22 November 2019, which sought to build blockchain bridges between the two continental FinTech hubs. Speaking in Mauritius, Veronique Haller, Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss Embassy, explained that the Swiss delegation had come to Mauritius because it saw tremendous potential for collaboration between the two countries in relation to blockchain. She highlighted that both Switzerland in Europe and Mauritius in Africa are seen as leaders to enable research and innovation to translate into business, and that both countries shared a hardworking and confident spirit. Mathias Ruch, Founder and CEO of CV VC, presented CV VCs approach to creating a blockchain technology ecosystem for Africa at three seminars with the participation of leading stakeholders from Mauritius. The first seminar was held on 21 November at Hennessy Park Hotel, in collaboration with the Swiss Embassy and the Economic Development Board of Mauritius, and the second was held on 22 November at the University of Mauritius. The events were supported by a number of actors from Switzerland including the Swiss Blockchain Federation, Swiss Global Enterprise and the Cardano Foundation. A third seminar was organised at the African Leadership College during the visit. Commenting on the visit, Mathias Ruch, said: My visit to Mauritius has shown me that there is a strong will to use technology as a driving force for progress across the continent. Like Switzerland in Europe, which is home to over 800 companies active in the blockchain arena, Mauritius has the potential to emerge as a leading hub in Africa for the development of a blockchain ecosystem, with the necessary framework, infrastructure, talent and capital for this to thrive. At CV VC, we have become an important and renowned institution for regional and international startups, and we have already taken our first steps in Africa through our CV Labs Incubation Program, where we have invested in two Blockchain startups with South African roots. We want to do our part and contribute to a growing and flourishing blockchain ecosystem in Africa by supporting entrepreneurs with great ideas and giving them a chance to focus on the development of their ideas and products. We believe that innovation based on blockchain technology knows no borders and we are excited about the opportunities to build the ecosystem from Mauritius. CV VC Seminar on 21 Nov at Hennessy Park Hotel in collaboration with the Swiss Embassy CV VC seminar on 21 Nov at Hennessy Park Hotel with Swiss Embassy and EDB_all CV VC seminar on 22 Nov at the University of Mauritius CV VC seminar with African Leadership College Mathias Ruch Founder and CEO of CV VC With a view to reinforcing its role in developing the blockchain ecosystem, CV VC is currently evaluating the potential establishment of a CV VC African Chapter as a private sector initiative which would seek to establish a blockchain hub in Mauritius for the whole of Africa, as an important financial and scientific hub. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn The China Food and Drug Administration recently announced that 16 more generic drugs have been proven equivalent to their original counterparts in both quality and efficacy, bringing the total number of such drugs to 57, Peoples Daily Overseas Edition reported on July 31, 2018. The Generic Quality Consistency Evaluation (GQCE), which has been carried out in China since 2015, is a mandatory bioequivalence test that promotes the quality of Chinas domestic generic drugs. An expert in the field said that the implementation of GQCE is expected to expand the domestic market, create a favorable development environment and promote fair competition for generic drugs, thus helping to lower drug prices. In April, the Chinese government released a circular focused on improving the supply and utilization of generics, promoting the quality and efficacy of generic drugs, speeding up the implementation of the GQCE and enhancing quality control of drugs. According to the circular, the country will provide favorable policies and support to qualified generic drugs in purchasing, pricing, medical insurance coverage and investment. Medical institutions should also give high priority to the use of generic drugs in clinical practice. According to the GQCE, after the first three manufacturers of a kind of drug pass assessment stage, no other drug manufacturers will be granted a license to make this drug for the following three years. An industry insider pointed out that the GQCE is a challenge for domestic generic drug manufacturers, because its implementation will reduce the number of generic drugs on the market by 60 percent. The assessment will, however, motivate manufacturers as the industry becomes normalized and institutionalized. More than 10 Chinese cities have enacted policies to support the registration of approved generic drugs. For instance, Hubei province in central China has granted a green passage to simplify procedures when it comes to introducing approved generic drugs in hospitals. Egypt's High State Security Prosecution has ordered the detention of a senior police officer for four days pending investigation into bribery charges in a corruption case involving the head of the country's Customs Authority. Last month, Egyptian authorities arrested and detained the head of the Egyptian Customs Authority Gamal Abdelazim over allegations of accepting bribes to permit the entry of goods into the country without the payment of customs duties. The Administrative Control Authority has said that Abdelazim instructed his subordinates to reduce the fines imposed on seized goods. Prosecutors on Wednesday arrested two police officers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said for their suspected involvement in the case. Following questioning, prosecutors ordered the detention of one of the officers, who is with the tax evasion department, pending investigations into receiving bribes. The prosecution ordered the release of the other officer. Egypts Administrative Control Authority, the country's anti-corruption watchdog, has in recent months filed several graft-related cases involving top state officials, including head of the Food Industries Holding Company in May and Menoufiya governor in January. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's High Administrative Court has overturned a lower court ruling that required the government to increase the risk allowance granted to Egyptian doctors, a demand physicians have been making for years. Since 1995, medical staff in Egypt have been receiving a meagre EGP 19 to EGP 30 in monthly infectious disease allowance, according to the Doctors Syndicate. In 2014, the doctors Syndicate filed a legal case demanding that the government raise the allowance to EGP 1,000 (approx. $55). An administrative court ruled in the syndicate's favour in November 2015, but the verdict was not implemented and the government later appealed the decision. On Thursday, the High Administrative Court accepted an appeal by the State Lawsuits Authority against the 2015 decision, cancelling the increase. Following Thursday's court decision, the doctors syndicate vowed to continue pursuing all possible ways to help physicians "obtain their clear and absolute right to a fair infection allowance, commensurate with the serious health risks that doctors face during their daily work." In May, the syndicate proposed a draft law to parliament to raise the infection allowance. The syndicate has also called on Egypt's prime minister to intervene in the matter. Search Keywords: Short link: [August 01, 2018] Rivetz and DataBroker DAO Partner to Deliver Secure Exchange of IoT Sensor Data DUBAI, United Arab Emirates and RICHMOND, Mass., Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rivetz, an industry leader in embedded, blockchain-based mobile security solutions, and Databroker DAO Alliance, the first decentralized marketplace for IoT sensor data, today announced a partnership to enable world-class embedded security for sensor data. Alliance members of DataBroker DAO can rest assured that their sensor data is secure and private with Rivetz technology. Rivetz's access to the existing hardware security capabilities built into millions of devices and its blockchain technology ensure the safety of digital assets and transactions are secure. "Rivetz provides the cybersecurity for the users and devices of the IoT ecosystem," said Matthew Van Niekerk, co-founder and CEO of DataBroker DAO. "We are happy to know they are on DataBroker DAO, and that they will be part of the synergy within our Alliance members by adding trust within the marketplace." DataBroker DAO is the first marketplace to buy and sell sensor data. As a decentralized marketplace for IoT sensor data using blockchain technology, the company enables sensor owners to turn generated data into a revenue stream. Using their ERC20 token, DTX, the platform allows sensor owners to sell the data they collect while enabling entrepreneurs and organizations to buy and aggregate data or resell the enriched data. "As a cybersecurity organization we are excited to be part of the DataBroker DAO Alliance," said Steven Sprague, founder and CEO of Rivetz. "We look forward to ensuring trust in for Alliance members by assuring a known device in known conditions is consuming or creating provable data. Working together with the Alliance members Rivetz strives to nsure the security of the entire ecosystem." Rivetz's best-in-class security solutions hinge upon access to the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), which is an isolated, measured computer environment separate from the operating system. By provisioning all digital transactions through the TEE, Rivetz assures that users' private keys cannot be altered or stolen if the operating system were tampered with or infected by malware. About DataBroker DAO DataBroker DAO is the first marketplace for sensor data using blockchain technology, bringing together sensor owners, data processors and network owners into one place. Companies make use of sensor data to optimize and monitor their operations, resulting in a single-purpose data landscape. DataBroker DAO drives our evolution toward truly 'smart living' by making this data easily accessible to cities, organizations and entrepreneurs at an affordable price. To learn more visit https://databrokerdao.com and follow DataBroker DAO on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Medium and Telegram. About Rivetz Rivetz technology and services aim to provide a safer and easier-to-use model for all users to protect their digital assets using hardware-based trusted execution technology. The device plays a critical role in automating security and enabling the controls that users need to produce high assurance data and benefit from modern services. Rivetz leverages state-of-the-art cybersecurity tools to develop a modern model for users and their devices to interact with services on the Internet. They were selected for Telecom Council's prestigious Innovation Showcase Class of 2018. Find out more at www.rivetz.com and follow Rivetz on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram. All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies. Rivetz Media Contact Nikki Dance FortyThree, Inc. Rivetz@43pr.com 831.401.3175 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rivetz-and-databroker-dao-partner-to-deliver-secure-exchange-of-iot-sensor-data-300689866.html SOURCE Rivetz [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] [August 01, 2018] Pundi X technology to debut in the Middle East following partnership with ebooc Partnership targets rollout of NexGen POS devices to customers for payment of bills, school fees, utilities and more DUBAI, United Arab Emirates and JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pundi X, the leading developer of a blockchain-based point of sales ("POS") allowing consumers to pay for real goods in multiple cryptocurrencies, will make its debut in the Gulf and Middle East following a partnership with the country's first regional fintech company: ebooc. Pundi X and ebooc will work closely on developing digital payment gateway services for governments, financial institutions and major corporates in the Gulf and Middle East as well as broader business lines such as blockchain-based customer loyalty programs and NFC contactless payment options. The collaboration will bring consumers in Dubai, UAE and the broader Middle East and Gulf region the ability to conduct real time commerce through digital payments using their mobile wallets, eliminating the need for traditional payment methods. This technology also has the potential to transform value-added tax (VAT) collection for governments in the Gulf and Middle East as blockchain technology allows for instant computation and collection of a recently-introduced VAT in the region. Ebooc forecasts the introduction of instant VAT computation as holding major benefits for merchants and governments alike and bringing substantial efficiencies in reduced manpower devoted to audits, assessments and implementation. Pundi X and ebooc will provide several other uses for consumers such as making retail payments; paying for government services, fees and fines; utilities and bills; telecommunication bills and school fees on POS devices running a stable, digital equivalent of traditional fiat currencies in the region. The two companies will rollout secure and seamless payments to clients and customers via a single NexGen payment portal, offering increase functionality at substantially lower running costs to market leading solutions. The move brings Pundi X's world-leading, blockchain-based POS technology, XPASS card and e-wallet to the Gulf, Middle East and North Africa region for the first time with ebooc as the official partner under the terms of the strategic partnership agreement. Following meetings in Dubai and Jakarta, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Pundi X CEO and co-founder Zac Cheah and the CEO of Digital Force and co-founder of ebooc Abdulla Al Shamsi, to commit to the deployment of a soon-to-be-announced number of Pundi X devices across the Middle East. Abdalla Al Shamsi said: "We envisage consumers in the UAE being granted the ability to make retail payments for school fees, utilities and other necessities from a world-leading blockchain-based POS device provided by Pundi X". Cheah said: "We are delighted by this partnership in a nation-state that has long been considered a by-word for modernity and innovation. "This latest project confirms that Dubai is yet again a source of global leadership, this time in the emerging field of blockchain-based payments technology, with the potential to forever change the way consumers make secure, digital payments." Sunil Malhotra, the Managing Director Bchain and co-founder of ebooc said: "An ebooc Pundi X partnership will deliver a differentiated customer experience through innovative features, seamless integration, loyalty solutions, enhanced security and greater convenience to governments, businesses and consumers in Dubai, UAE and the region to make financial transactions on the NexGen platform in a smart way, bringing together various service providers under one platform. "There is no better way to announce Pundi X's arrival in the Middle East and North Africa than with a partnership with ebooc in Dubai - the region's technology hub". Further details of the partnership will be announced following the development and testing of technology with relevant government departments and regulators. For more information on this PR please contact Pundi X press@pundix.com or ebooc at: sunil@ebooc.io About Ebooc Fintech & Loyalty Labs LLC ebooc, from the Arabic word for e-wallet, is the first Emirati fintech company to establish a presence across the broader region. It aims to provide a secure and seamless payment experience to clients and customers which runs on NexGen technology as a decentralized, distributed ledger which creates trust, improving efficiency levels. Its solution for retail outlets can be channeled to the governmental organizations, creating a high level of trust and transparency. About Pundi X Pundi X (Currency: NPXS), a multi-cryptocurrency point-of-sale ("POS") solution provider, empowers blockchain developers, exchange platforms, crypto traders and token holders to buy, sell, and spend cryptocurrency at any physical store in the world. The company's solution also enables the retail store owners who are seeking to accept digital currencies so that they can do 'cryptocurrency to fiat' or 'crypto to crypto' transactions for the mainstream consumers. The company is aiming to roll out more than 100,000 blockchain-based POS devices worldwide in a major challenge to the status quo of the US$ 2.2-trillion global retail payments market. Headquartered in Jakarta, Pundi X has offices in London, Sao Paulo, Shenzhen, Singapore, Seoul, and Tokyo. For more information, please visit https://pundix.com/. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pundi-x-technology-to-debut-in-the-middle-east-following-partnership-with-ebooc-300690160.html SOURCE Pundi X [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] Welcome Cordoba Center to San Martin It is my dream to live in a community where fears are lessened and differences are embraced. I recall learning in grade school that the pilgrims came from England to America seeking freedom of religion. The Muslim faith has deep roots and longevity. It is an authentic religion honoring the same God Christians and Jews honor, as there is only one God. I know exemplary people who embrace and practice the Muslim religion. I have seen the plans for the Cordoba Center proposal. They have been made with the utmost of care so as not to be intrusive to the neighbors. The cemetery is situated so that it has a natural barrier to mitigate any health concerns. The proposed buildings are compatible in size with the surrounding developments. Since all buildings in the Cordoba plans are grouped in one area, there are many open spaces between it and the neighbors. To know one, is to love one. It is my prayer that the opposition to the Cordoba is not being based on the negative press about Islam. True Christians know that we are all children of God and that He has given us free will to express His love differently. My family of migrant workers settled in Morgan Hill in 1946. We were warmly welcomed. I wish the same acceptance for all who wish to live and visit our community and whose ethical values contribute to the harmony and well-being of our beloved community. I urge our community to support this worthwhile project as it not only would meet the needs of a significant segment of our community, but also enrich us all. Rose Hernandez Morgan Hill Project larger than others San Martin Neighborhood Alliance welcomes all religious institutions to our community. The Cordoba Center project, as proposed is: Four times the size of the largest religious/communal/social facility currently in San Martin. Three times the limit that requires enhanced scrutiny under the recently revised Santa Clara County Planning and Land Use regulations. Twice the size that the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) concludes would reasonably accommodate the needs identified by the proposers. There are numerous inaccuracies in the DEIR, as well as important issues which are not addressed. The SMNA Board will formally address those issues in written DEIR comments to the county, which at that time will become public record. The proposed cemetery is of particular concern, as it would be sited immediately adjacent to homes dependent on well water for household consumption. We believe, based on the references we have found, that this aspect of the proposal requires further study by cognizant technical experts before it can safely be approved. Further, we believe that suitable alternatives to meet this need exist and have not been explored. San Martin faces tremendous development pressure from its neighbors to the north and south. If we are to host large developments that our urban neighbors cant or wont accommodate, we hope and expect that the county will honor its General Plan commitment to protect our rural/agricultural community. We would be pleased to engage with the proposers, regarding a more modest project that would meet their needs with substantially less impact, but regretfully cannot support this project as proposed. Sincerely, SMNA Board of Directors Trina Hineser, President Related Gruesome viral video sparks debate about Egyptian cornea transplant law Egypts Grand Mufti Sheikh Shawky Allam said on Wednesday that transplanting a cornea from a dead person is allowed under certain conditions, most notably that they give consent prior to death of their own free will and not in exchange for financial compensation. The Mufti's comments come as Egypt Muslim religious institutions weigh in on the ongoing debate over the country's controversial cornea transplanting law, which allows certain hospitals to remove part of a deceased person's corneas without obtaining prior consent. The law recently came under the spotlight after a video was shared online showing the body of a dead man at a Cairo hospital with bloody eye sockets. Allam added that previous muftis and sheikhs at Al-Azhar Egypts largest religious institution have made statements that support this argument, including Sheikh Hassam Mamoun, Sheikh Ahmed Haridy, Sheikh Gad El-Hak and Sheikh Sayed Tantawy. He also said in statements to the media that Al-Azhar has issued a fatwa on this matter that stresses the necessity of obtaining consent from the person prior to their death. Mahmoud Mehana, a member of Al-Azhar's Committee of Grand Clerics, has said that no organs should be removed from the body of a deceased person without their explicit wish to that their organs be donated. The cornea transplanting law gives hospitals with licensed cornea banks the right to remove the corneas of deceased patients without obtaining consent from them or their families. A public debate over the law was sparked after the above-mentioned video was circulated online. According to the description of the video, which has been shared thousands of times on Facebook, the deceased was 40-year-old Mohamed Abdel-Tawab, who died after being admitted to Qasr El-Ainy Hospital for heart surgery. Abdel-Tawab's family has expressed outrage that the procedure was undertaken without their consent. Although the head of Qasr El-Ainy Hospital Fathy Khodeir insists that the hospital did nothing wrong, he did suggest that the hospital may suspend cornea removals. Honestly, after what I have read and heard, the best way to protect the faculty and the doctors is to suspend [cornea removals], Khodeir said on Facebook on Wednesday. It is better to suspend the service until the people are convinced of its importance, Khodier said. Search Keywords: Short link: At its regular meeting on August 2, the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees welcomed its new chair, conferred degrees and recognized long-serving faculty and staff. Today marked the start of a new chapter for Michigan Technological Universitys Board of Trustees, as Brenda Ryan officially took her position as chair. Ryan, who joined the Board in 2015 and served for two years as its vice chair, was elected to her new position at the Boards last regular meeting on May 4, 2018. I am honored for the support and confidence of the Board of Trustees in selecting me as chair, Ryan said. It has been my pleasure to serve as vice chair for the past two years and to have served with our distinguished outgoing chair, Terry Woychowski. The Board has worked tirelessly over the past year on our presidential search, and we are looking forward to working with Michigan Techs new president, Richard Koubek. Bill Johnson led a successful search as chair of the Presidential Search Committee and I am excited that he will now serve as vice chair of the Board. It will be a privilege to work with such a fervent Board and president. Michigan Tech is positioned to ascend to new levels locally, nationally and globally. I am elated to be a part of it. Brenda Ryan, pictured with U.S. Sen. Gary Peters at the Michigan Tech spring 2018 commencement ceremony, has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees. Ryan is the president and owner of Ryan Industries Inc., Ryan Properties LLC in Wixom, Michigan, and Alliance Industries LLC in Springfield, Missouri. She earned a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Tech and a master's degree in material science engineering from the University of Virginia. While a graduate student, Ryan served as a Michigan Tech Board of Trustees member, spending a year as its chair in 1984. The meeting was also the first for Michigan Techs new president, Richard Koubek, who began his duties on July 1. In his comments to the Board, Koubek described his impressions of the community and outlined his initial vision for the University. The university has a solid strategic plan to help guide us, and it does a fine job of describing who we are and what we aspire to look like with regard to size, research, student composition and the like, Koubek said at the close of his remarks. But over the next year, I am asking the campus to take the next step and define not just what we want to look like, but also what we want to do. What impact do we want to have? What is it that Michigan Tech is uniquely positioned to achieve and that few others can pursue? Following Koubeks comments, the Board voted to grant degrees to the list of students certified by the registrar. It also adopted resolutions of appreciation for Michigan Tech employees Ricky Anderson for 39 years of service and David Nordstrom for 36 years of service. It then granted professor emeritus status to Michael Irish, previously an associate professor in visual and performing arts. In other business, the Board: Received a report that a total of $37.39 million was raised for the University from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, which is 104 percent of the fundraising goal ($36.0 million) for fiscal year 2018; Approved a resolution to comply with new state mandates in Michigan Public Act 265 of 2018, also known as the Education Omnibus Appropriation Act; Received an update on University response efforts related to the Fathers Day Flood; and Endorsed a proposal from the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, for submission to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs to support costs associated with artist fees for the Rozsa Centers annual Presenting Series and to partially support various productions during the 2018-19 academic year. Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. Related Monk says death of bishop in Egyptian monastery not an act of terrorism The Monastic Affairs Committee of the Holy Synod, the highest authority of the Coptic Orthodox Church, issued 12 new decrees on Thursday regulating monasteries following the recent murder of Bishop Epiphanius, the head of the Saint Macarius the Great Monastery. The decrees cover issues including monks use of social media, making media appearances, and the construction of unlicensed worship sites. The decrees, which have been ratified by Pope Tawadros II, were issued after "prayers and discussions about restoring order" in monastic affairs were held. The decisions were taken during a committee meeting attended by Bishop Daniel of Maadi, the secretary-general of the Holy Synod. The 64-year-old Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on Sunday at Saint Marcarius Monastery in Beheira governorate under what the Church has described as suspicious circumstances. The prosecution is currently investigating the murder. Among the decrees was a decision to suspend for one year the accepting of new candidates who seek to become novices or monks in all monasteries of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The church will also suspend the ordination of new monks as priests and archpriests for three years. The church also decided to sanction monks who construct monasteries without its approval by stripping them of their monastic and priesthood degrees. Moreover, "non-clerical persons" will be banned from attending the ordination ceremonies of monks. The decrees also prohibit any media appearances by monks, their involvement in financial operations or attending weddings or funerals without the church's permission. All monks have been given a one-month deadline to deactivate their social media accounts. Search Keywords: Short link: SEE THE FULL LIST REQUEST FOR THE FULL LIST READ LATEST NEWS GO HOME FIRST STAGE OF 2015 COWBELL NATIONAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS MATHEMATICS C... Berlin Reporter Fish and Game reports busy week by Jody Houle REGION New Hampshire Fish and Game and several rescue crews experienced a high volume of calls last week and assisted in several rescues. On Wednesday, July 18, Fish and Game received a call that a man, David Bassi, 53, of Andover Massachusetts, had been wading with a inflatable floating device in the Connecticut River before he dislocated his hip. He was suffering from slight hypothermia in 55 degree water but managed to pull himself up on a small island. A wader belt he was wearing potentially saved him by not allowing water to fill his waders. He was also carrying a whistle that he used to alert his son who called for help. Fish and Game, the Pittsburg Fire Department and the 45th Parallel EMS assisted in carrying Bassi off of the island. He was transported to the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook where he was treated for his hip injury. An ATV accident occurred on Saturday, July 21, in Pittsburg on the Woodyard trail. A Gilford man, Sean Aquaro, 42, was riding with his young daughter. Inattention was determined to have cause his to crash into a rock causing his daughter to hit her head on the roll cage. She was wearing a seat belt but not a helmet. A Fish and Game conservation officer, the Pittsburg Police, the Pittsburg Police, and the 45th Parallel EMS all assisted at the scene. Aquaro was not injured. His daughter sustained non-life threatening injuries and was transported and treated at the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital. Fish and Game received a call on later that evening that a woman, Natasha Rodriguez, 38, of Worcester, Mass., had injured her leg while hiking down the Jewell trail on Mount Washington. Twin Mountain Fire Department, Appalachian Mountain Club, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue and Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue responded to the scene and reached her about 11:22 p.m. She was carried down and the crews reached the trailhead at around 1:35 a.m. On Sunday. She refused to be taken to the hospital and left in a vehicle with a friend. Later that Sunday morning, Fish and Game received a call of another female hiker, Rachel Lutts, 60, of Salem, Mass. had also injured her leg while hiking down the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail on Mount Washington. Fish and Game contacted Lutts on her phone and was able to guide her a small distance down the trail. A Conservation officer and a volunteer from the Cog Railway arrived with Lutts at the Cog Railway parking lot around 1 p.m. Lutts refused medical attention and left the parking lot in a vehicle with her husband. REGION New Hampshire Fish and Game and several rescue crews experienced a high volume of calls last week and assisted in several rescues.On Wednesday, July 18, Fish and Game received a call that a man, David Bassi, 53, of Andover Massachusetts, had been wading with a inflatable floating device in the Connecticut River before he dislocated his hip. He was suffering from slight hypothermia in 55 degree water but managed to pull himself up on a small island. A wader belt he was wearing potentially saved him by not allowing water to fill his waders. He was also carrying a whistle that he used to alert his son who called for help. Fish and Game, the Pittsburg Fire Department and the 45th Parallel EMS assisted in carrying Bassi off of the island. He was transported to the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook where he was treated for his hip injury.An ATV accident occurred on Saturday, July 21, in Pittsburg on the Woodyard trail. A Gilford man, Sean Aquaro, 42, was riding with his young daughter. Inattention was determined to have cause his to crash into a rock causing his daughter to hit her head on the roll cage. She was wearing a seat belt but not a helmet. A Fish and Game conservation officer, the Pittsburg Police, the Pittsburg Police, and the 45th Parallel EMS all assisted at the scene. Aquaro was not injured. His daughter sustained non-life threatening injuries and was transported and treated at the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital.Fish and Game received a call on later that evening that a woman, Natasha Rodriguez, 38, of Worcester, Mass., had injured her leg while hiking down the Jewell trail on Mount Washington. Twin Mountain Fire Department, Appalachian Mountain Club, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue and Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue responded to the scene and reached her about 11:22 p.m. She was carried down and the crews reached the trailhead at around 1:35 a.m. On Sunday. She refused to be taken to the hospital and left in a vehicle with a friend.Later that Sunday morning, Fish and Game received a call of another female hiker, Rachel Lutts, 60, of Salem, Mass. had also injured her leg while hiking down the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail on Mount Washington. Fish and Game contacted Lutts on her phone and was able to guide her a small distance down the trail. A Conservation officer and a volunteer from the Cog Railway arrived with Lutts at the Cog Railway parking lot around 1 p.m. Lutts refused medical attention and left the parking lot in a vehicle with her husband. Carroll County Independent Ossipee selectmen lobby state to create Economic Revitalization Zone by Melissa Seamans Ossipee Selectmen voted July 31 to apply for a permission to designate a third area as an economic revitalization zone. The proposed are includes the former Mt. Whittier Ski Area. (Photo by Melissa Seamans) (click for larger version) OSSIPEE Ossipee is open for business. How do town officials get that word out, and what can they do to help attract new commercial development? On a recommendation of the Ossipee Economic Development Council, selectmen here voted July 30 to apply to the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development to designate a large swath of West Ossipee as an Economic Revitalization Zone (ERZ). A previous application was approved so all of Main Street, Huckins Street, Folsom Road and a portion of Moultonville Road in Center Ossipee Village are in an ERZ. The program offers individual businesses State Tax Credits towards their business profits and business enterprise taxes. To qualify for credits the business must expand the communities commercial or industrial base through developing new buildings, investing in existing buildings, adding machinery and equipment and hiring new full-time staff. The second ERZ in Ossipee runs along Route 16 North from Ossipee Aggregates to the area of Duncan Lake Road. The proposed new ERZ runs along Route 16 from Newman Drew Road to the Tamworth town line and along Route 25 West from its intersection with Route 16 to the Tamworth town line. While it is great to offer incentives to draw business to town, how can officials get the word out to potential developers? Greg Howard of West Ossipee attended the meeting and suggested a marketing campaign to include a billboard advertising that Ossipee is open for business, updates to the town website, highlighting the resources in the area and the heavy traffic counts. "With the upgrading of Route 16 and the identification of an additional ERZ would be a great time to get our ducks in a row for something that could lead to positive benefits for the town," said Howard. Chairman Richard Morgan discussed a roundtable he attended last week. The subject was the development of the former Mt. Whittier Ski Area in West Ossipee. The property, said Morgan, is now owned by John Kenney, and "it's nice to see he wants it turned into a major development" rather than house lots, said Morgan. Kenney is the brother of New Hampshire Executive Councilor Joe Kenney. At March Town Meeting, voters also approved the new Property Tax Exemption that offers local property tax breaks to businesses that "build, rebuild, modernize, or enlarge." If qualified, businesses will be assessed at only half of the increase in property value assessment for five years. Morgan said Ossipee has put itself in a great position and now it's time to "blow that horn." "If people want property tax relief, the way we get that is through business. You don't get it by adding houses. If you have a family move in with two children, it will cost $15,000 a year additional to educate those children. You are at a net loss for every family that moves in. If you want property tax relief, is through commercial development," said Morgan. He agreed to work with the OEDC to figure out the best way to highlight the benefits of business moving to Ossipee. OSSIPEE Ossipee is open for business. How do town officials get that word out, and what can they do to help attract new commercial development?On a recommendation of the Ossipee Economic Development Council, selectmen here voted July 30 to apply to the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development to designate a large swath of West Ossipee as an Economic Revitalization Zone (ERZ). A previous application was approved so all of Main Street, Huckins Street, Folsom Road and a portion of Moultonville Road in Center Ossipee Village are in an ERZ. The program offers individual businesses State Tax Credits towards their business profits and business enterprise taxes. To qualify for credits the business must expand the communities commercial or industrial base through developing new buildings, investing in existing buildings, adding machinery and equipment and hiring new full-time staff. The second ERZ in Ossipee runs along Route 16 North from Ossipee Aggregates to the area of Duncan Lake Road.The proposed new ERZ runs along Route 16 from Newman Drew Road to the Tamworth town line and along Route 25 West from its intersection with Route 16 to the Tamworth town line.While it is great to offer incentives to draw business to town, how can officials get the word out to potential developers? Greg Howard of West Ossipee attended the meeting and suggested a marketing campaign to include a billboard advertising that Ossipee is open for business, updates to the town website, highlighting the resources in the area and the heavy traffic counts."With the upgrading of Route 16 and the identification of an additional ERZ would be a great time to get our ducks in a row for something that could lead to positive benefits for the town," said Howard.Chairman Richard Morgan discussed a roundtable he attended last week. The subject was the development of the former Mt. Whittier Ski Area in West Ossipee. The property, said Morgan, is now owned by John Kenney, and "it's nice to see he wants it turned into a major development" rather than house lots, said Morgan. Kenney is the brother of New Hampshire Executive Councilor Joe Kenney.At March Town Meeting, voters also approved the new Property Tax Exemption that offers local property tax breaks to businesses that "build, rebuild, modernize, or enlarge." If qualified, businesses will be assessed at only half of the increase in property value assessment for five years.Morgan said Ossipee has put itself in a great position and now it's time to "blow that horn.""If people want property tax relief, the way we get that is through business. You don't get it by adding houses. If you have a family move in with two children, it will cost $15,000 a year additional to educate those children. You are at a net loss for every family that moves in. If you want property tax relief, is through commercial development," said Morgan.He agreed to work with the OEDC to figure out the best way to highlight the benefits of business moving to Ossipee. Carroll County Independent Knight girls battle to hard-fought win over Kennett School officials detail ESSER grant expenditures Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com We have been very closely monitoring the escalation of tension. We have been careful not to make many public statements and to assure all concerned that any further escalation must be avoided. It is the last thing we need, to add more tension to the region. So ran the only response from an Egyptian government official to a question by Al-Ahram Weekly on developments around the Bab Al-Mandeb following last weeks attack on a Saudi oil tanker by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. On the same day, 25 July, there were reports later denied by the UAE of an attack against a target in Abu Dhabi. It is a wave of tension that does little for regional stability though I cant say we are anticipating any dramatic military metamorphosis because it is not just about the safety of the Red Sea but also about the interests of a great many powers that depend on the security and stability of this strategic maritime route, said the anonymous source. He was speaking hours before US President Donald Trumps announcement he was willing to meet up with anyone, including President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, without preconditions, to consider a possible deal with Iran. Id meet with anybody. I believe in meetings, the US president told reporters at the White House. Later on same day, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Trumps willingness to seek a high-level meeting with Iranian leaders to strike a possible deal but said that it was neither an invitation nor an unqualified offer. It is not clear what the Americans have in mind. Is this just another unpredictable statement from Trump that has had to be qualified by the US foreign service or is it something substantial, like Trumps North Korean endeavour? The only thing that is clear is that there has been serious European pressure on Washington to slow down its escalation with Iran for fear of serious regional complications, said a Washington-based European diplomat. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading members of the Riyadh-led alliance to restore legitimacy in Yemen have been intensifying their strikes against the rebel-held port of Hodeida. On Monday, UN humanitarian coordinator Lisa Grande warned that Hodeida was one more strike away from a humanitarian catastrophe. A source in the UN Yemen mission, who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that the heavy and non-stop strikes of the Saudis and the Emiratis were complicating the situation and making it impossible for UN Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to pursue a political settlement to the four year-old conflict. He had made some progress against overwhelming odds, not least the positions adopted by most regional powers who do not want to upset Saudi Arabia and now this, said the source at the UN mission. Speaking in Cairo, hours before the Trump statement, Baligh Mekhlaf, a member of the Yemeni diplomatic mission that represents the Saudi/UAE backed Yemeni regime of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, said that the Houthis do not want a political settlement they are just trying to buy time. According to Mekhlaf, the Houthis should be faced with a firm military approach, especially since they have no legitimate grievances. They are just a cats paw for the Iranians, and obviously Tehran is upset about its confrontation with the US. Prior to his dramatic Monday statements Trump, who had already unilaterally pulled out of the 5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, warned Tehran it would face tough times if it continued to defy US interests. Cairo-based foreign diplomatic sources say both Saudi Arabia and Israel are only too pleased to see Iran coming under so much US pressure, especially the expected US ban on all Iranian oil exports. In Cairo, however, there is growing concern about the wider regional consequences of a new confrontation involving Iran. Egypt, closely allied with Riyadh, is currently hosting senior Yemeni figures, including associates of the son of the late Ali Abdallah Saleh, Yemens ousted president. But Cairo is far from seeking a political fight with Iran. Egyptian diplomats worry about escalating any confrontation with Iran, which would have ramifications in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where Tehran wields considerable influence, and also on the situation around the Red Sea. Cairo, which is member of the Saudi-led alliance but has declined to contribute any ground troops for operations in Yemen despite heavy pressure from Riyadh, is keeping a close eye on developments in the Horn of Africa, an area that is vital to Egypts strategic interests. Egyptian diplomatic missions have been closely following Saudi Arabia and the UAEs communications with Eritrea and Djibouti. They have also been monitoring the messaging between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, on the one hand, and Addis Ababa on the other. A keen eye is being kept on the interaction of all international players with a direct military presence overlooking Bab Al-Mandab, and on Israel. According to Cairo sources, the objective is not only to avert any escalation but to prevent the emergence of future security plans for an area that is central to Egyptian interests that by-pass Cairo. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are endeavouring to reduce the Iranian presence in Dijbouti and Somalia/Somaliland. This is about the management of the situation in Yemen but also about the economic interests of Saudi Arabia and the UAE across the Red Sea, says Amira Abdel-Halim, an East Africa expert from Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. The recent rapprochement between Asmara and Addis Ababa, argues Abdel-Halim, means Cairo has also to keep a close eye on this front, especially that this week Ethiopia began operating two land lines to Eritrean ports on the Red Sea. The last thing Cairo wants to see is new coalitions emerging, even under the pretext of facing up to the Iranian threat, that exclude Egypt. Foreign diplomats say Ethiopias new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has already hinted at a new regional security arrangement to monitor the Red Sea. Concerned Egyptian officials refer to legitimate security questions facing East African states. Ethiopia has faced two major security challenges in just one week the first the assassination of the director of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the second the arrest of a group of armed men near the airport in Addis Ababa. A major foreign military presence already exists in the area. The Americans have a large base in Djibouti and a number of European states maintain a military presence around Somalia to combat piracy. Egypt has always had a presence there. Its contribution to the Saudi alliance is about securing Bab Al-Mandeb, something Egypt cannot forgo given the security of maritime routes to the Suez Canal is central to its Red Sea interests, says Abdel-Halim. And in any future arrangements for the region it goes without saying that Egypt must have a central role. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Tangled webs Search Keywords: Short link: Coos County Democrat Two Lancaster residents singled out for Papal honors Presentation of diplomas to take place during rededication of Our Lady of the Mountains MANCHESTER The Most Rev. Peter A. Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, announced that His Holiness Pope Francis conferred the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal upon Mr. Joseph Orzech and Mr. Henry Tupaj, Sr. Bishop Libasci nominated the two men earlier this year, in recognition of their exemplary personal character and extraordinary service to the Diocese of Manchester, in particular, their tireless efforts to renovate Our Lady of the Mountains Shrine. "With profound gratitude to our Holy Father and great joy, I announce the Papal Honors recently conferred by Pope Francis," said Bishop Libasci. "I hope that Catholics and people of good will throughout New Hampshire will join me in congratulating the honorees and in thanking them for their continuing service to our Lord and His Church." A special ceremony for the formal conferral of the honors will be held at the Rededication of Our Lady of the Mountains Shrine in Bretton Woods, scheduled on Sunday, Aug. 12. A brief biography of each recipient and information about the honor follows. Mr. Henry Tupaj, Sr. was born in Nisko, Poland and immigrated to the United States from Poland as a teenager. Mr. Tupaj is a dedicated parishioner of Gate of Heaven Parish in Lancaster, where he volunteers repairing parish buildings, serving at Mass and working steadfastly as a member of the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Joseph Orzech was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., served our country as an Air Force Pilot and then as a Delta Airlines Pilot. Mr.Orzech retired to New Hampshire and settled in Dalton. He is a dedicated member of Gate of Heaven Parish in Lancaster, where he is a volunteer, leads retreats and serves others through the Knights of Columbus. These two men, united in retirement in the North Country of New Hampshire, were brought together by their pastor to rebuild a shrine, neglected and long forgotten. The article and pictures in the story told in Parable Magazine is the true story of faith of these two men. It documents their tireless dedication to fulfill a vision that honors our Blessed Mother, and will inspire pilgrims for generations to come. Father Matthew Mason, the previous pastor of Gate of Heaven Parish, stated in a letter: "Since 2013, Mr. Orzech and Mr. Tupaj have volunteered in excess of 6,000 hours, giving of their construction and woodworking talents. The church has now been completely repaired both inside and out and will be able to continue to welcome visitors to the mountains of northern New Hampshire for prayer and worship." The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice ("For Church and Pontiff") Medal is an award conferred by the Pope for long and distinguished service to the Church. It can be bestowed to either clergy or laity, and is the highest medal that can be awarded to lay people by the Pope. MANCHESTER The Most Rev. Peter A. Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, announced that His Holiness Pope Francis conferred the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal upon Mr. Joseph Orzech and Mr. Henry Tupaj, Sr. Bishop Libasci nominated the two men earlier this year, in recognition of their exemplary personal character and extraordinary service to the Diocese of Manchester, in particular, their tireless efforts to renovate Our Lady of the Mountains Shrine."With profound gratitude to our Holy Father and great joy, I announce the Papal Honors recently conferred by Pope Francis," said Bishop Libasci. "I hope that Catholics and people of good will throughout New Hampshire will join me in congratulating the honorees and in thanking them for their continuing service to our Lord and His Church."A special ceremony for the formal conferral of the honors will be held at the Rededication of Our Lady of the Mountains Shrine in Bretton Woods, scheduled on Sunday, Aug. 12.A brief biography of each recipient and information about the honor follows.Mr. Henry Tupaj, Sr. was born in Nisko, Poland and immigrated to the United States from Poland as a teenager. Mr. Tupaj is a dedicated parishioner of Gate of Heaven Parish in Lancaster, where he volunteers repairing parish buildings, serving at Mass and working steadfastly as a member of the Knights of Columbus.Mr. Joseph Orzech was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., served our country as an Air Force Pilot and then as a Delta Airlines Pilot. Mr.Orzech retired to New Hampshire and settled in Dalton. He is a dedicated member of Gate of Heaven Parish in Lancaster, where he is a volunteer, leads retreats and serves others through the Knights of Columbus.These two men, united in retirement in the North Country of New Hampshire, were brought together by their pastor to rebuild a shrine, neglected and long forgotten. The article and pictures in the story told in Parable Magazine is the true story of faith of these two men. It documents their tireless dedication to fulfill a vision that honors our Blessed Mother, and will inspire pilgrims for generations to come.Father Matthew Mason, the previous pastor of Gate of Heaven Parish, stated in a letter: "Since 2013, Mr. Orzech and Mr. Tupaj have volunteered in excess of 6,000 hours, giving of their construction and woodworking talents. The church has now been completely repaired both inside and out and will be able to continue to welcome visitors to the mountains of northern New Hampshire for prayer and worship."The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice ("For Church and Pontiff") Medal is an award conferred by the Pope for long and distinguished service to the Church. It can be bestowed to either clergy or laity, and is the highest medal that can be awarded to lay people by the Pope. Coos County Democrat COVID cases surge, officials urge community first approach Google Maps causes unrest on Colby Road Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Gilford Steamer Gilford going forward with Phase 1 of WRBP roadmap by Erin Plummer The town will sign onto Phase 1 of a roadmap plan aiming toward making the Winnipesaukee River Basin Program a self-governing entity. During last Wednesday's selectmen's meeting, town administrator Scott Dunn said three years ago the Winnipesaukee River Basin advisory committee voted to accept a consultant study that would examine the possibility of the WRBP members moving in the direction of self governance. According to a recording of the meeting, Dunn said the primary reason this was taken on was the possibility of seeing 14 percent budget savings a year. Dunn said the resulting roadmap is complicated and said he was not optimistic that it was going to happen. The group hired an attorney, who has recommended undertaking a Phase 1 to examine a possible governance structure, which could cost $3,500 to $7,600 from their sewer budget. Four other communities have signed onto this so far. Concerns expressed by both Dunn and selectman Richard Grenier related to how dry and complex the document is. "Is there a cost to the way its being done now? Yes, but it's one governing body," Grenier said. "We start throwing 10 different towns having a say in it, and I think it will turn into a quagmire." Dunn said there is no governing body now, the program is being run by the state and the town gets a bill for it. Dunn said he agreed that having a system operated by 10 different communities would be impossible, but Phase 1 would examine what the governance structure would be. Some proposed models could include the Concord Region Solid Waste Cooperative and the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority. "I think that either one would be better than the current system, but getting there is complicated and full of pitfalls especially (with) the lawyers in our legislature involved," Dunn said. Dunn asked if the board had a consensus on going forward with the Phase 1 proposal. Grenier asked if there was a point where the town could decide it doesn't want to go this route. Selectman Chan Eddy said even going with Phase 1 isn't going to commit the town further. Eddy said as an engineer he would like to see more on this going forward. "If it means we have to spend some money to do it knowing that in the future it might save us money if we go for with it, I don't want to just say no lets not do this, lets back away from it," Eddy said. Because let's face it 14 percent is a considerable amount of money compared to what we're paying now." The selectmen agreed by consensus to go forward with Phase 1 of the roadmap. The town will sign onto Phase 1 of a roadmap plan aiming toward making the Winnipesaukee River Basin Program a self-governing entity.During last Wednesday's selectmen's meeting, town administrator Scott Dunn said three years ago the Winnipesaukee River Basin advisory committee voted to accept a consultant study that would examine the possibility of the WRBP members moving in the direction of self governance. According to a recording of the meeting, Dunn said the primary reason this was taken on was the possibility of seeing 14 percent budget savings a year.Dunn said the resulting roadmap is complicated and said he was not optimistic that it was going to happen. The group hired an attorney, who has recommended undertaking a Phase 1 to examine a possible governance structure, which could cost $3,500 to $7,600 from their sewer budget. Four other communities have signed onto this so far.Concerns expressed by both Dunn and selectman Richard Grenier related to how dry and complex the document is."Is there a cost to the way its being done now? Yes, but it's one governing body," Grenier said. "We start throwing 10 different towns having a say in it, and I think it will turn into a quagmire."Dunn said there is no governing body now, the program is being run by the state and the town gets a bill for it. Dunn said he agreed that having a system operated by 10 different communities would be impossible, but Phase 1 would examine what the governance structure would be. Some proposed models could include the Concord Region Solid Waste Cooperative and the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority."I think that either one would be better than the current system, but getting there is complicated and full of pitfalls especially (with) the lawyers in our legislature involved," Dunn said.Dunn asked if the board had a consensus on going forward with the Phase 1 proposal.Grenier asked if there was a point where the town could decide it doesn't want to go this route. Selectman Chan Eddy said even going with Phase 1 isn't going to commit the town further. Eddy said as an engineer he would like to see more on this going forward."If it means we have to spend some money to do it knowing that in the future it might save us money if we go for with it, I don't want to just say no lets not do this, lets back away from it," Eddy said. Because let's face it 14 percent is a considerable amount of money compared to what we're paying now."The selectmen agreed by consensus to go forward with Phase 1 of the roadmap. Gilford Steamer McDonald's brings police and public together Registration open for GYC Turkey Trot Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Granite State News Fired Public Works Director criticizes Wakefield Town Administrator by Thomas Beeler WAKEFIELD Former Public Works Director Leigh Nichols read a statement during the open comment period of the July 25 Board of Selectmen meeting criticizing Town Administrator Kelley Collins and threatening to take action against her, the board and "certain individuals in town" for their actions, especially for an alleged attempt to remove his wife, Angie Nichols, from her elected position at town tax collector. The following is a verbatim transcript of Nichols' remarks as recorded in the video of that meeting by governmentoversite.com and can be viewed on its Web site. Our correspondent requested a copy of his Nichols' remarks directly from him, but none was supplied prior to our press deadline. Notes to clarify who is who are added in square brackets; otherwise, the words are Mr. Nichols' own: "I put my thoughts on paper. I have a few things I would like to say and bring to the attention of the town and its residents. "There is an old adage that goes 'don't poke a sleeping bear.' In my life, I've found that's an adage that it's best to keep. "It's one thing to go after me. You poked the bear when you removed me from my position, but I continued to sleep. There is nothing, or no one, in town that scares me. But that was not enough for our administrator. She then decided to go after my wife, an elected tax collector. She wrote a letter to the Board of Selectmen trying to have Angie removed. "In my honest opinion and my dealings with the town administrator, she has some of the most unprofessional behavior I have seen. Some residents and employees have come to me and said they were afraid of repercussions if they speak out against her publicly or privately. And before it comes up, as it has within the walls of this building, I am not a disgruntled employee. I am a resident of this town, a town I grew up in. I will not watch someone run it into the ground. "I filed two written complaints about Ms. Collins, one of which was supposed to be investigated by a neutral third party. That party was the town counsel, who works hand-in-hand with the town administrator. The second complaint was filed with the board and the liaison to the DPW. Ms. Twombley [Connie Twombley, selectmen's liaison to the DPW] came down and let me know that we were lucky to have hershe is so knowledgeableand that sometimes I can get frustrated and get heated. [Selectman] Mr. [Vin] Wallace was at both instances that I filed complaints about the town administrator. He can verify that I never lost my temper, even when she was yelling down the hallway of the town hall and swearing with a resident standing at the tax collector's office. On both occasions, she was swearing like a sailor. "I never received notification of the investigation of the first complaint [against Nichols] and shortly after the second I was terminatedeven after 10 days earlier I had received an evaluation from the administrator stating I had corrected the previous deficiencies responsible for my probation and was removed from the 90-day probation. "I heard a rumor around town that Mr. Wallace was informed he was trespassing on town property for mowing the grass after some residents voiced their concerns on Facebook. "Some members of this board have followed this administrator blindly, without doing their due diligence in researching the rules and regulations in state and federal laws. So, in closing, I say to those board members and the administrator, you'd better 'buckle up,' because it's going to be a bumpy road for the board, the administrator, and a few other individuals within town." There was no response from selectmen or Collins at the meeting, or subsequently, to the charges made in the statement. During the same public comment period, resident Relf Fogg asked if the town administrator is opening others' mail. Selectmen's Chair Lino Avellani declined to answer the question because it was about a town employee. He reminded Fogg that this was time for comments, not questions. Fogg commented that he wondered where there is an action against an elected official, how one member can decide whether his position is more important. Twombley responded, "Relf, you don't know the whole story there are parts of it you will never know." Resident Rose Baxter stated she could verify some employees have told her that they have been reprimanded for saying anything about the town administrator. Baxter also complained that she had applied to serve on town boards but had never been appointed. Twombley informed her that recommendations come from the boards themselves, not selectmen. WAKEFIELD Former Public Works Director Leigh Nichols read a statement during the open comment period of the July 25 Board of Selectmen meeting criticizing Town Administrator Kelley Collins and threatening to take action against her, the board and "certain individuals in town" for their actions, especially for an alleged attempt to remove his wife, Angie Nichols, from her elected position at town tax collector.The following is a verbatim transcript of Nichols' remarks as recorded in the video of that meeting by governmentoversite.com and can be viewed on its Web site. Our correspondent requested a copy of his Nichols' remarks directly from him, but none was supplied prior to our press deadline. Notes to clarify who is who are added in square brackets; otherwise, the words are Mr. Nichols' own:"I put my thoughts on paper. I have a few things I would like to say and bring to the attention of the town and its residents."There is an old adage that goes 'don't poke a sleeping bear.' In my life, I've found that's an adage that it's best to keep."It's one thing to go after me. You poked the bear when you removed me from my position, but I continued to sleep. There is nothing, or no one, in town that scares me. But that was not enough for our administrator. She then decided to go after my wife, an elected tax collector. She wrote a letter to the Board of Selectmen trying to have Angie removed."In my honest opinion and my dealings with the town administrator, she has some of the most unprofessional behavior I have seen. Some residents and employees have come to me and said they were afraid of repercussions if they speak out against her publicly or privately. And before it comes up, as it has within the walls of this building, I am not a disgruntled employee. I am a resident of this town, a town I grew up in. I will not watch someone run it into the ground."I filed two written complaints about Ms. Collins, one of which was supposed to be investigated by a neutral third party. That party was the town counsel, who works hand-in-hand with the town administrator. The second complaint was filed with the board and the liaison to the DPW. Ms. Twombley [Connie Twombley, selectmen's liaison to the DPW] came down and let me know that we were lucky to have hershe is so knowledgeableand that sometimes I can get frustrated and get heated. [Selectman] Mr. [Vin] Wallace was at both instances that I filed complaints about the town administrator. He can verify that I never lost my temper, even when she was yelling down the hallway of the town hall and swearing with a resident standing at the tax collector's office. On both occasions, she was swearing like a sailor."I never received notification of the investigation of the first complaint [against Nichols] and shortly after the second I was terminatedeven after 10 days earlier I had received an evaluation from the administrator stating I had corrected the previous deficiencies responsible for my probation and was removed from the 90-day probation."I heard a rumor around town that Mr. Wallace was informed he was trespassing on town property for mowing the grass after some residents voiced their concerns on Facebook."Some members of this board have followed this administrator blindly, without doing their due diligence in researching the rules and regulations in state and federal laws. So, in closing, I say to those board members and the administrator, you'd better 'buckle up,' because it's going to be a bumpy road for the board, the administrator, and a few other individuals within town."There was no response from selectmen or Collins at the meeting, or subsequently, to the charges made in the statement.During the same public comment period, resident Relf Fogg asked if the town administrator is opening others' mail. Selectmen's Chair Lino Avellani declined to answer the question because it was about a town employee. He reminded Fogg that this was time for comments, not questions.Fogg commented that he wondered where there is an action against an elected official, how one member can decide whether his position is more important.Twombley responded, "Relf, you don't know the whole story there are parts of it you will never know."Resident Rose Baxter stated she could verify some employees have told her that they have been reprimanded for saying anything about the town administrator.Baxter also complained that she had applied to serve on town boards but had never been appointed. Twombley informed her that recommendations come from the boards themselves, not selectmen. Granite State News Proposed town budget now online School officials detail ESSER grant expenditures Recent Thomas Beeler Brookfield to hold public hearing next week on proposed zoning change 2019-Jan-09 American Legion holds Veterans Day ceremony at the Wright Museum 2018-Nov-14 Democratic reps win majority in Carroll County 2018-Nov-14 Brookfield planners hold work session on Master Plan survey results 2018-Nov-07 East Wakefield Fall Festival celebrates community this Saturday 2018-Oct-10 Denny Miller joins Wakefield Board of Selectmen 2018-Oct-03 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Meredith News Supporters celebrate Page Pond by Erin Plummer Gov. Chris Sununu (with Mark Billings) reads a proclamation recognizing the Page Pond Community Forest project. (Photo by Erin Plummer) (click for larger version) MEREDITH Supporters and principals in the Page Pond Community Forest project celebrated all the efforts and dedicated work over 15 years that made this 827-acre conservation project possible. On Sunday afternoon, Moulton Farm hosted the celebration of Page Pond that included representatives from many different organizations and government agencies that helped the effort. J.T. Horn, Senior Project Manager of the Trust for Public Land, said he works with projects like this all over New England and said Page Pond was one of the smoothest projects he has seen. He said projects usually die around six times before they come to fruition, in this case the project probably died around 10 times. Horn recognized "the dynamic duo" of Conservation Commission Chair Mark Billings and Community Development Director John Edgar for their extensive work on the project as well as the many others who had a hand in this being possible The TPL worked with the town to help put this project together and work through the many different facets. "This is a team effort," Horn said. "Just reflecting on this project, this experience, working with you, working (with) the town of Meredith has been one of the most pleasant projects I've done." Gov. Chris Sununu said this was a project that had been "done right from the beginning." "This is what we do in New Hampshire; it's probably the biggest part of our culture that Live Free or Die thing we do," Sununu said. He said preserving assets such as this is what people in New Hampshire do and they want to do whatever they can do at the state level to continue this. "It's great to know there are so many great programs out there," Sununu said. Sununu read a formal proclamation recognizing the efforts. Billings said this has been a 15-year journey and he recognized all of those who have been part of it. "The one thing that stands out to me is Meredith as a community has redefined community as no longer a noun," Billings said. He said so many different town entities supported this. Billings said he doesn't remember many unanimous votes at town meeting, though the vote to accept this as a town forest was unanimous. "All of you from Meredith take a bow, look in the mirror, be proud," Billings said. The effort received funding from the Community Forest Program, a six-year-old program with around $2 million in funding for projects around the country. Neal Bungard, US Forest Service Program Leader, said the Page Pond project was the top ranked project in the country. "Through the community forest program, we recognize those public benefits across the board that are being provided for these forests," Bungard said. He said the Community Forest project is growing across the country. "This is another crowning jewel in the community forest program in its six years of providing funds," Bungard said. Paula Bellemore, Natural Resources Specialist for LCHIP, said in New Hampshire there is great importance placed on volunteering and on natural resources. LCHIP has provided over $40 million to state natural and historic resources throughout its history, including to Page Pond. "We are most successful in New Hampshire when we work with our land," Bellemore said. "That's what I think makes New Hampshire New Hampshire." She added, "Meredith will now be allowed to conserve its fields and streams and its wildlife." The project received $100,000 through the Department of Environmental Services through the Aquatic Resources Mitigation (ARM) program. Lori Sommer, Mitigation Coordinator with the DES Wetlands Bureau, said projects that apply for this funding are reviewed by a site selection committee with numerous environmental experts. "Page Pond truly exemplifies what the ARM program is about," Sommer said. She said this area contains numerous wetlands that flow into Winnipesaukee along with many different animal habitats. Sommer said this kind of community program is why New Hampshire's wetlands program is one of the strongest in New England. Horn also recognized the state's Congressional delegation for its support of programs such as this. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter commending the project. She said increasing protected properties like this is a "sound investment." "We should all take a moment to recognize the stewardship and tireless dedication of the men and women who made this all possible," Shaheen wrote. After the event sitewalks were hosted off Quarry and Barnard Ridge Roads. MEREDITH Supporters and principals in the Page Pond Community Forest project celebrated all the efforts and dedicated work over 15 years that made this 827-acre conservation project possible.On Sunday afternoon, Moulton Farm hosted the celebration of Page Pond that included representatives from many different organizations and government agencies that helped the effort.J.T. Horn, Senior Project Manager of the Trust for Public Land, said he works with projects like this all over New England and said Page Pond was one of the smoothest projects he has seen. He said projects usually die around six times before they come to fruition, in this case the project probably died around 10 times.Horn recognized "the dynamic duo" of Conservation Commission Chair Mark Billings and Community Development Director John Edgar for their extensive work on the project as well as the many others who had a hand in this being possible The TPL worked with the town to help put this project together and work through the many different facets."This is a team effort," Horn said. "Just reflecting on this project, this experience, working with you, working (with) the town of Meredith has been one of the most pleasant projects I've done."Gov. Chris Sununu said this was a project that had been "done right from the beginning.""This is what we do in New Hampshire; it's probably the biggest part of our culture that Live Free or Die thing we do," Sununu said.He said preserving assets such as this is what people in New Hampshire do and they want to do whatever they can do at the state level to continue this."It's great to know there are so many great programs out there," Sununu said.Sununu read a formal proclamation recognizing the efforts.Billings said this has been a 15-year journey and he recognized all of those who have been part of it."The one thing that stands out to me is Meredith as a community has redefined community as no longer a noun," Billings said.He said so many different town entities supported this. Billings said he doesn't remember many unanimous votes at town meeting, though the vote to accept this as a town forest was unanimous."All of you from Meredith take a bow, look in the mirror, be proud," Billings said.The effort received funding from the Community Forest Program, a six-year-old program with around $2 million in funding for projects around the country. Neal Bungard, US Forest Service Program Leader, said the Page Pond project was the top ranked project in the country."Through the community forest program, we recognize those public benefits across the board that are being provided for these forests," Bungard said.He said the Community Forest project is growing across the country."This is another crowning jewel in the community forest program in its six years of providing funds," Bungard said.Paula Bellemore, Natural Resources Specialist for LCHIP, said in New Hampshire there is great importance placed on volunteering and on natural resources. LCHIP has provided over $40 million to state natural and historic resources throughout its history, including to Page Pond."We are most successful in New Hampshire when we work with our land," Bellemore said. "That's what I think makes New Hampshire New Hampshire." She added, "Meredith will now be allowed to conserve its fields and streams and its wildlife."The project received $100,000 through the Department of Environmental Services through the Aquatic Resources Mitigation (ARM) program. Lori Sommer, Mitigation Coordinator with the DES Wetlands Bureau, said projects that apply for this funding are reviewed by a site selection committee with numerous environmental experts."Page Pond truly exemplifies what the ARM program is about," Sommer said.She said this area contains numerous wetlands that flow into Winnipesaukee along with many different animal habitats. Sommer said this kind of community program is why New Hampshire's wetlands program is one of the strongest in New England.Horn also recognized the state's Congressional delegation for its support of programs such as this.Sen. Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter commending the project. She said increasing protected properties like this is a "sound investment.""We should all take a moment to recognize the stewardship and tireless dedication of the men and women who made this all possible," Shaheen wrote.After the event sitewalks were hosted off Quarry and Barnard Ridge Roads. Meredith News Sandwich Fair returns with big crowds Lakers start strong, battle by Belmont Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Newfound Landing Alexandria police announce public forum on sexual assault by Thomas P. Caldwell ALEXANDRIA Police Chief Donald Sullivan has scheduled a public forum at the Alexandria Town Hall on Thursday, Aug. 9, to reassure the public that there are "true professionals out there who will treat victims with respect and support them." The meeting is in response to a public outcry with Sullivan's voice being among the loudest over testimony by Shelly Philbrick in support of a convicted child rapist. Philbrick, a guidance counselor at Newfound Regional High School, was among several former colleagues of Kristie Torbick who argued for leniency during the sentencing phase of Torbick's trial. Torbick formerly worked in the Newfound Area School District, and she was working as a guidance counselor in the Exeter School District when she became romantically involved with a 14-year-old freshman at the school. She pleaded guilty in July to four counts of felonious sexual assault. Philbrick testified that "to incarcerate Mrs. Torbick as part of any plea bargain would be a sad injustice to her own three children, one of which is only 3 years of age." Sullivan expressed his dismay on Facebook, writing "I've worked in Law Enforcement for over twenty years and have worked with some of the most honorable men and women you could ever meet. I want everyone to know that If any of them were to get convicted of raping a child, I will NOT testify to their character or plead for leniency. I will support the victim in the case with all of my heart and energy." Newfound graduate Nicholas Crosby, who had served as a student representative to the Newfound Area School Board, said in a letter to local newspapers, "I am disgusted to see Mrs. Philbrick supporting Torbick as the crime that was committed is serious and sick. This wasn't just a quick 'in-the-moment' incident, which still wouldn't have been okay this was hatched out and premeditated. I've known Mrs. Philbrick not just when I attended NRHS, but when I was around 4 years old attending Bridgewater-Hebron Village School. I am deeply disappointed and ashamed to see Mrs. Philbrick's recent judgment and actions. And for Mrs. Philbrick to use her judgment and voice like this ... she should really reconsider her current job as a guidance counselor." School Administrative Unit 4 Superintendent Stacy Buckley sent a letter to district parents last week, acknowledging that she had received a number of complaints and calls for Philbrick's dismissal, as well as requests for a special school board meeting to discuss the matter. "I have been public stating that I do not support her testimony," Buckley said. "I was not notified that she would be testifying, nor did I grant approval for her to testify. Ms. Philbrick acted on her own, not as a representative or with authorization of the school district. That being said, Ms. Philbrick has the right to speak on this matter as a member of the public." Buckley referred to district policy, saying she cannot talk about personnel matters, and that a special school board meeting "will likely end up in frustration on both parties, as it is a personnel matter and cannot be discussed in public." The Newfound Area School Board is scheduled to meet next on Monday, Aug. 13. Chair Jeff Levesque said, "While the board has not yet had any discussions on the matter, the public can be sure the board is in agreement with the position of the superintendent and that the matter is being handled according to policy and applicable laws. The board's course of action is clearly defined and as such there will be no public discussion of personnel matters at our next meeting; however, it will be discussed in non-public [session] which has been extended to give the board ample time. Currently, the public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m." "Unfortunately, [Philbrick] was just one of many who spoke up in support of the convicted child rapist, in front of the victim, sending a very dangerous message out to victims of sexual assault, especially young victims, that the 'system' is protecting perpetrators and not victims," said Sullivan. Other supporters At Torbick's trial, the prosecution had asked for a five- to 10-year prison sentence, but after hearing her colleagues' calls for leniency, Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman sentenced her to two and a half to five years in prison with a three-and-a-half- to seven-year suspended sentence. Several personnel from Plymouth State University testified in support of Torbick, including Gary Goodnough, a professor of counselor education who served as Torbick's adviser and internship supervisor. He stated, "no benefit to society would be served by incarcerating her." Dr. Nancy Strapko, an associate professor emeritus and former graduate school health education coordinator at the university, insisted that Torbick was not a predator. "Kristie takes full responsibility for her actions with her 'victim.' I put this in [quotes] because I am aware that her 'victim' was truly the pursuer in this case," Strapko wrote. "That's by far the worst of them all," Sullivan said of Strapko's comment, "to blame a 14-year-old victim for being the pursuer, and that's a whole other battle in sight. I'll be willing to assist in that one, but I have to deal with the one at home first." Officials from Plymouth State said those remarks do not reflect the university's stance on sexual assault, but in Bedford, School Superintendent Chip McGee ended up resigning because of that district's decision to allow several of its educators to speak in support of leniency for Torbick. Sullivan said he has spoken with Buckley and other Newfound personnel, and he believes Philbrick's views are not shared by others in the school district. "It appears that Shelly is standing by herself as far as her comments," Sullivan said. "I am comfortable and confident that the school as a whole has the children's safety in the forefront." A call seeking comment from Philbrick was not returned. "The public and the parents are chomping at the bit to be able to speak their minds a little bit and have some outlet to express their concerns," Sullivan said, explaining that the Alexandria forum is aimed at reassuring people and informing them "how we would respond to reported sexual assault or violence that happens in the area." He said Voices Against Violence, a crisis services agency in Plymouth, was "more than happy" to join with the Alexandria Police Department in holding the forum and letting residents know what resources are available. The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence also is supporting the upcoming forum, which will begin at 6 p.m. on Aug. 9. Sullivan also urges those with concerns about their children's safety at school to write to the superintendent, "so they have that to use in their decision-making on that personnel matter." ALEXANDRIA Police Chief Donald Sullivan has scheduled a public forum at the Alexandria Town Hall on Thursday, Aug. 9, to reassure the public that there are "true professionals out there who will treat victims with respect and support them."The meeting is in response to a public outcry with Sullivan's voice being among the loudest over testimony by Shelly Philbrick in support of a convicted child rapist.Philbrick, a guidance counselor at Newfound Regional High School, was among several former colleagues of Kristie Torbick who argued for leniency during the sentencing phase of Torbick's trial.Torbick formerly worked in the Newfound Area School District, and she was working as a guidance counselor in the Exeter School District when she became romantically involved with a 14-year-old freshman at the school. She pleaded guilty in July to four counts of felonious sexual assault.Philbrick testified that "to incarcerate Mrs. Torbick as part of any plea bargain would be a sad injustice to her own three children, one of which is only 3 years of age."Sullivan expressed his dismay on Facebook, writing "I've worked in Law Enforcement for over twenty years and have worked with some of the most honorable men and women you could ever meet. I want everyone to know that If any of them were to get convicted of raping a child, I will NOT testify to their character or plead for leniency. I will support the victim in the case with all of my heart and energy."Newfound graduate Nicholas Crosby, who had served as a student representative to the Newfound Area School Board, said in a letter to local newspapers, "I am disgusted to see Mrs. Philbrick supporting Torbick as the crime that was committed is serious and sick. This wasn't just a quick 'in-the-moment' incident, which still wouldn't have been okay this was hatched out and premeditated. I've known Mrs. Philbrick not just when I attended NRHS, but when I was around 4 years old attending Bridgewater-Hebron Village School. I am deeply disappointed and ashamed to see Mrs. Philbrick's recent judgment and actions. And for Mrs. Philbrick to use her judgment and voice like this ... she should really reconsider her current job as a guidance counselor."School Administrative Unit 4 Superintendent Stacy Buckley sent a letter to district parents last week, acknowledging that she had received a number of complaints and calls for Philbrick's dismissal, as well as requests for a special school board meeting to discuss the matter."I have been public stating that I do not support her testimony," Buckley said. "I was not notified that she would be testifying, nor did I grant approval for her to testify. Ms. Philbrick acted on her own, not as a representative or with authorization of the school district. That being said, Ms. Philbrick has the right to speak on this matter as a member of the public."Buckley referred to district policy, saying she cannot talk about personnel matters, and that a special school board meeting "will likely end up in frustration on both parties, as it is a personnel matter and cannot be discussed in public."The Newfound Area School Board is scheduled to meet next on Monday, Aug. 13. Chair Jeff Levesque said, "While the board has not yet had any discussions on the matter, the public can be sure the board is in agreement with the position of the superintendent and that the matter is being handled according to policy and applicable laws. The board's course of action is clearly defined and as such there will be no public discussion of personnel matters at our next meeting; however, it will be discussed in non-public [session] which has been extended to give the board ample time. Currently, the public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.""Unfortunately, [Philbrick] was just one of many who spoke up in support of the convicted child rapist, in front of the victim, sending a very dangerous message out to victims of sexual assault, especially young victims, that the 'system' is protecting perpetrators and not victims," said Sullivan.Other supportersAt Torbick's trial, the prosecution had asked for a five- to 10-year prison sentence, but after hearing her colleagues' calls for leniency, Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman sentenced her to two and a half to five years in prison with a three-and-a-half- to seven-year suspended sentence.Several personnel from Plymouth State University testified in support of Torbick, including Gary Goodnough, a professor of counselor education who served as Torbick's adviser and internship supervisor. He stated, "no benefit to society would be served by incarcerating her."Dr. Nancy Strapko, an associate professor emeritus and former graduate school health education coordinator at the university, insisted that Torbick was not a predator."Kristie takes full responsibility for her actions with her 'victim.' I put this in [quotes] because I am aware that her 'victim' was truly the pursuer in this case," Strapko wrote."That's by far the worst of them all," Sullivan said of Strapko's comment, "to blame a 14-year-old victim for being the pursuer, and that's a whole other battle in sight. I'll be willing to assist in that one, but I have to deal with the one at home first."Officials from Plymouth State said those remarks do not reflect the university's stance on sexual assault, but in Bedford, School Superintendent Chip McGee ended up resigning because of that district's decision to allow several of its educators to speak in support of leniency for Torbick.Sullivan said he has spoken with Buckley and other Newfound personnel, and he believes Philbrick's views are not shared by others in the school district."It appears that Shelly is standing by herself as far as her comments," Sullivan said. "I am comfortable and confident that the school as a whole has the children's safety in the forefront."A call seeking comment from Philbrick was not returned."The public and the parents are chomping at the bit to be able to speak their minds a little bit and have some outlet to express their concerns," Sullivan said, explaining that the Alexandria forum is aimed at reassuring people and informing them "how we would respond to reported sexual assault or violence that happens in the area."He said Voices Against Violence, a crisis services agency in Plymouth, was "more than happy" to join with the Alexandria Police Department in holding the forum and letting residents know what resources are available. The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence also is supporting the upcoming forum, which will begin at 6 p.m. on Aug. 9.Sullivan also urges those with concerns about their children's safety at school to write to the superintendent, "so they have that to use in their decision-making on that personnel matter." Newfound Landing Bear boys win John Sanborn Invitational Fundraiser planned to benefit local animal lover's family Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Newfound Landing Danbury's Edward Rocher receives Boston Post Cane by Donna Rhodes write the author Danbury's oldest resident, Edward Rocher (seated), was honored with the presentation of the Boston Post Cane last Wednesday evening. Joining him that night were his son Ted Roche and wife Tara, grandchildren Brynn and Tyler Roche, daughter Maryann Crow and her husband Tim and their children Katrina and Kira. (Missing from photo was grandson Sean Crow) (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) DANBURY On Wednesday, July 25, family, friends and town officials gathered at the Danbury Town Hall to congratulate Edward Roche as he was presented with the town's Boston Post Cane, signifying him as the oldest resident in Danbury. Roche, who will turn 94 on Aug. 14, was thrilled. "This is quite an honor," was all he could say as he looked around the room filled with people. Roche is a former Danbury selectman and the current board regaled him with readings from the Town Reports concerning decisions he had made in the 1960's, when among their other duties, it was up to selectmen back then to burn the trash at the town dump. Highways and bridges were a big issue in those days (some things haven't change, one selectman joked) but the price to restore them during Roche's tenure was only $70. "Most of the roads were dirt back then, and I ran for selectman to help get them paved," Roche recalled. He began as a fill-in candidate for selectman when one member resigned, ran successfully for a second term, then moved on to other duties. "I believe people should only have two terms in office," he said. Roche is a WWII veteran who served as a med-surgical technician in the U.S. Army. He said he will never forget the day the war ended. "It was on my birthday, and I considered it my special birthday present," said Roche. Leaving the European Theater after the Occupational Forces left, he returned home to Boston where he eventually met his wife Mary Ellen. He obtained a job as a linotypist and began a new career that would last throughout most of his life. During his time off from work in the 1950's, Roche began to take hunting trips to New Hampshire where he fell in love with the Town of Danbury. When a piece of property he hunted, known as the Barker Farm, came up for sale he decided to buy it. In order to preserve his beloved hunting grounds, he continued to buy any abutting property as it, too, became available. Roche and his wife traveled from the Boston area to Danbury quite frequently but one Sunday night, as they struggled to get home in a snowstorm over roads that had yet to be plowed, they made a life-changing decision. "My wife told me to make up my mind as to where I wanted to live and I thought, 'Wow I've got a choice?'" he said. He chose Danbury. Roche found a job working as a linotypist in Concord where he worked for many years with Rumford Press. He and Maryellen had two children, which he raised on the acres of land he had accumulated, and he also became involved in the town, not just as a selectman, but in many other ways. "I've held probably every office in town in one way or another over the years," he laughed. Maryellen passed away after 48 years of marriage but Roche held on to their beloved Danbury home. Children Ted Roche and Maryann (Roche) Crow had eventually moved on to Rhode Island and Kansas but they and their children were back in Danbury last week to honor their dad. Maryann thought he was deserving of much more than just the town's distinction though and was able to also present him that night with a Quilt of Valor from the Blue Star Mothers organization, which honors military personnel. Al Lind, who helped in the origination of the quilt project, actually designed the quilt she obtained for Roche. "I was really excited that we could do this for Dad," Crow said. In wrapping up all the memories and the quilt presentation, Selectmen James Phelps, Jessica Hatch and Lyn England were pleased to hand Roche Danbury's Boston Post Cane and congratulate him on his distinction of being the oldest resident of the town. Boston Post canes were first distributed to more than 400 New England communities in 1909, courtesy of Boston Post newspaper publisher Edwin Grozier. Grozier had the mahogany and gold-topped canes created to honor the longevity of residents in each of those small towns. While the canes were originally presented to only the oldest male member of each community, in 1930 the rules were changed to include women as potential recipients, too. Over the past century, the passing of the Boston Post Cane has become a treasured tradition in all of the towns that received the canes. Unfortunately Danbury, like many towns, lost track of their cane many years ago when it was not returned after its recipient passed away. Recently, however, a resident was able to track down some of the canes on sale and purchased one for the town. The cane was then restored and placed in a secure case at the Town Hall where it now remains on display. Last week, Roche was able to hold that cane during the ceremony, then given a certificate to represent his unique distinction. His name will also be inscribed on a brass plaque that will be placed beside the cane to honor him and future recipients for years to come. DANBURY On Wednesday, July 25, family, friends and town officials gathered at the Danbury Town Hall to congratulate Edward Roche as he was presented with the town's Boston Post Cane, signifying him as the oldest resident in Danbury.Roche, who will turn 94 on Aug. 14, was thrilled."This is quite an honor," was all he could say as he looked around the room filled with people.Roche is a former Danbury selectman and the current board regaled him with readings from the Town Reports concerning decisions he had made in the 1960's, when among their other duties, it was up to selectmen back then to burn the trash at the town dump. Highways and bridges were a big issue in those days (some things haven't change, one selectman joked) but the price to restore them during Roche's tenure was only $70."Most of the roads were dirt back then, and I ran for selectman to help get them paved," Roche recalled.He began as a fill-in candidate for selectman when one member resigned, ran successfully for a second term, then moved on to other duties."I believe people should only have two terms in office," he said.Roche is a WWII veteran who served as a med-surgical technician in the U.S. Army. He said he will never forget the day the war ended."It was on my birthday, and I considered it my special birthday present," said Roche.Leaving the European Theater after the Occupational Forces left, he returned home to Boston where he eventually met his wife Mary Ellen. He obtained a job as a linotypist and began a new career that would last throughout most of his life.During his time off from work in the 1950's, Roche began to take hunting trips to New Hampshire where he fell in love with the Town of Danbury. When a piece of property he hunted, known as the Barker Farm, came up for sale he decided to buy it. In order to preserve his beloved hunting grounds, he continued to buy any abutting property as it, too, became available.Roche and his wife traveled from the Boston area to Danbury quite frequently but one Sunday night, as they struggled to get home in a snowstorm over roads that had yet to be plowed, they made a life-changing decision."My wife told me to make up my mind as to where I wanted to live and I thought, 'Wow I've got a choice?'" he said.He chose Danbury.Roche found a job working as a linotypist in Concord where he worked for many years with Rumford Press. He and Maryellen had two children, which he raised on the acres of land he had accumulated, and he also became involved in the town, not just as a selectman, but in many other ways."I've held probably every office in town in one way or another over the years," he laughed.Maryellen passed away after 48 years of marriage but Roche held on to their beloved Danbury home. Children Ted Roche and Maryann (Roche) Crow had eventually moved on to Rhode Island and Kansas but they and their children were back in Danbury last week to honor their dad.Maryann thought he was deserving of much more than just the town's distinction though and was able to also present him that night with a Quilt of Valor from the Blue Star Mothers organization, which honors military personnel. Al Lind, who helped in the origination of the quilt project, actually designed the quilt she obtained for Roche."I was really excited that we could do this for Dad," Crow said.In wrapping up all the memories and the quilt presentation, Selectmen James Phelps, Jessica Hatch and Lyn England were pleased to hand Roche Danbury's Boston Post Cane and congratulate him on his distinction of being the oldest resident of the town.Boston Post canes were first distributed to more than 400 New England communities in 1909, courtesy of Boston Post newspaper publisher Edwin Grozier. Grozier had the mahogany and gold-topped canes created to honor the longevity of residents in each of those small towns. While the canes were originally presented to only the oldest male member of each community, in 1930 the rules were changed to include women as potential recipients, too.Over the past century, the passing of the Boston Post Cane has become a treasured tradition in all of the towns that received the canes. Unfortunately Danbury, like many towns, lost track of their cane many years ago when it was not returned after its recipient passed away. Recently, however, a resident was able to track down some of the canes on sale and purchased one for the town. The cane was then restored and placed in a secure case at the Town Hall where it now remains on display.Last week, Roche was able to hold that cane during the ceremony, then given a certificate to represent his unique distinction. His name will also be inscribed on a brass plaque that will be placed beside the cane to honor him and future recipients for years to come. Newfound Landing Bear boys win John Sanborn Invitational Fundraiser planned to benefit local animal lover's family Recent Donna Rhodes Fundraiser planned to benefit local animal lovers family 2021-Oct-13 New business helps clients enjoy the outdoors at their own pace 2021-Oct-13 Bristol Falls Park marred by vandalism 2021-Oct-07 Ashland library celebrates 150th anniversary 2021-Oct-07 Reinartz steps down after 22 years as Tiltons Town Clerk 2021-Oct-07 Nature enthusiasts observe annual hawk migration 2021-Sep-23 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com Winnisquam Echo Colleagues gather to wish departing selectman well by Donna Rhodes write the author Tilton Selectman Ashlee Saint John (center) said farewell last Thursday evening as she prepared to move to southern New Hampshire. Joining her for one last photo at the July 26 meeting were (left to right) Administrative Assistant Gayle Bestik, Selectmen Pat Consentino, Jon Scanlon, Katherine Dawson, Peter Fogg and Town Administrator Joyce Fulweiler. (Photo by Donna Rhodes) (click for larger version) TILTON Selectman Ashlee Saint John bid an emotional farewell to her fellow board members and the Town of Tilton last Thursday as she stepped down from her position, saying life changes required that she move outside the town. "I'm very sad to leave and not finish my elected term," Saint John said at her final meeting last week. "I've lived here all my life, and I love Tilton. This is not something I anticipated." Saint John is a single mother who works as a registered nurse for both Concord Hospital and Lakes Region General Hospital's emergency room. She is now studying to obtain her license as a Nurse Practitioner, and needs to be closer to her family for support in that endeavor. "I'm not a quitter, and my biggest struggle was the decision as to whether or not I was going to move but in the end it was something I knew I had to do. I'm going to miss everyone here in Tilton a lot," Saint John said. Jon Scanlon, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, said he respected Saint John's decision to put her family first but was nonetheless sad to see her go. "Ashlee was great. It was great to have a new face and fresh perspectives on the board and we will certainly miss her," he said. "Unfortunately, her time with us ended up to be too short, but we hope others like her will step up and become involved in the community like she did." When Saint John submitted her resignation on June 28, the town sent out a request for letters of intent from anyone who would be willing to fill her seat on the board until the next election in March of 2019. Deadline for those letters was this past Wednesday, Aug. 2. From those letters, they hope to find a qualified individual who is willing to join the board for the next seven months. "It's a great way for someone to come in, get a feel for the position then decide if they'd like to officially run for a full term next March," Scanlon said. Saint John's replacement will hopefully be found in the next few weeks as the board faces many other decisions. They are currently interviewing candidates to replace Town Administrator Joyce Fulweiler, who will be retiring this fall, as well as candidates for a few other openings in municipal jobs. Budget season is also rapidly approaching and that will trigger a lot of discussions and more decisions as they prepare for the next fiscal year. One other exciting challenge they have on their agenda is to find people interested in serving on a committee for Tilton's 150th Anniversary in 2019. Recently a local gentleman presented the town with a number of photos and artifacts from the town's history and they hope others may have documents or photos from past anniversary celebrations in Tilton that they can share. "We'd love to get a good mix of people, from historians to business owners or residents who want to help make 2019 a special year in Tilton," Scanlon said. Anyone interested in taking part in a committee for the planning and organization of this special anniversary celebration is asked to contact the selectmen's office as soon as possible at 286-4521, ext. 100. TILTON Selectman Ashlee Saint John bid an emotional farewell to her fellow board members and the Town of Tilton last Thursday as she stepped down from her position, saying life changes required that she move outside the town."I'm very sad to leave and not finish my elected term," Saint John said at her final meeting last week. "I've lived here all my life, and I love Tilton. This is not something I anticipated."Saint John is a single mother who works as a registered nurse for both Concord Hospital and Lakes Region General Hospital's emergency room. She is now studying to obtain her license as a Nurse Practitioner, and needs to be closer to her family for support in that endeavor."I'm not a quitter, and my biggest struggle was the decision as to whether or not I was going to move but in the end it was something I knew I had to do. I'm going to miss everyone here in Tilton a lot," Saint John said.Jon Scanlon, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, said he respected Saint John's decision to put her family first but was nonetheless sad to see her go."Ashlee was great. It was great to have a new face and fresh perspectives on the board and we will certainly miss her," he said. "Unfortunately, her time with us ended up to be too short, but we hope others like her will step up and become involved in the community like she did."When Saint John submitted her resignation on June 28, the town sent out a request for letters of intent from anyone who would be willing to fill her seat on the board until the next election in March of 2019. Deadline for those letters was this past Wednesday, Aug. 2. From those letters, they hope to find a qualified individual who is willing to join the board for the next seven months."It's a great way for someone to come in, get a feel for the position then decide if they'd like to officially run for a full term next March," Scanlon said.Saint John's replacement will hopefully be found in the next few weeks as the board faces many other decisions. They are currently interviewing candidates to replace Town Administrator Joyce Fulweiler, who will be retiring this fall, as well as candidates for a few other openings in municipal jobs. Budget season is also rapidly approaching and that will trigger a lot of discussions and more decisions as they prepare for the next fiscal year.One other exciting challenge they have on their agenda is to find people interested in serving on a committee for Tilton's 150th Anniversary in 2019. Recently a local gentleman presented the town with a number of photos and artifacts from the town's history and they hope others may have documents or photos from past anniversary celebrations in Tilton that they can share."We'd love to get a good mix of people, from historians to business owners or residents who want to help make 2019 a special year in Tilton," Scanlon said.Anyone interested in taking part in a committee for the planning and organization of this special anniversary celebration is asked to contact the selectmen's office as soon as possible at 286-4521, ext. 100. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Air India will see the addition of two prominent industrialists to its board, with the government issuing an official order appointing Kumar Mangalam Birla and Y C Deveshwar as non-official independent directors on Wednesday. According to the order from the Personnel Ministry, the decision has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both industrialists have been appointed for a term of three years. This is the first time in recent times that top industrialists have been appointed to the board of public sector enterprises. Both Birla and Deveshwar helm their own multi-billion dollar concerns. Birla heads the $44.3 billion multinational Aditya Birla Group, which operates in 35 countries across six continents. Deveshwar meanwhile is the Chairman of the sprawling ITC Group, which has a strong presence in Fast Moving Consumer Goods, tobacco and hotels among other sectors. The ailing airline has been in the limelight in the recent past after the Governments efforts to find a buyer did not work out. However, the government is now beginning to infuse capital into the cash-starved firm. On Tuesday, government sought the approval of Parliament to inject `980 crore in Air India. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Amid speculation that the government is mulling over selling its complete stake in Air India, Union Minister Jayant Sinha clarified that the government remains committed to the disinvestment of the national carrier but has no plan to exit it altogether. Union Minister of State, Civil Aviation said,The government has no such plan to exit Air India by offering 100 per cent stake.The government remains committed to the disinvestment of Air India. Due to volatile crude prices and adverse fluctuations in exchange rates, the present environment is not conducive to stimulate interest amongst investors for strategic disinvestment of Air India in immediate near future, Sinha said. According to Sinha, Air India has been making losses since the merger with Indian Airlines in 2007. "High-interest burden, increase in competition, high airport user charges, adverse impact of exchange rate variation and liberalised bilaterals to foreign carriers leading to excess capacity in the market are among the major reasons for the losses," he said. He said that this issue would be revisited once global economic indicators including oil prices and forex conditions stabilise. The government is also working on ways to improve the performance of Air India. The proposed stake sale in the debt-laden airline failed to take off as it did not receive any Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential bidders when the deadline ended on May 30. (With PTI inputs) Vaishali Vijaykumar By Express News Service CHENNAI : Health Minister, C Vijaya Baskar, inaugurated World Breastfeeding Week at Ethiraj College for Women on Wednesday. Every year, World Breastfeeding Week is observed from August 1-August 7. The theme of World Breastfeeding Week this year is Breastfeeding: Foundation of life. According to a press release from the Health Department, a breast milk bank was opened at Namakkal district headquarters hospital last month as part of the extension of the facility to 15 district headquarters hospitals. The state had announced earlier that this year breast milk banks will be extended to 15 district headquarters hospitals at the cost of Rs 1.5 crore. So far, 14,530 mothers have donated breast milk to breast milk banks across the state and 12,316 infants were benefitted from these banks so far, the release added. Meanwhile, Bharatanatyam dancer Urmila Sathyanarayanan inaugurated World Breastfeeding Week at Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital on Wednesday. The hospital has also planned various activities as part of the World Breastfeeding Week. Poster presentation, quiz competitions for doctors and nurses, expert talk on the science behind breastfeeding, well-baby contest, moms kitchen killadigal contest for all the hospital staff and nurses, and skit are some of the activities. Dr Janani Sankar, senior consultant, paediatrician, Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital, said, an outreach programme for IT firms will be conducted to raise awareness on breastfeeding. Dr H Vanathi, junior consultant, neonatology department said, lactation workshop for nurses from various hospitals, to promote early initiation of breastfeeding soon after birth, will also be conducted. The Jordanian army said on Thursday it killed several Islamic State militants who approached its border as they fled a Syrian offensive that drove them out of their enclave in the southwest of the war-torn country. Army units had used "all types of weapons" to shell a group of militants who had come close to its side of the Yarmouk Valley in clashes that lasted nearly twenty-fours from Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon, an army source said. "We applied rules of engagement and members of the Daesh (Islamic State) gang were forced to retreat inside Syria and some of their members were killed," an army source told state news agency Petra. After weeks of intensive Russian-backed bombing, the Syrian army seized the lush agricultural territory where the Yarmouk River flows that was once controlled by a group affiliated to Islamic State group known as the Khaled Bin Walid Army. Jordan, alongside other Western and Arab backers, had supplied former Free Syrian Army (FSA)rebels with weapons and logistical support to defeat the militants until the rebels themselves were defeated by the Syrian army last month and lost ground. A Jordanian army source said the militants who fled from the border were then chased by the Syrian army conducting operations in the area to drive them out of their last hideouts. The militants had sought to take cover among hundreds of civilians camped near the Jordanian border to escape the bombing of their villages during the offensive against the militants, an intelligence source said. The heavy fighting had displaced most of the former 40,000 inhabitants and caused many civilian casualties, this source said. After the capture of the area, there are dozens of militants from an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 fighters who once controlled the area who are believed to be now hiding in a rugged terrain that separates the borders of the two countries near the Yarmouk Basin, the source said. Search Keywords: Short link: u mahesh By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Over 60 families of Keshav Nagar slum nestled behind the high rises in Gachibowli spent their night under the bare sky, amid the rubble and debris of their own belongings, as they were rendered homeless after the recent demolition drive by the revenue department authorities on Tuesday. The drive left these residents, most of whom were construction laborers, helpless as no alternate arrangement of relocation was immediately made available by the authorities. I spent the entire night by the roadside and spent every minute fearing for the safety of my daughters. We have lost everything and it will take some time for everything to sink in. Whatever money and gold we had saved and kept at our home has gone in the demolition, lamented V Padma, who saw her 20 years old home razed to the ground. The displaced citizens are also miffed with the authorities for using brute force against them. The residents alleged that they are being threatened by the police and revenue officials with lathis to vacate the place when they were protesting against the action at the Mandal Revenue Office at Serlingampally. Residents of Keshav Nagar stage protest holding BJP flags at Serilingampally in Hyderabad on Wednesday| Express Moreover, even after 24 hours of the demolition drive, no alternate housing arrangements had been made for the affected. M Rani, an aggrieved from the locality said, Our houses were destroyed in a stroke, and now the revenue officials are asking us to remove our belongings from the place and demanding us to vacate the place. They have made promises that they will construct double bedroom homes for us instead, but we have no hope. However, the officials maintain that all necessary arrangements are in place and the drive will only yield good measure to the poor. We have arranged for the rehabilitation for 50 families in the Bombay house at Gopanpally. This two acres of land will be used for the construction of 2BHK flats for poor and will be allocated to those who lost their house in demolition. The necessary proposals have been sent to the district collector, added Md Nayeemuddin, deputy tahsildar, Serilingampally Mandal. By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Using high-end technology, the Rachakonda police on Wednesday arrested three members of the notorious Chaddi Gang belonging to Gujarat and detected 28 offences that took place in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Police seized gold, silver and cash, total worth Rs 3.5 lakh from the accused. With the notorious gang members involved in thefts and robberies, the police had kept a close vigil for six months on movements of gang members and visited five states Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Gujarat as part of the investigation. After special teams obtained clues based on high-end technology and physical work, our teams traced movements of the offenders in Dahod district and mounted physical and technical surveillance on the movements of offenders, as they were moving in very remote places. Teams were back to the city by mounting a strong human and technical information system, said Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh M Bhagwat. Speaking to media persons, the Police Commissioner said that police received information that three non-Telugu speaking persons were moving under suspicious circumstances near ORR in Adibatla police limits. Immediately, SOT team rushed to the spot and they surrounded the area with their teams. After a thorough search, police arrested three suspects. During the probe, they falsely revealed that they belong to Madhya Pradesh and had come for labour work. Papillion figure print technology was put in to use to verify the criminal antecedent and it was noticed that the fingerprints of two persons identified with the un-identical chance prints, which were collected by FPB experts from scene of offences in various crimes. On thorough interrogation, they revealed their names as Kishan Badhiya, Ravoji and Bharath Singh of Gujarat state and they confessed that they came to Hyderabad to commit property offences. Cases detected Rachakonda Commissionerate 8 cases including one Dacoity case. Cyberabad Commissionerate 4 cases Hyderabad Commissionerate one case Andhra Pradesh state 15 cases By Express News Service KOCHI:Following the joint efforts of the Marine Enforcement and Fisheries Department, a Tamil Nadu colour-coded trawl boat 'Holy Mother' was captured last week for violating rules and regulations of the Marine Fisheries Act. On Wednesday, the boat was impounded and the owner was slapped with a fine of `2.5 lakh as per the directions of the Fisheries deputy director. The newly-constructed boat was about to set sail during the trawl ban when it was seized at the Munambam fisheries harbour. The boat owner was identified as a native of Colachel from Kanyakumari. The boat was found loaded with Chinese nets, flaked ice and other accessories. The fishermen claimed they just constructed the boat and were set to sail for a trial run.As per the Kerala Marine Fisheries Regulation Acts, 1980, newly-constructed fishing boats set for a trial run should not do so with Chinese nets and stored ice on board. This was a clear violation of the rules, said deputy director of Fisheries (Zonal) Ernakulam, S Mahesh. The seized boat was brought to Vypeen Fisheries Station for further investigation.The boat lacked licence papers. Action has been taken for violating Sections 6,7 and 9 of the Act, which stand for lacking a proper license, prohibition of fishing using unlicensed fishing vessels and also no registration of the vessel, Mahesh said.w By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state has spent around 16.85 per cent of the allotted plan fund in the first quarter of the current financial year. A review meeting of the plan fund expenditure of the state held by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed satisfaction in the plan fund utilisation of the 16.85 per cent in the first quarter as it was 13.84 per cent in 2017 and 7.99 per cent in 2016 during this period.The state has spent around Rs 6,177.16 crore out of the total plan fund, including the Central share of Rs 37,272.99 crore in the first quarter. The state government would also look whether the projects which have not utilised the fund allotted due to practical difficulties would require the same again. The state government would give priority for the safety of the dams in the state for which the fund allotted under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) would effectively be used, said the Chief Minister. The meeting also noted there has been an increase in the plan fund utilisation of the local self-government institutions which utilised 17.10 per cent of the total allotted fund in the first quarter, against 11.75 per cent in 2017. The meeting appraised that the work of 64 projects out of the total 87 projects with a plan outlay of over Rs 10 crore, is progressing. It has also been noted 15 major projects, 104 impact projects, four Navakeralam action plan projects are underway. Further, work on the 36 KIFB projects is underway. The budget has earmarked special fund for preparing DPR of various projects. The Chief Minister also directed to provide necessary facilities for the National Law University. The meeting has also suggested a slew of measures to speed up various projects which included identifying suitable land for the Botanical Garden project in Munnar, tourism project based on the arch dam of the Idukki reservoir, zoological park in Wayanad, road connectivity to techno park and technocity from the national highway, road development projects and national waterway project. Murali Krishna CH By Express News Service Having tasted back-to-back hits with Kshanam and Ami Thumi, expectations are high for actor Adivi Sesh's upcoming spy-thriller Goodachari. But the actor maintains that he isn't nervous about it. "I'm really at peace. All the moments of jitters and nervousness are gone after the feedback I have received from my friends, who happened to watch the film recently. I'm a confident actor and I genuinely believe in my craft," says Sesh. It needs no introduction that James Bond franchise has defined the spy genre and films that depict the protagonist playing a secret service agent largely attempts to draw inspiration from them or at least tries to rework on the tropes that have been associated with the genre for long. Asked if Goodachari's story is inspired by a bond film, Sesh, who is also co-writer of the film clarifies, "The film traces the journey of a fun-loving MBA student, who likes to gaze at girls in a coffee shop. How he finds a place in The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)s Trinetra group and the challenges he encountered in his journey is the heart of Goodachari. I have found this line really fascinating and did comprehensive research to stay true to the genre. I have also learnt that RAW is under the direct command of the Prime Minister and they are dedicated to foreign intelligence gathering. Sesh says, he has signed Goodachari post Kshanam's release and explains that the story was stuck with him for a long time. Director Sashi Kiran Tikka thought the original idea of this film doesn't resonate with this generation. So we have taken the core plot and tailored it for present times." Incidentally, the film gets its name from Gudachari 116 starring veteran actor Krishna. Although it's a different story, I must say, Krishna garus film might have subconsciously influenced me. I also approached him for a role, but as he is no longer working in films, he asked me to use his clippings from his old films, if need be. I sought his permission and fixed Goodachari as my film's title. The 32-year-old actor says he has a long way to go in the industry and a corresponding scope for direction is also on his list, but not immediately. Right now, I'm not mature enough to handle that craft. And once I get it right, I will surely direct a film. Currently, I'm focused on acting and I don't want to ride two boats at the same time!" When asked if Goodachari has the potential to overpower actor-turned-director Rahul Ravindran's Chi La Sow, also releasing on the same day as his film, Sesh states, "He (Rahul) is passionate of direction and our dreams are coming true this Friday. There is no sense of competition and I wish both these films do well. Especially, it's going to be really special for Vennela Kishore, who is part of these films." Asked what's next for him in terms of work, the actor reveals, "I'm working for Two States remake and I will collaborate with Prasad V Potluri again for a new film to be directed by newcomer Ramji. I was to team up with my cousin Sai Kiran Adivi for a film, but things never worked out." Murali Krishna CH muralikrishna.db@newindianexpress @onlymurali By Online Desk The Parliament, today, met for the 11th sitting of the Monsoon Session. The 123rd Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed in the evening without any opposition. The Bill was moved by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thanwar Chand Gehlot in the post-lunch session. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present during the discussion. Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured the Lok Sabha to table the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Bill after the Congress raised the dilution of SC/ST act earlier today. In the Rajya Sabha, issues of journalist killings and granting ST status to Adivasis were raised in the morning. The Upper House was adjourned today post lunch after the opposition created a ruckus over the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC). Here are the highlights from today's proceedings: Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: In what was seen as the fallout of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) final draft in Assam, hundreds of people travelling to Nagaland and Meghalaya were sent back from the two states by the police and a students outfit. It happened despite the Centres assurance that people whose names did not figure on the list need not panic as it was only a draft and not the final NRC. The police in Nagaland set up check-posts at all entry points to the state from Assam and also the states only railhead Dimapur to thwart the influx of IBIs or illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Apart from the Inner Line Permit (ILP) required to visit the state, outsiders are now also required to furnish documents to prove he/she is an Indian. According to official sources, dozens of travelers, who failed to furnish the documents, were sent back. Ahead of the publication of the draft NRC, the Nagaland government had appealed to all organisations and village authorities to be alert to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants. Confirming it, Nagalands Chief Secretary Temjen Toy told TNIE that the police were frisking travellers to find proof of their identity. We are looking for any document of identity, such as Aadhaar card, ration card, voter ID etc. We are worried only of people who are illegal immigrants. For the time being, we are only trying to find out whether they (travellers) have any proof of identity because we dont yet have the details from the government of Assam, Toy said. In Meghalaya, over 1,000 alleged immigrants have been sent back from several check-posts by the Khasi Students Union (KSU). The KSU set up the check-posts in three districts. KSUs West Khasi Hills district chief John Fisher Nongsiang said they erected the infiltration check gates as there is no mechanism in the state to tackle influx By PTI NEW DELHI: Justice S N Shukla of the Allahabad High Court, against whom the Chief Justice of India recommended impeachment proceedings in January, has sent a representation to the central government, the Lok Sabha has been informed. Minster of State for Law P P Chaudhary said in a written reply that while a "communication" has been received from the CJI, a "representation" has also been received from Justice Shukla. The minister did not specify what the representation from the judge said. The judge is accused of impropriety in dealing with a case related to government ban on admissions to some medical colleges. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had asked whether the government had received a letter from the CJI on the need to remove the judge based on the findings of the in-house committee which indicted him of "gross misconduct". He had also asked whether the government has initiated steps to facilitate his removal. According to laid down rules, when the CJI writes to the President or the Prime Minister recommending the impeachment of a high court judge, the government is bound to put the process in motion. The government has to obtain signatures of at least 100 Lok Sabha or 50 Rajya Sabha members on a motion to start impeachment proceedings. It can also request opposition parties to obtain the signatures. Once the motion is submitted, the presiding officer of the House concerned, constitutes a committee of two judges and a jurist to probe the charges against the judge. Based on the report the impeachment proceedings are either held or dropped. The then CJI K G Balakrishnan had recommended the removal of Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen. But he had resigned before both the Houses of Parliament could complete impeachment proceedings. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Congress accused Mamata Banerjee of having double standards on the draft NRC issue and said the West Bengal chief minister was only eyeing electoral gains from the local communities. "Mamata is making a hue and cry over the draft NRC but when the Assam government had sought legacy certificates for around 1.30 lakh applicants who belong to West Bengal, the state government gave replies in only 25 per cent cases," Assam Congress president Ripun Bora told The New Indian Express. "Mamata is blowing the NRC issue out of proportion. She welcomes all the 40 lakh people excluded from the draft but has sealed the borders between two states," West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said. Both Bora and Chowdhury alleged that while the BJP was trying to polarize the voters over the NRC draft, the TMC was playing up the regional sentiments of Bengalis. But both the leaders also acknowledged that identification of the illegal migrants was an emotive issue in Assam and the Congress was committed to free the state of such residents. Chowdhury was of the opinion that if the TMC really wanted to help the Bengalis it should pressure the centre and the Assam governments to address the gaps in the implementation of the NRC. "We want to fight the issue legally and politically," he said. "We welcome the NRC but want its defects to be removed. The Congress never allows those who came to Assam after 1971. We don't want their names to be in the NRC," said Bora. Chowdhury, in turn, slammed the TMC leaders trying to go to Silchar in Assam which has a significant percentage of Bengali population saying that Mamata's party was only trying compounding the problem."They are raising slogans that Bengalis are in danger. By doing this they are adding fuel to the fire," said Chowdhury. He also pointed out that there was no plan to deal with the persons who will be kept out of the NRC as there was no extradition treaty with Bangladesh. Amit Agnihotri By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Congress will play up the sacrifice card citing the 1985 peace accords in Assam and Punjab and giving up power in Jammu and Kashmir in 2008in a bid to counter the BJPs attempts to polarise voters over communal and citizenship issues ahead of the 2019 national polls. Sources said the strategy had been framed after an assessment that the BJP will present the NRC as a move against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam with an eye on Lok Sabha polls. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi went ahead with peace accords in Assam and Punjab in 1985 even when his advisors cautioned him that the pacts could adversely impact the partys electoral prospects, a senior AICC functionary told Express. We work in national interest." Party insiders said the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, granting citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, was another ploy by the BJP to play on the social divide in the coming months. On one side, the BJP seeks fake credit for NRC and on the other, the Modi government brings in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, both of which are contrarian in spirit, said a Congress leader. As the battle over the NRC hots up, Congress insiders said they were aware that overdoing the issue could backfire in Assam. Accordingly, party leaders have been advised not to oppose NRC per se, but the faulty process of the exercise. NRC was meant to reflect the aspirations of the Assamese people and not as a tool to divide society, said a party strategist. Contradiction in stand Congress plans to highlight the contradiction in statements of Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah to expose the BJP. While Singh said NRC process was monitored by SC, Shah said BJP was finishing a job Congress couldnt finish. The UNs special envoy to Yemen is trying to revive prospects of a comprehensive settlement, but the increasingly complex weave of regional entanglements threatens his efforts UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths visited Kuwait on Sunday, 29 July, to meet with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as part of his renewed drive to promote a settlement to the Yemeni conflict. In a press conference following the meeting, Griffiths noted that the Kuwaiti emir and government had hosted Yemeni parties for about 100 days of talks two years ago and that, although those talks failed to produce peace, they did define the narrative for the peace that we hope to bring to Yemen in the course of the next month. Griffiths visit to Kuwait followed repeated visits to Sanaa where he met with Houthi leaders. It appears that these meetings have so far failed to produce positive results on the envoys Hodeida initiative, which he hoped would serve as a platform on which to build towards the realisation of a comprehensive settlement. His predecessor as UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had espoused a similar approach that Ahmed explained in detail in an interview last year with Al-Ahram Weekly. Griffiths proposal may also be encountering resistance among other parties, in spite of the fact that the Arab coalitions Operation Golden Victory, which is being led by the UAE, has been put on hold in order to clear the way for Griffiths mediating efforts. Griffiths attempt to revive the Kuwait venue, which is to say the comprehensive track, may have been inspired by the failure, so far, to advance the Hodeida initiative. Former minister of Yemeni national dialogue affairs Mohamed Al-Makhlafi does not hold out much hope, however. In an interview with the Weekly, he said that the Houthis seemed to lack the necessary political will, because otherwise they would have agreed to the interim settlement proposal in Hodeida. He added: There is nothing to compel the Houthis to return to the Kuwait track, because the government has already agreed to the earlier outputs and, also, perhaps because they are not under pressure militarily. He explained that despite the Saudi-led Arab coalitions progress on the fronts in Saada, Bayda and elsewhere, the Houthis have retained their strategic positions. Also, the Houthis are not under pressure in Hodieda, probably due to international opposition to military hostilities there for fear of civilian lives and the mounting humanitarian crisis. On the other hand, Griffiths may be contemplating another alternative, which is to combine the subsidiary Hodeida track with the comprehensive Kuwait track. This is the opinion of Yemeni political analyst Abdel-Aziz Al-Majidi who told the Weekly by phone that he believes that Griffiths is trying to get the parties to budge. Perhaps the Houthis gave some signs of a willingness to return to the negotiating table, but on conditions that were too difficult to meet. Perhaps they included understandings related to Hodeida as a starting point. If so, the government might not agree for various reasons, among which is its determination that the Houthis must surrender Hodeida first as a means to ensure that they are not recognised as a party of equal status to the legitimate government. In Al-Madjidis opinion, the Houthis are playing along with the mediating efforts, but being evasive at the same time, their objectives being to prolong the conflict, gain time and confuse the issues. He is not optimistic about any of the proposed negotiating tracks. If the official communications released by the Arab coalition boast continued progress on the fronts at Saada and Bayda, Houthi reports are indicative of a considerable degree of resilience, whether through the use of unconventional responses to the coalitions advances or by shifting the pressure points on the members of the coalition. The Houthis recent targeting of Saudi oil tankers is an example of the latter strategy. In connection with that incident, coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki accused Iran of threatening navigation in the Bab Al-Mandeb and Red Sea. Speaking at a press conference in Riyadh, he said that the coalition would continue its efforts to secure maritime traffic in the Red Sea. He stressed that the purpose of the coalitions operations was to restore legitimacy in Yemen. He also lashed out at the UN for ignoring violations committed by Houthi militias in Yemen, pointing to a water station that he claimed they had bombed in Al-Tahita directorate south of Hodeida. The coalition is taking all measures in accordance with international and humanitarian law, Al-Maliki said, adding: The [Houthi] militias are using civilian areas as military sites. He also claimed that Saada had become a launching pad for Iranian ballistic missiles. On the other hand, he said, pro-government forces have regained control over the mountain range on the Taiz front and they have kept 22 air, sea and land portals in Yemen open in spite of the continued attempts of Houthi militias to obstruct the arrival of ships carrying humanitarian aid. He added that more than five million Yemenis benefit from the aid supplied by the King Salman Relief Centre. Last week, in a response to Trumps recently tweeted threat against Iran, Major General Qassem Suleimani said the Red Sea was no longer safe due to the presence of US forces in the area. Speaking from a military base in the suburbs of Hamdan city, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force said: A mere organisation [the Houthi movement] is standing against you [the US] in Yemen, but it has emerged victorious in the face of the most advanced of your military equipment. What have you achieved over the past four years? You stripped the Red Sea which used to be a safe sea of security. You brought under fire Saudi Arabia and [its capital] Riyadh which had not seen a single rocket fired at them for 100 years. Yemeni political analysts interviewed by the Weekly agree that the level of regional engagement in Yemen has generated a complex web of interrelations with other regional questions, such as the Iranian nuclear deal and the Syrian crisis, but that Yemens geopolitical location at the mouth to the Red Sea and across the Horn of Africa adds a dimension of complexity of a different magnitude because of its relation to security arrangements that are taking shape in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa. The confusing intricacy of that weave seems to put hopes for a solution to the Yemeni crisis even more out of reach. *A version of this article appears in print in the 2 August 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Yemen: Reviving the Kuwait track Search Keywords: Short link: Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Three village heads (gram pradhans) along with three administrative officers were booked under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for denying water to a Dalit woman officer at Manjhanpur police station area of Kaushambi district, around 170 km from state capital Lucknow, on Thursday. As per the sources, a dalit government lady veterinarian in Kaushambi district had charged three gram pradhans and three others, including a village development officer, block development committee officer and a 'kotedar' (fair price shop owner) with refusing her fresh potable water in the village where she had gone for inspection. Acting on her written complaint, Kaushambi Police lodged an FIR and ordered a probe into the matter on the directives of Kaushambi district magistrate. According to SP, Kaushambi, Pradeep Gupta, the FIR was lodged against all six, including Ambawa Poorab village head Shiv Sampat, Bhaila Makdoompur village head's husband Pankaj Yadav, Saibasa village head Ansar Ali, district panchyat member Jhallar Tiwari, District Panchayati Raj Officer (DPRO) Ravidutt Mishra, and Rajesh Singh at Manjhanpur police station. All the six accused were booked under Section 504 of IPC and Section 3 (1)(R)(S) of The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Dr Seema, posted as deputy chief veterinary officer at Manjhanpur area, had on Tuesday gone on an inspection tour of three villages, including Ambawa Poorab following the directives of DRDO to review development work. She claimed that she was not given water to drink for over two hours despite asking for it repeatedly. Dr Seema said she was a diabetic. "I was supposed to tour three villages only after contacting DPRO Ravi Dutt Mishra and BDC (block development chief) Jhallar Tiwari. They behaved in the most absurd manner when I asked for water. They directed the attendants not to give water to me and I had to sustain without water for over two hours," said Dr Seema. She added that she was a diabetic and her limbs started trembling so she had to rush out from there. Dr Seema claimed they (accused) told her that if she would be given bottled water, the bottle would be spoiled and had to be thrown. On asking the villagers for water, the Ambawa Poorab village head Shiv Sampat and DRDO Mishra stopped them, alleged the woman officer. The opposition parties attacked the government over the "rising incidents of Dalit atrocities" in the BJP-ruled states. While the Congress demanded that a high-level probe be ordered into the incident, the SP accused the BJP of "not believing in the Constitution". By ANI LUCKNOW: A probe by the Public Works Department (PWD) has revealed that the damages at Akhilesh Yadav's government bungalow in Lucknow, which he vacated in June, cost Rs. 10 lakh to the state exchequer. The 266-page report, submitted by the PWD to Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, extrapolates that most of the disfigurement in the state property was caused to tiles, sanitary and electrical equipment fitted in the house. Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, in June, had instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the Samajwadi Party leader for leaving the government property disfigured. When Yadav became the Chief Minister in 2012, he was allotted a bungalow at Lucknow's Vikramaditya Marg, which he retained after his party lost State Assembly elections in 2017. But in May this year, the Supreme Court held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office. The ruling forced Akhilesh Yadav to vacate the bungalow. Soon reports emerged, alleging Yadav of dismantling the palatial house out of jealousy, a charge that the 46-year-old leader denied. The top court's order to vacate the governmental accommodation was applicable on other renowned leaders, like Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh. By PTI NEW DELHI: Mob lynching is a complete failure of rule of law, former Chief Justice of India T S Thakur today said as he cautioned that a judiciary which measures up to some political ideology will not be able to protect the Constitution. He also said that it is the judiciary that ensures rule of law in the country and makes sure that it is not governed by any autocrat. Justice Thakur, while speaking at the release of a book "The Wheel of Justice" penned by former law minister M Veerappa Moily, said that a person who committed an offence has to be prosecuted under the rule of law. He said that even Ajmal Kasab, the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks convict, got a fair trial right up to the Supreme Court and he was not left to be lynched on the streets. "Mob lynching is a complete failure of rule of law. If a mob can take law into its hands and administer sundry justice, what kind of rule of law is that? If somebody has committed an offence, the law requires him to be prosecuted." "Even Kasab, a murderer who came to kill innocent people, got a fair trial. Got a trial right up to the Supreme Court. His mercy petition was considered. You all know that the apex court sat at midnight to examine whether there was any injustice in his trial. Because we believe in rule of law. He could have been left to be lynched in the streets of Mumbai by a mob but it would be the negation of rule of law. If that had happened, our heads would have hanged in shame before civilised countries," Thakur said in the presence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh. He said independence of the judiciary has been a point of discussion in public domain for past few months. "Independent judiciary looks after not only the Constitution but also ensures that we are governed by rule of law. That we are not governed by any autocrat and we are governed by rule of law. For the survival of judiciary, survival of democracy, it is necessary that we have an independent judiciary." "A judiciary which is subjugated to powers, that measures up to some political ideology, a judiciary that succumbs to pressures will not be able to protect the constitution or protect the rule of law," Thakur said. He further said judges themselves have come out and expressed apprehensions about the judiciary remaining independent and had raised questions which went unanswered. Justice A K Sikri of Supreme Court, who spoke at the event was all praise for the efforts taken by Moily in bringing out books of public interest. Talking about the book, Manmohan Singh said various conceptions of justice differ drastically from one school of thought to another and often, even within the broader umbrella of an ideology. "Evidently, in the various schools of thought -- libertarianism, transcendental institutionalism, the realisation-focussed comparative approach -- the manner in which social institutions and therefore, nation-states ought to exist and function differ significantly," he said. However, Moily proposes that considering the ubiquitous nature of poverty and deprivation, perhaps the problem lies not in the gulf between nation states, but in the manner in which they are administered, Singh noted. The evolution of India's conception of the rule of law does evince an increasing focus on the poor and the disadvantaged, at least institutionally -- the system of public interest litigations, the Lok Adalat, the increasing focus on access to justice through legal aid -- all demonstrate the direction of socio-political thought in India, he said. By PTI AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has told a special court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case that BJP chief Amit Shah's statement defending one of the main accused and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani is "not believable" and should not be considered. In September last year, Shah had appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani, who had requested the court to summon him to prove her alibi -- that she was present in the Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital on the day the 2002 riots broke out and not at Naroda Gam. Special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas told Justice M K Dave yesterday that Shah's statement defending Kodnani was irrelevant, as it was made after a long delay. "Shah's statement is not believable, as none of the other accused mentioned about her presence at the Sola Civil Hospital," Vyas told the court here. The matter will be next heard on Friday. Shah had told the court that he met Kodnani in the Gujarat Assembly in Gandhinagar and later at the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on the day the riots took place. The Naroda Gam case is one of the nine major 2002 communal riot cases, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. Eleven people belonging to the Muslim community were killed in the Naroda Gam riots during a bandh call made to protest the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002. Besides rioting and murder, Kodnani has also been charged with criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder in the case. She was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail for her role in the Naroda Patiya riots, in which 96 people were killed. However, in April this year, the Gujarat High Court had acquitted her. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: Six Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs and two MLAs were detained and allegedly roughed up by the police at Kumbhirgram airport in Assam's Silchar on Thursday. The politicians from West Bengal were in Assam on a two-day visit to assess the situation arising out of the publication of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) and meet some people who could not make it to the list. TMC MP, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, alleged they were assaulted by the police personnel and detained at the airport. "We went to stand by the oppressed but were beaten up and detained at the airport by the security without any orders. This is nothing but unannounced emergency," she alleged. Party supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed that members of the TMC delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country. Videos, aired by local TV channels, showed some members of the TMC delegation jostling with police personnel. Earlier, fearing trouble, the Cachar district authorities had enforced prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC in the town. TMC leader Derek O Brian said: "The police authorities were waiting at the airport. They didn't allow the MPs and the MLAs to leave the airport. Our chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, who is a cardiac patient and has a pacemaker, was roughed up by the police. Two of our lady MPs, Mamata Thakur and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar...the pictures are there for all to see. What is going on? They did not go there to break the law. They are lawmakers and not law breakers. This is super emergency". He said the TMC had earlier in the day sought a statement from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Rajya Sabha but he did not come. Assam's Director General of Police, Kuladhar Saikia, said two cases were registered against the TMC lawmakers. He said one was for violation of Section 144 of the CrPC while the other was for causing injuries to three police personnel. He also said that the politicians were prevented from going out of the airport and not detained. "They were prevented from going out as the situation is not conducive and we did not want the worsening of the situation. We had informed them not to visit the place but they came," Saikia said and added that the TMC leaders were not arrested so far. They are scheduled to visit Guwahati on Friday but the police have already enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in the city. There is a possibility that they would be taken to a hotel for overnight stay and sent back to Kolkata on Friday morning. Meanwhile, dealing a blow to the TMC, the party's Assam unit president Dipen Pathak resigned from the party on Thursday protesting party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's alleged controversial remarks over NRC. The resignation came amidst protests against her in the state. (with inputs from PTI) By PTI MUMBAI: Maratha activists held 'Jail Bharo (fill the jails)' protest at various places in Maharashtra today, demanding immediate introduction of reservations in jobs and education for the community. In Mumbai and elsewhere, at least 335 persons were detained during the day. They were released later. No violence was reported from any place, police said. Pro-quota groups led by Maratha Kranti Morcha organised Jail Bharo at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, where police detained 34 persons. They were released later, a police official said. Rail and road traffic in the city was not affected by the protest. Police had made adequate security arrangements in view of the agitation, said the officer. "We have lost confidence in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. His assurances of offering reservation are hollow," Kedar Shinde, a protester at Azad Maidan, said. Agitators also staged a demonstration outside the residence of Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar in Latur district. Protesters blocked a portion of Pune-Solapur National Highway in Solapur, police said. Farmers in Hingoli district in the Marathwada region, which has witnessed most of the aggressive protests in the last 10 days, organised a bullock-cart march to demand quota for the community. At least 65 protesters were detained in Pune district, a rural police official said. Pro-quota agitators also organised a rally at Junnar in the district, he added. In Madha in Solapur district, at least 50 protesters were detained. Eleven protesters were detained at Pandharpur when they locked the gate of the Tehsildar office under a "Tala-thoko" agitation. Police took agitators in custody after opening the gate. Over 150 protesters were detained at Malegaon in Nashik district and 25 at Ambejogai in Beed district. In every case, protesters were briefly detained under the Maharashtra Police Act and were let off after being "reprimand", police said. The politically influential Maratha community constitutes 30 per cent of the state's 12 crore population. The quota agitation had turned violent in the last 10 days. The community's demands include 50 per cent reservation in jobs and education, implementation of the capital punishment given to accused in the Kopardi rape case and amendment of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to prevent its misuse. So far, six people have committed suicide in the state during the ongoing agitation. Eight persons tried to set themselves on fire in Latur district during a protest yesterday, but police foiled the attempt. C Shivakumar By Express News Service CHENNAI: Indian Coast Guard came to the rescue of 250 passengers, including 102 bound for Chennai, after passenger ship MV Swaraj Dweep reported flooding on Thursday. An Indian Coast Guard Spokesman told Express that they received the call from Captain U P Singh at around 0130hours followed by an e-mail requesting urgent assistance to arrest flooding in the number two hold, where cargos are being kept, around 40 nautical miles from Keating Point Lighthouse in Car Nicobar. The vessel which was bound for Nancowry and then to Campbell Bay before proceeding to Chennai had 102 passengers bound for Chennai and 148 local passengers. Indian Coast Guard vessel Aruna Asaf Ali was immediately sent and de-flooding operations are continuing at the vessel. The spokesman said that flooding was contained onboard at 5 metres level. Currently, two passenger vessels have been sent to transfer the passengers onboard, the spokesman said. By PTI NEW DELHI: The Congress today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "definition" of disruption is that the opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees. Congress spokesperson and senior leader A M Singhvi, when asked for his comments on the Prime Minister's remarks about disruptions in Parliament, said the whole nation knows that the Houses were running perfectly without interruption. Modi, while speaking at an event at the central hall of Parliament, said, "Sadly, when there is noise and chaos in the House, MPs are not able to speak and the loss is of the entire nation." "Government has the least to lose due to din in Parliament. It is the country which loses the most," the Prime Minister said. The Congress leader said, "Indeed, last time in the last session, the sabotage and the interruption came from the government when the no-confidence was to be moved. This time there was absolutely no disruption, but the prime minister's definition of disruption is that the opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees." "We are raising the issue, not of NRC (Assam's National Register of Citizens), but of exclusion of genuine Indian citizens, Hindus and Muslims alike. Now, if you don't like that issue you cannot say why the House is disrupted. you did not allow proper discussion," Singhvi said. He said the Congress was "very much for" genuine Indian citizens to be included and "non-genuine non-citizens" to be excluded in Assam's NRC, but that does not mean that "there is arbitrary exclusion". Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC was published in Guwahati earlier this week. Opposition Congress and TMC has stalled the functioning of the Rajya Sabha for two days over the issue. By PTI NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi today attacked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over the Doklam issue, alleging that she had "buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power". His assertion came a day after Swaraj told Parliament that the India-China face-off over Doklam was resolved through "diplomatic maturity without losing any ground" and status quo has been maintained. "Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border," Gandhi tweeted. He also tagged a media report on a US Congresswoman claiming China has "quietly resumed" its activities in the Doklam area and asserting that neither Bhutan nor India sought to dissuade it. The claim, however, was denied by New Delhi. Swaraj had told the Lok Sabha that the main objective of the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan was to ensure mutual comfort, mutual understanding and mutual trust between the two leaders and all the three objectives had been achieved. Congresswoman Ann Wagner had made the claim during a Congressional hearing of the US House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee for Asia and the Pacific last week. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Calling it a shocking and disturbing, the countrys highest court was seriously concerned about the increase in the number of cases of sexual assault by priests in Kerala. The observation by a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan came during the hearing of a case involving rape of a minor in a church by a Father in Kotiyoor in Malabar district of Kerala in 2016. The minor girl gave birth to a child in 2017 and immediately the child was handed over to a foundling home. It is disturbing that recently cases of rape are coming from churches in Kerala. It is shocking, the bench remarked.According to the 2016 case, Kerala Police had registered a case against the priest, doctors who did surgery of the minor girl and the administrators of the childrens home. The priest is in custody and the case is on trial in a lower court in Kerala. ALSO READ | Kerala high court grants bail to one more priest in Malankara church rape case The State opposed the plea of doctors alleging them of being involved in the trafficking of the infant because they knew from the beginning that Father Robin has raped the victim when she was a minor and hence after the infant was born, the hospital wanted to cover it up. Senior counsel R Basant, who appeared for the two doctors and the administrator, sought for their discharge from the trial under the POCSO Act. He argued that these three accused had no direct link with the offence and that they should be discharged. If the doctors are also included in the offences under the POCSO Act, knowingly or unknowingly, it would set a wrong precedent and could create a situation where they dont provide timely medical assistance, he pointed out. The court however refused to discharge the two other accused Fr Thomas Therakan (Chairman, Child Welfare Committee) and Sister Betty Jose (Member) after the state pointed out that they had knowledge that the baby was kept in the Foundling Home and had not taken any steps to surrender the child under the Juvenile Justice Act and dismissed their appeal. Militants killed three foreign nationals working for an international company in the Afghan capital, Kabul, two security officials said on Thursday. "An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian citizen were abducted and killed. We have found their bodies," Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for Kabul's police chief, told Reuters. Search Keywords: Short link: By Express News Service NEW DELHI: On a day when the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, the state government on Wednesday told the court that celibate status of deity cannot be a ground to bar womens entry into the hill shrine. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the counsels of both sides to compile the submissions and submit before them within seven days. As per norms prescribed by the temple board, women aged between 10 and 50 are prohibited from visiting the premises. In January 2016, the court had questioned the ban, saying this cannot be done under the Constitution. READ | Time to end priestly celibacy In the concluding arguments, Kerala government favouring the entry of women in the temple said, Ayappa temple cannot claim to be a district denomination to claim a custom which bars entry of women. Banning women is constitutionally not permissible. During the hearing, CJI Mishra also observed, The deity has right to privacy in certain aspect like temple rites, though not in the sense expounded by Puttaswamy judgement (right to privacy). Senior advocate Indira Jaising in her final arguments said that, Court need to strike down every custom and statute that prevent women from entering the temple. Untouchability was a practice and it cant be confined to traditional meaning. ALSO READ | Whats so sacred about celibacy? Amicus Currie senior advocate K Ramamoorthy supported the age-old customary practice rooted in ardent religious beliefs associated with the Temple and told the bench, Ayyappa temple follows religious practice and cant be tested. He further added that impugned practice came in the teeth of Article 14, the obligation under the provision being on the State within the ambit of which the religious institution did not fall. By Online Desk The centre braces to clear appointment of the names of Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran as Supreme Court judges in the coming weeks, while it has planned to sit on Justice KM Joseph's appointment. A government functionary has confirmed the development saying that the law ministry had moved the file of the two judges to the Prime Ministers Office for final clearance, according to Hindustan Times. According to NDTV reports, the collegium maintains its choice during the second recommendation. We have carefully considered the observations made by the Law Minister in his letters dated 26th April 2018 and 30th April, 2018 addressed to the Chief Justice of India referring back, for reconsideration, the recommendation made by us on 10th January, 2018 for appointment of Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, as Judge of the Supreme Court, the five-judge body wrote to the law ministry. ALSO READ: Justice Chelameswar writes letter to CJI Dipak Misra, calls for Collegium meeting on Justice Joseph's SC elevation As per the constitution, if the collegium reiterates its choice in the second recommendation, then the centre is bound to accept it. According to media reports, the collegium considers no additional names for elevation to the Supreme Court and the decision to recommend the two names, and the reiteration of Justice Joseph was taken unanimously. The government had earlier cited three reasons for refusing to approve the Supreme Court Collegiums recommendation to elevate Justice KM Joseph. The centre said the proposal was not in accordance with the apex courts parameters of regional representation, seniority and no SC/ST representation. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where Justice Joseph hails because three judges from Kerala are Chief Justices in the high courts and the apex court also has a judge from Kerala. Considering that Joseph is the senior most among all chief justices of the 24 high courts, Prasad wrote that a candidates seniority may be overlooked in order to ensure regional representation. But the letter did mention seniority, making it clear that there are judges in some high courts who are senior to the Uttarakhand Chief Justice. By PTI NEW DELHI: A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will examine whether its 12-year-old verdict that had dealt with the issue of 'creamy layer' for reservations to SC and ST categories in government job promotions needs to be re-visited by a seven-judge bench. The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Kurian Joseph, R F Nariman, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indu Malhotra will hear the issue on August 3. The apex court had on July 11 refused to pass any interim order against its 2006 verdict and said that a five-judge bench would first see whether it needs to be examined by a seven-judge bench or not. The apex court had said it cannot hear the matter only for the purpose of interim relief as a reference has already been made to the Constitution bench. The M Nagaraj verdict of 2006 had held that the 'creamy layer' concept cannot be applied to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for promotions in government jobs, like two earlier verdicts of 1992 Indra Sawhney and others versus Union of India (popularly called Mandal Commission verdict) and 2005 E V Chinnaiah versus State of Andhra Pradesh which had dealt with creamy layer in Other Backward Classes category. The Centre had submitted that the matter required urgent consideration by a seven-judge Constitution bench as lakhs of jobs in Railways and the services were stuck due to confusion over various judicial pronouncements. On June 5, in a major relief to the Centre, the apex court had allowed it to go ahead with reservations in promotion for SC/ST employees in accordance with law. The top court had took into account the Centre's submissions that the entire process of promotions had come to a "standstill" due to the orders of various high courts and the top court had also ordered "status quo" in a similar matter in 2015. It had said the Centre was not "debarred" from making promotions. The government had said there were separate verdicts by the high courts of Delhi, Bombay and Punjab and Haryana on the issue of reservation in promotion to SC/ST employees and the apex court had also passed different orders on appeals filed against those judgement. On November 15 last year, the top court had said a five-judge constitution bench will examine the limited issue of whether the 2006 verdict delivered in M Nagaraj and other versus Union of India was required to be re-looked at or not. The two-judge bench in its reference order had said that clarity was required on the applications in creamy layer in a situation of competing claims within the same races, communities or groups. It had sought clarification on Articles 16(4), 16(4A) and 16(4B) of the Constitution which dealt with the power of state government to make provisions for reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which was not adequately represented in the services under the state. The Nagaraj verdict had reiterated that the ceiling-limit of 50 per cent, the concept of the creamy layer and the compelling reasons like backwardness, the inadequacy of representation and overall administrative efficiency were all constitutional requirements, without which the structure of equality of opportunity in Article 16 would collapse. It had also said the state was not bound to make a reservation for SC/ST in matter of promotions. Ramananda Sengupta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday left on her first trip to the central Asian Nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. "Advancing our growing engagement with an extended neighborhood! EAM @SushmaSwaraj embarks on a visit to 3 Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz & Uzbekistan - from 2-5 August. This will be her first visit to these countries as EAM," tweeted ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar just before her departure from Delhi. Swarajs first stop will be Astana, Kazakhstan, where she will meet her Kazakh counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov, and interact with the small Indian community in the country. She will then move to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where she is expected to hold discussions with foreign minister Erlan Abdyldaev and other senior leaders. Finally, she will visit Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on August 4, to meet Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov, address the Indian community there and pay tribute at the memorial of former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who died there mysteriously in January 1966 a day after signing the Tashkent Agreement with Pakistans President Mohammad Ayub Khan. President Ram Nath Kovind will be visiting the other Central Asian State, Tajikistan, later this year. A senior Indian official said Swarajs visit was significant given Indias recent membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, an Eurasian geo-strategic grouping comprising the four Central Asian states, China, Russia, India and Pakistan. Apart from economic commercial and strategic interests in the resource rich region, India has centuries of close historical ties from the Soviet era and beyond, which need to be revived and revitalized, he said. By PTI SRINAGAR: Terrorists on Wednesday made two unsuccessful bids to attack the Army in Baramulla and Sopian districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Unidentified terrorists attacked an Army camp in Sopore township of Baramulla district, but there was no damage, a police official said. He said some terrorists fired a UBGL at Army's 32 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters at Watergam in Dangiwacha area of Sopore in the north Kashmir district tonight. The official said the grenade missed the target and exploded in a nearby orchard. They also fired a few rounds of AK-47 towards the camp, the official said, adding that no loss of life or injury was reported. This was the second attack in the day against the Army in the valley. Earlier, terrorists attacked an Army patrolling party in Shopian district, but there was no casualty. Some unidentified terrorists fired upon a patrolling party of the Army's 34 Rashtriya Rifles unit at Check-e-Cholan in the south Kashmir district, the official said. He said there was no casualty. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In a bid to avoid a repeat of the woeful bidding seen at the last spectrum auction in 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended major cuts in base prices for the next round. The 2016 auction fetched the government just Rs 65,789 crore from the Rs 5.63 lakh crore worth of spectrum up for sale. Large portions were unsold due to high prices. Trais recommendations place the base price for 5G spectrum going to auction for the first time at Rs 492 crore per megahertz (MHz), less than a third of what was stipulated for 2G spectrum in 2012, on a pan-India basis. For spectrum that went unsold during the 2016 auction, Trai has suggested that base prices be slashed by 43 per cent to Rs 6,568 crore per MHz for the premium 700 MHz band, which had failed to attract a single bidder in 2016. The regulator has also recommended that the entire 5G spectrum be auctioned off at once and in block sizes of 20 MHz; telecom operators bidding for 5G services must shell out a minimum of Rs 9,840 crore on a pan-India basis. To prevent monopolisation of the band, Trai has recommended a cap of 100 MHz of spectrum per operator. No rollout obligations are to placed on operators, and the lock-in period for spectrum to become eligible for trading is to set at five years instead of two years now. Setting up a mechanism for the audit of spectrum previously allocated to private and public sector operators have also been recommended. Meanwhile, telecom industry lobby COAI called for lowering of spectrum usage charges, license fees, and other levies, too. By Express News Service BHOPAL: Yet another controversy has hit the opposition Congress in the assembly poll bound Madhya Pradesh. The latest controversy pertains to a press conference addressed by state party election management committee's chief Jyotiraditya Scindia at Ujjain on July 28, where Scindia had allegedly asked state party spokesperson Noori Khan to get down from the stage and instead take a seat with other party leaders on chairs down the stage. Three days after the episode happened in Ujjain, the state Congress spokesperson Noori Khan has told the media that not only she, but her supporters and the community to which she belongs have felt insulted by the manner in which she was asked to leave the stage of the press conference. She also claims to have written a letter Congress national president Rahul Gandhi about the entire July 28 episode. The matter has hit the social media platforms also, with politicians like ex-Congress leader and presently an AAP leader Alka Lamba taking potshots at Scindia over the issue."I'm a committed Congress worker, who has no lure for any seat, but went to the stage of the press conference on July 28, in the capacity of state Congress spokesperson, particularly as other local party leaders were seated on the same stage with Scindiaji. I didn't go and take the seat on the stage on my own, but went there only after being asked by another senior leader Rajyavardhan Singh Dattigaon, who is the in-charge of party affairs for Ujjain," Khan told journalists on Thursday. "I've no qualms on being asked to leave the stage and seated with other party leaders and workers in the front row of the seats down the stage. But the manner in which I was asked to leave the stage publicly has hurt me, my supporters and the community to which I belong. I've written letters to party national president Rahul Gandhi, state party chief Kamal Nath and national general secretary in-charge for MP Deepak Babaria," added Khan. She, however, had a word of caution for the ruling BJP. "It's our internal party matter and BJP leaders should stop trying to take advantage of it by posing as my sympathizers. The BJP and its state government should instead be worried about tackling rising crimes against women in MP," added Khan. On Thursday, when queried by journalists about Khan having written letter to senior party leaders, including him, MP Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Kamal Nath said "I haven't received any letter as yet. Once I receive the letter, I'll go through its contents and then enquire about the alleged incident from all party leaders present at the concerned event." State Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza offered a guarded response in the matter, saying "It's unfortunate that Khan has unnecessarily gone public over the issue and that too after submitting in writing before me on July 31 that the entire issue had died down." Another state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi, who too was present at the July 28 press conference in Ujjain, said "despite being much senior to Khan, I didn't take to the conference's stage and instead sat in back rows of seats down the stage for following set protocol of such occasions. It seems some misunderstanding has taken place with our sister Noori Khan, but we'll resolve the issue in our family itself." Meanwhile, MP BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal mocked at the Congress, particularly Jyotiraditya Scindia, saying the incident has proved that some senior leaders in Congress, who often champion the cause of women safety, themselves have feudalist mindset towards women when it comes to their own party workers. This is the second controversy to have hit the Congress in last few days in the poll bound central Indian state. On Sunday evening a group of party workers had manhandled party's national general secretary in-charge Deepak Babaria in Rewa district. Six party workers were expelled from the party over the episode on Wednesday. Namita Bajpai By Express News Service LUCKNOW: Going a step further after painting government buildings, Dr Ambedkar's statue and toilets in saffron, a 20-year-old statue of Mahatma Gandhi was painted orange in Shahjahapur district of Uttar Pradesh recently. According to local police sources, the white-coloured statue of Mahatma Gandhi, installed at the gram sabha land in Dhaka Ghanshyampur in Shahjahanpur, was painted saffron on Wednesday night by some unknown miscreants. Tension gripped the area as the villagers found the statue painted in saffron. Local Congress workers gathered at the sot in huge number and they squarely blamed the local BJP leaders behind the act. On getting the information, district police officials rushed to the spot to pacify the agitated Congress leaders and party workers who were demanding identification and immediate action against the miscreants. They also asked the administration to get the statue repainted in original white or else threatened to launch a big stir on the issue. Calling it a sheer disrespect to the father of nation, the district Congress leaders claimed that it was allegedly done by the BJP and RSS workers deliberately to digress people's attention from real issues of the area. However, expressing their ignorance over the issue, the local BJP leaders denied party's role in the act. "BJP will never indulge in any such act. We respect Mahatma Gandhi and won't do anything to bring a bad name to our party. We will never do anything to lower the dignity of the father of nation," said a senior BJP leader from Shahjahanpur. He added that it seemed to be the handiwork of some miscreants who did it to tarnish BJP's image. While a probe has been ordered into the incident, district police are keeping a tight vigil on the situation to avert any untoward incident. The statute was being re-painted in white colour to defuse rising passions. Gautam Pingle By Words are the most important invention of mankind. While most words have a straightforward meaning, there are words which are shorthand for concepts. We use these important word-concepts often but very lightly. Word-concepts are derived from the underlying experience and beliefs of people. The Constitution makers were largely products of English education in India with some who had experience of higher education in Britain in politics, economics and law. The Constitution makers were remiss in not making clear what the important word-concepts in the Constitution actually meant. Some of the most important concepts introduced by the British rulers and adopted by our Constitution makers need to be analysed. Take for example, religionso closely safeguarded by the Constitution. What exactly does it mean? One possible meaning lies in the Semitic religionsJudaism, Christianity and Islambased on their common idea of a single God who is the creator of all things and beings. His true commandments must be obeyed by all believers, who have only one life, in order to achieve salvation on Judgment Day. The other possible meaning lies in Indic traditions accumulated over thousands of years and which are respected and followed as ancestral wisdom. In Indic traditions there is no single God, no single holy book and no truth claims. Indic traditions permit people to continue ancestral practices which have meaning in their lives and which bind them as a community and, after death, ensure rebirth on the basis of actions in the previous life. Each Semitic religion believes only it is true and all other religions are false, while Indic traditions hold that no religion is false. Semitic religionsparticularly Christianity and Islamimpose a duty on their followers to convert non-believers to their true faith while Indic traditions do not. Indic religions require non-interference in their ancestral traditions and practices. Thus, the use of the concept-word religion to encompass fundamentally different notions was to confuse and confound the Constitution makers and their inheritors. So when the Constitution makers permitted the freedom to propagate religion they were in fact privileging Christianity and Islam as opposed to Indic traditions (by not preventing interference in their traditional practices and beliefs by Christian and Islamic proselytisers). On this issue there is no way the state can be neutral and conflict is inevitable. The second important concept in the Constitution is that of equality. This concept, derived from Semitic theology, is a powerful binding force. But it postulates equality before God between true believers and not between believers and non-believers. The Indic religions have no such notion and, in fact, postulate inequality as a consequence of the individuals actions in the previous birth. Based on Semitic theology, European political theory dictated that the state should treat all its citizens equally. The Constitution makersproducts of European political indoctrinationestablished equality under law of citizens regardless of their religion, caste or gender. However, they were permitted by the state to treat substantial sections of the population more equally than others by providing for special reservations for some groups in employment and education. Thus even the idea of equal rights and equality of opportunity was vitiated. In the Communist ideology, the notion of equality escalated to equality of outcomes. This meant each individual should have the same economic and social status and those more privileged were to be eliminated physically. This resulted in tens of millions of people being killed in Soviet Russia and Maoist China before the idea was abandoned in the late 1980s. The third important word-concept is secularism. This is derived from the Protestant Christian Reformation (1515-1648) which postulated the theory that human life was divided into two spheresthat of the body, subject to the secular laws of the state and that of a soul, subject to God. As opposed to Judaism, Catholicism and Islam, Protestantism established that individuals had to obey the secular law of the land and the state had to permit them to seek their individual salvation through their religious practices. In India, the British Protestant state abolished the Sharia criminal code in the 1870s. The remaining Sharia civil code could be subject to interference, reform and abolishment by the state just as Hindu civil code has been in post-Independent India. But fundamentally, the problem is technical: if religion cant be defined, then religious practice cannot be distinguished from what is not religious. After 60 years of discussion and debate, even the Supreme Court has given up the idea of defining what religion, religious, equality, secular and secularism mean. The loose usage of these three terms, religion, equality and secularismpart of the basic structure of the Constitutionindicate the difficulties in adopting word-concepts derived from Protestant Christian experience, now secularised and universalised. These metaphysical word-concepts, adopted by the English-speaking Constitution makers and inheritors, cannot be understood in Indic languages as they are outside the life experience of the Indic population. Important word-concepts must be properly defined to find acceptance. This troubled Emperor Ashoka. In many of his inscriptions he referred to dharma and in one, says this: Dharma is good, but what constitutes Dharma? (It includes) little evil, much good, kindness, generosity and truthfulness. ... Respect for mother and father is good, generosity to friends, acquaintances, relatives, Brahmans and ascetics is good, not killing living beings is good, moderation in spending and moderation in saving is good. Dharma was derived from the experiential world of his people and seems even nowafter over 2,200 yearsenough to regulate a society and people. Society must be based on concepts based on the peoples life experience, not on undigested imported concepts like the Constitution makers and their inheritors imposed unthinkingly. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he looked forward to meeting Kim Jong Un soon and thanked the North Korean leader for sending the suspected remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War back to the United States. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump wrote in a Twitter message. "Also, thank you for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!", Trump said, without elaborating. The pledge to return the remains of U.S. soldiers was made during a landmark summit between Trump and Kim in June in Singapore, where North Korea committed to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Kim sent a letter to Trump in mid-July in which the North Korean leader said he hoped there would be a second meeting between the two but it was unclear if that was the "nice letter" to which Trump referred on Thursday. Trump also took to Twitter earlier to praise an "incredibly beautiful ceremony" in Hawaii, where Vice President Mike Pence helped welcome the remains to the United States. The United States said during a solemn ceremony on Wednesday the human remains presumably included Americans killed in the Korean War and thanked North Korea for making good on its pledge to hand them over. The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the Singapore summit and was the most concrete agreement reached by the two sides so far. "I know that President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim has kept his word, and we see today this tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula," said Pence, whose father fought in the Korean War. More than 7,700 U.S. troops remain unaccounted for from the Korea War. About 5,300 were lost in what is now North Korea. Other countries under the command of the United Nations also lost troops that are still unaccounted for, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Experts say positively identifying the decades-old remains could take anywhere from days to decades. Still, an initial field forensic review indicated the "remains are what North Korea said they were", John Byrd, director of analysis for the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters at an air base in South Korea before the remains were flown to Hawaii. Search Keywords: Short link: Arun M By Express News Service KOCHI: The Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), which presented a draft Bill to the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in 2014, also plans to meet Pinarayi to expedite proceedings to bring in a legislation. "KSSP drafted the Bill and submitted a memorandum to 110 MLAs before presenting it to the previous Chief Minister (Oommen Chandy). We will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan next week and brief him on the need to ban superstitious practices in society," said Ramesh B, convenor of the KSSP science awareness campaign. The proposed law takes cue from the anti-black-magic law enacted by the Maharashtra Assembly in 2013. Karnataka passed the law in November 2017. "Even after the LDF Government, which claims to be progressive, assumed power, there has been no initiative to ban obsolete practices," said an officer with the Law Department. "The Oommen Chandy Government had sent the draft Bill to the subject committee of the Legislative Assembly. But no further action was initiated. The current government is taking refuge under the failure of the law in curbing such activities in Karnataka." By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: The State government will gear up to facilitate the creation of one lakh IT and two lakh electronics (manufacturing) jobs before the 2019 elections, averred IT Minister Nara Lokesh. So far, the government has fostered the creation of about 36,000 IT and 20,000 electronics (manufacturing) jobs. Speaking to newsmen after inaugurating 10 IT and ITES firms brought by the AP Non-Resident Telugu (APNRT) Society at Tadepalli on Wednesday, Lokesh explained that the governments vision is to create five Cyberabads in Andhra Pradesh. About 80 per cent of jobs in the IT industry are created by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). So, besides rolling red carpet to big ticket companies, we are also encouraging SMEs by giving them incentives so that an ecosystem is created. Our aim is to create five Cyberabads so that jobs will be available for the youth living around those IT cities, he said. A thrust to the IT sector is being given in Visakhapatnam, Amaravati, Anantapur, Tirupati and Godavari districts. The 10 firms, which offer IT security, mobile apps, engineering consultation, healthcare, Big Data, Analytics and other services, will create direct employment to 1,000 people. The APNRTS has facilitated the establishment of over 65 IT firms in the capital region. Lokesh further said the IT Department was able to help 11,412 candidates get placements in various companies across India. Our target is not only to bring the companies to the State, but also to have one lakh people placed in companies, he said. Along with the creation of jobs and facilitating placements, the State government, Lokesh said would also work with the youth for their skill upgradation. One of the major challenges being faced by the government, according to the IT Minister, is the availability of office space. Medha Towers near Gannavaram, which was vacant for about a decade, is now packed. Even the second tower coming up there is going to be full in four-five months. To address the space constraints, we have brought in a rental guarantee policy in which the State government assures 50 per cent rent for the developers. No other State in the country is offering such a policy, he said. APNRTS president Ravi Vemuru said, We are going to make Amaravati and Visakhapatnam the go to destinations for IT companies by providing quality workspace, adequate incentives and well-trained work force. We are creating directed training programs under which a prospective employer can specify the required skill set and employees will be trained accordingly. Meera Bhardwaj By Express News Service BENGALURU:With the Union Ministry of Road and Transport (MoRT) trying to convince Karnataka to open NH-212 passing through Bandipur Tiger Reserve, for night traffic, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has assured the forest officials of abiding by the earlier governments decision to continue with the ban from 9 pm to 6 am. In a recent letter to the Chief Secretary, MoRT Secretary Y S Malik has come out with a series of measures for opening the highway 24x365 days, thereby, ignoring its own expert committee report. The measures suggested in the Bandipur Core Zone for 25 km include building of four elevated roads, widening of highway to 15 metres, 8-feet-high steel wire fencing, etc. Since 2010, Karnataka has been opposing lifting of the night traffic ban while Kerala has been putting pressure on Karnataka. Although successive CMs B S Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and Siddaramaiah have resisted this move the Centre continues to put enormous pressure, say activists. Recently, a committee under the Chairmanship of MoRT was formed with NTCA as one of the members which, after field inspection, submitted that the night traffic ban should continue. Thrashing the MoRTs arguments, activist Santhosh says, Police statistics highlight that human accidents have reduced by 50 per cent after the night ban. Further, an alternative road (Hunsur-Gonikoppa-Kutta-Mananthavady) was developed at a cost of `75 crore only on Keralas request. Based on High Court orders, the alternative road was repaired. Now, MoRT makes false claims that substantial parts of the alternative road passes is hilly terrain. Why did Kerala request for the development of an alternative road? Did the hilly terrain suddenly crop up? The measures suggested are not feasible as these have proved inefficient both in the past and also on the Kanha-Pench corridor (NH 7), where similar measures were implemented. Imagine the highway expansion to 15 metres with two carriageways. This would surely be a death knell to wildlife in Bandipur said Santosh. KARNATAKA OPPOSES The state forest department has opposed any move to lift the night ban in Bandipur and does not favour measures like flyovers at regular intervals or underpasses. A senior forest official told TNIE, The chief minister has assured that night closure in Bandipur will continue and the state government opposes the Centres suggestion of going in for mitigation measures at NH-212 in Bandipur. MORT/NTCA REPORT The prevailing conditions do not permit any changes, says the MoRT/NTCA report. It highlights that no transporters are put to hardship or no vehicles pile up at the entry gates at night times. By Express News Service BENGALURU:The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday shook up the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) so severely on the issue of illegal flexes, banners and hoardings that the civic body was forced into taking the most stringent approach so far to rid the city of the menace. The High Court has now strictly set a deadline of a week for BBMP to complete the process across the city. So severe was the high court observation against this menace on Wednesday morning that it got BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad to order his officials to set aside all other work and get down to remove all illegal flexes, banners and hoardings from across Bengaluru. He set a deadline of 2.30 pm on Wednesday itself for them to do so, as the court was to resume hearing on the matter at that time. The BBMP, however, could manage to pull down only 5,000 such illegal flexes, banners and hoardings, that too from certain pockets of the city. Taking note of it, the court wondered why the BBMP waited till the court issued directions to remove them. Why could you not remove them earlier? Now tell me, how much time do you need to put Bengaluru back on track, the court asked while adjourning the hearing to August 8. The courts strict stance on the menace had its effect. It made the BBMP chief take a decision to file criminal cases against the offenders who put up new illegal flexes, boards or banners from Thursday. Prasad took up the issue with Bengaluru City Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar, asking him to instruct his officials to register criminal cases against the offenders. This reportedly has the blessings of Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who is also the Home Minister. Prasad said he now plans to write letters to various political party offices against putting up flex and banners. The letters will be sent with copies of the high court direction, as no one is above the law. On July 11, the KPCC put up huge illegal flex boards on footpaths of Queens Road as Dinesh Gundu Rao took over as KPCC chief, but no action was taken. By Express News Service CHENNAI : The lanes and bylanes in and around the Kauvery Hospital were quiet. Ever since DMK president M Karunanidhi was hosptialised, the area was chaotic and noisy. Not so on Wednesday. Traffic on Luz Church Road was plying with relative ease. The chants and slogans of his supporters are slowly fading. However, the posse of political leaders and film personalities paying a visit to the leader continued like other days. Karunanidhi, though still in ICU, is making a strong recovery. Also read |Stones pelted at three buses after rumours about M Karunanidhis health Among prominent leaders, former Union Minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) founder Ajit Singh visited the hospital in the morning and was briefed by DMK working president MK Stalin. Talking to reporters, the RLD chief said he had close relations with Karunanidhi in the past. I wish him well and fast recovery. He is one of the senior leaders, a true veteran. I have been in touch with him for quite some time in the late 80s and 90s when I was much involved in what was happening here, he stated. He hailed Karunanidhi as a leader being remembered all over India.Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and head of Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav called up Stalin over phone and inquired about the health of Karunanidhi. Our prayers and wishes for a healthy recovery of DMK president M Karunanidhi, he tweeted.Tamil Maanila Congress leader GK Vasan, CPI state deputy secretary C Mahendran and former MLA C Mahendran too paid a visit to the hospital. Vijay and Ajith drop by Tamil film actors Vijay and Ajith also trooped into to hospital to inquire about the health of Karunanidhi. Stalin explained them about the condition of the leader. By Express News Service CHENNAI : A group of DMK members allegedly attacked the staff of a restaurant at Saligramam on Sunday after they were told that food supply in the hotel was over and the party cadre would not be served food. After the CCTV footage of the incident went viral on Wednesday, the party has removed the persons involved in the incident from the basic membership of the party. Said Prakash, who was injured in his nose and forehead, On Sunday night after the closing hours of the hotel, a few DMK cadre demanded food for more than 30 persons assembled in Kauvery Hospital. Since the shop was closed and no food was left for sale, I said that food cannot be delivered. Angered by this, K L Yuvaraj attacked me and two other servers in the restaurant. They shouted, questioning why the shop should be open if there was no food and closed the shop from outside before they left. Anbu, owner of the RR Biriyani in Saligramam, recalling a previous incident, said, Last month, Yuvaraj and Diwahar arrived in a car and parked it in front of the restaurant. When I asked Yuvaraj to move the car, he picked up a quarrel and started scolding me. He and his men pushed the things on the table and slapped me. After a while they were pacified and he gave his visiting card and told me to be careful.The CCTV footage from the shop showed the functionaries speaking to the persons at the cash counter and then suddenly beating them. In the wake of this incident, K Anbazhagan, DMK general secretary, suspended both Yuvaraj and Diwahar who were Virugambakkam DMK functionaries.The Virugambakkam police have registered a case on the charges of causing riot and causing hurt dangerously and are on the look-out for the men absconding. By PTI MADURAI: The Madras High Court today directed the Tuticorin district collector to cancel his order detaining an anti-Sterlite protester under the National Security Act (NSA), and cautioned him against merely accepting police request for such detentions. Justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed of the Madurai Bench gave the order when collector Sandeep Nanduri appeared before it complying with its yesterday's order, which was given during the hearing of a habeas corpus petition (HCP) filed by the wife of the protester Hari Raghavan. "Any person who did not commit a crime should not be punished. The collector should not accept whatever the police say and sign (on detention orders). Your signature could affect the freedom of an individual. Do not act like this in future and respect the judicial orders," the bench cautioned. Taking a stern view of the detention of Raghavan under the National Security Act despite the court having granted him conditional bail, the division bench had asked the collector to be present in the court and give an explanation today. Raghavan is a functionary of Left-wing outfit 'Makkal Athigaram'. He has been slapped with 92 cases for allegedly instigating the agitation demanding the closure of Sterlite's copper plant in Tuticorin. He was granted bail on July 24. The agitation had turned violent on its 100th day, leading to police firing in which 13 people were killed on May 22 and 23. During the hearing of the HCP, filed for seeking production of people illegally detained, the judges said it was not proper on part of the police to use the NSA against Raghavan after the court had given him conditional bail. "This is democratic Tamil Nadu or a Police Raj state?" they had asked yesterday. Aihik Sur By Express News Service HYDERABAD:Keep your Bluetooth switched off and your smart phones upgraded as a Bluetooth bug has been detected putting millions of Android and iPhones at the risk of getting hacked. The bug, tracked as CVE-2018-5383, could allow an attacker within 30m to capture and decrypt data shared between Bluetooth-paired devices of not just Android and iPhones but also other big players such as Microsoft, Qualomm Incorporated, Intel and others. The flaw was identified by researchers at Israel Institute of Technology and later came into the public eye when flagged by Carnegie Mellon University CERT. The researchers found that a hacker could bypass the public key received when pairing with a new device by blocking the signal and injecting a malicious bug within a narrow time frame. In such cases, connections between those devices could be vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack that would allow for the monitoring or manipulation of traffic, Bluetooth SIG said in a release. Clarifiying the threat further, Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher from Hyderabad, said, The attacker needs to be in a close proximity for the attack and he/she can intercept any kind messages transmitted between the two Bluetooth devices. That message could be something as safe as notifications to a potential-security hazard like security codes used in two-factor authentication of your social media. Bluetooth bug can be fixed in Apple phones Since the attack has come to the fore, Bluetooth has released some updates to remedy the vulnerability. Bluetooth SIG has now updated the Bluetooth specification to require products to validate any public key received as part of public key-based security procedures. In addition, the Bluetooth SIG has added testing for this vulnerability within our Bluetooth Qualification Program. As of now, fixes for this bug are available for Apple devices and two Android vendors -- Huawei and LG. If your phone is not either of them, Mcafee Antivirus has urged consumers to turn off Bluetooth unless one needs to use it. Gary Davis, a Mcafee security official also urged to update smartphones system software. Its an important security rule of thumb: always update your software whenever an update is available, as security patches are usually included with each new version. Patches for iOS and some Android manufacturers are already available, but if your device isnt on the list, fear not security patches for additional providers are likely on their way. By IANS UNITED NATIONS: The ongoing violence and attacks on civilian infrastructure in Hudaydah of Yemen threaten hundreds of thousands of children and their families, said the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a statement released on Wednesday. "Attacks against civilian facilities and services are unacceptable, inhumane and in breach of the basic laws of war," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, Xinhua reported. "Yet the past few days have seen an escalation in the targeting of systems and facilities that are essential to sustaining the lives of children and families," she added. It was reported at the weekend that a UNICEF-supported warehouse containing humanitarian provisions, including hygiene and water-related supplies, was hit by two airstrikes. On Saturday, a UNICEF-supported sanitation center in the Zabid District came under attack, damaging the facility's fuel tank. A day earlier, the al-Mina District water station was hit, which is the main source of water for the key port city. Overall, 22 million people need some kind of assistance in Yemen after years of grinding conflict between government and Saudi-led coalition forces, who've been battling Houthi rebels for control of the country. Hudaydah is the main port for the shattered import-dependent economy, as more than 70 percent of all humanitarian supplies, commercial goods and food brought into the country, passes through the docks there. The UNICEF chief said that the country was "already facing a severe shortage of drinking water, which is directly linked to outbreaks of cholera and acute watery diarrhea," underscoring that attacks on water infrastructure "jeopardize efforts to prevent another outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen." Fore again called on everyone involved in fighting to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. "The war in Yemen has no winners. It is robbing Yemeni children of their futures," she noted. By PTI HONOLULU: The US military is beginning the painstaking process of analysing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of US forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after the caskets arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. Read: US Korean War dead heading home at last "They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbours long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones," Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at their June summit in Singapore, for their return. Trump, in a tweet last night, thanked Kim "for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action." Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018 Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Pence said. "Today, our boys are coming home." The US military believes the bones are those of US servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found.Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." There are 7,699 US service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. During his summit with Trump, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal US concession. Also Read: Mike Pompeo to urge Asians to enforce UN sanctions on North Korea Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of US security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged US plans to attack it. By ANI JERUSALEM: An Israeli air strike has killed seven militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and seeking to infiltrate the country from the Syrian Golan Heights, the army said Thursday. The rare incident came as Israel readied itself for Syria regaining complete control of the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. A Syrian offensive, backed by Russia, has seen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rout rebels and jihadists in the region, sending them fleeing. On Thursday, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Assad's gains present advantages for Israel since it would provide a level of stability in the Golan even though the two countries remain technically at war. Israel's army said there had been no coordination with Assad's government before the strike. The strike was carried out late Wednesday after the militants crossed a ceasefire line and came within a few hundred metres (yards) of the fence in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said. Later searches turned up the seven bodies, five AK-47 assault rifles, explosive vests and what appeared to be grenades, he added. - 'Moving in combat formation' - Israeli forces monitored the militants' movements before carrying out the strike, Conricus said. "Had they been able to continue, they would have come to the Israeli security fence," he said. Conricus said Israeli forces believed they were on a "terrorist mission" and "trying to infiltrate into Israel". "It did not seem as if they were fleeing, seeking refuge," Conricus said. "It seems as if they were moving in a combat formation, with combat equipment." He declined to say specifically where they were located, but said it was in the southern Golan, near the Jordanian border. Initial findings show they were linked to IS but it remains unconfirmed, said Conricus. Jordan's army also said Thursday it had killed a number of jihadists who tried to approach its northern border with Syria. Conricus said he was not aware of any coordination with the Jordanians. Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. - Rare incident - Conricus said there also had been no coordination with Syria or Russia before the strike, adding that Israel was within the bounds of a 1974 ceasefire agreement for the area in carrying it out. Israel has sought to remain out of direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it admits carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are deliveries of advanced weaponry to its Lebanese enemy Hezbollah. It has also pledged to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and a series of recent strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel. Confrontations with IS-linked fighters have been more rare. The only other similar incident since the start of Syria's seven-year civil war occurred in November 2016, when Israeli soldiers were targeted with machine gun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to IS. Four of the militants were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured. Assad told his troops on Wednesday they were close to victory after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels. A series of blistering offensives backed by Moscow and Tehran has forced the rebels out of many of their strongholds, putting Assad's government back in control of nearly two-thirds of the country. Russia will now deploy "eight military police observation posts" in the region, Russian army general Sergei Rudskoy said on Thursday. He added that "conditions have been created for the resumption of the activities of UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights". Israel has been pressing Russia to keep Iranian forces or its proxies far away from the Golan. Lieberman saw benefits in Assad consolidating his gains. "In Syria, as far as we are concerned, the situation is returning to the previous one before the civil war, meaning there is a clear address, there is responsibility and there is a central government," Lieberman said. By AFP BARCELONA: Spain's new Socialist government held talks with Catalonia's separatist executive on Wednesday in the first such meeting in seven years as tensions eased but sharp divergences remained over the region's self-determination drive. Representatives of both executives met for almost four hours at the headquarters of the regional government in Barcelona as part of a bilateral commission that has not met since 2011. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Catalan president Quim Torra agreed to re-activate the commission when they met on July 10 in Madrid. "There were some important disagreements, but to be able to say normally that we have big disagreements is also important," Spain's minister of regional administration, Meritxell Batet, who headed the central government's delegation, told reporters after the meeting. Sanchez, who came to power at the start of June after a no-confidence motion toppled his conservative predecessor Mariano Rajoy, promised to improve relations between Madrid and Catalan leaders, who unsuccessfully proclaimed a republic on October 27 following a banned independence But pro-independence leaders, whose support of Sanchez's no-confidence vote was key to its success and on whom he partially relies to remain in power, have asked for concrete action. Catalonia's leaders want to talk about the possibility of holding a new independence referendum in Catalonia and are calling for the release of separatist figures in jail as they await trial for their role in last October's failed secession attempt. But Batet said the central government had reiterated its opposition to a new referendum during the talks "because the constitution does not allow it" and said it was up to the courts to decide whether to release the jailed separatist leaders. The only agreement to emerge from the meeting was the establishment of a calender for further talks between September and December. "We have very different concepts of normality," said Catalonia's regional minister for foreign affairs, Ernest Maragall, who headed the Catalan delegation, after the meeting. The central government had not presented any plan to solve the conflict between the two sides, he added. Catalonia's deposed president Carles Puigdemont, wanted for rebellion in Spain and who remains influential among separatists, warned Saturday that Sanchez still has "homework to do". "We hope that, once the summer holidays are over, he has used his time, because the honeymoon is over," he added during a news conference in Belgium. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today reacted sharply to a recent US decision waiving individual licensing requirements for export of high technology products to India, terming the move as continuation of policies of discrimination. The US on Monday eased export controls for high-technology product sales to India by designating it as a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country, the only South Asian nation to be on the list. The designation authorises the export, re-export and transfer (in-country) of specified items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to destinations posing a low risk of unauthorised or impermissible uses. Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Mohammad Faisal "described it as a disturbing continuation of policies of discrimination and exceptionalism, further eroding the longstanding non-proliferation norms." He underscored the serious implications on strategic stability arising from the cumulative effect of several civilian nuclear cooperation agreements between India and members of the export control regimes, the latest of which is the recent licensing waivers. "Pakistan believes all states have the right to acquire and use advanced and dual use technologies for socio-economic development under appropriate safeguards and without discrimination," Faisal said. Pakistan urges faithful adherence by all to the letter and spirit of relevant international treaties and export control regimes. The spokesperson called on all the states to carefully review their strategic export control policies that directly impinge on national security of Pakistan and undercut stated goals of preserving strategic stability in the region. "Disavowal of established legal and normative frameworks regulating strategic goods and technologies only undermines the global rules-based order," Faisal added. Currently there are 36 countries on STA-1 list. India is the only South Asian country to be on the list. Other Asian countries designated as STA-1 are Japan and South Korea. Till recently India was designated as STA-2 countries along with seven others. By PTI ASHGABAT: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today held talks with her Turkmenistan counterpart Rashid Meredov on a wide range of bilateral issues during a transit halt here. Swaraj, on her way to Kazakhstan, was received at the Ashgabat airport by Meredov. "Making the most of a transit halt!," Raveesh Kumar, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted. Swaraj had a good exchange of views on a wide range of bilateral issues, he said. Swaraj is currently on a four-day visit to Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with resource-rich Central Asian nations. By PTI ASTANA: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived in Kazakhstan, India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia, after a brief transit halt in Turkmenistan. Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. On her way to Kazakhstan, she held talks with her Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov on a wide range of bilateral issues. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "Ancient & historical ties dating back to 2500 years! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan on the first leg of her 3-nation trip. Both countries have a close strategic partnership and Kazakhstan is India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia." During her visit to Astana, the minister will hold a bilateral meeting with her Kazakhstani counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the MEA said in a statement in New Delhi. She will also call on the country's leadership and interact with Indian community, it said. India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and multi-faceted relations. The bilateral relations have been strengthened by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and by his visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June 2017 when he had a productive meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, the statement said. There have also been meetings between the leaders on the margins of the SCO and Nuclear Security Summits keeping up the momentum in the growth of bilateral relations, it said. Swaraj's visit to the three Central Asian countries is her first visit to these countries as External Affairs Minister. The visit is in pursuit of India's objective of enhanced engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. By AFP KABUL: The bodies of three foreign nationals who Afghan police said had been abducted and killed in Kabul were recovered Thursday, in the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital. The killings come as the city has been rocked by an increasing number of attacks in recent months with both Islamic State (IS) and Taliban insurgents targeting security forces and government installations. The victims -- all working for French services giant Sodexo in Kabul -- were from India, Macedonia and Malaysia, a spokesman for the interior ministry said. "At this stage we think it is a terrorist incident," police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai told AFP. Sodexo said it was "deeply saddened and shocked" by the deaths of its staff members. "On behalf of the Sodexo community, I want to say that our hearts are with their families, friends and colleagues," said chief executive Denis Machuel. India and Malaysia have both confirmed the deaths of their citizens and said they are are seeking to repatriate their bodies, adding they were working with Afghan authorities. Raveesh Kumar, India's foreign ministry spokesman, called the murders caused "deep anguish". No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings. The incident happened after the group left their office with a car and driver Thursday. Just over an hour later their bodies were found in what appeared to be a different car by authorities in the rural outskirts of Kabul. "They had been shot inside the car," said interior ministry official Bahar Mehr. Another spokesman from the ministry said the car's driver was being questioned by police and treated as a possible suspect. He added that all three had been handcuffed and shot, with two of the bodies later placed in the trunk of the car. - Kidnapping scourge - Kabul is plagued by criminal gangs who stage abductions for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy locals, and sometimes hand them over to insurgent groups. Kidnapping of Afghans and foreigners is also common across Afghanistan where swathes of the country are infested with militant groups or criminal gangs. Earlier this year six Indian engineers working in northern Afghanistan were abducted along with their driver. In August 2016, gunmen wearing military uniforms kidnapped two professors of the American University of Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul. The two, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, appeared looking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents later adding that King was in poor health. Afghan civilians have borne the brunt of the grinding conflict that began after the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. Militant attacks and suicide bombs were the leading causes of civilian deaths in the first half of 2018, a recent UN report showed. A total of 1,692 civilians were killed, the highest number for the period since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began keeping records in 2009. Another 3,430 were wounded, the report said. While the Taliban is Afghanistan's largest militant group and holds or contests more territory than any other insurgent outfit, IS has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to carry out devastating attacks in urban areas. The incident comes a day after more than 150 IS fighters surrendered in northern Afghanistan -- in a move that Afghan security forces and the Taliban hailed as the end of the extremist group in the north of the country. By AFP ANKARA: Ankara on Wednesday threatened to retaliate after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the case of an American pastor as it warned the actions could damage ties. "There is no doubt that this will greatly damage constructive efforts working to solve the issues between the two countries," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Without delay, there will be a response to this aggressive attitude that will not serve any purpose," the ministry added. "We call on the US administration to turn back from this wrong decision." Pastor Andrew Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most bitter diplomatic spats between the NATO allies. Brunson was held for nearly two years in prison on terror-related charges before he was moved last week to house arrest. US officials said at the time that it was not enough and threatened to take measures against Turkey. Washington then on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said both men "played leading roles in the arrest and detention of Pastor Brunson". Relations between the NATO allies were already strained by Washington's support for a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as terrorists by Ankara and the failure to extradite the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed coup. Gul on Twitter later dismissed the sanctions, saying that he had no assets abroad. "I have neither a tree planted nor one penny in the US or any other country outside of Turkey," Gul said. Brunson's lawyer appealed to an Izmir court this week for his release but it was rejected. Brunson risks up to 35 years in jail over charges that he acted on behalf of two groups viewed as terrorists by Ankara: the movement led by Gulen and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His next trial hearing is due on October 12. By PTI LONDON: The UK government came under fire today as it emerged that it had allowed many foreign nationals, including Indians, to enter the country despite concerns that they had forced women into marriage for a British visa. An investigation by 'The Times' newspaper found that dozens of women who were sent overseas, to mostly South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to marry tried to block visas for their new husbands. However, according to records uncovered by the newspaper, of the 88 cases in which victims wanted to block visas, 42 were still granted by the UK Home Office despite attempts to prevent them. While charities working with victims of forced marriage have accused the government of "turning a blind eye" to the exploitation of British women, the UK Home Office "categorically denies" the allegation. "Even when officials know it's a forced marriage, they see tradition, culture or religion and they're reticent to deal with it. They are turning a blind eye," said Jasvinder Sanghera, herself a former forced marriage victim who set up Karma Nirvana as a charity to help other victims. Laws making it illegal to force someone into marriage in England and Wales were introduced in 2014. Anyone found guilty of the crime can be jailed for up to seven years. There have so far been two cases of conviction under this law, including a Bangladeshi-origin couple who were jailed for a total of eight years for forcing their daughter into marriage with a first cousin and a British Pakistani mother being jailed for forcing her daughter to marry a relative almost twice her age earlier this year. According to the UK government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), the four countries with the highest number of cases of British nationals being forced into a marriage against their will last year were Pakistan (439), Bangladesh (129), Somalia (91) and India (82). As part of the latest 'Times' investigation, figures released under the UK's freedom of information laws showed the Home Office had received 175 inquiries about victims trying to block spouses' visas last year. Of these, 88 became full cases, which included direct requests from victims known as "reluctant sponsors", requests from third parties or instances where an official suspected a forced marriage. Visas were still issued in 42 cases, while in 10 more the decision is still pending or an appeal is being heard. Charity workers have said that many of the victims are made to stay overseas until they become pregnant and returned to the UK to give birth because a child is believed to strengthen the foreign spouse's visa application. Their husbands then apply to join them in the UK, using visas sponsored by the UK family. Women can apply to block the visas but have to sign a public statement to the effect, something the charities warn results in many cases going unreported. The Home Office said today that the UK was a world leader in tackling the "horrendous crime of forced marriage". A spokesperson said: "We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. If an individual refuses to act as the sponsor for a visa application then under the immigration rules, that visa should not be issued. "There are a number of reasons why cases are referred to the Forced Marriage Unit, not all of which are the result of a reluctant sponsor getting in contact. In some cases it will be decided, following inquiries, that no further action is necessary and a visa will be issued. " The Forced Marriage Unit brings together the UK's Home Office and Foreign Office to tackle cases forced marriages. In 2017, the unit gave advice or support in 1,196 cases. As well as a legal ban, British police also has the power to issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders to help potential victims. Any breach of such an order is punishable by up to five years in prison. PTI AK AMS AKJ AMS AMS 08021854 NNNN By AFP JUBA: The United States' ambassador to South Sudan on Thursday called on the government to release a prominent activist and economist who has been held without charge for five days. Peter Biar Ajak, who has featured on international media outlets to analysis the ongoing peace talks in Khartoum, was arrested Saturday at Juba International Airport, according to his family and fellow activists. "We are asking for his release and for more information about really what the case has been about," US Ambassador Thomas Hushek told journalists shortly after meeting Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla to discuss the situation. Biar's arrest has provoked condemnation from rights groups, including the South Sudan Young Leaders Forum, which he founded. "We are deeply troubled that no one has been allowed to speak or visit him at National Security headquarters in Jebel," said a statement from the forum. Philip Sanyang Ngong, a rights activist who works with Advocates Without Borders, has confirmed that Biar is being held at the notorious National Security Service compound known as "Blue House". However the justice minister claimed not to know anything about the arrest. "We are still waiting of course for information from the arresting authority," Wanwilla told reporters. "We don't have information still but obviously any arrest may have a reason behind it and until we find out what is the reason we will not be able to talk about a case which we have not yet taken note of." Biar was one of the so-called Lost Boys who were displaced or orphaned during the Sudanese Civil War, before South Sudan became independent in 2011. Biar went to the United States in 2001 where he studied Economics in Philadelphia. He later got his Masters in Public Administration from Harvard and was currently a PHD student at Cambridge, according to an online profile of him by the International Growth Council thinktank, where he worked as a researcher. He worked as a World Bank economist based in South Sudan and advised the government on economic policy. In recent weeks he has urged both President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar to step aside and make way for new people to rule the country, ravaged by nearly five years of war. South Sudan's warring parties last week signed a preliminary power-sharing deal which sees Machar re-instated as vice president, with four other vice president positions shared out among other political groups By PTI WASHINGTON: The US Congress has passed a defence spending bill that seeks to amend an existing law to provide waivers to America's strategic partners like India from punitive sanctions against those doing business with Russia's defence industry. The Senate passed the conference report on the National Defense Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver is intended at preventing US sanctions on countries like India. New Delhi is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems from Russia for around USD 4.5 billion. Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide USD 716 billion support in funding for national defence for the fiscal year 2019. The bill, which now moves to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of the CAATSA. Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology. "The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI. He said the legislative language of the bill is designed to look very tough as the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. "In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said. "The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". "As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said. At the same time, he cautioned that it was important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects. The legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment. "This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long-term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward-looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said. Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the CAATSA waiver authority for strategic partners such as India. "By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI. The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce the inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority. Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining a once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said. WASHINGTON: The US Senate easily passed a $716.3 billion defense authorization bill Wednesday that ramps up military spending and bolsters America's posture against Russia, while avoiding policy changes that would have antagonized President Donald Trump. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 87 to 10 in the Senate a week after clearing the House of Representatives, and now heads to the White House for Trump's signature. The bill provides $69 billion in war funding known as overseas contingency operations, authorizes a 2.6 percent pay raise for members of the armed forces, and invests tens of billions in modernizing the Pentagon's air and sea fleets and missile defenses. It notably prohibits delivery of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to Turkey, a NATO ally with increasingly fraught relations with Washington, until Ankara can confirm it will not buy Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. And while China and Russia are classified as "strategic competitors" to the United States, the legislation negotiated between the House and Senate left out a proposal by senators that would have blocked a deal Trump reached with Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE that eases tough financial penalties on the firm for helping Iran and North Korea evade American sanctions. The capitulation smoothed things over with the White House, but it angered Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who voted against the bill. "It's time we opened our eyes," Rubio told colleagues. "We are engaged in a geopolitical competition, not with some poor agrarian country trying to catch up, but with a global super power who is quickly nipping at our heels and doing so unfairly, with the intent of replacing us in the world as the most powerful country militarily, economically, geopolitically and technologically." The NDAA also includes a provision allowing the administration to waive some Russia-related sanctions that would have barred Washington from selling defense-related equipment to countries using Russian technology. Supporters of the provision stress that the change will help certain countries wean themselves off of Russian influence. The bill including provisions which allow for better assessment of risks to US national security from transactions involving foreign firms aiming to gain access to sensitive American technology. It also extends a restriction on US-Russian military cooperation, and authorizes $65 million to revamp the US nuclear arsenal by developing new "low-yield" nuclear weapons. This year's NDAA was named after Senator John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and national security hawk who is home in Arizona battling brain cancer. "This year's NDAA represents an important opportunity to implement an effective approach to confront a growing array of threats around the world," McCain said. Congress has passed the NDAA for 57 consecutive years, and Senate Democrat Richard Blumenthal noted its success marks "a victory for the notion that national security is above politics and party." By AFP HARARE: Zimbabwe's opposition has charged the ruling party with rigging the first election since the historic departure of autocrat Robert Mugabe, sparking a deadly crackdown on protesters by troops in Harare. While the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) insists the election was fair, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has raised an array of fraud allegations. An opposition party supporter throws a rock aimed at Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election campaign poster in Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018. (Photo | AP) International observers praised the largely peaceful conduct of election day itself on July 30. But an EU mission said it had found an "un-level playing field" in which various factors were stacked towards the ruling ZANU-PF. - 'Biased' electoral commission? - The ZEC was synonymous with fraud and bias under Mugabe, when elections were often marred by deadly violence. The commission has again faced criticism, with European Union observers accusing it of a "persistent lack of inclusivity and transparency". It also faced claims of bias over the layout of the ballot papers, which -- set out in two alphabetical columns -- gave President Emmerson Mnangagwa a prominent spot at the top of the page. The ZEC has furiously denied allegations of bias and rigging. - Flawed electoral roll? - The MDC repeatedly alleged before the election that a new electoral roll -- compiled via biometric registration -- was riddled with errors. The electoral roll has long been a contentious feature of Zimbabwean elections, allegedly the rotten core of systematic rigging under Mugabe. MDC leader Nelson Chamisa also complained that his party struggled to get hold of a copy of the roll to check for evidence of fraud despite repeated requests, when ZANU-PF already had one. - Food handouts? - In a country where entrenched poverty and erratic weather have left more than a million people at risk of hunger, according to the World Food Programme, meals can have a powerful sway. Mugabe was regularly accused of using food as a political tool to win support in poor rural areas, but Mnangagwa said such behaviour would be a thing of the past. Yet Chamisa charged during the campaign that officials were withholding food aid from people due to their political affiliation. Commonwealth election observers said in a report that the ruling party had continued to use their "incumbency to gain undue advantage, including the use of food". - Voter intimidation? - EU observers noted numerous instances of voter intimidation, such as "direct threats of violence (and) pressure on people to attend rallies". Election monitors from the Commonwealth also said there was evidence of more indirect forms of intimidation, including using traditional leaders to lean on voters. Traditional community chiefs have traditionally been close to the ZANU-PF, though a growing number have been at loggerheads with Mnangagwa's government. - Media bias? - Both the opposition and independent monitors complained of heavily disproportionate coverage of ZANU-PF in the state-controlled media, which dominates in Zimbabwe. "State-owned TV, radio and newspapers "were heavily biased in favour of the ruling party and incumbent president in their election-related coverage," the EU observer mission said. It concluded: "The misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media, all in favour of the ruling party, meant that a truly level playing field was not achieved." By AFP WASHINGTON: The US government on Thursday accused Russia of carrying out a "pervasive" campaign to influence public opinion and elections, in a warning just months before crucial legislative polls. "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign from Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. A slew of top US officials including Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen vowed to investigate and prosecute those who were trying to sway US opinion or carrying out what Wray described as "information warfare." "Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs," Nielsen said in an unusually stark warning. "This is not just an election cycle threat," Wray said. "Our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether it's election season or not." The comments came in jarring contrast to the positions of President Donald Trump, but the two men dismissed suggestions the president -- who has repeatedly denied Russia moved to tilt the election in his favor -- is not taking the issue seriously. In a letter to Congress, National Security Advisor John Bolton said the administration had taken "extensive, historic action" to stop the threat. Trump has mulled easing sanctions against Moscow, held warm meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to criticize him over the meddling in the 2016 election. He has also repeatedly called for an end to the investigation into Moscow's meddling, which has seen more than 20 Russians indicted so far. Asked whether the American people could trust the adminstration to do its job, Wray responded: "I can assure the American people that the men and the women of the FBI, from the director all the way on down, are going to follow our oaths and do our jobs." Reporter Tim Mitchell is a reporter at The News-Gazette. His email is tmitchel@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mitchell6). Champaign, IL (61820) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 59F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low 46F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Sheriff: There May Have Been More Live Rounds on Rust Set (Newser) Dramatic video released Tuesday shows Los Angeles officers fatally shooting a man and the woman he was holding with a knife to her throat, the first of two recent killings of hostages or bystanders as police tried to stop attackers. Officers opened fire outside a church after the man began cutting the hostage, police said. Officers fired nearly 20 times on June 16, and the man and woman, both transients, died at the scene. It was the first time in 13 years that LAPD police killed someone they consider an "innocent bystander or hostage." "This is another case where officers were forced to make split-second decisions based on the actions of a violent individual," Police Chief Michel Moore said. The second such fatal shooting came just five weeks later when police tried to stop an armed man from entering a Trader Joe's store and fatally shot the supermarket's assistant manager. story continues below Per the AP, authorities said last week that an officer's bullet killed Melyda Corado before a man took hostages inside the store on July 21. Moore had defended the officers' use of deadly force as an attempt to stop what they feared could become a mass shooting. The police chief said Tuesday that he was concerned because the average number of rounds fired by officers during shootings had increased last year and the average number of officers involved in those shootings also increased. The police department will implement a new training program and is exploring how to equip officers with other non-lethal weapons, he said. Moore told reporters that hostages' lives are a priority and recruits are generally taught to use a "precise head shot." He said an investigation will look at whether the officers' actions align with hostage training. (Read more police shooting stories.) (Newser) President Trump has made good on his threat to hit Turkey with sanctions if American pastor Andrew Brunson wasn't freed. The country's justice minister and interior minister, Abdulhamit Gul and Suleyman Soylu, have been sanctioned over what White House press secretary Sarah Sanders describes as the "unfair and unjust detention" of the North Carolina pastor and longtime Turkey resident, who was jailed for around two years before being shifted to house arrest last month, the BBC reports. Brunson was charged with espionage and aiding terrorist groups in the 2016 crackdown that followed a failed coup and faces up to 35 years if convicted on all counts. story continues below Sanders said that the sanctions on the NATO ally came after Trump discussed the matter with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan "many times." Turkish officials vowed that the sanctions, which ban American companies and individuals from doing business with the men, would not go unanswered, NPR reports. Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the move "disrespectfully intervenes with our judicial system, stands in contrast to the essence of our relations, and will seriously damage the constructive efforts made in order to resolve problems between the two countries." The ministry said Turkey would deliver "an equivalent response" if the US didn't walk back its "wrong decision." (Read more Turkey stories.) (Newser) An early morning commute to his maintenance job at NYPD headquarters ended in tragedy for a Staten Island man Wednesday. Police tell ABC News that 64-year-old Robert Martinez was driving his 2003 Chevy Tracker east around 6:30am along the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn when the unexpected and unthinkable happened: A rear tire flew off a Mack sanitation truck cruising in the opposite direction, sailed over the divider, and smashed through Martinez's windshield, hitting him in the head, cops tell the New York Post. The Tracker then crashed into the median. An unconscious, unresponsive Martinez was whisked to a local hospital and pronounced dead. Century Waste Services, which owns the garbage truck, offered its condolences to Martinez's family in a statement, calling the incident "an unfortunate accident," per WABC. story continues below But the Post reports that, per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Century Waste has been cited 74 times and had 65% of its vehicles yanked from service due to safety violations over the past two years, including one in February for "loose and/or missing" wheel fasteners on its trucks' tires; the national average of taking vehicles out of commission until they comply with safety standards is just over 20%, per FMCSA stats. The driver of the garbage truck, as well as a passenger, remained at the scene, police say; no charges have yet been filed, with an investigation ongoing. "Everything he did was for his family, that's the best way to describe him," one of Martinez's neighbors tells the Staten Island Advance, adding Martinez was married with three adult daughters. (A tire swing killed a man in a New York City park.) (Newser) What are the most endangered primates in the world? The answer may not be the one you expect: lemurs, according to an analysis by a group of conservationists known as the Primate Specialist Group. The animals are found only in Madagascar (and on a few neighboring islands), and 105 of the 111 species and subspecies of lemur found there are facing an extinction threat. That's 95% of the world's total lemur population that's at risk, notes AFP, and Russ Mittermeier, the chair of the Primate Specialist Group, puts it starkly: "This is, without a doubt, the highest percentage of threat for any large group of mammals and for any large group of vertebrates." story continues below AFP calls out one species, the northern sportive lemur, as likely being down to its last 50 members. As for the causes, the group cites a reduction in the size of the lemurs' habitat (thanks to everything from illegal logging to charcoal mining), the hunting of them (for food), and their poaching (for resale as pets). The group's deputy chair tells the BBC the hunting is likely done for local restaurants, "and this is a new phenomenon for Madagascarwe didn't see it at this scale 15 years ago." (Read more lemur stories.) (Newser) Anthony Shannon says he knows it was "wrong" to steal an aquarium's shark, carted off in a baby stroller over the weekend, but the 38-year-old insists it was "an emergency." In an interview with KENS-TV, the self-described marine activist who keeps five sharks and dozens of fish in three saltwater tanks at his residence says he only took the juvenile horn shark from a petting tank at the San Antonio Aquarium because it "needed help" after a visitor squeezed it. "I knew it would gain a lot of strength being in a proper environment," he says, referring to a large tank in his garage. That's where police eventually found the 16-inch-long shark, resulting in a felony theft charge. But Shannon's deceptionwhich he says was unknown to his wife and friend, also presentactually began much earlier. story continues below A month ago, Shannon says he inspected the aquarium while posing as a salt distributor after a friend told him about frequent deaths of marine life housed there. The general manager says Shannon "stated that we may have been sold a bad batch of salts and he needed to do water quality testing to make sure we were not putting our animals in danger," adding that employees "had no reason to doubt his story until he was recognized" on surveillance video from Saturday. KSAT reports Shannon has eight prior arrests including vehicle theft. Still, "I'm an activist, not a criminal," he says, claiming he was shown dead animals while on his incognito mission. The manager describes animal deaths as an "unfortunate part of being in this business," however. "We take the best possible care of our animals throughout their lives, which unfortunately do end eventually." (Read more weird crimes stories.) (Newser) A report on a judge imposing a gag order has likely never been so literal. Cleveland.com reports Franklyn Williams' mouth was covered with red duct tape as he was sentenced to 24 years in prison Tuesday after being convicted on armed robbery charges. The 32-year-old reportedly repeatedly kept speaking over a 30-minute period in the courtroom, even as Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo warned him to stop at least a dozen times. Russo eventually issued the order that Williams' mouth be taped shut. Video taken by FOX 8 Cleveland shows a deputy pulling a piece of tape from the roll in preparation to tape Williams' mouth as Williams speaks out, saying he didn't get a fair trial or any justice and the judge is not allowing him to "speak how I need to speak." story continues below FOX 8 reports he kept speaking even after the tape was put on, and so a second piece was applied. Cleveland.com reports Williams was originally handed a 14-year sentence on robbery charges in 2016 but was granted an appeal and a second trial. That one began in late 2017, but midway through, prosecutors say Williams cut off his ankle bracelet and fled to Nebraska, where he was apprehended in July. A jury had convicted him on charges that also included kidnapping, theft, and misuse of credit cards in December, and he was returned to Cleveland to be sentenced. Judge Russo tells FOX 8 it's legal to gag a defendant who's in contempt of court, which he says Williams was. "I gave him an opportunity to speak at the appropriate time," Russo says. "More than not, he continued to speak over me and others in the courtroom." (Read more duct tape stories.) (Newser) The reward for information about the whereabouts of missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, 20, has been increased to $172,000, according to Fox News. Previously, the rewardoffered through a fund at a Brooklyn, Iowa, bankwas $30,000, the Des Moines Register reports. Rob Tibbetts, Mollie's father, tells Fox he hopes the increased reward will provide "financial incentive" for someone with information to step forward. He says he believes she is alive: "I'm thinking someone made a horrible mistake and they don't know what to do." In their search for the missing student, authorities have questioned a pig farmer with a history of stalking, as well a man accused of assaulting another jogger, and a man seen taking pictures of joggers. So far, these efforts have not yielded any leads. (Read more missing person stories.) Coimbatore: An international textile fair will be held in Coimbatore in February as was announced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, State Handloom Minister O S Manian said . Speaking to reporters in Coimbatore, the Minister said the State government has allocated Rs 2 crore for the conduct of the fair which would showcase the capability of the State in the textile sector and in finding newer markets for the products. Besides, the fair would help bridge the gap between production and sales, he said. The Minister was here to discuss with the captains of the textile industry and experts on the successful conduct of the fair, since the government was hosting such a show for the first time. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh-based company found supplying ayurvedic drug with Viagra Asked about the impact of the five per cent good and service tax imposed on the textile sector, he expressed hope the Centre would soon bring it down. To a question on fixing of wages for the labourers in the industry, the Minister said the State government would soon fix the pay of handloom weavers coming under the cooperative sector, while the revised pay for workers in the poweroom sector would be decided upon through talks between the district Collectors and labour unions. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Shillong: Japan has lifted travel advisories issued to its citizens visiting the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region, Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad said on Thursday. The Raj Bhavan received a communication from the Japanese Embassy on that the Government of Japan has lowered the level of travel advisory for East Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts. This will open up Meghalayas four districts to Japanese visitors and tourists and enhance the people-to-people contacts as well as economic exchanges between Japan and Meghalaya, Prasad said in a statement. The decision was taken as a follow up of the requests made by the governor to the Ambassador of Japan when he met him in Shillong on May 7, the statement said. The advisory was in place for decades owing to the law and order situation in the state. Also Read | Government creating strong connections with Southeastern countries to uplift Northeast India: Rajnath Singh The Governor expressed hope that the tourism industry in the state of Meghalaya will get a fillip due to this positive development. The beautiful hill state, located between Assam to the North and Bangladesh to its South, had received over 10 lakh tourists last year, only next to Sikkim which received over 14 lakh tourists during the same period. According to statistics provided by tourism department, of the 10.02 lakh tourists who visited in 2017, domestic visitors accounted for 9.9 lakh and the rest 12,000 plus were foreign tourists. Read More | Five summer holiday destinations in India you MUST visit New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shahs statement defending former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and one of the key accused in 2002 Naroda Gam massacre is not believable and should not be considered, the Supreme Court-appointed SIT has told a special court hearing the case. Earlier in September 2017, Shah had appeared before the court as a defence witness for Kodnani. She had requested the court to summon him to prove her claims that she was present in the Gujarat Assembly and not in at Naroda Gam on the day the riots broke out. Shahs statement is unbelievable, as none of the other accused mentioned about her presence at the Sola Civil Hospital, PTI quoted special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas as saying. During his appearance in the court as a witness, Shah had said that he had met Kodnani in the Assembly in Gandhinagar and later at the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on the day 2002 riots broke out. Also Read | Naroda Patiya case: Gujarat HC acquits ex-BJP minister Maya Kodnani The Naroda Gam massacre case is one of the nine cases of communal violence that took place under Narendra Modi government in 2002, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. At least 11 people from the Muslim community were killed and scores others injured in the Naroda Gam riots during a bandh called by Hindu outfits to protest Godhra train burning incident. Kodnani is the main accused in the case. Besides rioting and murder, she had been charged with criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder in the case. The former Gujarat minister was sentenced to 28 years in jail in the Naroda Patiya riots case. As many as 96 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the riots. However, Kodnani was acquitted by the Gujarat High Court in April 2018. Also Read | Gujarat Riot Case: Amit Shah stands witness to Maya Kodnani before special SIT court (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The ongoing Centre-Opposition face-off took a dramatic turn after a Trinamool Congress delegation, which on Thursday reached Assam to inquire the situation post-NRC draft release, was stopped at the Silchar airport. The eight-member TMC delegation, including six MPs and two MLAs detained at Silchar airport, the news agency ANI reported. Speaking to ANI, TMC MP Derek O Brien said, "Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergency like situation". The team comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque and Arpita Ghosh, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and legislator Mohua Moitra arrived at Silchar from Kolkata at 1.05 pm. The TMC members were scheduled to address citizens at Silchar, especially those whose names have been excluded from the Assam NRC draft, released on July 30. According to sources, the TMC delegation was kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport in Cachar district under Barak Valley region and was told that their visit may create trouble. Elaborating the matter, Rakesh Kumar, SP Cachar said, "Under preventive detention of Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the TMC leaders will be kept inside Silchar Airport". Read | Not vying for PM post, BJP nervous because of Opposition unity, says Mamata Banerjee #WATCH Trinamool Congress MP and MLA delegation detained at Silchar airport #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/G8l2l3OEFp ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 Earlier on Wednesday, the Cachar district administration-imposed Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. The Assam police had also requested the delegation not to come to Silchar now as it was important for them to maintain peace in the state. Meanwhile, making the situation harder to deal, TMC members led by senior leader Saugata Ray started agitation against the detention and demanded a response from the government on it in the Lok Sabha. "Assam Police has detained them at Silchar Airport. They are interfering with the free movement of people. This is a breach of privilege. We want government response on this," Ray said. Read | Ballot Papers for 2019: 17 political parties likely to approach EC on EVMs manipulation Responding to the matter Guwahati Commissioner of Police later released a statement, which states that the authority has prohibited 8 TMC MPs, West Bengal Ministers, MLAs and any other person who may deliver inflammatory speeches against NRC, from entering Guwahati. No passenger carrier services including surface/air transport should carry such persons to Guwahati, it added. Assam: Guwahati Commissioner of Police prohibits 8 TMC MPs, West Bengal Ministers&MLAs & any other person who may deliver inflammatory speeches against NRC, from entering Guwahati. No passenger carrier services including surface/air transport should carry such persons to Guwahati pic.twitter.com/A76Kvnlrm0 ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 A group of police constables, who restrained TMC leaders in Assam's Silchar also released their medical reports alleging physical assault by the eight-member TMC delegation. Copies of medical reports of constables who restrained TMC leaders in Assam's Silchar. They make allegations of physical assault on them by TMC leaders pic.twitter.com/wiLcjnkq3j ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 "In the scuffle, 2 of our constables and 1 worker from district administration were injured. Legal actions will be taken on the basis of FIRs by injured abd for violation of Section 144", said Kuladhar Saikia, Assam DGP. Read | Kolkata police grants permission for BJP president Amit Shah's August 11 rally Elimination of over 40 lakh people from Assam NRC draft, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state, has given birth to a new political debate, leading to a state-wide protest and adjournment of Rajya Sabha proceedings for 3 days. Three days after the NRC publication, the TMC team reached Assam following the instruction of party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee has accused the ruling BJP of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue, adding that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: With opposition's protest against the alleged sexual abuse of over 40 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur city, the normal life on Thursday came to a standstill in Bihar. Meanwhile, lending their support to the large-scale protest, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav on Thursday hinted another nationwide strike, including at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Referring to the law and order situation in Bihar, Yadav said, RJD will hold a strike in Bihar and across the country on August 4, seeking answers from the Nitish Kumar government on Muzaffarpur shelter home case and several other atrocities all over the state. Tejaswi has been critical of the state government ever since the reports of Bihar shelter home case came to the light. Earlier, he alleged that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has a close connection to the NGO owner and is trying to protect the accused. RJD will hold a strike in Bihar & across the country, including at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on 4th August to seek answers from CM Nitish Kumar on #Muzaffarpur shelter home case & several other crimes in the state: Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) on law and order situation in #Bihar pic.twitter.com/UZohfc1psu ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 Meanwhile, Yadav's allegation got a further boost after a slew of photographs showing top leaders honouring the accused NGO owner Brijesh Thakur emerged on the internet. Read | Minor girl raped, buried in Bihar shelter home premises; Tejashwi Yadav drops hints of government's connection "The pictures corroborate that several senior leaders are involved in this case and CM Nitish Kumar is trying to shield them. The probe was delayed deliberately to manipulate evidence," Tejaswi went on to claim further. Talking about one controversial picture, which raised significant questions regarding RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's connection with Thakur, Tejaswi said, "The photo in question dates back to 1990s. Brijesh Thakur seems to be a reporter then. He didnt even have an NGO. They're just trying to divert attention by highlighting this photo". The photo in question dates back to 1990s. Brijesh Thakur seems to be a reporter then. He didnt even have an NGO. They're just trying to divert attention by highlighting this photo: Tejashwi Yadav on Lalu Yadavs photo with #Muzaffarpur shelter home case accused Brijesh Thakur pic.twitter.com/TK39TgqQGz ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 While the nation is still finding it hard to get over the horror of Kathua and Unnao rape case, the chilling incident of Muzaffarpur city has yet again raised hard-hitting questions about the safety of women and children in our country. Read | Bihar shelter home rape: SC takes suo moto cognizance, seeks reply from Centre, state government In July, shock and terror engulfed Bihar's Muzaffarpur after 40 minor girls were allegedly raped and one of them was mercilessly beaten to death at a shelter home in the city. Following the report of the minor's death, who was buried in the shelter home premises, police initiated a probe and started digging in and around the place. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday took a suo moto cognizance of the Bihar shelter home rape case and issued separate notices to the Centre and Nitish Kumar-led state government. The apex court sought a detailed reply from the NDA governments in the Centre and the state. At least 34 girls, aged among seven to 14 years, were drugged, scalded with boiling water, raped and forced to sleep naked in a government-run shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur. The girls in their statement recorded before a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court said that they were forced to sleep with the owner of the shelter home Brajesh Thakur - a well-known name in the power corridors of Patna. Also Read | 34 girls raped in Bihars government shelter home: Medical reports If someone objected to this, he would beat them with a hunter and rape them forcefully. The girls also said that they would often cut their private parts in order to avoid the rape for some time. They claimed that one of the girls who stood against the abuse was beaten to death by Thakur and his men and buried inside the compound of the shelter home. However, the police dig up the courtyard and found nothing. The Opposition RJD in Bihar had alleged involvement of some of the govenment leaders. Under pressure from wide criticism by people, the Nitish Kumar government in ordered CBI inquiry into the case. The charge-sheet in the case revealed macabre details and a network of police, politicians, administration and criminals behind the racket that had been going on for around four years. Also Read | Muzaffarnagar: Woman chops off husband's genitals for 'neglecting' her For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Hitting out at External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over Doklam issue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that Sushma had prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. A day after Swaraj told Parliament that the Doklam issue was resolved through diplomatic maturity without losing any ground, Gandhi accused the minister of betraying the soldiers deployed on the India-China border. Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border, the Gandhi scion wrote on Twitter. Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border. #Doklamhttps://t.co/UALkmH0jZ1 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 2, 2018 Also Read | Parliament Monsoon Session: If we need access to justice, we need good judges, says Ravi Shankar Prasad Earlier on Wednesday during the Question Hour in Parliament, Swaraj had said, We have resolved the Doklam issue with diplomatic maturity without losing any ground. There is no change in the status quo (on the ground). There is not an iota of change. The face-off at sight has been resolved on August 28, 2017. Swaraj told the Lok Sabha that Lok Sabha that the agenda less informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan had an agenda to ensure mutual comfort, understanding and trust between the countries. Soon after Swarajs statement, the Congress had demanded a statement from Modi on the reports of Chinese Army resuming work in Doklam. In national interest, the Congress demands that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement and take the nation into confidence by placing the entire spectrum of facts on the floor of Parliament. The PM must tell his governments policy on demilitarising the Doklam plateau, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said. Also Read | Modi Cabinet approves amendment to restore provisions in SC/ST Act For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh tourism department has decided to convert the historic Tajmahal in the state capital, Moti Mahal in Gwlior and the Mahendra Bhavan in Panna into heritage properties as part of its efforts to enhance tourism. "We have decided to convert Tajmahal in Bhopal into a hertiage property and very soon it welcome guests as a heritage hotel," principal secretary, tourism, Hariranjan Rao said here on Thursday. Besides, the Benazir Mahal in Bhopal, Moti Mahal in Gwalior and Mahendra Bhavan in Panna will also be converted into heritage hotels, he added. ALSO READ | Polish couple celebrates wedding reception in Kashmir Valley He said the renovation work of the Govindgarh Fort in Rewa has already started and the fort will be transformed into a heritage hotel by the end of 2019. The department is working on transforming six heritage properties into hotels and convention centres and tenders have been issued for the Rajgarh Palace in Khajuraho, the Govindgarh Fort in Rewa and the Tajmahal in Bhopal for this. The department has also created a heritage property bank by taking possession of Keoti Fort in Rewa, Royal hotel in Jabalpur, Vijayaraghavgarh Fort in Katni, Sheopur Fort, Narwar Fort in Shivpuri, Lunera ka Sarayi of Mandu, Sabalgarh Fort in Morena and the Baldevgarh Fort in Tikamgarh. ALSO READ | Cruise tourism from Singapore draws Indians the most The process is also on to transform these monuments into heritage hotels, Rao said. The number of tourists visiting the state is constantly on the rise since the past decade he said and hoped that these heritage hotels will play a major role in encouraging tourism further. Singapore: A Bangladeshi national disguised as a Sikh to rob a pawn shop here has been arrested, Singapore police said on Thursday. Sheikh Md Razan, 29, who was working as a construction worker previously and had overstayed since last December, was arrested on Wednesday evening. Razan, wearing a pink turban, entered a ValueMax pawn shop outside Boon Lay Mass Rapid Transit station at about 4.30pm on July 28 armed with a knife and a replica of a gun, which later turned out to be made of plastic. READ ALSO | Zimbabwe troops in Harare until situation over Pawn shop is a shop or business common for exchanging jewellery for cash here. On barging in the shop, he demanded that the shops employee hand over to him all the cash and jewellery. When the employee refused, the man allegedly said he would blow up the shop, claiming he had an explosive device. He then allegedly threw the object onto the counter and fled without taking any items. The workers immediately threw the object out of the shop and called the police. No one was injured in the incident. The object contained electrical components. After the foiled robbery attempt, the suspect allegedly went to an apartment block in the industrial district of Jurong West, within the vicinity of the train station left his backpack, discarded his clothing and turban behind the potted plants outside a residence. The items, along with a chopper, were found in the backpack behind the plants. A few hours later, when a resident noticed the backpack, the police was alerted. ALSO READ | Fears grow as flooding displaces 150,000 in Myanmar This gave a clearer picture of what Razan looked like, the police said during a press conference. Deputy Commissioner of Police and Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Florence Chua said the suspect was quite surprised when he was caught. He didnt think we had caught on to his disguise, she said. The suspect is expected to be charged in court on Thursday. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The White House on Wednesday said that US President Donald Trump was yet to decide on Prime Minister Narendra Modis invitation to be the Chief Guest at 2019 Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. "I know that the invitation has been extended, but I do not believe that a final decision has been made," the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at a daily press briefing when asked about Indias invitation. Sanders said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis will soon be headed to New Delhi for the first ever 2+2 dialogue with their Indian counterparts Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman. Also Read | US Congress restricts Pakistan aid to $150 million in Defence Act-2019 "The 2+2 dialogue would begin discussion on the process of a presidential visit next year," she said. Sanders hailed Indo-US strategic partnership and said that both countries will strengthen their partnership and advance bilateral co-operation. "The United States and India have a deep and strategic partnership and we are going to continue to build on that partnership and advance co-operation," she added. Also Read | President Trump 'looking into' 3D guns issue For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Terrorists on Thursday abducted and killed three foreign nationals, including an Indian, in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. According to local media reports, one Indian, one Malaysian and one Macedonian were abducted by unknown gunmen on Thursday morning. Later, their bullet-ridden bodies were found in Mussahi district in Kabul province. Although police confirmed the incident, they didn't provide further details. Reports suggested that they worked as cooks at Sodexo, the world's second-largest food and catering services company. They were abducted from PD9 in the city while they were traveling for work with a local driver. So far, no terrorist group has claimed the responsibility for the abduction and killings. Also Read | Zimbabwe troops in Harare until situation over Security officials said that they found their identity cards next to their bodies. Also, officials at Sodexo confirmed their identities. "They were shot dead and their bodies were found inside a car," Reuters quoted Nusrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry as saying. Indian among foreign nationals abducted, killed by terrorists in Kabul pic.twitter.com/tmWHXrLLra News Nation (@NewsNationTV) August 2, 2018 For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In a shocking incident, Fields Medal - the most prestigious award in the world of mathematics and is even regarded as the 'Nobel for Mathematics' - was stolen from a Cambridge professor just half an hour within he was awarded the prize in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Caucher Birkar was awarded the Fields medal at the International Congress of Mathematics which is also regarded as top prize in the field of maths. According to reports, Birkar had kept the medal in a suitcase along with his wallet and phone. However, the whole suitcase was stolen. ALSO READ: US Senate passes bill to waive sanctions against India under CAATSA The events security squad found the case under a bench soon after it was stolen, but the highly prized medal was missing. The thief has been identified from CCTV footage, a leading Brazilian daily reported. The organizing committee of the International Congress of Mathematics profoundly regrets the disappearance of the briefcase of mathematician Cauchar Birkar, which contained the Fields medal he received at this mornings ceremony, they said. Images recorded at the event are being analysed. The organising committee is cooperating with local police authorities in their investigation, Organisers said in a statement. Wednesdays theft was not the first problematic incident the event has faced. On Sunday, a fire broke out at the venue after a sky lantern landed on the pavilion hosting it, causing the team to evacuate immediately. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced a senior leader of the jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party for contempt of court, disqualifying him from holding public office for five years, months after he made anti-judiciary remarks. The Supreme Court had initiated contempt proceedings against the fire-brand Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Tallal Chaudhry for his "derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements" against the judiciary during a rally in January. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmad, sentenced Chaudhry till the rising of the court and also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000. The apex court found the former state interior minister guilty of violating Article 204 of the Constitution, a newspaper reported. As a result of his conviction, Chaudhry is ineligible to contest elections for the next five years, it said. Also Read | US Congress restricts Pakistan aid to $150 million in Defence Act-2019 Chaudhry was ordered by the apex court to ensure his presence during the proceedings on Thursday, which were based on a suo motu notice on his 'anti-judiciary' speech during a party rally in Jaranwala in January this year. Chaudhry had contested the July 25 general election from NA-102 (Faisalabad-II) but lost to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's Nawab Shair by nearly 12,000 votes. During his speech at a PML-N rally, Chaudhry had demanded removing the judges of the apex court, alleging, "they will not give justice but will continue their injustices." On February 1, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of "contemptuous speeches", and on February 6, the top court issued Chaudhry a show-cause notice, ordering him to file his response. On July 11, the apex court, after hearing Chaudhry's arguments, had reserved its judgement, which it delivered on Thursday. While speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court on Thursday, Chaudhry said, "I accept this verdict if it increases the court's standing." He also vowed to file a review petition against the verdict. He also claimed that the contempt case had negatively impacted his poll performance. He said the people in his district "had difficulties making a decision", and that his opponents had taken advantage of the opportunity by campaigning on his expected disqualification. "If this decision had been made earlier, then my party would have had a chance to select another candidate who didn't have this kind of hanging sword over his head. The results could have been even better," he claimed. Chaudhry's conviction follows those of other PML-N leaders who, in their defence of party supremo and deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, made derogatory remarks against state institutions. Also Read | Imran Khan invites Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Singh Sidhu to his swearing-in ceremony Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in jail in a corruption case in July by an anti-graft court. In June this year, the top court, on a similar case, sentenced former federal privatisation minister and PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz for contempt "till rising of the court". The contempt judgement also led to similar automatic disqualification from Parliament for five years and restrained Aziz from contesting the July 25 election. Earlier in 2018, the Supreme Court had sentenced then-PML-N Senator Nehal Hashmi to jail on contempt charges over his controversial remarks against the judiciary. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The US Congress on Wednesday passed the National Defense Authorisation Act-2019 (NDAA-19) restricting security aid to Pakistan to USD 150 million, well below than the historic level of more than USD one billion to USD 750 million per year. The NDAA-2019 was passed by the Senate by 87 to 10 votes. Earlier last week, the House of Representatives had passed the conference report. The act now needs President Donald Trumps approval. However, in this year's Defence Act, the US had removed certain conditions like action against Haqqani network or Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for disbursement of the full aid. For the past few years, the US had put these conditions on Pakistan. The legislation reduces the total amount of funds provided for reimbursement to Pakistan to USD 150 million. This is a significant reduction from the USD 700 million that was authorised through Coalition Support Fund (CSF) last year, PTI quoted Anish Goel, who was part of Barack Obamas White House National Security Council, as saying. Also Read | President Trump 'looking into' 3D guns issue With the reduction in aid, the Pentagon will no longer have any tools to pressurise Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani Network or to carry out counter-terrorism operations in the country. Hence, the Pentagon no longer has any tools to put pressure on Pakistan to undertake counter-terrorism activities or action against the Haqqani Network, Goel, who till recently was a senior staffer in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. Joshua White, a member of former US president Barack Obama's White House National Security Council team, termed the legiuslation a mixed blessing for Pakistan. "This years defense legislation significantly reduces the amount of security assistance that Pakistan can theoretically receive outside of traditional Foreign Military Financing. This legislation is a mixed blessing for Pakistan, White said. Also Read | Will take oath as Pakistan Prime Minister on August 11: Imran Khan On one hand, these new border security funds will be capped at USD 150 million per year, significantly below historical levels of Coalition Support Funds (CSF). On the other hand, the legislation does away with the onerous reporting requirements and certifications that have, in practice, made it difficult for Pakistan to receive such funds, he added. (With inputs from agencies) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In a major relief to India, the United States Congress on Wednesday passed the National Defense Authorisation Act-2019 (NDAA-19) that seeks to amend the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law that threatens sanctions against countries, including India, buying military equipment from Russia. The bill provides waiver relief to key US partners and allies from certain Russian-related sanctions under the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Defense Secretary James N Mattis said in a statement. The bill holds significance for India as it had decided to purchase the S-400 Triumf air defence system from Russia that was at the heart of the CAATSA sanctions. The CAATSA Act was aimed at restricting countries from purchasing significant defence equipment from Russia. However, the act was also having unintentional consequences on India which decided to go ahead with the S-400 deal worth around USD 4.5 billion. Also Read | President Trump 'looking into' 3D guns issue After clearing the US Senate by 87 to 10 votes, the NDAA 2019 bill, which had already been passed by the House of Representatives, will now be headed to President Donald Trump. Besides, the NDAA-19 also capped security aid to Pakistan to USD 150 million, well below than the historic level of more than USD one billion to USD 750 million per year. The legislation, however, had removed certain conditions like action against Haqqani network or Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for disbursement of the full aid, which were in place for the past few years. Read More | US Congress restricts Pakistan aid to $150 million in Defence Act-2019 For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Manama : New postage stamps were issued by Bahrain Post to commemorate the epoch-making largest light oil reservoir discovery. The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication (MTT)s Post Department issued three stamps, a souvenir card and envelope in an ensemble of designs to illustrate Khaleej Al Bahrain Oil Reservoir, the biggest oilfield in the Kingdoms history. The new oil production is anticipated to boost Bahrains competitiveness and capacity to achieve its sustainable development goals, initiatives and projects. Agreement has been reached with Halliburton to commence drilling on two further appraisal wells in 2018, to further evaluate reservoir potential, optimise completions, and initiate long-term production, Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, had said. Manama : His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has received an invitation to make an official visit to South Korea. This came as HRH the Premier received, at the Gudaibiya Palace yesterday, the South Korean Ambassador to Bahrain, Koo Hyun- Mo, who handed over to him a written message from his Korean counterpart, inviting him to visit his country. The meeting reviewed relations between the two friendly countries, and their shared desire to bolster bilateral cooperation in various fields. HRH the Prime Minister said that the Republic of Koreas remarkable progress in the economic, developmental, technological and industrial levels and its good relations with various countries of the world have strengthened its international standing. HRH Premier stressed that the four-decade Bahraini-South Korean cooperation has achieved outstanding success, noting that the kingdom is pleased to be among the first countries in the region to have multiple cooperation fields with South Korea. The Prime Minister reviewed with the ambassador the progress of the Bahraini-South Korean relations of friendship, stressing Bahrains interest in bolstering bilateral cooperation and coordination in various fields. Manama : Over 90 per cent of reports published by Al Jazeera.net on Bahrain were in support of terrorism in the country, according to British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. A research done by the society headed by Amjad Taha revealed that only a small percentage of the reports on Bahrain published by the Qatari news outlet were official news, while a vast majority were propaganda material supporting terrorism in Bahrain. He said that the findings follows a long term research his organization undertook. We did the research especially on Al Jazeera we found all of this manually. It is as accurate as possible and anyone can double check it, it is verifiable. We mainly focused on the Arabic site, Taha told Tribune. The research was not too difficult to do because we have always been monitoring all the media reports published in Gulf States, we just had to have a record of everything, he said. He added that only 9.8 per cent of the reports published were actual formal news - news from the Bahrain government. We found that 90.2pc of the news published on Al Jazeera. net was against Bahrain and in support of terrorism. The reports speak about Bahrain in every negative way possible. Putrajaya : Investigators released a report on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 yesterday, saying the Boeing 777s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were not able to determine who was responsible. The 495-page report draws no conclusion about what happened aboard the plane that vanished with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014, leaving one of the worlds greatest aviation mysteries unsolved. The answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found, Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters. On May 29, Malaysia called off a three-month search by U.S. firm Ocean Infinity, which spanned 112,000 sq km (43,243 sq miles) in the southern Indian Ocean and ended with no significant findings. It was the second major search after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200 million (112.8 million) search across an area of 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) last year. Malaysian and international investigators have been looking into why the jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean. The last communication from the plane was from the Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah who signed off with Good night, Malaysian three seven zero, as the plane left the Malaysian airspace and later turned off course. A 440-page final report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) last year showed that Zaharie had flown a route on his home flight simulator six weeks earlier that was initially similar to the one actually taken by MH370. Dubai : Majid Al Futtaim, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across MENA, announced its financial results for the first six months of the year, with overall group revenue rising by 13 per cent to AED17.8 billion and EBITDA growing by 4pc to AED2.1 billion. Profit, according to the company, has been largely driven by the groups expansion and diversification efforts. Assets are valued at approximately AED60.7bn, with a net debt of around AED11.1bn. Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim - Holding, said: Our financial results in the first half of the year demonstrate continued growth in the midst of challenging market conditions. During H1 2018, Majid Al Futtaim further expanded its portfolio through new market entries while continuing its growth in existing markets. In a milestone achievement, the company inaugurated its first VOX Cinemas multiplex theatre in Saudi Arabia following the lifting of a 40-year ban on cinemas in the Kingdom. This comes as part of an ambitious plan to open 600 screens in Saudi over the coming five years. Majid Al Futtaim Retail added 12 stores, growing its presence to 243 outlets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Majid Al Futtaims portfolio of malls across the region grew to 23 destinations with the opening of two new shopping malls, My City Centre Al Dhait in the UAE and My City Centre Sur in Oman. The hotel portfolio increased to 13 properties following the addition of Aloft City Centre Deira. Manama : Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat) yesterday reported a 46.4 per cent growth in its 2017 consolidated total assets to BD5.8 billion (US $15.4bn) from a year ago helped by value gains from Mumtalakat portfolio companies including the consolidation of McLaren and Albas Line 6 project. Last year was notable for Mumtalakat as we witnessed substantial growth in the Group. Our strong investment mandate and results support the growth of the local economy from further economic diversification to job creation, said Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of Mumtalakat. Mumtalakat committed BD33 million (US$88m) throughout the year to legacy assets including Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain Real Estate Investment (Edamah) and Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY). The group generated BD583m (US$1.6bn) last year in capital expenditure compared to BD247m (US$657m) in 2016 while expenditure on employee salaries and benefits increased by 11pc in comparison to the previous year for its key Bahrain-based companies. Mahmood H. Alkooheji, Chief Executive Officer of Mumtalakat added, We reported net profits for the fifth consecutive year, reflecting the success of our investment model as we continue to invest in and for Bahrain while managing our portfolio with a commercial mindset. In addition, we committed BD104m (US$277m) to new investments in 2017. This included acquisitions with a co-investment partner. In total, since inception of the fund in 2006, BD807m (US$2.1bn) has been invested in Bahrain, ranging from growth capital for legacy and strategic assets to the establishment of 11 new companies and ventures. Net profits reached BD210.6m (US$560m) during the year in comparison to BD68.9m (US$183m) in 2016. Tochigi Prefectural Police have arrested two persons, a man and a boy, over the killing of an 82-year-old man at his residence in Tochigi City last week, reports the Asahi Shimbun At around 2:00 a.m. on July 26, Futoshi Ishizaki, 34, and a 19-year-old boy are alleged to have fatally assaulted Tokuji Oaku in the head and upper body at the residence, located in the Kashiwaguramachi area. They are also accused of assaulting his son, 59-year-old Shoichi, in the face and stealing 303,000 yen in cash and three bank books. Three days later, police apprehended the suspects in Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture on suspicion of robbery resulting in murder and robbery resulting in injury. The suspects, who are believed to be acquaintances, deny the allegations, according to police. At around 3 p.m. on the day of the incident, Shoichi who also lives in the residence, alerted police, saying that he and his father had been attacked by intruders. Officers arriving at the residence found Oaku collapsed in a bedroom with bruises on his body. The interior of the residence had been completely ransacked, police said. Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a male Chinese national employed at a reflexology massage parlor in Ota Ward over the alleged molestation of a female customer last month, reports TBS News On July 24, the part-time employee, 38, who lives in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, allegedly inserted a toe of the woman, aged in 30s, in his mouth and probed his fingers inside her underwear while claiming the acts were part of a treatment. The suspect, who has been accused of performing acts deemed obscene, denied the allegations during the investigation. aThis is my own method of treatment,a the suspect said in continuing to deny the charges after his arrest, according to the Kamata Police Station. According to police, the suspect, who resides in Japan as an exchange student, began working at the parlor, which bills itself as offering Taiwanese-style treatments, in May. During the incident, the victim told the suspect to stop. After he issued an apology, she telephoned police from the parlor. Christian Horner has played down expectations for Red Bulls first year with works Honda power. One of F1s top three teams, the energy drink owned outfit will start using Japanese-made engines from 2019. But boss Horner told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "I certainly expect that the first year will be an interim year for us. "Compared to the competition, the necessary steps still have to be taken at Honda," he added. But Horner said that Red Bull has not been happy with its season this year, which is the last in a long-term collaboration with Renault. "We wanted more," he said. "We could have won in Bahrain and had a double podium in China and Monaco. But we are the only ones who can make life difficult for Ferrari and Mercedes," Horner added. Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Aisha Jumai Alhassan will bid for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to c... Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Aisha Jumai Alhassan will bid for the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to contest for governor in Taraba State.Hajia Alhassan, who lost the election in 2015 to Governor Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been granted permission by President Muhamadu Buhari to contest for the ticket.In a reply to her letter seeking permission to run, President Buhari thanked her for your services as minister under this administration.He noted her passion and your past contributions to our great party the APC during and after the 2015 electionsThe President reiterated his commitment to free amd fair elections adding that our policy is to support all APC candidates.He wished her well adding that she should be assured that all security agencies as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will have my full support to conduct free and transparent elections in 2019 After 24 hours that the office of the impeached Deputy Governor of Imo State, Eze Madumere, had been locked, policemen attached to the state Government House, Owerri, on Thursday evening unlocked it.This is even as the aides of the impeached Deputy Governor had continued to attend to work.While some policemen on Wednesday locked the office, the office was unlocked when our correspondent visited the office located on Imo State High Court Road on Thursday evening.A journalist attached to the office of the impeached deputy governor, Iheanyi Enwerem, confirmed to our correspondent that the office had been unlocked.According to him, some policemen locked it on Wednesday, but they unlocked it on Thursday.He told our correspondent that the impeached Deputy Governor had not visited his office since the state lawmakers purportedly removed him from office despite a court order.Madumere had, through his media aide, on Wednesday insisted that he was still the deputy governor of the state.Madumere argued that there was no proof from point of law to ascertain that he had been impeached.He said his removal from office hours after an Owerri High Court presided over by Justice Benjamin Iheaka gave an order stopping further proceedings on his impeachment until the matter was determined by court was not known by law. The Peoples Democratic Party has alleged that President Muhammadu Buharis scheduled 10-day vacation in London was an alibi to exonerate him from alleged planned political illegalities, forceful invasion and mayhem which it said were about to be visited on the National Assembly.The party said it was aware of plots which it alleged had been perfected in a meeting, on Wednesday night, between the Presidency and some All Progressives Congress senators, to forcefully reconvene the Senate, with protection from security agencies, with a view to impeach Senate President Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, also alleged that the PDP was aware of the desperation to illegally take control of the National Assembly.He said this was part of the design to undermine the nations democratic institutions and completely foist a dictatorial regime on the nation.He said, The planned invasion is also a bid to cover the atrocious and humongous corruption of the Buhari administration, which the National Assembly is set to expose.The PDP has been reliably informed about how these APC senators, especially members of the Buhari Parliamentary Support Group, have been provided with huge sums of money, illegally lifted from repatriated funds, to carry out this nefarious act under the guise of urgent need to approve funds for the 2019 general elections.Having been demeaned by the widespread condemnation of the recent siege on the residences of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President, in addition to the invasion of the Benue State House of Assembly in a failed attempt to impeach Governor Samuel Ortom and forcefully take over the state, President Buhari is now jetting out of the country so as to appear innocent and oblivious of the political terrors about to be unleashed on the National Assembly.He reminded President Buhari and the APC that the PDP has taken over the Senate and that the party is ready and able to protect our democracy with all instruments available in the constitution and parliamentary rule books. The Department of State Services (DSS) on Thursday arraigned Jones Abiri, a journalist who has been in its custody since 2016, at a magist... The Department of State Services (DSS) on Thursday arraigned Jones Abiri, a journalist who has been in its custody since 2016, at a magistrate court in Abuja. Abiri, publisher of the Weekly Source, a newspaper based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, was picked up by agents of the DSS on the allegation that he is the leader of joint revolutionary council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, a separatist group. He was accused Abiri of bombing oil pipelines, planning attacks on Abuja, and sending threat to international oil companies and also demanding money from them. There has been pressure on the government and the DSS to either release or charge Abiri to court. On Thursday, the journalist was arraigned for the first time since he was arrested and he was granted bail in the sum of N2 million. Abiri was asked to produce two civil servants resident in Abuja who will stand as sureties. They are not to be less grade level 15 officials and they will have to deposit their original appointment letters with the court. But Marshal Abubakar, counsel to Abiri, informed the court of their application to vary the bail condition. Abubakar argued that his client should be granted on self-recongnisance because he is a journalist. We now informed the court that our parties in this suit cannot meet the bail conditions. There is an application to vary the conditions, he said. We said the first defendant Mr Jones Abiri is a journalist who has practised his journalism in Bayelsa state. So the court now adjourned for the hearing of our application to allow Mr Jones Abiri go on self-recongnisance. Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, on Wednesday opined that it was all over for President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Cha... Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, on Wednesday opined that it was all over for President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain said he hoped both Buhari and Oshiomhole dont suffer heart attacks as a result of the massive defection. Fani-Kayode said this while reacting to the latest defection that hit the APC. The Deputy Governor of Kano State, Hafiz Abubakar was reported to have defected from the APC. Abdulmumin Jibrin, a member of the house of representatives from Kano state, says at least four governors in the Peoples Democratic Party ... Abdulmumin Jibrin, a member of the house of representatives from Kano state, says at least four governors in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are working with the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2019 election. The lawmaker said the governors, whose identities he did not disclose, have a cross-party arrangement with the APC. Addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Jibrin said: At the moment, not less than four to five PDP governors are working in a cross-party arrangement to support the APC in the next presidential election. He added that the ruling party is not shaking despite losing many of its key members in the last one week. The party has lost 46 members of the national assembly and three governors to the opposition since last week, with more lawmakers reportedly plotting to leave. Jibrin, however, said adequate measures were being put in place to ensure the partys strongholds remain intact. If the APC were presenting another candidate other than President Muhammadu Buhari, I would have been a bit jittery about the defections but there is this consensus within the party with Buhari as our presidential candidate, he said. Those people against Buhari in Nigeria are just a group of elites with no electoral value. And so in the next election is going to be between some sections of the elites verses the masses. NO NIGERIAN CAN MATCH BUHARIS ELECTORAL VALUE Jibrin said the president currently has the highest electoral value in the country and in the entire Africa, adding that his ability to bring Nigeria out of economic recession last year is enough reason for him to seek re-election. When people say the economy is going down, I get surprised. What indices are they using to make their judgement? he asked. The reality of the matter is that the capacity of Buhari setting up a crack team, giving power to the CBN and ministry of finance to battle the economic recession that would have brought Nigeria to ground zero is enough for Buhari to contest the next election. Gonzalo Higuain arrived in Milan on Thursday, ahead of an expected move from Juventus.The same deal could also take Italy defender, Leonardo Bonucci, back to Turin after one season with AC Milan.Hundreds of fans waited as Higuain arrived at a Milan hotel, before he confirmed he would undergo a medical early on Thursday, with an agreement having been reached between all parties.Its great to see so many fans, but I also want to send greetings to those of Juventus who have given me so much affection.Tomorrow, Ill do the visit (medical) and then I hope to sign We hope to go as far as possible, the Agrentina striker said.The move comes just weeks after the Serie A champions announced the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.Higuain moved to Juventus in 2016 for 90m (79m) after scoring a record 36 Serie A goals in the previous season for Napoli.The 30-year-old has won Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in each of his two seasons with Juventus and scored 55 goals in 105 appearances in all competitions, including 40 goals in 73 outings in Serie A. An All Progressives Congress lawmaker in Lagos State, Mr Adedotun Adegbola, on Thursday said that politicians who defected from the party would not win in the 2019 elections.Adegbola spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria on the sideline of Mrs Risikat Adegeyes declaration to contest Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency in the 2019 elections.He described those who left APC as frustrated opportunists.None of them will win their elections. None of them will win another seat. That is their last tenure. Theyre gone with the winds.It makes us stronger. The virus in the party is going out.Ordinarily, there may be virus in your system but the moment they start getting out of your system, you start feeling better, feeling stronger, said the Lagos lawmaker.Another lawmaker, Mr Tunde Ajayi, told NAN that the defections were done for selfish ambitions.Im not bothered; they scampered in and scampered out. So were not bothered at all.If you look at them, it is for selfish reasons and because they cant achieve their selfish ambitions, thats why theyre going back, he said.Ajayi urged the people to take advantage of the ongoing voter registration exercise which would end on August 17 to get their permanent voter card .Speaking at the event, the leader of Olusi Market in Festac Town, Alhaja Nurat Shittu, urged women in politics to be firm in spite of many challenges they faced at home.Women must be firm in politics and get our rights from the men. If you dont win today, you can win tomorrow.As a politician, you just have to stay firm. Lets continue doing it, I know one day, well get there, she said.An APC youth leader, Mr Omosona Olakunle, said he supported Adegeye because of her performance when she represented Amuwo Odofin Constituency 1 in the Lagos House of Assembly.She facilitated many developmental projects in the area and empowered many youths of which I am a beneficiary.She has empowered over 1,000 youths of Amuwo Odofin through vocational trainings like fashion design, events management and makeup, Olakunle.Earlier, Adegeye told NAN that she was confident that she would achieve more for the constituency if elected into the House of Representatives.Education is very paramount to me. I plan to sustain the educational projects we have in place already.I also plan to have an old peoples home for my constituency and help improve on healthcare, she said.She promised to provide work tools to about 350 individuals who just completed their skills acquisition training at Amuwo Odofin Local Government and Oriade Local Council Development Area. Former Presidential aide, Reno Omokri has attacked the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed over comment on Senate President ... Former Presidential aide, Reno Omokri has attacked the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed over comment on Senate President Bukola Sarakis exit from APC. Lai Mohammed, while reacting to Sarakis defection from the All Progressives Congress, APC to the Peoples Democratic Party, had said that the party will lose nothing by the Senate Presidents action. The Minister spoke with State House corespondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday. Quoting the Minister in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, Omokri wrote, We stand to lose nothing by @bukolasarakis exit, Lai Mohammed claims. The Nigeria Police has ordered the withdrawal of Mobile Policeman, otherwise known as MOPOL currently on special duties in Benue State. The Nigeria Police has ordered the withdrawal of Mobile Policeman, otherwise known as MOPOL currently on special duties in Benue State. The officers, who were earlier sent to the state to curb the clashes between farmers and herdsmen, have been asked to return to their various duties. A signal dated July 31 and sent to the COMOPOL headquarters in Makurdi asked all mobile policemen across the state to withdraw with immediate effect. Chelsea manager, Maurizio Sarri has finally commented on the strange absence of his forward, Willian after the 29-year-old missed the clubs pre-season games in the International Champions Cup.Willian missed 5 days of Chelseas tour because he failed to renew his passport.The Brazilian international has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester United and is yet to speak to Sarri to discuss his future at the West London club.Chelsea were beaten on penalties by Arsenal in Dublin on Wednesday night following a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes, but Sarri admitted afterwards that hes not pleased with Willian.Its strange, Sarri said when asked by reporters about the absence of Willian after their defeat to Arsenal in the International Champions Cup played on Wednesday.I am not happy about this situation but before I answer, I would like to speak to him. Aliyu Wamakko, senator representing Sokoto north, says in a few days time, it will be clear which party is really in control of the state.... Aliyu Wamakko, senator representing Sokoto north, says in a few days time, it will be clear which party is really in control of the state. Wamakko said this in reaction to the defection of Aminu Tambuwal, the state governor, from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Tambuwal was elected speaker of the house of representatives under the platform of PDP but defected to APC in 2014. He won the governorship ticket of the APC and defeated the PDP candidate in the 2015 election. Wamakko commented on Tambuwals defection during an interview on NTA network news, saying Sokoto is solidly an APC state. The senator said the people of the state are behind him and the other lawmakers who are still in the ruling party. Wamakko served as the state governor between 2007 and 2015. He said there is no cause for alarm, urging people to disregard whatever you might have seen. Let me assure you that the Sokoto state where I come from is an APC state. The entire state is solidly APC, Wamakko said. Insha Allah by Saturday or Sunday when I get back to Sokoto, you will see who is really in charge of Sokoto. I am assuring you that there is no cause for alarm. Whatever you might have seen or might have been told, just take it as a mere story. What I am sure is that Sokoto state is solely an APC state. The people of Sokoto are solidly behind Mr President, General Muhammadu Buhari, they are certainly behind Wamakko, their senator and their former governor, they are solidly behind all the other senators and house of assembly members who remain to stay with APC. Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus of the House of Representaives yesterday allged a plot to remove Senate Presid... Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus of the House of Representaives yesterday allged a plot to remove Senate President Bukola Saraki.They vowed to resist his removal plot by keeping vigil over the Senate Chamber to prevent its invasion by APC Senators desirous of removing the semate president.The National Assembly is currently on a two-month annual recess.Deputy Minority Leader of the House Chukwuka Onyema told reporters at the National Assembly yesterday that the House would scuttle the plot by watching over the National Assembly.Onyema, who was with 10 members accused senators of being the arrowheads of plan to remove Saraki during recess.He said: The aim of their invasion is to sit illegally when everybody is on recess to remove the senate president.We also have it on good authority that they are planning to come back this night and tomorrow morning aided by security forces; our own security forces whose job is to protect the lives of Nigerians.They want to truncate this democracy But we in the PDP caucus have decided to stay here to keep vigil and wait to see what is going to happen tonight and tomorrow night. This past weekend, Disneys Animals, Science, and Environment and the Sea Turtle Conservancy hosted the 11th annual Tour de Turtles at Disneys Vero Beach Resort, which saw two loggerhead turtles take off on an adventure into the big blue world. With festivities themed to Toy Story to celebrate the opening of Toy Story Land at Disneys Hollywood Studios, this fun, family-friendly educational event promotes sea turtle care and conservation. The Toy Story theme also inspired the two turtles names, Trixie and Mrs. Potato Head.There were lots of pals along the shoreline for the turtles grand send-off, cheering them on as they made their way into the ocean, the beginning of a three-month long journey from their nesting beach to their foraging grounds. The turtles were outfitted with satellite transmitters to track their journey in real time.So, whats next for Trixie and Mrs. Potato Head? They could stay near the coast if theyre planning to lay more eggs, or they could take off to some of the places our turtles have traveled to in the past, including Naples, Fla., Key West, Cuba, and The Bahamas.Part of the fun of Tour de Turtles is trying to guess where the turtles will go next on their great migration. Weve followed all of the turtles weve released as part of Tour de Turtles during the last 11 years at Disneys Vero Beach Resort, and each has traveled an average of 1,300 miles.Loggerhead turtles are a threatened species, which means they are at risk of becoming endangered or extinct. As home to one of the most active sea turtle nesting sites in Florida, Disneys Vero Beach Resort takes great care to protect these animals, and even has a dedicated conservation team on site.In addition, Disney is helping support cleaner nesting beaches and oceans for sea turtles through its conservation efforts and environmental actions. The companya global commitment toward reducing its use of plastics, a move that we hope will inspire our Guests to make changes that positively impact sea turtles and other marine life.You can follow Trixie and Mrs. Potato Heads progress by visiting. There, these Disney turtles will join other sea turtles in a race to see who travels the farthest. Source: Sudan Tribune Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, September 1, 2015. (Photo Reuters/Parker Song) August 1, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudans Ministry of Defence on Wednesday expressed keenness to promote defence cooperation with China. State Defence Minister, Ali Mohamed Salem, on Wednesday, received a delegation from Chinas State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense in the presence of the Chinese military attache in Khartoum. During the meeting, Salem praised Chinas contribution to the development projects in Sudan, expressing keenness to promote the strategic economic and defence partnerships with China. He also praised Chinas support to Sudan in the international forums. For its part, the visiting delegation expressed Chinas desire to engage in economic partnerships involving heavy industries sector in order to meet Sudans civil and defence needs. China has been Sudans largest foreign investor, particularly in oil and telecommunications after western firms shunned the East African nation due to conflicts and sanctions. It has invested more than $20 billion in Sudan mostly in the oil sector during the past two decades. Beijing provides low-interest loans and weapons transfers in return for oil. Sudan hopes to attract new Chinese investments after Beijing had refrained from implementing a number of projects agreed upon with Khartoum following the latters failure to settle its debts. Sudans total debt to China is estimated at $ 10 billion, accounting for about one-fifth of Sudans estimated $53 billion foreign debt. Constables break up major car burglary ring in North Harris County On July 31, 2018, deputies with Constable Mark Hermans Office responded to the 19400 block of Ambrosia Falls Drive in reference to a juvenile male shot in the neck. Upon deputies arriving the juvenile was transported to a local hospital in critical condition and the remaining four juveniles on scene were detained. During the investigation deputies recovered three stolen firearms and a stolen vehicle from the location. The recovered stolen property was found to be from recent Precinct 4 burglary cases. In reviewing several home surveillance videos obtained during these car burglaries, Constable Deputies were able to tie all five juveniles to dozens of burglaries to motor vehicles. These burglaries occurred in the past month throughout the Tomball Parkway and Spring Cypress areas. All five juveniles will be charged with State Jail Felony Organized Crime and 3rd Degree Felony Theft of a Firearm pending approval from the Major Crimes District Attorney. Constable Mark Herman Investigators were able to clear burglaries to motor vehicles in the following areas: Lakewood Forest, Faulkey Gully MUD, Villages of Northpointe, Oakcrest, Fairwood, Village Creek, Grant Meadows, Harris County MUDs 368, 286, 282, and 18. Constable Investigators believe these suspects will be responsible for more burglaries pending the outcome of their investigation. All five suspects are juveniles therefore their names and photographs will not be released. All stolen property recovered by Constables once identified will be returned to its rightful owners and will be contacted directly by investigators. ***All persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law By Guo Yuandan BEIJING, Aug. 2 (ChinaMil) -- Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai confirmed that Chinas Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe will visit the US in the second half of this year. This means that China and the US maintain normal military relations which are still the stabilizer of the China-US relations. On July 30, local time, the Chinese Embassy in the US held a reception celebrating the 91st anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). At the reception, Cui said that Chinas State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and Commander of the PLA Navy Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong will visit the United States in second half of this year. The Chinese and American militaries will expand their common interests under the principle of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, making their mil-to-mil relation become the stabilizer of China-US relations. This news indicates that China-US military ties are currently normal, free from the impact of China-US trade war. The evolution of the military ties between China and the US, the worlds two major powers, has always received much attention, especially since the start of the China-US trade war this year. Particularly this year, the US has staged plenty of gamesmanship. It provoked China in the South China Sea and used this as an excuse for disinviting the PLA Navy from theRim of the Pacific (RIMPAC)-2018 exercise. The US also constantly meddled in cross-Straits relations and challenged Chinas bottom line with the passage of Taiwan-related provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). From June 26 to 28, the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis visited China, which was called "positive and constructive results". However, several days later, two American warships sailed through the Taiwan Straits, a second time since 2007. On July 23, the US Congress reached agreements on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019, with many terms involving China, such as a stronger US-Taiwan defense relationship and the studies of Chinas "tough actions" in the South China Sea. These US military measures made the China-US military ties obscure and uncertain. Yet seen from the high-level visits and exchanges, the China-US military relationship remains normal. The high-level visits include the mutual visits between Chinas Defense Minister and the US Secretary of Defense, and the visit of Shen Jinlong, commander the PLA Navy, to the US. Concerning military exchanges, Chinas Defense Ministry announced on July 26 that China and the US will jointly organize the Asia-Pacific Military Health Exchange 2018 in Xian, northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province, from September 17 to 21. This would be the first event of its kind jointly held in China by the two militaries. On August 1, a Chinese military expert told reporter that high-level mutual visits between the Chinese and American militaries fully demonstrate that their common interests are bigger than their differences. Normal relations help promote the development of their military ties, deepen mutual understandings, and avoid misjudgments. According to Cui Tiankai, Vice Admiral Shen Jinlongs trip to the US would be the PLA Navy Commanders first visit to the US in recent five years. Most China-US military exchanges take place between the two navies. The PLA Navy has always been cooperative and willing to conduct exchanges with navies of other countries including the US, and Shens visit to the US must be part of a plan between the two navies. According to a person familiar with China-US military relations, both China and the US hope that the two militaries meet each other half way and the mil-to-mil relationship maintains a good momentum of development. On this point, the two countries hold the same opinion. Both sides are fully aware of the importance of bilateral relations. The two countries must strive for win-win results instead of losses for both. Disclaimer:The author is Guo Yuandan, reporter with the Global Times. The article is translated from Chinese into English by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author from the Global Times and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Resolute Forest Products Reports 'Record Profitability' in Second Quarter 2018 "Overall positive price momentum and improved operational performance led to record profitability this quarter. Our strong financial results allowed repayment of $105 million of debt during the quarter, significantly improving our balance sheet and leverage." Yves Laflamme, President and CEO, Resolute. Aug. 2, 2018 - Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) today reported net income for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, of $72 million, or $0.77 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $74 million, or $0.82 per share, in the same period in 2017. Sales were $976 million in the quarter, an increase of $118 million from the year-ago period. Excluding special items, the company reported net income of $66 million, or $0.71 per share, compared to a net loss, excluding special items, of $3 million, or $0.03 per share, in the second quarter of 2017. "Overall positive price momentum and improved operational performance led to record profitability this quarter. Our strong financial results allowed repayment of $105 million of debt during the quarter, significantly improving our balance sheet and leverage," said Yves Laflamme, president and chief executive officer. "We are also very pleased that the countervailing duty order on supercalendered paper has recently been revoked, resulting in a $60 million refund of duty deposits over the coming months." A new four-year collective agreement was also ratified, shortly after the end of the second quarter, with the company's largest Canadian union, Unifor, covering 1,000 employees at six of its sawmills. Earlier in the year, Resolute reached a new four-year collective agreement covering 1,100 employees at eight of the company's Canadian pulp and paper mills. Non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjustments for special items and adjusted EBITDA, are explained and reconciled below. OPERATING INCOME VARIANCE AGAINST PRIOR PERIOD Consolidated The company recorded operating income of $121 million in the quarter, compared to $48 million in the first quarter of 2018. The $73 million improvement reflects higher prices realized across almost all of our product offerings ($58 million), a reduction in energy costs, largely seasonal, favorable fiber usage, and higher shipments following distribution constraints in the first quarter. The operating results also benefited from the effect of the weaker Canadian dollar. These favorable elements more than compensated for the 20% increase in market-based stumpage fees and a rise in recovered paper prices. Maintenance and labor costs were also higher this quarter, largely related to the scheduled outages at two of our pulp mills. Market Pulp Operating income in the market pulp segment was $41 million, $8 million higher than the first quarter. Positive pulp price momentum continued in the quarter, resulting in a $37 increase in the average transaction price to $747 per metric ton. While productivity improved at most mills, shipments were down 9,000 metric tons, largely due to scheduled maintenance outages at the Catawba (South Carolina) and Calhoun (Tennessee) mills, as well as the planned inventory buildup at Saint-Felicien (Quebec), ahead of the extended outage required for the previously announced strategic investment. As a result, inventory increased by 17,000 metric tons. The operating cost per unit (the "delivered cost") increased by $12 per metric ton due to planned maintenance outages and higher recovered paper prices, offset in part by lower wood and fuel expenses, mostly stemming from improved efficiency. Pricing gains outweighed lower volumes and higher costs, resulting in EBITDA of $49 million in the quarter, or $137 per metric ton, up from $110 per metric ton in the first quarter. Tissue The tissue segment incurred an operating loss of $10 million, compared to $1 million in the first quarter, largely attributable to the first time inclusion of Calhoun's results in the second quarter. When compared to the previous quarter, Calhoun's operating results improved by $3 million, mainly due to an increase in shipments. If Calhoun's first quarter sales, previously recorded as a reduction of start-up costs, were included in the tissue segment, overall tissue sales would have risen by 5%, as product mix shifted favorably towards more converted product volume. Finished goods inventory decreased by 3,000 short tons. The delivered cost remains elevated as we continue to optimize productivity. EBITDA for the segment was negative $5 million. Wood Products Compared to the first quarter, operating income in the wood products segment improved by $26 million, to $79 million. The increase is almost entirely attributable to the rise in average transaction price, up $55 to $514 per thousand board feet, as new highs were reached for most grades during the quarter. Shipments also increased by 39 million board feet as a result of improvements in rail car availability. Finished goods inventory dropped by 9% to 128 million board feet. Despite better fiber recovery, the delivered cost rose by $13 per thousand board feet to $355 due to higher market-based stumpage fees linked to lumber selling prices, a rise in diesel fuel cost, and an increase in maintenance activity. EBITDA for the segment was $86 million, compared to $61 million in the first quarter, reflecting a margin of 34%. Newsprint At $18 million in the second quarter, newsprint generated $22 million more operating income compared to the first quarter. Sales rose by 16% as the average transaction price improved by $26 per metric ton and shipments increased by 38,000 metric tons to 393,000, following freight constraints and timing of export sales in the first quarter. Finished goods inventory at the end of the quarter was 8,000 metric tons lower, at 85,000. The delivered cost also improved by $30 per metric ton, largely due to higher volumes and a seasonal reduction in energy costs, offset in part by higher planned maintenance. EBITDA improved by $54 per metric ton from the previous quarter, reaching $88 per metric ton, or $35 million. Specialty Papers The specialty papers segment generated operating income of $4 million in the second quarter, compared to an operating loss of $7 million in the first quarter. Realized pricing continued to strengthen, reaching $701 per short ton, an increase of $26, while the delivered cost decreased by $10 per short ton to $688, as improved efficiency led to lower fuel costs. EBITDA rose to $16 million, or $57 per short ton, compared to $5 million in the previous quarter. CONSOLIDATED QUARTERLY OPERATING INCOME VARIANCE AGAINST YEAR-AGO PERIOD The company's operating income improved by $169 million, compared to the second quarter of 2017. The favorable pricing environment across almost all of our products added $145 million to our results compared to 2017, as the average transaction price increased by 33% for wood products, 18% for market pulp, 15% for newsprint and 8% for specialty papers. The improvement in operating income also included the elimination of fixed costs due to capacity closures in our paper segments ($20 million) in 2017. In addition, there were no significant closure and other related charges in the quarter, compared to $65 million in the same quarter of 2017. These favorable items were partially offset by an increase in manufacturing costs ($26 million), mainly resulting from scheduled maintenance and higher market-related fiber costs, a 15% rise in freight expenses ($16 million), and the unfavorable impact of the stronger Canadian dollar ($15 million). Corporate and Finance During the quarter, the company generated $158 million of cash from operations. After $28 million of capital expenditures and $37 million of cash duty deposits, $105 million of debt was repaid, and liquidity rose to $517 million. Following the revocation of the countervailing duty order on supercalendered paper by the U.S. Department of Commerce, all of the $60 million of cash deposits previously paid will be returned with interest. Including $67 million for softwood lumber and $6 million for uncoated groundwood papers, cumulative duty deposits of $133 million are recorded on our balance sheet. Standard & Poor's Global Ratings recently revised the company's outlook to stable and affirmed the BB- long-term corporate rating. Outlook "Our view on pulp markets remain optimistic through the third quarter, as supply and demand dynamics are expected to be strong in most markets. Despite extensive pulp downtime related to the major capital project in Saint-Felicien, which will increase pulp production in the long term, we expect our pulp performance to remain solid. We believe the underlying market fundamentals for lumber will support healthy operating results in the medium term, in spite of a recent pull back in lumber prices. "Paper markets are expected to remain favorable in the third quarter, as we continue to benefit from rising prices across our product offering. "For tissue, we have made progress in increasing sales and market penetration. Our operations are now focused on supporting our strengthening market position," added Mr. Laflamme. Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in close to 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 manufacturing facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the United States and Canada. To learn more, please visit: www.resolutefp.com SOURCE: Resolute Forest Products Inc. This year's annual Dyke March in Berlin, much in the spirit of other international lesbian-centered marches, was a call to celebrate the "zest for life" of self-identified "lesbians, dykes, and divas," according to the event's website. It is expected that this year's march totaled over 4,000 participants. The march is marked not only by its lack of commercial advertisements, but for the participants' creativity and intersectionality; families, interracial couples, and messages supporting sex positivity, as well as transgender rights and equality were all present. In the images below, artist Job Piston captures the power of lesbian visibility and unity to great effect. Related | PAPER Pride Photography: Job Piston Hollyweird, in collaboration with @velvetcoke, takes stock of once-known but obscure or forgotten stories about popular celebrities and cult figures. His transfixing smize. His cheese-cutter cheekbones. His hypnotic moves. Before acting and after hanging up his stripper thong, Channing Tatum used to stalk the runways of Milan and New York as a fashion model. He walked for brands like Marc Ecko and Sean John, and mugged in campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch. Tatum's first modeling gig was in 2000, shooting with photographer Bruce Weber. On that set, he met supermodel Karolina Kurkova not bad for a hunky neophyte. "I was this new guy, a nobody; she was the first to talk to me," he told InStyle in 2010. "By the end of the day, we were rolling in the mud, singing Madonna songs." Working with VIPs for his first job launched Tatum's fashion career in a big way. "Bruce [Weber] is the rite of passage," Tatum later explained to Vanity Fair in 2013. "If you're a male model, he christens you." Prior to his christening, Tatum was a stripper in Miami a time which inspired the plot of blockbuster panty-wetter Magic Mike. One day, in the street he was approached by a man who urged him to consider modeling. "He was creepy," Tatum told VF, "and actually he did end up to be just a complete creep, trying to, like, fuck me, and I was like, 'All right, man,' but it piqued my interest." However, he didn't waste any time heading into a modeling agency to see what they'd make of his all-American look. He was signed by Jason Kanner at New York agency Major Model. When he and his six-pack began getting booked for jobs, "the travel schedule, the food, the demands brought things together for me," Tatum explained to Esquire in 2014. "Suddenly, every hour of the day was accounted for. Busy. And I never want to be without that again." Despite his success working with the likes of Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, Tatum had his sights set even higher than a Times Square billboard. In a post-show interview in 2002 with the fashion critic Tim Blanks, Tatum expressed his desire to land in Hollywood. "I'd love to go into acting," he says, "[I'm] always looking for new opportunities." One of those opportunities, his big break, one could argue, was appearing as a shirtless bartender of the music video for Ricky Martin's "She Bangs." He made $400 for his time. Photo via Getty Earlier this year, JW Anderson launched its "Your Picture / Our Future" initiative with an open call for emerging photographers around the globe to submit their images for a chance to work with the British fashion label. This past May, 50 out of the 1,813 that submitted their work were featured in a photography exhibition in London; from that group, three were chosen to shoot JW Anderson's fall 2018 campaign. Photography by Julie Greve Each member of the lucky trio, comprised of Julie Greve from the U.K., American Simons Finnerty, and Yelena Beletskaya from Russia, were given a selection of ready-to-wear and accessories from the brand's fall collection and tasked with applying their distinct style to the assortment. Each photographer worked closely with Jonathan Anderson, stylist Benjamin Bruno, and creative agency M/M Paris to realize their vision. While Greve's images focus on a mysterious group of girls lounging on the beach and in a field, Finnerty's wistful self-portraits were shot against coarse stone and wood. In keeping with her hazy, ethereal style Yelena Beletskaya's photos were filled with whirling smoke. Photos Courtesy of JW Anderson North West is well on her way to fashion icon status, this time sitting pretty alongside brother Saint and dad Kanye West for Harper's Bazaar's September "Icons" issue. All photographs for the spread were shot by Mario Sorrenti. In the image, Kanye holds Saint in his arms while North drapes herself over his shoulders, all in various states of athleisure a look which the Kardashian-Jenner family has arguably championed more than most. And, only one day after her mom, Kim Kardashian, and four aunts fronted Calvin Klein's latest fall 2018 ad campaign, it's almost as if North is saying: "I can do it too." After all, she was the feature of this season's Fendi campaign with Kris Jenner and Kim, so she's well on her way. Related | North West Is a Bonafide Model Now The West family is certainly in good company for the issue, as they are honored alongside the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Lionel Richie, Steven Tyler, and Mariah Carey. Some of the aforementioned names are shown with their equally stylish children (i.e. Liv Tyler, Nicole Richie, and Maria's twins Monroe and Moroccan), while others are pictured alone. Carine Roitfeld, who serves as Global Fashion Director for the brand (as well as runs her own publication, CR Fashion Book), told WWD, "It was amazing to see that some of the industry's most groundbreaking rock stars have a sense of tenderness with their loved ones even if they are adults." While there are multiple covers for the much-celebrated issue, Kanye and kids have made the cut for the subscriber issue, meaning that all home deliveries will feature the trio front-and-center. And, when opening up the issue, one will read about how devoted he is to his children, as he shares, "I hope my children never lose their confidence to society." Photo via Getty Netflix announced today that it's forthcoming documentary about music icon Quincy Jones will come to the streaming service September 21st alongside a limited theatrical release. The film, simply titled Quincy, is directed by his daughter and successful actor Rashida Jones alongside Alan Hicks, who directed the jazz biopic on Clark Terry Keep On Keepin' On. The movie is a survey of Jones' long and storied career as a celebrated musician, producer, composer, and arranger. Even if you aren't familiar with Jones' solo work you have most likely heard his production work on Michael Jackson's Bad, Off the Wall, and Thriller or for other like Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespe, Lesley Gore, and Ray Charles. If that wasn't enough he has also provided the soundtracks for films In Cold Blood, The Italian Job, They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, and produced the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. "It's rare that somebody who has lived as much life as my dad is still interested in growing and knowing the next generation," Rashida Jones said in a statement. "He is such a man of action and accomplishments, but we were so lucky to spend real time with him, to let him reflect on life and the larger picture. I feel honored to be able to share that with audiences all over the world." Quincy Jones also made headlines earlier this year after a revelatory interview with Vulture, where he revealed that Sinatra and the mafia where behind the Kennedy Assassination, that The Beatles were overrated, that he used to date Ivanka Trump, and the Marlon Brando had slept with James Baldwin, Richard Pryor, and Marvin Gaye. One can only imagine what else Jones has to say! Photo via Netflix Beyond the major stories of the day, our 'At the End of the Day' report takes a final look around the blogosphere at other technology news that was published today that might be of interest to our readership. Our report covers two Apple reports and one on Google's flip-flop decision to get back into China and bow to Chinese Internet regulators. Apple Warns of Impact of Trade Disputes in a Forest of Warnings Yesterday Apple published a press release that also included their Q3 2018 Unaudited Summary Data and their condensed consolidated statements of operation (unaudited) that we included in our report. Today Apple published their Form 10-Q. Form 10-Q, (also known as a 10-Q or 10Q) is a quarterly report mandated by the United States federal Securities and Exchange Commission, to be filed by publicly traded corporations. These reports generally compare last quarter to the current quarter and last year's quarter to this year's quarter. The SEC put this form in place to facilitate better informed investors. It's here where Apple has to inform investors about possible situations that could affect their stock such as the Qualcomm legal attacks that may force them to pay a royalty that could affect company profits. They point out the legal case VirnetX and though Apple believes that they will prevail, they have to point out that the cases could go against them and affect profits. There's another segment that points out Risk Factors such as rapid technological change that could put Apple in a position to not be able to compete with competitors. They warn that a recession could hurt them as well as "consumer confidence and spending could be adversely affected in response to financial market volatility, negative financial news." Page after page after page of warnings are listed every quarter. Due to a possible trade dispute with China, Apple added two paragraphs that you could review below by clicking on the image to enlarge it. It also includes terrorism and natural disasters under the same heading. While it's not a big deal, as some in the press would have you believe, Apple has to add this warning as will any company filing Form 10-Q. To review the full copy, download this PDF here. China Propaganda Machine Publicly Scolds Apple Reuters reported today that China's propaganda machine kicked into high gear against Apple, the only U.S. tech company that supported China's Internet Vision in 2017. Perhaps Cook should openly criticize China's government like Cook loves to do with the current U.S. administration at every possible occasion. How embarrassing for Cook to have Apple singled out and suffer a a public tirade. Reuters reports that "On Tuesday evening, the same day as Apple's earnings, China's official state broadcaster railed against the firm in a 30 minute special report, accusing it of allowing illegal content, including gambling apps, onto its platform. The program was one of at least five reports by state media that targeted the company in the past week." You could read more about this story here. Google Is Planning China Search App, Ending Long Boycott Bloomberg writes today that Google is preparing a version of its search engine for China that blocks results Beijing considers sensitive, according to people familiar with the situation. The move would mark an abrupt about-face by the Alphabet Inc. unit and a win for China's communist government, which suppresses free speech online. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose parents brought him to the U.S. to escape communist Russia, led a dramatic exit from mainland China in 2010 after the company refused to self-censor search content. Brin has stepped back from day-to-day operations and the internet giant is now run by Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai. Still, other Google employees were angered by the news on Wednesday. "WTF!" Google researcher Meredith Whittaker wrote on Twitter, describing the company's move as "enabling mass politically-directed censorship of (AI-enabled) search." She suggested the move may violate a recent Google pledge not to build technology that contravenes widely accepted principles on human rights. Other employees expressed similar frustration to Bloomberg News, but asked not to be identified." You could read more about Google's Flip-Flop here. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. By Zhang Shengtao and Qian Xiaohu KORLA, Aug. 2 (ChinaMil) -- The individual race for infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) crews of the "Suvorov Attack" contest of the International Army Games (IAG) 2018 concluded in Korla, northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on Wednesday. The Chinese team won top three places in the race. During the individual race, each IFV must pass all obstacles such as antitank ditch, treadway bridge and ups and downs road, and complete machine-gun and artillery firing sessions successively. The two-day individual race attracted IFV crews from seven countries including Russia, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, China, Belarus, Iran and Kazakhstan. Finally, the Chinese team won top three places in the race. In addition, China, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan qualified for the relay race for IFV crews of the "Suvorov Attack" contest. The competition for IFV crews in the "Suvorov Attack" contest consists of two stages including individual race and relay race. It aims to test the IFV crews' off-road maneuvering and precision shooting capabilities. Russia used its own equipment for the races while other countries used equipment supplied by China. Yesterday we posted a report pointing out that Apple had added a few lines to their Form 10-Q under the heading "The Company's business may be impacted by political events, international trade disputes, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues, industrial accidents and business interruptions." Is that a mouthful of a title? While liberals wanted to play up that political point, reality is that South Korea is working to begin taxing Apple and other global IT companies which will have a real impact on Apple long term, more than any short term trade war or theoretical trade war. It's being reported today that the South Korean government will be moving quickly to impose taxes on Google, Apple, Amazon and other global IT companies. This follows policymakers and lawmakers paying greater attention to the growing criticism that global tech firms earn billions of dollars in sales in Korea annually and yet but pay no taxes. Naver, Kakao and other domestic companies have been complaining for years about "an uneven playing field," arguing their foreign rivals should pay corporate income tax on the revenue they generate in Korea. Under the current law, the government is unable to tax global companies as it is not mandatory for them to disclose their sales and operating profit in South Korea. The Corporate Tax Act stipulates that global companies must pay taxes when they have fixed places of business in Korea. This law has provided global companies with an excuse to avoid taxes while they expand their businesses rapidly here as their bases are established in other countries such as the United States, China and Ireland Google and Apple are gaining huge profits through the sales of apps, with the former actively expanding its businesses here by, for example, launching its in-car infotainment application Android Auto. Officials from domestic firms are claiming the government should be more active in establishing effective measures as their business environment is becoming more difficult. "There are too many regulations against domestic companies, and discrimination between Korean and global firms is worsening," said an official at a Seoul-based IT firm. It's dumbfounding that many countries are only waking up now to this tax loophole. It's time for all tech giants to pay taxes on monies earned in foreign countries. When asked about such matters, companies like Apple and Google fall back to a standard blind statement such as "Google follows the laws and pays all applicable taxes in Korea." Yes of course, and now that real tax reform is coming, these tech companies will certainly begin paying real taxes for the first time. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Trump's War Hysteria Against Iran Ignores Middle East Realities 08/01/18 By Emile Nakhleh (source: LobeLog) By threatening a devastating war against Iran, President Donald Trump's recent response to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani's benign statement about "the mother of all peace" and "the mother of all war" is another example of erratic and dangerous foreign policy pronouncements. Trump tweeted in capital letters that Iran "will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before." Even if the Trump tweet could be attributed to hyperbole and a bargaining gambit in his acclaimed art of deal-making and therefore should be ignored, Trump's persistent war hysteria against Iran and calls for regime change in that country pose a serious threat to regional stability and global commerce. Trump's war-mongering ignores the realities of the Middle East, the domestic dynamics in Iran, the complexities and interconnectedness of the Persian Gulf littoral states, and the recent disastrous history of the Iraq War. His statement at the press conference with the Italian prime minister that he saw no problem in meeting with Iran's president does not mitigate his oft-repeated war threats against Rouhani's country. Iran and Iraq Iran is not Iraq. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by now should have been briefed about the differences between the two countries. The initial stage of removing Saddam Hussein from power was a relatively easy task for the US military, whereas the clerical regime in Iran is much more entrenched in the Persian majority Iranian state than Saddam's Sunni minority rule was in Iraq. Although Iraq since its inception in the early 1920s has been a Shia majority state, it always had Sunni minority rulers, the first of whom, Faisal bin Hussein, was imposed by British colonialism. The Sunni monarchy, which ruled Iraq for three decades and was toppled in a popular revolt in 1958, was followed by a string of strongmen that ended in 2003 when the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. The oppressed Shia majority welcomed the foreign invasion and the removal of the repressive 60-year Sunni rule. Iran has always been ruled by a Shia regime, first under the Pahlavi dynasty and since the 1979 revolution under a dual regime of clerics and a popularly elected president and legislature. Islamic rule in Iran is more complex and therefore more difficult to undo than was the Iraqi regime in 2003. Although some Iranians might be willing to sign a pact with the "foreign devil" to undo the ayatollahs' rule in Iran, they would not welcome this "devil" into their own home even if it succeeds in toppling the clerical regime. A foreign "liberation" of a country from its regime very quickly morphs into "occupation," no matter how much a foreign "liberator" tries to sugar coat the "moral" imperatives of its action. When I briefed a very senior policymaker on the eve of the Iraq war about the possible reaction from the Iraqi people to the impending America-led war, he dismissively retorted, "You people [referring to my Agency] must understand that we are liberators not occupiers. We are saving the Iraqi people from that tyrant." I told him that the so-called liberation would be short-lived and that the Islamic world would not support a U.S. war against Iraq, viewing it as yet another "Christian Crusader" war against a Muslim country. Saddam was a tyrant and a thug but so were many other Muslim rulers with whom Washington had established cozy relations. Saddam kept the lid on sectarian discontent in the country, which would soon explode with his removal. Other ill-informed policies after the invasion, including "de-Baathification" and the dissolution of the Iraqi military, helped stoke the enmity of Iraqis and other Muslims toward the United States. Regardless of Saddam's hypocritical use of religion for his political goals-witness his emblazing a Muslim call to prayer on the Iraqi flag following the first Gulf War-millions of Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, denounced the American-led coalition war against him. The Bush administration claimed that a lofty goal of the war in Iraq was to end tyranny and bring democracy to the country and the wider Arab and Islamic region. The claim was sadly farcical. Governance is worse now in the region than it was on the eve of the war, and democracy remains a pipedream for hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims. So, why is Trump threatening Iran and what's his ultimate goal? It cannot be democracy since his proclivity for strongman rule precludes him from defending liberty or seeking accountable government. If his goal is to force Iran to sign a new nuclear deal, he has made non-negotiable demands that Tehran is unlikely to consider. Iran and North Korea No matter how much Pompeo proclaims that North Korea is in the process of denuclearization, there is no evidence to support this fanciful claim. Although Trump has not revealed what he and Kim Jong Un talked about in their one-on-one meeting in Singapore, there's no indication that the North Korean dictator promised the American president any such deal. North Korea did not cave in to Trump's threats. He should expect no less from Iran regardless of how many angry tweets he spews out. In the end, Trump and Pompeo will discover that whatever nuclear deal they offer North Korea, it will not be much different from the offers that previous administrations-Republican and Democrat-made to successive North Korean dictators since the 1990s. If Trump decides to follow up on his comment at the press conference with the Italian prime minister and meet with Iranian President Rouhani, his nuclear offer to Iran will vary very little from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Most rational analysts agree that despite its faults, the JCPOA was the best deal the international community could have gotten under the circumstances. If North Korea offers any lesson in the Trumpian style of international relations, it is that he manufactures a crisis, jerks the international community around, then embarks on dramatic photo-pp encounters to resolve the crisis that he created in the first place. Once things calm down a bit, the world forgets about the crisis-solution drama, and things go back to where they were pre-crisis. A similar Trumpian drama is in the making regarding Iran. He withdrew from the "worst ever" nuclear deal with Iran despite strong entreaties from the other signatories. He offers to meet with the Iranian political leadership and promises to make a deal. Despite his self-proclaimed prowess at deal making, he will soon discover that he won't be able to out-fox Iranian famed bazaaris! Iran and the Persian Gulf Trump and Pompeo should also have been briefed on the geography and military capabilities of regional players. Iran is a credible military power with regional reach. Its geographic proximity to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other pro-American Gulf Cooperation Council countries make these countries exceedingly vulnerable to Iranian military retaliation in case of an American attack. It's very difficult for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, despite the American-provided Patriot anti-missile batteries, to protect their oil and water infrastructure. Perhaps the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Quds Force are already drawing operational plans to bomb such facilities should war break out. They probably already have sleeper cells in Saudi Arabia and the UAE to sabotage the infrastructure from within if Iran is attacked. Not all GCC countries would support war against Iran. Oman and Kuwait most likely would declare their neutrality, withhold support for Washington's military attacks, and call on the UN Security Council to stop the war. Most permanent members of the Security Council, who signed the Iran nuclear deal, would endorse a resolution to end the hostilities, which would leave the Trump administration more isolated than ever. Iran and its proxy militant groups will halt oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab. If Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi foolishly decides to join the war effort, Iran's Shia and Sunni proxies will surely make the Suez Canal a hazardous trade route. If oil shipments were interrupted for even a week, the world economy would suffer heavily. If British and other major insurers decide to declare the Persian Gulf a war zone, as Lloyds of London did in the 1980s, the daily insurance rates on tankers would rise to hundreds of thousands of dollars, forcing tankers to "park" off the Arabia Sea coast. If this happens, tankers would become vulnerable to attacks by terrorist groups and by Iranian speedboats. When I once flew over the tankers that were "parked" off the coast of Fujairah, an emirate member of the UAE, a US government official told me at the time that it was the high insurance rates of Lloyds of London, not the Iran-Iraq war, that threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. The Iraq War was not a regional war. Invading Iran, however, will definitely draw in the entire region. Which could beget a human disaster of epic proportions and create waves of refugees "the likes of which," as President Trump loves to say, the world has never seen. Invading Iran without considering the regional realities is the height of insanity. If Trump ventures further down this slippery slope of war against Iran, it behooves US military leaders, senior US senators, and major corporate executives to persuade him to change course and seek real negotiations with Iran, driven not by presidential bravado but by mutual interests and regional and global stability. Defense Secretary James Mattis should convince Trump that if war is an extension of diplomacy, he should try diplomacy first before indulging in more saber rattling. About the author: Emile Nakhleh is an expert on Middle Eastern society and politics and on political Islam. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Research Professor at the University of New Mexico. He previously served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993-2006, first as scholar in residence and chief of the Regional Analysis Unit in the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis and subsequently as director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program. Until 1993 Nakhleh taught at Mount St. Mary's University, where he was the John L. Morrison Professor of International Studies. Nakhleh's publications include, among others, A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations with the Muslim World (2009), Bahrain: Political Development in a Modernizing Society (1976 and 2011), and The Gulf Cooperation Council: Policies, Problems, and Prospects (1986). Nakhleh holds a PhD from American University, an MA from Georgetown University, and a BA from Saint John's University, Minnesota. Iran Parliament To Question President Rouhani Over Economic Crisis Response 08/01/18 Source: Radio Farda Eighty members of the Iranian Parliament tabled a motion on August 1 to question President Hassan Rouhani about his administration's economic policy and its reactions to the country's ongoing economic crisis. Iranian media noted that 80 MPs comprise more than a quarter of the total number of deputies in the parliament. "New thinking is more important than a new cabinet" Source: Iranian daily Roydad Emroz The call for the motion was signed by 92 MPs but 12 withdrew their request, and the presidium acknowledged the receipt of the questions on August 1, Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted speaker Ali Larijani as saying. However, Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Hosseinali Amiri said the acknowledgement was made "illegally," ISNA reported. Amiri told reporters that the Rouhani administration had answered MP questions on three occasions in the past year and most MPs "were convinced" by the explanations given by Rouhani's aides. He added that some of the MPs who had withdrawn their questions had repeated their questions for a fourth time and signed the motion. The questions Rouhani has to answer within one month address the administration's failure in controlling foreign currency and goods smuggling, the failure to tackle the declining employment rate, the failure to stop banking sanctions as promised, the failure to control the economic recession that has lingered for several years, and the failure to control rising foreign exchange rates and the dramatic devaluation of Iran's national currency, according to the official news agency, IRNA. In another development in the parliament, 193 out of 290 members called on Rouhani to start a major reshuffling of his cabinet and replace the economy, industry, and housing ministers in particular. The MPs warned in the letter that this is the last time such a call is being made, alluding implicitly that they might impeach Rouhani over his cabinet's failure to rein in the economic crisis that has wreaked havoc on markets and gave way to protests in the streets of various Iranian cities. The moves could further weaken the standing of Rouhani, whose foreign policy is being challenged by military commanders amid renewed U.S. sanctions. While Rouhani could ease the economic difficulties facing the nation by accepting U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of unconditional negotiations, IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari has said the nation will not allow their leaders to enter negotiations with the United States. Mabel Cudjoe, Director of Research at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has indicated that innovation and creativity are key elements of every nations economic development. According to her, the One District, One Factory (1D1F) policy would receive a major boost if entrepreneurs research market trends and employ creativity and innovation to manufacture products that address the challenges of society. Mrs. Cudjoe, who represented the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Abelema Afeku at the 4th Graduation, Speech and Prize Giving Day for staff and pupils of Cherryfield Montessori School located at Pokuase, near Nsawam, disclosed that people have evolved new ideas which address their fears and make life easier. The event was under the theme, Creativity and Innovation: An Indispensable Tool for Nation Building. A lot of the products in architecture, fashion, food processing and packaging, among others, were produced by creative and innovative minds who worked to solve societys challenges besides being avenues for creating opportunities for employment, she added. Creativity is all about taking a fresh look at what is normally taken for granted to give that a new image, according to her. Nation-building involves people with different languages and religion, among others, coming together with a common interest to solve challenges of the nation through the introduction of fresh ideas, she disclosed. The director, who congratulated staff and management of the school for providing quality basic education in the catchment area, urged staff and pupils to take advantage of opportunities to research for fresh ideas which would make them change agents. Creativity cuts across all learning disciplines, and its for educators to nurture these in children, she added. Madagdalene Dzifa Adzanu-Atiase, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the School, reiterated that her outfit focuses on training the entirety of the human being. According to her, creativity and innovation would always create job opportunities to enrich individuals to contribute to the economic development of the country. China, Malaysia, Singapore, among others, are fast emerging as key business hubs for the world as a result of their keen interest in applying innovation in technology and other sectors of their economies; this for us at home should serve as a clarion call, she said. Source: Daily Guide 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 Bank of Ghana (BoG) has explained that an Asset Quality Review (AQR) of uniBank Ghana Limited revealed some unscrupulous activities of the shareholders. According the BoG, shareholders, related and connected parties had taken amounts totaling GH3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the banks loan portfolio. In addition, amounts totaling GH1.6 billion had been granted to shareholders, related and connected parties in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930. The BoG in the press statement explaining the revocation of the license of uniBank said the bank was identified during the AQR update in 2016 exercise to be significantly undercapitalized. The BoG explained that even though uniBank submitted a capital restoration plan, the plan however, yielded no success in returning the bank to solvency and compliance with prudential requirements. It added that the Official Administrator appointed for uniBank in March 2018 also found that the bank was beyond rehabilitation. The BoG said efforts by these banks to extricate themselves from financial difficulty have not borne fruit. The situation has rather worsened for these banks. Source: Graphic.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 Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Wednesday merged five banks to form Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited. The Banks are: uniBank Ghana Limited, The Royal Bank Limited, Beige Bank Limited, Sovereign Bank Limited, and Construction Bank Limited. Meanwhile, BoG has appointed Mr. Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as the Receiver for the five banks. Mrs Elsie Awadzi, 2nd Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana speaking in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on PeaceFM's "Kokrokoo" Thursday, said all deposits of the five banks are safe and have been transferred to the Consolidated Bank. She said "customers can carry out their business as usual at their respective banks which will now become branches of the Consolidated Bank. Apart from that all staff of these banks will now become staff of the Consolidated Bank". Below is a statement from the BoG explaining why the five banks were merged PRESS RELEASE GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHES NEW INDIGENOUS BANK; BANK OF GHANA REVOKES LICENCES OF FIVE BANKS AND APPOINTS RECEIVER IN RESPECT OF THEIR ASSETS AND LIABILITIES The Bank of Ghana today has granted a universal banking licence to Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited established by the Government. The Bank of Ghana has also today revoked the licences of uniBank Ghana Limited, The Royal Bank Limited, Beige Bank Limited, Sovereign Bank Limited, and Construction Bank Limited and has appointed Mr. Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as the Receiver for the five banks. All deposits of the five banks are safe and have been transferred to the Consolidated Bank. Customers can carry out their business as usual at their respective banks which will now become branches of the Consolidated Bank. All staff of these banks will become staff of the Consolidated Bank. Boards of Directors and shareholders of these banks no longer have any roles. Ghana needs a strong and stable banking sector to drive the process of economic transformation. A weak banking sector means that access to credit will be limited while lending rates will continue to be high. The Bank of Ghana is mandated by law to promote the safety, soundness, and stability of the financial system and to protect the interests of depositors. In this context, the Bank has over the last year rolled out measures to strengthen the financial system to protect the interests of depositors however, a number of legacy problems have plagued the banking sector including macroeconomic factors, poor corporate governance and risk management practices, related party transactions that were not above board, regulatory non-compliance, and poor supervision, (questionable licensing processes and weak enforcement) leading to a significant build-up of vulnerabilities in the sector. From an Asset Quality Review (AQR) of banks conducted by the Bank of Ghana in 2015 and updated in 2016, a few indigenous banks were identified as vulnerable with inadequate capital, high levels of non-performing loans, and weak corporate governance. In August 2017, the Bank of Ghana closed two of those banks (UT Bank and Capital Bank) and approved the acquisition by GCB Bank of some of their assets and liabilities under a Purchase and Assumption Agreement. Other banks that were more recently licensed in 2016 and commenced operations in 2017 also began to show signs of distress, primarily due to conditions under which they obtained their licences. Efforts by these banks to extricate themselves from financial difficulty have not borne fruit. The situation has rather worsened for these banks. uniBank and Royal Bank were identified during the AQR update in 2016 exercise to be significantly undercapitalized. The two banks subsequently submitted capital restoration plans to the Bank of Ghana. These plans however, yielded no success in returning the banks to solvency and compliance with prudential requirements. The Official Administrator appointed for uniBank in March 2018 has found that the bank is beyond rehabilitation. Shareholders, related and connected parties had taken amounts totaling GH3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the banks loan portfolio. In addition, amounts totaling GH1.6 billion had been granted to shareholders, related and connected parties in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930. Altogether, shareholders, related and connected parties of uniBank had taken out an amount of GH5.3 billion from the bank, constituting 75 percent of total assets of the bank. In the case of Royal Bank, an on-site examination conducted by the Bank of Ghana in 31st March, 2018 revealed a number of irregularities. Its non-performing loans constitute 78.9 percent of total loans granted, owing to poor credit risk and liquidity risk management controls. A number of the banks transactions totaling GH161.92 million were entered into with shareholders, related and connected parties, structured to circumvent single obligor limits, conceal related party exposure limits, and overstate the capital position of the bank for the purpose of complying with the capital adequacy requirement. In the case of Sovereign Bank Limited, as part of Bank of Ghanas investigations into the failure of Capital Bank Limited (currently in receivership), it emerged that Sovereign Banks licence was obtained by false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital. The bank is insolvent and unable to meet daily liquidity obligations falling due. Liquidity support granted so far to the bank amounts to GH21 million as of 31st July 2018. The bank has not been able to publish its audited accounts for December 2017, in violation of section 90 (2) of Act 930. Beige Bank and Construction Bank were each granted provisional licences in 2016 and launched in 2017. Subsequent investigations conducted by the Bank of Ghana, revealed that similar to the case of Sovereign Bank, both banks obtained their banking licences under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, which has resulted in a situation where their reported capital is inaccessible to them for their operations. A more detailed description of the current situation of the five banks can be found in the attached Annex. To help ensure that the banking sector maintains a strong indigenous presence, the government has established a new bank called Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited which will act as a bridge bank pursuant to section 127 (11) of Act 930, to assume some of the assets and liabilities of the five banks. The Government has capitalised the new bank in the amount of GH450 million and the Bank of Ghana has issued it with a universal banking licence with effect from 1st August 2018. The Bank of Ghana has also approved a Purchase and Assumption Agreement between Consolidated Bank and the Receiver for the five banks. Under the Agreement, Consolidated Bank has acquired all deposits and other specified liabilities, and good assets of the five banks. To finance the gap between the liabilities and good assets assumed by Consolidated Bank, the Government has issued a bond of up to GH 5.76 billion. Consolidated Bank will assume the branches and staff of the five banks and will operate its head office from the Manet Tower C, Airport City, Accra. All customers will have immediate access to their funds through the existing branches and ATMs of the five banks. No customers of uniBank, Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, or Construction Bank will lose their deposits. All deposits in the five banks are safe. We expect that the new bank will be better governed and managed to become a strong indigenous bank to support Ghanas economic transformation. The Government has assured the Bank of Ghana that it will be providing financial support to other indigenous banks as needed, to help them meet the minimum capital requirement of GH400 million by 31st December 2018. The Government has indicated that such support will be limited to indigenous banks that are solvent, well governed and managed, in full compliance with the Bank of Ghanas regulatory requirements, and able to demonstrate that they have been unable to access private sector solutions for recapitalization due to market conditions. Additionally, the Government has committed to further explore policy interventions needed to make the entire financial system more robust, for the benefit of the Ghanaian economy. The Bank of Ghana remains committed to supporting the orderly development of Ghanas banking sector, including indigenous Ghanaian banks, while promoting a strong and resilient sector to drive Ghanas economic growth. In keeping with this commitment, the Bank of Ghana will take additional steps to ensure that all relevant parties whose actions contributed to the failure of the five banks are held accountable through administrative, civil, and criminal actions as appropriate. Background The Bank of Ghana has taken the above measures as part of its efforts to address legacy problems in the banking sector and to restore the stability and resilience of the financial system. While some of the weaknesses in the sector were attributable to macroeconomic factors, a trend of poor corporate governance, poor risk management practices, related party transactions that were not above board, regulatory non-compliance, and poor supervision (questionable licensing processes and weak enforcement) had emerged over the years, leading to a significant build-up of vulnerabilities in the sector. uniBank It would be recalled that on 20th March 2018, the Bank of Ghana appointed KPMG as Official Administrator (OA) for uniBank to help ascertain the true financial condition of the bank, protect depositors funds held by the bank, and explore how the bank could be returned to viability within a period of no later than six months. In line with the requirements of Act 930, KPMG submitted an Inventory of Assets and Liabilities of uniBank (Ghana) Limited on 20th April 2018 (30-day report), and a report on the Financial Conditions and Future Prospects of uniBank (Ghana) Limited on 20th June 2018 (90-day report). KPMGs reports confirmed, based on a detailed review and validation of the financial condition of uniBank that the bank was balance sheet insolvent at the time of their appointment as official administrator and remains so. As official administrator, KPMG made efforts to ascertain the assets and liabilities of the bank and evaluated options for turning around the banks fortunes. KPMG, however, found that the banks operations are not sustainable. Among other things, the banks interest income and other sources of income are insufficient to cover the associated cost of funds of underlying borrowings and liabilities, as well as overheads of about GH0.31 billion per annum. A significant portion of the banks loan book which forms the largest component of the banks assets, is non-performing. The earning capacity of the bank continues to deteriorate. In addition, the banks governance and internal control environments have been assessed as weak, with significant deficiencies in credit underwriting and loan approval process, compliance and reporting. Key findings from KPMGs reports indicated serious corporate governance, risk management, compliance and management flaws, as well as unlawful transactions involving shareholders, related parties, and connected parties. In particular: uniBank had given out amounts totaling GH1.6 billion to shareholders and related parties in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930. In addition, these shareholders and related parties had also been given amounts totaling GH3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the banks loan portfolio. They were also not secured with collateral, and attracted no interest income for uniBank. Altogether, shareholders and related parties of uniBank had taken out an amount of GH5.3 billion, constituting 75 percent of total assets of the bank; Out of total customer deposits of GH4.3 billion, GH2.3 billion was not disclosed to the Bank of Ghana. Loans and advances to customers were also overstated by GH1.3 billion in prudential returns to the Bank of Ghana; Over 89% of uniBanks loans and advances book of GH3.74 billion as of 31st May 2018 was classified as non-performing, in addition to amounts totalingGH3.7 billion given out to shareholders and related parties which were not reported as part of the banks loan portfolio; After making allowances for impairments to recognise the deterioration in the quality of uniBanks assets and other requirements under Bank of Ghanas capital adequacy framework, uniBank was balance sheet insolvent with negative shareholders funds of GH6.78 billion as at 31 May 2018 (representing assets of GH 2.38 billion less liabilities of GH9.15 billion); The bank therefore has a capital deficit of GH7.4 billion, compared to the regulatory minimum of GH 400 million; After making adjustments to uniBanks balance sheet to offset outstanding debts totaling GH 428,817,961 owed it by Government contractors (backed by Interim Payment Certificates issued by the Government), the banks liabilities (including an amount of GH 3.04 billion owed to the Bank of Ghana) remain significantly more than its assets, and is therefore insolvent To summarise, as of 31st May 2018, uniBank was insolvent, with a capital deficit of GH7.4 billion (compared to the regulatory minimum of GH 400 million), and a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of negative 74.65% (compared to the regulatory minimum of 10%). uniBank is also cash-flow insolvent, given that a significant portion of the itsassets are locked up in interest-free loans and other advances to its shareholders and related parties. As a result of the financial condition of the bank, it has continued to survive largely on liquidity support to meet maturing liabilities including operating expenses. As of June 2018, total liquidity support that has been provided to uniBank was GH3.1 billion, including approximately GH 927.2 million provided since the appointment of KPMG in March 2018. KPMG estimates that uniBank will need additional liquidity support estimated at GH3.0 billion through the end of 2018 to help meet overdue and maturing obligations and operating expenses. Further reliance on liquidity support at this stage is unsustainable, and the banks continued inability to honour outstanding obligations to depositors including financial institutions, public sector institutions, and others, continues to fuel liquidity pressures in the financial system. uniBanks shareholders and related parties have admitted to acquiring several real estate properties in their own names using the funds they took from the bank under questionable circumstances. Promises by these shareholders and related parties to refund monies by mid-July 2018 and legally transfer title to assets acquired back to uniBank have failed to materialize. Based on the Bank of Ghanas review of KPMGs assessment of the financial condition of uniBank, the Bank of Ghana has concluded that uniBank is insolvent and has no reasonable prospect of rehabilitation, or a reasonably credible path to viability. In arriving at this conclusion, the Bank of Ghana has carefully considered the options provided under Act 930 to rehabilitate a bank under official administration. The Bank of Ghana finds that, in the interest of promoting financial stability, protecting the interests of depositors and lenders, minimising the costs to the tax payer, and restoring integrity in the financial sector, the only reasonable option is to fully resolve the bank by revoking its banking licence and winding down its affairs through a receiver appointed by the Bank of Ghana. The Royal Bank (Royal) Royal Bank was licensed as a universal bank in October 2012. It has over the last few years experienced solvency and acute liquidity challenges. An on-site examination conducted by the Bank of Ghana in 31st March, 2018 revealed a number of irregularities. The Bank of Ghana appointed an advisor for Royal Bank in May 2018 to advise management of the bank, with the primary mandate to stabilize and improve the affairs of the bank. Based on the Bank of Ghanas assessment, Royal is insolvent and faced with acute liquidity challenges. Specifically: The bank suffered severe capital impairment due to under-provisioning for loans, over estimation of investments with other financial institutions, and overstatement of capital on account of fixed assets which were rejected by the Bank of Ghana for capital purposes. This resulted in an adjusted capital of negative GH484 million, yielding a CAR of negative 80.53 percent. a capital deficiency of GH567.78 million and a net-worth of negative GH498.63 million as at 31st May, 2018; The bank has persistently faced serious liquidity challenges since September 2017, resulting in the continuous breach of the cash reserve ratio required by section 36 of Act 930. It has survived on liquidity support totaling GH 295 million; Its non-performing loans constitute 78.79 percent of total loans granted, owing to poor credit risk and liquidity risk management controls; A number of the banks transactions totaling GH161.92 million were entered with shareholders and related parties structured to circumvent single obligor limits under Act 930, conceal related party exposure limits under Act 930, and to overstate the capital position of the bank for the purpose of complying with the capital adequacy requirement. The Beige Bank Limited The Beige Bank commenced banking operations in December 2017 after operating as a savings and loans company since [ ]. A special examination conducted by the Bank of Ghana into the affairs of the bank six months after the commencement of its operations, revealed that: Funds purportedly used by the banks parent company to recapitalize were sourced from the bank through an affiliate company and in violation with regulatory requirements for bank capital. In particular, an amount of GH163.47 million belonging to the bank was placed with one of its affiliate companies (an asset management company) and subsequently transferred to its parent company which in turn purported to reinvest it in the bank as part of the banks capital. The placement by the bank with its affiliate company amounted to 86.86% of its net own funds as at end June 2018, thereby breaching the regulatory limit of 10%. Furthermore, the purported use of the same funds by the parent company of the bank to reinvest in the bank was in contravention of the Bank of Ghanas requirements for bank capital. Also, the bank has not been able to recover these funds for its operations. The bank persistently breached the cash reserve requirement (CRR) of 10% (CRR at 23 July, 2018 was 1.97%) since the beginning of January 2018; The quality of the banks loan portfolio had seriously deteriorated resulting in a Non-Performing Loans Ratio (NPL) of 72.80%; The banks Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) was assessed to be negative 17.18% as against the regulatory minimum of 10%, thus, recording a capital deficit of GH159,162,557.64, rendering the bank insolvent. Sovereign Bank Limited (Sovereign) Sovereign Bank Limited was licensed as a universal bank in January 2016 and began operations in April 2016. As part of Bank of Ghanas investigations into the failure of Capital Bank Limited (currently in receivership), it emerged that Sovereign Banks initial capital contributed by its shareholders was funded from transfers from Capital Bank which had been presented to the Bank of Ghana as investments on behalf of the bank. Subsequent to its licensing, a substantial amount of the banks capital was placed with another financial institution as an investment for the bank. The bank has however not been able to retrieve this amount from the investment firm with which it was placed, and it has emerged that the investments were liquidated by the shareholders and parties related to them. Following enquiries by the Bank of Ghana, the promoters of the bank admitted that they did not pay for the shares they acquired in the bank. The promoters of the bank have since surrendered their shares to the bank, while the directors representing those original shareholders have since resigned. In April 2018, the Bank of Ghana appointed an Advisor to advise the management of the bank with a view to improving the affairs of the bank. Following further deterioration in the capital of the bank due to its inability to recover the investments placed with financial institutions, as well as impairments to its loan book, its capital adequacy ratio is currently negative 11. The Bank of Ghana has concluded that Sovereign Bank is insolvent, and that there is no reasonable prospect of a return to viability. The bank is unable to meet daily obligations as they fall due. Liquidity support granted so far to the bank amounts to GH12 million as of May 2018. The bank has not been able to publish its audited accounts for end-December, 2017 breaching section 90 (2) of Act 930. The banks current situation has resulted in persistent breaches of key regulatory requirements and prudential limits. The Construction Bank Limited (Construction Bank) Construction Bank was licensed in May 2017 and commenced operations in December 2017. In the course of the official administration of uniBank, the Bank of Ghana discovered certain transactions involving Construction Bank. Further investigations revealed that: the initial minimum paid up capital of the bank provided by its promoter/shareholder, was funded by loans obtained from NIB Bank Limited (GH34 million) and uniBank (Ghana) Limited (GH61.00 million), contrary to section 9 (d) of Act 930; An amount of GH80 million out of the amounts reported as the banks paid up capital and purportedly placed with NIB and uniBank, remains inaccessible to the bank; The banks inability to inject additional capital to restore its capital adequacy to the minimum capital of GH 120 million required at the date of licensing threatens the safety of depositors funds and the stability of the banking system. Owing to the banks inability to access investments purportedly made in its name with other financial institutions, the Bank of Ghana has concluded that a total of GH80 million of the banks GH120 million initial paid up capital is unavailable to the bank for its operations, leaving an amount of GH 40 million (one-third of the minimum capital of GH 120 million). The Bank of Ghana has since requested the banks shareholder to recapitalize it to the minimum capital required at the time of its licensing. While the shareholder submitted plans to the Bank of Ghana, these plans have not yielded any 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 Finally the Bank of Ghana (BOG) the apex bank has spoken. Five indigenous banks have been fused into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited. It was obvious that these indigenous banks had turned the corner as they showed symptoms of stress in their operations. Worries had been expressed about what could befall these banks especially following the apex banks minimum capital deposit December deadline. By this directive, the apex bank had subtly pressed the alarm button about the unacceptable state of these banks. As we waited for what the regulator was going to do in the likely event of the banks not able to meet the deadline, many opinions regarding the options at the disposal of the BOG were put forth. A catch 22 situation was obvious. Not responding to the situation was not going to be good for the banking sector and dealing with it head-on could encourage a panic outcome and erosion in confidence in the banking sector. Applying the sledgehammer in a manner that could see the said banks compulsorily folding up without an acceptable exit strategy would have had disturbing consequences with far-reaching implications. We recall President Akufo-Addos call on the regulator to be mindful about the interests of indigenous banks as it considered the various options in the area of reforming the banking sector. It would appear that with the merger of the five banks, as it has turned out, the apex bank has not done badly especially as there is no likelihood of the merger causing an offloading of staff. The merger as has taken place would obviate the chances of offering foreign banks the opportunity of a monopoly which without doubt would not have served our interest. With their home countries benefitting more from their operations overseas, such a monopoly of joint stock banking in Ghana could definitely not have been in our interest. It is instructive to question how we came to this corner. It would inure to our interest if we probe what pushed the indigenous banks to the precipice. This way, a future recurrence would be obviated. What happened to the outcome of a probe into the operations of these indigenous banks? Putting this on the public space would be in our interest as a country. It would be worthwhile interrogating the manner in which licences were especially issued to these banks. Determining the level of political interference and the obvious relaxation of standards and how these offered the catalyst for the current situation is important in our study. We are interested in the level of commitment of the apex bank in going to manage the aftermath of the timely intervention. A poor handling of the aftermath can obviously lead to erosion of confidence in the banking industry; the repercussions of which are all too clear in a country which is already under-banked. People keeping their monies outside the banks as a result of lost confidence should be parried by appropriate measures by the regulator such as regular supervision and monitoring. The banking industry is a mirror of the economy and so any ailment, no matter the size, must be addressed adequately by the regulator by all means. We hope that the timely intervention would serve the purpose for which it was applied. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. By Zang Jiansheng, Luo Jinmu BEIJING, Aug. 2 (ChinaMil) -- In mid-July, the National Defense University (NDU) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent above 60 cadets majoring in joint combat command to Japan, the Philippines, Uzbekistan and Turkey respectively for study. At the same time, the PLA National Defense University held a seminar on national defense security policy and other topics with a visiting delegation of the Korea National Defense University. It is learned that in the first half of this year, the PLA NDU has sent six batches of cadets to study abroad and received 42 foreign military delegations for visits and academic exchanges. In recent years, the PLA NDU has actively strengthened strategic cooperation with renowned military academies around the world, and established contacts with armed forces and military academies in more than 100 countries. They have also carried out in-depth practical cooperation in specialized personnel training and military professional education, which has laid foundation to broaden cadets international strategic vision and cultivate talents in joint combat command. Up to now, the PLA NDU has established official exchange and cooperation ties with higher military academies in 14 countries, including the US, Japan, Australia and Mozambique. It will sign Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with academies in Egypt, Laos, Peru and other countries this year. The National Defense University of the Chinese PLA is becoming a well-known and influential platform for international academic exchanges, opening a window for the world to understand the Chinese military, said the president of the National Defense Studies Institute (NDSI) of Thailand. Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, has warned that Ghana risked not achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Three, if access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Rights of People with Disabilities (PWDs), were overlooked. Mr Agyeman-Manu, whose address was read on his behalf at a stakeholders forum on Improving Universal Access to SHR and Rights of PWDs, called for a conscious effort to target the numerous barriers that confronted these groups of persons in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. He also called on Civil Society Organisations and all other health partners to intensify their advocacies for the review of the Disability Act, Act 715 of 2006, to clearly spell out the SRH and Rights for PWDs, and to compel service providers to recognize these groups as the beneficiaries of Rights to the services. He mentioned that gaps and barriers, such as physical, educational, economical and communication continue to exist, affecting over 50 per cent of PWDs. He said access to specific health services, including cancer screening and Family Planning were abysmal among this group of people, leading to increased morbidity and preventable deaths. The forum, which was organised by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), in partnership with the French Embassy in Accra, was therefore to set the stage for a national dialogue, to come up with a comprehensive strategic policy guidelines for promoting the sexual Rights of PWDs. Mr Agyeman-Manu explained that the SDG-3, had specific targets to ensure access to SRH care and UHC, stressing that, Ghana will not realise its SDG-3 target if SRH needs of PWDs are not adequately addressed through a robust financial mechanism and an effective Primary Health Care System. He said such a move would facilitate the increased access covering the delivery of health care for these and other marginalized groups. He also pointed out that although the country was a signatory to a number of International Conventions on Disability Rights, and had its own internal Constitutional and legal frameworks, as well as the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 Act 715, PWDs continue to be marginalised and abused by society. Mr Agyeman-Manu said PWDs, continued to experience stigmatization and deprivation of their SRH and Rights, which prevented their effective progress in society and limit their full participation in mainstream activities on equal basis with others. Studies, he said, had revealed that in Ghana, PWDs, particularly the hearing and visually impaired, as well as the physically challenged, were increasingly vulnerable to abuses such as rape, defilement, sexual harassment and assault, and also lacked access to SRH information services. They were also often abused by health service providers and institutions of care, who failed to provide them with SRH information to enable them to make informed and independent decisions of their own, he said. He said the government however recognised the critical role of the health system to achieving national development, hence its vision to ensure that the rights to good health for all Ghanaians would be guaranteed through a systemic health sector with sustainable capacity to deliver affordable, equitable and easily assessable service to all. The Health Minister said to realise this, the government hoped to expand health promotion locally, scale up disease prevention strategies and improve access to curative and emergency services through vigorous human resource and health infrastructure development, and strengthening of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). These strategies would ensure that Primary Health Care (PHC) was available to all citizens, taking into consideration the findings from the Household and Facility Care study. He also commended the efforts of the ARHRs, the French Embassy and other partners, for organizing the forum, and pledged the Ministrys readiness to adopt the recommendations. This would form relevant decision making in the health sector and contribute to the SRH needs of PWDs, and collectively strengthen its collaboration with all stakeholders to improve these needs. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Member of Parliament for South Dayi has re-echoed the National Democratic Congresss (NDC) dissatisfaction with the Electoral Commissioner nominee. Rockson Dafeamekpor Tuesday argued that Jean Adukwei Mensa is a known sympathiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and is therefore unfit to occupy the referee position in election matters for the country. Speaking on the AM Show on the Joy News channel on Multi TV, Mr Dafeamekpor said his party has evidence to prove that Jean Mensa and President Nana Akufo-Addo have a personal relationship. This the NDC MP argues has the potential to undermine the head of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) role at the elections governing body. We have evidence to suggest that she visits the president often. Why would she visit the President, are they acquaintancesso we are saying that if she occupies this position she would not be neutral and she would not be apolitical, Mr Dafeamekpor said. The NDC is also opposed to the nominee for the deputy position, Dr Asare Bossman. He is currently head of Political Science Department of the University of Ghana. Mr Dafeamekpor says the analyst has made public statements that damn the NDC and favour the NPP; for which reason they [NDC] cannot trust his judgement as a referee. we have overturned public statements attributable to him damming NDC and favouring the NPP, he said. However, President and Founder of policy think tank IMANI Africa has lauded Jean Mensas nomination; describing the NDCs position as perplexing. Franklin Cudjoe Franklin Cudjoe says Jean Mensas role at IEA makes her fit for the job. She understands exactly what should happen at the EC, he told Daniel Dadzie on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Tuesday. However, scores of people have criticised president Akufo-Addo for not engaging in broad stakeholder consultation before nominating the new EC bosses. This, private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu has described as a slap in our faces. His comments come in reaction to Akufo-Addos call for broad stakeholder consultation in 2015 when the then President John Mahama was appointing Charlotte Osei to chair the EC. Martin Kpebu Mr Akufo-Addo and the NPP vehemently opposed Mrs Oseis appointment because they argued that there should be much consultation due to the importance of the office. The EC Chairmanship became vacant earlier this year after a judicial committee set up to investigate Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, found them guilty of procurement breeches and recommended their removal in accordance with Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution. Veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako and another are however in court challenging her removal. Source: myjoyonline.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 National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Kofi Adams says the party will by the end of this week voice out its displeasure about certain government policies and happenings in the country. He says the party after organizing a successful burial ceremony for the late Vice President, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah Arthur, is organizing itself to hit back strongly at government. Speaking on Okay FM's Ade Akye Abia programme, he explained that it is not that the main opposition looks unconcern about the hardship and poor governance of the NPP government. "We are putting together series of issues along side our elections, by the close of this week, you will hear from us. A lot of things have gone wrong under this government," he stated. The opposition NDC had planned a series of demonstrations to register their protest about the governance of the country by the current administration, but the untimely demise of Ghana's former vice president had subsequently halted activities of the opposition NDC. Among key issues of concern to the opposition NDC is the appointment of a new Electoral Commissioner and the renegotiation of the Ameri deal which the Minority thinks is an act of corruption being perpetuated by the ruling NPP government. President Did Not Err Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has thrown out an application seeking to place an injunction on the President from appointing a new Electoral Commissioner following the sacking of Mrs. Charlotte Osei. The plaintiff, Fafali Nyonator argued that the President be prevented from continuing with the process of appointing a new EC until an earlier suit challenging the legality of the process used to dismiss Charlotte Osei and her deputies is determined. However, the seven member panel at the Supreme Court disallowed the injunction application; stating that Article 2 clause 2 of the 1992 Constitution makes available remedies for a reinstatement if the court does find the removal of Charlotte Osei unconstitutional. AMERI Deal "Stinks" The John Mahama administration in 2015 signed a contract with Africa and Middle East Resources Investment Group (AMERI) Energy, to rent the 300MW of emergency power from AMERI. This was at the peak of the countrys power crisis. The power agreement with UAE-based AMERI Energy deal cost $510 million. But according to the NPP administration, it found out that the government had been shortchanged by AMERI as they presented an overpriced budget, and were overpaid by $150 million. The new administration thus commenced a renegotiation process to ensure value for money. However, the President on Monday, July 30, by an Executive Order approved the Novation and Amendment Agreement of the AMERI Energy deal, seeking to buy out the $510million deal from Ameri and hand it over to a third company, Mytilineos for 15 years. A deal NDC MPs argue that it will cost the country much more than the original one. The Energy Ministry, however, insists the deal is in the best interest of the country. The new deal when approved will last for 15 years instead of the original 5. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] 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 No one is above the laws of Ghana, not even politicians or party flagbearers; this is what Nii Amarh Sogbla Family of Haatso-Osu, custodians of Haatso lands, is telling founder and leader of the All People's Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga. Hassan Ayariga is reported to have acquired about 40 acres of land belonging to the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) in the Haatso area. Following reports, the APC leader is said to have acquired the land without permit and cautioned by the land owners to vacate the vicinity but he refused, hence going ahead to build a surrouding wall around the vast portion of his land. This alleged blatant disregard to the directives by the Land Commission by Hassan Ayariga led some Police personnel and land guards to demolish the wall on Friday, July 27, 2018; after several warnings to him to quit building. A UTV news crew visited the site where in an interview with Hassan Ayariga, he revealed that he had acquired a permit and done nothing untoward for his project to be ruined due to the wrath of the land owners. He pulled out documents and a cheque to corroborate his land acquisition. But addressing the issues, the Nii Amarh Sogbla Family has stated categorically that Mr. Ayariga encroached on the land with "impunity" despite attempts by the Police to stop any developments on the said parcel of land. In a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com and signed by the Chief of Haatso, Nii Amarh Sogbla IV, Nii Amarh Sogbla Family reveals they are the legal owners of the land and has not leased it out to Hassan Ayariga, therefore denying his claims of acquistion of the land. "The state of encroachment has intensified with personalities such as Hassan Ayariga taking more than 40 acres of the land with impunity and building fence wall around it even though he was instructed by the Police to stop any developments on the said parcel of land due to some reports that were made to the Police. "...there has been the emergence of armed land guards in the area protecting these unlawful developments and threatening the lives of the Nii Amarh Sogbla family members and the people of Haatso. In two separate site visits by the Police, several persons were arrested on the site including Hassan Ayariga. These people are yet to be properly charged and prosecuted", the statement read. Setting the record straight, the Nii Amarh Sogbla Family noted that "the said Haatso portion of the State land for the GAEC is the ancestral land of the Nii Amarh Sogbla Family of Haatso-Osu, the allodia of all Haatso lands. We wish to state categorically that we have not sold any parcel of land falling in the area marked out by E.I 75 of 1973 to any individual or organization. In the year 1973, the Government of Ghana via an Executive Instrument, E.I 75 of 1973 proposed and started the process of acquisition of 2002.58 acres of land for the generation of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. There were several families whose lands formed part of the said 2002.58 acres which was acquired by the government for the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. The Nii Amarh Sogbla Family of Haatso-Osu, had 104.38 acres of their land forming part of the 2002.58 proposed acquisition. E.I 75 was published in the year 1973. They further revealed that the government has failed to pay compensations to the families they acquired the lands from 45 years on. During the early 1990s, the management of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) reviewed the southern area and proposed releasing some areas mainly because compensation had not been paid to the land owners and also because of heavy encroachment. The review was done after various discussions and site inspection involving all the stakeholders including GAEC, Land owners, Ga District Assembly, Lands Commission Officers and the members of the Permanent Site Advisory Committee. As part of the review, 104.38 acres northeastern area east of the stream which belongs to Nii Amarh Sogbla family of Haatso was to be released to the owners (Haatso). This statement is captured in the report by District Director, Town and Country Planning Department of the Ga District Assembly. They added that they have done everything possible to keep encroachers like Hassan Ayariga off their property and in 2017 sought an order of mandamus to register in the heads of these encroachers who they owners of the land are but to no avail. It is sad to note that despite the court ruling and the restrain from the Nii Amarh Sogbla family, some persons continue to steal and encroach on the Haatso portion of the GAEC acquisition even though it is a State land until the legal and official release is done. We have warned the people several times but our warnings have fallen on deaf ears. According to them, their land stretches from all that tract of land with the village of Haatso therein lying north of the University of Ghanato cross the Madina-Kwabenya road again until it meets the old Aburi road, now the Accra Agbogba motor road and goes north-eastwards to the point of commencement. They further accused authorities of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission both present and past of their involvement in the unlawful sales of their lands. We wish to state categorically that the State institution that is the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission has failed to utilize and protect the land that was acquired for them and that some Directors both present and past have been involved in the unlawful sales and encroachment of the Haatso portion of the State acquisition. The Lands Commission has been of immense assistance to ward off the encroachers but they need more help from the State institution that has been tasked to protect lives and property in the country. We, the people of Haatso, are law abiding citizens and have waited for about 45 years for the government to either release our land to us or pay us the appropriate compensation. They therefore are calling on the appropriate State authorities to charge and prosecute offenders like the APC leader, Hassan Ayariga, and ensure they face the full rigors of the law. All persons are equal and no one is above the law, they stressed in the statement which also purports in its heading that Mr. Ayariga pulled a gun on workers of Ga East Assembly as it read Stealing and unlawful encroachment of Haatso portion of State lands acquired for the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission via Executive Instrument (E.I) 75 of 1993 and matters arising leading to Hassan Ayariga pulling gun on workers of Ga East Assembly and Directors of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. Below are land claim documents by the Nii Amarh Sogbla Family: Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Former Consul General to Dubai, Daniel Osei, has claimed that former Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, who passed on recently was indeed treated shabbily by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration under which he served. Mr. Osei, who apparently gave credence to the outburst of Mrs Amissah-Arthur during the final funeral rites of her husband, said the former vice president was a shining star but some handlers of ex-President John Mahama frustrated his efforts. The circumstances surrounding the alleged maltreatment of the former vice president started unraveling when his wife Matilda lambasted perceived detractors of her husband at the funeral last Friday. The glaring hypocrisy, which was being displayed in the form of tributes, appeared to have irked his wife Matilda during the final funeral rites of the ex-Vice President last Friday at the Accra International Conference Centre. She clearly could not take it any longer when she decided to let everything off her chest by launching unprecedented vitriolic attack on her husbands detractors, leaving Ghanaians to wonder what might have gone wrong. Over the last few weeks, I have been amazed at the number of people who have come to show us love, and I asked myself is this Ghana? Are all these people in Ghana? Because the maligning, the lies, the treachery, the wickedness, the deliberately (sic) changing things so that they could look better than others, the mischievousness I ask myself is this Ghana? I ask myself is this my own husband that people have come to pay tribute to? Intended Target Mrs Amissah-Arthurs attack, according to insiders, was directed particularly at some elements in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who did everything to frustrate him when he served as a vice president. In the ensuing heat, Mr. Osei, who appears not to see eye to eye with former President Mahama, who appointed him as Consul General, claimed some persons around the former president made sure Mr. Amissah-Arthur was never successful in office. He said the late Amissah-Arthurs wife did not speak out of context and said he believed the widow did not direct her anger towards the political opponents of her late husband but elements in the NDC. She spoke directly to individuals. Those individuals who deliberately changed stuff to bring down his husband, those individuals who maligned him, the former envoy said, adding a lot of people didnt even know that late Amissah-Arthurs child is an eye doctor who participated in the first successful eye transplant; a very big accomplishment. Just look at this example, I just mentioned, that his child was part of the team that conducted the first surgery on eye transplant and people within the Presidency deliberately killed this story because they dont want him to shine better than others, Ambassador Osei alleged. To him, Mr Amissah-Arthur was an asset to the party and a real gem. Those who were with him at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) during his tenure will testify that he was a person of integrity and he performed honourably. Hes very hard working and respects everybody. Source: Daily Guide 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 Following the alleged endorsement of former President John Dramani Mahama, some of the delegates have decided to stage an objection calling it a deliberate mind game by Mahama loyalists to help his bid to lead the NDC again in 2020. The picture that the MPs attempted to paint does not reflect what is really happening on the ground in the party. I can tell you that many Constituency executives received the news of the so called endorsement list with anger, Evans Amarh, Deputy Constituency Organiser for Tema East NDC said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday. Such mind games will only hurt everybody at the end of the day. I can tell you that if anybody at all is enjoying support among executives of the party at the Constituency level, it is the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin. He said those who compiled the list of supposed 94 MPs who endorsed former President John Mahama for the 2020 flagbearership did so without even consulting their constituents. Although some of the MPs have since confirmed their endorsement, others have also denied it claiming they were deceived into signing the document. Mr Joseph Naabu, MP for Yunyoo, for instance said he was tricked into appending his signature to the document under the pretext of signing an attendance book in Parliament. He also revealed that as many as 50 MPs had confessed to him that they had been misled to sign the document. The MP for Keta, Mr Richard Quashigah also made it clear he was for Prof. Joshua Alabi and could not have signed up to endorse Mahama. Meanwhile, Mr Francis Anyidoho, Down City NDC branch secretary who is also a delegate of the party was not happy at turn of events saying MPs were adults who should have done things in the rightful manner. As for me, as far as I am concerned, the best person to lead us now is Mr Alban Bagbin. Other hopefuls are also good, but we have not heard them pledge to better the lot of delegates who have suffered for the party over the years like he has said. No amount of rough propaganda methods against him will work. Infact victory for Mr Bagbin in the forthcoming NDC Presidential primary is a forgone conclusion Mr. Anyidoho said. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has officially declared the flagbearership contest of the party duly opened. According to Johnson Asiedu Nketia those interested to contest for the flagbearership must officially notify the office of the General Secretary of their intention before embarking on any campaign activity across the country. Addressing a press conference at the partys headquarters in Accra today (Thursday), General Secretary of the party, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia popularly known as General Mosquito explained that members of the party are not to also commit the party structure at all levels to support one particular candidate. "Leadership of the party at all levels should not commit the party's structure to one candidate," he said. The party also indicated that the date for the regional elections which was originally slated for August 25th has been postponed to September 1, 2018. This according to the General Secretary is to enable the party put together some internal measures and also be able to accumulate other party activities within the party's time table. The party indicated that the date for its congress still remains unchanged and will duly come off on September 21, 2018. Mr. Asiedu Nketia also added that the party will on the 7th of December organize its National Congress to elect a flagbearer to lead the party into the 2020 general elections. "Venues for both our National congress and flagbearer elections will be communicated in due course," he indicated. "You all know how hard the economy has become under this government, so we expect you to be modest in your campaign. No extravagant and flashy spending, if you have enough money to spend, kindly direct those funds into party funds for campaign and other party activities. "We are also warning that you will also avoid abusive words in your various campaigns, you must be decorous enough to avert possible acrimony within the rank and file of the party," he advised potential aspirants. He said party members will be inform appropriately when nominations will officially be opened for the various aspirants. The NDC opened nominations for the regional positions on Monday, July 16th to 18th July, 2018. The vetting of the aspirants will be done between August 1 and 6th 2018. This was after the party elected its constituency executives in June 2018. The election of national officers will follow in that order before a presidential candidate is picked on December 7, 2018. About 5 members of the NDC have so far declared their intention to contest as flagbearers of the party ahead of the 2020 polls. They include Ex-President John Mahama, Dr. Ekow Spio Garbah, a former Trades and Industry Minister under the John Mahama government; Former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi; former NHIA boss Sylvester Mensah, and Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo, Alban Bagbin. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] 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 ZANU-PF supporters celebrate the victory of their candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa after Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairwoman Qhubani Moyo announced the results of the presidential elections in Harare, Zimbabwe, Friday Aug. 3, 2018. Mnangagwa, of ZANU-PF party, was declared winner in the first vote after the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) The summer months when air conditioning is considered a necessity are winding down, but a Philadelphia start-up is working to offer improved window units to make it through next year's scorching heat. Kapsul, a company that designed a smaller and quieter air conditioning window unit, raised $2.3 million on crowdfunding platforms Indiegogo and Kickstarter in June 2016, said Chris Myers, a Kapsul late-stage co-founder and the chief operating officer. "It was pretty humbling because you saw the interest of people in the product and their belief that you could do something transformational. And it was real market validation," said Myers, who also is the managing director of the Philadelphia Development Group, which founds, funds, and advises start-ups. "If the interest had been less, the enthusiasm for changing the whole category would've been less." A Kapsul air conditioning window unit is smaller than a traditional one, with handles built into the design and an accompanying window frame adapter for easy installation. Besides the control panel on the front of the units, they can connect to WiFi so the temperature can be adjusted through a phone app. Myers said the most important difference between typical window units and a Kapsul product which costs $499 for pre-orders and $599 at retail was the reduced sound from the air conditioner. "When we did a lot of research, we found that the most common reason for low star ratings on Amazon, for instance, is that they're really loud," Myers said. "They're so loud that people turn them down to have conversations or to make phone calls, and that's not something you really want to live with." Getting their air conditioner to be quieter Myers said the product is about half as loud as a typical one took Kapsul eight redesigns of the engineering involved because the units are "based on technology that really hadn't changed since your grandfather bought an air conditioner. It's ancient technology." The new design is what appealed to Anne Slater, a retired Bryn Mawr College librarian from Lancaster and one of the company's backers, because her air conditioners are "all heavy, I can't lift them, and they're all pretty noisy. I thought it was time to look for something better, and I was enticed by the smaller and quieter aspect of these machines." Start-up expert Robert Moore, cofounder and CEO of intelligence platform Crossbeam and president of Philly Startup Leaders, said Kapsul is at the "intersection of the old and the new" by upgrading familiar technology. "People have cared about air conditioning for far, far longer than they've cared about internet," he said. The company could benefit big-time from a warming planet. And even now its success in crowdfunding is "rooted in there being real consumer demand," Moore said. "When you see something that does this well on Kickstarter, it's evidence that there's market demand out there of real significance beyond Kickstarter." Kapsul's accomplishments on Indiegogo and Kickstarter are a "good way to show people that you can come up with something new and people will buy it," said Jason Sherman, a tech writer and entrepreneur from Philadelphia. "It shows that there are still innovative ways to improve daily lives in society." Sherman said the future of Kapsul depended on whether the company can deliver its new units to backers by its spring of 2019 deadline and then scale up in the future. That deadline has been moved back by about two years. When Kapsul first launched crowdfunding campaigns, the company was called Noira and it had a goal of raising $250,000 to complete the air conditioning units in time for summer of 2017. Co-founders Kurt Swanson, Kapsul's chief executive and engineer, and chief technology officer Donald Pancoe started the company after working as design consultants at Likuma Labs, a product design and engineering consultancy in Philadelphia. Because of the multiple redesigns and amount of time it took to find manufacturing partners, the company had to readjust its expectations. Since the air conditioners which will be manufactured in China were not ready to go by this summer, Swanson said, Kapsul is now taking time before next summer to fine-tune the units. "Rather than rush it out and deliver air conditioners in the wintertime, we're focused on making sure the app is ready, making sure the user experience is great," he said. Some backers were unhappy with the delays and started commenting on the company's crowdfunding pages, so Kapsul hired a new community manager for the nine-member operation to improve transparency and communication with the backers. Once they committed to the new timeline, only about 3 percent of the backers decided to withdraw support, Kapsul's Myers said. In May, Swanson posted a letter to the company's backers on its Indiegogo page, apologizing and taking responsibility for the delays and emphasizing Kapsul's commitment to the new delivery date of April 2019. He also offered compensation to Kapsul's early backers in the form of a one-year extension to the product warranty (extending the total warranty to three years), 40 percent off the backer's next full-price Kapsul purchase, and 10 shares of equity in the company. Ray Bunch, an early Kapsul funder from Chester County with a background in engineering, said he was "never concerned about the timeline" but he thinks others' complaints were legitimate and appreciates the increased efforts to communicate with consumers. "If it was a major corporation I was investing in for something new to be delivered, I would've expected something faster, but for it to be a ground-up new product, I don't think two or three years is unrealistic," Bunch said. He said he was willing to wait for a product that showed significant innovation and can improve this part of people's lives. "They've worked really diligently trying to overcome [problems] step-by-step without cheating on the whole innovation idea," he said. For years, Mary Radzinski led a double life. By day, she was a mild-mannered pharmaceutical rep, punching the clock, doing whatever pharmaceutical reps do. By night she was building her rep as a stand-up comic, telling dry, slyly dark jokes at Center City's Helium and other clubs in the city. How dark? Well, she's got this line about how she responds when people ask if she's got any kids: "Like five years ago or so, I would have confidently answered, 'Not yet.'" Pause. "Now, I'm just like, 'Not anymore.' " Not exactly approved pharma rep humor. "It felt like a Superman/Clark Kent scenario," says Radzinski. Only a handful of coworkers and contacts in the medical world knew about her comedy super power. To those few, she was "the comedian rep." And the rest, she says, were pretty surprised when they found out. "There was a lot of 'No way, not her,' " Radzinski recalls with a laugh. "I think they thought I had the personality of, like, a toe." The pharma job paid the bills and made good on her dual degrees in marketing and supply-chain management from Syracuse while comedy provided the thrills. "I always said I was half-assing both, and that once I got the opportunity [I'd] put all my time into comedy," she says. About a year and a half ago, she got laid off and fate nudged her in that direction. "I just sort of said, 'Oh, maybe this is a sign. Or I can just pretend it is.' " Now she spends most of her days writing (in notebooks, index cards, Google docs), keeping up on social media, networking, and trying to book out-of-town dates. This Sunday, she'll celebrate the release of her first comedy album, Discomfortable, at Helium her "home club," as they say in the biz. That's where's she worked her way up from open-mike walk-on to host to her current position as a "featured" comedian. This means she "middles," performing a set after the host and before the headliner. It's led to plenty of out-of-town gigs at the Helium chain's other locations in cities such as Portland and Buffalo, and spots opening for well-known comics like Dave Attell, Jim Norton, and Rosie O'Donnell. "I was the first female host at Helium Philadelphia," Radzinski says. "I am bragging because it took forever." Before that, she cohosted a comedy night at Urban Saloon called Laughs on Fairmount with fellow comedian Carolyn Busa, who has since moved to New York City. Radzinski has watched plenty of her fellow Philly comics leave town for New York or Los Angeles in search of greater opportunities. She's considered it but, having worked her way up through the ranks at Helium, she has a pretty sweet gig right now. And she's seen the city's comedy scene, once dominated by sketch and improv, make room for more stand-up over the years. Radzinski grew up in a small town in upstate New York. After college, she moved to Philly with a friend and though she took notes on things she found funny, it would be five years before she enrolled in a stand-up class at Main Line School Night in Radnor, a three- or four-week course that culminated in a performance for family and friends. "My parents came into town. My brother flew in from Vegas, where he was living at the time. It was a true 'pinch me' moment," she recalls. After that it was another couple years before she tried it again, at an open mike at Urban Saloon. "And that was it. I really started trying." Discomfortable is, in a way, a culmination of everything Radzinski has built for herself since then. It's a tight mix of old and new material, the road-tested bits alongside more recent stuff. "It's kind of like a writing sample," she figures. Something she can point to when people want to know what her act is like. A hyper-local joke made the cut, about seeing a car with one bumper sticker that said "world's greatest dad" and another that said "number one Flyers fan:" "I think it's safe to assume this car has had more than one owner. Just going out on a limb." It's all about surprising the audience, she says. "I like dark. I like misdirection. I like when you don't really know where it's going." She's always adding new material, usually testing it out on smaller showcase-type shows. "I'll say 'yes' because now I'm accountable, and I have to show up there." Two weeks ago she was invited to do a 10-minute set at Good Good Comedy in Chinatown. "I could tell it was a crowd of younger people that probably haven't seen me, that I've never performed for," she says. "I wanted to just do the tried-and-true, I-know-it'll-crush [material] but I forced myself to do new stuff. Some of it worked and some of it didn't, but I was able to leave there knowing, OK, I pushed it forward a little bit." That degree in supply-chain management isn't in much use these days ("I honestly don't think I could give you a log line or anything about what that means"), but being a stand-up does sort of tap into her marketing background. "I think that's become a bigger part of it, certainly," she says. "Within Philly, I think marketing yourself is just, 'Oh don't be a [jerk] to people.' And treat the staff at the clubs well and be respectful of your time. Just being a good person. I think that goes a long way, and a lot of new comics forget about that, or don't realize it." COMEDY Mary Radzinski China's navy will join 26 other nations in military exercises off Australia's north coast this month, but not live-fire drills, Australia's defense minister said on Wednesday at a time of strained ties between the two nations. The naval exercises are being hosted by Australia and will also include its major ally the United States, which expelled China in May from its military training around Hawaii -- a response to what it sees as Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea. Ties between Australia and China hit a low after Canberra passed a raft of laws aimed at thwarting Chinese influence in domestic affairs and also frayed over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. Australia has offered diplomatic support to U.S. "freedom of navigation" voyages through the South China Sea, and its own vessels encountered Chinese warships there in April. In The Spy Who Dumped Me, Mila Kunis plays Audrey, a woman who believes her ex-boyfriend works for NPR. But that changes one day when he shows up at her place trailed by an army of assassins. No podcast is that bad, so what gives? Turns out the guy (Justin Theroux) is a government agent in possession of a valuable item, and after the movie's noisy and violent prologue, it falls to Audrey to take it to Vienna, and deliver it to safe hands. What follows is a bawdy, bloody but only sporadically funny spy spoof and buddy comedy that pairs Kunis with Kate McKinnon, playing Audrey's hyper-protective and just plain hyper best friend, Morgan. Writer-director Susanna Fogel has given her leads a reasonable supply of one-liners and wisecracks, but she hasn't really given them characters to play. All we really know about Audrey at the outset of The Spy Who Dumped Me is that she's a supermarket cashier at a place modeled on Trader Joe's (she's still wearing her Hawaiian shirt and khakis when she arrives in Vienna), and even that much is hard to believe. McKinnon's Morgan is a collection of off-the-wall antics and quirks, and while some of them suit the SNL comic's unpredictable energy, they don't add up to a person. The two leads spend most of the movie in a fruitless search for their characters, and looking for some kind of chemistry, which remains elusive throughout. (The deficiencies of The Spy Who Dumped Me are also heightened by the fact that we've seen similar movies done so well, and so recently Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in The Heat, and McCarthy in Spy). Fogel also whiffs on would-be romance between recently dumped Audrey and the handsome British agent (Sam Heughan) who follows the duo from Vienna to Prague to Paris and then to Berlin. (The movie is expensive-looking, and appears to have been shot on location.) The Spy Who Dumped Me has good supporting talent Fred Melamed, also Jane Curtin and Paul Reiser as Morgan's parents (the Freemans!), although Reiser is stuck with a gag about why he can't understand the workings of the TV remote. Most of the ancillary laughs go to Hasan Minhaj, who plays a CIA agent who can't get through a sentence without mentioning that he went to Harvard. The movie's R-rated violence is sometimes jarring in the context of the breezy comic tone Fogel wants to establish, but at the same time the director shows a real talent for action some of the stuff is as good and as lucid and efficient as the recent Mission: Impossible (the motorcycle stunts are almost duplicates), and most are better than Skyscraper. The blend of action and comedy is best expressed in an amusing role for Ivanna Sakhno as an Eastern bloc gymnast-turned-model-turned-assassin who's assigned to kill the two women, and ultimately faces off with McKinnon during a Cirque du Soleil high trapeze battle. McKinnon lands safely, even if most the jokes do not. Scene from Season 12 of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," with creator/star Rob McElhenney, Danny DeVito, Kaitlin Olson, and Glenn Howerton. On Thursday, Fox announced it had picked up a new comedy pilot from McElhenney that would costar Olson and Leah Remini Read more BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. Kaitlin Olson will join the Fox pilot cocreated by her It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia costar and husband Philly's Rob McElhenney, Fox co-CEO Dana Walden announced Thursday during the Television Critics Association's summer meetings. If picked up to series, the move would bring Olson, who starred in The Mick, back to Fox, and would pair her with Leah Remini, who will play Jean, a woman with largely conservative views who happens to be married to a woman, Birdie (Olson). "Together they're raising Jean's two boys with the help of the boys' father and Jean's ex-husband, Richie, who currently lives in the garage," according to Fox. McElhenney, who graduated from St. Joe's Prep, created It's Always Sunny, which enters its 13th season on Sept. 5 on FXX, with a 14th season already ordered. The Fox pilot, still untitled, was cocreated with Rob Rosell. Kaitlin Olson will join the Fox pilot cocreated by her It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia costar -- and husband -- Philly's Rob McElhenney Pat Pomroy, left, has a sign language conversation with her granddaughter, Rachael, 9, as they prepare to have a pool party at their Croydon, PA home on July 15, 2018. Read more The Sunday pool party at the Pomroys' home in Bucks County looked like countless others. The parents sat around a table, chatting. The kids jumped in the water, screaming down the water slide, gleefully ignoring the grownups. The adults, not surprisingly, were talking about the kids. But their conversation would have puzzled many parents. "Have you all heard of the rule of nine?" Pat Pomroy, grandmother to two deaf children, asked the group. Pat, 69, demonstrated what she had recently learned in an American Sign Language conversation class, showing how a single sign can take the place of two when referring to certain phrases involving numbers under 10. The information cleared up what had been a mystery to them: why their children seemed to skip signs when talking about their age or the time. "These are the things you don't learn in some of the classes, and this is what's frustrating," said John Collins, whose daughter, Grace Collins-Alicea, is deaf and uses a cochlear implant. When Collins adopted Grace, speech pathologists told him that learning ASL would inhibit her ability to speak, a widespread belief that research has disproven. Collins, 48, decided to learn sign language alongside Grace, 6. He has her name, finger-spelled in ASL, tattooed down one leg. On the other, he has the word "love," also finger-spelled. Grace is also gravitating toward spoken language, affirming what the pool party parents all believe: Helping their deaf children to embrace deaf culture by learning ASL does not mean they will reject the hearing world, or miss out on opportunity. "At the heart of who we are as people is our language," said Sister Kathleen Schipani, the director of the Deaf Apostolate, a parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that caters to the deaf community. "So, at the heart of the deaf community is sign language." And as challenging as it is to learn a new language as an adult, the parents are doing their best, convinced that it is the best way to support their children. "The most successful deaf people are those whose families learn sign language because then they're connected with their families and connected with the community," Schipani said. "When their families do not know sign language, it's a very difficult way of growing up." Gatherings like the pool party are fun for the kids, and crucial for adults who might otherwise feel alone in their efforts. In the United States, fewer than 1 percent of people under the age of 25 report being deaf or hard of hearing, according to the 2010 American Community Survey. Statistics on the total number of Americans who use sign language vary widely, but there appear to be at least a half-million users. "For so many families, the first deaf person they meet is their own child," said Meg Santoro, director for early intervention at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. "That can feel isolating sometimes." However, it's important to the families that their children grow up in a language-rich environment and have access to good education. "No matter what, they have to live in a hearing world," said Pomroy's daughter Theresa, 48, who is the children's aunt. "I don't believe they're naturally at a deficit, but not educating them would be the deficit." I was brainwashed When Kristen Dieffenbacher was 5, a new child joined her class. He, like her, was deaf. But unlike Dieffenbacher, this child knew ASL. Dieffenbacher, who relied on lip reading and speech, started to pick up some signs, and the teacher alerted her parents. After consulting with a doctor, her parents made the decision to separate the two children. "They were afraid I would stop talking and that I would gravitate to sign language," said Dieffenbacher, who is now 30. Dieffenbacher speaks well, although sometimes, she said, people ask her where she's from, confusing her slight speech impediment for an accent. Until college, Dieffenbacher stayed away from ASL. "I was brainwashed into thinking we were somehow better than the people that do sign language," Dieffenbacher said. Eventually, she realized that not knowing ASL was the real impediment. Now fluent in ASL, she works at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Because she learned ASL later in life, she doesn't completely consider herself a part of the deaf community. (Though many members of the community capitalize the word deaf when referencing community, rather than the medical condition, it is lower-cased here for consistency.) Dieffenbacher's family doesn't use ASL. At large family gatherings she finds herself left out of the conversation because lip-reading requires one-on-one communication. "When I started learning sign language, I felt even more disconnected with the hearing world, and I started to transfer into the deaf world," Dieffenbacher said. "I still feel like I'm in the middle between the deaf world and the hearing world." If she were raising a deaf child, she would follow her parents' example only partly. "If I had a deaf kid, I would get them a cochlear implant and I would teach them sign language at the same time," Dieffenbacher said. "I want the child to be able to make a decision about which [they prefer]. I don't want them to miss out on both worlds." Dont overthink it In the Pomroy household, everyone, to some extent, knows how to sign. Both Robert, 12, and his sister Rachael, 9, have been deaf since birth. Their mother, Pat's daughter-in-law, is deaf, but Pat gained custody four years ago because of the parents' drug addiction. >>READ MORE: When their children get hooked on opioids, more grands step up to raise their grandkids. Pomroy teaches a weekly ASL class at her house for friends and family. She recently went to a conference to learn how to hold signing conversations about puberty and sex. "You just need to communicate, no matter how you do it," she said. "Older people like me are so focused on how perfect it has to be, but it doesn't have to be perfect. I've learned not to overthink it." At first, Pomroy said, "my fingers just wouldn't work." So she started practicing whenever she could. Even now, when sitting in traffic, she spells out street signs and billboards. Sometimes she has to remind hearing family members to sign while they talk so Robert and Rachael are always included. But, for the most part, "they're treated no differently than anybody else," their grandmother said. Language and the brain Because some hard-of-hearing children have the opportunity to get cochlear implants early on, many parents delay the use of sign language to determine the success of the implants, Schipani said. As a result, the parents also delay early acquisition of language. "I think there's been a very damaging notion put forth that there is a single path, a single method to language acquisition," Neil McDevitt, executive director of the Deaf Hearing Communication Center, said in an email. Born hard of hearing and now almost entirely deaf, McDevitt has used both spoken and signed language since preschool. Exposure to language from a young age is important to brain development, Santoro said. Deaf infants can experience language deprivation simply because they cannot hear the language around them. Melissa Draganac-Hawk, PSD's director of student affairs, is deaf, as are both of her parents. Her son, 14, is hearing. An early-intervention specialist came into their home to expose Draganac-Hawk's son to spoken English. Far from the fear that learning ASL will alienate a deaf child from the hearing world, her experience is that when hearing family members don't learn ASL, they can drive their children away. "I've seen deaf children [at school] who don't want to go home on Friday afternoon and they come in Monday morning thrilled to be back at school," Draganac-Hawk said. For deaf children to be best supported, they should not be limited to a single method of communication from birth, McDevitt said. "In my view, the most important thing is to use every single option available to you, to discover what works best, and then to keep all of those options open to you as they grow," McDevitt said in the email. Being deaf "is a rich and meaningful experience. There are significant challenges we face, but the richness of the culture and the community we have, for all of its challenges, is equal to what we see in other cultures." The community cente in Queen Village's Weccacoe playground will be demolished to make room for a memorial for a memorial to the formal African American burial ground that occupied the site in the 19th Century. Read more The furor that erupted Thursday when a black doll was found hanging from a wire with a noose around its neck in Queen Village quieted later in the day when two preteen boys one black and one white came forward and said they had put the doll there as a prank. There was nothing racial about their act, they said. The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church, said in an interview Thursday night that the boys admitted the act to NBC10 reporter Rosemary Connors and said they thought the doll was creepy and put it up to scare people. Tyler said he spoke by phone with Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Richard Ross about the new information and "I think everybody is satisfied." Kenney spokesman Mike Dunn said the incident was still under investigation and the police would have more to say on Friday. Tyler said the boys' account corresponded with video surveillance that showed a group of boys playing with the doll. The pastor said the boys did not know about the symbolism of the noose and the history of lynchings in America, and he hoped that this episode could serve as a "teaching moment." A mother with her 3-year-old child discovered the doll Thursday morning at the Weccacoe Playground near Fourth and Catharine Streets and called the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, which investigates hate crimes. The commission told the mother to also call 911, which she did. Part of the playground sits on top of an African American burial ground. That cemetery was established by Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States. Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron reported earlier this year about the historic burial ground at Weccacoe: The [burial ground's] Buckalew's findings fired up the city's civil rights activists, who saw the graveyard's treatment as yet another example of the way African American spaces have been rendered invisible, while alarming Queen Village residents, who feared that an important community center and playground would be unilaterally taken from them. discovery in 2008, by >> READ MORE: City hears concerns about playground, cemetery >> READ MORE: Bethel Burying Ground, a National Historic Site, faces neglect, damage A meeting hall long sat on top of the cemetery. The Queen Village Neighbors Association voted in May to shutter the hall, clearing the way for its demolition so a memorial to the burial ground could be built. Tyler said the memorial should teach children about the nation's fraught racial history. The pastor said he spoke with Kenney on Thursday night and "the mayor, like all of us, was relieved that this was not a malicious act." Before news spread about the boys and the doll, Kenney said earlier in the day that he was "sickened" by the incident. "It is particularly disgraceful to make a sacrilege out of a sacred burial ground," the mayor had said in a statement. "The city will do everything in its power to bring the people responsible to justice for this disgusting act." Kenney added, "Although the investigation is still underway, I want to immediately condemn this despicable act." Early in the day, Police Commissioner Ross had said the incident was "absolutely" a hate crime. "And we are going to deal with it." Also early in the day, Rue Landau, the Human Relations Commission's executive director, had called the doll hanging a "heinous hate crime targeting the African American community." Tyler said the boys, after finding the doll, were on the roof of a neighboring building looking for tennis balls when they found the noose under some leaves. Who left a noose on the roof was unknown, Tyler said. The boys then attached the doll with the noose to a wire extending from the roof to a telephone pole and pushed the doll out of reach. Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article. Archaeologist Doug Mooney helped undertake an exploratory dig at the Bethel Burying Ground in 2013. Caroline Drummond, left, and Brigid Peyton, right, practice Highlands dancing at Peyton's home in Maple Glen, They are going to Scotland this summer to dance at the Edinburgh Fringe. Read more "The main thing about Edinburgh Fringe," says arts executive and philanthropist Louis Bluver, "is that you can really be surprised there." Bluver is explaining why, every August, like many Philly-area folks, he travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, the Auld Reekie ("The Old Smoky One"), ancient seat of queens and kings and home to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Aug. 3-27), the biggest international arts festival in the world. Big means big: This year's will feature a record 56,796 performances of 3,548 shows at 317 venues. The lineup includes theater, music, dance, stand-up, circus, poetry, and more surprise after surprise. Fringe can overwhelm as you walk along the Royal Mile, with street players up and down the road and eager performers "flyering" you (shoving fliers for their shows into your hands and making their 4.5-second pitch). The outburst of creativity overruns the gorgeous medieval town. Some Philadelphia-area folks go as one-time tourists, some as a yearly habit, and some to perform. "Going to Edinburgh Fringe, doing a show, coming back, and doing your show at Philly Fringe, it's weirdly part of being in theater in Philly," says actor Sarah Knittel. Jay Luxion of Mount Laurel has missed one Fringe in the last five: "I took one year off and really regret it," this theater buff says. Gwyn Ennis of Glenside is going to Edinburgh for her second time, mainly to see daughter Matilda and her two Maple Glen friends Brigid Peyton and Caroline Drummond dance in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an evening spectacular with military bands and performance groups from the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth countries, and elsewhere. It plays every weeknight and twice on Saturdays all during August. "They had to interview, apply, audition, get accepted and then pay for their own flight and shoes," Ennis says, "and they dance every night for room and board." It's hard-core: To ensure perfection, all dancers are videotaped every night, and slackers can be replaced. "But the girls love it," Ennis says. "The show is phenomenal." Managing the madness The ways in which visitors manage the madness varies. Bluver, an experienced Fringe-aholic, says his strategy is to restrict himself mainly to shows at the better venues, such as the Traverse Theatre. "If I know a show will get out at 12:15, I work with what's nearby," he says. "I check the schedule and see what's starting at 12:30 or 12:45, something I can walk to. Because there always is. In many cases, something I never would have chosen turns out to be wonderful." Luxion says sometimes the best strategy is no strategy: "The real festival experience is to go with the flow and try things out. It's hit or miss, but that's part of the experience." That seems to be the philosophy of Dawn Willette of Merion Station, who is taking her two children to Edinburgh, the family's first time overseas. "We're not making plans," she says. "We're going to figure out things when we get there. It's a grand adventure." Catherine Beach, a retired executive in Yardley and lover of all things Scottish, is another 2018 first-timer. She's especially fond of Edinburgh, "such a walkable city," she says. "I wonder if I'll like the town as much when it's that crowded I'll bum around, and we'll see." Rosemary Malague, director of the theater arts program at the University of Pennsylvania, takes a group of students over every other year to perform. This year, as the Penn Theatre Ensemble, an all-female cast and crew will do Curio (a Cabinet of Curiosities) by alum Danielle Bainbridge, who recently completed her Ph.D. at Yale and is headed to Northwestern. Curio concerns Millie and Christine McCoy, conjoined twins and former slaves who became celebrities on the 19th-century freak-show circuit. "We have a long tradition over more than 25 years of going to Fringe," Malague says. "It's a tremendous learning opportunity for all of us and we get to see some great shows." And she immediately names two shows on her must-see list for this year that debuted at Philly Fringe. Fringe to Fringe There is a long and crazy tie between the two Fringes. The two shows Malague wants to see are Geoff Sobelle and Steven Dufala's Home, a profound hit at last year's Philly Fringe; and The Underground Railroad Game by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special, a Philly Fringe hit in 2015 and co-winner of the 2017 Obie for best new American theater work. Sobelle, Dufala, Kidwell, and Sheppard are all alums of Pig Iron Theatre. Sobelle's show The Object Lesson took top prize at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe. The road runs both ways: Edinburgh standouts such as Stef Smith's Swallow, Lucas Hnath's The Christians, and Jonny Donahoe's brilliant Every Brilliant Thing regularly come through Philly now. The Philly theater world will be well represented this year. Chris Davis is going for his fifth year in a row. He's sharing a flat with fellow Philly footlighters Knittel and Lee Minora. All will be doing one-person shows as part of Free Fringe (through Aug. 29), a gritty wonderland 402 shows at 35 venues of do-it-yourself plays. Knittel, an Edinburgh newbie, says, "Getting there has been a five-year goal for me. At Free Fringe, they give you a time and a venue for free, and you do everything else yourself, including going out into the street and grabbing people to come see it." Fear of flyering Minora, a second-timer, says, "Last year, I came with Chris Davis, and the first day flyering, I was so terrified, I was handing out fliers in the meekest way possible, and by the end of the festival I was telling people, 'This is the best show you're going to see at the whole festival.' You have to rediscover how much you believe in yourself and your work." Every night all month, Davis will do his solo act Drunk Lion, directed by ubiquitous Barrymore-winner Mary Tuomanen, about an alcoholic king of beasts who makes a new friend. Minora will do White Feminist, a comedy solo she developed during her Wilma Theater residency this year. ("I infused White Feminist with everything I learned the year before at Edinburgh," Minora says.) And Knittel's show is titled Nightmare Fuel, which she calls "a hilarious, sugar-high hellscape that is part teenage exorcism and part naughty slumber party." Post-Edinburgh, Davis comes back home to do a new show, The Presented, at Philly Fringe, where Knittel's Nightmare Fuel will also reignite. Davis says, "At Edinburgh, you have to go through bad shows, where audiences may not like you, hecklers, folks who get up and leave, some of the hardest days in your acting career. And then you'll have some of the best days, maybe right after the hardest ones. It's the best performance training you can get." Movita Johnson-Harrell, supervisor of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Victim Witness Services, center, spoke at an Aug. 1 news conference about a new program for family members of homicide victims. Behind her are from left, DA Larry Krasner, Rafeeqah Sanders (back center), who will be a peer crisis responder, and Stephanie Ledesma, chief operating officer at Aetna Better Health of Pennsylvania. Read more Under a new program, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office will provide immediate support to people whose loved ones are killed in a homicide, District Attorney Larry Krasner and victim-support advocates announced Wednesday. The program, called Philadelphia CARES, is funded by a $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Krasner said at a news conference. The grant will be administered by his office's Victim Witness Services Unit, and the funds will be shared with the Medical Examiner's Office and the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia. The grant will allow the the D.A.'s Office to recruit, train, and deploy 12 peer crisis responders who have lost loved ones to homicide and who come from different ethnic backgrounds and neighborhoods, Krasner said. The program is expected to launch after Labor Day, said Movita Johnson-Harrell, the head of the Victim Witness Services Unit. Her son Charles Andre' Johnson, 18, was fatally shot in 2011. She said the responders would be hired as contractors. CARES stands for Crisis Assistance, Response, and Engagement for Survivors. After its program manager learns about a homicide from the Police Department, two peer crisis responders will be dispatched to speak to the victim's family members wherever they are at the crime scene, a hospital, the Medical Examiner's Office, the Police Department, or the family's home, Johnson-Harrell said. Those responders, she said, will try to notify family members that a loved one was killed, so that a homicide detective is not the one to relay the news. "One thing that happens when you get the news that your loved one has passed is something literally breaks inside of your brain, and you are no longer the person that you were before this incident occurred," Johnson-Harrell said. The responders will be available to assist the family with funeral arrangements, court hearings, food, and other needs, she said. Intensive support services will be provided for up to 45 days after the homicide, after which there will be a "soft handoff to one of our community-based agencies who will then work with that family to make sure that their needs are continued to be met," she said. The responders will act as a bridge between the family members and the office's existing victim-witness coordinators and with victim-service agencies, she said. The grant will allow the Medical Examiner's Office to hire a part-time social worker to provide grief counseling to family members on weekends and some holidays, Krasner said. It will allow the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia which provides counseling services and legal aid and works with students in schools to hire a full-time liaison to support the project and coordinate with the D.A.'s Office. Jennifer Storm, the state's victim advocate, said at the news conference at the D.A.'s Office that she has heard "horrific" experiences of mothers of homicide victims after they were notified that loved ones were killed. The new program "will reduce victimization, will ensure that families are given one point of contact from the moment of the crime," she said. "They will immediately start crisis intervention." One of the peer crisis responders will be Rafeeqah Sanders, whose daughter, Rose Daniels, was killed at age 27 in a 2011 domestic-violence incident. "When I got that call, my whole world just stopped. I was just frozen," Sanders said at the news conference. "Nobody came into my home or called me to give me assistance." The new program "is so needed," she said. "The initial trauma that I went through, I wish I had this program. I wish somebody was with me, who'd been through it, who said, 'Rafeeqah, how can I help you?' " Mother Linda Schellenger speaks at a memorial featuring friends and family at a service for Sean Schellenger, killed in a stabbing near Rittenhouse Square, at Radnor High School July 17, 2017. Read more The parents of the city developer fatally stabbed near Rittenhouse Square last month say they feel let down by District Attorney Larry Krasner, who announced Wednesday that his office would not seek to try the accused killer for first-degree murder and instead would pursue lower charges. Mark Schellenger, in text messages to the Inquirer and Daily News, said Thursday that he had "mistakenly believed" that Krasner would advocate for his slain son, Sean, and added: "Mr. Krasner is out to further his own career and agenda with my son's blood." Meanwhile, the victim's mother, Linda Schellenger, said in a statement to 6abc on Wednesday night that she believed Krasner had turned him into a "political pawn." "I thought it outrageous, and I was manipulated by Larry Krasner," Linda Schellenger said. "He was intellectually dishonest." The rebukes from the victim's parents who are divorced came a day after Krasner said he did not believe enough evidence existed to charge Michael White with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Sean Schellenger on Chancellor Street on July 12. The decision is likely to spare White, 21, a mandatory life sentence and allow him to be released on bail by early next week. Ben Waxman, a spokesperson for Krasner, said prosecutors had met with Schellenger's relatives before Wednesday's hearing and would continue working with them as the case proceeds through court. White accused of killing Schellenger during a quarrel on the street has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Oct. 30. The aftermath of White's court appearance Wednesday is the latest ripple in a case that has attracted intense attention. Dozens of friends and relatives of White and Schellenger packed the courtroom Wednesday, and Krasner acknowledged that he attended because the case had the potential to be "divisive." Linda Schellenger, in her statement, said that prosecutors have "clear video footage that would have allowed them to hold [White]" on a charge of first-degree murder without bail. She accused Krasner of showing up at the hearing "for political purposes," and added: "I wanted to trust [Krasner]. He breached and abused that trust." Reached by phone Thursday morning, she and a family spokesperson, Anthony Reagoso, both declined to elaborate. Waxman said that the district attorney and other top officials met with Linda Schellenger for more than two hours prior to the hearing. "They explained in detail why our office did not feel that there was evidence to substantiate a first-degree murder charge," Waxman said in an email. Mark Schellenger said Thursday that he had participated in that meeting by phone and felt that Krasner "gave no specifics" about how White might be allowed to make bail after dropping the most serious count. The decision to set White's bail at $150,000 which will enable his release from jail by paying 10 percent of that led Mark Schellenger to think Krasner believes "Sean's life is worth a measly 15k," he said. "Sean is the victim and can't speak for himself," Mark Schellenger said. "We mistakenly believed that the district attorney would be his advocate." Waxman declined to respond to that criticism, but said that Linda Schellenger's statement was "starkly different from what Mrs. Schellenger repeatedly said in person and by telephone days before, as well as during and after the preliminary hearing." Although she had not commented publicly about the legal proceedings, Linda Schellenger, at a vigil for her son last month and to 6abc earlier this week, had said that two lives were affected by the crime, referring to her son's death and White's imprisonment. "We respect her right to change her mind," Waxman said. "We intend to reach out to her again in the near future and look forward to further in-depth communications with her." Krasner said Wednesday that the office had decided to proceed on counts of third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and possessing an instrument of crime, but not first-degree murder. Krasner said the office still was investigating and may decide to drop the third-degree-murder count as well. Third-degree murder is generally defined as trying to harm someone but not intending to kill, while voluntary manslaughter often is referred to as a "heat-of-passion" killing that occurs after being provoked. First-degree murder requires prosecutors to prove that the defendant intended to kill the victim and carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Police have said White stabbed Schellenger once in the back after the two began arguing on Chancellor Street around 10:50 p.m. White had been working as a bicycle courier for Uber Eats when he encountered Schellenger, who had been in a Mercedes-Benz with two other men but had gotten out to try to get a car in front of theirs to move, according to police. White ran away after the stabbing but surrendered to police a day later. Greg Thompson, a spokesperson for White's relatives, has said that White acted in self-defense. Mark Schellenger said Thursday that White "ran, got rid of the weapon and clothing." "He left Sean to die," Mark Schellenger said. "Not exactly the actions of someone defending himself." The decision to drop the most serious count Wednesday was embraced by White's supporters, who held public events this week calling for Krasner to downgrade the case and allow White to be released on bail. Advocacy groups including the Philadelphia Bail Fund and Philadelphia Community Bail Fund said Thursday that they had posted enough bail money to allow White to be released into house arrest. Thompson said that White needed to be given an ankle bracelet and authorities needed to inspect his house before he could be released, but that he expected White to be out of custody Monday. In Night Comes On, Dominique Fishback (HBO's The Deuce) plays Angel, a young woman who leaves a juvenile detention facility on the eve of her 18th birthday, makes appropriate promises to her parole officer, and proceeds to buy a handgun. She has a score to settle, but also a little sister named Abby (Tatum Marilyn Hall) in foster care, and the conflict between Angel's desire for revenge and her duty to family form the core of this intriguing movie, shot on location in Philadelphia and the Jersey Shore. It's directed by Jordana Spiro, who as an actress on various television series (Ozark, Blindspot, My Guys) spent her free time volunteering with children in the Los Angeles foster-care system. Her experiences inspired her to write a story (with Angelica Nwandu, founder of @theshaderoom on Instagram) about how the system affects young people. That narrative eventually became Night Comes On, built around the Angel character. Early scenes show Angel leaving the detention facility alone, and though the rules require her to find a job and a place to stay, Angel has neither. To get them, she needs a valid ID, and she doesn't have that either. Night Comes On isn't a docudrama, but it's informed enough to give us a sense of the obstacles facing young women like Angel. Not that she's much interested in legal requirements, anyway. She's motivated by a long-simmering grievance it's her reason for living, and initially her only reason. Early scenes of Angel checking in on an old lover have the feel of someone tying up loose ends. To that end, she meets with little sister, Abby, a sensitive and, as it turns out, rather crafty 10-year-old who senses something amiss in Angel, and instinctively acts to keep her close and under scrutiny. It's an interesting dynamic Abby craves the love of her older sister, who's forgotten what it's like to be that vulnerable and needful. She didn't have an older sister, and we see her slowly come to grips with the idea that she is one, that she may have a purpose on this earth more urgent than revenge. This unfolds during an impromptu trip to the Jersey Shore, itself a detour-laden odyssey of bus stops and missed connections. It makes for a narrative that's episodic and a little uneven, but one that yields an out-of-nowhere scene of remarkable power. The sisters end up befriending some suburban girls who invite them into a tidy home. Abby eats cheese doodles and plays a parlor game while Angel wanders the hallways, looking at furnishings and items as though they are artifacts in a museum that describes a civilization alien and unknown to her. A place where moms make snacks, offer rides, take pictures of daughters, and hang them in the hallway. Where children are loved, cherished, prized. Angel never knew that love. But what if she could summon it? What if it were in her to give Abby something she never had? Night Comes On continues, all the way to the beach (echoes of Moonlight). Angel still carries her gun, but the more we know her, the less we feel she is likely to use it. The Reverend John T. Sweeney, center, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Westmoreland County to sexually abusing a fourth grader. The state attorney general is days away from releasing an investigative report about 300 alleged abusers just like him. And yet, only a few have ever faced criminal charges through the years in this state. Read more Josh Shapiro is delivering a few lessons this week on the power of the people vs. the power of people with deep pockets. They're more like jabs, and they are coming from Pennsylvania's attorney general ahead of the release of a criminal investigative report, days away, that will disclose clergy abuse by more than 300 predator priests at six of Pennsylvania's eight Catholic dioceses. Shapiro's office over the last year has taken a beating behind closed doors from church-affiliated lawyers who have sought to kill or neuter the report. Shapiro seems willing now, as the finish line approaches, to slap back at them. It's about time. It began on Tuesday, when Shapiro held a news conference to announce a conviction against creep-in-a-collar John T. Sweeney. The priest from Westmoreland County pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy who, now in his 30s, serves in the U.S. Coast Guard. The victim was there and spoke. So were some of Shapiro's deputies, who have overseen the two-year grand jury probe that is expected to detonate in the next two weeks with toxic revelations about the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, and Scranton. Just a few days before, Shapiro's office had been fighting furiously to prevent the investigation from being buried. On Thursday, July 26, Shapiro implored Pope Francis to help stop a few dozen unnamed objector priests for all we know they are bishops or cardinals, even who have been trying, with lawyers bankrolled by God knows whom, to stop the report's release. Then on Friday, the state Supreme Court handed Shapiro's office a partial blow/win. The court ruled that the names of the two dozen complainants be blotted from the report, but that the report be made public by mid-August. Their reputations, the Men of God had argued, would be unconstitutionally harmed. With revisions presumably already underway on the more than 800-page report, Shapiro moseyed over to southwestern Pennsylvania on Tuesday to show a rare conviction against one of the few priests that his office has ever been able to lock up. But he said more than just that. "No one is above the law and we will apply the law without fear or favor," he said. "If anyone has information regarding child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church of Pennsylvania, please contact the attorney general's clergy abuse hotline, 888-538-8541." That's right: The man wants Even. More. Leads. Even now. How can anyone not be rooting for Shapiro and his investigators? The Archdiocese of Philadelphia isn't in the crosshairs now because two previous grand jury probes exposed how young souls were destroyed by predators who were protected by cardinals for decades. Philly's dirty laundry count in 2005, when a city grand jury slammed it: At least 63 priests and probably many more sexually abused hundreds of minors over several decades across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Cardinals John Krol and Anthony J. Bevilacqua "excused and enabled the abuse," the grand jury found at the time. No one, though, could be prosecuted because time had expired to file charges. A state grand jury under former Attorney General Kathleen Kane reported in 2016 that 50 abusive priests and religious leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese had done damage to "hundreds" of children over two generations. Again, no charges were filed because of the state's paltry statute of limitations. Kane's office did charge three former leaders of a Pennsylvania-based Franciscan Friar order with conspiracy and endangerment for overseeing Brother Stephen Baker as he sexually abused more than 100 minors over at least two decades in Johnstown and multiple states. One of Baker's ravaged victims died before the case could go to trial. >> READ MORE >> Sex-abusing priest caused suffering for a generation and walked free. You know what didn't happen with any of those prior probes? No one tried to kill them with Supreme Court action. This time, the church and its clergy apparently had the appetite for a fight. The court kept the objectors' names unknown, even as they attacked the very grand jury law that helps prosecutors catch bad actors. Their lawyers say the Attorney General's Office trampled on their due-process rights during its investigation. The Supreme Court plans to consider the priests' legal arguments later this year. "We shouldn't have tampering of a grand jury report," one prominent state prosecutor, John Morganelli, told me this week of exactly what the legal fight amounts to. As I wrote this column on Wednesday, the Harrisburg Diocese, which had tried to shut down the grand jury, was suddenly magnanimous. Bishop Ronald Gainer announced he would publish a list of 71 clergy members or seminarians accused of child abuse since the 1940s. No doubt, he did so to get ahead of what will be a very unflattering, very ugly report. Shapiro, meanwhile, tweeted something that reads like he's finally throwing poison darts back at Goliath. "This is long past due and only comes in the face of the imminent release of my Office's investigation detailing widespread sexual abuse and cover-up by more than 300 priests in six PA dioceses," he wrote. "Stay tuned." Correction: A previous version of this column misstated the number of grand jury investigations into clergy sex-abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. European Union imports of U.S. soybeans were already rising substantially before a top EU official told President Donald Trump last week that the bloc would buy more. EU Commission figures released Wednesday show that 37 percent of the bloc's soybean imports last month were coming from the U.S., compared with 9 percent in July 2017. Amid a looming trade war over tariffs, Trump and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed on July 25 to start talks intended to achieve "zero tariffs" and "zero subsidies" on non-automotive industrial goods. Because of its poort design and off-putting fence, the National Park Service's open space at Second and Market is primarily used by dog walkers. Read more Dogs of Philadelphia! The park at Second and Market is the place to hang. There's a huge uninterrupted lawn where we can scratch, sniff, and do our business in a luxurious private setting, with the beautifully crafted, Georgian-style Christ Church as our backdrop. It's true you must keep your handler on a leash, but you're unlikely to be bothered by small humans grabbing at your just-groomed tail since we've thoroughly mined the grass with stink bombs. Anyway, the lawn's faux, colonial-style fence and high brick walls keep most of them out. The two-legged types who do manage to find the hidden entrance usually keep to the edges, where they lap from bottles in brown paper bags. So, enjoy! Thanks to the National Park Service, this prime piece of Old City parkland belongs to the four-legged. You should be aware, however, that forces are now conspiring to take our land from us. The Old City District, the business improvement group for the neighborhood, has hired a bunch of consultants to study ways to make our territory which the Park Service calls Wilson Park easier for humans to enter and use. Because the park is at the epicenter of Old City, near restaurants and shops, and next to the Market-Frankford train entrance, they think it should function more like a town square, rather than a cloistered club for canines. These consultants Jonas Maciunas' JVM Studio, Ground Reconsidered landscape architects, and Think.Urban anthropologists are holding meetings and will be sending out survey-takers out on Wednesday, Aug. 8, between 2 and 7 p.m., to talk to people at the weekly farmers market in front of Christ Church. There have been whispers about removing the fence around Wilson Park, which would utterly destroy our privacy. They want an entrance at Second and Market, so any two-legged person who happens to wander by can find his way in. They're also demanding chairs and benches for the lawn, too. Our lawn! Next thing you know, they'll try to confine us to an enclosure, or get rid of us entirely. Fortunately, the Park Service people who run Independence National Historic Park are completely on our side. They're preparing to get the fence and lawn listed on the National Historic Register. That would mean that Wilson Park, which was designed in 1951 by Charles E. Peterson and opened in 1963, could never, ever be changed. Like us dogs, they think it's fine just the way it is: weedy, run-down, inaccessible, with generous patches of dirt just right for digging. Our interests align. The park service, which controls 55 acres in Old City, has always been good at discouraging two-legged folk from using its archipelago of green spaces. Although some of these parks are very pretty and provide a quiet refuge from the noisy city, none offers anything that humans might recognize as an amenity, other than the occasional bench and tree. Most have enclosures that get locked at night. And since the Park Service is perennially underfunded, the parks have become scruffy places. As Doris Fanelli, who has been running the Division of Cultural Resources Management since 1973 three years before the Bicentennial told Inquirer reporter Inga Saffron, the park is meant to be passive. Despite being fenced in, often by brick walls, "we think these parks are very welcoming and accessible," she says. Maciunas, who has conducted extensive user surveys at Wilson Park, disagrees: "It's become the Dog Park at Christ Church." Major Green Spaces at Independence National Historic Park You might not know how our beloved lawn at Wilson Park came to be. In the '50s and '60s, Philadelphia went on a massive urban renewal spree, demolishing whole blocks of 19th- and 20th-century buildings in Old City to create a national park celebrating America's founding. Only 18th-century buildings were spared. The parks were laid out to serve as forecourts for colonial monuments like Carpenters Hall and the Second Bank. This created lots of open space for us. It's true that the original vision for the national park called for leveling only a block or two near Independence Hall to protect that hallowed building from fire. But the urban renewalists kept going. Independence Mall expanded from one block to three. The buildings in front of Christ Church, Old St. Joseph's and St. George's United Methodist were all leveled for small parks that gave passersby picturesque views of the structures. (Dogs, be sure to check out Old St. Joseph's park. Absolutely no humans ever step inside the fence, and there is a big abandoned vegetable bed that is just right for excavation.) Because the parks were really about the views, the landscaping was minimal, basically just a plot of green ringed with a colonial-style fence and outfitted with brick paths. Such blank expanses of lawn were very popular in the 1950s, when America was falling in love with low-density suburbs. People were convinced they were realizing William Penn's vision of a "greene country town" and creating a more authentic version of Colonial Williamsburg. In fact, this collection of freestanding colonial buildings surrounded by lawn was always a big fiction. By the mid-1700s, colonial Philadelphia had become a dense jumble of townhouses, warehouses, small factories, shops, bars, and churches. Today, a typical tourist would never that know that Independence Park was once the bustling heart of Philadelphia's original downtown. One reason the national park was able to gobble up so much real estate is that Old City had pretty much emptied out by the '50s, when planning for Independence Park began. As recently as 1980, only 854 people were living there (and very few dogs). But that has changed, which is why the humans are now gunning for control of Wilson Park. So many old warehouses have been converted to apartments that the human population now stands at 5,224. Over a thousand new apartments are under construction, according to Job Itzkowitz, head of Old City District. Initially, Old City was seen as a nightlife district. But after conducting a planning study in 2016, the district realized Old City had evolved into a living, breathing residential neighborhood again. Yet, because it had been abandoned for so long, "there's no playground, no rec center, and very little green space," Itzkowitz said. The humans think that Wilson Park has the potential to become the Fitler Square or Cianfrani Park of Old City, a neighborhood park where kids play after school, and residents gather for Christmas tree lightings and movie nights. It's almost identical in size to those two examples. Old City District would raise the money to upgrade the landscape design and maintain the grounds. The dogs don't like that, and neither does the Park Service. Even though the design of Wilson Park is just 55 years old, and a colonial pastiche, Fanelli argues that it is historic because it reflects the ideas that led to Independence Park's creation. "We would consider it an adverse effect if it were modified," she said. In other words, she wants the park to remain a monument to the misguided ideas of urban renewal. This is what an architecture critic would say: Cities have clawed their way back since the '60s, partly by transforming their precious public spaces into outdoor living rooms where residents can socialize and enjoy themselves. Wilson Park is a legacy of a time when parks were intended as static stage sets for architectural monuments. Even Christ Church's pastor, the Rev. Timothy Safford, is keen on seeing a redesign to serve the neighborhood. But right now, he says, the Park Service is so devoted to maintaining the purity of the current landscape that it forbids the church's farmers market from straying onto its sidewalk. So, here's an idea that might help the Park Service get used to a changing city: Do a trial run. Scatter some colorful tables and chairs that will be visible to people on Market Street. Let them bring a snack or beer from the farmers market into the park. To help them find the entrance, hang a big sign pointing to the gates. If the Park Service thinks these changes are too radical, include a picture of Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of Christ Church. If he were around, he would surely be telling them that parks are by the people, for the people. In this photo made on Saturday, July 28, 2018, a soybean crop grows on a farm in Renfrew, Pa. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) Read more Farmers can patch up a tractor's flat tire in the field and hope for the best when it comes to the weather, but it's the problems they didn't create and can't fix that leave them most frustrated. As President Trump came stumping in Luzerne County on Thursday night, Pennsylvania and New Jersey soybean farmers find themselves in the middle of a trade war they didn't start, and while the president has asked the nation's farmers to "be a little patient" and offered $12 billion in emergency relief, they are repeating a familiar mantra: They want free trade, not aid. "I hope he knows what he's doing," said Bill Bibus, a third-generation soybean farmer from Chesterfield, Burlington County. "The aid will help us out, OK, but in the long term it could hurt us because these buyers could just look for other markets." In March, Trump placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and China's retaliatory tariffs on imported soybeans have caused the price to fall by $2 a bushel. Soybean farmers said the price often fluctuates 10 cents here, 50 cents there but as the harvest approaches and Chinese buyers remain hesitant, they have to worry about stockpiling soybeans in silos and hoping for a better future. "I am a big Trump supporter and I believe in his whole philosophy, but it's costing us big bucks and I'd rather not get into a welfare state with handouts," said Daryl Alger, who operates one of Pennsylvania's largest soybean farms at 6,000 acres in Lebanon County. "For me and my potential crop, it could amount to a $600,000 to $700,000 loss." The production value of the U.S soybean crop last year, according to the USDA, was $41 billion. Pennsylvania's crop accounted for $259 million of it. New Jersey harvested $41.8 million worth of soybeans. Illinois and Iowa, the nation's largest producers, accounted for $5.8 and $5.1 billion respectively. A timeline of soybean prices over the last four decades resembles an ominous mountain range with lows of $2.50 per bushel in the early 1970s, highs of $16 per bushel in 2012, and just over $9 as of Tuesday. In March, the price was $10.70. "Agriculture was doing just fine with its export markets," said Pete Furey, executive director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. "Given a choice, we'd prefer no tariff war and their impacts over this aid package." Mark O'Neill, of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, said net farm income in the United States is down 50 percent from four years ago. The livelihood has always been difficult and always will be, he said, even with the implementation of new technologies, but adding tariffs into the mix just makes it all that much harder. "If you ask us what we should do, it would be to rescind these tariffs and negotiate," O'Neill said. "It's not supposed to be a winner and loser in trade, it's a win win. " How or when the $12 billion in aid will be distributed is unclear, he added. "This isn't what we want," he said. "If they're going to send a farmer a check because of issues [the government] created, the farmers will take it, but it doesn't solve the problem." Trump, who spoke in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday night in support of GOP Senate candidate Lou Barletta, addressed the American Farm Bureau's annual convention in January, commending himself for helping their cause. He hinted at reviewing trade agreements to make sure they were "reciprocal." "We're fighting for our farmers and we're fighting for our country, and for our great American flag," he said. Luzerne County, according to the USDA's latest census of agriculture, lost 54 farms between 2007 and 2012. The state lost 3,854 over the same period. New Jersey lost 1,256 during that period. "It's getting harder and harder to find anything easy in farming," Bibus said. "I average 90 hours a week." William Beam, a soybean farmer from Elverson, Chester County, said he supports Trump's efforts to "align our trade deficit." "I think it's twofold. Tariffs are getting blamed on it, but we're also growing the biggest crop ever in the United States," Beam, 58, said. "Has the price dropped? Yes. Is it a dire situation? No. I've sold soybeans for less than $5 a bushel and that had nothing to do with any tariff or trade war. Trade disagreements are just part of the deal." But Bibus recalled government interventions from the past that still affect every soybean farmer in the country. In 1973, President Richard Nixon enacted an export embargo on soybeans because of shortages, and President Jimmy Carter imposed a partial ban on grain exports to Russia in 1980 in response to the invasion of Afghanistan. Both actions helped Brazil step in and rapidly expand its soybean production. China has become a major market for Brazil's soybeans, which is expected to only get bigger because of Beijing's trade war with the U.S. "Today, they are our biggest competitor," Bibus said of Brazil. "This is all political stuff, not farming, and I sure hope Donald has something up his sleeve." Philadelphia Police process the scene at the 12th and Cambria Rec Center in Philadelphia where a teen was shot and killed and another wounded around 8 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2018. Read more A 17-year-old boy was fatally wounded in a double shooting Wednesday night outside a recreation center in North Philadelphia, police said. The shooting occurred outdoors just before 8:10 p.m. in the 2900 block of North 12th Street. The teen was shot in the chest and the right arm. He was rushed by police to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:32 p.m. Police on Thursday identified him as Quasier Barley, of the 1500 block of West Lehigh Avenue. Another 17-year-old boy was shot in the elbow. He was taken by medics to Temple and was listed in stable condition. Police reported no arrests or motive. A man who identified himself as a family member, but declined to give his name, briefly talks on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, to reporters in front of the Port Richmond rowhouse where pit bulls, police have said, fatally mauled a toddler the day before. Read more A toddler's fatal mauling by pit bulls Wednesday was "a freak accident," a man who described himself as the boy's relative said Thursday outside the yellow-painted brick rowhouse in Port Richmond where it occurred. "It wasn't neglect," said the man, who declined to give his name and said he didn't live in the home, on the 3000 block of Agate Street. "The dogs got out of the cage," he said, adding that his wife had tried to protect the toddler from the dogs. She was taken to a hospital and later released, he said. Police said the child was 2 years old, but the man said he was 3. He declined to specify his relationship to the boy. Neighbors said the toddler did not live in the home but was visiting. James Garrow, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner's Office, declined to provide information on the boy, saying the matter was under investigation. Police declined to release the boy's name. Police Commissioner Richard Ross said in a phone interview Thursday that the District Attorney's Office would decide whether charges would be filed. "Everything is still under investigation," Ben Waxman, a spokesperson for the DA's Office, said by email Thursday. Ross said his department's Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit was looking into the death because police fatally shot two of the three dogs that appeared to have attacked the boy. Two other pit bulls were caged during the attack, Ross said. The Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia removed all five dogs Wednesday, spokesperson Morgan Polley said. One dog died in the house and another died while being transported to ACCT's facility in Feltonville, she said. On the Port Richmond block Thursday morning, neighbors were still stunned. They said they did not know who lived in the house. It was about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday when police received calls about the attack. Christina Bledsoe, 40, said that before police arrived, she heard a woman screaming outside the home: "They have the baby! They have the baby!" Bledsoe ran over to the woman, whom she didn't know. "They're killing the baby!" the woman said. Bledsoe said the main door of the home was open. She opened the outer door and saw another woman and the child being attacked by pit bulls in the living room. One dog lunged toward the front door, and Bledsoe said she quickly shut the outer door. Other neighbors rushed over to help. Jason Rash, 41, said he ran over to the house and tried to distract the dogs. "I was banging on the door," said Rash, adding that he threw a broomstick, dustpan, and shovel at the dogs. Rash said a woman whom he understood to be the boy's aunt was lying on top of the toddler trying to protect him. She was getting bit, too, he said. At one point, the aunt came out of the house crying, Rash said. "She left the baby in there," he said. "She thought the baby was gone." When police officers arrived, they opened the outer front door in an attempt to go in, Bledsoe said, but quickly slammed it shut because of the attacking dogs. Then they had to make sure they didn't shoot the child, she said. She said once she heard police shooting through openings between the metal bars in the outer front door, she went back into her house and told her children, ages 8 and 12, to stay inside. From the second-floor window of her home, Bledsoe said, she saw the boy placed into an ambulance. He was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. Wednesday at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. Rash said he didn't know who lived in the home, and said he saw no furniture inside the living room, just five dog cages. He said that besides the aunt who had been on top of the toddler, two other women in their late teens or early 20s had been upstairs at the time of the attack. Police took them into a police vehicle for questioning, he said. According to city property records, a woman named Yuderka Cruz owns the rowhouse where the boy was attacked. When a reporter called a phone number listed for her, a woman answered and said in Spanish that Cruz was unavailable. She said Cruz owns the property but does not live there and rents it out. Philadelphia police have arrested the second suspect in the sexual assault and robbery of an 82-year-old woman in her West Philadelphia home last month. Police said Raheem White, 30, of the 1900 block of Carter Road in Folcroft, was arrested Wednesday night and was to be charged in the July 19 attack in the 6000 block of Sansom Street. On Monday, police charged Darius Johnson, of the first block of Wildwood Avenue in East Lansdowne, with attempted rape, burglary, robbery, simple assault, conspiracy, and related crimes. Police said about 8 p.m. on July 19, the two men broke into the woman's home and groped her before leaving with $160 in cash, a cell phone, and a keyboard. The Kensington junkyard that was the scene of a spectacular fire last month will have to remain closed until it resolves multiple code violations, a judge ruled Thursday. Rejecting a request by Philadelphia Metal & Resource Recovery to reopen its junkyard at Tulip and Somerset Streets, Common Pleas Court Judge Paula A. Patrick gave owner David Feinberg a week to prepare for an inspection by the Department of Licenses and Inspections. If it fails, the junkyard will have to stay shut until it complies. If needed, the Aug. 30 hearing scheduled before the blaze happened will go forward. The junkyard caught fire on July 10 but reopened a week later. L&I ordered it closed on July 25 after inspectors visited the property and gave Feinberg three hours to fix violations, which included a lack of fire lanes between scrap piles. That demand was unreasonable, said Feinberg's attorney, Darlene Threatt, who said Feinberg has "diligently been working to clear these violations." "These violations are punitive in nature and are aimed at shutting my client down permanently, not aimed at protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the community," Threatt said. She said that it would take at least 30 days to get the junkyard into compliance and that its 30 employees wouldn't be paid in the meantime. City attorney Edward Jefferson said the absence of fire lanes inhibited firefighters who were battling the blaze. One firefighter was injured. L&I has cited the junkyard 71 times in the last 10 years for violations including "mislabeled storage containers" and an "excessive collection of tires," according to public records. "The key [to reopening] is totally in [Feinberg's] hand, and it's been in his hand the whole time," Jefferson said. Threatt pointed out that Feinberg had owned the yard only since 2016, but the judge said "he was aware of the certain violations" and didn't try to fix them. Former U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his speech at the 16th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. Read more Former President Obama on Wednesday released his endorsements for Democratic nominees in the upcoming midterm elections, and in Pennsylvania, one of the candidates is running for two seats at the same time. Obama endorsed Tina Davis for the state Senate's Sixth District, which covers parts of Bucks County. Davis is also seeking another term in the state House of Representatives, where she represents the 141st Legislative District, which also includes Bucks County. (Obama did not endorse her in that race). Davis was first elected to the House in 2010. She told the Bucks County Courier Times in May that she was seeking two seats because she was encouraged by the high number of women running for election in Pennsylvania. (Davis is co-founder of the group Emerge Pennsylvania, which trains Democratic women to run for office). Sen. Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson, an incumbent Republican and Davis' opponent in the Senate race, criticized her for running for multiple seats. He told the Courier Times: "She is making it clear that she cares less about serving the public and more about ensuring she has a job. The truth is that if Tina Davis felt she could win the Senate seat, she wouldn't run for both." Davis told the Courier Times that if she wins both seats, she will step down from one, forcing a special election for that seat. Other Pennsylvania Democratic nominees endorsed by Obama on Wednesday include: Madeleine Dean , Fourth Congressional District (Montgomery County) Susan Wild, Seventh Congressional District (Lehigh County) Liz Hanbidge, State House District 61 (Montgomery County) Carolyn Comitta, State House District 156 (Chester County) And in New Jersey, Obama endorsed: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gestures during a news conference in Boston last week. Read more The Justice Department replaced a Philadelphia immigration judge who had asked for more legal information in a deportation case, inserting a new jurist who quickly ordered the defendant removed from the United States, according to a letter of protest signed by 15 retired judges. The ouster of Judge Steven Morley from the case marks the latest attack on judicial independence by a Justice Department led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the judges wrote. "As a democracy, we expect our judges to reach results based on what is just," they stated, "even where such results are not aligned with the desired outcomes of politicians." Justice Department officials declined to comment Wednesday. Efforts to contact Morley were unsuccessful. The July 30 letter, first reported by the website BuzzFeed News, condemns what it describes as "interference with judicial independence." "Important due process safeguards are required in deportation proceedings," because the consequences can be life or death, the judges wrote. In this case, the immigration review office sought "to ensure an outcome that would please its higher-ups." The Justice Department's action has shocked members of the city's community of immigration lawyers and disturbed other public officials. Morley was presiding over the case of Reynaldo Castro-Tum, who came here four years ago from Guatemala as an unaccompanied 17-year-old. He had been released into the care of a relative in rural Washington, Pa., and had failed to show up at several court hearings. The judge suspended the case using a procedure known as "administrative closure," saying the notice sent to Castro-Tum may have gone to the wrong address. As head of the Justice Department, which oversees immigration court, Sessions has restricted the use of administrative closure, a common practice in the past. Morley was removed after he asked for briefs to be filed on whether the defendant had been properly notified of the hearing. The Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review sent Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Deepali Nadkarni to Philadelphia Immigration Court to conduct a single hearing. She ordered the defendant removed without further inquiry. "I was getting ready to write the brief, then I noticed Judge Morley was gone," said Castro-Tum's lawyer, Matthew Archambeault of Philadelphia. "It's really quite shocking." Archambeault first stepped forward as a friend of the court for a youth who had no legal representation. The case was likely headed toward a ruling of deportation, Archambeault said, but at the same time it was unclear that Castro-Tum had received the notices telling him he must be present in court. "If a judge is making a decision I disagree with, I want to make sure it's his decision, that it's not being dictated from above," Archambeault said. Morley's removal "was done as a message to the judges: Get in line, or else we'll put someone there who'll do it for you." Among the judges who signed the letter were: John Gossart Jr., an immigration judge from 1982 until his retirement in 2013. He's a former president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, and is co-author of the National Immigration Court Practice Manual. William Joyce, who served in Boston and, before his appointment to the bench, was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Cecelia Espenoza, who previously was a member of the immigration review board and taught immigration law at the University of Denver. "When a sitting judge is removed from a case without cause, and a special judge is sent to make a decision, that's cause for serious concern," said John Vandenberg of Hogan & Vandenberg LLC, former head of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "A degradation of due process in immigration courts could be a bellwether for the degradation of due process in other courts. And due process is what makes our country different." Others insist that the country needs to be tougher on people wanting to come here from other lands, particularly those who cross the border without permission. >>READ MORE: In Sessions' asylum ruling, a court system unlike others The Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, for instance, advocates for tighter controls on immigration. Contending that migrants often try to game the system in order to stay here, FAIR wants a faster, tougher approach toward people who come to the U.S. claiming they're being persecuted in their homelands. Immigration court is a civil, not criminal, system, composed of roughly 60 jurisdictions and 350 judges. In the flow chart of the federal government, these courts come under the Justice Department. At the top of the department stands the attorney general, who has the power to issue binding decisions on how immigration judges operate. Those circumstances make the courts vulnerable to political pressure and government directives, outside observers say. In April, the Justice Department told judges they each must clear at least 700 cases a year, and have less than 15 percent of their decisions overturned, to receive a satisfactory rating on their job reviews. The next month, Sessions told immigration judges they could no longer grant asylum to most migrants who come here trying to escape domestic abuse or gang violence. He reversed a ruling that had granted asylum to a Salvadoran woman who said she was physically and emotionally abused by her ex-husband. Now, said Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym, whose office has followed cases in local immigration court, "The DOJ has targeted a judge simply for doing his job and attempting to uphold the law. I am deeply disturbed to see the U.S. Department of Justice go to such lengths to interfere in Philadelphia's immigration courts in ways that threaten basic judicial fairness." The source said after their first summit in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to give him two used generators with a total capacity of 200,000 kW. A source in Pyongyang told RFA that power cuts began to ease thanks to generous support from China. Secret supplies of generators from China have eased North Korea's chronic electricity shortage recently, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday. "The generators... were transported to North Korea by ship in late June," the source told RFA. "Trade organization workers helping transport the Chinese generators said that they didn't go through customs to stay off the sanctions radar," the source added. "Instead, they were transported by sea." "Now installed in the Pyongyang Thermal Power Plant, the Chinese generators make up 200,000 kilowatts of Pyongyang residents' estimated 500,000-kilowatt daily power use, with the balance provided by aging North Korean generators already in place," RFA said. We are just under 100 days from the Nov. 6 midterms, and Republicans are in much better shape than most prognosticators would have imagined even six months ago, much less than at the 100-day mark of President Donald Trump's tenure. The traditional post-Reagan GOP is not what it usually is. Currently it is the minority partner in a coalition government with the president a "party of one" with a fervent following in the tens of millions. But that "party of one" has a number of significant accomplishments while also acting as a giant wrecking ball on assumptions, standards, unwritten rules, and codes of conduct. Many of those unwritten rules are better off demolished or at least left naked in the public square including, especially, the overwhelming liberal bias in legacy media, save for Fox News. Twitter feeds have become the best indicator of what the members of the media actually think. The collective mask hasn't just slipped, it's been ripped off. >>READ MORE: Vice President Mike Pence: Our agenda is working for Philadelphia | Opinion The president's brand of political hardball upsets many in the GOP, even unbalancing more than a few. "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is real. The president has, however, surrounded himself with superb Cabinet members, especially on matters of national security. His commitment to originalist judges and a sizable military rebuild are the two most consequential aspects of his tenure. The economy is cooking, and while deficits have risen, the stimulus of deep and broad tax cuts is just now kicking in, with a promise of a long stretch of economic growth above 3 percent needed to bring many of the country's poorest into the middle class. It's true that tariffs are dragging on this economic liftoff, but they are better imposed at the beginning of a boom than at the end of one. And while lowering trade tensions with our allies is a necessity, going a few rounds with China on its systemic corruption and violation of fair trade norms is overdue (as is candor about their aggressions in the South China Sea and in cyberspace). >>READ MORE: Not a president but he plays one on TV why The 41 Percent stick with Trump | Will Bunch This president talks and tweets loudly, and often to the confusion of his home audience, but he carries and has used the very biggest of sticks. When the U.S. military pummeled Russian mercenaries in Syria, Moscow got the clearest message anyone can get anywhere. The Iranians will be treated to the same if they challenge an American vessel at sea or critical infrastructure at home. Russians meddle again with our elections at their genuine peril. This coalition hasn't been easy, but the GOP will be fine. But what Trump has done to the Democrats and the establishment media won't be undone for a long time. He has radicalized both into engines of extremist rhetoric and policy. They will blame Trump, of course, for their outrage and sputtering, and he deserves a lot of the blame (or credit, depending on your point of view). Trump intentionally incites his opponents with mockery and disdain. So did Barack Obama. So did all of the legions of George W. Bush opponents when politics began going off the rails. So here's the question facing the voters this fall: Do they vote to ratchet up this culture of conflict and chaos, or to return Republican legislative majorities that have figured out how to work with this most unusual of presidents? >>READ MORE: Conservativism's hidden history | Opinion Electing Democrats to a majority in the House or the Senate at the height of the party's lurch left would be a disaster: Impeachment, demands for massive income tax hikes, and the effort to abolish ICE would follow, while also throwing the military rebuild into reverse and the economy into paralysis because of the inability of business to predict the future with anything like certainty. A radicalized Democratic Party puffed by a Trump-loathing Manhattan-Beltway elite wouldn't bring us a political environment as fraught as 1861 or even 1968, but the Clinton impeachment and the Watergate scandal eras are fair parallels to the atmosphere that would follow if Rep. Nancy Pelosi, of California, returns to power or if Sen. Chuck Schumer, of New York, gets his wish to run the Senate. So even if you loathe the president, vote Republican. The downside of Democratic majorities in either house of Congress is so much larger than another two years like the last two. Both 2017 and 2018 have been polarizing and stressful, for sure, but very productive for national security and economic vitality. Are most voters going to choose venting over their pocketbooks and their security? I hope not. Hugh Hewitt hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and is author of "The Fourth Way: The Conservative Playbook for a Lasting GOP Majority." WASHINGTON Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently asked President Trump, "Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?" It is a fair question one that many Americans were asking following Trump's performance at the NATO summit and it deserved a better answer than the president's musing on the "aggressive" nature of Montenegrins. Instead, Trump should have recalled the words he spoke last year in Poland praising the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising, the 74th anniversary of which was marked on Wednesday. In one of the most powerful speeches of his presidency, Trump recalled the terrible price that millions paid for the West's failure to deter Nazi and Soviet aggression. "Under a double occupation, the Polish people endured evils beyond description," Trump recalled: "the Katyn forest massacre, the occupations, the Holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the destruction of this beautiful capital city and the deaths of nearly one in five Polish people. A vibrant Jewish population the largest in Europe was reduced to almost nothing after the Nazis systematically murdered millions of Poland's Jewish citizens." The reason NATO was created out of the ashes of World War II was precisely to make certain such destruction never happens again. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain famously dismissed Germany's threats to Czechoslovakia, declaring that Britain should not get drawn into war "because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing." The result was 50 million people dead, a continent in flames, and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. >>READ MORE: NATO's real crisis is Turkey, not Trump | Opinion The lesson we learned from that experience is that weakness is provocative. When adversaries believe you are weak, they are emboldened to act and prone to miscalculate. When they believe you are strong and determined, however, they are far less likely to test you and start cataclysmic wars. Trump believes in peace through strength. But to have peace requires not just military strength. As Trump said in Warsaw, "Our defense is not just a commitment of money, it is a commitment of will." President Ronald Reagan used the military far less than any of those who succeeded him in office not just because he rebuilt America's military strength but also because America's adversaries did not doubt his willingness to use it. Why did Russian President Vladimir Putin believe he could invade Ukraine and annex Crimea without consequence? It was no mere coincidence that Russia's intervention happened just six months after President Barack Obama failed to enforce his red line in Syria. Putin saw that Obama imposed no costs on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's defiance, unwilling to launch strikes that a U.S. official said would be "just muscular enough not to get mocked." At that moment, he knew there would be no real costs for his intervention in Ukraine. >>READ MORE: Trump isn't the first president to embarrass America by cozying up to Putin | Opinion Obama projected weakness. On taking office, Trump rectified that situation by enforcing Obama's Syria red line, not once but twice sending a message of strength that was heard not just in Damascus but in Moscow as well. There is a reason Putin despises the NATO alliance so much and has fought to prevent further integration of the countries of Eastern Europe into it. He knows he may be able to bully his unallied neighbors, but he can't bully a NATO ally because that ally is backed up by 28 others, bonded by a mutual commitment to each other's security and led by an American president who, while seeking friendship with all, is unafraid to flex U.S. military muscle. >>READ MORE: Trump does Putin's dirty work at NATO summit | Trudy Rubin That is why Putin opposed the admission of Montenegro into the NATO alliance, reportedly even backing a plot to assassinate Montenegro's prime minister in an effort to stop it. That is why Putin wants Trump to fail in his effort to get the NATO allies to meet their commitments and spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. He understands that a weak NATO cannot deter him but a strong NATO can. As Trump said in Warsaw, "As long as we know our history, we will know how to build our future. Americans know that a strong alliance of free, sovereign, and independent nations is the best defense for our freedoms and for our interests." The whole point of NATO is not to defend Montenegro; it is to make sure we never have to defend Montenegro or Warsaw, or Paris, or London again. Marc Thiessen writes a twice-weekly column for the Washington Post on foreign and domestic policy and contributes to the PostPartisan blog. He is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush. @marcthiessen President Donald Trump, left, sits with Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony in Quantico, Va. on Dec. 15, 2017. Read more For what appears to be the first time, President Trump is publicly calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's attack on the 2016 election. On Twitter Wednesday morning, Trump wrote that Sessions "should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further." The call to end the Russia probe was just one of a series of tweets that appeared more focused on Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman who is currently on trial on tax evasions and fraud charges. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges. >> READ MORE: Bizarre conspiracy theory, pushed by Curt Schilling, emerges at Trump rally So far, the Justice Department has not responded to the president's comments. Mueller's team reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein due to Sessions' decision to recuse himself from any investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 president campaign. That recusal came after Sessions made several misstatements over his own contact with Russians while serving as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Trump's comments weren't an order to the Justice Department and denied that the president was attempting to obstruct Mueller's investigation. "It's not an order, it's the president's opinion," Sanders said. "The president is not obstructing, he's fighting back." Two of Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attempted to downplay the president's comments to the Washington Post. Sekulow told the newspaper that Trump "has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this," while Giuliani said it's well-known that the president "uses tweets to express his opinion." The president's call to end Mueller's investigation, which just last month drew 12 new indictments, was swiftly met with criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, called President Trump's tweet an attempt to obstruct justice. "The President of the United States just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the President, his family and campaign may be implicated," Schiff wrote on Twitter. "This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it." Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican from Chester County who supports legislation to protect Mueller's investigation, said the president's tweet "undermines the integrity of the investigation. I think it's a legitimate investigation," Costello said on CNN before echoing the comments of his colleague, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.). "If you're innocent, act like you're innocent. Don't do this stuff day after day." "I think it is entirely inappropriate and intemperate," Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said of Trump's request. "It's hard to separate signal from noise when it comes to Trump's reactions to the Mueller probe. But the tweet this morning is an escalation from what we've seen from this President before," wrote CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza. "And we should all be paying very close attention to what happens next." The campus of the University of Delaware in Newark, Del. Read more In many ways, Newark, Del. is the typical college town. It's home to the University of Delaware, with 23,000 students and nearly 4,500 employees and a campus that sprawls over more than 2,000 acres connected and divided by major thoroughfares and small side streets. And now it's determined to beat back a familiar problem in many a college town: jaywalking. In Facebook and Twitter announcements posted this week and then abruptly removed the university's police force warned that students caught jaywalking this fall would be cited and ordered to attend pedestrian safety classes. Besides requiring a referral to the Office of Student Conduct, when and how the citations and classes would take place are unclear. Peter Bothum, the university's media relations manager, told the Inquirer and Daily News in an email that university officials are not in a position to discuss the program, as "it is too early in the process to discuss specifics of the new policy." But there's no doubt it's been an ongoing source of concern at the school and others, including Princeton University and Yale. In 2011, police in Newark issued more than 80 citations to drivers and pedestrians in the first week of a pedestrian safety initiative with the Newark Police Traffic Division. In March 2015, a university graduate was fatally hit on Delaware Avenue, which slices through the heart of campus. Around that time, the Newark Police Department also increased its presence around campus to stop jaywalking, and handed out $80 fines to people who were caught doing it, the student newspaper The Review reported. Sgt. Gerald Bryda of the city's police department said Wednesday the department's aware of the university's new policy, but there has been no official request from the university to partner on the new program. Bryda said the city's police department focuses its pedestrian safety efforts downtown and will station officers there to hand out educational pamphlets to walkers about pedestrian safety. Newark's downtown streets have gone through several infrastructure changes to improve safety for walkers, including adding more traffic lights that signal when to cross the busy downtown streets, he said. If a citation is issued, Bryda said fines for jaywalking can range from $25 to $75 including court costs. "If it's something that we can prevent through education and enforcement, then that's what we're here to do," he added. Of course, jaywalking is one of those violations that seem to draw an uneven response depending on where you are. Data from a few years back showed that Philadelphia only issued about nine tickets a year; by contrast, Los Angeles issued 31,000 citations in a single year. Whether the new policy in Newark will make a difference on campus was unclear, students said. "No one is going to take it seriously," said Daniel Worthington, a senior finance major. Andrew Casamento, a senior accounting major, said he thought the university did a good job of maintaining safety but "I think they're overdoing it" with the new initiative. Still, he did say the $85 fine he paid as a sophomore for jaywalking on campus made an impression. "I haven't jaywalked since," he said. Madeline Stabler-Buiano, who graduated from Delaware in May, agreed mandatory classes may be "a little extreme," but said the policy could increase safety on campus. "It's good to have [a policy] in place to protect students," she said, "especially on the weekends when their judgments are inhibited." Mary Green DiNubile, 79, of Chestnut Hill, a retired school principal, a judge's wife, and a member of Philadelphia's politically prominent Green family, died Thursday, July 19, at Chestnut Hill Hospital of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, which she had battled for three decades. Mrs. DiNubile was the wife of Victor J. DiNubile Jr., a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge who served from 1981 to 2017. Although a registered Democrat, she helped her Republican husband win his first election to a seat on the bench. "She was a lifelong Democrat despite the fact that my dad and his family are lifelong Republicans," said the couple's son, Victor DiNubile III. "People would ask how they could get along, and they would reply, Political party differences are the least of our problems." Her father was the congressman William J. Green Jr., who was chairman of the Democratic City Committee at the time of his death in 1963. "She was very proud of her father's achievements, having been raised in Kensington and rising all the way to be a trusted adviser and friend of John F. Kennedy," her son said. She was the sister of former Philadelphia Mayor William J. Green III, who survives, as does her nephew, William J. Green IV, chair of the now-disbanded School Reform Commission and a city councilman at large in the mid- and late 2000s. "She was a loyal supporter and advocate for all of her brother's campaigns, as well as her nephew's City Council campaign," her son said. Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. DiNubile graduated in 1957 from Eden Hall, a high school that was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in the Northeast section of the city. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from Holy Family College before moving to Miami to teach Cuban children whose parents had fled the Fidel Castro regime. "She was proud of that. She couldn't speak Spanish, but she got along," her husband said. "The children learned English." She always aspired to become a teacher. "She was the eldest daughter who helped her mother raise two younger brothers and took very naturally to nurturing and teaching," her son said. In 1962, she returned from Miami to Philadelphia and became a teacher at Thomas Holme Elementary School and many others in the Philadelphia School District. She met Victor DiNubile after friends of her parents and DiNubile's parents suggested they might make a good match. "In order to satisfy everybody, my parents agreed to meet for dinner. My dad took her to the old Falcon House in Delaware County," her son said. The two married in 1966. While raising the couple's three children, Mrs. DiNubile stopped teaching, but resumed her career in the 1980s after the children were grown. Mrs. DiNubile earned a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked mostly from the district's main administration building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, but served as acting principal at various times for the William H. Harrison and Gen. George McCall elementary schools. "She filled in where an administrator was on leave or for ones that had a special need," her son said. She retired in 2002 due to declining health. Mrs. DiNubile served on the board of directors of what is now the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Chestnut Hill. She enjoyed spending time with family and friends, reading, and traveling with her husband to Ireland, Italy and Spain. Mrs. DiNubile had a dry sense of humor but could be stern if a situation demanded it. She was a selfless caregiver to her own mother and older relatives on her husband's side of the family. "In the end, she was the recipient of terrific, loving caretaking from my dad for the last several years of her life," her son said. "She had a very wonderful, peaceful, and content last several years because of him." In addition to her husband, brother, and son, Mrs. DiNubile is survived by daughters Marybeth Barber and Suzanne DiNubile; three grandchildren; brothers Michael and Patrick Green; a sister, Anne Green Michals; and many nieces and nephews. A brother, Dennis Green, died earlier. A visitation starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 4, will be followed by a 10:30 memorial Mass at Our Mother of Consolation Church, 9 E. Chestnut Hill Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19118. Burial will be private. Memorial donations may be made to the church at the address above. Labels can stifle a child's development, creating a situation where they can't mature or excel beyond the label given them by someone else. Read more Teachers are underpaid and overworked, and on top of these challenges, they're expected to temper their feelings and opinions in order to teach children without inserting their own bias. Tough job! As a mother of a rising kindergartner, I know that my son can be a handful, and managing him with 19 or more other kids who are just as rambunctious isn't for the faint of heart. Seriously, God bless teachers. My son was deemed "most likely to be class clown" at his pre-K graduation. Other classmates were named "most likely to be" a CEO, an athlete, a fashion designer, and so forth all more or less aspirational labels. And then there was my son, called to the front of the stage as the "class clown" in front of me, Dad, and both of his grandmothers. You could hear the groans from other parents in the audience. It was embarrassing. Tacky. And in the end, we realized just how insulting it was to us and to our son. We felt this particularly because my husband and I had maintained open communication with our son's teachers all year concerning his focus, all in an effort to help him learn the difference between playtime with friends and work time when he needed to pay attention to the teacher's lesson plan. So how exactly did teachers put their heads together to come up with "most likely to be class clown" as an appropriate award for our son during his pre-K graduation, a moment that was supposed to be sweet and sentimental, was, and still is, stunning. That old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is just that old, and false. Words do hurt, and those words in the form of labels hurt our children more than we realize, specifically when those labels make fun of real challenges or disabilities (one recent example includes a Connecticut middle schooler with ADHD being labeled "most likely to be distracted"). What's worse than having a child be labeled with a stereotypical or negative label is the undoing of that label trying to overcome the trauma, doubt, and pain associated with being called something derogatory, especially in the presence of others. I'm thankful that my son is only 5 years old and didn't truly grasp the negative connotation that "class clown" has. But for my family, our doubts intensified about whether our son had been treated equally to his peers, or if he had been cast aside as an unteachable "class clown." Was that all they thought of him? That he was just a funny guy who made his friends laugh? We shared our concern with our son's teachers and the day care's assistant director. Everyone was apologetic, except for one of his teachers, whose cavalier attitude and justification that "no one will remember that he got the class clown award when he goes to college" was the last straw. We withdrew our son that very afternoon from a day care he had attended since he was 6 weeks old. After that, how could we as parents trust that his teachers had our son's best interest in mind? Labels can stifle children's development, creating a situation where they can't mature or excel beyond the label given them by someone else. They can anger the child's loved ones or set up unreasonable expectations, and they may be misunderstood. My husband and I agree that the best option is to advocate for our son (and all children, which is the very point of bringing this issue to everyone's attention) to remain label-less to let him grow and thrive as he enters elementary school. Along his journey, we'll continue to call out when even good teachers make poor decisions that can have lasting effects on the children they teach. As much as I truly appreciate and respect teachers, I'll never be OK with teachers openly labeling children. "Class clown," "teacher's pet" these aren't OK. Ever. Ashley Cheatham is communications director at a Baltimore-area nonprofit. This piece originally appeared in the Baltimore Sun. Jeanne and Jim Moser pose with a photo of their son Adam, who died of an overdose in September 2015. Read more Our son Adam died in September 2015. He overdosed on fentanyl, but the start of his addiction began with opioid prescription painkillers from past surgeries that were in the kitchen cabinet of our New Hampshire home, innocently next to vitamins, Tylenol, and cake sprinkles. Ordinary stuff. Now, we have extraordinary grief. We've spent every day since then thinking about what we could have done differently. If you've lost a child to an opioid overdose, you find that for every answer you come up with, there are many more questions to face. We didn't even consider locking our prescription opioids why would Adam or our three other children be interested? We never thought there was a chance that our unguarded opioids would tempt them or worse, lead to addiction. The more we thought about it, the more we knew that the core issue was that we were never educated about the risks associated with the medication and never threw the unused opioids away. It's a simple idea now, but we never considered it then. That is why we founded the Zero Left campaign and program, to stop this killer epidemic. The availability of opioids leads to overuse. Overuse leads to addiction. Addiction leads to death. But when you have zero opioids left behind in your house, you're doing something to prevent the deadly chain of events from starting at all. >> READ MORE: The opioid crisis: What we don't know is killing us | Opinion Others have taken similar steps. For example, the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts has a comprehensive opioid management program that is based on a simple intuition: If we can just make sure people get the medicine they need, and not one pill more, we can change the course of addiction and save more lives. By keeping new opioid prescriptions to a seven-day limit, among other important actions, the problem is being addressed at its root. In addition to smaller supplies for new prescriptions, Express Scripts is taking proactive measures to better educate people with new opioid prescriptions on safe use of the medications and the importance of properly discarding any unused medication two actions that speak to the heart of our mission at Zero Left. They even provide Deterra disposal bags to members with an opioid prescription, which greatly simplifies the safe disposal of unused medications. Compounding the problem is the fact that studies show nearly 60 percent of patients undergoing opioid therapy have been prescribed other drugs that could interact dangerously. Of those patients, two-thirds were using drugs prescribed by at least two physicians, with just under half filling prescriptions at multiple pharmacies. Every additional pharmacy, every additional physician, and every additional route through which a patient acquires health care creates an added layer of confusion. >> READ MORE: Philly citizens talk about the opioid crisis | Opinion It's no secret that all of us are paying a huge price for this mismanaged pain therapy. All members of the health-care sector need to get serious about working together to find a way to mitigate the growing scourge of opioid dependence. By doubling down on scrutiny of the legal pharmaceutical opioid supply, from production to prescription and consumption, we would be well on our way to defeating the addiction epidemic. Naloxone, for instance, marketed as Narcan, has been instrumental and is beginning to gain a foothold against the opioid epidemic. But addicts are actively searching for new highs, making naloxone less and less effective against new synthetic opioids, some of them related to the fentanyl dose that killed Adam. Adequately addressing the opioid epidemic requires a renewed, systemic approach that will monitor and mitigate the routes through which patients most commonly become addicted. >> READ MORE: Opioid crisis demands strong medicine and strong wills | Editorial While emergency treatments such as naloxone have been instrumental in saving tens of thousands of lives across the country, it's merely a Band-Aid solution and one that will do little to effect long-term change. The answer lies in more careful oversight at the junction where drugs are prescribed and prescriptions are filled, and it's clear to us that health-care companies, like Express Scripts, are well-positioned to help close the pathway to addiction. Our best chance at ending rampant opioid abuse is for prescription-drug use to be monitored at all touch points in the patient-care continuum, including the parent or the friend who needs to speak up when something doesn't seem right. We left opioids unguarded. Now we know that Zero Left is the only way to go. We're proud that others are rallying around a common cause: Stop addiction before it starts. Jim and Jeanne Moser live in New Hampshire, where they have created the Zero Left campaign. Community, DIVIDED MANISTIQUE Concerned citizens from across the community showed up to the regular meeting of the Manistique Area Schools Board of Education Monday to voice their opinions on a possible mask... Fish consumption only remaining restriction on Manistique River MANISTIQUE The decades long endeavor of delisting the Manistique River as an Area of Concern made additional progress recently seeing the removal of the dredging as one of... North Korea handed the boxes over last week but provided only a single dog tag and no other aid to their identification. A ceremony at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday afternoon sent off 55 boxes of bones that North Korea says are those of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. The ceremony was nonetheless attended by some 500 South Korean and U.S. officials led by Defense Minister Song Young-moo, U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Vincent Brooks, and U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris. The boxes were then taken on a transport aircraft to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, where they were met by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, whose father was a Korean War veteran. Forensic identification will be carried out through DNA tests at the air base by the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The UN Command believes that the remains of some 5,000 U.S. soldiers are still buried in North Korea. The North has only handed over 629 since 1990. Consider that Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth. A typical local-size storm on Mars reaches 10-15 kilometers (about 6-9 miles) in height, Cantor said, while the recent haboob in the Phoenix, Arizona area on Earth reached about 1.5-1.6 kilometers (just under a mile) in height in early July. Theres just no comparison to a PEDE. Last week though, Cantor saw signs indicating that the storm is beginning to dissipate. First, he found breaks in the veil of dust obscuring the planet that allowed him to see surface features that have been buried under the haze for six weeks. Then, by employing a measurement system that Mars scientists use to determine the atmospheric opacity, a parameter that indicates the amount of dust in the atmosphere, he assessed that the cloud is indeed thinning, and his latest Mars Weather Report was sunnier than it has been since May. This dust opacity measurement, called a Tau in Mars science jargon, allows scientists to gauge and monitor dust in the atmosphere from both the Martian ground and from orbit. Acquiring a Tau measurement from the ground is preferred for surface missions, because rovers and landers are, after all, on Martian terrain, it is more accurate locally, and in the case of Opportunity because the local dust scene is what matters most to this solar-powered rovers ability to live long and prosper. Opportunity takes this measurement daily as part of her normal routine, using the Sun as the point of reference, which, of course, is a known, steady magnitude light source. Over the 14 years and six months of this mission, MER Athena Science Team member and atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon, Senior Research Scientist of the Space Science Institute (SSI), who also works on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity, has used this method to consistently determine what the dust opacity or Tau, which in turn helps the team estimate how much sunlight is getting through to the arrays. But when the storm blotted out the Sun at Endeavour Crater and sent Opportunity into sleep mode, taking an atmospheric opacity measurement at Endeavour Crater was impossible. In the communique the MER team received from Opportunity on June 11th, the rover reported a Tau of 10.8, the largest ever recorded on the surface of the Red Planet, noted Mission Manager Scott Lever, of JPL. When the team did not hear from the rover on the next communication pass, Callas declared spacecraft emergency, because that level of opacity essentially meant the sky over the rover was near pitch black. In fact, the jaw-dropping measurement overtook the record held by the Viking landers, which estimated a Tau of 9 during a PEDE back in the late 1970s; thus, it chalked up another record for MER, albeit one that was not desired. Estimating the Tau from orbit is tricky, but it is possible. By using a terrestrial model tuned for the Martian atmosphere by colleague and MARCI science team member, Michael Wolff at the Space Science Institute, a model that he has used during the last 20 years, Cantor crunched the numbers based on the MARCI data in late July and produced a calculated estimate of a Tau that put guarded smiles on the faces of MER team members: the dust opacity at Endeavour had dropped substantially, to approximately 3.6 with a margin of error of 1, meaning the haze could be as low as 2.6 or as high as 4.6, a huge uncertainty, he admitted. MOGADISHU An AU police contingent of 160-personnel is due to leave Somalia over the weekend, after a years tour of duty in the Horn of Africa country. The team from Ugandas Formed Police Unit, is part of a multi-national police force under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which is training and mentoring Somali police officers. Uganda first deployed officers of the Formed Police Unit in 2012. Since then, they have played a critical role in the Missions operations and provided professional support to their counterparts in the Somali Police Force. The outgoing contingent is the sixth deployment. Because of your contribution and support to the Somali Police Force, we have been able to have a spell of stability and peace in Mogadishu. Businesses flourish as we speak. Investment is growing at a very fast rate. The flights to Mogadishu have increased. In fact, Mogadishu International Airport is now one of the busiest in the whole of eastern Africa. And this is simply because of your contribution to this kind of environment as the police component, Mr. Simon Mulongo, the Deputy AU Special Representative for Somalia told the outgoing police officers, during a medal awards ceremony held in their honour, in the capital Mogadishu today. Mulongo also underscored the important role the African Union is playing in the growth and development of Somalia. AMISOM Police is very proud of the Uganda Formed Police 6, and indeed grateful for the service they have provided in Somalia, remarked Rex Dundun, the police Chief of Staff. The outgoing contingent which deployed in Somalia on 4 August 2017, will be replaced by a new police contingent from the same country, under the command of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Richard Onyait. Uganda Police Force receives you with high salutations for the contributions and well representation you made on behalf of Uganda, to AMISOM. This is a Pan-African spirit which should be emulated by all police officers here and at home, said Grace Turyagumanawe, the Director Peace Support Operations in Uganda Police Force, who is on a working visit to Somalia. Officers from the Formed Police Unit provide oversight to patrols in the city and the Federal Member States, to ensure maintenance of law and order, train their Somali counterparts and contribute to public order management; participate in cordon and search operations; and provide VIP protection services, among other tasks. Related KAMPALA- Businessman Amos Nzeyi has been accused of selling land to National Social Security Fund (NSSF) which does not belong to him. The Temangalo land is stated to have belonged to an Asian family, however Nzeyi wrongful sold it to NSSF in 2009 at Shs11billion worth Workers money. According to a complaint filed before the Land Probe Commission by the Asian Family, they claim to hold the original Title of the 366 acres of land comprised on Block 296 plot 20 in Busiro-Wakiso; on which it operated a Tea Estate before the expulsion of Indian nationals by Idi Amin in 1972. Nazim Moosa has today appeared before the Commission Chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire and testified that his family acquired a 79year old lease on the disputed land in 1924, from the family of a one Daniel Mugwanya Kato. He stated that upon return in 1993, they applied for repossession of their land from the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board and they were told that Government had no claim over their land since it was never declared upon the expulsion as it was required. Nazim contends that efforts to repossess their land proved futile because the same had already been encroached on by prominent Businessman Nzeyi in 1992, who later sold it to NSSF in 2009 at 11billion shillings. However shocking facts stated by Nazim before the Commission show that seven years after NSSF bought this land, a search done at the Land Registry in Wakiso in 2016 revealed that the said Land is still registered in the names of an Indian Company-Temangalo Tea Estate Ltd. Meanwhile the Mugwanya Family which was also in attendance at the Commissions Public Hearing at Wandegeya says it is aggrieved with NSSF illegally occupying their land and wants it back. Related The Ugandan military on Tuesday welcomed the UN Security Councils extension of the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), noting that the move will help it achieve some strategic objectives. Brig. Richard Karemire, military spokesperson, told Xinhua in an interview that the Resolution 2431 will enable the military achieve its key strategies for provision of security for the political process, help to defeat al-Shabab militants and building the capacity of the Somali military to take over the security responsibilities of the country. The 15 members of the Security Council on Monday unanimously approval the extension of AMISOM mandate until May 31, 2019, deciding to reduce the level of uniformed personnel to 20,626 by end of February 2019 and to include a minimum of 1,040 police personnel. UN resolutions are binding to member states. Therefore, as Uganda Peoples Defense Force under AMISOM, we shall continue to operate within the resolutions parameters to pursue our key strategic objectives in support of the people of Somali, said Karemire. The resolution emphasizes that the long-term objective is that Somali security institutions and forces assume full responsibility for Somalias security, and recognizes that AMISOM remains critical to security during this transition. Uganda provides the bulk of the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia. The other troops are from Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The troops have been in the horn of African country since 2007. Related Three people were killed in protests in Zimbabwe on Wednesday after the army opened fire in central Harare during demonstrations over alleged fraud in the countrys elections. The Zimbabwe Republic Police would like to confirm the unfortunate deaths of three people during the riots and melee which occurred in Harare Central business district, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told state television. Crackdown to prevent further unrest The Zimbabwe government on Wednesday pledged to enforce a security crackdown to prevent further unrest after the army opened fire to disperse opposition protests, leaving at least three people dead. We will not tolerate any of the actions that were witnessed today, Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu told a late-night press conference. The opposition have perhaps interpreted our understanding to be weak, and I think they are testing our resolve and I think they are making a big mistake. Related BUHWEJU Nyakitoko Secondary School in Buhweju district has been closed following the death of student who shot by police as they quelled a violent strike at the institution on Wednesday night. According to the District Police Commander, Mr Boniface Kinyera, the student identified as Innocent Natuhangana from Senior Four was shot in the back by police as they pursued students who had attacked the residence of the head teacher, Mr Alex Tumuramye, whom they accuse of incompetence. However, at the time of the attack, Mr Tumuramye was not at home, prompting the students to begin vandalizing the home. However, officers from the nearby Burere police post responded in time and engaged in running battles with the violent students. In the process, Natuhangana was shot in the back and Felix Musimenta, a senior six student, was short in hand. Natuhangana was rushed to Kampala International Hospital in Ishaka before being referred to Mulago Hospital in Kampala but he died on Wednesday morning while being transported to Mulago. Musimenta is being treated from a local clinic, according to Mr Kinyera. The DPC said the two police men who shot the students and a security guard at the school called Mr Naboth Kansiime have been arrested. Its regrettable we are guided by the law on the use of fire arms but these officers turned unprofessional and shot at unarmed students, they will answer for their actions, said Mr Kinyera. The Resident District Commissioner, Mr Emmy Kateera, on Wednesday said investigations into the matter are underway. Related Rwanda targets to raise a revenue of 74 million U.S. dollars through its Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism strategy this year, Rwanda Convention Bureau said Tuesday. Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in 2014 introduced the MICE strategy with a view of diversifying the current tourism product offered in the country while complimenting existing gorilla tourism, eco-tourism, cultural and community-based tourism. Last year Rwanda hosted 192 conferences, generating a revenue of 42 million U.S. dollars. Our target is to raise 74 million U.S. dollars through MICE this year, and we are optimistic about it, said Denise Benzinge Omany, chief executive of Rwanda Convention Bureau, in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda. She noted that Rwanda has become a bee hive of conferences due to its commitment to facilitating meetings and business flow among investors and businesses on the continent. Rwanda has become a leading conference tourism destination and a competitive business and investment hub due to favorable government policies, according to Clare Akamanzi, CEO of RDB Rwanda was ranked 3rd in Africa after South Africa and Morocco in terms of capacity to host international meetings by the 2016 International Congress and Convention Association report. The small central African country boasts of tourist attractions such as Volcanoes National Park, Akagera and Nyungwe national parks, museums, Lake Kivu, bird watching, canopy walk, among others. The small central African country boasts of tourist attractions such as Volcanoes National Park, the most popular national for gorilla trekking, Akagera National Park in the Eastern part of the country and Nyungwe national parks. There are also museums, genocide memorial sites, Lake Kivu, bird watching, canopy walk, among others. etc. For the past decade, Rwanda has relied on gorilla tourism in the Volcanoes National Park as the major attraction bringing most tourists to the country. However with the focus on conference tourism, Rwanda is expected to diversify its tourism sector. It received 1.3 million visitor arrivals in 2017, according to RDB. Tourism has generated 90,000 jobs and is Rwandas largest foreign exchange earner, said RDB. Related Officer Andrew Napolitano was leaving his residence with his two children and was preparing head to work when he noticed a white male later identified as 22-year-old Cody Ramsey confronted him with a firearm. Image courtesy of Beebe PD / Facebook. The Beebe (AR) Police Department posted on Facebook that on the morning of July 18, 2018, Officer Andrew Napolitano was leaving his residence with his two children and was preparing to head to work when he noticed a white male later identified as 22-year-old Cody Ramsey sitting inside of a parked pickup truck beside his police vehicle. "Officer Napolitano asked Ramsey if he was waiting on someone, to which Ramsey stated no," the department post said. "Officer Napolitano informed him that the area was private property and asked him to leave the property." Ramsey then leaned forward in his car seat and pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at Officer Napolitanos face, according to police. The department's Facebook post continues, "Officer Napolitano drew his duty weapon and ordered Ramsey to drop the gun the subject complied with commands and dropped the gun. Officer Napolitano then ordered Ramsey out of the vehicle. "Upon exiting the vehicle, Ramsey resisted arrest and physically assaulted Napolitano as well as a nearby citizen who came to Napolitano's aid, but was eventually taken into custody once backup officers arrived on scene. "Subsequent to his arrest, Ramsey admitted to preplanning the attack. He was arrested and charged with three counts of Aggravated Assault, one count of Battery in the second degree on a law enforcement officer and one count of carrying a weapon." An officer with the Colorado Springs (CO) Police Department was critically wounded in an early morning gunfight, according to KDVR-TV. Officer Cem Duzel was shot after responding to a shots-fired call and is in critical condition at an area hospital, according to the CSPD Facebook page. Officers had responded to multiple reports of shots being fired. When they arrived at the scene, there was an exchange of gunfire, Colorado Springs police Chief Peter Carey said. The suspect also was shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to reports. The name, age, and gender of the suspect were not released. "We must discuss the issue of refugees based on an understanding of foreign cultures," a Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said. But Cheong Wa Dae pointed out that Korean independence fighters benefited from generous asylum policies in the early 1900s, freely setting up an interim government in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Record numbers of citizens signed a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website urging the government to toughen screening of foreigners. The government on Wednesday promised to toughen screening of asylum seekers amid a surge of xenophobia over the arrival of hundreds of Yemenis on Jeju Island. The petition was put up on June 13 and drew 714,875 signatures, prompted by the arrival of 549 Yemenis in Jeju who fled civil war and famine in their country by taking advantage of a visa waiver aimed at attracting tourists. Jung Hye-seung, the presidential secretary in charge of the website, said, "Many people became refugees during the Korean War, and residents of Jeju fled to Japan during the Jeju Massacre," a murderous postwar government campaign to root out communism. Jung added that the issue needs more discussion and thought and the top priority will be the safety of Korean citizens. Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said, "We will bolster the screening process by making it mandatory for asylum applicants to submit their social media accounts and other measures." "We will conduct stringent screenings for drug use, infectious diseases and records of violent crimes," he added. The minister also pledged to crack down on human traffickers who take money to send foreigners to Korea with the promise that asylum seekers can abuse the country's permission to work while their paperwork is being reviewed. Cheong Wa Dae had been silent on the issue until now, apparently because the government's core constituency is among the most xenophobic groups in society. "Opposition to refugees is high especially among people in their 20s and 30s and women," a Cheong Wa Dae official said, and is related to high youth unemployment and safety fears among women. "There were concerns of a backlash if we hastily expressed an opinion." VIDEO: Maryland Officer Fatally Shoots Murder Suspect A suspect who had reportedly just shot and killed a victim at a Prince Georges County, MD, liquor store was fatally shot by an officer who happened to be in his police vehicle right outside the scene of the crime at the time. The Prince Georges County Police Department said the suspect shot and killed a victim inside the store shortly after 1300 hours on Wednesday. "Investigators said as the suspect fled the store, he was confronted by an on-duty officer in an unmarked vehicle at an intersection nearby the liquor store when the shooting happened," according to Fox5-TV. This individual is running at the police officer armed with a handgun," said Prince Georges County Police Chief Hank Stawinski. "He shouts commands requesting that individual stop. That individual pays no heed to those commands and the officer is then in a position where he must discharge his weapon several times. That suspect is shot and falls to the ground." Detectives are trying to determine a motive for the shooting inside the liquor store. An off-duty NYPD officer on his way to work shot a man who reportedly attempted to rob him, according to the New York Post. The officer was walking to a train station at around 0500 hours "when the man approached and allegedly pretended to have a gun in his pocket while he attempted to rob him," police sources told The Post. The 21-year-old suspect was taken in police custody to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to reports. The Chief of Police for the Kirkersville (OH) Police Department who was found dead in his home on May 25 reportedly died of acute intoxication by fentanyl, according to a coroner's report. According to the coroners office, a plastic sandwich bag found where Hughes died tested positive for cocaine. A syringe was also determined to be positive for fentanyl, according to Fox News. Chief James Hughes Jr. who was 35 years old had only been on the job for a few months before he died. Hughes left behind a wife and three young children. A Virginia State Police K-9 was killed after a police pursuit ended in gunfire in Sussex County, VA, Wednesday morning. Virginia State Police Public Relations Director Corinne N. Geller said a trooper in Sussex County identified a vehicle that had been reported stolen out of Connecticut, but the driver wouldn't stop when the trooper tried to pull him over, reports WTVR. K-9 Vader was two years old. (Photo: Virginia State Police) As the pursuit began, officials said the suspect began firing at the trooper's vehicle. Officials said that as the car left I-95, troopers positioned themselves to stop the vehicle. Geller said the suspect continued firing at the state police vehicles and "one of the suspect's bullets pierced a K9 trooper's back passenger window and struck a state police canine riding in the back seat compartment." "The state police narcotics detection canine, Vader, did not survive his injuries," Geller said. K-9 Vader was two years old. Officials said once the vehicle stopped, troopers engaged the suspect and shots were fired, and the male suspect died at the scene. Geller said no troopers were injured. The suspect has been identified as Tramaine Marquese Poole, 41, New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell told the New Haven Register. Campbell says Poole was wanted for the murder of 28-year-old Tyekqua Nesbitt in Connecticut and another shooting. An ambitious partnership with the UK after Brexit Portfolio Save article Share Hungarian The Brexit train has picked up speed over the last few weeks, as the British government has finally tabled its exit plan. It was, however, thrown back by the European Commission that warned of the risks of an exit without an agreement. Even Britains foreign secretary expressed his concern that they are heading for no deal by accident and there is a risk of a messy divorce." In the following you can read an op-ed by Michel Barnier, the European Commission's Chief Negotiator for the negotiations with the United Kingdom, which is published simultaneously on Portfolios English and Hungarian websites. The United Kingdom will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019. While we regretted the UK's departure, we respect its sovereign decision. Our task is now to organize the disentanglement of the UK from the EU's institutions and policies. And we also need to look towards the future. After Brexit, the EU will remain a global player, with 440 million citizens, and one of the biggest world economies. The UK has been an EU member for 45 years. We share common values and have a number of common interests. The UK, which is a member of the G7 and the UN Security Council, can be an important partner of the EU, economically and strategically. In the current geopolitical context, we have an interest not only to strengthen the EU's role in the world but to cooperate with the UK as a close partner. How can we achieve a new partnership? First, we need to make sure that the UK's exit is orderly. 80% of the Withdrawal Agreement is agreed. We will protect the rights of more than 4 million EU citizens living in the UK and British nationals in the EU. This was our first priority and a major point of vigilance for the European Parliament. The UK has also agreed to honour all its financial obligations undertaken as an EU member. A 21 month transition period will give businesses and administrations time to adapt, as the UK would stay in our Single Market and Customs Union until 31 December 2020. However, 80% is not 100%. We still need to agree on important points, such as the protection of "geographical indications". This refers to the protection of local farm and food products like Scottish Whisky or Parmesan cheese, where EU protection has generated significant value for European farmers and producers. We need to find solutions for specific British territories, such as the UK's sovereign bases in Cyprus, and Gibraltar on which bilateral negotiations are ongoing between Spain and the UK. The biggest risk caused by Brexit is on the island of Ireland. We need to make sure that Brexit does not create a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and that the Good Friday Agreement, which has brought peace and stability to Northern Ireland, will be protected. Today, the cooperation and exchanges between Ireland and Northern Ireland occur within the common framework of the EU. Since we will not know what the future relationship will bring by autumn 2018, we need to have a "backstop" solution in the Withdrawal Agreement. The UK agrees with this, and both the EU and the UK have said that a better solution in the future relationship could replace the backstop. What the EU has proposed is that Northern Ireland remains in a common regulatory area for goods and customs with the rest of the EU. We are ready to improve the text of our proposal with the UK. Secondly, we need to agree on the terms of our future relationship. Let's be frank: as the UK has decided to leave the Single Market, it can no longer be as close economically to the rest of the EU. The UK wants to leave our common regulatory area, where people, goods, services and capital move freely across national borders. These are the economic foundations on which the EU was built. And the European Council - the 27 Heads of State and government - as well as the European Parliament have often recalled that these economic foundations cannot be weakened. The UK knows well the benefits of the Single Market. It has contributed to shaping our rules over the last 45 years. And yet, some UK proposals would undermine our Single Market which is one of the EU's biggest achievements. The UK wants to keep free movement of goods between us, but not of people and services. And it proposes to apply EU customs rules without being part of the EU's legal order. Thus, the UK wants to take back sovereignty and control of its own laws, which we respect, but it cannot ask the EU to lose control of its borders and laws. But I remain confident that the negotiations can reach a good outcome. It is possible to respect EU principles and create a new and ambitious partnership. That is what the European Council has already proposed in March. The EU has offered a Free Trade Agreement with zero tariffs and no quantitative restrictions for goods. It proposed close customs and regulatory cooperation and access to public procurement markets, to name but a few examples. On security, the EU wants very close cooperation to protect our citizens and democratic societies. We should organise effective exchanges of intelligence and information and make sure our law enforcement bodies work together. We should cooperate to fight crime, money laundering and terrorist financing. We can cooperate on the exchange of DNA, fingerprints, or Passenger Name Records in aviation to better track and identify terrorists and criminals. We are also ready to discuss mechanisms for swift and effective extradition, guaranteeing procedural rights for suspects. If the UK understands this, and if we quickly find solutions to the outstanding withdrawal issues, including the backstop for Ireland and Northern Ireland, I am sure we can build a future partnership between the EU and the United Kingdom that is unprecedented in scope and depth. Michel Barnier, the European Commission's Chief Negotiator for the negotiations with the United Kingdom Front page photo by John Thys / AFP HYDERABAD, India, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- T-Hub and Qapitol QA have announced a partnership to support in advancing the quality of apps by startups T-Hub, a global startup catalyst powering entrepreneurship & deal flow, and Qapitol QA, an award-winning QA services company that specialises in solving end-to-end QA challenges for startups have entered into a partnership that will provide startups opportunities to improve the quality of applications (apps) developed by T-Hub's incubated startups, and support them in building world-class and market-ready products with Minimum Viable Quality (MVQ). This partnership brings together thought leaders who have a shared vision of supporting disruptive millennial worker succeed via innovation. The engineering team of startups will get support in accelerating time-to-market, on-demand access to continuous testing, 360-degrees QA skills availability under one roof, tools & techniques, framework, infrastructure as required to perform end-to-end quality analysis. The start-ups also reap the benefit of wide & in-depth analysis coverage at a fraction of the cost that they would incur if they were to do the same with in-house teams. The start-ups (that are creating a MVP) and the grown-ups (that are scaling their operations and are big on customer acquisition) stand to get benefitted from Qapitol QA's specialised expertise in Experience Assurance, Performance Scaling, Functional Stability and Test Automation. Jay Krishnan, CEO of T-Hub, said, "Qapitol QA will mentor our startups to build high-quality applications that meet the expectations of the end-users and upgrade it for the global use. It will enable our startups to optimize their costs, overcome customer acquisition challenges and gain from faster release cycles." Speaking on the partnership Dheeraj Karanam, Business Head - Hyderabad, Qapitol QA, said, "This partnership aligns with our vision of supporting the start-up ecosystem deliver better software. We are excited about the opportunity to power start-up teams with expertise that would help them realise the true potential and the love of their customers." About T-Hub T-Hub is a global startup catalyst that powers entrepreneurship and deal flow. Incorporated in Hyderabad, India, in 2015, it has provided more than 350 national and international startups with access to mentors, corporates, venture capitalists and global investors. T-Hub is on a mission to scale startups globally, offering entrepreneurs a world-class scaling platform to help them generate revenue and get access to new customers, capital and markets. T-Hub supercharges corporate innovation by enabling an out-of-the-box approach and fosters entrepreneurship by accelerating startup initiatives by governments. T-Hub also advises investors on deal flow. About Qapitol QA Qapitol QA is an award-winning new age quality acceleration company that accompanies startups and enterprises in their digital transformation journey and ensures delivery of delightful, consistent and reliable end user experiences leading to business success. For more information, please visit http://www.qapitol.com. Media Contact: Dheeraj Karanam [email protected] +91-9590322111 Qapitol QA Services Private Limited Ann Mary John [email protected] +91-8585947179 T-Hub SOURCE T-Hub and Qapitol QA EDINBURGH, Scotland, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Proceeds will also be used to drive sales and optimise the commercial model for this novel imaging system in the UK CALCIVIS, a medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of tooth decay and enabling preventive dentistry, announces it has closed a 3.15 million equity funding round from existing investors Archangel Investors, Julz and the Scottish Investment Bank. The proceeds will be used to support the completion of the FDA's Pre-Market Approval (PMA) review process for the CALCIVIS Imaging System in the United States (US), the world's largest dentistry market. The filing of the PMA application to the FDA was made in October 2017. The Company plans the launch of the CALCIVIS imaging system in the US in 2019, subject to the PMA being approved. The PMA submission contained positive data from the pivotal clinical study, which evaluated the CALCIVIS imaging system in the assessment of active dental demineralisation. Results showed a highly significant level of agreement between the original dentist doing the clinical assessment and the independent dentist's assessment using the CALCIVIS imaging system for teeth with active lesions (90.7%; p<0.0001) and sound (healthy) teeth (97.8%; p<0.0001). The results of the User and Patient Questionnaires showed high levels of usability and acceptance of the CALCIVIS system with patients reporting the procedure to be "quick and painless". The proceeds will also be used to drive the commercialisation of the imaging system in the UK. The CALCIVIS imaging system was launched in the UK in March this year and there has been a high level of interest following its introduction. CALCIVIS also intends to further optimize the commercial model for the system to maximise its uptake and use by the UK dental community. The CALCIVIS imaging system is a sophisticated medical device and consumable combination designed to transform the assessment and management of demineralisation associated with dental caries and erosion. The CALCIVIS imaging system, for the first time, allows the real-time visualisation of calcium ions released from demineralising tooth surfaces, in routine dental practice. The resulting images provide a focus for discussion with patients and enables the development of a preventive treatment plan in line with dental best practice. Adam Christie, CEO of CALCIVIS, said: "We are delighted by the continuing commitment of our existing investors in this financing round. This new investment positions us to gain PMA approval for our CALCIVIS Imaging System in the US ahead of a launch planned for the second half of 2019. We also plan to use the funds to drive sales and optimize the commercial model for the system in the UK where it has received a positive reception from both dentists and patients since its first launch earlier this year." Dr Sarah Hardy, Chief Investment Officer at Archangels, said: "This funding round will enable CALCIVIS to generate significant shareholder value by gaining FDA approval for its unique CALCIVIS Imaging System paving the way for the product US launch in 2019. We believe the system will bring significant benefits both to patients and dental practitioners by catalysing the adoption of preventive dentistry. We are proud to contribute to the growth of such an innovative company." Dr Zishan Haroon, Chairman and General Partner of Julz, said: "The CALCIVIS Imaging System is a breakthrough innovation in an industry that has for long been using visual inspection and X-ray images as the main detection and diagnostic aids for caries. The CALCIVIS Imaging System is designed to revolutionise the assessment and management of dental caries by paving the way for the adoption of preventive dentistry. We believe this approach will dramatically change care planning and intervention for patients leading to preservation of their original teeth and better oral hygiene. We are delighted to support such an innovative company providing dentists and patients with next-generation dentistry care." Kerry Sharp, Head of Scottish Investment Bank, said: "We're pleased to be co-investing with Archangels and Julz Co to help CALCIVIS gain FDA approval and launch the product in the US. We've assisted the company on its growth journey and it's now showing promising commercial development with the launch of its imaging system in the UK earlier this year a significant event for preventive dentistry. We look forward to working alongside CALCIVIS to help it continue to achieve its potential, both in Scotland and internationally." About CALCIVIS CALCIVIS is an innovative medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of dental caries or 'tooth decay'. CALCIVIS brings together novel biotechnology approaches and world-class device development expertise and is at the forefront of applying biotechnology to dentistry. The CALCIVIS imaging system will, for the first time, allow the real-time detection and visualisation of calcium ions released by demineralising caries lesions in routine dental practice. CALCIVIS began operations in 2012 and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Company has been funded by Archangel Investors Limited and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise and Julz, a US-based healthcare fund. The Company has raised equity and grant funding totalling over 12m since its inception. CALCIVIS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 666440 and Innovate UK's Biomedical Catalyst. www.calcivis.com About Julz Co Julz Co is a venture capital firm focused on investments in the health care industry with an emphasis on therapeutics, medical devices, digital healthcare and services. Julz invests globally in companies that have novel and proprietary technology addressing a vital market need and are driven by experienced management teams. The company has offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and Suzhou, China. www.julzco.com About Archangels Archangels is a prominent business angel syndicate which has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades. Its members invest in, and mentor, promising start-up and early stage companies from Scotland's vibrant technology and life sciences sectors. Originally formed in 1992 and based in Edinburgh, the syndicate now comprises over 80 investor members and leads investment of around 15m per year in early stage Scottish companies, including leverage from partners, the largest being the Scottish Investment Bank. Archangels is interested in Scottish technology companies, which are looking for initial funding of 50,000 to 2m. In addition, Archangels is keen to welcome new investors to its syndicate. www.archangelsonline.com About Scottish Investment Bank The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland's main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of co- investment funds including the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund. SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital's life sciences fund and is a participant in the Scottish European Growth Co-Investment Programme alongside the European Investment Fund. SIB's investment funds support Scotland's SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital. SIB also provides a team of Financial Readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance. Contacts: CALCIVIS Adam Christie, CEO Tel: +44-(0)-7795-600571 E-mail: info@calcivis.com Media relations Citigate Dewe Rogerson David Dible, Marine Perrier Tel: +44-(0)-207-638-9571 E-mail: calcivis@citigatedr.co.uk SOURCE Calcivis China's Huawei has overtaken Apple to become the world's No. 2 smartphone maker after Samsung and is gaining fast on its Korean rival, which is now just 4.9 percentage points ahead. Market researcher Strategy Analytics on Tuesday said Huawei accounted for 15.5 percent of global smartphone sales in the second quarter, after Samsung's 20.4 percent but ahead of Apple's 11.8 percent. Among the world's top five smartphone makers, Samsung was the only one to suffer a sharp drop in sales. Apple fell to third place but sold 300,000 more phones than the same period last year, while Xiaomi and OPPO came fourth and fifth with 9.1 and 8.6 percent. The global smartphone market was scaled at 350.4 million units in the second quarter, down three percent on-year. Female officers will be able to lead companies, platoons and squads of frontline or beach and shore battalions from this autumn. Currently women are not allowed to serve in combat roles at the frontline. But the Defense Ministry said Wednesday it will lift the restrictions as part of defense reform plans aimed at giving women more roles and improving their work environment. Some female officers are assigned to units some 5 to 10 km away from the demilitarized zone, but they work chiefly as company or platoon commanders in boot camps. In the future, more women will be given combat roles, and female non-commissioned officers will serve as squad leaders at guard posts in the DMZ. But they will still be barred from some 60 guard posts between the military demarcation line in the DMZ and the Southern Limit Line. "We'll start assigning female officers to frontline units based on qualifications we're going to work out by the autumn," a ministry spokesman said. A Korean has been held in Libya for 27 days since he was kidnapped by local insurgents, the Foreign Ministry here said Wednesday. The Korean government bans travel to Libya as far as it can, but the man had been working there for a water management company of the Great Man-Made River, an aquifer stretching across Libya built by a Korean company. Insurgents kidnapped him with three Filipino coworkers from the foreign compound at a water plant in Jabal Hassouna in southwestern Libya on the morning of July 6. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Special food safety inspection conducted for Expo By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2018-08-01 17:49 Less than 100 days from the opening of the first China International Import Expo, a special inspection was conducted yesterday by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration to ensure food supply security during the upcoming expo. Law enforcement officers carried out an on-site food sanitation inspection at the expo venue, focusing on the high-risk areas like catering units at the surrounding tourist attractions and in the commercial center. The food safety guarantee of the China International Import Expo is mainly in two aspects-- food made by more than 70 restaurants in the venue and the takeaway food, an official said.The restaurants in the venue should all reach a standard of reliable restaurant, and for takeaway food, the whole process from production to transportation will be supervised. In the final stage before the opening of the expo, besides the food sector, other special inspections will be carried out covering aspects of the production and sale of counterfeit and inferior drugs, the purchase of drugs by illegal pharmacies, the sale of fake cosmetics, and the illegal sale of pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Home Just In Disallowed to quiz Minister, Nepali Congress walks out of House meeting Kathmandu, August 2 The main opposition party Nepali Congress on Thursday walked out of the meeting of House of Representatives as Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara did not let its lawmakers ask clarifications to Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa. During the meeting this afternoon, Minister Thapa had informed the House about the murder of a girl after her rape in Kanchanpur district recently. Then, he also briefed the legislative body about an attack made on lawmaker Niru Devi Pal on Tuesday. As Thapa concluded his address, members of the opposition party stood up from their seats demanding time to ask him some questions. However, Speaker Mahara said the lawmakers would be provided with the time later and allowed Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali to brief the House about his recent Europe visit. The opposition lawmakers were still demanding the time; but Mahara also managed to read out names selected for various parliamentary committees. He then allowed Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada to table a proposal for the discussion on Insurance Bill. He told the Congress lawmakers that he could not give them any time today. The opposition lawmakers were already irate, and they walked out of the meeting. Yaroslavl court detains ninth defendant in notorious prison torture case RIA Novosti, Andrey Stenin 13:59 02/08/2018 MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) The Zavolshzky District Court of Yaroslavl has detained junior supervision inspector Aleksey Andreyev as part of a criminal case over notorious beating and torture of an inmate, the press-service of the court has stated. The defendant will stay in detention until September 20. Earlier, the court also put under house arrest deputy head of the correctional department of the Yaroslavl Penal Colony One Ivan Kalashnikov as well as six other defendants in the case over an abuse of office involving use of violence. This crime may be punished by a prison term of up to 10 years. In July, Novaya Gazeta newspaper published a video showing an inmate being tortured by some persons wearing grey camouflage uniforms. Later, it was revealed that the victim in the video had been identified as Yevgeny Makarov, who is serving his term in the Yaroslavl penal colony. The video was filmed by one of the staff members according to lawyers representing Makarov. Irina Biryukova, the inmates attorney, who handed the footage to the media, has asked the Federal Chamber of Attorneys to ensure her safety because of threats from the prison staff. She also announced that she was leaving Russia. The Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov visited the penal colony on July 23. The Council filed its reports to the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutors Office. Russian research scientist charged with treason denied house arrest 14:59 02/08/2018 MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI, Kirill Ryabchikov) The Moscow City Court on Thursday refused to place detained scientist of the Central Research Institute for Engineering Technology (TsNIImash) Viktor Kudryavtsev charged with treason under house arrest, RAPSI reports from the courtroom. Earlier, the Lefortovsky District Court put Kudryavtsev in detention until September 19. In his appeal filed with the Moscow City Court the defendant sought to overturn the ruling and asked for house arrest. However, the appeal was dismissed. The hearing was held behind closed doors. Kudryavtsev stands charged with disclosure of classified information to the Belgian Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamic, his attorney Yevgeny Smirnov told RAPSI. Investigators claim that the researcher has transferred information via email from an unmarked computer. However, the scientist has not worked with such secret documents since late 90s, according to the lawyer. The 74-year old researcher pleaded not guilty and refused to testify in the case, Smirnov added. Police denied compensation for batons lost during 2012 Bolotnaya riots RIA Novosti, Andrei Stenin 16:51 02/08/2018 MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) A court in Moscow on Thursday dismissed a claim filed by the Interior Ministry seeking to collect 44,000 rubles from six Bolotnaya Square case defendants for police batons and radio stations lost after the riots held in May 2012, RAPSI reported from the court. Police demanded compensation from riot organizers Leonid Razvozzhayev and Sergey Udaltsov, activists Aleksey Gaskarov, Ilya Gushchin, Alexander Margolin and Yelena Kokhtareva. Defendants in turn asked the court to dismiss the claim because of expiry of the statute of limitations in the case, which is equal to 3 years. Over 400 people were arrested, and scores were injured in the authorized Bolotnaya Square protest that turned violent in May 2012. Dozens were later charged with inciting mass riots and battery against law enforcement officers. Riot organizers Leonid Razvozzhayev and Sergey Udaltsov were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison each. Other defendants in the case received prison terms ranging from suspended sentences to four years. Several defendants were pardoned; two activists were sent to compulsory mental treatment. Home Just In Gandaki govt urges centre to hand over ownership of various buildings and facilities Pokhara, September 2 The provincial government in Gandaki has demanded that the federal government hand over it the ownership of various government buildings and facilities as the provincial government has begun using them for various purposes. A meeting of the provincial Council of Ministers held in Pokhara of Kaski district on Wednesday made a decision to write to the federal government to hand over the ownership of the buildings including those used for Provincial Assembly and Cabinet meetings. The government spokesperson Ram Sharan Basnet says the request has been made to hand over buildings housing the Chief Ministers Office, other ministries, Provincial Assembly building and its secretariat and the Office of Main Secretary among others to the provincial government. Because the provincial government is not in the capacity to construct new structures immediately, we demand that the existing structures be handed over. Basnet, also the provincial governments Minister for Physical Infrastructure, informs that even the vehicles used by provincial officials belong to the federal government. He hopes that officials at the federal government understand the situation and consider their request. Meanwhile, Basnet says the provincial government is soon increasing the number of ministries whereas some ministries should be immediately relocated. Therefore, accommodating all the offices has been more challenging. Preliminary investigation into 2017 St. Petersburg terror attack complete flickr.com/Damien 10:59 02/08/2018 MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) The law enforcement has completed preliminary investigation into a criminal case over terror attack in St. Petersburg metro in April 2017, the press-service of the Investigative Committee has stated. According to the Committee, the documents related to the case will be soon transferred to the relevant parties, including 11 defendants. On April 3, 2017, an unknown device exploded in a train between St. Petersburg metro stations Technological Institute and Sennaya Ploshchad. According to law enforcement authorities, 16 people died in the blast including a suicide bomber, over 50 were wounded. 112 persons were acknowledged as victims in the criminal case. Investigators believe that an organization with a goal of spreading terrorist activity, including attacks on Russia and its citizens, was founded in Syria. According to investigators, the suicide bomber Akbarzhon Dzhalilov manufactured two explosives and brought them to the St. Petersburg metro. One of the bombs that Dzhalilov kept to himself exploded around 2:40 PM Moscow time between St. Petersburg metro stations Technological Institute and Sennaya Ploshchad. The second bomb located at Ploshchad Vosstaniya station failed to detonate due to its malfunction and was subsequently found and disarmed. Charges brought against defendants in notorious prison torture case RIA Novosti, Yevgeny Odinokov 15:30 02/08/2018 MOSCOW, August 2 (RAPSI) The Investigative Committee of Russia has brought charges against 12 employees of the Yaroslavl Penal Colony One as part of the criminal case over notorious beating and torture of an inmate, the press-service of the Committee has stated. Names of the defendants are: Maksim Yablokov, Igor Bogdanov, Ruslan Tsvetkov, Alexey Brovkin, Dmitry Solovyov, Sergey Drachev, Ivan Kalashnikov, Serget Yefremov, Alexander Morozov, Andrey Zybin, Alexey Andreyev and Alexey Mikityuk. Eight of the defendants have already been placed in detention while head of the correctional department of the penal colony Kalashnikov was put under house arrest. The case is classified as abuse of office involving use of violence case, which is being investigated by the main directorate of the Investigative Committee. The crime may be punished by a prison term of up to 10 years. Earlier, Novaya Gazeta newspaper published a video showing an inmate being tortured by some persons wearing grey camouflage uniforms. Later, it was revealed that the victim in the video had been identified as Yevgeny Makarov, who is serving his term in the Yaroslavl penal colony. The video was filmed by one of the staff members according to lawyers representing Makarov. Irina Biryukova, the inmates attorney, who handed the footage to the media, has asked the Federal Chamber of Attorneys to ensure her safety because of threats from the prison staff. She also announced that she was leaving Russia. The Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov visited the penal colony on July 23. The Council filed its reports to the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutors Office. UPs mills, dominated by the private sectors 94 units, have already expressed their inability to participate in the next crushing season Domestic sugar market glut, farmers outstanding of about Rs 170 billion along with bumper sugarcane crop for the next crushing season of 2018-19 are all pointing towards an impending crisis ridden sugar cycle. In this backdrop, the Yogi Adityanath government has directed mills to start their crushing operations early (from October 15). For this, units in western UP have been asked to take the lead. Of the total arrears of Rs 17,000 crore, UP mills, totalling 119, owe the highest amount of about Rs 11,200 crore, followed by Maharashtra at Rs 1,100 crore. UPs mills, dominated by the private sectors 94 units, have already expressed their inability to participate in the next crushing season. This is due to the high arrears and paucity of working capital to pay for the routine maintenance and repair of their units before the next season. Owing to the higher pan-India estimated cane acreage of 5.44 million hectares (MH) in 2018-19, 8 per cent higher compared to the previous season - sugar production has been pegged at almost 35.5 million tonnes (mt) by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). Higher production estimates coupled with steep current inventory with mills - especially in UP where total unsold stock during the 2017-18 season is estimated at 5 mt or 40 per cent of the total output of 12 mt - would also lead to storage problems with the units, not only for sugar but for other byproducts, mainly molasses. UP cane commissioner Sanjay Bhoosreddy has directed western UP mills to start from October 15 to November 5, while mills in central UP have to commence operations between October 25 and November 10, followed by eastern UP mills during 10-25 November. The states cane acreage is estimated to rise to the highest (by 10 per cent) to 2.3 MH. Earlier, the chief minister had asked officials to ensure that mills start operations early for allowing farmers to empty fields for sowing of rabi (winter) crops, especially wheat. With the 2019 Lok Sabha polls approaching, the government does not want to antagonise the four million farmer households engaged in sugarcane farming. The cane department officials have been asked to inspect off-season repair and maintenance of mills so that they are ready for operations according to the schedule drawn. Most private sugar mills have not yet started their repair and maintenance works in UP due to the cash crunch and as such no mill would be in a position to start crushing before November, a sugar company official told Business Standard on condition of anonymity. Bhoosreddy said there were challenges before the sugar industry and that the central and the state governments were trying to struggle it out. We are keeping a watch on the unfolding situation and coordinating with the mills for the coming season. In June, the Centre had announced a Rs 70 billion package to ease liquidity in the sugar sector, while fixing minimum selling price of white (refined) sugar at Rs 29/kg. Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) announced the creation of buffer stock of 3 mt, subject to the review by the Union food ministry. While these measures stopped the sugar price crash, the mills, especially in UP, claimed the central package was grossly insufficient to bail them out, owing to the large unsold inventory and cash crunch. ISMA director general Abinash Verma said an early start of the domestic crushing season would be in the interest of all stakeholders. Yet, mills would find it difficult to start operations unless the standing issue of bank loan was sorted out. He noted that mills in Maharashtra could also start crushing cane by the first week of October. This would put the pressure on UP mills to follow suit to avert diversion of cane even if their payment capacity was unviable. There are a multitude of issues facing the sugar industry, including market glut, unsold inventory, arrears, export halt, storage capacity crunch, higher output estimates for next season and working capital squeeze. "The government needs to take a holistic approach to resolve these challenges. Or else, the next season would also see a build up of massive arrears, he added. Photograh: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters Plastic bags are but one aspect of India's growing waste management crisis, says Geetanjali Krishna. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com Shelves upon shelves of single-use plastic glared at me at the neighbourhood shop the other day. Just as a customer ahead of me left with two plastic bags of shopping, the rather dreary public service announcement exhorting people to stop using plastic bags, compost their kitchen waste and dispose of the rest properly, came on the radio. I raised my eyebrows at its apposite timing, and the shopkeeper became instantly defensive. "Stopping the use of plastic bags is easier said than done!" he said. "My customers demand plastic bags because the paper ones are so flimsy..." Most of them didn't carry their own reusable shopping bags, he said. Even when he had orders delivered to customers, he used plastic bags to separate the items ordered. "My customers like it this way!" I explained that plastic bags were but one aspect of India's growing waste management crisis. Pointing to the shelves full of shampoo, toothpaste and other mass consumer products in plastic packaging, I told him these would lie in landfills long after he and I had gone -- probably for our children and grandchildren to deal with. The man wasn't impressed. He'd heard all this before and understood the problem, he said, but where was the solution? Was any research organisation working on alternative biodegradable packaging options or ways to decompose plastic? I replied that I wasn't sure of the scientific work happening in this field. There was, I said, an interesting zero waste store in New York that I read about, where customers could refill their glass bottles with shampoo, conditioner and more. "Perhaps a concept like that might work on a small scale in America," said he. "But here, consumers would rightfully mistrust the hygiene standards of refillable products, and cause nothing but an added headache for shopkeepers like me!" Meanwhile, a young college-goer was listening intently to our conversation. Finally, when she piped in with her own two bits, I was amazed that more voices like hers were not being heard today. "I don't think plastic bans or enforcing the segregation of waste in households will solve our waste problem," she said. "The government has to step in!" The shopkeeper was glad to find an ally and nodded vigorously. The solution she advocated was for the government to enforce a complete ban on the manufacture of single-use plastics. "Look at all these mass-produced plastic bottles of shampoo, plates and cutlery -- our not using them, isn't going to wish them away," she said. "They are here to stay whether we buy them or not, and while we feel virtuous about segregating pitiful mole hills of household waste we generate, these will grow into yet another mountain of plastic in the landfill!" Meanwhile, she averred, till the government found a way to strictly enforce the ban on manufacturing single-use plastics, there was no point in eschewing them right now. "We may as well get some use out of them before they add to the mess in our landfills!" Having said her piece, she marched out. The shopkeeper and I stared at each other mutely. "What a girl!" he said. I nodded. "Yes, what a girl..." 'The danger today is that out of sheer fatigue and exasperation, the US might cut loose and exit from Afghanistan leaving it to the region to cope with the debris, which it is ill-equipped to handle,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar. IMAGE: Afghan security forces and Taliban terrorists cross each other warily during a ceasefire in Bati Kot district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, June 16, 2018. Photograph: Parwiz/Reuters In the torrential flow of real time news from Pakistan about the July 25 parliamentary poll, we in India overlooked an event of historic proportions affecting regional security and stability -- the commencement of direct talks between the United States and the Taliban in Doha. The Afghan government was bypassed in the Qatar talks. And the timing was exquisite: July 23, the eve of the Pakistani poll. Of course, the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment made this path-breaking event possible. Evidently, Washington and Islamabad have been in close consultations behind the scene to open the pathway leading to a road that has never been taken before. It is a painful decision for Washington since it is both an admission of defeat as well as a stark reminder for future historians that the US invasion of Afghanistan and the 16-year old war that followed, causing so much destruction and immense human suffering, was a horrible misadventure in imperial overreach. To jog memory, the Taliban had offered in the immediate downstream of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 that it was willing to extradite Osama bin Laden to a Muslim country to be tried under Islamic law, but the George W Bush administration for reasons of its own, brusquely spurned the offer and decided instead on the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The wheel has come full circle and the US is now seeking the terms of engagement with the Taliban that would promote the latter's integration into mainstream Afghan politics in a near future, including a major role for it in Kabul and the Afghan State structures. The Taliban has expressed satisfaction that the Qatar talks with the US ended with very positive signals and that the two sides agreed to resolve the Afghan conflict through dialogue and to meet again soon. The Taliban further disclosed that the two sides discussed its participation in the Afghan government. Except for Indian analysts, perhaps, the Qatar talks have not come as surprise. To any longtime observer, the surrealism of the disastrous war has been obvious for sometime. Simply put, the US is fighting a war in search of a raison d'etre. A series of signals in recent weeks had hinted that Washington too had begun realising this and was veering round to engaging the Taliban directly. Despite US claims that its strategy in Afghanistan was working, there is realisation that it wasn't getting anywhere really. The New York Times recently reported that in a 'strategy retreat', the focus of the war has narrowed down to holding Kabul and other population centres, while leaving the Taliban in control of vast swathes of territory in rural hinterlands, where, according to CIA estimates, three-quarters of Afghanistan's population lives. This shift in strategy has been interpreted as 'a rational approach to secure the cities, and provide the Afghan government the political opportunity to work with the Taliban.' Interestingly, when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid an unannounced visit to Kabul on July 9, he all but ignored the US military operations and confined himself to stressing the need of a political outcome. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who stood beside him at the joint press conference in Kabul promptly took the cue. At one point, Pompeo let it be known publicly that the US was open to discussing with the Taliban the crucial question of the American military presence in Afghanistan. To be sure, war weariness has set in. It is not difficult to comprehend why the US is steadily losing its grit to fight an open-ended war. First and foremost, the assumption that intensifying military pressure on the Taliban will compel it to come to the negotiating table has proven dead wrong. On the other hand, there is a colossal drain of resources. The US and the NATO maintain 16,000 troops in Afghanistan and the US spends a whopping $45 billion annually to keep the show going. It has become a 'bleeding wound' -- to borrow the words from Mikhail Gorbachev's famous speech at the 27th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1986 hinting at a decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan 'in the nearest future'. Only a clutch of Pentagon commanders would have their heart in the gravy train running in Afghanistan. The watchdog charged with tracking US government spending in Afghanistan came out with its first report last week making a preliminary estimation after completing just 29% of the auditing that a staggering $15.5 billion has been wasted over 11 years alone -- but says even that figure is probably 'only a portion of the total waste, fraud and abuse of wasted efforts.' One of the three US congressmen who requested the calculation, Walter Jones (Republican) called Afghanistan a 'black hole' for taxpayer money. Jones said in a statement in Washington on July 26: 'It is time. Enough blood and money has been shed in Afghanistan, Tragically, $15.5 billion is only the verified amount of wasted money -- the number is much greater.' 'That is why we are requesting other agencies for an in-depth review of tax dollar usage within their jurisdiction. The American people deserve a better understanding of where their money is going -- to the black hole, known as Afghanistan.' Indeed, Pompeo's sudden visit to Kabul last month led to reports citing unnamed US officials that President Trump may be inclined to order another assessment soon as to how his strategy which was announced in August 2017 (allowing a troop surge in Afghanistan and providing for no timeline for the Pentagon's military operations) has worked though the past one-year period. In a masterly essay in Foreign Affairs magazine last week, the noted American author and expert on Afghanistan Barnett Rubin wrote: 'Now there may be no timeline (for military operations), but a spectre is haunting the mission: that of the president's Twitter. The result is an unprecedented interest in a political settlement.' Thanks to media censoring, very little is getting reported from the killing fields of Afghanistan regarding the brutal operations that the US military is conducting in the name of 'counterterrorism'. Rubin mentioned that the excesses -- search of Afghan houses, special forces raids, misaimed bombing, etc -- have 'caused hatred among the people'. IMAGE: Afghans take pictures with a Taliban in Kabul, June 16, 2018. Photograph: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters Meanwhile, the ethnic divides are widening alarmingly -- non-Pashtun grievance over dispossession by the centralised Pashun-dominated State, as Rubin puts it diplomatically. The ethnic tensions surged recently as widespread demonstration across the largely non-Pashtun regions of northern Afghanistan against President Ghani. Ghani quickly swallowed pride and dispatched a trusted aide to Ankara to beseech Rashid Dostum, the strongman of the Amu Darya and Afghanistan's principal Uzbek leader (whom Ghani had pushed into exile), to return post-haste to Kabul to pacify the northern region. Dostum was given a formal welcome upon arrival on July 22 in the Afghan capital. It was an act of abject surrender by Ghani to political reality, which carried a big message in the Afghan bazaar. The Ghani government's legitimacy has touched rock bottom. On the other hand, it becomes a formidable challenge to hold the parliamentary and local bodies elections in October and the presidential election next April in the prevailing security situation without the acquiescence of the Taliban and cooperation by Pakistan. In recent months, in a curious reversal of roles, Ghani -- who had disdainfully broken off discourses with Pakistan and pilloried Pakistan for its duplicity in speeches after speeches (much to New Delhi's delight) -- has become the supplicant, pleading with Islamabad to help kickstart and 'Afghan-led, Afghan-controlled' peace process. The killing of the notorious terrorist Mullah Fazlullah in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan was intended to placate Pakistan. But sensing that the ground beneath the feet has begun shifting against the Ghani government and its American mentors, and that time is working in Pakistan's favour, Islamabad has chosen to sit tight refusing to reciprocate by even detaining the Taliban leaders residing in its territory. No wonder, the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment senses that it is a matter of time before Washington will have to sue for peace and the Taliban gets accommodated in the Afghan power structure. Pakistan factors in that with an eye on his presidential campaign in the 2020 election, Donald J Trump will also be in some hurry. But from the US perspective, an added factor is the real danger that the Afghan war may be turning into a proxy war. Russia and Iran have been stepping up their support to the Taliban and at some point, the emergence of the Islamic State-Khorasan will be seized as the alibi for stepping up their intervention in the war. The alienation of the non-Pashtun tribes in northern Afghanistan traditionally provided a base for Russia and Iran to interfere in Afghanistan. But a fragmentation of Afghanistan is not in Pakistan's interest. On the contrary, Pakistan appreciates that the US is willing to recognise the Pashtun grievance over dispossession -- ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. This makes Washington the most meaningful interlocutor for Islamabad (apart from other factors, of course.) The point is, Pashtun irredentist claims is the spectre that haunts Pakistan, especially in a post-settlement era in Afghanistan. (The importance of Imran Khan to the Pakistani military establishment must be seen in this light.) To be sure, much intra-Afghan, regional and international bargain lies ahead. But the good thing is that Washington may be inching close to accepting that a US-dominated future for Kabul is unrealistic due to the geopolitical factors that have appeared lately. The New Cold War conditions involving Russia; the US's tense relations with China; the run-up to US-Iranian (re)engagement; China's Belt and Road strategy; the shake-up of the transatlantic alliance -- these factors would undoubtedly cast their shadows. But there are helpful factors, too. China, India and Iran are on the same page as Pakistan and the US in their desire for stability in Afghanistan. China, in particular, has positioned itself to redraw the strategic map and the recent rapprochement between China and India and their plan to link BRI to Chabahar also makes New Delhi a stakeholder in the stability of Afghanistan. Paradoxically, the danger today is that out of sheer fatigue and exasperation, the US might cut loose and exit from Afghanistan leaving it to the region to cope with the debris, which it is ill-equipped to handle. It is entirely conceivable that in the direct talks with the Taliban, the US may be willing to negotiate its continued military presence in Afghanistan. Even an American withdrawal similar to the Soviet withdrawal following the Geneva Accords of 1988 is within the realms of possibility. Protracted negotiations lie ahead also to flesh out the Taliban's integration, especially into the State security organs. At some point, it will also become imperative to involve the Taliban and the non-Pashtun groups in an intra-Afghan dialogue. Similarly, the UN will have to be brought in to supervise the transition. Rubin has proposed, 'The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation may provide symbolism, but the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is more likely to provide the UN with a lasting political partner for stabilisation'. Indeed, the sine qua non will be that the US does not seek permanent bases on Afghan soil. Articulate segments of Muzaffarpur have been at the the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation, which makes their silence over the atrocities in a shelter home in the town puzzling. Could it be that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to dominant castes and if the victims belong to the vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute, asks Mohammad Sajjad. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com. Muzaffarpur in north Bihar has been shamed after it came to light that over three dozen hapless girls were subjected to sexual depredation and unspeakable brutality in a state government-funded shelter home in the town. Patna-based journalist Santosh has been pursuing the issue since February 2018 when a team from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, submitted its social audit report indicting such institutions across Bihar. The government and the Opposition had no compunction in sitting over the report for more than two months. The sub-regional editions of various Hindi newspapers published in Muzaffarpur have revealed horrific details pertaining to this scandal since early June. The man at the heart of this scandal, Brajesh Thakur, owns three newspapers -- Pratah Kamal (Hindi; founded in 1982 by his father Radha Mohan Thakur), Halaat-e-Bihar (Urdu), and News Next (English). He gets almost Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) a year from the Bihar government for the 17 NGOs he runs. His proposal for a fifth shelter home (this one for beggars, in Patna) was approved by the Bihar government on May 31, 2018, despite the TISS report of February 2018 exposing him. During my long telephonic conversation with Santosh, who had also filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Patna high court, he shared his agony over all political formations maintaining a questionable silence for weeks. The advocate general of Bihar, arguing before the high court, had the temerity to call people like him the 'ugly face of society' for which the judge, Santosh shared, reprimanded the government pleader and asked how could the ones exposing misdeeds become the ugly face. Sadly, the Patna-based print media and the Delhi-based print and electronic media took long to take up the subject. Muzaffarpur-based journalist Gulshad Ahmad of the Dainik Bhaskar shared his anguish with me on the phone, saying that for the national media this horrific tale became worth their while only after he and his colleagues in Muzaffarpur and Patna unearthed the possibility that some girls may have been killed at the shelter home and their dead bodies could be found buried in the premises of the residence cum office of the chief accused, Brajesh Thakur. Only after this did the OB vans of various news television channels land in Muzaffarpur in late July to cover the search for the dead bodies. Gulshad complained that neither the government and Opposition nor the national media is working hard to unearth the sordid scandal, which could well be much bigger than the Srijan scam under the Nitish Kumar-led government. Brajesh Thakur's network is said to be deeply entrenched into each segment of power. He has a longstanding political association with Anand Mohan Singh, who symbolises Rajput power in Bihar and who was convicted in the lynching of G Krishnaiah, a young IAS officer who was district magistrate of Gopalganj in 1994. Anand Mohan Singh had also led the funeral procession of Chhotan Shukla, the slain Bhumihar gangster cum transport entrepreneur from Muzaffarpur-Vaishali. In Bihar, the 1990s was an era of wars between gangster-politicians from the backward castes, and the Bhumihars and Rajputs. Hemant Shahi, an MLA and son of party stalwart L P Shahi, was killed inside the deputy collector's office, followed by the killing of Chhotan Shukla. In the wake of this violence, Bhumihar-Rajput unity was forged on the initiative of Anand Mohan Singh, whose wife won the Vaishali Lok Sabha by-election in 1994 defeating Lalu Yadav's nominee. Until then, the two dominant castes were supposed to be rivals of, and competitive with, each other in Bihar politics. Subsequently, gangster-politician and minister in the then Rabri Devi cabinet, Brij Bihari, was killed in June 1998, allegedly by Munna (Vijay) Shukla to avenge his elder brother's killing. Bihari's widow Rama Devi, the current BJP MP from Sheohar, started her political career with the RJD. Brij Bihari symbolised the assertion of backward castes in Muzaffarpur and adjoining districts. An engineer by profession, he started his career in the 1980s under the patronage of Congress politician and the Bhumihar strongman of Muzaffarpur, Raghunath Pandey. There could be many more Brajesh Thakurs across Bihar, running such NGOs and media firms, and fattening themselves on government money, with deeply entrenched clout in politics, the bureaucracy and the media. Local journalists, who have exposed all these matters, live under implicit and explicit threats and intimidation, which cannot be taken lightly given the reach of the accused. As compared to them, Delhi-based journalists working for large big media houses may not be as vulnerable as their local counterparts in Muzaffarpur and Patna. Muzaffarpur's claim to fame is litchi fruit. Muzaffarpur has also been (in)famous for its 'red-light' area, Chaturbhuj Asthan. Such an image was rectified by the brave, brilliant, work of a litterateur-academic at Delhi University, Prabhat Ranjan, who belongs to Muzaffarpur. He wrote Kottha Goyee: Chaturbhuj Asthan Ke Qissey (in Hindi and Urdu), and brought out the stories of some creative geniuses who were accomplished in music, dance, and other such pursuits. In politics, even during the era of Congress hegemony in the early decades after India's Independence, Muzaffarpur did have space for Socialist, Left-leaning, and 'ultra' Left radicalism for rural reconstruction, challenging the feudal upper caste hegemony. Besides the social revolution launched by the Buddha and Mahavir in Vaishali in the 6th century BC, this region demonstrated its presence in the movement of 1857. With Gandhiji's arrival in Muzaffarpur in April 1917 for the Champaran Satyagraha, it joined the ongoing national movement. In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki resorted to violent revolution against the British Raj and embraced their death. Muzaffarpur elected Socialist stalwarts like Acharya J B Kripalani and Ashoka Mehta. In my book on 19th-20th century Muzaffarpur, I explored and articulated all these details. It has left me wondering why the citizens of Muzaffarpur did not vent their anger and register their protests at the shelter home horrors by coming out on streets in large numbers? After discussions with locals, I could somehow make out that the suffering girls who were subjected to rape and brutalities for years, don't have parents and hence their caste identities perhaps cannot be determined. India being a deeply caste-based society, invariably shows its concerns mostly in terms of caste/religion-based identities. Here, there are no specific caste groups to demonstrate solidarity with the hapless victims. Another possible explanation for the lack of mass protests against this horrific brutality could be the fact that at least in the case of the Balika Griha (Muzaffarpur), the chief accused Brajesh Thakur belongs to a most dominant caste of Bihar, Bhumihar-Brahman. Muzaffarpur is supposed to be the 'capital' of the Bhumihars. In all spheres of power -- politics, education, crime, the bureaucracy, the media, trade, real estate -- the Bhumihars are supposed to be the most dominant community, at least in Muzaffarpur. So much so that even after the Lalu-Rabri regime, when arguably the Bhumihars are supposed to have been considerably marginalised, the Bhumihars continue to hold sway in Muzaffarpur. The articulate segments of Muzaffarpur remain in the forefront of all anti-establishment mobilisation and assertions. They sustained a prolonged struggle to expose the case of land mafia-politicians who abducted and killed a Bengali girl, Navruna, which is currently being investigated by the CBI. Not long ago, they were vocal against mass copying in school examinations, and also what came to be known as the 'toppers scam'. In January 2018, the Karni Sena of Rajputs vandalised a cinema hall in Muzaffarpur protesting against Padmavat. Ironically, fiction and grossly distorted histories cause outrage, whereas the facts and reality of rapes and brutalities do not. These groups were assertive in showing Muslims their place in the early months of 2018 when there was a series of riots across Bihar, including in Muzaffarpur. Muslim women came out on the streets of almost every town in Muzaffarpur and assembled in Patna on April 15, 2018, following the call of Maulana Wali Rahmani, general secretary, All India Muslim Personal Law Board, to perpetuate the un-Quranic instant triple divorce. The very same women did not get any call from any maulana or other community leaders to come out on the streets against the kind of brutalities the girls of shelter homes across Bihar have been subjected to. Let us contrast this with the brutal rape and killing of Jyoti in Delhi on December 16, 2012 which set off huge and powerful mass protests. The painfully varying responses of the urban middle classes possibly suggest that if those accused of horrific crimes belong to the dominant castes and if the victims belong to vulnerable groups, then the middle classes become mute. This disgusting hypocrisy is tearing apart the social fabric of India. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress-RJD nominee from Muzaffarpur, Akhilesh Kumar Singh, a Bhumihar, was the frontrunner. He is now a member of the Rajya Sabha. It is said that in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election, the Congress-RJD nominee will be a Bhumihar. This could be why, even the hyperactive Opposition, led by Tejaswi Yadav, has been very late in responding to this issue. Is it that no one wishes to risk Bhumihar votes? Having realised, howsoever belatedly, that the Congress has a big stake in Muzaffarpur, Rahul Gandhi tweeted on this issue, taking a dig at both Nitish Kumar (calling him Sushaasan Babu) and Narendra Modi (referring him as Ashwaasan Babu -- a man of 'hollow' promises). The role of both the government and the Opposition in bringing the culprits to book has been very slow. Even more unfortunate is that civil society -- students and the intelligentsia -- has been very slow to react; they are yet to come out on the streets to protest against such horrific crimes. The helpless people of Muzaffarpur whisper that both the government and the Opposition will likely hush up the whole issue eventually. Such cynicism is perhaps the biggest tragedy of our time. Mohammad Sajjad is Professor of History, Aligarh Muslim University. He is the author of Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours (Routledge, 2014/2018 reprint) and Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857 (Primus, 2014). The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Centre and the Bihar government on the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home run by a state-funded NGO in Muzaffarpur district. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta took cognisance of the matter and expressed concern that the alleged victims of sexual assault at the shelter home were subjected to media interviews again and again. The bench, which issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre, also restrained the electronic media from telecasting images of the alleged victims even in a morphed form. It asked the media not to interview the alleged victims, saying they cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again. The top court said the probe agency would take the help of professional councillors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims. It directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to carry out a forensic examination of the shelter home. The case will be next heard on August 7. Defence already accounts for one-third of the national capital spend, the government says. Ajai Shukla reports. IMAGE: The defence capital budget has already been increased from Rs 915.79 billion in 2017-2018 to Rs 995.63 billion in the current year -- a rise of 8.72 per cent. Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters Traditionally, the government has measured defence allocations as a percentage of gross national product, or as a share of total government spending. In recent years, the total defence budget, inclusive of pensions, has been slightly over two per cent of gross domestic product and 16 to 18 per cent of government expenditure. But now, the government has put forward in Parliament a new, and more telling, metric, which is the defence capital allocation as a percentage of the national capital spending. Facing pressure to increase the capital budget, which buys new weapons and equipment, the government is arguing that defence already accounts for one-third of the national capital spend. A defence ministry written response, tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, August 1, stated that the defence capital budget had already been increased from Rs 915.79 billion in 2017-2018 to Rs 995.63 billion in the current year -- a rise of 8.72 per cent. 'Significantly, the capital allocation for the ministry of defence in the current fiscal year is 33 per cent of the total central government expenditure on capital account and the total defence budget is 16.6 per cent of the central government expenditure,' Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre stated. Senior defence ministry officials have said it is meaningless to evaluate defence spending as a percentage of GDP, since the bulk of that figure is in the informal economy and outside the tax pool. These officials argue that defence revenue expenditure -- with the bulk of it spent on salaries, pensions and running costs -- is a fixed liability. Only in capital allocations does the government have the leeway to increase or decrease defence spending. And with the military already the highest recipient of capital expenditure, there is little scope for allocating significantly more. Nor does the defence ministry believe there is an urgent need to allocate more money to defence modernisation. 'There is adequate stocks of arms and ammunition with the armed forces who are well equipped for meeting any operational requirements,' Dr Bhamre said, responding to another question. 'In the last three financial years (2015-2016 to 2017-2018), 58 contracts worth about Rs 117,656 crore were signed with foreign vendors for procurement of defence capital equipment for defence forces,' said a defence ministry response, elaborating that these vendors are from Russia, Israel, the US and France. An analysis indicates that, while capital allocations to defence have held steady as a proportion of the national capital spend, defence allocations as a whole have declined over the last three years. From 17.8 per cent of government spending in 2016-2017, defence was allocated 16.9 per cent last year and 16.6 per cent in the current fiscal. As a percentage of GDP, defence spending declined from 2.2 per cent to 2.16 per cent during the same period. The government intends to pass a bill in the current Parliament session to restore the original provisions of a law on atrocities against SC/ST people, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday. As the Opposition criticised the government for not taking action to restore the provisions which were struck down by the Supreme Court, Singh told the Lok Sabha that the Union Cabinet has already cleared a bill in this regard. The bill to restore the original provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, acceding to a key demand of Dalit groups ahead of their call for a Bharat Bandh on August 9. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the Supreme Court judgment regarding the Act was very dangerous" for the SC/ST people. In a ruling in March, the Supreme Court had introduced safeguards against arrests, which Dalit leaders and organisations said diluted the Act and rendered it toothless. The government, which has brought several ordinances in the past few months, could have come out with one to restore the provisions of the Act, Kharge said, adding that atrocities against SC/ST people were on the rise. MPs from various political parties had met President Ram Nath Kovind in March in this regard, he added. Responding to Kharge, the home minister said he was surprised and wondered what was the justification in raising the issue when the Cabinet had only on Wednesday cleared the bill. The government wants to get the bill passed in the current Parliament session, Singh said. He also recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modis assurance that if necessary, a more stringent law to deal with atrocities SC/ST people would be put in place. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is to end on August 10. Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy raised the issue of the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam. When Kharge and Roy were speaking on the issues, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requested them to make it short since time was limited in the Zero Hour. As the requests went unheeded, Mahajan remarked that if people like them were doing it, how could newcomers would understand things. A crucial bill to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed unanimously by the Lok Sabha on Thursday with over two-third majority. The House passed the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, superseding the amendments by the Rajya Sabha, with all 406 present voting in favour after an almost five-hour debate in which 32 members participated. The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present during the voting, congratulated Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot for successfully piloting the bill. During the debate on the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, several members demanded a census to ascertain the population of other backward classes while some others pressed for making public the socio-economic survey of 2014. Over two-thirds majority voted in favour of the bill, which is a necessity for amending the Constitution. The amendments moved by Biju Janata Dal's Bhratruhari Mahtab were however rejected by 302 voting against it and 84 in favour. Replying to the debate, Gehlot said the government was committed to the upliftment of the downtrodden and backward classes of the society. He said the Union Cabinet had on Wednesday decided to amend the SC/ST Act to further strengthen the law to protect their rights. Citing various other steps taken by the government in this regard, he said a committee under Justice G Rohini has been set up to examine sub-categorisation of other backward classes. He said that while framing the rules, the government will ensure that one of the members of the commission is a women. Gehlot said that states will have their own list of OBCs and can incorporate any caste into the OBC list. However, he added that they will have to approach the union government for inclusion in the central list. The Lok Sabha had on April 10 last year passed the legislation and sent it to the Rajya Sabha. On July 31 last year, the Upper House passed the bill after incorporating certain amendments moved by the Opposition and returned it to the Lok Sabha for ratification of the amendments. The bill provides for granting of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes on par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. It states that the president may specify the socially and educationally backward classes in the various states and union territories. He may do this in consultation with the governor of the concerned state. The duties of the NCBC include investigating and monitoring how safeguards provided to the backward classes under the Constitution and other laws are being implemented and probe specific complaints regarding violation of rights. Under this measure, the NCBC will have the powers of a civil court while probing any complaint. Participating in the debate, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said the House needed to explore the possibility of whether the government can provide reservation exceeding the ceiling of 50 per cent to all backward communities including SCs, STs and OBCs. Taking a dig at the Congress, Lok Janshakti Party MP Ram Vilas Pawan questioned the silence of Rahul Gandhi on the dilution in the provisions of SC/ST Atrocities Act, which was countered by the opposition members. Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee supported the measure and said the chairman and the vice chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes should be apppoinred from OBC category. "The commission should function in true spirit for betterment of OBCs who deserve help and assistance," he said, adding that the number of scholarships given to OBC students had gone down in the recent times and should be increased. Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD said initially when the bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government with its "brute majority" trampled all the amendments moved by the opposition. But in the Rajya Sabha, the government had to accept the amendments and hence the Bill has come up for discussion again in the Lok Sabha. He said the government has accepted two of the amendments moved by him, including appointing one woman member in the NCBC and giving power to state governments to frame policies for betterment of the OBCs. Revolutionary Socialist Party MP N K Premchandran said this was the first time in the legislative history that the Lok Sabha is amending an amended bill passed by the Rajya Sabha. Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant asked the Centre to intervene in the Maratha quota stir in Maharashtra, saying the state government had not acted on its promise. Telugu Desam Party MP Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said even after 70 years of independence, "we still don't have idea of how much is OBC population in the country." He also demanded that caste based census should be done right now. "Unless you can fill 27 per cent posts of OBCs in jobs, creamy layer among the OBCs should not be excluded from taking benefit of reservation," the TDP MP said while asking the government to establish a separate ministry for OBC welfare. BJP MP Nityanand Rai lamented that while 27 per cent seats in government jobs was reserved for OBCs, "we are still not able to fill more than 11 per cent posts reserved for OBCs." YSR Congress MP K Geeta said those belonging to creamy layers in OBC community were a hurdle to their own community. BJP's Prahlad Singh Patel wondered when we are not able to fill 27 per cent post reserved for OBCs, "why are we talking about creamy layer." Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav questioned the number of people from the OBC communities appointed as chief ministers and governors by the BJP. He also raised questions about the low number of bureaucrats from SC/ST communities in higher ranks of bureucracy. Nationalist Congress Party MP Madhukar Kukde demanded that the creamy layer cap for OBC reservation should be done away with. He said the Patidars in Gujarat, Marathas in Maharashtra and Jats in north India should be given reservation without affecting the existing system. RJD's Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav said no one should be added to the existing list of 27 per cent OBC quota, while Prem Singh Chandumajra (Shiromani Akali Dal) termed the legislation as historic. Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal), Minister for State in the Health and Famil Welfare Ministry, slammed the opposition for stalling the bill in the Rajya Sabha, while Dushyant Chautala (INLD) welcomed the legislation, but added that the government has no data on castes. Home Just In Govt scraps AFU affiliation of eight private colleges Chitwan, August 2 The government of Nepal has scrapped a decision of the Agriculture and Forestry University to grant affiliation to eight forestry colleges based in various parts of the country claiming the decision breached universitys rules. Minister of Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel says a recent Cabinet meeting made the decision. A meeting of the Universitys Executive Council around a month ago had granted the affiliation to Jhapas Purbanchal Krishi Campus, Sunsaris Jivika Krishi Sahakari Sanstha, Lalitpurs Valley Krishi Campus, Nawalparasis Himchhaya College, Nawalparasis Ram Nagar Technical and Management College, Nawalparasis Siddhartha College, Bankes Gorkha Polytechnical College and Research Centre, and Surkhets Bright Madhyapashchim Krishi tatha Ban Bigyan Campus. The affiliatio was granted on the basis of 10 terms and conditions. The decision had turned controversial after professors and students of the university claimed the affiliation was distributed after some officials received hefty sums illegally. The officials, however, have claimed that they followed due procedures in making the decision. United States President Donald Trump has received an invitation to visit India, but no decision has been taken yet, the White House said on Thursday. I know that the invitation has been extended, but I do not believe that a final decision has been made, the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters when asked about reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the Chief Guest at the next years Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. She said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis would be headed to New Delhi soon for the first India-US 2+2 Dialogue with their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The 2+2 dialogue would begin discussion on the process of a presidential visit next year, Sanders said at daily press conference. The United States and India have a deep and strategic partnership and we are going to continue to build on that partnership and advance co-operation. I think, you will see that in the meeting that would take place in September, Sanders said. Today, our boys are coming home. United States Vice President welcomed the arrival of the remains of as many as 55 American servicemen from the Korean War. IMAGE: US Vice President Mike Pence and Admiral Phil Davidson, US Indo-Pacific Commander, honour the remains of US soldiers from the Korean War at Joint Base Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. Photograph: Hugh Gentry/Reuters Pence attended a ceremony Hawaiis Hickam Air Force Base along with his wife, Karen and two individuals who had lost their fathers during the Korean War -- Diana Brown Sanfilippo and Rick Downes, as reported by Fox News. Pence said that Sanfilippo was four years old when she lost her father, who was part of a recon mission, while Downes was aged three when he lost his father, who was operating radar on a B-26 Bomber. Taking to his Twitter handle, Pence said he was honoured to be joined by the two in the ceremony. IMAGE: Pence stated that the gesture from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was proof of tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. Photograph: Hugh Gentry/Reuters A US military aircraft had travelled to North Korea to ferry the 55 cases. Pence further stated that the gesture from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was proof of tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. Today, they are known but to God. But soon we will know their names and we will tell their stories of courage, Pence, whose father had also fought in Korea, said. IMAGE: Veterans and family members salute the remains of those brought from North Korea. Photograph: Kat Wade/Getty Images I know President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim kept his word. But today is just a beginning, and our work will not be complete until all our fallen heroes are accounted for,he added. The return of the US servicemens remains was part of a deal that was agreed to by Trump and Kim back in their summit in June. IMAGE: US military carry the presumed remains of Korean War soldiers at Hangar 19 Joint base Pearl Harbor Hickam. Photograph: Kat Wade/Getty Images There are as many as 7,699 US servicemen that are unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, with around 5,300 believed to have died in North Korea. Those who died in South Korea, in aircraft crashes or shipwrecks at sea and have not been recovered, account for the remaining servicemen. Also, some are believed to have been taken to China. According to the Pentagon, joint efforts made by the US and North Korea from 1996 to 2005, termed as joint field activities, led to the recovery of as many as 229 caskets, out of which 135 were identified. Also, between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned around 208 caskets. The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the day following uproar by Trinamool Congress members over the issue of the Assam National Register of Citizens. Trinamool members trooped into well of the House immediately after the upper House assembled post lunch, seeking a reply from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the National Register for Citizens matter. Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu gave an assurance that the Home Minister would give a reply. However, TMC members continued their protest following which he adjourned the House for the day. When the House reassembled, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said he has given a notice under section 267 seeking reply of the home minister, to which Naidu said he has rejected it. "You have not allowed the minister to reply and now you are asking me to reply. What can I do," said Naidu. The home minister came here (to the RS) yesterday (Wednesday), the day before yesterday (Tuesday) and he was willing to reply but he was not allowed to reply, said Naidu. "A very wrong message has gone and I feel as Chairman injustice has been done to the home minister because after patiently hearing all views on important sensitive issue, he could not reply," he said. Naidu said, "This issue was discussed in the morning meeting. Anand Sharma gave a suggestion that the Home Minister's reply should take place in the House." Naidu said that Sharma had also suggested that the Parliamentary Affairs Minister should talk to opposition parties and the home minister on the issue. Speaking on the issue, NCP President Sharad Pawar said, "The subject is very sensitive and is of national interest." "Serious views were expressed and I think it is in the larger interest of the nation that we hear the home minister and know exactly what the government is doing," he said. While the chairman has allowed one member from each political party to speak and views of all major parties have been expressed, members from Assam have not been given an opportunity, Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad said. "If there is any party member from that state (Assam), he should be heard and the home minister should reply," said Azad. Naidu urged members to discuss the farmers' issue, which was slated for discussion. However, Trinamool members insisted on a reply from the home minister. As the protests continued, Naidu adjourned the House, saying, "Everyday it has become a fashion. Let the country see what is happening here... You do not want to discuss even farmers' issue". Amid high drama, a delegation sent by the Trinamool Congress to assess the situation in Assam post-National Register of Citizens was stopped at the airport in Silchar on Thursday and the members taken under preventive detention later, prompting West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to cry foul and allege the Bharatiya Janata Party of imposing "super emergency" in the country. The members were taken under preventive detention under 151 CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences), additional director general of police Mukesh Agarwala said. The TMC leaders would be sent back on Friday to West Bengal, he said. Asked whether they would stay at the airport overnight, he said the police was looking into the protocol. Banerjee condemned the incident and claimed her partymen were manhandled at the airport. She also accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country and "showing muscle power". The issue also figured in Lok Sabha when TMC members, led by senior leader Saugata Ray, protested the detention of four party MPs and demanded a response from the government in the House. Trinamool Congress MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Nadimul Haque besides state minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mohua Maitra were detained. "Assam Police has detained them at Silchar Airport. They (Assam Police) were interfering with the free movement of people. This is a breach of privilege," Ray said, adding, "We want the government's response on this." Ray said he will bring a privilege motion against the Assam government in Lok Sabha. Banerjee said that the BJP stands exposed by this incident and sought to know under which law the TMC delegation was stopped at the airport. Arriving in Kolkata from Delhi, where she met a number of opposition leaders, she told reporters that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured her that no one would be harassed on the NRC issue. "But the TMC delegates have not been allowed to go out of the (Silchar) airport. They have been manhandled. Even women members have not been spared," she claimed. "There is super emergency in the country. The BJP is politically exposed. They (BJP) are showing muscle power. They are suppressing facts. If there is peace (in Assam), why did they impose prohibitory order? The people of Assam are in panic," Banerjee said. Meanwhile, two more FIRs were lodged in Assam against Banerjee for her alleged instigating remarks threatening the unity of the country and her alleged attempt to create unrest in the state, Assam director general of police Kuladhar Saikia said. Another FIR was lodged against her in Lakhimpur district on Wednesday. According to Roy, the police stopped them at the Silchar airport saying their visit might create trouble and manhandled them. "It's murder of democracy. We were not allowed to go out," he said. The TMC leaders were supposed to hold a meeting at an auditorium at Silchar. The Cachar district administration last night issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC. However, district administration sources said the prohibitory order has nothing to do with the visit of the TMC delegation. ADGP (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said that security has been beefed up at Silchar. "We will take whatever measures needed for maintenance of law and order," he said. Wondering why they were stopped, Roy told a TV channel, "They manhandled us, including our women members. I am a heart patient. We have come here to talk to those people whose names were deleted. We are not here to create any trouble. But they have not allowed us." "BJP president Amit Shah will go to Bengal. We will not stop him," he said. The complete draft of the NRC, touted to be a proof of Assamese citizenship, was published on Monday and excluded 40 lakh people. Ghosh Dastidar alleged that they were stopped and police could not show them any order in this regard. In a related development, Assam Trinamool Congress president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned in protest against Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC. Reacting to the visit of the TMC delegation, student leader and All Assam Students Union general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi claimed that Mamata Banerjee is playing votebank politics. Effigies of Banerjee were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party "not to meddle in Assam". West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh also supported the Assam government's move to stop the TMC delegation. "The TMC government did not allow us to go Basirhat in the past. They don't give us our democratic rights. They have no business to talk about democracy. They have gone there (Silchar) to create civil war," he said adding "They are enacting a drama". A statement issued by the TMC said, "They (the team) had not gone there to break the law. Yet, they were beaten up. Senior MPs were pushed and shoved. Female MPs were manhandled. "Is this democracy? This is Super Emergency. The issue was raised in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day (on this issue)," the statement said. TMC chief national spokesperson Derek O'Brien claimed that though the police had informed the members of the delegation that they would not be allowed to move out as the situation is tense outside, police could not show any restraining order to prove its claims. "They are not law-breakers but lawmakers," O'Brien told reporters in New Delhi. Donald Trump has said he has received a "nice" letter from Kim Jong-un and he looks forward to meeting him "soon", as the United States president thanked the North Korean leader for handing over possible remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War. Fifty-five cases of what are believed to be the remains of Americans who were killed or captured during the Korean War were transported to a military base in Hawaii, after they were handed over to US officials who had travelled to North Korea last week. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!" Trump tweeted. The repatriation of US remains was agreed by the two leaders during their historic June 12 summit in Singapore. More than 8,000 American soldiers are missing from the 1950-53 Korean War. In his tweet, Trump also thanked the young North Korean leader for his "nice letter", without elaborating. Later the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump received the letter from Kim on August 1. "A letter to President Trump from Chairman Kim was received on August 1. The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK joint statement," Sanders said. DPRK stands for Democratic People Republic of Korea, which is more popular as North Korea. During the summit, President Trump had hinted the possibility of an invitation to Kim to visit him at the White House. Last month, North Korean state media reported that Kim had accepted Trump's invitation to visit the US. No date for a visit has been announced. But critics question whether the two leaders' bilateral meetings will yield its promised objective of "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula". US spy satellites have detected fresh activity at the North Korean facility that produced its first intercontinental ballistic missiles. Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told senators that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs. Amidst tensions in bilateral ties, the United States Congress has passed a defence spending bill capping its security-related aid to Pakistan at $150 million (Rs 1,025 crore), significantly below the historic level of more than $1 billion (Rs 6,838 crore) per year. The National Defense Authorisation Act-2019, however, removes certain conditions -- like action against Haqqani Network or the Lashkar-e-Tayiba -- as was the case in the past few years for disbursement of US aid to Pakistan. The Senate passed the conference report on NDAA-19 by 87 to 10 votes. The House of Representatives had passed the conference report last week. It now heads to the White House for US President Donald Trumps assent. The legislation reduces the total amount of funds provided for reimbursement to Pakistan to $150 million. This is a significant reduction from the $700 million (Rs 4,784 crore) that was authorised through Coalition Support Fund last year, said Anish Goel, who was part of Barack Obamas White House National Security Council. However, in doing so, the legislation gets rid of the certification requirements for Pakistans action against the Haqqani Network and it also gets rid of the authority to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism, he said. Hence, the Pentagon no longer has any tools to put pressure on Pakistan to undertake counter-terrorism activities or action against the Haqqani Network, Goel, who till recently was a senior staffer in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. During the previous Obama administration, Pakistan used to get nearly 1.2 billion aid from the US under the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 also known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act. US President Donald Trump since assuming office has been tough on Pakistan over its inaction against terror groups. Trump in August last year unveiled his new South Asia policy and asked Pakistan to do more against such groups. The US in January suspended more than $1.15 billion security assistance to Pakistan, accusing it of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take decisive actions against them. The US has also voiced its disapproval of growing Chinese involvement in Pakistan, adding to tensions in bilateral ties. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday had cautioned the IMF against a possible fresh bailout for Pakistans new government to pay off Chinese lenders who have invested in the strategic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Joshua White, who was also a part of Obamas White House National Security Council team and worked on Pakistan, said this years defence legislation significantly reduces the amount of security assistance that Pakistan can theoretically receive outside of traditional Foreign Military Financing. It makes Pakistan ineligible for Coalition Support Funds, but adds Pakistan to a list of countries that can receive a related form of assistance designed to help partner nations bolster border security, White said and observed, This legislation is a mixed blessing for Pakistan. On one hand, these new border security funds will be capped at $150 million per year, significantly below historical levels of CSF. On the other hand, the legislation does away with the onerous reporting requirements and certifications that have, in practice, made it difficult for Pakistan to receive such funds, he said. The former White House official noted that it is important to consider this legislation in the current political context. The Trump administration has effectively frozen security assistance to Pakistan, and this new legislation will do nothing in the short-term to change that, he said. It does, however, mean that if the administration decides to resume some form of modest security assistance in the future, it will be authorised by the Congress to do so without having to produce detailed reports and make difficult certifications regarding Pakistans support vis-a-vis the Haqqani Network and other threats to the United States, White said. Over the longer term, that could prove to be a win for Pakistan, he said, while noting that in theory, the new funding authority does not permit counter-terrorism assistance, but only assistance related to border security. In practice, these terms are so malleable that I do not expect that the Pentagon would find itself very limited as to the kind of support it could provide, White said. Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's congratulatory phone call to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and said it wants resumption of bilateral talks which were halted in 2015. On Monday, Prime Minister Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his party's victory in the general elections and hoped that "Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties". Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue. During his weekly press briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that he hoped the phone call would pave the way for bilateral talks between both India and Pakistan. Faisal said that Pakistan was ready to host the SAARC Summit postponed in November 2016, which will help to address regional issues. He hoped that it would lead to an improvement in ties with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation member states, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, in addition to India. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad but after a major terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate. The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and India's surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a military court in April last year further deteriorated bilateral ties. The two sides often accuse each other of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, resulting in civilian casualties. In his victory speech, Khan had said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be "good for all of us". 'Nobody in our team had any idea that these things will come out.' 'We need to do a social audit of all the shelter homes across the country.' IMAGE: Police personnel escort children out of a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur after the scandal broke out. Photograph: PTI Photo In July 2017, Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences was approached by the Bihar government to conduct a social audit of 110 government-run or aided institutions in the state that house a range of people, such as old-age homes, children homes, adoption centres and rehabilitation centres for beggars. When a seven-member TISS team led by Mohammed Tarique visited the Muzaffarpur shelter home, they had little idea that they would expose a sordid tale of sexual abuse of the scale which has now surfaced. Tarique submitted his report to Bihar's social welfare ministry in May 2018, which launched an investigation which revealed that 34 out of 42 girls in the Muzaffarpur shelter home had been sexually exploited. Ten people, including shelter home owner Brajesh Thakur, have been arrested since the case came to light. Of the 10, seven are women. Dilip Kumar Verma -- former chairman of the district child welfare committee, Muzaffarpur and the 11th accused in the case -- is absconding. Tarique spoke to Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf about how his team blew the lid off one of the most horrific sexual abuse cases in the country. ****** Everybody has a natural instinct, where they come to know when they can trust people. And children too have that. Children know that if somebody is visiting them, then how they should present themselves to outsiders. So it is important that you yourself must know how to carry yourself in front of them. And at the Muzaffarpur shelter home, we were going in for only a day. If you are going to a shelter home and showing a great rapport and easy conversation with shelter home authorities, the children are observing. Children see that and realise that we as outsiders have not come for them, but to meet the authorities. At the same time, if we do unreal things and promise them the moon, they understand we are lying. Lots of people do not have hopes of anything good happening. So, it is important for them to know that things can change for them. We told the children that we had come for them and the social welfare ministry of the Bihar government wanted them to be safe. We told them if they had any concern they could tell us anything and we would solve their problems. This is how we won the confidence of the children, and only after that they believed us and felt that we had come for them. Children said small, small things and observed how we reacted to it. For example, when a girl child told us that one guard beat her up, we did not confront the guard immediately. We did not call him and pull him up. We did that because if we do such things it would be more harmful to the girl because once you leave the shelter home after a couple of hours, that guard will not spare the child. So it was all about winning the confidence of the children. And once we won the confidence of the children they started opening up and it was only after that we realised that something is really going wrong in the Muzaffarpur shelter home. We had not gone to investigate the crime, but to support the organisation. The objective of our visit was three-fold. a. We had to speak to the organisation head and ask him about what help he needed from the government. b. We had to speak to the staff of the shelter home and find out about their problems -- like whether they needed training or whether they needed any specific help from the government. c. We had to speak to the children to know their problems and make it very clear that no staff must enter the room when we were talking to them. Of course, the staff tried to enter the room when we were speaking to children, like with a request whether they could serve tea or snacks. But I had laid strict guidelines that they must not intervene when we speak to the children. Now, when I look back, I cannot believe that the problem was this huge and the crime was going on on such a large scale. Nobody in our team had any idea that these things will come out. It was only after some children shared their stories with us, that we came to know about it. We felt that this needed to be investigated. We were not sure whether we were right, but we had no right to investigate further, and at the same time we could not ignore it too. So we highlighted these happenings in the shelter home by sending our report to the state government. In our report, we said this issue needed to be investigated by the appropriate authorities. After our report, the social welfare department filed a case in this matter and launched a police investigation. I won't go into details as to what the children told us as the report is not in the public domain and it is part of the investigation. I do not want to hinder that process. But what is more shocking to me is that in India we do not have any mechanism where social audits can be done of shelter homes. We are only talking of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, but there can be so many shelter homes where audits do not happen. The special audit which we did is not a mandatory process. But now, I feel, after this incident, the social audit process must be made mandatory for all shelter homes across India. I am sure that not a single state can tell us, please visit our shelter home as we are clean. I am not saying that this kind of activities must be happening on a large scale, but we need to do a social audit of all the shelter homes across the country. All states must take a lesson from the Muzaffarpur incident and make social audit compulsory. They must check their own shelter homes and make safe homes for their children. This is the least they can do to make life safe for their children. At present monitoring by the government does happen, but it is more on financial aspects. The other inspection the government does is that they see whether the staff is reporting on time or not in the shelter homes. They also check if shelter homes have are conformed to the bye-laws of how they should be run. The only thing missing from the inspection is, what is happening to the children who are staying in those shelter homes. How are they doing? Therefore, I strongly feel that a law must be passed in Parliament to make it compulsory that social audit must be done in shelter homes from time to time. If that had happened, the Muzaffarpur scandal would not have happened. 'For a show that has been going on since 1948 one expected a certain standard of showcasing and showmanship, besides variety and a show of skill.' 'At the same time one felt pretty good about the standards of our own efforts -- Aero India -- at Bangalore once every four years and in business only since 1996,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd) after a visit to the Farnborough Airshow. IMAGE: The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, are joined by a Spitfire at the opening of the Farnborough Airshow, in Farnborough, July 16, 2018. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters Whilst on a holiday to London I was fortunate to visit the biennial Farnborough Airshow 2018 on a business day. One had heard great things about the event since my days in the Indian Air Force. Britain's first powered flight by Samuel Cody took place in Farnborough and Frank Whittle undertook most of his jet engine research at this location. For a show that has been going on since 1948 one expected a certain standard of showcasing and showmanship, besides variety and a show of skill. Having taken in a day's proceedings, albeit on a comparatively dull 'business day' on July 20, I must say one came away rather disappointed on both counts. At the same time one felt pretty good about the standards of our own efforts -- Aero India -- at Bangalore once every four years and in business only since 1996, which I witnessed a few times. I believe Farnborough is mainly a commercial outlet for people to sell and buy airplanes, but surely there ought to be enough eye catching events on the schedule to satiate the palate of the professional and the hobbyist alike. The commute itself was rather convenient if only thanks to two young Turkish Aerospace helicopter engineers who I chanced to meet at Waterloo station who escorted me all the way to the air show. The static display was very ordinary what with some old American planes on the tarmac such as the C-5 Galaxy, the F-18, Augusta Westland helicopters and the Turkish T-129 ATAK helicopter. The centerpiece was the Red Arrows simulator which could be entered for a princely sum. There was also an old Hunter 56A cockpit whose cockpit you could sit in for a fee of one pound. Then there were several stalls of the RAF Association and the Air Scouts, the paucity of government or industry funding being clearly evident. The only aspect which one admired was a charity venture for the disabled to learn flying. This I thought is a great idea for any nation or enterprise to emulate. The disabled were also being encouraged to machine aircraft parts and other components themselves. IMAGE: An armed police officer stands guard at the Farnborough Airshow, July 17, 2018. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters The dynamic display was an apology indeed. The only item worth mentioning is a spirited display by the Turkish attack helicopter, the T-129. Short of doing a full loop, the pilot executed several impressive steep stall turns and hover turns. The Turkish Aerospace engineers told me that the aircraft had indeed carried out a loop recently with no damage to the aircraft or engine! Then there was a very ordinary display by a Spanish Navy AV-8 B Harrier. The viffing and hover manoeuvres were very unimpressive indeed, the profile mostly including mild wing overs. The Red Arrows did a 9 aircraft flypast before landing, choosing to dispense with a display. There were dynamic displays by the F16 on most days. I wonder if the British government's decision the next day to shut down the Red Arrows air base at RAF Scampton had anything to do with it. Even their positioning on circuit and the landings themselves -- not in formation -- were forgettable. The best dynamic display was by the Airbus 330-1000. Flown by their chief test pilot, who was on his penultimate professional flight. The steep pull up take off, slow fly by, slow speed steep turns and curved approach and landing were impressive indeed. Rightly, the commentator stated that he expected this plane to become an industry favourite. IMAGE: A Lockheed Martin LM-100J aircraft performs a display at the Farnborough Airshow, July 16, 2018. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters The highlight of the air display was an air race demo by the Red Bulls. Air filled collapsible towers were erected along the runway and the two display pilots -- a British and an Italian -- described their sequence in an awesome manner, the commentator aptly indicating the penalty points earned by each pilot, especially for exceeding g limits, and the importance of flying the optimum pattern to cut circuit time. There were no Russian aircraft or contingent at Farnborough, possibly on account of the strained diplomatic ties between the two countries over the Skripal scandal. But there appears to have been no effort to display platforms such as the F-35 or the impressive SU 35. The Swedish Saab Gripen and the EFA Eurofighter were the only new generation fighter aircraft on static display. IMAGE: Group Captain Murli Menon (retd) at the Farnborough Airshow, July 20, 2018 In a world class air show one looks forward to see the latest technology on display as also some deft aerial manoeuvring by participating fighters, business jets and helicopters. The impression one got after seeing the air show was that the UK -- Brexit or otherwise -- is in dire fiscal straits. The impression was reinforced during a visit thereafter to the Imperial War Museum at Lambeth Road. Though there are five such museums in London and entry to most museums in London is free, the artifacts and displays at the museum were so ordinary and unimpressive -- for a nation that fought the great Battle of Britain! So much could have been depicted about the wars on land, sea and air but one only got to see some old vehicles, cannons and bits of a Liberator plane. The country that ruled half the world once upon a time!! Even the renowned Battle of Britain memorial formation was unimpressive, with just a B 24 Liberator and two Spitfires fly by. Another explanation could be that, unlike in the past, nations and companies now look for direct commerce with aircraft and equipment manufacturers as there is enough and more information available in the cyber domain. So, one doesn't really need to see an air show display to size up a platform. But tell that to a rookie and not a grey haired old and bold fighter jock!!! Kathmandu, August 2 The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation has demanded that the government provide it Rs 5 billion to purchase six new aircraft. The Corporation has already sent the request to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation as it plans to buy six Twin Otter aeroplanes at the earliest. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has already endorsed the proposal and forwarded it to the Ministry of Finance. If the Finance Ministry approves the plan, it will be sent to the Cabinet for the final decision. The Corporations General Manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar says the Corporation wants to increase its paid-up capital to Rs 20 billion; and Rs 5 billion has been sought from the government in the first phase. Later, the government will give the Corporation Rs 15 billion in different phases, according to him. The paid-up capital of the Corporation stands at rs 360 million now. Earlier, Minister Rabindra Adhikari had announced that the Corporation would purchase six Twin Otter aircraft in the first 100 days of his office. Kansakar says the new aircraft will arrive within next one year. Home Business Wait for five years and Nepal will welcome 2.5 million tourists in a year, says Minister Adhikari Kathmandu, August 2 The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Thursday has made public its five-year strategic plan. According to the plan, the government wants to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting the country up to 2.5 million per year. The government had reported that around one million tourists visited Nepal in 2017. Making the report public, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari said the governments at federal, provincial and local levels would work together for the construction of infrastructures to ensure that the target would be achieved on time. The plan states that the government would complete post-earthquake reconstruction of cultural and archaeological monuments within next three years whereas the construction of Nijgadh international airport would be also complete half within next five years. Likewise, the Bhairahawa Airport and the Pokhara Airport would begin international flight operations within one and three years respectively, according to the plan. The Tribhuvan International Airport would also be upgraded. The government has said it will also draft and implement separate master plans for development of tourism activities in Pashupatinath, Janaki Mandir, Rara Lake, Khaptad and Swargadwari regions. Likewise, Nepal would be connected to the Buddhist Circuit and the Ramayan Circuit envisioned by India. Indian shares fell in early trade on Thursday, tracking muted cues from global after the U.S. Federal Reserve reaffirmed the gradual tightening path and media reports suggested the Trump administration is considering raising the proposed tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to 25 percent from the 10 percent. The benchmark BSE Sensex was down 104 points or 0.28 percent at 37,417 while the broader Nifty index was down 32 points or 0.28 percent at 11,314. ONGC rallied 1.8 percent and Indiabulls Housing Finance added 1.7 percent ahead of their quarterly results due today. Reliance Infrastructure shed 0.7 percent after its Q1 net profit declined 19 percent from last year. Hindustan Copper climbed 1.8 percent on fund raising reports. Hero MotoCorp dropped 1 percent despite reporting a 9 percent rise in July sales. GPT Infraprojects soared 3.7 percent on winning a railways construction order worth Rs 362.2crore in Uttar Pradesh. Telecom stocks were little changed after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India pegged 5G spectrum price at Rs 492 crore a unit in the 3300-3600 Mhz band. IDBI Bank gained 1.6 percent after LIC received government approval to buy a majority stake in the state-run bank. Maruti Suzuki India declined 1.3 percent on posting a marginal decline in July sales. Tata Motors fell 1.5 percent despite posting 21 percent growth in domestic sales for July. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Editors Pick Apple announced that Apple News will be extending its local news offering to three additional cities in the United States to offer local news experience to readers. The service will now be provided for Charlotte, Miami, and Washington, D.C. The local news experience for each city is curated by Apple News editors to provide coverage of topics of importance for local communities. Automaker General Motors Co. (GM) on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $2.42 billion or $1.62 per share, lower than $4.05 billion or $2.78 per share in the prior-year quarter. Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was $1.52 per share, compared... Boeing on Wednesday reported a loss for the first quarter that sharply narrowed from last year, reflecting an 8 percent increase in revenues on higher commercial airplanes and services volumes. However, core loss per share and quarterly revenues came in below analysts' expectations. Looking ahead, the airplane maker said supply chain capacity and global trade will be key drivers of the industry. ConocoPhillips (COP) said it has agreed to sell its interests in the Barnett shale play to Lime Rock Resources for about $230 million plus net customary adjustments. The company will use proceeds from this transaction for general corporate purposes. Production associated with the Barnett assets for the first half of 2018 averaged 9 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which about 55 percent was natural gas and 45 percent was natural gas liquids. The transaction, subject to specific conditions precedent being satisfied, is expected to close by year-end 2018. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Colorado Securities Commissioner has issued a cease and desist order halting a Florida based firm's initial coin offering (ICO), saying it is offering an unregistered security. Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome issued the order to Linda Healthcare Corporation and its founder, Arturo Devesa, reaffirming a ruling made by administrative Judge, Matthew Norwood, last month. While issuing the order, Rome warned "ICOs are highly risky and should only be undertaken by sophisticated investors with the understanding that they may lose most or all of their funds." "Most ICOs meet the terms of a securities transaction and carry with them all of the same risks when it comes to losing money," according to him. The Division of Securities, part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), launched an investigation in April after noticing that the website of Linda Healthcare Corporation is promoting an ICO for a cryptocurrency listed as "Linda Health Coin" (LNDA). According to the website, LNDA can be used to purchase specific "Linda Health Insurance" covering telemedicine through an artificial intelligence chat service that creates medical solutions through use of blockchain . The Colorado Securities Commissioner noted that the ICO issuer did not disclose to potential buyers of LNDA coin about the risks of investing in cryptocurrency. Also, Linda Healthcare Corporation claimed that the ICO constitutes a security in the state of Colorado. Based on an investigation, the Commissioner issued an order to show cause in May, resulting in the decision by Judge Norwood and subsequent cease and desist order. While Linda Healthcare stated that the initial coin offering is like a crowd-funding campaign rather than a profit-sharing or equity offering, Judge Norwood sided with Commissioner Rome in finding that the ICO, as detailed in the company's white paper and website, falls under the terms of an "investment contract." Rome advised potential investors, "Investment opportunities being sold through ICOs over the internet need to be approached with the same level of caution as any high risk investment ventur." "If you are investing money in any kind of cryptocurrency, such as a coin or token where you are expecting to reap returns and are relying on those returns to come from the efforts of an outside party, you are dealing with investments," he clarified. 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. Jamba Inc. (JMBA) announced Thursday morning that it has agreed to be acquired by Focus Brands Inc. for $13.00 per share in cash. Jamba has gapped open sharply higher this morning and is now up 1.78 at $12.96. The stock has broken out of a 1-month trading range and has set a new high for the year. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Cryptocurrencies are in the red Thursday morning, extending the declining trend witnessed since the start of the week. Bitcoin remains below $8,000. As of 10.21 am ET, cryptocurrency market capitalization was $266.8 billion on CoinMarketCap. Here is a wrap of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the past 24 hours. Bill Clinton To Headline Swell Blockchain Conference Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will headline an international conference, where policy, payments and experts will share ideas based on blockchain technology in financial services. He will deliver a keynote address and participate in a question-and-answer session at the two-day conference to be held in San Francisco in October. The Swell 2018 Conference is organized by Cryptocurrency payments startup Ripple. Crypto Exchange Coinbase Hires BNY Mellon's Jeff Horowitz As Compliance Head Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has appointed BNY Mellon executive Jeff Horowitz as its Chief Compliance Officer. After spending close to 12 years at Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon Co., Horowitz joined Coinbase to help it navigate regulations for virtual currency companies, the company said. DCEX To Become First Crypto Exchange To Use Ripple's XRP As Base Currency San Francisco-based startup DCEX is set to become the first cryptocurrency exchange to exclusively use Ripple's XRP as the base currency on the platform. The exchange is now open for client registrations with trading expected to begin shortly. Colorado Issues Cease And Desist Order To Healthcare ICO Colorado Securities Commissioner has issued a cease and desist order halting a Florida based firm's initial coin offering (ICO), saying it is offering an unregistered security. Securities Commissioner Gerald Rome issued the order to Linda Healthcare Corporation and its founder, Arturo Devesa, reaffirming a ruling made by administrative Judge, Matthew Norwood, last month. Ripple Ties Up With Madonna To Raise Funds For Malawi's Children Cryptocurrency payments startup Ripple is partnering with pop music diva Madonna's charity organization in an online fund raiser for orphans and children in Malawi. On Monday, Madonna had announced plans to celebrate her 60th birthday with a one month-long fund-raising through Facebook. Current Prices As of 10.20 am ET on Thursday, Bitcoin was down 1.11 percent at $7,510 and Ethereum was lower by 3.13 percent at $410.33 on Coinbase. 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. US agents have arrested three high-ranking Ukrainian members of a sophisticated international cybercrime group for hacking more than 100 US companies and stealing millions of credit and debit card numbers. The hackers were arrested in January and June, but the Department of Justice announced the details only on Wednesday. Fedir Hladyr, 33, was arrested in Germany's Dresden in January, and is currently detained in Seattle pending trial. Dmytro Fedorov, 44, was arrested in Polish city of Bielsko-Biala, where he remains detained pending his extradition to the United States. Andrii Kolpakov, 30, was arrested in late June in Lepe, Spain. Hladyr served as FIN7's systems administrator. His trial is scheduled for October 22. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes and FBI Special Agent Jay S. Tabb Jr. said each of the conspirators is charged with 26 felony counts alleging conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Members of the notorious international Cybercrime Group "Fin7", they have been engaged in a highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting more than 100 U.S. companies, predominantly in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries, since 2015. According to the federal indictments, FIN7 hacked into thousands of computer systems and stole millions of customer credit and debit card numbers, which the group used or sold for profit. In the United States alone, FIN7 breached the computer networks of companies in 47 states and the District of Columbia, stealing more than 15 million customer card records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 separate locations. The hackers also carried out attacks abroad, including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France. Companies that have disclosed to been targeted include chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chili's, Arby's, Red Robin and Jason's Deli. In Western Washington, FIN7 targeted other local businesses. Special Agent Tabb said the FBI will continue to work with its law enforcement partners worldwide to pursue the members of FIN7, and hold them accountable for stealing from American businesses and individuals. FIN7 used a front company, Combi Security, purportedly headquartered in Russia and Israel, to provide a guise of legitimacy and to recruit hackers to join the criminal enterprise. The investigation was conducted by the Seattle Cyber Task Force of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, with the help of other US Government agencies, computer security firms, financial institutions, FBI offices in US and abroad, as well as a number of international agencies. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Political News The Swiss stock market got off to a weak start Thursday, after returning from yesterday's holiday, and remained in negative territory throughout the session. Trade concerns weighed on investor sentiment after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said President Trump has directed him to consider increasing the proposed tariff rate on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from the previously announced 10 percent. The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.20 percent Thursday and finished at 9,155.57. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.44 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.14 percent. Financial stocks were under pressure Thursday. UBS weakened by 1.8 percent, Credit Suisse lost 1 percent and Julius Baer dropped 1.7 percent. Swiss Life declined 1.8 percent, Swiss Re surrendered 0.9 percent and Zurich Insurance dropped 1.2 percent. Adecco was among the weakest performing stocks Thursday, sinking 3 percent. Lafargeholcim also declined 2.5 percent. Swatch Group decreased 1.7 percent on trade worries and rival Richemont fell 0.8 percent. Among the index heavyweights, Roche climbed 1.2 percent, Novartis rose 0.3 percent and Nestle added 0.05 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis President Donald Trump's administration continued efforts to undo Barack Obama's legacy on Thursday by announcing a plan scrap fuel standards enacted under the former president. A proposal outlined by the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency would eliminate Obama-era requirements that automobile manufacturers increase fuel efficiency to an average of about 50 miles per gallon by 2026. The new plan would freeze the fuel efficiency requirements at 2020 levels, although there are conflicting reports regarding the miles per gallon that would be required under the Trump administration's proposal. Members of the Trump administration argued the plan would save lives by keeping vehicle prices lower and allowing more Americans to by newer, safer cars. Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler claimed the administration is delivering on Trump's promise to address and fix the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards. "Our proposal aims to strike the right regulatory balance based on the most recent information and create a 50-state solution that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles that pollute less," Wheeler said. "More realistic standards can save lives while continuing to improve the environment," he added. "We value the public's input as we engage in this process in an open, transparent manner." The NHTSA and EPA said the public will have 60 days to provide feedback to ensure all potential impacts concerning the proposal are fully considered. The Trump administration also said it will seek to strip California of a special exemption allowing the state to set its own, more stringent emissions standards, drawing harsh criticism from California lawmakers. In a statement, Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., declared Californians would not give up their right to clean air to Trump without a fight. "The fuel economy standards are reducing harmful emissions, saving families billions at the pump and driving technological innovations that are keeping the U.S. auto industry competitive," Feinstein said. "President Trump wants to roll back that progress. We're not going to let him." California Attorney General Becerra also called the Trump administration's proposal a "brazen and unlawful attack" on the nation's Clean Car Standards. "The California Department of Justice will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend today's national standards and reaffirm the science behind them," said Becerra. California, 16 other states, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the EPA in May in anticipation of the administration's plan. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Following the notable downward move seen in the previous session, treasuries regained some ground during trading on Thursday. After seeing early strength, bond prices pulled back near the unchanged before moving back to the upside. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 1.7 basis points to 2.986 percent. Treasuries may have benefited from bargain hunting after the ten-year yield closed above 3 percent for the first time in well over two months on Wednesday. Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report on Friday. Employment is expected to increase by 190,000 jobs in July after jumping by 213,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate is expected to dip to 3.9 percent after rising to 4.0 percent in the previous month. A day ahead of the release of the monthly report, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended July 28th. The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 218,000, an uptick of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 217,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 220,000. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed factory orders climbed by 0.7 percent in June, matching economist estimates. The Labor Department's monthly jobs report is likely to be in focus on Friday, overshadowing separate reports on the U.S. trade deficit and service sector activity. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis Western Union Co. (WU) Thursday said its second-quarter profit rose 31% driven largely by strong consumer money transfer and a one-time settlement amount. Nevertheless, earnings for the quarter fell short of estimates by a penny, while revenues also failed to meet expectations. Englewood, Colorado-based Western Union's second-quarter profit surged to $217.6 million or $0.47 per share from $166.5 million or $0.35 per share last year. On an adjusted basis, earnings dropped to $0.46 per share from $0.50 per share last year. On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.47 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items. Profit for the quarter increased primarily due to a NYDFS settlement accrual and WU Way related expenses incurred in the prior year period, the company said in a statement. Adjusted earnings dropped primarily due to a lower adjusted operating profit margin and higher adjusted tax rate in the current year period. Revenues for the quarter rose 2 percent to $1.41 billion from $1.38 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenues estimate of $1.43 billion. CFO Raj Agrawal stated, "We delivered solid 20% operating margins in the quarter and utilized our strong free cash flow to return significant funds to shareholders. We are continuing to drive financial performance while investing in our long-term strategic initiatives." Consumer-to-Consumer revenues, which represented 80% of total revenue, increased 4%, while transactions grew 5%. Geographically, constant currency revenue growth was led by sends originated in Latin America, Europe, and North America, partially offset by declines in the Middle East and Africa. Looking forward to the full year, Western Union now expects earnings growth to be in low single-digit range, compared to previous outlook of low to mid single digit increase. The company continues to expect adjusted earnings of $1.80 to $1.90 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.87 per share and revenues growth of 3.90%. WU closed Thursday's trading at $20.59, up $0.44 or 2.18% on the NYSE. The stock, however, dropped $0.59 or 2.87% in the after-hours trading. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Dear Editor, I am a Samoan resident, having been married to a Samoan for nearly fifty years. I have been visiting this country for the same length of time, and have been here again for the last five weeks. I have been extremely disappointed with the quality of the debate in your columns about the Governments tightening of the tax laws with respect to faifeaus and alofa. Even in your editorials, The Observer appeared to be having a bet each way when you challenged the Government to say why it had not done this 55 years ago. I have an opinion on why the Government did not act before. On my first visit here I was taken to visit a college run by the sister of the Head of State, training young women for the role of a faifeaus wife. One of the skills students were taught was how to forage for food on the reef at low tide. Any suggestion that this be taught to aspiring pastors wives today would be greeted with derisive laughter. Pastors have since found a much more effective way of keeping their wives supplied with food (and plenty of it) - the pernicious practice of publicly announcing how much each family has donated in alofa. Over the years my wife and I have divided our time between Apia and a village. Apia now abounds with stories of the lifestyles of pastors, and of the consequences for villagers of trying to escape this competitive giving process. Occasionally village residents have done work for us, and they plead for loans to keep up with what their neighbours are donating. One of my family living away, when asking a relative living in a village why he doesnt just refuse to compete, received the answer: Its alright for you, you dont have to live here. Many villagers are forced into a state of perpetual indebtedness, while their money is used by their spiritual leader for personal aggrandisement. Yet supporters of the system continue to argue the donations are an act of free will. It looks as though the Government has decided enough is enough and this severe inequality has to be addressed as a social issue. In your issue of 7July, Nanai Molonuu Lealalauloto Nofoaiga rambled over one and a half pages of the paper, without being able to make it clear to me just how the current tax tightening is in breach of the Constitution. In the same issue, Reverend Vavatau Taufao quoted Jesus words about sheep and wolves, and about establishing his church on Peter as the rock, without providing any link between these quotes and the taxation dispute. If E.F.K.S. is expecting to be arguing its position in court, it should consider doing so without input from its General Secretary, because irrelevant biblical quotes wont cut much ice with a judge. The statement: Samoa, a nation founded on God, has had a good run during the debate, but if this bunch ends up prevailing in its current dispute with the Government, the statement will have to be adjusted to: Samoa, the nation which foundered on God. William Hamilton Dear Editor Oh how the mighty have fallen. Just when the U.S. points the finger squarely at the Kremlin for meddling and most likely determining the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in 2016, the gremlins (no pun intended) are already working on the result of next years U.S. mid-term elections. And with the U.S. President himself in the gremlins pockets, and attacking the U.S. intelligence services, they can meddle to their hearts content it seems and with impunity. The history of US government meddling in other nations elections is as long as it is tragic. The U.S. invariably meddled on the side of some right wing corrupt dictator that the champions of democracy and freedom were trying to free their people from. These were more often than not corrupt military men that took power by force of arms supplied by the U.S., and with the help of C.I.A. covert manipulation of people and information. Security for the U.S. was the aim and as President John once said about these brutal and corrupt dictators, They might be sons of a bi**h, but they are our sons of a bi**h But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. And what goes around comes around. When the Kremlin meddled last time, Trump came around. Lets see who and what other horrors will turn up next. Tamapaa Vaitoa New Zealand-born Samoan filmmaker Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa and his sister Dinah joined students at the National University of Samoa yesterday to share their experiences. They flew into the country to be part of a media and film workshop organised by the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) and the University of Auckland as part of a collaboration to celebrate the achievements of Samoan graduates of the New Zealand institution. The workshop was for media students who were interested in film-making. I was asked by the University of Auckland in New Zealand to just come and share on my film-making journey. To share especially to media students what it takes from university studies to film-making which is sort off a dream for a lot of students, the actual reality of making a film, he said. The key highlight for today is everyones participation in the creative workshops, its one of the key aspects that we wanted to give out today. You should never be shy or hesitant to be creative and come up with ideas but especially not afraid to share those ideas. With collaboration you can come up with stronger ideas, and sharing ideas with the right people can make it stronger. Mr Vaiaoga-Ioasa is the director and producer of self-financed movies Three Wise Cousins and Hibiscus & Ruthless, which premiered in 2016 and 2017 to wide acclaim in Australia and New Zealand. Talking about his interaction with N.U.S. students, he said he was happy to share his story and always wanted to make films for Samoans and the wider Pacific Islands audience. I advise those that are starting out that its not about having those flashy gears, the core is coming up with a good story. I always did want to make films for Samoans, especially our Pacific Island audience and it has been an awesome experience so far. I think the key struggle for making a movie is finding the right people to work with, the budget itself and things cost money so its important to look after your cast and crew. Samoa geography and natural landscape has a lot to offer to filmmakers according to Mr Vaiaoga-Ioasa, but not before warning that filmmaking can be an expensive exercise, Film-making is an expensive path; its a capital intensive, a very expensive work. I think that Samoas film industry is still in the grassroots level, I think the more films that come out the better it gets. I feel that Samoa has so much to offer, in terms of visuals like from village landscapes to natural landscapes. And that was one of the reasons why I came to Samoa there is a value in there, its production value, and its all about putting the camera in the right direction. For me, I was passionate about film-making and I was not half bad at it. I love the idea of not being stuck in an office, always outdoors. At the time being we are working on our third film and hopefully bring it out next year. University of Aucklands associate professor, Damon Salesa, said Mr Vaiaoga-Ioasa and his sister Dinah are the universitys most outstanding graduates. They have a wonderful story, in finding a way for Samoans to tell their own stories. In hope that with todays workshop students will be inspired in pursuing their dreams in the film industry and for Samoas film industry to look at the brighter picture in future advancements, she said. A 21-year-old man has been given a 12-month suspended sentence and a $300 Court fine for having sex with a minor. Brandon Johnny Hall was recently sentence by Supreme Court Justice Vaepule Vaemoa Vaai. This decision was arrived at after the judge considered the submissions of the prosecution and the counsel representing the defendant. Tosimaea Tupua of Wallwork Lamb Lawyers, who represented the defendant, submitted that his client disputed parts of the police summary of facts, which alleged the defendant asked the victim to remove her clothes, and the victim complied with the defendant also removing his clothes. It is the defendants contention that when they arrived at the back of the church after they left the bingo, the victim started removing her clothes and then asked the defendant to have sexual intercourse with her. The defendant then spread his ie lavalava on the ground, Mr Tupua submitted. He only found out about the victims age during a brief conversation after they had sexual intercourse, when she told him that she was turning 16 years old in a months time. It was only then that the defendant realized that she was under 16 years old. The counsel further submitted that it was the victim who instigated the first meeting with the defendant at the village pool and then later at the church fundraising bingo. The victim also asked the defendant to go with her to talk behind the church where no one could see them. We respectfully submitted that the victim not only consented, she also initiated the encounter. This matter would never have come to light if the family of the victims friends had not reported it the Samoa Victim Support Group. Mr Tupua argued that the circumstances of the case are such that it would be appropriate for the court to exercise its decision and discharge the defendant without conviction, as the gravity of the offending is at the lower end of the scale given it was consensual sex, the defendant only had sex with the victim once and there was no violence involved. The defendant also expressed remorse, accepted that it is wrong to have sex with a girl under the age of 16 and pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity. The defendant was 20-years-old at the time of the offence and the victim was 15 years of age. The prosecution was represented by Vei Faasii from the Office of the Attorney General. Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, believes that it would be a retrograde step for Samoa if an overseas Judge is to reside over an appeal against the decision to discharge the President of the Land and Titles Court without conviction. Chief Justice Patu made the point when he provided his reasons for his decision to dismiss an application by the Office of the Attorney General, for an overseas Judge to preside over the hearing of an appeal, against a decision by the District Court. The decision in question involves the suspended President of the Land and Titles Court, Fepuleai Attila Ropati, who has been discharged without conviction by District Court Judge, Alalatoa Rosella Papalii. A copy of Chief Justice Patus decision highlights the reasons. The first reason for my ruling to dismiss the application by the appellant for an overseas Judge to hear its appeal is abuse of process, His Honour Patu rules. As pointed out by counsel for the respondent in his submissions, when this case was before the District Court for the first time, the appellant did not apply for an overseas Judge to hear the case." Subsequently, after the charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent was filed and the case was transferred to this Court, the appellant made an oral application for an overseas Judge to hear the case but the application was denied." The case was then set down for hearing on the 25h April 2018 before this Court by a local Judge after the respondent had pleaded not guilty to the charges." According to Chief Justice Patu, on the date of this particular hearing, the charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent was withdrawn together with the alternative charges. The charge of causing actual bodily harm with intent was transferred to the District Court where the respondent pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Judge Alalatoa Again, the appellant did not apply for an overseas Judge to deal with the matter in the District Court." Now that the appellant has appealed to this Court against the sentence passed in the District Court, the appellant has again made an application for an overseas Judge to hear and determine the appeal. Fepuleais lawyer, Aumua Ming Leung Wai, argued that this was an abuse of process. Given that background, counsel for the respondent submitted that the effect of the appellants application is to undermine confidence in this Court as it presupposes that the Judges of this Court cannot be impartial to deal with the appellants appeal." Counsel further submitted that the effect of the application is to offend against this Courts sense of justice and tarnishes its integrity. It is therefore an abuse of process." Counsel relied on a statement of principles from Williams V Spautz (1992) HCA 34; (1992) 174 CLR 509 at p 502 in the joint judgement of Mason CJ, Dawson, Toohey and McHugh JJ which is cited in the judgement of this Court in Toailoa Law Office V Duffy (2005) WSSC 52. " I accept the submissions by counsel for the respondent. Secondly, Chief Justice Patu says the weight of relevant authorities is overwhelmingly against the application by the appellant. In the case of Woodroffe V Fisher (2017) WSSC 100, a litigant brought a civil claim against a Judge at the Court of Appeal arising out of civil proceedings before that Court. The Attorney general was cited as second defendant in those proceedings." The claim was heard and determine by Justice Tuatagaloa in this Court. There was no application by the Office of the Attorney General for an overseas Judge to deal with that case." On appeal to the Court of Appeal, the appeal was heard by Panckhurst J, a regular member of the Court of Appeal and two local Judges. There was again no application by the Office of the Attorney General for different Judges from overseas to hear and determine the appeal." In the case of Sapolu V Saaga (2018) WSSC 24 which was concerned with a civil claim against a District Court Judge arising from the hearing of criminal proceedings, the case was heard before Justice Tuatagaloa in this Court and the defendant was represented by the Office of the Attorney General." There was no application by the Office of the Attorney General to engage an overseas Judge to hear that case. Chief Justice Patu also touched on the doctrine of necessity which creates an exception to the principle that not only must justice be done but it must also manifestly be seen to be done which is relied upon by the counsel for the appellant. I have not been able from my research to find any case where such a thing has happened in a foreign country. If, however, there is such a case then it must be very rare, His Honour Patu said. It would be taking a retrograde step for Samoa if we are to engage an overseas Judge because all the local Judges are said to be disqualified from hearing a case on the ground of apparent or perceived bias." It would also be an unnecessary surrender of our judicial sovereignty to an outsider when we have our own Judges to deal with these cases. Counsel for the appellant tried to distinguish on the facts that the cases of Nakhal V McCarthy (1978) 1 NZLR 291 and R V Murphy (1985) HCA 50; (1985) 158 CLR from the present case in order to support the appellants application for an overseas Judge. In my respectful view, the factual distinctions drawn on behalf of the appellant do not prevent the application of the principle of necessity to this case. A major cocoa initiative facilitated by the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and funded by the New Zealand government is ready implement its five-year plan. According to Chief Executive Officer of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lemauga Hobart Vaai, after nine months of consulting with farmers as well as public and private sector partners they are ready to embark on a nationwide drive to improve and increase cocoa yields to bring the industry back to its glory days. Were not going somewhere new, our people have been growing cocoa for generations, we just want to take it where we were before. Back in the 60's through to the 90s Samoans were huge cocoa producers. Weve learnt from the mistakes of the past and we will move forward and create opportunities in employment and increase our exports, he said. Just over a year ago then Prime minister of New Zealand, Bill English, announced NZ$4.8 million in funding to support a five-year programme. The programme is intended to help Samoa achieve its goal of developing a thriving, sustainable, resilient and inclusive agriculture sector, with a particular focus on local crops where smallholders have a comparative edge. Under the directives of the project, the Samoa Cocoa Industry Association (S.C.I.A.) was established and incorporated recently. The C.E.O. of the chamber said that it was important for the cocoa project to be inclusive of everyone, which provided some challenges along the way while organizing the project. One of the first things we have done is organize a national body to run the project long after the time line. There has to be a local body which brings all the farmers associations together because we have multiple farmer associations and we have S.W.A.G. who just started recently a month ago. Its important for us that everyone is included in the process. After nine months of consultations, theyve agreed on a constitution and in two weeks we will be calling the committee for the first time to commence the project. Lemaunga says that the project will include made-to-fit plans for all types of farmers and its the hope of the S.C.I.A. that they will be able to access to all the opportunities and resources as part of this initiative. We will be working on capacity building and giving them better options on how to grow cocoa and also give them resources needed. We are using local mentors and providing additional support by providing them with professional pruners from overseas, he said. Its giving support to local cocoa farmers so that they can increase their yields and well be providing technical expertise on how in improve the quality of their yield as well. Which is what the overseas market wants. Its a huge project. The Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with New Zealand partner, Agrichain will coordinate the project. A book on life in Auckland and how Samoans are contributing to its development without New Zealand government support was launched yesterday. Titled Island Time: New Zealands Pacific Futures, its author Associate Professor Damon Salesa said he wanted to highlight the potential and possibilities of Pacific people who live in New Zealand and how they connect with Pacific people in the Pacific, especially Samoans and how they are huge assets to New Zealand. But New Zealand hasnt always realised this. People say that island time is late. People who are late to all these are actually not the islanders, they figured it a long time ago that there is a huge number of Samoans in New Zealand and the world is changing. Its actually the palagi people who didnt figure out that they were living in island time and that island time didnt wait for them, it just went ahead, he said in an interview with Samoa Observer at his book launch at the National University of Samoa. So this book is to tell New Zealand some of the amazing things Samoans have accomplished inside New Zealand without New Zealand Governments help and how they are sort of pointing to a different future. There are eight chapters and research carried out to collect data and statistics were done through connotative method of research, participant observation and studying the rise of Pacific businesses in New Zealand, between two to three years. I decided to write the book, but not just a book for academics but Im hoping its a book anyone can read and I actually went with a publisher that made it inexpensive so that people can buy it, he said. A big part of the book is about Auckland, which is described as the largest Samoan city and the second most spoken language in Auckland and so it is this wonderfully Pacific place, but actually the palagi people in Auckland choose to live far away from Pacific people, so its almost like two cities. Part of the book is telling this to New Zealand. Damon said few of the chapters refer to segregated cities palagi and Pacific cities. A lot of that is to explain to New Zealanders how that happened because many of them pretend it didnt happen and you can see it. If any of the readers have been to Otara or Mangere, you go to the town centre, you dont see any palagi; you might as well be in Samoa or Nukualofa. One chapter is telling a story about the Pacific economy and how the Pacific people, especially Samoan people have managed to make their living when they have the lowest paid jobs in the fewest economic opportunities. What I am saying is how theyve made all sorts of innovations to survive, for instance how they share housing, child care, they live in extended family groups, and as well as looking at innovative business opportunities in things like the film industry, drama. Damon concludes the book with a look into Pacific politics in New Zealand. One place that Pacific people are successful in is getting elected, so for instance there are nine Pacific politicians in Parliament, far more than Asian population. How have they done this? So what weve seen is Pacific people have figured out a way to get elected, so theyve been far more influential in New Zealand Government, although there are more Asian people in New Zealand then Pacific people. But Pacific people through their political influence have actually made sure there are initiatives and some government policy to enable good things to happen to Pacific people, he added. Important genetic drugs can be made with atomic-level precision by using a new manufacturing method, according to a scientific study led by The Scripps Research Institute. Better quality drugs, along with greater potency and lower manufacturing costs, should result, the scientists say. Existing methods produce molecules that lack a uniform structure, which affects how they work. These methods also use dangerously reactive chemicals, which the new process eliminates. The method also promises to speed up drug development, because scientists will know exactly what molecules theyre working with from start to finish. The risk of potentially dangerous or useless variants slipping through would be greatly reduced. Advertisement This is really beautiful chemistry, said UC San Diego biologist Steven Dowdy. Its a great solution to an existing problem. Scientists led by TSRI star chemist Phil Baran used the technology to produce compounds similar to the blockbuster drug Spinraza, which treats the incurable genetic disease spinal muscular atrophy. Spinraza was invented by Carlsbads Ionis Pharmaceuticals and is marketed by partner Biogen. Research partner Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to commercialize the technology to help make new drugs. That could result in money down the road for Scripps Research. And if the new manufacturing process is widely adopted, a vast new platform for making these complicated drugs will emerge. The scientists likened the method to an atomic glue gun, that bangs out molecules in a uniform three-dimensional shape. It works with drugs made from DNA and RNA components called nucleotides. The shapes of these drugs are hard to control with existing manufacturing. A study describing the process was published Thursday in the journal Science. It can be found at j.mp/tsrichiral. Its been known for many decades that differences in a molecules shape can mean differences in function. This led to the development of a branch of chemistry called stereochemistry, which is increasingly important as the complexity of drug molecules grows. The antidepressant citalopram or Celexa provides a simple example. It contains a mixture of mirror-image left-handed and right-handed forms. Each contains the same number and kinds of atoms. But only the left-handed form is effective. Thats because the molecules have to interlock with a three-dimensional target in the body, just as a left-handed glove only fits a left hand. The problem gets trickier with drugs like Spinraza. These belong to a class of drugs called antisense, which block or alter how genes act. Ionis is now testing dozens of other antisense drugs for Huntingtons disease, Alzheimers and other incurable illnesses. Antisense drugs have vastly more complex shapes than those of small molecule drugs like citalopram. Patients who get Spinraza actually get more than 100,000 different configurations, the study said. Future antisense drugs that are made with only the desired form should be simpler to test. The same manufacturing hurdle is true for another emerging class of nucleotide-based drugs called cyclic dinucleotides, which are used in cancer immunotherapy. But with the atomic glue gun method, both classes of drugs can be made to precise specifications, every time, the study said. Any time you have a nucleotide, whether its RNA or DNA, you can apply this type of chemistry to it. So yeah, this is a big thing, Dowdy said. The scientific details of the study concern the role of phosphorus in forming nucleotide linkages. The stability of this linkage has much to do with the effectiveness of nucleotide-based drugs. These compounds must resist cleavage long enough to get into cells, where they can modify genetic activity. Baran and colleagues called their method phosphorussulfur incorporation, or PSI. It stitches nucleotides together into predefined three-dimensional forms. In DNA and RNA, phosphorus-containing groups alternate with nucleotides, each linking to the other. Efficiency is critical, Baran said, because inefficiencies in any step cumulatively degrade total output at the end of the manufacturing chain. Thats especially important with a molecule that can have so many unique forms or chirality, as chemists refer to the 3D shape. If youre going to make a linkage that has 10 or 20 different nucleotides, each step has to be 100 percent transfer of chirality, and thats what we have, Baran said. These nucleotides are linked by a backbone of a molecular group containing phosphorus and sulfur, called phosphorothioate. At its core, the study defines how to use what is called a stereo-controlled phosphorothioate (PS) linkage. Frank Bennett, senior vice president of research at Ionis, said the study presented a potentially better method for controlled manufacture of antisense drugs. As the importance of controlling PS chirality in therapeutic oligonucleotides is not clear, more work is needed to determine the value of these findings, Bennett said by email. The study with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Scripps Research is the latest in a partnership that began in 2012, said Martin Eastgate, a BMS chemist and one of the new studys co-authors. The partnership has become unusually wide-ranging, as scientists from each team explore new possibilities. Its become an very endearing collaboration, Eastgate said. Related reading TSRI wizard chemist Phil Baran strikes again with drug development advance Cowboy chemist Phil Baran pulls a trick out of his Stetson. Its called decarboxylative alkenylation TSRIs Phil Baran works to make other chemists work easy Science Playlist On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1020 The University of California San Diego has been awarded an $11.3 million grant from a government defense agency to develop tools aimed at making it less risky and more affordable to design advanced semiconductors. The project led by Jacobs School of Engineering professor Andrew Kahng will try to automate design techniques to enable leading edge chips layouts that can be generated within 24 hours with no human involvement. The goal is to spark innovation by making it easier to design cutting edge chips for production at factories with the most advanced manufacturing technologies -- giving small companies, researchers and Department of Defense access to top-tier, specialized silicon. I think it is a chance for the U.S. and North America to retake leadership in systems innovation that we no longer dominate because of the difficultly of actually doing hardware design, said Kahng. Advertisement The four-year research grant comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The team includes researchers from six universities, along with support from Qualcomm and chip architecture developer ARM Holding. There is an incredible delta between what is possible with silicon versus what people are actually able to afford or bring themselves to risk attempting, said Kahng. Were trying to narrow the gap. The project is called OpenROAD. It supports DARPAs Intelligent Design of Electronic Assets (IDEA) program that is part of the larger Electronics Resurgence Initiative, which is expected to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years to push forward electronics innovation in the U.S. Designing the most advanced integrated circuits today involves large teams of engineers using complex and costly computer-aided tools. So fewer companies are attempting to design chips that take advantage of the latest manufacturing technologies, which produce smaller, better performing and power efficient silicon. What people cant design in hardware, theyll work around that with software, and then Moores Law stops, said Kahng. Moores Law, named after Intels Gordon Moore, is a chip industry axiom that states the number of transistors on semiconductors doubles every two years boosting power and lowering costs. Moores Law has helped drive gains in electronics for decades. But Moores Law has been ailing recently, as the sheer cost of the equipment required to pile more transistors onto smaller chips has made production expensive. Kahngs team will tap machine learning, cloud-based optimization and restricted layout methods as part of its effort, among other things. Joining Kahng in the project is UC San Diego professor Lawrence Saul, as well as experts from other universities and graduate students. The design tools created by the OpenROAD project will be open-sourced to expand their adoption similar to the way open source software helped power innovation in applications. Business mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com; Twitter:@TechDiego 760-529-4973 A La Costa residents ongoing battle with his homeowners association has reached new heights since he put signs in his front window protesting the presidents immigration policy. Patrick Foley has two rectangular printed signs, about 30 inches across, taped to the inside of the glass. In The Name Of Humanity, Stop Terrorizing Immigrant Children, reads the top sign, with #TrumpPenceMustGo and RefuseFascism.org in smaller type. Beneath that sign, a second, slightly smaller one reads, No matter where you are from, were glad youre our neighbor, in English, Spanish and Arabic. Advertisement In July, Foley received a letter from the La Costa Valley Master Association telling him, It appears there is an unauthorized sign in the window. Please remove the signs immediately, the letter states, and it cites a subsection of the associations codes, covenants and restrictions. The letter is from Linda Anderson of the homeowners associations management company. She did not return messages or an email to her office this week. Foley wrote a letter late in July disputing the associations authority over his signs. He has no plans to remove them, he said this week. The associations CC&Rs only prohibit commercial signs, not political signs, he said, and he considers the letter a form of harassment. Your continuing letters to me concerning violations based on absurdly written sections of the CC&Rs are a source of amusement for my friends, neighbors and attorney, Foley states in his written response to Master Association and the board. A member of the associations board, Jay Varon, said Tuesday hed heard nothing about Foleys signs. A community manager has the authority to send out violation notices on any number of subjects, Varon said. Someone may have contacted the management company, he said, and that might have prompted the letter. However, it was unclear whether Foleys signs violated any rules. A persons freedom to express their opinion is strongly defended by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I dont think theres anything wrong, Varon said. People are very passionate on both sides of the issue (of immigration). I suspect there must be neighbors that dont really like that stuff. Foley, 71, is a retired city administrator who says he worked in several communities across Southern California. Hes always had an anti-establishment bent, he said, and he was granted conscientious objector status by his draft board in 1970 during the Vietnam War. Once a week, he drives to El Cajon where, along with other volunteers, he tutors young immigrants in history, English and public speaking. Hes lived in La Costa more than 20 years, and its not the first notice he received from his homeowners association, he said. Hes been threatened with punitive action before, but so far no formal action has been taken. Not long ago, he received a letter from the management company demanding that he remove a tree in his yard that was dropping leaves onto a neighbors yard. He said he disputed that letter on the grounds that trees throughout the community, many on common property owned by the association, drop leaves onto residents property. Foley has had political signs in his window for years. Most of them protested the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, under Democratic as well as Republican presidents. He hung an upside-down American flag from the eave of his home for a while to protest the war in Iraq. Eventually, the flag was stolen by someone who also apparently egged his house and left a note calling him a commie, he said, and he hasnt replaced the flag since then. He led a group of residents opposed to a chain-link fence, topped by barbed wire and razor wire that was installed around the communitys RV storage lot. Foley said it looked like an internment camp and that a block wall would have been better. The association removed the razor wire, but the barbed wire and fence remain. The ever-increasing national debate over immigration prompted his latest signs, he said. I am appalled at whats happening to those families at the border, Foley said. I was when Obama did it. Its not just Trump. He said hes happy to publicize his dispute with the board if thats what it takes to shine a light on the gross stupidity of the associations board and management company. Varon, the board member, said Foleys letter probably will be discussed at the boards monthly meeting in August. It sounds to me like his issue will be addressed, Varon said. Varon said he holds free speech in the highest regard, and the board could consult an attorney to determine the best course of action. philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @phildiehl When Dave Pike opened Jalisco Cantina in Oceanside last summer, he and his team expected it would be a tequila bar that served a little Mexican food. Instead, the food at the 50-seat venue on North Coast Highway has become just as popular as its drinks. Michael W. Brown, who serves as head chef for Jalisco Cantina as well as Pikes three Barrel Republic restaurants, said everyone was surprised when Jaliscos food sales equaled those at the bar, which serves more than 75 varieties of tequila and mezcal. Brown attributes the menus success to the fact that while Oceanside is chockablock with taco shops and traditional Baja-style Mexican eateries, theres nothing like the fresh Mex concept hes developed at Jalisco Cantina. Oceanside is growing with a big culinary scene, Brown said. Downtown San Diego may have some great cocktail and tequila bars but theres nothing like what were doing in Oceanside. Were a standout up here. Advertisement Jalisco Cantina, which shares a wall and part of a kitchen with Pikes Oceanside Barrel Republic bar, doesnt have a freezer. So, all of the dishes on the 20-item menu are prepared from scratch each day. Browns menu is inspired by the regional dishes of Jalisco state, but with a modern twist. An example is his take on elote, a popular Mexican snack where an ear of grilled corn is brushed with a mix of mayonnaise, sour cream and spices and then sprinkled with Cotija cheese. Browns saladlike elote dish comes in a bowl filled with fire-roasted corn freshly cut from the cob mixed with veggies and topped with a mayo mix, a dusting of chile spices, Cotija cheese and fried tortilla strips. An elote corn off-the-cob salad at Jalisco Cantina in Oceanside. (Pam Kragen/San Diego Union-Tribune) Other specialties are a spicy shrimp guacamole, topped with jalapeno olive oil poblano chiles and Cotija and the fresh-corn tamale bites, which are a corn/masa mixture prepared in tamale style but then rolled and fried in bite-size balls. Theres also a Spanish-inspired meat and cheese board. Jalisco Cantina is one of many tequila-centric bars that has opened in San Diego County in the past year. It offers a full bar, custom cocktails and nine margaritas, but the focus is on two Mexican spirits, tequila and mezcal. Tequila made from blue agave plants grown only in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Michoacan, and Guanajuato. Mezcal, often characterized as having a smoother, smokier flavor, can be made from any of up to 30 kinds of agave grown in a larger area of Mexico. Jalisco Cantino serves the spirits in margaritas and cocktails, but many customers order them in shots, which start at $5 and range up to $75 for the Herradura Seleccion Suprema Tequila Extra Anejo, which is cask-aged for four years. Brown said Jalisco Cantina is the first bar in San Diego County to serve CaliFino Tequila, which is made in Jalisco state. The bar also sells the spirits in flights, where patrons can sample three different brands of tequilas or mezcals or do a vertical tasting of the different aged grades, from the youngest, blanco, to the middle-aged, reposado, to the oldest anejos. Jalisco Cantina is open for happy hour and dinner on weekdays and for lunch and dinner on the weekends. There are plans to expand the restaurant next year by adding a rooftop dining or cocktail deck that will offer a sunset view over the ocean. There are no immediate plans to expand Jalisco Cantina beyond its original location in Oceanside, but Barrel Republic is set to grow in 2019. Pike opened his first Barrel Republic which is known for its self-service beer taps in 2013 in Pacific Beach. In 2015, he opened his second location at 215 N. Coast Highway in Oceanside, which has 60 taps, including 48 beers, eight wines and several non-alcoholic drinks. A Carlsbad location followed in November 2016 at 2461 State St. Brown said future locations are planned next year in Escondido and Temecula. Because the liquor license for the Oceanside Barrel Republic required food be served on the premises, Pike brought in Brown, a 30-year restaurant industry veteran who previously worked for a Tucson company with 14 restaurants. Just as he did at Jalisco Cantina, Brown came up with dishes for Barrel Republic that couldnt be found anywhere else. His seasonal Barrel Republic menu, which has also been introduced at the Carlsbad location, features unusual dishes like a house-smoked shrimp chowder and a vegan wild mushroom French dip sandwich. Jalisco Cantina Hours: 5 p.m. to midnight Mondays-Thursdays. 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays. 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturdays. 11:30 a.m. to midnight Sundays. Where: 213 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside Phone: (760) 429-1679 Online: thejaliscocantina.com pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com Vista students will return to school later this month to new bus routes, as well as cleaner running buses. The Vista Unified School District is adding seven new bus routes to reduce the walking distance for students at some of its elementary and middle schools. And it converted to renewable diesel for its entire bus fleet, reducing greenhouse gases and other pollutants, as well as maintenance costs, said Bill Weisberg, director of transportation for the district. It just makes sense that it will burn cleaner, so youll have less particulate in the air, he said. Its just the right thing to do. Youre not going to have as much of a foul fuel smell on the bus. Advertisement The district switched from conventional diesel to Neste MY Renewable Diesel in March, Weisberg said. Neste fuel is produced by processing vegetable oil and animal and fish waste fats, to produce a fuel that functions just like traditional diesel, Weisberg said. Unlike some forms of biodiesel which require engine modifications, the Neste fuel can be added to diesel engines directly, and requires no upgrades. So it was a win-win change for us, Weisberg said. While regular diesel appears cloudy yellow, the Neste Fuel is clear and colorless, and burns cleaner, Weisberg said. It produces 80 percent fewer greenhouse emissions, a third less particulates, and about a quarter of the carbon monoxide of diesel, according to the companys website. The cleaner formula should also save maintenance costs for the district, he said. The district is also expanding its bus routes to reduce the walking distance for students at seven elementary schools and two middle schools. Seven new bus routes will serve those neighborhoods, offering rides at no cost to elementary school students who live more than 1.5 miles from their campus, or middle schoolers who live more than two miles from school. The district offered bus service to campuses with high numbers of students outside that radius, or who have dangerous road conditions, officials said. They hope the access to transportation will improve attendance. There are 1,100 new students eligible for bus service, district spokeswoman Lisa Contreras said, and the district is registering new bus riders now. The new bus routes will serve Breeze Hill, Grapevine, Hannalei, Mission Meadows, Monte Vista and Lake Elementary Schools, T.H.E. Leadership Academy, and Rancho Minerva and Roosevelt Middle Schools. As a district, were excited to provide this to our families to make sure that they are able to get to school, and have one less worry to get the education that they need, Contreras said. deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennan San Diegos South Bay has more than 300,000 people and only one independent bookstore. Bay Books has been a fixture on Coronados Orange Avenue for 28 years. Angelica Ayala Muller, the stores owner, doesnt know if theyll make it to 29. The issue isnt lost revenue to online retailers like Amazon; the store actually turns a profit, Muller said. The uncertainty of Bay Books future lies with its new landlord. Kleege Enterprise bought almost the entire block of Orange Avenue between 10th Street and C Avenue for $22 million last year. Advertisement When the new owners bought the block, they initially told the bookstore its rent would nearly triple, Muller said. We panicked, she said. Muller came up with a counter-offer: Bay Books will cut its square footage in half and pay its current rent. Negotiations are ongoing and Kleege has been open, professional and courteous throughout the process, Muller said. Bruce Kleege, the president of Kleege Enterprise, has an ambitious vision for the block. He plans to create an inside-out concept with walkways that people can use to get from Orange Avenue to an open courtyard in the middle of the block. The courtyard can host small concerts or farmers markets, and restaurants on Orange Avenue will have front and back entrances. Were hoping this will be the premier block in Coronado and were hoping the restaurants we have there will be the top three or four in Coronado, Kleege said. I think people will start coming from outside Coronado just for a dining experience. Were not only trying to attract the people of Coronado and the tourists of Coronado, but the people of San Diego. Some of the existing businesses, such as Leroys Kitchen, Moo-Time Creamery, and Bungalow 56, will stay on the block. But to make room for newcomers, businesses that have been on that block for decades are going to have to leave. Some already have. Since the purchase date, a surf shop and Coronados only towing garage closed. The town newspaper moved down the block and another store is in the middle of a going-out-of-business sale. Twenty-one years in business and it all comes down to a 50-percent-off sale, said Tad Walicki, the owner of a boutique gift shop called Forget-Me-Not. Walicki is sad to leave. But it couldve been worse. The landlord originally asked him to leave at the end of June but allowed him to stay until the end of July so that he could sell off his inventory. Ultimately, it comes down to money. As a business man, Walicki doesnt take it too personally. The more money you have, the more rights you have, thats America, Walicki said. And I agree with this. If I had lots of money I would not let them do this to me. Then again, if I had lots of money, I probably wouldnt be here. Around Coronado, long-time residents are concerned changes to the block will disrupt their small-town community. At Bay Books, employee Barbara Chambers has spent all summer having the same conversation with customers over and over again. First they ask if the bookstore will stay open, then they say the town is turning into a strip mall. They dont want Coronado to be La Jolla; they want Coronado to be Coronado, Chambers said. Everybodys talking about it in town now. Barbara Chambers has been managing Bay Books in Coronado for the past 27 years. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) Kleege, who bought a house in Coronado five years ago, is sensitive to the issue. His goal is to have as many local ties as possible with new businesses. The poke store that is set to replace Island Surf is owned by two people, including one Navy veteran, raising their families in Coronado. The owner of the Buona Forchetta, the restaurant that will replace El Cordova Garage, recently bought a house in Coronado. So did Sam Fox, the owner of the restaurant group behind True Food Kitchen who will open a restaurant were Costa Azul currently operates, Kleege said. We want to keep the character of the block right there and increase the traffic so that the retail stores that are there and remain can sustain themselves, Kleege said. I dont think its going to take away from Coronado. I think its going to add tremendously. Brant Sarber doesnt agree with Kleeges vision. Sarber opened Costa Azul 18 years ago to be a place where locals can get dinner and a drink for reasonable prices. When the new owners bought the block, they told Sarber they planned to have more fine-dining restaurants and gave him the opportunity to write a proposal of how Costa Azul could change to fit their vision. Sarber offered to raise prices a little bit and make a few changes to the menu. But other than that, he wasnt interested in changing. Nobodys really caring about the locals anymore, he said. All they are caring about are the part-time residents, the tourists, and the people with money. Youre not going to be able to get an $8.95 hamburger and French fries anymore. Everything is going to be $20.95. Costa Azuls lease expires in August. Whats happening to Orange Avenue is part of a bigger change in Coronado, Sarber said. When he grew up in Coronado, it was a military town where Navy families could rent a house for a couple of years before being assigned to another base. Now military families tend to rent south in Imperial Beach or more inland because Coronado is too expensive. People buying homes tend to buy vacation homes instead of primary residences. On Sarbers block, more than 10 houses are empty throughout the week, Sarber said. The whole town is just losing its charm, he said. Kleege hopes the project will be up for design review within a month and residents will be able to see his vision. His tentative timeline is to turn the garage and Costa Azul to the new restaurants in September. If Kleeges plans for the block are approved, he would start all of the tenant improvements with the goal of opening March or April of next year. We dont want to go into next summer without it being at least 90 percent finished, he said. Whether Bay Books will be part of that remains an open question. Kleege said hed prefer to keep the bookstore and is trying to get them to stay by putting them somewhere on the block. Bay Books cant stay in business with an increased rent so their best option is to keep their current rent and downsize. Negotiations are ongoing, but the store doesnt have a lot of time to wait. Bookstores order new books from publishers months in advance. The store already ordered books for the rest of 2018, but if they want next years titles, they will have to order them soon. Muller doesnt want to spend the money ordering books until she knows if shell have a store. Coronado and the South Bay risk losing more than just another business if the bookstore closes, Muller added. What message are we sending to new generations, she asked. If we dont teach our children to read, to question, to explore knowledge, were doomed. Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter Federal authorities on Wednesday disputed a claim made on social media by a Houston-based immigration lawyer that a migrant child had died in custody at a detention facility in Texas and said they were investigating whether a child died after being released. Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in an email that no child had died while in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, outside San Antonio. Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false. No child or adult has ever died at an ICE family residential center, the email read. Please note that the person who originally tweeted that later posted an update that retracted the original accusation. The updated accusation leaves little to no info that allows us to research. ICE said it was looking into reports that a girl had died after being released from custody but had no further information to provide. The Los Angeles Times has not been able to independently verify a death. Advertisement Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false. ICE (@ICEgov) August 1, 2018 Mana Yegani, in a since-deleted tweet, wrote Tuesday night that there were reports of a child dying in ICE custody and that the whereabouts of the childs parents were unknown. But the lawyer later said the child died after being released and the death was a result of conditions at the facility. Yegani wrote: The child died following her stay at an ICE Detention Center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children. The events took place in Dilley Family Detention Center in south Texas. Update: The child died following her stay at an ICE Detention Center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children. The events took place in Dilley Family Detention Center in south Texas. Mana Yegani (@Law_Mana) August 1, 2018 The Dilley facility is the largest of ICEs trio of family detention centers. It can hold about 2,400 people. It is managed by CCA, a private firm, on behalf of ICE. Katy Murdza, advocacy coordinator of the Dilley Pro Bono Project, an immigrant aid group, said in an email to The Times that the organization didnt have information on the cause of death or confirmation that it was connected with medical treatment at the facility. We have, however, seen ongoing inadequacies in the standard of care provided to immigrants in detention, and have filed complaints with the government raising these concerns, she wrote. She said the group has filed complaints with the government about conditions at the site. The tweets by Yegani created a bit of a firestorm on social media and added more fuel to the controversy over the border enforcement policy engineered by the Trump administration that separated children from families and guardians at the border in an attempt to stop illegal immigration. Secretly recorded audio and video of youngsters crying for their parents amid the separations of more than 2,000 children led a judge to order the administration to end the practice and reunify the families. Immigration advocates have said the separations have resulted in psychological trauma for the children and the policy was decried by watchdog groups as inhumane. But no deaths of children while being held in ICE custody have been documented. Any such report would have undoubtedly sparked a new wave of public outcry over the detention policies. Attempts to reach Yegani were unsuccessful. The lawyer said on Twitter that the childs family was being represented by a Washington, D.C-based lawyer whom Yegani also identified as a family friend. Yegani tweeted that the childs grandmother was in New Jersey. Melissa Turcious, who identified herself as a friend of the family in an email to the Times, said she was helping coordinate legal resources and pro bono counsel. david.montero@latimes.com | Twitter: @davemontero UPDATES: 4:05 p.m: This article was updated with information from Melissa Turcious, who identified herself a friend of the childs family. This article was originally published at 3 p.m. August 2, 1934 The San Diego Union The San Diego Union-Tribune will mark its 150th anniversary in 2018 by presenting a significant front page from the archives each day throughout the year. Thursday, August 2, 1934 In 1934, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Chancellor Adolf Hitler to combine the offices of president and chancellor and proclaim himself der Fuhrer the absolute leader of Germany. Here are the first few paragraphs of the story: VON HINDENBURG DIES; HITLER TAKES CHARGE Presidency Annexed by Chancellor Dictatorship Becomes More Complete With Announcement That Nazi Leader Will Combine Two Offices. BERLIN, Aug. 2 (A.P.) Chancellor Adolf Hitler assumed the presidency of Germany today upon the death of President Paul von Hindenburg. The cabinet went into session immediately on receipt of the news of von Hindenburgs death. Paul Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister, announced in a nation-wide broadcast that the office of reichspresident will be united with that of the chancellor, giving Hitler unlimited powers. The Associated Press was given to understand that the cabinet at last nights emergency session rescinded a law of Dec. 27, 1932, whereby the chief justice of the supreme court would become interim president in the event of the death of the president. Gen. Werner von Blomberg, minister of war, ordered defensive forces throughout the country to go into mourning. All troops will wear mourning for 14 days except the regiment with which von Hindenburg is identified. It will wear mourning for four weeks. Von Hindenburg will be accorded a state funeral. The ministers of the interior and of propaganda jointly ordered all public buildings and schools to place their flags at half staff. The German people were admonished to join in general mourning. All amusement and public place will be closed. END COMES FOR LEADER AT 9 A.M. AFTER BRAVE FIGHT; NATION MOURNS 86-Year-Old War Marshal Slips into Coma Just Before He Expires; Remarkable Vitality Astonished Physicians; Flags Ordered to Half Mast; German Faces New Critical Period as Chancellor Assumes Complete Rule. NEUDECK, Aug. 2 (A.P.) President von Hindenburg died at 9 a.m. today. The presidents death was indicated to correspondents by the disappearance of the house flag from the flagstaff. Death came to the 86-year-old leader of the German people and former war marshal after a valiant fight against a complication of ailments. The president slipped into a coma early this morning, a few hours before the end. His remarkable vitality had astonished his physicians, who had given up hope early last night. German was plunged into mourning as news of its loss spread. Von Hindenburg, a leader in war and in peace, was venerated as an anchor in the trying post-war period. View anniversary front pages online at sandiegouniontribune.com/150-years. For more from the Union-Tribune digital archives, go to newslibrary.com/sites/sdub. Searching is free, with registration. A fee is required to view full stories. Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies have arrested a 76-year-old woman they suspect of shooting her husband at their Malibu home Wednesday evening. Sheriff deputies from the Lost Hills station were called about 10:27 p.m. Wednesday to a home in the 500 block of Westlake Boulevard, officials said. Once there, deputies found the body of 75-year-old Arnold Farran. The victim had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators found the suspected weapon at the home, authorities said. Advertisement During the course of their investigation, deputies discovered that the dead mans wife, Patricia Farran, had called her son and told him that she shot his father, said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Homicide Detective Lt. Derrick Alfred. Alfred said the woman has been cooperating with police since her arrest. Shes being held on $2 million bail. Detectives are continuing their investigation to find a motive for the shooting. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500 melissa.etehad@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad UPDATES: 11:50 a.m.: This post has been updated with the names of the victim and the suspect. 11:15 a.m.: This post has been updated with the ages of the victim and suspect. This article was originally published at 10:10 a.m. One of three men accused in the robbery and beating death of a 71-year-old North Park resident 18 years ago this month entered a not guilty plea Wednesday. Lester Bell, 38, was arrested in Longmont, Colorado, in May and extradited to San Diego to face a murder charge for the August 2000 slaying of LeRay Parkins. A special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery could result in a death sentence or life in prison without parole if Bell is convicted. Two other defendants, 38-year-old Edward Jamar Brooks and 36-year-old Terrence Maurice Brown, are also charged in the case. Brooks was extradited from Charlotte, North Carolina, and is expected to be arraigned soon. Brown is still being held in Tucson, Arizona, awaiting extradition. Advertisement Deputy District Attorney David Bost said Bell is accused of wielding a bat in the robbery-murder of Parkins, who was out walking near his home when he was attacked about 8 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2000. The victim was found mortally wounded in an alley close to where he lived off 28th Street near Landis Street. He was pronounced dead at a hospital three days later. During the initial investigation into the slaying, detectives identified Bell, Brooks and Brown as potential suspects but lacked sufficient evidence to arrest them, San Diego police Lt. Matt Dobbs said. All three of the men eventually relocated to other parts of the country. Recently, aided by advances in forensic technology, cold-case investigators were able to solidify the case against the three suspects enough to warrant charging them for the killing, Dobbs said. A status conference for Bell was set for Aug. 9. A man who fatally shot another man during a fight at a South Bay bar more than a decade ago pleaded guilty Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semi-automatic gun on a second victim. Guillermo Gonzalez Nunez, 44, will be sentenced to 18 years in state prison at a hearing Oct. 11 at the courthouse in Chula Vista. On the day his trial was to begin, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to killing 54-year-old Willie Clark Jr. on April 3, 2006. While responding to the shooting at the La Vuelta bar at Hollister Street in the Palm City neighborhood, San Diego police detectives learned that second man had been pistol-whipped and other patrons were assaulted during the fight. Advertisement Gonzalez was eventually identified as a suspect in the shooting. He was arrested in Mexico and returned to the United States about two months later. pauline.repard@sduniontribune Twitter: @pdrepard While an advocacy group is threatening legal action over school board elections, San Diego Unified School District officials say its too soon to present voters with a balloting overhaul that might do more harm than good. In a letter sent to San Diego City Council last week, the group Community Voices for Education took aim at the school boards election process, which they claim violates state law and dilutes the voting power of minorities living within the district. Clare Crawford, who served as co-chair of the districts advisory committee on school board member elections, said committee members met between March and June to review a series of proposed election reforms, one of which would change how school trustees are voted into office. There are currently five seats on the school board that represent smaller, sub-districts inside San Diego Unified. Trustees must live in the sub-district they represent. Advertisement Similar to city council elections, only voters who live in a sub-district can vote for that areas representative in an initial election, but the top two candidates must then go on to compete in a second, citywide election in November. The city has no oversight over the district, but any changes to the districts election process requires an amendment to San Diegos city charter. The letter asks City Council members to present voters with the option of eliminating the district-wide race for board seats on the November ballot. Crawford said the request has merit, but its too soon to tell if such a move would hurt voters in the long run. Our committee determined that the move to sub-district only elections, as well as expanding the number of seats on the school board, were reforms that should be further explored, but were not adequately researched for the formation of a 2018 ballot measure, Crawford said in an email. This issue requires significantly more analysis and community dialog before developing a proposal to put forward to voters to ensure that the outcome will result in equitable representation of underrepresented communities. A major roadblock, Crawford said, is that students dont always attend schools in their voting zone. According to a report presented to the City Councils rules committee, more than 40 percent of students attend schools outside of their election district. The high school populations in three sub-districts rely heavily on students who live outside of their school boundaries, the report said. San Diego Unified is the second-largest school district in the state, serving about 126,000 students. State education data show the districts student population is about 46 percent Hispanic or Latino, 23 percent white, 8 percent Asian and 8 percent black. The remaining population includes Filipino and American Indian students, or those who identify as two or more races. Community Voices for Education argues that the current process results in an underrepresented student and parent population on the board, which has had a total of three Latino and one Asian trustee since its inception. Bret Caslavka, president of the group, said the decision to wait and see is politically motivated and goes against the wishes of the general public. Members of the districts election committee are hand-picked by current board members and some trustees have publicly opposed the idea, Caslavka said. Three trustees also face re-election in 2020, which is when changes to the election process would take effect. A district-wide survey conducted by the committee found that 60 percent of voters were in favor of sub-district elections. For them to say they need more time is them just kicking the can, Caslavka said. They dont need any more time to analyze this. The letter requested City Council members respond by Thursday or face legal action. Data Watch Videos On Now Data Point: Media Mergers 2:58 On Now Jaywalking infractions in San Diego 1:24 On Now Video: Finding the recipe for the perfect burrito 2:09 On Now Video: Where marijuana is legal in the United States 0:53 On Now Report: Correctional system fails women 1:22 On Now San Diego students have larger classes On Now Hierarchy of cuisine prices On Now Pay phones: Is that still a thing? On Now 2016 border apprehensions On Now STD trends, San Diego County Contact Lauryn Schroeder via Twitter or Email. The state released Wednesday a long-anticipated blueprint for ensuring ratepayers arent unfairly burdened with rising electricity bills as the popularity of a government-run alternative to investor-owned utilities grows. Lobbyists for San Diego Gas & Electrics parent company, Sempra Energy, have repeatedly argued that adoption of the public-energy program, known as community choice aggregation, could pose significant financial risks to cities, as well as residents and businesses. Supporters of community choice said that those concerns were no longer valid given the proposal by the California Public Utilities Commission, which will be up for adoption next month. Its a huge win because now we can feel confident that we can bring the benefits of choice to San Diego families, said Nicole Capretz, executive director of the San Diego-based Climate Action Campaign. Its one of those rare times when local government can have a positive impact on the fixed expenses that we all have. Advertisement By comparison, lobbyists working with Sempra to challenge the adoption of community choice in San Diego County released a statement Thursday that said the commissions proposal could likely make adoption of community choice riskier and more costly. A critical question weve been asking is how much will a government-controlled energy program or Community Choice Aggregation cost hard-working San Diegans? The fact is that no one knows, said Tony Manolatos, spokesman for the Clear the Air Coalition, which pairs Sempra lobbyists with some of the regions most powerful groups, from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce to the Downtown San Diego Partnership to the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. Specifically, the commissions proposal would refine how utilities are compensated for customers who join a community choice program overhauling a highly technical formula for calculating the so-called exit fee, also known as the power charge indifference adjustment. The Sempra Energy building in San Diego, shown on May 15, 2018. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune) Sempra, Chamber lobbying asks San Diego to put government-run electricity program on ice Under community choice, an electrical utility, such as SDG&E, continues to operate the electrical grid and charge for delivering power. However, once a program is approved, elected officials assume control of the buying and selling of electricity for customers in their jurisdiction inking new contracts for everything from natural gas to wind and solar power. The Legislature has maintained that ratepayers are automatically enrolled in a community choice program once its formed, despite numerous attempts by utilities to change the state rule. Consumers can choose to opt out if they prefer the rates of their local utility company. Community choice programs pay the exit fee to their local utility on behalf of households and businesses that join the government-run operation. This is to ensure that customers who remain with a utility dont end up paying higher rates as a result of long-term investments by the utility, most notably for contracts with power providers. The commission said last year that it planned to tweak the formula after utilities and community-choice advocates all complained about its methodology. The commission is expected to vote on the proposal on Thursday, Sept. 13. SDG&E spokeswoman Helen Gao said the company would continue to push for changes to the proposed fee structure in the run-up to the decision in order to address deficiencies that run afoul of state rules. For example, there are proposed protections for community choice aggregation programs that could increase costs for customers who choose to remain with their traditional utility, Gao said in an email. We will continue to work with the commission to ensure that California is in compliance with the law, and importantly that all customers are treated equally. The outcome of this weeks proposed ruling has been the subject of much debate, especially in the city of San Diego, as elected officials weigh adoption of community choice to help meet a local pledge to dramatically slash greenhouse gases in coming decades. The city is expected to vote on whether to adopt community choice by the end of the year as part of its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. SDG&E is offering a competing proposal, but so far details have been scant on how its program would work. SDG&E counter proposal to public-energy alternative still incomplete as elected officials call for vote Supporters of community choice said that an annual cap on adjustments to the fee outlined in the new proposal should provide financial assurances for cities such as San Diego that are considering the program. Mayor Kevin Faulconers office did not respond by press time. Now that the state issues are resolved, we are confident that the mayor will do the right thing and bring this opportunity forward to City Council for a vote. Captrez said. In the last decade, local governments from Marin to Los Angeles County to Solana Beach have embraced the model as a way to boost investments in green power, as well as create competition for investor-owned utilities. Currently, SDG&E, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric together buy and sell roughly 75 percent of the states electricity. Their collective share could plunge to just 10 percent within the next five years, with community choice programs accounting for most of the shift, according to the states most aggressive forecast. Twitter: @jemersmith Phone: (619) 293-2234 Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com The California Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that San Diegos six-year-old pension cutbacks were not legally placed on the ballot because city officials failed to negotiate with labor unions before pursuing the measure. The ruling, which could cost the city millions, overturned an appeals court ruling last year that had upheld the cuts. The Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to take the case back and evaluate the state labor boards conclusion that 4,000 employees hired since pensions were eliminated must receive compensation that would make them financially whole. While the unanimous ruling stopped short of reversing the cuts, it essentially ordered the appeals court to invalidate the ballot measure that imposed those cuts. Advertisement The ruling directs the appeals court to enact an appropriate judicial remedy for the citys failure to follow all of the legally required steps before placing the measure on the ballot. The only way to do that, attorneys for the citys labor unions said, would be to invalidate the ballot measure and nullify the pension cuts. The ruling vindicates claims by city labor unions that then-Mayor Jerry Sanders needed to engage in labor negotiations before pushing the Proposition B pension measure onto the ballot in 2012. The measure, which was approved by more than 65 percent of city voters, replaced guaranteed pensions with 401(k)-style retirement plans for all newly hired city employees except police officers. Sanders maintained he supported the measure only as a citizen, not as mayor, and therefore negotiations with unions werent required. The Supreme Court disagreed in its ruling, concluding Sanders was obligated to meet with the unions before placing the measure on the ballot because he used his power and influence as mayor to support the measure. Sanders supported the signature-gathering campaign, the court said in the ruling, which was written by Justice Carol Corrigan. He touted its importance in interviews, in media statements, and at speaking appearances. Sanders said by phone on Thursday that his actions were based on legal advice he received, and that he still doesnt believe he acted improperly. But Sanders also said he should have handled things differently. If I had it to do all over again and if I had better advice we probably would have done meet and confer (labor negotiations), he said. San Diego is the only city in California to discontinue pensions for new hires, so the ruling could have an impact across the state as other city and county governments consider pension cuts and how they can be legally enacted. Supporters of Proposition B have said they may place a similar measure on a future ballot if the cuts are eventually nullified. In Thursdays ruling, the Supreme Court emphasized that it wasnt taking a position on pension cuts. We are not called upon to decide, and express no opinion, on the merits of pension reform or any particular pension reform policy, the ruling said. The ruling reinstates a 2015 decision by the state labor board that also concluded the city was legally required to conduct labor negotiations before placing Proposition B on the ballot. In that decision, the labor board ordered San Diego to make employees hired since 2012 whole by compensating them for the loss of pensions and paying them interest penalties of 7 percent. Estimates of how much that would cost the city have ranged from $20 million to $100 million, depending on a variety of factors. The labor board, formally known as the Public Employment Relations Board, couldnt invalidate the ballot measure because that power is reserved for state courts. When the appeals court overturned that decision last year and ruled the city had acted legally when placing the pension cuts on the ballot, the appellate judges didnt evaluate the proposal to make employees whole because it seemed unnecessary. The Supreme Court, however, ordered the appellate court on Thursday to evaluate the proposal to make employees whole and to take judicial steps to reverse Proposition B because the city skipped a key legal step when placing it on the ballot. Supporters of Proposition B on Thursday issued news releases saying that the Supreme Courts ruling didnt invalidate the measure or reverse the pension cuts. Ann Smith, an attorney for the Municipal Employees Association labor union, said by phone on Thursday that those supporters are misreading the ruling. Theyre out to lunch, she said. The Supreme Court is telling the appeals court you should add the judicial remedy of invalidation because thats the only outcome thats consistent with the Supreme Courts binding conclusion that the city violated the law. Courts, however, have typically been reluctant to nullify ballot measures that are citizens initiatives. Mayor Kevin Faulconer issued a new release on Thursday afternoon noting that the ruling leaves Proposition B in place until the appeals court acts. San Diego pension reform remains the law of the land and todays Supreme Court decision keeps Proposition B in full force and effect, the mayor said. My administration will work closely with the City Attorneys Office on the direction provided by the Supreme Court. A spokesman for City Attorney Mara Elliott said she wouldnt be commenting on the ruling on Thursday. Former Councilman Carl DeMaio, who helped write Proposition B, said he was pleased the Supreme Court didnt overturn the citys pension cuts, but added that still might occur. Taxpayers must be very concerned by what may happen next, he said in a news release. Specifically we are concerned that the Supreme Court ruling opens the door for the lower court to consider a yet-undefined remedy for the so-called violation of the city of San Diegos duty to meet and confer on pension changes before implementing them. DeMaio said the remedy could be as small as a fine for not meeting and conferring, or as big as overturning part or all of Proposition B. DeMaio vowed to appeal any remedy prescribed by the appeals court to the Supreme Court. Based on the labor board proposal that the city make employees whole, the actuary for the citys pension system estimated in late 2015 that it would cost the city $20.1 million for 1,600 employees hired without pensions at that point. But the number of employees hired without pensions has increased to more than 4,000 since then, more than doubling the citys potential cost. In addition, new demographic studies showing the city had been underestimating life expectancies for its retirees prompted city pension officials to significantly increase the projected cost of pensions in 2016. The labor board recommendation, however, said the city could count against its costs the many millions it has contributed to 401(k)-style retirement plans for those workers. Because of the particularly strong performance of the stock market since 2012, those retirement plans are worth more than expected. That could make the citys costs relatively minimal. Employees would also be required to contribute to pensions created retroactively for them, further reducing the citys costs. The state labor board ruling didnt recommend any changes for a separate element of Proposition B, a five-year freeze on pay raises for city employees that expired June 30. The pay freeze was not part of the labor board ruling because the citys labor unions agreed to it during negotiations with then-Mayor Bob Filner in 2013. david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick UPDATES: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m. with additional information and interviews Two Inglewood men remained jailed Wednesday, accused in a burglary series that authorities say stretched from San Diego to Vista and included a theft of guns and silver that briefly cast a shadow of suspicion on an innocent neighbor. The two jailed men are half-brothers, Daron Devon Turner, 38, and Daren Tyrone Turner, 25. The older sibling is charged in relation to 10 home break-ins; the younger man is accused of taking part in five of them. Although the two men had been arrested in Poway on June 11, the sheriffs department just announced the arrests on Wednesday, citing the ongoing investigation for the time lapse. That investigation led authorities to recover 44 guns some of which had been stolen from the San Diego area, the case detective said. Advertisement The two men are accused in burglaries in the region stretching from November to June. Included among the charges against the men is a mid-May heist in Vista of guns and silver bars from a home in the area of Foothill Elementary. That theft brought a bit of trouble for new area resident Ike Iloputaife, an African-American man who had walked his dogs in the neighborhood in the hours before thieves broke into a home. A resident of the neighborhood took a picture of the dog-walking stranger. After the break-in, that photo ended up in the hands of law enforcement investigators, who had few leads. From there, it landed on a crime bulletin sent out with surveillance images of the suspects during the break-in. Those suspects were also African-American. Iloputaife suddenly found himself at the center of unwanted attention. On Wednesday, when told that deputies had made arrests in the case, Iloputaife said he was pleased to hear that anyone who commits a crime is off the streets. In this case, he said, I have moved on. The neighbors have been great, he said. Every single day I get stopped and people apologize. They shouldnt, because they didnt do anything, but they cant stop saying how sorry they are that something happened to me. According to the Sheriffs Department, subsequent searches and investigation into the crime spree also have led authorities to investigate three people linked to the older Turner brother: his mother, his uncle and his girlfriend. The mother and the girlfriend were accused of possessing stolen property; the uncle and the girlfriend were accused of being felons in possession of a gun. The arrests of the Turners provided such a break in the case that the deputy who took them into custody was tapped as Deputy of the Quarter by the Poway City Council last month. In presenting the award to Deputy Eddie Frost, Mayor Steve Vaus said Frost had been on his toes when he saw and pulled over a car that had been linked to burglaries in the region. The Turner half-brothers have pleaded not guilty and remain jailed in lieu of $750,000 bail. If convicted, Daron Turner whose criminal history includes two prison terms faces more than 300 years to life. He was on parole at the time the San Diego County burglaries were committed. Brother Daren Turner, who has a previous conviction for a serious felony on his record and has served time in prison, is looking at the possibility of more than 27 years if he is convicted on all charges laid out in the criminal complaint. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT Chula Vista police arrested an elderly man Thursday morning after he called 911 to report that hed killed his roommate, a police lieutenant said. The man, identified as 81-year-old Paul Young, called police just after 2:45 a.m. and said hed been in an argument with his roommate in a mobile home on G Street in the vicinity of Broadway, Lt. Dan Peak said. 10News reported that man had told dispatchers he shot the woman in the head and that she was dead on the couch. When police arrived, the man came out and surrendered without incident, Peak said. Advertisement Officers then searched the home and found the victim, 55-year-old Maya Pawlik, who had suffered an apparent gunshot wound. They also located a gun believed to have been used in the fatal shooting, Peak said. After officers confirmed the womans death, Young was arrested. Anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact the Chula Vista Police Department through its Help Us Solve a Crime tip line at (619) 422-TIPS. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT A 61-year-old woman and 74-year-old man were injured Wednesday night in an explosion at the Lincoln Palms apartment complex in El Cajon, authorities said. The source of the explosion, reported at 7:55 p.m. at the complex on Lincoln Street near Main, was under investigation late Wednesday, though it may have been linked to the apartments gas stove, Heartland Fire & Rescue spokesman Sonny Saghera said. Both people inside the first-floor apartment at the time were injured, Saghera said. The woman suffered second-degree burns over about 30 percent of her body, while the man suffered first- and second-degree burns over 25 to 30 percent of his body. Both were taken to the UCSD Regional Burn Center in Hillcrest for treatment. Their injuries were not expected to be life-threatening but were more serious because of their ages, Saghera said. Advertisement The explosion blew out a window in the dwelling but did not spark a fire, Saghera said. Bomb/arson investigators from the sheriffs department were sent to the complex to investigate the cause of the explosion. Twitter: @Alex_Riggins (619) 293-1710 alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com One man died and another was in custody Thursday morning after a fight at a home in Oceansides back gate area turned fatal, Oceanside police said. Police were called to the home, on Arthur Avenue off Gold Drive, at roughly 7:15 a.m. to respond to a report of a fight in the front yard, Lt. Kedrick Sadler said. Officers arrived to find 37-year-old Nestor Jurado not breathing, and the officers began life-saving measures until paramedics arrived and took over. After several minutes, Jurado could not be revived. He died at the scene, apparently from injuries sustained during the fight, Sadler said. Advertisement Officers arrested the second man, 35-year-old Joel Cardona. Police initially said he was age 36. Cardona was booked into the Vista Dentention Facility on suspicion of murder. Police said the two men are related, but did not say how. Investigators believe the victim lived at the Arthur Avenue home. Homicide detectives are investigating. Police asked that witnesses to the incident call police Detective Ryan Malone at (760) 435-4537. The back gate area is named after Camp Pendletons nearby southernmost entrance. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT UPDATES: 3:05 p.m.: This story was updated with the names of the victim and suspect. It was originally posted at 11:45 a.m. Police are asking the public to help search for 18-year-old Guillermo Gradilla, who went missing over the weekend. Gradilla, who is autistic and has epilepsy, walked away from his home in the community of Alta Vista on Sunday, San Diego police said. He was last seen on Monday, when Metropolitan Transit System officers cited him for fair evasion near 750 E Street in Chula Vista. He was described as Latino, 5 feet 7 inches tall, about 185 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Gradilla has a history of running away and has previously traveled to Mexico to find his mother and Los Angeles to find his father. Advertisement Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call police at (619) 531-2000 or (619) 531-2277 Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com French lawmakers on Thursday voted to pass a law imposing on-the-spot fines on catcallers as part of a broad crackdown on sexual harassment in public places. Wolf-whistlers will face fines of up to 750 euros roughly $870 for harassing women in public. The law was passed days after 22-year-old Marie Laguerre publicly chronicled an encounter with a man who attacked her outside of a cafe in Paris. She wrote that on July 24, while on her way home, a man hurled obscene and humiliating remarks at her. Advertisement When Laguerre told him to shut up, he threw an ashtray at her. I dont tolerate this kind of behavior. I cant stay silent and we shouldnt stay silent anymore, she wrote in a Facebook post. She also shared security footage of the surprise attack, whihc showed the suspect retrace steps and follow her down the street, before hitting her in the face. He hit me in the face, in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, in front of dozens of witnesses, Laguerre wrote, adding that she filed a complaint against the man. She explained her reasoning for sharing the humiliating encounter with the public, writing, Harassment is daily. These men who think that anything goes, that theyre allowed to humiliate us and who cant put up with us being offended, its unacceptable. Politicians praised Laguerre for her bravery. Total solidarity! Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter. Thank you Marie Laguerre for your courage! Stop harassment! Secretary of Equality Marlene Schiappa the author of the new anti-sexual harassment law said efforts to combat sexual violence are just beginning. This isnt the end but the beginning of a movement to eradicate violence against women, she said. The legislation will also give underage rape victims an additional 10 years to file complaints, extending the statute of limitations to 30 years from when they turn 18. A group of California gun nuts hoping to disseminate 3D printer plans for a homemade handgun via the internet suffered a misfire Wednesday when Amazon took down their website. Amazon Web Services removed the entire website called CodeisFreeSpeech.com after receiving a notice of unwanted content regarding the downloadable blueprints for The Liberator a 3D-printable single-shot handgun. The firearm blueprints are the subject of a national debate and a multi-state federal lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of seven states, including New York, and the District of Columbia. The firearm plans, created by the Texas not-for-profit, Defense Distributed, were blocked from the internet by the U.S. Department of State in 2015, prompting a federal lawsuit by the company. The company lost several rounds in the litigation and appeared ready to settle when the Justice Department caved on the lawsuit, granting the company the right to distribute the deadly information. Advertisement Wednesday would have been the first day the company could return to spreading the information on making cheap, untraceable firearms. Instead, the attorney general of 11 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit attempting to block the information from getting out. They argued that the company was giving free and easy access to untraceable, and deadly, weapons that could fall into the hand of criminals and terrorists. On Tuesday, a Seattle federal judge in the court where the suit was filed, granted a temporary restraining order barring Defense Distributed from posting the blueprints. A collection of California gun advocates calling themselves the Firearms Policy Coalition stepped into the breach, creating the CodeisFreeSpeech.com site to post the downloadable gun plans. The group framed the website as a First Amendment, arguing they have a Constitutional right to publish the material. On Wednesday, after be live on the internet for more than 12 hours, Amazon cut the plug. In order to comply with the temporary restraining order, the reported content must be taken down immediately, according to the complaint filed with the web service. The gun advocates cried foul. The takedown demand from Amazon does not appear to have any basis in law or fact, spokesman Craig DeLuz wrote in an email. Amazon has not yet provided further information to the host or us. He said they are currently scrambling to find other web hosts. Californians will have the opportunity in the November election to replenish much-needed funding to build housing for some of the states most vulnerable residents. Californias Proposition 1, the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2018, would authorize $4 billion in general obligation bonds for housing-related programs and housing loans for veterans. Never before has such a measure been so urgently needed. California is experiencing an extreme housing shortage and the result has been a spike in homelessness. According to last years point-in-time-count there were 134,000 homeless in the state, with San Diego accounting for more than 9,000 of those. Advertisement Related: Proposition 1 is not the way to address affordable housing problem Thats a 1 percent increase statewide over the previous year and a 14 percent increase in San Diego. Those living, and dying, on the streets include families with children, veterans, elderly, disabled and the mentally ill. A hepatitis A outbreak traced to the unsanitary conditions created by thousands of people living on the streets killed at least 20 people and sickened nearly 600 in 2017 and 2018. This was the deadliest outbreak of this disease since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started tracking the disease, as reported in the Washington Post. How can California, the fifth largest economy in the world, the beacon for the technology industry, motion picture capital, and biotech hub, possibly tolerate such a disgrace? Make no mistake: The homeless crisis is a housing crisis. As a result of the high cost of housing, twice the national average, California has the highest poverty rate in the country, according to the California Budget and Policy Center. More than 1.5 million California households dont have access to affordable housing. Only 664,000 affordable rental homes exist for the 2.2 million extremely low income and very low income renter households in the state. For those low income residents who are currently housed, a single life emergency loss of a job, illness, divorce can turn a family out of their home. Proposition 1 would directly address this crisis and reverse a significant reduction in state funding in recent years. As the legislation states, nearly $5 billion of funds from Proposition 46 in 2002 and Proposition 1C in 2006 for a variety of affordable housing programs, have been expended. Combined with the loss of redevelopment funds, $1.5 billion of annual state investment dedicated to housing has been lost, leaving several critical housing programs unfunded. Proposition 1 directly replenishes critical state funds, including our own local housing trust funds, the CalVet Home Loan program, the Multi-Family Housing Program, and CalHFA Home Purchase Assistance. These funds will be leveraged with other state, local, and private dollars to help create a safety net for our most at-risk citizens, and create opportunities for working families and veterans to get a leg up toward financial security. High housing costs and the shortage of housing stock in California directly affect the future health of Californias economy. Conversely, as the authors of the proposal state, investment in housing creates jobs and provides local benefits. The one-year impact of building 100 rental apartments is estimated by the authors to include $11.7 million in local income, $2.2 million in taxes and other revenue for local governments, and 161 local jobs or 1.62 jobs per apartment. The recurring annual impact of constructing 100 rental apartments reaches $2.6 million in local income, $503,000 in taxes and other revenue for local governments, and 44 local jobs or 0.44 jobs per apartment. Proposition 1 will not only provide affordable homes for Californians, it will create more than 130,000 jobs and pump $23.4 billion into Californias economy. The authors of the proposition say the dire situation in the state makes bold action necessary. Proposition 1 is a step in the right direction, but we actually need to go further and should supplement this effort with local measures, several of which are up for future consideration here in San Diego. For example, the San Diego Housing Federation proposal to raise $900 million locally to build 7,500 affordable housing units will generate hundreds of million dollars in matching funds from the state. The measure will possibly go before voters on the 2020 ballot. Aside from being the most humane approach, providing a home for the homeless has been proven time and again to be more cost-effective than simply providing emergency services for people without homes. Thats why affordable housing advocates, business leaders, cities and labor, veterans and environmental groups have all endorsed this measure. And thats why San Diegans should vote yes on Proposition 1. Flores is LISC San Diegos executive director. LISC ( Local Initiatives Support Corporation) is on the board of the San Diego Housing Federation. (Editors Note: A previous version of this op-ed had the wrong figure for the number of homeless in California.) After years of talk but no action to regulate the citys thousands of short-term vacation rentals, a San Diego City Council majority seemed to have finally built a coalition and enacted sensible rules last month that sharply increased city monitoring of rentals and discouraged speculators from snapping up homes that are needed as housing stock. All that was needed to approve the policy was a requisite second hearing on Wednesday. City Attorney Mara Elliott even shrugged off a threat from a lawyer representing HomeAway and Airbnb who argued that the council deprived the public of due process and should redo its July 16 hearing and vote. Elliott defiantly described the councils last-minute policy adjustments, in a word, as legal. But wait, theres more. As with all such policies, the council needed that second vote for final approval. In a stunner, Elliott said there had been a mistake in the policy language involving how Mission Beach is handled and that the most conservative avenue would be a new second hearing. Three council members wanted a postponement to cure this newly discovered noticing violation. But five others voted to proceed because of council member scheduling complications. What an absolute joke. This regulation is obviously headed for a court battle anyway. City officials dont need easily avoidable errors to compound the cost and duration of it. Advertisement Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion Twitter: @sdutIdeas Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion A great many thanks to our heroic firefighters are in order. They are risking their lives to protect us 24/7 in the fire frontlines and that includes the aviators trying to fight from the air with too few aircraft. If there were a massive number of water tankers available when a fire starts and sent in force to snuff it out before it spreads, the results could be positive. It would probably mean converting mothballed aircraft into a firefighting Air Force. Siegfried Pfeiffer Del Mar Heights Advertisement Retired planes should be brought out of mothballs The wildfires of the past and present have resulted in deaths of firefighters and billions in losses to property owners. There are hundreds of retired, large commercial airplanes stored in the Arizona desert and some could be modified and made flight-worthy, loaded with water and fire retardant, and put on stand-by close to fire danger areas. They could be sent to the fire site within the first hour and suppress it before it gets out of control. When the ground crews arrive to work the remaining hot spots, they would not be exposed to the dangerous condition of a large, out-of-control fire. This would be expensive, but so are the losses from massive fires. The federal government should finance the effort as it is a national issue. Jim Wilson Borrego Springs Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. This. Is. Insane. This is crazy. Wow. These are just a few of the reactions locals are having to San Diegos warmer-than-average ocean water this week. Ill go with, Bonkers. The most obvious reaction is this one: Time to hit the beach! The National Weather Service in San Diego has been chronicling the warm sea temperatures off the coast on Twitter this week, noting on Wednesday that one automated sensor has been reading temperatures of 77 to 79 degrees. Also on Wednesday, one buoy read one of the highest temperatures on record. On Thursday, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography announced an all time sea surface temperature record had been broken at its historic Scripps Pier. That location has also been breaking daily records to end the month of July. For comparison, the temperature is usually closer to 69 to 71 degrees at this time of year. Why is this happening? Largely this is a result of our warm storm-free atmosphere over the past four years, the National Weather Service says. July 2018 for Palm Springs and Ramona are tied with 2006 for hottest July on record and other climate sites are top 5. The weather pattern (broad upper high) currently is not allowing the California cold current to mix this far south and oceans are warming since 2014. What does all of this mean for the weather in San Diego? The warm ocean definitely adds low level moisture as seen in our 68-72 degrees dewpoints (muggier) and results in warmer overnight low temperatures and less daytime cooling effect from the sea breeze, the National Weather Service wrote on Facebook Wednesday. What it means on social media is that people are sharing their surprise, concern and excitement. While some pointed out concerns about hurricane inducing water temperature, the National Weather Service was quick to clear that up. Will you be heading to the beach this weekend? Send us a tweet to @sdutideas or email to abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com with your reaction to the warm water. Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @abbyhamblin Children in Poway learned more about nature and how to appreciate it through a Girl Scouts efforts to share her love of the outdoors with them while working on her Gold Award project. Ambassador Girl Scout Amy Yandell said she provided 17 hands-on lessons to the children, ages 8 to 10, over a six-month period through Poways Community Housing Works. Each of the lessons was about two hours long, focusing on a different facet of nature. They included animals, oceans, rocks, biomes, solar systems and flowers. The lessons unintentionally ended up taking a more scientific turn (than) I had planned, Yandell said. Once we even used microscopes to examine microorganisms in water and attempted to identify them. Teaching the kids what those words meant and how to make wet slides was a lot of fun. But my message remained the same: Nature is amazing and is something worth exploring and protecting, she said. In addition to a short lecture, each session included a snack and fun activity related to the topic, Yandell said. I tried to bring artifacts to class or take the kids outside as much as possible in order to make nature a tangible concept. For example, I would bring in pine cones, seashells and rocks. On one memorable occasion I invited a wonderful woman who worked with raptor education and rehabilitation to come and speak, and she ended up bringing a live owl to show to all the children. Yandell said she also organized field trips within Poway, including to Blue Sky Ecological Reserve and Lake Poway. One of the classes was scheduled so the children could go stargazing. Nature is a big part (of) my life and when I found out that many kids in my own community have never gone camping or been out of San Diego, I was shocked and decided to make my project about teaching children about the joys of nature, she said. According to Yandell, peoples general disregard of nature leads to pollution and smaller natural reserves. By teaching children about the beauty of nature ... they would not only grow up with the desire to protect and preserve nature, but live healthier, happier, nature-conscious (lives) because of it. She added, For many people, nature is something distant and scary. The ignorance and disregard of nature leads to a generation of people who do nothing in the face of threats such as pollution, anti-environmental laws or global warming. Teaching kids to love and enjoy nature is one way to ensure a nature-conscious future. Yandell said she saw that her lessons made an impact. Over the course of our meetings together some childrens attitudes began to change as they began to ask more questions and share new stories about aspects of nature they began to notice. The Poway resident and daughter of Kimberly Yandell and Cory Yandell is a member of Troop 8355. She joined the organization nine years ago as a Junior Girl Scout. She previously earned the Silver Award. The Gold Award is Girl Scoutings highest honor. Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award was the pinnacle of all of my Girl Scout experiences, Yandell said. I ended up utilizing the tools and connections I had gained throughout all of my years as a Girl Scout, so in a way my Gold project was a way to show how much I had learned and illustrate just how much Girl Scouts has helped me to become the young woman I am today. My project helped me prove to myself that I am capable of making a real difference in the world and made me feel empowered, she said. Earning this award means that I am capable of achieving anything I put my mind to, it is proof that with hard work and passion I can change the world, or at least my community. The recent Poway High graduate will be a freshman at UC San Diego this fall. In addition to Scouting, she was in her schools choir, a member of the California Scholarship Federation and Poway Highs academic team for four years, and as a junior co-founded the Writers Club on campus, for which she served as vice president. As for her favorite Scouting memory, Yandell said she has had so many wonderful experiences, but a particularly memorable occasion was the weekend her troop took a trip to Los Angeles to explore the city. It was a wonderful bonding experience, and so much fun, she said. * * * * * Profiles of the four area Girl Scouts who received their Gold Award at the councils June 16 ceremony were published throughout the summer. This is the final one. email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com San Diego County can expect some humidity relief over the weekend, but thats about it. We should have above-normal temperatures for the foreseeable future, National Weather Service meteorologist Adam Roser said. The weekend will be slightly cooler, but theres not much change in the pattern. Thursday should be last day of high humidity levels and the threat of thunderstorms in the mountains and desert this week. Monsoonal moisture, which contributed to storms that dropped 0.81 of an inch of rain on Mount Laguna and 0.41 in Ranchita on Wednesday, should be in short supply until next week. A trough of low pressure moving into the Pacific Northwest over the weekend will have a minor impact on Southern California temperatures. The coast should see the return of low clouds Friday and Saturday mornings, but temperatures should remain in the low 80s, which is a few degrees above normal for early August. Advertisement Much of the warmth near the beaches can be attributed to exceptionally high ocean temperatures. The waters are running 6 or more degrees warmer than normal along much of the Southern California coast. The inland valleys, which are expected to hit the 90s on Thursday, wont see much of a temperature change over the weekend, but it might feel a little bit cooler because the air will be much drier. In the mountains, which have about a 20 percent chance of more thunderstorms on Thursday, highs should be in the 80s through the weekend.The desert should see highs of 107 to 112. Forecasters expect monsoonal moisture to return early next week, raising humidity levels once again and bringing back the threat of thunderstorms in the mountains and desert. rob.krier@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2241 Twitter: @sdutKrier Marking the anniversary of New Horizons historic flight through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, NASA released high-resolution natural-color images of Pluto and Charon. These color images result from refined calibration of data gathered by New Horizons Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The processing creates images that would approximate the colors that the human eye would perceive, bringing them closer to true color than the images released near the encounter. The image of Pluto was taken as New Horizons zipped toward the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14, 2015, from a range of 22,025 miles (35,445 km). The striking features on Pluto are clearly visible, including the bright expanse of its icy, nitrogen-and-methane rich heart, Sputnik Planitia. The image of Charon was taken on July 14 from a range of 46,091 miles (74,176 km). The striking features on the moon are clearly visible, including the reddish north-polar region known as Mordor Macula. These color MVIC scans include no data from other New Horizons imagers or instruments added. Singapore is the first stop of this tour where Dr. Breus was invited to showcase the Luxury Bed to travel agents, industry partners and selected past passengers. Jakarta, Tokyo and Shanghai are the next stops of the tour. Dr Breus already visited Sydney last October to mark the roll out of the bed on-board Australian-based Golden Princess and Sea Princess. The Princess Luxury Bed is the first bed onboard a cruise line designed by a board-certified sleep doctor utilising the latest in sleep science, research and technology, and is a critical part of the luxury travel experience offered by Princess Cruises. The Luxury Beds are part of $450m refurbishment campaign that will continue to enhance the lines onboard guest experience. Survey reveals people using weekends to make up for lost sleep During the tour, Dr Breus also shared insights into the Princess Cruises Relaxation Report which included for the first time countries outside North America such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China and South Korea. The survey revealed how the vast majority of people are not dedicating time for sleep or relaxation and use weekends to make up for sleep lost during the weekday. Sleep continues to trouble people around the globe and across generations, whether at home or while travelling. Sleep is a vital, sensory experience that allows our bodies to recharge and recover from mental and physical strains, said Dr. Breus. By collaborating with Princess Cruises, I believe we've come up with some really unique aspects not just for the bed itself, but the entire experience that will allow guests to sleep really well. Princess fleet will have 45,000 Luxury Beds on 17-ship fleet By 2019, more than 45,000 Princess Luxury Beds will be fully rolled out to over 22,000 staterooms onboard all 17 ships. Currently the Luxury Bed is available onboard 14 ships with Diamond Princess getting her Luxury Beds fitted by the end of August. Royal Princess and Regal Princess will have theirs fitted in 2019. Our guests in this region will be able to experience the Luxury Bed first-hand onboard Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess during the upcoming homeporting season in Singapore from November 2018 to March 2019, said Farriek Tawfik, director Southeast Asia, Princess Cruises. Lawrence Technological University has once again established itself as a leader in the field of autonomous vehicles.The Southfield-based university won the Self-Drive Challenge contest at the 26th Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), which was held June 1 through 4 at Oakland University in Rochester. Its the second year in a row that LTU has won the contest.The team of LTU students created ACTor, or Autonomous Campus Transport/Taxi, a self-driving campus shuttle bus. The vehicle was judged on a range of tasks, including lane-following and -changing, obstacle avoidance, reading traffic signs, detecting potholes and avoiding them, and more.C.J. Chung, professor of computer science at LTU and the winning team leader, says that contests like the IGVC both prepares students for the workforce while simultaneously advancing the fields of technology. Students are solving real-world problems while applying lessons learned.Driving at night, or in the fog--there are so many unknown environments that self-driving cars can be driving in, Chung says.To be a real product, reliability needs to be 100 percent.The contest allowed companies the ability to get a sneak peek of whats coming down the talent pipeline. Its a talented future workforce, says Chung, and one upon which the industry relies.Since winning the competition, students are now reprogramming ACTor to serve as an actual autonomous taxi on the LTU campus.LTUs competitors in the contest included University, the University of Detroit Mercy, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and New York University. The winning team received $3,000 and a plaque.Detroit is the automotive hub. We should work hard to be the leader in this industry of self-driving vehicles, as well, says Chung.Universities need to provide a talented workforce in order to do that. Read more articles by Kathy Jennings. Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor Flowers bloom on the corners of Kalamazoo's Northside Dontae Travier On the Ground Northside will feature the stories of people of the neighborhood. Dontae Travier On the Ground Northside will show different angles of familiar places. Dontae Travier On the Ground, a program run by the Michigan-based Issue Media Group, the parent company for Southwest Michigan's Second Wave movies into its second neighborhood, Kalamazoos Northside, on Aug. 2. The move comes after 120 days of coverage of the Edison neighborhood, including Julys coverage written by Edison residents. The first story appeared in Southwest Michigans Second Wave online magazine on April 5. On the Ground helps to tell the story of the people, projects, and innovations that are creating whats next for communities. The intended impact is for solutions-oriented media coverage, engagement and ultimately understanding of the community, resulting in awareness and investments that can contribute to the vitality and prosperity of the district covered. The concept of On the Ground is to use an embedded journalism model to maintain a presence in a specific neighborhood for a period of 120 days. During this time the publication focuses weekly coverage on those neighborhoods to tell the story of the businesses, individuals, and nonprofits working and living there. The publication also produces, covers, and promotes a finale event upon completion of the project. The event depends upon what best fits the neighborhood. The event for the Edison neighborhood included a collaboration with Washington Writers Academy. The event for the Northside neighborhood has not yet been determined. What I love about the program is this is journalism the way it used to be done, says Managing Editor Kathy Jennings. A reporter digs in and really gets to know a community. And since we are an online magazine we present it in an updated way. Its the best of both the old and the new. On the Ground coverage began May 2012 with a pilot program through the IMG publication Flying Kite based out of Philadelphia. Former Flying Kite publisher Michelle Freeman developed the concept of an ongoing initiative that aimed to dive deep into neighborhood transformation. For 90 days, a project editor from Flying Kite was embedded in a vacant storefront or building and after three months they moved on to the next neighborhood. Between May 2012 and August 2013, Flying Kite was embedded in four neighborhoods in Philadelphia and New Jersey. IMG adopted this program model in 2013 for its Detroit-based publication Model D, which implemented its first On the Ground in the Osborn neighborhood in the city of Detroit and was followed by another program in Brightmoor. The way it works is IMG identifies a partner or partners in each neighborhood who assists in connecting and orienting a dedicated journalist with residents. In order to establish a lasting relationship with the community and the groups involved with the project, the project editor dedicates time to researching the history of the neighborhood and developing an editorial framework based on the interests of the community. The journalist attends monthly neighborhood events and the On the Ground team hosts dedicated editorial advisory conversations to engage residents and stakeholders for story ideas and networking. This project offers our team, as well as the community, an opportunity to explore, consider, and engage with a neighborhood in ways that contemporary journalism doesnt often allow, says Project Editor Theresa Coty ONeil. Every day I meet new people and hear of new stories that reinvigorate my sense of what rich resources of spirit the Kalamazoo area contains. I cant wait to see what additional stories well discover on the Northside. And Vicky Kettner, Neighborhood Engagement Manager, says, Transitioning to Northside has been a wonderful experience. Weve been warmly welcomed into the neighborhood and have had many stimulating discussions leading to exciting story ideas. There is no shortage of them. There is a richness of culture, entrepreneurship, and pride in the neighborhood that is emerging as an important theme and in need of being lifted. Were looking forward to continuing capturing the voices of Northside. In Kalamazoo, the On the Ground project also will involve training local residents as reporters. They will attend four classes and publish stories in Southwest Michigans Second Wave. They will be paid as journalists for attending classes and having their work published. Their relationship as writers for Second Wave is expected to continue after their training. Four correspondents have completed this program so far in Kalamazoo. Since launching On the Ground back in 2013, IMG has worked in over 15 different neighborhoods across the country. There have been On the Ground programs that have taken place in Memphis, Tampa, Grand Rapids, Dearborn, Ypsilanti, Pontiac, Cincinnati, and Detroit. IMG views this engagement as an initial investment in a neighborhood. Programs are tailored to approach the needs of each neighborhood differently and treated as the first step in creating long-term media impact in the highlighted areas. The Northside neighborhood has invited Second Wave to be the next community covered in the On the Ground Program. Your On the Ground Team is Managing Editor Kathy Jennings, Project Editor Theresa Coty O'Neil, and Engagement Manager Vicky Kettner, and photographer Dontae Travier. Press Release August 2, 2018 Be stormbreakers, De Lima tells fellow liberals Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has urged her fellow liberals to continue taking the lead in defending freedom and human rights amid sinister attempts by the Duterte administration to undermine the country's democracy and silence dissent. In her acceptance speech at the awarding ceremony of the 2018 Liberal International's "Prize for Freedom" last July 28, De Lima said the defenders of the people from dictators, oppressive leaders and human rights abusers "can never rest." "[T]he enemies of democracy are not irrepressible. They may be megalomaniacs, but they are mere humans who fear free-thinking people whom they cannot control. Being mortal, they can be stopped and brought to justice," she said. "So if we maintain and defend the foundations of our freedoms - such as the [Universal Declaration of Human Rights], national Constitutions that recognize and protect democracy and human rights, and national and international institutions that uphold the rule of law - all together we can be stormbreakers - one that neutralizes a potentially devastating force, long before it can take hold," she added. De Lima's acceptance speech was delivered by her brother, Vicente "Vicboy" de Lima II, during the awarding rites of this year's Prize for Freedom in recognition of her "exceptional contribution to the advancement of human rights" held at Novotel Manila, Araneta Center last July 28. LI President Dr. Juli Minoves conferred the esteemed award to De Lima in the presence of LI Deputy President Dr. Hakima el Haite, former Hong Kong Legislative Council Emily Lau and Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats Secretary General Kiat Sittheeamorn. Also present were former President Benigno S. Aquino III, Vice President Leni Robredo, Liberal Party President Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, LP Spokesperson Erin Tanada, former Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide Jr, and Reps. Kit Belmonte and Gary Alejano, among others. Taking inspiration from the weather in writing her message, De Lima further likened tyrants and oppressors to "national and transnational disasters" whom human rights defenders need to protect the people from. "They come bringing violence, destruction and terror to the populace. When they leave, they leave behind devastated nations, dead and dying people, hopelessness, helplessness, and a precarious world order," she said. De Lima said she and her fellow liberals are expected to protect the people--especially those who remain powerless and marginalized--from these national and transnational disasters. "We are the people in the lighthouses and watchtowers, who call out warnings that a destructive force is bearing down on us," she said. "We are the breakwater that protects the people from the pounding waves [and] the levee that regulates the flow of raging floods, that they may not devastate people's lives, property and security," she added. The Senator from Bicol said any forms of defending human rights can work wonders, even as simple as by letting the new generation realize that human life and human rights are not opposites. "That there is no dichotomy between the two. That one cannot be defended by trading it off with the other. That one cannot claim to fight for human lives, while their hands are stained red with the blood of their victims," she said. "That anyone who suggests otherwise is no better than a wolf that pretends to be a shepherd, and delivers the flock to slaughter. In the vernacular, that is the mantra of the bantay-salakay, or the guardians who themselves attack those they are guarding," she added. Despite being detained on trumped-up drug charges fabricated by the Duterte administration, De Lima said she humbly submits herself to the protection of democracy, freedoms, human rights and the rule of law. Press Release August 2, 2018 Sen. Lacson's opening statement at the Kapihan sa Senado More at: https://pinglacson.net/2018/08/02/kapihan-sa-senado-forum-august-2-2018/ Recent and current events, both on the national scene as well as local, bear watching and monitoring. 1. The GMA Speakership and Mayor Sara Duterte's alleged participation and influence in the change of the House leadership 2. The Lamitan suicide bombing 3. Scalawags in the PNP 4. Charter change and federalism, among others. Only because of what the Filipinos have experienced in the past administrations involving presidential relatives, we should reject any interference and influence-peddling by somebody outside the official chain of the government bureaucracy, but who projects closeness to the president due to kinship. It doesn't matter if it's an Imelda Marcos, or a Peping Cojuangco, or a Mike Arroyo, or any presidential relative. It is not about them. It is about undue intrusion in some major state affairs in which they have no business interfering. Speaking of Mayor Sara Duterte, make no mistake: if the next leader of our country will emerge from the young, fresh and new faces in national politics, my top choice right now is Sara Duterte. She is strong-willed, stern, vibrant, progressive-minded, and has obviously good leadership qualities. There is no saying that there are no other emerging young leaders. Right here in the Senate for example, a number of our young hardworking colleagues are showing good leadership potentials but at this time and this is my personal opinion, based on whatever political sense I have accumulated after my long years in government service, Mayor Sara stands out and is right in front of the pack. Second, on the Lamitan suicide bombing. While it was tragic and unfortunate, it is frightening and worrisome, to say the least. First, it is the first suicide bombing pulled off by an apparent terrorist. It is worrisome in that it could inspire or motivate other homegrown local extremists and set a trend of a series of suicide bombings in thickly populated urban centers in Mindanao, Visayas and even here in Metro Manila. That is why it is imperative that our security officials must remain on their toes to abate and more importantly preempt any future incidents of its kind. Like a broken record I dare say for the nth time, it is intelligence for breakfast, intelligence for lunch, intelligence for dinner and all the time in between. Third, on the perceived proliferation of scalawags in the police ranks. On the surface, based on recurring news reports, it may appear that police corruption has become ubiquitous and discipline has sorely deteriorated among the police. My take is, commendations are in order to the present PNP leadership in general and the NCRPO in particular, for stepping up their drive against the rogues and criminals within their own ranks. Internal cleansing should be the highlight of our message to our people, not a supposed wave of police hooliganism. Let's give credit to where it's due. I give special mention to CPNP Albyalde, PCS Eleazar and his district commanders here in the NCR. Fourth, on the proposed charter change and federalism. Right now, as far as the Senate is concerned, the proposed Charter change is just waiting to be cremated. Press Release August 2, 2018 Reconstituted PCA to manage P100-B coco levy funds -- Bicam Committee MANILA - The Bicameral Conference Committee on the controversial coco levy measure met on Wednesday to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of House Bill No. 5745 and Senate Bill No. 1233, creating the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund and providing for its management and utilization. The Committee, co-chaired by Senator Cynthia Villar and ANAC-IP Rep. Jose Pananiban, agreed that the P100 billion coco levy fund, consisting of the P76 billion in Treasury and escrow accounts and an estimated P30 billion in assets, will form the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund, which shall be used exclusively for the benefit of coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry. In lieu of a Trust Fund Committee originally proposed by Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, a reconstituted Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) will prepare the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan, and manage, invest, and decide on the utilization of the coco levy fund. However, this would mean that before the funds can be used, Congress must first pass a separate law reconstituting the governing board of the PCA to be composed of six farmer-representatives, four government representatives, and one industry representative. The Bicameral Committee agreed that the funds will be released to the PCA at P5 billion annually until it runs out, which is estimated to be within 25 years. The proposed measure provides for the utilization of the fund as follows: (a) Share facilities program, 30 percent; (b) Scholarship program, 15 percent; (c) Empowerment of coconut farmer organizations and their cooperatives, 15 percent; (d) Farm improvement to encourage self-sufficiency, 30 percent; and (e) Health and medical, 10 percent. On top of this, P10 billion shall be included in the annual appropriation of the PCA to augment the fund. The proposed measure provides for this specific allocation. Senator Pangilinan, principal author and sponsor of the Senate bill, placed on record his reservations on the bicameral committee's final version. In particular, the final version adopted the House version that does not limit the definition of farmers to those owning not more than five hectares of coconut farm. He argued that deleting this limitation would effectively include large farm-owners. Also, Senator Pangilinan expressed reservations on provisions on the perpetual nature of the trust fund and the creation of a trust fund committee composed mainly of farmers, which he fought for during the deliberations in the Senate but were unfortunately not adopted. "I cannot agree in that regard and therefore I have my reservations in respect to these amendments," Pangilinan said. "I place on record that I would have wanted the Bicam to restore some of the provisions that were not adopted in the Senate. In fact, it was in the House version, but now, it's no longer in the House version which is the perpetual nature of the fund and the creation of the trust fund committee. "So, again I would have to express my reservation to the final version of the Bicam," Pangilinan added. The coco levy fund came from the taxes imposed on coconut farmers' products by the late dictator and his cronies. The funds collected, valued at P9.7 billion, is now estimated to have grown to around more than P100 billion. After more than four long decades of legal and political battle, the importance of delivering justice to our coconut farmers cannot be overly emphasized. However, with the eventual passage of the Bicameral version of the bill, government must ensure farmers representation in every decision regarding the development plan, disbursements, management, and utilization of the coco levy fund, and that the fund is used only for the benefit of our poor coconut farmers and the development of the industry. The New Zealand dollar was weaker against the greenback in jittery markets after the US stepped up pressure on China in the latest round of the global trade spat between the two nations. The kiwi traded at 67.75 US cents as at 5pm in Wellington versus 67.86 cents at 8am, down from 67.91 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 72.98 from 73.07. The New Zealand dollar was weighed down when the US administration increased pressure on China by proposing a higher 25 percent tariff on US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports, adding to concerns the US-China trade war will soon start impacting other markets. China is New Zealand's largest trading partner, so any slowdown in that economy could potentially impact domestic exports. There is some risk off driving it down today, said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional foreign exchange sales at ASB Bank. Kelleher also said domestic factors are weighing on the kiwi, such as news yesterday that Ebert Construction was tipped in receivership and farmer confidence slipped to a six-year low. It just cant rally ... it's looking a bit forlorn, he said. Kelleher said the currency has support at 67.50 US cents and resistance around 68.20 US cents to 68.50 cents. Looking ahead, he said the jobs data in the US Friday will be key. According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 190,000 in July after advancing by 213,000 positions in June. The data should be a good number, given the data prints of late, and that will further support the US dollar, said Kelleher. The kiwi traded at 91.77 Australian cents from 91.61 cents yesterday. It was at 51.71 British pence from 51.82 pence yesterday and was at 58.16 euro cents from 58.15 cents. The local currency fell to 75.62 yen from 76.01 yen yesterday and slipped to 4.6179 Chinese yuan from 4.6298 yuan yesterday. New Zealand's two-year swap rate was unchanged at 2.13 percent while 10-year swaps were up 1 basis point to 3.05 percent. (BusinessDesk) 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. 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Related News: 28th October 2021 Morning Report Wellington Drive Technologies Limited (NZX: WDT) Performs Strongly in Q3-2021 Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) Acquires Extensions to Two Existing Victorian Sites Promisia Healthcare Limited (NZX: PHL) Banking Covenant Update Pictor Limited Announces Start of US Clinical Trials for SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Opening of Rights Offer Move Logistics Group Limited (NZX: MOV) Announces $40m Capital Raise 27th October 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Investor Day 2021 Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Considers Green Capital Bond Offer First NZ Capital anticipates smaller earnings growth for the majority of companies reporting in August amid ongoing signs that businesses are worried about profitability. FNZC analysts Paul Turnbull and Arie Dekker also forecast average normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation to rise 5.9 percent, slowing from 12 percent a year earlier when A2 Milk Co and Mercury NZ provided upside surprises. The forecasts are based on recent earnings revisions, with electricity generator-retailers Mercury NZ and Meridian Energy among nine companies that stock analysts are more optimistic about, while exporters a2 Milk and Comvita and refinery operator New Zealand Refinery were in the eight downgrades in what's still expected to be a positive reporting season. "We observe that earnings momentum for the stocks reporting in August was broadly balanced between upgrades and downgrades across the 12- month period to July 2018," they said in a note to clients. On a market capitalisation-weighted basis, which excludes A2 Milk and Fletcher Building due to a transition in analyst coverage, FNZC predicts ebitda growth of 4.5 percent compared to 2.8 percent a year earlier, when A2 Milk was excluded and Fletcher, Air New Zealand and Sky Network Television all posted weaker earnings. FNZC's earnings outlook comes as recent business surveys such as this week's ANZ Business Outlook and the Federated Farmers' farm confidence survey showed heightened concerns from the companies themselves. A net 45 percent of 340 firms surveyed in the ANZ survey for July expect general business conditions to deteriorate in the coming 12 months, a 10-year low. Importantly for earnings, the survey showed profit expectations dropped 4 points to net 16.8 percent negative. Regarding specific companies, based on earnings momentum and FNZC's expectations relative to consensus, Turnbull and Dekker identify positive earnings risk for stocks including Meridian, Mercury and Spark New Zealand. On Mercury, FNZC says extraordinary hydro inflows will dominate the 2018 financial year figures while on Meridian they said growth track guidance for Powershop Australia earnings and potential for new wind developments "could generate modest excitement." On Spark, the analysts expect broadband to remain subdued but see some scope for the telecommunications company to generate bigger mobile revenue than anticipated. They see negative earnings risk for stocks including Comvita, jewellery chain Michael Hill International, power company Contact Energy and NZ Refining. They said Comvita recently announced the disbandment of the chief innovation officer role and a concentration of focus on its manuka honey and bee products business. "In our view this could be symptomatic of low sales run rates across non-honey ingredient platforms in 2H18 that could weigh on FY18 performance." On Michael Hill, despite it announcing its exit from the US and the winding down of Emma & Roe "these two businesses present margin risk in the short-term with the potential to surprise to the downside on reported sales weakness," they say. Turnbull and Dekker said Contact faces uncertainty related to erosion of LPG profitability but that risk is removed for FY19 due to the sale of Rockgas while on New Zealand Refining they said the company is "sensitive to dividends and the market may, therefore, dislike the possible (but prudent) choice to avoid an interim dividend payment." Based on consensus forecasts, current market pricing of New Zealand equities remains close to cyclical highs, FNZC said. "The market is pricing in similar equity risk as it enters the August 2018 results season to what was priced in the period immediately preceding the February 2018 results season," said Turnbull and Dekker. They note that the stock market has gained around 6.5 percent in that period. (BusinessDesk) 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: 28th October 2021 Morning Report Wellington Drive Technologies Limited (NZX: WDT) Performs Strongly in Q3-2021 Ryman Healthcare Limited (NZX: RYM) Acquires Extensions to Two Existing Victorian Sites Promisia Healthcare Limited (NZX: PHL) Banking Covenant Update Pictor Limited Announces Start of US Clinical Trials for SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test Arvida Group Limited (NZX: ARV) Opening of Rights Offer Move Logistics Group Limited (NZX: MOV) Announces $40m Capital Raise 27th October 2021 Morning Report The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) Investor Day 2021 Contact Energy Limited (NZX: CEN) Considers Green Capital Bond Offer US President Donald Trump has signed legislation that will make it easier for New Zealanders to trade or invest in the world's biggest economy. The so-called Knowledgeable Innovators and Worthy Investors Act - or Kiwi Act - allows New Zealanders to apply for E-1 and E-2 trade and investment visas. The act grants reciprocal treatment to US nationals. The Kiwi Act will increase trade and investment between the United States and New Zealand and will benefit both our countries, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement. She expects the legislation to be a "big boost" to New Zealand businesses. The E-1 and E-2 visas will allow New Zealand nationals who qualify to enter the US multiple times over two years without having to apply for a new visa each time they enter the US (with an option to renew on a rolling basis). The visas cover individuals seeking to engage in substantial trade and investment activities in the US. Spouses and dependents of visa holders are also permitted to travel on derivative E visas. Ardern said the US is critically important to New Zealand's interests and the act will help develop closer economic ties. She said officials will now work with the US State Department to ensure the act can be implemented as soon as possible so that New Zealanders can start applying for the visas. US Ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown welcomed the legislation. This is a historic day for the United States and New Zealand partnership. Todays announcement is a testament to the long-standing friendship and economic cooperation between the United States and New Zealand," he said. According to Brown, the legislation - which received bipartisan US support "demonstrates the United States' continuing recognition of the value of Kiwi investment and innovation." (BusinessDesk) 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. 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Related News: Now is the time to reassess your investments Now is the time to reassess your investments Fonterra looking to lift China's importance in new strategy A2, Synlait shares climb as takeover bid revives optimism about Chinese appetite for milk Service sector activity eases in August but still expanding Lumpy imports drive bigger July trade deficit than expected Nimbys, carparks and the status quo under threat as govt tells big cities: grow up and out Dairy manufacturers got better prices in June quarter Orr defends RBNZ rate cut, says monetary policy looks ahead, not behind RBNZ's Orr says investors need to put their money to work Sweden arrests 'wanted' Chinese man Stockholm, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 A Chinese man suspected of economic crimes and corruption in his home country has been arrested in Sweden, authorities said on Thursday. Swedish public broadcaster SVT described the unnamed 54-year-old suspect as "one of the most wanted people in China", adding that he had been in custody in Stockholm since June 25. SVT said the man, who was the head of a state-owned company trading cereal and rice, fled China in 2011 when the Chinese police discovered that he allegedly transferred large sums of money from the company to banks abroad. Karin Rosander, press officer at the Swedish Prosecution Authority, told AFP that Beijing "had requested his extradition" to China to prosecute him there. Rosander, who declined to reveal the man's identity or when the arrest took place, said Swedish authorities were examining "whether there are legitimate reasons to extradite him to China". He is accused of having embezzled nearly 10 million euros (more than $11 million) from the company, according to SVT. China has issued an international arrest warrant for him and his case has been widely reported in global media, SVT said. Rosander said Sweden did not extradite suspects easily, especially if their life might be in danger or if the country involved had the death penalty. "This case is about proving what kind of evidence there is against him," she said, adding the accusations were being handled as a corruption case. The man travelled to the US with his ex-wife after fleeing China in 2011 and they were arrested there on suspicion of money laundering, according to SVT. The suspect, who escaped the US charges, claims to have been living in Sweden since 2014. He moved to Sweden with a new identity and passport and later re-married, which legally allowed him to remain in the Nordic nation. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd39ae6b8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3967378)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd39ae6b8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3967378)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd35764e8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3967378)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3967378)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3095000)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd39666a0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd39666a0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Record Arctic heat drives reindeer into cool tunnels Oslo, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 Norwegian authorities have urged motorists to watch out for reindeer that are seeking refuge in tunnels to cool themselves amid extreme heat in the nation's far north. "It has been very hot for weeks in northern Norway," Tore Lysberg, a senior official at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, told AFP on Thursday. "The animals retreat to colder places, both reindeer and sheep find refuge in tunnels and shaded areas to cool down," he said. Although this phenomenon is nothing new, it could be intensified by record temperatures in Norway's northernmost regions. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute posted a temperature of 31.2 degrees Celsius (above 88 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday in Finnmark, a major reindeer herding region located within the Arctic Circle. The region is so hot that it has experienced 12 "tropical" nights with evening temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius so far this year, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration said no serious accidents involving animals have been reported yet but described the situation as "a challenge". The government agency, which has multiplied its messages to raise awareness among motorists, should be helped by the weather, which is expected to return towards normal starting this weekend. Chinese-American engineer charged with stealing GE technology Washington, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 A Chinese-American engineer faces charges of stealing valuable technology from General Electric, sneaking it out hidden in a picture of the sunset to take to China, the US Justice Department said. Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, a US citizen also believed to have Chinese nationality, was due to appear before a judge in Albany, New York on Thursday, a day after his arrest, according to federal prosecutors. Following a four-year investigation, the FBI arrested Xiaoqing Zheng after searching his home and finding, among other things, a handbook detailing "resources" Beijing would grant to individuals providing certain technologies. Zheng's arrest comes as President Donald Trump intensifies the trade war with Beijing, largely over complaints the country steals US technology or obliges American companies to share know-how in exchange for doing business in China. Trump imposed punishing tariffs on tens of billions in Chinese imports and plans more to ratchet up the pressure on Beijing to correct the pervasive industrial espionage. US investigators believe Zheng may have begun stealing thousands of files containing GE's industrial secrets as far back as 2014, according to court documents. And Zheng worked for or owned Chinese companies dealing in the same technologies produced by GE Power, which produces and markets energy generation techniques around the world, the FBI found. "The GE proprietary technologies on which Zheng works would have economic value to any of GE's business competitors," FBI Special Agent MD McDonald said in an affidavit. GE monitored Zheng as he allegedly transferred files containing turbine technology to his personal email account while hiding the data within the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, a process known as "steganography," according to McDonald. Following a search of Zheng's home in Niskayuna, New York, FBI agents said they retrieved the reward handbook and a passport showing five trips to China in the past two years. FBI agents questioned Zheng on Wednesday and say he acknowledged taking GE's proprietary information using steganography on around five to 10 occasions. Charged with a single count of theft of trade secrets, Zheng faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 as well as three years of supervised release, although punishments are frequently imposed at less than that. Trump administration seeks rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency rules New York, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 US President Donald Trump's administration announced a proposal on Thursday to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, likely sparking a legal fight with California and other states that favor more aggressive environmental policies. The tough standards favored by former President Barack Obama "are no longer appropriate and reasonable" beyond 2020, according to the proposal released by the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The two agencies will gather public comments and hold hearings before the rule changes can be implemented. The less stringent standards would apply to model years between 2021 and 2026. Trump's move concerns a deal originally struck between Obama and many leading automakers in 2011 that envisioned a series of gradual increases through 2025, when average fuel economy would rise to 54.5 miles per gallon (4.3 liters per 100 kilometers). The proposal would also end a federal waiver to California that allowed the it to enact stricter tailpipe standards, thereby limiting the types of cars that can be sold in the nation's most populous state. About a dozen other states have followed California's lead. The Obama rules were intended to ensure progress made during the Democrat's presidency would extend beyond it. Automakers over the last decade have employed lighter materials and tweaked vehicle design to boost fuel efficiency, changes that have improved mileage on even the biggest US gas guzzlers. But the Trump administration has consistently criticized the policy as bad for the car industry. Administration officials said the Obama rules added $2,340 to the cost of owning a new car and that more Americans have been priced out of the market for new vehicles. They also said the policy shift would lead to fewer highway deaths by enabling more consumers to afford new vehicles that are safer than those being traded in. Shifting to a more relaxed standard would have "negligible environmental impacts on air quality," the agencies said in their proposal. "More realistic standards will promote a healthy economy by bringing newer, safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles to US roads," said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The proposal also took a swipe at California, accusing the state of focusing "disproportionately" on greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of overall air quality. - California responds - Backers of the Obama-era rules dismissed these points, noting that more efficient fuel rules meant consumers would spend less on gasoline, while reducing emissions that cause global warming. "California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible," California Governor Jerry Brown said on Twitter. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the state would "use every legal tool at its disposal" to defend the tougher rules. Dan Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign dismissed the Trump administration's arguments as a "parade of concocted horrors." "For an administration that is happy to let states set their own rules when it comes to weakening environmental protection, it's the height of hypocrisy to deny California and a dozen other states their right to protect their people from global warming," Becker said in a statement. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said much of the criticism was based on "false" news accounts of the proposal. "What the EPA released was a proposed rule not a final rule," she told a White House briefing. "We're simply opening it up for a comment period and make a final decision at the end of that." - Automakers seek national standard - The auto industry, which has often balked at the higher costs associated with the tougher US standards, strongly backs a national standard that could be negotiated between Washington and California. But one fear is a protracted legal fight between the federal government and California and other progressive states. "We urge California and the federal government to find a common sense solution that sets continued increases in vehicle efficiency standards while also meeting the needs of America's drivers," said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. During an earnings conference call last week, General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra repeatedly emphasized the need for a single national standard on fuel economy. "We are going to remain committed to improving fuel economy, reducing emissions and working toward an all-electric future, but we believe it is in everybody's best interest to have one national set of requirement that comprehends the new technologies," she said. The debate on fuel economy comes amid friction between the Trump administration and the auto industry due to a Commerce Department review of whether to impose steep tariffs on auto imports. GM and other carmakers have sharply criticized the proposed policy. Trump last week said the tariff plan was on hold after he reached an agreement in principal with European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Chinese-American engineer charged with stealing GE technology Washington, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 A Chinese-American engineer faces charges of stealing valuable technology from General Electric, sneaking it out hidden in a picture of the sunset to take to China, the US Justice Department said. A federal judge on Thursday ordered that Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, be released Friday on $100,000 bond and placed under electronic monitoring while surrendering his passport, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York. Zheng, a US citizen also believed to have Chinese nationality, had been arrested Wednesday by the FBI, which also searched his home. The agency allegedly found, among other things, a handbook detailing "resources" Beijing would grant to individuals providing certain technologies, court documents say. Zheng's arrest comes as President Donald Trump intensifies his trade war with Beijing, largely over complaints the country steals US technology or obliges American companies to share know-how in exchange for doing business in China. Trump imposed punishing tariffs on tens of billions in Chinese imports and plans more to ratchet up the pressure on Beijing to correct the pervasive industrial espionage. General Electric said Thursday it had been cooperating with the FBI for "some time" on the case. "At GE, we aggressively protect and defend our intellectual property and have strict processes in place for identifying these issues and partnering with law enforcement," a spokesman said. - Working for Chinese competitors - US investigators said Zheng may have begun stealing thousands of files containing GE's industrial secrets as far back as 2014, according to court documents. And Zheng worked for or owned Chinese companies dealing in the same technologies produced by GE Power, which produces and markets energy generation techniques around the world, the FBI found. "The GE proprietary technologies on which Zheng works would have economic value to any of GE's business competitors," FBI Special Agent MD McDonald said in an affidavit. GE monitored Zheng as he allegedly transferred files containing turbine technology to his personal email account while hiding the data within the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, a process known as "steganography," according to McDonald. Following a search of Zheng's home in Niskayuna, New York, FBI agents said they retrieved the reward handbook and a passport showing five trips to China in the past two years. FBI agents questioned Zheng on Wednesday and say he acknowledged taking GE's proprietary information using steganography on around five to 10 occasions. Charged with a single count of theft of trade secrets, Zheng faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 as well as three years of supervised release, although punishments are frequently imposed at less than that. Texan behind 3D-printed guns vows legal fight as White House endorses court ruling Chicago, Aug 1 (AFP) Aug 01, 2018 A US gun rights advocate began gearing up for a legal fight Wednesday to be able to publish online blueprints for 3D-printed firearms, as the White House signaled support for a federal judge's decision to block the venture. Cody Wilson's Texas-based company Defense Distributed had briefly made the blueprints available online, but Seattle-based US District Judge Robert Lasnik granted an injunction Tuesday to take the material down. The Donald Trump administration last month gave permission for Wilson to publish the blueprints, but the White House said Wednesday the president was unaware of the decision and was glad it was being reviewed. Eight US states and the District of Columbia sued, arguing the blueprints could allow anyone -- from a teen to a 'lone wolf' gunman -- to make untraceable, undetectable plastic weapons. Wilson complied with the judge's order, but put out a call for financial support for the legal battle ahead, including a scheduled August 10 court hearing. He told CBS News ahead of the injunction that he believes "access to firearms is a fundamental human dignity. It's a fundamental human right." "What I'm doing is legally protected," he said. "I will go to the appellate level. I will go to the Supreme Court. I will waste all my time." - President 'glad' for review - As uproar was building Tuesday over Wilson's efforts, the president tweeted that making plastic 3D-printed guns publicly available "doesn't seem to make much sense." White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders elaborated Wednesday, saying the administration's Justice Department had acted on its own in granting Wilson permission to publish the blueprints on his Defcad website -- settling a five-year legal battle. "The Department of Justice made a deal without the president's approval," Sanders said. "The president's glad this effort was delayed to give more time to review the issue." Sanders also repeated the administration's claim from a day earlier that existing law already prohibits plastic firearms. The National Rifle Association, the nation's most politically influential gun rights group, echoed that claim, contending that the 1988 law made the current 3D-printed gun issue moot. "Regardless of what a person may be able to publish on the Internet, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years," the NRA said in a statement. But Wilson has gotten around the legal prohibition by providing instructions with the digital files for 3D printing his "Liberator" plastic gun that call for an approximately six-ounce block of steel to be affixed to the weapon. Should those who print the gun follow those instructions, metal detectors would pick up the weapons, thus complying with the law. But while users can build the gun, there is no way to ensure they affix metal to it. - 'The debate is over' - Late Tuesday, dozens of Democratic senators introduced legislation to prohibit the publication of 3D-printable firearm designs, a move gun control groups applauded. But some damage was already done. Wilson's blueprints had been posted on Defcad before the court order took effect and had already been downloaded thousands of times. "The debate is over. The guns are downloadable. The files are in the public domain -- you cannot take them back," Wilson told CBS. Gun control groups nevertheless were relieved by the judge's decision, with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence calling 3D-printed firearms "nothing short of a menace to society." "There is simply no way of telling how much damage has already been done by Cody Wilson's dangerous and reckless actions," Brady Campaign co-president Kris Brown said in a statement. "This is a strong step and a clear victory for the entire gun safety movement, but we simply can't let up." Prior to last month, Wilson had actually been losing his drawn-out legal battle, after both a federal district court and an appellate court ruled against him. The US Supreme Court declined to take up his case. But in a sign of his determination to continue the legal fight, a message on the Defense Distributed website made a public appeal for financial support "to uncensor the site." US probes claims pharma giants' actions helped Iraq insurgency Washington, Aug 1 (AFP) Aug 01, 2018 US investigators are probing claims AstraZeneca and other medical giants that worked with the Iraqi government between 2005 and 2009 provided drugs and supplies that would go on to be used to fund terror attacks. In a filing with US regulators last week, AstraZeneca said it had received a Department of Justice inquiry "in connection with an anti-corruption investigation relating to activities in Iraq." The filing states the probe is at least partly related to a federal lawsuit filed in October on behalf of troops who were killed or wounded in Iraq in the 2005-2009 period, the height of the Iraq War insurgency. Plaintiffs allege the firms, hoping to win business in Iraq, violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act and other laws by giving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to the ministry of health when it was controlled by followers of Moqtada Sadr. The powerful Shiite cleric, whose populist coalition triumphed at May elections, at the time ran death squads against Sunnis and is blamed for many attacks on US forces. Sadr's Mahdi Army -- estimated to have had up to 60,000 members -- was once the most active and feared armed Shiite group in Iraq, and was blamed by Washington for thousands of killings. According to The New York Times, the lawsuit claims Sadr's followers sold the medical supplies on Iraq's black market to fund such attacks. Ryan Sparacino, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case, told AFP on Wednesday that since 2004, "Iranian-backed terrorists have relied on corruption at the Iraqi health ministry to help fund terrorism in Iraq." The lawsuit states the health ministry itself was used to launch attacks, smuggle weapons and gather intelligence, and that ministry employees played key leadership roles in the Mahdi Army. In a statement, AstraZeneca said it "has a robust and dynamic compliance program, and we refuse to tolerate bribery or any other form of corruption." The other firms listed in the lawsuit are General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, as well as Roche Holding A.G. The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment. At least 20 dead in strikes on Yemen's Hodeida: medics Sanaa, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 At least 20 people were killed Thursday in an air strike at the entrance to a hospital and the bombardment of a fish market in Yemen's rebel-held port city Hodeida, medics and witnesses said. "The number of people killed in the two attacks has reached 20," a doctor in the Red Sea city told AFP, with other medical sources putting the number of wounded admitted to hospital at 60. Yemeni government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition have been conducting an offensive to capture Hodeida from Iran-backed Huthi rebels, but announced last month they were pausing the assault to give UN mediation efforts a chance. Strikes have picked up again around Hodeida since the Saudis last week said that two oil tankers operated by one of the kingdom's companies were attacked in the waters of the Red Sea. Rebel-run media outlets accused the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out the two attacks Thursday, but there was no immediate response from the alliance headed by Riyadh. The air raid hit at the entrance to Hodeida's main Al-Thawra hospital, one of the busiest medical facilities in conflict-wracked Yemen. The pro-Huthi Al-Masirah television channel put the death toll from that strike alone at "30 dead" and launched an appeal for blood donations. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen said it was "sending surgical material enough to treat 50 severely wounded people to the (ICRC) supported Al-Thawra Hospital in Hodeida after vicinity targeted". On June 13, Saudi Arabia and its allies in a pro-government coalition launched a major offensive to retake Hodeida, through which 70 percent of Yemen's food imports flow. The fighting around Hodeida has raised UN fears of a new humanitarian catastrophe in a country already standing at the brink of famine and gripped by a deadly cholera epidemic. The United Arab Emirates, part of a Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government, said on July 1 that it had suspended an offensive to take the port city to allow time for UN peace efforts. The Yemeni authorities and their backers are demanding that the Huthis withdraw from Hodeida and that the government retakes control. UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths has been pushing for a deal which envisions the rebels ceding control of Hodeida port to a UN-supervised committee. Saudi Arabia and its allies joined Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's fight against the Huthis in 2015. Yemen's war has killed nearly 10,000 people and triggered what the UN calls the world's largest single humanitarian crisis, with more than eight million Yemenis at risk of starvation. Iran conducts naval exercise in Persian Gulf: US official Washington, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 Iran launched a naval exercise in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, just days before the US reimposes sanctions on Tehran, a defense official told AFP. The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with US ships in the area, the official added. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said the US was "aware of an increase" in Iranian naval operations in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. "We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Urban said. The exercises come at a time of increased tension between Iran and the United States, which has pulled out of a historic nuclear pact and is slapping fresh sanctions on Tehran on Monday. US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But so far this year, to the befuddlement of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. Trump receives new letter from Kim Washington, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump had received a new letter from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, without disclosing its contents. With little public sign of progress toward Trump's aim of Korean denuclearization, the White House said the letter followed up on the pair's June 12 summit. "A letter to President Trump from Chairman Kim was received on August 1," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. "The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK joint statement." Trump alluded to the letter in a late-night tweet thanking Kim for this week's return of remains of dozens of US soldiers killed during the Korean War. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump said. "Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!" The White House later rowed back Trump's suggestion of a meeting. There is "no meeting planned," Sanders told reporters. Iran conducts naval exercise in Gulf: US official Washington, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2018 Iran launched a naval exercise in the Gulf on Thursday, just days before the US reimposes sanctions on Tehran, a defense official told AFP. The timing of the exercise is unusual, as it appears to be similar in scale and nature to a drill that ordinarily happens later in the autumn. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several dozen boats were out training early Thursday morning. The vessels are mostly small attack boats, and there have been no interactions with US ships in the area, the official added. In a statement, Captain Bill Urban, the military's Central Command spokesman, said the US was "aware of an increase" in Iranian naval operations in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. "We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Urban said. The exercises come at a time of increased tension between Iran and the United States, which has pulled out of a historic nuclear pact and is slapping fresh sanctions on Tehran on Monday. US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf. But so far this year, to the befuddlement of some military officials, there have been no such incidents. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is a paramilitary force that answers directly to the Islamic republic's supreme leader. In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters. The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later. Algiers, August 02, 2018 (SPS) - The ambassador of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Algiers, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, said Wednesday that Morocco "has opened the door to immigration to put pressure on Europe to get it to sign the fishing agreement". "Morocco has opened the door to immigration to put pressure on Europe, and Spain in particular, to get them to sign the fishing agreement," Taleb Omar told reporters following a consultation meeting with the leader of an Algerian political party. The Saharawi official said the EU-Morocco fishing agreement is "null and void." If the European Union sign the agreement, it will be a "violation of the international law, Western Sahara people's right to self-determination and will undermine the efforts of the United Nations and its personal envoy, who has called the two sides to sit around a negotiation table." Taleb Omar stressed the intention of "some States, including France and Spain, to sign the agreement, which is under preparation." "A memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed before the latest decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), on July 16. The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union stipulates that "Western Sahara territory and its adjacent waters cannot be included in any EU-Morocco agreement, as Rabat's sovereignty over the territory is not recognized." "This sovereignty belongs to the Saharawi people and the Frente POLISARIO, their representative, both of whom have rejected the baseless and illegal agreement," the CJUE stressed, according to the ambassador. SPS 125/090/700 English01/08/2018 PEACE IN BOSNIA CRUCIAL FOR EVERYONE IN REGION BELGRADE, August 1 /SRNA/ - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says it is important for Serbia to maintain peace in the whole region and that that is why peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina is crucial for everyone. "We love Republika Srpska. We arent annoyed when they /Bosniaks/ say they like our Raska District, or Sandzak as they call it. Im not bothered at all. They /Bosniaks/ were surprised when I told them we didnt have a problem and that, just like we build schools, we ask them to build roads and schools in the Raska District. Build them and name those schools Bosnia and Herzegovina. I dont have a problem with that at all, Vucic told Television Pink. He recalled that Serbia was building schools in Republika Srpska named Srbija, Vuk Karadzic, Dositej Obradovic, or Jovan Cvijic. Vucic pointed out that so far no one from BiH had ever built a school, or a kindergarten in the Raska District /Sandzak/, and that only Serbia was building things in Novi Pazar and Sjenica, as well as in Srebrenica and other parts of Republika Srpska and BiH. "We dont have a problem with that. Any Bosniak investment in education, knowledge or school is welcome. We ask you to build them, and name them BiH. We dont have anything against BiH. But, once they heard my answer, they have been unable to tell my anything since, said Vucic. He emphasised that the Serbs from Republika Srpska and Serbs from Serbia were the same people. "There are no Croatian Serbs, there are only Serbs from Croatia, but there are no Croatian Serbs. There are no Bosnia, Albanian or Montenegrin Serbs. Because we the Serbs are one people, there is no difference among us, we belong to the same nation. However, some find this annoying, said Vucic. Even though some are bothered by this, Vucic is not angry when they accuse him of being a traitor or a Greater-Serbia fascist. "I just laugh at that. I support the idea of maintaining peace and stability in the country and move forward with our economy. So far, we have managed to do that and we will be even more successful, emphasised Vucic. /end/ds Trot Insider has learned that retired Ontario Racing Commission Presiding Judge John William 'John' Harper passed peacefully during the evening of July 26, 2018 surrounded by his wife (Janice Walsh) and his daughters (Faron, Vanessa and Megan) in the Palliative Care Ward at the Colchester Regional Hospital, Truro, Nova Scotia. He was 69 years old. John was diagnosed with aggressive terminal cancer in mid-July. A week prior to his passing, John was admitted to Palliative Care, the only course of action being pain control and comfort. During the fast, intense, beautiful, raw transition from this place to the next he was always surrounded by his biggest fans. "We've never been more proud to be Johnny's Girls. Guided by John's example we made to through the extremely challenging time with strength, love and laughter," said the family in his obituary. John would encourage his friends to hang onto the memories filled with great food (and lots of it), card games, horse racing, family and friends. The family will hold a celebration of life on August, 11 2018 in Inverness, N.S., with the venue and time to be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Colchester East Hants Hospice, 89 Queen St., Truro, N.S., 902-893-3265 The family would like to say an extra special thank you to the Palliative Care Team at Colchester Regional Hospital. Online condolences may also be made at the Inverness Funeral Home website. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of John Harper. Natixis :SECOND QUARTER 2018 AND FIRST HALF-YEAR 2018 RESULTS Paris, August 2, 2018 2Q18 and 1H18 results New Dimension strategic plan well embarked Reported Net income up +19% at 580m in 2Q18 and up +18% at 903m in 1H18 SOLid growth and improved profitability across our business lines underlying net revenues(1): 2.5bn in 2Q18, 5bn in 1H18 (+5% and +7% at constant FX) Businesses' underlying roe(1) improving across the board at 16.8% in 1H18 AWM - Strong net inflows and fee rate improvement thanks to our resolutely active positioning Positive momentum for net inflows and the fee rate: 7th consecutive quarter of positive net inflows (+10bn) at a 3-year high, together with a fee rate increase >31bps (+3bps vs. 2Q17, +1bp vs.1Q18) Significant growth in underlying gross opeRating income(1): +36% YoY at constant FX (+27% current) in 1H18 Announced acquisitions of WCM Investment Managers and MV Credit CIB - Net revenues flat and underlying RoE(1) at 17.2% in 1H18 thanks to our diversified expertise Underlying net revenues(1) flat at constant exchange rate in 1H18 vs. a historically high 1H17 Global markets: Decrease in net revenues in a volatile market with a clear focus on value creation Global finance: Underlying net revenues(1) up +17% at constant exchange rate in 1H18 thanks to our sectorial approach Insurance - Solid growth momentum Underlying net revenues(1) up +8% YoY both in 2Q18 and 1H18 Life insurance(2): 5.4bn premiums in 1H18 (+2% YoY) of which 35% in unit-linked products SFS - Strong commercial activity and successful integration of acquisitions Underlying net revenues(1) from SFS up +6% YoY in 1H18 (+7% in 2Q18) of which +15% in Payments Payments: Increase in business volumes from PayPlug and Dalenys, up close to +40% YoY in 1H18 sustainable value creation and financial strength 1H18 underlying net income(1) up +9% YoY at 907m Underlying RoTE(1) improvement to 15.4% in 1H18 (+230bps vs. 1H17) Basel 3 FL CET1 ratio(3) at 10.8% as at June 30, 2018, including 10bps of acquisitions (M&A and Payments) 1H18: A Promising start to New Dimension Francois Riahi, Natixis Chief Executive Officer, said: "As in the 1st quarter of 2018, Natixis posted solid results in the 2nd quarter, in line with the objectives of our New Dimension strategic plan. The RoE is increasing in all the business lines. Our Asset management business grew strongly with net inflows of 10 billion, positive for the 7th consecutive quarter. Our Corporate & Investment Banking businesses continued to record solid revenues and a high level of profitability despite a mixed quarter in Global markets due to a high basis of comparison in the 2nd quarter of 2017 and a volatile market environment. Global finance activities are gaining market share with new loan production up sharply, demonstrating the relevance of our sector-based approach. Insurance remains a fast growth driver for Natixis while our Payments businesses keep up their positive momentum with net revenues up 15%." (1) Excluding exceptional items. Excluding exceptional items and the IFRIC 21 impact for cost/income ratio, RoE, and RoTE (2) Excluding reinsurance agreement with CNP (3) See note on methodology 2Q18 rEsults The Board of Directors approved Natixis' accounts for the second quarter of 2018 on August 2, 2018. m 2Q18 reported 2Q17 reported 2Q18 o/w underlying 2Q18 o/w exceptionals 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 reported 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 reported constant FX 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 underlying 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 underlying constant FX Net revenues 2,577 2,410 2,522 55 7% 10% 3% 5% o/w businesses 2,348 2,288 2,348 3% 5% 3% 5% Expenses (1,640) (1,594) (1,624) (16) 3% 5% 3% 5% Gross operating income 936 815 898 39 15% 19% 3% 6% Provision for credit losses (40) (67) (40) Net operating income 896 748 857 39 20% 6% Associates and other items 7 24 7 Pre-tax profit 903 772 864 39 17% 4% Income tax (266) (255) (252) (13) Minority interests (57) (29) (56) (1) Net income - group share 580 487 556 24 19% 5% Excluding exceptional items 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 m vs. 2Q17 Net income (gs) - underlying 556 528 5% Restatement of IFRIC 21 impact (50) (46) Net income (gs) - underlying excl. IFRIC 21 impact 506 482 5% EXCEPTIONALS (m) 2Q18 2Q17 Exchange rate fluctuations on DSN in currencies (Net revenues) Corporate center 55 (49) Transformation & Business Efficiency Investment costs (Expenses) Business lines & Corporate center (20)(1) (11) Fit to Win investments & restructuring expenses (Expenses) Corporate center 4 Exceptional additional Corporate Social Solidarity Contribution resulting from agreement with CNP (Expenses) Insurance Total impact on income tax (13) 19 Total Impact on minority interests (1) Total impact on Net income - group share 24 (40) o/w 5m in the Corporate center in 2Q18 Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p2) Natixis Natixis reported underlying net revenues at 2,5bn in 2Q18, up +3% YoY and +5% at constant exchange rate. Underlying net revenues generated by the businesses improved +3% YoY to reach 2.3bn (+5% at constant exchange rate), including significant rises from Asset & Wealth Management (+15% at constant exchange rate), Insurance (+8%) and SFS (+7%). Underlying expenses came out at 1.6bn in 2Q18, up +3% YoY. This translates into an underlying cost/income ratio(1) nearly unchanged vs. 2Q17 at 66.6%. The underlying gross operating income, at 898m, rose +3% YoY vs. 2Q17 (+6% at constant exchange rate). The underlying cost of risk, at 40m in 2Q18, was significantly down compared to a 2Q17 at 67m. Expressed in basis points of loans outstanding (excluding credit institutions), the businesses' cost of risk worked out to 19bps in 2Q18. The underlying pre-tax profit at 864m rose +4% in 2Q18 vs. 2Q17. The 2Q18 tax rate reached ~29% (~33% in 2Q17). The tax rate guidance for 2018 is maintained at around 30%. Net income (group share), adjusted for IFRIC 21 and excluding exceptional items, came out at 506m in 2Q18, up +5% YoY. Accounting for exceptional items (+24m impact net of tax in 2Q18) and IFRIC 21 (+50m impact in 2Q18), the reported net income (group share) increased +19% YoY at 580m in 2Q18. Natixis delivered a 15.4% underlying RoTE(1) excluding IFRIC 21 impact and the businesses' underlying RoE(1) reached 16.7%, up +170bps and +150bps respectively vs. 2Q17. Asset & Wealth Management m 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 Net revenues 819 743 10% o/w Asset management 782 713 10% o/w Wealth management 37 30 22% Expenses (549) (521) 5% Gross operating income 270 223 21% Provision for credit losses (1) 0 Associates and other items (2) 0 Pre-tax profit 266 223 20% Cost/income ratio(1) 67.2% 70.2% (3.0)pp RoE after tax(1) 15.2% 12.4% +2.8pp 2Q18 underlying net revenues from Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) were up a significant +15% YoY at constant exchange rate (+10% current). Underlying net revenues from Asset management reached 782m in 2Q18, up +15% YoY at constant exchange rate, including rises of +11% (+2% current) to 402m in North America and +30% to 261m in Europe. Underlying net revenues from Wealth management were up +22% YoY. In Asset management, the 2Q18 fee rate excluding performance fees (55m in 2Q18 vs. 55m in 2Q17) stood above 31bps (+0.7bps QoQ and +3.3bps YoY) and rose both in Europe to 16bps (+1bp vs. 1Q18 and +2.9bps YoY) and North America above 40bps (+0.7bps QoQ and +1.9bps YoY). Asset management attracted +10bn of net inflows overall during the quarter, of which +7bn in Europe, mainly driven by H 2 O (liquid alternative strategies) and +3bn in North America mostly via Harris (Oakmark International Fund and Oakmark Fund). AuM reached 846bn at end-June 2018, of which 413bn in Europe and 419bn in North America. AuM growth over the quarter was driven by the combination of net inflows, a -4bn negative market effect and a +22bn positive FX effect. Average AuM at constant exchange rate increased by +9% YoY in Europe (excl. Life insurance) and +8% YoY in North America. Wealth management AuM reached 32.5bn(2). AWM delivered a +280bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 15.2% in 2Q18 and experienced a significant positive jaws effect of 5pp both at constant and current exchange rate. The underlying cost/income ratio(1) improved 300bps YoY in 2Q18. Natixis reinforces its positioning in the private debt space with the acquisition of MV Credit in the UK and develops its International equity growth offering through the acquisition of a minority stake in WCM Investment Management and the settling of an international distribution agreement. See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact for the calculation of the cost/income ratio and the RoE Including Vega IM, 60% owned by Natixis Wealth Management Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p2) Corporate & Investment Banking m 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 Net revenues 965 1,019 (5)% Net revenues excl. CVA/DVA 952 1,032 (8)% o/w Global markets 444 561 (21)% o/w Global finance 382 343 11% o/w IB et M&A 85 122 (30)% Expenses (546) (555) (2)% Gross operating income 419 464 (10)% Provision for credit losses (39) (48) Associates and other items 3 3 Pre-tax profit 383 418 (8)% Cost/income ratio(1) 57.3% 55.4% +1.9pp RoE after tax(1) 17.1% 16.1% +1.0pp Underlying net revenues from Corporate & Investment Banking at 965m were down a modest -3% YoY at constant exchange rate in 2Q18 (-5% current) and -5% excluding the CVA/DVA desk (-8% current). Global markets underlying revenues were down -15% YoY at constant exchange rate in 2Q18 vs. a historically high 2Q17. At constant exchange rate, FICT revenues decreased by -21% YoY (-23% current) driven by Rates and with a soft April/May followed by a good recovery in June. Natixis' RoE-focused strategy translated into a disciplined and selective approach to business undertaken. Equity revenues were down -15% YoY at constant exchange rate (-16% current), driven by a soft performance from Equity derivatives in Asia and the closure of the US and UK cash equity desks following the Natixis/Oddo-BHF partnership announcement (effective as of July 01, 2018). Global finance underlying revenues rose +16% YoY at constant exchange rate in 2Q18 (+11% current) with a strong performance from Real assets across Real estate, Aviation and Infrastructure. New loan production improved +42% YoY in 2Q18 and was combined with solid distribution rates (e.g. 12% average final take for US Real estate). Underlying revenues generated by Investment banking and M&A reached 85m in 2Q18 slightly higher than 1Q18 and down -29% YoY at constant exchange rate (-30% current) mostly due to a soft French primary market for ECM and several "jumbo" deals closed in 2Q17. CIB delivered a +100bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 17.1% in 2Q18. Natixis expands its M&A advisory footprint through strategic investments finalized in 2Q18: Fenchurch Advisory Partners in the UK, Vermilion Partners in China, and Clipperton in France. Insurance m 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 Net revenues 193 179 8% Expenses (107) (101) 7% Gross operating income 85 78 9% Provision for credit losses 0 0 Associates and other items 0 3 Pre-tax profit 86 81 5% Cost/income ratio(1) 58.1% 58.3% (0.2)pp RoE after tax(1) 25.2% 20.8% +4.4pp Underlying net revenues from Insurance increased by +8% YoY to reach 193m in 2Q18. Underlying expenses rose +7% YoY at 107m, leading to a 1pp positive jaws effect and a slight improvement in the underlying cost/income ratio(1) of 20bps. Insurance delivered a +440bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 25.2% in 2Q18. Global turnover(2) reached 3.0bn in 2Q18, largely in line with 2Q17. Life insurance net inflows(2) reached 1.5bn in 2Q18, o/w 46% in UL products (34% of gross inflows). Life insurance AuM reached 58.6bn at June 30, 2018, of which 24% in the form of unit-linked products. The P&C combined ratio worked out to 92.0% in 2Q18, improving 0.5pp vs. 2Q17. See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact for the calculation of the cost/income ratio and the RoE Excluding the reinsurance agreement with CNP Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p2) Specialized Financial Services m 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 Net revenues 371 347 7% Specialized financing 230 218 6% Payments 95 83 14% Financial services 46 46 0% Expenses (247) (228) 8% Gross operating income 124 119 4% Provision for credit losses 3 (14) Associates and other items 1 0 Pre-tax profit 127 105 22% Cost/income ratio(1) 67.2% 66.4% +0.8pp RoE after tax(1) 15.0% 14.7% +0.3pp Underlying net revenues from Specialized Financial Services were up +7% YoY in 2Q18. This overall increase included growth rates of +6% for Specialized financing (of which +9% for Sureties & financial guarantees, +3% for Factoring and a markedly higher contribution from Film industry financing), of +14% for Payments and +0% for Financial services. Within Payments, business volumes generated by Natixis' recent acquisitions (Dalenys and PayPlug) in Merchant Solutions increased +34% YoY in 2Q18. In the meantime, Prepaid & Managed Solutions revenues grew +33% YoY (+20% at constant scope excl. Comiteo) and the number of card transactions processed in the Services & Processing activity was up +11% YoY in 2Q18. 28% of 2Q18 Payments revenues were realized outside Groupe BPCE networks. SFS underlying expenses increased +8% YoY in 2Q18. The underlying cost/income ratio(1) excluding Payments acquisitions worked out to 65.2%. The underlying cost of risk materially improved to reach 3m in 2Q18, experiencing net writebacks due to sectorial credit rating improvements. SFS delivered a +30bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 15.0% in 2Q18. Corporate Center m 2Q18 2Q17 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 Net revenues 174 171 2% Coface 156 152 3% Others 18 19 Expenses (175) (180) (3)% Coface (120) (128) (7)% SRF (1) 6 Others (54) (57) (5)% Gross operating income (1) (9) Provision for credit losses (3) (5) Associates and other items 6 19 Pre-tax profit 2 4 Corporate Center underlying revenues reached 174m in 2Q18, a +2% YoY increase, of which 156m came from Coface (+3% YoY). The 2Q18 combined ratio net of reinsurance of Coface improved markedly to 81.5% (95.4% in 2Q17) on the back of reduced claims (loss ratio at 46.6% vs. 58.4% in 2Q17) and a strict cost control as well as higher reinsurance commissions (cost ratio 35.0% vs. 37.1% in 2Q17). Corporate Center underlying expenses excluding Coface and the SRF dropped -5% YoY in 2Q18, positively contributing to New Dimension objectives. (1) See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact on the calculation of the cost/income ratio and RoE 1H18 rEsults m 1H18 reported 1H17 reported 1H18 o/w underlying 1H18 o/w exceptionals 1H18 vs. 1H17 reported 1H18 vs. 1H17 reported constant FX 1H18 vs. 1H17 underlying 1H18 vs. 1H17 underlying constant FX Net revenues 4,989 4,756 4,963 27 5% 9% 3% 7% o/w businesses 4,629 4,496 4,629 3% 7% 3% 7% Expenses (3,435) (3,365) (3,402) (33) 2% 5% 2% 5% o/w expenses excluding SRF (3,271) (3,243) (3,239) 1% 4% 1% 4% Gross operating income 1,554 1,391 1,560 (6) 12% 18% 5% 10% Provision for credit losses (84) (138) (84) Net operating income 1,471 1,254 1,477 (6) 17% 9% Associates and other items 20 40 20 Pre-tax profit 1,490 1,294 1,496 (6) 15% 7% Income tax (470) (469) (472) 2 Minority interests (118) (57) (117) (1) Net income - group share 903 768 907 (4) 18% 9% Excluding exceptional items 1H18 1H17 1H18 m vs. 1H17 Net income (gs) - underlying 907 834 9% Restatement of IFRIC 21 impact 100 83 Net income (gs) - underlying excl. IFRIC 21 impact 1,007 917 10% EXCEPTIONALS (m) 1H18 1H17 Exchange rate fluctuations on DSN in currencies (Net revenues) Corporate center 27 (60) Transformation & Business Efficiency Investment costs (Expenses) Business lines & Corporate center (34)(1) (20) Fit to Win investments & restructuring expenses (Expenses) Corporate center 1 Exceptional additional Corporate Social Solidarity Contribution resulting from agreement with CNP (Expenses) Insurance (19) Total impact on income tax 2 32 Total Impact on minority interests (1) Total impact on Net income - group share (4) (66) o/w 8m in the Corporate center in 1H18 Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p6) Natixis Natixis reported underlying net revenues at 5.0bn in 1H18, up +3% YoY and +7% at constant exchange rate. Underlying net revenues generated by the businesses improved +3% YoY to reach 4.6bn (+7% at constant exchange rate), including significant rises from Asset & Wealth Management (+18% at constant exchange rate), Insurance (+8%), SFS (+6%) and Coface (+15%). Underlying expenses came out at 3.4bn in 1H18, up +2% YoY. Excluding the SRF contribution (164m in 1H18 vs. 122m in 1H17) they only increase by +1% vs. 1H17. This translates into a 1pp positive jaws effect (2pp at constant exchange rate and 3pp at constant exchange rate excluding the SRF contribution) and a 90bps YoY decrease in the underlying cost/income ratio(1) at 66.3%. The underlying gross operating income, at 1.6bn, rose +5% YoY vs. 1H17 (+10% constant). The underlying cost of risk, at 84m in 1H18, was significantly down compared to a 1H17 at 138m. Expressed in basis points of loans outstanding (excluding credit institutions), the businesses' cost of risk worked out to 19bps in 1H18. The underlying pre-tax profit rose +7% YoY in 1H18 to 1.5bn. The 1H18 tax rate reached ~32% (~36% in 1H17), the first quarter being impacted by IFRIC 21 and the non-deductibility of the SRF and French systemic risk banking tax contributions. The tax rate guidance for 2018 is maintained at around 30%. Net income (group share), adjusted for IFRIC 21 and excluding exceptional items, came out at 1.0bn in 1H18, up +10% YoY. Accounting for exceptional items (-4m impact net of tax in 1H18) and IFRIC 21 (-100m impact in 1H18), the reported net income (group share) increased +18% YoY at 903m in 1H18. Natixis delivered a 15.4% underlying RoTE(1) excluding IFRIC 21 impact and the businesses' underlying RoE(1) reached 16.8%, up +230bps and +170bps respectively vs. 1H17. Asset & Wealth Management m 1H18 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 constant FX Net revenues 1,596 1,448 10% 18% o/w Asset management 1,522 1,384 10% 18% o/w Wealth management 74 64 17% 17% Expenses (1,077) (1,039) 4% 10% Gross operating income 518 408 27% 36% Provision for credit losses (1) 0 Associates and other items (2) 9 Pre-tax profit 515 417 23% 0 0 Cost/income ratio(1) 67.3% 71.6% (4.3 )pp RoE after tax(1) 14.6% 11.9% +2.7pp 1H18 underlying net revenues from Asset & Wealth Management (AWM) were up a significant +18% YoY at constant exchange rate (+10% current). Underlying net revenues from Asset management reached 1.5bn in 1H18, up +18% YoY at constant exchange rate, including rises of +14% (+2% current) to 799m in North America and +27% to 489m in Europe. Net revenues from Wealth management were up +17% YoY. In Asset management, the 1H18 fee rate excluding performance fees (119m in 1H18 vs. 82m in 1H17) reached 31bps (+3.3bps YoY) and rose to 16bps in Europe (+2.8bps YoY) and to 40bps in North America (+1.3bps YoY). Asset management attracted +15bn of net inflows overall during the semester, of which +8bn in Europe and +7bn in North America. AuM reached 846bn at end-June 2018, of which 413bn in Europe and 419bn in North America. AuM growth over the semester was driven by the combination of net inflows, a -11bn negative market effect and a +12bn positive FX effect. Average AuM at constant exchange rate increased by +10% YoY in Europe (excl. Life insurance) and +11% YoY in North America. Wealth management AuM reached 32.5bn(2). AWM delivered a +270bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 14.6% in 1H18 and experienced a significant positive jaws effect, both at constant (8pp) and current (6pp) exchange rate. The underlying cost/income ratio(1) improved 430bps YoY in 1H18. See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact for the calculation of the cost/income ratio and the RoE Including Vega IM, 60% owned by Natixis Wealth Management Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p6) Corporate & Investment Banking m 1H18 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 constant FX Net revenues 1,904 1,990 (4)% 0% Net revenues excl. CVA/DVA 1,889 1,968 (4)% 0% o/w Global markets 970 1,128 (14)% (11)% o/w Global finance 717 655 9% 17% o/w IB et M&A 168 203 (17)% (15)% Expenses (1,108) (1,121) (1)% 1% Gross operating income 796 869 (8)% (2)% Provision for credit losses (68) (78) Associates and other items 9 5 Pre-tax profit 737 796 (7)% Cost/income ratio(1) 57.4% 55.4% +2.0pp RoE after tax(1) 17.2% 15.9% +1.3pp Underlying net revenues from Corporate & Investment Banking excluding the CVA/DVA desk at 1.9bn were flat at constant exchange rate vs. 1H17 (-4% current) with the performance from Global finance (+17% at constant exchange rate) offsetting softer Global markets. Global markets (excl. CVA/DVA desk) underlying revenues were down -11% YoY at constant exchange rate in 1H18 vs. a historically high 1H17. At constant exchange rate, FICT revenues dropped -10% YoY (-13% current) with a dynamic first quarter followed by one marked by lower activity. Natixis' RoE-focused strategy translated into a disciplined and selective approach to business undertaken. At constant exchange rate, Equity revenues were down -14% YoY (-17% current) driven by a soft performance from Equity derivatives in Asia in 2Q18 and the closure of the US and UK cash equity desks following the Natixis/Oddo-BHF partnership announcement. Global finance underlying revenues rose +17% YoY at constant exchange rate in 1H18 (+9% current) driven by Real assets (>70% growth). New loan production improved +36% YoY. Underlying revenues generated by Investment banking and M&A reached 168m in 1H18, down -15% YoY at constant exchange rate (-17% current) mostly due to a soft French primary market for ECM and several "jumbo" deals closed in 1H17. Standalone M&A revenues increased by +17% YoY in 1H18. CIB delivered a +130bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 17.2% in 1H18. Insurance m 1H18 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 397 368 8% Expenses (225) (209) 8% Gross operating income 171 159 8% Provision for credit losses 0 0 Associates and other items 3 7 Pre-tax profit 175 166 5% Cost/income ratio(1) 54.4% 54.9% (0.5)pp RoE after tax(1) 29.1% 24.2% +4.9pp Underlying net revenues from Insurance increased by +8% YoY to reach 397m in 1H18. Underlying expenses rose +8% YoY to 225m, including a ~5m increase in the Corporate Social Solidarity Contribution (C3S) in 1Q18 which calculation is based on previous year's activity levels (2017 benefiting in full of the take-over of the new life insurance business for the Caisses d'Epargne network vs. 2016). YoY intrinsic underlying expense growth was +6% in 1H18, leading to a 2pp positive jaws effect. Insurance delivered a +490bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 29.1% in 1H18. Global turnover(2) reached 6.6bn in 1H18 (+3% YoY), including rises of +2% in Life/Personal protection and +8% in Property & Casualty. Life insurance net inflows(2) reached 3.5bn in 1H18 (+1% YoY) o/w 45% in UL products (35% of gross inflows). Life insurance AuM reached 58.6bn at June 30, 2018, of which 24% in the form of unit-linked products. The P&C combined ratio worked out to 92.1% in 1H18, improving 0.3pp vs. 1H17. See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact for the calculation of the cost/income ratio and the RoE Excluding the reinsurance agreement with CNP Unless specified otherwise, the following comments and data refer to underlying results, i.e. excluding exceptional items (see detail p6) Specialized Financial Services m 1H18 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 733 691 6% Specialized financing 453 437 4% Payments 188 164 15% Financial services 92 90 2% Expenses (491) (460) 7% Gross operating income 242 231 5% Provision for credit losses (7) (35) Associates and other items 1 0 Pre-tax profit 236 195 21% Cost/income ratio(1) 66.3% 66.0% 0.4 pp RoE after tax(1) 14.5% 13.8% 0.7 pp Underlying net revenues from Specialized Financial Services were up +6% YoY in 1H18. This overall increase included growth rates of +4% for Specialized financing, +15% for Payments and +2% for Financial services. Within Payments, business volumes generated by Natixis' recent acquisitions (Dalenys and PayPlug) in Merchant Solutions increased +37% YoY in 1H18. In the meantime, Prepaid & Managed Solutions revenues grew +30% YoY (including scope effect from Comiteo) and the number of card transactions processed in the Services & Processing activity was up +11% YoY vs. 1H17. SFS underlying expenses increased +7% YoY in 1H18 but were up only +2% at constant scope. The 1H18 underlying cost/income ratio(1) excluding Payments acquisitions worked out to 64.8% in 1H18. The underlying cost of risk materially improved to reach 7m in 1H18, experiencing net writebacks from sectorial credit rating improvements in the second quarter. SFS delivered a +60bps YoY increase in underlying RoE(1) to 14.8% in 1H18. Corporate Center m 1H18 1H17 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 334 320 4% Coface 333 289 15% Others 1 30 Expenses (501) (497) 1% Coface (239) (250) (4)% SRF (164) (122) Others (98) (124) (21)% Gross operating income (167) (177) (5)% Provision for credit losses (8) (25) Associates and other items 9 20 Pre-tax profit (166) (182) (9)% Corporate Center underlying revenues reached 334m in 1H18, a +4% YoY increase, of which 333m came from Coface (+15% YoY). Coface's turnover reached 685m in 1H18, up +2% YoY at constant exchange rate. The combined ratio net of reinsurance improved markedly to 77.0% (93.7% in 1H17) on the back of reduced claims (loss ratio at 43.2% vs. 58.3% in 1H17) and a strict cost control as well as higher reinsurance commissions (cost ratio 33.8% vs. 35.5% in 1H17). Corporate Center underlying expenses excluding Coface and the SRF dropped -21% YoY in 1H18, positively contributing to New Dimension objectives. The SRF contribution is up 42m YoY. See note on methodology and excluding IFRIC 21 impact on the calculation of the cost/income ratio and RoE Financial structure Basel 3 fully-loaded(1) Natixis' Basel 3 fully-loaded CET1 ratio worked out to 10.8% as at June 30, 2018. Basel 3 fully-loaded CET1 capital amounted to 11.9bn Basel 3 fully-loaded RWA amounted to 110.1bn Based on a Basel 3 fully-loaded CET1 ratio of 10.7% as at March 31, 2017, the respective impacts of 2Q18 were as follows: Effect of allocating net income (group share) to retained earnings in 2Q18: +53bps Accrued dividend for 2Q18: -30bps RWA and other effects: +1bp 2Q18 Acquisitions of Fenchurch Advisory Partners, Vermilion Partners and Clipperton (M&A advisory) as well as Comiteo (Payments): -10bps Pro-forma for acquisitions in AWM (MV Credit, WCM) and disposals in AWM (Selection 1818, Axeltis) already announced, as well as the irrevocable payment commitments deduction from capital (IPC), Natixis' Basel 3 fully-loaded CET1 ratio stands at 10.5% as at June 30, 2018. Basel 3 phased-in, regulatory ratios(1) As at June 30, 2018, Natixis' Basel 3 regulatory (phased-in) capital ratios stood at 10.6% for the CET1, 12.5% for the Tier 1 and 14.5% for the total solvency ratio. Core Tier 1 capital stood at 11.6bn and Tier 1 capital at 13.7bn. Natixis' RWA totaled 110.1bn, breakdown as follows: Credit risk: 76.4bn Counterparty risk: 6.9bn CVA risk: 2.4bn Market risk: 9.6bn Operational risk: 14.8bn Book value per share Equity capital (group share) totaled 19.2bn as at June 30, 2018, of which 2.1bn in the form of hybrid securities (DSNs) recognized in equity capital at fair value (excluding capital gain following reclassification of hybrids). Natixis' book value per share stood at 5.44 as at June 30, 2018 based on 3,135,744,762 shares excluding treasury shares (the total number of shares being 3,138,305,787). The tangible book value per share (after deducting goodwill and intangible assets) was 4.19. Leverage ratio(1) The leverage ratio worked out to 4.0% as at June 30, 2018. Overall capital adequacy ratio As at June 30, 2018, the financial conglomerate's excess capital was estimated at around 2.9bn. Before consideration of current financial year's earnings and dividend accrual (based on a 60% payout ratio), the excess capital was estimated at around 2.6bn. See note on methodology Appendices Note on methodology: The results at 30/06/2018 were examined by the board of directors at their meeting on 02/08/2018. Figures at 30/06/2018 are presented in accordance with IAS/IFRS accounting standards and IFRS Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) rulings as adopted in the European Union and applicable at this date. In view of the new strategic plan New dimension, the 2017 quarterly series have been restated for the following changes in business lines organization and in standards for implementation in 4Q17 as if these changes had occurred on 1st January 2017. The new businesses organization mainly considers: The split of Investment Solutions into two new divisions: Insurance and Asset & Wealth Management (1) Within CIB: Global finance and Investment banking (2) are now two separate business lines Creation of Global Securities & Financing (GSF), a joint-venture between FIC and Equity derivatives. The joint-venture includes Securities Financing Group (SFG, previously in FIC) and Equity Finance (previously in Equity). Revenues of GSF are equally split between Equity & FIC Transfer of short term treasury activities run by Treasury & collateral management department from FIC-T in CIB to Financial Management Division in 04/01/2017 in accordance with the French banking law. To ensure comparability, in this presentation CIB refers to CIB including Treasury & collateral management Within SFS, the Payments division is split out of Financial services and reported separately within the SFS business line The removal of the Financial investments division and its inclusion within the Corporate center The following changes in standards have been included: Increase in capital allocation to our business lines from 10% to 10.5% of the average Basel 3 risk weighted assets Reduction in normative capital remuneration rate to 2% (compared to 3% previously) Business line performances using Basel 3 standards: The performances of Natixis business lines are presented using Basel 3 standards. Basel 3 risk-weighted assets are based on CRR-CRD4 rules as published on June 26 th , 2013 (including the Danish compromise treatment for qualified entities). Natixis' RoTE is calculated by taking as the numerator net income (group share) excluding DSN interest expenses on preferred shares after tax. Equity capital is average shareholders' equity group share as defined by IFRS, after payout of dividends, excluding average hybrid debt, average intangible assets and average goodwill. - Natixis' RoE: Results used for calculations are net income (group share), deducting DSN interest expenses on preferred shares after tax. Equity capital is average shareholders' equity group share as defined by IFRS, after payout of dividends, excluding average hybrid debt, and excluding unrealized or deferred gains and losses recognized in equity (OCI). RoE for business lines is calculated based on normative capital to which are added goodwill and intangible assets for the business line. Normative capital allocation to Natixis' business lines is carried out based on 10.5% of their average Basel 3 risk-weighted assets. Business lines benefit from remuneration of normative capital allocated to them. By convention, the remuneration rate on normative capital is maintained at 2%. Asset management includes Private equity (2) including M&A business Net book value: calculated by taking shareholders' equity group share (minus dividend declared but not paid yet), restated for hybrids and capital gains on reclassification of hybrids as equity instruments. Net tangible book value is adjusted for goodwill relating to equity affiliates, restated goodwill and intangible assets as follows: In m 30/06/2018 Goodwill 3,667 Restatement for Coface minority interests (163) Restatement for AWM deferred tax liability & others (288) Restated goodwill 3,215 In m 30/06/2018 Intangible assets 765 Restatement for Coface minority interest & others (46) Restated intangible assets 719 Own senior debt fair-value adjustment: calculated using a discounted cash-flow model, contract by contract, including parameters such as swap curves and revaluation spread (based on the BPCE reoffer curve). Adoption of IFRS 9 standards, on November 22, 2016, authorizing the early application of provisions relating to own credit risk as of FY2016 closing. All impacts since the beginning of the financial year 2016 are recognized in equity, even those that had impacted the income statement in the interim financial statements for March, June and September 2016 Regulatory (phased-in) CET1 capital and ratio: based on CRR-CRD4 rules as reported on June 26, 2013, including the Danish compromise - phased in. Presentation excluding current financial year's earnings and accrued dividend (based on a 60% payout ratio) as of 2Q18. Fully-loaded CET1 capital and ratio: based on CRR-CRD4 rules as reported on June 26, 2013, including the Danish compromise - without phase-in. Presentation including current financial year's earnings and accrued dividend (based on a 60% payout ratio) Leverage ratio: based on delegated act rules, without phase-in (presentation including current financial year's earnings and accrued dividend based on a 60% payout ratio) and with the hypothesis of a roll-out for non-eligible subordinated notes under Basel 3 by eligible notes. Repo transactions with central counterparties are offset in accordance with IAS 32 rules without maturity or currency criteria. Leverage ratio disclosed including the effect of intragroup cancelation - pending ECB authorization Exceptional items: figures and comments on this press release are based on Natixis and its businesses' income statements excluding non-operating and/or exceptional items detailed page 2. Figures and comments that are referred to as 'underlying' exclude such exceptional items. Natixis and its businesses' income statements including these items are available in the appendix of this press release Restatement for IFRIC 21 impact: the cost/income ratio, the RoE and the RoTE excluding IFRIC 21 impact calculation in 1H18 take into account half of the annual duties and levies concerned by this accounting rule. The impact for the quarter is calculated by difference with the former quarter. Earnings capacity: net income (group share) restated for exceptional items and the IFRIC 21 impact Expenses: sum of operating expenses and Depreciation, amortization and impairment on property, plant and equipment and intangible assets Natixis - Consolidated P&L m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 2,347 2,410 2,205 2,506 2,412 2,577 7% 4,756 4,989 5% Expenses (1,771) (1,594) (1,530) (1,737) (1,795) (1,640) 3% (3,365) (3,435) 2% Gross operating income 576 815 674 769 618 936 15% 1,391 1,554 12% Provision for credit losses (70) (67) (55) (65) (43) (40) (138) (84) Associates 7 6 5 8 7 3 13 10 Gain or loss on other assets 9 18 (1) 22 6 4 27 10 Change in value of goodwill 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pre-tax profit 523 772 623 733 587 903 17% 1,294 1,490 15% Tax (214) (255) (181) (139) (204) (266) (469) (470) Minority interests (28) (29) (59) (76) (60) (57) (57) (118) Net income (group share) 280 487 383 518 323 580 19% 768 903 18% Natixis - IFRS 9 Balance sheet Assets (in bn) 30/06/2018 01/01/2018 Cash and balances with central banks 26.0 36.9 Financial assets at fair value through profit and loss(1) 225.8 225.7 Financial assets at fair value through Equity 9.9 10.0 Loans and receivables(1) 130.7 125.1 Debt instruments at amortized cost 1.2 1.0 Insurance assets 101.4 96.9 Accruals and other assets 19.0 18.5 Investments in associates 0.7 0.7 Tangible and intangible assets 1.7 1.6 Goodwill 3.7 3.6 Total 520.1 520.0 Liabilities and equity (in bn) 30/06/2018 01/01/2018 Due to central banks 0.0 0.0 Financial liabilities at fair value through profit and loss(1) 217.9 221.3 Customer deposits and deposits from financial institutions(1) 126.5 135.3 Debt securities 41.0 32.6 Accruals and other liabilities 18.6 17.8 Insurance liabilities 90.2 86.5 Contingency reserves 1.8 1.9 Subordinated debt 3.7 3.7 Equity attributable to equity holders of the parent 19.2 19.7 Minority interests 1.2 1.2 Total 520.1 520.0 (1) Including deposit and margin call Natixis - 2Q18 P&L by business line m AWM CIB Insurance SFS Corporate 2Q18 Center reported Net revenues 819 965 193 371 229 2,577 Expenses (549) (549) (108) (250) (184) (1,640) Gross operating income 269 417 85 121 45 936 Provision for credit losses (1) (39) 0 3 (3) (40) Net operating income 268 378 85 123 42 896 Associates and other items (2) 3 0 1 6 7 Pre-tax profit 266 380 85 124 48 903 Tax (266) Minority interests (57) Net income (gs) 580 Asset & Wealth Management m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 704 743 766 899 777 819 10% 1,448 1,596 10% Asset Management(1) 671 713 730 857 739 782 10% 1,384 1,522 10% Wealth management 33 30 36 42 37 37 22% 64 74 17% Expenses (519) (521) (528) (610) (529) (549) 5% (1,039) (1,078) 4% Gross operating income 186 222 239 289 248 269 21% 408 517 27% Provision for credit losses 0 0 0 0 0 (1) 0 (1) Net operating income 186 223 239 289 248 268 20% 409 516 26% Associates 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Other items 9 0 (1) 2 0 (3) 8 (3) Pre-tax profit 195 222 238 291 248 266 20% 417 514 23% Cost/Income ratio 73.6% 70.1% 68.8% 67.9% 68.1% 67.1% 71.8% 67.6% Cost/Income ratio excluding IFRIC 21 effect 73.2% 70.2% 69.0% 68.0% 67.5% 67.3% 71.7% 67.4% RWA (Basel 3 - in bn) 10.6 10.2 10.2 11.7 11.5 11.6 14% 10.2 11.6 14% Normative capital allocation (Basel 3) 3,874 3,828 3,715 3,676 4,077 3,997 4% 3,851 4,037 5% RoE after tax (Basel 3)(2) 11.3% 12.5% 13.5% 14.0% 13.7% 15.2% 11.9% 14.5% RoE after tax (Basel 3) excluding IFRIC 21 effect(2) 11.5% 12.4% 13.4% 13.9% 14.0% 15.1% 11.9% 14.6% Asset management including Private equity Normative capital allocation methodology based on 10.5% of the average RWA - including goodwill and intangibles Corporate & Investment Banking m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 971 1,019 775 817 938 965 (5)% 1,990 1,904 (4)% Global markets 603 547 363 408 528 457 (16)% 1,150 985 (14)% FIC-T 388 389 253 288 378 299 (23)% 777 678 (13)% Equity 179 172 103 144 148 145 (16)% 351 293 (17)% CVA/DVA desk 35 (13) 7 (24) 1 13 22 14 (36)% Global finance 312 343 315 358 334 382 11% 655 717 9% Investment banking (1) 81 122 85 75 83 85 (30)% 203 168 (17)% Other (25) 7 12 (24) (7) 41 (18) 34 Expenses (566) (555) (506) (567) (563) (549) (1)% (1,121) (1,112) (1)% Gross operating income 404 464 269 249 375 417 (10)% 869 791 (9)% Provision for credit losses (29) (48) (16) (21) (29) (39) (20)% (78) (68) (13)% Net operating income 375 416 253 228 346 378 (9)% 791 724 (9)% Associates 3 3 3 3 4 3 5 6 Other items 0 0 0 18 3 0 0 3 Pre-tax profit 378 418 255 249 352 380 (9)% 796 733 (8)% Cost/Income ratio 58.3% 54.4% 65.3% 69.5% 60.1% 56.8% 56.3% 58.4% Cost/Income ratio excluding IFRIC 21 effect 55.5% 55.4% 66.5% 70.6% 57.7% 57.6% 55.4% 57.6% RWA (Basel 3 - in bn) 64.4 61.3 60.4 59.0 58.9 60.8 (1)% 61.3 60.8 (1)% Normative capital allocation (Basel 3) 7,136 6,963 6,623 6,519 6,365 6,346 (9)% 7,049 6,355 (10)% RoE after tax (Basel 3)(2) 14.7% 16.5% 10.5% 11.8% 16.1% 17.3% 15.6% 16.7% RoE after tax (Basel 3) excluding IFRIC 21 effect(2) 15.7% 16.1% 10.2% 11.4% 17.2% 17.0% 15.9% 17.1% Including M&A Normative capital allocation methodology based on 10.5% of the average RWA - including goodwill and intangibles Insurance m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 189 179 176 190 204 193 8% 368 397 8% Expenses (129) (102) (99) (109) (118) (108) 6% (231) (226) (2)% Gross operating income 60 77 77 80 86 85 10% 137 170 24% Provision for credit losses 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Net operating income 60 77 77 80 86 85 10% 137 170 24% Associates 4 3 2 4 3 0 7 3 Other items 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pre-tax profit 65 80 79 85 89 85 6% 144 173 20% Cost/Income ratio 68.1% 56.9% 56.2% 57.5% 58.0% 56.1% 62.7% 57.1% Cost/Income ratio excluding IFRIC 21 effect 54.9% 61.5% 60.9% 61.9% 51.1% 58.5% 58.1% 54.7% RWA (Basel 3 - in bn) 7.4 7.2 7.4 7.2 7.3 7.0 (3)% 7.2 7.0 (3)% Normative capital allocation (Basel 3) 857 871 849 875 853 868 0% 864 861 0% RoE after tax (Basel 3)(1) 17.7% 21.6% 22.3% 26.7% 28.6% 26.4% 19.7% 27.5% RoE after tax (Basel 3) excluding IFRIC 21 effect(1) 25.6% 19.0% 19.6% 24.2% 33.0% 24.9% 22.3% 28.9% (1) Normative capital allocation methodology based on 10.5% of the average RWA - including goodwill and intangibles Specialized Financial Services m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 344 347 341 350 362 371 7% 691 733 6% Specialized Financing 219 218 215 210 223 230 6% 437 453 4% Factoring 39 39 38 42 40 40 3% 78 80 3% Sureties & Financial Guarantees 55 46 52 47 54 50 9% 101 104 3% Leasing 54 61 52 49 57 61 1% 115 118 3% Consumer Financing 66 65 67 67 67 67 2% 131 134 2% Film Industry Financing 5 6 5 6 6 11 68% 12 17 40% Payments 81 83 83 89 93 95 14% 164 188 15% Financial Services 44 46 43 51 46 46 0 % 90 92 2% Employee savings plans 21 22 21 26 23 23 2% 44 45 4% Securities Services 23 23 22 25 23 23 (1)% 46 46 1% Expenses (233) (228) (229) (249) (245) (250) 10% (461) (495) 7% Gross operating income 112 118 112 101 117 121 2% 230 238 3% Provision for credit losses (21) (14) (13) (24) (9) 3 (35) (7) (81)% Net operating income 90 104 99 77 108 123 18% 195 231 19% Associates 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other items 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Pre-tax profit 90 104 99 77 108 124 19% 195 232 19% Cost/Income ratio 67.6% 65.8% 67.1% 71.2% 67.7% 67.4% 66.7% 67.6% Cost/Income ratio excluding IFRIC 21 effect 65.6% 66.5% 67.7% 71.8% 65.9% 68.0% 66.0% 67.0% RWA (Basel 3 - in bn) 15.2 16.0 15.7 16.7 17.5 15.8 (1)% 16.0 15.8 (1)% Normative capital allocation (Basel 3) 1,961 1,889 1,907 1,958 2,145 2,232 18% 1,925 2,189 14% RoE after tax (Basel 3)(1) 12.6% 15.1% 14.0% 10.7% 13.5% 14.9% 13.8% 14.2% RoE after tax (Basel 3) excluding IFRIC 21 effect(1) 13.6% 14.7% 13.6% 10.3% 14.4% 14.6% 14.1% 14.5% Normative capital allocation methodology based on 10.5% of the average RWA - including goodwill and intangibles Corporate Center m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 2Q18 vs. 2Q17 1H17 1H18 1H18 vs. 1H17 Net revenues 138 122 146 251 131 229 88% 260 360 39% Coface 137 152 167 167 177 156 3% 289 333 15% Others 1 (30) (21) 84 (45) 73 (29) 27 Expenses (324) (189) (169) (201) (339) (184) (2)% (513) (523) 2% Coface (122) (128) (119) (114) (122) (116) (10)% (250) (238) (5)% SRF (128) 6 0 1 (162) (1) (122) (164) 34% Others (74) (66) (50) (88) (54) (67) 1% (140) (121) (14)% Gross operating income (186) (67) (23) 50 (208) 45 (253) (163) (36)% Provision for credit losses (20) (5) (26) (20) (5) (3) (25) (8) Net operating income (206) (72) (49) 30 (213) 42 (278) (171) (39)% Associates 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Other items 1 18 0 2 3 6 19 9 Pre-tax profit (205) (54) (49) 32 (209) 48 (258) (161) (38)% 2Q18 results: from data excluding non-operating items to reported data m 2Q18 Underlying Exchange rate fluctuations on DSN in currencies Transformation & Business Efficiency investment costs Fit to Win investments & restructuring expenses 2Q18 reported Net revenues 2,522 55 2,577 Expenses (1,624) (20) 4 (1,640) Gross operating income 898 55 (20) 4 936 Provision for credit losses (40) (40) Associates 3 3 Gain or loss on other assets 4 4 Pre-tax profit 864 55 (20) 4 903 Tax (252) (19) 7 (1) (266) Minority interests (56) (1) (57) Net income (group share) 556 36 (13) 1 580 1H18 results: from data excluding non-operating items to reported data m 1H18 Underlying Exchange rate fluctuations on DSN in currencies Transformation & Business Efficiency investment costs Fit to Win investments & restructuring expenses 1H18 Reported Net revenues 4,963 27 4,989 Expenses (3,402) (34) 1 (3,435) Gross operating income 1,560 27 (34) 1 1,554 Provision for credit losses (84) (84) Associates 10 10 Gain or loss on other assets 10 10 Pre-tax profit 1,496 27 (34) 1 1,490 Tax (472) (9) 12 0 (470) Minority interests (117) (1) (118) Net income (group share) 907 17 (22) 0 903 Regulatory capital in 2Q18 & financial structure - Basel 3 phased-in(1), bn As of 2Q18, regulatory reporting excluding current financial year's earnings and accrued dividend - See note on methodology Shareholder's equity group share 19.2 Current financial year's earnings (0.9) Goodwill & intangibles (3.8) Other deductions (0.8) Hybrids restatement in Tier 1(2) (2.1) CET1 Capital 11.6 Additional T1 2.1 Tier 1 Capital 13.7 Tier 2 Capital 2.2 Total prudential capital 15.9 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 1Q18 Pro forma 2Q18 CET1 ratio 10.9% 11.2% 11.4% 10.8% 10.8% 10.7% 10.6% Tier 1 ratio 12.8% 13.1% 13.1% 12.9% 12.7% 12.5% 12.5% Solvency ratio 15.1% 15.4% 15.3% 14.9% 14.8% 14.6% 14.5% Tier 1 capital 14.6 14.7 14.6 14.3 13.9 13.7 13.7 RWA EoP 114.1 112.6 111.7 110.7 109.5 109.5 110.1 See note on methodology Including capital gain following reclassification of hybrids as equity instruments IFRIC 21 effects by business line m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 1H17 1H18 AWM (3) 1 1 1 (4) 1 (2) (3) CIB (28) 9 9 9 (22) 7 (18) (15) Insurance (25)(1) 8(2) 8(2) 8(2) (14) 5 (17) (9) SFS (6) 2 2 2 (6) 2 (4) (4) Corporate center (94) 34 30 30 (119) 40 (60) (80) Total Natixis (156) 55 50 50 (166) 55 (101) (110) m 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 1H17 1H18 SFS (Leasing) (1) 0 0 0 (1) 0 (1) (1) Total Natixis (1) 0 0 0 (1) 0 (1) (1) -10.9m in underlying expenses and -14.1m in exceptional expenses linked to the additional Corporate Social Solidarity Contribution resulting from agreement with CNP 3.6m in underlying expenses and 4.7m in exceptional expenses linked to the additional Corporate Social Solidarity Contribution resulting from agreement with CNP Normative capital allocation and RWA breakdown - 30/06/2018 bn RWA EoP % of total Goodwill & intangibles 1H18 Capital allocation 1H18 RoE after tax 1H18 AWM 11.6 12% 2.8 4.0 14.5% CIB 60.8 64% 0.2 6.4 16.7% Insurance 7.0 7% 0.1 0.9 27.5% SFS 15.8 17% 0.4 2.2 14.2% Total (excl. Corporate center) 95.2 100% 3.5 13.4 RWA breakdown (bn) 30/06/2018 Credit risk 76.4 Internal approach 56.3 Standard approach 20.1 Counterparty risk 6.9 Internal approach 5.9 Standard approach 1.0 Market risk 9.6 Internal approach 4.0 Standard approach 5.6 CVA 2.4 Operational risk - Standard approach 14.8 Total RWA 110.1 Fully-loaded leverage ratio(1) According to the rules of the Delegated Act published by the European Commission on October 10, 2014, including the effect of intragroup cancelation - pending ECB authorization bn 30/06/2018 Tier 1 capital(1) 14.0 Total prudential balance sheet 420.5 Adjustment on derivatives (40.1) Adjustment on repos(2) (28.3) Other exposures to affiliates (37.5) Off balance sheet commitments 37.9 Regulatory adjustments (4.7) Total leverage exposures 347.7 Leverage ratio 4.0% See note on methodology. Without phase-in - supposing replacement of existing subordinated issuances when they become ineligible Repos with clearing houses cleared according to IAS32 standard, without maturity or currency criteria Net book value as of June 30, 2018 bn 30/06/2018 Shareholders' equity (group share) 19.2 Deduction of hybrid capital instruments (2.0) Deduction of gain on hybrid instruments (0.1) Distribution Net book value 17.1 Restated intangible assets(1) 0.7 Restated goodwill(1) 3.2 Net tangible book value(2) 13.1 Net book value per share 5.44 Net tangible book value per share 4.19 (1) See note on methodology (2) Net tangible book value = Book value - goodwill - intangible assets 2Q18 Earnings per share m 30/06/2018 Net income (gs) 903 DSN interest expenses on preferred shares after tax (50) Net income attributable to shareholders 853 Earnings per share () 0.27 Number of shares as of June 30, 2018 m 30/06/2018 Average number of shares over the period, excluding treasury shares 3,136,214,689 Number of shares, excluding treasury shares, EoP 3,135,744,762 Number of treasury shares, EoP 2,561,025 Net income attributable to shareholders m 2Q18 1H18 Net income (gs) 580 903 DSN interest expenses on preferred shares after tax (24) (50) RoE & RoTE numerator 556 853 Natixis RoTE(1) m 30/06/2018 Shareholders' equity (group share) 19,180 DSN deduction (2,122) Dividend provision (512) Intangible assets (719) Goodwill (3,215) RoTE Equity end of period 12,611 Average RoTE equity (2Q18) 12,511 2Q18 RoTE annualized 17.8% Average RoTE equity (1H18) 12,461 1H18 RoTE annualized 13.7% Natixis RoE(1) m 30/06/2018 Shareholders' equity (group share) 19,180 DSN deduction (2,122) Dividend provision (512) Exclusion of unrealized or deferred gains and losses recognized in equity (OCI) (354) RoE Equity end of period 16,192 Average RoE equity (2Q18) 16,004 2Q18 RoE annualized 13.9% Average RoE equity (1H18) 15,892 1H18 RoE annualized 10.7% See note on methodology Doubtful loans(1) bn 31/03/2017 Pro forma IFRS9 30/06/2018 Under IFRS9 Provisionable commitments(2) 2.7 2.4 Provisionable commitments / Gross debt 2.2% 1.9% Stock of provisions(3) 2.0 1.9 Stock of provisions / Provisionable commitments 73% 78% On-balance sheet, excluding repos, net of collateral Net commitments include properties that are underlying leasing contracts and for which Natixis is the owner as well as factored loans for which the chargeable counterparties are not in default Specific and portfolio-based provisions Disclaimer This media release may contain objectives and comments relating to the objectives and strategy of Natixis. Any such objectives inherently depend on assumptions, project considerations, objectives and expectations linked to future and uncertain events, transactions, products and services as well as suppositions regarding future performances and synergies. No Insurance can be given that such objectives will be realized. They are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, and are based on assumptions relating to Natixis, its subsidiaries and associates, and the business development thereof; trends in the sector; future acquisitions and investments; macroeconomic conditions and conditions in Natixis' principal local markets; competition and regulation. Occurrence of such events is not certain, and outcomes may prove different from current expectations, significantly affecting expected results. Actual results may differ significantly from those implied by such objectives. Information in this media release relating to parties other than Natixis or taken from external sources has not been subject to independent verification, and Natixis makes no warranty as to the accuracy, fairness, precision or completeness of the information or opinions herein. Neither Natixis nor its representatives shall be liable for any errors or omissions, or for any prejudice resulting from the use of this media release, its contents or any document or information referred to herein. Included data in this press release have not been audited. NATIXIS financial disclosures for the second quarter 2018 are contained in this press release and in the presentation attached herewith, available online at www.natixis.com in the "Investors & shareholders" section. The conference call to discuss the results, scheduled for Friday August 3rd, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. CET, will be webcast live on www.natixis.com (on the "Investors & shareholders" page). Contacts: Investor Relations: investorelations@natixis.com Press Relations: relationspresse@natixis.com Damien Souchet T + 33 1 58 55 41 10 Benoit Gausseron T + 33 1 58 19 28 09 Souad Ed Diaz Noemie Louvel T + 33 1 58 32 68 11 T + 33 1 78 40 37 87 Olivier Delahousse Sonia Dilouya T + 33 1 58 55 04 47 T + 33 1 58 32 01 03 www.natixis.com This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: NATIXIS via Globenewswire Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. For a change, the UN has been succinct. UN investigators reported on what was going with Congos national elections: Armed actors continuously used the delay in the electoral process to promote acts of violence. President Joseph Kabila has been the chief beneficiary of the political violence. Though he claims he is going to step down after the scheduled December 23, 2018 election few opposition political leaders believe it. Kabila has already shredded the constitution by failing to leave office in December 2016. Moreover, Kabilas supporters in the judiciary are threatening Moise Katumbi with prosecution. Katumbi, who is still living in exile, is the strongest opposition candidate. He once served as Katanga provinces governor. Some opposition leaders and international diplomats see another scenario. They contend what Kabila wants is immunity from future prosecution for the various crimes he was committed while in office. These include theft, extortion and ordering the security forces to attack unarmed civilians. In June Kabila asked parliament to review the status of former Congolese presidents, in regards to monetary benefits and immunity from prosecution. (Austin Bay) August 1, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) there was yet another Ebola outbreak, only a week after the last one, 2,500 kilometers away, was declared over. This latest outbreak consists so far of four people infected. This is the 10th outbreak in Congo since the first one was encountered in 1976. Over 11,000 people died during the last major sub-Saharan Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014-2015. Most of the deaths were in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Since then medical personnel have been trained and equipped to quickly contain outbreaks before they can cause large numbers of deaths. July 31, 2018: In the Central African Republic (CAR) three Russian journalists were murdered in an ambush 50 kilometers from the capital Bangui near the town of Sibut. The journalists were working on a documentary report about the Wagner Group, a Russian military contractor that has a training and advisory presence in the CAR. July 30, 2018: Another thousand Ugandan soldiers deployed to Somalia. The contingent replaces the current Ugandan battle group serving with the AU (African Union) peacekeepers. July 28, 2018: In the CAR former Seleka (Moslem) rebels have been stockpiling weapons which are believed to come from Sudan. The rebel weapon acquisition is likely a response to the recent deliveries of Russian light infantry weapons to the CAR security forces. Rebels have complained that the government is no longer seeking a political solution. Most Seleka rebels came from predominantly Muslim tribes in the north. July 25, 2018: Congo announced that anyone who wants to run for president in the December election must submit their names by August 8. Meanwhile, president Kabila continues to discuss with members of his ruling political coalition, the Common Front for Congo (FCC), who would be the best Kabila coalition candidate in the December presidential election. Every coalition party, including Kabilas own Peoples Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), will name four candidates. July 24, 2018: In northwest Congo (Equateur province) the government announced that the latest Ebola virus outbreak is over. No new case has been reported in the last six weeks. The outbreak lasted ten weeks and killed 33 people. July 19, 2018: President Kabila announced that his commitment to uphold the constitution of Congo is firm. However, he once again refused to rule out the possibility he might attempt to run for re-election in December. July 17, 2018: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) ADF (Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces) rebels attacked an army base east of the town of Beni. Three soldiers were killed and three were wounded while two rebels died in the attack. The rebel force then stole cattle and looted a local medical facility (where three civilians, one of them a nurse, were killed). July 15, 2018: President Kabila fired general Didier Etumba, the commander of the army and replaced him with lieutenant-general Celestin Mbala. Major general Gabriel Amisi will take charge of military operations and intelligence. Amisi is a close political ally of Kabila. In 2012 the UN accused Amisi of operating an arms smuggling network that had supplied numerous Congolese rebel groups. Kabila also made general John Numbi the army inspector-general. Numbi is another Kabila political ally. The political opposition claims Numbi had a major role in the 2011 murder of Congolese war crimes investigator Floribert Chebeya. July 11, 2018: Congo accused Ugandan security forces of killing 12 Congolese fishermen in a July 6 incident on Lake Edward. This began when Ugandan security forces arrested 92 Congolese fishermen. Uganda reported that one of their soldiers died when his unit clashed with Congolese intruders. Congo and Uganda are continuing to discuss the incident. July 9, 2018: Both Congo and Uganda confirm an armed incident occurred near Lake Edward on July 6. At least 12 Congolese and one Ugandan were killed. Congo alleged that a Ugandan Navy boat fired first. A Congolese security force was in the area. Oil has been discovered in the Lake Edward area and the border is disputed. July 7, 2018: In eastern Congo (South Kivu province) ten people were burned to death in tribal clashes. Three ethnic groups were involved: the Banyindu, the Bafukiro and the Banyamulenge. The Banyamulenge are Congolese Tutsis. Police believe the Burundian Popular Forces of Burundi (FOREBU) rebel militia may have played a role in the violence. July 4, 2018: The Congolese government vigorously disputed a UN report accusing soldiers of committing mass murder, rape and torture in the southwest Kasai region. In June investigators reported that soldiers had committed systematic violence against civilians in the Kasai region. July 1, 2018: In Rwanda, unidentified gunmen attacked a village on the border with Burundi and robbed the villagers. The victims reported the gunmen attacked from Burundi. This is the second time in two weeks a Rwandan village on the Rwanda-Burundi border has suffered a gang raid. The woodland charity set up by the late Felix Dennis is to benefit from the sale of his publishing firm it was announced this week. Dennis Publishing, which owns news magazine The Week and more than 30 other brands, has been bought out by a private equity firm called Exponent. All proceeds from the sale will go to Heart of England Forest, the charity set up by Mr Dennis to plant, protect and preserve a huge broadleaf forest between the ancient Forest of Arden and the Vale of Evesham. Dick Pountain, on behalf of the executors of the Felix Dennis estate, said: We see Exponent as excellent partners for Dennis their track record in media is extremely strong and we have confidence in their ability to continue to grow the size and reputation of the company that Felix created almost 50 years ago. The proceeds of this sale go to the Heart of England Forest (HoEF), a charity which Felix established during his lifetime. This endowment will enable the charity to create Felixs ambitious vision planting and maintaining the largest contiguous, broadleaf woodland for public enjoyment that the UK has seen in a century. The sale ensures not just a bright future for all involved but will create a lasting and important legacy for future generations. Felix Dennis died of cancer at the age of 67 in 2014. Now world renowned Swiss watch brand Hublot are to further enhance this trend after being confirmed as the Official Timekeeper of the superyacht marina and Porto Montenegro Yacht Club for a two-year period. To mark the occasion, Hublot has launched a Porto Montenegro limited edition of their Classic Fusion Chronograph in nautical blue for summer 2018. The 45mm diameter titanium case features a blue sunray dial with the Porto Montenegro logo on the chronograph timer sub-dial at 3 oclock, as well as the sapphire glass case back. Inside, the watch is powered by a Caliber Hublot HUB1143 self-winding movement with a 42hr power reserve and is supplied with a blue rubber and calfskin strap. Only 30 pieces are being released, now available at Excelsior, a Hublot exclusive retailer in Porto Montenegro as well as all across Central Europe. Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, said: Hublot has become a key player on the Mediterranean coastline, dropping anchor in historical harbours such as Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Monaco, Capri and Porto Cervo as well as in more intimate havens like Porto Montenegro. Hublot again demonstrates its capacity to constantly renew itself while respecting its own proud history and tradition. The classic fusion Porto Montenegro is the fusion of these core beliefs. This exciting new partnership unites the watchmaking and timekeeping expertise of Hublot with our exclusive marina lifestyle community, added David Margason, Managing Director of Porto Montenegro. We are delighted to welcome Hublot onboard and look forward to collaborating with them on our extensive calendar of Yacht Club regattas and social events. Founded in 1980 by Maksim Kuts, Hublot has grown to become one of the worlds most renowned luxury watchmakers. Pearl Yachts Managing Director Iain Smallridge said, We have spent the last two years focusing a huge effort on our new generation fleet and are delighted to have Berthon on side to represent us and our glorious achievements. Berthon matches Pearls values of offering world class yachts with outstanding service, and value for money. We feel strongly that our clients will be in safe hands with Berthon. Currently celebrating its centenary year in Lymington, Berthon includes a yacht sales team of 18 brokers and support staff and specialises in the sales of high quality cruising and performance sailing and motor yachts. Berthons Pearl Brand Manager Ben Toogood adds, Berthon are delighted to be working with Pearl Yachts both in the UK and France; we have a long history selling quality motor yachts and see Pearl as a great introduction to our new yacht range, and with Bruno Kairet working from our Mediterranean office, we have huge potential in both markets. Berthon will also cooperate worldwide as it joins forces with Atlantic Yacht & Ship in the USA, Baxter Marine in Spain and Aquamarine Ltd in Turkey focussing on offering clients a new generation of Pearl yachts as well as the pre-owned Pearl range. At home on the range With hunting season now in full swing throughout the State of Iowa, a new business in the Tama-Toledo area looks to ... Documentary filmmaker Ben Holman has joined the directors roster of ITN Productions Advertising division. Holmans commercial credits include Sol, Red Bull and Havana Club; his work for these clients ranged from branded content to full feature documentaries. His documentary and commercial projects are often related to sport, music and social issues such as Rio de Janeiro-based film The Good Fight which was awarded Best Documentary Short at Tribeca Film Festival 2017. Holman said: Im really excited to be represented by ITN Productions which not only has integrity but also is connected to so many diverse projects and opportunities. I love making human connections and I try to produce films that are intimate and truthful by making them a collaborative process with their subject matter. Commercial projects are an intense hit that can also provide a chance to take new approaches and team up with amazing creative expertise. Flavia Blajfeder, Directors Rep for ITN Productions, said: Ben is an incredible talent who is a great addition to our roster bolstering our offering for authentic storytelling. He has a gift for getting under the skin of a subject or brand and letting the people and culture shine through. His work transcends cultures and values and his films are eye-opening and beautiful. Holmans latest documentary This is Bate Bola, about Rios underground carnival, is due out in Spring next year and will have its online release with Boiler Room. This is Bate Bola will be shown at several international film festivals and has been selected for its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Share this story Carbon 'leak' may have warmed the planet for 11,000 years, encouraging human civilization Princeton NJ (SPX) Aug 01, 2018 The oceans are the planet's most important depository for atmospheric carbon dioxide on time scales of decades to millenia. But the process of locking away greenhouse gas is weakened by activity of the Southern Ocean, so an increase in its activity could explain the mysterious warmth of the past 11,000 years, an international team of researchers reports. The warmth of that period was stabilized by a gradual rise in global carbon dioxide levels, so understanding the reason for that rise is of great ... read more if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi... Like 15,000 other HIV advocates, providers, and researchers, I am just off the heels of attending the 22nd AIDS 2018 conference hosted by the International AIDS Society in Amsterdam. As I arrived at Schiphol airport, donning a "Silence=Death" t-shirt in homage to ACT UP and ready to experience all that the conference and Amsterdam had to offer, I never would have imagined that on just the second day of the conference I would bear witness to the silencing of black gay men's voices and an affront to the experiences of black people across the diaspora -- perpetrated by none other than Elton John and his foundation. With the honor of attending such an important meeting comes not only accountability to the communities from which we hail as conference delegates, but also a responsibility to ensure that individuals speaking to our communities' issues do so respectfully and with the cultural humility it behooves any of us to model whenever occupying a critical world stage. Thus, I would be remiss not to shine a light on Elton John's problematic remarks during a session focused on combating worldwide HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma, in which he patronizingly admonished black people for not loving each other enough, and in which he called out black American celebrities for allegedly not doing enough to fight stigma globally among black communities. A Focus on Key Populations The session was organized by the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) and was intended, or so it initially seemed, to highlight the perilous circumstances that black people in Africa live under due to HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma. As we saw in a series of powerful photographs from a recent opinion piece by Elton John in the New York Times, and as we learned from numerous art exhibits and educational booths at the AIDS 2018 Global Village, for many LGBTQIA African people and other socially marginalized groups across the globe living with HIV, stigma commonly manifests as heinous, often fatal cases of violence. While the vulnerability captured within these photographs -- on which Elton John was subsequently invited to reflect during the session in Amsterdam -- was palpable, perhaps what was most remarkable about them was the overwhelming power of human connection and radical love conveyed through the intertwining of black bodies. For those of us in the room seeing these photographs and watching a video that included testimonies of African people living with HIV and LGBTQIA people, it was impossible not to feel compelled to action, not only to address stigma and discrimination in Africa but in all countries from which we hailed as delegates, including the United States. In the past two years alone in the U.S., a record number of transgender women of color have been murdered within their own communities, part of an epidemic of violence that extends back for decades. Many of these women's deaths are attributable to gun violence, but media coverage of their deaths is largely drowned out by stories of mass shootings in suburbia. To this day, HIV criminalization persists in the United States and many parts of the world. Regardless of whether people have a low risk of transmitting HIV, and regardless of whether they have actually disclosed their HIV status to romantic or sexual partners, people can be prosecuted criminally and held liable through civil courts merely for being sexual beings. Because of the U.S. government's racist, xenophobic, inhumane, and incompetent disaster response, potentially 4,600 people died in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria; as reported at AIDS 2018, this event also had a profound impact on individuals living with HIV and AIDS. Thus, what appeared to be the intent of the conference session overall was commendable: highlighting the impacts of assaults on the human rights of key populations in the global response to HIV and AIDS. However, midway into the session it became apparent that the event was perhaps intended more to raise funds for -- and to elevate the profile of -- the Elton John AIDS Foundation. When asked to reflect on the photographs and testimonies in the video, Elton John himself issued a call to action that quickly devolved into an oddly framed diatribe, in which he called out black celebrities who, he said, needed to "get off their asses" and start doing more to undermine HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma. It was not his call to action that some attendees took issue with, but rather the glaringly anti-black, low-key racist, tone-deaf manner in which he chose to deliver that message, prompting me and others to voice our disapproval on social media. He put his anti-black attitudes on full display by specifically calling out Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean as examples of black celebrities who should pay less attention in their music to their cars and fortunes and pay more attention -- as well as financial support -- to causes addressing stigma because, as he alluded, there are limits to what he can achieve as a white man. EJAF's Silencing of Community Members' Voices To add insult to injury, according to attendees who spoke on the condition of anonymity given their relationship to EJAF, the event was highly choreographed to the point that the session moderator refused to take questions in an equitable manner, and the organizers had allegedly even provided pre-prepared statements to some attendees planted in the audience. Several attendees approached the microphones to directly respond to Elton John's reckless comments about black celebrities who "[do] nothing" to help the millions of people (who Elton John repeatedly referred to as "these people") who tragically succumb to persistent assaults on their livelihoods grounded in HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma. One delegate in the audience stood at a microphone for over 30 minutes to address Elton John's comments and was essentially ignored by the session moderator. This person ultimately deferred his opportunity to speak at the microphone to another delegate, a woman who was waiting to speak. Once she was finally called upon, this woman challenged Elton John's misguided comments about black people. She noted very poignantly that, historically, when black people in the U.S. have attempted to mobilize, as the Black Panthers did, to care for one another and divest our resources from oppressive systems in order to invest in programs to uplift our own communities, the U.S. government has strategically undermined these efforts. In response to Elton John's comments that black people need to begin loving each other more, Marc Thompson, of BlackOut UK and curator of the "Diasporan Dialogues" event during the conference, shared that he was diagnosed with HIV at 17 years old, has been living with the virus for 32 years, and thinks his own survival has been precisely attributable to the love he has received from black people, including other black gay men. By the time the session ended, audience members were decrying as shameful the blatant manner in which community voices were silenced by the event organizers from the EJAF and the session moderator. However, Thompson hopes that this serves as an opportunity for funders such as EJAF to be intentional about supporting participatory action programs spearheaded by leaders who are native to communities highly impacted by HIV and LGBTQIA stigma. As was noted by another delegate who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, the session amounted to a missed opportunity on the part of the EJAF to have a respectful dialogue and model effective, ethical community engagement. "It was clear to me," he said, "that we were watching a theater production, a very carefully staged act, all of which exposed the fact that nothing we were experiencing in that moment was truly real." Further, he said, "I felt like black gay men were being used to raise funds rather than to truly empower community." Ultimately, the opportunity to elevate community voices during the session was lost. While there is no denying that Elton John has been one of the more socially conscious charitable millionaires who have donated to the global response to HIV and AIDS, it certainly would have been in his best interests to take comments from audience members, because it would have allowed for a teachable moment of genuine dialogue around effective strategies in the global fight against HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma. In the previous five years alone, the Elton John AIDS Foundation has directed over $20 million to global anti-stigma initiatives and projects supporting vulnerable groups. Nonetheless, by no means does Elton John's humanitarian record absolve him of responsibility for checking his privilege at the door, nor does it give him or any other white person the license to criticize any black person for allegedly not contributing enough to causes related to HIV, LGBTQIA rights, or the plethora of social-structural perils and intersectional stigmas that black people face worldwide. Ironically, Elton John's track record on funding HIV responses from community-based organizations -- in essence for people to be empowered to speak out against the powers that be -- in this instance served as a barrier to elevating community voices of black LGBTQIA people in response to his outlandish comments. Several individuals who were present during the session and approached for comment for this article declined to participate out of concern for how doing so might impact their existing relationship to EJAF or negatively impact their strategic advocacy work. Thus, as someone who was present during the session, I would like to personally address Elton John's anti-black comments. Black People Loving Each Other Through Intersectional Stigma Just as black and brown people have survived various forms of intersectional stigma for centuries, so too have we historically contributed more than our fair share to causes of which people at the intersections of multiple oppressions are the primary beneficiaries. To Elton John's misinformed message, many black and brown people -- celebrities or otherwise -- have been donating our time, T cells, and money, championing causes that are cross-cutting in their reach, addressing not solely single-axis issues but rather issues that have direct, nuanced impacts on those within our families, communities, and social networks. But perhaps he was too self-absorbed by his own humanitarian track record through his foundation that he neglected to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of several black celebrities who have united in the response to AIDS. Many black celebrities, such as recording artist Raheem DeVaughn, have stepped forward to undermine HIV stigma by publicly sharing their experiences being tested for HIV. After the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, a country already struggling in its efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, Jay-Z contributed to the "Hope for Haiti" initiative that raised over $58 million for relief efforts. His wife, Beyonce, herself has donated to many efforts, including thousands of dollars to relief efforts in Texas and the Caribbean after Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, and most recently to historically black colleges and universities in the United States. At Jay-Z's encouragement, just a few months ago, his mother, Gloria Carter, gave a moving speech while accepting a GLAAD Media Award, in which she shared her own testimony as a black lesbian woman. Surely, Elton John must be aware of the many other black celebrities who have made tremendous contributions to HIV projects and other causes with intersectional global impacts for black and brown people, including Alicia Keys, Wyclef Jean, Akon, and yes, even Kendrick Lamar who, despite receiving a "Generational Icon" award for raising issues affecting his community, Elton John specifically called out for allegedly "[doing] nothing." Perhaps Elton John is also ignorant of the financial support and labor expended by individuals such as Janet Mock, who produces, writes, and made her directorial debut with Pose (#PoseFX), a show that should be required material for any lesson on the intersections of HIV, poverty, racism, sexism, and homo- and transphobia in the early years of the epidemic. The project is helping to further elevate the ever-increasing profile of a segment of the population -- queer youth of color -- who ironically still suffer from enormous disparities in homelessness, HIV, and mental health despite Hollywood's and mainstream media's growing fascination with our culture to the point of downright appropriation and misrepresentation. I'm not quite sure how Elton John could've missed it or forgotten, or perhaps he simply doesn't comprehend how the sacrifices of individuals such as Colin Kaepernick over causes such as police brutality and the deaths of black people from "legal intervention" intersect with stigmas experienced by black LGBTQIA people, who are uniquely targeted by the inhumane practices and law enforcement policies not only in the United States but around the world. Perhaps Elton John even doesn't recognize or refuses to see the correlation between fighting HIV- or LGBTQIA-related stigma and efforts such as the campaign produced by Kenya Moore of The Real Housewives of Atlanta to raise awareness about intimate partner violence. Maybe he is unaware of the strong relationship between HIV and domestic violence, which places HIV-negative individuals at risk for seroconverting and places HIV-positive individuals at risk of becoming victims of violence upon disclosing their status to partners. Focusing on Key Populations Necessitates Recognition of Privilege and Patriarchy There is absolutely no denying that millions of people are suffering from HIV- and LGBTQIA-related stigma, being denied basic sociopolitical protections from discrimination and violence in their respective countries or states, and under several current political regimes (e.g., President Trump in the U.S.), are suffering from visible threats to their well-being that are practically endorsed by political leaders and others charged with upholding their human rights. These threats to survival are nothing new to those of us who face intersectional invisibility and stigma within our families, communities, and socio-politically, by virtue of our multiple minority identities related to race/ethnicity, socioeconomic position, gender, sexual identity, disability, or religion. Despite the outrage that has erupted in response to the fascists who currently occupy the highest political offices in the U.S., Russia, and other nations recognized for their violations of human rights, many of us have long remained resilient as we confront intersectional stigma either at the micro-level in our interactions with others or at the macro-level by merely daring to survive the odds stacked against us. We do so amidst policies, practices, and attacks conveying that many heartless people would rather see all black and brown, LGBTQIA, and poz people simply die off. It was painfully obvious that missing from Elton John's call to action, which in and of itself was well intended (I certainly hope) was an acknowledgement of his own privilege and a recognition of the following: the innumerable factors that perpetuate the stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and violence experienced by people living with HIV and AIDS, LGBTQIA people, black people, and other socially marginalized groups around the world are wrought by our world's blood-stained hands that for centuries have toiled in capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and European and American imperialism. The message that some people's lives are somehow less valuable, less sacred, and thus less worthy of protecting than others is deeply embedded in the psyches and economic policies of individuals and communities from sea to shining sea. The relegation of groups of people to a less protected class is a reflection of the roles that white supremacy and patriarchy continue to play in producing social, health, and economic inequities in every corner of the world. Elton John's philanthropic call to action was sullied by a lack of cultural humility at best or by implicit anti-black attitudes at worst. If his rant at the International AIDS Conference demonstrates nothing else, it serves as proof-positive of the adage, "all that glitters ain't gold." That is, it represents a quintessential example of neoliberal white gay racism, oft perpetrated by white liberals who, by refusing to lead with an acknowledgement of their own privilege, espouse a savior complex that risks either creating or worsening all sorts of unintended negative sociopolitical or public health consequences. I don't believe that Elton John intended to cause harm by specifically admonishing Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean for, in his opinion, not doing enough to combat HIV and LGBTQIA stigma. But as I remind myself and others all the time: Words have consequences! And he should have chosen his words more wisely. There's a part of me that can't even be mad at Elton John. As I've frequently seen noted on #BlackTwitter, his antics on that panel during AIDS 2018 amounted to what black people have seen play out time and time again: white people "white-people-ing," usually resulting in black people somehow or another being thrown under the bus. In this case, it just so happened to be black celebrities, who in many respects share far more in common with Elton John than anyone attending AIDS 2018. But because I'm rooting for everybody black who also roots for my own survival, I couldn't just silently sit back and watch him black-bash his celebrity friends. An Apology by Elton John to Black People Is in Order Based on his dramatic performance on that stage, flanked by an EJAF representative and moderator Erika Castellanos of the Global Actions for Trans Equality, there is no doubt that Elton John was not cognizant in that moment of his own incredible privilege. Nor did he demonstrate enough foresight to consider the dangerous optics of how his judgmental words directed toward black people and black celebrities were juxtaposed with the fact that neither he nor the event planners had even bothered to invite a black person to join them on that world stage. By no means should the calling out of anti-black undertones in Elton John's rant-like call to action be construed as a detraction from the significance of the psychological, corporal, and structural violence that LGBTQIA people and those of us living with HIV or AIDS experience at the hands of people who look like us and those who do not. Rather, what is just as certain now as it was before Elton John's rant is that, regardless of our race or socioeconomic positions, everyone needs to do more to battle all forms of stigma that continue to threaten the livelihoods of the most marginalized among us. There is certainly room for everyone with the financial means to do so, black celebrities alike, to contribute toward global anti-stigma efforts. We can expect this to be true even after a cure for HIV is discovered, a topic on which I just so happened to have had the amazing privilege to present during this year's AIDS 2018 conference. All of this also begs the question: Since anti-black racism, including of the internalized variety, is at the core of much of what's wrong with the world, what then is the cure to anti-black racism? The answer, I would say, is calling it out each and every time it rears its ugly head, as it did during Elton John's comments. And, for that, he owes an apology to black people everywhere, including his black celebrity friends. Cheriko (Riko) A. Boone, M.S.W., M.P.H., is a Ph.D. student in applied social psychology at The George Washington University, where he conducts research on intersectionality; social-structural barriers to physical and mental health among racial/ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities; and psychosocial and structural influences on participation in biomedical HIV clinical trials among these populations. Currently, Boone is the co-chair of community engagement for BELIEVE, one of six National Institutes of Health-funded Martin Delaney Collaboratory sites conducting research to develop cellular and genetic therapies for the cure of HIV. Picnic in the Park (again!) with Forest Acres and Town Theatre Theres nothing better than great music and great companyin the BEST neighborhood around! Town Theatre will present a second series of concerts at Pine Tree Park, Winthrop Avenue in Forest... South Carolina returns to Texas for Palmetto/Lone Star Day 2021 If youre old enough to remember Will Rogers or movies from the heyday of Westerns, you know all about the deft artistry of masters of the lasso, although you probably... #Spiritwalker Korean film 'Spiritwalker' to be remade in Hollywood The Korean action fantasy film "Spiritwalker" will be remade for U.S. audiences by a renowned producer in Hollywood, the film's distributor said Wednesday. Lorenzo di Bonaventur... Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin - (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Fri, August 3, 2018 00:04 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5116481 4 Inforial Free Indonesia has tremendous cultural diversity across its many islands. Aceh, located on the island of Sumatra, is a part of this archipelagic heritage. Its cultural wealth comes from a rich natural environment and unique history that has helped shaped the area. Acehs unique culture developed as a result of acculturation and integration of the provinces various ethnic elements. However, the passing of time has blurred the public's understanding of Aceh's cultural origins, while the amount of people working in traditional cultural fields has diminished over time. It is rare today to see an Acehnese youth pursuing a traditional career, which is a problem for the preservation of cultural wealth. Aceh Cultural Week (PKA) was designed to respond to this pressing issue of cultural erasure. Since it was first held in 1958, the event has worked toward boosting the dignity of the Acehnese as a people that are independent and united through culture. . (./.) It is through the PKA that artists and cultural enthusiasts work together to promote regional culture. Each PKA event, held every five years, features a number of attractions, seminars, bazaars, contests, forums, exhibitions and performances based on Acehnese culture. Visitors are sure to be amazed by the cultural diversity on display from participants of all districts and cities in Aceh. Since its inception, the PKA has focused on reformulating the idea of development in Aceh by basing development firmly on cultural values. The goal of preserving traditions that are on the verge of being lost has always remained the same, while approaches have changed over time to adapt to each period. The passing of time and advancements in technology, for example, have significantly affected Aceh's culture and shifted its traditional values. "This phenomenon, if not anticipated quickly, will result in us and the next Acehnese generation getting carried away by globalization, and so Aceh would lose its true cultural identity," Aceh Vice Governor Nova Iriansyah said in July. In an effort to preserve and reinforce elements of traditional Acehnese culture, the organizers of the PKA chose "Revitalizing an Islamic Aceh Culture" as the theme for this year's seventh and latest PKA. The theme is deemed important as Acehnese culture itself has always been synonymous with religious values. . (./.) Islam, in particular, has had a tremendous influence on the development of Acehnese culture ever since the religion first entered the Indonesian archipelago through Aceh. Throughout the years, Islam has played a dominant role in shaping Aceh. It is understandable, then, that its influence is a draw for tourists, especially as the religions role in Aceh is unique to the country. Set to be held from Aug. 5 to 15 throughout Banda Aceh City, this event will once again highlight the cultural heritage of Aceh's various ethnic groups. On display will be the customs, arts, artifacts, treasures and handicrafts of Aceh's people. The goal is for the community and, in particular, the younger generations of Aceh to better understand the richness and authenticity of their own culture, in addition to strengthening the status of Aceh as a cultural tourist destination for foreign visitors. The cultural week itself will be divided into seven main activities. Its official opening ceremony will be led by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and accompanied by a cultural parade. There will also be an exhibition section that will highlight the culture, history, food, creative products and tourist industry of Aceh. An arts and culture festival, as well as various competitions, will introduce visitors to Aceh's traditions. A maritime and cultural seminar will also be held to study and discuss the potential of Aceh's culture and maritime affairs. The PKA will also feature an awards ceremony to show appreciation for people in Aceh who have contributed to the preservation of culture. The final event will be the PKA official closing ceremony. The number seven was chosen in reference to the seven universal categories of culture outlined by anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn, namely, religion, language and literature, knowledge systems, social systems, economic systems, equipment and technology, and art. "In addition, the number seven contains a lot of tuah (meaning) in the daily lives of people in Aceh. The [] meaning is designed to restore the spirit from a loss of identity," said Nova, who is also the PKA committee chairman. For example, if someone in Aceh feels defeated as a result of a negative incident, they often try to find meaning by counting from one to seven. This attempt at searching for meaning can be seen as a way to ask for help from God in order to reclaim ones own identity. This ritual is also carried out to avoid misfortune. "The celebration of the seventh PKA is a sempena (sacred ritual) to restore the Acehnese people's great cultural identity and fill it with syariat values. It is a distinctive culture that has played throughout Aceh's glorious centuries, but is not immune to adjusting to cultural dynamics of society that have continued to change with the times," Nova said. Google is preparing a version of its search engine for China that blocks results Beijing considers sensitive, according to people familiar with the situation. The initiative is code-named Dragonfly and is one of several options the company is pursuing for returning to China, the people said, while noting timing is still up in the air. They asked not to be identified discussing private plans. The move would mark an abrupt about-face by the Alphabet Inc. unit and a win for Chinas communist government, which suppresses free speech online. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose parents brought him to the U.S. to escape communist Russia, led a dramatic exit from mainland China in 2010 after the company refused to self-censor search content. Brin has stepped back from day-to-day operations and the internet giant is now run by Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai. Still, other Google employees were angered by the news on Wednesday. "WTF!" Google researcher Meredith Whittaker wrote on Twitter, describing the companys move as "enabling mass politically-directed censorship of (AI-enabled) search." She suggested the move may violate a recent Google pledge not to build technology that contravenes widely accepted principles on human rights. Other employees expressed similar frustration to Bloomberg News, but asked not to be identified. Google has been fighting internally over the ethical implications of its actions in recent years, and the China dilemma is a major battlefront. The companys founding motto was "Dont be evil," and many Googlers are loath to support an undemocratic government that quashes dissent. Still, China has the worlds second-largest economy with a huge and fast-growing population of internet users. Thats hard for a for-profit corporation to resist. Google is waking up to smell the coffee, said Andy Mok, founder and president of Beijing-based consultancy Red Pagoda Resources LLC. Not being in China is a huge strategic miscalculation. The liberals of this world obviously will recoil at the idea. Google has been working on Dragonfly since the spring of 2017 and demonstrated a sanitized version of its search app to Chinese officials, the Intercept reported, citing company documents and unidentified people familiar with the matter. A final version of the app could be launched within six to nine months, it said. Read also: Googles Pichai sings China's praises in AI, pledges bigger team We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com. But we dont comment on speculation about future plans, Google said in an emailed statement. China has been the biggest hole in Googles global footprint since it withdrew in 2010. Most of its services are blocked, including Gmail and the Google Play app store. In the companys absence, Baidu Inc. has strengthened its grip on search in China while Microsoft Corp.s Bing operates in the country by censoring subjects and words. Facebook and Twitter are blocked outright. Shares in Baidu, which reported better-than-expected results a day earlier, slumped as much as 8 percent on Wednesday. In recent years, Google has made overtures to Beijing and the countrys tech industry, providing its TensorFlow AI products as well as investing in Chinese corporations and startups such as JD.com Inc. In 2014 and 2015, Google developed a version of its Play app store that only included apps and services approved by the Chinese government, but that hasnt launched. The company decided to quicken the development of a censored search service after Pichai met with top government official Wang Huning in December 2017, the Intercept reported. Google insiders dont know if China will approve the app amid an escalating trade dispute with the U.S., but Search head Ben Gomes told staff last month to be ready to launch on short notice. Beijing bans outright criticism of the government and mention of sensitive terms such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Intercept reported that such terms would be censored in the planned app. According to the Intercept, the app will automatically pick up on and block websites on Beijings blacklist, known as the Great Firewall. Such banned sites will be removed from the first page of results, replaced by a legal disclaimer disclosing the action. In some cases, no results will be displayed at all if a user types in a particularly sensitive query, the Intercept cited confidential documents as saying. Google faces an uphill battle in getting users who are now very accustomed to Baidu to switch, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. I am a bit surprised but its indicative of how much sway the China market now has. With assistance by Mark Bergen, Lulu Yilun Chen, and David Ramli Salihara International Performing-arts Festival (SIPFest) will return on Aug. 4 to Sept. 9 at Komunitas Salihara (Salihara Community) in South Jakarta. The biannual event, which was previously known as Salihara Festival, will present works, seminars and performances from Indonesian and international artists, including from Australia, Belgium, Iran, Canada, Malaysia, France and Taiwan. Lengger dancer and choreographer Otniel Tasman from Banyumas, Central Java, is one of the artists who will perform in the festival. Lengger is a dance from Banyumas that expresses the female presence on stage, performed by male and female dancers, Otniel told The Jakarta Post after the festivals press conference on Wednesday at Komunitas Salihara. With four dancers from different genres, Otniel will present Cablaka, a performance that is also especially created to celebrate the communitys 10th anniversary, which falls on Aug. 8. Staged on Aug. 8 and 9, Cablaka is said to be the continuation of Nosheheorit, Otniels performance for the 2017 Europalia Arts Festival in Belgium. Cablaka is about Banyumas people, who are honest, assertive, easygoing and strong. It becomes their principle to exist in this era, said Otniel, adding that the preparation took around five months. There will be a dialogue between masculinity and femininity, also a combination of both masculine and feminine energy that will be expressed differently by each dancer. Read also: State palaces display collections in August's 'Indonesia World Spirit' Aside from Otniel, Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin is set to open the festival with her Split performance. Presented by two people, Melanie Lane and Lilian Steiner on Aug. 4 and 5, Split is said to be an intense work about time and space. Both will dance for 20 minutes, then the space will be divided in half and performers will dance for 10 minutes in each space. Afterward, the space will be divided again in half, and they will dance for five minutes in a quarter of the original space, said Guerin. Both time and space will keep being scaled down so in the end they will dance for a few seconds in a tiny corner. Guerin, who founded dance company Lucy Guerin Inc. in Melbourne, described the performance as having an intense claustrophobic kind of feeling. Gabriel Aries Setiadi's "Personifikasi" becomes part of the "Karya-karya di Ruang Terbuka" (Open Space Works) exhibition during Komunitas Salihara's SIPFest 2018. Made from wire and LED with a height of around 4 meters, it is located at the highest point of the building. (JP/Ni Nyoman Wira) Meanwhile, Indonesian actors Reza Rahadian and Sita Nursanti will read the script for White Rabbit Red Rabbit, written by Nassim Soleimanpour from Iran. It will be done without any preparations or guidance from the director or scriptwriter. There is also the Karya-karya di Ruang Terbuka (Open Space Works) exhibition by Achmad Krisgatha, Meliantha Muliawan and Gabriel Aries Setiadi. Achmad Krisgatha's "There's Never a Forever Thing" is made from neon tube, pigment powder, argon and electric components. (JP/Ni Nyoman Wira) Other acts that should not be missed in the festival are 20th Century Piano Composition with Ananda Sukarlan, Cross-gender Traditions in Indonesias Performing Art with Didik Nini Thowok, Indonesias Contemporary Theater and I with Jim Adhi Limas, Stunning Virtuosity with Taiwans Ju Percussion Group and Monolog Sutan Sjahrir with Rendra Bagus Pamungkas. Those who want to attend the event can book the tickets online with prices starting at Rp 100,000 (US$7). (wng) Andi Goh used to smoke weed in Asahan, North Sumatra, since he was a fifth grader, but after engaging with art, he managed to end his addiction in 2016 and improve the relationship with his parents. He first learnt to play the guitar, but his interest then expanded to acting. From July 1 to July 8, he spent his holiday joining the Ready to Take a Challenge (REACH) summer camp at the compound of the Myogan-Ji Buddhist temple in Bogor, West Java. There, he took theater class. One of his mentors was noted puppeteer Nanang Hape, who has traveled Europe to popularize wayang urban (urban puppet). In this class, we act, sing and dance, he said, adding that, in addition to the theater class, there were nine other classes, such as music, movies, photography and a culinary class. Held annually by Majelis Nichiren Shoshu Buddha Dharma Indonesia, the camp was joined by 700 youngsters aged 11 to 28 this year. They came from 13 provinces, including Aceh, South Sumatra, Jakarta, Bali, West Kalimantan and South Sulawesi. A day before the camp ended, Andis group staged a musical titled Huana Punya Story di New York (Huana Has a Story in New York), which revolves around a competition between Indonesian migrant workers of Javanese decent and those of Chinese decent in New York in the United States. Although he was a newbie in acting, his performance passed with flying colors. After him, other participants, who took show choir and dance classes, wowed the spectators, thanks to their mentors, including Eki Dance Company choreographer Rusdy Rukmarata and Jamaica Cafe vocal group member Michael da Lopez. What surprised from the choir performance was the fact that, despite the invasion of foreign music, youngsters still love dangdut. The audience went wild when This is Me, the soundtrack of movie The Greatest Showman, was mixed with dangdut songs like Lagi Syantik (Still Pretty) by Siti Badriah and Sayang (Dear) by Via Vallen. I want you: A participant in the REACH youth camp sings Melompat Lebih Tinggi (Jump higher), a single by rock band Sheila on 7. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung) Rusdy, who is also a pandita (priest) with Majelis Nichiren Shoshu Buddha Dharma Indonesia, says that more than 30,000 youngsters across the archipelago have joined his summer camp since it was first held in 1988. Its target is the young generation, because it aims to unlock their potential. REACH also held Buddhology class in the morning. To attract youngsters to learn religion is difficult, because they think that it is more suitable for elderly people. Therefore, here, we not only teach them what is trending today, such as electronic dance music, but also moral values, such as cooperating with and respecting people of different faiths, [in the Buddhology class], Rusdy said. According to him, many of the participants of REACH come from broken homes and are former drug addicts. Therefore, religious education was included in the programs, because it would help them pass hard times and guide them to be better people. We, sometimes, cannot put the blame on the parents for deciding to divorce or for going bankrupt because of gambling, but at least, [through religious education] these children can accept what is happening to their parents and take lessons from that, Rusdy said. So, there will be no hatred between these children and their families and people around them. If the children hate their environment, especially their families, they will hate themselves, he added. If they realize that, they can develop their talents and will succeed in the future. REACH, however, is not exclusive to Buddhists. This year, 10 percent of its participants were Muslims or Christians, he said, adding that they were not required to join the religious classes. Fitri Naulia, a hijab-wearing university student from Palembang, South Sumatra, who took a movie class during REACH, said the camp had enabled her to experience interreligious tolerance, because, although most of its participants were Buddhists, she was not treated like a minority. It also provided her a room to pray. Acting funny: A group of teenagers presents a comedy drama at the compound of the Myogan-Jo Buddhist temple in Bogor on Saturday afternoon. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung) The head of the committee here is very nice to me. Although our religions are different, he guarantees that my rights as a participant are preserved like those of others, she said. They are not racists. Fitri said she had experienced some resistance when asking for permission to join REACH, because her mother thought it would influence her toward converting to Buddhism. My mother said, I am afraid that when are in heaven, you will not be with us, the 21-year-old recalled, laughing. Fitri is happy, because her curiosity for moviemaking was satisfied at the camp. In the movie class, she got a chance to play in a short movie titled Demam Tari (Dance Fever), a remake of the 1985 film bearing the same title, under the supervision of Alim Sudio, the screenwriter for many famous movies, including Surga Yang Tak Dirindukan (The Undesired Heaven). The movie class made her realize that acting was not as easy as she had thought and moviemaking was a complex process. Rusdy was glad to see friendships develop between participants, after some chasms had been visible in the beginning. According to his observation, that problem was a result not so much of differences in religion or race, but in economic background, because some of them came from rich families in big cities, while others were from simple families in small towns. However, in their classes, the gaps gradually faded away, because their passion for art united them. Rusdy said that people engaged in art contributed to humanity and to making the world a better place. If art develops well in a society, that means human relations in it are good, he said. Fighting climate change is much more than a day job for Chris Vernon and Erica Thompson. It is their entire way of life. They are part of a groundbreaking Welsh government scheme under which people get to circumvent tight planning rules so long as they build an eco-home in the countryside and go back to working the land on which it sits. The 'One Planet Development Policy' was adopted by the Welsh government in 2011 and so far, 32 households have signed up. The aim is ambitious: in a small country where people on average use three times their fair share of the world's resources, Wales wants its One Planet people to use only the resources they are due. Which means a simpler smallholding life, spending and travelling less, growing and making more. A spokesman for the Welsh government said the scheme was an important niche initiative, rather than a model to scale up. "It is intended to provide an opportunity for those wishing to live a highly sustainable lifestyle, project a light touch on the environment, and who will be largely self-sufficient in terms of income, food and energy," said Matthew Morris, a communications officer with the Welsh government. "Numbers of such developments are likely to remain small." The scheme has mostly attracted digital-era smallholders with a stubborn determination to return to a subsistence lifestyle in the rolling hills and valleys of rural Wales. And not to ruin the planet with a consumerist, throwaway lifestyle. "We've known for 20 or 30 years now what we need to do to address the problem of climate change," Vernon said from his half-built home. "We don't need more data. Whilst I was sitting in my office working on the computer I got the feeling I could be doing something that demonstrates how we can address the problems. Vernon and his partner Thompson know more about "the problems" than most. She holds a PhD in climate science, he has one in glaciology and is a climate modeller at Britain's national weather service, the Met office. They decided it was time for action, not academia. Eight months pregnant and elbow-deep in local clay plaster, Thompson said their home had to be zero carbon in construction and use to win government go-ahead. It sits deep in bucolic Pembrokeshire, a lush, coastal county in the southwest of Wales that pioneered the green approach before it was adopted countrywide. Just up the road lies the Lammas community, a pioneering and collective eco-venture where nine smallholdings nestle in the landscape around a central community hub. Read also: Scientists urged to 'speak the same language' as public on climate Heatwave The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international group that assesses climate change, estimates that global temperatures could rise 3.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Amid a European heatwave running from North Africa up to the Arctic Circle, the Welsh initiative is taking root on the Western fringe of the continent in a bid to redress some of the damage. The policy also aims to address a myriad of problems beyond rising temperatures, from soil degradation to rural de-population, a housing crisis to wasteful global supply chains. It offers people with little money, but plenty of determination, a way out of the rat race and back to the land. With property prices out of reach for many rural workers and tight regulations restricting new builds, the scheme is the only way for many locals to own a home and work nearby, said another One Planet home builder, Cathryn Wyatt. Dairy farmer Brian Boman sums up the difficulties faced by locals seeking to live and work in the area. "We have two sons both in their 30s, both involved in the business. We have more than enough room here, to build something on the farm for the pair of them, but of course planning is a huge issue," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Housing figures across Wales tell the same story. In the 1980s, it would have taken a typical 20-something household about three years to save for an average deposit, according to the Resolution Trust think tank. The research shows it would now take 19 years. Like many of her fellow One Planet builders, Jacqui Banks wanted to jettison her old life and be true to her principles. "It's a lot of work, in the early years, but what we're building is hopefully a resilient system that is going to help us have a positive impact on the world," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Living in the city I found it extremely difficult - the consumerist lifestyle and the waste involved." Read also: Help save the planet by going vegan, study says The good life To get permission to build a One Planet Development, three requirements must first be satisfied. First is the overall ecological footprint. As Vernon explained, each household must only use their global fair share of land: "If you take the entire global resource you divide it by the population of the planet, you get a number: 1.88 hectares, it's a fairly arbitrary number, but that's the number that is your fair share." Each applicant must also show that within five years, 65 percent of their basic needs are covered by their patch of land, including food, water, energy and waste. Hence the hodge podge of greenhouses and polytunnels that dot the land, often cobbled together from reclaimed materials and designed to make the most of a grass incline, woodland shelter or power-generating stream. Applicants must also come up with a zero-carbon house design using locally-sourced and sustainable materials. The result: a magical landscape dotted with "hobbit houses" straight out of JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", with mesmerising wooden beams, grass roofs and hemp walls. Thirdly, everyone must set up a rural business to pay the sort of bills - internet, clothes, council tax that cannot be met with a subsistence-only lifestyle. Enterprises range from fruit wine to bees, an exotic tree nursery to sculpture - anything that brings in a small income. Warning signs are the behaviors and visible changes that may indicate that a person is thinking about or planning suicide. When we know and are able to notice the warning signs of suicide, they can help us identify those at risk. The more risk factors and warning signs exhibited, the higher the risk that the person is attempting suicide. It is common for people to exhibit some of these signs at different times, especially when they are in distress. Nonetheless, it is best to err on the side of caution and discuss with the person immediately to check how they are doing and whether they are thinking about suicide. Warning signs of suicide might include the following: Hopelessness or feeling that one has no hope for the future. The person might be saying things like I cant see the future or I dont know how things are going to be for me Feeling isolated and lonely Being aggressive and irritable (e.g. wanting to be left alone, easily frustrated) Having access to and/or owning the means to commit suicide (e.g. medication, weapons, tools) Seeing themselves negatively (e.g. feeling worthless, ugly, unworthy of support/being alive) Significant alterations in mood and behavior Talking about death and suicide regularly Engaging in self-harming behaviors (e.g. cutting themselves) Engaging in risk-taking actions (e.g. willing to try anything and dare to die) Preparing for funeral Giving away personal possessions (clothes, expensive gifts) When I'm gone, I want you to have this. Substance abuse Feeling and seeing themselves as a burden to other people Responding to warning signs If you notice you are having suicidal feelings and have some of the warning signs, you are encouraged to talk to someone about your feelings. Thinking about suicide and death can be frightening and distressing. You may or may not have thought about it before, or it could be fleeting thoughts that seem to be always in the back of your mind. You may feel apprehensive and ashamed talking about it, and unsure of how others will react. Nonetheless, it is beneficial to talk to someone you can trust and you feel comfortable with (e.g. a family member, friend, teacher, doctor, counsellor or other health professional). Once you have decided to talk to someone about it, try to treat it as a typical conversation. It is better for you to be direct and clear about what has been going on for you, your feelings and the support that you need. Furthermore, be mindful and prepare yourself for their response it is not uncommon for them to feel shocked and emotionally overwhelmed. Continue your conversation together to work things out and find the best solutions. Encourage your support person to also seek help themselves. It is important to remember that once you have disclosed your suicidal thoughts to your support person, they may need to access further support for you in order to keep you safe. One thing that is important to do when you are struggling with suicidal thoughts is making sure that you are safe. Try to develop your own safety plan with the support of people you can trust and/or health professionals. Your personalized safety plan can be used to guide you in taking the actions that you need to help you feel safe again. Some things that you can consider to help you stay safe: Thoughts are just that: they are thoughts and you do not have to act on them. Our brain is designed to think, and many thoughts (ranging from positive to negative, realistic to unrealistic, helpful to unhelpful) can spur at any moment in time. Your thoughts are not permanent either it could stay for only a period of time, and your mood might be different later on. Give yourself as much time as you can to access the support that you need. Get rid of anything in your environment (e.g. your house) that you could potentially use to harm yourself Save crisis phone numbers or internet links in your mobile phone so they are easy to access when you need to Get someone to be with you until your suicidal thoughts lessen in intensity (avoid being by yourself!) Stay away from substances such as drugs and alcohol that could potentially heighten your suicidal feelings and cloud your judgment Some hospitals and mental health facilities in Indonesia provide suicide watch support, where you can voluntarily admit yourself when feeling highly suicidal If you are worried that someone might be having suicidal feelings, talk to them. Expressing your concern and talking to someone about their suicidal feelings does not mean that you are putting ideas into their head. On the contrary, by showing them your concern and opening up the conversation, the suicidal person may now have the chance to disclose their feelings, making them feeling less isolated, and could decrease their risk of suicide. You can start the conversation by asking how they are doing in general and/or pointing out what has been different about them lately (i.e. what made you worried about them?). You can then continue to ask what kind of support that you can do for them (that they need). It will be helpful to emphasize to the person that you do want to help them and that you will be available for them if they want to talk (so they will not feel pressured to talk there and then). There are several questions that can be asked to determine if a person might be suicidal: Do you intend to take your life? Do you have a plan to take your life? Do you have access to the means to carry out your plan? Do you have a timeframe for taking your life? Last but not least, always encourage them to seek support. You can help the person who is suicidal to find the best support that they can access. Websites such as beyondblue.org.au and headspace.org.au (for youth and people working with youth) have a lot of helpful resources for mental health and suicide support in general. Unfortunately, no suicide crisis phone line is available in Indonesia. Nonetheless, a local organization called Into The Light Indonesia that specializes in education and prevention of suicide does provide vast resources (articles and programs) for suicide support and mental health care in Indonesia. (kes) *** Emilita Krisanti Cornain is a clinical psychologist at the International Wellbeing Center with eight years of experience. She is trained in cognitive behavior therapy and often combines mindfulness and solution-focused strategies in her practice. Santi completed her undergraduate degree in psychology through the double-degree program at the University of Indonesia and the University of Queensland, Australia. She holds a doctorate in Psychology (Clinical) from Griffith University Australia. When not working, Santi can be found playing with her energetic toddler, reading novels or hunting for the next best vegetarian dishes in town. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 08:15 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50cfda9 1 Business FreeportIndonesia,iupk,extension Free The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has extended PT Freeport Indonesias (PTFI) temporary special mining permit (IUPK) for another month after it expired on Tuesday. Yes, the Freeport IUPK has been extended until Aug. 31, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry mineral and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said on Wednesday as reported by kontan.co.id. With the extension of the permit, PTFI, the local affiliate of American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc., can continue exporting copper concentrate. Bambang explained that Freeport had been given an extension on its temporary permit while the government waited for the completion of negotiations on four points divestment of Freeport shares, the construction of a smelter, investment certainty and a contract extension to 2041. Previously, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said the government would issue a regular IUPK after completion of negotiations on the four issues. PTFI received its first temporary IUPK in February 2017, which expired eight months later. The government then extended the IUPK for a second time until December 2017. The third extension expired on July 4 and the fourth IUPK extension expired on Tuesday. The government, represented by state-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), signed a heads of agreement with Freeport-McMoRan, last month. Under the agreement, the government will get a majority stake in PTFI for US$3.85 billion. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Thu, August 2, 2018 10:32 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50db479 1 World #ASEAN,minister-foreign,Singapore,protectionism Free The 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting was officially opened on Thursday with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressing the importance of supporting ASEAN as a multilateral system amid growing nationalism and protectionism. Lee mentioned ongoing trade tensions between the United States and other ASEAN dialogue partners, including China, the European Union and Canada. "The rules-based multilateral trading system, which has underpinned ASEAN's growth and prosperity is under pressure," Lee, who acts as chairman of ASEAN this year, said in the annual meeting in Singapore. Nevertheless, Lee said he was glad ASEAN was redoubling efforts to conclude the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by the end of the year. "It will be the world's largest trading bloc, covering a third of the world's GDP," he said. The RCEP comprises ASEAN countries and Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. While the meetings commence on Thursday, the highly anticipated ASEAN plus Three, East Asia Summit Ministerial and ASEAN Regional Forum meetings will be held on Saturday. Foreign ministers of ASEAN dialogue partners, such as the US, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia are in attendance. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Vatican City Thu, August 2, 2018 17:50 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5103cbb 2 World Catholic,church,Pope-Francis,Vatican,death-penalty Free Pope Francis has declared the death penalty "inadmissible" in an update of the most important guide to Catholic teaching, the Vatican announced on Thursday. "The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person'," the Holy See said in a statement. The change to the catechism, a question and answer guide to what Catholics should think about a wide range of moral and social issues, also says that the Church will "work with determination" for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jon Afrizal (The Jakarta Post) Jambi Thu, August 2, 2018 16:57 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50fe40a 1 National rape,Jambi,rape-culture,Court,prison Free In a rare decision, the Muara Bulian District Court in Jambi has decided to suspend the six-month prison sentence for a 15-year-old girl who was sent to prison for aborting her pregnancy after being raped by her own brother. Derman Nababan, who heads the district court, said on Thursday that the decision was made on humanitarian grounds. The verdict against the teenage rape victim has sparked criticism from human rights activists who believe her trial was flawed, and they have launched a major campaign demanding that the girl be released from prison. More than 9,000 people have signed a petition demanding her release at change.org. The petition was initiated by the Jambi Women Consortium. Activists, citing a number of irregularities during the trial, have also reported the judges handling the case to the Judicial Commission for alleged ethics violations. The commission has said it would look into the report. Indonesia: Release 15-year-old rape survivor jailed for abortion https://t.co/AlQnvPd1Ie Perkumpulan ICJR (@ICJRid) August 2, 2018 Among the irregularities is the fact that both the victim and the perpetrator were represented by the same lawyer in two different cases: abortion and sexual assault. The Jambi High Court said on Wednesday that they had summonsed the judges for questioning. [We summonsed them] to listen to the explanation, Jambi High Court spokesperson, Hasoloan Sianturi, said on Thursday. The case came to light in early June when local residents found a dead, 8-month-old male fetus on an oil palm plantation in Pulau village, Muara Tembesi district. Based on the results of the investigation, the police found that the 15-year-old girl was the mother of the deceased baby. The brother admitted that he had forced his own sister to have sex with him eight times since September last year. He threatened to harm her physically if she refused. The girl was found guilty of abortion as stipulated under Article 77 of the Child Protection Law, while her brother was found guilty of both abortion and sexual assault as stipulated under Article 81 of the same law. According to the Health Law, rape victims can legally abort their pregnancy within the first 40 days of conception. However, the victim in this case decided to terminate her pregnancy after she was eight months along. Pemerintah Propinsi Jambi: Anak Korban Perkosaan tidak Layak untuk dihukum - Tandatangani Petisi! https://t.co/3fIa3Zh9KJ via @ChangeOrg_ID MPH (@MlleAcacia) August 2, 2018 The girls lawyer, Damai, who initially accepted the conviction, said he would appeal his clients conviction as the case had triggered global criticism. We want her to be free, he said. Save Our Sister Jambi spokesperson Zubaidah said her organization, which has provided counseling for the girl, welcomed the courts decision to suspend her prison sentence, citing the fact that a legal effort had been made to overturn her conviction. [The girl] is currently incarcerated at Muara Bulian penitentiary. She is deeply depressed, she said. (ahw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 18:20 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df51070bd 1 City Asian-Games-2018,equestrian,inauguration,East-Jakarta Free The city administration inaugurated on Thursday the Jakarta International Equestrian Park Pulomas (JIEPP) in Pulo Mas, East Jakarta, which took a year to renovate in preparation for the 2018 Asian Games. The equestrian park, which was renovated by city-owned construction company PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) and its subsidiary PT Pulo Mas Jaya, is ready to host three competitions in the Asian Games, namely dressage, jumping and eventing. Besides the competition arena, the 35.25-hectare equestrian park has a 156-stall stable, an equine clinic and a quarantine center. Insya Allah [God willing] this place can be a source of pride for us in welcoming the Asian Games. This equestrian park is world class and can accommodate 990 spectators, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said on Thursday. There are only three world-class equestrian centers in Asia and one of them is located in the JIEPP, Anies said. After the Asian Games are over, the city administration hopes to make JIEPP a leading venue for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) in East Jakarta, he said. PT Pulo Mas Jaya Bambang Mursalin president director said the JIEPP had obtained equine disease-free zone (EDFZ) certificates from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Council of the European Union. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 20:33 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df510d859 1 City Asian-Games-2018,velodrome,fire,East-Jakarta Free A fire gutted a storeroom near the Jakarta International Velodrome in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, on Thursday at around 6:15 p.m. Eleven fire trucks were deployed to extinguish the blaze. The fire was fully extinguished at around 7 p.m. According to the Fire Command Center, the fire did not burn any parts of the velodrome, which will be used for the Asian Games. No casualties were reported during the incident, the command center said. (cal) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 19:17 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df510cac3 1 National human-trafficking,China,West-Java,DediMulyadi Free The Foreign Ministry is looking into a report of dozens of Indonesian women who allegedly fell victim to human trafficking and physical abuse after becoming involved in contract marriages with Chinese men, a top diplomat says. Foreign Ministry's Indonesian citizen protection director Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said Indonesian representative offices in Shanghai and Beijing were handling the case. The police of Henan province have been investigating the case. According to the Henan Police, international marriage has long been popular, [especially] with Vietnamese, Myanmar and Laos nationals, he said, adding that the police had yet to conclude whether it was a case of human trafficking. The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta had not responded to The Jakarta Posts queries at the time of writing. Former Purwakarta regent Dedi Mulyadi recently revealed that a Purwakartan had alerted him of her situation via WhatsApp messenger, saying she had been abused and locked up in China. According to them [the women], they were bought for Rp 400 million, but they did not receive the money. The women only found out about the money because the husbands raised it while abusing them, Dedi said as quoted by kompas.com. According to Dedi, the women told their parents that they had found jobs as sales women in Jakarta when they left their respective hometowns. West Java Police Insp. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said at least 12 girls, mostly from West Java, Central Java and Banten, had allegedly fallen victim to human trafficking, with contract marriage as the modus operandi, kompas.com reported. They were also reportedly forced to work in the agriculture sector. (swd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 13:21 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50e78d7 1 Business shallots,exports,Thailand,Amran-Sulaiman,Budi-Waseso,Bulog,Agriculture-Ministry Free Indonesia on Wednesday sent 5,600 tons of shallots to Thailand, the first shipment in a total of 9,000 tons of shallots to be exported to the country this year. In the past, we imported shallots from Thailand, but now we export the commodity to the country, said Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman when releasing the trucks that transported containers from Brebes in Central Java to a seaport. Brebes produces 18.5 percent of the countrys shallot output, and 57 percent of Central Javas shallot output. Amran said his ministry was cooperating with state-owned logistics firm Bulog to accelerate the distribution of agricultural commodities both for domestic needs and export. Citing data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Amran said in 2014, Indonesia imported 74,903 tons of shallots and in 2015, it still imported 17,429 tons of shallots. But in 2016, the country started to export 735 tons of shallots and in 2017, shallot exports increased to 7,750 tons. He also explained that in 2016, Indonesia harvested shallots from 149,600 hectares of agricultural fields with a total production of 1.45 million tons, while in 2017, the total production reached 1.47 million tons. Meanwhile, Budi Waseso called on farmers to improve the quality of agricultural commodities so that they could compete with other products in the international market. He explained three main functions of Bulog absorbing commodities produced by farmers with fair prices, maintaining the national stocks of staple foods and stabilizing prices. Other shallot producers include Cirebon, Bandung, Majalengka, Garut, Demak, Tegal, Nganjuk, Probolinggo, Sampang, Pamekasan, Bima, Sumbawa and East Lombok. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 10:46 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50db6ed 1 Business SwissCham-Indonesia,establishment,jakarta Free Indonesia and Switzerland have established the Swiss Indonesia Chamber of Commerce (SwissCham Indonesia) to enhance bilateral trade, investment and other relations between the two countries. The organization was inaugurated in Jakarta on Wednesday in conjunction with Swiss National Day. SwissCham Indonesia chairman Luthfi Mardiansyah said the organization would particularly provide members with a forum for collaborative dialogue, lobbying or advocacy activities as well as social and business networking. As of Wednesday, 47 companies had registered as members of SwissCham Indonesia. Luthfi said investment value from Switzerland to Indonesia had constantly increased but there was more potential. Swiss companies operating in Indonesia faced problems related to ease of doing business and ease of operating businesses within the country, Luthfi said. The same thing applies to Indonesian businesses. The Swiss government has tight regulations, he added. SwissCham Indonesia is expected to play a role as a sharing platform and accommodate dialogue among business actors and government officials from both countries, Luthfi said. Around 150 Swiss companies and brands operate in Indonesia, absorbing more than 10,000 workers. (sau/bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Rachmadea Aisyah (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang, Banten Thu, August 2, 2018 17:02 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50ff128 1 Business GIIAS,opening-ceremoney,Jokowi Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo opened on Thursday the 26th Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS), one of the biggest automotive expos in the country, which will take place until Aug. 12. The event, organized by the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) since 1986, introduces, among others, eco-friendly vehicles and state-of-the-art automotive technology with Beyond Mobility as this year's theme. President Jokowi, who appeared for the first time in the annual event, said automotive manufacturers had to seek new foreign markets, in addition to their efforts to compete for domestic demand. I see the automotive sector as the one that has gone international the most, Jokowi said in his speech during the GIIAS opening ceremony. "Therefore, we should pay attention to the development of the automotive sector internationally because it [the trend] starts in developed countries. Other government figures attending the opening ceremony included Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, Industry Ministrer Airlangga Hartarto and Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Wimboh Santoso. More than 250 automakers are taking part in the event, in which 40 new models and concept cars as well as eight new motorcycle models were launched. Separately, Gaikindo chairman Johannes Nangoi expressed the hope that the sales of this year event would exceed last years achievement, which was recorded at 23,000 vehicles worth Rp 7.2 trillion (US$497.9 million). (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java Thu, August 2, 2018 21:32 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5112942 1 Business weighbridge,operation,overloaded-freight-trucks Free The Transportation Ministry has started cracking down on overloaded freight trucks on three weighbridges two in West Java and another one in East Java. Under the new policy, workers unload some of the goods from overloaded trucks, said Budi Setiyadi from the Transportation Ministry in Bandung on Thursday. If a truck's capacity is 10 tons, but it's transporting 20 tons, we will unload 10 tons, Budi said, adding that the new policy had been in place since Wednesday. The truck operator is required to send another truck to pick up the unloaded goods or it is required to hire a truck from a third party, Budi said. In West Java, the two weighbridges are located in Karawang and Indramayu, while the one in East Java is located in Widang. Meanwhile, for trucks exceeding allowable dimensions, the ministry requires the truck owners to adjust the truck's dimensions based on their original size within one month, Budi said, adding that currently, the ministry operates 12 weighbridges, which will expand to 43 in September. Operation of overloaded trucks is blamed for the shorter lifespan of roads in major parts of the country, costing the state of Rp 43 trillion (US$2.97 billion) annually. The ministry took over the operation of weighbridges from regional administrations because of lack of effectiveness. From 113 weighbridges handed over to the regional administrations, only 43 bridges will be ready for operation in September. The government will auction the operatorships of the weighbridges to private companies with concession periods between 15 and 20 years. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jim Slater (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States Thu, August 2, 2018 08:03 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50cf852 2 Sports #tennis,ATP,Murray,Edmund Free Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray, battling back after right hip surgery, eliminated fourth seed Kyle Edmund on Wednesday to reach the third round at the ATP and WTA Washington Open. Former world number one Murray, now ranked 832nd, outlasted 18th-ranked Edmund 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-4 after two hours and 32 minutes in the all-British matchup. Murray missed 11 months with a hip injury before returning at two June grasscourt events, only to skip Wimbledon due to the hip. He outlasted American Mackenzie McDonald in three sets in his opener on the Washington hardcourts before dispatching Edmund, avenging a June loss at Eastbourne. Murray broke in the final game to take the match, the 31-year-old Scotsman's forehand return winner ending matters. After a primal scream and fist-pump frenzy in the victory moment after his first match, Murray wiped away sweat this time, waiting until after greeting Edmund and the umpire before pointing to the heavens, punching the air with his right fist and pumping his fist with satisfaction. Romania's 93rd-ranked Marius Copil, who ousted French 14th seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4, will face Murray on Thursday for a quarter-final berth. Reigning US Open champion and world number three Sloane Stephens lost to Germany's 91st-ranked Andrea Petkovic 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a second-round match. "I played OK, could have played better," Stephens said. "She played a good match. Today just wasn't my day. I didn't serve great. She just played better. Stephens, who won the Miami Open in March, made a run to the French Open semi-finals but stumbled early in her first hardcourt tuneup event for the US Open. "Hopefully some things will connect in the next few weeks coming into the US Open," Stephens said. Petkovic, down a set and a break, rallied and won the final four games to reach the quarter-finals, her first victory over a top-10 foe beating then-number five Garbine Muguruza at Doha in 2016. "It's definitely a confidence boost," Petkovic said. "I started very slow. My footwork was off. I didn't serve well. I was making a lot of unforced errors. I tried to hang in there and become more solid and I found a much better rhythm on my serve." - Injured Kyrgios 'gutted' - Japanese third seed Naomi Osaka, ranked 17th, is the only top-45 player remaining in the women's draw. Australia's 17th-ranked Nick Kyrgios withdrew because of a hip injury. He retired last week from an Atlanta Open quarter-final with the injury and his fitness is in doubt for the start of the US Open on August 27. "Absolutely gutted to have to withdraw from @CitiOpen," Kyrgios tweeted. "I've done all I can to get my hip ready but ran out of time. I want to thank Keely (O'Brien, tournament director) & her team for the support and apologise to the fans. I'll be back!" Defending champion and world number three Alexander Zverev of Germany was set to finish a rain-halted match against Tunisia's Malek Jaziri after taking the first set Tuesday 6-2. A victory would lift the top seed into his first ATP matchup against his brother Mischa, the 15th seed who advanced 6-2, 7-6 (9/7) over American Tim Smyczek. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 12:06 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50e522b 1 Business pertamina,refinery,investors Free State-energy holding Pertamina is optimistic about its refinery plan, with investors expressing interest in doing business with the company. A refinery in Cilacap, Central Java is awaiting spin-off approval from Saudi Aramco, a Saudi Arabian oil company, Pertamina refinery and petrochemical megaproject director Heru Setiawan said on Wednesday. We are still talking with Saudi Aramco. The plan is on schedule. Meanwhile, we are in the process of acquiring land in Cilacap, he said. Pertamina has to yet to decide on a partner for its refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. Pertamina will maintain 51 percent ownership in its Balikpapan refinery project, Heru said, adding that Pertamina was also in talks with other investors, including those from Oman for a refinery in Bontang, East Kalimantan. Pertamina is upgrading its four existing refineries and building two new ones to double Indonesias refining capacity to 2 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) by 2025 from 1 million bopd. The four existing refineries are located in Cilacap; Balongan in West Java, Dumai in Riau; and Balikpapan in East Kalimantan. Meanwhile, the two new refineries are located in Tuban in East Java and Bontang. Heru said its refinery business was expected to gain additional supplies from Rokan Block, a lucrative oil block Pertamina was set to take over in 2021. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 15:45 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50f9bd8 1 City crime,hypnotism,Singapore,arrest Free A man suspected of hypnotizing people and claiming to be an oil tycoon from Singapore while robbing them has been arrested, police said on Thursday. The suspect is being questioned at the Jakarta Police, South Jakarta Police criminal investigation unit chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Stefanus Tamuntuan told kompas.com. He said the suspect, identified as BS, may have been part of a group that had conned people using varying methods. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said the Singaporean was arrested at the arrival gate of Husein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung, West Java, on Wednesday. Police have also confiscated evidence, such as a Permata Bank check worth Rp 1.3 billion [US$89,897] and one bundle of ownership certificates. A 60-year-old woman reported on July 21 that she had been conned by the suspect, having lost Rp 40 million. She handed over to police three CCTV tape recordings, money and a business card with a Shell company logo printed on it. The alleged victims daughter said her mother had met a man claiming to be an oil tycoon who asked for directions and wanted to exchange foreign currency. She said an older man had approached her mother and asked her to help the suspect and asked her to withdraw money from a bank in Cipulir, South Jakarta. Another alleged victim has come forward, claiming to have been cheated out of Rp 70 million. (ami) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 13:45 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50e972e 1 National basilanbombing Free The National Police have been in talks with their Philippine counterpart regarding an allegation that an Indonesian national was involved in a recent bomb explosion in Lamitan, a city in Balisan province in the southern Philippines. We have been coordinating [on the matter], National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Syafruddin said in Jakarta on Thursday, kompas.com reported. The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has also reportedly been involved in the process. The allegation was first reported by local media, which stated that an Indonesian national was among the men killed in the blast. The Indonesian was inside a car carrying a bomb that exploded near a military post in Lamitan on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Col. Edgardo Arevalo said Wednesday that Abu Sayyaf was behind the explosion in Lamitan City, which left 11 people dead including one soldier, five militiamen, four civilians and the suspected bomber, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. Hours after the incident, Reuters reported that the Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack. Arevalo immediately played down the claim, saying that any organization can conveniently claim responsibility and ride on the incident for their own glorification. Jumping into it will be like aiding their narrative and acting as an instrument of terrorist propaganda, he said as quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. (swd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam Thu, August 2, 2018 11:38 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50e10c1 4 National measles-rubella,MUI,MUI-edict,vaccination Free The Riau Islands Health Agency has commenced with the national measles and rubella (MR) vaccination program in the province against the advice of the local Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chapter in Riau Islands. The national MR vaccination program is to scheduled run from August to September. The MUI's Riau Islands provincial chapter had asked the agency to postpone the vaccination, pending a halal certification for the measles and rubella vaccines from the MUIs. The Riau Islands MUI reached its conclusion following an internal meeting a few days earlier, and had also called on residents not to participate in the program until the MUI advised otherwise. Should the vaccination [program] trigger doubts among Muslims, then it is better to postpone [the program], said Batam MUI chairman Usman Ahmad on Wednesday. The Riau Islands Health Agency, however, disregarded the Batam MUI's request and commenced with the government program on Wednesday, when Riau Islands Governor Burdin Basirun launched the program at an elementary school in Batam. Riau Islands Health Agency head Tjetjep Yudiana said the provincial administration was not discouraged by the Batam MUI's advice against the vaccination program. It is an internal matter of the MUI. We havent received any formal instruction [from the central government] to stop, so we are going ahead with the program, he told The Jakarta Post. The agency has set aside Rp 11 billion (US$761,051.5) of its budget to finance the program and has deployed over 3,000 personnel to provide the MR vaccination from August to September. The province has targeted vaccinating 604,000 children between the ages of 19 months and 15 years. We have advised parents not to be confused. If they are concerned [about their children], then they should have their children vaccinated, Tjetjep said. (swd) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 14:32 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50eb539 1 Business SMF,EBA-asset-backed-securities,retail Free State-owned secondary mortgage financing firm PT Sarana Multigriya Finansial (SMF) on Thursday launched a series of participation certificates for asset-backed securities, the EBA-SP BTN 01, in a move that aims to increase its issuance of asset-backed securities (EBA) for retail investors. SMF is collaborating with BNI Sekuritas to utilize the latter's customer base and extensive marketing network in order to attract retail investors. Before, the EBA-SP was mostly owned by pension funds and insurance companies. The retail EBA-SP is our effort to expand our investor base, to reach out to the millennial generation and other retail investors, SMF president director Ananta Wiyogo said on Thursday at the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The firm's collaboration with BNI Sekuritas also aims to make it easier for retail investors to buy securities products through an e-trading portal. The EBA-SP BTN 01 has a T+1 settlement period. BNI Sekuritas president director Adiyasa Suhadibroto said investors could buy the EBA-SP BTN 01 for a minimum Rp 100,000. The EBA-SP BTN 01 has an idAAA rating from PT Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo), with a coupon rate of 8.6 percent per year. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, August 2, 2018 17:30 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df5102548 1 City Asian-Games-2018,anies-baswedan,Alex-Noerdin,talk-show,tension Free Tension between the Jakarta and Palembang administrations built up Wednesday when the regions governors, Anies Baswedan and Alex Noerdin, featured on a talk show to discuss preparations of the cities to co-host the Asian Games. Anies talked about the expansion of the odd-even traffic policy, which was fully implemented on Wednesday, to enable athletes to reach Games venues fast. The Organizing Committee of Asia (OCA) has set athletes travel time between the athletes village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, and Game venues at a maximum of 34 minutes. Anies said the challenge to managing traffic lied in the fact that Game venues in Jakarta were located in eight different places. It is a lot easier in South Sumatra because all the venues are located in one complex, he said during the talk show, which was moderated by Najwa Shihab. Asian Games venues in Palembang are all situated inside Jakabaring Sport City Center. Alex responded: In Jakabaring, one only needs to walk one to 10 minutes to reach the venues. This is because of good planning. Read also: Tracing history of GBK and JSC Anies then said conditions in Jakarta and Palembang were very different because most of the venues in Jakarta were older while Jakabaring was new. Meanwhile, Alex offered to help the Jakarta administration clean the smelly Kali Item (black river), which is located across from the athletes village. He said the Palembang administration was used to cleaning rivers, citing the Musi River, which people used as a recreation site. Anies turned down the offer, saying rivers in Jakarta were different from those in Palembang. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Kabul, Afghanistan Thu, August 2, 2018 16:25 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50fc966 2 World #Afghanistan,foreigners,#MurderCase,murder-case,Malaysia Free Militants abducted and killed three foreign nationals working for an international food company in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday, security officials and a diplomat said. A senior diplomat in Kabul said the three worked for the world's second-largest food and catering services company, Sodexo. "An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian citizen were abducted and killed. We have found their bodies," Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for Kabul's police chief, told Reuters. An Afghan security official said they found identity cards next to the bodies and were seeking confirmation from the company. Officals at Sodexo in Afghanistan were not immediately available for comment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Zul Trio Anggono (The Jakarta Post) Karangasem, Bali Thu, August 2, 2018 18:30 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df510aac7 1 Business World-Bank,IMF,IMF-WB-meeting,bali,Made-Mangku-Pastika,Petrus-Golose,#IMFWBG Free Top officials from the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bali administration and the Bali Police prayed together on Thursday under drizzling rain in Besakih Temple in Karangasem regency. IMF secretary of the fund Jianhai Lin and WB vice president and corporate secretary Yvonne Tsikata prayed alongside Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Petrus Golose and Bank Indonesias Bali office head Causa Iman Karana. They prayed for a smooth event in October this year in Nusa Dua, where an estimated 15,000 delegates from 189 countries will come to the island to talk about the global economic situation. Governor Pastika said after the prayer that they had asked for Gods blessing. The IMFs Lin, who donned a batik and a white Balinese headdress, thanked all Balinese and Indonesians for the opportunity to join a special event at the Hindu temple of Besakih. He shared his optimism that the event would go well, praising Indonesia as a beautiful country and Bali a beautiful island. As of June 26, the government has disbursed Rp 500 billion (US$35 million) of the total budget of Rp 855 billion for the upcoming event in Bali. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Fachrul Sidiq (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang Fri, August 3 2018 A long history of violence between students at two privately run vocational high schools, SMK Sasmita 1 Pamulang and SMK Bhipuri Serpong, in South Tangerang has prompted Banten Governor Wahidin Halim to call for an end to the conflict. On Thursday, two days after the latest brawl erupted in Setu, which took place just a few hundreds meters from a Cisauk Police post, Wahidin convened a meeting at the citys education agency office with principals from both schools and related parties to seek a solution to the matter. The [perpetrators] claimed that it was to uphold their honor, and was fueled by incitement by their seniors. Personal grudges also played a part in the incident, the governor said after the meeting. He said the incident was triggered by an exchange of insults on social media, including one comment that described SMK Bhipuri, the older school, established in 1989, as a goat pen. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Thu, August 2, 2018 17:10 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50ffdc3 1 SE Asia ASEAN,China,South-China-Sea,Code-of-Conduct,militarization Free ASEAN and China introduced a single draft on Thursday that underpins all future negotiations for the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, where China and a clutch of Southeast Asian nations have overlapping claims. Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakhrishnan made the announcement in his opening remarks at the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, saying that another milestone in the COC process had been achieved. "At the recent COC talks in Changsha, China, in June, ASEAN member states and China arrived at a single draft COC negotiating text, which will be a living document and the basis of future COC negotiations," Balakhrishnan said on Thursday. The negotiating text is to remain confidential. The minister said ASEAN and China also agreed on the key modalities for future rounds of COC negotiations. China has recently come under fire for continued activities in the disputed waters, including the construction of military bases and the deployment of military assets on man-made islands. Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines all claim some or all of the South China Sea and its myriad shoals, reefs and islands. Taiwan also claims it. The ASEAN-China dialogue has been used by both sides as a means to reduce tension and work towards the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea, which mandates the early conclusion of the COC. Singapore is currently country coordinator for ASEAN-China relations, but is set to hand over its role to the Philippines. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Beijing, China Thu, August 2, 2018 13:37 1182 b147f6715e2195e5246e701df50e967d 2 SE Asia #cambodia,China,Cambodia,election Free Foreigners should not interfere in Cambodia's internal affairs, the Chinese government's top diplomat told his Cambodian counterpart, following an election in the Southeast Asian nation that critics said was neither free nor fair. China is Cambodia's most important diplomatic and economic backer. Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party said on Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier, a vote heavily criticised by rights groups, the United States and other Western countries. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi offered his congratulations for what he said was the "smooth" election, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday after Wang met Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore. The election result showed the Cambodian people's "affirmation and trust" in the administration of the Cambodian People's Party, Wang said. "China has always resolutely supported Cambodia's efforts to protect its sovereignty, independence and stability, and opposes any foreign country interfering in Cambodia's internal affairs," the statement cited Wang as saying. China would continue to provide help to Cambodia to maintain stability and develop, he said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Prak Sokhon as saying the election was orderly and transparent and that the Cambodian people had voted for peace, stability and development. "China is the Cambodian people's closest, most reliable friend," he said, according to the Chinese statement. Staff at the Eiffel Tower shut down the Paris landmark on Wednesday afternoon in protest over a new access policy which they say is generating "monstrous" queues for tourists. Access to the monument, which welcomed more than six million visitors last year, was blocked from 1400 GMT, according to a sign at the base of the tower. Staff had already been set to strike on Thursday. The site's management said staff took action after talks with unions fell apart earlier on Wednesday afternoon. The site was not evacuated, and tourists already inside were allowed to finish their visits. Yunhyie Park was unaware of the strike when she arrived this afternoon with her parents, who were making their first visit from South Korea. "Yesterday we saw (about the strike) and we hoped it wasn't true, but finally it's true," she told AFP. "It's really a shame." Staff are angry over a decision last month to start setting aside half of the Eiffel Tower's daily tickets for people who buy them online in advance and choose a scheduled time for their visit. Previously just 20 percent of tickets to go up the 324-metre (1,063-foot) "Iron Lady" could be booked ahead of time. The tower's management has also started reserving specific elevators for each type of ticket holder, a move which "creates lines that are at times monstrous and often lopsided," the CGT union said. During off-peak times for pre-booked tickets, such as the early afternoon, the reserved elevator might be half empty -- despite lines of up to three hours at the elevator for walk-ins. Read also: Why its actually illegal to take pictures of Eiffel Tower at night And high demand at the pre-booked elevator can cause back-ups that force people to wait long beyond their scheduled visit. Hector had traveled from Monterey, Mexico, with his wife and children for their first trip to France, and was just about to reach the elevators when the doors shut. "We've been here for two and a half hours, waiting for nothing," he said. "We will take a look for tomorrow, but we will need to buy another ticket," he said, because pre-booked tickets will only be reimbursed -- not exchanged for another time slot. "Employees' patience has run out," the CGT's Denis Vavassori said on Monday, adding that many visitors were unhappy with the long waits. Staff want all the elevators to be available to all visitors, no matter what kind of ticket they have bought. SETE, the company which runs the site, says it sells 10,000 online tickets for the tower every day and that "the waiting time is very short". "For visitors who come without tickets, the waiting time at the checkouts at the foot of the Eiffel Tower is exactly the same as last year, while the number of visitors has increased," it insisted. The tower has been hit by repeated strikes by its 300-strong staff in recent years over issues ranging from pick-pocketing to maintenance work. The Indonesia Festival returns for the third time to Moscow from Aug. 2 to 5. Initiated by the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow, the "Visit Wonderful Indonesia: Explore our Regions"-themed festival takes place at the Krasnaya Presnya Park in the city center. "It is an integrated promotion event of trade, investment, tourism and art and culture as part of Indonesia's economic diplomacy in Russia," said a representative of the Moscow embassy, Enjay Diana, on Monday as reported by Antara. Supported by the Foreign and Tourism ministries as well as various sponsors, the festival features highlighted products, such as coffee, fashion, accessories, palm oil, cuisine and handicrafts in 85 booths. The event will also showcase various art and cultural performances like traditional songs, dances and music on several stages erected at the venue as well as other locations. To further enliven the festival, visitors can also expect to enjoy wayang kulit (leather puppet) and gamelan shows, a fashion show featuring Indonesian designers, a pencak silat (traditional martial arts) display and traditional wedding ceremony, or join dance and traditional music masterclasses, a batik workshop, an Indonesian language class and a cooking class. Read also: Indonesian flavors spice up Moscow This year's festival is more special, said Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Wahid Supriyadi, as the venue is larger than before and hosts dedicated pavilions for Indonesian regions. "Hopefully the relationship between Indonesia and Russia can be strengthened and in turn have a positive effect in increased economic, trade, investment and tourism cooperation," he added. Home to over 147 million people with rapid middle class growth and purchasing power, Russia is a potentially important market for Indonesia. According to Tourism Ministry data in 2017 over 110,000 Russian tourists visited the archipelago, an increase of 37.28 percent from the previous year. (saz/kes) Ryanair's Irish pilots are preparing to strike again on Friday in a new wave of industrial action against the no-frills carrier across Europe at the height of summer travel. Industrial action is also planned by Ryanair pilots in Belgium and Sweden on August 10, while German and Dutch cockpit crew have voted to strike but have not yet set a date. Friday's strike will be the fourth in Ireland for Europe's second biggest airline, and will affect 20 out of 300 flights in and out of the country that day. The low-cost airline in a statement on Wednesday offered to meet the Irish pilots "so we can get down to the serious work of resolving this dispute". But its chief executive Michael O'Leary has warned the airline may shift jobs and planes to more profitable areas if the strikes continue. "These unions have to learn that Ryanair is not some legacy airline that's going to roll over every time we're threatened with a strike," O'Leary told investors on Monday, Bloomberg reported. Unions have been highly critical of Ryanair's combative approach. The Swedish pilots union Svensk Pilotforening (SPF) said Ryanair "had consistently refused to meet with and negotiate with representatives of SPF", accusing the Irish airline of wanting to pick its own negotiating team from the union. The SPF said around 40 pilots at Skavsta airport, 100 kilometres (62 miles) southwest of Stockholm, would go on strike. Dutch and German pilots have also voted by overwhelming margins to strike unless they reach a deal with management. Read also: Italy fines Ryanair for mass flight cancellations "Ryanair needs a wake-up call and a strike in the Netherlands might be the only solution," the Dutch Airline Pilots Association said in a statement. The union said that Dutch law should be applied to Ryanair contracts and there should be "no more bogus self-employment and a sufficient sick pay and pension". Ryanair's share price fell sharply by 3.41 percent to 13.61 euros by around 1430 GMT following the union announcements. 'Playing for time' Germany's Cockpit union gave Ryanair until August 6 to submit a proposal for negotiation, noting that talks last Friday had broken down with no agreement. "Since the start of our negotiations in January, Ryanair has been playing for time and even if Ryanair is not taking this ballot seriously, industrial action like in other European countries seems unavoidable in Germany as well," the union said. Ryanair said it remained open to further talks with pilot representatives to discuss union recognition and collective labour agreements. "In the interim, we have requested these pilot unions to give us seven days' notice of any planned strike action so that we can minimise the disruption to our customers by cancelling flights in advance and offering them alternative flights or refunds," a company statement said. Ryanair, which flies in 37 countries and carried 130 million passengers last year, averted widespread strikes before Christmas 2017 by agreeing to recognise trade unions for the first time in its 32-year history. But in the months since it has struggled to reach agreement on terms with several of them. The airline was hit by a round of strikes last week affecting 600 flights in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It said the 100,000 affected passengers had all been put on alternative flights or would receive refunds. Read also: Tired of waiting, Ryanair passenger gets out and sits on win Following last week's strikes, the airline threatened to cut more than 300 jobs in Ireland, blaming a downturn in bookings caused by the industrial action. The airline said the overhaul was also partly driven by the "rapid growth" of Ryanair Sun, its profitable Polish charter operation. Unions want the airline to give contractors the same work conditions as staff employees. They are also seeking that Ryanair staff be employed according to the national legislation of the country they work in, rather than that of Ireland as is currently the case, which blocks the workers' access to state benefits. Ryanair argues that since its planes fly under the Irish flag and most of its employees work on board planes, its staff are covered by Irish law. Ryanair is Europe's biggest budget airline by passenger numbers, and the second biggest overall behind Germany's Lufthansa. Rhiannon Monks is a travel expert and founder of new app for connecting travellers , Travltalk. When I left Australia for the first time at 19 and started travelling , I had no appreciation for the vast depth and beauty our world contains. I was inexperienced, with no prior exposure to many different cultures or ways of life. Rhiannon at the Blue Lagoon, Iceland So suddenly being jammed on a Contiki bus, with people from New Zealand, Japan, Australia, South Africa and America and hurtling through 15 countries across Europe was a distinct change of scenery. Heres what I learnt after that in my decade of globe-hopping It is okay to start out with a planned holiday tour to build your confidence I do not regret starting my travels on a Contiki tour. I made lifelong friends from that trip, and went with my sister. But above all, travelling in an organised group allowed me to see what travel was like first hand, and helped me build up the confidence to go out on my own. The two months I spent in Europe transformed me from a student into a 20-year-old graduate that was ready to take on the world. I came back to Australia and immediately devised a plan to travel again this time a trip around the world to Canada, the US, South America, Europe and Asia. I had all the flights booked, with flexible dates, and no set plan. Have the courage to not make firm plans for your travels My family came to the airport to see me off in Adelaide. All I had was my backpack. I felt so free, but also quite intimidated. I was leaving a comfort zone I had known my whole life and embarking on an unknown world. I flew straight to Vancouver. I had a 365 day trip ahead and only two nights in a hostel booked in Vancouver. Beyond that the world truly was my oyster. During my year away I met lifelong friends. Often daily. My British friend Jen is now a well know UK artist, my Austrian friend Paul is now a financial controller for Telecom Austria, and my Quebec friend Guillaume is now a Biomedical Engineer living in Innsbruck. I met them in the first three months of my travels and back then we just drank together, explored together, took road trips and pondered our future lives. Im now 35 and we met when I was 20. The coolest thing when we catch up is to remember ourselves with the wonder of what lay ahead, and then meet up years later and smile at the adults we have become. You grow up as you travel, and find valuable lessons in unexpected ways As the years went by, I started to change my travel and go to more remote places, off the beaten track. Travel became less about drinking and parties and more about connection and culture. I intentionally went to places that held mysteries few understood, and to places that often were in contention. For example, I flew to Israel in July 2006 to visit an Israeli friend I had met six months earlier in El Salvador. My flight was due out the next day, and officially Israel declared war with Lebanon. I wasnt sure if I should go, but my friend reassured me it was safe. I am so glad I went, because I was able to better understand the conflict of war, and that what you see on the TV is not representative of actual events. A war breaks hearts on all sides. My friends in Israel were afraid they may be called back to the army - aged 23 and sent to fight in a conflict that ultimately would have no winners. You never have to stop travelling ! After travelling for three years, non-stop with a backpack, I came to live in London. I got a career in media and took as many city breaks as I could. I will never stop travelling ! Its part of my soul, as are the wonderful people scattered across the world who I met along the way and now call my true friends. Travltalk is for people that want to get out and travel and easily meet other people along the way, without having to wait around in hostels and rely purely on serendipity - especially if time in a place is scarce. For more information or to download Travltalk for free go to www.travltalk.co Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: Home Page Optimus Prime brings the fight to Unicron in the first issue of the end of everything! We're back, Super Readers, to chronicle the end of everything. Maybe. We'll see. I mean, things ARE looking pretty bleak. Before you take one step further, let it be well known: There are SPOILERS ahead. Now that that's settled, let's get this party started. Cybertron might be the origin planet for the Transformer race but it's not their ONLY planet. In fact, during the Great War, the Decepticons ended up cyberforming quite a number of planets to serve as operation centers and staging grounds. But well BEFORE the Great War in a time lost to memory, Cybertron had thirteen colony worlds settled by (or at least NAMED for) the Thirteen Primes. Each one was the home of Titan, a massive city-sized Cybertronian that not only brought the colonists to their new home but also carried their own "Hot Spots," areas that would see the birth of new sparks and, therefore, new colonists. One of those Titans was Caminus. He was the Titan of Solus Prime, a Prime who focused on creating things and was associated with her Forge. Caminus settled on a small moon orbiting a gas giant. When we see the moon millions of years after it's been properly settled, we see that it's been cyberformed, with parts from Caminus spread throughout the surface. Thus, the moon has taken on the name of the Titan. Energy resources on Caminus have always been sparse and the Cybertronians colonizing the planet have learned all about energy conservation. They're also extremely religious, revering the ancient Primes as well as the modern ones (like Optimus, for example). Centered around the religion is the honoring of Solus Prime and so it is called The Way of Flame which is headed by the Mistress of Flame. While deferring to The Way of Flame in almost all things, the planet is governed by the Forgefire Parliament. Beyond energy conservation and hyper-religiousity, Camiens have a greater interest in the arts than the sciences even though their scientists are not too shabby. The leader of Cybertron is a Camien, Windblade, who began her career as a City-Speaker. That's someone trained to speak to the Titans who don't ALWAYS have the ability to verbalize themselves. Other notable Camiens include Windblade's former bodyguard Chromia, Nautica over in Lost Light, Prime's companion Aileron, and Torchbearer leader Pyra Magna. Oh, and the Mistress of Flame, of course. She currently serves as not only Caminus' religious leader but also as it's representative on the Council of Worlds, located on Cybertron. Another of Cybertron's colony worlds ended up being Elonia, home of an organic race that had founded the Solstar Order of Spaceknights in order to fight the Dire Wraiths, a group of hideous alien monsters that weild magic more naturally than technology and seem to reproduce by infecting other living creatures. Yes. Including Transformers. The result of a Dire Wraith/ Transformer hybrid turns out to be a powerful but mostly uncontrollable ball of fury and destruction. So Dire Wraiths try not to infect Transformers, relying on more organic hosts. In the zero issue of Transformers: Unicron, Elonia was devoured by planet eater on his path to Cybertron. Unicron is making a point to devour every colony world before sitting down for its main feast. Before snacking on Elonia, the monster planet consumed LV-117, Prion, Gorlam Prime (which would have been trouble because it was believed destroyed after being swallowed by the Dead Universe), and Velocitron. After eating Elonia, Unicron teleported away and immediately made a meal of Eukaris. These colony worlds not only contain Titans. They're also the location of special ores planted into the ground a million years ago by the coldly logical Shockwave. Each of these ores had special traits which Shockwave would, after harvesting, use to... collapse the entire universe into a fixed singularity based around Cybertron, thus providing the planet with an eternal supply of energy as well as killing all life in the cosmos. Including life on Cybertron because it would be reduced to a single point of time existing forever. Or something. Honestly, I've never fully understood what Shockwave was trying to do of why his emotionless, logical state would think it was a good idea. If you want to know more, go read Dark Cybertron. But probably don't. Anyway, Shockwave did a thing but didn't realize at the time that he was planting all these ores on colony worlds. He was being guided by an unseen hand to do so but we don't need to get all metaphysical about it because that unseen hand turned out to be his own. Because of time travel. It's complicated. Anyway, Unicron is eating colony worlds. Maybe it's because of the Titans. Maybe it's because of the ores and their special properties. Maybe it's because of both? Regardless, it keeps on eating. There are many variations on the Cybertron's creation myth. Most of them focus on Cybertronian super-god and creator entity, Primus. In some, Cybertron and it's inhabitants were all birthed from Primus and he walked among them with his first-born progeny, the Guiding Hand, before war waged among the Guiding Hand caused death itself to be vanquished and Primus to return to Cybertron, becoming Vector Sigma, Cybertron's super computer. In others, Primus was always Cybertron while still managing to create all life on the planet. What has been only hinted at in the comics thus far is Primus' "other." His opposite. If Primus is the creation god, who is the god of destruction? Now, we're not talking about the god of death. That is known as Mortilus and in the myths, it is Mortilus and his single-minded focus on death that caused the Guiding Hand to war among itself... or, more properly, they all fought Mortilus. No, it's not Morty. While unnamed, we've always ASSUMED that they were talking about Unicron. Because in every other storyline, Unicron is Primus' opposite. We just thought IDW wasn't ready to GO there. Because what Unicron typically means is "end-game." It means your story is more close to finishing than beginning. Turns out, we were probably right. Transformers: Unicron #1 Writer: John Barber Artist: Alex Milne Colors: Sebastian Cheng Letterer: Tom B. Long Editor: David Mariotte This issue in a nutshell: The nightmare planet, Unicron, devours Caminus as Optimus Prime and his allies fail to stop it. Bullet Points: Optimus Prime recalls the myth around Primus and his opposite, Unicron, and how it relates to the Arisen myth associated with himself. The Cybertronian fleet faces off against Unicron and its Maximal army on the approach to the Cybertronian colony world of Caminus. During the conflict, Prime keeps his eye on the Maximals' ship and when it lands on Unicron, he has Bumblebee's ship collide with the surface of Unicron in the same location. Optimus, Arcee, and Bumblebee use the newly created opening to enter Unicron. On the way to Unicron's core (or whatever), the trio see living environments within Unicron composed of the previously devoured worlds. They also see the remains of a deceased Omega Sentinel. Oh, and they're attacked by composite creatures that act as Unicron's immune system and are nigh unbeatable. At the same time, the Maximals break through the Cybertronian fleet's defenses and fly to the surface of Caminus, intent on killing any Camien trying to escape. The Mistress of Flame deny's Pyra Magna's intentions of holding back the Maximals single-handedly and decides to do it herself. Aileron and Pyra Magna escape with the rest of the Camien citizens as the Mistress of Flame buys them time with her life. Bumblebee orders Soundwave to teleport he, Prime, and Arcee out of Unicron after seeing Prime in a sorry state upon encountering Unicron's immune system. Unicron eats Caminus. Back on Cybertron, Starscream meets with an imprisoned Shockwave but rejects the prisoner's future plans in favor of his own. When Prime returns from the battle above Caminus, he announces his failure to the leader of Cybertron, Windblade, and wonders how they can save what is left of their people. Starscream appears before the people of Cybertron, promising that where others have failed, he and his Decepticons will succeed. Super Reads Transformers: Unicron #0 Remember that creation myth bit I recounted above? Optimus Prime's thinking about it, too. Finally, Primus' "other" is directly named. Yeah, it's Unicron. We see a classic robot-mode version of Unicron locked in mortal combat with Primus. Unlike the typical golden version of Primus that we've seen throughout the IDW series, this Primus is colored in red, white, and blue. Because Primus is an AMERICAN! But not really. Anyway, it's a different interpretation of both of these characters that has it's roots in other Transformers continuities. Optimus also remembers another part of the myths: the one about the ARISEN. That's the thirteen Prime (the TRUE Prime) who is prophesied to destroy Unicron. The interesting thing about THIS version of Optimus Prime is that he's not even a little bit religious. He's never really believed the old myths and hasn't really cared about prophesies even though he's pretty much lived right up to the legend of the Arisen. He's held the Matrix and everything. Optimus has made no bones about his lack of faith but has allowed others to believe what they will, even USING the legends to fulfill his objectives, like establishing Earth as the thirteenth colony world. His lack of personal belief hasn't stopped Unicron, though. In the time between the zero issue and this issue, the planet-eater has consumed three more colony worlds: Arduria, Tsehshi, and Divisiun. That brings the grand total of devoured colonies to nine. And now, the monster planet approaches the moon colony of Caminus. Optimus barely had time to mount a rescue mission for Elonia last issue but it looks like this time, he's brought all the guns. "Jetfire, get over here and offer your life so I can get a temporary power boost!" After delivering a speech about how this fight is for their future and yadda yadda yadda, we go round the proverbial room to see how his allies react to all this speech making. Arcee, Rom, Bumblebee, and Soundwave are determined. Prya Magna is... an ass. So, the usual. Along with his usual allies, Optimus Prime has brought pretty much the entire Cybertronian fleet, including his flagship, the Ark-Zero. As they engage in battle with an entire planet, we see that Unicron has allies of its own. Maximals. This might require a BIT of explanation. When Shockwave recently invaded Cybertron, he had an army that he had cultivated for millions of years due to his time-traveling. These were the Maximals, Transformers with beast-modes from Onyx Prime's (one of the thirteen Primes) ancient tribe. But don't worry about Onyx Prime! Shockwave killed and replaced him. OK, maybe worry about Onyx Prime. There's no explanation given on why the Maximals have joined up with Unicron and the story of Shockwave's invasion of Cybertron hasn't COMPLETELY been told over in the Optimus Prime series. But here they are. And I may be calling them "Maximals," because that's what they're called in the story, but they are comprised of Maximals AND Predacons from the Beast Wars era of the toyline, including the Japanese only series. So if you have a favorite Beast Wars character who hasn't shown up yet in the IDW stories, chances are you'll see him in the background battle scenes here. On Cybertron, Windblade (Cybertron's leader) grouses about Optimus' plan. We'll see what that IS in a moment because she's not talking about all the ships and all the fighting. Anyway, Windblade is extra upset that Caminus' spiritual leader, the Mistress of Flame, has given Prime the OK. Back in the fight, Bumblebee assures Windblade that Optimus Prime shines the brightest when facing insurmountable odds. But before Optimus wins this whole thing in the first issue thereby negating the entire mini-series and universe ending event, Soundwave decides to try some diplomacy against the Maximals. This is the same kind of thing he tried over in the Optimus Prime book when our friends were attacked by Junkions. There, it was successful. Here? Not as much. Soundwave's words about how the Maximals are fighting for a monster planet that doesn't care a lick about them fall on deaf ears as the Maximals attack him. On the surface of Caminus, the population is being evacuated to Cybertron. Yes, there's a powerful looking armed fleet defending the planet but no one's under any illusions about how THAT'S gonna work out. At best, the defenders are fighting for time. Two of Prime's allies are aiding in the departure: Aileron and Pyra Magna. Aileron has come to know Optimus and thinks that this is a sign that he really DOES believe that he's the Arisen engaging in the final battle with ultimate evil. She's shocked at the display but it fills her faith, despite recent events having shaken it. Pyra, on the other hand... OK, Pyra Magna doesn't like Optimus Prime. In the last issue, I described her as an Autobot version of Starscream and I'm not WRONG there. But she is a whole lot braver with a whole lot less charm. Regardless, she thinks Prime should be aiding on the ground instead of fighting in orbit. Honestly, if Prime were on the ground, she would think he should be in the sky. Nothing would satisfy her. Unlike Aileron, her faith isn't swelling. It's dying. When the Mistress of Flame comforts her people with a message of faith, Pyra yells at her, telling the religious leader that it's a time to give up fairy tales and rely on reality. So... she's not exactly comforting in the face of tragedy. Meanwhile, in orbit, Optimus observes the Maximal's ship landing on the surface of Unicron "just as the MISTRESS predicted." That's Bumblebee's cue to smash his own ship into Unicron on the same spot, bailing out before impact. Arcee jetpacks in to save him and then the two join Optimus for a jaunt inside the monster planet. THIS is the actual plan. While the Cybertronian fleet engages Unicron and its forces, Prime, Arcee, and Bumblebee trek inside the beast in order to snuff out Unicron's brain. Or Spark chamber. Something lethal. But they better hurry because the Maximals are proving pretty lethal themselves. It's almost like the Transformers haven't been fighting a war lasting millions of years considering how poorly they're doing against the cannon fodder. Soundwave attempts to get Rom to leave the combat zone, citing the Spaceknight's value to the surviving Elonians (who were left without a home planet in the zero issue). Rom, however, is far too selfless to leave his allies in their time of need. These guys helped Elonia and it's only right that he stands with them. Meanwhile, in another part of the battlezone, a few native Camiens are being surrounded by Maximals. Just as they are about to meet their end, they're rescued by the Decepticon known as Dirge. Good ol' Dirge! He's, like, the last Decepticon Seeker left, what with his old wave-mates, Ramjet and Thrust having been killed MUCH earlier in the IDW continuity. Dirge laments that the Cybertronian war ruined things for him and swears that he won't allow it to do the same to the Camiens. And then he is killed. :( A fellow Decepticon, Sparkstalker, tells the Camiens whom Dirge just saved that Dirge might have been a Decepticon, "but he died a CYBERTRONIAN." While things fall apart outside, Prime, Arcee, and Bumblebee continue their quest within Unicron. Since the monster world feeds and builds itself up from the planets it consumes, we see little bits and pieces of lots of places. Bumblebee finds a mural with the five-headed face of a Quintesson on it and wonders if it's important. To Optimus, it's just in his way. He charges his energy axe and cuts it down. Outside, Unicron fires an energy beam from its mouth, declaring "I HUNGERRR..." Everyone is surprised to hear the invading planet talk. Pyra believes that Optimus has lost. The Mistress of Flame, on the contrary, still has her faith. As the Caminus Spacebridge is finally charged up, she directs her people to (relative) safety. But it's going to take time to get everyone to Cybertron. Do they have it? Within Unicron, Prime and his merry band encounter a weird little slice of intersecting planets. Bumblebee takes this quiet moment to ask Optimus the million dollar question: Does he think the Arisen prophesy is legit? Before Prime can answer, Arcee interupts them with her shock at finding a long dead Omega Sentinel. Maybe... maybe it was RELEASE with realistic battle damage? You might recognize the design as belonging to Omega Supreme. He's the only known Omega Sentinel left alive. That's been the case since well before the Great Cybertronian War. Heck, it's been the case since before the time of Nova Prime, the first Prime to reign after the Thirteen Primes and the last one to hold the real Matrix before Optimus Prime. This one is far older. And far deader. Arcee is still shocked to see the remains. While she stands transfixed, Bumblebee again asks Optimus about all the myths surrounding Unicron. Has this fight happened before? Has Unicron previously attacked Cybertron. Optimus doesn't play diplomat to his friend. Instead, he tells Bumblebee that he really doesn't know. And with that moment of true honesty behind them, Prime and pals are attacked by creatures that match the landscape. Just like this area is a weird fusion of everything Unicron has consumed, these monstrosities also look like composites of every lifeform to have LIVED on those worlds. Back outside, the defensive line has broken and Maximals pour through, headed to the surface of Caminus. Soundwave wonders why they'd bother with Unicron's eventual meal already being assured but then he figures it out. They're going down to kill the Camiens before they can escape through the Spacebridge. Pyra Magna brandishes her sword, intending to hold off the coming horde so that her follow Camiens can find safety on Cybertron. She tells Aileron to inform Optimus Prime that "this is all HIS fault." Because Pyra's gonna be an ass all the way to her grave. Aileron, of course, won't deliver this message but she won't HAVE to. The Mistress of Flame tells Pyra that she can't hold the line here because she's abandoned her faith. As such, it'll be the Mistress of Flame who does the last stand thing. She hands the Hammer of Solus Prime to Pyra and prepares to kick a little Maximal ass. A volley of fire erupts from her chest, incinerating the closest invaders. With a sad smile on her face, she tells Pyra and Aileron that there's gonna be a happy ending to this sorry tale. But before they get to the happiness, "things will become MUCH WORSE." Ominous. We leave Aileron to pull a forlorn Pyra Magna through the Spacebridge and rejoin Optimus and his friends still within Unicron. The composite creatures they face are hella strong and their touch is corrosive. In moments, they've already severely damaged Optimus and sent him carreening through the nearest evergreen trees. Prime struggles to get back up, realizing that these creatures function as Unicron's immune system. Seeing the big guy in such a sorry state, Bumblebee calls Soundwave and orders an immediate teleport out of the monster planet. While the return to Ark-Zero, Unicron finally devours Caminus. Optimus' voice narration calls this a great failure. And it is, of course. Caminus was eaten and he wasn't able to kill Unicron. That was the whole point of sending the Cybertronian fleet against the monster world to begin with. He had promised a great victory and wasn't able to deliver. He wonders if his lack of faith is to blame or if he's overthinking everything. At the same time... well, it's frickin' Unicron. Victory isn't gonna come easily and no matter what Prime did, I don't see Caminus surviving. And the important thing is that the PEOPLE lived. The Camiens were able to use the Spacebridge and arrive safely on Cybertron. "Safely." Because we KNOW Unicron is heading this way. We don't get any type of numbers for how MANY Camiens survived but it seems like it's a solid majority. From the blown out wall of the local prison, Starscream surveys Cybertron's new refugees, nearly cursing Optimus Prime and Windblade for not being able to clean up this mess. For about as many reasons as you can name, Starscream is a fugitive which is a long way to fall from being the leader of Cybertron. So you're probably wondering WHY he would find himself breaking into prison. Well, it's because one of the prisoners wanted to have a word with him and old 'Screamer was too curious to ignore the summons. So he broke in, knocked out the prisoner's guard (Beachcomber), and got ready to listen to... Shockwave. Now, like I said, Shockwave's story up to THIS point plays out over in recent issues of Optimus Prime and that story hadn't properly wrapped up before this issue shipped... and STILL hasn't completely wrapped up... so Shockwave's imprisonment was first revealed RIGHT here. It looks like the time travelling Decepticon had been VERY busy prior to his incarceration. He claims that through his time travelling machinations, he essentially composed all of the myths and legends that led to this point and through the revelation that he made it all up, Cybertron's faith has been dealt a fatal blow. Hope will follow. Cold hard facts will remain. And this is all great but THERE'S A LEGENDARY MONSTER PLANET THAT IS NOT PART OF YOUR MADE UP MYTHS AND IS VERY VERY REAL. So maybe you didn't REALLY make everything up. But, yeah, hope might be totally gonzo as a result of that same monster planet. Not to worry, Shockwave's plans include Unicron, too. Recently, he helped get all of Cybertron's energon corrupted. When Unicron eats the planet, it will be poisoned to DEATH. And then it'll be a simple matter for Shockwave and Starscream to unite the remaining Cybertronians into an army of Decepticons that will sweep through the galaxy and create an empire without equal. Because the loss of a homeworld and all their colony worlds will surely allow that to happen. It's a foolproof plan. And it's not something that Starscream will get behind. He doesn't trust Shockwave one iota. And he's got some plans of his own... The Ark-Zero is the fastest ship in the Cybertronian fleet so it's the first one to return even though it's PRETTY beat up. So is Optimus Prime. He exits the ship with the help of Bumblebee and greets the leader of Cybertron, Windblade, in his customary way. "Unicron has no weakness." Good times. Prime owns up to his failure to save Caminus and end Unicron. He looks skyward to see one of the last Titan colonies, Carcer, in orbit above Cybertron. Optimus knows that Unicron is coming here soon and seems to believe that the monster planet is saving Earth for last. Bumblebee does a quick count and thinks they're STILL missing a colony but doesn't know which one hasn't been devoured. Regardless, they need to figure out how to save everyone and Prime is willing to give anything a try. Well, ALMOST anything... "I totally forgot I'm running from the law!" Starscream, the former leader of Cybertron tells everyone that he and he alone can save the people of Cybertron and her colonies. He has a plan that's sure to succeed where guys like Optimus Prime and his Autobots have floundered. Prime, still being propped up by Bumblebee, doesn't believe a word of what Starscream is peddling. Rom Back-up Story "Ad Infinitum" Writer: Chris Ryall Artist: David Messina Colors: Alessandra Alexakis Letterer: Tom B. Long Editor: David Mariotte Victim of Unicron: Christos Gage This issue in a nutshell: The Spaceknight, Rom, tries to encourage his fellow surviving Spaceknights to join in the battle against Unicron. Bullet Points: Flanked by Carax and Bumblebee, Rom addresses the surviving Spaceknights of the Solstar Order, attempting to get them to continue the fight against Unicron. This doesn't work too well, with a mixed reaction from his follows. The Spaceknight, Q'b, attacks Rom and argues with Livia. After hearing Q'b's concerns, Rom validates them but presses that it is in these moments that the universe needs the Spaceknights more than ever. With a rousing speech, Rom probably convinces his comrades to continue the fight. At the very least, everyone poses dramatically as Unicron flies in the background. Last issue (the 0 issue), Unicron devoured the homeworld of the Solstar Order, Elonia. It's leading Spaceknight, Rom, was on hand to witness the devastation but survived along with a good portion of the planet's inhabitants. While it was left a bit vague in that issue, it appears that Elonia's population was Spacebridged away to Cybertron and it is here that Rom finds himself addressing the surviving Spaceknights of the Solstar Order. Flanked by Carax (the ruler of the Order of Spaceknights who remains super quiet throughout this issue) and the Autobot Bumblebee, Rom gives a brief history of Elonia's war with the Dire Wraiths to a group that lived THROUGH it. When he gets to the part about losing his family, he faulters a bit. Bumblebee offers to finish this speech for him but the Spaceknight, while grateful, believes that it's important that he do this. The entire point of recounting the war between the Solstar Order and the Dire Wraiths was to nail home the dream that, if the war were to ever end, he would be able to return home. To Elonia. A world that no longer exists. Rom's speech isn't to give them no hope but to show his fellow Spaceknights that while the threat that consumed their homeworld remains, they must stay vigilant and continue the fight. You should just let him. It'd save us all some drama. The Spaceknights have... mixed feeling about this. Q'b (he's the cube) thinks Rom is leading them all to their deaths. Nikomi (the bear) grieves for his dead children. The red one (who has the probable name of "Plor" that belongs to Marvel Comics) blames Rom for everything. Only Livia, Rom's childhood friend and romantic interest is laser focused on Rom's message and she calls for the rest of the Spaceknights to listen to him. Rom recounts way back in the day when he was first locked into his armored suit. His sense of loneliness and isolation pushed him to his very limits. He fought through it even after losing his family and his sense of self through the power... some would say the MAGIC of friendship. Of his comradery with his fellow Spaceknights. Q'b is done with all of this talk. With Elonia gone, all hope is lost. When Rom tries to calm him down, Q'b shoots him with a beam of Neutralizer energy. Rom is uninjured and makes sure no one attacks Q'b on his behalf. Instead, Livia argues with the cubed Spaceknight. Even though Q'b feels like they'll die in the conflict against Unicron, Livia would rather lose her life defending her comrades than die running. Q'b finds that quite likely. Rom doesn't disagree. It's very possible that Cybertron is doomed. That the UNIVERSE is doomed. BECAUSE of that, it's all the more vital that the Spaceknights stand and fight. The Solstar Order stands to help those that can't help themselves. If their character is being tested by complete annihilation, then they can only face it, either in triumph or loss. Maybe the rest of the Knights of the Solstar Order aren't moved by his words. Maybe they're still stuck in the throws of despair. They wouldn't be WRONG to feel that way. But I'm betting they've just been thoroughly motivated to find the good fight even if victory is a distant, tragic thing. And that's the official first issue of Transformers: Unicron, fully read in the Super Reads style. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you soon! . : 444 - ... Many might consider the pick-up truck only as a logical choice for the rural US and Australian outback, but demand in the UK is soaring. And it seems this shift isn't solely down to tradesmen and women looking for a robust motor that can transport building and maintenance equipment in the back. According to new analysis by an online second-hand vehicle retailer, pick-ups are becoming some of the most desirable cars in the eyes of general drivers. Market pick-up: Models like the Ford Ranger are growing increasingly desirable in the UK, according to new analysis of used-car searches Car Gurus - a US car marketplace now available in Britain, created by TripAdvisor founder Langley Steinert - analysed the model search data for its own UK site to identify which vehicles drivers really want. It reviewed the number of shoppers searching for a model with at least 1,000 examples being offered for sale since the start of the year to create a desirability score for each. And while you might expect the list to be awash with premium Porsches, Jaguars and Land Rovers, the top 10 is brimming with utilitarian pick-ups. Topping the charts is the Ford Ranger, which Car Gurus ranks as the most in-demand used car on sale this year with 66 people searching for every model available. Most desirable used cars in the UK 1. Ford Ranger - Desirability score*: 66 2. Range Rover - Desirability score: 50 3. Audi Q7 - Desirability score: 45 4. Land Rover Discovery - Desirability score: 42 5. Porsche 911 - Desirability score: 39 6. Toyota Hilux - Desirability score: 34 7. Nissan Navara - Desirability score: 33 8. Volvo XC90 - Desirability score: 33 9. BMW X5 - Desirability score: 31 10. Mitsubishi L200 - Desirability score: 27 Source: CarGurus *Desirability score calculated as the ration of unique users searches for each model listen on CarGurus where more than 1,000 have been adverstised in 2018 It is joined in the top 10 ranks by rivals including the Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi L200. The rest of the standings was predominantly made up of luxurious SUVs, such as the Range Rover and Audi Q7. The Porsche 911 was the only non-offroad machine to make the list with 39 users searching for every model on sale. James Drake from the car marketplace said while pick-ups were still sold in relatively small numbers in the UK, the data suggests Britons are growing increasingly curious. This is being aided by the arrival of new high-end models coming to market, including the all-new Mercedes-Benz X-Class range and the latest Volkswagen Amorak. 'When were buying our next car, we naturally consider the practicalities of the vehicle and search for the model that best fits our needs,' he said. 'But what if there were no restrictions? The CarGurus Desirability Score is the automotive equivalent of window shopping it shows the models we are most curious about or desire, even if our circumstances make a purchase unrealistic.' A slowdown in orders for Typhoon jets has hit sales at BAE Systems though bosses have boasted of growing interest for its next-generation fighter. Saudi Arabia has yet to firm up plans to buy 48 of the jets while a contract with Qatar for 28 is not due to start bringing in cash until later this year. The drop in orders has already forced BAE to chop around 2,000 jobs and cut production, hitting its plants in Warton and Samlesbury, Lancashire. Next generation: BAE has been spurred by interest in its new Tempest fighter jet designed to eventually replace the Typhoon But boss Charles Woodburn said discussions with Saudi, which has signed a memorandum of intent, were progressing and there could be more orders from Europe. He said: We have had constructive and positive conversations with the Saudi customer and those continue. I am not going to put a time-frame around the discussions. They are a very important customer for us. We do an awful lot in the kingdom already and we see strong potential for years to come. There are now increasing opportunities into Europe. For Germany to take additional Typhoons to replace their Tornadoes and additional sales into Europe would drive growth back into that platform well over the next decade. BAE the numbers 130m - Sale price of BAE Systems Typhoon jet 100,000 - BAE jobs supported by production of Typhoon 623 - Typhoon jets made so far, for seven countries Overall, BAEs sales slid from 9.4billion to 8.8billion during the first half of the year while profits slid from 976million to 874million. However, the firm has been spurred by interest in its new Tempest fighter jet (pictured) designed to eventually replace the Typhoon, with the Government pledging 2billion to develop the aircraft. BAE and its partners are committing substantial funding but are not saying how much. They are looking for further partners and Sweden has been suggested as possibly interested. Woodburn said there had been strong interest from potential collaborators since Farnborough, with a decision expected in the middle of next year. He said: We remain open-minded. We will just see over the next few months who is keen and what they bring to the table with respect to capabilities and partnerships. BAE employs 83,900 people in 40 countries making weapons, tanks, submarines, fighter jets and technology to beat cyber-attacks. Programmes include the F-35 US-UK fighter jet and the UKs Dreadnought submarine. BAE is taking a 15million charge on problems with a new patrol vehicle it is delivering for the Royal Navy. The first of the five offshore vessels completed sea trials in December 2017, with mistakes now being fixed. Reported defects included bolt fastenings and the electrical system on HMS Forth. BAE this year also faced problems at its Radford ammunition plant in the US. A worker died there following a flash fire in June and BAE is now in dispute with a contractor. It has restructured its anti-cyber attack cyber intelligence unit and says it is on track to break even this year after losses in the first half of last year. Woodburn said: What we offer is a strong capability to government customers and that continues to grow. In the commercial space we offer a defence-grade capability and the challenge has been in the commercial space are customers prepared to pay a premium for a premium product? To date we have not necessarily seen that although one hopes going into the future people are prepared to pay for a differentiated service. Fees bonanza: Direct Line says it is raking in more than 2m a week from customers who pay for their cover monthly Insurer Direct Line is raking in more than 2million a week from customers who pay for their cover in monthly instalments. The firm pocketed 59.1million from customers who pay monthly, rather than annually, in the first half of 2018. When a customer cannot pay up front, Direct Line and competitors effectively charge interest on their premium as if giving them a loan, often at sky-high rates. Critics argue it penalises hard-up drivers such as young people without much money in the bank, who are already hit with huge premiums. But the firms argue that they are being transparent about the fees and charge less than if a customer paid with a credit card. Direct Line is earning increasingly high profits from the practice, with so-called instalment income up from 55.8million in the same period last year. The company also picked up 8.4million from a deal with car dealers to find replacement cars for customers whose vehicles were written off. It earned another 5.8million from selling vehicle recovery and repair services, and 5.8million more from flogging enhanced legal protection to policyholders. Overall, profits at the insurer fell 13.9 per cent to 293.8million largely because of a jump in weather-related claims to 75million following the Beast from the East snowstorms in the spring and the summer heatwave. Chief executive Paul Geddes said that the high temperatures have caused more crashes because more drivers were taking their cars out for a spin. He said: Weve seen accident frequency go up because the weather has been nice and people wanted to go out. Geddes added that the companys Green Flag vehicle recovery arm has seen a rise in heat-related call-outs, with a spate of cars running out of coolant and overheated engines. The business has been challenging the AA with a series of aggressive adverts which highlight that it can offer the same services at half the price. Green Flag now has 846,000 customers and is focused on rapid growth. Direct Line is also pushing a new business insurance operation which allows companies to sign up for cover in a few minutes online. After testing it with the hair and beauty and bed and breakfast industries, the insurer has now expanded the product to cover more than 50 trades from toy making to tattooing. Geddes, meanwhile, has announced he will step down as chief executive in 2019. The 49-year-old boss is thought likely to seek another major role elsewhere and said that he has decided it is time for a change after a decade in charge of the firm. Direct Line is paying an interim dividend of 7p per share, up 2.9 per cent. The companys stock fell 1.6 per cent, or 5.4p, to 338.5p. Savers have ploughed a record 6.3bn into hedge fund Man Group RECORD INVESTMENT Savers ploughed a record 6.3billion into hedge fund Man Group in the first six months of 2018. Profits rose 18.4 per cent to 68.6million thanks to higher fees. FORMICA OFF Investment firm Janus Henderson Group joint boss Andrew Formica is leaving with a 9.1million pay-off, leaving Dick Weil in sole control. CURRENCY CRACKDOWN The City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, has pledged to crack down on currency transfer firms which advertise much better exchange rates than they actually offer customers. CREDIT MOAN Four in ten firms say getting new credit is unaffordable, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses. REVENUE RISE Revenues at Irn-Bru maker AG Barr climbed 5 per cent to around 136million in the 26 weeks to July 28. FASHION BOSS Womenswear chain Jigsaw has appointed Chris Stephenson as chief executive. SCHOOL RANGE Discount chain Poundland has launched a back-to -school collection, in an attempt to rival Marks & Spencer which is to shut 100 stores. SANCTIONS DEADLINE The US treasury has given Russian aluminium firm EN+ until October to try to avert sanctions before they come into force. NEW DEAL Support services and construction group Interserve has won a 67million, five-year contract to provide engineering, cleaning landscaping, helpdesk and other services at more than 450 Foreign and Commonwealth Office buildings. COAL SALE Miner Anglo-American has sold its New Largo thermal coal project and Old New Largo colliery in South Africa for 59million. APPLE BEATEN Chinese telecoms giant Huawei sold more smartphones than US rival Apple in the second quarter of 2018, it says. It shipped 54.2m units. GOOGLE LAUNCH Tech giant Google is to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, after ditching the country in 2010. WONKY CASH A tiny grocery delivery start-up, Oddbox, which sells wonky fruit and vegetables from British farms has raised half a million pounds to fund expansion. Almost a third of workers believe investing in property is the best way to save for retirement. Being a landlord is favoured over private pensions, cash Isas, savings accounts, shares and Premium Bonds. Only company pensions were more popular. Experts said the figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show our love affair with property has not waned. Experts said the figures on investments show our love affair with property has not waned And they warned that ignoring the other savings options could put workers in financial trouble later in life. The British obsession with property could leave millions of people exposed to risk and uncertainty when planning their retirement, said Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister and director at investment firm Royal London. There is nothing wrong with investing in property as part of a mix of investments inside a pension. 'But staking your whole retirement on investing in a single property whose value could go up or down substantially is to put all your eggs in one basket. Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said Britain's 'obsession with property could leave millions of people exposed to risk' For employees in particular, saving in a pension is a no-brainer. Choosing to invest in a property instead of a workplace pension means the loss of vital contributions from your employer. The ONS report found that property was the favoured savings option for 29 per cent of all workers and preferred most by those aged between 25 and 44. Company pensions were favoured by 40 per cent of those surveyed between July 2016 and December 2017. More employees have started saving into a workplace pension since an auto-enrolment scheme was introduced in 2012. Tom Selby, senior analyst at investment firm AJ Bell, said: While property remains an important source of equity in retirement for many people, investors shouldnt rely solely on this as a drop in values would be a serious kick in the teeth. Money Mail research has revealed that stock market-linked pensions typically deliver better returns than property. MBABANE A multimillion office park and shopping complex being constructed by MA Properties is set to change the outlook of Ezulwini for the better. The property, which sits on a 8 000 square metres plot opposite Corner Plaza, comprises of 15 double storey office spaces and a retail centre to be operated by OK Foods as anchor tenant. There will be a tenant mix of a restaurant, liqour store, quantity surveyors and project managers among others. Director Muzi Dlamini explained that they had embarked on the project financed by the Swaziland Building Society (SBS) with intent to develop the outlook of the fast developing town and also diversify the investment portfolio of the MA Group through accumulating rental income. Dlamini said they were highly grateful to SBS for the continued support. He mentioned that the ultimate objective of the structure to be completed in November would be to improve the Eswatini economy through taxes and providing job opportunities. Dlamini said the construction works, which are already 60 per cent complete, were awarded to the Mbhilibhi Group while Project Management is undertaken by professionals from MA Consulting Engineers. Asked to shed light on the viability the project whose value could not immediately be ascertained, Dlamini said they found it prudent to construct and develop the properties owned by MA Properties to realise more value. The intention is to aggressively develop all properties owned by MA Properties in order to ensure continued growth and sustainability of the group, said Dlamini. In terms of job creation, Dlamini said the construction phase had created approximately 200 temporal jobs for emaSwati. He emphasised that when undertaking the recruitment exercise their priority was to ensure that locals were empowered. Site Foreman Sanele Maziya said they were grateful to MA Properties for venturing into property development because it had presented them with job opportunities that would help empower them with new skills. PIGGS PEAK Strange as it may sound, some British people still believe that when an owl hoots, someone has just lost her virginity. However, even more shocking is that many African cultures still consider owls as a bad omen. For this reason, an owl was blamed and later killed after it was found in a classroom near where a teacher had tripped and fractured her leg. This happened at Gilgal Primary School which is situated in the Lubombo Region. The teacher, who had reportedly been injured, was rushed to a health facility by one of the teachers but she has not been to the school since the incident. It is alleged the incident happened after assembly when the teacher was walking towards her class. When she walked past an entrance to one of the classrooms, she mysteriously missed a step then fell resulting in serious injury. Noteworthy, this is the same classroom in which pupils allegedly found an owl, locally referred to as sahhukulu two days later. The injury was so serious the teachers leg twisted in an unusual direction. Due to the injury, the teacher is said to have been given medical instructions to stay at home. About two days later when pupils arrived in the morning, outside the class which the teacher had fallen, they found an owl. Some of the parents alleged the owl was blamed for the teachers fall. They killed it before class continued, said a parent. The parent said there had been concerns of the presence of an owl prior to the teachers fall. MALKERNS A hippopotamuss vicious attack on a Jericho evangelist has left four children without a father and a woman widowed. Vusi Dlamini, an employee of Rhodes Food Group (RFG), died on Monday night while on duty after he was attacked and killed by the hippopotamus at Malkerns. The incident happened at around 10:30pm while Dlamini and a colleague were reportedly on duty changing water sprinklers. According to Sibongile Magagula, who spoke on behalf of Dlaminis widow, Vusi was carrying out his duties when the accident happened. Magagula narrated that they were informed that the hippo charged at Dlamini and his colleague who ran in different directions. She said the animal ran after Dlamini and there were suspicions that he might have sprinted towards the direction of where it had left its calves. Magagula said they were informed that the hippo eventually caught up with Dlamini whereafter it bit the right side of his stomach. The attack did not end there. According to Magagula, the hippo reportedly sunk its teeth directly into his stomach, leaving his intestines exposed. She stated that they were told that he died on the spot as there was no one to assist him. Magagula stated that Dlamini was a father of four children aged 10, seven, five and three. She added that his wife was unemployed. She said that he was also an evangelist in the red gown sect under Bishop Bhekibandla Vilakati. Magagula said the Dlamini family was yet to meet to discuss funeral arrangements. Police Deputy Information and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the incident. MBABANE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Municipal Council of Mbabane Gideon Mhlongo has bounced back at work, for a term of five years. This was confirmed by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza. According to Mabuza, the CEO will be in office for five years. The minister said he renewed the contract on the basis that he had wrote to councillors to negotiate with Mhlongo on the issue of the contract. He said he had set a deadline on July 21, 2018 and stated that if they did not meet it or failed to give a correspondence that they were making an attempt to address the matter, he would then renew the contract. Mabuza said he renewed the contract using the Urban Government Act, Section 47(4). It is on the same basis that Mhlongos contract was drawn when he was hired for the previous five-years, he said. The minister said he had done what he had promised to do and nothing else. Tuesday was supposed to be the last day for Mhlongo, whose contract had come to an end on July 31, 2018. However, his car was found at the Municipal Council of Mbabane parking lot yesterday, and was proof enough that he was in office. Councillors met yesterday to deliberate on the letter which was written by the minister, renewing Mhlongos contract. Information gathered was that they were yet to seek legal opinion on the matter. Ex-Mayor Sikhatsi Dlamini said he has not yet confirmed whether the contract was renewed. Dlamini alleged that if the minister has renewed the contract, it was unlawful as he had no powers to do so. Mabuza is not involved in any way in the renewal of the CEOs contract, but his involvement only comes in when council hires, he said. He further said the constitution was clear that Mabuza was no longer minister and even during his time as substantive minister, he had no power to direct council to hire a CEO. Councillors had written to the minister telling him that they would not be able to meet the deadline on his directive to have them engage Mhlongo on a three-year contract. The minister had earlier indicated that failure by the councillors would lead to him exercising his powers to grant Mhlongo a five-year contract with the municipal council. This was after a May 25, 2018 resolution by the councillors not to renew the CEOs contract, citing that he was too expensive for the city to maintain. They also added his icy relationship with both the ratepayers and councillors as another factor for not renewing the contract. MBABANE Election of teachers into Parliament is likely to create jobs for graduates in the profession. Currently, about 70 teachers applied for leave of absence from the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) in order to fully participate in the ongoing national elections. This means that about 70 vacancies have been created and would have to be filled as soon as possible. Simanga Mamba, the Chairman of the TSC, confirmed that the commission had received about 70 applications of leave of absence from teachers who aspire to join politics. Mamba said the commission was fully supportive of the aspiring candidates. He said it was for that reason the commission approved the granting of their leave of absence, to make sure they fully participated in the elections. Mamba stated that the commission would hire temporary teachers to replace the candidates during the course of the elections to ensure that performances were not affected in schools. In as much as we want free and fair as well successful elections, we also want good results in schools, Mamba said. He said the contracts of the temporary teachers would be determined by the fate of the aspiring politicians, as elections were conducted in stages. Teachers should not be worried about their jobs since government made it a standard procedure that employees apply for the leave of absence during elections. The leave of absence is guaranteed as long as teachers qualify for the positions they are contesting for, he said. Mamba made an example that some contracts would be valid until the Primary Elections and Secondary Elections where the fate of the teachers would be determined. He said some teachers were likely to be hired if the aspiring candidates won the elections. The chairman stated that in schools where the head teachers contested the elections, the deputy head teachers would act in their positions to ensure that the administration of schools was not affected. If civil servants are elected into Parliament, it means that the candidates would be on unpaid leave for five years. The chairman encouraged the teachers to return to their jobs immediately if they were eliminated in the elections process. Teachers are not the only civil servants who showed interest in joining politics this year. Indicators had shown that police officers, warders, among other civil servants, had also shown interest in politics this year. The same happened during the 2013 elections where teachers contested and won the elections. Mabulala Maseko, who was a Head teacher, unseated former Maphalaleni MP Sicelo Dlamini. Mthokozini, Dlamini represented the electorates of Shiselweni II Constituency. Other teachers who had, however, retired were Phineas Magagula, who ended up being appointed the Minister of Education and Training and Saladin Magagula. Police officers who showed their faces were Sikhumbuzo Dlamini , Phesheya Hlatshwayo, Frans Dlamini and David Ngcamphalala, who was appointed the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs. The city of Titusville is seeking legal action against the owners of 108-110 Diamond St., a building which was partially destroyed in a February fire. Since the blaze, the city has been unable to contact the owners. The German government can now give the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) its consent for the disbursement of the last tranche of 15 billion euros under the Greek program The Budget Committee of the Bundestag, Germany's federal parliament, on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the disbursement to Greece of the last tranche of loans under the third economic adjustment programme, ANA reports from Berlin. The committee approved the alterations in the government's recommendation on the disbursement of the loan tranche during an emergency meeting on Wednesday. Following its decision, the German government can now give the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) its consent for the disbursement of the last tranche of 15 billion euros under the Greek programme. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Europa credito urgente License: CC-BY-SA The checks are being held as part of a provisional examination into the July 23 fires in eastern Attica Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis instructed an Athens prosecutor to check into whether there is free access to beaches in eastern Attica, in accordance with Greek law, ANA reports. This investigation also includes the prosecutor inviting property owners in the area to determine whether they have all the required building permits and whether city planning officials followed up with the necessary checks of buildings. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Hansueli Krapf License: CC-BY-SA The Greek diaspora of Australia is once again showing their support to their fellow-Greeks in the motherland in these trying times for the country after the lethal wildfires in Attica claimed the lives of tens of people while turning thousands of acres of land into ashes off the coastal region. The Hellenic Community of Victoria has shown an overwhelming willingness to assist the victims by making donations through a Radiothon organised by 3XY Radio Hellas, the premier Greek Radio Station of Melbourne, Australia. Images of desperate people huddling together by the sea to escape flames and smoke from the blaze, thousands of homes and cars burnt to a cinder, the scenes of devastation, loss of life and heartbreak, touched us all. Many Greeks flooded the call centre of the 3XY Radio Hellas, expressing their desire to help in any way possible. The response of the radio station was immediate. The 3XY Radiothon was organised in a matter of hours as the General Manager of the group Spiros Alatsas notes: It was quite obvious that we had to act quickly and organize ourselves to start the Radiothon and provide the platform and the mechanism for our community to make pledges to raise money in order to help the victims of this catastrophic fire. After contacting the two banks that have been servicing and supporting our community for years, Bank of Sydney (formerly Laiki Bank) and MD Miltos Mihaelas and, Delphi Bank (formerly Bank of Cyprus) and MD Jim Sarris, each quickly facilitated and opened accounts for the 3XY Radiothon fire appeal. The 3XY Radiothon began on Friday 27 July at 7am and is still going strong. Read more at protothema.gr RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report The Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum (MR&H) launched the 2018 Top Mediterranean Resort Awards process with an invitation for nominations. The awards, launched last year at MR&H, were created to recognize outstanding mixed-use resorts and developments across the Mediterranean region. Submissions are invited for the following categories: Top Mediterranean Resort currently in operation Top Mediterranean Resort currently in development A short list will be selected by a panel of expert judges and in recognition of the nominees dedication to furthering tourism across the Mediterranean through industry leading design, guest amenities and service. A winner will be selected from both the categories by public vote. Nominations can be submitted online here. Further information on the award process can be found on the MR&H website. The winner will be announced shortly in advance of the fourth annual MR&H event (17th 19th October 2018, Athens) with the prize giving ceremony taking place during the forum. Alexi Khajavi, Managing Director of EMEA Hospitality + Travel Group, Questex said, following the unprecedented response to the inaugural awards last year we are excited to launch the 2018 awards and invite nominations from across the region in both categories. The awards represent the best in class in this complex yet exciting area of our industry. As we look towards MR&H 2018 and the opportunity to meet and discuss investment and development throughout the Mediterranean, I encourage resorts to complete a nomination and be part of these anticipated awards. Ikos Olivia and Club Med Marbella were the winners of the 2017 top Mediterranean resort currently in operation and top Mediterranean resort currently in development, respectively. MR&H is the Mediterraneans meeting place for mixed-use resort, hotel investment and development. Now in its fourth year, MR&H has become an established setting for business discussion, deal-making and discovering new and exclusive opportunities. The event takes place on the 17 19th October 2018 at the Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso, Athens, Greece; a leading European destination resort with a broad range of amenities. For more information on MR&H 2018, visit www.mrandh.com About Questex Hospitality Group Questex Hospitality Group serves the worldwide hospitality, travel and related industries that together contribute over $6 trillion to global GDP. Through our innovative platform of targeted solutions, the group serves the sectors entire ecosystem from tourism and hotel development and investment to hotel design, purchasing, management and operations. The Questex Hospitality+Travel Group serves every B2B segment of the industry via our proven demand generation, learning, loyalty and rewards solutions as well as our network of live events. For more information visit https://www.questex.com/markets/hospitality. Bringing Cryptocurrency into the Institutional Order Flow With more than 500 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world today and about 1,500 cryptocurrencies, digital assets are truly a global market that has grabbed the attention of everyone from the retail investor to major institutions. But with a market that has literally pulled in millions of individual accounts globally, it has brought in a small percentage of traditional institutional players. At the FIX Trading Community event in Chicago on July 18, 2018, a panel of four cryptocurrency firm executives spoke candidly about why some institutions have moved into the space and why there aren't more banks, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms and large institutional players in the space today. What emerged is a picture of a marketplace with tremendous momentum and interest, yet a financial sector that is still young and faced with a number of infrastructure, qualitative and regulatory issues. There are also a number of challenges facing the FIX community when it comes to industry adoption of FIX technology. All of these topics were addressed by the lively panelists who see incredible potential, growth and opportunity in the space. The institutionalization of crypto has been building up, said Hu Liang, Founder and CEO of Omniex. Obviously, the retail phenomenon over the past year certainly pushed some institutions over the cliff or got them to pay closer attention to it. Institutions realize that there is long-term intrinsic value to crypto. The tokenization of assets, according to the panel, will happen in the coming months or years. The technological growth and advances wrought by the Internet, is pushing financial innovation into new sectors, well beyond traditional finance. It is not going away and is here to stay, said Sean Ristau, Co-Chair Digital Currency Working Group, FIX Trading Community, Director of Exchange Integration and Education at Bcause. It is a changing style of investment. But what is needed is critical infrastructure which includes everything from world-class exchange platforms that can handle trading at stock and futures exchange speeds. Panelists said that many of the top spot exchanges today use FIX API, but not all and not in a standardized manner across the crypto markets. The FIX Trading Community is trying to address that very issue with its Digital Currency Working Group. The Group continues to attract more members with a goal to bring a best-practices framework for FIX in the crypto space. Group leaders are working on that framework now and will present it back to the group to gather feedback. The goal then is to publish a FIX protocol guide for crypto by the end of the year. The foundations are already there for messaging, Ristau said. It's really applying those one-off cases to FIX. 1 2 3 next For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: Eastin Easy Aishwarya Talegaon brings exclusive offer: Stay for 3 Nights and Pay only for 2! 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The whole purpose of our being is for you to fully enjoy your stay with us anywhere anytime. Facilities & services include no reservation fee, flexible cancellation, free Wi-Fi, no fuss breakfast, fairly priced minibar in each room, gym and approachable services. ### The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are impossible to achieve unless we figure out how to resolve an inherent contradiction between two realities. The main reason why the SDGs were created and sustainable/inclusive development have become such important global priorities is that business-as-usual doesnt work anymore and is taking us to the brink of systems collapse. At the same time, the missing trillions of dollars required to achieve the SDGs are expected to come from the private sector. For all the great progress we have made on the corporate responsibility and sustainability agendas, the private sector still mainly prioritizes, and is rewarded for, short-term financial resultsnot sustainable long-term value creation. And the way we measure success in national growth and development agendas is still in terms of how much we manage to scale this outmoded model of business. Fortunately, this is starting to change. For decades, we have seen increasing demand among citizens, consumers, investors, workers and other actors in the economy for a new way of doing business that brings purpose and values to the core. As a result, we have seen many traditional for-profit businesses respond by broadening their purpose beyond profit maximization to include advancing social and environmental priorities. We have also seen many nonprofits and governments shifting their strategy and practices by adopting market-based approaches to scale their impact. At the same time, at the intersection where the private sector, civil society and government come together, we have seen the rapid emergence of a distinct fourth sector of organizationsconsisting of for-benefit enterprises whose main purpose is to solve social and environmental problems, but generate their income mainly through commercial activities. We have also started to see the beginnings of a new supportive ecosystem developing around this fourth sector, with changes in policy and regulation, new blended approaches to finance, integrated assessment and reporting systems, specialized technical and legal assistance, training offerings and more. While these are very promising trends, they are not advancing far enough or fast enough. Scaling the fourth sector exponentially is essential to achieving the SDGs and tackling many of the big challenges we facefrom climate change, inequality, energy and education to corruption, forced migration and extremism. Put simply, if we want more inclusive, sustainable economies that do a better job of taking care of people and planet, then we need more inclusive, sustainable business models as the building blocks of those economiesin other words, more for-benefit businesses. This is why we recently launched the Fourth Sector Group, a global non-profit platform to help grow the fourth sector by the trillions of dollars required to achieve the SDGs by 2030. In collaboration with the World Economic Forums System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Economic Progress, we are bringing together stakeholders from business, government, philanthropy, academia and civil society through the Fourth Sector Development Initiative to work together to pave the way for for-benefit companies to become mainstream around the world. We are thrilled to have the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and UNDP as partners who are doing remarkable work leading the development of the fourth sector across Latin America and the Caribbean. With its biodiversity superpowers and rich cultural heritage, the region has huge opportunities to boost for-benefit enterprises. There are already thousands of companies that integrate public benefit pursuits with commercial activities, dozens of impact investment firms providing capital to these types of businesses, and 10 governments that have recently adopted or are currently discussing new regulations aimed at identifying and supporting what are known as social enterprises and companies of collective benefit and interest. Latin America is determined to be a leading actor in fourth sector development. If correctly supported, for-benefit businesses could be a game changer in achieving the 2030 Agenda. Consider, for instance, Natura, the largest cosmetics maker in Latin America and one of the biggest companies in Brazil, which also operates in Europe. Natura generates an annual turnover of US$4.4 billion and employs more than 7,000 people. At the same time, it is helping advance virtually every SDG in Brazilreducing poverty and social inequality through fair salaries and good working conditions; tackling climate change by supporting sustainable use of forest products, particularly from the Amazon; avoiding redundant packaging; prioritizing the use of recycled and recyclable materials and using a fully biodegradable polymer produced from sugar cane; and offsetting all its carbon emissions. And their scope of impact keeps expanding. Natura recently bought The Body Shop and had previously acquired Australias Aesop, expanding the notion of for-benefit enterprise beyond the regions borders. If we are to truly transcend business-as-usual, we need to invest exponentially more effort into creating the enabling ecosystem for for-benefit enterprises, at the global, regional, national and subnational levels. Efforts like what SEGIB and UNDP are doing are showing the way. We also need to engage the whole of society. There is certainly much opportunity for government, civil society and the private sector to engage, but each of us can also play multiple rolesas consumers, citizens, investors, employees, professionals and in our other capacities, we can look for opportunities every day to support for-benefit businesses. If we come together soon, we can still make the transition to the world we all want by 2030. Abdirahman Abdi Ahmeds life has turned out in a way that he never imagined. Just over a year ago, the thirty-year-old former Somali refugee was living in exile in Zambia. Even though there were opportunities to work in Zambia, my heart was not at peace, says Abdirahman who chose to return home in 2016. Now working as the Director General for Interior for Jubaland State, he has no regrets, adding that he was motivated to return home to serve his country. I decided it was time to serve my people and motivate young people to serve their country, he says. Abdirahmans day to day work as Director General involves coordinating local governance in the state, with key roles touching on the rule of law, reconciliation, security and justice. He also coordinates humanitarian affairs involving finding durable solutions for Somali refugees, returnees and those displaced within the country. I want to serve and win the hearts of the community. I want to serve and win the hearts of the community, and more importantly, transform the management of displaced people and returnees like myself. Born in Afmadow, in lower Juba, Abdirahman enjoyed a normal childhood, studying in Kismayo. After finishing his secondary education in Kenya, he returned to Somalia and found work with an NGO. However, when Al Shabbab attacks became rampant in the country, he chose to leave in 2010. For the first time in my life, I was running away and leaving behind the only life I knew, he says as he recalls the peaceful life and good memories that he was forced to leave behind. Abdirahman left for South Africa but while in transit in Zambia, he met some Somali friends who advised him to stay on as he did not have the required travel documents to move on to South Africa. I even considered crossing the Mediterranean Sea and die trying, but chose to ask for education instead, he says. He approached the Commissioner for Refugees in Lusaka and received refugee status within months. He recalls how he requested the Commissioner for help to go to school. We literally depended on other people for survival. Help me see the corridors of the university so that I can go to Somalia and rebuild my country, he had said. He recalls how a few years later in the refugee camp, a visit by a UNHCR field officer would transform his life. During the visit, I talked about my strong desire to pursue higher education, he explains. Before long, I was called and informed of an opportunity to apply for the DAFI scholarship. He received the DAFI (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative) scholarship, finally getting the chance to pursue his dreams. He credits UNHCR with helping him earn the scholarship and eventually graduate with a Bachelors degree in Economics. His leadership skills led him to be elected as a community leader and liaison between the Zambian government and Somali refugees at the settlement. He also started teaching English at an adult literacy class and found a job with UNHCR as a monitoring and evaluation worker. Abdirahman Abdi Ahmed is a former Somali refugee and now works as the Director General for Interior in Kismayo, Jubaland State UNHCR/Caroline Opile Somali women walk along a row of new houses, constructed for returnees by UNHCR in Kismayo. UNHCR/Caroline Opile Abdullahi Ahmed Mohamud, returned to Somalia after living in Kenya for over 20 years. He is now the Director General for Kismayo International Airport. UNHCR/Caroline Opile He confesses that despite all these roles that endeared him to his community, government and UNHCR, life as a refugee was still difficult. We literally depended on other people for survival, he recalls. Returning home to Kismayo gave him a fresh start. He hopes the work he does now, assisting returnees to access dignified shelter, schools, hospitals, water and governance structures will pay off. In the last one year, in collaboration with other stakeholders, Abdirahman has helped develop a shelter policy that gives returnees dignified shelters; two roomed houses with a toilet and verandah. I hope to motivate more refugees to return home to Somalia," he says. Every refugee has a right to return home to their country of origin. Voluntary repatriation is one of the preferred durable solutions for displaced people. Every refugee has a right to return home to their country of origin, explains Caroline Van Buren, UNHCRs Representative in Somalia. When the security situation improves in the country of origin, refugees are able to voluntarily return and contribute in rebuilding their country. Like Abdirahman, another returnee, Abdullahi Ahmed Mohamud, is enjoying his decision to return home. Abdullahi, 35, has been the Director General for Kismayo International Airport since 2016. After living in exile in Kenya for over 20 years, he chose to return to Somalia in 2012, as part of a technical team tasked with drafting the charter for grassroots engagements in Somalia. It is through these consultative forums that we held our first delegates conference which gave birth to the election of an interim president for Jubaland State, he recalls. I hope to motivate more refugees to return home to Somalia." He believes that Somalis living in exile should return home as there are opportunities for them to work and participate in rebuilding the country. He notes that most of the people currently working in Government offices in Jubaland state are returnees. I encourage refugees to come back home and make Somalia better, he says. We are also prioritizing returnees that are educated for government jobs. Abdirahman and Abdullahi are among nearly 120,000 Somalis that have returned home voluntarily since 2014, with more than 50 per cent of them settling in Kismayo in Jubaland State. In a few months, Abdirahman will make a presentation on durable solutions for Somali refugees at a conference in the United States. He hopes to spread his advocacy for voluntary repatriation and plans to visit camps in Kenya to speak to his country people there. UNHCRs Van Buren notes that most returnees from Kenya have re-established themselves in Kismayo and are happy to be back in Somalia after many years in exile. We are proud of returnees like Abdirahman and Abdullahi who are making a difference in their country and communities. Refugees from northern Nigeria rest after arriving at Minawao camp in Cameroon, in December 2016. UNHCR/Alexis Huguet UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is shocked to learn of the tragic death of six Nigerian asylum-seekers, among them three children, who were killed in a blast in the far north of Cameroon. UNHCR has learnt that on 29 July, 12 asylum-seekers were being forcibly returned to Banki, Nigeria, in a Cameroonian army truck which drove over an improvised explosive device that exploded. Six Cameroonian soldiers and six other asylum-seekers were also injured in the incident, which took place in Homaka, Mayo Sava Division. "This tragic incident is a disappointing testament of continuing forced returns (refoulements) of refugees and asylum-seekers from Cameroon, despite numerous appeals by UNHCR to the Government of Cameroon to respect its obligations, said Valentin Tapsoba, Director of UNHCRs Regional Bureau for Africa. "The forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law to which the Cameroonian State is party." Over 800 Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers in Cameroon have been forcibly returned to Nigeria since the beginning of 2018. UNHCR once again calls upon the government of Cameroon to refrain from carrying out further forced returns of Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers. It also reminds Cameroon of its obligations under international law relating to the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers and the commitments it made by signing the Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon in March 2017. UNHCR reiterates its appeal to authorities to provide Nigerian refugees with unhindered access to asylum and stands ready to support Cameroon to ensure all individuals seeking safety have access to efficient screening, registration and documentation procedures. Some 96,000 Nigerian refugees have sought safety in the Far North region of the country, with more than 8,000 new refugees registered since the beginning of 2018. Cameroon currently hosts more than 367,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. For more information on this topic, please contact: Assam citizen list will not harm ties with Bangladesh: Indian envoy Dhaka, Aug 2 ( UNI) The Assam National Register of Citizens is an internal matter of India and will not harm relations with Bangladesh, High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla said here on Thursday. "This is not an issue of concern. Its an internal matter of India determining whore its citizens and whore not. Well do it in a way that is transparent and well make sure it doesnt harm our bilateral relationship, Shringla said. He was responding to queries from reporters over the recently published list of Assams citizens after a meeting with Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaiul Quader at the Secretariat. Shringla said he had come to invite Quader to attend the Mobility Conference scheduled to be held in India in September. 3 persons including one woman arrested under NDPS Act 28 Oct 2021 | 2:36 AM Dharamshala, Oct 27 (UNI) Kangra police has arrested three persons, including a woman in two different cases under different sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, at Icco mode near Dharmshala and Chobin Baijnath after police recovered more than 1 kg Charas from their posession, police said here on Wednesday. see more.. Nawab Malik's charges against NCB chief baseless: Athawale 28 Oct 2021 | 2:16 AM Lucknow Oct 27(UNI)Union minister Ramdas Athawale has termed the allegations levelled by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik against NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede as "baseless" and "mischievous", and defended the officer saying he has not done anything wrong. see more.. No clean chit yet in Jal Yukta Shivar probe: Maharashtra govt 28 Oct 2021 | 2:07 AM Mumbai, Oct 27 (UNI) Maharashtra government on Wednesday dismissed media reports claiming that clean chit has been given to the previous BJP government in the alleged irregularities pertaining to Jal Yukta Shivar Yojana. see more.. Bangladeshis, Rohingyas arrested in UP 28 Oct 2021 | 2:03 AM Lucknow, Oct 27(UNI) The four suspects picked by the sleuths of the Anti-Terrorists Squad (ATS) from the New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani express train from Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhya (PDDU) Junction late on Monday night turned out to Bangladeshi and Rohingyas involved in "human trafficking". see more.. Astana (Kazakhstan), Aug 2 (UNI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in Astana, Capital of Kazakhstan, on Thursday on the first leg of her three-nation visit. The four-day visit will also take her to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, her first to these three countries in the Central Asian region. In a tweet, External Affairs Ministrys official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said both India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and Kazakhstan is Indias largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia. He said that ancient and historical ties of India with the Central Asian nations date back to 2500 years. During her brief transit halt, Ms Swaraj was received by the Deputy Chairman of Cabinet of Ministers and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov at the Ashgabat airport on her way to Kazakhstan. The official spokesperson said that good exchange of views on a wide range of bilateral issues took place between the two leaders. During her visit to Kazakhstan, Ms Swaraj will hold a bilateral meeting with her Kazakh couterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov.She is also scheduled to interact with the Indian community in the country. In her next stop in Kyrgyzstan, Ms Swaraj will meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Abdyldaev. She will also call upon the top leadership of the country. On her last segment of the visit, she will visit Tashkent, Uzbekistan on August 4. She will hold in-depth discussions with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov. External Affairs Minister is also slated to address the members of the Indian community in Uzbekistan. She will also offer tribute at the memorial of former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who had breathed her last in Tashkent in January 1966. Her visit will provide an opportunity to hold extensive discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. UNI VT/1915 Thailand to Host the Miss Universe 2018 Pageant "To God be the Glory". Pranoto Soenarto, director of Indonesian coffee company PT Asia Mina Sejahtera, flew from Jakarta to Hanoi last month, with only one goal in mind: seeking Vietnamese partners to co-operate with in its potential coffee projects. Were expanding production, and we need to seek more suppliers of input materials. Vietnam is our best market, Soenarto said. PT Asia Mina Sejahtera is among 16 Indonesian coffee firms which recently came to Vietnam for the first time to look for Vietnamese suppliers. They include big brands like Harro Coffee Group, PT Sabani Internasional, Gabungan Perusahaan Petani Indonesia, and PT Pamora Coffee Indonesia. They met with several Vietnamese firms, including Me Trang Coffee, Minh Tien Coffee, IDD Vietnam, Cuong Anh Import-Export, and Hapro Distribution. A number of deals were agreed on, without details revealed. According to the Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association (Vicofa), Indonesian firms spent over $33 million importing coffee from Vietnam last year. It is expected that the figure could reach $40-45 million this year. Before 2015, the turnover of Vietnams coffee exports to Indonesia was about $15-20 million a year. One of the reasons Vietnam is now boosting its coffee exports to ASEAN markets, mostly to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, aside from these nations growing coffee demand, is that import tariffs on the product have been reduced to 0 per cent, said a Vicofa representative. According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), coffee is just one among many boosted Vietnamese exports to ASEAN since the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was established in late 2015. This has also contributed to an overall increase in Vietnams exports to ASEAN. On the rise The GSO reported that ASEAN is now Vietnams fourth-largest export market, after the US, the EU, and China. Vietnams export turnover to ASEAN surged from less than $1 billion in 1995 to $18.23 billion in 2015. In 2016, Vietnams export turnover to the ASEAN region was $17.45 billion, down 4.4 per cent on-year. However, the figure ascended to $21.7 billion in 2017, up 24.5 per cent on-year. In this years first six months, the figure hit $12.2 billion, up 17.4 per cent on-year. Vietnams exports to other ASEAN members have risen significantly. Not only foreign enterprises in Vietnam, but also Vietnamese firms have been boosting their exports to ASEAN markets, said a representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) at a recent cabinet meeting in Hanoi. This is thanks to slashed import tariffs, in addition to the business communitys increased awareness about ASEAN markets. Key Vietnamese exports to ASEAN include farm produce like coffee, pepper, and cashews, mobile phones, computers, electronics, steel, machinery and equipment, vehicles, textiles and garments, and crude oil. Nguyen Huu Truong, sales representative of Garmexi Trade JSC, a Vietnamese-Chinese joint venture company in the northern province of Bac Giang, told VIR that if his firm directly exported its garments from China to ASEAN, it would face an average import tax rate of 8-10 per cent; but when the company exports from Vietnam, it enjoys a far lower import tax rate of merely 2-3 per cent, which will be removed completely by the end of this year. In this years first half, Garmexi exported to Malaysia and Singapore, with its turnover increasing by 18-20 per cent on-year. We are planning to expand our exports to Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia in the future, Truong said. According to the General Department of Customs, during the first five months of this year, Vietnam earned $2.2 billion from exporting its goods to Thailand, $1.66 billion to Malaysia, $1.33 billion to Singapore, about $1.6 billion from exports to Indonesia, and $1.2 billion to the Philippines. In 2017, Vietnam fetched $4.7 billion from exporting its goods to Thailand (up nearly 30 per cent on-year); $4.2 billion to Malaysia (up 31 per cent), about $3 billion to Singapore (up over 30 per cent), $2.5 billion to Indonesia, and $1.1 billion to the Philippines. Tax slashes for a single market The AEC is aimed to create a tariff-free zone with 0 per cent tariffs on all traded goods and services, while setting a timetable for removal of non-tariff barriers region-wide. Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, vice head of the MoITs Multilateral Trade Policy Department, said that the ASEAN-6 nationsthe blocs most developed economies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailanderased 99 per cent of their import tariff lines by 2010. Meanwhile, the remaining nationsCambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnamremoved 90 per cent of their import tariff lines in 2015. This year, another 7 per cent of tariff lines will be removed by Vietnam, Nga said. These numbers mean 669 tariff lines, which will be reduced to 0 per cent by the end of this year for such products as automobiles and their spare parts, steel, motorbikes and bikes and their spare parts, wine, beer, plastics, and paper. The remaining 3 per cent, on sensitive agricultural items like poultry, eggs, sectioned fruit, rice, processed meat, and sugar, must be reduced to 0 per cent after 2018. However, in order to benefit from such tariff reductions, goods must meet many conditions. For example, they have to have at least 40 per cent of their materials sourced from within ASEAN. A bumpy road ahead Nguyen Ton Quyen, chairman of the Timber and Forest Product Association of Vietnam, said local wood producers find it challenging to enter ASEAN. Despite the AEC tariff cuts, they cannot increase exports to ASEAN due to the low demand for Vietnamese wooden products. Meanwhile, the firms also import a large volume of materials, such as paints, nails, and chemicals, worth millions of US dollars a year from ASEAN. Thats why the whole economy in general is still suffering from a trade deficit with ASEAN, Quyen said. The GSO reported that in the first half of this year, while exports to ASEAN reached a turnover of $12.2 billion, a 17.4-per-cent increase, Vietnams import turnover from this market was $15.3 billion, up 11.8 per cent on-year, leaving a trade deficit of $3.1 billion, marginally lower than the $3.2 billion recorded in the same period last year. Last year, the trade deficit was $6.3 billion, higher than 2016s $6.25 billion. Vietnam also has a deficit with Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Vietnam is also a net importer of many items indispensable for local production from ASEAN, such as petrol, plastics, and components for computers, electronics, machinery, and steel. However, according to the GSO, Vietnam imports these items for local production and then exports finished products to the world, including ASEAN. Thus, there should be no worry about the trade deficit between Vietnam and ASEAN. Ibnu Hadi, Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam, told VIR that in addition to exporting coffee to Indonesia, Vietnam also imports the same product from Indonesia for export-oriented processing. While Vietnam is the worlds second-largest coffee exporter and Indonesia is the worlds fourth-largest coffee exporter, and both nations are also ASEAN members and produce 80 per cent of global coffee volume, there is a need for further co-operation between both countries, he said. Overall, the two-way trade turnover between Indonesia and Vietnam rose from $5.58 billion in 2016 to $6.5 billion last year, including $3.63 billion worth of Indonesian exports, up 22.51 per cent on-year, and $2.87 billion worth of Indonesian imports, up 9.37 per cent on-year. The HCM City tax department said it has served a tax notice and slapped a fine on an individual together amounting to VND4.1 billion (US$178,000) for failure to pay tax on incomes received from foreign companies in the last two years.-Photo tieudung.vn It said the person, whose gender or name it did not reveal, had received over VND41 billion ($1.78 million) from Google, Facebook and Youtube. This is the first person ever in the country to pay tax on online income from abroad. Authorities know of many other individuals and businesses getting incomes from Google, Facebook and others without filing tax returns. We asked four banks to review all money transactions and discovered huge amounts of money were received from Google, Facebook, Youtube without paying tax, Nguyen Nam Binh, deputy head of the Department of Tax, was quoted as saying by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. The tax department questioned the person about the VND4.1 billion back taxes who claimed to have forgotten to pay tax. Binh revealed that another person with temporary residence in HCM City earned VND20-30 billion ($870,000 - 1.3 million) from Google, Facebook and Youtube, but moved out of his temporary address when tax officials tried to contact him. We have asked the tax department of Quang Nam Province, where he is registered as a permanent resident, to pursue the matter. The HCM City tax department said the number of people around the country earning large incomes from Google, Facebook and Youtube needs to be checked, and it would urge all banks and financial institutions to co-operate. We would like to inform all individuals and organisations who receive money from abroad but have not registered with tax authorities to do so immediately, Binh said. The tax department has suggested creating a co-ordination mechanism between it and banks to monitor incomes, especially from non-traditional resources like creating apps and games and video clips on social network and the internet. Tax collection from people selling products on Facebook had made little progress either, he said. He said the department had called on sellers on Facebook to discuss tax payments with it but the number of people who had done so was very small. Tran Xoa, a lawyer and director of the Minh Dang Quang Legal Company, criticised banks for failing to report unusual money transactions. The State Bank of Vietnam has a regulation that banks are responsible for reporting unusual actions, but money transfers by Google, Facebook, Youtube to individuals and organisations have been happening for a long time and we should reconsider the system. He also suggested that tax authorities should improve oversight of trans-border transactions and tax education of the public. By checking with just four banks, the tax authorities discovered that Google, Facebook and Youtube have paid over VND500 billion ($21.75 million) to individuals and organisations, with the amounts ranging from tens of millions to several billion dong. Everyone who received over VND100 million ($4,350) in a financial year have to pay 5 per cent valued added tax and 2 per income tax. The department vowed to also collect taxes from organisations receiving incomes from Google, Facebook and Youtube. EU firms want to benefit from public procurement in infrastructure and other sectors, Photo: Le Toan At a recent teleconference between the government and ministries and localities, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh announced that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will be signed in October or November this year, and is expected to take effect early next year. After the deal comes into force, EU companies will, for the first time, be able to bid for public procurement contracts in Vietnam under the same conditions as Vietnamese companies, for a selective number of entities (see box). Currently, EU firms are not allowed to engage in bidding activities for government-funded projects. Public procurement is about how public authorities spend public money when buying goods, works or services. This can range from buying IT equipment or providing water, gas and electricity, to building a hospital or a road. The entities with which EU firms will be able to bid for public procurement contracts include - All Vietnamese ministries as well as the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Government Inspectorate. - Two key utility-related state-owned enterprises Electricity of Vietnam and Vietnam Railways. - Thirty-four public hospitals directly under the control of the Ministry of Health. All pharmaceuticals purchased by the Ministry of Health, the departments of Health of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and by the 34 hospitals are included as well. - Two major universities and two major research institutes. EU firms really want to partake in government procurement contracts in Vietnam, because these contracts can bring them many opportunities. Each year, the government invests billions of dollars into infrastructure projects, many of which must be put out to tender, said an expert from the EU Delegation to Vietnam. The EVFTA will open the door wider for EU companies. In fact, many EU investors have and will come to Vietnam in search of these opportunities. Recently, executives of 20 Slovak firms came to Vietnam to intensify their high-tech, multi-sectoral presence in Vietnam in order to take advantage of the countrys growing demand and upcoming tariff slashes for EU-sourced items under the EVFTA. They met with government agencies to study possibilities for them to partake in upcoming bidding packages in publicly funded infrastructure projects to be offered by the Vietnamese government. They said they expected that the EVFTA would enable them to enter the government procurement sector in Vietnam more easily. For example, meteorology and climatology company MicroStep-MIS is currently looking to enter Vietnam, which is among the nations that are most vulnerable to climate change. We want to work with partners in Vietnam, including representatives from ministries, airports, seaports, hydro-meteorological stations, environmental agencies, and industrial and urban development agencies, said MicroStep-MISs project and systems development manager Martin Gazak. MicroStep-MIS operates worldwide and is specialised in the development and manufacturing of monitoring and information systems, the processing of acquired data, and research and numerical modelling. Opportunities for EU firms Under the EVFTA, a new regulation on government procurement will allow EU companies to bid for public contracts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with Vietnamese ministries and selected state-owned enterprises such as power distribution companies and hospitals, the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Projects technical assistant team leader Claudio Dordi told VIR. The tougher competition coming from EU companies will be balanced by more transparent and fair procedures, benefiting the most efficient Vietnamese companies willing to supply goods to the public sector. According to a recently released guide to the EVFTA, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest ratios of public investment to GDP in the world. Since 1995, this ratio has remained at over 39 per cent annually, with a large part invested in infrastructure projects. Last year, the ratio was 35.7 per cent ($26.45 billion) of the total development investment capital. Vietnam has not agreed to make its government procurement subject to the Government Procurement Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Indeed, Vietnam is taking this step for the first time with the EVFTA. Oliver Massmann, general director of Duane Morris Vietnam, said that currently, EU investors are expressing great interest in the Long Thanh International Airport project, with the total investment capital of approximately $16 billion. This 5,000-hectare project is located in the southern province of Dong Nai, 40 kilometres east of Ho Chi Minh City. When it is completed in 2025 as scheduled, it will be the largest airport in Vietnam. The government has asked the Ministry of Transport to conduct international bidding to select consultants to develop a master plan for this project. It is expected that in 2019, the investorAviation Corporation of Vietnamwill select the main contractor for the project. This is a great opportunity for European investors, considering that the development phase of the project will start when the EVFTA is already in effect, Massmann said. A new requirement for Vietnam Nguyen Thu Trang, director of the WTO Centre under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that over the past years, the aforementioned public contracts were almost never made available to foreign investors. Meanwhile, public procurement was quite transparent throughout all 28 EU member states. Thus, Vietnam has to open its public procurement market to a large extent, Trang said. Such a move will make it easier for EU investors to join the market. For example, if the government wants to purchase medical equipment for public hospitals, it will have to organise public tenders, and EU businesses will be entitled to join the tenders on an equal basis with local businesses. Duong Kim Khanh, general director of pharmaceutical firm Lynh Farma in Ho Chi Minh City, told VIR that many foreign firms wanted to engage in contracts at local hospitals, but failed. Vietnams commitment to government procurement under the EVFTA sounds good. However, foreign firms are waiting to see how the commitment will be implemented, Khanh said. illustration photo Within just one year, a series of corporations such as AES, EDF, and Energy Capital Vietnam expressed their expansion strategies in Vietnam, boasting gas-to-power projects worth billions of dollars. In a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last week, US-based Energy Capital Vietnam reaffirmed its plan on the construction of a $4 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuelled power plant, for which the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu in May this year. It is scheduled to start operation in late 2021 with the capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) in the first phase and offering a competitive tariff of 7 UScents per kWh, even lower than the current level of 7.8 cents for wind power projects and 9.35 cents for solar farms in the country. This timeline would see the plant become operational slightly sooner than Vietnams state-owned oil and gas group PetroVietnams two 750MW combined-cycle gas turbine power plants Mien Trung I and II, which use natural gas extracted from the Blue Whale gas field, the largest of its kind in Vietnam with the estimated of 150 billion cubic metres of reserves. Located in the central province of Quang Nam, the two power plants will expectedly begin operations by 2023 and 2024, respectively. The list of the proposed gas-to-power projects in Vietnam includes the US AES that has invested in the $2.1 billion Mong Duong 2 thermal power plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh, and looking to invest in the Son My 2 gas-fired power plant in the central province of Binh Thuan. The Son My 1 gas-fired power plant in Binh Thuan is also on the radar of Frances EDF. Meanwhile, Switzerland-based Astra Transcor Energys AOT Energy is seeking cooperation with PetroVietnam to build a $650 million LNG complex. Gavin Smith, vice chairman of the EuroCham Green Growth Sector Committee, said that the energy security that Vietnam has enjoyed will be extended with the growth of the local gas supply, which is the natural partner of renewable energy, as well as greater energy efficiency. Gas is a flexible base-load power source with much lower emissions than imported coal and is abundant close to home, Smith said. According to Ban Viet Securities, the supply of gas will grow during 2021-2025 due to the number of large gas fields put into operation as well as increased LNG imports for Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power plants, also invested by PetroVietnam, starting to operate from 2021. Los Angeles Business Council (LABC), the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Amcham), and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry Ho Chi Minh City signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Ho Chi Minh City in July 30, to establish an alliance designed to promote economic development through collaboration and information sharing in energy generation, infrastructure development, and sustainable investment activities. All sides recognise the importance of meeting the energy infrastructure demands of their growing populations, and to do so in a manner that effectively addresses the challenges of climate change. According to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the agreement is an important recognition that fighting climate change has to be a concerted global effort. Los Angeles is leading the charge in making 100 per cent renewable energy a realitywith a thriving green economy to show for it. Sharing best practices and promoting partnerships to expand sustainable development will ultimately make our cities more liveable and successful, Garcetti said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti highlighted that fighting climate change has to be a concerted global effort Los Angeles is a champion for sustainable energy development. LABC President Mary Leslie commented that the two cities have many common interests, including increasing the use of clean energy and reducing reliance on coal-fired power. This new partnership between our two cities will support emerging technologies, companies, and energy providers dedicated to a clean energy future, said Leslie. Ho Chi Minh Citys population is expected to increase to 13.9 million by 2025, with Los Angeless expected to rise to 15.7 million during the same timeframe. Both cities also share a desire to realise the market potential for solar energy, which the MoU addresses with a commitment to share city-to-city knowledge of technology and design to promote environmental sustainability. The alliance was signed in Ho Chi Minh City LABC, one of the most influential advocacy and educational organisations in California, has spearheaded business-friendly solar energy policies in Los Angeles, which today boasts the most installed solar energy in any city in the nation. The group also spearheaded a clean energy coalition that drove the development of the most successful feed-in-tariff programme in the United States. LABC has a long history of fostering international collaboration, most notably helping form the Tripartite Economic Alliance between the sister cities of Los Angeles, Auckland, and Guangzhou in 2014. This newest alliance between Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City similarly reflects a desire to share best practices, identify business partnerships and collaborate in the work of leading the two cities into a healthier and more prosperous future. For over 70 years, LABC has had a major impact on public policy by harnessing the power of business and government to promote environmental and economic sustainability in the Los Angeles region. Phung Xuan Nha, photo source: Zing.vn That was the message from minister Phung Xuan Nha yesterday after one of the biggest cheating scandals in recent years. Reporting to the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the second day of the monthly cabinet meeting, Nha took his responsibility over what happened in Son La and Ha Giang provinces this year, saying that the ministry would be tough on any violations discovered. An investigation carried out after mounting public pressure last month discovered that the scores of 330 tests of 114 students in Ha Giang were raised higher than the real results. It also found evidence of outside interference into the scores of several multiple-choice tests in Son La. Five local education officials were arrested so far. But the minister said: We cant deny the whole exam because of those wrongdoings.. Since 2015, Vietnam started merging the high school exit and university entry exams into one, hoping to make test time less stressful for the students. It was also implemented to ease financial pressures when most of the students had had to travel to big cities like Hanoi and HCM City where the majority of the universities are based, Nha said. Before the merging decision, there had been different ideas on how to reform the examinations, he said. Some suggested discarding the high school exam but keeping the university entry one, which was infeasible as it would be against the Law on Education and might even drag down the educational quality bar as the students could graduate without any tests. Others raised the idea of letting localities in charge of the high school exams, but that was dismissed due to concerns over possible unfairness among localities which tended to run after records and achievements and only a few universities could afford to organise their own exams, Nha said. The high school graduation-cum-university entrance exam, or commonly called the two-in-one exam, was the best option, he said. Regarding the very severe wrongdoings in Ha Giang and Son La, the minister said the Ministry of Education and Training conducted thorough reviews on the examination procedures and found shortcomings in the system. They included security faults in the multiple-choice test scoring software and the lack of inspection and monitoring from the ministry over the exams in the localities. Nha promised technical improvements to the faulty software while the ministry was considering new ways to score the students tests in order to ensure transparency and fairness. The ministry would also clearly regulate the responsibilities of the localities, the universities and the examiners in the examination. He added that because of the same reasons, the high school graduation exam should not be abandoned. We will consider thoroughly but the ministry is of the opinion that removing the national high school exam in the next few years is infeasible. Instead, we will try to make the exam more honest and accurately portray the educational quality of each locality, Nha said. Vietnam will become the fifth fastest growing aviation market According to IATA (The International Air Transport Association), Vietnam will become the fifth fastest-growing aviation market in terms of international passengers and cargo to be transported. With a population of approximately 100 million, the domestic aviation market will witness average growth rate of 15 percent in the time to come. Economists say Vietnam needs 10 air carriers to satisfy demand and create a healthy market. Meanwhile, Vietnams aviation infrastructure is getting overloaded and the presence of new airlines will put pressure on airport infrastructure. According to Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the airports of Noi Bai in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat in HCMC, Cam Ranh in Khanh Hoa, Cat Bi in Hai Phong, Phu Quoc in Kien Giang and Lien Khuong in Lam Dong are all running beyond the designed capacity. If Vietnam cannot solve the problems related to infrastructure, the aviation industry will not be able to develop. Vietnam now has 21 airports with total capacity of 70 million passengers a year. The figure is just equal to the capacity of KLIA 1 and KLIA 2 in Malaysia in total (75 million passengers) and a little bit higher than Changi in Singapore (50 million passengers). Foreign travelers complain they have to take two flights to get to Quy Nhon, Quang Ninh, Quang Binh, Thanh Hoa and Phu Quoc. They have to fly to Hanoi and HCMC and then wait hours for the next flights to the destination. To satisfy high travel demand, Vietnam plans to have 26 airports by 2020 with total investment capital of $10.5 billion. It is now implementing 11 projects, of which seven will be completed in the next three years. Analysts believe that as the states resources remain limited, private investment is a good solution. According to CAAV (Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam), there are five airport projects with capital contribution from private investors now under implementation. These include the Van Don International Airport, the terminal for international travelers of Cam Ranh Airport, and Phan Thiet, Cat Bi and Chu Lai Airports. Van Don is the first privately invested airport in Vietnam. The other 21 operating airports are under ACVs management. Tran Dinh Thien, head of the Vietnam Economics Institute, praised the effectiveness of private investment in the field. IPP, a private investor, initially planned to build Cam Ranh Airport within 36 months, but it needed only two-thirds of that time to finish construction. Darren Knight and Joel Kim Booster at Just For Laughs. Photo: Courtesy of Just For Laughs Last weekend, at the annual Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, an American comedian created an international incident. Selected for a Variety showcase of Top 10 Comics to Watch, Darren Knight, a.k.a. Southern Momma, not only insulted his peers, but also the audience, the festival, and comedy in 2018 at large. A social-media comedian with less than two years of experience under his belt but tons of followers online, Knight attempted to dictate what comedy is to a room of professionals passionate about the art form. His performance, during which he declared that comedy shouldnt be about sexism or race, was met with silence, then boos. Comedian Chris Redd of Saturday Night Live, who hosted the Variety showcase, later confronted Knight backstage, saying, You bomb the whole time and then decide what comedy is? Real comics write real jokes. To understand Knights downfall in the world of comedy after his performance at the biggest comedy festival in the world, one must first understand the nature of his success. Knight, who is from Munford, Alabama, is the self-appointed fastest rising comedian in American history. While I am not entirely sure of the previous record holder or what governing body is tracking this particular metric, his online personas, most notably Southern Momma, have accumulated over half-a-billion views via multiple social-media platforms. The ability to create an online persona and edit it into footage that has amassed that many views is impressive, but that does not always make it translatable to the stage. Outside of this, Knight achieved regional fame thanks to sold-out live comedy shows like his Southern Momma An Em comedy tour, and as the title of the tour suggests, the use of colloquialisms and southern idiomatic expressions are central to his popularity. Other than Knight, every other comedian selected for Varietys 10 Comics to Watch in 2018 was either a woman, a person of color, or identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Thats an important observation to make, but the actual difference was that each of his stand-up peers had, at the very least, performed a late-night set on television. He was among comedians on Emmy-winning shows, Peabody Awardwinning programs, and writers for Saturday Night Live and Netflix. Photo: Facebook/Darren Knight Photo: Facebook/Darren Knight Knights history of social-media posts criticizing congresswoman Maxine Waters, BET as a television network, and his statements regarding ABCs cancellation of Roseanne are all in line with what you might expect from a conservative Southern Momma and what eventually got him booed at the festival. His statements at the Variety 10 Comics to Watch panel were the first sparks that would eventually send his time at JFL up in flames. Knights peers, a diverse collective of comedic voices (Sam Jay, Joel Kim Booster, Amanda Seales, Taylor Tomlinson, Hari Kondabolu, Dulce Sloan, Julio Torres, Anna Konkle & Maya Erskine, and Jaboukie Young-White), all seemed to be in stark contrast to what he felt comedy should highlight. According to Seales, he was quoted as saying, Comedy shouldnt be about attacking racists. Thats ostracizing your audience. That panel was merely the pregame to the main event. At JFLs Variety showcase, Knight opened his set with To our wives and girlfriends, may they never meet a joke most commonly attributed to Groucho Marx and followed with a wave of scatological humor and his parting advice to the audience that comedy shouldnt be about sexism or race because thats not what people want to hear. Dulce Sloan revealed on Twitter that Knight had been verbally attacking her and the other comedians all day, including calling Sloan Precious as he walked offstage. That bomb was coated with disrespect, Chris Redd tweeted, and all of a sudden it was trash day. Darren Knight in drag as Southern Momma. Photo: YouTube/Darren Knight As a southern, queer black comedian, I found Knights comments both dangerous and wildly hypocritical. His entire career is rooted in a queer, female, and black narrative. His statements attempted to further silence already marginalized voices by saying that comedy isnt about sexism or race, but what Mayonnaise Madea fails to realize is that his comedy is drag. Full stop. His Southern Momma is explicitly female-impersonation performance art. There are even videos of him performing the character in full drag. So whether or not Knight wants to hear it, his success is queer, or at the very least queer-adjacent. Southern Momma, welcome to the Resistance. The tradition of domestic comedy, particularly focusing on women and child-rearing, was and still continues to be a huge part of the chitlin circuit and African-American comedy/urban rooms in general. Southern Momma only exists because of Tyler Perrys Madea character, Rickey Smileys drag performances, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and so on, whether Knight wants to admit that or not. While he definitely wont be invited to any cookouts soon, it would be nice if he acknowledged the history of his preferred comedic avenue. Knight is not alone in his cashing in on Instagram and Facebook drag humor, but he does seem to be the most popular white performer in the medium. Gaslighting performers of color by telling them that comedy shouldnt be about race, only to use tools and tropes established by black comedians in order to gain success, is a level of race-baiting that I had yet to see. His statements also managed to take the focus away from performers of color, female performers, and queer performers. In a way, this very article and others like it are in no small part a testament to his success in conveying his message. A social-media personality who utters predictable Southern Momma-isms, who started doing comedy in his car two years ago, earned more attention and focus than the talented, diverse, award-winning comics featured on the Variety showcase. Even when a white man fails, his failure seems to suck up all the oxygen in the room, and that is the saddest part of this entire fiasco. Steven Averys former lawyer Jerome Buting holds up evidence in footage from Netflixs Making a Murderer. Photo: Netflix All week long, Vulture is exploring the many ways true crime has become one of the most dominant genres in popular culture. Sarah Weinman is the author of the forthcoming The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World. Fifteen years ago, I left Manhattan expecting that I would work as a forensic scientist. It was what I believed I wanted, having spent the prior two years studying at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, one of the oldest forensic-science graduate school programs in the country. But when I returned to New York in 2005, I was not a forensic scientist. I was a writer, largely writing crime fiction and true crime. It wasnt for lack of trying: The year before, Id interviewed with every major forensic biology lab on the East Coast of the United States and Canada. None of them hired me. Serious soul-searching uncovered the reason: I was a macro thinker in a micro world, more interested in cases and people and psychology than in repetitive laboratory analysis. What I learned in school made me a better journalist and a better writer because forensic science is, as scientific disciplines must be, about critical thinking and objective analysis. But it also made me less patient with how the field is depicted in film and television, and more appreciative when books and programs take the time to get it right. With the more recent boom in true-crime programming, and the proliferation of podcasts ranging from highly investigative to loosely comedic, I wanted to know what forensic-science experts including former classmates and instructors of mine at John Jay felt about the increased attention to real-life crime. Was it a boon to their work, or a hindrance? They try to avoid watching or listening to true-crime programs. The forensic scientists I talked to tended to shy away from current true-crime programming, in part because they had to devote their time to their actual work. Kristy Sekedat, manager of the trace-evidence unit lab for the Michigan State Police (and my classmate at John Jay College), did listen to every episode of Serial. What she took away from the podcast is that its listeners, many of whom were new to true crime, arent just thinking about the case at hand, but about avenues and evidence not explored. They are thinking about post-conviction or coming up again for retrial. This cultural shift in the way we think about crimes as a result of post-Serial true-crime programming, Sekedat explained, is that it can stifle the work that youre doing as a bench-level analyst. You start thinking, What might I get later, analyzed 10 years down the road? What if I look at the evidence again with new information? These questions can keep you from looking at just what you have right now. Because if someone on a podcast gets a retrial, it puts everything under the microscope (no pun intended). What Sekedat brings up is an offshoot of the well-discussed phenomenon known as the CSI Effect. As Carolyn Gannett, a criminalist and instructor with the California Criminalistics Institute, told me by email, Juries began to expect science to enter into every aspect of a case being argued in court. Thats simply not realistic. email. The bigger problem is bad interpretation of science. Recent articles and books by Pamela Colloff and Radley Balko highlight the dangers of junk science, and how overstating expertise and qualifications can lead to wrongful convictions. Between such public-interest pieces, true-crime programs like The Last Defense, and recent reports about high error rates for techniques that analyze bite marks, hair, and fiber, it might seem as if forensic science is continuing to move toward a DNA or bust mentality. Thats because forensic DNA analysis, beginning as far back as the mid-1980s, used mathematical probabilities from the get-go in ways trace-evidence-based techniques did not. But Ralph Ristenbatt, a forensic science professor at Penn State University (and one of my instructors at John Jay), urged a different way of thinking about these older, supposedly debunked analyses, one that moves away from the broader cultural idea that such forensic techniques are unequivocally wrong. Its not the science, its who is doing the science, he said. These are useful techniques. Its the people who are doing the work who are overextending themselves. In many cases, they dont know any better. They dont know limitations, and they dont know where to stop. Bite marks are still an incredibly powerful tool. There is nothing wrong with hair analysis. But in the wake of the FBIs 2015 report that the vast majority of its hair examiners overstated evidence and made errors, good luck finding hair examiners anymore. Now when you have a DNA technician looking at hair, they just cut it in a tube. Journalisms interpretation filter is also an issue. True-crime shows and podcasts arent the only ones flattening the complexity of forensic science into easy-to-grasp narratives: journalists do so too. They say DNA or trace evidence matches a suspect when scientists cant be so definitive (is consistent with is the term I was taught to use). They confuse medical examiners, who are licensed pathologists, with coroners, who are elected officials and can have any background, even nonmedical ones. They reach for outrage when a more measured reporting approach is more accurate. This conflict arises, according to a 2016 paper by Loene Howes and Nenagh Kemp, because of a need to communicate expert opinion in a way that is both scientifically accurate and also comprehensible to nonscientists. Sekedat described an example of this communication gap. When she worked for the New York City Police Departments crime lab, she and her then-boss, Lisa Faber, were interviewed in a 2007 New Yorker article by Jeffrey Toobin on the CSI Effect. Sekedat and Faber thought the interview [which quoted Faber only] had gone well, but in their view, the resulting piece was a different story. We were so disappointed when we read the article because he dissed trace evidence, Sekedat recalled. We had poured our hearts out about how awesome the field was A layperson would have read the article and thought, thats fascinating to get an inside look at forensic science. I honestly canceled my subscription, thats how upset I was. Sekedats experience made her understandably wary. Dont try to put your own spin on it, make it sound fun or sexy, she said. This is science. Ultimately, bridging the practice of forensic science and the publics need for story may be difficult. We crave narrative, order from chaos, a mystery solved, good guys winning out over the bad ones. But science, and forensic science, should be more neutral, and thus more nuanced. The true crime that gets it right, like the investigative podcast In the Dark from APM Reports, burrow deeply into the messiness of the criminal-justice system, letting the egregiousness and the bad science speak for itself, so that the outrage is earned, and can be acted on, not stoked and manipulated. Ristenbatt expressed pessimism that the divide can be smoothed over: Its been this way since 1987. It hasnt gotten better, its gotten worse. Criminalists who start with science and know a lot about many forensic disciplines are few and far between. Sekedat did stress, though, that the stuff true-crime podcasts and television shows are made of are the crazy cases, the anomalies. It doesnt happen every day that you misidentify or have someone on the stand saying more than they supposed to do. You only hear about the bad stuff, not the good success stories. Harvey Weinstein Photo: Pool/Getty Images Harvey Weinsteins attorneys are preparing a motion to have his case dismissed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie producers legal team is planning to submit a motion for dismissal on the grounds that prosecutors didnt share allegedly exculpatory emails with the grand jury that returned an indictment. In New York, where Weinstein is currently facing charges of sexually assaulting three women, in some cases prosecutors must share such evidence with a grand jury. His attorneys first floated the defense Wednesday in Delaware bankruptcy court, where The Weinstein Company filed for bankruptcy in March. The bankruptcy court judge let Weinstein have access to his company emails and personnel files; now, his attorneys say, they have uncovered emails relevant to his sexual-assault case. The emails are to be attached as exhibits to pre-trial motions which must be filed in the Supreme Court of New York County no later than August 3, 2018 seeking a dismissal of the indictment for, among other reasons, the failure of the prosecutor to advise the grand jury of the substance of exculpatory communications made by the one of three complaining witnesses underlying the counts of the indictment and contained in the e-mails sought for use here, Weinsteins latest bankruptcy court filing reads. The emails are currently confidential under a protective order. Harvey Weinstein has pleaded not guilty on all counts, and continues to deny any allegations of sexual assault. Hes next scheduled to appear in court on September 20. 35 Shots of Rum Photo: The Cinema Guild/Wild Bunch Distribution A camera pans slowly over the curves of a womans body and every woman in the audience rolls her eyes. That sensual, ravenous, kinda porn-y perspective? Its our old friend, the male gaze, a theoretical term coined in 1975 by the film critic Laura Mulvey thats pretty much exactly what it sounds like. In cinema, the male gaze looks while the female body is looked at; the gaze can come from the audience, from a male character within the film, or from the camera itself. Think of the scene in Transformers, when Megan Fox fixes a car by leaning sensuously toward its engine as the camera slithers around her taut abs (shes wearing a crop top, of course), and then up the front of her body, and then down her back. Its palpably gross. Weve seen the technique onscreen a million times. This month, the Film Society at Lincoln Center attempts to counter all those gratuitous panning shots by presenting The Female Gaze, a survey of 36 films made with female cinematographers a relatively rare breed of artist. Few jobs on a movie set have been as historically closed to women as that of cinematographer, the Film Society writes. The persistence of the term cameraman says it all. The collected films range from the raw and dangerous (Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, shot by Joan Churchill) to the disorienting and heartbreaking (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, shot by Ellen Kuras), with plenty of emotional shades in between. What is the female gaze, then? Its emotional and intimate. It sees people as people. It seeks to empathize rather than to objectify. (Or not.) Its respectful, its technical, it hasnt had a chance to develop, it tells the truth, it involves physical work, its feminine and unashamed, its part of an old-fashioned gender binary, it should be studied and developed, it should be destroyed, it will save us, it will hold us back. The female cinematographers involved in the project have as many opinions on the female gaze and its helpfulness (or lack thereof) as you might expect from a group of talented, thoughtful, highly trained people who are more than just female cinematographers. Heres what a few of them have to say about how they see the world from behind their cameras. The female gaze is highly relational: Joan Churchill, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer: We women respect and honor our relationships and are acutely aware of our responsibilities to those we turn our cameras on. We go deep, we drill down, we open people up on an emotional level My job is to fit in to [my documentary subjects] world, to be sensitive to what is happening so I can follow their process and re-create it on the screen for others to partake in. This means they have to trust me. I dont see men shooting as close as I do to people. They tend to hang back and shoot over the shoulders, whereas I generally will be trying to insinuate myself into the middle of the circle. Ashley Connor, The Miseducation of Cameron Post: The male gaze seeks to devour and control, and the female gaze is more a frame of mind, where approach to subject and material is more emotional and respectful I try to approach shooting with a particular sensitivity, an openness to experimentation and a penchant for failure. I want the image to come alive and I think perfection is boring. Kirsten Johnson, Derrida and Cameraperson: Filming is physical work in which one is seeing and being seen. What compels me most about it is the constant searching. I think of filmed images as active relationships. These relationships come into being in the moment of filming and they continue to shift as they are seen and seen again on into the future. Every person in the equation, including each new viewer, becomes a part of this active relationship. That I filmed someone and they felt my looking and still carried on this is the relationship I am talking about and it is the source of the aliveness that I aspire to in my work. The female gaze is still fairly new: Babette Mangolte, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles: In the early 1970s when I arrived in New York from Paris, there definitely was the desire to invent a female gaze. Women started to shoot films made by women and also for women. We all felt that men had shown their point of view since the beginning of the world and we now should try to find if we could invent a new language that would be different from the one of our fathers or lovers. Kirsten Johnson: Besides being up to its own devices, a female-centric gaze is also informed, moved, and provoked by the overwhelmingly male histories of gazing that have long taken up more than their fair share of space. With this world saturated in male-imagined imagery, it takes some of us years to understand that it is possible to see differently, that aspiring to express what is singular to us has great value, and that while the specificity of our images may strike some as unfamiliar, this is not a sign of failure of craft, but a mark of triumph in a landscape in which our visibility is so rare. The female gaze looks like: Ashley Connor: Agnes Godard shes been my ultimate inspiration. I think the way she approaches her subjects has an undercurrent of primordial and guttural yearning and honesty rarely seen in contemporary cinematographers. Its not something I can fully articulate because it hits too deep. Similar feeling but different format, I cant stop listening to SZAs Ctrl similar to Godards cinematography, shes speaking to the female experience in a way that is so completely vulnerable but always powerful. Babette Mangolte: The person who embodies for me the first female gaze is really Maya Deren in her work from 1942, Meshes in the Afternoon, and later Rituals in Transfigured Time. Joan Churchill: Susan Meiselas is one of my sheroes. A photojournalist who first came to my attention in 1976 when she did the amazing book Carnival Strippers, she uses stills, film, audio, video, and archive to present to us her experiences of following the people she points her camera at. Kirsten Johnson: Janine Antoni, Wangechi Mutu, Claire Denis, Agnes Godard, Zanele Muholi, Laurie Anderson, Nadia Hallgren, Vivienne Sasson, Irit Batsry, Brett Story, Miyako Ishiuchi, Kitty Green, Nanfu Wang, Patti Smith, Laura Poitras, Louise Bourgeois, So Yong Kim, Armagan Ballantyne, Stephanie Dinkins, Jane Campion, Kara Walker, Shirin Neshat, Mati Diop, Mia Hansen-Lve, Kathy Leichter, Debra Granik, Dee Rees, Sarah Polley, Josephine Decker, Kelly Reichardt, Grace Lee, Yoko Ono, Sandy McLeod, Gini Reticker, Victoria Mahoney, Abby Disney, Gertrude Kasebier, Mickalene Thomas, Kate McKinnon, Jill Soloway, Sophie Calle, Suzan-Lori Parks, Brenda Coughlin, Cindy Sherman, Lisa Collins, Ruth Asawa, Carrie Mae Weems, Kate Crawford, Oumou Sangare I could go on! The future is female gaze-y: Natasha Braier, The Milk of Sorrow: Its kind of sad that we are at a such basic level today where we have to talk about the female gaze and this rare group of women who are just 4 percent of a male-dominated field. I understand the conversation is needed, because we need to improve that. But I wish that, in the near future, this conversation will be obsolete. Babette Mangolte: The changes brought by streaming are opening ways for women to try new things. More women in particular, actresses now decide to become producers of films for women. They have written some of the most successful series in the last ten years. Joan Churchill: Artists have an important role to play because most of our media has been bought up by corporations. Weve hit rock bottom. Our value system has been turned on its head. The leader of the free world is a liar, a cheat, an idiot, a sexual predator. Lets give the women a chance. They cant do worse. Maybe the female gaze will raise the consciousness of us all, leading to a fuller understanding of what it means to be female in a patriarchal society. I look forward to seeing what we can do. There is no female gaze: Natasha Braier: I dont think there is such thing as the female gaze. I think there is such thing as the male gaze, as per Laura Mulveys theory, and that gaze, if you talk strictly about cinema only, has more than 100 years of monopoly. It colonized the new medium from the start. You could say that it has become the official language of cinema. The female gaze, if there is such, never had the opportunity to truly develop and become something we can analyze. I think every cinematographer has their own unique gaze, technical skills, and style regardless of their gender. And reducing things to two types of gaze doesnt make much sense to me. Plus, we are always working with a director and putting our skills at the service of manifesting their vision. So the final gaze is the result of the combination between these two artists creating a frame together. Ashley Connor: Believing in a female gaze means I believe in the male gaze and I hope were moving towards a world not bound to gender binaries. Agnes Godard, 35 Shots of Rum, Beau Travail, The Intruder: Cinematography is such a beautiful word, so simple, so clear, so full. The sound of it evokes right away what it is about: a language. I would rather consider the wide range of cinematographys variations and nuances as the richness of a human beings sensitivity, subjectivity not necessarily split into two worlds: man and woman. Why should it be two different languages? Peggy Caserta at Mnasidika, her shop in Haight-Ashbury, with in-store leathersmith Bobby Boles. Photo: Herb Greene/Courtesy of Peggy Caserta Peggy Caserta remembers the moment when Janis Joplin became Pearl. Id wanted to start calling myself Ruby, says Caserta, whose second memoir, I Ran Into Some Trouble, was published yesterday by Wyatt-MacKenzie. I never liked the name Peggy, and wanted to be more floozy, you know? Somewhere along the line, Janis started talking about changing her name to Pearl. One morning, we got up at the Chelsea after a night of debauching, Caserta tells me. Still stoned, she wanted a hot-fudge chocolate sundae, junkie food, so we went to Serendipity for breakfast. Were sitting there, and Janis is reading the New York Times, and all of a sudden she just busted up and screamed, You wont believe this! There was an ad in the paper that went, Ruby said to Pearl, Pearl, why dont you be a stenographer? Not only did it have both of our new names, but Janiss parents had wanted her to be a stenographer. We laughed and laughed that morning, two young, silly, southern girls If you know your Joplin lore, the name Peggy Caserta, not Ruby, which never took hold should sound familiar. Forty-five years after the publication of her book Going Down With Janis (A Raw and Scathing Portrait of Janis Joplin by Her Female Lover proclaimed the hardcover jacket), the 77-year-old Caserta still gets the occasional Are you THAT Peggy Caserta? She is, although she lives a very different life now: semi-retired in Louisiana, 24 years sober after a long on-and-off relationship with heroin. In between, there was drug-dealing, financial ruin, jail, harrowing street violence, and finally more than a decade spent caring for her failing mother all of it chronicled in her memoir in a wry, funny voice that couldnt stand in sharper contrast to the Penthouse Forum approach of Going Down With Janis. (Caserta has disowned the work of Dan Knapp, her ghostwriter, on that earlier book, and in our interview she wouldnt speak his name; asked for comment, he responded with a two-word Facebook message: Not interested.) Co-written with Maggie Falcon, I Ran Into Some Trouble considers the whole of Casertas life, each era as carefully considered and vividly drawn as the headiest days of Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and Mnasidika, Casertas Haight-Ashbury hippie boutique that dressed the new rock stars and brought the money its owner would need to keep pace, in so many ways, with a newly famous sometime lover. Going Down With Janis has, over the decades, become a sort of cult phenomenon. You say people still track you down, but if they know you only from that first book, theyre in for a revelation. I didnt write that trash. I sold out for drug money, and Ive lived in the shadow of it for 40-some-odd years. That book scandalized my family. My mother and father were devastated. I lost my friends. I was so embarrassed that I just dropped out. Im not going to make excuses for using, because a drug addict really needs no excuse, but every time that I thought I could get clean or tried to get clean, I would think about that book, and all Id want to do is numb out again. I was so horrified by it and my parents were oh, God, they were heartbroken. It was horrible. Nothing good came of it. I hate that book. What I hate about who they think I am is that most of them believe I wrote that smut. I read an article online just recently and it mentioned me as Janis Joplins friend. Somebody responded, The skank that wrote Going Down With Janis is no friend of hers. That hurts a lot. Even after all these years? Its been awful. Its been awful. I sometimes just wanted so badly to scream out and say, I didnt write that trash. Thats not me. I wasnt responsible for her using or her dying. I loved her. I adored her. So I just stayed hidden for, God, 25 years or more because I just couldnt take the criticism. Its just too much. What made you decide to tell your story again, then? In the back of the new book, theres an acknowledgment to a girl named Karen Anderson, who wrote a customer review on Amazon [in 2002]. I write, After years of insults, along comes a Karen Anderson and acknowledges, in a public forum, what was my voice and what wasnt, giving me a chance to exhale and try again. For years I thought, I have to write a correction. I have to write the story I wanted to write. But I stayed strung out, and its very difficult to be that far off into the spoon and get anything done. Years later, I had gotten clean and started trying to live straight. I began to write a little, and I had written maybe two or three chapters when I decided that I needed to go back home and take care of my mom in Louisiana. This was in 2005 she was in her 80s. I felt grounded, and knew I should start writing again. You say nothing good came of the first book, but certainly it was a landmark for its depiction of Janiss gay relationship. Theres something to be said for that kind of visibility, and you must have heard from people telling you this over the years. Amazingly, yes. People have said, Thank you so much, it changed my life. One girl said, I read it and I walked in the living room and said, Mom and Dad, Im gay and Im going to California. I thought people would read it and say, God, Im not going to do that, Im not going to do drugs, and some people have told me it made them want to get high. Its remarkable now, as an inside look at the everyday life of a rock star from that era. If you could put all the smut aside, maybe it is a remarkable book. I dont know. I would say things like, We made love that night, and the co-author would change it to something like, My fingers crept up inside her moist groin and plunged in I never even said that we were lovers, in the lesbian sense. I never believed that, nor did I really want that. I adored her. I loved her. But to be her lover was to resign yourself to being invisible, and as hard as it may be for people to understand now, I thought I was as groovy as her. You say you dont believe Janis was gay. I never saw Janis as a gay girl. She was straight. She was wild. Im gay, and lived a gay lifestyle even then. I was obvious. I had a girlfriend, Kim, there on the scene all the time, but Janis was never going to do anything that her parents didnt approve of, other than sing. She always said she was going to get married and settle down and have the white picket fence and the two kids and 2.2 cars, or however that saying goes. Well, lets investigate this a bit. She clearly was connected to you, and there was sex, obviously. I really dont know how to answer this. I can honestly say that to this day, nobody has ever been as happy to see me as she was. How can you not love somebody that clearly digs you that much? People say, Come on, Peggy, admit it, she was in love with you. Well, I cant. We never said I love you, ever. We adored each other, we had mutual respect, she respected me as a businesswoman way more than I think I deserved. And she loved that we were both southern girls. Photo: Book Cover design by Wes Wilson You write in the new book about the blame youve taken for Janiss death. Im wondering, did the distrust of you among Joplins entourage and management start before she died? Do you think it stemmed more from your sexuality or your drug use, or both? It was very early for people to be as obviously gay as I was. I mean, it was just me and my girlfriend Kim that were way out gay at that time and in that place. And as much as her band, and her manager Albert Grossman, and her road manager John Cooke tried to protect her from [Caserta melodramatically lowers her voice] the gay thing and the image that it might project, it certainly hasnt hurt her legacy any. And Janiss inner circle knew that I didnt turn her on to heroin. I wasnt the catalyst for that. But I was her dope-shooting pal, and theres no question about that. So I understand their position she was their livelihood. They were making a living working for her, whether they were playing music with her or being a roadie or a manager, and they didnt want anything to jeopardize that. They saw me as somebody that was playing very dangerously with her, and I understand that. But I didnt start it. I never saw a needle outside a doctors office until I met her. One part of the first book that people latched onto Ive even seen it crop up in various unpublished screenplays for the biopics that have been in development over the decades is that final night of her life, when she, you, and the man usually described as her fiance, Seth Morgan, had planned a three-way, and you and Seth stood her up. She overdosed that night, alone at the Landmark hotel in Hollywood She didnt overdose. Lets come back to that in a minute Id already bailed on the idea of a three-way when I figured out who she had in mind. It never occurred to me that he wasnt going to show up. He later claimed that it never occurred to him that I wasnt going to be there. What he did was miss his plane because he was fucking someone else. Actually, though, what people have latched onto more from the first book was that I called George, Janiss and my drug dealer, and he was bringing me heroin at the Landmark. Janis had been clean, though how clean I dont know. She just happened to walk out to get cigarettes and ran into George in the Landmark lobby. That started her thinking about it, and she came up to my room to get high. We got high together, and thats what people remember, more than me not being there that last night. Circumstances have to line up or the storm doesnt come. The Gulf waters have to get hot when the winds are coming, and then theres a hurricane. I dont believe that she was through with heroin by any means. Thats a pretty delicate sobriety if all you have to do is see the connection to start using again. No, she wasnt through, but I didnt want to be the one to start it in motion again. When you say people wanted someone to blame, how did your being gay play into that? Those people werent open to being gay, and yes, it bothered them that they knew what my position was with Janis. We were shooting dope and we were making out and they didnt like either one. I was so easy to blame, but I wasnt the only one using heroin with her. Two of the guys from Big Brother and the Holding Company were shooting with her long before I was. [Guitarist] Sam Andrew, in a taped interview [for Little Girl Blue], said that he and Janis used to shoot heroin and talk late into the night and it was just so much fun. And hes right. All three of us shot dope together many times and it was fun, I mean, we didnt do it because we hated it. And Sam never got the blame that you did? Janis and James Gurley and Sam Andrew [both Gurley and Andrew are deceased] were shooting heroin from the beginning of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the three of them. I think the gay thing just tipped the scale to where I got more flack for it all. Sam certainly shot as much dope with her as I did. It has to be the gay thing. Going Down With Janis became a sort of touchstone for gay and lesbian people who read it back then. Did you feel any support there? Theres never been a gay girl ever that Ive met who blamed me. They just say, God, what was it like knowing her? Looking back after all these years, do you have any sense of regret? Of course I do. I wish that Seth had been there that last night. Or that I had been there. Or that we both had been there. I wish George hadnt entered the lobby and I wish she hadnt chosen that moment to get cigarettes. So regrets, yes, of course, the regrets we all have that we lost her. Some people say, Oh, we lost her so young. Well, for me, I regret that we lost her at all. I figured wed be friends forever. I regret that I wasnt there that night when she tripped and fell. I could have picked her up. What happened that night? In the book, you say that it wasnt an overdose that she just fell and smashed her face on the nightstand in her hotel room, and then passed out. The police wanted to talk to all of us from her inner circle, to see if they could piece together what happened. When I got to the Landmark, the room wasnt taped off yet. Noguchi was there, two or three police. Paul Rothchild, her producer, I think was there. Kris Kristofferson was there. Seth was there, John Cooke was there. They were all gathered around outside her room, and I walked over to them. I didnt want to go in her room because I didnt want to see her dead. But the coroner wanted to talk to me, and so I looked in. There were two double beds on the left, and I couldnt see anything of her but her foot, sticking out at the end of a bed. She was lying on the floor, elongated, and thats not what happens when you shoot an overdose. You dont stand up and then lie down straight to die. Back then, the rugs were shag carpets, and at the Landmark it was old shag carpet. Janis and I both wore these little slingback sandals you can see them in the pictures of us at Woodstock and they had tiny little hourglass heels. Tiny. She went and got cigarettes, she came back in, and as shes turning the corner of the bed, I think that little tiny heel caught in one of those shag loops, and she tripped, and she fell way forward. She hit her head on the night table and broke her nose. I figure the blood backed up in her throat and cut off her air supply. Im sure the fact that she had heroin and other things in her system didnt help her any. Maybe if she hadnt been loaded and on something, she might have been able to struggle up. But she tripped and fell, honey. Im positive of it. Let me think of how I want to say this. One way or the other heroin caused the dice to roll the way they did for Janis Joplin, right? So what difference would it make if I mean, does it bring comfort to you in any way to believe that it wasnt an overdose? What Im trying to get at, and not doing it very well Yeah, you are. Im getting what youre saying. Why would it matter to me whether or not she tripped or whether or not she overdosed? And in the final analysis, it shouldnt matter because shes gone, but yeah, I do feel more comfortable knowing that she tripped. Either way, it was an accident, and Ive never thought of it until you asked this, but I guess it is more comfortable thinking that she tripped. But honey, seriously, I shot dope with her so many times, both of us shot right to deaths door. She would not have been in that position on the floor. She definitely did not shoot an overdose. She got up and walked to the lobby and got change. It just does not compute. It doesnt. You know, Peggy, this brings up a subject we havent really touched on. After all these years, why do you still care what people think? Im still hurt because I was accused of being a liar when I told it as clean and as clear and as truthfully as I could, and it took more than three decades for the truth to start seeping to the surface, for people to even say, oh, yeah, she was telling the truth about her relationship. Those pictures that Jim Marshall took of me and Janis together at Woodstock didnt surface for 30-some odd years. 20/20 got ahold of those and sent them to me and said, There are people who believe that the unidentified female in these photographs might be you. Would you identify these pictures? And of course I did, but I took a deep breath when I saw them because I thought about all the people who said that I wasnt even there. Forty-five years is a long time to want to correct your story. I was hiding for those first 25 years. Later, social media brought it all back to life. The phone would ring and Id hear my elderly mom say, Oh, thats my daughter, just a minute. Peggy? And Id think, Oh my God. One woman told Mom that Janis wants to talk to me, that she came to her in her dreams. I got on the phone and said, Now you listen to me. Dont call my mother anymore. And if Janis wanted to talk to me, she would come to me in a dream, not you. This interview has been edited and condensed. Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon in The Spy Who Dumped Me. Photo: Photo by Hopper Stone/Lionsgate Watching Kate McKinnon in Susanna Fogels frenetic action-comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me, you can get a bead on her peculiar genius. Shes not an actress, not even a conventional clown. Shes a Terminator. Jerky, glassy-eyed, driven by an energy source well never fathom but know enough to worship, she fires off one-liner after one-liner, apparently indifferent to whether it lands or flies into the ether there will always be another. In Spy, McKinnon is Morgan, the best friend of the titles me, Audrey (Mila Kunis), but shes too bananas to play a second banana. Morgan is supposed to be an actress and drama-camp vet, of the sort I used to see (when I went to drama camp) standing at the piano singing songs from A Chorus Line. (Now it would be Rent or Hamilton.) But McKinnon didnt remind me of those girls. Shes too manic and speed-freaky, too indifferent to applause. Applause couldnt catch up with her. With her deconstructive digs at aggressive masculinity and loopy brand of feminism (Women can be terrorists, too. We can do anything we put our minds to!), shes ten stutter steps ahead of everyone, including the nominal heroine. The movie has a terrific first half lickety-split but with plenty of time (thanks to McKinnons velocity) for lunatic asides. The bright screenplay (by Fogel and David Iserson) has Audrey learning that Drew (Justin Theroux), her boyfriend of a year, was a James Bondlike agent and virtuosic killer shortly after he breaks up with her via text message. What she doesnt know when texting him back is that hes in the midst of stabbing, braining, and breaking the necks of a steady stream of assassins or that he has left a vital MacGuffin in Audreys apartment. The films gimmick is that when Drew is put out of commission, Audrey and Morgan decide to bring the MacGuffin (on which millions of lives allegedly depend) to Vienna, where theyre besieged by a similar horde of assassins as well as a pair of spies: dreamy Brit, Sebastian (Sam Heughan), from MI6 and CIA know-it-all, Duffer (Hasan Minhaj), whose running gag is that he cant go two minutes without telling someone he went to Harvard. (On behalf of my fellow Harvard graduates, I protest this stereotype!) Theres a good extended bit when Morgan pretends to be a Chinese man (its not racist, trust me) and a great punch line at the expense of a felled Uber driver. In one scene, a supermodel assassin (Ivanna Sakhno) with unnervingly sharp cheekbones is ordered to pick off a pair of stupid American girls in a crowded plaza, but everywhere she looks there are pairs of girls in clothes and attitudes that scream stupid Americans. The most surprising aspect of The Spy Who Dumped Me is the level of violence. Its hard R, with kinetic splatter, the wince-inducing sounds of cracking bones, and a special treat: a face boiled in cheese fondue. My guess is Fogel, in common with her heroines, didnt want to hear that she hits like a girl. She hits like no one this side of John Wick. But its tough to sustain a story line this thin for two hours, and the movie runs down at the two-thirds mark. Fogel spends too much time setting you up for spectacular but only semi-coherent climax, set in and around a Cirque du Soleil performance. Its full of gore and flashy stunts but never finds a rhythm, and you might be pissed off to discover that the plot has been chasing its own tail. (Filmmakers should at least pretend that their MacGuffins make sense.) Theres plenty to hold you, though. Fred Melamed turns up as a horny doctor who leans in close to McKinnon to ask if shes into Balzac. (Less and less with every experience.) Gillian Anderson gets some laughs as a dryly dismissive intelligence chief. (Her expression never changes.) Justin Theroux is a witty minimalist, evoking legions of espionage action movies in a single pose. And then theres the doe-eyed face-puller Kunis, who only rises above blandness in her scenes with McKinnon. The good news is she rises amazingly high. In wonderful jabbering duets she almost keeps up, and shes smart enough to turn that almost into a great joke, a farcical imperative. Who could keep up with McKinnons nutbird rantings? You can only take a deep breath and plunge into the maelstrom. Zahn McClarnon. Photo: Amanda Edwards/WireImage Variety is reporting that Zahn McClarnon, who most recently played the Native American host Akecheta on HBOs Westworld, may be joining the cast of Dr. Sleep. The film is an adaptation of Stephen Kings 2013 sequel to The Shining, and will also star Ewan McGregor and Rebecca Ferguson, who was last seen in Mission: Impossible Fallout. Dr. Sleep tells the story of an adult Danny Torrance, played by McGregor, who is quite understandably tormented by his childhood trauma. After overcoming alcoholism, his shining abilities return and he decides to use them to help people dying at a hospice. Its there that he connects with a young girl who needs his help, and well, a bunch of very scary things happen. McClarnon would play the role of Crow Daddy, the right-hand man of Fergusons character Rose the Hat. Warner Bros. is set to release the film on January 24, 2020, so you might as well go ahead and book an appointment with a therapist now. Yellowstone The Remembering Season 1 Episode 6 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next Photo: Paramount Network When the Taylor Sheridanpenned Sicario sequel Day of the Soldado came out last month, a lot of critics took issue with its depiction of terrorists and drug gangs, which seemed drawn straight from the most incendiary rhetoric of anti-immigration demagogues. The movie went over so poorly that some of its detractors looked back at Sheridans scripts for Hell or High Water, Wind River, and the original Sicario, wondering if maybe hes always really been a right-winger, telling stories aimed at other right-wingers. I dont really have an answer to that question, though it does seem that, for the most part, Sheridans been involved with projects youd be comfortable recommending to your Republican dad (metaphorically speaking, for those of you who dont actually have a Republican dad). Id also add that this is mostly a good thing. Popular art needs more diversity, not just of backgrounds but of viewpoints. There are plenty of hard-line conservatives whove made movies Ive loved, including Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, and William Friedkin. I dont have to agree with what theyre saying or showing to find it worthy of my attention. In nearly every case, what marks these directors as artists is their empathy. Even if they have a pronounced slant, first and foremost they earnestly try to put themselves in their characters shoes. Id say thats true of Sheridan, too. What Ive mainly gathered from his work thus far is that he has sympathy for the downtrodden, respect for cops and soldiers, and grudging admiration for amoral authoritarians of all stripes. He likes folks who get things done, basically as well as those who keep getting back up even when the worlds conspiring to knock them down. Thats an interesting perspective, even if leads him to over-romanticize certain types of people and scenarios. Certainly the most gripping sequence in this weeks Yellowstone episode, The Remembering, is the most overtly political. Beth and Jamie Dutton pay a visit to the lavishly appointed Montana capitol building, for a meeting with Governor Lynelle Perry who also happens to be their dads secret lover. The governors happy to see Jamie, who shell be endorsing to take over for a retiring Democratic attorney general. The political machine has procured for Jamie a pretty campaign manager, whom they hope might also entice Jamie romantically; and theyre suggesting that he run as an independent, figuring that the Dutton name will win him red voters, and their endorsements will win over the blues. Beth, however, isnt impressed by any of this. When the governor notes that Jamies adviser worked for Obama, she scoffs, then brattily asks, Can my whore be a six-foot fireman who loves Jesus? An annoyed Governor Perry clears the room, and tells Beth a story about how her own son stopped maturing when his dad died, but says that he got over it once he learned to accept that tragedy is a part of life. She adds that Beth cant bully her because, Bullies need to be big, and Im bigger than you. Beth replies by warning Lynelle that she ruins careers for a living, and that at the very least the governor might want to stop having on-the-sly sex with John Dutton. On her way out the door, Beth snarls, Your son sounds like a pussy. So, okay: Beth being a destructive asshole is nothing new for Yellowstone. As Ive noted repeatedly, her schticks become tiresome. Even taking into account her tragic backstory, Beths value as a chaos-agent is questionable, and rooted in what seems to be Sheridans two basic female character types: like a dude, but more naive; and like a dude, but nastier. Still, amid all the subplots that Sheridan has thrown at the wall through these first six episodes, the ones thatve been the most fruitful have been the ones most tied to this shows specific setting: a changing Montana, in an era when ideological divisions, economic disparity, racial animus, and environmental concerns have turned even the smallest public policy issues into life-or-death wars. If nothing else, The Remembering shades slightly away from the abstract conflicts of recent weeks those sullen conversations about what it means to be tough and instead considers the real, practical results of appearing strong or weak in the middle of a larger strategic power-play. Its clear the Governors allies are anxious to rid themselves of the good ol boy rogue operators like John Dutton, so theyre laser focused on any mistake he might make, be it failing to disclose a cancer treatment to the livestock association, or recommending someone as obviously unsuited as Beth for public office. The governors not the only one working angles against the Duttons, either. This episode includes an ominous scene of two apparent out-of-towners lesbian lovers in law enforcement, judging by all the context clues who are out on the river fishing, and noting how the local news coverage about shoot-outs and poorly buried corpses reminds them of government/mob collusion in New York City. Meanwhile, Dan Jenkinss armageddon rate fixer Melody is brainstorming ways to hit back against John for cutting off the water and power at Dans would-be resort, as Thomas Rainwater looks to buy up some of the Jenkins lots abutting the Yellowstone ranch as part of a larger scheme to exact leverage over the Dutton holdings. The Remembering is the best Yellowstone in weeks probably since the premiere. Theres still a lot about it that clunks though, like when Kayces wife Monica asks the long-overdue question about the Duttons policy of branding humans, and John mostly dismisses that as a longer conversation that he cant have now thereby pushing a key piece of the family mythology out to a future episode, for no good reason. (John does admit though that he himself branded Kayce, when his son refused to coerce Monica into having an abortion.) Later, in another example of Sheridan dropping in violence and death perhaps just for the sake of having something happen, Monica wanders into the middle of a fight at her school, and accidentally gets knocked to the pavement, hitting her head. She seems to recover, but then back at her home, she suddenly collapses, and at the end of the episode is unresponsive possibly dead. If Monicas truly gone, thatd be a shame, because her character provided a way into the day-to-day life on the reservation or wouldve, if Sheridan hadnt used her more often as the disapproving wife who makes a man feel bad when hes just trying to do whats best for his family. There doesnt seem to be much of a point to killing her off, beyond throwing some more contrived tragedy into the mix, and inevitably giving Kayce a definitive reason to move back to the ranch, where this shows been pushing him since episode one. That potential miscalculation aside though, this episode putters along pretty well, drawing strength from its willingness to be about something. I still see Sheridan as a reporter, not a polemicist, more interested in capturing many sides of a story than in persuading viewers to feel a certain way about any particular hot-button issue. But in doing so, hes willing to risk having his true feelings misinterpreted, which in a way is admirable. Even if hes just giving angry viewers something to push back against, thats better than the formless mush Yellowstones been serving lately. The Last Round-Up In another of Yellowstones random moments of pulp action, this episode opens with Kayce going through the same predawn ranch rituals we saw a couple of episodes ago (with no one else around this time, for some reason), and then taking a pleasant horseback ride that goes sour when he happens upon a bear. Like the snake that threatened Tate a few weeks back (in the middle of an already cranked-up action sequence, no less), the bear doesnt really serve any purpose. It feels like a stray idea Sheridan wanted to fit in somewhere; and this is the scene this season where it made the most sense. Before Monica collapses, Tates anxious about seeing a drone flying over their property, because hes convinced that someones after his dinosaur bones. The dinosaur dig is a subplot that I was once inclined to file under another weird digression, like so much else in this show. But now Im laying odds that Jenkins and Rainwater and Melody are going to use Kayces little paleontological dig as the impetus for an environmental protection order against the Dutton ranch. Speaking of Tate, once again I found myself simpatico with him, in the scene where his grandpa suggests that he line all the donuts in his dining room up and pick out the biggest one. I repeat: What boy wouldnt want to live in a huge house where he can select among many donuts? Suspected Russian-run Facebook pages that were taken offline this week were used to organize protests across the country and convinced unwitting Americans to work with them -- in one instance, CNN has learned, even sending an activist a megaphone and a bouquet of roses. Facebook's culling of the accounts came ahead of an event planned for Washington, DC, next week that one of the pages was promoting. Facebook said the network of pages had promoted a few dozen events since May 2017. Activism Companies Continents and regions Eastern Europe Europe Facebook Internet and WWW New York (State) New York City North America Northeastern United States Russia Social media Society Technology The Americas United States A Facebook event promoting a demonstration advocating universal health care that took place in New York City on July 17, 2017, was managed and promoted by 13 different Facebook pages. While most of the pages were seemingly legitimate activist groups, among them was a page called "Resisters," one of the pages Facebook removed on Tuesday. What went on behind the scenes of the New York rally has all the hallmarks of tactics used by Kremlin-linked groups. A week before the event, Mariana Pineda, a health care activist living in Long Island, received a message from a woman named "Mary Smith" asking to help coordinate the event. In an interview with CNN, Pineda said she understood Smith to be associated with the "Resisters" group. Smith, whose profile photo showed a young black woman, said she was given Pineda's name by another activist, and she asked Pineda if she could step in and help run the event. Pineda, who is affiliated with a number of health care advocacy groups and campaigned for Bernie Sanders in 2016, agreed, saying it's not unusual for activists who have never met to communicate online to coordinate events. She told CNN that health care advocacy is a personal issue because she lost her insurance while she was pregnant and had a waiting period before being covered again by Medicaid. Smith asked Pineda to look into getting permits for the rally, and when Pineda mentioned they would need a sound system for speakers at the event, Smith offered to send her a megaphone in the mail. A few days later, the event went ahead and a modest gathering of demonstrators listened as speakers talked about the need for Medicare for all, through the white megaphone Pineda had received in the mail from her new acquaintance Mary Smith. A few days after the rally, two dozen roses were delivered to Pineda's Long Island home, apparently a thank-you for her help in coordinating the event. "First a megaphone, now two dozen red roses. ... You really know the way to a (socialist) girl's heart, lol," Pineda posted on Facebook at the time. The disappearance of Mary Smith Pineda had not heard from, or thought about, "Mary Smith" in a while. After CNN contacted Pineda on Tuesday, she said she found Smith's account was no longer on the platform. CNN understands that Smith's profile was among the 30 accounts and profiles Facebook removed on Tuesday, which Facebook suspects may be tied to a Russian troll group. When asked if she was concerned she may have unwittingly been communicating with suspected Russian trolls, Pineda told CNN, "I haven't been fooled by Russians, one particular group may or may not be tied to Russians," and pointed out that many real Americans and legitimate activist groups were also involved in the demonstration and that Facebook hadn't conclusively proved the accounts were Russian. "Everything can be exploited at any time by anyone. You could be a part of an organization and you could be infiltrated by police officers that are looking to gather intelligence if they think that you're going to be doing a disruptive event," she said. She said outlets including CNN spend too much time on the topic of Russian interference, "I think that this country is spending entirely too much time dwelling on Russia when we have so many more issues to talk about like the water in flint Michigan and young African men who are being killed by the police and by others so I think that we need to stop talking about Russia and start talking about health care." Impact In February, special counsel Robert Mueller's office indicted a Russian troll group, the Internet Research Agency, on charges related to an alleged conspiracy to defraud the United States. One of the group's clear goals was to co-opt unwitting Americans to stage events across the United States. On one occasion in May 2016, the group even organized two opposing demonstrations to take place at the same time in Houston. Effectively exploiting the nature of the often faceless coordination of real protests and demonstrations through social media, the group would set up Facebook events, and then, in an effort to make the events appear legitimate, would reach out, often through Facebook, to real American activist groups asking them to promote or co-host the events. Occasionally, it would go a step further and provide materials or financial assistance to real, unwitting activists to help run the event. CNN has documented instances similar to this in Florida, New York, Texas, Minnesota and elsewhere. Facebook said Tuesday that it "found evidence of some connections between these accounts" and accounts that had been run by the Internet Research Agency but that it couldn't conclusively determine the accounts were tied to the group. In closed briefings with lawmakers the company said it suspected Russians were behind the accounts, a congressional source briefed on the matter told CNN. Pineda is not deterred. "If you're on social media, you've already exposed yourself," she said, before encouraging CNN to come back another time and interview her about issues she spends much of her time campaigning on, rather than Russian trolls. "I'm having my health care justice working group meeting on August 4th at Panera Bread so we welcome Russians, we welcome communists, we welcome socialists because this Russia hysteria has to stop." CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect that the New York City event took place in 2017. According to Ivanka Trump in a recent interview with Axios, the issue of family separation "was a low point" during her tenure as assistant to and daughter of the President. She discussed family separation in the past tense, as if it was over, further reinforcing her father's message that he has ended family separation. That implication does not reflect reality, because family separation continues. Just this week we learned during a Senate hearing that hundreds of children remain separated from their parents. Ivanka Trump's intention in the interview was clear: try to quell the firestorms her father starts. Elsewhere in the interview, she also disputed his characterization of the media as the "enemy of the people." But for words to have meaning and not just sound like what people want to hear, they need to be backed up by action. And on that point, Ivanka Trump fails the test, every time -- especially on family separation. The first daughter has consistently played the role of "good cop" in the Trump administration, saying she supports issues like LGBTQ rights. However, she functions as yet another spectacle who diverts attention from the actions that President Trump takes to restrict the rights of vulnerable groups and attack the media. If Ivanka Trump did care about migrant children separated from their parents, she could do more than call it a "low point" -- she could take action as a senior adviser to her father by publicly calling on him, or using her influence, to get him to uphold international law. In June the United Nations told the US that taking migrant children from their parents is illegal. However, Ivanka Trump has done nothing to show her interest in upholding the law, and in fact, she continues to reiterate her father's talking points on the issue. For example, Ivanka Trump, when discussing how much she cared about immigrant children separated from their parents said, "we are a country of laws." She then used her immigrant mother as an example of legal immigration. Her father also often talks about "following laws" in relation to the current family separation situation to reinforce the idea that it's the law to take children from their parents, including babies who are still breastfeeding, and hold them in detention centers. Let us be clear: That is not the law, and it creates a situation in which the Trump administration is criminalizing migrants who legally have the right to request asylum in the US. Ivanka Trump, in her comments, also made the distinction between legal migrants like her mother and those who put "children at risk of being trafficked." The Trump administration has promoted the idea that adults trafficking children pose as families, thereby criminalizing them in order to justify separating them. However, data suggests that this is statistically not true. The week of June 20th, when President Trump signed an executive order to end his administration's policy of separating migrant families, I was reporting from the US-Mexico border for National Geographic and Time Magazine, where I interviewed migrants, priests, sheriffs and human rights workers on both sides of the border who continued to see the impact of Trump's family separation policies. In the interim, as I have continued to cover the issue, I receive daily reports that show again and again that President Trump's and his daughter's messages conflict with what's real. Ivanka Trump has argued that migrant children are "at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone." These comments, which mirror what her father has said, insinuate that both unaccompanied minors and children traveling with their parents are at fault for fleeing extreme violence in their home countries. The issue that Ivanka Trump and her father fail to discuss is how US policies have historically exacerbated and failed to curb violence in many Central American countries, forcing parents and children to make impossible choices to survive. The truth is that individual citizens have done far more to help migrant children separated from their parents than any member of the Trump administration. Julie Schwietert Collazo, a New York city-based writer and a mother of three, co-founded Immigrant Families Together to combat the injustice she saw in Trump's immigration policies. Collazo and her fellow volunteers, many of them mothers, asked themselves "What if it were me?" and worked together as caring citizens to successfully raise the bond money to free eight immigrant mothers from detention, reunite them with their children and pay for the associated transportation, housing and medical costs. If Julie Schwietert Collazo can inspire a nationwide campaign to reunite immigrant mothers and their children -- just imagine what Ivanka Trump, assistant to and daughter of the President, could do. Ivanka Trump and Julie Schwietert Collazo are both mothers, both have three children, and both claim to care about immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. The difference is that Schwietert Collazo, with hard work and passion for justice, has acted to reunite immigrant mothers with their children. She has, for example, coordinated volunteers to drive Yeni Gonzalez, 29, from a detention center in Eloy, Arizona to New York City, where her three children had been placed at a social service agency. In the meantime, Ivanka Trump waited a full month after her father declared an end to immigrant family separation to voice her disagreement with the policy and has not taken any action aside from tweeting to thank her father for ending family separation at the border. Ivanka Trump, as a mother and citizen, should know that in the face of family separation, which could damage children psychologically for life, empty words are simply not enough -- inaction in the face of evil is complicity. Pope Francis earned a standing ovation when he told Congress in 2015 that he supports protecting human life "at every stage of its development." When he added that "this conviction" includes working to end the death penalty, the response was far more subdued. "You didn't see people jumping up and clapping," said John Carr, who was in the room, and is director of Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. For decades, Catholic politicians who support capital punishment, including the senators and representatives in the chamber that day, had an "out" when it comes to church teaching: The Catholic Catechism, the church's book of moral and religious teachings, had allowed the use of capital punishment in certain cases. Any other opinions, even the Pope's, were just that, opinions, and not necessarily binding on Catholic consciences. But that is no longer the case, the Vatican announced on Thursday. At the Pope's direction, the Catholic Catechism has been revised, and now calls the death penalty "inadmissible." While years in coming, the shift raises new questions about how politicians, particularly conservative Catholics in red states, will navigate the church's revised stance. "Pope Francis has said several times that he considers the death penalty inadmissible," said John Thavis, former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service. "Now, however, he has enshrined it in official Catholic teaching. That's going to make it much more difficult for politicians to dismiss this teaching as 'the Pope's opinion.'" The church's shifting position on capital punishment may even arise later this year when the Senate holds confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, a federal judge and faithful Catholic whom President Donald Trump has nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court. "It's hard to side-step this issue now that it's definitive church teaching," said John Gehring, a Catholic writer and Catholic Program Director at the liberal-leaning group Faith in Public Life. "I think there is a proper and respectful way to ask Kavanaugh how his understanding of faith and morality intersects with his judicial views." "I suspect that the matter will come up," agreed Richard Garnett, a professor at the University of Notre Dame's law school. "I'm not optimistic that any senator's question will reflect any serious engagement with, or understanding of, what Pope Francis actually did, but ... I expect it will come up." If confirmed, Kavanaugh would be the fifth Catholic on the Supreme Court, which regularly opines on death penalty cases and hears requests for stays of execution. (It is unclear whether Neil Gorsuch, who was raised a Catholic but has worshiped in Episcopal Churches, identifies with either tradition.) The death penalty was a controversial subject during the Senate's confirmation hearings last year for Amy Coney Barrett, who now serves on the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Noting an article Barrett wrote examining whether Catholic judges should recuse themselves from capital punishment cases, Sen. Dianne Feinstein famously said, "The dogma lives loudly within you." Quiet conservatives Among Americans, 54% favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 39% are opposed, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April and May. Among Catholics, the survey found that 53% of Catholics favor capital punishment, while 42% oppose it. Death penalty opponents celebrated the Vatican's announcement, calling it the culmination of years of planning and work, while hoping it could change more attitudes among lay Catholics. "For people in the pews, it is a challenge to actively build a culture of life by abolishing the death penalty, especially in the 31 states that still have it on the books in this country," said Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, who leads Catholic Mobilizing Network, an anti-death penalty group. Many conservative Catholics, meanwhile, were mostly quiet on Thursday. Several prominent legal and political figures did not respond immediately for comment. But in the past, several Catholic governors had said that the Catechism gave them leeway to enforce the death penalty. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, whose state overwhelmingly supports capital punishment according to polls, told journalists in 2014 that there's no conflict between his Catholic faith and state law on the issue. "Catholic doctrine is not against the death penalty, and so there is no conflict there," he said. Likewise, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is Catholic and lobbied against a state ban on the death penalty, has said capital punishment can be justified. "The Catholic Church does not preclude the use of the death penalty under certain circumstances: That guilt is determined and the crime is heinous. Also, protecting society," Ricketts said in 2015. Abbott and Ricketts' offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Thursday, Sister Helen Prejean, a prominent opponent of capital punishment, called on Ricketts to fall in line with the Pope and cancel planned executions. Nebraska's three Catholic bishop echoed Prejean's call to cancel the execution and urged Catholics and others to lobby state officials. "Simply put, the death penalty is no longer needed or morally justified in Nebraska," the bishops said. What the Catechism says now "Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good," the Catechism will now say. But an "increasing awareness" that criminals don't lose their human dignity, a "new understanding" of prison systems and the development of "effective systems of detention" have led the church, under Pope Francis, to revise its official views, the Vatican said. "The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," the Catechism will now say. Does all of this mean that Catholic politicians will immediately switch positions on the death penalty? Don't bet on it, said Helen Alvare, professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. "The death penalty teaching may be observed or ignored, as is the abortion teaching, even though both are about killing," Alvare wrote in an email. "Politicians of any religion seem to variously ignore, observe both as a matter of consistency, or take inconsistent positions!" Jimmy O'Neal Spencer, the accused killer in the Guntersville triple homicide, may have left a homeless shelter in Birmingham that he was paroled to and nobody seemed to know anything about it. AL.com reported the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles confirmed Spencer was sent to the Jimmie Hale Mission Center. WAAY31 called the center Thursday and they could not comment on a person being ever being there due to privacy laws. Amy Knight, who lives in Guntersville, wants more answers in the case surrounding Jimmy Spencer. "It's scary to be quite honest with you," Knight said. Spencer was initially supposed to be paroled to L.I.F.E. Tech, a program helping inmates turn their life around. However, AL.com reports Spencer was actually paroled to Jimmie Hale Mission Center, a homeless shelter. Nobody seems to know why Spencer left the shelter and Knight finds that worrisome. "[I'm] uneasy because knowing that stuff like this can happen and nobody knows why it happened," Knight said. Marshall County District Attorney Everett Johnson tells WAAY31 he doesn't know anything about Spencer leaving his parole facility and was never notified Spencer was released. Bob Long is upset Spencer even received parole in the first place. "I just think its ridiculous this man was let out in public ever again, he's got a record over and over again of what he does when he's loose," Long said. The Marshall County District Attorney's office tells WAAY31 they are still investigating Spencer's past and they do not know the details surrounding his parole. Spencer has a preliminary hearing date set for August 8th. All week long WAAY 31 is showing how school districts are preparing for the new year. Now, we're focused on the one thing every parent fears the most, a school shooting. "I'm very concerned, that's why my pastor tells us to pray before we send them off to school," said Geraldine Moore, a local parent. Like many, Moore has school safety on her mind as she gets ready to send her kids off to school. "I thank God it hasn't happened in the area that I'm in," added Moore. As mass school shootings piled up last school year, Madison City School leaders started to re-evaluate how they keep students safe. "The number one safeguard is to, if you see something, tell us," said Superintendent Robby Parker. When Madison students return to class on August 7th, they will notice two new additions to their hallways. "Every school is covered with a mental health counselor and we feel like that is going to be a great service to our kids. We have an SRO at every school now," added Parker. The district aimed to raise $750,000 to pay for the extra school resource officers and additional counselors. People sent in a little more than $20,000 worth of donations. Now, discretionary funds are paying for the rest of the bill. That money is typically used for extra teachers and classes. "When you fund school safety, you're funding fewer teachers and less offerings. And we have to find that balance, school safety is an unfunded mandate," said Parker. Parker is also in the process of hiring a Safety and Security Coordinator to his staff. "So we can have somebody that focuses on safety and security all the time at a central office level that is in schools focusing on that,"explained Parker. While Madison City Schools are working to up their security staff and counselors, Madison County Schools are working to make sure their buildings are safeguarded against any threats. When walking to the front door of a Madison County school, one of the first new things you'll notice are more secured entrances. There is a speaker you have to press to talk with someone in the office about why you are on campus. The office staff can also get a clear picture of whose is at the door with a camera view. School administrators hope it will help keep anyone from entering campus who shouldn't be there. "We want those visitors to be able to come into the school but not necessarily have access to the students," explained Superintendent Matt Massey. The Madison County school board set aside $750,000 for security projects, like securing entrances and giving special access to employees only. "For elementary schools we really want one point entry for elementary and middle schools, for high schools we are looking at a two point," said Massey. But they're not stopping there. Next for the school district, a California based group, School Safety Operations, will visit all campuses to see what the district is doing well and where improvements need to be made. "We may very well need to invest more into safety and maybe they can find somethings we haven't necessarily looked at it," said Massey. Both Madison County and Madison City say they're ready for kids to have a safe year when they head back to the classroom. Madison City schools encourage their students to use the private Text to Protect phone line to report any suspicious activity. The phone line protects students identity. The service is free to use and the number is 256-604-2345. Keith Ward, spokesman for Huntsville City Schools, says the district has upped their security over recent years. Main door entrances at schools remain locked, visitors have to be buzzed in. The district has also worked to add more security cameras throughout the campuses. WAAY 31 dug into a change in Alabama law that one district attorney thinks led to accused killer Jimmy Spencer being paroled- despite his life sentence and very long wrap sheet of violent offenses. Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing told WAAY 31 Jimmy Spencer received a life sentence for his crimes and he should have never been let out of prison. DA Rushing told us this is one of the worst things that could happen. This is a tragedy of the parole board that this individual was let out. The Franklin County DA said he knows all too well about Jimmy Spencers violent past in the county. In a parole board letter, Chairman Cliff Walker and former parole board member Terry Davis signed off on Jimmy Spencer being paroled. They marked the boxes saying he had a positive conduct record, which is not completely accurate. Rushing told WAAY 31 he did escape while in prison as well as the fact that he was convicted of an assault while he was in prison had to be, should have been a part of his file because those occurred while he was in prison how on earth did they mark those boxes being applicable in this case is beyond me. Parole board members also marked the boxes calling him a low to medium risk of reoffending. Rushing told us he can't understand that part either because Spencer was already a convicted career criminal saying when they are given a life sentence that is not a normal sentence in our court system being here on a regular basis i can tell you not a lot of people get life sentences. if you get someone with a life sentence that usually means the prosecutor and detectives and the police think they are the worst of the worst. In 2015, Rushing told WAAY 31 the state changed how the board of pardons and paroles works in Alabama. He said the new law that went into effect basically provides them a checklist and they go down the checklist they have a lot less discretion on who they let out. Under the justice revisement act of 2015, board members use analytics to predict a prisoner's chances of reoffending, using data rather than their own judgement. Franklin County DA Rushing told us it does emphasize and attempt to make it a lot easier for people to get paroled in these situations and to get more people out of prison. To me that's a dangerous thing. You have to give people on the parole board discretion. Spencer now stands accused of murdering three people in Guntersville only months after he was paroled and was known to have a violent history, yet the parole board said his chances of reoffending again were low. Rushing told us The parole board does care. I am not saying they don't but they are restricted by that same law that created this that caused Mr. Spencer to be out and they need to change it back right now before we have more deaths. DA Rushing also told WAAY 31 when Spencer came up for parole his office was never notified. He told us that doesn't mean the parole board did send him a letter and it possibly got lost in the mail, but he says if he would have known Spencer was coming up for parole again would have written another letter urging them to keep him in prison like he did in 2013. WAAY 31 is looking deeper into Alabama's domestic violence laws after another murder suicide in Limestone County. Police in Athens say theres no proof of any domestic violence even though Billy Christopher shot and killed his mother and son and then himself. Even though committing murder is the worst and most serious of domestic violence cases, there still could have not had been any domestic violence signs leading to it. "It is not uncommon to have a homicide where there's been no reports of domestic violence that qualified the relationship of no reports," said Attorney Gabrielle Helix. Madison County assistant district attorney Gabrielle Helix works on hundreds of domestic violence cases a year. She said if someone kills a family member or loved one then its automatically domestic violence even if theres no history of any problems. "If I love somebody and I know that if I call law enforcement, someone may go to jail. The person who I love, what's going to happen? How am I going to pay the bills?" Helix said. But Police in Athens told WAAY 31 since there are no past complaints in Christopher's case, officers arent looking at this as domestic violence. Christopher also killed himself so charges arent important in this case. Huntsville Police public information officer Michael Johnson described what officers look for. "We can say at the moment in time there was no argument or nothing that contributed to the shooting the second the incident occurred," Lt. Michael Johnson said. Helix also said its hard for victims to come forward. "Sometimes when we have our officers respond to these escalated events, our officers get hurt. It's one of the top reasons officers are killed in the line of duty," Helix said. In 2016, in cases of domestic violence that led to murder, 44% of the abusers had already been arrested. With school starting back across the Tennessee Valley, safety is a main concern for many parents. That includes parents in Madison, which is why officials with Madison City Schools say theyre going to do whatever it takes to make sure their students always feel safe. WAAY 31 spoke with those school officials and learned how bringing those extra safety measures to schools could have a negative impact on teachers. "We've had so many school shootings, I mean I'm scared. I don't want that to happen at one of my kids' schools or anybody's school," said mother of three, Jaclyn Skuce. With school starting back soon, Skuce says her children's safety is a number one concern--which is something echoed by Madison City Schools Superintendent Robby Parker. "It's non-negotiable," he said. "We are going to keep our students safe." But there's a catch. You may remember Madison City Schools set up a group funding page to raise about $755,000 dollars. Officials say that's the cost to put a school resource officer and a mental health counselor in each school. However, school starts Tuesday and only about $23,000 has been raised. Parker said that could mean bad news for teachers. "If we don't raise the money, we're still going to fund it. It just means it's coming out of another pot, and that pot is the only pot we have and that is the pot that we hire teachers in," Parker said. "It will mean that class sizes will continue to get larger." And parents aren't thrilled to hear that. "It's going to affect our children's learning. The teacher's not going to be as focused on each child as much as she could be," Skuce said. "Class size has a direct impact on the quality of education," father of two, Jacob Putman added. Parker assures WAAY 31 that dipping into the teachers pot won't lead to lay-offs, but it does mean that no additional teachers will be hired. "That's ten to twelve teaching units that we could be adding if we didn't do that," Parker said. And that's something many parents are saying makes them want to donate and help the district reach their $755,000 goal. "It would be much better if they had that funding, and they were able to increase the staffing and not have to increase class size," Putman said. The district has already hired a mental health counselor for each school, but they are still working to hire six more school resource officers so that there can be one at every school at all times. Fundraisers A virtual event to support the league's mission of addressing food insecurity in the community. Get moving at least 1.5 miles per day for the entire month of October, in doing so you will travel virtually roughly the distance across Sangamon county.45 miles just not enough for you? For intense runners and walkers, we challenge you to go out and back through the corn, over the Sangamon river, and past the Capitol for 90 miles of challenge. (217) 544-5557 The WCO Regional Workshop for the East South Africa (ESA) region on Coordinated Border Management with a special focus on One Stop Border Posts in Single Window Environments was held from 23 to 27 July 2018. The WCO ESA region has 22 Members, many of which have a long-standing experience of establishing One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs). In addition, there have been many projects in recent years to build a Single Window environment. At least one third of ESA Members are at various stages of Single Window implementation, whilst others have started feasibility studies on implementing a Single Window environment. The Workshop further enhanced the understanding of the role of OSBPs in a Single Window environment, of the respective features of the two, and of the interrelation between them, to facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and people in the ESA region. Participants had the opportunity to visit an example of best practice in the region, the Busia One Stop Border Post, which is on the border between Uganda and Kenya. The field trip experience and the experiences of Members from the region were used as the basis for organizing several activities. These drew on case studies from ESA and other WCO regions, and focused mainly on business process analysis and business process re-engineering for the exchange of information between Customs, CBRAs and other stakeholders in a Single Window environment, and OSBPs. The importance of international standards and instruments, such as the WCO Data Model and Revised Kyoto Convention, was also highlighted with regards to the semantic interoperability and co-orchestration of business processes in the interfaced and hybrid Single Window models, and on the more specific scale of OSBPs, with a view to achieving inter-agency cooperation. The Workshop was attended by the WCO Secretariat, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the URA, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, the National Trade Facilitation Centre, (NFTC), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, the Immigration Service, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Drug Authority, and delegates from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Union of the Comoros. As part of the established Mercator Plan for Ethiopia, the WCO successfully concluded a human resources management diagnostic study in partnership with the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA). Recognizing that people are the foundation of successful Customs modernization and reform, this mission was designed to explore the current human resources situation within ERCA and to make recommendations in keeping with the WCOs Framework of Practices and Principles on Customs Professionalism, encompassing training policies, strategies and delivery methodologies. The study included a follow-up review on the use and impact of the Amharic e-learning modules, which have been successfully integrated into the delivery framework for ERCAs broad-based Tax Transformation Initiative. The WCO team held in-depth discussions with key ERCA officials representing human resources and training functions, along with other domestic and international stakeholders with an interest in questions of training and organizational development. All stakeholders showed a high level of commitment and offered important insights on current human resources and training processes, policies and capabilities. The WCO experts encouraged ERCA to embrace competency-based management as envisioned in the Framework of Practices and Principles on Customs Professionalism as it serves as a link between human resources management and the overall strategic plan of an organization embedding observable abilities, skills, knowledge, motivations or attitudes needed for successful job performance. Following the assessment, a report on recommendations and priorities for enhanced implementation of an organization-wide competency-based human resources management will be provided to ERCA and will include guidance on improved training and enhanced donor coordination initiatives. This mission was made possible with the generous financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Finland. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 02, 2018 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 02, 2018 | 01:24 PM | PADUCAH A Paducah man has been arrested after a reported burglary and assault at his girlfriend's home. According to Paducah Police, a woman called at 11:08 pm Wednesday to report that 50-year-old Ronnie T. Agnew, of Paducah, broke into her home through a window. The woman told officers that Agnew asked her and her daughter to not call police, then reportedly destroyed her phone and pushed both of them down. The victim told police that Agnew took her daughter's cell phone and left the home on foot. Police say they found him about four blocks away and he admitted taking the phone from the daughter, but said he left it in the home. Officers say they found the phone destroyed in a nearby storm drain. Agnew was arrested on charges of first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, fourth-degree assault (domestic violence) and tampering with physical evidence. He was booked into McCracken County Regional Jail. By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 25, 2018 | 11:44 AM | AURORA If contemporary blues has a long-term future in the 21st century, it's very likely that guitarist Larry McCray will continue to play a recurring role in its ongoing development. Beginning with this 1990 debut album, Ambition, and continuing into the new millennium, McCray has signaled both a strong commitment to the tradition and the vision to usher the genre in exciting new directions.McCray's first influence on guitar was none other than his sister, Clara, who toured regionally around Arkansas with her own combo, the Rockets. Clara never got to record her Freddie King-styled blues for posterity -- but her little brother has at least partially made up for that omission. Larry followed Clara up to Saginaw, Michigan in 1972. She turned him on to the joys of the three Kings (B.B., Freddie, and Albert), Albert Collins, and Magic Sam, and Larry added superheated rock licks (a la Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers) to his arsenal as he began playing the local circuit with his brothers Carl on bass and Steve on drums.Working on General Motors' assembly line occupied a great deal of Larry McCray's time after he finished high school. But he eventually found enough free hours to put together Ambition for Point Blank in a Detroit friend's basement studio. The stunning debut set was a convincing hybrid of blues, rock, and soul, McCray combining the interrelated idioms in sizzling fashion. Suddenly, the stocky young guitarist was touring with labelmate Albert Collins.His 1993 Point Blank encore, Delta Hurricane, was a slicker affair produced by veteran British blues maven Mike Vernon that McCray much preferred to his homemade debut. He followed Delta Hurricane with Meet Me at the Lake in 1996 and Born to Play the Blues in 1998. The bluesman has remained active in the 2000s with albums including 2001's Believe It and Blues Is My Business, 2006's Live on Interstate 75 (his first live outing, recorded in Detroit), and the eponymous Larry McCray in 2007.Larry McCray's been recognized with an Orville H. Gibson Male Blues Guitarist of the Year award as well as the Top Guitarist prize in International Blues Matters' 2014 writer's poll. But there's a part of McCray that has a rock 'n' roll beat too, and he's following that on his latest release, The Gibson Sessions.It's a 12-song set featuring some of his personal favorites by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Seger, ZZ Top, Gregg Allman, the Doobie Brothers, the Rolling Stones, Creendence Clearwater Revival and others, with help from six-string brethren such as Allman Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts, Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Eric Clapton), Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Allman Brothers Band, The Dead, Phil Lesh & Friends). "The blues is my favorite, for sure. I get more out of it, feeling-wise, but I've always been a rock 'n' roll fan and I've always tried to write music that was rock 'n' roll friendly," McCray explains, "I always try to move forward and remember where I came from, and this album is a way to do these songs I love and maybe get them heard by people who like that music already, but do it in my own way so I can have some of my personality andself-identity within the music.""I was a little nervous to do all these classic tunes, and especially classic hits, because you open the door up to 'Who the hell does this guy think he is?' " McCray notes with a laugh. "But I'll tell ya, any of the alterations I've done feel natural to me. They're things I've always heard in my head when I listened to these songs. I think when you hear them they fit. I thought Jimi Hendrix was white up until I was about 19, 20; I just figured he was a white rock 'n' roller, y'know? When I found out he was a black dude, it turned my whole world upside down."Britain's Q magazine trumpeted McCray's "powerhouse energy" and "an elegance and technical prowess that will delight most exacting blues and rock aficionado," while Collins and Eric Clapton publicly stated their praise. The presence of The Gibson Sessions' top-shelf guests is yet another indication of the regard his playing peers have for McCray. "I've been on stage with all those guys over the years. We've had many encounters," he says. "You've never seen me have guests on a record. I've never called in favors, never asked for anything other than camaraderie. But this record seemed like the right time to do it. I'm at a point and a time in my life where I'm old enough and I've been out there and established long enough that it's not like I'm just cashing in." The Gibson Sessions certainly offers a different look at McCray's music and opens new artistic vistas. "For me, success is being accepted and recognized by your peers and having some people out there who want to hear the music, and I don't need a whole lot of everything to be happy. I feel comfortable with who I am For Larry McCray, the Blues is his business, and business is good!The Kenlake Hot August Blues Festival is set for Thursday through Saturday, August 23-25 at Kenlake State Park in Aurora, Kentucky. Discount tickets are available at KenlakeBlues.com.Charities which will benefit from this year's Hot August Blues Festival include The Shriners, who will be operating festival shuttles with all tips and proceeds going to the Shriners' Childrens' Hospitals, and the Knights of Columbus.Corporate sponsors for the festival include Peppers Automotive Group, Lee;s Heating and Air, Kenlake Marina, Universal Windows Direct, Audibel Hearing Center, Beacon Dragway, Aurora Electrical and Storage, Abernathy's Harley Davidson, Cellar Door Wine and Spirits, Griffin Plumbing and Piping, Bunch Auction and Realty, Kenlake State Resort Park, Murray-Calloway Transit, Strickland's Seafood Restaurant, Harper Guitars, State Representative Candidate Desiree Owen and ExporeKentuckyLake.com. 45 mph speed limit signs are up on Clarks River Road WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA Susan Kotson and Randy Peffer, both of New Martinsville, West Virginia, have admitted to their involvement in methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin distribution that spanned multiple states, United States Attorney Bill Powell announced. Kotson, age 53, pled guilty to one count of Aiding and Abetting the Maintaining of a Drug-Involved Premises. Kotson admitted to maintaining a house on Ohio Street in New Martinsville for the purpose of distributing and using drugs. Peffer, age 25, pled guilty to one count of Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Methamphetamine. Peffer admitted to selling methamphetamine in September 2017 in Wetzel County. Kotson and Peffer each face up to 20 years incarceration and a fine of up to $1,000,000. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed will be based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert H. McWilliams, Jr., and Shawn M. Adkins are prosecuting the case on behalf of the government. The Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol; Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Marshall County Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the West Virginia State Police; the Tyler County Sheriffs Office; the Wetzel County Sheriffs Office; the Sistersville Police Department; the Paden City Police Department; and the New Martinsville Police Department investigated. The Columbus, Ohio, Police Department Gang Crimes Unit assisted in the case. The investigation was funded in part by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF). The OCDETF program supplies critical federal funding and coordination that allows federal and state agencies to work together to successfully identify, investigate, and prosecute major interstate and international drug trafficking organizations and other criminal enterprises. Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp, Jr. presided. Gonzalo Higuain is now a width of a gnats wotsits from completing his move from Juventus to AC Milan after the striker underwent his routine medicals with the Rossoneri on Thursday morning. The Argentinian international is set to join Milan on an initial season-long loan that will reportedly command a hefty 16million fee, with a further 32million obligation to buy clause lumped in for the end of 2018/19 campaign. While the deal is not rubber-stamped quite yet, everything after this point is usually a formality Look whos in Miln ready for medicals Guardate chi e a Milano, pronto per le visite mediche @G_Higuain pic.twitter.com/P1RM42J1LC AC Milan (@acmilan) 2 August 2018 Higuains loan is part of a convoluted three-player switcheroo that will see Leonardo Bonucci traipse back to Juve after one less-than-stellar season at the San Siro. Bonucci signed a five-year contract with Milan when he completed his gigantic 42million transfer last summer, but thats being mulched to pave the way for Higuains smooth passage tother way. The third wheel is 24-year-old defender Mattia Caldara, who will join Higuain in moving from Juve to Milan but on a permanent deal valued at 31million, thus effectively cancelling out the Bianconeris 31million valuation of Bonucci. Capiche? No, us neither. Donald Trump and his political and legal teams are mounting an extraordinary escalation of his attacks against the special counsel's investigation, an apparent sign of increased worry among his allies that Robert Mueller's findings could potentially be deeply damaging to the President. Trump issued his most explicit and public call on Jeff Sessions to shut down the probe on Wednesday, the latest of a series of threats and pressure on the attorney general and the Justice Department that if carried out would move the drama into Nixonian territory. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted. "Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" The President tweeted again after midnight in the early hours of Thursday morning to praise a Fox News analyst whose new book, Trump said, told "the Real Story of the Rigged Witch Hunt!" The flurry of activity comes a week after CNN reported that the President's former lawyer Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Mueller that the then-presidential candidate knew in advance about a Trump tower meeting in June 2016 in which Russians planned to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump has denied all knowledge of the encounter. And the tweets also coincide with the start of the trial of Paul Manafort that could boost the credibility of the special counsel operation if it secures a conviction and could also increase the chances that Trump's former campaign chairman decides to cooperate with Mueller. RELATED: Suits, cars and real estate: Manafort's lifestyle put on trial Trump's words on Sessions set his lawyers and subordinates scrambling and could become a legal liability as the special counsel seeks to establish whether there was a corrupt motive in any effort by the President to obstruct justice. It also followed a week in which several Trump legal representatives, including Rudy Giuliani, began to publicly question whether collusion -- the question of whether Trump or aides conspired with Russia on election meddling -- is actually a crime. Those musings set off a torrent of speculation over whether Giuliani understands there is evidence to support such a finding by Mueller and whether he was therefore trying to defuse its potential impact. Then, on Wednesday, Giuliani again upped the stakes, warning that the coming midterm election would be fought on the question of whether Trump would be impeached. His comment was clearly part of an effort by Trump's team to motivate the President's supporters to go the polls in the midterm election to stave off a blue wave that could help Democrats seize the House of Representatives. But it also implied that Mueller could produce evidence in a report that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will feel compelled to send to Congress for possible impeachment proceedings. A Republican House is seen as far less likely to move against the President, especially after the President's intense efforts to persuade his supporters that the Mueller investigation is corrupt, unfair and biased against him. It could be a much different story under a new Democratic House if the midterms go against the GOP. Since no one outside Mueller's inner circle knows the extent of the evidence he has collected, and few people not in Trump's orbit have a full picture of his potential exposure, it is impossible to say for sure what is motivating the apparent evolution in the President's defense. But it does appear that significant statements from the President this week and his legal and political teams at least embrace the possibility that their defense must eventually need to move on from the theoretical possibility of an adverse report by Mueller to a practical response to such an eventuality. Could a tweet be evidence of obstruction? Trump's tweet to Sessions immediately provoked conversation about whether he had shown an intent to obstruct justice in plain sight, following a long succession of previous tweets pressuring Sessions that appear to undermine arguments that Trump was acting with no malice in firing former FBI Director James Comey at the time he was in charge of the Russia investigation. "This is another piece in the puzzle to someone trying to put together a picture of attempted obstruction," said Preet Bharara, the former US attorney for the Southern District of New York on CNN's "The Situation Room." "Over time, a portrait is developing that the President wants the Russia investigation to be ended." But Giuliani and the White House argued that the President was merely exercising his right to free speech and offering an "opinion." The former New York mayor pointed out that Trump said Sessions "should" stop the probe not that he "must" stop the probe. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, while lashing the "corruption" and "dishonesty" of the "witch hunt," said, "It's not an order, it's the President's opinion." In defense of the President, other Republicans pointed out that Sessions did not have the capacity to end the investigation anyway, since he has recused himself in favor of Rosenstein. The pushback from the Trump camp revived the debate over whether Trump's tweets are official statements of policy and intent, or should merely be taken as some kind of ongoing conversation with the American people that has no political or legal significance. From Mueller's point of view, it may not matter. The New York Times reported last week that Mueller was examining Trump's tweets about Sessions and Comey as he considers whether Trump showed corrupt intent in the firing of the former FBI director and puts pressure on the attorney general in a way that suggests a pattern of obstruction. "Your motivation, the reason why you do something, your opinion actually has legal significance here," said Susan Hennessey, a CNN legal and national security analyst. "We know that Robert Mueller is looking at these tweets for exactly this purpose." The tweet could also take on more significance should Trump decide in future to dismiss Sessions in order to appoint an attorney general who is not recused from oversight of the Mueller investigation who would be prepared to shut it down. But Giuliani this week ridiculed the notion of "obstruction by tweet." Trump in a dark place It is not clear exactly what brought on Trump's latest volcanic intervention in the Mueller drama. But he is clearly agitated about the meltdown of his relationship with Cohen, amid rising speculation that his one-time confidant could agree to a plea deal if he is charged as a result of a federal probe in New York and could spill secrets to prosecutors about Trump's financial affairs. Though the White House insists that the Manafort trial in Virginia on tax and fraud charges has nothing to do with the President -- Trump's tweets appear to indicate that he is closely keeping tabs on news coverage of the case. "Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?" Trump tweeted. CNN's Kevin Liptak reported Wednesday said that there was not one trigger for the President's Twitter rage on Wednesday but that he's been angry for months about Sessions and was sent into a dark place by the stories about Cohen last week. Trump also lamented "a lot of bad people in Washington" on Wednesday, during a call with Rush Limbaugh's radio show, though it wasn't clear to whom he was referring. "You have a lot of bad people in Washington. You knew that a long time ago, frankly, before I knew it," Trump said, congratulating Limbaugh on his 30th anniversary of his radio program. "I had no idea how evil some of them are, but you have a lot of great people too. And outside of Washington you have the greatest people in the world." But his behavior is perplexing allies who believe that the President would be best served by not behaving in a way that makes it look as though he has something to hide and expects Mueller's investigation to be ultimately damaging towards him. Republicans who are eying tough midterm elections in November just wish the President would keep his attention on what they believe is a credible story they have to tell on the economy. "The President can voice his opinion, I don't deny him that ability, in this case I wish he wouldn't I just don't think it helps him," Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He added, "I wish he would just let the special counsel finish his work and show the American people what he has found." On Thursday, the White House made a show of force. National security adviser John Bolton, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen all appeared in the White House briefing room to make one thing very clear: Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election and they are already working to do so again in 2018. "Russia attempted to interfere in the last election and continues to engage in malign operations to this very day," Wray said. 2016 Presidential election Continents and regions Donald Trump Eastern Europe Elections (by type) Elections and campaigns Europe Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Investigations Political candidates Political Figures - US Politics Russia Russia meddling investigation US Federal elections US federal government US Presidential elections White House Christopher Wray Dan Coats Government departments and authorities Intelligence services International relations and national security Kirstjen Nielsen National security North America The Americas United States "Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs," Nielsen said. "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," Coats said. Russia's active interference campaign in 2016 -- a fact that the intelligence committee unanimously concluded last year -- has triggered a heightened awareness and vigilance across the US government for foreign threats to our democracy. Case closed! Except, well, not exactly. Because there's one person in the White House who has publicly disagreed with the sentiments offered on Thursday by Nielsen, Wray, Coats and others. And his name is President Donald Trump. Since the revelations of Russia's attempts to interfere in the election surfaced in the summer of 2016, Trump has publicly voiced his skepticism about not only the source of the efforts but whether they are real at all. He has speculated that a "400-pound" kid could be behind it. He has tweeted -- relentlessly -- about how special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is a "witch hunt" and a "total hoax." But, the coup de grace came earlier this month in Helsinki, Finland, when, standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin after a summit between the two men, Trump was asked directly whether Russia was to blame for the election meddling. "I hold both countries responsible," Trump said. "I think that the United States has been foolish. We've all been foolish. We're all to blame." In the wake of the uproar caused by those comments, Trump tried to clean up his mess once he arrived back in Washington. "I have a full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies," he said, reading slowly from a page of written remarks. "Could be other people also." Then, this on Thursday night at a campaigbn rally in Pennsylvania -- just hours after his administration's show of force: "In Helsinki, I had a great meeting with Putin. We discussed everything. ... We got along really well. By the way, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. Now we're being hindered by the Russian hoax -- it's a hoax, OK?" The truth is that Trump has been telling us that for a very long time. He's been extremely resistant to acknowledging Russian interference from the start -- even after everyone in a position to know has made abundantly clear that there is simple not two sides to this debate. Russia interfered. The end. Trump doesn't say what Wray, Nielsen and Coats said on Thursday for a simple reason: He doesn't totally believe it. And that lack of full faith in what smart people in his administration are telling him (and telling him) that badly undermines what his administration was trying to do today. Consider it in your own life. Three vice presidents hold a company-wide meeting where they announce that market research has unanimously concluded that plastic widgets are the future. And so, the company will now only make plastic widgets. Then, a day later, the president of the company does an interview with a trade publication where he says: "Many people say plastic widgets are the future. Maybe they are. But maybe metal widgets are..." Would you be convinced that the company's full force is behind making plastic widgets? Of course you wouldn't. (If you did believe that, you would be, um, dense.) Same goes for the Trump administration. No matter how many times Wray and Coats insist that Russia interfered and broadly assert that Trump agree with them, there's just too many statements from the President out there that directly contradict that assertion. And when the boss isn't sure about something, it's impossible to say his administration is totally convinced of it. (By the way, the President tweeted five times -- not counting deletions -- after his top national security officials took to the White House briefing room, and none of those tweets were on the topic of election interference, CNN's Jeremy Diamond pointed out. Instead, Trump tweeted about his approval rating, an upcoming rally in Pennsylvania, the farm bill and his support for an Ohio congressional candidate.) Which made Thursday a nice photo op for an administration trying to get beyond a debate over whether Russia interfered in the election and what the government is doing to ensure it doesn't happen again. Unless and until the President of the United States -- via Twitter and in public pronouncements -- can say what the likes of Nielsen, Coats and Wray did on Thursday, there will always be some doubt and confusion about exactly how big a threat Russia represents and what the US is doing to combat the threat. And that uncertainty is exactly what Russia wants. A suspected Russian spy was employed for more than a decade at the US Embassy in Moscow before being fired last year, a senior administration official tells CNN. The woman, a Russian national, worked for the US Secret Service for years before she came under suspicion during one of the State Department regional security office's routine security reviews in 2016, the official said. Continents and regions Eastern Europe Embassies and consulates Espionage Europe Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government departments and authorities Government organizations - US Intelligence services International relations International relations and national security Moscow National security North America Russia State departments and diplomatic services The Americas United States US Department of Homeland Security US Department of State US federal departments and agencies US federal government US Secret Service Business operations Business, economy and trade Company activities and management Office administration The security office found the woman was having regular, unauthorized meetings with the Russian intelligence service, the FSB. The Guardian first reported the news. "We figure that all of them are talking to the FSB, but she was giving them way more information than she should have," the official said. The regional security office alerted the embassy in January 2017 and the woman was dismissed last summer, after being caught red-handed, the official said. "We knew it was happening and it was just a process of playing it out and giving her specific information that we saw her give back to the FSB," the official said. The woman had access to the Secret Service's intranet and email systems, but the official said "this was not an issue of national security." "She did not have access to highly classified information," the official said. During a media briefing on Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told journalists she knew nothing about the suspected spy. "I do not know who or what is being talking about. It is impossible to comment on something you do not know about. If there are any specific data, then let them provide it -- we will sort through it," Zakharova said. A person familiar with this case says the woman in question was actually employed by the State Department, but did work for the Secret Service as part of her job at the embassy. While the Secret Service said foreign workers are employed by the State Department, a senior State Department official insisted that they are managed by the agencies that hire them. The official also said State Department Diplomatic Security brought the woman's case to the Secret Service's attention, which sent a team to Moscow to fire her. The State Department declined to comment on the record, saying they "do not comment on allegations related to intelligence or personnel matters, and we have no information for you on this alleged incident." The Secret Service said in a statement Thursday that at no time was the woman in a position to obtain national security secrets, saying that no foreign service nationals, known as FSNs, have been provided or in position to obtain national security information. The agency acknowledged that it was informed by the State Department that the woman's access "would not be extended following the completion of a scheduled security update" and said it acted on the State Department's information. The Secret Service also said it "recognizes that all Foreign Service Nationals (FSN) who provide services in furtherance of our mission, administrative or otherwise, can be subjected to foreign intelligence influence," the statement said. "This is of particular emphasis in Russia," the agency added. "As such, all Foreign Service Nationals are managed accordingly, to ensure that Secret Service and United States Government interests are protected at all times. As a result, the duties are limited to translation, interpretation, cultural guidance, liaison and administrative support." The Secret Service went on to say that part of the duties of the FSN position in Moscow are "to assist our attaches and agency by engaging the Russian government, including the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian Ministry of the Interior (MVD), and the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) in furtherance of Secret Service interests." Later Thursday, the Secret Service released a more detailed statement rebutting claims of a security breach or any relationship between the revelation of the woman's activities and the closing of the US Secret Service Moscow Resident Office. "Reports of the timing of the individual's termination in question and the closing of the Secret Service Resident Office in Moscow correlate in any way are false. The U.S. Secret Service Moscow Resident Office closed in August of 2017 due to lack of cooperation from the Russian government - entirely unrelated to the termination of the FSN in question," the statement read. "Reports the Secret Service attempted to minimize or deliberately not disclose the U.S. State Department's findings are categorically false." The statement went on to say, "Reporting and/or questions regarding a potential security 'breach' of U.S. Secret Service systems, information or reporting is unfounded as FSNs work on, and support, only projects with the intent of providing and/or sharing the information with the Russian government in furtherance of Secret Service and USG interests." The State Department also acknowledged the risk of foreign governments trying to recruit its employees overseas and said it screens applicants and employees carefully as a result. "As a general matter, we are aware that U.S. government employees, by virtue of their employment with the U.S. government, may be targeted by foreign intelligence services," the department said in a statement to CNN. "Diplomatic Security and other law enforcement agencies rigorously vet new hires at our missions overseas, and all employees are also subject to ongoing reviews to ensure they are fully complying with their security responsibilities and Department security requirements," the State Department said. "When we identify an employee in violation of security directives, we take appropriate action at the appropriate time." This story has been updated to reflect the State Department's position and add a response from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Three brothers from Rome have been sentenced to prison time after they admitted to their roles in ATV thefts and other burglaries in the local area, according to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office. Timothy Fancher Sr., Alvin Fancher III and Ernest Fancher were arrested back in November and they were each charged with felony third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. The brothers were charged following the thefts of five four-wheelers and other burglary complaints throughout Oneida County. Alvin Fancher was also charged with felony third-degree burglary in connection to a burglary in the town of Western last fall, and Timothy Fancher Sr. was also charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property in New Hartford. On Wednesday, Alvin Fancher was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison. He had previously pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary. On Thursday, Ernest Fancher was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in state prison with restitution. He had previously pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Timothy Fancher was sentenced July 26 to 1 to 3 years in state prison with restitution. MILFORD, NY-- The Milford community went through a devastating loss last year, when the United Methodist Church was destroyed in an arson. But they are moving forward to plans to rebuild the church. Whenever Rev. Sylvia Barrett thinks about the night the United Methodist Church burned down, she chooses to remember the positive things that came out of that night. "There were six different fire crews and I was just overwhelmed they were just the kindest, nicest, most professional people," she said. "They stayed 'til 4 o'clock in the morning, making sure everything was out." She also mentioned many community members reaching out to her to share their memories of the church. "I heard from so many people, 'I was brought up there,' 'I was baptize there,' 'I was married there,' and I still to this day get letters," she said. "It really helped and I think one of the key features of the new church is to be the heart of the community, that's going to be our motto, bring light to the area." The sanctuary that had become more than a building for so many was set on fire by a Springfield Center man back in March of 2017. Gerald Althiser, 21, was sentenced to five years of probation, which is served in a supervised institution because he is developmentally disabled. The church eventually relocated to a former grocery store, just a few doors down from the original location, while the new church is being built. "We decided the night of the fire we were going to come back as a congregation," she said. "So that hope has kept us, our light burning. All this together you really find out the sense of family." The new church will used for services and prayer but it will also have many more uses for the community. "It isn't necessarily going to look like at church, we're not doing pews, we're doing chairs that can be moved around," she said. "We'll have a stage platform and if any community theater groups want to participate and put on productions, we'll be open to that. I think it's just given us a whole broader reach to people." Even if construction isn't complete by November the church will still host a special guest for the Thanksgiving Day Mass. "I invited the bishop to come and preach on Thanksgiving," Barrett said. "Right from the word go people said 'no way' and I said 'well never mind, we've got a date to work to.' So the bishop is coming to preach on November 25, even if I have to stand there and hold an umbrella over his head, we will be on some part the building." Construction is expected to be complete for the entire project by March 2019. (WNYT) Kathalene Tompkins, 80, has lived in the same farm house on 11 acres of land in North Hebron, New York for 42 years. She raised her family there, she collected a lifetime of memories and she wants to live out the rest of her years there. Late last week, remaining on the land was uncertain. "We were getting ready to move because we didn't know what was going to happen," she says, "We really didn't know where we were going to go because my son has a lot of animals." Figuring out what to do, and finding a new place for about 100 animals was just one of the many troubling things for the Tompkins. When Kathalene's husband died, she and her family fell on hard times. She fell behind by three years on their property taxes. And on Saturday morning, the county was about to auction off their farm property, which meant they would have to uproot their lives and find a new place to live. "By the end of trying to do everything you possibly could, you feel almost like you're ready to give up or like you don't have any energy to do it," said Ken Tompkins, Kathalene's son. The Tompkins were one of four families in Washington County who were scheduled to be booted off their land this past weekend. But then, a miracle happened. "I had not seen anything like this in my career in Washington County in 24 years," said Al Nolette, the Washington County treasurer. Read more: http://bit.ly/2vct1Pw NISKAYUNA, N.Y. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say an engineer at General Electric's upstate New York turbine manufacturing plant has been charged with stealing the company's trade secrets. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Wednesday 55-year-old Xiaoqing Zheng removed electronic files with company trade secrets involving its turbine technologies and hid data files in a digital photograph of a sunset. Prosecutors say he then emailed the picture to his email account. FBI agents took Zheng away in handcuffs earlier Wednesday at his home in Niskayuna (nihs-kee-YOO'-nuh), 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Albany. The neighboring city of Schenectady (skeh-NEHK'-ta-dee) is home to Boston-based GE's power division, which makes turbines. During a brief court appearance Zheng was ordered detained. He's scheduled to return to court Thursday, when he's expected to get a lawyer. GE says it has cooperated in the FBI investigation. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state's comptroller says local sales tax collections are up so far this year. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report saying collections grew 6 percent statewide in the first six months of 2018. Local collections totaled $8.5 billion over the period statewide compared to $8 billion last year. Photo courtesy of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's report Photo courtesy of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's report Photo courtesy of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's report Photo courtesy of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's report The report shows collections grew in 54 of the 57 counties outside of New York City. New York City's sales tax collections grew by 6.9 percent, its highest year-over-year increase since 2013. Outside of New York City, the highest regional increases in the state were in the Southern Tier (5.8 percent), Mohawk Valley (5.8 percent), Mid-Hudson (5.8 percent), Capital District (5.6 percent) and Long Island (5.5 percent), DiNapolis report reads. DiNapoli said the upcoming back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons could boost local collections even more. But he cautioned that sales tax can be an unpredictable revenue source for local governments. A Syracuse man who was accused of sexually assaulting a child in Utica and attempting to abduct her has pleaded guilty to a felony charge, according to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office. Raoul Baldwin, 37, pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual act Thursday in Oneida County Court. Back in March, Utica police responded to a home in the city of Utica for a report of sexual assault and the attempted abduction of an eight-year-old female child. Police say Baldwin was familiar with the family involved, and he was in their Utica home when the alleged assault occurred. RELATED: Syracuse man accused of sexually assaulting, attempting to abduct child in Utica Baldwin was already on New York State parole at the time, which he violated by being in Utica rather than Syracuse, according to officials. Back in 2010, Baldwin pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted kidnapping, admitting that he lured an 11-year-old girl into his home and then held her in his basement against her will until other children came looking for her. He was released from prison in Dec. 2017. Baldwin is scheduled to be sentenced for first-degree criminal sexual act on Oct. 17 in Oneida County Court. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)All 112 Lafayette School corporation buses are ready for the start of the school year, but that wasn't the case a few months ago. At the first annual inspection by Indiana State police, only 54% passed without problems. Forty were ordered to be repaired and four were put out of commission. The number rejected may be large but the mechanical issues are small. LSC stated a bus marked as needing repairs can still drive for thirty days before being put out of commission. The Indiana State Bus Inspection states Lafayette School Corporation had 51 buses approved, 40 rejected and 4 out of service. These numbers raised some questions as to what was wrong with them in the beginning? Most of the issues included oil leaks, torn seats and a few lights out. According to Indiana State Police, all of these buses must be checked and approved before they can hit the road. Superintendent Les Huddle said the school corporation is working with a number of mechanics they have. "We also have some limitations on what we can do with our facilities," said Huddle. "We can't put our bus up on a lift simply because we don't have that big of an indoor facility or the equipment to do that." The low amount of workers doesn't slow down Indiana State Police Trooper Nate King from getting underneath and checking the buses himself. An annual inspection must be done for every bus and all 112 are up to code. "The forty that were rejected, which means they were order repaired," said King. "They can still run the bus with children on it, it doesn't mean that it's a safety issue, it just means that there needs to be something fixed and needs to be addressed." King says having only 4 buses out of service is a good sign as long as they are up to code for the school year, parents should feel safe. "Everyone makes mistakes, but we work together as the troopers and as the mechanics and the transportation directors and your schools," said King. "We all work together to make sure these buses are safe. Just because we find something and put it out of service doesn't mean they are not doing their job." King said parents are able to see the descriptions for each bus on the website. WHITE CO, Ind (WLFI) -- A Monticello high school teacher was given the opportunity of a lifetime this summer. Jill Gilford of Twin Lakes High School was able to attend Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama. Honeywell's Educators at Space Academy brought educators from 35 different countries and 45 states. The program aims to inspire math and science teachers to continue their education, and also help promote STEM courses in the classrooms. Out of more than 2,000 applicants, Jill Gilford was one of just 224 educators to attend a camp that's out of this world. When Jill Gilford received the news of her acceptance, she could hardly contain her excitement. "I got the email and I was actually here at school and I jumped up and down and immediately was texting all of my space crew friends, my principal, assistant principal, and I said I get to go to space camp," said Gilford. With activities from sun up to sun down, Gilford saw little sleep over her five days at camp. "All day we were in training and simulations, learning about new activities and experiments. It was very hands on and by the end of the day we were exhausted," she said. Programs ranged from space and crash landing simulations, experiencing moon-like gravity, and a variety of experiments. Gilford recalls her time as captain for a space simulation. "I had my pilot to my right and my mission specialist behind me and we have a flight log. We're supposed to be following a procedure. It was completely mind-boggling how many amazing opportunities we were able to have," said Gilford. Jill hopes the bonds she made with fellow educators will help influence new material for the classroom. "Working together with a team from several like-minded educators, we can lean on each other and say hey how do you teach this or do you have an activity on this. We are constantly learning from each other and adding new things to our curriculum," said Jill. She believes the program will bring a new passion for education. "This summer was very reinvigorating and it helped me help me refuel my passion for being in the classroom and teaching kids about space and the challenges we face," said Gilford. Gilford went on to say the biggest benefit of the program was learning how to step out of her comfort zone to try new things. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page Cash injection of almost 7m to push forward improvements at North Wales health board This article is old - Published: Thursday, Aug 2nd, 2018 A health board that has been in special measures over three years is to receive a cash injection of almost 7 million from the Welsh Government. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is the largest health organisation in Wales, providing services across North Wales including the Wrexham Maelor Hospital. In June 2015 the health board was put into special measures by the Welsh Government following increasing pressure and scrutiny in the wake of the Tawel Fan mental health scandal and the proposed relocation of some maternity and cancer services. Today Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething, announced 6.8 million of Welsh Government funding to support improvements for patients at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Welsh Government say the funding will be used to strengthen the health boards delivery of planned and unscheduled care across all three hospitals, and drive further improvements to mental health and learning disability services. Speaking today Mr Gething said: In May I set out my expectations for the Health Board over the next 18 months, and made a commitment to provide more intensive support, including additional resources to quickly and efficiently deliver the improvements needed to the Health Board. Todays funding forms part of that support. It will be used to set up stronger operational governance and accountability at the Health Board and to push forward financial improvements. I expect to see significant improvements for patients as a result, especially in planned and unscheduled care across North Wales. Earlier this year it was announced that Mark Polin, chief constable of North Wales Police, was to take over as chairman of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. He will take over the role in September 2019. The health secretary added: This additional support comes as a new chair prepares to take up his appointment next month. This marks a new phase in the Health Boards improvement journey. The key focus remains on driving forward the work to deliver sustained change and ensuring the people of North Wales receive the health service they deserve. The Daily Mail has published further damning evidence that Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured many more in Manchester Arena in May last year, was protected as a British intelligence asset before committing his heinous act. In articles published Tuesday and Wednesday, it revealed that Abedi and his brother received British government assistance and fled Libya onboard a Royal Navy vessel, HMS Enterprise, in August 2014, less than three years before Abedi bombed the Arena. The Royal Navy was tasked with picking them up, along with other British nationals, on a list provided to sailors, the Mail wrote. Abedis presence aboard the ship was known to the highest levels of the British state. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron was personally informed. This information has been hidden from the public, including the families of those Abedi killed and maimed, for over a year. Abedi was rescued with 110 other British citizens, escorted to the Mediterranean island of Malta, and finally flown back to Manchester where he lived. Among those allowed on HMS Enterprise was Abedis brother, Hashemwho is currently in Libya and suspected of participating in the planning of the Arena bombing. These revelations leave no doubt that Abedi and his circle were given a free hand to do whatever they wanted. They could travel unhindered between the UK and Libya because they were part of an Islamist terror network cultivated by British intelligence services and successive governments, as part of their regime-change operations in Libya and Syria. The Mail articles repeat the official government narrative that although Abedi had been a Suspect of Interest (SOI) and previously known the intelligence agenciesbeing actively investigated as early as January 2014 and again in October 2015he was not considered a threat at the time he carried out the Arena bombing. The newspapers reporters claim that at the time they were evacuated from Libya, the brothers were on holiday. Who are they kidding? The Abedi brothers were in Libya fighting in a brutal civil warin which Britain played a central rolethat had previously resulted in the overthrow and murder, in October 2011, of the countrys leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. When the war began in 2011, the Conservative government of David Cameron joined US and French efforts to topple Gaddafi. They allowed members of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) to travel to Libya in 2011. Abedis parents were both LIFG members, as were other anti-Gaddafi Libyans in his neighbourhood in south Manchester. Those who previously had control orders restricting their movementsduring a thaw in UK-Libyan relationshad the orders lifted as London swung against Gaddafi. Everyone knew what Abedis family were doing, with their Manchester group at the centre of operations funnelling rebel fighters into Libya. As a former anti-Gaddafi fighter told the Middle East Eye, The majority who went from here [the UK] were from Manchester. However, the Mail report undermines the official narrative it repeats. It notes: * The Abedi family lived in the Whalley Range district of Manchester on the same street as another LIFG member, Abd al-Baset Azzouz, an expert bomb-maker. * The Abedi brothers shuttled back and forth between Manchester and Tripoli because their parents, Ramadan and Samia, had returned to Libya. * Ramadan [their father] is thought to have gone back in time for the 2011 revolution, allegedly fighting against the Gaddafi regime with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. * [S]alman was hardly some idle tourist caught up in the mayhem. Though born and bred in Britain, Abedi went on his school holidays to the war in Libya, where he may have learnt to kill as a 16-year-old. * Contrary to the claims of the British government and intelligence services, immediately prior to his jaunt aboard HMS Enterprise, Other sources have claimed Abedi was on the front line and was hospitalised fighting alongside jihadis in Ajdabiya, eastern Libya. It is inconceivable that anybody in a war zone would ever be able to board a Royal Navy vessel and be transported hundreds of miles without being thoroughly vetted. Indeed, the Mail confirmed Wednesday, The information [on the soldiers lists of who boarded HMS Enterprise] was subsequently passed on to Number Ten [Downing Street to Cameron], the Foreign Office and the Home Office. A contemporary report by Sky News states that the Enterprise was moored offshore as her survey boat, Spitfire, collected people from the Port of Tripoli. A detachment of armed personnel, usually Royal Marines, provided force protection to the ship in the event of attack. According to Wikipedia, the Enterprise was involved in another operation of this kind, and Over the course of two lifts, Enterprise evacuated a total of 217 civilians and landed them safely in Valletta, Malta. Sky reported that the evacuation followed a similar scenario in 2011 during the uprising [against Gaddafi] when HMS Cumberland, a Type 22 frigate, evacuated foreign nationals and refugees from the civil war. This weeks revelations follow a by-now familiar pattern regarding terrorist attacks. From the 9/11 attacks in the US, to more recent atrocities in France, Belgium and the UK, it subsequently is revealed that the perpetrators were well known to the intelligence agencies. Everything is being done by the British state to conceal the central issues involved in its protection of Abedi and its other assets. An article Wednesday by BBC Home Affairs correspondent Dominic Cascian asks: Does this new fact raise questions about whether anything could have been done earlier to identify Salman Abedi as a threatand stop him before he attacked? In the face of all evidence pointing to a massive cover-up, Cascian concludes that there is nothing to see here: At the moment, it looks like it was a quirk of history, rather than a missed opportunity. In response to the Mail articles, published in arguably the most right-wing newspaper in Britain, Security Minister Ben Wallace said: [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn and his cronies often try to link terrorist attacks to UK foreign policy, adding, The Manchester bomber was saved, sheltered and supported by the United Kingdom when we went to the aid of the people of Libya. His thanks was to attack our citizens. It has nothing to do with foreign policy and everything to do with the twisted ideology of Daesh [Islamic State] and Al Qaeda. In December, a review was published of contacts MI5 and counter-terrorism police had with Abedi and other terrorists involved in attacks in London last year. The report by David Anderson QC noted that 1,150 pages of detailed and highly classified documents provide a comprehensive account of the handling of intelligence prior to each attack, but that these were not available to the public. The report said nothing about the Abedis being protected aboard HMS Enterprise. This begs the question: How much more material revealing the extent of state collusion with the Manchester bomber and other terrorists is also being withheld? The Mail noted that Anderson declined to comment when asked if he knew about the Royal Navy rescue when he compiled the report and why it was omitted. The Mail cites a Whitehall source who declares, Salman Abedi was not a national security threat at that time. The scope for [the Anderson report] was to look at what was known beforehand and decisions made in relation to intelligence. It was not to look into his journeys to and from Libya, of which there were many. [Emphasis added] The author also recommends: UK terror report confirms Manchester and London terror attackers known to MI5 [7 December 2017] British intelligence received warnings that Manchester bomber was plotting attacks [29 May 2018] This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Fifth National Congress of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, which was held July 2227, 2018. The WSWS will be publishing a report on the Congress and the main resolution and report in the coming days. The Fifth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US) sends greetings to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and resolves to develop the widest possible political campaign against the threat by the US government to seek his extradition to the United States to face manufactured charges of espionage. This Congress denounces the plans of the Ecuadorian government to repudiate the asylum it granted Assange in 2012. We denounce the collaboration of the British, Australian and other capitalist governments in the relentless persecution of this courageous fighter for truth. The publication by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange of leaked US military, diplomatic and intelligence files is not a crime. It is critical and independent journalism that has exposed imperialist war crimes, corporate abuses and anti-democratic intrigues. WikiLeaks has provided an immense service to the American and international working class. Since its founding in 2006, the media organization has contributed to educating and alerting millions of workers and young people as to the real relations within capitalist society in the US and around the world. The vendetta against Assange is an acute expression of the broader assault on all the democratic rights of the working class. As it condemns the mass of the population to poverty and social misery, and as it conspires to wage devastating wars against its economic and strategic rivals in Russia, China and elsewhere, the American ruling class is moving toward dictatorial forms of rule. A conscious attempt is underway to suppress opposition, including by censoring and silencing alternate sources of information such as WikiLeaks and sources of political perspective such as the World Socialist Web Site. The persecution of Assange and Internet censorship has been directly facilitated by the self-styled liberal parties and media, the trade unions and the pseudo-left organizations around the world. The representatives of the privileged upper middle class, these tendencies have aligned with the ruling class and the descent toward dictatorship and war. In the process, they have repudiated any defense of fundamental democratic rights. They have either joined the vilification of Assange or maintain a complicit silence. The great social force that the SEP (US) will fight to mobilize in defense of freedom of speech and democratic rights, and against Internet censorship, is the American and international working class. The SEP (US) demands the immediate and unconditional end to Assanges involuntary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought political asylum in 2012. The US, British and Australian governments must guarantee that he and other WikiLeaks staff will not be prosecuted and that the operations of WikiLeaks can continue unhindered. The struggle for socialism requires democracy. The survival of democracy requires socialism. The social media giant Facebook carried out a major escalation in the campaign to censor the Internet Monday, deleting the official event page for an anti-fascist rally scheduled for August 12 in Washington, D.C. on the grounds that it was engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. The event, entitled No Unite the Right 2 DC, was scheduled as a counter-protest to a fascist demonstration called for August 12 by the organizers of last years Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a right-wing extremist murdered counter-protestor Heather Heyer. The rallys organizers include Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower imprisoned and tortured for six years by the Obama administration for revealing American war crimes. Manning told the New York Times the demonstration was real and organic, declaring Folks from D.C. and Charlottesville have been talking about this since at least February. The No Unite the Right 2 DC rally removed by Facebook While Facebook shuts down left-wing pages, groups and events with growing regularity, this latest action is particularly significant both because of its prominencea major demonstration likely to draw large numbers of participantsand because Facebook has publicly boasted about it. The closure of the event page was a centerpiece of a blog post published Tuesday by Facebook outlining its efforts to crack down on groups aiming to sow division using social media ahead of the 2018 election. In addition to shutting down the rallys event page, Facebook announced that it had shut down 32 other pages, including those opposing police violence and defending immigrant rights. The announcement was framed as a follow-up to the companys announcement in September 2017 that Russia-linked Facebook pages bought some $100,000 in ads related to divisive social issues. In addition to serving as a pretext for major new censorship measures by Facebook, the 2017 announcement was connected to allegations by the Democratic Party that US President Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. However, with the Democrats anti-Russia campaign increasingly bogged down by the bitter factional battle in Washington, it appears that those sections of the state apparatus leading the drive to censor the Internet are hoping to decouple their efforts from allegations about Russian meddling. Facebook and its outgoing Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos explicitly declined to attribute the claims to the Russian government. Today were shutting down 32 Pages and accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior without saying that a specific group or country is responsible, Stamos wrote in a post accompanying its announcement. While the alleged Russian ads described by Facebook in 2017 included statements in support of both sides of the political spectrum, the latest batch of pages shut down were all left-wing, including those opposing police violence, attacks on immigrant rights, and the Trump administrations right-wing policies. On Monday, the day before Facebook announced that it had shut down the page, the company turned its latest blacklist over to the Atlantic Council, a prominent military think-tank. Its analysis makes clear that Facebook is deliberately targeting left-wing groups. An event posted by one of the groups taken down by facebook The Atlantic Councils report said the pages shut down by Facebook targeted the left of the political spectrum, and that the pages were an attempt to infiltrate left-wing American communities. These pages sought to promote divisions and set Americans against one another. Events created by inauthentic groups did have a very real, organic, and engaged online community; however, the intent of the inauthentic activity appeared to be designed to catalyze the most incendiary impulses of political sentiment. These groups promoted activism against fascism. One of the groups, according to the Atlantic Council, created an event in protest of the Trump administrations policy of separating the children of undocumented migrants from their families. Another promoted event included protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. President Donald Trumps tax plan, protests against Trumps Muslim ban, and a March against rapist cops. At times, the Atlantic Council report adopts wholesale conceptions advanced by the fascist right, such as that left-wing protesters are the instigators of violence in clashes with fascists. In justifying the censorship of the Washington anti-fascist protest, the think-tank claimed its organizers suggested a desire to provoke further confrontations and violence. In another instance, the report characterized Internet content focusing on the plight of Native Americans and modern immigrants as promoting anti-white viewpoints. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers praised Facebooks action. Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, declared that the disclosure is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation. Warner, who has led the campaign for censorship, ignored the fact that Facebook provided no evidence that Russia had anything to do with the pages. Facebooks latest action must be taken as an urgent warning. Two years after the start of the campaign to censor the Internet in the guise of fighting fake news spread by Russian trolls, the social media giants, working with the US intelligence agencies, are increasingly making clear that their real target is left-wing political sentiment among growing sections of workers and young people. In so doing, they are following the path blazed by Google, which last year announced plans to censor alternative news, leading to a drop in search traffic to left-wing sites of up to 80 percent. With opposition growing among 260,000 UPS workers to a sellout contract being demanded by both their union and employer, a growing international strike movement among airline workers, and simmering anger among teachers and other sections of the working class in the US, the ruling class is concerned above all that workers will use the Internet not only to organize and coordinate their struggles, but to rally around a socialist perspective. On Wednesday, seven reception centres for refugees in Bavaria were converted into so-called anchor centres, in which all those seeking protection will have to remain until they are deported or receive residency status. With this inhumane system of camps, the German government is implementing the racist refugee policy of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). According to the grand coalition agreement, the Bavarian camps are to be extended across the entire country. Anchor stands for arrival, decision and repatriation. All the relevant authorities are represented in the camps and refugees must stay there until their asylum application has been decided. Adults could stay for up to 18 months, and the Bavarian state executive even wants to accommodate children in the mass camps for up to six months. The largest portion of those interned would then be deported directly from the camps. Pictures of the anchor centres inevitably evoke the darkest chapters in German history. Surrounded by high fences reinforced with several rows of barbed wire, 1,000 to 1,500 people per camp are to be disciplined and separated from society. The gates are heavily guarded and no one can pass unnoticed. Even the Catholic charity Caritas speaks of a prison atmosphere. Camp residents are denied basic rights. They are obliged to live in the camp and are not allowed to leave the district of the competent immigration office. The press is forbidden access, as are lawyers and friends. Volunteers from Caritas, relatives and even priests must apply to be admitted to the facilities. So-called accelerated asylum procedures are to be carried out in the camps, characterized above all by shorter periods for lodging appeals. Obtaining legal assistance is made difficult. The aim is to prevent refugees from lodging objections to negative decisions with the Administrative Court, which have been 50 percent successful in the past. Without effective access to lawyers, without being accompanied at hearings, without independent advice after receiving theoften flawedasylum decisions of the Federal Office, the legal protection guarantee of the German constitution is de facto rendered null and void, the aid organization ProAsyl has declared. Refugees in the camps are deliberately mistreated and humiliated to force them to depart voluntarily. For example, instead of receiving cash benefits for food, clothing and hygiene articles, inmates are given only benefits in kind. This is more complicated and expensive for the authorities, but it is nevetheless being done in order to deter people. There is a clear signal, said the field manager responsible for the anchor centre in Manching, Daniel Waidelich. It is not worth coming to Germany. Camp inhabitants are not allowed to work and are condemned to idleness and external control for months. The nearest shop is a 40-minute walk away. There are no local buses. The refugees are being deliberately isolated. The inhumane set-up of the anchor centres reveals the character of the entire refugee policy of the German government, which relies on the sealing of borders, deportation and oppression. The newly opened anchor centres in Bavaria are the result of a systematic development. As early as 2015, so-called arrival and return facilities were opened in Bamberg and Ingolstadt/Manching, where refugees from the western Balkans, and later many other refugees with allegedly poor prospects for remaining, were quartered until their deportation. Families who had previously lived in normal neighbourhoods, whose children had gone to kindergarten and school, were forced to relocate to the camps overnight. In 2017, these facilities were renamed transit centres and supplemented by camps in Regensburg and Deggendorf. From then on, those who fled from a country with a recognition rate below 50 percent, which applies to the vast majority of countries, were brought to these centres. As of Wednesday, in addition to these four, the three remaining reception facilitiesin Donauworth, Zirndorf and Schweinfurthave been converted into anchor centres. This means that all refugees arriving in Bavaria must now live in such detention and deportation camps. A concrete picture of the new anchor centres can be gained by looking at the first two camps, in Bamberg and Manching, which now provide the template for all facilities throughout Germany. Some 5,000 refugees have lived in Manching since it opened in 2015. Of these, 1,000 were deported, according to official figures. Twenty-five hundred more people were induced to agree to voluntary departure. Only about 100 have received a positive asylum decision. Its like prison here, complained Jeffrey to Spiegel Online. He has been living in the Manching camp with his wife and young son for ten months now. You can't do anything. You wake up in the morning and see the same faces. You cant work, you have to hang around. A 19-year-old mother, who has been living with a toddler in the facilitys dorm rooms for seven months, said the situation was worse than in her native Nigeria and when she was on the run. According to Caritas, nine out of ten women from Nigeria are fleeing because they have been victims of violence, forced prostitution and trafficking. The Funke media group published a report on seven-bed dorms. Seventy women, men and children share one bathroom and one toilet, the newspaper said. Almost every night, asylum seekers are woken up when police and security guards enter the dormitories in the early hours to collect rejected asylum seekers for deportation. In addition to the security service, the police were sent in 250 times last year to maintain order in the camp by force. The anchor centres that are now being tested in Bavaria and will be extended throughout the country are part of much broader plans for a comprehensive system of camps to span Europe and North Africa. The master plan of German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer of the Christian Social Union not only envisages the expansion of anchor centres throughout Germany, but also the extension of the hotspot concept across Europe. The so-called hotspots are camps on the outer borders of Europe. They are notorious for their inhumane conditions. Human Rights Watch reported several days ago that refugees in Greece are exposed to appalling reception and detention conditions, with vulnerable groups not receiving sufficient protection. Among other things, the human rights organization criticized the lack of medical care and said that Greece undercut international standards in the camps. Seehofers master plan provides for the development of a standard hotspot model that can be transferred to other regions of Europe. To that end, the European Union is already working closely with the Libyan Coast Guard, which is accused of taking refugees to private prisons where they are tortured, ill-treated and killed. In correspondence, the German Foreign Ministry described conditions there as concentration camp-like. It is becoming ever clearer what the German government, and with it the whole of the European Union, is doing: Refugees who make it to inner European countries, and especially to Germany, will be quartered in the anchor centres and deported as quickly as possible either to their home countries or to the EU country where they were first registered, according to the Dublin accord. There they will end up in the inhumane hotspots and be forced to leave or face deportation. Eventually they will arrive back in North African countries, where they will end up in private prisons or be sold as slaves or sent on death marches. This monstrous internment and deportation machinery evokes memories of the Nazi concentration camps, which initially interned political opponents, then Jews, Gypsies and Roma. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, these camps became the basis for the largest extermination machine in human history. The grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) is already working on a camp system in which tens of thousands of people seeking protection are to be quartered and deported. This terrible apparatus is directed not only against refugees, but against anyone who opposes the right-wing policies of the government. The opening of the anchor centres in Bavaria takes place in the wake of the mass demonstration last week in Munich against the witch-hunting of refugees and against poverty and war. It embodies the contempt of not only the CSU, but the entire grand coalition and all of the bourgeois parties in Germany for the sentiments of the vast majority of the population. The only social force that can counteract this shift to the right and defend the rights of refugees is the working class. To act as an independent force it needs a socialist programme that counterposes to the nationalism of the ruling class the international unity of all workers. Mehring Verlag has now published the book In Defence of Leon Trotsky by David North in Russian. It is available in e-book format as well as in printed form and can be ordered here. The original English edition was published in 2010 by Mehring Books and in a German translation by Mehring Verlag. In 2013, a second, extended English edition was published, on which this Russian translation is based. It can be ordered here. This publication is of great importance to the Russian working class. Understanding the role Leon Trotsky played in the twentieth century is fundamental to the revival of the heritage of Marxism in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and to the fight to build the International Committee of the Fourth International, the world Trotskyist movement. The World Socialist Web Site is publishing here the Preface to the Russian edition, by Vladimir Volkov: The book that we are presenting here, for the attention of a Russian-speaking audience, is in many ways unique. It is unique, above all, in terms of its content, devoted as it is to the exposure and refutation of the mountain of slanderous attacks, lies and falsifications that have been fabricated over decades against one of the two leaders of the October Revolution of 1917Leon Trotskyand which are now being repeated in our epoch with new force, both in Western and post-Soviet historiography. One can state without exaggeration that the book is also unique in that it is written by an author who is not only the worlds premier specialist in the field of Trotsky studies (Trotskovedenie) in the broadest sense of the term, including Leon Trotskys political biography, his ideas and perspectives, as well as the circumstances of his personal fate. For over four decades, David North has played a leading role in the International Committee of the Fourth Internationalthe organization that directly continues the traditions of the Left Opposition of the 1920s and 1930s and of the Fourth International, which was founded by Trotsky in 1938, in opposition to the counter-revolutionary Stalinist degeneration of the Comintern and the Soviet state. David North is also the chairman of the international editorial board of the World Socialist Web Sitethe only international socialist online daily that consistently expresses and defends the perspective of world socialist revolution, which inspired the Bolshevik Party in its seizure of power in October 1917. The fact that the author of this book is not an academic scholar, but an active politician, is a major advantage, rather than deficiency. None of the great representatives of Marxismwhether its founders, Marx and Engels, or the representatives of a later generation, such as Lenin, Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburgever separated the need for the elaboration of scientific and consistent socio-political theories from active participation in the contemporary struggle for socialism. They always strove to directly guide the political organizations of the working class. This peculiarity flows from the very essence of Marxism. In his Theses on Feuerbach, Marx wrote that hitherto the philosophers had only sought to explain the world, in one way or another, whereas the main issue was to change it. In other words, only a social theory that bases itself on the conquests of thought throughout human history, and proceeds from the necessity of orienting toward the most advanced class forces of its time, and actually serves to express their interests, can rightfully lay claim to a genuinely scientific and progressive character. In the epoch of capitalism, this social force is the working class. As a member of the academic milieu, one can systematically study certain historical and theoretical questions. However, at the same time, this also creates objective obstacles, which are rooted in a dependence on the dominant socio-political conditions, i.e., ultimately on the interests of the ruling capitalist elite. The latter control the state and the private sources of funding for scientific studies, and also possess many other material instruments of influence. They have a fundamental interest in ensuring that the sciences help them maintain, rather than undermine, their rule. In this lies one of the main reasons for the deep crisis of the humanities in contemporary academia all over the world. The period in which many scholars in the West could allow themselves a relative independence is long gone. The intensification of the crisis of the world capitalist system, especially since the 1970s and 80s, has led to a major shift to the right within the academic milieu. An entire layer of former radicals and lefts, from the time of the student and civil protests of the 1960s, has integrated itself into the better-off, upper layers of the middle class and been transformed into direct apologists for imperialism. Today, this layer openly supports the elimination of all former social conquests and reforms; completely justifies measures to destroy basic democratic rights (including the introduction of internet censorship); and to create police states in the leading Western Europe countries and the US. In the realm of international politics, it justifies the imperialist wars being waged in the Middle East and internationally, under humanitarian pretexts or false slogans of democratization. In what has become a major phenomenon, historical questions are now placed consciously in the service of the political agenda of the powers-that-be. The search for historical truth is replaced by the fabrication of narratives that are false, but ideologically and politically convenient for the ruling elites. The new campaign to slander Trotsky, which has been unleashed over the past two decades, has precisely this goal. Geoffrey Swain, Ian Thatcher, and, in particular, Robert Service, are characteristic representatives of this reactionary tendency, and Norths polemics against them occupy a significant portion of his book. The reason for the new attempts to totally discredit Trotsky is that he embodies the idea of world socialist revolution. This is true of him even more so than for Lenin, the other leader of October 1917. As a result of the peculiarities of his political biography, which was more closely bound up with purely Russian tasks, and also because he died relatively early, at a point when many absolutely decisive questions were just beginning to emerge to global significance, there have been many attempts to present Lenin as a statist and nationally oriented figure. These have been particularly exploited to serve the needs of the Stalinist theory of socialism in one country. Not so with Trotsky. His contribution to the preparation and success of the October Revolution of 1917, and the creation of the Soviet state, as well as his role in the struggle against the bureaucratic degeneration of the USSR and the development of the program of world socialist revolution in the 1930sa period of world reactionis so multifaceted and indisputable that his political heritage and the legacy of his ideas can be falsified only by resorting to the most unabashed lies. This makes it all the more important that not one stone is left upon another in refuting these lies, which is precisely the task of this book. It makes a major and invaluable contribution to this goal. The defense of the theoretical and political heritage of Leon Trotsky is, at the same time, the defense of the October Revolution of 1917, the centenary of which we celebrated this year. The October Revolution of 1917 was the most important event in world history and marked a decisive turning point. It initiated a period in which the working class consciously intervened into social life, in order to radically transform society on the basis of egalitarianism and genuine democracy, and emancipate it from all forms of exploitation and oppression. October 1917 was the only progressive means of overcoming the insoluble contradictions of Russian society and, in this sense, it arose on a national basis. But the October Revolution was not simply a national event. It became the response to the crisis of the entire world capitalist system. As Trotsky pointedly noted, all national peculiarities are specific expressions of common international conditions. Essentially, the October Revolution of 1917 represented the strategic plan for the reorganization of the entire world in the interests of the broadest layers of the working population. This was the only viable alternative to imperialist barbarism, war and destruction, which displayed themselves so mercilessly in two world wars, the Holocaust and other catastrophes of the 20th century. The Bolshevik victory was secured thanks to a correct perspective, the theory of permanent revolution, which had already been formulated by Trotsky in the period of the 1905 Russian revolution, as the outcome of a prolonged intellectual development in Russian and international social democracy. While he had initially rejected it, Lenin adopted Trotskys theory in the spring of 1917, in his April Theses. This step was facilitated by Lenins careful study of the economic nature of imperialism during the years of the First World War. According to the theory of permanent revolution, the proletariat and its party, mobilizing broad layers of the peasantry, are the only force capable of leading the revolution against the remnants of feudalism, in the form of landlordism and absolutism, to a decisive victory. However, the new revolutionary regime cannot limit itself to bourgeois measures. It will inevitably be compelled to infringe upon private property, and proceed to the realization of a socialist program. Success on this path depends on the possibility of relying on the latest technological conquests of the world economy. This is conceivable only under conditions of victorious proletarian revolutions in Europe. The precondition for the success of the Russian revolution was its expansion and support on an international scaleon this, Lenin and Trotsky were in absolute agreement when they led the party in the seizure of power in 1917. While the theory of permanent revolution was initially developed with an eye to conditions in Russia, in our epoch it has assumed universal international significance. It affirms that even the simple defense of previously made social gains and basic democratic rights is impossible unless it is undertaken on the basis of the independent revolutionary mobilization of the working class, oriented toward the program of international socialism. For Russia, the historical significance of the theory of permanent revolution consists also in that it provides the key to an understanding of the bureaucratic degeneration of the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet state. The gangrene of the bureaucratic degeneration developed when the new regime of the workers and peasants dictatorship faced prolonged isolation. The socio-economic backwardness of the economy remained, and could not really be overcome, despite the enormous successes in industrial development that Soviet society achieved after the Second World War. The victory of Stalinism, a vicious nationalist reaction to the international perspective guiding October, cost Soviet society many unnecessary sacrifices, economic and moral exhaustion, and terrible suffering. Although these bore no direct relation to socialism, they significantly undermined the belief in it on the part of both the Soviet and international working class. One of the most gruesome crimes of Stalinism was the bloody genocide it unleashed, in the 1930s, of an entire layer of intellectuals and workers, who represented the best Marxist cadres and embodied the living experience and culture of the revolution. The gigantic trauma of the Great Terror was not overcome until the end of the Soviet period and it contributed to the implementation of the program, initiated by Gorbachev, of capitalist restoration. On the international arena, the Stalinist theory of socialism in one country was complemented by the conception of peaceful coexistence with capitalism. Instead of fighting for the overthrow of capitalist regimes by building revolutionary communist parties, the Soviet bureaucracy systematically sabotaged and suppressed the struggles of the working class around the world, hoping that, in return, it would receive guarantees from the leading imperialist powers that they would not try to forcefully overthrow the ruling regime in the USSR. Having politically expropriated the proletariat, the bureaucracy continued to defend the nationalized property relations for a certain period of time, since it regarded them as the source of its material privileges. But in doing so, it resorted to its own methods, which demoralized the working class, suppressed its spirit, independence and initiative, and stood in direct contradiction to the tasks of building socialism. The Soviet workers felt deep hatred for the new nomenklatura -aristocracy. In essence, the entire history of Soviet society, from the late 1920s to the late 1980s, is, on the one hand, a series of uninterrupted attempts by the ruling bureaucracy to create the conditions for expanding its rule to the existing property relations, and thereby guaranteeing the restoration of capitalism, and, on the other, the spontaneous attempts of the Soviet working class to find its way to the program of a new political revolution, on the basis of the socio-economic conquests that emerged out of October 1917. This program was, from the very beginning, clearly formulated and advocated by the Fourth International. The so-called stagnation under Brezhnev, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, was an important turning point. In contrast to the still dominant conception that this was a time when Soviet society had entered a period of crisis and decline, and one in which the communist project had entirely exhausted itself, the main trait of this period was, in fact, a growing turn of broad layers of the bureaucracy toward the re-establishment of a market economy. Influential layers of the higher echelons of the Soviet intelligentsia actively joined in this process. The most famous representatives were figures such as the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, physicist Andrei Sakharov and poet Joseph Brodsky. Regardless of the peculiarities of their individual political conceptions, they all distinguished themselves by a shared anti-communism and blind admiration for bourgeois society. The movement of liberal Western dissidents that emerged on this basis regarded itself, for a long time, as the democratic alternative to the official communism. In reality, this milieu only formulated more directly and openly what was already being discussed in secret within the bureaucratic milieu, expressing the latters increasingly clear proclivities. The dissidents were an instrument utilized by the Stalinist bureaucracy to begin a dialogue with the imperialist West, while at the same time imbuing Soviet society with pessimism and disappointment regarding a socialist perspective. Many of the dissidents, who, in the period of the stagnation under Brezhnev, left the Soviet Union, soon discovered that their most radical anti-Communist ideas began to be propagated from the highest echelons of the CPSU in the years of Gorbachevs perestroika. Most predecessors of todays pseudo-left in the West fully shared the loud euphoria over Gorbachevs perestroika and glasnost. Against this background, the International Committee of the Fourth International was the only organization in the entire world insisting that the policies of Gorbachev represented not a renewal of socialism, but the all-out rejection of even the pretense of Marxism, and warned that they would lead to the restoration of capitalism and the collapse of the USSR. This analysis, which was based on the theoretical and political heritage of Leon Trotsky, was fully confirmed by ensuing events. In a speech before a workers club in Kiev, on 3 October 1991, only a few weeks after the aborted August Putsch, which had been organized by the Stalinist bureaucracys most conservative groups, and two months before the judicial liquidation of the Soviet Union, David North said: Those who argue that it is only necessary for the Soviet Union, or what remains of it, to enter into the world market for it to solve its present problems simply ignore a number of critical historical and economic issues In this country, capitalist restoration can only take place on the basis of the widespread destruction of the already-existing productive forces and the social-cultural institutions that depend on them. In other words, the integration of the USSR into the structure of the world imperialist economy on a capitalist basis means not the slow development of a backward national economy, but the rapid destruction of one which has sustained living conditions which are, at least for the working class, far closer to those which exist in the advanced countries than in the third world. (David North: After the August Putsch: Soviet Union at the Crossroads, in: Fourth International, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall-Winter 1992, pp. 108109, emphasis in the original) Looking back after the entire bitter experience of post-Soviet history, it would be extremely naive, and in complete disregard of the facts, to suggest that the USSR could have collapsed that quickly and with such catastrophic consequences, if it had not been for a collective conspiracy of the totalitarian bureaucracy to destroy ita conspiracy that was prepared through many decades of crimes and betrayals committed by Soviet Stalinism against the working class and socialism. But not everyone in the Soviet Union was blinded by the demagogy and lies of the new way of thinking. Vadim Rogovin, the famous Soviet sociologist and historian, was among those who recognized the relationship between the fate of the Soviet Union and the perspective of socialist internationalism, as expressed in the program of contemporary revolutionary Trotskyism. Having established close ties with the International Committee, Vadim Rogovin managed to write, within the brief period of 19921998, a monumental seven-volume study, under the title Was there an alternative?, which was dedicated to the struggle of the Left Opposition of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of the international workers movement in the 1920s and 1930s against the Stalinist bureaucratic degeneration. This work still remains an unsurpassed example of historical researchespecially in light of the shameful decline in the level of historical works in contemporary Russia. To this day, the attitude toward Trotsky remains the touchstone, dividing those who seek to search for and establish objective historical truth against the vulgar, opportunist falsifiers. There is a deep irony: before 1991, Trotsky was slandered for not having been a real Bolshevik and revolutionary. Since 1991, he has been attacked for being one of the recognized leaders of the October Revolution. The clear majority of works that have been written about him in Russia in recent years hardly deserve mentioning because of their extremely low quality. They form a flood of contemporary neo-Stalinism, which corresponds to the ideological needs of the new capitalist oligarchy. In this warped presentation, the crimes of Stalin are justified as allegedly inevitable and necessary outgrowths on the path to building a great national super-power. All of these works look pathetic, even compared to the literature produced by the dabblers from the ranks of the post-Soviet school of historical falsification, which has emerged in Western historiography and is examined and exposed in detail in this book. The year of the centenary of the October Revolution was the occasion for a new series of vicious attacks on the figure of Trotsky. The series Trotsky, which was aired on the First Channel of Russian television in the first ten days of November 2017, was particularly outrageous. In it, Trotsky is portrayed as a cynical and merciless Nietzschean, a devil and a superman, who is ready to sacrifice all for the sake of his own insatiable hunger for power. This talentless, but very expensive concoction, which was heavily permeated with anti-Semitism, embodies the deep contempt for historicaland, one might add, aesthetictruth, which has struck such deep roots in the contemporary Russian intellectual and cultural elite. This state of mind is sanctioned at the level of official state doctrine. As the Russian minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky, is convinced, myth, too, is fact. History is always subjective and indirect, he asserts, openly insisting that the goal of historical sciences and culture is to create myths that the government deems convenient. Meanwhile, many polls conducted during the centenary year of the October Revolution show that broad layers of Russian society are increasingly recognising that in Soviet history, something was tragically lost, leaving behind an open wound in the consciousness of the people. Sympathy for and a positive attitude toward the October Revolution of 1917 are also rapidly growing. These are unmistakable signs of the spontaneous emergence of the preconditions for a new revolutionary upsurge. The author of these lines is firmly convinced that the real Leon Trotsky, and the genuine truth about the October revolution and the fate of the Soviet Union, which is indissolubly connected to his name, will find its way to a mass readership in Russia. The book by David North is an excellent companion on this path, which the working class and broad layers of the youth and intelligentsia in Russia must enter in order to finally leave behind the old lies and deceit, and to see, in their past, the answers to the questions that are so urgently posed today. Vladimir Volkov St. Petersburg 27 December, 2017 In a sign of growing problems for the Turnbull government, Health Minister Greg Hunt has been forced to pledge to amend the My Health Records (MHR) legislation governing the collection, storage and release of the medical records of millions of people in Australia. No details of the changes have been provided, but Hunt said they would stipulate that a court order would be required to release any health details to law enforcement agencies and government departments. This contradicts his many statements over the past week insisting that this was already enshrined in official policy. Hunt also promised a persons records would be deleted if they withdrew from the scheme once their file had been created. Previously, once the file was created it would remain on the system for 30 years following death even if the owner opted out. Hunt also broached the possibility of extending the opt-out period for a further month. This turnaround follows growing opposition from ordinary people, doctors and IT specialists to the governments July 16 announcement that the entire populations health records would be placed in a central data bank unless individuals opted out of the scheme within three months. After the opt-out period ended on October 15, a My Health Record would be automatically created for every man, woman and child. Public concern mounted after it became known that the records could be made available to the police and other government agencies, including the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink, which controls welfare payments. The governments Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) administers the data. Over the past six years, it has collected the health records of six million people in a trial called the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record. The legislation governing the scheme was introduced in 2012 by the Gillard Labor government, with the support of the now-ruling Liberal-National Coalition. While the trial was purportedly a voluntary opt-in scheme, some people were unaware they were participating and only discovered they had a health record when they tried to opt out during the past week. In 2016, with Labors backing, the Turnbull government proposed to shift the scheme from opt-in to opt-out. In the face of the public outcry, Labor leader Bill Shorten lobbied the government to suspend the scheme, extend the opt-out period and ensure the privacy of patients files. This is an attempt to deflect attention from Labors role in initiating and supporting the legislation. The government evidently hoped the cut-off date would go relatively unnoticed. No advertising campaign was launched to explain the need to opt out or the consequences of not doing so. Nevertheless, on July 16, the first day of the opt-out period, 20,000 people left the scheme despite some having to wait more than an hour on the phone due to problems with the online opt-out features. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal Australian College of General Practictioners (RACPG), two major doctors groups, provided initial support for the scheme. However, together with the Law Council, which represents lawyers, they later raised concerns that the legislation allows access to individual files by police and government agencies without a warrant. Hunts promise to draft legislative amendments followed emergency meetings with the AMA and the RACPG. Until it is amended, Section 70 of the Act provides that the ADHA can disclose health information if it reasonably believes that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary for (a) the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of criminal offences, breaches of a law imposing a penalty. (b) the enforcement of laws relating to the confiscation of the proceeds of crime; (c) the protection of the public revenue; (d) the prevention, detection, investigation or remedying of seriously improper conduct or prescribed conduct; (e) the preparation for, or conduct of, proceedings before any court or tribunal, or implementation of the orders of a court or tribunal. In a revealing development, the Queensland Police Union advised its members to opt out. It warned them that access would also be available to the immigration department, anti-corruption commissions, financial regulators and other agencies that impose fines or are tasked with protection of the public revenue. Centrelink could use the data to cut pensioners, disabled workers and the unemployed off welfare payments, and the immigration department could deny visas to anyone assessed as not passing health tests. Sections 64 and 68 of the Act also permit participants to disclose a persons health information if it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to public health or public safety or for purposes relating to the provision of indemnity cover for a healthcare provider. Another sweeping provision evidently not slated for amendment is Section 98. It provides that the ADHA may, by writing, delegate one or more of its powers to the chief executive of Medicare, an Australian Public Service employee in the health department or any other person with the consent of the Minister. This would provide anyone approved by the health minister access to the entire system. IT specialists and privacy advocates also raised concerns that data could be hacked, sold or provided to third parties, including insurance companies and private health funds. One private health insurer, NIB, already declared: We desperately need this data to make the world a better place. Health insurers have been lobbying for access. Rachel David, the chief executive of peak body Private Healthcare Australia, said Hunt had agreed to discuss a framework with the sector. On July 17, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended provisions allowing insurance companies to request My Health Records for claimants. Turnbull said people had an obligation to make full disclosure when applying for insurance. Paul Shelter, a former head of the governments Digital Transformation Agency, noted that individual users must arrange their own security settings. The default setting established by ADHA is that all data is shared. Most MHR holders would be unaware that to secure their records they have to manually change their security setting. With an estimated 900,000 medical professionals and more than 12,000 organisations accessing the system, the danger of security breaches is high. Singapore, which operates a centralised digital medical storage system, last week suffered a cyber security breach. The health records of 1.5 million people were copieda fact that authorities took a week to discover. ADHA chief executive Tim Kelsey led what has been described as an almost identical program in BritainCare.data. It was suspended in 2014, then axed in 2016, after patient data was sold to insurers. Minister Hunt also said patients sensitive and private health data will be made available for public health and research purposes, unless patients indicate that their records cannot be used. Hunt claimed the data cannot be used for commercial and non-health-related purposes, including direct marketing to consumers, insurance assessments, and eligibility for welfare benefits. However, the legislation allows entities to be handed data if they can show it is in the public interest. The ADHA has scrambled over the past week to tighten data access by mobile phone apps, but companies such as Telstra, HealthEngine, Tyde and Healthi already have access to patients records. Last month it was revealed that HealthEngine had shared patient information with personal injury lawyers. Centralised health records have clear benefitsthey may provide doctors with access to crucial health details in circumstances where the patient is unable to convey such information. Under the capitalist profit system, however, the harvesting and storage of such information is liable to serve corporate purposes. Moreover, the access given to police and security agencies has no health benefits whatsoever. The handing over of patients sensitive physical and mental health records can be explained only from the standpoint of enabling mass surveillance and intervention against targeted individuals. Nearly 30,000 New Zealand nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants began voting on July 31 on whether to accept or reject a deal with the 21 District Health Boards (DHBs) recommended by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO). The online ballot runs until August 6. The Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA) offer, the fifth presented by the union since negotiations began last year, is virtually identical to one that a majority of workers rejected before a nationwide strike on July 12. It includes a 9 percent pay rise spread over 2017 to 2019 and a miniscule 2 percent increase in staffing. New Zealand nurses, teachers and other workers are joining the global resurgence by the working class in response to more than a decade of austerity supported by the entire political establishment, and enforced by the trade unions. Wages have been frozen and hospitals are grossly understaffed, with thousands of people missing out on vital treatment as a result. Nurses protesting in Auckland last May The NZNO is trying to ram through the agreement with anti-democratic methods. No mass meetings have been called to allow members to debate the offer. Moving to undercut widespread hostility to the deal, the NZNO signed a so-called Safe Staffing Accord with the Labour governments Health Minister David Clark on Monday, the day before voting on the MECA began. The accord is a fraud which promises further discussion between the union and health officials, with nothing concrete to address the chronic understaffing in the public hospitals. The MECA commits a paltry $NZ35 million increase in funding for staff, enough for just 500 nurses nationally. On Monday evening, NZNO industrial officer Cee Payne held a Q&A session, broadcast on the unions Facebook page. As with a similar online event held before the strike, it was a desperate attempt to sell the deal and shut down the increasingly militant rebellion among nurses. The 30-minute broadcast only served to underline the vast gulf that exists between the privileged union bureaucracy and thousands of discontented health workers. As the presentation unfolded, hundreds of comments and questions were posted online, most expressing anger and frustration at the NZNOs failure to address the fundamental issues concerning nurses. Ed Ledz declared, This is basically the same offer compared to the last offer and the one before that. Noting that there was no more money from the government, he asked, Why do you keep recommending this anyway? Cris Lagria commented, [W]hy did we go on strike just to swallow the same thing we rejected? Payne answered that there had been very limited [government] funding at the start of the process. There was, she claimed, an affordability question, with many claims unobtainable with what employers have got to offer across the table. This response exposes the complete capitulation of the NZNO to the demands of the Labour-led government and the ruling elite. In fact, as many nurses have pointed out, there is plenty of money to boost military spending, beginning with a $NZ2.3 billion purchase of new anti-submarine aircraft. Payne advanced three reasons the union is recommending the new offer. Firstly, access to a new Step 7 on the pay scale will be brought forward by a few months, but will not begin until May 2020. Nurses and midwives will become eligible for the increase, about $2,100, after 12 months on Step 6, subject to satisfactory performance. Payne blandly assured the audience that the union saw no problems with the performance requirement, which will be decided by DHB managements. In reply, Simon Auty said he had been nursing for more than 20 years and asked, [W]hy should we have to do another year to get to step 7? Other questions included several about why nurses salaries remained well below teacherswho are calling for a 16 percent increase this yearand why there is no provision for back pay. Payne highlighted the governments promise to introduce pay equity with equivalent male-dominated professions by December 2019. The amount workers will receive from this, however, will be subject to separate negotiations. Labour Party governments have pledged pay equity for nurses since the 1980s but it has never been implemented. In response, Charlie Borren asked, [I]f implemented Dec 2019, does that mean we will see 100% pay equity implemented? Can you guarantee this? & how will you be enforcing this & holding the DHBs accountable? Paula noted there was nothing guaranteed in the unions promises while Gabrielle expressed suspicion that any implementation would be spread over a number of years. Respondents strongly protested that safe staffing has not been addressed in the deal, despite the unions accord with the government to implement the existing Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) system by 2021. Susan Law warned the accord is just words on paper and most likely another whitewash. Lisa Tito asked, Wouldnt that money be better spent on the front line where it is needed now and not in middle management analysing the shortages? Joel wanted to know why there had been no push for the implementation of legislated ratios. One exasperated respondent posted that Payne and her moderator sounded like they were reading from a script instead of replying to questions. Others noted that the presenters only addressed the questions that they wished to, with another asking Why arent you listening to your members? Sue declared, I cant believe that she is so smugly happy with a sh*t deal. Most commenters were not at all convinced by the Q&A. Dhu bluntly demanded, [I]f the vote is no, when is there another strike? Rose also wanted to know [W]hat is NZNO strategy if vote is no? Noelle Kells asked: If the vote is no, where do we go from here? Clearly, the current strategy is not working. Yet another commented; Hey Cee, how to start a new union? These questions and others that the officials could no longer avoid were brushed over as briefly as possible. Without answering directly, Payne declared she would view a situation arising from a no vote, including the spectre of industrial action, with trepidation. She emphasised that from August 1, workers covered by the MECA would move onto individual contracts until the dispute is settled. As the Q&A made clear, the NZNO cannot and will not carry forward a struggle to address the wages and conditions of nurses or the crisis in the hospitals. This is because what is required is a political struggle against the Labour-led government and the ruling elite that it serves. Workers must oppose the entire framework accepted by the unionthe lie that there is no money. There is plenty of money in the hands of the super-rich. A well-funded health system, accessible to all who need it, is incompatible with capitalism, in which everything is subordinate to the profit interests of the wealthy elite. The author also recommends: After nationwide strike: The way forward for New Zealand health workers [2 August 2018] A union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents submitted a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland, Oregon, denouncing the city for not providing full local police assistance to ICE agents during a 38-day demonstration outside a federal immigration facility in the city. The letter comes from an attorney representing the National ICE Council, an American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union that represents 7,600 officers, agents and other employees. The union is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. In their attack on the citys Democratic mayor, the agency accuses the mayor of forbidding Portland law enforcement from responding to 911 calls by ICE agents, who claim they were threatened by protesters outside the building. Such a policy, the letter goes on, created a zone of terror and lawlessness outside the detention facility and left federal officers vulnerable to violence, harassment and even death. The use of the word terror to describe peaceful protesters has a profound significance. The most violent, repressive methods employed by US imperialism during the war on terror are now being prepared against domestic social opposition. The zone that the ICE union describes in the letter was one of the largest demonstrations in the Occupy ICE protest movement, where people set up round-the-clock encampments to obstruct immigration facilities and offices. This particular site consisted of a miniature tent-city run by mostly radical, anarchist and liberal groups on train tracks behind the agencys field offices in a downtown location. Anywhere from a small handful of people to thousands of demonstrators participated in the occupation at any given time, remaining peaceful and unarmed throughout the five weeks of its existence. There were no physical attacks by demonstrators, but the letter states that some agents called the Portland Police Bureau after facing threats of violence and harassment. Alleging that the city deliberately ignored the calls for police assistance during and after ICE office hours, the National ICE Council accuses the city of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution by not providing agents with equal police protection. The letter concludes by suggesting that failure to provide local police services to ICE agents may result in a lawsuit. We would like to avoid federal litigation, but we are prepared to protect our membership and their families, it states. Using absurd claims that protesters threatened the lives of ICE agents as a pretext, the letter serves as a political attack on the city government. Nothing less than full compliance with federal police orders, including local cooperation with ICE agents, will suffice for the fascistic organization. Contrary to their written defense of the constitution and their absurd invocation of the Equal Protection Clause, federal immigration police provide a key base for the fascistic movement against immigrants and the democratic rights of the entire working class. The Portland governments general support for anti-ICE demonstrations along with their limited restrictions on local collaboration with federal deportation and detention operations, as weak as they are, are seen as obstacles to the efficiency and power of ICE operations. When the Occupy ICE demonstration was first established on June 17, in the midst of popular opposition to the separation of families and denial of asylum at the border, Mayor Wheeler said that the Portland Police Department would not intervene on behalf of the federal police agencies. The empty promise slowly collapsed. By July 23, Wheeler sent local police to enforce the evacuation of the camp under the pretext that the demonstration posed environmental and safety concerns. Portland police dressed in riot gear had also been present at rallies and standoffs between protesters and officers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, in mid-July. Still, Wheeler won over half of all votes in the 2016 mayoral race in a city with mass support for immigrants and refugees. Around one-tenth of the local population is comprised of immigrants and refugees from all regions of the world. Though the mayor is uninterested in opposing his own partys attack on immigrants, he felt the need to posture as a defender of immigrants in the face of widespread opposition to Trump. Wheeler responded to the National ICE Council letter on Tuesday evening, calling it inaccurate and inflammatory. He clarified that Portland Police had responded to 911 calls by agents for emergency services when there were serious security threats, and that the Council had no substantive evidence to prove otherwise. The reason for his initial calls to keep local police forces from getting involved with the Occupy ICE demonstration, he continued, was that he did not want the Portland Police Bureau to be engaged or sucked into a conflict for the purpose of securing federal property that houses a federal agency with their own federal police force. This argument for a local hands-off stance on immigration policing is also found in the sanctuary status endorsed by some sections of the Democratic Party at the city and state levels, including in Portland. Under the guise of protecting immigrants from raids or deportation, it simply leaves the anti-immigrant procedures in the hands of federal agencies with little to no extra assistance from localities. Such technical barriers merely limit the amount of public and private information granted to ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), requiring them to go through legal processes of requesting information and warrants. The Trump administration has challenged sanctuary cities and states, seeing the limitations as obstacles to the full expansion of the deportation machine. Earlier this month, the New York City and New York State governments filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department for withholding $12.9 million in federal funding because of their sanctuary status. Similar lawsuits were filed by city officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington State. In early March, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of California, saying its efforts to establish a sanctuary state were unconstitutional. Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed these weak obstacles put the lives of ICE agents at risk when they conduct their workplace and neighborhood raids. Democrats have played a leading role in expanding ICE forces and building the mass deportation machine, particularly under the Obama administration, which deported about three million immigrants. Several hundred concerned residents from Parchment, Michigan and the surrounding areas crowded into a local church for a town hall meeting Tuesday evening called in response to the toxic chemicals recently found in the public water supply. Last Thursday evening, residents of the community of 1,800 just north of the city of Kalamazoo were alerted that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in excess of 1400 parts per trillion (ppt), twenty times higher than the advisory level determined by the EPA. A panel of local and state officials fielded carefully selected questions at Tuesdays town hall. The panel included representatives from Kalamazoo County Health and Community Service Department, Michigan Department of Environment Quality, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, Kalamazoo Public Services, and Kalamazoo Township police. The mayor of Parchment and the supervisor of Cooper Township, which is also affected, were also present. Officials explained that the elevated levels of PFAS had been found in water coming from the three ground-water wells from which the City of Parchment draws its water. Those wells were sealed, and water was pumped from the nearby City of Kalamazoo water system in an effort to flush out the toxic water from the Parchment water mains. There was no long-term solution offered, although some officials speculated that the City of Kalamazoo will most likely become the permanent water source for Parchment. The panel acknowledged that Kalamazoo too has found PFAS in Kalamazoo water at levels between 2 and 19 ppt. The officials assured residents that these levels are not of concern since they are well below the 70-PPT advisory level. The panel did not address, or even acknowledge, a report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human services, which was suppressed by the Trump administration earlier this year which suggested lowering the advisory level to 7 to 11 PPT. The meeting itself was tightly controlled. The time allotted for residents to ask their own questions was held to 45 minutes. There was also a 45-minute period for questions which had to be written on cards and submitted. Only a small selection of these questions were asked. Many residents wanted to know about the long-term health ramifications of PFAS exposure, and how these health issues might be addressed. The health officials could answer the former question: PFAS is linked to kidney, thyroid, and liver disease, as well as maternity and developmental problems. To the latter question, the officials could provide no helpful answer. This is an opportunity for you to start a conversation with your personal physician, one official declared. The panel did not provide any satisfactory answers to many other questions: How long have the PFAS been in the water? Who will pay for all of this? Will property values be affected? Can I eat my home-grown vegetables? Are private wells affected? During the short time for public comment, the anger of residents was audible. One resident stated plainly, Everyone knows this is from the Crown Vantage Paper Mill, which elicited spontaneous applause from the crowd. PFAS was used to coat paper produced at the Crown Vantage plant until it was shuttered in 2000. A possible source for the chemical is a landfill near the plant which was used for dumping fly ash and other waste from Crown Vantage. The crowd also applauded a resident who objected to the panel's use of the term emerging contaminant for PFAS. She noted that 3M and Dupont have been aware of the dangerous health effects of PFAS for decades. Laura, who has grown up in Parchment, told the World Socialist Web Site about the uncertainty with which she and many other residents had after leaving the meeting. As young as I am, I have had so many medical issues. But do I say that it came from the water? I dont know. But can I speculate that it probably has? Because you dont end up on life support at a young age for nothing, unless its a car accident or something, and mine wasnt. Cody Angel from the political group Michigan Demands Action Against Contamination also spoke with the WSWS. He connected the PFAS water poisoning to the crumbling state of infrastructure across the United States. First it was our roads, and now its our core infrastructure thats meant to protect our public health. It is a failure of the federal government, and its a failure of the state government. We have to put forward better infrastructure with our most critical resource that we havewater. Angel also responded to the refrain from politicians that there is no money to pay for infrastructure. Its peoples lives. It doesnt matter about money at this point. We live in a society where we put profit over people. And thats a problem. Until we can reprioritize our set goals, there will be no money for public health. We have to fundamentally change the way we operate. The author also recommends: Australian investigation underscores global health dangers of toxic foam exposure [6 July 2018] As the danger mounts that WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange will soon be forced to leave Londons Ecuadorian embassy, where he was granted political asylum in 2012, a member of his legal team has called for the Australian government to guarantee his right, as an Australian citizen, to return to the country. The lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said Assange wants to exercise his right to return to Australia, provided he is protected from extradition to the United States, where the Trump administration, the FBI and the CIA are intent on jailing the WikiLeaks editor for many years, or executing him, on concocted espionage-related charges. Speaking to news.com, Robinson said Assange was grateful for the support of the Australian public. I would say he is homesick for Australia, he would love to go back, but we have been disappointed by previous governments failure to take action and it is time the Australian government listens to that and takes action. Robinson emphasised: Julian is still an Australian citizen and they have an obligationand I think a dutyto exercise rights of protection over an Australian citizen. Julian Burnside Prominent Australian civil liberties lawyer Julian Burnside, who visited Assange in June, also published a statement last week urging the Australian government to intervene to bring him safely back to Australia. The WikiLeaks founder had provided an historic public service by revealing the secrets of the worlds unaccountable forces. These calls, evidently made on Assanges behalf, underscore the importance of the demand issued by the globally-broadcast rally conducted by the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) of Australia, with the support of well-known investigative journalist John Pilger, in Sydneys Town Hall Square on June 17. That rally demanded that the Australian government secure Assanges right to return to Australia, if he so wishes, with guarantees that he not be handed over to the US. Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, whose government has taken a lurch to the right to seek a rapprochement with Washington and the European imperialist powers, has been engaged in intensive discussions with the British authorities, who will arrest Assange as soon as he steps outside the embassy so that he can be thrown in jail and ultimately extradited to the US. Assange has never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime. It is more than a year since Swedish prosecutors finally dropped a trumped-up warrant for his arrest to be questioned about dubious sexual assault allegations. Nevertheless, Theresa Mays British Tory government remains determined to jail him, supposedly for skipping bail when Ecuador granted him asylum six years ago. Mays government is obviously acting in close concert with the US state apparatus. Britain has refused repeatedly to give Assange any guarantee against extradition. Trumps administration, like Obamas, wants to silence Assange and WikiLeaks forever because of their ongoing and courageous work in exposing to the worlds people the mass surveillance, war plans and regime-change plots conducted by Washington and its allies, including Britain and Australia. In testimony to the US Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2017, then-FBI Director James Comey effectively confirmed that Assange was entirely justified in seeking political asylum in 2012. He hasnt been apprehended [by US authorities] because he is inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Comey testified. Senior Trump administration officials, from former CIA Director Mike Pompeo down, have made it clear that Assanges detention is a high priority. Jennifer Robinson Robinson said Canberra had good relationships with both Britain and US, so it should not be difficult for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls government to intervene. However, she said the past record raised concerns about the governments willingness to stand up for Australians when the US government was involved. The truth is that successive Australian governments, starting with Julia Gillards Labor government in 2010, have not only refused to defend Assange. They have actively colluded with the US frame-up, which Gillard publicly declared her government would assist in any way it could. In March 2011, when in opposition, Turnbull delivered a speech at the Sydney University Law School in which he denounced Gillard for falsely accusing Assange of breaking the law. When an Australian citizen is threatened in this way, an Australian prime minister should respond, Turnbull said. Since taking office, however, like all their predecessors, Turnbull and his ministers have given the green light for Assange to be delivered into the hands of the same spy and military forces whose murderous and anti-democratic activities WikiLeaks has exposed. Most recently, at a media conference in London on July 20, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop declared that Assanges plight was a matter for British law enforcement authorities. Bishop stood alongside her British counterpart, Jeremy Hunt, who boasted that Assange faced serious charges and would receive a warm welcome from the British police once he left the embassy. Robinson told news.com that Hunts statement was curious because Assange faces no charges whatsoever. Even if Assange were convicted of breaching bail, that is only punishable by a maximum of three months in prison, and is not considered a serious charge by law. Robinson asked: So is Mr Hunt talking about an extradition request from the US where he would face serious charges? Has he misspoken and disclosed that? Robinson said Assanges legal team had sought assurances from Britain there was no US extradition request and had been met with a standard, blanket will not confirm or deny. Robinson warned that Assanges health is deteriorating. Its an untenable situation, she said. Im very concerned about the permanent damage to his health. He is without adequate access to the outdoors and exercise and it has had a serious impact on his health. The UK government refuses to allow him get medical help and leave (which is) a humanitarian issue. Apart from a vague call by former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, published on July 25, for an end to the persecution of WikiLeaks, and a brief tweet by ex-Greens leader Christine Milne, there has been total silence in Australias political establishment about the grave danger facing Assange. The SEP is the only political party campaigning for Assanges defence in Australia, which is part of the broader fight necessary for the defence of all fundamental democratic rights. At the June 17 Sydney rally, SEP national secretary James Cogan explained: The Australian government had and still has undeniable diplomatic power and legal discretion, under international and national law, to intervene to defend an Australian citizen who is being unjustly treated by another state. Cogan stressed: At this rally, we are not asking the Turnbull government to act. We are telling it. We hold the Labor Party and the Coalition parties fully responsible for the harm and outrages committed against Julian Assange. We will hold them responsible for what happens next. They will be held to account by the working class in Australia. From the outset, the World Socialist Web Site and SEP have explained that a movement to defend Assange and WikiLeaks cannot be built by appeals to the political, trade union and media establishment that has abandoned him. It will be built by a fight to politically educate and independently mobilise the working class. As part of this campaign, we urge our readers to take part in protests if Assange is forced from Ecuadors embassy into British police custody and then faces a protracted struggle against any attempt to extradite him to the United States. The author also recommends: Julian Assange and the betrayal of Latin Americas left [28 July 2018] Imminent threat to Julian Assange underscores need for global defence movement [23 July 2018] The Campaign to Free Julian Assange Pilots at budget airline Ryanair, members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA), are holding a fourth one-day strike Friday in pursuit of better pay and conditions. Earlier this week, Ryanair pilots in Germany, members of the Vereinigung Cockpit union, voted by 96 percent to strike in support of improved working conditions. The Irish strikes and German vote came days after the largest action in the companys 34-year history, which saw one-day strikes by cabin crew in Spain, Belgium and Portugal. The stoppages not only show that the objective conditions exist for a unified international struggle by airline workers, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers and broader sections of the working class in defence of living standards and working conditions, but also that there is widespread support for such an offensive. Other recent Ryanair disputes include a four-hour pilots strike in Germany late last year and three earlier cabin crew strike days in Portugal. These actions are in addition to threatened strikes by Menzies Aviation baggage handlers at Luton, Manchester and Aberdeen airports in Britain and Amsterdams Schipol airportalthough all but the Manchester strikes were cancelled. Between February and April, flight and ground crew at Air France voted and struck for 15 days against pay offers recommended by the trade unions. Air traffic controllers in France also struck last month. According to Eurocontrol, the European Unions air traffic control agency, the total volume of flight time delayed during 2018 due to air traffic control strikes will be 53 percent higher than in 2017. Budget airline Easyjet complained that 2,600 flights were cancelled this quarter, compared with 314 last year. Ryanair is intent on defending its business model, based on low pay and long working hours. Last week, it issued a 90-day protective notice, threatening the sacking of more than 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew based at Dublin Airport. Chief Operating Officer Peter Bellew complained of a downturn in bookings partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots. He made clear that the company intended to victimise workers as a warning to others. What is most striking is that this threat was made in the aftermath of last years decision by the company to reverse its traditional stance of opposing union recognition. With the shortage of pilots, the company has been unable to retain staff. Last year, Ryanair was forced to cancel up to 20,000 flights. Its workforce took the opportunity to seek improvements in their conditions, while pushing for union recognition agreements across the companys 87 bases. At the time, Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary railed against laughable demands for legacy-type inefficiencies. We are fully prepared to face down any such disruption if it means defending our cost base or our high-productivity model. By legacy inefficiencies, OLeary means the wages and working conditions of pilots in Ryanairs more longstanding competitors, which, while under assault, remain significantly better than those at Ryanair. It was at the height of this crisis that Ryanair decided to sign a recognition agreement with BALPA, the British pilots union, which includes 10,000 pilots and is recognised by 23 different companies. One quarter of Ryanairs pilots and aircraft are based in the UK. Other union recognition agreements have also been signed. That this shift has been followed by threats to sack striking workers confirms that the unions have been brought into the company by management to act as an industrial police force over their newly recruited members. Ryanair did not retreat from its anti-worker offensive, only belatedly recognising the role played by the unions everywhere on behalf of corporations and management. The immediate response from the Irish Forsa trade union, of which IALPA is part, to Ryanairs sacking threat showed that the companys confidence in the trade unions is well placed. Its press statement politely complained that Ryanair was showing unwillingness and/or inability to implement the airlines declared intention to agree working conditions through negotiation with the trade unions. Forsa sought to present the sackings as seasonal. It is normal practice, the press statement continued, for airlines to reduce activity in the winter months. In light of thisand of Ryanairs recent difficulty in recruiting and retaining enough pilots to fulfill its schedulesit remains unclear if todays provocative move heralds a significant change in normal practice. Finally, it called for third-party facilitation to resolve the dispute. Any genuine workers organisation would immediately have demanded Ryanair retract its threats and seek the most combative and united struggle by all the companys workers worldwide. But such a struggle is anathema for the trade unions. This is illustrated by the experience of workers at the transnational retail and delivery company, Amazon. A July 23 article, The global strike surfaces, in the Catalan paper La Vanguardia , commented that the Ryanair action pointed to the emergence of internationally coordinated workers struggles. Citing Ryanairs earlier threat to sack striking cabin crew in Portugal and replace them with workers in other countries, it noted that employees at the budget airline, along with those at Amazon, Deliveroo and other companies, have understood that global strategies can only be answered with global responses. The article noted a recent meeting in Rome held by members of the Uni Global Union regarding Amazon. Officials, ostensibly representing 20 million workers, discussed the possibility of a global strike in Amazons centres in Europe, the newspaper wrote, but in the end they opted to leave it for later. ... The unions didnt decide to leave a global strike by Amazon workers until a later date. They have been working to prevent such a development for months by isolating and sabotaging strikes in one country after another, under conditions in which they are fully aware of the potential to bring Amazons European and even its entire global chain to a grinding halt. While workers were striking at Amazons Spanish plant in San Fernando de Henares, the unions ensured that operations continued as normal at its distribution centre in Alcobendas, just half an hours drive northwest, and at Getafe, half an hour to the southwest, where, in the four weeks before the strike, the company took on up to 350 new temporary hires. Last year, Spanish unions colluded with Amazon in scabbing on a protest at one of the companys facilities in northern Italy during Black Friday sales by allowing an increase in the workload at the companys plant in Barcelona. The role of the unions at Amazon is not to expand strikes, but to isolate them and confine any action to a 24-hour stoppage, with non-unionised agency workers separated from those striking. The necessity for globally coordinated industrial action against globally organised corporations is becoming clear to large numbers of workers. Production that is integrated across national borders brings the international working class together in a way never before possible. Not only do workers often share the same employers, appalling conditions and grievances, but they have the ability to communicate their opposition and organise collectively, thanks to modern technology and the use of social media. These global processes have enormously strengthened the position of the working class against capital. A struggle by workers anywhere on the planet can very quickly become a rallying point for workers everywhere. However, the central issue faced by workers at Ryanair, Amazon or any major corporation is that they must develop their fight back in a political and organisational rebellion against the trade unions, whose sole role is to smother the class struggle. To do so they must establish independent rank-and-file committees that can link workers with their brothers and sisters in a worldwide fight against exploitation based on an anti-capitalist and socialist programme. The contract covering one quarter of a million UPS workers expired on Tuesday, July 31. The Teamsters union is forcing workers to continue on the job without a new contract, in open defiance of a vote by more than 93 percent of the workforce at the beginning of June authorizing a nationwide strike beginning midnight, August 1. On July 10, the union announced that it was indefinitely extending the current contract by at least 60 days. The announcement came as the union released its proposed contract for 2018-2023, which is a provocation against the workforce. The union is aware that there is widespread opposition to the deal and is seeking to delay to wear down the workers. The proposed agreement includes: * The creation of a new hybrid class of 22.4 driver/warehouse workers, who will be paid far less than current drivers and are not guaranteed full-time hours. The new position, which the Teamsters union boasted arose from its own proposal, is designed to destroy the last remaining decent-paying full-time jobs at the company and extend part-time flexibility from the warehouses to the delivery drivers. * Maintaining permanently low wages for part-time workers who make up more than two-thirds of the UPS workforce. The union boasts that part-time workers wages will reach $15.50itself a poverty-level wageby 2023. * No limits on forcing drivers to work overtime for up to 70 hours per week during peak season. * No change to the dangerous working conditions caused by endless corporate speed-up demands. Chris, a UPS driver, told the World Socialist Web Site, The company and union both feel like this new proposal will be rejected by the membership. The union has been in stall mode and hasnt even thought about sending out ballots for a vote. Ninety-three percent voted to walk. Thats a big number for the company and IBT [International Brotherhood of Teamsters] to overcome. The growing anger among workers was expressed in a video statement, posted on YouTube by a UPS driver named Tyler Binder on July 27, which has been viewed more than 15,000 times. The worker denounced the union for working to formulate opinions on this contract and shove it down your throat. Theyre not the ones who are going to have to live with this contract every single day. Binder noted that the union will go ahead and authorize a strike vote and then two or three weeks later, take an indefinite extension on the contract. UPS driver Tyler Binders statement opposing sellout contract Thomas, a part-time warehouse worker of 10 years, told the WSWS that workers in the warehouse were shaking their heads about it, saying sarcastically there was an extension. Everyone thinks this is a tactic to wear us down so we will accept the contract as it is. The union sent out something saying, Dont listen to the internet trolls. This is a reference to a video released by a Teamsters local slandering all opposition to the contract as the work of internet trolls, in language reminiscent of the United Auto Workerss denunciations of exposures of its 2015 sellout contractsince revealed to have been obtained under conditions of bribes and kickbacks to UAW officials by the auto giantsas fake news. There are nearly 300 comments on the video, most from UPS workers opposing the contract and denouncing the Teamsters. There are widespread suspicions among workers that, like the UAW in 2015, the Teamsters will push through the contract using ballot fraud. These fears have been compounded by the fact that the union has announced it will be utilizing an electronic balloting system in this years national contract for the first time. Thomas added, I feel uncomfortable, because I think that no matter how many people vote no, they are going to try to pass it. UPS workers must not allow the Teamsters to carry out their conspiracy with the company. To fight against the sellout contract, workers should form their own organizations, rank-and-file warehouse and depot committees, to take the struggle into their own hands. Such committees must immediately raise the demand for workers oversight over the counting and verification of ballots in the contract vote. There must be no backroom negotiations and deals between the company and the union; all contract negotiations must be live-streamed for workers to view, and all additional deals and memoranda must be published before any vote. A rejection of the contract should be the starting point for a nationwide strike and a turn out to other sections of workers, including those at the United States Postal Service, Amazon, FedEx, and other workers in the United States and internationally. UPS workers face more than just the greed of one company and the complicity of the Teamsters. Every struggle by workers to defend their conditions is a political struggle, directed against the interests of the corporate and financial elite, the entire capitalist system, and both big business parties that defend it. The union, the capitalist parties and the media declare there is no money to provide everyone with well-paying jobs, health care, and decent working conditions. This is because they defend the subordination of every aspect of life to the profit interests of a tiny corporate oligarchy. The more than $7 billion in pre-tax profits reported by UPS last financial year would be enough to provide an immediate $32,000 raise to the quarter-million UPS employees. The corporate and financial elite has amassed vast sums on the backs of the exploitation of the working class, under both the Democratic administration of Barack Obama and now the Republican administration of Donald Trump. The critical task is to build of a political movement of the working class that will expropriate the fortunes of the oligarchy, transform the giant corporations and banks into publicly-controlled utilities, and reorganize economy on the basis of genuine social equality, rather than private profit. The Trump administration is actively considering escalating proposed tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from the initial level of 10 percent. After reports surfaced that the hike was being discussed, senior administration officials confirmed on Wednesday that Trump had asked the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to examine it. The US has already imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of Chinese products, with imposts on an additional $16 billion set to be enacted within days or weeks. The additional tariff measures are in response to Chinese tariffs imposed in retaliation against the initial US levies. No final decision is expected until the end of this month, following public hearings scheduled for August 2023. The measures, if enacted, will cover consumer goods and food as well as industrial components. Reporting on the new tariff move, the Wall Street Journal said that economic advisers were justifying the hike because the Chinese currency has fallen sharply against the US dollar in recent months and is now down 6 percent from its level at the end of May. A US official, however, denied that the increase was specifically related to the yuan devaluation, saying that China had engaged in a whole range of things that make clear that they arent interested in addressing all of the issues that we have raised. Trump is reported to have dismissed the proposed 10 percent tariff increase as too weak. Once you go down the road of using tariffs to disrupt the Chinese, you have to say 25 percent compared to 10 percent, Derek Scissors told the WSJ. Scissors is a China specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, which advises the Trump administration on trade matters. In addition to the levy on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, Trump has threatened to raise the figure to $500 billion, covering all of Chinas exports to the US. The staff of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He are reportedly continuing to hold discussions about a further meeting but the discussions remain at a very preliminary stage. The view in Beijing is that talks with Mnuchin are of little value because he does not have the final say on negotiations. The tariffs are being imposed under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act which comes under the jurisdiction of Robert Lighthizer. China and the US have had several rounds of consultations and reached important consensus, but regrettably the US did not fulfil its obligations. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday. Nor did it make concerted efforts with China. The Chinese were badly burned back in May when talks between Mnuchin and Liu resulted in an agreement by China to purchase up to $100 billion in additional US exports. Mnuchin said the trade war had been put on hold only to be countermanded within a few days by Trump who said talks would probably have to use a different structure. For Lighthizer and key economic adviser Peter Navarro, the key issue is not the US trade deficit with China but the efforts by Beijing to expand its technological and industrial base under its Made in China 2025 program. The US has accused China of acquiring American technology through theft and technology transfers and has also railed against state subsidies to Chinese firms. The underlying issues were revealed in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in Washington last Thursday. Lighthizer told the hearing that the US had a chronic problem with China because it used state capitalism to take advantage of the openness of the US economy costing jobs and wealth. Some issues will be dealt with in a short period of time, he said. Directionally, were going to have a problem with China thats going to go on for years. During the hearing, Democrat Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii asked Lighthizer: How do we have leverage in a situation where they have unending patience and we have none? You dont pick stupid fights. Lighthizer responded: If your conclusion is that China taking over all of our technology and the future of our children is a stupid fight, then youre right, we should capitulate. My view is thats how we got where we are. The conflict between the two sides erupted at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva last week at which Deputy US Trade Representative Dennis Shea denounced China as the most protectionist, mercantilist economy in the world. Chinas size magnifies the harm caused by its state-led, mercantilist approach to trade and investment, and this harm is growing every day and can no longer be tolerated, he said. The accusation of mercantilism is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The entire trade policy of the Trump administration, based on America First, is premised on the assertion that trade is essentially a zero-sum game and any US deficit represents a weakening of its economic power. The Chinese representative Zhang Xiangchen hit back, saying Beijing would not bow to US threats. Extortion, distortion or demonization does no good to resolve the issues, he said. Holding our feet to the fire has never worked. While maintaining that it is not going to bow to US pressure and that China will respond to US actions, no matter what the level of goods targeted, there are clearly growing concerns in Beijing about the impact of the US trade war on its economy. A meeting of the 25-member Politburo on Tuesday, chaired by Chinese president Xi, said government policymakers, while continuing to seek to reduce debt, would take action to promote economic growth. The official statement issued after the meeting did not specifically mention the trade conflict with the US. However, it said the Chinese economy faces some new problems and new challenges and that there were obvious changes in the external environment. The meeting was held as reports showed that the Chinese economy is slowing with the official purchasing managers index falling to a five-month low of 51.2 in July, down from 51.5 in June, coming slightly below economists expectations. While the level is still above 50, showing that the economy is continuing to grow, there is concern that the trade war measures are starting to have an impact. The top-level meeting called for measures to increase government spending on highways, railways and other infrastructure projects and said liquidity conditions should be reasonable and adequate. This is a sign that steps to ease credit initiated over the past month will continue. Chinese economic authorities are treading a fine line. On the one hand they are seeking to reduce the countrys debt, while on the other they are trying to support companies adversely affected by the trade conflict. For its part, the Trump administration feels emboldened by the latest US growth figures, which came in at an annual rate of more than 4 percent in the second quarter, its best three-month result since 2014. It has also been boosted by the agreement reached with the EU last week to pursue action through the World Trade Organisation against China. The director of the National Economic Council, Lawrence Kudlow, has said that the US-EU agreement places China in a very difficult position and that China is being isolated. However, Beijing has found ways of hitting back, most notably in the scrapping of a proposed takeover by the US technology giant Qualcomm of the Dutch firm NXP. The Chinese government did not sign off on the agreement under anti-monopoly provisions. It has been reported that Mnuchin was heavily involved in last-minute efforts to try to salvage the $44 billion deal, but to no avail. BRAZIL, Ind. (WTHI) - On Friday, you'll have the chance to honor a Wabash Valley World War II veteran as he returns home. Ray Kerr is 95-years-old. He was a Navy fighter pilot during the war. Kerr is returning home for a family reunion. His journey will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Indianapolis, and from there a motorcade will bring him home, making a stop in Cloverdale. Around 7:00, Kerr will arrive in Forest Park, following a Garrison Flag presentation. Brazil city officials are encouraging everyone to come and support this World War II hero. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI)- Earlier this year Hamilton Center opened Western Indiana Recovery Services in Terre Haute. Its one of only eighteen centers to provide methadone treatments to fight addiction. Now according to Hamilton Center CEO Melvin Burks, they are ready to serve another part of the state. "We are willing to serve those individuals who are in need and if so that means that we have to go into other counties and other places to do that, then we are prepared to do that," said Burks. Burks says that they are requesting at least two of these nine licenses for various counties around the state. One of which is Knox County that is in the Wabash Valley. Hamilton Center also has other plans in the works on top of expanding their medication-assisted treatment clinics. They hope to build a substance abuse complex in the state. The new facility would become a hub for anyone in the country in need when it comes to recovery. "It can be a state of the art where individuals across the country will be wanting to come to receive service. So its about building," said Burks. It may be a few months before any new developments come up on both projects. Some of the other big counties listed to received a clinic thanks to the state is Hendricks, Fayette, LaPorte, Rush, Tipton, and Warren. PARIS, Ill. (WTHI) - Three local police officers and the City of Paris, Illinois are facing a lawsuit. An attorney recently filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Charles Holt. Holt claims three officers broke the law and violated his rights in June of 2017. He said the situation started with a woman reporting an argument to police. Holt said he the woman drove to the Paris Police Department after telling her to leave the house. The documents state Holt followed her in a truck, arguing out loud. He said officers learned his driver's license had been revoked. Later, officers found Holt at his home. Officers asked him to open the door to talk. Holt said he refused and told them to leave unless they had a warrant. After that, Holt claims one of the officers used his body to break the locking mechanism and the door frame. The lawsuit states three officers named as Jesse Lewsader, Richard Wilson, and Ryan Washburn, entered the house. In the lawsuit, Holt claims one of the officers tased him before ultimately arresting him. He was charged with Resisting Arrest, Disorderly Conduct, and Driving on a Revoked License. In January of 2018, Holt pled guilty to Disorderly Conduct, and Driving on a Revoked License. A judge dismissed the Resisting Arrest charge. Holt said the officers didn't have search or arrest warrants, and that he did not consent to an entry into the house. In the lawsuit, he alleges the officers violated his constitutional rights. He further alleges the City of Paris hasn't done enough to prevent illegal behavior. Holt is asking for a jury trial. He is seeking legal costs and punitive damages. HONOLULU (AP) In an emotional and solemn ceremony, the remains of dozens of presumed casualties from the Korean War were escorted by military honor guards onto U.S. soil on Wednesday, 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. What is expected to be an exhaustive analysis and identification process will soon begin. Some have called the Korean War the forgotten war. But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten, Vice President Mike Pence said at a ceremony welcoming the remains, which were flown from South Korea earlier in the day. Today, our boys are coming home. Each container was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. They set them gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes. The remains of soldiers who are presumed American soldiers who were killed in the Korean War more than 60 years ago have arrived in Hawaii. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence oversaw the somber military ceremony. (Aug. 1) Sixteen other United Nations member countries fought alongside U.S. service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said some remains could turn out to be those of missing from other nations. He said last week that the return was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen, Pence said. Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure. North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases. Hanwell Kaakimakas uncle, John Kaakimaka, is among those who never came home. Weve been watching the news, and weve been hopeful that my uncle is among the remains, he said, adding that it could bring his family some closure. His uncle, who was from Honolulu, was a corporal in the 31st Infantry Regiment of the Armys 7th Infantry Division. He went missing on or about Dec. 2, 1950. Hanwell Kaakimaka said the story he heard from his dad was that his uncle was injured and was being brought back from the front when Chinese troops overran the area and attacked the convoy. The Kaakimaka family provided DNA samples to the U.S. militarys Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency over a decade ago, hoping officials would be able to make a match. The agency identifies remains of servicemen killed in past conflicts. It typically uses bones, teeth and DNA to identify remains along with any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. Before the remains were put on military planes bound for Hawaii, hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops gathered at a hanger at the Osan base in South Korean for the repatriation ceremony. The repatriation is a breakthrough in a long-stalled U.S. effort to obtain war remains from North Korea. There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. The bones return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump thanked Kim for the return. During the summit, Kim also agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for Trumps promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasnt taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. ___ Kim Yong-Ho reported from Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Having the right supplies can get your student's school year started off right is very important. That's why the Salvation Army in Terre Haute hosted a back to school supply drive. News 10 stopped by the drive on Wednesday. That's where we found a mother shopping for her kids. She told News 10 the Salvation Army is a great way to get help for working parents. "My kids know that its hard for me as a parent a single mother trying to get the stuff together so that's why Salvation Army came in and like I said again it makes me so wonderful," Amy Haney said. The school supply drive continues tomorrow and on August 3rd. In order to take part, you'll need a picture ID, birth certificate for each child, social security cards for the people in your family and proof of income for the past 30 days. As John McCain is laid to rest this weekend, Barack Obama and George W. Bush will be there to eulogize him. Here's the story behind McCain's unexpected request of his two ex-political rivals (who went on to be president), plus everything else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.) 1. Primaries Another round of primaries, another round of drama. This time, the big upset came in Florida's governor's race. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum defeated former US Rep. Gwen Graham to clinch the Democratic nomination. Gillum, a progressive backed by Bernie Sanders, will face Trump-backed Republican US Rep. Ron DeSantis. If Gillum wins, he'll be the state's first black governor. In Arizona, US Rep. Martha McSally won the bruising Republican primary for the state's open US Senate seat. She prevailed by sticking close to President Trump and his political leanings, but that could make the general election, in which she'll face Democratic US Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, even more polarizing. Another, smaller race in Florida also caught national interest: The mom of a student killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting this year won a spot on the Broward County School Board. Lori Alhadeff, a former teacher whose daughter Alyssa was killed in the shooting, won the seat handily. 2. Puerto Rico For nearly a year now, there have been suspicions that the number of people killed by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was far greater than the official tally. Now, Puerto Rico's government has revised the death toll, and the new figure is devastating. According to a new estimate, 2,975 people died as a result of the storm. That's 46 times as many people as counted in the government's December report, which put the death toll at 64. Knowing the official count isn't just about knowing exactly what happened and whom it affected -- though that's reason enough. Families of those who died in the aftermath of the storm are eligible to have some funeral expenses covered by the US government, and higher death tolls can also drive more disaster aid. 3. Jordan Edwards A rare verdict yesterday elicited sobs and gasps from a Texas courtroom. Roy Oliver, an ex-Dallas-area police officer, was found guilty in the shooting death of Jordan Edwards, an unarmed black teen. The 15-year-old was riding in a car that was approached by officers last April. When the driver didn't stop fully and drove past them, Oliver, who is white, shot several rounds into the car. One bullet struck Edwards, killing him. His death is one in a long line of tragic encounters between law enforcement and black boys and men, but the final outcome was unusual. Few officers face trial in these cases, and even fewer are convicted. 4. 3D-printed guns The maker of blueprints for 3D-printed guns is selling them online, despite a recent court order blocking their distribution. The founder of Defense Distributed, which created designs for guns that could be made via a 3D printer, says he thinks the court's order simply prohibits him from putting the plans online for free. Instead, the company is now selling the blueprints to customers, letting them name their own price, then emailing or shipping the plans to them. 3D-printed guns have been a lightning rod of controversy, raising Second Amendment questions from advocates on both sides of the gun debate. 5. China rideshare controversy Didi Chuxing, China's top ride-hailing company, is promising a major overhaul after one of its drivers was accused of raping and killing a female passenger. The victim is the second female passenger believed to have been murdered this year while using Didi Chuxing. After the driver was arrested, the country's ministries of transport and public security summoned Didi executives to demand a change. Now, Didi has suspended its carpool service and has promised to make safety its first priority. BREAKFAST BROWSE Remarkable photo shows a baby surrounded by the 1,616 IVF injections it took to bring her into the world Pardon the pun, but what a shot! Instagram and Tinder are rolling out new features for college students Because hooking up and looking attractive in college is just SO hard. Thousands of bees swarm a hot dog stand in New York City A new horror of urban fauna, from the city that brought you Pizza Rat. French beach bans swimming because of aggressively lustful dolphin The Lustful Dolphins: Bad vacation experience; great rock-band name. HBO quietly removes erotic late-night programming from its lineup Well, clearly, the dolphin noticed. TODAY'S NUMBER 2.3 million The number of cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia diagnosed last year in the US. That's a record, and some doctors think the numbers are enough for STDs to be declared a public health crisis. TODAY'S QUOTE "This is the first time we've had to confront something like this as an organization and, I believe, the first time our gaming community has dealt with a tragedy of this nature." EA Sports CEO Andrew Wilson. The gaming brand canceled three EA Madden tournaments to review "safety protocols" in the aftermath of this weekend's deadly shooting in Jacksonville, Florida. AND FINALLY Cute with the sound off, spectacular with the sound on Not to be dramatic, but I have watched this video of Mr. Bubz 8,465 times and firmly believe it should be beamed into space so it's the first thing the aliens see when they find us. (Click here to watch.) The US military is weighing significantly drawing down the number of US Special Operations Forces in Africa despite senior military officials warning that the terrorist threat in Africa is increasing, three defense officials tell CNN. The planned reductions are intended to help better align the US military's posture with the Trump administration's new defense strategy which focuses more on near-peer competitors like Russia and China as opposed to counterterrorism missions. Africa Armed forces Continents and regions International relations and national security Military Military operations National security North America Terrorism Terrorism and counter-terrorism The Americas United States Unrest, conflicts and war 2017 Niger ambush Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - US La David Johnson Military casualties Misc people Niger Special operations forces US Army Special Forces US Department of Defense US federal departments and agencies US federal government US Special Operations Command War casualties Western Africa US Africa Command, which oversees US troops on the continent, has submitted to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a plan to significantly reduce the number of US forces in Africa, the majority of which work to help countries there battle terrorist groups. It is not clear whether Secretary of Defense James Mattis will approve the proposal. "No decisions or changes have been made yet to the forces operating in Africa," Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Sheryll Klinkel told CNN. "The Department consistently reviews plans, operations and military investments across the globe to develop the best options that address the constantly evolving threat to US national interests," she added. A spokesperson for US Africa Command later said the "force optimization" plan "supports the National Defense Strategy's direction to prioritize great power competition." "Our commitment to stability in Africa is strong, and any force optimization recommendations will prioritize ensuring we maintain mission effectiveness to the greatest extent possible," Samantha Reho told CNN. Africa Command would not disclose which African countries would see a reduced US military presence under the new proposal due to that information being classified. The plan's submission was first reported by The New York Times. Elite American Special Operations Forces currently operate in about 12 African nations, including Somalia, Niger and Cameroon, where they advise local forces. "We're going to help them to degrade the enemies that we share in common. They are fighting America's enemies. These are sworn enemies of the United States, that's why we're here. We can fight them here or we can fight them somewhere else at a much higher cost," the commander of US special operations in Africa, Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, told CNN in April. Senior US military commanders have warned of the increasing threat of terrorist groups to the region, particularly in West Africa. "The al Qaeda- and ISIS-inspired threats in Lake Chad Basin and here in the Sahel are very real and continue to grow in strength," Hicks said, referring to two regions in western Africa. While US troops are primarily in a supporting role, they have encountered combat on multiple occasions. Four US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger last October and another US adviser was killed in Somalia in June. "The threat is increasing at different rates and different volumes depending on where you are at in the theater in Africa," a US military official familiar with US operations in Africa told CNN. Even before the planned reduction, senior military officials had noted that US troops operating in Africa faced greater resource constraints than in places like Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. "We're mindful of the limits of our resources," Hicks said in April, saying the then-US military footprint in Africa was "sustainable" over the longer term. And while the Pentagon is seeking to focus its efforts more on Moscow and Beijing, US officials have expressed concerns about the growing Russian and Chinese presence in Africa. Russia has sent military assistance to Libya and the Central African Republic, while China has established major economic ties to a multitude of African nations and has built a major military base in Djibouti, close to a US installation. TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- A man on probation for murder in Virginia finds himself back behind bars in Lee County. Sheriff Jim Johnson says Robert Jones, 49, is charged with felony child abuse and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. A report was filed on the 29th by a third party about the choking of a child under the age of 13 at a home in Guntown. He was arrested yesterday after an investigation and had a handgun on him. Johnson says 6 more rifle/shotgun style weapons were found in the home during an investigation. He was on probabation under the charges of 2nd degree murder, perjury, use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and felony assault. The came from federal court in Virginia. Jones bond was set at $250,000. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-01 21:43:41|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Soldiers take part in the multinational military drill named "Noble Partner 2018" at Vaziani base near Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 1, 2018. The 13-nation military exercise "Noble Partner 2018" kicked off in Georgia's Vaziani military base on Wednesday with over 3,000 soldiers taking part, the Georgian Defense Ministry said. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States are participating in the drills which will end on Aug. 16. (Xinhua/Kulumbegashvili Tamuna) TBILISI, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 13-nation military exercise "Noble Partner 2018" kicked off in Georgia's Vaziani military base on Wednesday with over 3,000 soldiers taking part, the Georgian Defense Ministry said. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States are participating in the drills which will end on Aug. 16. At the opening ceremony on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Georgia's Defense Minister Levan Izoria said the goal is to make the armed forces a full-fledged contributor to international peace and security. The two-week joint military exercise began with an air descent operation by Georgian, U.S. and German servicemen. The annual exercise aims to enhance participating nations' readiness and interoperability. It includes field training combined with combat shooting, as well as interaction of combat support elements in defense and attack operations. Initiated in 2015, Noble Partner originally aimed to train Georgian soldiers and improve Georgian troops' interoperability with NATO units. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 02:04:50|Editor: yan Video Player Close ROME, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Private investments drove growth across Italy's southern regions in 2017, yet the traditional divide with Italy's wealthier North remained significant, a study by an Italian think tank showed on Wednesday. In its report issued every year, SVIMEZ (Association for Industrial Development in Southern Italy) analyses major trends in economy and society across eight regions of the South, including Campania, Calabria, Apulia, and major islands Sicily and Sardinia. In its latest issue, it stated that "the southern economy's growth in 2015-2017 has partially regained the economic and social capital gone lost during the crisis." "The Mezzogiorno (South) kept its slow recovery path in 2017, boosting its gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.4 percent compared to 0.8 percent in 2016," the report said. "Such growth was mainly driven by private investments, while public investments lacked." INVESTMENTS AND PUBLIC SPENDING Private investments increased by 3.9 percent in the South in 2017, consolidating the recovery of the previous year, according to SVIMEZ. Such rise was slightly higher than that registered in Italy's Center-North (3.7 percent), and benefitted all economic sectors. However, overall gross fixed investment in 2017 remained lower by 31.6 percent compared to pre-crisis levels in southern Italy, and by 20 percent in central and northern Italy. "There was also a worrying contraction in public investments in the period 2008-2017," the report noted. Public spending in this span decreased by 7.1 percent in the South, while grew by 0.5 percent in the rest of the country. MANUFACTURING GOOD PERFORMANCE The report recalled that Italy and Greece registered the weakest recovery in the European Union (EU) in 2017, with their overall GDPs growing by 1.5 percent and 1.4 percent respectively. Although doing better than in previous years, they remained the only EU countries not reaching pre-crisis levels. In this context, Italian southern regions -- historically the less developed of the country -- performed almost as good as central and northern ones (1.5 percent altogether). This was made possible thanks to a strong recovery in manufacturing, which grew by 5.8 percent, and especially in economic activities related to consumption, according to the think tank. Construction also performed well, although to a lesser extent (1.7 percent growth). LACK OF HOMOGENEITY The annual report also provided insights into the performance of each of the eight southern regions analysed. Campania (the area around Naples), Calabria, and Sardinia had the highest development rate, growing by 2 percent, 1.9 percent, and 1.8 percent in 2017 over the previous year respectively. "Such GDP variations were limited compared to those of central and northern regions, and especially Valle D'Aosta (2.6 percent), Trentino (2.5 percent), and Lombardy (2.2 percent)," the report said. Apulia -- the region bordering with the Adriatic Sea to the east, and called "the heel of Italy's boot" -- followed the first three best performing in the south, with a 1.6 percent growth. "In this case, it was due to an expansion in construction driven by public spending of EU funds for public works, and to a positive performance of industry," the report stressed. Abruzzo posted a 1.2 percent growth, while Basilicata and Sicily performed modestly (0.7 percent and 0.4 percent respectively). The tiny Molise was the only southern region showing a GDP negative trend (-0.1 percent). FEARS OF A SLOWDOWN Despite the lack of homogeneity, the report confirmed the overall recovery of Italy's South. Yet, it warned that "in the (current) climate of uncertainty, and without adequate policies, this growth risks to slow down." In 2018, the GDP was expected to increase by 1.4 percent in Italy's Center-North, and by 1.0 percent in the South, according to SVIMEZ projections. Total consumption would be a major cause of this divide, and especially the public administration final consumption expenditure, which was forecast to rise by 0.5 percent in Center-North and to drop by 0.3 percent in the South. "The risk of a sharp slowdown in southern economy is particularly strong for 2019, when GDP growth is estimated at 1.2 percent in central and northern regions, and at 0.7 percent in the South," the analysts stressed. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 03:20:09|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close BERLIN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The German government will grant tax relief for electric or hybrid company cars, as the cabinet decided on a large scale subsidy on Wednesday. In the past, employees who drive company cars privately had to file a monetary benefit of 1 percent of the car's official list price. For electric and hybrid vehicles, this tax rate will be halved to 0.5 percent in the future. The new regulation will apply to company cars purchased or leased between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2021. The tax reductions are expected to boost demand for electric vehicles that is still low in Germany. "This will also enable an active second hand car market to establish itself. This makes e-vehicles cheaper and more interesting for a broad customer group," the German transportation minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) told the German press agency (dpa). The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) rated the tax advantage for electric company cars as a "good contribution" to the market ramp-up of electric mobility. The new law will become particularly relevant in 2019 and 2020 when a large number of new models will come onto the market, according to VDA. New registrations of electric cars have recently increased, but the overall market share in Germany still remains low. The main obstacles are the relatively high price of the vehicles, the short range and an insufficient charging infrastructure. Despite the emissions scandal that has engulfed the German car industry, diesel vehicles are still the most popular company cars. The current taxation is considered financially unattractive due to the high purchase costs of electric or hybrid vehicles. With this amendment, the German government is following their coalition agreement on a reduced rate for electric company car taxation. The German traffic association (VCD) criticized the decision as not effective. "Environmentally friendly vehicles such as bicycles would not benefit from the planned tax relief," said Gerd Lottsiepen, transport policy spokesman of VCD. The traffic club also complained that the tax relief would also apply to powerful and heavy plug-in hybrids, which, according to it, would turn out to be environmentally harmful. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 04:45:35|Editor: yan Video Player Close GENEVA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has announced that new Ebola cases are found in the country, just days after declaring the end of an outbreak in its far western region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. The DRC government announced Wednesday that preliminary laboratory results indicate a cluster of cases of Ebola virus in North Kivu province, which came little more than a week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of an outbreak in Equateur Province in the far western part of the country, some 2500 km from North Kivu. Local health authority said four out of six samples tested positive for Ebola virus at the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB) in Kinshasa. Further testing is on-going. The majority of the cases are in the Mangina health area, which is 30 km from the north eastern city of Beni. "This new cluster is occurring in an environment which is very different from where we were operating in the northwest," said WHO Deputy Director-General Dr. Peter Salama. "This is an active conflict zone. The major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population." "Ebola is a constant threat in the DRC," said WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "What adds to our confidence in the country's ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again. Working closely with the Ministry of Health and partners, we will fight this one as we did the last." The DRC government was quick to provide public updates, with press releases on Tuesday and Wednesday. "Since we are coming out of another Ebola outbreak, we have kept staff and equipment in place," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. "This allows us to have a head start in response to this cluster." North Kivu hosts over one million displaced people and shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda with a great deal of cross border movement due to the trade activities. The WHO is now working with neighboring countries to ensure health authorities are alerted and prepared to respond. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 05:20:42|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close ANKARA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday vowed to "retaliate" against U.S. sanction on Turkish ministers over the case of American pastor Andrew Brunson. "Respond will be given without any delay against this aggression which will not serve for any reason," said a written statement by the ministry. The ministry "condemned" the U.S. Department of the Treasury and called on reversing its decision. The sanctions "does not comply neither with state seriousness nor concepts of law and justice," said the statement. The ministry noted "there is no doubt that this decision, which is a disrespectful intervention to our legal system, is contrary to our relationship with the United States and that will cause great harm to ongoing constructive efforts to solve the problems between the two countries." Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said that Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu had "played leading roles in the organizations which were responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson." On Tuesday, a Turkish court has rejected Brunson's appeal to be released from house arrest during his trial on terrorism charges. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 06:56:03|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close VIENNA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment in Austria in July was 6.9 percent, registering a 0.7-percent year-on-year decline, the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) revealed on Wednesday. The total number of registered unemployed persons in the country fell by 8 percent to 282,583, while those involved in further schooling or training, included in the unemployment figures, fell 8.2 percent to 58,010. The total number of non-self-employed persons conversely increased by about 85,000, to a nationwide total of 3.825 million. The number of newly available jobs increased 21.6 percent compared with July of 2017, to reach just under 80,000, the AMS said. The declining jobless figures were recorded across all states in the country, with Tyrol seeing the largest decline of 17.5 percent. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 07:11:05|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close DUBLIN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Europe's major budget airline Ryanair on Wednesday called for talks with its Ireland-based pilots's union Forsa over the disputes between the two sides, which have led to a series of strikes over the past few weeks. The call was issued in a letter sent by Ryanair's chief people officer Eddie Wilson to Angela Kirk, National Secretary of Forsa, the largest trade union in the Irish public service sector which represents the interests of the Irish pilots of Ryanair. In the letter, Ryanair invited Forsa to meet with its representatives immediately after the fourth strike to be held by Ryanair's Ireland-based pilots on Aug. 3 provided that no more strikes will be called by the union before the proposed meeting and no further interference from some trade union activists from Aer Lingus, the second largest airline in Ireland. Ryanair had accused some pilots of Aer Lingus of being behind the recent strikes launched by Ryanair pilots based in Ireland. Ryanair claimed in the letter that it had solved nine of the 11 requirements raised by Forsa on behalf of Ryanair's Irish pilots and said that the proposed meeting would help solve the remaining disputes between them. Forsa has not officially responded to Ryanair's call for the proposed talks. In an interview with a local media, Angela Kirk, a de-facto spokeswoman of Forsa, had denied the claims by Ryanair that most of the demands raised by Ryanair pilots have been met. She demanded for a neutral venue for the proposed meeting. She said that Ryanair's recent announcement to possibly lay off or transfer some of its Ireland-based pilots due to its so-call business restructuring can only serve to escalate the dispute and take the two sides further from reaching an agreed solution. She warned of further strikes in due course if the dispute is not solved. The main dispute between Ryanair and its pilots in Ireland is about a seniority-based system proposed by the pilots regarding the issues related to base-transfer, annual leave, pay and promotions. The first 24-hour strike was launched on July 12 by Ryanair's Ireland-based pilots after they broke up in the negotiations with the management of the airline, followed by two more one-day strikes on July 20 and July 24. The fourth strike is planned on Friday, Aug. 3. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. social media aggregation network Reddit Wednesday said its system has been hacked by a hacker who illegally accessed a variety of data including user emails, source code and internal files. Reddit, the fifth most trafficked website in the U.S., said the hackers broke into its systems In June and stole all Reddit data from 2007 and before. "On June 19, we learned that between June 14 and June 18, an attacker compromised a few of our employees' accounts with our cloud and source code hosting providers," Reddit Chief Technology Officer Christopher Slowe wrote in an official blog post. A complete copy of an old database backup containing very early Reddit user data -- from the site' s launch in 2005 through May 2007 was illegally accessed, and most of the information breached in account credentials are user names, email passwords, and pubic or some private messages, he said. He noted the attack was conducted by intercepting text messages that were supposed to reach Reddit's employees containing single-use login codes. "We learned that SMS-based authentication is not nearly as secure as we would hope," Slowe wrote, urging every Reddit employees to move to token-based two-factor authentication. While acknowledging the attack as a serious one, Slowe said the hacker did not get gain write access to Reddit systems and only accessed in a read-only manner some systems contained backup data, source code and other logs. Reddit says that it will notify users whose current account password relates to credentials compromised in the breach, and will prompt those affected individuals to change their passwords. The social media network said it has reported the issue to law enforcement and is cooperating with their investigation. As of February 2018, Reddit had 542 million monthly visitors, ranking as the third most visited website in U.S. and the sixth in the world, according to Alexa Internet. 57.4 percent of its user base comes from the United States, followed by Britain at 7.5 percent and Canada at 6.3 percent. Source: Xinhuanet| 2018-08-02 09:36:16|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhuanet) -- In stark contrast to Chinas win-win proposal, the U.S. irrational decision to impose tariffs on Chinese imports would lead to a lose-lose situation, a British expert has said. The relationship between the United States and China could be win-win, since they are very complementary economies, John Ross, Senior Fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, told Xinhuanet in a recent interview. An average American family could gain 850 U.S. dollars a year as Chinese imports are lower-priced than they could get from anywhere else, he said, quoting a study by the Oxford Economics. Therefore, good relationship between countries is explicitly based upon mutually beneficial cooperation, Ross noted. However, the Trump administration first imposed a 25-percent tariff on 34 billion U.S. dollars' worth of imports from China, igniting the largest trade war in world economic history. Then it went further to create a list of tariffs on another 200 U.S. billion dollars of Chinese goods. It is the American people who are going to pay a big price, Ross stressed. As it stands, the U.S. tariff measures will hurt U.S. business groups and consumers, ordinary workers and farmers, he continued. This has been borne out by the fact that U.S. previous tariffs against washing machines and steel had made the price of these products go up by a very large amount, which not only affected its consumers, but also greatly affected South Korea and the EU, Ross said. According to him, an overwhelming majority of American economists and business groups are against these tariffs. But for those who support the tariffs, Ross believed their choice reflects that they lack confidence in the U.S. economy. In light of the 2.2 percent average growth rate of the U.S. economy for the last twenty years, and record high trade deficit in nice years, Ross thought these are reasons the U.S. resorts to such wanton trade protectionism. But what is absolutely certain is that these tariffs will not reduce its trade deficit, wind down Chinas economy, nor pick up its own, according to Ross. Chinas economy, on its macroeconomic fundamentals at the present time, will continue to grow at about 6.5 percent, Ross said. As for the trade deficit, he said, it can only be reduced through the increase of production or the decrease of expenditure, for example, to spend less on its military and health care sector. To block imports from China or from somewhere else is not a radical solution, Ross said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 10:01:24|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close MEXICO CITY, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Proposed U.S. tariffs on imported autos and auto parts, if implemented, would seriously harm Mexico's economy, a leading financial analyst said Wednesday. "It would be a terrible blow for the Mexican economy in terms of job creation and foreign direct investment," said Gabriela Siller, the director of economic and financial analysis at Spanish bank Banco Base. It is estimated that the proposed 25 percent tariff would set back Mexico's light vehicle exports by 11.75 percent a year, Siller told a press conference on Mexico's economic outlook. Each percentage point increase in the price of exports would represent a 0.47 percent decrease in the number of light vehicles shipped abroad, she said. Overall, Mexico's auto and auto parts exports would plummet by as much as 13.25 percent a year if the tariff takes effect, she warned. "The automobile sector accounts for a fourth of Mexico's total exports," said Siller. "In a trade war, there are no winners." In May, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration launched an investigation to determine whether auto and truck imports represented a national security threat to the U.S. industry and the development of new technologies, in a bid to justify applying the tariffs under U.S. law. Steep U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports already took effect on June 1. In June, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said the investigation would conclude at the end of July or beginning of August. Mexico is the world's seventh-largest vehicles producer, with most of its production exported to the United States, its main trade partner. Mexico, the United States and Canada are also renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the White House wanting to change it and improve the terms for the United States. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 10:26:29|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close SYDNEY, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A 36-year-old Australian man has become the second person from the country to win what is described as the Nobel Prize for mathematics with fellow academics on Thursday, highlighting his prodigious talent and stellar achievements in the field. Western Australia's Akshay Venkatesh, now a professor of mathematics at Stanford University in the United States, received the Fields Medal, which is "awarded every four years to between two and four researchers under 40 years old to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement", according to a statement from the Australian Academy of Science. In 2006, mathematician Terence Tao was the first Australian to receive the accolade. "A lot of the time when you do math, you're stuck, but at the same time there are all these moments where you feel privileged that you get to work with it. And you have this sensation of transcendence, you feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," the academy quoted Venkatesh, who received his medal at a ceremony overnight in Brazil, as saying. Academy Fellow and University of Western Australia professor Cheryl Praeger, who has known Venkatesh since he was 12, said "He is extraordinary." "Akshay became the youngest ever student to study at UWA and went straight into second year maths units, writing exam papers over the summer for core first year maths courses he had never taken to demonstrate that he did not need to do those units." Venkatesh went on to earn a bachelor's in mathematics and physics with first class honors at the university in 1997, becoming the youngest to do so, according to the academy. When he was 16, the math prodigy left Australia for the United States, completing his PhD in math at Princeton University in 2002. He has since been recognized for "his synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology and representation theory." The medal is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields (1863-1932), who conceived the award "to celebrate the great achievements in the area." CANBERRA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian Border Force (ABF) staff will be forced to cover their tattoos while on duty under a proposal put forward by the government. In a memo sent to staff acquired by News Corp Australia, the ABF said that uniformed officers will not be allowed to have tattoos on display while on duty under the proposed changes. If adopted, the new rules could see officers with tattoos forced to wear long sleeves while working at sea or in extreme heat. According to the memo, the new rules were designed to ensure a "consistent law enforcement approach across the Home Affairs portfolio". Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) will also be affected by the changes. Lisa Newman, deputy national president of the Community and Public Sector Union, said that staff felt "disrespected" by the proposal. "That's easy for (Home Affairs Minister) Peter Dutton to say as he sits in an airconditioned office, but we're talking in some cases about officers working in extreme heat and with machinery that would make long sleeves possibly dangerous and frankly ridiculous," Newman told News Corp on Thursday. "Our members in Border Force are angry at this policy change. We've been contacted by numerous members with deeply personal tattoos, including one with his daughter's name tattooed on his arm and several with crucifixes and other religious symbols. "They feel extremely disrespected at the prospect of being forced to cover or remove them." Those who are unable to comply with the rules "for religious, cultural or medical reasons" would be eligible for an exemption. Staff have been given one week to give feedback on the new rules. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 10:51:32|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close CANBERRA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The capital of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) has banned single-use plastic and helium balloons from January 1, 2019. The Darwin City Council voted to approve the ban on single-use plastic at council events and on council land at a meeting on Wednesday night. Environmentalists have raised concerns over the impact that helium balloons have on waterways after they have burst. Emma Young, a council alderman representing the Greens party, said more details about the ban would be made available closer to the implementation date. "It's nationwide, it's worldwide to actually be looking at how we reduce our impact, particularly in the oceans and to do with our marine life, which is heavily impacted across the world," Young told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday. "At this point in time ... there's a lot more opportunities to purchase environmentally friendly products which used to be cost prohibitive but aren't any more." The ban was approved on the same day that supermarket giant Coles bowed to customer pressure and reversed its ban on single-use plastic bags, instead announcing it would hand out bags for free indefinitely. Single-use plastic alternatives, such as bioplastics and organic materials, require a commercial facility to be processed; a facility Darwin does not have. "In the short-term, (the alternatives) may go to landfill. What we are discussing and looking at is the long-term benefit," Waste NT's Michelle Harle said. "Part of the solution needs to be a commercial composting facility. "Making a really big change like this is not easy, we're dealing with an ingrained mentality around how we use products." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 11:06:36|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close CANBERRA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government is considering launching a World Trade Organization (WTO) challenge against trade barriers imposed by India. Speaking at an Australian Grains Industry conference on August 1, Trade Minister Steven Ciobo described a series of trade tariffs imposed by India as "profoundly disappointing developments." Since late 2017 the Indian government has introduced a 30 percent tariff on the import of chickpeas and lentils, a 50 percent tariff on field peas and doubled the tariff on wheat to 20 percent. Ciobo said the government "was determined to vigorously defend" Australian farmers. "They have had, and will continue to have, an adverse impact on Australian producers," he told the conference. "In my meetings with Indian counterparts I have stressed that Australia is well placed to help meet India's growing food needs. But Australian exporters require certainty to enable further investment to expand and grow exports to the Indian market." "While some of these trade actions are within WTO rules, there are real doubts about other measures and we are working closely with industry and other affected trading partners to evaluate the prospects for a successful challenge." Ciobo also said he had reached out to the Trump administration for more details on a 12 billion U.S. dollars agriculture assistance package announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in late July. Under the program, farmers will be compensated for financial losses due to new tariffs and the government will purchase excess commodities. Australian farmers have expressed concerns over the packages, saying it would harm them in the export market. Ciobo said the package highlights the fact that escalating tariffs is a vicious cycle. PHNOM PENH, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Thursday that a new government will be formed on Sept. 20 after his ruling party won a sweeping victory in the Sunday's election. Speaking to thousands of garment factory workers here, Hun Sen said the country's King Norodom Sihamoni will preside over the opening session of a new parliament on Sept. 19; then, the new parliament will vote for the formation of a new government on the following day. "In the morning of Sept. 20, the new government will be formed, and a swearing-in ceremony will be held in the afternoon, and on Sept. 21, the first new Cabinet meeting will be convened," he said. Meanwhile, the prime minister expressed his profound gratitude to the people for participating in the democratic process and voting freely for political parties they liked. He also thanked the people for their continued support for the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Twenty political parties contested in the Sunday's general election. The National Election Committee's preliminary results indicated that the CPP won the election, receiving 4.87 million votes, or 76.78 percent, of the total valid votes. With the victory, Hun Sen, who has been in power for 33 years, will continue to lead the government for another five years. The Southeast Asian country holds a general election once every five years. The Sunday's general election was the sixth of its kind since 1993. VIENTIANE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- People affected by widespread flooding in southern Laos look set to receive full compensation as the government has determined that the flood was not a natural disaster, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Thursday. Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday to discuss measures to assist the victims of the devastating flood, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone said the disaster was not caused by natural events so the compensation package should be more than was usually awarded. "The flood was caused by a fracture in the dam," he told a meeting of the National Ad Hoc Committee which is in charge of dealing with the aftermath of the disaster. Ministry representatives, who are members of the committee, attended the meeting, which was chaired by Sonexay. Office Head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines Daovong Phonekeo, who was present at the meeting, told Vientiane Times on Wednesday that the meeting agreed in principle that the compensation package should be different from that normally awarded to the victims of natural disasters. On July 23, a saddle dam of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric power project, invested by South Korean, Thai and Lao companies, burst, unleashing 5 billion cubic meters of water from the mountain to 13 villages of Sanamxay district downstream the Xe Pian River, some 560 km southeast of Vientiane. Six villages were almost submerged by the muddy flood, with 13,000 villagers being affected. Till Monday, 11 people have been confirmed dead, 120 others remain missing in the accident. HOUSTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- "Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false," the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tweeted Wednesday. Meanwhile, ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said the agency is "looking into the report of the death after custody, but without any specifics about who this was, we are unable to provide anything further at this time." According to reports, a child who had been held at an immigrant detention facility in Dilley died following a release from detention. It was initially reported by a Houston immigration attorney Tuesday night on Twitter and then went viral on social media. Dilley is the largest of ICE's three family detention centers, with a capacity of about 2,400 people. It is located about 430 km southwest of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. Under the "Zero-Tolerance Policy for Criminal Illegal Entry" announced by Attorney-General Jeff Sessions on April 6, U.S. Homeland Security officials are now referring all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining the children because they have not been charged with a crime like their parents. One month ago, a federal judge in San Diego, California issued a preliminary injunction ordering the U.S. border authority to stop separating migrant parents and children who have crossed over from Mexico and to work to reunite the separated families within 30 days. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 12:31:53|Editor: mym Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Tensions between the United States and Turkey further escalated Wednesday after Ankara criticized the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on two Turkish senior ministers over a detained American pastor. In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry vowed to "retaliate" against U.S. "aggression" over the case of Andrew Brunson "without any delay," and called on Washington to reverse its decision. "There is no doubt that this decision, which is a disrespectful intervention in our legal system, is contrary to our relationship with the United States and that it will cause great harm to ongoing constructive efforts to solve the problems between the two countries," it said. Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, saying they had "played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson." Denouncing the move as "unfair and unjust," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Brunson's detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials are simply "unacceptable," and the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately. As a result of these sanctions, any property or interest in property of both Turkish ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. On the same day, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press briefing that President Donald Trump has discussed the matter of Brunson on "several occasions" with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and "he's not happy with Turkey's decision not to release Pastor Brunson." "The President has been closely following the ongoing situation in Turkey involving Pastor Andrew Brunson," she said, adding the U.S. sanctions were directed by Trump. Brunson was indicted for allegedly having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish preacher who has allegedly masterminded the failed coup attempt in 2016 to topple Erdogan. A Turkish court last week agreed to move Brunson from prison to house arrest over health concerns, but it still does not allow him to return to the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said later that this "long overdue" move "is not enough," and Washington calls on Turkish authorities "to resolve his case immediately in a transparent and fair manner." However, on Tuesday, Brunson's appeal to be released from house arrest was rejected by the court. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said last month that the United States will slap "significant" sanctions on Turkey unless it releases Brunson "immediately." Trump also said earlier that Brunson's detention was "a total disgrace," and urged Ankara to release him soon. For its part, the U.S. Senate introduced bipartisan legislation on July 19 to restrict loans from international financial institutions to Turkey "until the Turkish government ends the unjust detention of U.S. citizens." Turkey responded with a strongly worded statement. Its National Security Council said on Monday that the threatening language of the United States is "unacceptable and disrespectful." Besides Brunson's case, there have already been too many issues between the two countries standing in the way of a rapprochement, Wayne White, former deputy director of the Middle East Intelligence Office of the U.S. State Department, told Xinhua earlier. He cited among others the U.S.-Turkish spats over the detention of several U.S. citizens and the extradition of Gulen, and the U.S. military presence in Syria. Turkey's purchase of a Russian S-400 missile defense system has become a new flashpoint. The U.S. Congress has introduced another bill to prevent the transfer of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, claiming that Russian systems would not be interoperable with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and could compromise the security of U.S. jets and NATO allies at large. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 12:41:55|Editor: mym Video Player Close SANTIAGO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chilean President Sebastian Pinera led a series of activities on Easter Island Wednesday to highlight a new law designed to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the remote island. The law restricts tourists on the island, also known by its indigenous name Rapa Nui, to a stay of no longer than 30 days, mainly to minimize the impact of visitors during the peak tourism season. "We know full well there are many tourist sites that were destroyed and then disappeared because they were not protected in time," Pinera said. The law will be in effect by February 2019, obliging those who plan to stay longer, mainly seasonal tourism workers, to apply for a special extension from the local government. Residents welcomed the measure, according to Rapa Nui Mayor Pedro Edmunds, because they have seen their quality of life deteriorate with environmental degradation, increased pollution and an overburdened waste management system. Chile's Deputy Tourism Minister Monica Zalaquett told El Mercurio Online if a person wishes to work on the island, "there must be a work contract. A person can no longer simply go to the island and try their luck." The goal "is to know who is on the island, what their situation is and their intent to stay," Zalaquett said. "Those who do not follow these procedures, both businesses and individuals alike, risk a monetary fine, legal issues and being ejected from the island," she warned. According to the 2017 Census, the resident population of the island numbers 7,750, which swells to 15,000 during the peak season. The government is following the practice of the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, which restricts the number of visitors as part of a conservation effort. Easter Island, known for its giant stone-carved heads facing out to sea, is located at the southernmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in the South Pacific, and is considered one of the world's remotest inhabited regions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 12:46:55|Editor: mym Video Player Close RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Fields Medal, regarded as the Nobel prize for mathematics, was stolen minutes after it was awarded to a Cambridge professor here Wednesday. Caucher Birkar, an Iranian Kurdish mathematician, was one of the four joint winners of the prestigious honor at the International Congress of Mathematics, which was held for the first time in crime-ridden Rio. Yet he soon realized the 14-karat gold medal was stolen after he put it in a briefcase. Security officials at the congress venue found the empty briefcase under a bench in a nearby pavilion. Police have identified two potential suspects from security camera footage. The organizing committee of the event, held every four years, said it "profoundly regrets" the incident. "Images recorded at the event are being analyzed. The organizing committee is cooperating with local police authorities in their investigation," it said in a statement. Specialized in algebraic geometry, Birkar was born in 1978 in a village in Kurdistan Province near the Iran-Iraq border. He came to Britain as a refugee some 20 years ago. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 13:27:00|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close SYDNEY, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Two men have been charged with major drug offenses after allegedly dumping about 600 kg of cocaine in the ocean in a pursuit by a multi-agency security taskforce off the coast of northern New South Wales state, Australian police said on Thursday. Border and defense forces first spotted the duo, aged 36 and 53, heading toward shore in a small vessel on Wednesday, according to a joint statement from agencies including the federal police and criminal intelligence commission. The men attempted to evade the authorities, "jettisoning items into the sea". The two were later intercepted and the retrieved items were found to contain the illegal drugs. "That we have stopped such a large amount of cocaine from hitting the streets of Australia is a testament to the combined efforts of all agencies involved," said Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Andrew Donoghoe. "Our significant on-water presence has once again seen a large-scale importation of drugs thwarted," said Commander Maritime Border Command, Rear Admiral Peter Laver. Investigations are ongoing and there could be more arrests related to the major drug bust, said police. The two suspects were charged with possession of a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug and face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. CANBERRA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Australia's consumer watchdog has issued a new warning about potentially lethal "ticking time bomb" Takata airbags. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed that 1.6 million vehicles which have been recalled because of the airbags have not had the airbags replaced, 19,000 of which have the potentially lethal Alpha airbag. New South Wales (NSW) has the highest number of vehicles that have not been fixed with 448,000 followed by Victoria with 400,000. Delia Rickard, chair of the ACCC, said that almost 10,000 of the Alpha airbags were in NSW and Victoria. "I think they are ticking time bombs, which is why we have been unequivocal in our advice," she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio on Thursday. "If you have one of these cars don't drive it ... there's a one in two chance that if there is a collision those bags could explode (and) spray metal shrapnel all over the car." The airbags were most prominent among Toyota's with 582,000 vehicles affected followed by Honda (436,000) and Holden (330,000). Of the manufacturers affected, Honda had the highest replacement rate of 84 percent. The ACCC released the data on Thursday to hold manufacturers with a low replacement rate to account. "One of the things we are doing by making the replacement rates publicly available, it creates the incentive on all manufacturers to make sure they are putting their all into it," Rickard said. "Should we become worried about anyone and we think they're not doing the right thing, we have no hesitation on calling them out for it." HOUSTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Five people were injured Wednesday in explosions from a pipeline southeast of Midland in the U.S. state of Texas, according to local police. First responders from fire and public safety departments were among the injured. Authorities said that there is no danger to the general public. Midland is a city located on the Southern Plains of Texas state's western area. Due to the oil boom in Midland, its population has been growing and today is estimated to be above 150,000. It is the hometown of former First Lady Laura Bush, and the onetime home of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, and former First Lady Barbara Bush. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 14:07:08|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six American firms that emerged from a national innovation competition in the United States will travel to China later this year to vie for investment and more business opportunities in the world's second-largest economy, organizers said Wednesday. The six companies from Seattle in the western U.S. state of Washington and the states of Colorado and California are part of the 100 U.S. tech firms that will go to China this fall to tap the Chinese market and seek investors, after they won the preliminary rounds of the nationwide innovation competition InnoSTARS organized by U.S.-China Innovation Alliance (UCIA). UCIA is a nonprofit organization with the mission to connect U.S. innovations with Chinese resources. The companies were among the lucky finalists selected from about 300 candidates that emerged victoriously from preliminary contests, in which nearly 1,000 companies applied to compete, in seven U.S. innovation centers -- Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle. Apart from the benefits of an all-paid trip to China, the companies will be invited to attend the 2018 "Talents Make Future" Overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, which will be held in Guangzhou, southern China, in mid-December this year. "We were impressed by the companies that you selected for this phase of the competition and see value in most. Thanks for including us in the process," said Darrel Smith, president and CEO of HydroStar USA, a firm dedicated to a new, low-cost, green technology that produces hydrogen gas from electrolysis by using a proprietary electrolyte called B9. Ryan Vogel, executive director and founder of PureBlue that focuses on sustainable, economical management of sea, waste and groundwater resources, praised InnoSTARS as an entrepreneurial channel for U.S. technology companies to access Chinese players and markets. "The eclectic mix of judges, presenting CEOs, and innovations had me on my toes and engaged for nine hours" in the preliminary contest, he said. The InnoSTARS Seattle preliminary round was completed last Friday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 14:42:14|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close KUNMING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A 45-meter-tall endangered Annamocarya sinensis was found in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province, according to the local Forest Public Security Bureau. A research team found the plant, with a diameter of 7.7-meters, in Pianyan Village of Malipo County. The tree may be one of the largest of its kind in China and the world, according to the team. Further analysis will be made with an aim to better protect the plant. The research team also found more than 200 Annamocarya sinensis of uneven sizes in Malipo county. As a plant under state protection (category II), Annamocarya sinensis is also on the list of "Critically Endangered Species" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The plant has been included into a recovery plan for species in China that have a tiny population due to its extremely low reproduction rate and diminishing living environment. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 14:42:14|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean minor progressive party neared the No.2 opposition party post in approval rating this week, a weekly survey showed Thursday. According to the Realmeter poll, support for the Justice Party reached a new high of 14.1 percent this week, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous week. It broke its prior record for the second consecutive week, coming closer to the main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party's support score that stood at 18.4 percent this week. The ruling Democratic Party maintained the top post with a wide margin with 41.9 percent of approval rating. The result was based on a poll of 1,502 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. In a separate poll of 1,000 voters conducted by Research View from Sunday to Monday, the Justice Party's support was 15 percent, surpassing the Liberty Korea Party's support rate of 13 percent. The Research View poll had 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. Higher support for the minor progressive party came as an influential lawmaker of the Justice Party killed himself on July 23 amid the probe into allegations that he had received illegal fund. On his suicide note, the deceased lawmaker, known for his clean and reformist image, admitted the acceptance of the fund, which he said had nothing to do with any illegal favors. The lawmaker's suicide raised calls for the revision of the political fund act that is too tight for lawmakers of a minor party to abide by. According to the Realmeter survey, support for President Moon Jae-in rose 0.9 percentage points over the week to 62 percent this week. Support for the minor conservative Bareun Future Party fell 1.5 percentage points to 5.5 percent, while the centrist Party for Democracy and Peace garnered 3.1 percent of support, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous week. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 14:52:19|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close BANGKOK, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has confirmed that hackers have stolen information of more than 120,000 customers in a massive data breach into two major commercial banks. Cybersecurity operators at BOT has vowed to step up security measures and oversight after Kasikornbank and Krung Thai Bank reported cyber attacks during the Buddhist Lent holiday last weekend, and BOT confirmed the attacks on Wednesday. However, executives of both banks said no suspicious transactions took place. Krung Thai Bank President Payong Srivanich said hackers used "advanced hacking techniques" to obtain personal data from 20,000 customers who had applied for credit online. According to the bank's website, customers applying for loans or lines of credit need to provide a copy of their ID card and census registration, including income and bank statements. Payong said the bank was able to immediately stop the hacking after the bank's IT Division reported suspicious activities of stealing data. "Krung Thai Bank quickly had cybersecurity expert to stop the breach and therefore no damages have been reported so far," said Payong, "however customers who were affected were quickly notified." Pipit Aneaknithi, president of Kasikornbank, said hackers obtained data from about 3,000 corporate customers who use an online bank guarantee service. Pipit said he believes the hackers were local bred and had the cybersecurity expert quickly block access into the bank's internal data. "The data that might have been leaked was public information of the customers including company's name and contact details," said Pipit, "there have been no reports of suspicious transactions from the hack." Pipit said he promises compensation to those affected. Thai Bankers Association President Predee Daochai said with the advanced technology in the Internet of Things (IoT), it is necessary to find more advanced levels in cybersecurity in the face of a rising global threat of cyber intrusion. WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The White House pointed a finger at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday for its failure in not consulting with President Donald Trump when officials dropped litigation that would have stopped the release of downloadable blueprints for making 3D-printed plastic guns. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a press briefing that the DOJ "made a deal without the president's approval." The deal she was referring to was a settlement reached between Texas-based Defense Distributed, an online organization that develops digital firearms files, and the U.S. State Department, which acted on the advice of DOJ lawyers, after Cody Wilson, owner of the blueprints, sued for the right to publish the designs. The settlement would allow Defense Distributed to release blueprints and instructions on how to make an untraceable and undetectable plastic firearm using a 3D-printer, which doesn't require a background check, a serial number, or a gun registration. A federal judge in Seattle in the state of Washington issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday to stop Defense Distributed and Wilson from publishing those downloadable files, which could have been available online on Wednesday. Sanders told reporters that the president "is glad this effort was delayed" so that he could have more time to review the issue, adding that the administration "supports the decades-old legislation already on the books that prohibits the ownership of a wholly plastic gun." The State Department's initial settlement with Defense Distributed unleashed waves of criticism about the potential proliferation of potentially lethal 3D-printed firearms. Attorneys general for eight U.S. states and the District of Columbia tried to block the settlement in a lawsuit filed Monday, while seeking the restraining order on the ground that the 3D guns would be a safety risk. A lawyer representing the company behind the 3D-printed gun said Wednesday that Defense Distributed may appeal the restraining order. The State Department got involved in the issue for that the online plans can be accessed worldwide, according to spokeswoman Heather Nauert. She said Tuesday that the State Department "wants to prevent the wrong people from acquiring weapons overseas," but the DOJ recommended the federal government settle the case "based on First Amendment grounds" allowing the release of those files. "We took the advice of the Department of Justice, and here we are right now," Nauert added. Trump also weighed in on the matter on Tuesday by tweeting that he is "looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public." The president also mentioned that he had spoken with the National Rifle Association (NRA), the country's largest pro-gun political group, adding that making 3D plastic guns available to the public "doesn't seem to make much sense!" The NRA said in a statement Tuesday that undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for "30 years" regardless of what's published online, citing a federal law passed in 1988 making it "unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive an undetectable firearm." Those guns can be manufactured with a 3D printer. Made of a hard plastic, they are simple to assemble, easy to conceal and difficult to trace. Republican Congressman Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, voiced concerns that the publication of the blueprints could enable terrorists and international criminal organizations to make and get their hands on undetectable guns. "It is critical that our laws keep pace with technology. We can't give terrorists or violent criminals an easier path to obtaining deadly weapons," Royce said. However, industry experts doubt that criminals or terrorists would choose 3D-printed guns as they are considered unreliable and inaccurate and much more costly and difficult to manufacture than traditional firearms. COLOMBO, Aug 2 (Xinhua) -- Laos will provide visa-on-arrival to travelers from Sri Lanka from Aug. 1, the foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday. "Sri Lankan citizens holding valid travel documents could apply for visa-on-arrival at the international border check points of the Lao People's Democratic Republic," the foreign ministry said. Currently, Sri Lankans can travel without pre-approved visas to Singapore, Indonesia and Maldives. SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's unification ministry said Thursday that the country has been in consultations to exempt the joint liaison office with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which the two sides planned to open later this month, from UN sanctions, according to Yonhap news agency report. An unnamed unification ministry official was quoted as saying the South Korean government "continued to consult" with relevant parties on the exemption of the inter-Korean liaison office from UN sanctions toward Pyongyang. South Korea and the DPRK agreed to set up the joint liaison office at the DPRK's border town of Kaesong in August. To operate the liaison office, oil supply would be needed to generate electricity for South Korean officials who stay in the DPRK border town, requiring a waiver over UN sanctions. Opening the liaison office would be part of efforts to implement the Panmunjom Declaration, which South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un signed after their first summit meeting on April 27 at the border village of Panmunjom. The inter-Korean industrial complex in Kaesong has been suspended since the previous South Korean government unilaterally closed it down in February 2016 over Pyongyang's nuclear test in the previous month. The DPRK's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang was exempted earlier from the UN sanctions as the reunion of Korean families separated across the inter-Korean border is scheduled to be held from Aug. 20-26 at the mountain resort. The inter-Korean tourism project in Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998, had been suspended since a South Korean female tourist was shot dead in July 2008 by a DPRK solider after allegedly venturing into an off-limit area. WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who's leading the wide-ranging Russia investigation, is seeking to interview U.S. President Donald Trump in person over the issue of obstruction of justice, media outlets reported Wednesday. Mueller has offered to reduce the number of obstruction-related questions that investigators would ask the president but wants obstruction to be addressed in person, not just in written answers, according to CNN. Trump's legal team had previously offered Mueller written answers to questions related to obstruction of justice. Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, revealed Wednesday that they are in the process of responding to Mueller's counter-proposal for a potential interview with the president. The president has "always been interested in testifying," said the former New York City mayor. "It's us, meaning the team of lawyers, including me, that have the most reservations about that." The two sides are still negotiating, but they're only taking "baby steps," according to CNN. Giuliani told CNN on Monday that the legal team is open to Mueller interviewing Trump with questions related to "an area of collusion, not obstruction." But he also said the team would consider "one or two questions" of obstruction if "they really need." Trump escalated his attacks against the Mueller-led probe early Wednesday, urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down the wide-ranging inquiry. In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Trump said Sessions should stop the Mueller probe, which he again labelled as "Rigged Witch Hunt." Addressing speculation about the president's intention, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a press briefing later in the day that the tweet is an "opinion," not an "order." Trump's tweet is viewed as the most direct call that demands Sessions intervene to end the probe, which critics say amounts to an attempt to obstruct justice, a claim that Sanders rejected. Sessions infuriated the president by recusing himself from the Russia investigation last March before Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who's overseeing the inquiry and has defended the special counsel. Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Since Mueller began to lead the probe in May 2017, he has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people, including several former Trump campaign aides. The New York Times reported last month that Mueller is also investigating Trump's tweets criticizing Sessions as to whether the president has obstructed justice. In other tweets Wednesday, Trump repeated his attacks against the probe by calling it "a hoax," claiming that Mueller is "totally conflicted" and what his team is doing is "a disgrace" to the country. As the Russia probe continues, Trump and his political allies have ratcheted up pressure on Mueller and his team in recent months. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 15:37:28|Editor: ZX Video Player Close YINCHUAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region plans to establish the country's first "Internet Plus Healthcare" demonstration zone, the regional government announced Tuesday. According to the plan approved by the National Health Commission, Ningxia will build a healthcare big data center in the city of Zhongwei and will set up an industrial park in Yinchuan, the regional capital, to attract healthcare enterprises. Ningxia is committed to integrating Internet Plus with medical care to ensure more comprehensive coverage of high-quality medical resources and improve the efficiency of medical services, according to Huang Yong, deputy director of Health and Family Planning Commission of Ningxia. Huang said that Ningxia has made significant progress in "Internet Plus Healthcare" over the past few years. A telemedicine system has been put in place, connecting seven hospitals at the regional level, 22 hospitals at the municipal or county level, and 196 medical care institutions at township level. China issued a guideline in April to enhance the role of Internet Plus in medical care, calling for the use of Internet technologies to improve the quality of public health services. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 16:02:37|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close File photo taken on July 10, 2018 shows Turkish Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu attending a meeting in Ankara, Turkey. Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, who were sanctioned by the United States, dismissed late Wednesday and Thursday Washington's sanction over the imprisonment of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey. (Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya) ANKARA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The two Turkish ministers, who were sanctioned by the United States, dismissed late Wednesday and Thursday Washington's sanction over the imprisonment of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey. In his official Twitter account, Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul said late Wednesday he has "not even a single cent" in the United States. "I did not have any dream but living in my country," Gul said. "We have one property in America, and it is FETO. We will not leave him there. We will take him," Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu said on his Twitter account on Thursday in a reference to U.S. based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen and his movement, dubbed by Turkish government as the Fetullahist Terror Organization (FETO). The U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement that the two Turkish ministers had "played leading roles in the organizations which were responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson." Under the sanctions, any property, or interest in property, belonging to Gul and Soylu within U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked. Americans would generally be prohibited from doing business with them. Brunson, a 50-year-old Christian pastor, was detained two years ago in Turkey on spying charges, and faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty. COLOMBO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government will develop the former war-torn northern district of Mannar into a tourism hub by modernizing its infrastructure and conserving key attractions, local media quoted Tourism Minister John Amaratunga as saying Thursday. Amaratunga said that he will be sending officials from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority to Mannar to evaluate how the government should conserve attractions and develop the district for tourism. Some of the key attractions that will be promoted will be the popular Adam's Bridge, the Wilpattu National Park, the Madhu Church, Hindu Temples, colonial architecture, marine resources, Mannar culture and the baobab tree. "We want to bring investors to Mannar to open hotels, restaurants and recreation centers," he said. The accommodation capacity of Mannar District is currently below 500, official data showed. Just one project with 52 rooms had got final approval for construction from the government over the past eight years. Amaratunga said that while the government will work to increase investor interest in Mannar tourism, it will also support the development of home stay units. The government will also work on improving the basic infrastructure Mannar needs in the form of better roads, electricity and water accessibility. The minister also cited the lack of air connectivity to Mannar as a reason for the district's poor performance in tourism. He said the Hingurakgoda Airport in north central Sri Lanka will be opened up for domestic air traffic. Sri Lanka's tourism industry, which was once heavily scarred by a 30-year civil conflict, has become one of the leading industries after it was dubbed as one of the world's greatest tourist hot spots by several international publications. Tourist arrivals have recorded a growth of 15.3 percent during the first half of 2018 compared with the same period last year, recent statistics from the Tourism Ministry showed. WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Three U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday that would change the process that the Trump administration is using to impose tariffs on imports from other economies. The legislation, introduced by Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama and Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, would overhaul Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Section 232, which provides a tool for the president and the Congress to address what they consider to be threats to national security, has been frequently adopted by the Trump administration. The administration has used Section 232 to unilaterally impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as well as launch import-related investigations, drawing strong opposition from the domestic business community and major U.S. trading partners. The proposed legislation would update Section 232 to allow a bigger role for the U.S. Department of Defense in determining whether imports coming into the country threaten its national security. The new bill will also see the Congress play a larger role in deciding when to levy tariffs based on concerns of national security. "I have repeatedly expressed concerns about the misuse of the Section 232 statute to impose tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, and its impact on Ohio jobs and the U.S. economy as a whole," Portman was quoted by The Hill newspaper as saying. "I know that misusing our trade tools not only hurts our exports and our manufacturers, but also our consumers, so I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation," he said. Trump signed proclamations in March imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum pursuant to Section 232. Two months later, Trump instructed the U.S. Department of Commerce to launch an investigation into automobile imports under Section 232, which may lead to an increase in tariffs of up to 25 percent. Those protectionist moves met with retaliatory tariffs, hitting American manufacturers and farmers, among others. Responding to the proposed legislation to revise Section 232, Joshua Bolten, president and CEO of Business Roundtable, an association of executives of leading U.S. companies, said "it furthers the important goal of preventing misuse of Section 232 to restrict trade inappropriately." "Section 232 is intended to be used to combat real national security threats -- not as an excuse to raise blanket tariffs on other countries," Bolten said in a statement. Last month, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a non-binding motion to give Congress a role in deciding whether tariffs should be imposed on the ground of national security under Section 232. "Tariffs are a tax on the American people, and as the U.S. economy and American businesses and consumers begin to feel the damaging effects of incoherent trade policy, I believe support for our legislation will only grow," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 16:52:47|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland was optimized in quality and quantitative growth, thanks to an improved business environment, officials and experts said. FDI into the Chinese mainland rose 1.1 percent year on year to 446.29 billion yuan in the first six months of 2018, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC). In dollar terms, FDI inflow grew 4.1 percent to 68.32 billion U.S. dollars in H1, MOC data showed. Meanwhile, the number of new overseas-funded companies established in the Chinese mainland surged 96.6 percent from a year earlier to 29,591. "The fast growth of new overseas-funded companies benefited mainly from continuous improvement of China's overall business environment," said MOC spokesman Gao Feng. Foreign investors' confidence was constantly reinforced as Chinese market vitality was further stimulated by simplified company founding procedures and improved investment facilitation, Gao said. In the first half of this year, FDI in the high-tech manufacturing industry rose 25.3 percent year on year, led by investment growth of medical instruments, communications equipment, and computer and office equipment. Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for WTO studies, attributed foreign investors' enthusiasm to China's great market potential and eased restrictions. China's promise for a better business environment is becoming a reality, with accelerated implementation of opening up measures. The country has revised its negative lists for foreign investment, further widening market access in such areas as finance, transportation, energy, resources, agriculture, and culture. The nationwide negative list has been cut to 48 items from 63 in the previous version, while the list for pilot free trade zones decreased to 45 items from 95. Both lists came into effect at the end of July. "These lists have opened up areas that many overseas investors have long been interested in," Gao said, giving eased foreign equity restrictions in automobile and financial sectors as examples. "We believe the implementation of the new negative lists will further increase foreign investors' enthusiasm in investing in China," Gao said. Local governments are vying with each other for foreign investment. In June, Beijing made a plan to improve the business environment by giving equal treatment to all enterprises and abolishing rules that impede fair play. In Shanghai, a total of 100 new measures were introduced last month to expand the city's opening up in multiple areas including banking and securities industries. In other regions, local authorities have streamlined administrative approval procedures. "We will continue to strive for a better business environment and protect the rights and interests of foreign companies in China," Gao said. "We hope more foreign businesses of excellence will be attracted to China and seize the opportunities here to realize common development, and that China will remain the top choice for foreign investors," he said. According to the China Business Climate Survey Report 2018 by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China), 74 percent of its members planned to expand their investment in China, the highest rate in years. The European Union Chamber of Commerce also reported that more than half its members would extend their business operations in China. HANOI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ford Vietnam is recalling 2,566 Ford Ranger pickups produced between June 2015 and February 2016 and imported to Vietnam from Thailand, the Vietnam Register said on Thursday. The vehicles slated for recall may have a defect relating to the gearshift cable-retaining clip. The clip may not be securely fastened, which could lead to the gearshift cables making contact with the driveshaft. Continued contact between the gearshift cables and drive shaft can damage both components. This could result in difficulty in changing gears or loss of drive. There have been no reported accidents relating to the defect, Ford Vietnam stated. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 17:17:55|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday. Wang made the remarks at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting. The draft text will be the basis of future COC negotiations. NEW DELHI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Thursday left for a four-day tour of three Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. According to the External Affairs Ministry, Swaraj will be in Kazakhstan on Aug. 2-3, in Kyrgyzstan on Aug. 3-4 and in Uzbekistan on Aug. 4-5. Swaraj's first stop will be Kazakhstan Astana, where she will hold discussions with her Kazakh counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov and call on the country's top leadership, sources said. From Kazakhstan, the Indian minister will go to Kyrgyzstan, where she would hold talks with the country's Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev and meet the top leadership too, sources said. In the last leg of her tour, Swaraj will go to Tashkent. "In that country also, the Indian minister will call on the leadership and meet its foreign minister," sources said. In the Central Asian countries, the minister will also interact with the Indian community. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 17:58:02|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy Li Xiaopeng, also the transport minister, will attend the Colombian presidential inauguration in Bogota, which is scheduled for Aug. 7. Li's attendance is at the invitation of the Colombian government, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Thursday. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 17:58:03|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BRUSSELS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of European Union (EU) and the United States agreed last week to start trade talks towards zero tariffs, barriers and subsidies on non-auto industrial goods, diffusing lingering trade tensions. The EU pledged to expand soybeans imports and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, which was sold by U.S. President Donald Trump as a success. The United States agreed to hold off on tariffs on cars and auto parts from the EU, which was hailed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as a "major progress". However, with the details of the deal being "vague" and the U.S. tariff threats on EU cars remaining, experts believe the deal is more a "political show" and the future trade talks between Brussels and Washington are still full of uncertainties. AGRICULTURAL DEAL? The EU's commitment to buy more soybeans from the United States allowed Trump to claim victory ahead of November's mid-term election. "We just opened up Europe for you farmers. You're not going to be too angry with Trump, I can tell you... you have just gotten yourself one big market that really essentially never existed," Trump said in the farming state of Iowa on Thursday last week. "European Union representatives told me that they would start buying soybeans from our great farmers immediately. Also, they will be buying vast amounts of LNG!" Trump wrote on Twitter. However, European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters on Friday last week in Brussels that agriculture is out of the scope of U.S.-EU discussions. In the July 25 joint statement following Juncker's Washington visit, one can see a mention of farmers and a mention of soybeans, which would be a part of the discussions, but one doesn't see the word "agriculture" mentioned in the statement, experts say. "The promise to buy more U.S. agricultural products is both empty and easy to fulfill," said Daniel Gros, director of the Brussels-based think tank Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS). "Empty because the Commission does not have any means to get EU importers to buy more U.S. Soybeans," Gros added in a written interview with Xinhua. Though the latest EU statistics issued on Aug. 1 showed that the EU had an increase of 283 percent in imports of soybeans from the U.S., bringing the EU's total share of imports of U.S. soybeans to 37 percent, up from 9 percent one year ago, experts believe that the situation is driven by market conditions, not political intent. It's "easy to fulfil the promise because other producers of Soybeans will switch their exports to the Chinese market, freeing the EU market for U.S. producers," said Gros. AUTO TARIFF THREATS Juncker said that EU's commitment to buy more soybeans had helped to convince Trump to call a truce on the tit-for-tat trade dispute. He told reporters that "our American friends agreed not to increase tariffs on cars and other products during the negotiation" is a "major progress" and "a major concession" by the Americans. However, Phil Levy, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs told POLITICO that this deal won't stop the president from going ahead with auto tariffs in late-August or early September. Bernd Lang, chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, said it was "very regrettable" that the U.S. threat of punitive tariffs on metals and cars remains, which is not a "good basis for concrete negotiations". "This threat on EU car exports remains, obviously. Trump wants to use it as a bargaining chip," said Gros. "Maybe the EU could diffuse this threat by offering to limit its exports in a VER (voluntary export restrictions)," he added. The EU also agreed to work towards purchasing U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG), a promise which according to some analysts is also believed to be "empty". "I believe there were very few actual concessions. LNG purchase will only take place if market terms are right," said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels. In terms of prices, U.S. LNG can't compete with pipeline-delivered natural gas from Russia, energy consultants and analysts say. FUTURE UNCERTAINTIES The fact is that Brussels and Washington have only agreed to begin talks, and the future talks are full of uncertainties, analysts say. French President Emmanuel Macron said last week in Madrid that he was "not in favor" of a "vast new trade deal" between the EU and the United States. He reaffirmed his opposition to including agriculture in any such trade deal. "I believe that no European standard should be suppressed or lowered in the areas of the environment, health or food, for example," he said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also said though the Europe wants no trade war but he was determined to defend the EU's common agricultural policy. "These negotiations will be very difficult. If Congres does not agree, there will be no agreement," Gros said. MANILA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A person of interest has been taken into custody in connection with the "car bombing" that killed 11 people and injured seven others in the southern Philippines, authorities said on Thursday. Authorities said the suspect Indalin Jainul, 58, also known as Abdulgani, is in custody as the investigation continues to get into the bottom of the July 31 "car bombing" in Lamitan City in Basilan, an island province off Mindanao island. Authorities alleged that the suspect is a preacher and has allegedly helped the Abu Sayyaf militants in the province, a known stronghold of the Islamist extremist groups that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in the Middle East. But authorities are still trying to cull evidence that will link the suspect to the July 31 bombing. So far, police have only found grenades from the suspect. Police are preparing to file criminal charges against Jainul, including illegal possession of explosive. There are no other details on how the suspect ended up in police custody. The suspect could face charges of multiple murder, multiple serious physical injuries if proven guilty. Authorities also said that they had identified the owner of the van used by the bomber who also died when the van exploded. A powerful bomb rigged to the vehicle exploded on Tuesday at 5:50 a.m. local time at a military checkpoint in Colonia village in Lamitan City in Basilan, an island province off Mindanao. ULAN BATOR, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will hold a festival of intangible cultural heritage called "Nomadic Mongolia" on Aug. 11-15 near Ulan Bator, with the aim of preserving traditional culture and customs for the next generation and attracting more tourists, a Mongolian cultural specialist said Thursday. "The event is expected to bring together the most skilled and unique intangible cultural heritage carriers across Mongolia," Damdindorj Mendsaikhan, a specialist in charge of intangible cultural heritage of the Culture and Arts Authority which is an implementing agency of the Mongolian government, told Xinhua. "We aim to present the daily lifestyle of the nomadic Mongolians and our intangible cultural heritage and customs to not only foreign tourists but also our younger generation," she said. Exhibitions of handcrafts, traditional clothing and dairy products, as well as folk art performances will be held during the cultural event. Mongolia, one of the last nomadic countries in the world, has been striving to attract tourists by organizing cultural events in a bid to diversify its mining-dependent economy. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 18:53:22|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Photo taken on July 24, 2018 shows dairy farmer Sarah Lloyd standing in Neldell farm located in rural Dells of Wisconsin, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) by Xinhua writers Liu Chen, Hu Yousong WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of her dairy farm, Sarah Lloyd, a dairy farmer from the midwest United States, told Xinhua recently. Yet she seemed to be devoid of the confidence that usually comes with such a milestone. "If we don't see any kind of light at the end of the tunnel soon, I can't imagine what will be milking cows next year," the 46-year-old said. Despite having suffered from stubbornly low milk prices for years, the Neldell farm, a private business established by the family of Lloyd's husband, was doing better for a while as the market showed signs of recovery. But the unexpected trade disputes initiated by the Trump administration have dealt a big blow to the U.S. dairy industry, and diminished hopes of survival for this medium-sized century-old farm. "We're entering a frightening trade war period," Lloyd said. "We're really struggling." LAST STRAW? "My husband's family has been milking cows for over 100 years," said Lloyd. "Next year will be the 100th year at this place." The Neldell farm, located in rural Dells of the north-central U.S. state of Wisconsin, was established by the grandfather of Sarah's husband, Nels Nelson. In 2002, with confidence in the future of the milk market, the Nelson family doubled the number of their herd from 125 to 250 cows and built a new dairy barn among other facilities. "Things are going pretty good except it's harder to make money," said Nelson, a third-generation farmer. "The problem is our cost has really risen for the last couple of years, and the margin has got smaller and smaller," the 53-year-old said. U.S. milk prices have been on a downward spiral after a peak in 2014 for over 25 U.S. dollars a hundredweight (or per 453.6 kg), mainly due to over-production and shrinking domestic consumption. Afterwards, the price once climbed to about 19 dollars a hundredweight in early 2017, but slumped this year to as low as 16 dollars. The industry was barely starting to recover when the tariffs came, Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin, told Xinhua. "So farms are now looking at another period of time with low prices," he said. As trade frictions flared up due to Washington's widely-condemned tariffs on multiple imports, some of U.S. dairy products' key export markets retaliated with extra tariffs, resulting in a significant drop in milk prices in the United States. For Nelson's farm, it could possibly be the last straw, pushing the long struggling family closer to the brink of ending their dairy business. Lloyd said the farm is currently paid around 16 to 17 dollars per hundredweight of milk, while what they needed was at least 18 or 19 dollars to break even. "We're probably losing about 30,000 dollars a month right now," the co-owner of the farm said. "We have to figure out a way to pay down our debts." WHAT'S NEXT? "It's really bad right now and we're not alone," said Lloyd. "It's really impacting everyone in the dairy industry." Statistics showed that in 2007 there were over 14,000 dairy farms in operation in Wisconsin, a state nicknamed "America's Dairyland," but the number has shrunk to around 8,500 so far this year. "We've been on a pretty steady decline, but it's escalating," Lloyd said. "At this very moment ... what we are going to lose is a lot of farmers," Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, told Xinhua in a recent interview. What's even worse was that few choices are left for dairy farmers. "It's not good to be a soybean or corn farmer right now either," Lloyd said. "Those prices are so low and they are also being impacted probably more so by tariffs and trade disputes." Soybean and corn prices have fallen by roughly 20 percent since Washington's tariffs have been met with retaliation, adding misery to many farmers growing the crops. Under such circumstances, "maybe some farmers just decide that it's time for me to retire, go out of business," said Stephenson, who has been in the dairy industry for over 30 years. "We've seen a little bit more of that happening too. That's an unfortunate side effect," Stephenson said. For Nelson, who has been working on his farm for decades, quitting the dairy business would be a harsh decision to make, though his father had suggested he do so. "His view is to cut our losses and quit milking now ... before we may lose more money," Nelson said. But the dairy farmer found it difficult to bid farewell to the cows. "You know the cows ... when you work with them all the time. That could make it kind of hard," he said. Meanwhile, Lloyd has already begun to plan for their future. "We would live off my income and then we would sort of regroup," said Lloyd, who is currently also working as a special projects coordinator for the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the director of development for the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative. Nelson said he had a dairy farmer friend who was one year his junior. This friend had already decided to retire due to the dim prospects for the industry. "It's probably time for me to consider that too," the veteran farmer said. MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least three local police officers were killed and three others injured after Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in Balkh province, north of Afghanistan, a local official said Thursday. "A group of Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in Chamtal district of Balkh province, on Wednesday night, killing three local police personnel on the spot and injuring three others," Munir Farhard, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Xinhua. The militants fled away after the deadly attack, the spokesman said, adding that police have launched operations to capture and bring to justice all those behind the offensive. Taliban militants have not commented on the attack. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 19:03:25|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Experts say the termination of over 200 Chinese-foreign run education institutions and programs could work as an incentive to improve the quality of such education, according to Thursday's People's Daily. A circular issued by the Ministry of Education in July said that 234 Chinese-foreign run education institutions and programs for undergraduate education and above had been terminated, including five institutions and 229 programs. The closures were due to factors including insufficient high-quality foreign education resources, low-quality teaching and lack of academic competence, which failed to satisfy and attract the students, the statement said. "These institutions and programs couldn't meet the demands for high-quality education in the new era," said Wang Qicai, associate professor at Shanghai Normal University, noting that the closures could be an incentive. "The termination helps bring in high-quality education resources," said Zhao Yanzhi, vice president of Dongbei University of Finance & Economics. "A good exit mechanism is an important link in the supervision over the quality of education, and ensures the healthy development of the Sino-foreign cooperatively run institutions." A number of experts believe that the move would help protect the rights and interests of students, and ensure education providers operate in accordance with the law. There are nearly 450,000 students currently attending Chinese-foreign run schools, and about 1.5 million have graduated from them, according to the ministry. As of June, there are 2,342 cooperatively run education institutions and programs in China, of which 1,090 are for undergraduate education and above. "China will continue to improve the exit mechanism to promote the quality and efficiency of these education institutes," the ministry said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 19:08:28|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close by Annie Cheung HONG KONG, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 senior citizens, wearing gray T-shirts as uniforms, got ready to deliver fight crime messages to the public on Wednesday when the Hong Kong Police launched a new round of publicity campaign. Despite the scorching heat, the seniors showed their passion in promoting crime prevention. Some of them handed out leaflets to passers-by on the street, while some invited people to get on board a truck-turned publicity vehicle named Fight Crime Vigour to play electronic games. Wu Mui-yung, 67, was among those senior crime fighters. "We've gained a lot of knowledge from Senior Police Call, so it's hard to make us fall prey to scams," said, Wu, who has become a member of Senior Police Call for three years. Established in 2014 by the police, the Senior Police Call scheme targets at Hong Kong residents over 55 years old, with the aim to enhance communication between the force and elderly people, and to reduce the chance of elderly people being crime victims. According to the police, a total of 3,671 cases of scam were recorded in the first half of 2018, with 248 cases involving citizens over the age of 60. At the same time, senior people were more prone to being victims in road accidents. "Senior Police Call is also a platform for senior citizens to participate in meaningful activities and to serve the community," said Roger Lau Kar-ming, Chief Inspector of Police from the Senior Police Call and Elderly Engagement Section. "I feel happier after joining Senior Police Call and I made a lot of friends there," Wu, who failed to build a proper social network after retiring, said that her children strongly encouraged her to do volunteer work offered by the senior scheme. Of the 7.4 million population in Hong Kong, about 1.16 million, or 16 percent, are people over 65 years old and above. As population ageing is expected to continue, the Census and Statistics Department of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said the proportion of people aged 65 and above is projected to 31 percent in 2036, and further rise to 37 percent in 2066. Chow Fung-kiu, 63, said after becoming a Senior Police Call member, she has a sense of duty to spread the message of crime prevention among people around her and to pay more attention to older people. "I hope that I can do something to assist the police in combating crime, by reminding elderly neighbors to be careful of suspected deception phone calls, for instance," she said. Two Fight Crime Vigour publicity trucks were deployed by the police during the campaign to visit 40 locations in Hong Kong for 10 days, to remind the public to stay vigilant against deception and comply with road traffic regulations. In addition, thematic computer games and information booths are available on the publicity trucks for visitors to gain a better understanding of the relevant themes. Lau said there are now close to 10,000 members under the Senior Police Call scheme. Besides traditional promotional methods, the police started a facebook page for the scheme in July as they noticed a trend of more elderly citizens are using social media, he added. HANOI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported nearly 2.6 million tons of fertilizers worth 728 million U.S. dollars from January and July, posting respective year-on-year drops of 14.1 percent and 9.1 percent. The country spent 552 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides, down 2.8 percent. In July alone, Vietnam imported 300,000 tons of fertilizers valued at 84 million U.S. dollars, and spent 90 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Thursday. Vietnamese agriculture experts said local farmers nationwide should use fewer amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, especially inorganic ones, because they waste too much money in over-fertilization and overuse of pesticides which also damage environment. Some 11 million tons of fertilizers are used in Vietnam every year with conventional urea used on rice. Farmers usually lose around half of the fertilizer amount, local experts said, noting that the loss can drop 20 percent if hi-tech fertilizers are used. In 2017, the country imported 4.6 million tons of fertilizers valued at 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, including 1.8 million tons worth 457.1 million dollars from the Chinese market, said the ministry. The fertilizers, mostly urea, Ammonium Sulfate, Potassium, Diammonium Phosphate and Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium fertilizers, were imported mainly from China, Russia, Japan, Belarus, Indonesia and Canada. ULAN BATOR, Aug.2 (Xinhua)-- The Mongolian Red Cross Society announced on Thursday it would offer direct financial assistance to a total of 457 households affected by severe flooding in four provinces of the country. Each of the 457 households, including 200 families in Bayan-Ulgii and 187 families in Khovd in the west could receive 240,000 tugrik (97 U.S. dollars) through commercial banks to meet their basic needs, the humanitarian organization said in a statement. Heavy downpours have been hitting large parts of Mongolia since the beginning of July, triggering massive flooding in some areas. Bayan-Ulgii, the worst affected province, has suffered direct economic losses of over 15 billion tugriks (over 6 million dollars) as a result, according to the latest estimate. Furthermore, more than 116 km of roads in 29 locations in 13 provinces have been damaged following massive flooding caused by heavy rains since July. The government of Mongolia on Wednesday decided to allocate 1.3 billion tugrik (528 million dollars) to renovate the damaged roads. Heavy rainfall across Mongolia is forecast to continue until mid-August and citizens have been urged to take extra precautions against expected disasters. TOKYO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A group of citizens including the 2008 Nobel laureate Toshihide Masukawa sued the Japanese government Thursday over the controversial security laws that were forcibly enacted in 2015 despite public opposition. The 143 plaintiffs filed the suit with the Nagoya District Court, saying that the controversial legislation that allows Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense or coming to the aid of an ally under attack, violates the country's pacifist Constitution. They said the controversial laws have violated their right to live in peace and caused emotional sufferings as they increased Japan's risks of being involved in wars or terrorist attacks, and sought 100,000 yen (895 U.S. dollars) in damages for each person. Masukawa, a Nagoya native, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with two other physicists for "the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature." He was also one of the founders of the Association of Scholars Opposed to the Security-Related Laws which was set up in 2013. The 78-year-old professor at Kyoto Sangyo University was a witness of the war himself when a firebomb dropped by a U.S. fighter plane landed in front of him in March 1945 and would have killed him. Luckily for him, the bomb didn't explode. Masukawa has told reporters that he doesn't want to be involved in wars again, and that he felt obligated to speak out on behalf of the public on this issue, as "researchers in particle physics are privileged to use a lot of taxpayer's money and should return the favor." Thursday's suit was just one of a series of lawsuits filed at 21 district courts across Japan, involving thousands of plaintiffs, according to local media. Japan abandoned its 70-year pacifism since the end of World War II as its parliament enacted a controversial legislation pushed by the government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2015. The controversial security laws, including amendments to 10 existing laws, took force in 2016 and allow Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack even if Japan itself is not attacked. Over 90 percent of Japan's constitutional experts believe that the legislation violates the Japanese supreme law. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 19:23:35|Editor: Xiang Bo Video Player Close BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Thursday honored the navy destroyer Haikou unit as "role models of the times." Representatives of the crew received medals and certificates of honor and the highlights of their outstanding service were acknowledged. The missile destroyer was launched in 2003 and has been primarily deployed in guarding the South China Sea. It has also completed multiple escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and participated in emergency maritime search and rescue missions, as well as a series of major drills. In recent years, it has been awarded first-class and second-class merit citations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 19:33:37|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday. Wang made the remarks at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting. The draft text will serve as the basis of future COC negotiations. It is another significant progress on the negotiation of COC, Wang noted. "I believe that the negotiation on COC can be speeded up if we exclude external interference," Wang said. Facts will prove that China and ASEAN member states are capable of maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and reaching regional rules adhered to by all through negotiations, Wang said. China has dispatched its most advanced rescue ship equipped with professional search-and-rescue teams to the Nansha Islands days ago, which will be stationed there to carry out various missions, and the ship will provide maritime assistance for ships from countries around the world when necessary, he said. China will provide service on scientific research and meteorology for the regional countries in the future, Wang added. Speaking on the same occasion, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan said ASEAN member states and China have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of COC which will be a living document and the basis of future COC negotiations. "We also agreed on the key modalities for future rounds of COC negotiations," the Singaporean foreign minister added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 19:38:39|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ratified Iran's membership in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) on Thursday, Tasnim news agency reported. In a ceremony on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore on Thursday, Iran officially joined the TAC Treaty. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the event. According to official IRNA news agency, there was a consensus among southeast Asian countries to accept Iran as a party to the treaty. This indicates the significance of interaction with Iran as an important and influential country in regional and international equations, the report said. On Wednesday, Zarif met Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for talks on the bilateral ties, the major regional and international issues, as well as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral nuclear agreement which the U.S. government withdrew back in May. In separate meetings, the Iranian foreign minister has held talks with his Japanese, Filipino and Turkish counterparts on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting to discuss the bilateral, regional and international issues. JAKARTA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian scientists have found a new frog species in a forest situated in mountainous area in western Java Island of western Indonesia, a researcher said on Thursday. The species with latin name of leptophryne javanica was discovered in Gunung Ceremai mountain, said Amir Hamidy, scientist at the Indonesian institute of science. The white or yellow new species has a small size of body with length of 22 to 29 centimeters, said the scientist. After carrying out a research on the frog the scientist concluded that it was a new species, he said. The scientist said that the new species naturally preys on insects, caterpillars and others species in the Ceremai mountain. "This frog plays important roles in maintaining ecosystem balance in Ceremai mountain," he said. The scientist, however, cited that the newly discovered frog is classified as a critically endangered species. The species population have decreased as its habitat forests have been continuously converted to agricultural lands, bringing them into the brink of extinction, he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 20:03:48|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A Palestinian worker fills a car with petrol at a gas station in the southern Gaza Strip City of Rafah, on Aug. 2, 2018. Petroleum and Gas Station Owners Association (PGSOA) in the Palestinian Gaza Strip warned on Thursday against the Israeli ban on the entry of gas and fuel into the blockaded territory. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar) GAZA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Petroleum and Gas Station Owners Association (PGSOA) in the Palestinian Gaza Strip warned on Thursday against the Israeli ban on the entry of gas and fuel into the blockaded territory. "The Gaza Strip suffers shortage of cooking oil and the Israeli decision will worsen the crisis... the move threatens draining the gas storage either for house or public use," Samir Hamada, an official with PGSOA, told Xinhua. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered fuel and gas to be banned from entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing from Thursday until further notice. Lieberman said the decision aimed to stop the Palestinian protesters from releasing arson balloons into the Israeli-occupied territories. Hamada said Gaza needs 350 ton of cooking oil per day, noting the accessible volume of oil via Kerem Shalom crossing was only for daily use. "The Israeli decision will leave Gaza without gas reserves," the official said, adding that the coastal enclave consumes 700,000 liters of diesel and 250,000 liters of gasoline per day. He stressed that local filling stations will run out of fuel within a few days. On July 9, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing for export and import as part of the measures against Hamas, the Islamic movement that runs the besieged Palestinian enclave. The Israeli decision came in response to the arson kites and helium balloons flying from Gaza into Israel, which caused large fires and losses in the Israeli territory. The sanctions came at a time of escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, created by a blockade imposed by Israel since Hamas violently took over the territory in 2007. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 20:08:49|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LONDON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Britain has one of the highest gender pay gaps in Europe, the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said in a hard-hitting report on Thursday. Rachel Reeves, the Member of Parliament who chairs the committee, said the study revealed that some companies have "obscene and entirely unacceptable" gender pay gaps of more than 40 percent. The committee's report said it wants to introduce laws for smaller companies wherein they will have to report gender pay levels and publish action plans on what they are doing to close the gap. It also wants companies to explain why the gender pay gap is happening. New analysis by the committee found that 1,377 employers -- 13 percent of the total -- have gender pay gaps in favor of men of over 30 percent. Citing evidence that the pay gap is higher in smaller businesses, the report wants the government to force companies employing 50 or more staff to publish gender pay gap data. Currently, only companies with over 250 staff are required to supply the data. Reeves said: "Gender pay reporting has helped to shine a light on how men dominate the highest paid sectors of the economy and the highest paid occupations within each sector." Reeves believes that gender pay gap is not a problem only about fairness. "The gender pay gap must be closed, not only in the interests of fairness and promoting diversity at the highest levels of our business community, but also to improve the country's economic performance and end a monstrous injustice." Reeves said a persistent gender pay gap shows that companies are failing to fully harness the talents of half the population. She said the penalties of working part-time, both financial and in terms of career progression, are major cause of the gender pay gap. "Companies need to take a lead. Why aren't they offering flexible working at senior levels? They must look at why they have a pay gap, and then determine the right initiatives, policies and practices to close it," added Reeves. "The Prime Minister spoke about the gender pay gap as a 'burning injustice' and of closing the gap for good within a generation. It's now time for the government and businesses to deliver on that ambition," said Reeves. PHNOM PENH, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and China on Thursday signed a protocol of phytosanitary requirements that will make way for the exports of yellow bananas from Cambodia to China. The protocol was inked here between Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo under the presence of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong. Veng Sakhon said bananas will be a new agricultural produce that Cambodia will export to China, following milled rice and dried cassava chips. "I'd like to express my profound gratitude to the government and people of China for having provided both technical and financial resources to Cambodia for socio-economic development, especially in agriculture," he said. "The protocol will pave the way for the exports of bananas from Cambodia to China," he said. Xiong said the protocol was a new achievement in agricultural cooperation and would contribute to boosting trade volume between the two countries. "The protocol will open the door for the exports of bananas from Cambodia to the Chinese market," he said. "I'm strongly confident that cooperation between China and Cambodia in all fields, especially in agriculture, will be further strengthened and expanded." Hean Vanhan, director general of the General Directorate of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Cambodia has planted about 5,000 hectares of yellow bananas for the exports. He said those yellow banana trees have been grown in three large plantations in Ratanakiri, Kratie, and Kampot provinces, yielding around 300,000 tons per annum. "Currently, we export yellow bananas to Vietnam," he told reporters after the signing ceremony. "China will be a new market for our bananas." Palestinians wait to fill containers with fuel after Israel stopped the transfer of fuel and cooking gas into Gaza, at a petrol station in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 17, 2018. (REUTERS) GAZA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Petroleum and Gas Station Owners Association (PGSOA) in the Palestinian Gaza Strip warned on Thursday against the Israeli ban on the entry of gas and fuel into the blockaded territory. "The Gaza Strip suffers shortage of cooking oil and the Israeli decision will worsen the crisis... the move threatens draining the gas storage either for house or public use," Samir Hamada, an official with PGSOA, told Xinhua. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered fuel and gas to be banned from entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing from Thursday until further notice. Lieberman said the decision aimed to stop the Palestinian protesters from releasing arson balloons into the Israeli-occupied territories. Hamada said Gaza needs 350 ton of cooking oil per day, noting the accessible volume of oil via Kerem Shalom crossing was only for daily use. "The Israeli decision will leave Gaza without gas reserves," the official said, adding that the coastal enclave consumes 700,000 liters of diesel and 250,000 liters of gasoline per day. He stressed that local filling stations will run out of fuel within a few days. On July 9, Israel closed the Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing for export and import as part of the measures against Hamas, the Islamic movement that runs the besieged Palestinian enclave. The Israeli decision came in response to the arson kites and helium balloons flying from Gaza into Israel, which caused large fires and losses in the Israeli territory. The sanctions came at a time of escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, created by a blockade imposed by Israel since Hamas violently took over the territory in 2007. KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas will recuse himself from decisions in which he was personally involved, including the graft case of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) said on Thursday. "We wish to report that the AG recused himself in all deliberations (regarding the Lim Guan Eng case), and will not be involved in any decision that the AGC will take in the pending case," the AGC said in a statement. Tommy served as Lim's counsel when Lim, also former chief minister of the northern Penang state, was accused of corruption involving his purchase of a property below market price. After the May 9 election, Lim became the finance minister while Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appointed Tommy as the new AG, leading some to question possible conflict of interests. The AGC was given until Sept. 3 to decide whether to drop the charges, to which Lim pleaded not guilty. DHAKA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Bangladesh Thursday signed agreements for 500 million U.S. dollars in loans to develop a state-of-the-art 800-megawatt (MW) power plant in the country's southwestern Khulna region, along with associated connections to natural gas and power transmission facilities. Muhammad Alkama Siddiqui, additional secretary (ADB Wing), Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Manmohan Parkash, ADB Bangladesh country director, signed the loan agreements on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB, respectively, at a ceremony in Dhaka. "This mega project builds on ADB's strong and sustained presence in the power sector of Bangladesh, and it will use the latest proven combined cycle technology, which offers the highest efficiency to convert gas to electricity," said Country Director Manmohan Parkash. "ADB places higher importance on introducing new and high-impact technologies to benefit member countries. This will be a state-of-the-art power plant using the latest zero-liquid discharge technology, making it the first of its kind in Bangladesh." Highlighting benefits of the project, Parkash said it will provide additional electricity supply to about 300,000 consumers, create new jobs, and stimulate business expansion. This environment friendly project will significantly improve energy security and enhance availability of efficient and cleaner energy. To supply gas to the Rupsha power plant, the project will construct 12 km of gas distribution pipelines, and finance construction of a 230-kilovolt switchyard and 29 km of high capacity transmission lines to transfer generated electricity to the national grid. According to an ADB statement, the project will also help in institutional strengthening of the executing agency, the North-West Power Generation Company Limited, by implementing a modern enterprise resource planning system, and providing training for implementation and operation of the system. A couple of gazelles are seen at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, July 23, 2016. The Maasai Mara National Reserve, popularly known as Africa's Greatest Wildlife Reserve, is a great tourist attraction center as it offers visitors an opportunity to observe the Africa's "big five": lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo and rhino. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei) NAIROBI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have called for an urgent action to help save Kenya's wildlife population from the current massive decline. The Kenyan and German scientists who conducted an aerial survey of wildlife in the East Africa nation said wildlife population has declined by around 68 percent from 1977-2018. "Increased human and livestock populations and climate change are to blame for the decline," Joseph Ogutu, lead researcher and lecturer at German's University of Hohenheim, Germany said in a recent study. The survey found out that seven wildlife species across Kenya were classed as critically endangered, 19 as endangered and 37 as vulnerable by 2013 while 44 ecosystems currently classed as endangered. Ogutu said the decline shows no signs of stopping, with species like the Thomson's gazelle, warthog and oryx among others, now under severe threat while numbers of Grevy's zebra and waterbuck have fallen lower than 2,000, putting them amongst a number of species whose future viability is under extreme risk. Photo taken on June 20, 2017 shows black rhinos in the Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya. Lake Nakuru lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park. The lake's abundance of algae attracts a vast quantity of flamingos that famously lined the shore. Other birds also flourish in the area, as do warthogs, baboons and other large mammals. Eastern black rhinos and southern white rhinos have also been introduced. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng) He said that although some species appear to do well when living in conjunction with humans, this has led to those which are particularly vulnerable to human expansion suffering some of the hardest losses. The scientist said degradation and fragmentation of rangeland habitats, clearing for agriculture, settlements and uncontrolled logging for the charcoal trade may be preventing wildlife from utilizing certain areas. The team also found that some migratory species, such as wildebeest and zebra are less likely to venture into the Mara region during dry seasons than previously seen, suggesting that these factors are contributing to a disruption of migration routes. The study found that even though overgrazing is causing the degradation of forage resources hence the decline of cattle in the areas, sheep and goats have seen massive growth over the study period. According to the survey, the populations of sheep, goats and camels increased by more than 76 percent, a likelihood that the increase is putting added grazing pressure on land that is shared with wildlife and restricting their access to resources and cover. "Competition with livestock, aggravated by poor forage due to steadily climbing temperatures, has driven wild buffalo from some areas altogether," he added. Ogutu suggested that more needs to be done to encourage wildlife conservancies across Africa, not just in Kenya. "It is important governments make wildlife conservancies economically viable for poor landowners to volunteer their land for use by wildlife and prevent the poisoning and poaching of wild species, as a way of restoring wildlife populations and their ecosystems," Ogutu noted. Two reticulated giraffes fight each other at Samburu National Reserve, north of Kenya, April 20, 2013. The Samburu National Reserve is located in northern Kenya with 165 square kilometers in size. It attracts animals because of the Ewaso Ng'iro river that runs through it and the mixture of acacia, riverine forest, thorn trees and grassland vegetation. Grevy's zebra, gerenuk, reticulated giraffes and beisa oryx here are more than those in other regions of the country. Besides, the reserve is also home to lion, crocodile. baboon, elephant and hundreds of species of birds. (Xinhua/Meng Chenguang) He cited Nakuru Conservancy that has succeeded as many previously declining species showed a marked increase between 1996 and 2015. The scientist praised Kenya for adapting the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act in 2013 but said that some restrictions need to be placed on land fragmentation such as through fences, illegal livestock grazing in parks, reserves and conservancies and livestock levels to reduce the impact of grazing on the rangelands. He said some landowners use the money from conservancies to build fences and increase their livestock herd size, causing further competition between their livestock and wildlife benefiting from the conservancies. The scientist observed that for the realization of conservation goals to be achieved, there is need for continued monitoring of population trends. "Wildlife conservancies, paired with policy reviews, effective wildlife management institutions and vibrant markets for wildlife will be the best way forward for conservation in Kenya," he added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:29:07|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIRUT, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 200 Syrian refugees have returned to their homeland from Lebanon in the past 24 hours, local media reported Thursday. "There are 102 children and 61 women in the refugees who returned to Syria through Qusayr border," Elnashra, an independent online newspaper, quoted a statement released by the refugee center affiliated with the Russian Defense Ministry as saying. To facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, Russia presented a proposal to the Lebanese authorities, which aimed at securing the return of 890,000 refugees to Syria. Meanwhile, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim announced Thursday after meeting with Lebanese caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil that Syrians who do not owe any dues to their host country can go to the Syrian borders. "After discussing the Russian strategy during our meeting, we believe that it is positive and aims at removing all obstacles that Syrians face in their return to their country," Karim said. "Syrian nationals who have spent over four years abroad can pay a certain amount of money to get exemption from compulsory military service," he noted. Karim said that Syria needs its people especially now that industrial zones and factories have reopened and are in need of a large workforce. More than 1 million Syrian refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon, while the Lebanese government estimated that the true number of Syrians in the country stands at 1.5 million. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:34:10|Editor: ZX Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday. Wang made the remarks at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting. The draft text will serve as the basis of future COC negotiations. It is another significant progress on the negotiations of COC, Wang noted. "I believe that the negotiations on COC can be speeded up if we exclude external interference," Wang said. Facts will prove that China and ASEAN member states are capable of maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and reaching regional rules adhered to by all through negotiations, Wang said. China has dispatched its most advanced rescue ship equipped with professional search-and-rescue teams to the Nansha Islands days ago, which will be stationed there to carry out various missions, and the ship will provide maritime assistance for ships from countries around the world when necessary, he said. China will provide service on scientific research and meteorology for the regional countries in the future, Wang added. Speaking on the same occasion, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan said ASEAN member states and China have arrived at a single draft negotiating text of COC which will be a living document and the basis of future COC negotiations. "We also agreed on the key modalities for future rounds of COC negotiations," the Singaporean foreign minister added. At a press conference after the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, the Chinese top diplomat said the biggest achievement made at the meeting is that the China-ASEAN relations have developed from growth to maturity, thus entering a new era of all-round development. "We will share opportunities and face challenges together so as to build a closer community with shared future." The China-ASEAN cooperation plan has been elevated to a new high, Wang said, noting that the two sides have reached consensus on the China-ASEAN Strategic Partnership Vision 2030. The two sides have also made achievements in security cooperation, innovation cooperation and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, he added. According to Wang, China will provide more financial support to China-ASEAN cooperation in the future. As this year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership, he also called for joint efforts to push for greater development in East Asian regional cooperation. SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management (SIPMM) said on Thursday that the country's purchasing managers' index (PMI), an early indicator of manufacturing activity, declined 0.2 points from 52.5 in May to 52.3 in July. It marks the 23rd month of consecutive expansion of Singapore's manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, the PMI of Singapore's electronics industry dropped from 51.9 to 51.6, marking the 24th month of consecutive expansion of Singapore's electronics industry. A PMI reading of 50 and above indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. Selena Ling, head of Treasury Research & Strategy of OCBC Bank, attributed the lower print for the manufacturing PMI to slower growth in new orders, new exports, factory output and inventory levels. She said there was a similar story seen in the electronics PMI sub-gauges. "Moreover, there is sustained contraction for both the manufacturing and electronics sectors' order backlog gauges, coupled with rising stocks of finished goods," she said. "They suggest that the PMI readings will continue to slide in the coming months." According to Ling, Singapore's manufacturing growth will slow down significantly from around 9.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year to around 1.9 percent in the second half, partly due to the high base in July-October 2017 and also the external uncertainties. Considering Singapore's GDP growth for the first six months of this year was estimated at 4.1 percent year-on-year, and the services sector was expected to take the drivers' seat in the second half, Ling said the OCBC's GDP growth forecast for the second half of 2018, which stands at around 2 percent year-on-year, was still reasonable. Thus, the bank will maintain its full-year GDP growth forecast at 3 percent. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:39:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Siemens has published mixed earnings data for the second quarter (Q2) of 2018 on Thursday, shortly after a new round of restructuring was announced at the German industrial corporation. Gross revenue at the DAX-listed company fell by an annual rate of 4 percent to 20.5 billion euros (23.8 billion U.S. dollars) in Q2 as negative currency effects exerted downward pressure on the nominal value of sales. During the same period, the volume of the corporate orders rose by 16 percent to 22.8 billion euros thanks to several large new orders. Operative profits from the core industrial business rose by 2 percent to 2.2 billion euros, resulting in an operative margin of 10.7 percent. The division was hereby buoyed by the strong performance of its "Digital Factory" business which specializes in solutions for the automation and digitalization of manufacturing. Net profits fell from 2.2 billion euros in Q1 to 1.2 billion euros in Q2, a circumstance which Siemens blamed on rising taxes delivered by the company to fiscal authorities. Nevertheless, chief executive officer (CEO) Joe Kaeser highlighted what he described as a solid overall quarterly performance in a difficult industry environment. "Our global team has delivered a strong quarter. This was underscored by excellent growth in new orders which outperformed the development of the wider market," a statement by Kaeser read. He added that the Munich-based company would continue to seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges it faced "in a responsible manner." Speaking to press after a supervisory board meeting on Wednesday night, Kaeser surprisingly announced the launch of a further round of corporate restructuring at Siemens as the CEO prepares to step down from his post in 2021. The "Vision 2020+" strategy is aimed at decentralizing the management of the sprawling industrial conglomerate and granting individual divisions more autonomy. "The core principle of the corporate strategy 'Vision 2020+' is to give the individual business significantly more entrepreneurial freedom under the strong Siemens brand," a statement by the company explained. Siemens hopes to achieve better mid-term growth in this fashion and achieve higher returns. "The times in which we could centrally and efficiently direct project-, product-, software- and service companies with their diverse requirements are over," Kaeser said. If implemented, "Vision 2020+" would result in a much slimmer corporate headquarters with more employees being posted directly at Siemens' global network of subsidiary companies and business units. For Kaeser, the restructuring effort could become his final legacy at Siemens as most of the projects outlined in the plan are scheduled for after the expiry of his contract. The CEO argued on Wednesday night that Siemens was now well-positioned to enter into a new phase of development as most of the goals of his earlier "Vision 2020" strategy had already been met. Siemens' shift towards a more decentralized form of organization occurs against a backdrop in which capital markets are increasingly pressuring industrial juggernauts in Germany to break up their unified organizational structure into several independent businesses. The development has sparked an ongoing leadership crisis at ThyssenKrupp where the CEO and board chairman have both resigned due to disagreement with shareholders over the future trajectory of the company. Nevertheless, Siemens labor representatives far expressed cautious optimism in reaction to the new "Vision 2020+" strategy. The path outlined by Kaeser was "correct in principle", supervisory board member and IG-Metall trade union executive Juergen Kerner said. Kerner warned, however, that it would be fatal for the 171-year old corporation to be transformed into a pure holding vehicle for financial investors. "Slicing up corporations with a broad portfolio is currently a popular game played by the so-called financial markets but a company like Siemens can act out of its own strength," he argued. Siemens has already partially-spun off some of its divisions by listing the Siemens Healthineers medical technology business and Siemens Gamesa wind power unit. The Franco-German railway company Siemens-Alstom established in a recent merger is next in line to be publicly-listed. Siemens currently retains a majority of shares in all three companies. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:44:12|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Revenue and profits fell at BMW during the second quarter (Q2) of 2018, earnings figures published on Thursday by the German luxury car maker showed. The Munich-based company cited currency headwinds from a stronger euro exchange rate as the main reason for a 3-percent annual fall in gross revenue to 25 billion euros (29.1 billion U.S. dollars). During the same period, currency-adjusted revenue increased slightly compared to the same period in 2017 as sales at the flagship BMW brand rose by 1.4 percent to 542,000 vehicles sold globally. Nevertheless, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were down by 6 percent to 2.87 billion euros in Q2. Net profits were measured at 2.082 billion euros, marking an annual decline of 6.1 percent. Consequently, the closely-watched EBIT margin for the automotive division fell from 10.1 percent in Q2 2017 to 8.6 percent this year. As a result, BMW ranked behind rival luxury car maker Audi which achieved a Q2 EBIT margin of 9.2 percent. BMW blamed the fall in quarterly profitability on higher raw material costs and a rise in research and development (R&D) spending. The car maker plans to invest 7 billion euros in new technologies such as electric and autonomous vehicles in the course of the year, compared to 6.1 billion euros in 2017. In spite of weaker earnings in Q2, BMW re-affirmed its previous annual forecast. Speaking to press during a telephone conference on Wednesday, chief executive officer (CEO) Harald Krueger expressed confidence that the company would regain recent ground over its rival in the coming months. Compared with the Daimler and Volkswagen Group, BMW is already well-advanced in the process of adapting its fleet to new worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). The new regulatory regime for exhaust systems testing will become legally-binding in the European Union (EU) as of September. "I see chances here," Krueger said with specific view to the second half of the year. Daimler and Volkswagen have both recently warned that their earnings and delivery windows for customers are likely to be disrupted by a protracted transition to the WLTP standard. Daimler has issued a profit warning in response to the regulatory changes while Volkswagen announced that there would be temporary downtime at its plants as a consequence. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:49:15|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close by Stefania Fumo ROME, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Italy battled scorching temperatures on Thursday as the ministry of health issued a "red alert" in 18 cities across the peninsula. The ministry's heat alerts go from level 0 (green, or no risks to human health) to level 3 (red), meaning a heat wave with "conditions of high risk persisting over three or more consecutive days." The red alert was issued in popular tourist cities such as Florence, Milan, Rome, and Venice, where the heat wave is expected to last through Saturday with temperatures peaking at 38 degrees Celsius. The ministry recommended staying indoors between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., and avoiding parks during the hottest hours of the day due to excessive ozone levels. A rise in ozone is "a public health problem especially for children, the elderly, asthma sufferers, and people with lung or heart disease," the ministry said. Florence authorities have set up meal delivery and other support services for the elderly. Milan activated an emergency number where the elderly and the disabled can call for home assistance. In Rome, local health authorities distributed water bottles to crowds of tourists thronging the Imperial Forums. They also increased the number of available beds in shelters for the homeless. In Venice, social services set up air-conditioned centers for the elderly and other at-risk populations. The Civil Protection Agency warned against the risk of wildfires caused by arsonists or human negligence. Fires have destroyed 12 percent of Italy's forests over the past 30 years. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 21:54:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TEHRAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday denounced as "unlawful" the recent U.S. sanctions on two Turkish ministers. Such measures show Washington's "addiction" to sanctions which have no limits, Zarif was quoted as saying by local media. "U.S. unlawful sanctions against two Turkish ministers, from an allied country, illustrates not just the U.S. administration's policy of pressure and extortion in lieu of statecraft, but that its addiction to sanctions knows no bounds," Zarif said. The reaction by Zarif came after the White House announced Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury Department had imposed sanctions on Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu for not releasing detained American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson. Brunson is being tried in Turkey on espionage and terror-related charges. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 22:04:18|Editor: ZX Video Player Close NAIROBI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), contractor of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), on Thursday handed over an access road and upgraded schools to a community in southern county of Kajiado. CRBC officials and local leaders witnessed the hand-over of the access road and the upgraded Kerarapon Primary and Secondary schools to the community. Li Gang, the Assistant General Manager of CRBC, said financing the construction of an access road and modernization of schools in Kajiado County was in line with the firm's corporate social responsibility ethos that have cemented its relationship with local communities. Li said CRBC as a responsible company has always been mindful of the needs and aspirations of the local communities while implementing mega infrastructure projects. He revealed that CRBC rallied behind humanitarian interventions for drought victims in Turkana County in 2011 while supporting education for under-privileged children in Nairobi's informal settlements. According to Li, CRBC has made donations to MCEDO Beijing Academy in Mathare slums and Ngara Girls High School located in Nairobi. The 480-km Nairobi-Mombasa SGR project created over 46,000 jobs during its implementation by the CRBC which commenced in 2014 and was operationalized in 2017. The CRBC has also fully sponsored 100 Kenyan bright high school graduates to study Railway Engineering in Beijing Jiaotong University and encouraged local supplies to deliver critical goods, materials and equipment to the SGR project. Li said engineering related sectors in Kenya were revitalized while mutual benefits were realized during construction of the modern railway line. The CRBC-financed access road and modern schools in Kajiado County will symbolize its spirit of Build Roads & Bridges, Make Contribution to the Society, he added. Shamsha Adan, the director of Kajiado County Education Department, hailed the CRBC for its contribution toward infrastructure development and upgrading of social amenities in Kenya in the last three decades. "The new classroom built by CRBC for Middle School will become a model for other schools in Kajiado County," said Adan. "I hope that the children will study hard and contribute to the development of Kenya in the future," Adan added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 22:20:06|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on Aug. 1, 2018 shows the construction site of a data center of Tencent in Gui'an New District in southwest China's Guizhou Province. Guizhou has become a pioneer in China's big data development. Big data is being widely applied in government management, business and daily life, contributing over 20 percent to the economic growth of Guizhou Province. The number of big data-related companies in Guizhou Province has grown from less than 1,000 in 2013 to more than 8,500 in 2018.(Xinhua/Ou Dongqu) Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 22:14:20|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close RIYADH, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia said Thursday it banned five vehicles loaded with camels from entering Mecca in a bid to protect pilgrims from contagious diseases. Omar Al Faqih, director of the branch of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture in Mecca, said his office was implementing the decision of the Health Ministry, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. The Health Ministry also bans slaughtering camels in Mecca as a precautionary measure to protect the health of pilgrims visiting the holy Islamic city from all over the world. Camels have been proven to be the source of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus that has killed hundreds of people in Saudi Arabia alone since the first diagnosed case in 2012. The kingdom has witnessed a major decline in new MERS cases or deaths from the virus because of drastic measures taken by Saudi authorities in association with international health organisations. Last year, more than 2.3 million pilgrims performed Hajj in Mecca. The statistics released on Thursday by the General Directorate of Passports showed that the number of foreign pilgrims visiting Mecca this year has reached 603,764 so far. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 22:29:25|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting and related meetings, in Singapore, Aug. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China and the Philippines agreed on Thursday to strengthen high-level exchanges so as to further promote the stable development of bilateral ties and cooperation. The consensus was reached by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano during their meeting on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Wang noted that political mutual trust between China and the Philippines has been strengthened and bilateral cooperation in all fields has been pushing forward in an orderly way in recent years. China is willing to increase bilateral high-level exchanges to facilitate candid communication, strengthen joint planning to further expand bilateral cooperation in all fields so as to achieve common development and prosperity, he said. China hopes that the two sides will earnestly implement the important consensus reached by their leaders and properly handle sensitive issues to create a sound environment for the continuous and stable development of bilateral ties, the Chinese top diplomat said. As the Philippines has assumed the role of ASEAN-China country coordinator, China will strengthen coordination with the Philippines to promote China-ASEAN ties and regional cooperation, Wang said. For his part, Cayetano said bilateral cooperation on major joint projects has made positive progress and the Philippines hopes to further promote bilateral ties. The Philippines appreciates the important role China plays in safeguarding regional peace and stability. As the new coordinator of ASEAN-China dialogue relations, the Philippines will make positive efforts to advance ASEAN-China cooperation, he said. SUVA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi on Thursday praised China for its assistance to the South Pacific island nation. According to Radio New Zealand, Tuilaepa said that when China gives assistance, it sees projects through to completion. The prime minister was not satisfied with some countries for their continued nitpicking of Chinese assistance in the Pacific region. While stressing that his country should continue to keep the avenues of assistance open, irrespective of who is offering it, the prime minister said what the smaller nations like Samoa worry about is how to fund road or footpath repairs. In January, Prime Minister Tuilaepa criticized an Australian minister's false accusation of China's aid program in the Pacific, saying that such accusation is "insulting" to the Pacific island leaders, and has the capacity to "destroy" Australia's relationship with the region. He also spoke highly of China for being better placed to provide the assistance to Samoa than Australia which has long regarded the Pacific island states as its own backyard. "The kind of assistance provided by China are those kinds which are not within the aid budgets of Australia," he said. China is always standing firmly together with developing countries including the Pacific island states, and committed to offering assistance and support to them without any political conditions. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 22:49:33|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Thursday joined the international community in marking the World Breastfeeding Week, vowing to reach a target of 80 percent breastfeeding by 2025. Sicily Kariuki, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, said the government will ensure that mothers are not influenced to use milk substitutes as opposed to breastfeeding. "Policies and guidelines are in place to ensure that mothers, including those who are HIV positive are supported to breastfeed by family members, social networks and employers even in times of crisis," Kariuki said this during the celebrations marking the World Breastfeeding Week in Nairobi. Kariuki noted that the gains stem from accelerated efforts in promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding including enactment of the breast milk substitutes. "These achievements have accorded Kenya recognition as one of the countries that is on track to achieve the World Health Assembly target in maternal and child nutrition," she added. The CS revealed that the government has increased the number of days for leave to 90 days and a mother is allowed to add the annual leave days and also allowed paternity leave of two weeks. According to Ministry of Health, breastfeeding has the potential to save the lives of 823,000 children and 20,000 women a year and contribute significantly to long-term health. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:04:35|Editor: yan Video Player Close AMMAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Jordanian army killed several Islamic State (IS) militants who approached the country's border with Syria, the army said Thursday. The Jordanian Armed Forces opened fire at a group of IS fighters on Tuesday as they were trying to reach the Jordanian borders, the army said in a statement. The army killed many militants and forced others to return to the Syrian side, it added, without disclosing the exact number. The army said that some IS members attempted to cross the Jordanian border after the Syrian government started shelling the militants in the areas near Al Yarmouk basin. Jordanian army will continue to take all measures to protect the national security and prevent any members of the terrorist group from entering Jordan, the statement said. Since 2011, Jordan has foiled several attempts by terror groups to infiltrate or smuggle weapons and drugs into the country. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:09:36|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIGA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Over 15,500 pigs are to be culled on a large farm in the western Latvian district of Saldus after an outbreak of African swine fever was reported there, local media informed on Thursday. Media reports say it's the biggest outbreak of the disease in the country since 2014, when it for the first time hit Latvia. The Latvian Food and Veterinary Service has sent its specialists to the farm to take measures in order to prevent the infection from spreading outside the affected Druvas Unguri farm. The company which has been raising 15,570 pigs on the farm has suspended operations, the veterinary authority said. An epidemiological investigation is under way to establish the causes of the outbreak. An extraordinary cabinet meeting has been called this Friday at which the Latvian government will decide on further measures that have to be taken to curb the outbreak. A quarantine zone has been designated 10 km around the affected farm. Biosafety requirements and inspections will be stepped up on the farms within this territory and controls of transport vehicles increased paying special attention to the transportation of animals and meat products. This is the eighth outbreak of African swine fever in domestic pigs in Latvia this year. In all the previous cases the disease had affected small farmsteads. Representatives of the Food and Veterinary Service noted that African swine fever has continued to spread also in Latvia's wild boar population, with 666 cases recorded so far this year. The first wild boar killed by the disease in Latvia was found in the summer of 2014 not far from the Belarusian border. African swine fever is highly contagious and deadly disease affecting pigs. An outbreak can kill a high number of animals in a matter of days. The infection does not affect humans. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:19:39|Editor: yan Video Player Close AMMAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday he has a proposal for Jordan to help protect Jordan's borders. At a press conference with Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi, the French top diplomat said France seeks to deepen security cooperation with Jordan and will increase its financial aid to the kingdom. He did not disclose the details of the French proposal. He added that France will provide 1 billion euros (1.16 billion U.S. dollars) in additional aid to Jordan. Le Drian said Jordan, which suffers from terrorist attacks like France, is a key partner in the war on terrorism. He also said that France supports Jordan's custodianship over the holy sites in Jerusalem. For his part, Safadi lauded the ties between the two countries, saying Jordan highly values France's support. Safadi commended France's support to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adding the two sides agreed on the need to intensify efforts to end the stalemate in the peace process. On Syria, the minister said Syria did not ask for the reopening of the borders, and that the issue was also discussed with Russia. Also Thursday, King Abdullah II of Jordan held a meeting with Le Drian, during which they reviewed the bilateral strategic relations and the situation in the region. The king expressed Jordan's appreciation for the French support provided to launch many development programs in the kingdom to alleviate the huge burdens triggered by the Syrian refugee crisis on the Jordanian economy. The talks also tackled the Mideast peace process, as the king stressed the need to intensify the efforts to restore the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks based on the two-state solution, with an aim to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The king also underscored the important role of the EU in this regard. They also reviewed the developments in Syria and the efforts to reach a political solution there that would achieve stability and allow the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland. WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The White House said here on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump has received a letter from Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), while not revealing its contents. Confirming that Trump received the letter on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that "the ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the U.S.-DPRK joint statement." Earlier on Thursday, Trump thanked Kim via Twitter for returning the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers from the 1950-1953 Korean War. Trump said, "I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!" The repatriation of 55 boxes of U.S. service members was part of the commitment made by Trump and Kim in their Singapore summit on June 12. A ceremony was held on Wednesday in Hawaii to receive the remains. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:34:43|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- About 10 Yemenis were injured on Thursday in airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led Arab coalition on a fishing pier in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, a security official told Xinhua. "Airstrikes carried out by Saudi fighter jets hit the fishing pier in Hodeidah, causing damage and injuring more than 10 civilians at the scene," the source said on condition of anonymity. He added that the airstrikes aimed at targeting Houthi rebels in the area, but apparently missed their main target. Meanwhile, warships of the Arab coalition shelled Houthi-controlled sites near a public hospital in Hodeidah, causing panic among residents. The pro-Houthi Al Masirah TV reported that the Thawrah hospital was targeted with a number of airstrikes, causing an unknown number of casualties. The Saudi-led coalition intensified airstrikes and naval bombardment against the Red Sea coastal city of Hodeidah in an attempt to expel the rebels militarily. On June 13, the Arab coalition, backing the internationally-recognized government of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, launched a major assault to recapture Hodeidah from the Houthis. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:34:45|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The extremely low water level has exposed ammunition remnants from the World War II on the German river Elbe, the technical police Office (TPA) revealed on Thursday. Old grenades, mines and other explosive devices were found in five locations in Saxony-Anhalt last week alone, according to the TPA. So far this year, 21 findings of ammunition have been made. According to the police administration office, the number of discovered war ammunition has also increased in the adjacent state of Saxony. "The ammunition was mostly discovered by strollers in areas, which are normally covered by water," police spokeswoman Grit Merker told press. Tank shells, rifle ammunition as well as hand grenades were among the things found, according to TPA. Even after decades submerged in water, the ammunition would still be dangerous. Additionally, sediments could cover the explosive devices and hide the dangerous interior, Merker said. In many instances, the metal shell hidden underneath the organic cover is already fully corroded. German officials advise not to touch any objects like that and to inform the police immediately. At the end of the World War II, ammunition was frequently disposed in the river Elbe. At the moment, the water level at the Magdeburger Strombruecke, a bridge crossing the river Elbe in the German city of Magdeburg, is just slightly above the historic low of only 48 centimeters in 1934. A significant rise of water levels cannot be expected in the near future. The German weather service (DWD) expects maximum temperatures of up to 36 degrees on Thursday and even higher temperatures towards the weekend. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:39:47|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. delegation led by Republican Senator Rand Paul is scheduled to meet members of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament on August 6, a Russian lawmaker said Thursday. "Russian-U.S. relations and the prospects of parliamentary ties will be discussed," said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee. According to Kosachev, the U.S. delegation will group member of the Texas State Senate Don Huffines and Peter Goettler, president of the Cato Institute, a public policy research organization. The delegation is also scheduled to have meetings in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, and the Foreign Ministry and visit Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg. In July, Paul wrote in Politico magazine that he would travel to Russia "in an attempt to discuss common ground with their leaders and help prevent further, unnecessary escalation of tensions." He said he planned to discuss trade, cultural exchanges and how to better work for peace and prosperity in the world. A group of U.S. lawmakers led by Republican Senator Richard Shelby visited Russia in early July to discuss prospects of restoring parliamentary relations. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:49:51|Editor: yan Video Player Close SARAJEVO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three people were killed and one severely injured after an explosion at a hydro power plant on Thursday afternoon near Bihac, 310 kilometers northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) capital city. The accident took place in the Una-Kostela hydro power plant after a gas leakage, an internal affairs spokesperson of Una Sana Canton Adnan Beganovic told local media. The police in Bihac received a telephone call from the security guard at 1:00 p.m. local time (1100 GMT), informing them that there had been an accident. The gas leak was inside the facility where workers were working on an overhaul. The surviving victim was transported to a local hospital and is in critical condition, Beganovic explained. An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances of the accident, Beganovic added. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-02 23:54:53|Editor: yan Video Player Close LUSAKA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Thursday called for concerted efforts to tackle the problem of human trafficking in the southern African region. The call comes following the rescue from Namibia of six teenage Zambian girls and a boy where they were allegedly trafficked to work as prostitutes and domestic workers. The teenagers, from the western district of Senanga, were rescued following collaboration between the Zambian police and their Namibian counterparts. Auxilia Ponga, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, said the scourge needed concerted efforts to tackle as young women and girls were vulnerable to being trafficked as they could easily be coerced. She said concerted efforts were needed by stakeholders to raise awareness on the dangers of the problem as it not only violates human rights but also exposes young people to diseases. "Though the country is facing high levels of unemployment, families should be assertive and investigate suspicious offers of jobs within and outside the country. They should also report such cases to relevant authorities before accepting any such offers," she said in a statement released by her ministry. She further expressed concern that Zambia was now a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking and called for the reinforcement of an anti-trafficking inter-ministerial committee to step up efforts to combat the vice. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 01:20:18|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (6th L) attends the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Singapore, Aug. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday welcomed the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership this year. China and ASEAN forged a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in 2003. In a joint communique released at the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, the ministers also hailed an upcoming ASEAN-China maritime exercise, saying the exercise in October will enhance confidence and trust among the ASEAN and Chinese navies. The ministers said they looked forward to the adoption of the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership Vision 2030 at the ASEAN-China summit in Singapore in November, as well as the designation of the year 2019 as the ASEAN-China Year of Media Exchanges. The ministers said they warmly welcomed the continued improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations toward the early conclusion of an effective Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea on a mutually-agreed timeline. They noted that ASEAN member states and China had agreed on a single draft COC negotiating text at an ASEAN-China senior officials' meeting on the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in Changsha, China, on June 27. Discussions at Thursday's ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting focused on continued efforts to build a resilient and innovative ASEAN, ASEAN's relations with external partners, including through ASEAN-led platforms, and the importance of ASEAN Centrality and unity amidst rapid changes in Southeast Asia and beyond, according to the joint communique. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 01:30:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close SANAA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Thursday increased to 30, a medical official told Xinhua. There were also 50 others who were wounded in the airstrikes that hit a fishing port and a popular fish market about five meters away from the main gate of Public al-Thawra Hospital in Hodeidah, said the official in the hospital. "The death toll increased from 20 to 30, while up to 50 civilians were wounded in the airstrike," the official told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity. "Many injured were in critical conditions as the death toll could increase," he said. There were no comments yet from the Saudi-led coalition. The attack was the latest in a series of recent airstrikes launched on Hodeidah. Last week, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike killed at least five people of a family in the country's northern province of Saada. The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since the Houthi rebels overran much of Yemen militarily and seized all northern provinces in 2014, including the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab military coalition to intervene in the Yemen war since 2015 to support the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. More than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war, and about 3 million have been displaced. On June 13, the coalition began a major offensive to retake Hodeidah city from the Houthi rebels. On Tuesday, the Houthis offered a unilateral two-week ceasefire in the Red Sea to the Saudi-led coalition. The offer came a week after Saudi Arabia suspended its oil shipments through the Red Sea strait of Bab al-Mandeb after Houthi fighters attacked two Saudi oil tankers. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 01:30:19|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday welcomed the outcome of a summit between Central and West African regions. Guterres welcomed the renewed commitment of the members of the Economic Community of West African States and the Economic Community of Central African States to strengthen cooperation on key peace and security challenges, said Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman, in a statement. Guterres was particularly encouraged by the decision at Monday's summit in Lome, Togo, to sign a criminal cooperation agreement by the end of 2018 and to establish a ministerial committee to monitor implementation of the summit decisions, said the statement. The UN chief also welcomed the decision of the heads of state and government of the two regions to meet every two years to review implementation of the decisions contained in the Lome Declaration adopted at the summit, said the statement. The secretary-general reiterated the commitment of the United Nations to continue to promote inter-regional cooperation and support the implementation of the decisions adopted at the inter-regional summit, it said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 02:10:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ten Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in an airstrike on a hideout near the city of Samarra in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, the Iraqi military said Thursday. An Iraqi helicopter gunship carried out the airstrike on an abandoned house, where a group of IS militants were believed to be hiding, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Yahya Rasoul, spokesperson of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said in a statement. The bombardment destroyed the hideout and killed about 10 IS militants inside, the statement said, without saying when the airstrikes occurred. The security situation in Iraq has greatly improved after Iraqi security forces fully defeated the IS across the country in late 2017. However, small IS groups and individuals have regrouped in urban and rugged areas, and are carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite the operations to hunt them down. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 02:25:28|Editor: yan Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday called for building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future at the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting. Over the past 15 years since the establishment of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership, Wang said China-ASEAN relations have developed from growth to maturity, thus entering a new phase of all-round development. China will continue to regard the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the priority of its neighborhood diplomacy and be committed to good neighborliness and friendship, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, he said, adding that China supports ASEAN community building as well as ASEAN's central role. Wang also noted that China stands ready to share opportunities with ASEAN, jointly meet challenges, and make the bilateral cooperation a pillar of regional peace, stability, development and prosperity. The development of China-ASEAN relations should be guided by strategic docking so as to seek greater synergy of the complementary strengths, tap cooperation potential and create greater room for cooperation, he said. The top Chinese diplomat also called on the two sides to step up cooperation in such fields as security, anti-terrorism, disaster prevention and relief, humanitarian assistance, trade and investment, and boost strategic mutual trust. Foreign ministers of ASEAN countries appreciated China's support in building ASEAN community as well as the Belt and Road Initiative for boosting regional interconnection and common development, and expressed the hope that both sides will continue to enhance cooperation in trade and economy, innovation and tourism. The ministers urged China and ASEAN to reach the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in the shortest time to facilitate free trade and regional economic integration, safeguard multilateralism and rules-based multilateral trading regime. ISLAMABAD, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said late Thursday that Indian cross-border shelling killed at least one civilian along the Line of Control( LoC ) in Kashmir region. The Foreign Ministry said the Indian forces resorted to "unprovoked ceasefire violations" in Mandal Sector along the LoC, which divides the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region, resulting in the death of a woman. The Director General of the South Asian desk at the Foreign Ministry Mohammad Faisal summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner J.P. Singh and condemned the incident. "The Indian forces along the Line of Control and the Working boundary are continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons," a statement said. Giving update about the cross-border firing, the statement said in 2018, the Indian forces have carried out more than 1,400 "ceasefire violations" along the LoC and the Working Boundary, resulting in the killing of 30 innocent civilians, while injuring 121 others. "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1,970 ceasefire violations," it said. The Foreign Ministry said the "deliberate targeting" of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws. "The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the statement said. The Director General urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement, investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations, and instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire, in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC and the Working Boundary. He urged that the Indian side should permit UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions. Pakistan and India had declared ceasefire along the LoC in Kashmir region in 2003, however, both accuse each other of ceasefire violation. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 03:20:44|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close Singaporean President Halimah Yacob (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore Aug. 2, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey) SINGAPORE, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean President Halimah Yacob met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Thursday, promising to deepen bilateral cooperation. Halimah Yacob noted that Singapore and China have enjoyed friendly ties and bilateral cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results. She hoped that the two countries would explore new ways of expanding the mutually beneficial cooperation and speeding up the talks on bilateral free trade agreement. Wang Yi, for his part, said this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up as well as late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's visit to Singapore, adding that Singapore has made contributions to China's reform and opening-up in different stages. Wang said China appreciated the fact that Singapore was among the earliest countries to actively support and respond to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. He expressed the belief that China and Singapore's commitment to building the Belt and Road together would not only open up new prospects for the bilateral relations, but also inject new impetus into Singapore's development. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (center) attends the signing ceremony of the Instrument of Accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore August 2, 2018. (Reuters photo) TEHRAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Thursday that he has no plan to meet U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Singapore. The two will take part in the 51st session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting underway in Singapore. "Meeting for the sake of meeting means nothing. The Americans have to show that the meetings will lead to agreements that will be respected," Zarif was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying. "Today even the U.S. allies cannot trust the commitments made by Washington," he said. The Iranian foreign minister ruled out any dialogue with the U.S. under pressure and threats. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also dismissed any possibility for holding negotiations with the U.S. to settle the dispute over the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. "We cannot rely on the American words and even their signature, therefore, negotiations with them are fruitless," Khamenei said. U.S. President Donald Trump, who decided to quit the nuclear deal in May, this week offered to meet and talk with Iranian leaders to resolve the rising tensions following a war of words and military threats between the two sides. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 03:45:51|Editor: Chengcheng Video Player Close by Eric J. Lyman ROME, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Aquarius, the migrant rescue ship that dramatically raised the profile of Italy's new hardline stance on migration, is back at sea, setting up another potential showdown with Italy's two-month-old government. Matteo Salvini -- Italy's minister of the interior and the head of the anti-migrant League, one of the two political parties supporting the government under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte -- made international headlines just days after the government was installed when he announced Italian ports would be closed to non-Italian rescue ships. That left the Aquarius, with 639 migrants aboard, adrift until Spain said the ship could land at the Port of Valencia, 700 nautical miles (1,300 kilometers) away. Since then, no non-governmental rescue ship has been allowed to dock in any Italian port with would-be migrants aboard, though a handful of Italian Coast Guard ships have delivered some asylum seekers to Italy. Since June, just two non-governmental rescue ships have been allowed to land anywhere else in Europe -- in Malta and Spain, respectively -- with just 250 migrants total on board. The Aquarius had been out of service after leaving Valencia until it launched from the French port of Marseille Wednesday in search of migrants attempting the treacherous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Europe. On Thursday in Rome, officials from SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders, the two non-governmental organizations supporting the Aquarius, said the ship set sail without a clear idea of what its options will be after it comes across potential refugees at sea. "It seems that these decisions about rescue ships are being decided on an ad hoc basis so we will have to figure it out when the time comes," Nicola Stalla, the search and rescue coordinator for SOS Mediterranee told reporters in Rome. In the briefing held to call attention to the Aug. 1 relaunch of the Aquarius, officials said they were aware they were likely to clash with the Italian government, but said that did not shape their strategies. "We are not interested in playing political games, we are just trying to save lives," Claudia Lodesani, president of MSF-Italia said at the briefing. "We give no thought to the political impact of what we do. It is fundamental, almost banal, to say it, but we are only interested in rescuing, helping, the desperate people who need it." So far, the Italian government has not formally responded to the launch of the ship, though Salvini has not backed down from his anti-migrant statements. Madeleine Habib, a migration advocate who preceded Stalla as SOS Mediterranee's search and rescue coordinator, said deaths of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean have spiked since the rescue ships have been docked: of the nearly 1,100 deaths at sea so far this year, 700 of them happened in the last two months, she said. "The people on the Aquarius are well-informed, well-educated, and committed," Habib told Xinhua. "They are not unaware of the political situation. But they are not going to compromise their ability to save lives by taking a political stance. They have to remain apolitical. Otherwise, they risk retribution." But Lorenzo Rinelli, a university lecturer and the author of the book "African Migrants and Europe", said in an interview that the Aquarius and its backers are being "purposefully provocative" by setting sail despite political tensions in Europe. "They set out expecting a counter-attack from the Italian government," Rinelli said. "The mission is about saving lives, yes, but it's also about trying to move public opinion. Non-governmental groups have to do things to attract attention. If they don't, they will fade away." Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 04:00:53|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Morocco called Thursday for a stronger involvement of the European Union (EU) in addressing hiking illegal migration flows to the Europe through Morocco. The call was made by spokesperson of the Moroccan government Mustapha El Khalfi in a press briefing following the cabinet meeting in Rabat. He said that the number of foiled illegal migration attempts has increased drastically since 2016, noting that the number of thwarted attempts reached 65,000 in 2017 against 32,000 a year earlier. The minister noted that these operations are conducted mostly by foreigners, stressing that Morocco has paid huge efforts and prices to stop these migrants from reaching the EU countries. In July, the EU agreed to spend 55 million euros (63.8 million U.S. dollars) to help Tunisia and Morocco manage their frontiers. A strong cooperation, where the parties have fair shares of the responsibility, has become more than any time an urgent necessity, the spokesperson said. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 04:15:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said Thursday that he is going to invite the warring parties in the war-torn country to consultations in Geneva next month. "After having consulted with the parties, I plan therefore to invite them to Geneva on Sept. 6 for a first round of consultations," Griffiths told the Security Council. The consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, to agree on relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward, he said. He asked for support of the Security Council, saying he did not come lightly to that decision. "I have based this on the advice given to me in the months since assuming my responsibilities by Yemenis from all quarters." Griffiths was upbeat about the peace prospects in Yemen. "I know, from this engagement, that a political solution to this war ... is available." Yemen has been in civil war since 2015, pitting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. People stand on the ruins of a building destroyed in the airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Aug. 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said Thursday that he is going to invite the warring parties in the war-torn country to consultations in Geneva next month. "After having consulted with the parties, I plan therefore to invite them to Geneva on Sept. 6 for a first round of consultations," Griffiths told the Security Council. The consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, to agree on relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward, he said. He asked for support of the Security Council, saying he did not come lightly to that decision. "I have based this on the advice given to me in the months since assuming my responsibilities by Yemenis from all quarters." Griffiths was upbeat about the peace prospects in Yemen. "I know, from this engagement, that a political solution to this war ... is available." Yemen has been in civil war since 2015, pitting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. NEW YORK, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Virtuoso Chinese pianist Lang Lang will hold a charity dinner in New York to raise money for music education. The annual Lang Lang & Friends Gala Concert Dinner, scheduled for Oct. 10 at the Cipriani Hall in Lower Manhattan, also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation (LLIMF). Lang Lang will lead the foundation's young pianists to perform at the star-studded celebration. The Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin will be the host. The New York-based LLIMF was founded in 2008 and its mission is to educate, inspire and motivate the next generation of classical music lovers and performers. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 05:31:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close DAMASCUS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian air defenses destroyed an unidentified target west of the capital Damascus on Thursday night, according to the state TV. The report said military air defenses confronted an "enemy target" and destroyed it west of Damascus, without specifying the exact target. The TV aired a short footage showing the air defenses responding to the unidentified target. The state media outlets stopped short of offering more details, but pro-government reports said the air defenses destroyed two Israeli drones over the town of Qatana in the western countryside of Damascus. This comes as the Syrian army has captured the Quneitra province in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after the rebels there accepted to evacuate to rebel-held areas in northern Syria under a Russian-backed deal. Activists said the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on Thursday returned to its positions on the line of separation between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after leaving it in 2014. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the UNDOF vehicles were spotted returning to the crossing between the Syrian southern province of Quneitra and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Thursday. The UK-based watchdog group said Russian military police and the Syrian forces have been deployed in Quneitra and in the disengagement zone after the entire province of Quneitra returned under the government control. The UNDOF halted its operations in southern Syria in 2014 after the ultra-radical groups abducted UN peacekeepers in that area. The UNDOF forces were first deployed between Syria and the Golan Heights in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently stressed the need to keep the Syrian and Israeli forces separated, referring specifically to the treaty of 1974, which officially ended the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and designated the lines of separation between Israel and Syria. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 05:31:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The South African government will not appeal a court ruling which sets aside the decision to grant diplomatic immunity to former Zimbabwean first lady over an assault case, a cabinet minister said on Thursday. "We have studied the judgment and came to the conclusion that we will not appeal," Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu said, without giving further details. She was speaking on the occasion of her monthly media briefing in Pretoria on diplomatic developments. The Johannesburg High Court ruled last week that the decision by former International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to grant Grace Mugabe, wife of former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, diplomatic immunity was inconsistency with the Constitution and should be set aside. Mashabane made the decision on Aug. 19, 2017 after Grace allegedly assaulted model Gabriella Engels and two other women in Johannesburg. Engels, who reportedly sustained severe facial injuries as a result of the alleged assault, laid a criminal charge of assault against Grace with intent to cause serious bodily harm. It is believed that Grace assaulted the women after she had found them in the company of her young sons who were university students. Grace left South Africa for Zimbabwe after she was granted diplomatic immunity. The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) sued the government for granting diplomatic immunity to Grace. Mashabane explained in court that Grace automatically qualified for immunity from prosecution by virtue of her status as the wife of a head of state. Mashabane also argued that not awarding Grace diplomatic immunity might have serious implications for relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 05:46:16|Editor: mmm Video Player Close Martin Griffiths (Front), the UN special envoy for Yemen, briefs the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Yemen at the UN headquarters in New York, Aug. 2, 2018. Martin Griffiths said Thursday that he is going to invite the warring parties in the war-torn country to consultations in Geneva next month. (Xinhua/Li Muzi) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said Thursday that he is going to invite the warring parties in the war-torn country to political consultations in Geneva next month. "After having consulted with the parties, I plan therefore to invite them to Geneva on Sept. 6 for a first round of consultations," Griffiths told the Security Council. The consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, to agree on relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward, he said. He asked for support of the Security Council, saying he did not come lightly to that decision. "I have based this on the advice given to me in the months since assuming my responsibilities by Yemenis from all quarters." Griffiths was upbeat about the peace prospects in Yemen. "I know from this engagement (with Yemenis) that a political solution to this war ... is available." An end to the war cannot come too soon for the people of Yemen. Millions more Yemenis will depend on humanitarian and more lives will be cost if the war continues, he said. He said the United Nations has yet to find a peaceful solution to Hudaydah, the Red Sea port the Saudi-led military coalition is trying to capture from Houthi rebels. "We have made progress particularly as regards to a UN role in the port, which was agreed by Ansar Allah (the Houthis). But the gap is not closed. We will continue our efforts to find a peaceful solution to Hudaydah," said Griffiths. "I continue to enjoy close cooperation and support from the government of Yemen as well as the (Saudi-led) coalition leadership. I have had a series of constructive and positive meetings with the Ansar Allah senior leadership." But he said the issue of Hudaydah should not overshadow his overall peace efforts. "Let us not throw away what we have achieved. I am determined to build on it in our consultations. But let us not allow progress or the absence of it on Hudaydah deter us from our primary focus on the search for a political solution to this conflict." "Delays in reaching a political solution cost lives. The maths is as simple as that," he told the Security Council. British ambassador to the United Nations Karen Pierce, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of August, said after the council meeting on Yemen that the council members were united in supporting Griffiths' decision to bring the Yemeni warring parties to talks in Geneva next month. The council members were united in calling on all parties to come to the Geneva talks, she told reporters. Yemen has been in civil war in the past three years, pitting Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition Arab military coalition with the support of the United States launched an air campaign in March 2015 to try to reinstate the Hadi government. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 06:26:24|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close A banner set up by some of Ryanair's Ireland-based pilots on strike is seen at Ryanair headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, Aug. 3, 2018. Over 1,000 Ryanair flights were cancelled in July due to strikes and other factors, affecting nearly 200,000 customers, said Ryanair. (Xinhua) DUBLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Ryanair's call for talks with its Ireland-based pilots' union Forsa over labour disputes has been rejected, said the airline on Thursday. Ryanair has received a notice from Forsa about a fifth strike to be held on Aug. 10, the company said in a statement. The notice came just one day after Ryanair offered a meeting with Forsa on next Tuesday morning under the conditions that no more strikes will be called by the union before the proposed meeting. Since Forsa has called for another strike before the meeting there is no point for Ryanair to meet with the union, said the statement, adding that Ryanair will notify its customers about the cancellations of 20 flights due to the strike, which will affect a total of 3,500 customers. Ryanair condemned the strike announced by Forsa, a powerful trade union in the Irish public service sector, which represents the interests of Ryanair's Ireland-base pilots. It has accused Forsa of being manipulated by a tiny handful of Aer Lingus pilots in the negotiations between the two sides. Aer Lingus is the second largest airline in Ireland which is viewed as a rival of Ryanair. Ryanair said in the statement that it was this tiny handful of Aer Lingus pilots who were behind the scenes for inciting the strikes and sabotaging the talks. They did this because "they just want to damage Ryanair's business and our share price for the benefit of Aer Lingus", said the statement. Ryanair also accused these Aer Lingus pilots of working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium and Germany to further disrupt Ryanair's business and its customers. Ryanair's pilots based in Belgium and Sweden have announced that they will strike on August 10, a date that coincides with the strike date just announced by Forsa. Ryanair's pilots in Germany and the Netherlands have also voiced their support for the strikes launched by Ryanair's pilots in Ireland and could join the strikes any time in the near future, according to local media reports. The recent strikes launched by Ryanair's pilots in Ireland first started on July 12 after they lost their patience with their employer over the talks on the improvement of their working conditions which mainly centered around a demand for base transfer, annual leave and promotions based on seniority. The first strike was followed by two more one-day strikes on July 20 and July 24. The fourth one is due to come on Friday which has forced Ryanair to cancel 20 flights affecting a total of 3,500 customers. The five strikes including the fifth one on Aug. 10 will lead to a total of 110 Ryanair flight cancellations, affecting at least 17,000 customers, according to Ryanair. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 06:46:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A senior UN humanitarian official on Thursday highlighted the dire consequences of escalation in Yemen's Hudaydah on the Red Sea. Conflict in Hudaydah governorate has escalated significantly and has displaced more than 340,000 people since June 1, John Ging, director of operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitrian Affairs, told the Security Council. Most of the displaced people are sheltering with host communities near their areas of origin, while smaller numbers have arrived in Sanaa, Aden and surrounding areas, he said. Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition around the entrance to one of the few functioning public hospitals in Hudaydah city and an adjacent fish market on Thursday have caused civilian casualties, he said. Sustained hostilities in Hudaydah city, interruptions to the port operations or a siege of the city would be catastrophic and must be avoided, Ging warned. There is no "contingency plan" that can effectively protect civilians from dire humanitarian consequences if conflict in Hudaydah escalates, as the capacity of international organizations and their response would quickly be overwhelmed, he said. Yemen has been in civil war in the past three years, pitting Houthi rebels against the forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Houthi rebels to reinstate the Hadi government, began a major offensive on June 13 to retake Hudaydah from the rebels. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 06:46:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close BRASILIA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) on Thursday officially named former finance minister Henrique Meirelles as its presidential candidate in October elections. Meirelles was elected during the party's national convention in Brasilia, garnering 85 percent of the delegates' votes. Brazil's President Michel Temer and ex-president Jose Sarney were among the party leaders attending the gathering. Meirelles becomes the party's first presidential candidate since 1994, when the former governor of Sao Paulo state, Orestes Quercia, ran unsuccessfully. Temer became president by way of the vice presidency, after Dilma Rousseff of the Workers' Party was impeached. Rousseff had picked Temer to be her running mate, believing the Workers' Party didn't have the votes to win without the MDB. Meirelles, 72, joined the ruling party in April with the idea of becoming its candidate, after polls showed Temer suffers from record low popularity rates. Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-03 07:11:32|Editor: Liu Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Thursday appealed to the Japanese government to bring justice to the victims of sex slavery during World War II "quickly" as they are aging fast. At a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Zeid said the victims of wartime sex slavery in South Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, China and other countries are aging fast, and that "they need to feel if there is going to be any sense of justice to their suffering." "This needs to be done quickly. That would be my appeal to the government of Japan," he said. He also expressed the hope that Japan could be more open about the possibility to revise the terms of a 2015 agreement struck with South Korea dealing with the issue, which has been rejected by the latter's victims and current government. Under the deal between Tokyo and Seoul, then led by former South Korean president Park Geun-hye, the two sides agreed the issue of "comfort women," a euphemism used by Japan, had significantly strained their ties and should be "finally and irreversibly" resolved. However, Zeid said Park's team did not consult principal sex slavery victims when negotiating the accord with Japan. Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said the agreement is not capable of resolving the issue because a secret deal has been found out between the two governments by a review of its negotiation procedure. "I believe at the moment things are at a standstill," said Zeid, suggesting that Japan be "more open about the possibility to look at the terms of the agreement" and bring them "into line with the views of the victims." Some 400,000 women across Asia were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese army during World War II. Nearly half of them were Chinese, according to some research. Children displaced from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah stand at a shelter in Sanaa, Yemen July 18, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A senior UN humanitarian official on Thursday highlighted the dire consequences of escalation in Yemen's Hudaydah on the Red Sea. Conflict in Hudaydah governorate has escalated significantly and has displaced more than 340,000 people since June 1, John Ging, director of operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council. Most of the displaced people are sheltering with host communities near their areas of origin, while smaller numbers have arrived in Sanaa, Aden and surrounding areas, he said. Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition around the entrance to one of the few functioning public hospitals in Hudaydah city and an adjacent fish market on Thursday have caused civilian casualties, he said. Sustained hostilities in Hudaydah city, interruptions to the port operations or a siege of the city would be catastrophic and must be avoided, Ging warned. There is no "contingency plan" that can effectively protect civilians from dire humanitarian consequences if conflict in Hudaydah escalates, as the capacity of international organizations and their response would quickly be overwhelmed, he said. He noted that in Hudaydah city, one of the hardest-hit areas in last year's devastating cholera outbreak, infections are currently rising. "It is essential therefore to bear this in mind when considering incidents like the one that is reported today, which affect a public hospital where humanitarian partners are treating cholera patients." Last week, airstrikes hit water facilities in Hudaydah city and sanitation facilities south of the city. Water and sanitation lines have also been damaged in Hudaydah as forces in the city dig trenches, he said, adding that damage to health, water and sanitation infrastructure significantly increases the risks of the spread of cholera. He said the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and nearby Saleef, the lifeline for the majority of imports of essential commodities of food and fuel needed by millions of Yemenis every day to survive, remain open and operational. In fact, he said, commercial food imports in May rose to their highest level since November 2016 and fully met requirements. However, food and fuel imports fell in June and again in July. Despite continuous scaling up of humanitarian operations, serious obstacles persist, said Ging. Inside Yemen, humanitarian personnel face numerous restrictions, particularly in areas controlled by Houthi rebels, he said. These include delays in movements, detention of staff and supplies, attempts to influence the selection of beneficiaries and the influence over the selection of partners. All parties must respect international humanitarian law, including the obligation to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and to take all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize incidental harm, he said. He called on all parties to work with UN special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, to find a lasting political settlement and sustainable peace. Griffiths, who briefed the Security Council ahead of Ging, said he plans to invite the warring parties in Yemen to political consultations in Geneva on Sept. 6. The consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties to discuss the framework for negotiations, to agree on relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward, he said. "Delays in reaching a political solution cost lives. The maths is as simple as that," he said. Yemen has been in civil war in the past three years, pitting Houthi rebels against the forces loyal to the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition, which is fighting Houthi rebels to reinstate the Hadi government, began a major offensive on June 13 to retake Hudaydah from the rebels. As a result of war, more than 22 million people, or three-quarters of the population, need humanitarian assistance and protection. The conflict has left 2 million people displaced and 8.4 million people in the face of food insecurity. The country last year saw the worst cholera outbreak in the world with 1.1 million cases. Concerns of supply chain disruptions following the eruption of the China-U.S. trade frictions will not slow foreign firms' steps to invest in China, where broader market access and stable policy environment have been now much valued than ever. New car registrations rose 29% yearon-year to 12,043 in July, the Hungarian Association of Vehicle Importers (MGE) and Carinfo.hu told MTI. The share of fleet purchases fell under 60%, MGE noted. Sales of light commercial vehicles were up 33% and sales of heavy commercial vehicles climbed 11%. Motorcycle sales rose 10%. New vehicle registrations also climbed 29% year-on-year for the period January-July, reaching 82,789. Nuclear power generation is consistent with European climate policy, Peter Kaderjak, the state secretary for energy and climate policy, told the daily Magyar Hirlap. The innovation and technology ministry official noted in the interview published on Tuesday that European Union member states recently agreed on a 32% renewable energy target for 2030. Energy efficiency is also targeted at 32%, he said. Emissions trading is a vital part of attaining these aims, he said, adding that the price payable by producers for carbon dioxide emissions is expected to rise. This will help boost the return on nuclear power, Kaderjak insisted. Hungarys expanded Paks nuclear power station will be a clean source of energy, he said, adding that nuclear energy production in the long term would be the backbone of Hungarys energy supply. Also, major renewable capacities will be introduced, he said, noting that the government prioritises solar investments. The state secretary also noted government efforts in the past 6-7 years to put an end to Hungarys dependence on imports of Russian gas. Creating a competitive gas market will help, and Russian gas will also have a part to play in this, he said. Kaderjak said the Romania-Hungary-SlovakiaAustria gas pipeline was currently the most promising project. At the same time, the Nord Stream 2 would bring about drawbacks for eastern Europe rather than benefits, he said, adding prices would increase in Hungary. The cheapest gas delivery route is via Ukraine, the state secretary said, adding that Hungary prefers maintaining the latter option. In the last couple of days there were at least four or five sources which, with the utmost seriousness, claimed that Viktor Orban in his speech at Tusvanyos announced his candidacy to become the president of the European Union. The first such reference appeared in Le Monde, in an article that discussed an Orban interview which appeared in Das Bild, a German tabloid. In it the Hungarian prime minster didnt hide his dislike of Emmanuel Macron and Macrons vision of the future of Europe. The author of the article, Blaise Gauquelin, the Vienna correspondent for the paper, is convinced that from this interview and Orbans speech at Tusvanyos it is clear that Orban is seriously thinking of leaving Hungarian politics altogether to become the next president of the European Commission. Richard Szentpeteri Nagy, a constitutional lawyer and political commentator, tried to pour cold water on Gauquelins hypothesis by pointing out that Orban doesnt have the necessary support in the European Council to entertain such dreams. Yesterday morning Ildiko Csuhaj of ATV and Peter Peto of 24.hu were guests of Emilia Krug on ATV Start. There a debate of sorts developed regarding Viktor Orbans possible interest in becoming the candidate of the European Peoples Party for the presidency of the Commission. Csuhaj, who has extensive contacts in Fidesz, said that she had heard rumors to that effect from several sources but was unwilling to take them seriously. Peto discarded the proposition as nonsense because, first, Orban has no intention of leaving Hungarian politics and, second, he doesnt have the support within the European Union to execute such an ambitious plan. Yet a day before an article appeared on b1.blog.hu by Nick Grabowszki, clearly a pseudonym, who claimed that Orban would dearly love to take the affairs of the European Union into his own hands and that he has a chance of achieving that goal. In Grabowszkis interpretation, Orbans speech at Tusvanyos was the introductory salvo of his campaign to seek the position of president of the European Commission. He wants to be the Donald Trump of Europe, who will get rid of the liberal political elite. All signs indicate the seriousness of his intention, says Grabowszki. Grabowszki probably bases his conclusion on the last few sentences of Orbans speech: "If the elite of 68 leaves the field, there is only one question to be answered: who will arrive to replace them? And the modest answer we must give to this is that we are on our way. Calmly, and with restraint and composure, we must say that the generation of the 90s is arriving to replace the generation of 68. In European politics it is the turn of the anti-communist generation, which has Christian convictions and commitment to the nation. Thirty years ago we thought that Europe was our future. Today we believe that we are Europes future. Go for it!" Can we interpret this passage as Grabowszki does? He may believe that Orban was talking about himself and his fellow anti-communists, who 30 years ago yearned to belong to the European Union but who since then have grown up and discovered that the ideals of the 68 generation no long offer solutions to todays problems. Or was Orban talking about a generation of right-wing politicians in general who came of political age in the 1990s and who today want to have a different European Union? Moreover, could these two sentences be interpreted as an announcement of Orbans candidacy for Junckers job? As far as the first question is concerned, one can debate the intended meaning of these sentences. Im personally inclined not to restrict the generation of the 1990s to East European anti-communists but to look upon them as right and far-right politicians of Viktor Orbans ilk, both from the East and the West, whose time has arrived and who with a strong campaign can shift the composition of the European Parliament toward the right and can even remake the European Peoples Party, which in Orbans opinion is still led by men of 1968. As for the second question, there is absolutely nothing in these two sentences that would indicate that Orban is vying for the presidency of the European Commission. If Viktor Orban were to leave Hungarian politics, his party would collapse in no time, something Orban knows as well as anyone else. He is at the moment in the throes of putting the finishing touches on his political system and is working on its transformation into a new era that will be named after him. Why on earth would he want to leave all that behind? Orban only recently announced his plan for a total reworking of the constitution, which might mean transforming the parliamentary system into a presidential form of government. He just built himself a gorgeous new palace in the Castle District of Buda, which if things go well for him politically he can occupy for decades. Why would he leave all this for a mere five years at the helm of the European Commission, which he would like to strip of most of its powers What he, on the other hand, is hoping to do is to transform the composition of the European Peoples Party, filling it with as many right wingers as possible, who could then have a Spizenkandidat (top candidate) who would reflect their ideology. As far as Orban is concerned, Europe has rejected its roots, and instead of a Europe resting on Christian foundations, it is building a Europe of the open society. What kind of Europe does Orban want to build? He wants to recreate the Christian Europe [where] there was honor to work, man had dignity, men and women were equal, the family was the basis of the nation, the nation was the basis of Europe, and states guaranteed security. An ideal society which, of course, has never existed and never will, thank God. We can rest assured that Orban will not succeed in remaking the European Union as easily as he forced his will on the Hungarian people. MTI Photo: Koszticsak Szilard This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of XpatLoop.com or the publisher. Your opinions are welcome too - for editorial review before possible publication online Click here to Share Your Story At this time of year, many are naturally contemplating some kind of change in their professional lives. For some, this will spell leaving their current role. If youd like a new job to be on the horizon for you, I would advise refreshing your CV in the following ways: 1. Retailor your CV In all likelihood, your CV hasnt been updated in years, and is probably still tailored to the last role you were looking for. Since then, your skills, experiences and career aspirations will have changed and evolved, and as such, the information you should be emphasising on your CV will be different. So, take some time to retailer and refresh the below sections of your CV: Your personal statement This part of your CV should concisely explain your career history to date, how this led to your current situation and what you are looking for next. Given that this will be different to when you last looked for a role; this section will be desperately in need of a refresh. You can read more advice on how to do this here. Your experience Some of your previous work experience may not be relevant to the types of roles you are now applying for. For example, you might still be using up a fair bit of space on your CV going into great detail about a fairly junior role you had many years ago. Since then, you will have gained much more relevant and impressive experience. As such, remove all of the excess information about the junior role, and simply list the company, your role and the dates of employment. You can read more advice on how to streamline your CV here. Your skills Which skills have you learnt since you last updated your CV? Think about training courses, ways in which you have upskilled yourself, or taken on more responsibility. Add these to your CV, and remember to evidence them with online examples of your work and achievements. Your keywords Lastly, identify the keywords listed on the job descriptions for your ideal roles, such as people manager project management or data analysis. Make sure these are incorporated within the key skills and work history sections of your CV, as well as your personal statement. The job search game is changing, with recruiters using keyword screening algorithms to shortlist a select few CVs for a role. Incorporating relevant keywords through will ensure your CV makes it past the first hurdle. 2. Cull the cliches and include action verbs Whilst a tailored and optimised CV is more likely to reach a recruiters short list, they may be put off by any overused cliches which lack evidence of suitability. Therefore, if you are claiming to be a strong team player or an effective people manager on your CV, be sure to back this up with proof. Also, include action verbs throughout your CV to provide evidence of your achievements. For example, if you say that you motivated or united a team, this will encourage you to give an example of when you did this, and what the results were. 3. Proofread Lastly, check that your contact details, location and any links to your online professional profiles are up to date. Next give your CV a meticulous proofread, checking for spelling, formatting, consistency of capitalisations and abbreviations, as well as grammatical mistakes. In short, if you want to gain a competitive edge over other jobseekers, and achieve job search success in 2018, you must update your CV in the above ways. Try to make this process habitual throughout the year, rather than a one off occurrence you do only when switching jobs. As Nick Deligiannis explains in a previous blog, it is simply good practice to continuously update your CV as your skills and experiences evolve: After all, you service your car no less than once a year, so why not update your CV and online profiles at least as often? For further career advices, visit hays.hu Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs 07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0) Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na... New Delhi: WhatsApp will now start charging businesses for sending marketing and customer service messages in a bid to boost the company's sagging revenue growth. The prices, however, will vary from country to country. Businesses will pay to send certain messages so they are selective and your chats don't get cluttered. In addition, messages will remain end-to-end encrypted and you can block any business with the tap of a button, WhatsApp wrote in its blog. The company has, however, acknowledged that it is charging a premium compared to SMS rates. A Reuters report said that WhatsApp will charge the messages at a fixed rate for confirmed delivery, ranging from 0.5 cents to 9 cents per message depending on the country. Wireless carriers typically charge businesses well below a penny per SMS, and the price is still close to a penny when including fees collected by intermediaries between carriers and businesses. WhatsApp also highlighted how people can connect with a business in its blog. Request helpful information: When you need a shipping confirmation or boarding pass, you can give your mobile number to a business on their website, on their app, or in their store to send you information on WhatsApp. Start a conversation: You may see a click-to-chat button on a website or Facebook ad to quickly message a business. Get support: Some businesses may provide real-time support on WhatsApp to answer questions about their products or help you resolve an issue. Earlier this year, WhatsApp rolled out "WhatsApp Business" in India to help businesses communicate better with their customers. WhatsApp Business has an active user base of over 3 million people globally. It is a standalone app separate from the other version of instant messaging platform WhatsApp being used by over 1.5 billion people. New Delhi: Prince Harry is putting his Audi RS6 Avant on sale. The luxurious 2017 model has been put up for sale on AutoTrader at 71,900 (Nearly Rs 65 lakh). Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle married in May this year in a dazzling ceremony. Though the royal couple, left in a silver blue Jaguar E-Type for nearby Frogmore House mansion, it is being reported in the media that the RS6 Avant was being taken on several rides while the couple were dating. The newlyweds is now officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after Queen Elizabeth bestowed those titles on them. Harry's Audi RS6 Avant has very lush features that include panoramic sunroof, heated seats, night vision assist, heads up display and cruise control. The The 'Daytona Grey' model houses a Bose sound system and seven-inch infotainment screen. Under the hood, the vehicle comes with a twin-turbocharged 4-litre V8 engine churning 552bhp.The car raches 0-60mph in just 3.9 seconds posting a top speed of 175mph. MUNGER: A three-year-old girl, Sanno, who was rescued from a 110-feet deep borewell in Bihar's Munger district after nearly 30-hours of concerted efforts by the SDRF and NDRF officials, has now been referred to Patna Hospital for further treatment. According to reports, the girl was taken to the nearby Sadar Hospital here soon after she was safely pulled out of the borewell, marking the completion of a nearly 30-hour-long rescue operation. She was taken out, smeared with mud, at 9.45 pm, Munger Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mangla had told reporters on Wednesday. The girl, accompanied by her parents Nachiketa Prasad and Sudha Devi, was taken to the Sadar hospital in an ambulance, he said. The three-year-old girl was playing near her house when she suddenly slipped into the deep hole which was being dug for constructing the borewell on Tuesday evening. Soon after the news spread, rescue teams comprising of personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) were pressed into action. Two small teams were deployed at the spot in order to augment the rescue efforts. One team was airlifted from base Bihta in Patna to Murgiachak area. The other was mobilised from the NDRF Base to Munger by road. The girl was finally rescued around 9:35 pm on Wednesday, after which she was admitted to Sadar hospital. She was subjected to a medical examination in the presence of Munger District Magistrate and other top officials of the state administration. The doctors who examined her had said that the girl was stable but needed adequate rest and counselling. The entire rescue operation was personally monitored by the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi. The government while issuing a warning that strict action would be taken against those who dig bore wells and leave the job halfway, directed the officials to ensure that the child is rescued safely. (With Agency inputs) PATNA: Days after the ghastly reports of sexual abuse and rape of minor girls emerged from Muzaffarpur shelter home, another shocking incident has come to the fore again from Bihar. Sexually abuse of minor boys of another remand home for juveniles in Arrah, about 60 km from Patna, emerged on Wednesday. The incidents came to light after a local news channel aired purported videos and photographs of inmates at the remand home in Dharhara locality, under the Town police station area. The footage ran by the channels showed images of bruises on children's body. The victims were allegedly sodomised, claimed the channels. The videos and photos were later widely shared by other regional news channels and on social media. The remand home houses juveniles belonging to Bhojpur and three other adjoining districts, reported PTI news. When enquired, Arrah SP Awakash Kumar said information about physical assault on a minor boy has emerhed and an investigation is underway. Police officials have rushed to the spot for investigation, though none of them was immediately available for further comments. Details of the number of inmates in the shelter, numbers of victims etc have not been released. No FIR has been lodged in this connection so far. News of recent Muzzafarpur shelter home sexual abuse sent shock waves across the country. As many as 34 minor girls were sexually assaulted in Balika Grih, a short-stay girls` shelter home run by an NGO of Thakur in Bihar`s Muzaffarpur. The The sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's Social Welfare Department in April. Patna: In a yet another embarrassment for the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), the Patna High court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on it for deliberately flunking a student of Class 12 in one subject last year. According to reports, Saurabh Kumar, a Class 12 student has obtained 32 marks in the Alternative English, but after he requested the board for a scrutiny of his answer sheet, he was given just 2 marks. Due to this ''clerical error'', which the board confessed made before the High Court during a hearing, the student was declared fail last year. Visibly angry over the ''negligible behaviour'' of the BSEB officials, due to which the student's precious year was wasted as he could not take admission in any educational institution last year, the bench of Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh came down heavily on the board and slaapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Saurabh Kumar, a resident of village Shitalpur under Dighwara police station, had apeared in the intermediate examination conducted by the BSEB last year. Saurabh had scored first division marks in the intermediate examination, the results of which were declared on May 30 last year. He had obtained 32 marks in the Alternative English out of 50 and was very upset due to his marks in other subjects - Non-Rashtrabhasha and English. He then decided to request the board for a scrutiny, but, sadly after that, he was allotted just 2 marks instead of 32 in Alternative English and declared fail. After making several repeated request to the board officials for providing him the attested copy of the answer sheet of the subject in which he was failed last year, Saurabh finally approached the Patna High Court in March this year for relief. During the initial stage of the hearing in the case, the government pleader admitted that the change of marks in Saurabh Kumar's case was a ''clerical error'' by the BSEB officials. PATNA: Bihar's main opposition party RJD on Thursday warned that it will stage a massive 'dharna' at the national capital later this week in protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case. The warning came from RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav who said that his party and cadres will stage a massive demonstration in protest against the "heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur". The warning from RJD came on a day when the state observed a shutdown called by the Left parties over the issue. At least 600 persons were rounded up across Bihar during the day-long bandh called by the Left organisations to protest against Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal and alleged atrocities against Dalits. Speaking on the issue, Tejashwi urged "all to attend" the dharna at the Jantar Mantar on Saturday, August 4. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday, August 4 at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend", the RJD heir apparent tweeted. Against heinous Institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored & protected by Nitish government, we will stage a Dharna on Saturday, 4th August at Jantar-Mantar. Request all to attend. Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 2, 2018 Tejashwi, who is the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, has been vociferously attacking the Nitish Kumar government over the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal involving sexual abuse of more than 30 girls. Although it is not clear which other parties would extend their support to the proposed RJD dharna, sources said that Congress may extend its support to the party. Tejashwi, the son of veteran Bihar politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, shares a good rapport with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and likely to win his backing over the issue. Supported by other opposition parties like the RJD and the Congress, the Bihar bandh resulted in disruption of rail and road traffic in several districts. Smaller parties like Hindustani Awam Morcha, Loktantrik Janta Dal (floated by former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav) and NCP also lent support to the bandh, seen by political observers as coming together of non-NDA parties ahead of the 2019 general elections. According to a release issued by state police headquarters, a total of 598 persons were arrested across the state. Notably, arrests were reported from only four districts. The maximum number of arrests took place in Saran (328), followed by Madhubani (210), Nawada (35) and Katihar (25). CPI(ML) state secretary Kunal, in a statement, thanked the people of Bihar for what he termed "success" of the dawn-to-dusk shutdown. He also demanded the resignation of Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi over the issue of "disappearance" of 11 women from a "Sva Adhar Grih" (home for self-dependent women) at Muzaffarpur, which was run by the same NGO that controlled the shelter home for girls. He said "Sva Adhar Grih" was set up as part of a central scheme and the alleged disappearance of inmates was because of "ineffective laws and poor monitoring". He also welcomed the Supreme Court's Suo Motu cognizance of the shelter home sex scandal and demanded the resignation of state minister Suresh Sharma, who is also the local MLA. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, however, criticised the bandh and tweeted, "the opposition has fallen short of issues. Those who spent their energies in disrupting rail and road traffic and causing trouble to the common people could have done better to assist the CBI in collecting evidence". - ..... pic.twitter.com/CDMvphehNM Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) August 2, 2018 The bandh was marked by clashes between protesters and police in Patna and Muzaffarpur and disruption of movement of trains in West Champaran, Sheikhpura, Darbhanga and Jehanabad. Road traffic was affected on national highways passing through Khagaria, Kishanganj, Vaishali and Begusarai. The alleged sexual exploitation of more than 30 girls at the shelter home first came to light in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI and the NGO running the shelter home has since been blacklisted and the girls have been shifted to other shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: Superstar Ajay Devgn has a packed calendar for this and coming year. The actor's ambitious project 'Taanaji: The Unsung Warrior'. The poster was unveiled some time back and looked intriguing. The historical figure was a Maratha military warrior in Shivaji Maharaj's army, founder of the Maratha Empire in 17th century India. The latest buzz about the film is that renowned producer Bhushan Kumar has joined forces with Ajay Devgn for 'Taanaji'. The filming will kickstart on September 25 this year. Noted film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter and shared the info. He wrote: ITS OFFICIAL... Ajay Devgn and Bhushan Kumar join hands for #Taanaji... Filming starts 25 Sept 2018, after Ajay finishes shoot of Akiv Alis next film [not titled yet] and #TotalDhamaal... Directed by Om Raut. ITS OFFICIAL... Ajay Devgn and Bhushan Kumar join hands for #Taanaji... Filming starts 25 Sept 2018, after Ajay finishes shoot of Akiv Alis next film [not titled yet] and #TotalDhamaal... Directed by Om Raut. taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) August 2, 2018 Hailing from Malusare clan, Taanaji is known for the Battle of Sinhagad in 1670. The legend has it that Shivaji Maharaj called for Taanaji to recapture the fortress of Kondana near Pune. The Maratha warrior was at the wedding of his son when he got Shivaji's order. Therefore, soon Tanaji with his army scaled the fort. And that too with the help of domesticated monitor lizards which is called Gorpad in Marathi. Tanaji and his men then climbed the fort and recaptured the fort from Udaybhan Rathod, fort keeper of Jai Singh I. Soon a fight took place between Taanaji and Udaybhan. In the combat, Taanaji was killed and Shivaji renamed the fort from Kondana to Sinhagad in his honour. Taanaji Malusare's historic legacy proves why he is called a great Maratha warrior. Ajay Devgn's film on the life and times of Taanaji will surely take us back in time and make people love history one more time. Mumbai: JP Dutta's "Paltan" was supposed to be a comeback for Abhishek Bachchan but the actor pulled out of the film at the last minute and the director says he is clueless about the reason behind the actor's departure from the project. It was with Dutta that Abhishek made his debut opposite Kareena Kapoor in the veteran director's "Refugee" in 2000. He later collaborated with the director again on the films "LOC Kargil" and "Umroa Jaan". Abhishek was initially attached with the war-drama but he reportedly backed out of the film two days before the shooting commenced. When asked why Abhishek backed out of the project, Dutta told reporters, "Please go and speak to the Bachchans and let me know, because even I don't know." Abhishek was replaced by actor Harshvardhan Rane, who has now bagged a three film deal with Dutta. "Paltan" is based on the 1967 Nathu La and Cho La clashes between the Indian and Chinese armies. It stars Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Gurmeet Choudhary, Siddhanth Kapoor, Rane and Luv Sinha. The 68-year-old returns to direction after "Umrao Jaan", which released in 2006. Dutta said he was born to make films and he finds happiness when he is directing. "I was born to do this job. For me, happiness lies in making films. When director I'm not making one I'm sad... When you are young you realise what your calling is. I think I've been sent to do this. To make our soldiers immortal," the director said. "Paltan" is produced by JP Films and presented by Zee Studios and is scheduled to release on September 7. RAIPUR: A top Naxal commander, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head, surrendered before the authorities in Raipur along with his wife on Thursday. According to ANI, Ravi - the dreaded Naxal rebel - surrendered before the Chhattisgarh Police along with his wife Budhri in Raipur. His wife Budhri too carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on her head. The Naxal couple is believed to be involved in abduction of then Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon from Sukma's Kerlapal in 2012, and several incidents of loot and bomb blasts. During an interaction with the Chhattisgarh Police officials, Ravi said that he was asked to join the Naxalite movement to serve the poor people and take revenge from the government for allegedly suppressing the marginalised and the downtrodden. ''I was asked to join Naxals to serve people and defeat the government. I was involved in loots, bomb blasts and encounters. Later, I realised that its of no use to be with Naxals.'' Raipur: Naxal couple Ravi & Budhri, carrying bounty of Rs 5 lakhs each, surrenders before Chhattisgarh Police. Ravi says, 'I was asked to join Naxals to serve people & defeat Govt. I was involved in loots, bomb blasts & encounters. Later I realised its no use to be with Naxals' pic.twitter.com/Ovr61FVFFR ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 Interestingly, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had on Thursday urged the Naxals to surrender and join the mainstream or else the security forces were ready to "finish" them. The Chief Minister had made this appeal while speaking at the passing out parade of trainee constables at the Police Training School in Mana Camp area. Singh said that due to the action taken by the security forces, the state was heading in the direction of finishing the Naxal menace. "The state government has given a strong message to Naxals that they should join the mainstream. Either they should surrender or security forces are ready to finish them. Now there is no way left for them," Singh said. He said that it is due to the continuous efforts of the security forces that the Surguja district had been fully cleared of Naxals. Singh asked the tribal population in the state to support the government to get rid of Left Wing Extremism. Addressing the function, the CM said that it was for the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh that women will be joining the CAF. Sops for police like the construction of 10,000 houses and an automated kitchen at the PTS, which will cook meals for nearly 600 personnel every day, were also announced by Singh. The BJP veteran also sanctioned Rs 1.2 crore for the kitchen and claimed that work on building 6,000 houses for police personnel had already begun. He said that gymnasium facilities, currently available at district and battalion levels, would be extended to sub-divisions and police stations as well. Bulletproof jackets for police personnel will be procured every year while constables to inspectors would be given monthly response allowance to ensure they reach the site of an incident at the earliest, he said. A total of 526 constables, including 345 women, were commissioned into the Chhattisgarh Armed Force during the passing out parade. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) got an unsecured loan of Rs 25,000 crore from State Bank of India. The SBI loan will be for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. An MoU in this regard will be signed between the two organizations in the presence of Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Friday. There is no principal repayment liability for initial three years. After three years, the repayment would be done in 14 equal half yearly instalments. The total loan tenure is 10 years. NHAI can repay/ prepay it at any time without any prepayment penalty. This is the largest amount of loan to have been sanctioned to NHAI in one stroke by any institution. This is also the largest long term unsecured loan sanctioned by SBI at a time to any entity, an official release said. NHAI had invited an Expression of Interest from Scheduled Commercial Banks to fund Rs. 25000 Crore as an unsecured loan for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. In response to this EOI, SBI offered to fund the entire requirement of Rs 25000 Crore based on one month MCLR, the release further added. The total sanctioned amount of Rs 25000 Crore is to be disbursed within March 31, 2019. Rate of interest would be based on one month MCLR. Interest accrued on the amount actually outstanding will be paid on monthly basis. NHAI can draw the amount in any number of tranches, latest by March 31. will gain the dignity and prosperity if they follow the 'devotion to God alone' [O Jews], remember when your Lord was requested j [by your enemies to fight you but He did not permit them to do that; and He said to you]: "If you are thankful, I will surely increase you[r blessing]; but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is terrible indeed [to the disbeliever and denier of My bounties.]" j the story of the Sidonians The story quran-ayat.com/pret/14.htm#a14_7 [Remember, O Mohammed] that your Lord did [many times] give permission a [requested by the enemies of Jews] that .. He would send against [Jews] till the Doomsday , those who should visit them with evil chastisement; [O Mohammed] your Lord surely is Swift at punishment [for wrong-doers], Most Forgiving [to those who repent], and Most Merciful [to those who regret.] a they consulted God by lots of arrows [Remember, O Mohammed] that your Lord did [many times] give permission quran-ayat.com/pret/7.htm#a7_167 I appreciate your words here, MHz.Some points here are worth mentioning:1- Iran (and me also) does not like or wish for any conflict.2- I hope for the peace and prosperity of Iran and all other countries of the world.3- Such words that I said in this thread are only intended to show the way that Iran (and every other country in the world)4- If individuals and states follow the commandments of God (in the heavenly books), they will be at excellent condition, and if they oppose such commandments, they will be corrupt and will lose.This can be seen in the: that is to be with God, or to be against God., which means:.....................................................................The meaning: Mohammed, mention to the [Jews], when you came to them and to their country; they asked Gods permission to fight you, but He did not permit them, then they asked His permission to welcome you and give you food and drink, and He permitted them to do so. This was some of His bounties to you; so you should thank Him for it.: When the Israelite set forth in their exodus out of Egypt, and they approached the city of the Sidonians, their king gathered the chiefs and ministers and said to them: The Children of Israel has approached us, and they are so many, and we cannot fight them, so what shall we do?After discussion, they said to him: Consult God.So he wrote two signboards and hung them on the wall: on the first, he wrote: I should fight them, and he wrote on the other one: I should welcome them with food and drink and hospitability.Then he threw an arrow towards them, and the arrow fell on the second; therefore, they took food and drink and went out to welcome them. Their story is mentioned in the Bible, the=====================================================This (event of the Sidonian) happened when the Israelite (together with Moses) were devoted to God alone, while the same event (of Nabuchodonosor) happened when the Israelite fell in the idolatry and were against God., which means:............................................................167i.e. the enemies of Jews asked God for permission to fight the Jews, and He permitted them that.Ancient people had a custom that: so they wrote "Do" on a piece of parchment or a board, and on another one they wrote "Don't do", then they threw it with an arrow, so if the arrow hits the first, they say: "Our Lord permits us to do that!" But if it hits the second, they say: "He does not permit us that!"So Nabuchodonosor took an arrow and asked God's permission to fight the Children of Israel, and he threw the arrow which fell on the first one on which was written "Do"; therefore, he marched with his army, fought and overcame them.And this in fact is the meaning of (); i.e. they asked Him to permit them to fight the Jews and He permitted them to do so. NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hit out at Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj over reports that China has 'quitely' resumed activities in Doklam and that India has not tried to dissuade it. Alleging that the soldiers have been betrayed by the government, Rahul said: "Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border." A top US official had recently said while comparing Beijing's actions in the Himalayan region with its manoeuvres in the disputed South China Sea that China has quietly resumed its activities in the Doklam area. The official had also claimed that neither Bhutan nor India have sought to dissuade it. "China has quietly resumed its activities in Doklam and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it. China's activities in the Himalayas remind me of its south China Sea policies," US Congresswoman Ann Wagner had said. India and China have clashed repeatedly over territories in the Himalayas. Most recently, the troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28. Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has told a special court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case that BJP chief Amit Shah's statement defending one of the main accused and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani is "not believable" and should not be considered. In September last year, Shah had appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani, who had requested the court to summon him to prove her alibi -- that she was present in the Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital on the day the 2002 riots broke out and not at Naroda Gam. Special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas told Justice M K Dave yesterday that Shah's statement defending Kodnani was irrelevant, as it was made after a long delay. "Shah's statement is not believable, as none of the other accused mentioned about her presence at the Sola Civil Hospital," Vyas told the court here. The matter will be next heard on Friday. Shah had told the court that he met Kodnani in the Gujarat Assembly in Gandhinagar and later at the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on the day the riots took place. The Naroda Gam case is one of the nine major 2002 communal riot cases, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. Eleven people belonging to the Muslim community were killed in the Naroda Gam riots during a bandh call made to protest the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002. Besides rioting and murder, Kodnani has also been charged with criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder in the case. She was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail for her role in the Naroda Patiya riots, in which 96 people were killed. However, in April this year, the Gujarat High Court had acquitted her. New Delhi: An army officer has been booked by the CBI in a case related to the alleged Manipur extra-judicial killings which are being probed by the agency on the orders of the Supreme Court. This is the first such case in 29 FIRs registered by the CBI. Major Vijay Singh Balhara, then attached with Assam Rifles, along with seven other uniformed personnel has been named as accused in the case pertaining to the killing of 12-year-old boy Azad Khan. The case has been registered under IPC sections related to murder. This was termed a case of fake encounter by a Supreme Court-appointed commission led by retired apex court judge Santosh Hegde. According to the family, Azad was killed on March 4, 2009, the commission had noted. A student of class VII in Phoubakchao High School with no criminal antecedents, he was allegedly picked up from his home before being killed, it said. An FIR was registered nearly two months before the alleged encounter under sections of attempt to murder, arms act and other stringent charges. "According to the security forces' evidence, the deceased was suspected to be a member of the Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF)," it said, adding that PULF was not a banned organisation, according to Manipur government. Azad's family had said that he and his friend Kiyam Ananda Singh, who was a neighbour and studied the same school, was reading newspaper in the verandah of his home where his parents and relatives were present. At 11.50 am, about 30 security personnel came to the house and dragged Azad to a nearby field where he was severely beaten up amid protests from parents, the Commission said in its report. Parents, relatives and friends of Azad were locked in a room by the security forces but they could see through the window that after being beaten up, he was shot by one of the commandos and a pistol was thrown near the body, it said. The version of family members was supported by relatives, it said. The police had claimed that it got input of terrorists' movement in Azad's village to extort money from people. When they reached they found two persons running through bamboo groves firing at them. An encounter ensued for five minutes after which body of the boy was found and a 9 mm Smith and Wesson pistol was recovered, it said. After hearing the deposition of Major Balhara, who led the operation, the commission noted that there was "serious contradiction" in his statement with that of other witnesses. The commission noted that forces knew exactly where deceased was as they directly went to his home. "It is to be noted that it has come in deposition that the house from which the youths started running is the house of the deceased. Therefore the fact that the deceased was in his house when the commandos first saw him and was not involved in any extortion of money at that time is established," it said. The Commission also noted that it extremely difficult to believe that nearly 20 trained security personnel equipped with sophisticated weapons such as AK-47 and Insas rifles could not have overpowered or disabled the victim and were afraid of their security when he was running away from them and intermittently firing at them from 9 mm pistol. Relying on autopsy reports, scene of crime details, witnesses' statements and statements of police and Assam Rifles, the Hegde Commission submitted its report to the Supreme Court calling it a case of extra-judicial killing. In July last year, the Supreme Court had handed over 41 cases of fake encounters to the CBI in which 86 people were killed by security forces. Guwahati: Following a strong political storm over the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Thursday assured the inclusion of each and every Indian in the voters' list, prepared to identify 'illegal migrants'. He added that the draft of NRC has been framed as per the wishes of Assamese and Assam accord. "Draft of NRC is historical for Assamese people as it has been done as per wishes of Assamese and Assam accord. Many people are worried over non-inclusion of their names in NRC, I assure them that anyone who is an Indian their name will certainly be there in final NRC report," Mukhi said. Guaranteeing security to all those whoever are Indians, he said that the Central government has the right to know about the foreigners staying in the state or the country. Suggesting similar survey across the nation, the Assam Governor said, "It will be better if every state has NRC prepared, they should not only prepare NRC rather they should update it with every census, this will ensure full proof security in the country." Mukhi's statement comes in the wake of Assam NRC report release which excluded several lakhs of people, terming them as 'illegal immigrants'. Over 40 lakh people in Assam have been left out from the NRC, which has been being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The publication of the complete draft of the NRC witnessed the inclusion of 2,89,83,677 people out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants. The massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam rocked both house of Parliament after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to the opposition not to politicise the 'sensitive' matter as the list has been published on the directives of the Supreme Court and the Centre has 'no role' in it. (With inputs from agencies) New Delhi: In utter disappointment over Mamata Banerjee's 'civil war' and 'bloodbath' remarks on the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, two Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders on Wednesday quit the party. Diganta Saikia, Pradeep Pachoni said that the West Bengal Chief Minister, who is unaware of the ground reality in the northeast state, slammed the move without knowledge, suggest media reports. Following the release of the Assam voters' list, Banerjee launched an attack and alleged that the NRC exercise in Assam was done with a 'political motive' to divide people and warned that it would lead to bloodbath and a civil war in the country. "The NRC is being done with a political motive. We will not let this happen. They (BJP) are trying to divide the people. The situation cannot be tolerated. There will be a civil war, bloodbath in the country," Banerjee had said at a conclave. The Trinamool Congress chief, during the conclave, had also dared the BJP to try implementing NRC in West Bengal and said it can never come to power in the state. The massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam excluded over 40 lakh people from the final NRC draft list. The publication of the complete draft of the NRC witnessed the inclusion of 2,89,83,677 people out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants. New Delhi: The Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Wednesday cancelled the accreditation of Brajesh Kumar, who is the prime accused in the Bihar shelter home sex scandal case. Kumar owned a newspaper each in Hindi, English and Urdu but it is alleged that circulation figures were inflated to gain a greater slice of government advertisement revenue. In an order, PIB, which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said, "It has been decided with the approval of the competent authority to cancel the PIB press accreditation of card number 2275 issued to Brajesh Kumar, correspondent, Pratah Kamal Hindi daily with immediate effect in view of his involvement in alleged criminal activities." The PIB also asked all ministries and departments concerned to withdraw the facilities provided to him on the basis of his accreditation which include health facilities, government accommodation, railway pass and other benefits. The Bihar government's information and public relation department (IPRD) cancelled his press accreditation card after an FIR was lodged against him on May 31. It has began investigation on the media house to find out whether he and his colleagues ever misused facilities accorded to accredited journalists. Kumar was allotted a government accommodation under the PIB-accredited journalist quota in a posh locality of the National Capital Region (NCR), where he had his Delhi office, officials said. A fresh FIR was registered against Kumar yesterday following the "disappearance" of 11 women from the premises of a self-help group run by his NGO. The probe of the shelter home sex scandal case has been taken over by the CBI and Kumar is currently in judicial custody. The case relates to mental, physical and sexual exploitation of the girls residing at Balika Grih, Muzaffarpur. NEW DELHI: A BJP lawmaker on Thursday asked the government to bring a population control law to ensure a two-child norm for a family. Making the demand during the Zero Hour, BJP MP Uday Pratap Singh, representing Hoshangabad Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh, said that countries like China have taken steps to check population growth. Singh demanded that a law should be enacted to control population and ensure that a family can have only two children. Highlighting population growth in the country, he said this led to various problems, including on the employment front. He said a government that has implemented demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) can also come out with such a law and implement it. PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss raised concerns about the eligibility criteria set under the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and claimed that even students who have failed in physics and chemistry subjects have qualified. There are around 1.20 lakh medical seats but the number of students who cleared the NEET was more than 7 lakh, he noted. During the Zero Hour, AAP member Dharamvir Gandhi raised issues concerning Centre-State relations and claimed that the states have become "beggars" before the Centre. is New Delhi: The Cabinet has approved the opening of 13 new Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS) in seven states and the opening of second Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Madhya Pradesh. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the proposal. These 13 schools will be set up in Banda (Uttar Pradesh), Washim (Maharashtra), Chakpikarong (Manipur), Parbhani (Maharashtra), Nawada (Bihar), Mirjapur (Uttar Pradesh), Bhadohi (Uttar Pradesh), Palamau (Jharkhand), Siddipet (Telangana), Kudamalakunte, (Karnataka), CISF Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh), Devkund (Bihar) and Baoli (Uttar Pradesh). The CCEA also approved the establishment of an additional JawaharNavodayaVidyalaya (JNV) at Alot in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam district. Ratlam has a high percentage of SC and ST population and there is a huge demand for establishing an additional JNV in that district. Moreover, the state government has also shown readiness to earmark the required extent of land and temporary accommodation for setting up the Vidyalaya. At present, the KVs are imparting quality education to more than 12 lakh students and JNVs are providing modern education free of cost to nearly 2.50 lakh students in different parts of the country. With the opening of these 13 new KVS, about 13000 more eligible categories of students will be able to access affordable quality education and an additional 560 students will be benefitted from the second JNV at Alot once it becomes fully functional from Class VI to XII. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had at its meeting held in March 2017 approved a proposal for setting up of 50 new KendriyaVidyalayas (KVS) under civil/defence sector in the country under 'Challenge Method' at an estimated outlay of Rs 1160 crore. These new KVS were to be opened only in those locations where the sponsoring authorities come forward and offer land as well as provide temporary accommodation as per norms of KVS, on 'first come first served' basis and the sanctions were to be utilised accordingly. In pursuance of this approval, KVS has so far issued administrative orders for the opening of 37 new KVS consequent upon, the sponsoring authorities fulfilling the requisite norms. Detailed guidelines for consideration of proposals under the 'Challenge Method' were issued in September 2017. Thereafter, all the remaining proposals and other new proposals received by KVS were considered by a duly constituted committee which recommended the proposals for opening of new KVs to be considered under the 'Challenge Method'. 13 proposals scoring maximum weightage points under 'Challenge Method' were recommended by the committee for being placed before the competent authority for approval. (Reporting by Kartikeya Sharma) NEW DELHI: Amid a political storm over the findings of the National Register of Citizens survey concerning Assam, the Congress party on Thursday said that it is not against conducting such surveys if they are implemented as per the Assam Accord. Speaking exclusively to WION, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, ''Congress is not against the National Register of Citizens. We are not against the NRC but it should be implemented as per the Assam Accord signed during former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis tenure. The senior Congress leader also said that no Indian should be harassed in the process of identification and people should be given adequate opportunity to prove that they are the citizens of India. The Congress veteran further demanded that the government should also provide legal assistance to people there. On being asked as to how his party views the whole issue, Azad said, ''We see this as an humanitarian issue.'' Azad also accused the BJP of communalising it and warned that his party will not let anyone politicise the NRC issue. Azad's statement is in sharp contrast to the party's known stand on the issue. While the party wants political parties to stay away from the issue, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is all scheduled to discuss the Assam NRC during its upcoming meeting. Even after BJP chief Amit Shah's blistering attack on Congress over the NRC issue, the party has not been able to formalise its position on the same. Several leaders of the party appear to have different views on the subject, which, in all probability, will be ironed out during the next CWC meeting. Ghulam Nabi Azad also accused BJP of taking different positions on NRC. On one hand, Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that it is a court-monitored task and government has nothing to do with it, on the other hand, BJP president Amit Shah is taking the credit for NRC in Rajya Sabha, Azad said. Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has already taken a tough stand on the Assam NRC issue as it suits its politics in West Bengal and North East. Congress, which appears to be in a damage control mode, will have to fine-tune its strategy on the issue as its soft positioning may create an electoral backlash in rest of the country. BJP, on the other hand, has made it into an issue of national security and its senior faces are already talking about conducting Assam NRC-like surveys in other states. Like triple talaq, the NRC has the potential to consolidate 'Hindu' vote as it can boil down to the political narrative of appeasement politics. New Delhi: In a shocking revelation on the Kashmir terror funding by Pakistan, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday said that during an investigation Dukhtaran-e-Millat Chief Asiya Andrabi claimed that conspiracy against India on the Kashmir issue used to take place in the Pakistan High Commission at New Delhi. She also alleged that several Kashmiri separatist leaders have close relationships with Pakistan and leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani used to visit the high commission on a regular basis. During the questioning, Andrabi also disclosed that in 2015 when her mother passed away, the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had written a letter to her condoling the death of Andrabni's mother. Even she had written him a letter saying that Pakistan wasn't serious on the issue of Kashmir. Andrani also said to the NIA that regular meetings or telephonic conversations on the Kashmir issue used to take place between Andrabi and Former ISI chief Hamid Gul, Jamaat ud dawa Chief Hafiz Saeed, Pakistani diplomat Abdul Basit and Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaz Aziz. According to an NIA official, Andrabi often used to get calls from the Deputy High Commissioner Sayyed Haidar and had saved his number under the name of 'Beta Haidar'. She had also told Hamid Gul to ask former Pakistan Army Chief Raheeel Sharif to take action to free Kashmir. The NIA has also come to know about the existence of four Whatsaap group which has around 400 members. The groups -- Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Kashmir Media, Pak Media Group and Free Kashmir -- are operated by Andrabi's associate Sofi Fahmida who is also the admin of the groups. In the interrogation of Andrabi, it has also come to light that she is in touch with several terrorists, some of whom are now living in Pakistan. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that even morphed picture of child rape victims should not be published. The court made the observation while expressing concern over the identity of child rape victims being revealed by print and electronic media. Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, the apex court on Thursday restrained the media from telecasting images and videos of minor rape victims even in morphed form. The court also took suo motu cognisance of the case of alleged rapes of minor girls in a shelter home run in Bihar. The court issued notices to the Bihar government and Centre in connection with the case. More than 40 girls had been lodged at a shelter home run by an NGO in Bihar. Medical reports of the girls suggest that most of them may have been subjected to sexual intercourse at some point in time. The NGO running the shelter home has been blacklisted and all the girls have been moved to shelter homes in other districts while the premises has been sealed. Following the incident, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik had written to the state and the Central government seeking strict action against all shelter homes indulged in wrongdoing. In his letter, the Governor made reference to the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case and asked for monitoring of all shelter homes in Bihar, seeking strict against those found guilty. Two shelter homes, run by the same owner, Brijesh Thakur, have come under scanner in Muzaffarpur where at least 34 girls have allegedly been raped in one shelter home, and 11 women had gone missing from the other. KABUL: The Government of India (GoI) on Thursday strongly condemned the kidnapping and killing of an Indian national and two others by some unidentified gunmen in Afghanistan's Kabul. The Centre, while directing the Indian Embassy in Kabul to coordinate with the Afghan authorities, asked it to provide all necessary assistance in bringing the mortal remains of the Indian killed there. ''It is a matter of deep anguish that an Indian national, working for an international company, was kidnapped along with two of his colleagues from Malaysia and Macedonia in Kabul today. Local authorities later informed that the three have been killed by the kidnappers,'' the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. ''Government condemns this incident in the strongest terms. The Indian Embassy in Kabul is in touch with the Afghan authorities and the company concerned in the matter. The Embassy is rendering all assistance in the repatriation of the mortal remains,'' the MEA statement said. The condemnation the government came hours after it was reported that an Indian national and two others were kidnapped and later killed by some unidentified gunmen in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. All three men, including a Malaysian and Macedonian, were believed to be working for a logistics company in the Afghan capital. They were abducted early morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi district of Kabul province, according to TOLO News. The Kabul Police also later confirmed the incident but refused to give further details. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident. New York: Akshay Venkatesh, a renowned Indian-Australian mathematician, is one of four winners of mathematics' prestigious Fields medal, known as the Nobel prize for math. The Fields medals are awarded every four years to the most promising mathematicians under the age of 40. New Delhi-born Venkatesh, 36, who is currently teaching at Stanford University, has won the Fields Medal for his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics." The citation for his medal awarded today at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro highlights his profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics and his strikingly far-reaching conjectures. The other three winners are: -- Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin; Germany's Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich. Each winner receives a 15,000 Canadian-dollar cash prize. At least two, and preferably four people, are always honoured in the award ceremony. The prize was inaugurated in 1932 at the request of Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, who ran the 1924 Mathematics Congress in Toronto. From being a child prodigy to becoming one of the most renowned researchers in the field of mathematics, Venkatesh's journey has been full of achievements and accolades. He moved to Perth, Australia, with his parents when he was 2. He participated in physics and math Olympiads the premier international competitions for high school students and won medals in the two subjects at ages 11 and 12, respectively. He finished high school when he was 13 and went to the University of Western Australia, graduating with first class honours in mathematics in 1997, at the age of 16. In 2002, he earned his PhD at the age of 20. Since then, he has gone from holding a post-doctoral position at MIT to becoming a Clay Research Fellow and, now a professor at Stanford University. Venkatesh has worked at the highest level in number theory, arithmetic geometry, topology, automorphic forms and ergodic theory. His research has been recognized with many awards, including the Ostrowski Prize, the Infosys Prize, the Salem Prize and Sastra Ramanujan Prize. New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has invited online applications for Junior Engineers for its Paradip Refinery in Odisha. IOCL will accept online applications for the job post. Candidates meeting the prescribed eligibility criteria for a post, may visit the website of IOCL www.iocl.com and apply online. The website will remain open from August 01 to August 21, 2018, IOCL said . Candidates meeting the prescribed eligibility criteria for a post , may visit the website www.iocl.com go to Whats New > click on Requirement of Experienced Non - Executive Personnel at IOCL, Paradip Refinery. Pay scale: Betwen R.11,900 32,000 (under revision) Application Fee General and OBC candidates: Rs 150(non - refundable) though SBI e - collect only. SC/ ST Category NIL Name and number of Post Junior Engineering Assistant-IV (Production) - 27 Junior Engineering Assistant-IV (P&U-O&M) - 5 Junior Engineering Assistant-IV (Mechanical)/ Junior Technical Assistant-IV - 3 Junior Engineering Assistant-IV (Instrumentation)/Junior Technical Assistant IV - 5 After successfully applying / registering on line applications, the candidates must take a printout of the filled in online application form. The printout along with all supporting documents under self - attestation & a photograph as mentioned in the check list attached to the application form including proof of payment of application fees (if applicable) is required to be sent by ordinary post to The Advertiser, General Post Office (GPO), Post Box. No. 145, Bhubaneswar 751 001. New Delhi: The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas (NP2) for the Indian Navy is getting ready for aircraft carrier operations with the fighter undergoing tests to prove the arrestor hook system at Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF), Goa. The Spokesperson of the Indian Navy posted a short video of the LCA Navy undergoing taxi-in with an arrestor hook on its Twitter handle. The LCA Navy first flew with a tailhook on July 23. With the LCA Navy now fitted with an arrester hook, the fighter is now getting ready to test fly off a carrier deck. Earlier, in December 2016, the Navy had expressed its unhappiness over the naval version of LCA Tejas and claimed that the fighter was "too heavy" to fly off or land on its carriers. Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba had cited "overweight" as one of the reasons for ruling out LCA Tejas for aircraft carriers, adding that the force was looking at procuring an alternative jet. As far as the carrier-based aircraft is concerned, we need it in a timeline of the induction of the aircraft carrier. We have the MiG 29K, which operates from Vikramaditya and will operate from (indigenous aircraft carrier) IAC Vikrant. We were also hoping to operate the LCA (Light Combat Aircraft-Tejas) from these two aircraft carriers. Unfortunately, the LCA is not being able to meet the carriers required capability. That is why we need an alternative aircraft to operate from these two aircraft carriers, Lanba said. He said that at the moment the Navy is in the process of identifying the aircraft that will meet its requirements. If you look around the world, there are not too many options available and we need this carrier-capable aircraft sooner than later. So, I am looking at next five-six years, he said. The indigenous LCA Tejas has already been inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF). Lanba said the navy is still encouraging Indias Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop the Naval LCA. The innocuous-looking tailhook or arresting hook, attached at the back of a fighter, is one of the most important parts of a carrier-based aircraft. The hook is used to catch an arrester wire on the carrier deck when the fighter lands to ensure rapid deceleration. NEW DELHI: Lashing out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for saying that just like Assam, National Register of Citizens will be brought in West Bengal too, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee questioned the existence of the saffron party in the state. "Who are they? What significance do they have in West Bengal? Nobody knows them. They are just some hooligans. Their existence itself is in question and they will implement NRC here? I will see how they intervene," Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday as BJP leaders claimed that there should be NRC in West Bengal as well. The statement comes at a time when a delegation of eight members of the Trinamool Congress was detained in Assam when they were visiting the state in the aftermath of the publication of the NRC. Hitting out at the Centre, she said: "There is super emergency in the country. TMC MPs have been manhandled in Assam." "I think this is beginning of the end. They are frustrated, they are tensed and depressed. And that's why they are showing muscle power," she added. The TMC delegation was stopped at the airport over fears of a law and order situation in the state. The Cachar district administration had on Wednesday night issued a prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the delegation said that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC delegation including six MPs were kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport here in Cachar district under Barak Valley region. Banerjee has been accusing the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and saying that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo moto cognisance on the alleged sexual assault of girls in Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home case and issued a notice to the Centre and the Bihar government seeking a detailed reply from them. The apex court order comes a day after Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik wrote to the Centre and the state government seeking strict rules against all shelter homes indulged in wrongdoing. The Governor wrote to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of Patna High Court over the issue. Protesting against the alleged rape at the shelter the Left parties in Bihar called for a bandh on Thursday seeking the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The bandh was supported by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress Party, Hindustani Swam Morcha, Samajwadi Party and Lokrantrik Janata Dal. Taking to Twitter, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav had said, "Against ghastly, dreadful & gruesome mass rape sponsored by Nitish Kumar, Left parties have called Bihar Bandh tomorrow supported by RJD & Congress demanding CM Nitish Kumar resignation. I assure that I will compel Nitish Kumar to speak up. Chacha, get ready to walk the talk." The shutdown hit rail and road traffic, police told IANS. Left party workers and supporters blocked railway tracks thereby affecting over a dozen trains. Several trains were stopped in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jahanabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Patna and Bhojpur districts. Protesters have also blocked several roads in Siwan, Bhojpur, Nawada, Patna, Arwal, Jagabad districts. At least 34 girls have allegedly been raped and 11 others gone missing in two of Muzaffarpur's shelter homes, run by the same owner, Brijesh Thakur. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was handed over the probe into the case concerning the abuse of girls in Balika Grih, run by Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti. It is alleged that officials and employees of the shelter home used to mentality, physically and sexually exploit girls residing there. The case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. More than 40 girls had been lodged at the shelter home and medical reports suggest that over half of them may have had sexual intercourse at some point of time. The NGO running the shelter home has been blacklisted and all the girls have been moved to shelter homes in other districts while the premises has been sealed. Meanwhile, a fresh case has been registered against Thakur in connection with the disappearance of 11 women from the other shelter home. According to the complaint, when a survey of the second shelter home was done by the district child protection unit in March, the presence of 11 women was registered. However, when the officials visited the shelter home for another survey in June, they found the shelter home locked. SILCHAR: Six Trinamool Congress MPs and two MLAs were on Thursday detained at the Sichar airport in Assam. The party members have alleged that they were manhandled at the airport. The Trinamool Congress delegation reached Assam on Thursday to assess the situation in the state in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the NRC. The police have claimed that the delegation of TMC members was detained as a precautionary measure as Section 144 is in place. However, TMC claimed that they did not know that Section 144 was not in force and that they had no intentions of breaking the law and order. #WATCH Trinamool Congress MP and MLA delegation detained at Silchar airport #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/G8l2l3OEFp ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 Lashing out at the Centre, TMC leader Derek O Brien called it an Emergency-like situation. "Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergency like situation," he said. TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the delegation, said that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC delegation including six MPs was kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport in Cachar district under Barak Valley region, a PTI report said. The Cachar district administration had on Wednesday night issued a prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. The TMC team is visiting the state at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee has been accusing the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and saying that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. New Delhi: Amid a strong political uproar over the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav has refused to comment on the issue. The RJD leader said that they will present their take on NRC after a few days. "We'll first examine the clauses, only then will it be right to make a statement," he said. Tejashwi, however, mentioned that there is nothing greater than humanity. "Just think, if NRIs living outside are subjected to the same, where will they go?," he said on Wednesday. The young RJD leader's statement comes in the backdrop of Assam government publishing the second and final NRC draft on July 30, Monday. The northeast state came under fire following the release of the draft which excluded several lakhs of people, terming them as 'illegal immigrants'. Over 40 lakh people in Assam have been left out from the NRC, which has been being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. Following this, the Election Commission said that the people who have been excluded from the voters' list are ineligible to vote. The publication of the complete draft of the NRC witnessed the inclusion of 2,89,83,677 people out of a total 3,29,91,384 applicants. The massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam rocked both house of Parliament after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to the opposition not to politicise the 'sensitive' matter as the list has been published on the directives of the Supreme Court and the Centre has 'no role' in it. He asserted that no 'coercive' action will be taken against those whose names were excluded from the NRC draft list. (With inputs from agencies) SRINAGAR: A fierce gunbattle in currently underway in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara during which two dreaded terrorists have been killed, reports said on Thursday. According to ANI, two terrorists have been killed in an encounter at Khumriyal area of Lolab in north Kashmirs Kupwara district. SSP, Kupwara, Ambarkar Shriram Dinkar had confirmed to reporters that a joint team of Special Operations Group (SOG) and Army launched a massive search operation in Khumriyal following specific inputs about the presence of some terrorists in the area. As the joint team approached the suspected spot, the terrorists opened fire triggering off a gunfight, SSP said. He said that in the ensuing gunfight two terrorists have been killed. The bodies of the duo have been recovered along with as many weapons, SSP said, adding that the identity of the slain is being ascertained. The operation in the area is ongoing, he said. SP Vaid, J&K Director General of Police (DGP), also tweeted, ''Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with J&K Police/ Security Forces in Lolab Kupwara few minutes back." "Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with J&K Police/ Security Forces in Lolab Kupwara few minutes back," tweets Shesh Paul Vaid, J&K Director General of Police (DGP). #JammuAndKashmir (File pic) pic.twitter.com/JnjBrwcJ99 ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 On Tuesday, some unidentified terrorists overpowered a policeman and decamped with his INSAS Rifle at Kandhar area of Maidanpora Lolab. (With Agency Inputs) BANGALORE: A day-long bandh has been called on Thursday, August 2, in 13 districts of north Karnataka by several Kannada activists and political outfits over the alleged neglect of the region. The activists are also protesting over discrimination in the allocation of funds for the region in the recent budget presented by state Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and on the inadequate representation in the Karnataka state cabinet. According to reports, several outfits are divided over supporting the bandh. The bandh was initially called by Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, but they later withdrew the bandh following assurances from Kumaraswamy. However, Uttar Karnataka Raitha Sangh has decided to continue with the bandh. Several Kannada activists are likely to stage a protest in Hassan, Karnataka. Meanwhile, reports of few districts choosing to stay away from the Bandh is emerging. Calling the bandh "BJP sponsored", Karnataka Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said, "Uttara Karnataka bandh is sponsored by BJP...Where did the issue start? Who has spoken? They are the ones who are dividing the state." "At any cost, this government and Congress party will take Akhanda Karnataka (United Karnataka) forward; we will not allow any injustice to happen to any part of this state..We will treat everyone equally," he said. Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti representatives earlier met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who sought to mollify them by expressing his government's strong commitment for the region's development. He also said the state government was mulling shifting certain government offices to the 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha' in the region, in an attempt to address alleged discrimination. BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa has blamed Kumaraswamy for giving room to the demand for statehood for North Karnataka. He, however, did not support dividing Karnataka and said whatever shortcomings were there could be set right. With agency inputs Mumbai: Maratha activists' 'Jail Bharo Andolan', demanding reservations in job and education, received mixed responses across Maharashtra on Wednesday. The protests held steam in a few pockets with nearly 335 protestors being detained in the state during the day. However, various reports stated that just a little over 30 demonstrators showed up at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, over fears of cases being slapped against them. Police detained 34 persons, who were later released. No violence was reported from any place, police said. Agitators also staged a demonstration outside the residence of Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar in Latur district and blocked a portion of Pune-Solapur National Highway in Solapur. Farmers in Hingoli district in the Marathwada region, which has witnessed most of the aggressive protests in the last 10 days, organised a bullock-cart march to demand quota for the community. At least 65 protesters were detained in Pune district, a rural police official said. Pro-quota agitators also organised a rally at Junnar in the district, he added. In Madha in Solapur district, at least 50 protesters were detained. Eleven protesters were detained at Pandharpur when they locked the gate of the Tehsildar office under a "Tala-thoko" agitation. Police took agitators in custody after opening the gate. Over 150 protesters were detained at Malegaon in Nashik district and 25 at Ambejogai in Beed district. The demonstrations are being led by Maratha Kranti Morcha and other Maratha outfits. "We have lost confidence in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. His assurances of offering reservation are hollow," Kedar Shinde, a protester at Azad Maidan, said. State-wide protests across Maharashtra over Maratha reservation took a violent turn in the last 10 days. Incidents of stone-pelting, arson and vandalism have been common with police personnel resorting to lathi charge in some places. Hundreds have been injured in a stir which refuses to die down. With PTI inputs New Delhi: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is till date grateful for everyone's prayers, which brought him back to life after he sustained a near-fatal injury while shooting for the 1983 film 'Coolie'. Fans across the globe are marking the day by wishing the 75-year-old 'Happy Rebirth Day'. on Thursday, Amitabh took to social media to thank everyone who prayed for him when he was fighting for his life. "To them that have sent greetings for my 2nd birthday Aug 2, a recovery from my Coolie accident, I send my gracious thanks .. it shall be difficult for me to acknowledge and thank all .. but I do know that it was your prayers that saved my life," tweeted the 'Thugs of Hindostan' star. T 2885 - To them that have sent greetings for my 2nd birthday Aug 2, a recovery from my Coolie accident, I send my gracious thanks .. it shall be difficult for me to acknowledge and thank all .. but I do know that it was your prayers that saved my life .. Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) August 1, 2018 He also mentioned the incident in his blog, he wrote, "There is enormous amounts of celebratory mention and wishes for the 2nd of August, the day when I recovered from my Coolie accident .. to live another day , through the prayers of the millions that saved my life through their devotion to the Almighty .. a most heavy debt that I shall happily bear, and ever be in a state of never being able to repay it ." "There is sufficient media coverage on those times and days .. for me then to elaborate would be boring and repetitious .. best then to avoid and be in gratitude and prayer," Big B added. The Shahanshah of Bollywood further said that someday, he will talk about the episode in detail. "There is a long history to the events of those times .. one that shall not be able to be narrated here .. though I do make insincere promises that someday they shall be spoken of ," the veteran actor wrote. Last year, Abhishek Bachchan too had shared a throwback photo of his 'Paa' in the hospital while he along with his sibling Sweta and their cousins had been to visit him. The caption read: taken in the mid 80's ( 1985 if memory serves). I call it Big B and the Bachchan bunch. Dad was hospitalised with Mysthenia Gravis and my sister, cousins and I had gone to visit him. Being too young to understand what all was going on our parents always made it out to be like an outing so that we would not be disturbed by the hospital and its workings. When I used to visit my father after his accident on the sets of "Coolie" in 1982, seeing him connected to many drips and machines, he used to tell me they were kites that he had got for me. I was 6 yrs old. My father was fighting for his life and all I thought about was... why isn't he allowing me to play with these kites??? The innocence of childhood I guess. Check out the post: On a related note, the incident took place when Amitabh was accidentally punched in the gut while shooting an intense fighting sequence opposite co-star Puneet Issar, which resulted in an internal abdominal injury. Amitabh was immediately rushed to a nearby where he was reportedly declared clinically dead for a few minutes before being put on the ventilator. After undergoing several surgeries, finally, on August 2, Big B moved a muscle and that's how the day became his "second birthday." On the professional front, Amitabh is currently shooting for Ayan Mukerji's 'Brahmastra' also featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Mouni Roy. His last release '102 Not Out' enjoyed a good word of mouth publicity at theatres. New Delhi: There has been a massive surge in customer grievances lately relating to unauthorised transactions resulting in debits to their accounts or cards. Several bank customers have reported that cash amount from their account were withdrawn, speculating that it could be a malicious attempt were fraudsters stole the ATM pins and other data by fitting skimming devices and preparing clones of the ATM cards (though not verified independently). A Delhi-based couple became a victim of fraudulent cash transaction message recently. Five back to back cash transactions, and money worth Rs 50,000 was gone in a jiffy. In a similar fashion, fraudsters siphoned off Rs 90,000 from the account of a domestic help in the NCR region. The fraud seem to be happening on random customers' account. Such instances are being massively reported these days and the date of fraudulent transaction seem to be the first day of the month, usually the pay day. What to do in case of a fraud? In case of fraudulent transaction the customer must immediately notify the bank of such a transaction within three working days. RBI says that if the complaint is made within 3 working days, the customer has Zero liability. But if the complaint is registered within Within 4 to 7 working days, the customer has certain transaction value liability. If the complaint is made beyond 7 working days, the liability will be as per the banks Board approved policy. Maximium liability of a customer for reporting fraud between 4-7 days Type of Account Maximum liability BSBD Accounts Rs 5,000 All other SB accounts Pre-paid Payment Instruments and Gift Cards Current/ Cash Credit/ Overdraft Accounts of MSMEs Current Accounts/ Cash Credit/ Overdraft Accounts of Individuals with annual average balance (during 365 days preceding the incidence of fraud)/ limit up to Rs 25 lakh Credit cards with limit up to Rs 5 lakh Rs 10,000 All other Current/ Cash Credit/ Overdraft Accounts Credit cards with limit above Rs 5 lakh Rs 25,000 With the increased thrust on financial inclusion and customer protection, the RBI has put in place a mechanism to address customer grievances arising out of physical transactions. New Delhi: The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) told the Supreme Court today that it was ready to undertake the projects of embattled realtor Amrapali group of companies. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit asked the NBCC to place a concrete proposal before it within 30 days on how they could complete the projects of the Amrapali group. The court also recalled its earlier order directing the group to deposit Rs 250 crore, while noting that its direction was yet to be complied with. The bench, while allowing the recall application filed by the group, said its conduct was "wholly unfair" and "absolutely improper". The bench also took note of the alleged diversion of Rs 2,765 crore by the Amrapali group and asked the auditor to submit a report on this. The apex court directed its registry to intimate the banks about its order, freezing all the bank accounts of the Amrapali group of companies. The top court had yesterday cracked the whip on the Amrapali group for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and ordered attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of 40 firms of the real estate major. It had directed the Amrapali group, which was yet to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 hassled home buyers, to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of all the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties. The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how the NBCC had issued advertisements inviting co-developers for doing the work related to the Amrapali group without taking the apex court's approval. The court was earlier told that a high-level committee was formed by the Uttar Pradesh government under the chairmanship of the secretary of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to redress the issues of home-buyers and affected parties of incomplete or stalled housing projects at Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway. The group had said it was in talks with the Centre for the construction of its pending, unsold and future projects by the NBCC and had already submitted a proposal in this regard. It had earlier told the court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 home buyers in a time-bound manner. New Delhi: Russia has been testing its latest weaponry during the massive naval drill in the Caspian Sea and as part of the exercise, a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter fired the Kh-31 supersonic air-to-surface anti-ship cruise missile at a ship and blowing it to smithereens. The Russian Navy conducted the exercise in the last week of July and according to SputnikNews, several top fighters including the Su-30, Su-24, Su-25 and Su-34 along with at least 10 Russian warships took part in the drill to practice targeting ships in the sea. A video released by the Russian Ministry of Defence shows the Su-34 launching a Kh-31 missile (NATO codename: AS-17 Krypton) to hit a ship which explodes and then sinks. According to the ministry 50 aircraft including fighters and bombers took part in the exercise. All the ships which took part in the drill belonged to the Caspian Flotilla that is the maritime element of Russia's Southern Military District. The Caspian Flotilla is stationed in Astrakhan and consists of several brigades and divisions of surface ships and units of coastal troops. But the Russians have not disclosed which variant of the Kh-31 supersonic cruise missile was used but in all probability, it was the Kh-31A. The Kh-31A version is an anti-ship missile with an active radar seeker and can engage vessels displacing up to 4,500 tons. The missile can penetrate cohesive and layered air defence of a large group of ships. The Russian MiG-29K, MiG-29M, MiG-29SMT, MiG-29UBT, MiG-31, Su-24M, Su-25T, Su-30MK, and Su-35 aircraft can carry the missile. The Kh-31 A is derived from the Kh-31P medium-range supersonic anti-radiation missile, which can counter enemy air defences. The Kh-31P has a high supersonic speed and uses a scramjet with a built-in booster for propulsion. This is some security cam footage of a group of humanoid turds stealing a small horn shark named Miss Helen from a petting pool at the San Antonio Aquarium in Texas by disguising it in a baby stroller. Apparently one of the men had previously owned the same type of shark but it passed so he just decided to steal another one because trash people beget trash ideas. You shouldn't even be allowed to own a fishbowl. The video shows the thieves staking out the petting pool for over an hour, waiting for the staff to leave the room. While aquarium staff are distracted by an accomplice, another of the suspects reaches into the pool and grabs something with a net. According to the aquarium, the trio then placed the shark into a bucket, covered it with a wet blanket, and pushed it away in a children's stroller. One man has been charged after confessing to the theft and two other individuals have charges pending. Police believe that the shark was not kidnapped for profit, but to be added to the suspects' extensive private collection of marine life. "The arresting officer said that the suspect had one of these sharks but lost it and wanted another one" Thank God they were busted and the shark safely returned to the aquarium. WTF is wrong with people? Now I'm not saying these three should all be sentenced to being fed to hungry great whites on live television, but you have to admit that would make a pretty epic finale to next year's Shark Week. I'll start drafting a petition to Congress. Keep going for the video footage (complete with the shark's return) while I speculate how many times these idiots watched Ocean's 11 hoping to gain some shark-stealing insight. Thanks to my friend Arlene, who agrees hopefully they just bought (but probably stole) that stroller and haven't actually procreated. Washington: The US Congress has passed the $716 billion defence spending bill which has provisions that bar China from participating in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the world's largest international maritime warfare drill, and prevent its companies from accessing certain telecom equipment for defence and security establishments. The bill not only seeks to strengthen American defence in the Indo-Pacific region and take a number of restrictive measures against China but also strengthens its military ties with countries such as India, Australia and Japan to collectively address the "aggressive" Chinese military behaviour. "No country has been more aggressive than China in going after American technology in sectors like aviation, robotics, new energy vehicles, and others where the US has established itself as a global leader," Senator Sherrod Brown said after the John S McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for financial year 2019 was passed by the Senate by 87 to 10 votes on Wednesday. The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives last week, and now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law, has a bipartisan measure that seeks to strengthen the tools the US uses to block national security threats posed by investments from China and other countries. This provision will ensure that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is better equipped to handle "emerging threats" from China. "Our bipartisan bill will give CFIUS and our export control agencies tools they need to ensure that these types of investments don't slip through the cracks," Brown said. "We have arrived at a new era where China is now in a leading position in terms of technological strength, defence capabilities, composite national strength and with a military which can fight and win," Senator Marco Rubio said on the Senate floor. "And you see evidence of these beliefs. You see it in their impressive and massive military buildup and quantum leaps in technological advances. You see how they're working to destroy the current world order that was built by America and our allies, and now seek to replace it with one that they build and one that will be led by them," he said. "That's how they offer loans, not just to get their companies more business, but to give them leverage and footholds in countries and they do so with no questions asked about democracy or human rights," Rubio said. The NDAA-2019 has Rubio's move that denies Chinese companies access to American small business programmes and "prevents taxpayer dollars from being awarded to the US' biggest economic competitor". Prominent among the several legislative moves which strengthened US posture toward China include a provision requiring the Department of Defense to publish photos of Beijing's "offensive military forces deployed on their fake islands", to ensure Americans have the resources to understand the "dangerous role" being played by the Chinese government. It also has a provision to protect the Department of Defense from China's lobbying efforts and impose a prohibition on it from funding Confucius Institutes "used by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate American universities for influence and espionage operations". The provision in NDAA-2019 that bars China from participating in the RIMPAC naval exercises until they cease a range of activities "threatening" US security, was moved by Senator Ted Cruz. It reverses a policy set by former president Barack Obama. The bill preserves the US Commerce Department's export control authority and prohibits the federal government from purchasing products manufactured by Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei in order to ensure the security of US military communication systems. It also protects the critical technologies necessary for national security from being accessed by US' global competitors and requires further investigation into industrial espionage and cyber theft allegedly conducted by China. An accompanying conference report expressed concern that sufficient information has not been made publicly available in a timely manner regarding China's reclamation and militarisation activities in the South China Sea. It alleged that China has engaged in provocative military activities elsewhere throughout the Indo-Pacific Region, including the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the Indian Ocean. As such, it urged the Secretary of Defense to give full consideration to the strategic and public interest in selective declassification of China's activities in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said such provisions in NDAA would undermine the mutual trust between US and Beijing. "We urged the US side to discard the outdated Cold-War and zero-sum mentality," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy told The Wall Street Journal. The final expertise results are expected soon, spokeswoman Larysa Sargan says The investigation of murders during the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv will soon be over; the investigation team expects final results of respective expertise procedures. Larysa Sargan, the spokeswoman of Prosecutor General's Office posted this on Facebook. She pointed out that Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko met with civil activists, members of the NGOs, related to the Euromaidan movement. 'Besides, the courts allowed special investigations (in absentia) against the top-rank officials who served during the rule of Yanukovych', she wrote. In course of the investigation, 413 individuals were officially considered suspects; 48 of those were the responsible officials and 208 served as law enforcers. February 20, 2014 earmarked the climax of the street violence during the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. That day, government-hired shooters gunned down dozens of unarmed civilians; about a dozen of law enforcers deceased as well. Dozens were wounded in the street fights. Prosecutor General's Office continues to look into the crimes related to the Euromaidan movement and the Revolution of Dignity, including these murders. OSCE humanitarian subgroup coordinator Tony Frisch has been ignoring the issue of hostages exchange during Minsk talks sessions; Iryna Gerashchenko, Ukraine's representative in this subgroup posted this on Facebook. According to her, Frisch 'does not bring this issue to the agenda as a separate matter; he acts like he doesn't understand why the Ukrainian side does not agree with the offer by the ORDLO (temporary administrations in occupied areas, led by Russian militants, - 112 International), who support the 'all-for-all' idea. They demand use to release almost 300 Russians, which includes Russian citizens and former Berkut fightersm involved in terrorist acts in Odesa and Kharkiv, et cetera. They're ready to give back 25 people, even less than that - not confirming and concealing dozens of hostages, the military and civilians among them, whom they hold in jails and the newly created secret camps...', she wrote. As it was reported earlier, Ukraine is ready to consider the option of exchanging 13 Russians in addition to the previously voiced 23 names for Ukrainian political prisoners release. Iryna Herashchenko, also the First Vice-Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament named 23 names of either convicted or detained Russians on the Ukrainian territory who are ready to be conveyed to Moscow in exchange for Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia and Donbas. Previously, Gerashchenko denied that Volodymyr Ruban, the former head of the Officer's Corps of Ukraine, could not be exchanged for two Ukrainian soldiers, illegally detained in the occupied Donbas - at least Russian militants never offered such option. "And, by the way, the statements of the Ruban's lawyers do not correspond with the reality; they are far from the Minsk Talks. Donbas militants never offered two our soldier for this so-called "general". Once, there was a talk about a formula "one for one" and then the militants put Ruban on the common list with another 300 people and claimed that there will be no small exchange only all for all," she wrote. The Interior Ministry plans to continue the process with the borderline section in Sumy region Ukraine's law enforcers finished working on the section of the borderline between Ukraine and Russia in Kharkiv region. The Interior Ministry reported that on Thursday evening, quoting Deputy Minister Vadym Troyan. 'In Kharkiv region, the borderline section's length makes 270 kilometers; we equipped 220 of these. This year, all works will be completed. The next stage of the works will focus on the Sumy section. The process began as we coordinate our efforts with the local authorities', he said. He added that the works continue 'despite all actions by pro-Russian forces'. The said works are due to the 2014 decree by the Ukrainian cabinet; the project called 'The Wall' includes construction of trenches and other defense objects. According to the State Border Guard, since the beginning of the year, about 6.3 million foreign citizens have crossed the Ukrainian border. The report says that annually, the authority spots an increase of the passenger flow across the ground, air and sea-based checkpoints on the Ukrainian border. 'To compared with, in 2014, border guards allowed about 13 million foreigners to cross the border of our country; in 2017, the number of foreign citizens exceeded 14.6 million', the State Border Guard marked. The ministry emphasized that the actions of Hungary show the direct interference in the interior affairs of Ukraine Laszlo Pap, the Charge d'affaires of Hungary to Ukraine was called to visit the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine as the department wanted to express the protests due to the number of the unfriendly statements against Ukraine as the press service of the Foreign Ministry reported. The inadmissibility of the last statements of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban against the Eurointegration and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine, which "notably preserving the policy of the European Union and greatly reflects the approaches of the country-aggressor" was noted. "Also, the note with demand to provide the official explanation was passed to the Hungarian diplomat due to the decision of the Hungarian government to create the post of the Authorized Minister for development of Zakarpattia region and development programs of the kindergartens of the Carpathian Basin as a part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine included in the jurisdiction of a minister," the message said. The Foreign Ministry emphasized that the actions of Hungary show the direct interference in the interior affairs of Ukraine. Earlier Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban offered Romani to join the efforts for the further economic growth and strengthening of the defense capability of the state. Moreover, he noted that "it is possible to develop the Carpathian region only acting jointly, on the basis of the mutual respect." $50 million of the amount shall be spent for lethal weapon Open source The U.S. Senates House of Representatives supported allocating $250 million to Ukraine for the security and defense as Ukraines Embassy to the United States reported on Facebook. The document includes major fundamental provisions of the bill on "Cooperation with Ukraine in the cyber-security sphere", which in particular provides for strengthening defensibility against cyber attacks, securing governmental computer networks, reducing dependencies on Russian informational and communicational technologies, aiding in participation in information exchange programs," reads the message. The State Department was authorized to give the Congress a report on status of cooperation with Ukraine in the sphere of cyber-security to search for the new directions of the interaction and support. The Law on "U.S. budget for 2019 for the national defense needs" shall come into force after the President signs it. Earlier, the U.S. Congress supported the allocation of $250 million to Ukraine. It was also reported that the UK will allocate $42.6 million to Ukraine for the humanitarian aid and increase of the defense capacity. The current pressure on the Kremlin is not enough, - Senator Lindsey Graham Open source A group of U.S. senators presented a draft document, which includes the package of new sanctions against Russia. Reuters reported that on Thursday, pointing out that the politicians consider the current amount of sanctions insufficient. 'The current sanctions regime has failed to deter Russia from meddling in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections,' Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated as quoted by the news agency. His counterpart from the Democrats Robert Menendez said that the document would be the 'next step in tightening the screws on the Kremlin and will bring to bear the full condemnation of the United States Congress so that Putin finally understands that the U.S. will not tolerate his behavior any longer'. Earlier, Francis Fannon, the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Energy Resources at the U.S Department of State said Washington may impose sanctions against Russian companies due to the construction of Nord Stream 2. 'Republicans and Democrats were united last month in repudiating Trumps failure to publicly condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. Still, Congress failed to pass anything before lawmakers left Washington for their weeks-long summer recess. The latest measures prospects were not immediately clear', Reuters wrote. Before taking effect, the bill should be approved by the Senate and House of Representatives and then be signed by President Donald Trump. The height of the monument is 11 meters together with the granite hill and base The monument to the hero of Kievan Rus Ilya Muromets was opened today, on August 2 in the park Murometsk on Trukhaniv Island in Kyiv as the park reported on Facebook. "In the park Muromets, the monument to Ilya Muromets was opened. It was made according to the project of the winners of the architectural competition," the message said. The monument was made by young talented sculptor Volodymyr Zhurave. Vasyl Virastyuk was a model for Ilya Muromets. The parts for the forms of the sculpture, later poured with the bronze, were made with the help of the 3-D printer. The height of the monument is 11 meters together with the granite hill and base. As it was reported earlier, the first smart-tree was opened in Kyiv, as the Director of the Information and Communication Technology Department reported. According to him, the main idea of this event is the presentation of the alternative energy sources sector, which provides various free services for the visitors through the self-contained kit of solar trackers in the stylized tree shape. It is noted that the smart-tree will be working 24 hours without weekends. With the tree, one can charge the devices, gyro scooters, use free Wi-Fi or listen to music from the phone through the dynamics. SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ITAU CORPBANCA (NYSE: ITCB; SSE: ITAUCORP) announced today that it will hold an investor conference call on Friday, August 3, 2018, at 11:00 A.M. Santiago time (11:00 A.M. ET), to discuss the CEO transition process. The call will be hosted by Milton Maluhy, Itau Corpbancas Chief Executive Officer, Gabriel Moura, Itau CorpBancas Chief Financial Officer, and Claudia Labbe, Itau CorpBancas Head of Investor Relations. Conference Call Details: Participants should dial into the call 10 minutes before the scheduled time using the following numbers: 1 (877) 553-9962 (US Toll Free Dial In), 0(808) 238- 0669 (UK Toll Free Dial In) or +44 (0) 2071 928592 (Standard International Dial In). Please quote Itau CorpBanca to the operator. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available until Friday, August 10, 2018, by dialing 1(866) 331-1332 (US Toll Free Dial In), 0(808) 238-0667 (UK Toll Free Dial In) or +44 (0) 3333 009785 (Standard International Dial In). Access Code: 2339939# Slides and Audio Webcast: There will also be a live, and then archived, webcast of the conference call, available through the Companys website. Participants in the live webcast should register on the website approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the webcast. The webcast can be found at: http://itaucorp.irwebpage.com/webcast_08032018-MaterialEventNotice.html About Itau Corpbanca ITAU CORPBANCA (NYSE: ITCB; SSE: ITAUCORP) is the entity resulting from the merger of Banco Itau Chile with and into Corpbanca on April 1, 2016. The current ownership structure is: 36.06% owned by Itau Unibanco, 30.65% owned by CorpGroup and 33.29% owned by minority shareholders. Itau Unibanco is the sole controlling shareholder of the merged bank. Within this context and without limiting the above, Itau Unibanco and CorpGroup have signed a shareholders agreement relating to corporate governance, dividend policy (based on performance and capital metrics), transfer of shares, liquidity and other matters. The merged bank has become the fourth largest private bank in Chile and will result in a banking platform for future expansion in Latin America, specifically in Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Central America. Itau Corpbanca is a commercial bank based in Chile with operations also in Colombia and Panama. In addition, Itau Corpbanca has a branch in New York and representative offices in Madrid and Lima. Focused on large and medium companies and individuals, Itau Corpbanca offers universal banking products. In 2012, the bank initiated a regionalization process and as of the date hereof has acquired two banks in Colombia -Banco Santander Colombia and Helm Bank-, becoming the first Chilean bank having banking subsidiaries abroad. The merger with Banco Itau Chile and the business combination of our two banks in Colombia, represent the continued success of our regionalization process. As of May 31, 2018, according to the Chilean Superintendency of Banks, Itau Corpbanca was the fourth largest private bank in Chile in terms of the overall size of its customer loan portfolio, equivalent to 10.5% market share. As of the same date, according to the Colombian Superintendency of Finance, Itau Corpbanca Colombia was the seventh largest bank in Colombia in terms of total loans and also the seventh largest bank in Colombia in terms of total deposits, as reported under local regulatory and accounting principles. As of May 31, 2018, its market share by loans reached 4.9%. According to the Chambers President, export from Ukraine to Canada has increased by 30% during last half a year compared to the same period last year Open source The President of Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce Zenon Potichny said that Canadian investment in Ukraine is growing. This was reported by Ukrinform agency. "Since the launch of free trade last year, we record the growth of investment between Canada and Ukraine and increase in activity of both large and small companies. The growth of trade leads to an increase in investments and vice versa, "Potichny said. He added that a special event will be held to attract Canadian investors in Ukraine in the autumn. "In October, the Canadian Government Project for Trade Facilitation with Ukraine (CUTIS) will hold a special event, during which it will present various interesting projects and seek investors in Canada. We hope that this will lead to even more investment, "the CUTIS President noted. The Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Ukraine came into force on 1 August last year. Earlier, Ukraine informed Canada about completion of FTA ratification. The Governor General of Canada confirmed the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Area Agreement by the signature after the consent of the House of Commons and Senate on June 1. The law #2505-VII on the legal status of the missing persons has come into force in Ukraine. Yesterday the document was published at the parliamentarian newspaper "Holoc Ukrayiny". The law defines the definition "a missing person". The definition "a missing person" will be included to the legislation of Ukraine along with the existent definition "an absent person" from the Civil Code of Ukraine. It is established that a person receives a status of a missing one since the report on the missing of a person, the searching of a person or the decision of the court is filed. The relatives of a missing person have a right to know where the person is, the place of the death or burial. Also, they can recover the remains of a deceased person. Moreover, the right of the relatives of the missing person to get the pension due to the loss of a survivor is provided. The disabled relatives also possess this right regardless of the insurance period, children regardless whether they were dependant on a missing person. The right for such pensions occurs in a month after the entering of the data on the missing person to the United register and remains as long as such status of the person remains. According to the law, the Commission for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances will be created. It should be a permanent advisory body of the Cabinet of Ministers. Its function is to coordinate the activity of the state bodies authorized for the registration and search of the missing persons. The representatives appointed by the National Police, SBU, Prosecutor General's Office, Defense Ministry, Ukrainian Parliament Committee for Human Rights. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, State Emergency Service, Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories, International Red Cross Committee make the Commission. The number and personnel of the Commission will be defined by the Cabinet of Ministers. All members of the commission, except the chairman, perform their duties on a voluntary basis. The main aim of the Commission is the clarifying the fate of the persons missing during the participation in the Donbas Conflict, permanent resident or stay in the zone of the holding of the Anti-Terrorist Operation or Joint Forces operation, armed conflict or military actions at the territory of Ukraine, mass unrests inside the state and due to the emergence of the natural or technological hazards. The administrative code provides the punishment for the non-fulfillment of the legal demands of the Commission; obstruct its activity, provision of the false, incomplete information or with the violation of the terms. The officials can be fined for this for $63-157 and for $157-251 if it is the repeated violation. The Criminal Code of Ukraine includes a new article "enforced disappearance". The arrest, detention, kidnapping, imprisonment of a person by an official, including the foreign, is punished the by a deprivation of liberty for 3-5 years. the order of such actions or absence of the appeal to the authorized bodies provided the deprivation of liberty for 5-7years. The law provides the creation of the United register of missing people in special circumstances. The Commission provides the creation of this register and it is a holder of such register. However, the administrator of the register is the state enterprise guided by the Justice Ministry. Open source The statement of the lawyer of Volodymyr Ruban about his offer to exchange him for two Ukrainian soldiers illegally detained in occupied Donbas does not correspond with the reality. Iryna Gerashchenko, the First Vice Speaker and the representative of Ukraine in the Minsk Talks reported this on Facebook. "And, by the way, the statements of the Ruban's lawyers do not correspond with the reality; they are far from the Minsk Talks. Donbas militants never offered two our soldier for this so-called "general". Once, there was a talk about a formula "one for one" and then the militants put Ruban on the common list with another 300 people and claimed that there will be no small exchange only all for all," she wrote. Ruban was detained on March 8 at the Ukrainian checkpoint at the demarcation line of Donbas Conflict zone. It is stated that Ruban is suspected in the illegal handling of arms, preparation of a crime and terrorist action. Later the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv arrested Volodymyr Ruban, the Leader of Center of POW Release 'Officer Corps' for 60 days without a right to the bail. The Court extended the arrest on May 4 to July 2. Also, it was reported that non-affiliated MP Nadia Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban, the Head of 'Officer Corps' planned to attack the cortege of the President of Ukraine with the large caliber sniper rifle. Earlier, it was reported that one suspect in murder of former Donbas combatant is an ex-fighter of Tornado battalion Four suspects in the murder of 43-year-old Donbas battalion soldier Vitaly Oleshko (call sign Sarmat) were issued a noted of suspicion. This was reported by the speaker of the Prosecutor Generals Office of Ukraine Andriy Lysenko on Facebook. "Four individuals were informed of the suspicion under the Criminal Code of Ukraine for an deliberate murder by a group of people of an activist in Berdyansk, Zaporizhia region," the statement reads. Earlier, it was reported that one suspect in murder of former Donbas combatant is an ex-fighter of Tornado battalion. Anton Herashchenko, the MP of People's Front and the Interior Ministry counselor said that the convict, formerly the sniper of the said unit, may face the life imprisonment for this particular crime. 'As for the rest of the detainees, they are the accomplices in the murder, the sidekicks. They all played certain parts; someone served as a driver, someone turned the victim's attention', Herashchenko added. As we reported earlier, two gunshot wounds took the life of Vitaliy Oleshko, the former volunteer fighter of Donbas battalion and the active participant in Donbas conflict. A gunfire attack occurred in the southeastern city of Berdyansk on Tuesday. The President noted that the way to the creation of the Supreme Anti-corruption court is opened with the adoption of this law President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed the law "On amendments to the law of Ukraine on the judicial system and status of judges" due to the adoption of the law "On Supreme Anti-corruption court" as the press service of the president reported. "The amendments allow to provide the efficient beginning of the work and further functioning of the Supreme Anti-corruption court, including its appeal chamber that will be the significant step in the fight against corruption," the message said. The law provides that the appeal consideration of the cases against the top corrupt officials will be held only by the appeal chamber of the Supreme Anti-corruption court. "I appeal to the Supreme Qualification Commission of Judges with a request to hold the competition as soon as possible and to the Foreign Ministry to appeal to our international partners concerning the delegation of the representatives to the public council of the international experts," Poroshenko claimed. As we reported Petro Poroshenko has signed the law 'On Supreme Anti-Corruption court'. On June 7, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for the law on the establishment of the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court. The decision was supported by 315 deputies. The Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading the presidential bill number 7440 on the Anti-Corruption Court on March 1. Since that day, the head of state has called upon the people's deputies to speed up the work on the adoption of the full document. Open source All the necessary evidence on the case was gathered in the case of Ukrainian Parliament MP Nadiya Savchenko and the Head of Officers Corps organization Volodymyr Ruban and the trial should start this year. Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko announced this at the briefing. Today we announce that the investigation has reached its final stage suspects and their lawyers studying the pre-trial investigation materials. After the end of this procedure, the case will be directed to the court. Judging by the amount of evidence, we believe that the trial is to start this year, Lutsenko said. As it was reported earlier, Ruban was detained on March 8 at the Ukrainian checkpoint at the demarcation line of Donbas Conflict zone. It is stated that Ruban is suspected in the illegal handling of arms, preparation of a crime and terrorist action. Later the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv arrested Volodymyr Ruban, the Leader of Center of POW Release 'Officer Corps' for 60 days without a right to the bail. The Court extended the arrest on May 4 to July 2. Nadiya Savcheko, MP is suspected of organizing a terrorist act in the Ukrainian Parliament and in the government district of Kyiv. Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General claimed that he has proof that Savchenko planned an armed coup d'etat, which would have brought to mass civilian casualties. In particular, according to the information of Prosecutor General's office, she planned to shell Kyiv from grenade launcher. Furthermore, she together with early detained Volodymyr Ruban are suspected of an organization of assassination of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Prosecutor General's Office and Security Service of Ukraine have completed the investigation of the criminal case against Nadiya Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban under suspicion of terrorism. The wife of journalist Pavlo Sheremet, who was murdered in the center of Kyiv two years ago, appealed to Pechersk District Court with a complaint against the inaction of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko. This was reported by Ukrainian Truth agency. Olena Prytula requires that she is recognized as a victim and claims that the explosion was a terrorist act. "The audacity with which the terrorists acted shows that the purpose of the crime was not the murder of Pavlo Sheremet, but to arouse panic and depression of the witnesses of the terrorist attack, TV viewers and relatives of the deceased Pavlo Sheremet. It is obvious that the crime was committed in order to intimidate the population and journalists in particular," the complaint stated. The document states that on February 27, 2018, Prytula addressed Lutsenko with the request that the case be investigated as a terrorist act that led to the death of a person. However, Yuriy Lutsenko did not react to this request by August 1. The wife of Sheremet asks the court to oblige the Prosecutor General to register the crime to the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations as a terrorist act and to begin an investigation under the article Creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization. In addition, Prytula asks to accept the participation in criminal proceedings of the lawyer Andriy Mamalyga as victims representative. As we reported, Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sheremet was killed in Kyiv in the morning of July 20, 2016. The car he was driving exploded in the citys downtown. The vehicle belonged to his civilian wife, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainian Truth outlet Olena Prytula; she was not in the car at the moment. The Ukrainian police qualified the explosion as intentional homicide. Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko assumed the murder could be the part of some greater plan, perhaps designed by the Kremlin. The key version of Sheremets murder was his professional activity. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine confirmed the detention of three Ukrainians accused of the cyber-attacks at the American companies in the US. Vasyl Kyrylych, the Representative of Consular Service Department of Ukraines Foreign Ministry said this as Interfax-Ukraine reported. "The Consul of Ukraine has established the contact with the law enforcement bodies and the information of the mentioned citizens of Ukraine was confirmed as well as the presence of the American advocate who defends the rights and legal interests of one of the arrested Ukrainians," he said. As we reported the United States arrested three Ukrainians. They are suspected of committing several cyber-crimes like theft of arrays of payment card numbers and other data of American companies. According to three federal indictments unsealed today, Ukrainian nationals Dmytro Fedorov, 44, Fedir Hladyr, 33, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30, are members of a prolific hacking group widely known as FIN7 (also referred to as the Carbanak Group and the Navigator Group, among other names). Since at least 2015, FIN7 members engaged in a highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting more than 100 U.S. companies, predominantly in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries. As set forth in indictments, FIN7 hacked into thousands of computer systems and stole millions of customer credit and debit card numbers, which the group used or sold for profit. In the United States alone, FIN7 successfully breached the computer networks of companies in 47 states and the District of Columbia, stealing more than 15 million customer card records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 separate business locations. Additional intrusions occurred abroad, including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France. Companies that have publicly disclosed hacks attributable to FIN7 include such familiar chains as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chilis, Arbys, Red Robin and Jasons Deli. Additionally in Western Washington, FIN7 targeted other local businesses. Fedorov, a high-level hacker and manager who allegedly supervised other hackers tasked with breaching the security of victims computer systems, was arrested in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Fedorov remains detained in Poland pending his extradition to the United States. In late June 2018, foreign authorities arrested a third FIN7 member, Ukrainian Andrii Kolpakov in Lepe, Spain. Kolpakov, also alleged to be a supervisor of a group of hackers, remains detained in Spain pending the United States request for extradition. Open source The United States are suspecting three Ukrainians in carrying out a cyber-attack on 100 American companies in 47 states. This was reported by the press service of U.S. Department of Justice. Three high-ranking members of a sophisticated international cybercrime group operating out of Eastern Europe have been arrested and are currently in custody facing charges filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes for the Western District of Washington and Special Agent in Charge Jay S. Tabb Jr. of the FBI Seattle Field Office, the message says. According to three federal indictments unsealed today, Ukrainian nationals Dmytro Fedorov, 44, Fedir Hladyr, 33, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30, are members of a prolific hacking group widely known as FIN7 (also referred to as the Carbanak Group and the Navigator Group, among other names). Since at least 2015, FIN7 members engaged in a highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting more than 100 U.S. companies, predominantly in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries. As set forth in indictments, FIN7 hacked into thousands of computer systems and stole millions of customer credit and debit card numbers, which the group used or sold for profit. In the United States alone, FIN7 successfully breached the computer networks of companies in 47 states and the District of Columbia, stealing more than 15 million customer card records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 separate business locations. Additional intrusions occurred abroad, including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France. Companies that have publicly disclosed hacks attributable to FIN7 include such familiar chains as Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chilis, Arbys, Red Robin and Jasons Deli. Additionally in Western Washington, FIN7 targeted other local businesses. The three Ukrainian nationals indicted today allegedly were part of a prolific hacking group that targeted American companies and citizens by stealing valuable consumer data, including personal credit card information, that they then sold on the Darknet, said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. Each of the three FIN7 conspirators is charged with 26 felony counts alleging conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. In January 2018, at the request of U.S. officials, foreign authorities separately arrested Ukrainian Fedir Hladyr and a second FIN7 member, Dmytro Fedorov. Hladyr was arrested in Dresden, Germany, and is currently detained in Seattle pending trial. Hladyr allegedly served as FIN7s systems administrator who, among other things, maintained servers and communication channels used by the organization and held a managerial role by delegating tasks and by providing instruction to other members of the scheme. Hladyrs trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 22. Fedorov, a high-level hacker and manager who allegedly supervised other hackers tasked with breaching the security of victims computer systems, was arrested in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Fedorov remains detained in Poland pending his extradition to the United States. In late June 2018, foreign authorities arrested a third FIN7 member, Ukrainian Andrii Kolpakov in Lepe, Spain. Kolpakov, also alleged to be a supervisor of a group of hackers, remains detained in Spain pending the United States request for extradition. As it was reported earlier, Ukrainian hackers were arrested in the US. They are suspected of committing several cyber-crimes like theft of arrays of payment card numbers and other data of American companies. According to the information of the agency, work is proceeding on the arrests of the members of Carbanak. As the law enforcement and private cyber investigators believe, the gang is one of the most active in the world in terms of the number of cyber-crimes. According to the information of the investigation, the gang has stolen 889 billion dollars in all this time. English French BOUCHERVILLE, Quebec, Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colabor Group Inc. (TSX:GCL) (Colabor or the Company) announced today the appointment of Mr. John Hemeon to the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager of its SUMMIT Foods Division in Ontario beginning Monday, August 13, 2018. Mr. Hemeon was until recently Chief Operating Officer of Canada Cartage. Before joining Canada Cartage, he held various management positions with leading companies operating in the food distribution and restaurant sector, including as Executive Vice President, Supply Chain for Tim Hortons, and Executive Vice-President of SYSCO in Alberta. Mr. Lionel Ettedgui, President and CEO of COLABOR, welcomes Mr. Hemeon. "We are pleased to welcome M. Hemeon, a seasoned executive with an excellent knowledge of the food distribution industry in Canada. I am confident that he will quickly leverage his expertise and will greatly contribute to the optimization of our distribution activities in Ontario. ABOUT COLABOR Colabor is a distributor and wholesaler of food and related products serving the hotel, restaurant and institutional markets or "HRI" in Quebec, Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces, as well as the retail market (grocery stores and convenience stores). Within its two operating segments, Colabor offers specialty food products such as meat, fresh fish and seafood, as well as food and related products through its broadline activities. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed to be forward-looking statements reflecting the opinions or current expectations of Colabor Group Inc. concerning its performance, business operations and future events. Such statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and the analysis of the debt structure and available alternatives, and risks mentioned in the Corporations annual information form found under its profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), such as the risk of dilution for existing shareholders. As such, these statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results, realities or events may differ materially. Except as required by law, the Corporation assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions or other factors change. Further Information: Colabor Group Inc. Jean-Francois Neault, CPA, CMA, MBA Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tel.: 450-449-0026, ext. 1308 Fax: 450-449-6180 jean-francois.neault@colabor.com A hybrid form of yoga that combines traditional yoga postures with modern yoga moves and a silk hammock. Pre-registration required. Please note: Aerial Yoga at the Yoga Art Space studio requires pre-registration through our website at www.YogaArtSpace.com/calendar. If no one registers for a class, the class may be cancelled between 6-12 hours prior to the class start time. Though this event is shown as a regular, weekly class each week on the Alabi calendar, there are occasionally times when the class will be cancelled in advance such as for certain holidays. All updates and cancellations are on the studio calendar at www.YogaArtSpace.com/calendar. What is Aerial yoga? Aerial Yoga is a hybrid form of yoga that combines traditional yoga postures infused with modern yoga moves and an silk fabric hammock. Do I need Previous Yoga Experience? No previous yoga experience is not necessary to enjoy an Aerial yoga class. In fact it can be easier than normal yoga! The silk hammock acts like a support whenever you require it, almost like having your own personal yoga teacher giving you assistance throughout the entire yoga class! Another advantage of having the support of the hammock is that 90% of students are able to complete more challenging poses, such as handstands! Can Everybody do Aerial Yoga? Yes and no. Students who have had a previous injury can find Aerial yoga much easier to participate in then normal yoga. This is due to the the weight being evenly distributed between your body, the hammock and the earth. People who suffer any of following contraindications are advised NOT to participate in an Aerial yoga class: if you have had recent surgery of any sort, if you suffer glaucoma, if you are pregnant, if you suffer a heart condition (including very high or low blow pressure), if you get vertigo, if you have had a recent stroke or a hernia, if you have osteoporosis or any bone weakness, if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, or if you have had botox in the last six hours. What Should I Wear? All jewellery items must be removed before participating, a t-shirt must be worn to cover the armpit area and leggings are advised to avoid the silk rubbing on the skin and creating irritation. Please have clean feet or, alternatively, bring a pair of socks with you. MONTREAL, Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc. (MOBI724 GLOBAL or the Company) (TSX-V:MOS) (OTCQB:MOBIF), a global Fintech company, offering a fully integrated suite of multiple Payment Card-linked, Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence Solutions announces that following the completion by MOBI724 Asia Inc. (MOBI724 ASIA), its Asian subsidiary, of the certification process and the latters commercial launch in the Philippines, MOBI724 ASIA through Weepay Payment Processing Corporation (WeePay), its distributor, has signed up and launched its commercial production in the Philippines with China Trust Bank Corporation (CTBC) as the Settlement Bank. Under this agreement, Weepay will be soliciting and deploying merchants that will use POS terminals supplied by MOBI724 and its transaction switch for all its EMV Debit transactions across the Philippines. As MOBI724 ASIA launches different products in the Philippines, the agreement with WeePay will allow its customers to take advantage of all new applications that will be launched. Marcel Vienneau pointed out that: We are excited to be accelerating the rollout of our solutions and technology in the Philippines market with one of our partners (Weepay) leading banks. About MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc. We enable smart transactions anywhere MOBI724, a global Fintech company, offers a fully integrated suite of multiple Payment Card-linked, Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence Solutions, which work with any payment card, on any mobile device and at any Point of Sale; and a mobile EMV compliant payment platform. MOBI724 provides turn-key solutions for card associations, card issuers, banks, retailers, manufacturers, offer providers, to create, manage, deliver and track and measure incentive campaigns worldwide in real time. The company captures value from big data to deliver seamless and personalized user experiences for the benefits of all parties in the ecosystem. MOBI724 headquarters are in Montreal, Canada, and the company presently has operations in North and Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia Pacific. About WEEPAY WEEPAY is a duly registered Merchant Service Provider of Metrobank Card Corporation and BancNet. Our partners enable WEEPAY to accept VISA, MASTERCARD, and China UnionPay credit cards as well as BancNet, MegaLink, and ExpressNet ATM cards through POS terminals. WEEPAY is also an eMerchant Aggregator of BancNet and MegaLink for Online Payments. WEEPAY is authorized to acquire merchants who would like to accept payments via ATM Cards. WEEPAY is backed by a strong holding company PLW Group of Companies with five core businesses such as stock brokerage; real estate; sales and distribution in telecommunications, mobile, FMCG and electronic consumer goods; pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing cooperation with multinational companies; and distribution of branded consumer durable products. Legal Disclaimer Certain statements in this document, including those which express managements expectations or estimations with regard to the Companys future performance, constitute forward-looking statements as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to the Company or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. Unless required by law, the Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute a solicitation to buy or sell any securities in the United States. For further information, please visit www.MOBI724.com or contact: Investor Relations: Mr. George Aizpurua, Vice-President, Communications First Canadian Capital Corp. T: 647-500-2389/416-742-5600; E: gaizpurua@firstcanadiancapital.com Mr. Derek Lindsay MOBI724 Global Solutions Inc. Chief Financial Officer T: 514-394-5200; E: derek.lindsay@mobi724.com CORAL GABLES, Fla., Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fiduciary Trust Company International, a global wealth manager and wholly-owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments, today announced that Edgardo Gonzalez has joined the firm as a managing director and senior portfolio manager in its Coral Gables office. We are committed to strategically growing our team of relationship-focused wealth management professionals in South Florida who can draw on a wide spectrum of expertise and skills to help clients reach their long-term goals, said Linda Krouner, regional leader of Fiduciary Trusts Coral Gables office. Edgardo has a solid track record of forging strong relationships with high-net-worth individuals and families, and working closely with them to craft strategies for protecting and growing their wealthand utilizing their wealth to make a positive impact on their families and communities. Mr. Gonzalez joins Fiduciary Trust from U.S. Trust in Fort Lauderdale, where he was a portfolio manager in the global wealth and investment management division. Mr. Gonzalez previously worked as a wealth management advisor for TIAA-CREF in Miami and New York. Earlier in his career, he spent more than eight years with JP Morgan, most recently as a portfolio manager in the firms private bank in New York. Fiduciary Trust has earned a reputation in South Floridaand across the countryfor fostering strong multi-generational relationships, and developing integrated wealth and investment management strategies based on an understanding of each clients unique needs, said Mr. Gonzalez. I look forward to working with my Fiduciary Trust colleagues to build fee- and tax-efficient portfolios that align with specific client situations. Mr. Gonzalez graduated from Loyola University with a bachelor of business administration degree in finance. He is fluent in both English and Spanish. Mr. Gonzalez is the most recent addition to Fiduciary Trusts office in Coral Gables. The firm announced in June 2018 that Leticia Hernandez, who has over 18 years of experience counseling U.S. and international individuals and their families on a variety of tax and estate planning strategies, had joined the Coral Gables office as trust counsel. In addition, Fiduciary Trust announced in November 2017 that Manuel Cabielles, who has worked directly with individuals and families in Miami and Latin America as a wealth advisor for over 20 years, had come aboard as a Coral Gables-based managing director and business development officer. About Fiduciary Trust Fiduciary Trust Company International, a global wealth management firm, has served individuals, families, endowments and foundations since 1931. With over $77 billion in assets under administration and management as of June 30, 2018, the firm specializes in strategic wealth planning, investment management and trust and estate services, as well as tax and custody services. The firm and its subsidiaries maintain offices in New York, Coral Gables, FL, Boca Raton, FL, St. Petersburg, FL, Los Angeles, San Mateo, CA, Washington, DC, Wilmington, DE, and Arlington, VA. For more information, please visit fiduciarytrust.com. About Franklin Templeton Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE: BEN] is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 170 countries. Through specialized teams, the company has expertise across all asset classesincluding equity, fixed income, alternative and custom solutions. The company's more than 650 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With offices in over 30 countries, the California-based company has 70 years of investment experience and over $724 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2018. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com. Copyright 2018. Fiduciary Trust Company International. All rights reserved. Contacts: Vancouver, BC , Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lucky Minerals Inc. (TSX.V: LJ) (OTCQB: LKMNF) (Lucky or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed John Mears, B.Sc, MAusIMM, P.Geo, to the position of President & Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company effective immediately. Mr. Mears takes over the positions from Robert Rosner, who has acted as the Interim President & CEO since June 2017. Mr. Rosner will return to the position of Chief Financial Officer, which he held prior to his appointment as Interim President & CEO, and has also been named Executive Vice President. Steven Cozine, the current CFO, has resigned that position and remains as the Companys Corporate Secretary. Additionally, Alain Moreau M.Sc.A, B.Sc, P.Geo has joined Lucky as Vice President, Exploration. The Board of Directors wishes to thank Mr. Rosner and Mr. Cozine for their exemplary service and contribution over the past year, a period of significant corporate development activity. Their continued support through this transition and CEO search has positioned Lucky advantageously for its next phase of its growth and evolution. Mr. Mears is a highly respected geologist, corporate officer and director who has sat on the Board of Directors of numerous publicly listed mining companies, including Nevada Star Corp., Azteca Gold Corp., Andover Mining Inc., East African Copper Corp., and Oregon Resources Corp. He also served as a Director of Norsemont Mining during the successful USD$540 Million takeover by Hudbay Mining, and led the corporate rescue effort of Marengo Mining as Interim COO, which resulted in an investment in excess of USD$100 Million. Mr. Mears also acted as Chief Global Geologist & Senior Investment Manager from 2007 to 2017 for The Sentient Group, a private equity fund specializing in the natural resource sector. During this period he oversaw due diligence, audits, report creation and recommendations for the funds Natural Resource Investment portfolio valued at over USD$3 Billion. (more) To Read The Entire News Release Please Follow The Link: http://www.luckyminerals.com/lucky-minerals-bolsters-executive-team-with-the-appointment-of-a-new-ceo/ Amsterdam, 3 August 2018 - Heineken N.V. ('HEINEKEN') (EURONEXT: HEIA; OTCQX: HEINY) today announced that it has signed non-binding agreements with China Resources Enterprise, Limited ('CRE') and China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co. Ltd. ('CR Beer') to create a long-term strategic partnership for Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau (together 'China'). In the context of this partnership, HEINEKEN will become CRE's 40% minority partner in holding company CRH (Beer) Limited ('CBL'), which controls CR Beer, the undisputed market leader in the world's largest beer market, China. As part of the strategic partnership, HEINEKEN China's current operations will be combined with CR Beer's operations and HEINEKEN will license the Heineken brand in China to CR Beer on a long-term basis. Together, HEINEKEN, CRE and CR Beer are perfectly positioned to win in the rapidly growing premium beer segment in China. Strategic rationale China's beer market, the world's largest beer market by volume, is now the second largest premium beer market globally and is forecast to be the biggest contributor to premium volume growth in the next five years, driven by its rapidly growing middle class. Profitability of the Chinese beer market is expected to improve significantly, driven by premiumisation, demand for international beer brands and cost optimisation. The combination of HEINEKEN and CR Beer in China is highly complementary. CR Beer has a best-in-class route to market (RTM) network, a wide brewery footprint and a deep understanding of the Chinese market. HEINEKEN has proven premium brand building capabilities and a world-class international brand portfolio, led by the iconic Heineken brand for which it has built strong equity over the years in China. HEINEKEN, CRE and CR Beer are convinced that their strategic partnership will drive growth for their businesses. The partnership will enable CRE to advance its premiumisation strategy and it will help HEINEKEN to significantly expand availability of the Heineken brand in China to fully leverage the brand's potential. Other brands Under the strategic partnership agreement, HEINEKEN will be CRE's exclusive partner for international premium lager beers in China. HEINEKEN and CR Beer will investigate which other premium brands from HEINEKEN's portfolio can be licensed to CR Beer in China. HEINEKEN and CRE will also investigate if the Dutch brewer's global presence and marketing capabilities can be leveraged to support and accelerate the international growth of CR Beer's Snow brand and its other Chinese brands to become the Chinese beers of choice. Chairmen statements Commenting on the strategic partnership, HEINEKEN Chairman of the Executive Board & CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said: "We very much look forward to joining forces with CRE and CR Beer, the undisputed market leader in China. We believe that our strong Heineken brand and marketing capabilities, combined with CR Beer's deep understanding of the local market, its scale and best-in-class distribution network will create a winning combination in the growing premium beer segment in China. We look forward to working together with CRE's leadership in our newly formed Strategic Advisory Council, and supporting CR Beer in its ambition to internationalize." Chen Lang, Chairman of CRE, said: "We are very excited about this partnership and see immense potential in the combined strengths of CR Beer and HEINEKEN. With HEINEKEN's long heritage and world-class iconic brand portfolio, along with our leading presence and deep understanding of China, we believe we can win together in this new era of the Chinese beer market, in which the premium segment will become increasingly important. In HEINEKEN we have found the perfect partner to achieve our ambitions in China and - as an international partner - to support us in growing our business outside China." Terms of the non-binding agreements The geographical coverage of the strategic partnership with CRE and CR Beer is China. Under the non-binding agreements, HEINEKEN and CRE or CR Beer (as applicable) will enter into the following transactions to be completed simultaneously: 1) HEINEKEN will acquire a shareholding of 40% in CBL and CRE will own the other 60% in CBL. The Partnership will be governed by a shareholders agreement. CBL holds a controlling interest of 51.67% in CR Beer, a company listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, operating the beer business in China. Post completion of the transaction, HEINEKEN will have an effective 20.67% economic interest in CR Beer (see appendix for shareholder structure overview) and will get representation on the board of CBL and nomination rights to the board of CR Beer. HEINEKEN will invest a total amount of HK$24.3 billion in CBL, which translates into an implied purchase price of HK$36.31 per share in CR Beer. 2) CRE will acquire 5.2 million Heineken N.V. shares (equivalent to a 0.9% shareholding in Heineken N.V.) which are currently held in treasury for a total consideration of 464 million or 88.66 per share. 3) HEINEKEN will contribute its operating entities in China, including three breweries, into CR Beer for a total consideration of HK$2.4 billion, through a share sale transaction. Combined, these transactions will result in a net investment of 1,948 million (at current exchange rates) by HEINEKEN. 4) HEINEKEN and CR Beer will enter into a Trademark License Agreement (TMLA) for the Heineken brand in China. HEINEKEN and CR Beer will also sign a Framework Agreement to allow CR Beer to leverage HEINEKEN's global distribution channels to support and accelerate the international growth of CR Beer's Snow brand and its other Chinese brands, as well as to govern the use of other premium brands owned by HEINEKEN which may be licensed to CR Beer in China. Upon completion HEINEKEN's pro-forma net debt/EBITDA (beia) ratio is expected to slightly exceed the target of 2.5x. HEINEKEN remains committed to return to the long-term target of below 2.5x. The transaction will be immediately accretive to margins and accretive to EPS in the near term. Next steps The Strategic Partnership between HEINEKEN, CRE and CR Beer and the Company Transactions are subject to, among others, due diligence and further negotiations and entering into definitive, binding contractual agreement(s). As at the date of this announcement, the terms and conditions of the definite agreement(s) have yet to be agreed or entered into. As such, these transactions may or may not proceed. If parties reach agreement on definite agreement(s), completion will be subject to customary and applicable (including regulatory) approvals in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Further announcements will be made as and when appropriate. Press enquiries John-Paul Schuirink E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-355 Michael Fuchs E-mail: pressoffice@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-355 Investor and analyst enquiries Federico Castillo Martinez E-mail: investors@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-590 Chris MacDonald / Aris Hernandez E-mail: investors@heineken.com Tel: +31-20-5239-590 Conference call details HEINEKEN will host an analyst and investor call in relation to the announcement today at 11:00 am CET/ 10:00 am BST/ 5:00 pm HKT. The call will be audio cast live via the company's website: www.theheinekencompany.com/investors/webcasts. An audio replay service will also be made available after the conference call at the above web address. Analysts and investors can dial-in using the following telephone numbers: Netherlands Local line: +31(0) 20 794 8426 National free phone: 0800 022 9132 United Kingdom Local line: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666 National free phone: 0808 109 0700 United States of America Local line: +1 646 843 4608 National free phone: 1 866 966 5335 Hong Kong Local line: +852 5808 3370 National free phone: 800 900 476 Participation/ confirmation code for all locations: Heineken Editorial information About HEINEKEN HEINEKEN is the world's most international brewer. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the Heineken brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and speciality beers and ciders. We are committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through "Brewing a Better World", sustainability is embedded in the business and delivers value for all stakeholders. HEINEKEN has a well-balanced geographic footprint with leadership positions in both developed and developing markets. We employ over 80,000 employees and operate breweries, malteries, cider plants and other production facilities in more than 70 countries. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares trade on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on Reuters under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS. HEINEKEN has two sponsored level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) programmes: Heineken N.V. (OTCQX: HEINY) and Heineken Holding N.V. (OTCQX: HKHHY). Most recent information is available on HEINEKEN's website: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com and follow us on Twitter via @HEINEKENCorp. About China Resources Enterprise, Limited Founded in 1992, China Resources Enterprise, Limited is the Hong Kong flagship subsidiary of China Resources (Holdings) Company Limited in the comprehensive consumer goods and retail services businesses. The Company focuses on three businesses: beer, food and beverage. For the beer division, China Resources Beer (Holdings) Company Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 291.HK. It is the parent company of China Resources Snow Breweries Limited, the largest beer manufacturer, seller and distributor in China. Since 2008, "Snow" has become the world's best-selling single beer brand by volume. Market Abuse Regulation This press release may contain inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. At least a dozen drivers, including two NYPD employees, recently discovered a new parking lot in Chelsea. According to a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday, the parking lot happens to exist inside a westbound bike lane on 29th Street near 6th Avenue, and it also allows for double-parking. The 29th Street bike lane is great until the NYPD decides it is its parking lot and everyone else follows suit. #bikeNYC pic.twitter.com/6Xbl38mU8d crazy, sexy, cool (@CatlinMichael) July 31, 2018 The bike lane was installed following the deaths of cyclists Dan Hanegby and Michael Mamoukakis, who were both killed by drivers within a single week last summer. Hanegby, a father of two young children, was riding a Citi Bike on 26th Street, while Mamoukakis was turning onto 29th Street; both men were killed by bus drivers. In Hanegby's case, an NYPD source first said that he "swerved" into the path of the bus, an assertion that was later contradicted by video. Mamoukakis was 80, and a retired cobbler. At the time, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who represents the district where the crashes occurred, said he was "angered and heartbroken," and called for an emergency meeting of Community Board 4 (the NYPD did not attend the meeting). Early this year, the Department of Transportation announced that it would install protected bike lanes on 26th Street and 29th Street, and they were mostly finished when Streetsblog tested them late last month. Catlin Wojtkowski, who took the video, said he rides to work every day, and frequently takes 29th Street. While the bike lane there is new and lacks green paint, he said that this was the only block where cars were obstructing it with impunity. "You're never going to get the people in this city to adhere to traffic policies if the people who are charged with enforcing them just ignore them," Wojtkowski said of the NYPD. "It's incredibly insulting to the lives and legacies of those people who were killed on their bikes." Wojtkowski added that he is an "equal opportunity complainer" when it comes to bad behavior in traffic. "I yell at cyclists who run red lights because, you may think you're doing nothing, but you're the reason why it's so easy for the NYPD to lie and say this person ran a red light and not have to prove it," he said. The NYPD did not respond to our requests for comment, nor did Speaker Johnson's office, but we'll update if they do. The DOT says that the green paint will be added in the next few weeks, and that they will post notices in the area to alert drivers about the new bike lane. David Lewis, the driver who killed Hanegby, was charged under New York's Right of Way Law, a misdemeanor, and failure to exercise due care, a traffic violation. He was arrested in October of 2017, and has so far refused to take a plea deal offered to him by the Manhattan DA's officea $1,000 fine, driver remediation classes, and a six month license suspension. His next court date is September 12th. On Wednesday, the NY Times announced that it had hired Verge senior writer Sarah Jeong to join its editorial board to write about technology. By Thursday morning, old Tweets from Jeongincluding "Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins"circulated, prompting headlines like "Newest Member of NYT Editorial Board Has History of Racist Tweets." The NY Times is standing by Jeong, and issued a statement to that effect: We hired Sarah Jeong because of the exceptional work she has done covering the internet and technology at a range of respected publications. Her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman have made her a subject of frequent online harassment. For a period of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers. She sees now that this approach only served to feed the vitriol that we too often see on social media. She regrets it, and The Times does not condone it. We had candid conversations with Sarah as part of our thorough vetting process, which included a review of her social media history. She understands that this type of rhetoric is not acceptable at The Times and we are confident that she will be an important voice for the editorial board moving forward. Jeong also issued her own statement, characterizing the Tweets as "satire" and, at times, "counter-trolling" that was intended not for a general audience. She explained, "As a woman of color on the internet, I have faced torrents of online hate, often along this vein," and offered these Tweets as evidence: I engaged in what I thought of at the time of counter-trolling. While it was intended as satire, I deeply regret that I mimicked the language of my harassers. These comments were not aimed at a general audience, because general audiences do not engage in harassment campaigns. I can understand how hurtful these posts are out of context, and would not do it again. If you dare wade into Twitter, there's the usual debate out there: So based on a quick scroll down your TL I dont think youre asking this question in earnest but a quick explanation: This isnt racist by the definition most serious thinkers about race use, because racism describes a system of oppression that does not exist against whites. Hushard Benedict Bonina Brown (@csilverandgold) August 2, 2018 I'm very liberal, I supported Berne Sanders for President, and am a constant critic of almost everything Trump says/does That being said I do not agree with the NY Times decision to keep Sarah Jeong on its editorial board Her tweets were racist and should not be condoned Jim Lochner (@JimLochner) August 2, 2018 I support whatever women need to do - including snarky tweets - to negotiate this racist, sexist website. Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) August 2, 2018 As a white man getting to be an old white man, I'll simply say @NYTimes can hire whomever they want; I don't care about Sarah Jeong; I never even heard of her before today. But as a historian, I also say the NYT forfeits its credibility as "the paper of record" w/ such an editor. Wes Borucki (@CrimsonTideWes) August 2, 2018 As an Asian-American woman, Sarah Jeong suffered twice the amount of trolling abuse that I have experienced on social media. It was too much for me, and I cannot imagine how much it was for her. Venting anonymously against her tormentors may have been immature. But it was human. Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) August 2, 2018 welcome to the popular new game Is There A Sarah Jeong Critic Who Hasnt Tweeted Something Racist? round 1: no pic.twitter.com/F5Z613tOe2 Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) August 2, 2018 I swear, if the NYT backs down from hiring Sarah Jeong after protecting Bari Weiss and her wine cellar of whites I will flip more than a table. Alexandra Erin (@alexandraerin) August 2, 2018 Earlier this year, the NY Times hired tech journalist Quinn Norton to join its editorial board, but then, hours later, Norton and the Times decided to part ways after Twitter users surfaced her friendship with internet troll and neo-Nazi Andrew "weev" Auernheimer, who work for the Daily Stormer, as well as Tweets with racial slurs and anti-gay slurs. Times editorial page editor James Bennet explained, "Despite our review of Quinn Nortons work and our conversations with her previous employers, this was new information to us. Based on it, weve decided to go our separate ways." Norton later wrote about the experience, "If you look long enough you can find my early terrible writing. You can find blog posts in which I am an idiot. Ive had a lot of uninformed and passionate opinions on geopolitical issues from Ireland to Israel. You can find tweets I thought were witty, but think are stupid now. You can find opinions I still hold that you disagree with. Im going to leave most of that stuff up. In doing so, Im telling you that you have to look for context if you are seeking to understand me. You dont have to try, Im not particularly important, but I am complicated. When I die, Im going to instruct my executors to burn nothing. Leave the crap there, because its part of my journey, and that journey has a value. People who came from where I did, and who were given the thoughts I was given, should know that the future can be different from the past." For further reading, let's revisit Times opinion writer David Brooks's columns on how Egyptians aren't intelligent enough to govern and questioning Ta-Nehisi Coates about the black experience in America. Ed. note: The headline originally used the term "anti-white" to describe the Tweets. It has been changed because of that term's use by white supremacists. Shaun King, civil rights activist and columnist at The Intercept, says someone called Child Services on his family. King said he was about to watch his daughter perform in a musical when his building's doorman called to inform him that "a woman is here and she wants to talk to you about childcare for your kids." King asked the doorman to put her on the phone, and had the following exchange: She said she worked for New York Child Services (ACS) and that a formal complaint had been filed that my wife and I had abandoned our children and allowed them to do drugs. I kid you not. Still I didn't believe she was who she said she was. Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 2, 2018 According to King, the ACS employee told him the report was made anonymously and they had no information on the person who filed it. ACS did not return our request for comment. Under no circumstances will anybody from the NYPD or New York Children's Services be speaking to anybody in my family. I'm going to have to be in violation of New York law, but you will not force my children to participate in a single interview over a false complaint. PERIOD. Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 2, 2018 Today he posted a message from his wife on Medium about the incident. "That some white supremacist or disgruntled person would waste the citys limited resources to randomly call in false information that severely puts my family in harms way, and drive workers away from their important work, truly baffles me. We live in a sick and depraved world...There are likely many thousands of people who are delighted to make my familys life difficult simply because of the work Shaun does. So while I have no desire to suggest that ACS workers should not do their job, I hope I am not expected to submit my children to the emotional trauma of being questioned by agents of the government every time a white supremacist or random crazy person decides to make trouble. " Since his tweets yesterday, others have come forward to share similar experiences. This is a really common and horrendous tactic used to harass people. Its happened to me before. However, I was able to figure out who made the report. https://t.co/p4oeUc9Z9U TracieEganMorrissey (@TracieMorrissey) August 2, 2018 My husband and I were forced to submit to drug tests; our houses were inspected every two weeks; my daughters body was inspected for bruises; the nanny, pediatrician, and grandparents were all interviewed TracieEganMorrissey (@TracieMorrissey) August 2, 2018 The notion that white supremacists would call Child Services as a tactic of harassment or retaliation is not unfounded. In 2016 the Daily Beast reported that so-called "alt-right" troll Mike Cernovich made this threat against the comedian Vic Berger, after Berger's fans insulted Cernovich on Twitter. "Wow. The guy who pals around on Twitter with pedos allegedly has kids. If true I may have to call Child Protection Services, said Cernovich. When Anthony Romeo posted a picture of his husband and child, and voiced his support for Hillary Clinton in 2016 on Twitter, he received a flood of hate messages, including Someone call child protection services. Kids gonna get molested eventually. On Twitter, jokes and threats about calling child services are pervasive. But actual false calls to ACS are usually less about online feuds and more about exploitation, and they have targeted some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers: poor women of color. In 2013, City Limits reported advocates for domestic abuse survivors say they have seen incidents where abusers threaten to call child welfare if the victim attempts to leave the relationship. Batterers are opportunistic. When they realize just how important the children are to the victim, that threatthat Ill call ACS and tell them youre an unfit motherholds a lot of weight, said Liz Roberts, Chief Program Officer for Safe Horizon. Landlords have also been known to call child services to try and evict tenants. In 2017, the New York Times reported that "the threat of the agency removing children has become a weapon landlords use to force out lower paying tenants. According to dozens of public defenders and housing lawyers, some parents face a stark choice: leave their apartments or lose their kids." Martin Guggenheim, the founder of New York University Law Schools Family Defense Clinic, has said there are steps the City and State could take to reduce these false reports. The agency could "limit the number of repeated anonymous calls that the hotline is willing to accept," or "refuse to accept repeated unfounded calls without the caller offering identifying information. This, in turn, might dissuade some harassment. It also might make it easier to prosecute some of the most egregious cases," Guggenheim told City Limits. I am offering the solution to a problem most Republicans don't know they have -- that they can be outmaneuvered and thrown on the defensive endlessly, on nearly any issue, because they accept as true Democrat lies about the Republican Party. To correct that misperception and to help the Republican Party get 'back to basics' is why I'm a man on a mission. A few years ago, after one of my speeches, a man told me "Do you know what your problem is? You're too far ahead of your time!" My efforts to show Republicans how they would benefit from celebrating the heritage of our Grand Old Party have been arduous, but if this were easy someone else would have already done it. Among my speech topics are Reconciling the Tea Party and the GOP; Barack Obama, the Worst President Ever; Socialism, the new Slavery; Appreciating the Heritage of our Grand Old Party; Returning to the Founding Principles of the United States; The Womens Rights Achievements of our Grand Old Party; Abraham Lincoln, Republican; Frederick Douglass, Republican; Martin Luther King and the Republican Civil Rights Legacy. Business Addressing womens unmet healthcare needs How the world will be able to help the heart that bears life from its beginning fulfil her mission, was discussed on Monday evening, when the regional office of a US pharmaceutical company, into the promotion of the health and wellness as well Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. On July 30th, a wildfire broke near Amulsar. At 16:10 we noticed smoke from behind the hills in front of Gndevaz village and suspected that a large-scale wildfire had started. We immediately called the firefighting agency and the hotline of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) to report about the incident. MES informed that there is, indeed, a fire which has started from near Saravan village and that they are already fighting it. Firefighting actions took around 4 hours altogether. MES disseminated a statement saying that as of 18:00, three firefighting brigades, one operative group of the fire-rescue detachment, 4 water carriages of Lydian Armenia CJSC, 12 firefighters-rescuers, 30 citizens and 5 environmentalists were participating in the firefighting actions. At 20:19 the fire was isolated, at 20:30 it was extinguished. Shortly, at 18:10 Lydian Armenia disseminated a controversial statement on their Facebook page and as a press release where they called [Amulsar protectors] to open the roads to the mining site immediately and to allow the MES firefighters, as well as relevant employees of the company to enter the site in order to fight the fire before it expands and causes irreparable damage to the environment and the companys property. The next day, July 31st, Lydian continued spreading misinformation by literally writing: Only hours after the fire broke it was possible to extinguish it with the efforts of Lydians employees who had bypassed the blockade together with the employees of the MES and thanks to their joint efforts with MES, by using the relevant equipment of Lydian. Thus, Lydians representatives are either unaware or are consciously spreading misinformation about the role of the locals - they state as if citizens are posing obstacles to the firefighting activities, while in reality the locals and the protectors of Amulsar had been participating in the firefighting activities, too. Moreover, Lydian Armenias Facebook page administrator deleted all the comments which contained videos and remarks on how representatives of different bodies are entering the area without any problems or obstacles. We would like to note that officially the fire started from the area near Saravan, an area where the road to the mining site is not protected and Lydian has a free access to it. Right after reporting about the fire and during the entire day representatives of Lydian, MES, firefighting brigades and the regional government of Vayots Dzor had free access to the area with no obstacles. All of this was video-recorded and photographed. By the way, among the cars which drove into the mining site to bring Lydians employees was a car with Russian plates. Note that earlier the protectors had once again shared on social media their statement to confirm that we, protectors of Amulsar, do not pose any obstacles to Lydians representatives entering the site for purposes of environmental and emergency monitoring; however, considering the context of low levels of trust towards Lydian, they can enter together with our delegates and the activities on the site need to be video-recorded. An end to the cruel live sheep export industry is closer than ever thanks to the results of the much-anticipated Super-Saturday By-elections. Five new MPs will be sworn in to the Federal parliament in mid-August and each of them will cast a crucial vote in support of an historic bill that will bring to an end Australias cruellest trade. The suffering of sheep at sea has been a hot political issue since shocking footage was exposed on 60 Minutes almost four months ago. And voters ensured these animals remained front of mind during recent by-elections in South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Reflecting on her re-election in the South Australian electorate of Mayo, key cross-bencher Rebekha Sharkie from the Centre Alliance told the media that live export was one of her top priorities. Re-elected Labor MP in the seat of Fremantle in WA, Josh Wilson, also confirmed one of his two key priorities is securing a transition away from live sheep exports. Finally we are seeing political momentum for animals! 5 out of 5 MPs elected last Saturday will echo the wishes of the vast majority of Australians when they get the chance to vote to end live sheep export. With parliament to vote on live exports in a matter of days click here to make sure your MP knows how important it is that it ends for good. YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Some changes have been recorded in the share of countries in the export structure of goods from Armenia in the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the data of the Statistical Committee of Armenia, reports Armenpress. The share of the CIS states in export increased: 302 million USD goods were exported to the CIS states in January-June 2018, compared to the 234.2 million USD of the same period of 2017. During 2018 290.3 million USD goods were exported to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), compared to the 225.8 million USD of the January-June 2017. 369.6 million USD goods were exported to the EU states in January-June 2018, compared to the 300.8 million USD of the same period of the previous year. In January-June 2017, 435.8 milli8on USD, and in January-June 2018, 493.4 million USD goods were exported to other countries. For instance, Russias share in the export structure comprised 22.7% in the first six months of 2017, but in the same period of 2018 it comprised 24.1%. The export volume of goods has significantly increased to Romania, 9.9 times. The export volume to Bulgaria has decreased. About 43% export growth has been recorded to Switzerland: in the first six months of 2017, 119.2 million USD goods were exported to this country, whereas in the same period of 2018, this number comprised 170.3 million USD. The export to Iran increased by 39.1%: 48 million USD goods were exported to this country. The export growth to China comprised 30%, to Iraq 10.7%, the United Arab Emirates 8.3%. As for Georgia, a great decline was recorded 56%. In 2018 28.4 million USD products were exported to Georgia, compared to the 64.6 million USD of 2017. In January-June 2018 the export from Armenia comprised 1 billion 165 million 189.4 thousand USD, which is an increase of 20% compared to the January-June 2017. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Special Investigative Service of Armenia Sasun Khachatryan commented on the statement of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov who said the ongoing events in Armenia contradict the statements of the countrys new leadership according to which they will refuse to persecute their predecessors for political reasons, reports Armenpress. Sasun Khachatryan said there can be no talk about the political persecution, but added that the SIS chief is not the official who should comment on the statements of the foreign minister of another country. This process is within strict legal procedures, and I want to officially inform those who repeatedly state that the SIS decision on charge questions the results of the elections, that there is no such provision in our decision. We have not questioned the election results. We have just stated that the citizens, who considered the election results fake, went to the streets to restore their rights, Sasun Khachatryan said. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Special Investigative Service of Armenia Sasun Khachatryan says he cannot understand the approach according to which the charges brought against 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan are groundless and not clear, reports Armenpress. Before todays Cabinet meeting, the SIS chief told reporters that the charge is so clear and concrete that he cannot understand the strong reactions. Our decision to charge is so clear, concrete and well-grounded that I cannot understand the manipulations the representatives of the defense side are trying to make. Robert Kocharyan has been charged for violently breaching the constitutional order, the involvement of the army [into 2008 March 1-2 events] served a base for launching charges against him. The involvement of the Armed Forces in the political processes is banned by both the previous and current editing of the Constitution, he said. As for the article, under which he has been charged, which has not been in the 2008 Constitution, but appeared in the 2009 amendment, Sasun Khachatryan said: I have repeatedly talked about this. As you saw, recently Kocharyans attorneys as well accepted that launching the charge by this article is grounded. On July 27 a Yerevan Court remanded 2nd President Robert Kocharyan into custody. Kocharyan has been charged over the 2008 March 1 case for breaching the constitutional order of Armenia. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan By Lillian Avedian I sit across from an older man from the village, his green eyes bright with youthful energy as he proudly explains his family heritage. His wife buzzes around us, filling the small table with bitter Armenian coffee, corn, chocolates, and fruits. I beg her to sit and not tire herself.She tells me it is her pleasure to do so. The couple has lived in Shvanidzor for decades. Shvanidzor is a small village tucked away in a valley within the imposing mountains of Syunik. It takes ten hours of driving up and down twisting roads winding around Armenia's mountains to reach Shvanidzor from Yerevan. The closest city to Shvanidzor is Meghri, with a population of about 4,000 people. The Hambardzumyans have a 24-year-old son named Misha who currently serves in the army at the Armenian border, and a 19-year-old daughter named Rosa studying English at the Armenian State Pedagogical University. Shvanidzor is a village with a rich history that extends across centuries. Considering Shvanidzor's isolated location and ancient status, it is easy to assume that not much changes here. However, speaking to the Hambardzumyans, it is clear that this is not the case. Mr. Hambardzumyan explains that Shvanidzor was not always solely dominated by Armenians. Just thirty years ago, Armenians and Azeris peacefully coexisted in this village right along the border of Iran. "I would drink the milk of my Turkish neighbors," he claims, a statement meant to elicit shock in a country where Azeris (referred to by many Armenians as Turks) are the indisputable enemy. After the Sumgait Pogrom of 1988, a pogrom in which Azeris targeted and killed Armenians living in Sumgait considered to mark the beginning of the violent stages of the Kharabagh conflict, Azeris who had lived in Shvanidzor for years were compelled to leave. It was unclear based on my conversation with Mr. Hambardzumyan whether they were forced to leave the village or chose to do so of their own accord. However, he told me that, in his opinion, the conflict between Armenians and Azeris is a political one waged between governments, rather than an ethnic conflict between the two communities. Mr. Hambardzumyan did not lament the demographic changes that have taken place in Armenia in the past thirty years, however. When I asked him how life in Armenia has changed since Armenia was part of the Soviet Union, he criticized the Soviet policy of subjecting minorities to an all-dominant Soviet identity that would trump ethnicity, thus erasing their cultures. "Towns in Syunik were filled with Turks, Uzbeks, and so on. Armenian families would give birth to two children, and Turkish families, to six or seven . . . We were losing our country and our culture." Since the fall of the Soviet Union, he feels that Armenian culture is free to flourish and thrive, free of the destructive influence of intermixing with other cultures. Armenian nationalism has only been strengthened by the country's experience living under Soviet rule, as people like Mr. Hambardzumyan see the preservation of culture as inextricably linked to the survival of an Armenian nation for Armenian people. I asked Mr. Hambardzumyan about the material wellbeing of villagers in Shvanidzor since the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of capitalism in Armenia. He did not hesitate to praise the beautiful nature of Shvanidzor, stating that people living in Shvanidzor are blessed with abundant opportunity due to the rich harvest at their fingertips. Families like his grow fruits and vegetables that are sold throughout Armenia as well as Russia. According to him, if they think wisely and work hard, villagers can now make enough money to take care of their families and live comfortably based on individual exertion and will. "Everyone drives a car now," he says. "Anyone who looks wistfully upon the Soviet era didn't understand the Soviet Union." His optimism and drive are contradicted by the difficult financial situation and material scarcity that face many families living in the village. He says the main problem facing the village is the lack of water. In the summertime, the temperature in the valley of Shvanidzor reaches 120F. Between the months of June and August, the water that flows into Shvanidzor from the mountains, the village's main source of water, runs dry, so that tap water does not run in the families' homes. Instead, families share a limited source of water that comes from a couple of streams in the village. Mr. Hambardzumyan's modernity and tenacity shine through once more as he asserts that if the people of the village come together, they could think of an innovative way to solve the problem and bring water to the village from behind the mountains. "We need a wealthy person to be born in Shvanidzor and solve our water crisis," he jokes. Shvanidzor also experienced political changes alongside the revolution that took place in March throughout Armenia. He explained to me that kids in the village organized protests in Meghri, and that people from surrounding villages travelled to Meghri to protest against the regime of Serzh Sargsyan and demand democracy and freedom from corruption. Although it is too soon to tell the material outcomes the regime change will bring to the lives of Armenians living in Shvanidzor, the political energy and activism alive throughout the country is also vibrant and apparent in this village at the most southern border of Armenia and in this household. While Mr. Hambardzumyan gives me his take on the various transformations undergone by Shvanidzor in the past decades, his wife sits silently next to him, occasionally nodding along in silent assent or contributing a sentence. Yet the progressivity of this family is apparent. When I ask the couple whether they approve of their daughter pursuing an education before seeking to get married and raise a family, they automatically say yes. Mrs. Hambardzumyan gives me a severe yet wistful glance as she advises against getting married at the age of eighteen like she did. "You should not get married so young. It is important to pursue a life for yourself before starting a family," she warns. It is clear that Rosa's parents wholeheartedly support her pursuit of an education and her desire to learn English from the pride in her father's face as he speaks about Rosa's incredible language skills. As I leave the Hambardzumyan's home, they tell me that their door is always open to me. When I ask them to forgive me for taking up so much of their day, they immediately shut me down, stating that I made their day full (an Armenian expression signifying gratitude). Even with the many cultural, economic, and political changes experienced by Shvanidzor, one everlasting constant is the infinite hospitality and generosity of the Armenian villager. Lillian Avedian is a student at the University of California, Berkeley studying Peace and Conflict Studies and Armenian Language and Literature. She is publishing a series of articles overviewing life in Shvanidzor, a village in the southernmost corner of Armenia. YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Minister of economic development and investments Artsvik Minasyan held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Armenia Jun Yamada, the ministry told Armenpress. The meeting was also attended by the ministry and Embassy officials. Minister Minasyan thanked the Japanese government for the assistance provided to Armenia and touched upon the positive dynamics of the Armenian-Japanese commercial relations, stating that there is a great potential to raise them to a new level. Artsvik Minasyan introduced the guest on the ongoing economic reforms, the process of programs being implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Armenia. The meeting also touched upon the ongoing activities aimed at attracting investments, promoting tourism in Armenia. The Japanese Ambassador thanked for the meeting and introduction of the issues. The officials also discussed the ratification of the agreement between Armenia and Japan on promotion and mutual protection of investments which will boost attracting new investments. Coming to the field of tourism, the Ambassador said the Japanese people are highly interested in Armenia, and the evidence of this is the increase of the number of tourists. At the end of the meeting the sides once again reaffirmed the readiness to develop the cooperation. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Minister of economic development and investments Artsvik Minasyan had a meeting with the representatives of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) led by AGBU Armenia chairman Vasken Yacoubian, the ministry told Armenpress. The meeting was also attended by deputy ministers Albert Babayan and Avag Avanesyan, as well as other officials. The discussions focused on the cooperation between the ministry and AGBU. Vasken Yacoubian informed that the AGBU continues expanding its activities, and they are going to start implementing social-economic programs with a new pace, adding that this meeting is directed for this purpose to understand the activity priorities with the ministry, act as a bridge for the businessmen of the Diaspora and Armenia. Minister Minasyan highly appreciated the AGBUs continuous and targeted works and welcomed the structures readiness to cooperate in the economic sector. The minister introduced the guests on the ongoing economic reforms, touched upon the possible cooperation prospects. At the end of the meeting an agreement was reached on exchange of respective information, creation of working groups within a short period of time. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan Amnesty International on Thursday accused Turkish forces of allowing Syrian armed groups to commit major rights abuses in the northern region of Afrin, urging Ankara to immediately end the violations. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin earlier this year after a military operation which ousted a Kurdish militia that is an ally of the United States but Ankara regards as a terror group. Amnesty said that, since the takeover, residents in Afrin had been "enduring a wide range of violations" which Turkish armed forces "turned a blind eye" to. "These violations include arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and confiscation of property and looting to which Turkey's armed forces have turned a blind eye," Amnesty said. Some of the Syrian groups as well as Turkish armed forces have taken over schools, Amnesty claimed, which it said disrupted education for thousands of children. Amnesty said residents told them that Afrin University was "completely shut down after it was destroyed and looted", adding only one school in Afrin city was accessible. The rights group said that when contacted for comment, the Turkish government questioned its impartiality for using the terminology of Kurdish-dominated forces to describe regions. Turkey says the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia it ousted from Afrin is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the European Union. In the case of one woman, her uncle has been missing since an armed group escorted him to his house after he returned to his village three months earlier. "They wouldn't tell his wife where they took him," the unnamed woman told Amnesty, denying the man, head of a local committee, had any links to the YPG. Amnesty said some homes have been "occupied" by displaced families from the central Homs province and the southern area of Eastern Ghouta which was recently recaptured by the Syrian regime. Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director, said the Syrian armed groups continued to "wreak havoc on civilians, unchecked by Turkish forces". She argued Turkey was responsible for the welfare of civilians as well as maintaining law and order since it was the "occupying power" in Afrin. "Without further delay, Turkey must end violations by pro-Turkish armed groups, hold perpetrators accountable, and commit to helping Afrin residents rebuild their lives," she added. Turkish officials insist that the takeover has proved popular, with Afrin residents tired of YPG rule and Turkey able to improve utilities services after similar operations in towns like Jarabulus and Al-Bab east of Afrin. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin (pictured April 2018) in early 2018 after a military operation which ousted a US-allied Kurdish militia that Ankara considers a terror group An Australian man trapped on a New Zealand mountain by severe weather since last week has been found alive in whats been described as an extraordinary tale of survival. There were grave fears for the 29-year-old who failed to return on Monday from a solo climb of Mount Aspiring in the South Island. On Thursday night, the Rescue Coordination Centre confirmed he had been found alive with slight frostbite by an alpine rescue team. An Australian man has been found alive on Mount Aspiring in New Zealand. Source: File/Getty Coordinator Mike Roberts said it was extraordinary the man was standing and waving when a helicopter found him at 5pm north of Quarterdeck Pass. Mr Aspiring rescue: Hes alive! Rescue team with Australian climber. More to come Maritime New Zealand (No te rere moana Aotearoa) (@MaritimeNZ) August 2, 2018 During the nearly seven days he was out alone, the man endured winds of up to 60km/hr, freezing conditions and at times heavy snow. He was described as being in good spirits. He is being provided with much-needed hot food and drinks, Mr Roberts said. The rescuers and a paramedic have come prepared to bed in for the night and are expected to be winched out on Friday, depending on the weather. Strong winds, sub-zero temperatures, and heavy rain for days halted helicopters trying to reach the missing man throughout the week, with search teams earlier finding his heavier equipment at a hut. Mt Aspiring-2: If rescue is attempted, weather permitting, it would involve 2 helicopters flying together. One from Aspiring Helicopters and the other from Southern Lakes. Each carring 2 alpine cliff rescue team members, a paramedic and clothing, equipment, food for the climber pic.twitter.com/G57TNWwMsG Maritime New Zealand (No te rere moana Aotearoa) (@MaritimeNZ) August 2, 2018 The pilots did an amazing job to fly in and out, despite the low cloud tonight. It has just hung around the mountain for days and hampered our search efforts, Mr Roberts said. Story continues The climbers locator beacon had been moving throughout the week. Rescue Coordination Centre NZ is still waiting for low cloud to lift to reach the missing Australian climber on Mt Aspiring. Latest details: https://t.co/K4YTo7sCpN pic.twitter.com/JsziO9vZfS Maritime New Zealand (No te rere moana Aotearoa) (@MaritimeNZ) August 1, 2018 He entered the national park on Friday and is thought to have left his heavier gear behind to make a quick ascent not unusual practice for climbers before being caught out by the weather. Britain has stepped up warnings of the risk that the Brexit talks collapse as it seeks to bypass Brussels and persuade individual European Union nations to back its plans for future economic ties. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt visited Vienna on Wednesday, after talks in Paris the day before, and warned "there is a real risk of a messy divorce, which would be a geostrategic mistake". His trip was part of a wider European diplomatic offensive by Britain, which will see Prime Minister Theresa May meet French President Emmanuel Macron at his Mediterranean retreat on Friday. She will seek to sell her proposal for close economic ties with the EU after Brexit, a half-in, half-out plan that has enraged her own eurosceptics but which she insists is the only practical way forward. The European Commission's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has expressed scepticism and last week rejected a key element of the proposal relating to tariffs on the Irish border. But London is seeking to emphasise directly to European capitals the need for greater flexibility, warning that all sides would suffer if Britain leaves the EU next March without an agreement in place. "The probability of no deal is increasing by the day until we see a change of approach from the European Commission," Hunt told London's Evening Standard newspaper in an interview published Tuesday. He added: "France and Germany have to send a strong signal to the Commission that we need to negotiate a pragmatic and sensible outcome that protects jobs on both sides of the Channel." "For every job lost in the UK, there will be jobs lost in Europe as well if Brexit goes wrong," Hunt said. - France and EU 'cohesion' - Two of May's pro-Brexit ministers, including Hunt's predecessor Boris Johnson, resigned over her Brexit plan last month saying it would undermine the opportunities of leaving the EU. But May is pressing ahead, discussing it with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month, and holding talks last week with the Austrian and Czech leaders. On Friday, May will have a meeting and private dinner with Macron at the French presidential retreat at Bregancon, the first foreign leader to be invited there. A government source told the Times that France was "holding fire" on May's Brexit plan. "So we're making the case to them. It looks like the jury's still out on them, so that's why she's going," the source said. It follows a visit to Paris by her Brexit minister Dominic Raab on Thursday, and another last week by her business secretary Greg Clark, who also visited Italy and Portugal. France is seen as taking a particularly hard line in the Brexit negotiations, especially on financial services, where it has openly sought to poach businesses from the City of London. Some British officials also believe France is opposing continued British involvement in the EU's Galileo satellite programme because of the potential benefits to its own aerospace sector. However, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl warned after talks with Hunt on Wednesday against attempts to divide the bloc, saying there was a "high degree of cohesion" in the EU on how to proceed. Kneissl, whose country currently holds the rotating EU's presidency, added that it was "very clear" that the European Commission was leading the talks. Barnier himself said last week that there was not a "sliver of difference" between him and the 27 EU leaders in the negotiations. - Brexit worries - As the government goes on the charm offensive abroad, concerns are growing in Britain itself about the practical impact of leaving the EU without a deal. Downing Street was forced to deny on Monday that it had plans for the military to step in, but ministers have confirmed plans to stockpile food and medicines. The impact of Britain's decision to leave the EU is already being felt -- official figures released Tuesday reveal Britain was the only G7 nation to experience a slowdown in 2017. Meanwhile Freedom of Information requests from around 30 local authorities, lodged by Sky News, revealed their concerns about Brexit, ranging from a fall in agricultural land prices to a lack of Europeans working in the care sector. British Prime Minister Theresa May has launched a charm offensive to win over individual EU member states to support her Brexit Chief EU Brexit negotiator is cautious, warning repeatedly that the "clock is ticking" on the talks as the March 2019 deadline fast approaches Prosecutors in Chile on Wednesday said they have requested the Vatican files of nine Chilean priests being investigated for sexual abuses. "The National Prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, today signed an official letter addressed to the Vatican (..), requesting canonical records involving accused persons investigated by the Public Prosecutor's Office," the National Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. The petition includes three requests for help in criminal cases of nine members of the church. In July, prosecutors said Chile was investigating 158 members of the country's embattled Catholic Church -- both clergymen and lay people -- for perpetrating or concealing the sexual abuse of children and adults. The cases relate to incidents dating back as far as 1960 and involving 266 victims, including 178 children and adolescents. Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops amid accusations of abuse and related cover-ups. The developments have been welcomed by campaigners who have accused the church of being involved in a cover-up stretching back decades. Since 2000, about 80 Catholic priests have been reported to authorities in Chile for alleged sexual abuse. Pope Francis has repeatedly apologized to parishioners over the scandal, admitting the Church failed "to listen and react" to allegations spanning decades, but vowed to "restore justice." People demonstrate against bishops covering up sexual abuse as journalists surround Santiago's Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati (C) during a mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Santiago, on July 25, 2018 A man who was caught on CCTV taking pictures of young women jogging has handed himself over to police as they continue their desperate search for a student who vanished from a small town last month. Mollie Tibbetts was last seen jogging on the evening of July 18 in Brooklyn, a small town in Iowa where she had been living over the summer. Her family reported the 20-year-old missing the next day after she didnt show up to work. As dozens of local, state and federal agents searched for Ms Tibbetts, they received footage of a man using a digital camera to snap pictures of high school girls jogging in front of his car on Friday morning. The man in his 30s handed himself over to police after he was snapped taking photos of joggers. Source: Pella Police Department Investigators shared the footage, which they described as very creepy, warning the public to be on the lookout. As covertly as he possibly could, took photos of them unbeknownst to them, it seemed to be very creepy, Pella Police Chief Robert Bokinsky told WHOTV. Just days later, a man aged in his 30s handed himself into police as a result of the mounting social media pressure. Mollie Tibbetts was last seen jogging on the evening of July 18 in Brooklyn, a small town in Iowa where she had been living this summer. Pella Police Lieutenant Shane Cox told the Des Moines Register that they didnt believe the man was linked to the disappearance of Ms Tibbetts. Dozens of local, state and federal agents are working to determine what happened to the young woman. The reward for her safe return has now risen to more than $40,000. Scrutiny over Mollies boyfriend unwarranted: Brother The brother of Mollies long-term boyfriend said they have faced unwarranted questioning from strangers over her disappearance. Blake Jack, 23, said neither he or his brother Dalton (Mollies long-time boyfriend) had anything to do with her disappearance, adding that investigators have confirmed their whereabouts on the night she vanished. Officials continue to search for 20-year-old University of Iowa student. Source: Reuters Blake, who has been forced to cancel his destination wedding in the Dominican Republic, said: The people in this community know the truth. We know something had to have happened to her, he said. The morning after she disappeared, Tibbetts family reported her missing after she didnt show up to her job at a daycare centre in a nearby town. At a news conference on Tuesday, Kevin Winker, director of investigative operations for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said investigators had not drawn any conclusions about what happened to Tibbetts other than that disappearing on her own is not consistent with her past. China wants military exercises and energy exploration with Southeast Asian nations in disputed waters, according to a draft document, but insists on outside countries being excluded in what analysts said was a bid to diminish US influence. Beijing's suggestions are part of efforts to expand its influence in the South China Sea, which it claims almost entirely, and push back at Washington which has backed countries with overlapping claims to the waters. A code of conduct between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to govern behaviour in the strategic sea has been years in the making. The draft document, seen by AFP, outlines different countries' bargaining positions as they work towards an agreement, and analysts said it represented some initial progress. In the text, Vietnam offers the strongest opposition to Beijing's activities -- calling for countries to stop building artificial islands and establishing military installations. But there was little sign of serious resistance from other countries, signalling how opposition to China's aggressive expansion in the resource-rich waters has ebbed in recent years in Southeast Asia. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims to China's in the sea. Tensions have escalated in recent years due to Beijing building artificial islands that can host military bases. Meanwhile the US -- traditionally the dominant military power in the area -- has more frequently carried out patrols aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation. - Long-running tensions - In the draft text, Beijing suggests that China and the 10 ASEAN states should carry out joint military exercises regularly. However, the drills should not involve countries outside the region "unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection". The suggestion to exclude outside countries "is obviously targeted at the US which has been dominating the waters of the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in particular", Hoang Thi Ha, from the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told AFP. By proposing joint military exercises, China is trying to send a "subtle message to the world that ASEAN and China could work together and things are progressing well, hence there is no need for external involvement in the South China Sea issue", said Ha. Beijing also suggested that China and ASEAN could carry out joint oil and gas exploration in the waters but again proposed that firms from countries outside the region be excluded from such activities, the document showed. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Singapore on Thursday, Beijing and ASEAN announced they had agreed on the negotiating text for the code. Vietnam has offered some of the stiffest resistance to China in the sea in recent times, regularly complaining about Beijing's activities on contested islands and in disputed waters. Tensions reached fever pitch in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi. However opposition has weakened in other parts of Southeast Asia, with analysts saying that countries are keen to attract Chinese investment and are worried about US commitment to the region under President Donald Trump. The Philippines, under previous president Benigno Aquino, had been a leading voice against China's expansion in the sea and used ASEAN events to pressure Beijing -- but current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has reversed that policy. Beijing suggests that China and the 10 ASEAN states should carry out joint military exercises in the disputed South China Sea, a move analysts say is aimed at the US The US has conducted freedom of navigation operations in the area, angering Beijing The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Thursday it is conducting a review of the health effects on patients of a widely used blood pressure medication recalled around the world last month. The regulator will analyse the impact of active ingredient valsartan, produced by Chinese manufacturer Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Company, after warnings of contamination by a cancer-causing impurity. The company, listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, launched a global recall of the drug on July 18 following warnings by US and European regulators over the presence of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which is believed to potentially cause cancer through long-term use. In a series of pronouncements last month, Huahai said it had moved to suspend supply and had begun the recall. Valsartan is a generic drug mainly used for treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. NDMA was an unexpected impurity believed to have formed as a side product after Huahai introduced changes to its manufacturing process in 2012, according to the London-based EMA. It first issued an alert over the drug on July 5, and American regulators followed up with their own warning a week later. The EMA repeated Thursday that there was "no immediate risk to patients" and they "should not stop taking their medicines without consulting their doctor or pharmacist". The EMA said its review is being carried out by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, which is responsible for probing concerns over patient medicines. Its opinion will be forwarded to the European Commission, which will issue a final legally binding decision applicable in all countries in the EU. Huahai's stock has dropped more than 20 percent since the warnings first emerged in early July. The company could not be reached for immediate comment on Thursday. Valsartan, the effects of which are under review by the European Medicines Agency, is a generic drug mainly used for treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure Special Investigative Service (SIS) Chief Sasun Khachatryan told reporters today that its necessary to keep Robert Kocharyan, Armenias second president, in pre-trial detention because he could influence those investigating the charges levied against him. On July 27, a Yerevan court decided to detain Robert Kocharyan after he was charged of usurping state power during the March 1-2, 2008 public protests in Yerevan that claimed the lives of ten individuals. Khachatryan said that detaining people wasnt only done to prevent them from fleeing during their trial. I believe its imperative to detain Robert Kocharyan in order to conduct a full investigation, said the SIS official. 45 Armenian MPs have signed a petition to have Kocharyan released from pre-trial detention, according to Viktor Soghomonyan, who heads Kocharyans office. The petition was organized by the Republican Party of Armenia, which ruled Armenia for the past twenty years until Serzh Sargsyan was ousted as prime minister this past April. Khachatryan brushed aside claims made by Kocharyans lawyers that Prime Minister Pashinyans government is pursuing a political vendetta against their client and that the charge itself is legally illiterate. I wont stoop to that level, and I will refrain from personal insults. The basis for the charge is clear and fully sustained. Such statements are not only incomprehensible but somewhat amusing, Khachatryan said. The SIS official said that nothing illegal or out of the ordinary happened when Kocharyan was invited to merely testify about the March 1-2, 2008 events, only to be legally charged soon afterwards. Criminal cases are dynamic. Evidence is constantly procured, and a persons status depends on that evidence, Khachatryan said. When asked if ex-Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and former prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan would be questioned in the case, Khachatryan said while such a decision is up to the chief investigator, all current and former officials believed to possess relevant information will be called to give testimony. A mother has received a letter from her daughter who went missing five years ago. When she was just 14-years-old, Emily Wynell Paul, from Panama City in Florida, disappeared after she packed her bags and ran away. Her mother Pam Massimiani has shared on Facebook that she has heard from her now 19-year-old for the first time since she vanished in April 2013. In her post Ms Massimiani wrote: To all our friends and extended family, we want to let you know that we have heard from Emily. We do not have any further information to share at the moment. Thank you for all your support and love you have shown to our family. The Panama City News Herald reports Ms Paul originally left behind a note stating her intentions to run away. According to news site MyPanhandle.com, a Bay County Sheriffs investigator told News 13 three years ago the daughter told her parents in the note she originally left that she might contact her family again after turning 18. Emily Paul went missing when she was 14-years-old. Source: Facebook Ms Massimiani has not yet revealed the contents of the new letter, but she told the News Herald she was pretty sure its from her. Sheriff Tommy Ford also said he felt pretty good that the letter was from Ms Paul. Ms Massimiani said that for now, it was up to her daughter if she would return home or contact her family again. It is believed that Ms Paul researched how to be a successful runaway online. Her mobile phone pinged only three times in the week after she left home, and she took her Xbox with her, which she may have used for online communication. Her Facebook account has not been active since her disappearance. Reddit users are pitching in with their own ideas on how to locate the teenager. Can they finger print the letter? someone wrote on Reddit. Can they analyse it against any old school work? Can they trace it back to the original post office? Ms Massimiani did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyles requests for comment. Ivanka Trump distanced herself Thursday from some of her father's most controversial policies and strident rhetoric, saying she is "vehemently against" family separations and that journalists are not the enemy. Speaking publicly for the first time since she shuttered her eponymous fashion brand last week, the first daughter and senior advisor to President Donald Trump took a decidedly different approach than her combative father to stress that the immigration crisis has caused her anxiety. "That was a low point for me as well," Trump, 36, told a conference organized by news website Axios, referring to the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that led to the stripping of thousands of children from their migrant parents. "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children, so I would agree with that sentiment." Ivanka's position aligns with the opinion of everyday Americans, who polls show are largely opposed to the separations. The immigration crisis, which swelled further when audio emerged of detained toddlers crying for their mothers, caused a firestorm and in June the president reversed course. But as of last week's deadline, 711 of the roughly 2,500 separated children were still not reunited with their parents, and officials were unable to clarify when they would see their family. Trump also distanced herself from her father's relentless condemnation of the media -- attacks that have raised the levels of anti-press antagonism at his recent rallies. While saying she had "sensitivity" about why some people who feel targeted have gripes with reporters, she said the name which the president has bestowed on them is misplaced. "No, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people," Ivanka said. Her words came in stark contrast to those of the president hours later, when he dubbed journalists "horrible, horrendous people" while speaking at a Pennsylvania rally. - 'Incredibly difficult issues' - Many observers at the start of Trump's presidency expressed confidence that Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, formed a compassionate camp in the White House and would act as a check on her father's cruder instincts. That has largely failed to materialize. While Trump was said to have discouraged her father privately from the border policy, she said nothing publicly until after his reversal, when she thanked him for "taking critical action ending family separation." Last year, she urged him to keep the United States in the Paris climate accord, but her prodding fell on deaf ears and the president pulled out. In November, as Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore faced accusations of misconduct with teen girls when he was in his 30s, Ivanka Trump declared "there's a special place in hell for people who prey on children." But two weeks later, the president endorsed Moore, who ultimately lost to a Democrat. As first daughter, Ivanka has traveled overseas representing the United States, attended meetings with visiting heads of state and traveled domestically, fueling speculation she may harbor future political ambitions of her own. "I'm really passionate about the work that I'm doing here and I'm really committed to it," she said Thursday. So much so that last week she announced she was closing her fashion brand, following criticism about potential conflicts of interest and flagging sales. In discussing the immigration crisis, Trump described herself as "the daughter of an immigrant" -- her mother was born and raised in the former Czechoslovakia, and came to the US legally. "So we have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked," said Trump, a mother of three. "These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country I experience them in a very emotional way." US President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, has distanced herself from her father on a pair of hot-button issues: family separations and the treatment of the American press Google is crafting a search engine that would meet China's draconian censorship rules, a company employee told AFP on Thursday, in a move decried by human rights activists. Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking but it is now working on a project for the country codenamed "Dragonfly", the employee said on condition of anonymity. The search project -- which works like a filter that sorts out certain topics -- can be tested within the company's internal networks, the source said. The news has caused anxiety within the company since it first emerged in US media reports on Wednesday, the employee said. The tech giant had already come under fire this year from thousands of employees who signed a petition against a $10-million contract with the US military, which was not renewed. "There's a lot of angst internally. Some people are very mad we're doing it," the source said. A Google spokesman declined to confirm or deny the existence of the project. "We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com," spokesman Taj Meadows told AFP. "But we don't comment on speculation about future plans." - Rights, democracy filtered out - News website The Intercept first reported the story, saying the search app was being tailored for the Google-backed Android operating system for mobile devices. Terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests would be blacklisted, according to The Intercept. The app will automatically identify and filter websites blocked by China's Great Firewall, the news outlet said. The New York Times, citing two people with knowledge of the plans, said that while the company has demonstrated the service to Chinese government officials, the existence of the project did not mean that Google's return to China was imminent. Citing "relevant authorities", the state-owned China Securities Daily said reports suggesting that Google was returning to the Chinese market "do not conform to reality". Amnesty International urged Google to "change course". "It will be a dark day for internet freedom if Google has acquiesced to China's extreme censorship rules to gain market access," Patrick Poon, a China researcher for Amnesty, said in a statement. "In putting profits before human rights, Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory." US internet titans have long struggled with doing business in China, home of a "Great Firewall" that blocks politically sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times website are blocked in China, but Microsoft's Bing search engine operates in China. In early 2010, Google shut down its search engine in mainland China after rows over censorship and hacking. Google had cried foul over what it said were cyber attacks aimed at its source code and the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. But the company still employs 700 people in three offices in China working on other projects. In December, Google announced it would open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing. Earlier last year, Chinese internet regulators authorised the Google Translate app for smartphones. The search engine project comes amid a US-China trade war, with both sides imposing tit-for-tat tariffs and President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of stealing US technological know-how. News of a censor-friendly version of Google's search engine for China has caused anxiety within the company, an employee said The ruler of ex-Soviet Turkmenistan has ditched his signature black hair dye -- a move that will be closely analysed in a nation famed for its leadership personality cults. A photograph of Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on the front of state mouthpiece Neutral Turkmenistan on Thursday showed his thick, dark mane flecked with grey for the first time since he came to power in 2006. Television footage showing the 61-year-old leader meeting neighbouring Kazakhstan's new ambassador to the gas-rich nation confirmed the change. Berdymukhamedov's new look marks a break from his late predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov, who made waves in 1999 when he appeared in public with auburn hair after previously sporting a whiteish do. Niyazov claimed the change was a byproduct of seeing a Chinese scalp doctor, initially to cure hair loss following a heart operation in 1997. Niyazov's hair later transitioned to a jet black colour, with cabinet ministers and the country's ambassador to China following suit in shows of solidarity. Greying presidential portraits across the country were scrapped for new ones. Both Berdymukhamedov, who became president in 2006, and Niyazov are honoured by golden statues in the country's white marble-clad capital Ashgabat. Rights groups accuse Berdymukhamedov of heading one of the most repressive and isolated regimes in the world. In recent months he has performed a patriotic rap on state TV along with his grandson and released a biography of his mother, which has been acclaimed by local critics. Turkmenistan leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov -- pictured with his previously dyed hair -- became president in 2006 A massive corruption scandal has rocked the health service of ex-Soviet Belarus, leading even officials in the country dubbed "Europe's last dictatorship" to call for an overhaul of the system. Authorities have arrested dozens of medics, drug company representatives and bureaucrats on suspicion of siphoning off millions of dollars in state funding. Valery Vakulchik, head of the powerful KGB state security service, in televised comments last month denounced what he called a vast system of procurement of drugs and medical equipment at inflated prices. Prices were habitually hiked by up to 60 percent and in some cases even doubled, he said. Following his announcement, 37 top health officials were arrested and criminal investigations were opened involving 60 people including local representatives of international pharmaceutical companies. The KGB chief acknowledged that the Soviet-style bureaucracy in the country bordering the European Union, ruled by strongman Alexander Lukashenko, helped promote corruption. "The existing system of procuring medical equipment and drugs created the conditions for corrupt practices," he said. "Bona fide suppliers could not rely on a positive outcome," he added, while procurements were made not directly from producers but "via numerous middlemen (and) finance companies." Those detained in the scandal include deputy health minister Igor Lositsky, doctors at reputed clinics and leading business figures involved in producing and importing medicines. One of the arrested businessmen is Sergei Shakutin, director of Iskamed group, who is the brother of one of Lukashenko's close associates. Belta state news agency has published photos of searches at the home of a medical centre director that uncovered $500,000 in cash. Officers also found $620,000 in the garage of the director of a public enterprise that imported medical equipment. The KGB chief said bribes paid to corrupt officials amounted to millions of dollars. "There will be further arrests since the people detained so far are just the perpetrators," Sergei Satsuk, editor of news site Yezhednevnik, who is familiar with the case, told AFP. The chief beneficiaries in such schemes were retired law enforcement officials who set up companies to enter the lucrative medical equipment market, Satsuk said. "In 10 years they drained all the juice out of the country's medical system," he said. He said this involved supplying equipment that was not just over-priced but also often lacked the necessary certification or came with faked documentation. Some equipment was imported as second-hand but re-sold as new. - Powerful temptation - This is one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of Belarus, which is wedged between Russia and Poland and has been led by Lukashenko since 1994. "Bureaucracy has privatised the state. We need to reform the whole system of state management, otherwise corruption schemes will spring up wherever budget funds are being spent," independent economist Yaroslav Romanchuk told AFP. Other smaller corruption scandals have in recent years hit the sports, forestry and energy ministries as well as large companies, factories and banks. Three ministers have been sacked and senior bureaucrats and regional officials have been arrested. "Even if you clean out the state structures of bribe-takers, corruption won't die in Belarus for a single day," said Romanchuk. "The very next day new people in old posts in the old system will relaunch the old corruption schemes." The system "creates the most powerful temptation to set up schemes with kickbacks, bribes, swindling and abuses of office," Romanchuk said. The head of the KGB state security service has denounced what he called a vast system of procurement of drugs and medical equipment at inflated prices Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran it would join military action to stop it blocking a key seaway after Yemen's Iranian-aligned Huthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers. Speaking at a navy ceremony late Wednesday, Netanyahu warned against any attempt to block the Bab al-Mandab strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and the southern entrance to the Red Sea. On July 26, Saudi Arabia said it had temporarily halted all oil shipments through the waterway after the Huthi rebels attacked two of its tankers. On Wednesday, the Huthis announced a two-week pause in Red Sea operations. "At the start of the week we witnessed a sharp clash with Iranian proxies who tried to obstruct international navigation in the straits at the entrance to the Red Sea," Netanyahu said. "If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this. This coalition would also include the state of Israel and all its arms." Iran is Israel's main enemy and Netanyahu has repeatedly warned over what he sees as its expanding military presence in the region. Israel has spoken of quietly improving ties with Arab states who share its concerns about Iran. Only two Arab states -- Egypt and Jordan -- have signed peace treaties with Israel. The Huthis are fighting a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in support of Yemen's beleaguered government in March 2015. The conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and heaped misery on one of the world's poorest countries but the Huthis remain in control of the capital Sanaa and the key Red Sea port of Hodeida. Yemeni government forces patrol the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha on February 9, 2017 during the early phases of an offensive aimed at pushing Huthi rebels away from the strategic Bab al-Mandab ses lane The death toll in violent protests in Nicaragua against the government of President Daniel Ortega stands at 317, a US-based regional rights group said Thursday. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said that the death toll since protests broke out on April 18 includes 21 police officers and 23 underage victims. The figures were confirmed by personnel in Nicaragua, the IACHR -- an autonomous branch of the Washington-based Organization of American States -- said in a statement. According to Nicaraguan rights groups, more than 300 people have been killed and 2,000 wounded in more than three months of unrest against the Ortega administration. Ortega puts the toll at 195. The IACHR called on Nicaragua to "fulfill its international obligations concerning human rights," and urged government officials to investigate "each one of these crimes." The United States, the OAS and the Vatican all support demands from protesters that Ortega -- in power since 2007 -- resign, or at least agree to hold early elections. Ortega claims that the country would plunge into "anarchy" if he left power before the end of his mandate in early 2022. Some 1,900 people have been arrested in the protests, of whom around a quarter remain locked up, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. And at least 98 people have been convicted of terrorism and other serious crimes carrying penalties of up to 20 years in prison, the group said. Protests in Nicaragua against the government of President Daniel Ortega that broke out in Aprial have turned increasingly violent, with the death toll reaching 317, according to Human Rights investigators US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Malaysia Thursday, the first stop on a Southeast Asian tour expected to focus on North Korea's commitment to denuclearisation and simmering maritime and trade tensions with Beijing. Pompeo will push for sustained pressure on Pyongyang to destroy its nuclear arsenal, urging the region's leaders to enforce UN sanctions on the hermit state, State Department officials have said. The trip is also an opportunity for him to promote the United States' strategic vision for Asia at a time of friction with China over its moves to assert sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea. In Malaysia, Pompeo is set to hold talks with Mahathir Mohamad, 93, who was returned to power in May when the opposition won a historic election victory. Mahathir's triumph -- the first time the opposition had defeated the long-ruling government -- "says a lot for governance and democracy" in Malaysia, a senior State Department official said as Pompeo arrived in Kuala Lumpur. "It?s a strong democratic member of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," the official added. Pompeo will then travel to Singapore to attend an annual forum Saturday that brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. His North Korean counterpart will also be at the gathering in the city-state, where US President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un held their historic summit on June 12. No meeting has been announced between Pompeo and Ri Yong Ho, but US officials have not ruled out the possibility of a discussion of commitments by Trump and Kim to the "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula". - Nuclear concerns - Pompeo is charged with nailing down the details of the Singapore agreement, including how and when the North's nuclear programme is to be dismantled. But lack of progress has been a source of concern for many observers, as international sanctions begin to ease and news reports indicate that North Korea is continuing its nuclear and ballistic programmes. Represented at the ASEAN meeting will be Russia and China, who two weeks ago put a six-month hold on a US request to the United Nations sanctions committee to halt all deliveries of refined oil products to North Korea. Escalating trade tensions between the US and China, the world's top two economies, will also be on the agenda after Washington warned it is considering hiking levies on $200 billion of Chinese goods, having already targeted imports worth $34 billion last month. In addition, the US secretary of state will focus on another major regional flashpoint at the forum -- rival claims in the South China Sea and China's growing presence there. China claims nearly all of the sea -- including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei -- and has in recent years expanded its presence there by building artificial islands capable of holding military bases. Pompeo's last stop will be in Jakarta, where he will seek to reinforce relations with a key US ally. Pompeo will urge the region's leaders to enforce UN sanctions on North Korea, State Department officials have said Pompeo will also seek to promote the United States' strategic vision for Asia, as tensions with China rise over Beijing's moves to assert sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea The captain of a Norwegian boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists en route to Gaza has accused Israeli authorities of violating the law by boarding the vessel in international waters and using violent force against its crew. Norway has asked Israel to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrests and "the allegations of excessive use of force," a Norwegian government spokesman told AFP on Thursday. "We were arrested in international waters and we were closer to Egypt than Israel," the boat's captain Herman Reksten said early Thursday when he returned to Norway after being held for three days in an Israeli prison. "Israel has broken all the rules, it's horrific that they board a Norwegian ship in international waters and force it to moor in Israel," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. The Israeli army on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gaza Strip with activists who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by the Jewish state on the Palestinian enclave for more than a decade. The Norwegian-flagged Karstein ship had 22 people on board. Several have been released since, but seven people -- two Norwegians, two Swedes, one French, one Spaniard and one Canadian -- were still detained on Thursday according to the rights organisation Just Future for Palestine. As he arrived at Oslo International Airport, Karstein captain Herman Reksten also accused Israeli soldiers of shocking the activists with tasers. "I still have a headache from being hit in prison," he added. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli embassy in Oslo was not immediately available for comment. "We've asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the course of events and on what basis they think they are entitled to intervene on the ship," Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Frode Andersen told AFP in an e-mail. "We will also raise the allegations of excessive use of force," he added. Oslo says it has not yet received a response. The Israeli army on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gaza Strip with activists who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by the Jewish state on the Palestinian enclave for more than a decade It didn't have to colonise it. Ayutthaya had already become a semi-colony with the Spaniards, continuing with the Dutch and the French until finally passing around to the British. Since the Thai king had basically sold the entire country to the Europeans, there was no need to establish an actual viceroyalty. Basically, Thailand was a full colony, just with the difference that it retained nominal independence, like much of Qing China. Other than that, even British officials and even troops were permanently stationed in it and it was just as plundered as India. Spain's Socialist party, which came to power two months ago, would easily win a general election if a vote were held today, surging to first place with just under 30 percent support, a major poll released Thursday showed. The conservative Popular Party (PP) came in joint second place along with centrist party Ciudadanos, with 20.4 percent of the vote each, according to the latest quarterly survey carried out July 1-10 by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS). Anti-austerity party Podemos garnered 15.6 percent of the vote. In the previous CIS poll released in April, the Socialists had been in second place with 22 percent support, behind the PP, in power at the time, which had 24 percent. It is the first time since 2009 that the Socialists topped the closely watched CIS survey, the party's spokeswoman in the lower house of parliament, Adriana Lastra, told reporters. It was also the first CIS poll since the surprise change of government in Spain in June, following a no-confidence vote which toppled the PP after dozens of officials were charged in a high profile corruption case. The survey was taken before the PP last month picked arch-conservative Pablo Casado, 37, to replace ousted prime minister Mariano Rajoy as leader, in a move seen as a lurch to the right. With just 84 Socialist lawmakers out of 350, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, 46, heads up a government that holds the smallest minority in history. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez heads up a government that holds the smallest minority in the history of Spanish politics The United Nations will invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6 in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations, the envoy announced on Thursday. Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available" and urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations. "These consultations will provide the opportunity for the parties, among other things, to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward," said Griffiths. UN-brokered political talks on Yemen broke down in 2016 amid demands for a rebel withdrawal from key cities and power-sharing with the Saudi-backed government. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been leading a military campaign to restore the internationally recognized government to power and push back the Huthis, who still hold the capital Sanaa. The war has left nearly 10,000 people dead and unleashed what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. At least 20 people were killed Thursday in an air strike at the entrance to a hospital in the Red Sea port of Hodeida and the bombardment of a fish market in the city. Strikes have picked up around the city since the Saudis last week accused the Iran-aligned Huthis of attacking two oil tankers operated by one of the kingdom's companies in the waters of the Red Sea. Griffiths told the council that he was "still trying" to negotiate a deal to avoid a full-blown battle for Hodeida, which is a key entry point for humanitarian aid. Resolving the crisis over Hodeida would have to be part of a "comprehensive political settlement" between the rebels and the government, he said, suggesting that the talks would take place despite fighting on the ground. - Hodeida could be a flashpoint - The envoy expressed concern that "Hodeida could be a flashpoint" that could derail the push for talks in September and urged the council to support de-escalation in the port city and "keep the Red Sea out of the conflict." Appointed last year to lead UN peace efforts in Yemen, Griffiths said there had been progress in talks on a possible deal with the Huthis to turn over control of the port to the United Nations "but the gap is not closed." US Ambassador Nikki Haley voiced strong support for the UN effort to bring both sides to the table in Geneva, telling Griffiths that the parties must "understand that they need to work with you." The United States, along with France and Britain, have supported the Saudi coalition in its military campaign in Yemen, but has expressed concern over the heavy toll on civilians. "Civilians are at risk, infrastructure is at risk, and we as the international community have to demand that the two parties come together and understand the seriousness of this," said Haley. She added that airstrikes that almost crippled the water supply in Hodeida "are starting to show a disregard for the people on the ground in a time when they are already suffering so much." UN aid official John Ging described the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as "shocking, both in scale and severity." More than 22 million people - 75 percent of the population - are in dire need of aid including 8.4 million who are on the brink of famine, he said. Since June 1, violence in Hodeida has forced more than 340,000 people from their homes across the governorate. UN envoy Martin Griffiths urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotations in Yemen, whose war is described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis The three Russians killed in the Central African Republic had followed very different career paths before uniting on a daring journalistic assignment to report on the shadowy Russian mercenary group Wagner. Journalist Orkhan Dzhemal was an experienced war reporter who worked for liberal and opposition media, while cameraman Kirill Radchenko had worked in Syria for pro-Kremlin media. Director Alexander Rastorguyev had won awards for no-holds-barred documentaries about life in Russia. - 'I love war' - Journalist Dzhemal, who died at 51, suffered a serious leg injury from shelling in Libya in 2011 while reporting on the conflict for Izvestia newspaper. In one of his last interviews to Radio Liberty he said: "I love war. You go and you touch history." He recalled that after recovering from his injury in Libya, he went to eastern Ukraine, where he covered the conflict from both sides of the frontline. "If something blows up now somewhere, I will definitely go," he said, saying that for him "journalism is a profession that allows you to be free". He worked for Novaya Gazeta as a special correspondent and for many other newspapers and magazines. In 2008 he published a book about the brief war between Georgia and Russia. In a tribute video broadcast by independent television channel Dozhd on Wednesday, journalist Mikhail Fishman said Dzhemal had a "particular lack of fear". Dzhemal's late father Geidar was a philosopher and Muslim preacher. His former wife and the mother of his son Irina Gordiyenko is a Novaya Gazeta journalist. - 'Unflinching' - Director Rastorguyev, who died at 47, won awards for his documentaries, which also attracted plenty of criticism for shocking scenes. His film "Tender's Heat. Wild, Wild Beach," co-directed with Vitaly Mansky and Susanna Baranzhiyeva, followed an eccentric group of characters on Black Sea beaches. Variety called it "frequently grotesque but admirably unflinching" and it won a special jury award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival in 2006. Mansky told Dozhd's tribute video that Rastorguyev was "maybe the most outstanding chronicler of the crazy, in some ways pointless and cruel life in Russia." "I urge everyone now to drop everything and watch his films." Rastorguyev in a 2013 interview with The Village website said that "any art form tries to shed light on the real state of things, which is hidden from most people." He took part in a high-profile project called Srok, a series of short Internet films about the Russian protest movement including opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He was detained at a 2011 protest against Putin's return to the Kremlin. At the time of his death he was making a film with Pyotr Verzilov of the Pussy Riot punk group. He began his career working for television in his home town of Rostov-on-Don, where he continued to live and work and where his parents live. - 'Drawn to danger' - Cameraman Radchenko, who died at 33, was from Moscow. He spent months covering the frontline of the war in Syria for ANNA News, a media outlet registered in Abkhazia, a Russia-backed breakaway region of Georgia. His colleague at ANNA News, Sergei Shilov, wrote that "he was drawn to everything new and unknown and to danger. Evidently that was his main motive to film in Africa." His own political views were pro-opposition and he acted as an election observer in Chechnya for Navalny this year. That was also where he met Rastorguyev, who later asked him to come to the Central African Republic, Meduza reported. In Syria, he encountered Russian mercenaries and wanted to "tell why they are fighting, but our authorities actively do not admit to this," journalist Alexandra Bayeva told Meduza news site. Russian journalists Alexander Rastorguyev, Kirill Radchenko and Orkhan Dzhemal were killed in the Central African Republic Workers at the world's biggest copper mine, Chile's Escondida open-pit, voted Thursday in favor of strike action after rejecting as insufficient a salary hike proposed by Anglo-Australian owners BHP. The N1 union said 84 percent of its members had backed the strike, with a "historic" turnout of 2,330 of 2,500 people eligible to vote. "We hope that this overwhelming desire to reject the company's offer... will convince the company of the need to show a willingness to build an accord that recognizes our rights," N1 said in a statement. The union is calling for a five percent salary increase and a conflict termination bonus of four percent of dividends received by shareholders last year, or about $34,000 per worker. Chilean miners earn between $2,500-3,000 a month -- a comfortable sum in a country where the minimum wage is $800. But the workers argue they deserve such a premium because of their harsh working conditions. "A strike at Escondida would have very negative effects on our workers and their families, as well as the company, the region and the country," the vice president of the BHP unit running the mine, Patricio Vilaplana, said in a statement. "We all lose in a strike," he warned. Vilaplana said the company was reviewing "contingency plans" to minimize the effect of a strike. - Mediation snubbed - The company had increased its initial offer of 13.5 million Chilean pesos to 15 million ($23,000) per worker as a bonus for ending the negotiations, which had dragged on for weeks. BHP -- a multinational mining, metals and petroleum company that posted revenues of $38 billion and $5.9 billion in bottom line profit last year -- has the right to request mediation, which could last 10 days. But the head of the N1 union, Patricio Tapia, said the mining company had until next Monday to make concessions, or "we will conclude that it makes no sense to go to heel-dragging compulsory mediation." Last year, Escondida miners went on strike for 44 days, provoking a 39 percent drop in production over the first half of the year -- costing the company $740 million. Some five percent of the world's copper is produced at the mine, one of the most profitable in the world. It earned almost $1.2 billion last year, a 20 percent increase on the previous year, and that despite the lengthy industrial action. That hurt the local economy, though, in a country that produces almost a third of the world's copper, around 5.6 million tons, fuelled largely by China's insatiable appetite for the red metal. - Government pleas - The Chilean government, which says last year's stoppage shaved 1.3 percent off the economy, pleaded with the miners to reconsider their threatened action. "We are asking that they take into consideration the reality in this country, where employment is needed," Mining Minister Baldo Prokurica said. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said: "Strike action is a legitimate tool, but without a doubt we hope the problems can be resolved without resorting to a strike." The Escondida mine is located in the world's driest desert, the Atacama in northern Chile, at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). It's the same area where eight years ago, 33 men were trapped 700 meters underground for 69 days following a cave-in at the Copiapo mine. Earlier this week, at yet another mine in Chuquicamata, run by the state-owned Codelco company, workers briefly went on strike to demand the reinstatement of sacked colleagues. Analyst Juan Carlos Guajardo told AFP there was a possibility the mine's workers might not go on strike and instead use legal maneuvers to roll over their current contract another 18 months. "That could generate even worse labor relations with the company," he said. The Escondida mine in Chile is the world's biggest copper producer Nick Sauer, a first-term Republican state representative in Illinoisand who served on the Illinois House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Forceresigned Wednesday over a bizarre sex scandal involving Instagram, nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend, and a catfishing scheme, The Chicago Sun-Times reports. According to the allegations first reported by the political news site Politico, Sauer met Kate Kelly in 2016, through the dating app Tinder. She lived in California at the time, but after about a year, she moved to Chicago so that their relationship could develop in person. The couple later broke up when Kelly discovered Sauer had been cheating on her, she says. During their long-distance relationship, however, they would often share very private photos with each other, as many couples do, Kelly told Politico. But as she found out after the couple split, Sauer was not treating those intimate photos as private at all. In fact, according to her allegationswhich she filed in a complaint with the state Legislative Inspector General as well as in a police reportSauer had been posting her nude pictures on an Instagram account under her real name. But Sauer went a step further, according to Kellys allegations. He not only posted her privately shared photos, but then he pretended online that he was Kelly, and he used her identity to lure other men into sexually explicit online relationships, she alleged. Nick would use this account to direct message men with my photos to engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature, she wrote in her Inspector Generals complaint. The men believed they were communicating with me and Nick shared private details of my life. Eventually, one of the men who had been sexting with Sauer, believing he was Kelly, discovered Kellys real Instagram account and contacted her, informing her of what had been going on, according to the political site Talking Points Memo. By 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Sauerwho was in the midst of a reelection campaignresigned. In his resignation letter, Sauer said only that he was stepping down as a result of the allegations by Kelly, without confirming or denying those allegations. Instagram has removed the fake Kate Kelly account allegedly created by Sauer. The Nick Sauer catfishing scandal comes on the heels of two other revenge porn scandals involving politicians. In May, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens resigned after a hairdresser said that he tied her up in his basement and took a nude photo of her for blackmail purposes. Earlier this month, St. Paul, Minnesota, city council candidate David Martinez was arrested after he posted a semi-nude photo of his estranged wife after she accused him of domestic violence against her. Photo via Illinois House GOP Caucus Blog Family business John Dwyer Bakery has been acquired by Bridgwater Bros, owner of frozen food supplier The UK Foodhall. Founded by John and Jacqueline Dwyer in 1986, the Rugby-based bakery produces, supplies and delivers one-off and batch baked goods to supermarkets, schools, universities and catering companies The deal brings Bridgwaters portfolio of companies to 12 and will enable it to focus on expanding Shrewsbury-based The UK Foodhall. John Dwyer Bakery will continue to operate under its existing brand as a trading subsidiary of Bridgwater. Financial advisors Benchmark International, which oversaw the deal, said The UK Foodhall would benefit from John Dwyer Bakerys loyal customer base and growth through new products. I feel confident of the continuing success of John Dwyer Bakery as part of a larger group, John Dwyer said. The acquisition will strengthen our market position and we look forward to working with The UK Foodhall to take advantage of the growth opportunities available. Alex Forshaw, associate director at Benchmark International, added: Bridgwater Bros is the ideal acquirer to allow John and Jackie to realise their personal objectives while ensuring the continued growth of the company. The sellers were advised by Benchmark International as lead adviser, and Freeman Fisher LLP as lawyer. The buyer was advised by Marshalls Solicitors. Owendale boasts Huron Countys largest tree OWENDALE While the topic could still be considered up for debate by some, Huron Countys largest tree currently resides on a property in some... Director Herrington retires from Bad Axe Library BAD AXE Mimi Herrington has had quite the career path. Those in Huron County probably know her best though, for leading the Bad Axe... Should Beaufort County's commissioners be resolved to ask the federal government to defend our Southern Border by ending the Biden /Harris Open Border policy in regards to that one border that is intentionally made OPEN? Yes, Illegal Migrants are a huge expense to local governments. No, the cost of Undocumented Immigrants is insignificant in providing a pathway for the "Browning of America". Amid the furor over this month's Helsinki summit between President Trump and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, one N.C. congressman sees potential for at least one positive outcome.Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th District, hopes post-summit publicity will prompt his congressional colleagues to act on a critical issue.said Meadows, chairman of the U.S. House's conservative Freedom Caucus.While Trump's comments generated headlines, Meadows attempted to shift the focus.Meadows said in a news briefing the day after the summit.Meadows' bipartisan bill is called the Protecting the American Process for Election Results Act, House Resolution 3751. It has been stuck in committee since September 2017. Eight of Meadows' 11 co-sponsors are Democrats.The PAPER Act directs the federal Election Assistance Commission to come up with recommendations for states to strengthen their election-related cybersecurity. States also would develop post-election auditing standards to ensure no outside manipulation of election results. Federal grants would help states pay for system and security updates.The bill also would require voting machines purchased with federal tax dollars to have a paper trail for any votes cast electronically. Voters would be able to see the paper while casting ballots. The bill recommends a manual audit of a random sample of paper records after each federal election.Meadows answered reporters' Helsinki summit questions by emphasizing the PAPER Act. For example, one journalist asked about Putin's confirmation that he had preferred Trump to Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.Meadows said.he said.There's no reason to wait on boosting election integrity, Meadows argued. That type of legislation makes more sense now bills designed to promote a Republican electoral message for November.he said.Meadows added.The Freedom Caucus chairman challenged reporters to ask U.S. House leaders why they have yet to address the 10-month old PAPER Act.he said.Regardless of inaction on Capitol Hill, North Carolina is taking steps now to improve election security. Carolina Journal reported recently on plans to spend $10.9 million toMost of that money is heading toward an update of the Statewide Elections Information Management System, which handles tasks including voter registration, candidate filing, and election night reporting.The SEIMS update represents the largest information technology project the state elections board has conducted in nearly two decades, board spokesman Patrick Gannon told Carolina Journal.Enhanced election security makes sense for North Carolina. It makes sense for the rest of the country, too. If the recent Trump/Putin summit kerfuffle attracts more attention to this issue, then the American electoral system could see long-term benefits. "... While our intent in selling our products to Ezra's certainly was not to flout North Carolina law, it created a situation that caught the attention of the Commission. ... We learned during our discussion with the Commission that pursuing out-of-state companies can be difficult for the Commission to do, and thus transactions like that between Lassiter Distilling and Ezra's have become a point of focus. I understand the Commission's dilemma, and therefore I am writing this letter to try to help educate distillers and wholesalers on what you can do to help the Commission - as well as our company." "Here they accuse Lassiter Distilling of an ABC violation for legally selling their spirits to a wholesaler in another state and that wholesaler then sells it to someone in N.C. The ABC commission literally says 'they created a pathway.' Lassiter did nothing of the sort. Lassiter complied with all laws. "Lassiter did nothing wrong. But they are forced to 'accept' their punishment because ABC licenses are suspended during the time any 'violation' is appealed. Consequently, you can never appeal. You just have to accept their ruling. "There are many issues that this brings up but here are the two that really jump out at me: "1) This is ridiculous on its face and the ham handed ABC process that doesn't allow you to fight back needs to be changed. "2) This would be a non-issue if the online sales component of the Brunch Bill had been passed because distilleries would be doing the online sales themselves instead of using an out of state wholesaler. BTW, the tax money would all stay here in North Carolina." A North Carolina distiller who got into trouble with N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission distributed more than 70 letters to colleagues warning them against running afoul of state laws.The ABC alleges the distiller, Knightdale-based Gentry Lassiter, broke state statute when he posted on his website a link to online spirits retailer. It's illegal - via statute 18b 102.1 , which is confusing and seemingly contradictory - to ship alcohol directly to customers in North Carolina, although many other states allow the practice. The law exempts wholesalers.The rule applies only to liquor, which has a higher alcohol content than wine and beer, which can be legally shipped to state residents.Several distillers had similar violations, a source said, though it's unclear whether they were punished. Lassiter's letter was part of a settlement with the ABC.Online spirits retailers, as practice, inform customers of shipping policies and state laws."Last month," writers Lassiter in the July 17 letter, "Lassiter Distilling Company LLC, received a notice of Alleged Violation from the [Alcoholic Beverage Control] Commission. The genesis of the alleged violation was that our web site unintentionally allowed a potential pathway for North Carolina customers to buy our liquors from Washington, D.C.-based Federal Spirits, LLC, which previously owned and operated Ezra's.com. Approximately a year and a half ago, Lassiter Distilling sold several cases of our spirits to Ezra's so that Ezra's could sell our product to its customers outside of North Carolina. To help Ezra's sell our products, Lassiter Distilling then added a 'buy online' link to our web site, which when clicked routed customers to Ezra's. Due to oversight on our part, this created a situation where a North Carolina customer could potentially order a bottle of our rum that could be shipped from out-of-state into North Carolina."The websites for Ezra's and Federal Spirits are no longer active.Lassiter said he's willing and pleased to work with the ABC toward a solution.whether that relates to distilling, packaging, shipping or any aspect of the business, he said.The N.C. House last year stripped a provision in Senate Bill 155 , the so-called Brunch Bill, that would have allowed North Carolina distilleries to sell directly to consumers, via the internet. Rep. Pat Hurley, R-Randolph, an opponent of loosening the state's liquor rules, proposed the amendment to remove that part of the bill.The ABC Commission falls under the Department of Public Safety, with, as stated on its website, anThe word "control" is key, often popping up in legislative committee hearings and church pulpits. In other states, such as Virginia, alcohol regulation is left to commerce departments and special authorities.Distillers jumped to Lassiter's defense. In a letter to a group of lawmakers, one distiller, who asked not to be identified, called the Lassiter situation a "blatant overreach of the ABC Commission."George Smith, who founded Copper Barrel Distillery in Wilkesboro, likened the situation to punishing a distillery because an ABC store sold their liquor to a minor.The ABC Commission, in an email, said,Questions by Carolina Journal about enforcement were referred to the Alcohol Law Enforcement, which is under the umbrella of the State Bureau of Investigation and is the lead enforcement agency for the state's alcoholic beverage control laws. ALE told CJ it investigates "any complaint of this nature and turn over those findings to the ABC Commission," and the ALE isn't aware of this being a widespread issue. In special session, GOP lawmakers remove 2016-passed requirement that commission add captions to ballots; governor may veto The General Assembly sent Gov. Roy Cooper a bill changing how proposed constitutional amendments will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Democrats claimed the move was motivated by fear the ballot language would portray the six amendments in an unfavorable light.In a special session convened with less than 24 hours notice, Republicans introduced House Bill 3 on Tuesday, July 24. It passed the House after brief debate by a 67-36 margin. H.B. 3 removes a requirement for ballots to include a brief caption describing what each constitutional amendment would do. Instead of the short caption, the words "Constitutional Amendment" and the title of the amendment will appear for each measure on the ballot.The Senate later passed the measure 27-14.The bill dealt with changes to the mission of the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission, established in 1983. It's charged with writing descriptions of the amendments in plain language. That language had been posted on placards at polling sites and included in voting guides the secretary of state and the State Board of Elections sent to registered voters. In 2016, Republican lawmakers passed a law ordering the commission also to write amendment summaries on ballots.Republicans got uneasy, as the commission now has two Democratic members - Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Attorney General Josh Stein - and only one Republican, Legislative Services Officer Paul Coble.Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, last weekend asked House Speaker Tim Moore to convene the special session, saying the commission was delaying its work and was likely to come up with ballot language that would turn voters against the amendments.Lewis said Tuesday H.B. 3 restores the commission's original purpose.he said during House Rules Committee debate.Rep. Darren Jackson, D-Wake, questioned why the change was necessary now, especially since the commission had already begun its work.Jackson said.Lewis didn't say why the change was needed now, only that the bill was to relieve the commission from its newly assigned duty.Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said this special session was motivated by unsubstantiated fear that the commission members would politicize the ballot language process.Butler said.Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake said the commission was taking longer than necessary to craft the language and that H.B. 3 would make sure it would complete its work in time for ballots to be printed and distributed.Dollar said.Republican legislators rankled their Democratic colleagues by calling the special legislative session in the first place and amending the rules to make the process faster.These changes included allowing bills to be heard and passed on the same day they're filed, and letting proposed committee substitutes be presented to committee members without giving them time to be reviewed before committees meet.Republicans, likely anticipating Gov. Roy Cooper to hand down vetoes, also amended the rules to permit same-day votes on veto overrides.In the Senate, Republicans said Democrats on the ballot commission went awry when theysaid Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow.Wording for ballot captions would've been different than the legislature intended, he said.Republican lawmakers are the ones pulling political strings, said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, during Senate debate.McKissick said.If Buck Newton, a former Republican senator who in 2016 ran for state attorney general, hadn't lost to Stein, Republicans wouldn't care who wrote captions for the amendments, McKissick said.Republicans are justsaid Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph.But Democrats called the special legislative session an expensive waste of taxpayer dollars - and said Republicans are eliminating public input.The Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement has said it must have ballot language ready by Aug. 8 to prepare, proofread, and print the more than 1,400 ballot variations it will have to distribute to North Carolina voters this fall.The legislature is expected to maintain skeletal, no-vote sessions so that Cooper will have to veto any bills within 10 days. If lawmakers adjourned sine die, Cooper would have 30 days to decide on the bills.Any Cooper vetoes may be overridden. It's also possible if not likely that legislation passed over Cooper's veto will be challenged in court.The General Assembly also passed Senate Bill 3, a measure requiring candidates for judicial races to be registered with the party they've listed on the ballot for at least 90 days before filing. It would align the requirements for judicial hopefuls with those for all other partisan races in North Carolina.The bill was inspired in part by the decision of longtime Democrat Chris Anglin to run for a state Supreme Court position against GOP incumbent Justice Barbara Jackson as a Republican. Anglin changed his party affiliation to Republican roughly three weeks before he filed for the Supreme Court seat. Tom Campbell If the Board of Governors meetings were broadcast they would become the top rated reality show on TV. There's something for everyone - humor, pathos, conflict, and, occasionally, a nugget of wisdom. Such was the case with the latest meeting.While discussing a new chancellor at Western Carolina University, Board member Tom Fetzer, posed a question many have asked.Fetzer said.It was once common practice to promote from within the institution or, at least from within the state. Not so today. True, four of the six presidents of the UNC System came from North Carolina; one from within the system and one from academia. Bill Friday rose from leading the three-campus university to become founding president of the system in 1971. When he retired, Charlotte businessman Dick Spangler was selected. Upon his retirement, Molly Broad was recruited from California. At the urging of Friday, Erskine Bowles was chosen when Broad retired, followed by Judge Tom Ross. Signaling an era of confrontation and unrest, Ross was fired and Margaret Spellings hired.We have this "nothing good ever comes from Nazareth" prejudice against hiring from within. The further away a candidate is, it appears the better they are viewed. However, Dr. Ken Peacock, who had been dean of the business school at Appalachian State University, was selected to be Chancellor in 2004. Peacock already knew the state, the faculty, the university and the politics. His was an outstanding decade of leadership, a visionary leader with unmatched experience. In similar manner, Robin Cummings, health director of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, was the perfect choice to return to his home area and take over as Chancellor of Pembroke State University.It is admittedly difficult for the President and the Board of Governors to fully understand and match the needs, problems, opportunities and dreams of the institution to the skillsets of candidates. Too often, the easiest path appears to be to hire a search firm to scour the country for the best fit. Their results are spotty, expensive, time consuming and seldom favor candidates within our state.Thank God our Board of Governors didn't do that when Bill Friday retired. The BOG understood nobody was ever going to replace Friday; they also understood there were new disciplines, structures and systems needed and Spangler filled those needs. The same was true with Bowles.Using the premise that local people make better local decisions, we propose a new strategy. It begins by stating we want to hire from within, deputizing everyone, no matter their discipline or rank, to help identify people ready for new opportunities. Let us be equally clear that no one from our state will be criticized or penalized for seeking consideration. Only after we are satisfied that the ideal candidate isn't already here do we consider employing a search firm.This process might take a bit longer but has several advantages. It should motivate many already here, thus reducing the flight factor of talent thinking the only way to advance is to leave. It will likely enhance university stability, save money, produce results as good or better than we currently achieve and could reduce the number of searches we make.Why not hire a North Carolinian? I remain a skeptic/critic of the POTUS' methods and bombast, but I also try to look at results and weigh them against promises. I am neither a cheerleader or mascot for the President but I hope that others might be able to look beyond the theatrics and find some positive results. For the record, I am very aware that the caskets may be nothing more than a pile of rocks and dirt or non USA remains. Fortunately, we have the technology today to aid in the determination of idenity. It is certainly premature to declare success, however it is also premature to declare failure. As in the case with most thinks in human interaction, progress is incremental rather than abrupt. A Handshake comes before a Hug Most boys of my generation got into a few schoolyard skirmishes. In my generation the men teachers were generally World War II veterans (Here is one of mine) Whatever the reason for the skirmish it was usually resolved with a handshake. That was part of the character building that teachers of that era administered. When I was young I had quite a temper. Combine that with the fact that I had a small statue then and now and you have the makings of quite a few A$$whippings. (Here is another example) Most squabbles for elementary kids involve imaginary slights and perceived insults. Of course there were the local bullies, but I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a neighborhood where the parents took care of their bully sons once they were advised by the school authorities. Discipline was the keyword for class and playground behavior during the 1950-59 era. Often, but not always, the opponent and I became friends. Occasionally we became close friends. But it almost always started with a handshake required by the teacher in charge after the fight. If the smoldering dislike persisted, both sides would be warned about the possible disciplinary action that lay in wait for them if they continued the skirmishes. Yesterday, I watched the return of 55 presumed Korean War Dead to the United States. I admit I have a particularly personal weakness for those who died in combat. It comes with the territory. That war was fought to a stalemate in 1953, which was over 65 years ago. For the better part of those 65 years we have been on a playground trading taunts and insults at each other. While we did that, those 55 remains and countless others lay in often unmarked graves and ditches without any closure for the relatives at home. There has been much made about the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018. Depending on what side of the political spectrum you are on, there are differences of opinion on what the future of the relationship between the two countries will be. I note that like my school yard encounters in the 1950s that ended with a handshake, this meeting may have ended with a handshake but it could be the start of a transition from belligerence to accommodation. The USA set the parameters for the future relationship, and it remains to be seen if North Korea will make adjustments to its actions on the world stage. I was reminded of my old grammar school nemesis. Our multiple skirmishes ended with a handshake, but we never became friends. I did learn, however, to avoid him on the playground. One of the reasons was that he was bigger and meaner than I was and the other was that he had proven he could whip me on a more than a few occasions. I don't know if Kim Jon-un is astute enough to realize the reality that I did back on the playground, but I am thankful that the handshake started a slight thaw in the contentious relationship between the two countries. Will there ever be a hug? Maybe not! Will there be another playground encounter? Possibly! Can we expect a few Boxing feints in the future? Certainly! It is comforting to me to know that we are willing to take a chance as a country and offer the olive branch to North Korea. It is also comforting to me to know we have the capability to Kicka$$ should the need arise. I know President Trump does not adhere to Teddy's admonition about "Speaking Softly," but he has the "Big Stick" part down pat. As a matter of history, Teddy was never one to be known to "Speak Softly" himself. Bully for him. For years, Judge Kavanaugh has toiled in the vineyards of administrative law, writing highly influential opinions on regulatory matters and demonstrating a willingness to discipline federal agencies when they go astray. For the past 12 years, Judge Kavanaugh has sat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ... hears many legal challenges to major federal regulations. ... Of Judge Kavanaugh's nearly 300 opinions as a federal judge, over one-third concern administrative law - and they are quite revealing. Judge Kavanaugh's opinions in these cases show someone who takes administrative law principles to heart. Federal regulatory agencies are not provided for in the Constitution. Instead, agencies get their power from Congress. Statutes authorize agencies to promulgate and enforce regulatory measures and detail the steps agencies must follow when adopting rules. For an agency action to be lawful, it must be done in line with an act of Congress and in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act and other rules of administrative law. As Judge Kavanaugh explained in one opinion, "policy is for Congress and the president to establish as they see fit in enacting statutes," adding that the judiciary's "more modest task" is to ensure that "agencies comply with the law as it has been set by Congress." ... Judge Kavanaugh ... questions whether federal agencies have followed the relevant requirements and acted within the scope of their delegated authority. Where agencies come up short, he is not one to give them a pass. [W]hat has me most excited about his nomination is his willingness to challenge the administrative state, in a host of published judicial opinions. Judge Kavanaugh has embraced a vigorous application of the "major rules" doctrine requiring clear Congressional enactments, not agency determinations, on questions of deep economic and political significance. Judge Kavanaugh's ... record is solidly conservative on a host of issues from the Second Amendment (dissenting from an opinion that upheld D.C.'s assault weapons ban in 2011) to campaign finance (holding in 2009 that new Federal Election Commission rules restricting non-profit fundraising violated the First Amendment). Perhaps most interesting is his commitment to mens rea, Latin for "guilty mind." In U.S. v. Burwell, Kavanaugh dissented from the D.C. Circuit majority opinion, which upheld a conviction based on the use of an automatic weapon despite the defendant's sincere belief that the firearm was a semi-automatic. Such a disposition in criminal cases should delight many criminal justice reformers who have long cited the erosion of mens rea as a key element of the broader overcriminalization problem. Brett Kavanaugh is a stellar pick, whose name would have been at or near the top of any list of outstanding Republican nominees for the high court. As a longtime judge on the D.C. Circuit he has authored nearly 300 opinions, many in big cases hinging on constitutional issues such as the allocation of powers. ... [H]is decisions on the appeals court have fared exceptionally well on review by the higher court and are often cited as authority there, and he acts as a "feeder judge" sending clerks to Justices across the Court's ideological spectrum. His qualities of temperament and character are widely respected on all sides, and he is known for advancing diversity among the influential ranks of Supreme Court clerks by recruiting law graduates from many backgrounds. Kavanaugh takes an originalist and textualist approach to the powers asserted and statutes at issue, rather than blindly deferring to the executive as many judges might. Even more importantly, ... Kavanaugh has displayed a strong, if limited, Fourth Amendment record. ... [I]n United States v. Moore (2011), Kavanaugh found that a criminal defendant's Confrontation Clause rights had been violated when the government introduced Drug Enforcement Agency reports at trial without allowing the defendant to confront the report's author. In United States v. Nwoye (2016), he reversed the denial of a defendant's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim in a case where her lawyer had failed to present expert testimony on battered-woman syndrome. Kavanaugh has also been a leading advocate of interpreting statutes to incorporate robust mens rea requirements, protecting individuals from criminal sanction unless the government establishes a "guilty mind." See for example ... his concurrence in United States v. Williams (2016), where he commended a majority opinion that reversed the conviction of a gang member involved in a hazing ritual "to underscore the critical importance of accurate instructions to the jury on mens rea requirements." So too in white-collar cases, where regulatory "crimes" have ballooned in recent years. In Lorenzo v. SEC (2017), Kavanaugh dissented from a decision upholding the Securities and Exchange Commission's broad theory of liability in enforcing fraud laws against a broker who transmitted a fraudulent statement dictated by his boss. ... All this goes without mentioning other issues ... ranging from the Second Amendment-he would've struck down DC's gun-registration requirement and ban on semi-automatic rifles, using an historical rather than a "tiers of scrutiny" approach-to a skepticism of broad judicial deference ... to executive agencies. As he repeated at his nomination ceremony, "the Constitution's separation of powers protects individual liberty." In sum, libertarians aren't going to agree with Kavanaugh on everything-we don't agree on everything ourselves!-but he's a big step forward for constitutional liberty. Kavanaugh has been an appellate judge for 12 years and has written many opinions on free speech issues. They trend very protective of free speech, both in substance and in rhetoric. His opinions are consistent with the Supreme Court's strong protection of free speech rights this century. ... [H]e has applied the First Amendment to campaign finance laws, telecommunications regulation, and other aspects of the regulatory state. But he's also demonstrated fidelity to free speech principles in classic speech scenarios. Even when he concurs in a First Amendment decision, he frequently writes a separate opinion to clarify his analytical approach to the problem. He's quoted First Amendment guru Eugene Volokh - one of the leading voices in free speech analysis and a strong defender of speech rights. In 2016, I strongly supported Hillary Clinton for president as well as President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland. But today, with the exception of the current justices and Judge Garland, it is hard to name anyone with judicial credentials as strong as those of Judge Kavanaugh. He sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (the most influential circuit court) and commands wide and deep respect among scholars, lawyers and jurists. Judge Kavanaugh, who is 53, has already helped decide hundreds of cases concerning a broad range of difficult issues. Good appellate judges faithfully follow the Supreme Court; great ones influence and help steer it. Several of Judge Kavanaugh's most important ideas and arguments - such as his powerful defense of presidential authority to oversee federal bureaucrats and his skepticism about newfangled attacks on the property rights of criminal defendants - have found their way into Supreme Court opinions. ... Most judges are not scholars or even serious readers of scholarship. Judge Kavanaugh, by contrast, has taught courses at leading law schools and published notable law review articles. More important, he is an avid consumer of legal scholarship. He reads and learns. And he reads scholars from across the political spectrum. ... This studiousness is especially important for a jurist like Judge Kavanaugh, who prioritizes the Constitution's original meaning. A judge who seeks merely to follow precedent can simply read previous judicial opinions. But an "originalist" judge - who also cares about what the Constitution meant when its words were ratified in 1788 or when amendments were enacted - cannot do all the historical and conceptual legwork on his or her own. ... A great judge also admits and learns from past mistakes. Here, too, Judge Kavanaugh has already shown flashes of greatness, admirably confessing that some of the views he held 20 years ago as a young lawyer - including his crabbed understandings of the presidency when he was working for the Whitewater independent counsel, Kenneth Starr - were erroneous. Although Democrats are still fuming about Judge Garland's failed nomination, the hard truth is that they control neither the presidency nor the Senate; they have limited options. Still, they could try to sour the hearings by attacking Judge Kavanaugh and looking to complicate the proceedings whenever possible. This would be a mistake. Judge Kavanaugh is ... a superb nominee. ... [T]he current confirmation process is badly broken, alternating between rubber stamps and witch hunts. ... [If] each constitutional actor [were] to once again play its proper constitutional role: The Senate could become a venue for serious constitutional conversation, and the nominee could demonstrate his or her consummate legal skill. And equally important: Judge Kavanaugh could be confirmed with the ninetysomething Senate votes he deserves, rather than the fiftysomething votes he is likely to get. When President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, I was thrilled. I had read and admired his opinions for years, and, when people asked me what I thought about the nomination, I was able to confidently predict that Judge Gorsuch would be a worthy successor to Justice Antonin Scalia.When people ask me about President Trump's latest Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, on the other hand, all I can do is admit to ignorance. I'm not familiar with his work at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and I haven't had time to study it. What I can say, however, is that many people whose opinions I trust are pleased with the nomination and think Judge Kavanaugh will be a valuable addition to the court. In a New York Times opinion piece , Jonathan Adler (Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve) says: At City Journal , James Copland (Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute) writes: In the same post , Jim's colleague Rafael Mangual (Deputy Director of Legal Policy, Manhattan Institute) adds: At Overlawyered , Walter Olson (Senior Fellow, Cato Institute) says:In a long and thoughtful piece at the Federalist , Ilya Shapiro (Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute) reassures libertarians who worry about Kavanaugh's record on 4th Amendment rights, including the right to privacy:And it isn't just conservatives and libertarian scholars who are happy about Kavanaugh's nomination. In a recent blog post , free speech zealot Ken White provides an exhaustive analysis of Kavanaugh's record on freedom of speech and concludes:Finally, in another New York Times opinion piece , Akhil Reed Amar (Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University) makes, "A Liberal's Case for Brett Kavanaugh":Amar goes on to discuss the upcoming confirmation process, saying:Professor Amar knows that's wishful thinking, but it does show how strongly he supports Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. Taking his and all the other endorsements into consideration, I'm inclined to strongly support it too. maintain friendship no matter their other differences because they recognized that the shared values that should bring people together have little to do with politics. The values that matter are heart, generosity, compassion, concern for the children and parents of true friends, loyalty, character, respect. "Best of Enemies," by Osha Gray Davidson, tells an instructive story of overcoming extreme polarization. Ann Atwater was a leader in the Durham civil rights movement. C. P. Ellis was Exalted Cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan. Yet they became close friends. How? They began by asking questions, listening to each other, and giving reasons. Atwater fought to improve housing because she wanted her children to have better lives. Ellis opposed integration in public schools, but mainly because he wanted his children to get a good education. When each learned the other's reasons for their positions, they could build on shared values, respect each other, and work together. Dr. Vincent Price, now president of Duke University, has spent much of his scholarly career studying these issues. In one 2002 paper, he and his co-authors found that exposure to political disagreement helps people not just come up with more and better reasons for their own views but also helps them understand why other people might reasonably come to a different conclusion. Interestingly, this effect occurred when people were actually talking across the political divide with acquaintances. It didn't come from exposure to the news media, where the one-sided screeds and shouting matches were already crowding out more substantive fare. Coincidentally, it was at Duke, but before Price's arrival last year, that my colleagues and I founded the North Carolina Leadership Forum, which brings people from across the political spectrum together each year for precisely the kinds of conversations - respectful but spirited - that seem to bear the most fruit. Our goal isn't unanimity. People disagree. In fact, a lack of substantive disagreement - within an organization, a profession, or a government - can itself be a sign of trouble, evidence that the group may not be perceiving, understanding, and carefully vetting all its options. In our view, the proper course is neither to engage in wishful thinking nor to encourage groupthink. It is to treat others with the respect they are due as fellow human beings. In my case, this means that I should assume you have good reasons for what you believe, and vice versa. If we disagree, I should hope to persuade you, yes. But I should also be open to having my own mind changed. Even if persuasion never occurs, I should hope to have you finish my column having learned something new - a fact, an argument, a way of thinking - that you will appreciate knowing even as you continue to disagree with my conclusions. Is there a return to civility in our future? Our political culture seems to be getting increasingly more toxic. This path, if we stay on it, has a bloody end, and we already see an uptick in deliberate rudeness, harassment, vandalism, and violence committed solely because of political disagreement.But nothing says we're stuck on this path. Thoughtful Americans across the political spectrum have viewed this decline with increasing alarm. There's the "pendulum" idea in politics that the further there's movement in one direction, the stronger the pushback in the other till things turn around. Perhaps we're about to see a pullback from angry partisans "taking to the streets" to confront political differences by exchanging punches instead of points.Earlier this year, News & Observer editorial writer Jim Jenkins reminded readers of gentler times when people habitually managed toI've long written about the need to cherish the many things in life above politics, especially including the ability to break bread together even if you have political differences. The alternative, as I wrote just a month ago, is soul-crushing So I was very encouraged to see two columns in the News & Observer online the same day last week. Connie Ledoux Book, president of Elon University, wrote about the importance of civil dialogue, arguing that " We can teach our students how to disagree ." Colleges and universities bear a responsibility for teaching students how to disagree and debate civilly, Book argued. When students are taught how to exchange ideas properly, they become more engaged in civic life.Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, author and chaired professor of ethics at Duke University, made the case that society needs good argument . He opened with a compelling example that sounds quite impossible today - but which also points to that better way that also seems so distant right now:I see these columns as a welcome addition to the example-setting being made by the North Carolina Leadership Forum at Duke University. As John Hood, who is also a co-founder, wrote recently Differences of opinion - ideas in conflict - are not anomalies to be stomped out in brute outrage. Rather they are to be valued because competition leads to innovations. Competition in the marketplace of ideas means finding manifold better ways to improve society Keeping politics in its proper perspective also improves society in the meantime, by making it a pleasanter place for all of us. But we have to push toward that goal, together, and the more contributing to that push, the better. Lets say you mouth off to a cop, then walk away, only to have the cop show up in your driveway, asking you what you meant. And you tell the cop, You know. Is that a crime? Sherman police thought so when they arrested Chad Bates, a battalion chief with the Springfield Fire Department, after he reportedly cussed at a cop in his neighborhood, then went home. The handcuffs came out when the cop went to Bates house and asked about his intentions. You know my intentions, replied the battalion chief, who was hauled to jail on suspicion of intimidation, a felony, and obstructing police, a misdemeanor. Nearly two months after the encounter, however, prosecutors have yet to charge Bates with anything, and its a safe bet they wont. No prosecutor wants to tell a jury to never-mind the First Amendment and convict someone for speaking his mind in his own driveway, with no one getting hurt and no overt threats made. And Bates, who has a history of bad behavior, may soon be back after spending the better part of the summer on paid leave. Word is floating that the city has offered Bates a deal: You can come back to work, but as a captain. In return, we wont try to fire you. If Bates takes the offer, the city would be rid of a mess mostly of its own making. Had the city gotten serious with Bates earlier than it did, he likely never would have been on the promotion list to become a battalion chief. Instead, the city at the eleventh hour tried blocking Bates rise after hed already scored sufficiently high on a test to rank number two on the list. Bates took the test after he was punished for falsely accusing his ex-wifes husband of slashing his tires, then brought a gun to work, contrary to a ban on firearms in firehouses. The peace offer comes after the citys Civil Service Commission lost a lawsuit filed by Bates, who successfully argued that he belonged on the promotion list because any discipline for false reports and packing heat to work was a separate matter. Ordered by Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Madonia to keep Bates on the promotion list, the city, facing command-level vacancies, had made Bates a temporary battalion chief, which prompted a second lawsuit filed by Bates, the firefighters union and Gary Self, union president who was made a temporary battalion chief along with Bates. The second lawsuit aims at forcing the city to make the promotions permanent. While litigation involving the fire department progresses, less movement is evident in the case of former Springfield police office Samuel Rosario, who was fired and charged with battery and official misconduct for whupping Robert Humes, 19, after responding to a call at Humes home in February 2017. Fisticuffs began after a flurry of f-bombs dropped by both sides, with Rosario emerging victorious while the neighborhood watched. It would seem a slam-dunk case, given that police body cameras captured everything. But, according to Sangamon County court records, a trial date of Jan. 29 has come and gone, with no trial currently scheduled. The last scheduled proceeding was a routine hearing in May. There are no scheduled hearings or other proceedings on the docket maintained by Sangamon County Circuit Clerk. Neither Sangamon County states attorney John Milhiser, nor Dan Fultz, Rosarios lawyer, could be reached for comment. In March, Milhiser was reportedly mulling the possibility of putting Rosarios case in the hands of the countys new veterans court, which handles criminal cases filed against veterans with a goal of rehabilitation as opposed to simple punishment. Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com. Czech police: "Selling cups and T-shirts with a portrait of Adolf Hitler is not promotion of Nazism" 2. 8. 2018 cas cteni < 1 minuta Photo: A t-shirt with a portrait of Adolf Hitler, which is sold by the Czech publishing house Nase vojsko "To sell objects with images of Adolf Hitler is not illegal in the Czech Republic," said the Czech police. "We have been unable to prove that the production of objects with portraits of controversial figures such as Hitler or Stalin is motivated by a desire to promote their beliefs. We have found that the only motif for producing such objects is profit. The Czech Legal Code does not ban the public depiction of any symbols or persons." T-shirts and cups with Adolf Hitlers face are being sold by the Czech publishing house Nase vojsko. The Czech Federation of Jewish Associations has protested against this, but to no avail. Source in Czech HERE 0 Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium has been described as one of the most beautiful works devoted to frogs and amphibians. The work of German artist and naturalist August Johann Rosel von Rosenhof, Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium describes the natural history of all then-known frogs and toads indigenous to the Nuremberg region in Germany. The title is noteworthy first for the extensive, accurate information in the text, printed in two columns in both German and Latin. As Darrel Frost, a curator in the Herpetology Department in the Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, wrote in his essay on the book for Natural Histories, Rosels volume on German frogs represents in a very real sense the beginning of accurate life-history observation in amphibians (Frost 2012, 38). The work is equally (if not more) renowned for its illustrations. The twenty-four folio, hand-colored copper engravings portray habitats, anatomy, reproductive behavior, and larval development stages in intricate detail. The quality of the artwork is not surprising given Rosels artistic background. Johann Rosel von Rosenhof was born in 1705 to a noble Austrian family near Arnstadt in the German principality of Arnstadt-Schwarzburg. Orphaned at a young age, Rosel was sent for training to his uncle, Wilhelm Rosel, an animal and landscape painter, after he showed artistic talent. He eventually became a painter of portraits and miniatures to the Danish Court in Copenhagen before returning to Nuremberg and earning his living as a painter. Rosels passion for natural history was ignited by the work of Maria Sibylla Merian, a German-born naturalist and illustrator who is recognized as one of the most significant contributors to the field of entomology. Her Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705) depicted the full life cycles of many Suriname insects. Merian was able to portray this life history information because she drew her subjects from life in their natural environments. Most naturalists of the day illustrated species from dead, preserved specimens, which contributed to a lack of knowledge about the true life cycle and origin of insects. Maria also portrayed the host plant for the species she studied and even illustrated the damage the insects left on the plants. Merians work inspired Rosel to study and produce a similar work on German insects. His interest in the natural world also grew to include amphibians and reptiles, and he used his leisure time to collect insect and amphibian eggs and larvae to observe their development. The first part of his first natural history publication, Der monatlich-herausgegebenen Insecten-Belustigung, was published in 1740. Four additional parts appeared over the years, with the final one being published posthumously in 1761. Because of this publication, a copy of which has been contributed in BHL from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Rosel is known as one of the fathers of German entomology. In 1753, Rosel published the first part of his Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium. Completed in 1758, the work is a scientific and artistic marvel, and several of the illustrated frogs, such as Bufo calamita (now Epidalea calamita) and Bufo fuscus (now Pelobates fuscus), became the types for their species. Thanks to the Smithsonian Libraries, everyone in the world can appreciate Rosels scientific and artistic contributions to the natural history of German frogs. The Libraries copy of Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium, housed in its Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of rare books, has recently been digitized for BHL. As Frost outlines in his essay, Rosel intended to produce a similar work for lizards and salamanders, but sadly was not able to complete it, as he died unexpectedly on March 27, 1759. Through his natural history publications, Rosels scientific legacy lives on and is accessible to everyone through the Biodiversity Heritage Library thanks to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Smithsonian Libraries. Reference The information in this post was derived from: Frost, Darrel. 2012. Rosel von Rosenhof and His Natural History of Frogs. In T. Baione (Ed.), Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library (pp. 37-38). New York: Sterling Publishing. Last week, Nicaraguan president and dictator-in-training Daniel Ortega had the gall to declare that the violence and protests that have plagued his nation since April had come to an end. His nation's doing just fine! At the time that this bullshit dribbled out of his cakehole, protests against government corruption, cronyism and the government's slow role into fascism were still ongoing. To date, approximately 300 people have died as elements of Nicaragua's police and paramilitaries loyal to Ortega have attempted to put a bloody end to the growing voice of dissent and disgust for his administration. Not everyone in the South American country wants a piece of this action. According to Al Jazeera, upwards of 23,000 Nicaraguan citizens have fled to neighboring Costa Rica, seeking refugee status, due to the escalating violence surrounding the demand that Ortega step down from power and his refusal to do so. From Al Jazeera: William Spindler, UNHCR spokesman, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that an average of 200 asylum applications are being lodged every day in Costa Rica. "Besides the 8,000 who have filed asylum claims, and the 15,000 who are waiting to do so, thousands more have arrived in Costa Rica but have not yet contacted authorities there," added Splinter. Panama, Mexico and the United States also saw a rise in claims by Nicaraguans in the first half of this year, but the numbers in these countries are still in the low hundreds, according to the UNHCR. Costa Rica and Nicaragua, which share a border, have bickered over land rights and environmental issues for years. Their most recent squabble had to be sorted out by the Hauge. You can add human rights issues to that list now as well. From The Tico Times: "We call for all human rights to be respected so there are no acts of violence, and above all so that all this can be resolved through peaceful means and dialogue," said Christian Guillermet, Costa Rica's director of foreign policy, on Thursday. He questioned the closure of four private television channels on Thursday as they reported on the protests. (Three of the four returned to the air on Friday.) "Curtailing freedom of expression doesn't contribute [to a positive resolution], so we call on the government of Nicaragua to reconsider the closure of some media," Guillermet said. But yeah, everything's fine down there. Image: by Fundscion Ong DE Nicaragua Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Unhinged conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been leading a psychotic crusade against the Sandy Hook victims' families since before the crime scene tape was even removed from the building. For five years, Jones and his followers (insert drinking the Flavor-Aid reference here) have accused the government of conducting a false flag operation in Newton in order to overturn the Second Amendment. This, of course, is utter bullshit. But that hasn't stopped them from cyberstalking the families, accusing them of lying about their dead children, and in some cases, sending death threats. The harassment has been severe enough to cause some of the families to relocate. In Texas this week, a defamation claim by the family of Noah Pozner will be heard in court. The Pozners, whose 6-year-old son Noah was one of the victims, have been forced to move seven times due to the harassment of Jones and his Infowars infantry. The case is one of several related to Sandy Hook that has been filed against Jones. But it is the Pozner case that seems to have gotten under Jones' skin. He is suing the Pozners for $100,000 to cover his legal costs. "Mr. Jones is trying to have the Pozner and Fontaine cases dismissed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which protects citizens' right to free speech against plaintiffs who aim to silence them through costly litigation. Mr. Jones is seeking more than $100,000 in court costs from the Pozner family." We need a new word to describe Alex Jones. Scum of the earth just doesn't cover it. Alex Jones, Pursued Over Infowars falsehoods, Faces a Legal Crossroads [Elizabeth Williamson/New York Times] Image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr Facebook's longtime Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos is quitting, as announced earlier this year. The company seems to think it doesn't need a new CSO, despite having just acknowledged Tuesday it is the subject of ongoing, sustained, coordinated information warfare attacks just ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Remember the reason Stamos clashed with higher-ups in the first place, and announced plans to depart: he spoke out strongly against the Russian infowar attacks. As Cory Doctorow wrote, Stamos is "a human warrant-canary for the Trump era." The threats Facebook faces are very real. I am very excited to say that I have accepted a teaching and research role at Stanford starting in September. My last day at Facebook will be Aug 17. Stanford students can sign up for my Fall class here: https://t.co/6qIhS4gXA2 Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) August 1, 2018 Silicon Valley faces many challenges, and I am encouraged that there are so many dedicated, thoughtful and skilled people continuing to tackle these challenges at Facebook. I will miss everyone but I look forward to collaborating with them in the future. Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) August 1, 2018 His last day at Facebook is scheduled for August 17th. His new job: "Starting in September, I will join Stanford University full-time as a teacher and researcheras an Adjunct Professor at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies." At Stanford, he will join an 'Information Warfare' faculty working group, and study the role of security and technology in society. Just yesterday, Stamos was 'front and center' as Facebook disclosed that it had identified and killed dozens of accounts it associated with a coordinated political influence campaign ahead of the November midterm elections. Facebook does not plan to appoint a successor for chief security officer. "We expect to be judged on what we do to protect people's security, not whether we have someone with a certain title." Uh Okay. From the New York Times: Mr. Stamos' departure is part of several executive exits from the social network, which has been hit by scandals including Russian meddling on the platform in the 2016 presidential election and misuse of people's data. The Times reported that Mr. Stamos was leaving Facebook after he had advocated the company to disclose more about Russian election interference last year but was met with resistance. Mr. Stamos said in the interview that his last day at Facebook would be Aug. 17. At Stanford, he said, he planned to study the upcoming midterms and the role of technology, as well as election security more broadly and the topic of disinformation. He said he would also look at subjects as basic as passwords and try to reimagine how they could be made more secure. Mr. Stamos also said Information Warfare was a new working group at Stanford with about 14 faculty members across academic disciplines. The group, which will begin meeting this fall, plans to research information warfare tactics and to develop countermeasures. Mr. Stamos said he planned to teach a class for law and policy students on how hackers attack, with the goal of familiarizing future policymakers with common hacking techniques. Of his time at Facebook, he said, "Obviously, it has been a difficult three years. I'd like to take the things I've learned and apply them more broadly." Facebook says it is NOT naming a replacement for outgoing chief security officer @alexstamos: "We expect to be judged on what we do to protect people's security, not whether we have someone with a certain title." pic.twitter.com/jNj8tsdbe1 Cristiano Lima (@viaCristiano) August 1, 2018 So Facebook's chief security officer Alex Stamos is leaving https://t.co/irG9oXrkaW just a reminder that he clashed with FB execs because hw wanted to be more open about Russian interference https://t.co/FCE9U1rYNU Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) August 1, 2018 In 2010 a Venezuelan bolivar was worth about US$0.50. Today it's worth US$0.0000058. Here's another way of looking at it. A satoshi is one one-hundred-millionth of a single bitcoin. At the current exchange rate, a bolivar is worth less than 1/8th of a satoshi. The Central Bank of Venezuela is getting ready to issue a new currency, called the bolivar soberano. The plan was to make 1,000 bolivar = 1 bolivar soberano in June, but the president decided to wait until later this month and make 100,000 bolivar = 1 bolivar soberano. Documents obtained by CNN outline a plan to eliminate TSA security screenings at more than 150 small and medium sized airports that mostly service planes with 60 seats or fewer. TSA currently screens passengers at over 440 U.S. airports. What's the argument for reducing this number, by eliminating screenings at 15 airports? Attacks with smaller aircraft aren't as appealing to terrorists, because the damage they can do is smaller than what's possible with larger aircraft like the ones used in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. TSA says they consider changing the rules every year, but 2 senior officials who spoke to CNN say this is more than the annual exercise spokespersons are telling reporters. Experts say the TSA's plan as described doesn't reduce the risk of a successful terror attack, but rather elevates it. Resistance to the proposal from airline worker unions is expected, as are complaints from other sectors. From CNN: This should be interesting. Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly asking to interview Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who says he helped set up the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. "Conversations are ongoing" about a potential interview, Agalarov's lawyer Scott Balber said. "Unclear how this will play out." NBC: Balber did not elaborate on whether Mueller is also interested in speaking to Agalarov's father, Aras Agalarov, a billionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment. The Agalarovs were partners in the Trump Organization's hosting of the 2013 Miss America pageant in Moscow. They also played a key role in arranging the June 2016 meeting of Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and now senior adviser; Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager at the time; a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya; and others, according to congressional testimony. As reported here previously, EMIN, nee Emin Arazovich Agalarov, released a music video earlier this year that included a bunch of Trump/Russia references. Ivanka, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Trump porn paramour Stormy Daniels, and Donald himself all made cameos. It's believed to be some sort of signal from the power ranks around Putin to Trump. 2018 is so weird. PREVIOUSLY: Emin, Russian pop star linked to Don Jr. Trump Tower meeting, releases weird video The East Cut is a neighborhood in San Francisco invented by a branding agency. Such things usually wither on the local-business bullshit vine, but thanks to Google Maps, it's now the plain reality of that part of town. Another in Detroit is now known by a mispelling, made by the mysterious cartographers who run the service. And one LA community now there was cooked up by a realtor to make a hilly part of Silver Lake sound fancy, and somehow ended up enshrined on the service after he began using it in listings. Timothy Boscarino, a Detroit city planner, traced Google's use of those names to a map posted online around 2002 by a few locals. Google almost identically copied that map's neighborhoods and boundaries, he said down to its typos. One result was that Google transposed the k and h for the district known as Fiskhorn, making it Fishkorn. I imagine Google's paid a lot of money to sources it appropriated in its rush to get everything online before anyone else; mapmakers who do this are caught due to Trap Streets, though the traps can be much less obvious than an imaginary street. And sometimes all a reporter need do to expose a falsehood is put two quotes next to each other: Mr. Robinson said his team asked Google to add the East Cut to its maps. A Google spokeswoman said employees manually inserted the name after verifying it through public sources. It's funny, but Google describing a "brand experience design company" hired by a local nonprofit as a "public source" is a clever way of making people assume it refers to "public record" or "government" without actually saying so. This reflects a strategy for laundering questionable privately-generated data so it seems as real as the census. Just apply the same logic to other forms of public record (arrests, demographics, sex offenders) that Google might one day map and you see where that goes. The spokeswoman for the president of the United States won't say whether the American press is or is not "the enemy of the people." This phrase was used to similar effect by the Nazis and in the Soviet state under Stalin to designate who should be murdered. It's un-American, and so is she, and so is Trump. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was in fine form during a press briefing today, in which she repeatedly refused to answer a CNN reporter's question: Do you believe the press is "the enemy of the people"? Sanders repeatedly refuses to confirm that she does not view the press as "the enemy of the people.' pic.twitter.com/H0Xfn3wNUe Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2018 President Donald Trump uses the phrase often, and so do his fans. You know where it comes from? Its use in this context comes from the Nazis, and from Stalin, and more recently, modern Russia. That's who uses it now. Russia. Still cannot believe this is the White House press secretary saying this. Been a professional journalist since 1990. Aside from DC the only other place I have lived is Russia, which is where the 'enemy of the people' phrase comes from. It doesn't belong in the USA. https://t.co/MKSfEFj73X Susan Glasser (@sbg1) August 2, 2018 Sanders' exchange with Jim Acosta came after she bashed CNN, the organization Acosta works for. Throughout the briefing, Sanders used provocative language to mock the reporters she was addressing, in a denigrating and shouty tone. This is a thing she does. This is a thing her boss wants her to do. They call reporters "the enemy of the people," because some of their "base" likes this and it helps them retain power. It really happened. It was really weird. It's all noise, and it's not the real news of the day. But we have to stop and remind ourselves and each other that this is now happening. It's not okay. It's not normal. We have to stop it. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Chris Wray, Secretary of State John Bolton, and NSA Director General Paul Nakasone spoke today as a group for the first time about "election meddling" the information warfare attacks being carried out against the United States right now, a little more than 90 days before the midterm elections, by the adversary we all know is Russia. As DHS, DNI, FBI, and the Pentagon come together before the public to say Russia is actively attacking our midterm elections, as we have long been warned they'd do, please remember that exactly 2.5 weeks ago Donald Trump stood next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, refused to confront him on the 2016 inforwar campaign our intelligence officials all say happened, and called Putin's denial of the 2016 infowar "strong and powerful." Seeing all the intel chiefs on stage say one thing, and knowing the President who wasn't there? believes another was weird. All of the directors seemed to be saying they believe the nature of the attacks was overwhelmingly psyops, or online campaigns intended to influence opinion and voting choices, rather than direct attacks on voting infrastructure. But those who were worth listening to also said, anything unexpected could happen at any time. One piece of cyberwar news stands out from this briefing: NSA and CyberCom Director General Paul Nakasone said the U.S. is prepared to conduct operations against foreign actors who are seeking to interfere in US politics. That is news. Nakasone warned "foreign adversaries" sternly: "U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency are tracking a wide range of foreign cyber adversaries and are prepared to conduct operations against those actors attempting to undermine our nation's midterm elections." "Our forces are well-trained, ready and very capable. I have complete confidence in the forces under my command," he added, "We continue to bring our full power to bear on foreign adversaries." Those are not meaningless words. Nakasone also said NSA is acting in a new capacity this year, by offering intelligence, information support, and technical expertise to local election officials throughout the USA. "Our support is ongoing and will continue through the midterms," Nakasone said, "We are providing intelligence and information leads to FBI on a wide range of foreign adversaries." Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats: "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States." Full video here: https://t.co/0dlyUd8srP pic.twitter.com/o880Bu83io CSPAN (@cspan) August 2, 2018 DNI Dan Coats, when asked about this current campaign at the press conference: "It is not the kind of robust campaign we saw in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections they stepped up their game bigtime in 2016. We have not seen that kind of robust campaign from them so far. But we're only one keyboard click away." Are the Russians targeting a particular party? Coats wouldn't reply directly, but wishwashed with something about infowar affecting all parties, and an intent to sow chaos. Asked if he understood what happened at the Trump-Putin meeting, Coats said he was "not in a position to understand fully." REPORTER: Trump says Russian interference is a hoax. Why should we believe you when you say it isn't? WRAY: \_()_/ pic.twitter.com/dvZrp6V5c6 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2018 "We are not seeing the same kind of campaigns to attack voting infrastructure" as in 2016, said FBI Director Chris Wray, "but malign influence operations to influence opinion." FBI Director Wray: "This threat is not going away. As I have said consistently, Russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. This is a threat we need to take extremely seriously." pic.twitter.com/yaaWKupxwE NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) August 2, 2018 Nielsen does not directly answer whether a government shutdown would affect election security work, but implies DHS would "continue to prioritize" assistance to states "within our budget." Eric Geller (@ericgeller) August 2, 2018 "I'm not in a position right now" to identify" which members of Congress have been recently targeted by #Russia, answers @ODNIgov Coats. Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 2, 2018 Dan Coats, 2.5 weeks after the Trump-Putin summit: "I'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in Helsinki." Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) August 2, 2018 Lol the Helsinki thing really did just glide away Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) August 2, 2018 FBI Director Wray says they're seeing foreign "malign influence operationsin effect, information warfare" ahead of the 2018 elections and "potential penetration of voter registration databases." Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 2, 2018 Wray says Russian malign influence this year appears to be targeting penetration of voter registration, not vote count. pic.twitter.com/NK7aJwQ3fI Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 2, 2018 Asked directly just now if she believes the media is the "enemy of the American people," WH press sec Sarah Sanders declines to answer. Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2018 She wouldn't answer @Acosta. She refused to answer the question. The press is the enemy of the people. I'm sure it sounds better in the original German, @PressSec Xeni Jardin ??? (@xeni) August 2, 2018 The extreme disconnect between intelligence community leadership and the White House on Russia interference, aired on live television in record-breaking time https://t.co/8F4mY3DdLf Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) August 2, 2018 NEW: "I'm not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in Helsinki" National Intelligence Director Coates pic.twitter.com/lk4qMAF5Pw TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) August 2, 2018 Sanders, echoing Trump, claims "we know there were others" involved in 2016 election interference besides Russia. She declines to provide details. Her statement contradicts the intelligence community's finding that Russia and Russia alone interfered in the election. pic.twitter.com/Zu4BFQSmgK Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 2, 2018 A candid, unequivocal warning from the nation's security chiefs at the White House lectern today making crystal clear that yes, Russia is still trying to influence our elections. The obvious backdrop making things awkward? A president who hasn't been nearly as blunt. Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 2, 2018 Breaking News: Russia is still trying to influence U.S. elections, several national security chiefs bluntly warned in a White House briefing https://t.co/cYWJ7LNinL The New York Times (@nytimes) August 2, 2018 News / National by Mafu Sithabile Opposition activists and political analysts have raised concern over the possibility of the ruling Zanu PF gaining two thirds majority in parliament, insisting that MDC Alliance candidate Nelson Chamisa won the popular vote ahead of Emmerson Mnangagwa.In an interview with Dr Victor Chimhutu leader of Zimbabwe Yadzoka, a local democracy pressure group said Zanu PF domination in parliament without the support of the majority spells a bleak future for the country."It's a bleak future, ZANU-PF will remain unsupported by the majority of the people. When the majority of citizens does not have faith and trust in a system, there is no way the country can progress socially or economically. Zimbabwe's main problem is a confidence crisis & these fictitious election results does not alley such fears," added Chimhutu."It's a clear attempt by ZEC to subvert the will of the people. Unreasonably inflated figures from so called ZANU-PF strongholds are worrying against the backdrop that in 21% of polling stations mostly in those areas results were not posted as required by the law. These V11 forms are either missing or were burnt. Undesignated polling stations were also unearthed in the process. More worrying is the delay in announcing the popular vote where Chamisa thumped Mnangagwa," added Chimhutu.The President of Economics Students Association of Zimbabwe also a University of Zimbabwe student leader and ZINASU activist Treasure Bassopo is also concerned about the future of students after studies."We as students, we are not living on our own island, we are concerned and bona-fide citizens of the Republic of Zimbabwe and we can not legitimize the illegitimate.Issues of constitutional ism, rule of law, democracy and good governance are the ones we can self sacrifice and die in defense of."If reforms are not implemented, we can not be hoodwinked into a sham, bogus and illegitimate process. If we are convinced that the election is not procedural, we will declare Zimbabwe a failed and ungovernable state, we will declare this nation a war zone and battle ground to restore constitutional legacy, for ZEC is proving to be defiant and arrogant, and is convinced not to want and implement existing laws""We however encourage al students and youth to go and vote, but when the clarion call of defense has been raised, lets all do so in the interests of nation building and self cleansing from despotism," said Bassopo.The country held its harmonised election last month and the presidential results are yet to be announced. News / National by Staff Reporter Edmund Kudzayi, who was once accused of being Baba Jukwa, has told BBC that soldiers shot unarmed peaceful protesters from the back. Former Zanu-PF spin doctor Professor Jonathan Moyo shared the video on Kudzayi's interview on Twitter with these captions below: Former state media editor"@EdmundKudzayi speaks to @BBCWorld about the Army killings of peaceful demonstrators in Harare against #ZEC & exposes the overreaction of the Army & the collusion between @ZECzim & ZanuPF that has compromised the integrity & credibility of the harmonised elections!""@EdmundKudzayi tells @BBCWorld that the use of brutal violence yesterday by the Zimbabwe Defense Forces, against peaceful demonstrators in Harare was a deliberate & disproportionate strategy to preempt protests against the #ZEC 's apparent subversion of #NelsonChamisa victory!""The interview concludes with @EdmundKudzayi telling @BBCWorld that the the people behind the 2008 poll violence are behind yesterday's violence & says it's nonsense to blame the demonstrators who were shot in the back & calls on the world to take another look at Mnangagwa!" News / National by Staff reporter Zanu-PF has maintained its dominance in Matabeleland South province where Government is implementing a lot of development and economic empowerment programmes to improve people's standards of living, an official has said.Zanu-PF Matabeleland South chairman Rabelani Choeni said although they had lost one parliamentary seat (Gwanda Central) out of 13 constituencies, the majority of people had shown confidence in the party under the able leadership of President Mnangagwa.There were a total of 99 candidates in the race for National Assembly seats while 500 battled for local government elections in Matabeleland South. In 2013, Zanu-PF had a clean sweep in the province."Although there were many political parties, which had fielded candidates for National Assembly and local government seats, we managed to collect everything except in Gwanda Central," he said."This is a show of confidence in our party and its leadership led by President Mnangagwa. We will continue with our dominance and fulfilling the pre elections promise made by our party in line with our 2018 election manifesto."People should look forward to accelerate infrastructure development in areas around the provision of more schools, clinics, roads, communication facilities and irrigation development."At the same time, I want to urge people to embrace programmes, including command livestock, mining, and small to medium enterprises, women and youth empowerment initiatives among others".Choeni said the party went into Monday's elections with some its candidates for local government elections unopposed in Beitbridge East and Matobo South constituencies.In addition, the MDC-Alliance failed to field a parliamentary candidate in Insiza North. He said the party assembled strong campaign teams in the pre-elections period to ensure that they collected the maximum votes on offer."Everyone in the party including those from cell up to provincial level were working very hard to ensure a continued dominance by the party in Mat South," he said.He said party supporters had also voted in their numbers to cement their relationship with Zanu-PF. He said the party was very organised starting from grassroots level and had a strong following because its leadership have people's interest at heart. News / National by Staff reporter February 20, 2018: At the burial of Tsvangirai, in Buhera, rowdy MDC-T youths harass party co-vice president Dr Thokozani Khupe and secretary general Mr Douglas Mwonzora before trying to torch the grass-thatched hut they had taken refuge in. Quick reaction by the police, who moved in to disperse the rowdy youths, saved the situation. Police escorted the pair to a nearby primary school's grounds from where they then followed the proceedings.March 7, 2018: Twelve people, including Bulawayo deputy mayor Gift Banda and another councillor, Mlandu Ncube, appeared in court in connection with the violence that rocked the MDC-T Bulawayo province on March 4. More than 15 people were injured.April 2018: Addressing his party supporters at Jerera Growth point in Zaka, in April Chamisa said his party would use violent means to grab power if they lost the polls. "This time around the election is going to produce one outcome and that is victory for the MDC Alliance," he said. ZEC is a biased referee, a referee who throws away the whistle and joins the other team, we will protest against that, we are going to bring into the streets guys from Mbare Musika they are ready for that. We are not going to leave any stone unturned. In fact, we have given them enough time. This election is going to be very different because I am even ready to take power either by votes or by other means," he said.May 2018: MDC-T Chamisa faction failed to conduct primary elections in Hwange for the second time in as many weeks as internal violence continued to dog the opposition party. Violence erupted in Ward 8 and 9, resulting in the party abandoning the polls as sitting candidates comprising Hwange Central National Assembly member Mr Brian Tshuma, Ward 8 Councillor Rhoda Sibanda, Ward 9 Cllr Chiratidzo Maphosa-Mudimba, her husband Mr Jabulani Mudimba and the party's district elections officer Mr James Sibanda allegedly visited their rivals' houses at night, threatening them to withdraw or face unspecified action.On May 14, 2018: Implosion hit MDC-T amid reports that the party leadership imposed National Assembly and local authority candidates for the harmonised election. MDC-T party members staged a demonstration which later became violent outside Harvest House in Harare. They chanted slogans, raised placards and accused some unnamed leaders of imposing their girlfriends as candidates.June 2018: MDC Alliance aspiring candidates for Mutasa Central and Mutasa North, Trevor Saruwaka and David Chimhini respectively, were summoned to the Mutare Magistrates' Court on charges of promoting public violence. In the same month, a group of rowdy MDC-T youths reportedly disrupt a church service in Mkoba 10, Gweru, on Sunday, destroying the church's perimeter fence arguing the church was built on an access road. Worshippers from Light House Fellowship had to run for dear life and seek cover at Mkoba One Police Station after the youths who were reportedly acting on an instruction from the local councillor and Gweru Mayor Charles Chikozho, turned violent and threatened to beat up everyone. When campaigns were warming up, there was violence against those perceived to be "rebels".One such case was witnessed at Muchakata Business Centre in Chiwundura Constituency on June 29, 2018, where MDC-Alliance supporters who were bussed from Mkoba Constituency by Amos Chibaya were involved in skirmishes with independent candidate, Blessing Murondiwa's supporters, which resulted in the injury of two people. During the same month, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) noted that the main opposition party MDC-T perpetrated 16 cases of electoral intra-party violence, while Zanu-PF recorded only three cases.July 23, 2018: At a rally in Mkoba Gweru, MDC-Alliance threatened post-election violence in the event that it lost the July 30 polls, as its leader Mr Nelson Chamisa expected nothing less than victory. On the same day, the threat of violence was also issued by MDC-T youth assembly leader Mr Happymore Chidziva. Mr Chamisa told his supporters that his party was winning the election, adding "in fact we have won this election . . . it is a delayed match yatakarova vanhu kare". He went on to allege that Zanu-PF intended to rig the election and urged his supporters "to protect the vote". "People want a credible election," he said. "Hakudyiwi rinopisa muno . . . mukaita zvokutamba ndinodira jecha muupfu, hamuridyi sadza iroro."July 25, 2018: Chamisa told journalists that he would not accept the July 30 election results if they go against the coalition of opposition parties threatening to unleash an orgy of violence to make the country ungovernable. Mr Chamisa further said he was not going to accept anything short of victory.During the selection of coalition candidates, an unprecedented level of intra-party political violence was witnessed. Dangamvura/Chikanga Constituency in Manicaland Province saw Prosper Mutseyami being assaulted by a metal rod on the head and left for dead. Mutseyami was wrestling with Lynette Karenyi-Kore to land the seat which was finally won by Mutseyami. In Glen View South Constituency, MDC-Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa year imposed Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java, yet the electorate preferred Gladmore Hakata. All sorts of weapons, ranging from catapults to shamboks were used by rival camps. News / National by Staff reporter Former president Robert Mugabe's surprise interview on the eve of the elections on Sunday gave some rare insights into the suspicions the 94-year-old teetotaller had always had towards his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa.In the interview, Mugabe narrated a series of events in which Mnangagwa, who succeeded him after a military intervention last November, was allegedly not always forthright in his dealings with him and other members of the ruling Zanu-PF party.He alleged that one of the several times he had issues with Mnangagwa was in 1980 - just before the announcement of the elections that ushered in the ruling Zanu-PF party into power."Well, he is a good worker; a very good worker but it's not always that he told me the truth. In some cases I did not believe what he told me. What really gave me a judgment about him was when in 1980 after the people's vote; the first vote by the people and before the results were announced he and Mr Stanard, a white (official)who was working in the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) came to me and said you are under threat. You, the late (Morris) Nyagumbo and the late (Enos) Nkala please leave the country, go to Mozambique."The three of us were known to be the militants and (the late Mozambican president) Samora Machel said why have you come? We told him that we were told that we are under threat (so) we had to leave. Samora said ah come on get back. We couldn't go back straight on, we said please help us to go to Tanzania to inform Mwalimu Julius Nyerere on what has happened and the prospects we had of victory," said Mugabe.The former Zimbabwean strongman said they returned to Zimbabwe despite Mnangagwa's warnings."We said no let us go back home. We came back. They received us and nothing happened."I said to him (Mnangagwa) but why? He said it was in your interests for security reasonsNyagumbo and Nkala were angry. Why? What did they want to do which would not be possible with us three?" Mugabe asked.Mugabe also accused Mnangagwa of trying to fool him through a "spirit" medium."Then I said Chaminuka the prophet mufemberi what could have happened to him? Why is there no evidence at all of how he was beaten by the Ndebeles who took him? Then he (Mnangagwa) said I know you are worried by that. I have a person who actually knows what happened. I said I want to see that person. I want to hear; we want a story."Then he said you come. I went into his home. And there was a lady. He said this is my mainini, a sister of his mother. She is with a power, a spirit which can tell you."He said she is just waiting for you I told her you were coming. She was living in a ramshackle thing. I went up she started telling me about how strong she was and she had this spirit of Mbuya Nehanda and she was the one who did away with (Josiah) Tongogara. She said nothing about Chaminuka."He wanted me to see that he has this mainini of his as a spirit medium who was powerful. When I got down I said what nonsense is this? I needed to be told what happened to Chaminuka and all she wanted was to see me and try to convince me that she is a spirit medium we should accept," Mugabe claimed, further alleging that Mnangagwa also tried to use the spirit medium to dupe the late Nkala."When Nkala also knew about this he (Mnangagwa) wanted Nkala to pay a kind of, not salary, an amount to sustain her either monthly. Nkala said nonsense, get away. That is why there was a rift between Nkala and him. It was not animosity but the two were not good friends. That was a lie."Mugabe, who appeared hell-bent on discrediting Mnangagwa before Monday's watershed elections, also accused his successor of embezzling Zanu-PF funds when he was in charge of the ruling party's companies."Then we had some Indians doing our business at M&S (Zanu-PF company), party business at Goromonzi farm and some companies of the party."He was working with them. We wanted to know what their efforts had yielded in monetary terms; we were not getting anything. (the late General Solomon) Mujuru said we must investigate, this man is a crook."So when we started our investigations we discovered that he had got some money from them (Indians). I asked him why? He said he had just got the money, he borrowed it. He wanted to pay some school fees for his kids but the money was never paid back. So I got to know that my man was not quite honest," he said.Mugabe conceded that he realised very late that Mnangagwa was coveting his position."But I worked with him. We did some good things with him. I also did not know that he was eying my position until quite late."There it was I was a fool. I had him next to me. It was then that he connived with (Constantino) Chiwenga to oust me," he said. News / National by Staff reporter It's a deepening feud - playing out on TV stations and on Twitter and Facebook - that has now ballooned well beyond a small political quarrel.For President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, the rancour that started two years ago over a succession conundrum has never waned, except for a month-long period during the time Mugabe sacked his long-time ally on November 6 for showing "traits of disloyalty", abruptly removing a favourite to succeed him and boosting the likelihood of Grace Mugabe, then first lady, of becoming his next deputy and potential successor.Citizens overwhelmingly supported the military-engineered ouster of Mugabe that resulted in Mnangagwa taking over.Now, the current and former president are engaged in the nastiest mortal combat in Zimbabwe's 38-year presidential history, one that began on deeply personal terms and which is now playing out in the ongoing race for Munhumutapa in which Mugabe is backing long-time rival party MDC in a bid to sink Mnangagwa's presidential bid.The acrimony is largely one-sided.While Mnangagwa has not made a direct assault on Mugabe's character since toppling the nonagenarian in the de-facto military coup, Mugabe has steadily increased his stinging criticism of Mnangagwa, who he has accused of disgracefully staging a coup.This week, it was the previous head of State's public declaration before a scrum of local and foreign hacks that he will not vote for his former party Zanu-PF or the current president, Mnangagwa, in a stunning intervention on the eve of Zimbabwe's historic election.Mugabe's declaration that he would be casting his ballot for the MDC Alliance, the country's biggest opposition party, and its candidate, 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa drew Mnangagwa's ire.In an angry retort, Mnangagwa said Mugabe's declaration proved that Chamisa was in an alliance with the former president and that "the choice is clear, you either vote for Mugabe under the guise of Chamisa or you vote for a new Zimbabwe under my leadership and the Zanu-PF."Mugabe, in a press conference at his Blue Roof mansion, also hit out at Mnangagwa for allegedly looting Zanu-PF's business empire, singling out M&S Syndicate.And then there was Mugabe's accusation that Mnangagwa refuses to honour his word to give him the two houses he promised him in his pension package so that he can decamp from his palatial Blue Roof mansion which he claims is now imperilling his family with a roof that was about to cave in.He said he needs to move out "before a calamity occurs."".. after I had resigned, I had to go to the pension office, to those who manage it, to say what am I entitled to? They said it's $467 000, the total amount. But people talk about $10 million. They said you are entitled to two houses, one in Zimbabwe and one elsewhere at a resort. Those in power just went mum; they just refused to give me money for the two houses," Mugabe said."The Yugoslavs used normally trusses, not the Chinese way. The roof is beginning to sag, they say in two years' time take care, you must get out. So we said we need the money, give us money to move out, but they are mum, they won't tell you outright," he said.This is the second time the former president has complained about his pension and retirement benefits.In February, he reportedly complained to visiting African Union envoy Moussa Faki Mahamat that the State was denying him his benefits.Mugabe's benefits were laid out in an official government notice published by Mnangagwa in December last year, barely a month after the military intervention.The latest stand-off, which sources said "annoyed" the president, was the moment it became clear to those in both Mugabe and Mnangagwa's spheres that a functional relationship - which past presidents have long cherished with one another - was not in the offing.State security assigned to Mugabe's Blue Roof mansion was withdrawn after the Sunday press conference and his property was vandalised.Jealousy Mawarire who convened the press conference on behalf of Mugabe on Sunday, said: "Bulbs electricity switches and anything that made the house habitable was vandalised. The leader of the nine soldiers dumped keys to the house at Mugabe's reception and told the receptionist they had been ordered off the premises because of the press conference. Only two police officers remain."Mawarire is also the spokesperson of the National Patriotic Front.Reached for comment, Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba told the Daily News that the levels of Mugabe's security at any point are reviewed "on the basis of scientific threat assessment, not paranoia, then you expect us to deploy.""The same army which he is alleging deposed him is the same army which he wants to protect him; does that make any sense at all? He is as secure as anyone else..."Asked why the Presidential Guard was withdrawn, Charamba retorted: "As a matter of fact, are you aware that the package of the (ex-) president also spells out the security arrangements? Did you ever see where its written Presidential Guard? And why Presidential Guard, is he the president? He is a retiree, he is a former president."The State does avail security as per his conditions right, and also because he is also a citizen right? And that is founded on threat assessment, which is done on a regular basis. If there is need and there is a real demonstrable need, you will find that we will upgrade accordingly. But also I find it strange, why is he making his own security a talking point?"Asked why there was vandalism of his property, Charamba said in a sharp riposte: "Is that why he wants the Presidential Guard? My issue is that if property is damaged, does that require Presidential Guard intervention?"Told that he probably is vulnerable to attack as a former head of State, Charamba said: "He can't be vulnerable to attack because he is secure and what he is trying to do is to invite us to discuss the security arrangements around his person with the media. We don't do that. Do you know the implication of deploying Presidential Guard to a retired president; do you know what that means? It means you are running two presidents, isn't it? Why would it be called Presidential Guard?"Told that perhaps, technically, Mugabe still sees himself as president because he says Mnangagwa staged a coup de tat, Charamba said: "We can't deal with the issue of his paranoia and someone who lives in a time warp."Asked why the Mnangagwa regime was going back on its word over Mugabe's pension emoluments, especially the two houses, Charamba said:"Nhaiwe, they just pop out like that, there is a budget? And he is forgetting that we are just completing his term?"Asked if he did not think it was undignified to have the home of the ex-president's roof trusses caving in, Charamba said: "That's not a State property. How does a package come as a promise? A package is a legal requirement".Asked if he will ever get his pension package, Charamba said: "Yes of course, the more reason he must wish this government longevity."Probed why the Mnangagwa regime is "tormenting" him as he alleges, Charamba said: "I have got a problem with grievances which are outside the realm of the president but which seek expression through his mouth. We are aware where those grievances are coming from."Asked where the grievances were coming from, Charamba retorted: "Of course you know. Do I need to tell you?"Asked if he was suggesting the grievances were coming from Mugabe's wife Grace, Charamba said: "Do you even have to ask that? Who has just decided to borrow a mouth, and a mouth that we respect?"Presidents don't always get along with their successors. Differences in temperament and ideology usually accompany a handover of power - the country, it turns out, is often looking for something new when appointing a new commander-in-chief.While presidents are largely expected to keep any disagreements between themselves quiet, there is now withering criticism of Mugabe now emerging from the rival Mnangagwa camp.And Mnangagwa is eying with deep scepticism Mugabe's re-emergence on the domestic political stage, where he is playing to the gallery and seems hell-bent on de-legitimising him.Mnangagwa's aides, meanwhile, told the Daily News their boss treated Mugabe with respect during the transition period, but that a deep relationship between the two was never likely.There was an unsuccessful attempt by both men to connect shortly after the soft coup, but Mugabe rebuffed the overtures, led by former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi and his Generation 40 cabal, which is now in orbit.The two men have never connected directly after the coup.There are no prospects of cooling the tensions, according to both men's aides. Instead, the strain has only worsened - a worrying sign. News / National by Stephen Jakes Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe has strongly condemned the shooting of unarmed civilian protesters by soldiers of the Zimbabwe National Army in Harare, using live ammunition, on the 1st of August 2018.The organisations said this resulted in the confirmed deaths of at least three people and left several injured."This barbaric act is not only unlawful but is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances. There can never be any justification for extra-judicial killings. The army is there to protect the state against external threats and must only be deployed by a sitting President, who is then accountable for such actions. Where instances of public unrest occur, it is the role of the Police to manage them. The expectation being that the Police are trained to manage crowds rather than killing the very citizens which a state is obliged to protect," ROHR said."We urge the powers that be to restrain and censor the army and to hold them accountable for the deaths. We also urge political leaders not to incite violence. We also urge the ZEC to release the results of the just ended elections in a timely manner so as to avert further disturbances which may lead to more deaths and destruction of property.""As we await the announcement of official presidential results, we urge every Zimbabwean citizen to refrain from any acts of violence and to respect the law."It said the actions of the army which led to the unnecessary loss of life point to an urgent call for the country to revert to a constitutional order."Solders should never at any time be deployed in civilian activities. There is therefore an urgent need to de-militarize the republic if at all it is to emerge from the current fragile state to a full-fledged democracy," he said. News / National by Social media Zimbabwe police about to raid Chamisa's headquarters.Police believe that Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Shadreck Mashayamombe, Happymore Chidziva, Jim Kunaka Steward Shakespeare Mukoyi and Makomborero Haruziviishe are in possession of dangerous weapons as defined in Section 43(2) of The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23 and Public Violence as defined in Section 36 of the of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23. HOMELESS SOLUTION In the recent City Council debate on closing the Lincoln Library grounds at night, opponents argued it was wrong to kick the homeless out of a place they felt safe without giving them another safe place to go. (Homeless have nowhere else, Bruce Rushton, Illinois Times, July 26). Many said the solution was a 24-hour low-barrier homeless shelter, which would accept the homeless as they are, even those on drugs or with alcohol on their breath, and would allow them to come and go any time. One such shelter in Colorado Springs even lets the homeless bring their pets! The problem the City has no funds for such a shelter. But there is a solution. Another government within the city, funded solely by Springfield taxpayers, whose primary mission is to help the poor, has a whole boatload of money they are just sitting on. The Capital Township Supervisors Report at the close of its last fiscal year on August 31, 2017, reported almost $2.5 million in reserves, including almost $1.8 million in the Townships General Assistance Fund reserve. Surely this would be more than enough to create a 24-hour low-barrier homeless shelter, as well more permanent solutions to get our homeless sisters and brothers out of homelessness. Sam Cahnman Springfield MISSION OF MERCY CLINIC One of my Dominican sisters and I had a wonderful experience volunteering during the Mission of Mercy dental clinic sponsored in Springfield by the Illinois Dental Association June 20-21, 2018. It was humbling to experience the gratitude of patients as they made their way through the efficient yet gigantic dentist office set up temporarily in the BOS Center. One man, at age 41, received a partial to replace a front tooth he lost at age 8. Two elderly siblings sisters flashed new smiles gleefully as they waved goodbye after spending eight hours getting teeth cleaned and extracted. Wait three hours for the next part of the procedure? No problem. Persons who hadnt had dental care in years were not at all put out by having to work their way through the process anew for each procedure. They were happy to have it done at all. I met two patients who spent chunks of two days at the Mission of Mercy clinic. They had so much dental work to be done because for years they couldnt afford a dentist. The volunteers buzzing around the center were easily identified by color-coded volunteer shirts, all emblazoned with a quote from our hometown hero With malice toward none and charity toward all. Charity is important, but justice is better. Dental care, like other health care, should be a human right. What will it take to make that a reality? Sister Beth Murphy, OP Dominican Sisters of Springfield Opinion / Columnist IN 2009, the late former Zimbabwean Vice President John Landa Nkomo became famously known for his peace exhortation, "Peace begins with you, peace begins with me; peace begins with all of us". He saw no reason for Zimbabweans to attack each other if they differed on a point or issue.Fast track to 2018, President Mnangagwa has been calling for peace throughout the election season as the country headed for the just-ended elections.To demonstrate his commitment for the peace that he was preaching, President Mnangagwa went on to open the political space in the country resulting in the increase in the number of political parties from 42 to 133. As if that was not enough he promoted free campaigning in all corners of the country and the MDC-Alliance for the first time tested what it felt like to campaign freely in rural areas.The Alliance would be the best witness of the opened up democratic space. Even the various observer missions who were accredited to observe the plebiscite hailed the peaceful and calm environment.As the true Statesman that he is, President Mnangagwa called for calm. He had this to say to promote peace as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) continues to announce the election results; "Millions have voted in mutual respect and peace, Zimbabweans should wait patiently for the electoral commission to announce the results".As the parties were winding up their campaigns in line with the dictates of the Electoral Acts last Saturday, the MDC-Alliance members openly declared that they were going to take to the streets if the election outcome was not in their favour.They made it clear that they would start a "war" of their own. They foolishly concluded that "kusiri kufa ndekupi". As the election results were trickling in and they realised their electoral defeat, the MDC-Alliance youths are calling out to the "masters of violence", Job "Wiwa" Sikhala and Youth Assembly Chairperson, Happymore "Bvondo" Chidziva to prime their violence machinery for action.Chamisa himself declared that he was not going to accept anything short of 65 percent of the Presidential vote. Wamba dia Wamba as Chamisa is called by his followers, is on record promising post-election violence.He was quoted saying; "Hakudyiwi rinopisa muno . . . mukaita zvokutamba ndinodira jecha muupfu. Hamuridyi sadza iroro."It takes two to tango and Chamisa must be man enough to accept defeat, which is the essence of an election and democracy that he is always harping on about. The Alliance's threats of violence remind many peace-loving Zimbabweans of the terror group, Vanguard, under the leadership of Shakespear Mukoyi, which terrorised the hapless Dr Thokozani Khupe at the funeral of the late MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.MDC-T candidate for Harare Central Constituency, Linda Masarira posted on her twitter handle @lilomatic conceding defeat saying "Good morning. It has been a hectic journey to 2018 elections. I concede defeat with dignity in Harare Central Constituency. Like I said earlier its either I win or I learn. I have learnt a lot about political dynamics in Zimbabwe which I have fully documented".This is the type of political attitude that the country needs to take the nation forward. It contrasts sharply with the MDC-Alliance's "It's either my way or the highway" kind of tin pot "democracy." Zimbabweans are a peace-loving people. They should not listen to these merchants of regime change who are bent on causing anarchy and despondency in our peaceful country.Keep calm, elections come and go, we must not lose our dignity like what Wamba dia Wamba, who even wants to go to an extent of announcing "election results'' contrary to Constitutional provisions.The Electoral Act Section 66A states that "(1) No person other than an electoral officer, acting in accordance with this Act, may officially declare and announce the results of an election and (2) No office-bearer or member of a political party shall purport to declare and announce the results of any election before it has been declared officially by an electoral officer".This is all being done in an effort to provoke the authorities so that he could find a basis to cause riots.Wamba dia Wamba in his lack of wisdom on August 1, tweeted "Zec seeks to release results to buy time & reverse the people's presidential election victory.The strategy is meant to prepare Zim mentally to accept fake presidential results. We've more votes than ED. We won the popular vote & will defend it!".The advocate is clearly breaking the law. However, in all this, the country's security apparatus is not resting on its laurels. Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Dr Obert Mpofu, had to convene a press conference on July 31, to remind people not to go beyond the dictates of the law and commit electoral crimes such as announcing election results. Opinion / Columnist "Below is a snap interview of former vice president Constantino Chiwenga early Thursday morning as he claimed that soldiers neither shot nor killed anyone in Harare yesterday. He spoke to ZimEye's Simba Chikanza," reported Zimeye.In the audio recording, a voice is heard trying to explain why it could not have been the soldiers who shot and killed the three civilians.President Mnangagwa and his junta government were under pressure for having failed to hold free, fair and credible elections. They needed something to draw attention away from the rigged elections and these violent protests were the bolt hole they wanted. The real tragedy here is that MDC fell for it.When Minister of Home Affairs, Obert Mpofu, gave his press interview on Wednesday night, he took great pleasure in reminding the world of all the reported incidents of violence within MDC including the attack on Mai Khupe when she failed to attend the MDC Alliance launch! This is a regime that 8 months ago stage a military coup and is right now committing yet another act of high treason by blatantly rigging the elections but all that is chicken feed compared to MDC violence!One hopes that the international election observers will not be so easily fooled by these Zanu PF antics. The observers must not take their eyes off the ball - the elections.Dr Nkululeko Sibanda, MDC-Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa's spokesman told the press that there were "agent provocateurs" planted among the protestors. Surely this is something that MDC leaders should have anticipated!There are reports showing that many of the protestors were high on alcohol and they had fuelled at the MDC HQ! How stupid and naive was that!The observers must condemn these elections; there is no way these elections can ever be judge free, fair and credible when there was no credible and verified voters' roll. There is no doubt that there was something fishy going on here when ZEC failed to announce the results when their task was to add up the total of each candidate the counting of the votes was all done at the polling stations."On Tuesday former MDC finance minister Tendai Biti and ZESN, the main domestic election monitor, said one in five polling stations - more than 2,000 in all - had not physically posted tallies on their doors, as required by law," reported Spotlight Zimbabwe."Biti said the omission left room for the electoral commission, which ZESN and the opposition have accused of bias, to manipulate the results in favour of Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF."Like it or not, the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and the violent street protest have all confirmed one thing that Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by thugs with a panache for rigging elections. No one, absolutely no one, is going to invest is the country because investors do not do business with thugs. They do not trust thugs!By condemning these elections, the international elections will be doing the long suffering people of Zimbabwe a great favour; give the nation hope by providing a way out of this mess.If the elections are condemn then Zanu PF will have no legitimacy to form the next government. This will open the door for the appointment of an interim administration that will implement the democratic reforms designed to dismantle the de facto one-party dictatorship and strip Zanu PF of all its carte blanche powers to rig elections.Now more than ever; everyone, the people of Zimbabwe the international election observers, everyone must keep their eyes on the ball the rigged elections and not allow themselves to be distracted by the street protest, a tactical Zanu PF diversion. We can end the scourge of rigged elections by acting decisively now and in doing so solve the problems of economic meltdown, street protest, military coups, etc. Focus! Opinion / Columnist Does the Zimbabwean government know when to call out army out of barracks? The Zimbabwean army is headed by 'Pyongyang' who unleash it against own people who are crying for transparency in the way elections are run.There is no situation that invites the use of army firing live bullets to its citizens killing and causing injuries to many. Police are there for law and order. Why use army.This is the same blood thirsty government that killed many during gukurahundi in Matebeleland.This must not go unchallenged. Zanu-PF has never won a free and fair election save the 1980 one. Why are you killing protestors? Opinion / National Wednesday's awful shooting gave us lot to discuss as this day dawns, so let's get straight to it.. If the government and local police authorities unwilling to address violent protesters, it will fuel the perception that some sorts of politically-based violence are acceptable? MDC Alliance believes that Violence against people you disagree with is okay, as long as the target's views are odious enough. Is that the new rule? MDC has always planned to cause mayhem in Zimbabwe if they lose elections.First, attempting to disturb an election with rhetoric because of the potential to set off mentally-unstable violent persons is a fool's errand, because we can never know what will set off mentally-unstable violent persons. Deliberately providing them with beer and illegal substances was setting the stage for anarchy.Over the past few months of ED's rule our country has plunged into a debate about free speech and tolerance. ED managed this well and for the first time there was no violence during the campaign period. ED even went further as to ban slogans in the party which incite hatred and violence. Our country - dedicated in principle to freedom of speech and a tolerant political culture - was dealt a heavy blow by the behaviour of the MDC Alliance thugs who were bent on spilling blood in the streets of Harare and hoping to spread it to the whole country. . After the brazen and provocative displays by Tendai Biti in front of the foreign media, a very violent agitated and worked up group was posted at Harvest House. ..MDC has shown that it stands by commitment to no freedom of speech, political violence, physical intimidation and extra-legal punishment of those who do not agree with them. However, this is not only morally wrong, but will lead our country further into the abyss.To promote this sentiment and encourage political violence of this sort, especially as a prominent figure, is unbearably irresponsible. The utterances of Tendai Biti were criminal inciting and indeed the reason why the mob spilled their anger of losing into the streets and burning cars and buildings.Political violence is the death knell of civil society. Our cultural and historical experience spurs us to struggle, and our commitment to these liberties - the freedom from political violence - is paramount. It is easy to grant these rights to our friends and political allies, even to those with whom we have substantial disagreement. It is difficult beyond words to give these to our enemies. Still, they must be given because if they are denied to someone today, they can be denied to you tomorrow. Some people are bad losers. The spirit of the MDC Alliance sown in their hearts by Tendai Biti was meant to cause havoc and make the country ungovernable.How can a party enter into elections and declare that if we lose we will not accept the results. In their mind democracy means they must win or there is no peace. They claim to be democrats but do not want to obey the will of the people. People have spoken whether they are from Uzumba or Umguza they are people.The troubling thing about political violence promoting it, practicing it is not only that people bleed, but that our categories for who is and who is not a legitimate target of political violence bleeds too. The lines between them are blurred because it is too easy to do so. This instrument the "legitimate" physical intimidation of others is a potent tool. If we have learned one thing from the utterances of Biti, it is that ordinary men and women can be compelled to do horrible things, and sometimes, they don't have to be compelled. It is too easy to blend our categories to identify and denounce others as the enemy and see violence as an appropriate response. If you believe that our categorization for which it is acceptable to inflict violence upon will end strictly at those causing it, you have learned nothing from history.Make no mistake: The so called progressive movements and some opposition Alliances in this country are intentionally provocative. They mean to enrage and make their hatred the norm. Violence is what these movements crave because they thrive on chaos and insecurity. In normal civil society, they cannot gain the traction they desperately want because in peaceful societies, citizens rightly try to avoid violence. Provoking and encouraging violence is how these groups spread their influence. If denying them this influence is the most important of our goals, then maintaining our civil society and ignoring the siren call of romanticized political violence is the only way forward. Political violence isn't a precision weapon; it's Pandora's box. Be prepared for what you unleash. Once it's open, it's difficult, if not impossible, to go back.The security forces have a constitutional duty and mandate to protect peace. They cannot sit and watch the town burning. People are now looking at the result of the violence but completely ignoring the beginnings of such evil.While the death of our fellow Zimbabweans was regrettable, the thugs who started violence deserve a taste of their own medicine.But here's the problem. I don't think that rallies alone made the violence happen, I don't think violent speeches by MDC Alliance principals made violence happen, I . I don't think crazy rumours posted on Facebook made violence happen. In each of those cases, an individual made the conscious choice to set off to Harvest house to start a violent demonstration. I think blaming these outside forces amounts to letting the perpetrators off the hook for their own actions and scapegoat a politically-convenient target.We know that MDC Alliance political rhetoric incites violence, so why should we contend that they are peaceful and defending their vote, unless we just really enjoy embracing hypocrisy?If the Right applies the same standard to the Left, the Left will realize how unfair and unjust it is to be blamed for a crime you had nothing to do with, and know that political rhetoric incites violence.Of course, then this morning the different observers insisted "the link to political incitement was clear.Two: The Double Standard on Political ViolenceSecond, there has been a double standard on how our society deals with politically-motivated violence, and while there is so far nothing indicating this is a primary cause of the awful crime committed Wednesday, it is dangerous to cultivate a perception that certain kinds of political violence are justified or less wrong.In recent days, as Chamisa fringes and hate and inciting messages spilled into the public space, there has been frantic discussion among media, cultural and academic elites over the extent to which certain speech is tolerated. Should we stand up and fight back. No the security forces will do that for us.Considering that hundreds of people were causing mayhem in town yesterday the death of three people suggests that the soldiers were not aiming in the crowd. The gun shots were meant to scare and disperse people. How can trained soldiers miss hundreds and only kill three and injure forty. This should show you that the army did not set out to kill. They went out to protect our vote too. They went out to protect democracy. They went out to protect peace.Zimbabwe notes with grave concern recent political developments in the MDC-Alliance. Zimbabwe appreciates that heated contestations are part of the body politic, but is also aware and concerned over the heightened tensions caused by hate speech and attacks on rivals that goes beyond acceptable political contests. The declaration of the electoral results and announcing them illegally was meant to stir the anger of the agitated MDC supports and try and paint a bad picture to Zimbabwe.Over the past month the media has been awash with public statements from .Biti and Chamisa promising war, civil disobedience and anarchy to Zimbabwe should they lose the elections. Some of the attacks were broadcast live on national television and spread on social media thereby expanding their reach. . Hate speech intended to degrade, intimidate or incite violence against someone based on political affiliation, race and ethnicity is harmful. It is very true that hateful words can all too easily lead to physical attacks on citizens and set off a cycle of violence.The statements made were potentially explosive and ignite violence. Zimbabwe is not expected to fold its hands and watch the country being reduced to a war zone.During the campaigns ZANU PF had a grenade thrown to its presidential candidate with two deaths and several injuries. It is a great surprise that the world never condemned this. Chamisa at a rally joked about this incident with no repercussions MDC Alliance was excited calling the grenade a fire cracker.ZANU PF did not react or use any conspiracy theories. They let the police do their work. Today Biti calls the world press to issue threats of war. None of the people condemned him. They urged him on. The EU observers rushed to the press commenting on the 21 percent undeclared votes. They never lifted a finger or a red light about Biti's behaviour.The mob already angered by their loss were urged on by the EU and indeed caused mayhem. Nobody condemned the violence caused by these people but only attacked the peace keepers.In America there was a demonstration after Trump won, Europe kept silent. The violence in Zimbabwe is motivated by the silence when the opposition blunder and the noise when the government react.There is no need for bloodshed in Zimbabwe but we must not expect the army and the police to close their eyes when the country is set on fire.Zimbabwe has carried out the most peaceful election ever. They must be applauded for that. The aftermath of the election is a criminal act perpetuated by MDC Alliance to cover their dismal loss and failure.VAZET2000?@YAHOO.CO.UK Women In Japan Aren't Getting Into A Top Medical School Because Sexist Officials Are Altering Their Test Scores This morning, the BBC reported that, according to a report in the Japanese publication Yomiuri Shimbun, a top medical university has been manipulating entrance exam results to limit the number of female students. The publication quoted anonymous sources close to the school who believed that women were more likely to quit their jobs to focus on marriage and kids, and thus should be denied opportunities to pursue careers as doctors. Tokyo Medical University, a private six-year school located in the nations capital, requires that applicants must first pass a written exam before moving onto the second phase, which includes an in-person interview and essay. This past year, 39% of applicants were women, but only 30 of them were accepted alongside 141 men, writes Asahi Shimbun. According to the newspaper, school officials starting rigging the test scores in 2011, after the class accepted in 2010 included a record number of female students (almost 40%). Now, the school is trying to quietly guarantee that less than 30% of TMUs student body will be made up of women. ADVERTISEMENT Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children, an unnamed source tells Asahi Shimbun. There was a silent understanding (to accept more male students) as one way to resolve the doctor shortage. According to an education ministry official, this practice is unacceptable because of a lack of transparencybut Japanese universities are allowed to limit the number of female students if they clearly state a quota, reports the Asahi Shimbun. In a 2014 study for The Journal of Womens Health, Aditi Ramakrishnan, Dana Sambuco, and Reshma Jagsi write, Japans societal norms and social policies appear to influence the experiences of women in medicine, citing that gender discrimination and sexual harassment both in medical school and in the workplace have led to low numbers of female physicians. The study found that as its become more commonplace and culturally accepted for Japanese women to focus on their careers or to balance medical careers with motherhood, more opportunities have been opening upthough TMUs manipulation marks a massive step back. The BBC reports that many have pointed to the irony of these allegations, since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently spoke up about his commitment to encourage female participation in the workforce. According to the BBC, the university will investigate the report. Top photo via Wikimedia Commons / Southerncity More from BUST Move Over, Men: Women Are Statistically Better Doctors Japan's First Feminist Magazine Was A 1910s Phenomenon A Dose Of Herstory: 15 of the First Female Professors Lydia Wang is a writer, a Pisces, and one of BUST's digital editors. Find her on Twitter or say hi: lydiaw@bust.com. As a worsening EpiPen shortage prompts questions about why Canada relies on just one pharmaceutical manufacturer to supply a life-saving treatment, a Laval, Que., drug company says it is "actively seeking" to bring another epinephrine self-injector that stops anaphylactic reactions to this country. Bausch Health Companies, formerly called Valeant Pharmaceuticals, is one of four drug manufacturers that have received approval from Health Canada for epinephrine autoinjector products. According to Health Canada's drug product database, Valeant Canada secured the regulatory go-ahead to market Emerade, which is also called adrenaline tartrate, and is available in several European countries. In an email, spokesperson Lainie Keller said the company was "actively seeking" to bring the autoinjector to "patients in Canada who need it as soon as possible." She did not provide any further details about when that might happen. Pfizer Inc. is currently the sole supplier of epinephrine autoinjectors in Canada and has repeatedly announced shortages of the product over the past year. This week, Pfizer Canada said it likely wouldn't have new stock of EpiPens containing a 0.3 mg dose of epinephrine used by adults and most children over 10 years old until the end of August, worrying severe allergy sufferers, parents, pharmacists and doctors. "We have gone from what I would call an inconvenience to a concern," said Jennifer Gerdts, executive director of Food Allergy Canada and the mother of twin 16-year-old boys who both carry EpiPens. During Pfizer's previous shortages, people at risk of anaphylaxis the most severe form of an allergy that can lead to death have usually been able to find an EpiPen after going to a few different pharmacies, Gerdts said. "We really shouldn't be in a situation where we only have one product available for life-saving medication," Gerdts said. "We need to take action so that we don't continue to be vulnerable to these outages." Story continues On Wednesday, the Conservatives and NDP called on the federal government to take action. "It is unacceptable that the Liberal government has taken no action to secure a second source of this essential medicine," said Conservative MP and health critic Marilyn Gladu in an emailed statement on Wednesday. NDP health critic Don Davies told The Canadian Press that the government must ensure that EpiPens are always available in sufficient supply. In an emailed response to CBC News, Thierry Belair, press secretary to Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, said Health Canada is "doing everything in its power to resolve the EpiPen shortage as soon as possible for Canadians with allergies and their loved ones." In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser for Health Canada, said the department recognizes the problem with having a single supplier of epinephrine autoinjectors. "Absolutely from a Health Canada perspective, we would want to see other products available," she said. "It's always best when you have alternatives." It is up to manufacturers, however, to decide to market their medications in Canada, Sharma said, adding that Health Canada was trying to "encourage them." 'Really bad time' The current shortage is deeply concerning, said Phil Emberley, an Ottawa-based pharmacist and spokesperson for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. "This comes at a really bad time in our minds, because it's really peak time for demand," he said. Contrary to initial media reports, the affected EpiPens are used not only by adults, but also most children aged 10 or older, Emberley said. Pfizer has said it can currently continue supplying its EpiPen Jr., a smaller dose of 0.15 mg of epinephrine with a shorter needle for younger children, although those injectors were limited. Children who weigh more than 30 kilograms use the regular EpiPen, Emberley said, which is running out altogether. Pfizer and Health Canada have directed pharmacists to ration their current EpiPen stocks by only dispensing one injector per person, so that there are enough to go around for everyone who needs them. But each injector delivers a single dose of epinephrine and about 20 per cent of anaphylaxis patients have "biphasic" or two-phase reactions, meaning they need a second dose, Emberley said. Because patients are supposed to give themselves an injection and then seek medical attention, that second dose can often be administered at a hospital or doctor's office, if needed. "If a child is at camp, for example, they're not really close to a hospital," Emberley said. "That could pose a real problem." As an emergency measure, Emberley agrees with Health Canada's directive that people should keep and use their expired EpiPens if they are needed during the current shortage, noting that studies have shown they retain some effectiveness even after the expiry date. Additionally, the expiry dates refer to the end of the month indicated: so if it says August, the medication is good until the end of August, which is when Pfizer expects to have supplies restored. What's causing the shortage? Sharma, the chief medical adviser for Health Canada, said Pfizer has faced "a few manufacturing issues" that have caused the ongoing EpiPen shortages over the past several months. In the past, Sharma said, there were issues securing epinephrine itself. But the current problem lies with a manufacturing issue that delayed the production of the autoinjector device, she said. That, in turn, led to delays in getting them inspected and out the door to pharmacies. A spokesperson for Pfizer Canada would not confirm the specifics to CBC News, but said in an email that "supply of epinephrine is not causing the delay." "This shortage is as a result of manufacturing delays of the product. Stock that was scheduled to be shipped in early August is currently being inspected, which has caused a delay," said Kerri Elkas. What to do if you or your child is an EpiPen user Health Canada, Food Allergy Canada and the Canadian Pharmacists Association recommend the following: - Check your EpiPen to see when it expires. Remember that the expiry date refers to the end of the month. - If it has expired, speak to your health-care provider or pharmacist to get a new one before it runs out. - If it has not expired, hold off on purchasing new EpiPens or stockpiling until the shortage is resolved so that the limited stock will go to people who need it the most. - If the EpiPen has expired, and you or your child have an anaphylactic reaction, use it anyway and call 911. - Be extra vigilant about avoiding allergens (wasps, bees, food, etc.) that trigger anaphylaxis in you or your child. With files from CBC's Renee Filippone and The Canadian Press When Damilare Odumosu thought of food waste in his home country of Nigeria, he asked what he could do to make things better. The 25-year-old son of a computer programmer decided to use technology to solve the problem. After lots of failed ideas and talking to farmers on the ground in Nigeria, the University of New Brunswick master's student created All Farmers Online, a company that uses geotagging and an online store to share information on food availability and bridge the gap between farmers and buyers. "When we ask the right questions, we are developing the right solutions," Odumosu said. Odumosu believes in using technology to solve problems. Growing up, he sold software on the streets of Lagos and always had a love for computers. He came to Fredericton on his first international flight last September to do a master's degree in technology management and entrepreneurship at UNB. He hasn't returned to Nigeria since. "I was in search of a dream, I was in search of impact," he said. The problem and the solution In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, farmers often can't sell all of the produce they grow before it spoils. Buyers lack information on where and when food is available, and farmers' access to markets is limited. North America has large commercial farms, but Odumosu said 90 per cent of agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa is by smallholder farms. Waste happens when farmers grow a lot but people aren't ready to buy or don't know where to go to buy. Farmers transport the produce back and forth, never able to sell large amounts at a time. All Farmers Online uses geotagging and another of Nigeria's problems a rising youth unemployment rate to solve the information breakdown. Geotagging attaches location data to various media, from text messages to photos and videos. The company uses social media to find unemployed graduates who are tech-savvy and gives them a chance to work for commission by facilitating crop sales. Story continues Young people can go to farms, take photos of the crops harvested and upload them to the All Farmers Online website, making it easier for buyers to see where products are, and the quantities available. Youth facilitators then get a five to 10 per cent share of each sale they help make. The company charges a five per cent fee of each sale. So far, Odumosu said the farmers involved in the project have seen reduced crop waste, and it's saved them time and money travelling to sell their produce. Gaining trust The company has been running for a year, but it's faced challenges like any startup. "Trust was a major challenge, how to gain the trust of people who haven't seen the produce and make them see how they could make their purchases," Odumosu said. But the company is gaining momentum. It won a Grandmother's Choice Award at StartupFest in Montreal earlier this month and was a finalist for the World Bank's Ideas 4 Action competition. Odumosu has worked in Canada to find investors who believe in the same dream he does. Work on the ground In Nigeria, Babatunde Alayande, the liaison officer for All Farmers Online, co-ordinates farmers and facilitators. Nigeria has four official languages: Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and English. Alayande said while language barriers mean the company has to work to pair farmers with young people who speak their language, the response so far has been positive. "They are really enthusiastic about it they embrace our solution and we believe in time the whole country, and even the whole of Africa will embrace it," he said. The company works with 50 farmers and anywhere from five to 10 facilitators. It plans to expand to more parts of Nigeria, as well as Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. Odumosu said verification is important to the company, which is why it has built a live-video feature into its business model. Buyers can request a live video of the produce to ensure its quality and existence before they make their purchase. All Farmers Online also focuses on quality assurance. The company only works with farmers who are involved in a co-op to ensure a standard of quality. Odumosu said the support he's received in Fredericton from UNB faculty and other entrepreneurs to develop his product has been great. "Once the people here see what you do is of impact, of value, they give you the support they give you the encouragement, everything that you need to ensure that it becomes a reality." Dreaming of impact Odumosu's primary focus has been on developing the company's main product, but he has plenty of other ideas in the works. He wants to launch a product by the end of 2019 that would use animated tutorials of modern farming techniques to teach farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to grow more effectively. However, the first priority is making sure they can sell everything they already grow. Eventually, Odumosu wants to add a resources-sharing component to the business. Geotagging would show where a farmer has excess resources, like a tractor he or she can rent for a few days, and make that information available to a farmer who may benefit from leasing that equipment. Supporters have told him the project has big potential, but Odumosu said that's not the most important thing to him. "It starts here, right in your heart," he said, pointing to his chest. "My drive as a person is that whatever I do, how is that impacting people positively?" For the fourth year in a row, we are providing a full Post-Game Report assessing the IPCPR Convention and Trade Show. This year we added four daily post-game recaps from the show floor. At the same time, I felt the need to continue to have the detailed post-game analysis of the trade show. In this report, we talk more about the show itself and give our thoughts on the impacts to the cigar industry. This wont put a close to the 2018 IPCPR coverage. We still have more of our product-centric coverage that will continue over the next few weeks. The Show Floor Opening Day Much has been made of the positive energy at this years IPCPR. As someone who has covered nine IPCPRs, I can concur with it. I would venture to guess that the doom and gloom of the implementation of the Deeming Regulations is now history. The cigar industry has learned to adapt to life in the regulated era. While there is less innovation, there still is new product (refer to our The New Definition of New). The three-year delay on premarket approval for products to remain on the market and the decision in Federal Court to indefinitely delay warning label requirements did not hurt things. One interesting note was the Opening Breakfast. This year, the speaker was former Navy Seal turned author Marcus Luttrell. While he wasnt a high-profile name like Rudy Giuliani, his speech at the breakfast was considered by many (including this author who heard 3/4 of it) to be the best in many years. While last year most attendees liked Giulianis speech (and disagreed with my comments on it), it was very much a political speech. This years speech was more of a feel good speech that many connected with and I feel that positive energy carried over on to the show floor once the doors opened following the breakfast. Packaging More companies continued to introduce packaging changes to comply with Warning Labels. Very few companies acknowledged they were changing packaging for that reason, but, when asked, very few companies denied that warning label compliance was a reason for the change. The court ruling indefinitely delaying implementation of warning labels had little effect. As we expected, some companies came with warning labels, while others didnt. There wasnt a war between the two parties on who did and who didnt. I didnt hear of a retailer pushback on the companies that came in with warning labels ahead of the curve. The Battle of the 50th Anniversaries A lot of cigar companies had anniversary years. Three major brands had 50th anniversaries: Joya de Nicaragua, Davidoff, and Macanudo. The winner was Joya de Nicaragua. To me, this was a company that was very proud of this milestone and it showed. They released two new products in the Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Decadas (many thought this was the cigar of the show) and Joya Silver. Joyas anniversary was a big part of the overall presentation at the Drew Estate booth. Davidoff seemed a little off with its 50th anniversary. Yes, they released a 50th-anniversary cigar with the Diademas Finas, but this was a cigar that was pretty much sold out before the Trade Show began. This left Davidoff without anything new to present for its 50th anniversary. While there were the remanded White Label Cigars with the commemorative 50th band, to me this fell short especially since Davidoff has a great run of new products from 2013 to 2017. I personally felt unveiling the Diademas Final at IPCPR, then shipping to appointed merchants following IPCPR would have been the way to go. Macanudo largely was quiet on its 50th anniversary. In general, Ive noticed the anniversary projects are not something General has invested a lot in, so this was no surprise. Still Macanudo coming out with a coffee-infused cigar was something radical and unexpected it just wasnt closely tied with the anniversary. The Story of Fuente, Padron, and Oliva Last year, much was made about Arturo Fuente, Padron Cigars, and Oliva capturing the top three spots on the Cigar Aficionado Top 25. While many made the connection that all three companies lost patriarchs in the previous 18 months, one cant argue these companies have been the model of consistency. It made me think of a couple of interesting observations. Except for a couple of line extensions from Arturo Fuente, these three companies didnt do any significant new product launches something that shouldnt be a surprise. These three companies have never felt the pressure to come out with something new at IPCPR. The other ironic thing these three companies have pretty much been constant with booth designs for as long as I have been coming to the show. A Quieter Year for Plasencia Last year, we noted that Plasencias launch at the trade show was probably the story of the trade show. This year was much quieter as the company didnt have anything new being launched. At the same time, the booth didnt seem to lack activity., In fact, it was quite the opposite. The sales team seemed to be always busy writing orders for both new and existing customers. While sometimes we tend to judge a companys IPCPR on whether they have new product or not, Plasencia Cigars showed that is simply not true. The Celebrities If you are one that loves a celebrity sighting, this year was definitely the IPCPR for you. The list of celebrities seen on the IPCPR show floor included Karl Malone, Ed Reed, Rick Ross, and Arturo Sandoval. Karl Malone was there promoting his new cigar brand called Karl Malone Barrel Aged. He spent much of the last 1 1/2 days walking the trade show floor and taking many photo ops. As for Rick Ross, I saw him at the Drew Estate and Foundation Cigar Company booths. When Ross was with Jonathan Drew, I asked the question who is that with JD? and was told it was Rick Ross. My next question was Who is Rick Ross?. I had no clue who this guy was. Im still not a 100% sure why Ed Reed was at the show. Arturo Sandoval was there with CRA and Arturo Fuente. While I heard he was accessible, I dont think it was quite in the way Karl Malone was. Innovation Decline Innovation wasnt totally dead, but it clearly was on the decline for this year. As we mentioned in our 2018 IPCPR Pre-Game, there was plenty of new product at the 2018 IPCPR Trade Show, but the definition of new has changed. This has been done by: 1) Reintroducing grandfathered products; 2) Several grandfathered and predicate blends have been re-blended; 3) Many were introduced before August 8th, 2016 as what we term stealth products. As a result, there was a lot less in terms of unique products. There were still some innovative releases we saw and some highlights included: Bombay Tobak introduced MQBA, an Ecuadorian puro. Drew Estate introduced two new Liga Privada releases using Corojo and Criollo wrappers grown in the State of Connecticut. The M by Macanudo might have been a coffee flavored cigar, but it actually used a binder from the Philippines. La Galera introduced four unique sizes as a part of its Cubes series. Finally, Total Flame Cigars quietly introduce Persia, a blend that contained Iranian tobacco in the filler. The bottom line is that the cigar industry has found a way to work in the regulated world of premium cigars. Best Performance Small Company: Southern Draw Cigars Last year, Plasencia wowed this author by doing a full-blown brand launch presentation at the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show. At the time I commented that this is something small companies might not do, but Robert Holt and his team at Southern Draw Cigars proved me wrong. The company delivered a strong pre-IPCPR media campaign in making its product announcements. The announcements detailed the releases that Southern Draw had planned. The company scheduled two formal unveilings: Day One was for Cedrus The Hogan and Day Two was for 300 Hands. Literally, Southern Draw held off on showing the product until these unveilings occurred. They were complete with a presentation from the company of the vision for these two projects. In particular, Southern Draw deserves credit for the Day Two presentation. The electrical fire delayed the opening of the trade show for three hours, and thus delayed the unveiling of 300 Hands. Southern Draw was still patient and held off on unveiling 300 Hands until the presentation was complete. My sincere hope is that once the big print publications catch on to what Southern Draw Cigars is doing that nothing will change for online media. This isnt to say that the company will go down this route, however past history with other companies has shown once big print media gets involved, online media is often cast aside. Large Company: Drew Estate Cigar Coop covered this on the eve of IPCPR. I expected a big IPCPR from Drew Estate and they came through with flying colors. Nearly four years ago, Swisher International acquired Drew Estate. At the time, the reaction was polarizing and many wondered if Drew Estate would ever be the same again. While in a lot of ways Drew Estate is a different company, I felt from my vantage point, Drew Estate did a very good job at preserving the culture it built. Particularly at IPCPR, the energy and excitement at the Drew Estate booth was a constant. At the same time, Drew Estate didnt rest on its laurels and made a series of management changes internally including bringing in a new CEO in Glenn Wolfson and Jonathan Drew returning as the President. This was supplemented with a strong effort by both executive management and marketing teams. In 2018, the company came in with strong innovation, excellent brand development, and commemorating two big anniversaries with Liga Privadas 10-year milestone and Joya de Nicaraguas 50-year milestone. The end result: Drew Estate executed, delivered, and in this authors eyes exceeded the high expectations I had. The Distractions Crisis in Nicaragua The civil unrest continues in the Central American country. The one thing that has changed is many of the blockades have been removed, thus freeing up the transportation routes throughout the country. The result is that product seems to flowing throughout the country again. While the crisis still very much exists in Nicaragua, for the most part, it was business as usual for many of the cigar companies. Still, in many side and private conversations I had with brand owners, there are fears that things could escalate into civil war. The Virus The reports of the Norovirus reported at the Westgate Hotel and Las Vegas Convention Center didnt disrupt the trade show. While some events were moved out of the Westgate Hotel, these were pre-announced before the trade show. Healthwise, there have been no reports of attendees or staff contracting the virus. The Fire IPCPR gets beat up more than any organization I have ever seen. They are not perfect by any means, but I think most of the criticism they get is completely unfair. When things go right, they dont get the credit they deserve. In this case, the fire before Day Two at the Las Vegas Convention Center is one of those instances. First IPCPR deserves a lot of credit in getting the word out about the delayed opening. While it was certainly helped by the gossipy nature of the cigar industry, I can tell you many people got the word proactively from IPCPR through the App or email. IPCPRs communications have greatly improved over the past few years (this year disclosing attendance numbers was a big step in my book), and this is a great example of how far its come. Secondly, I still find it amazing that there only was a 3-hour delay. The fire damage was minimal, but more problems resulted from water discharged from the sprinkler system. The Media Coverage Model For the last two years, I commented how when it comes to IPCPR coverage, written media seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs. This year confirmed it as video coverage continued to be on the upswing. Brands like Cigar Dojo and Blind Mans Puff increased their video coverage. While Halfwheel still had a large amount of written content, they upped their game adding podcast coverage to their already strong IPCPR coverage model. I miss the written content, and its disappointing the green visors with typewriters are becoming extinct. This year, I also saw something that I really liked. For years we have been referred to as bloggers. Its a term I hate because it is too limiting in terms of what we do. Now I hear us called online media or cigar media, which was a refreshing change. While I still would like more written coverage out of IPCPR, I credit the great work done by all of the video people as a reason why bloggers simply isnt used as much anymore. Many online media outlets still seemed reluctant to spend time in the big company booths unless invited by the company. Coverage of Arturo Fuente, Oliva and Padron were minimal including by Cigar Coop. Finally, it is important to know that many media might not be writing pieces or shooting video at IPCPR, but using the time to strengthen relationships and learn about the product. Perhaps this is the part of media coverage that gets the most lost, but it is the most important piece. Ive heard people say what is so and so doing at IPCPR, they arent publishing anything. Remember media pays to be at this event, so I certainly think a media brand is entitled to cover it any way they see fit within the bylaws of IPCPR. Media Coverage of the Fire I thought the fire was a bigger story than it really was. It was a three-hour delay. I think media as a whole (including this author) could have done a better job on one key point how good a job IPCPR and the Las Vegas Convention Center did in getting the show back up and running with only a three-hour delay. In fairness, I think much of this is due to the fact that the cigar media has moved away from written word coverage. Many of the post-show podcast recaps did acknowledge this. There wasnt quite as much social media buzz on the job done here. We did have it as a part of our IPCPR Post Game Recap for Day Two, but it was buried and in hindsight it deserved more attention. I did see some media outlets printing press releases on events being delayed. We opted not to do it because Im not sure if the average person in Bangor, Maine cares the Davidoff Golden Band Awards were starting an hour later. Im also not sure how many attendees were glued to their phones checking out the various online media outlets. I think they were more or less tuned into social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram. Free Samples In the IPCPR rules for online media, it is stated that online media cannot ask for samples. For the past couple of years, I have been very vocal on the need to change this dated and archaic rule. The rule was put in place about eight years ago to deter startup media companies looking to go to the show for the sole purpose of getting free samples from coming. The problem is this: samples are a part of online media doing its job. Cigar Coop doesnt review show samples as it doesnt fit in with our philosophy. We still are dependent on those samples because the best way to cover products is to not only see products, but ultimately smoke the products to learn more about them. Meanwhile, there are those media outlets that will review samples and there is nothing wrong with that. Companies arent consistent in giving samples out, so if we dont ask, we dont always get. The rule was put in place to combat a problem that existed a long time ago. The media who was at the show this year was all professional. While Ive talked to several media outlets on this issue and most agree the rule is silly, nobody is willing to take the case further. Many still seem worried if they are vocal with asking for samples, it could damage their reputation. My response this isnt 2009, this is 2018 and times have changed. Assessing Cigar Coops Coverage I said it last year, IPCPR 2017 was an unmitigated disaster for this brand. While on the surface it looked like business as usual, it was a nightmare. I described this in the Pre-Game Report. The biggest problem last year was when Cigar Coop was partnered with the Smooth Draws Radio Show and had to wear two hats covering both brands. I personally loved my time with Smooth Draws, but ultimately wearing two hats was a big mistake to both brands. Both Cigar Coop and Smooth Draws had different objectives. Cigar Coop has been and always will be focused on product-centric coverage. Smooth Draws was more about doing audio interviews. Given limited resources on Cigar Coop, it was a big mistake to take on both hats. Ultimately wearing both hats diluted the coverage on both brands. Booths were missed, photos were not taken, and information was not gathered. I personally spent much time after IPCPR getting information that should have been obtained before the show floor doors closed. This was compounded by organizational issues as well. First up, the freedom of not having to do radio interviews was a big help. I miss our unique radio show, but I just couldnt wear both hats. It gave me a chance to talk to manufacturers in more of a conversational tone. Second, an organizational process document was made internally. Much of it was for my benefit as well as to give my partner in crime Bear Duplisea an idea of what we wanted to accomplish. While we didnt follow everything to the letter of the law, I felt the framework was solid and it helped enormously. Third, Bear Duplisea did an amazing job for his first IPCPR. Working with him, you would think he covered IPCPR for nine years. Im very proud to have had him working alongside me this year. He was a huge help when we had to divide and conquer. It was something I wished I had during the Stogie Geeks days for sure. While there were booths missed, they were the ones that either were focused more on working with a single print publication, the ones that had sidebar conversations with other media outlets, or ones that had a ridiculously long exclusive press release window where we were on the outside. A decision was made by me to prioritize these booths as lower. In 90 percent of the why werent you at our booth questions I got, I can point back to the fact that we didnt get the proper pre-show information when others received the information. This wasnt meant to be a punishment. It was simply meant to maximize what little time we had. Im also not saying this is optimal, either. Our goal is to get to every booth, but covering IPCPR is a business venture and we need to wisely use our limited resources. Frankly, there arent a lot of Bear Dupliseas or Aaron Loomises (who had his crew from Developing Palates out there) who can hit the ground running. Our biggest hole is photography. It was something I hoped to address in 2018, but its something I think that needs to be improved in 2019. There were less missed photos this year, but the quality isnt where I want it to be. Overall Cigar Coop took some steps this year, but more work is still ahead of us. MMQB (Monday Morning Quarterback) Attendance Debate For the past few years, Ive said I wouldnt talk about attendance because in the end, IPCPR didnt disclose attendance numbers. Well, this year, the organization did, and since I was walking a tight-rope trying to avoid the topic, this is as good a time as any to open up this can of worms. I think IPCPR did a good job at disclosing the numbers to its membership base. I hope this becomes a regular activity. The official numbers: Total retailer badges: 2,054 (up 6.6%) Retailer companies represented: 778 Total stores represented: 1,742 Total attendees: 5,328 (up 3.3%) While the numbers do show an increase in overall attendance, what it doesnt show is a breakdown of the foot traffic by day, nor how much business was generated. In particular, our unofficial observation was that the first two days attendance was up, but there was a significant drop-off the last two days. While I still believe the last two days saw a drop-off, my observation was there still was more foot traffic days three and four of the 2018 Trade Show versus the 2017 Trade Show. Im not sure IPCPR will ever solve the Day Four problem of people going home. It certainly isnt for lack of trying as they have done several incentives to retailers. As someone once told me, after one or two days, my budget for IPCPR is tapped out. Weekend Show There just doesnt seem to be an ideal time to have IPCPR. This year saw the Trade Show spanned a full weekend for the first time since the 2012 IPCPR Trade Show in Orlando, Florida. The next two years will also see a similar scheduling model as well. Days one and two of this years IPCPR fell on Saturday and Sunday. Like Orlando, I heard of many retailers only wanting to deal with IPCPR on Saturday and Sunday. Several retailers had told me that they planned on only going to IPCPR for two days, so they could be back at their shops on Monday or Tuesday. Many have told me that they actually prefer the weekend scheduling of the trade show for this exact reason. While these dates might satisfy the membership base, the problem is it is still a significant investment for manufacturers to exhibit at IPCPR. For them to set up a booth and staff it for only two days worth of business is questionable in my book. Consumers at the Trade Show As per the IPCPR, when it comes to the trade show: The IPCPR Convention & International Trade Show is a Members-Only show and is not open to the general publicConsumers are not welcome and not allowed. We ask all to help us spot offenders so that we can maintain a productive, professional atmosphere in which to conduct business. All consumers will be escorted out of the convention center. This year, it seemed to this author there were more consumers walking around the trade show than in previous years. Typically, Ive seen consumers come into the show one of two ways. The first is as a guest of a retailer. This is a major no-no under the IPCPR rules. While I didnt personally run into any, I heard several manufacturers tell me that they felt there were many consumers who entered the show under a retailer badge. The second way is a little more legitimate. Many manufacturers need help at the trade show, so essentially they look for people who will work for free. Ive called these indentured servants of IPCPR. Others are social media ambassadors who are not on a payroll, and often work in exchange for product and/or IPCPR badge access. For the most part, the majority of the people who take on this role legitimately work the trade show for that manufacturer. Then there are others that have abused this privilege. They are walking the floor more than they are working the booth. I encountered several of these and its a problem. Online media has been saddled with the rules of not being allowed to ask for free samples. Online media cannot also enter the trade show early. Yet these indentured servants who still are consumers, can get on the show floor early and ask for samples. While it might be an enforcement issue, something seems broken with this system. What was the Best Cigar of the Trade Show? Always a tough question to answer, but right now Joya de Nicaragua Cinco Decadas is the leader in the clubhouse. Ill avoid mentioning honorable mentions as someone always gets left off. Before the show, the following cigars were predicted to be the five hottest cigars among retailers by this author. Assessing how this list is a subjective activity. I think one can certainly ascertain that the two new Liga Privadas were red hot. One can definitely make the case that Steve Saka did it again with Sin Compromiso in terms of being the hottest cigar at the show. It did seem like Foundation Cigar Companys new Tabernacle had a little less buzz, but you wouldnt know it from how busy the Foundation Cigar booth was. Finally, one could argue that it was actually 300 Hands by Southern Draw that got a little more buzz. How did IPCPR do? Overall, IPCPR deserves a lot of credit for putting on an excellent trade show. There are two things I will say when it comes to the IPCPR. Nothing comes easy, and the organization takes an unfair pounding. Sure its easy for me to be a pundit and nit-pick, but in reality, this was a very good show for them. Dealing with the distractions thrown at them this year, and delivering a positive trade show is something they deserve to take credit for. Personally, I was re-energized on covering the trade show and look forward to 2019. Photo Credits: Cigar Coop " " Wikimedia Foundation hosted a Women's History Month edit-a-thon at its San Francisco office on March 17, 2012. Matthew (WMF)/CCA BY-SA 3.0 Wikipedia is the fifth-most popular website in the world. Millions depend on it for a quick overview of just about any topic under the sun. Anyone can write or edit for Wikipedia, which is both a strength and a weakness especially in the area of gender. Only 16 percent of the people who create content and edit the online encyclopedia are women, according to a 2013 survey commissioned by Wikipedia, and the percentage was about the same in 2017, according to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia has gotten some bad press about this. New York Times articles have pointed out the whopping gender imbalance and at least one opinion piece called Wikipedia sexist toward women novelists. Other publications have pointed out racial bias. Researchers have published papers looking at the impact of so few women contributors and efforts have been made to address gender bias on Wikipedia. These include having "edit-a-thons" where women get together to write or update underrepresented Wikipedia categories, such as biographies on women in science or technology. "Whoever is editing Wikipedia kind of shapes the content," says Jennifer Sutcliffe, an educational analyst at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who assists faculty in using online tools. "Everyone has some biases ... that emphasize certain facts based on their point of view." As a result, content "can be skewed based on what information a contributor deems interesting." That's why it's important for the encyclopedia to have more female editors and editors of color, Sutcliffe says. She got interested in Wikipedia through her job at Emory, and she first edited Wikipedia in January 2016, cleaning up the grammar for an article about an 18th century King of Nepal. Because she likes video gaming, she began to write about that, creating the entry for Rangi, a single-player virtual reality puzzle game. Over three years, she took part in three edit-a-thons at Emory as part of Art + Feminism, an international campaign to improve coverage of gender, feminism and the arts on Wikipedia. The women at one Emory edit-a-thon were surprised to find that some of their Wikipedia entries on female artists were marked for deletion by other contributors. "People said they weren't notable enough," Sutcliffe says. "It's a point of frustration." Contributors to Wikipedia called editors are predominantly young, white males, mostly college-educated, according to Andrew Lih, author of "The Wikipedia Revolution" and an associate professor of journalism at American University. They are generally "a bunch of male geeks who are wealthy enough to afford a $2,000 laptop and a broadband connection," he told the Atlantic in 2015. Advertisement An Off-putting Culture Behind each Wikipedia entry is a discussion area in which editors can describe their edits and communicate with each other. This "talk" space often is a place of aggressive debate. Lih told the Atlantic that female editors have to deal with "so much junk" criticism based on gender stereotypes. "Unfortunately, for a lot of women online who needs that bother?" he said. Sutcliffe says she hasn't been personally attacked by others on Wikipedia, but "I know that kind of activity happens. There's kind of an aggressive culture online some people can be aggressive and often those people are male," she says. It's one reason women don't gravitate toward editing Wikipedia. Learning to edit or write for Wikipedia is not difficult, but there is a learning curve, she notes. "On top of that if you are worried about encountering hostility from men...." Other reasons for women's lower participation were described in a blog post by Sue Gardner, former executive director of the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Wikipedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. One was that the editing interface was not very user-friendly. Another was women didn't have enough free time or else lacked the confidence to edit. They also did not like the "fighty culture" and contentious arguments over editing entries, plus they found the atmosphere misogynistic. Advertisement The Impact on Content The gender imbalance affects the types of articles you see on Wikipedia. Researchers including Claudia Wagner at the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Cologne, Germany analyzed gender inequality at Wikipedia in a paper published in 2015. She noted that the amount of coverage of women was not the problem since it was in line with that of other encyclopedia-type publications. In fact, when biographies of women on Wikipedia were compared with those on the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia was found to have better coverage and longer articles. The problem was the way the women were portrayed by Wikipedia. Romantic and family relationships were more frequently mentioned when the subject was a woman, the report said. Articles about women used a lot of words that emphasized gender, unlike articles about men. This implied that maleness was the "null gender." And articles about women had many more links to articles about men than vice versa. One way to combat these issues is for more women to get involved in editing, says Jennifer Sutcliffe. "There are many notable women who are not covered in Wikipedia," she notes. "Having diversity on Wikipedia is important ... we need those different perspectives." Now That's Interesting Among Wikipedia's tips for editing entries about women: Male is not the default, so don't use terms like "woman doctor" or "female poet." If an article links to a man's Wikipedia page, then make sure his page links to hers as well. Also, focus on her accomplishments before discussing her relationships. And if you do, write "A is married to B" instead of "A is the wife of B," which casts the male as the possessor. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Goma, August, 1, 2018Congolese police raided the privately owned television production studio Kin Lartus, detained at least 10 of the studios journalists, and seized equipment, according to Kin Lartus journalists and a local, independent press freedom group. The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged authorities to return confiscated materials and cease its campaign of intimidation against the press. Two plainclothes police officers on the afternoon of July 25 arrived at the Kin Lartus studios in Kinshasa and were followed by at least 12 uniformed officers with guns several minutes later, according to Pierrot Etumba and Jean Jacques Kabeya, both journalists at Kin Lartus and a report from Journalistes en Danger. Maki Makiese, Kin Lartuss lawyer, told CPJ that police arrested 10 journalists that work on Kin Lartus daily news show: Jean Jacques Kabeya, Kin Lartus director and chief editor; Herithier Mbula, a video editor; Fretas Mbamanku, a cameraperson; and reporters Doya Mayi, Ritha Musau, Jules Ntumba, Jazz Nyembo, Esperant Kabemba, Fretas Mbamnku, Issa Kazadi, and Grace Luntela. Six of the 10 arrested journalistsMbula, Ntumba, Nyembo, Kabema, Kazadi, and Luntela were released the same day, according to Kin Lartus editor Pierrot Etumba, who was among the six. The other four Kabeya, Musau, Mayi and Mbamankuspent two days in detention and paid police US$260 in total to be released unconditionally on July 27, Etumba told CPJ. Makiese told CPJ that police demanded the money before releasing the journalists, but that the payment was not part of an official bail or fine. Kin Lartus daily news show is broadcast on various channels in Kinshasa and the studio produces content for a variety of outlets, according to Kabeya. Kinshasa police must return the equipment taken from the Kin Lartus studio and allow studio employees to continue their reporting without fear of retaliation from the government, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal, said from Harare. Journalists in the DRC are too often forced to work in fear of security services who feel free to flout the law. CPJs repeated calls to Joachim Mumbulu, the Kinshasa police officer who Makiese said ordered the journalists arrest and release, went unanswered. CPJ requested comment from two other officers who only gave their first names, Colonel Bady and Captain David, but both declined and referred CPJ to the officer in charge of the case. No charges were filed against the journalists, according to Makiese. According to the lawyer, police during the raid seized six laptops, three hard disks, two cameras, one tripod, and US$4,250 in cash. We have only been able to get back some of the materials. They still have our hard disks, a computer, and a camera, Makiese told CPJ. [M]y computer and my two mobile phones are still with the police. I had to borrow a computer in order to keep working, Kabeya told CPJ. According to the DRC constitution, police, who have military status in the DRC, can hold individuals for up to 48 hours without charge, but Makiese told CPJ that the raid on the station was illegal because it violated section two of the Congolese military penal code prohibiting abuse of authority and abuse of the right of requisition. The raid came after Petito Kilala, the promoter of a television program called Kilartus,which appears on a network with the same namefiled a civil lawsuit against Kin Lartus claiming that one of the production studios television shows wrongly used Kilartus logo and name, Makiese said. Makiese told CPJ he believed that the raid was prompted by Kilalas lawsuit, which Kilala denied during an interview with CPJ. CPJ was unable to confirm independently any link between the lawsuit and the raid. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, August 1, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the killing of Libyan journalist Musa Abdul Kareem in Sabha, and urged the authorities responsible for the city to immediately investigate the circumstances of his death. Abdul Kareem, a local reporter and photojournalist, was abducted on July 31, and found dead later that day, according to the Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press and news reports. Amin Ahmed, a spokesperson for the independent Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press monitoring and documentation unit, told CPJ via Twitter that Abdul Kareem and his colleagues had regularly been threatened while reporting in the city, which is experiencing continued unrest. Ahmed added that Abdul Kareem co-authored an article three weeks before his death that detailed kidnappings and robberies in the city. The journalist worked for Fasanea, a Sabha-based newspaper issued by Press Support and Promotion Authority, a Tripoli-based entity formed by Libyas National Transition Council in the wake of the 2011 uprising, with the stated goal of supporting a free and independent press. Musa Abdul Kareem reported in extremely trying conditions, and now his killing underscores the risks journalists take in covering the many facets of Libyas under-reported conflict, said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. Any authority purporting to exercise control over Sabha should demonstrate their legitimacy by investigating his death and ensuring that local journalists can do their jobs safely. In a tweet on July 31, the Libyan Center for Freedom of the Press said that the body of Abdul Kareem, 24, was found near Sabha city center with his hands bound. The privately-owned TV station Al-Nabaa quoted Osama al-Wafi, a spokesperson for the Sabha Medical Center, as saying that Abdul Kareems body had 13 bullet wounds and bore signs of torture. Sabha, which is along one of the main smuggling and transit routes for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempting to reach Europe, has been the scene of repeated clashes between armed groups loyal to the Libyan National Army based in eastern Libya and local armed groups loyal to the U.N. recognized government in Tripoli, according to news reports. At least 11 journalists have been killed in Libya since conflict broke out in 2011 after the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi, according to CPJ research. At least four others are missing. Journalists and their institutions have also been subject to repeated attacks and threats. Lok Sabha has passed Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018. It replaces the ordinance promulgated by President in May 2018 and amends Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015. The Act enables creation of commercial divisions in High Courts and commercial courts at district level to adjudicate commercial disputes such as disputes related to contracts for provision of goods and services and construction contracts. The amendment is aimed at improving ease of doing business in India. Key Features of Bill Reduction in pecuniary limits: Under the parent Act, commercial courts and commercial divisions in High courts can decide commercial disputes with value of at least Rs. 1 crore. The Bill reduces this limit to Rs. 3 lakh. Establishment of certain commercial courts: The parent Act, empowers state governments to constitute commercial courts at district judge level, after consulting concerned High Court. It had barred such commercial courts to be constituted in cases where High Court has original jurisdiction to hear commercial cases. The Bill removes this bar and allows states to constitute commercial courts where High Courts have original jurisdiction. Commercial Appellate Courts: The Bills allows state governments to notify commercial appellate courts at the district judge level in areas where High Courts do not have ordinary original civil jurisdiction. These Appellate Courts will hear appeals against order of commercial court below level of district judge. Mediation: It introduces pre-institution mediation process in cases where no urgent, interim relief is contemplated. This aims to provide for opportunity to parties to resolve commercial disputes outside ambit of courts through authorities. This will also help in reinforcing investors confidence in the resolution of commercial disputes. Counterclaims not to be transferred: The Bill removes provision of counterclaim in relation to transfer of suits in a commercial dispute of at least Rs. 1 crore in civil court. Kerala: Coastal erosion ravages Kerala village and reignites debate over how to protect homes from the sea When the south-west monsoon gained strength in the second week of July, ferocious waves from the Arabian Sea breached the sea wall in the coastal village of Chellanam in Keralas Ernakulam district, ravaging more than 700 houses and driving 1,400 residents to the safety of government-run relief camps on July 15. The villagers returned home five days later, when the rain had subsided, to find huge piles of sand and garbage in and around their homes. Monster waves damaged the foundation of our home and brought truckloads of sand into it, said Treesa, a village resident who lives in the Companyppadi neighbourhood. We took three days to clear it. The sea left a trail of destruction in Chellanam. It damaged hundreds of houses, blocked toilets and other drainage systems and contaminated open wells. We do not have water to drink at the moment as our well is filled with waste, said Henry, who also lives in Companyppadi. Joseph, who lives in Vachakkal neighbourhood of the village, said the strong monsoon gales destroyed the roof of his house. The tiles of my roof were blown away in the wind, he said. I am living under a leaking roof. I hope I can fix it when the fishing season begins after the current trawling ban. Coastal erosion and flooding had also ravaged Chellanam village eight months ago, when Cyclone Ockhi hit Keralas coast in December 2017. We spent many days in the relief camp at that time, said 70-year-old Rosy, who lives near the Velankanni Church in Chellanam. There seems to be no end to our miseries. This back-to-back disaster has revived an old debate here on how the village could be better protected from the sea. Coastal erosion Chellanam village is a thickly populated fishing village that is part of Chellanam gram panchayat. It lies on a sliver of land, with the Arabian Sea to the west and Keralas backwaters to the east. Because of its location, the whole area is highly susceptible to coastal erosion and was marked as such by the state government in 1986. More than 13,000 people reside in Chellanam village, with around 1,000 houses situated very close to the sea. Its residents have been demanding for many years that the state government strengthen the existing sea wall and construct a breakwater. The villagers say that the height of the existing sea wall a 3-metre high structure built of rocks has reduced considerably as the waves have gnawed away at the sand at the foot of the wall. Sea walls are embankments erected to prevent waves from encroaching upon or eroding coastal land, while breakwaters are offshore structures constructed parallel to the shoreline, which, among other things, are meant to prevent beach erosion. The village residents even resorted to protests to press for their demands. They went on a hunger strike at the Cyclone Ockhi relief camp in December, and the Chellanam Coast Protection Committee organised a hartal in May. Both protests were withdrawn after the villagers received assurances from the government. Though the government has sanctioned the sea wall project, the irrigation department, whose job it is to build the structure, has not started construction yet. Officials in the department blamed the delay in construction on the unavailability of rocks. Restrictions on quarrying have reduced the availability of rocks in the state, said executive engineer Abdul Shukoor. We will be soon piloting a project to build a sea wall using geo tubes. In this method, massive tubes filled with sand are placed near the high tide line to help reduce the impact of waves on the coast. Temporary solution The delay in the construction of the sea wall has prompted the Chellanam gram panchayat to look for a temporary solution. Last week, it hired earth movers to make piles of sand in front of all houses near the sea wall. We call it sand bunds, said panchayat president Mercy Josey. It is an age-old practice. But an official with the irrigation department said the bunds were a waste of public money. Sand bunds will not last for more than three days, he said. Why are they wasting money on such work? Village residents concurred. It will last only for a day, said Ninan George, a resident of Companyppadi. It is a gimmick. Only a breakwater can save us. The government has other plans to address the problem. It is encouraging people who live less than 50 metres from the shore to relocate. In January, it announced a rehabilitation package for those willing to do so. Under this proposal, Rs 10 lakh will be given to each family of which Rs 6 lakh will be to purchase land and Rs 4 lakh to construct a house. But the offer has had few takers. Panchayat president Josey said only 20 people have opted for the plan so far. It was against our expectations, she said. Jacob, 33, a fisherman who lives less than 50 metres away from the sea in a neighbourhood near Karthyayani temple, said he would not accept the offer. It is impossible to buy land and construct a new house with Rs 10 lakh, he said. I will think about it if the government increases the package. Otherwise, I will stay here until I die. He added: Let the government build a breakwater and sea wall without wasting time in announcing such irrelevant packages. Breakwater not the solution Experts in coastal management, however, said that the breakwater Jacob and other villagers are so keen on will further exacerbate the problem. They said that sea erosion in Chellanam started after the construction of the Kochi port in 1926, and that the periodic dredging to remove sand from the bottom of the port added to the erosion. The port lies 16 km north of Chellanam. It changed the sand movement ecosystem and caused erosion, said AJ Vijayan, an expert in coastal issues. He said the recent construction of a harbour in Chellanam it was inaugurated in 2010 worsened the erosion as it obstructed the natural movement of sand and sediments from the south to the north during the monsoon. Harbour construction begins with the construction of breakwaters, which are barriers built in the middle of the sea to tame the waves and ensure tranquil waters, he said. Breakwaters block the flow of sand and sediments. Thus sand and sediments remain on the southern side of the structure, resulting in accretion on the south and erosion on the north, he said. Beaches along Keralas 580-km coastline face erosion during the south-west monsoon months of May-September, and minor erosion during the north-east monsoon in December and January. During this time, high-energy storm waves pull sediment and soil away from the shore. After the monsoon is over, low energy waves bring back the eroded sediment and soil. The cyclical process of erosion and accretion ensures that beaches remain intact. Researchers say that artificial structures like seawalls, breakwaters and groynes structures that are meant to help control coastal erosion in fact aggravate erosion by disrupting the natural movement of sediment. They say these structures are one of the main reasons for erosion along the Kerala coast. The Environment Impact Assessment Guidelines for Ports and Harbours, prepared by the National Institute of Ocean Technology for the Department of Ocean Development in 2010, mentioned that breakwater construction could lead to major changes to the shoreline due to erosion or accretion. A 2010 study by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management found that as many as 106 groynes and 25 breakwaters have been constructed along 310 km along the coast over half of Keralas coastline. The study warned that any attempt to halt the natural movement of sediment using such structures would result in the disappearance of beaches. The study advised that proper precautions must be taken prior to erecting any structure along vulnerable coastal stretches. Despite the warning, breakwaters and groynes continue to be constructed along the coast. A research paper on the coastal issues affecting Kerala, published by the Nansen Environmental Research Centre in Kochi, stated that about 370 km of Keralas coast is subject to coastal erosion of various magnitudes due to one or more or a combination of several factors. These include the early onslaught of the monsoon and the strong waves it brings with it, geological factors and a rise in the level of the sea. Vijayan warned that another breakwater would do more harm than good. The gram panchayat has a length of 19 km and width of just one kilometre, he pointed out. Construction of another breakwater will eventually result in the disappearance of Chellanam. Kerala: No special package for Ockhi-hit fisherfolk in Kerala, says central government by Rejimon Kuttappan August 02,2018 | Source: The News Minute The Union government has categorically stated that it is not considering Keralas request for a special package for Cyclone Ockhi affected fisherfolk, over and above the relief that was granted, as per the existing norms of disaster management. In response to a question in Parliament on providing a special package, the government said, The proposal at a total cost of Rs 741.60 lakh for providing assistance to Ockhi Cyclone affected traditional fishermen in the State of Kerala was received in Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries (DADF), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW) from Government of Kerala during 2017-18, and an amount of Rs 194.40 lakh was sanctioned as per entitlement to meet the Central liability/share under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) on Blue Revolution: Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries for implementation of the above said proposal. The Union Ministry was responding to a question raised by NK Premachandran, a parliamentarian from Kerala, on Tuesday in the Parliament. Premachandran had asked whether the Union Government proposes to implement special package for the welfare of fisherfolk for compensating their loss due to cyclone Ockhi disaster and if so, the details thereof. Answering to the question, the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Krishna Raj said it is not. In March, replying to a calling attention in the Kerala Assembly, on the necessity to solve the crisis faced in rehabilitation of the victims of cyclone Ockhi due to non-allocation of sufficient funds by the Centre, Kerala Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty had said that the Centre is yet to approve a special financial package of Rs 7,340 crore. This amount was sought by Kerala for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Ockhi-hit coastal villages. She had said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would take up the matter with the Centre and exert pressure on it for clearing the relief package. Cyclone Ockhi crossed the sea near Kanyakumari, the southern tip of mainland India, on November 30. An estimated 52 people in Kerala and 11 in Tamil Nadu died in the cyclone, while many others went missing. Though it changed direction near Kanyakumari and headed towards the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea, it caused havoc and destruction in the southernmost districts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, particularly Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu and Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. There were reports that damage throughout Kerala was around Rs 1,843 crore and in Tamil Nadu, damage was estimated at more than Rs 1,000 crores. Meanwhile, National Fishworkers Forum general secretary T Peter told The News Minute that its quite disappointing to hear that the government has said no to the special package. Special Package was one of our main demands. It is unfortunate to hear that they have said no to it. We are having a meeting with parliamentarians tomorrow. We will raise this issue there. Financially, fisherfolk are still struggling to cope with the losses. We thought that the special package would help them, Peter said. Fr Lenin Raj from Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum confirmed to The News Minute that they had asked for a special package for the fisherfolk. We had submitted the proposal officially, the Fr said. It was the Latin Archdiocese of Trivandrum which was leading the rescue and rehabilitation programmes following Ockhi disaster. However, The News Minute was not able to get a comment from the Archdioscese representative, who was coordinating the Ockhi relief programmes when this report was filed. In its reply, the Union Ministry also detailed that as per the details received from the Nodal Ministry for Disaster Management i.e., Ministry of Home Affairs, the Union Government has released an assistance of Rs 76.50 crore from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and Rs 133.00 crore from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to Kerala to support the affected people. Similarly, an amount of Rs 413.55 crore (Rs 280.50 crore from SDRF and Rs 133.05 crore from NDRF) were released to Tamil Nadu for carrying out immediate relief measures. When Premachandran asked whether the Union government proposes to provide special assistance to the fisherfolk in the cyclone Ockhi affected areas during the trawling season, the reply detailed that no such proposal is under consideration. And when the parliamentarian asked about the details of action taken by the Union Government for compensating the fisherfolk and boat owners for their loss of net and other fishing instrument due to cyclone Ockhi, the Union Ministry replied that an amount of Rs 194.40 lakh was sanctioned by DADF, MoAFW to Kerala for replacement of FRP Boats and providing Sea Safety equipment to the Ockhi Cyclone affected traditional fishermen. Grandchildren of late Maharani Gayatri Devi have won the control of Jaipur-based iconic property Jai Mahal Hotel as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has restored their majority holding in the company which controls the erstwhile royal palace. New Delhi: Grandchildren of late Maharani Gayatri Devi have won the control of Jaipur-based iconic property Jai Mahal Hotel as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has restored their majority holding in the company which controls the erstwhile royal palace. Allowing the petition of Gayatrai Devi's grandchildren -- Maharaja Devraj and Rajkumari Lalitya Kumar, children of Late Maharaja Jagat Singha -- the Delhi bench of NCLT said that they have been "constantly denied" 99 per cent of the paid up capital of the Jai Mahal hotel owned by their father. The tribunal has "restored the position ante immediately upon the death of late Maharaja Jagat Singh" in terms of strength and directors of the board of Jai Mahal Hotel Ltd. Moreover, the tribunal in its 82-page-long order has also observed that their (Devraj and Lalitya) majority shareholding having been converted into a minority by the "overt and covert acts" of the respondents, which includes Gayatri Devi's step son Maharaja Prithvi Raj and his son Rajkumar Vijit Singh. A single member bench of NCLT Member Judicial R Varadharajan has set aside the resolution of the extraordinary general meeting of the Jai Mahal Hotel Pvt Ltd held in March 1999 and March 2001 regarding appointments on board and dilution of their stake. "All the resolutions, which have been passed in relation to the increase in the authorises share capital of Hotel Jai Mahal in the board meeting and or in the EGM dated March 27, 2001 are set aside," the tribunal said. It further observed: "The tribunal is of the considered view that the company's affairs in relation to the petitioners (Devraj and Lalitya) have been conducted in an oppressive manner by respondents." The tribunal restored the position ante March 27, 2001 in terms of authorised share capital of the company and said "any form filed in this regard with the ROC, NCT of Delhi & Haryana shall also stand cancelled". It also ordered the company, to rectify its register of members reflecting the status que ante prior to allotment of 60,882 equity shares as its paid up equity capital. "All the resolutions passed either in the board meeting held on April 4, 2001 in relation to the resolution allotting additional capital of Hotel Jai Mahal to R2 (Prithvi Raj) and R3 (Vijit Singh) aggregating to 60,882 equity shares of Rs 100 each are set aside," the tribunal said. NCLT has also directed that the board of the company "shall be reconstituted with R2 and R3 along with three nominees to the board to be appointed by the petitioners within a period of four weeks from the day of this order." Maharaja Devraj and Rajkumari Lalitya Kumar had filed the petition in 2006 (in then the CLB) against the company and its directors, challenging the wrongful dilution of their shareholding from 99 per cent to 6 per cent by allotment of shares to Maharaj Prithviraj, who is the step uncle of the grandchildren, and to his son Vijit Singh. The grandchildren had earlier won the battle for transmission of their father's shares in their names from the Supreme Court in 2015. Spread over around 18 acres, Jai Mahal - 260 years old royal palace -- had been converted into a Heritage hotel and is managed by the Taj group of hotels. Photo courtesy of Job Conger The doomed plane, at right, less than a month before the tragedy. We were veritable Jetsons. Between 1970 and the mid-1980s, scores of propeller-powered planes crisscrossed Illinois, offering daily service between such towns as Jacksonville and Mt. Vernon. No trip was too short. In 1981, a plane ticket from Springfield to Decatur cost $5. Photo courtesy of Job Conger The crash of a Chicago and Southern plane, pictured, helped hand Air Illinois a coveted Chicago-to-Springfield route. Photo courtesy of Job Conger Seven passengers were in the planes main cabin, pictured, the night of the final flight. Photos courtesy of The Southern Illinoisan. The plane left a half-mile path of debris. No one survived. Photo courtesy of Tom Heagy. Regina Polk, a rising star in the Teamsters union, was on her way to a meeting. Resort Air. Chicago Suburban Airlines. Piasa Airlines. The companies came and went, maintaining flight schedules with planes as small as twin-engine Beechcrafts with room for five.The sky, quite literally, was the limit. Less individual auto travel is a looming fact of the 1980s, and Capital Airport is headed for the 400,000 to 500,000 passenger totals in the years ahead, Harry Clark, State Journal-Register aviation columnist, predicted in 1980. Six years earlier, engineers at Crawford, Murphy & Tilly had forecasted that 1.6 million people would pass through the airport in 2005. It never happened. Last year, fewer than 200,000 travelers went through Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.It would be a stretch to attribute the demise of commuter airlines to the final journey of Air Illinois Flight 710. There were greater forces at play than a plane that went down in a pasture near Pinckneyville. But the crash put a national spotlight on small airlines, which were increasing in numbers, and how a dwindling number of regulators rode herd. The picture wasnt pretty.Air Illinois started flying in 1970 with a few planes and a rule: Flight attendants could not be taller than 5-feet-2-inches. Otherwise, they would not be able to stand in cramped passenger cabins.Tragedy helped the fledgling airline in 1971, when a Chicago and Southern Airlines plane hit power lines while attempting to land in dense fog at Greater Peoria Airport. All 16 aboard perished. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the pilot, who also was president of the airline. Well try itand thank you, he told controllers after being told that two other planes had landed elsewhere after a combined five attempts.After being fined the previous year for allowing flight crews to exceed maximum allowable duty hours, CSA had been falsifying records to avoid more citations. Pilots told crash investigators theyd seen colleagues pop pills to stay awake. While running other companies, the owner previously had been cited for such infractions as exceeding weight limits and flying on instruments without passing a required proficiency check.With the blessing of the Federal Aviation Administration, the doomed plane had been modified, its fuselage extended by seven feet, its engines replaced, its landing gear redone so that it was no longer a tail dragger. A home-built pig, one pilot called it after the tragedy. The airline was so strapped that it couldnt buy fuel in Springfield or Chicago.The tragedy was the fault of regulators as much as the airline, U.S. Rep. Sidney R. Yates, D-Chicago, thundered from the House floor. Their record was not good, Yates told colleagues. In fact, the city of Springfield, the Springfield Airport Authority and the Springfield Association of Commerce and Industry all fought the decision to award the route to Chicago and Southern.The route Yates spoke of was the run between Springfield and Meigs Field in Chicago Peoria had been a stop along the way for CSA. Unlike folks destined for OHare or Midway, passengers who landed at Meigs were instantly in the heart of the Chicago loop. Within weeks of the crash, which put CSA out of business, the state awarded the route to Air Illinois.Chicago-to-Carbondale, with a stop in Springfield, became the spine of Air Illinois, which expanded throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Free Enterprise At Work Here, a company motto, graced flight schedules and advertising. By 1982, Air Illinois had acquired a pair of jets and was offering service in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and Iowa, taking over from larger airlines that abandoned smaller markets after deregulation took effect in 1978.Capt. Lester Smith reported for duty at 10:50 a.m. on Oct. 11, 1983, at Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale, hitching rides on flights to St. Louis, then Iowa, then Springfield before finally getting into a cockpit at Capital Airport shortly after 6 p.m. to make the run to Meigs Field. He would then turn around and pilot Flight 710 back to Springfield, and finally to Carbondale, where he lived.Smith, 32, was an average pilot, other Air Illinois pilots would later say. He didnt like being late. Its not that management was pushing him to do it, its just that it was his own idea, one pilot told investigators.To stay on time, Smith would fly beneath or at the very edge of thunderstorms that should have been given wider berth, and he exceeded allowable speeds during descents, ordering first officers to pull circuit breakers so that warning horns wouldnt sound. The captain at least once had allowed a copilot to land at Meigs, even though the copilot didnt have sufficient experience to land on the strip that extended into Lake Michigan, not unlike a moored aircraft carrier. He was known to anger easily, becoming upset if airline employees werent dressed to company standards.Smiths shortfalls werent secrets. Alarmed by his habits, a pilot had once asked a first officer how he could just sit there and let him do these things, the NTSB ultimately reported. I just try to keep a close eye on things, Frank Tudor, the first officer, answered. I just try to monitor the situation and I never let him get into a situation that I dont think I could take control of and rectify.Tudor was beside Smith in the cockpit when Flight 710 departed Springfield at 8:20 p.m., 45 minutes behind schedule.Weather was fine in Springfield, but was deteriorating south of the capital city, with rain, fog and two miles of visibility in Carbondale. There was a chance of thunderstorms. In addition to Tudor, Smith and a flight attendant, seven passengers were aboard the 44-seat Hawker Siddeley 748 2-A twin-engine turboprop.Air Illinois that day had made the final payment on the 10-year-old British-built plane manufactured by the same company that built legendary Hawker Hurricanes that helped win the Battle of Britain during World War II. It was considered rugged while taking off in Springfield the previous year, it had sustained nothing more serious than a bent propeller after hitting a deer on the runway. Long periods of time would pass without any problems noted in flight logs where anything amiss was supposed to be reported. But that was on paper. Mechanics and Air Illinois pilots, it turned out, didnt always write things down in logs, instead relying on conversations or notes written on slips of paper.The plane had been having trouble with its right generator, one of two that provided electricity that powered everything from bathroom lights to instruments in the cockpit. Problems had included excessive voltage levels and intermittent generator shutdowns. Pilots didnt log these incidents as required, but they did alert mechanics, who corresponded with the manufacturer eight times during the previous week, attempting to resolve issues.Less than two minutes after takeoff, Capt. Smith radioed controllers in Springfield, saying he had a slight electrical problem. In the cockpit, he turned to Tudor, a first officer regarded as one of the airlines finest. He knew the regulations, he had a vast knowledge of the airplane and he was always ahead of the airplane, crash investigators would later report.The electrical problem was a generator shutdown, which Tudor tackled while Smith flew the plane. Since production began in 1962, 39 generator failures had been reported in 370 Siddeleys, including 17 instances of both generators going out. None of the planes had crashed.Instructions were aboard the plane, telling the crew what to do if generators quit working. One of the first steps was isolating the faulty generator from the planes electrical system, and so Tudor cut off the right generator that had been acting up. But the right generator was working fine the left generator was broken. Almost immediately, Tudor determined that the left generator was dead and the right one was functional, but, for some reason, he couldnt reconnect the right generator to the planes electrical system.What are we going to do? Tudor asked the captain.At that point, the plane was six minutes away from the Springfield airport. Smith kept flying south.Without generators, the plane relied on batteries. The heavier the electrical load, the shorter the battery life, and so Smith and Tudor switched off instruments, exterior navigation lights that made the plane visible to other aircraft and lights in the main cabin. She (the flight attendant) can use the reading lights only back there, Smith told his copilot.The batteries were supposed to last for at least 30 minutes. The flight from Carbondale to Springfield was scheduled to last 40 minutes.Ah, we are kinda having an unusual request here, ah, we would like to go to 2,000 feet, the captain told an air traffic controller. (I)f we have to go VFR (without instruments) thats fine, but, ah, like to, ah, like you to keep an eye on us if you can.Normal cruising altitude was 10,000 feet, but if the plane flew below clouds, it wouldnt require instruments powered by electricity. The controller said no. At 2,000 feet, Flight 710 would disappear from radar, and so he authorized 3,000 feet.Tudor continued trying to restore generators while shutting down nonessential devices. Radars off, only got one fan on, he informed the captain. OK, Smith responded. A heater for a pitot tube, a device that measures airspeed, should stay on, the captain decided.Twelve minutes into the journey, flight attendant Barbara Huffman came into the cockpit, asking why the main cabin was dark. People want to know, she saidWe have a little bit of an electrical problem here, but were going to continue to Carbondale, Smith explained. We had to shut off all excess lights.What time do we get there? Huffman asked. Is that rain?Tudor told her theyd land at 9 p.m. With Huffman apparently back with passengers, Smith and Tudor discussed the instruction manual that had proven no help. It says to flip these switches, Tudor told the captain, which Ive already done.OK, Smith said.This has just not been our day, Les, the first officer responded.From the first sign of trouble, Tudor continually checked the batteries voltage levels. They were holding steady, with power above 20 amps. Still pretty good 20, 21-and-a-half, he informed the captain after 16 minutes in the air. Should last to Carbondale.But Tudor, the man who was always ahead of the plane, apparently didnt know that the batteries would maintain normal voltage until nearly dead. Power levels would dramatically plummet at the first sign of depletion.Encouraged by battery readings, Tudor recounted his efforts to restore generator power. Wellwhen you were doing that, you see, I was losing my lighting here, the captain said. I was losing lighting in the cabin, and it was going pitch dark back there dont want to scare the hell out of the people.Yeah, thats for sure, Tudor agreed. Then a navigation instrument showed something below. That looks like Carlyle there, he told Smith. Yeah, thats it were right on course, the captain said. Unbelievable.Talk returned to the electrical issue. Smith told his first officer that he thought that a circuit breaker had tripped. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing something popped, Tudor said. Whatever you dodont, if you would, dont say anything to dispatch, the captain said. Five seconds of silence ensued. Dont say a fucking thing to them, Smith repeated. Roger that, Tudor replied. Not nothing, Smith said. You can plan on that, thats for sure, Tudor reassured the captain. The less you tell them about anything, the better off you are. Thats right, Smith repied.Tudor briefly switched on a navigational aid to get a bearing. Is that lightning off to your right side? Smith asked. Say again, Tudor replied. Most of that lightning is off to your right side, is it not? the captain repeated. Yeah, the first officer confirmed.Twenty-nine minutes after takeoff, air traffic control instructed Tudor and Smith to change radio frequencies. Tudor radioed back acknowledgement. Good night, a controller responded, signaling that further communications would be on a different frequency. It was the last conversation between the ground and the doomed plane.I dont know if we got enough juice to get out of this, Tudor told Smith, one minute later. Almost simultaneously, the plane disappeared from air traffic control. Illinois seven-ten, Ive lost radar contact, a controller radioed in the first of several fruitless attempts to reach the plane.The Siddeley was in deep trouble. Tudor and Smith talked about a radio failure. The captain told his first officer to watch the altimeter while he descended to 2,400 feet. The cockpit apparently was dark. You got a flashlight? the captain asked. Here we go do you want to shine it up here?Were losing everything down to about 13 volts, Tudor told the captain while an air traffic controller radioed another Air Illinois plane. I got your company seven-ten inbound from the north at, ah, 3,000, also, weve lost him on radar, the controller reported. He does have electrical problems. I dont know what extent, but, ah, I cant talk to him now.Less than a minute later, Tudor told Smith that the plane was at 2,400 feet. Do you have any instruments? the captain asked. Say again, Tudor responded. Do you have any instruments, do you have a horizon? Smith inquired.Those were the last words captured by the cockpit voice recorder, which was powered by the same batteries as everything else. The plane had been aloft for 34 minutes.The man who owned the pasture six miles northeast of Pinckneyville and 40 miles from the Carbondale airport heard the plane circle above his property twice before it came down, leaving a path of wreckage a half-mile long. The biggest piece ended up in a pond. It had been headed northwest when it hit the ground.The dead included a Springfield mother and her two-year-old son, who were setting out for a visit with her parents while her husband, a chef, stayed home. Also killed were a Chicago computer consultant, the director of the Southern Illinois University Rehabilitation Institute, an institute professor, a supervisor with the state Department of Labor and a Teamsters official. The airline was insured for $134 million. According to press accounts, jury verdicts and settlements ranged from $400,000 to $1.5 million.I feel that she died in the line of duty, Tom Heagy, husband of Teamster business agent Regina Polk said in a eulogy, noting that she was flying to a meeting aimed at finding money to fund job training programs for displaced workers. Polk, 33, had been born on Valentines Day, just like Jimmy Hoffa, and was, some said, destined to become president of Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago. She had a gift for organizing women who held clerical jobs. She called union-busting executives bastards with briefcases. Heagy donated money from a jury award to establish a foundation that has distributed more than $780,000 in grants to hundreds of women.Previous crashes of small commuter planes had gained scant national attention the 1971 CSA crash that killed 16 in Peoria barely made the New York Times, which ran a wire story on page 65. Air Illinois was different.President Ronald Reagan was winning accolades for his get-tough approach to the air traffic controllers union, which folded after the president hired replacements for strikers who had walked off their jobs contrary to federal law. With less fanfare, Reagan also had slashed the number of FAA inspectors assigned to keep airlines safe, even though the number of airlines was increasing due to deregulation. Critics pounced after Flight 710 went down.Air Illinois, it turned out, was a scofflaw. Parts were inspected by mechanics earlier than required to smooth workloads and ensure that planes wouldnt go out of service, with paperwork postdated to show that the inspections complied with safety regulations. Mechanics hid records from FAA inspectors. Flight crews hadnt been properly trained on how to handle generator failures. Asked how long batteries would last in the event of total generator failure, the five Air Illinois pilots qualified to fly Siddeleys gave three different answers.The FAA also had failed. After undergoing knee surgery, an inspector assigned to check electrical equipment hadnt visited the airline for five months. The inspector assigned to take his place didnt do the work either, telling crash investigators that he was neither trained nor qualified. FAA inspectors, stretched thin, didnt adequately review paperwork, the NTSB reported, and many inspections were not performed in an aggressive manner.Even before the report came in, U.S. Rep. Paul Simon, D-Carbondale, who would be elected to the Senate within the year, demanded that the FAA hire more inspectors. Citing Air Illinois, Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole announced a nationwide review of safety procedures and vowed that airlines that fell short would be grounded. Dole made her announcement on Meet The Press, two months after the crash and four days after Air Illinois surrendered its operating license in lieu of having it yanked.Air Illinois stopped flying after the FAA assigned 10 inspectors to watch over mechanics and pilots. Four months after the crash, the Department of Transportation announced that the FAAs inspection program would be restored to 1981 levels, and 166 inspectors were hired in six months. While finding fault with the FAA and airline maintenance procedures, the NTSB blamed the crash on Smith, who should have returned to Springfield within minutes of takeoff.Air Illinois resumed service one month after surrendering its operating license, but not for long. The airline went out of business six months after the tragedy and ended up in bankruptcy.This crash got more attention than any other in airline histroy, Alice Mitchell, vice president of marketing, told the State Journal-Register. We were sacrificial victims. A toxic gas leaked from a pesticide factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3, 1984 killed about 3,000 people immediately. (Photo: File) Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed a lower court order to register a case against two former officers for allegedly helping Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson escape India after the Bhopal gas tragedy. The order by Justice S K Palo came on petitions filed by the then Bhopal superintendent of police Swaraj Puri and then collector Moti Singh, their lawyer A P Singh said. Anderson, the main accused in the deadly 1984 gas leak case, had obtained bail from a court, and the bail conditions did not state that he was not to leave the country, advocate Singh contended before the judge. Puri and Singh took him to the airport safely as part of their duty and thus committed no crime, the lawyer said. The high court noted that the CJM court took cognisance of the petition seeking to make Puri and Singh accused 26 years after the incident, and quashed the lower court's order, he added. The plea before the lower court was filed in 2010. Activist Abdul Jabbar had filed a petition in the CJM court, demanding criminal action against the two former officers for allegedly helping Anderson escape from India. Anderson, the prime accused in the gas leak case, never returned to face trial. He died in the US in 2013. On November 19, 2016, the CJM ordered registration of a case against Moti Singh and Swaraj Puri under IPC sections 212 (harbouring offender) and 217 (public servant disobeying the direction of law with intent to save a person from punishment). A toxic gas leaked from a pesticide factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3, 1984 killed about 3,000 people immediately. Besides, thousands of others suffered adverse health effects. There are no definitive answers now to questions about pricing for solar power connected to the grid after June 30, 2019. The government has rejected a proposal by two ministries to extend pricing incentives for solar power projects in Ninh Thuan Province. Under the prime ministerial Decision 11 issued in April 11, 2017, solar power installations that reach their commercial operation date (COD) by June 30, 2019, are entitled to a feed-in tariff (FIT) of 9.35 cents per kilowatt-hour for a period of 20 years. Investors had had their hopes up after, on June 20, a deputy prime minister reportedly had agreed in principle at a meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) that the effective date for projects in Ninh Thuan would be extended to the end of 2020. Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan are central provinces that have the greatest potential for renewable energy in the country. Investors were hopeful that the decision for extension would first be issued for Ninh Thuan projects in July and extended nationwide later this year. In early July the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in coordination with MoIT, recommended the COD extension to the government. But the hopes have now been dashed with the Government Office issuing Official Letter No. 7108 stating the deadline remains unchanged but without mentioning a reason. What remains unclear is whether the MoIT and MPI would continue pushing for a nationwide COD extension, Oliver Massmann, a partner at law firm Duane Morris LLC, said in a note via email to his clients. Time is of essence now, yet everything is still up in the air. For prudent reasons, we would have to advise IPPs (independent power producers) to go with smaller projects now for the purpose of plausible construction time, he added. There are no definitive answers now to questions about pricing for solar power connected to the grid after June 30, 2019. How the FITs are decided after June 30, 2019 will depend on what technology prices will be at a specific period of time, said Le Minh Duc, director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (ERAV)s Center for Electricity Market Development & Workforce Training, said. His statement is contained in a report made by the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF), a consortium of private business associations. FITs are payments made for supplying renewable energy to the national grid. Recent innovations in solar power technology that have helped bring down production costs dramatically have made Vietnams 9.35 cents tariff attractive to private investors. Hundreds of private investors have submitted proposals to set up solar farms, but the June 30, 2019 deadline is too tight, energy experts said. The projects can get entangled in land acquisition hiccups, procedural lags and lack of master zoning plans for solar power development at the national and provincial levels. There are also concerns over infrastructure for connecting to the national grid. Meanwhile, power authorities are considering trialling auctions as an alternative option to FITs after June 2019. Pham Quang Huy, deputy director of ERAV, said they have sought World Bank assistance and hired consultants to study auction mechanisms. Bidders offering the lowest prices to the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the countrys sole power distributor, will be awarded development contracts. MoIT has reportedly approved around 70 solar projects with a total capacity of over 3,000 megawatts to be commissioned before June 30, 2019. Vietnam currently relies largely on hydropower and thermal power plants for its electricity demands, but these have drawn frequent domestic and international criticism for their social and environmental impacts. Solar accounts for just 0.01 percent of the power output, but the government plans to increase this ratio to 3.3 percent by 2030 and 20 percent by 2050. By 2030 Vietnam aims to produce 10.7 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, with wind energy being the other main option. Authorities say many individuals and organizations have not been paying taxes on high income made online. An inspection carried out by tax authorities has found many citizens paying a lot of money to Facebook, Google and Youtube to take advantage of their services, and also earn significant income, with these sites paying several users significant sums. After studying records at just four commercial banks, the tax inspectors found more than VND500 billion ($21 million) had been sent to the bank accounts of many individuals, groups, and organizations, with payments ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars at a time. Nguyen Nam Binh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department, cited the example of an unnamed individual who was fined $175,000 for tax evasion. This person had received a total of $1.75 million in payments from 2016 to 2017 for writing code for an online game which lots of people downloaded from Facebook, Google, Youtube and other sites. This was highest tax evasion spotted by an individual with income from overseas, Binh noted. "The $175,000 fine included $128,000 in back taxes, late fees and fines," Binh said. Another example that Binh cited was that of a Quang Nam native living in Saigon, who also received more than $855,000 from those social media sites did not file tax. When authorities summoned this person during their investigation, they found that he was no longer residing at his Saigon address. Binh did not specify the time period in which the money was earned. Binh said he wanted to use this opportunity to advise everyone who has failed to pay taxes on their online income to contact the tax department and pay their dues. Ho Chi Minh City taxmen said money earned from organizations like Facebook, Google and YouTube was private business income. Under current laws, a business must pay tax when it earns VND100 million ($4,200) a year or more. The minimum tax rate is seven percent on gross income, including five percent VAT and two percent personal income tax. Vietnam shrimp exports sluggish, but to recover along with prices A shrimp farmer smiles as she shows shrimp she harvested from her pond in the My Xuyen district in southern Vietnam. Photo by AFP Vietnams shrimp exports last April were worth only $275.2, a 0.4 percent drop year-on-year, according to VASEP. Foreign markets still have a lot of imported shrimp in stock and would not buy more now, which explains the lack of demand for Vietnamese shrimp, local newspaper Tuoi Tre quoted Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP ), as saying. Vo Thanh Sang, a shrimp farmer in the southern Soc Trang Province, said he recently sold his harvest for VND70,000 ($3) per kilogram, the lowest price in 10 years. Each pond has four to five tons of shrimp. So if I sell my shrimp at the current price, I will lose VND40-50 million. I cannot afford that. "In addition, many Vietnamese shrimp exporters have begun to sign large orders for the holidays at the end of 2018 so shrimp prices are expected to increase again in August and September this year," Undercurrent News, an independent seafood business news outlet, quoted VASEP as saying. There would not be excess supply in the market in upcoming quarters because other shrimp producing countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Thailand have over-harvested, it said. Though exports dropped in April it said they were worth $1 billion in the first four months, a 14 percent year-on-year jump. Exports were higher to South Korea (by 34.4 percent), Australia (26), the U.S. (1.4), the E.U. (11), and China (4). Last year shrimp exports had been worth $3.85 billion, an increase of 22 percent. Vietnam is the worlds third-largest exporter, and it targets exports of $10 billion by 2025. Fishing boats off the coast of the southern Kien Giang Province. Photo by Cuu Long Authorities in southern Vietnam are investigating a case of modern slavery after 12 victims were saved. Border guards last week rescued 12 young people who were tricked into working on fishing boats off the coast of Kien Giang Province, beaten and not allowed to come ashore. The rescue operation was launched after the family of an 18-year-old boy from the south central province of Ninh Thuan asked the province's border guards to rescue him. According to the family's complaint, the teenager was tricked into working on a fishing boat in Kien Giang by a broker called Chin for VND12 million ($515) per month. However, once he got on the boat, he was regularly beaten, not allowed to return to the mainland and not paid, with his employer claiming that the payment had already been made to broker Chin. Upon investigating the complaint, Kien Giang border guards discovered the victim and 11 others being forced to work on two fishing boats off the province's coast and rescued them last Friday night. Provincial authorities said they have placed two men Huynh Thanh Vu, 36, and Tran Minh Trung, 42, under investigation. No further information about the men or the case was available at the time of going to press. Last April, border guards had rescued 11 workers from forced labor at an illegal gold mine in the central province of Quang Nam. Last March, U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived in Da Nang on a historic visit to Vietnam. Photo by Nguyen Dong Vietnams Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Thursday neither confirmed nor denied reports of a $94.7 million arms deal with the U.S. Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang merely said at a regular press conference that she would pass on questions about the deal to relevant authorities. She said Vietnam's defense policy is to protect the country's peace, independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and to contribute to peace and stability in the region and the world. "[Vietnam's] defense cooperation with other countries are to implement this policy," the spokesperson said. A U.S.-based newspaper on Thursday quoted an unnamed official from the U.S. State Department as saying that Vietnam has signed contracts to buy U.S. military equipment worth $94.7 million. The official did not disclose further details, but the newspaper claimed that the deals have been reported to the U.S. Congress and are in various stages of implementation and transfer to Vietnam. According to the official, between 2012 and 2017, the U.S. State Department allowed Vietnam to purchase military equipment worth $25 million through the Direct Commercial Sales program. The department also provided $12 million to Vietnam through its Foreign Military Financing program in the fiscal year 2017, the official said. In 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted a decades-long embargo on arms sales to Vietnam, but the two countries have yet to officially announce any arms deal between them. However, Vietnam and the U.S. have been stepping up defense cooperation in recent years. As part of the Excess Defense Articles program, the U.S. last year transferred to Vietnam a ship that now serves Vietnam's Coast Guard as the CSB 8020. Last March, U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived in Da Nang on a historic visit to Vietnam, the first visit to the country by a U.S. aircraft carrier since 1975. During this visit, the U.S. also delivered six Metal Shark patrol boats to Vietnam. Selling durians for cheap as long as the seeds are retained or returned - Saigon gets into the act. The trend of eating durians for cheap without the seeds, which began in the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands, has now come to Saigon. A long line of people craving the fruit is a familiar scene every afternoon on Su Van Hanh Street in District 10. The price tag for durians here ranges from VND30,000 to 40,000 ($1.30-1.72) per kilogram. Sales start at 1 p.m. Returning the seeds is compulsory. People can take the durian home, but have to make a refundable deposit of 30 percent of the bill. The deposit is returned once the seeds are. The demand for durian seeds is very high this year and the price for a kilogram is four times higher than last year, from VND30,000 to 120,000. So we use this way to collect the seeds and grow durians for our next season, said Le Hong Long, the shop owner. About 500 kilograms of durian are transported from Dak Lak, Lam Dong and Dak Nong Provinces in the Central Highlands to this shop in Saigon every day and they are sold out in just one afternoon. The owner said that the durians here are naturally ripened; that no stimulant is used for early harvest. The durians are cheaper, at half the current market price since we collect the seeds. But we still make a profit even if its not much, Long said. The shop allows only 10 people at a time to enter and pick the fruit. Hundreds await their turn, patiently. I bought a few kilos here because the price was much cheaper than durian in the markets, and Im happy to return the seeds anyway so the deposit is fine by me, said Tien, a 21-year-old customer. For the first two days after the shop opened, customers had to eat the durian right on its premises and return the seeds. However, because space was limited, the shop began allowing customers to take the fruit home as long as they made a deposit. The customers have two days to return the seeds and redeem their deposit. The seeds are considered unusable after two days. The shop collects about 50 kilos of seeds every day. These are packed and sent to the farm right away. Because of high demand, customers have to wait for nearly an hour to get their durians. The owner said he plans to get a bigger space for customers to eat the durian at the shop itself. Watch people eat and leave the seeds at this stall in Ben Tre Province in southern Vietnam: Ukraine, Israel complete legal verification of free trade deal Twelve sections and annexes of the draft agreement were verified. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Crimea's economy continues to decline despite Kerch Strait bridge construction media Crimeans were eagerly waiting for the commissioning of the bridge, but it did not solve any economic problem on the Russian-annexed peninsula. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13 Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide 1217 new cases Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch "Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel Google Ad Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden. "The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer Generation A 13 your chance to be the change President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev "uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13 Google Ad Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide 1217 new cases Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch "Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel Google Ad Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden. "The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer Generation A 13 your chance to be the change President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev "uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion Minister of Agriculture: Solely apricots were exported by 87% more (video) As of August 1, Armenia's apricot exports have increased compared to the previous year, Agriculture Minister Artur Khachatryan told a news conference today. He also mentioned that last year 28,884 tons of apricots and this year already 50,000 tons of apricots were exported. "As of yesterday, solely apricots were exported by 87% more. The season is about to end, mostly the apricots stored in the refrigerators are exported. 120,000 tons of fruits and vegetables were exported in 2017, and 100,000 tons were exported only in seven months of this year," the minister added. Artur Khachatryan also mentioned that if irrigation water does not create problems, it is a good year from the agriculture's point of view. This year, according to the minister, the hail did not cause much damage. You can find more information in the video. Residents of Yekmalyan street: It is already several years that they have been saying to us, "wait" (video) Residents of the Yekmalyan street promise to place tents on the places of their own flats and stay there until the government solves their problem. They also promise to close the entrance of the building and the movement of cars. "It is already several years that they have been saying to us, 'wait.' We are tired and are not going to wait no longer. This is my land's territory, it is not yet compensated, but it is being exploited without my permission now," Ani Khudaverdyan told "A1 +." Over 15 years ago, these "victims" signed a contract with the Grundinvest company engaged in the construction of the area by the he decision of the Government, but they have neither received houses in the elite building, which is constructed in the place of their houses, nor compensation until now. On the contrary, many falsifications have been found and it has also been found that their apartments have been sold. At the meeting with the mayor candidate from the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Naria Zohrabyan and members of the Yelk (Way out) faction, Yekmalyan residents presented their solutions for this issue. "There was an investor who offered to build a multi-apartment building in this area and to compensate the residents. However, he was denied when he applied for construction. We will study the grounds for denial, we will try to solve that problem," said Ani Samsonyan, a member of the Yelk faction. "We need a rational solution. We will discuss with the investor representative, we will discuss a project that will meet the architectural norms," Naira Zohrabyan, candidate for mayor, assured the residents and added that if the problem is not solved, they will trample tents together. By the way, the residents of Yekmalyan did not have lawyers when signing the contract. The members of the Yelk faction promised that the contracts would be studied and, if necessary, they will demand that criminal cases be initiated. Main characters of revolution photographed with themselves (video) The most relevant episodes of the velvet revolution, which were missed even from the eyes of journalists, have been found in the book of the comics. Two months ago, a group of young people initiated to create a trilingual book of comics, entitled "The Armenian Velvet Revolution," which will tell the whole world about the process of a peaceful, non-violent revolution. The crowdfunding campaign was launched yesterday, as the team needed $ 10,000 to print the book. Vahram Melikjanyan, one of the painters of the comics, noted that members of the Government helped them by telling some details about the event. "We met with the Minister of Education and the Minister of Diaspora, and they told us scenes that were left out from the episodes, and their stories helped us a lot," says Vahram Melikjanyan. Members of the Government, Deputy Prime Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan, Tigran Avinyan, Minister of Education and Science Arayik Harutyunyan and others were present at the event. Arayik Harutyunyan was pictured in the comics book as a Moses the prophet. He explained the reason behind this: "This name was given to me by journalists, as I was always with a stick, like Moses," jokes the Minister of Education and Science. You can find in the video. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on July 30, 2018 signed a bill amending some Ukrainian laws regarding regulation of some biosecurity procedures into law, the European Business Association (EBA) has reported. "This week, the President of Ukraine signed the bill No. 6673, which introduces international practice in Ukraine - involving the private sector in biosecurity examination in the plant growing area. First, it will expand the network of biosecurity laboratories. Secondly, it will shorten the time of passing the respective procedures and help avoid duplication of operations. Thirdly, it will improve the quality of procedures and help minimize the farmers' costs. The business community welcomes this decision," the EBA said. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada on July 10, 2018 passed at second reading bill No. 6673 regulating some biosecurity procedures. The law envisages the procedure of entrusting laboratories with biosecurity tests, introduction of the register of authorized phytosanitary laboratories with the aim of tracking laboratory reports and phytosanitary certificates issued on their basis. The document also regulates biosecurity examination and arbitral biosecurity examination. Biosecurity examination reports will be valid in Ukraine for 14 days. Biosecurity requirements of importing country will be taken into account before the issuance of a biosecurity certificate for export or re-export. It is expected that the adoption of the bill would improve flexibility and effectiveness of the system of biosecurity control under conditions of growing production and exports of plant products as well as streamline the Ukrainian legislation with European regulations in the sphere of plant quarantine. Astarta denies information about plans to place eurobonds in 2018 Astarta agroindustrial holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, denies plans to issue eurobonds this year. "This information is not true. The company is not mulling the option of using this long-term financing tool," the press service of Astarta told Interfax-Ukraine. Earlier Debtwire publication reported that Astarta agro-industrial holding plans to place its debut eurobond issue this year. The term of placement of securities, as well as their volume was not specified. According to Debtwire, the chairman of the board of Ukrgasbank (Kyiv) also announced the plan to place eurobonds in 2018 to finance renewable energy projects. Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in Poltava, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, and Kharkiv regions. It consists of eight sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of about 250,000 hectares and dairy farms. Ending stocks on the currency account of the State Treasury Service as of early August 1 in hryvnia equivalent totaled UAH 20.9 billion, and there is enough liquidity on the account, acting Finance Minister of Ukraine Oksana Markarova has said. "As of the beginning of the operation day on August 1, the balances on the hryvnia treasury account actually amounted to UAH 2 billion, but in addition to the currency accounts of the State Treasury Service as of August 1 there was the equivalent of UAH 20.9 billion, which are not displayed in the standard report of the State Treasury Service at the beginning of the month. And taking into account the daily target for August, the Finance Ministry had no reason to sell currency, "she wrote on her Facebook page. Markarova said that the failure to meet the UAH 56 billion borrowings target for the first quarter of this year is the reason for the low amount of the hryvnia on the treasury account. "However, overall liquidity is sufficient, the situation is under control, all payments are settled on time," she added. Ending stocks on the single treasury account by early August 2018 decreased to the level of January 2014 and amounted to UAH 1.99 billion, having decreased by UAH 7.4 billion in a month. UDP Renewables, part of UFuture Group of Vasyl Khmelnytsky, has built a solar power plant with an installed capacity of 18 MW in Kherson region, the businessman said on his Facebook page. "UDP Renewables has built an 18 MW solar plant in Rykove (Kherson region). Considering the fact that the Kherson sun is much more efficient than in Kyiv, we plan to fully pay back the investment ($18 million) in five or six years. The station will be connected in a few months," he wrote. Khmelnytsky added that during the construction of the solar plant, racks, cables and inverters of Ukrainian origin were used, while solar panels were imported from China. To build the station, according to the businessman, the territory of the former industrial zone, unusable for agriculture, was used. As reported, earlier the group of Khmelnytsky built the first stage of a solar plant with a capacity of 6 MW in the village of Velyka Dymerka of Kyiv region. After the construction of the first stage, the group attracted Spanish-based Acciona Energia Global as a partner for the expansion of the project. UFuture Investment Group, headquartered in Brussels, was established in autumn 2017 and united the business projects of Vasyl Khmelnytsky. The group includes the Ukrainian development company UDP, whose specialization is the implementation of large infrastructure projects. In addition, the conglomerate united businesses in such areas as UDP Renewables, the Bila Tserkva industrial park, the innovative parks UNIT.City, and LvivTech.City. Five Ukrainian soldiers wounded, one goes missing in Donbas over past day Militants have opened fire on the positions of Ukrainian troops in Donbas 21 times over the past 24 hours, wounding Ukrainian servicemen, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters has said. "Three servicemen of the Joint Forces were wounded during hostilities in the past day. One serviceman of a Joint Forces unit also disappeared over the past day. The search for him was organized," the JFO HQ said in a report posted on its Facebook page on Thursday morning. Militants fired mainly from grenade launchers, heavy machineguns, small arms and IFV weapons on Ukrainian defenders near Krymske, Stanytsia Luhanska, Novoluhanske, Travneve, Novomykhailivka, Maryinka, Lebedynske, Talakivka, Pavlopil, Hnutove and Vodiane. In addition, according to the JFO HQ, during the current day the militants opened fire eight times on the positions of Ukrainian defenders near Krymske, Novoluhanske, Lebedynske, Hnutove and Shyrokyne. They also fired on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Vodiane from an 82mm mortar. "Our two defenders were wounded today," the report says. At the same time, according to the Ukrainian intelligence, five militants were killed and four wounded over the past day. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has stressed the paramount importance of the participation of servicemen of the country's Armed Forces in NATO exercises in order to increase readiness and compatibility with the member countries of the alliance and partners. "The Ukrainian military participates in NATO's Noble Partner 2018 exercise, which began today in Georgia. Both Ukraine and Georgia fully felt the military aggression of the Russian Federation, so increasing readiness and compatibility with NATO member countries and partners is extremely important to our Armed Forces," Poroshenko wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday, August 1. The head of state also noted that the Noble Partner 2018 exercises, as well as See Breeze 2018, which recently took place in Ukraine, make an important contribution to maintaining a stable and safe environment in the Black Sea region. Large-scale multinational military exercises of NATO countries and partners, Noble Partner 2018, started in Georgia on August 1. About 3,000 servicemen from 13 countries will participate in the drills that will last until August 15. In particular, they include Georgia, the United States, Britain, Germany, Estonia, France, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Spokesperson for the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vasyl Kyrylych has confirmed the arrest of three Ukrainian citizens on suspicion of involvement in cyber crimes. "According to the U.S. Justice Department, three Ukrainian citizens were arrested in European countries at the request of U.S. law enforcement agencies, and each of them was accused of committing cyber crimes," Kyrylych told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday. He said Ukraine's consul had established contact with representatives of law enforcement agencies. "Information was confirmed about the detention of these citizens of Ukraine, as well as the presence of an American lawyer who defends the rights and legitimate interests of one of the arrested Ukrainians," he said. An informed source told Interfax-Ukraine that one of the Ukrainians was detained in Germany and had already been sent to U.S. law enforcement agencies. Regarding the other two, one was detained in Poland and the other in Spain. U.S. law enforcement agencies have requested extradition. As earlier reported, the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday, August 1, reported the arrest of three Ukrainian citizens on suspicion of involvement in the hacking group "Fin7." "Three key members of a complex international hacker group working in Eastern Europe have been detained and are in custody," the Justice Department said in a statement. The names of the suspects are Dmytro Fedorov, Fedor Hladyr and Andriy Kopakov. The Justice Department said since 2015 more than 100 American companies, including restaurants, gaming and hotel business, have been victims of the Fin7 group, also known as the Karbanak Group and Navigator. The members of Fin7 hacked thousands of computer systems, stole millions of these bank cards, which were resold to third parties. "The three Ukrainian nationals indicted today allegedly were part of a prolific hacking group that targeted American companies and citizens by stealing valuable consumer data, including personal credit card information, that they then sold on the Darknet," said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has confirmed the completion of the investigation against Ukrainian MP Nadiia Savchenko and head of the Officer Corps prisoner release center Volodymyr Ruban. "The investigation into the case of Ukrainian MP Nadiia Savchenko and citizen Ruban has been completed. We have received all the necessary evidence during this investigation, which confirms the main theory of preparations for a large-scale terrorist attack in the center of the Ukrainian capital by using weapons that were given to culprits Savchenko and Ruban with the knowledge of Russian officers in the post of lieutenant colonel and colonel on the territory of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' after consultations conducted by Savchenko and [DPR leader Alexander] Zakharchenko," Lutsenko said at the firing range of the Alpha special operations center in Kyiv region on Thursday. He noted that the next stage would be familiarizing the defense team with the case materials. "After the completion of this procedure, the case will be sent to court. Paying attention to the amount of evidence received, I think that the trial should start this year and enter its active phase. I will not comment on when it can make a final decision, since the trial is exclusive competence of the judges who will be appointed," he added. According to Lutsenko, lawyers and defendants in this case are using all the processes "as a tribune for [restoring their reputation], and often for anti-government slanderous statements." "What happened during the pretrial investigation by Savchenko, Ruban and their defense team makes me think that the next process will also be used to discredit the Ukrainian state," Lutsenko added. Former Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has called upon U.S. President Donald Trump to release the names of top Iranian officials relatives who live in the United States or hold green cards. In a tweet directly addressed to Trump, Ahmadinejad wrote on August 1, Mr. Donald Trump; release the list of relatives of Iranian Government officials that (sic) have Green Cards and bank accounts in the United States; if you have such a list. The issue of top officials and their relatives who carry U.S.green cards became a heated argument last month when an Iranian MP tabled it. In an interview with so-called pro-reform daily Etemad, mid-ranking Shiite cleric and the chairman of the Nuclear Subcommittee of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, MojtabaZonnour, claimed that on the sidelines of talks over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers, President Barack Obama ordered 2,500 green cards issued for Iranians to curry favor with Tehrans negotiating team. Zonnour pointed out that only 30 to 40 of the children of top Iranian officials are currently studying in United States, while the majority are wasting Iranian public assets to live extravagant lives there. The claim was widely reflected in the right-leaning media in the United States, and Fox News presented it in a special report. Reacting to the news, Trump wrote in a tweet on July 3, Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians - including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that? Nevertheless, Jeff Prescott, former senior director of Obama's National Security Council, described the allegation as "absurd and entirely false." Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, for his part, also said on July 7, Such issues have never been raised in (the nuclear) talks or on their sidelines or in any other way, not even a legitimate request like the abolition of restrictions on Iranian diplomats working at the United Nations. Meanwhile, several Iranian MPs launched a special committee to investigate the case of officials with dual citizenship. According to the report filed by the committee, the children of many Iranian officials, for a variety of reasons, including education and birth, have gained citizenship abroad and, without renouncing their new nationalities, are active in the public and economic sectors in Iran. In its report, the committee listed the children of the foreign affairs and oil ministers and the presidents top aides as those who have dual citizenship. Ahmadinejads recent tweet is expected to stir up the controversial issue in Iran. Ahmadinejad, who has become a thorn in the side of the Iranian establishment by criticizing Tehrans top officials, particularly the head of Irans judiciary, is notorious for his commentary. KABUL -- Sporting a long, graying beard and a dusty scarf, Noor Mohammad exits a gritty restaurant in the Afghan capital, where he has been trying to find work for weeks. Mohammad moved back to his native Kabul after living more than 10 years in Iran, where he washed cars and worked in construction to earn money to send back to his family of eight in Afghanistan. Mohammad is among the hundreds of thousands of Afghan migrants who once flocked to Iran for work but who have returned to their war-torn homeland amid a crippling economic crisis. It is unclear if the returnees plan to stay in Afghanistan temporarily or for the long-term. Iran's economic turmoil, which has sent unemployment soaring and the national currency plummeting -- has hit Afghan migrants particularly hard. The demand for work in the gray economy, where most Afghans work, has declined sharply. Iran's currency, the rial, has weakened against the afghani and is at record lows against the U.S. dollar, which is widely used in Afghanistan. August 1 (Reuters) After Siamak Namazi was arrested in Tehran in 2015, his family faced a wrenching choice: involve the diplomatic machinery of the U.S. government, speak out publicly about the arrest, or quietly work for his release through Iranian officials. Its the same dilemma diplomats and relatives grapple with each time a U.S. citizen is imprisoned in Iran. Theres no clear policy on whether families should publicize an arrest or remain quiet, current and former diplomats say, but rather an ad hoc mix of what the family wants and the inclinations of U.S. negotiators. Still, American diplomats have often advised family members that publicizing arrests could upend chances for release. Hua Qu, the wife of Xiyue Wang, an American graduate student who has been imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years, says she received early guidance from the State Department after her husbands detention in August 2016: Keeping quiet could give Iran more flexibility to release Wang. In a statement on its website, Princeton said it kept Wangs arrest confidential on the recommendation of multiple knowledgeable advisers who counseled that publicity would likely impede efforts to secure Mr. Wangs release. Qu said she agreed. We were always hopeful that the Iranian authorities, they will just ultimately drop the case and let him go home at a certain point, she said in an interview in her apartment near Princetons campus last year. We actually didnt expect that the situation could last this long. Ultimately, the United States, Princeton and Wangs family kept his detention under wraps for nearly a year, even after he was convicted of espionage and sentenced in April 2017. It was the Iranian government that publicized his case last summer. In private diplomatic memos released by Wikileaks, American officials grappled with the nuances of whether to go public in individual cases. In one instance they described it as more effective to mount an international pressure campaign when the captive was a well-known journalist with a pregnant wife. But publicity was deemed harmful in another case partly because the Iranian-American worked for a nonprofit viewed with suspicion by Iran. Adding to the complication for families: Iranian authorities sometimes make promises about their loved ones quick release if only they keep quiet. They arrest someone and then they always tell the families, Oh dont tell anyone, this is a matter of one week or two weeks and then it will be resolved, said Bijan Khajehpour, a relative and former business partner of Siamak Namazi. Khajehpour was himself jailed in Iran in 2009. Iran historian Shaul Bakhash, the husband of Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar arrested by Iranian authorities in 2007, said its always wrong to stay quiet. Esfandiari was prevented from leaving the country and regularly interrogated. Initially, Bakhash said, the family kept quiet. But when she was arrested, he broadcast that Iran had arrested a grandmother in her 60s on vague charges. Its important for the Iranian authorities to realize that this kind of conduct is unacceptable by international standards, Bakhash said. By Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman (Editing by Ronnie Greene) Police in Kabul have recovered the bodies of three foreign nationals who were abducted and killed in the Afghan capital, local officials say. The three foreigners include an Indian national, a Malaysian, and a citizen of Macedonia, Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrtat Rahimi told RFE/RL on August 2. The Kabul police chief's spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzia, said the bodies were left in Mussahi, a volatile area of the city. "At this stage we think it is a terrorist incident," he added. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the abductions and killing. A police officer, Jan Aga, was quoted as saying that the three foreigners worked as cooks at the Kabul airport. With reporting by AP and AFP A new round of anti-government demonstrations has been taking place in major Iranian cities for the third day on August 2, with demonstrators chanting slogans against the dictatorship, clerical rule, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Demonstrators also called for the release of political prisoners. Reports from Iran on August 2 said protests in Isfahan continued for the third day, while the unrest had spread to other major cities including Shiraz, Mashhad, and Karaj as well as others. Videos published on social media showed police attempting to disperse demonstrations with tear gas, pepper gas, paintball guns, and water cannons. Protests raged in Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Karaj, Sari, Bandar Abbas, and Ahvaz as social media activists broadcast the events live. In Mashhad, where hard-liners rule, an IRGC general reportedly went among protesters and shifted their slogans from anti-regime chants to slogans against high prices and the Rouhani administration's inefficiency. Reports say police had clashed with demonstrators in Shapoor district of Isfahan. In Shahinshahr, near Isfahan, women were demonstrating against economic hardships and compulsory hijab, and called on Iranians in other cities to support them. In Karaj, a densely populated city near Tehran, demonstrators gathered around the notorious Rajaishahr Prison, where political prisoners are kept next to criminals, chanting slogans about the people's will to open the gates of the prison and free political prisoners. Later reports said police had dispersed demonstrators and were guarding the prison. Elsewhere in Karaj, demonstrators attacked the IRGC-linked militia dispatched to suppress demonstrations and set fire to a militiaman's motorbike. Reports from Tehran said anti-riot police had been deployed to major squares such as Tajrish and Vanak. Iranian analyst Mehdi Mahdavi Azad told Radio Farda that anti-government demonstrations have been going on since last December when the first wave of unrest erupted. Mahdavi Azad said that in this new round of unrest, the slogans are more sharply focused on the regime, although there is also discontent about the ongoing economic crisis markedly manifested in rising prices and dramatic turbulence in the rates of exchange. Although initial slogans chanted by demonstrators reflected their unhappiness about discrimination and economic hardship, during the past three days slogans have been more political and focused on the dictatorship, clerical rule, and the role of Khamenei, Mahdavi Azad said. He said one of the reasons for this could be the fact that the middle class is joining the underprivileged in the demonstrations as the decline in the value of the rial has made more people poor. According to Mahdavi Azad, in this round of demonstrations, social media has empowered the demonstrators, who have been using social networking tools more effectively to mobilize other groups to take to the streets. However, the government is still in denial of the root causes of the discontent and blames foreign governments, while continuing its usual suppression. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 Trend: Azerbaijan's Food Safety Agency has warned the population about viral diseases of animals and poultry that can spread to Azerbaijan from other countries, said a message from the agency. "The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N8) among poultry in Ryazan, Samara, Tula, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in Tatarstan and Chuvashia, and nodular dermatitis in cattle in Samara Region of Russia has been revealed. In this regard, import of poultry and poultry products from the Ryazan, Samara, Tula, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as Tatarstan and Chuvashia has been temporarily limited. Due to the fact that cattle in the Samara region have been diagnosed with nodular dermatitis, legal entities and individuals who have applied for imported cattle from Russia must take into account the relevant requirements of the World Organization for Animal Health, " the report said. The Food Safety Agency sent an appeal to the State Customs Committee in connection with disinfection of vehicles from the Ryazan, Samara, Tula, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as from Tatarstan and Chuvashia Republics of the Russian Federation, or vehicles passing through these territories at customs checkpoints. Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2 Trend: The OSCE monitoring held in the direction of Azerbaijans Fizuli district at the line of contact between the troops of Azerbaijan and Armenia on Aug. 2 passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Aug. 2. The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative. On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by Ognyen Yovic and Mikhail Olaru, field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative. On the Azerbaijani territories, occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring was held by Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office on the conflict Andrzej Kasprzyk and his field assistant Gennady Petrica. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 Trend: Azerbaijan and Afghanistan signed a protocol on cooperation in defense industry, Ministry of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan said in a message. The signing took place on August 1 at a meeting in Baku between Deputy Minister of Defense Industry Yahya Musayev and members of a delegation headed by Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Afghanistan for CIS Countries Mohammad Shakir Kargar. During the talks, the sides discussed the directions of cooperation in the defense industry and other issues of mutual interest. Representatives of the Afghan Embassy in Azerbaijan attended the meeting. The delegation visited the enterprises of the Ministry of Defense Industry and watched the production process during the visit. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: Yerevan's contradictory statements on the Karabakh conflict's settlement do not give grounds to say that the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will be easy and will solve many issues, Azerbaijani political scientist, Professor of the West Caspian University Fikret Sadikhov told Trend, commenting on the upcoming meeting of the FMs on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The government of Armenia aims at bringing Karabakh separatists to the negotiation process, and at the same time Yerevan is talking about peace and making unclear statements about resolution of the conflict, the political scientist said. "In addition, we should not forget that this is not a special meeting organized within the Minsk Group - it is held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where many meetings, unfortunately, are of formal nature very often. But I think that the meeting with the Armenian foreign minister gives us another opportunity to deliver to the Armenian side our principled and clear position based on the norms and principles of international law to resolve the long-term conflict. The Armenian side should understand that the Armenian soldier has nothing to do in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. And there can be no agreement while Armenian servicemen are in the territory of Azerbaijan. I think our minister will deliver this position of the Azerbaijani side at the professional level so that Yerevan has a full and final understanding of what the Azerbaijani side demands," he said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.2 Trend: U.S. Charge dAffaires William Gill and Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Jaidev Singh met with Fatimat Agamirzayeva, one of Azerbaijans first woman entrepreneurs and the manager of a USAID-supported carpet-weaving workshop in the mountainous village of Alpan, and discussed economic opportunities for women on July 29. The workshop employs women in Alpan and three neighboring communities of Uzunmeshe, Kurkun and Susay, and preserves Azerbaijans ancient carpet-weaving tradition by training local woman in the art of weaving. The carpet-weaving workshop is one of 120 projects implemented in 105 communities across Azerbaijan with funding from USAID and the Azerbaijani government as part of USAIDs Socio-Economic Development Activity (SEDA). Charge dAffaires Gill and Director Singh also visited a new USAID agricultural training center in the Nugedi village July 30 for fruit growers in Guba-Khachmaz region. The center helps growers improve their orchards, protect their fruit against pests and diseases, and monitor for invasive pests such as the brown marmorated stink bug that have the potential to cause serious damage to crops in Azerbaijan. With USAID assistance, farmers in the region established five new high-density orchards which produce 3-4 times more fruit than traditional orchards. USAIDs agricultural assistance boosts the productivity and competitiveness of Azerbaijani agriculture, accelerating the development of Azerbaijans non-oil economy. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 Trend: The work to implement the order of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev "On measures to prepare design estimates, overhaul and construction of the Baku suburban railway line," signed March 2018, is being carried out at an accelerated pace, the press service of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said in a report Aug. 2. Currently, the work is being carried out in several directions. Capital Repair LLC is renovating the power supply system on the Baku-Sumgait-Baku ring railroad. At the moment railway contact network is being reconstructed on the Guzdek-Sumgait section, and 69 piles, 6 reinforced concrete piles, 6 anchor piles, 41 cantilever piles, 3 cavity ties have been installed, Abbas Gemberov, head of Capital Repair LLC, told Trend. The construction is still underway. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.2 By Ali Mustafayev - Trend: Azerbaijan plans to increase its exports to Russia by the end of 2018, trade representative of Azerbaijan to Russia Ruslan Aliyev told Trend. "The main share in the increase in exports will fall on fruits and vegetables (persimmon, hazelnuts, tomatoes, potatoes), jet kerosene, cotton, aluminum and others," Aliyev said. He also noted that it is planned to open new wine houses of Azerbaijan in Russia in the near future. "In particular, wine houses are planned to be opened in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan and Yekaterinburg," Aliyev said. The products worth $349.23 million were exported from Azerbaijan to Russia from January to June 2018, which is 5.76 percent more than in 1H2017. The volume of imports from Russia, in turn, amounted to $788.21 million, which is 0.29 percent more than in the first six months of 2017. Russia has been included in the list of Azerbaijan's five largest trade partners in January-June 2018 with the volume of trade turnover of $ 1.14 billion (8.54 percent of the total volume of trade turnover). In addition to Russia, this list includes Italy with a trade turnover of $2.07 billion and a specific weight of 15.52 percent, Turkey-$1.41 billion (10.61 percent), Israel $723.01 million (5.43 percent) and Germany $665.05 million (4.99 percent). Follow the author on Twitter: @Ali_Mustafayev Tehran, Iran, August 2 By A. Shirazi - Trend: The head of Iran Fisheries Organization said the country is ready to export various kinds of seafood products to Georgia. During a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Georgia Javad Ghavam Shahidi, Hassan Salehi said, We are ready to ship seafood products to Georgia. Iran can also offer technical and engineering services as well as training programs on fish farming, he added, according to the official website of Irans Agriculture Ministry. The two sides agreed to pursue the issue in the future by exchanging state and private delegations. Since 2015, Iran has reportedly been exporting fishery products, including shrimp, trout, other varieties of fish, and canned products to a number of countries in the region, including Russia. Iran Fisheries Organization has defined projects in the fields of aquaculture, fishing, processing, marketing and trade, for which it supports domestic and foreign investments. Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2 Trend: Two privately-owned Iranian banks, Parsian and Saman, plan to open branches in India, Chairman of Iran-India Business Council (IIBC) Ebrahim Jamili said. "Saman Bank and Bank Pasargad of Iran will open two branches in India in the near future," Jamili told ILNA news agency on July 31. He added that this could to a great extent help Iranian merchants As it could open up a significant financial channel that will ensure the smooth flow of funds between the two countries following the returning US sanctions and amid potential blockade of bank accounts. The official said the two sides are also exploring the possibility of reviving the rupee-rial arrangement in the wake of the sanctions. India has always remained committed to its obligations even during the sanctions era, Jamili stressed. The first set of Washingtons sanctions will take effect on Aug. 6, and the rest, notably in the petroleum sector, following a 180-day "wind-down period" ending on Nov. 4. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 By Fikret Dolukhanov Trend: From Sept. 1, 2018, land plots in Uzbekistan may be withdrawn for state and public needs only after open discussion with owners, as well as assessing the benefits and costs. The corresponding order came into force on Aug. 1, 2018 on the basis of the president's decree on improving the investment climate in Uzbekistan. According to the document, the demolition of residential and industrial premises, as well as other buildings and structures belonging to individuals and legal entities with the seizure of land is permitted only after full recovery of the market value of real estate and losses caused to owners due to the withdrawal. The decree also limits the cases in which it is possible to withdraw lands for state and public needs. The adopted document is aimed at improving the investment climate in the country, encouraging attraction of direct investments, strengthening investors' confidence in consistency of state policy in this direction and increasing responsibility of government agencies in working with investors. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Ten stores under Ukrainian products brand are planned to open in Azerbaijan till the end of 2018, Ukraines Ministry of Economic Development and Trade told Trend Aug. 2. Presently, eight stores operate in Baku, three of which opened in the second quarter of this year. Monthly sales volumes reach about 300 tons of products. At the same time, not only the number of stores of Ukrainian products but also the number of countries where such stores will open are expected to increase. So, new stores will also open in Azerbaijans Sumgait, Ganja and Mingachevir cities. "The product range is also expected to be expanded due to the supply of bakery, confectionery, canning, vegetable products and soft drinks to Azerbaijan," the ministry added. The ministry also spoke about plans to open Ukraines Trade House in Azerbaijan. The corresponding legal entity - Ukraine Trade House LLC - has already passed registration in the country. "Negotiations are underway with Ukrainian companies to conclude agreements on cooperation within the trade house with the purpose of creating the authorized capital and making financial contributions to rent premises in Baku and attract staff," the ministry said. Azerbaijan and Ukraine have been actively developing economic cooperation recently. Azerbaijans first trade house opened in Kiev in June 2018. Similar trade houses are planned to open in other cities of the country. Direct investments from Ukraine to Azerbaijan exceed $25 million, while from Azerbaijan to Ukraine - $200 million. Ukraine is one of the main trade and economic partners of Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine amounted to $343.87 million in Jan.-June 2018, while $197.3 million accounted for the import of Ukrainian products. Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2 Trend: Russias company together with the Minsk Tractor Works will commission a plant for the production of Kirovets tractors in Kazakhstans Kostanay region, the Kazakh media cited deputy head of local government in Kostanay region Meirzhan Myrzaliev as saying Aug. 2. "A plant for the assembly of tractors will be commissioned at the site of the plant for the production of elevators," he said. The plant intends to produce up to 3,000 tractors a year. A plant for the production of elevators is planned to be commissioned on the basis of the Kostanay industrial zone. The elevator production project was cancelled due to financial problems of Yekaterinburgs VEK company. "The Russian side planned to launch the production of elevators this summer, Myrzaliev said. But Yekaterinburgs company left the project probably due to a lack of current assets, that is, at first the company had intentions, but in the end it refused." Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, August 2 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: Turkmen entrepreneurs are ready to consider the possibility of joint extraction and processing of mineral resources in Kyrgyzstan, the Turkmengas State Concern said in a message. This was announced recently during the Ashgabat meeting of the Turkmen-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian cooperation. Chairman of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan (UIET) and the Intergovernmental Commission from the Turkmen side Alexander Dadaev also spoke about cooperation in the agro-industrial sector and in the field of establishment of processing enterprises. Following the meeting, an agreement was reached to support the establishment of joint ventures focused on the markets of the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and China. "Today, we have all the opportunities to implement joint projects with access to a fairly capacious consumer markets, in particular the EAEU, where we can sell products manufactured jointly, without paying any duties," the message quoted Oleg Pankratov, Minister of Economy of Kyrgyzstan and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission of the Kyrgyz side as saying. The parties also discussed priority areas of cooperation in the field of industry and transport. Turkmenistan holds a key position in the region for natural gas supplies. China is a major importer of Turkmen gas. Ashgabat and Bishkek are involved in a major project to deliver Central Asian gas to China, primarily from Turkmenistan. China's CNPC company has been purchasing natural fuel in the region since 2009, after launching the first two gas pipeline branches (A and B) beginning from Turkmenistan and passing through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The third branch (C) was put into operation recently, which also runs along the same route. A project is being developed currently for the construction of an additional fourth branch (D) along new transit route - through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Russian oil output rose by 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July from a month earlier, surpassing the amount Moscow had promised to add following a meeting of global oil producers in Vienna in June, energy ministry data showed on Thursday, Reuters reports. Under an initial deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers, Moscow had agreed to cut 300,000 bpd from the production level of 11.247 million bpd Russia reached in October 2016. When oil prices subsequently rose, the producers decided on June 22 to increase their combined output by 1 million bpd, of which Russia was to contribute 200,000 bpd starting on July 1. According to the ministry data, Russian oil production rose to 47.429 million tonnes in July versus 45.276 million in June. In barrel terms, output reached 11.21 million bpd, up from 11.06 million bpd in June. That brings the combined Russian increase to 263,000 bpd compared to the initial cut agreed two years ago. According to the energy ministrys data, which excludes some of the companies units, almost all Russian firms showed an increase last month. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday higher production by Moscow was aimed at maintaining stability of the (global) oil market within the framework of joint actions of OPEC and non-OPEC countries. Initially, OPEC and non-OPEC producers agreed on a combined reduction of 1.8 million bpd. However, lower production by a number of countries deepened the cuts, raising fears of global oil shortages and a potential spike in prices. At the June 22 meeting, OPEC agreed to boost output by returning to 100 percent compliance with the oil output cuts that took effect in January 2017, after months of underproduction by countries including Venezuela and Angola. Last week, Novak said Russia planned to increase its production by 200,000-250,000 bpd and that the OPEC+ group led by Russia and Saudi Arabia would meet in September to discuss the current deal. Sources told Reuters last month that Russia has used stocks held in tanks at its oilfields to boost production, yet, the specific amount which may have been used was unknown. Sources estimated that Russia has a combined spare capacity of around 200,000 bpd which may be used to hold oil stocks. Although not large compared to some countries such as the United States, which may release stocks to bring oil prices down if needed, it shows Russia still has supply flexibility. Novak said last week that Russia did not have a huge spare capacity to hold stocks like the United States but added that Transneft, the state oil pipeline monopoly, had spare capacity for technological processes. He declined to give figures. The Energy Ministry also said gas production in July came to 53.92 billion cubic meters (bcm), or 1.74 bcm a day, versus 53.57 bcm in June. On Wednesday, Russias Gazprom said separately its gas production last month was at 36 bcm. Oil prices went up on Thursday as a report showed that crude inventories at a major U.S. storage hub declined recently, Xinhua reported. U.S. energy information provider Genscape said on Thursday that crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma dropped 1.1 million barrels since July 27. Traders have been looking closely to the U.S. stockpiles as the number rose unexpectedly in the week ending July 27, raising concerns that the market is becoming oversupplied. Analysts said Thursday's data suggests that last week's increase might have been an anomaly and the total U.S. stockpiles will return to normal in the coming weeks. Such expectations supported the oil prices on Thursday. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery gained 1.30 U.S. dollars to settle at 68.96 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for October delivery added 1.06 dollars to close at 73.45 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The launch of Azerbaijan's second geostationary satellite Azerspace 2/Intelsat 38 has been scheduled for September 2018, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Azercosmos OJSC Rashad Nabiyev told the breaking-news program The John Batchelor Show. Nabiyev noted that Azerbaijan currently has two satellites in orbit - Azerspace-1, which provides telecommunications services for Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as AzerSky, which provides services around the world, including to such largest American companies as Google. The Azercosmos CEO talked in the interview about the activities of the company led by him, the support provided by the company for the development of human resources in the space industry, global trends in this industry. Nabiyev believes that the market of space services is changing rapidly, and startups are beginning to play an increasingly great role in this sector. It was reported earlier that the launch Azerspace 2 /Intelsat 38 satellite will be carried out from the Kourou space center in French Guiana. The satellite will be launched into geostationary orbit at 45 degrees east longitude. Its service zone will include countries of Europe, Central and South Asia, Middle East and Africa. The satellite manufacturer is a subsidiary of the Canadian corporation MDA-Space Systems Loral (SSL), which is also a supplier of spacecraft control systems. The first communications satellite Azerspace/Africasat 1a was launched into geostationary orbit at 46 degrees east longitude on Feb. 8, 2013. The satellite was launched from the Kourou space base by Arianespace. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: The number of tourists visiting the national parks of Azerbaijan increased significantly in the summer, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said in a statement August 2. The number of tourists who visited the national parks of the country in July this year exceeded the number for six months of this year (24,261 tourists, including 21,223 - local, 3,038 - foreign citizens). Some 104 tourism routes, which differ in content and diversity, are functioning in nine national parks, which are favorable areas for ecotourism. Tourists can buy tickets to all national parks online on the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources at eco.gov.az. Ticket offices are also functioning at the entrances of the parks. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 Trend: Tajikistan has increased wheat imports from Kazakhstan by 65,000 tons in the first half of this year, which exceeds the indicator for the same period last year by 15 percent, the Antimonopoly Service under the Government of Tajikistan said in a statement Aug. 2. More than 500,000 tons of wheat, worth an average of $169 per ton, have been exported from Kazakhstan to Tajikistan in six months. The Kazakh wheat is mainly used for the production of flour in Tajikistan. The share of the domestically produced flour in the consumer market of Tajikistan reached 95.8 percent in the first half of this year, according to the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, August 2 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: Turkmenistan attaches special importance to the development and adoption of the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan Dovlet Khabarlary state news agency quoted President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov as saying. The issue of participation of the delegation of Turkmenistan in the upcoming fifth summit of the heads of the Caspian states in Aktau (Kazakhstan) on August 12 was discussed at the last government meeting in Ashgabat. Noting the special importance attached to the development and adoption of the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, being a basic document designed to create a reliable legal foundation for long-term multifaceted cooperation, Berdimuhamedov said Turkmenistan has always supported the solution of all related issues on the basis of mutual respect and universally recognized norms of international law. A meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the Caspian states was held in 1996 in Ashgabat, at which a special working group on this issue was formed, the message says. Ashgabat became the venue for the first summit of the Caspian states in 2002. Its results formed the basis of important decisions taken at the summits in Tehran, Baku and Astrakhan, held in 2007, 2010 and 2014, respectively. Turkmenistan regularly puts forward concrete proposals aimed at optimizing mutually beneficial cooperation between the five coastal countries, acting as a consistent supporter of the diversification of trade and economic relations, the expansion of contacts in the environmental sphere, the effective implementation of the huge natural resource, transport, energy and industry potential, which the strategic Caspian region possesses, said the report. Earlier, the Turkmengas State Concern said the completion of work on the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea has significantly increased the investment attractiveness of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Negotiations on the delivery of Turkmen gas to Europe have been underway since 2011. The Southern Gas Corridor, which includes the Trans-Caspian project as well, remains a priority for the EU. The ministers of energy of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic signed the Ashgabat Declaration on energy in May 2015. The project of laying a 300-kilometer gas pipeline along the Caspian Sea bottom to the shores of Azerbaijan, as previously noted by the interested parties, is optimal for the delivery of Turkmen resources to the European market. Further, Turkmen fuel can be delivered to Turkey, which borders with European countries. The Chairman of the Turkmengas State Concern Myrat Archiev drew attention to the fact that Turkmenistan continues to work on the project of construction of Trans-Caspian gas pipeline in early May of 2018 at the International Gas Congress in Avaza city. "The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project has not been removed from the agenda," the chairman said, noting that the East-West main domestic pipeline designed for export supplies as well, has already been laid in this context in Turkmenistan. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 2 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan pay great attention to efforts to resolve the Caspian issues, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said in Ashgabat at a meeting with Kazakhstan's Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Zhandos Asanov, the Turkmen government said in a report. "Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are connected with long-standing ties of friendship and productive cooperation," the ambassador stressed. "Special attention is also paid to efforts to resolve the Caspian issues. Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are strategic partners, as evidenced by the treaty signed in April 2017 in Astana." The sides noted the existence of significant potential for building up interaction in trade and economy, transport, communications and energy sector, the Turkmen state agency TDH reported. A Turkmen delegation's participation in the 5th summit of the heads of the Caspian states, which is to be held in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Aug. 12, was discussed at the last government meeting in Ashgabat. Ashgabat and Astana regularly discuss partnership in the gas sector and the development of cross-border mineral deposits. Kazakhstan is involved in a major project for the delivery of Central Asian gas to China. CNPC has been purchasing Turkmen fuel from 2009 through the territory of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Among other significant areas of cooperation, there is the transport sector. A project to build a transnational Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was completed in December 2014. Goods can be transported without any restrictions to the countries of the Persian Gulf, to the Indian Ocean and to Europe thanks to this route. Kazakhstan joined the Central Asia-Middle East (Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman) transport corridor project in 2016. The new corridor will allow the Central Asian countries to connect to the ports of the Persian and Oman gulfs through optimal routes in the future. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, August 2 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Representatives of the State Environmental Committee on Environmental Protection and Land Resources of Turkmenistan, the Mejlis (parliament), Ministry of Justice and other relevant agencies of Turkmenistan discussed the development of national environmental legislation at an OSCE-organized seminar held on July 30-31, 2018 in Ashgabat, the OSCE Ashgabat office said in a message. The seminar aimed to provide insights into international legislative provisions and standards in the area of environmental protection and to discuss possible steps for further development of national legislation in this area. International experts elaborated on strategies and policies in the area of environmental protection, resources management and climate change and shared best practices in the OSCE region and EU countries. The seminar addressed the legal regulation of waste management, access to drinking water and sanitation. Best national practices of the implementation of relevant international commitments were also discussed. The seminar was held as part of the Centres project Strengthening cooperation with the host country in the area of environmental protection and ecological security. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 2 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: July can be considered as one of the relatively calm months for Turkey this year. The main events of July are the inauguration of President Erdogan, the announcement of the new composition of Cabinet of Ministers, as well as the aggravation of relations with the US due to the American priest convicted in Turkey. US plans to deploy guided B61-12 nuclear bombs in Turkey The US plans to deploy guided B61-12 nuclear bombs in Turkey, and the US delegation was to visit Ankara in early July to discuss the issue. On July 2, the National Nuclear Security Administration under the US Department of Energy and the US Air Force completed the tests of the B61-12 nuclear bomb by dropping a dud from a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. The tests were carried out at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. Turkey reduces import dependency in defense industry The share of domestic production in the Turkish defense industry is 60 percent, a source in the Turkish government told Trend. Over the past 16 years, Turkey managed to reduce its dependence on imports of defense products from 80 to 40 percent, according to the source. Turkey also exports products of the national defense industry to a number of countries. Presently, the export of Turkish defense products exceeds $160 billion. The country has invested about $35 billion in the defense industry in recent years. Turkey may introduce death penalty against pedophiles Spokesman and Deputy Chairman of the Justice and Development Party of Turkey Mahir Unal said that Turkey is considering introduction of the death penalty against pedophiles, as well as their castration. Unal noted that the protection of children will be provided at the highest level in Turkey. He also noted that death penalty and castration of pedophiles will be discussed by the Turkish parliament once again. In case of adoption of the law on castration of pedophiles, they will also face imprisonment for a period from 20 to 40 years. Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) advocated for the castration of pedophiles, explaining that there is already such a practice in a number of other countries. Turkey establishes new agency for nuclear energy sector A new state agency was established in Turkey to regulate the nuclear energy sector. The staff of the new state agency will consist of 199 employees. In particular, the new state agency will employ 116 specialists in nuclear technologies. In early April, the Turkish province of Mersin hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Turkey's first nuclear power plant Akkuyu, which was attended by the presidents of Turkey and Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. The agreement on the construction of Akkuyu was signed on May 12, 2010 in Ankara between the Russian and Turkish governments, and on December 13 of the same year the Akkuyu Nuclear JSC was registered. The cost of the project is estimated at $20 billion. President Erdogan's inauguration Inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took place on July 9 in Turkey, which was attended by the heads of state and government of a number of countries. On July 4, the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) announced the final results of the parliamentary and presidential elections, which took place on June 24. Erdogan gained 52.59 percent of the votes in the presidential election, according to the YSK. Muharrem Ince from the Republican Peoples Party (CHP) gained 30.64 percent of the votes, Meral Aksener from the Good Party (Iyi Parti) - 7.29 percent, Selahattin Demirtas from the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) - 8.4 percent, Temel Karamollaoglu from the Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi) - 0.89 percent, and Dogu Perincek from the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi) - 0.2 percent. Adnan Oktar, known as Harun Yahya, detained Turkish police conducted a major operation to detain Adnan Oktar, better known as Harun Yahya, two days after the inauguration of President Erdogan. Along with Oktar, his 235 supporters were also detained. Oktar is accused of harassment, money laundering, participation in organized crime, as well as espionage. All property, companies and TV channels of Oktar were confiscated. Turkish General Staff will merge with Ministry of Defense Turkey has been conducting active reforms in various areas, including in the military sphere in recent years. One of the reforms is the merger of the General Staff with the Ministry of Defense. According to Erdogan, this issue was put on the agenda in 2014 and it is wrong that there are two different institutions responsible for defense in such a strong country as Turkey. "The merger of the Turkish General Staff with the Defense Ministry will further strengthen the country," Erdogan said. Turkey keen to supply armored vehicles to Qatar Turkish military company Nurol Makina began preparations for the mass production of light armored vehicle Yoruk 4x4. The first armored vehicle with the basic list of equipment has already rolled off the production line of the enterprise. The list of equipment of the armored vehicle will vary depending on the requirements of customers. Several modifications of Yoruk 4x4 vehicle have already been prepared for export to Qatar. Turkey, Netherlands restore diplomatic relations Turkey and the Netherlands decided to restore diplomatic relations. Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok wrote a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and Cavusoglu called his Dutch counterpart. During the phone conversation, the ministers agreed to normalize the diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey. The ministers agreed to reinstate ambassadors in Ankara and The Hague shortly. The Dutch minister of foreign affairs will pay an official visit to Turkey in the second half of 2018. The relations between Turkey and the Netherlands deteriorated in March 2017 after the cancellation of the visit of Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the Netherlands. The minister planned to attend a rally in the city of Rotterdam to inform Turks residing in that country about the constitutional amendments to be put to a referendum on April 16 in Turkey. After that, in March 2017, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced as undesirable the return to the country from vacation of the ambassador of the Netherlands. The Dutch Foreign Ministry officially withdrew its ambassador from Turkey in February 2018. Ankara does not join the anti-Iran sanctions Turkey does not intend to stop relations with Iran and join anti-Iran sanctions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Turkey believes that sanctions against Iran are unacceptable, Erdogan said. "Iran is one of the important strategic partners for us," the Turkish president said. He stressed the high level of relations between Turkey and Iran, noting that this level will be maintained in the future as well. Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced that the US is withdrawing from Iran's nuclear agreement with the six international mediators (Russia, the US, the UK, China, France, Germany). Trump also announced the restoration of all sanctions which were suspended as a result of the deal. Ankara responds to US threats Trump promised to impose "large sanctions" against Turkey for detainment of American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is accused of aiding the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016. "The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!" Trump tweeted. The US will not achieve anything by threatening Turkey, the Administration of the President of Turkey told Trend earlier. The Administration noted that Turkey is a democratic country and demands from the United States respect its laws. "The United States has not yet taken steps to extradite the leader of the terrorist organization FETO, Fethullah Gulen," the Administration of the President of Turkey said. A court in the Turkish province of Izmir decided July 25 to transfer American Pastor Andrew Brunson under house arrest. Ankara suspects him of aiding the coup attempt in 2016. Branson has also been prohibited to leave the territory of Turkey by the court decision dated July 25. A hearing on Brunsons case has been scheduled for October 12. Opposition party on the brink of split The opposition Republican People's Party of Turkey (CHP) will hold an extraordinary congress to elect a new leader. The congress will be held within the next 45 days. A number of the CHP members accuse the party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of unsuccessful policy after the parliamentary and presidential elections, held in Turkey on June 24, and demand him to leave his position in favor of Muharrem Ince, whose candidacy was previously nominated for the position of president. --- Rufiz Hafizoglu, deputy editor-in-chief of Trend Follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu The President of Georgia has pardoned 83 convicts today, the Chairperson of the Pardon Commission Zviad Koridze stated at a press conference, Agenda reports. The commission examined the cases of 976 convicts between July 23 and July 29 and then sent their recommendations to the president. 40 prisoners will leave the penitentiary institution today, while the sentences of the other 43 will be mitigated. Koridze stated that there are three women and a minor among the pardoned prisoners. The Arab coalition carried out an airstrike on a hospital in the Yemeni Red Sea port of Hodeidah, killing 42 people, Al Masirah reported on Thursday, Sputnik reported. According to the pro-Houthi Al Masirah broadcaster, more than 20 bodies of victims were transported to a military hospital. A spokesperson for the Houthi Healthcare Ministry said that the airstrike targeted ambulance cars at the entrance of the hospital. "The airstrikes were carried out on ambulance cars at the entrance to the Al Thawra hospital. All the victims were civilians," the spokesperson told the Al Jazeera broadcaster. The Al Thawra hospital reportedly called on local residents to help those injured by donating blood. On June 13, the Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, launched an offensive to seize the port of Hodeidah from the Shia Houthi rebels. The operation continues despite the UN warnings of a possible humanitarian catastrophe. Last week, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths held talks with the Houthis in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, but failed to persuade the rebels to withdraw from al Hodeidah. Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthi movement for several years. The Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015. Security of the western Libyan city of Zuwara, some 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, on Thursday rescued 27 illegal immigrants, including women, from drowning in the sea while crossing to Europe, Xinhua reported. "Anti-illegal immigration security teams of the Zuwara Security Directorate managed today to rescue 27 illegal immigrants from inevitable death," Zuwara Security Directorate said in a statement. The rescued immigrants are from different African and Arab nationalities, and include five women and a little girl, the statement said. The immigrants were provided with medical assistance, as the security services in the city started an investigation into the incident. On Wednesday, the Libyan navy announced rescuing 574 illegal immigrants off the country's western coast in three separate operations. Libya has become a preferred departure point for illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe due to insecurity and chaos in the North African country following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Improved weather conditions have increased the flow of migrant boats from Libya towards Europe, particularly off the country's western coast. China on Thursday called for a push to establish a peace mechanism for the Korean peninsula as well as denuclearization, Reuters reports. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he hoped the United States and North Korea - who agreed at a summit in June to end a nuclear standoff - would maintain contact and resolve each others concerns to have success in their talks. China, along with North Korea and the United States, is a signatory to the armistice that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. No peace treaty has been signed. We should, at the same time as realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, push forward with establishing a peace mechanism for the peninsula. These two have mutual influence on each other, Wang said in Singapore. Chinas Hainan Airlines on Thursday launched the first direct flight from Guangzhou to Tel Aviv, the airlines third Israel-China route opened in as many years, and said it was looking to start a fourth, Reuters reports. Hainan already operates flights to Israel from Beijing and Shanghai, and the company said it was considering opening this year a fourth route from technology hub Shenzhen in southern China. The Guangzhou route is flown by 787-900 Dreamliners three times a week. A record 3.6 million tourists came to Israel in 2017. About 114,000 were from China, a 41 percent jump from the previous year, Hainan said. The opening of the route is an important layer in the strengthening of commercial, economic and tourism ties between China and Israel, Israels Transportation Minister Israel Katz said. Singaporean President Halimah Yacob met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Thursday, promising to deepen bilateral cooperation, Xinhua reported. Halimah Yacob noted that Singapore and China have enjoyed friendly ties and bilateral cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results. She hoped that the two countries would explore new ways of expanding the mutually beneficial cooperation and speeding up the talks on bilateral free trade agreement. Wang Yi, for his part, said this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up as well as late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's visit to Singapore, adding that Singapore has made contributions to China's reform and opening-up in different stages. Wang said China appreciated the fact that Singapore was among the earliest countries to actively support and respond to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. He expressed the belief that China and Singapore's commitment to building the Belt and Road together would not only open up new prospects for the bilateral relations, but also inject new impetus into Singapore's development. Israels defense minister described Syrias return to its pre-civil war situation as a given on Thursday, and predicted that the Golan Heights frontier would be quieter with Syrian President Bashar al-Assads central rule restored, Reuters reports. From our perspective, the situation is returning to how it was before the civil war, meaning there is a real address, someone responsible, and central rule, Avigdor Lieberman told reporters. Asked whether Israelis should be less wary of potential Golan flare-ups, Lieberman said: I believe so. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug.2 Trend: Sarajevo Halal Fair (SHF) 2018, an international halal industry fair, will be held 27-29 September in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Fair, which is organised by Bosna Bank International (BBI) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) with its THIQAH Business forum, was presented in Croatia. SHF team members Amel Kovacevic (Director of Retail at BBI Bank) and Dino Selimovic (Director of Marketing and Communications at BBI Bank) held a series of meetings with the support of Centre for Certification of Halal Quality of the Islamic Community in Croatia in order to promote this unique event in Southeast Europe. SHF is an opportunity for the whole region to join one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and we expect a group of prominent food brands and service providers to promote Croatia as a halal-friendly destination, said Aldin Dugonjic, the Head of the Certification of Halal Quality in Croatia. The Halal Certification Agency in Croatia and the Centre for Halal Certification in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the only two certification agencies in Southeast Europe that offer internationally recognized halal certificates. We are very satisfied with this visit. Croatia has a significant number of halal certified companies that have shown interest in Sarajevo Halal Fair. The halal industry in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina follow global trends, and the two countries have constant growth in the halal industry. SHF is a great platform for connecting suppliers and distributors from the markets where BBI has traditionally good relations. Our shareholders come from this part of the world, and we have good connections with those markets as well as regional markets. We thus have the potential to connect these markets and prove our regional potential to offer high-quality halal products and services, said Amel Kovacevic, who invited halal-certified Croatian companies to exhibit at the Sarajevo Halal Fair 2018, emphasizing that a large number of business representatives are expected from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, EU member countries and other large markets. The Sarajevo Halal Fair (SHF) will gather halal producers, service providers, distributors and suppliers from around the world. More information about the event and exhibition opportunities are available from the official SHF website: http://www.sarajevohalalfair.com. Following the official announcement of Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory in Zimbabwe's presidential election, members of rival party the MDC alliance were removed by the local police from the Electoral Commission (ZEC) after their rejection of the final outcome, Sputnik reported. The leader of the ruling ZANU PF party, Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa secured the support of over 2,46 million voters, while Nelson Chamisa is behind with 2.15 million votes, Electoral Commissions chair Priscilla Chigumba said at a press conference. However, the spokesman of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgen Komichi said on Friday the party rejected the results of the country's presidential election minutes before President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared winner, Reuters reported. Komichi made the improptu televised statement at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. He said the MDC could not verify the results before being removed by local police. Zimbabwe's incumbent leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former spy chief installed after Robert Mugabe's removal in a coup last year, was re-elected as president on Friday, having secured 50.8 percent of the vote, Priscilla Chigumba, chair of Zimbabwean Electoral Commission, announced the long-awaited results of Monday's general elections at a press conference. His challenger Nelson Chamisa, of the opposition MDC Alliance, came second with 44.3 percent of the vote, according to the final results. On Monday, Zimbabweans took part in the first presidential and parliamentary elections since long-time leader Robert Mugabe's removal from power. On Tuesday, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa claimed that he won the election. Earlier in the day, Nelson Chamisa slammed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for postponing the release of the presidential election results as it is involved in "rigging" and "manipulation." Zimbabwe's capital city of Harare was hit with protests after preliminary results released by ZEC showed that ZANU-PF won a majority of seats in parliament. The MDC Alliance secured 64 seats in the National Assembly, according to ZEC. The countrys authorities sent military vehicles to Harare after the outbreak of protests. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters. At least 6 people were reportedly killed during violent protests. Baku, Azerbaijan, August 2 Trend: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the draft agreement between the governments of the Caspian states on cooperation in the field of transport, instructed to negotiate and sign that agreement. the order signed by Medvedev, published August 2 on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Russia says, TASS news agency reported. "To instruct the Ministry of Transport of Russia together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia to hold negotiations with Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and upon reaching an agreement to sign on behalf of the government of the Russian Federation the said agreement, allowing, if necessary, to make in the attached draft agreement the changes that are not of fundamental nature", the document says. The purpose of the future agreement is "the formation and development of the Caspian Sea region as a major international transport and logistics hub with a developed infrastructure and a high level of interaction between the parties in international transportation," the explanatory note says. It is also noted that if the agreement is signed, its implementation will contribute to "the development of cooperation in the field of transport between the Caspian states". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during a trip to Singapore, the ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reports. The ministers spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Football second division side Cologne is briefly before returning to the elite class of German football. But what comes then? Who will be coach? What players come? The rise in the first Bundesliga is always the aim for the big clubs in the second division. So also at the Club from the Cathedral City. For the Cologne it looks-very bright with only five remaining games and second place in the table. Nevertheless, the mood in the environment is tarnished. The situation is too unclear. What will become of the trainer? What made the team? May the team in the first be League? So many questions now zip the FC fans through the head and everyone has his own ideas and solutions at hand. But when one are all sure rises FC and coach Christoph Daum leaving the Club. For more specific information, check out busy bodies. When it comes to the will of the fans they would prefer the ZDF national coach"Jurgen Klopp to Cologne to get. It might work if the goat bucks against Mainz win their last home game and the troop of Klopp thus the rise of spoil. The young trainer brings everything with what they need in the Cathedral City. New ideas, it can be attractive play and can handle very well with young players. He could build a powerful team to make the class receipt. Filed under: dayton kingery. But to someone like Jurgen Klopp to Cologne? A coach with format, such as: they can't afford to pay Jose Mourinho at FC. It will remain only a dream of the fans. But fortunately, there are indeed many coaches without work. Mirko Slomka was released recently on Schalke and the sacking of Dortmund's Thomas doll is only a matter of time. Also a Hans Meyer would be an idea. Falko Gotz is a name which is not called. He is a young coach and has shown at the Hertha Berlin, what's in it. He would be, if Klopp won't, probably the cheapest and best solution for the goat bucks. No matter who will be the coach. It will certainly not be easy to form a team that can keep the class. The departure of top scorer Patrick seems too difficult to weigh helmet and also his strike partner Milivoje Novakovi seems to leave the Club to want to. Mathias Scherz is 36 years long over its zenith with its. It at least a striker of format is used, better two. In the midfield, the demand is also high. In addition to Roda Antar and Thomas Broich, two experienced players missing in order to compete in the elite class. The situation in defence is more relaxed. In addition to the experienced players Kevin McKenna, Youssef Mohammad, umit ozat and Aleksandar Mitreski, the young talents of Kevin Schoneberg and Tobias Nickenig have to develop time. The goalkeeper position is top notch with Faryd Mondragon and with Thomas Kessler is also a more ambitious successor behind him. However, the biggest problem is not in the team, but in the media. 1.FC Cologne must find a coach that comes clear with the very high desires of the Cologne media landscape and can also set up a team that creates the class receipt. Everything else would be just wishful thinking. But are yet to complete 5 gravity games. Probably we know only after the final day where the road leads the 1.FC Cologne and who they serves as a trainer. Who knows, maybe yes but remains Christoph Daum and the adventure turns Bundesliga". Russia will deploy its military police on the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel, its defense ministry said on Thursday, after weeks of mounting volatility in the area, Reuters reports. Syrian President Bashar al-Assads sweeping away of rebels in southwestern Syria has worried Israel, which believes it could allow his Iranian backers to entrench their troops close to the frontier. Underlining the tensions, Israel killed seven militants in an overnight air strike on the Syrian-held part of the Golan Heights, Israeli radio said on Thursday. Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian defense ministry official, said that Russian military police had on Thursday begun patrolling in the Golan Heights and planned to set up eight observation posts in the area. He said the Russian presence there was in support of United Nations peacekeepers on the Golan Heights who, he said, had suspended their activities in the area in 2012 because their safety was endangered. Today, UN peacekeepers accompanied by Russian military police conducted their first patrols in six years in the separation zone, Rudskoi told a briefing for journalists in Moscow. With the aim of preventing possible provocations against UN posts along the Bravo line, the deployment is planned of eight observation posts of Russias armed forces military police, Rudskoi said. He said the Russian presence there was temporary, and that the observation posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces once the situation stabilized. The deployment of the Russian military police highlights the degree to which the Kremlin has become an influential actor in Middle East conflicts since its military intervention in Syria which turned the tide of the war in Assads favor. The US Senate on Aug.1 passed the $716 billion National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2019. The measure passed with an 87-10 vote and now heads to US President Donald Trump's office to be signed into law, Sputnik reported. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the measure in a 359-54 vote. The measure also funds the Trump administrations request for Ukraine, which included $250 million for lethal defensive items. In addition, the bill adds $150 million to accelerate US efforts to field a conventional prompt strike capability before fiscal year 2022, in response to the critical advances Russia and China have made in developing their prompt strike hypersonic weapons. KYODO NEWS - Aug 2, 2018 - 11:39 | World, Feature, All The Australian government on Thursday condemned Japan's proposal to lift the global moratorium on commercial whaling, saying it will reject any attempts to undermine the ban. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and environment minister Josh Frydenberg said in a joint statement that Australia will call upon like-minded nations at the International Whaling Commission's next meeting in September to oppose Japan's proposal to restructure the IWC and make it easier to resume commercial whaling. "Australia remains steadfastly opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called 'scientific' whaling and continues to be a leader in seeking to strengthen the International Whaling Commission to protect whales," the statement read. "We strongly support the 30-year global moratorium on commercial whaling and will vehemently oppose any attempts to undermine the processes that support it, including through changed voting regimes or the establishment of catch-limits for commercial whaling." In July, Japan proposed resuming whaling of some species of relatively abundant whales. Tokyo also called for changes to the IWC's decision-making rules, reducing the amount of support required to move a motion from a three-fourths majority to a simple majority. Such a change would make it easier to establish a sanctuary where whaling is banned, for example. Such changes are expected to make the overall package more appealing to anti-whaling countries. Although Japan and Australia have forged a strong bilateral relationship, whaling remains a contentious issue, with Australia successfully taking Japan to the International Court of Justice over whaling in the Antarctic. Japan halted commercial whaling, in line with the global moratorium adopted by the IWC in 1982, but has hunted the mammals since 1987 for what it calls "scientific research purposes." However, the Australian government remains opposed to Japan's claims of "scientific" whaling. "The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them," the ministers' statement said. KYODO NEWS - Aug 2, 2018 - 07:55 | All, Urgent, World U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday he will contemplate more than doubling the proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent as instructed by President Donald Trump. "On June 18, the President directed me to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent, in response to China's decision to cause further harm to U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses by imposing retaliatory duties on U.S. goods," he said in a statement. "This week, the President has directed that I consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty from 10 percent to 25 percent. The 25 percent duty would be applied to the proposed list of products previously announced on July 10," he said. The move is the latest action to escalate a trade war between the world's two biggest economies that has already hurt U.S. farmer sales to one of their major markets and raised costs for many American manufacturers. Lighthizer's office will hold a hearing in late August. In view of the possible raise in tariff rate, the written comment period following the hearing will be extended to Sept. 5 from the previous deadline of Aug. 30. So far, the Trump administration has slapped additional 25 percent duties on $34 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing immediately retaliated with duties on the same value of U.S. goods. The U.S. tariffs, part of the first round of punitive measures on $50 billion in Chinese goods, are based on the administration's Section 301 investigation into Beijing's "unfair" trade practices. On July 10, the administration said it would impose 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as September. Lighthizer's office released the same day a list of 6,031 items to be subject to the punitive duties -- ranging from consumer goods to farm and fishery products -- in response to China's alleged intellectual property and technology theft. Earlier, Trump had even said that the United States could ultimately hike tariffs on more than $500 billion in Chinese products -- nearly the total value of U.S. imports from the country last year. KYODO NEWS - Aug 3, 2018 - 08:00 | World, All Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Singapore on Thursday discussed North Korea's nuclear weapons program and developments relating to disputes in the South China Sea involving China and some of the grouping's members. The meeting comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have eased since a historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, although Pyongyang has yet to take concrete and credible measures to rid itself of weapons and ballistic missiles. In the joint communique issued after the meeting, the foreign ministers welcomed the North Korean leader's commitment to "complete" denuclearization in a joint statement he signed with Trump during the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit. While noting Pyongyang's pledge to suspend further nuclear and missile tests, the ministers expressed ASEAN's support for achieving complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the document says. In veiled criticism of China's militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea, the ministers emphasized the importance of "non-militarization and self-restraint" in the conduct of all activities in the disputed waters. At the same time, they were encouraged by progress in substantive negotiations between the 10-member ASEAN and China toward the early conclusion of an effective code of conduct, or COC, in the sea on a mutually agreed timeline, the draft says. Progress has been made by ASEAN and China, with the two sides agreeing on a "single draft COC negotiating text" when senior officials of the two sides met in Changsha, China, on June 27. The agreement was officially announced by Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan during the ASEAN-China meeting later Thursday, saying the document will be the basis of future COC negotiations. "Everyone also hopes that we will be able to accelerate the process, but we are not yet in a position to put a specific deadline," Balakrishnan told a press conference after the daylong meetings. According to an ASEAN diplomat, negotiations for the first draft will commence in September by an ASEAN-China joint working group in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The basic elements of the draft that need to be filled in include "objectives, principles, and kind of activities." "The single document has made our works easier because we have already had one single foundation," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told Indonesian reporters. "We are negotiating one document only and we have even successfully completed the preamble," she said. "In the next meeting, we will discuss other chapters. However, the single document has made it easy for us to negotiate." Asked if the negotiations will address whether or not the COC will be legally binding, the diplomat, who requested anonymity, said, "We're not there yet. The paper doesn't mention 'legally binding,' but there are some proposals connected to that." "We want an effective code. That's the most important thing," the official added. Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai called the text "a significant breakthrough." "Despite some differences in the text, at least ASEAN and China can go on the same track to find a 'common text' on the COC," Don said. China has claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which over one-third of global trade passes, that overlap those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan, The ministers also discussed issues such as counterterrorism, human rights and economic integration, especially the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a free trade initiative involving 16 economies including ASEAN, Japan, China and Australia. In his remarks at the meeting's formal opening, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong called on ASEAN to do more on its economic integration efforts and other economic goals amid global trade tensions, as well as to make full use of technology to enhance development. ASEAN, having "achieved its initial political objective of regional peace and stability," has "shifted its focus to economic cooperation," Lee said. "While these ASEAN-led structures have served us well, we must continue to strengthen the regional architecture. We can all see the growing geopolitical uncertainties," he said. Noting escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, and with other countries, Lee said, "It is important that ASEAN continues to support the (rules-based multilateral trading) system and work with like-minded partners to deepen our web of cooperation." The annual foreign ministerial meeting is being hosted by Singapore, which holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN this year. Related meetings involving ASEAN members and their partner countries will run until Saturday. On the issue of over 720,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the ministers "underlined the importance of the expeditious commencement of the voluntary return of displaced persons to Myanmar in a safe, secure and dignified way, without due delay," the joint communique said. They also "welcomed the establishment of an Independent Commission of Enquiry by the government of Myanmar." Subsequent ASEAN-related meetings to be held in Singapore through Saturday will include foreign ministers from Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas. World leaders such as U.S. President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to gather in this city-state in November for a larger ASEAN-led summit. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. KYODO NEWS - Aug 2, 2018 - 16:42 | World, All New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to work on Thursday after six weeks of maternity leave. The 38-year-old leader spent her first day back at work speaking with local media about motherhood, from her private home in Auckland. (Getty/Kyodo) Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters confirmed on Monday that Ardern would move back to Wellington, the nation's capital, on Saturday with her partner, Clarke Gayford, and newborn daughter, Neve Te Aroha. Although New Zealand law permits infants to be taken into the parliamentary chamber, Ardern told reporters she did not believe it would be necessary, nor did she intend to bring Neve with her to make a statement. "We have MPs (lawmakers) who have a very legitimate need already to have their children in the Debating Chamber, and they have," Ardern told the New Zealand Herald. "I don't think that should be something we have to make statements about. It should just be a natural thing," she said. Gayford, a television fishing show host, will be Neve's primary caregiver while the prime minister is at the office. However, Ardern said the family will travel together to official engagements, including to New York in September, where she will make a speech to the United Nations. On Sunday, Ardern used Facebook Live to share an intimate video of herself and her daughter, informing viewers that the family is doing "really well" despite having "absolutely no routine to speak of." The prime minister also flagged a number of issues that she plans to "hit the ground running" with upon her return to work, including trade-related matters. Ardern, took office as prime minister in October, becoming the youngest female head of government in the world. She is the second woman to give birth while serving as prime minister, after Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister in the 1980s and 1990s. KYODO NEWS - Aug 2, 2018 - 22:38 | World, All Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi were at odds Thursday over issues related to the East China Sea despite a recent improvement in bilateral ties. During his 30-minute talks with Wang in Singapore, Kono also voiced concern over China's military buildup in the South China Sea, where Beijing and several Southeast Asian countries have overlapping maritime claims, the Japanese government official said. Kono conveyed to Wang Japan's unease about China's moves in the East China Sea, such as the sailing of Chinese naval vessels in the vicinity of the disputed Senkaku Islands and resource development in the contested waters. Wang responded to Kono by saying, "Naturally, China has its own stance" on the matter, while Kono emphasized that concrete progress in the maritime field is necessary to put Japan-China relations on a "development track," according to the official. Japan has repeatedly called on China to stop unilateral resource exploration in the East China Sea, as their negotiations based on a 2008 bilateral accord on joint gas development around the line have been on hold. In June, Japanese and Chinese defense authorities launched a communication mechanism to avert accidental clashes at sea and in the air. But the two sides have sidestepped the territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, which escalated after the Japanese government effectively put them under state control in September 2012. Bilateral relations have been clearly improving as this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of a friendship treaty. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Tokyo in May, Abe expressed a desire to visit China by the end of this year. Abe and Li also pledged to make efforts to resume reciprocal visits by the two nations' leaders. On Thursday, Kono and Wang, who are visiting Singapore to attend a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related gatherings, agreed to work together to realize Abe's visit to China later this year. Sharing the view that stronger bilateral cooperation will contribute to international stability, Kono and Wang have confirmed the necessity of high-level exchanges, according to the Japanese official. The two ministers, meanwhile, agreed that it is important to maintain the free trade system, the Japanese official said, as some countries -- particularly the United States -- have shifted toward unilateralism and protectionism. China and the United States are engaged in a full-fledged trade war, with the world's two largest economies hiking tariffs on products imported from the other. On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he will contemplate more than doubling the proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 percent as instructed by President Donald Trump. Wang criticized Washington, telling reporters following the meeting with Kono that the United States has been violating principles of the World Trade Organization and going against the tide of the times. The Trump administration has been "trying to deal with trade disputes among nations in accordance with domestic laws and solve the country's issues in a unilateral way," Wang said. The United States had already slapped additional 25 percent duties on $34 billion of Chinese imports last month -- the first round of the new tariffs worth $50 billion -- in response to China's alleged intellectual property and technology theft. Kono and Wang did not get into deep discussions on the situation surrounding North Korea due to lack of time, the official added. KYODO NEWS - Aug 2, 2018 - 14:07 | World, All, Urgent North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho left Pyongyang on Thursday for an ASEAN-related meeting due to be held later this week in Singapore, Kyodo News confirmed, with the focus on whether he will contact his U.S. and Japanese counterparts while in the city-state. Ri is expected to make an official visit to Iran after participating in Saturday's ASEAN Regional Forum meeting of the 10-country regional bloc and other forum members, sources with knowledge of his itinerary said. In Singapore, Ri is likely to try to strengthen relations with his counterparts from countries such as those in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as North Korea has recently been working to bolster its economic growth. With skepticism lingering about whether North Korea will really take concrete steps toward denuclearization, attention is focused on whether Ri will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and to a lesser extent, with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, on the sidelines of the regional forum. At his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June in the city-state, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to work toward "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. U.S.-North Korea talks on the specifics of denuclearization, however, are apparently at a standstill. Meanwhile, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been exploring the possibility of a summit with Kim, but ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang have been worsening over the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan officially lists 17 citizens as abduction victims and suspects North Korea's involvement in many more disappearances. Abe, placing priority on settling the abduction issue, has expressed a willingness to hold direct talks with North Korea, but Pyongyang has reiterated that the issue has already been resolved. Pompeo will visit Singapore on Friday after visiting Malaysia, his department said, while Kono arrived in the city-state on Wednesday night. Ri plans to reach Singapore on Friday, flying in from Beijing, the sources said. KYODO NEWS - Aug 3, 2018 - 08:40 | All, Feature The ruling Liberal Democratic Party asserted in a recently issued statement that it is against the view expressed by one of its lawmakers that gay and lesbian couples are unproductive because they cannot have children, amid growing criticism over her opinion. In a statement posted on its website Wednesday, the LDP said a magazine article written by Mio Sugita "shows her lack of understanding of (LGBT) issues and consideration for the feelings of people involved," while noting that the party is working to create a society friendlier to sexual minorities. It is unusual for the LDP to issue a statement clarifying its position regarding "personal opinions" expressed by its lawmakers. (Mio Sugita) The move is apparently intended to allay public anger over the issue, which has provoked street protests from members of Japan's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and led some prominent figures in Japan to voice their objections via social media. Echoing his party's view, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters during a visit Thursday to Miyagi Prefecture that it is "only natural to aim at a society where human rights are respected and diversity is cherished." The LDP also said a party member in charge of LGBT issues has told Sugita to be "very careful" in her conduct from now on. Sugita, a House of Representatives member elected twice, said through her office Thursday that she will take the matter "sincerely" and will "study diligently." Opposition parties, however, slammed the ruling party for its "belated" action and "lenient" attitude toward Sugita. "It is a very indulgent treatment," Yuichiro Tamaki, co-head of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, said at a press conference in Nagasaki Prefecture, adding that it is a sign of how the LDP lacks sufficient recognition of LGBT issues and human rights. (People protesting in front of Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters) At issue was an article Sugita contributed to the latest edition of the conservative monthly magazine Shincho 45, which went on sale July 18. In the article titled "Support for LGBT is too much," Sugita wrote, "Can spending taxpayers' money for LGBT couples gain approval? They don't make children. In other words, they lack 'productivity.'" "Why can't sexes be just two -- man and woman?" the 51-year-old mother of one also wrote. The initial response to the matter by the LDP's No. 2 figure, Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, added to the criticism. Nikai said at a press conference on July 24 that the LDP "is a gathering of wide-ranging people from right to left. Each (LDP politician) has his or her own political position and life philosophy." Nikai himself had previously come under fire for criticizing -- in a speech he made in Tokyo in June-- people opting not to have children as being "selfish." Celebrities who have reacted with anger include author Hirotada Ototake, who was born without limbs. Ototake tweeted, "Some people label others as unproductive even though their situations are not the ones they chose...isn't it politicians' duty to work for removing their difficulties in life?" "If (Japan) becomes a society where people are judged superior or inferior from the viewpoint of how useful they are to the state, the person to be eliminated next time around can be 'me,'" Ototake said in a tweet shared by thousands of people. Even as the LDP sought to bring an end to the controversy over Sugita's article, another junior lawmaker, Tomu Tanigawa, was found to have said on a recently aired internet TV program that a same-sex relationship is "something like a hobby." Tanigawa also said on the program that he does not necessarily reject the idea of sexual diversity but there is "no need to go so far as making a law to allow same-sex marriage." The remarks drew criticism from the head of the Komeito party, the LDP's junior coalition partner. "I want the LDP to make its lawmakers follow the party's (official) view," Natsuo Yamaguchi said at a press conference on Thursday. Kerala Water Resources Minister Roshy Augustine said that people living downstream of Mullaperiyar need not worry in case the shutters of the dam were opened as preventive measures were already taken. EAST LANSING, Mich. - A team of scientists has identified a single molecule that could be a key in controlling invasive sea lampreys. Researchers from Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota and Western Michigan University have homed in on a fatty molecule that directs the destructive eels' migration. The results, published in the current issue of PNAS, could lead to better ways to control sea lampreys. "We've found a pheromone, a fatty acid derivative, that's released by larval sea lamprey and guides migratory adults to spawning grounds," said Weiming Li, MSU professor of fisheries and wildlife and co-lead author of the study. "Because the pheromone bridges two distinct life stages and transmits through two different habitats, it holds a potential to disrupt adult sea lamprey as they try to reproduce." Scientists have suspected that such an odorant existed for decades, but the identity of such odorants have remained elusive. To better understand the importance of this finding, here's a little background on sea lampreys and their migration patterns. The invasive species infiltrated the upper Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean in the 1920s through shipping canals. They feed by attaching themselves to other fish, such as salmon and trout. One sea lamprey can kill more than 40 pounds of fish, and the U.S. and Canadian governments spend approximately $20 million annually to control them in the Great Lakes. To make the new discovery, the team of scientists relied on collection of tens of thousands of larval sea lampreys by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fisheries and Ocean Canada, and U.S. Geological Survey. Scientists then began the rigorous process of extracting the pheromones for identification and testing them in streams. The newly identified pheromone guides migratory adults to swim upstream to spawning grounds. Once on the spawning ground, the males release the "scents of love" to attract females. The molecule synthesized, according to the identified pheromone, was potently stimulatory for the nose of the adults, and, at less than 0.1 parts per trillion, induced preference of migratory adults in stream selection, Li added. "The potential for application in sea lamprey control is quite good, though we still have some work to do," Li said. "For instance, as we do not yet know how well we can use this pheromone to outcompete or disrupt all the other signals a sea lamprey uses to spawn." ### Li's work is funded in part by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, National Science Foundation and MSU AgBioResearch. Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges. For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews. Eight years after their very public falling out, could China and Google be pals once again? Whispers circulating Monday, first reported by The Intercept, suggested that Google would soon launch a Chinese version of its search engine that will kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party by scrubbing various bete noires: not least criticism of its human-rights record, calls for Tibetan independence and the bloodshed around Beijings Tiananmen Square in 1989. Free speech advocates have condemned the reports, which have since been confirmed by anonymous Google sources to other media. Amnesty International warned complying with the Great Firewall the worlds most sophisticated state-censorship apparatus, employing at least 2 million online censors would constitute a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom. It would also mean Google would have to block search results in China for currently verboten Western media, such as the New York Times, Bloomberg and, indeed, TIME. Charlie Smith, cofounder of Greatfire.org, which fights Internet censorship in China, tells TIME that Google likely has a range of self-censored products ready to release in China. And then this type of censorship will spread to other countries that [either] have adopted the Chinese Internet censorship system or have similar attractiveness as a market, Smith, who uses a pseudonym, writes by email. But its misleading to present any move as a paradigm shift. After all, Google complied with Chinese censorship from entering the Chinese market in 2005 until 2010, when in response to alleged government hacking of Gmail, the Menlo Park behemoth shifting operations from the mainland to Hong Kong and stopped filtering content. It was then swiftly banned by Beijing. The decision to effectively quit China was apparently pushed by co-founder Sergey Brin, who had a personal loathing of state censorship from his childhood in Soviet Russia. But Googles decision was always underpinned by business. Googles share of Chinese search traffic fell from around 30% to just teens over its five years in the Middle Kingdom, with local rival Baidu establishing itself as the market leader. That doesnt bode well for any relaunch. Story continues Read more: Baidus Robin Li is Helping China Win the 21st Century The Chinese tech landscape has changed so dramatically and Baidu has become so entrenched, at least in the search space, that whatever Google may have learned in the time its been away is unlikely to make up for all of the lost ground, says Mark Natkin, founder of Beijing-based IT research firm Marbridge Consulting. Today, Baidu captures more than 80% of Chinese search traffic. Its local maps function, AI-powered search and mandarin-language recognition functions are lightyears ahead of Google. Baidu is utterly embedded in the fabric of Chinese tech: It has deep ties with the Chinese government and even contributes to course curriculum at Chinese universities. As a user, I think Baidu has a lot lacking, says Rui Ma, a Silicon Valley angel investor focused on China. So technologically, Google has a chance, but its not really about technology at this point. Baidu has a whole ecosystem and Google probably wont be able to bring its whole suite of products [to China] immediately. Lee Kai-Fu, head of Google in China at the time of its withdrawal, was candid about the difficulty of breaking into the Chinese market when he spoke to TIME last year. For a foreign company to move from one country to another, its not just changing the look, feel, culture and language. If your app is in the U.S., you might start promoting on Facebook, but that entire skill-set is useless in China. You have to learn how to promote using WeChat. And the way you build a community, do customer service, is all different. Its also uncertain whether the Chinese government would be willing to allow even a censored version of Google. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been trying for years to be allowed into China, even engaging in much-ridiculed publicity stunts like jogging through smog-choked Beijing. Only last month did the social media giant have some success: although it was fleeting. For several hours, a Chinese government database showed that Facebook had gained approval to open a $30 million Chinese subsidiary innovation hub in Hangzhou, home of Jack Mas online shopping empire Alibaba. But then suddenly the registration disappeared, and references to it were censored in Chinese media. It was yet another sign for how the Chinese tech environment has shrunk in recent years. This shows no signs of abating. Apple has been forced to remove VPN software which allows users to leap over the Great Firewall from its China app store and to store Chinese users personal data in Chinese government-linked servers. Skype and WhatsApp are now blocked in China. AirBnB has had to store data for Chinese customers on local servers to avoid the same fate. Chinas national Internet regulator shutdown more than 13,000 websites in the three years to December, and another 3,000 websites in the first half of this year alone. Read more: Why Trumps Trade War With China Is So Risky Little wonder a source privy to Googles negotiations to reenter China told the New York Times that efforts were not going well. Google still maintains more than 700 employees in China, and last year unveiled plans to open an Artificial Intelligence-focused research center here. In June, it invested $550 million in the Chinese online retailer JD.com. But allowing one of Americas largest firms to resume operations doesnt appear to be in the interests of Beijings Made in China 2025 plan to dominate certain strategic hi-tech industries. Policymakers here are incredibly pragmatic, says Natkin, The space that theyll create for foreign players is usually directly related to what they can do for China. Given the huge strides Chinese tech has made in recent years, it isnt clear what Google is in a position to offer China from a strategic standpoint. And with a trade war between the worlds two largest economies escalating almost daily, adds Natkin, China isnt in a hurry to do any favors for the Trump administration. SHEBERGHAN, Afghanistan -- Officials in northern Afghanistan say they are working to put more than 250 surrendered Islamic State (IS) fighters on trial for grave human rights abuses. Faqeer Mohammad Jawzjani, the police chief of northern Jawzjan Province, told Radio Free Afghanistan they are working with courts and the attorney generals office to process the cases of IS fighters who allegedly committed grave human rights violations in the remote Jawzjan districts that they controlled for years. The law is the same for everyone, he told Radio Free Afghanistan. Everyone who has committed abuses will be dealt with in accordance with Afghan laws and the constitution. On August 1, two IS commanders led more than 250 IS fighters to surrender to the Afghan government to avoid capture by the Taliban. The surrender following days of intense fighting between Taliban and IS fighter in Jawzjans Darzab district, previously controlled by IS, according to the insurgents and Afghan officials. Mawlawi Habiburrahman, the leader of the surrendered IS fighters, told Radio Free Afghanistan that they surrendered to the government as part of a peace deal under the ongoing reconciliation process. We want to end the war and return to a peaceful life, he said. We joined the government because we were invited under a peace deal. Habiburrahman, however, denied that IS fighters were engaged in large-scale atrocities including murder, rape, coercion, and forced displacement, as well as closing schools and imposing their own draconian rules on Darzab and other regions controlled by IS. The group is also accused of using child soldiers. People were obviously killed in the fighting. Our fighters were killed, and we killed our enemies, he said. But it is false to say we engaged in rape or executed innocent people. Afghan officials say hundreds of IS fighters were swiftly overpowered by more than 4,000 Taliban militants who initiated the conflict late on July 31. "The evil phenomenon of Daesh has completely been eliminated and people have been freed from its torture in Jawzjan Province," Zabihullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesman, said in an August 31 statement while referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. Jawzjani says all the fighters who surrendered are Afghans who are now being investigated in the provincial capital, Sheberghan. He says the foreign fighters believed to have been fighting for IS were either killed or have surrendered to the Taliban. The Taliban, however, have said nothing about foreign IS fighters. Our previous investigations show that many foreigners were fighting for IS, he said. But where are they now? Are they lost in the mountains, or have they surrendered to the Taliban? Activists in northern Afghanistan say they are watching whether Kabul brings the IS fighters to justice or paves way for their eventual release under an amnesty deal. We have repeatedly seen IS and Taliban fighters surrender to the authorities or run away whenever they are threatened with annihilation in a region, activist Hamid Safoot told Radio Free Afghanistan. We are gravely concerned that the IS fighters who surrendered after being defeated by the Taliban will return to their evil ways once the situation calms down. Jawzjani says they, too, are worried about the IS fighters returning to the battlefield. To prevent such an eventuality, he says, they are pushing for trying the surrendered fighters for past crimes. Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on reporting by Mujibur Rahman Habibzai and Alem Rehmanyar from Sheberghan, Afghanistan. TORONTO, July 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INV Metals Inc. (INV Metals or the Company) (TSX:INV) is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Mr. Darren King as Vice President of Exploration. Mr. King has over 30 years of extensive exploration experience within North, Central, and South America. Mr. King has a MSc. in Geology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and is a Registered Geologist with the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, & Exploration. Mr. King will act as the Companys Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. Prior to joining INV Metals, Mr. King was the Mine Exploration Manager for South America at Barrick Gold and worked 12 years at Barrick Gold. Mr. King has lived and explored in South America for more than 20 years and he has worked on numerous world class high sulphidation systems including Pueblo Viejo, Lagunas Norte, Pierina, Pascua-Lama, and Veladero. Mr. King has been involved in the discovery of gold deposits in Panama, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic. Previously, Mr. King spent 13 years working with Inmet Mining also in North, Central, and South America. Ms. Candace MacGibbon, CEO, commented, On behalf of management and the Board of Directors, we are pleased to welcome Darren to the executive team. The Company continues to believe in the exploration potential of both Ecuador and our properties, and we are committed to our strategy to add value by the drill bit. Darren will be responsible for developing a detailed and targeted exploration strategy at both our flagship Loma Larga project (Loma Larga), and at our four prospective regional exploration projects. Darren will work closely with our highly experienced team of geologists, who were responsible for the discovery of Loma Larga, to execute our strategy. Ms. MacGibbon added, As a result of the new western discovery at Loma Larga (see press release dated September 18, 2017) management engaged Western Mining Services LLC to complete an extensive review of all the available geophysical, geochemical and geological data available from historical and recent exploration work at Loma Larga to generate and rank exploration targets both near the current deposit and on the broader concessions. The results of that study are currently being reviewed and Darrens vast experience with high sulphidation systems should prove invaluable as we design a follow up drill program to target high priority areas. Recently, the Ecuadorian Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources approved a Ministerial Agreement which now allows for the performance of non-systematic drilling, up to a maximum of forty drill platforms, during the Initial Exploration Phase. Previously drilling was only permitted in the Advanced Exploration Phase. This reform will serve to allow the Company to test prospective gold targets earlier than anticipated within the current exploration phase of our regional properties, once appropriate authorizations are received. INV Metals is currently performing various activities including detailed mapping and soil and rock chip sampling, on its regional properties to define drill targets. About INVTM Metals INVTM Metals is an international mineral resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of precious and base metal projects in Ecuador. Currently, INVTM Metals primary assets are: (1) its 100% interest in the Loma Larga gold property in Ecuador; and (2) its 100% interests in exploration concessions in Ecuador, including Las Penas, Tierras Coloradas, La Rebuscada and Carolina. For further information, please contact: Candace MacGibbon Chief Executive Officer Phone: (416) 703-8416 E-mail: cmacgibbon@invmetals.com Q. Does Cornell entertain students' applying for a second MBA? why a second MBA and why now Q. Lindsay, herself said that: "I usually ask students about their backup plan in interviews". Q. What makes Johnson stand apart. Q. What is back of the resume essay. Q. As a consultant, I tend to work with clients individually and don't lead a team. How can I strengthen my application? Hi Everyone,Today I had a chance to meet the Assistant Director of Admissions of Johnson, Cornell, Lindsay Martin in Mumbai, India.The 45 minutes that I spent - while having a cup of black coffee without sugar- were very worthwhile. Below is the gist of general queries in the form of question and answer format. I hope it would be useful !!A. Yes. I would recommend that you use the optional essay to explain. I would suggest that you aim for our 1 year MBA.A. She herself answered that "be prepared with a genuine, logical backup plan".A. The students and the alumni. The culture at Cornell is very supportive and the second year students help the first year students a lot. For example, if Google comes for recruitment then they might suggest you to wear a pair of jeans rather than a business suit.A. Try and explain yourself. Give details about you that aren't mentioned in the resume. We want to know more about you!A. Leadership is just one aspect of the entire application. There are numerous ways to depict your leadership and team player qualities. A good recommendation would be very useful.I hope this would be somewhat useful.Best of luck with the application process! Thank you, Rainbows . You'll generally want to look at the U.S. top 25 to 50. The front of that range will be a reach, and even outside of that, no acceptance is easy.The specificity surrounding your career goals, rationale for MBA, and rationale for each program will need to be significantly developed, as will the narrative of how who you are and what you've done to this point -- plus the MBA -- equals or leads to your very specific short- and long-term goals. What knowledge, skills, and experience do you already have that are relevant? What knowledge, skills, and experience are you missing and therefore need to acquire via the MBA? How will you acquire those at each MBA program? Which courses, clubs, extracurriculars? What about each program's culture, community, or career opportunities make it right for you? How exactly will you contribute? What unique perspective can you bring to a given class? You will need to be highly specific and have a compelling, coherent, and credible story. You can read more about these things here: https://www.avantiprep.com/blog/the-mos ... on-process Within the aforementioned range, you should begin to research programs in context of your career interests (are they strong in that field?), where they're located, where they send their graduates, whether they're big or small, size / strength / dispersion of alumni network, and many other variables. Once you've whittled down the list, you can then think more strategically about how you want to develop your school strategy. That often means applying to a couple of reach programs, a couple of more aligned programs, and a couple of safer programs (though I hesitate to ever use the word "safe," because no matter what, you need to execute very well across the parameters outlined above). Your Quant score is strong, so if you think you can boost your Verbal while maintaining your Quant, that can bode well for your overall score and potentially open things up a little more for you. The Indian software engineer field is quite crowded (more so for males than females), so additional GMAT score points definitely help.You should take a look at this GMAT Club study for added context: https://gmatclub.com/forum/mba-admissio ... 39142.html Indian applicants with a 680 or 690 GMAT score have only a 13% acceptance rate to the U.S. top 21 to 50. That rate jumps to 23% when you boost your score to a 700 or 710, and even further from there.Please feel free to reach out if I can ever be of formal assistance with your School Selection process, applications, resume, essays, or anything else! https://www.avantiprep.com/free-consultation.html Best Regards,Greg_________________ Profile and b-school list evaluation [ #permalink Applying to R1 and R2 GMAT score: 730 ( Q 51, V38) Giving another attempt in August 2018, targeting 740+. Gender- Female Age-25 UNDERGRAD B.Tech. (IT) from NIT Kurukshetra (Batch: 2010-2014) CGPA- 9.7/10 (Ranked 2nd in my batch) WORK EXPERIENCE (4 years right now) Makemytrip India (May 2016 - Present) 1Mg India(May 2015-2016) Fiserv (Aug -2014 to May-2015) Work Experience has been mostly related to IT, where I have worked with and led teams to achieve projects timelines and have excellent recommendations from my direct superiors. But I am looking for a change in career path, hence, MBA. My short term goal is to land a product management job in a tech company like amazon, google , fb after graduation. Extra curricular: I was briefly associated with an NGO working for children education in India. Target Schools: USA: Tepper , Ross Europe: ESADE, HEC PARIS ASIA: NUS Singapore/ ISB Request you to evaluate my profile and my school listing. Can I target higher schools also or these are a decent combination of safe and reach schools? My Criteria being: Placements after post graduation, Location (US> Asia> Europe) Thanks in advance. While President Donald Trump works toward what he considers free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals, agricultural producers of all kinds have been hit hard. American farmers are expected to lose $11 billion this year due to retaliatory tariffs that have been placed on agricultural goods since these trade discussions began. Last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that the USDA will authorize up to $12 billion in financial aid to assist farmers. In a USDA press release, Perdue said this is a short-term solution to allow President Trump time to work on long-term trade deals to benefit agriculture and the entire U.S. economy. The Market Facilitation Program was authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). It will offer incremental payments to producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy, and hogs USDA will also implement a Food Purchase and Distribution Program through the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to purchase the unanticipated surplus of certain commodities. Those products will be distributed to food banks and through other nutrition programs. There also will be a Trade Promotion Program administered by the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) in conjunction with the private sector to help develop new export markets for farm products. The National Milk Producers Federation released a statement welcoming the tariff mitigation program. The organization estimates that these additional tariffs imposed by Mexico, China, and other key trading partners will cost U.S. dairy farmers $1.8 billion through the remainder of the year based on the decline in milk futures prices since the retaliatory tariffs were initiated. As one would expect, there are critics of the plan as well. In The Wall Street Journal, an article indicated that many lawmakers expressed concerns about the plan, citing that farmers need certainty in trade, not a government bailout. They also said that aid might have to be extended to other sectors if the trade war continues. To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com. (c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2018 July 30, 2018 As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ Not long later, the U.S. State Department announced that it expects all foreign countries to reduce their imports of Iranian oil to zero by November this year. However, after seeing how this would effect oil prices, it announced that waivers would be issued to several allies. The first batch of economic sanctions have not yet come into force (they are due to come into effect next week), but already the Iranian economy is suffering. Because of the accelerated crisis, analysts are finding it difficult to predict when peaks will happen. Regime officials are directly responsible for the crisis, yet they are trying to pin the blame on the others. One official blamed the United States for shamefully claiming to have the interests of the Iranian people in mind. However, the people of Iran know that no foreign government is responsible for the terrible crisis. The regime has plundered the peoples wealth and the countrys revenue on terrorism and the support of proxy groups. Instead of looking after the people of Iran and trying to improve the social situation, the clerical regime has spread chaos across the region. Iranian economic expert and former adviser to the ministries of welfare and science, Hussein Raghefer, warned that there will be a revolution of the hungry and a collapse of livelihood in the country. It is clear that the only resolution to the economic problem is the fall of the Iranian regime. The regimes destructive policies are incompatible with any kind of improvement in the situation. Furthermore, the people are aware of this and it is what they want. For almost four decades, the people of Iran have suffered under the regime. They have been told by foreign governments to hold tight for reform. The people did wait and it never happened. The Iranian regime has been left to its own devices for a long time with former U.S. administrations turning a blind eye to the Iran threat. The regime has become used to the complacency of the international community and it continues to act without being held accountable for its actions. The main opposition to the Iranian regime, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is calling on the brave people of Iran to continue taking to the streets to call the regime out. It believes that the collapse of the government is near. Isfahan, central Iran New Shapur Iran, August 2, 2018 Protests that started on Tuesday in different cities of Iran over high prices and economic woes entered their third day on Thursday. In Shapour, Isfahan, where protests have been raging for the past two days, demonstrators are chanting, Dont be afraid, were all together. A large contingent of anti-riot police have surrounded the area. The demonstrators have also set vehicle tires ablaze to prevent the regimes repressive forces from attacking and dispersing them with tear gas. Demonstrations and clashes between protesters continue in Isfahan 4:00 PM CET: Protests that started this morning over economic grievances and the Iranian regimes suppression continue in seven cities. In Shiraz, protesters are chanting Death to dictator and Death to Khamenei, the supreme leader of the regime and the person who has final say on all matters of state. In Isfahan and Shiraz, the Iranian regimes repressive forces are trying to disperse protesters with tear gas, but the protesters continue to hold their lines and are lighting fires in various parts of the city. In Isfahan, heavy clashes between protesters and security forces have been reported. Protests against Iran's regime in Isfahan on August 2, 2018. Watch this video on YouTube Other cities include Isfahan (Shapour district), Najaf Abad, Shahin Shahr, Karaj, Mashhad and Shiraz. State-run media has tried to downplay the situation In Najaf Abad, the women are actively participating in the protests. In Isfahan, where some of the heaviest clashes have been reported, the protesters are showing no fear of security forces and resisting in organized groups, using rocks, bricks, wooden sticks and bare hands to resist. 2:00 PM CET: Protests in Isfahan have turned into heavy clashes between demonstrators and state security forces. Videos obtained from Shapour, Isfahan, show that people are throwing rocks at anti-riot police. The air is thick with smoke of burnt tires. Other cities include Isfahan (Shapour district), Najaf Abad, Shahin Shahr, Karaj, Mashhad and Shiraz. State-run media has tried to downplay the situation. Earlier today, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that the police has prevented protests from rallying in Isfahan. Meanwhile, local reports and videos posted on social media show protesters clashing with security forces. In Shiraz, protesters are chanting Repression has no effect and calling off the regime for spending the countrys wealth on its foreign interventions. Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran, the protesters are chanting, a criticism of the regimes costly meddling in the countries of the Middle East region. 11:30 AM CET: Sixth city joins nationwide protests. According to reports obtained from inside Iran and social media, the people of Najaf Abad, Isfahan, have also come to the streets to protest against the deteriorating economic situation. Najaf Abad is the third city of Isfahan province where protests have erupted on Thursday. In Shahin Shahr and Shapour, the other cities of Isfahan where protests are ongoing, demonstrators have been resisting against security forces that have been dispatched to quell the protests. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, hailed the protesters of Isfahan for their fearless revolt and heralded the end of the mullahs tyranny. Hail to the courageous people of #Isfahan and their fearless revolt against the mullahs oppression. In Shapour-e Jadid, valiant youths counter tear gas and repressive forces savagery, heralding liberation of their land occupied by the mullahs religious tyranny.#Iran 7:54 AM Aug 2, 2018 In Shahin Shahr, Isfahan, protesters are denouncing the regimes officials for their involvement in financial corruption. The protesters are chanting, One less case of embezzlement and our problems are solved, a reference to the corruption of government-backed financial institutions. In Shapur, Isfahan, protesters continue to set fire in the streets to block the path of security forces and prevent them from using tear gas against demonstrators. 10:15 AM CET: Protests which began earlier today in Shiraz and Shapour, Isfahan, have now been expanded to other cities. According to the local report, in Shahin Shahr, Isfahan, the people are gathering into groups and forming demonstrations over economic woes. The protesters are calling for their fellow citizens to join the protests against the regime. In Isfahan and Shiraz, clashes have erupted between protesters and security forces dispatched to quell the demonstrations. In Isfahan, protesters have started fires to prevent security forces from using tear gas against them. In Shiraz, the protesters are chanting, This is the month of blood, the mullahs will be overthrown. In Isfahan and Shiraz, clashes have erupted between protesters and security forces dispatched to quell the demonstrations. In Isfahan, protesters have started fires to prevent security forces from using tear gas against them. In Shiraz, the protesters are chanting, This is the month of blood, the mullahs will be overthrown. Tehran: In Tehrans Valiasr Street, clashed between protesters and security forces continue as night settles. Demonstrators have set trash bins ablaze and blocked the road to hamper the movement of security forces. People have lined up in front of anti-riot police and are preventing them from dispersing the crowd. Iran: protests in Tehran against high prices and economic woes, August 2, 2018 Watch this video on YouTube 6:00 PM CET: In Tehran, protesters are chanting Death to Khamenei, calling for the overthrow of the supreme leader, the highest authority in the Iranian regime and the symbol of the Iranian regimes power. Protesters, mostly youth, are clashing with security forces. Videos obtained from Valiasr Street, where protests are taking place, show protesters routing security forces sent to quell the demonstrations. 5:00 PM CET: Protests reach the capital. According to local reports, people have gathered at the Valiasr Street, Tehrans longest avenue and are chanting, Proud Iranians, support, support. Videos posted on social media show the protesters are confronting security forces that have been dispatched to disperse protesters. Security forces have injured a young female protester, according to reports. Since Tuesday, protests have been ongoing in several cities over economic problems and the Iranian regimes corruption and mismanagement. Protests have quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations. Tehran has now joined seven other cities, where people have been protesting against the government and, in some cases, clashing with security forces. Tehran-Karaj 10:30 AM CET: More cities have joined the protests that began this morning. According to reports and video obtained from inside Iran, people from two areas in Karaj, west of Tehran, have started pockets of demonstrations. In the past two days, demonstrations have been ongoing in Karaj and protesters have resisted the Iranian regimes efforts to disperse and quell the demonstrations. In Karaj, protesters are chanting Death to dictator and calling for unity among the people. Dont be afraid, were all together, they say. In Gohardasht, Karaj, security forces are blocking the roads with concrete blocks to prevent demonstrators from gathering. In recent weeks, different cities of Iran have seen protests by citizens who are fed up with the regimes corruption, the plunging currency value, unemployment and high prices. But economic woes have triggered the protests, most demonstrations have quickly turned into anti-regime protests with slogans calling for the overthrow of the regime in its entirety. Karaj, Iran, people demonstrate against high cost of living The cry for freedom is becoming louder, and the uprising is expanding more and more every moment. There is no force more powerful than the united force of young people, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi said in a statement in support of protesters. View image on Twitter Maryam Rajavi @Maryam_Rajavi #Irans risen and revolting cities are joining the protests, one after the other. The cry for freedom is becoming louder, and the uprising is expanding more and more every moment. There is no force more powerful than the united force of young people.https://www.maryam-rajavi.com/en/item/maryam-rajavi-protesters-will-not-rest-until-the-iranian-people-and-nation-are-free 5:43 PM Aug 2, 2018 Twitter Ads info and privacy Shiraz: In Shiraz, the protesters are resisting against security forces and repelling them. The protesters are calling on their fellow citizens to join the protests and are calling for more demonstrations this afternoon. Elsewhere, in Shiraz, protesters are chanting slogans against the regime and its repressive forces. In one video obtained from the scene, protesters are saying that the mullahs must go and others are calling for Rouhani to let go of the state. Demonstrations and clashes between protesters continue in Shiraz, Karaj, Mashhad and Arak, other cities where protests have been ongoing during the day. Iran: protests in city of Shiraz, against high prices, August 2, 2018 Watch this video on YouTube In Shiraz, videos show security forces throwing tear gas at marching protesters. In Arak, protesters are chanting slogans against Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the regime, shouting, [Khamenei] is ruling like god while the people are begging. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of resistance of Iran, saluted the protesters who are resisting against the repression of the Iranian regime, describing them as the representatives of a generation that wants nothing short of the freedom of their country. Shiraz, Iran, Aug 2 protest beggins with people chant anti regime slogans Protests also continue in Shiraz, where the people are chanting slogans against the regime and calling for solidarity among the people. Arak: 12:00 PM CET: The people of Arak city in Markazi province have joined the widespread protests in several cities of Iran over economic grievances. Like other cities, the Iranian regime has dispatched contingents of security forces to disperse protesters. But demonstrators are confronting the regimes repressive forces and repelling them, video obtained from the protests show. Arak is the seventh city where demonstrations have been ongoing on Thursday. Protests also continue in Arak, where the people are chanting slogans against the regime and calling for solidarity among the people. Mashhad: In Mashhad, theres heavy security presence but protesters are standing their ground and chanting, the people wont give in to disgrace. 11:00 AM CET: Tensions are growing in cities where protests have been raging since this morning. According to local reports, in Mashhad, security forces opened fire on protesters and have arrested several people. The people are chanting slogans against regime officials and calling on them to resign because of their inefficiency. Iran, August 2, 2018. Protests In Mashhad against high prices and economic woes Watch this video on YouTube In Mashhad, people have gathered to protest to the high prices and the deteriorating economic situation. Protesters are shouting, Iranians are living in misery. The regimes security forces are on high alert and have quickly dispatched units to suppress the protests, but the people are resisting. Addressing the security forces, one of the protesters said, You have enough gear to crack down on protests, but when theres an earthquake, you cant do anything? Ahvaz: 7:00 PM CET: Ahvaz is the latest city to join the widespread protests that began this morning in different parts of Iran. People have gathered in the citys Naderi as the sun sets. Security forces are threatening people and ordering them to disperse. Protests are now ongoing in other cities include Isfahan (Shapour district), Najaf Abad, Shahin Shahr, Karaj, Mashhad and Shiraz. State-run media has tried to downplay the situation. A Letter of Love & Legacy When I was told that being a grandparent has a totally different effect on you than being a parent, I couldnt even fathom the thought. After all, everyone who knows me knows how close I am to my children and that I love being a mother. I would hear grandparents talking about their grandchildren and even showing pictures almost to a point of nauseam. Well, I have definitely become one of those grandmothers, aka, Oma. When my son and daughter-in-love were trying to figure out what my grandson, Grayson, would call me, my son suggested Oma, which means grandmother in German (since I am half German). I agree that its unique but, ultimately, it will depend on what my grandson decides to say and how he pronounces it that will become what I answer to. Hes not even speaking yet, but the ball is in his court. Grayson turns one year old today and in this short period of time, this little human has entered into my space and has turned my whole world upside down and I love it! I have changed things in my home; Im not as fanatical about certain things (paint on the wall, car seats, etc.) that used to be a bone of contention when it came to other peoples children (including my own). But yet this little one has full run of everything. Now dont get me wrong, I will have rules that he must follow and I will make sure he is disciplined and develops into a kind and responsible person. But what I also know is that it will take a village. Families have become more spread out and therefore it is important for us to surround our little ones with people who will love and cherish them and help them along their journey. My heart aches when I continue to hear about African Americans that live their lives in fear just because of the color of their skin. Take Nia Wilson, for example; a young African American girl who was murdered senselessly by a White male while waiting for public transportation (BART) in Oakland, Ca. As Anne Hathaway so boldly pointed out, Nia is more than a hashtag and we must say her name. I respect and appreciate people who use their platforms as a voice for good. Thank you, Anne, for taking a stand! ADVERTISEMENT So, my letter to my loved one and legacy, my grandson, Grayson James Gladney, is that I wish and pray for you (and every child) to grow up in a world that is free from such hate, racism and violence. I hope to instill in you the fact that, in spite of the actions of a few, there are still a lot of good people in this world. I want you to know that you belong; not only in the room of any place you desire to go, but that you also have the power to create the room, if not the entire building, that will invite others in to share your space. I hope to instill in you the power to forgive others and to understand that forgiving others does not make you weak, but makes you strong and allows you to be a beacon in what will sometimes appear to be a very dark world. Believe in yourself as I believe in you. Know you are loved and that you were created on purpose and for a purpose that only God has ordained. I want you to live and live out loud. To everyone reading this article, I encourage you to love your family, mend broken fences, spread love and peace where others try to build walls. Speak up and let your voice be heard and make a difference in the circle and community that only you can change. Together we can make a difference and ultimately leave a positive legacy letter to those we love! Healing Without Hate: Its a choice. Its a lifestyle. Pass it on! Visit www.WendyEnterprises.com and www.forgivingforliving.org. Wendy is a coach, consultant and speaker. You may email her at [email protected] CA Court: Sentencing Enhancements Can Be Rolled Back Under Prop 47 The state Supreme Court ruled today that Proposition 47, which reclassifies certain felony charges as misdemeanors, can be applied retroactively when affected cases are used as sentencing enhancements for repeat offenders, possibly reducing the amount of time they serve in custody. The ruling came following a review of three cases, including a Los Angeles County case involving a defendant named Stevenson Buycks. Buycks pleaded guilty to felony narcotics possession in 2013 and was released on his own recognizance to attend a drug treatment program. The next month he was arrested for shoplifting at a Home Depot. When he was convicted of second-degree robbery and related counts for the Home Depot theft, Buycks was sentenced to an extra two years because he committed the crime while out on release on the prior felony count. ADVERTISEMENT When Buycks narcotics conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor under Prop 47, he argued that the sentencing enhancement in his robbery case should be dropped. A lower court disagreed, but an appellate court ruled the enhancement should be stricken. The Supreme Court opinion, written by Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil- Sakauye, affirmed the appellate courts ruling. Enhancements for committing a second felony while out on bail or on ones own recognizance can be retroactively stricken if the judgments were not finalized prior to Prop 47 taking effect in 2014, according to the Supreme Court ruling. The same is true for enhancements for prior prison terms served for felony convictions now deemed to be misdemeanors. In an Imperial County case reviewed by the state Supreme Court, Laura Reynosos Valenzuela was sentenced to 16 months in prison in October 2012 for receiving stolen property, then a felony. Roughly two years later, Valenzuela was convicted of carjacking, evading officers and possession of methamphetamine. An extra year was added to her sentence for those crimes because of her prior prison term. When her stolen property conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor, she asked on appeal for the one-year enhancement to be dropped. The appellate court rejected her argument, finding that the purpose of the enhancement was to punish recidivist conduct. That court also concluded that nothing in Prop 47 indicated an intent to retroactively mitigate the collateral consequences of felonies reduced to misdemeanors. ADVERTISEMENT But the Supreme Court reversed that ruling and remanded the case for resentencing. It based its decision on language in the proposition stating that a felony resentenced or redesignated shall be considered a misdemeanor for all purposes. The courts ruling concluded, however, that enhancements related to felony charges, rather than felony convictions, should not be mitigated by Proposition 47. Cal Growers, SoCal Coalition Form Alliance Aimed at Strengthening Cannabis Industry In an effort to create a strong political presence for the cannabis industry within the state of California, two entities: The Los Angeles California Growers Association (CalGrowers) and Southern California Coalition (SoCal Coalition) recently joined forces. Small cannabis businesses in the state, say representatives from both entities, are facing obstacles to legitimacy due to inordinate amounts of paperwork, over-taxation and over-regulation. But in the end, they say hurting the industry on the local level, prevents opportunities to help patients as well as build local economies. By bringing its memberships together, CalGrowers and SoCal Coalition will expand the cannabis industrys statewide network, reach and influence, said representatives from the new collaboration. ADVERTISEMENT The combined organizations represent more than 1,600 members in total, they said, including more than 1,000 growers and cultivators, along with 600+ retailers, manufacturers, lab testers, distributors, delivery services and ancillary businesses. While working across the cannabis industrys business verticals, the groups will work to: knowledge-share and set industry best practices; raise awareness of important issues such as over-taxation; and implement fair regulations at the state, county and local level. Our memberships have been on the front lines fighting for the legitimacy of our industry at the local and state level for years, said Adam Spiker, executive director of Southern California Coalition. While were winning on several fronts, our memberships still face a glaring lack of licensing opportunities and protection. There is much more we must accomplish, including addressing over taxation and shifting regulations. Constituents both locally and at the state level have demanded at the ballot box a regulated cannabis industry be implemented. Our collaboration will double down on holding policy makers to that commitment in a timely manner. The voters and policy makers are saying yes to cannabis regulation. With more cohesiveness and as additional members join on, we will be able to see more sensible policies enacted, markets open up and the power of our voice expand. Adult use of cannabis is legal in California under Prop. 64: The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), approved by the voters on Nov 8, 2016. In general, AUMA allows adults 21 and over to possess, privately use, and give away up to one ounce of cannabis, and to cultivate no more than six plants for personal use at their residence. It also legalizes the commercial sale, distribution and production of cannabis for adult use at state-licensed facilities since January 1, under terms spelled out in the Medical and Adult Use of Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) approved by the legislature in 2017. Local city and county governments can restrict or ban cannabis businesses in their jurisdiction, according to California NORML, an organization dedicated to marijuana law reforms in the Golden State. ADVERTISEMENT Cannabis remains legal for medical use by patients of all ages who have a physicians recommendation under Californias 1996 medical marijuana law, Prop. 215. This (collaboration) is a great step towards unifying the cannabis industry in all parts of the state, said California Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer. Weve heard the will of the people loud and clear and I am committed to working with my colleagues to seeing a fairly regulated cannabis industry implemented in full. The longer that takes, the more those in the illicit market, who have no interest in ever being regulated, continue to win and be a threat to licensed businesses and our communities, patients and consumers. Since the passing of prop 64, only 187 retailers are actually legal in the state. This is partly due to different processes in different municipalities, according to Jones- Sawyer. For instance, it may take three to six months for some businesses and for others it may be a longer more drawn out process as city officials ensure that things like proper zoning are enforced. But, said Spiker, the demand for cannabis in the state is too high not to speed up regulation processes. These are business people (not drug dealers) who care about the quality of their product and doing it right, he said. Added JonesSawyer, more legit cannabis businesses mean better, stronger local economies. California is the fifth largest economy in the world, he said. This will bring jobs. The new collaboration not only aims to be the most powerful political voice for the cannabis industry in the state of California, but also to bring the strongest value to its members, said reps for the collaboration. In the near future they said, the CalGrowers-SoCal Collaboration will release: its joint membership levels; a member-only networking portal; joint lobby days; and member-mixer events throughout the state in an effort to promote and encourage more across-state networking and collaboration on key issues. Californias Fiery Former Congressman Ron Dellums Dies at 82 Ron Dellums, a fiery anti-war activist who championed social justice as Northern Californias first black congressman, died Monday from cancer, according to a longtime adviser. He was 82. Dellums died at his home in Washington. A former Marine who got his start in politics on the City Council of the liberal enclave of Berkeley, he defeated a labor-backed Democrat to win his first election to Congress in 1970. He retired in 1998 and was later elected mayor of his native Oakland in 2006. ADVERTISEMENT He was absolutely committed to what was right and what was just and believed that you had to do whatever you could to fight for that, said Dan Lindheim, who learned of Dellums death from his wife, Cynthia Dellums. A self-identified Democratic socialist, Dellums was at the center of most major liberal movements of the 1970s and 1980s. He led the drive to sanction South Africa during apartheid, challenged U.S. entry into wars, opposed increased military spending and helped start the Congressional Black Caucus. During Dellums first campaign for Congress in 1970, then-Vice President Spiro Agnew branded him an out-and-out radical. Later in his victory speech, Dellums wryly referred to Agnew, a Republican, as his public relations agent, according to the U.S. House of Representatives archives. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Dellums, said U.S. sanctions and divestment from South Africa during apartheid would not have happened without Dellums, who pushed legislation for nearly 15 years to place economic restrictions on that nation. Legislation didnt pass until 1986, and Congress had to override a veto from then-President Ronald Reagan. ADVERTISEMENT It was his voice that brought the sanctions on South Africa, Jackson said of Dellums. He opposed almost every U.S. entry into military conflict during his tenure in Congress and, as head of the Congressional Black Caucus, began submitting his own version of a scaled-back military budget. He rose through the ranks of the House Armed Services Committee to become its first Black chairman in 1993. Lindheim remembered Dellums as a gifted orator with a photographic memory who could speak without notes and never needed a word of his remarks to be corrected in the Congressional Record. Sometimes, Lindheim said, Dellums would take speech notes onto the House floor just so he didnt intimidate his colleagues by speaking without them. Dellums jokingly referred to himself the way his critics did, as a left-wing, anti-war, commie, pinko activist from Berkeley, Lindheim said. Dellums retired from Congress in 1998, a move that surprised his colleagues. I leave with my idealism and my enthusiasm intact because, when you look around, each of us have had the privilege of walking to the floor of Congress with the total freedom to express ourselves across whatever lines divide us, to say whatever we felt was important to say. That is an incredible gift, he said during his farewell speech. Dellums became a lobbyist before returning to politics as mayor of Oakland in 2006, a seat he narrowly won. His return to politics wasnt without controversy; some viewed him as an absentee mayor and he did not seek a second term. California U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, who replaced Dellums in Congress after working in his office, called him a great warrior and statesman. The contributions that Congressman Dellums made to our East Bay community, the nation, and the world are too innumerable to count, she said in a statement. Disciples on the Move Host 21st Annual Venice Beach Gospel Rally A God-praising, hallelujah-shouting time in the Lord is promised at the 21st Annual Venice Beach Gospel Crusade Rally. According to organizer Joann Daughtry, the free event takes place on Saturday, August 11, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the corner of Pacific Blvd., and Windward St., in the Venice district of Los Angeles. Several local clergy, musicians, speakers and artists will participate. The goal and purpose of this event is to fulfill what God spoke to me years ago. He said, Bring my people back to me, said Daughtry, who invited the public to attend. ADVERTISEMENT Disciples on the Move Ministries will dispatch buses to bring people from homeless shelters, rehabilitation homes, women and childrens facilities and even those on the streets to the rally, she explained. Everyone will enjoy free home-cooked food along with access to clothing, toys, and much-needed resources as they praise God and worship with the general population and the rich and famous. In addition to healing and deliverance, Daughtry said the rally will also offer an intercessory prayer booth as well as baptisms. In the past, approximately 350 people accepted Christ and more than 70 were baptized each year. Inviting believers to lend their talents to the crusade, Daughtry said, We are taking the gospel to the beach and I am issuing an urgent call to pastors, evangelists, missionaries, witnessing teams and soul winners to come and help us win the lost, To volunteer, donate or learn more, call (213) 359-3185 or visit disciplesonthemove.com. First Ladies Health Initiative Sponsors Back to School Party Hundreds of people took advantage of services and resources offered at the Back to School Party sponsored by the First Ladies Health Initiative on July 28. The free event, held at the First Ladies Health House in South L.A., featured free vaccinations for children and free health screenings for adults. Also, 1,000 backpacks filled with school supplies were distributed to students. Several health partners and volunteers donated their time and expertise to provide screenings for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS and various cancers. The medical and health representatives were from Walgreens, City of Hope, Inglewood L.A. EECP Center, Mount Saint Marys University, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Charles R. Drew University, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Pleased at the turnout for the Back To School Party, FLHI Executive Director Tracey Alston said, Walgreens and the First Ladies Health Initiative realize the importance of affordable health screenings and immunizations for both adults and children, especially in our underprivileged neighborhoods. So, we held this party to ensure that local students and their families have the required immunizations necessary to begin the upcoming new school year health and happy. ADVERTISEMENT The Walgreens sponsored First Ladies Health Initiative is comprised of more than 170 pastors wives across the United States dedicated to confronting health disparities by providing free medical screenings. Since the program began in 2008, nearly 200,000 medical tests and health screenings have been performed. Last year, the FLHI Los Angeles Chapter opened the First Ladies Health House at 2249 South Hobart Blvd., in Los Angeles. The facility offers free health screenings, health clinics, healthy cooking classes and more on a monthly basis. The Health House is also available for health-related speaking engagements and rentals. For more information, call (424) 234-8483 or (773) 405-1250 or visit firstladieshealth.com. Gleaning Marcus Garveys Lessons in Struggle: Questioning, Organizing and Liberating Ourselves The Honorable Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887June 10, 1940) stands as a model and a monument of African liberational thought and practice and the human possibilities inherent it. And thus, his life and work offer abundant lessons for us. He emerges in a time of triumphant European imperialismEuropes political, economic and cultural hegemony throughout the world. He travels the world and sees Black people everywhere in various forms of domination, certainly less achieved than they could be and less assertive on the world stage than their ancient and glorious history demanded of them. He then decides he must act to politically educate, organize and mobilize them to bring out in them the best of their potential and powers. To do this, he conceives a broad and sweeping pan-African project of liberation and steps forward to achieve it. Garveys philosophy and practical project begins with a series of questions rising out of the condition in which he sees Black people around the world. It is a condition of relative powerlessness and oppression. And he concludes that it has to do with both the power and immorality of the oppressor and the lack of adequate self-knowledge and organization of African peoples. He thus taught that a race without power and authority is a race without respect. Moreover, he says, point to me a weak nation and I will show you a people oppressed, abused and taken advantage of by others. But he concludes, show me a well-organized nation and I will show you a people and nation respected by the world. The challenge for him, then, is to ask how can we as a people stand up and go forth in the world as an organized, strong and respected people? Garvey teaches that there are several things necessary for this. The first is to reaffirm our Africanness and derive both our purpose and direction from this identity. Thus, he concludes, that Mans first duty is to discover himself. To do this, Garvey says one must ask two initial questions, Who am I here? and what is expected of me? by my God and my people? To ask who am I? is to reaffirm ones Africanness in general. But to ask Who am I here is to ask the question of what have I done and what am I doing to honor my historical identity and the burden of history this places on me in this time and place? This is clear from Garveys second question, what is expected of me by my God and my people? ADVERTISEMENT Garvey says that the first need is for men and women who are committed to and ready for the demands of history and struggle. He asks, then, Where can we find in this race of ours real men? Men of character, men of purpose, men of confidence, men of faith, men who really know themselves? To organize Africans and redeem the world African community, he says we need the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up, the man who will never depend on others to do for him what he ought to do for himself, the man who will not blame God, who will not blame Nature, who will not blame Fate for his condition, but the man who will go out and make conditions to suit himself. And, of course, all this applies to women also. Thirdly, Garvey says we need men and women to join actively in the pan-African project of redeeming Africa and building the world African community through political, economic and cultural self-determination. Therefore, he says his appeal is here made to every son and daughter of Africa, the scattered Africans and the Africans at home on the continent. It is a project of struggle for liberation and remoulding ourselves in the process. The question here is how many of us are living up to the dignity of human beings; thinking deeply about our lives and future; and organizing and building the world that affirms and expands our humanity? Thus, he says it is in and forthis pan-African project that we must, as Africans and self-determining human beings, remould yourselves, remake yourselves, mentally and spiritually (and) place responsibility in your own two hands. For You are responsible for what you are. You are responsible for what you want to be. Garvey then asks where should we begin our work and what is it? He answers saying, It is the duty of every man to find his place, to know his work, and I take it for granted that every man and woman of the (Black) race who know himself or herself, can, if they make up their minds, find their racial place. Garvey says that our place is among our people, thinking critically, working hard, acting with strength, dignity and determination, and being creative. He says to us, You must realize that your function is to create, and if you think about it in the proper way you will find work to do. Nature, he tells us, is still to be studied, discovered and developed and the problems of the world are still unsettled. Also, Garvey teaches that our task is to prepare ourselves to serve and then begin to do so. Service for Garvey is always for the masses and the greater good. He cautions us against the immorality and destructiveness of selfishness and teaches the promise of working for the collective good. He says, the ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself, but the ends that are for all, in common, will take you even into eternity. Garvey, then, wants us to find our place, serve the people and build for eternity. Here Garvey talks about the function of education as the fundamental way by which a people builds its own unique culture and civilization and ensures its progress in human history. Thus, he says, Education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race. And Garvey here argues that education must reach and raise up the masses for they are the core and essence of the nation and people, defining both the external perception and the internal reality of the level of a race or society. As he states, the masses make the nation and the race. If the masses are illiterate that is the judgment passed on the race by those who are critical of its existence. But Garvey also argues that it is not simply a concern for what others think, but even more important, what we think of ourselves, our sense of human possibility and what we know is necessary to free the masses of our people, to wake the people up to their duty, mission and inherent potential and promise. ADVERTISEMENT In conclusion, Garveys program is one of collective and personal liberation, self-determination and ongoing development through: (1) self-knowledge, i.e., identity, purpose and direction; (2) self-conscious organization to develop our potential and powers for good purposes; (3) an education for service; (4) economic and political self-determination; (5) moral grounding expressed in character and commitment to doing good in the world; (6) righteous and relentless struggle for liberation and upliftment; and (7) being constantly creative and answering each day the questions, who am I here and am I doing what the Creator, history and my people expect and demand of me? Kelli Bernard approved as LAHSA Commission Chair Kelli Bernard has been approved unanimously by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Commission to serve as commission chair for the upcoming fiscal year. Commissioner Sarah Dusseault has been approved as the commissions vice chair. Bernard, who was appointed to the LAHSA Commission by Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2016, will begin her role as the commission chair at the August 24 meeting. Bernard also co-chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness. She serves as a member of the Policy and Planning and Personnel committees. Bernard is chief executive for the Los Angeles Metro+ region of AECOM, a global infrastructure firm headquartered in Los Angeles that employs more than 2,000 people across Southern California. She is responsible for building on AECOMs strategies to deliver its integrated services to meet the infrastructure and business needs of public and private sector clients. ADVERTISEMENT Prior to joining AECOM, Bernard served as the deputy mayor of economic development for Mayor Garcetti. In that role, she championed business growth, economic development, and job creation in Los Angeles. Bernard serves on the board of City Charter Schools, which serve a diverse student body and focus on civic responsibility, public speaking, and the written word. She is also involved with the Urban Land Institute, which provides vision and leadership in the responsible use of land in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Im honored to lead the LAHSA Commission and excited to continue the unique county-city collaboration seen in the Los Angeles Continuum of Care, said Bernard. As chair I will continue to work closely with my colleagues to ensure the equitable distribution of the unprecedented resources LAHSA administers. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is a joint powers authority of the city and county of Los Angeles, created in 1993 to address the problems of homelessness in Los Angeles County. LAHSA is the lead agency in the HUD-funded Los Angeles Continuum of Care, and coordinates and manages nearly $300 million annually in federal, state, county, and city funds for programs providing shelter, housing, and services to people experiencing homelessness. For more information visit www.lahsa.org. LAUSD Reached Tentative Labor Deal with School Employees Association The Los Angeles Unified School District announced recently it has reached a tentative labor agreement with the union representing workers including office technicians, library aides, financial managers and clerical/office employees. The proposed three-year contract, which would cover about 3,800 workers, still needs to be ratified by the membership of the California School Employees Association and the LAUSD Board of Education, which is scheduled to vote on the deal next month. ADVERTISEMENT According to the LAUSD, the tentative contract would be retroactive to July 1, 2017, and includes 2 percent raises for each of the contracts three years. With the deal and previous contract agreements reached with the Service Employees International Union and Associated Administrators of Los Angeles union the district has agreed to labor deals with nearly 60 percent of the districts workforce, according to the LAUSD. The LAUSD board has already approved the SEIU contract, and it will vote on the AALA proposal on Aug. 21. The main holdout in the districts labor talks is United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing roughly 35,000 teachers. UTLA last week declared an impasse in negotiations, potentially leading to state mediation in the talks. LAUSD has offered the union ongoing 2 percent raises, along with a one- time 2 percent bonus and a $500 stipend for materials and supplies. UTLA, however, is asking for 6.5 percent salary increases, along with steps to lower class sizes, reduce standardized testing and implement accountability measures for charter schools. The district contends that UTLAs demands would cost nearly $1 billion, increasing the districts current-year deficit of about $500 million to $1.5 billion. Los Angeles County Swears in New Health Officer A family medicine specialist who earned his medical degree from UCLA and practiced extensively in urban and rural primary care and urgent care clinics in Northern and Southern California was sworn in today as Los Angeles Countys health officer. Dr. Muntu Davis, who earned a master of public health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, is a noted national advocate on elevating and implementing health equity framework within government agencies, according to the countys Department of Public Health. Davis had served since 2009 as Alameda Countys health officer and as ACPHDs public health director for the past six years. Before that, he worked in the Immunization Branch of the California Department of Health Services, where his duties included pandemic planning. ADVERTISEMENT Davis will serve as Los Angeles Countys medical expert regarding public health matters and will provide guidance and direction to leadership across the Department of Public Health. He will also consult on, interpret and enforce county and state laws and regulations to protect and promote the health and wellness of the countys more than 10 million residents and support county area health officers in the discharge of their duties. As we strive to develop and ensure our capacity to promote health equity and justice in Los Angeles County, I feel very fortunate to have Dr. Davis leadership to help advance our collective work with our colleagues at the Department of Health Services and the Department of Mental Health to implement our new health priorities, said DPH Director Barbara Ferrer. He is a unique addition and support for our collaborations with county residents and community organizations. Davis said he was eager to work on efforts to close the gaps, while improving health and well-being for all across Los Angeles County. I look forward to working in partnership with the community, business, and government to achieve long-standing improvements. Man, 81, with Dementia Goes Missing in Compton The sheriffs department today sought the publics help in locating an 81-year-old man with dementia who went missing almost a week ago in Compton. Robert Miller was last seen about 2 p.m. Tuesday at Burrell-MacDonald Park, at Alondra Boulevard and Wadsworth Avenue, when he asked someone for directions to a bus stop, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. ADVERTISEMENT Miller is described as Black, 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 155 pounds and is bald with brown eyes. He was wearing a beige hat, blue shirt and blue jeans when last seen. Millers possible destinations include San Bernardino and El Centro. Anyone with information regarding Millers whereabouts was urged to call the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments Homicide Bureau, Missing Persons Unit, at (323) 890-5500 to speak with Detective Abraham or Sgt. Nava. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 222- TIPS or at lacrimestoppers.org. Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Tells Authentic Stories from the Movement In the early morning hours of January 10, 1966, civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer Sr. was jolted from his sleep, as members of the Ku Klux Klan surrounded his house just north of Hattiesburg, Miss. Dahmer, a Black land-owner, had been actively working to register Blacks to vote and, in some cases, he even paid their poll taxes. It was enough to earn a Black man a death sentence in the South. The Klansmen bullets ripped through the darkness splintering wood and shattering glass as they fired on Dahmers house; one of them hurled a Molotov cocktail through the window; the Klan wanted to burn Dahmer and his family alive. As smoke and flames engulfed his home, Dahmer grabbed his shotgun and blasted his way out, creating a diversion as the rest of his family fled into the woods. Later that day, Dahmer died from smoke inhalation at an area hospital. ADVERTISEMENT A few days later, Dahmers voter registration card arrived in the mail. These are the kinds of stories we talk about in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, said Pamela Junior, the museums director. We tell people all the time: Museums are living and breathing places. Junior lamented that, oftentimes, the history of the Civil Rights Movement is told through the narrow lens of a few key figures, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. She said that it was important that people know that Mississippi was ground zero for the Movement; the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum helps to tell the stories of the people that were there. What we want to do is make sure that the stories are told authentically, Junior said. We have our own native son, Medgar Wiley Evers. We have Fannie Lou Hamer, June Johnson, Owen Brookslocal people who made up the Movement. Junior said that it was also important to show that civil rights leaders were ordinary people, yet they still managed to have a significant impact on the course of American history. Junior continued: So, to see something so powerful that these regular, poor people did to make things happen in the state of Mississippi is awesome. ADVERTISEMENT The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opened on December 9, 2017. The Clarion Ledger reported that the Dahmer family donated a truck that had been shot during the 1966 attack to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The museum promotes a greater understanding of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi and shares the stories of the movement that changed the world. A press release that described the museum said that visitors can witness the freedom struggle in eight interactive galleries that show the systematic oppression of Black Mississippians and their fight for equality that transformed the state and nation. The press release continued: Seven of the galleries encircle a central space called This Little Light of Mine. There, a dramatic sculpture glows brighter and the music of the Movement swells as visitors gather. Each museum gallery highlights a specific sub-topic or period. Gallery 1 defines civil and human rights; Gallery 2 focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction; Gallery 3 highlights civil rights activists and shares the stories of a Mississippi movement that changed the world; Gallery 4 peels back the layers of a segregated society; Gallery 5 showcases the sacrifices and the successes of the 1960s; Gallery 6 takes a deep dive into the Freedom Summer and local movements in Mississippi (1963-1964); and Gallery 7 tells the story of Black Empowerment from 1965 to the early 1970s. Junior said that, through the civil rights museum, the ills of Mississippi are finally on the wall. Were taking the bandage off of the sore, Junior said. We dont allow it to fester anymore. We let it breathe, so that healing can continue. The last gallery, Junior said, was designed to spark conversations about how all races can move forward together. Martin is gone. Medgar is gone. All of these people are gone that were at the center of the movement, at the forefront. We believed in them and trusted in them. These people are gone, Junior said. So, what we want to do is teach people that they are the movement. Junior continued: We are the movement; its up to us to do the work. Gallery 8 is titled Where do we go from here? and features mirrors with quotes from Mississippians who made incredible sacrifices to improve the lives of others. One of the last quotes that visitors see as they walk out of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is by Oseola McCarty, a Black seamstress and domestic worker who lived in Hattiesburg, Miss. McCarty, who quit school in the sixth grade to go to work, never married, never had children and never learned to drive, according to The New York Times, eventually donated nearly her entire life savings$150,000to the University of Southern Mississippi to fund scholarships for Black students. [McCarty] said that, if you want to be proud of yourself, you have got to do things you can be proud of, Junior said. So, I want people to live by that mantra. For more information about the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, please visit http://www.mcrm.mdah.ms.gov/. NABJ selects Drew Berry as Executive Director The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is pleased to announce longtime member Drew Berry as its new Executive Director. The NABJ Board of Directors recently selected Berry, who has been serving as a consultant tasked with executing this years Convention and Career Fair, which begins next Wednesday in Detroit. NABJ is excited that Drew Berry is joining our staff as Executive Director. His executive experience and media industry knowledge, coupled with his knack for fundraising and member relations, are some of the significant skills he brings to this vital position, NABJ President Sarah Glover said. Our members and partners will be well served with Drew at the helm. ADVERTISEMENT Berry served in a staff leadership role from 2015 to 2017 and worked with President Glover, the board and staff with overseeing a million-dollar financial turnaround of the organization. He has also previously served as interim executive director in 2010. I am very excited about the opportunities for engagement with NABJ leadership, members and partners to further build on a very solid financial and programmatic foundation. We are already discussing new partnerships, NABJ enterprises and organizational efficiencies to benefit all NABJ stakeholders, Berry said. A former television news executive and presently head of Drew Berry & Associates, LLC, Berry said he is more than ready for the new challenge. Berry worked with Glover and the board to develop the industry-recognized NABJ Strategic Plan 2017-2020. The association has begun implementing many of the plan initiatives, including a revamped convention site selection process. We are grateful for the role Drew Berry has played through this transition and are excited to support his leadership as executive director, said Paul Waters, senior associate at Democracy Fund. We are encouraged by the important role NABJ continues to play in supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in journalism. NABJ Region II Director Vickie Thomas, a reporter at WWJ Newsradio 950 AM in Detroit, said Berrys guidance has helped solidify what will be a strong convention. Berry also played a pivotal role when NABJ first met with potential convention sponsors in Detroit last year, and many of those sponsors have since signed on, she said. ADVERTISEMENT I am extremely delighted that Drew Berry is NABJs new executive director, Thomas said. He will continue helping NABJ grow in terms of fiscal responsibility and focusing on the needs of our members. I have full faith and confidence that Drew Berry is the person, at the right time for NABJ. Theres still time to join us for this years convention next week. Please register here. New South Carolina Museum to Have Rapid Response Exhibits A planned museum in South Carolina tracing African American history in America from slavery to today has hired a woman who creates exhibits based on current events. Brenda Tindal will help create rapid response exhibits for the International African American Museum when it opens in Charleston in 2020. Tindal did the same job at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina. She created an exhibit on modern race relations just months after the September 2016 riots after a fatal police shooting that included a police officers boots, a gas mask and a tear gas stained shirt. ADVERTISEMENT Tindal told The Post and Courier of Charleston she also wants to help teachers use the museum to teach U.S. History in a different way. No Charges Against Minneapolis Officers in Black Mans Death Two Minneapolis police officers who shot and killed a black man last month were justified in using deadly force, a prosecutor announced Monday, saying the man was fleeing police and turned toward them with a loaded gun before he was shot. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Thurman Blevins had refused commands to stop and show his hands, and was clearly a danger to the officers and community. Their decision to use deadly force against Mr. Blevins under those circumstances was authorized, Freeman said, adding that the officers will not be criminally charged. ADVERTISEMENT His statements were in prepared remarks that were handed out to the media. Freeman had tried to make the announcement during a news conference, but he was shouted down by Blevins friends and family members. They argue Blevins was no threat to anybody and was just sitting with a woman and his child. He was forced to run away from his family so they wouldnt shoot him down in his own community in front of his kid, said Sydnee Brown, a cousin. Freemans decision came after the city released the officers body-camera video late Sunday. Freemans report says Officers Justin Schmidt and Ryan Kelly were responding to a 911 call of a man firing a gun into the air June 23 on the citys north side. Body camera videos show them pulling their cruiser up and Blevins seated on a curb near a woman with a child in a stroller. As the officers pull up, one says, Hes got a gun! and they jump from the squad car. Schmidt yells Put your (expletive) hands up now! as Blevins runs. Schmidt also yells, Put your hands up! I will (expletive) shoot you! Kelly yells, Stop or Ill shoot! repeatedly. In a chase that takes less than a minute, Blevins yells back, I didnt do nothing bro, Please dont shoot and Leave me alone. An enhanced version of the videos has a red circle drawn around what appears to be a gun in Blevins right hand, as he looks over his left shoulder at the officers. After the chase turns down an alley, Blevins is shot, still running. At Freemans aborted news conference, Jeniffer Rohr, a friend of the Blevins family, criticized the officer who said Hes got a gun. ADVERTISEMENT He just gave himself a license to shoot Mr. Blevins, Rohr said. She said Blevins was assassinated. Others were upset that Blevins was shot while running away. In interviews with investigators, Schmidt said he feared for his life when he saw Blevins take his gun out of his pocket. Kelly said he believed the gun was aimed directly at him, and he was pretty sure Blevins fired the weapon at him. The report from Freemans office says a shell casing from Blevins gun was found near his body. In a conference call with reporters, Freeman said authorities cant be certain that Blevins shot at the officers, but it is irrelevant to the charging decision. He said merely pointing a handgun at officers is a threat that allows the officers to protect themselves. For our evaluation, the mere fact that he pointed a loaded handgun that he had fired earlier in the day gives officers justification to fire his weapon, Freeman said. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said in a statement Monday that he accepts and respects the prosecutors decision but cannot further comment until the criminal and internal investigations are complete. Arradondo promised to continue to remain engaged, active and listen throughout the community. Both officers remain on paid leave, Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said. An internal investigation has begun, and it will be up to the chief to decide when and if the officers return to the street, Elder said. Freeman said toxicology reports on Blevins showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.162, double the legal limit for driving. Blevins also had THC, a component of marijuana, and other drugs in his system. Freeman said that was also irrelevant to his decision. Freeman said the officers fired 14 shots and Blevins was hit four times. Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of the police union, said the body camera footage proved the two officers acted justifiably. The officers deserve the Minneapolis Police Departments highest award the Medal of Honor and the respect of the population it swore to protect, Kroll said. A protest of Blevins death was planned for Tuesday afternoon at the Hennepin County Government Center. Some witnesses had disputed Blevins was armed, saying he was carrying a bottle or a cup. The videos showed a bottle in Blevins hand. Blevins death prompted earlier demonstrations and community advocates demanded transparency and urged the swift release of body camera footage. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Blevins family viewed the video about an hour before it was released publicly. He called Blevins death tragic, but declined to comment on what the footage showed. I know that right now in our city theres a lot of pain, he said. Pain in many cases that I cannot understand. Blevins relatives previously called for both officers to face criminal charges . They renewed that call Monday, and also called for the officers to be fired. The videos released Sunday by the city included raw footage from both officers cameras, as well as what it called a stabilized video that includes footage from both officers produced by the National Center for Audio and Video Forensics in Beverly Hills, California. Officials said that footage had gone through a process to identify pixels from each frame and aligned them to help limit shaking. Minneapolis has been rocked by two high-profile fatal police shootings in recent years, including the November 2015 shooting of Jamar Clark, 24, and last years shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40. Officers in the Clark case were not charged. Trial is pending for the officer who shot Damond. No Charges Filed Against Ed Buck in Death of Gemmel Moore Text messages, witness accounts and a new video showing a prominent Los Angeles area Democratic donor under investigation for homicide was still engaged in soliciting young Black gay men with the allure of money for allowing him to shoot them with crystal meth. ADVERTISEMENT 26-year-old Gemmel Moore was found dead of a crystal meth overdose in Ed Bucks West Hollywood apartment on July 27, 2017. His death was immediately classified as an accidental methamphetamine overdose by the coroner, but the L.A. County Sheriffs Departments homicide bureau was forced to open a homicide investigation after Moores personal journal was published and other young men stepped forward recounting similar stories about a man who they say has a Tuskegee Experiment like fetish which includes shooting drugs into young Black men that he picks up off the street or via dating hookup websites just to see how they react to it while he makes them dress up and pose in white underwear. Just prior to Moores body being removed from Bucks apartment, images show another young man headed up to Bucks apartment who had to be stopped by sheriffs deputies. A coroners report confirmed that at the time of Moores death, Bucks apartment was littered with drug paraphernalia including 24 syringes with brown residue, five glass pipes with white residue and burn marks, a plastic straw with possible white residue, clear plastic bags with white powdery residue and a clear plastic bag with a piece of crystal-like substance. In a new video, Buck can be seen moving mirrors aroundmirrors that all of the young men say he positions around his apartment so that he can watch them at all times. Also visible is the infamous red Craftsman toolbox that numerous young men have described as one of the locations where he keeps his drugs and drug paraphernalia including cocaine, meth, heroin, pipes, and needles. At one point in the video, you can see Buck holding a large vibrator in his hands. ADVERTISEMENT The young man who took the video says that Bucksimilar to Moorebought him a ticket from L.A. back to Dallas in exchange for allowing Buck to shoot him with crystal meth. Meth from a bag that the young man says was only being used on him while Buck used meth from a different bag that looked different. Including this new video, over the past year numerous young men came forward including some who were engaged by Buck during the alleged homicide investigationshowing that even while under investigation, Buck continued to enjoy his lifestyle of preying on young Black men luring them with money and drugs as he did before Gemmel Moores death. Bucks attorney Seymour Amster maintains that even though Buck never sent a card, offered to help with funeral expenses or made one single phone call to Moores mother, that Moore was a good friend of Bucks and that he opened his home to an individual who was troubled. However, Amster has never explained how his client, a fairly well-off White man living in West Hollywood, seems to know all of these troubled vulnerable young Black gay men. Buck is not known for his involvement in helping youth or young adults but rather for contributing to political campaignsincluding District Attorney Jackie Lacey, Mayor Eric Garcetti and U.S. Senate candidate Kevin de Leonbanning the sale of fur and rescuing dogs he finds on the streetdogs that by all accounts he seems to treat better than the Black men he picks up off the street. At the close of business Thursday, July 26, the L.A. District Attorneys Office had rejected all criminal charges against Buck in the death of Moore citing insufficient admissible evidence. Reform L.A. Jails Coalition Makes History and Turns in Over 246K Signatures The Reform L.A. Jails coalition turned in more than 246,000 signatures to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk today calling for its criminal justice reform legislation initiative to be placed on Californias March 2020 Presidential Primary ballot. The initiative if passed will pave the way for Civilian Oversight Commission to effectively investigate deputy misconduct by providing them the power to subpoena deputy testimony and evidence and mandate as alternatives to incarceration for vulnerable populations be studied and prioritized over building new jails in an effort to ease jail overcrowding and recidivism particularly among mentally ill and homeless populations. The initiatives ballot language was approved in March of this year and shortly afterward, the campaign began its 180-day countywide signature collection effort using both volunteer and paid signature collectors. In just 131 days, over 246,000 signatures were collected and 9,248 new voters were registered. ADVERTISEMENT Today were making history and herstory, Campaign Director Jasmyne Cannick told a group of several dozen volunteers and supporters. I say herstory because we are gathered here based on the vision of women in our communityBlack womenwho said weve got a problem and this is what were going to do about it and we got it done. Thats important to recognize because its rare to have ballot measure campaign headed up by Black womeneven in a state as progressive as California. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors led the coalition of prison experts, public safety and criminal justice reform leaders, residents, business owners, religious leaders and the community at large. Today is a game changer, added Cullors. Voters have said that in the midst of allegation of deputies operating internally as gang members and claims of a secret gang society among the sheriffs departments ranks and amid ever increasing allegations of sexual misconduct involving deputies in L.A. County jailsthat they want answers. Voters told us that they want to prioritize alternatives to incarceration for the homeless, mentally ill and other vulnerable populations and they told us they want it now. Cannick added, Voters have said that criminal justice reform isnt just about police killings and police brutality, but its also about changing a system the doesnt value the lives of people of color whether were the suspect or the victim. The campaign is proud to have the support from both national and local advocacy organizations including the ACLU, Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, Dignity and Power Now, Community Coalition, White People 4 Black Lives and Real Justice PAC. The campaign was required by law to turn in 10% of the votes cast for Governor in 2014146,333. Over 246,000 signatures were submitted to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. 100,000 more than needed to qualify for the ballot. Once the signatures are certified by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, the Board of Supervisors must do one of three things: Adopt the Reform L.A. Jails Initiative, without alteration, at the regular meeting at which the certification of the petition is presented, or within 10 days after it is presented. Submit the Reform L.A. Jails Initiative, without alteration, to the voters for a vote. Order a report pursuant at the regular meeting at which the certification of the petition is presented. When the report is presented to the Board of Supervisors, the Board will either adopt the Reform Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative within 10 days or order an election. For more information about the ballot initiative, including full language of the proposed law, please visit www.ReformLAJails.com. Rosa Parks House Has Buyers, Working Out Details The auctioneer selling the house where Rosa Parks sought refuge after fleeing the South amid death threats said after the auction on Thursday there are buyers interested, but it will take a few days to work out the details. The house was included in an auction by Guernseys in New York as part of a larger sale of African American cultural and historic items. It was listed with a minimum bid of $1 million, with a presale estimate of $1 million to $3 million. It didnt sell during the auction, but Arlan Ettinger, of Guernseys, said he was approached after the auction by a buyer who had trouble entering a bid online. He did not release the buyers identity. ADVERTISEMENT Among the other items of interest that sold was Alex Haleys manuscript of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, including handwritten notes by Malcolm X and Haley, which sold to New Yorks Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Ettinger said. It was sold after the auction, and he did not immediately release the price. Parks moved to Detroit in 1957, two years after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. She stayed for a time in her brothers tiny, wood-framed home with 17 other relatives, according to family members. The house eventually was abandoned and ended up on a demolition list before Parks niece, Rhea McCauley, bought it for $500 and donated it to American artist Ryan Mendoza in an attempt to preserve her aunts legacy. Mendoza took it apart and shipped it to Germany and reassembled it in his yard in Berlin, turning it into a work of art that became a destination for people curious about Parks. Mendoza brought the house back to the U.S. earlier this year and displayed it in Rhode Island as he searched for a permanent place to reassemble the fragile structure for the final time. It is now packed in shipping containers awaiting its new home. He has said he hopes it will be displayed so the public can see it. The auction house has said the proceeds of the sale will be split between Mendoza and Parks family. Mendoza, who was in Berlin for the auction, followed the sale online and initially thought it had failed to sell after bidding did not reach the minimum of $1 million. Its really exciting, Mendoza said. My god. I thought it was a total failure for a minute there. I had shriveled up into a little ball. I thought I had failed America and American history, and instead it looks like were going to have a happy ending. Scarred and Battle Tested from Heart Disease, but Still Fighting WomenHeart (the first and leading voice for the 48 million American women living with or at risk of heart disease) story begins in February of 1999, when three women, united by heart disease, formed an organization that was destined to become a lifeline for women across this nation. And at the same time, in February of 1999, a young mother in Charlotte, N.C. suffered a stroke while she was pregnant with her second child. Fortunately, she suffered no long-term deficits, but was horrified by her temporary left side paralysis. Five years later, this size six, 36-year-old woman would suffer the first of three heart attacks just five days after giving birth to her third child. It was May of 2004. She was misdiagnosed for an entire week despite an EKG showing an acute myocardial infarction. She sought treatment six of seven days before someone finally listened. On that sixth night, she laid on her bed with one foot on the ground for the entire night, afraid to relinquish her physical attachment to Earth, because she felt her body shutting down. She prayed. And she vowed that if she lived, she would raise her voice so that no other woman suffered her fate. ADVERTISEMENT After this week-long heart attack, she returned to the emergency room. She was rushed by ambulance to another hospital and taken to emergency bypass surgery. She had five coronary artery dissections, and she underwent an emergency quadruple bypass. Her heart was so remarkable that the surgeon literally held it in his hand and had someone capture a photograph. Eight months later, that same young mother learned that her bypass grafts had shut down. Her rejection fraction was only 21 percent. She was advised to call a family meeting, get her affairs in order. Her prognosis was grim. It was then that I became intimately acquainted with her. I marveled at her strength and resolve as we walked this journey together. She became a force of nature, moving heaven and Earth in her fight for life. She underwent a repeat bypass, had part of her heart cut off, 15 laser holes drilled in her heart, a pericardial window cut in the sac around her heart, three defibrillator implants, stents, angioplasty, and then some. Shes flatlined four times, and suffered from congestive heart failure. Shes experienced more heart issues than generations of a family. But I am happy to share with you that she is still with us. This is my story, and WomenHeart has been a lifeline for me. I became a WomenHeart Champion in 2007 and it changed my life. The sense of sisterhood and friendship are truly priceless. WomenHeart is the nations only patient-centered organization solely dedicated to advancing womens heart health through education, advocacy and patient support. At its core are WomenHeart Championswomen living with heart diseasewho are trained to be community educators, support network leaders and advocates for womens heart health in the communities in which they live. ADVERTISEMENT WomenHeart is a friend to many WomenHeart Champions like me. Today, I speak to audiences of women living with heart disease and medical professionals. Im a little scarred and battle tested, I am no longer 36, I am no longer a size six, but I am still here. And I am determined more than ever now, to keep the vow that I made 14 years ago in May of 2004, so that not another woman suffers my fate. I, along with WomenHeart, am fighting for every heart with the same tenacity and vigor that saved my own. As an African American woman, I know that this disease impacts women differently than men, especially minority women. Heart disease claims the lives of nearly 48,000 African Americans and 21,000 Hispanic women annually. Which is why I am asking other women of color who are heart disease survivors to join the fight and become a WomenHeart Champion at the 2018 WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium. Its the nations only free volunteer program that trains women with heart disease to be community educators and support network coordinators in their communities. They are real women living with heart disease, who share their stories and important messages about heart healthall in the mission to save lives. Join me. To learn more or to sign up, visit http://www.WomenHeart.org/empower. White Mans Mansion May Replace Historic Black Church A simmering battle is underway in Venice as advocates strive to prevent replacement of the historic First Baptist Church with an 11,000 square feet residence. The dispute stems from sale of the building by the church pastor and officers in February 2017 for a price of $6.3 million. The new owners, listed as 685 Westminster Holdings LLC, aim to convert the now-boarded-up two-story, 12,311 square-foot church into a two-story, 11,760 square-foot single-family home, according to L.A. city planning documents. The applicant on the change-of-use form is listed as multi-millionaire Jay Penske, the owner of Variety, Deadline and several other media publications. ADVERTISEMENT News of that proposal drew emotions from outrage to sadness from among Venices Oakwood community and elicited vows from residents to fight the project, which some consider as an attack to obliterate the contributions of African Americans to building the area. First Baptist Church was organized in 1910 by Blacks, who were confined to living in Oakwood due to Los Angeles racist housing covenants at the time. Many of its African American residents provided the labor for Venice founder Abbott Kinney to build the community. The original edifice was constructed about 1928 and after the congregation outgrew it, they erected the current structure in 1968 and used the original site, located across the street from the church, as a parking lot. Over the years, First Baptist has served as a place of worship and a center for community activities for generations of African Americans. However, the application to change the facility from a church to a residence has not been well received by those who still live in the neighborhood and underscores the fears of the gentrification echoed throughout minority communities across the city. We dont want the historical contributions of African Americans in Venice erased through the gentrification efforts and people who come and buy property and change it into something that eradicates the history and footprint of the contributions of Black people in that community, said Naomi Nightingale, an Oakwood resident whose family has lived decades in the area. This is the first Black church that was built in the Venice community and it still stands as a structure and it can still be an image and representation of what Black people have done, added Nightingale, who is working to obtain a historical cultural designation to preserve the building. ADVERTISEMENT Offering similar comments, resident Laddie Williams said, [That church was built] 45 years after slavery ended and Black people migrated to California and they created a church because they couldnt worship anywhere else. The area was considered swampland. So I commend them to put enough money to buy this property here. Both Williams and Nightingale expressed disappointment in L.A. Councilmember Mike Bonins efforts to assist their campaign, but his spokesman, David Graham-Caso, insisted that Bonin is strongly supportive of preserving the church building and acknowledging the significant African American history of the Oakwood neighborhood of Venice. Graham-Caso said Bonin has met with community members and the buildings new owners along with facilitating the discussions between them. As a result, he said the owners have committed to maintain the facade of the church building, create historic and cultural monuments to the neighborhoods African American history, and provide other benefits to the community such as allowing the potential community use of an adjacent lot on the property site. The owners have also preserved sacred elements of the churchs interior, and transported them to the congregations new church in Westchester at the owners expense, said Graham-Caso. While those actions may be admirable, they wont deter the preservation advocates from pressing their cause, said Nightingale. She and members of the First Baptist Church Support Group meet very Sunday on the church steps to pray and distribute literature about the status of the church. The group is also challenging the owners request to change the propertys classification to residential. A hearing on the matter will come before the West L.A. Planning Commission on August 15, at 4:30 p.m., at 11214 Exposition Blvd., in Los Angeles. This issue has really brought the community together in a way that we havent been for a number of years, solidly behind the common cause of saving this church, she said. Im not opposed to change, but what I am opposed to is the eradication of our contributions as if Black people never even lived there, as if there is not anything important enough to preserve, as if just because you have the money and inclination, that is all that is required to just remove a monument of religious stature. This is just another method of dispersing Black people from their own communities. There are a few of us left and we are standing our ground. Our intent is to win and leave that church standing. Woman Pleads Not Guilty to Triple Murder A Los Angeles woman, whos accused of killing a disabled man and his mother and stepfather at their Leimert Park home after they took her in and gave her a place to stay, pleaded not guilty today to triple murder charges. Nancy Amelia Jackson, 56, is also facing a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, but prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty. She is being held without bail in the killings of Phillip White, 65; his mother, Orsie Carter, 79; and his stepfather, William Carter, 83. The family had invited Jackson to live with them when she was down on her luck, according to police. ADVERTISEMENT At a May news conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters with the victims family looking on, Capt. Peter Whittingham told reporters, What I have seen indicates that this lady was manipulative in nature (and) took unfair advantage of the illness of Mr. White and frowned upon anybody intervening, including his mother and stepdad. The LAPD captain who said investigators have a case supported by verified ballistic and forensic evidence told reporters that Jackson went from being a mere person of interest, maybe even a material witness to being arrested and charged in the senseless and brutal murder of this innocent family. We have identified, developed evidence that now in our minds conclusively identified the only suspect who is responsible in this case, Whittingham said. He said a drivers license photo released by police when they were trying to track down Jackson, showing her smiling, was deceiving, telling reporters that what he saw was pure evil in that individual. Jackson had been staying at Whites home for three to six weeks and had some prior knowledge years ago of Phillip, the police captain said. He said this was a case where you have somebody who was down and out on their luck, it appears, and found somebody, a kind-hearted, giving person, to provide help and support and give her a chance to get off the street. But in so doing, she also used that opportunity, in my view, to manipulate Mr. Phillip White, who as we know was disabled, and take unfair advantage of him and his kindness. Whites mother, who was her sons legal caretaker, had insisted that Jackson leave, and nobody was going to get between her and a good thing, Whittingham said. The bodies were discovered around 8:20 p.m. May 22 inside Whites home in the 3900 block of South Bronson Avenue. White and his mother were shot in the chest and head, respectively, and her husband died of blunt force head trauma, according to the coroners office. Without being too vivid, its a case where you have three bodies piled on each other, Whittingham said. Its just a sad way to spend your last days or your last breath. ADVERTISEMENT Jackson was arrested the day after the killings in Culver City. Jackson was ordered back to court on Sept. 17, when a date is expected to be set for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial. Chinese internet users have found a way to get around government suppression of news by using blockchain technology. Blockchain is the name for an official list of transactions carried out between users belonging to the same network. Blockchain permits transaction records to be checked and stored securely. Blockchain technology has received a lot of publicity in recent years because of its relation to cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency is a kind of money that does not exist in the form of bills or coins. It is not overseen by banks or supported by governments. It is exchanged digitally between buyers and sellers using secret codes for security. Two of the most popular cryptocurrencies are bitcoin and ethereum. Cryptocurrency amounts are created by developers through a method called mining. This is when users lend computing power to record the exact same transactions to form a blockchain. Chinese internet users turned to blockchain Some internet users recently turned to blockchain to publicize a Chinese vaccine scandal. A Chinese drug maker was found to have produced poor quality vaccines meant for young babies. The company was identified as Changchun Changsheng, one of Chinas largest vaccine manufacturers. Last year, the same company was ordered to stop production of several kinds of vaccines due to poor manufacturing methods. The information was uncovered during an investigation by an unidentified reporter, who published a story on the internet. The story said Chinese officials had discovered production problems as early as November, but did not admit their findings or announce any action against the company until July. The news spread across social media in China. But the story was quickly censored by the Chinese government. Other attempts to republish the story were not successful. Several technology publications have written about how members of Chinas blockchain community got involved to keep the story alive. U.S.-based technology publication The Verge reported a user of the ethereum system moved a small amount of ether into the users own address. The owner of the address then added the censored vaccine article to the blockchain transactions metadata, The Verge said. The metadata information is public. Since the ethereum system is decentralized, it can only be controlled by the people who are part of it. This publishing method prevented Chinese government censors from blocking the story. Once the story was out, it did not take long for Chinese officials to start officially commenting on the investigation into the companys activities. At least 15 individuals connected to the company have been detained as part of the investigation. Chinese state media reported the countrys Food and Drug Administration had discovered the drug maker had been falsifying production and inspection records. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement the company had violated a moral bottom line. He promised the government would strongly crack down on any violations that could endanger public safety. The latest vaccine case was not the only major incident involving blockchain publishing. In April, the method was used by student activists to publish an open letter written by a student who said she had been sexually assaulted. The student accused officials at her college of threatening her and taking steps to prevent her from going public about the case. The letter was quickly censored when released, but the blockchain version still remains public. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Quiz Quiz - How Blockchain Technology Is Used to Get Past Chinese Censors Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story transaction n. an occurrence in which goods, services, or money are passed from one person or account to another network n. system of computers connected together for the purpose of sharing information digitally adj. showing information in electronic form scandal n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong censor v. examine books, movies, etc. in order to remove things considered to be offensive, immoral or harmful to society metadata n. information given to describe or help people use other information decentralized adj. used to describe organizations or activities not controlled from one central place, but happening in many locations crack down v. take strong action to stop something From VOA Learning English, this is the Health and Lifestyle Report. A new study finds that the most widely used anti-malarial treatment might not help children and pregnant women as much as other patients. The pregnant women and children studied had lower amounts of one of the treatment drugs than non-pregnant adults. The most common drugs to treat malaria are a combination of artemether and lumefantrine. Together the combination therapy is also called ACT. This research may explain why usual doses of ACT, sometimes fail to cure. The research also suggests that a change in the treatment program may help to cure more people and prevent resistance. But other experts say this study alone is not enough to change treatment recommendations. Treatment failures Since 2000, cases of malaria around the world have dropped by 60 percent. The decrease is credited to billions of dollars-worth of programs to prevent and treat the disease. However, in some parts of the world, malaria is still a serious problem. "More than 400,000 people are killed every year by malaria. And, actually, most of them are small children under 5 years of age in sub-Saharan regions of Africa." That is Frank Kloprogge. He is a researcher working with the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network. He co-wrote the new study. He and other researchers examined 31 studies involving more than 4,000 people. They looked at amounts of lumefantrine in patients blood seven days after treatment began. They found that children and pregnant women had lower-than-average amounts. "Pregnant women were, for example, 20 percent lower. And depending on the body weight group in children, it was somewhere between 15 and 25 percent lower." Pregnant women and children seem to absorb and use medicines differently. Kloprogge explains that children have different levels of important enzymes. And pregnant women, he adds, have different amounts of water and fat. These can all affect how a drug works in the body. "Pregnant women also have changes in body composition. You can think about water and fat content. And this also has an impact on how the drug distributes through the body." Some studies have found that children and pregnant women are more likely than others to develop malaria again within weeks of treatment. Kloprogge says that failing to treat malaria is not the only concern. When malaria survives exposure to low amounts of anti-malarial drugs, it can change into a new strain of malaria. And that strain is resistant to anti-malarial drugs. The researchers offer a different treatment model based on their findings. They suggest that taking the pills for five days would be more effective than the current three-day schedule. Andrea Bosman leads a malaria prevention and treatment department at the World Health Organization. He praises the study as well-done and important. But, he warns, this model is based on a study and not on medical trials. He says the WHO does not generally make recommendations based on modeling studies. "It is still a modeling study, and we do not generally make recommendations based on modeling studies alone. We require clinical data." He says longer treatment carries its own risk. He says the longer the treatment goes on, the less likely people are to continue it. Not completing a drug treatment can also add to the likelihood of resistance. Other studies have not found that a change in treatment plan is necessary. Kloprogge and his team are seeking support for a medical trial of the five-day treatment schedule. I'm Anna Matteo. Steve Baragona reported this story for VOA News. Anna Matteo adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story recommend v. to suggest that someone do (something) : recommendation n. dose n. the measured quantity of a therapeutic agent to be taken at one time absorb v. to take in (something, such as a liquid) in a natural or gradual way : often used as (be) absorbed enzyme n. a chemical substance in animals and plants that helps to cause natural processes (such as digestion) composition n. the way in which something is put together or arranged impact n. a powerful or major influence or effect distribute v. to give out to or deliver to exposure n. the fact or condition of being affected by something or experiencing something : the condition of being exposed to something strain n. a group of closely related living things that look similar but possess one or more unique characteristics model n. a set of ideas and numbers that describe the past, present, or future state of something (such as an economy or a business) clinical adj. always used before a noun : relating to or based on work done with real patients : of or relating to the medical treatment that is given to patients in hospitals, clinics, etc. McDonalds is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its world famous Big Mac. The Big Mac has been one of the most popular and best-selling items in the companys history. It is known for being bigger than a usual hamburger, with two pieces of meat separated by an extra piece of bread in the middle. It is also made with special sauce and toppings. As part of a memorable advertising campaign in the 1970s, the Big Macs ingredients were sung to music to help keep them in peoples minds. Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. The Big Mac generally contains the same ingredients in McDonalds restaurants around the world. The Big Mac was invented in 1967 by Jim Delligatti, the local operator of several McDonalds in the American state of Pennsylvania. He urged the company to let him sell the special hamburger at all the restaurants that he ran. Delligatti died in 2016 at the age of 98. In a 2007 interview with Reuters, he said it took a long time to persuade McDonalds that the Big Mac was a good idea. I felt that we needed a big sandwich, he said. But you couldnt do anything unless they gave you permission. McDonalds finally agreed to let Delligati sell the sandwich at one of his McDonalds restaurants. The company required him to use the same bun that other McDonalds burgers were made with. For that reason, Delligati said, it did not sell well at first. When he changed to a bigger bun - topped with sesame seeds sales of the sandwich increased by more than 12 percent. After similar results at other stores, McDonalds decided to add the Big Mac to all its restaurants in 1968. The Big Mac then grew to become an international food star. The Economist magazine has even used the price of the Big Mac to measure the purchasing power of different international currencies. To celebrate the Big Macs lasting popularity, McDonalds is launching a series of collectible MacCoins. They will available starting August 2 around the world. The company chose that day because August 2 would have been Jim Delligattis 100th birthday. The coins can be shared or collected. People can also trade them in for a free Big Mac. McDonalds plans to give away more than 6.2 million MacCoins in more than 50 nations. The coins come in five designs, each representing a different 10-year period with the Big Mac. Im Ashley Thompson. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and other online sources. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story sauce n. a thick liquid put on food to add flavor ingredient n. one of the things used to make food or products hamburger n. a round, flat shape of meat that is cooked and eaten between pieces of bread sandwich n. two pieces of bread containing meat, cheese, etc. bun n. small, round piece of bread North Korea has returned to the United States more than 55 sets of human remains. The remains are believed to be of Americans killed during the Korean War in North Korea. A special ceremony was held at Osan Airbase in South Korea to mark the return. The 55 boxes fulfill a promise, after some delay, by North Koreas leader to U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting in Singapore on June 12. Identifying remains will take time An unidentified U.S. defense official, however, said there was only one set of military identification tags, known as dog tags, with the remains. The official spoke to the Associated Press on the condition that the person would not be identified. The defense official said, It could take months, or even years to identify them. North Korea has provided very little information to help identify the remains, a defense official told VOA. It could be difficult to find out if the remains are even American military members. Troops from 16 other United Nations member countries fought with the U.S. during the war. Service members from countries including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines also have not been recovered from North Korea. Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the return of the 55 boxes was a good step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. We dont know whos in those boxes, Mattis said. The U.S. Defense Department estimates that about 7,700 American service members were missing during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. About 5,300 were believed to be on North Korean soil. Many were placed in shallow burials on battlefields. Efforts to recover remains in North Korea have faced political and other barriers. Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned 208 containers to the U.S. with remains. But examination showed that the remains were from more than 208 individuals. Of those, 181 have been identified. Also, between 1996 and 2005, U.S.-North Korea joint efforts resulted in the recovery of 229 containers of remains. The Defense Department said 153 individuals have been identified. The U.S. official who discussed the recently returned bones said the U.S. is considering including South Korea in future searches for remains in North Korea. Richard Downes father is one of the Korean War missing. He said that hopefully the most recent set of remains will lead to more information about those who are missing. Im Mario Ritter. Robert Burns reported this story for AP. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story tag n. a piece of material: metal or cloth, that has identifying information on it We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has changed Church teaching about the death sentence. The new teaching says that the earlier policy was outdated and that the church should work to end the death penalty. The Vatican said the Pope approved a change Thursday to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the collection of the Church's official teaching. In the past, the catechism said the Church does not object to the death penalty, in its words, If this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. The new teaching, published on August 2, said the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The death penalty is no longer used in most of Europe and South America. But it is still legal punishment in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Mideast. This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could bring back the death sentence. Turkey had ended the punishment in 2004 in an effort to join the European Union. Pope Francis has long opposed the death penalty. On almost every of his foreign trips, the Pope has visited prisoners to offer words of support and hope. He still stays in touch with Argentine prisoners who he attended to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires. The Pope announced his decision to change Church teaching on the death penalty last October on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism. At that 2017 ceremony, the Pope said the death penalty violates the Gospel and compared it to the voluntary killing of a human life. The human rights group, Amnesty International, has long campaigned against the death penalty. The organization called the new teaching an important step forward. It also praised the Roman Catholic Church for its commitment to end the death penalty. Im Caty Weaver. Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on AP and other news reports. Mario Ritter was the editor. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story penalty n. a punishment for breaking a rule or law inviolability n. too important to be ignored or treated with disrespect dignity n. the quality of being worthy of honor or respect commitment n. a promise to do or give something The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have agreed on a proposal to prevent conflict in the disputed South China Sea. The foreign ministers from the 10-member ASEAN group met in Singapore to discuss territorial issues, trade and security. Four of the 10 nations in ASEAN have territorial claims to parts of the South China Sea, which is important to world trade and holds valuable natural resources. China, however, claims nearly the whole area as its own territory. Taiwan, which is not an ASEAN member, also claims parts of the sea. China and ASEAN have been negotiating a code of conduct for the disputed waterway for years. The goal is to reduce tensions and increase cooperation on issues linked to the waterway. ASEAN member states and China agreed on a negotiating text for a code of conduct at a meeting in Changsha, China on June 27, the meetings final statement said. Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that the proposal was a milestone. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said approval of the proposal was good news and a breakthrough. Statement admits concerns One issue facing ASEAN countries is Chinas military buildup in parts of the South China Sea. It has built three airport runways and placed anti-aircraft missiles on seven landforms in the area. Without naming China, ASEAN ministers wrote that they took note of the concerns expressed by some countries on the buildup. They went on to say that those actions had hurt trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region. In years of negotiations, ASEAN members have disagreed about how to deal with China over territorial issues in the South China Sea. Vietnam has strongly expressed concerns over Chinas growing military presence especially on landforms it claims as its own. ASEAN members Cambodia and Laos are Chinese allies and they oppose strong language against China in ASEAN statements. The United States has carried out so-called freedom of navigation exercises in support of keeping the waterway open to trade. The final statement released by ASEAN ministers also welcomed talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Ministers urged support for United Nations and international efforts to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. In addition to ministers of Southeast Asian nations, other countries with interests in the area sent high level officials. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to arrive in Singapore on Friday. Reuters reports that officials from Japan, Russia and New Zealand met with ASEAN representatives for talks on security and trade. Im Mario Ritter. Mario Ritter adapted material from VOA, AP and Reuters for this VOA Learning English story. Hai Do was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story conduct n. a way of behaving, a way to carry something out confidence n. a feeling or belief that someone or something has the ability to do what is expected undermine v. to make something weaker in a hidden or slow way stability n. a quality of not being changed easily We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. There are two new BlackBerry-branded phones ready to hit the streets. The BlackBerry Evolve and BlackBerry Evolve X are mid-range phones with big batteries, dual rear cameras, and theyre both set to ship in mid-September. While the two phones look a lot alike, the he Evolve is the cheaper of the two, priced at about $365. The Evolve X has a faster processor, more memory, and a few other premium features to help justify its $510 price tag. Neither phone has a physical keyboard, and neither will be available outside of India for now. BlackBerry stopped building its own smartphones a few years ago, instead partnering with two manufacturers that license the BlackBerry name and BlackBerry software. The first is Chinese electronics company TCL, which manufactures the BlackBerry-branded phones sold in most of the world. The other is an Indian manufacturer called Optiemus, which makes the BlackBerry devices sold in India. Up until now, both companies have pretty much made their own versions of the same devices. But while BlackBerry and Oeptimus have announced the Evolve and Evolve X for the Indian market, I havent heard anything about an international version from TCL yet. That doesnt mean we wont see one, but so far theres nothing official to report. Anyway, while the Evolve line of phones dont have the physical keyboard that BlackBerry phones like the recently-released Key2 have, they do still ship with BlackBerrys suite of Android applications and services for communication for communication, managing contacts and calendar appointments, and security. The BlackBerry Evolve X has a 6 inch, 2160 x 1080 pixel display with an 18:9 (2:1) aspect ratio, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. It has 12MP + 13MP rear cameras, a 16MP front-facing camera, and support for wireless charging. The lower-cost BlackBerry Evolve has the same display, but features a Snapdragon 450 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64B of storage, a microSD card reader, dual 13MP rear cameras, and a 16MP front camera. Both phones have 4,000 mAh batteries, rear fingerprint chargers, and USB 3.0 Type-C ports with fast charging support. via CrackBerry, GSM Arena and GizmoChina Share this article: Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Pocket Tumblr Pinterest LinkedIn Email REDs first smartphone is an unusual device. It has a rugged Kevlar body. It has a 4D holographic display. And it will work with modular add-ons including specialized camera lenses. Basically the RED Hydrogen One is an expensive phone aimed at photographers, cinematographers and other enthusiasts. Its also running late. The phone showed up at the FCC website today, which could be a sign that RED has gained some of the certifications necessary to sell the Hydrogen One to consumers. But a key component apparently hasnt been certified yet and it looks unlikely that the Hydrogen One will ship to customers in August, as originally planned. At now least we know what it looks like under the hood thanks to the FCC. The user manual was also posted online. Heres a roundup of tech news from around the web. You can keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Share this article: Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Pocket Tumblr Pinterest LinkedIn Email Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Passengers in plane crashes like yesterdays Aeromexico accident in which no one died have better chances of survival due to better aircraft construction and safety standards, experts say. Air safety investigator Adrian Young, from the Netherlands- based consultancy To70, says that crash survival rates are higher than they have ever been in part because airplanes are stronger than ever. People are now less likely to be trapped by collapsed seats and floors, especially if the plane comes to rest more or less level and the accident occurs on flat ground, as in the crash in northern Mexico. He told The Associated Press it was too early to speculate about the cause. Other improvements in recent decades include interior materials that burn more slowly and dont give off poisonous gases, and better airport construction that eliminates obstacles near runways. Young cautioned as well that good fortune is crucial in any accident. Authorities said there were no fatalities among the 97 passengers and four crew members aboard the Embraer 190 jet. Rescuers took 49 people to hospitals, most with minor injuries. The lack of a death toll recalls a 2008 crash landing by a British Airways Boeing 777 short of the runway at Londons Heathrow Airport. All 152 passengers and crew survived. In 2013, only 2 of 302 passengers from an Asiana 777 died when the plane crashed on landing in San Francisco. To70s safety review for 2017 indicated the year was the safest on record for airline passengers, with 13 lives lost in propeller-driven aircraft and no jets crashed in passenger service anywhere in the world. Yesterday [Macau time], an Aeromexico jetliner taking off in a blustery storm smashed down into a nearby field but skidded to a stop virtually intact, and all 103 people aboard were able to escape advancing flames before fire engulfed the aircraft. Passengers expressed gratitude to be alive, but many were extremely shaken after the crash. It was really, really ugly, said Lorenzo Nunez, a passenger from Chicago who fled the plane with his two sons and wife. It burned in a question of seconds, he told reporters, snapping his fingers for emphasis. Survivors said the Embraer 190 plane burst into flames right after it hit the ground. We felt the flames coming quickly [] there was a lot of smoke, Jaquelin Flores told the newspaper El Sol. After the accident, several passengers walked away from the plane before first responders arrived. Some sought medical help, while others rushed home to loved ones. MDT/AP The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) has concluded the inspection and repair works of St. Augustines Church, in cooperation with the Diocese of Macau. The Church reopened to the public yesterday and will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., including on public holidays. Strong winds and rain caused a part of the roof and wooden beams on the right-hand aisle of the Church to collapse. The IC carried out emergency reinforcement and repair works in that section. After the repairs were completed, the IC noted that, a comprehensive inspection of the churchs safety was carried out and, pursuant to its conclusions, the churchs roof was fully repaired. In the future, the IC will continue to regularly monitor and inspect heritage buildings as well as communicate with the respective owners, in order to jointly and adequately protect the cultural heritage. Head of Beijing delegation replaced The Government Spokesperson Office has confirmed that the head of the Macau delegation in Beijing, Hong Wai, has ended her contract. In a short statement, the office said that the nomination, exoneration and mobility of department heads are a result of common and normal decisions by the public administration. The office also says that the Beijing delegation will temporarily be headed by a staff member of the delegation with the necessary qualifications. Restaurant owner arrested following blast The owner of the restaurant where a blast occurred last month was arrested, according to Radio Macau. The Judiciary Police (PJ) says that the case that lead to one death and six injured persons, was caused by human error, namely the inapropriate use of a stove, which caused a gas leak. The owner of the restaurant located at the northern district, a woman aged 44, was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office for investigation, according to the PJ. Officially recognized faith groups in China are promoting the flying of national flags at religious events amid a push by the ruling Communist Party to extend its ideological control over religious life. Flying the flag would emphasize that the fates of the party, nation and individual are bound tightly together, a statement viewed yesterday on the website of the partys United Front Work Department that oversees such groups said. Raising the flag at religious venues abets the strengthening of religious figures and religious believers national and civic consciousness and creates a sense of the Chinese nations community, said the statement, issued following a conference of groups representing Buddhists, Taoists, Protestants, Catholics and Muslims. The officially atheistic party has tightened its grip over the countrys five officially recognized religions this year, ordering especially that Christians and Muslims religions considered foreign to China work toward sinosization. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have been confined to re-education camps, where they are told to repudiate Islam and their traditional Uighur culture and pledge fealty to the party. The authorities have removed crosses and other exterior identifiers from Christian churches and some have been demolished. That was accompanied earlier this year by a campaign led by president and party leader Xi Jinping to promote the works of Karl Marx, who famously called religion the opium of the people. AP As many as 2,000 protestors gathered outside of Melco Resorts properties yesterday afternoon, demanding 14 months salary per year and an end to smoking inside casinos. Organized by the New Macau Gaming Workers Rights Association, hundreds of disgruntled employees marched along the Cotai Strip warning that if their demands are not satisfied, they will raise the issue with the government. Organizers put the number of demonstrators at 2,000, but the police said that there were just half that number. The protestors demanded full pensions for croupiers and also 14 months of pay per year. They also want to see the smoking ban fully enforced inside Melco properties. Speaking to media on the sidelines of the demonstration, New Macau Gaming Workers Rights Association president Cloee Chao said this was not the responsibility of the government, but that would not stop the Association from raising the issue if Melco was not prepared to heed their demands. If Melco Resorts does not satisfy our appeals, we will petition to the government, Chao told media at the demonstration, as cited by TDM. This is the duty a casino should undertake. A senior representative at Melco Resorts attempting to formally accept a document with the workers demands was rejected by the crowd, who called on Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Ho to come out instead. Ho did not come out, but the protestors eventually accepted another senior representative in his place and submitted their complaints. When North Korea handed over 55 boxes of bones that it said are remains of American war dead, it provided a single military dog tag but no other information that could help U.S. forensics experts determine their individual identities, a U.S. defense official said yesterday [Macau time]. The official, who discussed previously undisclosed aspects of the remains issue on condition of anonymity, said it probably will take months if not years to fully determine individual identities from the remains, which have not yet been confirmed by U.S. specialists to be those of American servicemen. The official did not know details about the single dog tag, including the name on it, or whether it was even that of an American military member. During the Korean War, combat troops of 16 other United Nations member countries fought alongside U.S. service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. The 55 boxes were handed over at Wonsan, North Korea last week and flown aboard a U.S. military transport plane to Osan air base in South Korea, where U.S. officials catalogued the contents. After a repatriation ceremony at Osan yesterday, the remains will be flown to Hawaii where they will begin undergoing in-depth forensic analysis, in some cases using mitochondrial DNA profiles, at a Defense Department laboratory to attempt to establish individual identifications. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said last week that the return of the 55 boxes was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. We dont know whos in those boxes, he said. He noted that some could turn out to be those of missing from other nations that fought in the Korean War. They could go to Australia, he said. They have missing, France has missing, Americans have. Theres a whole lot of us. So, this is an international effort to bring closure for those families. Vice President Mike Pence, the son of a Korean War combat veteran, is scheduled to fly to Hawaii for a ceremony, which the military calls an honorable carry ceremony, marking the arrival of the remains on American soil at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Wednesday. This will mark a breakthrough in a long-stalled U.S. effort to obtain war remains from North Korea, but officials say it is unlikely to produce quick satisfaction for any of the families of the nearly 7,700 U.S. servicemen who are still listed as missing and unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea provided the 55 boxes in a delayed fulfillment of a commitment its leader, Kim Jong Un, made to President Donald Trump at their Singapore summit on June 12. Although the point of the summit was for Trump to press Kim on giving up his nuclear weapons, their joint statement after the meeting included a single line on an agreement to recover POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified. North Korea had told U.S. officials more than once in recent years that it had about 200 sets of U.S. war remains, although none was already identified. It remains unclear whether the boxes provided on July 27 include all of the bones North Korea has accumulated over the years. In the past, the North has provided bones that in some cases were not human or that were additional bones of U.S. servicemen already identified from previously recovered remains. The Pentagon estimates that of the approximately 7,700 U.S. MIAs from the Korean War, about 5,300 are unaccounted for on North Korean soil. Many were buried in shallow graves near where they fell on the battlefield; some others died in North Korean or Chinese-run prisoner of war camps. Efforts to recover remains in North Korea have been fraught with political and other obstacles since the war ended on July 27, 1953. Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea unilaterally handed over 208 caskets to the U.S., which turned out to contain remains of far more than 208 individuals, although forensics specialists thus far have established 181 identities. In addition, a series of U.S.-North Korean recovery efforts, termed joint field activities, between 1996 and 2005 yielded 229 caskets of remains, of which 153 have been identified, according to the Pentagon. The Trump administration, as part of the Singapore agreement, is pursuing discussions with North Korea on resuming those field activities, for which past administrations have paid millions of dollars in donated vehicles, equipment, food and cash at the request of the North Koreans. The U.S. official who discussed aspects of the return of the 55 boxes on condition of anonymity said the U.S. is considering the possibility of including South Korea in future searches for remains in North Korea. Its not clear whether negotiations for such an arrangement are under way. Richard Downes, whose father, Air Force Lt. Hal Downes, is among the Korean War missing, says this turnover of remains, having drawn worldwide attention, has the potential to put the U.S. back on track to finding and eventually identifying many more. Downes, 70, was 3 when his fathers B-26 Invader went down on Jan. 13, 1952, northeast of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. His family was left to wonder about his fate. Downes, now executive director of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, which advocates for remains recovery, said he hopes the boxes that arrive in Hawaii on Wednesday prove to be a vanguard that leads to a fuller accounting for families. These 55 can set the stage for more to come, Downes said. Robert Burns, Washington, AP Southeast Asian nations are expected to welcome an initial negotiating draft of a nonaggression pact with China on the South China Sea, but critics warn that the protracted talks provide a diplomatic cover for Beijings tenacious aggression in the disputed waters. Top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also praise the rapprochement between the Koreas, along with that of President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, when they gather for four days of annual summitry in Singapore starting yesterday. Currently led by Singapore, the 10-nation bloc will host on Saturday Asias largest security forum, including the key players involved in the Korean Peninsulas disarmament efforts, which will provide a chance for them to talk on the summits sidelines. Concern over rising extremism in the region and the plight of minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmars Rakhine state will also be under the spotlight. Myanmar is to brief the ASEAN foreign ministers on the situation in Rakhine during a lunch retreat, an informal gathering where ministers raise contentious issues that normally are a taboo in their staid plenary meetings. Founded in 1967 in the Cold War era as a bulwark against communism, ASEAN has a bedrock principle of non-interference in each others domestic affairs and decides by consensus, meaning even one member state can doom any proposal it deems offensive. Those cardinal principles have drastically slowed decision-making and have been used by authoritarian leaders to dodge outside criticism, causing the diplomatic collective to be labeled by skeptics as a club of dictators and human rights violators. But its principles have allowed ASEAN to maintain diverse national identities, from rambunctious democracies to martial law regimes, for half a century. The bloc has also been an acceptable broker for talks for all sorts of conflicts. In the South China Sea disputes, which have pitted China, Taiwan and four ASEAN member states Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam the group is expected to announce an agreement with Beijing on an initial negotiating draft of a so-called code of conduct, a proposed set of regional norms and rules aimed at preventing the long-seething disputes from degenerating into a shooting war. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said this week before flying to Singapore that talks on the code could be concluded this year or next. Other Asian diplomats have not been as optimistic. The ministers will welcome the improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations towards the early conclusion of an effective code of conduct in the South China Sea on a mutually agreed timeline, according to a draft of a joint post-summit communique by the ministers which was obtained by The Associated Press. Some of the ministers would repeat their concerns over Chinas transformation of seven disputed reefs into islands, including three with runways, which now resemble small cities armed with weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. China has come under intense criticisms for the aggressive action but it has said it has the right to build on its territory and defend them at all costs. The ministers took note of the concerns expressed by some countries on the land reclamations in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region, the draft communique said without naming China and reflecting the internal divisions over the touchy issue. ASEAN member states Cambodia and Laos, which are known China allies, have opposed the use of strong language against Beijing over the disputes. Greg Poling, director of the U.S.-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which monitors developments in the South China Sea, said highlighting the draft code of conduct in the summit will be more political theater than substance at this point given the lack of agreement on areas it will cover and whether the pact should be legally binding after more than 15 years of talks. Without any major concessions, especially from China, Poling said the talks would drag further while China presses actions to reinforce its vast territorial claims without paying much price because the code of conduct process offers diplomatic cover to claim it is seeking a peaceful and fair settlement. Jim Gomez & Annabelle Liang, Singapore, AP As alarms blare about Russian interference in U.S. elections, the Trump administration is facing criticism that it has no clear national strategy to protect the country during the upcoming midterms and beyond. Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized the administrations response as fragmented, without enough coordination across federal agencies. And with the midterms just three months away, critics are calling on President Donald Trump to take a stronger stand on an issue critical to American democracy. Theres clearly not enough leadership from the top. This is a moment to move, said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. I dont think they are doing nearly enough. Various government agencies have been at work to ensure safe voting. The FBI has set up a Foreign Influence Task Force and intelligence agencies are collecting information on Russian aggression. But Trump himself rarely talks about the issue. And in the nearly two years since Russians were found to have hacked into U.S. election systems and manipulated social media to influence public opinion, the White House has held two meetings on election security. One was last week. It ran 30 minutes. The meeting resulted in no new presidential directive to coordinate the federal effort to secure the election, said Suzanne Spaulding, former undersecretary of homeland security who was responsible for cyber security and protecting critical infrastructure. Trumps failure to take a leadership role on this, up until this [National Security Council] meeting, misses an opportunity to send a clear message to states that this is a very serious threat, Spaulding said. We did not get out of this NSC meeting a comprehensive, interagency strategy. It was each department and agency working in their silos. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the NSC, said the government response is robust. He said NSC staff leads the regular and continuous coordination of the whole-of-government approach to addressing foreign malign influence and ensuring election security. At a cybersecurity summit yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence said he was confident officials could prevent further meddling by foreign agents. We will repel any efforts to interfere in our elections, he said. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said government agencies are doing a lot of good work, but nobody knows about it. He lamented Trumps contradictory statements about whether he accepts the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. What I think he needs to do is lead this nation to make sure the 2018 election is protected, Graham said recently on CBS Face the Nation. He needs to be the leader of the movement not brought to the dance reluctantly. So, I hope he will direct his government, working with Congress, to harden the 2018 election before its too late. The debate over safeguarding U.S. elections comes as evidence of cyber threats piles up. Facebook announced that it has uncovered sophisticated efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. The company said it removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in coordinated political behavior and appeared to be fake. Nearly 300,000 people followed at least one of the accounts. Earlier this month, Microsoft said it discovered that a fake domain had been set up as the landing page for phishing attacks by a hacking group believed to have links to Russian intelligence. A Microsoft spokesman said Monday that additional analysis has confirmed that the attempted attacks occurred in late 2017 and targeted multiple accounts associated with the offices of two legislators running for re-election. Microsoft did not name the lawmakers. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has said Russian hackers tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate her Senate computer network in 2017. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who is not running for re-election, told The Associated Press on Monday that someone contacted her office claiming to be an official from a country. A frequent critic of Russia, Shaheen said she didnt know if Moscow was behind the email received in November but had turned the matter over to the FBI. Shaheen said another senator had been targeted besides McCaskill. Its my understanding that there is, but I dont want to speak for other senators, she said. When asked if it was a Democratic senator, Shaheen nodded yes. People on both sides of the aisle have been beating the drum for two years now about the need for somebody to be accountable for cybersecurity across the government, Shaheen said. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said U.S. intelligence officials continue to see activity from individuals affiliated with the Internet Research Agency, whose members were indicted by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller. Coats said they create new social media accounts disguised as those of Americans, then use the fake accounts to drive attention to divisive issues in America. In the Obama administration, synchronizing federal agencies work on election security would have likely been the job of the White House cybersecurity coordinator. Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, abolished the post in May to remove a layer of bureaucracy from the NSC flow chart. Under the current structure, the point man for election security is Rear Adm. Douglas Fears. Trump tapped Fears in early June as his deputy assistant to the president and homeland security and counterterrorism adviser. Fears oversees the election security and other portfolios of the NSCs Cybersecurity Directorate and coordinates the federal governments response to disasters. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says cyber threats are an urgent, evolving crisis. Our adversaries capabilities online are outpacing our stove- piped defenses, Nielsen said yesterday. In fact, I believe that cyber threats collectively now exceed the danger of physical attacks against us. This is a major sea change for my department and for our countrys security. Deb Riechmann, Washington, AP China is trying to contain the backlash over faulty vaccines given to babies and toddlers, with its top governing body vowing to punish those involved in a scandal thats testing faith in the countrys USD122 billion drug industry. The fraud which sparked protests at government offices in Beijing and spurred Chinese parents to seek out foreign-made vaccinations in Hong Kong was discussed at a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Monday. Those responsible for making the poor-quality vaccines face hefty fines, jail sentences and bans for life from the drug industry, according to published remarks from the meeting. Shenzhen-listed drugmaker Changsheng Bio-Technology Co. and state-owned vaccine maker Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co. were found by a government probe to have made hundreds of thousands of low-quality vaccines that were then administered to children in a handful of provinces. Police have already petitioned prosecutors to arrest 18 people related to the fraud, including Changsheng Bio-Technology Chairwoman Gao Junfang. The revelations have triggered a crisis of confidence among consumers thats exploded on social media in China and wiped more than $20 billion off the value of health-care stocks. The industry which has aspirations to take on the west in drug innovation is still recovering from a 2016 scandal over expired vaccines that were sold nationally. The public reaction also has echoes of the tainted milk scandal a decade ago in which at least six babies died and hundreds of thousands of others were sickened after consuming locally made infant formula laced with the chemical melamine. The Chinese government said about 650,000 child vaccines didnt meet standards, meaning the immunizations may not offer the children who received them protection from deadly diseases, namely whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria. The news has triggered not just a surge in demand for childrens inoculations in Hong Kong parents but public pressure for more foreign-made vaccines to be made available in China. Bloomberg Intelligence: China Vaccine Scare May Boost Hong Kong Tourism China currently requires all imported vaccines to go through Chinese clinical trials and a review process by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) that can almost take forever, said Milo Liu, head of research at AJ Securities Ltd. Many vaccines used widely around the world are not available in China. This incident will likely speed up the CFDAs import process in the future, Liu said. On the other hand, China has restricted vaccine imports for years in order to favor its domestic producers and this single incident will not turn the table entirely on this policy stance. The scandal shows the high business risk facing Chinas drugmakers, Fitch Ratings said in a report Tuesday. The sector tends to concentrate on producing low-quality generic drugs because of a lack of investment in research and development, and weak supervision from regulators raises drug safety risks, Fitch said. Bloomberg Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH In a world first, Melbourne scientists have discovered a new type of anti-cancer drug that can put cancer cells into a permanent sleep, without the harmful side-effects caused by conventional cancer therapies. Published today in the journal Nature, the research reveals the first class of anti-cancer drugs that work by putting the cancer cell to sleep arresting tumour growth and spread without damaging the cells' DNA. The new class of drugs could provide an exciting alternative for people with cancer, and has already shown great promise in halting cancer progression in models of blood and liver cancers, as well as in delaying cancer relapse. Permanent sleep Research led by Associate Professor Tim Thomas and Associate Professor Anne Voss from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Professor Jonathan Baell from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dr. Brendon Monahan from Cancers Therapeutics CRC investigated whether inhibiting KAT6A and KAT6B could be a new approach to treating cancer. Associate Professor Thomas said the new class of drugs was the first to target KAT6A and KAT6B proteins. Both are known to play an important role in driving cancer. KAT6A sits at number 12 on the list of genes most commonly amplified in cancers. "Early on, we discovered that genetically depleting KAT6A quadrupled the life expectancy in animal models of blood cancers called lymphoma. Armed with the knowledge that KAT6A is an important driver of cancer, we began to look for ways of inhibiting the protein to treat cancer," Associate Professor Thomas said. The compounds had already shown great promise in preclinical testing, he said. "This new class of anti-cancer drugs was effective in preventing cancer progression in our preclinical cancer models. We are extremely excited about the potential that they hold as an entirely new weapon for fighting cancer. "The compound was well tolerated in our preclinical models and is very potent against tumour cells, while appearing not to adversely affect healthy cells," Associate Professor Thomas said. No more DNA damage The research efforts were almost a decade in the making, requiring strong collaboration between experts in cancer research, medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. There is a critical difference between this new class of drugs and standard cancer therapies. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy work by causing irreversible DNA damage. Cancer cells are unable to repair this damage, and die. The downside is that the therapies cannot be targeted only to cancer cells, and cause significant damage to healthy cells as well. This causes well-known short-term side effects, such as nausea, fatigue, hair loss and susceptibility to infection, as well as long-term effects such as infertility and increased risk of other cancers developing. "Rather than causing potentially dangerous DNA damage, as chemotherapy and radiotherapy do, this new class of anti-cancer drugs simply puts cancer cells into a permanent sleep," Associate Professor Voss said. "This new class of compounds stops cancer cells dividing by switching off their ability to 'trigger' the start of the cell cycle," she said. "The technical term is cell senescence. The cells are not dead, but they can no longer divide and proliferate. Without this ability, the cancer cells are effectively stopped in their tracks." Associate Professor Voss said the team believed the drugs might be effective in delaying cancer recurrence. "There is still a lot of work to be done to get to a point where this drug class could be investigated in human cancer patients," she said. "However our discovery suggests these drugs could be particularly effective as a type of consolidation therapy that delays or prevents relapse after initial treatment." "The possibility of giving clinicians another tool that they could use to substantially delay cancer recurrence could have a big impact for patients," Associate Professor Voss said. 'Undruggable' no more Professor Baell said the project was particularly significant because the scientific community had coined the gene family 'undruggable'. "There were many hurdles to overcome with this project; this compound certainly didn't fall into our laps, requiring dedicated Ph.D. students and NHMRC-supported postdoctoral medicinal chemists to drive the chemistry forward," Professor Baell said. "But with perseverance and commitment, we are excited to have developed a potent, precise and clean compound that appears to be safe and effective in our preclinical models. Our teams are now working on developing this compound into a drug that is appropriate for human trials." Professor Baell said the project was indebted to funding from the Australian Government and proved that public research could be an effective translational vehicle. "It can be difficult to secure funding for medicinal chemistry and higher-risk drug discovery projects," he said. "We are grateful to the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for the early funding that supported this project." Dr. Ian Street, chief scientist at Cancer Therapeutics CRC said it had been a great collaboration between the three organisations. "This has been a very tough nut to crack," Dr. Street said. "There is no doubt that the KAT6 inhibitors have played an important role in elucidating the potential of this new and exciting strategy to treat cancers." Explore further Novel drug cocktails strengthen targeted cancer therapies while lessening side effects More information: Jonathan B. Baell et al. Inhibitors of histone acetyltransferases KAT6A/B induce senescence and arrest tumour growth, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Jonathan B. Baell et al. Inhibitors of histone acetyltransferases KAT6A/B induce senescence and arrest tumour growth,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0387-5 A third of all babies born to mothers with preeclampsia arrive prematurely. Credit: Jaap Vermeulen The current approach in Ireland of screening expectant mothers for pre-eclampsia after they show early signs of the condition may not offer the best outcome for mothers and babies. New UCD research published in BMJ Open (British Medical Journal) shows that women in Ireland are open to taking a low daily dose (75mg) of aspirin from early pregnancy to reduce their chances of developing the condition. It is widely accepted that low doses of aspirin can significantly reduce the early onset of pre-eclampsia during pregnancy Few studies have assessed the acceptability of non-routine medications in pregnancy. The findings of the study offer an encouraging sign that women in Ireland at low-risk of developing pre-eclampsia are willing to take preventive steps early in their pregnancies. One of the study authors, Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe from the UCD School of Medicine, University College Dublin, is calling for a widespread randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy and safety of a universal low dose aspirin approach. Pre-eclampsia impacts one in ten first-time pregnancies, and the warning signs can often go unnoticed causing serious problems for mother and baby. For the mother, it can lead to acute problems of the liver, kidneys, brain and clotting system and survivors of pre-eclampsia have increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases later in life. A quarter of all babies born to mothers with pre-eclampsia are growth restricted and a third are born prematurely. Pre-eclampsia usually occurs during the second half of pregnancy, from around week 20, and the only treatment is to induce labour and deliver the baby. "Our study investigated if women were open to taking a low daily dose (75mg) of aspirin from early pregnancy (11 weeks) and would continue to do so up until the third trimester," says UCD Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital and Director of UCD Perinatal Research Centre. "We found that when encouraged by their doctor to take a low-level daily dose of aspirin (75mg) from 11 weeks until 36 weeks the majority of women did so at an average adherence rate of 90 percent," she explains. The study involved 546 pregnant women from across two maternity hospitals in Dublin. While the women who received aspirin as part of the study reported a slight increase in vaginal bleeding, both during and following pregnancy, this did not impact on pregnancy outcome. Internationally, there is no consensus on which screening method is best, or which women meet the criteria for aspirin use. Another study carried out in 2017 based on pregnant women involved in the SCOPE (Screening for Pregnancy End Points) project found that complications caused by pre-eclampsia cost the HSE upwards of 9 million annually, with postnatal care being the largest contributor to these costs. The Pre-eclampsia Foundation, a US-based NGO, reports that pre-eclampsia, and other hypertensive conditions, account for 76,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 infant deaths worldwide every year. The World Health Organisation rates the condition as one of the leading causes of infant mortality and maternal death worldwide. Explore further High blood pressure in pregnancy linked to mother's heart function More information: Fionnuala Mone et al. Trial of feasibility and acceptability of routine low-dose aspirin versus EarlyScreeningTest indicated aspirin for pre-eclampsia prevention (TESTstudy): a multicentre randomised controlled trial, BMJ Open (2018). Journal information: BMJ Open , British Medical Journal (BMJ) Fionnuala Mone et al. Trial of feasibility and acceptability of routine low-dose aspirin versus EarlyScreeningTest indicated aspirin for pre-eclampsia prevention (TESTstudy): a multicentre randomised controlled trial,(2018). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022056 Figure 2. Glioma progression in genome edited mice carrying GBM mutations in the SVZ A new study by KAIST researchers identified where the mutation causing glioblastoma starts. According to the study, neural stem cells away from the tumor mass are the cells of origin that contain mutation drivers for glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive brain tumor. This breakthrough research, reported in Nature on August 1, gives insights for understanding why glioblastomas almost always grow back, even after surgery, and suggests novel ways to treat glioblastoma, which was previously thought to be incurable. Like most cancers, glioblastoma is treated with surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, then radiation and chemotherapy. However, it almost always returns in less than a year and its median survival time is only 15 months. Precision therapeutic approaches targeting tumors themselves didn't lead to any breakthroughs. Professor Jeong Ho Lee's team at the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineeringdescribed direct genetic evidence through the deep sequencing of all triple-matched samples: normal SVZ tissue away from the tumor mass, tumor tissue, and normal cortical tissue. The research team studied 28 patients with glioblastomas and other types of brain tumors who underwent supra-total resection or other surgical resections of tumors, providing access to normal subventricular zone (SVZ) tissue (where neural stem cells are located) away from the tumor mass. The researchers used various deep and single cell sequencing technologies to conduct comparative DNA analysis on the samples from the patient's SVZ tissue and tumors. Figure 1. Genetic analysis of tumor-free SVZ tissue and matching tumor tissue from GBM patients. Credit: The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) They reported that normal SVZ tissue away from the tumor in 56.3% of patients with glioblastoma already contained low-level glioblastoma driver mutations that were observed at high levels in their matching tumors. Furthermore, the research team generated a genome edited mouse carrying glioblastoma mutations in the SVZ and showed that neural stem cells with mutations migrate from the SVZ lead to the development of glioblastomas in distant brain regions. (See the image below) Professor Lee conducted this study in collaboration with Professor Seok-Gu Kang of the Brain Tumor Center at Severance Hospital of Yonsei University. He said, "It's easier to understand when we compare it to fireworks. Every flare flying around sky can be likened to cancer cells even though the fireworks are triggered on the ground. We found the trigger." The identification of this mutation pathway of glioblastomas will lead to a new paradigm for therapeutic strategies. He added, "Now, we can focus on interrupting the recurrence and evolution of glioblastomas." Professor Lee has investigated mutations arising in the brain for a decade. He is developing innovative diagnostics and therapeutics for untreatable brain disorders including intractable epilepsy and glioblastoma at a tech-startup, SoVarGen. "All technologies we used during the research were transferred to the company. This research gave us very good momentum to reach the next phase of our startup," he remarked. Explore further A maestro that conducts the invasiveness of glioblastoma tumors More information: Joo Ho Lee et al. Human glioblastoma arises from subventricular zone cells with low-level driver mutations, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Joo Ho Lee et al. Human glioblastoma arises from subventricular zone cells with low-level driver mutations,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0389-3 In a new article in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, researchers at Kansas State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend the adoption of an enhanced "epidemiologic triad" for vector-borne diseases -- i.e., those spread by insects and related arthropods, such as mosquitoes and ticks. This depiction, using Japanese encephalitis virus as an example, demonstrates that controlling the vector is as important as controlling the pathogen or treating the hosts. "Rather than focusing on managing diseases at the host or pathogen level, we suggest the focus should be at the environmental and vector levels, an approach known as integrated vector management, or IVM," says Natalia Cernicchiaro, DVM, MS, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at Kansas State and senior author on the report. "Management strategies applied at these levels tend to be more sustainable and effective." Credit: Annals of the Entomological Society of America The textbook approach to managing disease outbreaks focuses on three factorspathogen, host, and environmentbut it leaves out one critical component in the case of afflictions such as Zika, malaria, and Lyme: the insect or arthropod responsible for transmission to humans. The emergence of the mosquito-borne Zika virus captured the world's attention in 2016, and likewise the continued rise of tick-borne Lyme disease in the United States has highlighted the need for robust response capabilities to vector-borne disease. The classic "epidemiologic triad," however, is due for a revision in the case of infections spread primarily by insects and related arthropods, and a new report in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America proposes a new version that better reflects the complexities of managing vector-borne diseases. "Rather than focusing on managing diseases at the host or pathogen level, we suggest the focus should be at the environmental and vector levels, an approach known as integrated vector management, or IVM," says Natalia Cernicchiaro, DVM, MS, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at Kansas State University and senior author on the report. "Management strategies applied at these levels tend to be more sustainable and effective." Ana Oliveira, DVM, M.S., lead author on the report and currently a research consultant and collaborator at Kansas State, first proposed the enhanced epidemiologic triad in her thesis work. Rather than considering vectors to be a subset of the environment, the new model puts equal emphasis on vectors, pathogens, and hosts in the spread of vector-borne disease, all within the wider influence of their common environment. "We consider that by adopting this version of the triad, which highlights the role of the vector in vector-borne disease transmission, the public health community would shift their focus into increased vector surveillance and pesticide resistance testing, which are vital parts of any integrated vector management plan," says Cernicchiaro. "Similarly, involvement and education of the community through citizen science are essential to increase the individual's role in preventing mosquito and tick bites." Oliveira and colleagues point to the case of Japanese encephalitis as an important example of the need for adequate integrated vector management strategies. Japanese encephalitis affected approximately 68,000 people, mostly under the age of 14, in 2011, primarily in Asia and the western Pacific region. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those infected can develop inflammation of the brain, leading to headache, high fever, disorientation, coma, tremors, and convulsions, and about one in four cases are fatal. Humans, however, are considered a "dead-end" host for the Japanese encephalitis virus; it doesn't spread from human to human. Instead, the Japanese encephalitis virus is transmitted to humans exclusively by mosquitoes that become infected after biting "reservoir" hosts such as pigs and birds. The researchers say they hope that greater appreciation for the role of vectors in disease transmission will lead to more sustainable management methods that are cost-effective and reduce unnecessary pesticide use. "Vector-borne diseases are complex in nature. A simple schematic does not capture the transmission dynamics; however, too complex a diagram would lose the visual connections that are applicable to all arthropod-transmitted pathogens. As such, we hope this version of the triad will be more widely adopted for describing the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases," says Cernicchiaro. More information: "Japanese Encephalitis Virus: Placing Disease Vectors in the Epidemiologic Triad," Annals of the Entomological Society of America (2018). "Japanese Encephalitis Virus: Placing Disease Vectors in the Epidemiologic Triad,"(2018). DOI: 10.1093/aesa/say025 Credit: CC0 Public Domain When Joan Jorgensen was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her roommate confided that she had just one period before going through menopause in high school. Doctors told Jorgensen's roommate that she would never have biological children. "This is devastating news at any age, let alone a high school girl," says Jorgensen, who is now a professor in the Department of Comparative Biosciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. That experience stuck with Jorgensen, whose research focuses on fertility problems like premature ovarian failure, which leads to an early loss of viable eggs and which her roommate experienced. Using animal models, Jorgensen tries to understand how female fertility is affected by development of the ovary, which includes how cells organize to support eggs for the entire lifetime of that individual. In new research published Aug. 2 in the journal PLOS Genetics, Jorgensen, graduate researcher Anqi Fu and others discovered that two genes work together to construct a cellular communication system in the ovaries of mice to maintain healthy eggs. The researchers describe this system as a series of junctions between the eggs and the cells that surround and support the eggs, known as granulosa cells. Both cells reach out to form multiple junctions that exchange information and ensure the proper development and survival of the egg leading up to ovulation. This research provides a piece of the puzzle of female infertility, and Jorgensen looks to build off these findings to uncover more information on premature ovarian failure and other fertility problems. Jorgensen and Fu collaborated with researchers at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Toronto to complete this work. Premature ovarian failure, in which the ovaries stop producing estrogen, is often caused by premature loss of the egg supply and affects as many as 3 percent of all women, according to the National Institutes of Health. In most cases the cause is unknown. Problems with the development of folliclesthe combination of an egg and its surrounding granulosa cellsare likely behind many cases of premature ovarian failure. Jorgensen's lab had previously found that mice missing two genes, IRX3 and IRX5, had defective follicles. In the current study, they looked for how these genes work together to keep follicles healthy. The researchers showed that mice with either IRX3 or IRX5 deleted had fewer pups, which led the researchers to suspect that communication within the follicle was breaking down. Looking within the ovary, they tracked the expression of each gene. Early on, the researchers saw that IRX3 and IRX5 were expressed throughout the follicle. But as the follicle began to mature, IRX3 became isolated to the egg, while IRX5 was only expressed in the granulosa cells. From their separate vantage points, these two genes synchronize the two cell types to help them establish communication networks. Jorgensen's team saw that the granulosa cells and the eggs extend parts of their membranes to form junctions with each other. These junctions allow signals to be transported in both directions. With IRX3 or IRX5 deleted, these junctions fell apart, interrupting communication within the follicle and destabilizing it. "We think of IRX3 and IRX5 as the supervisors in connecting these two cells," says Jorgensen. Despite this discovery of a role for these genes in follicle development in mice, researchers still aren't sure if these same genes have a similar effect in humans. "That's another thing we would like to learnwe want to be able to link it to human causes," says Jorgensen. Jorgensen and Fu say the next step will be to evaluate exactly how these genes direct these key cell-to-cell interactions. "If we can figure out how those networks are placed, we think that will be a major step in understanding the basic foundations of how follicles are built," says Jorgensen. "That will go a long way towards helping women that have infertility, especially those that undergo premature ovarian failure." Explore further Study prompts rethink of how ovaries develop A virus that infects millions of Americans every year may on occasion cause heart defects during the early stages of pregnancy, a new study in mice suggests. The findings may give researchers further insights into the causes of congenital heart disease. The effects of the virus, called coxsackievirus B, may not be identical in human babies since the study looked at infected mice fetuses. But extrapolating the results to humans, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said their findings strongly suggest coxsackievirus B causes changes to the heart's structure in the womb. Coxsackievirus B lives in the digestive tract and has six subtypes. The virus is transmitted by oral contact with feces, and experts say frequent hand-washing is the best defense against infection. In rare cases, it may cause meningitis, heart inflammation and diabetes. In the study, researchers injected pregnant mice with different doses of coxsackievirus B3 during various stages of pregnancy. More than one-third of fetuses developed a heart defect. Mice fetuses exposed to the virus midway through their mother's pregnancy had lower odds of defects, likely because their hearts were more developed, said Vipul Sharma, the study's lead researcher. The preliminary findings were presented Wednesday at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions in San Antonio. "What we want to do is understand it further, and kind of try to manage the effect of the virus," said Sharma, a congenital heart disease researcher at Washington University. The results may help scientists develop prevention strategies or treatments for pregnant women with the virus, said Dr. James F. Cnota, a pediatric cardiologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who was not involved in the research. Currently, doctors typically let the virus run its course and closely monitor the woman and the baby's health, he said. The virus may affect human fetuses differently, Sharma and Cnota noted. But both said the study may be a springboard to better understand how heart defects develop, and how to more effectively prevent coxsackievirus B infections among pregnant women. For now, pregnant women need to be more vigilant about the surfaces they touch and the food they eateven in their own homesbecause they can pick up the virus from unclean surfaces or unwashed fruits and vegetables, Sharma said. Research looking at the effects of coxsackievirus B in fetal hearts goes back at least four decades. The latest study is one of several in recent years looking at the consequences of coxsackievirus B in pregnant women. In a 2017 French study, investigators concluded that an infant died 17 days after birth due to heart inflammation caused by the virus. Researchers have known for decades that coxsackievirus B can lead to heart inflammation, and this new study adds to those findings, said Cnota. Most notably, though, is that the research strongly suggests the virus damages the heart structure during the early stages of fetal development. About 40,000 U.S. babies are born with a heart defect each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent CDC study that tracked congenital heart disease showed that at least 2.4 million Americans had been born with a heart defect as of 2010. Because scientists don't know what causes the majority of congenital heart defects, "prevention of birth defects is a tough nut to crack," Cnota said. "I think this is a very concrete animal model that shows that [heart-related] birth defects can result from environmental exposures." Explore further Higher risk of heart defects in babies of mothers with type 1 diabetes Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Do dopamine neurons have a role in causing cues in our environment to acquire value? And, if so, do different groups of dopamine neurons serve different functions within this process? Those are the questions researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School are looking to answer. Recent research published in Nature Neuroscience by University of Minnesota Medical School neuroscientist Benjamin Saunders, Ph.D., uses a Pavlovian model of conditioning to see if turning on a lighta simple cuejust before dopamine neurons were activated could motivate action. The classic Pavlov model combined the ringing of a bell with providing a tasty steak to a dog that, over time, conditioned a dog to drool when the bell rang with or without a steak. In this research, however, there was no "real" reward like food or water, in order to allow researchers to isolate the function of dopamine neuron activity. "We wanted to know if dopamine neurons are actually directly responsible for assigning a value to these transient environmental cues, like signs," said Saunders, who conducted some of his research as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Patricia Janak, Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins University. Dopamine neurons, those cells in the brain that turn on when experiencing a reward. They are also the neurons that degenerate in Parkinson's disease. "We learned that dopamine neurons are one way our brains give the cues around us meaning," said Saunders. "The activity of dopamine neurons aloneeven in the absence of food, drugs, or other innately rewarding substancescan imbue cues with value, giving them the ability to motivate actions." To answer the second core question, the researchers targeted specific segments of dopamine neuronsthose located in the substantial nigra (SNc) and those located in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). These two types of neurons have historically been studied in different disease research fieldsSNc neurons in Parkinson's disease, and VTA neurons in addiction studies. Scientists learned that cues predicting activation of the two types of neurons drove very different responsesthose predicting the SNc neurons led to a sort of "get up and go" response of invigorated rapid movement. The cue predicting VTA neuron activation, however, became enticing on it own, driving approach to the cue's location, a sort of "where do I go?" response. "Our results reveal parallel motivational roles for dopamine neurons in response to cues. In a real world situation, both forms of motivation are critical," said Saunders. "You have to be motivated to move around and behave, and you have to be motivated to go to the specific location of things you want and need." These results provide important understanding of the function of dopamine neurons related to motivations triggered by environmental cues. And this work contributes to the understanding of relapse for those struggling with addictions. "If a cuea sign, an alley, a favorite bartakes on this powerful motivational value, they will be difficult to resist triggers for relapse," said Saunders. "We know dopamine is involved, but an essential goal for future studies is to understand how normal, healthy cue-triggered motivation differs from dysfunctional motivation that occurs in humans with addiction and related diseases." Explore further Early synaptic dysfunction found in Parkinson's Disease More information: Benjamin T. Saunders et al. Dopamine neurons create Pavlovian conditioned stimuli with circuit-defined motivational properties, Nature Neuroscience (2018). Journal information: Nature Neuroscience Benjamin T. Saunders et al. Dopamine neurons create Pavlovian conditioned stimuli with circuit-defined motivational properties,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-018-0191-4 Credit: University of Bristol Full or partial bans on GPs prescribing gluten-free (GF) foods to people with coeliac disease save the NHS money in the short-term. But the impact on patients, especially those from deprived areas, is unknown, NIHR-funded researchers at the University of Bristol have warned. The study, which looked at prescribing data across 94 per cent of GP practices in England between 2012-2017, revealed more than a quarter of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have already either completely banned prescriptions of gluten-free foods to anyone with coeliac disease or banned prescriptions to adults. A further 34 per cent limit the amount and types of products availablea similar approach to new Department of Health and Social Care guidelines, which recommend limiting the items available to bread and flour mixes. The Department for Health and Social Care announced the policy change in February following a consultation. The move was welcomed by Coeliac UK, as policymakers had been considering completely removing all gluten-free products from being prescribed. Instead they no longer recommend the prescription of items such as pasta, cakes and biscuits. The research team, led by Professor Will Hollingworth from Bristol Medical School, estimated that if all CCGs in England had introduced a complete ban in 2014, when spending on gluten-free foods was at its peak, the NHS would have saved 21.1million a year. However, there is no evidence for how prescribing under the new guidelines, or complete or partial bans, will affect patients. Gluten-free prescribing was highest in practices: in more affluent areas, as diagnoses of coeliac disease tend to be higher in these populations in rural locations, where access to alternative sources of gluten-free foods is more problematic with more patients aged 75 plus, as these patients get free prescriptions The researchers found complete bans created savings of more than 2.5million for the CCGs that have adopted them. The new policy is unlikely to bring significant further savings as bread products made up around 65 per cent of spending. They concluded: "The introduction of more restrictive GF prescribing policies has been associated with 'quick wins' for CCGs under extreme financial pressure. However, these initial savings will be largely negated if CCGs revert to recently published national recommendations." Dr. Myles-Jay Linton, from the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West (NIHR CLAHRC West) and the University of Bristol's Health Economics team, said: "We found that, perhaps unsurprisingly, bans on gluten-free food prescribing cut NHS expenditure, at least in the short-term. Our research also suggests that the partial restriction recommended by the Department of Health and Social Care might negate the savings CCGs have made. "But it's unclear what the impact on people with coeliac disease will be. The most affluent may simply switch to store-bought alternatives, while patients who are strapped for cash may have no choice but to buy the cheapest gluten containing foods. "Retail gluten-free products aren't always equivalent to those available through prescription. For example, prescribed bread and flour is fortified with vitamins and minerals, but generally retail products aren't. While common sense might suggest that removing cakes and biscuits from prescriptions is a sound move, we just don't know what the long-term impact will be on patients, especially those from poorer backgrounds." Explore further Huge variation in prescribing practice for gluten-free foods in England More information: Myles-Jay Linton et al. Breaking bread: examining the impact of policy changes in access to state-funded provisions of gluten-free foods in England, BMC Medicine (2018). Journal information: BMC Medicine Myles-Jay Linton et al. Breaking bread: examining the impact of policy changes in access to state-funded provisions of gluten-free foods in England,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12916-018-1106-7 Jeff Kretschmar. Credit: CWRU Juveniles who complete diversion programs for their crimes are less likely to continue their criminal activity as adults, according to new research from Case Western Reserve University. The researchers got a rare opportunity to examine early adulthood recidivism for juvenile justice-involved youth with behavioral health issues who participated in a diversion program. The Montgomery County court system in southwest Ohio was able to provide both juvenile and early adulthood data to researchers from Case Western Reserve's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Their conclusion: youth diversion programs work. "We examined data from Ohio's Behavioral Health Juvenile Justice (BHJJ) Initiative, a diversion program for juvenile justice-involved youth with behavioral health issues," said Jeff Kretschmar, research associate professor and managing director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education. "When we evaluate diversion programs like this, we typically only have access to juvenile records. We don't know what happens when kids age out of the juvenile system." he said. "We wanted to know. The data out of Dayton (Montgomery County) suggests the effects of juvenile diversion programs extend to early adulthood." Three groups were examined for the research: youth appropriate for diversion programs but who did not participate; youth who participated but did not complete treatment; and youth who successfully completed treatment. Highlights from the research show that compared to the other groups, youths who successfully completed the juvenile diversion program had lower odds of reoffending as young adults, with fewer young-adult offenses. Next, Kretschmar said researchers will attempt to gather similar data from other program sites in an attempt to replicate these findings. "You can imagine the possibilities additional data can bring," Kretschmar said. "With more data, from all over the state, we could see what treatments work best, for whom, and why." The work was done with colleagues Fredrick Butcher and Krystel Tossone, research associates from the Begun Center, and Barbara Marsh, from the Board of Public Health of Dayton Montgomery County. Explore further Ohio's diversion program effective in helping juvenile offenders with mental health disorders Pulmonary ionocytes (orange) extend through neighboring epithelial cells in the upper respiratory tract of the mouse, to the surface of the epithelial lining. Cell nuclei in cyan. Credit: Montoro et al./Nature 2018 In separate studies published online in Nature on Aug. 1, two independent research teams report the discovery of a new, rare type of cell in the human airway. These cells appear to be the primary source of activity of the CFTR gene, mutations to which cause cystic fibrosis, a multiorgan disease that affects more than 70,000 people worldwide. Despite decades of study on CFTR and progress in treating the disease, there is still no cure. The new findings show that CFTR activity is concentrated in a small, previously unknown population of cells, which serve as promising targets for future therapeutic strategies against cystic fibrosis. The researchers named the cells "pulmonary ionocytes" due to similarities with ionocytes, a type of cell found in the gills of freshwater fish and frog skin, which regulate salt balance. One group was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). The other group was led by HMS researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital and scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "As researchers work toward cures for cystic fibrosis, knowing you are looking at 1 percent of the cell population seems essential for any type of trouble shooting to improve a therapy or develop new therapies," said Allon Klein, co-corresponding author of one of the Nature studies and assistant professor of systems biology at HMS. The studies also revealed the characteristics of other new, rare and poorly understood cell types, which expands the current understanding of lung biology and disease. "Cystic fibrosis is an amazingly well-studied disease, and we're still discovering completely new biology that may alter the way we approach it," said Jayaraj Rajagopal, co-corresponding author of the second study and HMS professor of medicine at Mass General. "We have the framework now for a new cellular narrative of lung disease." Single-cell surprise Both teams set out to build an atlas of the cells that make up the airway. Using single-cell sequencing technology, they analyzed gene expression in tens of thousands of individual cells isolated from human and mouse airwaysone cell at a time. A live-imaging technique captures cilia beating and the transport of debris across the surface of the epithelium. Pulmonary ionocytes appear to play a role in this process, which is necessary for clearing mucus from the airways. Video: Daniel Montoro, Hui Min Leung, Vladimir Vinarsky. Comparing patterns of gene expression and using previously described cells as references, the teams created comprehensive catalogues of different cell types and states, as well as their abundance and distribution. The teams' analyses mapped out the genetic identities of both known and previously undescribed cell types. One new cell type, which they named pulmonary ionocytes, was particularly striking as these cells expressed higher levels of CFTR than any other cell. Pulmonary ionocytes appear to play a role in this process, which is necessary for clearing mucus from the airways. Video: Daniel Montoro, Hui Min Leung, Vladimir Vinarsky. Identified in the late 1980s, CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) codes for a protein that transports chloride ions across cell membranes. Mutations to CFTR can lead to the buildup of thick mucus in the lung, pancreas and other organs, which in turn leads to frequent respiratory infections and other symptoms that characterize cystic fibrosis. Scientists have long assumed that CFTR is expressed at low levels in ciliated cells, a common airway cell type. The new studies, however, suggest that the majority of CFTR expression occurs in pulmonary ionocytes, which make up only around 1 percent of airway cells. Klein, along with Aron Jaffe, a co-leader of respiratory disease research at NIBR, and colleagues additionally showed that the activity of CFTR, not just its expression, relates to the number of pulmonary ionocytes in the tissue. "With single-cell sequencing technology, and dedicated efforts to map cell types in different tissues, we're making new discoveriesnew cells that we didn't know existed, cell subtypes that are rare or haven't been noticed before, even in systems that have been studied for decades," said Broad core institute member and MIT professor of biology Aviv Regev, co-corresponding author of the study with Rajagopal. When Regev, Rajagopal and colleagues disrupted a critical molecular process in pulmonary ionocytes in mice, they observed the onset of key features associated with cystic fibrosis, notably the formation of dense mucus. This finding underscores how important these cells are to airway-surface regulation, the researchers said. Together, the teams' discoveries point to new strategies for treating cystic fibrosis, such as increasing the amount of pulmonary ionocytes to increase the amount of CFTR activity, said Jaffe, who is co-corresponding author of the study with Klein. The identification of these cells can also help guide teams trying to use gene therapy to correct CFTR mutations, the authors suggest. Pulmonary ionocytes (green) dot the landscape of ciliated cells (magenta) of the mouse lung airway lining. Credit: Montoro et al./Nature 2018 "We can use this information to be a bit more clever when we devise therapeutic approaches to cystic fibrosis," Jaffe said. Here and rare The teams' analyses also shed light on new, rare or poorly described cell states and subtypes, and characterized changes to certain cells after injury or during development. Klein, Jaffe and colleagues, for example, identified cell states that emerge or expand following damage or injury by studying regenerating tracheas. Using InDrops, a single-cell sequencing technology developed at HMS by Klein and colleagues, at multiple points during regeneration, the team could track how cell states specific to the injury response transitioned over time. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues developed a new method called Pulse-Seq to monitor development of cell types from their progenitors in the mouse airway, which were verified in human tissue. By adding a label to progenitor cells, they showed that mature cells in the airway arise from a common progenitor known as basal cells. A comprehensive atlas of cell types and their genetic fingerprints, both in normal conditions and in development and regeneration, serves as potential baseline data for future studies of diseases and other health-related conditions, according to the research teams. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues, for example, found that a gene linked to asthma development is specifically expressed by ciliated cells. Another gene linked with asthma is expressed in tuft cells, which separated into at least two groupsone that senses chemicals in the airway and another that produces inflammation. These findings may inform understanding and treatment of the disease. "We've uncovered a whole distribution of cell types that seem to be functionally relevant," Rajagopal said. "What's more, genes associated with complex lung diseases can now be linked to specific cells that we've characterized. The data are starting to change the way we think about lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and asthma." Explore further Researchers discover new type of lung cell, critical insights for cystic fibrosis More information: Lindsey W. Plasschaert et al, A single-cell atlas of the airway epithelium reveals the CFTR-rich pulmonary ionocyte, Nature (2018). Lindsey W. Plasschaert et al, A single-cell atlas of the airway epithelium reveals the CFTR-rich pulmonary ionocyte,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0394-6 Daniel T. Montoro et al, A revised airway epithelial hierarchy includes CFTR-expressing ionocytes, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0393-7 Journal information: Nature Maternal dengue immunity protects against fetal damage in mice following Zika virus infection. Credit: CC Dengue and Zika viruses are closely related and carried by mosquitos. In infested subtropical and tropical areas, dengue transmission often precedes Zika virus (ZIKV) infection, suggesting that women who previously acquired dengue immunity may be bitten by ZIKV-carrying mosquitoes during pregnancy. Whether that mother's prior dengue immunity would protect her unborn baby from devastating brain defects such as microencephaly associated with ZIKV is unknown. Now the laboratory of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LJI) investigator Sujan Shresta, Ph.D., reports critical findings in mouse models that address this question experimentally. Their paper, published in the August 2, 2018, edition of Nature Communications, shows that when dengue-immune pregnant mice are exposed to ZIKV, their embryos remain viable and normal-looking. The researchers also detected a population of immune cells, known as CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, mobilized as an immune response to dengue infection, which recognize ZIKV and limit the infection in pregnant mice. These findings could guide development of more effective flavivirus vaccines and hint at what types of immune responses are maximally protective against fetal brain damage after Zika invasion. "A key question has been why only a subset of Zika-exposed mothers in dengue-endemic countries like Brazil give birth to children with congenital birth defects," says Shresta, an associate professor in LJI's Center for Infectious Disease. "Given that these viruses are so similar to each other, we wondered if prior immunity to dengue could confer cross-protection against Zika." In 2017, her lab provided support for this idea when they reported that dengue-infected adult mice exhibit immunity against Zika infection due to induction of cross-reactive CD8+ T cells. The new paper describes a variation on that experiment: dengue-immune female mice (or dengue-naive controls) were mated to induce pregnancy and then infected with ZIKV at early an embryonic stage to test whether dengue immunity shielded not just mothers but fetuses from damage. The results were dramatic. Fetuses from dengue-naive controls either disappeared or markedly shrank, as predicted following Zika infection. By contrast, fetuses of dengue-immune mice infected with ZIKV appeared normal, and many were indistinguishable from mice never exposed to ZIKV. Other experiments revealed that CD8+ cytotoxic T cells raised by dengue infection remained present at the maternal/placental border of Zika-infected pregnant mice, suggesting a line of defense against ZIKV transmission across the placenta. Experimental elimination of those specific T cells confirmed this to be true: fetuses became vulnerable to destruction by Zika infection. The group also injected female mice never exposed to dengue with short dengue virus proteins or "peptides" known to induce T cell responses in order to simulate a vaccine scenario. When these vaccinated mice were made pregnant and exposed to ZIKV, they showed decreased Zika infection in the placenta compared to unvaccinated mice, demonstrating that the T cell response was effective. Currently, there are no FDA-approved Zika vaccines, and those under development elicit primarily antibody (B cell) rather than T cell responses. Anti-dengue vaccines that also primarily evoke antibody rather than T cell responses are in clinical trials and show only moderate success. One conclusion is that an effective vaccine will require both types of immunity. "Dengue and ZIKV are carried by the same mosquitoes, co-circulate in overlapping geographic ranges, are structurally related, and evoke cross-reactive antibody and T cell responses," says Jose Angel Regla-Nava, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Shresta lab and a co-lead author. "Both antibody and T cell responses together may be required for protection against these infections." Given this evidence, it may seem surprising that almost all vaccines marketed today were designed to evoke antibody responses. "Historically, it has been more straightforward to design vaccines that elicit antibody responses," says postdoctoral fellow Annie Elong Ngono, Ph.D., the study's co-lead author. "Creating vaccines that induce strong T cell responses is very challenging and will require new technologies. But our findings that cross-reactive T cells elicit a strong response against two related viruses encourage that approach." Persistence of cross-reactive T cells may also solve the South American epidemiological puzzle. "This and our previous study in mice show that prior dengue immunity provides cross-protection against ZIKV and may explain why not every pregnant woman exposed to ZIKV gives birth to an affected child," says Shresta. "But in mice, we find that period of cross-protection to be short. So we are working on ways to boost this cross-protective immunity." Explore further Dengue immunity can protect against Zika virus More information: Jose Angel Regla-Nava et al, Cross-reactive Dengue virus-specific CD8+ T cells protect against Zika virus during pregnancy, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Jose Angel Regla-Nava et al, Cross-reactive Dengue virus-specific CD8+ T cells protect against Zika virus during pregnancy,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05458-0 Credit: Vera Kratochvil/public domain Of all the risk factors associated with low birth weight, a mother's teenage smoking habit is by far the strongest observed, according to a recent study led by Jennifer B. Kane, assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Babies born weighing less than five pounds, eight ounces are more susceptible to physical and cognitive difficulties later in life, resulting in socioeconomic disadvantages that can be transmitted across generations. "Historically, the literature has focused on risk factors operative within the prenatal or immediate preconception period," Kane said. "A key contribution of our report is that we look further back in time before women even become pregnant and identify earlier maternal life events and risk factors that could set in motion a series of events that ultimately lead to poor health at birth among offspring." Researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which involved a nationally representative sample of 20,745 students in grades seven to 12 in 1994-95. The team discovered a chain of risks linking the mother's socioeconomic status in her family of origin to her child's birth weight: poor educational performance in high school, adolescent uptake of smoking, nonmarital child bearing, depression and binge drinking. "The odds ratio linking teen smoking to prenatal smoking was the largest observed," Kane said. "Those who smoked prior to pregnancy were eight times more likely to smoke while pregnant. To reduce adverse birth outcomes, efforts to prevent adolescent uptake of smoking should be redoubled. In so doing, we may be able to disrupt the transmission of disadvantages from parents to children that are passed along through poor birth outcomes." The study appears online in the June issue of Social Science & Medicine. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also contributed to the work. More information: Jennifer B. Kane et al. Intergenerational pathways linking maternal early life adversity to offspring birthweight, Social Science & Medicine (2018). Journal information: Social Science & Medicine Jennifer B. Kane et al. Intergenerational pathways linking maternal early life adversity to offspring birthweight,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.04.049 C. elegans, seen here as hundreds living on a plate viewed through the lens of a microscope, share roughly half their genes with humans. Credit: University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa Diseases have a spectrum of risk, even those partially embedded in genes such as Parkinson's disease. Less than 10 percent of those with Parkinson's can pinpoint their genes as the only culprit, while scores of others with some genetic markers are diagnosed with the disease. Still others have markers to develop Parkinson's, but do not. Why? Research underway at The University of Alabama, supported by the National Institutes of Health, hopes to identify factors and methods through which individuals are either resilient or susceptible to the neurodegeneration in the brain as part of the disease. "If we can pinpoint some of the factors that cause this distinction in resilience, then we can use them as a new therapeutic angle," said Dr. Guy Caldwell, University Distinguished Research Professor in biological sciences. Caldwell, along with doctoral student Brucker Nourse, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, will work with tiny roundworms known as C. elegans, which share roughly half their genes with humans. Its basic features allow inexpensive and rapid testing for a range of neurological diseases, and UA researchers can induce Parkinson's-like effects in the worm for testing. Even though the worms are essentially clones of each other from hermaphroditic reproduction, some animals develop Parkinson's-related effects while others do not, Caldwell said. "We can learn from both the healthy and non-healthy," he said. "We hope we find genes that would potentially be part of a protective program." Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, is estimated to afflict between 7 and 10 million people worldwide with approximately 60,000 Americans diagnosed each year. Current therapies include treating the symptoms of the disease such as tremor and involuntary shakes, but there is no cure or treatment to halt the disease's progression. Hallmarks of Parkinson's disease are the loss of cells, or neurons, that send information to other parts of the brain, specifically neurons that produce a type of chemical known as dopamine, along with the accumulation, or clumping, of proteins in the neurons. To work, proteins must fold properly within cells. When extra copies or mutations of the protein alpha-synuclein are present in dopamine-producing neurons, a series of misfoldings can occur, leading to aggregation of proteins. Such protein aggregation within the brain's dopamine-producing neurons can lead to their malfunction or cell death, triggering the symptoms of Parkinson's. When a Parkinson's patient begins to exhibit symptoms of the disease, they have likely lost up to 80 percent of the dopamine neurons in their bodies, Caldwell said. Since the worms all have an identical genetic code, Caldwell and Nourse are investigating how the genes of the worm are modified, or expressed. The turning off and on of genes from outside forces is known as epigenetics, and how external factors influence genetic performance is a big part of disease research, Caldwell said. The research does not attempt to identify the external influences after all, a worm has different stresses than a human rather Caldwell hopes to determine which of the worm's genes, among those shared with humans, are associated with resilience to dopamine neuron loss. "We're looking to bring together the unknown environmental causes and the known genetic causes in ways to potentially identify previously unknown protective factors and a previously unknown protective mechanism," Caldwell said. Previous research published in the journal Science that Caldwell participated in uncovered a protein that regulated dopamine neuron survival. In fact, the research led to the discovery of a small molecule that protected neurons from dying. The molecule worked in several animal models and in human cells in the lab, but was later found not to cross what's known as the blood-brain barrier in humans, a sort of filter protecting the brain from unneeded materials. In this newly funded research, Caldwell explores an exciting relationship he discovered whereby the same protective protein known to regulate dopamine function might also influence gene expression. "That combination of regulating epigenetics and regulating dopamine levels and functions is the big mystery of Parkinson's. We really think this is a nexus of what might happen," Caldwell said. "There's promise there that if you can find a molecule to modulate that mechanism, and it crosses the blood-brain barrier, it might work at halting progression of the disease." Explore further Researchers find new path to promising Parkinson's treatment TOP: Representative axial slices of PET/CT overlay of pancreas uptake (white arrows) for each dopaminergic radioligand A) 11C-(+)-PHNO B) 11C-FLB457 and C) 11C-raclopride. All SUV images summed from 20-30 minutes. BOTTOM: Representative coronal PET/CT images of 11C-(+)-PHNO in pancreas (white arrows) for A) healthy control B) C-peptide deficient T1DM subject C) T1DM subject with detectable C-peptide All SUV images are summed from 20-30 minutes. Credit: J Bini et al., Yale University, New Haven, CT. Researchers have discovered a new nuclear medicine test that could improve care of patients with type 1 diabetes. The new positron emission tomography (PET) imaging method could measure beta-cell mass, which would greatly enhance the ability to monitor and guide diabetes therapies. This study is reported in the featured article of the month in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine's August issue. According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 1.25 million American children and adults have type 1 diabetes. Jason Bini, Ph.D., at the Yale University PET Center in New Haven, Connecticut, explains the significance to patients of being able to track their beta-cell mass: "Beta-cell mass includes both functional and non-functional beta cells. Many indirect methods to measure beta-cell function are influenced by factors such as glucose and insulin levels and are not able to measure non-functional (dormant) beta cells that may be responsive to treatments. This work is important for patients because uptake of a radiotracer measured on a PET scan could guide treatment options. For example, if a patient has low beta-cell function with high signal in the PET scan, this could represent a patient with dormant beta cells that could respond to a treatment targeting existing cells. If a patient has low beta-cell function and low signal in the PET scan (very few viable or dormant beta cells present), that individual may be a candidate for beta-cell transplantation." Beta cells and neurological tissues have common cellular receptors and transporters, so, the Yale researchers screened brain radioligands for their ability to identify beta cells. Then, 12 healthy control subjects and two subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus underwent dynamic PET/CT scans with six tracers. The dopamine type 2/type 3 (D2/D3)-receptor agonist radioligand carbon-11 (11C)-(+)-4-propyl-9-hydroxynaphthoxazine (PHNO) was the only radioligand to demonstrate sustained uptake in the pancreas with high contrast versus abdominal organs such as the kidneys, liver, and spleen. The results provide preliminary evidence that 11C-(+)-PHNO is a potential marker of beta-cell mass with 2:1 binding of D3 receptors over D2 receptors. While further research is needed before clinical application, 11C-(+)-PHNO is a promising way to differentiate the beta-cell mass of healthy individuals from those with type 1 diabetes mellitus, as well as track and guide therapies for diabetes patients. Bini also points out, "These findings could facilitate development and wider dissemination of novel imaging methods in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine to assess receptor/enzyme pharmacology in diabetes and other endocrine disorders." Explore further New potential target for treatment of diabetes More information: Jason Bini et al, Evaluation of PET Brain Radioligands for Imaging Pancreatic -Cell Mass: Potential Utility of11C-(+)-PHNO, Journal of Nuclear Medicine (2018). Journal information: Journal of Nuclear Medicine Jason Bini et al, Evaluation of PET Brain Radioligands for Imaging Pancreatic -Cell Mass: Potential Utility of11C-(+)-PHNO,(2018). DOI: 10.2967/jnumed.117.197285 Provided by Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Credit: CC0 Public Domain Clinicians can match people with type 2 diabetes to the right drug for them to improve control of blood sugar and help avoid damaging side-effects, simply by factoring in simple characteristics such as sex and BMI into prescribing decisions, new research has shown. The study, by the University of Exeter Medical School, could dramatically improve benefits of drugs and reduce the risk of potentially harmful side-effects such as weight gain and hypoglycaemia, at no additional cost to the NHS. Metformin is the first line of drug treatment in type 2 diabetes, but many patients will eventually need additional drugs on top of Metformin to lower their blood sugar levels. Currently, clinicians have to make prescribing decisions on these additional drug options based on limited available guidance. Recent research involving the Exeter team has revealed there is great regional variation across the UK in the prescribing of these additional drugs. The new study, funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the journal Diabetes Care, provides a starting point for a more evidence-based approach to the prescribing of drugs after Metformin. Based on a patients' gender and BMI, the authors found important differences in the likely success of the commonly-prescribed drugs sulfonylureas and thiazolidinediones in lowering blood sugar levels, and in the risk of common side effects. For example, obese females were far more likely to have good blood glucose control on thiazolidinediones than sulfonylureas, whilst non-obese males had the opposite resultthey were far more likely to have good blood glucose control on sulfonylureas than thiazolidinediones. The Exeter team used anonymous data from more than 29,000 patients who had either taken part in trials or were treated in UK GP practices. By combining these datasets, the researchers were able to show their findings are robust and potentially applicable to many of the 3.5 million-plus people currently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK. John Dennis, of the University of Exeter Medical School, was lead author on the study. He said "Our findings are important as they provide the first evidence that personalised or 'precision' medicine approaches in diabetes can be based on simple patient characteristics available to any doctor, rather than expensive genetics or other technology. This simple personalised approach could be implemented immediately within the NHS without any additional cost. The study is also a powerful demonstration of how the sharing of patient data can meaningfully benefit patientsin this case helping to make sure individual patients get the best drug for them." Professor Andrew Hattersley, a Consultant in Diabetes at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and Research Professor at the University of Exeter Medical School said: "At the moment, clinicians are in the difficult position of making decisions that impact on health in type 2 diabetes based on very little evidence. Now, we can create clear guidelines to enable much more informed conversations about what these treatments will mean for people, in order to get better health outcomes and avoid harmful side effects." Dr. Richard Evans, Programme Manager for Stratified Medicine and Molecular Pathology at the MRC, said: "This research used shared clinical trial data from a large number of patients to show that simple patient characteristics can help inform the choice of therapy in diabetes; the results are likely to show real impact, and significant benefits to patients when they are implemented in patient care. "Diabetes afflicts one in 17 people in the UKresearch into precision or stratified approaches to this condition is crucial to getting patients the most appropriate treatment in the most efficient way, underpinned by solid evidence." The full paper, 'Sex and BMI alter the benefits and risks of sulfonylureas and thiazolidinediones in type 2 diabetes: A framework for evaluating stratification using routine clinical and individual trial data', is published in Diabetes Care. Explore further Switching to certain antidiabetic drugs linked to increased risk of major complications Dr Federico Tartarini collected data from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra, in both warmer and cooler months, using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Credit: University of Wollongong Indoor temperatures in aged care homes could have a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of residents, particularly those living with dementia. Researchers at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) undertook a study of thermal comfort in aged care centres in the Illawarra to determine what temperature variations residents were living with. Not only do perceptions of thermal comfort change as people age, indoor temperature has been cited as a key factor in comfort for older people, but indoor temperature also affects the wellbeing, health and behaviour of residents including the frequency and disruptiveness of agitation manifested by people living with dementia. With estimates of more than 75,000 additional aged care places needed over the next decade to support an ageing population, the findings of the study could have major implications for the design and operation of new facilities. Prior to the present study there has been very little research into how residents of nursing homes perceive their thermal environment as well as a lack of guidelines for thermal conditions for the aged care sector. Researcher Dr. Federico Tartarini collected data from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra, in both warmer and cooler months, using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Residents and non-residents (typically aged care staff) were also asked to complete a questionnaire to find out how thermally comfortable they felt. The World Health Organization suggests that older people should not be exposed to temperatures lower than 20 degrees, while the International Organization for Standardization recommends maximum temperatures not exceed 26 degrees. Dr Federico Tartarini collected data from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra, in both warmer and cooler months, using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Credit: University of Wollongong Dr. Tartarini's study found: The researchers concluded that a comfort band between 20 degrees and 26.2 degrees would appear to be appropriate and desirable for residents living in nursing homes. Indoor air temperatures in the case study facilities were found to range between 17.2 degrees and 31.6 degrees. During the warm season, 53 per cent of residents and 40 per cent of non-residents were exposed to temperatures colder than those recommended by usual thermal comfort standards for summer clothing, which indicated air conditioning systems were not being operated correctly. "It was interesting to note that residents felt comfortable over a wider range of temperature than staff members," Dr. Tartarini said. "Some residents reported that even though they sometimes felt uncomfortable, either too hot or cold, they still felt that the thermal conditions in their aged care facility were acceptable. "Importantly we also found that there was a statistically significant increase in the frequency of agitated behaviour manifested by residents living with dementia for those who were exposed to temperatures outside the comfort band "Older people, and in particular those with dementia, may have decreased sensitivity to temperature changes and dementia may impair their ability to adapt to their environment, that is why good thermal care should be provided to them." Dr. Tartarini said the results, published recently in the journal Building and Environment, could be used to inform the design of new facilities and the assessment of thermal comfort conditions in existing residential care homes. Dr Federico Tartarini collected data from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra, in both warmer and cooler months, using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Credit: University of Wollongong "By designing or refurbishing new or existing care homes using good design principles such as passive solar design, good insulation, shading, thermal mass and natural ventilation, and ensuring any air conditioning systems have good control systems, could significantly reduce temperature variations indoors." The study recommended that staff at aged care homes should be trained to provide good thermal care to residents, by operating air-conditioners appropriately, for example. "Until specific guidelines for thermal comfort are developed for the sector, many residential care homes may continue to offer less than optimal thermal conditions which may negatively impact the health and wellbeing of residents and staff." The study will also provide valuable insights to assist in the design and operation of the Desert Rose House, a student-led project to design and build a sustainable home with a focus on improved quality of life for people with dementia. Warrigal CEO, Mark Sewell, said Warrigal assisted in the funding of the scholarship to support Dr. Tartarini's research to better understand the effects of thermal temperature on customers. "The findings of the research have influenced how we program our building management systems, such as setting the temperatures throughout our residential care home, which has now been implemented across all of our sites. "It's also helped create our environmental design guides that have recommended temperatures for different parts of the home across our network of residential care communities. "Such research is so valuable in ensuring we continue to improve our services to older people that's why we have formalised our partnership with UOW into a collaboration agreement to ensure more of these evidence-based approaches to improvement," Mr Sewell said. The research was funded through a scholarship from aged care provider Warrigal and supervised by Professor Richard Fleming, Director of Dementia Training Australia, and SBRC Director Professor Paul Cooper. Explore further Getting the temperature just right helps people with dementia stay cool More information: Federico Tartarini et al. Thermal perceptions, preferences and adaptive behaviours of occupants of nursing homes, Building and Environment (2018). Federico Tartarini et al. Thermal perceptions, preferences and adaptive behaviours of occupants of nursing homes,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.01.018 (HealthDay)Uniform application of gestational diabetes mellitus diagnostic thresholds may not be appropriate in populations across the world, according to a study published in the July issue of Diabetes Care. H. David McIntyre, M.D., from the University of Queensland in South Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues sought to define the prevalence and pregnancy outcomes related to elevated fasting venous plasma glucose (FVPG; measured at 28 weeks' gestation) in a Danish pregnancy cohort of 1,516 women without GDM by Danish criteria. The researchers found that with use of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2013 threshold of FVPG 5.1 mmol/L, 40.1 percent of the cohort qualified as having GDM despite no evidence of excess fetal growth, hypertension in pregnancy, or cesarean delivery in women with FVPG <5.6 mmol/L. "The WHO 2013 FVPG threshold for GDM is unsuitable for Denmark," the authors write. "It inappropriately labels as having GDM an unmanageably large number of women who are at low absolute risk of pregnancy complications." Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Explore further Thyroid dysfunction may lead to diabetes during pregnancy Copyright 2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Standard Bank announced that it has launched Africas first virtual card ecosystem. The bank has also launched a partnership with Samsung to enable the Samsung Pay wallet for customers with compatible smartphones. The Standard Bank virtual card is accessible through the banks mobile app, where it can be created and topped up with cash on an ongoing basis. Standard Bank said the virtual card can be a Standard Bank card or a co-branded card with one of its ecommerce partners including Takealot, Travelstart and Zando. At the moment, very few South Africans shop online and those that do, tend to use a credit card or only pay cash-on-delivery, said Standard Bank head of emerging payments Wendy Pienaar. Trust, security, and control are some of the reasons for this trend. However, a safe, secure virtual card completely changes the conversation. The virtual card can be used on any local websites and will soon be compatible with international platforms. We want to make sure that Standard Banks payment solution becomes the preferred choice for digital experiences it can be plastic, virtual, tap to pay, or Samsung Pay, said Standard Bank SA head of card issuing Ethel Nyembe. Customers retain their plastic, but we are making sure people who want to go beyond normal cards can now participate in an exciting online shopping world which is getting bigger every day. Standard Banks Samsung Pay partnership also allows Samsung phone users to pay with their smartphones at any retail store in South Africa where the Mastercard or Visa tap-to-pay logo is displayed. Vodacom announced it will launch over 200 new rural network sites across South Africa in the current financial year. The initiative forms part of the mobile operators rural coverage programme, and follows after it extended its local rural coverage by 101 villages in the 2018 financial year. The rural sites are located in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, with 82 builds in progress. The mobile operator has also prioritised areas which would benefit from improved connectivity, such as locations with hospitals, schools, police stations, and transport hubs. Vodacom said the majority of the new sites were allocated to small black-owned businesses to build, and they will be installed with 2G and 3G capabilities. The sites will also support 4G upgrades in future, and Vodacom will prioritise 4G coverage in villages with important landmarks such as clinics and SASSA pay points. Vodacom added that it now provides 81.5% of South Africas population with 4G coverage, with 99.4% of the population covered by 3G and 99.9% by 2G. Cyber security is like a toothache a nagging concern that just gets worse if you ignore it. And its easy to ignore. Cyber security awareness is about creating and fostering a security culture in cyber space, explains Prof. Elmarie Biermann from the Cyber Security Institute in Centurion. Part of the problem is that many people dont understand cyber security or the need for it. Internet users shy away from the issues surrounding cyber security as they perceive it to be complex, says Biermann, But security is not an add-on or something to be managed and implemented in a silo. It needs to be integrated into every level of business. The need for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement cyber security solution is what led local hosting company Hetzner to partner with cloud-based web security provider Cloudbric, and bring them to South Africa for the first time. Centralised website security There are two levels to cyber security: the network level and the web application (website) level. Hetzner provides a well-maintained, secure hosting platform with network level security, but individual website security has always been the customers responsibility. The trouble is that most web attacks target the web application level, and customers arent sure where to look for a solution. Hetzner believes Cloudbric is that solution. It guards against suspicious website traffic, specifically looking for attempts to exploit security flaws in the websites code. Cloudbric prevents exploits like SQL injections, XSS (Cross Site Scripting), website DDoS, file inclusion, cookie poisoning and security misconfigurations, and it blocks or filters out the malicious traffic. How? By using a Web Application Firewall (WAF), website-level DDoS protection and by giving each website owner the ability to block IP addresses, ranges and even entire countries from which attacks are emanating. Hetzner is the only data centre in Africa to host Cloudbric, and because its locally hosted, theres no noticeable latency: the highly sophisticated security happens in the background without customers noticing any delays. Hetzner is so confident of this new partnership that theyre offering the first 3 months free to any customer. So who should be interested? Cyber security for all When it comes to cyber attacks, Biermann asserts that individuals, SMEs and larger companies should all be aware of the risks. Small to medium size companies are at risk from various attacks, she explains. Security awareness training is vital, both for the sake of compliance and to create and foster a cyber security culture. The first step is recognising that cyber security is something we should all be aware of. The second step is ensuring adequate security and peace of mind for our websites. Find out more As a special launch offer, Hetzner is offering customers the first three months of Cloudbric free thereafter it costs R149 a month per domain. Find out more at https://hetzner.co.za/cloudbric. Two suspected Bay Area heroin dealers were arrested in American Canyon last week after allegedly advertising their drug sales on Craigslist, according to the Napa Special Investigations Bureau. After learning last week that black tar heroin was being advertised on Craigslist.com, an undercover NSIB detective arranged to buy some heroin from the seller. The detective and dealer agreed to meet at a parking lot on the 7000 block of Main Street in American Canyon, police said. When the Audi arrived at the designated meeting place, detectives detained the driver and two occupants. Inside the vehicle, they found heroin processed for sale, a digital scale and other evidence of heroin sales, officials said. Deion Robert Gilman, 27, of Oakland and Nathan Eugene Jones, 29, Concord, passengers in the vehicle, were arrested and booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of possession of heroin for sale, transportation of heroin and conspiracy. The driver, a 22-year old Fairfield man whose identity was not released by police, was not arrested and has not been charged. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Bangladeshs Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said on Tuesday that it is incorrect to link illegal immigrants to the country, adding that you cant link every Bengali-speaking person to Bangladesh. Asked by media whether his country will be willing to take back illegal immigrants, Inu said Bangladesh couldnt comment on the matter till India shares findings of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with them. With the final draft of Assams National Registry of Citizens (NRC) sparking a nationwide debate over the exclusion of over four million people, Bangladesh on Tuesday stated that linking illegal migrants with them is incorrect. A report published in the The Hindu stated that Inu again said on Wednesday that Bangladesh would rather discuss the issue of sharing water with India instead of discussing the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). India had not raised the issue of human movements from Bangladesh since the creation of the country in 1971, and termed the exclusion of four million individuals from the NRC as the sign of a democracy deficit in India. The report quoted Inu as saying, The NRC in Assam is a product of a century-old ethnic conflict of a particular province of India. It is well known that the conflict of Assam began even before modern India and Bangladesh were born in 1947 and 1971. Bangladesh is interested in getting its due share of water from India (read sharing of Teesta waters), rather than a part of the citizens of Assam. Inu, a former guerilla who fought in the 1971 Liberation War, said Dhaka was hopeful that the Modi Government would ensure an amicable settlement of the controversy that had arisen after more than four million people were excluded from the NRC. Talking about democracy deficit which he said was a trend in major democracies of the world, the minister further remarked, Mature constitutional democracies that have handled issues of identity and distribution of resources without creating human tragedies are failing to do so in recent years. That is why an NRC-like problem emerged in India. Diplomatic sources said Bangladesh had no plans to engage India on the NRC. However, Indian diplomats had begun to engage Bangladeshi opinion-makers on the developments in Assam, said the Editor of a prominent Dhaka daily, Bhorer Kagoj. Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla met a group of 12 senior editors today [Wednesday] in Dhaka and briefed us about the history of the NRC and how it had been drafted over the past few years. He informed us about the 1985 Assam Accord. He, however, did not mention that India would try to deport the NRC-excluded four million citizens to our country, Datta said. An editorial published in Bhorer Kagoj on July 31 last had cautioned that Dhaka should remain alert so that the NRC would not trigger an influx from Assam to Bangladesh. A full-blown political row has erupted ever since the final draft of Assams NRC was published on Monday. The draft list incorporated the names of nearly 2.89 crore individuals out of the 3.29 crore applicants, leaving out more than 40 lakh applicants from the final draft. To strengthen connectivity between Bhutan and Assam, the neighbouring country has planned to operate a new flight in the sector. Consul General of Bhutan Phub Tshering on Thursday said in Guwahati that very soon one more flight will start from Guwahati to Thimpu connecting Singapore. Consul General Tshering, who called on Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi at Raj Bhawan here, discussed with him issues concerning bilateral interests like trade and commerce and tourism in particular. Responding to Governor Mukhis request of increasing the frequency of flight from Guwahati to Paro connecting Singapore, Consul General Tshering informed that very soon one more flight will start from Guwahati to Thimpu connecting Singapore, said a Raj Bhawan statement. During the meeting, both Mukhi and Tserings discussed deepening the bilateral relation taking advantage of Act East Policy. Governor Mukhi stressing on frequent interaction between Assam and Bhutan and requested Tshering for taking adequate measures of sending business and cultural delegations to Assam on a regular basis to which Assam will also reciprocate. Hailing the Governors statesmanship, the Consul General said that though India and Bhutan enjoyed balanced business relations, it will grow deeper to include more sectors to the mutual benefit of both Bhutan and Assam. Armenia's Pashinyan admits that he personally gave the order to pull out troops from Syunik Province Satanovsky: Moscow was setting forth much more favorable ideas for Armenia than what had to be accepted Armenia PM: Talks with logic of 'corridor' are escalating tension in the region Armenia PM: 72% of Karabakh's territories occupied by Baku were subject for bargain during former administration Ararat Mirzoyan: Team representing Armenia's interests submitted a serious claim to International Court of Justice Satanovsky on 'Zangezur corridor', new war in region and use of Bayraktar in Donbas Pashinyan not ruling out determination of Armenia-Azerbaijan borders based on maps that Putin indicated US Ambassador: American companies in Armenia see that students lack knowledge and skills Armenia Parliament Speaker on demonstration held against him in Cyprus Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia's borders remain unchanged Armenia Deputy PM reports results of negotiations over unblocking of roads in the region Armenia PM invites two opposition parliamentary factions to hold a meeting Armenian FM: No meeting of leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan scheduled yet Azerbaijani army general sentenced to ten years in jail Armenia opposition MP to MOD: Why aren't names of soldiers killed in 44-day war and buried made public? Dollar gains value in Armenia Armenia PM: No positional changes on Mount Pela Premier pays tribute to victims of October 27, 1999 tragedy in Armenia legislature St. Giragos Armenian church in Turkeys Diyarbakir expected to reopen next Easter Two US Senators urge Biden to waive sanctions against India for purchase of S-400s Armenia National Assembly elects Central Bank board new member We hope Iran will act smart in relations with Azerbaijan, says Erdogan US, Indonesia call for new forum to combat future pandemics Erdogan announces what Aliyev said about Israel Lavrov: Russia is checking news about Ukraine using Turkish Bayraktar in Donbas Armenia society knows answers left open to questions on 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy, says speaker Armenia justice minister receives invitation from his Lithuanian counterpart to visit Lithuania for cooperation Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra: Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office opening in Armenia will be symbol of regional peace FM: Vatican has always stood with Armenia Aliyev, Erdogan want to unite Turkic world via Armenia Provincial governor of Armenias Aragatsotn submits resignation Situation at Armenia legislature gets tense Azerbaijanis steal 32 cows, 13 calves of Artsakh town resident, investigation underway Armenia FM meets with visiting Holy See official Vatican Apostolic Nunciature office to open in Armenia Art of Armenian writing is put on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list (PHOTOS) Azerbaijan to allocate $4.5 billion for defense spending in 2022 Armenia legislature forms committee to investigate how Hayastan All Armenian Fund donations were used Forced deportee from Artsakh occupied territory: We prepared humanitarian asylum requesting letter to France President 2,074 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia President in Saudi Arabia, speaks with Crown Prince Armenia parliament ratifies CIS agreement on collaboration in fight against IT crimes Brazil Senate panel votes in favor of bringing criminal charges against President Bolsonaro Armenia legislature starts Wednesdays session by honoring 27 October 1999 parliament tragedy victims Only December 31, January 1 and 6 to be non-working days for New Year, Christmas holidays in Armenia Armenia parliament continues regular sessions Sikh men use their turbans to rescue hikers in Canada Newspaper: What do we have on Armenia parliament fatal shooting case 3 years after change of power? Newspaper: All accused to remain in custody in Armenia ex-defense minister criminal case Newspaper: Armenian ambassador is spreader of US Influence? Istanbul changes name of street named after famous Armenian engineer again US supports Taiwan's participation in the United Nations' system Armenia's economic activity indicator continues to decline Armenia President Armen Sarkissian pays historic visit to Saudi Arabia Turkey's Erdogan: If Armenia "solves problems with Baku", there will be no other obstacle for normalization of relations Honorary Citizen of Yerevan title bestowed upon cultural figures on occasion of city's 2,803rd birthday Yerevan Council of Elders decides to place memorial plaques for four famous people Mayor: There are three times more vaccinated citizens in Yerevan than in the whole country Yerevan mayor: There is no alternative to conservation of trash chutes in apartment buildings Latvia President recovers from COVID-19 Armenia Health Ministry: Foreigners and stateless persons can receive AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines Tert.am: Resident of Armenia's Goris: Azerbaijanis stopped my car, hit it and used swear words Australian MP talks about Azerbaijan's aggression, calls for maintenance of ceasefire Yerevan mayor says he has never made exception for anyone since first day of office Armenia Deputy PM presents Government's Action Plan to ambassadors and representatives of international organizations Trade turnover between Eurasian Economic Union countries grows by 31.3% in eight months of 2021 armtimes.com: Armenia ruling party's candidate in Vedi is ex-governor of Ararat Province Garik Sargsyan MP says only 7% of Armenia's population is vaccinated Turkish FM threatens to resign due to scandal over ambassadors Armenia opposition MP: 11% increase of military budget is rather low indicator in post-war period Armenia removed from list of countries whose citizens are permitted to enter Italy Armenia emergency situations minister receives Poland Ambassador New generation business is founded in Armenia Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees Armenian legislature speaker meets with Cyprus-Armenia parliamentary cooperation committee chair Aliyev, Erdogan attend groundbreaking of Zangezur corridor in occupied territories of Artsakh Driver of Armenia MOD truck runs over female pedestrian in Yerevan who dies at hospital China FM calls on US to lift sanctions against Afghanistan Armenia legislature concludes closed discussion of situation on line of contact with Azerbaijan Armenia former deputy PM, now MP Gevorgyan not ruling out petitioning to international courts to protect his rights Police in Jinja is investigating circumstances under which Nima Sosipateri, a lecturer of Uganda Technical College, Elgon branch died at Savers guest house in Bugembe town, Jinja district. Nima had gone to Jinja to supervise Nyiro Hanington, a student from the college who was completing his internship in Jinja town. His body was found lying naked on the floor of his room. Nima Sosipateri was found dead in a guest house According to Patrick Nabongo, the director of Savers guest house, Nima had rented the room for the past three days and never complained of any illness. "Nima has been our good customer and for the past three days he has stayed here, he had not complained of any illness and his death has come as a shock," Nabongo says. Phinehas Kidiba, the brother to deceased, says that Nima told him on his mobile phone Wednesday to inform his family that he was tired and was not going to return home. Local pharmaceutical firm Cipla, which acquired Quality Chemicals Industries Limited, is to list on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) soon. A statement from the Board of Cipla Quality Chemicals Industries Limited says as part of its growth strategy the company has been evaluating an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and listing of its issued share capital on the stock market. The Cipla Board says each of the shareholders will be selling a minority of their stakes to enable sufficient free float and liquidity. The statement is, however, silent on when the IPO will take place. The shareholders include Cipla Limited of India with a stake of 62.3 per cent, Capital Works Investment Management with a 14.4 per cent, TLG Capital with 12.5 per cent. Cipla is set to list of Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) Three Ugandan individual shareholders, namely Frederick Mutebi Kitaka, George W. Baguma and Emmanuel Katongole, collectively hold 3.6 per cent in Cipla. It is not clear who owns the remaining 7.2 per cent of the shares. Sources say the IPO might have been triggered by one of the hedge funds, Capital Works Investment Management, wanting out of the company. The statement adds that Cipla Group, an Indian pharmaceutical firm represented through a subsidiary, will retain a majority stake in the company. The Indian pharmaceutical firm, valued at over $2bn, acquired 51 per cent stake in Quality Chemicals in 2015. According to Cipla Quality Chemicals Limited, the planned listing has received the relevant approvals required, and the company will provide further details soon. It says Renaissance Capital is acting as the lead transaction advisor and book runner, while Crested Capital (Uganda) is the lead sponsoring stockbroker to the listing. Paul Bwiso, the chief executive of Uganda Securities Exchange, says in a statement that the Cipla announcement "is an exciting time for the Uganda capital markets that last had an IPO in 2012". Bwiso applauds CiplaQCIL for taking this important step in its growth story. If listed, CiplaQCIL will join 16 other listed companies on the stock market. Local companies on the bourse are Umeme, Stanbic, Bank of Baroda, New Vision Group, DFCU Bank, Uganda Clays, British American Tobacco Uganda and National Insurance Corporation. Companies cross-listed from Nairobi Stock Exchange are East African Breweries, Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity Bank, Kenya Airways, Nation Media Group, Uchumi, Jubilee Holdings, and Centum Investment. CiplaQCIL has a pharmaceutical plant based in Kampala that produces World Health Organization (WHO) pre-qualified, life-saving anti-malarial, anti-retroviral and Hepatitis B and C drugs targeting Sub-Saharan Africa. According to CiplaQCIL, its drugs have been approved by regulatory authorities in 19 countries. These include Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola and South Sudan. Despite the big announcement by Cipla, market turnover at the bourse recorded a 60.3 per cent decrease to Shs 16.3 million from the last trading day. Counters that had the most activities were Umeme which traded 46.751 shares each at Shs 322 and Stanbic Bank which traded 38,052 shares each at 33 shillings. The Cipla IPO will come as a relief for the stock market that has seen prolonged sluggish growth compared to regional peers, especially that of Rwanda. IKR she is literally flawless Reply Parent Thread Link This is the second time in two days that I hear about Asians being painted out of western/white world history. Reply Thread Link Abstract & link: The period between the mid-1830s and early 1920s witnessed the migration of some 3.7 million Africans, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, Melanesians, and other peoples throughout and beyond the colonial plantation world to work as laborers under long-term written and short-term oral contacts. http://asianhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-33 It's sadly a trend across the board, especially when dealing with the British Colonial Empire. While it's important to avoid minimising any one groups' plight, historically Imperialism has been very bad for many POC across the globe. And now it seems to be Corporate Capitalism's turn.Abstract & link: Reply Parent Thread Link I think I was like.. 27? when I first heard about American internment camps for Japanese Americans, from a ya novel! History is the victor's story, indeed. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link She's so stunning but the shoot was bad Reply Thread Link That weird bit with the sweater and the underpants..... Reply Parent Thread Link Shes amazing. I hope she finds a man on her level Reply Thread Link she can't say what part she's playing in the studio's first female-fronted adventure, only groaning, "I'm in the make-up chair from 3am" I thought it was Phylla or whatever. Reply Thread Link minn-erva? so i guess they are painting her blue etc Reply Parent Thread Link That's probably it lmao Reply Parent Thread Link fwiw it says Minn-Erva on her imdb Reply Parent Thread Link I didn't know anything about her, so this was a good read. The shoot's a lil awkward, but she's gorgeous. Glad she was cast in Mary, Queen of Scots. Reply Thread Link Ooh, I like that casting. Reply Parent Thread Link "Got accepted into a prestigious drama school and modeled for a year to save up for it." LMFAO. This is the most unrelatable thing I've ever read. Reply Thread Link lol Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah, I saw that and was bowled over by the attractiveness privilege. This isn't to discount the impact of racism on her life and career, but, damn, gorgeous people have it so much easier than the rest of us. Reply Parent Thread Link reddit is so busy jizzing over themselves, hoping this movie fails, it makes me sad. I've never heard of Gemma before, but she sounds pretty dope. And she's super gorgeous. Reply Thread Link Of course they are, probably excited for that Mark Whalberg movie. I wish I could still go on r/movies and fight them. Reply Parent Thread Link she's so stunning. ahh. I love Astrid so there was never gonna be enough of her in the movie but she was great! <3 Reply Thread Link jesus. gorgeous and smart. i cannot believe she dated jack whitehall. Reply Thread Link Did they break up? Reply Parent Thread Link i just finished reading the article, and she said they broke up last december. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link it is entirely believable that they dated tbh. Reply Parent Thread Link I love these informed discussions being in the media - it's time the paradigm changed. May she have a long successful career Reply Thread Link Astrid becomes a bit unlikable in the later books, but I'm excited to see her in the first movie...although that clip was awkward that was posted yesterday. This comment seems negative, but I'm very excited for this movie! And she seems awesome. Reply Thread Link I think the quality (well, relatively) goes down with each book. I hated RPP, and not just because Kevin Kwan loves a character that I dislike very much. Reply Parent Thread Link lol was it eddie? I actually loved RPP as much as the other books, but he was way too fucking much even for me. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ Reply Thread Link She's too preternaturally pretty to be Rachel. When they announced she was Astrid, my reaction was 'Of course. Of course, she's Astrid.' Reply Thread Link Nicki knows she's not going to number 1, so moved her date so when she gets number 2 she can just be gracious and cute to Ariana, as opposed to coming out with no one big as competition and losing to some bullshit artist she considers beneath her. Reply Thread Link Lil Pump's album is dropping the 17th too so, she might very well possibly get #3 Reply Parent Thread Link i'd be surprised if she even got top 5 Reply Parent Thread Link ariana is the smartest fucking being in music right now. cannot wait for sweetener Reply Thread Link that icon suits you so well. not a second you're not bitter. Reply Parent Thread Link I love and support you sis! Reply Parent Thread Link Stevia is going to be a disaster. I can feel it. God is a woman falling dramatically on every chart now lmao Reply Thread Link Well her stan base is The Gays to whom the song is obviously unrelatable to Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The delusion of her stans thinking GIAW is going to have longevity. LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link Where's that gif of Blue Ivy Knowles simmering her parents down Reply Thread Link I hate that gif. if my kid did that to me for eveyone to see in a worlwide transmission, her ass would get whooped so bad Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Yikes. Hope you never have kids. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yikes (2) *also not yt* Reply Parent Thread Link I think having kids is a mistake, but damn. It would be very nice on a whole other level if you and others like you never had kids. Reply Parent Thread Link Yall need to fucking chill. I will not physically abuse any kids, jfc Reply Parent Thread Expand Link She doesn't sound like someone who gets an orgasm three times a day. So much for Pete's BDE eh. Reply Thread Link dick size is irrelevant when most men don't even know how to work a clit, lbr Reply Parent Thread Link BDE has to involve getting the partner off. Reply Parent Thread Link or where it is lbr Reply Parent Thread Link Never thought about it like this but yup she seems...tense. When I was having good sex daily I was so pleasant and nonchalant lol Reply Parent Thread Link lol twitter stans are so annoying Reply Thread Link ONTD is relishing there are people worse than ONTD itself. Reply Parent Thread Link IDK how celebs like her engage with their fanbase on a regular basis they must hate them lol Reply Parent Thread Link If I was an artist, I wouldn't interact on twitter at all. It just eggs them all. Reply Parent Thread Link Wait so what has Ari done wrong? She cant be excited by her singles doing well and still not give a fuck about chart positions??? Reply Thread Link I think they were calling her out for saying she doesn't care about numbers when she's always all up in popcraves tweets about herself and promotes her album and single 30 times a day in her instagram stories lol Reply Parent Thread Link Imo she hasnt done anything wrong here but she should stop engaging with these stupid fans Reply Parent Thread Link people are really trying to find reasons to bring down this incredibly talented woc. Reply Thread Link ia. They need to come for Nicki instead. Reply Parent Thread Link was this a chad line? Reply Parent Thread Link omfggggg LMAO Reply Parent Thread Link these numbers dont mean as much to the artist as they do to yall. jus want yall to listen to the project. Not Ariana coming with this "music not the bling" nonsense lmao. Her ARTPOP is upon us. Reply Thread Link wtf is this omg Reply Parent Thread Link APPLAUSE didn't DEBUT AT #1! KATY IS BETTER THAN HER! #UWontUseMyMind I write for the music not the charts pic.twitter.com/KjOpFURWwl Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 20, 2013 SWEETPOP rant is coming Reply Parent Thread Expand Link DW was a bop-fest from beginning to end. NTLTC is listenable, though not a *bop. GIAW and TLIC are terrible Reply Parent Thread Link i'll give you tlic but GIAW is a fucking b o p Reply Parent Thread Expand Link dangerous woman was a pop masterpiece? sis. Reply Parent Thread Link these numbers dont mean as much to the artist as they do to yall. Reply Thread Link omg I love this photo so much lol Reply Parent Thread Link LOL Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO Fuck. This image is amazing. Reply Parent Thread Link asdkjhf lmao Reply Parent Thread Link LOL mte Reply Parent Thread Link Ari needs to take an ACTUAL break from social media and remember that she's too rich and successful to be this bothered by it \_()_/ Reply Thread Link Ive never understood when artists sit on their social media accounts and feud with others. Like, you could be sunbathing on Lake Cuomo rn with a glass of champagne in your hand, why TF are you bothering with this? Reply Parent Thread Link seriously I would just count my money and laugh Reply Parent Thread Link LMFAO at her saying the numbers and charts don't mean anything. They may not mean anything to her (lol as if) but Nicki's ass is always posting images of charts on Instagram so clearly she cares. Reply Thread Link Sigh remember when Nicki posted that she was Vogue's best dressed at the Met or something but really it was Rihanna lol Reply Parent Thread Link lmao YES! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link If I were famous I would never be on social media, because "fans" are something else. Reply Thread Link +1, but it's different for pop stars. They kind of need to be accessible to their fans at this point. But when actors and actresses have it, idgi lmao. Unless you're someone like Chris Evans, whom in the eyes of everyone and their mother, can do no wrong. Reply Parent Thread Link right? they are so exhausthing. why does she even cares about what some random strangers have to say? Reply Parent Thread Link Russia opened the spigots in July and pumped its highest level of oil since the OPEC+ agreement entered into force in January 2017. At 11.215 million bpd, Russias oil production last month was very close to the post-Soviet record-high of October 2016, the month used as a baseline for the production cuts. Russias July oil production surged by 148,000 bpd from June, according to government data emailed to Bloomberg. Russia currently expects its oil production to stay at these high levels in the next five months, a government official told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity. This higher production could help offset supply disruptions from countries like Venezuela and Angola, and later in the year, Iran, when U.S. sanctions return. Before the decision to reverse some of the cutsor as OPEC and its Moscow-led allies put it, to stick to 100-percent compliance ratesRussias pledge in the pact was to cut 300,000 bpd of its oil production from the October 2016 level, which was the countrys highest monthly production in almost 30 years11.247 million bpd. Russias oil and condensate production in July was just 40,540 bpd lower than the October 2016 level, the energy ministrys website says, quoting Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Last week, Novak said that Russia is boosting its oil production in July and is reversing 200,000-250,000 bpd of the 300,000 bpd cut it had pledged in the OPEC/non-OPEC deal. Related: An Unexpected Windfall For U.S. Solar In line with its agreement with OPEC to reverse part of the cuts, Russia was boosting its crude oil production last month, pumping as much as 11.193 million bpd in the first four days of July, up from 11.06 million bpd in June. Russias key partner in the OPEC+ deal, OPECs largest producer and de facto leader Saudi Arabia, pumped near-record 10.65 million bpd in July, up by around 230,000 bpd in June, according to a Bloomberg survey of ship-tracking data, analysts, and oil companies. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Mexicos national oil company is about to receive an injection of cash. Incoming President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, has promised to invest around 175 billion pesos ($9.4 billion) into the state-owned energy companies. One of the goals is to reverse the decade and a half of declining oil production. Fourteen years ago, oil production was 3.4 million barrels a day. Now its 1.9 million barrels a day, AMLO said at a news conference. In 14 years, weve lost 1.5 million barrels a day in production, a downward trend because the oil industry was abandoned. The plan is a shaky one, perhaps because when it comes to the specifics, AMLO has only articulated a muddled notion of what he wants to do. Outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto ended more than seven decades of state-run monopoly over Mexicos energy sector, opening up the country to private control and investment from international companies. The bid to partially-privatize the energy sector has led to a series of auctions, dozens of awarded licenses and tens of billions of dollars in commitments from some of the largest oil companies in the world. AMLO staged fierce opposition to those reforms several years ago as they were implemented. His opposition softened during the presidential campaign, although he still threatened to revisit awarded contracts and/or suspend further auctions, at a minimum. He has vowed to reverse declining oil production but he has not articulated how that can be achieved. Presumably, he wants that done through state-controlled Pemex, long considered a pillar of national pride. AMLOs promise to inject more than $9 billion into state-owned energy companies is likely a signal that thats the course he wants to take. He also confirmed that he would appoint Rocio Nahle as energy minister, who was his top energy adviser during the campaign. She has favored a nationalist approach to energy policy she tweeted a message of support for stiff local content rules for energy projects a few months ago. Related: Houthis Prepared To Halt Oil Tanker Attacks To run Pemex, AMLO has tapped Octavio Romero Oropeza, an agronomist. Critics point out that he has no experience in energy. During the campaign, AMLO signaled a willingness to work with the private sector and not try to roll back the energy reforms. On the other hand, his personnel choices on energy skew towards the nationalist types. The team on energy is projecting a different message than the economic and financial team, Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, told the Washington Post. The economic and financial teams are projecting openness and saying that Mexico will continue with orthodox policies. Yet, it is unlikely that he will try to aggressively roll back the energy reforms enacted during the Pena Nieto administration, not least because they would require a constitutional change. AMLO did shock the country with a resounding victory in the presidential election, plus sweeping wins for his party in both houses of the Congress. The wins exceeded expectations, granting his party, Morena, majorities in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies (including coalition support from two other parties). But making changes to the constitution is likely too much of an uphill climb, even after taking into account his impressive victory. More to the point, because AMLO wants to restore lost oil production, he probably recognizes that the quickest and cheapest way to do that is to allow international companies to do the heavy lifting. The likes of ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Eni, Chevron and others are pouring money into offshore Gulf of Mexico. They can probably do more than Pemex can especially given Pemexs track record and at much less expense to public coffers. Nevertheless, AMLO still has nationalist goals for the energy sector. Only, he has signaled an intent to spend heavily on the downstream sector in an effort to halt the slide in domestic gasoline production. The plan calls for around $2.6 billion to rehabilitate Pemexs six aging refineries, while also breaking ground on a new refinery in Tabasco that would cost $8.6 billion over three years. Related: Kuwait Oil Production Hits 18-Month High That could mean he leaves the upstream sector alone, or mostly alone, at least. He has still promised to review more than 100 contracts awarded to ensure they are up to snuff. But his camp has sent signals that they wouldnt do much to interfere with these. The auctions are going to continue if everything we find is alright, Alfonso Romo, a business tycoon and top economic adviser to AMLO said in June, according to Reuters. He emphasized that AMLO had personally taken that message to investors. He said it in New York. Andres Manuel, not Alfonso Romo. As a result, the injection of some $4 billion or so into Pemex is aimed at helping the state-owned company revive output. This strategy would seem to work in parallel to the already-awarded contracts to international companies. There is still a lot of uncertainty over what to expect when AMLO takes office later this year, but for now his plan seems to be injecting public money into the energy sector alongside what private industry is already trying to do. But, time will tell. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Will the war in Yemen become the next battleground in the ongoing Iran-Israel proxy war for the Middle East? The past year has witnessed a more out in the open proxy war between the two grow in Syria, but the role of both in Yemen has been more obscured: Israel has echoed U.S. charges that Iran supplies Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels with ballistic missiles capable of hitting Riyadh, while the Shia rebels have accused the "Zionist" Saudis of massacring the civilian population as the kingdom's covert intelligence sharing alliance with Israel has become public knowledge of late. While the two have waged what is largely up to this point a war of words in Yemen, trading accusations of operating in the shadows, Israel has now openly threatened to intervene off the coast of Yemen if Houthi forces block the vital waterway through which cargo ships bound for Israel pass from Asia. (Click to enlarge) According to a breaking Reuters story, "Israel would deploy its military if Iran were to try to block the Bab al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday." This is the first significant threat of deploying military force issued from Tel Aviv in the Yemeni theater, and comes after the temporary halt in shipments through the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait which began a week ago. The halt followed a Saudi accusation that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had attacked two Saudi oil tankers traversing the waterway, driving home the threat that the conflict poses to a key chokepoint in international trade and the flow of Gulf oil to world markets. The Houthis for their part claimed they had actually attacked a Saudi warship rather than oil tankers. Saudis have in previous months accused the Houthis of attacking Saudi commercial ships passing through the strait with surface-to-surface missiles supplied by Iran. In early April, for example, the coalition said a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea was hit in a Houthi attack off Yemens main port city of Hodeidah, and escaped with minor damage after another coalition ship intervened. An estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil are shipped daily through Bab al Mandeb that connects the Red Sea with the Arabian Sea off the coast of Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea. (Click to enlarge) Meanwhile major Western media have largely ignored the devastating Saudi military intervention in Yemen, now in its third year, which has resulted in possibly up to 70,000 deaths, according to some humanitarian and activists group accounts. Related: $40 Billion LNG Project Finally Starts Up Yemen's Houthis have on several occasions threatened to block the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait along with last week announcing naval capabilities of striking Saudi ports. Simultaneously, there's a growing standoff in another major oil transit point, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian military leadership (specifically the elite IRGC) and the Pentagon have exchanged threats over oil tankers' safe passage. Though Iran has issued veiled threats of blocking the Hormuz strait, it's not directly addressed fighting near Bab al-Mandeb, possibly playing a much more behind the scenes and reserved role in Yemen. On Wednesday, Netanyahu announced the following at a military parade in Haifa: If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this, and this coalition will also include all of Israels military branches. Netanyahu further called recent alleged incidents of Houthi attacks on Saudi ships "a sharp clash with Iran's satellites who tried to sabotage international shipping" at the mouth of the Red Sea. Israel's defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, in a separate speech echoed the prime minister's charge at the same event, saying he had "recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea" while giving no further specifics to back the claim. The halt of oil shipments could provoke an escalation of the conflict with external powers intervening in a bid to assist Saudi Arabia and the UAE in defeating the Houthis and dealing a blow to Irans alleged regional presence. By the same token, the halt potentially offers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates an opportunity to focus international attention on resolving a civil war aggravated and turned into a regional conflict by the two Gulf states military intervention in March 2015. Related: An Unexpected Windfall For U.S. Solar Rather than proving to be a swift campaign that would have subdued the Houthis, the intervention has turned into a quagmire and a public relations fiasco for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. International criticism of their conduct of the war is mounting as a result of its devastating human cost. Voices in the US Congress, the British parliament and other Western legislatures as well as human rights groups calling for a halt of arms sales to Saudi Arabia are growing ever louder. By Zerohedge.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The war of words between the United States and Iran has been heating up as the return of U.S. sanctions threatens to take more than 1 million bpd of Iranian oil off the market. That latest in a string of accusations came from a senior Iranian oil official, who said that U.S. President Donald Trump had been taken hostage by Saudi Arabia and other oil producers who had him believe that they can compensate for the expected loss of Iranian oil exports. It seems President Trump has been taken hostage by Saudi Arabia and a few producers when they claimed they can replace 2.5 million barrels per day of Iranian exports, encouraging him to take action against Iran, Irans OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters this week. Brent Crude prices briefly broke above $80 a barrel in May, after President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and announced that new sanctions would be imposed on Iran, including on its crude oil exports. Irans regional archrival and the largest of the OPEC producers, Saudi Arabia, came to the rescue to ease consumer anxiety amid rallying oil prices that threatened to dampen oil demand. At the end of June, the Saudis and Russia had OPEC and its Moscow-led non-OPEC partners agree to cut compliance rates to 100 percent from the very high compliance of more than 150 percent in previous months. According to Saudi Arabia, the cut in compliance would translate into a production boost of around 1 million bpd by OPEC and its non-OPEC partners. The Saudis and their Gulf allies the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, plus non-OPEC Russia, are basically the only oil producing countries in the deal that are capable of boosting their oil production. But Iran claims that President Trump is wrong to expect that Saudi Arabia and other large producers can compensate for the decline in Iranian crude oil supply that new sanctions would cause. So they hanged him (Trump) on the wall. Now they want to have a mega OPEC, congratulations to President Trump, Russia and Saudi Arabia, Kazempour told Reuters this week. Irans OPEC governor has addressed President Trump several times over the past month. Related: Was The Aramco IPO Destined To Fail? Early in July, Kazempour told Reuters that The responsibility of paying unnecessary prices for oil by all consumers of the whole world, especially in U.S. gas stations, is solely upon your [Trumps] shoulders and the price of over $100 per barrel is yet to come. Those comments came after President Trump took to Twitter again to complain about high oil prices and criticize OPEC, demanding that prices be reduced. Iran responded to that tweet by Kazempour saying that the Presidents tweets about oil had already pushed up oil prices by at least $10 a barrel. Last week, President Trump addressed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Twitter in an all-caps tirade, threatening CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. Early this week, Trump said at a news conference, answering a reporters question, that he would meet Iran anytime they want. If we could work something out thats meaningful, not the waste of paper that the other deal was, I would certainly be willing to meet, the U.S. President added. Amid heightened U.S.-Iran rhetoric in recent months, analysts are trying to guesstimate how much Iranian oil the U.S. sanctions would choke off the market and how this supply disruption would impact oil prices. Related: Is A Supply Crunch In Oil Markets Inevitable? Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees oil prices hitting $90 a barrel by the second quarter of 2019, as Iranian oil barrels are removed from the market and other supply disruption risks threaten the tightening oil market. According to Helima Croft, managing director and global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, the U.S. sanctions on Iran are incredibly coercive and more than 1 million bpd of Iranian oil would be taken out of the market. The main factor that will keep Iranian oil on the market is how successful Tehran is in convincing Asian buyers to purchase more Iranian crude oil, ING commodities strategist Warren Patterson said in mid-July. China will be central to this Asian strategy and, as Patterson points out, given the worsening relationship between the US and China with the escalating trade spat, China is unlikely to listen to calls from the US to cut purchases. If anything, with the potential for discounted Iranian crude, we could, in fact, see China stepping in as a bigger buyer. In doing so, this would partially offset the impact from US sanctions on Iran. ING analysts continue to assume that Iranian supply will drop by 500,000 bpd with the sanctions, but warned that they are conscious of the fact that we may have to increase this number moving forward. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Indias cabinet approved on Wednesday a policy to allow companies to explore and exploit unconventional oil and gas resources such as shale oil and gas and coalbed methane under the existing production sharing contracts, as it aims to reduce its dependency on energy imports. The uniform oil and gas exploration policy will encourage the current contractors in the licensed and/or leased areas to unlock the potential of unconventional hydrocarbons in the existing acreages, the government said in a statement today. The policy is expected to bring in new investment in exploration and production (E&P) and raise the chances for new oil and gas discoveries that could potentially increase Indias domestic production. Unconventional oil and gas exploration under existing production sharing contracts (PSCs) will provide a major boost towards ensuring energy security for India, Indias Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Twitter. The new policy is a complete shift from the one hydrocarbon resource type to uniform licensing policy for simultaneous exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in an area of 72,027 square kilometers (27,810 square miles) under PSCs. The policy envisages utilizing E&P facilities to full potential by unlocking exploration & exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon reserves like shale gas & CBM which could not be explored earlier due to policy restrictions. New discoveries will also boost domestic production, the minister said. Related: The Texas Oil Boom Isnt Creating Enough Jobs India, which imports around 80 percent of the oil it consumes, is one of the worlds biggest oil importers, and its oil demand continues to grow. Earlier this year, when oil prices hit $80 a barrel in May, Indias Pradhan reiterated the need for stable and moderate prices in a phone conversation with Khalid al-Falih, the Energy Minister of OPECs largest producer and de facto leader Saudi Arabia. India and China discussed in June creating an oil buyers club to be able to negotiate better prices with oil exporting countries to reduce OPECs sway, both over the global oil market and over prices. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Indonesian government has moved to reclaim its prolific Rokan oil block from Chevron in 2021 when its contract is set to expire, it will then turn it over to state-run Pertamina, according to a government official. Chevron Pacific Indonesia is just the latest oil major casualty in Indonesias determination to nationalize its natural resources, including oil. Chevron is now joining the likes of Total, which was edged out of its Mahakam block earlier this year. Total jointly operated the block with Japans INPEXa fifty-year collaboration that ended when its license expired in December 2017. Pertamina, who then took control of the block, offered Total and INPEX a production sharing contract, but Total declined the offer. Despite its push to nationalize its resources, Indonesia failed to hit its desired production and investment targets for oil and gas in H1 2018. The H1 investment target was $14.2 billion, but actual figures came in at just $3.9 billion, according to Indonesias upstream oil and gas regulator, SKKMigas, citing project delays. The latest block that Pertamina has reclaimed includes two of Indonesias largest oilfields, and adds to the worry that the state-run company has bitten off more than it can chew, with production already missing targets, and foreign majors--such as Total--refusing to accept the new fiscal terms being offered. Pertamina is unlikely to be able to go it alone without foreign investments, and foreign investments are hard to come by when control does not come with it. Related: PetroChina Sees Huge Boost In Profit Chevron has had a presence in Indonesia for almost a century, even longer than Total, but its plan for further development of the block paled in comparison to Pertaminas, according to Indonesias energy and mines vice minister Arcandra Tahar, as cited by S&P Global Platts. Indonesia, which was ranked in 2016 as the 99th least attractive mining investment environments in 2016 out of 104 nations, began its crusade to rail against foreign control of its natural resources years ago, sparked in part by Muslim civic organizations who have called for a constitutional jihad to challenge laws that enable foreign companies to control its resources, according to Reuters. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: There is increased Iranian military activity in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Central Command confirmed to Reuters after several U.S. government officials said they believed Iran was preparing to carry out military exercises in the strait. The news will only heighten already considerable tension between Tehran and Washington following threats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that they close Hormuz, which is the biggest oil chokepoint in the world. We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, Reuters quoted Navy Captain Bill Urban as saying. We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways, the Central Commands spokesman overseeing U.S. forces in the Middle East also said. The preparations come in response to increased pressure from the United States amid a heated exchange between President Trump and Iranian leaders, with President Rouhani threatening Trump with the mother of all wars and the U.S. President striking back with a now notorious all-caps tweet that Iran should never ever threaten the United States or it will face severe consequences. In evidence of how tense the situation between the two long-time geopolitical opponents has become, when President Trump later suggested, in response to a reporters question, that he could meet with President Rouhani without any preconditions, Rouhani wasted no time in rejecting the possibility of a meeting. U.S. economic pressure on Iran has added to difficulties that the Tehran government has faced in getting the economy back on its feet and has sparked a series of protests. According to a U.S. official who spoke to Reuters last month, Washington has also launched a media campaign to spur the protests on and undermine the influence of the Iranian leadership, but some familiar with Iranian politics argue that this will have a boomerang effect. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: South Koreas imports of U.S. crude oil are expected to hit all-time highs in September and October, as the worlds fifth-largest oil importer cuts off Iranian oil imports and looks for cheaper alternatives for other Middle Eastern crude grades, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing trade flow data and four sources familiar with the matter. Since last month, U.S. crude oil loadings en route to South Korea have been rising, and are expected to hit a record-high of 6 million barrels in each of the months of September and October, according to Reuters sources and Thomson Reuters Eikon trade flow data. In the first half of 2018, South Koreas oil imports from the United States jumped by more than four times from the same period last year, to a total of 14.1 million barrels from January to June 2018, data from Korea National Oil Corp shows. This translates into an average monthly oil import rate of 2.35 million barrels of U.S. crude oil to South Korea, according to Reuters estimates. South Korea has been a regular customer of U.S. crude since the U.S. restrictions on oil exports were lifted in 2015. During the last two months for which EIA data is available, U.S. exports to South Korea stood at 102,000 bpd in April, and rose to 113,000 bpd in May. The two key reasons for rising South Korean imports this summer are the U.S. sanctions on Iran and the cheaper U.S. oil compared to Middle Eastern grades. Related: The Next Trade War Escalation Will Hit U.S. Oil Due to the sanctions on Tehran, South Korea suspended purchases of all Iranian oil last month, after having slashed its Iranian oil imports by 41 percent to 183,000 bpd in June compared to June last year. South Korean refiners are also seeking cheaper alternatives to Iraqs Basra Light for example, and the wider WTI-Dubai spread makes U.S. oil imports economically viable. The quality of Mars is better than Basra Light, one of Reuters sources said, adding that the Mars sulfur content is slightly lower than for Basra Light, which makes it easier to process. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Trump Administration unveiled on Thursday proposed rulemaking for rolling back Obama-era fuel economy standards for automakers, recommending the freezing of the mile-per-gallon standards for passenger cars and light trucks after model year 2020. The proposed rulemaking of the U.S. Department of Transportations National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is intended to correct the national automobile fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards to give the American people greater access to safer, more affordable vehicles that are cleaner for the environment, the Department of Transportation said in a statement today. NHTSA and EPA are seeking public comment within 60 days on the range of regulatory options, including the Administrations preferred alternative that locks in model year 2020 standards through 2026. The joint proposal initiates a process to establish a new 50-state fuel economy and tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions standard for passenger cars and light trucks covering MY 2021 through 2026, said the Department of Transportation. The consequence of unreasonable fuel economy and CO2 standards: Increased vehicle prices keep consumers in older, dirtier, and less safe vehicles, the EPA said in its proposal. The rulemaking proposal also calls for one national standard and proposes to withdraw Californias Clean Air Act Preemption Waiver, which already drew angry reactions from California. Currently California has a special waiver under the Clean Air Act to enact stricter rules than those at the federal level. Related: An Unexpected Windfall For U.S. Solar California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Twitter that The #Trump Administration has launched a brazen attack, no matter how it is cloaked, on our nation's #CleanCarStandards. CA DOJ will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend today's national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them. New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood and 19 other attorney generals issued a joint statement in which they said: This decision upends decades of cooperative state and federal action to protect our residents. We are prepared to go to court to put the brakes on this reckless and illegal plan. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Changes to Chinese subsidies for hybrid and battery-powered vehicles or new energy vehicles in local parlance that came into effect mid-June are already having a dramatic impact. According to data from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, some 64,000 battery-electric vehicles (BEV) rolled off production lines in June 2018, a drop of 16% compared to May. June sales fell by 23% to 63,000 units. Plug-in hybrid sales increased 5% to 22,000. Chinese BEV production peaked at more than 150,000 units in December last year. Global EV sales topped 1.2m in 2017 with BEVs making up two-thirds of the total and China accounting for more than half the market. The new subsidy regime has impacted several leading battery producers in China according to the latest lithium research report from industry tracker Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The countrys Optimum Nano last month announced that it would cease operations for at least the rest of the year while Yinlong New Energy has suspended production at many facilities due to slower sales. (Click to enlarge) Source: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Simon Moores, MD of Benchmark, tells MINING.com declining demand from Chinese battery producers have seen global lithium prices converge. According to Benchmark data, ex-works prices in China for battery-grade lithium carbonate are down more than 26% since the start of the year to $18,250 a tonne (mid-price) in June. In contrast FOB export prices from lithium brine operations in Chile and Argentina have been steadily rising since 2016 when prices were stuck below $5,000 a tonne and now trade near par to technical-grade material in China at just below $16,000. Supply response Such a sustained rise, especially for a specialty commodity, is rare, says Moores, adding that one cannot have all this activity without a supply response. Related: Russias High Risk Global Oil Strategy From an estimated 250,000 tonnes this year, global lithium production is set to double within three short years. The worlds automakers no longer worry about lithium. Supply is secure out to the mid-2020s, says Moores. While the brine majors in South America are expanding capacity (and for as little as $4,000 a tonne), the bulk of new supply will come from hard-rock mines in Western Australia and elsewhere. Producing lithium from brine is a long and complex process. It's more straight-forward and quicker to build or expand a hard-rock lithium mine, but Moores warns that a spodumene mine does not a lithium operation make. Hard-rock miners and their customers face a long, costly and often bottlenecked chain from ore to battery grade lithium. Moores expects a build-up of technical and industrial grade lithium inventories. Spodumene (6% concentrate goes for $915 a tonne) is already piling up and as for direct shipping ore, Benchmark research has found no evidence that Chinese processors have used the feedstock to produce battery-grade material that found its way into an electric vehicle. Solid outlook But it's early days for the lithiumEV story. The industry is moving to solid state batteries that will utilize lithium metal. Solid state batteries still five to seven years away from commercial deployment believes Moores are safer, 70% more energy dense than lithium-ion and can be shaped. And the kicker? Solid state batteries require around 20% more lithium says Moores: "There will be no price crash." By Mining.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The ruler of ex-Soviet Turkmenistan has ditched his signature black hair dye -- a move that will be closely analysed in a nation famed for its leadership personality cults. A photograph of Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on the front of state mouthpiece Neutral Turkmenistan on Thursday showed his thick, dark mane flecked with grey for the first time since he came to power in 2006. Television footage showing the 61-year-old leader meeting neighbouring Kazakhstan's new ambassador to the gas-rich nation confirmed the change. Berdymukhamedov's new look marks a break from his late predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov, who made waves in 1999 when he appeared in public with auburn hair after previously sporting a whiteish do. Niyazov claimed the change was a byproduct of seeing a Chinese scalp doctor, initially to cure hair loss following a heart operation in 1997. Niyazov's hair later transitioned to a jet black colour, with cabinet ministers and the country's ambassador to China following suit in shows of solidarity. Greying presidential portraits across the country were scrapped for new ones. Both Berdymukhamedov, who became president in 2006, and Niyazov are honoured by golden statues in the country's white marble-clad capital Ashgabat. Rights groups accuse Berdymukhamedov of heading one of the most repressive and isolated regimes in the world. In recent months he has performed a patriotic rap on state TV along with his grandson and released a biography of his mother, which has been acclaimed by local critics. (L-R) House Speaker Gloria Arroyo (PCOO); Sen. Aquilino Koko Pimentel PASAY CITY, Philippines It was the House of Representatives that reorganized. This was the statement of PDP-Laban National President Senator Koko Pimentel when asked about calls from party members to elect newly installed House Speaker Gloria Arroyo as the partys secretary general, a position currently being occupied by ousted Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. Senator Pimentel explained that Arroyos election as House Speaker does not constitute her being elected to a higher position in the ruling party as it is not stated in the rules of PDP-Laban. It doesnt mean a political party reorganizes when the House reorganizes because otherwise, youre giving other political parties influence over a political party. Wala pong ganoon, he said. Arroyo was a no-show at PDP-Labans party meeting on Thursday (August 2) but Pimentel assured they will try to resolve the matter among them. For his part, former Speaker Alvarez said he is open to giving up his position in the party for Arroyo. However, he said, let the party decide on the issue. He assured he bears no grudge after his sudden ouster in the Lower House. Okay naman ako. Sinabi ko nga na ako, the pain lasted for only 24 hours. After that wala na, said the Davao del Norte congressman. Alvarez said he has no plans of competing for the minority leadership thats why he opted to join ABS Party-list Representative Eugene de Vera whom he believes is the only remaining minority member. Instead, he plans to concentrate more on his responsibilities to his constituents in Davao del Norte. Meanwhile, Pimentel said he has no problem with several lawmakers from PDP-Laban shifting alliances to the regional party of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Hugpong ng Pagbabago. The Senator said there is no inconsistency in being a member of a national party and being a member of a regional party at the same time. Grace Casin / Marje Pelayo The post Pimentel on Arroyo as PDP-Laban Secretary General: Not in the rules appeared first on UNTV News. Credit: University of Maine Researchers in the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station and their colleagues from neighboring institutions published a report called "Bees and Their Habitats in Four New England States" this summer. The report includes previously unpublished information and a synthesis of literature relevant to Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The report also offers recommendations for bee habitat improvement, summarizes new information about the economics of pollinator habitat improvements, and identifies knowledge gaps to help prioritize future research directions. Over 400 species of bees have been documented in these four states. Most are native to the region, but little is known about the ecology, life history, population dynamics and host plant relations for most species. Bees face threats from habitat loss, pests and pathogens, pesticides and climate change, and some species are in documented decline. Due to the difficulty of quantifying bee populations, the authors focused on their habitats, because people can manipulate features such as flowers for bee forage and pesticide use. The publication lists 15 bee habitats with natural and anthropogenic features, and suggests 40 plant taxa that may be effective in plantings for bees. Potential habitat improvements noted in the publication include planting suitable flowers and mowing less intensively to improve food availability, and minimizing pesticide use. The publication's recommendations, if adopted, could help bee conservation and pollination security, and aid in protecting pollination of native flora and crops like lowbush blueberries, cranberries, squashes and apples. Explore further Pollinator biodiversity More information: Bees and Their Habitats in Four New England States: Bees and Their Habitats in Four New England States: umaine.edu/mafes/wp-content/up w-England-States.pdf Birds dont fly across wide Amazonian rivers like the Rio Negro. Marcos Amend www.marcosamend.com (for use with this article only), Author provided When the young naturalist Alfred R. Wallace left England to explore the New World in 1848, one of his key observations in the Amazon region was that large rivers were unsurpassable barriers for some species of animals, particularly primates and birds. Even more interesting, he noticed that closely related species often occupied forests on opposite sides of a river, but they were never found together. Indeed, there are hundreds of examples of cross-river pairs among Amazonian birds, a phenomenon not seen anywhere else on Earth. Nearly one-third of the approximately 240 bird species that normally inhabit the forests on one side of the lower Rio Negro in Brazil are replaced by a closely related species on the other side. For example, on the left bank you will see Black-spotted Barbets (Capito niger) with red throats. On the right bank you will only see the closely related Guilded Barbets (Capito auratus) with orange throats. Amazonian rivers have fascinated me since I first visited the region in 1999 and have been the main focus of my research as a tropical biologist. I was captivated by the replacement patterns Wallace described, and spent countless hours studying avian distribution maps. Despite years of study, however, evolutionary biologists remain uncertain of the role rivers have played in the speciation process in Amazonia. Do rivers generate new species? Or simply act as secondary barriers, providing natural boundaries for species formed elsewhere? Did all these paired lineages diverge at the same time, divided by a common barrier? Or did each species follow its own evolutionary path? The Black-spotted and Guilded Barbets live apart, separated by the lower Rio Negro and the Rio Branco in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Andreza Silva, CC BY-ND These were the questions that guided my colleagues and me when we set out to explore the Rio Negro, still one of the most pristine regions of Amazonia. Like expeditions conducted by earlier naturalists, ours involved long boat journeys to reach remote locations. But we were armed with computers, digital imagery, GPS devices, digital audio recorders and liquid nitrogen to keep our samples at very low temperatures until we could perform genetic analysis back in the lab. Our plan was to use tissue samples from birds on opposite sides of the river to assess their evolutionary history. Evolving from one species to two By looking at the amount of genetic differentiation between individuals on different banks, modern naturalists are able to track down approximately how much time has passed since these populations began their independent evolutionary histories. What biologists cannot agree upon is what role these rivers played in the evolutionary history of the species they currently divide. One obvious possibility is that the range of the ancestral species was dissected by a newly formed river, isolating big chunks of forests. Cutoff populations would slowly change and differentiate from one another. Given enough time, their differences would become great enough that they'd no longer recognize each other as potential mates with which to pair and raise offspring they'd become different species. This idea became known as the riverine barrier hypothesis. It's the oldest explanation for why there are so many species in Amazonia. The study focused on bird species whose distributions are bounded by two biogeographical barriers: the Rio Negro and the Rio Branco, located in the Guiana Shield in northern Amazonia. Credit: Naka et al. Sci. Adv. 2018;4:eaar8575, CC BY-NC An alternative model suggests that rivers act as secondary barriers. According to this idea, although they're currently important to define species' geographical limits, rivers had nothing to do with the initial separation of that ancestral population. It's hard not to ask the most obvious question here, though. Birds engage in epic long-distance migrations and are able to travel from pole to pole. How in the world could an Amazonian river, even a large one, represent much of a barrier? Can't birds simply fly across the river, reunite with their relatives and avoid becoming two different species? The short answer is, apparently not. For many forest-dwelling species, rivers really do seem to be insurmountable barriers. Experiments suggest that many bird species are not capable of flying even a hundred yards over open landscape, let alone crossing several kilometers of a mighty Amazonian river. Like earlier explorers, the team of researchers relies on vessels to reach remote study sites. Credit: Thiago Orsi Laranjeiras (for use with this article only), Author provided Testing the role of rivers in avian evolution Our first step was to map the exact location of these pair replacements upriver. All the pairs studied were known to turnover across the lower Rio Negro, which ranges as wide as 10 kilometers in some places. Upriver, however, the river is much narrower and replacement patterns become more complicated, involving minor rivers. When differences between populations are relatively large like plumage patterns, colors or song pairs are often considered different species. When differences are subtle such as size or feather hue or tone ornithologists tend to consider them different subspecies. Whether pairs of species or pairs of subspecies, biologists refer to them as "pairs of taxa." We investigated in detail 74 pairs of taxa whose ranges were divided by various combinations of the Rio Negro and its largest tributary, the Rio Branco. These two rivers are both biogeographical barriers for dozens of avian species. After more than a decade of fieldwork, and with the contribution of major Brazilian and U.S. museums and collections, our team had obtained distributional and genetic data for almost all bird species and subspecies that differed on either side of the river. Researchers used molecular data to determine how long ago each of 74 bird pairs diverged. Horizontal bars cover credible intervals, taking timing uncertainties into account. Most pairs separated long before the two rivers existed in their present forms. Credit: Naka et al. Sci. Adv. 2018;4:eaar8575, CC BY-NC We reasoned that if a river dissected the landscape and separated many avian populations at the same time, pairs should present roughly similar times of divergence. If rivers acted as secondary barriers, pairs will likely present a whole suite of ages. In this case, pairs could be older than the rivers that currently bound their distributions, since according to this model, the original division of a species in two doesn't depend on the emergence of the river. We used time-calibrated molecular data to figure out approximately when each of our 74 pairs of related birds went their separate ways, evolutionarily. Some genes mutate at predictable, steady rates, allowing scientists to estimate the time that's elapsed since any given pair of organisms diverged. The more changes in their genomes, the longer it's been since they shared a common ancestor. It's like looking at what researchers call a "molecular clock." When we looked at the molecular clocks of our bird samples, we found that divergence events were not clustered within a particular time frame. Instead they ranged from 0.2 to 8 million years ago. So it's unlikely that all avian pairs currently divided by a common barrier, such as the Negro or the Branco, were generated by the genesis of those rivers. Furthermore, geomorphological data suggest that these rivers established their current positions relatively recently. Approximate dates for the Rio Negro are around a million years, whereas the Rio Branco is apparently much more recent, around 20,000 years. Therefore, both rivers seem to be much younger than most bird pairs they currently divide, supporting the secondary contact barrier model: The rivers today maintain a boundary, but the timing suggests they couldn't have been responsible for initially separating most of the avian pairs we studied. The Guianan Toucanet (Selenidera piperivora), is replaced by the Tawny-tufted Toucanet (S. nattereri) in this region. This is the oldest pair in the analysis, separated around 8 million years ago. Credit: Luciano Nicolas Naka, CC BY-ND On the other hand, the Rio Negro does appear to have a million-year history here. Our models cannot reject a common diversification event happening at around that age for 12 pairs of avian taxa, whose DNA indicated they'd diverged within the last million years. So while the origin of most pairs studied is likely not related to the genesis of the rivers, it is possible that the Rio Negro, in particular, represented a primary barrier for some species. Our new study, published in Science Advances, offers compelling evidence that Amazonian rivers may hold a dual evolutionary role. They can act as primary barriers for some lineages, as proposed by the riverine barrier hypothesis. But more frequently, they act as secondary barriers for most avian lineages. These results come from only one, albeit important, Amazonian region, and similar studies from other basins will place our results into a broader context. Explore further Malaria-carrying parasites spread more when they can jump into multiple birds More information: Luciano N. Naka et al. The dual role of Amazonian rivers in the generation and maintenance of avian diversity, Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances Luciano N. Naka et al. The dual role of Amazonian rivers in the generation and maintenance of avian diversity,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar8575 A male fairy-wren on a twig. Credit: Jessica McLachlan Birds often eavesdrop on the alarm calls of other species, making it possible for them to take advantage of many eyes looking out for danger. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on August 2 have found that fairy-wrens can learn those unfamiliar callswhich they liken to a foreign languageeven without ever seeing the bird that made the call or the predator that provoked it. Instead, the birds in their study learned to recognize new alarm calls by listening for unfamiliar sounds within a chorus of familiar alarm calls. "Alarm calls warn of predators, but here the birds learnt the meaning of the call from the alarm calls of others without needing to see the predator," says Robert Magrath of the Australian National University in Canberra. "This means it is a type of 'social learning,' where individuals learn from others rather than through direct experience. In this case, it's even more indirect, because they only need to hear and not see the birds giving the familiar alarm calls. So theoretically they could learn with their eyes closed!" Magrath's group had long been interested in bird alarm calls and eavesdropping among species. Their previous work showed that birds can learn to recognize other species' calls; it isn't always an innate ability. Their studies showed that fairy-wrens could learn to associate a novel alarm call with danger if they repeatedly saw a model predator at the time they heard the call. Those studies showed the birds were learning by direct experience. But the research teamalso including Dominique Potvin and Chaminda Ratnayake from the Australian National University, and Andrew Radford from the University of Bristol, UKsuspected that birds could also learn from other birds, by listening closely to their calls. An alert male fairy-wren. Credit: Jessica McLachlan "It makes sense to learn from others when it is dangerous to learn through direct experience," Radford says. "The current experiment shows that they can," and through the novel process of making associations between different sounds. The team trained birds in the absence of any predator by broadcasting unfamiliar sounds in combination with the alarm calls of other fairy-wrens and other bird species. At first, the birds didn't flee from the unfamiliar sounds. But after training, they often did flee to cover upon hearing the sounds. Their experiment showed the fairy-wrens also continued responding equally strongly in repeated tests over the course of a week. It wasn't that the fairy-wrens had become warier in general. Rather, they had learned to associate new calls with known alarm calls, without ever seeing the caller or the reason for their call. An upright male fairy-wren. Credit: Jessica McLachlan "The results were striking," Potvin says. "They show just how quickly social learning can occur in the wild through listening to alarm choruses, a tactic that's likely to come in handy given how hard it is to see predators and callers in many environments." Social learning by whatever means can help to explain the widespread eavesdropping seen in nature, the researchers say. The new findings may also be relevant to conservation efforts. Often, endangered species breed well in captivity only to be taken by predators soon after release. As such, there are now efforts to prepare birds for life in the wild by training them to recognize their predators prior to release. "We think it would also be helpful to train birds to recognize the alarm calls of other species," Magrath says. Their new study shows just how to go about it. More information: Current Biology, Potvin et al.: "Birds Learn Socially to Recognize Heterospecific Alarm Calls by Acoustic Association" DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.013 Journal information: Current Biology , Potvin et al.: "Birds Learn Socially to Recognize Heterospecific Alarm Calls by Acoustic Association" www.cell.com/current-biology/f 0960-9822(18)30775-9 Illustration of the bioluminescence monitoring system comprising photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) for neural recording and a thermal camera for behavioral tracking. A thermal wall composed of a cooled Peltier element and a plate improves the image contrast. Credit: RIKEN Fruit flies have a rich language of smell messages that they exchange, but now their secret is out. In a report published August 2 in Current Biology, scientists were able to tap into the communications among freely interacting flies using a bioluminescent technology to monitor their brain activity. They discovered that males signal their presence by placing droppings that act as a calling card for flies to find each other and even lure females to designated locations. Many species from flies to mammals use signaling molecules called pheromones to attract mates and communicate socially. These pheromones may waft off the body or be excreted in urine, but now researchers at Japan's RIKEN Center for Brain Science have found that pheromone-laced fecal landmarks, rather than flies' bodies themselves, are strong attractors for fellow flies. In a small arena equipped for both visible light and thermal imaging, Drosophila flies could move around untethered. The researchers were interested in responses of both male and female flies to the male pheromone cVA, which activates only a specific class of odor-sensing neurons. In genetically-engineered flies, these neurons glow when activated thanks to the introduction of bioluminescent molecules similar to those in another familiar insectfireflies. "This simultaneous neural and behavioral recording is the first for investigating social communication in such small organisms," observes research group leader Hokto Kazama. "The fly environment is a rich landscape of pheromones changing over space and time and this kind of naturalistic observation can change our understanding of what drives flies' behavior." Observing male flies in the arena, the researchers found that odor-sensing neurons were triggered most strongly by a particular placeconfirmed to be the location of a droppingrather than interactions between flies, whose bodies were thought to be the main if not the sole source of cVA. "We have seen cases where the odor-sensing neurons respond only after a marking," says Kazama, "and the closer the flies are to these fecal landmarks, the more bioluminescence we see." On their own in the arena, male flies will circle the perimeter and deposit droppings, with a tendency to re-visit and spend more time around the marked regions. Flies with blocked odor-sensing neurons didn't show this attraction. Behavior of a paired male (blue) and a virgin female (red) before and after the deposition of a male landmark. The white dotted circle represents the putative effective region of a landmark. The video is sped up 5 times. Credit: RIKEN In another experiment with a male and female fly, the female's droppings were not attractive. The male's markings, on the other hand, were attractive to both sexes, even during courtship when a female is chased by a male. Fecal landmarks thus function as a social hub, indicating the identity of the marking fly and increasing mating chances. The system for monitoring bioluminescence has applications beyond fruit flies. Any neural recording, especially of small animals, that would traditionally require wires or tethering can now harness the power of these glowing brains, giving researchers a real-time look at activity during social communication. "Emerging genome editing technologies combined with bioluminescent probes are giving us a powerful window into observing natural behavior and how it arises in the brain," says Kazama. An example experiment capturing the online appearance of a landmark. Localization (top) and timing (bottom) of neural activation events in a luminescent fly (lum) after the landmark appearance. Magenta circles indicate significant neural activity. Credit: RIKEN Explore further LC10 the neuron that tracks fruit flies More information: Mercier D, Tsuchimoto Y, Ohta K, Kazama H (2018) Olfactory landmark-based communication in interacting Drosophila. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.005 Journal information: Current Biology Mercier D, Tsuchimoto Y, Ohta K, Kazama H (2018) Olfactory landmark-based communication in interacting Drosophila. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Fishing bans don't have to hurt fishing communities, according to a new study led by Stanford researchers. The group tracked vessels during a short-lived trawling moratorium in the Adriatic Sea and found that fishers maintained their catch levels by fishing elsewhere. The findings suggest that such bans can protect overfished regions without hurting people's livelihoods and could influence efforts to protect other sensitive regions. "Our findings demonstrate how even in areas where there's intense and complex use, it is possible for different parties to achieve success," said study co-author and Stanford marine biologist Fiorenza Micheli. The findings informed a European Union decision to extend the protection. The study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, tracked fishing vessels through a common onboard technology, Automatic Identification System, that regularly transmits data as a way of preventing collisions. By tracking the boats, researchers found fishing vessels that complied with a one-year fishing ban maintained their catch levels by moving to other areas. In addition to supporting more permanent protection in the Adriatic, the results hold promise for other highly exploited areas around the world where enforcement is challenging. The Adriatic Sea hosts a large fraction of all recorded Mediterranean marine species. Because of its richness, the sea has long been exploited and suffers from habitat damage. In particular, the intensely exploited Jabuka-Pomo area in the central Adriatic serves as an important breeding ground for a number of commercially valuable species like European hake and Norway lobster. To protect these resources, Italy and Croatia enacted a one-year ban in the area against trawling the sea floor with large nets. The ban, enacted in 2015, came after decades of scientific investigation. At the time, the fishing industry voiced concerns about potential lost income from not being able to access their traditional fishing grounds. Marine biologist Fiorenza Micheli discusses how fishing restrictions in the Adriatic Sea protected valuable species without hurting the economic livelihood of fishers. Credit: Stanford University Based on the group's findings that the ban did not hurt yields, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean Sea and the European Union extended the closure for an additional three years. Pending evaluation of the ban's benefits, it may be extended further. "The decision to extend protection was a significant step forward, but the challenge remains where conservation and socioeconomic goals conflict," said lead author Robin Elahi, a postdoctoral fellow. The study found that some of the displaced fishing affected other sensitive habitats a downside that Elahi and Micheli plan to examine more closely in upcoming research. The group said its approach could be used to observe fishing behavior around other marine protected areas and to track whether the bans force fishers into other sensitive ecosystems. It could even serve as a deterrent to violating fishing restrictions. "If we want to continue to catch fish, we have to create places where there is no fishing," said Micheli. "We're protecting the sea's ability to heal itself and ensuring our own economic health in the process both in the short and long term." Explore further Redefining 'small-scale' fishing to support English fisheries News of a censor-friendly version of Google's search engine for China has caused anxiety within the company, an employee said Google is crafting a search engine that would meet China's draconian censorship rules, a company employee told AFP on Thursday, in a move decried by human rights activists. Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking but it is now working on a project for the country codenamed "Dragonfly", the employee said on condition of anonymity. The search projectwhich works like a filter that sorts out certain topicscan be tested within the company's internal networks, the source said. The news has caused anxiety within the company since it first emerged in US media reports on Wednesday, the employee said. The tech giant had already come under fire this year from thousands of employees who signed a petition against a $10-million contract with the US military, which was not renewed. "There's a lot of angst internally. Some people are very mad we're doing it," the source said. A Google spokesman declined to confirm or deny the existence of the project. "We provide a number of mobile apps in China, such as Google Translate and Files Go, help Chinese developers, and have made significant investments in Chinese companies like JD.com," spokesman Taj Meadows told AFP. "But we don't comment on speculation about future plans." Rights, democracy filtered out News website The Intercept first reported the story, saying the search app was being tailored for the Google-backed Android operating system for mobile devices. Terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests would be blacklisted, according to The Intercept. The app will automatically identify and filter websites blocked by China's Great Firewall, the news outlet said. The New York Times, citing two people with knowledge of the plans, said that while the company has demonstrated the service to Chinese government officials, the existence of the project did not mean that Google's return to China was imminent. Citing "relevant authorities", the state-owned China Securities Daily said reports suggesting that Google was returning to the Chinese market "do not conform to reality". Amnesty International urged Google to "change course". "It will be a dark day for internet freedom if Google has acquiesced to China's extreme censorship rules to gain market access," Patrick Poon, a China researcher for Amnesty, said in a statement. "In putting profits before human rights, Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory." US internet titans have long struggled with doing business in China, home of a "Great Firewall" that blocks politically sensitive content, such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and The New York Times website are blocked in China, but Microsoft's Bing search engine operates in China. In early 2010, Google shut down its search engine in mainland China after rows over censorship and hacking. Google had cried foul over what it said were cyber attacks aimed at its source code and the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. But the company still employs 700 people in three offices in China working on other projects. In December, Google announced it would open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing. Earlier last year, Chinese internet regulators authorised the Google Translate app for smartphones. The search engine project comes amid a US-China trade war, with both sides imposing tit-for-tat tariffs and President Donald Trump accusing Beijing of stealing US technological know-how. Explore further Google Translate app now unblocked in China 2018 AFP The Oiartzun river channel today. Credit: Miren del Val For the first time, a preliminary chronostratigraphic framework has been established for three Cantabrian river basins through the direct dating of Quaternary fluvial deposits, whose results contribute to reconstructing how these basins have evolved over the last 400,000 years An international team, including the Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH), has recently published a paper in the journal Quaternary Geochronology on the first direct dating of the Quaternary fluvial deposits of three main river basins of the eastern Cantabrian margin, whose results contribute to reconstructing how these basins have evolved over the last 400,000 years. Quartz grains extracted from sediment samples collected in the valleys of the rivers Nerbioi (in Bizkaia), Deba and Oiartzun (both in Gipuzkoa), were dated using two complementary methods: Luminescence (OSL) and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). With the results obtained, which yield ages of between 140,000 and 400,000 years for the fluvial terraces situated between 10 and 25 meters above the current channel, it has been possible to establish a preliminary chronostratigraphic framework for the Quaternary fluvial deposits of these Cantabrian valleys. The dating work, performed at laboratories of the CENIEH and the University of Sheffield, has made it possible to infer that the fluvial evolution of the zone has been controlled by climate, with the alternation of relatively humid and arid climatic cycles which would have triggered erosive (fluvial incision) or agradational (fluvial deposition) processes over time. "In line with recent similar work centering on other river basins such as those of the Mino in Galicia and the Moulouya in Morocco, these results show again the importance of combining different methods for reliable dating of Quaternary fluvial deposits," comments Miren del Val, lead author of the study, who works at the Luminescence Laboratory of the CENIEH. An international, multidisciplinary team The success of this study was made possible thanks to the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team made up of geologists and geochronologists from several Spanish institutions (Universidad del Pais Vasco, UPV/EHU, the CENIEH and Universidad de Burgos, UBU) and international ones (Griffith University in Australia, and University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom). This paper, titled "First chronostratigraphic framework of fluvial terrace systems in the eastern Cantabrian margin (Bay of Biscay, Spain)," helps to mitigate the scarcity of fluvial studies in the zone which could contribute to better understanding of the fluvial dynamics of the eastern Cantabrian region. Explore further River's evolution unfolds with fresh mix of dating techniques More information: Miren del Val et al. First chronostratigraphic framework of fluvial terrace systems in the eastern Cantabrian margin (Bay of Biscay, Spain), Quaternary Geochronology (2018). Miren del Val et al. First chronostratigraphic framework of fluvial terrace systems in the eastern Cantabrian margin (Bay of Biscay, Spain),(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2018.07.001 Provided by CENIEH California Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to reporters after a news conference at University of California, Los Angeles Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Becerra spoke about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) State prosecutors from California to Massachusetts blasted the Trump administration Thursday for proposing weaker auto fuel-efficiency standards they said would imperil clean air and increase greenhouse gases. Months after they pre-emptively sued to block anticipated efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back mileage regulations, Democratic attorneys general vowed to continue their fight in the courts. "The earth is not flat, and climate change is real," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, as he connected global warming to the deadly wildfires burning out of control throughout the state. "Can someone please inform the folks at the White House and our federal government of those facts?" Becerra also promised another lawsuit if the administration makes good on what he called "arbitrary and capricious" plans to revoke a longstanding waiver allowing California and other states to set their own stricter auto emissions standards. At least twelve other states and the District of Columbia follow California's rules. Officials in the Trump administration said their actions would make autos more affordable and that would make roads safer because more motorists would be driving newer cars with the latest safety features. Becerra and attorneys general from 16 other states sued in May to stop the EPA from scrapping standards that would have required vehicles by 2025 to achieve 36 miles per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standards. The Trump proposal would freeze standards at 2020 levels when vehicles will be required to hit an average of 30 miles per gallon (48 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving. States that joined the lawsuit said the change would end up costing more money at the pump because vehicles won't go as far on a gallon of gas, and more misery for those suffering pollution-exacerbated maladies such as asthma. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, center, walks on the campus of University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Becerra spoke at a news conference about his efforts to fight the Trump administration's proposal to weaken car efficiency fuel standards. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) "This has to be absolutely one of the most harmful and dumbest actions that the EPA has taken," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said. "It's going to cost drivers here and across the country hundreds of millions of dollars more at the pump." Pollution from cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles is the California's single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to state data. California has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. It met its 2020 goals four years early, but hitting the next target will be much harder without cleaner vehicles. The state has struggled to rein in vehicle pollution. Transportation is the only sector where greenhouse gas emissions went up in 2016, the most recent data available. The lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia alleged the plan to dump the mileage standards violated the federal Clean Air Act and didn't follow the agency's own regulations. The lawsuit is proceeding, and Becerra said lawyers will now pore over the documents filed with the proposal to help make their case. Other states that joined in the lawsuit were: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. All have Democratic attorneys general. Explore further California sues over plan to scrap car emission standards 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Using 100-year-old minerals processing methods, chemical engineering students have found a solution to a looming 21st-century problem: how to economically recycle lithium ion batteries. Credit: Lei Pan, Michigan Tech Using century-old minerals processing methods, chemical engineering students have found a solution to a looming 21st-century problem: how to economically recycle lithium ion batteries. Lei Pan's team of chemical engineering students had worked long and hard on their research project, and they were happy just to be showing their results at the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition last April in Washington, DC. What they didn't expect was to be mobbed by enthusiastic onlookers. "We got a lot of 'oh wow!' responses, from eight-year-olds wanting to know how it worked to EPA officials wondering why no one had done this before," says senior Zachary Oldenburg. "My response to the EPA was, 'Because no one else had a project leader who's a mining engineer.'" Pan, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University, earned his graduate degrees in mining engineering. It was his idea to adapt 20th century mining technology to recycle lithium ion batteries, from the small ones in cell phones to the multi-kilowatt models that power electric cars. Pan figured the same technologies used to separate metal from ore could be applied to spent batteries. So he gave his students a crash course in basic minerals processing methods and set them loose in the lab. "My mind goes back to the beginning, when nothing was working," says Trevyn Payne, a chemical engineering senior. "A lot of times it was, honestly, 'Let's just try this.' Sometimes when things worked out, it was kind of an accident." Oldenburg provides an example. "We were trying all kinds of solvents to liberate chemicals, and after hours and hours, we found out that plain water worked the best." Crash course in old-school mining tech showed students a cheap, easy way to recycle lithium ion batteries. Credit: Lei Pan, Michigan Tech But eventually, everything came together. "You can see your results improve experiment by experiment," explains doctoral student Ruiting Zhan. "That's pretty good. It gives you a sense of achievement." The team used mining industry technologies to separate everything in the battery: the casing, metal foils and coatings for the anode and cathode, which includes lithium metal oxide, the most valuable part. The components can be returned to the manufacturer and re-made into new batteries. "The biggest advantage of our process is that it's inexpensive and energy efficient." Ruitang Zhan "For the purpose of remanufacturing, our recycled materials are as good as virgin materials, and they are cheaper," Oldenburg adds. The fact that their process is tried and true is perhaps its most attractive quality to industry, Pan notes. "We saw the opportunity to use an existing technology to address emerging challenges," he says. "We use standard gravity separations to separate copper from aluminum, and we use froth flotation to recover critical materials, including graphite, lithium and cobalt. These mining technologies are the cheapest available, and the infrastructure to implement them already exists." Passers-by weren't the only ones at the P3 competition impressed by the students' effort. AIChE's (the American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) has announced it will be presenting the team its YCOSST P3 Award, which recognizes the project "that best employs sustainable practices, interdisciplinary collaborations, engineering principles and youth involvement, and whose design is simple enough to have a sustainable impact without requiring significant technical expertise of its users." Explore further Liquid microscopy technique reveals new problem with lithium-oxygen batteries More information: Ruiting Zhan et al, Recovery of active cathode materials from lithium-ion batteries using froth flotation, Sustainable Materials and Technologies (2018). Ruiting Zhan et al, Recovery of active cathode materials from lithium-ion batteries using froth flotation,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.susmat.2018.e00062 Firefighters battle the Ranch Fire near Upper Lake, California, on August 2, 2018 Thousands of firefighters were struggling Thursday to contain two vast wildfires in California, one of which has become one of the most destructive blazes in the state's history. The Carr Fire has scorched 126,00 acres (51,00 hectares) of land since July 23, when authorities say it was triggered by the "mechanical failure of a vehicle" that caused sparks to fly in tinderbox dry conditions. The fire has also razed 1,465 buildings, including some 1,000 homes, making it the sixth most destructive blaze in the history of the fire-prone western state. More than 4,200 firefighters have been deployed to battle the conflagration but they have only succeeded in containing 35 percent of it so far. Another major blaze known as the Ferguson Fire broke out near the popular Yosemite National Park almost three weeks ago, on July 13, and was only 39 percent contained by Thursday, officials said. It has burned 68,610 acres of land, of which 5,700 went up in smoke on Wednesday night alone. "The high pressure system above the fire is weakening throughout the week, resulting in warmer and drier conditions. This will increase fire behavior," warned Inciweb, which provides updates on the fires. The two fires have killed eight people, with the Carr Fire alone responsible for six of the deaths. Thousands of firefighters are struggling to contain numerous wildifres in California , where two of their number and four civilians have been killed Other fires raging in the state include the Mendocino Complex. It's made up of two blazes, the River Fire, which is 50 percent under control after burning 35,278 acres, and the Ranch Fire, which has torched 74,890 acres and is only 33 percent contained. Several thousand people have been evacuated as the fires swept across the state, although some have been given permission in recent days to return to their homes. Firefighters conduct a controlled burn to defend houses against flames from the Ranch fire, as it continues to spreads towards the town of Upper Lake, California on August 2, 2018 Explore further NASA satellite shows California shrouded in smoke 2018 AFP Clover Biopharmaceuticals Initiates Phase I Study of Etanercept Biosimilar Candidate SCB-808 in China Details Category: Antibodies Published on Thursday, 02 August 2018 10:55 Hits: 1976 CHENGDU, China I August 1, 2018 I Clover Biopharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on developing novel and transformative biologic therapies, today announced that the first patient was dosed in a Phase I trial of SCB-808, a proposed biosimilar of Enbrel (etanercept) being developed in the prefilled syringe formulation for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. This milestone marks Clovers second biologic product to initiate human clinical trials in as many months. Now with clinical trials actively enrolling patients in multiple countries, Clover has demonstrated its ability to execute on its goals across multiple functional areas, said Joshua Liang, Chief Strategy Officer and Board Director at Clover. We look forward to further advancing our deep pipeline of promising biological candidates in the months ahead. The Phase I trial in China is designed to assess the pharmacokinetics, safety and immunogenicity of subcutaneously administered SCB-808 and originator drug Enbrel in healthy volunteers. Having compared SCB-808 to both Enbrel and other Chinese etanercept biosimilars in preclinical studies, we believe that our superior biomanufacturing process, biosimilarity to Enbrel and convenient ready-for-injection prefilled syringe formulation will allow us to have significant commercial advantages once SCB-808 is brought to the market, said Dr. Peng Liang, co-founder, Chairman and President of Clover. Importantly, we hope that SCB-808 will meaningfully impact the lives of many patients, and the initiation of this Phase I trial brings us one step closer to this goal. Currently available etanercept biosimilars in China were all developed and approved prior to the implementation of the CFDAs Technical Guideline for Development and Evaluation of Biosimilars and were not compared to the originator drug Enbrel in clinical trials to demonstrate their bioequivalence. Furthermore, they are only approved in the lyophilized powder formulation, which must be reconstituted typically by trained medical personnel before being subcutaneously injected into patients. SCB-808 is being developed in the prefilled syringe formulation, which is ready-for-injection and can potentially be self-administered by patients in the convenience of their own homes. Thus, in the Western world, ready-for-injection formulations constitute the overwhelming majority of Enbrel prescriptions. As such, Clovers SCB-808 has the potential to address the unmet needs of Chinese patients for this class of drugs. About Clover Biopharmaceuticals Clover Biopharmaceuticals is a global, clinical-stage, research-based biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative biologic therapies, with a focus on oncology and autoimmune diseases. Clover is utilizing its proprietary Trimer-Tag technology platform to develop novel biologics targeting trimerization-dependent pathways. Additionally, Clover is leveraging its in-house cGMP biomanufacturing capabilities to develop select biosimilars. For more information, please visit our website: www.cloverbiopharma.com. SOURCE: Clover Biopharmaceuticals 7 hours ago Logitech Is Still A Logical Choice For Dividend-Growth Portfolios Logitech Invests In The Future Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) is one of the more appealing post-pandemic plays to us for many reasons. Not only is the company benefiting from COVID-related trends but it is also benefiting from strong secular trends, sustaining YOY growth in the face of double-digit comp, paying a very safe dividend, and investing in the future. Read Article As a traveler, it can be said that the most satisfying part of the traveling lies in the chance of experiencing different country-specific things that you will not be able to try back home. A common theme with traveling is that there are some things that can only be experienced in a specific city or country, but thanks to the beauty that is planet Earth, here are some unexpected experiences you wouldnt think can be done right here in Asia. Best thing is, you wont break the bank doing them! Camel Riding in Bali (Image: Camel Safari) You might be thinking that we are joking when we say about riding camels along the beaches of Bali. After all, you could be thinking, how are camels even related to Bali to begin with? However, there is a little enterprise known as the Camel Safari at Jimbaran beach that offers a one-hour camel ride for IDR672,000 (~RM190) for adults and IDR386,000 (~RM109) for children. Not a bad deal indeed considering that camel rides in Egypt can fluctuate between $85 $294 (~RM345 ~RM1195). Dolphin Spotting In Hong Kong (Image: Lena Around) Here is another one that will make you gape in awe. The Chinese White Dolphin is a special species that you can only see via a boat trip to a fishing village in Hong Kong called Tai-O village.This novelty is surprisingly affordable, especially when compared to similar attractions elsewhere. Heres how much it will cost if you are to observe dolphins in other places. Venue/ Tour Tai-O Village boat ride Ocean Park Ramsey Island Boat Trip (UK) Price (Per Person) HK$20-30 (RM10.36 RM15.54) HK$480 (RM248.64) 60 (RM319.89) However, there are a few boat companies here that offer these rides at different prices so it is better for you to compare the prices before planning your activity. In the meantime, you can try some of the freshest seafood in Hong Kong (from geoduck to fresh abalone, youll be spoilt for choice!), all of which you can try out at Tai-O village with the rest of your travel budget. Wine Tasting In Macau (Dairy Desserts Too) (Image: Travel Notes) When you think about Macau, perhaps the first few things that come to mind are the ruins of Saint Paul, the casinos, or even its egg tarts. However, Macau is a surprisingly good destination for wine tasting. For just MOP15 (~RM7.50), you can learn about the history of winemaking and even taste some the 1,100 wine brands that are available, making it a very much a value-for-money experience indeed. Theres even a wine museum here, but that is temporarily closed for renovation. As an alternative, you can go to the Yee Shun Dairy Company to satisfy your sweet tooth with its milky desserts (the double steam milk pudding and the red bean milk pudding comes highly recommended). If you find that the shop is too crowded for you, rest easy as the dairy company has three other branches situated in Macau and four branches in Hong Kong (an hour ride away via the express ferry). Learn To Weave In Vientiane (Image: Eat Drink Laos) The capital of Laos boasts many architectural attractions like Pha That Luang (the gold covered Buddhist Stupa) and Wat Si Saket (the temple with thousands of Buddha figures). Tourists also flock to buy the various delicate hand-made souvenirs made from silk. Interestingly, you can also try your hand at learning how to make the souvenirs yourself. The Houey Hong Vocational Training Centre for Women (a non-profit organisation that helps underprivileged women) allows tourists to take basic weaving and natural dye lessons with some of their students. Considering that weaving classes in the heart of Kuala Lumpur can cost between RM150 RM300 per 2.5-hour session, 180,000 Laotian kip (~RM86) for a full-day session is a pretty decent deal. Plus, the experience youd get from doing this in a foreign city is surely one to savour. Drinking Coffee With The Birds In Hanoi (Image: Go Global Today) We conclude our list with a destination thats synonymous with well-preserved colonial buildings: Hanoi. Most of us are familiar with Vietnamese coffee and its distinct flavour that separates itself from coffee beans from different countries. Now, imagine savouring Vietnamese coffee with the melodious chirp of songbirds in the background. If that sounds strange to you, one of Hanois hidden gems, the Bird Cafe, will surely be a surprise. Unlike a traditional cafe, the Bird Cafe does not have a signboard as the business relies on the word of mouth as well as the sound of birds chirping to attract their customers. The Bird Cafe in Hanoi is definitely a unique offering, and one that is likely not available here in Malaysia with so many hipster cafes around, perhaps this could be a business opportunity! If you are planning to visit the bird cafe in Hanoi, take note that the cafe is at its busiest on the weekends, from 8 am to 10 am. Time to Plan Your Next Adventure We hope that this list provides you with inspiration for your future travel itinerary abroad. As you make your travel plans, we encourage you to make the necessary preparations for a smooth journey and peace of mind. You can even checkout Agoda to check for cheaper accommodation rates to fit within your budget! Dont forget to get travel Insurance that suits your upcoming journey start with our comparison tool to find out whats the best suited for you. 0 0 votes Article Rating SHARE Its fair to say that banks in Mexico dont have the best reputation. Its probably fair to say much worse, but well keep it at that for now. The countrys banking situation is complicated. More people own a cell phone than a bank account, and even those that do have access to banking services face an uphill battle. With only 14 branches per 100,000 citizens, banks are crowded, waiting times are long, and sometimes the nearest branch isnt near at all. This has opened the door for a wide range of fintech solutions. From micro-loans and peer-to-peer lending services to remittance companies and only-only banking alternatives, the space is growing faster than regulators could have ever imagined. And traditional banks are scared. And as the biggest fintech industry in Latin America, with over 238 startups offering their own solutions to the countrys financial hurdles, banks should be scared. Finnovista, a leading supporter of Mexican fintech startups, reported in a 2017 study that these new companies could take over 30 percent of the countrys banking market in the next 10 years, but things may be accelerating even faster than expected. Statista estimates the Mexican Fintech market will reach nearly $70 billion by the end of 2018, and the number of users will skyrocket to over 111 million by 2022. Related: Trade War Reports Send Markets Spinning These developments have forced Mexican legislators to take this new financial revolution seriously. Fintech law in Mexico Passed in early March 2018, Mexicos fintech law received support from every major party, passing with 75 percent of the votes. And though it did place some restrictions on the space, the law was overwhelmingly supportive of the industry as a whole. The law even provided a loose definition of digital assets: "...the representation of value registered electronically and used by the public as a means of payment for all types of legal acts and whose transfer can only be carried out through electronic means." This is important because it opened the door for fintech companies to utilize cryptocurrencies in remittance transactions, a space which accounted for over $28 billion coming into the country, representing 10 percent of Mexicos total GDP growth in 2017. Before, these payments carried significant fees and could take days to process, but with the new law, citizens can now access these services through fintech institutions utilizing cryptocurrencies at a lower rate and with much faster processing times. Another key piece of the law targeted cryptocurrency exchanges. Under the new law, exchanges were classified as Instituciones de Tecnologia Financiera, or ITFs, and fell under the jurisdiction of the Central Bank of Mexico. Because of this, exchanges now require the central banks approval to operate. Additionally, the central bank would be the deciding voice on which cryptos are listed, an issue which has received some criticism from crypto-enthusiasts. Exchanges are also now required to divulge risks associated with their operations, specifically noting that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender recognized by the government or the Bank of Mexico, in addition to notifying customers that reversing transactions may be impossible. New developments in the fintech law On July 27th, the Bank of Mexico announced a new addition in the fintech law restricting the near-instant inter-bank transfers of funds within the country utilizing the Sistema de Pagos Electronicos Interbancarios (SPEI) to cryptocurrency exchanges. Related: Homeland Security Takes Clear Stance On Russian Hacking Previously, the transfer or withdrawal of funds to or from a Mexican bank account would be almost instant. But under the new provision, banks must take extra measures to validate the transactions, making the funds available on the next business day. Fintech in Latin America As the leader of the fintech movement in Latin America, its reasonable to suggest that Mexico is setting a pretty good example. Mexicans are even preparing for the first every Bitcoin Day in the country, to be held in Monterrey. Though some pieces of its fintech law may be controversial, the country is doing a lot for smaller businesses looking to take on major banking institutions, paving the way for others in the region. Brazil and Argentina are two others making strides in the space. As countries facing similar banking situations and cell phone availability as Mexico, the case for new forms of finance is abundantly clear. Though cryptocurrency adoption is still lagging compared to Europe or the United States, these emerging markets are positioning themselves as countries to watch as fintech and cryptocurrencies take on the world. By Michael Kern via Crypto Insider More Top Reads From Safehaven.com " " A burned out classic car sits next to a home that was destroyed by the Carr fire on July 27, 2018 in Redding, California. To date, more than 115,000 acres have been destroyed by the flames. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The size and scope of the Carr fire near Redding, California officials in Northern California call it the Carr Fire Incident are simply, to use an absolutely inadequate word, staggering. More than 115,000 acres (46,538 hectares) have been scorched in the fire that began on July 23, 2018. (It's still only 35 percent contained as we step into August.) The Carr fire is now the sixth largest in California's well-documented and unfortunately disaster-rich history. To wrap your head around exactly how much 115,000 acres is: It's more than 179 square miles (463 square kilometers); think of a square that goes out 13 miles (21 kilometers), then turns right for another 13 miles (21 kilometers). It's bigger than everything in that square. It's bigger than the cities of Tampa or Denver or Seattle. It's bigger than Portland or Detroit or Atlanta. This fire is more than twice the size of the city of Cleveland. The Carr conflagration one of more than a dozen currently raging in California is so big it creates its own type of cloud, similar to the ones seen from volcanic eruptions. "I have been out there. The areas that I've been in are somewhat ... it puts you in awe, the destruction," says Jude Olivas of the Newport Beach Fire Department, serving as a public information officer for the Carr Incident. "It's just devastating." Craig Clements is a professor in the department of meteorology and climate science at San Jose State University. He specializes in, among other areas, the micro-meteorology and behavior of wildland fires. Advertisement Sky-high Flames He and his team were at the Carr fire last weekend taking smoke measurements and helping in other research. Clements has been studying fires for years. People, he agrees, just don't get how big these things are. "Some of these fires are burning over a course of weeks. Some of these fires are burning 50,000 acres [20,234 hectares] in a night. So, that's like the size of some cities or towns. They're huge," Clements says. And the destruction they cause ... "I like to use a campfire ... imagine a campfire. If you're sitting around a campfire at night and you're trying to warm yourself, you're using the radiation from the flames to sit about 3 or 4 feet [.9 or 1.2 meters] away from the fire. If you were to put your hand over the fire, you'd burn it," Clements says. "Well, imagine that fire being 50 feet [15 meters] tall. Right? You could feel that from hundreds of feet away. The convective gas goes all the way into the stratosphere, it's so hot. So imagine a wall of flames that tall some of these are 100 feet [30 meters] tall moving through the environment." And there you have the Carr Incident. Advertisement Anatomy of the Fire The investigation into the origins of the Carr fire, about 216 miles (347 kilometers) north of San Francisco, is ongoing. Fire inspectors know only that it began because of the "mechanical failure of a vehicle." That could mean, Olivas says, just about anything sparks from the rim of a wheel hitting the road due to a flat tire. Overheated exhaust. Hot oil. Sparks from an engine. Whatever it was, once the thing flared, conditions combined to spread the fire quickly. Thick underbrush from years of drought and inadequate forest management make the area ripe for fire. Wind ripping through gaps in the mountains fan the flames and carry embers for miles. Trees even the living ones are thick and dry and ready for burning. The problems multiply, of course, when people live nearby. Even in remote Northern California, people have been caught, tragically, in the middle of an inferno. "What we're not used to is the wildland-urban interface, and the fires that are burning into the housing developments ... we're not used to that," Clements says. "In Redding, it's really kind of wild there. People go up there to fish. There's lots of rivers, and forests. It's a beautiful area. But you got a lot of people up in those forested areas. And it's pretty scary." More than 1,000 residential structures including more than 800 homes, worth more than $300 million have been destroyed since the fire broke out on July 23. More than 2,500 structures remain threatened. At least six people have died in the blaze, too, including two firefighters and three members of the same family a great-grandmother and her two great-grandchildren. " " Cal Fire firefighters battle the Carr fire as it burns along highway 299 on July 27, 2018 near Whiskeytown, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Advertisement Fighting a Wildfire According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, more than 4,000 firefighters from throughout the state and beyond are battling the blaze sometimes on days when the temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) without the fire using 366 fire engines, 84 water "tenders," 17 helicopters, 119 bulldozers and "numerous" air tankers. More than 150 engines have arrived from across the U.S. to chip in, according to Olivas. This fire is a difficult one to tackle for several reasons. The mountains in the area make it particularly tricky. "The terrain is just awful and difficult to access, it's just inaccessible in a lot of areas," Dominic Polito, a spokesman for fire authorities, told the Los Angeles Times. "If you were to walk up it, you'd be looking at your knee on every step." Another challenge: Firefighters are shooting at a literally moving target. "Things can change so rapidly. The weather, the fuel, the topography. All of that. You look at the humidity that day. The sun, how much moisture is in the air," Olivas says. "All those different things affect the fire." For now, firefighters will continue to battle and hope for help from the weather; cooler temperatures, perhaps, calmer winds and a little rain. That doesn't look good, though. No rain is in the immediate forecast, and by next week the temperatures in the area could reach well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius), drying out an already parched landscape. "California's ecosystem and climate is such that rain doesn't fall, basically, from May 1 to, say, Oct. 1," Clements says. "And climate change is shifting the fire season, making it dry out earlier and extending it." With thousands of acres already lost and thousands more threatened, the plan to deal with the Carr fire now is simple: Keep people safe, keep the fire contained and hope for a break. Soon. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Among the most telling effects that the Carr fire is having on Northern California's environment is the noxious smoke it's spewing into the air. And there's a lot of it. "The smoke layer ... is really, really deep," Clements says. "It was 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) deep. So that whole area of Northern California is covered. That's kind of unique." Think of that misery: Smoke, about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) thick, filled with nasty chemicals including methanol, ozone and benzene that a recent Georgia Tech study found are much more dangerous to humans than previously thought. An invasion of a secret world of women sets the stage for high tension in Director Hayami Moets Kushina, what you will be. At Japan Cuts, director Hayami, star Hirota Tomona, and cinematographer Ryo Muramatsu spoke with LMD about the art and inspirations behind the film. The Lady Miz Diva: Please tell us about the inspiration behind KUSHINA, what will you be? Hayami Moet: It actually is inspired by the relationship that I, myself, have with my mother. Theres is one facial expression that she had made had made a lasting impression on me, and that was all that inspired this film. LMD: Do we see the facial expression in the film? HM: Of course, its a different person acting, so its different. {Laughs} But we did shoot a facial expression that I wanted to capture. LMD: The look of the film is stunning. The nature images are beautiful, and we feel immersed in the world of the mountain commune right away. Tell us about the visual design you had in mind, and what you wanted it to convey? Muramatsu Ryo: The director originally suggested that she wanted to take this film almost as if they were shooting a painting each time. And so, after reading the script, I felt that this was a very appropriate way of approaching the film. So then, together, we would visit museums, and look for motifs and ideas. That was the process of heading into filming. HM: In shooting the film, I was thinking about, why place the camera somewhere? What should be happening within the frame? These questions I had in my head. And then we did indeed go to the museum as our DP is saying; there we found an artist called Frederic Leighton. In his paintings, there are a lot of details, and there is a lot of storytelling that happens within the frame: There is a lot of wonderful lightness and darkness, a lot of contrasting that was present, and those things had inspired us a lot. LMD: With that beautiful imagery interposed with the shots of Sokous rosary. Was she looking for a sort of paradise? HM: First of all, thank you for noticing the rosary, because not many people do notice it up front. So, I thank you for that. {Laughs} Of course, she is, within the film, sort of the most modern, urban character that appears in the film. Shes also very knowledgeable. But regarding her Christianity, this is something that she didnt choose herself, it was, in fact, coming from her mother; so, it might not be the best way to say that it was sort of almost forced on her, but it was at least passed on to her from her mother, the idea of Christianity, and being Christian. And so, because that was sort of passed on to her, she doesnt quite realise the binds that come with it. Therefore, through these binds, she is uncertain about where to find happiness, or where to find beauty, or how to find them. So, she is traveling to seek these things out. Through that, she meets the people of the commune, and as you notice towards the end, she leaves behind the rosary; which symbolises almost letting go of these binds. Through that, perhaps she is able to seek and pursue and accept love, as well. LMD: Director, the character, Kagu, has a very delicate balancing act in her place in the commune. What made you sure Hirota-san was the person to play her? HM: So, yes, it was a long and difficult road into finding the perfect actress for this role, because I knew it was a difficult role to approach to begin with. I had actually met Ms. Hirota before, through a different film, through an audition. I had known about her, other people in the industry had suggested her to me, as well. But at that time, I, myself, wasnt quite sure what Kagu as a character was going to end up being like. So, I knew that whoever I worked with, I would have to build the character of her together {with the actress}. So, when I finally did speak to Hirota-san about this character, I was very drawn to her eyes: Her eyes are so beautiful, and they were glasslike, and almost fragile; and in her eyes is where I really saw Kagu, as a character. So, Hirota-san, has quite characteristic features, and also seems as if she is a very strong character, when you look at her physical features. However, when I did see her eyes, I did see this fragile weakness in there, and through those layers, I felt like I found Kagu. LMD: Hirota-san, Kagu is so mysterious to me. It feels like shes on a tightrope all the time, in that she cant let her feelings show, and has to always be subservient to her mother, the commune leader, Onikuma. Please tell me how you first read her? Hirota Tomona: When working with the director, we actually didnt talk too much about the role, itself. In fact, Im hearing a lot of these things as we talk after the film has been made. Of course, as you know, the film has an almost all-woman cast; its a film with a lot of women, but the character isnt just about the fact that they are all women. And Kagu, as a character, I wondered whether she was a woman, or a man, or human, or a nonhuman. I felt that she had this ambiguity to her in many ways. So, I thought about all these ambiguities as I went into the role, and I tried these out, and I was seeing whether I would get an okay from the director. LMD: So, a lot of testing happened on camera? HT: Yes, I think thats true, not only for myself as Kagu, but the other characters, as well. They stood in front of the director, in front of the camera, and sort of saw how things went. LMD: That is a very free and unusual directing approach. So, how much of the script or an outline did you have, and how much did your actors fill in? HM: {Laughs} So, the film itself was actually shot very close to the original script, to begin with. I did make notes in it, but Im not sure entirely how much was really communicated through those? HT: Sure, the dialogue, in fact, is exactly almost how the script came. What you see onscreen is the same as in the script. However, Mr. Muramatsu, here, and the director together had created a picture within them, and through the location made these pictures. And so, it felt like walking into these pictures when I went into the set. Honestly, when I was reading the script, I didnt quite get the world that I was supposed to live in. It wasnt something that was communicated to me necessarily through the script, itself. But it was when I walked into the location, that I finally saw and felt the world that I was supposed to be in, and thats how I acted within the world, and how I was able to act in the world. HM: On set, I actually didnt talk much to the actors. In fact, I was looking mostly at the monitor when we were on set, because I wanted to make sure and make these decisions about whether the world existed within the monitor, within the frame. LMD: Im curious about her affect after a particularly big moment. Why is Kagu so blank during this climactic scene? What was going through her head at the time? HM: I actually did not give a specific direction about her reaction. HT: Yeah, that reaction was my decision, actually. {Laughs} HM: Regarding the scene, I actually had a conversation with Ms. Ono {Miyuki}, who plays Onikuma, about the fact that this was probably not the first time that {something like this has happened} in this world, and that they are probably quite used to it. And to have that idea, actually made a lot of sense to me within the film. And so when Hirota-san brought this expression within the film, I didnt even ask her to change it. LMD: Director, you not only directed KUSHINA; you were the writer, art director, costume designer, and editor. Was that your preference, or was it how it worked out? How did you know your decisions were right? HM: My taking all of those roles within the film was for both reasons; in that because I do trust my own intuition, and therefore, I wanted to do what I felt was necessary, what I wanted within the film. But then there was, obviously, the budget side, as well, that constricted whether we can hire certain staff, or not. So, it was a bit of both. And regarding clothes, and the art direction; it was about building the environment together, also with my actors. In fact, sometimes people cut the clothes, or changed the clothes a little bit. Sometimes the actors themselves did the clothes, as well, in that way. HT: We, as actors, decided that we wanted to do whatever Hayami-san wanted to do. This wasnt something that the actors all decided together, but we all felt that we would just do whatever she wants, and we werent going to question those things. And it worked out very well that way, that everybody felt that way. HM: With Muramatsu-san, we had a lot of good communication going between the two of us. Therefore, I could leave the set and location to him, while I took care of other backstage necessities, whether that was costumes, or art direction, things like that. And I do feel that this film was created with the two of us working as a close team. LMD: Im curious about the age difference of the women in the commune? You have either women who are middle-aged, or past breeding. Then you have women who are young enough to be affected when the male photographer, Keita, shows up. Then they seem at a loss as to what to do with pubescent Kushina. Was that separation of generations intentional? HM: It is in part to show how the environment, or the system within the commune works. By showing various ages, you are sort of able to see the operation, and how they are able to exist. LMD: I sense that KUSHINA was a very different filmmaking experience for each of you. Hirota-san, youve worked on several films prior to this; what was different about acting on this project? Muramatsu-san, what has this taught you as a cinematographer? And Hayami-san, what has making KUSHINA taught you about yourself as a filmmaker? HT: Regarding the sort of worldview that I achieved, I didnt necessarily find a new worldview through working on the film. However, I was purely trying to find out how this film is going to turn out when I was on set. Regarding the acting, I wonder whether I overdid the acting within the film? I wanted to show something that came more from the inside; a nuanced acting. And I felt that perhaps I overdid it. MR: This was actually the first time I was actually shooting a film; so everything that happened really was a new thing for me. Of course, there were things we talked before we went on set; but then, once I was on set, I would start to wonder whether I was making the right decision in the things that we were thinking about. But then, I would go back to sort of the first things that we talked about -- the first intuitions -- and now, after seeing what I had taken, I feel very much that my first intuitions were often correct. HM: Through my work with this film, I realised that Im not very good with sensitive things. For example, I would believe that a good director is able to communicate with their actors very well, and work with people live and in the moment. That good directors are able to bring out certain elements about the actors in a live setting. Im not very good at that. So, whenever the film started to stray away from my original image, I had trouble sort of recovering from that straying. So, I want to learn from this experience to communicate better, and bring out this live element from people. In director Yoshida Keisukes Thicker Than Water, sibling rivalry lasts far beyond the playground. At Japan Cuts, director Yoshida spoke with LMD about family ties, jealousy, and sadistically teasing the audience. The Lady Miz Diva: As with most of your films, you wrote the story and screenplay for THICKER THAN WATER. What was its inspiration? Yoshida Keisuke: It wasnt necessarily that I was inspired by one thing or another. This film is actually my eighth film. But what I did want to do was talk about a new emotional thing that I had never really dealt with before, which was jealousy, or envy, which is apparent in the film. When thinking about what emotions I havent dealt with yet, it was through cancellation that I figured out that jealousy was what was left, and so, that was where it all began. LMD: I think a lot of people might watch this film and immediately wonder whether this is somewhat autobiographical? YK: I actually have an older sister, myself, which, to me, doesnt feel like the same relationship thats present in the film. So, its not necessarily there. However, I did have a working partner, who was a person I worked with for very long time. He felt to me like an older brother and a younger brother at the same time. I felt like I wanted to extrapolate on this relationship a little bit. LMD: I think youre going to have quite a reaction to the films opening scene. I thought there was a mistake in my screener, at first. Did you mean to jostle the audience that way? YK: {Laughs} Regarding that opening sequence, I do believe that there is a little bit of a trend in Japanese films to have that kind of cinema available, especially in the way theyre advertised. And I feel a little bit of danger in that trend of having that kind of advertisement of films. So, it was sort of my black humor to have that in there at the beginning. I believe that a lot of Japanese audiences, when they saw this film in the theater, they were sighing, because they were saying, Oh, another trailer like this. So, that was sort of my joke. {Laughs} LMD: That sleight-of-hand in the beginning kept me on my guard and made me wonder if the montage of Yuria and Kazunaris date wasnt some weird dream. However, after realising that it was real, it put me in awe of Ms. Enoue Keikos commitment to her role. She gave her all and then some to her portrayal. How did you and she create her character? YK: Ms. Enoue has the ability to read into scripts very well; so, she actually brought a lot of her character by herself to the film. That said, regarding the dating scene, I think its a shot in a way that maybe suggests that it could be a dream? However, I do feel almost that if Ms. Enoues character and physique was your stereotypical cute character, it wouldve just looked like a normal, beautiful scene, or at least be thought that way. And so, that idea of subverting the viewers expectations was sort of a sadistic idea on my end. LMD: Its interesting that you say that in Enoue-san brought a lot to the character. Was this her first film? Was there anything in some of the outrageous things that we see her do onscreen that perhaps she demurred at, or said I cant do this? YK: Generally speaking, she, herself, is a comedian who works with a lot of skits. And so, because she does a lot of skits, she does tend to have an over-the-top way of acting. I wanted her to start acting in a way that was closer to realism. So, in order to get to that balancing act, what I started to do was a subtracting in the direction that I gave; but again, she is a very intuitive person, so she really understood that very quickly. So, even though it is in some way, acting for the first time for her, she has done acting within her work, through her work with her skits, so it was easy to work, in that sense. Regarding the scene where she dances, I asked her to dance in a way that it could be a little bit cringey, and she sort of made up that dance, herself. LMD: But she dances great! YK: {Laughs} I think within her work in comedy, she had been doing some dancing, already, so probably it wasnt so new to her. LMD: Actually, her dancing gave me an observation about Yuria. She is convinced that her loneliness is because she isnt good looking, but she also doesnt do much to help herself. Shes got the sister who could give her some tips on fashion and makeup. Yurias smart, and a great dancer. She seems to want to blame others for her unhappiness, but avoids facing her part in it. Is that assessment correct? YK: Regarding her looks, sure. I think one thing to be said is that her younger sister is said to be cute all the time. She has to hear that all the time. And that, in itself, is constraining Yuria in many ways, and perhaps that also makes her project her own ugliness onto herself, and see herself as ugly, even though shes very skilled in many ways. I think shes unable to see her own happiness, and see her own skills, because shes viewing herself through this light. LMD: Nobody in this film is what they seem. For all her brains, Yuria is hateful toward her sister. Mako is petty, but defends Yuria. Takuji is a thug, but desperately wants his family to love him, and Kazunari really is a terrible person in the guise of a salaryman. Normally, when layers like that are revealed, it means the characters will move to a better place at some point in the story, but again, theres some sleight-of-hand, and they snap back to form. Is that your comment on human nature? YK: After all, at the end of the movie, you sort of hear them talk about how people dont really change, at least so quickly. So, sometimes I watch other films where the change really happens, I think, Well, isnt that too much of a change in such a short period of time? So, fundamentally speaking, I sort of think people dont change all that easily. LMD: Its interesting that the ones who at first outwardly seem like the trash people -- Takuji and Mako -- are actually the most noble. Was that intentional? YK: Yes, it is on purpose in some ways. I try to incorporate peoples pros and cons at equal amounts in my films, and so, this is sort of a matter of order of whether you see the cons first, or the pros of these people first. To me, I sort of intuitively have this measurement of what that balance should be. Personally, I cant love a character without any flaws. Its not necessarily deceit that Im doing here, but I do find that showing both of these elements makes for a better story. LMD: The film rolls along as a comedy for the most part, then theres a strong twist that very dramatically changes the tempo of the film. How did you judge the timing and duration of that climactic moment, so that you wouldnt lose the audience? YK: Regarding that, its a lot to do with my own intuitions of what really works. There is that scene where the ambulances cross each other, and that, to me, was sort of this arrival scene that I wanted to arrive at: It was a goal for myself to end up in, where we see Takuji, as well. That, to me, was the last stop, the place where I wanted to arrive. Knowing that was the last stop, I think I did do a little bit of a calculation to see how far back you can start to get there. LMD: Is that why it was important that the timing of the big incidents parallel each other? YK: Regarding that parallel moment, it was sort of a cinematic inspiration that I had. I do believe that the film, itself, has a very strange balance: Of course, there is that opening sequence that you see, and the balancing that I do here. I feel like is not textbook material. If you think about the climax of the film, to me, that is where you see the film in motion, really coming out. But, I feel like people are wondering, Wait, youre going to start doing this, here? and questioning that. But, to me, that imbalance is interesting. LMD: There is such a flow between the actors, even when theyre trying to kill each other. Did you have them spend a lot of time together? YK: So, generally speaking, these days because Ive made a few films, myself, before actors actually appear into my film, many of these actors had already seen my previous work, and therefore, sort of know the tone that I try to achieve through my films. So, they come in knowing what Im trying to achieve in a lot of ways. Regarding Mr. Kubota {Masataka}, who is one of the actors, who I believe is the best experienced actor within the cast; he also knew about this tone, and the actresses, who are less experienced than him with acting, worked to meet him where he was at. It was never that the women didnt know where to go, or what to do in these instances, because they knew, and they saw this as one of their goals. LMD: Regarding that scene that parallels with close similarities on both sides; did the sister team and brother team of actors watch what the other was doing, as they were flip sides of each others coins? YK: Regarding the ambulance scene, specifically; the thing is about the ambulance, we shot it within these black cloth overhangs. So, they actually were near each other when everything was happening, and everything was shooting. Even the scene inside the ambulance, itself, they were, in fact, together for a lot of the times. So, they were at the very least, checking each others acting on the monitors, maybe even watching each other. Regarding the fight scenes, Im not sure whether they did see each others acting, or they saw it through the monitors. What I do remember is that I tried to remember the temperature of the fight scenes, so that there was a good balance between the two fight scenes, so that it wasnt like one fight scene seemed more heated up than the other. I tried to keep those two balanced as much as possible, it was something I thought about. LMD: What is next for you? YK: I have already finished shooting a film, actually. The English title is likely going to be Come On, Irene, and it is a story about a man who hasnt been able to find love, and hes in his forties, and he ends up purchasing a bride from the Philippines. Its complicated even more with the fact that the man has a very strict mother, who is very judgmental about a lot of things. This is actually based on a comic book that I really like. LMD: What would you like the Japan Cuts audience to take away from THICKER THAN WATER? YK: I spoke earlier about people having no change, to be unable to change in a lot of ways. Also, the film does deal with the emotional jealousy. However, I find a little bit of happiness being able to feel these emotions to begin with. The partner that I spoke about earlier, who I used to work with, he actually passed away. To me, that partner, I often fought with, and so, in looking back, I feel it there was happiness in the fact that you have somebody that you could even fight with. If the characters themselves had, in fact, died; if a death had happened, I think the story wouldve been a completely different kind of story, the film itself. Again, I want to just repeat how there is happiness in being able to have that person to fight with; to have that rival. I also do think often about upon looking back on some of the things that youve done, or the things that you have, you are often able to find happiness by looking back. Sometimes, also understanding your own constraints, or your own smallness in character, can also lead to discovering something new, and to maybe perhaps give moments and think about what kind of person you were, and that to me, is something Im interested in. Singapore National Day 2018 7 Limited Edition Items to Queue Up For 9 August is less than a month away, which means its almost time to watch the Singapore National Day Parade and break out into the nostalgic National Day song Home. But if youre a true Singaporean, youd ALSO be queuing up for limited edition food items and merchandise, a.k.a. Singapores national sport. Here are 7 of my favourite things to snap up this NDP 2018: Island Creamery chilli crab ice cream ($3.80 for single scoop) https://www.instagram.com/p/BlM2c4injZt/?hl=en&taken-by=islandcreamery As much as I love Island Creamery and its locally inspired flavours Ping Pong Milo is literally my favourite I gotta say, their NDP-themed ice cream sounds kind of gross. I had a taste of it yesterday and its sour and sweet (like ketchup) and believe it or not, spicy too. I cant say Im a fan of this exotic flavour, but since Singaporeans are always looking for cheap thrills, Im guessing its well worth a try. Old Chang Kee chilli crab curry puff ($2.20 each or $4 for 2) I dont know what the deal is with chilli crab this year, but everyones favourite Old Chang Kees curry puff is also getting a chilli crab variation for National Day. It has actual crab meat with chilli crab sauce and egg. And yes, your eyes arent fooling you the curry puff even has bright red pastry. Dont worry, its just the regular crust, dyed for the festivities. McDonalds ha cheong gai burger McDonalds National Day special menu is always a cash cow for the fast food giant. (Remember the nasi lemak burger?) Story continues This year, the National Day menu includes the Ha Ha Cheong Gai Chicken Burger ($6.05) and drumlets ($2.20), Breakfast Curry Burger ($4.20), D24 Durian McFlurry ($4) and McCafes Kueh Salat Cake ($5). Starbucks chicken laksa pie ($5.90) Even Starbucks is hopping on the patriotic bandwagon. The signature item on their National Day seasonal menu is definitely the laksa pie ($5.90), which sounds quite intriguing. I havent actually tried it, but I spot tau pok and Im sold. On the sweet menu, theres the Kit Kat chocolate cake, Nestum cake and pandan gula melaka cake. LiHos bastardised Milo dinosaur ($2.50 for medium cup) It may not be as good as the legit Milo dinosaur served at your favourite prata shop, but at least LiHo didnt completely rip off the concept. To be honest, chocolate milk topped with Speculoos crumbs sounds like a pretty damn good idea too. The limited edition drink costs $2.50 for the medium cup and $3.50 for large. Sharity Elephant EZ-Link card ($12 each) OMG, remember Sharity the Elephant, the adorable pink mascot which champions caring and sharing? The 1984 character has made a recent comeback and this year, she (he?) is featured on National Day EZ-link cards which you can buy at TransitLink ticket offices islandwide. Sharity shares the spotlight with Ang Ku Kueh Girl and friends in the 2 limited-edition designs. Each card costs $12 but only contains $7 in loaded value. $0.50 of each card will be donated to the Community Chest. Gemnesis merlion ear studs ($18 per pair) Handmade novelty jewellery are all the rage, so make sure you get your hands on these adorable mini merlions by Gemnesis. The ear studs are made to look like the iconic merlion chocolates sold to tourists, and come in 3 flavours caramel, chocolate and white chocolate. Theyre $18 per pair. NDP 2018 fun pack (free) Finally, this list wouldnt be complete without the NDP 2018 fun pack, even though you cant queue for it. If youre one of the lucky people who managed to ballot for National Day Parade tickets, youll get one. This years funpack looks quite nice, actually. There are 18 designs for the canvas tote bag, all of which were contributed by talented special needs children. Inside, theres an assortment of snacks and parade props (like a light-up toy and placards). If you didnt manage to get NDP 2018 tickets, youll have to beg your friends, coworkers and neighbours, or just buy the fun pack from the black market (read: Carousell). Are you planning to buy any of these National Day goodies? Tell us in the comments below! Related articles #StopSucking Here Are 3 Super Chio But Affordable Reusable Straws in Singapore Ah Seng Durian Sold Out? Here Are 11 Durian Shops for Mao Shan Wang under $13/kg The post Singapore National Day 2018 - 7 Limited Edition Items to Queue Up For appeared first on the MoneySmart blog. MoneySmart.sg helps you maximize your money. Like us on Facebook to keep up to date with our latest news and articles. Compare and shop for the best deals on Loans, Insurance and Credit Cards on our site now! More From MoneySmart A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-841 aircraft taking off in 2018. (File photo: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann) By Richard Weiss and Benjamin Katz Danish tourists bound for Cyprus on Wednesday were set to get more room than they bargained for as the first used A380 superjumbo begins its new life with a trip to the Mediterranean holiday island from Copenhagen. The Airbus SE plane, the worlds biggest passenger jet, will depart for Larnaca at 8:15 p.m. local time and complete the journey in about 4 hours, a comparative hop for an aircraft that previously operated between Singapore and far-flung cities across the globe. The superjumbo, registration 9H-MIP, will perform the flight for Thomas Cook Group Plcs Scandinavian arm after the tour operator was left without an aircraft following a technical issue on the Greek island of Rhodes. The service would ordinarily use an Airbus A321 narrow-body plane with less than half the capacity of an A380, a model thats popular with passengers but has struggled to win orders as airlines prefer smaller, more efficient jets. The double-decker was relocated to Copenhagen from Beja in Portugal, home base to the planes new operator Hi Fly which is leasing it from owner Doric for almost six years data from tracking service Flightradar24 shows. A further flight will see the A380 operate from Oslo to Majorca and back on Thursday, according to London-based Thomas Cook, which said its using the jet as a stop-gap. That suggests its not the client Hi Fly Chief Executive Officer Paulo Mirpuri said in July would lease the plane for several months. Hi Fly will likely need to find a succession of customers willing to take the superjumbo on a short-term or seasonal basis through the life of its contract. The A380 was returned to its German owner Doric earlier this year after a decade of service with Singapore Airlines Ltd. To contact the reporters on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net; Benjamin Katz in London at bkatz38@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net; Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net Christopher Jasper, Andrew Noel 2018 Bloomberg L.P With a $61 million opening weekend (the franchises best ever) and wildly enthusiastic reviews, Mission: Impossible Fallout is shaping up to be the action film of the summer. Much of the credit for that success goes to the insane stunts pulled off by star Tom Cruise during writer/director Christopher McQuarries sequel, all of which are best seen on the biggest IMAX screen you can find. Unless, that is, you happened to be in Norway recently. A literally cliffhanging moment for Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Fallout. (Photo: Paramount /Courtesy Everett Collection) A few lucky (and intrepid) fans were treated to a screening of Mission: Impossible Fallout at Pulpit Rock (also known as Preikestolen), a sky-high location above the Lysefjord thats found in Forsand in western Norway. That spot is the setting for the films breathtaking final showdown between Cruises spy, Ethan Hunt, and Henry Cavills assassin, August Walker. And as Cruise made clear in the below tweet thanking those who attended the outdoor showing, its located 2,000 feet above ground leve and requires four hours of hiking (along a fence-less path, no less!) to reach. 2,000 feet, 2,000 people, 4 hours of hiking. The most impossible screening of #MissionImpossible Fallout. Thank you all for coming! I wish I could have been there. pic.twitter.com/ufi1FkP6KI Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) August 2, 2018 Though Cruise was clearly disappointed that he couldnt attend this once-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience, those who were fortunate enough to make it to Pulpit Rock no doubt felt like they were sitting in the clouds literally. The site has long been a big tourist attraction (approximately 150,000 to 200,000 visit the cliff each year), including for BASE jumpers the sort of daredevil activity that, one can imagine, would be right up Cruises alley, given his affinity for risking life and limb for audiences. Story continues Mission: Impossible Fallout is currently in theaters. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: Reuters BENGALURU (Reuters) -Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's full-year sales and profit expectations have been upended by the global chip shortage and spike in commodity prices, India's biggest carmaker said on Wednesday, as it missed second-quarter profit forecasts. "At the beginning of the year we did not expect to lose so much production in the second quarter because of chips and maybe lose production in the third quarter," Chairman R.C. Bhargava said after Maruti posted a 65.3% plunge in quarterly net profit. Reuters BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares rose on Tuesday in a volatile session, led by gains in metal and auto stocks, with investors focusing on commentaries from companies over the impact of higher input costs on margins in an earnings-heavy week. The metals index rose 2.9%, lifted by higher steel prices, while the auto index gained 2%. Markets took strength from some marginal profit-booking on Tuesday and managed to close higher, with support from strong corporate earnings and global cues, said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Securities in Mumbai. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said opposition calls to boycott elections failed as he celebrated his "crystal clear" victory in the uncontested vote in a speech to thousands of garment workers Thursday. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is poised to win all 125 parliamentary seats after the flawed poll that will see the strongman leader extend his 33-year rule, cementing the country's status as a one-party state. Opposition figures had called for a boycott of the vote with a so-called "sleep at home" or "clean finger" campaign after the most viable election contender, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved last year and barred from running. "The sleep-at-home campaign has already failed. More than 82 percent of Cambodians nationwide went to vote, it shows our Cambodians support the democratic process," he told a crowd of 14,000 workers in his first speech since the ballot. "It is crystal clear that the future Prime Minister of the new government... is Hun Sen again," he said to applause. He told the crowd that Cambodia's new parliament would convene on September 19 and the government would be formed a day later. Some 6.9 million votes were cast in Sunday's election -- but nearly 600,000 ballots were spoiled, in a sign of unhappy voters. - 'Terrible setback' - The United States and the European Union declined to send election observers to the poll because they said it lacked credibility with no viable opposition on the ticket. Instead it was monitored by members of far-right and populist parties from Britain, Italy, Belarus and India. The vote immediately drew condemnation from the EU and the US, while the self-exiled co-founder of the now disbanded CNRP Sam Rainsy told AFP this week it was a "terrible setback". Rainsy, who lives in France to avoid a litany of charges he faces in Cambodia, also urged the international community to reject the results. The CNRP, whose leader Kem Sokha is in jail on charges of treason, took 44 percent of the vote in the last elections in 2013, the most credible challenge to Hun Sen's grip on on power in decades. Hun Sen vowed on Thursday to double down on efforts to eliminate any remaining opposition in the country. "(Opposition parties) deserve to die, if they're alive, war could erupt," he said before posing for selfies with smiling supporters. The 65-year-old leader courted support from garment workers ahead of the election with his colourful speeches -- and envelopes of cash. He kept the tradition alive Thursday handing each worker $5, and $200 for pregnant employees. The long serving leader is seen as a source of stability in a country with a tumultuous recent history of civil war and Vietnamese occupation. He's also won support with ambitious infrastructure projects across the country, many funded with soft loans from China which provides support without asking questions about human rights. Washington and the European Union, former allies who have retreated amid Hun Sen's slide toward outright authoritarianism, both condemned the election this week, while China congratulated the people of Cambodia. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends an inauguration of a new boat terminal in Phnom Penh Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (C) attends an inauguration of a new boat terminal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Samrang Pring By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at an election boycott by the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on Thursday, just days after his party claimed victory in what rights groups say was a flawed general election. Hun Sen, 65, whose Cambodian People's Party (CPP) said it had won all 125 parliamentary seats in Sunday's vote, said the boycott was a "stupid act" and a "miscalculation". The CPP has pointed to what it says was a solid election turnout as proof of the country's sound democratic process. More than 82 percent of those registered to vote cast their ballots. Turnout was 90 percent in the 2017 local election and 69.61 percent in the previous general election in 2013. "The campaign failed, more than 82 percent of people across the country voted, showing that our people support their own democratic process," Hun Sen told thousands of factory workers in the capital Phnom Penh. The CNRP was dissolved by the Supreme Court last year and 118 members were banned from politics for five years as part of a sweeping crackdown in the lead-up to the election. Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who has ruled for nearly 33 years, is expected to visit Europe in October. The trip includes meetings with officials of the European Union, which heavily criticised the election process, in Brussels. A European Parliament subcommittee this week called for measures against Cambodia related to its access to EU trade preferences under its "Everything But Arms" scheme. That scheme, giving tariff-free access, and similar trade preferences in the United States have helped Cambodia build a garment industry on low-cost labour. Hun Sen challenged critics to protest during the visit. "I let you know in advance, so people in Europe can organize demonstrations against me," Hun Sen said. CNRP leader Kem Sokha was jailed on treason charges in September as part of Hun Sen's pre-election crackdown and remains in pre-trial detention near the border with Vietnam. Story continues The CNRP hit back at Hun Sen on Thursday. "The challenge the CPP has today is the one-party state which entirely discredits article 1 of the constitution which stipulates that Cambodia shall be a multi-party democracy," CNRP vice president Mu Sochua told Reuters. (Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Nick Macfie) FILE PHOTO - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (3rd L), is welcomed by supporters as he attends an inauguration of a new boat terminal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Samrang Pring BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreigners should not interfere in Cambodia's internal affairs, the Chinese government's top diplomat told his Cambodian counterpart, following an election in the Southeast Asian nation that critics said was neither free nor fair. China is Cambodia's most important diplomatic and economic backer. Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party said on Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier, a vote heavily criticised by rights groups, the United States and other Western countries. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi offered his congratulations for what he said was the "smooth" election, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday after Wang met Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore. The election result showed the Cambodian people's "affirmation and trust" in the administration of the Cambodian People's Party, Wang said. "China has always resolutely supported Cambodia's efforts to protect its sovereignty, independence and stability, and opposes any foreign country interfering in Cambodia's internal affairs," the statement cited Wang as saying. China would continue to provide help to Cambodia to maintain stability and develop, he said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Prak Sokhon as saying the election was orderly and transparent and that the Cambodian people had voted for peace, stability and development. "China is the Cambodian people's closest, most reliable friend," he said, according to the Chinese statement. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait) Outgoing Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos admitted defeat on Wednesday after failing to secure a ceasefire with ELN Marxist guerrillas before handing over the reins to hardline right-wing successor Ivan Duque next week. Santos had made it his goal to achieve a "complete peace" to end the 50-year conflict with left-wing rebels before stepping down on August 7. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the historic accord signed with FARC guerrillas in December 2016, ending their insurgency. "We hope that the next government decides to continue" negotiating with the ELN, the last recognized armed group fighting government forces in Colombia, to "start a real and verifiable ceasefire," said Santos. More than 260,000 people have been killed, nearly 83,000 remain missing and some 7.4 million have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict. Santos said there was "very little missing" from an agreement, adding: "I would say 10 percent." He said the two parties had agreed on a "very well-defined" plan to implement a bilateral and temporary truce during talks in Havana on Tuesday evening, but that it lacked United Nations verification. "To verify it you need protocols, very precise procedures, so that there are no misunderstandings," said Santos. He said the UN itself had insisted on the protocols as it would be monitoring the truce, alongside the Catholic Church. - 'Significant progress' - The two sides produced a joint statement saying that "although we haven't reached full agreement.... in this cycle, significant progress has been made." The ELN's delegation chief Pablo Beltran said he hoped these developments would form the "basis for work" to be carried out during Duque's administration. Duque, though, has promised a tougher negotiating stance towards the ELN. Santos said it would have been "counterproductive to sign something that hasn't been endorsed by the new government." He ordered his negotiators back to Bogota on Wednesday to brief the new regime on the state of the discussions, which began in 2017. But he said negotiations were "very advanced" when his team left Cuba. Beltran said a ceasefire was necessary to allow citizens to participate in the peace process. Santos, though, admitted that he didn't feel "totally satisfied because effectively we haven't arrived at a ceasefire agreement." It remains a political defeat for the former journalist who sacrificed his domestic popularity in the quest for a lasting resolution to the conflict. The 66-year-old had hoped he could make significant progress in convincing the ELN to lay down their weapons before stepping down on August 7. - 'There is peace' - But he baulked at suggestions that he failed to achieve "complete peace." "What we're delivering, and what all the international organizations say, is that it's a very complete peace, very deep. This agreement with FARC has no precedent in any other country," Santos told AFP earlier this week. He insisted, too, that he would be remembered more for the FARC deal -- that turned the former rebels into a political party -- than the ELN failure. "My legacy will defend itself, you can see the results," he said. "There is peace, the FARC is a political party, it's there. "It's the Colombian people that will defend peace because it's not my peace, nor that of my government, but of all Colombians." Duque, though, has been singing from a very different hymn sheet, creating uncertainty not just over potential peace with the ELN but also surrounding the existing pact's durability. Upon his election in June he vowed to make "corrections" to the FARC peace deal, which he criticized for being too lenient on the former rebels. He's already announced a controversial appointment as his new defense minister, adding to the uncertainty. Guillermo Botero, a 70-year-old lawyer and entrepreneur with no experience in security matters, has been a vocal critic of the peace accord. Ex-leftist guerrillas took up seats in Congress for the first time on July 20, although former rebel commander Ivan Marquez was not amongst them as he protested what he described as government "betrayal" over the arrest of fellow ex-FARC leader Jesus Santrich, who was likewise due to take a seat in Congress. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, July 29, 2018. Sebastian Scheiner /Pool via Reuters (Corrects to place Yemen on the eastern side of Bab al-Mandeb strait, not to its south) JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel would deploy its military if Iran were to try to block the Bab al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. Last week, Saudi Arabia said it was suspending oil shipments through the strait, on the main sea route from the Middle East to Europe, after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two ships in the waterway. Saudi Arabia and Iran are in a three-year-old proxy war in Yemen, which lies on the eastern side of Bab al-Mandeb. Yemen's Houthis, who have previously threatened to block the strait, said last week they had the naval capability to hit Saudi ports and other Red Sea targets. Iran has not threatened to block Bab al-Mandeb but has said it would block the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Gulf, if it were prevented from exporting its own oil. "If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this, and this coalition will also include all of Israel's military branches," Netanyahu said at a passing out parade for new naval officers in Haifa. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a separate speech at the event that Israel had "recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea." He gave no further details. Ships bound for Israel, mainly from Asia, pass through the waterway to Eilat, or continue through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. Ships bound for Jordan's Aqaba port and for some Saudi destinations must also pass through the strait. Bab al-Mandeb is 29 km (18 miles) wide, making hundreds of ships potentially an easy target. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said an estimated 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and products flowed through it in 2016. Israel has attacked Iranian forces in Syria and has insisted that they leave Syria completely. They have withdrawn to a distance of 85 km (53 miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Russia's special envoy to Syria said on Wednesday. (Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) French Spider-Man barred from daredevil climbs in Hong Kong for a year and jokes he could be back on the 366th day An extreme climber who has scaled some of the worlds most iconic architecture earning him the nickname the French Spider-Man was barred by a Hong Kong court on Thursday from any such daredevil attempts in the city for a year. The ban is a condition of the behavioural bond, or bindover deal, Alain Robert, 55, was offered at Eastern Court over an illegal climb in Hong Kong seven years ago. Speaking outside court, the Frenchman in his wacky blue snake-patterned waistcoat pledged to stay away from any buildings in Hong Kong in the coming year. [But] on the 366th day I can come back, he joked. It doesnt mean I will. Im just technically talking this is how it works. On January 26, 2011, Robert clambered up the 27-floor Hang Seng Bank building in Des Voeux Road with bare hands, in an attempt to raise public awareness of global warming. The ascent prompted the local fire service to set up a rescue cushion and caused traffic to be blocked for 23 minutes. He was charged with one count of public nuisance, for which he was not required to make a plea on Thursday. Instead, he was bound over for a year on the condition he would not commit any crime, including climbing, in Hong Kong for the coming 12 months, or he would have to pay HK$1,000. Robert said he was surprised police had come back to him for a climb that took place seven years ago. He was contacted and arrested in July after he completed another daring climb at the citys Four Seasons Hotel. Although the climb to conquer the 165-metre high hotel in the central business district had secured prior approval from the hotel and authorities, police charged him over the offence in 2011. It was not Roberts first brush with the law. He revealed he was being investigated over another stunt in Seoul, South Korea, for scaling the 123-storey Lotte World Tower skyscraper. He said cities held diverse views on his actions. For example, he had pulled off some other stunts in France, but it never got him into trouble despite being held for questioning by the police. Story continues But it was France, he said. Asked if he had his next challenge in mind, Robert said: I cannot reveal the destination because they are quite sensitive countries. Robert is renowned for his free solo climbing using no equipment save for a bag of chalk and climbing shoes. He has previously climbed towering landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Galaxy Macau tower. Before his recent climb at the Four Seasons Hotel, he had previously scaled it in 2008. He has also climbed the citys Cheung Kong Center twice. In 1996, he took on the Far East Finance Centre in Admiralty, for which he was also given a one-year behavioural bond. He has climbed illegally five times in Hong Kong and been charged twice. This article French Spider-Man barred from daredevil climbs in Hong Kong for a year and jokes he could be back on the 366th day first appeared on South China Morning Post For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018. HDB jumbo flats were created by knocking down the walls between adjacent 3- and 4- room HDB jumbo flat units in a one-off move by the Government to clear off unsold inventory in 1989. Despite being mostly located in Woodlands, Yishun and Tampines, there are Jumbo HDB-flats located more centrally in Singapore as well. Ranging in size from 1,582 sq ft up to 2,142 sq ft, these unit types provide more affordable options for families looking to live closer to central Singapore. 1. Queenstown Queenstown is around 20 minutes drive away from the Central Business District (CBD). Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg are priced from $600,000 to $920,000. 2. Bukit Merah Bukit Merah is around 10 minutes drive away from Raffles Place. Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg start at $700,000. 3. Bukit Timah Bukit Timah is around 20 minutes drive away from the CBD. Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg range from $800,000 to $1,000,000. 4. Toa Payoh Toa Payoh is roughly 15 minutes' drive away from Raffles Place. Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg start from $600,000. 5. Geylang Geylang is around 17 minutes' away drive away from Raffles Place. Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg range from $700,000 to $980,000. 6. Kallang/Whampoa Kallang is around 12 minutes' drive away from Raffles Place. Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg range from $800,000 to $900,000. 7. Bishan Bishan is around 16 minutes' drive away from Raffles Place. HDB Jumbo flats for sale currently listed on EdgeProp.sg range from $500,000 to $980,000. If you prefer staying outside of the Central Area, check out other jumbo units listed in EdgeProp.sg here. Related Articles From EdgeProp.sg HDB resale price index in 2Q2018 up 0.1% q-o-q: Are we at a turning point? 4-Room HDBs Designs That Arent Your Cookie-Cutter Home Koyo wins $5.2 mil HDB contract Silver tsunami: Homes meeting elderly needs Henrique Meirelles, a former finance minister in unpopular President Michel Temer's government, joined Brazil's presidential race Thursday, promising market reforms to rebuild the battered economy. Meirelles, 72, is offering Brazil continuity after a tumultuous few years that saw the center-right Temer take over following the impeachment of leftist president Dilma Rousseff in 2016. "My candidacy has the objective of restoring the spirit of confidence in Brazil," Meirelles said in Brasilia after securing the nomination of Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement party, or MDB. As part of Temer's team, former banker Meirelles was key to the self-declared mission to pull the country from its worst recession in history and attract investors to Latin America's biggest economy. The country has since succeeded in returning to weak growth, but the austerity measures aimed at imposing fiscal discipline and slashing a bloated budget have been immensely unpopular. That makes Meirelles, who also served as central bank chief under the 2003-2010 leftist administration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the favorite of the market community, but with almost no chance of contending seriously for the election, which starts with a first round on October 7. In his address Thursday, Meirelles said he would pursue market reforms that he predicted would bring economic growth to four percent a year -- a long way from the one percent in 2017, let alone the deep 3.5 percent slide in the two previous years. The MDB is one of Brazil's biggest parties but until now has preferred to take power through alliances in coalition governments, rather than seeking the presidency directly. Temer only reached the top because he was vice president to Rousseff in an uneasy left-right alliance. The MDB's timing is being hit hard by widespread voter revolt against a corruption scandal that has revealed systemic embezzlement and pay-to-play schemes across Brazilian politics -- with the MDB being among the worst offenders. A right-wing candidate, ex-army officer Jair Bolsonaro, has already launched his campaign with the Social Liberal Party. Party conventions are being held on Saturday for the center-left Rede party's candidate Marina Silva and former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin from the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party, or PSDB. The most popular politician in the country remains Lula. His Workers' Party is expected to nominate him on Saturday too -- with the hitch being that he is serving a prison sentence for corruption and is unlikely to be allowed on the ballot. Monsoon rains have pummelled the Mekong region in recent days with Myanmar bearing the brunt of flooding that has forced 150,000 to flee and threatens to destroy levees shielding thousands of homes. The swirling inundations have started to recede in some areas in the low-lying southeast but the country is only just entering peak monsoon season and more downpours are expected in the coming weeks. Thousands were either unable or have refused to leave their half-submerged homes, peering out from upper floor windows as they waited for relief boats bringing food and supplies. Some waded out through the waist-deep water to collect the donations while others balanced precariously on rafts made from bamboo poles or jerry cans as they paddled through the waters. Evacuation orders are still in place across Bago, Karen, Mon and Taninthari provinces with dozens of dams and reservoirs overflowing. In Madauk town in Bago region, warnings that key levees are at breaking point sparked fear among residents. "We are worried about the embankment. We are really afraid," 43-year-old Ma Wai told AFP on Thursday. "When the authorities warned us over the microphone, we didn't know where to run. Children and elderly people were crying." State media reported that nearly 150,000 people have been forced to seek refuge in 327 camps while nearly 28,000 are clinging on in their flooded homes. At least a dozen people have been killed. Tin Tun, 50, said he and his family decided they had no choice but to escape what he described as the worst flooding they had ever experienced. "We had to flee, taking people and our animals by boat. The water was up to our waists in our house when we left," he said. - Laos, Vietnam affected - The particularly heavy monsoon is also lashing Myanmar's neighbours. Laos is still searching for scores of people missing after a dam collapsed last month, wiping out entire villages and killing at least 11 -- though earlier official tolls initially put the number as high as 27. Thai, South Korean and Chinese specialists have joined the effort to find the missing. Floodwaters from the disaster seeped into Cambodia and forced thousands from their homes. Thailand said Thursday that seven of its northeastern provinces have been hit by flooding, affecting at least 30,000 people. Heavy flooding has also submerged swathes of farmland near Vietnam's capital Hanoi this week, with water reaching the roofs of some homes causing 4,000 residents to scramble to dry ground. "We had to move our property, rice, our cattle and poultry," Phung Thi Luan told AFP from a makeshift shelter in a community centre. "There's no road for us to get around and...there's no electricity." So far this year in Vietnam, 112 people have gone missing in natural disasters, with more than 900 homes completely destroyed and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland damaged. Bangladesh shut down high schools across the country Thursday as tens of thousands of students protested for a fifth straight day after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus. Authorities had pleaded with students to call off the protests that have near-paralysed Dhaka and beyond and prompted foreign embassies to issue travel alerts. But thousands blocked major intersections in Dhaka as police armed with shields and batons drove back students in parts of the capital, with some reports of vehicles being vandalised. The demonstrators, mostly students in their mid-teens, brought traffic to a standstill as they marched through the streets chanting "we want justice". Anger has not subdued since a bus racing for passengers killed a boy and girl on the roadside on Sunday, igniting the protests. Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, also triggered fresh outrage. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian bus crash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for his resignation even though the minister later apologised. The education ministry shut down high schools Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for reforms to road safety would be considered. "They should have taken our demands seriously, but they didn't," Imran Ahmed, a protesting student, said. - Traffic chaos - Dhaka suffers from daily gridlock but congestion has been exacerbated by blockades set up across the city since Sunday. In some parts of Dhaka, students occupying major intersections Thursday checked licence plates and demanded to see driver identification and registration documents. "We don't want any vehicles without licences on the streets. Those unfit to drive should not get licences, and we don't want underage motorists driving public transport," said one protester, Mohammad Sifat. The embassies of the US and Australia warned of significant delays and disruptions as a result of the protests across Dhaka and elsewhere. Many residents were forced to walk across the congested capital to offices and workplaces. But some joined the students, frustrated at the government's inability to tackle Dhaka's notoriously dangerous roads. "I support this movement, and sincerely hope it will shake out corruption in the system," Yunus Ali, a businessman, told AFP at a busy demonstration. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Wednesday promised that the government would launch a public transport safety campaign and urged the protesters to go home. "People are suffering and we don't want this," he said. According to the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways, a private research group, more than 4,200 pedestrians were killed in road accidents last year, a 25 percent increase from 2016. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, July 29, 2018. Sebastian Scheiner /Pool via Reuters By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a South American trip planned for next week due to the situation around the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Thursday, as U.N. ceesefire talks pressed on. Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet on Sunday to discuss an emerging deal, brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, for long-term peace in Gaza, a second Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu was due to travel to Colombia from Aug. 6-9. Tensions have flared in recent weeks along the border between Israel and Gaza - Palestinian territory which is controlled by Hamas Islamists. Israel, the United States and other Western countries regard Hamas as a terrorist organization. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008, the last of them in 2014. On Sunday, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said on Twitter that he held "productive meetings" with Egyptian officials in efforts to de-escalate Gaza tensions and resolve humanitarian issues. "The devil is always in the details but we are #movingforward in the interest of #peace," Mladenov said. The talks are being held in Cairo, though Mladenov said he had also held meeting with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank. In Gaza, Hamas said some of its top-ranking officials were expected to arrive from Egypt late on Thursday to discuss the deal. "The delegation will arrive in Gaza for consultation over issues of concern for the Palestinian people, foremost in achieving the national reconciliation and ending the Gaza blockade," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. A source in Hamas, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delegation included the group's deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, exiled by Israel in 2010. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have divulged few details of the talks. "The fact that the trip (to Colombia) has been called off shows that the prime minister has a feeling that these are decisive days, these are days that it is imperative that he should stay in the country, and he knows why," Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio. Story continues More than two million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave which suffers deep economic hardship. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, citing security concerns over Hamas and other militant groups. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border. Four months of weekly Palestinian protests along the border have calmed slightly but organisers have said they will continue until Israel lifts economic sanctions on Gaza. At least 155 Palestinians have been killed in the protests and one Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Gaza sniper. Palestinian militants have also fired hundreds of rockets over the border, drawing dozens of Israeli air and tank strikes. Israel has lost tracts of farmland and forests to fires set by kites and helium balloons laden with incendiary material and flown over the border by Palestinians in Gaza. On Wednesday, Israel said it was stopping shipments of fuel and gas to Gaza. The move, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday, was in response to a continuation of cross-border violence, despite assurances from Egypt that it would end. Palestinians in Gaza suffer up to 20 hours of power cuts per day due to fuel shortages. "We acceded to Egypt's request," Lieberman told reporters. "We allowed in gas and fuel, but there was an additional Egyptian commitment that there would be no more launches, no kites, no conflagrations, no friction along the fence." "Since those things are continuing, I decided to stop the supplies of gas and fuel to the Gaza Strip," he said. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Richard Balmforth) New US research has found that obese individuals infected with influenza shed the virus for a longer period than those who are not obese, potentially increasing the opportunity for the infection to spread to others. Carried out by researchers at the University of Michigan, the new study looked at data collected from around 1,800 people in 320 households in Managua, Nicaragua, to analyze the effect of obesity on the duration of viral shedding, which is when an infected person releases the virus, potentially passing it on to others. The researchers looked at three influenza seasons from 2015 to 2017 and measured the duration of viral shedding using tests of nose and throat samples. The results showed that obese adults with flu symptoms and confirmed influenza shed influenza A virus for 42 percent longer than non-obese adults, while obese adults infected with flu who were only mildly ill or had no symptoms shed influenza A virus for 104 percent longer than those who were not obese. Obesity only appeared to affect the duration of viral shedding of the influenza A viruses, one of two types of flu viruses that can cause epidemics in humans. No association was found for the influenza B virus, which typically causes less serious illness in adults and does not cause pandemics. Obesity also did not appear to affect the duration of viral shedding among children. "This is the first real evidence that obesity might impact more than just disease severity," said senior study author Aubree Gordon. "It might directly impact transmission as well." As obesity can alter the body's immune response and lead to chronic inflammation, in addition to making breathing more difficult and increasing the need for oxygen, the researchers suggest that this may be how the condition affects influenza risk, severity, and transmission potential. Polish freedom icon Lech Walesa took to Facebook late Wednesday to extend an olive branch to arch-enemy Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling conservative party. "Brother Kaczynski, soon you and I and our whole generation will enter into eternity," the 74-year-old Walesa wrote to Kaczynski, who turned 69 and spent several weeks in hospital this year. "I would like to get my things in order. I would also like to leave reconciled with my foes," added the former president and Nobel Peace laureate who led the Solidarity movement that brought a peaceful end to communism in Poland. Asked by AFP Thursday for his motives for reaching out, Walesa denied that the move was linked to health problems on either side. He said he was guided by the Christian imperative of reconciliation. Kaczynski has yet to respond but the spokeswoman for his Law and Justice (PiS) party, Beata Mazurek, tweeted that "we can no longer take Walesa seriously" and refused all other comment. Walesa ended his message to Kaczynski saying: "If I did you wrong, then I ask for your forgiveness. As for me, I am able to forgive you and your late brother Lech for everything, even the lousiest thing you've ever done to me which was... the Kiszczak folder." The reference is to old allegations which resurfaced in 2016 that Walesa collaborated with the communist secret police in the early 1970s, something Walesa has long denied. Although both men fought Poland's communist regime, they later became bitter foes amid power struggles in the early years of Poland's democracy. More recently Walesa has been highly critical of Kaczynski and the PiS, which won power in October 2015 and has since pushed through a string of overhauls that led to mass protests at home and conflict with the European Union over rule of law violations. FILE PHOTO: Members of GIPS, elite firefighters, speak during a training session at their base near Pombal, Portugal July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante By Axel Bugge LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal went on high alert on Thursday as temperatures threaten to beat record levels in coming days, prompting the government to warn of a high risk of forest fires in the first test of the country's readiness after the worst fires in history last year. The weather in Portugal has been relatively cool and wet so far in 2018 compared to many parts of Europe, but the government has gone to great lengths to ensure that the fires that killed 114 people in 2017 are not repeated. The highest temperature on record in Portugal was 47.3 Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) in 2003, in the southern Alentejo region. Several places in the Alentejo are forecast to reach 47C on Saturday, while Lisbon could reach 43C, which is highly unusual for Portugal's capital by the sea. The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said the heatwave that will hit in coming days will be similar to 2003, the second worst year on record for forest fires in Portugal after 2017. Wildfires in Greece last month killed 91 people in a sharp reminder of the constant threat of deadly fires in southern Europe during the summer. Portugal's government issued a "situation of alert", raising the readiness levels of firefighters, police and emergency medical services until Aug. 6. There is a ban on lighting fires and access to forests will be limited. "The government will constantly monitor the situation and appeals to citizens to change their behaviours in consideration of the weather," the government said in a statement. The interior minister resigned last year over the fires. Since last year's tragedy, which struck during an extreme drought, the government has hired hundreds of professional firefighters and sharply stepped up controls to ensure landowners clear their lands of undergrowth that fan fires. The government has also tested an SMS alert system which will notify people of emergencies. Although temperatures are soaring, so far there are no indications of the strong winds that made last year's fires so deadly. "If temperatures reach the levels we have forecast, they will beat records," an IPMA spokeswoman said. (Reporting by Axel Bugge; Editing by Alison Williams) If it was not for badminton, the Brazilian Ygor Coelho says that he would have ended up like some of his friends from their Rio favela -- caught up in drugs or dead. Instead, the 21-year-old with a beaming smile is making a name for himself as South America's best badminton player and an example for others growing up in tough circumstances. Coelho was defeated in the last 16 of the World Championships on Thursday in Nanjing, but not before his story grabbed attention and won him many admirers in China. Exhibiting fleet, samba-like footwork, Coelho -- ranked 39 in the world -- sprang a shock in beating 11th-seeded HS Prannoy of India on Wednesday. Coelho's run came to an emphatic end with a comprehensive 21-11, 21-7 defeat to Taiwan's Chou Tien-chen, but that did nothing to wipe the big grin off his face. At times, Coelho has to pinch himself that all of this -- the crowd chanting his name, the media interest, playing sport for money -- is real. Even speaking English, a necessity when taking part in top-level international competition, is something that he never thought possible. Asked by AFP what he would be doing now if it were not for badminton, Coelho said: "It's a hard question, but for sure badminton has changed my life. "I've learnt English, I travel around the world, I have good experiences, friends all over the world. "I've learnt a lot from badminton." - 'Some friends died' - Coelho has since left the Chacrinha slum of his boyhood on Rio's western outskirts, instead training and living in France and Denmark. But his tough upbringing in a community blighted by drug violence remains a major part of his identity. Coelho started playing badminton -- a sport hardly associated with football-mad Brazil -- at three thanks to his father, Sebastiao Dias de Oliveira, a PE teacher and badminton coach. "My father created a social project in badminton in the favela to help people not go in the bad way, not do drugs, this kind of stuff," said Coelho. "My friends went into that kind of life and some of them died. "Me doing this here, I am like a hero to some of them (at the project) and they are trying to follow the same way as me." The samba feet were inspired by his father, who believes that to be a good badminton player, you first need to be a good dancer. The Olympic naysayers will not like it, but Coelho said that the 2016 Rio Games -- he was Brazil's first male Olympian in badminton -- had generated interest that continues today. "Now people are following more (badminton in Brazil) and it is becoming more popular," said Coelho, who is already eyeing the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. "When I was a kid, I dreamed of this, but never expected it," he said. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp greets bystanders during a parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) DICKINSON, N.D. For Heidi Heitkamp, a centrist Democrat and one of the Senates most vulnerable incumbents, the path to reelection on a recent Saturday morning ran between a car full of clowns in rainbow wigs and polka dot suits and a gigantic monster truck packed with a boisterous group of heckling Trump supporters. Make America Great Again! Make America Great Again! they chanted over and over as the trucks driver revved his engine, effectively drowning out the senators conversation with a voter. Surveying the scene, clowns and all, Heitkamp smiled. Average Saturday, she joked. The occasion was the annual Roughriders Day parade, one of the largest celebrations of what many here call parade season in North Dakota. The event, which coincides with the local rodeo, is considered a rite of passage for any serious politician an annual test of physical endurance in a state where voters put a high value on being able to see and talk to their elected officials. The roughly 2-mile-long parade route stretches through the heart of this rural Western town, attracting thousands of people who stake out prime viewing spots well before dawn. Politicians who participate are expected to walk most if not all of the route, shaking hands, posing for photos and talking to voters. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp speaks to a young supporter ahead of a parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) Heitkamp, a fixture of North Dakota politics for more than three decades, dating to her days as state tax commissioner in the 1980s and later as state attorney general, has been here many times before. Its the kind of event where shed earned her reputation as a politician who didnt outwardly seem like a politician: a personable, no-nonsense candidate who the Associated Press recently likened to Marge Gunderson, the fictional heroine of the Coen brothers classic Fargo and the cinematic epitome of Midwest nice. It was not an off-the-mark comparison. On the trail, Heitkamp, famous for her salt-of-the-earth demeanor and shock of wavy red hair, speaks with a distinct regional accent a little Minnesota with a splash of Chicago thrown in. She tends to be a hugger, a rumpled mom type so friendly and affectionate with those shes speaking to that its sometimes hard to tell whether she already knows the person or just met them. Story continues Stopping by a coffee shop before the parade, dressed in jeans and sneakers with her face free of makeup, the senator was finishing an iced coffee when a woman caught her eye. Stronger than battery acid, eh? the woman said with a wink. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp hugs a woman during a parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) She was referring to Heitkamps recent campaign ad, which featured the senator, dressed in a mechanics jumpsuit, fiddling under the hood of an old pickup truck. Over the sound of a socket wrench at work, a narrator quoted Sen. Bob Corker a moderate Republican from Tennessee who once praised Heitkamp, his colleague on the Senate Banking Committee, as being stronger than battery acid during bill negotiations. The ad concludes with Heitkamp yanking a battery out of the truck engine with her greasy gloves and declaring, When it comes to fighting for North Dakota, I take battery acid as a compliment. The spot, unveiled in May, had been playing nonstop on local television in recent weeks going up against waves of attack ads run by her Republican opponent, Rep. Kevin Cramer the states three-term congressman at large and his allies, who have sought to portray her as a liberal stooge out of step with North Dakota voters. In the coffee shop, Heitkamp laughed. Do you know how many men have asked me to change their battery since that? I mean, I could, she said. Among her myriad jobs as a kid growing up rural Mantador, population 64, was construction worker and dairy farm equipment repair person. She knows a thing or two about tools. Somehow the conversation turned to the question of age. The woman told Heitkamp she was certain she was older than the senator, who is 62. When it turned out the woman was 58, Heitkamp was visibly shocked. No s***? You dont look a day older than 45, she said earnestly. And then she grabbed the womans arm in an affectionate squeeze, as if the two had known each other for years, adding, And Im not just saying that because I want your vote. As Heitkamp walked out, the woman, who said she was a registered Republican but would not give her name, said simply, I love her. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp marches in the annual Roughriders Day parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) It was the kind of interaction that encapsulates Heitkamps approach to winning a second term in ruby red North Dakota, where a Democrat, even one as conservative as she is, starts with an almost insurmountable disadvantage. In a state President Trump won by nearly 36 points two years ago and where elected Democrats are scarce (the party holds just 22 of the 141 state legislative seats, and has been shut out of every statewide office except Heitkamps), the incumbent senator has tried to rise above the hardened political partisanship that has divided the rest of the country. Using phases such as sensible and trustworthy and the occasional no bulls*** Heitkamp presents herself as an honest-to-God, middle-of-the-road lawmaker who can, and has, worked with both sides to do right by her state and wont be, as she puts it, a rubber stamp for anybody. One side is not always right, Heitkamp said in an interview. The left doesnt always have it right. The right doesnt always have it right. Her centrist pitch has been bolstered by her friendly relationship with Trump himself, who interviewed her for a job in his cabinet in late 2016 (she turned it down), and flew with her on Air Force One to North Dakota last year to tout their joint efforts to encourage the states booming energy industry. At the event, held at a refinery in Mandan, a small town outside Bismarck where she has lived for more than thirty years, Trump invited Heitkamp on stage and shook her hand ironically reaching around Cramer, who was not yet in the race, to do so. Good woman, he declared, a note of praise that many here have not forgotten even though he is now actively campaigning against her bid for reelection. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp shakes the hand of President Donald Trump with other state leaders including Kevin Cramer to her right on Sept. 6, 2017, at the Tesoro Refinery in Mandan, N.D. (Photo: Michael Vosburg / The Forum) But more than politics, Heitkamp has tried to emphasize personality. She is self-deprecating to a fault, once marveling at how a chubby small-town girl like her made it to Washington. Speaking to voters, she presents herself as a person who is just like them; someone who hasnt forgotten her modest roots. She tries to sway them into looking beyond their political party and voting for her because they actually like her. People here know me. Even if they dont agree with me all the time, they know I fight for them, she said. I wake up every morning thinking about rural America. Im not sure how many other people can say that and really mean it. It was a strategy that worked in 2012 when Heitkamp won her first term in the Senate by the narrowest of margins 2,936 votes to be exact defeating Rick Berg, a Republican congressman, to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Kent Conrad, the longtime Democratic incumbent and mentor to Heitkamp, who was retiring after a quarter-century in office. The win shocked the political world in a place where most people Democrats included assumed Republicans would easily claim the seat given North Dakotas surge to the right in recent years. Six years later, Heitkamp faces perhaps steeper odds in a state that is even more conservative now. While she is no leader of the Democratic resistance against Trump and has not been pressured to be by fellow Democrats at home or in Washington she has been forced to walk a tightrope in her comments about the president. On the campaign trail, Heitkamp pitches herself as both a partner to Trump pointing out their work together on policy helped ease regulations on community banks and on energy and a polite critic, more so lately. Among other things, shes hit the presidents controversial trade war with China, which threatens North Dakotas export-dependent soybean farmers and other interests in this heavily agricultural state. Theres a lot of people here willing to say let the president work his magic, she said, adding that she was not one of them. President Trump hands a pen to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, right, after signing the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington in May 2018. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP) (Last week, Trump, who initially suggested that farmers were great patriots who would be willing to make sacrifices in his trade wars, offered them a temporary $12 billion relief package, a bailout that has been criticized by farmers and members of both political parties, including Heitkamp.) Cramer has disputed Heitkamps bipartisan credentials, linking her to party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. He has run ads reminding voters about her endorsement of Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign and her support for abortion rights. And in an attempt to challenge Heitkamps relationship with Trump, which has been so cozy that he publicly complained about it, the congressman has billed himself as someone who would support the president all the time not just some of the time. In April, Cramer, who has a reputation of making cringeworthy remarks, likened voting against legislation backed by Trump to cheating on ones spouse. Ive heard her say, Gee, I voted with him 55 percent of the time, Cramer said of Heitkamp. Can you imagine going home and telling your wife, Ive been faithful to you 55 percent of the time? Are you kidding me? Being wrong half the time is not a good answer. While Cramer later dialed back his comments, saying his ultimate loyalty was to North Dakota, Heitkamp seized on his reluctance to publicly criticize the president on issues such as trade, suggesting he wants to give away the states Senate seat to Trump. Can you imagine saying you want to vote 100 percent of the time with anyone? she said. Cramers seeming unwillingness to go against Trump even on trade and tariffs caused him to lose the backing of Americans for Prosperity, the influential policy and political donor group founded by the conservative Koch brothers which typically spends tens of millions of dollars to elect Republican candidates. The decision came weeks after the donor group ran a thank you ad praising Heitkamp for her efforts to boost community banks a show of support that did not go unnoticed by Republicans in Washington. There has been little public polling in the race, but a survey in June found Cramer had a narrow edge 48 percent to Heitkamps 44 percent, according to Mason-Dixon, results that were within the margin of error. President Trump looks on as Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Scheels Arena in June in Fargo, N.D. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Democrats need to hang on to Heitkamps seat if the party has any chance of regaining majority control of the U.S. Senate next year. The party needs to win two more seats in addition to defending the 26 other seats up for election, including in North Dakota. But Heitkamp downplayed the future of the party as a key issue in her race, though she did acknowledge what happens in North Dakota will have national implications. I think this race has everything to do with whether its possible in this kind of world to have moderates get elected, she said. I say to North Dakotans: If you want bipartisanship, you have to be bipartisan. To me, good ideas dont just come in blue or red. Good ideas come when you sit down and you actually bring ideas to the table. The question is, is there room any more in America for that kind of leadership? Asked if she thought there was, Heitkamp paused for a moment. I dont know, she bluntly admitted. I guess were going to find out. The first woman elected to the Senate from North Dakota, and one of the few to hold statewide office, Mary Kathryn Heidi Heitkamp came from humble beginnings. She grew up in Mantador, a sparsely populated community surrounded by corn and soybean fields in far southeastern North Dakota. Its about an hour south of Fargo, where the local VFW club which her father founded is still the heart of town, serving as the de facto city hall, post office and local watering hole. She was the middle child of seven kids two boys and five girls, all born a year or less apart. Her father, a World War II veteran who didnt graduate from high school, supported the family working seasonal jobs, including hauling fuel and doing construction work. He also worked as a janitor at the local school, where her mom served as the cook. The family was crammed into a small three-bedroom house. Her brothers shared a room, which also happened to be the laundry room, while the five girls shared another bedroom. Between them and members of the extended family who also lived in town, Heitkamp has joked, her family made up a good chunk of the towns population. When they were old enough, the kids went to work, taking odd jobs around town to help the family make ends meet. Still, Heitkamp describes an idyllic childhood, playing in the softball league her father founded and getting lost in books. When she was in sixth grade, she became obsessed with the television show Perry Mason and decided that she wanted to be a lawyer, a dream that her parents encouraged. On the campaign trail, Heitkamps easygoing demeanor belies her achievements. While attending the University of North Dakota paid for with scholarships and by working at a dairy farm she landed two internships: one with Congress and another working for the state legislature, where she began to envision a future working in public policy. After earning a law degree from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., in 1980, she briefly moved to Washington to work for the Environmental Protection Agency. She returned to North Dakota the following year, working on the staff of Kent Conrad, the state tax commissioner and future senator. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp speaks with former Sen. Kent Conrad, center, while serving as North Dakotas tax commissioner. (Photo via Heidi Heitkamp) In 1984, impressed by her work ethic and policy acumen, Conrad encouraged her to run for state auditor. Heitkamp, who was only 28, initially refused. Though she was interested in politics, she saw herself as a behind-the-scenes person the people who would help make things work, not the person out front, she said. But when she showed up and saw her name on a banner at the state convention, she realized she had been drafted. A few months later, she narrowly lost the race. I thought, Okay, I did it, and now I can go home, resume practicing law, and get married and start my family, she recalled. But two years later, Conrad was elected to the U.S. Senate, and on his recommendation, Heitkamp was appointed by the governor to replace him as state tax commissioner. Then a newlywed she had married Darwin Lange, a rural doctor Heitkamp was barely 31. The appointment made her front-page news in the Bismarck Tribune, where Heitkamp, looking younger than her age, called her new job a step forward for North Dakota women. Its a visible reminder to people that this is not a closed shop, that government and politics is not an activity thats limited to men, she told the paper, vowing that she would be a very visible female in state government. In 1992, she moved up the ladder winning the first of her two terms as state attorney general, where she gained national attention for her leading role in helping negotiate the 1998 landmark settlement between the nations four top tobacco companies and 46 states over the recouping of tobacco-related health care costs. Newspaper clippings featuring Heidi Heitkamp from 1986 and 1992 issues of the Bismark Tribune. In 2000, Heitkamp announced a run for governor a race she narrowly led until the final weeks of the campaign, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Only 44 at the time, she had her right breast and surrounding lymph nodes removed a month before Election Day, but continued to campaign, citing a favorable prognosis from her doctor. Though voters insisted her illness would not affect their vote, a subsequent whisper campaign questioning whether she would be able to balance her cancer treatments with public duties or even live through her term if elected surfaced as the race reached its conclusion. She lost by 11 points to Republican John Hoeven, a banking executive who was later elected to Senate, where he is now Heitkamps colleague. It was a heartbreaking loss for Heitkamp, whose cancer has been in remission since. But she says she learned a lot not only from losing the race but also from her health scare. You can lose races and its not the end of the world. It will hurt, but there are other ways of being a good citizen, she said. Its not always just about politics. Heitkamp thought her career in public life was over, and as someone who still describes her foray into politics as somewhat accidental, she was okay with it. She went home to her husband and two kids, Ali and Nathan, who were teenagers at the time. She became the director of a natural gas company, where she worked for more than a decade, and dabbled in occasional political efforts, including a ballot initiative directing the state on how it should spend the millions it received in the Big Tobacco payout. When Conrad decided to retire from the Senate in 2012, he called his former protege and encouraged her to run. Heitkamp wasnt sure she wanted to. I think people think that someone sits down and plots an entire political career, and some people do, but Im not one of those people, she said. But she entered the race and narrowly won, a Democrat defying the odds in a conservative state. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp campaigns in DIckinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) Six years later, shes trying to buck the odds again, in a race that will test whether voters still have an appetite for politicians who govern from the middle. While Cramer has run ads depicting her as a wild-eyed liberal, Heitkamp has charted a largely centrist path, championed causes that are popular with her conservative constituents back home and often angered Democrats in Washington in the process. In 2013, just weeks after she was sworn in, Heitkamp defied intense lobbying from fellow Democrats including top members of President Barack Obamas administration and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically injured in a 2011 shooting attack and voted against legislation that would have expanded background checks on gun buyers. Her staunch resistance to other gun control legislation earned her an A rating in the past from the National Rifle Association, though this year the group has so far not issued a grade in the race. And though Heitkamp publicly supported Obama, telling voters back home that she proudly voted for him, she bucked the Democratic president on some of his chief priorities, including climate change legislation. She joined with Republicans to fight increased regulation of natural gas, and broke with Obama to back two controversial oil pipeline projects Keystone XL and Dakota Access which she billed as crucial to energy independence and a source of jobs. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, center, speaks alongside Sen. Mary Landrieu, D.-La., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. during a press conference following a Senate vote on the Keystone XL oil pipeline in Washington in November 2014. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) You can oppose the road, but sometimes you need a road, she said in an interview. And sometimes you oppose a pipeline, but you need that pipeline. We need energy infrastructure in this country, but maybe more importantly, theres working people who need to be able to earn a living. She praised Democrats for trying to tackle complex environmental issues, but she faulted her party for not always taking into consideration the working class whose jobs may be affected. In her six years in Washington, Heitkamp has come to be considered such a reliable ally to Republicans that Trump tried a few times in the past year to convince her to switch parties, entreaties that she refused. But she has continued to be friendly to Trump at key moments. She pointed out in a recent campaign spot that she has voted over half the time with President Trump, including on White House-backed policies and nominations. And that made a lot of people in Washington mad, she says in the ad. She isnt wrong. Heitkamp angered her party when she and two other Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana broke ranks last year to vote for Neil Gorsuch, Trumps first Supreme Court pick. More recently, she was one of seven Democrats who voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as Trumps secretary of state, and one of six who voted for Gina Haspel to be CIA director. When Trump signed the bill easing regulations on community banks that he had championed with Heitkamp, she stood at his side a photo op that Cramer publicly complained about. In an interview with the Washington Post, Cramer called it obscene that Heitkamp, his opponent, had gotten prime real estate next to the president in the photo, and questioned why Trump, who had talked him into jumping into the race for Senate, was being so easy on her. I do think theres a little difference in that shes a woman, Cramer told the Post. Thats probably part of it that shes a, you know, a female. He doesnt want to be that aggressive, maybe. I dont know. A few days later, Trump announced that he would campaign for Cramer in North Dakota. And in late June, he returned to the state where he had once praised Heitkamp as a good woman and told voters she could not be trusted. The rally was held just hours after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he would retire. Overlooking Heitkamps vote to confirm Gorsuch, Trump attacked her as an ally of Schumer and Pelosi. Heidi will vote no to any pick we make for the Supreme Court. She will be told to do so, Trump declared. Then Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch meets with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in her Hart Building office in February 2017. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) But less than 24 hours later, Heitkamp was back at the White House at Trumps invitation, called down to Pennsylvania Avenue as the president began to solicit advice about his Supreme Court pick. Outside the White House gate, Heitkamp filmed a video which she posted on Twitter calling attention to the meeting and saying she was always happy to meet with the president and to advocate for North Dakota. In an interview, she dismissed Trumps attacks which he has not repeated since his appearance with Cramer last month as purely political talk. Hes not standing up there as president; hes standing up there as leader of the party, she said. Hes got his memo from the Cramer campaign saying, These are the buzzwords we want you to use. That shouldnt surprise anyone. But Heitkamp has broken with Trump on several big issues, taking positions that Cramer is now trying to use against her. He has mentioned opposition to Republican efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act. And last winter, she opposed Republican tax cuts Trumps singular legislative achievement and the main talking point for GOP incumbents ahead of the Election Day. She has defended the vote by saying she did not want to expand the countrys growing national debt. In a recent ad, Cramer went after Heitkamp for her tax cut vote, while acknowledging her personal appeal to voters. We all like Heidi, he declared. But she was wrong to oppose this tax cut. Most of the state is Republican territory. But Heitkamps appearance in Dickinson took her to the conservative heart of North Dakota one of the most strongly Republican areas in the entire state, where Trump remains exceedingly popular. In fact, the parades theme that day was borrowed directly from the president himself: Make America Great. The phrase was plastered on dozens of floats and vehicles carrying parade participants. And right there in the middle of it was Heitkamp, who was walking so quickly and enthusiastically that her own entourage struggled to keep up. For nearly 2 miles, the Democratic senator, who has an arthritic knee, outmarched everyone in her entourage, including her staff of 20-somethings. Many of them scrambled to keep up with their 62-year-old boss as she zigged and zagged across the road to shake hands with spectators. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp marches in the annual Roughriders Day parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) The one-term senator wore a blue and gray shirt that read Heidi for North Dakota on the front, but no introductions were necessary. Even in this strongly Republican town, people were crying out her name Heidi! and waving her down for selfies, including a man wearing a Trump shirt who grabbed her in a tight embrace. Keep doing what youre doing, he told her. It was a moment you rarely see in a nation so bitterly divided on partisan lines. Near the end of the parade, Heitkamp came across a young woman holding a baby who was barely 2 months old. She was a foster mother who had opened up her home to kids who needed help. Clearly moved, the senator stopped to talk to her, wanting to know more. But their conversation was soon drowned out by the revving engine of the monster truck, whose occupants began chanting, Trump! Cramer! Trump! Cramer! The truck grew closer. Her aides protectively herded her back toward her entourage. North Dakota is different kind of place, Heitkamp said that morning. It may be a conservative state that is only growing more strongly Republican electorally, but she still believes that people here could look beyond party politics at the ballot box. North Dakotans, she said, are more independent than what you think. If they werent, I wouldnt be here. A supporter wears a shirt featuring Sen. Heidi Heitkamps famous red hair during a parade in Dickinson, N.D. (Photo: Holly Bailey/Yahoo News) _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Decentralised data storage will put an end to catastrophic breaches The most serious breach of personal data in Singapores history was reported by the Singaporean government towards the end of July. Around 1.5 million patient records were accessed and copied with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs records specifically targeted by attackers. As the world becomes more reliant on peoples personal data, the scale and consequences of attacks are becoming more serious. Thats why I believe its time for the ownership of personal data to be taken out of the hands of organisations and handed back to consumers. When an organisation stores data on either on-site servers, or cloud servers, or a combination of the two, the data is inherently vulnerable. Servers represent a central point through which a hacker or a rogue state could enter. Also Read: (Exclusive): Malaysias blockchain-based affiliate marketing platform OneKlix raises US$250K funding Attacks on centralised cloud servers can be particularly catastrophic because so much data is concentrated in so few vulnerable geographic locations. Dont forget, when AWS servers went down in 2017, a large proportion of the internet, including Netflix, simply stopped operating. But breaches of health data is as personal and serious as it gets. The Singapore breach shows patient data everywhere is vulnerable. The logical step is for the world to move to a decentralised method of data storage and fast. Blockchain-enabled decentralised cloud databases, which can distribute information across the network in swarms, are the answer. Swarm computing explained With swarm computing, data is stored across millions of computers, each utilising their spare capacity. Each computer becomes a storage unit to create a decentralised network of on-demand databases. Swarms of these computers work together using blockchain technology. Security on swarm-computing networks can be far superior to centralised cloud networks as the data is chopped into pieces and stored across many locations. Story continues Computers in swarms all have the same shard (or fragment) of data on them so that if one of them goes down, the others are still there. Many different swarms of computers hold these data shards but none of the groups hold more than half of the actual data, so it can never be pieced together without the data entry keyholder. Hacking into one of these computers would reveal only a shard of data without any context, and, in any case, each computer is encrypted differently so an attack of consequence is virtually impossible. Decentralised data storage can also be extremely fast and efficient. Swarms are similar to torrent peers with swarms spread out across the entire planet. This means that if youre accessing your data, its coming from the node closest to you, as fast as possible. And if youre retrieving data from several swarms at once, its all going to come at you in parallel just like torrents being downloaded on peer-to-peer networks. A decentralised cloud-based database can also consistently offer the same performance during peak times. But during low usage times, it doesnt require the same amount of hardware to be committed. DDOS attacks Many of the most devastating data breaches are the result of sophisticated DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks that overwhelm a companys servers to expose vulnerabilities. Incidences of DDoS attacks doubled in the last six months of 2017, and it continues to be a worrying threat for many companies. Decentralised databases arent vulnerable to these attacks because DDoS attempts cant simultaneously overload thousands of servers located around the world. Power over data Health data like that breached in Singapore cant just be hidden away. It needs to be available to share between medical professionals. Decentralised ledgers are perfect in this respect in that they offer a blend of security, usability and permanence. Smart contracts ensure that patients could give instant approval to any hospital or medical professional to access their data. Then when it has been used, the patient can halt access to it. At no point would this data be stored in the hospitals on-site server or cloud server. Conclusion The world is at an important crossroads. The amount of data its generating is expanding exponentially, and the extent to which it relies on that data is increasing on a similar growth curve. Data has become an unfathomably vast and valuable resource. Many organisations I talk to feel that the decentralised internet is a long way away. It isnt. In fact, its here now. Decentralised data-storage networks are ready for any business and organisation that uses an application that needs a database and needs to guarantee performance, reliability, scalability and security. Also Read: How blockchain tech removes the hassle of multi-account sign-ins A new, decentralised internet is already close to being built. Blockchains like Ethereum are the new operating systems. Companies like Golem are effectively harnessing computer power everywhere to build a worldwide supercomputing system to power amongst other things all the rendering taking place on the internet today. Companies like FileCoin or Storj do file storage, just like Dropbox or Box. A decentralised database is the next part of this story. It offers somewhere to store and manage data so it can be easily accessed by websites and applications, while remaining absolutely secure. The Singapore data breach is a salutary lesson for health systems across the world. The responsibility for holding data needs to be taken away from organisations. Instead, the data should be in the patients control, in the most secure database system known to humanity. e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here. The post Singapore health records attack shows data must be handed back to individuals appeared first on e27. Amnesty International on Thursday accused Turkish forces of allowing Syrian armed groups to commit major rights abuses in the northern region of Afrin, urging Ankara to end the violations immediately. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin earlier this year after a military operation dubbed "Olive Branch" which ousted a Kurdish militia that is an ally of the United States but Ankara regards as a terror group. Amnesty said that, since the takeover, residents in Afrin had been "enduring a wide range of violations" which Turkish armed forces "turned a blind eye" to. "These violations include arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and confiscation of property and looting to which Turkey's armed forces have turned a blind eye," Amnesty said. A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP there had been similar "untrue allegations" previously, but "information and documents have undermined" the veracity of the claims. Looting incidents were quickly investigated and Turkey, with Syrian groups, "urgently took the necessary measures", the source added. Some of the Syrian groups as well as Turkish armed forces have taken over schools, disrupting education for thousands of children, Amnesty claimed. The rights group said residents told them that Afrin University was "completely shut down after it was destroyed and looted", adding that only one school in Afrin city was accessible. The Turkish diplomatic source said Ankara had been working to focus on schools' needs and ensuring that the infrastructure was completed for the 2018-19 academic year. - 'Wreak havoc' - Turkey says the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia it ousted from Afrin is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the European Union. In the case of one woman, her uncle has been missing since an armed group escorted him to his house after he returned to his village three months earlier. "They wouldn't tell his wife where they took him," the unnamed woman told Amnesty, denying the man, head of a local committee, had any links to the YPG. Amnesty said some homes have been "occupied" by displaced families from the central Homs province and the southern area of Eastern Ghouta which was recently recaptured by the Syrian regime. But the Turkish source said 80,000 Afrin residents were able to return to their homes. Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director, said the Syrian armed groups continued to "wreak havoc on civilians, unchecked by Turkish forces". She argued that Turkey was responsible for the welfare of civilians as well as maintaining law and order since it was the "occupying power" in Afrin. "Without further delay, Turkey must end violations by pro-Turkish armed groups, hold perpetrators accountable, and commit to helping Afrin residents rebuild their lives," she added. The Turkish source said humanitarian aid and primary healthcare services were routinely reaching the region. The source added that the Syrian groups or those under their control were "banned from searching villages using their own initiative and setting up checkpoints". Three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray collected the biggest victory of his injury comeback on Wednesday at the ATP and WTA Washington Open while defending champion Alexander Zverev booked a matchup with his older brother. Murray, sidelined by a right hip injury for 11 months until returning in June, ousted fourth seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-4 in an all-British matchup to reach the third round of the hardcourt tuneup for the US Open. "That has been my best win since I started playing again," Murray said. "It's a great win for me. It'll give me more confidence going forward." World number three Zverev defeated Tunisia's Malek Jaziri 6-2, 6-1, to send the 21-year-old German top seed into his first ATP match against 30-year-old Mischa Zverev, the 15th seed who beat American Tim Smyczek 6-2, 7-6 (9/7). "We played the final of Wimbledon a lot of times in our backyard," Alex Zverev said. "I was 12. He was 22. I don't think I ever won. But this is on hardcourt." On a day when reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens was ousted by Germany's Andrea Petkovic and Australian Nick Kyrgios withdrew with a sore left hip, Murray stole the show with an impressive victory. "Hopefully my body will adapt to the matches and get back to what it's supposed to be doing," Murray said. "As the weeks progress, I hope to have more days like today where the pressure and the expectations all grow." Former world number one Murray, now ranked 832nd, outlasted his 18th-ranked rival, breaking on a forehand return winner to advance after two hours and 32 minutes. "Now I have to get my body to play that way consistently and work on getting better with every match," Murray said. The 31-year-old Scotsman, who unleashed a primal scream and flurry of fist pumps after winning his opener, wiped away sweat this time before eventually pointing to the heavens, punching the air with his right fist and pumping his fist with satisfaction. "Much better in terms of the way I played," Murray said. "Got a lot more points off my forehand. I was able to be more aggressive. I wanted to dictate more points and be inside the baseline, especially on the main points and particularly in the third set. "I was less nervous. I increased my intensity at the end of the second set. I thought I did that well." Romania's 93rd-ranked Marius Copil, who ousted French 14th seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4, will face Murray on Thursday for a quarter-final berth. - No. 3 Stephens stumbles - Third-ranked Stephens lost to 91st-rated Andrea Petkovic 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Stephens, who won the Miami Open in March, made a run to the French Open semi-finals but stumbled early in her first hardcourt stop before defending her first Grand Slam title. "Hopefully some things will connect in the next few weeks coming into the US Open," Stephens said. Petkovic, down a set and a break, rallied and won the final four games to reach the quarter-finals, her first victory over a top-10 foe since beating then-number five Garbine Muguruza at Doha in 2016. "It's definitely a confidence boost," Petkovic said. Japanese third seed Naomi Osaka, ranked 17th, is the only top-45 player remaining in the women's draw. - Injured Kyrgios 'gutted' - Kyrgios, ranked 17th, tweeted he was "gutted" to withdraw over the same injury that caused him to retire from an Atlanta Open quarter-final last week. "I haven't had enough time to be ready," Kyrgios said. "The physio recommended a couple of days of rest, rehab and treatment. I've got ample time for it to settle down before Toronto. "It's disappointing. But at this stage I can't risk aggravating the injury. Last year I wasn't healthy at the US Open so I want to be right for that." Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori beat US qualifier Donald Young 6-3, 6-4 just before rain washed out the night's final five matches, including US second seed John Isner's second-rounder against compatriot Noah Rubin. Workers at the world's biggest copper mine, Chile's Escondida open-pit, voted Thursday in favor of strike action after rejecting as insufficient a salary hike proposed by Anglo-Australian owners BHP. The N1 union said 84 percent of its members had backed the strike, with a "historic" turnout of 2,330 of 2,500 people eligible to vote. "We hope that this overwhelming desire to reject the company's offer... will convince the company of the need to show a willingness to build an accord that recognizes our rights," N1 said in a statement. The union is calling for a five percent salary increase and a conflict termination bonus of four percent of dividends received by shareholders last year, or about $34,000 per worker. Chilean miners earn between $2,500-3,000 a month -- a comfortable sum in a country where the minimum wage is $800. But the workers argue they deserve such a premium because of their harsh working conditions. "A strike at Escondida would have very negative effects on our workers and their families, as well as the company, the region and the country," the vice president of the BHP unit running the mine, Patricio Vilaplana, said in a statement. "We all lose in a strike," he warned. Vilaplana said the company was reviewing "contingency plans" to minimize the effect of a strike. - Mediation snubbed - The company had increased its initial offer of 13.5 million Chilean pesos to 15 million ($23,000) per worker as a bonus for ending the negotiations, which had dragged on for weeks. BHP -- a multinational mining, metals and petroleum company that posted revenues of $38 billion and $5.9 billion in bottom line profit last year -- has the right to request mediation, which could last 10 days. But the head of the N1 union, Patricio Tapia, said the mining company had until next Monday to make concessions, or "we will conclude that it makes no sense to go to heel-dragging compulsory mediation." Last year, Escondida miners went on strike for 44 days, provoking a 39 percent drop in production over the first half of the year -- costing the company $740 million. Some five percent of the world's copper is produced at the mine, one of the most profitable in the world. It earned almost $1.2 billion last year, a 20 percent increase on the previous year, and that despite the lengthy industrial action. That hurt the local economy, though, in a country that produces almost a third of the world's copper, around 5.6 million tons, fuelled largely by China's insatiable appetite for the red metal. - Government pleas - The Chilean government, which says last year's stoppage shaved 1.3 percent off the economy, pleaded with the miners to reconsider their threatened action. "We are asking that they take into consideration the reality in this country, where employment is needed," Mining Minister Baldo Prokurica said. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said: "Strike action is a legitimate tool, but without a doubt we hope the problems can be resolved without resorting to a strike." The Escondida mine is located in the world's driest desert, the Atacama in northern Chile, at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). It's the same area where eight years ago, 33 men were trapped 700 meters underground for 69 days following a cave-in at the Copiapo mine. Earlier this week, at yet another mine in Chuquicamata, run by the state-owned Codelco company, workers briefly went on strike to demand the reinstatement of sacked colleagues. Analyst Juan Carlos Guajardo told AFP there was a possibility the mine's workers might not go on strike and instead use legal maneuvers to roll over their current contract another 18 months. "That could generate even worse labor relations with the company," he said. Sidewalk Concrete Waves Edit + The Skateboarding Show in Newquay The general buzz around Newquays brand new Concrete Waves continues here, with Brett Dye heading down to get a number of interviews for The Skateboarding Show relating to how the jewel in Cornwalls skatepark crown became a reality. Below you can see all three with a couple of the local skaters, with one of the main people involved with the build and with one of the town councillors involved in making the project happen. From the outset its obvious that the park is going to be a must visit for anyone with a taste for transitions, with the opening week seeing visitors from all over the UK making the trip down to check out the lines and thats even before Boardmasters hits the weekend after next! Absolute madness can be expected over that weekend, we have no doubt. Peep the interviews below to get a sense of the skateparks back story, as well as our interview with crew at Maverick about the parks building process, once youve enjoyed the brief edit below from a couple of sessions with Will Golding, Jake Sparham, Adam Moss, Harry While, Finn McCormick, Josh Rounding and Matt Beer. Interview one, with Harry While and Chaz Merryweather discuss just how much hype there is around the new park, with a brief appearance from Beth Rickard. Interview two, with Maverick builder Ian Jennings discussing how the actual planning and building process progressed. Interview three, with Ollie Monk discussing the skatepark from the councils point of view and why theyre stoked on Concrete Waves. To finish things off, heres a further dose of Newquay gnar from TR7 Skateshop featuring Jake Sparham, Harry While, Beth Rickard, Andy Gant, Joe Haddon, Matty Page and Div Adam. If you dont find yourself looking at a road trip after ingesting all this Cornish visual stimulus, then theres not much we can do for you Permafrost and wetland emissions could cut 1.5C carbon budget by five years Posted on 2 August 2018 by Guest Author This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Robert McSweeney Emissions of CO2 and methane from wetlands and thawing permafrost as the climate warms could cut the carbon budget for the Paris Agreement temperature limits by around five years, a new study says. These natural processes are positive feedbacks so called because they release more greenhouse gases as global temperatures rise, thus reinforcing the warming. They have previously not been represented in carbon budget estimates as they are not included in most climate models, the researchers say. The findings suggest that human-caused emissions will need to be cut by an additional 20% in order to meet the Paris Agreements 1.5C or 2C limits, the researchers estimate. Engines for turning CO2 into methane Over the last year or so, there has been a flurry of new carbon budget studies using slightly different approaches to estimate how much CO2 we can emit and still hold global temperature rise to no more than 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels. (Carbon Brief summarised all the 1.5C budgets in a recent analysis piece.) Many of these studies use global climate models to make their estimates. However, there are some processes which affect the climate that are not yet incorporated into these models. The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, aims to fill that gap. It focuses on two processes on the land surface: thawing permafrost and natural wetlands. These are both positive feedbacks for the climate because, as they respond to rising temperatures, they cause the release of more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Permafrost is the name given to soil that has been frozen for at least two years. It is predominantly found in the northern hemisphere stretching across northern reaches of Russia, Canada and Alaska. These soils hold a huge amount of carbon, accumulated from dead plants and animals over thousands of years. Rising temperatures put this carbon at risk of being released, explains Dr Chris Jones, head of the earth system and mitigation science team at the Met Office Hadley Centre. Jones is not an author on the new study, but his team was involved closely in the work. He tells Carbon Brief: While [permafrost] is frozen, it is inert. As it thaws, this carbon is vulnerable to decomposition like any other soil carbon. Depending on whether it is waterlogged or not this can be emitted to the atmosphere as CO2 or methane. How much is released as CO2 and how much as methane is still uncertain, and is an active area of research. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas approximately 26 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere, although it only lasts for around a decade in the atmosphere. In natural wetlands, plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. But, because they are waterlogged, when the plants decompose they release methane, rather than CO2. This makes wetlands effectively engines for turning CO2 into methane, says Jones. In the Amazon, for example, flooded forests actually release methane through the trees themselves. Wetlands respond to a warming climate in three ways, Jones explains: As [the climate] warms, the local decomposition rate increases. Also, as rainfall changes, we may see increased or decreased areas of wetlands. This varies regionally and, again, is a large uncertainty across climate models. Finally, a direct effect of increased CO2 in the atmosphere is to increase the growth rate of the vegetation and, hence, increase the amount of CO2 being turned into methane. The study is the first to bring all these factors together, he notes. Inverted model The researchers used a multi-layered soil carbon model called JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator), explains lead author Dr Edward Comyn-Platt, a land surface modeller at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. JULES has an improved representation of soil chemistry and the way that wetlands create methane. With permafrost, for example, this not only improves our estimates of the carbon stored in soils at high latitudes, but also allows us to estimate how much of this soil will be lost as the permafrost regions thaw, Comyn-Platt tells Carbon Brief. To estimate carbon budgets, the researchers use an inverted form of the model. This means, rather than plugging in pathways of future greenhouse gas emissions and seeing how global temperatures respond, the researchers input pathways of global temperature rise and use the model to estimate the corresponding levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The study looks at three scenarios of future global warming: holding temperature rise at 1.5C and 2C, and one where warming overshoots 1.5C, reaches 1.75C, then returns to 1.5C. In their control model runs with no permafrost or wetland feedbacks, the researchers estimate the 1.5C budget at 720bn-929bn tonnes of CO2 from the beginning of 2018 equivalent to 20-25 years of emissions at current rates. This is slightly higher than some recent budgets because the JULES model tends to simulate a large amount of carbon uptake from the land surface, explains Comyn-Platt, freeing up space for more CO2 emissions in the budget. The researchers then used the model to simulate the response of permafrost and natural wetlands to climate change. When the additional CO2 and methane emissions are incorporated, the available carbon budget shrinks substantially falling to 533bn-753bn tonnes of CO2 for 1.5C, or 14-20 years of emissions. That means accounting for the impacts of permafrost and wetlands takes around five years off the 1.5C budget. And, as the table below shows, the budgets for the 1.5C overshoot and 2C scenarios are similarly reduced. Control Feedbacks included Tonne of CO2 Years of emissions Tonne of CO2 Years of emissions 1.5C 720-929bn 20-25 533-753bn 14-20 1.5C overshoot 723-947bn 20-26 522-771bn 14-21 2C 1592-1974bn 43-54 1372-1776bn 37-48 Table shows remaining carbon budget (from 2018 to 2100) for three temperature pathways for the control (left) and feedbacks included (right) scenarios. Carbon budgets are shown as tonnes of CO2 and as total years of emissions (based on 2017 global emissions). Table adapted from Comyn-Platt et al. (2018) Evolution This nice work shows that even if we were to get net emissions to zero in the next few decades, emissions would need to fall further in order to stabilise temperatures at 1.5C or 2C, says Prof Piers Forster, professor of physical climate change at the University of Leeds and director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate. He tells Carbon Brief: The extra carbon released from thawing permafrost and warming wetlands would continue beyond the date of net-zero emissions and this would need to be countered for in order to consider carbon budgets applicable for 2100 and beyond. The study also highlights the constant evolution in the complexity of climate models, says Jones, with new model components being developed and run separately before being incorporated into global models. The graphic below shows how new components have been added to global climate models over time. In this case, the wetland model scheme will be shortly be brought into UKESM1 the UK Earth System Model run by the Met Office Hadley Centre and partners, says Jones. And the permafrost scheme will follow in due course. The Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to relax fuel standards for new vehicles, including a freeze on escalating miles-per-gallon requirements and an attempt to revoke Californias power to control emissions in the state. It sounds like the administration caving to demands from automakers, but industry responses to the proposals have been mixed. Meanwhile, California and more than a dozen states have filed suit against the administration. A lengthy court battle will make it challenging for companies to plan ahead. Advertisement Instead, the administration will make the case, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press, that burning more gas will make cars safer and cleaner. You read that correctly. Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt argued back in April that actually, new vehicles would be better for the environment if they werent held to Obama-era miles-per-gallon standards. Fewer regulations would make new vehicles cheaper, he reasoned, and that would encourage people to leave behind older, dirtier models faster. As a side bonus, more people would also be in safer, newer cars. And now, according to the AP, the administration has added an idea to that vision: people will drive less if their vehicles get fewer miles per gallon, lowering the risk of crashes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The logic is very basic. If Scott gets 20 miles to the gallon and Rachel gets 60, a gallon of gas is $3, and each of them has a gas budget of $12, who can drive for more miles? Obviously, the answer is Rachel, who can go three times as far, which puts her at a higher risk of crashing. But this assumption rests on the idea that every American has a fixed gas budget. In reality, while drivers complain about changes in gas prices, they tend to do the driving theyre going to do. Demand for gasoline is what economists call inelastic, or not responsive to changes in price. Thats why a gas tax would be a good way to raise money for infrastructure. Advertisement Advertisement Trumps EPA is right about one thing: It would be good if Americans drove a little less. We could make that happen by allowing more people to live near their jobs. Or providing better public transit service and making it easier and safer to walk or bike. Or we could put a tax on gasoline, which, if it doesnt make people drive less, would at least raise money for repairs. Making Americans buy more gas in the hopes that theyll drive less, on the other hand, is nothing more than a stimulus for companies that sell gasoline. The Affordable Care Act was designed, in large part, to ban cruddy health insurance. Before the law was passed, shoppers often tried to save money on their coverage by purchasing plans with meager benefits that didnt help much if they got sick with cancer or needed an expensive prescription or were badly injured in a car wreck. Obamacare sought to end that by requiring health plans to cover a standard package of services, no matter who bought them. The Trump administration is now bringing cruddy back. In yet another aggressive move to undermine the Affordable Care Act, it issued a new regulation on Wednesday that will make it easier for companies to sell inexpensive insurance plans that are not required to offer basic benefits and can discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Worse, the decision could ultimately drive up the price of insurance on Obamacares exchanges by creating a parallel, lightly regulated market for cheap coverage that siphons off healthier customers. The new rule will allow companies to offer longer-lasting versions of what the industry calls short-term, limited duration health policies. Under old regulations put in place by the Obama administration, these plans could last no more than three months at a time before customers had to reapply for them. Going forward, they will be able to last as long as 36 months. Short-term health plans are often dismissed as junk insurance, and for good reason. They were originally meant as a temporary option for people who found themselves with a brief break in their coverage, such as after losing a job. Unlike the coverage sold on Obamacares exchanges, they are not required to offer a minimum-benefits package; they can leave out things like maternity care, mental health, or prescription drugs. They can cap coverage and impose higher deductibles. Carriers also underwrite them, meaning they are permitted to charge customers moreor reject them outrightbased on their health. Advertisement Because they can offer skimpy benefits to a narrow group of healthy customers, these plans are naturally attractive to people without much in the way of immediate medical needs. (Of course, when those people get sick, they may feel differently.)The Obama administration clamped down on the plans in 2016 by limiting their duration, after it realized that they were drawing younger, healthy adults away from market Affordable Care Acts market. This was happening despite the fact that the policies plans did not count as health insurance for the purposes of fulfilling the laws individual mandate, meaning people who relied on them still got stuck paying a tax penalty. Such was the allure of dirt-cheap insurance. Advertisement Advertisement By letting insurance companies offer these plans for up to three years, the Trump administration is basically taking the short out of short-term. Because Republicans also eliminated the individual mandate as part of the tax law they passed last year, theres also no longer a financial incentive to buy comprehensive coverage through the exchanges instead of a limited duration plan. Between those two moves, Trump and his GOP allies are essentially legalizing the very bare bones coverage Obamacare was designed to wipe out. Advertisement For all intents and purposes, this is a separate, ACA-non-compliant market, Chris Sloan, a director at the health care consulting firm Avalere, told me. Theyre not short-term plans when theyre 36 months long. Some people will no doubt benefit from this move. As Trump administration officials point out, Obamacare premiums have been rising drastically. While this hasnt affected Americans eligible for subsidized coverage, it has certainly priced out some who dont receive any financial aid from the government. These short-term plans will give them a cheaper option. The administration points out that the average short-term plan cost $124 per month at the end of 2016, as opposed to $393 for the average unsubsidized Obamacare plan. Advertisement Advertisement We continue to see a crisis of affordability in the individual insurance market, especially for those who dont qualify for large subsidies, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. This final rule opens the door to new, more affordable coverage options for millions of middle-class Americans who have been priced out of ACA plans. What the administration fails to mention, of course, is that Obamacare premiums are rising thanks largely to the White Houses own attempts to sabotage the law, which, judging from data on patient expenses and premiums, had finally started to stabilize in 2017. And as the administration itself has admitted, expanding the market for short-term insurance could make premium hikes worse. Routing young, healthy insurance shoppers away from the Obamacare exchange will skew that market further towards sick, unprofitable patients, forcing carriers to raise their prices in order to make a profit. Advertisement Advertisement I dont want to over-exaggerate the magnitude of this change. Short-term policies were permitted to last for a full 12 months during the early years of Obamacare, before the administration moved to cap them. And after 2016, some companies found ways around Obamas regulations by offering customers four packs of consecutive 3-month policies. The difference now is that customers will be able to buy a policy that lasts for an initial period of one year, then automatically renew it for another 24 months. That will make them less of a hassle, and easy to market. But its not as if these policies were entirely banned before. But with the individual mandate gone, it stands to reason that these kinds of policies will be more popular than before, and could potentially do more to destabilize Obamacare. The good news is that states dont have to sit there and watch their health insurance markets devolve. A handful already ban the sort of short-term insurance policies the White House wants to unleash, and more could move that direction. Trump is opening the flood gates for junk coverage. States could shut them back down. On Full Frontal Wednesday night, Samantha Bee put the spotlight on a group that has not gotten as much attention within the #MeToo movement: men. No, not the male perpetrators, who are getting plenty of attention, but the male victims of sexual harassment and misconduct. The movement has been primarily focused on female victims, making it easy to forget that men can be (and increasingly are) harmed by sexual assault, too. Bee pointed out that about one in every 33 American men has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. Advertisement Men are vastly more likely to be sexually assaulted than to be falsely accused of rape, she said. Sexual assault of men is a real problem, and not a jokedespite the way we tend to talk about it. She then showed a disturbing montage of jokes about male-on-male sexual assault and prison rape, told by everyone from comedians to Kentucky state policemen to TV news analystseven Spongebob Squarepants was guilty of a distasteful dont drop the soap line. Bee called out the people making these jokes, even challenging herself to do a better part in the conversation about male sexual assault. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We talk about #MeToo like its only a womens movement, but many of the predators in the #MeToo era preyed on men#MenToo, Bee said. When we laugh at their victims, we make it easier for them to keep Kevin Spacey-ing all over the place. Advertisement The segment ended with a lighthearted but firm PSA from actor Terry Crews, who disclosed last year that he was the victim of an alleged sexual assault. Maybe this happened to you: Youre a funny guy and youre telling a joke thats real edgy. Maybe its about prison rape. Maybe its about boys getting molested. Either way, its not getting the laugh you want. Im here to tell you how to solve that problem, he says, with a charming smile. Stop telling those fucking jokes. Then Bee chimes in to help Crews demonstrate all the things that are funnier than rape jokeswhich is pretty much anything. The most important thing to remember is, you dont need to do jokes about assault to be funny. NBC will reportedly follow AMCs lead and allow Chris Hardwick to return to television in spite of allegations by an ex-girlfriend that he was emotionally and sexually abusive. According to Variety, Hardwick will guest-judge Americas Got Talent next weekhis first TV appearance since Chloe Dykstras June 14 Medium post about an unnamed man, who has been widely considered to be Hardwick, went viral. Hardwick will also return as the host of NBCs game show The Wall. NBCs decision comes shortly after AMCs announcement that it had launched a comprehensive assessment into Hardwicks behavior. That network determined that it would be appropriate for him to return as host of The Talking Dead, which he will do on Aug. 12, five days after his appearance on Americas Got Talent. Hardwick has said he was blindsided by Dykstras account of their relationship and denies ever sexually assaulting her. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whose trial on tax and bank fraud charges began this week, stands accused of shielding millions of dollars from the IRS. Federal prosecutors are building their case by showing that Manafort purchased stuff with wire transfers from overseas bank accounts. This is at once a sound legal strategy and an extremely entertaining one, because the stuff Manafort bought via those wire transfers is absolutely insane. On Wednesday, we learned that Manafort sunk a huge amount of cash into a wardrobe that could be best described as conspicuous consumptionmeetspetting zoo. The item that made the most headlines was, per prosecutors, a custom $15,000 jacket made from an ostrich. Observers wondered: What part of the ostrich was used for the jacket? Was it the feathers, which are famously soft and luxurious? The scaly legs, whose length would provide some nice, uninterrupted strips of jacket material? Might it have been the claws? As the proud owner a $15 fake ostrich-leather miniskirt from Old Navy that lasted me from eighth grade through college, I know fake ostrich skin can make for a sophisticated and durable garment. Real ostrich skin would probably be even better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indeed, it was ostrich leather that made up the jacket in question, which Manafort bought from a Manhattan tailor a few years ago. It looks something like a Members Only jacket, but with a hood, and also its made out of ostrich skin. And thats only the beginning. He purchased nearly $1 million worth of clothing from Alan Couture, including an ostrich vest and a jacket made out of python skin. Even in photographs snapped in poor lighting for courtroom purposes, the snake jacket glows with the luminescence of money, a true piece of art only the greatest of schemers can afford. Advertisement Advertisement According to the Washington Post, a former employee of the boutique testified that Manafort bought an unusually high number of suits there, all through wire transfers from foreign accounts. Invoices entered into evidence document the purchase of a whole bunch of probably pretty nice clothing, including a seersucker jacket, two 11-fold ties (the ultimate in tie quality, with 11 folds of silk!), two pairs of jeans made with cashmere, a pair of linen shorts, and a $7,500 waterproof silk blouson. One photo of what looks like a windbreaker shows a lining made from blue furno doubt made from a limited-edition mystery animal thats only visible to the 1 percent. Advertisement The judge presiding over Manaforts trial scolded prosecutors for dwelling on the defendants wardrobe when only the parts relevant to the foreign bank accounts mattered. Lets move on, enough is enough, he said. Luckily, Slate writers are not under the same strictures and are thus free to pass judgment on Manaforts character based on the contents of his walk-in closet(s). It is my belief that there is no conceivable universe in which a man who wears cashmere jeans does not keep at least some of his money in an offshore tax haven. If an ostrich vest could talk, it would almost certainly squawk, TAX FRAUD!!!!! Advertisement Advertisement In the courtroom on Tuesday, the judge expressed confusion over the various designer labels prosecutors rattled off. If it doesnt say Mens Wearhouse, I dont know it, he said. (He did not go on to say, Youre gonna like the way prison looks, I guarantee it!) While the more functionally clothed among us may not recognize the brand names on the labels, its hard not to gawk at the aspirational self-attiring of an ethically deficient oligarch. I wish Id never read that the python coat was meant for Manaforts wife, because its tempting to imagine him purchasing it after a mentor told him to dress for the job you want and he decided he wanted to be an Eastern European nightclub magnate, or maybe a snake. Judging by some of the pieces Manafort snagged for himselfnotably, two dusty blue-and-tan plaid sport coatsit appears the job hed rather have belongs to Trumps lawyer Michael Cohen. This month, Rihanna became the first black woman to appear on the cover of British Vogues September issue, the largest and most important release of the calendar year for any fashion magazine. Riri was a natural choice for editor-in-chief Edward Enninfuls first September issue: Shes a fashion icon with distinctive, often outre tastes who has her own clothing line with Puma, collaborates with a wide range of designers (Dior, Manolo Blahnik), and recently launched a wildly popular cosmetics company. Advertisement But you know what was not a natural choice for Rihannas big debut? Removing her eyebrows and penciling them back in as sad little two-dimensional stripes. Yet there they are, twin pinworms squiggling across her face, mocking the millions of dollars that have gone into recent fashion-world messaging that says bigger eyebrows are better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was but three years ago that Rihanna showed up on the cover art for Bitch Better Have My Money with thick, super-dark brows that almost certainly required artificial enhancement. That image, pictured above alongside her more recent look, foretold the era of Boy Browthe flagship brow-enhancing product of millennial beauty brand Glossierand the rise of models like Cara Delevingne, whose bushy eyebrows are her best-known features and quite possibly the muses for several St. Vincent songs. Those of us who overplucked our eyebrows in middle school struggled to regrow the hair wed once been eager to banish from our faces. We persevered despite suffering catastrophic, sometimes unrecoverable losses in crucial areas (inner corners, tails) and continued our relentless assault against those tenacious buggers in the unibrow region, which Rihanna and Delevingne had neglected to make cool. Advertisement Now, as people attuned to the cyclical inevitabilities of fashion no doubt saw coming, it has become clear that those efforts were for naught. All eye-adjacent hairs must be removed, for Rihanna has decreed them superfluous. There must be maximum flesh space bookended between brow and eyelash. One or two rows of hair should be enough to serve an eyebrows purposekeeping sweat out of the eyesespecially since the lack of hair will mean cooler eye areas and, thus, less sweat. Advertisement I understand that a certain degree of ugliness is pivotal to cutting-edge fashion and that ugliness is subjective and morphs to fit the beauty standards of a particular time and place. But Rihannas penciled-on Vogue brows look too spare to accentuate any pair of eyes and too complicated to be practical for everyday wearjust ask any drag queen whos shaved off or sealed down her own eyebrows to draw in something slimmer. And yet, this is almost certainly the beginning of the end for natural-looking brows, at least for now. When some of us protested the resurgence of straight-leg, wide-leg, and cropped jeans a couple of years back, since our wardrobes were freshly stocked with skinny jeans, our cries went unheeded. So here we are, back in the era of jeans that are way more difficult to pair with shoes. This eyebrow thing, too, seems to have passed the point of no return: On Tuesday, Delevingne herself endorsed Rihannas 1920s-inspired pluckdown, foretelling an age in which young women decimate their follicles to get Rihanna-like stripes. Advertisement Advertisement We all should have known the end of the bushy brow was nigh when the Today show, perhaps the nations least of-the-moment source of fashion content, lauded the eyebrow-tattooing trend of microblading in May. Eyebrow trends come and go, but this new brow procedure might be here to stay, the shows site proclaimed. Tell that to the freshly microbladed, who will have to wait a year or three for their Delevingne-esque tattoos to wear off before they can hope to imitate Riri. Advertisement Fashion cycles are usually tied to some sort of capitalist imperative. Jeans manufacturers have to shift public opinion every now and then, or at least convince a few high-profile fashion influencers to change their habits, so they can sell new and different kinds of denim. Its the apparel industry version of forced obsolescence in tech. And so it goes with brows. Several months ago, Rihanna promised that Fenty Beauty, her makeup line, was building the illest eyebrow situationin other words, preparing to release a brow gel, pencil, or powder, perfect for crafting sleek, delicate lines on a heavily plucked face. The plot thickens! Or, should we say, thins. A national organization for immigration lawyers said Wednesday that a migrant toddler had died shortly after being released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The statement came after a day of confusion set off by a tweet from an immigration attorney alleging a child had died in ICE custody. ICE denied Wednesday that a migrant had died in its custody and said it was investigating the possibility a child had died after leaving an agency facility. The tweet appears to have been the result of the lawyer reading a crowdsourcing call on Facebook, posting it on Twitter as news, and getting a crucial fact wrong in the process. Advertisement The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), which confirmed the death to the Washington Post, was not able to provide additional details, including when the death occurred, its cause, or what, if any, impact the detention may have had on the childs health. The communications director for the group told Slate in an email, AILA learned from a contact who was in touch with the family that the death occurred after the child and parent left Dilley. AILA does not have permission to share who told us this information, and we do not at this time have additional details regarding the death. Slate has not been able to independently verify the death; neither has the Post, which first reported the story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The disarray began on Twitter when Houston immigration attorney Mana Yegani tweeted, There are reports that a child died in ICE custody in Dilley, Texas. She deleted the tweet and issued an update, saying that the child had actually died after her release. Update: The child died following her stay at an ICE Detention Center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children. The events took place in Dilley Family Detention Center in south Texas. Mana Yegani (@Law_Mana) August 1, 2018 Advertisement The tweets started circulating widely, with thousands of users reposting them and attempting to alert reporters. (The allegations around cause of death remain unverified.) By Wednesday morning, people were questioning the accuracy of the report. For example, a CBS assignment editor noted he had deleted his retweet. Breaking: Original poster of story about child that may have died in custody at an ICE Detention facility is now retracting the story. Which is why I have deleted my retweet. It's also why I wrote "If true." Mark Kewman (@mkewman) August 1, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement At 8:52 a.m. ET, 11 hours after Yeganis initial tweet, ICE posted its own tweet denying that a child had died in the Dilley detention center. Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false. ICE (@ICEgov) August 1, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement An ICE spokesperson echoed the tweet in a statement to Slate, which read in part: No child or adult has ever died at an ICE family residential center. The spokesperson also pointed to the fact that the person who originally tweeted that later posted an update that retracted the original accusation. ICEs tweet did not address the possibility that a child may have died after leaving ICE custody. At around the same time that ICE sent its tweet, Yegani disclosed where she had obtained the information. (Yegani was unavailable for comment when Slate reached out to her law office.) This is a statement from the attorney who informed me of this tragic death. She a friend of the victims family and she is the one in touch with them. I dont have any direct contact with the victims family. See below the image of her message that was posted on Facebook. pic.twitter.com/ISOCRQBend Mana Yegani (@Law_Mana) August 1, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Last night a lawyer in Wash DC, posted on FB, seeking recommendations for a lawyer to represent a family whose child died AFTER her stay at Dilley Detention Cntr in TX. I made the news public.I am in touch with Melissa-the lawyer, but have no confirmation from the victims family Mana Yegani (@Law_Mana) August 1, 2018 Melissa Lynn Turcios, the D.C.-based lawyer whom Yegani referenced in the tweets, said she is a friend of the toddlers family. It appears that she had taken to Facebook to try to find legal help for the family. Yegani then posted information about the childs deathincorrectly at firston Twitter. Turcios told Slate in an email, I am not an attorney for anyone involved. I was simply hoping to connect the family with legal resources, as a friend. She declined to comment further. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats was joined by several other high-ranking national security officials before the White House press briefing Thursday to say that, yes, Russia is still trying to interfere in U.S. election and, yes, the Trump administration takes this very seriously. President Donald J. Trump, the titular head of the executive branch, on the other hand, referred to the current special counsel investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 campaign as a witch hunt three times Wednesday. Advertisement In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States, Coats said. The president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority. When asked to explain the contrast between Trumps failure in Helsinki to condemn Russian interference in the 2016 campaign (and his doubt that it happened at all) and his having specifically directed national security officials to secure elections from similar Russian attacks, Coats could only say that he was not in a position to either understand fully, or talk about, what happened at Helsinki. National security adviser John Bolton assured the reporters that the first issue Trump raised during his meeting with Vladimir Putin was election meddlingafter all, Putin said so. Donald Trump has so far been unwilling to put his recent endorsement hot streak to the test in Tennessees GOP gubernatorial primary. According to Politico, the president has no plans to get involved in Thursdays marquee contest, a somewhat curious decision given Mike Pence has personally endorsed Rep. Diane Black in the race and Trump himself has praised the Republican congresswoman in public. Of course, since this is Trump, the report requires the usual caveat: We cant rule out the possibility that the president will change his mind between now and when the polls close. Hes already proved willing to weigh in with an endorsement after day-of voting begins, as he did in South Carolina in June when he gave Katie Arrington a push in the final hours of her primary takedown of Rep. Mark Sanford. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, assuming Trump really does stay out of it, the GOP contest presents an interesting test case for a couple of this years early primary narratives, neither of which bode particularly well for Black. The first is that House Republicans looking for promotions this year have struggled mightily in contested statewide primaries. And the second is that Pence has yet to prove he can play kingmaker in a Republican primary all on his own. Black began the race as the favorite, but she never pulled away in a crowded field. There hasnt been much polling in the state this year, but the most recent surveys paint a blurry picture. An Emerson College poll from mid-July found Black with 27 percent of the vote, good for a narrow, within-the-margin-of-error lead on two of her rivals, entrepreneur Randy Boyd at 22 percent and businessman Bill Lee at 19 percent. A JMC Analytics poll released this week also found a statistical dead heat among the three, though with the order reversed: Lee had 26 percent, Boyd 20 percent, and Black 19 percent. With a fourth credible candidate, state House Speaker Beth Harwell, also sitting in the teens in both surveys, it is a safe bet that the eventual winner will come up well short of a majority of the vote. Advertisement Advertisement And thats why Trumps silence is curious. Hes proved capable of swinging a GOP primary almost on his ownand taken great joy in doing soincluding races like this one, where most of the major candidates are all trying to prove they love Trump the most. (See also: Brian Kemps come-from-behind stunner in Georgias gubernatorial runoff last month.) And Trump has already gotten involved in Tennessees other marque contest, endorsing Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her bid to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker, as well as in a contested House primary, in which Trump is backing Rep. David Kustoff. Advertisement Trump has also made it clear hes a Black fan. He singled her out for praise in person and on Twitter last year for her work as chairwoman of the House Budget Committee and for her help passing the GOP tax cuts, and he gave her a shoutout at one of his MAGA rallies in Tennessee in May, all of which Black has gone to great lengths to remind Tennessee Republicans of. Pence, meanwhile, has been a loyal supporter. The veeps PAC gave $4,000 to Blacks campaign last yearaccompanied by a personal letter signed by Penceand he tweeted his endorsement last week with his bosss preferred #MAGA hashtag. Advertisement Advertisement Its tempting to look for a method to Trumps madness. He could be sitting this one out for any number of reasons. The president might think Black cant win, or that she shouldnt. Or the White House could just be trying to get a better feel for how much Pence can move the needle on his own, something that could help determine how best to deploy him later this year. Regardless, heres a safe prediction for how Trump will read the Tennessee results: Hell either take credit for Blacks victory by pointing to Pences endorsement and his own kind words, or hell shrug off her loss by pointing out he didnt give her his full backing. This personal account was written by Eyad Awwadawnan, 23, a Syrian refugee in a camp on the Greek island of Samos. Awwadawnan was a university student, studying law, in Syria but was never able to attend class because of the civil war that began in 2011. He shared the essay, which he wrote in the camp, with author Helen Benedict in June. It has been edited for length and clarity. The irony is that, having fought for survival for so long, many of us now only desire death. I hasten to kill my days by sleeping, although I know these are supposed to be the most beautiful days of my life, when I should rise high, make something of myself. Perhaps sleep is like death. In both cases we become nothing. I sleep to become nothing. I spend all my days in this bed in a refugee camp in Samos, Greece, thinking about how the journey that brought me to this place began. Advertisement March 18, 2011: An unforgettable date. A demonstration against the government started in the Syrian province of Daraa. Six demonstrators were killed. At first, people thought this was an isolated incident, that nobody else would die. Days passed and we hoped we could visit our graveyards with flowers instead of new bodies to bury. But the flames of protest only grew, and faces grew panicked in my town of Sabinah, south of Damascus. All over the country, protests broke out. They were followed by government raids, arrests, and executions. When those did not work, Bashar al-Assads army and militias adopted a policy of siege, aerial bombardment, and artillery. My city felt like the third century: Electricity had once lit its houses, but now its streets disappeared in the dark. Schools closed, and shops emptied of everything except school books. My familys weekly visits to relatives became memories. We had been put under house arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My family is made up of 11 members: my father, his wife, four brothers, three sisters, and my grandmother. After my mother was killed in 1999, my grandmother, who is now 83, took care of us. But by 2011, she was old and sick, and at the age of 16, I became the one who had to buy bread for the family. It would take me two hours to get bread because, although the bakery was just a short distance from our home, it was next to an open square guarded by a military sniper. The government had taken control of the town by then and, to prevent rebellion, would shoot anyone out on the streets. I had to walk a long way around, hiding where the sniper couldnt see. I would often see a bullet dance in front of my eyes. Many of my friends fell for bread, one of them lying dead in the street for three days. Because of the sniper, people were afraid to rescue the body. Advertisement On Feb. 9, 2012, my uncle Omar was killed by a stray bullet. He was 23, and all he had wanted was a small family and a simple life. Still, although the level of violence increased every day, we had no intention of leaving our home, hoping things would return to the way they used to be. But what happened a short time later to me and my friend Majd made our exit inevitable. Majd was 14. One day, we were running across the street to the bakery with our hands over our heads like helmets when I heard a bullet and saw him fall by my side. I ran behind a wall to protect myself from the sniper and looked back. Majd was covered in blood. I carried him to a taxi just as a shell lodged in the back of the taxi. All sounds disappeared, and I only heard Majd groaning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When I ran home covered in his blood, my grandmother said to my father, crying, I will never forgive you if something bad happens to my children. When the siege ends we must leave. Everything can be rebuilt, but we will not be able to bring our children back if they are killed. I told myself to kill the light inside me. My father agreed. We will leave once the siege is lifted. Until then, no one can leave the house. I watched their frightened eyes and said we would be fineunlike Majd, who will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. For the next eight days, rice was our only meal. Then, in the spring of 2012, the way to leave Sabinah opened because the Syrian army was coming and they wanted to evacuate the town. We hurried out in our little car with only our dirty clothes, our documents, and our memories. Advertisement Because my family was so large, we had to split into four groups, each going to a different relative throughout Syria, as nobody could afford to take us all in. Our hosts were polite to our faces but grumbled behind our backs. We felt ashamed. Every time my father called us, we begged: Please take us out of here, we are not welcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After a time, my father rented a house in the small city of Shahba, in Southern Syria, and I remember our first night there was very beautiful because my family was reunited. My brothers and I took whatever work we could findshovelling concrete or picking appleseven if it was hard, badly paid, or dangerous. We were concerned only about keeping our family safe. Shahba was quiet, but the streets were full of gangs, drug addicts, and thieves who enjoyed finding new prey. One night three of them started beating me. I responded by slapping one of them, but I was like a small boat swinging amid a storm, tossed one way and another. People separated us, and I ran to my friends house covered in blood. What happened? my friend shouted. Advertisement I feel like a stranger in my own country, I said. I used to feel every village in Syria is my village, all its people are my family. But now I realize my homeland was lost when they fired the first bullet, and I have become lost like my homeland. My friend said: Things will return as they were, just have a little patience. I laughed: You are deceived. Nothing will be as it was. I think I will join a powerful armed group to recover my rights, to be strong. With an angry face he cried, Recover your rights from whom? A little boy or an old man? My friend, you will be like the men who beat you, just a demon possessed with the power of weapons. Advertisement I left angry and went to a cave where I could be alone. I sat for nearly two hours. Sometimes I told myself to kill the light inside me and become without mercy, and other times I asked myself who would I be taking my rights from? From people who just want to spend their day in peace? Then what would be the difference between me and this abyss? Advertisement Advertisement We left our new city without luggage but with memories of apples, black city stones, and the sounds of animals making our dark nights loud. At the end of 2015, two of my cousins were killed at the same moment, their bodies torn to pieces, both killed by government missiles near their home in Daraa city. When I heard this news, I and every one of my brothers went off on his own to cry and scream without anyone hearing us. When I returned, my father had gone to Daraa to be with my uncle whose sons had died. Advertisement I know that you would have liked to go with me, he said when he returned, but you are in the age of military service and on the way to the city of Daraa, there are more than 20 military check points. They would imprison you because they consider Daraa a city controlled by terrorists, and they would not abstain from torture and humiliation. A few days later, my father said to his children, I have sold our car, and we will leave Syria. Every one of you will complete your studies and will achieve their dream. After he spoke, silence was the master of the place, as if we were at a funeral. My children, do not look for honey in a country that kills its bees, he continued. Advertisement On Feb. 28, 2016, we left our new city without luggage but with memories of apples, black city stones, and the sounds of animals making our dark nights loud. Tears filled our eyes, perhaps because we realized that this was the end of a country that had given us the elixir of life, the river of papyrus, and apricot orchards in its grottos. We stayed in Turkey for a year and a half in a small apartment in Antakya. We were human animals: Our lives consisted of work, food, sleep, nothing more. For a while, I repaired trucks, and then I worked in a shoe factory. Employers would often refuse to pay our wages, and if we asked for them, we were fired. We were insulted by the people, the police, and the army: You are traitors. You fled from your country and came here to hide like women behind us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At first, I tried hard to explain our war story to them, but in the end, I realized they would never understand. I often sat with my brothers and discussed the dreams wed had as boys. Now our dreams were ashes blown here and there by the wind between bullets and bodies. At the beginning of June 2017, my father decided there was no future for us in Turkey. Although we worked there for a year and a half, we were never paid enough to save anything. We had to borrow the money to go. The agreement we made with a smuggler was to pay him $500 per person for passage to Greece on a small rubber boat with no more than 33 passengers, for a crossing no longer than an hour. We were taken to a small hotel in Izmir, on the Mediterranean coast, where the beds were full of bugs and drenched in urine. The first trip was a failure, and we were arrested, an event that I will never be able to expel from my memory. The second trip was with 67 people, large and small, injured and healthy. We were packed into a closed van, standing like cattle for two hours. It was suffocating, the crying of children and pregnant women, every man cursing. My fathers wife fainted. We beat the roof of the van and shouted. The driver stopped and opened the door. We thought he was going to help us, but he only screamed, Get out! Stupid people, you could put me in prison. He threw our luggage on the ground and shouted: Go to hell. From there we walked for half an hour until we met the Turkish smugglers on the beach. They forced us to carry the boat and inflate it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead of one hour, we spent three hours packed in a boat just 7 meters long. Most of us had no life jackets even though we couldnt swim. The driver was not more than 16, steering without a compass to guide us across the Aegean toward an island. With every wave, the boat was forced in a different direction. Vomit filled our luggage. We were crushed together so tightly that there was an old woman sitting on my feet, and I lost all sense of feeling. Three hours later, we saw a boat approaching us, terrifying everybody. We shouted, For Gods sake, driver keep us away from that boat! The driver panicked and the engine stopped. If we try to escape, I swear to God they will sink our boat, he said. These Turkish border guards do not care about peoples lives. At the time, I did not understand what he meant, but later I heard stories about the guards stopping the boats by shooting live bullets to make them sink. They came toward us and we saw a banner reading Frontex [the European Border and Coast Guard Agency]. Each passenger raised his child high: We had heard that unless they see children aboard, even the European coast guard might return the boat to Turkey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were taken to Samos island and spent our first night on the floor of the police station in the refugee camp. The next day, we were taken out of the police station. We thought they would put us in a container or tent, but the camp official pointed to an empty patch of ground and said, Find a place and make that your house. I asked an official if it was possible to give us a small tent to protect my 9-month-old sister from summer insects. The answer was shocking: I am sorry. This is not my decision to make. Good luck. As if to say, Who you are to ask for a tent? We found an open area in the camp with no tents. The place was very dirty, and a Syrian man I did not know said, My friend, its better to leave this spot and find somewhere else. Here there are many drunks who find people to hurt for their own amusement. They may fall over your body while you sleep because they have lost their minds. I went out looking for another place, and I found one in the woods outside the camp. We spent 17 days there. The sky was the roof of our house, the trees were the walls, and the earth was our bed. We would throw some of our food far away from where we slept as bait for insects. The space was covered in bugs and human waste. After a time, the police drove us from that place to inside the wire walls of the camp. Although every space in the camp was full, they just repeated, Find a place and make it your house. We looked for three days to find an empty space, until finally a friend offered us his tent because we were a family and he was alone. He gave us his small tent to shield my baby sister, and we ripped a blanket to make another shelter for the rest of the family. Many days, we woke and rain water was flowing underneath us like a river. We would wake early to stand in a long line for a croissant and a small juice box. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I heard a lot of sad stories in the camp. The heat in the nylon tents was so bad that many people made covers to keep the sun away from their children, but the police came and cut the covers down, saying they blocked the surveillance cameras. One day, a policeman began to beat a pregnant woman. A Syrian man came to defend her. They beat him and then took him to the prison, keeping him there until he could not bear it. Finally, he said he wanted to go back to Turkey because there are no rights and no life in Greece. Now, when we go swimming or walk on the beach, sometimes the police stop us to check our identity cards and order us back to the camp. As obedient as dogs, we go back. This is their state, their laws, and we are just refugees who do not have the right to object. I often see women waiting for hours in front of the clinic in the camp, collapsing when their bodies finally let them down, the nurses saying, What can we do for you, with just three nurses and one doctor? We often try to walk away from the noise in the campfight for toilets, or once a man with a razor blade cutting his arms in front of the policemen, who did not care that children were watching. The sight of the blood took me back again to Syria and to Majd. On Sept. 4, 2017, the asylum office presented my family with a permit to leave the island, with the exception of me and my brothers Ayham and Ehab. Because we were older than 18, we had separate asylum cases. Yet we were happy to see that our family could leave for someplace better. We were also certain that they would give us open cards to join the rest of our family in Athens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I no longer care about my future, only that my family is together. My older brother received a permit to join my family after three months. I got one as well two months after that. But my younger brothers asylum application was denied. Our entire family could stay in Greece, they told us, but he alone would be sent back to Turkey. They said they rejected him because Turkey was safe for him. How was that possible when Turkish guards had pushed him back to Syria three times when he tried to cross the border with two of our young sisters, taken him to the police station, hosed him with water, insulted him, and forced him to pick up cigarette butts from the floor as they beat him? They did not say why it was safe for him but not for all of us. When my grandmother heard news of his rejection, she could only hide herself away and cry. Now I cannot leave this island because I do not want to leave my brother alone while he waits for the appeals courts decision. For 10 months now, I have been waiting, sleeping just five hours a day. At night I am prey for bed bugs. I can do nothing but put detergent or chlorine on my body to stop their aggression, but it is useless, for they are the natives in my new land. I stay awake examining my life, lighting cigarette followed by cigarette until the sun rises again. So far, we do not know whether our family will remain together or be torn apart. I no longer care about my future, only that my family is together. The time is now midnight. I tell myself to sleep after finishing my last cigarette and cup of coffee. After 10 minutes I repeat to myself: Its time to sleep. I stand and walk like a drunk man looking for a candle and throw my tired body on the bed. But the bed is full of bugs, and every night they resume their feast. The time is now one hour after midnight. My last cigarette has given birth to 10 more. I look at my cup of coffee surprised, for I still have not finished it. Did I make another without realizing? There are so many thoughts in my mind that throw me here and there like a boat without an anchor. I have conversations in my head with people who are now just memories, hoping that they will help me sleep. The time is now two hours after midnight, and I stop talking to those who are dead, for they cannot help me. It is better to light another cigarette and leave the dead sleeping peacefully in their graves. Postscript: Since writing this essay, Awwadawnan and his brother were allowed to leave the camp and are now living in Athens. Their case remains unresolved. Pope Francis is strengthening the Catholic Churchs stance against the death penalty, opposing it unconditionally as a matter of church law. The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, the Vatican said in a statement Thursday. The Vatican pointed to increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes, and noted that more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption. The church also said that it would work with determination for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. While the churchs catechism has allowed for the death penalty in some instances, Catholic officials, including Pope Francis and his predecessors, have often campaigned against its use, including in 1999 when John Paul II convinced thenMissouri Gov. Mel Carnahan to spare a condemned inmate. Francis hinted at a more substantial change in 2015, when he said that the death penalty was contrary to the Gospel and that the death penalty was inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III continued to sass the prosecutors of the special counsels office during their presentation of evidence against Paul Manafort, chiding them for detailing the many lavish purchases that the former Trump campaign chairman made with income gained overseas that he didnt pay taxes on. A clothing store employee told the jurors Wednesday that Manafort spent more than $900,000 on suits and that he paid sometimes with wire transfers from an overseas bank account. Advertisement Lets move on, enough is enough, Ellis said, according to the Washington Post, when the mens story employee started to add up his annual spending to a total amount. I cant recognize these names, Ellis said in response to the litany of brand names. If it doesnt say Mens Wearhouse, I dont know it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ellis needled the prosecution again when they showed a particularly extravagant remodeling bill: All this document shows is that Mr. Manafort had a lavish lifestyle. He had a nice home with a pool and a gazebo; its not relevant. Ellis showed some self-awareness of how his snappishness might seem to the lawyers arguing in front of him. He scolded them, saying they had rolled their eyes after talking to him, as if to imply, Why do we have to put up with this idiot judge? the Post reported. Advertisement But that didnt stop the prosecution from detailing more lavish spending as the trial continued Thursday: Judge is taking a quick break. We learned a bit more about Paul Manafort's expenditures over the years: - Thousands of dollars on karaoke system - $2.2 million on TV, home networks, other home automation services - $450K+ on landscaping, incl. an "M" in red and white flowers Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 2, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement In a brief filed Thursday morning, prosecutors argued that Manafort had an expensive lifestyle that required lots of money to maintain is important proof as to why he would commit the bank frauds. Ellis said that while the fact of his large purchases was indeed relevant to the prosecutions case, listing them out besmirches Manafort, BuzzFeed reported. Ellis regularly interrupts trial testimony with his own questions and demands that certain lines of inquiry be cut short, the Post reported. Even before the start of the trial, Ellis was publicly skeptical of the prosecution before then letting it proceed with the case. In May, Ellis told prosecutors, You dont really care about Mr. Manaforts bank fraud and You really care about getting information that Mr. Manafort can give you that would reflect on Mr. Trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment or whatever. In June, however, Ellis told prosecutors they could continue with the case against Manafort. Read more from Slate: Paul Manaforts Ostrich Vest and Cashmere JeansCrimes Against Fashion or Just Plain Crimes? Jim Jordan Is Trying to Silence His Accusers Trumps Curious Decision Not to Endorse in Thursdays Marquee Primary Trump Now Seems Fine With Letting North Korea Keep Its Nukes On June 12, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a historic agreement. North Korea committed to work with the U.S. to recover and repatriate the remains of U.S. service members killed during the Korean War. In return, the U.S. abandoned its demand that North Korea unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons and its threat to use military force if the North Koreans did not comply. Trump also agreed to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea. Advertisement Despite some earlier fits and starts, the North Koreans took what appears to be a major step toward fulfilling their part of the bargain on Friday by turning over 55 boxes of remains, which have been flown to Hawaii for testing and identification. So Trump, Wednesday night, posted this gracious tweet thanking Kim: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018 Advertisement Now, its possible you may recall the June 12 agreement a bit differently. You may have thought it had something to do with North Korea agreeing to denuclearizeto give up its nuclear weapons. While no such commitment was in the actual document the leaders signed, Trump has repeatedly implied that was what the two leaders agreed to. But North Korea is not unilaterally disarming and has bristled at being told it should. While one missile engine test site is apparently being dismantled , U.S. officials have said the North Koreans are continuing to produce nuclear fuel and work on new missiles. Trump has side-stepped this problem by touting the lack of missile tests since the summit, saying that theres no rush for full denuclearization, and by blaming China. Advertisement Advertisement The return of service members remainsassuming these are genuineis a meaningful accomplishment, particularly for the families involved. And the optimistic reading of recent news is that ongoing dialogue and confidence-building measures like these can reduce risks and lead to more concrete agreements down the road. North Korea was on the path to becoming a nuclear power before Trump came along, and theres not much he could have done to stop it. Still, its hard not to read Trumps enthusiastic praise of Kim for this relatively painless concession, while weapons work continues, as an official statement of acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear state. Read more from Slate: Trump Administration Says Fuel-Efficient Cars Are Killing Americans by Encouraging More Driving Why Do Republicans Keep Pursuing Unpopular Policies? I Have Become Lost Like My Homeland. A Firsthand Account of One Refugees Journey Out of Syria. There have been a lot of disturbing poll results over the past several years, but none more than this one: According to a 2016 survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 57 percent of white Americans believe that discrimination against white people is as big a problem in America as discrimination against minorities. Several months after the survey was conducted, of course, Donald Trump went on to win the presidency by getting well over half of the white vote. In a new book called White Fragility: Why Its So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo examines how a large chunk of white America got to a place where it is constantly feeling besieged and victimized, and why she thinks even white progressives are so unwillingor unableto acknowledge their own racism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I spoke recently by phone with DiAngelo, a lecturer affiliated with the University of Washington who has been conducting workshops about diversity and racism for two decades. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed racism on the left, whether there is value in scolding people for their bigotry, and whether the word racist should only apply to people who intend to discriminate. Isaac Chotiner: What led you to this concept of white fragility? Robin DiAngelo: Well, I was a classic white progressive, which meant I was clueless about racism, which meant I could not answer the question, What does it mean to be white? I thought I was not racist and I really didnt have anything more to learn. I applied for a job as a diversity trainer, and I was in for the most profound learning curve of my life. It was a parallel process. One, working side by side with people of color who were challenging the way that I saw the world and my place in it. Part of being white is that I could be that far in life, be a full professional, educated adult, and never have had my racial role be challenged in general, or by people of color in particular. Advertisement Advertisement The other part was going into the workplace and trying to talk to overwhelmingly white employees about racism. The hostility was incredible. After just years of that, I got better and better at not only understanding how white people pull this offhow we claim racial innocence in a society that is so separate and unequal by racebut also at articulating [that privilege] in a way that white people could hear. What is racism, and how do people who are white progressives perpetrate it? Advertisement Were taught to think of racism as individual acts of intentional meanness across race. That its always an individual, it has to be conscious, and it must be intentional. That definition exempts virtually all white people from the system that were all in and that weve all been shaped by. It is the bedrock of our country. That changes the question from If Im racist, [to] which most white people would answer No, to How is this manifesting in my life? Because it is. Its on me to figure out how. Advertisement Whats a specific example? I think the inability to answer with any depth whatsoever the question of what it means to be white is actually not benign. People of color know that most white people cannot answer that question. [If] I cant tell you what it means to be white, I am not going to be able to hold what it means not to be white, what your experience is. Im going to end up invalidating, minimizing, dismissing, and not believing. Thats what white progressives do every day. Advertisement So then what does it mean to be white? It means many things, but it means not ever having to bear witness to the pain of racism on people of color. It means not being held accountable for the pain that you cause people of color. It means not knowing the history of this country and being able to trace that history into the present. Its being relentlessly reinforced in superiority and then not ever being able to admit that. Advertisement OK, but are you saying that a white person is, almost by definition, part of this system, or that white people, because of their role in this society, just tend to be more clueless and lazy because theyre in positions of privilege? Advertisement I might say the first one leads to the second one. I dont think any of it is benign. I dont think white people are racially innocent, as we often like to position ourselves to be. Theres a kind of refusal to see or to know or to believe or to hear that allows us then not to have to act. What could a white person in America in 2018 do to not be racist, or do you believe thats impossible? Advertisement Well, I have to ask you a question I forgot to ask you earlier. What is your racial identity? Im white. My familys originally from Eastern Europe. "I was a classic white progressive, which meant I was clueless about racism." OK. All of us have been shaped by the cultural water that we swim in. All white people have internalized a racist worldview. Let me own that. As a result of being raised as a white person in this society, I have a racist worldview. I have deep racist biases. I have developed racist patterns, and I have investments in not only the system of racism that has served me so well. Its so comfortable. But I also have an investment in not seeing any of that because of what I believe it suggests about my identity as a good person. The way that I think about it is, How do I be a little less white, a little less racist quite frankly, less defensive, less arrogant, less certain, less complacent, less passive? Advertisement When they ask me, What do I do? I have to ask a couple questions back. The first thing is How have you managed not to know? Its 2018. As a white person in 2018, why is that your question? How have you managed not to know what to do about racism when good information is everywhere and people of color have been trying to tell us forever? Thats meant to be a challenge. The first thing you have to break with is the apathy of not taking initiative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Are there things that you think that white people should do, like, more actively, in the community, besides awareness? The things you have talked about so far seem more about consciousness. Advertisement Oh, god, yeah. If that awareness does not lead to action, then its meaningless. Do we have to be careful about labeling people with good intentions a certain way, especially if, as you said, this is about building relationships? I would say that we have to move beyond intentions to impact. Obviously when I say white supremacy, Im connecting it to me, Im not talking about someone in a robe, right? Get up to date. If you have better language that captures the systemic nature of racism, then Im open to it, but right now we dont have better language. You have to change the way you understand what those terms are, not demand that people dont use terms that you dont like and find ones that are so neutral and comfortable that were back to protecting the status quo. Advertisement Im all for strategy. I do want to move the white collective forward. I want us to cause less pain, suffering, and damage. Im all for whatever strategy would do that. There are many, many styles, and all of them are important. While I may be talking very bluntly to you or in an interview, if I was doing a presentation I mean, I assume you read my book. I hope it doesnt come across as scolding, but there is a kind of directness that I think is necessary. For many people, my directness is what completely changes them. For other people, my directness shuts them down. Great. Go over to somebody else somewhere. Dont use that as a reason not to engage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That I agree with. People who claim to be offended by what you are saying should toughen up. Im with you on that. So what are your strategies, then, when you are doing workshops? I hope my directness was illustrated in the earlier claim I made that I have a racist worldview, patterns, and investments. That is a pretty bold claim in this society for a white person to make. Im very clear and comfortable making it, but I point that finger towards myself if you notice that. That helps other white people. If they identify with what Im saying and they see me owning it, theyre more able to own it in themselves. Right? I try to point the finger inward, not outward. Advertisement I also try to overwhelm them with evidence that makes it undeniable. I do use humor. Theres a little bit of mocking the narratives, the evidence that white people give for their lack of racism. If we can laugh at it a little bit, if I can go, Oh, my God, Ive said that. Now I do see how silly it is, maybe theres a little space there. The laugher helps loosen that up. Hopefully, theyll think more deeply next time theyre compelled to say something like that. Advertisement What youre saying will redefine racism in the minds of a lot of people. Their definition of racism would be different. Their definition would be Richard Spencer, David Duke, or, dare I say, the president. What Advertisement Do you ever wonder what qualifies as racism in the white mind, seriously? What do you mean? Even just dare I say the president? Yes, you may say the president. That was a joke. Again, thats an aside. Its like, What the hell qualifies as a racist for most white people? Advertisement OK, well, what is a good word for that type of racism? For the Donald Trump type? Yeah, or Steve Bannon or whoever. I just call that avowed racist. Im not an avowed racist. Ive named my racism, but I am committed to challenging it. They are not committed to challenging it. I say they are committed to perpetrating it. I just say avowed racist versus me. Does that make sense? Advertisement I dont know if I agree. I think we might want a different word, rather than just adding avowed. It seems like if were re-conceptualizing what racism is, or at least how its commonly defined, maybe you want a different word for racist politicians versus KKK members. Or maybe you dont because its all part of a gradation. Or maybe its not. Im just thinking out loud. Advertisement I want to be clear. I dont see myself as redefining the term. I want to change the way the average white person understands what racism is, but I am using the sociological definition. You asked me, What would you call the difference perhaps between Trump and me? But I actually think, yeah, we both are racists. I see that as a continuum that Im on and will be on for the rest of my life. In any given moment, I have to ask myself, How am I doing on this continuum? What end am I behaving closer to? How do I know? He and I may be on different spots on the continuum, but were both on it. I dont tend to distinguish between the two of us, which probably shocks some readers, but if youre asking me to somehow identify that difference, I would say avowed versus maybe implied or implicit. Advertisement Advertisement So you consider yourself a racist right now? Yes. I will always have a racist worldview and biases. The way I look at it is Im really clear that I do less harm than I used to. I perpetrate that racism less often. Im not defensive at all when I realizewhether myself or its been brought to my attentionthat Ive just perpetrated a piece of it. I have really good repair skills. None of those are small things because they mean I do less harm. I have many more authentic, sustained cross-racial relationships than I ever had before. I can, with confidence, say there are people of color in my life who see me as a supportive and trustworthy person. I had none of that before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How do you think about minority groups in America who face racism and discrimination but who may also have racist attitudes and have benefited or are benefiting from the same system that keeps other people, especially African Americans, down? "Theres a kind of refusal to see or to know or to believe or to hear that allows us then not to have to act." After 20 years of talking day in and day out to overwhelmingly white groups of people, Im really clear that there is a profound anti-blackness in this culture. In the white mind, black people are the ultimate racial other. I used to shy away from Oh, dont make it a black-white dichotomy, but I feel really clear. There are bookends. White is on one end, and black is on the other. Your relationship, where you are positioned between those two bookends is going to shape how you experience your life. Right? The closer you are to whitenessthe term often used is white-adjacentyoure still going to experience racism, but there are going to be some benefits due to your perceived proximity to whiteness. The further away you are, the more intense the oppressions going to be. Advertisement Advertisement You mean whiteness both in terms of skin color and in terms of whatever habits or ethnicities white society values? Advertisement Skin colors really interesting because I was just going to move to that. Even within a group of what we call black, there is colorism. Anti-blackness goes across that entire spectrum. Within all groups of color, the closer you are to white, the more benefit and the closer you are to black, the least benefit, right? I think that white-adjacent groups have to ask themselves a really hard question, which is Who have I aligned with? Have I aligned with whiteness, or have I taken up and aligned with black people in this struggle against racism? Most of those white-adjacent groups have not challenged anti-blackness within their own communities. Advertisement If I try to be self-reflective about my privileges, the main things I would think about are being white, being male, and being American. Because most of the things that you have just said about white people, I think a lot of people in the rest of the world would say are true of Americans. We have incredible privilege. We often dont know about or think that we have this privilege. Our worldview is shaped by a certain type of supremacy. How do you think about what being American means in this context? Advertisement Advertisement Im just trying to get it organized in my mind. There are absolutely all of those things that go with [being] American. A friend of mine whos African-American or black traveling somewhere else in the world is going to have what we might call that kind of what Peggy McIntosh called the invisible knapsack, right? Theyre going to have the status of that American citizenship and, likely, depending on the context theyre in, they may also be dealing with anti-blackness thats been exported worldwide. In some ways, its kind of what are they leading with first? Whats the first thing somebodys responding to? Those are questions I never have to ask myself. Advertisement Advertisement I think its like saliency. I mean, thats the way I think about the multiple identities that I carrythat, in some context, one or the other of those identities is more or less salient. Im a white woman. Im a cisgender woman. Im an angry feminist and I have been for a long time, but that does not mean that I dont perpetrate racism towards women of color. And that I can experience sexism and patriarchy and misogyny, and I do and still perpetrate very similar dynamics onto somebody else. Right? Thats where saliency comes in. Advertisement How much of this role of whiteness were talking about is about whites being the majority here the way whites are the majority in France or Hindus are the majority in India, and how much of this is really about America itself? Advertisement I actually dont think its about numbers. I think its about power. White men are approximately 34 percent of the population in the U.S. and control virtually all institutions. Women are the majority of not just the country but the world, and the poor are the majority of the world. Its about institutional power. Thats why with the so-called browning of America, there will be adaptations, but the institutions will continue to be controlled by those who currently control it. Have you noticed any differences in discussing these issues in the last three years? It feels like theres been a combination of this very big white backlash, not just in the election of Trump but against what people see as P.C. culture. But that is coupled with more of a realization of the importance of diversity, the importance of hearing different voices, the importance of understanding structural forces, than at any other time in my life, even just five years ago. Yes. On the one hand, way more permission for explicit racism, right? But also a kind of urgency from more moderate people to engage and to understand what is happening. I think that the outcome of that election just shocked a lot of white people. I find that my work is actually easier. While I get more hate mail and I get more threatened and I feel like my life is at risk in a way it wasnt before, I also find generally white people much more receptive because I think were scared. Its like that election freaked us out and we definitely want to understand what is happening and what do I do. That very, very thin veneer of post-racial bullshit has been ripped away. Right? Its clear as a bell were not post-racial. PostObamas election, you mean? Yes. Thats what I was up against then, just this complacency that we were post-racial. Thats gone. People that were complacent about it are not anymore. I find them more receptive. Here is the short version of the 3D-printed gun story youve probably heard about. A guy named Cody Wilson invents a plastic gun that can be made from parts created on a 3D printer, and in 2013 he posts the plans necessary to print them on the internet. The State Department sends a letter telling him to take the plans down or go to jail. Cody takes them down and decides to drop out of law school to devote his life to making plastic guns available for everyone who can afford a high-quality 3D printer. In May 2015, his company, Defense Distributed, sues the State Department and seeks a preliminary injunction that would allow the plans back online. In January 2018, he loses the request for a preliminary injunction when the U.S. Supreme Court rejects his appeal of the decisions of the two lower courts that previously ruled against him. So the lawyers head back to the lower court and begin preparing for trial. But on June 29, the State Department agrees to settle the case by allowing the plans back online and pays Defense Distributed $39,581. On Tuesday, hours before the plans are scheduled to be available again, a federal judge grants a request from eight states and the District of Columbia for a temporary restraining order to prevent the settlement agreement from taking effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Confused? You should be. You must be wondering what the State Department had to do with some guy in Texas posting things on the internet. And you are probably wondering, like many others, why the State Department suddenly gave up. And then, you may ask, why would another federal court tell the State Department the settlement could not go into effect? Lets start with why the State Department was involved. That is because State, through an obscure agency called the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, is charged with regulating the export of firearms. And not just exports of the firearms themselves, but nonpublic information about firearms. In the State Departments view, because the internet is global, putting information online is the same thing as putting it in an envelope and mailing it to China, Russia, Iceland, Tierra del Fuego, Lichtenstein, or anywhere else in the world. So, because the plans werent public until they were placed on the internet, Defense Distributed was violating the law prohibiting export of nonpublic information about firearms without a license from the State Department. Advertisement Export laws are not the way to address 3D-printed firearms. The next question is why the State Department backed down from this in June, particularly after it had prevailed on the preliminary injunction in three courts. The State Departments abrupt reversal was because of a thing called export control reform, a process that began during the Obama administration to transfer authority over the export of certain items from the State Departments Directorate of Defense Trade Controls to the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security. The idea was to keep the really sensitive items under States control and everything else under the control of Commerce. (If youre asking why we need two export control agencies, well, thats a question I cant answer. Talk to your member of Congress.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Commerce has a very different idea about the consequences of putting things on the internet. If you release your own information to the public by putting it on the internet, then it is no longer export-controlled at all. Compare this to States idea that the information must be public (or State-approved for public release) before its placed on the internet to avoid export controlsand by public, State means available in books and libraries. That brings us to May, when State and Commerce announced their intentions to move small arms from the State Departments jurisdiction to Commerces. The Defense Distributed case was still in States hands, but if the transition takes place, 3D-printed guns will be under Commerces purview. And Commerce has made it pretty clear that it wouldnt object to publication of the plans. It pretty much said so in its Federal Register notice announcing the proposed rules on May 24: Advertisement [I]f a gun manufacturer posts a firearms operation and maintenance manual on the Internet, making it publicly available to anyone interested in accessing it and without restrictions on further dissemination (i.e., unlimited distribution), the operation and maintenance information included in that published operation and maintenance manual would no longer be subject to the EAR [Export Administration Regulations]. Advertisement No longer subject to the EAR is Commerce-speak for no longer subject to export controls. The bottom line is that post-transition, Defense Distributed could post all the 3D-printed gun plans on the internet that it wants. Of course, the transition is unlikely to occur until later this year at the earliest. So why has State thrown in the towel now? No one has a good answer to that question any more than anyone can figure out why State gave Defense Distributed $39,581 to settle the lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Needless to say, States decision to back down was not terribly popular. Concerns about the ability of these weapons to elude TSA checkpoints as well as be used to commit crimes without having the potential traceability of other firearms led attorneys general in eight states and the District of Columbia to file suit against the State Department and Defense Distributed challenging this settlement. They asked for a temporary restraining order against online publication of the plans. A federal district court granted that request on Tuesday, just hours before the plans were to go back online. The federal court bought the plaintiffs argument that State had effectively removed gun printing plans from the list of export-controlled items without giving 30-day advance notice of this removal to Congress, as required by law. The problem with this holding by the court is that State did no such thing: Rather than remove these plans from the control list, it approved the public release of the Defense Distributed plans at issue, thereby exempting them from any license requirement. Nothing was removed from the list, and no congressional notification was required. The court will next have to decide whether to leave this temporary order in place through a trial, and it seems likely that it will. Advertisement Advertisement There are genuine issues raised by plastic guns, but they need to be addressed directly, not through export laws designed to keep U.S. guns out of foreigners hands without State Department approval. There are much better ways for the government to keep 3D-printed gun plans offline. The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 prevents the manufacture of weapons that cannot be detected by TSA checkpoints or at other screening locations. Making plastic gun plans widely available arguably aids and abets violation of that law. That law would also, it seems to me, serve as a predicate to a law directly banning publication of plastic gun plans consistent with the First and Second Amendments. The real problem here, of course, is that technology inevitably outpaces regulation. The State Department rules at issue here were written long before the internet was a twinkle in Vint Cerfs eye, and when 3D printers were thought to be about as feasible as time machines and interstellar travel. Whatever the ultimate response to 3D-printed plastic guns turns out to be, it will only be a matter of time before other advances in technology render that response meaningless. The long-simmering debate over 3D-printed guns boiled over again this week, but its been clear for a while that something was going to happen. In June, 3D-gun-printing pioneer Cody Wilson and his organization Defense Distributed settled a yearslong legal case with the State Department about whether sharing the plans for 3D printing a gun violated export control laws. With that case out of the way, Wilson was free to go back to what he was doing in 2013, when his organization published the plans for the Liberator, the first 3D-printed handgun in the world. When those plans were first published, they were reportedly downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days, at which time the feds ordered Wilson to take them down. But after Wilson followed directions, the plans quickly popped up elsewhere online. The governments desire to keep the gun-printing plans off the internet backfired. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wilson had planned to put new files online Wednesday. But early this week, lawmakers remembered that 3D-printed guns are a thing and started to react in unison. Attorneys general from eight states sued the Trump administration to try to keep Wilson from publishing his gun plans again. The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court in Seattle with Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson leading the charge. On Tuesday, a Seattle federal judge issued a nationwide temporary restraining order to prevent Wilson from publishing new gun plans online. That injunction, however, didnt affect the 10 files for 3D-printed guns and gun parts that Defense Distributed published days earlier. Nor did it cover the booming world of do-it-yourself gun-making that Wilson has been cashing in on since he was ordered to remove his 3D-printing plans off the internet. Advertisement Still, lawmakers applauded themselves for stopping Wilson. These ghost guns are untraceable, virtually undetectable, and, without todays victory, available to any felon, domestic abuser or terrorist, Ferguson said Tuesday in a statement. I hope the President does the right thing and directs his administration to change course. On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump weighed in, too. I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public, he wrote on Twitter. Already spoke to NRA, doesnt seem to make much sense! To be clear, no one is talking about selling 3D-printed plastic guns, which, its true, doesnt make a lot of sense. The debate is about making them. And after Trump tweeted, members of Congress started to chime in, too. Trump must say no to the NRA & permanently halt 3D ghost gun designs that enable terrorists & criminals to evade detectors & tracing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said on Twitter. Blood will be on the hands of all who fail to act, he continued in a subsequent tweet. Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts tweeted, Trump could stop this right now. If he doesnt, Aug. 1, 2018 will mark the beginning of a new, supercharged era of gun violence & he will be directly responsible for it. He later tweeted using the hashtag #StopDownloadableGuns. Not catchy, but it works. Advertisement Advertisement Banning files from the internet doesnt make much sense, anyway. Downloadable gun plans require not only access to a high-quality 3D printer but also enough tech expertise to navigate the process of going from downloading a design to loading it up in software. If lawmakers are truly worried about the threat of unregistered firearms, they should focus instead on the bustling market of unfinished firearms. Theyre, commonly called 80 percent lowers, in reference to the fact that these kits include guns that are about 80 percent complete but dont constitute a full firearm and therefore dont require a serial number or background check to be sold. The market started booming after the call for gun reform following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February, and Wilson benefited from that boom. In 2014, after his 3D-printed-gun plans were kicked offline (though they repopulated shortly afterward), he got into the unfinished gun business with Ghost Gunner. Ghost Gunner is a milling machine designed specifically for building gun receivers, the part of the gun thats regulated and carries a serial number when bought from a licensed gun seller. Theyre for sale now on GhostGunner.net for $2,000, or with a deposit of $250 and a 12-month payment plan. Wilson also sells kits of unfinished receivers and parts to build a working AR-15 and handguns. Advertisement Advertisement The 80 percent and do-it-yourself gun market has been able to blossom within a small loophole of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which made it illegal to build a firearm and sell it without a license. But the catch is that its legal if you make the firearm and keep itno background check, serial number, or sellers license needed. Do-it-yourself gun-making has been hard to regulate, largely because its hard to regulate componentry, and its near impossible to draw the line between a piece of metal that might go into a gun and one that actually does. And to make the prospect of regulating DIY guns even harder, there are already so many homemade guns out there its almost impossible to know that someone has one unless theres an incident or someone has been stockpiling them to sell. The sad fact is that the more gun regulations pass, the more at-home gun-making kits sell. In California, for example, its illegal to possess an assault weapon like an AR-15, and Wilson told me in an interview earlier this year that California is his biggest market. Advertisement Advertisement Despite what lawmakers were saying this week, its not clear that 3D-printed guns pose a serious threat. Plans for printing 3D weaponry never disappeared from the internet as a result of Wilsons legal challenges, and it seems that 3D-printed guns dont even work very wellwhen they do work. Police in Australia used a high-end 3D printer to make one, and when they fired it, the gun exploded upon the bullet leaving the chamber. People who print guns and try to shoot them might be more likely to blow off their hands than fire multiple bullets. Advertisement If lawmakers are concerned about threats having to do with 3D-printed weaponry, they might consider banning 3D-printed bump stocks, too, which are attachments that can be added to semi-automatic rifles to make them fire faster. Those might work better than a fully 3D-printed gun. But 80 percent lower kits remain a much bigger threatand should be a higher priority for lawmakers. Banning files from the internet doesnt make much sense, anyway. Digital files can be reproduced with the click of a button. Thats how the internet works. Lawmakers should know this by now. The details of the plans went like this: After the election, the government will take full control of the internet. It will establish a stringent schedule of times citizens will be allowed online and will restrict access to websites it considers harmful to society. According to the new rules, the feds will gain the power to remove any media they consider false, biased, or defamatory. In order to eliminate obesity, junk food will be prohibited, and each person will be given a monthly cap on the amount they spend on meals. No private sector employee is to make more than $800 per month. No individual will be allowed to own more than one car. Advertisement This isnt the premise for a dystopian novel. These are the plans for how Mexicos President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (better known as AMLO) wants to start his six-year termat least according to a document spread widely on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook after the leftist, populist candidate recently won Mexicos election. The bulletin was, of course, fake. And it provides just one example of the many false news stories debunked by Verificado (Verified) 2018, an independent, collaborative fact-checking initiative that worked full time in the lead-up to the countrys July 1 elections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Operating alongside established networks of corruption and violence, fake news proved a formidable enemy to a free, fair, and informed vote in Mexico. It also made the countrys election the most recent battlefield in a global fight against digital disinformation and misinformation. While the purveyors of false information in Mexico often took advantage of discord specific to that countrys electorate, Mexicos election nevertheless provides a revealing lens into the way this kind of weaponized media has evolved and adapted. As companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook seek to address the spread of false information on their platforms in other large democracies like India and the United States, Mexicos experience seems telling. Advertisement As in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the runup to the 2018 election held by our southern neighbors also saw complex online networks of false information disseminated by bots, trolls, political parties, and individual citizens caught up in a climate of distrust and frustration. Despite worries that Russia might execute large-scale meddling in Mexico as it has in major elections in other countries, the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab was unable to verify claims of large-scale bot activity emanating from Russia, though it did find a commercially run botnet, apparently from Russia, that boosted political messages in Mexico. More broadly, it appears the largest sources of false information came from inside, not outside the country. Most false stories revolved around presidential front-runner AMLO. Still, examining the fake stories that spread during and immediately after the election, its clear no candidate was safe from falsehood. Advertisement Advertisement We know a lot about the form and spread of this false information thanks to Verificado 2018, which was started by a team of journalists from Pop-Up Newsroom, AJ+, and Animal Politico in March with the mission to detect and debunk popular fake news, memes, and images related to the election as well as to fact-check statements from major political candidates during the campaign. The project quickly expanded to include more than 80 allies in local and national media outlets (plus some universities and advocacy groups), all of which coordinated with Verificado to research and publish particular verifications at the same time. By the time the group stopped generating content just after the election, it had produced more than 400 notes and about 50 videos examining false claims, documenting suspect sites, and investigating how certain fake news went viral, according to its farewell blog post. Advertisement Advertisement Verificados archives offer a rich sampling of the kinds of suspect stories that took off on Mexican social media. On Facebook, for example, a post falsely claimed that AMLOs wife was the granddaughter of a Nazi. A meme that circulated on various platforms, including the hugely popular WhatsApp, urged anti-AMLO voters to check boxes for both his opponents in order to ensure the leftist would losean action that, in reality, would nullify their vote. Another set of popular posts repurposed photos of porn actors to depict a hitman and a multimillionaire who were supposedly conspiring against AMLO, one of many posts seeking to spread the idea that a mafia of power was working against the candidate. One doctored video that made the rounds appeared to portray the pope condemning AMLO. Others claimed that the Venezuelan or Russian governments had rallied behind the candidate. At one point, the Russian rumors became so pervasive that AMLO released a humorous video of himself standing on a dock, where he jokes that hes waiting for a Russian submarine to bring him gold from Moscow and that hes now Andres Manuelovich. Advertisement Advertisement Ya no soy peje, ahora soy AndresManuelovich pic.twitter.com/L1fzb5QGgX Andres Manuel (@lopezobrador_) January 18, 2018 Advertisement At times, disinformation also helped to paint positive images of the candidates. For example, one post purported to show a massive stadium of supporters who had come to watch AMLO close his campaign in the state of Guanajuato. But it turned out the photo was actually lifted from a 2013 Green Day concert in England. Similarly, a photo captioned, A tsunami named Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrived in Quintana Roo, actually shows the crowd from a 2006 Rolling Stones concert in Rio de Janeiro. AMLO, though he may have been popular, has a hard time competing with rock starlevel audiences. Advertisement Advertisement Fake or manipulated polls played a similar role. A week prior to the election, leaders from the National Action Party shared a poll showing their candidate, Ricardo Anaya, seemingly closing the lead on AMLO. (While Anaya ended up coming in second, there was a 30-point gap between the two candidates.) The poll looked as though it was conducted by El Universal, one of Mexicos top newspapers. True, the poll did appear in El Universalbut as a paid advertisement placed by the company Pauta Encuestas with no attributed methodology. Additional fake pollsincluding one from April that gave AMLO an astounding 78 percent of the vote and one from March that placed Jose Antonio Meade, the eventual third-place candidate, at 42 percentwere falsely attributed to the New York Times and shared by thousands. Advertisement These false stories represent just a few of the narratives the Verificado 2018 team debunked. Some of the posts came from websites or social media accounts Verificado designated as principal generators of false informationmany of which still publish and share content with hundreds of thousands of followers. These kinds of stories spread on some of the platforms that typically see circulate information in the U.S., like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But some also did stunningly well on a different frontier: the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp. According to the Reuters Institute, 35 percent of Mexicans use WhatsApp to get news. WhatsApps popularity can be particularly problematic when it comes to the spread of false information, because the platforms danger lies in how personal it iswhen users spread misinformation, theyre usually doing so by sending it directly to those they trust (though misinformation also spreads contagiously in WhatsApps ubiquitously used group chats). This not only means the bogus information is more likely to stick, it also makes it harder to track and counter than when the same stories get shared on social media platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To address this type of fake information, Verificado set up a WhatsApp hotline where users could send questionable messages. A Verificado staffer would then respond directly to most messages as well as post statuses about stories they had debunked throughout the day. According to Verificado, more than 10,000 users subscribed to this hotline. On July 10, in order to crack down on deadlier forms of disinformation being spread on the platform, WhatsApp also announced that it would begin labeling forwarded messageswhich it says will help users determine whether the messages they receive were written by their sender or are part of a larger forwarding chainand restrict message forwarding in some regions. To be sure, Verificados outreach effort likely reached just a fraction of Mexicos 89 million eligible voters. But as Alfonso Mendez Forssell, a media researcher who also worked on a digital communications project supporting AMLO, told me, Verificados services did play an important role in opening the publics eyes to the scope of disinformation. They also created demand for a climate of rigor, of accountability, he said. He thinks news organizations and digital platforms should take some responsibility for teaching voters what disinformation looks like and how it spreads. But, he said, he also thinks that schools should make media-literacy education mandatory in order to ensure the next generation is equipped to make informed decisions. Advertisement An election is different than a natural disaster, but false information can be destructive in both contexts. In Mexico, that matters beyond the political sphere. While Verificado 2018 focused on disinformation in the election, its roots can actually be traced back to the deadly Sept. 19 earthquake that rocked central Mexico and killed about 370 people. The aftermath left survivors lost in a climate dominated by confusion and fear. Amid this, false information began circulating in social media posts and WhatsApp messages, including rumors that authorities were predicting a larger earthquake was coming soon and claims about which buildings had collapsed or were in danger of collapsing. The effect, as one reporter for the newspaper El Economista put it, was a psychosis within an already overwhelmed society. To combat some of this false information after the earthquake, a group of journalists, activists, and programmers founded Verificado19S, which used a team of fact-checkers, and Google Maps, to organize information about where donations were needed, which areas were actually hardest hit, and how volunteers could help. Advertisement Advertisement An election is different than a natural disaster, but false information can be destructive in both contexts. On its website, Verificado 2018 notes that like an earthquake, false information confuses, paralyzes, frightens. It seeks, in that sense, to undermine citizens freedom to decide who to vote for. Mexican citizens know it: According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, about 80 percent of Mexicans are worried about false information or fake news being used as a weapon. Advertisement Of course, none of this is entirely new. As Jorge Buendia, a global fellow at the Wilson Centers Mexico Institute, points out, The use of fake polls has become the rule rather than the exception for electoral processes in Mexico. Candidates have also used bots and paid trolls to influence Mexican elections since at least 2012. But today, whats different is the scale and speed at which such disinformation can reach the electorate. As the New York Times reported, there are now about 71.3 million internet users in Mexico, whereas in 2012 there were only 40.9 million. Whats more, this near doubling of internet penetration didnt come with corresponding efforts to teach digital media literacy. Advertisement This rapid changeon top of increasing political polarization and a general distrust of government among the Mexican electorateallowed false information to be planted in what Buendia called fertile ground for fake stories. According to a poll of 1,003 Mexican adults he conducted in November, 53 percent of respondents believed there was a secret plan to prevent AMLO from becoming president. About 29 percent said they believed the Mexican government knew about the countrys deadly Sept. 19 earthquake in advance but decided to keep that information from citizens. With this kind of discord to play with, actors wishing to manipulate parts of the population for political or economic gain will surely continue to seed the same kinds of disinformation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But, as Mexico proves, there are ways to fight back. Though Verificado 2018 has closed, some partner organizations will continue to carry out similar fact-checking initiatives, recognizing that these false stories wont just pop up during presidential campaigns. AJ+ Espanol, for example, recently launched AJ+ Verifica, which will continue to verify suspicious content through its social platforms. Like ProPublicas Electionland project in the U.S. (which recently relaunched for the 2018 midterms) and CrossChecks initiative in France and the U.K., such collaborative journalism projects may provide one model for keeping some digital disinformation in check. Despite all the challenges and harm wrought by false information, it does present a small opportunity for media organizations to regain some public trust, explains Juliana Fregoso, a journalist and digital news initiative fellow at the Reuters Institute. My impression is that in Mexico, the media stopped writing for the reader a long time ago, Fregoso wrote in an email. And this is a good opportunity for the media to start again with journalism that people are interested in reading, not journalism that interests politicians or powerful leaders. United Europe is our best chance for a life of freedom and security Our success goes hand-in-hand with the advancement of European integration. That is what connects us, Germans and Slovaks, the most, writes German ambassador to Slovakia. Illustrative stock photo (Source: AP/TASR) Top stories 48 students from developing countries will come to Slovak universities These students, who will be joined by 61 Slovak expats, will study at Slovak colleges and universities thanks to government scholarships. Students from developing countries and Slovak expats living abroad will come to Slovak colleges and universities thanks to government scholarships, the TASR newswire wrote on July 24. A total of 109 young people, 48 of which are from 16 different developing countries, along with 61 Slovak expats, will come to study in bachelor, master and post-graduate courses, the Education Ministry wrote. Students from Afghanistan, Albania, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Kenya, Belarus and Ukraine will come to study at Slovak schools. In Slovakia, they will mostly study general medicine and technology courses focused on telecoms, civil engineering, computer engineering, architecture, and urbanism, the ministry wrote, adding that they were also interested in studying economy and management. Most of them got through a one-year language and professional preparation phase before joining the university, the ministry explained, adding that this is part of the government scholarship. Expats focus on teaching, humanities and management The expats come from Serbia (40), Croatia and Romania (6 each) and Ukraine (5). Three scholarships went to Hungarian applicants and one to a potential Polish student. They had the biggest interest in studying pedagogical and social sciences, humanities, teaching, management, informatics, architecture and civil engineering, and agriculture, the Education Ministry informed TASR. Expats can pass a three-week summer course on Slovak language and professional preparation, too. 1. Aug 2018 at 23:34 | Compiled by Spectator staff Fico: Conflict with the media is essential for democracy After years of refusing to answer the questions of Sme daily journalists, former PM Robert Fico wrote an opinion piece for the daily. Former PM Robert Fico, now chairman and MP of the ruling Smer, has been refusing to communicate with journalists of the Sme daily. Now, he has written an opinion piece for the daily. In it, he labels NGOs and media as anti-governmental. The Sme daily published the opinion piece on August 1 with a note that in the text, Fico repeats conspiracy theories about subversive NGOs and paints media as the enemies of the nation. Therefore, the response of Smes Editor-in-Chief Beata Balogova was published alongside Ficos text. Read also: Read also: Fico is only stealing. Ideas from Orban Read more In his commentary, the former prime minister admits that as a politician who has been on the scene for 26 years, he feels his share of responsibility for what he views as the deteriorating state of parliamentary democracy in Slovakia. Conflict with the media He repeats that Slovakia is one of the countries with the highest press freedom ranking. In one breath, he accuses media of being hundreds of kilometres away from objectiveness, of spreading lies and hate towards social democracy, and of doing politics, even though they have no responsibility towards the voters nor any duties that rest on the shoulders of politicians and political subjects (like tax and property returns). The literally anti-governmental political activities of some media are so obvious that many opposition political parties can only envy them, Fico wrote and went on to claim that media have never understood the basics of journalism and democracy. 2. Aug 2018 at 16:01 | Compiled by Spectator staff Poll: Slovak scientists abroad are not keen on returning to Slovakia The main reasons are better opportunities for scientific and artistic activities along with higher salaries. One of the biggest problems for Slovak universities is not that lecturers and scientists are leaving to go abroad, but rather that after spending some time elsewhere, they no longer consider returning to their homeland, said Renata Hall of the To Da Rozum (That Makes Sense) initiative, which published the results of its survey on Thursday. The thing we focused on was whether they come back or not, and why, said Hall, as cited by the TASR newswire, adding that the survey also examined the reasons why the respondents decided to stay abroad. Less than 19 percent of the respondents left to work or study at foreign institutions with the intention of not returning to Slovakia. However, this figure doubled during their stay abroad; as many as 43 percent of Slovaks active in a foreign academic environment are not considering returning home in the foreseeable future. The opportunity to carry out scientific or artistic activities at a higher level was among the main reasons why university lecturers remained abroad, with 82 percent of the respondents stating this was the case. Higher salaries was the second most common reason in the poll. Scientists who are still considering returning home made up 25 percent of the respondents. They stated personal and family reasons, as well as the ambition to contribute towards developing the Slovak academic environment as the main reasons for their possible return. The survey was carried out between May and June on a sample of 197 Slovak academics working abroad. The respondents included students studying at foreign universities, researchers from research institutions, NGOs and governmental organisations, and private sector employees. 2. Aug 2018 at 22:49 | Compiled by Spectator staff Dennik N: This is what the Vietnamese kidnapping looked like Police officers who say they witnessed the kidnapping of the Vietnamese businessman describe he was intoxicated and beaten when transported on the government plane. The kidnapped Vietnamese businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh reportedly boarded a Slovak government airplane in Bratislava intoxicated and beaten, the Dennik N writes, citing local police officers who accompanied the Vietnamese delegation. Their testimonies confirm the findings of German prosecutors, who are investigating the case, and whose detailed report the daily has at its disposal thanks to its collaboration with the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Thanh, 51, was reportedly abducted last July in Germany and taken to Vietnam while Vietnamese official To Lam was officially visiting Slovakia. Some of the people suspected of involvement in the kidnapping appeared in Lams presence in Bratislava, and the Slovak Interior Ministry even provided a plane for the Vietnamese delegation to travel from Prague to the Slovak capital, and later Moscow, after what the Vietnamese described as sudden changes in their plans. Read also: Read also: Kiska: Vietnamese abduction is an international scandal Read more The Dennik N now writes that Radovan Culak, the head of protocol at the Interior Ministry, accompanied the Vietnamese delegation flying to Bratislava from Prague on the government plane. German media mention him as one of the key witnesses; he was supposed to make sure everything proceeded smoothly. Van with Thanh After landing in Bratislava, the Vietnamese delegation went to the government hotel Borik to meet with the Slovak delegation. Dennik N reports that the kidnapped businessman was in a van rented in Prague that was parked in front of the hotel. This van reportedly drove Thanh all the way from Berlin. During the meeting, the Vietnamese representatives reportedly asked for one van to be included in the delegations procession. Reportedly, this was the one containing Thanh. The Slovak side did not agree with that, but agreed to include a police van in the procession. Slovak police officers thus moved Thanh, whom they described as beaten and drunk, from the rented van into the police one. "Kali is aware of that, it is in the state's interest," Culak said to the officers according to one of them, as reported by Dennik N. The bodyguards were told that the Vietnamese got drunk and that he fell down the stairs. Thanh was reportedly the last to board the government airplane. Two members of the Vietnamese intelligence service reportedly supported him, holding him on each side. After some problems with the documents were solved, the plane took off for Moscow. Nonsense, says Interior Ministry The General Prosecutor's Office stated on August 1 that only the German bodies have the right to pursue criminal proceedings in the matter and that the German judicial bodies have provided no official information to their Slovak counterparts on the course or the result of the criminal proceedings carried out in Germany. Read also: Read also: Kalinak: The Vietnamese may have abused our generosity Read more The Interior Ministry considers the Dennik N article to be a complete nonsense, full of fabrications and lies. Slovak bodies have not intentionally participated in the abduction of a Vietnamese citizen abroad in any way, Petar Lazarov, spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, writes in the ministrys press release, adding that the Interior Ministry is fully cooperating with German investigators. Most-Hid wants investigation Junior coalition partner Most-Hid branded the abduction case as unprecedented and called for an independent investigation commission to be created, with the goal of drawing personal responsibility. "These actions have seriously harmed the international reputation of the Slovak Republic," the party wrote in their statement, as quoted by Sme. "A member state of the EU has participated in the abduction of a foreign state national who is criminally prosecuted in another country of our community." Most-Hid also demands that the police officers who spoke up about the circumstances of the case get protection, and the head of the Office for the Protection of Constitutional Officials be suspended from service. 2. Aug 2018 at 22:36 | Compiled by Spectator staff As previously reported here on Sprudge, Starbucks is feeling the heat in China. Multiple competitorsmost notably Tim Hortons and Luckin Coffeeare making big pushes within the country to knock Starbucks off the top of the hill. But Starbucks isnt going down quietly. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Big Green Mermaid has agreed to join forces with Alibaba to offer a coffee delivery service. Those in the coffee industry may be familiar with the name Alibaba, especially those in the product creation side of the biz. Alibaba is a Chinese-based clearinghouse of sorts for all manner of coffee productsmore than a few of them using potentially stolen intellectual propertyat bargain basement prices. They are also the owner of Ele.me, a food delivery service that can be found in thousands of cities within China, and it is this brand in particular that Starbucks in interested in. According to the article, Starbucks will announce this week that they will be teaming up with Ele.me to deliver coffee and baked goods starting this fall. This move comes after a government crackdown on third-party delivery services that is at least partly to blame for Starbucks sales dropping by 2% over the past three months as well as a response specifically to Luckin Coffee, a Chinese upstart who has raised over $1 billion and opened over 600 locations this year alone, mostly bare-bones shops where the coffee is brewed and carried to customers by scooter-riding delivery workers. Coffee is big money in China right now and Starbucks in looking to hold onto their estimated 80% market share. But it wont be easy. Luckin, Tim Hortons, and Costa are all trying to chip away at the coffee behemoth. Perhaps teaming up with Alibaba will keep the wolves at bay. Or maybe soon well all be able to buy knock-off Howard Schultzs for $.50 a pop (minimum order 500). Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge. Top image via Camera Courage. So it's confirmed, honor Malaysia will be launching the honor Play on 7 August 2018 and it seems that the pre-booking is now available until the day before the launch (6 August). Customers who pre-book the gaming device will be granted a RM30 voucher, as well as a chance to win a RM50 voucher if they watch the live stream and a free trip to Koln, Germany!! To recap the tech-specs, the honor Play will be a new addition to the gaming smartphone series featuring the current Kirin 970 chipset, a 16MP (f/2.2) + 2MP (f/2.4) dual rear camera setup, 6.3-inch IPS LCD display in 1080p, 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage (with an expandable memory), running on EMUI 8.2 out of the box and more. Also not to forget, the much talked GPU Turbo will be included so that means that the honor Play will be the first device in Malaysia to have such feature. On top of that, honor will also introduce a new 4D Gaming Experience feature. It includes a 3D Audio Effect and AI Vibration which as the name suggests, the gaming device will have some sort of surround sound-ish speaker (probably best experienced with an earphone or headphone) accompanied by AI Vibration for the thrills. This ain't nothing new, but it's still something. We will definitely be covering the official launch live so stay tuned for that, you can also check out our hands-on news over here at TechNave.com. Researchers including Nick Feamster, a computer science professor, and Anne Edmundson, who recently received a doctorate in computer science, examined the ways online information is routed across national boundaries. Credit: David Kelly Crow The internet gives people worldwide access to applications and services, but in many cases, internet traffic passes through a few dominant countries, according to new research from Princeton University. Following the 2013 revelations of U.S. government surveillance, officials from several countries expressed a desire to reduce their dependence on U.S. communications infrastructure. Brazil has taken notable steps toward this goal, including beginning construction of an underwater cable to Portugal and developing a large ecosystem of internet exchange points to help in-country networks better connect. This new study from Princeton researchers represents an early look at the effectiveness of these measures. Despite Brazil's efforts, a large proportion of its internet traffic continues to traverse the United States. One explanation, the researchers suggested, may be that business considerations prevent internet service providers from using internet exchange points in Brazil. By examining traffic to the 100 most popular websites in several countries, the researchers revealed that a large fraction of internet routing paths from Brazil, India and Kenya passed through the United States or Europe. They also piloted a tool called RAN (Region-Aware Networking) that allows users to reroute traffic to avoid going through a particular country by diverting traffic through intermediate points. The researchers found that Region Aware Networking was more successful in avoiding some countries than others. In particular, many popular websites are hosted only on servers in the United States or Europe. Other sites provide global access through contracts with content distribution networks, which often host websites in only a few countries, explained lead author Anne Edmundson, who graduated from Princeton this spring with a Ph.D. in computer science. Edmundson and her colleagues presented the study on June 21 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Sustainable Societies. The researchers measured internet routing paths through Brazil, Kenya, India, the Netherlands and the United States by accessing popular websites via virtual private networks, which provided vantage points from within the countries that were similar to those of users in those countries. They then downloaded the top 100 webpages in each country (as ranked by Alexa) and measured the paths between each client vantage point and the web servers that delivered the content within that country. The study found that more than half of all routing paths originating in other countries passed through the United States. Brazil showed the highest dependence, with 84 percent of traffic transiting the United States. A large fraction of paths from Kenya, India and the Netherlands also passed through Great Britain. In addition, traffic from Kenya commonly transited Mauritius and South Africa, while Singapore was a frequent stop for traffic from India. These paths generally tended to follow the paths of underwater communications cables between the respective countries and popular internet exchange points. The researchers also assessed the prevalence of "tromboning" paths that start and end in the same country but traverse a foreign country en route. Internet paths from Brazil and the Netherlands to popular websites often tromboned through the United States. About 13 percent of paths from Brazil were tromboning, and more than 80 percent of these traversed the United States; some paths also traversed countries such as Spain, Italy and Canada. "As soon as internet traffic enters a country's borders it becomes subject to that country's domestic laws and policies, including things like surveillance or censorship," said Edmundson. In response to this issue, the team designed and tested the Region-Aware Networking (RAN) system to give users more control over their internet routing. In addition to avoiding surveillance and censorship, reducing international routing could also improve connection speeds and lower costs. They set up a network of relays using machines in 10 countries and a mechanism to forward internet traffic through these relays. They then measured the system's ability to avoid routing traffic from the five countries in the study through other countries. In most cases, the tool significantly increased the percentage of routes to the top 100 websites that avoided a given country. For instance, without the tool's relays only 50 percent of paths from Kenya could avoid transiting Britain; Region-Aware Networking allowed 97 percent of paths to avoid Britain. The tool also led to modest decreases in tromboning paths. Traffic through the United States was more challenging to avoid. Routes from India achieved the highest avoidance level at 65 percent. "This could be for a couple of reasons," said Edmundson. "One reason is that the only path to a certain website goes through the United States, or that the content is only hosted in the United States and it is therefore unavoidable." Adding more relays to the network might improve the ability to avoid transiting the United States, she said. "The internet grew up without borders, but now people who care about privacy and freedom of expression are starting to be concerned about where their internet traffic goes," said Jedidiah Crandall, a computer scientist at the University of New Mexico who was not involved in the research. "At the same time, nation-states are developing their own ideas about borders on the internet. Where the borders actually are today is an important scientific question that this paper makes impressive progress towards answering." The researchers performed their measurements in early 2016; follow-up measurements could show whether Brazil and other countries have reduced their dependence on the United States and Europe for reaching popular internet websites. Explore further Researchers determine where Canadian data transfers increase exposure to US state surveillance More information: Anne Edmundson et al, Nation-State Hegemony in Internet Routing, Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) - COMPASS '18 (2018). Anne Edmundson et al, Nation-State Hegemony in Internet Routing,(2018). DOI: 10.1145/3209811.3211887 Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacation On Monday the Today show will give attention to the drought ravaging regional Australia. Hosts Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner will broadcast from Loomberah Hall in Tamworth, North West NSW, while Sylvia Jeffreys and Tim Gilbert will be in the town centre of Dirranbandi, South West Queensland. Karl Stefanovic said: Our farmers are the backbone of this great country, and they need our help. We want to shine a light on their plight and explain the issues theyre facing. Georgie Gardner said: Our farmers are known for their resilience and work ethic. Theyre a proud bunch that shun the limelight and rarely ask for help. Thats why its so critical to put the focus on this drought crisis and assist them to get back on their feet. We want our farmers and their families to know the whole nation is here to lend its support. The whole country is feeling the struggles of our farmers right now, Sylvia Jeffreys says. It has had such a devastatingly sad impact on large areas and families. With their once fertile land that supported diary, grain and cotton now arid dust bowls that are eating away at livelihoods and mental health, we will be meeting the heroes of the land to see what our farming communities are up against and how its reached crisis point. Shining a spotlight on what we can all do to lend a hand, the special event show will raise awareness in city communities on just how tough our farmers are doing it and what needs to be done by the State and Federal Governments. With farmers facing the driest winter on record, we dissect what further assistance needs to be given. Donations to Rotary Australia 5:30pm Monday August 6 on Nine. Former Prisoner star Val Lehman is planning a 40th anniversary reunion of the show that made her one of several household names in the 1970s. Prisoner premiered in Australia on 27 February 1979 and ran for 8 seasons, triggering a wave of fans around the world, some of whom have since grown into proud Prisoner-tragics. It was ground-breaking in its portrayal of female actors on Australian television, and spawned the rebooted Wentworth hit for Foxtel. A 30th anniversary fan event was held at the original Nunawading location in 2009, while a number of other fan events have also been held both in Australia and the UK. Now the 40th event looms, with none of fan passion diminished. Lehman plans to invite up to 15 members of the original cast to an event on Sunday February 24, 2019 (presumably at the same location) and bookings are due to open shortly. Lehman was always cleverly (and rightly) astute in benefiting from her popularity on the show, and previously involved in organising other fan events. The Nunawading site, once the Melbourne home for 0-TEN Network, is currently leased by FremantleMedia, producers of Wentworth. Not all of the cast are still with us, but who would you like to see attend? Source: Starts at 60 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's defense minister described Syria's return to its pre-civil war situation as a given on Thursday, and predicted that the Golan Heights frontier would be quieter with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's central rule restored. "From our perspective, the situation is returning to how it was before the civil war, meaning there is a real address, someone responsible, and central rule," Avigdor Lieberman told reporters. Asked whether Israelis should be less wary of potential Golan flare-ups, Lieberman said: "I believe so." (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Kevin Liffey) See Also: Hundreds of citizens demonstrated in front of the Basra Governorate Council building on Tuesday, July 31, in an ongoing protest for job opportunities and better living conditions. Footage shared of the protest on Tuesday was described as showing security forces dismantling the protesters tent. The provincial council did not comply with the demands of the demonstrators, which led to the escalation, said one demonstrator. We wanted a civil protest to demand our rights, but we were surprised when the security forces came immediately and tried to suppress us. Two of us have been arrested so far, another witness said. Credit: Rudaw via Storyful Fifteen-year-old Kyland Clark was sound asleep when a friend doused him with scalding water, leaving the teenager seriously injured with second-degree burns. Earlier, the two had been looking at videos of the "Hot Water Challenge," yet another disturbing viral video trend in which people engage in questionable, if not downright dangerous, behavior. "We didn't know it was gonna turn out like this," the bandaged high school student told InsideEdition.com Monday. "Like usually, somebody just wakes up and their eye like burns. But they're ... it's OK." It was definitely not OK for Kyland, who was hospitalized for a week with burns on his face, chest, back, neck and arms. He was swathed in bandages like the Mummy and his burned skin fell off in patches. Kyland had been sleeping over at his friend's house. The boys were looking at videos of the challenge, which have been turning up on social media intermittently over the past few years. The prank usually involves throwing boiling or scalding water over oneself or an unsuspecting victim. After Kyland fell asleep on the couch, his friend used a microwave to heat a container of water, then poured it over Kyland's body. "Like he didn't know that this was gonna be the outcome," Kyland said. "I mean, it was out of the microwave, so I don't think he thought that the water could be that much damage coming out of the microwave." The stunt has had serious consequences. An 8-year-old girl died in 2017 after her cousin told her to drink boiling water through a straw. An 11-year-old girl's face was severely burned when boiling water was poured on her during a sleepover in New York. Other online viral challenges include swallowing a spoon of pure cinnamon, which can lead to respiratory failure, snorting items through one's nose and then pulling it out one's mouth, and setting yourself on fire by dousing yourself with a flammable liquid and holding a match to it. Story continues Kyland's mom, Andrea, was notified by telephone that her son's hand had been injured. "When I got to the hospital, I was seeing something different," she said of Kyland's heavily bandaged body. "I was all over the place." "At times I ask myself, 'Why?' and, 'What were they thinking?' But I mean, I love them the same," she said of her son and his friend. "They're typical teenagers." She wishes they had been a bit smarter, she says, "but it could have been worse." Kyland will be out of school for a while, and the pigment in his skin will eventually return. He is recovering well, he said, and mostly feels OK. "He won't do another challenge, another prank, another nothin'," his mom intoned. And his friend is still his friend, Kyland said. "He stayed up there at the hospital with me every day and calls me every day," Kyland said. "He checks on me, he comes over on the weekends when he's not in school and stuff like that." He added: "I know it wasn't on purpose." RELATED STORIES Woman Face-Plants While Doing 'La Chona Challenge' Are Teens Eating Detergent for Dangerous New 'Tide Pod Challenge'? What's the Drive-By Dunk Challenge? Check Out This Summer's Latest Viral Trend Related Articles: FILE PHOTO: Syrian refugees from Afrin who crossed the Evros river, the natural border between Greece and Turkey, walk on the road at the village of Nea Vyssa, Greece, May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo ATHENS (Reuters) - More than 10,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Greece from Turkey through the northern Evros river crossing in the first half of 2018, a non governmental organisation said on Thursday, a quicker pace of arrivals compared to 2017. The figure outstrips an estimated 7,500 of arrivals from Evros in 2017 overall, a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Greece official told Reuters. "The number of incoming refugees and migrants exceeded 10,000 in the first six months of the year, more than the total number of arrivals from Evros in 2017," field coordinator for Greek MSF Ifigenia Anastasiadi said, citing police data. Nearly a million migrants crossed from Turkey to Greece's islands in 2015, but that route all but closed after the EU and Ankara agreed a deal to stop the flow in March 2016. Refugees fleeing war in Syria and elsewhere have turned in recent years to the old smugglers' route across the river border between the two countries. Turks have also used the Evros route following a failed coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016. Anastasiadi urged the government to send doctors and upgrade the Evros reception centre, which she called "a forgotten place." The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR also said earlier this year that the reception facility in the area is full beyond its 240-person capacity. It can take five to six minutes to paddle across the Evros river. But its fast-moving waters are treacherous and some people have perished on the way. The main flow across the Mediterranean to European Union countries now comes from north Africa, running at more than 50,000 so far this year. At least 1,500 migrants perished in trying to make the crossing, according to U.N. figures. (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Editing by William Maclean) By John Geddie and Christian Shepherd SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Southeast Asia and China have agreed on a working text to continue long drawn-out negotiations over a code of conduct in the disputed South China sea, with officials on Thursday lauding it as a "milestone" and "great progress". Some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have overlapping claims to islands in the sea, one of the world's busiest waterways. For years they have been discussing a pact to prevent an escalation of disputes. "I am pleased to announce yet another milestone in the COC (code of conduct) process," said Vivian Balakrishnan, the foreign minister of Singapore, who is hosting the meeting of regional leaders and lawmakers from around the world in the city-state. He said the "single draft COC negotiating text", agreed at high-level talks in June but only announced on Thursday, would serve as the basis for negotiations. His Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, called the working text "good news" and "great progress". Critics say the consensus approach to negotiations on the code could mean a final deal is still years off and works in China's favour as a delaying tactic to ease scrutiny of its militarization of man-made islands in the region. Officials of the 10 nations of the ASEAN grouping also met counterparts in Russia, Japan and New Zealand. A draft version seen by Reuters before ASEAN's meeting with Russia said the bloc would seek to strengthen its cooperation on cybersecurity with Moscow, which the United States has accused of election meddling, by issuing a joint statement of "cooperation in the field of cybersecurity". The final communique released late on Thursday made no mention of this, however. Singapore suffered its worst cyberattack this year, when hackers stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, from a government health database. Malaysia this year said it had foiled a cyber heist of its central bank. Story continues Neither country has identified the hackers. U.S. intelligence agencies have said a Russian propaganda arm tried to tamper with the 2016 presidential election by posting and buying ads on Facebook. Moscow has denied involvement. In its joint statement, ASEAN also reiterated its commitment to wrap up a major trade pact backed by China, against the backdrop of protectionist trade policies adopted by the United States, and urged progress towards peace and stability on a denuclearized Korean peninsula. TRADE "CENTREPIECE" Many Southeast Asian countries have been unsure of U.S. economic policy towards the region since President Donald Trump won a 2016 election promising to put "America First". One of Trump's early acts in office was to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which involved four Southeast Asian states. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due in Singapore on Friday fresh from unveiling a investment pitch for the region, although many ASEAN members could be more concerned with a U.S.-China trade dispute that threatens to jolt their economies. ASEAN pledged its commitment to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that includes China, saying it will form a "centrepiece of its external economic relations, particularly at a time of growing uncertainties in global trade". Singapore's prime minister said the deal would create the world's largest trading bloc, spanning a third of the global economy. ASEAN backed "the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula, saying it welcomed a pact between the United States and North Korea at June's landmark summit in Singapore. On the sidelines of the event, China's top government diplomat, Wang Yi, called for a push to establish a peace mechanism as well as denuclearization. China, along with North Korea and the United States, is a signatory to the armistice that concluded the 1950-53 Korean War, rather than a peace treaty. The United States has said it will press Southeast Asia to keep up sanctions on Pyongyang during the meetings. (Reporting by John Geddie, Christian Shepherd and Jack Kim in SINGAPORE and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Editing by Paul Tait and Clarence Fernandez) Reuters KHARTOUM (Reuters) -The World Bank halted disbursements for operations in Sudan on Wednesday in response to the military's seizure of power from a transitional government, while state oil company workers, doctors and pilots joined civilian groups opposing the takeover. Thousands of people have taken to the streets since Monday's coup led by armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and several have been killed in clashes with security forces. Burhan has dismissed the joint civilian-military council set up to steer the country to democratic elections following the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising in April 2019. HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police have sealed off the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and 27 party employees carrying out voter tabulation were locked inside, Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora said on Thursday. Three people were killed in Harare on Wednesday as soldiers dispersed stone-throwing opposition supporters who accused the ruling party of trying to rig Monday's presidential election. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia) Photo credit: Getty Images From Esquire Scientists have found that, on balance, Elon Musk's plan to terraform Mars by droppin thermonuclear weapons on it isn't as brilliant an idea as the Tesla chief and freshly staunched international meme fountain once suggested it was. A Nasa-sponsored study into whether Mars could be made habitable for humans - specifically by releasing the carbon dioxide trapped in various sites on the planet, causing a greenhouse effect and thereby trapping liquid water on the surface before it could freeze or evaporate - found that the faintly supervillainous plan wouldn't work after all. "Our results suggest that there is not enough CO2 remaining on Mars to provide significant greenhouse warming were the gas to be put into the atmosphere," said Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, who led the study. "In addition, most of the CO2 gas is not accessible and could not be readily mobilised. As a result, terraforming Mars is not possible using present-day technology." Musk had hoped that melting Mars' polar icecaps with extremely powerful weapons would release enough carbon dioxide to raise the surface pressure and temperature on the planet, but the study showed that doing so would only raise Mars' atmospheric pressure to 1.2 percent that of Earth. Even adding in all of the carbon dioxide trapped in soil and rocks on the planet's surface, that would still only take us to 6.9 percent of Earth's pressure. Digging down to release reserves of carbon deep in the Martian crust could get Musk five percent closer to Earth's atmosphere, but he'd have to strip-mine the top 100 metres of the planet's crust, which seems like a bit of a faff. That will be another blow to Musk, who's had a bit of a rocky month or so after calling a heroic cave diver a "pedo guy" and having to sort out a copyright dispute over a picture of a farting unicorn. Still, at least the $1,500 surfboards his Boring Company has made are shifting. Cowabunga. ('You Might Also Like',) German officials have denied the European Union would offer a vague Brexit deal proposal to save the UK from crashing out of the bloc empty handed, according to reports. As fears of a no-deal Brexit increase, reports from the former Remain campaign, now the Peoples Vote, said the EU might offer British negotiators an alternative vague proposal for a deal if France and Germany were to approve. While a potential deal, nicknamed blind Brexit, could save Mays position as leader of the Conservative party and might postpone the solutions to key issues past the exit date in 2019, German sources told the Guardian the rumours were false. They also added that there had been no instructions to back a vague Brexit deal but they would request clear agreements on future trade and security cooperation in any case. Chris Leslie MP of UK's People's Vote said: "A blind Brexit would take the UK to the same place as a no-deal Brexit, but without the clarity. The idea that the fundamental contradictions of the government's Brexit policy can be more easily resolved after the UK has left the EU is simply ludicrous." Earlier this week, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt called on France and Germany to intervene in the Brexit negotiations to push them forward. France and Germany have to send a strong signal to the commission that we need to negotiate a pragmatic and sensible outcome that protects jobs on both sides of the Channel, because for every job lost in the UK, there will be jobs lost in Europe as well if Brexit goes wrong," Hunt said. Google is working on a mobile search app for China, allowing the company to re-enter the country after exiting eight years ago due to censorship regulations. The Alphabet-owned company is designing search software named Dragonfly that would leave out the content forbidden by the Chinese government, according to tech website The Intercept. Terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app said the media outlet. The state-owned China Securities Daily, with access to information from relevant departments, denied the report but a Google employee confirmed to Reuters that the plan was active. There is still no guarantee the project could allow Google to return to China after it left in 2010 over censorship and hacking rows. Google has recently been displaying more interest in regaining access to the country. In June 2018 it announced a $550m investment in the Chinese retailer JD.com. A Chinese human rights community said Google was cooperating with Chinas censorship and limiting internet freedom. According to The Guardian, Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International said: For the worlds biggest search engine to adopt such extreme measures would be a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom. In putting profits before human rights, Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory. Restaurant yield management platform operator BigDish announced on Thursday that its ordinary shares had been admitted to the standard listing segment of the official list of the UK Listing Authority, and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities under the ticker 'DISH. The firm said that on admission, it had 285,847,519 ordinary shares at a listing price of 4.5p per share. Aidan Bishop, founder and chairman of BigDish, said it was an important milestone for the company, as it looked forward to further developing its business within South East Asia and in the United Kingdom. As a technology company we will also continue to innovate in order to further meet the needs of our restaurant partners and consumers, Bishop said. Yield management is a dynamic pricing strategy that charges different prices at different times for the same product. It was introduced in the 1970s by American Airlines and transformed the way airline seats are sold. Bishop said the hotel industry was the next to quickly adopt yield management, which he claimed worked wherever there were fixed overheads and perishable inventory. The restaurant sector has traditionally been a late adopter of technology and we believe this represents an opportunity for disruption. A restaurant has fixed overheads yet perishable inventory - tables - and empty tables make no money. Yield management uses incentive to change behaviour. BigDish allowed restaurants to shape their traffic and bring in more diners at off-peak or quieter periods by using smart incentives that brought in new customers and additional revenue, Bishop explained. BigDish started life in Manila as a restaurant discount card but we soon discovered this was an old fashioned and outdated model with barriers to achieving scale and generated little data. We made the decision to pivot in mid 2016 after noting a yield management platform in New York that grew rapidly and was acquired by Groupon. That was the beginning for us and we began developing a whole suite of new products. Bishop added that the food technology sector was a hot space to be in, and its yield management platform was said to have a particular niche that was gaining traction. Companies such as TripAdvisor and AirBnB have made recent investments in young early stage food tech startups and that trend looks likely to continue. We believe that we have the right team, in the right place with the right product to develop an exciting business. Kailyn Lowry totally gets that not everyone understands why she has so many baby daddies. So, when it came to an odd encounter with her landscaper, it wasn't surprising to hear that the "Teen Mom 2" star brushed off a potentially offensive comment he made toward her as he tended to the outside of her Delaware home. On Twitter, Lowry shared details of the encounter with her many fans and followers and admitted that she was "laughing her a** off" about what happened. "My landscaper told me to pressure wash my patio... I said Ill ask my baby daddy to do it. And he goes 'which one?'" Lowry tweeted on July 31. Then, as fans quickly shared their responses to the message, Lowry offered some more insight. First, after a fan suspected that Jo Rivera wasn't one to work in the yard, Lowry admitted that her former husband, Javi Marroquin, wasn't either. A short time later, Lowry received a tweet of a face-palm emoji and a laughing emoji and made it clear that she agreed with the Twitter user's sentiment. "Lmaoooo," she wrote. Kailyn Lowry welcomed her first child, eight-year-old Isaac, in January 2010 with then-boyfriend Jo Rivera during her time on the second season of "16 & Pregnant." Three years later, after marrying her now-ex-husband, Javi Marroquin, Lowry welcomed middle son Lincoln, now 4. Kailyn Lowry got pregnant with her third child months after her divorce After announcing her divorce from Javi Marroquin in May 2016, Kailyn Lowry confirmed she was expecting her third child but wouldn't reveal who the child's father was for several months. Although she revealed to her fans and followers in February 2017 that she and her mystery baby daddy were no longer an item, it wasn't until months later that Chris Lopez was finally revealed as her third baby daddy. Discuss this news on Eunomia Kailyn Lowry is filming 'Teen Mom 2' season nine Amid rumors regarding the potential exit of Jenelle Evans ahead of season nine, Lowry and her family are filming scenes for the upcoming installment. As for whether or not Evans will ultimately return to the show and rejoin her co-stars for season nine, fans may have to wait and see. To see more of Kailyn Lowry, her family, and her co-stars, including Jenelle Evans, Leah Messer, Chelsea Houska, and Briana DeJesus, tune in to the remaining episodes of "Teen Mom 2" season 8B on Mondays at 9PM on MTV. This coming Monday, August 6, the group will be seen attending their reunion special. This multi-platformed sea club features different concrete platforms and spaces overlooking an amazing view of shore in the Pacific Ocean in Acapulco, Mexico. Designed by 128 arquitectura y diseno urbano and Kontrast Arquitectura, the Sea Club Punta Marques perfectly sits on a rocky shore of Acapulco, which is known as one of the firsts ports and shipyard during the colonial era. This place is an area where naval expeditions departed to new territories like the Philippines, Baja California or Peru. Since it is well known with this historical background and its nearness to Mexico City, Acapulco is now visited as one of the top tourist destinations during the second half of the XX century. There are two bays alongside the Pacific Ocean that structures the seafront to this mesmerizing scene, Acapulco Bay and Puerto Marques, in memory of the Valley Marquis, the conqueror Hernan Cortes. The Sea Club Punta Marques is situated in the convergence of both bays, a cape called Punta Marques. The cape has two frontages, one heading the Pacific Ocean and the other side the bay which gives access the sea just like an ancient fortification. The new building becomes "an Open Balouart", according to the architects. Encompassing a total of 2,800 square meters, the spaces are distributed in three major areas: the restaurant, bar building and the pool terrace area. A sea deck and the service areas are placed on the lowest level to allow easy access. Taking cues from its location, the architects applied a lighting strategy to avoid the disturbance of the local ecosystem. The architects used multiple platform system that distributes the activities with different spatial characteristics. On the access level, an inviting juice bar and lounge are designed with a decked terrace to make feel the atmosphere, on the first level, the dinner restaurant and a roof terrace welcome visitors with fully open front facade and on the second level, the architects designed the main terrace bar with swimming pool to enjoy with this spectacular view. The architects were careful about the choice of the materials to adapt to the natural setting, that's why, they used the similar colors of concrete resembling to the natural stone. "Acapulco like other ports around the Guerrero state have suffered a bad moment derived from the violence in the area, however the project pretends to counter balance this situation," said the architects. "The project brief stablishes two basic guidelines, the revival of an iconic location within the environmental regulations on the site." Project facts Project name: Sea Club Punta Marques Architects: 128 arquitectura y diseno urbano and Kontrast Arquitectura Location: Punta marques, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico Date: 2018 All images Alejandro Gutierrez > via 128 arquitectura y diseno urbano and Kontrast Arquitectura * "Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , October 2021. * "Most Popular Copyright Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , October 2021. * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020. * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018. * IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014. * Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013. * Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011. 2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100. * Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010. * Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010. * Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010. * Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll. Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008. The group that has challenged our predator control practices have made some sweeping statements on social media which are misleading. For example, following a first meeting when we discussed predator control at length, we did offer to meet again to discuss some of their concerns in more detail. They refused to do so. They also have made highly subjective statements about the contractors we employ to undertake the predator control. As I explained in the previous blog, we have very clear processes which we follow during the recruitment process. Many predator control contractors will have links to the shooting community but this does not mean they are bloodsports enthusiasts and this has no bearing on their ability to undertake predator control for conservation purposes in a professional and humane manner. I have also explained (in a previous comment and copied below for ease of reference) the rationale for why we do predator control and we continue to strive to meet our conservation objectives while operating to the highest animal welfare standards. I have also specifically addressed our use of Larsen traps. At the heart of this is a difference in values and motivations. As a conservation charity, we work to keep common species common and recover threatened species. Others are perhaps more interested in the fate of individual birds. While, of course, I understand and respect these views, they differ from our values and charitable objectives which must guide the choices we make. These debates will of course continue, but I think are best done through face to face meetings rather than through commentary on social media or even email exchanges which is why our offer to meet again still stands. --------------------------------- A few queries have been raised through twitter about our use of Larsen traps and whether we have an exit strategy for predator control. On the former, as I have said in previous blogs, we only resort to lethal means when tests in our vertebrate policy are met: - That the seriousness of the problem has been established - That non-lethal methods have been assessed and found not to be practicable - That killing is an effective way of addressing the problem - That killing will not have an adverse impact on the conservation status of the target or other non-target species. Sadly, Larsen traps are an effective lethal means of controlling crows during the wader breeding season. The call bird is seen as an intruder by territorial crows who will then try to drive it away. Shooting is another means of controlling crows. It doesnt require the use of call birds but there are limitations to its use, for example as it takes place during the day on land that is often used by people. Therefore, whilst it can supplement Larsen trapping, it is unlikely to be an effective means of controlling crows on its own. We do, of course, ensure that the trapping of crows is carried out in accordance with the General Licenses and relevant animal welfare legislation. Our policy for use of Larsen traps exceeds these legal requirements, as all contractors must check traps twice a day to ensure that the call-bird has access to food and water and that suitable welfare provisions are made for any caught birds. Fresh water is provided by a dispenser attached to the trap so that it cannot be knocked over. Call-birds are changed regularly. All contractors complete a daily checklist each time the check is undertaken and this is submitted to the RSPB. The RSPB Investigations Team regularly undertake independent spot checks to ensure our contractors are compliant. Regarding the issue of having an exit strategy for predator control, I would refer you to the conclusions from the recent review that we published about the impact of predation on wild birds where we say that there is a real need for research to understand how landscape-scale management could be used to provide longer-term sustainable solutions to reduce the number of generalist predators and their impact of species of conservation concern. So, we intervene to provide a lifeline for threatened species while we continue to seek what is inevitably a longer term ambition to secure more fundamental change in the way land is managed. School of the Americas Sergio has ink-pot eyes, girlish wrists. He draws superheroes extremely well Avengers, Wolfman, El Toro Rojo, any one wearing a mask. Monday nights we drive to the art club meeting in the cream-colored Sunbird I bought with babysitting money. I dont know how he ended up with his mom in the South, just the two of them, but I spend 9th grade sitting next to him, translating a Georgia OKeefe painting into pastel chalk: a lily dusted with pollen. One day during class, Sergio tells me he saw his grandparents shot before his eyes back in Colombia. The phrase sticks out in his heavy accent, like a child repeating something just overheard. After a few minutes, we go back to our drawings. In the evenings that year I sign my name to stock letters sent by Amnesty International and mail them to faraway dictators of the 1990s: Mubarak, Mobutu, Marcos. All the while a quarter of a tank away, at the School of the Americas (now the Western Hemispheres Institute for Security Cooperation) hundreds of Colombian soldiers train in truth extraction, how to intimidate, the best ways to torture. In the yearbook, I list my hobbies: poetry and human rights. I have yet to draw a picture of anything from lifethe art teacher seems disappointed that Sergio and I are mere copyists. After graduation, Sergio finished a year of art school in Chicago, got cancer and died. I guess I had a crush on him when we were fourteen, and I sat next to him, copying those sexual flowers. One has to start somewhere. Just start: before my eyes could see, I drew things like that lily. . by Rebecca Black from Split This Rock, 2014 11. Stay a brunette but go warmer with a touch of red or gold Skin tone changes with age, so adapting by going a shade or two warmer or brighter instead of changing your color is still a good move, as Sigourney Weaver proves. For a natural look, don't go too far you want to amp up your color and don't aim for your original darkest brown or black hair color, since that would emphasize lines, discolorations and shadows. And my final advice: If you're piling on foundation, blush and bronzer every day to look good, your hair color is not doing you any favors. Go see a salon pro for a free consultation. The state Higher Education Department has announced a change that aims to increase the amount of students completing college credits. A new policy, which is in effect, is regulating the college courses students can get credit for when they get at least a three on Advanced Placement, or AP, exams. Before, it was up to each college or university to establish a threshold AP score and to decide which courses would be credited. HED spokeswoman Lida Alikhani noted some kids would even opt out of the test, unsure if the exam would translate into credit they needed for their college careers. It didnt always line up across the colleges and universities, Alikhani said. HED worked with New Mexicos public colleges and universities to form the new policy that standardizes AP credit for all the colleges and universities in the state, according to a news release. The new policy guarantees specific courses students will receive credit for at any New Mexico college or university when they pass an AP exam with a score of three, four, or five, HED wrote in a news release. Alikhani said New Mexico is the 28th state to adopt a policy of this nature. Last year, students in the state passed 6,028 AP exams. Since day one, weve been working to improve New Mexicos education system and today were taking a tremendous step forward, Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron wrote in a statement. More kids than ever are taking and passing AP exams and now were giving them the tools they need to apply their hard work toward completing a college degree and saving their families money in tuition costs. A longtime New Mexico journalism, communications and public relations professional has been selected as the next executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Melanie Majors, 63, will lead the nonpartisan nonprofit, which was founded in 1989 to educate and advocate on behalf of transparency in open government. Majors was a member of the foundations board of directors, but stepped down in April to lead FOG as the interim director. She became the permanent director on Wednesday. Majors has had a 25-year career in New Mexico, starting as a print journalist for the Grants Daily Beacon and then working at KOB-TV. Most recently, Majors owned and operated The Majors Company, which is a public relations firm, and she is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. Majors said in an interview that FOG will continue its mission to educate journalists, business leaders, government officials and the general public about New Mexico sunshine laws, which include the Inspection of Public Records Act, the Open Meetings Act and the Arrest Record Information Act. Transparency is for everybody. If we (the public) know whats going on we can make much better decisions, she said. FOG wants people to know that open government is for everyone, not just journalists. Majors has received various awards from the New Mexico Press Association, New Mexico Press Women, the Associated Press Managing Editors and the New Mexico Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. Melanie has proven time and again her commitment to and understanding of FOGs mission through her service on the board, and most recently when she stepped in as interim director, said Karen Moses, NMFOG president. She also brings her experience as a private businesswoman and communications expert to the table, said Moses, who is also editor of the Albuquerque Journal. If anyone has questions or concerns about IPRA or the Open Meetings Act, FOG can be contacted at 505-764-3750. Shes accused of beating and kicking her 1-year-old son so viciously doctors had to put the baby into a medically induced coma. Yet Dahn Leidy, 24, may soon get out of jail. If youre outraged someone accused of committing such a heinous crime would be allowed to go free pending trial, youre not alone. We are too. Cases like this reinforce concerns our criminal justice system is broken. And judges making these calls are depending too much on risk assessment tools rather than using their own discretion and common sense. Leidy and her boyfriend, Florencio Mendoza, 45, were arrested last month on suspicion of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and tampering with evidence. Mendoza called police to report Leidy told him she was going to hurt the baby, watch him die and commit suicide. Police went to the apartment and found the baby semi-conscious with multiple injuries. Leidy denied hurting her son, but told police she had been smoking meth and marijuana. Prosecutors filed petitions to keep the pair behind bars until their trials. They said the evidence against Leidy is strong and her drug use suggests her behavior is escalating, and that Mendoza had failed to appear in prior cases. But state District Judge Cristina Jaramillo on Monday ruled both suspects should be released with certain conditions. Leidys include she not have any contact with a child 10 years old or younger. They remained jailed as of Wednesday afternoon. Pretrial services completed risk assessments and recommended both be released with conditions. The main criteria for determining release is whether a defendant is a danger to others or a flight risk. Neither defendant had a long, violent criminal history. But judges have a responsibility to weigh all factors including the seriousness of the crime a defendant is accused of. In fact, the state Supreme Court ruled in December that the crime charged may be sufficient, despite other evidence, to sustain the States burden of proving the defendant poses a threat What Leidy is accused of nearly kicking her defenseless 1-year-old child to death certainly suggests she is a threat to the community. As does her admission that she had been smoking meth. Leidy previously ignored conditions set by the Children, Youth and Families Department, even if voluntary, aimed at keeping her child safe. Whats to stop her from ignoring the conditions of release set by Jaramillo? She does, after all, also have a 3-year-old child a child who was already removed from her custody due to safety concerns. Voters outraged by Jaramillos decision to free Leidy pending trial should remember that outrage the next time the judge is up for retention. Leos rightly injects judicial discretion Meanwhile, state District Court Judge Cindy Leos deserves credit for again sending a clear message to a defendant that actions have consequences. Leos is the judge who last month refused to release the man accused of terrorizing a woman in a wheelchair. In the most recent case, Alexis Rogers was out on court-ordered supervision and a monetary bond in a drive-by shooting in which she was charged with murder. She was the driver, but not the shooter. After being released, she tested positive for cocaine, despite being ordered to not use illegal drugs. Prosecutors also say she hosted a party last weekend during which a 21-year-old man was fatally shot. On Wednesday, Leos remanded Rogers into custody, making it clear there are consequences for failing to adhere to conditions of release at least in her courtroom. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Prev 1 of 4 Next Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Nearly two years after announcing the project, the Sandia Peak Ski Co. will have an open house today about its proposed mountain coaster, which is envisioned by the operators of the ski area as a year-round attraction for tourists and locals. Attendees will be able to see visual displays, a site map and a timeline of the proposal, and staff members will be on hand to answer questions, said Ben Abruzzo, general manager of the Sandia Peak Ski Area. Abruzzo said the program will be informal and representatives will collect comment cards that will be made available to the U.S. Forest Service. Well give the public plenty of opportunity to comment, ask questions and express any concerns,Abruzzo said. He said the coaster is the centerpiece of the ski areas quest to become an income-producing summer recreation area to help offset the financial struggles caused by lean snow years. Its just good business to be able to maintain your workforce throughout the year,Abruzzo said. The operator plans to invest $2 million in the mountain coaster, which would be set up between two existing chairlifts. The current site map shows the coaster crisscrossing one of the ski runs. The coaster would affect that course, but Abruzzo said the run is rarely used. Abruzzo expects representatives from the U.S. Forest Service to attend the open house, because the property is on federal land. Installation of the mountain coaster would need approval by the Forest Service, which said in a news release that it will conduct a thorough environmental analysis to determine the potential effects that the use will have on resources such as wildlife, vegetation, cultural sites and the watershed. That process includes a public comment period. Abruzzo said he believes the agency might make a decision in the next six months. Assuming they say yes, construction would begin in spring or summer of 2019, with an opening later that year, he said. He said the company has obtained approval for industrial revenue bonds from Bernalillo County. The company would be responsible for repaying the bonds, but IRBs usually reduce borrowing costs and provide tax breaks. The coaster, which would be elevated 3 feet off the ground for 85 percent of the ride, would help boost business and employment opportunities at the recreation area, he said. The coaster would run nearly 3,000 feet, sending riders on a course of twists, turns and dips through the trees and would feature a vertical drop of nearly 400 feet. It would reach speeds of 25 to 30 mph. The proposed mountain coaster also would have nice synergies with the new restaurant being built on Sandia Peak, Abruzzo said. The coaster is manufactured by Wiegand, the No. 1 producer of mountain coasters worldwide. Abruzzo said Wiegand has sold the rides to five operators on Forest Service land in the West, including the Vail, Copper Mountain and Purgatory resorts in Colorado. Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Nine months after a sheriffs deputy, claiming fear of impending battery, pointed his gun at a motorcyclist doing a wheelie on Tramway, the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office says the deputy has been cleared of any wrongdoing. The exoneration comes over the objection of a former internal affairs investigator, who says in a court deposition that his opinion that the incident was not justified contributed to him getting booted from the coveted IA position. Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said in an interview last month he was unaware of that investigators opinion. As far as he knew, he said, the investigation found no wrongdoing by deputies Bradley Maestas and Daniel Mauricio and Lt. Alfonso Rodriguez. Gonzales and Internal Affairs Lt. Lori Carrillo said the investigation examined whether the three violated any of the departments standard operating procedures. Those would have included how the deputy used his gun, appropriate internal communication following the incident, and honesty in report writing. This was a very high-profile case, so we looked into it on our own initiative, Gonzales said of the IA investigation, which the department started in the days after the Oct. 7, 2017, incident. In that incident, the department said, dozens of motorcyclists who had been disrupting traffic surrounded the deputies and blocked them in by communicating among themselves using hand signals. The BCSO report said the group created a borderline deadly-force situation in which the deputies were afraid of an impending battery by being rammed by a motorcycle. Mauricio said in his report that when motorcyclists surrounded their unit after they pulled into the group on Tramway near Paseo del Norte, it felt like a cage in the water surrounded by sharks on the fear of being assaulted. Maestas, who was driving, said in his report that a motorcycle rider in a pink shirt became parallel with my unit and was within feet of the passenger side. He said that at that moment there was no way for him to drive away from the group. So Mauricio rolled down his passenger-side window and aimed his gun, one-handed, at the rider in the pink shirt who was in mid-wheelie. A view of this moment is caught on a 24-second video taken by a motorcyclist riding nearby. That video, which circulated widely on social media after the encounter, does not support the sheriffs department reports. It does not show the deputys vehicle surrounded by other vehicles as they follow, with lights off, the pink-shirted rider. It shows a deputy pull his vehicle from behind that motorcyclist and straddle the middle white line until he is alongside the motorcyclist, who is mid-wheelie in the right lane. The video shows the rider look up toward the deputy, who is pointing a gun out the passenger window. The motorcyclist then drops out of the wheelie. The video then scrambles and ends. Another view But Gonzales and Carrillo said the video clip doesnt show the whole story. The angles and perspectives present a false vision of what happened that day, Carrillo said. To get the full story, Carrillo and Gonzales said, the public needs to view a longer video of the incident. It wasnt clear from their comments if they were referring to a longer version of the 24-second clip or a separate video. Journal requests to see the video were declined. We cant give you that, Gonzales said. It would violate the officers right to privacy. The sheriff said the video was made by someone who works for the department, but he wouldnt say who it was or how it was made or how it was different from the video circulating on the internet. BCSO deputies do not wear body cameras, and only a few vehicles not including the one involved in this incident have dash cameras, according to a department spokeswoman. Melanie Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said an officers right to privacy does not appear to be a valid reason in this case to withhold the video. The New Mexico statute is very clear as to what it considers an exemption there are seven of them and FOG doesnt believe the sheriffs response falls under any of those exemptions, Majors said. Carrillo said the alternate video was longer than the 24-second video and that the whole incident was much longer than 24 seconds. She said this case is like many that can be found on the internet in which one perspective on a video makes the situation appear unjustified, but another perspective from another video makes it look justified or explains it better. Undersheriff Rudy Mora said in an interview last month that looking at just the 24-second video is unfair to the deputies and the department and doesnt show the whole story. When asked for help explaining discrepancies between the 24-second video and the departments reports and communication, Mora said there arent any discrepancies. Thats only opinion, he said. IA investigation The true story, Mora, Carrillo and Gonzales said, is in the IA report, which the department cant release. Gonzales said the public needs to trust that the Sheriffs Office did a thorough investigation and takes honesty seriously. Weve fired people for lying, he said. The Sheriffs Office initially declined to release nearly all of the report on the IA investigation, citing state public records law allowances for redaction or exemption of matters of opinion. After further requests from the Journal, the office released portions of documents in the IA investigation, still exempting most as documents concerning infractions and disciplinary action. Documents released include letters declaring exoneration, letters alerting employees they are being investigated or are witnesses, the deputies reports, dispatch records and a criminal investigation report into the actions of the motorcyclists by detective Mark Carver. The incident On that Saturday, around 3 p.m., emergency 911 operators received three calls from drivers who said a large group of motorcyclists estimates ranged from 20 to 100 was disrupting traffic all the way from Paseo and Coors east to Tramway, then south. Callers said the motorcyclists were doing wheelies, blocking intersections, weaving between cars and slowing down in all lanes of traffic to give riders ahead space to do tricks. Its just out of hand it pisses me off, thats why Im calling, one of the three 911 callers tells dispatchers. Deputies Mauricio and Maestas, already in the Foothills area, say in their official reports that they saw the motorcyclists passing by. Mauricio then jumped into Maestas patrol unit and Maestas pulled into the middle of the pack. According to Carver, after Mauricio pointed the gun, the riders surrounded the deputies vehicle and never pulled over for the traffic stop the deputies were attempting. The deputies were able to escape after finding a pause in the traffic flow, his report says. After the incident, the deputies and their chain of command emailed each other discussing what happened and how to put out a news release about it. In emails, Lt. AJ Rodriguez wrote to his captain that the deputies were in a borderline deadly-force situation and if similar incidents happen again, he would approve hitting the bikes, to create safe space if the deputies are being actively blocked in by motorcycles. Carvers report said that after the incident, he got about 60 calls from drivers who said the group of motorcyclists inconvenienced them or endangered them that day. A video of the gun-pointing incident was shared widely on social media, prompting an overwhelming number of responses and messages from our community, a department spokeswoman said. Much of that feedback was received on the BCSO Facebook page, where commenters derided the department and said the deputys response was unjustified. Others said the motorcyclists were reckless and endangering lives, and the deputies responded appropriately. Justified by policy While the department issued the exonerations, at least one person in the IA office felt the incident was not justified. In a court deposition taken in May for an unrelated case filed against the Sheriffs Office, now former Internal Affairs Sgt. Ryan Tafoya testified that he believed Mauricios use of his gun was unjustified and inappropriate for a traffic violation. He said in the deposition that his commanders felt differently, and once he had expressed this and another critical opinion in a separate case, he was transferred. Gonzales said last month he didnt know of Tafoyas opinion of the case and didnt have anything to do with his transfer from IA to a graveyard shift in the South Valley. From the beginning of the case, Gonzales has said the deputys use of his gun was likely justified. Driving a motorcycle on one tire is a traffic violation, and deputies are allowed to use a show of force according to our standard operating policies, Gonzales said at a news conference. He called for an internal affairs investigation but said then that detectives needed to speak with the rider to proceed with a more serious investigation into the show of force. Detectives were not able to locate the motorcyclist for an interview. Gonzales said at the news conference that riders might be reluctant to speak with law enforcement out of fear of being charged criminally because you were out there lawlessly driving in the streets and you might be identified as a criminal network. SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Store Capital Corp. (STOR) on Thursday reported a key measure of profitability in its second quarter. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The real estate investment trust, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, said it had funds from operations of $91.1 million, or 45 cents per share, in the period. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 44 cents per share. Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization. The company said it had net income of $62.2 million, or 31 cents per share. The retail real estate investment trust posted revenue of $131.2 million in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $124.4 million, which also beat Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $123.9 million. The companys shares have risen slightly more than 5 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has risen 16 percent in the last 12 months. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on STOR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/STOR Thursday, August 02, 2018 Pearce Tries To Break The Ice In ABQ, Ben Ray Has TV Trouble With ICE, And: Obama Endorses A Trio Of NM Contenders It took the intervention of a U.S. congressman to get the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District to clean out a long-neglected South Valley drainage ditch even though the MRGCD claims it has been providing regular maintenance on the ditch twice a year. At a news conference in the South Valley, adjacent to the Isleta Drain, Theresa Baca, president of the Atrisco Viejo Neighborhood Association, and Patricio Dominguez, association vice president, thanked Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., for getting the project done, even though the area is not in Pearces district. Rep. Lujan Grisham, the Dem Guv nominee and who represents the South Valley, was left holding the bag: Its unfortunate that this group did not reach out to the congressional office for assistance regarding this matter, said a campaign spokesman. Had they done so the congresswoman and her staff would have been able to assist them. MLG's steadfast support of that pillar of our quasi-welfare state--Medicaid--could stand her in good stead as Pearce tries to come up with more hat tricks in ABQ. Dems reminded their brethren that this week marks the 53rd anniversary of the signing of the bill that made Medicare and Medicaid possible. And our own Senator Clinton P. Anderson, pictured here on the right, was a chief sponsor. ABOLISHING ICE It's a tricky question for the Dems as their left wing calls for doing away with the immigration agency known as ICE, but polling shows a majority of Americans don't agree. And NM Dem Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the Dem Congressional Campaign Committee, found himself pinned to the mat on the hot issue in an appearance Sunday on ABC's Asked several times about the Dem position on ICE Lujan bobbed and weaved. He was called out by his Republican counterpart, Rep. Steve Stivers, chair of the Nat'l GOP Congressional Campaign Committee, who said Lujan did not "talk about ICE." Moderator Martha Raddatz, who asked Lujan several times about ICE said Lujan "did not answer that question" and as Lujan interrupted her she rebuffed him" "I think you had a fair chance to make your argument. We're going to have to stop there. You had your chance." OBAMA ENDORSES Former President Obama is back on the campaign trail with a list of Obama also gave his blessing to Sandoval County State Rep. Daymon Ely who is in a swing seat and faces Republican Barbara Boatman. Also getting the presidential nod was Dem Natalie Figueroa who is seeking the seat being vacated by House Minority Leader Nate Gentry. Her GOP foe is John Jones. The Ely seat is a swing area but we rank it Lean Dem based on current trends. The Gentry NE Heights seat is also ranked Lean Dem for the November election. One other note: John Jones is married to Janice Arnold-Jones. Both of them got the thumbs down from Obama. Dems love it. The couple probably wears it as a badge of honor. THE BOTTOM LINES Hey, we don't steer you wrong. A reader writes: Hello Joe, we took our long awaited trip to El Norte this weekend. We stayed at the Taos Inn as planned but after reading about Angelina's restaurant in Espanola in your blog we had to stop and try the Costillas. All I can say is that after your advice we have a new favorite spot. Thanks for the great tip! Yep, lamb in many varieties is the specially of the house, with the lamb costillas (ribs) being a fave. Don't forget the red chile with those. . . And one other foodie note. On a recent stop at Santa Fe's This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. ( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2018 Steve Pearce's Guv candidacy is dead money if he can't break up a potential Michelle Lujan Grisham landslide in the ABQ metro. So you get this news Rep. Lujan Grisham, the Dem Guv nominee and who represents the South Valley, was left holding the bag:MLG's steadfast support of that pillar of our quasi-welfare state--Medicaid--could stand her in good stead as Pearce tries to come up with more hat tricks in ABQ. Dems reminded their brethren that this week marks the 53rd anniversary of the signing of the bill that made Medicare and Medicaid possible. And our own Senator Clinton P. Anderson, pictured here on the right, was a chief sponsor.It's a tricky question for the Dems as their left wing calls for doing away with the immigration agency known as ICE, but polling shows a majority of Americans don't agree. And NM Dem Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, chairman of the Dem Congressional Campaign Committee, found himself pinned to the mat on the hot issue in an appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week Asked several times about the Dem position on ICE Lujan bobbed and weaved. He was called out by his Republican counterpart, Rep. Steve Stivers, chair of the Nat'l GOP Congressional Campaign Committee, who said Lujan did not "talk about ICE."Moderator Martha Raddatz, who asked Lujan several times about ICE said Lujan "did not answer that question" and as Lujan interrupted her she rebuffed him" "I think you had a fair chance to make your argument. We're going to have to stop there. You had your chance."Former President Obama is back on the campaign trail with a list of his endorsed candidates . Among those making his cut is Deb Haaland, the Dem nominee for the ABQ congressional seat. Her Republican opponent is Janice Arnold-Jones. Libertarian Lloyd Prince is also in the running. The seat is ranked Safe Dem.Obama also gave his blessing to Sandoval County State Rep. Daymon Ely who is in a swing seat and faces Republican Barbara Boatman. Also getting the presidential nod was Dem Natalie Figueroa who is seeking the seat being vacated by House Minority Leader Nate Gentry. Her GOP foe is John Jones.The Ely seat is a swing area but we rank it Lean Dem based on current trends. The Gentry NE Heights seat is also ranked Lean Dem for the November election.One other note: John Jones is married to Janice Arnold-Jones. Both of them got the thumbs down from Obama. Dems love it. The couple probably wears it as a badge of honor.Hey, we don't steer you wrong. A reader writes:Yep, lamb in many varieties is the specially of the house, with the lamb costillas (ribs) being a fave. Don't forget the red chile with those. . .And one other foodie note. On a recent stop at Santa Fe's Coyote Cafe we had something we had never had before--Elk. Or as the menu puts it "Tellicherry Peppered Elk Tenderloin." It was quite delicious but competing with lamb costillas is a tough task.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) SHIPROCK Brimhall resident Leslie Begay Jr. worked as an underground miner for eight years in a uranium mining operation in Church Rock near Gallup. The work done by Begay in the late 1970s to early 1980s is now affecting his health, including a diagnosis of interstitial lung disease, which requires him to use an oxygen tank. Last week during a public meeting here, Begay voiced support for federal legislation to expand compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include those who worked in uranium mines after 1971 and those exposed to radiation from testing sites in the West and the Pacific Islands. As far as Im concerned, we deserve it because we were never told how we can get so sick from this, he said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reported that approximately 30 million tons of uranium ore was removed from the Navajo reservation from 1944 to 1986. Former uranium workers and their relatives provided comments about the proposal in addition to remarks about problems in seeking compensation and health benefits during the public meeting. U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is one of six senators sponsoring the bill, which was introduced in January 2017 by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. A similar measure was introduced in April 2017 by U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., who has called on the House Judiciary Committee to conduct a hearing on the proposal. Tribal and federal officials spoke in favor of the RECA amendments in a June 27 hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cal Curley, a field representative for Udalls office, said this was the first time the proposal had been heard in a Senate committee hearing, despite the senators repeatedly sponsoring the legislation over the years. Cudeii resident Phillip A. Harrison, who was a miner for 15 years in Arizona and Colorado, said the medical community needs to be more open to conducting the screening process for former miners who are seeking compensation claims. Window Rock, Ariz., resident Tom Wilson Yazzie Sr. said he was not a uranium miner, but he was exposed while working for the tribe in the 1970s. Yazzie investigated land claims, sometimes visiting areas with high levels of uranium. There was no safety. I did not know the toxic levels. No one told me, he said. Jackson Brossy, executive director of the Navajo Nations Washington office, said comments collected at the meeting will be used to help advocate for passage of the federal bill. Brossy added the tribal Presidents Office is requesting that a congressional field hearing be scheduled on the Navajo Nation. Phil Harrison Jr. is a consultant for the Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, a group advocating for compensation and health benefits for uranium miners. Wed like to see this amendment be done, Harrison said. BEIRUT U.N. peacekeepers returned Thursday for the first time in years to the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, conducting joint patrols with Russian military police in a reflection of Moscows deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes in the volatile region. Israel has increasingly sought Russias involvement in securing its frontier with Syria and in scaling back Irans influence in the area. Moscow, Damascuss weightiest ally, has in turn sought coordination with Israel as a bridge with Washington in dealing with Syrias complex war. Israel considers Irans growing influence in Syria it has advisers and allied militias fighting alongside Syrian troops as an existential threat and had looked for guarantees from Moscow to push pro-Iran fighters away from its frontiers. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff said conditions have been created for the resumption of U.N. peacekeeping patrols along the area separating Syria and Israel. The U.N. peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 following an agreement to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. Rudskoy said Russian military police have accompanied the peacekeepers on patrols, adding that eight Russian-manned observation points opposite the U.N. points will be set up to rule out possible provocations. When the situation stabilizes, Rudskoy said, the Russian-manned posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces. Israel acknowledged a return to normalcy along the frontier. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the situation on the Syrian side of the boundary had returned to its pre-2011 state after Syrian government forces, supported by Russias military, regained control of the region from armed opposition that controlled since 2014. Lieberman said Israel will have no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two sides and as long as Syria doesnt become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The area, peaceful for decades since the agreement, became a fighting ground at the height of the Syrian civil war, finally pushing the U.N. peacekeeping force out in 2014 after al-Qaida militants kidnapped 45 U.N. peacekeepers. They were released two weeks later. The area had become particularly volatile in recent weeks amid a Syrian government offensive to retake territories controlled by the opposition adjacent to the frontier. Israel has also upped its strikes against suspected Iranian targets inside Syria. A day before the joint Russia-U.N. patrols, Russia announced it reached an agreement with Israel to keep pro-Iranian fighters 85 kilometers (53 miles) from the volatile frontier. It was the first publicized results of Russian mediation. Russian officials announced that Moscow gave Israel guarantees that that zone would be clear of pro-Iranian fighters. Russia had warned it would be unrealistic to expect Iran to fully withdraw from Syria. During their summit in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump said they were exploring ways to protect Israel from the war in Syria. They didnt elaborate but later Putin said he agreed with Trump on securing Israels border with Syria in line with the 1974 deal. A week later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to Jerusalem where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in talks that focused on the Iranian presence in Syria. Netanyahu stressed the extraordinarily important link between the two countries. The two sides discussed a Russian proposal that would see any forces linked to Iran distanced some 100 kilometers (62 miles) away from the Golan Heights. Reflecting the tension along the frontier, Israels military said Thursday that its aircraft fired on several armed terror operatives in the southern Syrian Golan Heights overnight and that troops were on high alert. Israels military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said in a telephone briefing with reporters that he could not immediately comment on the U.N. deployment on the Syrian side of the border. Conricus said the Israeli military targeted with a military aircraft and killed seven armed terror operatives who had attempted to cross into Israeli territory late Wednesday. He said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. Israeli troops were on high alert and readiness following the strike. The armys announcement came shortly after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile defense battery in northern Israel during a military preparedness drill. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Nuriel, former head of the Counterterror Bureau at Israels Prime Ministers office, said Israel should be on alert in the area because Syrian government troops from now and a year from now, they will not be able to control those who are trying to attack the State of Israel from that border. He said Israel will not accept any changes to the 1974 deal or the presence of any Syrian troops or allied militias inside the disengagement zone. In Amman, Jordans Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the Syrian government has not officially requested the opening of the Syria-Jordan border after government forces recaptured its side of a crossing from rebels last month. Jordan has been in discussions with Russian authorities, Safadi said, and will respond to Syrias request positively in a way that supports Jordanian and Syrian interests. ___ Danilova contributed from Moscow. Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Philip Issa in Beirut, and Alice Su in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report. HONOLULU The U.S. military is beginning the painstaking process of analyzing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after the caskets arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbors long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones, Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at their June summit in Singapore, for their return. Trump, in a tweet Wednesday night, thanked Kim for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. Some have called the Korean War the forgotten war. But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten, Pence said. Today, our boys are coming home. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen, Pence said. Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure. There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. During his summit with Trump, Kim also agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for Trumps promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasnt taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. ___ Kim Yong-Ho reported from Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. Prev 1 of 3 Next Copyright 2018 Albuquerque Journal Federal agents are searching for two men who they say kidnapped a successful businessman from his Placitas home last month, drove him blindfolded to the Pajarito Mesa and held him in a shed for a $10,000 ransom. The businessman, identified only as 69-year-old DM, was freed that night and dropped off near a South Valley gas station, covered with blood and with a shirt over his head. DM is described as owning a business with locations in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for one of the suspects, Jose Ramirez, a former employee of DMs who is charged with kidnapping, carjacking, interference with commerce by threats or violence, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. Ramirez, 39, is considered armed and dangerous, an FBI spokesman wrote in a news release. According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, on July 26 around 6 a.m. DM was heading out of his garage on his way to work in his red Ford Ranger when two people wearing stocking caps on their heads and blue bandanas over their faces jumped into his truck, wrapped their arms around his neck and covered his mouth. A struggle ensued. During the struggle, DM realized a snub-nosed revolver had fallen to the ground and DM was able to retrieve the firearm, an agent wrote in the affidavit. DM pointed the gun at one of the UNSUBS (unknown subjects) and pulled the trigger several times, however the revolver did not fire. DM said he realized the other kidnapper was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and, fearing he was going to be shot, he stopped fighting. The kidnappers forced him into the middle seat, tied a shirt over his eyes and drove away, according to the affidavit. DM told investigators that while the kidnappers knew him by his first name, knew he had two safes and believed he had a significant amount of money in the bank, he was able to convince them that all he could come up with was $10,000. They took his cellphone and $600 from his wallet. At one point, DM said, the kidnappers took him out of the trucks cab, tied him up, made him lie down in the bed of the truck and covered him with carpets. Then they drove to a remote compound west of Albuquerque. Still blindfolded, DM was seated on a couch in a shed with a dirt floor, where he listened to his abductors speak with two women in Spanish. He was then told to call his daughter and give her instructions on how to wire the remaining $9,400 to a bank account in Guadalajara, Mexico. But the routing information was not sufficient to complete the transfer and, after several failed attempts, the kidnappers suggested DMs daughter get cash and meet them Downtown. It is unclear from the affidavit if the ransom was paid, but several hours later, around 10:45 p.m., DM was dropped off near the train tracks at Rio Bravo and Second Street SW. He had injuries to his head and face, and walked to a gas station where clerks called 911. Agents were quickly able to identify Ramirez who was on parole as one of the suspects based on records of his his phone calls with DMs daughter and a distinctive stutter, according to the affidavit. When DM was shown photographs, he recognized Ramirez as an employee he fired nine years ago after a theft. The morning after the kidnapping, agents went looking for Ramirez, but couldnt find him. Ramirezs parole officer said he had been ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor, but had cut it off the day before the kidnapping. A couple of days after the kidnapping, DM, who is a pilot, used his own aircraft to fly over the route he believed he had traveled and he identified the compound where he said he had been held, according to a search warrant affidavit agents filed on Wednesday. Agents requested help from the FBI aircraft and SWAT teams for the search. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said they conducted a court-authorized law enforcement operation on the Pajarito Mesa area Thursday morning. On Thursday afternoon, he announced the agency is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to Ramirezs arrest and conviction. Tips The FBI asks anyone with information about Jose Ramirezs whereabouts to call 505-889-1300 or go online at tips.fbi.gov L3 Commercial Aviation is to supply Air France with an Airbus A350 RealitySeven Full Flight Simulator (FFS). The simulator is part of a deal which will see L3 provide training for Air France cadet pilots at its recently established European Airline Academy in Ponte de Sor, Portugal. ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> Robin Glover-Faure, president of Commercial Training Solutions, which is part of L3 Commercial Aviation, said, We are delighted to expand our relationship with Air France to launch these cadets into their new career and further support Air Frances training with another FFS. Our European Airline Academy will offer an incredible training experience to the cadets, and we look forward to welcoming them to the facility. Air France has selected the company to deliver training for approximately 30 cadet pilots per year. The A350 RealitySeven FFS enables operational synergies with Air Frances latest Boeing 787 RealitySeven FFS device, which commenced training in June 2018. The device will be the first A350 FFS with Standard 1.2.0. This will allow an enhanced level of operation for the user, complete with touchscreen display technology. Olivier Dulat, flight operations executive vice president at Air France, said, Our pilots perform their role with the very highest level of flight safety, technical proficiency and a continual concern for delivering an excellent service for passengers. The quality of training being provided as part of this new agreement with L3 will allow us to welcome and maintain more high-quality pilots to Air France and continue to uphold these values. In Peru, a man keeps watch on a glacier lake, day and night. His name is Juan Victor Morales Moreno, and his job is to monitor Lake Palcachoca (elevation 14,967 feet) in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, a short distance below his stone hut. All of Morenos attention is focused on the Palcaraju and Pucarana glaciers, which hang ominously 600 meters above the lakes glassy surface. The 25,000 Huaraz residents who live inside the so-called mudslide risk zone depend on the stability of these glaciers, notes Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo in an ambitious multimedia project reporting on the affects of climate change around the world. Lake Palcachoca became the subject of international attention after a local resident filed a lawsuit against the German energy company RWE, requesting that the company pay roughly $20,000 of the estimated $4 million cost of a project to ensure the safety and integrity of the lake. The $20,000 figure was based on a recent study that determined RWE was responsible for 0.47 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1854. The report in Folha de Sao Paulo, which also looked at climate change issues in Cape Town, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Panama, Portugal, the Arctic, and other locations, included video reports, several of which we feature today. Photographs and video for the projects was done by PPD reader Lalo Almeida, a photographer and filmmaker based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was hard work, with hard choices throughout, says Almeida of the project, which includes the use of drone footage. CLIMATE CRISIS: Peru After catastrophic mudslides killed nearly 2,000 people in 1941, only 500,000 cubic meters of water the equivalent of about 200 Olympic swimming pools remained in Lake Palcachoca. With the continuous melting of the Palcaraju and Pucaranra glaciers, this volume has grown by a factor of 34. 2. CLIMATE CHANGE: Puerto Rico In the wake of Hurricane Maria, some 500,000 people are expected to leave Puerto Rico. Hurricanes gain strength and size over warmer water, and average sea temperatures have been on the rise with global climate change, notes Folha de Sao Paulo. CLIMATE CRISS: Panama Destructive tidal surges and human overpopulation are forcing Panamas indigenous peoples to abandon their islands. The special report by Folha de Sao Paulo was based on an award-winning multimedia project by Almeida and other journalists that looked at walls around the world, including the border wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico. See it below. Oman Air Cargos new new freight facility at Muscat Airport has helped boost volumes during the first half of the year. The new cargo facility, which features a 22,780 sq m, air-conditioned warehouse with the capacity to handle 350,000 tons of cargo per annum, opened in March. The airline said that since its opening, cargo traffic has increased rapidly. In the first half of 2018 volumes were up by 25% year on year. The facility also offers 367 pallet or 734 container storage positions over three levels, as well as 2,208 Skidded Pallet Positions all serviced by Elevating Transfer Vehicles (ETV). Accompanying these are dedicated bays that can accommodate three Code F Freighter Aircraft, along with twenty-five 40ft truck parking bays, as well as 400 car parking bays and 34 truck docks. Oman Air chief executive Abdulaziz Al Raisi said: Oman Air is proud of its new cargo facility at Muscat Airport, which apart from enhancing the operations, also provides the opportunity to boost trade and commerce opportunities for the Sultanates economy. "Oman Air has made significant inroads in online as well as offline cargo markets and its growth trajectory has been very strong and steady. Mohammed Ali Al Musafir, Oman Air senior vice president, commercial cargo, said: Combined with Oman Air Cargos track record of providing high quality services to its logistics customers, the upgraded cargo facility now aligns the company with world-class, globally competitive transport and logistics industry standards and trends. As well as the features mentioned above, the new hub will also cater for temperature sensitive traffic. The facility features bulk cold rooms (consisting of three chillers, two freezers, and one ambient room), and ULD cold rooms with 28 airline pallet positions in the chiller rooms, and eight airline pallet positions in the freezer rooms. In addition to this, there are scissor lift and ULD bypass lane facilities, as well as X-ray machines for joining and trans-shipment cargo screening. The facility also includes a 2,500 sq m live animal centre, a 228 sq m dangerous goods room (DGR) with the capacity to handle 90 skids and loose cartons, and a vulnerable goods cage with 264 pallet positions. The diplomatic room, human remains room, radioactive room and strong toom make up the remainder of the facilitys handling units. The entire facility is supported by 24-hour services for import and export cargo, and its automated cargo system for documentation and warehousing, export cargo acceptance, and imports cargo delivery. The cargo facility accompanied the development of the brand new passenger terminal at Muscat International Airport, which began its first commercial operations in March 2018. "The new facility is also aligned with Oman Airs ambitious and dynamic program of fleet and network expansion," the airline said. Read more airline cargo news Sign up to receive Air Cargo News direct to your inbox for free Share this story Schiphol Airport saw its cargo volumes decline by 2.6% in the first half of the year as a result of fewer freighter services. The airport handled a total of 844,317 tonnes of cargo during the first six months of 2018, compared with 866,971 tonnes during the same period in 2017. Belly cargo volumes increased by 2.3% during the period while the number of freighter flights was down by 9.4% as some all-cargo operators switched to other facilities in light of the airport heading towards its air transport movement limit resulting in restrictions on slot availability. On a brighter note, e-commerce demand continues to take-off at the airport. The mid-year figures reflect our expectations for a decrease in overall freighter ATMs as we continue to face capacity constraints, said Maaike van der Windt, director aviation marketing, cargo and customer experience. However, the increase in belly volume is a positive development for Schiphol Cargo due to a slight growth in passenger flights since last year, and an expanded network across Latin America. Shanghai remains our main destination through the continued increase in e-Commerce in China, reaching more than 31,000 tonnes in the first six months of 2018, followed by the US with more than 22,000 tonnes. Despite the increase in e-Commerce, the Asian inbound market was down by 2% to 147,122 tonnes, while outbound decreased by 3% to 150,623 tonnes. European figures show a 7% inbound decline to 55,821 tonnes and outbound was down by 4% to 59,452 tonnes. The North American market saw an 11% inbound decline to 64,768 tonnes, and a decrease in outbound cargo of 4% to 79,055 tonnes. The Latin American market shows positive growth due to a network extension on the continent with inbound cargo up 9% to 65,255 tonnes, and a 15% increase in outbound cargo to 40,445 tonnes. The African market also showed positive outbound results with a 7% increase in cargo to 26,674 tonnes, while inbound cargo decreased by 5% to 56,733 tonnes. The Middle Eastern region went down by 2% (inbound), and 11% (outbound) to respectively 42,666 and 55,218 tonnes. Van der Windt added: Although Schiphol is facing slot constraints, we are geared towards maintaining cargo volume in the years to come. Read more cargo airport news Sign up to receive Air Cargo News direct to your inbox for free Share this story RAMALLAH, West Bank As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inaugurated the PLO Executive Committee meeting July 28, he described the Palestinian delegation visit to Syria on July 9 as very successful. Abbas said that an agreement has been reached with the Syrian authorities over the participation of both the Palestinian Authority and the UN in the reconstruction process for Yarmouk camp on the outskirts of Damascus, in a bid to help refugees return to their homes. While no date has been set for the reconstruction of the Palestinian camp, the process is set to be part of the comprehensive reconstruction plan in Syria, which the Syrian government started in some liberated areas. In this context, several Palestinian families who had fled Syria for the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and wish to return to Syria started July 23 registering their names at the headquarters of the PLO in Gaza and the Palestinian Popular Committees in Lebanon. This came in response to the July 20 announcement by the PLO Refugees Affairs Department that those who fled Syria to Lebanon and Gaza and wish to return to Syria were invited to register their names. While the registration process is limited to Lebanon and Gaza, the department said it will be shortly declaring the registration mechanism for Palestinians who have fled from Syria to other Arab countries such as Jordan and the Gulf states. This comes in the wake of the PLO delegation visit to Syria July 9 to meet with Syrian officials, including Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar and head of Syria's National Security Office Ali Mamlouk. Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestinian delegation that visited Syria, told Al-Monitor, The delegation discussed with the Syrian officials the Palestinian refugees conditions in Syria, mechanisms for the reconstruction of [Palestinian] camps in Syria, especially the Yarmouk camp, and the mechanisms to facilitate the return of displaced Palestinians to their camps. Abu Yousef said that the Syrian prime minister stressed that reconstructing the Yarmouk camp and providing facilities for Palestinian refugees who have fled Syria and wish to return to the country is a top priority for the Syrian government. He pointed out that the Syrian officials confirmed that work is to begin shortly on the reconstruction of what was destroyed by the war in Syria. They also confirmed that due to its geographic importance and symbolism for the Palestinian people, the Yarmouk camp is to be given priority. Of note, Syria is home to about 14 Palestinian refugee camps, nine of which are recognized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, while five, including the Yarmouk camp, are not. The Yarmouk camp, established between 1953 and 1954 south of Damascus, was once the largest refugee camp for the Palestinian diaspora. The camp was once home to nearly 200,000 Palestinian refugees before it witnessed a sharp decline in population after the Islamic State took control of 90% of the camp in April 2015. The Syrian army announced the liberation of the camp May 21. It should be noted that all of the Palestinian camps in Syria have been destroyed, albeit to varying degrees. For example, 95% of the Yarmouk camp has been destroyed, while 70% of the Daraa camp has been damaged. Refugees who want to return to Syria will have to stay with relatives or friends until the camps have been reconstructed. Anwar Abdel Hadi, the director of the PLO political department in Syria, told Al-Monitor that opening the door for the registration of refugees came after they coordinated with Syrian officials the possibility of their return. The Syrian officials welcomed such a step and asked for a list of names of people wishing to return. The PLO will ensure the safe return of refugees to Syria because some of them left illegally. Those wishing to return will have their status regularized with the Syrian security services, he added. Rami al-Madhoun, the director general of media and public relations at the Refugees Department of the PLO, told Al-Monitor that the decision concerns 50,000 Palestinian refugees who left Syria for Lebanon and 765 who left Syria for the Gaza Strip. He added that up until July 30, 142 families in the Gaza Strip had registered their names at the PLO. The registration process, he said, is still ongoing, as there are families that were not aware of the process. Mahmood al-Shawish traveled from Syrias Kafr Sousse in 2012 to Gaza with his family of five because of the deteriorating security situation in his neighborhood. He owns a house in Syria, where he worked on economic feasibility studies for companies. Shawish has registered his family to return to Syria. Palestinian refugees have a lot of reservations about the decision, and they are asking who will be responsible for their security upon their return and where will they be staying, especially considering that the camps are destroyed. Also, they are wondering how the refugees who entered Gaza through tunnels and whom the Egyptian authorities believe are still on Egyptian soil will be treated. They are asking if the PLO will take responsibility for the refugees who do not wish to return, Shawish told Al-Monitor. The Syrian authorities will grant Palestinians the right to return on a case-by-case basis. Also, their decision will be partly based on whether or not these refugees have relatives capable of hosting them. No collective return will be granted in light of the security situation plaguing Syria and the failure to prepare shelters and reconstruct camps, Abdel Hadi said. Shawish, however, said he does not trust the Syrian officials promises to the Palestinian delegation, as such promises may be reneged upon at any moment. He pointed out that the reservations have been submitted to the PLO, which promised to hold an extensive meeting with the Palestinians wishing to return. He said that in 2012, 350 families arrived from Syria in Gaza, only 160 of which stayed in Gaza. The rest fled by sea to different countries, as they couldnt handle the living conditions plaguing Gaza in the absence of any help. Omar Odeh was living in the suburbs of the Yarmouk refugee camp. He fled from Syria to the Gaza Strip in 2012 with his wife, three married children and their families. Despite his discontent with the announcement, he has registered his name with the PLO. Odeh told Al-Monitor, The Syrian crisis is not over yet. So the return of refugees will be difficult, if not impossible. We are still in the first phases of the crisis, and there is an international conflict in Syria, one that will not come easily to an end. So the PLO announcement is a way of shunning responsibility toward refugees in Lebanon, Gaza and other countries, he added. We have been in Gaza for six years now, and the PLO never assumed its responsibilities regarding us. The problem lies in the absence of job opportunities and the unbearable living conditions in Gaza. The PLO has limited capabilities and potential. If we do not return to our camps in Syria, then the PLO should assume its responsibilities, he further stated. The Palestinian refugees who left Syria are facing difficult choices. The return to Syria may be fraught with uncertainty, as refugees do not know where they will be settling down, what kind of changes their homes and properties will have gone through and what fate was lying in store for their businesses. However, such an option looks seemingly better than staying in Gaza and Lebanon and dealing with the living circumstances and difficulties there. As protests spread in southern Iraq, particularly in Basra, there have been renewed demands for autonomy in the oil-rich governorate. Walid al-Kitan, head of the Basra Provincial Council, announced July 24 that 15 out of 25 members of the local government had signed a petition to establish an independent region of Basra. However, Tariq Harb, a former adviser of the prime minister, believes that the petition isn't likely to succeed because the council's work ended in in June 2017. New provincial elections have been delayed until December 2018, with Sunni leaders arguing that elections cannot be held until those displaced by conflict have returned to their regions. The concept of autonomous regions, which have been heavily promoted and politically exploited since 2013, is a thorny issue among Iraqis, many of whom resist the idea of the division of Iraq. However, it may be argued that calls for an autonomous Basra governorate are merely an attempt to pressure the central government to disburse the governorate's budget allocation and provide better services. Basra is economically the most important province in Iraq, the third largest governorate with a population of more than 1.5 million people, situated between Iran and the Gulf states. The oil-rich governorate contributes a major part of Iraqs federal budget. In June 2018, the Baghdad-based central government exported 105 million barrels of oil from Basra, which produces 2.8 million barrels on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the governorate's residents do not benefit from its riches. The resources of Basra are a double-edged sword. Its strategic position is a strength for its residents, should they call for autonomy. The central government, however, will do everything in its power to prevent secession. To establish an autonomous region, a request to do so must be submitted to the local government and then to the federal government, which would hand it over to the Independent High Electoral Commission. The commission would hold a referendum for the governorate's residents to decide. The council's petition, coming after its legal term, may be cited as a reason by the federal government to reject the request. If so, Basra will have to wait until the next provincial council elections to submit a new one. Wael Abdel Latif, Basra's former governor, told Al-Monitor, Basras residents still wish to have an autonomous region, but the federal government will not approve any referendum to this effect. Abdel Latif, who was among the first to call for autonomy in 2008, added, Five referendum requests have been submitted to the federal government since 2008. There are parties in the government that resist this step. Basra leaders have been trying to get the Federal Court to consider their request. Former parliament member Mohammed al-Tai filed a complaint at the beginning of July with the Federal Court in an attempt to force the government and the Electoral Commission to approve a referendum on autonomy for the governorate. Saad al-Hadithi, spokesman for outgoing Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, hinted that any autonomy request would likely be rejected within the government. In a July 25 press statement, Hadithi said, The current conditions in Basra require delaying the discussion of an autonomy project. When asked for further comment, Hadithi told Al-Monitor, July 27 has already passed and the government has yet to receive any request from the Basra Provincial Council or any legal representative for it. Council member Basma al-Silmi told Al-Monitor, The people of Basra are calling for an autonomous governorate because of the federal government's neglect. The government has failed to disburse Basras budget, amounting to almost $17 billion, not to mention that other governorates are tapping into our resources while we do benefit from them. Meanwhile, Telecommunications Minister Hassan al-Rashid, who is from Basra, believes that providing the governorate with services it needs is far more important than autonomy. People in Basra continue to be divided over the establishment of an autonomous region. Some believe that the government administration ought to be changed before turning it into an independent region. Others warn against a potential armed conflict over Basras wealth and resources, should it become an autonomous governorate. All indications suggest that the dream of autonomy for Basra remains unattainable in light of the government's adamant rejection. Some neighboring countries might also object to a proposal that could encourage their own governorates and provinces to take a similar step. A month into the wave of protests that broke out in various cities in southern Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered on July 29 the dismissal of Minister of Electricity Qasim al-Fahdawi and referred him to investigation. He attributed this decision to the deterioration of electricity services, which has been behind the outbreak of protests during Iraqs blazing hot summer. Fahdawi welcomed the decision and called on the senior cadres in the Ministry of Electricity to cooperate with the investigation committees toward unveiling the truth. He said, Reports about increasing power cuts are invalid. There may have been some cuts in the past, but the situation is getting better now. In this context, the question arises as to the purpose and legality of this decision at a time when the legal term of the government has come to an end and will soon be replaced by a new government. One might think that the main purpose of the decision is to try to quell the wave of protests that have taken a violent turn and have already left more than 12 dead. However, the decision to dismiss the electricity minister did not help calm the protests, as Iraqi demonstrators in Basra province erected tents in front of the provincial council on July 31 to start a sit-in against electricity cuts and the lack of services and job opportunities amid intensive security measures. And other southern cities are still witnessing continued protests against power cuts and the lack of services and jobs. Since 2003, there hasnt been a minister of electricity that completed his term without resignation or dismissal, and none have met promises or solved the electricity problem. The current crisis started when Iran cut off its electricity supplies to Iraq in the middle of the summer, leading Iraq to lose about 1,400 megawatts of power. Iraq rushed to find solutions to the crisis and started a dialogue with Iran to resume the export of electricity. However, tangible results are yet to be achieved given the shortage that Iran itself is suffering. There have also been financial obstacles that have impeded the transfer of funds to Iran following the US exit from the nuclear deal and the new sanctions on Iran. The Iraqi prime minister sent a special delegation led by Fahdawi and Minister of Planning Salman al-Jumaili to Saudi Arabia. The delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on July 21 after the visit was repeatedly postponed to allow for time to prepare for some issues scheduled to be discussed during the visit. Musaab Sari, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, announced that Saudi Arabia made a tempting offer to Iraq, one that includes the construction of a solar power plant to sell electricity to Iraq at a price lower than what Iraq now pays Iran. The offer, he added, stipulates the construction of a plant in Saudi Arabia within one year of the signing of the agreement to produce 3,000 megawatts and supply Iraq with electricity. Under this deal, Iraq will buy electricity at $21 per megawatt-hour, which is a quarter of the price Iraq pays for electricity supplies from Iran, he said. Of note, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry had previously revealed the existence of a road map to link Iraq to the electrical network of the Gulf states in order to permanently resolve the crisis of power outages. Therefore, the Saudi proposal would pave the way for achieving this goal in the coming stages. Saad al-Hadithi, the spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister's office, said on July 29, that the Iraqi government delegation that recently visited Saudi Arabia had concluded agreements with the Saudi side but did not disclose any details. He only said that a mechanism has been agreed upon for the delivery of gasoline to Iraq to operate its power plants. The dismissal of the minister of electricity, who supervised the Iraqi delegation to Saudi Arabia, came right after the announcement of the Saudi offer to Iraq. This raises questions about the existence of a link between the dismissal and the recent negotiations with Saudi Arabia. Some press reports attributed this dismissal to Iranian pressure on Abadi because Saudi Arabia is Irans rival. Whats more, there has been a verbal quarrel between Fahdawi and Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi following negotiations with Iran to resume its electricity export. When news outlet Al-Araby al-Jadeed contacted Fahdawi to ask him about the above-mentioned reports, Fahdawi said, I have no comment. I can neither refute nor confirm such reports. Thats all I can say. While the minister did not reject these reports, he did not seem to want to claim responsibility for their validation. What further confirms the published reports is that the dismissal came at a very late stage. If the dismissal was aimed at quelling the street protests, then it should have occurred at the beginning of the protests, not a month into their outbreak. Also, it seems unusual for a minister to be dismissed on grounds of corruption or incompetence four years into his coming into office and only a couple of days before his legal term was about to end. All indicators show that the Iraqi government has no clear plan of action to overcome the electricity problem. It has no plans to address the internal production of electricity or to conclude quick and practical contracts with neighboring countries. The Israeli Druze community strongly objects to the new Nationality Law, codifying the Jewish character of the State of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to amend the law, proposing instead a series of benefits for the Druze through legislation. Netanyahu in recent days held several meetings with Druze leaders to try to resolve the crisis. Former Knesset member Shakib Shanan, who sits on the committee established by Netanyahu to deal with the issue, was visibly excited when he left the Prime Ministers Office Aug. 1. Shanan reported that the Druze parliamentarians in the coalition had accepted, in principle, the compromise outline presented by Netanyahu. Talking to Al-Monitor afterward, Shanan said, We have reached a historic achievement that regularizes the special status of the Druze community. According to Shanan, the outline includes the legal anchoring of the status of the Druze and Circassian communities, acknowledging their contributions in strengthening Israels security and shaping Israel as an egalitarian society. The outline will also reportedly include support for the Druze communitys institutions in the spheres of religion, education and culture. Similarly, it offers strengthening Druze areas, including residential construction, establishment of new localities when needed and preservation of the Druze legacy and heritage. The outline also includes enacting laws that protect the rights to benefits of all minority religious groups and communities who serve in Israels armed forces, thus preserving social equality for them, and anchors recognition of their contribution in defending the state. Al-Monitor asked Shanan whether the material benefits that Netanyahu is offering the Druze will turn them into first-class citizens with equal rights and status. Shanan responded, The Nationality Law says that the State of Israel is the state of the Jewish people, and we do not disagree with that. The special legal status that the prime minister offers the Druze is a status comparable to the Jews. Most of the communitys leaders who discussed the proposed outline with Netanyahu expressed satisfaction with it and in a statement called this a historic window of opportunity for the advancement of Israeli society. Not everyone, however, is satisfied. It seems that Netanyahu succeeded in sowing dissent even in Israels Druze community. Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad, founder of For Our Druze Sons, a project commemorating Druze soldiers who fell in Israels wars, sharply criticized the outline on Facebook. He called it even more humiliating than the Nationality Law. Asad wrote, The Prime Ministers creative head invented a new spin: Remain quiet, know your place, and then perhaps youll receive some benefits. This is the exact definition of a mercenary army. And the Netanyahu that we all know wont be in a rush to pay up; in the end, well get nothing. Asad continued, Now there will be a Basic Law stating that the Jews are lords of the earth (even if they are yeshiva students who dont serve in the army). But there will also be another law (a regular one, not a Basic Law) telling all the non-Jews, If you serve in the army, you will receive benefits so the Druze community will send its sons to the front lines in exchange for benefits. Netanyahu believes that well send our children to the army not to protect our country (because according to him, this isnt our country), but in order to receive permission to collect scraps from under his table. Netanyahu thinks that weve gotten used to a slave mentality. Another member of the community, Rami Halabi, claimed that Netanyahus offer borders on bribery, with Israeli citizens agreeing to forfeit basic human rights. While members of the Druze community are arguing over whether Netanyahus offer is a historic achievement or a bribe, the members of the Bedouin community feel especially insulted, as many of their sons also serve in the army. They complain that Netanyahus outline is directed only at the Druze and Circassian communities, and the appendage of the rest of the communities was only added as a fig leaf. The Bedouin community was not listed expressly, as the others were. Lt. Col. (res.) Amir Mezarib is the nephew of the highly decorated IDF Bedouin officer Amos Yarkoni, who established the famous tracker unit in the IDFs elite reconnaissance units in the mid-1950s. Mezarib told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu has betrayed the contribution of the Bedouins who died while ensuring the security of the State of Israel. The Nationality Law and everything that ensued after the laws passing are destroying the fabric of the delicate relationship between us and the Jews, Mezarib remarked. He said that every year, Yarkonis former military subordinates, including IDF generals, heads of Shin Bet and Mossad, convene at his grave. They all proudly talk about the brotherhood between Jews and Bedouins in the army since the establishment of Israel and the experiences they shared. Entire generations of security men grew up on Yarkonis legacy and valor, and now everything has been tainted, has fallen apart, Mezarib said. With a wave of his hand, Netanyahu, who wants to rule, passed a law for political gain, to strengthen his position and that of the laws advocates, who want to take pride in their support of the law when the primaries come around. Thats how they threw an entire community over the ledge and turned them into second-class citizens. Mezarib continued, None of the Bedouin leaders will tell Bedouin youths to refuse to serve in the IDF in protest, but theres no doubt that the law, and now the discrimination against the Bedouin in contrast to the Druze and Circassians, will lower the motivation of youths to enlist. The Bedouin contributed to Israels security even before the establishment of the state. They helped the Jews when the latter were weak and needed assistance. The Jews received support and help from our fathers and grandfathers. Now the child has grown up and strengthened and spurns us. As noted, Netanyahu has no intention of amending the Nationality Law, and as far as is known, he has not considered another vote to nullify the law in light of the protests by the minority groups. Instead, Netanyahu searches for creative solutions to provide benefits, which will soon be forgotten, but the civil inequality will remain forever. To offset the damage done to non-Jews by the law, Netanyahu creates a mandatory acceptance threshold for them in order that they be considered citizens with rights, though not necessarily with the same rights as first-class Jewish citizens. The Nationality Law has created a dangerous precedent according to which the principle of egalitarian citizenship is replaced with preferences for Jews, even those who avoid the military draft. On the other hand, any non-Jew who wants to have equal rights in Israel will be required to present, at the least, a demobilization certificate from IDF service. This proves one's loyalty to the state, but is still not necessarily enough to confer full equality. For the Bedouin community, which lost hundreds of its sons in Israels army since the state's founding, IDF service and self-sacrifice are not enough to be a citizen with equal rights. I served in the IDF and the security system for 25 years, said Mezarib. I was even privileged to recently receive a commendation from Benjamin Netanyahu himself. I did things in the course of my long service that I cannot even talk about, yet the passage of this shameful law has rendered me a second-class citizen, not only compared with the Jews, but also in comparison to the Circassians and the Druze. The Palestinians are by no means saints, yet this week one can certainly cite the famous saying the work of the righteous is done by others (Midrash Talmudi, Brachot 35). The work of the Palestinians was done by someone else, i.e., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, surely unintentionally, Netanyahu extracted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from a trap Netanyahu himself laid for the Palestinian leadership. The new Nationality Law, anchoring the Jewish character of the State of Israel, was championed by Netanyahu to please his right-wing camp. But looking into it closely, one can realize that it opens an escape hatch for the Palestinians from Netanyahus incessant demand for them to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people as a precondition for any Israeli-Palestinian agreement ending their conflict. All that is left for Abbas to do now is to reiterate what he already said in 2009. At a public April 2009 speech in Ramallah, Abbas said it was not his job to supply the definition of the State of Israel. Call yourselves the Hebrew Socialist Republic, he said at the time, its none of my business. In private conferences, such as the one held in June 2010 by the Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, Abbas has clearly recognized the linkage between the Jews and the State of Israel. He said, Nobody denies the Jewish history in the Middle East." Tal Becker, a senior adviser to Tzipi Livni when she was foreign minister and a member of an Israeli delegation involved in negotiations with the Palestinians, recorded Abbas words then, and the Palestinian leader's statement, Nobody from our side at least denies that the Jews were in Palestine, were in the Middle East. In an interview with PLO founder Yasser Arafat that I conducted in June 2004 along with Haaretz Editor-in-Chief David Landau (who died in 2015), we asked Arafat specifically whether he understood that Israel must continue to be a Jewish state. Definitely," he answered, adding that the Palestinians had accepted that openly and officially in 1988 at our Palestine National Council. Indeed, in the PLOs 1988 declaration of independence in Algiers, it recognized Israels right to self-determination. Arafat and current PLO leader Abbas have made clear on a number of occasions that they recognize Israels right to exist in peace and security and that its definition as a Jewish state is an internal state matter. On several occasions, Palestinian senior officials asked me: "Why do you demand that we recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jews, while your own parliament never anchored that in the law?" But now, with the Knesset anchoring this definition in the form of a basic law, all that is left for the Palestinians is to simply recognize the State of Israel. This they already fulfilled long ago. This diplomatic twist of events is one side of the story. The other side is the image of Israel. The exclusion of the Arab minority and of members of the Druze community from the Israeli collective distance them from their Israeli identity. The Nationality Law brings them closer to Palestinian residents of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. From the very moment the Knesset adopted the law, both these communities turned into second-class citizens. More than 50 years of occupation of Palestinian territory have not divided Israeli society the way the legislation risks doing. Overnight, Israeli Druze soldiers and Circassian police officers, who take part in the dirty work of the Shin Bet security agency and the humiliation of Palestinians at army roadblocks, have been ostracized. As Israeli-Arab retired Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran put it, We have been turned into a subgroup. For years, the Palestinians and opponents of Zionism have claimed that a state that refuses to define itself as a state of all its people is not a democracy. Now they can claim that Israel does not recognize the principle of equality. Even President Reuven Rivlin and 55 Knesset opponents of the law, among them Likud Knesset member Benny Begin, the son of the first Likud prime minister, believe the legislation undermines the delicate balance between the pillars of democracy and Jewish identity. A July 30 Haaretz editorial said the vote on the law drew Israels current political fault lines: The discrimination camp versus the equality camp; the supporters of apartheid against the supporters of democracy." The 312 words of the controversial Nationality Law,caused more damage to the state that prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East than all the Palestinian Authority incitement reports, testimony by members of the Israeli anti-occupation Breaking the Silence organization and monitoring by human rights groups such as BTselem, Yesh Din and Peace Now put together. Artists, former senior police and army officers and other Israelis are expected to demonstrate against the law this weekend on the night of Aug. 4 and to call for the law to be replaced by the text of the 1948 Declaration of Independence. The law, designed to strengthen the affinity of diaspora Jewry to the homeland of the Jewish people, has had the exact opposite impact. A group of American Jewish organizations, among them those affiliated with mainstream Judaism, issued statements and wrote articles condemning the law and demanding its amendment. Shortly after the law was approved, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat was quick to convene a joint news conference with Knesset member Yousef Jabareen of the Israeli-Arab Hadash Party. Erekat said the Palestinian leadership would ask the UN General Assembly to take action against Israel. He threatened that the PLO would complain to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and argue that the Nationality Law contravenes the principles of the 1947 UN General Assembly Resolution 181 for the partition of Palestine, according to which the future Jewish state and Palestinian state would establish democratic constitutions, ensuring equality for all their inhabitants. But instead of reacting sourly, the Palestinians should send Netanyahu and his supporters on the right a bouquet of flowers, thanking Israel for the generous gift that was given to them both on the diplomatic front and on the propaganda field. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip On July 25, Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a political analyst and director of the Youth Media Center, Hamas media wing, appeared on Israeli i24 News in a Skype interview for the 6 oclock news. His appearance elicited a wave of negative reactions among activists on social media who saw it as media normalization, that is, establishing a dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis through the media. Prevailing opinion in Palestinian society rejects such a relationship. Madhoun spoke about the negative repercussions on Palestinian refugees of the escalating financial crisis of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency following the Jan. 5 US decision to freeze $125 million in annual aid to the organization. The actual content of the discussion was not enough to shield Madhoun from criticism. i24News, which began operating in 2013, broadcasts in Arabic, English and French. Arab48, a website focusing on Israeli media, published an article in July 2014 claiming that i24News goal is to improve Israel's image, especially among Arabs. On July 26, Hadi al-Ijla, a Palestinian political researcher at the Institute for Middle East Studies in Canada, used Facebook to criticize Madhouns appearance, stressing that refusing to engage with Israeli media is part of Palestinian resistance against the occupation. The next day, Mohammed Jaser, an independent journalist, wrote on Facebook, Your appearance on an Israeli channel will not change the conviction of the Israeli settlers. You are just a terrorist to them even if you are peaceful! Meanwhile, Madhoun had himself taken to Facebook the day after his interview to make his case and to apologize. I have recently been criticized by dear friends for appearing on an Arabic-speaking Israeli channel, he wrote. I only wanted to introduce Israeli society to a Palestinian narrative and a message of resistance from the streets to influence Israeli viewers, alter their convictions and shake their domestic front. He added, I formally apologize to Palestines youth, media and every citizen for my misjudgment of the situation. The majority of the people who commented on Madhoun's post accepted his apology. Madhoun told Al-Monitor, Now that I have apologized, I will not appear on an Israeli channel. i24News contacted me for another appearance, but I declined. I have decided to give the Palestinian audience what they want. Regardless, Madhoun still supports the idea of using Israeli media to present the Palestinian narrative to Israeli society. The Palestinian narrative must be present in all international media, including the Israeli one, he said. Madhoun's appearance violated a Dec. 25, 2012, decision by Hamas' government in Gaza prohibiting journalists and other media professionals from dealing with or working with Israeli media outlets, considering the outlets hostile to the Palestinian people. The government decision to ban working with Israeli media is still in force, Salameh Maarouf, head of the Hamas government's media office in Gaza City, told Al-Monitor. Madhoun's appearance could be regarded as a misplaced personal move. This does not mean Hamas took a decision allowing it. Maarouf further remarked, We do not impose any sanctions against those who violate this decision. We do, however, summon them to discuss their motives. We also reiterate the need to abide by the decision and ask them to make a written or oral assertion not to violate it again, and this is what happened with Madhoun. Should a violation be repeated, those responsible will be declared supporters of normalization with Israel and thus be shunned by Palestinian society. Palestinian media would no longer host them. We believe this decision protects Palestinian society from Israeli propaganda. Maarouf also said Hamas still believes there is no point in having a dialogue with the Israeli public or dealing with its media. In addition, the movement sees media normalization as recognition of the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In addition to Madhoun's interview, the same i24News broadcast included a discussion of Palestinian reconciliation with two other Gaza Palestinians Zulfiqar Swairjo, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Central Committee and Fatah spokesman Atef Abu Seif. Their appearances were not, however, met with public anger. Swairjo claimed to Al-Monitor that he did not know the channel that was interviewing him. The correspondent spoke Arabic and identified himself as a reporter for an Arab channel called Lualua TV, so it did not cross my mind that it could be an Israeli channel. Had I known I was giving a statement to i24News, I would have refused, because media normalization with Israel is unacceptable. Abu Seif also denied that he knowingly spoke to i24News channel, telling Al-Monitor, I do not accept interviews with Israeli media. On the broadcast, both men were shown being interviewed in Gaza using a microphone without a channel logo. Maarouf stressed that i24News had not been granted permits to work in Gaza. He therefore believes that there are Palestinian correspondents for the channel working under the guise of fake media outlets to make money. Media normalization with Israel is not limited to Israeli media interviewing Palestinians, but also includes Palestinian media interviews with Israelis. An interview by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in October 2016 sparked angry reactions among Palestinians. The piece was later removed from the papers website. Nashat al-Aqtash, a professor of journalism and public relations at Birzeit University in Ramallah, told Al-Monitor that leaving the decision about whether to talk to Israeli media to individual Palestinians is unacceptable normalization with Israel. At the same time, Aqtash believes that no harm can come from Palestinian media experts talking to Israeli media outlets. We must have professional media experts who speak with the Israeli media in order to make a real breakthrough with the Israeli public, by conveying the Palestinian narrative when it comes to the ongoing conflict, he said. But I do not think that we, as Palestinians, have professionals able to do so yet. The fall of Daraa governorate, including the Golan Heights border region, to forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assads regime on July 31 paves the way for the next battle, in Idlib. Syrian troops are already amassing around the northern governorate. Experts believe that unlike the fighting in the south, the battle for Idlib will be longer and bloodier, as the province is the last insurgency holdout and home to several jihadist organizations. Russian officials had warned Free Syrian Army (FSA) negotiators July 10 in Daraa that the northwestern province of Idlib would be next, after the fall of much of southern Syria. Despite being included in the 2017 de-escalation plan signed by Turkey, Iran and Russia in Astana, Idlib has regularly been pummeled by Russian and Syria air force strikes, which have destroyed clinics and hospitals across the province. In May, the Financial Times estimated that the population of Idlib exceeded 2.6 million, having swelled from 1.5 million during the civil war. The area is under regional and local control. According to a May 21 Al-Monitor article, Turkey has deployed two mechanized infantry brigades in the east, south and southwest, reinforced by commando and military engineering detachments, for a total of about 1,300 soldiers. The same article also reports that Turkey had installed its 12th and final de-escalation military outpost in the region of Jisr al-Shughur. The Iranians and Russians are deployed east of the Damascus-Aleppo main highway, Ibrahim Idilbi, a Syrian activist, told Al-Monitor. Sinan Hatahet, a Syria expert affiliated with the independent, Istanbul-based think tank Omran Dirasat, told Al-Monitor that the regime has outposts south of Aleppo and north of Homs. Idilbi remarked, At the local opposition level, the rebels' brigades are more to the north of [Idlib] province, while Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [HTS, an al-Qaeda offshoot] are more to the south of Idlib. Finally al-Qaedas Syrian branch, Huras al-Din, is located on the demarcation lines, more specifically, in the rural Idlib areas to the west. The activist explained that the various rebel formations, including jihadists, totaled 18,000 fighters and had previously consolidated under three main umbrellas: the Syrian Liberation Front (Jabhat Tahrir Souria), which includes Ahrar al-Sham and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement; the National Front for the Liberation of Syria (Jabhat al-Wataniya lil-Tahrir Souria), comprised of FSA factions; and the HTS. On July 1, however, a new formation, Jabhat Wataniya (the National Front) merged Jabhat Tahrir Souria and the National Front for the Liberation of Syria along with the Suqour al-Sham Brigades and Jaysh Ahrar. HTS continued to stand alone. In recent months, hard-line jihadists in Idlib have been targeted in a wave of killings. On July 31, the pro-regime website al-Masdar News reported the death of Abu Hamam al-Turkmani, a high-ranking HTS commander, and on June 1, the assassination, in the southeastern countryside of Idlib governorate, of Abu Islam, the Sharia official for HTS. Another al-Masdar article reported that on May 24 that four HTS members had been killed. According to the report, the mysterious assassinations had been going on for more than two months, with HTS suffering the brunt of them. Idilbi explained that many of the killings are probably being carried out by FSA fighters in an attempt to rid the region of jihadists, whose presence gives Russia an excuse to conduct blind strikes on Idlib. Two scenarios are possible in Idlib. The first, and the more unlikely of the two, would entail pressure from Turkey on the rebels to shorten the fight. Aydin Selcen, a former Turkish diplomat, told Al-Monitor, The Idlib offensive would put Turkey in a difficult position because of the large refugee population it hosts, estimated at 4 million, and the possible population displacement from the northern province, which is currently home to over 2 million civilians. Ankara is prioritizing the diplomatic solution, spearheading new initiatives with Russia, Germany and France that appear to complement other ongoing efforts, such as the current Sochi talks, the summit between [US president Donald] Trump and [Russian President Vladimir Putin], Syrian Democratic Council meetings in Damascus between Trump and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and by the Astana talks and a September meeting organized by Turkey with France and Germany. Moscow appears to be attempting to give the diplomatic alternative a chance. On July 31, Russia's Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, said that Moscow had no plans for a major assault on Idlib. As Selcen noted, however, The Syrian war has proved to us time and time again that things can deteriorate into violence. Col. Abdel Salam Abdel Razak, from the Zenki Movement, who spoke to Al-Monitor, concurs, adding that he does not believe Turkey will force Idlib rebels into reconciliation agreements with the regime given the strong concentration of opposition movements there and their rivalry with Assad. The regime will thus certainly face massive challenges in the northwest, pointing to the second scenario an extended onslaught. So far, Turkey has been unable to rein in the opposition in Idlib because of the multitude of factions present there, said Idilbi. Also, one has to take into account that it is the rebels' last stronghold, which means there is nowhere else to go, and [the rebels] will fight until the end. The battle will be long and costly. Hatahet believes that the opposition factions in northern Syria have access to the weapons black market, are well armed and are more independent than military factions in other regions, including those in the south. Hatahet noted, One has to also take into consideration the presence of HTS, which will surely put up a strong fight. Militants and experts think the regime will primarily focus on two areas. The first stretches west of the Aleppo highway, which Hatahet believes will be more difficult for the opposition to defend because of its geography. According to Abdel Razak, the second strategic area will be the Jisr al-Shughur region, because of its proximity to the Alawites' coastal stronghold. The regime appears to be bracing for this option. On July 28, al-Masdar reported that the Syrian military had begun consolidating troops in northern Latakia for upcoming offensives on the al-Ghab Plain and in the Kurdish Mountains, on the border with Idlib. Several units from the loyalist National Defense Forces have already begun moving north, alongside troops belonging to the 4th Armored Division and Republican Guard. Thus the battle for Idlib appears to be shaping up despite diplomatic gesturing elsewhere in the region. 6 held with 200 kg marijuana in Makwanpur Six persons have been arrested for possession of 203 kg marijuana from various places of Makwanpur district. In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump today sanctioned Turkey, marking the first time the United States has sanctioned a NATO ally. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders announced this afternoon that the Treasury Department was adding Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu to its sanctions list, saying they had played leading roles in the arrest and detention of US pastor Andrew Brunson. The order blocks any property or interest in property of both ministers within US jurisdiction while prohibiting US persons from engaging in transactions with them. The measures come less than a week after Trump first threatened sanctions unless Ankara released Brunson, who has been detained for nearly two years. Turkey accuses the evangelical pastor of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and to exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the failed 2016 military coup. Pastor Brunsons unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately. Turkey immediately vowed to retaliate. The US attempt to impose sanctions will not remain without an answer, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted. The Treasury Department sanctioned Gul and Soylu under the Global Magnitsky Act, a 2016 law that allows the government to punish foreign officials for human rights abuses. Bloomberg reported that a deal to secure Brunsons release had collapsed in the lead-up to todays sanctions. Under the deal, the United States would have imposed a light fine on state-run Halkbank for evading sanctions on Iran while repatriating the banks deputy CEO, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, back to Turkey to serve the remainder of a 32-month prison sentence doled out by a US judge in May. As part of the deal, Trump also persuaded Israel to release Ebru Ozkan, a Turkish woman jailed for ties to Hamas. Ankara, however, transferred Brunson to house arrest last week instead of repatriating him to the United States, provoking Trumps fury. Despite todays escalation, some experts worry that the administrations sanctions may be too late and too narrowly focused to force Turkeys hand. The problem is that the US has sent mixed messages, Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey specialist at St. Lawrence University in New York, told Al-Monitor. Weve embraced Erdogan publicly even as we voiced concern. We have not been able to play hardball effectively. We have not been able to demonstrate a firm resolve around basic points of principle over the long haul. Eissenstat also pointed out that Trumps sanctions are squarely focused on Brunson despite Turkeys abuse and detention of other US citizens, such as NASA scientist Serkan Golge and locally employed consulate staff. By focusing it narrowly on Brunson and personalizing it, it weakens the US position and makes it harder for Turkey to resolve this, said Eissenstat. Vice President [Mike] Pence took a personal interest. It fits into concerns about Christians overseas and so it was the case that captured peoples imaginations in a way that other cases did not. We need to be demonstrating that all US citizens and staff are equally protected, he cautioned. Although the Trump administrations newfound aggressiveness took some lawmakers by surprise, congressional backlash against Turkey has steadily been mounting for months, exacerbated by other policy issues. I applaud the Trump administration for sanctioning individuals within Erdogans govt who are responsible for the imprisonment of Andrew Brunson & other Americans, tweeted Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a key leader in congressional efforts to sanction Turkey. As a nation, we owe it to those who are being jailed unjustly to hold their Turkish perpetrators accountable. Lankford is a lead co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill restricting Turkeys access to international financial assistance from the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions until Ankara stops detaining US citizens and consular staff. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced the bill last week. Eissenstat said Turkeys failure to understand US outrage over Brunsons imprisonment particularly in Congress played a role in the diplomatic crisis. I think that [the Turks] were relying on Trump to save the day, added Eissenstat. They dont really understand the role of Congress. They dont see that Congress has become more aggressive since the Trump administration. The annual US defense authorization bill heading to the White House after a final Senate vote this week pits President Donald Trumps goal of protecting American technology against his desire to boost weapons sales to the Middle East and other regions. The commander in chief has consistently advocated for US arms exports, promising a $110 billion weapons package to Saudi Arabia last year. The White House also announced reforms in April that would loosen export rules for fighter jets, drones, warships and artillery, while putting American diplomats in a frontline position to push for new sales. But a provision in this years $717 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which sets Pentagon policy for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, could put a damper on those efforts. New language championed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., pushes the administration to more closely regulate dual-use civilian technologies or equipment with sensitive US capabilities. Fear of US technology benefiting American foes has been amplified on Capitol Hill by Googles decision not to renew its contract for Project Maven, which provided artificial intelligence-driven analysis of Pentagon drone footage, even as the Silicon Valley giant continues to build a center for machine intelligence in China. In recent years, the government in Beijing has increasingly forced US companies to hand over sensitive technologies as a cost of doing business in China, Royce said in a February statement when he introduced his bill. He said his legislation would modernize the US regulatory control system and make clear the US will not tolerate this behavior. A Royce aide told Al-Monitor that the export controls are primarily for commercial and industrial items regulated by the Commerce Department that could have military use. Most arms sales, by contrast, are governed by the State Department. Experts who watch the arms trade industry say the Royce bill is a good step toward tightening US control over its high-tech secrets. Some worry, however, that hollowed-out federal agencies could lack adequate staffing to enforce the rules. The whole point of export control reform is to build higher fences around the riskier things, the crown jewels, Colby Goodman, director of the Security Assistance Monitor, told Al-Monitor. Theyre looking at how we protect our technology. The issue has become more contentious as the US defense industry faces greater competition for Middle East clients from a resurgent Russia and a rising China, which has led to a consolidation of arms makers. US foreign military sales totaled $42 billion last fiscal year, according to the Pentagons Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a $10 billion increase over 2016 driven largely by a surge in Middle East purchases fueled by tensions with Iran and intra-Gulf squabbling. Russia, for instance, has shopped its S-400 missile defense system to major buyers of American equipment in the past year, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. NATO nations agreed to divest themselves of Russian arms during the alliances 2016 Warsaw summit, contributing to the clash between Washington and Ankara after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inked a $1.5 billion deal for the S-400 last year. Until Trumps rule change earlier this year, the United States had avoided exporting armed drones to Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, which formally requested MQ-9 Reaper drones during the Barack Obama administration. China in particular has benefited from the US restrictions, pushing variants of its so-called Phantom drone. More recently, a French sale of Rafale fighter jets to Egypt has been stalled by Washingtons withholding of American-made components for the planes cruise missiles. Royces provision calls for an upgraded export control regime from Cold War-era rules adopted in 1979 and expands the definition of dual-use technologies to include terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. It does not specify which technologies it would seek to regulate, however. The United States is a party to a handful of arms control agreements, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Missile Technology Control Regime, that seek to limit US exports of dual-use technology from computer viruses to lasers but none are legally binding. Trade lawyers watching Royces legislation have also warned that it could inadvertently increase regulatory burdens facing foreign investors, forcing greater licensing requirements for artificial intelligence and cybersecurity exports. In light of growing global concerns over how to strike the right balance between foreign direct investment and national security interests, the Act seeks to bolster the US export control architecture itself, the Chicago-based international law firm Kirkland & Ellis warned in April, saying the bill could force prospective foreign investors in US technology companies to face greater regulatory headwinds. Brookstone, the retailer known for selling everything from tech gadgets to vibrating chairs, has filed for bankruptcy and will close all its mall locations, the company announced Thursday. "Today, we made the difficult decision to close our remaining mall store locations but the Brookstone you know and love is not going away. We will to continue to offer the same great product quality and variety in our 35 airport stores and online at Brookstone.com. We are grateful to all our mall store employees and managers who have contributed so much over the years," the company said in an announcement. The announcement comes as the company prepares to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The chain said the closures and bankruptcy are due to "continued deterioration in traditional mall traffic." The company will continue to operate its 35 airport-based stores and its website. Brookstone previously filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Brookstone operates one store in Alabama, located at Huntsville's Parkway Place Mall. Honda cut the ribbon on an $85 million expansion, with two additions at the Line 1 and Line 2 operations today, adding another 400,000 square feet to its Lincoln complex. The addition is part of the multi-phase Project RCX, which plant officials say will position Honda's Talladega County operations to manufacture vehicles for the next generation of the auto industry. Late last month, Honda announced another $54.8 million expansion at the plant, which will add more than 50,000 square feet to its Line 2 operations. The project is expected to be finished in early 2021. Honda Manufacturing of Alabama Vice President Mike Oatridge said the additions, which each flank the original plant layout, give Honda the ability to modify its existing operations without interrupting daily production. For the future, it means Honda can prepare for new technologies, manufacturing lighter weight vehicles and meeting stronger government emissions and mileage standards. The addition opened today will provide logistical support. When Honda began manufacturing the Odyssey mini-van in 2001, it required more than 1,000 different parts from suppliers. Today, that number is four times as high. That means that about 4 million parts arrive at the plant every day, some just hours before they are installed into vehicles coming down the assembly line. Getting the parts to their precise place on the line at the right time can present a myriad of challenges. That's what makes the addition critical, plant officials said. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, who attended the opening, said when Honda revealed its plans last year, the timeline seemed aggressive. But it "needed to be," he said. "It's exciting," he said. "It shows the leadership of Honda and it's what sets this facility apart." What is the best movie set or filmed in Alabama? We frequently come back to this question and fail to land on a satisfying answer. Rotten Tomatoes wants to help us figure it out with a fun new post sharing the most essential for every state in the U.S. The review aggregation website's list picks great, iconic movies set and filmed in every state. Before laying out the criteria, they write, "Each state gets one iconic movie that best represents what it has to offer, whether it's the natural beauty, the people, the architecture, key moments in the country's history, or, more likely, a combination of it all." They factor in the films' overall cultural significance, whether they were filmed locally and how they fare on the site's Tomatometer. Examples include "Hoosiers" for Indiana, "Do the Right Thing" for New York and "Rocky" for Pennsylvania. With so many great films to choose from, where did they land? Writer/director Ava DuVernay's powerful 2013 historical drama "Selma" best represents Bama, in their opinion. The film scored an incredible 98 percent rating on their site. Here's what RT had to say about it: "Ava DuVernay's Selma is a deep look at a long walk, focusing on the lead-up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march from Selma to the Alabama capital of Montgomery in 1965. Historic locations used include Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers violently clashed with state troopers, and the Alabama State Capitol Building, upon whose steps King delivered an impassioned speech for the finale. Not the most chill movie to kick off this feature, but history isn't always pretty. In a country as young as America, the effects of the past remain ever urgent and immediate, as states move on from hardship and flourish under the banner of civic pride. And, sometimes, that history makes for a hell of a movie." We don't disagree with their take on the best movies about our state in recent memory. DuVernay's gripping and reverent portrayal of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches earned an Oscar nomination for best picture and a win for best song ("Glory"). Much of the production filmed in Georgia, but key scenes were shot in Selma and Montgomery, specifically locations where the historic events actually took place. What do you think? Is "Selma" the movie that best encapsulates Alabama? Keep in mind, several movies set in Alabama (like "Gump") weren't actually filmed here. Read the entire Rotten Tomatoes piece, and please share your picks in the comments! We learned on this week's episode of his A&E reality series, but the Black Sabbath legend will also be treated to a personal performance from one of the state's best bands. The Alabama State University Mighty Marching Hornets Band will also be featured on "Ozzy & Jack's World Detour," Ozzy and his son Jack's A&E Network travel show. The episode will air tonight at 8 p.m. on A&E. Osbourne's official Facebook page shared a couple of clips from ASU's performance from their home field in Montgomery, during which Ozzy and Jack (and Jack's daughter and Ozzy's granddaughter Pearl) are seated in the New ASU Stadium to enjoy. The band performs renditions of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and "N.I.B.," as Ozzy and Jack give them standing ovations. "That's brilliant!" Ozzy exclaims during the show. Watch tonight's episode to see more from the ASU band and Huntsville's Space Camp. The description for tonight's episode reads, "With Pearl in tow, Ozzy and Jack head to Alabama where Jack's childhood dream will be fulfilled at Huntsville's Space Camp; before they launch into space, Ozzy has a surprise for Jack --- a visit with Dave Turner, the Rock and Roll Redneck." Now in its third season, the Osbournes have also traveled to Los Angeles for the birth of Ozzy's new granddaughter, learned to make pistachios in New Mexico, attended "explosion school" in Missouri and visited a record-pressing plant and drag show brunch in Nashville. , this isn't Ozzy's first trip to Alabama. He's previously performed shows in Birmingham and Huntsville. Wake also noted a strange connection to Montgomery, as this past June in Montgomery a 27-year-old African-American man also named Ozzy Osbourne was sentenced to almost 30 years in prison, after being found , stemming from a 2015 barbershop shooting. Watch clips featuring ASU below: Tonight on World Detour on A&E Posted by Ozzy Osbourne on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 Kristen Padilla, the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor in Texas, wanted to be a minister. Her world didn't seem to accept that. "At a young age, I cried to my parents, 'Why didn't God make me a boy, so I could be a preacher?'" she recalled. In her new book, "Now That I'm Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry," Padilla addresses the issue of the lack of formal theological education for women and the scarcity of roles for ordained women in the church. "I knew there was a need for it," said Padilla. Zondervan, a major evangelical publisher, released the book this summer for $16.99. "I had a love for the church and wanted to serve," Padilla said. "I really was wrestling with a call to ministry." The churches she grew up in responded with a couple of options for her. "They would say, 'I guess you're going to be a pastor's wife,' or 'I guess you're going to be the next Beth Moore,'" referring to the nationally known women's speaker and Bible teacher. Her father, the Rev. Mark Lindsey, who has been pastor of First Baptist Church of Big Spring, Texas, since 2009, never told her she couldn't be a minister. Her mother told her to follow the Lord in obedience, wherever that would lead her. Padilla graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas in 2005, where a female professor told her she had ministry options other than pastor's wife and Bible teacher. She then sought out a place where she could train for the ministry without being judged. She earned a master's of divinity degree in 2008 from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Alabama. Baptist churches tend to only hire women ministers to teach children or women, Padilla said. "The church had created a couple of roles for women," she said. "I didn't feel I'd fit in either of those." In 2010, she married New Testament scholar Osvaldo Padilla, a native of the Dominican Republic who is associate professor at Beeson Divinity School. They were married at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, and attended there until deciding to join Cathedral Church of the Advent because they wanted a more liturgical tradition. Padilla went to work in 2015 at Beeson Divinity School, where she serves as marketing and communications coordinator. That allows her to do work that helps spread the gospel, she said. "We women have to be a little more creative in how we find ways to serve the Lord," Padilla said. Kristen Padilla, author of "Now That I'm Called," in her office at Beeson Divinity School. Writing the book has been a way to speak out on the issue of the need for theological education for women. She's watched as women Bible study leaders without any theological background attempted to explain the meaning of the original Hebrew in the Old Testament by looking up English words online and choosing definitions that had nothing to do with the intended meaning. "I have seen it badly done by well-meaning people in blogs and at theological conferences," she said. Male leaders who try to prevent women from pursuing theological studies are contributing to the problem of women who are improperly prepared to teach the Bible, she said. "I don't think the evangelical church has done a good job thinking about vocational space for women," Padilla said. Her book was released as the Southern Baptist Convention opened its annual meeting in June amidst a controversy over how now ousted Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson counseled women to stay in abusive relationships and urged a rape victim not to report the rape. "It unearthed or brought to light wrong attitudes and postures we have taken toward women," Padilla said. "We have to re-think old assumptions that have put women in a bad position in the church." Debates about ordaining women often hinge on one verse: 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul's specific admonition in his letter to Timothy about not permitting women to teach or assume authority over men and instructing them to be quiet in church. That was addressing a problem going on in the church of Ephesus with the social mores adopted by some Roman women, she said. While that verse is quoted, few who argue against women ministers also quote Romans 16, in which Paul goes on at length giving endorsement to Phoebe, a deacon in the church who he refers to as his benefactor, and Priscilla and Aquila, his "co-workers in Christ" who "risked their lives for me." Clearly women played a significant role in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, just as they did in the life of Jesus, with Mary, Mary Magdalene, Martha and the Samaritan woman who encountered Jesus and encouraged others to follow him. Mary Magdalene was the first to see the risen Jesus and the first to proclaim the gospel of the resurrection, which was doubted at first by the apostles, according to the gospels. Women still have their unique role to play in spreading the gospel, Padilla said. Last Friday, Padilla was the only woman speaker at a Christian conference in Arkansas. She taught a devotional to high school students. "One of the girls came up to me afterward crying," Padilla said. "She said, 'I've never seen a woman teach from God's word on a stage. Thank you.'" Padilla preached at a church service for the first time this year, during a Thursday morning service at Cathedral Church of the Advent. She has never preached in a Southern Baptist church. She's not sure how her father would feel about it. "We've never had that discussion," she said. But preaching from the pulpit was never the goal for her. She hopes her book can guide women seeking out important ways to serve in ministry. "God's plan has always included women, speaking through and revealing his testimony through women," Padilla said. "The family of God needs fathers and mothers to lead," Padilla said. "The gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people. Women should be trained and have a role as shepherds of the faith." Women should be allowed to teach and preach the gospel, and should be encouraged to have formal training to do so, she said. "It's a serious calling," Padilla said. "We serve the living God. That serious calling deserves serious training." The Rev. Van Moody and other ministers met with President Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2018, at the White House. President Donald Trump met with a group of inner-city pastors from across the country on Wednesday, including Alabama megachurch Pastor Van Moody. Moody, the founder and senior pastor of the Worship Center Christian Church in Birmingham with two campuses on Interstate 459 near Trussville and McCalla, got a chance to speak face-to-face with the president at the White House. "Mr. President, my name is Van Moody, from the Worship Center in Birmingham, Alabama," Moody said when it came his turn to speak, according to a White House transcript. "And I just want to continue to underscore what's already been said. Thank you for your heart for all people, but particularly your leadership on the issue of prison reform and workforce development. Those are two of the biggest issues facing Alabama. A lot of the individuals that we spend a lot of time ministering to are really hard hit in those areas; corporations. That's the biggest issue right now in Alabama. So thank you for your leadership on this issue." "Thank you," Trump said. "Thank you for being compassionate and caring about all people," Moody added. "It's a great state, too," Trump said. "Yes, sir," Moody said. Bishop Kyle Searcy, senior pastor of Fresh Anointing House of Worship in Montgomery, spoke next. "Mr. President, Kyle Searcy -- Montgomery, Alabama also," he said. "I want to echo all that's been said. We're very grateful for your heart toward criminal justice reform, your heart for the urban community. It's very -- very amazing. "Montgomery, Alabama is a city that's known for unity and bringing people together. And so many things have come out of that city. And it's just very encouraging that you have a heart to begin to bring people together, work across the aisle to get things done. Many people on our team pray for you every single day." "That's really nice," Trump said. "I appreciate it, both. Thank you very much." The Rev. Van Moody defended his Wednesday meeting with President Donald Trump, saying people who criticized him on social media took his comments out of context. The Alabama Ethics Commission on Wednesday found that former Birmingham Mayor William Bell violated state ethics law. The commission said there's evidence to show that Bell committed a minor violation of the ethics law. The body recommended the case be handled administratively and referred it to the Jefferson County District Attorney Office. The ethics commission hasn't disclosed the nature of the complaint or what evidence the body reviewed. Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton stated in an email to AL.com that he could not comment on the ethics violation. Bell's attorney Joe Espy said the complaint was in relation to a meeting Bell held with staff at city hall in September during his bid for re-election as mayor. "Mayor Bell completely cooperated with the ethics commission and the ethics commission staff," Espy said. "It was a very minor technical matter related to that complaint made during the campaign about that meeting. "It was resolved administratively. It is concluded," he said. Espy said the matter was forwarded to the district attorney who is expected to sign off on the resolution of the case. He said the case will then will go back to the ethics commission, which may issue a fine. Birmingham activist Iva Williams filed the ethics complaint against Bell over a mayoral campaign-related meeting at city hall where Bell warned employees they could be out of a job if he wasn't re-elected. Williams accused Bell of using his office for personal gain. He also claimed the mayor violated state law by using his official position for political activities and by using city facilities for political activities. An audio recording of the meeting was released to members of the media in September. In the mandatory meeting held in the City Council Chambers on Aug. 28, 2017, Bell told staff that they couldn't campaign during work hours. He asked staff to tell residents of the progress being made in the city and "magnify" his voice in the community. "The political survival of my administration is at stake," Bell said on the recording. "And if you think that is just about William Bell, no it is about everyone in this room. It is about each of us in this room. Because I guarantee you while some may survive, the vast majority of you will not. OK. I'm not trying to put fear I'm just trying to tell you the realities of the situation." Bell doesn't explicitly ask staff members to campaign for him during the meeting. "Now, what do I need from you? It is improper for you to campaign during working hours," he said. "I am not asking you to do that, but what I am asking you to do when you are at work - do your job professionally. Reach out to citizens. Whatever they need try to meet them as immediately as possible. Don't get into any arguments with people but try to satisfy whatever their needs are. That's the best thing you can do to help me while you are on duty." Bell tells staff members to be professional to residents. He also asks them to "tell the true story" of his leadership and the progress going on in the city. April Odom, who at the time was spokesperson for the mayor's office, told AL.com in September that the meeting wasn't a "campaign meeting." She said it was a meeting to "address the widespread information that was being put out. "After the election we were inundated with requests from staff on how they could help," she stated in an email from September. "We had a staff meeting where the mayor clearly outlined what was acceptable and not acceptable." Bell lost his bid for re-election to Randall Woodfin. 82 held for threatening lawmaker Niru Pal Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, has apprehended 82 individuals in connection with the intimidation of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Niru Pal. The arrest of the police chief of a small Jefferson County city followed - in part - the discovery of weed and a bong in his patrol car, according to newly-released court records. Lipscomb Police Chief Brian "Scott'' Martin, 37, was taken into custody Friday on misdemeanor charges of second-degree marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, authorities said. The case against the chief was investigated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency which then obtained the warrants against him. ALEA Lt. Jon Riley said Martin's arrest followed a search at his home on Dove Drive in Odenville on July 27, 2018. A second person was also arrested on the same charges: 33-year-old Crystal Lynn Tindle of Pell City. Martin, who has not responded to requests for comment, was arrested by Odenville police and booked into the St. Clair County Jail. He was released a short time later after posting $1,500 bond. According to court records made public Wednesday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's Major Crimes Unit, along with the agency's Narcotics Unit, carried out the search warrant at Martin's Odenville home. Once they made their way inside, they found Martin, Tindle and a young boy. The arrest report states that Tindle was detained while the agents conducted their search, and Martin was transported to the Odenville Police Department to be interviewed. A search of the home turned up marijuana and a bong under the sink in the master bedroom. Agents also searched Martin's patrol vehicle which was parked in front of the home. Marijuana and a bong were found under the gun safe in the rear of the vehicle. Both with in an open evidence bag that was not marked with any information, such as a suspect's name or case number, according to the arrest report. During the interview with the law enforcement agents, Martin initially denied knowledge of any illegal narcotics in the home. "Martin later recanted his statement, and said he was aware of the marijuana that was in the residence,'' one of the agents wrote. "However, Martin denied any knowledge of the marijuana and drug paraphernalia recovered from his patrol vehicle." Tindle told authorities she was aware there were illegal narcotics in the home. Martin was taken to the jail. Tindle was released at the scene and later charged. Lipscomb Mayor Brenda Renz released a prepared statement earlier this week: "Lipscomb police Chief Brian Scott Martin has been placed on leave pending an investigation. The Council and I will make a statement after the investigation is complete." The homeless convict charged in the killing of three people in a Guntersville home - including a 7-year-old-boy - was a known violent offender just out of prison, and the state's largest victims' advocacy group is outraged that he was on the streets. Janette Grantham, director of Victims of Crime and Leniency, on Wednesday lashed out at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles for its handling of the case of Jimmy O'Neal Spencer. Spencer, 52, is charged with capital murder in the July 13 deaths of Martha Dell Reliford, 65, Marie Kitchens Martin, 74, and Martin's great-grandson, Colton Ryan Lee. Authorities said Spencer strangled and stabbed Martin before taking off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Lee, they said, died from blunt force trauma. The boy and his great-grandmother were found dead that Friday at her Mulberry Street home. Reliford - also killed by blunt force trauma - was found dead in her home across the street the same night. Investigators said she was hit with the flat side of a hatchet, stabbed and also robbed. According to court records and authorities, Spencer first went to prison in the early 1980s on a burglary conviction. In the years to come, he would be arrested again and again and ultimately sentenced to life. Those crimes all happened in Franklin County. He escaped from prison in 1993 and was charged with more property crime crimes that took place while he was on the run. According to the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, Spencer was granted parole in November 2017, and released from prison in January. From there, he went to a halfway house in Birmingham. Spencer then met a man from Marshall County and ended up in Guntersville in April. Investigators said the convict was homeless - sleeping on park benches or in ditches and occasionally staying at local shelters. "According to Alabama law, he is a violent offender and had a life sentence and a long criminal background. He had been paroled once before, and within months his parole was revoked because he committed a new crime,'' Grantham said. "The last parole board denied his parole in 2013. Franklin County DA Joey Rushing sent a strong protest letter stating he was dangerous. A victim also sent a protest letter. These letters should have remained in his file for the current board to consider." "Why was he paroled four years later in 2017 by a different parole board? DA Rushing would have sent another strong protest letter if he had received his notice for the November hearing,'' Grantham said. She said VOCAL purchased a Board Action Sheet and learned Pardons and Parole Board Members Cliff Walker, chairman, and Terry Davis, who is no longer on the board, paroled Spencer to Life Tech - a six-month on-site transition course and both checked the "low to medium risk of re-offending'' box for Spencer. "If he was sent to Life Tech as stated, the earliest date he could have been released was in the May-June 2018 time frame. If he failed to complete Life Tech, he should have been returned to prison as his parole should have been revoked,'' Grantham said. "Yet he was seen in January in the Marshall County area. How is that possible?" Grantham also said every released inmate must have a qualified home plan and a support base before they are released. "Sleeping on a park bench is not a home plan,'' she said. "In addition, every released inmate must also have employment lined up. Homeless is not a job plan." Spencer was arrested on June 15, 2018 in Boaz for possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest, and attempting to elude a police officer. His bond was set at $3,000. "His parole should have been revoked,'' Grantham said. "Yet a month later he was still free to murder three innocent victims." Officials at the Board of Pardons and Paroles didn't immediately return to a request for comment on Grantham's press release. She said she called the board last week with her questions and was told the Board had asked for an investigation on Spencer's parole. Among those questions: -What made this inmate good for parole when the prior board did not parole him? -Was Jimmy O'Neal paroled to Life Tech as stated on the Board Action sheet? -Did he go to Life Tech? -Did he complete the 6 months on-site course? -If not, was his parole revoked? -Why not? -Was he returned to prison? -Did he have a home plan? -What was the plan? -Did he have a support base? -If so, who? -Did he have a job plan? -If so, what was his job plan? -If not, why was he released without a job and home plan? -Who was supervising his release as required by law? -Why was his parole not revoked when he committed new crimes in June? Grantham questioned why the board is paroling violent offenders with life sentences. She said a recent inmate had six life sentences - yet he was paroled. Just last week, she said. an inmate with a life sentence who stabbed his victim 27 times was released. "How do you stab someone 27 times and still be paroled,'' she said. "These individuals were denied by the previous parole board." "Maybe one day we will have answers. Regardless, it is too late for Marie Kitchens Martin, Colton Lee, and Martha Reliford,'' she said. "Their fate was sealed the day the two Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles members check marked the Parole Guidelines." "What is not questionable is the fact that this recent parolee brutally murdered a little 7-year old boy who loved John Deer tractors, a 74-year-old great-grandmother who was spending a few days with her great-grandson; a victim advocate - one of our own - Martha Reliford,'' she said. "Martha only had a few months to live due to cancer." As for how that happened, Grantham said this: "Paroles of violent offenders are being released by check marks on data driven parole guidelines. Two board members made a couple of check marks and here we are,'' she said. "Regardless of why Spencer was paroled, we know it was a terrible, terrible decision. A decision that was deadly." A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit of a former Madison County sheriff's deputy who alleges she was sexually harassed at work. Shelby Holt filed the lawsuit--which tells of nude photos of a female deputy being passed around the sheriff's office--last September in the federal court system's northern district of Alabama. Defendants of the lawsuit included Sheriff Blake Dorning and his office, the Madison County Commission and several other county employees. The case proceeded through the court system until April 2018 when Holt's lawyer withdrew for medical reasons. U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon gave Holt until June to hire a new lawyer and respond to pending motions in the case. When Holt didn't respond in time, the judge gave an extension until July 12. Holt again missed the deadline, and the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case. Kallon on July 16 dismissed the case without prejudice -- meaning Holt can still hire a lawyer and sue the sheriff's office and others again if she chooses. Holt was suing Dorning, former Chief Deputy David Jernigan (now police chief in Madison) and all seven members of the county commission: Chair Dale Strong, Roger Jones, Craig Hill, Phil Riddick, Steve Haraway, Phil Vandiver and Bob Harrison. Hill had not yet been elected to the commission during the time period of events outlined in the lawsuit, and Harrison has since died. Other defendants include deputies Stacy Rutherford and James King, Madison County IT employees John Sheldon and Dustin Hunt, Madison County director of personnel/human resources Jermie Howell and Madison County deputy director of personnel/human resources Pam Flory. Holt alleged the lawsuit that she was dating another deputy, James King Holt was dating deputy James King, who sent nude photos of her to other people, the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit also said that Sgt. Stacy Rutherford, Holt's direct supervisor, repeatedly made sexually-suggestive comments to Holt. Some of the comments, according to the lawsuit, were graphic in nature. Rutherford created a "sexually hostile working environment" for Holt, the lawsuit said. Holt filed a hand-written complaint about Rutherford to the personnel/human resources department and filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the lawsuit. Days later Holt was put on administrative leave, then fired just over a month later, the lawsuit said. Holt was one of four people using the same attorney to sue the sheriff's office and county. Gregory Gray, Erica Cagle and Marina Garcia each have new lawyers, and their cases are moving forward. Gray, a longtime SWAT deputy, alleges he was suspended and demoted because he told Holt to report sexual harassment. His lawsuit states that he was suspended for two weeks without pay, taken off the SWAT team indefinitely and ordered to mandatory counseling before he could return to work. Gray wasn't given a reason for the suspension, which was issued the same day Holt described the harassment she faced in a letter to Dorning, the lawsuit states. The case against a second suspect in the beheading of a young Alabama girl who witnessed the slaying of her cartel-connected grandmother is moving to a grand jury. Capital murder suspect Israel Palomino has waived his preliminary hearing, which was scheduled for today in Madison County District Court. The case will be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictments. Palomino is charged along with Yoni Aguilar in the slayings of 13-year-old Mariah Lopez, a Challenger Middle School student from Huntsville, and her grandmother Oralia Mendoza. Their bodies were dumped in rural Madison County in June. Lopez was beheaded with a knife, according to testimony at Aguilar's preliminary hearing last month. Sheriff's Investigator Stacy Rutherford testified that Mendoza was fatally assaulted with knife and left lying in a Madison County Cemetery. Mendoza was connected to the Mexican Sinoloa cartel, one of the most powerful drug-trafficking organizations in the U.S., authorities said. She and her granddaughter were killed just days after a drug run to Georgia, Rutherford said under oath. Along with Aguilar, Palomino and another woman, Mendoza traveled just outside Atlanta to pick up a batch of methamphetamine the night of June 2, Rutherford testified. Something apparently went wrong during the trip, and Palomino, became suspicious of a setup, according to investigators. During the early morning hours of June 4, Mendoza was told she and Lopez would be taken somewhere safe. Instead, Palomino and Aguilar, who was Mendoza's boyfriend, took the woman and girl to Moon Cemetery on Cave Springs Road, Rutherford testified. In a statement to investigators, Aguilar said Mendoza and Palomino got out of the car and argued about the drug run. The argument escalated, and Aguilar told police Palomino killed Mendoza. Authorities have said her cause of death was sharp force trauma caused by a knife. Because Lopez was a witness, the suspects took the girl to a secluded area on nearby Lemley Drive, Rutherford testified. In his statement, Aguilar said Palomino forced him to kill the girl. Aguilar told investigators he was holding the knife when Palomino came up to him and moved his arm back and forth in a sawing motion. Lopez was beheaded, Rutherford testified. Three days later, the sheriff's office started investigating after a farm boy found a body on the Lemley Drive property. It took about a week for forensic scientists to positively identify the body as Lopez. By then, Aguilar and Palomino were in custody. After Aguilar confessed, authorities found Mendoza's body at the cemetery on June 15. The case against 26-year-old Aguilar already has been bound over to the grand jury. During his preliminary hearing, District Judge Claude Hundley ruled prosecutors have enough evidence to establish probable cause for the capital murder charges. Aguilar and 34-year-old Palomino are held without bail in the Madison County jail. A grand jury will be tasked with deciding which, if any, charges Aguilar and Palomino should face at trial. It's unclear how long it could take for the case to be presented to the grand jury. A judge has issued a gag order, prohibiting law enforcement, defense attorneys and prosecutors from speaking publicly about the case except in open court. Israel Palomino Waives Preliminary Hearing by Ashley Remkus on Scribd Now that the sale of about 900 acres of TVA land has been completed in northwest Alabama, what are the plans for the property known as the Muscle Shoals Reservation? For now, there are none. A Knoxville-based group known as Muscle Shoals Holdings bought the land at auction in May for $5 million and closed on the sale last week. The group said it has no specific plans at the moment for the land despite the seven-figure investment. In fact, they're up for suggestions. "They are really patient folks," said Patrick King, who spoke to AL.com for Muscle Shoals Holdings. "They don't come with a lot of preconceived notions. Instead, they prefer to take the approach of really engaging the community and learning who's who. They make the assumption that people from that area know that property better than they do. "So it's good as a first step to engage and listen and understand some of the history and who some of the leaders are there and some of the needs in the area to see how the property can evolve. They are pretty open to the shape that it takes as long as they see it being something that becomes a real asset and improvement to that area and that property." TVA retained about two-thirds of the property - about 2,000 acres - that includes the Rockpile Recreational Area along the Tennessee River and facilities that provide workspace for about 500 TVA employees. TVA auctioned the 900 acres as surplus inventory. "We care about the Quad Cities' success, and selling this property is an economic investment in the community while preserving local recreational opportunities," David Bowling, TVA vice president of Land and River Management, said in a statement. TVA is evaluating its property inventory in an effort to right-size its portfolio to meet its needs. The public utility sold 600 acres at its Widows Creek plant in Bridgeport in northeast Alabama. That property is now being developed for a Google data center. King said the investment group is maintaining an open mind about how best to use the property located in the city limits of both Muscle Shoals and Sheffield. While emphasizing that it was just a hypothetical scenario, King alluded to the possibility of using the land in response to the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA plant to be built in west Huntsville. "We've heard a lot about the loss of manufacturing jobs over the last 20 years," King said. "How does that area start to retain young talent? How do they get tech space? How do they capitalize on the Toyota Mazda announcement? We're paying attention a lot to that, too. "When we hear things like that, we chase it like anybody else and explore what would it look like for this area to capitalize on this Toyota Mazda announcement, for example? Are there other people in that supply chain that might be looking to locate in close proximity to that and does our property lend itself to that?" For now, King said, the group's open minds mean open-ended possibilities. The group has met with the mayors of Florence and Tuscumbia as well as Muscle Shoals and Sheffield along with other elected officials. And there have been efforts to hear from the community at large, King said. "To be honest, no one is excluded form that process," he said. "We go for the obvious leaders, so we've met with all four mayors of the four cities. We've met with the (University of North Alabama in Florence). We've met with other public officials. I spent time on the strip there on Court Street in Florence and me and I were there together and we poked our head in almost every shop on Court Street. We talk with the sales associates. It was really cool. In those shops, we found a pretty close-knit community. "We cast the net pretty wide because we are interested in getting a variety of perspectives. If you cast the net as wide as possible, it gives you a sense of what the pulse is." Alabama Department of Environmental Management Director Lance LeFleur said a letter from environmental groups calling for his termination or resignation is filled with false and "mean-spirited statements." LeFleur issued a seven-page statement on Wednesday in response to the letter from Black Warrior Riverkeeper, which was signed by 10 other environmental groups. Their letter was sent Monday to the personnel committee of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, which oversees ADEM. BWRK sought to have their letter included in the public comments section of LeFleur's annual job evaluation. The environmental groups claim the recent bribery and corruption trial of a Drummond Co. executive and lawyer from Balch & Bingham exposed conflicts of interest between ADEM and those they regulate. "The BWRK letter is riddled with numerous, demonstrably false, mean-spirited statements, and with unsupported, strident, negative innuendo, which impugn my good name and character and reflect negatively on the department," LeFleur stated. "With this response letter, I will seek to set the record straight." He stated that he takes ADEM's mission "very seriously," and the department "takes pride in conducting business fairly and by the book." He said BWRK and the 10 other environmental groups are using the media and social media "to personally attack my good name and character, as well as the integrity of ADEM." Eleven Alabama environmental groups allege public trust in AEMC and ADEM has "severely eroded over the past weeks. "In order to repair that trust, there must be new leadership at ADEM. When an organization like ADEM stumbles, its director must take responsibility," their letter states. "Director LeFleur has failed to lead the department in a manner that advances the mission of ADEM 'to assure for all citizens of the State a safe, healthful and productive environment.' He must resign or be terminated." The following environmental groups signed Black Warrior Riverkeeper's letter: Alabama Rivers Alliance, Cahaba River Society, Cahaba Riverkeeper, Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper, Environmental Defense Alliance, Friends of Hurricane Creek, Friends of the Locust Fork River, Gasp, Little River Waterkeeper, and Tennessee Riverkeeper. LeFleur stated that ADEM was given the responsibility to determine whether to concur that a contaminated site in Alabama met the "scientific and regulatory criteria" for being designated as a Superfund site. In terms of the expansion of the 35th Avenue Superfund site into Inglenook and Tarrant, ADEM didn't concur with the Environmental Protection Agency because LeFleur claimed there was a lack of scientific data supporting EPA's proposed listing, there was counter indicating health studies, no clear path to clean up and a there was a "more promising option" available to clean up contamination at the site. "ADEM has made a number of similar determinations over the years and is required to make them based on objective criteria rather than what is popular," LeFleur stated. LeFleur said he sent a letter to the EPA in 2015 at the request of then-Gov. Robert Bentley. That letter, according to LeFleur, was related to resolving a disagreement between the EPA and the state on proposed listings on the National Priorities List related the the Superfund site. He said he didn't know the letter was drafted by Balch & Bingham lawyer Joel Gilbert. Gilbert, a former partner at Balch, and David Roberson, a vice-president at Drummond, were both recently convicted of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and honest services wire fraud in connection with their efforts to oppose expanding or expediting the cleanup of north Birmingham, which Drummond could be forced to pay for. LeFleur contends that when testifying at Gilbert and Roberson's recent trial, he responded "yes" to being asked "if it was not uncommon for legislators and others to sign letters drafted by lobbyists and others." "I didn't indicate I sign such letters," LeFleur said in his statement. In response to allegations that LeFleur, his staff and others leaked a proposed presentation submitted by Gasp with parties outside ADEM, LeFleur stated that any document received by ADEM "that is not protected by virtue of being enforcement confidential, business confidential, deliberative, etc. is available to the public." That being said, LeFleur said neither he nor any other employee of ADEM disclosed the presentation. Gasp is an environmental nonprofit whose mission is to reduce air pollution through education and advocacy. Gasp made a request to speak at an AEMC meeting in 2014 about expanding the north Birmingham 35th Avenue Superfund site and placing it on EPA's National Priorities List. Gasp provided the AEMC with a copy of the presentation prior to the December 2014 meeting so that the commissioners might be better informed, according to the environmental groups. The contents of that presentation were leaked directly to Drummond and Balch. LeFleur said ADEM performs "at a very high level with existing funding" despite claims for environmental groups that he has failed to lobby the Legislature for more money. "The Alabama Legislature is well informed regarding ADEM funding," he stated. "The Legislature sets state priorities by executing its statutory obligation to appropriate revenues of the state." LeFleur said ADEM funding is the lowest per capita in the nation, but taxpayer money is being used effectively. Updated at 3:03 p.m. to clarify the nature of LeFleur's letter to EPA. ADEM Director Lane LeFleur's Response Letter on Scribd Massive waves - and not aliens or other mysterious forces - are to blame for the disappearance of ships in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, scientists said. Experts at the University of Southampton said 100 feet "rogue waves" are to blame for the high number of boats that have sunk in the 270,271 square mile area between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. The claims were first made on the British documentary "The Bermuda Triangle Enigma." Rogue waves - larges unexpected surges that occur near the surface of the ocean - are naturally occurring phenomena that were first observed in 1997 off the coast of South Africa. On the documentary, the scientists built a model of the USS Cyclops, which disappeared in 1918, claiming 300 lives. The scientists said the size of the boat, along with its flat base, made it easily overcome by the water and size of a rogue wave. The disappearance of the Cyclops remains the U.S. Navy's single loss of life not directly involving combat. Theories on its disappearance include an attack by a German submarine or sinking in an unexpected storm. The rogue wave theory is just the latest to explain the mysterious disappearance of boats in the triangle area. It does not answer questions on the disappearance of airplanes in the area, the first of which was reported in 1945. You can read the complete story here. Tamira Prince This is an opinion column. We all know--or at least we should know--you cannot accurately judge a book by its cover. Nor a human being, even though we do it all the time. We size up the person walking towards us on the sidewalk, wandering through a store, driving our Lyft or simply going about their lives and judge them based on their attire, their hairstyle--and decide whether they're a threat. Or if they're my kind of people. Tamira Prince loves books. She is 18 years old and headed to the University of Montevallo as a freshman later this month where she'll study graphic design and animation. She has been a voracious reader for as long as she can remember. "Instead of watching cartoons as a kid, I was in a corner reading," she told me. "I was constantly in and out of the library while I was at school, then I took a bunch of them home." Mysteries and fiction are her favorite genres. "I have a habit of trying to figure things out," she said. "It's gotten to the point where I can read a book and predict how it's going to end." Horror maven Stephen King is her favorite author, not so surprisingly. "Sometimes when I'm trying to predict his books, it's a complete twist," she said. "It keeps me on my toes. I really want to get some original copies [of his novels]." She's currently reading Raised to Keep Secrets, by Andrea Rowe. If you pass Tamira on the street you will almost certainly look twice. With striking 64-crayon box colors adorning her long braids, you might even judge. She does not care. Tamira's life has been marked by moves--from Bessemer to Hoover to the West End to Selma, even to a city in Georgia, and sometimes in the middle of the school year, all so her single-parent mother could work the job that would best provide for Tamira and her two younger brothers. Though naturally introverted, the book lover still made friends, in part because she decided to reveal herself not with words but through her hair, her clothes, and her art. "I used to be shy," she said. "So, I started expressing myself with art--I like drawing--the way I dressed. I hate when people say because you're a certain age you should act or dress like this or that. I stopped caring so much about what other people were doing or saying. I colored my hair and started wearing my style of clothes, expressing myself in the most vivid way possible." She first dyed her hair blue. Then she opted for a fall theme: green, orange with a dash of red. Next, she went green. Finally, pink. Her hair and distinctive style helped the quiet student stand out when she arrived at Woodlawn as an 11th grader. She didn't think anyone noticed until other students started dyeing their hair and dressing in "crazy colors," Tamira said. She doesn't feel she started a trend at the school, however. "I didn't start anything," she said. "It was always inside them. It takes one person to step forward and do it. Then people say, 'If they can, I can, too.'" You may know Tamira because of the Internet sensation she became. Because of her hair, and the way she showed how much it means to her--in the most vivid way possible. In May, she strode onto the stage during Woodlawn's graduation procession donning the requisite cap and gown--and relaxed, wavy black hair. Each senior was to shake hands with principal Dr. Janice Drake, Birmingham City Schools superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring, School Board president Cheri Gardner, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin and local school board representative Daagye Hendricks before leaving the stage. Instead, Tamira paused at Dr. Drake and shared a few words. A few weeks before the ceremony, the principal informed students she wanted them to wear "natural hair, or whatever it was," Tamira recalls, for graduation or they would not be allowed to walk in the processional. "I talked to [Dr. Drake] about it," said Tamira. "I said. 'What does it have to do with achievements?' [she was an honor roll student.] She said, 'We want it to be a nice affair.' I didn't see how hair color made it any less of an occasion for anyone. I tried to find loopholes, but it didn't work out. "I realized I had to listen to the principal." Until the principal had to listen to Tamira. I can't cross this stage covered up in any kind of way. "Don't take it off," Tamira says Dr. Drake implored of her as they met onstage. I just can't do it. The video of the next few amusing moments has racked up more than 250,000 views. The young woman takes her mortarboard, reaches for her front scalp and strips a wig from her head. She tosses the fake hair at the principal's feet, shakes out her own flaming pink mane and walks boldly past a group of startled and bemused public officials. Dr. Herring went wide-eyed and took a step back ("I didn't know what was happening," she later said). Gardner darn near leaped out of her heels. Woodfin did a near-180, shrugged and smiled. And as Tamira passed, to the cheers of classmates, family, and friends, Hendricks offered a reassuring tap on the shoulder and rolled with the flow. Watch the video: Tamira said she felt "really great" after leaving the stage, though "nervous and scared, too." "I felt really empowered," she recalls. "my main thought was, 'I hope this reaches so many people'. It was not something I did just to prove a point. I just wanted all kinds of people to know, 'You shouldn't have to cover yourself up to show how great you are." Of course, there were haters, particularly among the cowardly anonymous digital trolls. But the voices Tamira said mattered most were overwhelmingly supportive: classmates, friends and especially her mother, who knew ahead of time what her daughter was going to do onstage "She was so excited she wanted to tell everyone," Tamira said. "She was like, 'Great, I'm so proud of you.'" Another supportive voice came from an unexpected place. A few days after the ceremony, Tamira went to obtain her diploma and was told Dr. Herring had it. You can imagine the trepidation the student felt as she entered the superintendent's office at the Board of Education building. "When Tamira pulled off the wig, I was surprised and caught off guard, along with the others on stage," Dr. Herring later shared with me. "After consulting with the principal, I shared my desire to meet Tamira and her mother. I wanted to both place her diploma in her hand and to have a chance to talk and get to know her." After pleasantries, Dr. Herring had a question for Tamira: What made you do what you did? "She wanted to know my thoughts and feelings," Tamira recalled. "When I finished she shook my hand and gave me a hug. Dr. Herring's a big hugger. She told me, she was really proud of me. It was not something I expected at all." Nor did she expect the superintendent to encourage her to apply for the district's Summer Executive Internship program. Tamira did and was one of the 14 high-school students chosen. She worked in the Strategy and Communications department, writing media releases, producing social media content and using her graphic design schools on the district's website. "Tamira is a beautiful and bright scholar," Dr. Herring added. "Tamira interviewed and earned her position as an intern. I knew she would interview well and that her gifts and talents would speak for themselves. They did." Tamira wants to write a book one day, but she'll first share her journey through animation. She wants to start a venture that allows young people to use animation to share their personal stories, then to learn from them, "to be inspired," she says. "It's one thing I think is missing from a lot of kids' lives." Then she continues: "But I can't ask people to tell their stories without telling own." In the most vivid way possible. Roy S. Johnson's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Hit me up at rjohnson@al.com or/and follow me at twitter.com/roysj. Rep. Mark Tuggle, R-Alexander City The Alabama Ethics Commission on Wednesday approved an advisory opinion that cleared the way for House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, to hire a retiring state legislator as his chief of staff. McCutcheon said he plans to formally offer the job to Rep. Mark Tuggle, R-Alexander City, when Tuggle's legislative term ends in November. Tuggle did not seek reelection. Tuggle asked the Ethics Commission for a formal advisory opinion on whether it would violate the "revolving door" clause in the state ethics law for him to take the job. The clause prevents a representative or senator from lobbying in the chamber where they served until two years after the term for which they were elected ends. On Wednesday, the commission approved the opinion recommended by the Ethics Commission staff, which says that a retiring member of the House can take the job as the speaker's chief of staff provided that he does not engage in lobbying. The commission approved the opinion by a vote of 4-0. McCutcheon's previous chief of staff, Jim Entrekin, left the position recently to become general counsel for the Legislative Services Agency. McCutcheon said he considered Tuggle at the top of his list to replace Entrekin. "Mark worked real well with members of the House and Senate," McCutcheon said. "He was well respected." Tuggle is completing his second four-year term in the House. He is a forester and owner of Shiloh Land and Timber LLC. Also on Wednesday, the commission declined to reconsider an opinion approved in June that candidates for public office could use campaign funds for child care expenses under limited circumstances. Secretary of State John Merrill's office asked for the reconsideration. Deputy Secretary of State Brent Beal told the commission the opinion could open the door to allow candidates to claim other personal expenses, like someone to fill in for them on a job while they're campaigning. In June, Beal had asked the commission to delay a vote on the opinion because of the same concerns. Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton said Wednesday the opinion was narrowly tailored to apply only to the specific circumstances given in the request for the opinion. Jennifer Gray, a mother and a candidate for the House of Representatives in Jefferson and Shelby counties, asked for the opinion. Gray said she cared for her child full time in the summer and could not actively campaign without child care. The opinion said Gray could use campaign funds for child care costs incurred as a direct result of the campaign activity and tied to specific campaign events and only if there was no reasonable option other than paying for child care. The commission voted 4-0 against the motion to reconsider. The Federal Election Commission in May that candidates could use campaign funds for child care expenses incurred directly as a result of campaigning. He earned a yellow belt in karate, enjoyed riding dirt bikes and loved the outdoors. Chevy Christopher is being remembered by family and friends as a caring, loving 10-year-old boy with a "precious smile." Chevy's life ended this past weekend when he was shot by his father during a spend-the-night trip to the boy's grandmother's house in Athens, police said. Chevy and his grandmother were sleeping in her bed when his father, William "Billy" Christopher took out his gun and pulled the trigger, police said. After killing Chevy and 84-year-old Betty Sue Christopher, William Christopher turned the gun and took his own life, according to the authorities. "Chevy was such (an) awesome little dude," said Misty Rutherford in messages to AL.com. Rutherford is a family friend who was with the boy's mother this week after the tragedy. "He was so energetic and full of life," Rutherford added. "He never met a stranger and made friends with anyone he met. He was the life of the party." Chevy was supposed to start fourth grade at Athens Intermediate School next month. He finished third grade at Cowart Elementary in Athens last school year. "We are all grieving the loss of our SPARK student, Chevy," reads a post on the SPARK Academy at Cowart Facebook page. "We will miss his sweet spirit, the way he made us laugh, and his precious smile!" Counselors are available for other students, the post says. Chevy was a typical 10-year-old boy, family friends said. He liked collecting nerf guns and loved to play Pokemon and video games. "He enjoyed riding back roads, while singing and dancing," Rutherford said. "He loved outdoors and being on the river." Chevy's funeral is Friday at 2 p.m. at Spry Funeral Home in Athens. Burial will follow at Roselawn Cemetery, according to his obituary. Visitation is tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the funeral home. Chevy's mother doesn't have insurance, so a Gofundme account has been set up to collect money for his funeral expenses. Police said they are still investigating the motive for the slayings and suicide. Chevy's parents married in Gulf Shores in 2009. The couple separated in April 2016, and William Christopher requested custody of Chevy, court records show. They settled their contested divorce and custody dispute in September 2016 by agreeing to joint custody, according to court papers. "There was never a dull moment when he was around," Rutherford said of Chevy. "He just put out (an) energy that everyone around him felt and immediately felt happiness. He was pure joy and happiness day in and day out. He will be missed beyond words." The case is the third murder-suicide in typically-quiet Limestone County this month. So far in 2018, at least 11 people have died in homicides in Athens and Limestone County. In 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, there was only one homicide countywide. In 2015, two people died in homicides in the county. Around north Alabama five children have been killed this summer. Anti-progress elements encouraging criminal activities: Home Minister Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has remarked that Tuesday night's intimidation of Nepal Communist Party lawmaker Niru Pal was connected to political crime. The Jefferson County Board of Education voted on Thursday to formally request an Attorney General's opinion about whether payroll deductions for dues to education organizations can continue. The resolution passed during the special-called meeting with three votes, while board members Donna Pike and Jacqueline Smith abstained. Jefferson County Superintendent Craig Pouncey said the opinion is needed to clarify his role in monitoring the use of payroll deductions by the organizations collecting them. "In 2010, the legislature passed a law that held a county or state official accountable for policing, so to speak, the use of membership dues that are devoted toward political activities," he said. Alabama lawmakers passed that law prohibiting payroll deductions by state agencies for any membership organization that spent any portion of those dues for political activity. The law was challenged in court but ultimately upheld by the Alabama Supreme Court and went into effect in 2014. Pouncey confirmed that Jefferson County is deducting membership dues for the three education organizations with members working in Jefferson County, which include AFT as well as the Alabama Conference of Educators and the Alabama Education Association. Pouncey said he interprets the law to say that he, as superintendent, is accountable for ensuring those dues are not used for political activity but is unsure of what authority he has to carry through with that responsibility. In the letter requesting the opinion, Pouncey questions the accuracy of the financial reports submitted by education membership organizations, but does not specify which organizations' reports he has questions about: "The 'detailed breakdown of expenditures' submitted to the Board by membership organization and the accompanying certification uniformly asserted that none of the payroll dues deductions of Board employees were used to fund 'political activity' as defined by the Act. The certifications stated that funds used for such activities came from sources other than payroll dues." "However, the drastic imbalance between the funds used to operate the organization and the funds attributable to 'political activity' raises concerns with respect to the accuracy of the reporting." At issue, the letter states, are more than $200,000 in funds given to "affiliated labor organizations with political action committees." The letter references the political nature of the June 5 primary, but the financial reports in question are for the 2017 calendar year. Pouncey said he had questions about how dues that were passed to "labor councils" who then were politically active are allowed under the law. Marrianne Hayward, the President of the Jefferson County chapter of the Alabama Federation of Teachers, said, "AFT has not engaged in any political activity." Hayward said her organization submits financial documents to the Board of Education each year to certify dues were not used for political activity. She said Pouncey "doesn't understand the financial records that we submit." Pouncey said the letter requesting the opinion would be mailed today but could not predict a timeline for response. Jefferson County Board of Education Attorney General Opinion Request - Aug. 2, 2018 by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd In an early morning tweet, evangelical leader and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. suggested U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a "phony" backer of then-candidate Donald Trump. Falwell tweeted at 1:08 a.m. CDT that Sessions, then Alabama's junior U.S. senator, visited the Virginia university as a Trump surrogate the night before the election but couldn't command a large crowd. Sessions was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump, doing so at a Mobile rally and lending credibility to Trump's campaign. Trump also adopted Sessions' views on immigration during the campaign and made the senator a national security adviser; Sessions communications director Stephen Miller later joined the Trump campaign as a senior adviser and speechwriter, and serves as a senior adviser in the White House. Strangely @jeffsessions appeared unannounced at @LibertyU the night before the 2016 election on a bus tour. I told students but could get almost none of them to come hear him. Could it be our students were the first to see he was a phony pretending to be pro- @realDonaldTrump ? Jerry Falwell (@JerryFalwellJr) August 2, 2018 Sessions' camp could not immediately be reached. The attorney general has been under fire from Trump over his recusal from the Russia investigation, with the president suggesting Wednesday on Twitter that Sessions should fire special counsel Robert Mueller. But because he is recused, that order would have to come from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Falwell's tweet came hours before a Morning Consult/Politico poll showed only 18 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of the attorney general. The poll found that Sessions was less popular than House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Students shaken by one of America's worst school shootings less than six months ago carried their reform message to the Alabama State House today, calling on lawmakers to support gun safety laws and to disregard the powerful National Rifle Association. A group of about 30 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., came to Montgomery on their Road to Change tour, presented my March for Our Lives. Most of the group was not admitted past security so they staged their planned "sit-in" in the State House lobby, chanting "vote them out," "everyday shootings are everyday problems," and "USA not NRA." Sit-in at the Alabama State House https://t.co/Q0Rhff9DfU March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) August 1, 2018 Tabitha Isner, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Alabama's 2nd District, came by the State House to hear what the students had to say. "I think the biggest takeaway is how great it is to see young people that are using their anger and their fear in a positive way, that they're trying to make change," Isner said. "Lots of young people, when they feel ostracized from the community or they feel abandoned in their community will resort to bad behavior, criminal behavior. And I think it's a powerful testimony that these young folks have decided to try to change policy rather than giving up on the society around them." The trip to Montgomery followed a town hall the Florida students held Tuesday in Birmingham, joined by students from Birmingham and Huntsville. Wednesday evening, they planned to march on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. One of the group's purposes for the State House visit was to deliver a letter to state Rep. Elaine Beech, D-Chatom. Beech, like most lawmakers, was not at the State House on Wednesday morning because the Legislature is not in session. Alex Wind, 17, who will be a senior at Douglas High School this year, said the students picked Beech because of comments she made in an interview after the Feb. 14 shooting, when a former student killed 17 people. Beech was interviewed two weeks after the shooting on Eagle Eye Auburn and was asked about proposals for new gun restrictions. Beech told the interviewer she was an NRA member and joked that she was a "pistol packin' mama," because she carried a gun in her car. Wind said the students thought Beech's comment was inappropriate in the wake of the school shooting. In an email today, Beech elaborated on her remarks. "I did comment that I carried a pistol because I live in the country and live alone," Beech said. "I have actually completed a gun safety class and mentioned that also. I guess my 'packing' comment was inappropriate at the time, but by no means did I mean to offend anyone. I grew up with guns and family is a huge hunting family. We have to make our schools safe, but we also need to take care of the mental health issues of this state." Wind said in the letter to Beech he asked her to seek tighter regulations of certain weapons. "I told her that she needs to take action," Wind said. "In that interview she also said that she sees an argument where there may be some weapons that could be too dangerous to be in the hands of people that could use them potentially in a bad way. So, I asked her to put that into actual legislation and actual change." Wind noted that Alabama had the second highest rate of gun deaths in the nation but that the state Legislature is silent on tighter gun restrictions. Wind said a key issue in Alabama and other states is more citizen involvement in government. "I find that in especially Alabama I've seen that a lot of candidates run unopposed," Wind said. "And what I think is so important as citizens to learn is that we need to make sure that if something is up with our elected officials, we need to try and fix that. And if it has to come into your hands, let it come into your hands. Everyday citizens are the type of people we need in office." Some of the students complained during the sit-in that they were not allowed past the security checkpoints inside the State House. Derek Hamilton, the chief law enforcement officer in the State House, said the group received the same controlled access as other large groups. Hamilton said the students were allowed to designate four people to deliver the letter to a clerk who works for Beech. "What we did today was consistent with what we've done with other groups," Hamilton said. Hamilton said he escorted the four people designated by the group, two students, a group coordinator and a fourth person to take photos and videos. He said media members followed them and conducted interviews. Hamilton said House security was not told in advance the group was coming. Isner said she hopes the students' message is heard. "My hope is that our legislators, both at the state and federal level will take seriously the concerns of these citizens," Isner said. "They have a good reason to be afraid and to be mad that they keep being told that nothing can be done about gun violence when there are so many potential policy changes that could be made to reduce gun violence in America." By Martin W.G. King, of Delray Beach, Florida. He writes on social issues, including homelessness and capital punishment. As the senior writer at the National Crime Prevention Council, I acquired an intimate knowledge of the principle that you never blame the victim of a crime. It's pretty much accepted in public discourse that a woman is not to blame for her rape because her skirt was too short or she had too much to drink. A homeowner is not to blame for a theft because an alarm hadn't been installed. The perpetrator is held to account for these crimes, not the victim. President Trump has directed the creation of tent cities to house tens of thousands of migrants. Many of those following official procedures to request asylum have been arrested instead. The president has called these people "animals," making them subhuman. Talk about blaming the victim. In his recent praise of the so-called Angel Families, the loved ones of those killed by "illegals," the president cited figures he cherry-picked from a flawed government study on crime rates. He has done so repeatedly. In November 2016, the Washington Post reported that the figures were "misleading and lack context." In addition, a University of Wisconsin study by criminologist Michael Light, who analyzed figures from 1990 to 2014, found "undocumented immigration does not increase violence." Rather, crime decreased when the number of immigrants was factored in. Now, thousands have been arrested, with many children separated from their families. The administration has failed to meet the first of several deadlines set by a federal judge for reuniting the children with their parents. No one is betting that the administration will be able to meet the other deadlines, and the president is said to be weighing an even harsher separations policy going forward. It is not hyperbole to say that history is repeating itself, albeit on a smaller scale than in Europe's World War II deportations to detention camps. Now it is Spanish-speaking children already separated from their parents who are being loaded onto planes or being spirited away in vans in the dead of night to camps and shelters whose locations are often kept secret from civic officials and even lawmakers. In his first TV interview after being elected, on 60 Minutes, President Trump said he would "immediately" deport "2 million--it could even be 3 million"--undocumented residents. "We are getting them out of the country," he said, or "incarcerate them." He said nothing of due process. These migrants are the victims not just of a needlessly cruel government policy, but of the sheer incompetence of many of the contractors, many of them private prison operators, who were hired by the administration to house the children but who failed to properly identify them and, as a result, have lost track of them. Critics also point to the huge profits some of the contractors are reaping as they benefit from the worst human tragedy in modern American history. The migrant parents and children are also the victims of a terrifyingly perverted form of frontier justice with rote trials leading to immediate deportation. In a case that received massive publicity, a judge, with extraordinary embarrassment, tried to establish that the one-year old unaccompanied child before him understood the nature of the charges against him. Blaming the migrants for their plight - demonizing them - serves only to normalize the xenophobia the president is fomenting for his own partisan purposes. Gazas beach offers a brief respite to the nearly 2 million Palestinians living under Israeli siege. Gaza, Palestine We hear a whistle and a smiling, freckled face with greying beard, comes to meet us. Abu Ayman is arguably the best-known lifeguard in Gaza. Its just past 9am and the air is heavy with humidity. The sun reflects off the beach its hot. The water is a turquoise blue, the sand a bright white switch off your mind, and for a moment you may just forget where you are. Abu Ayman takes us to a swimming pool, just behind the beach. Its covered from the sun with a wooden thatched roof. The dappled shade reflects off eleven young boys who stand on the side, waiting for his orders to jump in. One wears oversized, mirrored goggles, almost covering his slight face. Another wears a smaller pair, baby blue. There are pink goggles, too. Abu Ayman whistles, they all jump in one smacks the water in what looks like a searingly painful belly flop. They tread water hands above their heads and keep looking at the camera with massive grins we keep telling them to ignore us. Its such a normal moment children having swimming lessons, playing around. Certainly not worthy of international news. The beach has served as a distraction for people living in Gaza [Stefanie Dekker/Al Jazeera] Fun and not war But here in Gaza, I want to tell this story. To show our audience a piece of a normal life, away from Hamas, or Israels terror rhetoric, away from the diplomatic efforts, the political bargaining, away from the weekly Friday protests. Just show you something normal. Swimming lessons are certainly not for everyone either you have to pay hardly anyone here can afford this luxury. But these days it is impossible to report on life in Gaza, without mentioning the crippling effects of the siege including the sanctions imposed on Gaza by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The economy has ground to a halt many salaries have been cut by 50 percent and people forced into early retirement. A lot of it is due to Palestinian in-fighting. Abu Ayman tells us he cant make ends meet he has eight children. His meagre salary now only comes in half. Its a struggle the majority are enduring there is plenty of food, the supermarkets are full and fresh fruits line the streets but few are buying. After the pool session we follow the boys down to the beach. Abu Ayman takes them into the sea. They crash into the waves. They clearly love it. In the distance we see Israeli navy boats using water cannon. We dont often see them so close but the fishing restrictions on fisherman here have recently been tightened. Only three nautical miles for now. We can only assume with quite a lot of certainty that a Palestinian fishing boat got close to the invisible line Israel deems they may not cross. The boys are having fun. Abu Ayman says he feels like they release their worries and depressions into the water-like mental relief. He says they become children again. Even the worries and problems of adults are endured by the very young here. Children try to enjoy a normal life, away from Israels bombs and snipers [Stefanie Dekker/Al Jazeera] Disrupted lifestyle But stand on this beach, and ignore the Israeli navy in the distance, and ignore the fact that raw sewage flows uninterrupted into the sea (due to a severe lack of electricity and the means to process it), and you do see normal life. Boys on canoes they tip over and howl with laughter. A young man working on his front crawl. Further down the beach, a group of boys throw a ball around in the water. A young girls head emerges from the waves, her face framed by a coffee coloured headscarf. She passes both her hands over her eyes to clear the water, and it almost looks as if she is saying a prayer. We finish filming and Abu Ayman insists we come upstairs for coffee. We sit overlooking the water its stunning. We have the deck all to ourselves. Gaza has 45km of coastline. Abu Ayman talks about how he remembers working in Israel in the 80s its where he started as a lifeguard. He talks about how Israelis and Egyptians would come to Gaza for the weekend to enjoy the seafood. It seems impossible to imagine. I take a picture of Safwat, our producer, as he is on the phone. The ridiculous blue waters frame him its an idyllic shot. Then a roar through the sky. An Israeli F-16 seems to be flying up and down for a while. A young man joins us, and without asking, you can see its Abu Aymans son. The same freckled face, the same colouring. He studied mechanical engineering for two years at university but had to drop out. Abu Ayman cant afford the fees. Is tough, Abu Ayman says to me in English, then looks down. There is palpable pain in his eyes. As we leave, we pass by the pool again. Abu Ayman asks his son to show us his crawl. He has a beautiful crawl. Abu Ayman watches him slice through the water, then turns and asks how it measures up. Excellent, we all agree. He is beamingly proud. We say our goodbyes and leave. Spending a few hours filming on a beach in our line of work is usually a massive pick me up. But nothing is uplifting in Gaza these days. I wanted to show our viewers a slice of life, a sense of normalcy, introduce them to fathers and sons, kids with dreams. And its utterly depressing. Thousands who fled a government crackdown on protests struggle for basic necessities in neighbouring Nigeria. Agbokim Waterfalls, Nigeria Stella Obi wakes every morning in search of odd jobs in Agbokim Waterfalls village in southern Nigerias Cross River state. With a hoe and a machete, the 34-year-old asks locals if they have any work for her on their farms. She weeds or breaks cocoa pods. I get paid between 500 to 1000 naira ($2 to $4) a day, she tells Al Jazeera as she works the soil in a small vegetable field. I never tasted this kind of suffering when I was in my village in Cameroon. Obi, a mother of six, is among over 180, 000 Cameroonians who fled their homes following a violent crackdown by the Cameroonian government on Anglophone separatists who declared independence from the French-speaking majority on October 1. More than 21,000 people have crossed the border to Nigeria, according to NGOs, though local emergency officials say the number could be higher, at up to 50,000. Tensions rose in late 2016 with a strike by barristers and then teachers, both of whom were protesting against the use of French in schools and courts in Cameroons English-speaking northwest and southwest regions. More protests followed in major cities in the regions, with local residents joining rallies. Stella Obi earns a few dollars a day to weed a small vegetable farm to raise money to feed her six children [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] As calls for either integration or autonomy grew louder, the government stepped in with heavy-handed tactics. Security forces were deployed to the regions; protests were met with violence, arrests and killings. Hundreds of homes were razed. The Ambazonia Defence Forces and other rebel groups sprang up and fought back, and armed separatists kidnapped civil servants, torched government buildings, and killed soldiers. We left everything behind and fled to the forest. My husband tried to go back and gather some things and he was killed. Stella Obi, refugee from Cameroon Most Cameronian refugees settled in Cross River state, which has a border with southwest Cameroon. In Agbokim Waterfalls village, Obi and thousands of refugees have little or no access to food, medicine, education, clothing, drinking water and sanitation facilities. {articleGUID} We left everything behind and fled to the forest, Obi says, beads of sweat gleaming on her forehead. My husband [a cocoa buyer] tried to go back and gather some things and he was killed. The asylum seekers are mostly staying with host families. Some households raised money for rent after doing odd jobs. The UNHCR has been supporting the refugees, but it is now struggling with a lack of funds. I am becoming frustrated here, says Obi, who is now joined by two of her children at the farm. We have only received [support] two times, and sometimes it does not get to all of us, [especially] the sick, old and blind. Turning twigs into teeth-cleaning sticks Across the road, another asylum seeker, 43-year-old Janet Obi, clears shrubs growing beneath large maize stalks, working with so much force that she stops regularly to catch her breath. She is angered by the governments use of force on protests. My [nephew] was playing outside our home when he was shot by a soldier, she recalls. He was innocent, he did nothing wrong. Our people are being shot like animals; we are armless civilians. I came to this village with my two children and 21 relatives last year. I used to be a businesswoman dealing in cocoa and fashion wears. Now I am doing anything to survive. Janet emphasises the word anything. Janet Obi, a businesswoman before the conflict started, now works on farms to feed her family [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] Some women and children work on building sites, carrying bricks and other materials to make enough money for food. Others use their income to buy tree branches to make chew sticks which are used in some parts of Africa to clean teeth to sell. Across Agbokim Waterfalls, it is common to see refugees chopping tree branches into twigs. Most Cameroonian refugees in Agbokim make chew sticks to survive [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] At an unfinished apartment building in the village centre, Mary Obong and a group of nine children are loading piles of twigs into a 100kg sack. I have to make chew sticks to feed my seven children and two of my grandchildren who are staying with me, Obong says, imploring the children to hurry. Families hosting refugees give Obong the branches and pay her anything from 1,500 to 3,000 naira ($5 to $10) to fill up a bag. The process could last a week or a little less. Mary Obong is one of thousands of refugees from Cameroon who have fled violence [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] After Francophone Cameroon secured independence in 1960, the UN facilitated a referendum that allowed regions under British mandate to either join Nigeria or the larger French-speaking Cameroon. Southern Cameroon the present-day northwest and southwest regions joined the Republic of Cameroon, but a national referendum in 1972 changed Cameroon into a unitary state. Current President Paul Biya, who came into office in 1982, changed the countrys name in 1984 to the Republic of Cameroon, the initial Francophone territory name. A second yellow star on the green stripe of the flag was removed, with the government touting the move as a symbol of unity. However, a group of five elderly Cameroonian refugees who spoke to Al Jazeera say the second star represented the Anglophone regions, and its removal showed that Cameroon was not one or united. The Cheta Southwest Region, a fact which may partly explain the central governments urgency in moving to quell secessionist elements.] Cameroon has a population of nearly 24 million people. An estimated 20 percent live in the Anglophone regions. Eight out of the countrys 10 administrative provinces are Francophone. Many in the Anglophone community feel marginalised by the French-speaking government in Yaounde, citing a lack of political representation, job opportunities and resources and the imposition of French in schools, official documents and courts. More than half of Cameroons gross domestic product (GDP) comes from the Anglophone regions, according to estimates. The bulk of Cameroons industrial output, including its only refinery, is in the [Anglophone] Southwest Region, a fact which may partly explain the central governments urgency in moving to quell secessionist elements, says Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy firm, SBM Intelligence. What it unintentionally accomplished, however, was to inflame the feeling of discontent and disillusionment among large sections of English-speaking Cameroonians, which has seen the ranks of the separatist fighters increase. Ntui Patrick Obi, a former Cameroonian policeman, says many refugees would not go back to live under Paul Biyas rule again [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] Discontent is common among the refugees. Many resources [such as] crude oil, cocoa, palm oil, timber, rubber, and banana come from our side, but after taking them away they forget us and face the Francophone areas, former Cameroonian policeman Ntui Patrick Obi, 78, tells Al Jazeera. Our children will finish school with all their knowledge and the books they know but there is no work, says Helen Agbor, an 80-year-old refugee. Why would Paul Biya want us to remain in Cameroon? He couldnt even give our children a broom to sweep the road to get money to eat. Some of them are becoming thieves because of no work. We will resist him until the end. Cameroonian refugees in Agbokim Waterfall village wait in the sweltering heat outside a centre to receive assistance [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera] If President Biya, 85, extends his 35-year rule in upcoming elections, the crisis is expected to deepen, according to analysts. Cameroon sits at the crossroads of West and Central Africa, a strategically important position from a geopolitical standpoint, says Nwanze, the researcher at SBM Intelligence. On all of its international boundaries Boko Haram in Nigeria, ethnic militias in Chad and sectarian fighters in the Central African Republic instability abounds. A further escalation of the violence into more open and defined conflict will have repercussions that extend beyond its borders. Back in Agbokim Waterfalls village, hundreds of refugees pour into an aid centre. More than 1,000 people wait outside, plastic bowls and cups in their hands. They gather like this whenever food and other items come in from the Anglophone diaspora, or local people and churches. Inside the centre, there are grains, vegetable oil, salt and tins of tomatoes. Quarrels simmer over how to ration out the supply. It is in moments such as this that Stella Obi, the widowed mother of six who works the vegetable fields, remembers home. Soldiers burned our homes, clothes, property, bags of cocoa just everything, so what is the point of returning? she asks. My children ask me where is our father? every day. The pundits and analysts come forth on TV, in print, on the internet: Will there be a blue wave in November, or will the Democrats blow it? If there were a poll of pundits, it would show a vast majority believe the best way forward is middle muddled moderation. The goal, according to them, is to move the purple people. The politically androgynous folks in red districts who have a bluish side. Trump voters who might be disillusioned or disgusted enough to switch. They warn that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are radical! Too radical! Theyll scare the purples back to red, they say. Suburban ladies that the Dems are counting on to vote against the p***y-grabber will panic, stay home, just making sure the leaves are raked from their autumn lawns. This sounds like Hillary redux. Its a triple-loser. It fails to recognise that things had gone wrong before Trump and aside from Trump. If youre not looking at the real problems, you cant get to real solutions. Instead, you take polls, come up with an assortment of issues, have the pros write slogans for them, and the candidates go out and sound like focus group phonies. Which they will be. When Bill Clinton ran for president, the Republicans seemed unbeatable. Ronald Reagans legacy was beloved. As the pro-business party in favour of low taxes and smaller government, donors loved them. They had a financial edge that looked to be permanent. Bill triangulated. As governor of Arkansas, he executed a few people to show he was tough on crime. He went big for welfare reform. He promised to make government smaller. He was incredibly successful, both in reality and in popularity. Moreover, he found lots of money. Hollywood, hi-tech, and even portions of Wall Street, didnt like Republican social conservatism. They were more than willing to give money to a candidate who was socially liberal, yet friendly to their financial interests. That became the mould for Democrats. Democrats calculated, voters, polls numbers, and money. But they stopped thinking. Theyve had no new ideas or grand ambitions since Lyndon Johnson. Even Obamacare was developed at a right-wing think-tank and first road tested by a Republican governor, Mitt Romney. The social issues, gay marriage, gay rights extended to the entire LGBT community, legal weed, Me Too, Black Lives Matter, bubbled up from activists. The party was a follower, not a leader. Selecting and electing a black man as president was astounding. It couldnt have happened in any other white-majority country. However, his actual policies descended from Bill Clinton, bending to the right, and were passed on to Hillary, turning even further. Bill Clinton should be counted a very successful president in almost every way. But two years after he was elected, Democrats lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. They also lost the Senate. His Vice President, Al Gore, who ran as a somewhat more conservative triangulator, but without a sex scandal, lost to George W Bush. Republicans, meanwhile, had invested heavily in ideology and messaging. They had think-tanks, talk radio, and their own cable news network. They were ruthless to their own, purging those who werent true believers. Every cycle, they became more ideological and moved further right. The Democrats no longer had an ideology. They continued to triangulate. They gave up territory step by step. With each compromise, the Republicans just went further to the right at least on economic issues. The centre doesnt have its own location. As they moved right, they pulled it along. Today, Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon would be condemned by their own party as members of the dangerously radical Left, alongside Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. It should be blindingly obvious and irrefutable, as well. There is no compromise with Republicans. Obama didnt know it, but as he was being inaugurated, their leadership got together and determined to oppose anything he offered. They were committed to his failure, even if it hurt the country. His healthcare plan was a Republican plan and he offered compromise after compromise to get even one vote out of them. It never came. Just as with Clinton, Obama lost the House after two years, with the largest swing since 1948. Republicans also got 29 of the 50 governorships, and picked up 675 state legislators seats. When Bernie Sanders was running in the primaries against Hillary Clinton, his positions were radical. But now, Medicare for all, free higher education, a $15 minimum wage are common parlance. Socialism has become an acceptable word. Among the things Democrats should have learned from Republicans is that ideas get legitimised by simple repetition. Even bad ideas that have failed in reality. Even ideas based on lies. But these happen to be good ideas. Democrats should stick by them adamantly. When you see or hear someone warning the Democrats that theyll shoot themselves in the foot if theyre too radical, look at who they are. Doug Schoen was the pollster on Clintons presidential race. Now hes a commentator on Fox. Schoen hated Obama and the ACA, but he still likes Hillary. Joe Cunningham says the American people want moderating voices in government. The same American people who elected Donald Trump, the members of the Freedom Caucus, and the lock-step, hard-right Republicans in the Senate? Cunningham is an editor for RedState.com, and thinks that Obama invited backlash by pushing the country as far left as he did, though he didnt actually embrace socialism. Geoffrey Kabaservice says the Resistance is forcing the Dems away from long held norms of bipartisan give-and-take. Where has he been since 2009? Its the long gone norms of give-and-take. Geoff is a Republican in the moderate mainstream of my party. Where? one asks. In exile, off the coast of Labrador? Investors Daily has a headline, Its Official: Democrats Are The Extremists Today. The National Review shrieks, The Democratic party is moving left with breathtaking velocity. Not only is it far to the left of Bill Clinton, its well to the left of even Barack Obama. In terms of policy, Obama was about as radical as George H W Bush, and more conservative than Eisenhower or Nixon. The fear, the hysteria, is that the Democrats might actually come to stand for things. Then fight for them. Even horrors! fight as hard as Republicans! Some of the fear of radicalism, comes from within the Democratic Party. Their establishment, like all establishments, wants to keep doing it the way they were doing it. They want candidates who sound mainstream enough to appeal to stray Republican voters, who raise money and dont insult or frighten money. But those are the attitudes that opened the door to Trump, lost the House, the Senate, and a host of state governments. Its time to bet on the radicalism. Though most of what radicals are asking for is normal in most Western European countries. It may seem a greater risk in the short term, but in the long term, its the far better choice. Its not just about getting elected. Its what you do when you get there. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. Despite years of talk of police reform, little has changed, even as Mexicos violence rises to unprecedented levels. Mexico City Ismael Ramos Mendez had always wanted to be a police officer. Now 45 years old, he has found himself patrolling a Mexico City metro station, on foot, with his only way home, a police car that wont start because the battery is dead. It is not much to show for 20 years of experience, two decorations for exhibiting bravery under fire, and a masters in police administration. But Mendez said he knows very well why he is here rather than as a police chief or first inspector. He said its because doesnt pay the quota money officers on the street have to hand to their superiors in some of Mexicos myriad police forces. When you refuse to pay the quotas, you end up like this, he told Al Jazeera. You end up here. Walking, without a car, completely alone. Isolated. Many Mexicans dont trust the police, seeing them as, at best inefficient and at worst, corrupt and in the same as league as organised crime. But many low-level police officers, like Mendez, are not only being forced to pay the quota to their superiors, but are also struggling with substandard equipment. Some do not have working patrol vehicles and many lack training. Despite years of talk of police reform, little has changed, even as the countrys violence rises to unprecedented levels. The quota Half of the 10 retired or active officers who agreed to speak to Al Jazeera, admitted that in their force some sort of quota system existed. Paying it can mean getting a safe or lucrative beat or up-to-date basic equipment. Others told Al Jazeera that in their forces, it also extended to getting a promotion. For a promotion it goes from 20,000 pesos to 100,000 pesos (roughly $1,000 to $5,000) depending on the level of the position that you want, said Ramos Mendez, who is also a spokesman for the National Movement for Security and Justice, a civil society group that claims to consist of around 2,500 active and retired police officers. Many police officers struggle with substandard equipment [John Holman/Al Jazeera] The Mexico City public security department told Al Jazeera it knew of no cases of officers paying superiors for promotions, and that if they did exist, then they would be extremely rare and punished severely within the department. Last year, NGO Causa En Comun, which works with police forces across the country, surveyed nearly 5,000 state and federal police officers about their working conditions. Weve been told by some officers that theyve been asked by their chiefs to give them $1,000 so they can have a higher rank or to not be assigned to a very dangerous neighbourhood, Marcela Figueroa, one the Causa En Comun investigators, told Al Jazeera. Public pays According to National Movement for Security and Justice and Causa En Comun, its not just the officers who must pay, but also the public, who end up paying bribes called mordidas (bites) to police so that they can hand over the money their superiors demand. {articleGUID} The most notorious and regular cases involve police stopping motorists for alleged traffic infractions and getting mordidas off those who would rather not pay the fine. According to Causa en Comun, officers regularly take their own cut of the money exhorted from civilians. This may be in part due to the often meager salaries they receive, even by Mexican standards. About 45 percent of the police officers Causa En Comun surveyed said that they received a salary of less than $600 a month. About 89 percent said theyd never received a bonus or formal recognition for their work. However, those are state and federal forces. Many municipal police receive far lower salaries, according to Causa en Comun. This makes low-level police officers especially vulnerable to the overtures of the many criminal organisations operating in Mexico, especially at the municipal level. If you get paid 200 bucks a month, and organised crime comes and gives you $1,000 a month, of course, youre going to take it, Figueroa said. This has happened in multiple documented cases. Most notoriously in September 2014, when 43 students were taken by municipal police working with a drug gang. The students were never seen again, an act that horrified the country. In Allende, a small town in the Northern state of Coahuila, a report by human rights activists and academics showed the Zetas cartel had paid off the entire police force with about $5,000 dollars a month in the lead up to committing a drawn-out massacre in 2011 in which nearly 200 people were killed. In other places, entire police forces have had to be detained or disbanded because of widespread corruption. This has led to widespread distrust in the police. About 68 percent of the members of the public surveyed by the National Institute for Statistics and Geography in 2017 said they saw the municipal police as corrupt. About 48 percent said they were untrustworthy. Not enough guns, broken down cars Officers who spoke to Al Jazeera say that they are ill-equipped to improve that perception, because they lack the basic equipment and training to do their job. {articleGUID} Theres not enough arms to go round, supposedly, said one officer in the municipality of Cuautitlan Izcalli in the State of Mexico, one of the most violence entities in the country. Just look at how we patrol, he told Al Jazeera, standing by the side of his patrol car. He added he had been told there werent enough radios either. We just work with the ones they leave us, he said, adding that if he became aware of any crime, his only method to call it in was with his mobile phone. The officer didnt want to give his name, indicating he was being watched. Another officer who also didnt want to be identified in Tijuana, the border city with more than 900 murders so far this year, said many officers had to buy bullets smuggled in from across the border. There are colleagues who have families that are residents in the US and they buy boxes of shells, bring them back in secret and let us know via the Whatsapp group that theyve got them, he told Al Jazeera . Logically, if its cost them 20 dollars they sell them to us at 40 dollars. Its their profit for bringing the shells here, he added. Authorities in Tijuana did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment. Its not just weapons and munitions that are lacking. Francisco Esquivel Romero, who also served in Cuautitlan Izcalli, had to push start his police pick-up truck every day at the age of 58, because the battery was run down. My superiors always told me the same thing put up with it or buy it [a new battery] yourself, he told Al Jazeera. Just like everything else, he said. If a tyre went flat, you had to pay for the patch; change of oil we did it ourselves; when there wasnt enough gas, we needed to buy it ourselves. Eventually, he suffered a spinal injury from his exertions in starting the truck and was discharged on medical grounds. If a tyre went flat, you had to pay for the patch; change of oil - we did it ourselves; when there wasn't enough gas, we needed to buy it ourselves. Francisco Esquivel Romero, former police officer in Cuautitlan Izcalli Authorities in Cuautitlan Izcalli told Al Jazeera in an email that the police have the necessary equipment to cover the requirements of the 688 officers. The two-page statement also added that there are enough radio transmitters and bullets for each officer and that the police officers dont pay for car repairs. The complaints from officers in Cuautitlan Izcalli and Tijuana are consistent with what the NGO surveying police Causa en Comun found to be a nationwide problem in equipping and training police. A quarter of the almost 5,000 state and federal officers Causa en Comun questioned said they had to pay for car repairs from their own pocket, 41 percent said they had to buy boots from their own salary and 38 percent had to pay for their own uniforms. The organisation told Al Jazeera that they believe the municipal police, who werent included in the survey, are working in worse conditions. Additionally, Causa en Comun also found that police in 13 out of Mexicos 32 entities dont have the full set of benefits that should go with a government job. Police are blocked by law from forming unions in Mexico, so they have little power to push from below for those benefits or better equipment, pay and training. Hollow talk of police reform Successive presidents have talked about improving police working conditions and standards, but those promises have rarely turned into actions. The current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, and his predecessor, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, both pushed a plan to establish one police force in each state phasing out more than a 1,000 municipal police forces seen as the least professional and most corrupt in the country. The plan was called Mando Unico or one command, but it has been repeatedly blocked by Congress. Marcela Figueroa of Causa en Comun said that behind the continued rhetoric from the countrys leaders on police reform, theres a fundamental lack of political will and that the past two administrations have instead relied on the armed forces to quell outbreaks of violence. A police force takes a lot of money, a lot of time and effort, she said. Of course, its easier if youre just taking office to call the [federal] government and theyre going to send you 2,000 military officers and youre not going to develop your own police. And while authorities have continued to depend on the army and navy, the murder rate has rocketed upward. Its currently the highest in two decades, surpassing even what was previously the bloodiest year of the drug war in 2011. Leaders have talked about improving police working conditions, but those promises have rarely turned into actions [John Holman/Al Jazeera] President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he is going to change the strategy. He plans to take the military off the streets and develop a training plan so that the police can take their place. He has said that officers will also be better paid. But the strategy has yet to be defined in detail and Lopez Obrador is still more than four months away from taking office. Meanwhile, Ismael Ramos Mendez says that he will continue to fight for a well-equipped non-corrupt police force, if not for his generation, but for his three children, all of whom want to be police officers. Thats what drives me on, he said. I want them to be part of a clean, professional institution, not like the one now. The attacks, which hit near the citys main public hospital, killed at least 55 and wounded 124, Houthi rebels say. A previous version of this story stated that more than 100,000 children have died from extreme hunger and starvation. That was incorrect. In a June 2018 report, UNICEF said it fears that more than 100,000 children may lose their lives if the current situation continues to escalate. At least 55 people, including women and children, have been killed in Yemens Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in air raids carried out by a Saudi and UAE alliance battling Houthi rebels, the rebel-run health ministry said. In a statement issued late on Thursday, the ministry said the attacks, which targeted the citys Public al-Thawra Hospital and a busy fishing port, wounded at least 124 Yemenis. The Reuters news agency put the death toll at 28 late on Thursday, while Chinas Xinhua said it stood at 70 early on Friday. Taha al-Mutawakil, the Minister for Public Health and Population in the Houthi-led administration, said local authorities were struggling to cope with the number of casualties, and ambulances feared transporting the wounded to Sanaa or other provinces due to fears of being targeted by air attacks. The International Red Cross, which supports the al-Thawra hospital, said it sent surgical supplies that will be enough to treat up to 50 patients who are in critical condition. What we have seen in Hodeidah is a heinous crime, Mutawakil was quoted by the Houthi-run SABA news agency saying. He added that US shared responsibility for the deaths. With logistical support from the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been carrying out attacks inside Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. At least 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting. For the last few weeks, the UN had been trying to broker a deal in a bid to avert an assault on the city, which it fears would further hinder Yemenis access to food, fuel and medicine worsening the worlds most urgent humanitarian crisis. Hodeidah has been under the control of the Houthis since 2014, and was responsible for delivering 70 percent of Yemens imports mostly humanitarian aid, food and fuel pre-2015. Body parts scattered Mohamed al-Hasni, the head of Hodeidahs fishermen union, told Al Jazeera that there were no military targets in the area and the targeting of fishermen was not expected. The port and market were full of people. It was a massacre, he said. There was no military presence in the area. No armed men were around at all. The targeting was aimed at spreading fear and terror. Fatik al-Rodaini, a charity worker at Mona Relief, an aid group that operates in hard-to-reach areas of the country, said two civilians, one of whom was seeking medical treatment after being injured in the fish market raid, was among the fatalities. Ibrahim Zaher,tried 2 rescue his friend Husam Aukasha by taken him 2 the al-Thawra hospital after being hit by the 1st Saudi airstrike on the fish market, but he didn't make it, as they were about 2 enter the hospital but the 2nd airstrike hit the gate killing them both. #Yemen pic.twitter.com/5Us2hA88Ic Fatik Al-Rodaini (@Fatikr) August 2, 2018 Al Jazeeras Mohammed Adow, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said rescue workers told journalists how they saw body parts all over the fish market that was the target of the air attacks. The fish market is just 20 metres away from the al-Thawra hospital, which is one of the handful of medical facilities that are still operational in Hodeidah. Adow added that authorities in Hodeidah said these air attacks were largely unexpected because both the Houthi fighters and the Saudi-UAE alliance had announced that they were going to cease hostilities in and around the port of Hodeidah to give UN peace efforts a chance. Colonel Turki al-Malki, the alliances spokesman, told the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite news channel that it did not carry out the attacks and its military campaign follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules international law. However, in June alone, the Saudis and UAE carried out at least 258 air raids on Yemen, nearly a third of which targeted non-military sites. The Yemen Data Project listed 24 air raids on residential areas, three on water and electricity sites, three targeting hitting healthcare facilities, and one targeting an IDP camp. The spokesman for the Saudi-UAE alliance did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment. Peace talks proposed Meanwhile, Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen, announced on Thursday he was inviting the warring sides for talks in the Swiss city of Geneva, in the latest bid to end the devastating civil war. Griffiths, who is the third to take on the task of bringing an end to hostilities in the Arab worlds poorest nation, cautioned that the situation for millions of Yemeni civilians could worsen if a solution was not reached within a reasonable timeframe. [It has been] two years since the last round in Kuwait so my principal message and request to this council today is that we urge the parties to resolve this conflict through negotiation rather than through military means, he said. Al Jazeeras Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said that Griffiths was not trying to address a specific hotspot in the Yemeni conflict but was rather looking for a comprehensive peace settlement and restore a semblance of normality for the millions of Yemenis who have been living under a very brutal civil war for the past several years. Does this mean its going to be a one time and they are going to find an actual political solution? Probably not but there is a real sense that this is the moment to try to get both sides back into some sort of conversation about ending their political gripes. A day after returning to his country following 11 years away, opposition leader lodges papers with electoral commission. Jean-Pierre Bemba, an opposition leader and former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has officially launched his bid for the countrys presidency, putting forward his candidacy for the long-delayed election in December. The move by Bemba on Thursday came a day after he arrived home following 11 years in exile and prison. He lodged his documents at the electoral commission offices in the capital, Kinshasa, throwing down the gauntlet to his rival President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled for 17 years. I can confirm that I indeed had a voting card and I filed all the papers, Bemba said outside the electoral commission headquarters. Now it is up to the CENI [the national election board] to handle all the applications. For me, I have submitted the entire file, it is in order, added the 55-year-old, also a former DRC vice president. {articleGUID} Bemba was accompanied by his wife and members of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a former rebel group-turned-political party that he founded. Bemba is the first strong contender to submit his papers to the electoral commission before registration closes next week, said Al Jazeeras Catherine Soi, reporting from the bodys offices in Kinshasa. Now his political fate is in the hands of the commissioners who will either approve or deny his candidacy. He now has to wait a few weeks to know for sure if hell be able on the ballot paper in December. ICC acquital The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague acquitted Bemba of war-crimes charges in June. Upon returning to the DRC on Wednesday, Bemba was greeted by thousands of enthusiastic supporters, many of whom chanted anti-Kabila slogans. A heavy contingence of police escorted the convoy of Bemba, who was not allowed to make any stops to address the large crowds who lined the streets of Kinshasa. Im happy because Bemba has been vindicated by the same court that convicted him. Now he is here and we are just glad to see him, one of his supporters told Al Jazeera. We are suffering in this country. Children are not going to school, things are not moving. His return gives up hope, said another. According to observers, Bembas return has introduced even more uncertainty into an already volatile election process. Kabila was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution. But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause enabling him to remain in power until a successor is elected. His time in charge has been widely criticised for rights abuses, corruption and incompetence. Political crisis Bemba lost presidential elections to Kabila in 2006 and was later accused of treason when his bodyguards clashed with the army in Kinshasa. In 2007, he fled to Belgium, where he had spent part of his youth. {articleGUID} He was then arrested in Europe on a warrant by the ICC for war crimes committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic between 2002-03, when its then president, Ange-Felix Patasse, sought his help to repel a coup attempt. He was sentenced in The Hague in 2016 to 18 years before the conviction was overturned in June on appeal. The ICC declared Bemba could not be held responsible for crimes committed by his troops. The court is due to issue a ruling in a separate case, in which Bemba was sentenced to jail and fined 300,000 euro ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his main trial. But legal experts expect him to be released definitively if time spent behind bars is taken into account. Still, Bemba faces some hurdles in his bid for presidency, said Al Jazeeras Soi. The law says a candidate has to be in the country for at least a year before contesting an election. The fact that Bemba has been away for more than 10 years and still has a pending witness-tampering case at the ICC could harm his chances, she said. The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960 and some experts fear the current crisis may spiral into bloodshed. Two wars unfolded from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003 that sucked in other countries in central and Southern Africa. Smaller, but still bloody, conflicts plague the centre and east of the vast country today. Basket fund to serve state, local govts foreign aid The government has proposed foreign aid through a basket fund in which donors put their resources and the federal administration allocates it to provincial governments and local units as conditional grant. Mali: Candidates claim election rigging Opposition candidates in Mali say the vote was rigged and that they will not accept results from stations they suspect of being meddled with. Private property owners in Nicaragua accuse the government of organising land invasions to punish adversaries. By The UN expresses concern over deadly post-election violence, calling on both sides to exercise restraint. Harare, Zimbabwe Tense calm returned to the streets of Zimbabwes capital, Harare, on Thursday, a day after three people were killed in post-election violence between security forces and protesters. Opposition supporters, who alleged the election results were rigged, took to the streets, burning tyres and throwing stones before riot police and the army intervened. The first elections since long-time President Robert Mugabe was removed from office last year have turned out to be controversial, with the main opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa questioning the impartiality of the results. Outside the main opposition alliance Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) headquarters in the capital, at least six riot police trucks stood by with nearby shops remaining closed and barely any traffic on the usually busy Nelson Mandela Avenue. The latest violence has not helped the south African nation battling high unemployment exacerbated by years of debilitating economic crisis. We are losing a lot of money. If we dont sell anything our salary will be reduced because we work on commission, Ramos Mbizi, a sales assistant at a shoe shop, told Al Jazeera. This is hurting everyone. We were supposed to open 8:30am but it is now 10:00am and we have not opened. No business, the 26-year-old added. Few vehicles were seen plying the streets of Harare following the violence [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] Very few public transport vehicles were seen on the streets of the capital Harare, home to more than one million people. It was impossible to get into town because of transport issue, Maxwell Dube, a retail worker, told Al Jazeera. We cant say we feel safe because we might come across the same situation as yesterday. It is not worth it. They said free and fair election but now we counting the dead, Dube, 44, said. Counter accusations Witnesses told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that soldiers used live rounds to disperse them. Security forces also used tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators. Both the government and the opposition accused each other of instigating the violence. Meanwhile, on Thursday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he was in talks with the opposition to find ways to diffuse the situation. We have been in communication with Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately diffuse the situation, and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear, Mnangagwa tweeted. Experts say both the ruling party and the opposition are responsible for the violence that erupted on the streets of Harare on Wednesday. Its a show of leadership, but its been a failure on both sides. Its not appropriate to use the army on civilian protesters, Blessing-Miles Tendi, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera. Theres also a failure of leadership on the oppositions part, if theyve got the smoking gun then they must hold the gun and quickly put forward concrete evidence to support their claims that the election has been rigged, Tendi said. Zimbabweans are awaiting the results of Mondays presidential elections [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] UN intervention On Thursday, the United Nations called on both sides to exercise restraint following the landmark polls that saw the ruling ZANU-PF party winning a majority of seats in parliament. We are concerned about reports that there have been incidents of violence in some parts of Zimbabwe, Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesperson, told reporters in New York late on Wednesday. We call on the political leaders and the population as a whole to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting resolution of the disputes and announcement of the election results, Haq said. Mugabe is not on the ballot for the first time since he took power after Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. More than five million Zimbabweans registered to take part in the poll. Twenty-three candidates all first-time contenders contested for the presidency. It is the first time since the end of white-minority rule that such a large number has competed for the countrys top seat. The results of the presidential vote have not been released. The electoral commission has until Saturday to release the figures. But the electoral body released the parliamentary results showing the ruling ZANU-PF has won 145 seats in the 210-seat parliament. MDC won 60 while NPF party took one seat. An independent candidate also won a seat. Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa Ankara says Washingtons aggressive attitude serves no purpose, after the US places sanctions two Turkish ministers. Turkey has condemned a decision by the US to impose sanctions on two of its senior ministers in response to the detention of an American pastor who is being tried by Ankara on espionage and terror-related charges. The Turkish foreign ministry called on the US to reverse its wrong decision on Thursday after Washington announced sanctions on Abdulhamit Gul, the minister of justice, and Suleyman Soylu, the minister of interior. The White House blocked assets and properties belonging to Gul and Soylu after accusing them of playing leading roles in the arrest and detention of Andrew Brunson. Ankara claims Brunson has ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who it says was behind a 2016 failed coup attempt, and the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkeys foreign ministry said in a written statement on Thursday: The decision, which disrespectfully intervenes in our judicial system, will seriously damage the constructive efforts made in order to resolve problems between the two countries. It added that the US aggressive attitude serves no purpose, and vowed that it would respond in equal measure. Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, wrote on Twitter: US attempts to impose sanctions on our two ministers will not go unanswered. Gul was later quoted by the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah as saying he didnt own any property or money outside Turkey, therefore attempts by the US Treasury to block assets under US jurisdiction would have no effect on him. Soylu also shrugged off Washingtons move, saying the only business he had with the US was the extradition of Gulen. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 1999, has denied any role in the 2016 coup attempt. Government cannot intervene Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most bitter diplomatic spats between the NATO allies in years that risks escalating further. The Christian right, an important component of US President Donald Trumps voting base, has been pressuring the administration on the Brunson case. However, the Turkish government has repeatedly said that the case is being handled by the courts and it cannot intervene. Speaking on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government wouldnt back down to the US threatening language. It is not possible for us to accept that America gets up, especially with an evangelist, Zionist mentality, and uses this kind of threat-filled language, Erdogan said. Over 1,000 items displayed at exhibition calling attention to Israels suffocating Gaza siege, home to two million. School supplies, medical equipment, power generators, and even childrens bicycles these are just some of the items displayed at a new exhibition in the Gaza Strip showcasing more than 1,000 basic commodities banned from entering the coastal enclave due to Israels crippling blockade. Business owners, commerce officials and several non-governmental groups attended the event on Thursday, which coincided with an Israeli decision to block the supply of fuel and gas to the coastal enclave. We wanted to highlight the suffering of the people in Gaza, said Jamal al-Khoudary, a Palestinian MP and the head of the Popular Committee to End Gazas Siege, the group organising the showcase. We wanted to show the world what humanitarian necessities Israel has banned from entering the strip, Khoudary told Al Jazeera. Baby bottles and diapers are also among the items that have been prohibited from entering Gaza [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera] Home to about two million Palestinians, the densely populated Gaza Strip has been dubbed the worlds largest open-air prison. Its 12-year blockade by Israel, as well as neighbouring Egypt, has left its economy in tatters, with 300,000 being unemployed. The coastal enclave also suffers from a severe lack of electricity, leaving residents to rely on fuel-powered generators during long outages sometimes, homes have access to power for only two hours a day. Hammers are among items banned from entering Gaza [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera] At the exhibition in Gaza City, items such as wedding dress, cleaning sponges, baby bottles and diapers are also on display all prohibited from entering Gaza since Israel cut off the supply of essential commodities last month by partially sealing off the Karem Abu Salem, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, commercial border crossing with the Gaza Strip. The closure of the vital crossing on July 9 only allowed for the transfer of humanitarian needs such as cooking gas as well as wheat and flour into Gaza, an official responsible for coordinating the movement of cargo through the border told Al Jazeera last month. But after the most recent decision to also halt the flow of fuel and cooking gas, residents of the Gaza are expecting to face even harsher circumstances. The closure of the Karam Abu Salem crossing has been utterly devastating, Waleed al-Hosary, head of Gazas Chamber of Commerce, told Al Jazeera. Now they [Israel] banned fuel, gas and petrol too. What else is left? Hassan Ali Odeh: The situation here can only be defined by one word: suffocation [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera] Israels Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the shutting down of the crossing and the recent ban on fuel and gas shipments was in retaliation over Palestinians setting fire to Israeli land. In recent months, Palestinians in Gaza have renewed protests against the naval, aerial and land blockade, as well as for their right to return to the homes from which they were expelled in 1948. At least 153 people have been killed by Israeli gunfire during the popular demonstrations dubbed the Great March of Return taking place along the fence with Israel. Some of the protesters have used flaming objects attached to kites to set fire to agricultural land just over the fence. The incendiary kites and balloons have reportedly caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. According to Khoudary, some 3,000 trucks carrying supplies have been stopped at the border in the past two weeks. This is all part of the suffocating Gaza plan, he said. First, it was a siege; now, Israel is taking it to the next level. Childrens bicycles are banned from entering the Strip [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera] The closure is also affecting Gazas exports, further straining an already devastated economy brought to its knees by the 12-year blockade. Some 40 to 50 trucks transporting local goods used to leave Gaza on a daily basis, the official at the border had said. Local companies have also been hit hard by the siege. Hassan Ali Odeh, owner of a travel agency, said his business activity has been futile for more than a decade. His Ahli Travel and Tours company used to send people to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj, a central tenet of Islam. But now, many of his agencys offices are empty and dilapidated. Im older than the state of Israel and lived through multiple occupations from the British to the Egyptian and I can honestly say that nothing compares to Israels occupation and its suffocating siege, the 80-year-old told Al Jazeera with a broken voice. The siege is asking us to stop breathing and die, Odeh added, describing the current situation for people living in the Strip. Its just like when you deprive a baby of milk the baby will die, and this is exactly whats happening to the young generation, he said. Makeup, nail polish, cotton swabs are prohibited from entering Gaza [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera] Since the popular rallies in Gaza began on March 30, tensions between Israel and Hamas, the group that governs the strip, have escalated. On July 15, in the largest daylight attack since the 2014 assault on Gaza, Israeli air raids bombed a crowded area, killing two Palestinian teenagers. A delegation from Hamas is currently meeting with Egyptian and UN officials in Cairo in hopes that talks would usher in a ceasefire for the second time in approximately one month. Meanwhile, organisers of the exhibition in Gaza are demanding international attention to deal with the worsening conditions in the coastal enclave. Every humanitarian crisis around the world warrants an international response, Khoudary said. We need an urgent and immediate reaction. As diplomats negotiate the makeup of the next government, the people of Beirut are just trying to get through the day. Syrian delegations have failed to agree on new constitution provisions, and no new date is set for the next talks. Domestic terminal to open an hour earlier from Sept 1 The domestic terminal at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) will open an hour earlier from September 1 to facilitate smooth movement of domestic flights during the peak tourist season, airport officials said. However, recent decisions suggest that Canadian courts are reluctant to assume jurisdiction over claims against foreign issuers and that the phrase real and substantial connection will be interpreted to prevent jurisdictional overreach, bringing the law in Canada closer to Morrison. In Yip v. HSBC Holdings plc, 2018 ONCA 626, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed a putative class action against HSBC Holdings, the parent holding company of HSBC, which was headquartered in London, UK. HSBC Holdings securities had never been traded or listed on any Canadian stock exchange. The plaintiff bought his shares using a Hong Kong bank account on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which he accessed using his home computer in Ontario. The court held that there was no real and substantial connection between Ontario and HSBC Holdings. Yip illustrates the three jurisdictional hurdles that Canadian plaintiffs must overcome to succeed in a secondary-market securities claim against an issuer whose securities trade exclusively on exchanges outside Canada: Jurisdiction in Canada must be based on one or more judicially recognized presumptive connecting factors. The Supreme Court of Canada has identified four presumptive connecting factorsin American parlance, minimum contactsfor tort claims: (a) the defendant is domiciled or resident in the province; (b) the defendant carries on business in the province; (c) the tort was committed in the province; and (d) a contract connected with the dispute was made in the province. Club Resorts Ltd. v. Van Breda, [2012] 1 S.C.R. 572 at 90.At least one factor is required for the court to assume jurisdiction against a foreign defendant on the basis of a real and substantial connection. Id. at 80. The tort factors have been extended to other claims, including statutory secondary-market misrepresentation claims. Yip at 3550. Yip makes clear that a foreign holding company that merely manages a global enterprise of a group of commonly bannered companies and sets global standards does not carry on business in Canada. Id. at 39. Nor does an issuer carry on business in Canada merely because Canadian investors can access its disclosure online. Id. at 41. Rather, carrying on business typically requires a physical presence within the jurisdiction accompanied by a degree of sustained business activity. Yip v. HSBC Holdings plc., 2017 ONSC 5332 at 159, affd, 2018 ONCA 626. The presumptive connecting factors may be rebutted. A defendant may rebut a presumption of a real and substantial connection by showing that the presumptive connecting factor does not point to any real relationship between the subject matter of the litigation and the forum or points only to a weak relationship. Van Breda at 95. Certain connecting factors, such as commission of a tort, have been interpreted liberally, in favor of the court assuming jurisdiction, making the rebuttal stage critical. For instance, the Ontario Court of Appeal has held that the common-law tort of misrepresentation occurs in any province where the plaintiff receives and relies on the alleged misrepresentation. Central Sun Mining Inc. v. Vector Engineering Inc.,2013 ONCA 601 at 32. Yip applied this rule by analogy to the plaintiffs statutory securities claims. Although Ontario presumptively had jurisdiction because the plaintiff received and relied on allegedly misleading information about HSBC Holdings in Ontario by downloading its disclosure, this was an extremely weak connection and HSBC had no reason to believe that it was obliged to comply with, or would be subject to, securities regulation in Ontario. Yip at 46. The defendant may show that there is a clearly more appropriate forum for the dispute. While there is no place of trading requirement under the provincial securities laws, Canadian courts have placed great weight on the place of trading in the forum non conveniens analysis as a matter of comity. Id. at 54, citing Kaynes v. BP, PLC, 2014 ONCA 580. [T]he more appropriate forum for secondary market claims will often favour the forum of the exchange(s) where the securities trade. Yip at 75. While the bright-line rule in Morrison does not apply in Canada, cases such as Yip should bring some comfort to issuers that Canada will not become the Shangri-La of class action litigation for lawyers representing those allegedly cheated in foreign securities markets. Morrison, 561 U.S. at 270. Byron Shaw is a partner at McCarthy Tetrault LLP in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Note: The defendants in Yip v. HSBC Holdings were represented by Paul Steep, Brandon Kain, and Bryn Gray of McCarthy Tetrault LLP. Barron's reported (April 8, 2017): "Venezuela is in free fall[.] ... Once Latin America's wealthiest nation and a tourist destination touted in airline ads from the 1950s, Venezuela now faces shortages of food and basic medicines[.]" Such a marvelous country. Venezuela is twice the size of California, with a mix of tropical and temperate climates, with 1,500 miles of oceanfront and, guess what, more oil reserves than any other country in the world. What could go wrong? Venezuela has everything, unfortunately including a socialist government. The Washington Post reported (Feb. 12, 2018), "Venezuela's economy is so bad, parents are leaving their children at orphanages." How could so many blessings be turned into failures? The Panama Post presented (Dec. 21, 2017) a profound political analysis of Venezuela's plight. The key weapons used against it, according to this report, are "deception and distraction." Many will see a parallel with our K-12 system: For years, the world's socialists have successfully championed the idea that Venezuela is a somewhat deteriorated democracy but a democracy after all. A democracy where there's a government that oversteps its limits and has dictatorial aspirations and on the other hand a democratic and moderate opposition that seeks to change the government through democratic elections. And they've always been SO close to achieving this goal, but for X or Y they could not: if only they had X percent more support, or if they'd had more volunteers in the polling stations, or more charismatic leaders, or whatever endless amount of mediocre rationalizations devised to hide the truth[.] Again and again since before the arrival of the treacherous and coup-leading Hugo Chavez to power this cartel, devised and propped up by the tyrant Fidel Castro from Havana, has used the most meticulous Machiavellian-Leninist techniques of misleading through deception and distraction. They have masterfully placed politicians to seduce and lead the opposition's masses along destined-to-fail 'electoral' paths, while seamlessly wedging the Cartel into power[.] Similarly, we in the US are encouraged to believe that the public school system is a somewhat deteriorated servant of the people, but a servant after all. There are always reforms now unfolding, and then we will have perfection in the schools. We have always been so close to achieving this goal. If only they had X percent more support, or if they had more parents involved in the schools, or smarter politicians, or whatever endless amount of mediocre rationalizations can be devised to hide the truth. People a lot like Castro have used the most meticulous Machiavellian-Leninist techniques of misleading through deception and distraction. They have masterfully placed educrats to seduce and lead the opposition's masses along destined to fail "progressive" paths, while seamlessly wedging the Education Establishment into power. The bottom line was concisely stated by Samuel Blumenfeld: "K-12 education is a criminal enterprise from top to bottom." So there are two sad obituaries. Venezuela has everything but is a basket case. The American public school system has everything but, for most students, is a basket case. Arguably, these two systems are fraternal twins battered into their present deformities by socialist deception and distraction. Socialism may be all you need to explain why our schools are ineffective and overpriced. Everything hailed as a rescue or salvation takes us ever closer to decline and collapse. Meticulous Machiavellian-Leninist meddling has worn us down. In 1931, the American Education Establishment proclaimed the salvation of reading. We would bury phonics, which never worked, and we would instead make children memorize every English word by sight. This was a disastrous boondoggle that we are still living with. We have 50 million functional illiterates. As a result, the country is groggy on its feet. This seems to be the goal of our Progressive educrats. In 1962, the same arrogant, self-congratulatory pattern continued. Finally, at last, our professors had figured out how mathematics should be taught. This breakthrough was called New Math. There was a year-long buildup for this weirdly inane failure. Few schools stuck with it for even two years. New Math the Sequel, circa 1985, was called Reform Math. New Math 3 is called Common Core Math. These things were not designed by mathematicians. They were all designed by far-left professors in the Education Establishment. The goal seems to be preventing children from learning to do math without a calculator. Apparently, socialist leaders don't like arithmetic any more than they like reading. Then we come to the teaching of facts and knowledge. The Education Establishment was dismissive of the entire project, but parents kept asking, shouldn't children know where Texas is on a map? What was needed was the illusion of teaching knowledge but without anybody ever learning very much. How could you possibly manage that? Again, we had the endless, self-important razzle-dazzle assuring us that Constructivism was a bold new way to teach everything more successfully. Here our experts found a new gimmick breathtaking in its audacity. Teachers would no longer be allowed to teach. Children must create their own new knowledge. As a result, knowledge has declined along with reading and math. John Dewey was our Fidel Castro. That's one way of putting it. Each was so smart, so tireless, so impressive, but finally a tyrant who wanted not to build up his people, but to control them. Mona McNee explained this point in her book The Great Reading Disaster: "Deweyism is inherently self-contradictory. For all his talk of child-centeredness, he really aimed to sacrifice children's individuality to the group[.] ... While he derided the traditional authority he wanted to replace, he did not hesitate to incorporate more intense authority of his own." Dewey and the typical socialist dictators say they want to make the people free. Yes, from any power except themselves. Improving American K-12 requires facing some unpleasant realities namely, that Progressive-socialist schemes have controlled us by using "an endless amount of mediocre rationalizations." Better schools were fulsomely promised, but the actual product delivered by our Education Establishment was the death of traditional education. Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is Saving K-12 What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them? He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org. We don't have flying cars just yet, but we do have the ability to "print" 3-D objects from blueprints and drawings using special equipment. Hysteria greeted the announcement that one company would be allowed to publish downloadable blueprints for a gun : Gun control advocates have one word for us: plastics. But unlike the advice given to Dustin Hoffman's character in The Graduate, they are advising us not of the bright future for the material, but of its mortal threat to our existence. First, we were warned that plastic straws will doom sea life and the planet. Now we are told that, while waiting for your seafood dinner, someone is likely to burst into the restaurant and kill you with a 3-D printed gun. Eight states are filing suit against the Trump administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety. The suit, filed Monday in Seattle, asks a judge to block the federal government's late-June settlement with Defense Distributed, which allowed the company to make the plans available online. Officials say that 1,000 people have already downloaded blueprints for AR-15 rifles. "I have a question for the Trump Administration: Why are you allowing dangerous criminals easy access to weapons?" Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. "These downloadable guns are unregistered and very difficult to detect, even with metal detectors, and will be available to anyone regardless of age, mental health or criminal history." ... People can use the blueprints to manufacture a plastic gun using a 3D printer. But gun industry experts have expressed doubt that criminals would go to the trouble, since the printers needed to make the guns are very expensive, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by. The company, Defense Distributed, had been fighting the State Department over alleged violation of export laws if the designs were downloaded by foreign actors but won permission last month from the State Department to post schematics for homemade firearms. This is actually a relatively old issue, and the sticky part is that the printing of 3-D firearm blueprints makes this a First Amendment as well as a Second Amendment issue: Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, first published downloadable designs for a 3D-printed firearm in 2013. It was downloaded about 100,000 times until the State Department ordered him to cease, contending it violated federal export laws since some of the blueprints were downloaded by people outside the United States. The State Department reversed course in late June, agreeing to allow Wilson to resume posting the blueprints. The files were published on Friday. The company filed its own suit in Texas on Sunday, asserting that it's the victim of an "ideologically-fueled program of intimidation and harassment" that violates the company's First Amendment rights. The company's attorney, Josh Blackman, called it an "easy case." A few items of note here. While individuals can download blueprints and "print" a gun using expensive equipment, they cannot be sold by anyone other than a licensed firearm dealer. Without serial numbers, etc., no dealer would sell them. Purchasers would still have to undergo background checks. And the unreliable guns are not undetectable. The likelihood of some disgruntled student showing up at his old school with a plastic 3-D gun he printed in his mom's basement is extremely low: First off, as Stephen Gutowski of The Washington Free Beacon points out, it is easy and legal to find gun blueprints online and it should be, given that the First Amendment problems with barring the ability to post and consume such blueprints are quite serious. Gutowski also points out that the "vast majority of 3D printed gun designs are not undetectable to metal detectors," because they are made of metal, their parts manufactured by gun manufacturers. It's actually illegal to build a gun that's undetectable, Gutowski explains the ban on creation of such weapons was extended to 2023 under the Undetectable Firearms Act. If the guns fall apart and you need to have expensive equipment to make them, where's the "easy access"? Wouldn't criminals just obtain one of the hundreds of millions of guns, real, reusable, and relatively cheap guns, already in existence? If they want a gun, they aren't likely to buy a 3-D printer first. Has anyone noticed that opponents of 3-D printable guns like Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who claim they are being made available to criminals and terrorists, also oppose the border wall, ICE, and deporting MS-13 gang members? They really don't want to make us safer, and banning 3-D plastic guns or the publishing of their blueprints will not do that. With the probability of more SCOTUS and appellate judges who are constitutional originalists being confirmed, starting with Judge Kavanaugh, liberals are just desperate for a way to revive anti-gun hysteria as an issue for 2018 and beyond. The facts, discarded in the campaign against "military-style" rifles such as the AR-15, do not concern them, and the facts contradict their arguments and the fact is that their manufactured concern over 3-D plastic guns is unwarranted: In response to the State Department's decision, 21 state attorneys general sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to argue the decision was "deeply dangerous and could have an unprecedented impact on public safety." But while that particular case is high-profile, Washington Free Beacon reporter Stephen Gutowski points out that gun blueprints have long been legally available for law-abiding Americans. "Gun blue prints are and have long been readily available on the internet," he tweeted. He further explained that "It has also been perfectly legal for law-abiding Americans to download and print or mill these designs the whole time as well. It has also remained illegal for prohibited persons to build firearms with 3D printers or by any other means as well." Gutowski added that the majority of guns produced with the aid of 3D printers are detectable with metal detectors as other firearms are. Any that are not detectable would be illegal. "The vast majority of 3D printed gun designs are not undetectable to metal detectors. The majority are mostly made of metal because most of their parts have to be sourced from actual firearms manufacturers. Under federal law it would be illegal to build a gun that's undetectable," he said. The issue is not undetectable plastic guns. The issue should be very detectable gangs and illegal alien criminals in so-called sanctuary cities, mostly run by progressive socialists. We should fear not plastic guns, but flesh-and-blood criminals. One wag suggested that gun-makers should rename the AR-15 and call it the MS-13 so liberals and progressives would rush to protect it. Plastic guns? Like liberals, don't leave them out in the sun too long. Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. France, the Nazis, and Gun Control In 1935, French prime minister Pierre Laval, who later served in the Vichy government during the Nazis' four-year occupation of France, commanded French citizens to surrender their firearms. Laval and France's ruling parties feared social revolution and banned "war" weapons, instituting strict gun registration policies. They believed that repressive limits on civilian gun ownership were necessary at a time of Depression-sparked unrest and ongoing conflicts among various political factions. Strict time limits for firearms registration and harsh penalties for noncompliance, including forfeiture, fines, and imprisonment, were put in place. Laval's government did not foresee the impact these restrictive measures would have on a Nazi-conquered France just five years later, when firearms surrender would be required under threat of death. In Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance, attorney Stephen P. Halbrook explores the impact and efficacy of gun control measures on Wehrmacht-controlled France and how these measures hindered the French Resistance's fight against Nazi tyranny. The author asserts that Laval's 1935 gun control efforts left the French people vulnerable to the Nazi invaders and ill equipped to deal with the Nazi invasion of 1940, plus simplified the Nazi efforts to confiscate firearms and impede a French resistance. In 1940, when the Vichy government negotiated an armistice with Germany after the successful German blitzkrieg, Laval's pre-war firearms registration proved to be a boon to Nazi disarmament efforts. Halbrook explains that Hitler based his occupation model on the historic premise that conquerors who allowed subjugated populations to possess arms were ultimately defeated. So, when he rose to power in 1933 Germany, Hitler disarmed all "enemies of the state," including all Jews. The French occupation was unique, with a German-occupied zone and the unoccupied Vichy regime, administered by Marshall Philipe Petain. Hitler's forces depended on armed French police to control French citizens and, over time, confiscate their weapons. In other occupied territories where the Wehrmacht retained sole responsibility for maintaining law and order, gun ownership was banned outright, except for Germans. Vichy France pursued a progression of increasingly severe gun confiscation edicts with multiple periods of amnesty and ever-expanding lists of illegal weapons, Halbrook says. Initially, all firearms, ammunition, hand grenades, and other weaponry were required to be surrendered with 24 hours under threat of death, forced labor, or prison. Even hunting guns were prohibited and handed over to the French police for safekeeping. In addition, the gendarmes themselves were limited to a rubber truncheon and a pistol with nine rounds. Eventually, bayonets and swords were also banned. The bans expanded to anti-German flyers, radio transmitters, and public assemblies, followed by measures against Jews, restrictions on hunting, and other repressive constraints. From 1940 to 1941, when the French police were responsible for collecting guns, executions were rare, Halbrook reports. In 1942, when armed resistance accelerated and the Nazi SS assumed police duties, executions for firearms possession increased markedly. To deter gun-hoarding, the Nazis publicized executions in newspapers and plastered brightly colored posters with ominous warnings on city walls. French and German police conducted frequent house-to-house searches and solicited tips from informers. Nonetheless, the Germans found collecting firearms a daunting, near impossible task. Despite the death penalty, many civilians risked keeping their guns. From his research and survivors' responses to questionnaires about German arms collections, Halbrook learned that although hundreds of thousands of guns were surrendered, many French citizens hid weapons, often burying them in their yards or in underground caches. Although the author found no reliable data on the total number of firearms in France before the Nazi invasion, he discovered that out of 3 million hunting guns, only 835,000 were turned in to the Nazis. As the Resistance expanded and accelerated in 1942, its need for firearms grew. Defense de la France, an underground newspaper, captured the mood of the partisans: "[o]btain firearms; a rifle, a submachine gun, a light machine gun, a machine gun[.] ... The day will come." When the U.S. entered the war, the morale of the occupying Germans plummeted, spurring Resistance activities. Arms concealment became more efficient and organized, despite continuing cooperation between the German military police and French gendarmes. The Nazis tightened gun restrictions, issuing a new order to execute anyone who knew a fellow citizen with a gun and failed to inform authorities. No further amnesties were issued, and those possessing arms were summarily shot. By 1942, Hitler viewed the Vichy government as uncooperative, Halbrook writes, although the French people perceived the government as enemy accomplices. By spring of that year, General Charles de Gaulle, in exile in England, broadcast a call from the BBC to rise against the Nazis. On May Day 1942, as many as 100,000 demonstrators in Lyon screamed, "Death to Laval" and sang the French national anthem, famous for its call to arms, "Aux armes, citoyens." Shortly thereafter, Hitler brought in the SS to assume command over the French and German police. Press censorship and anti-Jewish policies began. Jews were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David, and the French police under SS direction began gathering Jews to deport them to death camps. Resistance family members were dealt with harshly; male relatives were shot and women sent to hard labor. Two watershed events helped mobilize and unify the Resistance during this dark time: in 1942, 12,000 Jews were herded into the Velodrome d'Hiver for deportation to death camps, and in 1943, the Laval-enabled Obligatory Labor Conscription (STO) required all 18- to 20-year-old males to become forced laborers in Germany. Resistance groups began urging Jews to arm themselves, hide their children with others, and join the partisans. The STO brought a steady stream of recruits as young men fled conscription. They retreated into the mountains, acquired firearms, and engaged in sabotage, ambushing supply convoys, derailing trains, and attacking patrols. Still, Halbrook recounts that Laval continued to collaborate with the Nazis, delaying their defeat. Under Laval's leadership, the Milice, a political paramilitary organization, was formed in 1943 to repress anti-Nazi forces and hunt down Resistance members. Resistance groups began to seize arms from unguarded collection depots, hidden French military stores, and local German forces. Most of their weapons came from British and American airdrops, often in exchange for intelligence. Allied supplies were limited by weapons scarcity, logistical problems, and political considerations, as some Resistance groups were part of the French Communist Party who sought a communist takeover of France following liberation. By the end of 1943, news of an Allied invasion circulated, and Resistance groups urged all citizens to gather arms and prepare each house as a fort to await the German departure. On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day invasion, the BBC sent coded messages to the Resistance. They were to perform sabotage operations and diversionary attacks before and during the next day's landings at Normandy. Although suffering many casualties, Resistance groups instigated street fights, including sniper shots at Germans. They blocked some German lines of retreat and provided valuable intelligence to the Allied troops. The Germans fought back viciously and, in at least one case, razed the entire village of Oradour-sur-Glane and killed almost all its inhabitants. Fighting erupted in Paris as an estimated 25,000 partisans faced a remaining German force of 20,000. Hitler insisted that Paris was not to be surrendered. As the situation deteriorated, he ordered the City of Lights torched. The commander of Paris refused. By August 1944, de Gaulle resumed control of France and ordered dissolution of the Resistance militias. His order resulted in deep resistance and resentment, Halbrook recounts. The partisans had fought and died for France, while he had remained safely ensconced in England. Despite the many gun control and confiscatory measures, first under Laval, who was later executed for treason, and then the Nazis, many French did not comply. The value of an armed citizenry to resist tyranny was demonstrated. The author notes little that correlation existed between severe punishments, including the threat of death, and arms possession or reduction of attacks on German occupiers. Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France raises interesting questions about the enforceability of firearms registration, confiscation, and prohibition. In the end, an armed French citizenry proved to be an asset for the fight against an occupying enemy and ably assisted the regular armies. Halbrook illuminates the role armed civilians played, conducting the only armed resistance in France until D-Day and paving the way for the Allied invasion and ultimate victory. Government Permission to Petition The First Amendment declares that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people ... to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This also applies to the states. Despite that clear command by the United States Constitution, a recent article demonstrates that "[m]ore and more of what we do is dependent on permission from the government." Israel Defines Itself The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Certainly this has been the case with the Palestinian movement, which has been hanging its tears out to dry. The glory of that movement, the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, was to be the destruction of the State of Israel. To take one formulation, the Charter of Hamas, the IRM (Islamic Resistance Movement), states that "our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious." Its preamble declares that Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it, just as it obliterated others before it. There is, it asserts, no solution for the Palestinian people except by jihad. So-called peaceful resolutions are in contradiction to the principles of the IRM. Its neo-peaceful resolution has been instigating three wars, countless rocket and missile attacks, building aggressive tunnels from which to infiltrate Israel, using flaming balloons and kites to set fire to thousands of acres of Israeli forests, and burning tires. Hope for glory has become displacement for Palestinian poverty, wars, intifadas, humiliation, nakba (catastrophe), and lack of development. The glory of Hamas, ruler of the Gaza Strip, has been not political and economic development, but creation of a base from which to attack the State of Israel and its citizens. It comes as no surprise that the neglect by Hamas of the welfare of the inhabitants of Gaza has resulted in the area lacking in gas supplies, water desalination, and electricity infrastructure. Unemployment in the Gaza Strip is 44%. Hamas is largely dependent on UNRWA for 252 schools, with 240,000 pupils, and health clinics. The U.S. has been by far the largest donor to UNRWA, giving $150 million for its regular budget, compared with wealthy Qatar, which gives $1 million. President Donald Trump has decided to reduce the U.S. contribution in 2018. The Trump administration indeed questions the validity of UNRWA. Created in December 1949 to deal with the welfare of Palestinian refugees, the organization has perpetuated the refugee problem rather than help solve it. It is dealing with only a small number of genuine refugees and with five million second- and third-generation descendants who left or were evicted from their homes after the wars provoked and launched by Arab armies against Israel. Those who swallow the "fake news" misinformation that Israel is a land of Jewish exclusivism and an "apartheid " and colonial state that denies the full and equal rights of many of its citizens must be perplexed by recent real news. Those perplexed already could not comprehend why Omar Barghouti, founder first of the Palestinian and then the general campaign to boycott Israel, BDS, defied the academic boycott and remained a student at Tel Aviv University, obtaining an M.A. in philosophy and being a candidate for a Ph.D. degree. Now the bigots of BDS must be disoriented by the news that in July 2018, an Arab-Israeli woman, Mona Khoury-Kassabri, was appointed dean of the School of Social Work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A Christian Arab woman, born of illiterate parents, whose research concerns youth violence, she is the first Arab woman to be appointed a dean at the university. Yet she is only one of the Arab-Israelis who have occupied and are occupying high official positions in Israel. In 1999, Abdel Rahman Zuabi was appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court, and in May 2004, Salim Joubran was similarly appointed a justice. Even so, in March 2012, Joubran, in discourteous behavior that would have infuriated President Donald Trump in his attitude toward the Dallas Cowboys, refused to sing the national anthem at the ceremony for the inauguration of the president of the Supreme Court. Despite the facts, the Palestinians and the bigots of BDS, in their implicit goal of eliminating the State of Israel, still depict Israel as a colonial and apartheid state. "Apartheid" is a term officially adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973 and defined again in 2002. In that year, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined apartheid as encompassing inhumane acts such as torture, murder, forcible transfer, and persecution of an identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, or religious grounds. The Statute condemns acts of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other group. Even the most bigoted boycotter will find it difficult to see the appointment of Mona Khoury-Kassabri as an example of any of those inhumane acts. There are no Bantustans, of South African kind, in Israel. Unlike many Middle East countries, Arab-Israeli women have always been able to vote in elections and participate in political activity. Sanity is required to address the never-ending fake news. The existence of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the archaeological digs near it do not constitute a threat to the existence of the Al-Aqsa mosque, nor an exhibition of colonialism. Nor does the accidental dislodging in July 2018 of a large stone from the Western Wall imply a secret attempt by Jews to build a third Mount Moriah. Nor does the fact that Israel has been medically treating wounded Syrian soldiers and civilians in the Golan Heights and admitting them into Israeli hospitals suggest acts of racial superiority. Israel is founded on Zionism, a national but not colonial movement based on the historic Jewish connection with the land. The concept of "colonialism" is more appropriate to the empires since the 15th century set up by powers such as Spain, Portugal, Britain, Sweden, France, Russia, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and the Ottomans. In all cases, there were outstanding crimes, massacres, violence, and subjugation of a population to a foreign political, economic, cultural order. However, controversy surrounds the Nationality Law, passed 62-55 with two abstentions by the Israeli Knesset on July 19, 2018. It states that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish nation, that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish nation, in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious, and historical right to national self-determination. The law declares Hebrew the national language. Arabic, from being a national language, is explained as having a special status, and the use of the Arabic language will be required in government offices. The law, rejecting the allegation that Israel is a "settler-colonial" state, sees Jewish settlement as a national value. Though the law has been criticized as anti-democratic and one that may allow discrimination, it does not infringe on the rights of all as equal citizens of the State of Israel. Indeed, the stress on Hebrew as the official language is similar to that in the French Constitution, where Article 2 declares that the language of the Republic is French. Moreover, every road sign in Israel is in both Hebrew and Arabic. The law in fact is largely symbolic, arising from the problem that Israel does not have a written constitution. The nature of the system and the existence and maintenance of equal rights have to be determined from the Basic Laws. The Nationality Law is now one of them. It states the name of the country, Israel; the Star of David on the flag; the menorah as the state emblem; "Hatikvah" as the state anthem; and Jerusalem as the capital. The Jewish national movement has expressed itself in clear fashion. Our Statue of Liberty Is Really More of a 'Statue of Limitations' Now that peace appears to be at hand in the Korean peninsula, ISIS is all but eradicated, and unemployment has fallen to staggeringly low rates including record lows for women and persons of color the NeverTrumps on both the left and the right are working overtime to identify a new atrocity they can attribute to the president. Donald Trump's latest "sin" is "kidnapping children" i.e., separating them from their Persons Here Illegally (PHI) parents who cross the southern border into the United States illegally, which the president's haters claim creates the 21st-century version of Hitler's concentration camps. For instance, ex-CIA director Michael Hayden in a June 16 tweet likened detention centers for PHI children to Auschwitz and reiterated the comparison in a CNN interview four days later. On June 22, MSNBC's Donny Deutsch extended the vilification to Trump voters: "if you vote for Donald Trump ... then you are standing at the border, like Nazis." First, some perspective: U.S. immigration law establishes that entering or re-entering the United States without lawful authorization is a crime (Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code). Though there is no federal law specifically requiring that children be separated from their parents at the border, if illegal entry is treated as the crime that it is, then separating PHI parents and children at the border is not at all different under the law from U.S. citizen muggers, bank-robbers, and rapists who are not allowed to have their children by their side in jail. President Trump's two most recent predecessors, Barack Obama and, before him, George W. Bush, also separated PHI parents and children, but typically in the case of illegal re-entrants rather than first-time offenders. Also, Obama eventually stopped that practice altogether, late into his presidency, focusing instead on deporting hardened PHI criminals. As for the aforementioned first-time offenders, Presidents Bush and Obama largely dealt with them via civil law measures, thereby allowing families to remain together at detention centers. But the Trump administration, in an effort to sharply curb illegal entry, began enforcing the criminal sanctions under our law on improper entry by an alien, which naturally requires separation of families, as we do not jail children with their lawbreaking parents (even in the case of Americans). The administration likely believed that this would also serve as a deterrent to prevent families from attempting to enter illegally in the first place. Moreover, the administration cited instances whereby the "parents" and "children" in question are not really related at all, but rather consist of adult drug- and sex-traffickers and their minor victims who comply under threat with their captors by pretending to be these criminals' offspring, lest they suffer dire and even fatal consequences. Nonetheless, there was tremendous and widespread backlash against the administration's policy. That just about everyone on the left immediately condemned the president is no big deal, because even if he found a cure for cancer, they'd insist there was nothing humanitarian about it, and perhaps he owns an interest in the company that manufactures the healing medicine. But among Republicans, with whom Trump recently has enjoyed a belated honeymoon, barely half supported his child separation measures. Far too many Trump critics make the leap that if separating families at the border is bad policy, then we ought to simply ignore the illegal crossings altogether. The larger issue worth discussing extensively that is connected to child separation is why asylum applications from Central America have skyrocketed. There is an alarming pandemic of violence in the so-called Northern Triangle El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras such that so many people would do just about anything to leave there. That includes the risk of imprisonment in the United States, even if the harsh deterrent of separation from their children is possible and even likely. Simply put, those hotbeds of violence are so abominable that many parents consider it far worse to remain there together with their children than to give them a safer environment which nowhere resembles a concentration camp in the United States. So what are we Americans to do? Should we simply open our doors to the victims of all countries facing such deadly danger? Should we allow them to pour into the United States by the millions, even if all their tales of woe were true (which is not the case)? An excerpt from my most recent book, Stop Calling Them "Immigrants," explains this: The Open Borderists are not bad people. In fact, their generosity and love for their fellow men and women is admirable. But their idea of open borders, however well-intentioned, is reckless and dangerous. Consider the example of 'overloading the boat' to illustrate: suppose there is a small boat at sea that holds about 50 people at the most, and there are already 10 on board. A much larger ship nearby has sunk: its panicked passengers jumped overboard and are desperately trying to stay afloat and survive. As the smaller boat approaches, its crew notices there are about 300 people in the water. Of course, they would like to save all of them, but they simply cannot. Their own boat will only hold about 40 more people; any more and that boat would sink too. Taken to its logical conclusion, that's what would happen with open borders. That book's cover contains the image of a sketch of the Statue of Liberty holding a "STOP" sign rather than a torch and saying: "Welcome to the United States may I see your passport, please?" In fact, I call her the "Statue of Limitations." The answer does not have to be a binary choice of standing by idly while millions of hapless victims languish in fear and death in their home countries or admitting them into the United States en masse and thus causing the "boat" to capsize. Instead, President Trump should call upon the entire world to mobilize and work to improve conditions in those countries so that those people would not have the need to leave in the first place. And for those who would retort: "Why should we impose our will on other countries? Are we the world's policeman?," I say: If we also want to be the world's caretaker, then yes, we are. Constantinos E. Scaros has practiced, taught, and written about immigration law. His latest book is Stop Calling Them "Immigrants" and is available in print and Kindle formats on Amazon.com. Congress, facing a serious threat from Donald Trump to shut down the government if he doesn't get funding for border security, including his wall, is working to mitigate that threat by passing spending bills in advance of the September 30 deadline. Washington Times: Congress is taking big strides to defuse President Trump's shutdown threat, working to pass as many spending bills as possible before next month's deadline so most of the government will remain open no matter what Mr. Trump demands on border security. On Wednesday, the Senate cleared a $154 billion package that funds the Food and Drug Administration, the IRS and other programs for 2019. Senators now have passed seven of the 12 bills needed to keep the government open. The House has passed six. Those measures still need to be reconciled in a conference committee, but lawmakers are pushing to have as many as nine bills completed before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, putting those operations on firm footing and outside the reach of a government shutdown. "This is actually the way this work is supposed to be done," said Sen. Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican. "It's supposed to be done before the 30th of September. It's supposed to be done in smaller packages where members have a chance to debate the amendments on the floor, and we're doing that." It has been years since Congress passed even one of the dozen bills on time, and Democrats and Republicans are intent on doing better this year to avoid an election-eve shutdown showdown. Politicians, being generally cautious critters, don't want to take the chance that voters will blame them for even a partial shutdown. But what does Trump think of this ploy? Trump is keeping his powder dry, not indicating if he will sign any of these spending bills that, if most of them passed, would represent about 90% of discretionary spending for next year. Democrats think he's bluffing: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, said the president's threats to shut down the government if he doesn't get enough money for his border wall are getting emptier as more spending bills advance. "I think these threats are really ill-advised. I don't think they're taken in a constructive way," Ms. Feinstein said. "I mean, the Congress works its will, then the president gets the bills and he can work his will, but it doesn't work to make threats in my view." Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said the shutdown threats can't be dismissed outright, but Mr. Trump would be deciding to veto bills that pass Congress with bipartisan margins. "If the president wants to veto appropriations bills, that's his decision," Mr. Durbin said. "He has the last word on the veto pen. "But what we have tried to do is to show bipartisanship, and we have produced results actual bills on the floor, actual amendments something almost close to debate. All these things are good," the senator said. This is exactly the kind of situation in which Trump revels: creating chaos and uncertainty from what should be routine. The House and Senate have passed bills that contain substantial monies for a border wall but are far apart on amounts. It is not likely that any agreement can be reached before the deadline. But what about the rest of government? Would Trump shut down the whole shebang by refusing to sign appropriations bills? We haven't reached the point where Trump will be tested, so until then, what the president will do is anyone's guess. Eugenics is back, and the reasons are selfish as ever The limits of evil in modern society, and the levels to which they will be accepted, have truly reached new bounds. In a Daily Mail U.K. article published in October 2014, and recently retweeted by shocked writer Sohrab Ahmari, Gillian Relf announces she wished she had aborted her Down syndrome-affected child. This is not a statement issued from a mother in the heat of the moment, but rather more than a four-decades-long desire that began when the child was still in the womb. In a more disgusting twist, she appears not to wish this for the child's well-being, but rather to have avoided her own discomfort with her son. This selfishness is clear from the beginning of the article, where she discusses her humiliation at her son's outburst on a plane that she decided to bring him on after knowing he has problems being on something as mundane as a local bus. Her refusal to rearrange her own family vacation for the sake of...well...her family screams her "me" mindset to the heavens. She attempts to moralize her statement of "if I could go back, I'd abort him in an instant" by arguing that her life "would have been happier and far less complicated if he had never been born." Her heartless reasoning goes on for more than ten paragraphs to follow, discussing how she was "physically pained" seeing her son miss the normal milestones, how she despaired in washing his laundry, and how she eventually wished to throw him down the stairs to end her suffering. Again, not her son's suffering her own. Her wish for normalcy, whatever that may be for her, is apparently more important than the life of a child who presents her with the challenges of Downs. She even goes on to blatantly state she wishes she had not authorized a life-saving surgery for her son, merely to save herself a great deal of pain. While one can sympathize with the emotional toil parents of disabled children face, this type of murderous rhetoric must be decried by those who hold life sacred as exactly what it is: evil. There is a difference between having an abortion as a frightened young girl and arguing forty-seven years later that you wish you'd murdered your child due to your own humiliation. Throwing away a child due to a physical or mental ailment, especially when the reasoning is your own comfort and guilt, should never be accepted in our society. The fact that this person feels so comfortable in stating her desires for her son's death (in fact, his never being born) speaks to something deeper in our culture. No longer do people feel shunned to moral silence in wishing for what amounts to a genocide of the disabled; they shout it from major newspapers, proudly putting their picture as well as the pictures of those they want destroyed out for the world to see. It is, especially in the age of Trump Derangement, perhaps overused hyperbole to scream "Hitler!" at anything or anyone we don't agree with politically. However, the argument made by this woman (and supported by many commentators who call her anything from "brave" to "heroic") follows in the same line as those who desire a perfect master race via the use of eugenics. We have seen this model of thought echoed in Iceland's policy regarding Downs destruction, where they have nearly eradicated (via abortion) Down syndrome from their population. They of course justify this policy with the argument of cost savings in their nationalized health care. While this is likely cheered by many on the left who celebrate abortion as a rite of passage, this ideology should not be allowed to fester in the last bastion of true Western society. There is not that large of a step from wishing abortion upon the disabled to lining them up in the VX showers, and we must not allow such discussion to be had without confronting the despicable moralizing of murder in such a way that no person could accept this modern play at eugenics without accepting the loss of their soul in the process. Imagine the outcry if this policy were aimed at those of the LGBT community rather than those who may not have the ability to speak for themselves. Would it be accepted as a cost-saving measure at that point? Why should we have any less passion for the disabled than we would anyone else murdered for his skin color, orientation, or religion? Former president Barack Hussein Obama (D) endorses Help has arrived for those of you longing for the Obama years of high taxes, low growth, government interference in your private life such as forced purchase of health insurance, international contempt for America as those spewing contempt demand and receive more American dollars, high unemployment, and wide open borders. Utilizing his successor's tweeting technique, former president Barack Hussein Obama (D) politically reappeared, graciously offering a four-page Twitter imprimatur to over 80 candidates for various elective offices around the country. Today Im proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America theyre running to represent: pic.twitter.com/gWzalQhFas Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 1, 2018 Im confident that, together, theyll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity, repairing our alliances and standing in the world, and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility, and the rule of law. But first, they need our votes. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 1, 2018 Interestingly, as many commenters have noted, the Bronx Democratic Party slayer, Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates free stuff for everyone while willingly purchasing expensive lipstick, did not receive Obama's official blessing. Hmm. Was Obama being prudent, realizing what wins an election in New York isn't appealing to...Iowa? Or is he demonstrating residual loyalty to the man she defeated, an Obama ally? Or...? Review Obama's endorsees above. You have been warned. If you are a U.S. citizen and otherwise eligible, vote accordingly. And only once. Drug shortage hits Karnali districts Several districts in Karnali Province reel under medicine shortage every year. And this year is no different. The genesis of the article was a remark by President Trump that Mexico's murder rate increased by 27% to 31,000 murders in 2017, in justification for Trump's request for a border wall. The liberal media could not let that stand! We all know about cross-border crime on the Mexico border. What we don't know, according to the liberal media, is that the crime is all one-way: Mexico does not export crime to America, but America causes crime in Mexico . A lot of it! Who knew? So they cited reports claiming that Mexico does not cause crime in America. Those stories you hear about Phoenix being the kidnap capital of America? Ignore them! In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone. In fact, kidnappings and other crimes connected to the Mexican drug cartels are quickly spreading across the border, from Texas to California. The majority of the victims are either illegal aliens or connected to the drug trade. The fact that 32% of federal inmates are illegal aliens? Don't pay attention to that, either! Instead, focus on how America is "causing" crime in Mexico: 1. Private gun ownership is basically illegal in Mexico. So guns are smuggled in from America and are used on a population that can't defend itself. But instead of welcoming these undocumented gun-owners and bringing them "out of the shadows," promoting gun equality for all, Mexico cracks down on illegal gun ownership, even separating families from their guns in tearful, emotional scenes, only further fueling the cross-border smuggling. 2. All the violence of drug-traffickers is the fault of Americans who use drugs. If Americans didn't buy narcotics, there wouldn't be drug-traffickers in Mexico! No one else would buy them! Once again, it's America's fault, not the fault of the brutal, extremely corrupt Mexican police and justice system. Note how it's America's fault for having a demand for drugs but also America's fault for Mexico's demand for guns. Whether America is the supplier or the end user, it's always America's fault! 3, America has been funding efforts to fight drug-traffickers in Mexico. That only makes the drug cartels angrier and angrier. If we didn't fight the drug cartels, they would be as peaceful as lambs. Liberals oppose building a border wall to protect America from Mexico. Do you think they could be convinced to support building a border wall to protect Mexico from America? Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com. I am starting to wonder if Robert Mueller is seriously worried about losing his first case to go to trial as special counsel. The prosecutors working for him are using illegitimate means to obtain a conviction and have been rebuked by Judge T.S. Ellis for their underhanded attempts to sway jurors using envy and class hatred instead of the facts of the case. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors were lectured by a federal judge on Wednesday for the language they've used in the courtroom and more, as the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered its second day. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III specifically told prosecutors to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe wealthy Ukrainians, whose dealings with Manafort are at the heart of the fraud charges he faces in northern Virginia federal court. The judge said the term has a "pejorative" meaning and is not relevant in this case. Further, he cautioned that using it could suggest Manafort is associated with bad people and guilty by association. "It's not the American way," the judge said. He noted that wealthy donors like George Soros or the Koch brothers also could be considered oligarchs. That's only part of the pattern of abuse: The Mueller team was later rebuffed again by Ellis when they [sic] tried to introduce photos that eventually would become public of Manafort's closets filled with suits and high-end clothing. While it's part of their effort to paint Manafort as a tax scofflaw who spent big on luxury items, Ellis would not allow the photos for now. "Enough is enough. We don't convict people because they have a lot of money and throw it around," he said. The judge said the photos would seem "unnecessary, irrelevant" and potentially "prejudicial." Further, he reminded the lawyers that Manafort "is not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle, but for not reporting income on his taxes." In theory, prosecutors are supposed to pursue justice, not simply victory. But the Mueller team seems to be composed of people motivated by a desire to harm President Trump. There may be a time bomb waiting to be detonated against the prosecution when the defense presents its case. Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit features the opinion of Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News, pointing out that the DOJ already passed on its chance to prosecute Manafort on these same charges and that this creates opportunity for the defense. Here's the Transcript via Bizzy Blog: ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Here's Manafort's defense: I was investigated for all this by the government eight years ago, and I was exonerated. And I'm going to put on the stand as my first witness the young lawyer who exonerated me. You know who that young lawyer is? Rod Rosenstein. STEVE DDOCY: What? NAPOLITANO: Yes! So this is going to be quite a show if they succeed in getting Rosenstein, who now runs the Justice Department DOOCY: So why was I innocent then and guilty now? NAPOLITANO: There you go. That's correct! Manafort was "exonerated" by federal prosecutors led by Rod Rosenstein. Here is video of Judge Napolitano making this point on Fox & Friends, and then a later appearance on Neil Cavuto's show being hosted by Trish Reagan: Rober Mueller caricature by Donkey Hotey. I have never had a favorable opinion of Paul Manafort's character and considered it quite possible that he is guilty of the accusations against him of financial crimes (nothing related to Russia, and predating his work on the Trump campaign). But the fact that Mueller has delegated this trial to junior prosecutors and presumably approves their spurious appeals to jurors leads me to believe that his case might be weak. At the same time that localities across the country are in the process of erasing monuments to Confederates and slave-owners, New York City is preparing to honor a black man who ordered the murder of every white man, woman, and child under his control, resulting in 3,000 to 5,000 race homicides. In New York City, street co-namings in which a thoroughfare takes on an additional, ceremonial name in honor of a distinguished figure rarely generate much fuss, and their approval is typically pro forma. But yesterday, a city council committee voted to co-name a street in Brooklyn after Jean-Jacques Dessalines, emperor of Haiti after the island won its independence from France in 1804. The council's designation of a two-mile stretch of Rogers Avenue in Brooklyn as Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard sparked some controversy because Dessalines was an enthusiastic advocate of racial murder. Following the defeat of Napoleon's forces and their retreat from Hispaniola, Dessalines named himself Governor-General-for-Life and decided to wipe the slate clean. Heeding the words of his personal secretary Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, framer of the Haitian Act of Independence, who declaimed, "we should use the skin of a white man as a parchment, his skull as an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen," Dessalines ordered the murder of virtually every white man, followed soon afterward by all white women and children, in the new nation. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people were butchered in a few months. Jean-Jacques Dessalines (portrait by Louis Rigaud). As Barron observes, Haiti's history is bloody and terrible, and there was no shortage of horrendous acts against the slaves brought to Haiti to cultivate sugarcane. In that perspective, perhaps the race massacre ordered by Dessalines is understandable, at least as vengeance. But the man was what today we call an ethnic cleanser or even a genocider. Ethnic cleansing results when one group feels so aggrieved by another group that it collectively decides that mass murder is appropriate until the last member of the enemy group available is killed. Vengeance is clearly on the mind of some in New York: Rodneyse Bichotte, a Brooklyn member of the state assembly who claims direct descent from Dessalines, defended the excesses of the Haitian revolutionaries as a legitimate response to oppression, and said that Dessalines "sought to stop those who were evil." She also made pointed reference to "George Washington, the first President of this great mighty state, who sold slaves for a keg of molasses," and "our beloved Abraham Lincoln, who expressed opposition to racial equality." Jumaane Williams, the council member who sponsored the co-naming legislation, said that "most of the world owes a debt to Haiti that has never been repaid." Considering the insulting remarks toward Haiti made by the "orange bigot in the White House," he said, the co-naming of Rogers Avenue is "the least we can do." There seems to be nobody on the left who is willing to speak out against the madness. Politico reporter Marc Caputo was caught tweeting ugly about President Trump's supporters, following an incident where CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was jeered by a group of them at this week's Trump rally in Tampa, Florida. Here's what he tweeted before apologizing. This is about par for the course for the anti-Trump left, which includes nearly all of the mainstream media. Anyone who supports Trump is toothless, uneducated, stupid, hillbillyish (remember that Peter Strzok considered Trump supporters "ignorant hillbillies," too), and unfit to live or vote in any part of the civilized world inhabited solely by #NeverTrumps and leftists. We know they loathe us. The Washington Times has a full account here. Glenn Reynolds has a good summary of what's really going on here: Two points: (1) Yes, this is what the press thinks about Trump supporters, and this now-deleted tweet was an honest reflection of that. It's totally hypocritical for people like Acosta to clutch their pearls about Trump's "rhetoric" given how they treat, and talk about, his supporters. And as for their fear that Trump's "rhetoric" might lead to violence, note how they skip right over the fact that Democrat James Hodgkinson shot GOP Congressman Steve Scalise as he tried to massacre the Republican House leadership. (2) What's worse is, Caputo's actually one of the better political reporters, willing to report stuff that hurts Democrats and helps Republicans without sweeping it under the rug. That's good, but if he thinks this way, what are the rest like? And yes, he offered a solid apology. But that doesn't change the attitude that his original statement revealed, or the fact that it seems to be widely shared among his press colleagues. What's vivid to me is how pious and pecksniffian these press people are in responding to getting called out on their true feelings about Americans who voted for Trump. They're in full "Victorian gentleman" mode, as Tom Wolfe described them in his masterpiece The Right Stuff. Start with Caputo's lengthy and grand and lecture-like three-part Twitter apology, in lieu of "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that": I need to apologize for tweeting caustic remarks after seeing a reporter berated & abused. Hate begets hate. My comments referred ONLY to those jeering and swearing at the man, not a broad swath of people. But the fault is mine for causing confusion and feeding anger. 1/3 Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 ...and... In the age of social media, where divisiveness serves no decent purpose, these flippant comments on my part only made things worse and contributed to a cycle of rage that I should not have inflamed further. So I'm sorry. 2/3 Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 ...and... While its usually a good idea to just delete tweets that are wrong, I own this and the criticism (both accurate and misleading) that has followed. I'll do better. Here they are: 3/3 pic.twitter.com/G2rZrHjYWb Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 1, 2018 Oh, give me a break. The divisiveness is the result of media such as CNN quietly passing Hillary Clinton the debate questions during her campaign against Donald Trump, the better to give her an edge, and neither telling anyone about it nor seriously punishing anyone for it. We all know this stuff goes on and is going to go on until the press starts caring about its craft more than who wins, so spare us the "lessons" about "divisiveness." Second, the whipped up talk about mobs whipped up at Trump rallies stands in stark contrast to the low coverage the media has given to the shooting of House Republican leader Steve Scalise by a Bernie Sanders-supporter, the assaults and violence on Trump supporters in San Jose as cops stood by (this was what moved me over into the pro-Trump camp I knew that nobody else would do anything about that sick situation), the restaurant harassment of President Trump's female Cabinet and White House officials (no angry feminists there and no curious reporters to ask why), the violent assaults and threats on the utterly mild-mannered GOP senator Rand Paul (repeatedly reported as a little misunderstanding over lawn clippings, fake news if there ever was any), and other acts of violence that I'm not recalling right now. Victorian gentlemen are aces at hypocrisy, and this stands out in the press. What also is Victorian-gentleman gag-worthy is how it's not just Caputo doing it. Look at this awful interview between #NeverTrump HNL news host S.E. Cupp and Jim Acosta. Cupp is clearly sucking up to him, theatrically nodding and frowning with lots of head tilts, as Acosta blathers on about civility and standards, "very unfortunate," "very worried," "dangerous for some time," "needs to stop" after his whinges about how his dainty safety is threatened. That's the same Acosta whose network slipped those questions to Hillary Clinton and tried to get away with it. The same Acosta who was last seen screaming about Sean Hannity. It almost makes one want to think that if they want to hate us, fine, go open, hate us. We already know they do. But the pious lecturing, the whinging, the "dad" lessons conveyed pretty well make them intolerable. Victorian gentlemen, indeed, brimming with hypocrisy. It's time to call them out for that, too. They claim to want to promote left-wing causes like Medicare for all and abortion. But on many campuses, conservatives are complaining that the groups are more about stifling free speech than political activism. In 2016, there were just 15 chapters of the Young Democratic Socialists of America on college campuses. Today, there are 250 chapters, with their numbers growing at an astonishing rate. Campus Reform: Students at campuses with active YDSA chapters, though, say the organization is better at disrupting conservative speech than advancing its own policy agenda. "Members of YDS at [George Washington University] are not interested in genuine activism or attempting to talk to others who disagree with them," asserted Campus Reform Correspondent Abigail Marone. "Instead, they're content with causing a scene without a clear message." "I think the group's inability to have a cohesive message on my campus is a great representation of the democratic socialist movement's inability to have a clear, cohesive message," Marone added. "Candidates like Ocasio-Cortez want to get involved in as much left-wing activity as possible without even having a clear message of what they stand for or an understanding of basic policy." Campus Reform Correspondent Daniel Weldon, meanwhile, offered a more harrowing account of YDSA's activities at the University of Florida. "At the University of Florida, socialism has been growing at a staggering rate," Weldon said. "Recently, I spoke with an elected official who will not use the word 'capitalism' on campus since it has become such a dirty word. In my three years on campus, groups like Young Democratic Socialists of America have ballooned in size and scope." "I've witnessed them tear down signs for conservative events I've hosted, attempted to shut down a Dinesh D'Souza Speech which required a police presence, and even assault a conservative student," Weldon added. "At Florida, YDSA has pushed for the abolition of ICE, government controlled healthcare, and making UF a sanctuary campus." A fad or a trend? I think it depends what happens with democratic socialists and the Democratic Party over the next two years. There are going to be successful Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates in the next couple of elections. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running in a safe Democratic district and is almost guaranteed to win her race in November. Other lower-level DSA candidates are also likely to be successful. But they cannot exist as an independent political party. To gain power, they must work within the Democratic party structure, where most establishment Democrats see the DSA quite rightly as a toxic electoral force. They may be successful in coastal enclaves and college towns, but across the vast hinterlands of America, socialism is still and will be for the foreseeable future a non-starter. Expect the ballyhoo in the press to continue, however, as terms like "new wave" are applied to the few DSA candidates who win. Googles mobile augmented reality solution ARCore will soon be extending its support to the Acer Chromebook Tab 10, Pixel 3, and a number of other devices, as indicated by a teardown of the 1.4 build of the app performed by XDA Developers. The addition of the worlds first Chrome OS tablet to the list of supported devices will mark ARCores debut foray into the world of Chromebooks, whereas the app also mentions multiple new Android smartphones that will soon become part of its ecosystem as well. Those include Googles upcoming Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL flagships referenced by their codenames blueline and crosshatch, as well as the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE, Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, and the Mate 20 Lite. Xiaomis upcoming POCOPHONE F1 and Samsungs newly announced Galaxy Tab S4 are mentioned in the context of ARCore integration within the apps code as well, as is a device code-named phoenix_sprout that industry insider Roland Quandt recently claimed was a Nokia mid-ranger equipped with Qualcomms Snapdragon 710. Its still unclear when exactly any one of these devices will be updated with ARCore support, though the Pixel 3 series is believed to be featuring it out of the box. Non-Google products arent guaranteed to launch with ARCore capabilities, as recently seen on the example of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, both of which only received those functionalities almost two months after being released in mid-March. ARCores latest update introduced support for the LG V30 Plus, Xiaomi Mi 8, OnePlus 5T, OnePlus 6, and the Moto Z3 Play, with Googles AR ecosystem still being expanded in a gradual manner. Optimizing a device for ARCore requires a joint effort on the part of both its smartphone maker and Google itself, which is why the platform has been relatively slow to grow, though the Mountain View, California-based tech giant deliberately prioritized flagships and popular mid-rangers at launch, with the platform hence already being available on over 100 million active Android devices as of this March. Pricing and availability information for Acers latest Chromebook 13 and Chromebook Spin 13, unveiled back in May, have finally been officially revealed by the company. Customers in the U.S. and Canada will be able to purchase either beginning in September. As might be expected, pricing is set a bit higher for the business-ready versions of the two Chrome OS devices to match the more robust hardware. There are a total of three configurations available for the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, in terms of processor, RAM, and storage. The entry-level device is sold as model number CP713-1WN-385L and features the latest Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. Depending on the buyers region, that will sell for $749.99 ( $1,029.99 CAD). Bumping up from that, the mid-range model CP713-1WN-55HT is sold with identical storage and memory but features Intels Core i5-8250U processor for $849.99 ($1,149.99 CAD). The last of the Chromebook Spin 13 models, designated as the CP713-1WN-59KY, will retail at $949.99 ($1,299.99 CAD). It packs the same processor as the mid-range model but RAM and storage are boosted to 16GB and 128GB, respectively. For the Acer Chromebook 13s business edition, two configurations are sold under the CB713-1W model number. The first of those is the 36XR, which will feature an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 8GB of memory, and 32GB of space inside for files, apps, and more. Pricing for that setup will be recommended by Acer at $649.99 ($899.99 CAD). The final version is designated and sold under the model number 56VY and costs $749.99 ($1029.99 CAD). RAM and storage space remain identical to the more affordable take on the Chromebook 13 but the processor is quite a bit better. The more expensive Acer Chromebook 13 ships with Intels Core i5-8250U processor on board. Each of Acers latest enterprise-level offerings in the Chrome OS sphere ships with a 13.5-inch Full HD+ display panel at 2256 x 1504 resolution, with a 3:2 aspect ratio. As denoted by the naming conventions of the manufacturer, the Spin also includes a 360-degree hinge to enable tablet, tent, and laptop modes during use. That also ships with a Wacom EMR pen stylus for accurate note-taking, sketching, and other markups. The pen is stored in-body to reduce the chances that it will be lost or misplaced. Both variations feature two USB Type-C ports for charging, data transference, and more, in addition to 22 MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2. Battery life comes in at a claimed 10-hours of use. Each also features a full aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass touchscreen for added durability. Samsung and LG recently secured patents on new dual-screen smartphone designs featuring displays on both their front and back panels. The concepts were awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office earlier this year, with Samsungs solution seemingly being envisioned as a more technologically advanced device; while LGs design includes a traditional fingerprint reader mounted on the back of the concept phone, below its secondary screen, Samsung appears to have opted for an in-display scanner. Even though Samsungs vision also includes significantly smaller bezels, the patent documentation states that the borders surrounding the screen arent part of the filing, whereas LGs design is more defined and realistic. Neither South Korean tech giant mentioned the type of panels it would use in such a dual-screen device, though at least one module would likely be of the OLED variety should such devices ever be commercialized. Having two screens could significantly impact the battery life of a device, making the choice of OLED more obvious as such panels are able to conserve energy by only lighting up individual pixels that are needed, i.e. leaving the black ones turned off, which also delivers more accurate colors. Both Samsung and LG have been committing significant resources to OLED manufacturing in recent years, though the former is still the undisputed industry leader in terms of output capacity. OLEDs are also believed to be the crucial component of foldable smartphones, the first major form factor change in the mobile industry in over a decade. Samsung is already set to release its first bendable handset in the first half of 2019, whereas LG is expected to procure display panels for that category of devices from other manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO. Its presently unclear whether either company has any immediate plans to commercialize dual-screen devices, though such offerings have already been delivered by the likes of Meizu and YotaPhone. A U.S. Senate panel pushed for a timelier response from Capitol Hill to widespread election meddling attempts earlier this week, with Republican Chairman Richard Burr leading the move. The Wednesday hearing was held several weeks after Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat at the Senate Intelligence Committee, started circulating a paper on possible options stateside lawmakers could explore in order to curb big tech in the country, proposing a wide variety of different measures aimed toward improving user privacy and combating the online spread of misinformation, among other issues. The hearing lasted for some two hours and led to little optimistic conclusions, with the think tank assembled by the legislative panel suggesting election interference is a problem that may not be fully avoidable at any point in the future. A similar sentiment was also expressed by Facebook earlier this week as part of the companys disclosure of another coordinated misinformation campaign that it discovered on its platforms, stating that the initiative was aimed at influencing the outcome of this years mid-terms taking place on November 6. Foreign actors went as far as to organize protests throughout the U.S. on both sides of the political spectrum, presumably as part of an attempt to polarize the American public in the run-up to this years most important happening in politics. While the technology and techniques meant to curb such malicious activities are always evolving, so are the actors behind them coming up with new ways to hide their identities and true purpose, Facebook said, with an official from data insight company Graphika largely reiterating that statement at this weeks Senate panel hearing. Some reliable methods of identifying bot accounts spreading misinformation have still been applicable since large-scale efforts to eliminate them started in late 2016, with one of them being looking at the average number of daily posts. According to Graphika CEO John Kelly, bot accounts produce between 25 to 30 times more social media content than actual humans. While the latest hearing will be followed by other such gatherings, Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into the 2016 presidential election continues; to date, the 73-year-old indicted 25 individuals and three companies from Russia over attempts to interfere with the U.S. democratic process. 'European nations willing to invest in Nepal's energy, infrastructure sectors' Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali has said some European nations were willing to invest in Nepal's energy and infrastructure development. Alphabet Incs Sidewalk Labs has reportedly signed a new agreement to begin planning for the build-out in what will be an experimental Toronto waterfront neighborhood called Quayside. The smart city project was initially approved way back in October but concerns expressed by local residents during a community meeting in November prompted the negotiation of a new agreement for the project. Primarily, those include an agreement to continue consulting both Waterfront Toronto and the general public about proposed changes and a general push toward the use of technology to further Torontos best interests. Those interests will need to align with the oversight agency and the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation Act. Moreover, the agreement calls for the founding of Digital Governance Framework Principles, which will center around data sovereignty, security, and usage. Finally, the project plan must be approved by Waterfront Torontos board of directors and Sidewalk labs by the end of September 2019. Of Quaysides projected approximately $1 billion cost, $50 million has been set aside for the planning stages alone. $10 million of that was approved with the initial go-ahead with a further $40 million being placed under a hold by Alphabet pending this weeks approval. Now that the agreement has been finalized and approval granted by Waterfront Toronto via a unanimous decision, Sidewalk Labs will be able to continue work. That doesnt necessarily mean that it will move through to completion since the new deal effectively requires continued agreement from both the city and locals. However, if everything goes smoothly the plans should be finalized and made public by the end of the year. In the meantime, because planning has only just begun this week, details about what Sidewalk Labs has envisioned for the development are still being kept under wraps. The company has previously indicated that it wants to use bleeding edge technologies such as machine learning, machine vision, and A.I. to augment the infrastructure for an improved standard of living. Namely, that would mean better energy and resource efficiency within the project as well as improved traffic flow alongside infrastructure to support self-driving vehicles. Sustainability and affordability are other aspects of the development that Sidewalk has said it would like to address. YouTube is now rolling out a new feature, which appears to only be available for select channels at this point, which is YouTube Stories. A feature that has been coming to virtually every major social media platform since Facebook decided to copy it from Snapchat last year. YouTube Stories is a feature that allows creators to share things directly to their feed and they will disappear after 24 hours. This is a good way for creators to be able to share behind-the-scenes footage to their viewers, without having to edit and upload a longer video. The format of YouTube Stories is very similar to what Facebook and Instagram have. And it even includes them at the top of the app. On channels that have been given Stories, youll see a new tab available, where you can see their stories. So if you do happen to find a new channel that you are subscribing to, you are able to look over and see what their Stories are and see more about that actual channel. YouTube also uses a red ring around the channels logo if they currently have a Story on the video sharing platform for you to watch. This is again very similar to Instagram, which uses a orange and purple ring which matches their colors. YouTube Stories, may not be something that immediately takes off, but it is another way for creators to share things with their users. And since many creators spend most of their time on YouTube, it makes sense to share things in YouTube Stories. However, at this time, there doesnt seem to be any word about monetizing YouTube stories. But since this is a Google company, you can rest assured that Google is looking into how to monetize Stories, and ads will likely be rolling out soon. Govt to open centres for nursing mothers The government has decided to establish breastfeeding rooms for nursing mothers at public places and health service centres across the country.To this end, the first ever breastfeeding room was inaugurated at the Department of Health Services (DoHS) in the Capital on Wednesday. AuthorA large group of Spanish military officers now retired who were on active duty during the Political Transition period after General Francos death have released a statement calling to respect the memory of the Spanish dictator. The document is more reminiscent of a complaint lodged over the breach of a contract than of an ideological proclamation. As it happens in such cases, they claim to have honoured the deal while the other signing party hasnt. These officers, on active duty during the 1970s, were one of the signing parties to the [tacit] contract for Spains Political Transition. Even though they had the upper hand, they grudgingly allowed political parties to be made legal, free elections to be held and the exercise of basic liberties. In exchange for that, the Franco regime would not be subjected to scrutiny. Not only would the regimes misdeeds go unpunished, but their consequences and any privileges derived from them would be accepted as a matter of course. Therefore, nobody would be held to account for their past actions, the monarchy would not be voted on and Spains unity, as they understand it, would be sacred. Their complaint comes now that they are possibly getting the feeling that the compensation offered to them back in the day, in exchange for showing tolerance towards the new regime, is in jeopardy, to some extent. And so they urge the other party to keep their side of the bargain, a deal which a sizeable number of people do not wish to be eternal. Russia has reportedly delivered $200 million worth of weapons to Armenia as part of a loan deal Moscow extended to help Yerevan build up its military capabilities, Asbarez.com reports. BM-30 Smerch (Picture source: Army Recognition) Moscow granted Armenia a $200 million credit in 2015 to buy Russian weapons and modernize its armed forces. The countrys new prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, who took office following peaceful anti-corruption protests this spring, has since promised to continue pursuing friendly relations with Russia. Under the agreement, Armenia purchased missile launchers, surface-to-air missile systems and ground-based radio reconnaissance technology, the state-run TASS news agency said. The arms provided under the $200 million contract are advanced and modern, and are not even in service yet in Russia, the Armenpress news agency quoted Armenias Defense Minister David Tonoyan as saying Sunday. In addition, sniper rifles, guided missiles and grenade launchers, Russias RBC business portal reported in 2016 that Moscow was due to send Armenia BM-30 multiple launch rocket systems. Taiwanese Prime minister William Lai said Thursday the countrys defense budget is likely to increase by NT$18.3 billion (US$592 million) in 2019. We have to demonstrate our determination to protect Taiwan so as to gain support from international society, said Prime minister William Lai (Picture source: US Naval Institute) The premier gave an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (and reported by the Taiwan News) and said the Executive Yuan had drawn up a defense budget of NT$346 billion (US$11 billion) for 2019, growing by 5.6 percent compared to the previous year, which stood at NT$327.7 billion (US$10.6 billion). We have to demonstrate our determination to protect Taiwan so as to gain support from international society, said Lai. The budget plan proposed by the Executive Yuan will be forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for review and approval. The defense budget for the coming year accounts for roughly 2.16 percent of Taiwan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the highest over the past 10 years. The increase in defense budget is necessary for the security of the country in the face of growing military maneuvers from China in the region, said Lai. The increased budget will be allocated to force development and procurement, personnel costs, and administrative expenditures, said Lai. The premier said the budget plan is backed by President Tsai Ing-wen, who reaffirmed to foreign scholars at a forum on the security of the Asia-Pacific on Tuesday in Taipei that the countrys defense expenditures would keep pace with its needs and GDP growth. We are committed to robust defense and deterrence forces, said President Tsai. And we are developing our indigenous defense industry as well. The U.S. authorities have constantly expressed that Taiwan should increase its defense budget as the imbalance of military capabilities across the Taiwan Strait has grown rapidly in recent years. The U.S. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019 includes provisions supporting senior military-to-military engagement between the U.S. and Taiwan, and states that the U.S. should provide military sales to Taiwan, particularly for developing its asymmetric warfare capabilities. COP26 may be a cop-out in the making COP26 is just about a month away. Delayed for a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has built up even more expectations and momentum during the intervening months India closes its field office in Biratnagar The Government of India has shut down its field office in Biratnagar on Wednesday, bringing to an end its official presence in Nepals southern plains after a decade. Though the office has suspended all its operations, field officials say it will take some time for them to vacate the office. He will be joined by two partners who are relocating from KWM Shanghai; Mark Schaub, who was the first foreign lawyer to join the firm back in 2000; and Meg Utterback, who has been with KWM for 8 years and is a former office managing partner for Pillsbury in Shanghai. Also joining the London office in a lateral hire is partner Alix Prentice who joins from Withers. I am delighted to take on the role of Managing Partner but also humbled by the support I have received from my Partners in London and across the wider KWM network. The move to the new office together with the addition of three outstanding and experienced partners, with their strong international and Chinese connections, underlines KWMs commitment to and on-going investment in our London practice, commented Roiser. Increased headcount helps exceptional growth at Kennedys Global firm Kennedys saw a year of exceptional growth in 2017-18 with new offices and increased headcount. The firm reported 31% growth in revenues globally to 196m this week. A criminal solicitor has been struck off by the UKs Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) for charging for made-up work to fund his cocaine habit. Dominic Ingle, once a self-employed police station representative, admitted to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that he submitted about 40 fraudulent invoices, each amounting to 100, to two law firms in the Manchester-Lancashire area. The invoices were claimed to be for police station attendances, which he did not make. He said he committed fraud because his income started drying up. Based in Auckland, Willis is an expert in corporate law. He has particular experience in M&A, capital markets, and restructuring. He joined the firm in 2015 from Russell McVeagh, where he was senior solicitor. He was also an associate at elite New York firm Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft for three years. Henry is a very talented corporate lawyer with a depth of experience across the full range of corporate work, including significant expertise in securities law and financial markets regulation, financial restructuring and insolvency. His admission to the partnership further strengthens our New Zealand corporate offering, said partner Garth Sinclair. Founding partner Angus Henderson congratulated Rose and Willis. These appointments continue our focus on growing the partnership through home-grown talented lawyers. Our expected growth path over the long term provides opportunities for our best young lawyers to develop their careers and move through to partnership, he said. Hello, My partner is living in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. I called NSW service and asked them how can i for relationship if he's not here in AUS. He said he needs to go to Australian Embassy/consulate and provide his Statutory Declaration for the application(for authorised witness requirement). The thing is there is no Australian Embassy/consulate in Newcastle upon Tyne; only in London. What should we do now? Another question how can he send his certified copies of forms of identification from the UK? Only the first 2 pages of AUS passport is required? VTOL The Europeans are already in cahoots with Audi in a battle for flying taxi supremacy against Uber and have announced in May the creation of the Urban Air Mobility division which will be testing the developed products in Ingolstadt.With that in mind, the Americans from Boeing performed a flanking maneuver this week and announced the creation of the new Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the grounds of MITs mixed-use district.The center will be tasked with designing, building and flying autonomous aircraft. Work will be conducted there by both Boeing employees and those from its Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary.Aurora, a company purchased by Boeing in late 2017, is already specializing in the creation of autonomous aircraft, starting with the algorithms and architectures that govern them and ending with clean sheet aircraft designs."Boeing is leading the development of new autonomous vehicles and future transportation systems that will bring flight closer to home," said in a statement Greg Hyslop, Boeing chief technology officer."By investing in this new research facility, we are creating a hub where our engineers can collaborate with other Boeing engineers and research partners around the world and leverage the Cambridge innovation ecosystem."The aerospace giant did not provide any details about what type of autonomous aircraft it is working on. Aurora, on the other hand, is already developing several vertical take-off and landing () projects, including the eVTOL, the Orion drone, or the optionally piloted aircraft (OPA) Centaur.Perhaps the most exciting of their products is the XV-24A LightingStrike experimental plane, a platform which will be used to demonstrate the endless possibilities provided by tilt wing and canard configurations. Imre Marton, a former bus driver from the UK, has been stalked by the same woman a complete stranger for a 6 full years. Today, she is behind bars for repeatedly violating a restraining order he got in her name, but he still lives in fear of what she might do to him.His message is one meant to remove the stigma around male victims, and to help them seek the help they need.This isnt the first time that Imres story makes international headlines and, considering how incredible it is, its no wonder. He was even featured on a BBC documentary last November, in which he detailed the lengths Howells went to to make his life a living hell.It all started in 2012, when he worked as a bus driver in Oxfordshire. He started noticing her on his bus and, soon enough, he realized that she was making round trips without a destination. She would also sit close behind him so she could sniff him, and soon started following him on the street, as well.One day, she came up to him and asked him out, but he turned her down since he was already in a relationship. She started crying and her behavior grew worse from that day on.All these years, shes texted him up to 500 messages a day, sent him notes and letters, love messages and threats, showed up at his home and his favorite bar, and repeatedly threatened to kill him. She even did it from prison, after he did the aforementioned BBC documentary, laughing at him for going on camera with the revelation that he was wearing a stab vest because he was afraid she might try to knife him to death.Today, Imre is no longer working as a bus driver and has moved to a different city. He tells the Mirror hes only breaking his silence again to urge victims of violence and stalking to get proper help. His example is proof of the worst that can happen, he says.I cant even think about looking for love again. I have too many trust issues and bad memories. Her behavior has also cost me 10,000 a year because of missed shifts, avoiding overtime and changing jobs. Its left me almost bankrupt, meaning I cant afford to move back to my family in Hungary, he says.When I close the curtains, thats my happy place. I have two-way film on the windows, I cant see out and others cannot see in. My neighbors dont know me. I am so wary of people, Imre explains, adding that he lives like a 90-year-old. I am speaking out because I want to warn others about Howells and for stalking victims to seek help. The accident occurred at the weekend, when Lynne took her horse Jess out for a ride. With them was Lynnes husband, on foot. The footage released online was captured by Lynnes mounted camera but it has since been removed from Facebook.You can see a snippet from it at the bottom of the page. You hear Lynne and her husband chatting away, as a car approaches them on the narrow country road. It doesnt seem to slow down, not even when she starts screaming as a means to warn him that hes coming too close.The actual impact isnt shown on camera, but movement of the camera suggests that the car made contact with the horse and the womans husband, whos shown next on the ground, nursing an injured arm.The scene continues in the same typically-British way: the driver gets out of the car to apologize, and the woman rips into him because he had tried to kill her. She is convinced that he plowed into them on purpose and she threatens to call the police on him.You hit me. Youve hit me husband. And youre all on bloody camera. So thats it. Police phoned. Why did you try and kill me? Eh? Why did you try and kill me?, she says, as the driver is trying to apologize. You didnt make a mistake, you did it on purpose.In an update, Lynne wrote that both her horse and her husband were ok, and added that she couldnt call the police on the spot because she didnt have her phone on her. She also says the man is someone from the village and that he plowed into them because he was on his phone, thus not paying attention to the road.Strangely enough, after the media picked on the story, Lynne deleted her posts. Reports say that she didnt call the police, either. The man is now in custody, because, in trying to set fire to the 7-Eleven on Richmond Avenue in Staten Island, he nearly set himself ablaze as well. He managed to survive, but hes in hospital with internal throat injuries, the NY Daily News reports.Video from the surveillance cameras is available at the bottom of the page. A store clerk told the cops that the young man came inside the shop and asked to buy a canister and $40 worth of gasoline. Ironically, the store clerk told him that this was too much gas to fit in the can, but the man assured him that he had a car parked outside.Police officers told the media outlet that he had arrived at the gas station in a blue minivan. He lied about having a car, though: as you can see in the video, he filled the can with gas and then removed the hose and splashed gas on the ground, all around him.When he was done, he took the receipt from the store and lit it up. However, the wannabe arsonist didnt count on such a powerful blaze, so when he bent down to set fire to the gas, his face was surrounded by flames, too.The footage shows him able to run away from the blaze, just before the fire suppression system turns on and puts the blaze out completely.The man is now being treated at the Richmond University Medical Center; he is in serious but stable condition. The NYPD is urging anyone with information about his identity to come forward: at the time of the incident, on Monday, he was wearing a light long-sleeved shirt, dark shorts and dark slippers. To leave Earth onboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, the solar probe has just cleared the final procedures in the clean room. It will now be moved to the launch pad inside its 62.7-foot tall fairing.This mission is one of NASAs most important when it comes to studying the sun. Parker will travel through the Suns atmosphere, at a proximity never achieved before by any other man-made spacecraft.This would allow the first ever close study of a star, and the probes approach is dubbed by the American space agency humanitys first visit to a star. It will come within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, a distance that at first glance seems to be enough to keep it safe.But NASA says that the distance is enough to make the probe face heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. To survive, it has been fitted with a cutting-edge Thermal Protection System (TPS).The heat shield weighs about 160 pounds and has a foam core made of 97 percent air. The foam sits between two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite, sprayed on the sun-facing side with a specially formulated white coating.It is supposed to make to probe capable of surviving temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,371 degrees Celsius), while keeping the spacecraft and its instruments cool at 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius).The mission of the Parker probe is to study our suns corona and see how it can affect Earth and other worlds as per the provisions of the Living with a Star Program (or LWS) run by NASA.The Parker Solar Probe was created by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which will also operate the spacecraft during its projected mission. According to the statement released by FCA, there are an estimated 1.1 million U.S.-market pickup trucks that will be sent to dealers to fix a problem with the tailgate locking mechanisms.FCA says an internal investigation discovered that the power locking mechanisms in the tailgates of certain pickups share a small internal component that may break over time. In case this happens, the vehicles tailgate may unlatch.The affected models are the entire Ram lineup, the 1500 2500 and 3500 pickups, manufactured under model years 2015 through 2017. Trucks of the same model years equipped with manual tailgate locks, as well as with eight-foot cargo beds, are excluded from this recall.FCA says that the newer, 2019 model year Ram has already been fitted with a new mechanism design that eliminates the risk of failure.Until the problem is fixed, FCA advises those who own affected trucks to secure loose cargo while driving to prevent unwanted incidents, as stated in the operating manuals. They are even advised to look into alternate load security options, like tie-down rings, cleats, high-friction bed-liners, bulkhead dividers, and bed-extenders.To date, the carmaker says it is not aware of any injuries or accidents related to this issue.After it completes the fixing operations for the trucks on the U.S. market, FCA says it will begin providing fixes for over 260,000 trucks sold in Canada, 19,000 in Mexico and 25,000 in certain markets outside the NAFTA region.In the document attached below you can find the statement FCA released on the subject. The carmaker did not provide any information on when the recall will begin. Just like in all other recalls, the fix for the problem will come free of charge for the owners. Janakpur High Court issues mandamus The Janakpur High Court has issued a mandamus order to the District Police Office (DPO) in Mahottari to arrest the murder suspects of Armed Police Force (APF) officer Thaman BK. If youre into video game development, consider applying to Tesla. We want to make super fun games that integrate the center touch screen, phone & car irl. Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2018 Some of best classic @Atari games coming as Easter eggs in Tesla V9.0 release in about 4 weeks. Thanks @Atari! Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2018 When asked by a fellow Twitter user about Pac-Man , Food Fight, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Tempest, and Missile Command, the chief executive officer answered as follows: Hoping to include last three in this release. But wait, theres more in the offing!Pole Position [is] linked to actual car steering wheel (while stationary), according to Elon Musk , which concluded that Tesla V9.0 would roll out in about four weeks. In the final Tweet, the head honcho of the Palo Alto-based company didnt forget to thank Atari for agreeing to these Easter Eggs.Even though its still alive and kicking, Atari is no longer the visionary corporation it was back in the 70s and 80s. Headquartered in Paris, France instead of its stomping ground of Sunnyvale, California, the company trades on the Paris Stock Exchange. At the time of writing, a share is 0.47, down from a 2018 high of 0.82 in February. The peak was achieved in September 2009, when a share was valued at 10.6.In addition to this nostalgia-infused gamer's delight, Tesla V9.0 will bring a multitude of enhancements to the menu. A more expansive and better Autopilot, Dash Cam functionality, and something called Party & Camper Mode have been more or less confirmed.If youre hoping to get Level 3 semi-autonomous driving technology with this update, chances are thats wishful thinking for the time being. And when you think about it, Spotify integration and USB media playback have priority over the next generation of Autopilot. Boeing has announced plans to open a research and development facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys (MIT) new mixed-use district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center will provide space for Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, along with Boeing employees. According to Boeing, the work at the facility will focus on designing, building and flying autonomous aircraft and developing enabling technologies. Boeing is leading the development of new autonomous vehicles and future transportation systems that will bring flight closer to home, said Boeing chief technology officer Greg Hyslop. By investing in this new research facility, we are creating a hub where our engineers can collaborate with other Boeing engineers and research partners around the world and leverage the Cambridge innovation ecosystem. Center employees will also help develop new technologies for programs that are part Boeings recently announced NeXt division. Boeing will lease 100,000 square feet of research and lab space inside a new 17-floor building for the Center. The building is being constructed as part of MITs Kendall Square Initiative, a plan that involves the university developing a total of six buildings that will provide space for research labs, offices, housing and retail. There is already an Aurora Flight Sciences research and development facility located at Kendall Square, but Aurora employees will move to the Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center once construction is finished. For the first time, remains from one of the 27 Tuskegee Airmen declared missing during World War II have been positively identified, the Pentagon announced last week. U.S. Army Air Forces Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson served as a pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, in the European Theater. On Dec. 23, 1944, Capt. Dickson departed Ramitelli Air Base, Italy, on an aerial reconnaissance mission flying a P-51D aircraft. On his return flight, his airplane developed engine trouble, and two P-51s were sent to escort him back to base. Capt. Dickson radioed that he was going to bail out, but the two other pilots said they were unable to see Dicksons white canopy, due to the snow-covered ground below. The airplane crashed, but Dickson could not be found, and he was subsequently declared missing in action. In 2012, investigators from the Pentagons Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency found the crash site near the Austrian border, with help from a local resident who had seen the site as a child. Last summer, students from the University of New Orleans and the University of Innsbruck were part of an excavation team that found what they believed were Captain Dicksons remains, according to The New York Times. DNA analysis confirmed the identity of the pilot. Capt. Dicksons daughter, Marla Lawrence Dickson Andrews, now 76, was just two years old when her father disappeared. I had given up a long time ago, Ms. Andrews, 76, said on Monday, The New York Times reported. Now, I dont have to worry. A majority of business owners, including small business owners, surveyed in a new poll support additional tariffs on China, Mexico, Europe and Canada, although most expect negative effects on the economy if there's a trade war, according to new UBS polling provided exclusively to Axios. Why it matters: Trump has faced trade retaliation from allies and harsh criticism over his tariffs from both sides of the aisle most recently from the conservative Koch network, but this polling paints a more nuanced picture of public opinion on the issue. One likely reason for the support for tariffs is that business owners tend to be more U.S. focused, Michael Crook, Head of Americas UHNW and Institutional Strategy at UBS, told Axios. This could lead to the perception that additional trade barriers for foreign imports would give them less competition. Business owners also tend to be more Republican-leaning, he added. The other side: While 59% of the high net worth investors surveyed by UBS also support more tariffs on Chinese exports, less than half wanted additional tariffs on Canada, Mexico or the EU. By the numbers: Percentage support for tariffs among business owners: China (71%), Mexico (66%), Europe (64%) and Canada (60%). among business owners: China (71%), Mexico (66%), Europe (64%) and Canada (60%). Almost half of business owners said a trade war would have a negative impact on the economy. on the economy. Worth noting: 44%, a plurality, think it would have a positive impact on their own business up 21% since April. 44%, a plurality, think it would have a positive impact on their own business up 21% since April. Similarly, in a recent Gallup poll, Americans were most likely to say tariffs were harmful rather than helpful to the U.S. economy, but a majority did not see them affecting their employers. Americans were most likely to say tariffs were harmful rather than helpful to the U.S. economy, but a majority did not see them affecting their employers. Business owners seem far more concerned about the possibility of a trade war with China than investors. 69% of business owners said they were concerned, while only 31% of investors said that they thought the trade disputes with China were the start of a trade war. far more concerned about the possibility of a trade war with China than investors. 69% of business owners said they were concerned, while only 31% of investors said that they thought the trade disputes with China were the start of a trade war. However, fewer investors think the dispute is "more talk than action than did a few months ago, dropping from 62% in April to 42% in July. Details on the survey: In mid-July, UBS interviewed 501 high net worth investors and 300 business owners making at least $250k in annual revenue and with at least one other employee other than themselves. Business owners worked in more than 20 industries . There's a 6% margin of error for business owners and 4.5% for investors. Heat waves in the North China Plain China's breadbasket are predicted to become so severe, they would "limit habitability in the most populous region of the most populous country on Earth," a new study finds. The big picture: Such heat waves could both threaten lives and dampen economic output in the region, where 400 million people live. Earlier studies along with a separate new analysis released Thursday found the potential emergence of extreme heat waves from China to West Africa to South Asia that are far worse than those currently experienced. Key findings: Like the previous two studies by this MIT team, which focused on the Persian Gulf region and South Asia, the researchers found that given the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions, extreme heat waves are likely to emerge in the agricultural region of the North China Plain between 2070 and 2100. (In the Gulf, the most severe heat is projected to occur over the Gulf waters, rather than land.) The North China Plain is one of the most-threatened areas of the globe due to heat extremes, the study found. The soil there is ideal for agriculture, having been formed from the Yellow, Huai and Hai rivers. Irrigation tends to lower air temperatures, but increase evaporation with the net effect of making heat waves more intense and intolerable for the human body. Spatial distribution of extreme wet-bulb temperature in eastern China, including the North China Plain (boxed region), shown with irrigation (IRR) and without. The three images represent historical and future projections based on different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Image: Suchil and Eltahir, Nature Communications 2018. How they did it: Elfatih Eltahir and co-author Suchil Kang of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology focused on wet bulb temperatures measures of the amount of water vapor in the air that are taken by wrapping a wet cloth around the bulb (or sensor) of a thermometer, to let evaporation of water cool the bulb. At 100% humidity, with no evaporation possible, the wet-bulb temperature equals the actual temperature. The study combines wet bulb temperatures with air temperatures to arrive at a thermal index that corresponds to how the human body responds to heat. The researchers ran a group of regional climate models to simulate changes to this thermal index across the North China Plain region. They looked at the climate during the past 30 years, and used the models that produced the closest matches to reality in order to project future climate in this area. What it means: As global temperatures increase, the researchers predict heat waves will become far less tolerable as the combination of air temperatures and humidity levels causes the maximum wet bulb temperature to reach or even exceed 35C, or 95F. The study identifies this as the level at which the human body cannot survive beyond six straight hours of exposure. This would apply in particular to those working outside, such as farmers and construction workers. "Climate change could bring a significant risk of deadly heat waves, heat waves that are very severe, heat waves that touch on livability for humans." Study coauthor Elfatih Eltahir of MIT The North China Plain region examined in this study is likely to see a 3 to 4C, or 5.4 to 7.2F, increase in wet bulb temperature by 2100 under a business-as-usual emissions scenario, the study found. The risk of such extreme heat would be significantly reduced if greenhouse gas emissions were to be cut, however. China is both the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, and the most vulnerable to climate change-related heat extremes, the study points out. Uncertainties: The study's authors tried to reduce the uncertainties associated with regional climate model simulations by using a group of models. It's possible they overestimated the effects of irrigation on heat waves, though observational evidence already supports the emergence of extreme heat waves in this region. According to Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, "this study too likely underestimates the risk of increased heat waves because it relies upon a modeling framework...that is unlikely to capture the increase in persistent summer weather extremes." Additional evidence: In a separate report released Thursday, the risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft also zeroed in on the wet bulb temperature factor involved in future heat waves. It found that the human body is likely to experience heat stress "in all instances" when performing strenuous exercise when the wet bulb temperature hits 32C, or 89.6F. Their analysis found four regions where, absent adaptation efforts, rising heat stress will significantly reduce nations' export values: West Africa, Central Africa, Middle East/North Africa, and Southeast Asia. 10.8% of West Africa's export value will be at risk by 2045, hitting Nigeria and Cote dIvoire particularly hard, since so much of this region's exports come from extractive industries that are outdoor labor intensive, per the report. "But the implications go beyond the boardroom. Reduced product availability and rising production costs will have a ripple effect throughout the global supply chain, meaning consumers will see prices rise." Alice Newman, Verisk Maplecroft analyst Go deeper: 2018's global heat wave is so pervasive it's surprising scientists. A Chinese company dropped its bid to acquire an advanced manufacturer in Germany after the German government prepared to veto the deal, reports Caixin Global. The big picture: U.S. lawmakers are already working to strengthen reviews of foreign investments, primarily to block Beijing from acquiring U.S. tech and defense secrets. The fear that Chinese tech investments will give Beijing an economic and national security edge is now hitting Europe, too. The details: Ivanka Trump said at an Axios event on Thursday that she doesn't view the media as the "enemy of the people," breaking with President Trump's repeated public statements. Why it matters: Ivanka noted that she herself has been the subject of stories she knows to be false, but that she doesn't believe the media is the enemy. More from our interview with Ivanka Trump: Three independent Russian journalists were murdered on July 31 in the Central African Republic (CAR) while filming a documentary on the Wagner Group, the mysterious Kremlin-linked military contractor operating in that country. The circumstances of their deaths are still unknown, but the incident follows the mysterious death of another Russian journalist who investigated the organization. The big picture: With deployments in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan in addition to CAR, the Wagner Group has become an active, although still unofficial, component of Russias foreign policy and military toolkit at a time when the Kremlin is expanding its reach across Africa. The Wagner Group gained notoriety in February after hundreds of its fighters were killed in a failed attack on U.S. forces in Syria, although the Russian government then denied any connection to the group. But Russia has clearly been increasing its African presence, providing debt relief, weapons sales and military assistance. Russia is by far Africas largest arms supplier, accounting for about 35% of the continents weapons imports. Russian companies often get lucrative access to explore for and extract oil, gas and other natural resources in return. In December 2017, Russia secured a United Nations exemption to the CAR arms embargo allowing it to supply light weapons to its military struggling to contain the sectarian violence that has ravaged the country since 2014. The exemption came two months after Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov met with CAR President Touadera to strengthen ties, resulting in infrastructure contracts and mining exploration concessions. Moscow sent the arms in early 2018, along with 175 military and civilian trainers. The Wagner Group was part of that deployment, and it also reportedly provides protection for the countrys mines and government facilities. The bottom line: The Wagner Groups activity in CAR reveals how Russia has grown its influence in Africa, even in regions where Western countries traditionally have wielded considerable influence. As Russia rebuild its web of African relationships, the shadowy nature of Wagners mercenary network provides Moscow deniability should its military activities there go awry. Paul Stronski is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace. The White House announced Wednesday they have instructed the Treasury Department to implement sanctions against Turkeys Minister of Justice and Minister of Interior for their roles in the arrest and detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. The backstory: Brunson was detained after the 2016 failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has been released from prison but remains under house arrest, facing terrorism and espionage charges, which he vehemently denies. His detention is a further point of contention with Erdogan with whom Trump had personally been friendly despite his increasingly authoritarian behavior. Sanders added that President Trump had spoken to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the matter explaining, "Weve seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government of Turkey." Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly responded to the sanctions and called on the Trump administration to reverse their decision explaining they "strongly protest" the decision. Peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan may be further along than previously thought, according to the Daily Beast's Spencer Ackerman. The details: Former U.S. Army Colonel Chris Kolenda and former U.S. Ambassador Robin Raphel have been speaking with Taliban representatives since November, having a series of meetings in Doha, Qatar. What began as an unauthorized trip "proved to be instrumental in convincing the Trump administration... that there was a real chance" to end the U.S.' longest war. The context: Peace in Afghanistan has been elusive, to put it mildly, but a ceasefire between the Taliban and the Afghan government in June planted another seed of hope. President Trump ordered direct negotiations with the Taliban in July, after growing frustrated with the lack of progress since unveiling his Afghanistan strategy last year. Kolenda told the Daily Beast that although he had been involved in talks during the Obama administration, this go-around was different because of the seriousness expressed by the Taliban during their meeting in Doha. Publicly, Taliban officials continue to say that foreign occupation of Afghanistan is a non-starter for negotiations. But, Ackerman reports, they've "indicated an extraordinary flexibility" in private. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, the secretary general of the arms control group Pugwash Conferences who has been instrumental in keeping lines open to the Taliban, told the Daily Beast: "They don't want the troops, but if there are enough guarantees that the troops aren't fighting them, then it can be discussed." "The American government's position has evolved. They finally came to accept that it really is a stalemate. While the Taliban can't win in a traditional way, we can't win either." Robin Raphel State Department officials are maintaining that the U.S. is playing a supporting role in negotiations. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said previously that the U.S. will "support, facilitate, and participate" in peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but the talks will be primarily between those two entities. Kolenda, Raphel and Cotta-Ramusino traveled to Kabul on June 23 to meet with Afghan officials. Ackerman reports that they heard "enthusiasm for the peace process and a sense that the U.S. needed to help break the diplomatic logjam inhibiting it." The bottom line: This process has barely begun, per Ackerman; "[e]very hard question about the future course of Afghanistan, and the U.S. presence within it, remains untested." Go deeper: Migrant workers suffer as agents use fake papers Four Nepali women were detained at Chandigarh Airport in India and another Nepali man was arrested from Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday for possessing fake No Objection Certificate (NOC). Incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa has won Zimbabwe's presidential election, according to results read out moments ago by the country's electoral commission. The backstory: The election, the first since the end of Robert Mugabe's 38-year reign, had seemed to represent a historic opportunity for the southern African country. It has thus far yielded only anger, fear and violence. The opposition, led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, has already rejected the results, which showed him securing 44% to Mnangagwa's 51%. Monday's vote proceeded relatively smoothly. Then, order broke down. Al Jazeera's Hamza Mohamed reports from Harare: "On Wednesday, after electoral officials announced that Mnangagwa's ruling ZANU-PF party won most of the parliamentary vote, opposition supporters who claim Monday's poll was rigged took to the streets, burning tires and throwing stones before riot police and the army intervened. Witnesses say soldiers fired live bullets." "Chamisa claimed victory before the release of official results. Meanwhile, Mnangagwa said he was in talks with the opposition to find ways to defuse the situation." The FT's David Pilling describes the stakes for a country in the grips of a currency crisis, and with not nearly enough jobs to support its well-educated population: "Down one fork, if a clear winner emerges in a poll deemed to pass muster, Zimbabwe could shed its pariah status and be reinstated into the global community. That could mean a restructuring of debt arrears and a potential flood of investment into one of Africas most promising economies." Down the other, "lies a progressive falling out with western capitals although not necessarily with China. Zimbabwe would then hunker back down into an isolationist sulk." History has loomed over this election decades of one-party rule, Mnangagwa's role in enforcing Mugabe's repression, ZANU-PF's history of rigging elections. After the most open election Zimbabwe has seen in decades, it remains unclear how much has changed. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 73 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said August 2. Armenian armed forces were using large-caliber machine guns. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov Armenia should take advantage of another chance provided by Azerbaijan and show appropriate constructivism during the negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a well-known Turkish expert, professor Togrul Ismayil told Day.Az on August 1. He was commenting on the news about the next meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September. The expert positively assessed this and noted the importance of the upcoming meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian officials. I support a peaceful way of resolving this problem within the rules and norms of international law. Armenia, having occupied the territory of a foreign state, clearly violated the norms of international law, and still refuses to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions, which is not acceptable for Azerbaijan, Ismayil stressed. The expert added that Yerevan should realize the deplorable situation in which Armenia has been staying for many years. Pashinyans government must seriously realize that by continuing the aggression against Azerbaijan, Armenia itself loses in all aspects and deprives itself of the last chance to get out of the economic and political impasse, Ismayil mentioned. Because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia has no economic relations and transport links with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Thus, Armenia has turned into the black sheep of the region. The economy of the country remains critical, demonstrating incredibly low indexes every year. Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova The Food Safety Agency warned the population about protection against viral diseases of animals and poultry that can migrate to Azerbaijan from other countries. The Agency reported that the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N8) among poultry in the Ryazan, Samara, Tula, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in Tatarstan and Chuvashia, and nodular dermatitis in cattle in the Samara region of Russia. In this regard, the import of poultry and poultry products from these regions are temporarily limited. Also, due to the fact that cattle in the Samara region have been diagnosed with nodular dermatitis, legal and physical persons who have applied for imported cattle from that country must take into account the relevant requirements of the World Organization for Animal Health, the Agency said. The Food Safety Agency sent an appeal to the State Customs Committee in connection with disinfection at customs checkpoints of vehicles from the mentioned regions of the Russian Federation or transit through these territories. Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries. Interregional cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and the increase in trade turnover. Trade representative of Azerbaijan to Russia Ruslan Aliyev told Trend that Azerbaijan plans to increase its exports to Russia by the end of 2018. The products worth $349.23 million were exported from Azerbaijan to Russia from January to June 2018, which is 5.76 percent more than in 1H2017. The volume of imports from Russia, in turn, amounted to $788.21 million, which is 0.29 percent more than in the first six months of 2017. Russia has been included in the list of Azerbaijans five largest trade partners in January-June 2018 with the volume of trade turnover of $ 1.14 billion (8.54 percent of the total volume of trade turnover). Azerbaijan invested more than $1 billion in the Russian economy, and Russia invested about $4 billion in the economy of Azerbaijan. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Rashid Shirinov Azerbaijan confirmed its interest in purchasing 10 Ukrainian An-178 aircraft, President of the state enterprise Antonov Alexander Donets told Ukrainian media on July 31. During the interview, he noted that there are demand and customers for the Ukrainian aircraft, pointing to the protocol of the last meeting with representatives of Azerbaijans Silk Way Airlines certified on July 11. They confirmed their interest in purchasing 10 An-178 aircraft. Most likely, these will be planes from the NEXT range with components supplied by Aviall company, Donets said. Asked about the price of the aircraft, he said that it would be possible to answer this question after the conditions of withdrawal of the components from warehouses are defined. An-178 is a military transport aircraft created by Antonov in April 2015. It is capable of delivering cargo up to 18 tonnes. The maximum speed of the plane reaches 850 kilometers per hour, while its highest altitude is approximately 12 kilometers. The first flight of the aircraft was operated on May 7, 2015. The plane was produced via computer-aided design and engineering and can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Replacement of four-engined turboprop by two-engined is considered to be one of the most fundamental distinctive features of An-178. The Antonov state enterprise is considered to be one of the few enterprises running the complete development cycle of advanced aircraft from preliminary design to construction, testing, certification, production and integrated logistic support. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Sara Israfilbayova India is interested in cooperation with the Agency for Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO). Indian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Sanjay Rana made the remarks at the meeting with Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev. The Ambassador stressed that India attaches great importance to relations with Azerbaijan. The International NorthSouth Transport Corridor is also of great importance for India, according to him. Mustafayev, in turn, said that the relations between Azerbaijan and India are at a high level, and noted that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with India. The minister noted the importance of mutual visits and meetings, the importance of the activities of the intergovernmental commission for cooperation in trade, economy, science and technology. The minister also underlined the expansion of cooperation in trade between the two countries and added that about 170 companies with Indian capital operate in Azerbaijan. It was said that there is a great potential for cooperation in the fields of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, tourism, information and communication technologies and other spheres, and there are great opportunities for export of non-oil products to Azerbaijan. India and Azerbaijan enjoy close friendly relations based on historical links and growing bilateral cooperation. Indias ONGC-Videsh is an equity partner in Oil and Gas sector in Azerbaijan. India recognized independence of Azerbaijan in December 1991. Diplomatic relations between the states were established in February 1992. Beyond their cooperation in oil and gas sectors, the two countries are further exploring cooperation in various areas. India has a strong foothold in the pharmaceutical sector in the global market as Indian products are of good quality and easily affordable. In order to fast-track the cooperation, Azerbaijani authorities since February 2016 have initiated the process of accepting dossiers for registration of Indian pharma products and the final registration of products is under way. Agriculture is also an area of India-Azerbaijan bilateral cooperation, which has already been highlighted by both the countries. The areas of cooperation in the agricultural sector are: cattle identification, agriculture machinery, plant breeding. Azerbaijan is also making concerted efforts to develop its food processing sector. Indian manufacturers of processing equipment and machinery should be able to find good opportunities for expanding their presence in Azerbaijan in this area. In 2017, Indias export to Azerbaijan has grown by more than 60 percent and total bilateral trade between India and Azerbaijan has reached around $460 million. --- Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Films transfer you to a world away from reality, a place where you feel excited, scared and happy during those two and a half hours. Azerbaijan has a rich history and has significantly contributed to the international film industry. National cinematography is well known worldwide. Countless national full-length and short films are now shown at various international film festivals. Shortly after the Lumiere brothers from France invented cinematographe, a new apparatus for making motion pictures, in 1895, Russian photographer and cameraman Alexandre Michon, began shooting motion pictures that depicted everyday life in Baku. The first short, silent film of Azerbaijani cinematography "You are caught" was shown in Baku on August 2, 1898. He made films about the life of native Baku, including "Fire at Bibi Eybat", "Oil fountain on Balakhany-Sabunchu field", "Caucasian Dance" and others. To honor this historical day, August 2 was declared as professional holiday of all cinema workers: honor directors, actors, script writers, lighting technicians, etc. It is a nationwide event that highlights the role of national cinematography. In the further, Azerbaijani film industry continued its development. In 1915 the Pirone brothers of Belgium set up a film production laboratory in Baku. At their invitation the director Boris Svetlov came to Baku and shot the films "The Woman", "An Hour before His Death" and "An Old Story in a New Manner". He also directed the film "In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions". Legendary Azerbaijani actor Huseyn Arablinski played Lutfali, the main role in this film. Azerbaijan's film industry enjoyed further tremendous growth. In 1916, Boris Svetlov shot the musical comedy "The cloth peddler" (Arshin Mal Alan), originally a silent movie with the musical parts performed in a studio and female roles played by male actors. The role of Gulchohra was played by Ahmad Aghdamski and Aunt Jahan was played by Y. Narimanov. This comic and romantic operetta is about pure love, women's rights, and fight against outdated traditions. With the establishment of Soviet power, a new era in the art of cinema began in the country. One of the first steps was the nationalization of films. Thus, all spheres of cinematography were in the state jurisdiction. In the same period, national cinema formed its image. In 1922, the leadership of the Azerbaijani SSR decided to create the first film factory in the country, which became the predecessor of today's film studio Azerbaijanfilm. In the following year, the Azerbaijan Photo Film Institution (APFI) was established by special decree of the Council of People's Commissars. , carrying out measures to nationalize and unite photo-cinemas and rental offices of individual entrepreneurs. APFI shot its first film The Maiden Tower Legend in 1924. It was the first Azerbaijani Soviet and was based on the legend about the Maiden Tower. In the 1930s, Russian director Boris Barnet filmed By the Bluest of Seas in Azerbaijan. The film, which is set on one of the country's islands in the Caspian Sea, has received a high evaluation from film critics. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Baku film studio mainly directed artistic-documentaries. During this period "Fatali Khan" (1947, film director V.I.Dzigan) and "The Baku Lights" (1950, film directors I.V.Xeyfits, A.G.Zarkhi and R.Tahmasib) were shot. In the middle of the 1950s, new stage of national films began. Film subjects included mainly labor and life of workers. The films "Under The Broiling Sun" (1957, film director L.Safarov), "Black Stones" (1958, film director A.Quliyev), "The Shades Are A Creeping" (1958, film directors I.Afandiyev and Sh.Sheykhov), "His Large Heart" (1959, film director A.Ibrahimov), "A True Friend" (1959, T.Tagizade), "Could He Be Forgiven" (1960, film director Tahmasib), "Our Street" (1961, film director A.Atakishiyev), "A Large Pier" (1962, film director H.Ismayilov), "A Telephone Girl", "There Is Such An Island As Well" 1962,1963, film director H.Seyidbayli), "Stepmother" (1959, film director H.Ismayilov) are brilliant examples of national films that shot during these years. After Azerbaijan gained its independence from the Soviet Union Azerbaijani film industry entered a new era. The change is being observed in the ideas and themes of films. Moreover, the first Baku International Film Festival East-West was held in country. As a model of caring for the movie industry, August 2 was announced as a professional film festival of employees. This year Azerbaijan's cinema celebrates its 120th anniversary. In conjunction with the anniversary President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on marking the 120th anniversary of Azerbaijani cinema. Nowadays Azerbaijan's film industry enjoys huge recognition at international film festivals. The national film industry develops in many ways. A number of national films like "Pomegranate Orchard", "The Steppe Man", "Man of the third day" have been highly appreciated by film critics. Many Azerbaijani film makers and actors are awarded with prestigious awards. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Music Festival "Caspian Sea 2018" is underway at the White City Boulevard. The event was organized jointly by the Youth Foundation of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Public Association of Youth Movement "Javan". A concert of Ahmedowsky trio was held as part of the festival. The musicians enthusiastically performed and mesmerized the audience. The concert was astonishingly performed. Everyone who enjoys listening to music can enjoy the music festival until September 1. The concerts take place every Saturday (20:00-23:00). At the festival area, participants are provided with a picnic, a variety of games and competitions. Entrance to the festival is free. Ahmedowsky trio was founded in 2016 June by Babek Ahmedowsky. It includes Babek Ahmedowsky ( bandleader, guitar, synth), Khudayat Ahmad (drum, percussion) and Muhammad Latifli (bass, synth). The Trio has peculiar sound consisting of neo funk, ambient/mugham jazz genres. In April 2017 Ahmedowsky Trio has released its EP debut album Sketches of Vagif. The album is dedicated to Azerbaijan's legendary jazzman Vagif Mustafazadeh. Furthermore trio has participated at I am Jazzman competition held in Baku and currently performs at concerts and festivals. Ahmedowsky Trio has signed a contract with American label "101 Moon Ave" for releasing the new 2018 album. The trio won prize at Bakool Art Festival and "I Am Jazzman" Competition, organized within Baku Jazz Festival. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend If Armenia wants peace, the Armenian soldiers must leave Azerbaijans lands, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said. President Aliyev made the remarks in Baku Aug. 1 at a ceremony to give out apartments and cars to the people disabled in the Karabakh war, Great Patriotic War, the Chernobyl disabled, and families of martyrs. "As for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, there is only one way to solve it - the territorial integrity of our country must be restored," the president said. Nagorno-Karabakh is our ancestral historical land, as evidenced by history, international law and all countries recognize and support the territorial integrity of our country. Great support to Azerbaijan in connection with the territorial integrity, sovereignty, inviolability of the countrys borders was outlined in the document titled "Partnership Priorities", initialed between the European Union and Azerbaijan last month, the president added. This is Azerbaijans another diplomatic victory. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed an order Aug. 1 to award Yuli Gusman with "Dostlug" order for his long-term fruitful services rendered to the development of cultural relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. --- Ministry draft gives clarity on foreign visits The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administrations (MoFAGA) draft directive gives go-ahead to local unit officials for foreign visits if they have invitation from United Nations (UN) agencies or any foreign government. By Trend Azerbaijan and Afghanistan signed a protocol on cooperation in defense industry, Ministry of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan said in a message. The signing took place on August 1 at a meeting in Baku between Deputy Minister of Defense Industry Yahya Musayev and members of a delegation headed by Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Afghanistan for CIS Countries Mohammad Shakir Kargar. During the talks, the sides discussed the directions of cooperation in the defense industry and other issues of mutual interest. Representatives of the Afghan Embassy in Azerbaijan attended the meeting. The delegation visited the enterprises of the Ministry of Defense Industry and watched the production process during the visit. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade rejected a recent report that one of its deputy ministers had been detained over corruption allegations surrounding car import fraud. In a statement on Wednesday, the ministrys public relations office said, A report published recently by one of the media outlets about the arrest of an Iranian deputy minister of industries, mines and trade is rejected." It added, None of [the ministrys] deputy heads are or have been under arrest," IRIB news agency reported. This comes after Fars news agency earlier in the day said that an unnamed Iranian deputy minister had been detained upon a judicial order and later released on bail. Spokesman of Irans judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, had said earlier that some 18 individuals were arrested over import fraud and that the prosecutors had been ordered to speed up the probe, show no leniency to the defendants and disregard their positions. According to Iranian media reports, vehicle imports have long been seen as monopolized by well-connected, mafia-style corporations, which have benefited from the rial's devaluation and enjoyed government privileges. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to allocate $600 million for the implementation of various projects in Uzbekistan in the coming months, Uzbek media outlets reported. The talks between the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Suma Chakrabarti, who was on a two-day visit to Tashkent on July 31-August 1, were held. Since last March, the EBRD has provided Uzbekistan with credit lines worth over $ 190 million to finance projects to support entrepreneurship in the country. Currently, the prospective projects in the field of rural infrastructure and housing construction, modernization of energy facilities and utilities, business support and other areas worth over $ 1 billion are under consideration. Of these, in the coming months, it is planned to approve projects worth up to $ 600 million. The work on the EBRD's strategy on cooperation with Uzbekistan is being finalized, the adoption of which is scheduled for September this year, the press service of the Uzbek head of state said. In addition, since November last year in Tashkent, the representative office of the bank resumed its activities; it is also planned to establish its branches in the regions of the country. EBRD experts took an active part in developing a new order aimed at improving the efficiency of preparation and implementation of investment projects in the country with the participation of international financial institutions. Joint work is also being done on a long-term program for reforming the energy sector and development of renewable energy in Uzbekistan. During the meeting, issues of further expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation and its filling with new programs and projects were discussed, primarily in the areas of support and development of reform strategies for key industries, enterprise pre-privatization preparation, the introduction of public-private partnership mechanisms, integrated development of regions, in the economy of the republic. As part of his visit, Chakrabarti also met with Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Board of Uzbekneftegaz JSC Alisher Sultanov. Thus, the EBRD plans to take part in financing the program of technical re-equipment, modernization and development of Uzbekistan's gas transportation system. It was agreed to provide proposals for the implementation of the program by the bank in the near future, including determining the preliminary amount of financing and indicative conditions, the Uzbekneftegaz press service noted. The EBRD head also pointed out that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is carrying out large-scale reforms, including in domestic and foreign policy, economy and other spheres. He stressed that the visit to the country will help the bank prepare its new medium-term strategy in Uzbekistan, aimed at supporting the attracting of new EBRD investments to the country and carrying out key reforms by the government. The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Central Asia, with close to 11.6 billion euros ($12.3 billion) committed to projects in a variety of sectors, from infrastructure to agriculture, with a focus on private sector development. It has successful experience of bringing innovation to Uzbekistans pharmaceutical sector through direct and indirect lending and a number of consultancy projects, which helped companies improve operational and financial management and obtain ISO 9001 and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificates. The bank has to date invested 897 million euros in Uzbekistan. Its current portfolio of projects in the country is 76 million euros. The EBRD aims to identify potential new projects in areas set out in a memorandum of understanding signed with the government authorities in March 2017. The EBRDs work in the country will focus in the short term on advice and financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, a trade finance programme to support cross-border trade and cooperation, and measures to improve the investment climate and competitiveness of the Uzbek economy, including through attracting foreign direct investment that will result in the transfer of technology and know-how. Currently, the bank together with the involved ministries and departments of Uzbekistan is in the process of development a draft of the EBRD country program for Uzbekistan, which will further expand the bank's interaction with the Central Asian nation. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The enterprises of Uzavtosanoat JSC plan to realize 10 investment projects for a total of $ 290.9 million during the period from 2018 to 2021. Of this amount, $ 227.8 million will be directed for the implementation of the projects under the approved investment program. This was announced on August 2 at an open meeting with the participation of Uzavtosanoat JSC, Uzagrogtehsanoatholding JSC and Uzeltehsanoat, organized by the State Committee of Uzbekistan for Investments, Podrobno.uz reported. It is noted that $ 65.1 million will be spent on the development of new models of cars, $ 110.7 million - for the development of new models of commercial vehicles, $ 45.7 million - for the development of components and $ 6.2 million - for the modernization of existing production facilities. Passenger cars, trucks, buses, special equipment, engines, a wide range of components and spare parts are produced at the enterprises of GM Uzbekistan, SamAuto, JV MAN Auto- Uzbekistan, General Motors Powertrain Uzbekistan established in cooperation with leading world companies. In 2017, GM Uzbekistan produced 140,247 cars. Thus, the growth rate was 59 percent compared to 2016. At the Samarkand Automobile Plant, 3,600 trucks and buses were manufactured and the growth rate amounted to 5.5 percent. In addition, last year the JV MAN Auto-Uzbekistan produced 1200 trucks and buses. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Kamila Aliyeva The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) exported 35.48 million tons of oil in January-July 2018, which is 11.77 percent more than in the same period of 2017, according to the CPC data, Kazinform reported. In July 2018, the volume of oil exports of CPC amounted to 5,158 million tons against 4,465 million tons in the corresponding month of the previous year. In 2018, the consortium plans to pump 67 million tons through its pipeline system. It is estimated that about 60 million of them will be produced in Kazakhstan, and about 7 million is expected to be received from Russian producers. An almost two-fold increase in oil consumption from Kashagan to 13 million tons is planned. Caspian Pipeline Consortium was established to build a pipeline and export Kazakh oil through Russian territory. CPC exported 55,107 million tons of oil in 2017, showing a 24.4 percent increase compared to 2016. CPC owns 1,511 km long pipeline system that connects the oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Marine Terminal near Russian Novorossiysk. In 2017 the Caspian Pipeline Consortium will complete the Expansion Project and which will increase its capacity to 67 million tons of oil per annum. Kazakh producer will account for 56 million tons of that volume and Russian producers - for 11 million tons. CPC Shareholders: Russia (represented by Transneft 24 percent and CPC Company 7 percent) 31 percent; Kazakhstan (represented by KazMunaiGaz 19 percent and Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC 1.75 percent) 20.75 percent; Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company 15 percent, LUKARCO B.V. 12.5 percent, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company 7.5 percent, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited 7.5 percent, BG Overseas Holding Limited 2 percent, Eni International N.A. N.V. 2 percent Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC 1.75 percent. The volume of CPC shipment of oil for export in 2017 was 55,107 million tons, which is 24.4 percent more than in 2016. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Two privately-owned Iranian banks, Parsian and Saman, plan to open branches in India, Chairman of Iran-India Business Council (IIBC) Ebrahim Jamili said. "Saman Bank and Bank Pasargad of Iran will open two branches in India in the near future," Jamili told ILNA news agency on July 31. He added that this could to a great extent help Iranian merchants As it could open up a significant financial channel that will ensure the smooth flow of funds between the two countries following the returning US sanctions and amid potential blockade of bank accounts. The official said the two sides are also exploring the possibility of reviving the rupee-rial arrangement in the wake of the sanctions. India has always remained committed to its obligations even during the sanctions era, Jamili stressed. The first set of Washingtons sanctions will take effect on Aug. 6, and the rest, notably in the petroleum sector, following a 180-day "wind-down period" ending on Nov. 4. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz When the annual state accountability ratings are released later this month, all school districts in Jefferson, Hardin and Orange County will be graded either "A" or "not rated," thanks to a reprieve they received because of Tropical Storm Harvey. The Texas Education Agency released a list of districts Wednesday that are eligible for the Harvey Provision, which exempts them from receiving a B, C, D or F grade based on the 2017-18 school year. The agency is transitioning from the system that rated schools either "Met Standard" or "Improvement Required" to an A through F system. This year, districts will receive the letter grades, which will be extended to campuses in 2019. Eligible campuses that would have been labeled "Improvement Required" will instead be "Not Rated." The list announced Wednesday includes campuses that met one of the four requirements set by the TEA in June: 10 percent or more of enrolled students were homeless or enrolled at a school other than their home campus. 10 percent or more of teachers experienced homelessness, as reported in a February survey. The campus was closed for 10 or more class days because of Harvey. Students were moved to another location or shared their campus with another school's students through winter break. In TEA's Region 5, which covers Southeast Texas, only seven districts did not qualify: Brookeland, Chester, Colmesneil, Jasper, Newton, Warren and Woodville. Districts eligible for a Harvey accountability waiver Beaumont ISD Bob Hope School Bridge City ISD Buna ISD Burkeville ISD Deweyville ISD East Chambers ISD Ehrhart School Evadale ISD Hamshire-Fannett ISD Hardin-Jefferson ISD Hull-Daisetta ISD Kirbyville CISD Kountze ISD Liberty ISD Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD Lumberton ISD Nederland ISD Orangefield ISD Port Arthur ISD Port Neches-Groves ISD Silsbee ISD Spurger ISD Tekoa Academy of Accelerated Studies Vidor ISD West Hardin County CISD West Orange-Cove CISD See More Collapse Not all campuses within the qualified districts will receive the waiver. For instance, though Kirbyville CISD and Kountze ISD met the criteria, their high schools did not and will still receive the "Improvement Required" rating if they do not meet standards. Nederland's Highland Park Elementary, Central Middle School and Nederland High School, and Ridgewood and Woodcrest Elementary in Port Neches-Groves were also not on the list of eligible schools. Districts or campuses that are not eligible can appeal after the ratings are released, TEA said. Superintendents from across the Gulf Coast asked the state for leniency in this year's rating, arguing that receiving a low grade would unfairly punish their districts, which lost time, facilities and focus because of the storm. The waiver carries the most weight for Beaumont ISD, which could have faced state sanctions if three of its schools did not meet standards this year. Fehl-Price Elementary, Jones-Clark Elementary and Smith Middle have been rated Improvement Required for at least four years and could have been closed by the state or triggered another takeover of the district if they failed to meet standards this summer for a fifth consecutive year. If they fall short again when ratings are released in August, they'll be designated "Not Rated" instead, which will push the determination back one year. Houston ISD, which faces similar consequences because of chronic low ratings at 10 of its campuses, received waivers for six of those schools. Schools that are rated "improvement required" by the state can face additional state oversight and intervention. Campuses that do not meet standards for two consecutive years are required to create a Turnaround Plan to be submitted to the state. If they don't reach the standard within two years, they can be subject to further sanctions, according to the TEA, including campus closures. The ratings are based on factors including performance and progress on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and "college and career readiness." "The Hurricane Harvey criteria announced in June represents a change to storm-related accountability adjustments when compared to prior storms in Texas due to the extraordinary magnitude and unique impact of this storm," TEA said. "The adjustments provide the necessary reprieve from accountability while also ensuring that student outcomes continue to be our focus in Texas." LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/LizTeitz Nepal keen on labour pact with Malaysia Nepal government has expressed its interest to sign a Government-to-Government (G2G) agreement with Malaysian government on migrant Nepali workers. Anesthesiologist Nicholas Bircher, MD, filed a lawsuit against Pittsburgh-based UPMC, University of Pittsburgh Physicians and UPP, alleging he was fired for complaining about unlawful activity, the Penn Record reports. Here's what you should know: 1. Dr. Bircher was credentialed as a billing provider for Medicare, Pennsylvania Medical Assistance and West Virginia Medicaid, according to the complaint. 2. Dr. Bircher said the defendants allegedly refused to let him review required forms before they were signed, on at least six occasions between 2015 and 2017. 3. Dr. Bircher alleges he was told his employment contract wouldn't be renewed days after he made a complaint in January 2017. He said he had made several complaints. 4. Dr. Bircher is seeking compensatory damages, claiming his termination violates the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Act. 5. University of Pittsburgh Physicians and UPMC claim they didn't renew Bircher's contract because of alleged poor performance. The defendants said other medical providers complained about his work performance. "UPP was entitled to elect not to renew the contract with or without cause and for any or no reason, and it did so by providing a timely notice of non-renewal in compliance with the agreement," University of Pittsburgh Physicians and UPMC said in an answer to the complaint. Change is never-ending for ambulatory surgery centers (ACSs). ASCs need to always stay on top of the seemingly nonstop influx of contractual and coding changes, which can have a direct impact on cash flow. Here are just some of the recent changes facing ASCs: Payer contract updates Payer contracts at ASCs are constantly changing. Imagine the following scenario: An ASC has 15 different payer contracts, and within each of these contracts there are four different plans, adding up to 60 contract iterations to track. Further complicating the matter is the variance in all the rules and stipulations related to care plans, local coverage determinations (LCDs), preventive care, bundled payments, and narrow networks. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes Keeping up with contracts is just part of the challenge. ASCs also need to keep track of myriad coding changes. For example, the American Medical Association changes, adds, and deletes CPT codes every January. In fact, in 2018, the AMA added 170 new codes, revised60 codes, and deleted 82 codes. Unfortunately, by the time ASC coders discover these changes, there are already another new set of changes to implement. Individual payer timelines Each January, Medicare starts using new codes. Not all payers, however, are in sync with this timeline. For example, one Georgia-based workers compensation plan updates its fee schedule with the new codes every April. As a result, ASCs with this payer need to use the old codes for the first three months of the year, which can cause significant delays in payment. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems-10 (ICD-10) In addition to CPT codes, ASCs use ICD-10 codes to help explain patient conditions or reasons for patient visits. These codes, which are published by the World Health Organization, are updated each October. This past October, the World Health Organization updated over450 ICD-10 codes. Specialty association coding changes Specialty professional associations often help ASCs identify codes that are relevant to their practices. For example, the American Orthopedic Society highlights the codes that are relevant to orthopedic care. Typically, these professional associations will offer their guidance in late summer in advance of the actual publication of the code changes in late fall. Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) Medicare Administrative Contractors publish their own LCDs, which are used to determine service coverage. These LCDs change anywhere from every few weeks to every few years. The challenge for ASCs is keeping on top of these changes without knowing when to look out for them. Strategies that can help ASCs stay on top of change To keep up with all these changes, ASCs should consider implementing the following strategies: Store contracts in an easily accessible place. Without being able to access contracts, ASCs cannot know if they are delivering and documenting care in the manner that is required by the payer. As a result, they will not know if they are doing what it takes to get paid. Unfortunately, most ASCs seemingly do not keep their payer contracts on file. As a result, if they perform a surgery say a spine case for a payer, the ASC most likely will not know what is required to meet the payment specifications. Review contracts periodically. Payer contracts should be reviewed at least every other month since every payer has different policies and procedures. As such, ASCs need to make a concerted effort to track the requirements of each payer to get paid. By doing so, ASCs can ensure that they are catching important changes that might otherwise pass them by, resulting in a negative impact on the bottomline. Dont just know contract terms; analyze them. Its important to analyze contract terms to make sure ASCs are being paid fairly. If the payments are not fair, ASCs should then work with the payer to negotiate a higher rate. Taking the time to analyze and negotiate rates is important, as changing just one or two rates could result in a $1 million difference annually. Keep systems updated. Software systems should be ready to accept new codes in a timely manner. For example, if an ASC uses Superbills, the information system needs to incorporate all the changes to ensure that these bills are created accurately. Its important to make sure that updated LCDs are integrated into the ASCs information system. This makes it possible for coders to pull up the LCD to ensure that the ASC is meeting the medical necessity. Dealing with the downside of inaction When ASCs dont keep up with myriad contractual and coding changes, they are vulnerable to unwanted consequences, including: Loss of revenue. Consider the following case: An ASC recently was performing a high volume of high-dollar spine fusion cases. Each of these spinal procedures potentially can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. The problem: The ASCs payer was taking $30,000 to $40,000 back or denying the full case amount because the ASC did not follow the contract correctly. Why? Because the contract dictated the direction of care and the ASC had failed to work with the patients to make sure that they followed preventative, pre-surgery care measures. An unclear strategic plan. Not keeping up with changes can also keep ASCs in the dark when it comes to setting revenue expectations, which is why it is important for ASCs to review code changes and analyze how they will affect next years revenue. This way ASCs can be prepared for any revenue fluctuations good or bad that will emanate from added codes, deleted codes, and revised codes. This knowledge makes it possible for ASCs to know which procedures will result in a profit, which ones will break even, or which ones will result in a loss. After conducting this type of analysis, an ASC can bring in some higher-paying procedures to offset lower-paying ones. Non-compliant billing. If an ASC does not stay on top of changes, a coder could unknowingly be submitting non-compliant bills. In some instances, the coder could be upcoding, meaning that the ASC is asking for and getting paid for more than what they are supposed to receive. If a payer audits these claims, the ASC might have to refund the money often in greater amounts than what they received initially. On the flip side, if the coder is under-coding, the ASC will miss out on revenue that they should have been receiving. Want to avoid these consequences? Make sure that your ASC continually keeps tracks of contractual and coding changes and puts strategies in place to deal with them. Dorchester-based University of Maryland Shore Regional Health proposed a new $75 million medical campus in Cambridge, Md., Dorchester Star reports. Here's what you should know: 1. Shore Health filed applications with the state's Health Care Commission, seeking approval for the campus. 2. The campus will replace the UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester with a freestanding medical facility. 3. The commission is expected to approve or deny the application in March 2019 4. The freestanding building would be 40,000 square feet and offer inpatient services. Beside the building would be a 50,000-square-foot medical pavilion. The ASC would be housed in the pavilion. Numerous privacy incidents at health IT suppliers, hospitals and other healthcare organizations captured public attention last month. While media outlets reported on the following breaches in July, the organizations experienced breaches as early as January 2003. Here are 18 incidents reported by Becker's Hospital Review in July. Note: The incidents are presented in order of number of patients or organizations affected. This list is not exhaustive; 24 incidents were reported to HHS' Office for Civil Rights breach portal in July. 1. A database for Singapore's public health system SingHealth was compromised in what the country's Health Ministry and Ministry of Communications and Information called a "deliberate, targeted and well-planned cyberattack." Nearly 1.5 million patients seen at SingHealth's specialist outpatient clinics and polyclinics from May 1, 2015, to July 4, 2018, were affected. 2. UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa, notified 1.4 million patients that some of their personal information may have been compromised after hackers broke into its email system using phishing tactics. 3. LabCorp, a medical diagnostics company in Burlington, N.C., detected "suspicious activities" on its computer network that may have compromised the health records of millions of patients. 4. NHS Digital, the information and technology arm of the U.K. National Health Service, said a "coding error" made by clinical systems supplier The Phoenix Partnership breached the medical information of an estimated 150,000 patients in the U.K. 5. Omaha, Neb.-based Boys Town National Research Hospital notified 105,309 patients and staff after hospital officials discovered unusual activity on an employee's email account in May. 6. Staff members at Kansas City, Mo.-based Children's Mercy Hospital fell victim to an email phishing scam, potentially compromising the personal health information of 63,049 patients and family members. 7. Blue Springs (Mo.) Family Care notified 44,979 patients that their protected health information may have been compromised when the practice's computer system was infected with ransomware in May. 8. The physician group at Lubbock, Texas-based University Medical Center Health System, UMC Physicians, notified more than 18,000 patients of a recent data breach that may have compromised their protected health information. 9. The email account of a Billings (Mont.) Clinic employee was hacked while they were on an overseas medical mission in May, potentially compromising 8,400 patients' information. 10. Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University Health System alerted 4,700 individuals to a potential compromise of their or their child's EHR data. 11. An estimated 790 patients from UMPC Cole in Coudersport, Pa., may have had their protected health information inappropriately accessed by hackers during two separate email phishing attacks that occurred one week apart in June. 12. UC San Diego Health notified 619 patients that their protected health information may have been compromised as part of a massive data breach at Nuance Communications. 13. The Department of Vermont Health Access exposed the email addresses of 127 health insurance consumers after sending out an online survey. 14. Thousands of HIV/AIDS patients living and dead may have had health information dating as far back as 1983 compromised for about nine months when a Nashville Metro Public Health Department database was left accessible to unauthorized staff. 15. Kingsport, Tenn.-based Ballad Health fired an employee for accessing patients' health information without a medically-necessary reason to do so. 16. Manitowoc County in Wisconsin recently notified an undisclosed number of residents about a breach the agency discovered in April that may have left their protected health information exposed for up to three months. 17. Harrisonville, Mo.-based Cass Regional Medical Center's EHR came back online July 16 after almost a week of downtime stemming from a ransomware attack on its IT infrastructure. 18. A Kaiser Permanente website used by employees, physicians and potential employees was hacked July 27 by a group called "Team Faceless Men." A Massachusetts man was convicted Wednesday of launching a cyberattack on the computer networks of Boston Children's Hospital and a mental health facility, Reuters reports. A federal jury found 32-year-old Martin Gottesfeld guilty of one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers and one count of damaging protected computers. He carried the attack out on behalf of hacking activist group Anonymous as a protest of the hospitals' treatment of a teenager. That teenager, Justina Pelletier of Connecticut, had been taken into state custody in Massachusetts after Boston Children's Hospital diagnosed her with psychiatric health problems, and the hospital said her parents were interfering with her treatment. The case captured the attention of religious and political groups, who argued the state was overstepping parental rights. Mr. Gottesfeld disagreed with the hospital's diagnosis, and as part of his advocacy for her release, launched a distributed denial of service attack on Framingham, Mass.-based Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, the residential treatment facility where Ms. Pelletier stayed after her discharge from Boston Children's in March 2014. In April 2014, Mr. Gottesfeld carried out another attack on Boston Children's computer network, knocking out its internet and affecting numerous hospitals in the area. Federal investigators began looking into Mr. Gottesfeld and his role in the attacks, and he fled Massachusetts in early 2016. In February 2016, he was arrested when a Disney Cruise Line ship rescued him and his wife from a boat off the coast of Cuba. Mr. Gottesfeld is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 14. Shrestha quits as NCP spokesperson after dispute with PM Oli Senior Nepal Communist Party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha has tendered his resignation as party spokesperson following argument with Co-chairman KP Sharma Oli. Virginia is the first state to launch a program that connects each hospital's emergency department with an electronic patient records system, WRIC reports. The Virginia Emergency Department Care Coordination Program connects EDs statewide, serving as an online portal for physicians to access a patient's information from other hospitals. It also lets physicians view the types of tests, prescriptions and other providers who treated a patient. The program looks at data in real time, to help care for complex, high-risk patients, including those facing homelessness or opioid addiction. The program could also help decrease care costs since physicians may not order extra tests for patients after viewing their most recent records, said Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, MD, a pediatric neurologist. "So to be able to have access to a patients information is key, and thats really where the quality will be improved, by being able to take better care of these patients," Northam said. The program launched at the end of June and has received positive feedback from users, officials said. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions heard testimonies from lawmakers and other witnesses about the need for improved interoperability among EHR systems, MeriTalk reports. At the July 31 hearing, the witnesses said improvements in interoperability will enhance quality of care, as well as save administrative time and money feats the EHR originally set out to accomplish. "Since 2011, the federal government has spent $38 billion requiring doctors and hospitals to install EHR systems through the meaningful use program in Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, EHR systems have ended up being something physicians too often dread, rather than a tool that's useful," committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said, according to MeriTalk. David Cutler, PhD, an economics professor at Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard College, told the panel that better EHR interoperability would streamline the billing process, thereby reducing the time employees dedicate to the task. He thinks interoperability improvements could be achieved in the public sector through stronger regulations and standards, and in the private sector through intermediaries who process information between disparate EHR systems. "Technologically, there is no reason why EMR systems cannot interface with billing systems or automatically submit information for quality assessment," he said. "Most of the federal effort devoted to interoperability has focused on increasing access to clinical information by patients and providers. However, much less attention has been devoted to the links between medical records systems and billing systems." Piedmont Athens (Ga.) Regional Medical Center went live on an Epic EHR Aug. 1, scrapping the Cerner system the hospital had implemented four years ago. The EHR transition is part of Piedmont Athens Regional's affiliation with Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare, which acquired the hospital in 2016. Piedmont Athens Regional including its ambulatory sites and acute care facility will now use the same version of Epic that Piedmont Healthcare uses. Piedmont Athens Regional officials have spent more than a year planning for the go-live, including training 5,000 clinicians and hospital staff, according to a hospital news release. An estimated 130 volunteers from other Piedmont hospitals provided support during the launch. "We are following the very successful Piedmont playbook which they have employed at other Piedmont hospital implementations," Piedmont Athens Regional CEO Charles Peck, MD, told Becker's Hospital Review via email.. "[The Epic go-live] will allow us to be on the same system as the rest of Piedmont's hospitals and make it easier to exchange clinical and financial data." The hospital's last EHR implementation which took place four years ago resulted in a tumultuous Cerner implementation that clinicians pushed back against, according to various media reports at the time. The hospital, formerly called Athens Regional, went live on a Cerner system in May 2014. Less than two weeks after the rollout, clinical leaders and staff wrote a letter to the hospital's then-CEO and then-CIO, expressing patient safety concerns related to the new system. The two executives resigned later that same month. At the time, Cerner officials attributed the troubled rollout to Athens Regional's decision to have IT staff lead the project without seeking enough input from the hospital's clinical stakeholders. Robert Budman, MD, chief medical information officer of Piedmont Healthcare, voiced confidence in the hospital's new EHR, noting Piedmont Athens Regional and Piedmont Healthcare made a concerted effort to involve both IT and clinical leadership. "This time there is enough accumulated wisdom out there about what makes for a successful EMR implementation that there really shouldn't be any excuse for a failed implementation," he said. "There could be difficulties but no failures." Leigh Hamby, MD, CMO of Piedmont Healthcare, agreed that early collaboration played an integral role in the success of the Epic go-live so far. "A tremendous amount of pre-work with the doctors really paid off," he said. "I've been blown away by all the sophistication of the doctors here." The following hospitals announced or completed plans in the last week to expand, upgrade or renovate their facilities. 1. Highland Hospital to add 60 rooms: 4 things to know As part of a modernization project of its southeast wing, Rochester, N.Y.-based Highland Hospital plans to add four floors and 60 private rooms. 2. Pittsburgh city council greenlights UPMC's $400M expansion Although area residents, union members and community activists spoke out against the project, the Pittsburgh City Council approved Pittsburgh-based UPMC's proposal for a $400 million expansion. 3. Shuttered California hospital to reopen as 'healthcare city' The new owners of the former Los Angeles-based Pacific Alliance Medical Center, which closed in November 2017, said during a news conference July 28 that they plan to reopen the facility by the end of next summer as a "healthcare city." 4. $538M San Francisco hospital opening in August: 5 things to know San Francisco-based California Pacific Medical Center will shake up service offerings when its $538 million hospital opens in August. The following hospital and health system ratings, outlook changes and affirmations took place in July, starting with the most recent. 1. S&P assigns 'BBB+' rating to CHI's bonds S&P Global Ratings assigned its "BBB+" long-term rating on Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives' proposed $275 million series 2018A bonds. 2. S&P places Essentia Health on credit watch negative S&P Global Ratings placed its "A" underlying rating on Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health on credit watch with negative implications. 3. S&P revises Halifax Hospital Medical Center's outlook to negative over litigation risks S&P Global Ratings affirmed its "A-" long-term rating on Daytona Beach, Fla.-based Halifax Hospital Medical Center's revenue bonds and revised the outlook to negative from stable. 4. Fitch assigns 'AA' IDR to Advocate Aurora Health Fitch Ratings assigned an issuer default rating of "AA" to Advocate Aurora Health the entity formed by the recent merger of Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Milwaukee-based Aurora Health. 5. Fitch affirms Nebraska Medicine's 'AA-' rating Fitch Ratings affirmed its "AA-" rating on Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine's outstanding bonds. Concurrently, Fitch assigned its "AA-" issuer default rating to the academic healthcare provider. 6. Fitch affirms 'AA' rating on Presbyterian Healthcare Fitch Ratings affirmed its "AA" rating of Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services' outstanding bonds, affecting $850 billion of debt. At the same time, Fitch assigned its "AA" issuer default rating to the health system. 7. Moody's affirms 'Aa3' rating on Main Line Health Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" rating on Philadelphia-based Main Line Health's outstanding bonds, affecting $219.5 million of debt. 8. Moody's downgrades Lafayette General Medical Center Moody's Investors Service downgraded its rating on Lafayette (La.) General Medical Center to "Baa2" from "Baa1," affecting $147 million of rated debt. 9. Moody's affirms SCL Health's 'Aa3' rating Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" long-term rating on Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth (Kan.) Health System, which does business as SCL Health. The rating affects about $1.2 billion of debt. 10. S&P ratings on ProMedica debt unchanged after HCR ManorCare acquisition ProMedica's acquisition of Toledo-based nursing home chain HCR ManorCare will not immediately affect its 'A+' long-term ratings on the Ohio-based health system's debt, according to S&P Global Ratings. 11. Fitch places LifePoint Health on rating watch negative after acquisition announcement Fitch Ratings placed Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint Health's outstanding bond ratings on rating watch negative after the hospital operator announced it would be acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. 12. Moody's affirms 'Ba3' long-term rating on McCamey County Hospital Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Ba3" long-term issuer rating on McCamey (Texas) County Hospital District. 13. Fitch downgrades Loma Linda University Health System's rating to 'BB' Fitch Ratings downgraded Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health System's issuer default and outstanding series 2014A, 2014B and 2016A revenue bond ratings to "BB" from "BB+." 14. S&P revises Pullman Regional Hospital's outlook to stable S&P Global Ratings revised Pullman (Wash.) Regional Hospital's outlook to stable from positive and affirmed its "BBB-" long-term rating on its bonds. 15. Fitch assigns 'AA-' rating to Willis-Knighton Medical Center, revises outlook to stable Fitch Ratings assigned its "AA-" issuer default rating to Shreveport, La.-based Willis-Knighton Medical Center. 16. Moody's affirms 'Baa1' rating on Central Washington Hospital Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa1" rating on Wenatchee-based Central Washington Hospital's revenue bonds, affecting $113 million of debt. 17. Moody's affirms 'Baa2' rating on Westchester County Health Care Corp. Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Baa2" rating on two members of the Westchester Medical Center Health Care Corp. network Valhalla, N.Y.-based Westchester Medical Center and Suffern, N.Y.-based Charity Health System. The actions affect a combined $772 million of debt. 18. 9-notch downgrade: S&P lowers Nacogdoches County Hospital District's rating to 'B-' S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term rating on Nacogdoches (Texas) County Hospital District nine notches to "B-" from "A-." 19. Fitch assigns 'BBB' IDR rating to Tufts Medical Center Fitch Ratings assigned its "BBB" issuer default rating to Boston-based Tufts Medical Center. 20. Moody's assigns 'A3' rating to St. Luke's Health System, maintains negative outlook Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A3" rating to Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke's Health System's proposed $387 million series 2018A, 2018B and 2018C revenue bonds. 21. S&P upgrades Saratoga Hospital to 'A' S&P Global Ratings upgraded Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Saratoga Hospital's long-term and underlying rating to "A" from "A-." 22. Fitch affirms 'BBB-' on Wright Memorial Hospital Fitch Ratings affirmed its "BBB-" rating on Trenton, Mo.-based Wright Memorial Hospital's series 2009 revenue bonds, affecting $26 million of debt. 23. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating on Southwest General Health Center Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A2" rating on Middleburg Heights, Ohio-based Southwest General Health Center, affecting about $153 million of debt. 24. Moody's affirms New York-Presbyterian Hospital's issuer, bond ratings Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa2" issuer rating and its "Aa3" bond rating on New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. 25. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating on WakeMed Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A2" long-term rating on Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed, affecting about $390 million of debt. 26. Moody's affirms 'Aa2' rating on Cleveland Clinic Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa2" long-term rating on Cleveland Clinic, affecting about $2.8 billion of outstanding debt. 27. Fitch affirms 'BBB' rating on The Methodist Hospitals, revises outlook to negative Fitch Ratings affirmed its "BBB" rating on Gary, Ind.-based The Methodist Hospitals' series 2014A revenue refunding bonds and assigned its "BBB" issuer default rating to the health system. 28. S&P changes Valley Medical Center's rating to 'A-' S&P Global Ratings upgraded the rating on Renton, Wash.-based Valley Medical Center's series 2010A and 2010B revenue bonds to "A-" from "BBB+." At the same time, S&P downgraded Valley Medical Center's series 2016 and 2008B general obligation bonds to "A-" from "A." 29. S&P assigns 'BBB' rating to Montefiore Health System S&P Global Ratings assigned its "BBB" long-term rating to New York City-based Montefiore Health System's series 2018A, 2018B and 2018C bonds 30. Moody's affirms 'A3' rating on Torrance Memorial Medical Center Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A3" rating on Torrance (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center, affecting about $230 million of debt. 31. Moody's assigns 'A1' rating to Valley Children's Healthcare Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A1" rating to Madera, Calif.-based Valley Children's Healthcare's proposed $202.5 million series 2018A bonds. 32. Fitch downgrades Lexington Medical Center to 'BB+' Fitch Ratings downgraded West Columbia, S.C.-based Lexington Medical Center's rating to "BB+" from "A+." 33. Fitch downgrades University Hospital's rating to 'BB-' Fitch Ratings downgraded the rating on Newark, N.J.-based University Hospital's series 2015A revenue and refunding bonds to "BB-" from "BBB," affecting about $255 million of debt. 34. Fitch downgrades Dignity Health to 'A-' Fitch Ratings downgraded San Francisco-based Dignity Health's bond ratings to "A-" from "A." 35. S&P assigns 'AA+' rating to Inova Health System Foundation S&P Global Ratings assigned its "AA+" long-term rating to Falls Church, Va.-based Inova Health System Foundation's $500 million series 2018A and 2018B revenue bonds. 36. Fitch affirms 'BBB+' rating on Lifespan's bonds Fitch Ratings affirmed its "BBB+" rating on Providence, R.I.-based Lifespan's revenue refunding bonds. In addition, Fitch assigned Lifespan an issuer default rating of "BBB+." 37. Fitch downgrades MedStar Health's rating to 'A-' Fitch Ratings downgraded Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health's bond ratings to "A-" from "A." 38. Fitch downgrades King's Daughters Medical Center to 'BBB-' Fitch Ratings downgraded Ashland, Ky.-based King's Daughters Medical Center's bonds to "BBB-" from "A-." 39. Fitch upgrades Calvert Health System's rating to 'AA-' Fitch Ratings upgraded the rating on Prince Frederick, Md.-based Calvert Health System's revenue bonds to "AA-" from "A." 40. Moody's affirms 'Aa3' rating on Methodist Health System Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Aa3" rating on Dallas-based Methodist Health System, affecting about $348 million of outstanding debt. 41. Moody's assigns 'A2' rating to Centra Health, maintains negative outlook Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A2" rating to Lynchburg, Va.-based Centra Health's proposed $126.6 million series 2018 bonds. Here are five revenue cycle management tips from experts, published by Becker's Hospital Review after July 11. 1. Tara Dwyer, vice president of audit operations at Xsolis, recommended hospitals prioritize claim denial appeals based on the clinical merit of individual cases. "New technology and algorithms now provide insight into which cases are most likely to be overturned, giving denial management teams the starting point they need to engage with each case," she told Becker's Hospital Review. "By prioritizing, your team will be able to recover revenue sooner. Additionally, by looking at trends in this data, you can spot commonalities and opportunities for improvement throughout the revenue cycle." 2. Monte Sandler, executive vice president of revenue cycle management at DocuTAP, recommended healthcare providers follow appropriate billing guidelines for each contract with third-party payers. "With the various types of contracts urgent care providers are entering into with third- party insurers, it's extremely important to follow the appropriate billing guidelines for each. For example, clinical guidelines are not necessarily the same as those for billing," he told Becker's Hospital Review. "Many contracts require all providers to be individually credentialed, and services to be billed under the rendering provider, whereas some contracts allow all providers to bill for services under the group national provider identifier." 3. Lyman Sornberger, vice president of client development at Charles J. Hilton and Associates law firm, recommended healthcare providers use a third-party law firm in disputes with payers. "Healthcare providers should strive to effectively use law firms for disputes on underpaid or unpaid insurance claims," he told Becker's Hospital Review. "Many health plans nationwide do not always follow proper claims procedures when making decisions to reimburse or deny a medical service." 4. Rebecca Haymaker, director of Epic services at Parallon Technology Solutions, recommended hospitals educate patients and staff to achieve a successful point-of-service collections program. It is crucial that frontline employees clearly understand expectations for collections; that staff are trained on processing balances and payments; and that employees know how to effectively seek payments and handle objections, she told Becker's Hospital Review. 5. Jason Considine, senior vice president of patient access, collections and engagement for Experian Health, recommended hospitals closely examine online reviews from patients to gain insights to improve customer satisfaction and boost payments. "Research shows that higher online ratings correlate with previously established metrics for evaluating hospitals, such as lower potentially preventable readmission rates. When it comes to overall satisfaction, healthcare customers are extremely perceptive, and they're unafraid to share their opinions good and bad," he told Becker's Hospital Review. He said it is up to hospitals to identify areas of improvement by looking at patient feedback. More articles on healthcare finance: This week's 5 must-reads for hospital RCM leaders 4 RCM hires in July Geisinger, Clarify Health Solutions join task force aimed at accelerating value-based care From reimbursement landscape challenges to dwindling patient volumes, many factors lead hospitals to close. Here are eight hospitals that have closed in the past two months, beginning with the most recent: 1. Chestatee Regional Hospital in Dahlonega, Ga., closed July 26, making it the seventh rural hospital in Georgia to close since 2010. 2. Good Samaritan Hospital, a 491-bed facility in Dayton, Ohio, closed July 23. The hospital's owner, Dayton-based Premier Health, said operating two hospitals Good Samaritan and Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton within 5 miles of each other had become unsustainable. 3. Community Medical Center Long Beach (Calif.), which opened in 1924, closed July 3 due to the inability to retrofit the hospital to meet California's seismic standards. 4. Regional Medical Center Jacksonville (Ala.), a 104-bed hospital, closed June 30 after 42 years in operation. The Healthcare Authority of the City of Anniston (Ala.), which operates RMC Jacksonville's parent company, announced plans in May to close the hospital due to rising healthcare costs and insufficient revenue. 5. Florence (Ariz.) Hospital at Anthem, owned by Gilbert, Ariz.-based New Vision Health, closed June 18 after enteringChapter 11 bankruptcy in late May. 6. Gilbert (Ariz.) Hospital, which is affiliated with Florence Hospital at Anthem, closed June 16. 7. Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems closed Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center, a 116-bed hospital in Kennett, Mo., June 12. 8. Coalinga (Calif.) Regional Medical Centerclosed June 12 due to significant financial losses and a decline in inpatient volumes. The 24-bed hospital's debt totaled approximately $4.5 million as of early June. More articles on healthcare finance: Arizona hospital emerges from bankruptcy, lays off 60 Independent monitor to oversee New Jersey hospital's finances after 4-notch downgrade by Fitch CMS' proposed outpatient payment rule for 2019: 10 things to know A Senate panel tackled administrative spending in healthcare during a hearing July 31, the third in a series of hearings focused on reducing healthcare costs. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions heard from economists and industry executives on the issue, including Becky Hultberg, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, and Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans. Here are five key takeaways from their testimony: 1. Administrative costs put an outsized burden on smaller hospitals. An average 160-bed community hospital spends an estimated $7.5 million per year on regulatory compliance and dedicates 59 staff members to that area, according to Ms. Hultberg. "The issue of administrative burden comes into sharp focus in rural America. The volume of regulation requires scale to implement and rural areas lack scale," she said. "The opportunity cost of regulatory burden for rural communities may be the loss of services." 2. Medicare Conditions of Participation and conditions for other accrediting bodies need to be streamlined. Hospitals spend roughly $3.1 million annually on administrative compliance with conditions of participation, according to Ms. Hultberg's testimony. Collaborating between entities to streamline these conditions would help reduce the administrative burden on hospitals. Meanwhile, CMS should not add more CoPs, as was proposed in the fiscal year 2019 inpatient rule to promote interoperability of EHRs. Ms. Hultberg urged the agency to instead recognize and address issues directly. 3. The Anti-Kickback Statute stands in the way of value-based care. Ms. Hultberg urged Congress to create a safe harbor to allow more flexibility for the clinical integration arrangements needed to meaningfully create a value-based model of care. 4. Mr. Eyles defended some administrative activities, such as care management and fraud prevention, and noted they do not account for the largest portion of healthcare spending. Based on Milliman-AHIP research included in his written testimony, only 7 cents of every premium dollar go to administration. "The vast majority of every healthcare dollar goes directly to pay for medical treatments and services; the rest largely funds programs and services that improve health, reduce short- and long-term costs and increase healthcare choices," he said at the hearing. 5. Mr. Eyles called for more transparency around the fee charged to payers offering plans on the federal exchange. Payers are charged a 3.5 percent fee, which has remained stable despite reduced efforts by CMS to support healthcare.gov, market it, educate patients and conduct outreach, according to his testimony. He called for more transparency into how much money is being collected and what CMS is doing with the funds. For more, watch the full hearing here. More articles on finance: This week's 5 must-reads for hospital RCM leaders Embrace risk: How one clinically integrated network found success under value-based care 4 RCM hires in July Here are 18 recent news updates on health IT companies: 1. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies like 23andMe agreed to a new set of guidelines that govern how they obtain customers' consent to share their DNA with other companies and researchers. 2. Amazon reported $52.9 billion in net sales for the second quarter of 2018. 3. AC Wellness, Apple's concierge health and wellness clinics for its Bay Area employees, recently hired more than 40 people. 4. Apple released its earnings results for the third quarter of 2018, reporting $53.3 billion in revenue driven by iPhone sales. 5. Athenahealth posted $323.3 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2018. 6. Cerner is building two office towers for its Innovations Campus in Kansas City, Mo., and expects to complete construction in 2020. 7. The Defense Department said it extended the contract value for its Cerner EHR overhaul by $1.1 billion to accommodate EHR standardization across the Coast Guard and the Veterans Affairs Department. 8. Walgreens launcheda digital platform and marketplace July 26 to connect online consumers with 17 providers operating at various Walgreens retail locations, including DermatologistOnCalland MDLive. 9. Anthem partnered with doc.ai, an artificial intelligence platform, to explore ways to use the technology to predict when patients will experience allergies. 10. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Google a patent for in-ear health monitoring technology a continuation of the tech giant's recent moves into the healthcare space. 11. Google Cloud and management consulting firm Accenture teamed up on a new venture to help healthcare, consumer packaged goods and retail companies implement services from Google Cloud. 12. Google Cloud launched an artificial intelligence and analytics program targeted toward nonprofits, dubbed the "Data Solutions for Change" program. 13. Shortly after reports emerged detailing numerous shortcomings with IBM's Watson for Oncology platform, the company is reportedly modifying the artificial intelligence-powered software. 14. MDLive, a telehealth company based in Sunrise, Fla., recently closed a $50 million financing round with participation from Cigna and Health Care Service Corp. 15. Microsoft is likely building a new wearable to help its users measure their blood pressure, according to a recent patent application. 16. Microsoft selected telehealth startup Numbers4Health as one of the winners of its third annual Airband Grant Fund. 17. Amsterdam-based Royal Philips released its earnings results for the second quarter, reporting 4.3 billion (an estimated $5 billion) in sales. 18. Teladoc plans to change its corporate name to Teladoc Health on Aug. 10. UnityPoint Health-Des Moines (Iowa) named Mike Dewerff senior vice president and CFO, effective Sept. 17. Here are five things to know: 1. Mr. Dewerff most recently served as president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Fort Dodge (Iowa), a role he has held since 2015. 2. He joined the Fort Dodge hospital in 2010 as CFO. 3. He was previously CFO at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Storm Lake, Iowa. 4. He served on Healthcare Financial Management Association's national board of directors from 2015 through 2017. 5. Mr. Dewerff holds an MBA from Wayne (Neb.) State College. Stalemate over CJ continues The Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) on Wednesday failed to endorse Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee as the ruling and opposition parties remained sharply divided. The Lewiston-based Central Maine Healthcare board of trustees affirmed its support in CEO Jeff Brickman despite the votes of no confidence he received from all three of the system's hospitals, according to an Aug. 1 letter from the board to the entire staff obtained by Becker's Hospital Review. Staff at CHMC's three hospitals Lewiston-based Central Maine Medical Center, Rumford (Maine) Hospital and Bridgton (Maine) Hospital each voted no confidence in Mr. Brickman during several votes held throughout July. Staff told the Portland Press Herald the votes were symbolic and meant to convey their dissatisfaction with Mr. Brickman to CHMC's board of directors. Staff members said they recognize the need for change and to conserve funds, but take issue with Mr. Brickman's management style, which some employees believe to be too harsh. They also voiced concerns about the system's ongoing fiscal issues and service cuts. In the Aug. 1 letter to employees, CMHC Board Chairwoman Deborah Avasthi said the board has "heard the frustrations and concerns voiced by [the system's] medical staff." She stated that during the board's July 31 meeting, officials adopted a plan to address those concerns, part of which involves affirming their support for Mr. Brickman. "We voted to affirm our support of Jeff Brickman as CEO, and of the strategic vision and plan that he and the leadership team have put in place to guide the future of CMH," she said. "Jeff Brickman shares our concerns about healing the institution and has committed to doing his best to leading an effort to heal." The second part of the plan involves providing medical staff with an increased role in governance. The chiefs of staff of each hospital will serve as ex-officio directors on CMHC's board, and board officials will work to add two more physicians for a total of three to serve as directors. Officials will also create a joint council with representation from the medical staffs of each hospital, board officials and CMHC senior leadership to improve communication between the groups. Ms. Avasthi said the board will also continue to utilize an independent consulting physician to monitor and update the board with physician feedback. "It is our responsibility as board members to act in the best long-term interests of CMH including ensuring that it remains financially viable. We have spent the last several weeks soliciting and receiving feedback from the medical staff as well as administrative staff and caregivers. We recognize that this has been a tumultuous time. We know that these concerns are voiced out of dedication to your work, your patients and your hospital," she said. "We must adapt to ensure the long term viability of the system and that means change sometimes difficult change." In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Ben Colton, principal at ECG Management Consultants. Mr. Colton will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "The Best Thoughts on Improving Revenue Cycle Today," at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago. Question: Can you share your best advice for motivating your teams? Ben Colton: From afar, a well-functioning revenue cycle is not too dissimilar from a modern factory. Technology and increased automation have created significant efficiencies; however, many tasks still require manual intervention and should be addressed by specialized employees following standardized processes. Comparing revenue cycle operations to factories may seem old fashioned, but management science used in assembly line production shares several key concepts with revenue cycle that executives should appreciate, [such as] increased efficiency, decreased product variation and consistent production. Defined work standards are a great way to keep teams motivated and should include both quantity and quality expectations, as well as strategies to address underperformance. That said, work standards not only protect against staff deficiency, but can also recognize star performers. In some cases, we have worked with organizations to develop rewards programs for teams and employees that exceed expectations. While financial incentives are the most desirable, they are not required, [so we often offer incentives such as] pizza parties, denim days, extra breaks or simply public acknowledgment. In addition, publishing weekly team performance [updates] either blinded or unblinded can also help create some friendly competition. Q: What is your No. 1 dealbreaker when it comes to evaluating vendor partnerships? BC: Third-party vendor relationships are critical to a well-performing revenue cycle, regardless of whether they are supporting core technology, supplemental value-added functions such as Medicaid eligibility, coding, early-out or extended business office, or full-scope outsourcing. With that said, it is critical that these relationships are managed through clearly documented roles and responsibilities, as well as service-level expectations. Further, it is important that the vendor recognize the uniqueness of each organization and support is adapted accordingly. I believe the No. 1 dealbreaker is when vendors are unwilling to collaborate and attempt to implement a cookie-cutter solution without considering the client's mission, culture, location and operating environment. Q: How has your organization improved the revenue cycle process in the past year? Or, if your organization hasn't improved its revenue cycle process, how would you go about it? BC: The focus of our recent engagements has been designing revenue cycle models for our clients that lead to continuous improvement. Health system executives are no longer interested in short-term cash acceleration, but they want to make sure their revenue cycles can weather the growing complexity of the healthcare landscape including declining reimbursement, changing payer rules, market consolidation and greater patient liability. There is not a "one size fits all" approach, and therefore, much of our work involves understanding each of our clients' unique environments. That said, in every case, the goal is to shift more attention to accurate and timely claim submission the first time, increase efficiency and establish shared accountability across the revenue cycle continuum. Despite a desire to expand its hospital presence in Palm Beach County, Fla., Cleveland Clinic largely has been shut out, according to My Palm Beach Post. Boca Raton (Fla.) Regional Hospital, a 400-bed facility in Palm Beach County, began searching for a strategic partner in June 2017. In May, the hospital narrowed its potential affiliates to two finalists. Cleveland Clinic was one. On July 26, Bocca Raton Regional selected Coral Cables-based Baptist Health South Florida as a partner. The move came as a blow to Cleveland Clinic, which called Boca Raton's decision "disappointing." For the last decade, the Ohio-based provider that has a Florida campus in Weston, has been working to expand into Palm Beach and Treasure Coast. It recently opened a clinic in Wellington, Fla., its fourth medical clinic in Palm Beach. The clinic also is ironing out deals to manage or own hospitals in Martin and Indian River counties. Despite growth in those areas of the state and a hospital presence in Weston, Cleveland Clinic wants a Palm Beach County hospital. With a hospital presence in Palm Beach, the provider could steer patients from its four Palm Beach clinics to the hospital for inpatient treatments or surgeries, especially because its campus in Weston is too long of a drive for Palm Beach and Treasure Coast residents. Boca Raton's decision has boxed out the Cleveland Clinic for now, especially because the regulatory hurdles in Florida to obtain a certificate of need for construction are high, meaning the easiest way for Cleveland Clinic to open a hospital in Palm Beach is through an affiliation with an existing hospital or a purchase agreement. Boca Raton President Jerry Fedele said that Cleveland Clinic's proposal was "very strong," but Baptist Health was selected because the partnership would enable the hospital to better meet its goals. Read the full report on My Palm Beach Post. Police believe the suspect in the fatal shooting of a renowned Houston cardiologist is a man whose mother died in surgery performed by the cardiologist 20 years ago, according to CNN. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the mother of Joseph James Pappas was a patient of Mark Hausknecht, MD, a cardiologist at Houston Methodist Hospital who was shot dead July 20 while riding his bike to work. Mr. Pappas' mother died during a surgery that Dr. Hausknecht performed. "It appears that this may be a 20-year-old grudge that this man held," Mr. Acevedo told CNN. Police are searching for the 62-year-old suspect, who may be suicidal and should be considered armed. As of 8 a.m. Aug. 3 he was still on the loose. "We believe that this man is absolutely the killer," the police chief said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "We need to find this guy. This man is dangerous, this man is capable, this man has some skills." Dr. Hausknecht was biking to work during the morning rush hour when another man on a bicycle approached from behind and fired at least twice. The cardiologist went down immediately and was pronounced dead at Houston-based Ben Taub Hospital. The fatal shooting baffled police for two weeks. Authorities, who pored over surveillance footage hundreds of times, pleaded with the public for any information to help them solve the case. On July 30, a tip came in that led police to Mr. Pappas. As the manhunt drags on, several other details have come to light, making investigators more convinced Mr. Pappas "painstakingly planned" the daylight shooting. Mr. Pappas, who worked in law enforcement for about 30 years, transferred the deed to his Houston home to a woman who lives in Ohio the day before the shooting. Mr. Pappas told Janette Spencer, the Ohio woman he knew for 25 years, that he had a terminal illness and that's why he wanted to transfer his home to her, according to the report. A few days later, he texted Ms. Spencer to tell her he was committing suicide and gave her instructions on how to secure the house. "Sorry for handling things this way," the text said, according to CNN. "House and property is now yours. Please make best use of it for you and [your daughter]." Mr. Acevedo said evidence suggested Mr. Pappas put a lot of planning into the alleged crime, according to CNN. Editor's Note: The article was updated Aug. 3 at 9:15 a.m. with additional information. Carl Icahn, an activist investor, intends to vote against Cigna's proposed $54 billion takeover of Express Scripts, according to The Wall Street Journal. Here are three things to know: 1. Mr. Icahn has a fairly large stake in Cigna at 5 percent of outstanding shares. He said Cigna's offer for the pharmacy benefit manager is too high. The price equals about $96.03 per share. Express Scripts' shares opened at $79.20 on Aug. 1, according to CNBC. 2. People familiar with the matter told WSJ the deal faces several threats. Mr. Icahn is likely to urge other shareholders to not support the transaction before it heads to a shareholder vote Aug. 24. 3. Cigna CEO David Cordani told analysts during an Aug. 2 earnings call that the deal is in the interest of shareholders. He said the deal will reward drugmakers for outcomes instead of consumption, according to Forbes. More articles on payers: 50K BCBS members to lose in-network access to Duke Health, WakeMed Trump administration releases final rule for short-term health plans: 5 things to know CMS approves Maine's health insurance waiver: 4 things to know Cigna reported strong results in the second quarter of fiscal year 2018. The health insurer saw operating revenues climb 11 percent to $11.5 billion, compared to $10.4 billion reported in the same period a year prior. Cigna attributed the gains in part to growth in its global healthcare and supplemental benefits segments, as well as higher premiums. At the same time, Cigna saw its expenses grow 12 percent to $10.4 billion, up from $9.3 billion in the same quarter a year prior. Cigna ended the quarter with net income of $806 million, down 1 percent from $813 million reported in the same period of 2017. However, the health insurer faces opposition for its proposed $54 billion takeover of Express Scripts. On Aug. 1, The Wall Street Journal revealed Carl Icahn, an activist investor, intends to vote against the deal. Cigna CEO David Cordani told analysts during an Aug. 2 earnings call that the deal is in the interest of shareholders. More articles on payers: 50K BCBS members to lose in-network access to Duke Health, WakeMed Trump administration releases final rule for short-term health plans: 5 things to know CMS approves Maine's health insurance waiver: 4 things to know Staff at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, D.C., are pleading with newly appointed VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to act on deteriorating conditions at the facility, including increased infection rates and decreased patient satisfaction, USA Today reports. Conditions at the hospital reached a point where a senior VA health executive notified local and regional officials in July that the situation is being investigated and more "leadership changes" could happen, according to internal documents obtained by USA Today. But the hospital's employees, who remained anonymous, are concerned the effort won't change the hospital's condition. They cited an investigation concluded earlier this year that revealed VA managers were aware of dangerous conditions at the hospital for years but failed to fix them. The VA inspector general found "a culture of complacency and a sense of futility pervaded offices at multiple levels." When the results were released in March, VA officials said "significant improvement" had been made, despite quality indicators continuing to deteriorate, such as ventilator complications rates and patient safety scores. "We ask you, our respected leaders, to stop this cover-up and incompetence, to really care and live up to America's promise to its heroes," the employees wrote to Mr. Wilkie and other VA officials. "Enough is enough." In a reply to the employees, the VA said the secretary forwarded their concerns to top VA health officials. VA Press Secretary Curt Cashour did not answer USA Today's questions on hospital conditions, but said VA officials are "taking additional measures to support the facility." "VA appreciates the employees' concerns and will look into them right away," Mr. Cashour said. "Veterans deserve only the best when it comes to their healthcare, and that's why VA is focusing on improving its facilities in Washington and nationwide." NuVasive reported an 8.5 percent increase in second quarter revenue, hitting $281.6 million, as well as a net income of $11.5 million. Here are seven key quotes from the second quarter earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Gregory Lucier, NuVasive Chairman and CEO, on new technology adoption: "Adoption of our lateral single-position surgery procedure continues to gain momentum and is a catalyst for attracting new surgeons. Recall, this procedure was launched late last year and eliminates the need for the patient to be repositioned during the surgery, leading to improved operating room efficiency. Surgeons are seeing this as a true benefit to both patients and their practice by reducing the time in the OR and the time spent by the patients under anesthesia. The number of surgeons trained on this procedure has grown significantly each quarter, and we have seen a nice uptick in cases by those surgeons." Rajesh Asarpota, Executive Vice President and CFO of NuVaisve, on growth for LessRay: "As it pertains to LessRay, we made good progress in converting trials to revenue in the second quarter. This piece of capital equipment has now been commercially available for about nine months, and we're starting to see contract negotiations accelerate. As we continue to refine our selling strategy, we have more trials recorded than our previous three quarters and are seeing very good traction with hospital capital allocation committees." GL on rolling out the Pulse and LessRay technology: "As we launched, what we think is an incredible new technology, totally changing the workflows in the operating room, we want to make sure that thing is 100 percent right. So we're going to take an extra, probably 90 days just to make sure it's a longer alpha period, and a broader alpha test environment, [with] more surgeons before we open it up to all comers. I will tell you, based on our experience of looking at other automation systems in the market, they didn't take that approach, and you can hear the word that these systems are going through a fairly lengthy shakeup period. We don't have that with what we do." GL on technologies that will be at NASS: "We will be demonstrating the next-generation neuromonitoring system. We will be demonstrating a very advanced next-generation surgical planning system with artificial intelligence embedded in it. We will be demonstrating a rod-bending technology, the next generation of Bendini. We'll be talking about imaging, and there's more to come on that that we haven't fully announced. And we will be demonstrating automation at NASS as well." GL on surgeon utilization and growth: "We're doing well with our existing surgeons. We've doubled down on retention of those key surgeons, making sure that NuVasive is a powerful partner in their practice. And we want to get even better at that. And then, the other important thing I would say is that we've focused quite successfully on young new surgeons. Fellows, residents, coming out, building their practices, starting minimally invasive practices. We have done quite well with the younger people coming into the industry." GL on biologics: "Biologics is important to us. It's an important element of the bag. I really, really appreciate the team we have running that now. But long term, five years-plus, our goal is to do things even more radically, to create implants that probably don't need hardly any biologics. And that is the strategy of the company and that's where we go on a long-term basis." GL on the company's new manufacturing facility: "Internally we are focused on driving our internal manufacturing capabilities in West Carrollton to achieve the desired impact on our income statement, certainly in the second half of the year, but robustly into 2019." The Ulster Farmers' Union has urged the Government to make sure Brexit presents new opportunities for the industry. President Ivor Ferguson called for ministers to secure his members' position in the UK market, while giving the best possible access to the 27 states of the European Union. He was responding to the publication of the Future Agricultural Policy Framework document, which will help shape the debate on future support arrangements for Northern Ireland. Mr Ferguson said: "Our goal is a productive, sustainable and resilient farming industry, and this document is a good start to securing that." The UFU says it is essential the local share of UK farm support remains the same and that any new system is simple and avoids red tape. "It must be targeted at those who take the risks in primary food production. This is an opportunity to create a better system, and it is essential we take this chance to get it right," said Mr Ferguson. Norman Fulton, deputy secretary at the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, said: "Following our initial and very positive engagement with a number of stakeholders representing farming, food and environmental interests, we are now seeking views from across a much broader range of stakeholders on possible future agricultural support arrangements in NI as we prepare to leave the EU. "CAP payments have been important in sustaining the industry, underpinning its competitive trading position and developing its environmental performance, so it is essential that the industry in NI is provided with some certainty in relation to future support arrangements in the shorter term." The consultation remains open until October 10. Thai Lion Air begins Nepal flights Low-cost carrier (LCC) Thai Lion Air made its maiden flight on Bangkok-Kathmandu sector on Wednesday, becoming the second carrier from the land of white elephants to connect Nepal. LOW-COST airline Norwegian has said its selling 79 one-way flights between Belfast International and the US between today and Monday. The flights are available for a limited time only at www.norwegian.com/uk. Norwegian offers seasonal transatlantic flights from Belfast to New York Stewart International Airport and Providence Airport near Boston on the US east coast. The carrier flies brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with 189 seats from Belfast to the USA four times a week in the summer season. The airline has suspended the routes in the winter-time, so that both routes will cease at the end of October. The airline said: For travel to the USA from Belfast in September and October, Norwegian will launch a five-day special offer on fares from Thursday August 2 00:01 BST until Monday 6 August 22:59 BST. The five-day offer will be available on Norwegians affordable transatlantic flights from Belfast nonstop to New York Stewart International Airport in New York state and Providence International Airport in Rhode Island which offers good access to Boston and attractions in New England from just 79 one-way*. Customers can book now at www.norwegian.com/uk using campaign code FLYFORLESS. Last month the airline said it was still confirming our route schedule for summer 2019 and aim to announce our plans in the coming weeks once everything is finalised. We are monitoring how our Belfast routes perform this summer. If theres strong passenger demand, as we anticipate, the services will likely return as a seasonal route next summer. 'Smurfit Kappa, which has an operation in Lurgan making corrugated packaging, saw its revenue in the six-month period rise 5% to 4.4bn (3.9bn)' (stock photo) Smurfit Kappa forked out 17m (15m) to defend itself from a 9bn (8bn) takeover approach from US firm International Paper, the Irish packaging giant has revealed in its latest set of results. The half-year results, which saw Smurfit Kappa post a 27% rise to 724m (644m) in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), have been seen by investors as vindicating the Smurfit Kappa board's decision to reject the overtures from International Paper. Smurfit Kappa, which has an operation in Lurgan making corrugated packaging, saw its revenue in the six-month period rise 5% to 4.4bn (3.9bn). The FTSE-100 listed firm rejected the approach from Memphis-based International Paper, telling its own shareholders that its prospects were better as an independent business. "The results show that an independent business is well able to deliver returns on its own merits," chief financial officer Ken Bowles said. Mr Bowles added that Smurfit Kappa has already spent or earmarked about 800m (711m) of 1.6bn (1.4bn) it had vowed to spend to drive superior returns. Opponents of same-sex marriage reform risk alienating a generation in Northern Ireland, a leading campaigner will say later. Ged Killen, a gay Catholic and Labour MP from Glasgow, is married to a man from Northern Ireland. He will address the annual Amnesty International Pride lecture in Belfast later and will say it is anti-democratic for Westminster to refuse to legislate on the matter in the absence of devolved government at Stormont. Make no mistake. Same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland will happen. Those who stand opposed risk alienating a generation. The children of future married same-sex couples, their friends and their families will not forgive nor forget those who stood in the way of equality. When I take off from Glasgow Airport I am a married man, but when I step off the plane in Belfast my marriage will no longer be recognised under Northern Irish law. - Ged Killen MP Amnesty @belfastpride Lecture - Thur 2 Aug 7:30pm, QUB Tickets: https://t.co/5e8ZvTZDJk pic.twitter.com/hnknY62XqX Amnesty Int'l NI (@AmnestyNI) July 31, 2018 Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK in which same-sex marriage has not been legalised due to opposition from its largest party, the DUP. The Republic of Ireland voted to allow the ceremony in 2015. Theresa Mays Democratic Unionist allies hold that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman and have used a parliamentary mechanism at Stormont to veto efforts to legislate. When the now-suspended Assembly was operating its members voted in favour of change while public opinion polls show a majority of above 70% back social liberalisation. Amnesty Belfast Pride Lecture 2018 Tickets going fast but available here: https://t.co/N5XxFAo7wk @belfastpride pic.twitter.com/nXaFp1JEhG Amnesty Int'l NI (@AmnestyNI) July 26, 2018 Mr Killen will say there is also a clear majority at Westminster who would vote to extend the right of marriage in Northern Ireland in the absence of a devolved Assembly in Belfast. The opponents of same-sex marriage seek to impose a minority view on the LGBT community in Northern Ireland through a technicality. Under these circumstances, it is anti-democratic not to legislate for same-sex marriage and Westminster has a moral and a democratic obligation to do so. Instead of facing a vote, they now run away, using cheap parlour tricks and the machinations of parliamentary processes and the petition of concern to deny the will of the people of Northern Ireland. It can only be described as one thing, a stitch-up to prevent people from claiming their rights. He urged the Prime Minister to decide whether her deal with the DUP to prop up the minority Government, which preserved her fragile grip on power, was worth perpetuating ongoing discrimination against the LGBT+ community in Northern Ireland. Mr Killen has previously acknowledged that his relationship with religion had not always been an easy one. In 2012 he wrote to the then head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith OBrien, challenging him on anti-LGBT comments he had allegedly been making in the media. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. PSNI officers on duty in August 2015 when an anti-internment march and opposing loyalist march passed through Belfast City Centre. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. Dee Fennel joins the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. General view of the republican Anti Internment League parade as it leaves Ardoyne in north Belfast to Dunville Park. Dissident republicans have warned they will hold a rally outside Belfast City Hall on a busy Saturday afternoon even if their anti-internment march through the city centre is banned. Dee Fennell of the Anti-Internment League last night said that if the Parades Commission ruled against the demonstration, as it has done for the past three years, republicans would hold a rally at the building anyway. He claimed that it didn't require authorisation from the commission. In their application, the organisers have filed for 1,000 demonstrators and four flute bands to take part in the march though the city centre on Saturday, August 11. They plan to gather at Writers' Square beside St Anne's Cathedral at lunchtime and march up Royal Avenue and into Donegall Place to City Hall, where speakers will address the crowd. Mr Fennell said: "For the past three years, our demonstration has been banned from the city centre. It is a blatant act of discrimination. "Loyalists march through the city centre all the time, as do a range of other groups and organisations. "If Belfast really is a shared space, there is no reason why republicans shouldn't have the same access as others." Mr Fennell said the republican parade would follow the exact route of "LGBTQ Pride, the May Day parade, marriage equality parade, Palestinian Solidarity march and numerous Loyal Order and Somme Association parades". The Anti-Internment League said its march was to highlight "cases of internment including those incarcerated via revocation of licence, by remand, via miscarriage of justice and through 'Garda belief evidence'". Expand Expand Previous Next Close Members of the Anti Internment League protest outside Belfast Metropolitan College on Saturday Kevin Scott / Presseye Members of the Anti Internment League protest outside Belfast Metropolitan College on Saturday Kevin Scott / Presseye / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Members of the Anti Internment League protest outside Belfast Metropolitan College on Saturday It said such prisoners "did not receive a trial by jury". The league said: "Despite shortening the route, ensuring it doesn't pass places of worship that could cause offence, reducing band numbers and demonstrating a willingness to engage, (our parade) has been subjected to continuing discrimination, restriction and the denial of access to Belfast city centre." It claimed this was "based on the fact that participants include Irish republicans". It continued: "Should this year's parade be unjustly or harshly restricted in terms of route, numbers or time then our parade notification will be withdrawn. "Instead the Anti-Internment League will be forced to call a rally at Belfast City Hall at the notified parade assembly time with people legally assembling from and dispersing in all directions into the city centre as is our right under the European Convention on Human Rights and which cannot be infringed upon by either the Parades Commission or PSNI." It said republicans wouldn't "tolerate being the only people denied the right to political assembly within our city centre". The Parades Commission is expected to make a ruling on the march application later this week. In 2015 there were clashes between the PSNI and republicans after police stopped the march from entering the city centre. The previous year the parade went ahead amid a massive police operation which saw streets blocked off hours in advance. In 2013, 56 PSNI officers were injured after loyalist protesters attacked the police during a parade. Flooding in Belfast at the weekend It may have been one of the warmest months on record, but Northern Ireland still had as much rainfall in July as previous years. Last weekend's torrential downpours led to the region receiving 99% of its average total rainfall for the month, according to the Met Office. Last Saturday's deluge caused widespread flooding across parts of Antrim and Down. Prior to Saturday, Northern Ireland had recorded just 37.8mm of rain. Then almost that amount again - 37.7mm - fell that day. Despite the weekend washout, it was the eighth hottest July on record in Northern Ireland. The Met Office data reveals it was warmer than normal by 1.7C, with an average daily maximum temperature of 20.2C. It was also much sunnier than normal, with an above-average 178 hours of sunshine. Provisional figures released yesterday revealed that, for the UK as a whole, last month was the third warmest July on record. The mean average temperature across the UK was 17.2C (62.9F), behind the 2006 record of 17.8C (64.04F) and also 17.3C (63.14F) in 1983. Much of the country endured a prolonged heatwave last month, with sizzling temperatures and weeks without rain. However, the cooler temperatures and widespread thunderstorms at the end of the month meant no nationwide records were broken. On the whole, the UK had 71% of its average rainfall, making it only the 16th driest July since records began in 1910. But the summer heatwave still took its toll on many parts of the UK. The dry spell was most prolonged in East Anglia and south-east England, where some places, including Heathrow and High Wycombe, experienced 58 "dry days" in a row. The Met Office defines a "dry day" as one with less than 1.0mm of recorded rainfall. Dr Mark McCarthy, manager of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said the UK experienced its hottest ever May this year and its second hottest June. "For a large part of July, it looked as if we might see another record-breaking month, but lower temperatures in the north and west and the storms at the end of the month meant that was not the case. "However, temperatures were well above average and rainfall much lower, particularly in parts of England, continuing the pattern of an unusually warm, dry summer overall." The highest temperature measured anywhere during the month was 35.3C (95.54F), on July 26 at Faversham in Kent. The heatwave led to the first hosepipe ban in Northern Ireland since 1995, with farmers also expressing concerns over crops. The Met Office has forecast that the scorching weather will return to parts of the UK later this week. Temperatures are likely to hit 30C (86F) across southern England and Wales. However northern and western areas will escape the worst of the heat and they will instead enjoy a mix of sunshine and showers. Triumph of the people Govt has moved to amend the medical bill, but pressure needs to be kept A police screen hides the scene of a serious accident on the Belfast bound lane of the M1 Police at the scene of a serious crash on the Belfast bound lane of the M1 on Wednesday, August 1. Photo by Tony Hendron/Tonpixnews. People have told of their shock after a man died in a horror accident on the M1. The incident occurred around 4.50pm yesterday on a stretch of the Belfast-bound lane of the motorway between Lurgan and Moira. Read More Shocked onlookers described how the man parked his car, a Black Saab Vector, on the hard shoulder before appearing to step out in front of a HGV, just past the Lurgan turn-off. Police described the deceased as "a male pedestrian", and appealed to anyone who saw a man on the M1 around the time to come forward. The stretch of the motorway was closed in both directions as emergency services - including the Air Ambulance - attended the scene. One motorist, who arrived seconds after the accident, described how people battled to save the man. They told the Belfast Telegraph: "I got there moments after it had happened - the poor man was on the ground. "I could see straight away that he was in a bad way. "There was a nurse, who had also come on the scene, and she was attempting to resuscitate him. "A couple of people worked hard on him until the Air Ambulance arrived, but it was no good - he was gone. "There were quite a few people on the scene and everyone was very upset. "It is just tragic - it was a traumatic scene." They added that they believed the deceased was aged in their 30s. Police confirmed "a male pedestrian" had died and appealed for information. Inspector Gary Irvine said: "The single-vehicle collision involving a lorry occurred around 4.50pm, eastbound on the M1, just past the Lurgan junction. There were no reports of any other injuries. "We are working to establish what happened and we are keen to speak to anyone who saw a Black Saab Vector on the M1 travelling eastbound before the collision was reported. "We are also keen to hear from anyone who saw a male on the M1 in this area prior to the collision." The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it sent one rapid response paramedic, one paramedic officer and one emergency ambulance crew to the scene. There were long delays as emergency services dealt with the incident. The westbound carriageway of the M1 between Moira and Lurgan was later reopened while the eastbound lanes remained closed into the evening. Upper Bann DUP MLA Carla Lockhart said she understood he came from the local area. "This is a very tragic incident and my thoughts are very much with the family of the deceased," she said. "I commend the emergency services personnel who dealt with the incident, along with the those who came to the man's aid and helped him." She also praised the understanding of motorists who had been caught up in the incident. "First and foremost, our thoughts are with family who are grieving the loss of a loved one, lost in such tragic circumstances," she added. Ian Paisley's party affiliation has been changed on the UK's Parliamentary website to 'Independent'. (PA) Ian Paisley's party affiliation has been changed on the UK's Parliamentary website to 'Independent'. Last month the DUP North Antrim MP was suspended from the House of Commons for failing to declare family holidays in Sri Lanka, for breaching rules on paid advocacy and for breaching rules on registration of interests by failing to register the two holidays. The 30-day sitting suspension is the longest ever given to an MP on record. Mr Paisley was suspended from the DUP in the wake of this, with the party saying it would conduct an investigation into the matter. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The Paisley family at home in 1988. From left to right Ian Junior, Cherith, Rhonda, Kyle. Pic Pacemaker Ian Paisley hurdles a fence during canvassing for 2010 election. Pic Charles McQuillan Pacemaker Ian Paisley with Donald Trump. The North Antrim MP has supported the US president. Ian Paisley and Ian jnr eating buns in the campaign trail in March 1982. Ian Paisley at the Seven Towers Leisure Centre in Ballymena after retaining his seat in the 2015 general election Kevin Scott / Presseye Ian Paisley junior left pictured with his father during the Drumcree stand off in 1996. PACEMAKER BELFAST 15/04/98 Ian Paisley MP at a Remembrance Day commemoration in Kenya Pacemaker Belfast - Archive Ian Paisley Jnr with "Justice for the UDR Four " at his Ravenhill office. 19-12-90 1053-90-BWC Ian with Arlene Foster after she was made DUP party leader 9 / 6 / 17 PACEMAKER PRESS Ian Paisley Jr celebrates with his son Matthew and wife Fiona after winning his seat for North Antrim in the UK Parliamentary Elections. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS Ian Paisley Jnr, whose father founded the DUP in 1971, says, 'everybody hates us but we've got the cash' [Photo: Marc McKormick, www.independent.co.uk] Ian Paisley with his late father. Credit: Stephen Davidson/Pacemaker Press PACEMAKER BELFAST. Ian Paisley and Ian Junior in Studio. 16/8/94. 704/94/bwc PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 14/1/2011: Ian Paisley Junior pictured at the Adelaide Racer awards at the Ramada hotel PICTURE BY CHARLES MCQUILLAN Paisley with Miss North West 200 Jillian Frew 3/5/2010. PACEMAKER BELFAST. IAN PAISLEY JR POSES FOR THE OFFICIAL ELECTION ARTIST, SIMON ROBERTS WHILST CANVESSING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE OUTSIDE BALLYMENA THIS AFTERNOON. PICTURE CHARLES MCQUILLAN/PACEMAKER. Pacemaker Press Belfast 22-03-2013: Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Jr, MP is the Member of Parliament for North Antrim and member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Democratic Unionist Party and an author. He is the son of the DUP's founder and former leader, Ian Paisley. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Ian Paisley Jr met Amari Wijewardene, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, in Parliament to discuss a post-Brexit trade deal PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 11/7/2018: North Antrim MP, Ian Paisley at motorcycle racer William Dunlop's funeral at Garryduff Presbyterian church outside Ballymoney. Dunlop was killed in a crash during practice for the Skerries 100. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON PACEMAKER BELFAST 20/04/2017 Ian Paisley speaks to the Irish Times at Stormont Hotel in Belfast, about his father. Photo Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker Press Ian discusses the legacy of his father Photo Colm Lenaghan/ Pacemaker Press Ian Paisley Getty Images Pacemaker Belfast 18-06-2007: Junior Minister Ian Paisley Junior pictured at photocall at Stormont where ministers were encouraging people to cycle to work. PACEMAKER BELFAST. Copy pics from the book about the early years of the life of Ian Paisley. 13/8/86. 1197/86/bw PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 8/5/2015:DUP's Ian Paisley celebrates his victory in the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena . PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON A picture posted by Ian Paisley (right) of Arron Banks (second left), Sammy Wilson (second right) and Leave.EU campaigner Andy Wigmore Pacemaker press 21/4/15 The Democratic Unionist Party MP Ian paisley Junior launches election manifesto at Wrightbus in Co Antrim. Picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Paisley with Melania Trump Ian Paisley Junior PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 8/5/2015:DUP's Ian Paisley celebrates his victory in the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena . PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON DUP's Ian Paisley celebrates victory in the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena in the May 2015 General Election. Picture Stephen Davison Pacemaker 8/5/2015. PACEMAKER BELFAST. Ian Paisley and Ian Jnr. PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 8/5/2015: DUP's Ian Paisley celebrates his victory in the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena by singing the National Anthem. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 8/5/2015: Ian Paisley arrives at the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena with his wife, Fiona. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON 9 / 6 / 17 PACEMAKER PRESS Ian Paisley Jr celebrates winning his seat for North Antrim in the UK Parlimentary Elections. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 3/5/2010. PACEMAKER BELFAST. IAN PAISLEY JR AND IAN PAISLEY SR IN HARRYVILLE, BALLYMENA. PICTURE CHARLES MCQUILLAN/PACEMAKER. Pacemaker Press 8/5/2017 DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr during the Launch of the DUP's General election campaign launch at the Castlereigh Hills Golf in East Belfast on Monday, ahead of the election on the 8th of June. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker PACEMAKER, BELFAST, 8/5/2015:DUP's Ian Paisley celebrates his victory in the North Antrim constituency count in Ballymena . PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON Pacemaker Press: 22th December 2017: Ian Paisley Jr pictured with his new and old Passport Picture By: Arthur Allison. Ian Paisley Pacemaker Press Belfast 31-03-2014: Launch of North-West 200 road races at Titanic Belfast . Pictured at the launch Ian Paisley, Jr. and Arlene Foster, MLA Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. PICTURE BY: STEPHEN DAVISON Pacemaker Press Belfast 31-03-2014: Launch of North-West 200 road races at Titanic Belfast .Pictured at the launch Ian Paisley, Jr. and Arlene Foster, MLA Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. PICTURE BY: STEPHEN DAVISON 9 / 6 / 17 PACEMAKER PRESS Ian Paisley Jr celebrates winning his seat for North Antrim in the UK Parlimentary Elections. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Paisley family at home in 1988. From left to right Ian Junior, Cherith, Rhonda, Kyle. Pic Pacemaker Expand Close How Ian Paisley is currently listed on the Parliament website / Credit: Parliament.uk / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp How Ian Paisley is currently listed on the Parliament website / Credit: Parliament.uk A House of Commons spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph the change of status was a reflection of the fact he is suspended, and does not mean Mr Paisley has left the party. It is understood the action was taken by the House of Commons without contact from the DUP. Similar action has been taken with other parliamentarians suspended from their parties. Earlier this year Labour MP John Woodcock was suspended from his party after allegations of sexual harassment, leading to his being listed as an independent. Mr Woodcock has since quit the Labour party over a dispute with leadership. A DUP spokesperson said: "The party has suspended Ian Paisley from the party pending further investigation." Mr Paisley could face a by-election if he is recalled under the terms of the Petition of Recall Act of 2015. The law gives constituents the power to recall their MPs, with an election triggered by at least 10% of the electorate in the constituency signing a petition. With 75,478 constituents in Mr Paisley's North Antrim constituency, 7,547 signatures would be required to trigger a by-election. Sherry Suett says she has lost all faith in Ryanair after her experiences A Co Antrim woman has branded Ryanair a "shame and disgrace" after she was left stranded in London for five days following the cancellation of not just one, but two flights home. Sherry Suett (55), a florist who lives in Cullybackey, was due to fly from Stansted on Saturday, but the flight "disappeared off the board" following a two hour delay. "It was a disaster. My daughter, who was waiting to pick me up in Belfast, knew more than I did," she said. "There was chaos in the airport, but I managed to make it to the gate and that's when a voice over the tannoy told us the flight had been cancelled." Ms Suett, who had been visiting family after holidaying in Cyprus, was advised to collect her luggage, leave the airport and book a new flight home - but the next available flight wasn't until Tuesday. "I just accepted it as one of those things and informed my employer that I would not be back in work until Wednesday," the mum-of-one said. But the Greenmount College lecturer never made it to work yesterday either, after Ryanair cancelled her rescheduled flight home on Tuesday afternoon. Ms Suett said she was left baffled by the reason cited by the low-fare airline. "I couldn't believe it when they cancelled the second flight," she said. "But I was more shocked that they blamed it on the weather. "There had been a few thunderstorms in the early part of the morning, but my flight was in the afternoon when the sun was shining. "It's a bit of a mystery, because Ryanair was the only company cancelling flights that day". She said she had not been offered compensation, branding Ryanair "a shame and disgrace". A Ryanair spokesperson said it was "forced" to cancel flights on Tuesday due to adverse weather disruption, which was not exclusive to the airline and meant no compensation is due. It said any suggestion that Ryanair was the only company affected was "entirely false". But a spokesperson for Stansted Airport confirmed that Ryanair was indeed the only company to cancel flights on Tuesday. "It is up to Ryanair to explain why they chose to make that decision," they added. The disillusioned passenger finally arrived back home last night after ditching the airline for one of its main competitors. "They have completely destroyed all trust, so I couldn't take another chance," Ms Suett said. "I had to pay 250 for an easyJet flight on top of the additional expenditure over the last few days and loss of earnings." Ms Suett has vowed to never again rely on the Irish company which, she claims, ruined a precious family reunion earlier this year. "I was on my way to celebrate my sister's 70th birthday and my mum, who suffers from dementia and lives in a care home, was going to be there," she recalled. "It was just one of those valuable moments when we were all going to be together - there might not be many of those left. "But after a 19-hour delay in Belfast I knew I'd missed it, I just gave up and went home." The Girls Brigade leader, who also missed an important planning meeting due to the disruption, said there is "no excuse" for how the company has acted. Hundreds of passengers across Europe have been sharing similar experiences online as the company contends with air traffic control staff shortages in some of its main travel hubs - 25% of Irish pilots are due to take part in a fourth strike tomorrow, causing even more cancellations. Scott Kennerley, head of transport policy at The Consumer Council said air passengers impacted by delays or cancellations may be entitled to assistance and in some cases compensation. Anyone who wants to know more about their passenger rights or who needs help making a complaint can contact The Consumer Council on 0800 121 6022 or visit www.consumercouncil.org.uk. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has branded Mary Lou McDonald's U-turn on the calling of a border poll as "another indication of the party's infantile handling of the issue". On Monday the Sinn Fein president said she would prefer not to hold a border poll in the context of a "crash or very hard Brexit" as it would be the wrong "climate". But less than 24 hours later she said Sinn Fein wanted a referendum "as soon as possible" and it shouldn't be delayed by the "chaos of the Tory Brexit". Mr Eastwood expressed disappointment that Ms McDonald had abandoned her "sensible position" of delaying a border poll.He said: "It is disappointing to see Sinn Fein move away from this welcomed approach a mere 24 hours later. "What Sinn Fein has always failed to understand is that a border poll must be based on the practical, not the pre-determined. "Just as Scottish independence campaigners produced a 670-page document outlining the path to independent nationhood, those of us who want to build a new and agreed Ireland must do the same." The SDLP leader added: "People from all backgrounds are warming to the idea that reunification with one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union is an idea worth hearing out. "Those of us who want to see Irish unity should stop putting out Press releases about a border poll and start working on building the bridges that will enable us to win one when it is called." Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald in Derry yesterday, where she officially opened the offices of the party's Foyle MP Elisha McCallion A war of words has erupted between Sinn Fein and the DUP over a proposed new round of talks to restore power-sharing. Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald yesterday accused the DUP of having a "destructive and reckless agenda" after Arlene Foster said her party's opposition to a stand-alone Irish Language Act was "non-negotiable". Read More Earlier, the DUP leader said she wasn't aware of a proposal to hold fresh talks in the autumn to restore devolution. The initiative was revealed by the Taoiseach, whom Mrs Foster accused of interfering in Northern Ireland affairs. Speaking in Londonderry yesterday, the Sinn Fein president described the DUP leader's stance on an Irish Language Act as "disappointing". Ms McDonald said: "Arlene Foster and all others need to understand that Gaeilgeoiri are not going anywhere, that Gaeilgeoiri, just like gay citizens, just like every citizen, have their rights and that in a modern, functioning democratic society, you deliver on people's rights. "It's hugely disappointing that Arlene Foster and the DUP don't seem to have moved on one inch since last February. The rhetoric of 'no, nay, never' gets no one anywhere. "This is now about progress, about recognising people's entitlements. These are issues that are not orange and green, these are people issues, rights issues." The Sinn Fein president said she wanted to talk to the British and Irish Governments to ascertain what shape future talks would take. "We will enter any process in good faith, but we have to be sure that it has the prospect of delivery," she said. "We are a party of engagement. I have said all along that despite the stance that the DUP and their very destructive and reckless agenda, there is no doubt that early or late, all of this brings us right back around the table talking to each other again. There is no other way forward." On Tuesday Leo Varadkar said: "We would intend, in the autumn some time, trying again to get the parties in Northern Ireland together. "The absence of any clarity around Brexit makes that very difficult, but if we can have that in October, I think there is an opportunity, certainly before the end of the year, to get the Assembly and Executive up and running." Mrs Foster yesterday said she wasn't aware of any such proposal and had not been informed of any by London. "We haven't heard from our own Government in relation to this, all we've had is comments from the Irish Republic's Government," she told BBC Radio Ulster. "That does cause me concern because in the last round of talks, the Irish Government tried to interfere in strand one issues (issues related to Northern Ireland's internal government). "We had to push back a number of times and say to them that, in relation to the internal matters of Northern Ireland, those are matters for the UK Government and the parties in Northern Ireland. As I understand it, there isn't a proposal at the moment, there are just comments made by the Irish Government." Mrs Foster accused Sinn Fein of ducking its political responsibilities. "Instead of attempting to work for any agreement locally, Sinn Fein chose to walk away and boycott the Assembly, Executive and House of Commons. Forums that could give them some influence," she said. "On Brexit and on devolution, is it easier for Sinn Fein to reduce themselves to little more than lobbyists rather than engage in the real business of politics and take tough decisions on behalf of everyone?" In response to Mr Varadkar's comments on new talks, a UK Government spokesperson said its top priority was "the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland". London would work with local parties and Dublin "within the three-stranded approach" to remove the barriers to restoring the Executive and a fully-functioning Assembly. Sinn Fein's championing of rights in Northern Ireland "is a sham", a senior DUP MP has claimed. The two biggest parties in Northern Ireland have been at loggerheads over issues such as the Irish Language Act, gay marriage and abortion since the Assembly collapsed last January. Read More The latest argument has revolved around DUP councillors using a call-in procedure to block the flying of rainbow flags on Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon council's civic buildings for this weekend's Pride events. Sinn Fein called the move "disgraceful and disrespectful" to the LGBTQ community. However, Lagan Valley MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has hit back at Sinn Fein, saying the party's stance on rights was a sham. It should probably come as little surprise to anyone that Sinn Fein take an ourselves alone attitude to democracy," he said. "Whilst very keen to talk about their mandate, they completely disregard the mandate given to every other political party. Whilst talking about equality, for Sinn Fein republicans must always be more equal than others. "The latest soundbite from Sinn Fein is to claim the DUP is responsible for a denial of rights on just about any issue imaginable. What is true however is that Sinn Fein alone is holding Northern Ireland to ransom by denying the right of the Assembly and Executive to vote and decide on any issue." Expand Close Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill at a march calling for a law change in Northern Ireland allowing gay marriage. The march was organised by Love Equality Campaign. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill at a march calling for a law change in Northern Ireland allowing gay marriage. The march was organised by Love Equality Campaign. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. The Lagan Valley MP said Sinn Fein's approach was "to lay down red lines" and demand that issues are agreed without having elected representatives vote on them. Sir Jeffrey added: "Sinn Feins championing of rights is a sham. They are only truly interested in their own narrow sectional interests and will hold Northern Ireland to ransom to advance those narrow interests alone. "Their boycott of the Assembly and Executive means it is Sinn Fein blocking any potential of change rather than action taken by the DUP." Sinn Fein MP Orfhlaith Begley responded, saying the reason the political institutions collapsed in January 2017 was as a result of the RHI scandal and the DUP's "denial of rights to whole sections" of the community in Northern Ireland. Expand Close Orfhlaith Begley MP after her election Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press E / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Orfhlaith Begley MP after her election She said: Since then the DUP has continued to deny rights to Irish speakers, women, victims and the LGBT community, rights which are enjoyed by citizens everywhere else in these islands. The DUP has been supported in this denial of rights by a Tory government in chaos. In return the DUP has given the Tories a blank cheque for a disastrous Brexit against the wishes of the people of the north and backed continued savage Tory austerity cuts to our public services, cuts to health, cuts to education and to our economy. The DUP walked away from a deal with Sinn Fein in February this year to restore the Assembly and the Executive before collapsing the political talks. Sinn Fein will enter any new talks to restore the power-sharing institutions in good faith but the simple fact is that those talks can only be successful if they deliver equality, rights and respect for all. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has signalled a willingness to be flexible in Brexit negotiations around the Northern Ireland border. Fears of a return to violence have been raised if the Good Friday Agreement is damaged by the imposition of a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit. The EUs suggested solution to the problem a common regulatory area for goods and customs with the rest of the EU has so far been rejected by the UK as annexing Northern Ireland. Calling the issue the biggest risk caused by Brexit, Mr Barnier said he was ready to improve the EUs proposal. #Brexit negotiation can reach good outcome. We must solve withdrawal issues incl. Ireland/NI. EU wants new partnership w/ UK on security & w/ ambitious FTA at its heart. We can do this based on #EuCo principles: indivisibility of 4 freedoms & EU autonomy https://t.co/wFaTpyql2g Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) August 2, 2018 He said: Since we will not know what the future relationship will bring by autumn 2018, we need to have a backstop solution in the withdrawal agreement. The UK agrees with this, and both the EU and the UK have said that a better solution in the future relationship could replace the backstop. What the EU has proposed is that Northern Ireland remains in a common regulatory area for goods and customs with the rest of the EU. We are ready to improve the text of our proposal with the UK. It is possible to respect EU principles and create a new and ambitious partnershipMichael Barnier Mr Barnier was also positive about reaching a deal unprecedented in scope and depth around free trade. He warned that UK proposals must not undermine the four pillars of the single market free movement of goods, capital, services and labour, which he called one of the EUs biggest achievements by seeking freedom only for goods. But I remain confident that the negotiations can reach a good outcome, he said. It is possible to respect EU principles and create a new and ambitious partnership. The woman at the centre of the Republic's CervicalCheck scandal has held a "frank" meeting with the Taoiseach, relaying her concerns over the Irish government's handling of the issue. Vicky Phelan's cancer was missed in a smear test three years before she was diagnosed with the disease. A series of women in the Republic with cervical cancer were not told that smear test results showing them to be in the clear were inaccurate and the revised test results were kept from them. A total of 221 women were involved in the controversy, 18 of whom have since died. After a two-hour meeting with Leo Varadkar, Ms Phelan said: "It was very frank, not tense, but he knew I meant business. "The Taoiseach promised me that he meant what he said and that the state will attempt to settle all cases through mediation. "I was brutally honest about how harrowing the courtroom is for women, since I have already been through it, and I was very clear I don't want to see any more women in the courtroom." Ms Phelan (43), settled an Irish High Court action against a US lab in April for 2.5m after her cancer was missed in a smear test taken as part of the Republic's CervicalCheck programme. The missed smear test was discovered in 2014, after her cancer diagnosis, but she was not told about it until 2017. The Taoiseach confirmed that the preferred option is a public commission of inquiry. He told Ms Phelan that if required, legislation will be brought forward so that the inquiry can be made open to the public. "Letters of consent will be sent out to the 221 affected families at first to get the independent review going, letters to the larger population of women involved in the audit will follow, that's expected to take three to four months," she said. Ms Phelan said she also raised concerns that the Irish government's proposed new government safety bill does not sanction individual health care providers. The bill says that fines for breaches of the patient safety law in the Republic would be imposed on healthcare providers rather than individual practitioners. "I expressed concern that the proposed public safety bill does not include sanctions for individual health care practitioners, and only healthcare providers. "He told me the bill will be passed through the Dail in September, so I will be voicing my concern about the absence of sanctions for health care practitioners to (Irish health minister) Simon Harris. "The fines are a joke, they don't act as a deterrent. "I want to see people adhering to a bill and not just getting a slap on the wrist. "In my case, some of the harm was done by individual practitioners and that's why I wanted to flag that issue." Ms Phelan has also hit out at abuse and criticism she has received for her campaigning on the CervicalCheck issue. "There is a feeling out there, people who still think that these women, including me, are the limitations of screening," she added. "Our cases were identified for a reason, as the errors were so grave." Two die in Rolpa tractor accident Two people died on the spot in a tractor accident that took place at Madi rural municipality-1, Dharwang in Rolpa district on Wednesday. Brother Kevin and Ethel Merrins at the launch of a new exhibition in the Phoenix Park Visitors' Centre Archbishop Diarmuid Martin with the chair used by Pope John Paul II on his visit to Dublin An exhibition chronicling the preparations for the 1979 visit of Pope John Paul II to Phoenix Park in Dublin has opened. It looks at how the largest ever public event in Ireland, attended by over a million people, was organised and staged. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the original papal chair, which has recently been restored. It also looks at logistical issues including security and transport arrangements, the building of a helicopter landing pad, and how the immense interest of the international media was facilitated. The exhibition was launched by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre yesterday. He said: "I encourage the many people coming to the Phoenix Park to visit this wonderful exhibition." A former minister hopes to add a bit of sanity to the Brexit debate amid concerns over the impact on universities. Sir Simon Hughes said he would aim to be persuasive with former coalition government colleagues about how to mitigate the risks and maximise the advantages. The ex-Liberal Democrat MP, who represented Bermondsey and Southwark over a 32-year period until 2015, takes up a new position as London South Bank University chancellor in the autumn. Sir Simon who is supportive of a second referendum on the terms of any deal with the EU said he had stepped back from party politics for the unpaid role and intends to speak to officials from other parties and the National Union of Students. I'm hopeful I might be able to add a bit of sanity to what some say looks like a bit of large insanitySir Simon Hughes Asked how well politicians understood the challenges posed to universities by Brexit, Sir Simon told the Press Association: I will add my voice to those making sure the Government does understand. I hope I can be persuasive with my former coalition partners as well as the other parties to say there are ways of mitigating the risks and of maximising the advantages, and we have to be really clever and determined about that. Universities are worried, as is business, and the South Bank is two things really its a university but also a business university, working with business and doing apprenticeships. Im hopeful I might be able to add a bit of sanity to what some say looks like a bit of large insanity. Assessing Sir Vince Cables first 12 months as leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Simon added: I supported Vince in his candidacy as leader, I think hes intellectually the most significant of the major party leaders in the UK Parliament. Expand Close Sir Vince Cable (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sir Vince Cable (Andrew Matthews/PA) I think hes very clear and I think hes winning the argument, and we as a party are winning the argument, for the people to have a say at the end of the process and more and more people are coming on board. I dont say that just as a liberal or Liberal Democrat, I think thats a logical position to argue and I think its credible for people who voted Leave as much as Remain you dont sign the contract on the house, however nice the house looks from the outside, until youve had the survey done and youve seen the costs and done the final negotiations. A new aviation badge for Brownies has been unveiled as part of a campaign to encourage more girls to become pilots. To earn the award, Brownies will have to carry out aeronautical experiments using different materials and launch techniques, as well as name 40 things that fly. Tens of thousands of Brownies girls aged seven to 10 are expected to take part in the activities in the first year of the new badge. It has been introduced in partnership with easyJet, which wants 20% of its new entrant pilots to be female by 2020. Women make up around 3% of commercial airline pilots worldwide. Expand Close The new aviation badge for Brownies (Girlguiding/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The new aviation badge for Brownies (Girlguiding/PA) EasyJet captain Marnie Munns, the lead pilot for the airlines Amy Johnson Flying Initiative, said: We have always believed in the importance of female role models to encourage girls to see a pilot career as a real option available to them, which is why we are really excited to be unveiling the new aviation badge for Brownies as part of our partnership with Girlguiding. Together we will engage with even more young people to inspire and educate them about aviation and becoming a pilot. A survey of 556 pilots commissioned by easyJet found that the desire to become a pilot typically happens much later for girls than it does for boys. The majority of male pilots (55%) knew they wanted to do the job by the age of 10, whereas almost half of female pilots (44%) did not consider the role until they were over 16. Kate McWilliams, an easyJet captain and former Brownie, said: I never thought that being a pilot as a job was an option for me until I was nearly an adult. Growing up, I didnt know any commercial pilots who I could ask for advice and didnt see anyone doing the job that I could relate to. Having been a Brownie myself I am delighted that this new aviation badge will engage girls in a pilot career from an early age. I love being a commercial pilot for easyJet, its a fantastic career and anyone with an interest should consider it. The Amy Johnson Flying Initiative named after the flying pioneer was launched in October 2015 to tackle the stereotype that men are more suited to being pilots than women. In the year ending September 2015, women made up 6% of easyJets new pilot intake and 5% of its total pilot community. EasyJets aim of doubling the proportion of female new entrant pilots to 12% over two years was achieved after 12 months, leading to the new target of 20% by 2020. Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson has described his prison sentence as an attempt to mentally destroy him. Robinson, who was released from HMP Onley in Rugby on Wednesday, said he was subject to solitary confinement and treatment that amounted to mental torture. He was released from the Category C prison after three leading judges in London quashed a contempt finding made at Leeds Crown Court in May. They granted Robinson conditional bail from a 13-month jail sentence pending proceedings in another case at the Old Bailey. Expand Close Tommy Robinson (right) leaves Onley Prison (Joe Giddens/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tommy Robinson (right) leaves Onley Prison (Joe Giddens/PA) Speaking to supporters in a video posted on Facebook, Robinson said he had been a target. What they have attempted to do is mentally destroy me. That was not a prison sentence. That was mental torture, he said. That solitary confinement, all of it, everything was orchestrated and organised to cause me maximum disruption. Robinson, 35, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed after he filmed people involved in a criminal trial and broadcast the footage on social media. He said: I could be bitter and angry about everything thats happened, but if Im bitter and angry Id accept my own victimhood. Im their target, Im not their victim. Robinson also accused the mainstream media of publishing hit-piece after hit-piece after hit-piece about him. The case earned international attention and became a cause celebre for elements of the political right around the world. What they have attempted to do is mentally destroy meTommy Robinson Right-wing media outlets including Fox News, Breitbart and Robinsons former employer, Rebel Media, also flocked to his cause, alongside high-profile figures including Donald Trump Jr and actress Roseanne Barr, and internet personalities associated with the so-called alt-right. Followers from as far afield as Istanbul and Washington sent him almost 20,000 worth of Bitcoin, including a payment of more than 5,500 which passed through his Bitcoin wallet on the day he was jailed. Thanking well-wishers from all over the world, he said: I did not expect to come home today. The video, which was viewed more than a million times in the hours after it was posted, showed his emotional reunion with his children. Robinson could still face jail over an allegation that he committed contempt of court by filming people in a criminal trial and broadcasting footage on social media. Judges rejected his lawyers argument that there should not be a fresh hearing because he has already served the equivalent of a four-month sentence. A Prison Service spokesman said: Mr Yaxley-Lennon was treated with the same fairness we aim to show all prisoners he had access to visits, television and showers and it is totally false to say he was held in solitary confinement. He was initially placed into the Care & Separation Unit for less than 48 hours while an assessment of the risk to his safety was undertaken by prison staff. He then joined the main prison population. A tradesman selflessly paid for a pensioners meal at McDonalds after spotting him struggling with loose change at the counter. Melanie Langley secretly recorded her partner Dave Love paying for an elderly mans food along with his own. Love bought the mans coffee and breakfast, as well as giving him 20 Australian dollars (around 11) in the McDonalds branch in Bendigo, Australia. Posting the good deed on Facebook, Langley said: This man melts my heart Your true character is revealed when nobodys watching. After receiving the money from Love, the man was heard saying: Thank you very much youre a gentleman. STOP SCROLLING, this WILL make your day, I was in tears This man melts my heart I had no idea what he was up to as he ordered his morning coffee but quickly realised and couldnt not video this incredible act of kindness. Your true character is revealed when nobodys watching Oh and you wouldnt believe it, his surname is LOVE He bought this old mans coffee, breakfast and gave him $20 Oh and I told him I wasnt videoing as he wouldve made me turn it off #caughtintheact #payitforward #heartofgold #workhardtogivemore #domorehavemoregivemore #actofkindness #teamlove Posted by Melanie Goodwin on Monday, July 30, 2018 More than 47,000 Facebook users have shared the heartwarming video, which has now been viewed more than three million times. In a radio interview with Coffs Coasts Hit105.5, Love said: I noticed an old man just putting a big pocketful of change on the counter. We only put a big pocketful of change up when weve emptied our money box or something like that My heart melted. He just reminded me of my dad. Ive since learnt his story, hes lost his daughter and his wife. Hes a real cute old man Id love to just go to his house and have a cup of tea with him and talk, that would mean a lot. Were Aussie. Thats what we do for each other. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort personally directed millions of dollars in international wire transfers to pay for high-end suits and more than 3 million dollars (2.3 million) in improvements at his homes, witnesses have said at his trial. The testimony on the second day of his financial fraud trial on Wednesday was aimed at bolstering the prosecutions argument that Manafort hid millions of dollars in income from the IRS and used the funds for a lavish lifestyle. The witness accounts were also intended to contradict Manaforts lawyers, who have signalled they will pin blame for any illegal conduct on his longtime deputy, Rick Gates. The prosecutions focus on Manaforts personal finances at times laid out in painstaking detail underscored the vast amount of documents accumulated by special counsel Robert Muellers team in their case against the longtime political consultant. But it also tried the patience of US district judge TS Ellis III, who repeatedly scolded the governments lawyers for what he said was excessive and unnecessary information. Expand Close This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers (Dana Verkouteren via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers (Dana Verkouteren via AP) He warned prosecutors against using the word oligarchs to describe wealthy Ukrainians and admonished them for spending so much time documenting Manaforts extravagant lifestyle. The government doesnt want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they? he said, amid testimony that Manafort had spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) on clothing from a boutique retailer where he was one of only about 40 clients. The trial is the first courtroom test for the special counsel, who was tasked last year with investigating Russias efforts to sway the 2016 election and to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved. So far, Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion. However, the trial has pulled back the curtain on the former lobbyist who steered Trumps election efforts for a time. One witness, Maximillian Katzman, testified that Manafort spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) at his boutique retailer in New York. He said Manafort was the only business client of his who paid via international wire transfer. An FBI agent described the July 2017 raid on Manaforts Virginia condominium, and said searches found expensively tailored suits and documents related to other luxury items allegedly bought by Manafort, including two silk rugs bought for 160,000 dollars (122,000) paid from offshore accounts. But when prosecutors introduced photos of Manaforts high-end condo and expensive suits, the judge interrupted so as to limit the growing list of evidence jurors would have to consider. All this document shows is that Mr Manafort had a lavish lifestyle, he said. It isnt relevant. Prosecutor Greg Andres argued that documenting Manaforts spending for the jury was important to the case. Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr Manafort lived lavishly, Andres said. Its evidence of his income. The proceedings clearly caught the attention of president Donald Trump, who defended his 2016 hiring of Manafort and suggested Manafort was being treated worse than mobster Al Capone. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president indeed felt Manafort had been treated unfairly. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation, Trump tweeted on Wednesday. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax! Testimony was due to resume on Thursday morning with witnesses including bookkeepers and accountants. Syrian fighters and civilians celebrate the return of government authority to the southern town of Quneitra adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (AP) UN peacekeepers have returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 2014, Russian authorities said. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman told reporters in Moscow that the UN peacekeepers, aided by Russian forces, conducted their first patrolling mission in the area earlier in the day. The development also marked the first time that Russian forces, a major ally of the Damascus government, where involved in the patrols. The peacekeeping mission was halted in 2014 amid the violence in Syrians civil war over security concerns. Expand Close A map of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon was shown by Russian authorities (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A map of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon was shown by Russian authorities (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) As the situation stabilises, these posts will be handed over to Syrian government forces, the spokesman said. The UN peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. After Syrias civil war erupted, clashes broke out between Syrian President Bashar Assads forces and rebels inside the disengagement zone. In 2014, al Qaida militants in the area kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers before releasing them after two weeks. The UN withdrew from many of its positions shortly after that incident. Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesman said the countrys forces had targeted and killed seven armed terror operatives who had crossed into Israeli territory in the southern Golan Heights. Israel tracked the armed infiltrators who approached the border on Wednesday night and a military aircraft struck as they attempted to cross a security fence on the Israeli side of the frontier. A subsequent search of the area yielded several assault rifles and explosives. The spokesman said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. Israeli troops were on high alert and readiness following the strike. Israels defence minister said the situation on the border with Syria has reverted to the way it was before the civil war now that Syrian government forces have recaptured the area. Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile battery in northern Israel on Thursday after Russia said it reached an agreement to keep Iranian forces about 50 miles away from the Syrian-Israeli frontier. Mr Lieberman said that Israel had no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement, and as long as Syria does not become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Women in agriculture Agriculture sector is being feminised but their contribution is still undervalued Zimbabwean police officers cordon off the streets around the MDC opposition party headquarters (Jerome Delay/AP) Zimbabwes ruling party has told the opposition that we should all lose graciously as presidential election results are set to be announced. Zanu-PF spokesman Paul Mangwana said opposition supporters were responsible for Wednesdays deadly violence in the capital Harare in which the military swept in with gunfire to disperse protests over alleged rigging in Mondays vote. He said that it is not entirely true protesters were not armed. He also urged supporters of the ruling party to celebrate our victory with restraint. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his government was in touch with main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa in an attempt to ease tensions, hours after he accused the opposition of inciting it. Expand Close Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is greeted by supporters during a visit to a hospital (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is greeted by supporters during a visit to a hospital (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP) But Mr Chamisa said he had not received any communication from the president and criticised the violent government. He spoke during a visit to a Harare hospital where some of the injured and three dead were taken after Wednesdays violence. We have unarmed civilians being attacked, Mr Chamisa said. Is that normal even in a banana republic? Mr Chamisa called for calm and again said he is very confident we are forming the next government. Britains ambassador to Zimbabwe has met government ministers and made clear that the military should be removed from the streets of Harare. An embassy statement also condemned the excessive use of force by the security forces towards demonstrators in the capital. The statement welcomes Mr Mnangagwas comments announcing an independent investigation into the violence and says all political leaders have a responsibility to avoid raising tensions or inciting violence. Soldiers cleared people from the streets of central Harare after they swept in and used gunfire on Wednesday to disperse protesters angry over alleged vote-rigging in Mondays peaceful election. Expand Close Zimbabwe police are seen outside the opposition party headquarters in Harar( Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Zimbabwe police are seen outside the opposition party headquarters in Harar( Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP) Troops were stationed outside the opposition Movement for Democratic Changes party headquarters. International election observers urged Zimbabwe to release results of the presidential vote as soon as possible to reduce the tensions, saying delays will increase speculation that results were manipulated. By law the electoral commission has five days from the vote to release them, but both observers and the opposition have asked why presidential results were counted first but are being released last. In a series of posts on Twitter, Mr Mnangagwa said we have been in communication with Mr Chamisa and that we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear. I am therefore calling for an independent investigation into what occurred in Harare yesterday. We believe in transparency and accountability, and those responsible should be identified and brought to justice. 3/6 President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) August 2, 2018 The conciliatory remarks came a day after soldiers shot live rounds and beat demonstrators, many of whom threw rocks and set fires to protest against alleged election fraud. The government has said three people were killed. Wednesdays violence erupted after the electoral commission said the ruling Zanu-PF party won a majority in parliament. The commission has said the vote was free and fair. A credible vote is crucial to the lifting of international sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe so that its collapsed economy can recover. Elections under Robert Mugabes 37-year rule were marked by violence against the opposition and alleged fraud. Mr Mnangagwa called for an independent investigation into the violence in Harare, saying those responsible should be identified and brought to justice. We have been in communication with Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately diffuse the situation, and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear. 5/6 President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) August 2, 2018 Human rights activists and some international observers criticised the military for opening fire on unarmed civilians in what they said was a disproportionate reaction to the protests and rioting. Soldiers fired randomly and beat up bystanders who were not involved in the protests, said the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Yesterdays events leave ordinary citizens with serious doubts that this government is any different from its predecessor, if not worse, the forum said, referring to the long rule of Mr Mugabe, who resigned in November under military pressure. The new joint statement by international election observers from the European Union, US, Commonwealth, African Union and others expressed grave concern over the deadly violence and denounced the excessive use of force used to calm the protests. It urged Zimbabwes army and police to use restraint. The military deployment was the first time that soldiers had appeared in the streets of the capital since Mr Mugabes departure in November. At that time, thousands of jubilant residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators. Now some Harare residents, standing amid the shattered windows of Wednesdays violence, expressed frustration and exhaustion. We are tired of these people. They have to go, they have to go, the Zanu-PF regime, said a 23-year-old who gave his name only as Elliott. Because 29 years of oppressing the people of Zimbabwe, we are tired, we are saying we are tired. Another resident, 29-year-old Sifas Gavanga, said: We are a peaceful nation. We dont deserve the death we saw that happened yesterday. Zimbabwean authorities now say the military will remain in the capital until this situation is over. Peter Robinson's remarks at the MacGill Summer School did not please fellow unionists This past week we have had two interesting events in local politics, one concerning the leader of Sinn Fein and the other concerning the former leader of the DUP. Mary Lou McDonald must have disappointed many of her supporters on Monday with her assertion that now is not the time for a border poll. Their only hope of achieving a united Ireland is to win a border poll, and so Sinn Fein politicians keep calling for a border poll within the next five years. That is why Mary Lou went into reverse so quickly, and on Tuesday she said: Sinn Fein wants to see a referendum as soon as possible. This brought her back into line with her mentor, Gerry Adams. In 1999, at the time of a European election, Sinn Fein rallied its troops by claiming that there could be a united Ireland by 2016, the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. That prophecy was repeated on various occasions by Adams and Martin McGuinness, and in 2003 McGuinness said: It can be accomplished over a short time. Gerry Adams has said 2016 and I think that is achievable. However, the year 2016 is over and gone and there has been no united Ireland in spite of all the Sinn Fein promises. Mitchel McLaughlin has retired, Adams has moved south of the border, McGuinness is dead and the false prophecy has been quietly forgotten. That is why Sinn Fein has now settled for periodic calls for a border poll. It affirms its republican vision and, at the same time, it unsettles many unionists. Its strategy is a longer-term strategy, with two main strands. The first is to build up its party as a nationalist movement by radicalising and mobilising nationalists and by sanitising Sinn Fein, to make it a more palatable option in the Republic. The second is to demoralise unionists and erode as much of the unionist vote as it can. The other controversy was around some remarks made by Peter Robinson at the 38th annual MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal. His remarks about preparing for the unlikely event of a united Ireland were carefully qualified, but they were incautious, and former party colleague Sammy Wilson described them as dangerous. Indeed, I have not heard any mainstream unionist come out to endorse what he said. Over many years there has been a constant output of Sinn Fein propaganda about the inevitability of a united Ireland. At a Sinn Fein Easter Rising commemoration in April 2003, Adams said: The creation of a united Ireland is an inevitable consequence of the peace process. There was a temporary lapse last autumn when Adams addressed a republican book launch in Tralee and said: We believe that Irish unity is achievable and winnable, but it is not inevitable. It has to be worked for. However, he qualified that by calling for a border referendum within five years. Of course, most unionists dismiss it as Irish nationalist and republican propaganda and recognise that it is designed to unsettle and demoralise them. Nevertheless, it behoves all unionists to choose their words carefully and to say nothing that might be seized upon by nationalist propagandists or hostile elements in the media. At the same time there is a need for forward thinking and for thoughtful analysis and, in that regard, there has been a weakness within mainstream unionism. Too often unionism has been short-sighted, with a focus on immediate problems. Of course, these need to be addressed, but there is also a need for a longer-term strategy for Ulster and for the Union. What is the unionist vision for the future? What is the strategy by which we can advance that vision? How can we advocate for the Union and increase support for the Union? How can we energise and mobilise the talent that is there within the broader unionist community? Sinn Fein is the foremost nationalist party, but it is more than a party. It leads a broad movement with strong links into community, business, culture, academia and the professions. Perhaps we can learn something from that. If you have been on a Ryanair flight in the past decade, you will know that cabin crew sell scratch cards which offer 1m (890,000) as the top prize. These in-flight flutters comprise valuable ancillary revenue for both the airline and the staff who sell them. But it's difficult to think of a bet with less favourable odds. There is no Ryanair card that, when scratched, reveals a million-euro prize. Instead, a fortunate few qualify for the opportunity to attend an event where the idea is to select an envelope from 125 on offer. One contains that 1m prize, while the remaining 124 offer only one-twentieth as much: 50,000 (44,426). So, to become a euro millionaire courtesy of Ryanair, you have to be extremely lucky. Twice. More than 100,000 passengers lost out in a different kind of Ryanair raffle, when the airline cancelled 600 flights - about one in eight of its total schedule - last week because of a strike by cabin crew in Spain, Portugal and Belgium. Irish pilots have announced their fourth strike tomorrow, following three days of strikes earlier this year. The unlucky travellers last week were those whose flights were pre-selected for cancellation and given a week's notice to sort out alternatives. But they may yet turn out to be winners. In an unprecedented move, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is urging everyone whose flight was cancelled to claim compensation under European air passengers' rights rules. Either 250 or 400 (depending on the length of the journey) awaits, says the CAA; just ask. Or don't bother, because the airline is rejecting all claims. "As these flight cancellations were caused by extraordinary circumstances, no compensation is due," says Ryanair. "The union is acting unreasonably and totally beyond the airline's control." You might take the view that any airline can avoid a strike simply by meeting the union's demands and so, surely, it is responsible for the cancellations and should compensate passengers accordingly? The courts have failed to agree, except for a case involving a wildcat strike in Germany, where TUI was told to pay compensation. Odd, I agree, that an unofficial strike should be regarded as within an airline's control, but not an official stoppage. Yet it's a fair bet (fairer than the scratch card odds, at any rate) that either a cheesed-off passenger who happens to be a lawyer, or a claims-handling firm scenting a gold rush, will seek a definitive court ruling on the present sequence of Ryanair strikes. I calculate that, if everyone whose flights were cancelled last week successfully claimed, Ryanair would have to pay out around 30m. And if judges rule against the Irish airline, then British Airways and Air France are in for an expensive time, too, due to the cabin crew dispute at BA last year and frequent flight crew and ground staff stoppages at the French airline through the spring. For an airline that makes an average of 100,000 per hour in profits year-round, the potential compensation is small change. Ryanair's bosses are, instead, focused on what they see as an existential battle for the airline's ultra-low-cost model. They are behaving in a manner completely at odds with every other carrier involved in industrial disputes. The typical airline union spat goes like this. Pilots, cabin crew, or engineers, say: "We're not happy and we're going to ballot for a strike." The workforce duly votes for industrial action, which strengthens the union's hand and also scares off a number of prospective passengers, who book with rivals: even a whisper of a strike sends high-spending business travellers scuttling for other airlines. At that point, very often, an agreement is reached and they all live happily ever after, or at least until next summer. At worst, if there is a strike, both sides swiftly negotiate a compromise from which they can both claim victory and save face. But Ryanair's attitude shows it is in no mood to settle: "We are not prepared to concede to unreasonable demands that will compromise either our low fares or our highly-efficient model." Rather than talking down the summer of discontent, it has warned passengers to "expect further strikes over the peak summer period". The strikers that Ryanair has chosen to take on for a showdown are from its own backyard: the pilots employed by the airline in the Republic. In a dispute about seniority and base transfers, they stopped work for three days last month. On each occasion, a couple of dozen UK-Dublin flights were cancelled. The pan-European campaign by cabin crew in pursuit of better pay and conditions has led to far more flights being grounded. But Ryanair appears to believe that making an example of Irish pilots will be more effective pour encourager les autres - and to deter others from striking. The airline has thrown down the gauntlet by announcing that six Dublin-based aircraft will be moved to Poland in the winter, leaving 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew facing redundancy. The Irish Airline Pilots' Association promptly picked it up. Within three hours of Ryanair's Dublin downsize announcement, the union called for another strike tomorrow. Ryanair duly cancelled 20 flights between the UK and Dublin. The pilots are now playing Ryanair roulette. This gamble is less lethal than the Russian variety. But at least with a pistol loaded with a single bullet, the odds are five to one against losing. Ryanair roulette has far shorter odds. The airline is determined to avoid staff being seen to have gained from striking. Meanwhile, we passengers with boarding passes (or raffle tickets) on Ryanair face uncertainty about whether our trips will go ahead as planned. I have four future flights booked with the airline and I calculate the odds of any of them being cancelled by strikes at around 125-to-1. I promise to buy a scratch card on board; not because I yearn to qualify for a one-in-125 chance of choosing a million-euro envelope, but to give Ryanair's hard-working, always-professional cabin crew a bit of a boost. In this tempestuous summer, they need all the help they can get. Families leave their homes after a rocket strike in the western part of Kabul, Afghanistan, July 24, 2018. A Malaysian working for the French food services company Sodexo was among three foreign nationals abducted earlier this week and killed in Kabul on Thursday, the companys CEO and Malaysias foreign ministry said in separate statements. The bodies of the Malaysian and two other foreign nationals were found in Mussahi district, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, according to the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No group has claimed responsibilities for the incident, the ministrys statement said. Denis Machuel, Sodexo CEO, confirmed that the three men were Sodexo employees and were Malaysian, Indian and Macedonian. We are deeply saddened and shocked to learn of the tragic loss of three of our team members, he said in a statement. I want to say that our hearts are with their families, friends and colleagues. Sodexo is working closely with the authorities in Kabul and will share further information when available, he said. We are putting in place a psychological support line for our local employees. Sodexo, headquartered in a Paris suburb, is one of the worlds largest corporations, with about 420,000 employees representing 130 nationalities. It is also the worlds second-largest food and catering company with presence in 80 countries, including Malaysia. Afghanistan police told reporters that the 64-year-old Malaysian was found dead in a car in the Massahi district with his two co-workers, a 39-year-old Indian and a 37-year-old Macedonian. The three had gunshot wounds, authorities said. The killings were the latest in a string of similar attacks during the past few years in Afghanistan. While kidnapping have mainly affected Afghans who are abducted for ransom, foreigners have also been targeted, either by criminals looking for ransom or by militant groups. Kabul police and Afghan interior ministry officials have issued conflicting details leading to the abduction and killing. Police said the three men were being driven to work by their Afghan driver when gunmen stopped the car and forced the trio to switch to another, according to the New York Times. But a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry told the paper that it appeared that the men got into the second car voluntarily and the driver returned an hour later and reported the three men had been kidnapped. The driver has been arrested and was being interrogated by police, local reports said. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told BenarNews his department is investigating the case and would release information on developments from time to time. Sodexo manages canteens and also provides food preparation services for the military, including the U.S. Marine Corps, schools, offices, hospitals and prisons in Afghanistan. The company also produces food and gift coupons. Previous kidnappings in Afghanistan, which have been blamed either on criminal gangs or the Taliban, include the killing of 21 foreigners in 2014 during an attack on a popular Kabul restaurant. Filipinos shout slogans as they arrive at the Chinese Consulate to protest Chinas militarization of the disputed islands, shoals and reefs in the South China Sea, July 21, 2018. The Philippines and China are finalizing an exploration deal in a disputed area of the South China Sea, where 60 percent of the proceeds would go to Manila and the rest to Beijing despite warnings the development could diminish Manilas claim to the region. The deal was announced by Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano earlier this week, before he traveled to Singapore to attend a regional ministerial meeting where China was also present. While full details of the proposed deal were not disclosed, Cayetano said officials from both sides and independent experts on international law were drafting a framework for the agreement. The draft deal is likely to be ready this month or in September. He did not say where the proposed exploration site is, but President Rodrigo Duterte had hinted that an area in the Reed Bank could be open for exploration. Initial seismic surveys have indicated that Reed Bank, also called Recto Bank, could be rich in natural deposits. While it is within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, which was affirmed by an arbitration court in 2016, China has continued to contest its ownership. Gary Alejano, a former Marine captain who serves as an opposition member of the House of Representatives, said the arbitration ruling specifically puts the area under Philippine control. We do not co-own the West Philippine Sea with China, he said, using the Philippine name for the South China Sea. Why would our government want to share resources that we alone legally own? Just because the Philippines will presumably take a larger share given the 60-40 scheme being proposed, does not guarantee that we are going to be on the winning end, said Alejano, who has been following developments in the sea region. This is ultimately an issue of sovereignty, especially on the question of which law will apply: Is it the Philippine law, Chinese law, or international law? We also have to make sure that the joint exploration would not in any way diminish the arbitration ruling which largely favored the Philippines, he said. Meanwhile, security analyst Rommel Banlaoi said the reported agreement was a breakthrough that could propel exploration forward even as Manila should continue to assert its rights in the sea. We should not compromise with China, and let them know that we are not giving our rights in that area, Banlaoi said. Otherwise, our arrangement with China would fall under suspicion. Alejano said it was not a guarantee that Beijing would stick to the agreement, as it has shown in past actions in the region. China had thumbed down the ruling, even as governments around the world welcomed it as a step toward ensuring peace in the vital sea lane. The South China Sea is considered a powder keg in a region where varying claimants have had armed confrontations. A sham policy? The Spratlys, an island chain in the sea, are claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It is considered a flashpoint in the region, and while the claimants have agreed to desist from any actions that would complicate the matter, China has been expanding and militarizing islands it occupies. Alejano argued that the Philippine-China exploration deal would have implications to the other claimants and may be used by Beijing as a premise that it could enter into bilateral agreements with other countries. The Duterte administration should realize that the decision whether to pursue a joint exploration or not would define our relationship with China and our relationship with our neighboring countries as well, Alejano said. Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros branded the Philippines-China deal as preposterous and dangerous. "It reverses our historic victory at The Hague and signs away Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea, she said in a statement. "We have sovereign rights to access offshore oil and gas field, including the Reed Bank, within our 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. We don't share ownership of the West Philippine Sea with China," Hontiveros said. She also questioned Dutertes independent foreign policy which was turning out as a sham policy meant to benefit China. Duterte has adopted a pro-China policy since he took power in June 2016. Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano participates in a retreat during the 51st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, Aug. 2, 2018. (Hand out/Department of Foreign Affairs) ASEAN In Singapore, where ASEAN foreign ministers were attending their annual ministerial meeting, the 10-nation bloc announced it had reached a milestone in talks with China to establish a code of conduct in the sea region. Negotiations for the code started in March, and the first draft was completed in June in China, Singapores foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan said. He declined to divulge details, citing the sensitivity of the issue, but did say that while negotiations were completed, the code would not necessarily bring an end to territorial disputes. A draft of the ministerial statement seen by BenarNews said foreign ministers would express their concerns to Chinas continued reclamation in the region. It said Chinas move has eroded trust and confidence and could undermine security and stability. The group also emphasized the importance of non-militarization and self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the disputed region, so as not to escalate tensions. The draft is subject to negotiations and could be refined by the time the ministerial meeting ends on Saturday. Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report. Philippine authorities arrested a 58-year-old Filipino man who allegedly helped a Moroccan Islamic State operative plan and carry out a car bombing that killed 10 people on the southern island of Basilan, the military said Thursday. The man, identified as Muslim cleric Jainul Malialim Indamin, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Basilans Lamitan City, regional military spokesman Col. Gerry Besana said. Actually, he is known in their village as a possible link who probably facilitated the bombing, Besana said, referring to intelligence information gathered about Indamin. However, when police went into his house to invite him for questioning a grenade was recovered from his possession, Besana said. He said Indamin was being interrogated Thursday, and is held on charges of homicide and murder, as well as illegal possession of an explosive. Authorities, however, have yet to establish the link between Indamin and Abu Kathir al-Maghribi, a Moroccan identified by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group as the bomber, citing a report by the IS Amaq news agency. The suspect, who also goes by the name Abdulgani, allegedly had full knowledge of the bombing, according to a military intelligence report. Abdulgani also facilitated entry of foreign terrorist fighters coming from Malaysia, the report said. The suspect was in a van allegedly carrying explosives when he was stopped at a military checkpoint outside of Lamitan on Tuesday. Reports said he raised suspicion when he could not speak Filipino when questioned minutes before the blast, which left a deep hole in the ground. Ten people were killed from the blast, including a soldier, several members of a pro-government militia unit and some civilians. Several people were also wounded, investigators said. On Thursday, police also traced ownership of the van to a man who was a former village head in Lamitan, but it was not clear if he is considered a suspect in the case. The attack came a few days after President Rodrigo Duterte invited the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist group known for vicious attacks to the negotiating table. It also came shortly after he had signed a law giving Muslims in the south autonomy over areas in the south, four years after the government signed a peace deal with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Philippine soldiers check a van in Lamitan city, Aug. 2, 2018. [Mark Navales/BenarNews] MILF to help hunt down militants MILF leader Murad Ebrahim expressed outrage over the attack and vowed that his forces would help the military track down the plotters of the bombing, which he said undermined the peace deal. There will be no compromise with terrorists whose aims are to create chaos, destruction and bloodshed, Murad said. No quarters shall be given to them and they must be defeated at once. They must not be allowed to grow. Murad directed his lieutenants in Basilan to be in full alert and to coordinate with their counterparts in the military and police in thwarting future attacks. The peace deal called for the MILF to lead a transitional government before members of the autonomous region are elected in a plebiscite. His fighters would be stripped of their weapons, but could opt to join a regional police force under the command of the central government in Manila. In 2002, as part of the peace talks, the MILF and government agreed to work to interdict and isolate criminal groups, such as kidnappers and terrorists. Murad said that based on their initial intelligence report, the bomber arrived in Basilan from the southern island of Jolo. Two other militants believed to be foreign nationals arrived using the same route. He said the foreign terrorists were under the protection of Furuji Indama (alias Abu Dujanah), the Abu Sayyafs Basilan commander. Intelligence sources earlier said the blast could have been directed by Mike Lila, believed to be one of Indamas aides. Indama took the reins of the Abu Sayyaf from Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged IS commander in the south who led a combat force that included fighters from Southeast Asia and the Middle East who occupied the southern city of Marawi city last year. More than 1,200 people were killed, including Hapilon and an undetermined number of foreign fighters, in five months of fighting that destroyed Marawi. The MILF Central Committee views with deep concerns the latest upsurge of violence and terrorism in Mindanao particularly in Basilan, Murad said. The wounds inflicted on our people and peace-loving people of Marawi City on May 23 last year are still unhealed and aching; and here again, signs are clear, Murad said. The terrorists are not yet down and out. On Thursday, the European Union joined the United States and France in condemning the attack. The EU is determined to combat terrorism around the world and expresses solidarity with the countries affected by this course, EU ambassador to Manila Franz Jessen said. Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato City and Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the loss of religion in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices For Immediate Release, August 2, 2018 Contact: Vera Pardee, (858) 717-1488, vpardee@biologicaldiversity.org Trump Administration Proposes Gutting Vehicle Fuel-efficiency, Tailpipe Pollution Standards WASHINGTON The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed rule today that would freeze fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks after model year 2020. The proposal also seeks to revoke Californias ability to maintain its own standards at the more stringent levels set in 2012. This is one of the Trump administrations deadliest proposals yet, said Vera Pardee, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversitys Climate Law Institute. It would lock us into decades of toxic and planet-warming emissions from new gas-guzzlers on our roads. From power plants to cars to oil and gas drilling, Trump is hell-bent on dismantling every protection against fossil fuel pollution, no matter the body count he leaves behind. Background In January 2017 the EPA issued a mid-term evaluation concluding that the existing fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for model years 2022-2025 were readily achievable. The EPA found that the standards created overwhelming benefits for the public, including nearly $92 billion in savings at the pump over the lifetime of vehicles meeting the standards, and if anything could be strengthened. On April 2, 2018 the EPA announced it was withdrawing that mid-term evaluation to weaken the standards. The Center, along with six other environmental groups, filed a legal petition challenging that decision. Projections indicate that freezing the standards at 2020 levels would result in Americans burning up to 881,000 more barrels of oil per day by 2035. That increase is more oil than the U.S. currently imports daily from Saudi Arabia. Fossil-fuel vehicles are now the nations largest source of greenhouse gas pollution. They also emit pollutants that cause smog and ground-level ozone that lead to asthma, other serious health problems and higher rates of pollution-caused death. By Ritah kemigisa. The Anti-corruption coalition Uganda has questioned the latest anti-graft guidelines from the inspector general of government. According to the directive, all public servants and leaders will effective march 2019 disclose their cash at hand when declaring their wealth as required by the amended leadership code Act 2017. The coalitions Executive director Cissy Kagaba saysmuch as the directive is good, it comes along with a number of challenges among them under declaration of the actual amount in their houses. Kagaba further wonders whether the inspectorate has enough skilled personnel to investigate peoples homes and fully unearth the real amount. She is now underscoring the need to probe why people keep their money at home instead of banks. For Immediate Release, August 2, 2018 Contact: Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746, nick@cascwild.org Quinn Read, Defenders of Wildlife, (206) 508-5474, qread@defenders.org Jared Margolis, Center for Biological Diversity, (802) 310-4054, jmargolis@biologicaldiversity.org Joe Liebezeit, Audubon Society of Portland, (503) 329-6026, jliebezeit@audubonportland.org, Danielle Moser, Oregon Wild, (503)-283-6343 x 226, dm@oregonwild.org Lawsuit Challenges Oregons Denial of Full Protection for Marbled Murrelets Agency Capitulates to Logging Industry, Ignores Science, Law, ODFW's Mission PORTLAND, Ore. Five conservation groups filed a lawsuit today against the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Commission for failing to uplist the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered under the Oregon Endangered Species Act. The groups petitioned the ODFW Commission to uplist the marbled murrelet in 2016. The Commission voted 4-2 in February to accept the petition to uplist the seabird and instructed ODFW staff to begin development of mandatory species survival guidelines as required under Oregon law. But the Commission caved to intense pressure from the logging industry at a June meeting, voting 4-2 to deny the petition it had accepted just four months earlier. The Commissions reversal of its decision to uplist the marbled murrelet just four months earlier ignored science, the law and ODFWs mission to protect Oregons imperiled wildlife, said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. The reversal demonstrates this Commissions active neglect of its duties towards imperiled species, and disappointingly, leaves the marbled murrelet on a path toward extinction in Oregon. The marbled murrelet is a small seabird that nests in old-growth and mature forests and forages at sea. Its population has declined dramatically over the decades because of extensive logging in Oregons Coast Range. It was listed as threatened under the Oregon Endangered Species Act in 1995. However, Oregon has allowed intensive clearcut logging to continue in marbled murrelet habitat on lands owned and regulated by the state. Uplisting to endangered status would require the state to develop a management plan and survival guidelines, providing much needed protections for the species. Imperiled species like the marbled murrelet will continue to slide toward extinction if we turn our back on them in favor of industry interests, said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Oregon needs to step up and protect the murrelet before its lost forever. In 2017, responding to the petition from conservation organizations, ODFW conducted a status review to assess the murrelets condition. The review demonstrated that murrelets need increased protection under the Oregon Endangered Species Act, due largely to loss of nesting habitat from ongoing clear-cut logging on lands managed by the state of Oregon. The ODFW Commission made exactly the right decision in February when it voted to uplist the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered based on its own staffs status report and hours of testimony from experts, said Quinn Read, Northwest director at Defenders of Wildlife. The law clearly requires the Commission to base its decision on science, but instead in June, the Commissioners continued a pattern of playing politics with the states most imperiled wildlife species. The status review provided copious evidence from multiple peer-reviewed studies that murrelets are in trouble in Oregon. The best available science predicts the extinction probability at 80 percent by 2060 along Oregons central and north coasts and 80 percent by 2100 along Oregons south coast. California and Washington have already classified murrelets as endangered, highlighting the birds dire status in those neighboring states. The science is clear and overwhelming, said Joe Liebezeit, staff scientist at Audubon Society of Portland. The June Commission decision unfortunately perpetuates an approach at ODFW that has spanned nearly three decades of the state turning its back on the murrelet and ignoring the science that shows that logging of our older coastal forests under the purview of the state of Oregon is a primary factor driving this species toward extinction. The lawsuit includes four claims. First, the ODFW Commission failed to base its decision upon documented and verifiable science. Second, the Commission failed to adequately explain its decision to reverse its prior decision to uplist. Next, the decision not to uplist is not supported by substantial evidence in the record. Finally, the Commission failed to provide adequate notice to the public or the petitioners to weigh in on its decision to reverse the uplisting in June. The ODFW Commission will meet on Aug. 3 to consider survival guidelines for timber companies to help conserve marbled murrelets guidelines that have no force of law and would be voluntary. Those guidelines would have been mandatory had the species been uplisted. Trying to silence the public concerned about its surprise June decision, the Commission initially announced that it would accept no public testimony at the August hearing and turned down multiple request for public testimony. It only agreed to allow public testimony after conservation groups found an existing rule that requires the Commission to allow public testimony when at least 10 people or an organization representing at least 10 people request a hearing. This entire process has demonstrated a remarkable level of disrespect for the public and public process, said Danielle Moser, Wildlife Program Coordinator for Oregon Wild. The ODFW Commission failed to announce that it would be considering reversing its previous decision to uplist the murrelet, and instead, has done everything possible to squelch public input. It speaks to the urgent need for Governor Brown to appoint Commissioners who are committed to protecting Oregons native fish and wildlife, not beholden to special interest industries. This Friday, the ODFW Commission has a chance to fix the huge mistake it created in June by adopting mandatory survival guidelines. Oregon Wild and our members will be there, reminding the Commission of its mission to protect the states wildlife. The conservation groups in this case are represented by attorneys from Cascadia Wildlands and Center for Biological Diversity. For Immediate Release, August 2, 2018 Contact: Robert Ukeiley, Center for Biological Diversity, (720) 496-8568, rukeiley@biologicaldiversity.org Brian Willis, Sierra Club, (202) 675-2386, Brian.Willis@sierraclub.org Lawsuit Targets Trump EPA's 'Free Pass' for Colorado Oil, Gas Operations in Smog-reduction Effort BOULDER, Colo. Boulder County and three conservation groups sued the Trump administration today for illegally excluding oil and gas operations in parts of Colorado from a federal project to protect people from smog. Omitting northern Weld County from the smog clean-up area allows companies operating thousands of oil and gas wells to avoid reducing pollution, even though that pollution is known to be a major cause of the regions chronic smog violations. The targeted clean-up area, which includes Metro-Denver and the Front Range, has already recorded more than 100 violations this year of standards for smog, also known as ground level ozone. The Trump administration knows how dangerous smog is, especially to kids and the elderly, but is going out of its way to make sure oil and gas companies in Colorado can keep on polluting, said Robert Ukeiley, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. The Environmental Protection Agency previously determined that Wyoming significantly contributes to the Front Range smog problem. But the agency subsequently decided to exclude northern Weld County from the smog clean-up area even though it is closer to the area than Wyoming and releases more smog-forming pollution than any of the other counties in the targeted region. Todays lawsuit against the EPA was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by the Boulder County Board of Commissioners, the Center for Biological Diversity and National Parks Conservation Association. Sierra Club is filing a separate challenge that will cover the same issue. Once again, the Trump Administration is trying to give a free pass to polluters - this time, its the fossil fuel industry thats threatening the health of families in the Northern Front Range of Colorado. This is another clear example of the Trump Administration siding with billionaire polluter interests over the health and well-being of working families and vulnerable communities, said Will Walters, chair of the Colorado chapter of the Sierra Club. Every American has the right to clean air, but this administration is doing everything it can to try and strip them of it. We will fight on every front to protect every family and every child from this assault on clean air. The Clean Air Act sets science-based national ambient air quality standards that are designed to protect public health and the environment. All areas that violate air quality standards for smog and contribute to those violations must be included in the smog clean-up area. The current ozone nonattainment area where smog must be cleaned up under the Clean Air Act stretches along the Front Range from Castle Rock in the South to Fort Collins and Greeley in the north and west into Rocky Mountain National Park. For Immediate Release, August 2, 2018 Contact: Patrick Donnelly, (702) 483-0449, pdonnelly@biologicaldiversity.org Public Records Reveal Trump Administration Plans to Lease 54,000 Acres in Nevada's Ruby Mountains ELKO, Nev. The Trump administration plans to lease all 54,000 acres of Nevadas Ruby Mountains under consideration for oil and gas development, according to public records released this week. The records, obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity through a Freedom of Information Act request, show the U.S. Forest Service plans to auction public land for drilling and fracking that includes crucial winter habitat for mule deer, priority habitat for greater sage grouse, and creeks harboring the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout. The Trump administration is poised to destroy one of Nevadas most spectacular places just to appease the fossil fuel industry, said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director for the Center. Its really outrageous so see the Forest Service just ignoring what Nevadans want and what science requires. The documents show that the Forest Service plans will require drilling or fracking to be done from public and private lands adjacent to national forest lands, but scientific evidence shows that wont protect water or wildlife in the area. These stipulations simply shift harm to Bureau of Land Management lands next to the national forest, where drilling rigs, roads, well pads and other infrastructure could be constructed. The records released this week indicate the Forest Services current plan. It has not issued a formal final decision on oil and gas leasing in the Rubies. Earlier this year, 10 environmental groups submitted detailed comments to the Forest Service about the potential harm from oil and gas development in the Ruby Mountains and surrounding valleys. These comments included a memorandum from Nevada hydrologist Tom Myers, who found that no surface occupancy stipulations fail to protect surface water and groundwater. It is not possible to drill for oil or gas under the south Ruby Mountains without putting surface water and groundwater resources at risk, Myers wrote. The stipulations also fail to protect wildlife and their habitat, such as mule deer migration corridors and sage grouse mating grounds. Data from the Nevada Department of Wildlife, included in the departments comment letter to the Forest Service, shows that Nevadas largest mule deer herd spends as much time in the valleys adjacent to the Ruby Mountains, where drilling and fracking would take place, as in the protected Forest Service parcels on top of the mountains. The same is true for sage grouse, whose mating grounds are primarily in the valleys. Animals dont recognize boundaries, said Donnelly. This plan simply pushes the harm to wildlife habitat a mile away. The consequences of drilling and fracking will be just as dire whether its on Forest Service lands or on BLM lands right next door. The Ruby Mountains are among the most iconic landscapes in the Great Basin and have widespread public support. The Forest Service received more than 10,000 comments about the leasing proposal, nearly all of them opposed to it. Conservation and sportsmens groups and outdoor retailer Patagonia took out a full-page ad in the Elko Daily Free-Press opposing the leasing. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto also has spoken out about the Rubies, saying shes concerned that expansive oil and gas drilling will threaten this pristine and sensitive area. In line with C-SAP, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in association with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) has initiated a 1 year equity based mentorship and capacity building program for startups based out of Karnataka, the Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50. The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), Bengaluru recently conducted the launch of three of its initiatives - Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50, Centre of Excellence in Agri-Innovation and Technology Business Incubator. The event was graced by the presence of Shri K. J. George, Honble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka and Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Honble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka, along with Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT & S&T, Govt. of Karnataka, Shri Gaurav Gupta. The state Cabinet has decided to fund the setting up of a Centre for Excellence in Agriculture Innovation. The IT&BT Department will provide Rs 5 crore, while the agriculture department will give Rs 10 crore. K-SAP- Bio 50 has received a grant worth Rs 4 crore to spur its initiatives, and the K-Tech Technology Business Incubator has received about Rs 6 crore. The scientists in our country are doing a wonderful job. The government of Karnataka is very happy to join hands with C-CAMP which is an initiative of Government of India. We are happy to help you out in your ventures and you have our full support, said K J George, Honble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka while addressing the audience during the inaugural ceremony. In the agricultural system, there are a lot of missing links. Although we are focusing on production we are not giving enough importance to processing and marketing. We need to work on this. C-CAMP as an incubation centre can provide with few solutions to address such problems. There are so many innovations happening in India that can be applied in agriculture, stated Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Honble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka during the inauguration. In line with C-SAP, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in association with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) has initiated a 1 year equity based mentorship and capacity building program for startups based out of Karnataka, the Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50. The main objective of this program is to meaningfully engage and work closely with Karnataka startups to enhance their odds of success and to enable startups achieve faster traction in their key milestones, explained Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO, C-CAMP. The K-Tech Agri-Innovation Centre at C-CAMP will attempt to promote deep-science/technology driven entrepreneurship in the agri-sector, leading to innovation, economic development and job creation in the agricultural domain. The Centre is envisioned to identify specific agri-health issues through an immersion programme, bring innovators together to develop solutions for these issues and subsequently support and nurture them to bring their solutions to the market. Using this multi-step process, C-CAMP aims to identify and support at least 8-10 path-breaking innovations with national impact in the agriculture field and facilitate the validation and deployment of these innovations. With recent support from the Govt. of Karnataka, C-CAMP has collaborated with University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS B), GKVK to identify a space in UAS-B to set up the K-Tech Technology Business Incubator for scaling up its efforts in nurturing innovative life science and biotech start-ups through incubation. The funds raised will be used to scale up operations to new cities, partner with more hospitals and boost its technology platform. Pune-based digital lending startup Healthfin has raised Rs 3.43 crores ($500,000) in pre-series A funding from Axilor Ventures, Sprout Venture Partners, along with participation from Manish Khera, ex-CEO of Airtel Payments Bank. The funds raised will be used to scale up operations to new cities, partner with more hospitals and boost its technology platform. Healthfin, a technology-enabled platform helps medical patients to get best deals from its partner banks to finance their medical treatments. It was founded by Parvaiz Hussain, in partnership with Sonia Basu in 2016. The startup has partnered with a number of hospitals, banks and other lending partners to enable quicker disbursal of funds directly to the hospital. So far it has tie-ups with 9 lending partners including ICICI Bank, TATA Capital, Fullerton, and LoanTap. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infections causes injury to its own tissues and organs. It affects more that 31 million people each year resulting in 6 million deaths worldwide. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is to lead a new multinational project on sepsis following a 2 million award from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). The African Research Collaboration on Sepsis (ARCS) has been set up as a Global Health Research Group and is led by LSTM's Dr Shevin Jacob and Dr Jamie Rylance, working across Malawi, Uganda and Gabon, working with academic, clinical and government partners in each country. Dr Rylance said: "ARCS is about bridging Africa and UK clinical research outfits and establishing long-term and equitable partnerships. It's very exciting to be involved at the very start of this process for such an important public health problem." Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infections causes injury to its own tissues and organs. It affects more that 31 million people each year resulting in 6 million deaths worldwide. ARCS brings together African and UK expertise across the applied health spectrum to tackle this common problem, learning from the UK's experience in reducing sepsis mortality through the NHS focus on quality of care and patient safety. Creating sustainable partnerships between research and clinical organisations, Ministries of Health, on-government organisations, and commercial sectors, ARCS will establish a network across the three counties and focus on the following four aims: to deliver high quality sepsis research training; to establish commonly agreed sepsis care quality indicators for Africa which could form the bedrock of monitoring and evaluation programmes; to pilot test innovative sepsis care interventions; and to test the feasibility of novel clinical trial platforms for answering key sepsis questions for Africa. Dr Jacob said: "Due to multiple factors including a high burden of infection, diminished health system capacity, and limited awareness of how best to recognize and treat sepsis, Africa shoulders the greatest burden of sepsis in terms of global morbidity and mortality. We are thrilled that NIHR has funded ARCS to help build African research capacity on sepsis and, ultimately, add to our growing knowledge of how best to identify and treat sepsis within the African context." Supporting LGs vision of AI as a key future growth engine, the North American labs further enhance LGs global research capabilities, which include AI labs in South Korea, India and Russia. Global innovator LG Electronics Inc. (LG) is poised to define the future of artificial intelligence (AI) for consumers and businesses in the years ahead with the establishment of a major new AI research presence in North America in collaboration with leaders in academia and start-ups. This week marks the launch of the new LG Electronics AI Research Lab in Canada, an extension of the newly expanded LG Silicon Valley AI Lab in Santa Clara, California. Supporting LGs vision of AI as a key future growth engine, the North American labs further enhance LGs global research capabilities, which include AI labs in South Korea, India and Russia. In addition, LG is entering into a new research partnership with the University of Toronto, which is recognized worldwide for its AI and machine learning expertise, particularly in the area of deep learning. AI will ultimately touch everybodys lives, transforming the way we live, work and play, said LG Electronics President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. I.P. Park. Early implementations of AI in connected devices today are setting the stage for tomorrows smart cities, smart homes, smart businesses and smart devices, all with capabilities that no one has even dreamed of yet. He said the North American labs and LGs research partnership with the University of Toronto will play a key role in developing source technologies defining that future. Under its five-year, multi-million-dollar research partnership with the University of Toronto, LG will build on its Open Platform-Open Partnership-Open Connectivity strategy to expand the AI ecosystem. The new lab will capitalize on the expertise of researchers at the University of Toronto who will now have the opportunity to work collaboratively with LGs growing U.S. and Canadian AI R&D teams. Complementing this work, LG intends to collaborate with and invest in North American start-ups. University of Toronto President Meric Gertler views LG as an exciting new partner for AI research. The University of Toronto looks forward to partnering with an innovative global company like LG as our researchers continue to advance the boundaries of artifi-cial intelligence. The presence of such leading, multi-national firms in our innovation ecosystem strengthens opportunities for our faculty, students and start-up companies across a whole range of disciplines. Echoing President Gertlers views, Dr. Park said, AI solutions based on deep learning will revolutionize how we interact with the world around us, in new seamless ways that use contextual data from things like biometrics, emotions, gestures and of course voice. He went on to explain the three main pillars of LGs AI strategy: The first is the ability to evolve with time, so the more you use our products, the better they evolve to meet your specific needs. The second is the ability to integrate AI into diverse touchpoints to have a seamless, consistent user experience across the entire LG product portfolio, from connected appliances and TVs to connected cars and smartphones. The third is openness; our strategy is to provide the best AI experience for LG customers, leveraging the complementary capabilities of leading partners across the ecosystem, Dr. Park explained. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the function in the capital, where Dr. Prathap Reddy was conferred with the Lions Humanitarian Award for his work in increasing accessibility and affordability of world-class healthcare to bring it within the economic and geographic reach of millions. In a gesture of humanitarian outreach, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, the visionary Founder Chairman, Apollo Hospitals announced an initiative under which 100 underprivileged children would benefit from free cardiac surgeries. The initiative is part of the Lions Clubs International Apollo Hospitals Partnership Program, under which Lions International would refer under-12 patients for evaluation to Apollo Hospitals. Apollo Hospitals would carry out free cardiac surgeries on 100 of the most critical cases. The announcement was made on the sidelines of the function in the capital, where Dr. Prathap Reddy was conferred with the Lions Humanitarian Award for his work in increasing accessibility and affordability of world-class healthcare to bring it within the economic and geographic reach of millions. Under Dr. Reddys guiding hand, Apollo Hospitals has harnessed technology and insurance to take healthcare to the masses. The pioneering success of telemedicine and innovative insurance in Aragonda, the worlds first V-SAT enabled remote village in Andhra Pradesh validated the concept of Healthcare for All. The groundbreaking Apollo Reach Hospitals model has enabled high quality healthcare to reach semi urban and rural areas in the very heart of India. Dr. Reddy has been a tireless advocate for creating access through insurance. The innovative insurance project of Re.1 a day that he introduced decades ago in his native village has been adopted in multiple ways across the country and its core idea is reflected in the Government of Indias Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance programme. By Samuel Ssebuliba. Political scientists have expressed dismay over the recent fall out between the president and judiciary over the recent constitutional ruling. Last week the president attacked the constitutional court for its refusal to endorse the extension of term of service for MPs from five to seven. Speaking to KFM, Ambassador HeroldAchema a political analysts said that president must uphold the rule of law as promised during swearing. He says, the president must realize that for the rule of law to prevail, aggrieved parties must be allowed to freely proceed to court for redress, unlike his decision to address this issue with NRM Members of Parliament. Salman Khan And Katrina Kaif Aced The Arabic Look And Ignited The Ramp At Manish Malhotra's Show Bollywood Wardrobe Devika Salman Khan - Katrina Kaif look stunning on ramp; Walk TOGETHER for Manish Malhotra| Boldsky So once in a while, an extraordinary fashion show happens. There is no anticipation or a weeks-before prediction on these shows. In fact, such shows (including fashion critics) take everyone by surprise. One such show happened recently, and we were waiting anxiously for the showstoppers to grace the ramp. It was a warm night in Mumbai and the glitterati from the film fraternity were present to lend their support to their designer friend. The designer was Manish Malhotra and he unveiled his Zween couture 2018-19 collection. Now that was an unusual and a foreign name given to the collection. But the word, 'Zween' means beautiful in Arabic and as such his collection took inspiration from the deserts of Arabia. Sounds poetic enough, right! And Malhotra selected Katrina Kaif and Salman Khan as his showstoppers for the night. And who wouldn't have liked to see these two exes and friends sashaying down the ramp together? Yes, seems like exes walking together on the ramp is going to become a trend as earlier this year, Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor were also the showstoppers for Manish Malhotra again. So, this time too, the old flames ignited the ramp at JW Marriott in Juhu. Katrina aced the quintessential Middle-Eastern look and looked graceful as ever. She wore a sand dune-hued lehenga that was crafted with precision. 3D textures, silver-coloured floral embellishments, and meticulous embroidery adorned her outfit. She teamed her cropped blouse with a flared skirt, but it was the sheer full-length cape with flared sleeves accentuated by shimmery accents that gave her attire an Arabic touch. Salman, also looked dapper and gave modern Indian men new wedding outfit idea. His ethnic attire was a perfect symphony between minimalism and maximalism. He wore a pathani salwar and kurta, which was dipped in black hue. His bandhgala jacket featured embellished details and no, those embellishments were not overwhelming at all. We thought Salman's traditional ensemble is what prospective grooms would be looking out for right now. At last, we must say Manish Malhotra's ramp show had us totally transfixed. And Salman and Katrina made the night even more unforgettable with their effervescent charm. How Your Period Changes In Your 20s, 30s & 40s Wellness oi-Neha Ghosh Although cramps, bloating, discomfort and mood swings, etc., are few things associated with menstruation, it is, most importantly, an indication of a woman's fertility. But, we sometimes start worrying when our periods aren't on time, don't we? Many women have a love-hate relationship with their periods. In this article, we will write about how your period changes in your 20s, 30s and 40s. The menstrual cycle is sometimes unpredictable - it can be late one month and early the next month. And sometimes the period flow lasts for four days and then all of a sudden it goes on for a week. Factors like stress, health conditions or lifestyle changes can alter your menstrual flow. Also as you get older, your menstrual cycle will keep evolving and adjusting due to the hormonal changes in the body. This can disrupt or alter your flow. Let's discuss here how your period changes in your 20s, 30s and 40s. This Is What Happens When You Are In Your 20s This is the age when your period flow becomes smooth and regular. However, the downside to regular periods, is a lot of issues that come along, which are: 1. A new birth control can lighten your period flow or make it non-existent, but that's not something you should be stressing out. It will take time for your body to adjust and if it continues for more than three months, then consult a gynaecologist. 2. Even if you aren't stressed out or pregnant, you may start experiencing erratic cycles where your period lasts for more than a week. This could be a possibility that you have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), a hormonal imbalance that causes small cysts to grow in the ovaries. This mainly shows up in women who are in their 20s. 3. When you are in your 20s, there are many things in your life that cause stress whether it's your struggling period in finding a job or losing a job, getting into a serious relationship or having a bitter breakup. All these factors can affect your menstruation largely because stress hormones disrupt the signal from your brain to your ovaries and this can cause an erratic period for a few months. 3. PMS symptoms become prominent when you are in your 20s as you will start experiencing abdominal cramps, breast tenderness and other premenstrual symptoms. This Is What Happens When You Are In Your 30s This is the age when your periods remain regular and have a heavier flow or a slow menstrual flow. Fibroids and endometriosis are also common when you are in your 30s. These are the issues that come along. 1. Getting pregnant in your 30s can completely alter your menstrual cycle. Having a child is also likely to affect your normal period cycle, especially if you are breastfeeding. This shouldn't be worrisome until your menstruation appears on schedule. 2. Some of the most common health conditions during your 30s are fibroids, polyps and benign uterine growths. Most of these aren't harmful, but they can interfere with your menstrual cycle. This Is What Happens When You Are In Your 40s This is the perimenopausal phase in which you may see irregularity, missed or spotting between periods. Being in your 40s doesn't mean you can get pregnant, but these are the issues that may accompany. 1. Changes in the exercise routine can also have an effect on your age as your body is taking time to adjust to this new lifestyle change. And this can affect your menstrual cycle too. What happens when you exercise during your period? 2. Uterine cancer is common condition among women who are in their 40s. The first sign is irregular periods. So, if you are having a problem with periods around this time in your life. It's time to seek a doctor's help immediately. 3. Women may experience perimenopause changes even upto 10 years before menopause. Even if your ovulation is erratic, you can still get pregnant. But, if your periods have ceased for at least a year, a woman is in menopause. Because when you approach the menopause stage, the estrogen and progesterone stop following their normal patterns, than the way it used to do when you were young. Share this article! World Lung Cancer Day: Types Of Lung Cancers, Signs, & Symptoms GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 11:48 [IST] Friendship Day 2021: Why Are We Celebrating This Day Since 1930 Beyond Love oi-A Mixed Nerve The world belongs to the ones who believe in the nature of friendship and share the same amongst each other. "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" or "the world is one family" is the way to realise we are all the same and we are one big family, involving every form of living being under one shed. Friendship is the most common form of connection between us and we know if not for friendship, we would have been divided from the start. This year, friendship day will fall on 1 August and will be celebrated across the globe for a lot of reasons combined to form one single value, that we are all alike and we have each other's back in the time of need. What Is Friendship Day? A day to celebrate friendship all over the world. It is popular in most countries. A symbolism of unity in diversity, friendship, by all means, is the bonding between individuals to be there for each other in any given situation. What's The History Behind This Day? The history behind this day dates back to the 1930s. After the end of the first world war, a peace movement and a feeling of connection were needed. Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark cards, originated Friendship Day. 2nd August was planned to be the day of celebration. Friendship Day celebration started in the US in 1935 when the US Congress decided to keep the first Sunday of August every year as the designated day for celebrating Friendship Day. It was done to honour friends and in honour of friends. It gradually became a national event where the younger generation celebrated their friendships and cherished it along the way. The idea of honouring your friends and the friendship was widely accepted. Thus, Friendship Day evolved to become one of the most celebrated festivals in the country. Following the substantial rise of this celebration, other countries such as South American countries and others started celebrating it eventually. By 1958, Paraguay had started having its own National Friendship Day on the 30th of July. In South Asian Countries, Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August. In Argentina and Brazil, it is celebrated on 20th July. Finland and Estonia celebrate Valentine's Day on Friendship Day. What Do We Do On This Day? Everyone feels the urge to give gifts and cards to their friends. On this day, no one believes in different religions, colour, race, creed and sex. People make greeting cards or buy them and give it to their friends making them feel the essence of friendship. In India, we see people planning a week before to celebrate this day. They reserve tables in restaurants and pubs. Youngsters take the pleasure of gifting their friends and some find pleasure in buying greeting cards for their friends. Friendship Day in India is a day to cherish the bonding between friends and enjoy the characteristics of healthy friendships. Why Do We Celebrate This Day? Initially, it was a day to celebrate and honour friends and friendships. But as it started spreading worldwide, it became a day of celebration amongst friends. A lot have found hope in this day and have made great friends. Many choose this day to remind their friends about the care, respect and feeling of trust they have for them. It is celebrated to strengthen the bond between friends and to build a better and stronger connection between friends. It has now become a trend that we follow to remember our friends, near and far ones. We make them feel loved by our love for them and try to uphold the torch of togetherness. As we see the first Sunday of August, is approaching, we, the people of Boldsky wish you all a Happy Friendship Day in advance. Stay tuned for more updates about Friendship Day. If you liked reading the article, share it on your social media and do give your feedback below in the comment section. Cheers! Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION By Ivan Ssenabulya President Yoweri Museveni has again taken a swipe at the West, accusing them of promoting homosexuality in Uganda. While officially opening the Global Peace Conference in Munyonyo on Thursday afternoon, he said he would not sit by a praise some donors for spreading homosexuality. Whenever we talk to our partners from other parts of the worldplease thats a private matter. You leave it. But they want to impose it on you. They want me to come up and simply say oyee, oyeehomosexuals oyee, said the president. Citing conflicts seen in the Middle East and places like DR Congo that he says are rooted in struggles over resources, Museveni said many conflict have arisen from the fight over scarce resources, advising global leaders to better manage these scarce resources to avoid clashes. President Museveni also emphasized the need for development of science as it is crucial in resolving the conflict between nature and man. He adds that peace is about empowering the human race to gain more knowledge so that the respective societies can tame nature. At the same event the president has received the Global Peace Award for Ugandas role in stabilizing the Great Lakes Region. I thank the organizers for giving me the Global Peace Award for Ugandas role in stabilizing the Great Lakes Region. This recognition is for all Ugandans. I might lead the way, but Ugandans collectively have contributed to efforts of ensuring that we have a stable region, said the president. 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. By Benjamin Jumbe. Poor service delivery has pushed more Ugandans to start registering as refugees in their own country. The latest are the residents of Kyegegwa district who are registering to benefit from the services offered to refugees compared to those offered at government aided health centers and other basic social services provided by humanitarian agencies. The LC-3 chairperson for MpalaSub County in Kyegegwa district, Tugumisirize Saiti attributes this development to the poor quality of services coupled with poverty which has left the host communities languishing in abject poverty compared to the refugees. The community also wants government to set up more secondary schools in the sub county to support the available schools, have the current health center III upgraded to provide better services to residents. Uganda is currently host to over 1.5m refugees from neighboring countries of DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, S.Sudan and Somalia among others. 32 Kazakhstan citizens got a lifetime sentence for having committed terrorist crimes. It was said by Director of the Centre for Applied Research 'Mysl' (Thought), theologian Askar Sabdin. During the seminar for Imams of the capital's mosques, Askar Sabdin told the history of creation of religious extremism. The Global Terrorism Index was established in 1970. Muslims top the Index. How can we fight against religious extremism? In Kazakhstan there were about 880 people at the end of 2017 who were sentenced for having committed a terrorist crime. It is possible that their number is about 900. There is the prison in the Zhitikara district of Kostanay region, where they are imprisoned for life. 30% are sentenced for religious terrorism. In general, 32 are imprisoned for life. 25 are in the prison, and 7 are already in the process. Half of them are natives of Aktobe region," said theologian Askar Sabdin at the seminar Doctrinal grounds of destructive religious movements: prevention, rehabilitation. According to Askar Sabdin, as of today the number of those convicted for a terrorist crime increases. If earlier 40-50 people were convicted for religious terrorism, and over the year more than 100 were convicted. Many of them are from the east part of Kazakhstan. We diagnose all terrorists. All diseases should be revealed, as well as to know what books they read. It should be noted that there are not such terrorists who have not read a book. It is certain that they read various religious books," said the Director of the Centre for Applied Research. We note that the aim of the seminar is to increase the religious literacy of the population, the qualification of subject-matter specialists who have an important role in promoting traditional values with the help of which the internal stability of the country maintains, as well as activities of supporters of false movements are limited. The seminar is aimed at preventing the threat of religious extremism and increasing the qualification of religious representatives. Of all the Manitoba communities listed in the MoneySense 2018 rankings, Brandon came out on top. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/8/2018 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Advertisement Advertise With Us TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Downtown Brandon is seen from Hunter Road west of the city on Wednesday evening. Brandon was first in Manitoba and No. 3 in the Prairies in this years MoneySense Canadas Best Places to Live rankings. Of all the Manitoba communities listed in the MoneySense 2018 rankings, Brandon came out on top. The online investment and lifestyle magazine released Canadas Best Places to Live this week, which ranked the Wheat City the best in the province and No. 3 in the Prairies, which includes both Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Claire Brownell, associate editor of reports and rankings, noted that Brandon is also listed in the top 25 per cent of all cities in three categories: population growth, commute and amenities. "Amenities is just having stuff nearby bars, restaurants, universities things like that," she said. "The commute is really good in Brandon, so about five per cent of the population walks to work. Thats in the top 50 cities across the country." The goal of the annual ranking, Brownell said, is to spark a conversation about what makes a city a great place to live. Brandon was ranked No. 78 out of 415 cities and towns across the country. Oakville, Ont., came in at No.1, followed by Ottawa and Russell, Ont. After Brandon, the next highest Manitoba community on the list was Springfield at No. 144, Steinbach (184), Winkler (253), Selkirk (261) and Winnipeg (271). Hanover came in at No. 280, followed by Tache (298), Thompson (325), St. Andrews (327), Portage la Prairie (343) and St. Clements (365). The cities were ranked on how they measure up in 10 categories: Wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture. In addition to the full ranking of 415 communities, MoneySense also analyzed cities for various Top 100 lists. The Wheat City once again fared well in the Top 100 places for New Canadians, coming in at No. 28. Brownell said that Brandons linguistic diversity demonstrates a vibrant, multicultural community. Nearly 13 per cent of the population speaks a language other than English or French, according to MoneySense data. Lois MacDonald, executive director of Westman Immigrant Services, said the positive ranking reflects how diverse the community has become. "As a citizen, any of us walking down the street now see so many new cultures in Brandon, and I think the last few years especially, our community has really worked hard to embrace all individuals and make sure that they feel welcome and feel at home," she said. "The programs and services and supports that were able to provide to newcomers are pretty amazing in my opinion, and they really do provide a great start for someone whos coming and starting to build a new life." WIS provides language training and settlement assistance, as well as a number of other initiatives such as conversation circles and family programs. "Things that really allow a number of our clients to form connections with maybe long-term community residents here in Brandon," she said. "I think those are the things that really have an impact and really start to create a sense of community for people." Brandons ranking of 78 is a drop from last years No. 50 spot. Brownell said that the drop might have been a result of an increase in health care wait times and the crime severity index. As reported earlier this year by The Brandon Sun, only 67 per cent of Prairie Mountain Health patients received their hip replacement surgery within six months in 2017, compared to 89 per cent in 2016. This is according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. For knee replacements, 48 per cent of patients received the surgery within the recommended time frame a dramatic change from 2016s 77 per cent. Manitoba once again had the longest waiting list for cataract surgery in the country only 32 per cent of patients receive surgery within the 16-week national benchmark. As reported last week, Brandon police said an increase the use of crystal methamphetamine is the main reason for rising crime rates in Brandon, and Manitoba in general. The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show that the national crime severity index, which measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime, rose for the third consecutive year in 2017. Manitobas crime severity index increased by three per cent, which has been attributed mainly to robbery and theft of $5,000 or less. Mayor Rick Chrest said that methamphetamine remains an ongoing concern for the city. "We funded two additional police officers in this years budget to try and counteract the crystal meth issue," he said. "Its a factor right now and were taking it seriously, and were going to continue to work on that aspect of our community, for sure." As for the drop in ranking, Chrest said it seems quite common for cities to swing back and forth from year to year. "Regardless of us slipping a few spots, I was quite pleased to see were the No. 1 place overall to live in Manitoba, and No. 3 in the Prairies. Thats a pretty high standard." City economic development director Sandy Trudel said while she always pays attention to any type of city ranking, she does take it with a grain of salt. "All publications of this style provide us an opportunity to look at Brandon from another perspective, reconfirm strengths that we know we possess as a community and pay attention to areas that we have the ability to influence in order to enhance Brandon as a great place to live," she said. She added that it is quite rare in the span of a year to have a significant change that would cause a major deviation in ranking. "And yet weve seen the volatility over the years, where one year were extremely high, then the next year were low, then the next year were kind of medium Even though theres been some changes in the community, theyre certainly not at a magnitude that could cause that type of variation." jaustin@brandonsun.com Twitter: @jillianaustin Images | thereminder.ru Meteorological stations have been installed in the Charyn canyon, at the Kolsai lakes and in the Turgen gorge to alert tourists, reports the press service of the Kazhydromet. "During the pandemic, the number of travel companies and individual activists who want to showKazakhstani people the beauty of our country has soared. The development of active tourism in our country has increased the demand for hydrometeorological support. The accuracy of forecasts and early warning of precipitation and storm warnings generate revenues for entire domestic tourism industries. Kazhydromet has installed three automatic meteorological stations in the tourist zones of Kazakhstan: the Charyn canyon, Kolsai lakes and Turgen gorge," the report says. Source: KazTAG This information may not be reproduced without reference to Kazakhstan Today. Copyright of materials of News Agency Kazakhstan Today. Arne Delfs German chancellor, Angela Merkels government has for the first time vetoed a possible Chinese takeover of a German company. This signals a toughening stance toward investments from that country. Ms Merkels cabinet voted to block the potential purchase of German machine tool manufacturer, Leifeld Metal Spinning, by a Chinese investor, the economy ministry said in Berlin. The government took the precautionary measure, even though Yantai Taihai Group indicated, at the last minute, that it would withdraw its offer. An economy ministry review examined possible negative impacts of the sale and concluded that a purchase would raise national security concerns. Leifeld based in the city of Ahlen, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the leading producers of high-strength metals for the car, space, and nuclear industries. Leifeld produces some really top-notch machinery, said Mikko Huotari, deputy director at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, in Berlin. Germany is well aware of the threat posed by the Asian countrys goal of becoming the leader in advanced manufacturing, under the so-called Made in China 2025 programme, he said. Germany is joining the US and Canada in taking a tougher line on China. Ms Merkels government has been at the forefront of moves to bring in EU-wide screening of outside investments (it has been the target of Chinese acquisitions in recent years). Policy-makers are acting out of concern that China is seeking access to sensitive technology, or wants to boost its global influence by acquiring key infrastructure, including ports and electricity networks. Since Germany tightened its measures, blocking unwanted takeovers in July, 2017, 80 deals have been probed, with a third of those involving Chinese investors directly or indirectly. The government hasnt used the law to block an investment since it was established, in 2004. As part of the tougher approach, the German government swooped in last week to nab a stake in one of the countrys largest power-grid operators, thwarting an attempt by a Chinese firm to buy the holding. Bloomberg A Central Bank report has found that the total assets held by Ireland's credit union sector now stand at a record high. The bank's data focuses on the period between March 31, 2013, and March 31, 2018, and finds that total sector assets are at 17.2bn. It also showed that 53 credit unions have assets of 100m or more and they account for 55% of total sector assets. Total sector loans amount to 4.5bn, while the average sector loan to asset ratio, a key measure of viability, has remained at 27% since March 2016, having fallen from 35% at March 31, 2013. The bank also noted that savings continue to outpace loans, with sustained annual growth since 2014. Total savings across the sector today amount to 14.3bn. Income for the six months to 31 March 31, 2018, continued to fall, a reduction in investment income being cited as a key driver of the decrease, with the bank stating that it "reflects the low interest-rate environment". Provision write-backs and bad debts recovered have had a positive impact on overall income since 2015. However, this cannot be relied upon in contributing to future income. Kevin Johnson, CEO CUDA, the Credit Union representative body that manages the Solution Centre, welcomed the results. The Solution Centre is a not-for-profit collaboration of credit unions that supplies product development and business supports to enable participating credit unions, which now comprises 48 of the larger and more progressive credit unions spanning community, industrial, urban and rural. Mr Johnson said: It is fantastic to see cooperation across credit unions working for the benefit of consumers. The loan growth across many of our 48 credit union members using our digital marketing tools would exceed the average outlined in the Central Bank report. "Loans applications through social media now account for up to 20% of all loan enquiries for some credit unions. Our digital loan services have seen participating credit unions experience a 10-fold increase in their interaction with younger adult members. "Over 600,000 members are now using digital lending tools, which in turn has resulted in a significant upturn in lending volumes. "Recent research found that over 59% of credit union members and 38% of non-credit union members would consider switching their mortgage over to a credit union if a better deal was offered." - Kevin Johnson, CEO CUDA. "CUDA look forward to the pending Central Bank consultation reviewing how loan limits operate that will enable even more consumers avail of the benefits from their credit union. Update 4.25pm: Ryanair has apologised to thousands of passengers who will be affected by a fifth strike by Irish-based pilots. The airline said it will notify 3,500 Irish passengers of 20 further flight cancellations next Friday, August 10 and work over the coming days to re-accommodate those disrupted passengers. to whom we sincerely apologise. "This 5th strike notice by Forsa is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and (a way of damaging) Ryanairs business," said Ryanairs CMO Kenny Jacobs. "Forsa has called for meetings with Ryanair, yet during each of the last two weeks when Ryanair has invited Forsa to meet, Forsa has rejected these invitations and instead called a fourth strike tomorrow, and now a fifth strike by just 25% of Irish pilots." Ryanair said the strikes are being driven by Aer Lingus pilots. "In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute. In this case, after four days of unsuccessful strikes, a handful of Aer Lingus pilots are working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, and Germany to further disrupt Ryanairs business and Ryanairs customers next Friday, August 10. Forsa should now explain why they repeatedly called for meetings, and yet when Ryanair went to two meetings, no progress has been made because the Pilots Committee and Forsa spent the majority of the time outside the room consulting with Aer Lingus pilots. "Even when Ryanair invites Forsa to more meetings, Forsa just calls more strikes. Forsa should now explain why another 3,500 Irish customers will have their flights and holidays next Fri 10 Aug disrupted when Forsa have refused not one, but two invitations to meet with Ryanair to resolve this dispute. Forsa should also explain why when Ryanair has agreed nine of their 11 requirements, they call strikes rather than negotiate. "Ryanairs problem in this dispute is that Forsa are not in charge. It is being driven by a tiny handful of Aer Lingus pilots. Until Forsa removes these Aer Lingus pilots from the process, more strikes are inevitable, and more customers will have their flights unnecessarily disrupted for the benefit of Aer Lingus and other flag carrier airlines in Sweden, Belgium, Germany and Holland." The airline apoligised to customers and called for Forsa to remove Aer Lingus pilots from their negotiations. "We apologise sincerely to the 3,500 Irish customers whose flights next Friday, August 10 will be disrupted simply because Forsa wont accept our offers to meet us to resolve this dispute, even though we have agreed nine of Forsas 11 requirements, and why when we have met them, they cant/wont negotiate without deferring to Aer Lingus pilots who are outside the room. Forsa must remove Aer Lingus pilots from this process since they are intent on damaging Ryanairs business for the benefit of Aer Lingus. Digital Desk Earlier: Latest: Ryanair pilots announce fifth one-day strike Irish-based Ryanair pilots are to stage their fifth one-day strike next week. The 24-hour stoppage will start next Friday August 10 at 1am. It is not yet clear how many flights and passengers will be affected by the industrial action. This is the fifth strike by pilots since July 12. Last month, the budget airline criticised the strikes as unnecessary and warned that if they continue, there could be job losses. Trade union Forsa, which represents the pilots, hit out at the airline company following the warning. It said that the pilots continue to seek a fair and transparent method to govern base transfers and related matters which they say is common practice in the industry. In a statement, Forsa said on Thursday: For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters. In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsas repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks. The airlines escalation of the dispute last Wednesday when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff. Company management met the union the day before the first one-day strike, and two days before the second one-day strike (on July 18). It then changed its position and said it would not negotiate while strike action was planned. Ryanair today (Thurs August 2) asks FORSA to confirm they will meet us at 11am on August 7. https://t.co/ZAZMVweLpe Ryanair (@Ryanair) August 2, 2018 The union said that two weeks have passed since their last meeting with management and warned that a resolution to the dispute cannot be reached if the airline has precondition talks. The union added: On a number of occasions in recent weeks and months, there have been suggestions that third-party facilitation could assist in reaching consensus on issues of disagreement. Forsa has today repeated to the company that it is willing to explore this option. - Press Association Earlier: Ryanair traffic increases by 4% amid industrial unrest Update 7.19am: The latest Ryanair traffic statistics show that the number of passengers carried by the airline grew to 13.1 million customers in July, a 4% increase on the same month last year. The load factor remained unchanged at 97% on lower fares. Ryanairs Kenny Jacobs said: "Ryanairs July traffic grew by 4% to 13.1 million customers, while our load factor remained strong at 97%, on the back of lower fares. "Regrettably almost 200,000 Ryanair customers had their flights cancelled in July because of repeated ATC staff shortages in the UK, Germany and France, adverse weather, and unnecessary pilot and cabin crew strikes. "Ryanair, together with other European airlines, calls for urgent action by the EU Commission and European governments to address the effect of these ATC staff shortages which are disrupting the travel plans of millions of Europes consumers this summer, he said. Industrial unrest at the airline is ramping up as Irish passengers face a fourth day of strike action tomorrow. Ryanair has confirmed that it expects tomorrow's planned strike by up to 100 pilots based in Dublin to go ahead. The company has cancelled 20 flights, altering the travel plans of 3,5000 thousand passengers. Belguim and Sweden announced yesterday that they will strike on August 10, while unions for German and Dutch-based pilots have suggested they will coordinate their action to take place on the same day. In a statement, Ryanair said: Ryanair has received notice of strikes on Fri 10 Aug next by pilot unions in Belgium and Sweden. We have also been notified of possible strike actions by pilot unions in Germany and the Netherlands which we believe will be coordinated and occur on Fri 10 Aug. "We have written to each of these pilot unions today and invited them to meet us in the coming days to make further progress in concluding Union Recognition and Collective Labour Agreements in each of these markets. "In the interim, we have requested these pilot unions to give us 7 days notice of any planned strike action so that we can notify our customers of cancelled flights in advance and offer them alternative flights or refunds. Elsewhere, the British Airline Pilots Association has issued a failure to agree notice to Ryanair. That is the first of several steps towards strike action in their industrial relations process. Digital Desk Christoph Rauwald Volkswagen warned that it will take a huge effort to meet delivery targets this year, as the worlds largest automaker battles trade tensions and stricter emissions rules, while preparing to amp up digital investments. Tougher pollution-testing procedures, aimed at preventing a repeat of Volkswagens cheating scandal, will take effect next month and cause delivery delays. The German manufacturer is also bracing for higher tariffs around the globe, which could particularly hit Audi and Porsche, the groups main profit earners. Protectionist tendencies are escalating worldwide, chief executive, Herbert Diess, said. Meeting delivery goals, while avoiding deep discounts this year, will be a titanic task, said Mr Diess, who recently completed his first 100 days in office. Beyond the daily issues, hes readying VW for approaching challenges, from electrification to self-driving cars to sharing services. The company needs a massive expansion in software and in its digital investments, including new partnerships and acquisitions, he said. Volkswagen shares fell slightly, after VW said it wouldnt be able to repeat the 23% surge in profit it reported for the second quarter. The challenges range from economic volatility, increasing competition, and the costs of the ongoing diesel scandal, to new, time-consuming exhaust-testing, Volkswagen said. The shares are down 12% in the past year, valuing the car firm at just under 74bn. It churned out more cars ahead of the EU emission-rules change. Production jumped 13.5% in the second quarter, twice the growth rate of deliveries. Volkswagen said, earlier this year, that the company may experience inventory build-up, ahead of next months introduction of the worldwide harmonised light-duty test procedure, or WLTP. Mr Diess is grappling with political challenges, alongside an internal overhaul in the aftermath of the three-year-old diesel crisis, which continues to burden the industrial giant. In the second quarter, the company took 1.64bn in charges, mainly for a fine from German authorities, raising the total damages to about 27.4bn. Rupert Stadler, the now-suspended head of the Audi luxury unit, was arrested in June by Munich prosecutors and remains in custody. We cannot rest on our laurels, because great challenges lie ahead of us in the coming quarters, Mr Diess said. Growing protectionism also poses major challenges for the globally integrated automotive industry. Bloomberg Irish posties are now so renowned for being able to deliver post regardless of the vagueness of the address or obscurity of the parcel. From hand-drawn maps to I forgot the street name but it's near a street named Cul de Sac, theyve been tested time and time again. Fota Wildlife Park have announced the birth of a Lion-tailed macaque baby to mother Tish and father Mauzer and are asking the public's help in naming the new arrival. The baby was born under the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) and is one of the most endangered of the Asian primate species. The new mum is 11-year-old Fota-born Tish, who is one of the dominant females in the troop, and this is her second baby. First-time father Mauzer aged seven was born in Belfast Zoo in 2011 and arrived at Fota in March 2015 as the new breeding male. Fota Wildlife Park are calling on the public to help name the new baby, however the animal staff cannot tell whether its male or female as Tish is keeping the baby very close and the rest of the troop are also being very protective so its not possible for the Rangers to get close enough to check just yet. To be in with a chance to win a year-long Conservation Membership at Fota Wildlife Park enter your name suggestions for the new baby Lion-tailed macaque on their blog here. Lead Ranger Teresa Power said: It has been a while since a Lion-tailed macaque birth, so we really are thrilled at the arrival of this new baby." Fota has a long and successful history with this endangered species that are known to be difficult to keep and breed. The species first arrived at Fota Wildlife Park in 1986 from Dublin Zoo and they first bred here in 1988 and since then Fota-born macaques have been sent to many zoos worldwide as part of the EEP. Ms power continued: The Lion-tailed macaque breeding group at Fota is considered one of the most successful in Europe with over 40 born here so far. This troop is of critical importance to the international breeding programmes given how rare the species are becoming in the wild." "We put our success down to the space and natural landscape provided in their habitat, which allows for a wide range of interactions among the individual macaques. Indigenous to the Western Ghats in southern India, the Lion-tailed macaque is of conservation concern due to its small numbers in the natural habitats, the small area of occupancy and fragmentation of the remaining habitats. They are hunted for meat and fur with only 1% of their original habitat remaining - because of timber harvesting and agriculture - and as their population numbers continue to decrease, the global captive population of 600 animals is equivalent to 17% of the entire wild population of 3,500 individuals in the Western Ghats region of India. - Digital Desk Abuse survivor and campaigner Marie Collins has suggested that any decision by the Pope not to address those impacted by Church abuse would be "shocking ... and completely untenable." The former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Vatican was speaking to Miriam O'Callaghan on RTE radio this morning. Ms Collins reacted to comments yesterday by the Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who said he was pushing the Vatican to have the Pope meet a cross-section of survivors but remained cognisant that Pope Francis would only spend 36 hours in Ireland. The Archbishop is reported to have said: He will obviously speak about various forms of abuse not just clerical abuse, the abuse in the institutions, the laundries and the mother and baby homes. It would be great to meet some of the victims or survivors from that group, but the time is very tight. Ms Collins told Today with Miriam on RTE Radio 1 that for her part she felt the Pope should be meeting with survivors. "He should be meeting representatives of the industrial schools, of the Magdalene Laundries, of the mother and baby homes simply as a recognition of those horrors. "Ignoring an issue is not going to make it go away" Ms Collins said she had seen for herself in the Vatican that some are still led by the hope that "if they don't talk about this issue, there won't be any attention given to it." Marie Collins She went on to say that if the Pope does not address the issue at all "that would be shocking... and completely untenable". "I believe if the Pope is going to speak ... and tell us what he's going to do about this issue" and suggested the World Meeting of Families was probably the most appropriate place to do so. Listen to the full interview from Today with Miriam on RTE Radio 1 below. - Digital Desk The HSE has been notified this week of four measles cases in Dublin, affecting two adults and two children. These four individuals are likely to have developed measles from contact with one of the two earlier cases at hospitals in Dublin which were confirmed last month. The HSE has asked the public to continue to be vigilant about measles. "Measles can be a serious illness and is highly infectious. The best protection is to be fully vaccinated with two doses of MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine," said Dr Helena Murray, Specialist in Public Health Medicine. People at increased risk of getting measles are those who are not fully vaccinated with two doses of MMR vaccine or have not had measles in the past. The risk of measles is for up to 21 days after contact with a case of measles. If you think you may have measles, stay at home and phone your General Practitioner (GP) for advice. The Public Health Department has sent an alert to all Emergency Departments and GPs in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow to inform them to be vigilant about measles and has issued the following advice on how to control the further spread of this potentially serious illness: Vaccination with measles-containing vaccine (MMR): All children should get the MMR vaccine when they are aged 12 months. If any child aged over 12 months has missed this vaccine they should get it now from their GP. All children should get a second dose of MMR vaccine when they are 4-5 years old or in Junior Infants at school. If any child in Senior Infants or older has missed this vaccine they should get it now from their GP. Adults under 40 years who have not had measles or have not received 2 doses of MMR vaccine should contact their GP to get the MMR vaccine. Adults over 40 years of age may sometimes be at risk and if such adults never had measles nor a measles containing vaccine they should consider getting the MMR vaccine from their GP. Measles symptoms include: High fever Cough Runny nose Red eyes Red rash that starts on head and spread down the body - this normally starts a few days after onset of illness. The rash consists of flat red or brown blotches, which can flow into each other. It lasts about 4-7 days Vomiting, diarrhoea and tummy pain may also happen. Measures to prevent the spread of measles if you think you may have measles: Do not go to work, school or creche. Stay at home and phone your GP. Tell the doctor or nurse that you think you might have measles. Stop visitors coming to the house to prevent the spread of measles. Pregnant women who have been exposed to measles should seek medical advice as soon as possible. Risk of measles from international travel: There are on-going outbreaks of measles in multiple countries in the European region and worldwide. Most of the cases in the EU in 2018 were reported from Romania, France, Greece, and Italy. Most people who get measles on holiday do not know they were exposed until they develop disease. Unrecognised exposures to measles have occurred at airports, on planes, at concerts, in shops and health care settings. In 2018, 31 deaths associated with measles have been reported in EU countries. Advice for people travelling abroad: Vaccination remains the most effective measure against infection. Children aged 6-11 months of age, travelling to other countries and regions where measles outbreaks are reported, are recommended MMR vaccine. A dose given before 12 months of age does not replace the dose that would normally be given at 12 months of age. Older children should be age-appropriately vaccinated. Children who have missed their recommended doses should get the MMR vaccine from their GP. Adults may be at risk of measles, particularly those under 40 years of age who have never had measles or two doses of a measles vaccine. More about measles: Measles is highly contagious and is spread easily. The time between exposure to measles and developing the rash is usually 14 days (range 7-21 days). People are infectious from four days before rash starts until four days after. Complications of measles: Measles can cause chest infections, fits (seizures), ear infections, swelling of the brain and/or damage to the brain. Measles is a notifiable disease and GPs and hospital clinicians should immediately notify Public Health if they suspect someone has measles. Digital Desk Eoin Reynolds A 35-year-old Dubliner shouted "guilty of f*cking what" when a jury convicted him of murdering two men who had arranged to sell him a stolen car. The jury had been asked to use circumstantial evidence to convict Jason ODriscoll of Richmond Avenue, Fairview who pleaded not guilty to murdering 31-year-old Anthony Burnett and 25-year-old Joseph Redmond, in Co Louth on March 7, 2012. The jury of five women and seven men spent more than seven hours considering their verdicts, which the foreman said were by a ten to two majority. As the judge thanked the jury for their service and exempted them from further duty for 15 years, O'Driscoll stood up and said: "Guilty of f*cking what." As he left the courtroom door leading towards the cells he said there was no evidence, he was guilty of nothing and added: "F*cking crook." Justice Michael White will hand down the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on October 2. He adjourned sentencing after counsel for the prosecution, Alex Owens SC, asked for time to allow the families of the deceased men put together an impact statement to be read to the court. Trial evidence The Central Criminal Court heard that emergency services were called to a burning car in a layby at Ravensdale Forest Park at 10.51 that night. Firefighters described seeing skulls and rib cages inside the car. The five-week trial heard that the bodies were fused together but were later confirmed to be those of the two Dubliners. They died of gunshot wounds to their heads before petrol was used to set fire to the black diesel Volkswagen Golf. The State proved to the jury that the accused had attended the scene with another man and had participated in their murders. ODriscoll was arraigned before the Central Criminal Court on June 25th, replying: Not guilty. Im innocent to each charge. It was his second time to go on trial for the murders. A previous jury failed to reach a verdict late last year. The court heard evidence that his two victims had left their homes that evening to travel north to sell him a car theyd stolen that morning. ODriscoll was living in Newry and had told them hed pay 700 for the one-year-old Volkswagen Golf if they would drive it up to him. The deceased were both from Ballybough in the north inner city and were described by the State as small-time criminals involved in car theft. O'Driscoll's first trial heard that, although they had known each other since childhood, they had begun hanging around together only about a week before their murders. While gardai had informed Mr Redmond that his life was under threat, Mr Burnett had turned his life around, had been off drugs, was mixing with different people and had bought his own apartment in Turkey. However, the court heard that his birthday was coming up and he was fed up with having no money. He and Mr Redmond decided to steal a car from a driveway in Sandymount. The first trial heard that Mr Redmond had put his hand through the owners letterbox, opened the door to their house and taken the keys to their car. The court heard that they had been trying to sell the Golf all day, with Mr Burnett even trying to sell it to one of his new, law-abiding friends. A witness testified that the accused had eventually agreed to buy the car for 700 and that his victims had travelled north that night to make the sale. The first trial heard that Mr Burnett told his sister that he trusted the person he was going to meet. However, Mr Redmonds sister heard Mr Burnett say that he hoped they werent walking into a trap, having mentioned that he was fighting with someone. The scene where the bodies of the two men were found in a burnt out car in Ravensdale Park, Louth in March 2012. Photo: Niall Carson/ PA Wire Circumstantial evidence Much of the rest of the case was built on circumstantial evidence. The jury saw CCTV footage of Mr ODriscoll and another man topping up mobile phones that were in contact with the deceased on the night of the murders. There was also footage of Mr ODriscoll in a hotel, where there was a payphone that showed up in their call records from that evening. ODriscoll was also one of two men, captured on footage around 11.10pm, entering an off-licence in Meigh just north of the border. It was just moments after a Mercedes S Class was seen entering the shops car park. However, the defence did not agree with the inference that the State wished to draw that ODriscoll was one of two people seen walking away from this car in the darker, outdoor footage. The defence also did not concede that this was the getaway car. The State argued that the getaway car was the stolen silver Mercedes S Class that had been involved in a high-speed police chase in Newry minutes after the murder and minutes before the S Class carrying two people arrived at the off-licence. The stolen car was found abandoned near Meigh the following morning. Its false plates had been removed, but the documentation in the windscreen matched the registration plate of the car in the police chase. Justice Michael White said that it was definitive that the abandoned S Class was the same one involved in the police chase. It appeared to have ground itself on a mound of concrete in a building site, and a crime scene investigator testified that it smelled of cleaning fluid and appeared to have been cleaned. The State needed to prove that the abandoned Mercedes was the same car that the murderers used to get to and from the shootings and that ODriscoll was one of the occupants. It had to rely on circumstantial evidence, including the testimony of PSNI officers and expert witnesses from the UK. Unprecendented type of evidence given in court The prosecution called Andy Wooller, a vehicle identification expert from England, to view footage of two cars travelling in Ravensdale minutes before the 999 call as well as the footage from the off-licence car park. The case was the first time such evidence was used in court here. He had no knowledge of any suspect vehicles and made a number of conclusions. He then organised a reconstruction, suggesting that the gardai provide about a dozen vehicles, including a Mercedes S Class W221 and a Golf, to be driven the same routes at slow speed for a side-by-side comparison. The Gardai put the abandoned S Class W221 through this vehicle identification parade, first fixing to it registration plates identical to those seen on it in the Newry chase. This is the car the expert picked out as being the most likely match for the light-coloured saloon outside the off licence in both his initial view and his reconstruction. He couldnt completely rule out two other models as being the saloon in Ravensdale. He picked out two possible matches for the dark hatchback seen following it at Ravensdale. These included the same model of Golf as the burnt-out car. A number of PSNI officers gave evidence of involvement in a high-speed car chase in nearby Newry around the time the bodies were found. A suspicious, southern-registered Mercedes had been spotted entering the city on the Dublin Road and had sped off when the driver was instructed to pull over. Two officers got a look at the driver before he got away and facial composites were made and shown to the jury. In his closing speech, Alexander Owens SC, prosecuting, described one of them as a very good match or likeness of Mr ODriscolls companion and associate when he entered the off-licence in Meigh just minutes later. The State argued that there was no rational explanation other than that ODriscoll was involved in the murder. It was not necessary to establish the precise role that he had played but that there was a wad of evidence which pointed to his guilt. By Noel Baker Update 9.10pm: On December 20, 2011, a complaint was received at GSOC from Ian Bailey, close to 15 years to the day since the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Almost seven years later, the report by the Garda watchdog found issues of grave concern, but sums up the situation in one sentence: There is no evidence to suggest that Ian Bailey was framed for the murder or that evidence was falsified, forged, or fabricated by members of the Garda Siochana. The report outlines Mr Baileys arrests, on suspicion of a murder he has always denied, on February 10, 1997, and January 27, 1998. On both occasions, Mr Bailey was released without charge. In his witness statements to GSOC, provided on March 22, 2012, Mr Bailey describes the atmosphere during his first arrest as aggressive, accusatory, and hostile, claiming that one detective garda repeatedly jabbed his finger into his side and arm, stating: You did it, just admit it, everyone knows you did it, you better get your act together. He alleged a garda said: Even if we dont pin this on you, youre finished in Ireland and youll be found dead in a ditch with a bullet in the back of your head. He made further allegations, including of being given a black and tan colour shirt at the garda station, of being told his partner, Jules Thomas, accepted his guilt, and that stories repeatedly appeared about him in the media as the self-confessed prime suspect. Regarding the January 1998 arrest, Mr Bailey made allegations including being told that a small basement cell was waiting for him in Mountjoy. On February 12, 1998, a file was submitted by gardai to the DPP which decided on November 7, 2001, that a prosecution would not be sustainable. It has been a long and winding road, pockmarked by complaints made by Mr Bailey in relation to the gardai and its handling of the case, including that it was a corrupt investigation in so far as it related to Mr Bailey and that he had been unlawfully arrested. The GSOC reports note that Mr Bailey was first formally nominated as a suspect for the murder of Ms du Plantier by gardai on December 27, 1996. From the material reviewed by GSOC in this investigation, it appears that there was a reasonable belief held by gardai at that time that Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas were responsible for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, says the report. The arrests of both were therefore lawful. GSOC found no evidence sufficient to sustain either a criminal or disciplinary charge that Mr Bailey or Ms Thomass identities and personal details were transmitted at the time of their arrest in February 1997 by gardai to the media. As for Mr Baileys rearrest a year later, GSOC said there is nothing to suggest this was unwarranted or that he was wrongly accused given the context of the probe at that time. It said the recollection by a former state solicitor did not support an allegation by Mr Bailey that unidentified senior garda officers had exhorted the state solicitor in West Cork to bring improper influence as a result of his collegiate acquaintance with the then Minister for Justice to bring a prosecution against Mr Bailey in the late nineties. On December 20, 2011, a complaint was received at GSOC from Ian Bailey, close to 15 years to the day since the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Earlier: Witness statements and 22 exhibits missing from du Plantier murder probe; GSOC 'gravely concerned' Latest: GSOC investigators said it is a matter of grave concern to them that a large number of original statements and exhibits relating to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation are missing, writes Sean O'Riordan. However, in their report, they say this is likely due to a lack of administration and management and theres no evidence of high-level corruption by gardai. The GSOC report states that in 2013 its investigators received documentation from the gardai which outlined an extensive list of significant documents including witness statements and 22 exhibits that can no longer be located. These include a blood-spattered gate taken from close to where Ms Du Plantiers body was found; a French wine bottle discovered in a field next to the murder scene; and a black overcoat belonging to Ian Bailey. A total of 139 original statements are missing from witnesses and include original memos of interviews with Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell. In addition, witness statements were taken by the French police from a number of people but only typed copies of witness statements were held by the Garda Siochana. Meanwhile, GSOC investigators also discovered that other miscellaneous items are missing which include a diary belonging to Ian Bailey and tape recordings/transcripts of conversations between Ian Bailey and a foreign journalist. The GSOC report also expressed concern that there are pages missing from the original garda Jobs Books in relation to the murder investigation. The A4-sized jobs books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident investigation and the rationale for the decisions made in relation to the direction of inquiries. There were more references to Mr Bailey than any other person of interest in the jobs books in the first month of the murder investigation. GSOC said their concern is further compounded by the fact that the specific pages missing are from the time when Mr Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect and as such they are potentially very significant. Forensic scientist Brian Craythorne found several pages had been removed from the Jobs Book, possibly by cutting with scissors. He found that the front fly sheet, the pages numbered 1 to 7 and pages 10 and 11 were missing. It was noted during the review of the jobs books by GSOC that there were a number of issues about the actual records which could not be explained. These included the numbering such as Job number 277 jumping to 288 on the next page but there were no apparent missing pages. A number of pages were glued together with nothing in between them, meaning that the page numberings were also out of sequence. GSOC said that, at this stage, their investigators had received no explanation from anyone within An Garda Siochana as to when the pages were removed, or how this was done, by whom and for what purpose. GSOC investigators said it is a matter of grave concern to them that a large number of original statements and exhibits relating to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation are missing. Jules Thomas and Ian Bailey, left, and Marie Farrell, right Marie Farrells relationship with garda questionable By Joe Leogue A detective garda on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case had a questionable relationship with a key witness in the investigation that appears to GSOC to not have been appropriate at times, the garda watchdog found. However, the GSOC report into the complaints of Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas, and Marie Farrell found no evidence to support Ms Farrells allegation that she was put under pressure to provide statements that implicated Mr Bailey in the murder. Ms Farrell alleges she was coerced and cajoled by gardai into making false statements against Mr Bailey, and that she was asked to sign blank statements, after which a detective garda told her that he would fill in the statements to say that Ian Bailey had threatened her. Retired gardai denied this; told GSOC that Marie Farrell was attention seeking and not credible; and said she willingly co-operated with their investigation. Ms Farrell told GSOC that a detective garda involved in the case got very close to her family in 1997 and that there were rumours around Schull that she and this detective garda were having an affair, which she denied. The report notes that: The relationship between the detective garda and Marie Farrell appears to GSOC to not have been appropriate at times. However, a review of telephone recordings indicate that Marie Farrell had been under no pressure in her interactions with a detective garda [and indeed other members of the Garda Siochana] to provide accounts, GSOC found. GSOC reported that in fact, a phone call listened to in the course of the investigation could be seen as evidence of a relationship between Marie Farrell and an investigating garda that was not coercive. The relationship between this detective garda and Marie Farrell would appear to have been questionable at times, GSOC concluded. It cannot be explained why Marie Farrell provided witness statements in the first instance before retracting her evidence in the garda investigation. GSOC report into du Plantier investigation shows some gardai 'think they are above the law': FF By Juno McEnroe Update 7pm: Fianna Fail Justice Spokesperson Jim OCallaghan TD says the report should be of concern to the Justice Minister as it shows gardai thinking they are above the law. The findings are disturbing, says Mr OCallaghan. While the latest GSOC report confirms that there is no evidence of the high level corruption as alleged by Mr Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell, it does outline yet another litany of missing evidence and lack of cooperation by some Gardai and detectives into the GSOC investigation. It is quite disturbing and not acceptable in any investigation but particularly when it involves murder. The report actually outlines how pages from the jobs book where details of investigations would be outlined in detail were actually physically removed and it is described as a deliberate act. GSOC is right to have concerns - as this act was a clear breach of trust and smacks of some members of the Gardai thinking they are above the law. What makes this finding even more serious is that the Sophie Toscan du Plantier investigation is still open so all evidence should have been protected. While there is no evidence of high level corruption the findings in this report can not be ignored by the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice. All ranks of Gardai should be required to fully cooperate with GSOC investigations, concluded OCallaghan. Earlier: GSOC finds no evidence of high level corruption in report into du Plantier investigation Update 5.16pm: A watchdog has expressed grave concern after potentially significant police records on the murder of a French filmmaker in Ireland went missing. Sophie Toscan du Plantier was beaten to death on a freezing night outside her holiday home on a remote west Cork hillside on December 23 1996. Ian Bailey, a former freelance journalist originally from the Manchester area, was arrested twice over the 39-year-olds murder. The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) said: It is GSOCs view, formed after an extensive investigation, that while there was evidence of a lack of administration and management of aspects of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, there was no evidence of the high-level corruption by gardai alleged by the complainants Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell. Ian Bailey leaving the Court of Appeal in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA) His subsequent arrest and the arrest of his partner, Jules Thomas, therefore could not, as the complainants allege, have been construed as unlawful or illegal. Irish courts have repeatedly refused to extradite the former journalist to France for questioning over the murder. Mr Bailey denies any involvement in the killing near Schull in west Cork. The Commissions investigation reviewed a jobs book compiled by the police on the murder investigation. It said: The missing pages from the jobs book when Ian Bailey was identified as a suspect are of grave concern to GSOC. These books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident (or investigation) along with the rationale for the decisions made. The village of Schull, West Cork (Haydn West/PA) The significant amount of missing original garda documentation, witness statements, suspect files and physical exhibits in the garda murder investigation suggest to GSOC that there was a lack of administration and management of the incident room (even when viewed through the lens of the time) as opposed to clear evidence of malpractice or corruption. It added: The lack of forensic material obtained from the scene, particularly given the precise nature of the murder and the state in which the body of Madame Toscan Du Plantier was discovered, is also of concern to GSOC. The report found no evidence a key witness, Marie Farrell, was coerced or intimidated into making false statements against Mr Bailey. It said the review of telephone call recordings provided to GSOC during this investigation indicated that Ms Farrell had not been under pressure in her interactions with a detective garda to provide accounts, although the relationship appeared inappropriate at times. The Commission was not able to substantiate other serious allegations that a witness had been provided with illegal drugs by gardai, though the telephone calls which have been reviewed noted that drugs were mentioned by the witness himself. [gallery]23[/gallery] Read the report in full here Digital Desk Gardai are investigating after a man in his 50s has died in a house fire in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan. The alarm was raised after a neighbour spotted flames coming from the semi-detached house in the Derrylurgan area at around 3am this morning. By Gordon Deegan A business executive at a subsidiary of meat producer, Kepak has been awarded 7,500 over being required to deal with out-of-hours work emails, including some after midnight, that led to work in excess of 48 hours a week. At the Labour Court, Kepak Convenience Foods Unlimited Co has been ordered to pay former business development executive, Grainne O'Hara 7,500 over repeated breaches of the Organisation of Working Time Act. Employment law expert and solicitor, Richard Grogan said today that the "excellent, very clear and precise" Labour Court ruling "will serve as a massive wake-up call to employers who expect employees to be available 24 hours a day seven days a week". He said: The law is very clear. Employees are entitled to an uninterrupted 11-hour break between finishing work and starting work the following day. Mr Grogan said that employers have left themselves "open to claims when requiring employees to be available 24/7. It is a health and safety issue". In the case, Ms OHaras contract of employment with the Kepak firm required her to work 40 hours per week but she argued that she worked close to 60 hours a week, sometimes dealing with work emails after mid-night. In support of her complaint, Ms OHara submitted copies of emails that she sent to and/or received from her employers both before normal start time and after normal finish time on numerous occasions over the course of her employment. According to the Labour Court, these emails ranged from 5pm to midnight in most cases but instances of emails sent after midnight were also included in the documents. In addition, Ms OHara submitted that emails that were sent to her employers and responses that were received from her employer before 8am. Ms OHara told the court that she sought a full copy of all of her emails that she stated would demonstrate that this was a daily pattern and her former employer would have been aware of. However, she stated that she was not provided with a copy of those emails by her former employer. Ms OHara commenced work with the Kepak firm at its Blanchardstown facility in Dublin in July 2016 and as part of her work, Ms O'Hara spent a considerable part of her time travelling between customer sites in Dublin and Leinster. Ms OHara's employment ended on April 14, 2017. In response to Ms OHara's claims, the Kepak firm submitted that the volume of work undertaken by Ms O'Hara was in line with that undertaken by other members of staff none of whom works in excess of the 48-hour maximum set out in legislation. Ms OHara's immediate manager at the company, Colm Conneely told the court that Ms OHara had been inducted into the company through a comprehensive training programme that was designed to ensure that she understood her duties and was capable of undertaking and discharging them within the statutory working week. Mr Conneely told the court that Ms OHara was taught how to use the companys reporting system in the most efficient manner but that she chose to adopt a less efficient procedure for completing her administrative tasks. He said that this may have increased the time she spent on such tasks. Mr Conneely submitted that the volume of work could not have exceeded 48 hours per week. In its findings, however, the Labour Court noted that the Kepak firm did not produce a full file of Ms OHaras emails and offered no evidence to contradict her evidence in this regard. The court also stated that it found Ms OHara to be a credible witness and accepts her evidence in this regard. Accordingly, the Court found that the Kepak firm was, through Ms O'Hara's operation of its software and through the emails she sent it, aware of the hours Ms O'Hara was working and took no steps to curtail the time she spent working. The court found that the Kepak firm breached the Organisation of Working Time Act by permitting Ms OHara to work beyond 48 hours a week. The court found that Ms OHaras complaint was well founded. Ms OHara was appealing the quantum of an Adjudication Officers ruling that she be awarded 6,240 while KEPAK was seeking to have the Adjudication Officers ruling overturned completely. Ms OHara argued that the Adjudication Officer did not award her sufficient compensation "for the systemic nature of the breaches of the Act involved in the case". In its ruling, the Labour Court has increased the Adjudication Officers award by 20% to 7,500. Not involved in the case, Mr Grogan said today: Any employer who expects their employees to be available 24/7 is creating a serious health and safety risk. The solicitor said that it is common place for employers to provide phones, laptops and tablets to employees as part of the 24/7 availability and some of them would have employees take a work call in the shower if they could. A new pilot scheme that lets people text gardai about anti-social behaviour starts today in Tralee. 'See Something, Say Something' has been developed by Kerry based tech company Zinmobi in partnership with Tralee Chamber Alliance and An Garda Siochana . People will be able to text information about possible criminal behaviour for free and anonymously to the number 50555. Managing Consultant of Tralee Chamber Alliance, Ken Tobin, says if it proves successful the scheme could be rolled out nationwide "So we partnered with a local technology company because there are quite a lot fo technology companies based in Tralee to develop this system," he said. "Effectively Tralee will become a pilot location for (local company Zinmobi) and the intention then is that Zinmobi will be able to roll this out to other towns based on demand around the country," he said. Digital Desk Two men in their twenties are due before Tralee District Court this morning, charged in connection with a firearms seizure in Limerick. A semi-automatic Luger pistol, loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition was found inside the men's car in the Corbally area on Monday night. Vicky Phelan has discussed the latest plans for handling the CervicalCheck scandal with the Health Minister Simon Harris today. During a phone call which took place this morning, Mr Harris assured Ms Phelan that he would be speaking with her again in the near future. Last night, the government announced the appointment of retired High Court judge Charles Meenan to examine alternative ways of compensating the affected women and their families. He will be consulting with them, and has been given two months to make recommendations. The development follows yesterday's meeting involving Vicky Phelan and the Taoiseach. Ms Phelan says she raised a broad range of issues with Leo Varadkar. "I expressed my concern that the proposed Patient Safety Bill does not include sanctions for individual practitioners, only healthcare providers," she said. "He has told me that the bill will be passed through the Dail in September but amendments can be made through the normal channels. "So I will be voicing my concerns on the absence of sanctions for healthcare practitioners to Simon Harris," she said. Digital Desk Lawyers for the Flood Tribunal will present their closing arguments this morning in the contempt of court case against Liam Lawlor. The tribunal claims the TD breached a court order by not providing appropriate documents and failing to answer questions about his personal finances. Lee Westwood has held off the challenge of the European Solheim Cup team to win the Golf Writers' Trophy for 2000. In what developed as a straight fight between the two - only two other first-place votes were cast by members of the Association of Golf Writers in their annual poll - Westwood emerged as a clear winner following a season in which he took the European number one crown held by Colin Montgomerie for the previous seven years. Although Montgomerie took the award only once during his long reign, Westwood has now captured it for the second time in three years. Victories in America and Japan helped him to the trophy in 1998. "I'm very proud to have won again," said the 27-year-old from Worksop, currently on a two-month break from the game. "It rounds off my season wonderfully and I will be doing my best to retain it. "The achievement of the Solheim Cup side should be recognised as well, though. Beating the Americans has helped to put women's golf back on the map." From the depths of despair at the Benson and Hedges International Open at The Belfry in May Westwood went to Hamburg the very next week and came from two behind Tiger Woods on the final day to win the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe by three with a closing 64. He then added the Compaq European Grand Prix at Slaley Hall, the Smurfit European Open at the K Club near Dublin, the Volvo Scandinavian Masters and the Belgacom Open. Still he came to the American Express world championship at Valderrama, final event of the Order of Merit, trailing his close friend Darren Clarke. But a brilliant last round 67 gave him second place in the tournament - ahead of Woods again - and top spot on the money list. Westwood also won in South Africa at the start of the year and in October took Montgomerie's Cisco World Match Play title, beating him at the second extra hole of the final, to complete a year of outstanding success, spoilt only by his failure to get into contention for a major. He hopes to put that right in 2001. He becomes only the seventh player to win the Golf Writers' Trophy more than once, following Tony Jacklin in 1969 and 1970 (plus twice as European Ryder Cup captain), Peter Oosterhuis in 1973 and 74, Seve Ballesteros in 1979, 84 and 91, Sandy Lyle in 1980 and 88, Nick Faldo in 1983 and 90 and Bernhard Langer in 1981 and 1993. "We have these political hero narratives going through our whole system and in my opinion they're fascist narratives. The way that Trump got elected was by saying 'I'm a hero. I'm going to save you'." She says that the rhetoric in Beowulf and other hero stories is what Trump used during his own election campaign. "It was really effective." Now that Trump is in power, she says, he is extending this monster narrative. "He's closing the borders saying that anyone who isn't an American citizen is a monster and he's adding other categories to that," including people with a pre-existing medical condition, those who have been sexually assaulted, people of colour, and the poor. "I'm interested in how the rhetoric can create mob fear, for Americans to think 'oh my god, the monsters are coming' not realising that they are themselves monsters," she says. Many of the people who voted for him "didn't realise that they would be categorised as monsters, that they wouldn't have health insurance, that they would die from their diseases". She pauses: "He's done nothing heroic." Headley is working on a companion piece, a translation of the original, due out next year. Her novel is revisionist Grendel's mother gets revenge. Headley wanted the feeling that there were some monsters in this story but they were not who the reader expected them to be. Tackling the novel first meant she was able to realise the outcomes she wanted from the story and get those resolutions out of her system. She can now approach the translation authentically. "I got to say what I wanted to say about it," she says, "I have a big agenda but that agenda isn't to get it [the translation] wrong." Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road was inspiration for the suburban setting of The Mere Wife. Headley lived in the well-to-do suburbs of Seattle for 12 years in between growing up in rural Idaho and her current home of Brooklyn. "In my childhood we were really poor so I had a lot of trouble integrating myself into the community of a suburb." She says she found the suburbs weird but also interesting in terms of privilege. "It made me think about the structure of America and it made me pretty critical." Her experience fed into many aspects of the novel, "the way that women interact with each other and the way they interact with men, how they maintain status for themselves". She describes suburban communities as isolationist cells. This contrasts with life in the city: "In New York, you're always speaking to your neighbours." Headley grew up in Idaho with a survivalist father on a property where they raised sled dogs, a setting that has heavily influenced her writing. "I grew up in such a weird version of an American childhood, it was like we were a century back from other people," she says, "there was all this wondrous weirdness. I believed the natural world was full of magic." In her writing, she uses tropes from a range of genres horror, science fiction and fantasy to create a big imaginary world. But she says the genre community sees her as too normal and the literary community thinks she is weird. "I have trouble with genre divides anyway," she adds. The Mere Wife contains unexpected points of view from the natural world including a dog and a mountain, but she would not have introduced these perspectives had her background been in writing realist fiction. Along with her novels for teenagers and adults, Headley has written plays and screenplays, short stories, essays and a memoir. "My whole career has been going 'Oh, what haven't I done yet?', which is not how most people say you should do it." She wrote the first draft of The Mere Wife in two weeks in 2015 and sold it immediately to a publisher, but it's not the same book that has ended up being published. "This book is more political," she says, a result of the events of the past few years. Plus she wanted to refine the novel. "I did a lot more work than I've ever done on any other book and it was really fruitful." But that's no guarantee what she learnt will be useful in the future. "With every book I learn how to be a writer again and then I forget again completely." Headley believes in the transformative power of stories: she wants a more empathetic and fairer society, "so we have a less angry, upset, frustrated, murderous world. That's my goal ... That's why I write." She says "books have changed my whole perception". Her isolated upbringing meant she had little understanding of how society worked. "I learnt it all from books." As a child, she was a voracious reader. Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time trilogy was a major influence. In those books, the protagonist's mother is a Nobel prize-winning scientist, which made her realise that girls could grow up to be known for something other than "for being pretty, or for being nice, which are often the tropes that are given to girls". She says: "To have the idea that you could be known for the work your brain does was massively life-changing." The other stories that Headley thinks are changing the world, are the personal narratives coming out of movements such as #MeToo. She is joyful that these conversations are finally happening. "I think that the culture is shifting and that makes me happy. We're not there yet ... we continue to engage in profound oppression as a culture at every level: gender oppression, sexuality, an ableist culture and racist culture." She says Americans have long denied problems with gender equality. "I've been mad for so long about my own tolerance for terrible things. At least now I can talk about it in public without people saying 'oh, you crazy feminist'." Defeat hardly dimmed Napoleon's star, as new legends piled up on top of the ones he had built for himself. Fanciful rumours circulated that he had escaped from St Helena, and was king of Morocco or emperor of South America. Even after his death, Frenchmen claimed to have seen apparitions of the general, and one labourer affirmed that "Napoleon is not dead. He will wake up." By the 1830s, after another revolution in Paris, the government was rehabilitating his reputation, erecting a new statue of the fallen emperor and finishing the Arc de Triomphe, a stone catalogue of battlefield victories. In 1840, Napoleon's remains were disinterred and shipped to Paris for burial in Les Invalides, where a grand tomb completed 20 years later remains a prime tourist site. In short, there was and is a cult of Napoleon. Like no other ruler, he is the subject of paintings, plays and novels, including Tom Keneally's story of the emperor and Betsy, his young British neighbour. More has been written on Napoleon, Dwyer says, than on any other such figure, including stacks of generally hagiographical memoirs by those who witnessed his dying days. Bonaparte's death mask became an objet d'art in Paris in the 1820s, and Madame Tussaud opened a Napoleon Gallery. The legend endures, revitalised by endless exhibitions. The National Gallery of Victoria hosted a huge collection of memorabilia in 2012, and much of the contents of the emperor's last abode in St Helena was put on display at Paris' army museum four years later. In June of this year, a battered hat that may have been worn by Napoleon at Waterloo the vendors could give no guarantee sold for more than $500,000 at auction. One must wonder what the obsession with such a dictator says about later generations' political culture. Why has Napoleon been so popular? Even British newspapers in the aftermath of his death conceded that he had greatness, though they condemned his actions. Opponents of the regimes that replaced him, and supporters of his nephew, who became Emperor Napoleon II, mobilised the legend of Napoleon for their own use. Dwyer convincingly adds that Napoleon, like many latter-day leaders, attracts esteem because he was an adventurer and showman, a manipulator, a man who used propagandistic spin and "fake news" to increase his stature and diminish his rivals and enemies. There is the stuff of antique myths in a man compared to Prometheus and Icarus. Dwyer deftly deploys biblical metaphors in framing his portrait. Borrowing from Napoleon's own messianic musings, he writes of the exiled emperor sanctified as a martyr on the Golgotha of St Helena. After the passion and death, his posthumous return to France was no less than a resurrection, and his re-burial in Paris the preservation of holy relics. Lacking the necessary surveillance tools (tools that ASIO could have supplied, if asked), the police were so removed from events inside the cafe that in the critical minutes before the manager, Tori Johnson, was murdered, police in the forward command post mistakenly believed that the crisis was "de-escalating". A detailed plan for forcing entry to the cafe before Monis began shooting hostages was rejected by both assistant commissioners authorised to give the go-ahead. This decision "baffled" a British expert on armed policing who reviewed the case for the coroner. The assault, when it finally came, was botched, but Snow points the finger squarely at the senior executive for the multiple failings that led to the deaths of Johnson and another hostage, Katrina Dawson. Due to protocols stipulating that "only senior officers who had undergone counter-terrorism training could take direct command roles in the siege", neither Scipione nor Burn played an active role in the operation. Afterwards these two repeatedly stated that the protocols constrained them from giving any "advice, orders or guidance" to their subordinates throughout the attack. Snow notes that the pair largely stayed "aloof from the operational response". She reminds us that their lawyers fought tooth and nail to save them from giving evidence at the inquest, although both were eventually forced to appear. If the siege had ended well, both would doubtless have been on hand to share the success. But if neither the deputy commissioner with responsibility for counter-terrorism, nor her boss, was capable of contributing in any meaningful way to the resolution of one of the most deadly terror incidents in Australia's history, one is tempted to ask what use were they? Tom Gilling's latest book, The Lost Battalions, will be published by Allen & Unwin in September. FICTION The Nowhere Child Christian White Affirm Press, $32.99 Kim Leamy is approached by a stranger who believes her to be Sammy Went, an American girl who went missing when she was two. It sounds farfetched but the timeline adds up and a couple of details emerge that force the photography teacher to take the claim seriously. To complicate matters, her mother died a couple of years earlier so Kim, who must begin somewhere, starts by searching her childhood photos for clues. Christian White clearly knows what he is doing. With such a bold premise, it would be disappointing if the answer were straightforward, but The Nowhere Child is anything but, with chilling facts that continue to destabilise the narrative right until the end. To begin, it's a rainy Melbourne evening, a setting reminiscent of Shane Maloney's fiction, as Kim drives her Subaru through Coburg. Soon enough, her quest takes her to Kentucky, where she sees the life that Sammy Went was born into, and a family that makes Kim's Australian family seem uncomplicated. Sammy's mother belongs to the Church of the Light Within, an evangelical church where rattle snakes play a vital role in the service. Anna Wintour officially stuck a stiletto in the persistent rumour she'd be stepping down from Vogue this year. On Tuesday, Bob Sauerberg, CEO of Conde Nast, put months of chatter to rest. Anna Wintour officially stuck a stiletto in the persistent rumour she'd be stepping down from Vogue this year. Credit:Reuters "Anna Wintour is an incredibly talented and creative leader whose influence is beyond measure," he said in a statement to USA Today. "She is integral to the future of our company's transformation and has agreed to work with me indefinitely in her role as Vogue editor-in-chief and artistic director of Conde Nast." The Wintour rumour mill went into overdrive this week, with the fashion world speculating if this September's coveted cover (said to be Beyonce) would be the editor's swan song. Thursday, August 2, 2018 Illinois The pertinent portion of Illinois's postconviction DNA testing statute, 725 ILCS 5/116-3(b), provides in relevant part that: The defendant must present a prima facie case that: (1) identity was the issue in the trial of guilty plea which resulted in his or her conviction; and (2) the evidence to be tested has been subject to a chain of custody sufficient to establish that it has not been substituted, tampered with, replaced, or altered in any material aspect. So, where does that leave pleading defendants? As the language of the statute makes clear, pleading defendants can seek postconviction DNA testing in Illinois. But this wasn't always the case. Prior to 2014, pleading defendants in Illinois could not seek postconviction DNA testing. The Appellate Court of Illinois in People v. Urioste, finding that our legislature wanted postconviction forensic testing to occur only in those cases where such testing could discover new evidence at sharp odds with a previously rendered guilty verdict based upon criminal acts that the defendant denied having engaged in. Our legislature did not want convicted defendants who admitted at their trial to the commission of the acts charged, and did not contest the question of who committed those acts, to make a mockery of the criminal justice system and the statutes grace. It did not want defendants who tendered unsuccessful affirmative defenses at their trial to later disavow the commission of the acts charged, just so they could obtain postconviction testing of evidence meaningless to how they contested their guilt. In 2014, however, the Illinois legislature changed its law largely due to the case of Phillip McDowell, who "pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing an acquaintance in 1989 after he says courtroom deputies beat him and he feared he would be assaulted again when he was returned to Cook County Jail." -CM https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2018/08/illinois-the-pertinent-portion-of-illinoiss-postconviction-dna-testing-statute-725-ilcs-5116-3b-provides-in-relevant-pa.html It's hard to believe Bison, that much-loved line of ceramics that was born from the imagination of Brian Tunks and fired first in the kilns of Pialligo, is celebrating its 21st birthday this year. Not least because Tunks seems not to have aged a day. Still, it is the big 21 and Tunks is celebrating the best way he knows how - by continuing to innovate and explore. Brian Tunks is celebrating Bison's 21st birthday this year. On Friday, he is launching the new Brian Tunks glass collection at the Bison stores in Pialligo and Braddon. Dry July has taken on a new meaning in the ACT this year, as the territory continues to battle extreme conditions. Data from the Bureau of Meteorology's weather station at Canberra Airport shows that the ACT endured its driest July since 1982, with just 7.8 millimetres of rain recorded. Lanyon farmer Andrew Geikie, who says a dry spring would mean "everyone's in the poo". Credit:Karleen Minney It was the sixth lowest total on record for July at Canberra Airport, and the worst since the record low of 3.8 millimetres in 1982. The long-term average is 40.9 millimetres, meaning last month's total was just 19 per cent of the usual rainfall levels. A rag tag group of alleged drug dealers in Canberras clubs and bars were hauled into court on Thursday and charged with trafficking ecstasy and cocaine. The three men and one woman - a chef, an EL1 public servant, a real estate agent and a paramedic student - were snared in the police sting in Civic over the last few months, court documents allege, unwittingly selling the drugs to undercover police officers. On Wednesday, police raided their homes across Canberra and Queanbeyan, seizing 1000 pills believed to be ecstasy, cocaine and $5000 in cash. But the sting started months before Wednesday. About 8pm on May 18 this year, a group of undercover police officers hit the town, with the purpose of buying drugs from "unknown persons", the documents say. About an hour later in Hopscotch in Braddon, one officer allegedly approached a man named Nicholas Ronald Adamopoulos, 32, later referred to as Greek Nick, and arranged to buy drugs off him. An alleged international drug trafficker from the Canberra region has failed in his bid for bail after an application which detailed extraordinary claims of being taken on a sightseeing tour of Paris, while being extradited back to Australia under federal police escort. Rohan Arnold, 43, has been charged with five counts of importing a commercial quantity of drugs, after he allegedly used overseas business links to import more than 1.2 tonnes of cocaine, the second largest cocaine seizure in Australian history. Rohan Arnold Credit:radfordcollegians.com.au The stockyard director and steel importer was one of three men arrested in January this year, following the discovery of the cocaine, hidden inside hollow prefabricated steel on a Chinese container boat in Sydney last April. Police estimate the 2576 individual blocks of cocaine had a street value of half a billion dollars. As an ex-policeman, cyber expert Nigel Phair knows a thing or two about fingerprinting a crime scene. But, while the forensics lab at the University of New South Wales' new cyber security centre in Canberra might look different to his old AFP headquarters, people still leave plenty of evidence behind online. Director of UNSW Canberra's Cyber Centre Nigel Phair says governments and organisations should be more transparent when they are breached Credit:Dion Georgopoulos "They leave footprints all over the place," Mr Phair says. "Everything we do is online, on our phones, tapping on and off, it leaves us open [to attack]...but criminals leave them as well." A grandmother of 23 died and her husband suffered smoke inhalation after a house fire in Sydney's east on Thursday morning. Emergency services were called about 6.20am to Carrington Road at Waverley, where they found a semi-detached house alight. The first fire crews arrived to find thick smoke billowing from the rear of the house, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said. The semi-detached house was well engulfed in fire, the spokesman said, and first responders quickly called for back-up. A Brisbane primary school has urged parents to keep their children home on Friday morning in the wake of an "extraordinary" influenza outbreak. Middle Park State School, an independent public school in the south-west of Brisbane, sent a letter to parents explaining the school had been struck by a host of influenza cases, forcing them to effectively close the school on Friday. Middle Park State School has asked parents to keep children home on Friday. Credit:Google Street View A letter sent to parents by principal Ann Kitchin said on Thursday 182 children and 15 staff were absent with influenza A and B cases. "In response to the situation we will have a cleaning team here to run additional shifts," the letter said. A 22-year-old man had died after being hit by a car while crossing Gympie Road in Chermside. Police said the accident occurred at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon with the man crossing the northbound lanes when he was hit. The man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital but passed away on Wednesday night. On Monday, in an unrelated incident, a male pedestrian was taken to hospital with serious back injuries after being hit by a car in the Brisbane CBD. Brisbane City Council on Tuesday announced a city-wide pedestrian safety review, inviting all road users to contribute information about traffic and pedestrian accidents. A top Queensland family law specialist and academic has launched a scathing attack on Queensland Police and called on the Premier to launch an urgent inquiry into polices treatment of domestic violence victims, following Fairfax Medias revelations that a woman and her children were tracked down by her violent ex-husband with help from a police officer. Jennifer Hetherington said the revelations were a scandal that evoked the spectre of a secret culture within the QPS and undermined state government measures to combat domestic violence. Pressure is building on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to launch an inquiry into the QPS' treatment of DV victims. Credit:Glenn Hunt/AAP These revelations show police attitudes toward domestic violence complainants are nothing short of disgusting, Ms Hetherington said. Our police are supposed to be the frontline of protection for domestic violence victims, while the state government is spending more than $320 million over six years on domestic violence measures. A woman was cut with a knife after she bit an intruder she found in the kitchen of her workplace in Brisbanes east. Police are investigating the incident that occurred about 5.45pm on Wednesday evening at a business on Breene Place at Morningside. Queensland Police are investigating a burglary in Morningside and an armed robbery in Fortitude Valley. Credit:Police media. The 37-year-old woman who worked at the business disturbed a man who had entered the premises and was taking items from a meeting room on the lower level. When the woman went into the kitchen the intruder grabbed her from behind and a struggle started. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 442477 08-02-2018 03:56 PM Post: #1 Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car Advertisement Chloe Wright, a 25-year-old Massachusetts woman, was driving in Hyannis when she came across a vehicle displaying a pro-President Donald Trump bumper sticker. Wright then became so incensed at the sticker, she plowed her vehicle into it, according to local media and police reports. Thats right; she drove her car into the vehicle that sported the pro-Trump sticker. And then she allegedly fled, police said. As Fox News wrote: The man she hit reportedly contacted the Barnstable Police Department and recalled hearing a motorist behind him honking their car horn as he waited at a red light. According to the police report, the honking continued and by the time he reached another red light, the motorist started shouting at him. The guy got out, thinking the other motorist was honking in order to alert him to something wrong with his vehicle some smoke, say, or a flat tire. And then came the madness. The woman apparently started shouting, You voted for Trump? I said yes, the man told police. She called me a racist and several other names. It was at that point the woman smashed her car into his, and fled the scene, the Cape Cod Times reported. She bent my door and I had to lean back to avoid getting hit, he said. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201...t-anti-tr/ This is how crazy the left has become.Chloe Wright, a 25-year-old Massachusetts woman, was driving in Hyannis when she came across a vehicle displaying a pro-President Donald Trump bumper sticker.Wright then became so incensed at the sticker, she plowed her vehicle into it, according to local media and police reports.Thats right; she drove her car into the vehicle that sported the pro-Trump sticker. And then she allegedly fled, police said.As Fox News wrote: The man she hit reportedly contacted the Barnstable Police Department and recalled hearing a motorist behind him honking their car horn as he waited at a red light. According to the police report, the honking continued and by the time he reached another red light, the motorist started shouting at him.The guy got out, thinking the other motorist was honking in order to alert him to something wrong with his vehicle some smoke, say, or a flat tire. And then came the madness.The woman apparently started shouting, You voted for Trump?I said yes, the man told police. She called me a racist and several other names.It was at that point the woman smashed her car into his, and fled the scene, the Cape Cod Times reported.She bent my door and I had to lean back to avoid getting hit, he said. Damrod lop guest User ID: 449797 08-02-2018 04:56 PM Post: #2 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car Deranged Let them keep it up It assures the democrats will never take control of congress again No one votes for crazies 1110.00) lop guest User ID: 198896 08-02-2018 05:00 PM Post: #3 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car Good thing I can't bring myself to promote Trump anyway. I might have to slug it out with a political perp. Spiddy Registered User User ID: 394916 08-02-2018 05:01 PM Posts: 18,541 Post: #4 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car Do they go to rallies? Cars can be pro Trump now?Do they go to rallies? As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken 1920. (This post was last modified: 08-02-2018 05:02 PM by Spiddy .) LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 441631 08-02-2018 05:05 PM Post: #5 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car There's a reason they call them Mass-holes. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453005 08-03-2018 03:13 AM Post: #6 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car sarah jeong - approves this message! LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454437 08-03-2018 04:00 AM Post: #7 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car Good grief how many laws did she break? 1. Disturbing the peace 2. Harassment 3. Stalking 4. Verbal assault 5. Defamation of character 6. Assault with a deadly weapon 7. Damage to property 8. Fleeing the scene of an accident/violent assault . nobody special nli lop guest User ID: 309375 08-03-2018 04:53 AM Post: #8 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car False flag. Loud Sneeze lop guest User ID: 177215 08-03-2018 05:16 AM Post: #9 RE: Democrat Massachusetts madwoman arrested for plowing into pro-Trump car #DriveAway i hope hee life is ruined now. Forever ruined. Spirals into ooverty and alcoholism. It's what i am hoping for her. Samantha Fraser's ex-husband Adrian Basham has been charged with her murder, after her body was found in Cowes last week. Mr Basham, 41, from Paynesville, was arrested on Thursday morning and interviewed by police. Samantha Fraser He has been charged with one count of murder and will appear at Bairnsdale Magistrates Court on Thursday. The mother of three was found dead at her home in the seaside town on Phillip Island on Monday, July 23 after she did not pick up her two sons and daughter from the local primary school. Borce Ristevski has been committed to stand trial for murder over the death of his wife Karen and has formally pleaded not guilty. In the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday, magistrate Suzanne Cameron found there was sufficient evidence that a jury could convict the 54-year-old of murdering his wife on the morning of June 29, 2016. Prosecutors allege Mr Ristevski intended to kill his wife of 27 years, and then drove her body in her black Mercedes-Benz to Mount Macedon Regional Park, where her remains were found eight months after her disappearance. The cause of her death was not determined. A toddler has died after her face was mauled by her family's pet dog in Gippsland on Thursday morning. An air ambulance was on stand-by as paramedics fought to save the 14-month-old girl, but she died at the scene. Emergency services were called to a home in Neerim Junction, about 110 kilometres east of Melbourne and 30 kilometres north of Warragul, just before 6.30am on Thursday. Police believe the girl was bitten on the face by the family's German wirehaired pointer. Her mother tried to stop the dog from attacking her child and was injured herself. A man caught on CCTV acting suspiciously outside Samantha Fraser's Cowes home on the morning she was found dead is most likely her killer, police say. In the vision, a man is seen walking towards, and then running away from, Ms Fraser's Seagrove Way property between 9am and 12.02pm on the day she was found dead. Detective Inspector Tim Day said he felt "very confident" the man was the 38-year-old's killer. He said the man in the footage had not been identified, but "one of the hypotheses we're looking at" was that the man was Adrian Basham, Ms Fraser's ex-husband. Ms Ahmad's parents Naseer and Ambreen who are aged in their 60s - had plans to retire in several years. But they now have no option but to help bathe, feed and dress their once vibrant daughter who is expected to never walk again. These are just some of the comments they made in a powerful four page victim impact statement, which has been provided by them to WAtoday. The heartbreaking statement was read in court by the distraught parents via audio link several weeks ago. A large section of their statement can be read below. A portion of the victim impact statement written by the parents of Mehreen Ahmad. Credit:Ahmad family In court on Thursday Justice Bruno Fianacca said Filho's actions on the night were brutal and an "unprovoked act of violence." "The harm you caused Ms Ahmad was profound," he said. "It is difficult to escape the conclusion ... it was vicious and hateful. "Your behaviour in fleeing the scene was cowardly and callous." Justice Fianacca accepted Filho was remorseful, although he had also at the same time shown a "diminished responsibility". The court heard Filho and Ms Ahmad had known each other for several weeks prior and were attending the same party on the 13th floor of the apartment block. They left the party to get cigarettes late in the night, but as they returned to the apartment they took a wrong turn as they exited the lift. That wrong turn took them down a hallway and towards a fire door exit, leading to the stairwell. Filho had claimed Ms Ahmad noticed she was bleeding around her mouth and lip and became distressed in the hallway. At that point Filho said he put his hand over her mouth in an attempt to stop her screams. But Justice Fianacca said he did not accept some of Filho's version of events of the night in question, in particular that Ms Ahmad became distressed because she was bleeding. He said medical records did not show Ms Ahmad was ever bleeding from the mouth and there was no blood from her in the apartment hallway. "I consider that scenario to be inconsistent," Justice Fianacca said. "Some of the account you have provided is difficult to reconcile." During the confrontation between the pair Ms Ahmad fell backwards through the fire door, causing her to kick and slap Filho who continued to put his hand over her mouth. It was at this point he struck her head into the concrete floor. Ms Ahmad continued to scream and tried to move away. She fell head-first down a flight of stairs and, as Filho tried to pick her up, she fell down a second flight of stairs. Filho fled after he was disturbed by witnesses. He did not call for help and caught a taxi home. The witnesses who found Ms Ahmad on her stomach in a pool of blood called emergency services. Filho was arrested several hours later. He still had dried blood on his arms and shoes. This photo shows the crime scene where Ms Ahmad was assaulted. Credit:WA Supreme Court Justice Fianacca said he believed something had occurred in the hallway on the night for Ms Ahmad to become "distressed" and "fearful." "(But) the cause of the confrontation is simply not known," he noted. What is known, he said, is that the confrontation and the ensuing struggle in the stairwell had "substantial" and "catastrophic" consequences. Ms Ahmad was placed in an induced coma and spent two months and 24 days at Royal Perth Hospital. She was later flown to the Moss Brian Injury Rehabilitation Centre in the USA - one of the leading brain injury facilities in the world. Despite the very best of medical treatment at RPH and in the USA, she still requires 24 hour nursing care in her native Pakistan. The court heard Filho, who is the eldest of three brothers, presented a low-to-moderate risk of reoffending. Most people are presented with a choice in their 20s: sharpen up and get their life together, or let the good times keep rolling. Frenchman Eric Massiet du Biest, 55, chose option B. And after 30 years, six world tours and 35 trans-continental expeditions across more than 90 countries on motorbikes and in classic cars, it's safe to say he has no regrets. A vintage Citroen in a past Tracbar rally. Massiet du Biest is in Perth readying for his next adventure, the Tracbar Dundee, which will see his family join 11 other French families in an epic cross-country journey from Fremantle Esplanade to Brisbane via Uluru in their vintage Citroen Traction Avant automobiles. Each Citroen is between 60 and 80 years old and has been brought here by boat from France to face some unforgiving terrain in Australia's unsealed outback. The wins keep pouring in for Western Australia from the best in the wine world, and they don't get more prestigious than an accolade from James Halliday. After several years of dominating the national major wine show circuit, WA has now scooped two of the six major awards at the Halliday Wine Companion Awards 2019 in Melbourne on Wednesday night. While the drums have been beating louder each year about Margaret River's wine pedigree, Halliday has shone the spotlight firmly on the other region that often rides backseat in the west the Great Southern, with a riesling grown there by a quiet couple looking to retire rated Australia's best. After an exhaustive and comprehensive tasting of 9289 wines over four months, Halliday (and six other leading Aussie wine critics) gave Porongurup-based Dukes Vineyard the coveted honour of Wine of the Year for its 2017 Magpie Hill Reserve Riesling, rated 99 points. Labor frontbencher Jason Clare has categorically rejected an allegation that he was the target of sexually provocative behaviour by backbencher Emma Husar, who is currently under investigation by NSW Labor head office. Emma Husar and Jason Clare in June 2016. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Ms Husar, who has been on personal leave since allegations about inappropriate behaviour first surfaced last month, has flatly denied the latest reports, which she describes as "absolute lies" that have been "fabricated" by a former staffer. The allegation about Ms Husar and Mr Clare is among several detailed complaints which BuzzFeed says are contained in a letter written to Ms Husar by lawyer John Whelan. Security agency ASIO has confirmed it has started seeing a drop in the number of Australian youngsters pursuing violent Islamist extremism. The agency has told a hearing in Canberra that the number of children and teens being drawn to jihad on the wave of the so-called Islamic States previous success in the Middle East has passed its peak, though it warns Islamist terrorism remains a significant threat. And it has warned of a rise in extreme right-wing ideology that may be attracting young people in a similar way to Islamist radicalism. ASIOs acting head Heather Cook made the revelations during a hearing of the national security legislation watchdog in Canberra, which is reviewing laws on the trials and sentencing of children on terrorist offences. The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor, James Renwick, SC, flagged the need to carve out exceptions for children in tough mandatory sentencing laws for terrorism cases. Inner-city centres on the east coast have amassed the greatest share of Australia's new public service jobs under the Coalition government as outer suburbs, bush towns and Canberra took cuts to their ranks of bureaucrats. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane's CBDs have grown their proportion of the nation's federal public service employment since the change of government in 2013 that brought on downsizing for the bureaucracy elsewhere. Canberra bore most of the Coalition's efforts to slash the public service, losing 6700 jobs in four years, Public Service Commission data shows. Inner Sydney gained 2000 public servants, while inner Brisbane (1300) and inner Melbourne (850) also emerged as job winners since the Coalition took power. 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The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ The state government will continue to rely on the supermarkets to ban plastic bags despite the flip-flopping from Coles, which had to bow to pressure and will start charging for bags later this month. NSW is the only state in Australia to not ban plastic bags but the government will not move to phase out bags following a self-imposed "ban on bans" in late 2016. Former premier Mike Baird demanded an end to "nanny state bans" after a humiliating reversal on his government's plan to kill the greyhound racing industry in the state. Coles was forced into another backflip on Thursday and committed to charging 15 for bags from August 29 after the supermarket chain angered environmentalists by saying it would give bags away for free indefinitely while customers got used to bringing their own. An incident dated in February said: [Redacted] official [redacted] stated that I was "f---ing useless". One page said: "[Redacted] organiser [redacted] was swearing at and abusing [redacted] in front of approximately eight staff. He then turned to Inspector [redacted] pointing his finger at [redacted] and said words to the effect of I am putting you on notice for letting this happen. This was a threatening and intimidating experience." Heavily redacted documents obtained by the LNP through a Right to Information request detailed allegations of incidents of swearing, verbal abuse and intimidating behaviour. Office of Industrial Relations deputy director-general Simon Blackwood said there had been some complaints from inspectors "about interactions in workplaces". "As a consequence of that, recently, we have our health and wellbeing committee, and at the moment we're finalising a work-related violence policy guidelines and fact sheet," he said. "This has been an ongoing issue for us for many years - we do get the odd complaint where inspectors in their interactions with workplaces, whether they're interacting with employers and other industrial organisations, will receive some abuse from time to time." Mr Blackwood said the office received complaints from inspectors but previously did not have a formal process. "We've recognised as a result of discussions with our workforce that we need to put in place a formal process so that if people are making complaints within our organisation that they are acted on by our management," he said. Melbourne City Council has proposed building almost 300 new car parking spots at the Queen Victoria Market, weeks after signalling that the central city was vastly oversupplied with places to park. Listening to what the traders and the shoppers want is a really important part of the future viability and vibrancy of the market, lord mayor Sally Capp said. The council wants more parking spots for the Queen Victoria Market. Credit:Paul Jeffers But an RMIT academic who was recently commissioned by the council to study its parking needs said the market's car parks were mostly "half empty" and claimed Cr Capps position was open pandering to traders. Cr Capp said more parking was needed to keep people coming to the market. Today digital platforms, especially Facebook, Twitter and Google, are the new way that two-thirds of Americans get their news. Their algorithms exert considerable control over what we see and when we see it. But given the opacity of those companies' tools, we've got to take them at their word that their algorithms work the way they say they do and that they're applying their terms of service fairly. The black box nature of these companies leaves them especially vulnerable to conspiracy mongering: Where information is scarce, speculation becomes that much more powerful, an inclination that Republicans have learned to exploit. All waged their own war with the media: Ronald Reagan leans in to talk with Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater (with glasses), the 1964 Republican presidential candidate. The interrelationship between humans and algorithms is more nuanced than it might appear: People make the algorithms that then govern what you see in your feeds. Terms of service are confusing, too, with moderators sweeping in after content is already posted. Platforms have the built-in biases of their creators and moderators -- meaning that if the assumptions coded into the news feed change, so does your news feed. This is an opportunity for Republicans, then, to push the needle of these companies to favour or to promote their content, with every error that seems to undermine Republicans seized upon as proof of a platform's liberal bias. And we know what happens when the "play the ref" argument works because it's had such powerful effects on mainstream journalism. News organisations were the black boxes of the pre-digital era, making news decisions about what to cover and how to cover it with little transparency or explanation. Republicans were able to exploit this to their advantage in their flame-throwing about liberal media (even if they privately admitted their coverage was balanced). The strategy had a significant, discernible impact. As early as 1999, a team of researchers found that the continued Republican refrain of liberal bias in the news media was actually affecting the public at large -- and in fact was prompting non-GOP partisans to believe the media was liberal, too. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Credit:AP Research suggests that major news organisations show the propensity to overcompensate for perceived liberal agendas and in fact can be harder on Democrats than on Republicans. We can see how well playing the ref works from coverage patterns of the 2016 election. According to Harvard's Shorenstein Center, The Washington Post was an outlier in its negative coverage of Hillary Clinton and may well have overcorrected for the presumption that it is liberal -- 77 per cent of this paper's coverage of Clinton was negative, compared with 81 per cent of Fox's coverage. Overall, the report notes that Clinton had more negative coverage than Trump across a sample of nine leading news outlets. Where major news organisations were once gatekeepers, though, they've largely ceded that power to platforms, thanks to what the Pew Research Centre calls the "packaging and delivery" of news through Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple News and their ilk. In this climate, Republicans are operating at an advantage as they learn to adapt their existing strategies to our new era: Republicans had to steadily work over decades to get most Americans to think the media has a liberal bias, but people already think platforms can't be trusted for news. Loading It also helps Republicans that there is some solid evidence that these companies don't like them much, from the ostensibly liberal views of their founders to Gizmodo's blockbuster scoop in May 2016 that human content moderators for Facebook's trending section routinely suppressed conservative content on the platform's trending news offerings. And by August 2016, in the words of a Guardian headline, "Facebook fires trending team, and algorithm without humans goes crazy." The algorithmically selected top news foreshadowed the looming fake-news panic and low-value content we have become all too familiar with -- a fake story about Megyn Kelly and a "controversial piece about a comedian's four-letter word attack on right wing pundit Ann Coulter" topped the charts, according to the Guardian. It's a bit much to argue that Republicans got content moderators fired, thus leading to the fake-news panic of the election. But in an attempt to curry favour with Republicans, in recent visits to the Hill, both Facebook and Twitter have bent over backward to claim that their terms of service and the algorithms that surface content are nonpartisan. In fact, Zuckerberg apologised to Republicans for the platform mislabeling a pair of conservative vloggers as "unsafe." Congressional testimony from Twitter acknowledged that "we do not always get things right" and committed "to being direct and engaged with our users and the public including elected officials when we get things wrong." Loading You can hear the strategy working. Dorsey is already talking about making Twitter's policies clearer with the goal to "earn people's trust on how we work" -- but it is Republicans forcing the company to explain itself. Claims of platform bias against conservatives may even proliferate into popular beliefs about the platform, too. Just as more people believe that the mainstream media has a liberal bias and take this into account when consuming and processing news, if people come to think that platforms, too, have liberal biases, there may well be sweeping public effects. Washington: It appears Russia probe Special Counsel Robert Mueller is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to US President Donald Trump in an interview, in an effort to convince Trump's lawyers about a presidential sit-down, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. The latest proposal by the special counsel comes after a long stand-off and as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and on Mueller personally. Mueller has been seeking to question the President as part of his probe into Russia interference in the 2016 campaign, which is also examining whether Trump has sought to block that probe. In a letter sent on Monday, Mueller's team suggested that investigators would reduce the number of questions about potential obstruction of justice they would ask in person and instead seek some answers in written form, according to one person. Latest News Sydney property is pitting investors v first home buyers: and FHBs are winning Wealthy investors are being pushed out in key areas as supply problems lead to local bidders crowding listings Bizcap expands into NZ broker market Major expansion for commercial broker favourite One of Australias big four banks has bucked the trend for out of cycle rate hikes, slashing some of its home loan products by as much as 34 basis points. ANZ, Australias third largest lender, has responded to market competition by cutting owner-occupier principal and interest (P&I) rates on its basic home loan, pushing the rate down by 34 basis points to 3.65%. The move makes it the lowest ongoing variable rate offered by a big four bank. The bank has also cut some of its fixed home loan rates by up to 24 basis points for owner-occupier P&I loans, and up to 13 basis points for investor P&I loans. Calling the announcement a surprising move, Sally Tindall, research director at RateCity.com.au said, This is a big win for consumers because one of the big four banks is now playing at the pointy end of the home loan market. Its a huge move from ANZ which now offers the lowest ongoing variable rate from one of the majors. It shows the bank is competing hard to get new customers as non-banks threaten their market share. This comes at a time when the market was expecting ANZ to hike rates and not cut them and the royal commission has turned the playing field on its head, she added. Further data compiled by RateCity show the lowest ongoing advertised variable home loan rates among the big four now range from 3.69% to 4.34%. NABs base variable rate home loan (P&I) currently stands at 3.69%, while Commonwealth Banks base variable home loan (P&I) stands at 3.99%. In contrast, Westpacs premier advantage package rocket repay home loan (P&I) is currently at 4.34%. Related stories: Interest rate split in NSW and QLD Second lender offers drought support Almost half of customers distrust big 4 Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC This party gets a rave review! A travelling Caribbean dance party will make its Brooklyn debut this weekend. The West Indian Rave Tour, in Prospect Heights on Aug. 11, combines elements of island Carnival culture with the thumpa-thumpa glow stick style of rave parties. The events founder said he created the party when he realized that the endless parties of his college years needed some of the soul of his Caribbean heritage. We wanted to take the positives of raving and combine that with Caribbean carnival culture, which is about freedom, being carefree, and enjoyment, said Jeron Smart. People go to raves to go and feel release, and we want people to feel that and come to vibe and rave with that energy and excitement. Smart, a Washington, D.C. native, was also inspired by a visit to Brooklyns West Indian Labor Day parade, where his concept of Caribbean music expanded beyond the reggae and soca music he was used to. After I came from the Labor Day parade, I saw how much bigger and different Caribbean culture here was, he said. I had been in New York many times but I never really paid attention to the different types of music played there, and then I discovered Kompa. Smart was compelled to spread the word about the Haitian music style, he said. He rebranded his rave parties, adding music styles from across the entire Caribbean, he said. When you go to New York, theres parties that play zouk, kompa, salsa, and merengue, he said. Theres a lot of different islands that have their own music and own cultures. We wanted the event to showcase the beauty of every islands music, especially the ones in French, Dutch, or Spanish. At the party on Aug. 11, guests will receive glow sticks and glowing necklaces, and can choose to have glowing makeup applied by artists. The event will also serve food from various islands, with a focus on offerings from Grenada, Haiti, Cuba, and Barbados. The mixture of cultures and the food should be a major draw for people, he said. People should attend not only to see the perfect marriage of Caribbean carnival and rave, but the food is going to be amazing and its going to make you come back, he said. WI Rave Tour at PacificBK [1065 Pacific St. between Classon and Franklin avenues in Prospect Heights, (347) 6327578, www.wirav etour.com ]. Aug. 11 at 10 pm. $30$40 ($100 VIP). Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC The pioneering Brooklyn arts purveyor named a new president last week to take the helm amid its 40th anniversary serving the local community. BRIC tapped Kristina Newman-Scott to take over for its outgoing president of 13 years, Leslie Griesbach Schultz, next month. Newman-Scott will become the first person of color to lead the Fort Greene arts and media organization, which produces cultural and educational television series and documentaries, hosts concerts, and curates art shows. The mother of two moved from her native Jamaica as a teen and has since worked as an artist creating paintings and installations, before becoming a curator often working with artists and studios in Brooklyn then as an arts administrator, director, and most recently the Director of Culture and State Historic Preservation Officer for the State of Connecticut, in which she was also the first immigrant and woman of color to take on that role. Newman-Scott begins her new gig on Sept. 4, when she will join just a handful of other women of color overseeing large cultural institutions in New York, according to the New York Times. Julianne Cuba: Welcome to Brooklyn and to BRIC! What are you looking forward to in your new position? Kristina Newman-Scott: Do you have four days? I feel really great and extremely excited about this position. Im really excited about all of it. Im excited that all of these avenues are able to reach people and touch people with the work were doing. Im ready to jump into a position that allows me to tap into experiences and leaderships roles Ive played throughout my careers. JC: How have your past jobs prepared you for this one? KNS: Ive really been fortunate to have the opportunity to grow within the arts, with very distinct experiences. Working in government in the arts for the last seven-and-a-half-years both gives me an opportunity to translate some of what Ive learned the role the arts plays in community, economic development, and alongside community leaders. Ill be coming in and really thinking holistically about our curators vision and strategy, how we do what we do, how its all interconnected. JC: What will your first few days on the job look like? What do you hope to accomplish? KNS: All I really want to tackle on the first day and first few months is truly understand the people that work at BRIC, the people on the front lines of the work our education programs, or celebrate Brooklyn, or BRIC TV better understand all the people that work at BRIC no matter what role they play, to better understand the organization. Im committed to how we can do things better, things were doing fantastic already, and better serve the people who enjoy. JC: What do you hope to change or expand upon what your predecessor created? KNS: The previous president has done a phenomenal job. Im walking into a very fantastic and healthy organization. I want to continue to be relevant and inclusive, how we get from inside to outside, making sure we reach a child and all the way to their grandparents. JC: What does it mean to you to be the first person, and first woman, of color to lead this trailblazing organization, and how will it shape the way you approach the job? KNS: That means so much in so many different ways. Im just really excited to be in this role at this time and this moment. I will continue to think about diverse voices at the table, the LGBTQ community, gender neutral, disabled people I think about that as a way of working and living everyday, an extension of who I am. JC: What else are you looking forward to at BRIC? KNS: Im extremely excited to start living in Brooklyn. I would be lying if I said this wasnt a big change for my family. And earlier in my career, Ive been really blessed to work with amazing artists across the nation so many artists that live in Brooklyn Im so excited to reconnect. Im very excited to work with the board at BRIC, they are some phenomenal people. Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 7 Vote(s) - 3.29 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 12 South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Self Imposed lop guest User ID: 450676 08-02-2018 10:37 PM Post: #1 South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Advertisement South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized! THERE will be huge food shortages and riots on the streets following plans to seize white South African farmers land, it has been warned. Experts have said the country will face dire consequences if plans to alter the countrys constitution are pushed through. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-n...-ramaphosa Some people have to learn the hard way.South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized!THERE will be huge food shortages and riots on the streets following plans to seize white South African farmers land, it has been warned.Experts have said the country will face dire consequences if plans to alter the countrys constitution are pushed through. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450432 08-02-2018 10:40 PM Post: #2 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Only people who don't understand the value of freedom will be confused as to why this is happening. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454128 08-02-2018 10:45 PM Post: #3 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Some people just have to learn the hard way.. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 355783 08-02-2018 10:47 PM Post: #4 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized looks like south africa is on par to be more like the rest of africa LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 310110 08-02-2018 10:47 PM Post: #5 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Starving > apartheid LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454384 08-02-2018 10:52 PM Post: #6 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized and then nothing happened because no one gives a sh*t the land was never theirs in the first place. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 453803 08-02-2018 11:00 PM Post: #7 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized LoP Guest Wrote: (08-02-2018 10:40 PM) Only people who don't understand the value of freedom will be confused as to why this is happening. Only people who don't know how to provide for themselves will starve. Only people who don't know how to provide for themselves will starve. 1110.00) lop guest User ID: 198896 08-02-2018 11:14 PM Post: #8 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Sounds like another rehearsal operation for what will be happening in the United States at some point in the future. Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 441875 08-02-2018 11:17 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #9 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized At least white farmers have a way out. Russia has offered them prime agricultural land and farm equipment if they will emigrate to Russia. Hopefully they can make it out before the black South Africans kill them. The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza Spiddy Registered User User ID: 394916 08-02-2018 11:36 PM Posts: 18,541 Post: #10 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Lol. The numbers here are insane. You can google them if you want. 9% of South Africans are white but they own 72% of the farmland. Imagine if 72% of American farms were owned by Muslims. Y'all would be screaming land reform as a matter of urgency. Incidentally SA governments have been consistently elected on their promises of land reform since the fall of apart-hate. Looks like finally the government is finally honouring its promises. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken 1920. (This post was last modified: 08-02-2018 11:37 PM by Spiddy .) Flic Vange Registered User User ID: 400136 08-02-2018 11:37 PM Posts: 1,778 Post: #11 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Good let them all starve!!! Voltaire: I detest your views but I would give my life to protect your rights to express them. https://globalcrypto.exchange/i/R0NYMTYxMDUyMDY0OQ== Bitcoin-bc1qq9r87uasrxv59hz92zy9t47r96aezdfuqnujfx Bitcoin-bc1qq9r87uasrxv59hz92zy9t47r96aezdfuqnujfx LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 454396 08-02-2018 11:39 PM Post: #12 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Spiddy Wrote: (08-02-2018 11:36 PM) Lol. The numbers here are insane. You can google them if you want. 9% of South Africans are white but they own 72% of the farmland. Imagine if 72% of American farms were owned by Muslims. Y'all would be screaming land reform as a matter of urgency. Incidentally SA governments have been consistently elected on their promises of land reform since the fall of apart-hate. Looks like finally the government is finally honouring its promises. Willing seller / willing buyer have been in effect for quite some time. You know. Basic respect for private property and no authoritarian force involved. But that isnt good enough for the regressives. White skin is the new black hat. Willing seller / willing buyer have been in effect for quite some time.You know. Basic respect for private property and no authoritarian force involved.But that isnt good enough for the regressives.White skin is the new black hat. Spiddy Registered User User ID: 394916 08-02-2018 11:39 PM Posts: 18,541 Post: #13 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Natura Naturans Wrote: (08-02-2018 11:17 PM) At least white farmers have a way out. Russia has offered them prime agricultural land and farm equipment if they will emigrate to Russia. Hopefully they can make it out before the black South Africans kill them. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken 1920. Spiddy Registered User User ID: 394916 08-02-2018 11:44 PM Posts: 18,541 Post: #14 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized LoP Guest Wrote: (08-02-2018 11:39 PM) Spiddy Wrote: (08-02-2018 11:36 PM) Lol. The numbers here are insane. You can google them if you want. 9% of South Africans are white but they own 72% of the farmland. Imagine if 72% of American farms were owned by Muslims. Y'all would be screaming land reform as a matter of urgency. Incidentally SA governments have been consistently elected on their promises of land reform since the fall of apart-hate. Looks like finally the government is finally honouring its promises. Willing seller / willing buyer have been in effect for quite some time. You know. Basic respect for private property and no authoritarian force involved. But that isnt good enough for the regressives. White skin is the new black hat. As a liberal I believe immigrants and their offspring should have the same rights as everybody else. Nice to see that I'm not alone in that opinion. That said WTF does a farmer do for a living once he's sold his farm? It's quite possible that 'willing seller/willing buyer' will take centuries to equalise the disparity in land ownership. As a liberal I believe immigrants and their offspring should have the same rights as everybody else.Nice to see that I'm not alone in that opinion.That said WTF does a farmer do for a living once he's sold his farm?It's quite possible that 'willing seller/willing buyer' will take centuries to equalise the disparity in land ownership. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken 1920. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 450531 08-03-2018 12:04 AM Post: #15 RE: South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized Self Imposed Wrote: (08-02-2018 10:37 PM) Some people have to learn the hard way. South Africa facing 'mass starvation and riots' after white people's land seized! THERE will be huge food shortages and riots on the streets following plans to seize white South African farmers land, it has been warned. Experts have said the country will face dire consequences if plans to alter the countrys constitution are pushed through. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-n...-ramaphosa There WILL be an abundance of MANDRAX available though, Rohipnol to you yanks. They love that sh*t there. There WILL be an abundance of MANDRAX available though, Rohipnol to you yanks.They love that sh*t there. Advertisement Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor IT firm on Thursday said its board will meet on August 7 to consider a proposal for of equity of the company. "...the Board of Directors of the company, at its meeting scheduled to be held on...7 August 2018, at Bengaluru, would inter-alia be considering a proposal for buy-back of the equity of the company...," said in a regulatory filing. It, however, did not give out the details of the The intimation to the about the came after hours. Last year, the company had completed buyback of 17.4 million with a total outlay of Rs 11.03 billion. IT have kept up the momentum on buybacks this year too. has announced a Rs 40 billion buyback plan, involving up to 36.3 milion shares at a price of Rs 1,100 per equity share. The largest software exporter TCS also announced a Rs 160 billion share buyback, second in as many years, as part of its long-term capital allocation policy of returning excess cash to the shareholders. The shares of closed 2.60 per cent lower on at Rs 1175.10 a piece. Toyota Philippines sold 1.5-million vehicles in 30 years posted August 02, 2018 at 09:35 pm by Othel V. Campos August 02, 2018 at 09:35 pm Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. invested a total of P58 billion and sold 1.5 million vehicles in the past 30 years. TMPC disclosed the important milestones during the companys 30th-anniversary celebration Wednesday night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bonifacio Global City. The company said it was looking at increasing sales to 180,000 units this year. Sales in the first half reached 73,146 units. TMPC vice president for marketing Jose Mari Atienza said the 2018 sales target would be achievable given the traditional surge in sales in the second half. Toyota maintained its industry leadership with about 38.2-percent market share as of end-June 2018. The dealership is estimated to expand to 70 across all regions from the current 67, including Lexus Manila Inc.The companys contribution to government revenues is estimated to have reached P13.6 billion since 1997. Autoparts exports also amounted to $23.6 billion since 1997. Procurement from local suppliers reached P182 billion. Toyota is supporting almost 200,000 employees comprising of office and production staff. Toyota Motor Corp. president Akio Toyoda presented the Japanese companys donation of 10 units of Innova and 20 units of Vios to President Rodrigo Duterte during the anniversary celebration. Toyoda said the donation affirmed the continued good relations of the company and the Philippine government. COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. The has passed a defence spending bill that seeks to amend an existing law to provide waivers to America's strategic partners like India from punitive sanctions against those doing business with Russia's defence industry. The Senate passed the conference report on the Defense Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver is intended at preventing on countries like India. New Delhi is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems from Russia for around $4.5 billion. Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide $716 billion support in funding for defence for financial year 2019. The bill, which now moves to the White House for President to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of the Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology. "The waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI. He said the legislative language of the bill is designed to look very tough as the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. "In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said. "The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said. At the same time, he cautioned that it was important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects. The legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment. "This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward-looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said. Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the waiver authority for strategic partners such as India. "By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting a serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI. The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority. Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining an once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said. Antiguan authorities have confirmed that Mehul Choksi, the alleged mastermind of the USD 2 billion scam and uncle of Nirav Modi, is in their country, officials here said today, adding that a move to extradite him will be initiated soon. The communication was received by the CBI in response to their queries seeking whereabouts of Choksi after news of his presence in Antigua surfaced. The CBI in its communication sent to Antiguan authorities last week cited a diffusion notice issued by against the fugitive businessman and sought details of his movement and his present location, the officials said. Choksi had taken the citizenship of Antigua in November 2017, and oath of allegiance on January 15 this year, the officials said. The officials said that after getting the confirmation, the agency is likely to move an extradition request through the External Affairs Ministry and may not wait for a Red Corner Notice as the application is still pending with The Citizenship by Investment unit of Antigua and Barbuda had told local newspapers that Choksi's citizenship application was granted after "robust due diligence" and "international investigation" by "reputable agencies", including the International Criminal Police Organisation and the CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS). The CBI, the nodal agency of for Interpol, said no information regarding background checks of Choksi was sought from it by the international agency. "The has not sought any information related to Choksi from the CBI in the last three-four years," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal had said. Under the Citizenship by Investment Program of Antigua and Barbuda, a person can take their passport on a minimum investment of USD one lakh in NDF investment fund. He escaped in the first week of January and took the oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15, they said, adding that the next day the scam blew up. Choksi's actions show that he had planned in advance his escape and subsequent life knowing that the scam would blow up after the retirement of PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty, who was helping him with renewal of letters of undertaking, the officials said. Choksi allegedly swindled Rs 7,080.86 crore, making it possibly the biggest banking scam in the country, the agency had said. An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant. Choksi and his companies allegedly availed credit from overseas branches of Indian using the fraudulent guarantees of PNB given through LoUs and letters of credit issued by the Brady House branch which were not repaid, bringing the liability on the state-run bank, the officials said. The White House has alleged that the media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools, while reiterating that it supports freedom of press. The comment came after a correspondent of a national news network was heckled at a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday. To a question on increasing attack on the media in the US, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday said, "We fully support a free press, but there also comes a high level of responsibility with that. The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools. This has happened both in our administration and in past administrations." "One of the worst cases was the reporting on the US ability to listen to Osama bin Laden's satellite phone in the late '90s. Because of that reporting, he stopped using that phone and the country lost valuable intelligence," she told reporters at her daily news conference. "Unfortunately, it's now standard to abandon common sense and ethical practices. This is a two-way street. We certainly support a free press, we certainly condemn violence against anybody, but we also ask that people act responsibly and report accurately and fairly," Sanders said. The president does not support violence against anyone and or anything, she said. "The president condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual, and certainly doesn't support groups that would promote that type of behaviour. We have been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration," Sanders said. "We have been very clear every single time we've been asked about that. When it comes to the media, the president does think that the media holds a responsibility," the White House press secretary said, adding, "While we certainly support freedom of the press, we also support freedom of speech, and we think that those things go hand in hand. Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Margaux Mocha Uson said Thursday she is willing to accept Senator Nancy Binay's invitation as a resource speaker on federalism upon the advice of the consultative committee. I express my gratitude to Sen. Nancy for considering me as a resource person/speaker [in the Senate], said Uson, adding that she will still have to deliberate the matter with Con-Com spokesman Ding Generoso. I cannot say anything yet as we will still have a brainstorming [activity] with Con-Com spokesperson Ding Generoso, she said. She added that her appearance before the senators as a resource speaker on federalism also depends on the result of the brainstorming on Friday. Let us see and wait for the advice of the Con-Com, Uson said. Binays extended the invitation to Uson after the Con-Com, which tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to review the 1987 Constitution, said it would likely tap Uson to be at the forefront of a nationwide information drive on federalism and Charter change. Binay said Wednesday she would recommend to Senator Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, to request the presence of Uson as one of the resource speakers in the subsequent hearings on Charter change. Being the designated messenger, we also wanted to hear how she would articulate or interpret the salient points of the proposed federal charter and explain to the people how a shift in the form of government could move the country forward, Binay said.Binay said it is imperative for Uson to relay the message clearly to the people. Clarity and knowledge about the subject are equally important elements. It is also a matter of providing the people of options or an informed choice for them to genuinely know whats good and bad about changing the form of government, Binay said. Meanwhile, Uson said that she would use the social media in order to contribute with the said information drive. We will simplify the explanations [on Charter change and federalism] to the people through [the use of] social media, said Uson. I urge the ordinary Filipinos to understand why the President believes in federalism. They should understand it and they will be the ones to say if this will help the country. If the majority believes that the President is right, then why don't we try it, she rhetorically asked in Filipino. Uson, an avid supporter of the President, has been accused of purveying false information through her 5.6- million followers on social media. The dancer-turned-government official will also be starring in the anti-illegal drug film titled Kabigan that aims to tackle the problems on illegal drugs and its adverse effects on families. Ankara has threatened to retaliate after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the case of an American pastor as it warned the actions could damage ties. "There is no doubt that this will greatly damage constructive efforts working to solve the issues between the two countries," the foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday. "Without delay, there will be a response to this aggressive attitude that will not serve any purpose," the ministry added. "We call on the US administration to turn back from this wrong decision." Pastor Andrew Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most bitter diplomatic spats between the allies. Brunson was held for nearly two years in prison on terror-related charges before he was moved last week to house arrest. US officials said at the time that it was not enough and threatened to take measures against Washington then slapped sanctions on Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu yesterday. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said both men "played leading roles in the arrest and detention of Pastor Brunson". Relations between the allies were already strained by Washington's support for a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as terrorists by Ankara and the failure to extradite the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed coup. Gul on Twitter later dismissed the sanctions, saying that he had no assets abroad. "I have neither a tree planted nor one penny in the US or any other country outside of Turkey," Gul said. Brunson's lawyer appealed to an Izmir court this week for his release but it was rejected. Brunson risks up to 35 years in jail over charges that he acted on behalf of two groups viewed as terrorists by Ankara: the movement led by Gulen and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His next trial hearing is due on October 12. The DSP Group, among the oldest financial services firms in India, may be looking to list its asset management company (AMC) on the bourses and subsequently rope in a foreign strategic partner, said people in the know. DSP BlackRock is one of the top 10 fund houses in the country and recently announced the exit of its joint venture partner BlackRock in the AMC. Under an agreement announced in May, the DSP Group will buy the 40 per cent stake held by BlackRock, subject to regulatory approvals. The management has informed the board they may want to take the AMC ... At least 17 political parties are likely to approach the Election Commission of India (ECI), demanding 2019 general elections be conducted on ballot paper and not Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Sources in the Opposition said that they would seek time with the ECI next week. The Opposition has been critical regarding use of EVMs in elections while claiming that the machines could easily be tampered to manipulate poll results. The Opposition has often attacked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging tampering of EVMs to tilt poll results to their favour. Several political leaders in the country have expressed their distrust in EVMs. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said, "The party leaders should be careful with EVMs. Party cadre should be on full alert. The central government is taking all systems including the Election Commission into its control. There is a possibility of misusing the EVMs. Party should be very careful in this regard." Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has also favoured the use of ballot papers and not EVMs. When reports of faulty EVMS emerged during the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the former Chief Minister said, "There is growing mistrust (over EVMs) in people. They don't trust the machines anymore. We demand that future elections should be conducted on ballot paper." Estranged ally the Shiv Sena has also echoed Opposition's allegations of EVM tampering, and pitched for use of ballot papers in elections to clear such doubts."Just one time, I want the BJP to head into elections with ballot papers and not EVMs. All the apprehensions will go away," said Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. However, countering the allegations the BJP said that the Opposition's mere allegations was basically an attempt to cover up their own defeat in elections. Downplaying the criticism, the ECI had said that a large number of EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) of around 20-25 per cent were kept available to replace any defective machine on the election day at the polling booth. Normally these reserved EVMs/VVPATs are kept with sector officers, who replace the defective ones if reports of malfunctions are received from any polling station. The ECI further noted that the replacement of defective EVMs or VVPATs during actual polls is a normal process and does not vitiate the integrity or credibility of the poll process in any way whatsoever. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two terrorists were on Thursday killed in an encounter with the security forces in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. Director General of Police (DGP) , Jammu and Kashmir Shesh Paul Vaid confirmed the same and tweeted, " Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with J&K Police/ Security Forces in Lolab Kupwara few minutes back." The exchange of fire between the terrorists and the security forces took place during Naka checking. The attack comes days after terrorists opened fire on security forces, deployed at the Kandahar general road in Maidanpora area of Kupwara district. They also snatched an INSAS rifle from a security official. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ahead of United States President Donald Trump's visit to Ohio on Saturday, emergency personnel were tapped after reports of a possible active shooter at a hospital on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton city in the state. According to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, security forces and the fire department responded to the incident at 12:40 p.m. (local time) on Thursday and that base personnel were directed to shelter in place until it is investigated, reported CNN. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also said it is responding to the scene. Trump announced on Twitter that he will be visiting Ohio on Saturday night to campaign for Senator Troy Balderson. "Looking forward to being in the Great State of Ohio on Saturday night where I will be campaigning hard for a truly talented future Congressman, Troy Balderson. See you all then," Trump tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) AMRI Hospitals Kolkata prepares to reduce the possibility of a dengue outbreak through awareness campaigns and well-equipped hospitals. Government and private authorities are preparing for a possible dengue spate, this monsoon in Kolkata. The disease which is often regarded as the most dangerous mosquito-borne disease in many tropical areas has claimed many lives in the past. Moreover, there have been numerous outbreaks of dengue in the last few years, across different states, which have been hard to curb. Recently, the disease has become a lot more dangerous, killing dozens of people across India, especially in 2017. More than 2,800 cases were reported till July 31 in the last one year. Kerala reported the maximum dengue cases with 13,913, followed by Tamil Nadu with 5,474 cases. On the other hand, Karnataka reported 4,186 cases, while Andhra Pradesh reported 798 cases. West Bengal, with 571 cases and Maharashtra with 460 cases also remained in the spotlight. The prevailing conditions are suggesting another possible outbreak in all the densely populated states. In Kolkata, the first dengue case was reported in the month of June itself, raising the level of fear among the locals. To counter the diseases' outspread, AMRI Hospitals has planned and organized a social media awareness campaign. Tagged #AMRIagainstDengue, the campaign uses social media to spread ideas and information related with the disease, along with doctors' advice for prevention and respite. The campaign ties up perfectly with the current predicament of mosquito-borne diseases in the region as well as the rainy season. "People often ignore the message related to precautionary measures as it's not communicated effectively, often through traditional modes of communication. Through the hospital's social media campaigns, we hope to gain the attention of public and create awareness - effectively curbing the spread of Dengue," stated a doctor at AMRI Hospital Dhakuria. Doctors at AMRI Hospitals recommend blood tests to rule out dengue when a person feels symptoms like headache, pain, nausea, vomiting or rashes, combined with fever. In addition to the social media campaign, AMRI-Dhakuria has also planned an 'Anti-Dengue' month throughout August to ramp up awareness and treat dengue-afflicted patients with more efficacies. The hospital, which has its branches at Dhakuria, Salt Lake and Mukundapur, also boasts of internal medicine specialists to counter dengue-like cases. After the deadly dengue outbreak in several parts of the country, West Bengal is vulnerable to the dangerous disease with persistent drizzle creating a thriving ground for the disease. These mosquitoes can breed on a thin film of fresh water in containers, tanks, buckets, vases and even bottle caps. The initiative works in tandem with the West Bengal government's efforts to curb dengue and avoid the possibility of an outbreak in the state. Spread by Aedes Aegypti, dengue has fatal complications and can even lead to death in some cases. It is important to take precautions, such as wearing full sleeve clothes, not allowing breeding of mosquitoes around the house and using mosquito repellents to stay safe from the disease. A five step 'mozzie wipeout' is highly recommended by doctors in addition to the measures to alleviate dengue's symptoms. The doctors also recommend that the current season is the right time to start mosquito control and surveillance measures before the larvae start hatching. According to reports, World Health Organization (WHO), reports, around 50 to 100 million people get affected by the disease each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) records more than 20,000 deaths occur every year in nearly 100 countries, making dengue one of the deadliest diseases across the world. Something as trivial as a mosquito causing this scale of death worldwide, through lack of awareness must be addressed by private and public enterprises to ensure proper healthcare and safer surroundings. Fortunately, for Kolkata, AMRI Hospitals seems to have Kolkata's health covered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday held a state cabinet meeting and approved a slew of policies. It also took decisions on various projects to generate employment and tackle the agrarian crisis. In the meeting, the state cabinet approved the State Mega Seed Park Policy 2018, aiming to make the state as seed capital and to enable the setting up of seed industries in the state. The seed park would be set up at Tangadencha village in Kurnool district. Through this park, the government expects to attract Rs 3,000 crore investments and create 40,000 jobs by 2023. The government would encourage farmers for seed production, help them set up Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units, allot land, and give subsidies available for industries. It further approved textile, apparel, and garments policy 2018-2023, which aims to attract Rs 15,000 crore investments and generate employment for 2.5 lakh people. The state government would also give various subsidies on the same. During the meeting, the state cabinet also decided to replace Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) with Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA). The cabinet also decided to set up nine private polytechnic colleges associated to Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati and 11 private polytechnic colleges in the fisheries sector. The state government also decided to create 19 additional posts in Araku area hospital, 20 additional posts in Paderu area hospital and to use outsourcing services. The state also approved the formation of a special account for the management of agricultural products collection and market stabilization fund. As per one of its decisions, a ban on Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its allied associations has been extended for one more year. The cabinet also proposed to build an airstrip in Chittoor district's Kuppam. The airstrip would be 450 acres in area and cost an estimated of Rs 95 crore. The state also gave nod for a medical tourism project in Visakhapatnam under the name AMRIT - Andhra Pradesh Medical Rehabilitation Tourism. The state would also form a state physiotherapy council. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday in a scathing attack accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre of having imposed a sense of super emergency in the country. Banerjee came down heavily on the BJP after an eight-member delegation of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), scheduled to address the issue of NRC in Assam, was stopped at the Silchar Airport. Banerjee said, "Who are they (BJP)? What significance do they have in West Bengal? Nobody knows them. They are just some hooligans. (When) Their (own) existence itself is in question, they will implement NRC here? I will see how they intervene." Banerjee has been vehemently opposing the NRC in Assam for a long time now. She also accused the BJP of vote bank She said, "BJP is doing vote bank in Assam. They have omitted the names of as many as 40 lakh people which is 25 per cent of voters residing in the state. This is very unfortunate and as human beings, we cannot do such things," she said. Banerjee has been consistently disapproving the latest NRC draft. Accusing the BJP of vendetta politics, she had said that the party was targeting people in the wake of general elections scheduled in 2019. She has also accused the BJP of conspiracy against minorities. The draft list, which was released on July 30, left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crores of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected the status report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare murder cases. The court also criticised the agencies for submitting similar reports every time as status reports in the matter. Dabholkar was murdered by unknown bike-borne assailants on August 20, 2013, in Pune, while he was returning home from a morning walk. A CBI investigation is underway in the matter and is being monitored by the Bombay High Court. However, no major breakthrough has taken place in the case so far despite several warnings and deadlines front the high court. After Dabholkar's murder, another rationalist, MM Kalburgi, was murdered in Karnataka's Dharwad district two years later. The investigation had earlier revealed that there was a similarity of modus operandi in both the murders and were reportedly committed using the same weapon. On the other hand, Pansare, a Communist Party of India leader and was known for his rationalist views, was shot dead in Kolhapur on February 20, 2015. His wife too was injured in the attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China wants military exercises and energy exploration with Southeast Asian nations in the disputed waters, according to a draft document, but insists on outside countries being excluded in what analysts said was a bid to diminish US influence. Beijings suggestions are part of its efforts to expand its influence in the South China Sea, which it claims almost entirely, and push back at Washington, which has backed countries with overlapping claims to the waters. A code of conduct between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to govern behavior in the strategic sea has been years in the making. The draft document outlines different countries bargaining positions as they work towards an agreement, and analysts said it represented some initial progress. In the text, Vietnam offers the strongest opposition to Beijings activitiescalling for countries to stop building artificial islands and establishing military installations. But there was little sign of serious resistance from other countries, signaling how the opposition to Chinas aggressive expansion in the resource-rich waters has ebbed in recent years in Southeast Asia. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims to Chinas in the sea. Tensions have escalated in recent years due to Beijing building artificial islands that can host military bases. Meanwhile, the UStraditionally the dominant military power in the areahas more frequently carried out patrols aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation. In the draft text, Beijing suggests that China and the 10 Asean states should carry out joint military exercises regularly. However, the drills should not involve countries outside the region unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection. The suggestion to exclude outside countries is obviously targeted at the US, which has been dominating the waters of the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in particular, Hoang Thi Ha, from the Asean Studies Center, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said. By proposing joint military exercises, China is trying to send a subtle message to the world that ASEAN and China could work together and things are progressing well, hence there is no need for external involvement in the South China Sea issue, said Ha. Beijing also suggested that China and Asean could carry out joint oil and gas exploration in the waters but again proposed that firms from countries outside the region be excluded from such activities, the document showed. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Singapore on Thursday, Beijing and Asean announced they had agreed on the negotiating text for the code. Vietnam has offered some of the stiffest resistance to China in the sea in recent times, regularly complaining about Beijings activities on contested islands and in disputed waters.Tensions reached fever pitch in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into the waters claimed by Hanoi. However, opposition has weakened in other parts of Southeast Asia, with analysts saying that countries are keen to attract Chinese investment and are worried about US commitment to the region under President Donald Trump. The Philippines, under previous president Benigno Aquino, had been a leading voice against Chinas expansion in the sea and used Asean events to pressure Beijingbut President Rodrigo Duterte has reversed that policy. A critic of that policy, acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio on Thursday said he will not oppose the proposed deal with China for a joint exploration and development in the contested areas in South China Sea for as long as it complies with the Constitution. Carpio, who has been criticizing the Duterte administrations supposed inaction on the growing Chinese building in the disputed maritime territories in the South China Sea, said the government should make sure that the countrys sovereignty would not be compromised in the proposed 60-40 sharing scheme with China. Nonetheless, Carpio said he will support the China deal should the government ensure that no sovereignty would be surrendered in the proposed agreement with Beijing. As long as the joint development complies with the Philippine Constitution and there is no waiver of our sovereign rights under the arbitral ruling, I have no objection, Carpio said, in a text message. Carpio was referring to the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2012 in favor of the Philippines against Chinas claims over South China Sea territories. In the ruling, the PCA invalidated Chinas historic nine-dash line claim over most of the South China Sea. It also held that Beijing violated its commitment under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in building artificial islands within the Philippines exclusive economic zone. The tribunal also ruled that Scarborough Shoal is rock, which is allowed only a 12-nautical mile territorial sea and has no EEZ or continental shelf. It also found that China failed to respect traditional fishing rights of Filipino fishermen by preventing access to the shoal after May 2012. The PCA also ruled that China breached its obligations under the UNCLOS by operating its law enforcement vessels in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal, creating serious risk of collision and danger to Philippine vessels and personnel. China has rejected the decision and refuses to recognize the tribunal. Recently, Carpio called on Duterte t administration to file a protest and seek monetary compensation from China for preventing Filipinos from fishing in Panatag or Scarborough Shoal. A probe by the Public Works Department (PWD) has revealed that the damages at Akhilesh Yadav's government bungalow in Lucknow, which he vacated in June, cost Rs. 10 lakh to the state exchequer. The 266-page report, submitted by the PWD to Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, extrapolates that most of the disfigurement in the state property was caused to tiles, sanitary and electrical equipment fitted in the house. Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, in June, had instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the Samajwadi Party leader for leaving the government property disfigured. When Yadav became the Chief Minister in 2012, he was allotted a bungalow at Lucknow's Vikramaditya Marg, which he retained after his party lost State Assembly elections in 2017. But in May this year, the Supreme Court held that former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh cannot retain government accommodation after demitting office. The ruling forced Akhilesh Yadav to vacate the bungalow. Soon reports emerged, alleging Yadav of dismantling the palatial house out of jealousy, a charge that the 46-year-old leader denied. The top court's order to vacate the governmental accommodation was applicable on other renowned leaders, like Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After a span of 12 years, a teenage girl from Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor was found at a women's shelter home in Shimla and handed over to her parents. The girl, identified as Kajal, was seven-year-old when she went missing from a Dussehra fair in Bijnor's Chandpur. After she went missing, Kajal spent five years in Mumbai and was later taken to West Bengal's Durgapur in 2012, before she finally came to the shelter home in Shimla. "Earlier, I was in Mumbai and was shifted to Shimla later," Kajal said. The teenager was reunited with her family by the Anti-Human Trafficking cell of Haryana state Police after Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Rajesh Kumar visited the shelter home in Shimla. Upon his arrival, Kajal requested him to find her parents. Following the conversation, Kumar made calls to Mumbai and Durgapur to track her family. "We were able to trace through communication at different levels. She was missing since 2007," he said. Kumar also added that Kajal's paper work at the shelter home in Shimla carried wrong information regarding her parents' names and address. Kajal, who was enrolled at a government school in Shimla, will continue her studies once she returns to her hometown Bijnor. She is a student of class 10. Her family expressed happiness upon reuniting with their daughter after a long hiatus of 12 years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) How important is the Chinese market for global tech giants such as Google? If we go by the company's latest move, it ought to be very very important. A leaked Google document has revealed that Google is preparing a censored version, codenmed Dragonfly, of its popular search engine to abide by the Chinese government's strict laws, Mashable reported. The custom China-only Android app would block websites and search terms about human rights, peaceful protests, political dissidents, democracy, police brutality, religion, and so on. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja has once again raked up controversy, this time, after his stance on "love jihad". In an interview to ANI, Ahuja claimed that Hindu girls were being lured into love jihad and taking up religious conversion. "Our girls have been lured on the pretext of love jihad. But I am giving these people time to bring the girls back safely to their homes. If this is not done, I am telling you-your daughters will not be safe; you have wrongly converted the religion of our girls," Ahuja told ANI. The BJP MLA from Rajasthan recently made headlines for saying that cow slaughter was a bigger crime than terrorism. "Cow slaughtering is a bigger crime than terrorism. Terrorists kill two to three people, but when a cow is killed, sentiments of crores of Hindus get hurt," Ahuja had said. In the wake of increasing incidents of mob lynching in the name of cow smuggling and slaughter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged all the state governments to take stringent action against those involved in mob lynching incidents and punish them at the earliest. As per data compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, 45 persons were killed in 40 cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and 3 March 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India has extended an invitation to United States President Donald Trump to be the special guest on the Republic Day next year. However, US Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said no decision has been taken on the matter yet. In a press briefing, Sanders also confirmed that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis would be visiting India next month, to start a "dialogue, process and a potential discussion for a presidential visit later in the year." Every year, the Indian government invites a 'head of a country' to be the special guest on the Republic Day, which is marked by a parade showcasing the military power and cultural diversity of the country. Leaders from the 10 ASEAN nations -- Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei-were chief guests at this year's parade. Former US President Barack Obama has also been part of the celebrations and visited India in 2015 as the chief guest of the 65th Republic Day event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States (US) ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster on Thursday tagged India and US as the "oldest" and "largest" democracies in the The US Embassy in India on Thursday hosted an event marking the 242nd Independence Day celebrations of the United States, which was on July 4. Minister of State (MoS) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri was the chief guest at the event. "One of the remarkable aspects of living in India is that you begin to appreciate this country's ancient roots. India's history is measured in centuries rather than years. In fact, you soon develop a sense of timelessness. So, celebrating July 4 and August 2 seems perfectly natural to those of us at the US Embassy and we feel you will feel that way as well. This is a very special event for the US embassy and we are honoured that you are here to share it with us," Juster said. "This is my first Independence celebration day as the US Ambassador to India. I can say on behalf of all of my colleagues and perhaps all of those in a diplomatic community that there is a feeling of great pride when you celebrate your national day while living in another country. What makes this particularly special for Americans living in India is that these two countries are the oldest and largest democracies in the We each are the essence of the diverse multicultural pluralistic societies. We share the values of individual freedom and economic opportunity," he added. The US envoy further went on to highlight more similarities between the two nations and invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's words, "We (India and US) are natural allies." "And not many people may know this, but our two constitutions begin with the same three inspiring words, 'We the people.' The crucial importance of these words helps form the foundation of cooperation between India and US," he continued. "There are now millions of Indian-Americans, who have made incredible contribution to American society, who celebrate Independence Day on July 4 and to then exhibit the same pride six weeks later on August 15. That says it all. So whether you are American, Indian, Indian-American, you are a friend of US mission in India," Juster added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Terrorists snatched away a 12 bore rifle from a security guard posted at the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Anantnag's Brakpora area on Thursday. This is the third terrorist attack in the last couple of days in the state. On July 31 around three to four terrorists opened fire at security forces deployed at the Kandahar general road in Maidanpora in Kupwara district. The terrorists snatched an INSAS rifle from one of the security personnel. On August 1, around six-eight terrorists barged into a State Bank of India branch at Qaimoh in Kulgam district and looted over Rs 5 lakh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team from the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi, along with a few bamboo artisans from Japan, are on a two-day visit to Agartala, Tripura, to discuss possibilities of a India-Japan cooperation in bamboo craft sector. The Japanese team, led by Kenko Sone, Minister, Economic and Development, Embassy of Japan, India, is on a visit of the region and arrived here on Wednesday. "This is my first visit to Tripura. Since Japan has been focusing on the collaboration in the north-eastern region with the Indian government, one of the areas asking Japan for support is the bamboo crafts. We are very happy to collaborate with Tripura on the same and this collaboration will be expanded to the whole north-eastern region as a whole," Sone told ANI. The team visited Crafts & More, a showroom of unique bamboo handicraft made by artisans, mainly from the tribal section of people, trained and funded under the Tripura JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) project. "Few bamboo artisans from Japan have come here with a team from the Japan Embassy in New Delhi to look for a possibility of an India-Japan cooperation in the craft sector. They have been visiting various outlets in the state. We have shown the strength and uniqueness of Tripura in the bamboo sector. We are looking for export possibilities in the sector," Angshuman Dey, CEO and Project Director of Tripura JICA project, told ANI. On Thursday, the Japanese team will hold a workshop at the Bamboo and Cane Development Institute (BCDI), Agartala, to have a discussion with various stakeholders in the bamboo handicraft sector of the state. During the workshop, they shall exchange ideas with the traditional bamboo artisans on the scope and development of bamboo handicraft in Tripura through capacity building for value addition as per the market demand and for sustainable development. The second phase of Tripura JICA - an external aided project in the state - is likely to start from December. For the same, around Rs 1000 crore soft loan agreement has been signed between JICA and state government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC) Northern Command, Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh on Thursday visited the Counter Insurgency Force- Romeo to review the security situation in Maniyarwala, Uttarakhand. The GOC was accompanied by the White Knight Corps Commander, Lt Gen Saranjeet Singh. The Army Commander reviewed the prevailing security situation and the preparedness of force in dealing with the same. The Army Commander also visited the forward posts, where he was briefed on the actions being undertaken for a counter-terrorist grid. In the view of the recent terror threats to the ongoing Amarnath yatra Singh, The Army Commander also reviewed the security arrangements at Nagrota Military Station. Lt. Gen Singh interacted with the soldiers, lauded them for their efforts, and encouraged them to remain vigilant. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Federal Censor Board of Pakistan has banned Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu's upcoming court drama, 'Mulk' in Pakistan. The reason behind the decision is yet to be ascertained. The makers of the movie released a statement, saying, "We are disturbed by this prejudiced verdict and it is such an irony because our film talks about this very prejudice. We urge the Pakistani Censor Board to reconsider their decision. They will realise how essential it is to the well-being of the human race across the world." Taking to Twitter, director Anubhav Sinha wrote a letter to Pakistan, writing, " Sorry a question really!!! #MULK in Theaters tomorrow." This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In the recent past the Kareena Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor-starrer, 'Veere Di Wedding' was banned since the censor board deemed the film vulgar and obscene. Starring Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor, 'Padman' was banned because its storyline revolved around the subject of menstruation which is considered a taboo in the country. Alia Bhatt's Raazi was also banned due to its controversial content while Shahrukh Khan's 'Raees' was banned because of its inaccurate portrayal of Muslims. Many other movies like Anushka Sharma's 'Pari' and Sonam Kapoor's 'Neerja' and 'Raanjhanaa' were also banned in the country. The movie revolves around a terror suspect Shahid Mohammed (Prateik Babbar), his father Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor), and the defense lawyer, Aarti Mohammed (Taapsee Pannu). The movie also features Rajat Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa and Neena Gupta in pivotal roles. Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the social-thriller has been jointly produced by Deepak Mukut and Anubhav Sinha. It is slated to hit the screens on August 3. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Phnom PenhCambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said opposition calls to boycott elections failed as he celebrated his crystal clear victory in the uncontested vote in a speech to thousands of garment workers Thursday. Hun Sens Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) is poised to win all 125 parliamentary seats after the flawed poll that will see the strongman leader extend his 33-year rule, cementing the countrys status as a one-party state. Opposition figures had called for a boycott of the vote with a so-called sleep at home or clean finger campaign after the most viable election contender, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved last year and barred from running. The sleep-at-home campaign has already failed. More than 82 percent of Cambodians nationwide went to vote, it shows our Cambodians support the democratic process, he told a crowd of 14,000 workers in his first speech since the ballot. It is crystal clear that the future Prime Minister of the new government... is Hun Sen again, he said to applause. He told the crowd that Cambodias new parliament would convene on September 19 and the government would be formed a day later. Some 6.9 million votes were cast in Sundays electionbut nearly 600,000 ballots were spoiled, in a sign of unhappy voters. The United States and the European Union declined to send election observers to the poll because they said it lacked credibility with no viable opposition on the ticket. Instead it was monitored by members of far-right and populist parties from Britain, Italy, Belarus and India. The vote immediately drew condemnation from the EU and the US, while the self-exiled co-founder of the now disbanded CNRP Sam Rainsy told AFP this week it was a terrible setback.Rainsy, who lives in France to avoid a litany of charges he faces in Cambodia, also urged the international community to reject the results. The CNRP, whose leader Kem Sokha is in jail on charges of treason, took 44 percent of the vote in the last elections in 2013, the most credible challenge to Hun Sens grip on on power in decades. Hun Sen vowed on Thursday to double down on efforts to eliminate any remaining opposition in the country. [Opposition parties] deserve to die, if theyre alive, war could erupt, he said before posing for selfies with smiling supporters. The 65-year-old leader courted support from garment workers ahead of the election with his colorful speechesand envelopes of cash. He kept the tradition alive Thursday handing each worker $5, and $200 for pregnant employees. The long-serving leader is seen as a source of stability in a country with a tumultuous recent history of civil war and Vietnamese occupation. Hes also won support with ambitious infrastructure projects across the country, many funded with soft loans from China which provides support without asking questions about human rights. Washington and the European Union, former allies who have retreated amid Hun Sens slide toward outright authoritarianism, both condemned the election this week, while China congratulated the people of Cambodia. Andhra Pradesh IT Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary Nara Lokesh on Wednesday inaugurated ten IT and ITES companies in Tadepalli village in the Amaravati capital region that will create 1,000 jobs altogether. The companies will start their operations in Vijayawada and at NRT Tech Park in Mangalagiri. "The entire IT revolution in South India started with (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu. Under his leadership, Hyderabad moved from being a traditional economic city to being an IT services city. That's the kind of transformation that has happened. Similar transformations are happening in Andhra Pradesh now," Lokesh told ANI. "The state government has been giving pro-actively with the industry to give input and to learn areas where we need to improve. Globally, 80 percent of the jobs are created by small and medium enterprises. So, in the state of Andhra Pradesh if you want to create any ecosystem then we believe SMEs are going to play an important role. As part of that, my department has been focused more towards SMEs. We also have a separate team that focuses on big giants in the industry. Besides the IT industry, we are also doing the same in Electronics," he added. More than 60 IT companies have already started functioning in Amaravati. The move was taken to create more job opportunities for the locals of Amaravati and other regions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A delegation of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) was stopped at the Silchar Airport on Thursday. The delegation comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra, was scheduled to visit Silchar on the of Assam's Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. According to reports, anti-government slogans were raised outside the Silchar airport and the AITMC delegation was stopped sensing a fear of agitation. Section 144 of CrPC has also been imposed in Silchar. Reacting on the issue, AITMC leader Derek O Brien said, "Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people; this is a super emergency like situation." West Bengal Chief Minister and AITMC chief Mamata Banerjee has criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre for excluding the names of 40 lakh people from Assam's NRC draft. Banerjee told ANI that the BJP is playing vote bank in Assam. "BJP is doing vote bank in Assam. They have omitted the names of as many as 40 lakh people which is 25 per cent of voters residing in the state. This is very unfortunate and as human beings, we cannot do such things," she said. Banerjee has been consistently disapproving the latest NRC draft. Accusing the BJP of vendetta politics, she had said that the party was targeting people in the wake of general elections scheduled in 2019. She has also accused the BJP of conspiracy against minorities. The draft list, which was released on July 30, left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crores of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi wrote a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan saying the government was taking a hasty decision by agreeing to the '2+2' dialogue with the United States. Owaisi, who wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to move an adjournment motion, alleged that the Centre was "willingly relinquishing sovereignty to a foreign nation and compromising security" by agreeing to sign a Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) with the United States (US) during the upcoming '2+2' dialogue. He further said that by sealing the deal with the Trump administration, the government will breach Indian laws and will also give US military access to Indian military communication systems and its data. "The agreement allows unfettered American access into encrypted Indian military communication systems and sharing of that data with others. Moreover, it allows US inspectors to visit Indian bases physically and inspect the transferred equipment. Finally, the agreement supersedes Indian law and this is a blatant compromise of the nation's sovereignty," the letter read. The leader also criticised the central government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking this decision without holding any public discussion. He was of the view that such serious matters pertaining to the security of India must be first discussed with other leaders and should not be taken in haste. "It has to be noted that previous governments in the last fifteen years have refrained from signing this agreement, being aware of its implications. That this government has decided to sign such an agreement with massive security and sovereignty issues without any public discussion or feedback is shocking. This agreement needs greater scrutiny and deserves to be discussed on the floor of the Lok Sabha. Hence, I am giving the notice to move an adjournment motion to discuss this matter on an urgent basis," Owaisi highlighted. After getting deferred twice, India-US inaugural 2+2 dialogue is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on September 6. The high-level meeting will take place between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with their American counterparts US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Another all-party conference (APC) meeting is expected to be held by the Opposition to concoct a strategy to decide the future course of action with regards to alleged rigging of elections. The meeting will take place at National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq's residence on Thursday evening, Geo News reported, citing sources. The agenda of the meeting includes finalising the names of the opposition's candidates for the posts of prime minister, speaker, and deputy speaker as well as finalise a strategy regarding the oath-taking of the MNAs-elect. The opposition will also devise a strategy in connection with holding protests inside and outside the parliament. The committee is also expected to issue a white paper and demand the resignation of the chief election commissioner and other Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Shehbaz Sharif, Senator Raja Zafarul Haq, Saad Rafique, Pakistan Peoples Party's Yousaf Raza Gilani and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal's Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Senator Sirajul Haq, Sajid Mir, and Awami National Party's Asfandyar Wali Khan are some of the leaders attending the meeting. However, members of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) will not be joining the conference as it declared its support for the PTI on Wednesday. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto's presence is yet to be confirmed. Last week, a multi-party conference was called for by the PML-N to concoct a strategy over the alleged rigging of the General Elections 2018. Chaired by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the MPC rejected the poll results and demanded a transparent re-election. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders including Shehbaz Sharif visited Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam in Adiala jail. According to Geo News, ex-foreign minister Khawaja Asif, former special assistant on foreign affairs to the PM Tariq Fatemi and former information minister Marriyum Aurengzeb were among the visitors. The party leaders met the former prime minister prior attending the All-party conference (APC). On a related note, Nawaz Sharif was admitted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) after he complained of severe pain in the chest and left shoulder. He was later sent back to the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi from PIMS after his health condition stabilised. The News International quoted sources saying that Sharif was sent back to the jail at his own insistence. On July 13, Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, who were convicted in the Avenfield reference case by the National Accountability Court. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The influx of foreign tourist has increased exponentially over the years in Japan. A majority of them cherish the traveling moments despite the scorching heat. With such heat, frozen dessert companies are finding an opportunity to promote their products as a measure to beat the summer heat. "Dolci cafe Silkream", located in Shibuya, has become a popular joint amidst foreign tourists. This is the flagship shop of "Nissei Company" which first introduced soft serve ice cream in Japan in 1951. "Nissei Company" has strived with pride of the pioneer to penetrate soft serve ice cream in the Japanese market for about half a century. The company has mastered this art to penetrate soft serve ice cream in the Japanese market for about half a century. The market dominance has made the company a sole proprietor for the supply of all products related to soft serve ice cream, including cone cups; soft serve mix, and freezers in Japan. Hiroaki Matsushima, a staff of the company said, "People buy and eat ice cream because of the hot weather, but our concept is that we hope that people eat ice-cream with their close ones. Wherever people go, I hope that they have fun with friends and family while eating ice cream." Customers can enjoy new styles of ice cream at this cafe. The menu is also customised in English for foreign customers. "Cremia" is a great-tasting type of soft-serve ice cream which is made up of high milk fat content that gives very rich creamy texture. Customers can also enjoy "Cremia" adding flavour of different seasonal fruits and sweets. Japanese classics such as red bean paste and green tea "matcha" are also customers' favourite. Another staff, Aiko Azuma stated that predominantly, women between 20-40 years of age are making it to the shop in huge numbers. Also, the number of foreign tourists has increased lately and Cremia is quite popular among them. There is also a takeaway corner along with the dine-in space at this cafe. This is also an added advantage as people prefer to enjoy the flavor in their houses with their families and friends. Also, a tourist said that in such a hot weather, it could be a cool way to enjoy and take a rest at this cafe. The ice cream which emanated in Japan a long time ago has attained a new shape which is attracting both local people and foreign tourists. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice President of the United States (US), Mike Pence on Wednesday welcomed the arrival of the remains of as many as 55 American servicemen from the Korean War. Pence attended a ceremony Hawaii's Hickam Air Force Base along with his wife, Karen and two individuals who had lost their fathers during the Korean War, Diana Brown Sanfilippo and Rick Downes, as reported by Fox News. Pence said that Sanfilippo was four years old when she lost her father, who was part of a recon mission, while Downes was aged three when he lost his father, who was operating radar on a B-26 Bomber. Taking to his Twiiter handle, Pence said he was "honoured" to be joined by the two in the ceremony. A US military aircraft had travelled to North Korea to ferry the 55 cases. Pence further stated that the gesture from the Kim Jong Un-led nation was proof of "tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula." "Today, they are known but to God. But soon we will know their names and we will tell their stories of courage," Pence, whose father had also fought in Korea, said. "I know President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim kept his word. But today is just a beginning, and our work will not be complete until all our fallen heroes are accounted for," he added. The return of the US servicemen's remains was part of a deal that was agreed to by Trump and Kim back in their summit in June. There are as many as 7699 US servicemen that are unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, with around 5,300 believed to have died in North Korea. Those who died in South Korea, in aircraft crashes or shipwrecks at sea and have not been recovered, account for the remaining servicemen. Also, some are believed to have been taken to China. According to the Pentagon, joint efforts made by the US and North Korea from 1996 to 2005, termed as "joint field activities," led to the recovery of as many as 229 caskets, out of which 135 were identified. Also, between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned around 208 caskets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday alleged that the Congress party had a 'loose alliance' with absconding diamond merchant Mehul Choksi. Prasad told ANI that, he came to know about the connection between the embattled businessman and the grand old party after a news channel broadcasted an interview of one of the international lawyers of Choksi namely, David Dorset. Quoting the lawyer, the Union Minister said, "Mehul Choksi was an ordinary businessman who had some loose alliance on with what is now the opposition party in India, the Congress." The Union Minister further claimed that the gross income of Choksi's company rapidly increased during the Congress regime. "Mehul Choksi's revenue suddenly increased at a time the Congress party was in power," he said. Meanwhile, Prasad also said that the Central government in collaboration with the international authorities are carrying out a thorough investigation in the connection. (ANI) Reportedly, the Indian High Commission in Antigua and Barbuda had asked the authorities there to stop billionaire diamond trader Mehul Choksi from travelling around the world. A Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai on July 26 issued summons against both absconding businessmen Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connection with the Punjab Bank (PNB) fraud case. The PNB detected the multi-crore scam earlier this year wherein Nirav and Choksi had allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of USD 2 billion, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the petition seeking a ban on Malayalam novel 'Meesha'. The petitioner N. Radhakrishnan said that the book, written by S. Hareesh, contained some content which will hurt the religious sentiments. A three-judge bench of the court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra which also comprised Justices A.M Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud also instructed that objectionable contents or paragraphs must also be removed from the novel. The CJI also maintained the banning books should not be a culture unless it violates the section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The apex court also asked another Malayalam weekly, 'Mathrubhumi" to produce before the court the translation of three objectionable paragraphs of 'Meesha' in five days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognizance in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The Apex Court division bench, headed by Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur and also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta, issued notice to the Bihar Government and the Centre seeking a detailed reply from them in connection with the same. Meanwhile, the Left Parties and groups in Bihar called for a state-wide bandh in Patna earlier today against the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal. The protest in the city was also supported by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) members. According to media reports, the protesters blocked railway tracks and several roads around the vicinity of the city. On July 24, 11 employees of a child shelter home in Muzaffarpur were arrested for allegedly sexually harassing the inmates. After receiving information, the police raided the vicinity and rescued 44 girls. On a related note, the police on Wednesday raided another shelter home run by Brijesh Thakur after a case was registered against him over the disappearance of 11 girls from the safe haven. Thakur is the prime accused in Muzaffarpur's shelter home case, where more than 30 minor girls were sexually assaulted over a period of time. The CBI had taken over the investigation from Muzaffarpur's Mahila Police Station, where the case was registered on May 31, under Section 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 376 (outraging the modesty of a woman), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 4, 6, 8, 10,12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POSCO). Earlier, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had directed the state officials to conduct a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry in the matter. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was uncovered more than a month ago by a Mumbai-based social science institute. They had submitted its report in April and the Bihar social welfare department approved another project to Thakur on May 31 for beggars' shelter in Patna. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former U.S. Secretary of State lost his job after he ruined plans by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to militarily invade Qatar amid the ongoing diplomatic showdown opposing the peninsula and its neighbors, The Intercept reports citing U.S. sources. Saudi Arabia and the UAE achieved Rex Tillersons removal in March after he moved to oppose a military plan by Saudi Arabia and its ally UAE to invade their neighbor Qatar, the news organizations portal said in a report on Wednesday. The two Gulf allies plus Bahrain and Egypt in June 2017 severed ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the tiny country over its alleged ties with Iran and support for terrorism. President Donald Trump, though siding with the Saudi camp, offered to mediate the crisis and tasked the former CEO of Exxon Mobil to diffuse the crisis. In summer 2017, Rex Tillerson got wind of a secret military plot aiming at conquering Qatar, The intercept reports citing anonymous current members of the U.S. intelligence community and two former State Department officials. The former top diplomat intervened through several phone calls to Saudi Arabia, namely then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MbS) and foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir not to attack Qatar or otherwise escalate hostilities, the sources told The Intercept. MbS, according to the media, backtracked after becoming aware that the move could damage relations between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Qatar is host to the US largest military base in the region. The Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, Qatars capital city, is the U.S. counterterrorism central command in the region and is home to over 10,000 American troops. Tillerson was informed about the secret military endeavor by Qatari officials who also updated the US embassy in Doha. Qatari undercover agents in Riyadh had earlier unveiled the invasion plan in which Saudi forces, backed by the UAE, should enter Qatar through the only land border and take position some 70 miles toward Doha, Circumventing the U.S. air base, Saudi forces would then seize the capital. The abortion of the plan enraged Mohammed bin Zayed, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, The Intercept said. The UAE ambassador to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba, who is very influential at the White House, was reportedly aware of Trillersons removal three months before he was fired. Municipal Administration and Information Technology Minister KT Rama Rao along with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K Kavitha on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for IT Hub, T-Hub Incubation Centre in Telangana's Nizamabad district. Speaking on the occasion, Rao said that the Telangana government has set itself the mission to make available the technology to the common man and even in towns. "The IT companies would provide employment to the locals and provide assistance in the development of the areas," he said. Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (TSIIC) as an implementing agency will set up the innovation hub in three and a half acres at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. The innovation hub consists of innovative soft skills training, audio visual room, lecture hall, skill development classrooms and meeting rooms. Multiple IT companies participated in the inauguration program and signed MoUs with the Telangana government. Kavitha said: "TRS party is working for not just next elections but for future generations. IT Hub will change the course of youth and put them on par with global youth." She added that a special stadium for women would be constructed soon, a bus terminal would be constructed at the cost of Rs 25 crore, and the capacity of digital library would be doubled. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a major blow to Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, party's Assam chief Dwipen Pathak resigned from his post on Thursday. Pathak, who represented Hajo constituency in Assam from 2011 to 2016, said that he resigned due to Mamata's stand over the Assam Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. "What Mamata Banerjee said about NRC draft, that it has been brought in Assam to drive out Bengalis, I do not agree with that. It might create disturbance here and the blame would be on me as a president. So I have resigned," he told ANI. Banerjee has been consistently disapproving the latest NRC draft while accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of playing "vendetta politics" ahead of the 2019 general elections. She had earlier said that there will be "civil war and bloodbath" if the issue of the Assam citizen's list is not solved. "Only to win polls people can't be victimised. Don't you think people whose name is not on the list will lose a part of their identity? Please understand India-Pakistan-Bangladesh were one before partition. Whoever came from Bangladesh to India till March 1971 is Indian citizen," she had said at a conference in Delhi. The draft list, which was released on July 30, left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Contrary to earlier reports, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton city in Ohio on Thursday said that there was no "real active shooter incident" at the base. The base initially said emergency responders rushed to the scene of a "reported active shooter incident" at the medical center around 12:40 p.m. However, after further investigation, officials found that it wasn't "an actual active shooter incident," reported Fox News. In a statement on Twitter, the base said that the security forces arrived after someone who thought "a real- incident" was ongoing called the police. "As a result, security forces responded to the scene and began a systematic sweep and clearing of the entire hospital. In an attempt to breech a door that was locked, a security forces member discharged his firearm to open the door and continue the sweep of the facility," read the post. The base said the area was "declared safe," although it urged people to steer clear of the hospital area for the time being. This comes at a time when United States President Donald Trump earlier on Thursday announced that he will visit Ohio on Saturday to campaign for Senator Troy Balderson. "Looking forward to being in the Great State of Ohio on Saturday night where I will be campaigning hard for a truly talented future Congressman, Troy Balderson. See you all then," Trump tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday denied rumours of a second meeting between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The rumours started making the rounds after Trump, in a tweet, thanked Kim for "keeping his word" of sending back the remains of US servicemen from the Korean War. He also thanked Kim for the "nice letter" that he received on August 1, adding that he looked forward to seeing him soon. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!" However, addressing the press in the White House, Sanders confirmed that Trump received the letter, but denied that there were no plans in place for another meeting. "There is not a meeting that is locked in or finalized, certainly open to that discussion but there isn't a meeting planned," Sanders said. She also confirmed that Trump has responded to Kim's letter, which will be delivered shortly. "The letters addressed their commitment from their statement that was made at the Singapore summit and they are going to continue to work together towards completing total denuclearization," she added. On Wednesday, US Vice President, Mike Pence welcomed the arrival of the remains of as many as 55 American servicemen from the Korean War at a ceremony Hawaii's Hickam Air Force base, which he attended along with his wife, Karen and two individuals who had lost their fathers during the Korean War. The return of the US servicemen's remains was part of a deal that was agreed to by Trump and Kim back in their summit in June. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that his government will provide reservation to Marthas in accordance with law. After holding a meeting with state leaders from diverse sections, Fadnavis told the media that a joint statement has been signed to resolve the matter. "A joint statement has been signed to give reservation to Marathas lawfully. State Government stands in absolute support for Maratha Reservation and we are following a requisite process to do it at the earliest," Fadnavis said. The Maratha communities have been agitating across the state demanding reservation in government jobs and education. The major demands of the communities are--- decision on the Maratha quota at the earliest, all cases against Maratha protesters be taken back, action against the officers responsible for firing and lathi charge during July 25 protest, resignation or sacking of ministers MLAs who gave irresponsible statements against Maratha community. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after the Union Cabinet approved the restoration of the original provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Bill, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the bill will be tabled during the ongoing monsoon session of the Parliament. "The government has already approved the restoration of the original bill yesterday. We will introduce the bill and want to pass it in this session of parliament," he said in Lok Sabha. Rajnath Singh's statement came after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded an ordinance for SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities to be brought soon. "The government has not done anything to nullify the Supreme Court order. You bring ordinances for every small issue, why didn't you bring an ordinance for this issue," he asked. On August 1, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to negate the Supreme Court ruling of March 20 that had barred immediate arrests in cases registered under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, which came amid the deadline fixed by Dalit organisations and LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) to overturn the ruling, restored the original provisions of arresting the accused over suspicion of offence against the weakest section of the society. The SC/ST Act protects the marginalised communities against discrimination and atrocities. The Supreme Court verdict was widely criticised by the Dalit organisations and the Opposition who claimed that the dilution of the Act will lead to more discrimination and crime against the backward community. On April 2, Dalit organisations across the country staged a massive protest against the judgment of the top court. Later, the Centre filed a review petition against the ruling, which went in vain as the top court refused to stay its order and asked all parties to submit detailed replies. On a related note, all the Dalit groups have called for a 'Bharat Bandh' protest on August 9 against the ruling of the top court. The LJP, which is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also threatened to join the protest. . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as three people were killed on Wednesday as clashes between protesting opposition supporters and security forces erupted in Zimbabwe's capital Harare. The opposition supporters were protesting the outcome of the recently concluded Parliamentary elections, wherein the country's ruling party, Zanu-PF, swept around two-thirds of the seats, with the protestors infuriated over an alleged rigging, CNN reported. The Zanu-PF was considerably challenged by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa, the primary opposition, in the closely-fought elections. However, as per the results furnished by the country's election commission, President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF, who took over from former President Robert Mugabe after he was ousted by the military, prevailed comfortably in the parliamentary elections, thus sparking fears of rigging among the opposition. The police and the army resorted to using tear gas and water cannons to break up the raging protestors in Harare, with automatic guns also fired to aid in scattering the crowds that were gathered near a hotel where international election monitors were staying. Mnangagwa has pinned the blame for the unrests in the capital on the MDC, saying that they assisted in provoking "acts of political violence." In reply, a spokesperson for Chamisa stated that the protests were not violent and that the use of soldiers was not needed. "We are deeply hurt and feel vulnerable in our country. Are we at war? Are civilians the enemy of the state?", said Nkululeko Sibanda, Chamisa's spokesperson. Meanwhile, Chamisa extended his gratitude for the support he received on Twitter while hinting towards a manipulation in election results. "THANK YOU ZIMBABWE ...I'm humbled by the support you have given to me as a Presidential Candidate. We have won the popular vote. You voted for total Change in this past election!We have won this one together. No amount of results manipulation will alter your WILL #Godisinit," he tweeted on Wednesday. The Zanu-PF, however, welcomed the results, with a party spokesperson saying that "This is the people's endorsement of what President Emmerson Mnangagwa did to the people of Zimbabwe when he came to power." A statement from Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations urged the country to maintain peace, saying, "We remind the incumbents and political parties of the commitments they made in the Peace Pledge and the Code of Conduct to ensure a peaceful electoral process. We call on the political leaders and the population as a whole to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence." The chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Justice Priscilla Chigumba, gave his assurance of a fair election to media persons on Tuesday. However, several European Union observers maintained that in the lead up to the elections, "a truly level playing field was not achieved," citing the "misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behavior by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media, all in favor of the ruling party." The ZEC has only released the results of the Parliamentary elections so far and has until August 4 to release the final results. On a related note, the recently concluded elections were the first in 38 years without the country's former leader, Mugabe. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Headline indices of the Mainland China equity market extended losses on Thursday, 02 August 2018, due to renewed worries over an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies after U. S. plans to impose a higher 25% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Around late afternoon, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index declined 3%, or 84.10 points, to 2,740.44, meanwhile the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, fell 3.74% or 57.89 points, to 1,491.39. The blue-chip CSI300 index dropped 3.1%, or 106.85 points, to 3,340.54. Investors are worried about US-China trade war after Washington said on Wednesday that it may jack up the tariff rate on the next $200 billion in Chinese imports it plans to target as it pressures Beijing to reform its trade practices. U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said President Donald Trump directed him to consider increasing the proposed tariffs to 25% from the planned 10% because China has refused to meet U. S. demands and has imposed retaliatory tariffs on U. S. goods. Beijing said it would hit back if the United States takes further steps hindering trade, including applying the higher tariff rate. The new tariff threat on Chinese goods comes just days after Beijing retaliated against the administration's imposition of 25% tariffs on $34 billion in goods. The Trump administration is considering an additional $16 billion in goods, but that review is ongoing, an official said Wednesday. COMMODITY NEWS: The most active October rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 1.8% at 4,111 yuan ($603) a tonne by 0206 GMT. Prices of steelmaking raw materials iron ore and coking coal also slid. The most-traded September iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 1.5% to 473.50 yuan per tonne and coking coal lost 1.2% to 1,177.50 yuan. Coke, the processed form of coking coal, dropped 0.7% to 2,282 yuan a tonne. CURRENCY NEWS: Chinese yuan strengthened against greenback on Thursday, after stronger mid-point fixing by central bank. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) fixed the yuan midpoint at 6.7942 per dollar, 351 basis points stronger than the previous fix of 6.8293. In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2% from the central parity rate each trading day. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Compuage Infocom announced that the company has been working towards strengthening its Cloud Portfolio and aims to become a true Cloud Solution Provider in India. The Company has tied up with over 15 cloud brands in the last quarter. The management is of the view that with new tie-ups, Compuage is marching towards its strategy of being a one stop cloud solution provider in the respective segment. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran is deploying forces and military personnel for major naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz that it threatened to block in retaliation, in the event the U.S. disrupts the sale of Iranian oil. We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, Navy Captain Bill Urban, the chief spokesman at Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, told Reuters on Wednesday. We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways, Urban added. Military officials in Iran have threatened to block oil shipment in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major global waterway for tanks carrying oil. The disruption will seriously undermine Irans ailing economy at the time national currency, Rial, has plumbed new depths this week. The threats came after Washington urged countries to boycott oil purchases from Iran by November 4. The U.S. is planning to impose news economic sanctions on Iran after President Trump in May withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord signed between Iran and world powers. According to some U.S. officials who asked not be named, the drills could take place in the next 48 hours, ahead of the originally set timing; sometime later this year. They also told Reuters that the Revolutionary Guards appeared to mobilize more than 100 vessels and hundreds of ground forces for the exercises. Hero MotoCorp fell 1.23% to Rs 3,231.65 at 9:31 IST on BSE after the company declared modest growth in monthly sales in July 2018 after market hours yesterday, 1 August 2018. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 189.34 points, or 0.5% to 37,332.28 On the BSE, 3,347 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 55,000 shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 3,290 and a low of Rs 3,229.50 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 4,200 on 23 August 2017. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 3,037.10 on 24 July 2018. Hero MotoCorp reported 9% rise in sales to 6.79 lakh units of two-wheeler in the month of July 2018 from July 2017 due to continued strong demand for range of popular motorcycles and scooters. The company has lined up multiple new product launches ahead of the festive season, including the Xtreme 200R motorcycle and the 125cc scooters. Pawan Munjal, Chairman, MD, and CEO, Hero MotoCorp, said the company is confident of carrying the growth trajectory forward and expect to grow at doubledigit in the upcoming festive season. The normal monsoon in most parts of the country, and the consequent agricultural harvest will keep the sentiments buoyant and help maintain the momentum. Economic growth, rural investments and initiatives such as MSP, MNREGA etc. augur well for the future growth of the industry. Hero MotoCorp's net profit fell 0.53% to Rs 909.17 crore on 10.39% rise in net sales to Rs 8809.82 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. Hero MotoCorp is the world's largest manufacturer of two wheelers, based in India. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is getting an unsecured loan of Rs 25,000 crore from State Bank of India for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. This is the largest amount of loan to have been sanctioned to NHAI in one stroke by any institution. This is also the largest long term unsecured loan sanctioned by SBI at a time to any entity. An MoU in this regard will be signed between the two organizations in the presence of Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation in New Delhi tomorrow. NHAI had invited an Expression of Interest from Scheduled Commercial Banks to fund Rs. 25000 Crore as an unsecured loan for 10 years with 3 years of moratorium on repayments. In response to this EOI, SBI offered to fund the entire requirement of Rs 25000 Crore based on one month MCLR. The loan sanctioned by SBI is unsecured. There is no principal repayment liability for initial three years. After three years, the repayment would be done in 14 equal half yearly instalments. The total loan tenure is 10 years. NHAI can repay/ prepay it at any time without any prepayment penalty. The total sanctioned amount of Rs 25000 Crore is to be disbursed within 31st March 2019. Rate of interest would be based on one month MCLR. Interest accrued on the amount actually outstanding will be paid on monthly basis. NHAI can draw the amount in any number of tranches, latest by 31st March 2019. NHAI has traditionally relied on borrowing through long term bonds issued to various investors, including LIC, EPFO and other qualified investors, and Tax Free bonds and Masala Bond issued in year 2017 Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PNC Infratech announced that major damage was caused to about 5.0 m length of side (service) road of Agra to Firozabad section of access controlled Agra-Lucknow Expressway Project on 01 August 2018 by excessive stagnation of accumulated water due to heavy and incessant rains during the night of 31 July 2018. The company took the required rehabilitation measures on emergency basis and the damaged portion of side road has been filled-up by the same day (01.08.2018) evening. The Company further informs that the above damage has not caused any disruption to the movement of traffic on the expressway and vehicles on the expressway are plying as usual. Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) the proponent of the expressway project has asked RITES, A Government of India Undertaking to conduct a detailed investigation of the damages and submit a report specifying the extent of damages, causes and the remedial measures within 15 days to it. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 51-year-old Iraqi man with a terminal heart condition has been given a new lease of life by doctors here. The patient had suffered several bullet injuries at the hands of terrorists who had kept him captive. Hani Jawad Mohammed flew back to Iraq on July 28 with an artificial heart. He had undergone several rounds of surgeries in his native country which however did not improve his health. After coming to India, Mohammad was advised for Left Ventricle Assistance Device (LVAD), popularly known as an artificial heart, Ajay Kaul, Chairman and Head of Department, CTVS, BLK Heart Centre said in a statement on Thursday. "Mohammed came to us with a terminal heart condition (cardiomyopathy) which was a result of eight gunshot injuries he had suffered during captivity. "We found that his heart was very weak and could not eject blood. We tried to treat him medically first but his breathlessness kept increasing and he was completely crippled. He was waiting for a transplant but due to acute shortage of donors, it was not feasible at that point of time," Kaul said. --IANS nks/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bangladesh on Thursday signed agreements for $500 million in loans to develop a state-of-the-art 800-megawatt (MW) power plant in the country's Khulna region, along with associated connections to natural gas and power transmission facilities. Additional secretary (ADB Wing) Muhammad Alkama Siddiqui, Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division and ADB Country Director for Bangladesh Manmohan Parkash signed the loan agreements at a ceremony in Dhaka. "This mega project builds on ADB's strong and sustained presence in the power sector of Bangladesh and it will use the latest proven combined cycle technology, which offers the highest efficiency to convert gas to electricity," Parkash was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. "ADB places higher importance on introducing new and high-impact technologies to benefit member countries. This will be a state-of-the-art power plant using the latest zero-liquid discharge technology, making it the first of its kind in Bangladesh." Highlighting benefits of the project, Parkash said it will provide additional electricity supply to about 300,000 consumers, create new jobs and stimulate business expansion. This friendly project will significantly improve energy security and enhance availability of efficient and cleaner energy. To supply gas to the Rupsha power plant, the project will construct 12 km of gas distribution pipelines and finance construction of a 230-kilovolt switchyard and 29 km of high capacity transmission lines to transfer generated electricity to the national grid. According to an ADB statement, the project will also help in institutional strengthening of the executing agency, the North-West Power Generation Company Limited, by implementing a modern enterprise resource planning system and providing training for implementation and operation of the system. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A.K. Bose, a legislator from Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK, died here on Thursday following a cardiac arrest, said party officials. A three-time MLA, Bose, 69, has been unwell for the past couple of years. He had been elected from Thiruparankundram Assembly constituency. Bose was admitted to a private hospital in Madurai on Wednesday evening and died early on Thursday. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. The Thiruparankundram constituency will see a second by-election in two years. In the 2016 elections, S.M. Seenivelu won the seat but he died before taking oath as a lawmaker. Bose then won the by-election. Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam have expressed their condolences to Bose's family. Following the death of Bose, AIADMK's strength including the Speaker came down to 116 in the 234-member assembly. The DMK has 89 members. --IANS vj/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ajax Amsterdam and Celtic advanced to the third round of the qualifiers for the 2018-2019 Champions League with victories against Sturm Graz and Rosenborg respectively. The Dutch side, who went into Wednesday's second leg with a 2-0 advantage after the first leg in Amsterdam, prevailed 3-1 here on a brace by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and a goal from Dusan Tadic, reports EFE news agency. Ajax will face Standard Liege in the third round. In Trondheim, a 0-0 draw was good enough for Celtic to move on by virtue of their 3-1 triumph in the first leg in Glasgow. Next up for the Scottish club will be AEK Athens. Malmo were held 0-0 at home by CFR Cluj on Wednesday, but won the first leg 1-0 and booked their spot in the third round, where they will face MOL Vidi, who defeated Ludogorets 1-0 on aggregate. Red Star Belgrade dominated Suduva 3-0 on Wednesday to prevail 5-0 on aggregate. The Serbian side's opponent in the third round will be Spartak Trnava, who eliminated Legia Warsaw earlier this week. Also headed for the third round are Dinamo Zagreb, Astana, Shkendija, BATE Borisov, Qarabag and PAOK. --IANS ajb/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Women apparently consume alcohol more than men at Goa's only medical college, a recent study claims, terming the general pattern of alcohol consumption among the institute's students a "cause of concern" while advocating a counselling mechanism to deal with stress related to studies and negotiating peer pressure. The study, authored by Yash Jairam Verenkar and Frederick Satiro Vaz, also states, that while male students at Asia's third oldest medical college, the Goa Medical College and Hospital, preferred beer and whisky, women preferred wine and other light alcoholic drinks. "Prevalence of alcohol consumption was found to be 39.4 per cent. Prevalence among females was higher (40.6 per cent) compared to males (38 per cent). Among the alcohol consumers, 82.3 per cent were light drinkers, while 17.7 per cent were identified as heavy drinkers," states the study which was published in the July edition of the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health. "Higher prevalence was seen among female students in our study compared to males, this being in contrast to other studies. However, it was found that most of the females (86.5 per cent) were light drinkers," it also says. Twenty per cent of the alcohol consuming students at the Medical College, located near Panaji, showed signs of alcohol dependence, says the study, which used the alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT), a tool developed by the World Health Organisation to asses alcohol consumption, drinking behavior and alcohol-related problems. The study, which involved interviewing of 350 students, half the number of students enrolled at the Goa Medical College, said that Christian students showed a higher tendency for alcohol consumption, along with those students who hail from urban areas or live in hostels. "As far as other socio-demographic factors were concerned, alcohol consumption was higher among Christian students (48.1 per cent), students from urban areas (43.8 per cent), students living in hostels (58.8 per cent) and those in highest economic scale 40.4 per cent," the study states. The reason why Christian students at the institution show higher alcohol consumption, the state claims, is because "alcohol consumption is socially and culturally acceptable". "Higher consumption among students coming from urban areas could be due to adoption of a more Western or cosmopolitan way of life. Those in higher socio-economic class could be having greater opportunities to consume alcohol in terms of affordability, partying and clubbing habits, etc., resulting in higher consumption," the study also states, adding those living in hostels away from home reported higher consumption which could be explained by lack of parental control and a sense of freedom. The study also claims there is a linkage between alcohol consumption in students vis-a-vis their respective fathers drinking at home. "There was an association between drinking in the father and alcohol consumption among the students. A complex mix of environmental and genetic factors has been shown to children of alcohol-dependent parents at higher risk of harmful alcohol and drug use," the duo's research states. They also said that one of their findings -- that 17.7 per cent students were classified as heavy drinkers -- is comparable to other similar studies in India, but added that the "proportion of hazardous alcohol consumption, alcohol consumption and binge drinking were also higher, which is a cause for concern". In February this year, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had expressed concern about girls drinking beer while speaking to students during an interaction. "I have begun to fear now, because even the girls have started drinking beer. So the barrier of that tolerance limit is being crossed... Not all of them. I am not referring to this crowd," he had said. The comments had stirred controversy, even inspiring a hashtag #GirlsWhoDrinkBeer on social media. (Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan.n@ians.in) --IANS maya/vm/tb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Veteran actor Anupam Kher has started shooting for the upcoming American drama series "New Amsterdam". He said that he has the same excitement and nervousness which he had the first day of the shoot for his maiden film "Saaransh". "A New Beginning on first August, 2018. I start the shoot of my American series 'New Amsterdam' today. I have the same excitement and nervousness which I had on January 1, 1984, my first day of shoot of my first film 'Saaransh'. 34 years later..." Anupam tweeted on Wednesday night. Inspired by Bellevue, the oldest public hospital in the US, the series follows the brilliant and charming doctor Max Goodwin played by Ryan Eggold, the institution's newest medical director who sets out to tear up the bureaucracy and provide exceptional care. In addition to Anupam and Eggold, the cast of the series include Janet Montgomery, Jocko Sims, and Tyler Labine. In the Bollywood front, Anupam will be seen in "The Accidental Prime Minister". The film is based on a book by Sanjaya Baru, a former media advisor to Manmohan Singh. Akshaye Khanna features as Baru, and Divya Seth Shah plays Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur in the movie. It is directed by debutant Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, along with Hansal Mehta as the creative producer. The film is slated to release on December 21. --IANS dc/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Apple shares surged more than 5 per cent Wednesday in the wake of a strong 2018 fiscal third quarter earnings report, pushing the tech giant's market capitalization close to a record $1 trillion. Apple shares were up $10.53, or 5.53 per cent, at $200.82 in late afternoon trading, giving the Cupertino, California-based company a market capitalization, or total stock market value, of around $985 billion, Efe reported. If the tech giant hits the $1 trillion market cap level, it would be the first corporation to reach the milestone. After the market closed on Tuesday, Apple reported that it posted earnings per diluted share of $2.34 in its fiscal third quarter, up 40 percent from the same period in 2017. "We're thrilled to report Apple's best June quarter ever, and our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline." The tech company, maker of the iPhone, iPad and other devices, said quarterly revenue came in at $53.3 billion, up 17 percent from the same period last year. "Our strong business performance drove revenue growth in each of our geographic segments, net income of $11.5 billion, and operating cash flow of $14.5 billion," Apple CFO Luca Maestri said. "We returned almost $25 billion to investors through our capital return program during the quarter, including $20 billion in share repurchases." --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turkey Wednesday slammed the US sanctions targeting two key ministers of the cabinet and vowed to take equivalent measures in retaliation if necessary. The U.S. Treasury Wednesday pressed sanctions against Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the detainment of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson. The two officials, the department said played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of the North Carolina Pastor. Turkeys Foreign Ministry in a statement chided the decision and called the U.S. move aggressive attitudes that do not serve any purpose. Countrys top diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu on Twitter pointed out that the U.S. sanctions move would not be left without retaliation. We cannot resolve our problems as long as the U.S. does not give up on its unlawful demands, he added. Another official from the government told local daily Haberturk that the tension can be defused through dialogue but warned that Ankara was ready to retaliate to the sanctions if needed. The sanctions, which are being imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016, allow the U.S. government to target individuals and companies or entities involved in corruption or human-rights abuses anywhere in the world. The two ministers will see their assets in the U.S. blocked and are prevented from traveling to the U.S. Americans are also prohibited from dealing with them. Justice Minister Gul following the sanctions announcement told media that he own no property or bank accounts in the U.S. and therefore is not affected by the penalties. Pastor Brunson has been placed under house arrest and banned from traveling abroad after he was previously held for over 2 years in prison over accusations of connection with PKK; a militant group opposed to Ankara, and with FETO organization of U.S.-based cleric Fettullah Gulen. Gulen is considered as the chief plotter of the 2016 military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The sanctions are unprecedented as they are directed to a NATO ally. President Donald Trump last week threatened to sanction Turkey if it does not free the Protestant Pastor who is according to the White House unlawfully detained. Erdogans government brushed off the threats. Brunson is expected to appear in court for another hearing in October. He faces 35 years in prison if found guilty. Tension between Iran and the U.S. spiraled over the past few weeks with President Trump and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani exchanging bellicose messages. Trumps Monday offer to meet with Iranian leaders for talks any time and without preconditions was swiftly brushed aside by Rouhanis entourage, which believes such a meeting will amount to a surrender after a hostile campaign by the White House. Dipen Pathak, president of the Assam unit of Trinamool Congress (TMC), on Thursday resigned from the party following differences with the party's top brass over the publication of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Pathak's resignation came at a time when an eight-member delegation of the party, which landed in Assam to assess the situation post publication of the NRC, was stopped and confined by the police at the Silchar airport on Thursday. "The party leadership should have consulted me before sending the delegation to Assam. The party top brass has termed the NRC updation process as an exercise to drive out Bengalis and Muslims. But it's wrong and I can't accept it," Pathak told the media at his residence here. "Mamata Banerjee is out to incite communal tension in Assam and break age-old harmony. We had asked her to visit Assam several times when Assam faced unprecedented flooding, but she could not find time. Again we asked her to raise Assam's flood problem in Parliament, which she never did. Now she is out to politicise the NRC issue," Pathak said. Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Kuladhar Saikia has, meanwhile, said that the detained TMC delegation is currently at the Silchar airport and they are consulting their senior party leaders to make the next move. "There was Section 144 in force in Silchar, so we prevented them from going out of the airport. At this, they misbehaved with the police and the civil administration officials present at the airport, leading to injury to two women constables and an administration official," said the DGP. Saikia clarified that the Assam Police had in writing informed the TMC delegation on Wednesday and even on Thursday morning about the imposition of prohibitory orders in Silchar. "The situation in Assam is peaceful at present and we can't allow anyone to agitate people by holding meetings and discussions," said the DGP, adding that the police are also likely to register two cases against the delegation members -- one for trying to violate the Section 144 and the other for causing injury to the constables on duty. --IANS ah/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Noting that the availability of water is going to be a major issue for the country in future, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday urged corporates to provide new technology and management expertise to address the crises in availability of portable water during a CSR event here. According to the minister, by 2035, India will become a $10 trillion economy, the third largest in the world and availability of water is going to be a major issue. "It should be ensured that India, the third largest economy by then, is not water stressed," a statement quoted the minister as saying. Prabhu called for joint efforts by the government and the corporates by pulling all resources such as financial, managerial, policy framework and local resources, to address the critical challenges in sectors of water, education and healthcare. The minister described CSR as an exemplary model in the country for companies "who have realised that their financial success is incomplete without support of the society". He added that CSR is a reality and it makes commercial sense for corporates to invest in society. --IANS ravi-rv/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladesh on Thursday launched a national action plan to put an end to marriages of girls aged less than 18 years through institutional initiatives, programmes and joint efforts. The plan, which is being developed jointly with the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), aims to put an end to marriages of girls under the age of 15, reduce by one-third the rate of marriage of 18-year-olds by 2021 and completely eliminate child marriage by 2041, Xinhua news agency reported. "It is difficult to stop child marriage overnight. The family which is extremely poor, the girl who does not have any guardians it is difficult to stop child marriage for them," said Meher Afroz Chumki, junior minister for Women and Children Affairs. According to Unicef, Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child marriage in the world, behind Niger, the Central African Republic and Chad. Between 2005-2013 alone, 65 per cent of Bangladeshi women got married before the age of 18. The Bangladeshi government estimates that the rate has been declining in recent years and fell to 62.8 per cent in 2015 and later to 47 per cent in 2017. In the last year, the number of married girls under the age of 15 was 10.7 per cent, less than half the rate recorded in 2015, according to the official data included in the national action plan. The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Secretary Nasima Begum expressed optimism about the success of the programme in eradicating the problem "before the stipulated time". --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged the students of an engineering university to not just get a job but also become a job creator. "I hope that you people will not only get a job but will become a job maker. Each one of you has to create at least 10 jobs," Kejriwal said while addressing the students at the orientation programme of the Delhi Technological University (DTU) here. He also emphasised on the potential of the youth and why they should not just support one political party but critically analyse in the country. "Democracy is about people and for that democracy to run, our youth should take interest in politics," Kejriwal said. "Don't join a party but observe, read and understand whose is right and whose is wrong. Be critical in your choices," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener said. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who accompanied Kejriwal at the programme, assured the students at DTU that all their loans or any other education-related financial problems will be taken care of by the government. "If the child is below poverty line (BPL) or even slightly above BPL, the government has arranged a scholarship of 25 to 100 per cent for that student," he said. Sisodia further assured that if a student requires any kind of loan for his/her studies, then the "government will arrange for that too". "You do not worry, the government will guarantee your You will get a loan of up to Rs 10 lakh, which you can pay after 15 years of job," he said. --IANS sd/pgh/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Thursday said the state government will urge the Patna High Court to monitor the CBI investigation in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case. As many as 34 minor girls were sexually assaulted in Balika Grih, a short-stay girls' shelter home run by an NGO of Thakur in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. "The Bihar government appointed Tata Institute of Social Sciences to audit shelter homes of the girls. The institute audited and the girls complained that they were sexually assaulted. After that the state government lodged an FIR," Modi said here. Out of the 11 accused persons, 10 have been arrested, he said. "The matter has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and charge sheet has also been filed. In the next date, we will urge the Patna High Court to monitor the entire investigation of CBI," he said. "This was a shameful incident. We have ordered a thorough probe and have taken actions against culprits... We have not protected anyone," Modi said. --IANS bdc/ssp/qd/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the electronic media from telecasting images and videos of minor rape victims from Bihar's Muzaffarpur district shelter home. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta taking suo motu cognisance of the incident after a man from Bihar wrote a letter to it, sought a response from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Bihar government. The court also sought assistance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The bench expressed concern over the identity of child rape victims being revealed by print and electronic media and said that even a morphed picture should not be published. The Muzaffarpur shelter home case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by TISS. The CBI on Sunday took over the shelter home rapes case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has described it as "a heinous crime". --IANS gt/anp/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal BJP took out a march here on Thursday to demand the publication of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal also to drive out "infiltrators from Bangladesh" from the eastern state. The march from south Kolkata's Deshapriyo Park to Maidan area was led by state Bharatiya Janata Party President Dilip Ghosh, National Secretary Rahul Sinha, and state General Secretary Sayantan Basu. "We demand the publication of the NRC in West Bengal as well. Infiltration from Bangladesh is rampant here. These infiltrators are involved in all sorts of illegal activities like bomb-making, smuggling, rioting and running syndicates. They must be deported to Bangladesh," state BJP women's wing President Locket Chatterjee said while addressing party workers. Accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of letting the Rohingya refugees (from Bangladesh) settle in certain Bengal districts, the BJP leader claimed that the "NRC is a must" in the state to check infiltration and conduct fair elections. "... Banerjee is allowing even the Rohingyas to settle in the state. She has too much compassion for illegal settlers from Bangladesh. She should first give peace to her own people," she said. Ghosh also flayed Banerjee, claiming she was politicising the NRC issue in Assam, deliberately trying to malign the BJP and provoke the Bengalis by spreading falsehood. "The NRC draft has been published in Assam on Supreme Court orders and has left out 40 lakh persons. If the process has some shortcomings, the state government and the court will look into it. But the way they (Trinamool) are politicising the issue and trying to provoke the Bengalis, both in Bengal and Assam, is condemnable," Ghosh said. "Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress are trying to malign the BJP, but our party has no role in the publication of the NRC draft. They are blocking roads and railways here and creating a ruckus while there are no problems in Assam where the draft list has been published," he added. --IANS mgr/tsb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI has registered a murder case against Army Major Vijay Singh Balhara and seven others in the killing of a 12-year-old boy in Manipur in an alleged "encounter" in 2009, the agency said on Thursday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Balhara in an FIR it filed on Tuesday against the accused in the death of Azad Khan. Balhara was attached with Assam Rifles and was heading a team when the alleged 'encounter' took place. The CBI's move comes after the Supreme Court on July 14 directed the agency to go through the records of the case, lodge necessary FIR and complete the investigation on the basis of a report submitted by the Justice Santosh Hegde Commission. Khan's father Wahid Ali, a resident of Phoubakchao village in Manipur, had deposed before Justice Hegde Commission that his son was killed by the personnel of Manipur Police Commando in a staged encounter after picking him from his home on March 4, 2009. Besides Balhara, Broason Thanga (Havaldar), Suresh Meitei (then Havaldar) and Thangjapo Toithang (a driver) are named along with four other unidentified security persons in the CBI FIR. All the accused allegedly took Khan, a Class VII student with no criminal antecedents, from his home before his death, the Commission said in its report. The evidence given by the security forces revealed that the deceased was a suspected member of the Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF) and that the group was not a banned organisation as per the Manipur government. Khan's family had said that at 11.50 a.m., about 30 security personnel came to the house and dragged Khan to a nearby field where he was severely beaten up amid protests from parents. On the Supreme Court's July 14 direction, the CBI registered another FIR on Tuesday naming two then Army Havaldars -- Laisram Premkumar Singh and L. Romesh Singh -- and three other security personnel in the death of Khumbongmayum Orsonjit Singh on March 16, 2010 in an alleged "encounter", which has also been investigated by Justice Hegde. The two cases were termed as "fake encounter" by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Santosh Hegde Commission. --IANS rak/prs/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that members of a Trinamool Congress delegation were "manhandled" by police at an Assam airport and accused the Centre of imposing "super emergency". The Trinamool Congress supremo also claimed that the draft NRC published in Assam is the "central government's political vendetta to oust real Indians from the country". Claiming that her party lawmakers had gone to Assam only to meet the "victims" whose names have been left out of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30, she wondered if stopping the delegation was part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's "vendetta to suppress the real facts in Assam". "When I went to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he told me that no one will be harassed. And after that, a TMC parliamentary delegation comprising a Minister, one MLA and six MPs who went to meet the victims was not allowed to come out of the airport itself. Inside the airport, they were manhandled by Assam Police. Even female members were not spared," Banerjee said after returning here from Delhi this evening. The Trinamool delegation were confined to a room at the Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar during the day on the ground that Section 144 of the CrPC was in force in Cachar district in Assam. Some delegation members, including women, alleged that they were manhandled by the police at the airport. "This is most unfortunate. I condemn the attitude. Our MPs had gone there to meet the common people there, nothing else. There was no public meeting. If everything (in Assam) is okay and peaceful, if there is no harassment, then why is the (Assam) government behaving rudely with the MPs? Is it their vendetta to suppress the real facts?" she questioned. Banerjee claimed that the people in Assam are panicky over the NRC developments and said that the BJP-led central government is showing its muscle like a "super-emergency government". Banerjee, who has been extremely critical of the draft NRC, also questioned the imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC in various Assam districts. "If nothing is (wrong) there, then why has (Section) 144 of CrPC been imposed? Even if Section 144 has been imposed, two persons can move freely. We know the law. They cannot state under which law they were not allowed (to move)," she said. Banerjee said: "This is the beginning of their end. They are frustrated, they are politically tensed. That's why they are only showing their muscle power." --IANS mgr/ssp/tsb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have agreed on a draft code of conduct that will lay the foundation for talks over the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministers of Singapore and China announced on Thursday. The agreement came at the annual ministerial meeting between China and Asean member states in Singapore, Channel News Asia reported. China has overlapping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea with several Asean members, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The countries have long discussed a deal to defuse tensions but the talks have been hindered by sticking points such as the area the agreement should cover. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the agreement on the draft was a new and important step for the code of conduct deliberations. "I believe that the negotiation on COC can be speeded up if we exclude external interference," he said. "Facts will prove that China and Asean member states are capable of maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and reaching regional rules adhered to by all through negotiations." Singaporean Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan called the agreement a "milestone". He said the single draft negotiating text will be a "living document and the basis of future code of conduct negotiations". Both sides also agreed on the key modalities for future rounds of talks. He also said that the agreement on a single text didn't mean that negotiations were over or that all the competing claims over territory in the South China Sea were resolved as the code of conduct "was never meant to resolve territorial disputes", according to the report. Balakrishnan added that it would be premature to set a deadline for the negotiations on the code of conduct as it involved a "dynamic, evolving situation". Negotiations on the code of conduct began in March and both sides arrived at the first draft during talks held two months ago at China's Changsha city, said Balakrishnan. The Chinese Foreign Minister said that Beijing dispatched its most advanced rescue ship equipped with professional search-and-rescue teams to the Nansha Islands (in South China Sea) days ago, to carry out various missions. The ship will provide maritime assistance for ships from countries around the world when necessary, he said. --IANS soni/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Fourth Patriarch of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Abune Merkorios, has returned to Addis Ababa after 27 years in exile. The Holy Synod of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) lived in the United States throughout his exile, occasionally visiting congregations there. Ethiopias Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, met him in the US last week and persuaded him to reconcile with a rival faction of the Church. He returned to the Horn of Africa nation on the same flight with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and some members of his cabinet. The Church split in the early 1990s after Mengistu Haile Mariams Communist regime was overthrown. Up on arrival at Bole International Airport, Abune Merkorios was warmly greeted by Abune Mathias, the sixth patriarch of Ethiopia, senior government officials and the Ethiopian church faithful. Following the reconciliation process ongoing in the country, the current Patriarch of Ethiopia, Abune Mathias, sent high-level delegation to start talks with the exiled synod. The talks resulted in both sides deciding to work together and the exiled synod to return home. Patriarch Abune Mathias will now serve as an administrative patriarch and Patriarch Abune Merkorios will serve the churchs spiritual functions on equal authoritative footing. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church can trace its roots back to the 4th Century and is one of the oldest organized Christian bodies in the world. The Congress on Thursday announced its candidates for the two Meghalaya assembly by-elections from South Tura and Ranikor to be held on August 23. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is part of the National People's Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, has decided not to contest the by-elections and support the NPP candidate and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma from South Tura assembly seat. However, the saffron party is yet to decide which of the coalition partners it should extend its support to for the Ranikor by-poll. Three parties which are part of the coalition government -- United Democratic Party, People's Democratic Front and NPP -- are fielding their candidates for the Ranikor by-poll. The Congress is fielding former Garo Student's Union leader Jackuish K. Sangma as party candidate for the Ranikor by-poll, while retired Principal of Tura Government Public School, Charlotte W. Momin will contest the South Tura by- election against Chief Minister Conrad. Jackuish will take on former Congress legislator and NPP candidate M.M. Danggo, People's Democratic Front nominee P.N. Syiem and United Democratic Party's Pius Marwein. South Tura Assembly constituency is expected to have a three-cornered contest as former independent legislator John Leslee Sangma is expected to contest the by-poll. The two seats fell vacant following the resignation of NPP legislator Agatha Sangma from South Tura Assembly seat to pave way for her brother and Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to contest the by-election in order to retain the Chief Ministership. Former Public Works Department Minister and five-time Congress legislator from Ranikor constituency, Martin Danggo resigned as member of the State Assembly and joined the ruling NPP after the government announced the creation of Ranikor Civil Sub-Division. --IANS rrk/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bollywood filmmaker-producer J.P. Dutta, gearing up for the release of his movie 'Paltan', on Thursday said that he does not consider the 1962 India-China war as sich but a "betrayal". "China fought us only in 1962. But if you study that war, you will realise that it wasn't a war. They attacked Indian borders at 5 a.m. and massacred 600 Indian soldiers in two hours. So, it's not a war where you give equal chance to the other person to fight back. Therefore, I don't consider it was war... it was kind of betrayal," Dutta said when asked why Indian filmmakers don't make movies on the India-China war as they do with India-Pakistan wars. Dutta was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of 'Paltan' along with actors Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshwardhan Rane, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Sidhhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Monica Gill, Anu Sonal Chauhan, Dipika Kakar, music composer Anu Malik and producer Nidhi Dutta on Thursday in Mumbai. "It was kind of betrayal because India was the first country to acknowledge the People's Republic of China when Mao Zedong became the Chairman of the Communist Party of China. India was the first country which told the United Nations to make China a part of the world body. "Western countries were not ready to recognise China, but (then Indian Prime Minister) Jawaharlal Nehru made the first move to make China a part of the United Nations." The director-producer said that maybe Nehru did so because he never felt that they will ever do anything wrong to us (India). "But as they say 'life is unfair and the world is unfair'". Dutta, who launched Abhishek Bachchan in Hindi film industry with 'Refugee' (2000) and worked with him again in Umrao Jaan (2006). When Dutta was doing casting for 'Paltan', he again roped in Abhishek to play a soldier, but after reportedly committing for the film, the Bachchan junior opted out. Queried on the issue, a visibly upset Dutta said: "Please go ahead and speak to Bachchan and let me know because even I don't know." Based on the Nathu La military clashes along the Sikkim border in 1967, 'Paltan' showcases an untold story of the Indian forces facing off in an intense battle to ward off Chinese infiltration. With 'Paltan', Dutta is returning to the director's chair after a gap of 12 years -- Umrao Jaan was his last directed film. Dutta is best known for helming war movies like 'Refugee', 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil'. 'Paltan' is set to hit the screens on September 7. --IANS iv/tsb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CPI-M has attacked both West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, saying both were pursuing narrow political interests. "The publication of the draft NRC has led to political jockeying," said an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy". "The BJP is aggressively seeking to portray all those excluded as Bangladeshi infiltrators, or, illegal migrants. They seek to make a distinction between Hindu refugees and illegal Muslim migrants," it said. "On the other end of the spectrum, Mamata Banerjee has denounced the NRC process and raised fears of Bengalis and Biharis being driven out of Assam. This is an obvious ploy to rouse Bengali sentiments and play upon minority insecurities for narrow political purposes." The Communist Party of India-Marxist argued that as against the communal divisiveness, there had to be a bias-free process of including all Indians as citizens in the NRC. "The NRC updating is not taking place in a political vacuum. There is a BJP-led government in the state which seeks to target all Bengali-speaking Muslims as illegal migrants. So vigilance has to be exercised that this bias does not manifest in the enumeration process. "It is imperative that no Indian is deprived of his, or, her right to citizenship and to be included in the NRC." The publication of the draft NRC in Assam has led to bitterness as over four million persons who had applied have not found a place in the Register. --IANS mr/soni (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to allow it to purchase 500 standard-floor buses and emphasised on the city's urgent need to increase environment-friendly public transport. Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in a tweet said: "Welcome decision by the Supreme Court allowing Delhi government to procure 500 standard floor buses. There is an urgent need to augment environment-friendly public transport in Delhi." The Delhi government assured the top court that hydraulic lifts would be installed in the buses for the benefit of differently-abled persons. The apex court's order came on an appeal by the Delhi government and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) challenging Delhi High Court's June 1 order barring them from procuring 2,000 standard-floor buses without the enabling facility for the special category commuters. The decision to buy buses has been taken considering the dire need to augment the existing bus fleet, particularly on rural routes, the government said. --IANS sd/pgh/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The British Council, which is working closely with the Delhi government to improve the English skills of students in government schools here, believes the language is important in the present scenario but not at the cost of one's mother tongue. "English is not a replacement for the mother tongue, but is important (in the context of) the present global situation," British Council India Director Alan Gemmell told IANS. The British Council, along with the University of Cambridge, is running "The Language of in Multilingual India: Exploring Effects on Reading and Mathematics" project in Delhi government schools to explore and develop the multilingual learning and cognitive abilities of the students. "Appropriate use of English in systems has been part of our global charter. English has one of the highest numbers of loan words from Indian languages and it is only natural that it has become one of India's languages. It has also become an essential skill in the 21st century, an 'operating system language' across the world," Gemmell told IANS. This research project, he said, will provide further evidence for their belief in multilingualism and the role the mother tongue plays in early years of The project started in 2016 to find out whether children who speak a language at home that is different from the medium of instruction in school, have lower learning outcomes than children whose home and school language is the same. Apart from Delhi, the project is also running in Hyderabad and Patna. "One of the reasons for choosing the three cities was that we have our collaborators present in all these cities. In this project, the British Council is the strongest partner," Ianthi Maria Tsimpli, Professor of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, told IANS. Data collection is underway with about 1,000 child participants and the findings are expected to be reported in 2020. There is also another challenge. "The challenge is children are coming to schools and not being able to adapt language skills. The system has failed in teaching the children how to read, learn and express in language. This makes it difficult for them to use the language in other subjects as well. When a child finds it difficult to read a language, he will find it difficult to learn social science, science and other subjects in that language," Atishi Marlena, former advisor to Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, told IANS. The basic of any system should be that a child should be able to acquire the first language, she said, adding: "When he is comfortable with the first language, only then will he be able to learn all other things." Tsimpli echoed the sentiments: "Being able to communicate is the first step of learning. Until you are able to communicate in a language, you cannot learn in that language." Another issue arises here. The children in government schools are mostly first generation learners who do not have any exposure to the written language. Even their exposure to the spoken language is less. "Their parents are often engaged in making their ends meet. They do not have time to even talk to their children," Marlena explained. Speaking about other key issues in the learning process, Tsimpli said: "The size of the classroom matters in learning. It is difficult for a teacher to teach and at the same time to keep the focus on 50-60 students." "When we came in, there were classes with over 150 students," Marlena said. One of the problems government schools face is the discipline issue. "The teacher asks the student to stand out of the class over discipline issues, but they failed to realise that the child is creating the disturbance as he is not able to pay attention to the class. He failed to learn the basic language skills. They will not access the happenings of the classrooms if they cannot read the things written on the blackboard or in a textbook," Marlena said. "The minute they start acquiring what is happening in the class, the minute they start understanding what the teacher is saying, they will pay attention and the system will transform. The challenge before us is: How are you going to make them learn," she said. (Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in) --IANS nks/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos on Thursday made it official to leave the social media platform and join Stanford University as a full-time teacher and researcher. The announcement came as Facebook under Stamos investigation revealed on Tuesday that it discovered and banned 26 bad actors who were using the platform to manipulate political discourse as US mid-term elections approach. "I have had the pleasure of lecturing at Stanford for several years, and now I will have the honour of guiding new generations of students as an Adjunct Professor at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies," Stamos said in a Facebook post. His last day at Facebook will be August 17. "It is critical that we as an industry live up to our collective responsibility to consider the impact of what we build, and I look forward to continued collaboration and partnership with the security and safety teams at Facebook," he noted. Inside Facebook, Stamos had been strongly advocating for investigating and disclosing Russian activity on the social media platform. Facebook's reputation is already under attack over Russia's alleged use of Facebook tools to sway US voters with divisive and false news posts before and after the 2016 election. According to The Verge, Stamos who joined Facebook in 2015 won't be replaced after he leaves, "meaning no one will hold the title of 'chief security officer' at Facebook". Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company "look(s) forward to collaborating with him in his new role". --IANS na/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At a time when at least 26 well known writers have written a letter to the Sahitya Akademi President Chandrashekhar Kambar, urging the National Academy of Letters to condemn the attacks against writers like S. Hareesh and Damodar Mauzo, the Akademi president, speaking to IANS, vociferously expressed that the Akademi was on a cusp of revival and that it will not hesitate to speak for the fraternity. "I must make it clear that the Akademi condemns all attacks against writers and I am saddened by the news of Mauzo and Hareesh. I condemn these threats in strongest of words. I wrote a letter to the people and sent it to my office yesterday," Kambar, a recipient of the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri told IANS over telephone from Bangalore. The 81-year-old said that he will be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and draw his attention to the "pressures and attacks" writers like Hareesh are facing. "I am also trying to speak to the concerned minister (Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma) but he is not available. I have already written a letter to my secretary in Delhi as well and I will do everything possible to protect the rights of writers. "The Akademi is meant to uphold free speech and I will not hesitate. I will talk," he said. On being reminded that the same body took as many as 54 days to publicly condemn the killings of rational thinkers and writers M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar that had triggered massive protests by writers bringing the Akademi to a standstill in 2015, Kambar said that the past should be left behind as the Akademi was on a cusp of revival. "Forget the past, we are doing everything in our capacity and we have taken a stand already, that we condemn these attacks against S. Hareesh and Damodar Mauzo," he said. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Akademi said that it "condemns all attacks on writers, thinkers and poets, not only in India but all over the world". It said that the Akademi received "the news of threat" to writers with "great pain". "Sahitya Akademi strongly condemns these attacks and stand behind the writers' community of India," read the one-paragraph press statement from the Sahitya Akademi, signed by Kambar. In what seems to be a reminder of the awardwapsi campaign in 2015, a collegium of heavyweight and multiple award winning writers such as Nayantara Sahgal, Keki Daruwalla, K. Satchidanandan, Ritu Menon, Jerry Pinto and, among several others, Meena Alexander have written to the akademi, urging it to condemn such instances. "It is with a sense of considerable anxiety and dismay that we who belong to the community of writers, a community which holds fast to democratic and secular values enshrined in our constitution, have noticed recent developments relating to writers," said the letter to Akademi president under the banner of Indian Writers' Forum. The writers' forum pointed out that the Akademi failed to take a "bold, public stand" in 2015. "We hope this would not happen in your dispensation and that this big literary institution will take a brave stand now," the letter read. Malayalam novelist S. Hareesh and his publisher DC Books have received numerous threats and messages of intimidation from some right wing outfits in the wake of his novel "Meesha". Mauzo, a Goa-based Konkani novelist and short story writer, has been provided with police security in the wake of threats to his life from the Sanathan Sanstha, a right-wing organisation. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) --IANS ss/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first comprehensive overview for more than a decade of the state of knowledge about global biodiversity and the contributions of nature to people is nearing completion with a final meeting of authors this week at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre here, it was announced on Thursday. Under the leadership of Josef Settele (Germany), Sandra Diaz (Argentina) and Eduardo S. Brondizio (Brazil and the US), 150 expert authors from over 50 countries around the world have contributed for almost three years to a massive interdisciplinary collaboration under the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The resulting Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will be considered by representatives of 130 governments in May next year in Paris at the seventh session of the IPBES Plenary. The research covers land-based ecosystems, inland waters and oceans, looking back 50 years to evaluate changes, and forward to consider scenarios, possible pathways and policy options. Once published, it is expected to inform policy and action on biodiversity to 2030 and beyond. Speaking about the importance of research, Senckenberg Centre Director Katrin Bohning-Gaese said: "Biodiversity loss is a major threat to human wellbeing, and there is a growing need for better scientific evidence in policy and decision making." "This is the major goal of IPBES, and it is also why Senckenberg is pleased to host this third and final author meeting of the global assessment. Research on biodiversity loss and its causes is a major focus of the more than 300 Senckenberg scientists, some of whom also contribute to the IPBES assessments." "The IPBES Global Assessment is, in many ways, a successor to the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005," Josef Settele told journalists. "Since then, the world has agreed to a range of key commitments -- such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Global Assessment will help decision-makers, at every level, to assess progress, identify major gaps and consider a range of policy options to meet these key undertakings." IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising 130 member-governments. Established by governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet's biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people. --IANS vg/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After reports surfaced that Google is planning a censored Search engine for China, more reports claimed on Thursday that the tech giant is also developing a "government-friendly news app for the country". According to The Information, Google is developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that will comply with the country's censorship laws. "Google has been working on the app since last year and had been meeting with Chinese regulators to discuss the project," said the report, citing sources. "It is also preparing a mobile app for Internet search in China that will comply with local censorship laws, an effort first reported by The Intercept," the report added. The state-owned China Securities Daily, however, refuted the report on Google's Search engine for China. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), China is home to 772 million Internet users -- the biggest online community in the world. China has also seen increased affluence among its consumers, which are quick to embrace innovative new technologies and services. "That has also allowed Internet companies led by Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to expand beyond their initial businesses, building vast online platforms that offer a range of products and services to their users. The trio now commands a combined market valuation exceeding US$1 trillion," reported SCMP. Tech Crunch reported that Google is essentially cloning Toutiao, a popular app in China. "Like Toutiao, the app would apparently use AI and algorithms to serve stories to readers - as opposed to real-life human editors - while it too would be designed to work within the bounds of Chinese internet censorship," claimed the report. Google, which has hundreds of people working in China, recently launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab in the country. Facebook has set up a subsidiary in China to build an "innovation hub" focused on helping local developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow. Facebook's application for the China subsidiary in the Zhejiang province was approved on July 18, CNBC reported. "We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. --IANS na/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Thursday said the Narendra Modi government will succeed in getting reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as these are central universities. Replying to a debate on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, which seeks to give constitutional status to the OBC Commission, Gehlot said the Central government is presenting its viewpoint before the court. "We assure that these are central universities and we will succeed in getting reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs)," he said. The Minister said the two universities were declared minority institutions during the rule of Congress governments. Gehlot said the Modi government has taken a bold decision to set up a panel for sub-categorisation of backward classes and will act swiftly on getting the report. "The categorisation will be done actively to undo the injustice done to them." He said the government has set up the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) and sought comments from states on its report. The Minister said once the process is completed, the government will bring a bill for their empowerment. He said facilities given to weaker sections are being given to them. Gehlot said the government had pursued the matter of promotion for the weaker sections in courts, and the Department of Personnel has already issued relevant orders. Besides, an advisory has also been sent to the states. He also referred to the review petition filed by the government in the Supreme Court over the perceived dilution of SC/ST Act and said that a bill would be brought in the monsoon session itself to restore its original provisions. He said the Modi government had announced that it will work for the poor and it has lived up to its promise. "We have done what we had promised," he added. --IANS ps/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday lauded his Gambian counterpart, Adama Barrow, for bringing stability to Gambia since the downfall of longtime leader Yahya Jammeh. Buhari who held talks with his guest Barrow in Abuja on Wednesday underscored the importance of stability saying it had a ripple effect on the wider national agenda of every nation. The best route to national development is stability. When a country is not stable, you spend most of your financial resources on security, he said. In December 2016, former President Jammeh lost the election to businessman Adama Barrow, but he subsequently refused to step down. Then the political drama ended with an armed intervention threat by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to remove Jammeh by force. He finally relented and left the country, taking with him a fleet of luxury cars and cash to Equatorial Guinea. Barrows visit to Nigeria is his second since he came to power. He congratulated Buhari on his new regional position as new chairperson of ECOWAS, in replacement of the Togolese President. The Light Combat Aircraft's (LCA) naval variant landed on the deck of warship INS Hansa in Goa, said its maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on Thursday. "LCA Navy (NP2) undertakes maiden taxi-in engagement to prove arrestor hook system of aircraft at sea-bed test facility Goa," tweeted Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "This is the first of a series of engagements planned to prove the arrestor hook capability of the combat fighter," said HAL Chairman T. Suvarna Raju. The achievement pushes India into a select club of the US, Europe, Russia and China in having the capability of deck-landing by a fighter aircraft. "Piloted by Captain Shivnath Dahiya, the LCA naval prototype (NP-2) landed safely on the deck of INS Hansa at the naval shore-based test facility in Goa," said state-run defence behemoth HAL. The maiden feat involved the pilot making contact of the arrester hook system with the arresting wire at moderate taxi-in speed on the location at the test facility. The first taxi-in engagement was monitored by the landing signal officer Commodore J.A. Maolankar and test director Group Captain A. Kabadwal (Retd). The city-based aerospace major's design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre, developed the arrestor hook system for ship-deck operations of LCA naval version. The LCA naval prototype was integrated with the hook system and has been operating at INS Hansa since July 28 after the landing system was verified in-air operation in Bengaluru on July 23. The naval air station has a 14-degree ramp along with testing sensors and other equipment to monitor the flights. The prototype's carrier compatibility trials are slated at shore-based test facilities, built at the Indian naval base in Goa on the West Coast. The evaluation involves shore-based trials before embarking on actual deck of an aircraft carrier like INS Vikramaditya for LCA Navy next year. State-run Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the military aircraft's airworthiness certifying agency Cemilac and the Indian Navy worked together for the maiden deck landing. A series of trials are planned which will involve landing, refuelling and take-off from an aircraft carrier near the West Coast after a slew of ground tests at higher speeds. The single-jet engine Tejas is the smallest and lightest multirole supersonic fighter aircraft of its class. The tandem twin-seater aircraft is integrated with avionics and flight controls for ground runs and taxi trials. The naval variant can also be deployed on the second indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, being built at the Cochin Shipyard. --IANS fb/prs/mr (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US Senate has passed a bill that gives India a partial waiver relief from sanctions against Russian firms and oligarchs, allowing it to keep buying Russia-made weapons in a landmark decision that is seen as a big diplomatic win for New Delhi. The defence spending bill, which now goes to President Donald Trump before it becomes a law, also seeks to "strengthen and enhance" defence partnership with India. It was passed by the House last week. The National Defence Authorization Act was passed on Wednesday with overwhelmingly bipartisan support - a vote of 87-10 in the Senate and 359-54 in the House. The bill authorizes a $717 billion US defence budget to rebuild its military and "strengthens our alliances and partnerships and reforms the way we do business", Secretary of Defence James Mattis said in a statement. He said the bill "provides waiver relief to key US partners and allies from certain Russian-related sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act" (CAATSA). The CAATSA amendment allows countries like India to continue buying military equipment from Russia provided they fulfill certain conditions, like reducing defence purchases from Russia. The law, which came into effect in 2018, sanctions some Russia firms, including state-run military hardware makers, and some businessmen, for alleged meddling in the 2016 US Presidential elections. The act also forbade third-party countries from doing "significant transactions" with Russia in military and intelligence sectors through the threat of secondary sanctions. Now the modified version of the act requires presidential certifications allowing key US allies to trade with Russia. "I am grateful for the strong commitment of members on both sides of the aisle to pass this year's NDAA in record time. Together, they have demonstrated the deep and abiding bipartisan support our military enjoys," Mattis said. "It is now our duty to implement these policies responsibly and ensure a culture of performance and accountability." Among the first in the line of fire of anti-Russia sanctions was India, which is all set to buy five Russian-made S-400 Triumf advanced air defence systems. An agreement for the deal is expected to be signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Moscow later this year. Significantly, the bill also proposes to "strengthen and enhance" America's major defence partnership with India and "work toward mutual security objectives". It talks about the strategic Quadrilateral Dialogue between the US, India, Japan, and Australia for "expanding engagement in multilateral frameworks". Also known as the Quad, the grouping first established in 2007-08, was revived last year amid China's assertive maritime strategy expansion, land reclamation and territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. Concerns about Chinese increasing military activities and its Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) have triggered fears in India about encroachment of its strategic interest as well as encirclement of its maritime zone by Chinese projects in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The expansion of engagement in multilateral frameworks, the bill said, would be done to "promote regional security and defend shared values and common interests in the rules-based order". Besides, additional steps would be explored "to implement the 'major defence partner' designation to better facilitate military inter-operability, information sharing, and appropriate technology transfers" with India. The bill also proposed to designate a "responsible individual within the Department of Defence to facilitate the major defence partnership with India" and pursue strategic initiatives to help develop India's defence capabilities, including maritime security capabilities. It also suggests conducting additional joint exercises between Indian and US militaries in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean region, and the Western Pacific and furthering cooperative efforts to promote security and stability in Afghanistan. --IANS sar/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India on Thursday successfully test-fired the endo-atmospheric Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile, which is a part of the country's ballistic missile defence (BMD) shield against a multiple target scenario. The interceptor missile (it remains within the earth's atmosphere at an altitude below 100 km), fired from the Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast, hit a designated incoming dummy enemy missile at a distance of 40 km, said official sources. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) test-fired the AAD interceptor from a canister against multiple simulated targets. The missile shoots down one after choosing from a number of targets, said the sources. The DRDO has developed both high-altitude and low-altitude anti-ballistic missiles. The interceptor is a 7.5-meter long single stage solid rocket propelled guided missile. --IANS cd/prs/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A ceremonial border personnel meeting has taken place between the Indian and Chinese armies on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh region, an official said on Thursday. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told IANS that the meeting on the occasion of China's Peoples Liberation Army Day took place on Wednesday at a Chinese camp, Chu shul-Moldo. The event was marked by saluting of the national flags by the delegation members. "This was followed by ceremonial addresses by the delegation leaders which included exchange of greetings and both expressed a desire to maintain and improve relations at functional level at the border," the spokesman said. Thereafter, a programme showcasing Chinese culture was held. "Both the delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment. The delegations parted amidst feeling of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations and maintaining peace along the LAC," the official said. --IANS sq/mr/soni (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan has decided to lower the level of travel advisory to its people who would like to visit tourist destinations in four districts of Meghalaya, a government official said on Thursday. The Japanese government took this decision after Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad made a request to Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu during his visit to the state on May 7 and subsequent communication between the Raj Bhavan and the Embassy of Japan. "The Raj Bhavan has received a communication from the Japanese Embassy on August 1 that the government of Japan has lowered the level of travel advisory for East Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts," Shillong Raj Bhavan, Deputy Secretary, P.S. Kharkongor said. "This will open up Meghalaya's four districts to Japanese visitors and tourists and enhance the people-to-people contacts as well as exchanges between Japan and Meghalaya. The Governor hoped that the tourism industry in the state of Meghalaya will get a fillip due to this positive development," the official said. Prasad had requested Hiramatsu to review the travel advisory that cautioned Japanese citizens against visiting Meghalaya owing to security apprehensions as the situation has improved a lot in the state over the past few years. --IANS rrk/pgh/ vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actors Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon have started shooting for their upcoming film "Luka Chuppi". Kriti on Thursday took to Twitter, where she shared a photograph of herself along with Kartik. "To new beginnings 'Luka Chuppi', Day 1," she wrote. Kartik shared the same photograph and captioned: "And 'Luka Chuppi' starts. Day 1." Kartik will be seen playing a TV reporter based in Mathura. Kriti essays a Mathura girl who goes to Delhi to study and returns to her hometown. It is being produced under the banner of Maddock Films. The film will be helmed by Laxman Utekar, the director of photography of "Hindi Medium". He has also directed Marathi films "Tapaal" and "Lalbaugcha Raja". This is his Bollywood debut as a director. --IANS dc/rb/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Filmmaker J.P. Dutta, who has made several films on India-Pakistan wars, feels that ever-recurring Kashmir issue between both neighbouring countries is like a child of a broken marriage. Dutta was interacting with media at the trailer launch of 'Paltan' along with actors Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshvardhan Rane, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Sidhhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Monica Gill, Sonal Chauhan, Dipika Kakar, music composer Anu Malik and producer Nidhi Dutta on Thursday in Mumbai. Asked for a comment on the relations between India and Pakistan, Dutta, who has made films like 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil', said: "They (Pakistan) will not forget Bangladesh and they will always try to take revenge of the 1971 war (where India was instrumental in creating Bangladesh as a separate country which was earlier part of Pakistan)." Dutta said Kashmir is a very emotional issue for both India and Pakistan and both the countries are not ready to keep their egos aside. "I feel Kashmir is like a child of a broken marriage and, therefore, continuously that topic recurs from both sides." Dutta returned to direction with 'Paltan' almost after 12 years when he last directed 'Umrao Jaan', which was released in 2006. "I was born to do this job. For me, happiness lies in making films. When I am not making films, I feel sad," he said. He added "the Almighty has sent him to make films on sacrifice of soldiers for the country". "When you are born, when you come into this world, and when you are growing up, you realize you have been sent by the Almighty to do a certain job and I think I have been sent to make my soldiers immortal," Dutta said. About his experience of directing multiple actors in 'Paltan', Dutta said: "I have earlier made multi-starrer films like 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil'. I have worked with Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra ji and Sunil Dutt saab in my earlier films. I got immense amount of love, support and respect from those actors. So, I truly feel blessed." Produced by Zee Studios and J.P. Films, 'Paltan' is all set to hit screens on September 7. --IANS iv/qd/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Turning into a Samaritan, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy helped an estranged Mysuru woman return to the state from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, said an official statement on Thursday. "The 40-year-old ailing woman, traced in a Shimla rehab hospital recently, was brought to Bengaluru on Thursday by a team of state health officials," said the Chief Minister's office in a statement here. The woman, whose identity has been kept confidential for safety and security, met Kumaraswamy at his home-office in the city centre along with the health officials who rescued and escorted her to the city safely. "Kumaraswamy has assured the woman of medical treatment and rehabilitation," noted the statement. When the woman urged the Chief Minister to provide her a house and trace her husband, Kumaraswamy directed Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar to do the needful on priority. Kumaraswamy also thanked his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jai Ram Thakur and his wife Sadhana Thakur, who hails from Karnataka, for helping the state in rescuing the woman. The rescue team comprised Deputy Health Director Rajani, Mysuru District Mental Health Officer Manu Prasad and woman police constable Nageena. "The woman will be sheltered at 'Our Home' run by the Women and Child Welfare Department in the city and send her to mother's place in Mysuru district on recovery," reiterated the statement. Abandoned by husband at Mysuru, about 150 km from here, the woman went missing from the state and reached Kangra in Himachal and subsequently got admitted to a hospital in Shimla for depression. On learning about the woman's plight when he was in New Delhi in mid-July on official work from news channels and media reports, Kumaraswamy directed the officials to rescue her at the earliest. According to reports in the local media, the middle-aged woman, who hails from Makanahalli in Mysuru district, went missing 2 years ago when she came to Bengaluru to work in a garment factory. "The woman, who lost her way and landed at Kangra, was admitted in the state-run Himachal Hospital for Mental Health and Rehabilitation in Shimla for treatment in June 2016," recalled an official statement on July 23. "The woman could not contact her family facing language issues in Himachal and was unable to recall how she reached there," the statement added. --IANS bha-fb/ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed an amendment bill to give constitutional status to the OBC Commission by approving alternate amendments to those adopted by the Rajya Sabha. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill was passed through a division with all 406 members present in the House voting in its favour. Replying to the debate on bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said the Narendra Modi government had promised to accord constitutional status to the National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC). "Modi government had announced that it will work for the poor and it has lived to its promise... We have done, what we had promised," he said. Prime Minister Modi was present in the Lok Sabha when the amendment bill was passed with a majority of total members present and not less than two-thirds of those present and voting. Officials said it was a very rare instance of the Lok Sabha adopting "amendment alternative to the amendment made by the Rajya Sabha". The bill will again go the upper House for its approval. The bill is seen as a push by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to consolidate its support among OBCs ahead of the state elections later this year and the Lok Sabha elections early next year. The party is expected to highlight its efforts to get the bill passed in its election campaigns in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where OBCs form a large chunk of population. It is also likely to raise the issue strongly during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. Several BJP members spoke on the bill and accused the Congress of not caring for the interests of OBCs. The alternate amendments moved by the Minister substituted the amendments made by the upper House when it passed the bill on July 31 last year. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha on April 10, 2017. Gehlot also took a dig at the Congress, saying its members had supported the bill in the Lok Sabha last year but had changed their stance in the Rajya Sabha. He said that the rules will be framed to ensure that one of the members of the commission is a woman. Gehlot also said that the Modi government "will succeed" in getting reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in the Jamia Millia Islamia and the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), as these were central universities. He said the Central government is presenting its viewpoint before the court. "We assure that these are central universities and we will succeed in getting reservation for the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Other Backward Classes (OBC)." The Minister said the two universities were declared minority institutions during the Congress rule. Gehlot said the Modi government has taken a bold decision to set up a panel for sub-categorisation of backward classes and will act swiftly on getting the report. "The categorisation will be done actively to undo the injustice done to them," he said. He said the government had set up the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) and had sought comments from states on its report. During the debate some members suggested to conduct a census to ascertain the population of other backward classes (OBCs). There was also a demand to make public socio-economic survey of 2014. The bill seeks to grant NCBC constitutional status at par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST). While setting up the NCBC as a constitutional body, the bill seeks to provide it authority to examine complaints and welfare measures regarding socially and educationally backward classes. The amendments moved by BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab were rejected with 302 votes against it and 84 in favour. Officials said the bill returned from the upper House had deleted Clause 3. The Congress members in the Rajya Sabha had moved an amendment to Clause 3 of the bill seeking to have a woman and a person from the minority community as its members. Gehlot said that the suggestion for "religion-based reservation" in composition of the commission is unconstitutional. --IANS ps/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Rajkummar Rao welcomed actors Mouni Roy and Boman Irani in "Made In China" and said that the upcoming film will be a crazy ride. Rajkummar on Thursday tweeted: "'Made In China' just got bigger and better. Welcome Mouni Roy and Boman Irani sir. This one's going to be a crazy ride." Mouni is set to play Rajkummar's wife in the movie, which will be will be directed by Gujarati director Mikhil Musale. "Made in China" will start rolling in September in Mumbai and then travel to Gujarat and China. This is Rajkummar's second collaboration with Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films after the horror comedy film "Stree", which will hit theatres on August 31. --IANS dc/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Healthcare Committee Chair Calls for Decreased Price on Basic Medicines By Tea Mariamidze Akaki Zoidze, Chairman of the Healthcare Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, believes that it is necessary to regulate the costs of around 300-400 medicaments which are essential for life.Zoidze explains that there are a few ways to regulate prices on medicaments. One of them is to take several countries as a model and tell the drug stores to adjust rates to these countries.The initiative is my idea. I believe that prices should be regulated for some categories of medicines, which are consumed by people suffering from chronic diseases, he stated.The MP also noted that in the framework of the Social Responsibility Initiative, pharmaceutical companies would cooperate with the Ministry of Health, and sell 23 medicines to pensioners and disabled people at half price, which is a great relief.If the list of medicines becomes larger, we will not need additional regulations on prices, if not, then we have to regulate this field, Zoidze stressed.The MP first made such a statement last year, saying the Georgian government intended to tighten its existing regulations on the marketing of pharmaceuticals and prescriptions starting early 2018.He then stated that the government would also cap prices on 300-400 different kinds of drugs to avoid a significant fluctuation of the costs.The e-prescriptions became mandatory in Tbilisi clinics and hospitals in January 2018. It means that any medical institutions that violate the new rule will be fined and the Health Ministry will no longer cooperate with them.More than 1000 doctors have been trained into the new method in Tbilisi. Electronic and video instructions for the use of e-recipes were also created.The Health Ministry says the training will be held in other regions as well, where the mandatory e-prescriptions will be introduced throughout the whole country gradually.Last year, the Parliaments Health Committee prepared an action plan for 2017-2030, aiming at cutting the use of generic medicines, as well as the high cost of medicaments and curb aggressive marketing tactics. Admitting that Lenovo made some "mistakes" in the smartphone business in India, the company CEO Yang Yuanqing on Thursday vowed to bounce back and reclaim its past glory in the next couple of years by launching right products for the India market under both its Lenovo and Motorola brands. "India is a very important market for us. We have room for improvements in the smartphone business," Yuanqing said here while participating in a roundtable conference, along with other members of the Lenovo Executive Council -- the highest decision-making body of the company. "Overall, our target is to generate revenue of up to $6 billion in the next five years from India," Yuanqing said, adding that the company is focusing on scaling all verticals of its businesses including the personal computer (PC) and smart devices segment that includes tablets, and data centre business, besides the smartphones segment. While Lenovo's PC and tablet businesses have continued to post robust growth in India over the past few years, its market share in the smartphone business saw a decline in the 2017-2018 financial year, coming down to about six per cent, from nine per cent in the previous financial year, the company said, citing data from the International Data Corp (IDC). "In the PC segment, we grew by 43 per cent while the market grew by just 5 per cent, and in tablets segment, we were No. 1," Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director and CEO, Lenovo India, said. "The dual brand strategy of rolling out smartphones under both Lenovo and Motorola brands has not affected us adversely. We will continue to revamp product portfolios under both brands. The two brands can be complimentary," Yuanqing said. He added that the company was planning to target the premium segment with the Motorola brand and the affordable and entry segments mostly through Lenovo. Where the company did not do too well in the past year was on its service strategies and in appealing consumers from more places within the country, he said. "Going ahead, we will have different product portfolios and cost structures for online and offline distribution channels," the Lenovo CEO said. (Gokul Bhagabati can be reached at gokul.b@ians.in) --IANS gb/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australian actress Madeleine Madden has grabbed a role in Paramount Players' movie "Dora the Explorer". The film based on the animated series "Dora", also cast actors Isabela Moner and Eugenio Derbez, reported hollywoodreporter.com. "Dora" was a Nickelodeon series that aired its 172 episodes from 2000 to 2014. It centred on a young American Latina, who along with her monkey, Boots, faces riddles and characters such as a thieving fox named Swiper as she went on quests. Isabela Moner is starring as Dora, with the movie version updating the character into a teenager. Madden will play Dora's friend, whom she meets in high school. Helmed by James Robin, the film is scheduled to release on August 2, 2019. --IANS sim/rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fugitive Indian diamond trader Mehul Choksi, wanted by Indian authorities in Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, is in Antigua and Berbuda, CBI sources said on Thursday. "The Antiguan authorities confirmed his presence in Antigua," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) source said. He said the Antiguan authroties' reply came after CBI wrote to them seeking details of Choksi's whereabouts in the fraud case. On July 24, it was revealed that Choksi had moved to Antigua from the US several weeks ago using an Antiguan passport. The revelation came from Antiguan authorities in response to a CBI diffusion notice (a request to Interpol for the arrest of a specific person) circulated to foreign countries through Interpol. The red corner notice (RCN) request from the CBI to the Interpol against Choksi is still pending. On July 11, the ED asked a special court in Mumbai to declare both diamond merchants -- Choksi and Nirav Modi -- as 'fugitives' under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018 because they had fled India a month before they were named in the fraud case on January 31. The ED has been probing two cases of money laundering against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI. In these cases, the ED had on May 24 and May 26 filed prosecution complaints or charge-sheets against Choksi and Nirav Modi. The court has taken cognisance of the charge-sheets and issued non-bailable warrant against both of them. On the request of the ED and the CBI, the Interpol had earlier issued RCN against Nirav Modi. --IANS aks/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man from Haryana was arrested for harassing over 200 women by sending them nude pictures after creating their fake accounts on social networking site facebook, police said on Thursday. Police said Vijay is a resident of Gurugram and was arrested on Tuesday from his residence. "During investigation, it was found that Vijay would create many fake facebook accounts of girls and send them 'friend requests'. He befriended many women and later obtained their photos from their profiles without their consent," Deputy Commissioner of Police Anyesh Roy said. Police said Vijay worked at IGIA as a helper. He later made various fake accounts of girls and men on facebook. Many women accepted his request on the false belief that those accounts belonged to a girl," Roy said. He later stole their photos and sent them a friend request from his account. "When a victim accepted his 'friend request', he would send her vulgar messages. If a woman resisted, he would send a morphed nude picture of hers. He also sent the nudes pics to their friends ," Roy said. "He harassed and threatened them if they did not respond to his vulgar chats," the officer said, adding he admitted he was in touch with more than 200 girls and was harassing them. "A Delhi-based woman had complained to Delhi Police's Cyber Cell last year," The DCP said, adding the investigation was under way. --IANS sp/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Diversion of water from the Mhadei river will severely hit drinking water supply, irrigation, navigation, tourism, ecology and in Goa, Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar told the Goa Assembly on Thursday. Palienkar made the statement in response to a question from Congress MLA Ravi Naik in the Assembly. In reply to an earlier question during the ongoing monsoon session, Palienkar had ruled out any negotiation on Mhadei river water-sharing with Karnataka, even as he had accused Karnataka of already diverting the river water to the depleted Malaprabha river basin through underground channels. Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently battling a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the waters of the Mhadei river. Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is known as a lifeline in the northern parts of Goa. It originates in Karnataka, meeting the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through the territory of Maharashtra. Karnataka also aims to build seven dams at various points along the river, including at Kalsa village, for diverting the flow into what it claims is the water-starved Malaprabha basin in north Karnataka. --IANS maya/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig. (Dr.) B.D. Mishra (Retd.) on Thursday called on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and discussed recruitment of more youth from the frontier states bordering China in the Indian armed forces. During the meeting, the Governor expressed his gratitude to the Defence Minister for addressing the basic needs of the local communities living in the border areas through Army units located in the frontiers. He also conveyed the goodwill of the people of the State for the new Arunachal Scout Battalion. Mishra, who has been spearheading an initiative with the serving armed forces officers of Arunachal Pradesh, called, 'Pay Back to Society Group' (PBSG), informed the minister that under PBSG, the officers will be coming to their home state and visit various schools and colleges to motivate the youth to join the Indian armed forces. Promising the Governor that she would visit Arunachal Pradesh, Sitharaman said she has a close affiliation with Mishmi Tribe. --IANS rrk/prs/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which is humanity's first mission to the Sun, has cleared the final procedures ahead of its launch on August 11. "NASA's Parker Solar Probe has cleared the final procedures in the clean room before its move to the launch pad, where it will be integrated onto its launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy," the space agency said in a statement. The mission termed as historic "will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds", it added. The Parker Solar Probe will travel through the Sun's atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star. In addition to using the largest operational launch vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, the Parker Solar Probe will use a third stage rocket to gain the speed needed to reach the Sun, which takes 55 times more energy than reaching Mars. The spacecraft will travel directly into the Sun's atmosphere, about 4 million miles from its surface and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before, due to its innovative Thermal Protection System. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. The mission will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and how processes there ultimately affect near-Earth space, NASA said. --IANS rt/mag/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Thursday said it has formed a three-member fact-finding team to inquire into the alleged gang rape of a 24-year-old woman for four years in Delhi. It said the team has been directed to submit a detailed report at the earliest. The NCW team, along with police, visited east Delhi's Pandav Nagar on Thursday afternoon and met the woman and assured her of support and cooperation. The team also inspected the spot where the woman was first gang-raped four years ago by one of her neighbours, Faisal, and his accomplice Javed, both of whom in judicial custody now. "The NCW team found that the woman was undergoing treatment for mental illness since 2014. The team advised her to approach the Commission anytime for any assistance," an NCW statement said. The sexual assault came to light when the woman approached the Pandav Nagar Police Station on July 25 and complained of gang rape. On July 26, the police said the two men had been arrested on the charge of gang-raping and blackmailing the woman in east Delhi. "Faisal had invited the woman to his house in Pandav Nagar to celebrate his birthday four years ago. After the guests left, both accused gang-raped her and made a video clipping of the crime on a mobile phone," a senior police officer had told IANS. "They were blackmailing her ever since and raping her at different places, including at hotels, friends' flats and guest houses." --IANS som/rak/tsb/nir (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Iran of blocking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. "If Iran tries to block the Bab-el-Mandeb, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this," Netanyahu said at the navy base in Haifa city during the navy officers' course graduation ceremony, Xinhua reported. "This coalition would also include the State of Israel and all its arms," he warned. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman also attended the ceremony. "Israel has recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea," he said in a separate speech, without elaborating. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a major sea channel for cargo ships and oil tankers, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Last week, Saudi Arabia halted oil shipments after Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militants reportedly attacked two tankers in the Red Sea. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to work on Thursday following six weeks of maternity leave. Ardern, 38, resumed her duties but will work from her home in Auckland until Saturday, when she is expected to return to her official residence here along with her partner Clarke Gayford and daughter Neve, who was born on June 21, reports Efe news. During her absence, the government was led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Ardern, who announced her pregnancy in January, is only the second world leader to give birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, who had her daughter in 1990. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) 255,429 Georgians Travel Visa-free to EU By Vladimer Napetvaridze On 30 July, Tamar Khulordava, Chairperson of the Committee on European Integration, discussed the statistics of Georgian citizens EU visits. She stated that the recent data shows that the number of Georgian citizens seeking asylum in the EU states is substantially decreasing.In February 2018, the issue of asylum seeker Georgian citizens became acute after three countries - Germany, France, and Sweden, expressed their concern, adding that crime committed by Georgians has also increased. Suspending Georgias visa-free regime with the European Union was also discussed.According to the statistical data published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany in September 2017, 238 citizens of Georgia demanded asylum in Germany, adding that, this number significantly increased: In October, the number of asylum seekers was 355, in November - 444, in December - 522 and in January 2018 745.However, after February 2018, Georgia deepened cooperation with the EU law enforcement agencies and carried out a large-scale information campaign in the country. According to Khulordava, these measures have a positive impact, and the number of asylum seekers from Georgia has decreased during the last months: "The Readmission Agreement is working properly. Due to this, why we have no problem with cooperation with our European partners. They see that the state is doing everything to prevent violations of visa liberalization terms. The implementation of the readmission agreement is a part of this process. We fulfill all the requests and suggestions according to the agreement. Unfortunately, there are many Georgians who violate the terms of the visa-free agreement, and we have to return them. Our measures are seen and appreciated by our partners.According to Khulordava, the role of police cooperation is essential in this process."In this regard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is very active. Georgian police attaches are working in several countries. We already them working in 13 countries. Also, we have an ongoing negotiation to send our representatives to other countries. Starting September 1, we will have a special representative at the headquarters of Europol, which will serve as a police attache to the Netherlands, "- said Tamar Khulordava.Tamar Khulordava, Chairperson of the Committee on European Integration, stated that 255,429 Georgians have 360 000 presents used visa-free travel with the European Union since it came into force on March 28, 2017, and only 1,5% of these citizens, who violated the terms of visa-free travel were rejected to enter the EU zone.The Readmission Agreement between Georgia and the EU entered into force on March 1, 2011. Following April 26, 2011, President's Decree, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is s a competent authority for the implementation of the agreement. Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees are tasked to provide necessary assistance to the competent authority when such need arises. As for the visa-free regime with the EU, it took effect on March 28, 2017, meaning all Georgians holding biometric passports can now enter the Schengen Zone for 90 days within any 180-day period for vacation, business, or any other purpose except work. The Odisha government on Thursday assured Taiwanese investors of its cooperation for the proposed Rs 43,000 crore petrochemical cracker unit project in Paradip. Taiwan's state-owned firm "CPC Corporation" proposes to invest $6.6 billion (Rs 43,000 crore) in the petrochemical project in Paradip using feedstock from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). A Taiwanese delegation led by CPC Corporation President Shun-Chin Lee on Thursday met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here. Patnaik said that a high-level task force headed by the Chief Secretary will be formed to provide necessary assistance for the proposed project, which will help in setting up petroleum downstream industries in Paradip. "CPC Corporation is a prominent petroleum and petrochemical company of Taiwan like our Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The delegation has come to India for inspecting various sites for establishing their naphtha cracker unit," said Chief Secretary A.P. Padhi. The delegation had on Wednesday visited Paradip to inspect the infrastructure facilities at the site for the proposed investment following a meeting with Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday in New Delhi. "The state government has assured them that the required infrastructure including land, water, and electricity will be provided," said Padhi. Lee said, "We propose to invest in India for which we are exploring various sites. This mega project is estimated at $6.6 billion, equivalent to Rs 43,000 crore. We hope the state government here will help us." --IANS cd/mag/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's congratulatory phone call to Prime Minister in-waiting Imran Khan earlier this week and said it hopes that the gesture will pave the way for bilateral talks. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Muhammad Faisal during a weekly briefing here said that he hoped the phone call will help improve ties with South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) member states. Modi, in his phone call, had told Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Khan that India was "ready to enter a new era of relations with Islamabad" and that both countries should adopt a joint strategy for progress in bilateral ties. Islamabad's ties with Saarc member states have been tenuous since the 19th summit which was supposed to be held in Pakistan in 2016. It was cancelled after India boycotted the event, causing Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan to also pull out, according to Dawn newspaper. Earlier this week, the PTI had been deliberating inviting foreign dignitaries including heads of Saarc member states to Khan's oath-taking ceremony, but decided against it on Thursday. In earlier discussions with the Foreign Office, PTI leaders were told that extending invitations to heads of state was "a sensitive matter". --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the rural heartland of Odisha resides a living workshop -- rich in art, craft and cultural heritage. Home to just 140 families, Raghurajpur is perhaps India's only village where every household is involved in producing handicrafts. Ten kilometres from Odisha's pilgrim town of Puri, the crafts village on the southern bank of the river Bhargavi is mostly popular for its vibrant "Pattachitra" or cloth-based scroll paintings displaying intricate details of Hindu mythological narratives and folktales. The villagers, said to have settled there since the construction in the 10th century of the famous Jagannath temple, produce other handicraft items like "Talapatachitra" or palm leaf engravings, tassar silk paintings, stone carvings, paper mash toys and masks, wood carvings, wooden toys and cow-dung toys. "No one can specify when these art forms came into being. We have been doing this for generations. My entire family is involved in making 'Pattachitra'. Me, my father, mother and younger sister... all of us do this," said Purushottam Swain, a young "Chitrakara" (painter), who recently completed his graduation. He said the traditional Pattachitra paintings are associated with the rituals of Lord Jagannath, Orissa's presiding deity, as the art originated from these ritualistic activities. But with time the art has been given a contemporary flavour due to demands of buyers. "Most of the buyers now-a-days hardly have any knowledge of, or regard for, mythological stories. They buy these paintings as mere decorative items. So, besides making the traditional Pattachitras, we also make scrolls based on contemporary incidents and sometimes give it a tribal touch," the artist explained. With Pattachitra emerging as an internationally celebrated art form, Swain said many of the artists from Raghurajpur also attend exhibitions in cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai to showcase and sell their work to a larger audience. Pattachitras are also unique because the five colours mainly used to paint the scrolls are natural and home-made. A piece of cotton cloth is first folded in multiple layers and polished with white chalk power and a paste of tamarind seeds to make it look like a shiny canvas. "There are five basic colours for Pattachitra painting -- white, black, blue, yellow and red. While the colour white is made from sea shells, the black is derived from kohl (an eye cosmetic). The rest of the colours are produced by grinding colourful stones," another artist explained. An iconic scroll with a picture of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha of the Vaishnavism tradition at veteran artist Umesh Rajoi's workshop is particularly eye-catching, where the bodies of the two deities are decorated with several miniature paintings of their "leela" (divine play). The artist said such Pattachitras are painted with a single hair brush and may take up to six weeks to complete. The popular Talpatrachitra is made on a pair of palm leaves that are first stitched together and boiled with neem leaves and turmeric to protect them from insects. The leaves are then dried and curved with iron needles. Other handicrafts, made on coconuts, beetle nuts and glass bottles, are vibrantly painted with acrylic colours and have both washable and non-washable variants. In an attempt to revive the ancient crafts of Odisha, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) chose Raghurajpur to be developed as the state's first heritage village and crafts village in 2000. But some artists allege that the central aid of Rs 10 crore for Raghurajpur's development has not been properly utilised. Though a crafts library, an interpretation centre, an amphitheatre and guest houses have been built in the village, some projects like building toilets for every household are still unfinished, they complain. Terming the handicraft as their only occupation, a number of artisans claimed their livelihood suffers due to commercialisation, with many businessmen and inhabitants of neighbouring villages misguiding tourists by selling Pattachitras made through the block printing technique. "Our business is suffering because a lot of other villages have started replicating our work. However, most of their works are not handmade. So businessmen in parts of Odisha also produce items like Pattachitra and palm leaf paintings in a large volume using block printing technique," Swain said. Echoing him, artist Alok Ranjan Sahoo said letters have been written to the local authorities informing them about the malpractices but so far all complaints have fallen on deaf ears. "We have lodged complaints with the local authorities but so far no substantial steps have been taken. Now the Odisha government has introduced identity cards for the Raghurajpur artists so that they can be authenticated while attending exhibitions and crafts fairs in other states," Sahoo added sitting in his humble workshop. (Milinda Ghosh Roy was in Raghurajpurat the invitation of the Odisha government. He can be contacted at milinda.r@ians.in) --IANS mgr/ssp/vm/tb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the day soon after it met post lunch amid pandemonium over the Assam NRC issue. The Upper House was scheduled to take up a short duration discussion on the "Recent increase in MSP for Kharif crops and challenges in agriculture", to be initiated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah. However, the opposition raised the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as it wanted some of the MPs from Assam to speak on the issue and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to give certain clarifications instead of tabling his statement. Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O'Brien demanded to know why his notice under Rule 267 had been rejected by the Chair. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said the House should hear from the Home Minister. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu agreed that the Home Minister should be asked to reply to the discussion that took place on Tuesday. Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that while Amit Shah was not allowed to complete his speech, how could other MPs be heard on the issue. Meanwhile, the Congress MPs were on their feet and TMC members trooped near the Chair's podium shouting slogans. Naidu adjourned the House for the day amid the din. --IANS mak/pgh/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajya Sabha on Thursday congratulated the members who were conferred with the best parliamentarian awards by President Ram Nath Kovind. Soon after the house met for the day, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said it was indeed a matter of great prestige for this house that Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and former member Nazma Heptulla along with three Lok Sabha members have been conferred with the best parliamentarian awards. "He has been a great source of support for me along with Leader of the House Arun Jaitley," he said praising the administrative acumen, deep insight and effective oratory of Azad and Heptulla. Speaking on the achievements of Azad and Heptulla, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel also praised both the leaders and recalled their contributions. "As a Leader of Opposition Azad has established himself as an ideal parliamentarian. As Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he ruled effectively," he said. The entire house joined hands with Naidu in congratulating the award winners. Aimed to motivate elected representatives to work better, President Ram Nath Kovind had on Wednesday presented the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for the years 2013-2017. While the 2017 Outstanding Parliamentary award went to Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader in the Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab, Trinamool Congress member of lower House Dinesh Trivedi took away the award for 2016. Azad received the award for 2015. For the year 2013 and 2014, Kovind conferred the award upon former Rajya Sabha member Najma Heptulla and Lok Sabha Member Hukumdev Narayan Yadav respectively. --IANS bns/anp/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Greenhouse gas emissions climbed to all-time highs in 2017, a year in which climate change caused scorching temperatures worldwide and ice to melt at record levels in the Arctic, according to a report. The report, "State of the Climate in 2017", led by the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was published on Wednesday by the American Meteorological Society, reports Efe news. The annual global average carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration at Earth's surface last year was 405 parts per million, 2.2 ppm more than in 2016 and the "highest in the modern atmospheric measurement record", the report said. Itnoted that the global growth rate of CO2 has "nearly quadrupled since the early 1960s". The study said Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Bulgaria, among other countries, reported record-high annual temperatures, while Mexico "broke its annual record for the fourth consecutive year". In addition, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) also reached new record highs. The Arctic sea ice extent in March, at the end of the growth season, shrank to its lowest maximum level in the 37-year satellite record, while preliminary data indicates that glaciers worldwide lost mass for the 38th consecutive year, the report said. The latest edition of this report was released a year after the US - the world's second-largest polluter after China - withdrew from the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, in which 170 countries committed to reductions in carbon emissions. US President Donald Trump, who had vowed on the campaign trail that he would take that step, said in 2012 that climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive. On Wednesday, the acting administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, said the agency he leads would continue Trump's agenda "post-haste". "We haven't slowed down and we haven't missed a step," Wheeler said when asked about the Trump administration's environmental policies during an appearance before the Senate Committee on and Public Works. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Reliance Industries on Thursday said that its telecom subsidiary Jio has entered into an MoU with State Bank of India (SBI) to deepen their digital partnership. According to a company statement, the MoU is about the larger digital partnership which looks beyond the Jio Payments Bank which is a joint venture between RIL and SBI. Further, it aims to increase the lending major's digital customer base multi-fold. Accordingly, the omni channel platform SBI YONO's digital banking features and solutions will be enabled through the MyJio platform for a seamless, integrated and superior customer experience. Besides, MyJio, one of India's largest over-the-top (OTT) mobile applications will bring in financial services capabilities of SBI and Jio Payments Bank. "Jio and SBI customers will benefit from Jio Prime, a consumer engagement and commerce platform from Reliance," the statement said. "Jio Prime will offer exclusive deals from Reliance Retail, Jio, partner brands and merchants. In addition, with an integration between SBI Rewardz and Jio Prime, customers of SBI will be offered additional loyalty reward earning opportunities as well as broader redemption within Reliance, Jio and other online and physical partner ecosystems." As per the statement, SBI will be engaging Jio as one of its preferred partners for designing and providing network and connectivity solutions. "Jio's highest quality network in urban and rural regions will allow SBI to launch customer centric services such as video banking and other on-demand services," the statement said. "Additionally, Jio Phones will be available on special offers for SBI customers." Speaking on the partnership, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh D. Ambani was quoted as saying in the statement: "The scale of the SBI customer base is unmatched globally." "Jio is committed to using its superior network and platforms combined with the Retail ecosystem to accelerate digital adoption serving all the needs for SBI's and Jio's customers." On the bank's part, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said: "As India's largest Bank with leadership in digital banking, we are delighted to partner with Jio the world's largest network." "All the areas of co-operation are mutually beneficial enhancing the digital foot-print for SBI customers with superior and rewarding customer experiences." --IANS rv-rrb/seb (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Remains of what are believed to be 55 US soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War arrived on Wednesday in the US after North Korea returned them a few days ago under agreements reached between the leaders of both countries. Resting inside coffins wrapped in US flags, the remains arrived from South korea at the US Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where a ceremony presided over by the country's Vice President, Mike Pence, was held. When North Korea delivered the remains to members of the United Nations Command in Korea on Jul. 27, the coffins were wrapped in UN flags, Efe reported. Pence, whose father fought in the Korean War, said the US "will never stop striving until every hero lost in the Korean War is home" and hence keep its promise "to leave no man behind." "Today, our boys are coming home," Pence said, adding that the 55 remains arriving in the US on Wednesday "are the heroes who will lead the way to many homecomings in the future." The US will now try to identify the remains through DNA testing and will resume the joint efforts with Pyongyang to continue searching for the 5,300 US servicemen believed to have been killed north of the 38th parallel during the Korean War. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif set the ramp on fire with their dazzling chemistry when both of them walked together for Manish Malhotra's Haute Couture 2018 as show-stoppers at the JW Marriot here. The latest collection that was showcased on Wednesday night was titled "Zweena", featuring classic as well as contemporary Manish Malhotra signature shimmery and embellished ensembles for men and women. The show was also a celebration of 13 years of Manish's illustrious design label, deriving inspiration from the old-world magic of the Indo-Persian era. At the fashion show, Salman sported a black embroidered 'sherwani' amidst the backdrop of an eagle taking flight on the large screens at the venue. Well groomed hair gave a final touch to his appearance. Katrina was an epitome of elegance and grace as she shimmied and sizzled in an embellished ensemble replete with a cape. Wavy hair and subtle makeup perfectly complimented her ethereal avatar. The actors were all smiles as they walked the ramp and the chemistry was palpable. There was a certain aura of comfort between the two which reflects well in their equation, on-screen as well as off-screen. With the pair, a befitting muse for the maverick Manish Malhotra, the night certainly ended on a high note with other industry and Bollywood celebrities cheering on the couple and the designer. Having worked together in many films, including "Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya", "Yuvraj", "Ek Tha Tiger" and "Tiger Zinda Hai", the actors have recently signed another film together which will be their fifth collaboration as lead actors. "Bharat" is a remake of the 2014 South Korean film "Ode to My Father" and will reportedly feature Salman in five different looks over 60 years. He will also be seen recreating his look from the film "Karan-Arjun". In the film, Katrina will play Salman's love interest. It also stars Tabu, Sunil Grover and Nora Fatehi in pivotal roles. The film will be shot in Malta and Abu Dhabi, besides Punjab and Delhi. Produced by Atul Agnihotri's Reel Life Productions and Bhushan Kumar's T-Series, "Bharat" will release on Eid 2019. --IANS iv/mag/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said he would stage a dharna at Jantar Manrar in Delhi on Saturday to protest rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur... sponsored and protected by Nitish Kumar government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday," Tejashwi tweeted. Earlier on Thursday, Tejashwi questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 'silence' on the rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home. Tejashwi is younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He said Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik has written two letters to Nitish Kumar on the crime, asking him to take strict action against the culprits. "Indirectly the Governor has questioned Chief Minister's criminal silence...I will awake Nitish Kumar's inner voice and expose his fake morality," Tejashwi said. The CBI on Sunday took over the shelter home rape case after a recommendation by the Bihar Chief Minister who described it as "a heinous crime." --IANS ik/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) onsultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and Ghana 01-08-2018 On August 1, 2018 Minsk hosted second round of political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Belarus and Ghana. The Belarusian delegation was headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Dapkiunas, the Ghanaian delegation was led by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Charles Owiredu. The first round of political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of Belarus and Ghana took place in April 2016 in Accra. During the consultations, the sides discussed topical issues on the bilateral agenda, current state and prospects for the development of the Belarusian-Ghanaian dialogue, including high-level talks, export of Belarusian educational and medical services, prospects for expanding legal framework of bilateral relations. Special attention was paid to the development of trade relations and investment cooperation. The sides discussed possible priority steps in this direction. The Heads of the Belarusian and Ghanaian delegations also exchanged views on the interaction of two states within the UN. print version A shutdown called by the Left parties in Bihar on Thursday against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district has hit rail and road traffic, police said. The state-wide shutdown is backed by opposition parties including the (RJD) (RJD), Congress, Hindustani Swam Morcha, Samajwadi Party and Lokrantrik Janata Dal. Left party workers and supporters blocked railway tracks thereby affecting over a dozen trains since early Thursday morning. According to reports reaching here, trains were stopped in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jahanabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, and Bhojpur districts. Protesters have also blocked several roads in Siwan, Bhojpur, Nawada, Patna, Arwal, Jagabad districts. The case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The CBI on Sunday took over case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Thursday visited the R.R. Anbu Biryani restaurant here and comforted the owner and employees who were attacked by party members over the weekend. Stalin was accompanied by former Union Telecom Minister and Propaganda Secretary A. Raja and other colleagues. On Sunday night, a group of DMK members led by Yuvaraj visited the eatery and demanded free biryani. The hotel employees told them that business had ended for the day, said police. Enraged at this, Yuvaraj started attacking the cashier and other employees. He was joined by another party member, Diwakar. The video of the attack went viral on the social media following with the DMK on Wednesday temporarily suspended Yuvaraj and Diwakar for bringing disrepute to the party. Stalin also condemned the violence on the hotel staff. Meanwhile, the police have arrested five persons while Yuvaraj and Diwakar are absconding. According to the hotel staff, Yuvaraj had come to the hotel a week earlier and had parked his vehicle blocking the entrance, resulting in an argument with the hotel staff. --IANS vj/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Thursday visited a restaurant whose owner and employees were attacked by party members and offered to pay for the damages, an act that won the heart of the proprietor. Stalin went to the R.R. Anbu Biryani restaurant here and comforted the owner and employees for the weekend incident. He was accompanied by former Union Telecom Minister and Propaganda Secretary A. Raja and other colleagues. On Sunday night, a group of DMK members led by Yuvaraj went to R.R. Anbu Biryani and demanded free biryani. The hotel employees told them that business had ended for the day, said police. Enraged at this, Yuvaraj assaulted the cashier and other employees. He was joined by another party member, Diwakar. The video of the attack went viral on the social media, following which the DMK on Wednesday suspended Yuvaraj and Diwakar for bringing disrepute to the party. Stalin also condemned the violence on the hotel staff. On Thursday, after Stalin comforted owner R.R. Tamilselvan, the latter praised the DMK leader whose father and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is warded in hospital battling major health related issues. "I don't have any words to say. Even when his father, a great leader, is admitted in hospital, Stalin came to our restaurant and comforted us all," Tamilselvan said. "Earlier he had called us to the DMK headquarters and enquired about the incident and the damages. He said he would want to visit the outlet." He pledged to make good the losses. Tamilselvam said Stalin had asked the local party leaders as to how and why such persons were admitted to the DMK. Tamilselvan said Yuvaraj always used to come to the restaurant and demand discount on food. He also expected not be billed for the food consumed. Tamilselvan said he started his food business on a cartwheel and eventually grew into a 21-outlet chain. Meanwhile, the police have arrested five persons while Yuvaraj and Diwakar are absconding. According to the hotel staff, Yuvaraj had come to the hotel a week earlier and had parked his vehicle blocking the entrance, resulting in an argument with the hotel staff. --IANS vj/mr/soni (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Japanese version of legal drama "Suits" is set to hit television screens in October. Fuji TV network has signed a deal with NBCUniversal International Formats for a 11-part hour-long series to be produced in collaboration with the network's subsidiary Kyodo Television, reports The Hollywood Reporter. "I have been a true Suits fan since I saw the scene where Harvey meets Mike, and it made me dream of one day creating a Japanese version," said Hiroyuki Goto, drama producer at Fuji TV. It will star popular actor Yuji Oda in Gabriel Macht's role of mentor Harvey Spector and actor and musician Yuto Nakajima in Patrick J. Adam's role of Mike Ross. The American show starred Meghan Markle, with Katherine Heigl coming on board once Markle left the series. "'Suits' remains one of the most popular TV series in the US, so we are delighted to further extend the brand across Asia," said Ana Langenberg, Senior Vice President of formats and production at NBCUniversal International Formats. --IANS smriti/rb/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India seems to be in a space where technology is a big favourite. Digital marketing and digital automation are among the top-searched words. This is making organisations look for and adapt smart technology-aided training interventions to rationalise training costs while enhancing effectiveness and saving time. New technologies like Cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and similar such innovations are constantly changing and evolving the workplace environment. Leveraging this technology is the appropriate approach to enable flexibility in learning. Corporate training need not be delivered entirely based on traditional methods. It can be merged with e-learning methods to make a great L&D (learning and development) tool. Technology-enabled Blended Learning (TeBL) is an appropriate solution for imparting customised training programmes which save time. When blended with instructor-led training programmes, e-training solutions produce remarkable results in terms of training retention, overall productivity enhancement and a better training ROI (return on investment). Corporates are quickly realising that if they want to stay competitive in business, it's time to get serious about customised training solutions. Customised smart solutions are also lithe because they have the added benefit of learners being able to access content anytime, anywhere and even specify the extent to which they need it. This also allows facilitators to impart training specifically aimed at every individual's needs. A blended learning approach maximises the effectiveness of instructor-led and virtual training programmes in a format that is highly scalable and measurable. These types of technology-enabled blended learning models cater to the needs of employees stationed in remote areas. With this, an organisation gets the best out of each employee that they retain. Corporate training sessions can be attended on Cloud-based frameworks on all devices, including tablets and smartphones. The training has now become engaging as both the parties contribute equally to the session. There are several features to facilitate communication with groups and individuals. Pre-workshop online material can be shared with the learners even before the training session. The trainer and participants have ongoing access to training materials both during and after the workshop. The option of observing one's learning through performance assessments make these sessions more fruitful. AI-enabled chatbots play a crucial role here, as they take on the job of the trainer when he or she is not around to lead the training-related FAQs. In addition to this, Augmented Reality (AR)- and Virtual reality (VR)-based training simulators are also being used to deliver training at various levels. For example, VR is widely being used by manufacturing-based companies to train workers on shopfloor safety. AR and simulation-based trainings have been employed by auto companies to explain off-road functionalities of SUVs inside the showroom itself so that the sales staff can understand key features without spending on out-bound training interventions. Through VR, an employee can easily learn how to use complex machinery in a non-physical environment resembling real life. The mistakes made in the virtual environment cause no harm to the employee or the equipment. AR can also be used for specialised training like full-scale visualisation of machines and products without physically building them. Digital transformation is also happening in training for the retail, tourism and hospitality, FMCG, apparel and furnishing sectors, as it is easy to upskill and scale the employees' performance by assessing them on their actions to a virtual sales floor. So, it is evident that technology allows flexibility in learning and gives a collaborative environment to work in, irrespective of the sector and the geography. (Sanjay Bahl is CEO and MD of Centum Learning. The views expressed are personal) --IANS sanjay/vm/sac (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tension prevailed at Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar in Assam after a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation was prevented by the district administration from going out of the airport and interacting with the people. The delegation including six Members of Parliament and two MLAs were confined to a room at the airport on the ground that Section 144 Cr. PC was in force in the entire Cachar district. "We were supposed to interact with some people in Silchar. However, when we landed, the district administration and police officials stopped us from getting out of the airport and later were confined to a room," said a TMC member who was a part of the delegation. The Assam Police have beefed up security arrangements in the Barak Valley districts, particularly in Silchar town, in the light of the TMC delegation's visit on Thursday. The TMC delegation told the administration that they would go out in four groups of two persons each, which will not violate Section 144 Cr.PC, but the district administration officials refused. Some of the members of the TMC team including some women received injuries as the stand off between the delegation and the police led to a scuffle inside the airport. The Assam government published the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30 which included the names of 2.89 crore people but kept over 40 lakh people out of the document due to some discrepancies. The TMC, particularly West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have been very critical about the NRC updation process in Assam and accused the BJP-led governments in Delhi and Dispur of hatching a conspiracy to drive out Bengalis and Muslims from Assam. Banerjee also stated that the NRC will lead to a civil war in Assam and appealed to the government to stop it immediately. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has warned against making provocative statements against the NRC and said that outsiders making provocative statements about the NRC will not be accepted. Sonowal said that the people of Assam have shown tremendous political maturity which has made the publication of the complete draft NRC possible. --IANS ah/pgh/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) West Bengal BJP leaders on Thursday accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation of going to Assam to foment trouble over the issue of the NRC and supported the role of the Assam Police in detaining the delegation at the Kumbhirgram Airport in Silchar. The Trinamool delegation, including six Members of Parliament and two MLAs, were confined to a room at the airport on the ground that Section 144 Cr. PC was in force in the entire Cachar district. Some of the members of the Trinamool team, including the party's women leaders Arpita Ghosh, Mahua Moitra, Mamata Bala Thakur and Kakali Ghosh Gastidar, received injuries as the standoff between the delegation and the police led to a scuffle inside the airport, a member of the delegation said. Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Trinamool delegation went to Assam to provoke tension in the region and possibly to fuel a "civil war" on the lines of their party supremo Mamata Banerjee's comments. "No one asked them to go to Assam. Why did they go there? Their party chief Mamata Banerjee said a civil war will start in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list but Assam has been peaceful so far. May be the Trinamool team went there to start a civil war," Ghosh alleged. He refuted the Trinamool leaders' claims of being manhandled by the Assam Police and supported their detention at the airport, saying Bengal's ruling party is being given a dose of its own medicine. "No one has been beaten up. Police did the right thing by detaining them at the airport. All of them should be sent straight back to Kolkata," he said. "The party that did not let the West Bengal Governor visit Asansol after communal clashes erupted there, those who stopped me and my fellow BJP MPs from going to Bengal's Dhulagarh after the unrest... how can they expect that they will be allowed to move freely anywhere and say anything?" he questioned. Supporting Ghosh, the national secretary of the saffron outfit, Rahul Sinha said the members of the Trinamool delegation should be thrown out of Assam. "The publishing of NRC has been done under the direction of the Supreme Court. It is confirmed that the infiltrators there would be driven away and the refugees will be kept in Assam with proper respect. The Central government is quite clear on this. They (Trinamool leaders) have gone there to instigate riots on the basis of language and race. They should be thrown out," Sinha added. The TMC, particularly West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been very critical about the NRC updation process in Assam and accused the BJP-led governments in Delhi and Dispur of hatching a conspiracy to drive out Bengalis and Muslims from Assam. Banerjee also stated that the NRC will lead to a civil war in Assam and appealed to the government to stop it immediately. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has warned against making provocative statements about the NRC and said that outsiders making such statements will not be accepted. --IANS mgr/qd/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After the three-day furore over the draft NRC in Assam, normalcy appeared to return in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday as Zero Hour and Question Hour ran smoothly but the issue again erupted in the post-lunch session after a TMC delegation was detained in Assam. The Upper House was scheduled to take up a short-duration discussion on the "recent increase in MSP for kharif crops and challenges in agriculture", to be initiated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah during the post-lunch session. As soon as Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu called for taking up the debate, TMC's Derek O'Brian rose and demanded a statement from Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the detention of the party delegation in Assam and alleged manhandling of party MPs on the delegation. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad intervened and urged the Chair to allow members from Assam to have their say on the NRC issue. Finance Minister Piyush Goel and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel accused the opposition of not allowing Shah to speak. Naidu said that he will request Rajnath Singh to come and reply on the issue. Meanwhile, TMC members trooped near the Chairman's podium and started sloganeering. Taking serious note, Naidu remarked: "It has become a fashion for the agitating members to disrupt the house. The members (TMC) do not want to discuss the burning issue of the farmers." "You don't even want to discuss the NRC issue. You did not allow the Home Minister to speak in the house when he was here," he said. The Chair appealed to the agitating members to go back to their seats but they continued sloganeering. He, then, adjourned the house for the day amid the din. Earlier, when the house met, the Chair congratulated the best parliamentarian awardees. He, then, informed the members about the points of orders raised on Wednesday by TMC's Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Congress's Anand Sharma over Shah's remarks during his speech on the NRC. "He (Roy) himself has answered the point of order, saying that if the Chairman permits, the member can resume his speech. So, that matter ended there," Naidu said in his ruling. Mentioning Anand Sharma's point of order and his allegation that one of the members used derogatory and unparliamentary words against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and subsequent Prime Ministers, Naidu said that he had gone through the records and found that no mention of persons, as alleged by Sharma, was actually made by the BJP chief. "Rather, it was Anand Sharma who, while making the said allegation, used one unparliamentary word, which he attributed to Shah and therefore that word needs to be expunged from the parliamentary records," he said. Naidu said that Sharma met him and "agreed with me and that is why, I am closing the matter there itself". Amid objections by Sharma and some other Congress members, Naidu said: "Let us close this matter here. I treat this matter as closed." Thereafter, the house took up the matters of urgent public importance and also the Question Hour. The day the draft NRC was released on Sunday, the opposition members raised concerns and hd demanded a discussion. The issue was discussed on Tuesday but Home Minister Rajnath Singh could not reply as the TMC members staged a protest to demand Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement. Shah has also spoken on the issue and had said that earlier governments did not have the courage to implement the Assam accord signed in 1985, which provoked opposition protest. --IANS bns/tsb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Leaders of various political parties on Thursday criticised Tamil Nadu government's decision to hand over idol theft cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), calling it a ploy to delay the investigation. DMK leader M.K. Stalin in a statement here said it seems there is a hidden agenda behind the move. The investigation in these cases is overseen by the Madras High Court. Stalin said the Madras High Court had issued about 20 directives with regard to investigation of idol theft cases including the appointment of Inspector General Pon Manickavel as the head of the probe team. Stalin said the state government appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court order. The apex court rejected the state government's plea. The DMK leader charged that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department did not extend cooperation to the idol theft investigation team headed by Pon Manickavel. "The government transferred Pon Manickavel without the permission of the Madras High Court," Stalin said. On Wednesday the government told the High Court it has taken a policy decision to transfer the idol theft cases to CBI. Stalin said the decision to transfer the idol theft probe to CBI shows the incompetence of the state government which had opposed the demand to pass on the gutka case to CBI. MDMK Chief Vaiko urged the Tamil Nadu government to allow Pon Manickavel to continue the probe. Vaiko wondered why the government is keen to change the probe team head and to protect whom. PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said the state government's move is to provide an escape route to the culprits. Ramadoss said several officials of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department have been arrested in the idol theft cases. --IANS vj/pgh/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he hopes to see North Korean leader Kim Jong-un soon, and thanked Kim for sending the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War (1950-1953). "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong-un for keeping your word and starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump tweeted Thursday morning. Trump also revealed that along with the 55 boxes containing the remains that arrived on Wednesday at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, Kim also sent him a letter, reports Efe news. "Also, thank you for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!" Trump added. Trump and Kim held a historic summit, the first such meeting between sitting presidents of these two countries, on June 12 in Singapore. In addition to addressing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the two leaders spoke of resuming searches for the 5,300 missing US soldiers believed to have died north of the 38th parallel that divides North and South Korea. North Korea delivered the remains of 55 soldiers on July 27, which the US later took to a military base in South Korea to perform preliminary tests before their arrival on Wednesday on American soil in a ceremony with honours officiated by Vice President Mike Pence. "Incredibly beautiful ceremony as US Korean War remains are returned to American soil," tweeted Trump, who was not at Pearl Harbor to receive them. In the hope of restarting the search for the missing soldiers in North Korea, the US has started the difficult task of identifying the remains of the 55 soldiers through DNA tests which could take months or even years. The Pentagon has a laboratory in Hawaii specialising in the identification of soldiers killed decades ago. --IANS ksk/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A proposed constitutional amendment intended to end dog racing in Florida was thrown off the November ballot by a Tallahassee judge Wednesday, and by Thursday Attorney General Pam Bondi had appealed the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. Proposed Amendment 13, placed on the ballot by the Constitution Revision Commission, "is clearly and conclusively defective" because it misleads voters, concluded Leon County Circuit Court Judge Karen Gievers. The appeal puts a stay on Gievers' ruling until the court can review it. The deadline for finalizing the state ballot is Sept. 9, with overseas ballots distributed on Sept. 22. Gievers called it a "material omission" that the summary and title of the amendment omits that fact that the amendment will decouple dog racing from slot machines and fails to explain that by adopting the amendment voters are embracing "a new 'fundamental value' of humane treatment of animals" in the Florida Constitution. The proposal "is misleading and inaccurate and incomplete, while adding up to a 'hide the ball,' fly a false flag' and outright 'trickeration,' she wrote. The amendment was challenged by the Florida Greyhound Association, the owners, breeders, and trainers whose livelihood could be jeopardized if the proposal were to be approved by voters. Gievers agreed with the association that the amendment fails the constitutional test of clearly providing voters accurate and complete information about the impact of the amendment. "Contrary to the words presented for consideration by the voters, the amendment would not end dog racing, nor would it eliminate wagering on dog racing,'' Gievers wrote. Lawyers for the Greyhound Association argued that because tracks would still be allowed to conduct betting on dog races that are broadcast from outside the state, it would not put an end to all greyhound racing. Greyhound racing has been dying in popularity for the past two decades but has been sustained in Florida because legislators required that in order to obtain a slot machine or card room permit, the operators had to perform a fixed number of live races a year. Under the proposal, Florida would ban commercial dog racing after Dec. 31, 2020, shutting down the industry's largest U.S. venue. Major Harding, the former Florida Supreme Court justice who represented the greyhound owners in court, argued that the amendment was flawed because failed to tell if voters that, if approved, it would allow dog tracks to become stand-alone casinos without any racing. The amendment was backed by animal rights groups and had the support of the Animal Law Section of the Florida Bar. The supporter's political arm, the Protect Dogs-Yes on 13 campaign, said it expects to prevail on appeal. "This is the first step on a long road, and we are confident that the Florida Supreme Court will uphold the amendment,'' the group said in a statement. "This lawsuit is a desperate attempt to prevent voters from having a voice on whether greyhound confinement and deaths should continue." The group, which has the support of animal welfare organizations, greyhound adoption groups and many civic organizations, argues that greyhound deaths are a constant at a Florida racetracks. "Greyhounds also endure lives of confinement, kept in warehouse-style kennels in rows of stacked metal cages for 20 to 23 hours per day,'' the statement said. "Amendment 13 will phase out this cruelty, and help thousands of dogs." The ruling could be a warning to the CRC, which faces legal challenges on two other amendments in which opponents claim they are misleading. Proposed Amendment 10 is being challenged by Miami-Dade, Broward and Volusia counties because it fails to explain that it would strip voters in those counties of their constitutional right to govern themselves by overriding their home rule charters. The amendment rolls together several ideas, the most controversial of which would require Broward to elect a tax collector, Miami-Dade to elect a sheriff to replace its appointed chief law enforcement officer, and force Volusia County to reverse a decision voters made in 1970 to appoint its county officers. A hearing in that case is set for Friday in Leon County Circuit Court. President Donald Trump is weighing the idea of increasing from 10 percent to 25 percent the tariffs imposed on some $200 billion of Chinese products, mainly consumer goods, the Office of the US Trade Representative reported Wednesday. "This week, the President has directed that I consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty from 10 per cent to 25 percent," Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, Efe reported. In the coming weeks, the USTR will analyze the president's proposal and will open a public consultation period in late August so that US companies can offer their opinions on the measure. Despite the fact that some US media have linked the proposal to hike tariffs to a sharp drop in the Chinese currency, senior US officials downplayed that idea in a telephone call with reporters. Washington wants China to open its market more to US products and stop harming American workers, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The proposed tariff hike would - for the first time - affect a large number of consumer goods, including furniture, lamps, food and computers. Before Trump's proposal was made public, the Chinese government claimed on Wednesday that US "blackmail" and pressure on its exports are "not going to work." The trade talks between Washington and Beijing have bogged down in recent weeks, a period in which the two nations have imposed reciprocal tariff hikes on various products. The first wave of US tariffs included a punishing 25 percent levy on Chinese imports valued at some $34 billion, a measure to which Beijing responded in like manner. A few days later, the Trump government imposed more tariffs on Chinese imports, spurring the government of Xi Jinping to implement similar countermeasures. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The White House said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump has responded to a new letter from Kim Jong Un, top leader of North Korea, and Trump's letter will be delivered "shortly". In a press briefing, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said "we have responded to Chairman Kim's letter, the president has, and that letter will be delivered shortly," Xinhua reported. Refusing to reveal the contents of the two letters, Sanders only said that the letters "addressed their commitment from their joint statement" made in the Singapore summit. "They are going to continue to work together towards complete and total denuclearization," she said. Trump earlier tweeted that he looks forward to seeing Kim "soon." However, Sanders said that although the White House is "certainly open to that discussion," there is not "a second meeting that is currently locked in or finalized." Speaking of North Korea's repatriation of the remains of fallen US soldiers from the 1950-1953 Korean War, Sanders said that the US side was "incredibly grateful and thankful." "We are going to continue to work with North Korea," she said, referring to North Korea. Earlier on Thursday, Sanders said in a statement that Trump has received a letter from Kim, and "the ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-North Korea joint statement." Trump also thanked Kim via Twitter for returning the remains of fallen US soldiers from the Korean War. The repatriation of the remains of US service members was part of the commitment made by Trump and Kim in their Singapore summit on June 12. A ceremony was held on Wednesday in Hawaii to receive the remains. --IANS ahm/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two girl students died and five others were injured when a shed of a school here collapsed during a karate class on Thursday, police said. The two, aged around 10 years, were killed as the roof of the concrete shed collapsed in the premises of New Century Public School in Kukatpally area. The injured were admitted to a hospital where the condition of one of them is stated to be critical. The incident occurred when students of Class IV were taking part in a karate class. According to police, seven students were injured in the incident and two of them succumbed to their injuries at a private hospital. The pillars of the old structure were believed to have weakened due to recent rains. Deputy Commissioner of Police Venkateshwar Rao said they would take action against the management of the private school if it was found that the incident occurred due to the management's negligence. --IANS ms/mr (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prashanti Tiwari, the activist and architect of globally acknowledged Bandhan Tod strategy against child marriage, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help her in getting justice in her complaint against UNFPA India Representative Diego Palacios. Tiwari ,a former United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) contractor in Bihar, has accused Diego Palacios of sexual harassment and abuse. The Bihar police registered a criminal case against the accused in February 2018. However, the police investigation has not progressed much as Tiwari has alleged that UNFPA is stalling the case. Tiwari told IANS on Thursday that she has pleaded with PM to help her in ensuring a fair criminal trial, which she alleges is continuously being influenced by senior UN officials in India and in New York. "Senior UN officials still use their influence to seek confidential information on her case from Bihar police officials," she said, alleging that they are trying to quash her criminal complaint.--IANS ik/prs/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Roman Catholic diocese of the US state of Pennsylvaniaunveiled a list of 71 clergy members and seminarians, some of them deceased, "accused" of sexual abuse of minors since 1940. The list was posted on Wednesday on the Harrisburg diocese's website. It includes 37 priests, three deacons and six seminarians of that diocese, as well as nine clerics from other Catholic districts and 16 members of "religious communities", reports Efe news. The list features cases linked to allegations of indecent and inappropriate behaviour, including kissing, child pornography and "inappropriate communications" with minors, among others. The diocese of Harrisburg covers most of central Pennsylvania. None of the men on the list are currently teaching or in the ministry. Harrisburg Bishop Ronald W. Gainer said in a letter that the church was releasing a list of all allegations made against clergy members from the diocese since 1940 that had not been proven false. He also said that the diocese had wanted to make the list public in 2016, but the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office had asked them not to do so, so as not to disrupt its own grand jury investigation of abuses by Pennsylvania Catholic clergy. Gainer said that abuses by clergy members constitute a "dark (and) ... very sad chapter", and apologised in the name of the diocese, also noting that clergy members are doing good work for many "in a very tough environment" and adding that Catholic Charities spent $8.4 million on programs to help those in need in 2017. On June 27, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the release of a report by a grand jury regarding alleged abuse by clergy in six of the state's Catholic dioceses, including Harrisburg, and it is expected that it will be published this month. The US scandal coincides with a crisis within the Chilean Catholic Church, where 158 people linked to the clergy have been accused of sexual abuse. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US Treasury Department will impose sanctions on two Turkish ministers in response to the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong," Sanders said on Wednesday, calling Brunson's detention "unfair and unjust". Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have discussed Brunson's imprisonment "on several occasions", said Sanders, who added that the US President is "not happy with Turkey's decision not to release" the pastor, reports CNN. The two officials -- Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu -- will have any assets and properties under the American jurisdiction blocked and US persons will be prohibited from engaging in financial transactions with the ministers. The Treasury Department in a statement on Wednesday said: "These officials serve as leaders of Turkish government organisations responsible for implementing Turkey's serious human rights abuses and are being targeted pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13818, 'Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption', which builds upon Treasury's Global Magnitsky Act authorities." "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. "President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the US expects Turkey to release him immediately." Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded on Twitter, saying: "The effort by the US to impose sanctions on our two ministers will not go unanswered. We cannot solve our problems until the US administration understands that it cannot get its unlawful demands with this method," CNN reported. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also put out a strong response, stating, "we vehemently protest the sanctions decision announced by the US Treasury Department... A reciprocal response will be given without delay to this aggressive attitude which serves no purpose." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet with Cavusoglu on Friday in Singapore and US European Commander General Curtis M. Scaparrotti is in Ankara this week for meetings with his Turkish counterparts. Brunson was arrested in 2016 during the Turkish government's crackdown following an attempted coup. In March, he was formally charged with espionage and having links to terrorist organisations. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in prison. He maintains his innocence. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of States Mike Pompeo arrived on Thursday in Malaysia on his first visit to the region with an agenda that includes ministerial level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore on August 3 and 4. According to his official agenda, Pompeo will first make a short visit to Kuala Lumpur which will include a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday morning, Efe news reported. The same day he will go to Singapore, where he will participate in bilateral and multilateral meetings under the framework of the Asean. Asean is made up of Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June is expected to be feature in the discussions on Saturday at the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), which deals with matters related to security. North Korea is among the countries that take part in the ARF, along with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the EU, among others. Pompeo's trip will conclude with a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Jakarta. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US Senate has passed a massive $716 billion defence authorization bill. The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 87 to 10 on Wednesday a week after it was approved by the House, reports Xinhua news agency. Now the bill will now go to the White House, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law. The bill provides about $616.9 billion for the base Pentagon budget, $21.9 billion for nuclear weapons and $69 billion in war funding. It also authorises a 2.6 per cent pay raise for members of the military, boosts the ranks of the US military services by 15,600 active troops and approves the purchase of 13 new Navy warships and 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets. Congress has passed the NDAA for 57 consecutive years. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has escalated his trade war with China, ordering his administration to consider more than doubling proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent, as talks between Washington and Beijing remain at a standstill. Trump on Wednesday instructed the US Trade Representative to look into increasing tariffs on Chinese imports including fish, petroleum, chemicals, refrigerators, handbags and other goods to 25 per cent, reports The New York Times. However, a final decision on the size and scope of the tariffs is not expected before September. "The increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is intended to provide the administration with additional options to encourage China to change its harmful policies and behaviour and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of our citizens," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. "China has illegally retaliated against US workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses." In response to the announcement, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing was standing its ground in the trade dispute, reports CNN. "China's position is firm and clear cut," the spokesman said. "It remains unchanged. The blackmailing and pressure by the US will never work on China if the US take measures to further escalate the situation we will surely take countermeasures to firmly uphold our legitimate rights and interests." The 25 per cent tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports would come on top of the existing penalties on $34 billion worth of products and an additional $16 billion that are scheduled to go into effect soon, The New York Times reported. China has vowed to respond to any trade measures in kind, and it has already imposed its own tariffs on $34 billion worth of American soybeans, pork, electric vehicles and other goods. The administration's trade moves are aimed at forcing China to end what it calls unfair trade practices, including improperly obtaining American intellectual property. Earlier on Wednesday, Congress passed legislation that will strengthen national security-related checks on Chinese investment in the US, a move that is also aimed at curbing China's ability to capture valuable American technology. Meanwhile, the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents major IT users like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, immediately called the move by the administration "irresponsible, counterproductive", and said it would "only do more harm to Americans across the country". "American consumers and businesses are now feeling the pinch of increased costs," said Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for the council. "Instead of escalating this trade war, the president should have serious negotiations with the Chinese to create lasting change." --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Concerned over the degradation of the Dal lake which was once known as the lungs of Srinagar city, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N.Vohra on Thursday decided to engage professionals to revive the waterbody. Official figures indicate that the Dal has shrunken to less than half its original size with its capacity down by 40 per cent. Vohra has invited the navy and other experts to tackle the issues faced by the waterbody. The Governor has already spoken to Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, during his visit to the state last month, for his help in identifying experts who could undertake a benchmark survey of the Dal and later, also of the Wular lake. "Vohra has asked his adviser B.B. Vyas to get in touch with Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) Rajesh Tripathi. "The Navy Chief had said Vice-Admiral S.K. Jha (Retd), former chief hydrographer, could assist the state government in formulating an approach to deal with the problems faced by the Dal. "At the request of the state government, Vice-Admiral Jha (Retd) and Tripathi visited Srinagar and undertook separate surveys and assessments to identify the problems," officials said. The Governor chaired a meeting at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday where Jha and Tripathi presented their assessments. The assessment made by the CMD of DCI revealed that the size of Dal has shrunk from its original area of 22 sq km to about 10 sq km. "Water quality of the lake has deteriorated due to intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the lake, encroachments of water channels and clogging has diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to extensive weed growth of water hyacinth which has emerged as a health hazard. "It was also learnt that due to siltation, encroachment etc, the depth of the lake has reduced at many places and its total capacity has gone down to 40 per cent, the continuing night soil discharge from the 800-900 house boats is causing extreme pollution," officials said. The officials further added: "After discussions it was decided that the Navy chief would be asked for help in a comprehensive bathymetric survey of the Dal-Nigeen lake to establish a benchmark database to decide the extent of dredging, etc. to be carried out at various parts of the lake." Vohra directed officials concerned to take immediate steps to implement the decisions taken in the meeting and asked Chief Secretary B.V.R Subrahmanyam to closely monitor further progress. "The Governor would be personally reviewing progress on the basis of the chief secretary's reports in regard to this very important project," officials said. --IANS sq/qd/sed (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Zimbabwe's incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday said he was holding talks with the country's main opposition leader in a bid to restore calm, a day after three people were killed amid clashes in the capital. Scuffles between Zimbabwe's security forces and opposition supporters broke out on Wednesday after the latter took to the streets to protest alleged fraud in the presidential elections. "We have been in communication with (opposition leader) Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately diffuse the situation and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear," Mnangagwa said in a post to Twitter. Zimbabwe Police and Army used water cannons, tear gas and live ammunition in order to disperse protesters. Mnangagwa expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished "a speedy recovery to all those injured in yesterday's events". The 75-year-old has also called for "an independent investigation" into the violence that prompted international calls for restraint. "We believe in transparency and accountability... those responsible should be identified and brought to justice," he tweeted. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Zimbabwe's politicians to exercise restraint while UK Foreign Office Minister Harriett Baldwin said she was "deeply concerned" by the violence, the BBC reported. The US Embassy in Harare urged the Army to "use restraint", saying the country had an "historic opportunity" for a brighter future. Human rights group Amnesty International's acting secretary general Colm O. Cuanachain said that the "militarisation" of the election aftermath was "muzzling freedom of expression, association and assembly". "People must be guaranteed their right to protest," he said. No violence was reported on Thursday. Armed policemen and soldiers were driving around the city shouting, "Behave yourself, people of Zimbabwe". Meanwhile, opposition presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa posted several messages to his Twitter account stating that, according to a parallel vote count by the Movement for Democratic Change party, he won the election. The opposition coalition has raised doubts about the transparency of the electoral process and accused the Electoral Commission of being biased in favour of the ruling Zanu-PF party and of voluntarily delaying the declaration of results. For its part, the poll body has not yet published data related to the presidential election, claiming that the representatives of the 23 candidates had not yet verified all the results. On July 30, Zimbabwe held its first presidential election since the removal of its former leader Robert Mugabe, who was forced to step down after a military takeover in November 2017. --IANS soni/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the last dispatch of Clay Square, I had said that in the days ahead I will look at the Narendra Modi-led governments tenure from the prism of its own self-congratulatory slogan: Saaf niyat, sahi vikas. Last time (Saaf niyat, not really Mr Modi, June 22, 2018), I had written about Mr Modis duplicity when it came to attacking corruption in Indias public life. The truth is, his government has, at least till now, done everything to protect the opaque manner in which political parties are funded in India. To be sure, funding of political party ... A Trinamool Congress delegation which reached here on Thursday to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the NRC was stopped at the airport, official sources said. TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the delegation, told PTI that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC delegation including six MPs were kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport here in Cachar district under Barak Valley region, the sources said. The Cachar district administration last night issued prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. #WATCH Trinamool Congress MP and MLA delegation detained at Silchar airport #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/G8l2l3OEFp ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 The TMC team went there at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee has been accusing the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and saying that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. Speaking on the issue, TMC MP Derek O Brien said, "Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergency like situation". The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has told a special court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case that BJP chief Amit Shah's statement defending one of the main accused and former minister Maya Kodnani is "not believable" and should not be considered. In September last year, Shah had appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani, who had requested the court to summon him to prove her alibi -- that she was present in the Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital on the day the 2002 riots broke out and not at Naroda Gam. Special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas told Justice M K Dave on Wednesday that Shah's statement defending Kodnani was irrelevant, as it was made after a long delay. "Shah's statement is not believable, as none of the other accused mentioned about her presence at the Sola Civil Hospital," Vyas told the court here. The matter will be next heard on Friday. Shah had told the court that he met Kodnani in the Assembly in Gandhinagar and later at the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on the day the riots took place. The Naroda Gam case is one of the nine major 2002 communal riot cases, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. Eleven people belonging to the Muslim community were killed in the Naroda Gam riots during a bandh call made to protest the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002. Besides rioting and murder, Kodnani has also been charged with criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder in the case. She was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail for her role in the Naroda Patiya riots, in which 96 people were killed. However, in April this year, the High Court had acquitted her. A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly killing a builder over a property dispute in west Delhi, police said today. On Saturday, Rajender Goel, owner of a banquet hall, had been attacked by four men on two motorcycles in Ranhola area. The assailants had fired around six rounds on him from close range. He was declared brought dead at a hospital, police said. One of the accused, identified as Sahil Tomar alias Pradeep Tomar, was arrested yesterday from Najafgarh area. He has confessed to committing the crime at the behest of his close relative Sunil Kumar, said Seju P Kuruvilla, deputy commissioner of police (outer). Goel was in the business of selling and purchasing lands and properties and he was involved in various litigations in courts, the DCP said. The investigation team focused on the parties involved in these litigations and noticed one civil case where Kumar had filed a petition in a district court, requesting to restrict Goel from entering a property in Nihal Vihar, the DCP said. It was found that Kumar, along with few others, had come to that piece of land and allegedly threatened Goel with dire consequences. Kumar, who was also present on that day, is absconding, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fifteen persons were today arrested in connection with the violence that erupted at Chakan near Pune during the Maratha quota agitation earlier this week. Four policemen had been injured in stone-pelting during the protest at Chakan, 40 km from here, on July 30. The mob also damaged nearly sixty vehicles, including state- and civic-run buses and police jeeps. Some of the vehicles were torched. "We have held 18 persons including three minors for arson and damage to public property including public and private buses," said a senior police officer attached to Chakan police station. Most of the accused are from surrounding areas and were identified from CCTV and other video footage, he said. They would be produced before a court in Pune today. Property worth Rs 10 crore was damaged in the protest, police had said. Deputy Superintendent of Police Ganpat Madgulkar and inspector Dhanyakumar Godse were among those who sustained minor injuries during the incident. Police had claimed that the agitation was initially peaceful, but later some "anti-social elements" from outside took advantage of the situation and started pelting stones. Maratha organisations have revived their agitation for reservation in jobs and education for the community over the past two weeks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A person was arrested as a huge cache of banned drugs, including more than 200 medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) kits, were seized during a raid at a house in Haryana's Sirsa district, police said. Police arrested Shekhar Chand near Bhagat Singh Chowk in Sirsa administrative division after allegedly recovering prohibited medicines from him. During preliminarily interrogation, the accused revealed that he had stocked a huge quantity of banned medicines and prohibited drugs in a house located in Thed Mohalla, a police official said. A search by the police and a team of the state health department led to the seizure of 20,720 prohibited tramadol capsules, 1,200 prohibited pills, 408 drug injections, 3,402 oxytocin injections and 210 MTP kits, the official said. The accused, a resident of the locality, used to bring these kits and banned drugs from Gaya, Bihar, he said. Chand has been booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) and Drugs and Cosmetics acts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twenty six cases of mid-air miss or when aircraft come on collision course were reported over the Indian air space this year till June, Parliament was informed today. The number of such incidents was 28 last year and 32 in 2016, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. To prevent and minimise such incidents, a system ensuring a flexible use of airspace and safety management was implemented at the airports, along with coordination procedures laid down to hand over operation from one unit to another, he added. The airlines were also directed to avoid similar or confusing call signs, the minister said. He added that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had started implementing a project for harmonising the upper airspace of the four "flight information" regions in the country. Under the project, the airspace above 25,000 feet will be controlled from the air traffic control centres in the four metros. While the harmonisation of airspace of the Chennai and Kolkata flight information regions was completed, for Delhi and Mumbai, it would be taken up in the near future, the minister said. To a separate question about an incident of near miss over Maharashtra on January 28, Sinha said the planes had come within 700 feet of each other and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau was probing the occurrence as a "serious incident". Of the two aircraft, one was an IndiGo plane from Hyderabad to Raipur and the other was an Emirates plane from Singapore to Dubai. The incident had happened over the Nagpur airspace. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A total of 27 specialised adoption agencies (SAAs) have been shut over irregularities by the country's apex adoption body CARA, the government said today. Out of 27, nine SAAs were from Uttar Pradesh, four SAAs were shut in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra each and three SAAs from Bihar and Gujarat, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar told the Rajya Sabha. Elaborating on how the ministries act when irregularities are reported in SAAs, Kumar said the state adoption resource agencies or state governments are requested to enquire into the matter of reported irregularity and take action as per the Juvenile Justice Act. Over the recent cases of alleged baby selling scandal by the Missionary of Charity (MoC) in Jharkhand, Kumar said orders have been issued to carry out inspections of all MoC and for immediate identification of any such potential institutions which could be involved in "unlawful" activities. On July 5, the Jharkhand Police had arrested a nun and an employee of a Ranchi-based organisation run by the Missionaries of Charity on charges of selling a baby allegedly for Rs 1.2 lakh. Approximately 2,300 Child Care Institutions have been linked to Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) since December last year, while about 4,000 more are still pending for linkage. According to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), 2,32,937 children are under the care of CCIs -- both registered and unregistered -- in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lelectricite est devenue, de nos jours, un besoin dune importance majeure, et cela, dans tous les domaines dactivite. Que ce soit dans les maisons ou [] Thirty-five Indian nationals died in custody in jails of 13 foreign countries, the government told Parliament today. In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh also said that 7,737 Indian nationals were in jails of 77 countries. "As per the information available with the ministry, 35 Indian nationals died while in custody in jails of 13 foreign countries," he said. To a question on whether the Indian government pleaded diplomatic immunity for its ambassador in Portugal from testifying as a witness in court proceedings initiated by 1993 Mumbai blast convicts, he said the Indian envoy to Portugal enjoyed immunity under Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, and accordingly, was not obliged to give evidence as a witness in a foreign court. Therefore, Government of India evoked diplomatic immunity for the ambassador of India to Portugal on May 8, 2018, he said. The Indian government and the Portuguese government were in close touch on the matter through diplomatic channels, Singh said. Responding to a question on whether a campaign calling for a global referendum to determine whether Sikhs should have their own independent state was launched in London, he said that according to reports, a US-based Sikh advocacy group called 'Sikhs for Justice' planned to hold an event at Trafalgar Square in London on August 12. "At the event, the group proposes to issue a so-called 'London Declaration' calling for independence of the state of Punjab from India," he said. The Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian government and the Indian High Commission in London sent separated Note Verbales requesting the UK government to deny permission for the event, Singh said. To a question on PNB scam fugitive Nirav Modi, Singh said a request had been received in the MEA from the Ministry of Home Affairs for his extradition from the UK. "The request has been sent by a Special Diplomatic Bag to the High Commission of India, London for onward transmission to the UK authorities," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Uttar Pradesh government today warned that action will be taken against Akhilesh Yadav as he had done "some damage" while vacating the bungalow allotted to him in Lucknow as chief minister. Government spokesperson and senior Cabinet Minister Siddharth Nath Singh referred to the manner in which Yadav indulged in "todphod" (damage) before vacating the 4, Vikramaditya Marg bungalow in June in compliance with a Supreme Court order. "...One thing is clear, that he undertook some construction for which he did not take permission from the estates department. A law is there for this (unauthorised construction) and the law will take its course," Singh told reporters. After Yadav had vacated the bungalow, video clips and photos had shown damage to a cycle track, on walls after air-conditioners seemed to have been removed and to the floor of what appeared to be a badminton court. Yadav had then said it was an attempt by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to defame him. Singh's remarks today came against the backdrop of an investigation report submitted to the state estates officer about the damage to the bungalow. In June, Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik instructed Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against the Samajwadi Party chief for leaving the government property damaged. When Yadav became UP chief minister in 2012, he was allotted the bungalow, which he retained after his party lost the assembly election last year. The spokesperson said Yadav should respond to the matter as he had levelled allegations against the state government and had started "playing politics" on the issue. Singh used a Hindi saying "chor ki dadhi me tinka" which can be loosely translates in English as a guilty conscience pricks the mind. He said rather than feeling sorry for doing something wrong, he was taking pride in it, and used another Hindi idiom "ek toh chori, upar se seena zori" to drive home his point. Following the visuals of the damage inside the bungalow, a high level inquiry was ordered. The Public Works Department chief engineer has submitted a 266-page inquiry report to the state estates officer. The details of the report were not immediately available. The estates officer could not be contacted immediately for comments. The report, according to sources, is said to have estimated the damage to the government bungalow running into lakhs of rupees. Reacting to the development, SP leader and MLC Rajpal Kashyap said: "The government has stooped to a new low. They are coming out with reports just to malign the image of the former CM. The BJP government is rattled by the coming SP-BSP and the loss in Lok Sabha bypolls. Hence, they are desperate to hamper Yadav's image." A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi had quashed the law, which entitled former chief ministers to retain government bungalows for a lifetime, ruling that granting further privilege violates Right to Equality under Article 14. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) : Ruling AIADMK MLA A K Bose, representing Thiruparankundram Assembly constituency, died due to a heart attack in the early hours today, his family said. He was 69. Bose complained of chest pain and was rushed to hospital but died on the way, they said. Bose was elected MLA from Thiruparankunram constituency in this district thrice. He won the by-election after S M Seeninvelu who won the seat in the May 2016 Assembly elections died before taking oath as an MLA. Chief Minister K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam expressed their condolences. "Bose was loyal to the AIADMK and J Jayalalithaa," a party statement said. DMK Working President and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly M K Stalin also condoled Bose's death, saying it was a big loss to the people of Thiruparankundram. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP chief Amit Shah today congratulated disaster response services in Bihar for pulling out a girl from a borewell in Munger. In a tweet, he said the NDRF and state disaster response force personnel worked tirelessly for hours to pull her out. He also wished well for the 3-year-old girl who had fallen down a 165 ft deep borewell yesterday. She was rescued after a 30-hours operation tonight. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 21-year-old unemployed man, belonging to the Maratha community, allegedly committed suicide by hanging in Aurangabad city of Maharashtra today, the police said. Umesh Atmaram Indait hanged himself at his house in Choudhary Colony in Chikalthana area this afternoon, a senior police official said. As Maratha organisations are agitating for reservation in jobs and education for the community, at least six cases of suicide by young Maratha men were reported in the last two weeks. In all these cases, the victims purportedly mentioned that they were ending life for the cause of the quota, or because they were frustrated because of lack of job and education opportunities, the police said. The purported suicide note by Indait said he was jobless. "I did not fulfil the dreams of my parents. I am still jobless even though after completing my B.Sc because I belong to the Maratha community," it said. After a photograph of the suicide note found its way on social media platforms, hundreds of protesters gathered on Jalna Road in the city. Some of them tried to block the road and there was stone-pelting, the police officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Outgoing joint commissioner of police Ravindra Kadam today said no Maoist link has been found in the Bhima Koregaon violence last December, though an 'anti-fascist front' was behind the 'Elgar Parishad' (conclave) held here a day before the incident that saw protests by Dalit groups. Kadam, who has been transferred to Nagpur in a recent reshuffle, told reporters that the front was formed by Maoists to oppose the policies of the current government and the police have ample evidence in the form of documents and video footage against the arrested persons. He was referring to the arrests of five people by the Pune Police in June, including of activist-writer Sudhir Dhavale who was involved in the organisation of the conclave, for alleged Naxal links. Kadam said during a meeting of the 'eastern bureau' of the outlawed CPI-Maoist towards the end of 2015, a decision was taken to form an anti-fascist front to counter the policies of the current government, said the officer. The alleged suicide of Dalit scholar Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad was among the incidents used by this front to run its false propaganda against the government, he said. The officer alleged that the anti-fascist front provided funds for Elgar Parishad but said that not every organisation or person connected with the conclave had Maoist links. "They might not being knowing that they were being used by the Maoists," he added. He also said that no Maoist link was found in Bhima-Koregaon violence in Pune district. Dhavale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen were arrested for alleged Maoist links on June 6. Elgar Parishad was convened on December 31 last year to commemorate 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon, in which Dalit soldiers of the East India Company defeated the forces of Peshwa, the erstwhile ruler of Pune. The victory is now seen as an assertion of Dalit identity. A day after the conclave, Dalits paying obeisance at the war memorial at Bhima-Koregaon came under attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An army officer has been booked by the CBI in a case related to the alleged Manipur extra-judicial killings which are being probed by the agency on the orders of the Supreme Court. This is the first such case in 29 FIRs registered by the CBI Major Vijay Singh Balhara, then attached with Assam Rifles, along with seven other uniformed personnel has been named as accused in the case pertaining to the killing of 12-year-old boy Azad Khan. The case has been registered under IPC sections related to murder. This was termed a case of fake encounter by a Supreme Court- appointed commission led by retired apex court judge Santosh Hegde. According to the family, Azad was killed on March 4, 2009, the commission had noted. A student of class VII in Phoubakchao High School with no criminal antecedents, he was allegedly picked up from his home before being killed, it said. An FIR was registered nearly two months before the alleged encounter under sections of attempt to murder, arms act and other stringent charges. "According to the security forces' evidence, the deceased was suspected to be a member of the Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF)," it said, adding that PULF was not a banned organisation, according to Manipur government. Azad's family had said that he and his friend Kiyam Ananda Singh, who was a neighbour and studied the same school, was reading newspaper in the verandah of his home where his parents and relatives were present. At 11.50 am, about 30 security personnel came to the house and dragged Azad to a nearby field where he was severely beaten up amid protests from parents, the Commission said in its report. Parents, relatives and friends of Azad were locked in a room by the security forces but they could see through the window that after being beaten up, he was shot by one of the commandos and a pistol was thrown near the body, it said. The version of family members was supported by relatives, it said. The police had claimed that it got input of terrorists' movement in Azad's village to extort money from people. When they reached they found two persons running through bamboo groves firing at them. An encounter ensued for five minutes after which body of the boy was found and a 9 mm Smith and Wesson pistol was recovered, it said. After hearing the deposition of Major Balhara, who led the operation, the commission noted that there was "serious contradiction" in his statement with that of other witnesses. The commission noted that forces knew exactly where deceased was as they directly went to his home. "It is to be noted that it has come in deposition that the house from which the youths started running is the house of the deceased. Therefore the fact that the deceased was in his house when the commandos first saw him and was not involved in any extortion of money at that time is established," it said. The Commission also noted that it extremely difficult to believe that nearly 20 trained security personnel equipped with sophisticated weapons such as AK-47 and Insas rifles could not have overpowered or disabled the victim and were afraid of their security when he was running away from them and intermittently firing at them from 9 mm pistol. Relying on autopsy reports, scene of crime details, witnesses' statements and statements of police and Assam Rifles, the Hegde Commission submitted its report to the Supreme Court calling it a case of extra-judicial killing. In July last year, the Supreme Court had handed over 41 cases of fake encounters to the CBI in which 86 people were killed by security forces. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Southeast Asia's top diplomats opened an annual meeting today to tackle a slew of security concerns, including South China Sea territorial disputes, with host Singapore calling on the bloc to brace for external tumult such as rising protectionism. North Korea's rapprochement with South Korea and the US is expected to be welcomed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministers, who began four days of meetings in Singapore with a working dinner yesterday. Rising extremism and the plight of minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state are also under the spotlight. Founded in 1967 during the Cold War, ASEAN steadily weathered storms to become a stable 10-nation bloc, which now draws Asian and world powers in annual gatherings and is forecast to become the fourth-largest economy in the world in three decades. New challenges, however, include escalating trade tensions between the United States and other global powerhouses like China and the European Union, and require ASEAN to stay united "to remain relevant," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the start of the meetings. "We can all see the growing political uncertainties," Lee said. "At the same time, each ASEAN member state is subject to different pulls and pressures from bigger powers." Lee said it was important that ASEAN continues to support the multilateral system with like-minded partners, citing the bloc's efforts to conclude a wider free-trade pact with six Asia-Pacific nations by the end of the year. That new accord, called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, includes China but not the US, and is regarded by some as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact, from which President Donald Trump formally withdrew last year. Currently led by Singapore, ASEAN will host on Saturday Asia's largest security forum, including the key players involved in the Korean Peninsula's disarmament efforts, which will provide a chance for them to talk on the sidelines of the meeting. In the South China Sea disputes, which have pitted China, Taiwan and four ASEAN claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam the group is expected to announce an agreement with Beijing on an initial negotiating draft of the so-called "code of conduct," a proposed set of regional norms and rules aimed at preventing the long-seething disputes from degenerating into a shooting war. The ministers will welcome "the improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations towards the early conclusion of an effective code of conduct in the South China Sea on a mutually agreed timeline," according to a draft of a joint communique by the ministers, obtained by The Associated Press. Some of the ministers are expected to repeat their concerns over China's transformation of seven disputed reefs into islands, including three with runways, which now resemble small cities armed with weapons systems, including surface-to-air missiles. China has come under intense criticism for the militarization of the strategic waterway, but has said it has the right to build on its territory and defend them at all costs. The ministers "took note of the concerns expressed by some countries on the land reclamations in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region," the draft communique said, without naming China and reflecting the internal divisions over the touchy issue. ASEAN members Cambodia and Laos, which are known China allies, have opposed the use of strong language against Beijing over the disputes. Vietnam and Indonesia have backed stronger rhetoric against China's assertive actions. "There will be the inevitable differences, if not tensions, within ASEAN on what should be in the document. You have claimant and non-claimant states. You have countries with very close ties with China and those more cautious of China," said Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University. "A meeting of minds is essential to set the stage for the arduous road ahead," Tan said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned on Thursday in protest against party supremo Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC, which has evoked a sharp reaction from different parties and organisations in the state. Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport in the Bengali-dominated Barak valley at Banerjee's instructions and being stopped from exiting it by the police. The ruling BJP as well as other parties in Assam said the TMC had no existence in the Barak valley. Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters here that he had apprised the party leaders of the "ground realities" in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the Register of Citizens (NRC) and urged Banerjee not to send the delegation to the north-eastern state now. #WATCH: Dwipen Pathak after resigning from Assam TMC Chief's post says, "What Mamata Banerjee said about NRC, that it has been brought in Assam to drive out Bengalis, I don't agree with that. It might create disturbance here & the blame would be on me as a pres, so I've resigned" pic.twitter.com/JnxKy2gV0i ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 "The party did not pay heed to my suggestion and refused to understand the ground situation here. In this backdrop, it is not possible for me to remain in a party that does not value the Assamese sentiment," Pathak, who was a TMC MLA from 2011 to 2016, said. Two more TMC members -- Pradip Pachani of Sibsagar and Diganta Saikia of Golaghat -- too resigned, saying they could not remain members of a party that wanted to compromise the identity of the indigenous Assamese people. Saikia also threatened to file a case against Banerjee for taking an anti-Assamese stand. The TMC delegation that arrived at Silchar had to return from the Kumbhirgram airport as the district administration did not allow the party leaders to enter the town, where prohibitory orders under Section 144, CrPC are in force since last night. Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned today in protest against party supremo Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC, which has evoked a sharp reaction from different parties and organisations in the state. Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport in the Bengali-dominated Barak valley at Banerjee's instructions and being stopped from exiting it by the police. Diganta Saikia, a TMC leader from Golaghat and who was among the three to resign, even threatened to file a case against Banerjee for taking an anti-Assamese stand. The ruling BJP as well as other parties in Assam said the TMC had no existence in the Barak valley. Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters here that he had apprised the party leaders of the "ground realities" in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and urged Banerjee not to send the delegation to the north-eastern state now. "The party did not pay heed to my suggestion and refused to understand the ground situation here. In this backdrop, it is not possible for me to remain in a party that does not value the Assamese sentiment," Pathak, who was a TMC MLA from 2011 to 2016, said. "The TMC has no existence in Assam," he added. TMC leader Pradip Pachani of Sibsagar and Saikia resigned, saying they could not remain members of a party that wanted to compromise the identity of the indigenous Assamese people. The TMC delegation that arrived at Silchar had to return from the Kumbhirgram airport as the district administration did not allow the leaders to enter the town, where prohibitory orders under section 144, CrPC were in force since last night. Effigies of Banerjee were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party not to "meddle in Assam". Banerjee's effigies were burnt by the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Parishad, Asomiya Yuva Sanmilani and All Tai Ahom Students' Union, the police said. Congress MLA from the Karimganj (North) constituency in Barak valley Kamalakhya De Purkayastha spoke against the turning away of the TMC delegates at the airport. "The TMC has many wrong notions about the NRC and they (delegates) should have been allowed to come here, so that their misconceptions about the draft were cleared," he told PTI. "We do not want the prevailing peace in Barak Valley to be disturbed at any cost. But turning the TMC delegates away from the airport was not a right thing to do," he said. Most political parties in the Barak valley too maintained that there was no sense of panic among the people and that Banerjee was "trying to use the issue to gain a political entry to Assam". State Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, who represents the Dholai constituency in the valley, said Banerjee was trying to "mislead and create confusion here, but the people have ignored it". "She has no idea about the ground realities in Assam and is trying to complicate the issue...The TMC has no existence in Barak Valley and they are trying to use the NRC to make an entry as well as gain political mileage," he added. Former BJP MP Kabindra Purkayastha said, "We are at a loss to understand why the TMC delegation wants to come to Assam when the people are not complaining." There was no confusion or panic among the people as they were aware that they could make claims and seek corrections to the NRC, he said, adding that moreover, the TMC should be aware that the NRC was updated under the Supreme Court's supervision and the government had no hand in it. A senior police officer said the situation in the Barak Valley and the rest of Assam was peaceful and no NRC-related incident was reported so far. "The people of the state are aware that this is not the final NRC list, but its final draft," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fans of "Baahubali" can revisit the world of Mahishmati in a new Netflix series that will explore the journey of Sivagami in a prequel to the SS Rajamouli's two-part blockbuster. The series, which was announced by Netflix today, has already been given a two-season order. "Baahubali: Before the Beginning", will be a prequel to "Baahubali: the Beginning" and "Baahubali: the Conclusion", and is based on Anand Neelakantan's book, "The Rise of Sivagami". Season one of the series will have nine episodes and captures Sivagami's journey from a rebellious and vengeful girl to a wise and unequalled queen. Netflix has teamed up with the team behind "Baahubali", including Arka Media Works and Rajamouli. Deva Katta and Praveen Sataru will co-direct the series. Rajamouli is looking forward to the prequel. "I am very excited that this is being adapted as a Netflix Original Series. With Netflix as our partner, we have the opportunity to create a rich and riveting series and take this quintessential Indian epic to the world, which is very gratifying to me as a storyteller," he said in a statement. According to a synopsis provided by the streaming giant, "Power, politics and intrigue find themselves juxtaposed against the rise of Mahishmati - from being a city-state to an empire." Rajamouli said the world of "Baahubali" is extensive and immersive with strong characters and larger than life kingdoms and while they explored a part of it in the two films, there are other more dramatic stories to explore. Erik Barmack, VP, International Originals, Netflix, said, "Baahubali is a world-class franchise that epitomizes the power of compelling stories that resonate globally. We are excited to work with some of the world's most talented writers and producers on one of India's most beloved stories. The series is a tremendous opportunity for us to give audiences more of the universe that they have come to love, and welcome millions more into the global Baahubali fandom." Prasad Devineni, Producer, Arka Media Works, said that they have been working for over a year to develop the prequel as a Netflix original series. "We are happy to be partnering with Netflix to produce this amazing story. This partnership gives us the reach and the creative freedom to bring to life the full potential of the series in all its grandeur and exceed the high expectations set by both our films," he added. With the success of "Sacred Games", Netflix's first Original series from India, the streaming service is actively looking to expand its base in the country with original content. It recently announced a collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan for a spy drama "The Bard of Blood", starring Emraan Hashmi. It is an adaptation of Bilal Siddiqi's book of the same name. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bangladesh Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed visited the Taj Mahal today, an official said. The chief of the army staff is on a two-day visit with a six-member delegation. Ahmed also visited the elite airborne brigade of the Indian Army and witnessed various operational and training practices, said Gargi Malik Sinha, the defence PRO of Lucknow-headquartered Central Command. The delegation will leave for Lucknow tomorrow, the PRO added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Bangladeshi national disguised as a Sikh to rob a pawn shop here has been arrested, Singapore police said today. Sheikh Md Razan, 29, who was working as a construction worker previously and had overstayed since last December, was arrested yesterday evening. Razan, wearing a pink turban, entered a 'ValueMax' pawn shop outside Boon Lay Mass Rapid Transit station at about 4.30pm on July 28 armed with a knife and a replica of a gun, which later turned out to be made of plastic. Pawn shop is a shop or business common for exchanging jewellery for cash here. On barging in the shop, he demanded that the shop's employee hand over to him all the cash and jewellery. When the employee refused, the man allegedly said he would blow up the shop, claiming he had an explosive device. He then allegedly threw the object onto the counter and fled without taking any items. The workers immediately threw the object out of the shop and called the police. No one was injured in the incident. The object contained electrical components. After the foiled robbery attempt, the suspect allegedly went to an apartment block in the industrial district of Jurong West, within the vicinity of the train station left his backpack, discarded his clothing and turban behind the potted plants outside a residence. The items, along with a chopper, were found in the backpack behind the plants. A few hours later, when a resident noticed the backpack, the police was alerted. This gave a clearer picture of what Razan looked like, the police said during a press conference. Deputy Commissioner of Police and Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Florence Chua said the suspect was quite surprised when he was caught. "He didn't think we had caught on to his disguise," she said. The suspect is expected to be charged in court tomorrow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A batch of 603 pilgrims today left the Bhagwati base camp here for the cave shrine of Amarnath, situated at the height of 3,880 metres in south Kashmir Himalayas, a police official said. The batch left for Kashmir in the wee hours in a fleet of 16 vehicles under tight security, he said. So far, 2.65 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance to Lord Shiva at the shrine since the yatra commenced from the twin routes of Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district on June 28. However, the number of pilgrims undertaking the yatra has seen a marked dip over the past week due to the early melting of the naturally formed ice-'Shivlingam' at the sanctum sanctorum. Yesterday, 1,874 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine, the police official said. The 60-day pilgrimage will conclude on August 26, coinciding with the festival of 'Raksha Bandhan'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A block development officer (BDO) was caught red-handed by vigilance department sleuths while accepting bribe of Rs 1.15 lakh in Bihar's Kaimur district, a senior officer said here today. Varsha Tarve, a BDO at Rampur block of Kaimur district, had demanded five per cent commission for approving a piped drinking water project worth Rs 23 lakh under the state government's "Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal" scheme, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Akshay Kumar Mishra said. When the bureau came to know about the demand from Satyendra Kumar Singh, the village head of Kurari gram panchayat at Rampur block of the district, a 12-member team was constituted here to net BDO Tarve, he said "As per the plan, Singh approached the BDO with notes laced with a chemical powder. The bureau team then raided the BDO's official residence and asked her to dip her hands in water, the colour of which changed after coming in contact with the chemical powder on her fingers," Mishra stated Apart from the bribe money, the team also seized Rs 1.70 lakh from the BDO's possession, the Dy SP said, adding that Tarve could not give satisfactory replies to the officers when inquired about the cash. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Shiv Sena today said that the Maharashtra government should approach the Supreme Court and urge it to send a contempt notice to the Karnataka government for its Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's remark about making Belgaum the second capital of the southern state. The Shiv Sena said Maharashtra and Karnataka were embroiled in a border dispute, centring around Belgaum, in the Supreme Court and Kumaraswamy's remark, reportedly made on July 31, was "like rubbing salt into the wounds of people wanting to be part of Maharashtra". Maharashtra claims Belgaum, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds. On July 31, Kumaraswamy had said his government was mulling shifting of its offices to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belgaum, in an attempt to address allegations of discrimination levelled by the people of north Karnataka. The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi (Belgaum), modelled on the lines of the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat and legislature in Bengaluru, functions only during the winter session of the state legislature and is shut during the rest of the year. "Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has announced that Belgaum will be made the second capital of the state. This is like rubbing salt into the wounds of people wanting to be a part of Maharashtra," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. The Sena sought to know how the Kumaraswamy government could take a decision on the disputed area while the matter was sub-judice. "The Maharashtra government should immediately take cognisance of this matter and lodge a protest with the Supreme Court. The state's lawyer should plead that the SC send a contempt notice to Karnataka government," it said. The Sena quoted Kumaraswamy as saying, "In order to ensure the development of Belgaum, making it the second capital of Karnataka was under consideration of the government for the last 12 years. This issue is pending since I became the chief minister in 2006. I am seriously considering how to implement the proposal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advancements in space research tend to find their way into our everyday lives - be it through crucial surgeries or ubiquitous devices such as smartphones, according to an Australian astrophysicist. Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and a professor at Macquarie University in Australia, said it is important to let scientific research progress naturally, as one can not predict its practical outcomes in everyday lives. "You never know what comes out of basic research. It might lead to practical applications - you never know, we do it for the sake of improving humanity's understanding," de Grijs told PTI here in an interview. "For example, in the 1930s British astrophysicists studied the chemistry of the reactions in interstellar space, purely for the sake of understanding what happens. The insights gained from that kind of knowledge is now used at airports to sniff out bombs," he said. In another such example, de Grijs explained how adaptive optics - a technique used in very large telescopes to cancel out ambient signals - is now used in eye surgery. "We are not necessarily setting out to make those links, they occur more or less naturally," he said. "For astronomy to be as successful as it is today, we need very high sensitivity chips to record very feeble signals. Those chips are now used in cellphones. A lot of such everyday research came from astronomy," he added. The recent observation of gravitational waves, and India's commitment to build its own gravitational detector has opened up a whole new area of astrophysics for students and researchers to explore. According to de Grijs, whose research revolves around observing and understanding star clusters and galaxy collisions, astrophysics and astronomy prepare the students for jobs in a wide range of fields, including mathematics and statistics. In a country like India - where superstitions and technological advancement go hand in hand - de Grijs said education is the only way out of ignorance and can be used to counter the narratives that disagree with scientific research. Referring to recent statements by an Indian politician claiming that Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong, and the US administration's crackdown on research related to climate change and genealogy, de Grijs said he is saddened when such things happen. "We live in a society where everyone is driven by opinions, and societal pressures. However, science is the result of consensus of many, many scientists and research projects which eventually led to an outcome that the community as a whole agrees with," he said. In such a scenario, it is important for research to remain autonomous, and free of government interference, he said. De Grijs, along with his colleagues from Macquarie University are in the country to sign an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. The agreement will facilitate collaborations over a wide range of research and academic activities, De Grijs said. "It will bring together researchers, academics and students from both institutions and will provide them with a platform to benefit from mutual expertise," said Sanjeev Sanghi, Dean of Alumni Affairs & International Programmes at IIT Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bhutan Consul General, Phub Tshering today called on Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi and discussed bilateral issues with him, an official release said. Referring to the age old ties between Bhutan and Assam and their geographical proximity, the discussion centred around deepening the bilateral relation by taking advantage of Act East Policy, it said. The governor stressed on frequent interaction between Assam and Bhutan and urged Tshering for taking adequate measures of sending business and cultural delegations on a regular basis and the state will also reciprocate, the release said. Mukhi also requested increasing the frequency of flight from Guwahati to Paro connecting Singapore and the Consul General informed that very soon one more flight will start from Guwahati to Thimpu connecting Singapore. Hailing the governor's statesmanship, the consul general said that though India and Bhutan enjoyed balanced business relations, it will grow deeper to include more sectors for the mutual benefit of both Bhutan and Assam, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today sought the response of the Centre and the Bihar government on the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home run by a state-funded NGO in Muzaffarpur district. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta took cognizance of the matter and expressed concern that the alleged victims of sexual assault at the shelter home were subjected to media interviews again and again. The bench, which issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre, also restrained the electronic media from telecasting images of the alleged victims even in a morphed form. It asked the media not to interview the alleged victims, saying they cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again. The top court said the probe agency would take the help of professional councillors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims. It directed the CBI to carry out a forensic examination of the shelter home. The case will be next heard on August 7. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Last week, when Dalu Birhor engaged in a brawl with a neighbour, the head of their community held him guilty and fined him two bottles of Hariya (a locally brewed liquor). A month ago, Rakha Birhor (18), too, had to cough up two hens and three Hariya bottles for stealing goods from a villager. Welcome to Jharkhand's Chalkari village, where members of Birhor tribe pay country-made liquor as fine after the community court convicts them of a crime. The tribe members here follow rules and regulations set by their ancestors, said Topchachi Block Development Officer Vijay Kumar. "The members of the Birhor community usually do not approach the district administration or courts for their fracas. They solve it among themselves. Interestingly, no one challenges or defies the verdict of the community court," he said. Taking pride in their traditions, Raka Birhor, one of the elderly tribe members, said the rules and norms of the community have helped them maintain peace and stability over the years. The quantum of punishment awarded to a person depends on nature of crime, he said "If a person is held guilty for brawl, he has to pay a fine of two bottles of Hariya. For theft, the number of bottles could up to five and for serious crimes, it could go up to 10 bottles," he added. Majhi Haram, the present community chief, stores the liquor bottles that are paid as fine for use at community feasts, usually organized thrice in a year, said Sukar Birhor, who along with the tribe head and three other members, settles community disputes. "There is no need of police in our village. In the past 65 years, I have not seen any police officer entering our village. We are capable of solving our problems, so we do not go to them," he asserted. Currently, there are around 70 families at Chalkari village in Topchachi police station area of Dhanbad district. The villagers there have access to school and hospital among other facilities. Shivpujan Baraliya, the officer in-charge of Topchachi police station, corroborated Sukhar Birhors claims. "I have been posted here for the past 1.5 years. Not complaint has been registered by or against any member of the Birhor community in this period," he said. According to SK Mandal, a primary school teacher at Chalkhari, even tiffs between women are sorted by the elderly members of the community. Talking about the rules of his society, Sukar Birhor said the community had banned hunting of wild animals a century ago. "The central government passed the Wildlife Protection Act only in 1972, but the Birhor community of Chalkari had imposed a ban on wildlife killing ages ago. For killing a jackle or a jungle cat, a fine of two bottles of liquor is imposed on a member, for a leopard, it is usually 10 bottles," he explained. Hariya, a country-made liquor, is prepared at tribal homes with rice, water and jungle herbs. "It is routine drink and a symbol of prestige for the tribal community," said Ramesh Tudu, Dhanbad district president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. "Almost every family in the tribal belt prepares Hariya at home. They serve it to guests in pots. The Birhor families do not sell the liquor as they prepare it in small quantities," Tudu added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP MLAs in Maharashtra will reach out to the Maratha community members in their constituencies, appealing them to desist from resorting to violence and committing suicide for the quota cause, a minister said today. A meeting of state ministers and party MLAs to discuss the simmering issue was convened today by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis here. "The BJP MLAs would appeal to the Maratha community to desist from (participating) in any violent protest and committing suicides," Education Minister Vinod Tawde told reporters after attending the meeting. The Marathas have been holding violent protests for 16 per cent reservation in government jobs and education. The community leaders have threatened to intensify their protests from August 9 onwards. Around six persons from the Maratha community are believed to have ended their life for the quota cause, according to police. "Our MLAs will apprise the community members about various schemes of the state government that would benefit the needy people from the community. Every MLA will set up a help centre in his or her constituency to extend the support to the community. These centres will disseminate information related to schemes and programmes useful for the girl students," Tawde said. All the MLAs have expressed their support to the Maratha quota demand, he said, adding that no MLA from the BJP has tendered his resignation in connection with the quota demand. In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the BJP has maximum 122 MLAs. At least six MLAs from various parties, including from the BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, had tendered their resignations for the quota demand. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling BJP in the north-eastern state, has raised a case for a revision of the citizens' register to safeguard the state's demography, despite Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's assertion that there is no need for it. State Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who is also the IPFT general secretary, said he was hoping for a revision of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the demographic situation in Assam and Tripura was "more or less similar". "We have already demanded a review of the NRC in the state. We had submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs before the February 18 Assembly election. Assam and Tripura face more or less the same situation in terms of demographic balance," he said, adding that the IPFT was planning to organise a mega rally of tribals near Agartala to press its demand. Soon after the publication of the final draft of the NRC in Assam on July 30, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had said there was no demand for a citizens' register on the lines of the NRC in Assam as "everything is in order in Tripura and everyone has valid papers". Around 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the final draft of the NRC in Assam, which is touted to be a proof of the Assamese identity. The IPFT is a regional party demanding statehood for the indigenous people of Tripura. It is an ally of the ruling BJP and had secured eight seats in the 60-member state Assembly in the February polls. The BJP had won 36 seats in the Assembly election. Echoing the IPFT's stance, another major tribal party -- the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) -- has also demanded a review of the citizens' register in the state. INPT president Bijoy Hrankhawl said they had demanded a revision of the NRC two months ago, following the party's central committee meeting. "To get the revision of the NRC is our constitutional right. The original citizens of the state suffer due to illegal infiltration. Being in proximity of Bangladesh, Tripura is the corridor of infiltration. We are not against anybody, but we want to safeguard our people," he told PTI. Almost a third of Tripura's 37 lakh population are tribals. INPT vice-president Ananta Debbarma said the party would soon organise a massive rally at Khumulwng, about 25 from here, where over one lakh people would assemble in support of NRC revision in the state. "More than one lakh tribals will gather at Khumulwng to demand NRC revision. This is necessary to safeguard and protect the socio-economic interests of the indigenous people of the state," he told reporters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP today sought a response from the Congress over alleged claims by fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi's lawyer that he had links with the grand old party. "He (Choksi's lawyer) is confirming in a TV interview that Choksi had some alliance with the Congress and there is enough circumstantial evidence to confirm that. The Congress owes a reply," Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. He said the BJP had earlier pointed out that the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram had expanded the list of companies entitled to get unfettered rights to import diamonds and Choksi's company was one of the beneficiaries. The decision was taken a day before the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results were announced and the Congress has not yet explained why it was done, Prasad said. "What is important today is that Choksi's foreign attorney is publicly confirming in a television interview that Choksi had some sort of alliance with the Congress," the Union minister pointed out. The lawyer allegedly said Choksi had a loose alliance with the Congress, making things worse for the fugitive diamantaire in India. The Congress party, led by its president Rahul Gandhi, has used the escape of Choksi and others like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, all of whom are accused of bank frauds, from India to target the Modi government. Choksi, wanted in a USD 2 billion scam in Punjab National Bank, took citizenship of Antigua in November 2017. The Modi government's commitment to bringing Choksi to India to face trial is unimpeachable, Prasad asserted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP state unit today urged West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi to ensure that the name of the state was not changed to 'Bangla' as it would sound very similar to Bangladesh. The state Assembly had passed a resolution unanimously to this effect on July 26. "We have urged him (governor) to send a proposal that the state be called 'Paschim Bango' in Bengali, Hindi and English," BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh told reporters after meeting the Governor K N Tripathi. Ghosh had earlier said that 'Bangla' will sound very similar to Bangladesh but 'Paschim Bango' will have a historic connection with the country's partition in 1947. "We know the state Assembly had recently passed a resolution for changing the name to Bangla in all the three languages and to my knowledge this was the fourth such proposal. We oppose this," Ghosh, who led a seven-member delegation, said. "We have requested the governor to send proposal to the Union Home Ministry to keep the name as 'Paschim Bango' in all languages," he said. The move was aimed at climbing the alphabetical order of state names in which West Bengal appears last in the list now, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said. The Centre had in the past rejected the state government's proposal of having three names -- Bangla (in Bengali), Bengal (in English) and Bangal (in Hindi). The Mamata Banerjee government's move to rename West Bengal as 'Paschim Bango' in 2011 was also turned down by the Centre. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The NCP today attacked the BJP over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), saying the ruling party was exploiting the issue to polarise people. Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Nawab Malik also claimed that data shows that the previous UPA government was more sincere in taking action against those living illegally in India. The Manmohan Singh government deported around 5,500 foreigners who were living in India without valid documents, whereas the present government has deported less than 1,000 foreign nationals in the last four years, he said. "Has the Modi government identified how many people are living in India in this way (illegally)? Has the Centre raised the issue before the concerned countries? The government should come out with a clarification," Malik said. "The BJP is trying to polarise people on religious lines to gain votes in elections," the NCP leader said. While police regularly take action against those living illegally in the country, parties such as the BJP and Shiv Sena raise the issue only when polls are around, he said. The publication of draft NRC in Assam has triggered a political firestorm over exclusion of over 40 lakh residents of the north-eastern state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The body of a Class 11 student, who was missing since July 29, was found in a village here today, police said. The victim, identified as Harsh Kumar (16), was found near Saidpura village under the Charthawal police station area, they added. A case was registered against unidentified miscreants and an investigation launched, Circle Officer Rizwan Ahmad said, adding that the body was sent for postmortem. Meanwhile, irate villagers blocked the Rohana-Charthawal road for several hours demanding action against the accused after the body was discovered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Coming down heavily on central and state agencies probing the killings of rationalists Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, the Thursday said the authorities are showing no urgency despite the country witnessing a "tragic phase" where one cannot speak or move around freely. A bench of Justices SC Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre said it was not satisfied with the probe and returned the 'confidential reports' submitted by the state CID and the (CBI) with an observation that there was nothing confidential in those reports. The bench observed that one was witnessing a "tragic phase" in the country where one could not even speak or move around freely, and yet, the authorities in the above cases had failed to show urgency, or make concrete progress, in probing the killings. Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 in Pune while on his morning walk. Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries a few days later on February 20. The and the state CID are probing the killings of Dabholkar and Pansare, respectively. The high court bench, which is hearing a plea filed by family members of Dabholkar and Pansare seeking a court-monitored probe in the two cases, said, "We are very unhappy. No corrective measures have been taken. They (the officers probing both killings) have been completely inept and insensitive in handling such sensitive cases." "We are witnessing a tragic phase in the country today. Citizens already feel that they can't voice their concerns or opinions fearlessly. Are we going to see a day when everyone will need police protection to move around, or to speak freely?" the bench said. "What is happening in the state today? People come and torch buses, pelt stones, it is a free for all. What are your priorities? There is a state, and then there is a government. The government might change tomorrow, but what about the state that is home to millions of people? Will everyone need police protection tomorrow to speak their minds?" the court asked. Talking about the probe being conducted in the two cases, the bench said even though the senior most officers of the CID and the had filed these reports directly in the judges' chambers claiming that they contained sensitive and confidential information, the perusal of the reports by the judges had revealed that they merely contained the summary of all that the agencies had submitted, by way of progress reports in the above cases, in the past. It also observed that the head of the special investigations team of the state CID and the had been summoned in the court and yet they have filed such a rudimentary report, which shows that the government's priorities lay elsewhere. On the previous hearing on July 17, the CBI Joint Director and the head of the CID's SIT had sought that they be granted a personal hearing by the bench in its chambers since they had some "sensitive" information related to their probes into the above cases which they couldn't "share in the open court." The bench, however, refused them such a hearing stating that the same would set a precedent. It had instead directed them to file a report on such findings directly to their chambers. Accordingly, the CBI, the CID, and the Home Department's Additional Chief Secretary had submitted the reports in the chambers yesterday. Returning the reports, the bench said, "What is the point of the intervention of the highest court in the state if this is the result? We are not impressed. There is nothing confidential in these reports. A 10-year-old boy was trampled to death by a wild elephant at a village in Odisha's Sundargarh district, a forest official said. The incident happened at Amurudi village under the jurisdiction of K Balang police station late last night when the boy was sleeping in his house and the jumbo barged in after pulling down the mud wall, he said. The deceased, identified as Biswanath Munda, came face to face with the pachyderm which trampled him, while his mother and younger brother managed to escape, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Rourkela, Sanjay Swain, said. The elephant had stormed the village after getting separated from a herd of about seven jumbos and the incident occurred when the villagers were trying to drive it away, the official said. The DFO said that the family has been given Rs 20,000 immediately and another Rs 3.8 lakh will be provided after completion of necessary formalities. The family was also provided with polythene sheet to cover the damaged portion of the house and another Rs 2,000 to repair the house, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today restrained the media from showing, even in morphed form, images of the alleged victims of rape and sexual assault at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, observing they cannot be compelled to "relive the trauma" again and again. The apex court ban in which the media was also asked not to interview the victims came on a day when a state-wide bandh was called by the Left parties in Bihar in protest against the alleged sex abuse at the shelter home run by a state-funded NGO. Expressing concern over the alleged victims being subjected to media interviews, a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta ordered the ban after taking cognizance of the letter received from one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna regarding the shocking incident. The court while restraining the media from telecasting or publishing the images of the victims even in morphed form also asked them not to interview the girls. "They(victims) cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again," the court said, as it issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre seeking their response on the incident. "The investigating agency will take assistance of professional counsellors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims," it added. The court then posted the matter for further hearing on August 7. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, the chief of the state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI. In all, sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination, while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests. The TISS audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the local police in connection with the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A central team is scheduled to arrive in Kerala on August 7 to assess the extent of damage and losses incurred in the state due to the recent rains and floods. The inter-ministerial team headed by a joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs would arrive in Kochi and visit the worst-affected Alappuzha, Kottayam and other neighbouring districts, officials in the Revenue Ministry said today. The central team would be in the state till August 11 and would interact with state government officials and district administration. The team would meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Revenue minister E Chandrasekharan, the officials added. Meanwhile, about 9,000 people were still staying in relief camps and of them more than 7,000 were in Alappuzha district. Though there was a respite from rain for the past two days, flood water has not yet receded in many places in Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. Government machinery continued to be on alert to meet the situation arising out of the possibility of release of excess water from the Idukki reservoir where the water level stood at 2,396.12 feet this morning. The full water level of Idukki dam is 2,403 ft. Most dams in the state are full and some have been opened to release excess water. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has proposed throwing open the national highway cutting through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka for night traffic with adequate protection measures, but the state forest department is not in favour of it. Karnataka government is not allowing night traffic on the NH-212 through the forested region, inhabiting wild animals including tiger, leopards and elephants to prevent their deaths in possible road accidents. The movement of traffic through the tiger reserve is banned on this stretch from 9 pm to 6 am. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH) has recently proposed to allow night traffic and claimed that Karnataka government had agreed to give its consent. In a letter to the Karnataka Chief Secretary, MoRTH Secretary Y S Malik hasalso proposed building four elevated corridors of one km each. MoRTH's claim that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and PWD minister H D Revanna had consented to its recommendations during a meeting with Union Transport Minister Nitin Dadkari has come as a surprise to wild life conservationists, as it is contrary to the stand of successive state governments. Also, the matter is presently sub-judice with the Supreme Court hearing a related case. Malik has sought the state's consent to the proposed scheme, so that it can be submitted before the Supreme Court. Following this, state Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar has sought the Forest Department's opinion. A senior forest department official told PTI on condition of anonymity, "We have opposed lifting of the night traffic ban... Mostly the file is with the Chief Minister's office." The National Highway (NH-212) connects Kollegal in Karnataka with Kozhikhode in Kerala via Mysuru. Out of the total 272 km length, 34.60 km length of this highway passes through the Bandipur and Wayanad National Park. MoRTH was of the view that adoption of the alternative existing route results in avoidable consumption of fuel besides causing the incremental vehicular emissions. Night traffic through Bandipur Tiger Reserve, located in Mysore and Chamrajnagar districts in Karnataka, has been a contentious issue between Kerala and Karnataka. The Bandipur road connecting Sulthan Batheri in Kerala with Mysuru and Bengaluru is the shortest route. The alternative route in the night takes a long detour, which the traders from Kerala want to avoid. Karnataka had rejected a request by Kerala in March this year for allowing night traffic. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China wants military exercises and energy exploration with Southeast Asian nations in disputed waters, according to a draft document, but insists on outside countries being excluded in what analysts said was a bid to diminish US influence. Beijing's suggestions are part of efforts to expand its influence in the South China Sea, which it claims almost entirely, and push back at Washington which has backed countries with overlapping claims to the waters. A code of conduct between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to govern behaviour in the strategic sea has been years in the making. The draft document, seen by AFP, outlines different countries' bargaining positions as they work towards an agreement, and analysts said it represented some initial progress. In the text, Vietnam offers the strongest opposition to Beijing's activities -- calling for countries to stop building artificial islands and establishing military installations. But there was little sign of serious resistance from other countries, signalling how opposition to China's aggressive expansion in the resource-rich waters has ebbed in recent years in Southeast Asia. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims to China's in the sea. Tensions have escalated in recent years due to Beijing building artificial islands that can host military bases. Meanwhile the US -- traditionally the dominant military power in the area -- has more frequently carried out patrols aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation. In the draft text, Beijing suggests that China and the 10 ASEAN states should carry out joint military exercises regularly. However, the drills should not involve countries outside the region "unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection". The suggestion to exclude outside countries "is obviously targeted at the US which has been dominating the waters of the Western Pacific and the South China Sea in particular", Hoang Thi Ha, from the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told AFP. By proposing joint military exercises, China is trying to send a "subtle message to the world that ASEAN and China could work together and things are progressing well, hence there is no need for external involvement in the South China Sea issue", said Ha. Beijing also suggested that China and ASEAN could carry out joint oil and gas exploration in the waters but again proposed that firms from countries outside the region be excluded from such activities, the document showed. At a meeting of foreign ministers in Singapore today, Beijing and ASEAN announced they had agreed on the negotiating text for the code. Vietnam has offered some of the stiffest resistance to China in the sea in recent times, regularly complaining about Beijing's activities on contested islands and in disputed waters. Tensions reached fever pitch in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi. However opposition has weakened in other parts of Southeast Asia, with analysts saying that countries are keen to attract Chinese investment and are worried about US commitment to the region under President Donald Trump. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Class 11 student of a prestigious school in Ajmer has claimed that he was allegedly sodomised by his seniors last month, police said today. An FIR was lodged under sections of the POCSO Act against four people at the Alwar gate police station based on a complaint filed by the victim's father on July 30, they said. "We have examined CCTV footage of the school but the allegation that he was thrashed and dragged could not be verified. The probe on the allegation of sodomy is underway," a senior police officer said. The alleged assault on the boy, from Uttar Pradesh, took place on July 15, he said. Police refrained from sharing further details. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A class 11 student was injured after being stabbed by a junior following a fight at a government school in Shahdara's Krishna Nagar area, police said today. The incident occurred in the ground floor of the school premises after morning prayers, they said. The student sustained injuries in his hands, legs and back. He has been hospitalised and is stated to be stable, they said, adding that the other student has been apprehended. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today expressed grief over the death of six people when a car ploughed through a crowd at a bus stand in Coimbatore and announced solatium of Rs one lakh each to their families. The victims were waiting at a bus stop yesterday when the speeding car mowed them down. Three others were injured in the incident. "I was grieved to know about the incident," the Chief Minister said in a statement here. He announced a solatium of Rs one lakh each to the families of the deceased from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund. Palaniswami also announced Rs 50,000 for seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for those who suffered simple injuries. The chief minister said he has directed the district administration to ensure best medical treatment to the injured and wished them a speedy recovery. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress claimed today that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' meeting with prominent personalities from the Maratha community received a lukewarm response, a claim dismissed by the government. The opposition party said the "poor attendance" at the meeting is a testimony to the fact that the people have lost faith in the leadership of the chief minister. However, the state government disputed the Congress' claim, saying most of the invitees attended the meeting held at the Sahyadri Guest House in south Mumbai. The meeting was convened by the chief minister in view of the fresh wave of protests by the Maratha community demanding 16 per cent reservation in jobs and education. The protests had taken a violent turn at many places in the state. "Majority of the prominent personalities from the community invited for the meeting convened by the chief minister on Maratha reservation did not show up," Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan said on Twitter tagging a media report. "This makes it clear the Maratha community does not trust the chief minister. The chief minister has lost the faith of people of the state had reposed in him (sic)," he added. However, an official from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that 80 per cent of the invitees participated in the discussion with Fadnavis. "About 4 to 5 dignitaries were absent including Kolhapur royal Shahu Chhatrapati. There were various reasons for their absence," the official said. After the meeting, the prominent personalities from the fields of cinema and industry issued a joint appeal asking the protesters to exercise restraint and not indulge in violence or suicide. Noted actors Sayaji Shinde and Amol Kolhe, well-known art director Nitin Desai, Shirdi temple trust chairman Suresh Haware and water conservation activist Popatrao Pawar were among the 22 personalities who attended the meeting. After the meeting, Fadnavis reiterated his government's commitment to granting reservation to the Marathas which stands legal scrutiny. Meanwhile, the NCP has demanded the government get the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission file its report on the socio-economic backwardness of the Marathas soon and convene a special session of the state legislature to discuss the quota issue. "The government should then send a proposal for a Constitutional amendment to the Centre. Our party will support it in Parliament. (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar will speak with other parties for their backing," state NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik told reporters here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today sanctioned 1,021 projects worth Rs 25.40 crore under the Ama Gaon Ama Bikash (Our village, our development) programme, officials said today. The chief minister sanctioned Rs 25.40 crore for 1,021 projects as per the suggestions made by panchayat representatives through video conferencing at the state secretariat here, they said. A total of 26,587 projects worth Rs 656.90 crore including today's project has been sanctioned under the programme which was launched in the state in March this year. Under the Ama Gaon Ama Bikash programme, the chief minister discusses the proposals directly with the villagers and then sanctions the amount for the proposed projects. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would leave for New Delhi tomorrow to get approval from the Centre for the new zonal system in the state. Rao would leave for Delhi tomorrow morning to discuss with government officials concerned on the zonal system (concerning government employment), a release from his office said tonight. "The chief minister will himself monitor the whole process of obtaining clearance and approval for the Zonal system. The chief minister has also decided, to stay in New Delhi, if required for two, three days and also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if necessary, to brief in detail about the necessity of Zonal system," it said. "The Telangana Government has created the new zonal system to enable 95 per cent reservation in all employment opportunities to the locals. The state government has requested the Government of India to agree to the Zonal system," the release said. The Union Law Ministry and the Union Home Ministry have positively responded to the proposal, it said. The concerned file has been forwarded to the Prime Ministers office, it said. Since the matter pertaining to clearance of zonal system is at a crucial stage, the chief minister has decided to go to Delhi to personally monitor the whole process, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An international textile fair will be held here in February as was announced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, State Handloom Minister O S Manian said today. Speaking to reporters here, the Minister said the State government has allocated Rs 2 crore for the conduct of the fair which would showcase the capability of the State in the textile sector and in finding newer markets for the products. Besides, the fair would help bridge the gap between production and sales, he said. The Minister was here to discuss with the captains of the textile industry and experts on the successful conduct of the fair, since the government was hosting such a show for the first time. Asked about the impact of the five per cent good and service tax imposed on the textile sector, he expressed hope the Centre would soon bring it down. To a question on fixing of wages for the labourers in the industry, the Minister said the State government would soon fix the pay of handloom weavers coming under the cooperative sector, while the revised pay for workers in the poweroom sector would be decided upon through talks between the district Collectors and labour unions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A college in North Kerala is caught in a row over its decision not to permit printing of a magazine being brought out by its students as it contains a poem allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Christian community. According to authorities of the christian management-run college at Wayanad, the draft copy of the magazine contains not only a four-line poem, which was "highly objectionable," but also has certain articles which can cause "difficulties" to some people. "A four-member editorial board has been constituted which will see if there are any objectionable contents in the magazine," college principal A O Roy told PTI. Roy said the magazine cannot be brought out in the name of the college and the institution also cannot take any responsibility for it. B P Shahul Hameed, the magazines student editor, said permission was not granted by the college which objected to the four-line poem written by one of the students. "We do not see anything objectionable in the poem, which was intended to highlight current social issues," he said. "Everybody knows what the issue is...when the magazine was ready, it was chief editor, A O Roy, who is the college principal, who objected to certain words in the poem and said it was not possible to publish it in the magazine," he said. The poem apparently refers to a recent incident of an alleged sexual assault of a minor girl in Kerala by a priest after which she delivered a child. "The magazine has been banned now. But we have got the full support of the student community," Hameed said. The decision to include the poem in the magazine was taken by the editorial board, which comprises students from various religious background and political parties, he said. "We are firm that the poem should be part of the magazine," he added. The row comes close on the heels of the protest by right-wing activists against 'Meesha', a novel by S Hareesh as it allegedly contains anti-Hindu and anti-women references. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Computer simulations can accurately predict the transmission of HIV across populations, which could aid in preventing the deadly infection, scientists have found. The simulations were consistent with actual DNA data obtained from a global public HIV database, according to the study published in the journal Nature Microbiology. "We looked for special genetic patterns that we had seen in the simulations, and we can confirm that these patterns also hold for real data covering the entire epidemic," said Thomas Leitner, a computational biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US. HIV is particularly interesting to study in this manner as the virus mutates rapidly and constantly within each infected individual, Leitner said. The changing "genetic signatures" of its code provide a path that researchers can follow in determining the origin and time frame of an infection. The computer simulations are now proven to be successful in tracking and predicting the virus's movements through populations, researchers said. The rapid mutational capability of the virus is one of the features that makes it so difficult to tackle with a vaccine. Leitner and Ethan Romero-Severson, a Los Alamos theoretical biologist, used phylogenetic methods, examining evolutionary relationships in the virus's genetic code to evaluate how HIV is transmitted. They found that certain phylogenetic "family tree" patterns correlated to the DNA data from 955 pairs of people, in which the transmitter and recipient of the virus were known. "These HIV transmissions had known linkage based on epidemiological information such as partner studies, mother-to-child transmission, pairs identified by contact tracing, and criminal cases," the researchers said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today demanded that the government make public the report of caste-based census to help implement reservation on its basis. Congress leader Tamradhwaj Sahu said the party had extended its full support to a bill seeking to grant constitutional status to the OBC Commission and it had debunked BJP's propaganda that the party was against the OBC. The Congress Lok Sabha MP, also the party's OBC cell chief, said the party never opposed reservation for OBCs and had always been committed to their welfare. He expressed hope that the benefits for OBCs would be given to them in the coming months and that the bill would not remain merely a "chunavi jumla (election gimmick)". "It was during the Congress' rule that the process of caste-based census was initiated. Now the exercise has been completed and the report submitted, the government should make public the report. Why it is not making it public," he told reporters. He also urged the government to implement reservation on the basis of the report's findings. Sahu said it was during the Congress' rule that Kaka Kalelkar committee was constituted which came out with several recommendations for the welfare of the OBCs. While the Congress leader clarified his stand on the OBC bill in Lok Sabha, he did not spell out the party's strategy in the Rajya Sabha which would finally pass the bill to help it become a law. The bill for giving constitutional status to OBC Commission was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2017, but the Rajya Sabha made some amendments in it, including having a woman member in the OBC Commission. The BJP and its leaders including prime minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of "delaying" the bill to grant constitutional status to OBC Commission and dubbed the opposition party as "anti-OBC". Sahu also hit out at the prime minister, asking if he was getting sympathy for being an OBC leader why did he not bring measures for their welfare four years ago and waited for this much time to pass before bringing the bill. Sahu hoped after the passage of the bill, the backlog of jobs for OBCs and other benefits to them be granted soon in the next few months. He pointed out at around 1.5 lakh posts reserved for OBCs were lying vacant in the government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Himachal Pradesh Congress today burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and in other district headquarters during state-wide protests over the Rafale deal. Party workers, led by state president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mukesh Agnihotri submitted a memorandum to a representative of Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki. Local Congress leaders in their district headquarters gave memorandums to the respective deputy commissioners. Earlier in the day in Shimla, party workers carried out a protest march where they burnt Modi's effigy and raised slogans against him. Speaking at the march, Sukhu said, "The nation wants to know why the Modi government paid Rs 60,145 crore for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, whereas the UPA-II had struck a deal of just Rs 18,940 crore for the same." The public wants to know why the National Democratic Alliance government paid Rs 41,205-crore more for purchasing the 36 aircrafts, he added. Reiterating the allegations levelled by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Parliament during a debate on the no-confidence motion, Sukhu said the Modi government had paid Rs 1,670 crore for a Rafale fighter plane, whereas, as per the deal struck by the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the cost of a Rafale jet would have been around Rs 526 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Loktantrik Janta Dal leader Sharad Yadav appealed to the Congress today to take the lead in bringing together all opposition parties on a single platform to dislodge the BJP from power. Addressing a gathering here, he said the country was currently reeling under an "undeclared democracy" in the BJP rule. "It (defeating the BJP) will not happen without opposition unity. Those getting 31 per cent votes are ruling now because 69 per cent votes stood divided. The Congress is the biggest opposition party and it should take responsibility to bring all parties on a single platform," Yadav said while addressing the state-level Lokkranti Sammelan. The former JD(U) leader also hinted that parties in the proposed Third Front would forge an alliance with the Congress at the national level and in Madhya Pradesh, where assembly polls were due later this year. "We will have an alliance with the Congress at the national level and also make an effort to have a coalition here (in Madhya Pradesh)," he said in an interaction with reporters after the function. He was responding to a query whether the parties under the proposed Third Front would stitch an alliance with the Congress. "An undeclared emergency is more dangerous than the declared one. At present, there is an undeclared emergency in the country," he said, alleging that the governments in Madhya Pradesh and Centre were spreading lies. He said every section of the society was suffering under the BJP-led central government which had caused the "maximum damage" to the country in just four years. Yadav appealed to the people to vote in the upcoming elections with an objective to save the country and the Constitution and not on the lines of caste and religion. He said the BJP under leaders like (former prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani was different from the present one under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It is time for the people to ask the government to fulfill the electoral promises made by them," the socialist leader said. Yadav slammed the Modi-led government over the "non-fulfilment" of the electoral promise of creating 2 crore jobs and for demonetising higher currencies. Accusing the BJP of dividing the society, Yadav claimed, "Cows seem have become more important than their daughters and mothers." He alleged that the Madhya Pradesh government had "ruined" the Narmada and the Tawa rivers by allowing illegal mining. Taking a dig at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's "Jan Ashirvad (blessing) Yatra", Yadav dubbed the mass outreach campaign 'Jan Abhishap (curse) Yatra'. "The BJP rule has become an 'abhishap' (curse) for the common people," he claimed. Yadav said he had coined two slogans, "BJP Bhagao - Desh Bachao" and "Modi Hatao Samvidhan Bachao". Yadav claimed that 102 people had died in mob lynching incidents in the country under the BJP rule. Speaking on the occasion, Bahujan Sangharsh Dal (BSD) president Phool Singh Baraiya alleged, "Most of the slaughter-houses exporting beef abroad are run by Hindus." He dared the BJP governments to cancel the licenses of these facilities. Congress leader and former East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit and Communist leaders from Madhya Pradesh also attended the convention. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition Congress in Haryana has slammed Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for allegedly snubbing a man who had urged him to keep his "promise" and provide him a government job. Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala shared a video of Khattar on his Twitter handle in which the chief minister is seen snubbing the man, a resident of Karnal from where Khattar is an MLA. On July 22, Khattar was listening to grievances of people at the PWD Rest House in Karnal. There, the man who identified himself as T P Arora, reminded the chief minister of the job promise he had made to him during his visit to his residence two years ago. In the video, the man is seen reminding Khattar of the "promise", but the chief minister tells him, "Achhe haath paar hai ki nahin tumahare" (you look fit and healthy). "Kamao, khao, koi sarkari naukri tumhare liye nahin hai (earn your living, there is no government job for you)," Khattar tells him as the man is seen repeatedly pleading to Khattar to keep his promise. "Tumahare liye koi naukri nahin hai, tum apna kamao (there is no job for you, you earn on your own)," the chief minister tells the man. According to the video, the man then tries to engage Khattar in an argument. As the chief minister starts to walk away, the man tells him: "Sir, why did you lie to me then." The security personnel later pushed the man aside. After the video became viral on the Internet, the opposition Congress criticised Khattar for his apparent lack of empathy. "Does it behove a chief minister to snub a job-seeking youth in this manner and that too in his own constituency Karnal," Surjewala tweeted. Khattar, a first-time MLA, represents Karnal assembly constituency in the state assembly. Surjewala wrote "while the unemployed are raising voice, the BJP leaders are snubbing them..". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Legislators of the ruling Congress in Puducherry and its ally DMK presented a joint memorandum to Speaker V Vaithilingam, raising a privilege issue against Lt Governor Kiran Bedi for "airing derogatory remarks against the assembly and legislators." They submitted the memorandum to the speaker at his office here. Seven of the 15 Congress MLAs and one of the two DMK members signed the memorandum alleging that the lt governor had made comments and issued statements that "are derogatory in nature and cause slur on the privilege of the members and the house as a whole." The MLAs said in the memorandum that the lt governor had at one point stated that if the interim order of the Supreme Court directing permission for the three nominated legislators to participate in the house proceedings was not adhered to "serious consequences will follow."This, they said, is particularly "causing concern to the legislators and those supporting freedom of the house."She had 'insisted' that the three Bharatiya Janata Party members be permitted to participate in the proceedings of the house as per the interim order and fixed this as a condition precedent for her approving the introduction of the Appropriation Bill in the house. "The recent statement of the lt governor that the lawmakers should not be law-breakers is particularly telling upon the privilege and the decorum of the house," the memorandum said, adding the statements created a wrong impression about legislators among the public. The MLAs wanted the speaker to take action against the lt governor for breach of privilege and causing contempt to the house. The signatories included the parliamentary secretary to the chief minister, K Lakshminarayan, and woman DMK legislator A Geetha Anandan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), a consortium of 62 farmer bodies, today said it has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 28 chief ministers urging them to have a dialogue with farmers before extending MNREGA to the agriculture sector. RKM, which appreciated the proposal by government think-tank Niti Aayog, said it will launch a nationwide signature campaign to seek farmers' opinion. "The feasibility of using the employment generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in agriculture related activities, both pre-harvest and post-harvest, is not possible without consulting serious farmers organisation," it said in a statement. RKM also alleged that Niti Aayog is not willing to meet farmers' bodies despite their request. Therefore, RKM has passed a resolution to consult all stakeholders, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The absence of specific provisions in the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act about granting maintenance for wife did not bar courts from granting such relief if necessary, the Bombay High Court today said. Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi said the court had to do "substantive justice" and must not be "misled by technicalities". The high court dismissed an appeal filed by a Muslim man challenging the trial court's court order granting his estranged wife maintenance and half the share in the couple's property while granting them divorce. The petitioner whose name was not disclosed had claimed that the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act was conspicuously silent on the rights of married Muslim woman for maintenance or matrimonial property. Under a suit for dissolution of marriage, a woman could not claim maintenance or a share in property, he said. Justice Phansalkar-Joshi rejected this view. Merely because the act did not mention that the court had powers to do certain things, it could not be said that the court could not grant such relief if it deemed it necessary, the judge said. "The right of maintenance and right in the matrimonial property... are incidental to the main relief of dissolution of marriage and therefore, these reliefs are very much an integral part of the decree of dissolution of marriage," said the judge. "Hence, they are required to be considered even if at times such reliefs are not asked for," the high court said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Dalit Sena, affiliated to BJP ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi today for the government's "historic" decision to bring a bill to overturn a Supreme Court order on a law on atrocities against Dalits and tribals. It had earlier threatened to join the proposed countrywide protests of Dalit groups on August 9. Dalit Sena president and Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Paswan heaped praise on Modi for the decision to introduce the bill. He also praised LJP president and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan for consistently taking up the issue. The apex court, in its March 20 order, had introduced several safeguards in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Dalit groups and leaders like Paswan had claimed that the Supreme Court judgment had diluted the law and made it toothless. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi government today welcomed the Supreme Court order allowing it to procure 500 standard-floor buses to improve the public transport in the national capital. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot tweeted, "Welcome decision by the Hon'ble Supreme Court allowing the Delhi govt to procure 500 standard floor buses. There is an urgent need to augment environment-friendly public transport in Delhi." The apex court said it was only an interim measure. The Delhi government assured the court that hydraulic lifts would be installed in these buses for the benefit of differently-abled persons. A proposal of the transport department to procure 1,000 buses each for DTC and Cluster scheme had run into rough weather with the Delhi High Court staying the implementation of the decision on June 1 on the ground that they were not disabled-friendly. The Delhi government challenged the decision in the apex court. Later in June, in view of the high court's decision, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) Board decided to add 500 low-floor buses to its fleet. Last month, the AAP government had told the apex court that Delhi faced an acute shortage of public transport as only 5,554 buses against the required number of 11,000 vehicles are plying in the national capital. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dhinakaran today met his party secretary and aunt V K Sasikala at the Parappana Agrahara prison here. "Dhinakaran met his aunt at the jail in the afternoon. He spent 45 minutes with Sasikala and discussed political developments in Tamil Nadu," Dhinakaran loyalist Pugazhendi told PTI. Dhinakaran, who was accompanied by Pugazhendi and other associates, visited the jail at 12.15 pm and came out at 1 pm. Sasikala has been been in jail since February last year after being imprisoned in the disproportionate assets case. Speaking to reporters outside the jail premises, Dhinakaran said his party has not yet decided on alliance for the coming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "We have not decided on which side my party would be. In 2014, DMK allied with Congress and other parties went with some other alliance, but Amma (former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa) stood alone. I am also like her, but I am not against any alliance," he said. He was responding to a query on joining hands with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to prevent the BJP from coming back to power in 2019. Dhinakaran said his party would not join any alliance where DMK is there. "If Congress wants our support, let them come out of the alliance with DMK," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court was today informed that the CBI's appeal against the acquittal of Essar Group promoters Ravi Kant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and others in a case arising out of the probe in 2G scam deserved to be dismissed. The submission was made by Loop Telecom in an affidavit placed before Justice Najmi Waziri who listed the matter for hearing on October 9 after the other defendants in the CBI's appeal sought time to file their respective replies to the agency's plea. Besides Ruias, the CBI had appealed against the acquittal of promoters of Loop Telecom Ltd I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan, Essar Group Director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf and three telecom firms - Loop Telecom, Loop Mobile India and Essar Tele Holding. In its affidavit filed through advocate Arshdeep Singh, Loop said that the special CBI court "had carefully considered the material and evidence on record before acquitting the accused persons". The company also said that the CBI court's December 21, 2017 verdict "suffers from no patent illegality, is not palpably wrong, is not based on an erroneous view of the law, is not manifestly unjust or unreasonable and neither ignores nor misreads any material evidence". It said that CBI in its appeal apart from "merely making bald statements and unsubstantiated claims", failed to disclose any errors in the judgement and sought that the probe agency's plea be dismissed. The probe agency said in its appeal that the special judge failed to appreciate the evidence and the law in proper perspective and the evidence on record clearly established the offence committed by the accused. On December 21 last year, a special court had acquitted Essar Group promoters, Loop Telecom Promoters and others in a case arising out of the 2G scam probe. The CBI had named them in its chargesheet on December 12, 2011, alleging they had cheated the Department of Telecommunication by using Loop Telecom as a "front" to secure 2G licences in 2008 in violation of Clause 8 of the Unified Access Service License Guidelines. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has advised states and Union territories to display the "standard logo" of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in all houses constructed under PMAY (U), Rajya Sabha was told today. In a written reply to a question, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the move is intended to spread awareness among people about PMAY (U), a flagship scheme of the central government. According to the ministry, 53.79 lakh houses have been sanctioned against the estimated one crore housing units to be constructed till 2022 under the government's vision of "Housing for All by 2022" in the country. The ministry of housing and urban affairs is implementing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and providing assistance to states and UTs in addressing the housing requirements in urban areas. "To spread awareness among people about the scheme, this ministry has advised all states/Union territory governments to display the standard logo of PMAY (U) in all houses constructed under the PMAY (U)," Puri said. Out of the sanctioned 53.79 lakh houses, 29.65 lakh houses are grounded for construction and 8.15 lakh houses have already been occupied, the ministry said. In reply to another question, Puri said under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Gramin (G), being implemented by the ministry of rural development, one crore houses are targeted for construction over a period of three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19, and till now, 43.27 lakh houses have been constructed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an act of rebellion, a group of AAP legislators led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira today declared the party's Punjab unit autonomous and dissolved its current organisational structure. But even while adopting this resolution at a public meeting here, Khaira gave a week's time to the leadership in Delhi to review its decision to remove him from the post of Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly. Altogether, eight of the 20 AAP MLAs in Punjab took part in the volunteers' convention called here by the Bolath legislator after his removal from the post. The AAP leadership had summoned all Punjab MLAs to Delhi today to indicate that they were not with Khaira's "anti-party" move. At least 11 of them came to meet the leaders in the capital. "The Dalit card is a political gimmick to remove me", Khaira said at the convention, referring to Dalit leader Harpal Singh Cheema appointment in his place. The convention unanimously resolved that the party's Punjab unit was autonomous, and will take its own decisions. It dissolved the current organisational structure in the state and tasked the dissident MLAs and the convention organisers to frame a new one. One of the resolutions said the existing organisational structure had eroded the AAP's image and its base in the state. The convention flayed Khaira's removal as Leader of Opposition in an "undemocratic way" and rejected Cheema's appointment. Launching a veiled attack on top leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia from the stage he shared with the seven other dissident MLAs, Khaira said, "Punjab cannot be run by remote control." Khaira said he does not accept the "dictatorial" approach adopted by the "subedars". "I can sacrifice hundreds of such posts for the welfare of the people of Punjab," he said, addressing a sizeable gathering of supporters. Khaira proposed forging a third front of like-minded parties to rid Punjab of the Congress and the Akali Dal as they had "ruined the state." "Power and money is in play in Punjab today," he said. He said he will start his journey by seeking blessings at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and will visit all 22 districts in the state. Rallies will be organised at various places, he said. He thanked the NRIs for their support in bringing the volunteers together and added that the other major parties are perplexed with the response they were getting. The other MLAs who expressed solidarity with Khaira are Kanwar Sandhu from Kharar, Nazar Singh Mansahia (Mansa), Kulwant Singh (Mehal Kalan), Baldev Singh (Jaitu), Pirmal Singh (Bhadaur), Jagdev Singh Kamalu (Maur) and Jagtar Singh Jagga (Raipur). The party plunged into a crisis in Punjab when Khaira was removed from his post in the Assembly on July 26. AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu had earlier said 12-13 MLAs were expected to participate in the convention and claimed that the event was meant to "strengthen" the party. However, a tweet posted on AAP Punjab's twitter handle had said, "AAP derives strength from it's volunteers, likewise every volunteer has only one hero i.e. Arvind Kejriwal. "No volunteer will support a person who tries to break the emotional thread between Arvind Kejriwal & his army," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Metro authorities have taken action against the consultant and engineers involved in executing the Airport Express Metro Line for alleged lapses, including providing 'unfit' track fittings for the project, the government told Rajya Sabha today. In a written reply to a question, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has informed the ministry that the track fittings provided by concessionaire are "not fit" for trains to be run at more than 80 kmph, even though the prescribed limit on the metro line is 120 kmph. The DMRC, however, has informed the ministry that irregularities have not been found in the terms and conditions of the Delhi Airport Express Metro Line. "Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. has informed that accountability was fixed on the consultant, the civil contractor and DMRC officials who were involved in the execution of the project. "As an outcome, the consultant, who was the engineer for the project, forfeited the performance security of Rs 5.80 crore," Puri told Rajya Sabha in his written reply. He said the civil contractor was disqualified for participating in DMRC tenders, adding that the assistant engineer and deputy chief engineer for the project were taken up under the Discipline and Appeal Rules. "DMRC has informed that the prescribed speed of Delhi Airport Express Metro Line is 120 kmph. At present, there is no defect in the line except that the tract fittings provided by concessionaire are not fit for more than 80 kmph. "Accordingly, trains are being run at a maximum speed of 80 kmph," Puri said. Last month, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged "negligence and corruption" regarding the termination of the concession agreement of the airport line. In a letter to Puri, a copy of which was also sent to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Kejriwal had said, "Given the alarming proportions of negligence and corruption, I would request you to entrust this case to CBI for expeditious investigations and prosecutions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) DR Congo today flew a team led by Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga to an eastern region hit by Ebola, the country's second outbreak in less than three months, a local official said. The delegation from Kinshasa "arrived in Beni today," the city's deputy mayor, Modeste Bakwanamaha, told AFP. Yesterday, Ilunga said the eastern province of North Kivu had notified the ministry of 26 suspected cases of Ebola, 20 of them fatal, in the region of Beni. Four of six samples later tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus. Twelve health ministry experts would be sent to Beni on Thursday to help oversee the response to the outbreak, Ilunga added. The Beni region lies in the heart of a conflict zone gripped by a notorious Ugandan-linked Islamist militia called the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). On July 24, the government declared the end to a 10-week outbreak of Ebola that struck northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, claiming 33 lives. The latest outbreak is the 10th in the DRC since 1976, when it was discovered in the north of the country, then called Zaire, and named after a river nearby. In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) said most of the new cases were recorded in the district of Mangina, 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the city of Beni. It said in a statement late Wednesday that it still had staff and equipment in place in DR Congo after dealing with the May-July outbreak, and this would give it a "head start." However, the outbreak "is occurring in an environment which is very different from where we were operating in the northwest," it quoted Peter Salama, deputy director-general for emergency preparedness and response as saying. "This is an active conflict zone. The major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population." One of the world's most feared diseases, Ebola is a virus-caused haemorrhagic fever that in extreme cases causes fatal bleeding from internal organs, the mouth, eyes or ears. It has a natural host in a species of tropical African fruit bats, from which it is believed to leap to humans who kill and butcher the animals for food. In the worst outbreak of Ebola, the disease struck the West African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2013-15, killing more than 11,300 people. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Global valuation and corporate finance advisor Duff & Phelps today announced transitions in Kroll leadership team. Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, announced that Tarun Bhatia, Managing Director for Business Intelligence and Investigations, has become Head of South Asia, while Managing Director Reshmi Khurana has been appointed to head the operations in Southeast Asia based in Singapore, Duff & Phelps said in a release. In March this year Duff & Phelps, had acquired security and cyber solutions specialist Kroll. Meanwhile, Duff & Phelps, also announced plans to expand operations with the opening of a new office in Mumbai. "As we grow our business in India over the coming years, Mumbai will be an important hub for our expansion strategy in the region. Together with the Kroll team, we see exciting opportunities to work on cross jurisdictional mandates for our clients," said Varun Gupta, Managing Director and Asia Pacific Leader for Duff & Phelps. India is home to the third largest Duff & Phelps team after New York and London. The team not only serves the India market but also supports global projects involving valuation, restructuring, merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory, disputes and investigations, among other services. "Along with Tarun's elevation to head of South Asia and Reshmi's return to head of Southeast Asia, we welcome new colleagues from Duff & Phelps. Collectively, this all creates an extraordinary synergy that we expect to further enhance our already strong ability to provide clients in India and Southeast Asia with the information edge they need for their most important decision-making," said Tadashi Kageyama, Regional Managing Director, Business Intelligence and Investigations at Kroll. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ministries of skill development and today signed a pact for up-skilling of refrigeration and air-conditioning technicians for the benefit of the and better employment opportunities. Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan pointed out that even prior to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding today, the ministry had launched a Green Skill Mission. Under the Mission, within the next three years, training will be imparted to 5.86 lakh people, he added. He said courses to provide skill development to scientists and technicians have also been drawn up in the Ministry of Science and Technology. Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan invited the leaders of the industry to invest in equal measure in the initiative to skill technicians. "I urge the industry to make equal contribution towards training of such technicians so that we further strengthen our industries and our youth. The focus on skill development should be as much as we have on research and production," Pradhan said. He underlined that it is imperative that the two ministries work in close conjunction with the respective Sector Skill Councils to identify the new-age job roles which are relevant to the market today. "Through this MoU 1 lakh AC technicians will be trained & certified on new & emerging technologies with an investment of nearly 40 Cr. These highly skilled & trained professionals will provide better output with efficiency & quality eventually benefiting the industry as well," Pradhan tweeted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) JP Dutta's "Paltan" was supposed to be a comeback for Abhishek Bachchan but the actor pulled out of the film at the last minute and the director says he is clueless about the reason behind the actor's departure from the project. It was with Dutta that Abhishek made his debut opposite Kareena Kapoor in the veteran director's "Regugee" in 2000. He later collaborated with the director again on the films "LOC Kargil" and "Umroa Jaan". Abhishek was initially attached with the war-drama but he reportedly backed out of the film two days before the shooting commenced. When asked why Abhishek backed out of the project, Dutta told reporters, "Please go and speak to the Bachchans and let me know, because even I don't know." Abhishek was replaced by actor Harshvardhan Rane, who has now bagged a three film deal with Dutta. "Paltan" is based on the 1967 Nathu La and Cho La clashes between the Indian and Chinese armies. It stars Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Gurmeet Choudhary, Siddhanth Kapoor, Rane and Luv Sinha. The 68-year-old returns to direction after "Umrao Jaan", which released in 2006. Dutta said he was born to make films and he finds happiness when he is directing. "I was born to do this job. For me, happiness lies in making films. When director I'm not making one I'm sad... When you are young you realise what your calling is. I think I've been sent to do this. To make our soldiers immortal," the director said. "Paltan" is produced by JP Films and presented by Zee Studios and is scheduled to release on September 7. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Union minister Bhishma Narain Singh died at a private hospital in Noida following prolonged illness, hospital sources said today. He was 85. Singh, who was diagnosed with "high grade B cell lymphoma with metastasis", died last evening at Fortis Noida, they said. "He was admitted to the hospital on July 28 and passed away yesterday at 4:35 pm," a spokesperson of the hospital said. Singh, who had also served as governor of Assam, died of "septic shock with multi-organ failure", he said. Condolences poured in from various quarters with former president Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders paying homage to him. "Deeply saddened at the passing away of Dr Bhishma Narain Singh, long time colleague and a dear friend. May God give strength to his family & friends in this time of grief. His contributions to the nation & Congress party will forever be remembered," Mukherjee tweeted. The vice president also paid tribute to Singh in a tweet and described him as a "Gandhian till his last breath". "Deeply saddened about the passing away of Dr Bhishma Narain Singh Ji, who served as a Governor & Union Minister. He was a Freedom Fighter, Gandhian till his last breath. Condolences to his family and friends in this time of grief. May his soul rest in peace. #BhishmaNarainSingh," he said. The home minister, in a tweet, shared pictures of him paying his last respect to the former Assam governor at a crematorium here today. "He followed the Gandhian philosophy all his life and dedicated himself to the welfare of poor. May God give his family and supporters the strength to bear this loss," he said. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said Singh's passing away has left a deep void in the party. "The passing away of Dr Bhishma Narain Singh former Governor and Union Minister leaves a deep void in the Congress Party. My condolences to his family in this time of grief. May his soul rest in peace," he tweeted. Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot tweeted, "Paid tributes and had antim darshan of Dr Bhishma Narain Singh ji, former Governor n former Union Minister in New Delhi". Jyotiraditya Scindia also took to Twitter to pay his homage to Singh, saying, "His contribution to the Congress and the nation will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his family". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Banwari Lal Kushwaha was arrested by Maharashtra police from a Rajasthan jail in an alleged cheating case pending against him in Aurangabad, police said today. Kushwaha was produced before a court in Aurangabad today which remanded him in police custody till August 7, a senior police officer said. "We arrested Kushwaha on July 31 in connection with the cheating case registered against him Aurangabad," said Dipali Dhate-Ghadge, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime). Another official said the Kushwaha had been wanted in connection with the alleged cheating case of Rs 10 crore. However, he didn't share details of the case. Kushwaha was lodged in the Rajasthan jail in connection with an alleged murder case. His wife Shobharani Kushwah currently represents Dholpur seat on the BJP ticket. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A film production company moved the Madras High Court today to stall the release of Kamal Haasan-starrer "Vishwaroopam 2", which is scheduled to hit the screens on August 10. Pyramid Saimira Productions International moved a civil suit against Haasan for recovery of Rs 5.44 crore paid to his production house, Rajkamal Films International, for producing a film titled "Marmayogi" in Tamil and Hindi. According to the petitioner, they had signed a memorandum of understanding with Rajkamal Films on April 2, 2008 for the production of "Marmayogi" at an estimated budget of Rs 100 crore. Subsequently, an amount of Rs 10.90 crore was paid to Rajkamal Films in two instalments towards the remuneration of Haasan for acting, directing and writing the story, screenplay and dialogue of the film. It was acknowledged by the actor through confirmation letters dated September 25, 2008, the petitioner stated. The petitioner alleged that Haasan never showed interest to commence the production of the film even after receiving the payment and instead, tried to release another film, "Unnaipol Oruvan", by diverting the money paid to him for "Marmayogi". However, it was stalled by the petitioner by filing a recovery suit. The court had subsequently allowed the film to be released after obtaining a bank guarantee from the actor and the suit was in the trial stage, the petitioner submitted. "On inquires, we are given to understand that Kamal Haasan is heavily indebted to various creditors, having borrowed huge amounts from various persons to meet the production expenses of his forthcoming film, 'Vishwaroopam II'. "Since he is not able to repay any of the creditors, he is planning to release the film through Aascar Films so as to defeat, delay and defraud his creditors, including ourselves," the petitioner said. As an interim relief, the petitioner wanted the court to pass an injunction, restraining Haasan from releasing the film, pending disposal of the suit. The suit is likely to be taken up for hearing tomorrow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Women and Child Development Ministry has urged the Finance Ministry to amend the Income Tax Act to exclude from tax ambit the income arising from the assets transferred for an inadequate consideration by an individual to his wife or son's wife. Minister of State for Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar said the request to carry out amendment in the Income Tax Act was under the consideration of the Finance Ministry, as he shared the details in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour today. Earlier JD(S) member D Kupendra Reddy had sought to know whether the government had recieved requests from women for exempting them from taxes on gifts from their near and close relatives. The minister replied in affirmative and said the matter was being considered by the Finance Ministry. A request has been sent and often such decisions are taken around the budget time, Kumar said. During the Question Hour, members also sought to know the number of people who have been given titles under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 in Gujarat. Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said according to the information from the Gujarat government, as of June 30 this year, out of the 1,82,869 individual claims recieved, the number of approved claims for which sanction orders have been issued was 84,402 and number of titles issued was 83,754. The number of people, who are eligible and have not been given titles was 648, he said in his reply. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The finance ministry is likely to approve a subsidy outlay of nearly Rs 4,000 crore for the second phase of FAME India scheme to promote electric and hybrid vehicles, official sources said today. The heavy industry ministry had sought over Rs 12,200 crore in financial support to implement the scheme over the next five years. The second phase of the scheme is expected to entail subsidy only for electric buses and setting up of charging infrastructure for all categories of vehicles. At present, the incentive is being offered on purchase of strong hybrid and electric cars, two-wheelers and three-wheelers under FAME India- I. As per the scheme, depending on technology, battery operated scooters and motorcycles are also eligible for incentives ranging between Rs 1,800 to Rs 29,000, while in three-wheelers it is between Rs 3,300 and Rs 61,000. The Cabinet is expected to consider the second phase of the scheme for approval in a fortnight, said the government officials. The subsidy allocation was decided at a meeting between the Expenditure Secretary and his counterpart from the heavy industry ministry held here yesterday. At present, automotive manufacturers claim the incentive from the government at the end of each month. With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India (FAME India) scheme in 2015. The ongoing pilot phase of the scheme was earlier extended till September this year or until its second phase is approved. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An FIR was registered against six people, including two village heads, for allegedly denying drinking water to a woman Dalit officer here. A deputy chief veterinary officer was allegedly denied drinking water because of her Dalit identity in Ambawa Poorab village in Manjhanpur block, around 167 km away from the state capital Lucknow, on July 31. An FIR under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered against head of Ambawa Poorab village Shiv Sampat, Pankaj Yadav, the husband of Bhaila Makdoompur village head, Saibasa village head Ansar Ali, district panchyat member Jhallar Tiwari, District Panchayati Raj Officer (DPRO) Ravidutt Mishra, and Rajesh Singh at Manjhanpur police station, SP Kaushambi Pradeep Gupta said. He said the matter is being thoroughly probed and strict action will be initiated against those found guilty. The officer, Dr Seema, said she had gone to the village on the directions of the DPRO to review developmental works. She claimed that she was not given water for two-and-a-half-hours despite her being a diabetic. "I was told to visit the village only after contacting DPRO Ravi Dutt Mishra and BDC (block development chief) Tiwari, popularly known as Jhallar in the block. They behaved very abnormally with me, and when I asked for water, I was not given water for two-and-a-half-hours by six people sitting there. I am a diabetic. My arms and limbs started trembling and I had to rush out from there," Seema told PTI. "I was also told that the bottle would get spoiled (if I drink water from it) and had to be thrown away," Seema said. She alleged that when she sought water from the villagers, village head Sampat and the DPRO gestured them not not to give her water. The opposition parties attacked the government over the "rising incidents of Dalit atrocities" in the BJP-ruled states. While the Congress demanded that a high-level probe be ordered into the incident, the Samajwadi Party accused the BJP of "not believing in the Constitution". UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh said: "Incidents of Dalit atrocities are continuously rising in the BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh. Dalit officials are being threatened and insulted. We have been raising this issue continuously and will continue to do so." "People of the state are now well versed with the behaviour and character of the BJP and will give them a befitting reply in the elections. The government must conduct a high-level probe and take immediate action against the guilty. This is a question of the respect and honour of a section of society," Singh said. When contacted, SP spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan said: "When a Dalit MLA of the ruling party is visiting an ashram, and after her visit it is being purified with Ganga jal, then what can be said about this government. The slogan of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas' is perhaps the biggest lie, as they (BJP) look down upon the Dalits and backward castes. "They (the BJP) still consider them (Dalits) as untouchables and do not believe in the Constitution, but want Manuwaadi (casteist) system to be implemented," Sajan said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today extended till September 17 the interim protection from arrest to the in-laws of a flight attendant, who had allegedly committed suicide in the national capital last month. While extending the relief, Justice Mukta Gupta asked the Crime Branch, which has taken over the investigation in the case, to file a status report in three weeks. The court listed the matter for further hearing on September 17. Advocate Ishkaran Singh Bhandari, appearing for the victim's parents, said they welcomed the transfer of the probe in the case to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police. The court was hearing the plea for anticipatory bail by Sushma Singhvi and R S Singhvi, parents of Mayank Singhvi, who is in judicial custody in the death case of his wife Anissia Batra (39). A trial court had on July 20 refused to grant protection from arrest to Mayank's parents after the lawyer for the woman's parents submitted that the allegations against them were serious. Anissia, who was working with a German airline, had allegedly jumped from the terrace of her house in Panchsheel Park in South Delhi on July 13 and Mayank had taken her to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead by doctors. Her family has alleged that her husband used to physically abuse her and often demand money. The family has claimed before the trial court that it was not a suicide, but murder. On the other hand, Mayank's parents sought anticipatory bail claiming they had no role in the matter and any dispute between their son and daughter-in-law was their internal matter. Mayank, who was married to Anissia for over two years, was arrested on July 16. Before jumping off the terrace, she had sent a message to her husband that she would kill herself, police had said earlier. The husband, a software engineer in Gurgaon, had told the police that they had regular fights due to "compatibility issues". They had an argument on the day of the incident as well, following which she jumped from the terrace, police had said. The victim's family had also given a complaint to police on June 27 saying that if anything happens to their daughter, Mayank would be responsible, police had said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The flood situation in northeastern India today deteriorated sharply as the deluge spread to eight districts of Assam affecting more than one lakh people, while Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio sought immediate central assistance to tide over the crisis in his state. Three more people were reported dead in Assam, taking the death toll in the state to 41, officials said in Guwahati. The flood situation remained grim as the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger mark, Assam Disaster Management Authority said. More than 5,000 hectares of agricultural land have been inundated. There were reports of embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructure being damaged in Lakhimpur, Kamrup Metropolitan, Sivasagar and Sonitpur districts, it said. Nagaland Chief Minister Rio urged the prime minister to grant immediate assistance to his state to battle the problems generated by the incessant rainfall hammering the past for a few weeks. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, Rio said it was becoming difficult for his administration to maintain adequate supply of essential commodities, including petroleum products, in district headquarters as stocks have depleted and connectivity via land route was severed at some places. The weather department has forecast more rainfall in most parts of the northeastern region during the next 24 hours. It has said that rainfall is also likely in sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and a few places in Odisha. In Uttar Pradesh, at least 17 people have died in rain-related incidents in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 165 since July 1, officials said in Lucknow today. The Met office in Lucknow said the Southwest Monsoon has been active over eastern Uttar Pradesh, which might result in moderate rain/thundershowers at most places until tomorrow. Northwards to Delhi, the old Yamuna bridge, which connects the national capital with Uttar Pradesh, was reopened for vehicular movement today after the water level of the river began receding. The bridge had remained shut for four days as the water level rose above the danger mark. The Southwest Monsoon has remained less active in Himachal Pradesh. However, the state government said today it will use helicopters to supply ration and other essential commodities to Bara Bhangal village, around 136 km away from Shimla. Heavy rainfall has damaged the pathway to the village in the rain-hit Kangra district. In case helicopters are unable to fly due to bad weather, essential items will be supplied through mule route from Patlikuhal, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said. The maximum temperature in Punjab and Haryana were recorded above the normal levels. Chandigarh, the joint capital of both states, recorded a maximum temperature of 35.5 degrees Celsius, a meteorological department report stated. The Met department in Chandigarh predicted rain or thundershowers at a few places in the states over the next two days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today advised budding engineers to follow their passion, not money. Kejriwal, who did his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur in the 1980s, said students should not run only after money and top positions. The more people run after money, the farther it gets, he said addressing an orientation-day programme for the new batch of students at Delhi Technological University. "Don't run after money and top positions. The more you chase money, the farther it will get from you. All the people who have made money in life did not run after money, they ran after their goals and money poured by itself," Kejriwal said. "Those who are at important positions, they did not run only after them." He urged students to understand the importance of democracy and try to contribute to the political system by questioning the ruling parties on loopholes in governance. "I am not saying that you should join a political party. But I believe you - as youth of the country - should have knowledge about the political system and contribute to the democracy by making wise choices and questioning the political parties once you have made those choices," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths arrested today a former official of the state government who was wanted in a bribery case. The accused Kundan Lal was a section officer in the home department and had allegedly accepted bribe for granting long-term visa (LTV) to Pakistani migrants. According to ACB officials, Pankaj Kumar Mishra, an assistant section officer from the Union Home Ministry, was arrested along with three agents in May this year for accepting bribe from Pakistani migrants for approving their applications for grant of LTVs. "During the investigation, the role of a former section officer from state home department, Kundan Lal, had also surfaced. While four persons were arrested, Lal managed to escape," the official said, adding that since then the ACB was searching for him. Lal allegedly used to collect the application for LTV and would send them to Mishra only after receiving money from the applicants through the agents. Following a tip-off, an ACB team raided a hotel in the outskirts of the city on May 17 and detained 4 persons, including Mishra. They allegedly used to extort Rs 12,000 from eachmigrantin order to facilitate them in obtaining LTVs. According to Hindu Singh Sodha, president of the Seemant Lok Sangthan, an organistation advocating for the rights of Pakistani migrants in India, the penalty for delay in renewal of the LTV by just one day is Rs 2500, but the accused had been deliberately delaying the renewal without taking the money from the applicants. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four persons including a three-year-old boy were killed when a state transport bus in which they were travelling collided with a truck this morning, police today said. The Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) bus was going to Unjha from Savarkundla when the accident took place. A truck coming from the opposite direction collided with the bus, killing four of the passengers on the spot The deceased were identified as Himmat Sarvaiya (53), Rohit Sarvaiya (40), Dwamitra Chauhan (23) and Fazim Quereshi (3). The injured were rushed to the Amreli civil hospital and the condition of two of them was critical, police said. Police lodged a complaint against the truck driver who fled from the spot and is yet to be traced. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The French Embassy today conducted an orientation session for Indian students heading to France for higher studies. "France ranks third in terms of receiving the highest number of international students after US and UK. Indian students have been increasingly opting for France for their higher studies," a senior official at the Embassy said. During "Campus-France", a pre-departure session, the officials answered queries of students about visa application procedure, accommodation, practical advice about daily life in the country, culture and various avenues of learning French. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) France's Benoit Paire was fined USD 16,500 by the ATP Tour after an epic meltdown at the end of his first-round match at the ATP Washington Open. Paire lost to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 on Tuesday at the hardcourt tuneup event for the US Open. Down 4-2 in the final set, the 55th-ranked Frenchman netted an overhead smash to surrender a break and a 5-2 edge. He smashed his racquet on the ground four times and kicked it in frustration. Baghdatis tried to calm Paire but he hurled two more racquets onto the court, where a ball person collected them. After a less-than peak effort on the final point of the match, he congratulated Baghdatis then walked off to a chorus of boos, blowing the crowd kisses as he departed. The fine, more than double the prize money Paire made for his appearance, was issued by the tour for an audible obscenity, unsportsmanlike conduct and a lack of giving best effort. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Regulator FSSAI today said it has given a two-week deadline to online food delivery companies to delist unlicensed restaurants. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has also decided to conduct audit of online platforms of food aggregators to check if they are complying with food safety and hygiene norms, it said in a statement. In a review meeting held yesterday, the regulator found that more than 30-40 per cent of food businesses listed on the online platforms do not possess a valid licence despite the companies being told to comply with the norms by July-end, it said. In many cases, listed food businesses have recently applied for the FSSAI license/registration but still do not possess them. To ensure compliance of the food safety norms, the regulator has given "two-weeks time to these food aggregators" to delist unlicensed/unregistered food businesses and submit a detailed report, FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal told PTI. "This is part of a special drive by the regulator to bring in all food businesses under the FSSAI licensing regime and ensure compliance of the food safety laws," he said. The FSSAI had recently notified regulations bringing e-commerce aggregator platforms within the purview of the food safety law. He hoped that these platforms will now begin to take food safety seriously from a regulatory standpoint. Agarwal also appealed to the aggregators to begin to use some of their resources in training and capacity building of restaurants for improving food safety and hygiene rather than focusing only on deep discounts and aggressive marketing. Last month, the FSSAI had directed leading e-commerce food service providers like Swiggy, Zomato, Foodpanda and UberEats to delist non-FSSAI licensed food business from their platforms by July 31 after receiving consumer complaints. The aggregators were advised to display FSSAI license number on their platform along with name and location of the restaurants. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Noida Police booked today a builder's group, accused of selling same property to multiple people, under the stringent Uttar Pradesh Gangsters Control Act. The case has been registered at the Surajpur police station in Greater Noida against AVJ Height Builders, they said. The group's Vinay Jain, his wife Asha Jain and Vipin Agrawal -- all residents of Vivek Vihar in Delhi -- have been named in the case, police said. "They have been accused of duping people by illegally selling the same flat to different people. They have also been accused of getting loans for the same flat under different names from banks," according to a police statement. The accused already have cases of cheating, forgery of documents, among other charges, registered against them at the Surajpur police station here, it said. "The police today initiated action against AVJ Height Builders under the provisions of the (UP) Gangsters (Control) Act. They would dupe gullible people by illegally selling them flats and get multiple registries done for the same flat," Noida (rural) Superintendent of Police Aashish Shrivastava said. The police would soon arrest them, he said, adding that probe teams have been formed and searches were underway to ban them. There was no statement or response from the builder's group immediately. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) German authorities have arrested a Sri Lankan man suspected of involvement in killing captured government soldiers as a member of the Tamil Tigers rebel group a decade ago. Federal prosecutors said a judge ordered Thursday the 36-year-old, identified only as Sivatheeban B. because of German privacy rules, detained pending a potential indictment. He was arrested Wednesday in the Duesseldorf area, suspected of committing war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organisation. Prosecutors say he belonged to the Tamil Tigers from 2006-2009. They allege that, in 2008, he tied up 16 soldiers and guarded them as they were driven to a site where they were shot. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when government forces defeated the rebels, who fought to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Lawyers of a Ghaziabad court went on a strike today over the alleged beating of their colleague by police following an argument between the advocate and an eatery owner. Eatery owner Anil Mishra alleged that last night three customers, including lawyer Dal Chand Gautam, abused his staff, claiming that there was a delay in serving food. He alleged that they later thrashed him and he received a head injury. An FIR was registered in connection with the matter, said Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna. However, bar sources said Gautam had actually called the police after the heated argument. They alleged that Gautam was taken to the Vijay Nagar police station where he was detained and thrashed. On learning about the alleged thrashing of the lawyer, his colleagues went on a strike today. After SP (City) Akash Tomar reached the court premises to maintain law and order, an argument broke out between the lawyers and the police personnel, bar secretary Viswash Tyagi said. Tyagi alleged that the police dragged out the lawyers from their chambers and lathi-charged them. However, Tomar dismissed the claims, saying that the lawyers pelted stones on the police team and thrashed some journalists, besides snatching their cameras. SSP Krishna later said told that four policemen have been suspended and an inquiry ordered. Additional Superintendent of Police Manisha Singh will investigate the case, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An eight-year-old girl died after being hit by a school bus here today. Kulsum, the victim, was playing along the road in Arif Nagar area when the speeding bus hit her, said Superintendent of Police Hemant Chouhan. The girl died on the way to hospital, he added. As the driver fled from the spot after the incident, angry residents of the area set the bus on fire, the SP said. There were no students inside as the bus was returning after ferrying them to the school. Police have registered a case against the driver. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In the second such case in three days, four minor girls were today rescued from brothels in neighbouring Yadadri Bhongir district and six people, including five women, besides a registered medical practioner arrested, police said today. Acting on a tip-off, police teams raided the brothel houses at Yadagirigutta and arrested the six people on suspicion of trafficking. The medical practitioner, who used to administer hormonal injections to the children, all below ten years, to aid their growth, was also arrested, they said. The man, who was hired by the gang, confessed about administering hormonal injections to the children during interrogation, police said. On July 31, eight human traffickers, including six women were arrested, and 11 minor girlse rescued from brothels at Yadagirigutta. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Goa has witnessed fluctuations in the fish catch trend in the last five years, suggesting an overall marginal dip, the state Legislative Assembly was told today. Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyekar said the fish export from the coastal state went up since 2013. He was responding to a question tabled by Congress MLA Digambar Kamat. The data placed by the minister shows fluctuations in fish production since 2013. "The fish catch figures for year 2013 stood at 87,984 tonnes. The quantum of catch rose to 1,28,107 tonnes in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, the production dipped to 1,08,240 tonnes and 1,01,053 tonnes, respectively, before jumping to 1,20,430 tonnes in 2017," Palyekar stated. He stated that the overall fish catch dipped marginally in the above period. The highest catch netted in deep sea was that of sardine fish, followed by mackerels. "In 2017, 38,551 tonnes of sardines and 29,511 tonnes of mackerels were caught by trawlers. In the same year, 9652 tonnes of prawns were harvested by fishermen," as per the data. The minister said the catch of fish from inland waters also witnessed fluctuations during the period 2013-17. Palyekar said the export of fish from Goa is on the rise in the last five years. "A total of 33,939 tonnes of fish were exported from the coastal state during 2013. The export rose to 40,365 tonnes in 2014. The figures stood at 34,814 tonnes and 38,209 tonnes for years 2015 and 2016. The provisional figures of export for year 2017 are 44,444 tonnes," as per the data. The state government had last month banned the import of fish from other states on reports of the presence of formalin in fish. The ban will be lifted tomorrow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Goa government today came up with multiple measures to allay concerns over the quality of fish, a day before the scheduled lifting of the fish import ban which was imposed last month in the wake of formalin scare. Departments of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), Police and Transport will check trucks carrying fish at the border areas at Polem in south Goa and Patradevi in north Goa. Under-Secretary, Health (Goa) Maria Seomara deSouza today issued a circular listing out various regulations for fish importers. The state government had on July 18 banned the import of fish from outside Goa in the wake of reports of presence of formalin, a toxic chemical, in it. Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane told reporters today that import of fish will resume in the coming days. "To ensure the availability of safer fish to the consumers, the directorate of FDA in collaboration with the Goa police, Director of Transport and Director of Fisheries will conduct checks on incoming fish-laden trucks at the state borders," the minister said. Rane said the fish traders from Goa will have to comply with stringent rules. "Fish traders have to ensure that they have obtained a licence or registration under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 from the FDA within 15 days from the date of issue of this circular," he said. Traders operating from outside Goa who are transporting fish to the coastal state, should avail the license from FDA departments in their respective states. "The fish should be transported only through the insulated vehicles. After lifting of the ban (tomorrow), the vehicles brought in by traders without the licence will not be allowed to enter Goa," the minister said. The Goa Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had last month confirmed the presence of the organic compound in fish imported from other states. However, the agency later said the level of the toxic chemical was "on par" with its naturally-occurring levels in the sampled fishes and there was no added amount of it. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had also tried to allay apprehensions over the issue. However, the government decided to ban import of fish, after the issue was taken up aggressively by the Congress and other parties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Television presenter Ciru Muriuki has called it a day at MediaMax-owned TV station K24 in the latest surprise move within the Kenyan media industry. Muriuki has been co-hosting the morning show, K24 Alfariji, alongside Jeff Mote and Serah Teshna. She leaves the show after only 8 months. Ms Muriuki on Wednesday hosted her last show and took to social media to make an official announcement. Im about to wrap up my final time co-hosting K24 Alfajiri. I am so honored to have worked on such a great show with such a great team! @iamjeffmote and @serahteshna keep killing this morning TV game! she wrote. While she did not disclose her next gig, Ciru said she is excited and hinted that it is a dream come true. Im super excited about the next phase of my career. Dreams do come true. Oddly, the television presenter opted to use a controversial picture on Instagram as she made the announcement. The picture captured Ciru grabbing on her tatas. Before joining K24, Muriuki used to be a panelist on NTVs The Trend during Larry Madowos tenure. is bringing in India-specific features on Maps to address unique challenges and opportunities, a senior company official said. " Maps is not just about navigating from point A to B. We have been building for India, addressing the unique challenges and opportunities, with the sole aim of making more comprehensive, accurate and reliable," for India, Program Manager, Anal Ghosh said. Ghosh talked about innovating features for India specifically. The two-wheeler mode in comes to India first as 70 per cent of all the vehicles registered in the country are two wheelers, he added. "Two-wheeler mode in maps shows trip routes that use shortcuts not accessible to cars, buses and trucks. It also provides customized traffic and arrival time estimations," he said. Google Maps' transit feature provides details on trains, bus and metro routes. It shows schedules for roughly 12,000 Indian railways trains, apart from updated public transport information for bus and metro routes. "We are working closely with the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. We have been working with them to add public toilets (on google maps) across different cities in the country," Ghosh said. The company has added public toilets on google maps in partnership with the government, the company said in a statement. "We have launched real time buses in two cities--Kolkata and Surat. We are working to see how we can extend it to other cities as well," he added. The government may extend by another 45 days the deadline for imposition of higher customs duties on 29 products, including almond, walnut and pulses, imported from the US. Through a notification, the Finance Ministry had in June said the higher tariffs on imports from the US would come into effect from August 4. "Commerce Ministry has suggested the Department of Revenue to amend the notification for further extension of retaliatory measures for another 45 days," a Commerce Ministry official said. According to another official, India and the US are holding discussion to remove trade hurdles between the countries and India is expecting some positive outcome. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is likely to issue on August 4 an amended notification extending the date for the new levy, the official said. While import duty on walnut was to be hiked to 120 per cent from 30 per cent earlier, duty on chickpeas, Bengal gram (chana) and masur dal was to be hiked to 70 per cent from 30 per cent. Levy on lentils was to be hiked to 40 per cent from 30 per cent. The duty hike decision by India was in retaliation to March 9 decision of US President Donald Trump to impose heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war. India has said the duty imposed by the US has affected steel exports by USD 198.6 million and aluminium shipments by USD 42.4 million. India has also dragged the US to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over the imposition of import duties on steel and aluminium. India exports steel and aluminium products worth about USD 1.5 billion to the US every year. Exports to the US in 2016-17 stood at USD 42.21 billion, while imports were USD 22.3 billion. As per the revised levy of 29 products, duty on apples imported from the US was to be hiked to 75 per cent as against 50 per cent earlier. The same for boric acid and phosphoric acid was to be hiked to 17.50 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively from 10 per cent each earlier. Import duty on diagnostic reagents was to be doubled to 20 per cent. Levy on flat rolled products of iron was to be raised to 27.50 per cent from 15 per cent, while certain flat rolled products of stainless steel were to attract 22.50 per cent duty as against 15 per cent earlier. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government intends to pass a bill in the current Parliament session to restore the original provisions of a law on atrocities against SC/ST people, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today. As the Opposition criticised the government for not taking action to restore the provisions which were struck down by the Supreme Court, Singh told the Lok Sabha that the Union Cabinet has already cleared a bill in this regard. The bill to restore the original provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, acceding to a key demand of Dalit groups ahead of their call for a 'Bharat Bandh' on August 9. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the Supreme Court judgement regarding the Act was "very dangerous" for the SC/ST people. In a ruling in March, the Supreme Court had introduced safeguards against arrests, which Dalit leaders and organisations said diluted the Act and rendered it toothless. The government, which has brought several ordinances in the past few months, could have come out with one to restore the provisions of the Act, Kharge said, adding that atrocities against SC/ST people were on the rise. MPs from various political parties had met President Ram Nath Kovind in March in this regard, he added. Responding to Kharge, the Home Minister said he was surprised and wondered what was the justification in raising the issue when the Cabinet had only yesterday cleared the bill. The government wants to get the bill passed in the current Parliament session, Singh said. He also recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance that if necessary, a more stringent law to deal with atrocities SC/ST people would be put in place. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is to end on August 10. Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy raised the issue of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. When Kharge and Roy were speaking on the issues, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requested them to make it short since time was limited in the Zero Hour. As the requests went unheeded, Mahajan remarked that if people like them were doing it, how come newcomers would understand things. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has said all guilty persons in the Rs 300-crore NH 74 compensation scam will be punished. "There will no compromise on corruption under any circumstance. Our government's policy is clear. Anyone involved in the scam, be it a low-level employee or a senior bureaucrat, should be ready to face action," the chief minister told reporters here yesterday. The special investigation team probing thescam submitted its report to chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh. The possible role of senior bureaucrats in the scam was mentioned in the report. Though authorities are tight-lipped about the officials whose names have come up in the scam, sources said permission has been sought from Department of Personnel and Training to initiate action against guilty persons. Twenty persons, including four PCS officials, have till date been arrested by the SIT in the compensation scam. The scam came to light in March 2017 when an IAS officer found irregularities in the land acquisition for widening NH-74 in Udham Singh Nagar district. It was alleged that agricultural land was recorded as non-agricultural land to increase its value. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 3-year-old girl died today after falling ill in Gujarat's Banaskantha district, with her family blaming her death on the Measles-Rubella vaccine which was administered to her. Officials dismissed claims that she died due to complications from the vaccine. They said that she was administered the MR vaccine along with over 30 children and none of the others fell ill. A MR vaccination drive for 1.6 crore children, aged between nine months and 15 years, is underway in the state since July 16 under the aegis of the Union government's National Health Mission (NHM). Asha Devda, the daughter of a farm labourer, had taken ill yesterday and was rushed to the government health centre in Danta town where she died today, said officials. The family alleged that the toddler died due to complications due to the MR vaccine, a Danta police official said, adding that an accidental death report was taken in this connection. Chief District Health Officer Arun Acharya said that Asha was administered the MR vaccine along with over 30 children at an Anganwadi in Danta on July 31. "None of the children, apart from Asha, fell ill. Two of her elder brothers, who were administered the vaccine, are also fine. Her body had been sent to the Ahmedabad civil hospital for post-mortem," Acharya said. Her death is the fifth in the state since the drive began. A four-member Adverse Effect Following Immunisation (AEFI) Committee, headed by the Deputy Commissioner (Immunisation) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, had on July 28 said these deaths were not connected to the vaccine. Earlier, Sneha Rathod (14) from Sabarkantha, Mukesh Gameti (7) from Arvalli, Dimple Maheshwari (13) from Kutch and Sunil Thakor (12) from Ahmedabad had died within five days of being administered the MR vaccine. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To prevent incidents such as lynching due to viral rumours, the Gujarat government today decided to assign the specific task of monitoring social media for fake and messages to certain police officers. It also decided to set up four Cyber Police Stations in the state. The decisions were taken at a meeting of senior IPS officials, held by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to review the law and order situation in the state. Minister State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja told reporters that officials were instructed to focus on misuse of social media platforms so as to prevent incidents of lynching and communal clashes or tension. Some police officials would be designated specially for keeping a tab on rumours and fake on social media, he said. The government has also decided to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in all police vehicles, such as PCR vans, prisoner transfer vehicles, patrolling vehicles and vehicles used by police stations, for real-time monitoring of their movements, said Jadeja. Newly-inducted policemen are being given training about cyber crimes, the minister said. Four Cyber Police Stations would be set up across the state, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Social activist Anna Hazare has conveyed to the Centre that he will launch a hunger strike on October 2 against "non-fulfilment" of promises on welfare of farmers and appointment of Lokpal and Lokayuktas. In a letter addressed to Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh on July 31, the anti-corruption crusader said he would start his protest at Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. Hazare said he had written to the Centre at least four times in the past demanding implementation of the written assurances made by the government on March 29 this year, when he called off his protest at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi. "I will go on a hunger strike from October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, at my native Ralegan Siddhi village," he said. Hazare criticised the NDA government, saying it had earlier assured to appoint the Lokpal and implement the Lokpal Bill, passed by Parliament and signed by the then President in January 2014. Hazare demanded the Central Agriculture Price Commission (CAPC), which is currently under the Ministry of Agriculture, need to function independently in interest of farmers. "At present, various State Agriculture Price Commissions (SAPC) send the support prices for different crops to the CPAC. The CPAC reduces the support prices recommended by the SAPCs by 50 per cent because it is under the Agriculture ministry," he said. Hazare said the farmers do not get adequate price for their crops due to the CAPC halving the recommended support prices. "The CPAC should consist of agriculture specialists and experienced agriculturists who are not associated with the government," he demanded. Recalling his Jantar-Mantar stir in March, Hazare said he was told that a high-level committee would be set up to implement the assurances. However, the response received (from the Centre) last month didn't mention implementation of them, he said. Hazare said his other demands included: fixing the milk price on per litre cost to the farmers; a monthly pension of Rs 5,000 to those farmers who are above 60 years and still dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Questioning the "delay" in appointment of a Lokpal, Hazare said the government seemed to be lacking the will to act. "Had the current government implemented the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act after coming to power in 2014, the level of corruption in the country could have been checked," he stated. The Supreme Court had last week expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's response on appointment of search committee members for a Lokpal. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that the Lokpal selection committee, headed by the prime minister, was scheduled to meet to set up a search panel for recommending a panel of names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman and its members. The government had said the search panel would lay down its procedures, following which the selection committee would fix the time frame within which the names for selecting the chairman and members of the Lokpal would be recommended. The committee comprises the prime minister, the chief justice of India, Lok Sabha speaker, the leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist. The SC, in its last year's verdict, had said there was no justification to keep the enforcement of the Lokpal Act suspended till the proposed amendments, including on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, were cleared by Parliament. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Patna High Court has called for a case diary in connection with the sexual exploitation of minor girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur. A bench of Justice Arun Kumar passed the direction yesterday while hearing a bail petition filed by key accused in the case, Brajesh Thakur. Thakur's bail was earlier dismissed by a court at Muzaffarpur. The high court will fix the next date of hearing after the case diary is submitted to it. The shelter home for girls at Muzaffarpur was run by Thakur's NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti'. The issue of sexual exploitation at the place was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to Bihar's Social Welfare Department in April. An FIR was lodged on May 31 against 11 persons in the case. Ten out of the 11 accused persons, including Thakur, were arrested on June 3. State police has already submitted its charge sheet against 10 of the accused (including Thakur) on July 26 before a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court at Muzaffarpur. The state government had on July 26 recommended a CBI inquiry into the matter. The premier investigating agency has taken over the probe from the state police in the case. Medical examinations of 34 of the 42 shelter home inmates confirmed that they were sexually exploited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Justice S N Shukla of the Allahabad High Court, against whom the Chief Justice of India recommended impeachment proceedings in January, has sent a representation to the central government, the Lok Sabha has been informed. Minster of State for Law P P Chaudhary said in a written reply that while a "communication" has been received from the CJI, a "representation" has also been received from Justice Shukla. The minister did not specify what the representation from the judge said. The judge is accused of impropriety in dealing with a case related to government ban on admissions to some medical colleges. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had asked whether the government had received a letter from the CJI on the need to remove the judge based on the findings of the in-house committee which indicted him of "gross misconduct". He had also asked whether the government has initiated steps to facilitate his removal. According to laid down rules, when the CJI writes to the President or the Prime Minister recommending the impeachment of a high court judge, the government is bound to put the process in motion. The government has to obtain signatures of at least 100 Lok Sabha or 50 Rajya Sabha members on a motion to start impeachment proceedings. It can also request opposition parties to obtain the signatures. Once the motion is submitted, the presiding officer of the House concerned, constitutes a committee of two judges and a jurist to probe the charges against the judge. Based on the report the impeachment proceedings are either held or dropped. The then CJI K G Balakrishnan had recommended the removal of Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen. But he had resigned before both the Houses of Parliament could complete impeachment proceedings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala High Court today dismissed a petition for declaring sacramental confession among Christians unconstitutional, noting whether or not to confess one's sin was an individual's right. A division bench of the court comprising Acting Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar said nobody was compelled to follow the custom. The court said people living in a secular state have the right to choose their religious faith, and if someone does not want to follow a religion, he has every right to leave it. "Whether to confess or not is an individual's right. No one is compelled to follow the custom. In a secular state, one has the right to live without a religion also," the court observed. C S Chacko, the petitioner, had submitted that imposing "implied or expressed compulsion" on a member of a church to confess a sin before a priest infringed the Right to Privacy. The respondent churches, including the Latin Catholic Church, the Syro Malabar Catholic Church, the Syro Malankara Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church were "deliberately" violating the rights of people by following the practice, he said in the petition. The petitioner said members of these churches always had the apprehension that they would be denied their spiritual and temporal rights if they did not confess their sins before a priest. The threat of "undeclared sanction" by the church and isolation from society in which they live creates fear in the minds of such members, he said, adding the "menace" of getting oneself and family into trouble would emotionally compel a member to go and confess. "This is nothing but depriving one of the Right to Privacy and a violation of one's fundamental rights under Article 21 and 25(1) of the Constitution," he said. The petition was filed a week after the National Commission for Women (NCW) recommended abolishing the practice of confessions in churches over fears it can lead to women getting blackmailed. The recommendation come in the backdrop of a rape case against four priests of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church who were accused of sexually exploiting a married woman. The issue came to light after the victim's husband wrote to the church alleging that the priests blackmailed and raped his wife by using her confession. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression. Former K24 news anchor Ian Wafula has attributed his major move to giant media house BBC to three challenging words by fellow journo Larry Madowo. Last week, Wafula hosted his last show, Alfajiri The Daily Brief, after three years with the MediaMax-owned television station. And on Wednesday, Wafula was elated as he announced his next home- BBC- revealing how hard it was to land the gig as a broadcast journalist. New chapter. Looking forward to starting soon at the BBC as Broadcast Journalist, News Review. Id like to call it my new home but its bigger than that, the next step in my career. Ive seen Gods manifestation in this process having been rejected 4 times after endless tests and grueling interviews. Whats yours is yours, at the right time., said Wafula. While thanking his support system, Wafula singled out special thanks to Larry Madowo for challenging him to get out of his comfort zone. Thanking my family and close friends for standing by me. Special thanks to Larry Madowo for the three challenging words You deserve better that took me off my comfort zone to yearn for greater opportunities, said Ian. Ian joins the growing list of Kenyan journalists who have joined the British owned media house. Prior to joining K24, Ian worked at KTN, where he got an opportunity as an intern in August 2013 and was later employed after six months. He holds a B.A in Communication from the Daystar University and parted ways with KTN in December 2015 before teaming up with Amina Abdi at K24. The chief monk of a prominent Beijing-based Buddhist temple allegedly sexually harassed several nuns and forced them into sexual relations, official media reported today. Master Xuecheng, the abbot of Longquan Temple is a politically influential monk. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and also the head of the Buddhist Association of China. He sexually harassed several nuns, including sending illicit messages to them and forcing them to have sexual relations with him, Shi Xianjia and Shi Xianqi, the whistle-blowers said in a 95-page report to relevant governmental departments. It alleged that Xuecheng used text messages to mind-control nuns to tempt them into having sex with him, claiming it was part of their study of Buddhist doctrines, state-run Global Times quoted the report as saying. Shi Xianqi and Shi Xianjia started probing Xuecheng's message after a nun, who stayed in Beijing in December 2017, turned to them for help with lewd messages from Xuecheng, the report said. They have consulted with experts from the Ministry of Public Security to make sure that the messages were indeed sent by Xuecheng, it said. However, the temple in a statement said the two whistle-blowers have "forged materials, distorted facts and spread false information" that misled the public and asked the government to establish an investigation team. Xuecheng was taken for questioning by relevant authorities days ago before being released, the report said. The whistle blowers alleged that Xuecheng threatened at least six nuns to have sex with him, four of whom capitulated to his requests. One of the nuns reported to a police station in Haidian district on June 29 that Xuecheng had sexually assaulted her, the report said. "Longquan Temple is under his spell. Xuecheng manipulated disciples to serve his 'Buddhist Empire' disciples under his control sacrificed their precious practices of Buddhist doctrines and violated these doctrines, even laws," the daily quoted the report as saying. The #MeToo movement, which erupted in the US last year and led to dozens of high-profile figures being publicly shamed for sexual misconduct, has been slow to take off in China, BBC reported. But the movement now appears to be moving forward, despite accusations the government has been censoring reports. Abbot Xuecheng is the latest figure to be been accused of sexual misconduct, it said. Earlier in January this year, China had one of its first #MeToo moments after an academic accused her professor of sexual harassment. He was later sacked. Since then, a veteran journalist, the founder of a prominent charity and another academic have figured among the accused public figures. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra Home Guards has developed a web-based application to ensure transparency in deployment of its personnel, a top official has said. The app will also help in identifying and weeding out black sheep in the force, the official said. According to the official, the application will ensure that no favouritism takes place in allotment of duty to the Home Guards jawans. "The work on developing the in-house application began in February this year and is now almost complete. During its trial, the app was found to be satisfactory. It will be officially commissioned in the coming weeks," the top official said. Talking to PTI, Director General of state Home Guards Sanjay Pandey said, "Considering some lacunae prevailing in the department, we decided to take help of technology and develop our own software that will not only centralise the task of online reporting and deployment across Maharashtra, but also bring transparency in it." "I am happy to note that the app has been extremely helpful in streamlining the deployment of our jawans, besides weeding out the black sheep within the force, who used to fudge the number and identity of jawans during bandobast," the 1986 batch IPS officer told PTI. "Now, our senior officers can monitor the movement and deployment of our forces at local level to ensure that no favouritism takes place in allotment of duties," he added. The Home Guards had been facing allegations of nepotism with some of its jawans accusing their seniors of allotting duty to those only close to them and not on rotation basis. The Home Guards is a paramilitary police force. It is deployed to work as auxiliary force to the Indian police voluntarily. In Maharashtra, the sanctioned strength of Home Guards jawans is 54,000, but the current strength is 38,000. "We will be giving log-in facility to the district commandant officers so that deployment and training-related activities can be monitored at the local level," Pandey said. "Since the last three months, the deployment of jawans is being done on rotation basis, which has been widely appreciated," he said. Jawans are informed about about the location and duration of their posting through text message on their mobile phones, he said. The software of the app has been developed by the Home Guards' staff member, Tushar Varande, without any investment. Varande is currently posted in Satara in the store department. Pandey said he has written to the state government to increase the daily wages given to the Home Guards jawans. "Our jawans' wages are very low as compared to those given in Uttar Pradesh and few other neighbouring states. Therefore, I have requested the government to consider hiking the wages," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For "Impractical Jokers" star James Murray, comedy is about remembering his not-so-shiny moments and even those disasters that made life tough for him at one point of time. Asked if reminiscing gags from his life was akin to scratching unhealed wounds, something that Hannah Gadsby highlights in her soul-stirring, uncanny stand-up "Nannette", Murray does not mind looking back at his "embarrassments" if it made people laugh. "I don't know about that (wounds never healing). I, instead, like revisiting my embarrassments and failures in my comedy as it makes the audience laughs. Which is why I do what I do - to make people laugh. So that whatever half-an-hour they sit to see the show, they forget their problems. "Also, since I do this comedy with my friends, there is this sense of trust and support, that even if they use my failures for a gag, they will not be hard on me. They will not make me feel bad on purpose. So, I'm ok with it," he told PTI in a telephonic interview from Florida. The actor-producer, however, is looking forward to watching the Netflix Original as he has "heard lots of good things about it". Comedians today can be called the "conscious-keepers" of the society and Murray believes in bringing people together and making them feel good has always been the goal. "For us, comedy has always been inclusive. We take a lot of pride in our comedy which is for everyone - kids, youth and family." The world is shrinking thanks to the social media revolution and comics have often been trolled for expressing their political views through their comedy. And Murray believes as an artiste, it is important that comics respected their fanbase. "We are living in a unique time. It has only been 20 years after the internet has taken off and look at how closely everyone is connected today. That suddenly everyone has so much to talk about and connect with people who were so unreachable earlier. So, it's interesting. "But yes, I believe, it is important to respect your fan base... You should keep in mind what may offend your audience. That it should not make them feel uncomfortable about seeing it on TV. I feel it's a performer's responsibility." He says the best part about "Impractical Jokers" is that he works with his friends and pulls improv pranks on people in real-life. The show follows Joseph Gatto, Brian Quinn, Salvatore Vulcano and Murray, the four member-friends of the comedy troupe The Tenderloins, as they dare one another into doing public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras. "Since ours is an improv form of comedy and we do not know the details of the prank till we start performing on strangers, it pretty much happens in real time. But, we do sit together and brainstorm ideas about how to work on the next gags," he says. Murray also shares that the team finished shooting for the "Impractical Jokers" film four days ago. "We are excited about it and hope to release it by next spring," he adds. The actor-producer will be doing a Facebook Live from Comedy Central's Facebook page to celebrate Friendship's Day with the Indian audience on tomorrow at 6.30 p.m. He is also coming to India in November. The channel will also be airing "Impractical Joker" episodes handpicked by Murray on Sunday, 10 a.m. onwards. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jennifer Aniston's love life and womb are nobody's business. The actor who has gone through intense media scrutiny over her split with husband Justin Theroux earlier this year, said she is not "heartbroken" and it's about time people moved on from the narrative of 'Jen can't keep a man' or she is 'selfish' and does not want to have a baby. In an interview with Molly McNeary for InStyle's September issue, the 49-year-old actor said media should stop with sexist stories about female stars. "It's pretty crazy. The misconceptions are 'Jen can't keep a man', and 'Jen refuses to have a baby because she's selfish and committed to her career. Or that I'm sad and heartbroken," Aniston said referring to tabloid stories about her split with Theroux after two years of marriage. "First, with all due respect, I'm not heartbroken. And second, those are reckless assumptions. No one knows what's going on behind closed doors. No one considers how sensitive that might be for my partner and me. They don't know what I've been through medically or emotionally. There is a pressure on women to be mothers, and if they are not, then they're deemed damaged goods. Maybe my purpose on this planet isn't to procreate. Maybe I have other things I'm supposed to do?" Asked whether she faced sexual harassment at work place, Aniston said there were some "sloppy" moves made on her by other actors but she handled it by walking away. "I've never had anyone in a position of power make me feel uncomfortable and leverage that over me. In my personal experience I've been treated worse verbally and energetically by some women in this industry." The actor said it is unfair to pick women apart and pit them against one another based on looks and clothing and superficial stuff. "When a couple breaks up in Hollywood, it's the woman who is scorned. The woman is left sad and alone. She's the failure. F that. When was the last time you read about a divorced, childless man referred to as a spinster?" Aniston hopes things with improve for better in the post #MeToo and Time's Up movement and she believes men should be a part of this conversation. "...it's long overdue. But we also need to be better at listening to one another. That includes men. They need to be part of this conversation. When everyone is mad and aggressive, people become too afraid to speak and there is no conversation. "Same goes for politics. We need to include each other, to hear each other out. We can't stoop to the anger. Michelle Obama said it best: 'When they go low, we go high.' We should all be living by that if we want real progress," the actor said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Army and it's Chinese counterpart have expressed mutual desire to maintain peace and improve relations at the functional-level along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a defence official said today. The ceremonial Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) was held yesterday on the occasion of China's PLA Day at Chinese BPM hut of Chushul-Moldo meeting point in Eastern Ladakh, Srinagar-based defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said in a press statement here. He said the ceremonial BPM was marked by saluting of national flags by delegation members. The ceremonial address by both delegation leaders included exchange of greetings and vote of thanks and reflected the mutual desire for improving relations at functional-level at the border. Thereafter, a cultural programme showcasing Chinese culture and traditional grandeur was organised, the spokesman said. He said both the delegations interacted in a free and congenial environment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Suresh Prabhu today called upon India Inc to evolve a CSR strategy in conjunction with the government to combat the water crisis the country is likely to face in the future. Prabhu said he foresees India becoming a USD 5 trillion economy in the next 7-8 years and a USD 10 trillion economy by 2035. "Just imagine, when India will be a USD 10 trillion economy by 2035 for sure, what could be the water crisis at that time," Prabhu said, adding that water is going to be a major issue by then. "This (water) is an issue which will hinder growth, which will create social tension, and impact livelihoods," the commerce and industry minister said at an event here. He asked the corporates to design a water matrix entailing the challenges it will pose and its requirement vis-a-vis the country's population in the coming years. "We should think about, and I feel this is something which is of great importance to people at large... the issue that is going to come out because of water..., he said. He urged India Inc to focus on top social priorities and make it a mission as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian-American advocacy group today called for immediate suspension of the National Registry of Citizens until the irregularities resulting in four million people being excluded from the list are fixed. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants in Assam did not find a place in the much-anticipated second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a historic document touted to be a proof of Assamese identity. "The ethnic group that is the worst victim of this mass disenfranchisement is the Bengali-speaking Muslim community in Assam, accused of being 'infiltrators,' although they are Indian citizens," the Indian-American Muslim Council (IAMC) said in a statement. "The fact that this is an exercise in subversion of democracy and has a clearly bigoted, discriminatory agenda, is reflected in the exclusion of the relatives of the former President of India," said IAMC president Ahsan Khan said. "The entire programme should be suspended until the criteria for exclusion are clearly defined," he said. It called on the Indian government not to allow religious differences to define the socio-political landscape of the country, where something as basic as a citizen's right to be called a citizen of the country is arbitrarily snatched away. The first draft of the NRC was published during the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 this year, containing 1.9 crore names. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian national working for an international food services company in Afghanistan was among three foreigners killed by unidentified gunmen after they were abducted from capital city Kabul, the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn country. The three men -- one Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian -- were working as chefs for the French food services and facilities management giant Sodexo, the ToloNews said, citing a senior diplomat in Kabul. The identities of the victims have not been disclosed. They were abducted early this morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi, a volatile area of the Afghan capital, the report said. According to local media reports, the armed men took off the foreigners from their vehicle at around 8:30 am (local time) and abducted them in a Toyota Corolla at the industrial park area of 9th Police District in Kabul city. The driver of the foreign nationals after 20 minutes reached the office and informed the staff about the abduction, the report said. Police launched a search operation and cordoned off the area. After around two hours, the bodies were recovered. Police is investigating it as terror incident. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killings. The Taliban militants group often claim responsibility behind the abduction although some of the kidnappings are done for ransom by criminal gangs. It is the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital. The incident came nearly three months after seven Indian engineers of an RPG group company working in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province were abducted by Taliban gunmen who apparently mistook them for government employees. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian man was among three foreigners killed by on Thursday after they were abducted from Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, a media report said. One Indian, one Malaysian and one Macedonian were abducted early this morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi district in Kabul province, the Tolo News reported. They were abducted from Kabul's PD9 area. Police have confirmed the incident but have not given any further details although it is believed that the men worked for a logistics company, the report said. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A resident of Haryana's Kaithal district, held hostage by a gang of human traffickers near Kuala Lumpur, has been rescued by Malaysian cops, the police said today. The Malaysian police busted the gang which had abducted Sanjeev (27) and arrested three Pakistani nationals. The gang had demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh from his family, Kaithal Superintendent of Police (SP) Astha Modi said. Sanjeev was rescued on Saturday from a house about 150 km from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur with the intervention of the Indian High Commission in Malaysia, she said. Sanjeev wanted to settle down in Australia and had contacted some agents in Patiala and Amritsar who promised to send him there via Thailand and Malaysia and a deal was finalised for Rs 8.5 lakh, Modi said. The agents were paid Rs 2 lakh by Sanjeev's family and they promised to pay the rest after receiving information about his safe landing in Australia, she added. Modi said Sanjeev left on July 19 and reached Malaysia the same day, following which the agents asked him to call his family and tell them to pay the remaining amount. However, the Kaithal-resident sent a message to his family containing a code word, that he had decided upon with his family in advance, indicating that he was not taken to his destination, she said. His family informed the police. The SP said the human trafficking gang used to lure youths on the pretext of sending them to Australia through Malaysia. It would then hold the youths hostage and demand ransom from their families, she said. Efforts are underway to nab the agents who sent Sanjeev to Malaysia, Modi said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) While most people in relationships wouldnt be caught dead sharing their ATM details with their significant others, Citizen TVs Linus Kaikai is quite the exception. Apparently, the Royal Media Director of Strategy and Innovation gave his wife Jacinta Mueni his ATM details after only three weeks of dating. According to Kaikai, the remarkable moment of trust happened when he was about to travel out of the country. While planning one of our dates, we ended up asking where each one lived only to realise we lived within the same complex, just different blocks. In fact, Mueni could even see my block from her apartment and I had to pass by her house to get to mine, recalled Kaikai. When we both wanted to move out of our houses, I was sent on an assignment out of the country. So I handed her my ATM card and told her to secure a place of her choice for me and left, Kaikai told Parents magazine. As you would expect, the rare gesture stunned his wife who was quoted by the monthly publication as saying: To say that I was shocked when Linus gave me his ATM card after only three weeks would be an understatement. The move would set the pace and foundation for the lovebirds as less than a year later, Mueni had introduced Linus to her family. In 2007, the couple, though not married, welcomed their first child together. Despite having met in 2005, they didnt formally tie the knot until 2012 at a celebrity-packed wedding at the Nkoroi Catholic Church in Kajiado County. From our very first date, I told Linus that I was not looking for marriage. Strangely enough, I always had this notion that I needed to live my best life at any given time, including when I was single. By the time I was meeting Linus, I had a full-time job, my own booming side business Style Sense an active social life and the plan was to get my Masters and Phd as well. I just didnt know where marriage would fit into the equation, explained Mueni. It did take time for us to warm up to the idea of marriage but even in between those years, we were actively in each others lives, spoke daily and there was absolutely no pressure from either one of us to change things, Mueni explained. Linus too did not have marriage at the back of his mind when they met. We have such a strong friendship. Weve had our ups and downs just like any other couple, if we are to be honest, and the question that always lingered was, can we progress the relationship to the next level? And therein lies the challenge for couples I suppose. Britain's longest-serving Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz was today caught up in allegations of bullying a woman clerk of the House of Commons. The 61-year-old Labour party MP from Leicester East is accused of making harsh comments to a Commons' clerk when she reportedly raised an issue about parliamentary rules and standards. Vaz denies any breach of Parliament's rules and the allegations of bullying, which were broadcast by BBC last night. Jenny McCullough served as a clerk to the Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee between 2002 and 2011, a committee Vaz chaired between 2007 and 2016. The former clerk claimed that she was repeatedly bullied by the MP when she sought to uphold the rules of the House of Commons and had not felt comfortable about coming forward with the allegations until now. "He told me that I wasn't capable of serving the committee because I wasn't a mother. All I knew was, it wasn't normal to be harangued about my fertility status in the reception of a hotel room, at public expense, in front of my colleague on the team," she told BBC's Newsnight programme. The MP's representative told BBC: "No complaint or allegation of this nature has ever been brought to his attention. Our client had considered that he and Ms McCullough had previously had a good working relationship, and had always considered her to be very effective as a clerk." McCullough said when she highlighted the issues she faced to her managers, it was treated as though it was normal. A House of Commons spokesperson said: "We are aware that in the past the House has not had a robust process in place to deal with instances of bullying and harassment. "We are confident that our new independent complaints and grievance policy will mean that allegations can be dealt with effectively and sensitively." Vaz stood down from the influential parliamentary committee in 2016 following a newspaper sting, which claimed that he had hired male prostitutes. A parliamentary standards investigation into those allegations remains ongoing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese smartphone firm Inifinix Mobiles today said it expects to be among top five players in online segment in next one year with monthly sale target of 2 lakh units. "Transsion Holdings (parent firm of the company) is just 2 years old in the country and it is already among top 5 mobile phones players in the country. Now, we are looking Infinix alone to be among top 5 player in online segment," Infinix India CEO Anish kapoor said after launching new smartphone Infinix Smart 2. According to Counterpoint Research, Transsion with its three brands- itel, Tecno and Infinix, has emerged as the fifth largest player in the Indian mobile phone industry by capturing 4 per cent market share in the first quarter of 2018. "Earlier, we were not focussing on volume sale. Now, we are looking to sell 2 lakh units of Infinix every month online," Kapoor said. He also said that company will continue to focus on smartphones in the price range below Rs 10,000 a unit to push sales. "We will keep bringing new features available in phones of higher price range in below Rs 10,000 devices. Today, with Smart 2, we have introduced dual VoLTE sim slot for Rs 5,999 so that customer in this segment can leverage the benefit of 4G network expansion," Kapoor added. He said that the company no longer imports phones for sale in India and production capacity will be increased to meet the local demand. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Railways has launched a special tour package to Mahatma Gandhi's birth place, Porbandar in Gujarat, to showcase his life, days after it announced two Ramayana Circuit trains for visiting places associated with the Hindu epic. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in a statement today said the "Khushboo Gujarat Ki" tour will include an AC three-tier travel package. The highlight of the tour is the Kirti Mandir in Porbandar, which has now been transformed into a museum displaying old photographs and personal belongings of Gandhi. The all-inclusive tour package of six nights and seven days will also cover the Somnath temple, Diu, Dwarka and Nageshwar. The package is priced at Rs 19,990 per person on a twin-sharing basis and will include the train journey and three-star hotel accommodation at Somnath and Dwarka. All transfers and sightseeing by air-conditioned buses, on-board meals, breakfast and dinner at the hotels and insurance are also included in the package. "A dedicated IRCTC tour manager will accompany the tourists. The total number of seats available in this fixed-group departure programme is 60," the statement said. As a part of the tour, the Uttaranchal Express will depart from the New Delhi railway station at 1.25 pm on September 16. Passengers can also board the train from the Delhi Cantonment, Gurgaon, Rewari, Alwar, Jaipur and Ajmer Junction railway stations. The tour can be booked on the IRCTC website as well as its offices across the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) - An Israeli air strike has killed seven militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State group and seeking to infiltrate the country from the Syrian Golan Heights, the army said Thursday. The military carried out the missile strike late Wednesday after the militants crossed a ceasefire line and came within a few hundred metres of the fence in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists. An Israeli aircraft "struck those seven suspects, and today in searches that have been completed on the ground by Israeli troops we found seven bodies in that location, we found five AK-47 assault rifles, we found explosive vests as well as what appears to be grenades," Conricus said. A Syrian offensive in the country's south has resulted in IS-affiliated groups scattering in the area, Conricus said. Israeli forces monitored the militants' movements before carrying out the strike, he said. "Had they been able to continue, they would have come to the Israeli security fence," Conricus said. He said Israeli forces believed they were on a "terrorist mission" and "trying to infiltrate into Israel." "It did not seem as if they were fleeing, seeking refuge," Conricus said. "It seems as if they were moving in a combat formation, with combat equipment." He declined to say specifically where they were located, but said it was in the southern Golan, near the Jordanian border. Initial findings show they were linked to IS but it remains unconfirmed, said Conricus. Conricus said there had been no coordination with Syria or Russia before the strike, adding that Israel was well within the bounds of a 1974 ceasefire agreement for the area in carrying it out. Israel has sought to remain out of direct involvement in Syria's civil war, but it admits carrying out dozens of air strikes there to stop what it says are deliveries of advanced weaponry to its Lebanese enemy Hezbollah. It has also pledged to prevent its arch foe Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and a series of recent strikes that have killed Iranians in Syria have been attributed to Israel. Confrontations with IS-linked fighters have been more rare. The only other similar incident since the start of Syria's seven-year civil war occurred in November 2016. In that incident, the army said Israeli soldiers were targeted with machinegun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to IS. Four of the militants were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his troops on Wednesday they were close to victory after inflicting a succession of defeats on rebels. A series of blistering offensives backed by Moscow and Tehran has forced the rebels out of many of their strongholds, putting Assad's government back in control of nearly two-thirds of the country. Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The famous Dal Lake has shrunk to less than half its original size with its capacity down to 40 per cent, officials said today as Governor N N Vohra invited the Navy and other experts to tackle issues faced by the water body. The governor had spoken to Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, during his visit to the state last month, for his help in identifying experts who could undertake a benchmark survey of the Dal Lake and later, also of the Wular Lake, an official spokesperson said here. Vohra has also asked his adviser, B B Vyas, to get in touch with Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) Rajesh Tripathi, he said. The Navy Chief had said Vice-Admiral S K Jha (Retd), former chief hydrographer, could assist the Jammu and Kashmir government in formulating an approach to deal with the problems faced by the Dal lake, the spokesman added. "At the request of the state government, Vice-Admiral Jha (Retd) and Tripathi visited Srinagar on 3031 July and undertook separate surveys and assessments to identify the problems," he said. The spokesman said the governor chaired a meeting at the Raj Bhavan today where Jha and Tripathi presented their assessments. "From the assessment made by the CMD of DCI, it was learnt that the size of Dal has shrunk from its original area of 22 sq km to about 10 sq km, that the water quality of Dal has deteriorated due to intense pollution caused by untreated sewage and solid wastes that flow into the lake, encroachments of water channels and clogging has diminished the circulation and inflows into the lake, leading to extensive weed growth of water hyacinth which has emerged as a health hazard "It was also learnt that due to siltation, encroachment etc, the depth of the lake has reduced at many places and its total capacity has gone down to 40 per cent, the continuing night soil discharge from the 800-900 house boats is causing extreme pollution," he said. The official said consequent to the discussions, it was decided that the Navy chief would be asked for help in a comprehensive bathymetric survey of the Dal-Nageen lake to establish a benchmark database to decide the extent of dredging, etc., to be carried out at the various parts of the lake. He said Vohra directed officials concerned to take immediate steps to implement the decisions taken in the meeting and asked Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam to closely monitor further progress. Vohra would be personally reviewing progress on the basis of the chief secretary's reports in regard to this very important project, the spokesman said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir government will procure weed harvesters, skimmers and amphibious excavators to give a new lease of life to the famous Dal and Nageen lakes battling the menace of weeds. Dal Lake is situated in Srinagar--summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The urban lake is the second largest in the state and is integral to tourism. It is called the 'Jewel in the crown of Kashmir'. Nageen Lake is a mildly eutrophic lake located in Srinagar. It is sometimes considered a part of the Dal Lake and is connected to it via a narrow strait. The housing and urban development department of the state government has issued orders for floating of global tenders for procurement and hiring of 60 machines and boats by Jammu and Kashmir's Lakes and Water Ways Development Authority (LAWDA) by March, 2019, an official said. LAWDA should procure lake clearing machines for the current year in order to conserve Dal and Nageen lakes, said K B Aggarwal, Financial Commissioner, Housing and Urban Development Department. The procurement of lake clearing machines and equipment for four basins of Dal and Nageen lakes through global tendering include eight weed harvesters along with barges, eight skimmers, eight amphibious excavators, 12 tugboats and 24 barges, he said. The twin lakes of Dal and Nageen are facing a life battle of high growth of weeds, causing concern among the people, particularly the environmentalists. A Rs 38-crore proposal for construction of a road through the interior of Srinagar aimed at conserving the famous Dal Lake has been submitted to the Jammu and Kashmir government this year, an official said. As part of the efforts to conserve and protect the Dal Lake, the Centre and state governments have launched several schemes and projects over the past decade. These include shifting nearly 10,000 families living around the lake to a colony being established at Rakh-e-Aarath in the outskirts of the city. "So far, we have shifted 2,200 families. Allocation of funds is very important for speeding up the moving of the families from Dal Lake to other designated places," a senior official said. The physical and chemical analysis of the lake water is done every month as made mandatory by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which is monitoring the conservation efforts. LAWDA has demolished 75 structures and removed encroachments in 56 demolition drives in the past six months. The Dal Lake, nestled in the northeast part of Srinagar city and spread over 21.1 sq km, is at the heart of the region's tourism industry and is linked to the livelihood of thousands. The lake has suffered extensively over the past few decades due to increasing encroachment, human interference, pollution and a failure of successive governments to implement remedies. The first conservation and management programme costing Rs 298 crore was sanctioned under the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP) in 2005. The second phase of work done under the programme costing Rs 356 crore was sanctioned under the Prime Minister's Reconstruction Programme (PMRP) in 2010. Satellite imagery in 2009 revealed that the total area of the lake was 25.76 sq km. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Japan has lifted travel advisories issued to its citizens visiting the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region, Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad said today. "The Raj Bhavan received a communication from the Japanese Embassy on that the Government of Japan has lowered the level of travel advisory for East Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi, West Jaintia Hills and East Jaintia Hills districts. This will open up Meghalaya's four districts to Japanese visitors and tourists and enhance the people-to-people contacts as well as economic exchanges between Japan and Meghalaya, Prasad said in a statement. The decision was taken as a follow up of the requests made by the governor to the Ambassador of Japan when he met him here on May 7, the statement said. The advisory was in place for devades owing to the law and order situation in the state. The Governor expressed hope that the tourism industry in the state of Meghalaya will get a fillip due to this positive development. The beautiful hill state, located between Assam to the North and Bangladesh to its South, had received over 10 lakh tourists last year, only next to Sikkim which received over 14 lakh tourists during the same period. According to statistics provided by tourism department, of the 10.02 lakh tourists who visited in 2017, domestic visitors accounted for 9.9 lakh and the rest 12,000 plus were foreign tourists. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Jammu and Kashmir government has approved the first-ever trade and export policy, aimed at transforming the state's economy into a competitive export-led entity, an official spokesman said today. The State Administrative Council (SAC) met in Srinagar last evening under the chairmanship of Governor N N Vohra and approved the J-K Trade and Export Policy, 2018-28, the spokesman said. He said the policy reflects the dynamics of Jammu and Kashmir as an agrarian economy in transition towards a market-driven one. "It is aimed to transform the state economy from a supply constrained one to a competitive export-led entity responsive to enhanced domestic integration and wider participation in national and global economy in tune with the national policies. "It will create an enabling eco-system to ensure effective participation in the designed framework-based trading system that has emerged at the national and international levels and help in seizing opportunities available in global liberalized market," he said. The spokesman said policy targets include enhancing the domestic trade volume by five times in next 10 years, transforming the system from regulator to facilitator and from performer to enabler, and providing employment opportunities to educated and skilled youth in export trading of goods and services. The targets also include encouraging, promoting and facilitating more investment in enterprises and building a strong, responsive and vibrant business environment in the state, the spokesman said. He said the policy would be valid for a period of 10 years or till a new trade and export policy is announced. In a separate decision, the spokesman said, the SAC has approved revision in fare of all commercial passenger vehicles in view of rise in fuel prices and other operational and maintenance cost. He said the Motor Vehicles Department carried out a cost analysis based on relevant inputs, including fuel prices, in April 2018 and a proposal was submitted to the transport department. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) City Congress president Sanjay Nirupam urged Maharashtra Chief minsiter Devendra Fadnavis today to suspend BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta for his alleged involvement in losing Rs 500 crore prime piece of land in Suburban Jogeshwari. In his letter, Nirupam alleged that Fadnavis's consistent ignorance has provided Mehta "enough chance do to scams" which are being exposed every passing day. "The fact that the Jogeshwari plot in question worth Rs 500 crore and measuring 13,000 sq mts, which was initially reserved for a hospital and other public purposes, was deliberately allowed by default to be returned to the private owners makes it evident that this is a major scam in which the municipal commissioner appears to be hand in glove with the private owner," Nirupam's missive reads. He also enlisted various acts of alleged "omission and commission" on the part of the Brihanmumbai Municipal commissioner which eventually led to the land scam. Nirupam wrote, "Why didn't Ajoy Mehta approach the Supreme Court when the civic body lost the case in High Court? "Also, being the head of the DP Dept, it was Mehta's prime responsibility to track the whole case instead of completely leaving it up to the Law Dept Officials. This indicates gross dereliction of duty or deliberate inaction and criminal conspiracy on the part of the BMC Commissioner." The former MP also urged Fadnavis to order investigation into the "mysterious death" of a Dalit peon of the DP Department, who was in-charge of the tampered file, fell to his death from a train few days later. "We need to find out whether this was an accident or a murder executed only to wipe out evidence since he was a crucial witness," he demanded. The Mumbai Congress Chief yesterday led a delegation of Congress corporators and met with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) to file an FIR against the alleged corrupt activities of the BMC Commissioner and some other top officials of the civic body. The Congress had demanded yesterday a probe against the BMC after the civic body lost the court case of a plot worth Rs 500 crore in a suburb here. The civic body, however, rejected the charges, saying all due processes were followed to acquire the plot despite the fact that the purchase notice was not served through a proper channel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Johnny Depp has claimed that his ex-wife Amber Heard had once punched him twice in the face when they were together. According to People, the 55-year-old actor made the revelation in the court documents filed as part of a libel case in the UK. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor claimed that Heard, 32, physically assaulted him after he arrived two hours late to her 30th birthday party in 2016. He said that when he arrived, Heard was "cold towards" him and began "criticizing" him after the guests had left. Depp said that when the alleged incident took place, he was not drinking. He said a drunk Amber became "aggressive and violent, punching him twice in the face" and he responded by "grabbing (her) arms to stop her punching him again and told her to stop." A representative of Heard trashed the claims of the actor, labelling them as "totally false". "These allegations are totally false. One needs only read the recent Rolling Stone article about Mr. Depp to understand his state of mind," he said. "Mr. Depp is currently being sued in multiple venues, including for assaulting a location manager on the set of City of Lies. On many occasions, eyewitnesses observed the extent of the abuse Mr. Depp inflicted on Ms. Heard," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Justice Onesmus Makau of the Employment and Labor Relations Court has ordered Siaya Senator James Orengo to pay a former employee Sh600,000 as compensation for wrongful termination of employment. The High Court ruled that Orengo failed to pay Gilbert Jedidah Ogango his salary for a period of 17 months in 2016. The complainant worked as a court clerk in Orengos law firm, J.A.B Orengo Advocates. He moved to Court seeking to be paid Sh950,000 arguing that he had to persevere for nearly two years working at the law firm even as the Senior Counsel kept promising that he would be paid once the harsh economic times were over. Suit papers indicate that Ogango was employed as a clerk at the law firm through an oral contract in 2008. An agreement was reached that he would earn a monthly salary of Sh20,000. Ogango alleged that in September 2014, the firm failed to pay him but that he did not take it seriously as his salary would sometimes be delayed for various reasons. He, however, said that the lack of pay compelled him to quit. In his ruling, Justice Onesmus Makau awarded Ogango Sh20,000 being one months salary in lieu of notice and a further Sh240,000 being salary for 12 months compensation and unlawful termination of contract. The complainant was also awarded unrebutted claim of 17 months salary arrears amounting to Sh340,000. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today asked Naxals to surrender and join the mainstream or security forces were ready to "finish" them. Speaking at the passing out parade of trainee constables at the Police Training School in Mana Camp area, Singh said that due to the action by security forces, the state was heading in the direction of finishing the Naxal menace. A total of 526 constables, including 345 women, were commissioned into the Chhattisgarh Armed Force during the passing out parade. "The state government has given a strong message to Naxals that they should join the mainstream. Either they should surrender or security forces are ready to finish them. Now there is no way left for them," Singh said. He said that action by security forces had ensured that Surguja district had been cleared of Naxals. Singh asked the tribal population in the state to support the government to get rid of Left Wing Extremism. Addressing the function, the CM said that it was the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh that women will be joining the CAF. Sops for police like construction of 10,000 houses and an automated kitchen at the PTS, which will cook meals for 600 personnel every day, were also announced by Singh. He sanctioned Rs 1.2 crore for the kitchen and claimed that work on building 6,000 houses for police personnel had already begun. He said that gymnasium facilities, currently available at district and battalion levels, would be extended to sub divisions and police stations as well. Bulletproof jackets for police personnel will be procured every year while constables to inspectors would be given monthly response allowance to ensure they reach any spot of incident at the earliest, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Judges of Calcutta High Court will inspect the infrastructure prepared for setting up of a circuit bench at Jalpaiguri this weekend, the HC administration told a bench hearing a petition in connection with chief minister's announcement of date of inauguration. The high court administration's counsel told Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty that the team of judges would submit a report after inspection of the Jalpaiguri zilla parishad bungalow, following which a full court meeting would take a decision on inauguration of the circuit bench. The HC administration's lawyer Joydeep Kar submitted that the zilla parishad bungalow will be a temporary set up till the permanent circuit bench complex in Jalpaiguri is ready. Justice Chakraborty adjourned hearing in the matter till August 9 as further argument would depend on the outcome of the inspection of the team of judges. A petition was moved before the high court on July 26 questioning the propriety of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent announcement that the circuit bench at Jalpaiguri will be inaugurated on August 17. Banerjee and the then Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Justice J N Patel laid the foundation stone for the circuit bench in September 2012 on 40 acres of land given by the state government for the purpose. Petitioner's lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya had contended on July 26 that it is for a full court meeting of judges of the high court to take a decision on setting up of a circuit bench. After a full court decision, the President makes a formal notification for the setting up and inauguration of a circuit bench, he claimed before Justice Chakraborty. The petitioner cited some newspaper reports which said the chief minister made an announcement in Siliguri on July 10 that the circuit bench will be inaugurated on August 17. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Karnataka cabinet today decided to constitute a cabinet sub-committee under the leadership of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to decide on giving special package of incentives to industries. Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the cabinet sub-committee headed by the Chief Minister, based on criteria such as proposed investment, job creation and other factors, will decide on giving special package of incentives. "Industries department gives special package of incentives for mega projects, ultra projects and super projects, under industrial, textile and aerospace policies. For this we have set up a cabinet sub-committee," Gowda said. The sub-committee will also have Industries Minister, Small Scale Industries Minister and Revenue Minister as its members, he said. Gowda said the cabinet has also decided to give a grant of Rs 15 crore to National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), located in Bengaluru, for setting up a Centre of Excellence in Agri Innovation, to support innovations and startups in the field of agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry. The cabinet has approved Rs 114 crore for Koppal Government Medical College, Rs 112 crore for Gadag Government Medical College; Rs 113 crore for Chamarajanagar Government Medical College and Rs 134 crore for Mysuru Super Speciality Hospital, for upgradation purpose. The government has also decided to frame rules under the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, for appointment of teachers to about 22 educational institutions that are run with the revenue of endowment department temples, as there was no transparency on appointments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A special court today granted conditional interim bail to senior Congress leader and Karnataka Minister D K Shivakumar in a tax evasion case. Shivakumar, who was present in the court, and four other accused in the case, have been directed to deposit a bond of Rs 50,000 each. Sachin Narayan, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Anjaneya Hanumanthaia and Rajendra are the other accused. The Special Court for Economic Offences posted the case for next hearing on September 20. The Income Tax department carried out raids against close friends and relatives of Shivakumar recently, drawing angry reactions from the minister and his parliamentarian brother D K Suresh. They had alleged that the department was trying to fix Suresh in the case. Cash and documents were allegedly seized during the raids at the residences of Sharma and Hanumanthaia. The I-T department had issued notices to them seeking explanation. The issue snowballed into a political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP, which had demanded Shivakumar's resignation. Shivakumar was instrumental in ensuring the safe stay of Gujarat Congress legislators in a Karnataka resort during Rajya Sabha polls last year amid allegations that the BJP was trying to poach them. He was also the key man who oversaw the operation to keep Congress lawmakers together against alleged poaching attempts by BJP after the May assembly polls, which threw up a hung verdict. The Congress had then sheltered its MLAs, claiming that the BJP, which had emerged as the single-largest party but fell short of numbers, was trying to lure its MLAs away in its bid to form the government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ministry today informed the Madras High Court that the land acquisition process for the Chennai-Salem Greenfield corridor is being done completely in accordance with law and the project cannot be commenced without its approval. "At present the authorities are only doing survey work which is essential for obtaining environmental clearance. Petitions against the project cannot be moved on the basis of assumption that the government will flout rules," additional solicitor general G Rajagopalan said. The additional solicitor general made the submission before a division bench of Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Bhavani Subarayan on a batch of pleas seeking to stall the land acquisition process for the project without conducting social impact assessment. Opposing the contentions, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the project was only at a preliminary stage. Recording the submissions, the bench posted the pleas to August 3 for further hearing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today spoke to DMK working president M K Stalin over phone and enquired about his father M Karunanidhi's health. Karunanidhi, admitted to a private hospital here after his blood pressure dropped on July 28, has been advised an extended hospital stay. "This evening in India I spoke with M.K. Stalin, the son of DMK Leader, M. Karunanidhi who is currently unwell in hospital," the Lankan leader said in a tweet. Wickremesinghe is in Tirumala to offer prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Naval variant of light combat aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas' successfully undertook its maiden taxi-in engagement with the indegenously developed arrester hook system, used to stop jets during landings on aircraft carrier decks, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) today said. The LCA Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by CaptShivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of thearrestor hook system, developed by the HAL, at moderate taxi-inspeeds on the Navy's shore based test facility INSHansa in Goa. The first successful Taxi-in engagement was monitored closely by the Landing Signal Officer commodre J A Maolankar andTest director Group Capt A Kabadwal (Retd), the Bengaluru-based HAL said in a release. "This is the first of a series of engagement plannedat proving the arrestor hook capability," HAL CMD T SuvarnaRaju said. HAL said its design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre has designed and developed the arrestor hooksystem for ship deck operations of LCA's Naval version. The aircraft had been operating at INS Hansa Goa since July 28 after verification of the in-air operation of the system here earlier this month, the release said. The company also said carrier compatibility trialsof the Naval aircraft are slated to be carried out at the shore based test facility. The trial involves completion of extensive shore based trialsbefore embarking on actual deck. Teams of HAL, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), Regional Director Aeronautical Quality Assurance (RDAQA), Navy and National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) have worked synergistically to achieve this "flawless result", the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thirteen leading pulmonologists and chest physicians from six cities asked the Ministry to implement emission standards of coal plants, one of the biggest contributors to air pollution, without further delay. The doctors from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Bangalore wrote a letter to Minister Harsh Vardhan, asking him to implement the emission norms proposed by the ministry as soon as possible. According to a statement, in December 2015, the Ministry initiated a step towards addressing concerns about air pollution by thermal power plants, when it introduced the amendment to the Environment (Protection) Rules of 1986, bringing in new and tighter norms for emissions from coal-based power plants. According to the amended rules, all TPPs had to meet these norms by December 2017 and if the plants meet these norms, it will help ameliorate some of the impacts of TPP emissions in the air. However, the deadline of December 2017 for implementing the norms have been missed and it looks like it may get pushed to 2022 or 2030, the statement said. "We were really happy and reassured of a better future when the Environment Ministry piloted the plan to raise the emission norms for the power plants across the country in 2015. The timeline imposed by your ministry at that time - January, 2017 for newly commissioned plants and December, 2017 for the existing ones, was extremely reassuring and definitely achievable. "However, what has shocked us is the response and attitude of other people involved in the process (we do not wish to name anybody), due to which this extremely positive health improving step has for the time being deferred to 2022," they said in the letter. They said said power plants were one of the biggest contributors to air pollution in the country. They said in the recent past, they have seen an "unprecedented" increase in the number of chest diseases and specially lung cancer. "In fact, we are seeing increasing number of these cases in the non-smoker (so called non-smoker) population of our country. "We are sure that you are aware of the numerous studies available which have linked the particulate matter and the toxic gases especially being released by the power plants to chest ailments and to lung cancer," they stated in the letter. Noting that the cost or money involved and the timeline was being quoted as one of the reasons for deferring the implementation, they said it was a matter which involved health of millions of people. "In the interest of the health and the future of the present and future generations of our country, we the undersigned very humbly and very politely appeal to you to kindly put all your might towards this cause and see to it that these emission norms proposed and piloted by your own ministry under your stewardship are implemented as soon as possible and not deferred as is being done at the moment," they added. The pulmonologists and chest physicians include Dr Arvind Kumar, chairman, Centre for Chest Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr Neeraj Jain, chairman, Depatment of Chest Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Dr V R Pattabhi Raman Consultant and Interventional Pulmonologist, Pulmonologist Associates, Royal Care Hospital Coimbatore, Dr A Jayachandra, Director Pulmonology, Century Hospital, Hyderabad and others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) About 600 persons were today rounded up across Bihar during a day-long bandh called by the Left organisations to protest against Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal and alleged atrocities against dalits. The bandh evoked a mixed response with arrests being reported from four districts. Supported by other opposition parties like the RJD and the Congress, the bandh resulted in disruption of rail and road traffic in several districts. Smaller parties like Hindustani Awam Morcha, Loktantrik Janta Dal (floated by former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav) and NCP also lent support to the bandh, seen by political observers as coming together of non-NDA parties ahead of the 2019 general elections. According to a release issued by state police headquarters, a total of 598 persons were arrested across the state. Notably, arrests were reported from only four districts. The maximum number of arrests took place in Saran (328), followed by Madhubani (210), Nawada (35) and Katihar (25). CPI(ML) state secretary Kunal, in a statement, thanked the people of Bihar for what he termed "success" of the dawn-to-dusk shutdown. He also demanded resignation of Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi over the issue of "disappearance" of 11 women from a "Sva Adhar Grih" (home for self dependent women) at Muzaffarpur, which was run by the same NGO that controlled the shelter home for girls. He said "Sva Adhar Grih" was set up as part of a central scheme and the alleged disappearance of inmates was because of "ineffective laws and poor monitoring". He also welcomed the Supreme Court's suo motu cognizance of the shelter home sex scandal and demanded the resignation of state minister Suresh Sharma, who is also the local MLA. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi criticised the bandh and tweeted: "the opposition has fallen short of issues. Those who spent their energies in disrupting rail and road traffic and causing trouble to the common people, could have done better to assist the CBI in collecting evidence". Earlier, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who is also the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, had tweeted against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the Muzaffarpur episode. The bandh was marked by clashes between protesters and police in Patna and Muzaffarpur and disruption of movement of trains in West Champaran, Sheikhpura, Darbhanga and Jehanabad. Road traffic was affected on national highways passing through Khagaria, Kishanganj, Vaishali and Begusarai. In Muzaffarpur, CPI(ML) workers staged a protest in front of the residence of Brajesh Thakur, patron of the state-funded NGO, which was running the girl shelter home that has landed in a major controversy over alleged sexual assault of its inmates. Thakur has been arrested in connection with the scandal. After the Left activists left the place, a group of RJD workers were seen moving towards Thakur's residence but were stopped by police. Opposition leaders have alleged that Thakur enjoyed patronage of the chief minister. The alleged sexual exploitation of more than 30 girls at the centre first came to light in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI and the NGO running the shelter home has since been blacklisted and the girls have been shifted to other shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in sustainable footwear brand Allbirds. The 43-year-old actor shared the on Twitter but did not disclosed the amount he invested in the company. "Proud to be an investor in @Allbirds, a company dedicated to creating a more sustainable future by developing new materials and serving as a model for the footwear industry," DiCaprio wrote. The company was founded in 2016 and is popular for it use of merino wool from New Zealand to make its shoes, along with water-conserving tree fibers and recycled bottles and cardboard. The brand's latest launch is a USD 35 flip-flop made from renewable sugarcane rather than the usual plastic foam. The actor is known for his advocacy for global environmental issues and has often supported endeavours in support of the cause. He has been a part of green documentaries such as "A Plastic Ocean", "Before the Flood", "The Ivory Game", "Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret" and others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Residents of Mbooni, Makueni county are still reeling from the shock of a horrific suicide by a middle-aged man on Wednesday. The man, identified as Mutunga Kimonyi, is said to have locked himself in the house before taking his life. His family discovered his lifeless body on the floor of his house through a window. They alerted the police who rushed to the scene at about 1 pm. Confirming the incident, Mbooni East OCPD Agnes Omojong said police gained access to the house through the roof. We found a blood-stained kitchen knife beside his body. The police gained access to the house through the roof, Omojong said. The deceaseds employer, Marrieta Mwikya, said: He woke up, finished some duties I had assigned him and went back to his house. We got curious when he overstayed, Marrieta Mwikya, the farmhands boss said. Police said they are working to establish why Mutunga killed himself The deceaseds body was taken to the Makueni Level Four hospital. Three police personnel, including a sub-inspector, were injured when a group of people including women, assaulted them inside a police station in Nellore district, police said today. Twelve people, including five women, have been arrested in connection with the incident, they said. Police said a group of 30 people, allegedly in an inebriated state, threw stones at the Rapur police station last night, barged into it and thrashed the personnel. They accused them of harassing residents of their locality even as the SI was dragged outside the station and beaten with stones, police said. According to police, following a complaint by a person that his wife was verbally abused, police last evening summoned a resident for questioning and he came to the station along with three others. "The residents argued with police and suddenly absconded while one of them who was in drunken condition was shifted to a hospital," police said. Around 10 to 15 members of his family rushed to the station accusing the police of thrashing their kin and initially hurled stones at the police station. In the melee, a stone fell on a woman and following this another group of 15 people assembled and attacked the police personnel resulting in injuries to them, a senior police official said. A video of the incident has gone viral. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A crucial bill to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes was passed unanimously by the Lok Sabha today with over two-third majority. The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, superseding the amendments by the Rajya Sabha, with all 406 present voting in favour after an almost five-hour debate in which more than 30 members participated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present during the voting, congratulated Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot for successfully piloting the bill. During the debate on the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, several members demanded a census to ascertain the population of other backward classes (OBCs) while some others pressed for making public the socio-economic survey of 2014. Over two-thirds majority voted in favour of the bill, which is a necessity for amending the Constitution. The amendments moved by BJD's Bhratruhari Mahtab were however rejected by 302 voting against it and 84 in favour. Replying to the debate, Gehlot said the government was committed to the upliftment of the downtrodden and backward classes of the society. He said the Union Cabinet had yesterday decided to amend the SC/ST Act to further strengthen the law to protect their rights. Citing various other measures taken by the government in this regard, he said a committee under Justice G Rohini has been set up to examine sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes. After the Lok Sabha had on April 10 last year passed the legislation, it was then sent to the Rajya Sabha. On July 31 last year, the Upper House passed the bill after incorporating certain amendments moved by the Opposition and returned it to the Lok Sabha for ratification of the amendments. The bill provides for grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) on par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. It states that the President may specify the socially and educationally backward classes in the various states and union territories. He may do this in consultation with the Governor of the concerned state. The duties of the NCBC include investigating and monitoring how safeguards provided to the backward classes under the Constitution and other laws are being implemented and probe specific complaints regarding violation of rights. Under this measure, the NCBC will have the powers of a civil court while probing any complaint. Participating in the debate, Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) supported the measure and said the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes should be apppoinred from OBC category. "The Commission should function in true spirit for betterment of OBCs who deserve help and assistance," he said, adding that the number of scholarships given to OBC students had gone down in the recent times and should be increased. Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) said initially when the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government with its "brute majority" trampled all the amendments moved by the opposition. But in the Rajya Sabha, the government had to accept the amendments and hence the Bill has come up for discussion again in the Lok Sabha. He said the government has accepted two of the amendments moved by him, including appointing one woman member in the NCBC and giving power to state governments to frame policies for betterment of the OBCs. Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena) asked the Centre to intervene in the Maratha quota stir in Maharashtra, saying the state government, even after giving assurance, had not acted on its promise. Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu (TDP) said even after 70 years of independence, "we still don't have idea of how much is OBC population in the country." He also demanded that caste based census should be done right now. "Unless you can fill 27 per cent posts of OBCs in jobs, creamy layer among the OBCs should not be excluded from taking benefit of reservation," the TDP MP said while asking the government to establish a separate ministry for OBC welfare. Nityanand Rai (BJP) lamented that while 27 per cent seats in government jobs was reserved for OBCs, "we are still not able to fill more than 11 per cent posts reserved for OBCs." K Geeta (YSR Congress) said those belonging to creamy layers in OBC community were a hurdle to their own community. Prahlad Singh Patel (BJP) wondered when we are not able to fill 27 per cent post reserved for OBCs, "why are we talking about creamy layer." Dharmendra Yadav (Samajwadi Party) questioned the number of people from the OBC communities appointed as chief ministers and governors by the BJP. He also raised questions about the low number of bureaucrats from SC/ST communities in higher ranks of bureucracy. Madhukar Kukde (NCP) demanded that the creamy layer cap for OBC reservation should be done away with. He said the Patidars in Gujarat, Marathas in Maharashtra and Jats in north India should be given reservation without hurting the existing system. Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav (RJD) also said that no one should be added to the existing list of 27 per cent OBC quota, while Prem Singh Chandumajra (Shiromani Akali Dal) termed the legislation as historic. Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal), Minister for State in the Health and Famil Welfare Ministry, slammed the opposition for stalling the bill in the Rajya Sabha, while Dushyant Chautala (INLD) welcomed the legislation, but added that the government has no data on castes. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court today suspended the sentence awarded by a lower court to a former DMK MLA and his family in a disproportionate assets case and granted them bail. In June, A Marimuthu, his wife Thulasiammal and son Prakash were sentenced to four years' rigourous imprisonment by a Special Court in Villupuram under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The trio then filed an appeal before the high court seeking suspension of sentence. The plea came up before Justice G Jayachandran who granted them bail and directed each of them to execute a bond for Rs 5 lakh and two sureties of the same amount. Jayachandran also ordered Marimuthu and his family to appear before the trial court on the first working day of every month until further orders. According to the prosecution, Marimuthu acquired assets worth Rs 12.66 lakh, disproportionate to his known sources of income, during his tenure as MLA between 1996-2001. Marimuthu and Thulasiammal were lodged in the central jail at Cuddalore, while Prakash was lodged in the Vellore jail. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar today said the government has given a special package of Rs 22,122 crore for drought-hit Vidarbha, Marathwada and north Maharashtra regions and asked officials to implement schemes under it in a time-bound manner. He asked officials to conduct meetings, including with people's representatives, in these three regions and review the implementation of the package every 20 days. "There will be no shortage of funds for implementing schemes in the special package that will be made available during the winter session," he said. The minister added that initial funding, if needed, will be provided from the contingency fund. "For the implementation of the schemes announced in this package, the departments should give a time-bound programme by August 15," Mungantiwar said. He asked officials to fix the date of inauguration of the schemes in the advance and then work towards achieving it. "For successful implementation of the schemes, micro planning should be done with complete study and information related to the latest technology in the field should be taken," he said. He called for early submission of proposals, to be implemented as part of the scheme, to the state cabinet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With an aim to boost the income of farmers, the Maharashtra government is considering a proposal to provide livestock and ponds for fish farming to them as per demand. The proposal was discussed at a meeting of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, here yesterday. The department will place the draft proposal to this effect before the state cabinet soon. The livestock scheme ('Pashu Dhan Yojana') will ensure that farmers are provided poultry, goats and milch animals on demand. The scheme to provide livestock on demand would be implemented at the village level, an official said. Similarly, ponds for fish farming on demand ('Magel Tyala Matysa Tale') scheme will be taken up under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA). "Fish seeds and feed will be provided by the Fisheries Department," a source in the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department told PTI. When implemented, these schemes will help the state save Rs 4.5 crore on a daily basis. "We get milk from Gujarat, eggs from Telangana and fish seeds from West Bengal," he said. In spite of the milk production being in excess, Gujarat's Amul is a big brand and is sold well here. "We are planning to develop the state's own milk brand 'Aarey' and 'Mahananda' by ensuring that they are used in all the nutritious food provided at anganwadis for children, pregnant women," he said. During the meeting yesterday, Fadnavis asked the department to effectively implement various schemes for doubling the income of the farmers. He said the central and state government schemes to increase the production of milk, eggs should be implemented so that the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022 is achieved. The chief minister said the establishment of animal rearing companies should be encouraged at the tehsil level for ensuring employment to the youth. Annasaheb Patil Financial Development Corporation should provide financial assistance to such youth, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today claimed that members of the TMC delegation, including women, who went to Silchar today amid the Assam-NRC issue, were manhandled at the airport there and accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country. The BJP was exposed by this incident, she said and sought to know under which law was the TMC delegation stopped at the Silchar airport. Arriving here from Delhi, where she met a number of opposition leaders, Banerjee told reporters that when she met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the NRC issue he had assured her that no one would be harassed. "But the TMC delegates have not been allowed to go out of the (Silchar) airport. They have been manhandled. Even women members have not been spared," she claimed. "There is super emergency in the country. The BJP is politically exposed. They (BJP) are showing muscle power. They are suppressing facts. If there is peace (in Assam), why did they impose prohibitory order? The people of Assam are in panic," the West Bengal Chief Minister said. Banerjee said that the TMC leaders had gone to Assam to meet the common people because the names of 40 lakh residents were not in the NRC final draft which was published on July 30. BJP leaders had gone to Asansol in April after communal tension there over Ramnavami procession disregarding prohibitory order clamped in the area. "But we (WB government) had allowed them. We had shown courtesy," she said. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, TMC MP and a member of the team claimed that the police stopped them at the airport saying that their visit might create trouble and manhandled them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Condemning West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "civil war" remark over publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh today alleged that she was trying to create unrest in both the states. Banerjee was "unnecessarily instigating" the people of Assam and Bengal, who, otherwise, have been living in peace, he claimed. A day after the complete draft of NRC was released in Assam, Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress chief, said the list could lead to "bloodbath" and "civil war-like situation" in the country. The draft, released on July 30, included the names of 2.89 crore people out of the 3.29 applicants. Over 40 lakh applicants did not make it to the citizenship register. The CM today sent a TMC delegation to assess the situation in Assam's Cachar district in the wake of NRC publication, but the authorities there stopped the team from leaving the Silchar airport, citing prohibitory orders, under Sec 144 CrPc, in the region. Ghosh said the Trinamool Congress politicised the NRC issue by sending the TMC delegation to Assam. "She (Mamata) sent delegation of her party leaders in an attempt to create unrest in Assam. We deplore this move and have duly informed the Governor about it," he told reporters outside Raj Bhavan. The Centre had already tabled a bill in Parliament to provide to citizenship to minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, but there, too, the TMC, along with the Congress and the CPI(M), prevented BJP president Amit Shah from speaking on the issue, Ghosh stated. Talking about the TMC allegations of maltreatment at Silchar airport today, the state BJP president said, "The footage from the airport shows that no one was mistreated. Mostly female police officers, deployed at the airport, were seen stopping the members from entering the state." The ruling party members were trying to malign the Assam government for no reason, Ghosh said "Not a single stone has been hurled in Assam and no one was rendered homeless, contrary to the reports by a section of media," he told reporters. Alleging that members of the delegation also resorted to "theatrics", he said, "Some of them were seen playing kabaddi with police. The TMC team should be served tea at the airport and deported back to Kolkata at the earliest." Asked if the phones of TMC MPs were confiscated by police at Silchar, Ghosh said the footage aired by TV channels in Bengal was made available by the delegation members. "They (TMC members) are sending footage from the airport to the TV channels. This shows their phones have not been seized," he explained. Ghosh also recalled that BJP delegations, led by MPs and MLAs, were prevented from visiting Basirhat, Baduriar and Dhulagarh areas after violence broke out in those areas. "The TMC is talking about threats to democracy even when they had prevented us from visiting riot-hit areas in Bengal," he said. Claiming the "mask of TMC" had come off, Ghosh said, the party's movements in Delhi and Assam have revealed "their true colour". Talking about the errors that slipped into the NRC draft, the BJP state president said there was always scope for rectification. "There can be some mistakes in preparing a list of this magnitude. The Assam government had sent names of 1,20,000 people to the West Bengal government for verification, but the ruling dispensation could provide inputs for only 15,000 Bengalis," he claimed. Ghosh also asserted that one crore Bangladeshi infiltrators were currently residing in West Bengal, which shares 2217-km-long border with Bangladesh and 262-km border with Assam. "These infiltrators are rupturing the social fabric of the state and eating into the employment opportunities of Bengal youths," he said. Asked if an NRC exercise would begin in West Bengal, Ghosh said, "We are not taking any initiative immediately. We will undertake it at an appropriate time." Earlier in the day, the state BJP took out a rally in the city, led by senior leader Locket Chatterjee, demanding deportation of illegal Bangladeshis. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man had to carry the body of his sister-in-law on a bicycle for her funeral in Odisha's Boudh district as reportedly no one came forward to help him. The incident took place at Krushnapali village yesterday where 60-year-old Chaturbhuja Banka tied the mortal remains of his sister-in-law Pancha Mahakud (40) to the crossbar of his bicycle and pushed it to the funeral ground, officials said today. They said Banka's wife and sister-in-law were admitted to a hospital in Boudh as they were down with severe diarrhoea. As his sister-in-law died yesterday, her body was taken to the village in an ambulance as per the state government's 'Mahaprayana scheme' which provides free hearse service from hospital to home only, they said. It was alleged that no villager came forward to help Banka arrange for the woman's last rites after the body reached the village, as he faced an "undeclared ostracisation" for marrying a second time to a woman of different caste. The officials, however, dismissed the charges. Some villagers claimed that Banka, a farm labourer, had snapped ties with his family members because of a property dispute. He failed to get cooperation from villagers due to some petty issues, they claimed. Though some locals took photographs of the incident and circulated them through mobile phones, nobody volunteered to help Banka, who also claimed that he was "ostracised" in the village. However, local village ward member Kailash Pradhan claimed that he along with some others had gone to Banka's house to arrange for the woman's last rites, but they wanted to wait for her children living away. Later, it was learnt that Banka had taken the body to the funeral ground on a cycle, he said. Block Development Officer (BDO) of Boudh, Nihar Ranjan Kanhar said the administration had no information of Banka having been ostracised in the village. A sum of Rs 10,000 has been given to Banka from the Red Cross for the treatment of his wife, he said. Sarpanch of Brahmanipali panchayat, Sushma Bagh said an amount of Rs 2,000 has been provided to the man for the cremation of his sister-in-law under 'Harischandra scheme'. The incident drew sharp reaction from opposition BJP with the state party unit chief Basanta Panda hitting out at the BJD government in the state accusing it of being "inefficient, inert and insensitive" to the poor. While the BJD government made tall claims about development and progress, the state was "witnessing evil practice of ostracisation," Panda claimed. The incident in Boudh was reminiscent of the tale of tribal man Dana Majhi, who walked 10 km carrying his wife's body on shoulder from a hospital to his village in Kalahandi district three years ago after being unable to get a hearse, the BJP leader said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man was electrocuted to death while repairing an air-condition at a mall in south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar, police said today. The deceased was identified as Sarwar Ali, a resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, they said. He was rushed to Safdarjang Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The body was sent for post-mortem, the officer said, adding that a case of negligence has been registered. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Enraged because she refused to talk to him, a 22-year-old man allegedly killed a minor girl at Tilgavan village in the district, police today said. Amit Burman (22), the accused, was allegedly in a relationship with the 16-year-old victim. Last night the girl, who lived on the outskirts of the village with her family, refused to talk to him on phone, police said. He then called the girl's sister and asked her to persuade the girl to speak to him, but the girl did not budge. Angered, Burman went to her house, said Rajaram Dube, Panagar police station in-charge. He first attacked the girl's sister, following which she and two other sisters of the victim ran out alongwith their mother to save themselves, the police officer said. The accused then allegedly stabbed and strangulated the 16-year-old girl, Dube said. The victim's father was not at home at the time of the incident. After being alerted about the incident, police rushed to the village and arrested Burman. A case of murder was registered against him, the police officer said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has poured cold water on Kalonzo Musyokas attempts to reconcile the noisy and messy divorce between its party leader Raila Odinga and Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetangula. According to ODM Chairman John Mbadi, there is no dispute between the two leaders and their parties, and so, the attempt by Kalonzo to solve any issue does not arise. Mbadi was speaking hours after a meeting between the Wiper Party leader and the Bugoma Senator at the new Wiper offices in Karen, Nairobi on Tuesday. Following the meeting, Wiper party said Musyoka promised to continue to be the glue holding together the coalition and that he will spare no effort to keep his brothers in good talking terms for the prosperity and peace of the nation. Kalonzo added: The NASA family will remain united. As Wetangula noted, we remain committed and connected. But ODM Chairman rubbished Kalonzos assertions saying, There is nothing like reconciling. You are reconciling who and who? I do not see any issue here and, since we have not registered any dispute between us and Ford-Kenya, what then? posed Mbadi. He added: All we did was that we asked Mr Wetangula to behave. It is him who made the unfortunate remarks about us. However, ODM director of political affairs Opiyo Wandayi expressed optimism over Kalonzos meeting with Weta. Wandayi, who is also the Ugunja MP, said: Any move by Mr Wetangula to retrace his steps is welcome. Nasa is a movement and it has got enough room for everybody. Nobody chased away anybody and anybody is free to make amends. Alleging that floods in West Bengal were man-made, independent member Ritabrata Banerjee today demanded that the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) should consult the state government before releasing excess river water. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Banerjee said DVC was releasing excess water every year resulting in severe floods in West Bengal. Excess water is released as several barrages under DVC have not been cleared or dredged. The state government has been raising this issue from time to time but no action has been taken, he said. Last year, two lakh cusecs of water was released that caused flood in more than 106 blocks. "DVC needs to sit with the state government on an immediate basis on the issue of releasing water. No water should be released without consultation with the state, he said. "Man-made flood is happening. This needs to be stopped. State should be taken on board," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Following the publication of the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the Manipur government has constituted two committees to deal with a possible influx of illegal immigrants, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said. He said the State Level Monitoring Committee will monitor the entry or presence of illegal immigrants in the state and take steps for creating adequate public awareness to counter the situation. He told reporters at the Secretariat today that the government has been taking preparations before the NRC updation process began and have deployed additional security in Jiribam district with regular patrolling along the Barak and Jiri Rivers as well. On the committees set up today, he said they will initiate steps for checking and verification and invite representatives from civil bodies to participate in the proceedings. The State Level Monitoring Committee will have Special Secretary (Home) as the Chairman with all the Deputy Commissioners and SPs as its members. The second is the District Level Monitoring Committee with respective deputy commissioners as its chairman. Meanwhile, following intelligence inputs that some people are trying to enter the state by air, a police check post has been set up at Imphal airport. The chief minister further said that 20 personnel have been permanently posted near a place in Tamenglong district bordering Assam where there is a rail head. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice-Chancellor of Manipur University Prof A P Pandey has proceeded on leave for a month starting from today, officials said. Students of the university are on strike for more than two months demanding the VC's resignation and an independent probe against him. The Union HRD Ministry has approved the VC's leave, they said, adding that "the state government feared a law and order situation and hence recommended the Union HRD Ministry to send Pandey on leave." "Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh today urged the university students, teachers and staff to call off their strike. The chief minister appreciated the Union HRD Ministry's decision to send the VC on leave. Singh said as per regulations of the Central University, the senior most professor will now take charge as the officiating VC. "Being a Central University, the state government could not intervene directly on the matter, and hence the delay," the chief minister told reporters here. The University Grants Commission last month had formed a panel to probe the allegations of administrative negligence and misutilisation of funds by Pandey. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra government has asked for Central security forces to face a new round of agitation for Maratha quota from August 9, a senior official said here today. The agitation witnessed violence in many parts of the state last week. Maratha Kranti Morcha, the umbrella organisation of the agitators, seeking reservation in jobs and education, had said it would start a new round of protests all over the state from August 9. A senior Home Department official said there were intelligence inputs that there could be fresh violence. "We have reserve police force, but it would not be sufficient if there are simultaneous protests in different places," the official told PTI on condition of anonymity. We have written to the Centre that we would need additional forces to counter any untoward situation," he said. There were incidents of stone-pelting and arson in many parts of the state as Maratha agitators took to the streets last week. Four police officials were injured in stone pelting and over sixty vehicles were damaged during a protest at Chakan near Pune on July 30. Earlier, a bandh called by Maratha outfits in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region had brought the city to a halt, while there were violent protests in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who today met prominent members of the community, said his government was committed to provide reservation to the Marathas in such a way that it stands scrutiny in the courts. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three persons were arrested today in Goa for their alleged involvement in the violence during the Maratha reservation agitation on July 25 in Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra, police said. The Maratha reservation stir in Navi Mumbai had turned violent on July 25 and it also led to the death of a 21-year-old man, Rohan Todkar, who was allegedly assaulted by a mob on that day. Todkar succumbed to his injuries in state-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai's Byculla area on July 27. A murder case was registered in this connection at Kopar Khairane police station and the probe was later transferred to Navi Mumbai Crime Branch. Bhushan Bhagwan Agaskar, Ashish Kale and Chandrashekar Vishwanath Patil were arrested in the morning today from a village near Calangute beach after Navi Mumbai police intimated their Goa counterparts and also passed on photographs of the accused, a Calangute police official said. Calangute police inspector Jivba Dalvi said that the three were wanted by Navi Mumbai police for offences including murder, hurting using dangerous weapons, unlawful assembly and rioting. "They were arrested in the morning today after we received inputs from Navi Mumbai police that the three, accused of committing offences during the Maratha reservation agitation in Kopar Khairane there, were possibly hiding in Goa," Dalvi informed. He said that the three had got wind of police action against them and had escaped from the hotel where they were hiding. "However, one of them was nabbed from Calangute beach and two others were also apprehended a little while later," Dalvi said. "Navi Mumbai police arrived here this morning and took custody of the three accused and left for Maharashtra," Dalvi added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Unidentified militants today snatched a rifle from a bank guard in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. The militants appeared at the Jammu and Kashmir Bank's branch at Brakpora in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, they said. A police official said the ultras took away a 12 Bore rifle from the guard. There are no reports of cash loot, the official said, adding a police party has reached the spot. Further details are awaited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 14-year-old school student was allegedly abducted and gang raped by a group of youths, including her relatives, at Ajnala town, police said today. According to a complaint filed by the victim's parents yesterday, the minor girl was abducted on July 27, they said. The victim was reportedly abducted by one Raman, his brother Rubi (both distant relatives of the victim), Sukhdev Singh and Randeep Singh, police said. The incident took place when the girl was returning home from school, they said. She was taken to an isolated place by the accused and gang raped, police said. An FIR has been registered in the case, they said, adding efforts were on to trace the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked the Ministry of External Affairs to raise "objections" against "improper depiction" of Jammu and Kashmir in the Tom Cruise-starrer "Mission: Impossible - Fallout", officials said. In a letter to the MEA, the I&B ministry said while it has been ensured that the Indian version of the film does not "violate the sovereignty and integrity of the country, it is apprehended that there is a possibility that the misrepresentation of an integral part of India might still be exhibited in the global version of the film". Indian version of the Christopher McQuarrie-directed Hollywood movie, which was released in India on July 27, had four cuts/modifications made by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), including removal of the term 'India-controlled Kashmir'. Further, the CBFC had also directed the film maker to remove the maps misrepresenting the boundaries of the J-K from the film. The I&B ministry has asked the MEA to raise "objections against the improper depiction of the J-K", officials said. While the I&B Ministry letter did not specifically mention with whom it wants the MEA to raise the 'objections', the External Affairs Ministry generally takes up matters with the concerned countries. In this case, the film has been produced in the US, while the parent firm of one of the producers is based in the Netherlands. Censor board chief Prasoon Joshi had said last week that "Kashmir" references from the move were asked to be "rectified or removed" as the integrity of India's borders is "non-negotiable". After the screening of the movie before its examining committee (EC), the CBFC had written to the I&B ministry that the EC noticed that the state had been "improperly depicted" in the dialogue and maps shown in the film. The CBFC also urged the I&B ministry to take up the matter with "appropriate authorities" regarding the global version of the movie, prompting the ministry to write to the MEA seeking action over the issue, officials said. Responding to the I&B ministry's letter of July 26, the MEA sought details of the company which produced the film and the country in which it is registered, the officials said, adding that the details have been submitted today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) today warned of fresh wave of protests on August 9 across Maharashtra if the state government fails to grant reservation to the community by August 7. "All we want is quota in education and government jobs," said MKM leader Abasaheb Patil who held a sit-in protest in Parli town in Beed district, 370 kms from here. He said there is nothing left now that need to be discussed with the government on the issue. The MKM is the umbrella body of Maratha groups demanding 16 per cent reservation under the OBC category. "If the state government fails to grant us reservation by August 7, then a massive agitation will be held across the state," he said. He said the Maratha youth has lost trust in the government, as it is dragging its feet on implementing the reservation. The police had detained at least 3000 youths from the Maratha community for holding violent protests last week, of whom around 500 youths are facing serious criminal charges such as attempt murder. "Despite assurance from the chief minister, no police station has started withdrawing the cases against the youths," claimed Vinod Pokharkar, another leader of the Maratha community. Fadnavis today reiterated that the government is committed to grant quota to the Maratha community that can stand legal scrutiny. The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission is currently conducting a survey to assess socio-economic backwardness of the Maratha community. The state government had announced that it will convene a special session of the legislature to discuss the quota demand, after the panel submits its report. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Supreme Court today disqualified a leader of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party from holding a public office for five years on charges of contempt for making anti-judiciary remarks. Tallal Chaudry of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was found guilty by the three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmad. The court had initiated contempt proceedings against Chaudry for "derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements" related to the court, according to a notification issued on February 2. The court also slapped a fined of Rs0.1 million on him. Following the conviction, Chaudry, who lost the July 25 General Election from Faisalabad's NA-102 constituency, will be disqualified from holding public office for five years. He can file a review petition against the judgment. Chaudry is the second PML-N leader convicted for contempt of court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities has said as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State. "Whatever resources are needed, we're putting them there," Gov. Jerry Brown said at a conference yesterday. "We're being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We're in uncharted territory." Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least USD 125 million, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said. Cal Fire said another 440 buildings, including barns and warehouses, have also been destroyed by the fire, which is now the sixth most destructive in California history. The huge Redding-area blaze, which started July 23, forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. It has scorched 180 square miles (470 square kilometers) and is 35 per cent contained. North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near the Mendocino National Forest, officials said. To the east, another blaze on Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 4 square kilometers in a few hours. The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder, said Scott McLean of CalFire. "It just goes on and on," McLean said. "We had this rain at the beginning of the year and all that did was promote the growing of grass and brush," McLean said. "It's a Catch-22. It's growing more product to catch on fire." He said the state really never left its drought status and several years of significant rainfall are needed to bring the state back. McLean also had a warning for people visiting rural and wilderness areas. "Pay attention," he said. "Don't park the car on dry grass ... no campfires, no flame. It doesn't take anything to start a fire right now." The new fire near Covelo was only about 64 kilometer north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed 10 homes and threatened 12,000 more. The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Containment grew overnight to 24 per cent. Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother's memorabilia-filled Lake County home. Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother's new home as another wildfire advanced. "Honestly, what I'm thinking right now is I just want this to end," Lytle said, adding that she was "exhausted in every way possible physically, emotionally, all of that." Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, were evacuated on Saturday from their Lakeport home. "I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car," said Lew, 45. "I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars." Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert. "It's like three a year," he said. "It's kind of crazy." In Shasta County's Carr Fire, authorities said yesterday all those reported missing had been located. A relative identified the latest known fatal victim as Daniel Bush, 62. Bush had returned to his mobile home in the community of Keswick last Tuesday after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, but he was unable to drive and would have needed help to evacuate when the fire came through the neighbourhood on Thursday, his sister, Kathi Gaston, told the Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding. Gaston said her brother had wanted to stay in his own home, but he had spotty cell service and, with the power out, he might not have gotten word of the fire. Gaston said she could not get to her brother's house because, with the fire approaching, sheriff's deputies had blocked the roads and then she herself had to evacuate. "If we'd been able to go in when we wanted to, he'd be alive right now," she said. National Park Service officials said on Tuesday that the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed at least through Sunday due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began July 25. It was the longest closure at Yosemite since 1997, when floods closed the park for over two months. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) As many as 3,600 persons had received timely medical help due to the motorcycle ambulances operating in Mumbai, Melghat and Palghar in the state, Health Minister Deepak Sawant said today. There are 20 such ambulances operating in Mumbai and five each in Palghar and Melghat, the minister informed. Sawant said that of the 3.600 people who got treatment due to these motorcycle ambulances in the past one year, 390 were accident victims, 42 were pregnant women and 2,700 got medical help for emergencies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Whatsapp group administrator was among three persons arrested today for allegedly spreading rumours about a non-existing crime in Singrauli district, police said. The main accused is identified as Surendra Dwivedi who is the 'admin' of the Whatsapp group: "Evil of Urjanchal", police said. Dwivedi allegedly posted a message that villagers in Khutar village, about 15 kms from the district headquarters, had chopped off the private parts of a man after he was found in an objectionable position with a woman, a police official said. He said no such incident had ever occurred in the village. "Two of the group members, identified as Gulam Raza and Rajesh Dwivedi, allegedly forwarded Dwivedi's post on July 30," said Kotwali police station in-charge Manish Tripathi. The trio were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act, he said. Last month, a woman was allegedly lynched by a mob in Bhosh village near Singrauli on suspicion that she was a child-lifter, police had said. According to police, the crime occurred amid rumours on the social media that some child-lifters were on the prowl in rural areas of the district. Police had launched a campaign in the wake of the lynching incident to identify the people behind circulation of false messages in the district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The city police today advised people against taking up the 'Kiki dance challenge' saying it poses a threat to their safety. In a tweet posted today, Mumbai police said, "We love your safety and can't leave it to be decided by Kiki!" The police used hash tags #GetInToTheCar #kikiChallenge #InMySafetyFeelings to drive home the message. Kiki is an internet challenge thrown by Canadian rapper Drake, which involves jumping out of a moving car and dancing alongside it to his song 'In My Feelings'. The city police also displayed similar messages on the digital boards installed in the city. "Kiki is bored of her own challenge. Stop it! #GetIntoTheCar," the message read. On July 26, the Mumbai police had warned the people about the trend. "Not just a risk for you but your act can put life of others at risk too. Desist from public nuisance or face the music!" the police had said on Twitter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A member of a gang, allegedly wanted in a murder case since 2014, has been arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district, police said today. Acting on a tip-off, Rahish was nabbed in a joint operation by the police and a SWAT team after a brief encounter in Shergarh area last night, said Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Babloo Kumar. The accused was an active member of gang, which allegedly killed four members of a rival gang's family in April 2014. An FIR was filed against 11 people, nine of whom had been awarded life imprisonment, the SSP said. Rahish was evading arrest since the incident, he said, adding that the last accused in the murder case would be arrested shortly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray collected the biggest victory of his injury comeback at the ATP and WTA Washington Open while defending champion Alexander Zverev booked a matchup with his older brother. Murray, sidelined by a right hip injury for 11 months until returning in June, ousted fourth seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-4 in an all-British matchup to reach the third round of the hardcourt tuneup for the US Open. "That has been my best win since I started playing again," Murray said. "It's a great win for me. It'll give me more confidence going forward." World number three Zverev defeated Tunisia's Malek Jaziri 6-2, 6-1, to send the 21-year-old German top seed into his first ATP match against 30-year-old Mischa Zverev, the 15th seed who beat American Tim Smyczek 6-2, 7-6 (9/7). "We played the final of Wimbledon a lot of times in our backyard," Alex Zverev said. "I was 12. He was 22. I don't think I ever won. But this is on hardcourt." On a day when reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens was ousted by Germany's Andrea Petkovic and Australian Nick Kyrgios withdrew with a sore left hip, Murray stole the show with an impressive victory. "Hopefully my body will adapt to the matches and get back to what it's supposed to be doing," Murray said. "As the weeks progress, I hope to have more days like today where the pressure and the expectations all grow." Former world number one Murray, now ranked 832nd, outlasted his 18th-ranked rival, breaking on a forehand return winner to advance after two hours and 32 minutes. "Now I have to get my body to play that way consistently and work on getting better with every match," Murray said. The 31-year-old Scotsman, who unleashed a primal scream and flurry of fist pumps after winning his opener, wiped away sweat this time before eventually pointing to the heavens, punching the air with his right fist and pumping his fist with satisfaction. "Much better in terms of the way I played," Murray said. "Got a lot more points off my forehand. I was able to be more aggressive. I wanted to dictate more points and be inside the baseline, especially on the main points and particularly in the third set. "I was less nervous. I increased my intensity at the end of the second set. I thought I did that well." Romania's 93rd-ranked Marius Copil, who ousted French 14th seed Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4, will face Murray on Thursday for a quarter-final berth. - No. 3 Stephens stumbles - =========================== Third-ranked Stephens lost to 91st-rated Andrea Petkovic 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Stephens, who won the Miami Open in March, made a run to the French Open semi-finals but stumbled early in her first hardcourt stop before defending her first Grand Slam title. "Hopefully some things will connect in the next few weeks coming into the US Open," Stephens said. Petkovic, down a set and a break, rallied and won the final four games to reach the quarter-finals, her first victory over a top-10 foe since beating then-number five Garbine Muguruza at Doha in 2016. "It's definitely a confidence boost," Petkovic said. Japanese third seed Naomi Osaka, ranked 17th, is the only top-45 player remaining in the women's draw. - Injured Kyrgios 'gutted' - ============================ Kyrgios, ranked 17th, tweeted he was "gutted" to withdraw over the same injury that caused him to retire from an Atlanta Open quarter-final last week. "I haven't had enough time to be ready," Kyrgios said. "The physio recommended a couple of days of rest, rehab and treatment. I've got ample time for it to settle down before Toronto. "It's disappointing. But at this stage I can't risk aggravating the injury. Last year I wasn't healthy at the US Open so I want to be right for that." Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori beat US qualifier Donald Young 6-3, 6-4 just before rain washed out the night's final five matches, including US second seed John Isner's second-rounder against compatriot Noah Rubin. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A bandh call given by several outfits in 13 districts of north Karnataka today, demanding statehood for the region, failed to elicit any response. Normal life was reported in all the districts with schools, colleges, commercial establishments and government offices functioning as usual, as also public transport, officials said. Confusion persisted since last evening as 'Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti' (North Karnataka Separate Statehood Protest Committee) had withdrawn the bandh call after their meeting with chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. However, some other outfits, including the local Raitha Sangha (farmers union) that had supported the bandh call, decided to go ahead with the shutdown. Various organizations from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, the six districts in the north-east of Karnataka, had also opposed the statehood demand. Life was normal in almost all parts of the north Karnataka region, but symbolic protests were held in all the districts, following which memorandums were submitted to Tahsildars or district administration, officials said. The bandh was called by the outfits which alleged discrimination by successive governments towards the region. Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti also alleged discrimination in allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5, and inadequate representation in the cabinet. The Samiti representatives had on Tuesday met Kumaraswamy, who sought to mollify them by expressing his government's strong commitment for the region's development. Kumaraswamy had said the state government was mulling shifting certain government offices to 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha' at Belagavi, in an attempt to address alleged discrimination. The bandh call had alsoresulted in political slugfest between Congress-JD(S) rulingcoalition and opposition BJP, with each blaming the other for instigating "separatist sentiments." Reacting to the bandh, deputy chief minister GParameshwara said it was not successful as it lacked public support. He urged political parties, including the BJP, not to use such issues for political reasons. Parameshwara said all governments in the past, in theirown way, have worked for the development of north Karnataka and added that the present dispensation was "committed" to the region's development. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The naval version of the indigenously built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft on Thursday underwent a series of successful tests to check its capability to land on an aircraft carrier, officials said. "India has joined a select club of countries including US, Europe, and to have the capability to produce aircraft which can operate from an aircraft carrier," an official said. He said a series of tests including "taxi-ins" of the jet was carried out on a naval platform in Goa, in a significant milestone for development of the naval version of the jet. The official said a series of further tests to check landing and refuelling of the aircraft will be carried out in the next few months. Tejas is a four-and-half generation light combat aircraft developed by state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Initially, the Indian Air Force placed an order with the HAL for 40 Tejas aircraft. In December last year, the IAF began the process to procure another batch of 83 Tejas aircraft at a cost of over Rs 500 billion. About today's tests, the offical said the LCA naval prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Capt Shivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of the "arrestor hook system" at moderate taxi-in speeds at a shore based test facility in Goa. "This is the first of a series of engagement planned at proving the arrestor hook capability," said Chief Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd T Suvarna Raju. The exercise was monitored closely by the Landing Signal Officer commodre J A Maolankar and Test director Group Capt A Kabadwal (Retd), the Bengaluru-based HAL said in a release. HAL said its design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre, has designed and developed the arrestor hooksystem for ship deck operations of LCA's Naval version. The aircraft had been operating at INS Hansa Goa since July 28 after verification of the in-air operation of the system here earlier this month, the release said. Teams of HAL, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), Regional Director Aeronautical Quality Assurance (RDAQA), Navy and Flight Test Centre (NFTC) have worked synergistically to achieve this "flawless result", the release added Another official said detailed carrier compatibility trials (CCT) of naval aircraft are slated to be carried out at shore based test facility soon. Deepak Mankar, a Nationalist Congress Party corporator who is accused of abetting the suicide of a real estate broker in the city, has surrendered before the police. Besides the charge of abetment of suicide under the IPC, Mankar has also been booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Mankar surrendered before police yesterday after the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail application on July 24. A court here remanded him in police custody till August 6. The police lodged a case against Mankar and six others for allegedly abetting the suicide of real estate broker Jitendra Jagtap who jumped in front of a moving train last month. A suicide note purportedly written by Jagtap blamed Mankar and others for his decision to end the life. According to the FIR lodged by Jagtap's son, Mankar along with a builder was putting pressure on Jagtap to give up a plot of land in Rasta Peth area. Mankar in his anticipatory bail plea claimed that he and the builder were the legal owners of the land. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Streaming giant Netflix has bought the film rights of George Orwell's 1945 novel "Animal Farm" and is developing the project with actor-director Andy Serkis. The announcement comes days after the streaming giant acquired Serkis' adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book", titled "Mowgli", from Warner Bros. The new project will be helmed by Serkis, who had expressed interest in developing it in 2012, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The adaptation will be produced by the actor's The Imaginarium studio and director Matt Reeves' production company 6th & Idaho. The duo previously worked together on "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and "War for the Planet of the Apes", which were directed by Reeves and featured Serkis in his performance capture role as Caesar. Orwell's novel is an allegory for Stalinist Russia in which animals rebel against the humans who own their farm and adopt the rule of equality for all. Rafi Crohn, Adam Kassan and Jonathan Cavendish will also serve as the producers on the project. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will begin a 10-day vacation in London from Friday, his office said, without disclosing whether he will also see his doctor there. "While the president is on vacation, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo will be in acting capacity. President Buhari will be in London for the holiday," presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said in a statement. He said the parliament had been notified about the president's trip, his latest of several to the British capital in recent months. In May, the Nigerian leader was in London for three days for medical reasons, having spent some five months last year receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. The development is bound to stir fresh doubts about the health of the 75-year-old retired general and his ability to campaign for re-election at polls scheduled for February. Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has always insisted Buhari is unwell and unfit to govern, but his aides have dismissed the claims. The health of the president is a sensitive issue in Nigeria following the death in office in 2010 of then president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, which followed months of treatment abroad and sparked political turmoil. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The is preparing a strategy document to define clear objectives for 2022-23 in diverse areas that are critical for India's transformation including poverty alleviation, the government said on Thursday. During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh said the draft 'Strategy for New India@75' document was in the process of being finalised. It is currently going through a wide-ranging consultative process with a range of stakeholders for seeking their comments and suggestions, Singh said. He said the purpose of the document was to define clear objectives in a diverse range of areas critical for India's transformation including poverty alleviation, to note the progress already made and challenges that remain and suggest the way forward. During the discussion, Congress leader sought to know what was the criteria to define poverty. The minister said deprivation was one criterion and the effort was to cater to the person standing last in the queue. Earlier as soon as the Question Hour began, Chairman said he would like to invite JD(U) member Kehkashan Perveen to chair proceedings. Naidu's decision was welcomed by members of the House who thumped their desks. Air India sought to reassure its passengers today that there are no bed bugs in its aircraft after carrying out an extensive fumigation exercise following complaint by some passengers last month. The state-run carrier came under fire in mid-July when business class passengers of Newark-Mumbai flights complained of bed bug crawling on the seats. Messages and disturbing pictures of bed bug bites posted in social media had gone viral. "#AirIndia affirms that no bedbugs were found after thorough checking of seats, laundry facilities & fumigation of aircrafts following bugbite complaints in some flts. "These unfortunate reports are the first of its kind in our legacy of flying generations of satisfied pax (sic)," it said in a late evening tweet. The latest tweet followed the airline's statement last week which maintained that the incidents of bed bugs reported by passengers in international flights were "isolated" ones even as it had taken a "serious" view of the complaints and carried out an extensive service of the aircraft, including fumigation. On July 17, one of the passengers of the Newark-Mumbai flight described his ordeal and the unpleasant experience his family had to go through in the 17-hour long journey. On July 20, another passenger Saumya Shetty posted a picture on Twitter of her hand covered in bite marks. "The engineering team carried out a thorough fumigation exercise and there were no bugs found after that," an airline official said today. Sources denied reports of bed bugs spotted by passengers in an international flight this week. In its statement issued on July 24, Air India had said, "Experienced experts have carried out extensive service on the aircraft from fumigation to overhaul of the upholstery/seat covers/carpets etc to ensure that passengers keep enjoying their in-flight experience with us as always without any complaint of inconvenience. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara today said no foreigner would be allowed to stay in the state without proper documentation. Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha, he said action would be taken against those staying illegally. Parameshwara was responding to a query on the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Karnataka, in the context of publication of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. "Police have already identified 123 foreigners of African origin and suitable action would follow soon. No foreigner, be it Bangladeshi or African, will be allowed to stay without proper documentation. We will deport them," he asserted. Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC was published in Guwahati earlier this week. In view of the demand for separate north Karnataka, Parameshwara set aside the claim of alleged injustice meted out to the northern part of the state. The state government was committed to the overall development of North Karnataka region, he added. Noting that the bandh called by several outfits in 13 districts of north Karnataka today was not successful as it lacked public support, Parameshwara said no political party should support such a move to divide the state. The bandh call has resulted in political slugfest between Congress-JD(S) ruling coalition and opposition BJP, with each blaming the other for instigating "separatist sentiments. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) All 1,100 units for disposal of hazardous waste in Delhi are operating without complying with the rules, the city government has told the National Green Tribunal which directed all states to set up Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities (TSDF) of adequate capacity at appropriate locations within three months. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked the Centre and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to monitor the compliance of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules by reviewing the need for action in all the states. "The CPCB may forthwith constitute a monitoring Committee for the purpose. It may appoint a Nodal Officer exclusively to oversee the compliance of the rules. "The Member Secretary CPCB may act as a nodal officer till a substitute is found. The action taken must be placed on the website of CPCB within three months.... Compliance report be filed before this tribunal on or before November 30, 2018, which will be treated as a separate application," the bench also comprising justices Jawad Rahim and S P Wangdi said. During the hearing, Haryana submitted a status report which said that there is only one CTSDF in Faridabad which has been authorised to process 50,000 MTA hazardous waste for processing as fuel in cement industries. Apart from the said facility, 108 units have been authorised to process recyclable hazardous waste. "The stand of the state of Uttar Pradesh is that 1,835 units are operating as on 13th September, 2017, and all the said units are complying with the rules. The state of Rajasthan submits that 35 units are violating the rules for which show cause notice had been issued, but no action has been taken as on September 21, 2017. "The stand of the NCT Delhi is that 1,100 units are operating as on 23rd March, 2018. All the 1,100 units are operating without complying with the rules while the state of Uttarakhand submits that directions have been issued for closure of five units and the other units were found to be compliant with the rules," the bench noted. On August 29, 2017, the green court had directed all the states to file a detailed response about the agencies authorised to collect, transport, dispose of the hazardous waste as per the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules. The tribunal had issued the order earlier expanding the scope of the petition filed by Ghaziabad resident Rajiv Narayan and others. It also included the issue of hazardous waste in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand and the NCT of Delhi. Narayan had alleged that rapid development of industries had resulted in acute air and water pollution which was causing severe health problems for the city's residents. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government said today that there has been no instance of installation of border pillars inside Indian territory by Myanmar nor has it taken over land in Manipur. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said both the countries were fully committed to the India-Myanmar Boundary Agreement, 1967, which establishes the international boundary between them. Responding to a question whether Myanmar authorities have installed border pillars three kms inside Indian territory in Manipur, he said, "There has been no instance of installation of border pillars inside Indian territory nor of taking over of Indian land in Manipur by the Myanmar authorities." India and Myanmar hold regular dialogue on issues related to routine boundary demarcation and border management through institutionalised mechanisms such as foreign office consultations, national-level meetings, joint boundary working group, sectoral-level meetings and heads of survey department meetings, he said. To another question on intrusions, Singh said there has been no instances of intrusions and incursions by the Myanmar Army in Indian territory. On another question, Singh said, "Work pertaining to construction of subsidiary pillars was undertaken during the survey work with the objective of apprising local residents on both sides of the border of the exact alignment of the international boundary. "This work is fully in consonance with the provisions of the India-Myanmar Boundary Agreement, 1967. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Chief of Army's Northern Command, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, visited the forward areas and the hinterland in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district today and reviewed the security situation along the border with Pakistan. He, accompanied by White Knight Corps Commander Lt Gen Saranjeet Singh, paid a visit to the Counter Insurgency Force Romeo at Maniyarwala to review its op-preparedness, a Defence spokesperson said here. The General Officer Commanding, Counter Insurgency Force Romeo, briefed the Army Commander on the prevailing security situation, he said. The Army Commander also visited forward posts where he was briefed in detail on actions being undertaken to ensure a robust counter-terrorist grid, the spokesperson said, adding that Lt Gen Ranbir Singh interacted with soldiers and exhorted them to remain vigilant. He also visited the Nagrota military station, where he was updated by the White Knight Corps Commander on the prevailing security situation and the arrangements made for Amarnath Yatra in view of the recent threats by the terrorist groups, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid high drama, a delegation sent by the Trinamool Congress to assess the situation in Assam post-NRC was stopped at the airport here today and the members taken under preventive detention later, prompting Mamata Banerjee to cry foul and allege the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country. The members were taken under preventive detention under 151 CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences), ADGP Mukesh Agarwala said. The TMC leaders would be sent back tomorrow to West Bengal, he said. Asked whether they would stay at the airport overnight, he said the police was looking into the protocol. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the incident and claimed her partymen were manhandled at the airport. She also accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country and "showing muscle power". The issue also figured in Lok Sabha when TMC members, led by senior leader Saugata Ray, protested the detention of four party MPs and demanded a response from the government in the House. Trinamool Congress MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Nadimul Haque besides state minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mohua Maitra were detained. "Assam Police has detained them at Silchar Airport. They (Assam Police) were interfering with the free movement of people. This is a breach of privilege," Ray said, adding, "We want the government's response on this." Ray said he will bring a privilege motion against the Assam government in Lok Sabha. Banerjee said that the BJP stands exposed by this incident and sought to know under which law the TMC delegation was stopped at the airport. Arriving in Kolkata from Delhi, where she met a number of opposition leaders, she told reporters that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured her that no one would be harassed on the NRC issue. "But the TMC delegates have not been allowed to go out of the (Silchar) airport. They have been manhandled. Even women members have not been spared," she claimed. "There is super emergency in the country. The BJP is politically exposed. They (BJP) are showing muscle power. They are suppressing facts. If there is peace (in Assam), why did they impose prohibitory order? The people of Assam are in panic," Banerjee said. Meanwhile, two more FIRs were lodged in Assam against Banerjee for her alleged instigating remarks threatening the unity of the country and her alleged attempt to create unrest in the state, Assam Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said. Another FIR was lodged against her in Lakhimpur district yesterday. According to Roy, the police stopped them at the Silchar airport saying their visit might create trouble and manhandled them. "It's murder of democracy. We were not allowed to go out," he said. The TMC leaders were supposed to hold a meeting at an auditorium here. The Cachar district administration last night issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC. However, district administration sources said the prohibitory order has nothing to do with the visit of the TMC delegation. ADGP (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said that security has been beefed up at Silchar. "We will take whatever measures needed for maintenance of law and order," he said. Wondering why they were stopped, Roy told a TV channel, "They manhandled us, including our women members. I am a heart patient. We have come here to talk to those people whose names were deleted. We are not here to create any trouble. But they have not allowed us." "BJP president Amit Shah will go to Bengal. We will not stop him," he said. The complete draft of the NRC, touted to be a proof of Assamese citizenship, was published on Monday and excluded 40 lakh people. Ghosh Dastidar alleged that they were stopped and police could not show them any order in this regard. In a related development, Assam Trinamool Congress president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned in protest against Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC. Reacting to the visit of the TMC delegation, student leader and AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi claimed that Mamata Banerjee is playing votebank Effigies of Banerjee were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party "not to meddle in Assam". West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh also supported the Assam government's move to stop the TMC delegation. "The TMC government did not allow us to go Basirhat in the past. They don't give us our democratic rights. They have no business to talk about democracy. They have gone there (Silchar) to create civil war," he said adding "They are enacting a drama". A statement issued by the TMC said, "They (the team) had not gone there to break the law. Yet, they were beaten up. Senior MPs were pushed and shoved. Female MPs were manhandled. "Is this democracy? This is Super Emergency. The issue was raised in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day (on this issue)," the statement said. TMC chief national spokesperson Derek O'Brien claimed that though the police had informed the members of the delegation that they would not be allowed to move out as the situation is tense outside, police could not show any restraining order to prove its claims. "They are not law-breakers but lawmakers," O'Brien told reporters in New Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Trinamool Congress delegation which reached here today to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the citizen's register was stopped at the airport, officials said. According to TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the team, the police stopped them at the airport saying their visit might create trouble and manhandled them. "It's murder of democracy. We were not allowed to go out," he said. The TMC leaders were supposed to hold a meeting at an auditorium here. Party supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed that members of the TMC delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport and accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country. The BJP was exposed by this incident, she said and sought to know under which law was the TMC delegation stopped. The TMC delegation including six MPs were kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport here in Cachar district under Barak Valley region, the officials said. The deputy commissioner, the SP and five magistrates were in the airport to talk to the TMC delegation. The Cachar district administration last night issued prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC. However, district administration sources said the prohibitory order has nothing to do with the visit of the TMC delegation. The TMC team went there at the instruction of Mamata Banerjee. ADGP (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said that security has been beefed up at Silchar. "We will take whatever measures needed for maintenance of law and order," he said. Wondering why they were stopped, MP Roy told a TV channel, "They manhandled us including our women members. I am a heart patient. We have come here to talk to those people whose names were deleted. We are not here to create any trouble. But they have not allowed us." "BJP president Amit Shah will go to Bengal. We will not stop him," he said. Another TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar alleged that they were stopped and police could not show us any order in this regard. Echoing her, fellow MP Mamatabala Devi alleged that they were pushed and manhandled by the police. "We have come here to assess the situation and talk to those people. We are on dharna at the airport", she said. There was no immediate reaction from the state administration regarding the TMC's allegations. Reacting to the visit of the TMC delegation, student leader and AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi claimed that Mamata Banerjee is playing votebank "She is trying to polarise the people of Assam and disturb the peaceful situation in the state. She should have sent the delegation before the NRC was published if she is so worried about the Bengalis and Muslims living here," he said. "We have a chief minister here. No outside chief minister can decide the fate of the indigenous people of Assam," Gogoi said. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh also supported the Assam government's move to stop the TMC delegation. "The TMC government did not allow us to go Basirhat in the past. They don't give us democratic rights. They have no business to talk about democracy. They have gone there to create civil war," he said, adding "They are enacting drama". A statement issued by the TMC in Kolkata said the party delegation comprised 6 MPs, one state minister and one MLA. "They had not gone there to break the law. Yet, they were beaten up. Senior MPs were pushed and shoved. Female MPs were manhandled. Is this democracy? This is Super Emergency. The issue was raised in Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day (on this issue),", the statement said. Mamata Banerjee earlier accused the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and said "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Barack Obama has endorsed Aftab Pureval, an American of Indian-Tibetan descent, for the Congressional elections in November as the former US President released his first endorsement list of over 80 Democratic candidates. Pureval, 35, who is seeking to enter the House of Representatives from the first Congressional District of Ohio, is the only American of Indian-Tibetan descent in the list of 81 candidates running for various positions in the November mid-term elections. "I'm proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates leaders as diverse, patriotic and big-hearted as the America they're running to represent," said Obama yesterday as he released his first list. One fourth of them are running for the US Congress. Pureval is seeking to unseat an 11-term incumbent Republican Congressman Steve Chabot, with local media reports describing it as a toss-up race. Pureval, whose campaign has gained momentum in recent weeks, said he was "fired up and ready to go". "President Obama inspired me to get involved in public service. It is surreal and incredible to have his endorsement," he said. "As he told us, we are the ones who have been waiting for. Change starts with us. And in 100 days, we're going to make it happen here," said Pureval. If elected, Pureval would be the first Tibetan-American to enter the US House of Representatives. He was the first Democrat to get elected as the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts in more than 100 years. Born and raised in Southwest Ohio, Pureval worked at a law firm and became a special assistant federal prosecutor where he worked with the FBI to prosecute crimes against children. Before that, he had worked at P&G as the global brand attorney for Olay, supporting a billion dollar business. As Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, he brought modern and professional reforms to the office, ended patronage and nepotism, launched a new website, cut fees for public records and put more services online. "Pureval raised more than double what Chabot raised last quarter and is approaching the long-time incumbent's cash-on-hand total," said Sabato's Crystal Ball, weekly online political newsletter. According to Dayton Daily news, Pureval raised USD 823,663 last quarter compared with USD 339,290 raised by Chabot. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Several government schools in Chhattisgarh have complained that obscene pictures pop up on the screens of computer tablets provided for recording bio-metric attendance of teachers and students. Authorities are now taking steps to solve the problem, said a government official. Teachers, in particular from schools in Durg, Surguja and Bastar districts, have complained that the tablets given for recording attendance and update information related to school activities show obscene pictures on screen. "The tablets come with Internet connection. So prima facie it seems that somebody, while watching or downloading some application, might have clicked on some spam message with obscene pictures," said Nilesh Soni, project manager at the state IT department. Spam and free advertisements appear sometimes when free apps are downloaded, and when such advertisements are clicked, unwanted content pops up, he said. Since September last year, around 51,000 tablets have been distributed to government schools, Soni said. Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) is the implementing agency for the project, and it is looking into the issue, he said. IT experts are visiting the schools to fix the problem, Soni said. In some districts such as Balodabazar, the department has issued orders not to use the devices till the problem is solved. However, the biometric attendance system is offline facility and teachers can use it without switching on the Internet connection, Soni said. To ascertain the root cause of the problem, IT experts from Chennai have been called, he said. After fixing the issue, open access to online applications which are not for the use of the department will be restricted on these tablets, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Odisha govenrment today assured all support to the Taiwans state-owned firm CPC Corporation which proposes investment of Rs 43,000 crore (USD 6.6 billion) in the petrochemical sector in India. The Taiwan company has identified port town Paradip in Odisha as one of its possible locations for its investment, officials said. The company is likely to choose the Paradip site as it may meet its raw materials requirement by using feedstock from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), they said. The state government's assurance was given by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik when he met a CPC Corporation delegation led by its president Shun-Chin Lee at the state secretariat here, the officials said. Patnaik during the discussion with Lee said that a high level taskforce headed by the state chief secretary will be formed to facilitate the company to set up its facility in Paradip, the officials said. Lee was quoted to have said that the company has plans to set up a petroleum cracker facility either in the western or eastern parts of the country and that Paradip is an ideal location. "We will invest an estimated 6.6 billion USD which is equivalent to Rs 43,000 crore. We hope the state govenrment will provide support and help us," he said. Chief Secretary A P Padhi told reporters after the meeting that the state government has assured the Taiwan company to provide all infrastructural support like land, water, electricity and incentives. The company will meet its raw material requirement from Indian Oil Corporation which has set up a mega oil refinery in Paradip. Padhi informed that CPC delegates had visited Paradip yesterday and discussed in detail about the proposed project with the authorities of the Paradip Port Trust(PPT). They also met officials of the oil ministry separately, he said. The state government is optimistic about Taiwan's investment, Padhi added. Earlier, Patnaik welcomed the CPC delegates and said that the proposed project will help in setting up petroleum downstream industries in Paradip. Stating that there is a huge opportunity in the state to set up industries, Patnaik said Odisha is among top three states in live manufacturing investment and project implementation. Patnaik said he was optimistic about the rise in the trade partnership between Odisha and Taiwan in different sectors. Official sources said the states Industrial Development Plan 2025 include chemical and petrochemical sector as priroty sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The old Yamuna bridge, a major connectivity link between Delhi and the neighbouring states, was reopened for vehicular movement today, four days after it was closed due to the rise in the river water level beyond the danger mark. The water level in the Yamuna river has started receding since yesterday and it went below the danger mark of 204.83 metres today. In the evening, it dropped to 204.24 metres. In an official order, District Magistrate (east and Shahdara) K Mahesh directed the Delhi Police and its traffic wing to open the bridge for traffic movement with immediate effect. On Sunday, the authorities had closed the bridge due to the rise Yamuna water level. According to the irrigation and flood control department, the water level is expected to recede further in the coming days. The bridge, colloquially known as 'Lohe Ka Pul' (iron bridge), is a road-cum-rail bridge on the Delhi-Howrah line that was built over 150 years ago. A government official said a total of 13,915 people had been moved to safer places so far. They have been accommodated in 1,461 tents and temporary shelters, where they were being provided food and medical help. "People, who were recently displaced, will remain in safer places as authorities have been monitoring the water level of Yamuna. Once we are sure that there is no danger to the lives of people, they will be shifted back to their homes," the official added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ICICI Bank has said that the ongoing enquiry against its MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar could lead to further scrutiny and additional costs, denting its reputation. The Audit Committee of the bank had instituted in June an independent enquiry, headed by former Supreme Court Judge B N Srikrishna, to probe various allegations against Kochhar. These relate to nepotism, quid pro quo and her not disclosing conflicts with regard to transactions between Videocon group and entities controlled by her husband Deepak Kochhar. "We are at increased risk for inquiries or investigations by regulatory and enforcement authorities, which may adversely affect our reputation, lead to increased regulatory scrutiny, cause us to incur additional costs or adversely affect our ability to conduct business," ICICI Bank said in a US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filing dated July 31, 2018. Pending the enquiry, Kochhar is on a leave of absence since June 19, 2018 and in the interim the bank has appointed Sandeep Bakshi as the Chief Operating Officer, who directly reports of the board. The allegations have been levelled against Kochhar through media articles, a whistleblower and complaints written by a private individual to senior government officials and regulators, ICICI Bank said. The country's largest lender in the private sector also informed SEC that India's capital market regulator SEBI has issued a show-cause notice to Kochhar and to the bank in May this year related to these allegations. "The bank is in the process of responding to the relevant allegations in the notice which pertain to the bank. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also initiated a preliminary enquiry against various individuals and firms including unknown officers and/or officials of the Bank," it said in the filing. With relation to the anonymous whistle-blower complaint of March 2018 alleging incorrect asset classifications from fiscal year 2015-16 and earlier, the bank said that an internal audit was conducted and an interim report was submitted to the Reserve Bank of India. "Based on the Interim Report and review undertaken for additional loan accounts, the bank has concluded that the likely impact of these allegations is not material to the financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2018 or earlier periods reported in this annual report," it said. The bank said since April, it has implemented enhanced internal controls, relating to review of loan accounts which satisfy certain threshold parameters, primarily relating to size, credit rating and days-past-due, for identification of non-performing assets. Kochhar, 56, with over three decades of banking service experience was appointed as Executive Director of the bank from April 2001. She was designated as Deputy Managing Director effective April 29, 2006 and Joint Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer effective October 19, 2007. Further, with effect from May 1, 2009, Kochhar was appointed as Managing Director and CEO for a period of five years and got a reappointment for another five years from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition parties are "actively considering" writing to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu about his perceived "unfairness" in not granting them adequate space and not letting them raise key issues in the Upper House, sources said today. The issue was discussed at a meeting of opposition leaders ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament and a draft letter is being prepared. The issue will be discussed again soon at a joint meeting of various opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left parties, the TMC and the SP, sources said. "The issue of the opposition writing a protest letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman against the unfairness of the chair in the Upper House in not allowing them to raise crucial burning issues confronting the country is under our active consideration," said a senior opposition leader. A final call will be taken by Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. The opposition is upset with the chairman for not permitting leaders of various parties to raise burning issues such as lynchings, the current economic situation, the Bofors issue and the plight of farmers in the House. Some MPs from Assam also aired their displeasure over not being allowed to speak in the House during the debate on the National Register of Citizen (NRC). "All the agenda being discussed in the Rajya Sabha is tilted in favour of the ruling party. The opposition is being disallowed any space to raise some key issues and this is not acceptable," an opposition leader said. Key issues need to be urgently discussed in the Rajya Sabha but the chair does not allow them to be raised and this is unfair, he said. The opposition respects the Chair, he said, but opposition space "cannot be usurped" and the government alone will not decide on how the Upper House will be run. Another leader added that the opposition wishes to convey its sentiments and anguish that it is not being accorded its rightful space and time in the Rajya Sabha. The leaders pointed out that the issues raised are the ones sought by ruling party members. The house was being adjourned in accordance with the Chairman's "whims and fancies", some of them alleged. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP MP Anurag Thakur today termed the opposition's demand for using ballot papers in the next Lok Sabha polls an "excuse", saying they feared "defeat" in the elections. Taking on the opposition, the BJP leader said the opposition had lost the no-confidence motion with a decisive margin and they would lose the next general election too. "The opposition do not have the leader to match the charisma of Narendra Modi. Under the leadership of Modiji and BJP chief Amit Shah, the party is set win the next elections. With fear of their defeat, (the) opposition is looking for excuses," Thakur told reporters here. Thakur, who is also the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, added that people had faith in the party and Modi. Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien informed that 17 Opposition parties were planning to approach the Election Commission of India, demanding that ballot papers be used to conduct the next Lok Sabha election. The parties will meet next week to discuss the plan. At present, the poll panel conducts all elections through electronic voting machines (EVMs). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an attempt to strengthen the Opposition unity against the ruling BJP, 17 political parties, including Trinamool Congress, are planning to approach the Election Commission, demanding that 2019 Lok Sabha polls be conducted on ballot papers. The 17 opposition parties would meet next week to discuss the plan. "This is a matter on which all opposition parties agreed. We are planning to meet next week. We plan to go to Election Commission and demand that the EC conduct the coming Lok Sabha election on ballot papers," TMC leader Derek O'Brien told reporters. The initiative to solicit the support of all opposition parties on the matter was taken by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee yesterday, when she visited Parliament to meet all opposition leaders to invite them for her planned rally in Kolkata on January 19. Banerjee was heard appealing to all opposition party leaders who visited her in the TMC office in Parliament, to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission over reports of EVM tampering and to demand that the 2019 general election be held on ballots. "All opposition parties should go to EC on this matter. There should be a joint delegation of opposition parties to EC," Banerjee was heard telling opposition parties, including the Congress. TMC had staged protests outside Parliament, questioning the neutrality of electronic voting machines (EVMs), and demanded that ballot papers be brought back for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party in West Bengal said it is a "common programme" that will unite all opposition parties. Interestingly, Banerjee had also urged Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, to be a part of the delegation. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray previously demanded that the 2019 Lok Sabha election be conducted on ballot papers instead of EVMs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan has failed to arrest the country's descent into violence mainly due to its intolerance to religious diversity, two top US lawmakers have said, expressing concern over the continued disenfranchisement of the Ahmadi Muslims. In the face of the apartheid-like regime, it is hardly surprising that the rhetoric of extremist madrassahs resonates with millions of Pakistanis, making the country a sanctuary for terrorists carrying out increasingly deadly attacks, Congressmen Jackie Speier and Peter King wrote in an op-ed in The Hill newspaper published yesterday. Indeed, daily life for all Pakistanis, not just for Ahmadi Muslims, is full of constant reminders that the country is legally segregated along sectarian lines, they said. "Some may find it puzzling that despite a quarter century of ostensibly liberal government, Pakistan has failed to arrest the country's descent into violence that is directly rooted in intolerance of religious diversity," they said. "But they need look no further than the continued disenfranchisement of Ahmadi Muslims, including in the most recent elections held last week," said Speier and King, who are also co-chairs of the Congressional Ahmadiyya Muslim Caucus. In order to obtain a passport, an identity card, and even to enroll in college, Pakistanis must list their religious affiliation and to be counted as 'Muslims', they must sign a sworn declaration stating that Ahmadis are non-Muslims and that the founder of the Community, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is an 'impostor' prophet, the two Congressmen said. The two US lawmakers called for restoring the franchise of Ahmadis in Pakistan. Reform of the passport regime and the electoral process can be achieved through purely administrative and executive action by the Pakistani government: neither issue requires legislative action, they said. Restoring the franchise to Ahmadis, for example, would require only rescinding Pakistani Presidential Order No. 15 of 2002 ('Executive Order No. 15'), which uniquely excludes Ahmadis from the joint electoral rolls, and requires them to be registered on a separate supplementary voter roll, they said. "We cannot afford to let another five-year election cycle pass before the critical issue of restoring the full and free right to vote for Ahmadi Muslims is resolved once and for all. Buoyed by the success of the Religious Freedom Ministerial, the secretary of State has a golden opportunity to help correct a long-standing injustice," Speier and King added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's Supreme Court today sentenced a senior leader of the jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party for contempt of court, disqualifying him from holding public office for five years, months after he made anti-judiciary remarks. The Supreme Court had initiated contempt proceedings against the fire-brand Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Tallal Chaudhry for his "derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements" against the judiciary during a rally in January. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmad, sentenced Chaudhry till the rising of the court and also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000. The apex court found the former state interior minister guilty of violating Article 204 of the Constitution, Dawn newspaper reported. As a result of his conviction, Chaudhry is ineligible to contest elections for the next five years, it said. Chaudhry was ordered by the apex court to ensure his presence during today's proceedings, which were based on a suo motu notice on his 'anti-judiciary' speech during a party rally in Jaranwala in January this year. Chaudhry had contested the July 25 general election from NA-102 (Faisalabad-II) but lost to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's Nawab Shair by nearly 12,000 votes. During his speech at a PML-N rally, Chaudhry had demanded removing the judges of the apex court, alleging, "they will not give justice but will continue their injustices." On February 1, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of "contemptuous speeches", and on February 6, the top court issued Chaudhry a show-cause notice, ordering him to file his response. On July 11, the apex court, after hearing Chaudhry's arguments, had reserved its judgement, which it delivered today. While speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court today, Chaudhry said, "I accept this verdict if it increases the court's standing." He also vowed to file a review petition against the verdict. He also claimed that the contempt case had negatively impacted his poll performance. He said the people in his district "had difficulties making a decision", and that his opponents had taken advantage of the opportunity by campaigning on his expected disqualification. "If this decision had been made earlier, then my party would have had a chance to select another candidate who didn't have this kind of hanging sword over his head. The results could have been even better," he claimed. Chaudhry's conviction follows those of other PML-N leaders who, in their defence of party supremo and deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, made derogatory remarks against state institutions. Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in jail in a corruption case last month by an anti-graft court. In June this year, the top court, on a similar case, sentenced former federal privatisation minister and PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz for contempt "till rising of the court". The contempt judgement also led to similar automatic disqualification from Parliament for five years and restrained Aziz from contesting the July 25 election. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had sentenced then-PML-N Senator Nehal Hashmi to jail on contempt charges over his controversial remarks against the judiciary. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today reacted sharply to a recent US decision waiving individual licensing requirements for export of high technology products to India, terming the move as continuation of policies of discrimination. The US on Monday eased export controls for high-technology product sales to India by designating it as a Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) country, the only South Asian nation to be on the list. The designation authorises the export, re-export and transfer (in-country) of specified items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to destinations posing a low risk of unauthorised or impermissible uses. Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Mohammad Faisal "described it as a disturbing continuation of policies of discrimination and exceptionalism, further eroding the longstanding non-proliferation norms." He underscored the serious implications on strategic stability arising from the cumulative effect of several civilian nuclear cooperation agreements between India and members of the export control regimes, the latest of which is the recent licensing waivers. "Pakistan believes all states have the right to acquire and use advanced and dual use technologies for socio-economic development under appropriate safeguards and without discrimination," Faisal said. Pakistan urges faithful adherence by all to the letter and spirit of relevant international treaties and export control regimes. The spokesperson called on all the states to carefully review their strategic export control policies that directly impinge on national security of Pakistan and undercut stated goals of preserving strategic stability in the region. "Disavowal of established legal and normative frameworks regulating strategic goods and technologies only undermines the global rules-based order," Faisal added. Currently there are 36 countries on STA-1 list. India is the only South Asian country to be on the list. Other Asian countries designated as STA-1 are Japan and South Korea. Till recently India was designated as STA-2 countries along with seven others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh and condemned the alleged ceasefire violations by Indian forces along the Line of Control in which one civilian has been killed. Director General (South Asia and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Mohammad Faisal summoned Singh over the ceasefire violations in the Mandal Sector, the Foreign Office said in a statement. A 35-year-old woman of Ghasla village was killed in the firing. "The Indian forces along the Line of Control and the Working boundary are continuously targeting civilian populated areas with heavy weapons," said Faisal. In 2018, the Indian forces have carried out over 1,400 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary, resulting in the killing of 30 civilians, while injuring 121 others, he said. "This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when the Indian forces committed 1970 ceasefire violations," said Faisal. He said that "the deliberate targeting of civilian populated areas is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws." The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation, he said. The Director General urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire arrangement; investigate this and other incidents of ceasefire violations; instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire in letter and spirit and maintain peace on the LoC and the Working Boundary. Faisal further urged that the Indian side should permit the UN Monitoring Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per the UN Security Council resolutions. India, however, does not recognise the UNMOGIP and has maintained that the group has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the LoC. India has always stated that it has "no role to play whatsoever". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's congratulatory phone call to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and said it wants resumption of bilateral talks which were halted in 2015. On Monday, Prime Minister Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his party's victory in the general elections and hoped that "Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties". Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue. During his weekly press briefing here, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that he hoped the phone call would pave the way for bilateral talks between both India and Pakistan. Faisal said that Pakistan was ready to host the SAARC Summit postponed in November 2016, which will help to address regional issues. He hoped that it would lead to an improvement in ties with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, in addition to India. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad but after a major terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to "prevailing circumstances" and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate. The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and India's surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a military court in April last year further deteriorated bilateral ties. The two sides often accuse each other of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, resulting in civilian casualties. In his victory speech, Khan had said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be "good for all of us". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Justice B N Srikrishna has said the committee headed by him on data protection took a 'fairly balanced' call after hearing all stakeholders, including the industry. Some industry stakeholders have sought clarity on the issue of sharing data with third parties claiming that the committee's report did not include their inputs and a lot of grey areas had gone unaddressed. Srikrishna said an industry representative and an academician had expressed their reservations during the deliberations. "No industry ever wants any restrictions on any of its operations and no country ever allows any industry to operate without no restrictions whatsoever. "There was a representative of industry who vigorously advocated their viewpoints and an academician, both of whom have given their reservations. But, the committee has ultimately taken the call which, in my view, is fairly balanced," he told PTI. He also said every time any legislation affecting industry was passed, concerns were raised that it would increase the cost of operations. It it were to be true, all industries should be making losses, but on the contrary most of them were making profits. Finally, the Data Protection Authority can always deal with marginal entities and give them suitable exemptions, Srikrishna said. The had constituted the 10-member committee in July 2017 to recommend a framework for securing personal data in the increasingly digitised economy as also to address privacy concerns and build safeguards against data breaches. The committee submitted its report to the government on July 27 suggesting steps for safeguarding personal information, defining obligations of data processors as also rights of individuals, and mooting penalties for violation. On imposing "undue restrictions" on transferring personal data outside India by businesses, Srikrishna said it was a matter of perspective. The panel had taken a middle path, unlike China and Russia which make localisation absolute, he added. "There have been extreme views on this like those in China and Russia which make localisation absolute and in other countries, where cross border transfer is allowed totally without restriction. We have taken a middle path as you will see form the report and Bill," he said. Further, the criticality of data may require absolute prohibition from cross-border transfer in some cases, he added. "Hence, there is a leeway given that the authorities may relax restrictions on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of data to be sent out and likelihood of any harm resulting therefrom," Srikrishna said. A provision for maintaining a copy in the country was absolutely necessary, he said. "If that data needs to be accessed by any authority, the matter would have to await diplomatic wrangles and acting in accordance with the law of another country. The answer to this dilemma would be to enter into an international instrument," Srikrishna said. On the role of in the affairs of Data Protection Authority, Srikrishna said section 94 of the report had made it clear that the government had been given overriding powers in policy matters only. "Further, if there is a situation affecting the sovereignty of the country or its friendly relations with foreign countries, obviously the must intervene to set things right," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A three-day awareness drive was launched today in Maharashtra'a Yavatmal district against pesticide poisoning with authorities distributing safety kits to be donned by farmers while spraying pesticides. The district had seen several cases of pesticide poisoning last year following which Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered an inquiry. Although the government had not specified the number of deaths that occurred last year, farm activists had said that 18 farmers had died due to pesticide exposure. Collector Rajesh Deshmukh inaugurated the awareness drive today and also demonstrated how to spray pesticides safely to avoid exposure to it. Deshmukh said that over 50 per cent of the land was under cotton cultivation and attacks by pink bollworms had led to the reckless use of pesticides. This, he claimed, had led to human deaths last year and the awareness drive was to ensure that there was no repeat of the issue this year. "We have prepared a taluka-wise list and seed and pesticide manufacturing firms will send their representatives to these talukas to create awareness among farmers," Deshmukh said. He added that the state health department would also organise medical camps for farmers and farm labourers. He visited the government medical college in Yavatmal to check on the five people who have been admitted there for pesticide poisoning. Compensation for those who died of pesticide exposure in the district last year has been increased from Rs 2 lakh, as announced earlier, to Rs 4 lakh, officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Appreciating the government of Maharashtra's efforts to plant trees, US Consul General in India Edgard D Kagan today said the drive will significantly help in reducing carbon footprint. In a meeting between Kagan and state Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, the latter told the US official about innovations undertaken by his ministry as part of the tree plantation drive. A state government release stated that Kagan appreciated these innovations and expressed a desire to participate in some of them. Mungantiwar also spoke about the Goods and Services Act and its implementation in Maharashtra as well as other economic issues of the state. Kagan called India and the United States natural friends and said cooperation between the two nations could create a great example of development in the world. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Green Tribunal has ordered the director of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) to conduct an inspection near Polavaram Dam where a diaphragm wall was being built to assess its impact on the ecology of the area. A bench of justice Raghuvendra S Rathore and expert member Satyawan Singh Garbyal directed the official to submit a report within two weeks. The green panel also directed the parties which have not filed their response to complete the exercise within two weeks. "Service on the respondent is complete. The counsel for the respective respondents pray for time to file reply, which may be done within two weeks," the bench said and posted the matter for next hearing on August 24. Advocate Pragya Singh, appearing for the petitioner, claimed the environmental flow of the river was being obstructed due to construction of a diaphragm wall. She claimed the construction of such a wall has a "devastating effect" on marine wildlife in the river and livelihood of 8,000 fishermen in and around the Polavaram area. "The water is getting dried up and thousands of fishermen are stranded due to loss of livelihood. Not just that, the ecology is getting disturbed as the aquatic life is suffering. All these are in clear abrogation of environmental clearance dated October 25, 2005. The fishermen adopt traditional methods for fishing and there boats are lying idle and they are devoid of any work," the lawyer claimed. The tribunal had earlier issued notices to the Polavaram Project Authority, Union Ministry, Inter Ministerial Monitoring Committee, Central Inland Fisheries Institute, Andhra Pradesh, District Collector of West Godavari and others while seeking their replies before July 31. The tribunal had recently asked all states to maintain a minimum environmental flow of 15 to 20 per cent of the average lean season course in their rivers. E-flow defines the quantity, timing and quality of water flow required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, besides human livelihood. The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Andhra Pradesh resident Pothabathula Nageswara Rao seeking maintenance of minimum flow of Godavari river at Polavaram dam site and directions to allow fishermen to continue fishing activity. The plea has also accused the project proponent of violating conditions enumerated in the environmental clearance and demanded action against it. The dam construction at Polavaram involves building of a 1.5 metre thick concrete diaphragm wall up to depths from 40 to 120 metre below the river bed under the earth. The purpose of a diaphragm wall is to secure the river bed stability for withstanding water pressure across the dam. Polavaram, which the Andhra Pradesh government terms as the "lifeline of the state", has been declared as a national project under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. "The central government shall execute the project and obtain all requisite clearances, including forest, environmental and rehabilitation and resettlement. The Union should take under its control the regulation and development of Polavaram," the Act says. Accordingly, the Centre constituted the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) for the purpose. The state government has been going ahead with its execution for the last four years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Malaysia today, the first stop on a Southeast Asian tour expected to focus on North Korea's commitment to denuclearisation and simmering maritime and trade tensions with Beijing. Pompeo will push for sustained pressure on Pyongyang to destroy its nuclear arsenal, urging the region's leaders to enforce UN sanctions on the hermit state, State Department officials have said. The trip is also an opportunity for him to promote the United States' strategic vision for Asia at a time of friction with China over its moves to assert sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea. In Malaysia, Pompeo is set to hold talks with Mahathir Mohamad, 93, who was returned to power in May when the opposition won a historic election victory. Mahathir's triumph -- the first time the opposition had defeated the long-ruling government -- "says a lot for governance and democracy" in Malaysia, a senior State Department official said as Pompeo arrived in Kuala Lumpur. "It's a strong democratic member of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," the official added. Pompeo will then travel to Singapore to attend an annual forum Saturday that brings together top diplomats from 26 countries and the European Union for talks on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific. His North Korean counterpart will also be at the gathering in the city-state, where US President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un held their historic summit on June 12. No meeting has been announced between Pompeo and Ri Yong Ho, but US officials have not ruled out the possibility of a discussion of commitments by Trump and Kim to the "denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula". Pompeo is charged with nailing down the details of the Singapore agreement, including how and when the North's nuclear programme is to be dismantled. But lack of progress has been a source of concern for many observers, as international sanctions begin to ease and reports indicate that North Korea is continuing its nuclear and ballistic programmes. Represented at the ASEAN meeting will be Russia and China, who two weeks ago put a six-month hold on a US request to the United Nations sanctions committee to halt all deliveries of refined oil products to North Korea. Escalating trade tensions between the US and China, the world's top two economies, will also be on the agenda after Washington warned it is considering hiking levies on $200 billion of Chinese goods, having already targeted imports worth $34 billion last month. In addition, the US secretary of state will focus on another major regional flashpoint at the forum -- rival claims in the South China Sea and China's growing presence there. China claims nearly all of the sea -- including waters approaching the coasts of ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei -- and has in recent years expanded its presence there by building artificial islands capable of holding military bases. Pompeo's last stop will be in Jakarta, where he will seek to reinforce relations with a key US ally. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) MLAs of the ruling Congress and DMK, its ally in Puducherry, have sought action against Lt Governor Kiran Bedi for allegedly committing breach of privilege of the state assembly with her "derogatory" remarks against the House and its members. The MLAs called on Speaker V Vaithilingam and submitted a memorandum to him seeking action against Bedi, who is involved in a running feud with the V Narayanasamy government over various issues. Signed by seven of the 15 Congress lawmakers and one of the two DMK MLAs, the memorandum alleged comments and statements made by Bedi were "derogatory in nature and cast a slur on the privileges of the members and the House as a whole." In the memorandum submitted yesterday, the MLAs referred to the reported remarks of the Lt Governor warning of "serious consequences" if the interim order of the Supreme Court allowing three nominated lawmakers to attend the proceedings of the assembly was not followed. "This is causing concern to the legislators and those supporting freedom of the House," the memorandum said. It also recalled how Bedi had made tabling of the Appropriation Bill, which allows the government to withdraw money from the consolidated fund, conditional to the speaker permitting the three nominated MLAs to attend the proceedings. All three are BJP leaders, whose nomination the speaker had refused to acknowledge. "The recent statement of the Lt Governor that lawmakers should not become law breakers is particularly telling," the memorandum said, insisting it created an adverse impression about legislators in public. The signatories to the memorandum included K Lakshminarayan, parliamentary secretary to chief minister Narayanasamy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Startup firm Quantela today said it expects to have 100 cities globally using its IT platform by the end of this fiscal and break-even by 2020-21. "Being a startup our growth rate is very high. We expect to have 100 cities as our client by end of this financial year," Quantela, Founder and CEO, Sridhar Gadhi today said. He was talking on the sidelines of partnership arrangement with University of California Berkeley for start-up accelerator programme. "Under the accelerator program, we plan to select around 10 start-ups every year who will use our technology platform and will be mentored by University of California Berkeley for product development and market access," Gadhi said. He said that company has an artificial intelligence platform for smartcities where it integrates solution of other vendors for controlling various systems in smart cities like street lighting, waste management, parking, water management etc. "We have invested USD 6 million till date in developing our technology. We expect to break even by 2020-21," Gadhi said. Invest India Managing Director and CEO Deepak Bagla at the event emphasised the need of smart technology solutions to handle urbanisation taking place in the country. "In next 5-7 years we would have created another USA. We will have over 300-350 million people moving to our urban township. It is, in fact, unprecedented rural urban peaceful migration in the history of human world," Bagla said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Rajasthan this month to launch the party's election campaign in the state that goes to polls later this year. Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot said though Gandhi's programme is not yet finalised, he is likely to visit the state after Parliament's Monsoon Session wraps up. "The party president's programme will be finalised very soon and he may visit the state after August 10," Pilot told reporters at the Congress headquarters here today. "The preparations of the Congress party for the elections are in full swing and we are in a position, from block to state level, to not only challenge, but to defeat the BJP," he said. Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Pilot said she should undertake a 'Jawabdehi (accountability) Yatra' instead of her proposed 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra', which will be flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah on August4 from Rajsamand district. "She was away from the people of the state for the last four years and now she is trying to get in touch with them, but the public has rejected her. She should answer the public's questions instead of only communicating with the party workers," he said. The Rajasthan Congress chief also condemned Raje's statement during an interview with a channel wherein she blamed the incidents of lynching on people's anger over lack of jobs and their circumstances. "She has only exposed the reality about lack of jobs and people's frustration under the BJP rule by making such an irresponsible statement," he said. Speaking about the recent controversy over the Congress' chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections, Pilot said his focus was to ensure the party's victory in the state. "People are looking at the Congress with hope and my aim is to make sure that the party wins the election. Leaders and workers have collectively worked hard for the party for years," Pilot said. He said he was making all efforts, despite challenges, to revive and strengthen the party in the state. The controversy erupted last week when party leader Lalchand Kataria said former chief minister Ashok Gehlot should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate to save the Congress in Rajasthan. Gehlot has been the chief minister of Rajasthan for two terms. However, Gehlot said no one should project himself as the chief ministerial candidate as it is against the party's tradition. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress president Rahul Gandhi would visit Hyderabad for two days from August 13. Besides participating in the 'Praja Chaitanya bus yatra,' a campaign launched by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, Gandhi would address several meetings during his two-day visit, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said today. The 'bus yatra', being conducted by the state congress in phases, is aimed at exposing the alleged failures of the TRS government in Telangana. Earlier, Reddy inaugurated the TPCC's IT Cell. Observing that Congress was trying to make optimum use of technology to reach out to people, Reddy said the IT Cell would play a major role in establishing a link between the party, leaders and cadres. IT cell chairman Madan Mohan Rao said the cell would act as a bridge between the party and cadre through an innovative programme named 'Congress Human Resources Management System (CHARMS). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party today felicitated the state's differently-abled sportspersons who were mentioned in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly radio programme, 'Mann ki Baat' recently. Paralympic javelin thrower Sundar Gurjar, para-athlete Shatabdi Awasthi and Ishan Khandelwal were felicitated at the BJP office here, a party release said. Party vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna and state general secretary Chandra Sekhar honoured the athletes, saying they had brought laurels to the state with their performances. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajya Sabha was today adjourned for the day following uproar by Trinamool Congress members over the issue of the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC). Trinamool members trooped into well of the House immediately after the upper House assembled post lunch, seeking a reply from Home Minister Rajnath Singh over the NRC matter. Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu gave an assurance that the Home Minister would give a reply. However, TMC members continued their protest following which he adjourned the House for the day. When the House reassembled, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said he has given a notice under section 267 seeking reply of the home minister, to which Naidu said he has rejected it. "You have not allowed the minister to reply and now you are asking me to reply. What can I do," said Naidu. The home minister came here yesterday, the day before yesterday and he was willing to reply but he was not allowed to reply, said Naidu. "A very wrong message has gone and I feel as Chairman injustice has been done to the home minister because after patiently hearing all views on important sensitive issue, he could not reply," he said. Naidu said, "This issue was discussed in the morning meeting. Anand Sharma gave a suggestion that the Home Minister's reply should take place in the House." Naidu said that Sharma had also suggested that the Parliamentary Affairs Minister should talk to opposition parties and the home minister on the issue. Speaking on the issue, NCP President Sharad Pawar said, "The subject is very sensitive and is of national interest." "Serious views were expressed and I think it is in the larger interest of the nation that we hear the home minister and know exactly what the government is doing," he said. While the chairman has allowed one member from each political party to speak and views of all major parties have been expressed, members from Assam have not been given an opportunity, Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad said. "If there is any party member from that state (Assam), he should be heard and the home minister should reply," said Azad. Naidu urged members to discuss the farmers' issue, which was slated for discussion. However, Trinamool members insisted on a reply from the Home Minister. As the protests continued, Naidu adjourned the House, saying, "Everyday it has become a fashion. Let the country see what is happening here... You do not want to discuss even farmers' issue". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) TMC members, led by senior leader Saugata Ray, protested the detention of four of his party MPs at the Silchar airport in Assam today and demanded a response from the government on it in the Lok Sabha. Trinamool Congress members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray were detained at the airport when they were visiting the state in the aftermath of the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Ray said. "Assam Police has detained them at Silchar Airport. They are interferring with the free movement of people. This is a breach of privilege," Ray said, adding "we want government response on this". Ray raised the issue when the House was discussing the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017 to provide for setting up of a National Commission for Backward Classes. Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai said he would convey his demand to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC published earlier this week has led to protests in the state and stalled Rajya Sabha proceedings for 3 days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) told the on Thursday that it was ready to undertake the projects of embattled realtor of companies. A bench of justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit asked the to place a concrete proposal before it within 30 days on how they could complete the projects of the The court also recalled its earlier order directing the group to deposit Rs 2.5 billion, while noting that its direction was yet to be complied with. The bench, while allowing the recall application filed by the group, said its conduct was "wholly unfair" and "absolutely improper". The bench also took note of the alleged diversion of Rs 27.65 billion by the and asked the auditor to submit a report on this. The apex court directed its registry to intimate the banks about its order, freezing all the bank accounts of the Amrapali group of companies. The top court had on Wednesday cracked the whip on the Amrapali group for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and ordered attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of 40 firms of the real estate major. It had directed the Amrapali group, which was yet to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 hassled home buyers, to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of all the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties. The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how the had issued advertisements inviting co-developers for doing the work related to the Amrapali group without taking the apex court's approval. The court was earlier told that a high-level committee was formed by the Uttar Pradesh government under the chairmanship of the secretary of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to redress the issues of home-buyers and affected parties of incomplete or stalled housing projects at Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway. The group had said it was in talks with the Centre for the construction of its pending, unsold and future projects by the and had already submitted a proposal in this regard. It had earlier told the court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 home buyers in a time-bound manner. The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) India Ltd today told the Supreme Court it was ready to "undertake" the projects of embattled real estate major Amrapali group of companies, which has failed to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 home buyers. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit asked the NBCC to place before it a "concrete proposal" in this regard within 30 days as to how they propose to complete the projects along with a time line of work. The court told the NBCC that funds collected by the group from home buyers would be made available to them to complete the projects and asked the builder and representatives of the buyers to assist the corporation and provide all documents. The bench came down heavily on Amrapali group for its failure to comply with the court's directions and adhering to the undertakings furnished to the court and recalled its earlier order asking the builder to deposit Rs 250 crore. Allowing the recall application filed by the group, the bench said that conduct of the realtor was "wholly unfair" and it was "absolutely improper" that it has not complied with the order. "You (group) have not deposited the money. How can we rely on you? Why should we trust you? You are not providing water (to home buyers who have got possession) and have no lifts. You have earned money and you are not even providing water. What kind of person are you?," the bench said. The bench also took note of the alleged diversion of Rs 2,765 crore by the Amrapali group and asked the auditor to submit a report on it. The apex court directed its registry to intimate the banks about its order, freezing all the bank accounts of the 40 firms of Amrapali group of companies. During the hearing, the group placed before the bench the record of bank account details of 38 out of the 40 firms and said that individual account details of their directors would be filed soon. Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary of Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, appeared before the court and said the Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a committee under his chairmanship to look into the problem of home buyers of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway and that the panel was set up to take a policy decision on ways to resolve the problem. He said the committee had held meetings on June 25 and July 10 after which four realtors -- Amrapali, Unitech, Jaypee and 3C -- were called for a meeting on July 18 to know about the status of their projects and problems faced by the buyers. He said he was not aware of the apex court's order in Amrapali's matter and never intended to violate the orders. NBCC Chairman Dr Anoop Kumar Mittal also appeared in the court in pursuance to its direction and said that the corporation had issued a general advertisment inviting co-developers and it was not specifically for Amrapali group. The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how NBCC had issued advertisement inviting co-developers for allegedly doing work related to Amrapali group without taking approval of the apex court. Mittal told the bench that NBCC was ready to undertake the projects of Amrapali group to complete the work and it would conduct a detailed study before making a proposal. The NBCC chairman initially told the bench that it needed 60 days time to come out with a proposal in this regard but after court said that they have to expedite the process, Mittal said the corporation would do it in 30 days. "We appreciate the gesture of the NBCC chairman who assures us that he would submit the proposal within 30 days. Let the proposal be placed before us within 30 days," the bench said. The bench also appreciated the committee under the chairmanship of Mishra for undertaking a study to form a policy to solve the problem of other hassled home buyers. It made it clear that the committee should first apprise the court, which is seized of the matters related to other builders, before taking any further step in those cases. The bench fixed the matter for hearing on August 8 and would deal with the issue related to bank account details of the firms as well as their directors. The top court had yesterday cracked the whip on the Amrapali group for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and ordered attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of 40 firms of the real estate major. It had directed the group to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties. The group had earlier told the court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 home buyers in a time-bound manner. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In some relief to around 42,000 home buyers, the state-owned construction firm NBCC today told the Supreme Court it was ready to "undertake" all the unfinished housing projects of the embattled real estate major Amrapali group. A day after it rapped the Amrapali group for failing to comply with its order, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit asked the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to place before it a "concrete proposal" within 30 days as to how they propose to complete the projects along with a time line of work. The top court had yesterday cracked the whip on the Amrapali group for playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and ordered attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of its 40 firms. It told the NBCC that funds collected by the group from home buyers would be made available to them to complete the projects and asked the builder and representatives of the buyers to assist the corporation and provide all documents. The bench again came down heavily on the Amrapali group for its failure to comply with the court's directions and adhering to the undertakings furnished to the court and recalled its earlier order asking the builder to deposit Rs 250 crore. Allowing the recall application filed by the group, the bench said that conduct of the realtor was "wholly unfair" and it was "absolutely improper" that it has not complied with the order. "You (group) have not deposited the money. How can we rely on you? Why should we trust you? You are not providing water (to home buyers who have got possession) and have no lifts. You have earned money and you are not even providing water. What kind of person are you?," the bench said. The bench also took note of the alleged diversion of Rs 2,765 crore by the Amrapali group and asked its auditor to to find out where this money has gone and submit a report. It had yesterday observed that diversion of funds collected from investors by real estate developers was a "malady" and it want to stop this "nonsense" once and for all. The bench today asked the two chartered accountants (CAs), who were present in the court and had handled work of the group till 2015, to find out how this money was diverted or transferred by the company for utilising the same in other projects. "You are the CA. You are supposed to be the watchdog. We want to know about movement of fund of Rs 2,765 crore. Where that money has gone, we want to know. We want to know the complete movement of this Rs 2,765 crore," the bench told one of the CAs who had handled the work of the group from 2008 till 2015. "We want you to trace the entire movement of money and inform us," the bench said. The court also directed its registry to intimate the banks about its order, freezing all the bank accounts of the 40 firms of Amrapali group of companies. NBCC Chairman Dr Anoop Kumar Mittal appeared in the court in pursuance to its direction and said the corporation had issued a general advertisment inviting co-developers and that it was not specifically for the Amrapali group. The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how NBCC had issued advertisement inviting co-developers for allegedly doing work related to Amrapali group without taking approval of the apex court. Mittal told the bench that NBCC was ready to undertake the projects of Amrapali group to complete the work and it would conduct a detailed study before making a proposal. The NBCC chairman initially told the bench that it needed 60 days time to come out with the proposal but after the court said they have to expedite the process, Mittal said the corporation would do so in 30 days. "We appreciate the gesture of the NBCC chairman who assures us that he would submit the proposal within 30 days. Let the proposal be placed before us within 30 days," the bench said. Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary of Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, appeared before the court and said the Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a committee under his chairmanship to look into the problem of home buyers of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway and that the panel was set up to take a policy decision on ways to resolve the problem. He said the committee had held meetings on June 25 and July 10 after which four realtors -- Amrapali, Unitech, Jaypee and 3C -- were called for a meeting on July 18 to know about the status of their projects and problems faced by the buyers. He said he was not aware of the apex court's order in Amrapali's matter and never intended to violate the orders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Norwegian authorities have urged motorists to watch out for reindeer that are seeking refuge in tunnels to cool themselves amid extreme heat in the nation's far north. "It has been very hot for weeks in northern Norway," Tore Lysberg, a senior official at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, told AFP today. "The animals retreat to colder places, both reindeer and sheep find refuge in tunnels and shaded areas to cool down," he said. Although this phenomenon is nothing new, it could be intensified by record temperatures in Norway's northernmost regions. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute posted a temperature of 31.2 degrees Celsius (above 88 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday in Finnmark, a major reindeer herding region located within the Arctic Circle. The region is so hot that it has experienced 12 "tropical" nights with evening temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius so far this year, according to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration said no serious accidents involving animals have been reported yet but described the situation as "a challenge". The government agency, which has multiplied its messages to raise awareness among motorists, should be helped by the weather, which is expected to return towards normal starting this weekend. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has requested the prime minister for granting immediate interim assistance to combat the crisis in the state due to incessant rain for the past few weeks. Nagaland has been receiving heavy rainfall for the past few weeks, which has resulted in loss of lives, displacement of many people in most of the districts and damage to public infrastructure, Rio said in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. Road connectivity in many areas has been snapped and power line and communication network damaged, he said in the letter, a copy of which was made available to the media. Adequate supply of essential commodities, including petroleum products, to all district headquarters is not possible as stocks are getting depleted, the chief minister said. The aspirational district (backward) of Kiphire has been cut off from all directions. In the foothills and plain areas, floods have created enormous damage to property as the villages have been submerged, he said. Under the circumstances the state government is unable to address the challenges due to lack of resources, absence of adequate machinery and poor connectivity, he said and sought interim central assistance. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A total of Rs 4,596 crore has been allotted as arrears under post matric scholarship for SC students in 2016-17, the Rajya Sabha was told today. A central assistance of over Rs 1.44 lakh was released in 2018-19 under the scheme, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla said in a written reply. On whether the government has received any complaints of misutilisation under the scheme, Sampla said such complaints, if any, are forwarded to state governments for action. He also said there were 58.6 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme in 2016-17. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Minister of State for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav today faced some tough questions in the Lok Sabha from BJP and opposition members alike on reported delay in construction of rural roads in Bihar. Responding to supplementaries during Question Hour, Yadav said several habitations in Bihar have been connected with all-weather roads. But some BJP members, as well as those from Opposition parties, said the progress is very slow in the state. Former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP) questioned Yadav's claim that papers related to phase II of rural road project in Bihar have been approved. He claimed that documentation for the proposed second phase has not yet begun then how could it be approved. Yadav made it clear that he has never made such a claim. As the discussion continued, Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed members that only 544 habitations in Bihar have not been connected with rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Saadak Yojna. "The Government of India has taken a decision to accelerate execution of PMGSY in all states, including Bihar, by providing connectivity to eligible habitations as per the core network (of the scheme) by March, 2019 and in Left Wing Extremist hit blocks by 2020," Tomar said in his written reply. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Annoyed over the irregular disbursement of crop insurance amount under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the farmers today lodged complaint with the district collector Samarth Verma and alleged that they had not received actual insurance claim. Secretary of Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan, Byomakesh Thakur said many farmers of the district have received less amount of the money than what they should get for the crop loss during the 2017 Kharif season. The farmers of Sason Gram Panchayat incurred 35 per cent crop loss during 2017 Kharif season. However, many farmers have received insurance money for 21.6 per cent crop loss, he pointed out. Thakur said, similar problem has been faced by farmers of various parts of the district. Moreover, many farmers have not received the insurance money at all also. A farmer, Satyanarayan Pandey of Talab said:, "As per the report, I should get Rs 33,790 for the crop loss, incurred during the 2017 Kharif season. But the insurance company has disbursed only Rs 19,000." Pandey had come to the office of the district collector with the receipt of the premium he had paid to the insurance company to insure his crop. According to the farmers, the Kisinda Gram Panchayat of Naktideul Block in the district suffered 29. 25 per cent crop loss during 2017 Kharif season. Around 200 farmers of the Gram Panchayat had insured their crop but only one farmer has received the insurance money amounting to only Rs 7,000 for crop loss. Sources said, 33,976 farmers of Sambalpur district had paid premium of Rs 57.02 crore to Tata AIG for the insurance of the crop during the 2017 Kharif season. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court allowed today the Delhi government to purchase 500 standard-floor buses to take care of "pressing needs" of commuters using public transport here. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, while taking note of shortage of buses here, said it was only an interim measure after the Delhi government assured the court that hydraulic lifts would be installed in these buses for the benefit of differently-abled persons. The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Delhi government and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) challenging the Delhi High Court's June 1 order barring them from procuring 2,000 standard-floor buses without the enabling facility for the special category commuters. The court took into consideration the argument of the Delhi government that the decision to buy buses was taken considering the dire need to augment the existing bus fleet, particularly on rural routes. The apex court had on July 25 asked probing questions to the Delhi government and the DTC over their intention to purchase 2,000 standard-floor cluster buses, which are not friendly to differently-abled persons. The top court had asked the government whether it intends to make these cluster buses friendly to differently-abled persons by fitting them with hydraulic lifts. The Delhi government had told the bench that it would fit hydraulic lifts in each bus for wheel-chair bound differently abled persons, which would entail a total cost of around Rs 80-90 crores. It had told the court that a decision was taken to purchase additional 500 low-floor buses which will be friendly to differently-abled persons. The government had told the apex court that the high court had erred in staying the tender for purchase of 2,000 standard-floor buses as they have met all required criterion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today again took note of the alleged diversion of Rs 2,765 crore fund collected from home buyers by the Amrapali group of companies and asked the auditor to find out where this money had gone. The apex court also told Amrapali group to furnish all the bank account details of directors of its 40 group firms. "If you do not give the correct information, you will be held for contempt," a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit told Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, representing the group. The court had yesterday observed that diversion of funds collected from investors by real estate developers was a "malady" and it wanted to stop this "nonsense" once and for all. The bench asked two chartered accountants (CAs), who were present in the court and had handled work of the group till 2015, to find out how this money was diverted or transferred by the company in other projects. "You are the CA. You are supposed to be the watchdog. We want to know about movement of fund of Rs 2,765 crore. Where that money has gone, we want to know. We want to know the complete movement of this Rs 2,765 crore," the bench told one of the CAs who had handled the work of the group from 2008 till 2015. "We want you to trace the entire movement of money and inform us," the bench said. One of the two CAs told the bench that he had handled the work of Amrapali group from 2013 till 2015 and after that had not received any balance sheet from the company. Bhatia, who was representing the group, said there was no diversion or siphoning of funds by the company. "We request the auditor to find out how much money has been diverted or transferred to other projects and let project wise report be placed before us," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on the issue for September 4. The apex court asked the company to furnish the requisite details to the auditor and directed the internal auditor of the group to cooperate in the process. During the hearing, the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) India Ltd told the court it was ready to "undertake" the projects of Amrapali group, which has failed to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 home buyers. The counsel appearing for the home buyers also said they have trust in NBCC and instead of handing over the work to any other private co-developer, the corporation should be entrusted with the task of completing the projects. The bench told Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary in the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, that a committee headed by him to look into the issue of home buyers of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway should not have called Amrapali group's representative in a meeting by the panel without apex court's consent. "When you knew that the matter is sub-judice, you should not have called Amrapali group in the meeting. Your communication (to the group) was used here to scuttle the hearing," the bench said. The secretary told the bench that he never intended to violate any orders of the court and that the committee was only working to solve the problem of home buyers. "If you are trying to solve the problem, then go into its root," the bench said, adding, "It is sheer contempt". It said the committee or the NBCC should first take the court into confidence before proceeding in any matter which was sub-judice. The bench told NBCC Chairman Dr Anoop Kumar Mittal to come out with a concrete proposal within 30 days as to how it proposed to complete the projects along with a time line of work. "We have some constraint. These are not those matters which can linger on. There are no fire fighting equipments, no water (where possession has been given to buyers) and in case, any calamity happens, it will be a tremendous risk for the people residing there," the bench observed. Bhatia said he would compile all the details of bank accounts of the group companies as well its directors and place it before the court within three days. The top court had yesterday cracked the whip on the Amrapali group for what it said playing "fraud" and "dirty games" with the court and ordered attachment of all the bank accounts and movable properties of 40 firms of the real estate major. It had also directed the group to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of all the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today decried the practice of banning books saying that it restricts the free flow of ideas and literary works can be banned only when they violate the law. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also reserved its order on a plea seeking a ban on the publication of Malayalam novel "Meesha" (moustache) on the ground that it allegedly depicts temple-going Hindu women in derogatory light. "The culture of banning books restrict free flow of ideas," the bench said, adding that ban can be imposed under certain circumstances like if they violated provisions like section 292 of the IPC. Section 292 of the IPC deals with banning sale of "obscene books, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting, representation, figure or any other object" as they "tend to deprave and corrupt person, who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it". "You are giving undue importance to this kind of stuff. In the age of the internet, you are making this an issue. It is best forgotten," the bench said. The plea filed by Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan had sought to omit excerpts from the novel written by S Hareesh. The Centre and the Kerala government both opposed the petition saying that free speech cannot and should not be curtailed. Lawyer Gopal Shankarnarayan, appearing for Radhakrishnan, gave the examples of books like 'Polyester Prince' and 'Satanic Verses' and said that they are still banned. He later sought the liberty to withdraw the plea which was denied by the bench. Earlier, the court had agreed to hear the plea seeking a ban on the publication of "Meesha". The plea has claimed that certain parts of the novel, authored by S Harish, had created controversy last month. The petitioner, N Radhakrishnan, has also alleged that certain comments in the book about Brahmins, who perform 'puja' in the temples, amounted to "castiest slur". It has also alleged that the Kerala government has not taken necessary steps to stop the publication, on line sale and dissemination of the novel. "The publication caused public outburst and protests across the nation, especially in the state of Kerala as the matter was published in Malayalam language. Post the publication of the incriminating article, Hindu women visiting temple were subjected to ridicule and embarrassment through various social media platforms," the plea has alleged. "Trolls, which appeared and were circulated on social media, have caused deep pain and anguish to the temple going Hindu believers," it claimed. The petition claimed that if the government fails to take appropriate action, it would indirectly invite the public to react and it would not be far before there is "a 'Charlie Hebdo' kind of backlash in India". In January 2015, two persons had attacked the office of French satirical weekly newspaper 'Charlie Hebdo' in Paris, accusing the paper of hurting religious sentiments. 12 people were killed in the incident. "...ensure that no person under the guise of freedom of speech and expression as envisaged under the Constitution be permitted to meddle with the communal fabric of the nation and fix responsibility for such work on the person or medium promoting or propagating such materials," the plea has said. The novel was being published in a serialised form in a Malayalam periodical. The publication of subsequent parts of the novel in the periodical was discontinued after the controversy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court has quashed the appointment of Lieutenant General Sanjiv Chopra as Director General of Medical Services (Army) saying "proper and valid consideration" was not done while applying the criteria of seniority and suitability for his appointment. A bench comprising justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan remitted back the matter to the Defence Minister and expressed the hope that it would be considered with "utmost objectivity" and a decision would be taken within a week. The bench also said that the direction of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which too had quashed Chopra's appointment, to straightaway appoint Major General Ganguly as the DGMS (Army) was not proper. "We remit the case back to the Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister). We repose full faith in the Raksha Mantri and are confident that she would consider the entire matter in a totally dispassionate manner, with utmost objectivity and depicting total fairness," the bench said. "Keeping in view that the post is lying vacant for some time and also that time is running out insofar as the respondent (Major General Manomoy Ganguly) is concerned, we direct the appellants (Centre) to place the matter before the Raksha Mantri forthwith, with no loss of time, and are hopeful that the decision shall be taken within a week," the bench added. The AFT had also earlier quashed the appointment of the Lt General as the Director General Medical Services (DGMS) on Ganguly's plea, holding that his selection as DGMS (Army) was arbitrary and discriminatory. The AFT had set aside the findings of the Review Promotion Board of Maj. Gen Ganguly in March 2017 which had not found him sufficiently high in merit for the rank of Lt General. It had also directed the authorities to appoint him to the post. However, the apex court bench said that the direction of AFT to straightaway appoint Major General Ganguly as the DGMS (Army) was not proper. "We are conscious about the apprehensions of the AFT, which may not unfounded altogether. However, since we have not agreed with the conclusion of the AFT that the appointment to the post of DGMS (Army) is not based on seniority alone, it may not be proper to uphold such a direction of the AFT," it said. The AFT in its order had noted that there was some attempt in denying the Maj. Gen Ganguly his claim for promotion to the rank of Lt. General and hence directed to appoint him to the post. Earlier, the apex court had issued notice on a plea of the Centre challenging the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) order restraining it from filling up the post of Director General Medical Services (Army). A vacation bench had took note of the appeal of the Ministry of Defence against the order of the tribunal restraining it to fill up the post of DGMS (Army) by an officer of its choice. The Attorney General, appearing for the Ministry of Defence, assailed the AFT order and said that the Army worked on "certain principles" and seniority alone cannot be the sole criteria for selection of an officer as the DGMS (Army). Seniority and suitability are to be considered at the time of appointment, the AG had said, adding, "Army decides. They have principles. The post in question is of a nature where extensive experience is must, as the job is to ensure spontaneous medical facility on the war front. Someone without adequate experience cannot be considered." Earlier, Ganguly had moved the AFT alleging that rules had been flouted in the proceedings of the board and consequently he had not been approved for the higher rank despite being eligible. He had averred in his petition before the AFT that his non-empanelment for the rank of Lieutenant General in his Review Special Promotion Board in the Army Medical Corps was due to low figurative assessment in the board, comprising Chief of the Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval Staff. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today restrained the electronic media from telecasting or broadcasting images of the alleged victims of rape and sexual assault at a shelter home run by a state-funded NGO in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta took suo moto cognizance of the matter after it received a letter from one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna and expressed concern that the alleged victims were subjected to media interviews. The bench, which issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre, asked the media not to interview the alleged victims. "They cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again," the bench said. It also restrained the media from telecasting the images even in even in morphed form. "The investigating agency will take assistance of professional counsellors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims," the bench said. The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on August 7. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, the chief of the state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI. In all, sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination, while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests. The TISS audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the local police in connection with the case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today termed as "manifestly arbitrary" a penal provision which required a woman to have her husband's consent to indulge in adultery with another married man and said it amounted to treating women as "chattel". A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, however, drew the distinction between adultery as a criminal offence and as a civil wrong which has been used as a ground for seeking divorce in matrimonial disputes. The apex court, which was hearing a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Section 497 (adultery) of the IPC, said, "As far as criminalisation or decriminalisation of adultery as an offence is concerned, it is in one compartment. Adultery cannot cease to be a ground for seeking divorce by estranged couple in a court of law." The bench, which also comprised justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, was critical of different aspects of section 497 and referred to a part which said that no offence of adultery is made out if a married woman enters into a sexual relationship with a married man with the consent of her husband. "If there is consent of husband, then there is no adultery which is absurd. This is another indicator of gender bias in which a woman is considered as chattel," the bench said. "Definitely the matrimonial sanctity aspect is there, but the way the provisions are enacted or made run counter to Article 14 (Right to Equality of the Constitution)," it said. Section 497 of the 158-year-old IPC says: "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery." The bench referred to the submission of the Centre in its affidavit and said the provision was there to save "sanctity or marriage" or "matrimonial ties" and then pointed out inconsistencies in law. "If a married man has sexual intercourse with unmarried woman, this is alright. No adultery is made out. But, does it still not affect sanctity of marriage," the bench asked. "Look at the next part, if a married man has sexual intercourse with other married woman with the consent or connivance of her husband then also no offence is made out," it said. Terming the provision as not being "gender neutral", it referred to the classical test of "manifest arbitrariness" and "discrimination" under Article 14 (right to equality) to examine the validity of a law. "On arbitrariness test, the fact that husband's connivance will not make it a crime is manifestly arbitrary," the bench said, adding that going by the classical test of Article 14, there was "no intelligible differentia for achieving the object which is protecting sanctity of marriage". It then referred to offence of bigamy under Section 494 of the IPC and said that it is gender neutral as it punishes both husband and wife and said that section 497 only provides for punishment to the husband only. "The distinction between section 494 (bigamy) and section 497 (adultery) itself makes section 497 unconstitutional," the bench said. Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, appearing for petitioner Joseph Shine, an Indian living in Italy, referred to various facets of Section 497 and said it treats married men and women differently with regard to their prosecution for adultery. The lawyer said he was not challenging adultery as a ground for seeking divorce by estranged couple. He said though the provision provided for prosecution of men only and but he was not seeking to make it gender neutral as it was "inherently flawed". "(Lord) Macaulay (author of IPC) himself did not want to include this provision in the IPC," the bench said. Section 497 was "indirectly discriminatory" towards women under Articles 14, 15 (prohibition of discrimination) and it gave an impression that it was protective of women but it was is not and rather conceived them as chattel incapable of decision making, he said, adding that it was a kind of "patriarchal" protection. The provision cannot be either read down or made gender neutral and rather it has to be struck down, he said. A woman cannot file a complaint against her husband if he has sex with unmarried woman, though her grievance is the same as that of man, he said. It discriminated against the women as it impinged the sexual freedom of married women but did not do so with respect to married men, he said. Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for one of the intervenors, referred to the history behind the provision and said it was premised on the belief that women were chattel of their husbands and their paramours were thieves who should be punished. The jurisprudence behind adultery was not "to protect bodily integrity of women" but to protect men's control over wife's sexuality and the fundamental structure of Hindu society was to preserve land, woman and rituals, he said. "If adultery has its basis in woman being a property of man, then Section 497 has to go for that reason alone," she said. She also referred to jurisprudential values prevailing in 14th and 15th century Europe and said women were either properties of their fathers or of their husbands and were abducted in wars as chattels. The advancing of arguments would resume on August 7. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sebi has slapped a total fine of Rs 17.25 lakh on two firms for failing to obtain authentication with its online complaint redressal system along with redressing investor grievances within the stipulated time. In two separate orders dated July 31, the regulator said Eastern Mining and Allied Industries, and Orissa Industries have neither obtained SCORES (SEBI Complaints Redressal System) authentication within the time period -- September 2012 -- nor have they done it subsequently. Moreover, both the firms failed to redress investor grievances within the stipulated time of 30 days as required under SCORES, the regulator noted. Accordingly, a fine of Rs 12 lakh was imposed on Eastern Mining and Rs 5.25 lakh on Orissa Industries. In June 2011, the regulator had directed all listed companies to obtain SCORES authentication within the stipulated time. Complaints received by Sebi (Securities and Exchange board of India) in SCORES are electronically forwarded to the listed company which in turn is required to resolve the same and furnish the Action Taken Report in electronic form. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Security forces today killed two militants during an encounter near a check-post in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. The encounter began after the militants opened fire on the security forces' personnel on patrol duty in Lolab valley, they said. The militants were yet to be identified. "Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with J&K Police/SF (security forces) in Lolab Kupwara few minutes back," Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police S P Vaid said on Twitter. The DGP gave no further details. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Security forces seized 217 kg of gold and arrested five Myanmarese nationals from near the Mizoram-Myanmar border in Champai district, police said today. The five Myanmarese nationals were arrested yesterday from Vaphai village in the district for allegedly smuggling gold bars worth around Rs 927 lakh, they said. The gold and the arrested persons were handed over to the officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Champhai town, the police added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A security guard was killed after a truck rammed into a Kanwar camp in northeast Delhi's Nand Nagri this morning, the police said. The deceased was identified as Avdhesh Kumar Mishra who worked as a security guard at a camp. This morning, a speeding truck rammed into the camp and ran over Mishra, they added. The camp was empty and there were no other person was injured. Mishra was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. The accused driver was arrested and the truck seized. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Benchmark Sensex tanked 356 points to close at a one-week low of 37,165.16 today, while the NSE Nifty ended below the 10,300-mark on widespread selling amid weak global cues. Asian and European stocks dropped as the latest escalation in the Sino-US trade spat weighed on investor sentiment. Heavy selling by foreign and domestic institutional investors after RBI's rate hike yesterday added to the selling pressure. The 30-share Sensex stayed in the negative zone for the whole day and ended at 37,165.16, showing a loss of 356.46 points, or 0.95 per cent. This is its lowest level since July 26, when it had closed at 36,984.64. The gauge had lost 84.96 points in the previous session. The broader Nifty too succumbed to selling pressure and hit a low of 11,234.95, before ending at 11,244.70, down 101.50 points, or 0.89 per cent. Profit-booking by participants in view of the domestic markets' recent record-setting run fuelled the downtrend, brokers said. On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 95.94 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded equities to the tune of Rs 562.33 crore yesterday, provisional data showed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo on Thursday appealed to the people of north not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister H D Kumarswamy's lifetime. Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts. "No injustice has been meted out to north in allotment of funds in the state budget," he said and hit out at BJP state president B S for trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda". "The provocation made by will not come true. We will take care of it... If some people demand a separate north Karnataka, I want to tell them it will not happen, not during my lifetime and not during my son's lifetime," he told PTI in an interview. He alleged that the BJP state president is "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats. Gowda further alleged that the former chief minister has started "intimidating" people on the farm loan waiver, state budget and other issues, with the sole motive to create unrest. The former prime minister said many leaders have made sacrifices for the unification of the state and appealed to people not fall prey to provocation and to "trust the current government". has already ordered the shifting of some key government departments to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the secretariat building in Belagavi, Gowda added. The Samiti gave the bandh call to press for statehood for the region, alleging that successive governments discriminated against it. The Samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by on July 5 and also inadequate representation in the cabinet. The Tamil Nadu government today informed the Madras High Court that sex was not being imparted in schools as there would be resistance from the public. Assistant Inspector General Maheswaran submitted an affidavit on behalf of the home secretary and the director general of police in response to a series of questions raised by Justice N Kirubakaran to trace the reasons for the rise in sexual offences against women and children. The court had asked the government whether steps were taken to introduce 'age appropriate sex education' in school curriculum to educate students and clear their doubts or any wrong notions they might have, as per the directions of the high court issued in 2015. Responding to the query, the authorities said sex was not imparted as there would be resistance from the public. Instead students were sensitised through 'Life Skill Programme' (LSEP) and 'National Population Education Programme' (NPEP) through which HIV/AIDS awareness training were imparted, it was submitted. On other queries, the government submitted that through a government order on December 14, 2012, instillation of CCTV cameras was made mandatory in all public, commercial establishments and places of large public gatherings. The facility was installed in over 87,743 of such buildings, it said. On appointing trained counsellors/psychologists in every school, the government said, "Student mobile counselling centres have been established in 10 zones covering all the 32 districts, equipped with appropriate equipment." In 2014-15, these counsellors visited 1,834 schools across the state and provided counselling to 3, 47,875 students, it said. Similarly, in 2015-16 need-based counselling was provided to 3, 83,117 students and to 2,31,542 children in 2016-17. The case was likely to come up for hearing tomorrow. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP president Amit Shah today termed the passage of a bill, which seeks to grant constitutional status to the OBC commission, as "historic" and said it is a big step towards making an equitable society. In a series of tweets, he said it is a move towards creating a new India where all sections of society live with dignity and harmony. Hailing the Narendra Modi government for the bill's passage, Shah said it has always been the BJP's goal to create an egalitarian and just society as its mantra is 'sabka saath sabka vikas'. "This is a historic and big step of the Modi government for creating an equitable society," Shah said, adding the demand for such a bill had been pending for decades. The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 which was passed in the Lok Sabha today seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status at par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC and NCST). It will now need to be passed by the Rajya Sabha before it is implemented. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sharad Yadav, the patron of Loktantrik Janata Dal, will be here on Sunday to address the party workers and discuss strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan. "He will address the party workers at a meeting on August 5 and discuss strategy for the assembly elections in the state," Ramniwas Yadav, state president of the party, said today. The meeting will be held at a school auditorium in Mansarovar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Kolkata Police to probe the fraudulent withdrawals made from ATMs of two nationalised banks in the city was collecting CCTV footages from the locations, a senior police officer said today. CCTV footages inside the outlets would help in grabbing the culprits as well as the mode of their operations in stealing informations of the customers, he said. Another officer, who is a member of the SIT, said the ATM outlets which are not manned by security guards are the most vulnerable ones. "And these two ATM outlets had no guards which helped the culprits getting enough time to do the required altercations they need to get details of the card when inserted inside an ATM machine by one customer," he said. Going by the footages, so far collected by the investigating officers, a couple of persons wearing masks were found in some of the clips. "These two persons were wearing caps and their faces were covered by pollution masks. However, we have somehow managed to get an idea about their identity and their modus operandi," he said. As a part of their investigation into the matter, Kolkata Police has also contacted their Delhi counterpart for help because the fraudsters had been operating mostly from the national capital region, the officer said. Skimmer captures as well as saves details stored in the credit and debit card's magnetic stripe when it is swiped and thus the entire information about the card holder contained in the stripe gets stolen, the officer elaborated about the way information of cards were stolen. "The skimmers are often hidden over the card swipe mechanism on ATMs machines. These days the culprits are also placing a small, undetectable camera on the ATM machine itself to record the PIN details of a customer giving all the information needed to manufacture a clone of the cards and withdraw money," he detailed. So far around 76 customers of two nationalised banks and one private bank, mostly from the Golpark area in south Kolkata have lodged complaints with the Kolkata Police that they were duped of huge amounts of money even when they were not using their debit cards at any ATM. Around Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh have been siphoned off by fraudsters operating mostly from the national capital region. The Kolkata Police today issued a series of directives for bank customers stating the dos and don'ts as a part of the precautions needed to be taken while operating their debit or credit cards at ATM outlets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz today called on Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra and discussed the concerns about Article 35A of the Constitution, which relates to special rights and privileges of the state's permanent residents. The meeting comes ahead of a Supreme Court hearing, scheduled for August 6, on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A. Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the Jammu and Kashmir citizens and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. "I stressed the fact that the people of the state can, under no circumstances, compromise their commitment for protection of the Article 35A, which confers special privileges to the people of the J-K state," Soz said in a statement. "I also stressed the fact that one way could be that the RSS sees reason to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court," Soz said in a statement. The main petition demanding scrapping of Article 35A was filed before the apex court in 2014 by an RSS-linked NGO 'We the Citizens'. The governor assured Soz that he (Vohra) would keep the concerned authorities at political and administrative levels informed of the developments and said that he was sure that serious note will be taken of people's feelings. Among other matters discussed with the governor, Soz also brought to Vohra's notice the need for attention to the SKIMS hospital. "SKIMS is in bad shape not because of administration and faculty, but due to extreme lack of resources, particularly for treatment of the cancer patients," Soz said. "The governor informed me that the meeting of the Governing Board will be held shortly and my memorandum suggesting improvements will be considered in that meeting, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lanka is very much a partner in China's ambitious One Belt One Road initiative, a Communist Party delegation said here today. Chinese President Xi Jinping's multi-billion initiative focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe. Guo Yehou, a Chinese Vice Minister, met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as part of the ongoing close relationship between the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP), the prime minister's office said in a statement. Wickremesinghe is the main negotiator of the Sri Lankan government's trade links with China. The Chinese delegation assured Wickremesinghe of all assistance to make Sri Lanka a commercial and financial hub in South Asia, the statement said. The prime minister has faced internal criticism for his furtherance of the Chinese projects including the construction of the port city in Colombo and the industrial park around the sea port in Hambantota. Both were Chinese infrastructure projects funded under commercial loans during the 10-year rule of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. In December last, Sri Lanka had handed over the control of the southern sea port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease, triggering concern here over Beijing's efforts to expand influence in the region. The opposition has dubbed the deals as the sell out of national assets. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Srinagar airport is set to begin night flying operations from August 10, a day after the Indian Air Force conducts a test flight, officials said today. "We are ready as far as infrastructure and security is concerned," director of the Srinagar international airport Aakash Deep Mathur said. He said the IAF will conduct a trial run on August 9 and commercial flight operations will begin the next day. "I have asked airlines to submit a flying schedule so we can begin the process. So far, Air India, Go Air and Indigo have shown interest but are yet to submit their proposal," Mathur told reporters. At present, the last flight from the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir takes off at 5.45 pm. Once night flying operations begin, this will be extended till 10 pm, said Mathur, who recently took over as director of the Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport. Srinagar airport, which was given international status in 2005 and is the main airport in Kashmir Valley, handles 38 domestic flights a day. The only international flights operating from the airport are during the Haj pilgrimage. The proposal for night flights in Srinagar was mooted by the Omar Abdullah-led government in 2011 but was kept in abeyance as the strategically located airport is also used by the Indian Air Force. The Centre recently decided to finalise the operations and asked the IAF to clear the decks for night flights after state Governor N N Vohra took up the matter with the ministries of defence and civil aviation, officials said. The increase in flying hours is likely to boost the tourism sector in the state. However, airport authorities may not allow night flights during winters as part of safety measures against snow and fog, officials said. Jammu airport has been designated as an alternative airport in case of exigencies, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) jawan was crushed to death by a speeding truck on National Highway 2 in Bihar's Gaya district today. The motorcycle-borne SSB personnel, identified as Manish Kumar Verma, was on his way to join duty at the SSB battalion headquarters at Amas in Gaya district when a speeding truck crushed him to death on the highway. The accident spot falls under Barachatti police station area. The deceased was a resident of Barhi Bazar of Hazaribagh district in Jharkhand, Barachatti police station SHO Chetnanand said. Both the driver and cleaner of the truck managed to escape from the spot along with the truck after the incident, the SHO said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) today arrested a smuggler and seized counterfeit Indian currency notes of face value of Rs 94,000 from a place near Indo-Nepal border in Bihar's East Champaran district, a SSB official said. The SSB team seized the counterfeit currency notes from the smuggler during a search at a check point on the Indo-Nepal border at Raxaul town of the district, SSB 47 battalion Commandant, Sonam Chering said. The SSB team also seized two mobile phones, an Aadhaar card and driving license from the smuggler, Chering added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Production on the upcoming film "Star Wars: Episode IX" has started, director JJ Abrams has announced. The 52-year-old director who is back for the latest installment of the iconic franchise after helming the 2015 blockbuster "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" shared the on Twitter. Abrams posted a behind-the-scenes photo from the films set in London and said the occasion is "bittersweet" due to the absence of franchise veteran Carrie Fisher, who died in December 2016. "Bittersweet starting this next chapter without Carrie, but thanks to an extraordinary cast and crew, we are ready to go," Abrams tweeted. "Grateful for @rianjohnson and special thanks to George Lucas for creating this incredible world and beginning a story of which we are lucky to be a part. #IX," he added. Disney and Lucasfilm had recently announced the cast of the upcoming film. Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd are all coming back for the new film. Abrams has used previously unreleased footage shot for "The Force Awakens" to feature Fisher's Princess Leia in the film. Billy Dee Williams is reprising his role as Lando Calrissia. Mark Hamill, whose Luke Skywalker seemingly died in "The Last Jedi", will be returning as well. John Williams will once again return to score the film. "Star Wars: Episode IX" is set to be released December 2019. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three days after the complete draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in Assam, the apex students' body in Arunachal today asked "undocumented migrants" to leave the state within 15 days. Apprehending that people from neighbouring Assam may "sneak into their territory" in the wake of NRC publication, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), in a statement, said it would launch 'Operation Clean Drive' to evict "non-Arunachalees" and assist district authorities to keep vigil at the entry points of the state. Large number of illegal migrants, who did not find a mention in Assam's draft NRC, might try to enter the state to evade deportation, AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai said. "A committee has been constituted with AAPSU member Tatung Taga as its chairman to spearhead 'Operation Clean Drive' across the state. It will assist the district authorities to conduct spot verification of people at all entry points along the inter-state boundary," he stated. Dai also urged people living here to keep their Inner Line Permit (ILP) and other documents ready to avoid "unnecessary harassments" during the drive. "The operation will also help in weeding out illegal immigrants, who have been residing here without valid documents," he added. Last week, the Arunachal government launched a drive in various districts to identify people, who do not have the necessary permits. Around 15 persons have been apprehended at Khonsa in Tirap district of the state as they did not have valid ILPs. In the state capital, too, more than 20 persons were sent back after they were found to have entered the state without valid ILPs. The AAPSU, in its statement, appealed to the Pema Khandu-led Arunachal government to come out with strong anti-influx measures by erecting more outposts across the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 24-year-old man, suspected to be a member of Neeraj Bawana and Neeraj Bhanja gangs, was arrested following an encounter with police in which he was injured today, the police said today. The encounter took place in front of the Sarai Kale Khan Bus Stand located on the Ring Road leading towards Ashram in southeast Delhi, they said. On the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, police received information that the accused, Saddam Hussain, was passing through Ring Road from Pragati Maidan side towards Ashram Chowk, Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said. It was also informed that he was going to Sangam Vihar to meet his accomplices, the officer said. A trap was laid and after he was spotted, the Ring Road leading towards Ashram (infront of Sarai Kale Khan Bus Stand) was blocked to apprehend him, he said. The accused noticed the blockade and tried to flee but his motorcycle slipped on the footpath, the officer said. He was asked to surrender but, the accused got up and fired on the police team deployed at barricades. A sub-inspector fired at Hussain and a bullet hit his left leg below the knee, Srivastava said. Injured Hussain was overpowered and a country-made pistol along with two live cartridges was recovered from his possession and two used cartridges were recovered from the spot, the officer said. Hussain's accomplices had been arrested earlier. On July 25, two scooter-borne men had fired four shots at the house of Vijay Singh in Aliganj, Pillanji, he said. One of the bullets hit the right heel of Singh, who was sitting outside, the JCP said, adding he was rushed to the AIIMS trauma centre. An FIR was registered at the Kotla Mubarakpur police station in connection with the matter. After being discharged from the hospital, Singh told police that on the day he was shot at, someone named Naveen Bali alias Naveen Bhanja, nephew of criminal Neeraj Bawana, had called him around 3 pm and demanded protection money, he said. The person on the phone also threatened him of dire consequences. Police learnt about one Sunny, a resident of Aliganj, Kotla Mubarak Pur, who had provided information about the Singh to Subeg alias Shibbu, who is an accomplice of Naveen Bali alias Naveen Bhanja. Bhanja, based on the information, had placed an extortion call to Singh and to intimidate him tasked his accomplices Saddam Hussain and a juvenile to attack the victim with firearms, the joint commissioner of police said. The police team raided potential hideouts of the accused and finally arrested Sunny from Aliganj. During interrogation, Sunny disclosed that the assault on the victim was carried out by Hussain and one another. Sunny also disclosed that Subek Singh, who is an accomplice of Naveen Bali alias Bhanja, had passed on the information about Singh to him. Accordingly, raids were conducted in search of these persons and the juvenile was apprehended from Jangpura from the rented accommodation of Hussain. After his apprehension, the juvenile revealed that he had carried the crime on the directions of Subek Singh. Subsequently, Singh was arrested on August 1 from Mussoorie. Naveen Bali is presently lodged at the Mandoli jail. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today held talks with her Turkmenistan counterpart Rashid Meredov on a wide range of bilateral issues during a transit halt here. Swaraj, on her way to Kazakhstan, was received at the Ashgabat airport by Meredov. "Making the most of a transit halt!," Raveesh Kumar, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted. Swaraj had a good exchange of views on a wide range of bilateral issues, he said. Swaraj is currently on a four-day visit to Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with resource-rich Central Asian nations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today praised the Kazakh people for their warmth in welcoming the Indian diaspora as she interacted with the Indian community living in the Central Asian country. Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich nations. She today arrived in Kazakhstan, India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia, after a brief transit halt in Turkmenistan. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "Meeting our very own away from home in her first engagement since arriving in Astana! EAM @SushmaSwaraj in her address to the Indian community: I have been told that Astana is the second coldest capital of the world but the warmth of Kazakh people do not let you feel this chill!" During her visit to Astana, the minister will hold a bilateral meeting with her Kazakhstani counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the MEA said in a statement in New Delhi. She will also call on the country's leadership and interact with Indian community, it said. India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and multi-faceted relations. The bilateral relations have been strengthened by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and by his visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June 2017 when he had a productive meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, the statement said. There have also been meetings between the leaders on the margins of the SCO and Nuclear Security Summits keeping up the momentum in the growth of bilateral relations, it said. Swaraj's visit to the three Central Asian countries is her first visit to these countries as External Affairs Minister. The visit is in pursuit of India's objective of enhanced engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived in Kazakhstan, India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia, after a brief transit halt in Turkmenistan. Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich Central Asian nations. On her way to Kazakhstan, she held talks with her Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov on a wide range of bilateral issues. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "Ancient & historical ties dating back to 2500 years! EAM @SushmaSwaraj arrives in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan on the first leg of her 3-nation trip. Both countries have a close strategic partnership and Kazakhstan is India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia." During her visit to Astana, the minister will hold a bilateral meeting with her Kazakhstani counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the MEA said in a statement in New Delhi. She will also call on the country's leadership and interact with Indian community, it said. India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and multi-faceted relations. The bilateral relations have been strengthened by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and by his visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June 2017 when he had a productive meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, the statement said. There have also been meetings between the leaders on the margins of the SCO and Nuclear Security Summits keeping up the momentum in the growth of bilateral relations, it said. Swaraj's visit to the three Central Asian countries is her first visit to these countries as External Affairs Minister. The visit is in pursuit of India's objective of enhanced engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav tonight announced that he will stage a demonstration at the national capital later this week in protest against "heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur". Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, urged "all to attend" the dharna at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, August 4. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday, August 4 at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend", the RJD heir apparent tweeted. Yadav has been attacking the Nitish Kumar government over the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal involving sexual abuse of more than 30 girls. Although it was not known which other parties or leaders would be joining the proposed dharna, party sources said Yadav was likely to rope in Congress president Rahul Gandhi with whom he has come to share a good rapport in recent times. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may also make an appearance at the RJD leader's dharna as he retweeted a post by a journalist which read "so @ArvindKejriwal will also join the Muzaffarpur rape protest organized by @yadavtejashwi at Jantar Mantar". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thailand's junta wants Britain to extradite ousted leader Yingluck Shinawatra, according to a recent request, in a move denounced as "political". Yingluck, whose elected government was toppled in a 2014 coup, fled the country in August 2017 after being charged over her government's failed rice policy. She was sentenced in absentia a month later to five years in prison for failing to stop graft in the programme - a case lambasted by her supporters as part of a junta effort to drive the ex-premier's family out of Reports placed her in Dubai and then London, as rumours swirled that she was seeking asylum in Britain. Images of her purportedly in Japan, Singapore and China have cropped up on social media and in local reports. The government "hereby requests the extradition of Miss Yingluck Shinawatra, a Thai citizen, believed to reside within the United Kingdom," said a letter from the Thai embassy in London seen by AFP today. Britain, which has an extradition agreement with Thailand, does not comment on the immigration status of any individual. But Pheu Thai, the party formerly led by Yingluck, said the request dated July 5 was authentic. Yingluck and her brother Thaksin - also a former prime minister who lives in exile - embody one side of Thailand's fractured political landscape. Chaikasem Nititsiri, a senior member of Pheu Thai, said he does not believe the extradition request will be honoured because of the nature of the charges against Yingluck. "This case is clearly political since it began," he said. The wealthy Shinawatras are wildly popular in the country's rural heartlands, where voters wooed by their welfare schemes have helped them dominate elections for the past decade. But they have been branded corrupt opportunists by Bangkok's army-allied elite, who have used coups, court rulings and protests to bring down their administrations. Thailand's junta has promised elections will be held early next year but even with the polls, democracy will be limited. The junta drafted a charter that curbs the power of politicians and calls for an upper house whose members are appointed not elected. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Thousands of people has taken part in Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride parade under heavy police guard, mindful of a fatal 2015 attack on marchers in the largely conservative city. "We shall not allow any disturbance to public order and we shall ensure the safety of the march and its participants," a police statement had said yesterday. It has said that about 10,000 people arrived for the start of the parade, setting off from a downtown Jerusalem park to march through nearby streets. Speaking to AFP at the starting point, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, of the centrist Zionist Union alliance, said, "I am here to send a message to the government that the state of Israel must be a state with values such as equality and freedom." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel's history, which includes an ultra-Orthodox party that condemns homosexuality. Across the road a few dozen demonstrators gathered to protest against the parade and raised a banner in Hebrew reading: "No entry for this abomination to the Holy City." Police kept them away from the parade-goers and said no violent incidents were reported. "Weapons of all kinds, drones and all types of aircraft" were banned from the assembly point and from the parade route, police said. Officers questioned 41 people suspected of intending public disorder and arrested one person who was taken to a police station for further investigation. The city centre was closed to traffic and police said participants were subjected to security checks before being allowed to join the rally. Emily Matheys, a 21-year-old from the northern city of Haifa, said she joined the parade to march for "equality in all walks of life". "Mainly for me, as a transsexual woman, it comes to the most basic things like walking in the street without fearing for my life," she told AFP. In the 2015 attack, a 16-year-old girl was stabbed to death and five other people were wounded. The attacker was Yishai Shlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who is now serving a life sentence. Shlissel had spent 10 years in jail after a similar attack on the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride march, and had been released just three weeks before the event, leading to criticism of the police. The Jerusalem parade has taken on added significance since then, with many from outside the gay community joining the march in solidarity and to call for tolerance. Israel has the most open attitude to homosexuality in the Middle East, with a large and influential gay community. But conservative Jerusalem, which is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is far less gay-friendly than liberal Tel Aviv. Bisexual Jerusalem resident Doron Mosenzon, a participant in the parade, said sexual orientation was not subject to religious or cultural boundaries. "The gay community is everywhere in all populations -- religious, secular, Jews, Arabs, Christians -- we are part of everyone and we've been here forever, and we will continue to be here and fight for our place here," he said. This year's parade, the 17th annual Jerusalem march, is being held under the banner of "Pride and Tolerance". Organisers had said they expected a high turnout due to what they say is a groundswell of public sympathy for gay rights in the wake of a recent law denying surrogacy rights to same-sex couples. On July 22 sympathisers around the country staged work stoppages and an estimated 60,000 people attended a solidarity rally in Tel Aviv. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three persons were arrested today for allegedly assaulting, abusing and chopping off a Muslim youth's beard at sector-37, here, police said. The accused were identified as Gaurav, Eklash from Uttar Pradesh and Nitin from Harayana, the police said. The incident occurred on July 31 when the accused started insulting the victim in Khandsa Mandi area. "Jaffruddin initially ignored the religious insults but he finally retorted. Following which, the accused persons assaulted Jaffruddin. Then they took him to a saloon and chopped his beard off", Gurgaon Police PRO Subhash Bokan told PTI. Before leaving the saloon, the accused warned the victim with dire consequences if he approached the police, the officer said. On the next day, Jaffruddin approached sector 37 Police Station and registered a case. A native of Haryana's Mewat, Jaffruddin had come to Gurgaon to meet his friend Ibrahim. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The University Grants Commission has found three cases of plagiarism in writing PhD thesis, including two involving vice chancellors of different universities, in the past three years, the government told Parliament today. The information was shared by Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh in response to a written question in Rajya Sabha. "The UGC has informed that three cases have come to their notice in last three years against Chandra Krishnamurthy, vice chancellor of Pondicherry University (2015); Anil Kumar Upadhyay, reader of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi (2017); and Vinay Kumar Pathak, vice chancellor of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow (2018)," Singh said. The minister informed that Chandra Krishnamurthy was dismissed from the post in July 2016, and the other two universities have been asked to take action against the two persons. With a view to check plagiarism in higher education, UGC has notified the Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions Regulations, 2018. "The objective of the regulations is to promote academic research and curb plagiarism by developing systems to detect it," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An eight-member Trinamool Congress (TMC) team that arrived at Silchar today was restricted inside the Kumbhirgram airport as section 144, CrPC was in force in Cachar district, Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Kuladhar Saikia said. The TMC leaders were barred from entering Guwahati in accordance with an order issued by city Police Commissioner Hiren Nath. The team members -- six TMC MPs, an MLA and a West Bengal minister -- were not arrested so far and discussions with them were on, Saikia told reporters here. Two women constables of Assam Police were injured during a scuffle with the TMC leaders, he said. The TMC team is in Silchar at the instruction of party chief Mamata Banerjee to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). After the TMC leaders arrived at the airport, the district administration and police officials explained to them that they would not be allowed to come out as prohibitory orders were in force, Saikia said. "They have sought time for discussions with their leader on their next course of action," he added. An additional director general of police (ADGP), the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, the district deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police "very respectfully" explained to the leaders that they would not be allowed to leave the airport as section 144, CrPC was in force, the DGP said. "Peace, law and order cannot be allowed to be disturbed. The senior civil and police officials explained to the leaders that their going out for meetings will tantamount to violation of the prohibitory orders in force and it is the responsibility of the law enforcement authorities to prevent violation of law," Saikia added. The authorities had already explained to the TMC team yesterday that prohibitory orders were in force and that it should not visit Silchar and disturb peace when it had informed the district administration of its visit to the Bengali-dominated town today to address meetings, he said. "But the team members did not respond cordially and engaged in a scuffle with the security forces and other government staff. Two Assam police women constables and a civil staff were injured," Saikia said. Banerjee had earlier alleged that the members of the TMC delegation, including women, were "manhandled" at the airport. Asked if legal action would be taken against the TMC leaders for getting into a scuffle with the security personnel, the DGP said, "Two cases can be filed -- one for violation of section 144, CrPC and another for injuring the police personnel." He added that those injured in the scuffle were provided medical treatment. Asked about the clamping of prohibitory orders in Cachar, Saikia said it was done as it was learnt from various sources and the media that certain speeches were made using inflammatory language and it was felt that it would disturb the peace in Assam. "When the NRC process is going on under the direction of the Supreme Court and its complete draft was published with the cooperation of all people in Assam and there is peace in the state, one section is trying to destroy it by creating disturbances. "We cannot allow them to take law into their hand. We cannot remain silent. We have to take measures," he added. Guwahati Police Commissioner Nath, in an order, said the TMC MPs, MLAs and any other political and non-political persons, who might deliver inflammatory speeches against the NRC, were prohibited from entering the city and address any gathering without the permission of the competent authority. Also, no passenger carrier, including surface or air transport, would carry such persons to the area under the Guwahati police commissionerate, the order said. The police commissioner stated that it was feared that the TMC leaders were likely to make controversial or inflammatory speeches in Guwahati, which might disturb peace and harmony in the commissionerate area. He said it was brought to his notice that after the publication of the draft NRC, TMC leaders had made inflammatory and controversial statements and speeches in West Bengal and were planning to address a press conference and group meetings in Guwahati tomorrow. The remarks of the TMC leaders were opposed by various political organisations and the decision to bar the delegation from entering the Guwahati commissionerate area was taken on the basis of his judgement and powers, Nath said. The order stated that any person aggrieved by it could contest it by appearing before the commissioner for filing a written objection. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Trinamool Congress is planning to move a privilege motion in Lok Sabha tomorrow against the detention of its members of parliament in Silchar in Assam today. The TMC delegation consisting six members of Parliament, one MLA and one minister from West Bengal government had left for Silchar to interact with people left out of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on Monday. The TMC has launched a strong protest against the draft NRC inside and outside Parliament. The members of the delegation has alleged that they were stopped at the Silchar airport and confined "unlawfully". "As soon as we landed in Silchar hundreds of state policemen led by commissioner and deputy commissioner surrounded us and confined us illegally and unlawfully in a room. They have even manhandled many of us. This is super emergency here," TMC lawmaker Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told reporters in New Delhi on the phone from Silchar airport. The matter was also raised inside Lok Sabha by party leader Saugata Roy, who said Assam is not out of the country and how Assam government could stop members of Parliament from entering Assam. "I said I will raise the privilege motion against the Assam government," Roy said. Launching a scathing attack on the BJP and its government in the state, TMC lawmaker Derek O'Brien said the delegation was stopped even though the members decided to go and meet the people left out of NRC in groups of two. They were stopped and "beaten up", he alleged. He claimed that though the police had informed the members of the delegation that they would not be allowed to move out as the situation is tense outside, police could not show any restraining order to prove its claims. "They are not law-breakers but lawmakers," O'Brien told reporters. The TMC delegation members, who staged a sit-in at Silchar airport, has accused the BJP of using the state administration for political vendetta. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Tamil Nadu government has issued an order transferring all idol theft cases in the state from idol wing police to the CBI, a decision flayed by the Opposition DMK. The Home department order, was issued yesterday when the government informing the Madras High Court that it had taken a policy decision to hand over all idol theft cases to the CBI as the idol wing was "not performing satisfactorily." The G.O, said factors like some cases having both domestic and international 'ramifications,' requirement of extradition in some cases and the involvement of central agencies as part of the investigation were considered for the transfer of the probe. Meanwhile, DMK Working President MK Stalin, questioned the motive behind the government transferring the probe to CBI. "When a fair probe is on under IG Pon Manickavel, the AIADMK government's decision to suddenly hand over the cases to the CBI has some hidden political motives," he said in a statement. He also questioned the government's move on the matter, saying the investigation was being monitored by the High Court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Catapulted to fame after being trolled, Hanan, a college student who sold fish to raise money, walked the ramp wearing a traditional half-saree to promote Khadi products here. She was all smiles and confident when she took part in the fashion show organised by the state-run Kerala Khadi Board as part of its Onam-Bakrid Expo yesterday. The 21-year-old was viciously trolled and faced cyber bully recently after the story of her struggle to fund her studies and take care of her family was widely shared on social media. Clad in a designer Khadi Kerala half-saree, Hanan walked the ramp amid thunderous applause from the audience at the Kanakakkunnu Palace in the heart of the city. The stage and packed audience was not new to Hanan as she had also worked as an anchor and flower girl for programmes to find money for her survival. Khadi Board Vice Chairman Shobhana George said the student was all happy to take part in the government-sponsored event. "She considered the opportunity as a recognition for her struggles to stand on her feet. She walked the ramp very confidently. Everyone appreciated her after the programme," George told PTI. The board would give similar platformsto her in future if any suitable opportunity arose, she said. Hanan had yesterday visited Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and thanked them for their support before taking part in the fashion show. She had described herself a "daughter of the government" who wishes to be protected while Vijayan later said in a Facebook post that he had assured her all government support and asked her to go ahead with courage. A B.Sc student at a private college at Thodupuzha in Idukki district, Hanan's story had gone viral last week after a Malayalam daily reported her struggles. Her touching story was widely shared on social media by several people, including film artistes and politicians. But, a section of social media users expressed doubts about her story and claimed it was "fake". The Chief Minister had directed the police to initiate action against the cyber bullies following which a man had been arrested under various sections of the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) On the direction of US President Donald Trump, his administration is considering to increase the proposed tariff of 10 per cent on import of Chinese products to 25 per cent, a top trade negotiator has said. Such a move would more than double its proposed tariff on import of Chinese products worth USD 200 billion. "The bottom line is the president is going to continue to hold China responsible for their unfair trade practices. This has gone on for long enough and he is going to do something about it," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at her daily conference yesterday. On June 18, Trump had directed US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to identify USD 200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 per cent, in response to China's decision to cause further "harm" to US workers, farmers, and businesses by imposing retaliatory duties on US goods. This process was initiated on July 10. "This week, the president has directed that I consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. The 25 per cent duty would be applied to the proposed list of products previously announced on July 10," Lighthizer said. He said the Trump administration continues to urge China to stop its "unfair practices", open its market, and engage in true market competition. "We have been very clear about the specific changes China should undertake. Regrettably, instead of changing its harmful behaviour, China has illegally retaliated against US workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses, he alleged. Lighthizer said the increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is intended at providing the Trump administration with additional options to encourage China to change its "harmful" policies and behaviour, and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of Americans. "The United States has joined forces with like-minded partners around the world to address unfair trade practices such as forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and we remain ready to engage with China in negotiations that could resolve these and other problems detailed in our Section 301 report," he said. Sanders said the United States would like to see the playing field level. "The president, as both he and about 15 members of his administration have said repeatedly, we'd like to see the unfair trade practices stop," she said. "But until that happens, the president is going to hold their feet to the fire. He is going to continue to put pressure on China and he is not going to sit back and allow American industries and American workers to be taken advantage of," Sanders asserted. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump today said he looks forward to meeting Kim Jong-un "soon", as he thanked the North Korean leader for handing over possible remains of US Korean War dead. Fifty-five cases of what are believed to be the remains of Americans who were killed or captured during the Korean War were transported to a military base in Hawaii yesterday, after they were handed over to US officials who had travelled to North Korea last week. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon!" Trump tweeted. The repatriation of US remains was agreed by the two leaders during their historic June summit in Singapore. An estimated 5,300 US service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 conflict in North Korea. In his tweet, Trump also thanked the young North Korean leader for his "nice letter", without elaborating. During the summit, President Trump had hinted the possibility of an invitation to Kim to visit him at the White House. Last month, North Korean state media reported that Kim had accepted Trump's invitation to visit the US. No date for a visit has been announced. But critics question whether the two leaders' bilateral meetings will yield its promised objective of "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula". US spy satellites have detected fresh activity at the North Korean facility that produced its first intercontinental ballistic missiles. Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told senators that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US military is beginning the painstaking process of analysing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of US forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after the caskets arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. "They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbors long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones," Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at their June summit in Singapore, for their return. Trump, in a tweet last night, thanked Kim "for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action." Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Pence said. "Today, our boys are coming home." The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. During his summit with Trump, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump was expressing an opinion and not issuing an order in the tweet in which he declared his Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop "right now" the high-profile probe by Special Counsel Robert Muller into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, the White House said today. Trump expressed his frustration over the ongoing probe by Mueller into the alleged Russian interference yesterday and asked Sessions to stop the "witch-hunt", a day after his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort went on trial. In a series of tweets, Trump asserted that neither he nor his campaign had any collusion with the Russians, and all the allegations were a total hoax. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump said in the tweet. "It's not an order. It's the president's opinion, and it's ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty that's gone on with the launching of the witch-hunt the president has watched this process play out, but he also wants to see it come to an end as he stated many times and we look forward to that," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. She told reporters at her daily conference that Trump was not indulging in obstruction of justice by issuing such a tweet. "The president is not obstructing; he's fighting back. The president is stating his opinion, he's stating it clearly, and he's certainly expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we've seen from people like Jim Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe," Sanders said. "There's a reason that the president's angry and, frankly, most of America is angry as well, and there's no reason he shouldn't be able to voice that opinion," Sanders said in response to a question. She alleged that the entire investigation was based on "a dirty, discredited dossier" that was paid for by an opposing campaign and had a great deal of corruption within the entity which was overseeing it, investigators like Strzok, Comey and McCabe. "We certainly think it should be completed. We'd like it to be completed sooner rather than later. It's gone on for an extensive amount of time. They've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. We'd like to see it come to a close," she said. Mueller, a former FBI director, is investigating whether the Trump camgain aided or abetted an attempt by Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election, or tried to cover up the conspiracy. Yesterday was the first day of his former campaign head Manafort's trial on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud which were brought by Mueller's team. Trump's tweet had raised the concern that he may try to more directly bring Mueller's probe to a premature end. Trump has repeatedly termed the probe as "a hoax". He also called it a "a disgrace to USA". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The West Bengal BJP unit today said the truth behind the collapse of a tent at a rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Midnapore on July 16 has come out only after a central team conducted an inquiry. An inquiry conducted by a central team to assess the circumstances leading to the collapse of a tent during the prime minister's rally has blamed the local authorities for the alleged lapses and said adequate cooperation was not provided to the advance security liaison team. "The real truth has come out after the central report. The truth is that neither the local police top brass nor the state PWD monitor the arrangements," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh told reporters here. "The PWD and the state intelligence should have inspected the meeting site, they should have contacted our men entrusted with the organisational aspect of the meeting at Midnapore and inspected the tent," he said. "None of the top police officials had contacted us even half an hour after the incident and it showed how slack they (state administration) was regarding a meeting of the prime minister," he said. The inquiry report, submitted to the Union Home Ministry, suggested that not enough state police personnel were deployed within 5-km radius of the Prime Minister's function, the report from Delhi said yesterday. The inquiry has also claimed that proper logistical help was not given to the advance security liaisoning team which visited the state two weeks before the Prime Minister's visit. The makeshift tent, erected next to the main entrance of the rally venue to shelter people from rain, collapsed when Modi was halfway through his speech on July 16. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court today directed the Tuticorin police to treat as one all 173 FIRs registered in connection with the violence during the anti-Sterlite protest in May in that district. A division bench of justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed gave the direction on a PIL by John Vincent and Pon Pandian. It said the case should be investigated on the basis of a single FIR and all remaining FIRs be converted into statements. The petitioner sought a probe into the matter on the basis of one FIR and treat the agitation on May 22 and 23 and the subsequent police firing, which left 13 people dead, as a single incident. Partly allowing the plea, the bench said the decision on the manner of investigation in the case was pending before the principal seat of the high court and added the petitioner could move there. The advocate, representing the government submitted that this was not possible as the case cannot be treated as a single incident because the anti-Sterlite groups vandalised a lot of government and private properties, 'incited' riots on the way to the Turicorin District Collectorate and 'attacked' the officials there. Noting that the FIRs had been filed against individuals, the bench sought to know if the message conveyed to the protesters was that if they get bail in one case, they could be arrested in another. "How brazen and insensitive can the State be? Is it oblivious or uncaring or did it do it with intent... by filing multiple FIRs on one occurrence," the judges asked. The manner in which the FIRs had been filed showed that everyone, even if he or she had played a small part during the protest, he or she would fear to hear a knock on the door at the stroke of midnight and face an arrest by the police, the judges observed. "The government should actually balm and heal their wounds, instead the police were threatening them," they said. The petitioners submitted that police were barred under the law to investigate into the case separately for the same occurrence for which the probe had already been transferred to the CB-CID. The police were acting with mala fide intention by filing numerous FIRs, arresting many people and implicating them in cases to stifle their voice," they claimed. Hence, the court should restrain the police from conducting independent investigation or effecting arrests on the basis of numerous FIRs and render all of them as null and void and quash them, they said. The anti-Sterlite agitation in Tuticorin went on peacefully for 99 days and turned violent on the 100th day leading to the police firing that left 13 people dead. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists were killed in an encounter today after they fired upon security forces in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. An INSAS rifle, snatched earlier this week from a policeman in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir, was recovered from the terrorists, they said. Security forces had established a check-point this afternoon at Khumriyal in Lolab area, a police spokesman said. The checking was going on when the terrorists fired upon the security personnel who immediately retaliated, he added. In the brief encounter, two militants were killed by the security forces, the spokesman said. The slain militants were identified as Zahoor Ahmad and Bilal Ahmad Shah of Shatmuqam village, he added. "They were affiliated to the proscribed terror outfit HM. Both the terrorists were involved in several attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities in the area," the spokesman said. He said besides an AK-47, an INSAS rifle, which was snatched from a policeman in Kandhar area of Kupwara on Tuesday, was recovered from the slain terrorists. No collateral damage occurred during the encounter, the spokesman said, adding police have registered a case and an investigation into the matter had been initiated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were killed when a truck skidded off the road and rolled down into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district today, police said. The deceased were identified as truck driver Irshad Ahmed and his helper Muneer Ahmed, they said. The truck was on its way to Dharamkund from Kohli, they added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government came under fire today as it emerged that it had allowed many foreign nationals, including Indians, to enter the country despite concerns that they had forced women into marriage for a British visa. An investigation by 'The Times' newspaper found that dozens of women who were sent overseas, to mostly South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to marry tried to block visas for their new husbands. However, according to records uncovered by the newspaper, of the 88 cases in which victims wanted to block visas, 42 were still granted by the UK Home Office despite attempts to prevent them. While charities working with victims of forced marriage have accused the government of "turning a blind eye" to the exploitation of British women, the UK Home Office "categorically denies" the allegation. "Even when officials know it's a forced marriage, they see tradition, culture or religion and they're reticent to deal with it. They are turning a blind eye," said Jasvinder Sanghera, herself a former forced marriage victim who set up Karma Nirvana as a charity to help other victims. Laws making it illegal to force someone into marriage in England and Wales were introduced in 2014. Anyone found guilty of the crime can be jailed for up to seven years. There have so far been two cases of conviction under this law, including a Bangladeshi-origin couple who were jailed for a total of eight years for forcing their daughter into marriage with a first cousin and a British Pakistani mother being jailed for forcing her daughter to marry a relative almost twice her age earlier this year. According to the UK government's Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), the four countries with the highest number of cases of British nationals being forced into a marriage against their will last year were Pakistan (439), Bangladesh (129), Somalia (91) and India (82). As part of the latest 'Times' investigation, figures released under the UK's freedom of information laws showed the Home Office had received 175 inquiries about victims trying to block spouses' visas last year. Of these, 88 became full cases, which included direct requests from victims known as "reluctant sponsors", requests from third parties or instances where an official suspected a forced marriage. Visas were still issued in 42 cases, while in 10 more the decision is still pending or an appeal is being heard. Charity workers have said that many of the victims are made to stay overseas until they become pregnant and returned to the UK to give birth because a child is believed to strengthen the foreign spouse's visa application. Their husbands then apply to join them in the UK, using visas sponsored by the UK family. Women can apply to block the visas but have to sign a public statement to the effect, something the charities warn results in many cases going unreported. The Home Office said today that the UK was a world leader in tackling the "horrendous crime of forced marriage". A spokesperson said: "We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. If an individual refuses to act as the sponsor for a visa application then under the immigration rules, that visa should not be issued. "There are a number of reasons why cases are referred to the Forced Marriage Unit, not all of which are the result of a reluctant sponsor getting in contact. In some cases it will be decided, following inquiries, that no further action is necessary and a visa will be issued." The Forced Marriage Unit brings together the UK's Home Office and Foreign Office to tackle cases forced marriages. In 2017, the unit gave advice or support in 1,196 cases. As well as a legal ban, British police also has the power to issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders to help potential victims. Any breach of such an order is punishable by up to five years in prison. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States Congress has passed the USD 716 billion defence spending bill which, among its many provisions, seeks to strengthen and enhance the country's defence partnership with India. India was designated a major defence partner in 2016, towards the fag end of the Obama Administration's tenure. While the succeeding Trump Administration is moving ahead with its plans to implement the unique designation for India, the US Congress through its John S McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2019 fiscal, passed by 87 to 10 votes yesterday, seeks to give it a legislative cover. The House had passed the bill last week. It now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law. In a joint conference report, which aligned the two different versions of the bill, the House and the Senate said the United States should strengthen and enhance its major defence partnership with India, and such a partnership should enable "strategic, operational and tactical coordination between our militaries, and be jointly developed between the countries". It also said the United States should work toward mutual security objectives by expanding engagement in multilateral frameworks, including the Quadrilateral Dialogue between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, to promote regional security and defend shared values and common interests in the rules-based order. The bill asks the Trump Administration to explore additional steps to implement the "major defence partner" designation to better facilitate military interoperability, information sharing and appropriate technology transfers; and pursue strategic initiatives to help develop India's defence capabilities, including maritime security capabilities. As passed by the two chamber of the Congress, the NDAA-2019 asks the US Government to improve cooperation on and coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief responses; conduct additional joint exercises with India in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean region, and the Western Pacific; and further cooperative efforts to promote security and stability. According to the bill, the Congress believes that the United States in cooperation with Japan, India, Australia, and other allies and partners, should work to uphold the values of a free and open Indo-Pacific region and promote regional security and stability through appropriate cooperation regarding the rule of law, peaceful resolution of disputes, maritime security, nonproliferation, and counterterrorism. Therefore, NDAA-2019 directs that, not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense provide to the congressional defense committees a briefing on the plans to enhance security cooperation among the United States, Japan, Australia, India, and other countries, including through military activities and exercises, capacity building efforts among other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, and joint regional infrastructure initiatives, it stated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after the US Congress passed a bill that seeks to provide waivers to America's strategic partners like India from punitive sanctions for doing business with Russia, proponents of such a move today introduced a new legislation with a new "hard-hitting" Russia sanctions package. The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver is intended at preventing US sanctions on countries like India. New Delhi is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems from Russia for around USD 4.5 billion. The Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2018 is a comprehensive legislation that would increase economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Russia in response to its alleged continued interference in US polls, malign influence in Syria, aggression across the Eastern Europe and other destabilising activities, they said. Introduced by Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with Senators Lindsey Graham, Bob Menendez, Cory Gardner, Ben Cardin and Jeanne Shaheen, the bill proposes a series of new sanctions on political figures, oligarchs and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It seeks sanction on transactions related to investment in energy projects supported by Russia's state-owned or parastatal entities, prohibition on and sanctions with respect to transactions relating to new sovereign debt of the Russian Federation and sectoral sanctions on any person in the Russian Federation that has the capacity or ability to support or facilitate malicious cyber activities. The introduced legislation also has a requirement for Secretary of State to submit a determination of whether Russia meets the criteria for designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. It seeks a prohibition on licenses for United States persons to engage in activities relating to certain projects to produce oil in Russia. It also proposes the set up an Office of Cyberspace and the Digital Economy within the Department of State to lead diplomatic efforts relating to international cybersecurity, Internet access, Internet freedom, the digital economy, cybercrime, deterrence and responses to cyber threats. "This bill would build on the strongest sanctions ever imposed on the Putin regime for its assault on democratic institutions, violation of international treaties, and siege on open societies through cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns," McCain said. "Our goal is to change the status quo and impose crushing sanctions and other measures against Putin's Russia until he ceases and desists meddling in the US electoral process, halts cyber-attacks on US infrastructure, removes Russia from Ukraine and ceases efforts to create chaos in Syria," Graham said, adding that the current sanctions regime has failed to deter Russia from meddling in the upcoming 2018 midterm polls. "The sanctions and other measures contained in this bill are the most hard-hitting ever imposed and a direct result of Putin's continued desire to undermine American democracy," Graham added. The US Congress has passed a defence spending bill that seeks to amend an existing law to provide waivers to America's strategic partners like India from punitive sanctions against those doing business with Russia's defence industry. The Senate passed the conference report on the National Defense Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has urged the to reverse a lower court order on the Mundra Power Plant in funded by a financial wing of the World Bank, arguing that the US-based enjoys absolute immunity. In a brief filed before the Supreme Court, the argued that all international organisations based out of the US should only be entitled to the same "restrictive" immunity that foreign governments have, and like foreign governments, should be subject to suit for injuries arising out of their commercial activities. In the brief filed before the apex court on Tuesday, it urged the to reverse the judgement by a lower court that (IFC), a financial wing of the World Bank, enjoys absolute immunity. By doing so, the administration supports the lawsuit filed against the IFC by Budha Ismail and several other fishermen from coastal alleging that coal-fired Mundra Power Plant has resulted in widespread environmental damage. A lower court had earlier ruled against the lawsuit arguing that the IFC enjoys absolute immunity. EarthRights International (ERI) which has taken up the case on behalf of Ismail and other Indian fisherman then approached the early this year. The apex court granted the petition in May this year. It is slated to come up for hearing in the next session beginning October. EarthRights International said the brief submitted by the before the Supreme Court supported Ismail and other fishermen. It claimed the IFC had a role in funding a destructive power plant project in that had devastated their community and the local environment. The IFC has not denied that the harms have occurred, but has argued that it is immune and cannot be held liable, no matter how illegal its conduct, and no matter how much harm it causes. This is for the first time that the Supreme Court will consider international organisation immunity. "We are pleased the Government has weighed in against absolute immunity," said Rick Herz of EarthRights International, one of the attorneys who represents the plaintiffs in the case. "We are optimistic the Court will use this opportunity to clarify that the law must be read to mean what it says: international organizations are entitled only to the same immunity as foreign governments," Herz said. The plaintiffs filed their opening brief last week explaining why the DC Circuit's holding is wrong and the IFC is not immune from suits for commercial activity. The US government's brief filed this week adds substantial weight to that argument, emphasising the clear congressional intent to subject international organisations like the IFC to the same immunity rules as foreign governments, and the consistent position of the executive branch, which has for decades recognised only restrictive immunity for international organisations. A number of other amicus curiae briefs were also filed this week, including briefs by a bipartisan group of a Members of Congress, International Law Scholars, and environmental, human rights, and development-focused advocacy organisations that have experience working with the IFC. All of them have argued that the DC Circuit's absolute immunity holding is wrong and should be reversed. The congressional brief explains "[t]here is no reason that international organisations should be immune to suit in cases where the states that created them are not," as that would permit states "to evade legal accountability merely by acting through international organisations". The brief from advocacy organisations refutes the IFC's suggestion that restrictive immunity would "open the floodgates". It argues that allowing suit in cases like this one, where even the IFC's own ombudsman has condemned its conduct, would increase the accountability of these institutions and help restore the IFC's credibility as a poverty-fighting institution, which has already been damaged by the public perception that it "consider[s] itself to be above the law". In addition to EarthRights International, the plaintiffs are also represented before the Supreme Court by the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Clinic and O'Melveny and Meyers. The US State Department has applauded for removing several suspicious accounts "orchestrated from abroad" and were believed to be involved in spreading disinformation. The reaction came yesterday, a day after the social media giant removed 32 fake accounts and pages that, it says, were involved in "coordinated unauthentic behaviour" and political influence campaign to manipulate voters ahead of the November mid-term elections in the United States. "We applaud Facebook's decision to expunge accounts, orchestrated from abroad, that foment division and violence inside the United States," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said. "These efforts are part of a broader external campaign aimed at weakening America and threatening our way of life by pitting citizens against each other and sowing discord in general," she said, and urged all technology to take an aggressive approach to this insidious problem. Demanding and all other "malign" actors immediately cease this reckless behaviour, Nauert asserted that the United States will not tolerate foreign, including Russian, attempts to subvert American democratic processes and institutions. Though has not yet attributed the accounts to any group, it said the campaign does bear some resemblance to the propaganda campaign allegedly run by Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election. During a Congressional hearing, Senator Richard Burr said 60 per cent of the US population uses "A foreign power using the platform to influence how Americans see, think about one another is as much a public policy issue as it is a national security concern," he said. ALSO READ: Facebook detects political campaign to influence US midterm polls this year Senator Mark Warner said social media have a lot of work to do in this regard. "All the evidence this committee has seen to date suggests that platform companies, namely, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, still have a lot of work to do," he said. Vietnamese smartphone brand Mobiistar launched its series of selfie smartphones here today, marking its entry into the offline market of the southern States of India. The phones were priced in the range of Rs 4,000-Rs 11,000 in the country. Mobiistar was co-founded by Carl Ngo in 2009 and it established itself as a leading brand in Vietnam and recently expanded to Southeast Asia and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. "On May 23, we officially announced our presence in India," Carl Ngo told reporters. The products were available online. "With our new range of selfie-centric smartphones, we aim to be the part of top five smartphone brands in the affordable segment by this year-end," he said. The company launched the offline operation with the partnership of 600 distributors across India, he said. The company plans to hire about 3,000 people, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called the TMC supremo a "chameleon" and accused her of hankering after the prime minister's post. In a no-holds-barred attack on the West Bengal chief minister, Chowdhury alleged that Banerjee is acting like a "Trojan Horse" and trying to divide a "united opposition" by floating the idea of a federal front, and urged leaders of various parties not to trust her. "Her single objective is to be the prime minister of India. She is hankering after the post of prime minister. She is having a 'Devegowda-syndrome and Gujral-syndrome'," he said. Chowdhury also accused Banerjee of trying to "finish" and "eliminate" the Congress in West Bengal on one hand and seeking the party's support for the next Lok Sabha elections on the other. "She is nothing but a 'chameleon' who is changing her colours. She is an unreliable, unpredictable politician and Congress and other leaders should not trust her at all," he told PTI. "Mamata Banerjee is a dictator and is now trying to project herself as a 'female monk'. She is trying to eliminate the Congress in West Bengal by not allowing us to either vote or stand in elections and our leaders are put behind bars. It seems that doing in Bengal is a crime," he said adding "we are the victims of of elimination in the state". The PCC chief, who has been a staunch Mamata-baiter, said she is trying to extract as many seats as possible in Bengal so that she can stake her claim for the prime minister's post in the next Lok Sabha elections. Chowdhury said Banerjee is thinking that she will become the prime minister with the support of the other opposition parties and that is why she is declining to offer the Congress any seats in Bengal. He said at a time when Rahul Gandhi is talking of uniting the entire opposition, "Mamata Banerjee is trying to create a divide in the opposition ranks" by talking of a third front. "She is only trying to suit herself," he said. Accusing Banerjee of adopting "double standards", the Congress leader said on one hand she is talking of 40 lakh people who were left out in Assam-NRC, on the other she is putting up barricades on the state borders. He also recalled how Mamata Banerjee moved an adjournment motion in Parliament in 2005 against illegal immigrants in Bengal and demanded she clarify her stand on the issue. Banerjee yesterday met leaders of various parties in the national capital including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi as part of efforts to forge an anti-BJP front. "We discussed the political situation. We discussed how the opposition can together take on the BJP because it knows that it will not come back to power," she had said after the nearly 30-minute meeting with the Gandhis. Banerjee said she also discussed the NRC issue as 40 lakh people have not been included in it and "genuine voters have been kept out". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Women and Child Development has directed the states to inspect all child care institutions in the aftermath of the alleged sexual abuse of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Bihar, a senior ministry official said today. The ministry has asked collectors of the respective areas to conduct a probe into the matter and submit a report, he said. "We have asked the states to get 100 per cent of the child care institutions inspected by their collectors and send a report to the ministry," the WCD ministry official said. Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi had earlier directed the officials to set up a mechanism wherein women and children at shelter homes are able to reach out to them in the backdrop of the recent sexual assault cases. About 34 minor girls were allegedly sexually abused at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur with medical reports confirming rape. The case was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai to the Bihar Social Welfare Department, in April. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) CPI(M) member Jharna Das Baidya today raised the issue of attacks on and murder of journalists and sought to know the steps the government has taken to check such incidents. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, she said five journalists have been killed in 2018. She referred to the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari in Kashmir, Gauri Lankesh in Karnataka, two in Tripura and one in Punjab. "Several journalists are being attacked," she said, adding that whoever speaks against corruption or violation was being attacked. Baidya also wanted to know what steps the government has taken to protect journalists from attacks. TMC member Derek O'Brien joined Baidya on the issue. Expressing concern, he said "someone doing a story which someone doesn't like, next day they (journalists) have to leave". Earlier, JD(U) member Ram Nath Thakur spoke about the poor financial condition of a Kargil War hero, Lance Naik (Retd) Satbeer Singh. Thakur said as per reports, Singh was washing dishes and glasses at a juice shop. The JD(U) MP demanded that the government should fulfil all the promises made to the war heroes. To this, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said all dues have been paid to Singh. "I understand the concern expressed by the member. But I may have to put it on record ... every due that had to be paid ...has been paid to him. Every other further requirement that he may have, we are quite willing," the Minister said. In response to the Minister's comment, Naidu said: "Please be liberal...you have done your duty but be liberal" if something more can be done. Another CPI member Binoy Viswom brought to the notice of the House that Air India and other foreign airlines were charging very high fares from Gulf nations to Kerala. BJP member Shwait Malik said people were being duped by illegal travel agents in Punjab, while Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa expressed concern over brain drain. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Wisconsin man was preparing for additional surgeries after having part of his legs and forearms amputated because of a dog lick that led to a rare blood infection, his wife has said. Greg Manteufel, 48, has been hospitalised since late June, when he went to a Milwaukee-area hospital with flu-like symptoms. He was in good spirits despite having undergone seven surgeries so far, his wife, Dawn Manteufel, told The Associated Press yesterday. She said her husband was heading into the operating room again yesterday and still had three more surgeries to go, but that he was looking forward to being fitted for prosthetic limbs. "He's happy to be here. He said he didn't come this far to cry about it and say, 'Why me?'" she said. Her husband was diagnosed with a blood infection caused by capnocytophaga, bacteria that is common in the saliva of cats and dogs but almost never leads to illness, said Dr Silvia Munoz-Price, an epidemiologist with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, where Manteufel is being treated. The doctor said animal lovers have no need to panic: They're more likely to die in a car accident than to be infected by the bacteria. "It's extremely rare. Do not get rid of your pets. Continue behaving the same way that you have behaved with your pets up until now," Munoz-Price said. Dawn Manteufel said her husband's symptoms began on June 26, with a fever and pain in his legs. But then he started experiencing delirium, and bruises and blemishes developed during the short car ride to a hospital in West Bend, Wisconsin, where he was treated initially, she said. The infection caused Greg Manteufel's blood pressure to drop and circulation in his limbs to rapidly decrease, which in itself isn't unusual for blood infections, Munoz-Price said. The infection was quickly cleared with antibiotics, but the problem in Manteufel's case "was that his body mounted an overwhelming response to this original blood infection and he shut down the circulation of his limbs," the doctor said. Doctors first amputated Manteufel's legs, just below the knee. His forearms were amputated two weeks later, his wife said. The tip of her husband's nose also lost blood circulation and will need surgery to repair, she said. It's unknown which dog gave Manteufel the infection. He and his wife own an 8-year-old pit bull, but she said her husband came in contact with several dogs in the days leading to his infection, including a stray he encountered during his job as a house painter. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 74 per cent of dogs and up to 57 per cent of cats have capnocytophaga. People also have a different strain of the same bacteria in their mouths, Munoz-Price said. "We have trillions of bacteria in our bodies. Usually those bacteria live happily with us. Sometimes they act up," she said. The CDC doesn't track the number of infections from capnocytophaga. Dawn Manteufel said that once her husband is released from the hospital, he will temporarily move in with his parents because they live in a one-story home that will be easier for him to navigate. Eventually, she said, she and her husband will have to sell the two-story house they've lived in for 18 years and move elsewhere. "His words are, 'It is what it is,'" Dawn Manteufel said. A GoFundMe page to raise money for the Manteufels has been set up by a relative. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman chopped off her husband's genitals for allegedly neglecting her and "staying with his second wife", police said today. The incident took place in the Mimlana area yesterday. The man was rushed to a hospital in a serious condition, they said. The man had married the second time with consent of his first wife, as they did not have a child. The second wife had recently given birth to a child, Station House Officer, Kotwali police station, Anil Kaperwan said. He had been staying at his second wife's residence for some time, and it apparently angered the woman, he said. The man's relatives have filed a complaint with police against his first wife, the SHO said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Taking serious note of alleged gang rape of a pregnant woman in Sangli district, the Maharashtra State Commission for Women today sought a report from the police. According to local police, a woman was allegedly raped by eight men at Tasgaon in the district, 380 km from here, on July 31. The victim was said to be eight months pregnant. The commission, in its letter to the district Superintendent of Police, cited local media reports and sought to know what action police had taken to arrest the accused. "Taking into consideration the seriousness of the crime, you (the SP) should personally intervene in the matter and take suitable action. Also submit the report of action taken at the earliest," the letter said. When contacted, SP Suhel Sharma said that police were probing the case, and would send a report to the commission soon. Nobody has been arrested in the case so far, a local police official told PTI. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) "Westworld" star Zahn McClarnon is in negotiations to come aboard the cast of "Doctor Sleep". "Doctor Sleep", published in 2013, is the sequel to King's "The Shining", which was adapted in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick for a film by the same name, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in the lead. The new film will feature Ewan McGregor as adult Danny Torrance and Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat. If the deal goes through, cClarnon, 51, will portray Crow Daddy, the right-hand man of Ferguson's character, reported Variety. The film, to be directed by Mike Flanagan, will follow Danny, who is an angry alcoholic dealing with his re-emerging psychic powers by working in a hospice, where he helps dying patients and earns the nickname "Dr. Sleep". Into his life enters Abra Stone, a little girl with psychic abilities of her own, and Danny finds himself caught up in a battle with a group of murderous kidnappers that want her essence. Warner Bros had recently announced that "Doctor Sleep" will release in January 2020. McClarnon most recently featured in the second season of hit HBO series "Westworld" and earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Akecheta, the Native American host, in the "Kiksuya" episode of the show. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Zimbabwean authorities has said the military will remain in the capital until "this situation is over," a reference to opposition protests over alleged manipulation of Monday's election results. Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu accused the opposition of using the presence of international election observers to "grandstand" and cause "anarchy." The officials offered no new information on the three people killed after the military swept into Harare yesterday and started shooting to disperse opposition protesters. Police have said they requested the military's help because they were "unable to cope." Both the opposition and Western election observers have urged that results of the presidential election be released as soon as possible. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says "sometime tomorrow" it will say when those will be announced. Zimbabwe's president has urged political leaders to advocate for peace "as this day that ended in tragedy comes to a close." President Emmerson Mnangagwa is tweeting not long after he blamed the opposition for deadly violence in the capital that he said was "meant to disrupt the electoral process." Zimbabweans were shocked after the military swept into Harare and opened fire to disperse opposition supporters protesting alleged manipulation in Monday's election. At least three people were killed. Both the opposition and Western election observers have urged that results of the presidential election be released as soon as possible. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says "sometime tomorrow" it will say when those will be announced. Mnangagwa blamed the opposition supporters for the violence in the capital that began with protests over Monday's election results and ended with the military sweeping in with gunfire. President Mnangagwa, in a statement carried by state media, said the opposition under Nelson Chamisa were responsible for the chaos "meant to disrupt the electoral process." Police have invoked a strict security act that forbids public gatherings. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change told reporters that Chamisa is "shocked" by the events in Harare. A spokesperson said, "We are seriously meant to wonder that this means. Are we at war?" The opposition says it condemns violence in all its forms." Both the opposition and Western election observers have urged that presidential election results be released as soon as possible. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says "sometime tomorrow" it will say when those will be released. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - German fashion house Hugo Boss posted a 6 percent rise in currency-adjusted sales in the second quarter, lifted by demand in Europe and Asia as rival high-end brands report resilient sustained appetite from Chinese shoppers. The company said revenues for the April to June period came in at 653 million euros ($760.55 million), picking up slightly from a quarter earlier and beating the averaged analyst forecasts of 645 million euros in an Inquiry Financial poll. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special items was down 1 ... By Kanupriya Kapoor and Aye Min ThantNAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar has scaled back plans for a Chinese-backed port on its western coast, sharply reducing the cost of the project after concerns it could leave the Southeast Asian nation heavily indebted, a top government official and an advisor told Reuters.The initial $7.3 billion price tag on the Kyauk Pyu deepwater port, on the western tip of Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine state, set off alarm bells due to reports of troubled Chinese-backed projects in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the official and the advisor said.Deputy Finance Minister Set ... By Manoj KumarNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to delay the imposition of retaliatory duties on U.S. goods, the trade ministry said on Thursday, to allow time to resolve disputes that worsened after President Donald Trump imposed tariff hikes on steel and aluminium.In June, New Delhi, incensed by Washington's refusal to exempt it from these new tariffs, announced it would raise import tax on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.An Indian commerce ministry spokesman said the government proposed to put the new tariffs, which were due to go into effect on Aug. 4, on hold. ... By Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - Inmarsat talked up its prospects as a standalone company after it rebuffed an approach from EchoStar last month but its shares slipped after a lacklustre performance from its maritime business.The British satellite operator was able to reiterate guidance as it reported a 5 percent rise in quarterly revenue, driven by demand from airlines and governments.Its shares were down 6 percent after the results at 545.2 pence at 1315 GMT, although they remain well above the levels they were trading at before it rejected EchoStar's first approach in June.Analysts at ... By Alexandra AlperRIO DE JANEIRO(Reuters) - Rising crude prices should buoy quarterly results at Petrobrasbut Brazil's state-controlled oil company faces questions about its future given recently imposed fuel price controls as well as legal and political obstacles to asset sales. Petroleo Brasileiro SA's second-quarter results on Friday will come just two months after a nationwide trucker strike over rising diesel prices forced Brazil to begin subsidizing Petrobras diesel sales. The move sparked concerns about renewed political meddling and drove investor darling Pedro Parente to resign as ... LONDON (Reuters) - British engine-maker Rolls-Royce said that its 2018 results would come in at the upper half of its guidance range, after its civil aerospace and power systems businesses posted a stronger than expected first-half performance. The upgrade to guidance comes despite the company being under pressure to fix problems with its Trent 1000 engine which powers the Boeing 787. A parts durability issue has grounded planes resulting in Rolls facing extra costs. Rolls said in its half-year report on Thursday that it would be recognising an exceptional charge of 554 million pounds ($726 ... DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair's directly-employed pilots in Ireland will join colleagues in Sweden and Belgium on strike in an escalating day of action on Aug. 10, the fifth one-day walkout in the airline's home market.Ryanair has suffered strikes in some of its other main markets such as Spain and Portugal as it struggles to reach collective labour agreements across Europe, and expects to face action in Germany and the Netherlands as well on Aug. 10. The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, has responded by threatening to move jobs away from any bases affected by the stoppages, ... SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines Ltd's budget arm Scoot said on Thursday it would raise fares across its network by an average of about 5 percent in response to a surge in oil prices that had pushed up costs.The fare hike, effective Sept. 1, will add $5 to S$30 ($3.66 to $21.98) to the cost of each one-way journey depending on the flight duration, the airline said in a statement.Carriers around the world are attempting to raise fares to help recoup the rising cost of fuel, with the oil price up 40 percent to $73 a barrel over the last year.The International Air Transport Association ... By Nidhi VermaNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's monthly oil imports from Iran surged by about 30 percent to a record 768,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, as state refiners' intake surged ahead of U.S. sanctions in November, preliminary tanker arrival data obtained by Reuters showed.The shipments also include some parcels that were loaded in June and arrived in India last month, the data obtained from trade sources showed.July volumes were about 85 percent higher than year ago shipments of about 415,000 bpd, the data showed.State refiners that had cut imports from Iran in 2017/18 due to a ... Lahmeyer International GmbH Lahmeyer prepares master plan for water resources and hydropower development in Nepal ID: 1539305 On 26 June, Lahmeyer International signed a contract for a major project in Nepal with the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS). The Himalayan country is launching a study to set up a master plan for river basin and hydropower development. (firmenpresse) - On 26 June, Lahmeyer International signed a contract for a major project in Nepal with the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS). The Himalayan country is launching a study to set up a master plan for river basin and hydropower development. Within the scope of the project, Lahmeyer and the joint venture partner Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research (China) will prepare a comprehensive study on the topic for all river basins in Nepal. The goal of the study is to sustainably develop and manage water resources of each river basin. This includes identifying the optimum balance of economic, social and environmental benefits and at the same time considering medium and long-term planning horizons. The development plan will help the country to make better use of its enormous water resources potential of more than 6,000 rivers and rivulets and to satisfy the growing energy demand. Roadmap on Nepal Over the next three years, Lahmeyer will carry out extensive consultations with a broad range of stakeholders. The intended result is a roadmap for the development of water resources projects, particularly hydropower plants and dams, in the country for the next 30 years. At the moment, the company is mobilizing local and international staff for the project. While preparing the study, the joint venture will perform detailed modelling analyses to assess existing and planned hydropower projects as well as environmental and social baseline conditions and future mitigation measures. Based on the findings, the WECS will be the lead agency for development of irrigation, water resources and hydropower in Nepal. Determining the optimal use of water The project is handled by the Sustainable Water and Land Resources Development. Department head Dr. Beau Freeman is looking forward to starting the study: Lahmeyer Since December 2014, Lahmeyer belongs to Tractebel, and thus is part of the ENGIE Group. As an international company of consulting engineers, Lahmeyer offers a wide range of planning and consultancy services. The main fields of activity are complex infrastructure projects in the Energy, Hydropower and Water Resources Sectors as well as in Building and Transportation. With origins dating back to 1890, the company has grown into one of the leading international companies with project experience in 165 countries. Tractebel with head office in Brussels (Belgium) and its subsidiary company Lahmeyer with head office in Bad Vilbel near Frankfurt (Germany) cooperate on many international projects and keep growing closer as one company. Lahmeyer International GmbH Ralf kleine Brormann Manager Marketing Communications Friedberger Strae 173 D-61118 Bad Vilbel Tel: +49 6101 55 1714 Fax: +49 6101 55 1785 ralf.kleinebroermann(at)de.lahmeyer.com Juristisches zu dieser Pressemitteilung Weitere Pressemitteilungen von Lahmeyer International GmbH Bereitgestellt von Benutzer: Lahmeyer_SEODatum: 02.08.2018 - 05:52 UhrSprache: DeutschNews-ID 1539305Anzahl Zeichen: 5901contact information:Contact person: Ralf kleine BrormannTown:Phone: Tel: +49 6101 55 1714Kategorie:Typ of Press Release: Unternehmensinformationtype of sending: VeroffentlichungDate of sending:Anmerkungen:Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bishermal aufgerufen.Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung vonBeachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschlu (gema TMG - TeleMedianGesetz ) und dem Datenschutz (gema der DSGVO ). Ajanta Pharma, one of the fastest growing and leading mid-sized Indian drug companies, is planning a mega push into the US drug market. Ajanta has commercialized 18 products in the past few years and 18 other products are under approval. The company is planning to file 10-12 products during the current year and similar filings every year in future, said Yogesh Agrawal, managing director of the company. Of the Rs 1434 crore overall revenues from exports in FY18, the USA contributed Rs 194 crore for Ajanta with a five per cent growth over the previous year. "We have constructed a new USFDA approved facility at Dahej in Gujarat and have three formulation facilities in Aurangabad, of which one is USFDA approved. We spent 9 per cent (Rs186 crore) last year alone on research and development, which is one among the highest R&D spend rate in the industry," Agrawal said. Now Ajanta has a team of 850 scientists and a new building is under construction to house the R&D team. "In the last five years, we invested Rs 1500 years to create infrastructure and this was mostly done from the cash generated," he added. During the last decade, Yogesh Agrawal and his younger brother Rajesh Agrawal have scaled up the company from Rs 309 crore to Rs 2131 crore, mainly by tapping the African market. Ajanta had a five year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent in the past five years in consolidated total income, which grew from Rs 1230 core in FY 2014 to Rs 2155 crore in FY 2018. Profit After Tax (PAT) also grew at a CAGR of 19 per cent during the period to Rs. 469 crore. For the first quarter of FY2019, sales were up by 8 per cent to Rs. 511 crore and PAT grew by 12 per cent to Rs 106 crore. Yogesh Agrawal says Africa is the biggest market for Ajanta. Its branded generic business grew 30 per cent in last financial year to Rs 355 crore. However, institutional sales in the region fell by 13 per cent to Rs 384 crore. The company has 1383 product registrations in that market and is the 4th largest company in terms of sales in the Franco-African market (French speaking African countries). Ajanta is specialized in segments like anti-malaria, cardio, ophthalmology, multivitamins, antibiotics, gynecology, pain management etc. In the domestic market, the company had sales of Rs 629 crore in FY18, with a marginal growth of 2 per cent. Indian sales are mainly driven by cardiology products, which contribute 41 per cent of India sales. Ajanta is ranked 32nd in the Indian Pharmaceutical Market and is the third largest seller of ophthalmic products, according to a March 2018 data from drug sales tracking agency IMS-MAT. The company sells nearly 270 products through 3000 plus sales representatives in the Indian market. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp topped analysts' estimates for quarterly profit on Thursday, as clients in the healthcare and financial industries spent more for its services. The company has been investing heavily in its digital services amid a tight cap on spending from its clients. Cognizant gets the largest chunk of its revenue from financial services and healthcare clients. Revenue from its financial services sector, which accounts for more than a third of its total revenue, rose 4.5 percent, while revenue from healthcare services rose 10.1 percent in the second quarter. Cognizant said it expected current-quarter revenue to be between $4.06 billion to $4.10 billion, below analysts' average estimate of $4.12 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. The Teaneck, New Jersey-based company said net income fell to $456 million, or 78 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30 from $470 million, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned $1.19 per share. Revenue rose to $4.01 billion from $3.67 billion. The jobs debate in India is unlikely to settle down anytime soon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers have time and again said that India does not have a job creation problem, it has a jobs data problem. In other words, the country is creating enough jobs, it is simply that we do not have the right surveys that capture the jobs being created. The opposition of course begs to differ. The jobs debate has also sharply divided economists and economic analysts. Pulok Ghosh of IIM Bangalore and Soumya Kanti Ghosh of SBI used Employee Provident Fund Data (EPFO) and other indices to try and estimate the number of formal sector jobs created. Their conclusion was that job creation in the formal sector was pretty robust and there was no need to worry. Surjit Bhalla also wrote a column which estimated that jobs were being created all round and that carping critics were just trying to run down the government. He came up with an estimate of almost 15 million jobs created in 2017, using two sets of data -- one from CMIE and one from the EPFO. Meanwhile, other economists have been far more pessimistic. Quite a few have pointed to flaws in the Ghosh & Ghosh methodology, which could lead to overestimating formal jobs. Mahesh Vyas, chief of CMIE, which conducts a fairly comprehensive household survey has pointed out flaws in both the Ghosh & Ghosh calculations as well as Surjit Bhalla's analysis. His conclusion from the CMIE surveys was that very few jobs were being created. Now a new estimate has come out - ASK Wealth Advisors have come out with a report which tries to estimate jobs using a completely new methodology -- the Sit-Stand-Go model. The report is authored by Somnath Mukherjee, managing partner, and Dipankar Mitra, associate director, Research. Their methodology relies on proxies (and some surveys) to come up with the number of about 5 million non-farm jobs being created annually in India, which is neither as pessimistic as Mahesh Vyas' estimates nor as optimistic as Ghosh & Ghosh or Surjit Bhalla. It falls, in fact, somewhere in the middle of those two contrasting estimates. The ASK methodology is interesting because it first breaks non-farm jobs into three clear categories and tries to estimate each. The first is the number of office jobs created (or Sit jobs), which they calculate using data on commercial office space created and leased out, and estimating the number of employees that would be required for this sort of office space. The conclusion is that roughly 1 million jobs have been created if their estimates are correct. (They say they are conservative in their estimates). The second category of jobs belong to what they dub as the "stand" jobs - jobs created in factories, construction, retail spaces, hospitality and educational and medical facilities or the FRESHH sectors. The report estimates that this created the largest number of jobs - about 2-3 million jobs annually. The calculation here is derived largely from the Quantitative Employment Scenario(QES) of the Labour Bureau mostly and extrapolating from there. Finally, there are the "On the Go" jobs -- those created in logistics, transportation, etc. Here the report depends on surveys and estimates provided by these sectors after accounting for a certain number of desk or sitting jobs created in this sector. The estimate here is roughly 1 million jobs annually. The authors point out that there are problems in some of the data, especially in the QES as it is a fairly new indicator. But then, as the government itself pointed out and this column has pointed out earlier, there is good agreement on what kind of surveys need to be done for reliable job statistics - only the government is not moving quickly enough on it. In the absence of those, this method is no worse than the others, and it at least provides a fresh look at how to get job creation estimates. After the launch of BlackBerry Key2, the official licensee for BlackBerry, Optiemus Infracom has announced the launch of two new smartphones for the Indian market. Evolve and Evolve X will be available exclusively on Amazon India, for Rs 24,990 and Rs 34,990. The smartphones have been conceptualised, designed and manufactured in India. Running Android 8.1 Oreo, both the devices feature BlackBerry protection. The Evolve X is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor paired with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage with support for expandable memory. It features a 12-megapixel and a 13-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus and dual tone LED flash and a 16-megapixel fixed focus front camera. The Evolve, on the other hand, is powered by a Qualcomm 450 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel and a 13-megapixel dual camera setup and a 16-megapixel front camera. Speaking about the launch, Hardip Singh, Executive Director, Optiemus Infracom said, "We are constantly working to offer cutting-edge technology and the best and the most secured experience to consumers at a competitive price point. With BlackBerry Evolve and EvolveX, we have worked hard to refine design and technology elements, keeping users' convenience, experience and privacy at the core. We are confident that our newly launched devices will be well received by people." Both the new smartphones feature a 5.99 inch display with 1080x2160 pixel resolution, 18:9 aspect ratio and are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. While both the phones pack in a 4000 mAh battery, only the Evolve X supports Wireless charging and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. BlackBerry has developed a Power Centre custom profile and boost charge feature for the device. The devices support fingerprint sensor, which is capable of unlocking in 0.3 seconds and Face Unlock with 0.4 seconds unlock time. Both the devices come loaded with BlackBerry Hub -- a unified messaging inbox which conveniently combines emails, texts and messages from social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BBM, WhatsApp, Instagram and others. Microfinance Irelands Annual Report and Accounts for 2017 have been published today and show that 22.6m of loans have been approved under the Microenterprise Loan Fund since 2012, supporting 3,952 jobs in borrowing companies throughout Ireland. Microfinance Ireland is a not-for-profit lender established in 2012 to deliver the Governments Microenterprise Loan Fund. Microfinance Ireland benefits from a guarantee funded by the European Union under the Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EASI). Microfinance Ireland provides an alternative source of funding to micro-enterprises both new and existing - who may be having difficulties in accessing finance from commercial providers. It ultimately supports the creation and/or retention of jobs. Micro-enterprises are defined as any business with less than 10 employees and annual turnover of less than 2M. Significantly, almost 80% of Microfinance Ireland loan approvals go to microenterprises outside of Dublin which the Government say is vital in supporting its target of creating 135,000 jobs outside of Dublin by 2020. Speaking today, Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen said, "The work of MFI is continuing to have a positive impact across Ireland, contributing to the Governments objectives in relation to regional economic development and job creation. Importantly, most of its customers continue to be start-ups and from vulnerable sectors such as youth, unemployed, females, migrants and seniors." He added, "In March last year MFI was recognised internationally by the European Investment Fund achieving best in class under the European Commissions European Code of Good Conduct for microfinance provision. I congratulate Garrett Stokes, CEO of Microfinance Ireland and his team on their continued good work." Source: www.businessworld.ie It was announced today that Bank of Ireland has pledged to provide 20,000 nursing hours for Jack and Jill families across Ireland during its partnership with the charity. The Banks fundraising efforts have already reached 11,000 hours, thanks to extensive fundraising initiatives by its staff nationwide. In addition to supporting the Jack and Jill Up the Hill event, Bank of Ireland colleagues most recently came together for a Lip Sync Battle which raised over 56,000 resulting in 3,500 nursing hours, a lifeline for the 355 Jack & Jill families across the country. Later this year, the Bank will also see 60 staff members brave a 5-day cycle from Malin to Mizen head to raise further funds for this noble cause. Fundraising efforts such as these make it possible to provide a bespoke care plan that is designed around the whole family, operating 365 days a year, with no waiting list and no means test. Speaking about the nursing hours funded to date, Group Chief Risk Officer at Bank of Ireland, Vincent Mulvey said, "We are honoured to be involved in raising funds for Jack and Jill whose team of nurses deliver such an incredible service for families of sick children around the country. Id like to thank my colleagues in Bank of Ireland who have rallied together and been central to our fundraising drive which has delivered an incredible 11,000 nursing hours to date. With 20,000 hours pledged by the end of the partnership period, we are bringing one element of our Purpose to life; enabling our communities to thrive." Interim CEO of The Jack & Jill Childrens Foundations, Carmel Doyle added, "Every 16 raised by Bank of Ireland staff funds one hour of home nursing care and respite. The Jack & Jill care model is all about giving the gift of time to families, to allow them a break to do the normal things that we all take for granted like sleeping, working, shopping, banking or taking the other kids to the park." Source: www.businessworld.ie According to the latest IE Domain Registry Domain Profile Report, 154 were registered every day between January and the end of June 2018, with increases in thirty-one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. The biannual report, which examines the makeup of the .ie domain database, found that new .ie domain registrations grew by +39% year-on-year to 28,126, bringing the total .ie domain database to 252,222 at the end of the first half of 2018. The majority (62.5%), of new .ie domains were registered by businesses (including corporate bodies and sole traders). When new .ie registrations are broken down geographically, Leinster, including Dublin, registered 17,544 new .ie domains, or 67% of all new registrations on the island of Ireland, in the first half of 2018. This is a +39% increase year-on-year. Munster followed, with 19% of registrations, Connacht recorded 9% of registrations and Ulster 5%. Every county on the island of Ireland, bar Fermanagh, recorded an increase in new .ie registrations in the first half of 2018. On a county level, Dublin registered 11,134 new .ie domains in the first half of 2018, accounting for 42.5% of all new registrations on the island of Ireland. Cork registered the second-highest number of new .ie domains, 2,221 (8.5% of all new registrations), followed by Galway (1,330, 5%) and Kildare (1,258, 5%). Leitrim, registering 179 .ie domains in H1 2018, recorded the highest year-on-year registration growth in the country (+113%). Commenting on the results, Chief Executive of IE Domain Registry, David Curtin said, "Virtually every county in Ireland recorded an increase in .ie domain registrations in the first half of 2018. The majority were registered by corporate bodies and sole traders. This is good news: an increase in online activity among businesses is a leading indicator of Irelands broader economic growth. In particular, the growth of .ie in regional parts of Ireland is a fantastic example of how the internet can help businesses in less infrastructurally developed counties overcome traditional barriers to growth, such as a smaller customer base or slower road and rail links." Source: www.businessworld.ie Kaleden, British Columbia August 2, 2018 Media and the public are invited to the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory to take in unobstructed views of the annual Perseid meteor shower. This is one of the most spectacular meteor events to regularly occur, where it is common to see eighty meteors per hour. Astronomers Ken Tapping, Roland Kothes, Tom Landecker, Chris Purton, and Tim Robishaw will guide guests observations with enlightening talks. The Royal Astronomical Society will provide telescopes for public use. For comfortable skygazing, a blanket or lawn chair and warm clothing is recommended. Grounds will remain open and talks will continue should inclement weather (e.g., clouds, smoke) alter the quality of meteor and telescope viewing. Media representatives will have the opportunity to speak with National Research Council of Canada astronomers, take photos, and observe the meteor shower through telescopes provided by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canadas Okanagan Centre. Media representatives wishing to cover the event are asked to confirm their attendance by Friday, August 10, 2018, at 1 p.m. PT. Date: Saturday, August 11, 2018 Time: 7:15 p.m. PT (Gates open) 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. PT (Astronomer-led talks with questions and answers) 9:30 - 11:00 p.m. PT (Optimal meteor viewing) Location: Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory 717 White Lake Road Kaleden, British Columbia (16 kilometres south of Penticton) news, latest-news A group of 10 ACT firefighters will travel to the United States to help local firefighters combat blazes across 14 states which have consumed more than half a million hectares. It comes as officials have warned the ACT's fire season could start as soon as next week due to prolonged dry conditions across the Canberra region. Three firefighters from the ACT Rural Fire Service, three from ACT Fire and Rescue and four from ACT Parks and Conservation will make up part of an Australian contingent. The group left Canberra on Thursday for Sydney where they will fly to the United States. Firefighters will be first sent to Boise, Idaho to receive initial induction training before being sent to middle-management roles across the US for up to 60 days. ACT Rural Fire Service acting chief officer Rohan Scott said ACT firefighters would be managing up to 25 fire crews at a time. "They'll also bring back some valuable skills, new techniques, which they can then pass on to other members of the services," Mr Scott said. Two firefighters in California have already died battling the blaze in the north of the state. More than a third of the 141 incidents across the United States are large uncontained fires, with 27,800 personnel involved in firefighting efforts. The majority of fires are along the west coast, with blazes scattered between the Mexican and Canadian borders and as far east as Texas. ACT Parks and Conservation fire unit manager Neil Cooper said the terrain Australia firefighters were likely to find themselves in was rugged and remote with fires burning through cyprus and native pine. "They're probably similar to 2009 in Victoria or indeed 2003 here in the ACT," Mr Cooper said. He said crews would need to be airlifted in and out on a daily basis, with most terrain inaccessible by car. Mr Cooper said a large camp for fire personnel in northern California homed about 2300 firefighters. ACT emergency services minister Mick Gentlemen said by partnering up with other states, Canberra's firefighters would be in a position to call on their colleagues across the country "My thanks go to them and their families, it is a dangerous piece of work to do," Mr Gentlemen said. Mr Cooper said sending firefighters overseas was a balancing act between what they could afford to spare as Canberra's bushfire season could start as soon as next week. "Could be next week, it could be next month. We'll just wait and see but we're ready regardless," Mr Cooper said. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f16cf943-0204-4461-b9b4-f24e572d3447/r0_346_3264_2190_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Workers will begin testing the depth of sediment in Lake Burley Griffin as they look to expand the West Basin shoreline as part of the area's redevelopment. The ACT government has already spent about $13 million on the ambitious project, opening the new Henry Rolland Park earlier this year. Phase two of this development will see 2.8 hectares of the lake filled with rocks, which would then need 18 months to settle depending on the depth of the silt. The City Renewal Authority's development director, Nick Holt, said the project was interesting from an engineering perspective. "That's quite a long area of waterfront," Mr Holt said. The development would add an extra 500 metres to the boardwalk at Henry Rolland Park with phases two and three to occur north of the new park. The government then plans to release the land overlooking the lake, including the space once home to the Westside Container Village. Plans for apartments on this land have already met international outcry, with opponents of the development saying it would create enclaves for wealthy investors while shutting Canberrans out of park space. The ACT government must also negotiate a land swap with the federal government, which oversees the National Capital Authority, which in turn owns land at several prominent sites across Canberra including the lake and surrounding land. The ACT government has plans to sell part of the land to the Australian National University. It has also budgeted $37 million over the next two years for the development, including laying pipes for the planned apartments, despite not even having ownership of the land. Mr Holt said the depth of the silt will influence the size of the rocks used to fill the lake, with engineers ruling out concrete or building rubble. "You need a consistent product to ensure you get a uniform settlement across the site because we're going to build a landscape urban park," Mr Holt said. Canberrans can expect to see the barge crews out on the lake over the next couple of weeks. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/90a53789-a42b-45d8-b90e-77c32fda56da/r0_225_4199_2597_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, crime A rag tag group of alleged drug dealers in Canberras clubs and bars were hauled into court on Thursday and charged with trafficking ecstasy and cocaine. The three men and one woman - a chef, an EL1 public servant, a real estate agent and a paramedic student - were snared in the police sting in Civic over the last few months, court documents allege, unwittingly selling the drugs to undercover police officers. On Wednesday, police raided their homes across Canberra and Queanbeyan, seizing 1000 pills believed to be ecstasy, cocaine and $5000 in cash. But the sting started months before Wednesday. About 8pm on May 18 this year, a group of undercover police officers hit the town, with the purpose of buying drugs from "unknown persons", the documents say. About an hour later in Hopscotch in Braddon, one officer allegedly approached a man named Nicholas Ronald Adamopoulos, 32, later referred to as Greek Nick, and arranged to buy drugs off him. Its alleged the undercover group bought pills from the man, who then said he needed to re-supply himself with pills from a friend, "Lee", and they walked to Cube Nightclub. The police allegedly bought more pills from Mr Adamopoulos, an EL1 public servant from Cook, before parting ways briefly as the man went into the City Labor Club. Police allege he met with Lee Jonathan Ward, a Mackellar chef, who allegedly showed Mr Adamopoulos to a poker machine. Mr Adamopoulos allegedly reached behind the machine and retrieved a small object. Mr Ward, 39, allegedly connected the police with Kira Lee Meagher, 20, over encrypted messenger app Wickr. Ms Meagher also allegedly met with undercover police and sold them 20 pills for $400 at the Jolimont Centre. The pills were blue, with a "Transformers" motif stamp, police said. Ms Meagher also had her Queanbeyan home raided on Wednesday. The part-time security guard and paramedic student was granted bail, despite the opposition of prosecutors, as was Mr Adamopoulos. The pair face strict conditions, including reporting daily to police and abiding by a curfew overnight. Mr Ward , charged with four counts of trafficking, was denied his bid at freedom by Magistrate Karen Fryar, as was a fourth person, Carlos Antonio Pavez. Mr Pavez is charged with seven counts of trafficking. Mr Pavez, 46, a contractor real estate agent from Macquarie, was apparently not connected to the others. But court documents allege he also met with and sold drugs to undercover cops in Transit Bar and Kokomos. Ms Fryar said his matter was perplexing, given his age and lack of a criminal history. She noted he had declared an intention to give up drugs a week ago, but there was allegedly a large amount of drugs at his home. The four accused drug dealers faced court the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday with a combined 21 charges of trafficking MDMA and cocaine. In a press conference outside court on Thursday, ACT Policing's Sergeant Harry Hains said ACT and NSW police raided the homes as part of Operation Ghar, which targets drug dealing in Civic. "People need to realise that if they are involved in the sale or purchase of drugs they are actually supporting international, vicious criminal cartels," he said. "If people have a problem with drugs we urge them to seek assistance. We urge them to seek medical help, we cannot arrest our way out of this problem." "People who see the sale and supply of drugs as an easy way to make money better have a long hard think about the potential consequences for them. It won't be an easy way." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/2b36c2a2-c1a6-4386-a128-d90c50e916d5/r0_405_4032_2683_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news Firefighters go into every blaze expecting the unexpected, and even their training exercises can take a sharp turn, as a group of ACT firefighters discovered on Thursday. ACT Fire and Rescue was burning down a government house marked for demolition in Monash as part of a training exercise when a large part of the roof collapsed unexpectedly while firefighters were inside tackling a blaze. The series of live and controlled burns was designed to test the leadership of nine senior firefighters, who were being promoted to the rank of station officer, by giving them the chance to take charge of crews in four real-time fire scenarios. The crews were tasked with confining each fire to the room it started in, and the nine new station officers will return to the Kneeshaw Street house on Friday to try and determine how their colleagues started each of the blazes. ACT Fire and Rescue commander Glenn Brewer said no one was injured when the roof fell in on a bedroom unexpectedly during the first real-time scenario. "It just goes to show how dangerous these things are," he said. "Whether its training or otherwise, theres always that element of risk associated with the job we do as firefighters." Commander Brewer praised the response of the crews tackling the blaze at the time, saying they "did everything they needed to do". "Once we realised there was a major change in the fire conditions, we were able to arrange evacuation for the personnel that were inside," he said. "Thats what we train our people to do, and thats what happened." Commander Brewer said while the Emergency Services Agency had a good training centre in Hume, having the opportunity to train in a real house was invaluable. In a bid to make the training scenarios as real as possible, ACT Fire and Rescue picked up second-hand furniture to fill the disused home, which Housing ACT made available for the exercise. One firefighter also played the role of an angry and un-cooperative homeowner, arriving home during the exercise to test how firefighters handled the situation. Commander Brewer said the exercise was also a good opportunity to remind people of the heightened risk of fires during winter, when appliances like heaters and clothes dryers were being used frequently. "Its probably our busiest time of the year for house fires," he said. "We had about 25 structure fires during the month of June, which were mainly kitchen fires caused by people not paying attention while they were cooking. "We encourage people to dont stop looking while youre cooking." /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/da5c36c9-4e09-4a2d-8805-654230a62b4c/r0_116_2000_1246_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news An audit has found allegations of bullying against former ACT Health director-general Nicole Feely and the former deputy director general corporate were not properly managed, while the pair launched misconduct investigations into two employees without proper documentation or process. The Auditor-Generals ACT Health management of allegations of misconduct and complaints about inappropriate workplace behaviour was on Thursday tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly. It raised serious concerns about the culture of ACT Health and the processes by which internal disputes were managed. The opposition has jumped on the audit saying it shows Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris' claims there are safe and respectful ways for ACT Health staff to report bullying were false. Canberra Liberals on Monday called for a board of inquiry to stamp out systemic bullying within the territory's health system, dismissed by the government as a political stunt. Ms Feely left ACT Health suddenly in March when it was announced the directorate would be split into two organisations. Do you know more? Contact daniella.white@fairfaxmedia.com.au confidentially. The audit report found that in 2016 Ms Feely and the then deputy director general launched formal investigations into two performance information branch officers despite not producing documents to justify it at the time. The allegations against the officers stemmed from mid to late 2016 when concerns about the accuracy of ACT health's performance data were identified. Two officers were contacted and told they were being investigated for misconduct relating to errors in the March 2016 ACT Health service quarterly performance report and subsequently suspended. The two senior staff members were at the time in discussions and negotiations with ACT Health about plans to leave the organisation. The five month investigation found one former officer had not engaged in misconduct, while there was no formal resolution for the other officer as the officer's contract with ACT Health had expired. These two officers subsequently made claims of inappropriate workplace behaviour on the part of Ms Feely and the former deputy directorgeneral corporate. The audit found was there was "no contemporaneous documentation" to justify potential misconduct or the start of the misconduct investigation. A reviewer engaged by the audit Dr James Popple found "even though the investigation process was procedurally fair, the decision to conduct the investigation was problematic". One of the officers - a senior manager - made formal complaints against both Ms Feely and the deputy director general regarding the procedural fairness of the investigation and behaviour in the workplace. One of the allegations included that the former deputy director corporate once said he was going to "break their team apart" and their "neck was in a noose". Another allegation included that the deputy director interrupted a teleconference between staff and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and angrily shouted get off the phone get off the phone now!. The senior manager then emailed the deputy director saying he/she was disturbed by the way he conducted himself. "I have heard many people raise concerns about different discussions they have with you, and the types of comments you make to people these people feel bullied and harassed, however I wasnt there to witness it firsthand," the email read. The audit found Ms Feely and the deputy director general's responses to the complaints did did not align with existing ACT Health policy and was "ineffectively managed". It found key discussions between human resources and staff regarding complaints about bullying were not properly documented. These findings were rejected by Ms Feely through her legal representation in response to the draft report. ACT Auditor-General Dr Maxine Cooper said ACT Health needed to confirm the desired culture and values to be fostered across the organisation. "As part of disseminating this information, there should be an emphasis on how allegations of misconduct are to be managed, including the processes to be used for making and responding to complaints of inappropriate workplace behaviour," she said. Opposition health spokeswoman Vicki Dunne said the report "put a lie" to Ms Fitzhariss' claims there were safe ways to report bullying within ACT Health. Staff are either not trained properly or are ignoring standard operating procedures in relation to bullying and harassment," she said. Labor and the Greens cannot continue to overlook allegations of bullying in the health system." A spokeswoman for Ms Fitzharris said there were a lot of lessons to be taken from the report, noting the upcoming split of ACT Health in October. "The ACT Government will now consider the recommendations of the Auditor-Generals report and formally respond to the recommendations in the coming months," she said. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/87fe2ad1-7ffd-401b-88ee-24c264ca3886/r0_95_467_359_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news The ACT government has started searching for records that may detail months of talks over the Dickson land swap, weeks after claims a box of documents went missing from the former Land Development Agency's office. Chief Minister Andrew Barr confirmed the search for the claimed missing documents was underway in answers to a series of questions from the Opposition this week, nearly two months after The Canberra Times reported the government was not, at that time, investigating the matter. It comes as the Legislative Assembly's Public Accounts committee also investigates the circumstances surrounding the land swap, which the ACT Auditor-General's inquiry found gave up to $2.65 million worth of concessions to the CFMEU-linked Canberra Tradesmen's Union Club. The deal involved former ACT public officials giving the club "significant concessions" in a two-year-long negotiation over a government tender to sell a carpark in Dickson to the club between 2012 and 2014, while the club sold two other nearby blocks it owned back to the government. The Auditor-General, Dr Maxine Cooper, was unable to verify whether the claim of the missing documents was true, due to a lack of documentation made or kept about the land swap negotiations by the former agency. It was made by former Economic Development Directorate director of sustainable land strategy Greg Ellis, who recently told The Canberra Times he had documents detailing his involvement in the talks during 2012 and 2013 boxed up, but did not understand why they could not be found. Mr Barr told the Assembly this week that there were "processes underway in the [planning] directorate in an attempt to ascertain the veracity of this claim of missing documents". "The auditor has been communicated with by the director-general of the planning directorate seeking to find further information from her as to the nature of the documents that have been alleged to not exist or exist, depending on the circumstances of the inquiry," he said. "The Auditor-General, obviously, is in the best position to advise the director-general, the Assembly and the community as to exactly what is alleged to be missing but until that process is complete it is difficult for me to comment further." While the search is now underway, a statement from environment, planning and sustainable development director-general Ben Ponton has confirmed the directorate did not begin the search until after media questions about the possible investigation. He said he wrote to Dr Cooper about the matter only on June 18 this year, more than two weeks after media reporting on the lack of an investigation, and the hearing when the claim was first publicly aired. Mr Ponton said he also wrote to Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Vicki Dunne at the same time. "Both letters requested that any information, relating to the claim of missing records, be provided to assist in further investigation of the matter," he said in a statement. Mr Ponton said Ms Dunne had indicated that the committee discussed the matter in private and the information therefore was deemed confidential. "Further to this, the Auditor-General wrote that they were not able to substantiate the assertion that the missing documents existed," he said. Mr Ponton said notwithstanding the correspondence, he requested further searches within the directorate and directorate was now searching for the claimed documents across the planning portfolio. Mr Ponton also said he took compliance issues and procedures very seriously, and that the audit report did not make any findings that the records were in existence, nor that any documents were actually missing. The committee inquiry continues. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/33f72a9f-c72e-490d-8f55-e31c92a8291a/r3_0_1178_664_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg Modified On Aug 06, 2018 04:23 PM By Raunak for Honda Brio 2019 The new Brio is significantly bigger than the older model and features a more mature styling Honda has taken the wraps off of the second-generation Brio at the ongoing Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (complete coverage on Oto.com). This is the series production version of the 2018 Honda Small RS concept, which too made its debut in Indonesia earlier this year. The second-gen model features a more mature styling compared to the Brio currently sold in India. The front fascia does look similar to the new Amaze, but its not an exact copy. In fact, there is a resemblance with the Mobilio facelift that never made it to the Indian market. Honda has ditched the all-glass boot lid for a conventional rear boot and windshield. The glass boot lid was the signature design element of the first-gen Brio. Pictured: first-gen Honda Brio Looking at the side profile, it is quite apparent that the new Brio has grown in size. And indeed theres a massive 205mm boost in the overall length. The wheelbase has also gone up by 60mm. So, the second-gen Brio should technically be more spacious than the first-gen model. It is likely that the second-gen Brio is underpinned by an extended version of the existing platform, albeit with modifications as seen on the second-gen Amaze. First-gen (India-spec) Second-gen (Indonesia-spec) Length 3610mm 3815mm (+205mm) Width 1680mm 1680mm (0) Height 1500mm 1485mm (-15mm) Wheelbase 2345mm 2405mm (+60mm) Tyre size 175/65 R14 175/65 R14 Whats surprising to note is that the second-gen Brio carries forward the dashboard from the first-gen Brio. Both the cars are identical in width as well. This dashboard was introduced with the mid-life facelift model of the Brio, which was launched in India in 2016. Pictured: second-gen Honda Amaze In comparison, the second-gen Amaze features a brand new dashboard design. It also gets additional features over the first-gen Brio like cruise control and a 7-inch infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity. The second-gen Amaze also gets new seats, which is not the case with the second-gen Brio. The new Brios front seats are borrowed from the previous model. The rear seat of the Brio, however, appears to be new. Honda is offering adjustable headrests for rear passengers, which are not on offer on the first-gen Brio. The Indonesia-spec second-gen Honda Brio carries forward the same 1.2-litre i-VTEC petrol engine as the first-gen model. The 1.2-litre motor puts out 90PS and 110Nm and is coupled to a 5-speed manual or an optional CVT (added for the first time). Like before, the new Brio is unlikely to get the 1.5-litre diesel. The second-gen Honda Brio is certainly not coming to India this year as Honda Cars India clearly stated at the 2018 Auto Expo that it will launch three new models this financial year. Out of the three, the carmaker launched the second-gen Amaze in May and now the new Civic and CR-V have also been confirmed. If Honda plans to launch the new Brio in India, it would probably introduce it here sometime in 2019. The Brio will renew its rivalry with the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Ford Figo and the Hyundai Grand i10. Check out: Maruti Suzuki Swift VS Hyundai Grand i10: Review Read More on : Honda Brio on road price In July 2018, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) reportedly witnessed a 23 per cent drop in sales with 13,677 units sold in the country as compared to 17,750 units sold in July 2017. In terms of exports, Toyota has shipped 747 units of the Etios series this July, thereby taking the total sales number to 14,424 units. In the same month last year, the company had exported 1,723 units of the Etios series, thereby witnessing a decline of 56.64 per cent in July this year. However, considering the pre and post GST months of June-July 2017 and its effects, the company has now reported a bimonthly sales growth of 36 per cent in June July 2018. Speaking on the occasion, N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, We are happy that we have achieved a growth of 36 per cent in the combined sales of June-July as compared to the same period last year. June July 2017 was a unique case owing to last years GST scenario, wherein we supplied as per the market demand which was impacted due to impending GST implementation. With the dedicated efforts of all our stakeholders, we have registered a significant growth in June-July 2018 irrespective of the highest July sales last year. Also Jan - July 2018 we have posted a growth of 13 per cent as compared to the first seven months last year. Toyota India is however happy with the current bimonthly sales growth and hopes to continue with good sales in the months to come as well. The Innova Crysta has reportedly been the highest contributor in June-July 2018 with 21 per cent growth as compared to the same period in 2017. Additionally, the company boasts that the recently launched Yaris sedan has been receiving good traction from customers. Toyota Photo: RCMP Safe boating is being urged on Okanagan Lake. RCMP began offering voluntary safety checks over the weekend, and will continue throughout the summer at the public boat launch next to the West Kelowna Yacht Club. RCMP volunteers ask boat operators to complete a pre-launch inspection of the minimum safety equipment required under the Canada Shipping Act, along with its regulations. The volunteers have been trained with Transport Canada, says Roy Morgan, crime prevention co-ordinator for the West Kelowna RCMP. "This initiative is strictly a voluntary check ... after its completed, a document will be presented to the boat operator, who can then produce it if they are stopped by the RCMP patrol boat on the water," he added. The program was launched last summer and received good feedback from the public. The volunteers will also be visually checking boats and trailers for signs of invasive quagga and zebra mussels. Boaters are reminded to "not consume any alcohol on the lake, adds Cpl. Tania Carroll. Photo: pixabay A long-established big-game hunting guide in Oliver will be pleading guilty to poaching charges, his lawyer confirmed Wednesday in court. James Wiens, owner and operator of Vaseux Creek Outfitters, was charged last year with seven counts under the Wildlife Act and one Criminal Code violation. Wiens was charged following a lengthy investigation, by the Conservation Officer Service of B.C., who allege he used poison to hunt wolves in 2015-16. He is also accused of baiting black bears, discharging a firearm from a moving vehicle and failing to accompany a hunter as a guide for big game. Defence lawyer Kevin Church said his client would be pleading guilty to at least two of the charges, but further negotiations are needed with the Crown to determine an agreed upon statement of facts. Church did not indicate which charges guilty pleas would be entered on, and resisted prodding from the judge to have them entered Wednesday. Judge Michelle Daneliuk adjourned the matter to allow for the negotiations, but directed the Crown and Defence to have the matter concluded by the end of November. Photo: Colton Davies Fire crews in Naramata putting out hot spots from a lightning-caused fire on July 17, 2018. July in Penticton was much drier than normal and after a cool start, a lasting heatwave made it a hotter month than usual; resulting in ideal conditions for fires to spark up. According to Environment Canada, only 6.4 millimetres of rain fell last month 22 per cent of the average amount of 28.7 mm. No recorded rain has fell since July 18. The average mean temperature for the month was 21.7 degrees celsius, just higher than the normal of 20.0 C. The average high, however, was 30.5 C, compared to the normal average high of 28.7 C. "That doesn't sound like much, but actually when your monthly averages are almost two full degrees more than normal that's pretty significant," Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald said. MacDonald added there were 19 days where temps reached above 30 C and five days above 35 C, compared to July average of 13 days and two days, respectively, for those temps to be reached in Penticton. While little is expected for rain in the first week of August possibly one or two mm by Saturday MacDonald said a big change in the air mass will move into the Okanagan this week. Friday, particularly, will be about 13 degrees cooler than Monday and Tuesday were. "It's been incredibly hot and dry... We'll be below or near normal here until about the middle of August," he said. "That's the good news; cool temperatures slow fire behaviour... But a millimetre or two [of rain] is not much in an already very empty bucket." Photo: The Canadian Press George Cope, President and CEO of BCE Inc., looks on during the 2017 annual general shareholders meeting in Ottawa. BCE Inc. says Bell Canada had some of its strongest wireless subscriber additions in years during the second quarter but the company's quarterly profit was down compared with last year, falling short of analyst estimates. The Montreal-based telecommunications and media company says its 122,092 net new postpaid wireless subscribers an industry benchmark was Bell's best second-quarter result in 18 years. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $705 million or 79 cents per share. That was down from $765 million or 85 cents per share in last year's second quarter and below analyst estimates of 88 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon. Adjusted net earnings were down 2.3 per cent at $777 million or 86 cents per share, which was below the estimate of 86 cents per share. Revenue edged up 1.7 per cent to $5.8 billion, in line with analyst estimates. The reduced earnings came as Bell Canada continued to invest in its telecommunications networks, resulting in higher subscriber levels in its wireless, internet and IPTV television services. The company says it added 154,000 net new subscribers to its Fibe TV, internet and postpaid wireless subscribers. Photo: The Canadian Press Electric car maker Tesla Inc. burned through $739.5 million in cash last quarter, paving the way to a company record $717.5 million net loss as it cranked out more electric cars. But CEO Elon Musk pledged to post net profits in future quarters, and on a conference call, he apologized to two analysts he cut off on the company's first-quarter call. Telsa's shares jumped 9.3 per cent to $328.85 in after-hours trading. The net loss more than doubled from the same quarter a year ago, and was slightly larger than the first quarter. But Tesla's cash burn in the second quarter slowed from about $1.1 billion. On the call, Musk also said he expects the company to avoid returning to the markets for capital and to be "essentially self-funding on a go-forward basis." Tesla would use money generated from sales to fund big projects such as an estimated $2 billion new factory in China and another plant in Europe, he said. The company also said that Model 3 gross profit margins turned slightly positive during the quarter as it worked out expensive kinks in its manufacturing system. Last quarter, Musk mistreated two analysts by calling their queries about the company's cash needs and Model 3 orders "so dry" and "not cool." The call triggered a stock sell-off and raised questions about Musk's behaviour. But on Wednesday, a contrite Musk apologized to both and said he was tired from working more than 110 hours per week last quarter. "It's not right," he told an analyst from RBC Capital Markets. "Hope you accept my apologies." In a statement released after the markets closed Wednesday, Tesla said it expects to produce 50,000 to 55,000 Model 3s in the third quarter, an increase of at least 75 per cent from the first quarter. Tesla spent millions as it reached a goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week by the end of June. It now says production is rising, with the goal of 6,000 per week by the end of August. The company said it expects to reach 10,000 Model 3s per week "sometime next year." Cash from selling the Model 3, which starts at $35,000 but runs far higher with options, is key to holding off more borrowing and turning a profit. Tesla's cash balance fell to $2.2 billion in June, from $2.7 billion in the first quarter. Musk said he expects the company to achieve sustained quarterly net profits from now on, barring an unforeseen event, supplier problems or economic downturn. He also said that production efficiencies should rise as more Model 3s are built, and he said that he expects to make to around 750,000 vehicles in calendar year 2020. Photo: Contributed RCMP are asking for the public's help finding a missing 20-year-old Vernon woman. Suzie Clark was last seen July 28. Police have followed up on several leads and possible sightings, however, Clark remains missing. Clark is described as: First Nations female; 20 years; 4 ft 11 in (150 cm); 130 lbs (58 kg); Shaved head; brown eyes ; Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Suzie Clark is urged to contact their local police, remain anonymous by calling CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or leaving a tip online at www.nokscrimestoppers.com Photo: BCWS UPDATE 6 p.m. The provincial government has issued an area restriction for two areas near the massive Snowy Mountain wildfire outside of Cawston. The public is asked to stay out of the area, or face fines, to allow firefighters to work on the 6,600 hectare blaze. Fire information officer Claire Allen says crews will continue working this evening on setting hand ignitions near the base of the mountains to burn up any existing fuel. Im standing in front of the office for the Lower Similkameen Indian Band right now, and it's certainly kicking up a lot of smoke and open flame continues to be visible, she said. Thats going to continue throughout the evening with the burn-off operations. Night crews will be also be attending the fire once the sun is down. Helicopters were supporting 40 firefighters in suppression efforts today. UPDATE 1:20 p.m. Chief Keith Crow of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band says his community watched the massive Snowy Mountain wildfire come down out of the hills last night, right up to the rear of five homes on Susap Creek Road now under evacuation order. We are really relying on forestry at this point, they have all their crews set up there and our emergency operations centre is set up at our offices, he said, adding they are getting almost hourly updates from BC Wildfire. Homes near the fire now have sprinklers running on them, he said, and a back burn carried out this morning directly behind the threatened homes towards the fire seems to be holding. Crow says thick smoke from the fire is coming down into the valley and has completely blocked the mountain from view, my house is right across from it, I was out at midnight recording video and it was amazing watching the power of that fire." He says the fire is now starting to move south, where other LSIB homes are under alert. The blaze will have to go over another mountain range to reach them, but Crow said their ranchers are pulling cattle out of the area as we speak. A midday update from the BC Wildfire Service says air tankers are assisting ground crews to reinforce containment lines that are being built with dozers. Heavy smoke, however, is limiting air tanker visibility. Crews continue to carry out planned ignitions from the base of the mountains in an attempt to slow the fires advance. ORIGINAL 9:45 a.m. The Snowy Mountain wildfire continued to move down towards the Similkameen Valley bottom overnight, but BC Wildfire crews are hopeful cooler temperatures will slow fire activity going into the long weekend. Fire information officer Claire Allen says the overnight crews saw fairly sustained, aggressive fire behaviour last night and into this morning, driven by an unexpected coldfront that blew the fire east. The 6,600 hectare blaze advanced downhill 400-800 metres away from Keremeos and Cawston, but towards the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. First thing this morning, we sent reinforcement crews out there, Allen said, explaining hand ignition burnoffs had been taking place near the valley bottom to stop the fires advance. It's safer for us to work from the lower parts of the slopes, and thats where we are going to catch the fire, she said. Pictures floating around social media showing flames on or near the valley bottom are likely planned ignitions. Helicopters and possibly air tankers will be supporting ground crews today. The BC Wildfire Service has also recommended a precautionary evacuation order for five LSIB properties closest to the fire. Chief Keith Crow confirmed the evacuations have been ordered for the properties located on Susap Creek Road. Structural protection crews have been dispatched to the area. Allen says they plan on stopping the fire well before it reaches the Similkameen River, and that there are many irrigated areas on the valley bottom that can help as fire guard. Temperatures are expected to be lower today, 28 C, but the wind remains a challenge. More than 800 properties in Keremeos, Cawston and surrounding area remain on evacuation alert. The LSIB has issued their own alerts and ranchers in the area have been asked to move their cattle away to safety. File photo: Wayne Moore A man charged with second-degree murder made another brief appearance in Kelowna Provincial Court Thursday morning. Tejwant Danjou is accused of killing a woman at the Best Western Hotel on the Westside on the evening of Sunday, July 22. He was arrested near the scene. Danjou, dressed in a red prison-issue jumpsuit, was expressionless during his appearance via video conference. His lawyer, Vancouver-based Donna Turko, spoke on his behalf. The case was put over to Aug. 23. Defence and Crown attorneys are trying to determine a date for a bail hearing in Supreme Court. Photo: Contributed The evacuation of Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park ran smoothly yesterday, with more than 80 hikers shuttled out of the area away from the Placer Mountain wildfire. Our awesome staff got everyone out safely, over 80 people in two runs! said the Cathedral Lakes Lodge on Facebook. Big thanks to the fire crews who set up more sprinklers and awesome pumps, and thanks and praise to all the fire crews currently working on the fires. The lodge operates the only road in and out of the park with a jeep service and carried out a similar evacuation last year due to the Diamond Creek wildfire. This years 2,336-hectare Placer Mountain wildfire, burning just west of the park, saw steady activity last night within the existing fire perimeter. Ground crews are continuing to mop up in secured areas, and will continue building a fuel free line in the south from the Ashnola River along a scree (rocky) slope, while personnel work to mop up along the east flank where crews successfully conducted burn-offs to remove remaining fuel to reinforce the perimeter, the BC Wildfire Service said Thursday morning. The west edge of the fire is being secured by last years Diamond Creek burn. Crews are hoping to make progress on the fire with slightly cooler temperatures over the next few days. Ninety-six firefighters are being supported by heavy equipment and nine helicopters (which are being shared with the Snowy Mountain fire) in fighting the blaze. Photo: Cheryl Sinclair A woman was killed in a collision near Field Thursday. UPDATE: 4:36 p.m. DriveBC reports the Trans-Canada Highway has now reopened west of Field. UPDATE: 4:10 p.m. A fatal collision and a wildfire are causing major traffic snarls for people trying to drive east or west through the mountain parks along the Alberta-B.C. boundary. RCMP say the Trans-Canada Highway is closed near Field after a woman was killed in a collision. Police say traffic is backed up in both directions. Meanwhile, Highway 93 remains closed in both directions from Radium into Alberta due to a forest fire. There is no information on when either route will reopen. The Canadian Press UPDATE: 3 p.m. Highway 93 will remain closed overnight once again. The highway has been closed since Wednesday due to a wildfire burning close to the road, between Radium and the Alberta border. DriveBC will update the highway's status at 9 a.m. Friday. UPDATE: 11:20 a.m. DriveBC now reports no estimated time of reopening for Highway 93 between Radium and the Alberta border. It will next update the highway's status at 3 p.m. ORIGINAL: 10:45 a.m. Highway 93 remains closed between Radium and the Alberta border due to wildfire activity in close proximity to the road. However, DriveBC reports the route is now expected to reopen by 3 p.m. this afternoon. Photo: Contributed Roses Waterfront Pub celebrated its 25th anniversary last week, which makes this weeks news about the Kelowna institution all the more surprising. It is closing at the end of September. Its a sad time for us, general manager Andrew Neville said Thursday... "Its going to leave a hole in the city. Weve had a lot of customers that have been with us since the beginning. The reason for the closure is the building, located at 1352 Water St., has been sold. Neville wouldnt discuss details of the sale, citing confidentiality reasons, but 55 full- and part-time employees will be affected. Visit Okanagan Edge for more on this story. Photo: Vernon RCMP A man who was wanted for attempted murder but was arrested on July 26 at Kin Beach will not be walking the streets just yet. Tyson Cole appeared via video link in a Vernon courtroom on Thursday for a bail hearing, however, the bail hearing was postponed until Aug. 16. Cole was involved in a shooting in Vernon on May 1 in which a 21-year-old man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Vernon RCMP members located the man almost two months later at Kin Beach. After a short foot pursuit with the male, the officers were able to safely take Cole into custody, said Brett. At the time of the arrest, the beach was sparse of people and the responding officers did a great job at apprehending the male without further incident. In a press release issued by Vernon RCMP on May 29, Cole was considered armed and dangerous. Cole has a long history of criminal offences that range from attempted murder to links to a criminal organization. The only certainty we have in life is that we will die someday. But science, and it's always science, has... CRH - July 2018 CRH America has sold its Mallard Sand & Gravel operation in Omaha, Nebraska, to Martin Marietta Materials. The disposal was required as a result of the acquisition of Ash Grove Cement Company. HeidelbergCement attracted to possible LafargeHolcim Indonesia sell-off 02 August 2018 HeidelbergCement could buy parts of LafargeHolcim's business in Indonesia that is up for sale, says HeidelbergCement CEO, Dr Bernd Scheifele. LafargeHolcim is planning to raise around CHF2bn (US$2.02bn) from selling assets as it reduces its operations, with speculation that its business in Indonesia could be among the candidates for sale, claims Reuters. "LafargeHolcim is in the market regarding the sale of its entire Indonesia business. In principle we always look at such topics... but it is clear to us that only a part of the package comes into question for reasons of cartel law," Scheifele told reporters. "If at all, we would be interested in parts, and our Indonesian subsidiary will take a close look at this." Published under Lloseta plant applies for raw material extension ICR Newsroom By 02 August 2018 Cemex's Lloseta cement plant in Spain has applied for permission to extract a maximum of 15Mt of raw material from its quarry of Can Negret, Alaro, until 2032. The cement producers has presented the project to the Ministry of Treball in line with the Balearic mining ordinance of 2014. It also has drawn up a plan for the restoration following exploitation. The project will need to obtain permission from the environmental commission, according to Ultima Hora. The quarry is located in the the Serra de Tramutana, a small mountain range, and next to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Published under Boral's Geelong grinding unit wins environmental approval 02 August 2018 Victoria's planning tribunal has given the approval for the Boral to construct a 1.3Mta clinker grinding facility at Geelong Port without further environmental monitoring. The Environment Protection Authority approved the construction of the AUS$100m (US$73.7m) facility on vacant land in the Lascelles Wharf precinct last October. However a local man took the EPA to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), asking for conditions to be added to the approval related to noise, air quality and increased traffic. The man did not attempt to stop the development but wanted amendments to improve monitoring, reported Bay 93.9. However, the tribunal threw out the appeal this week, upholding the EPA's original decision. Published under Ever found yourself wondering, Where do psychopaths live? In the same places as everybody else, it turns out. Perhaps there are a few people with this personality disorder in your neighborhood, especially if you live in one of the states with the highest population of psychopaths. No state wants this dubious honor. But recent research ranked all 50 states to find the most psychopathic. Below, check out the 15 states with the highest populations of psychopaths and see if your home state makes the list. 15. Arizona Arizona lands in the top 15 states with the most psychopaths in America. But what does that really mean? Quartz reports that Ryan Murphy, a researcher at Southern Methodist University, published the study that ranked all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) to find out which have the most psychopaths. The current study drew on previous research that estimated levels of the big five personality traits extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience in each state. Next: This New England state also has a lot of psychopaths. 14. Massachusetts Massachusetts comes next on the list of the most psychopathic states, landing in fourteenth place. But if you live in Massachusetts or one of the other states with a high number of psychopaths what do you need to know? Scientific American reports that With darkness in their hearts, ice water in their veins, and snake-charming smiles on their faces, psychopaths make up anywhere from 0.6% to 4% of the population. That means that even if you live in a state with a relatively high number of psychopaths, they still arent incredibly common. Next: Not far away, this mid-Atlantic state is also one of the most psychopathic. 13. Delaware Delaware falls in thirteenth place on the list of the most psychopathic states. That means that in Delaware, there are more people whose brains look different from what youd see inside the head of the average person. Scientific American reports that a psychopaths brain has a smaller prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that regulates behavior, impulse control, and planning. Psychopaths also have a deformed amygdala, the part of the brain that deals with negative emotions such as fear, guilt, and sadness. Next: Across the country, this midwestern state also has a lot of psychopaths. 12. South Dakota Meanwhile, across the country from Delaware, South Dakota landed in twelfth place thanks to its estimated number of psychopaths. If you live in South Dakota, what should you look out for? Scientific American reports that wherever they live, psychopaths have three distinct traits. They have fearless dominance, which means that they can do whatever they want without the pesky hindrance of conscience. Psychopaths also exhibit self-centered impulsivity, doing whatever they want, whenever they want. They also show low autonomic arousal, which means theyre physiologically different from non-psychopaths. In fact, they have lower resting heart rates than regular people. Next: This mid-Atlantic state has a lot of psychopaths, too. 11. Maryland Next, we head back to the mid-Atlantic, where Maryland earned 11th place among the states with the most psychopaths in America. A startling fact to keep in mind, whether you live in Maryland or elsewhere is that psychopathy isnt a defined or diagnosable illness, according to the medical community. The Verge reports that psychopathy doesnt exist in the DSM-5, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Thats in large part because many of the associated traits including narcissism, sadism, and anti-social behavior appear in other disorders, too. And that brings us to the overlap between psychopathy and sociopathy. Next: Where do psychopaths live? Here are the top 10 states. 10. Virginia Virginia has the dubious honor of landing in the top 10 most psychopathic states in the nation, taking 10th place with its estimated number of psychopaths. The Conversation reports that psychopaths and sociopaths share a variety of characteristics, including a deceitful and manipulative nature that enables them to disregard other people. However, sociopaths are less emotionally stable and highly impulsive, acting on compulsion, while psychopaths plan their actions (and crimes) down to the smallest detail to avoid detection. Next: Psychopaths also live in this midwestern state. 9. Illinois Illinois also landed in the top 10 states with the most psychopaths, earning ninth place among the most psychopathic states. In Illinois and elsewhere, theres another fact you should know about psychopaths, according to The Conversation. Psychopaths are born, and sociopaths are made, the publication notes. The cause of psychopaths anti-social personality disorder is hereditary. But sociopaths behaviors are the result of a brain injury or abuse or neglect in childhood. Either one can become violent, or can live a normal life without anyone else realizing that they have a personality disorder. Next: This western state has psychopathic tendencies. 8. Nevada Residents of Nevada, look out: Your state also makes the top 10 most psychopathic states, landing in eighth place. But if youre feeling nervous because you live in Nevada (or another state on the list), its important to keep things in perspective. As Psychology Today points out, most psychopaths arent murderers or other criminals. Conversely, that means that theyre often tough to detect. If just 1% of the population meets the criteria for psychopathy, that means that 1 out of every 100 people you know is a psychopath. And that percentage doubles or quadruples when youre talking about people in high-power positions, such as business leaders, lawyers, or surgeons. Next: Many psychopaths live in this midwestern state. 7. Wisconsin Wisconsin came next on the list, landing in seventh place among the most psychopathic states across America. But no matter how many psychopaths are in your state, Psychology Today reports that you can spot them by looking out for three personality characteristics. Psychopaths exhibit Machiavellianism, meaning that they manipulate others as they pursue money and power (or just for fun). They also show a lack of a conscience or an absence of empathy. Psychopaths also have high levels of narcissism, which usually means that they dont get along well with others. Next: This New England state ranks as one of the most psychopathic. 6. Maine Next on the list? Maine, which earned sixth place among the states with the most psychopaths. In Maine and elsewhere, however, not all psychopaths become criminals. According to the British Psychological Society, not all psychopaths are violent criminals. Many of them live inconspicuously amongst us. You might like to think that psychopaths who dont commit crimes are nothing like the psychopaths who do. But according to the society, researchers have shown that criminal and non-criminal psychopaths share the same neuropsychological profile. Some may become criminals thanks to their backgrounds, such as a lack of early parental supervision, deprivation, or even having a convicted parent. Next: This western state surprised researchers by making the top five. 5. Wyoming Surprised to see Wyoming land in the top five most psychopathic states? So were the researchers behind the study, who noted that it scores a whole lot higher than its neighbors. (Montana landed in 43rd place, Idaho took 24th, Colorado earned 19th, Utah earned 22nd, South Dakota came in 13th, and Nebraska landed in 37th place.) Perhaps Wyoming just has a larger proportion of people who struggle to use their emotions like regret to change their behavior, which some researchers theorize is whats really going on with psychopaths, according to Quartz. Next: Many psychopaths call this mid-Atlantic state home. 4. New York New York also lands in the top five among the states with the most psychopaths. Ever wonder what life is like for psychopaths? According to Quartz, researchers have found that the higher someone scores on the psychopathy spectrum, the less happy they tend to be. Even though they do what they want, without concern for others, psychopaths seem to be less satisfied with their lives and more likely to be depressed than people without psychopathic tendencies. Next: This nearby state also ranks as one of the most psychopathic. 3. New Jersey Ever dealt with New Jersey traffic? Then it may or may not surprise you that the state lands in third place for the highest number of psychopaths. Quartz reports that one reason why psychopaths tend to be unhappy is that they have trouble forming strong social relationships, no matter how much they can charm others on a superficial level. Psychopaths can show concern for others when theyre motivated, and they can learn to behave in ways that would improve their social relationships. That, in turn, can make them happier. In other words, everybody likes having friends even psychopaths. Next: Across the country, this west-coast state has even more psychopaths than New Jersey. 2. California Think life in California is too laidback for psychopaths? Think again. The state lands in second place among the most psychopathic states. Though psychopaths arent common even in California, so dont worry too much if you live in the golden state they do have a scary impact on society. According to The Atlantic, While adult psychopaths constitute only a tiny fraction of the general population, studies suggest that they commit half of all violent crimes. Next: This New England state is the most psychopathic of all. 1. Connecticut If you live in Connecticut, you may want to watch your back! The state earns the dubious honor of coming in first among the most psychopathic states. But can something be done about psychopaths, in Connecticut and elsewhere? As The Atlantic notes, researchers can successfully identify children who are likely to display psychopathic traits later in life. And theyve developing clinical tactics that may be able to pull those children back from the edge of psychopathy. With each passing year, both nature and nurture conspire to steer a callous child toward psychopathy and block his exits to a normal life. Researchers are working on ways to counter those forces which could translate to a lower prevalence of psychopaths in the future. Read more: 7 Signs That You May Be a Sociopath Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! D70 board candidate runs decades after sexual assault accusations Pueblo D70 board candidate Bob Boyd, a retired teacher in the district, is seeking to reenter education decades after facing sexual assault accusations. US Slaps Sanctions on 2 Turkish Political Leaders Over Andrew Brunson's Detention Christian Post Contributor | 02 August, 2018 by Samuel Smith The Trump administration followed through on its threats to take action against Turkey over the detention of American Pastor Andrew Brunson by sanctioning two top government officials on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of the Teasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it has sanctioned Turkey's Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, both of whom lead agencies that are responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of the 50-year-old North Carolina native. "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "President [Donald] Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately." The sanctions come after Vice President Mike Pence and Trump vowed last week that they would slap "significant" and "large" sanctions on its NATO ally over Brunson's detention. Pence made the promise during his keynote speech last Thursday at the State Department's Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, a day after Brunson was released to house arrest after over a year-and-a-half in prison. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who also serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement that the sanctions send "an unequivocal message that America will no longer abandon Americans who are wrongfully detained abroad." Brunson appealed to a Turkish court this week to be released from his home detention. However, his appeal was rejected on Tuesday. Brunson, who has served as a church leader in Izmir for over two decades, was accused of having connections to an Islamic organization blamed for the 2016 coup attempt against the Erdogan government and was also accused of having connections to Kurdish militants. He has denied all charges. Many feel that he is being used as a political pawn to pressure the U.S. government to extradite Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. "We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust [detention] by the government of Turkey," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Wednesday. "As a result, any property or interest in property of both ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them." The sanctions against Gul and Soylu are pursuant to the executive order issued last December by Trump which states that "serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States." Additionally, the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016 permits the U.S. government to target entities that participate in human rights violations and corruption with measures including travel bans and seizure of U.S. assets. The Turkish government has claimed that it cannot intervene in Brunson's case because it is being handled by the judicial system. Brunson has had three hearings so far in which only questionable secret witness testimony has been presented against him. His next court hearing is in October. Brunson is not the only U.S. citizen who's being held by Turkish authorities. Earlier this year, Turkish-American NASA scientist Serkan Golge was sentenced to up to seven-and-a-half years in prison on a terrorism conviction that's been condemned by U.S. officials. "I applaud the Trump administration for sanctioning individuals within Erdogan's [government] who are responsible for the imprisonment of Andrew Brunson [and] other Americans," Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote in a tweet Wednesday. "As a nation, we owe it to those who are being jailed unjustly to hold their Turkish perpetrators accountable." Human rights groups have also voiced concern about the rise of arrests and jailings that occurred in the wake of the 2016 coup attempt. According to data provided by the rights group In Defense of Christians, over 65,000 people have been arrested since the government began its post-coup crackdown and over 152,000 people have lost their jobs. Among those who lost their jobs are thousands of academics and over 4,000 judges and prosecutors. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists Turkey as a "Tier 2" country of concern for religious liberty. "In 2017, the state of religious freedom in Turkey worsened. Proposed changes in the educational curriculum, an increase in government funding solely for Sunni mosques, and a lack of movement with respect to legal status and registration for non-Muslim communities have led Turkey on a downward trend," a 2018 USCIRF report states, adding that the nation's strict secularization prevents religious communities from obtaining full legal status. "The majority of the other longstanding religious freedom concerns remain unresolved, including the return of expropriated minority properties, the delay in providing dual citizenship to Greek Orthodox Metropolitans so they can participate in the church's Holy Synod, and equal funding for religious minority community buildings from the public budget." Read more about Andrew Brunson on The Christian Post. Its been an interesting year for Canadian evangelicals. This winter, the Canadian government announced that organizations applying for summer youth employment grants had to first affirm their support for abortion. Several weeks ago, in a 7-2 vote, Canadas Supreme Court ruled against what might have been the countrys first and only Christian law school. Trinity Western University had been in court for years after several provincial law societies declined to accredit the school because of its student covenant, which prohibits sex outside of traditional marriage. And on top of that, their Christian cousins to the souths perceived support of Donald Trump has made many weary to claim this religious identity as their own. I would say that theres a hesitation to even use the word evangelical, said Karen Stiller, a senior editor with Faith Today magazine, which serves Canada's estimated four million evangelicals. Theres a sense that we probably believe all the Christian doctrinal positions that define us as evangelicals, but we dont like to be slotted as Americans, to be honest. Stiller joined associate digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli on Quick to Listen to discuss Canadian evangelicals relationship to politics, the ups and downs of their relationship with the American church, and how God is working in the Canadian church. This episode of Quick to Listen was brought to you by the Christian Standard Bible. To learn more about the Christian Standard Bible, visit CSBible.com/CT. What is Quick to Listen? Read more Subscribe to Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our host on Twitter: Morgan Lee Subscribe to Marks newsletter: The Galli Report Visit our guests website: The Joy of Writing Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee, Richard Clark, and Cray Allred In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new. When the mother of my five-year-old foster daughter ran toward her and scooped her up in tears and smiles after an eight-month separation, I knew I was seeing shalom embodied. Julia* had lived in my home since February, one of the more than 3,000 children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border since last fall. After her sponsor family neglected her, social services took her into custody and within hours, I became her foster mom. Restoring children to their parents is the goal of foster care, but its also what repels many people from fostering in the first place. Why? The potential heartbreak is hard to reckon with. That prospect of loss is what I feared most last summer when my family and I initially embraced the call to foster. After pursuing adoption in Mexicowhere my family had served as missionarieswe found only closed doors and returned to the US with a greater attentiveness to the needs in our own community. I began to seriously consider Americas broken foster care system and found myself wrestling with Joel 2:1213: Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. My excuse for not fostering had been the possibility of heartbreak after a child left, but I began to recognize this anguish as an essential part of the calling. I realized that not only is there a deep human need to be part of a familytheres also a deep need to know where one came from. In seeking adoption, I had focused on the former. In becoming a foster mom, however, I had awakened to the latter. Embracing heartbreak, I learned, is part of carrying each others burdens in a broken world. From a kingdom perspective, I had to recognize my own limitations in order to participate in Gods redemptive purposes. Our journey toward this truth started on a Friday afternoon when I got a text from a social worker. It read: How good is your Spanish? Would you be able to take in a 4-year-old girl? Shes from Honduras and speaks minimal English. We think her parents were deported. I read and reread the message. On paper, our lives seemed perfectly prepared for this moment: Our son was attending a bilingual school, my husband and I were comfortable speaking Spanish, and I had even lived in Honduras for 15 months as a bilingual teacher. But we already had one foster child living with us. The last time we had had two simultaneously, it had pushed our family to the brink. I told her wed think about it. A few hours later, the social worker called and explained that Julia was under federal custody and would be returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) on Monday. Not long after, I was signing papers to take temporary custody of Juliajust for the weekend. Over the next couple days, Julia batted a pinata at a family birthday party, jumped on a trampoline with our children, and attended church with us. On Monday, she and I showed up to court expecting that shed be taken back into custody by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. But no one showed up in court. The following Monday, it was deja vu. What we thought would be a weekend placement was quickly turning into something much longer. As we settled into a state of uncertainty over the next couple of weeks, I learned more about Julias story. Her mother, Guadalupe*, was planning to come to the States for a short period of time to find a job and make enough money to help her grandfather get life-saving medicine. She had been taking care of him since she was 13. When she tried to cross at the US-Mexico border along with Julia and her stepdad, Carlos*, the smugglers decided to hold her against her will to squeeze more money out of them. Julia and Carlos then tried to cross into the US together, Carlos was deported, and Julia made it over the border as one of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who entered the US in 2017. She was moved to the jurisdiction of ORR, placed with a sponsorship family, and finally with us. Guadalupe was eventually able to escape, but she returned home without her daughter and found that her grandfather had since died. Article continues below In the process of fostering Julia, I gained new perspective on geopolitics and became acquainted with the numerous bureaucratic organizations that govern the lives of migrants. But while the experience was eye-opening, it was also incredibly overwhelming. Julia video-chatted regularly with Guadalupe. The conversations were often loud and sometimes lasted three hours, as Julia walked all over the house with the phone. These phone conversationsalong with other disruptionswere more challenging than we cared to admit. Sometimes the difficulty manifested itself in the tears of our biological children. Our son would yell, I just want to watch this show and not have to hear her talking! Our toddler daughter, frustrated by language barriers and miscommunication, would make angry statements like, Dont say that to me! Being a steward of Julia involved hearing her complain to her mom about the things she didnt like about living with us. Stewardship meant listening to Guadalupe swoon over her childs minor scratches and scrapes. Todo bien? shed ask Julia, who would soak in the attention and act as if the injury had been more dramatic than it was. It meant we had to cut off video calls when bedtime was long past gone, even though neither mother nor daughter wanted to say goodbye. Being a caretaker of another persons child meant learning to recognize the biases we had for our own children and trying our best to level out those biases. It meant recognizing our own boundaries and realizing we needed intentional one-on-one time with our biological children and with each other. It meant teaching Julia the rules of the home and also using different parenting methods when necessary. Ultimately, it meant surrendering our idea of good parents, seeing our own inadequacies, and recognizing that some of our efforts might cost us the respect of strangers, friends, and even our biological kids. In the midst of these practical parenting challenges, we were stretched and changed in our spiritual lives. At times, reading our Bible daily didnt feel possible. Prayers came in the wave crests and troughs of fatigue. We learned that intentionality is exhausting, stewarding is messy, and that we needed our community to lean on in order to give Julia the community she needed. We had to trust, too, that God Almighty was guiding us. In sum, we encountered the healthy limitations of Christian compassion. For us, fostering other peoples children has meant providing a sense of family with open hands, without license to possess them. It has meant trusting that God will allow my family to welcome a child for as long as he sees fit, even if I think that timeframe messes with my own desires. Being a foster parent is the narrowest path I have ever walkeda tightrope between limitations. As Christians, all of us have to contend with these boundaries. The murky path toward justice (right relationship) requires us to live in the midst of tensions that stem from the gospel itself: The coming of the kingdom of God is already in our midst (Luke 17:21) but not entirely here, yet. Although we are called to answer injustice, we are not called to be saviors of the world, our neighbors, or ourselves. Article continues below No, we are not saviors. But we know Christ, and his endearing love reminds us that we dont have to solve the entirety of the immigration problemor any other problemin order to get involved. We dont have to fix the world to live out a praxis of theology, and we dont have to rid the world of all oppression in order to untie one persons yoke. We simply have to be willing to walk in the company of Christ with open hearts, minds, and hands. At the moment, Julia is where she belongsin the arms of the mother God gave her. This didnt happen because my family saved her. Rather, it happened because we decided to walk toward foster care with both our fears and desires in tow, working in partnership with Godthe only One who can take our broken humanity and turn it into something beautiful. Gena Thomas is the author of A Smoldering Wick: Igniting Missions Work with Sustainable Practices. She is currently working on a book about Julia's story with InterVarsity Press. Find her on social media @genaLthomas or connect with her at genathomas.com. *Editors note: Due to security concerns, these names have been changed. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Frozen embryos aren't the only "byproducts" of advanced reproductive technology: moral and legal confusions are as well. Divorce is a brutal experience, especially for children. For many, it's a traumatic experience from which they never fully recover. Today, given the incredible strides made in artificial reproductive technologies, there's an entire class of children on the other side of the birth canal whose post-divorce fate is almost never given even a moment's thought: frozen embryos. By some estimates, there are nearly a million frozen embryos in the U.S. That's as many people as live in San Jose, California. Embryos are the intended byproduct of our reproductive technologies, most notably in-vitro fertilization. But unlike other "byproducts," there's no moral or even biological difference between those frozen and those eventually born. If you implant them in a woman's womb and let nature takes its course, approximately 37 weeks later, the result is what is undeniably a human being. We insist on ignoring this reality. But every once in a while, events conspire that force us to look reality in the face. For example (pardon the lapse into legalese here), the "disposition" of frozen embryos in the case of divorce. As the Washington Post recently pointed out, disputes over what happens to the embryos are "on the rise" across the country. These disputes nearly always take the form of one spouse, usually the wife, wanting (again pardon the legalese) "possession" of the embryos with an eye towards possibly having a child in the future, and the husband objecting to being "forced" to have a child. The most common outcome is the judge siding with the husband and at times ordering the embryos destroyed. As of July 1, this can no longer happen in Arizona. A new law, S.B. 1393, requires courts to award custody of the embryos to whichever spouse "intends to allow the embryos to develop to birth." And if both spouses share this intention, then custody will go to whomever "provides the best chance" to the embryos. The bill's sponsor said that "Most people believe that frozen embryos should have a chance at life." Well, that might be true. What is certainly true is that a lot of people don't believe that. On the contrary, they believe that awarding the embryos to someone who "intends to allow the embryos to develop to birth" is an impermissible infringement on freedom. The chairman of the American Bar Association's committee on fertility technology called the law "an end around aimed at establishing the 'personhood' of unborn embryos." And the American Society for Reproductive Medicine argued that the law "would have a profound impact on reproductive medicine." Of course it will. And it should. Reproductive technology is operating these days without any thought to the consequences, both short term and long term. All of this underscores how ridiculous and hollow appeals to personal freedom get these days. The bill doesn't force anyone to have a child; it presupposes a child has already been had. There's only been one virgin birth: Those one million frozen embryos were created with the consent and participation of both spouses or partners of the woman who provided the eggs. As I often say, ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. In this case, our ideas about personal freedom and our rejection of biological limitsboth ideas birthed from the inherent separation of sex, marriage, and babies by the sexual revolutionhave left countless victims in their wake, both inside and outside of cold storage. Originally posted at Breakpoint. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. - Matthew 13:22 Some of the greatest battles we face come when God has prospered us. When we have been blessed and exalted, there is a danger of life becoming overcrowded and filled with stuff that seems important but doesn't really matter. The drift into materialism is subtle but real. When life is filled with abundant blessing, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches can cause us to think more about our stuff and less about God. The Bible is filled with examples of people who had to reach through the crowding and the "stuff" to grab hold of Jesus. Here's two examples: Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus over the crowds. Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector. His life was filled with the pursuit of wealth, to the point of cheating people to enrich his own pockets. When Jesus came to town, the crowds were so huge that Zacchaeus climbed into a tree for a glimpse of Him. After talking with Jesus, he gave away half his riches to the poor and promised to repay anyone he had cheated by fourfold. (See Luke 19:1-9) The innkeeper in Bethlehem had a business doing so well he had no room for Jesus. When Mary and Joseph knocked on his door, he said, "Sorry, Jesus, but we're full today." His inn was so prosperous that Jesus was crowded out. The innkeeper turned away the Savior of the world. (See Luke 2:4-7) The devil absolutely loves to entangle us with the cares of life and enthrall us with riches. Of course, prospering isn't evil. Possessions aren't evil. But when those things begin to take over our lives, Jesus becomes something tiny and unimportant. Our houses, cars, businesses, social life, and our important connections fill our thoughts and our time. If we're not careful, Jesus becomes crowded out. What are we missing with our overcrowded lives? What power is available to us but left untouched? What miracles are in God's hand ready to be released but we are too busy to seek and receive them? What happens to our peace, our joy, and our influence when we live lives crowded with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth? We need a good spring cleaning, a spiritual housecleaning to make room for Jesus in our lives, our homes, and our families. He wants to bless us and anoint us, but it can only happen when we come out of the "stuff" of our lives and make room for Him to work. Remember the story of Israel searching for their first king? God chose Saul to be king, and Samuel called the people together. He was ready to anoint Saul, but Saul was nowhere to be found. When they asked the Lord where Saul was, God answered: "Behold he hath hid himself among the stuff" (1 Sam. 10:22). It was time for the anointing, but Saul was hiding in the stuff of life. He had to come out of the stuff to receive his anointing and to step into the plan God had for his life. What is keeping you from what God wants to give you? Are you so busy you have no time for God? Is your mind consumed with your own plans and rarely concerned with God's plan? When the things of the world become the most important things in your life, it covers up the seed of promise and purpose, and you find yourself just living in "stuff" instead of living in revelation. There's a bumper sticker that says, "He who dies with the most stuff wins." That's a lie. The truth is, "He who dies with Jesus Christ wins." The call of the Spirit today is to come out of the stuff and come back to Jesus being the highest priority in your life. There's anointing waiting for someone who will come out of the stuff. There's healing, restoration, peace, and power waiting for someone who will come out of the stuff. Today's your day. Will you answer the call? Pastor Jentezen Franklin is the Senior Pastor of Free Chapel, a multi campus church. Each week his television program Kingdom Connection is broadcast on major networks all over the world. A New York Times best-selling author, Jentezen has written eight books including his latest, Love Like You've Never Been Hurt. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment There is a civil war looming in Israel, but very few are talking about it. I'm not referring to the potential of a civil war between Israelis and Palestinians, nor am I referring to a war with bombs and guns and knives. I'm referring to an ideological war that has the potential of tearing the nation in half. It is the war between ultra-Orthodox Jews and liberal Israelis. The rift is large and growing, and it was underscored by the conflict this week between LGBT activists and ultra-Orthodox rabbis. But first, some important demographics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews (called haredim) are the fastest growing segment in Israel, currently making up roughly 15 percent of the Jewish population (about 1 million out of 6 million). And based on current birth rates, the haredim could make up more than one-third of the total Jewish population of Israel by mid-century. (Ultra-Orthodox Jews have very high birth rates coupled with very little assimilation into the secular culture.) As explained in 2016, "While haredim made up just 9.9% of the Israeli population in 2009, with 750,000 out of 7,552,100, by 2014 that figure had risen to 11.1%, with 910,500 haredim out of a total Israeli population of 8,183,400. [These figures refer to the total population of Israel, including Arabs.] "By 2024, the study predicts, haredim will make up 14% of the Israeli population, rising to 19% by 2039, and 27% by 2059. At that point haredim will be a whopping 35% of the total Jewish population, outnumbering the secular, traditional, traditional-religious, and religious sectors." But there's more to the story. Israel is a very fragile democracy, by which I mean that it takes a coalition of various parties to lead the nation. It's not as simple as electing President Trump or President Obama. Instead, Israelis vote for parties, which are led by individuals. Various parties then work together to get a total of 61 seats in the Knesset (Parliament). In the last election (2015), Prime Minister Netanyahu's party, Likud, got the most seats. But in total, Likud only won 30 seats, meaning that it had to work together with other parties to reach the magic number of 61. (Overall,10 different parties won seats; there were a total of 25 parties that competed.) To put his coalition together, Netanyahu had to include two ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas, both of which won just 6 seats. But they are major power brokers in the government with disproportionate influence, since Likud could not govern without them. Despite their small size, they can demand special benefits, including government support so more of their men can devote themselves to day and night Torah study, along with exemption from serving in the military. What makes this even more interesting is that many haredim are anti-Zionist. Their leaders opposed the modern state of Israel before 1948, feeling that: 1) it was up to the Messiah to regather the exiles and reestablish the nation; 2) a secular Jewish state would be an abomination in God's sight; and 3) an Israel established by man rather than God would increase world anti-Semitism. To this day, most haredim do not celebrate Israel's Independence Day; some actually mourn. And remember: These are very traditional Jews, with no TV's, limited internet access, and tightly controlled dress codes and sexual mores. Their religious traditionalism makes American Evangelicals look like worldly sinners. Yet the rest of the Jewish Israeli population is quite "progressive" and liberal. As noted in Israel Today, "As a nation, Israel prides itself on tolerance toward and acceptance of homosexuals. There are openly-gay members of Knesset; the IDF touts its integration of the LGBT community; Tel Aviv is advertised by the Israel Ministry of Tourism as a top gay travel destination; and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently highlighted Israel's homosexual credentials at the American Jewish Committee conference." And with LGBT activism getting bolder and louder, a conflict with ultra-Orthodox Jews becomes even more certain. This especially true in Jerusalem, since it boasts a significant haredi population and is considered particular holy in Jewish tradition. Recently, however, to the consternation of liberal Israelis, "Netanyahu and his Likud Party . . . helped defeat a motion to include homosexuals in a new amendment to Israel's surrogacy laws. The amendment enables single would-be mothers to now make use of surrogacy on the state's dime. Homosexuals hoped to be included in the new regulations, and took to the streets of Tel Aviv in mass protest when the Knesset rejected their appeals. "In response to the liberal outcry, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Aryeh Stern insisted that children born to gay couples would 'enter a very strange and unnatural life,' and that the government of Israel shouldn't be party to such a 'wretched' state of affairs." Stern's remarks were widely vilified, as a result of which 200 ultra-Orthodox rabbis wrote a letter supporting him, ending with, "The media's brainwashing that seeks to destroy the concept of family and turn perverts into heroes will not succeed, and nor will the attempt to silence rabbis and sane people and turn them into delusional extremists." Not surprisingly, this letter received even more severe backlash, "and a petition was started demanding that any of the 200 rabbis who draw a government salary should be fired immediately." At the same time, with a gay pride march scheduled for Jerusalem this Thursday, August 2, the chief rabbi of the city "has called for the city to remove rainbow flags from the vicinity of the city's major Synagogues." This is quite understandable. But in recent years, things got totally out of hand, and "16-year-old Shira Banki was killed at Jerusalem Pride in July 2015, when [the] ultra-Orthodox Jewish man Yishai Schlissel went on a stabbing spree." Tensions, then, are very high. And they could soon reach a boiling point as the secular population of Israel leans more and more to the left and the haredim lean more and more to the right, while they also continue to grow in numbers and power. For those who pray for the wellbeing of the nation, this is something to keep in prayer. Photo - Qld colourful Railway Carriages New South Wales Government Railways locomotive crews in the days of steam out the back blocks of the state such as at Nyngan Locomotive Depot, everyone worked together to get their trains over long difficult dusty destinations, especially in mid-summer. The Nyngan Locomotive Depot crews was one example of many similar rural towns, the crews undertook a variety of train running to numerous country town destinations. This is a story from the Footplate Padre's book titled Steam Stories. This article was titled Nyngan Depot Running on page 48. The locomotive crews (driver and fireman) would take trains north west to Bourke, and to Brewarrina which was almost directly north along the Bourke line and then deviate at Byrock. To Cobar almost due west in a straight line, and sometimes south east to Dubbo. Crews would regularly work on this line as far as Nevertire where they would go to Barracks and change over with a Dubbo crew. Nevertire's barracks were situated directly under the water tower and was therefore always cold the kitchen was a little shed a little way-away. This illustrates the nature of train running out west, as crews would take one train to a specific destination, go to barracks for a minimum of eight hours, and then work a train home. Photo - 32 Class locomotive Barracks working Nothing much has changed. In my 10 years as a locomotive engineman '60s-70s, barracks working was a regular part of my duties. When stationed in Goulburn barracks working schedules saw crews stay in barracks in Albury, Junee, Cooma, Port Kembla, Moss Vale and Enfield or Eveleigh in Sydney. When I transferred to Port Kembla Locomotive Depot barracks working saw us in Goulburn or Moss vale and when at Wollongong Depot we did barracks to Nowra for the early morning train this was when they were hauled by 48 Class locomotives which required a driver and a fireman, When taking a train and scheduled for barracks the crew took a food supply including ingredients for one hot meal and sandwiches for the forward and return journey. The length of stay in barracks could be as long as a train being available for the return run. My longest time away from home on a barracks job from sign-on to sign-off was 36 hours. This was not good for one's family or social life. Photo - 36 Class locomotive Assisting each other In the days of steam out west, it was part of life for locomotive crews. Nyngan men assisted each other, and the general rule was that the guard would come up to the engine and fire the steam engine for a section of the journey. The driver would also fire a section thus giving the fireman a break from his arduous labour. The fireman would invariably assist the guard when there was shunting operations to be undertaken. The fireman would unlock the points with the staff key, change the points and assist wherever possible. When locomotive inspectors rode on the engine and shunting operations were part of the schedule, even the inspectors, who knew the ropes, expected the fireman to help the guard so as to get the necessary work over and done with, as soon as possible. The men worked closely together and there was a lot of loyalty between the enginemen in those far off days of steam, where interdependence meant good engine management. I could not help but consider the correlation in the New Testament of those in the local church, each with their respective gifts of the Spirit in their individual contributions to the smooth functioning and evangelism of each local community of faith that is the members of the congregation. Photo - Old lounge rail carriage Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html After election violence, Zimbabwe churches urge party leaders to talk peace The general secretary of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches has called for calm after violence yesterday claimed the lives of at least three people in the aftermath of a disputed election. Soldiers patrolled the streets of Harare today after the clashes that dashed President Emmerson Mnangagwa's hopes of ending Zimbabwe's reputation for political repression. Many shops were closed and the pavements quiet. Several streets were still strewn with rocks and the charred remains of fires. Soldiers loitered at intersections. Speaking on Zimbabwean television, Rev Dr Kenneth Mtata urged the leaders of the ruling Zanu-PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change to 'create a space in which all Zimbabweans can come together for meaningful dialogue'. MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has attacked the result of the parliamentary vote, which gave Zanu-PF a clear majority, in a series of tweets alleging vote-rigging and fraud. He tweeted yesterday: 'We have won the popular vote. You voted for total change in this past election! We have won this one together. No amount of results manipulation will alter your will.' THANK YOU ZIMBABWE ...Im humbled by the support you have given to me as a Presidential Candidate. We have won the popular vote. You voted for total Change in this past election!We have won this one together. No amount of results manipulation will alter your WILL #Godisinit Nelson Chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) August 1, 2018 Mtata said: 'If you are a politician what you work with is the euphoria of your followers and you try to drum up support, and I think this is what we saw.' He continued: 'When you give the impression that you are automatically going to win, then when the results seem to be coming in a different way, especially when there's a government where there is mistrust of the process, then you are likely to see an explosion like we saw yesterday.' He said the ZCC was 'trying to engage Mr Chamisa behind the scenes, for him also to contribute to the positive message in public towards peace'. President Emmerson Mnangagwa tweeted this morning that he was calling for an independent investigation into the events of last night. He said: 'It is also more important than ever that we are united, and commit to settling our differences peacefully and respectfully, and within the confines of the law.' Together, we must lead by example and show all Zimbabweans that peace is paramount. This land is home to all of us, and we will sink or swim together. 6/6 President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) August 2, 2018 Mnangagwa said: 'We have been in communication with Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately diffuse the situation, and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear.' Mtata urged the importance of prayer, saying: 'We are a church, so our starting point is that we constantly pray for peace and we believe that peace is a gift from God. Peace is when we are able to co-exist with difference and we think that this prayer must continue. 'But we need to address some fundamental issues that easily act as a trigger of violence.' He said: 'We believe that political maturity will require that all political leaders will mobilise their followers for this agenda for peace.' The deployment of soldiers and their shooting and beating of unarmed protesters is likely to set back efforts to end Zimbabwe's pariah status in the wake of the army's removal of longtime leader Robert Mugabe in a coup last November. Amnesty International called on the government to launch a prompt investigation into the army's actions. 'It is unfortunate that this election has descended into bloodshed, which could have been avoided if security forces had exercised restraint against protesters,' the London-based human rights organisation said. It said that by using live ammunition against unarmed protesters, 'the army has broken the very same rule of law that they should protect'. God's glue: How the Bible teaches us to repair the world The Jewish community is currently reading from Deuteronomy, the biblical book which recapitulates the history of the Jewish people up till now, as well as the way forward for future flourishing. At the repetition of the 10 Commandments (better translated as 'The 10 utterances') read in shul last Shabbat, we are reminded not so much to 'remember' the Shabbat day as in the earlier Book of Exodus, but from now on to 'guard and preserve it'. In addition, we are enjoined to live a life faithful to G-d in all we do. So last Shabbat's sermon discussed the Hebrew concept of 'd-v-k', utter adherence to G-d's ways. But what does 'utter adherence' mean exactly for daily life in Britain in 2018? It is often useful when heeding a sermon based around a Hebrew word (in which vowels are additional extras and it's the consonants that matter) to look at how the word has developed in modern Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is largely the brain-child of Eliezer ben Yehuda (1858-1922) of observant Lithuanian Jewish stock, who spent most of his adult life in Israel recreating, with others, the Hebrew language as we know it today, ready for use by the vast majority of Jews who, he correctly predicted, would one day in the not-too-distant future be returning to their homeland. Working on the Hebrew language for use by the return of the exiles from the diaspora, he was encouraged by other prophetic characters, such as the great Rav Kook (1865-1935) who, in the year of Eliezer's death, was appointed as the first Chief Rabbi of Israel under the British Mandate. Much of the brilliant and magical language of modern Hebrew, praised to the heights by Prince William on his recent visit as one of the glories of modern Israel, was created by people such as Eliezer and Rav Kook, who were steeped in knowledge of biblical, Mishnaic, Midrashic, Talmudic, medieval and later Hebrew developments, as well as in cognate Semitic languages and usages, such as Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic. And in modern Hebrew, 'd-v-k' means 'glue'. If I asked my Israeli grand-daughter, who has just turned eight, what 'd-v-k' means, she wouldn't say 'adherence to G-d's ways', or even 'being a good person'. She would say 'That's what I use to stick things together so they don't come apart and it's very messy, most of the time.' It's the messiness of adhering to G-d's ways that is the clue to the glue. If it were easy, we wouldn't have sermons telling us how to behave. As Deuteronomy (30: 11-14) itself states as G-d's nearly final words to the Jewish people: 'For this commandment that I myself am commanding you this day...is not in heaven... Rather, the whole thing is entirely accessible to you in your mouth and your heart for you to carry out.' This injunction in the last part of the Bible itself, given at year's end, just before the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), reminds every Jewish man, woman and child, as well as every other person for whom G-d's word is meaningful, that the interpretation of G-d's word is not for angels who are high in heaven and don't possess free will, but for human beings to work on, as did the creators of modern Hebrew, in partnership with G-d. In creating modern Hebrew, the early Zionist pioneers, spear-headed by Eliezer Ben Yehuda, were doing G-d's work, as much as any rabbi studying Talmud all day long in Yeshiva, or telling us how to behave in Shul. Through these powerful Deuteronomic farewell words to the late summer, when autumn creeps in and with it the start of the new academic year, G-d reiterates his call to humanity to join with him in the messiness of life. G-d wants us to become involved in 'repairing the world', which means starting with the wrongs being done by individuals in our own synagogues and churches, in our own streets, villages, towns or cities, our own institutions, be they political parties, local authorities, trade unions, aid agencies, universities, or the media. Nothing beautiful or long-lasting was ever created without messy involvement, be it birth, bread or buildings. 'Without flour there is no Torah,' states a very popular Mishnah. G-d expects us to be constantly involved in every single aspect of life at personal, communal, religious, social and political level, but always starting where we are now, in our own sphere of influence. So whenever we think about what it means to carry out G-d's will to the best of our ability, as encouraged in the latest synagogue readings, please bear in mind the manifold uses of glue and how getting our hands dirty brings us closer to G-d than simply trying to be 'holier than thou', which is for angels and not for human beings. Or as Rabbi Tarfon states in the Mishna (Sayings of the Fathers 2:20) which we repeat every day in the liturgy and which is also a favourite at Bat and Bar Mitzvahs: 'Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. "Do justly now. Have mercy now. Walk humbly now" (Micah 6:8). 'The day is short; the task is abundant; the labourers are lazy; the reward is great. And the Master of the House is insistent... 'It is not our responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world. But we are not free to desist from it either.' In other words, becoming involved is the glue which holds us together with G-d and ultimately sustains G-d's creation, including ourselves. So wherever we are in life, let's not forget the glue. Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible. Love Island's unlikely lesson: Chastity and faithfulness are back Love Island, ITV2's answer to Big Brother (but in bikinis) came to a somewhat anti-climactic end with Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer winning the public vote by 79.6 per cent. Seemingly, this anticlimax has been attributed to the fact that the couple have been together since the beginning. What was perhaps more shocking was their lack of membership of the islanders' elite club. Monday evening saw the end of eight weeks of our daily Love Island fix, with the nation's favourite sweethearts taking away the cash prize in a landslide win against three other couples. The show is set in a villa in the remote hills of Majorca, which becomes home to several young people, all looking to find love. With entertaining challenges, public votes, 're-couplings' and a few red herrings, the winning couple is chosen by the public, often for having the closest bond, being the most entertaining or overcoming the most adversity. This series has faced a range of criticisms, from accusations of colourism to sizeism. It is true that the contestants have seemingly only represented a small segment of society. The toned, tanned and in some cases, not entirely life-like contestants spend almost their entire day in the villa in revealing swimwear. We do not see them eat or read or sightsee like any other holidaymaker. Instead, they discuss exes, sexual encounters and 'grafting' for someone's attention. One particular conversation that often occurred was a discussion on the activities of the night before. Being on national television means that intimate encounters take place in dark corners and stolen moments. Sometimes, as the contestants found, they were only able to 'do bits'. And so, the phrase of the series was born: those who had 'succeeded' were accepted into the 'do bits society'. However, the winning couple was unique. They were not admitted to the 'do bits society', they did not alarm the night vision camera in the Love Hideaway and they remained faithful to each other from the first episode to the last. So shocking was this fidelity that one of the first questions the couple were asked in their winning interview was: 'When are you going to do bits?' Since then they have been hounded by questions about their sex lives and their commitment to one another. Dani told The Daily Star, 'The other people having sex in the villa didn't bother me' and spoke to the Sun about her grandparents' chastity before marriage. So is chastity now in vogue? It seems that Twitter is split. While a letter in the Catholic Herald describes the programme as a live action exploitation of women, others found Jack and Dani's dedication to one another endearing and admirable. It seems that fidelity is becoming attractive, and is being noticed by Love Island viewers. We do not know the religious preferences of this couple, or any of the Love Island couples. Unsurprisingly, this was not a topic of conversation that the contestants shared around their private pool. However, Jack and Dani's popularity, and the unpopularity of the less consistent contestants, demonstrates a real interest in faithful and perhaps chaste relationships. Now outside of the public eye, to an extent, the couple must now begin to define what their relationship means going into the future. Since landing back in the UK, Jack has hinted to press that the couple will be married next year. He has also joked that their new home together, which they will move into immediately, will provide a more meaningful space in which do 'do bits'. Regardless how they now spend their private time, they have raised a question for society. Can and should we be engaging with the outside world using our bodies, when our relationships are based on much deeper understandings of ourselves? Has chastity been proven to be sexy? Perhaps we have to wait until series five to find out. Nina Mattiello Azadeh studied music and philosophy and was a Faith in Politics media intern in 2016. She has a keen interest in interfaith relations, social action and is a classical ballet dancer. Follow her on Twitter @Ninamataz Michael Ciaglo, Staff / Houston Chronicle Houston's Apache Corp. reported a $195 million net profit and rising revenues for the second quarter as the oil and gas producer continues to increase its volumes from West Texas' Permian Basin. Apache's quarterly profit fell from $572 million the same quarter last year, when the company benefited from a one-time deferred deferred tax benefit of more than $700 million. Oil recovered from the lowest level in more than a month amid signs the supply drain from the biggest U.S. supply hub will continue and heightened geopolitical tension. Futures rose 1.9 percent after a Genscape report was said to show Cushing, Oklahoma, inventories sank 1.1 million barrels from Friday to Tuesday. The rally was further boosted when U.S. government officials told Reuters that Iran plans to hold a military exercise in the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days. Futures touched the lowest since June 22 earlier after reports that OPEC and Russia boosted production. "This is another wake-up call that reminds us that demand is strong," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for Price Futures Group Inc. "That's a pretty big draw. It turned the market around." U.S. government data Wednesday showed a surprise gain in nationwide stockpiles. Earlier, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries's July output climbed as Saudi Arabia pumped near-record volumes while Russia boosted production to levels not seen since it joined the cartel in a coordinated cut in January 2017. The draw from Cushing serves as a reminder of crimped supply from Suncor Energy Inc.'s Syncrude facility, analysts said. "The Cushing situation is becoming a bigger and bigger concern for the market," said John Kilduff, founding partner for Again Capital LLC. "When we get these reports it's a reminder of the big problems we have with respect to Cushing. It's very bullish, despite all the other production efforts going on." Meanwhile, Iran's planned military exercise is renewing concerns that the country could block the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil shipments, in retaliation to U.S. policy. The exercise shows Iran may not be willing to back down, further supporting the crude rally, said Phil Streible, senior commodity broker for RJ O'Brien & Associates LLC. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery rose $1.30 to settle at $68.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Total volume traded Thursday was about 28 percent below the 100-day average. Brent for October settlement gained $1.06 to settle at $73.45 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark traded at a $5.79 premium to WTI for the same month. Yet, higher supplies from OPEC and Russia are adding to concerns that a trade war between the U.S. and China could curb economic growth and limit energy demand, which last month drove crude to the biggest decline in two years. But, those measures have yet to be taken by the Trump administration, leaving traders with ambiguity. "It's all he said she said," said Kyle Cooper, consultant for Ion Energy Group LLC. "It makes people uncomfortable, but nobody knows what the full ramifications will be. There's a lot of talk right now." U.S. crude inventories rose 3.8 million barrels last week, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. That compares with a forecast for a 3-million-barrel decline in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. Other oil-market news: Gasoline futures rose 1.1 percent to settle at $2.0681 per gallon. PDVSA's 5 refineries in Venezuela reduced oil-processing and are operating at 26.7% capacity Thursday vs 30.3% on July 12, according to person with knowledge of operations. The Trump administration, taking aim at one of former President Barack Obama's signature environmental achievements, is proposing to suspend required increases in vehicle fuel economy after 2020. The Atlantic hurricane season may have gotten off to an early start this year, but it'll probably end with a whimper, Colorado State University forecasters estimate. --With assistance from Tsuyoshi Inajima and Grant Smith. 2018 Bloomberg L.P. The Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge will be accepting applications (from hunters 18 years and older) for public Big Game and Upland Game hunting lottery draw starting Aug. 6 and postmarked by Sept. 1, 2018. The 2018-19 hunting opportunities have been listed on their website. The application fee is $25. The fee is $15 for hunters 65 years and older and $15 for hunters with a disability that meets the state definition. There will not be any waterfowl hunting offered this year due to road and culvert damage from Hurricane Harvey. The only road leading into Champion Lake is closed to all public uses until further notice. We will have the application period for hunts during the same time (Aug. 6 to Sept. 1). Any applications received before or after those dates will not be accepted. Various tracts in Liberty County, totaling nearly 8,000 acres, will be open to Big Game Hunting for deer and hog and Upland Game hunting for squirrel and rabbit. Big Game hunting includes archery, general gun, and muzzleloader. Please note that for the 2019-20 hunt season, the Refuge will be transitioning into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departments Drawn Hunt Catalog. New areas will also be opened, and application fees will reflect TPWDs cost structure. If selected, hunters will be allowed to bring one adult guest and a youth (ages 12-17) or two youth hunters at no additional cost. Since you will be hunting on a National Wildlife Refuge, special regulations will be enforced as described in the application process, said Marcus Stuart, manager for the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge. Stuart also said there are specific eligibility rules to meet State standards for hunters with disabilities. A Special Use Permit will be required for hunters with disabilities using all-terrain vehicles on designated tracts. Fully completed applications, with a check or money order, (no cash) should be mailed and made payable to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, PO Box 10015, Liberty, TX 77575 between Aug. 6 and Sept. 1. The public drawing for all hunts is on Sept. 10 at our office - Archery, Upland Game and Muzzleload at 8 a.m. and Big Game at 10 a.m. The Refuge office is located at 601 FM1011, Liberty, TX. Hunters do not have to be present to be selected but are welcome to attend the drawing. Those persons selected will be notified by mail within 10 days and given a Refuge hunt permit with a full list of refuge regulations, harvest report, and map. Please visit Refuge links for: Various types of hunts including the applications and regulations at www.fws.gov/refuge/Trinity_River/visit/hunt.html; Maps of all the hunt units at www.fws.gov/refuge/Trinity_River/map.html; and directions to each unit at www.fws.gov/refuge/trinity_river/plan/directions.html. UPDATE: Both Pi Pizza and Star Fish will be open Friday, Aug. 3 UPDATE: Swamplot reports that Star Fish, at 191 Heights Blvd. in the same strip mall as Pi Pizza, also has been locked out. Cherry Pie Hospitality owns both restaurants. A lockout notice on the door of Pi Pizza on Wednesday has no doubt put panic in the hearts of pizza lovers in the Heights area. But a spokeswoman for the pizza joint at 181 Heights Blvd. said the lockout for overdue rent was a banking snafu and that the rent check (and the corporate attorney) were meeting with the landlord Wednesday afternoon. The restaurant could reopen later today, Aug. 2, or tomorrow, Aug. 3. Neighbors were tipped off to the lockout notice on Reddit which showed a photo of a sign posted by the landlord indicating that locks were changed because of delinquent rent. Some on the Reddit thread wondered if the restaurant has been struggling since original chef/partner Anthony Calleo departed in May. Pi Pizza is one of the restaurant concepts under the Cherry Pie Hospitality umbrella, which includes State Fare Kitchen & Bar, Lee's Fried Chicken & Donuts, Star Fish, Petite Sweets and Lee's Creamery. That restaurant group was rocked when partner Lee Ellis resigned from day-to-day operations in March. Cherry Pie Hospitality CEO Chris Vestal has been guiding Cherry Pie operations in Houston since. Pi Pizza opened with great buzz with both Ellis and Calleo at the helm in August 2016. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Follow him on the podcast BBQ State of Mind to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. Katy-area residents who have enlisted in the military service in recent months have received a warm send-off from the community thanks to Texans Embracing America's Military. "Each send-off has gotten larger as more and more organizations are involved," said at-large Katy City Councilman Chris Harris. "It's grown from a very small event to something humbling and something that everyone wants to be involved in." The next send-off will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5, at Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9182, 6206 George Bush Drive. Ralph Oliver, founder/creator of Texans Embracing America's Military, noted on the nonprofit's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/TEAMKatyTx/, "This August 5 send-off could be our biggest yet. We are looking at 31 Army recruits, 11 Air Force recruits, 7 Marine recruits and a possible 10 from the Navy. Let's pack the house for these kids!" Oliver, who served six years in the military police, borrowed the idea of a send-off for young military recruits from the neighbor of a friend he went to visit in Colorado. That got Oliver talking with Katy-area public safety groups like police and fire departments as well as community organizations like the Katy Elks, American Legion and VFW. "Everyone was all for it," he said. Then Hurricane Harvey came and put a damper on things. After the first of the year, Oliver resurrected the idea and the Katy Elks Lodge 2628 at 1050 Katy Fort Bend Road hosted the initial send-off in March. After the VFW reopened its hall that had been damaged by Harvey floodwaters, the growing event moved. The program starts with a prayer, pledge of allegiance and singing of the national anthem. Recruiters from each service introduce their recruits and parents. Individuals and groups give tokens of appreciation to the recruits and sometimes their parents. The program concludes with what Harris calls a "celebratory line" where everyone lines up and greets each recruit and everyone is cheering and clapping. Betty Edmundson, an officer of the Elks Lodge and of the VFW Auxiliary, said, "It's something to remember as they go away. We have a lot of support from the city on this. We're hoping it will be around for quite some time and give recruits something to look back on." It can be quite emotional, added Edmundson. "A lot of young men and women have never been away from home. Some are coming straight out of high school. This is quite a step for them. We try to show our support because we want these young men and women to know when they come back or need something they can get hold of their parents or us and we'll stand behind them in anyway we can." That position is endorsed by Ward A Katy City Councilman J. Gary Jones, a retired U.S. Marine. "I know how it was when I went in the military. Get on a bus and goodbye." His family cared about him but he didn't see them until he came home. "When I came home the people who greeted me were spitting on me," added Jones, who served during the Vietnam era. He wants the kids going into the service today to know that they have the support of their community and its citizens. "I want them to know there is a community and citizens that care about them and remember them when they're going to defend our nation. Everyone of the military branches is a team and we're honoring them as a T.E.A.M." More Information Want to go? What: Katy send-off for military recruits When: 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5 Where: Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9281, 6206 George Bush Drive Details: https://www.facebook.com/TEAMKatyTx/ or https://texansembracingamericasmilitary.com/ See More Collapse Jones has attended all the send-offs, but the Aug. 5 event will be special because his grandson, Mason, a U.S. Army recruit, will be participating. Harris said that Oliver spent a lot of time organizing the nonprofit and its events. "Ralph is not only a true supporter of the military and public servants but he was the coordinator between the civilians and military during Hurricane Harvey." Based at Katy High school, he coordinated disaster relief. "He's been an unbelievable individual in everything he's done for Katy," added Harris. karen.zurawski@chron.com At Artisans Restaurant in Midtown, Paris Williams studied her plate of macarons she had just created. Too pretty to eat, she thought. So as she listened to restaurant owner and chef Jacques Fox share his love for French cuisine and culture, Paris had another thought: Just maybe one day, she'd go to Paris to see for herself. The seventh-grader at Rodeo Palms Junior High in Manvel was among 25 girls ages 7 to 13 from Fifth Ward, Sunnyside, Scarborough and other communities who were invited to the recent #YearOfJoy Ooh La La Lunch hosted by Fox and his team. The girls also are part of Hype Freedom School, a nearly 20-year-old nonprofit that provides summer- and after-school enrichment programs for area children. It was started by Brandi Brown. The #YearOfJoy Ooh La La Lunch was a celebration of girl power and French culture and cuisine. It was also a special way to kick of Houston Restaurant Week. 'RAISING THE BARRE': Celebrity chefs and Houston Ballet dancers star in epic Midtown dinner party "I'm honored to be able to share my French culture and my passion for food with these young girls," Fox said. "It's an incredible experience to witness how much love and care goes into each dish as we prepare it." The girls first slipped into colorful pink aprons sponsored by Design Girl Travels. Then pastry chef Christy Sperling showed them how to make macarons in the restaurant's massive kitchen and horseshoe dining area. Next, the girls got to show off their art skills with staff from Art Mix Studio, 2522 Times Blvd. in Rice Village, which led the group in creating their own painting inspired by French artist Nikki de Saint Phalle. Just before lunch, a Writers in the Schools youth poet Lyn Stewart, a member of Meta-Four Houston, performed two inspirational, girl-power themed poems, followed by Dr. Kathy Flanagan, a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice and president of the Houston Medical Forum, talked with the group about ways to create their own joy, even at their young age. The highlight of the afternoon was a lavish four-course meal prepared by Fox, executive chef Russell Kirkham and chef Eric Cruz that included roasted frenched chicken breast and filet de boeuf au poivre and macarons, of course, But before the girls could take their first bite, Monica Lewis, president of Monica Lewis School of Etiquette, was on hand to lead them through an 40-minute etiquette lesson, which covered everything from the proper way to sit at a table to where to put the napkin when done. Lewis is a world-acclaimed etiquette expert and author of "Say Yes to Manners." She gave each of the girls a copy of the book. After lunch, the girls snapped photos at My Event is the Bomb photo booth. Adding to the ambiance was the over-the-top decor, including the #YearOfJoy light display by Marquee House of Letters, purple and pink mood lighting by Lion's Heart Audio-Visual Services, the pink French-inspired menus on each plate by Small Batch Love and dramatic floral table arrangements by Lexis Florist. Also What's the Occasion Linen, Royal Luxury Events, Clear Choice Restoration, and Emile Brown Photography added to the affair. HAPPENING NOW: The ultimate guide to Houston Restaurant Weeks at HoustonChronicle.com Kendra Scott Jewelry gave each girl a special necklace, which prompted one girl to exclaim,"We get Kendra Scott, too!" Kye and daughter Madison Sampson and Bobbies Wear also provide treats for the goodie bags. Williams -Sonoma and GirlBlew School of African Dance donated raffle items. Craft Burger Food Truck even brought in food for the volunteers. The lunch was organized by Houston event planner Kali Sellars, owner of A Swoon Event, who is known for her over-the-top children's parties. Among the guests and volunteers were: Shawntelle McWilliams, Stacy Robinson, Sharon Evans-Brooks, Ashley Small, Misty Starks, Sara Selber and Todd Ramos How much is that doggy in the window? If the window is at the Deer Park Animal shelter, that pooch, or any other pet someone may want to adopt, will be $50 less than the normal charge as the shelter participates in the national Clear the Shelter program sponsored by Telemundo. As shelter crowding becomes more prevalent especially over the summer facilities across the country take a day and waive adoption fees in an effort to find homes for animals. This year, the Clear the Shelter event will take place Aug. 18 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. People adopting an animal will not have to pay the adoption fee, but are still responsible for the spay or neuter and rabies vaccine. We have a lot of cats right now, said Jeanna Hooker, the Deer Park shelters animal control supervisor. So, were always looking to find good homes for them, and we also have this sweet dog named Hazel who were concentrating on. Shes about a year old and we think shes a shepherd-husky mix. Shes little shy, but shes excellent with other dogs and great with people. But dogs and cats arent the only creatures the shelter has ever taken in. Because were a city facility, we take in anything that is in the city, Hooker said. In the past, the shelter has taken in alligators, guinea pigs, ostriches, snakes, ponies, goats and pigs. Years ago, someone was driving down the road and found one of those small plastic habitats just laying around outside, Hooker said. There was a tarantula living in it. Joining the initiative spearheaded by Telemundo helps quite a bit, Hooker said. Were tucked way back here on Luella; so a lot of times well get people in that didnt even know we were here, she said. If a bigger company like Telemundo or NBC is advertising the event and were attached to it, its on such a huge scale that more people will see it and potentially get involved. This will be the fourth year for the annual event and the third year Deer Park is participating. Weve seen a definite increase in adoptions during the event, she said. Hooker encouraged residents to follow the Deer Park Animal Shelter on Facebook at www.facebook.com/deerparktx.animalshelter to keep an eye out for pets they might be interested in adopting. Just remember if you see an animal before the adoption event and youre waiting until that day for the fee to be waived, there is a chance the animal wont be there when youre ready for them, she said. Well work with people though. Just be sure to let us know that you know about the adoption event if youre coming in before hand. jennifer.bolton@chron.com For the second time in recent weeks, credit card skimmers have been located on gas pumps at the Exxon gas station located at 1800 Northpark Drive in Kingwood. Montgomery County Sheriffs Office deputies were called to the location on July 30 when they learned gas station staff were conducting maintenance on a fuel pump and discovered a credit card skimmer had been attached on the inside of the pump, police said. After the Conroe Economic Development Council contracted a study on Conroes entrepreneurial health in January, members of the Conroe Industrial Development Corp. board agreed they supported the startup sector but maintained focus on what needs to be done to get tenants in the Deison Technology Park that has been vacant since it opened almost six years ago. In December, the board approved a six-month contract not to exceed $60,000 with Ramon Lozano of SoftIntel Ventures. Lozano presented his findings to the board at its July 19 regular meeting. Mayor Pro Tem and CIDC member Duke Coon said the challenge with the tech park is related to the level of education in the community, workforce and income. We are in competition with Sugar Land, Pearland and some other areas, Coon said noting the one industry that is doing well in Conroe is the industrial sector. However, Coon said, are on the lower end of the pay scale. Coon explained other areas in the region, like Pearland, have a median household income at about $130,000 while the median household income in Conroe is $60,000. That, he added, gives family little disposable income. Board member Guy Martin agrees. We need higher paying jobs, he said. Im all for bringing in jobs, but when you bring in $35,000 jobs in the industrial park, they arent making enough to spend on anything else. The 248-acre Deison Technology Park is adjacent to the Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport and was designed to attract corporate headquarters and research and development operations and to complement the manufacturing focus of nearby Conroe Industrial Park North. Danielle Scheiner, executive director for the CEDC, told the board Conroe is behind in development but said that is changing. We are trending in the right direction, we are not there yet, she said. I think we need to make sure we move that needle a little faster. Mayor Toby Powell and CICD member echoed Scheiner. We are slowly but surely moving forward, he said adding Conroe is on the verge of busting wide open. We have so many possibilities right now. I think we will get there. Think big, start small Despite the boards focus on the tech park, Lozano told the board cultivating its entrepreneurial sector is critical for the county economic health. Think big, start small and move fast, he said providing four recommendations to help jump-start the startup community. According to the study, Conroe has many examples of citizens starting small businesses in the community like restaurants, retail or someone capitalizing on a hobby. All these small business ventures are very important to the character of Conroe and are the backbone of any community, the study states. However, Lozano said the study focused on a specific entrepreneurship that has potential to create primary jobs. The Local Government Code defines a primary job is available at a company for which a majority of the products or services of that company are ultimately exported to regional, statewide, national, or international markets infusing new dollars into the economy. Are other cities doing this? Yes, Lozano said. Lozanos first recommendation was to encourage discussion to engage entrepreneurs, solicit their input and make them on an initiative that will serve their interests. Second, Lozano said the city needed to create an environment, or sandbox to allow entrepreneurs cross-pollinate with players they would not typically interface with. Third, the city needs to create opportunities for entrepreneurs to vet their ideas to determine its viability. Last, Lozano said the city should create an entrepreneurship committee to help upscale the local startup industry. Listen to the entrepreneurs. Be responsive to their needs. Work closely with local industry, Lozano stated in his presentation. The very fact that a community the size of Conroe has opted to study its entrepreneurship ecosystem is indicative of its desire to scale its local industry and prepare its startup founder for their eventual integration into the local economy. The board took no action on the study. cdominguez@hcnonline.com An exhibit of Natiq Al Alousis art in The Woodlands celebrates humanity and offers a modern perspective on Iraqs cultural heritage. The exhibit titled Away from Reality, which officially opened at the Glade Gallery (part of the Glade Cultural Center) in The Woodlands, Texas on July 26, features the sculpture and paintings of Natiq Al Alousi, a gifted and passionate Iraqi artist of international acclaim, who knows well the difference between producing what he calls social duty art and art that feeds an artists soul. The current exhibit, while seeking to help viewers appreciate the history and culture of a part of the world known as the cradle of civilization also seeks, in Natiqs words, to help remind us of our shared humanity and the need to celebrate beauty, feelings and substance. The collection of bronze sculpture and acrylic paintings which make up what Natiq calls one of my most important exhibits and one he has described as a precursor to possible further exploration, is his inaugural exhibit in the United States. The exhibit is punctuated by references to early Mesopotamian culture, specifically graphic references from what has been called the worlds first great work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Through signature sculptural works and paintings with titles like Enslavement, The Conflict with the Divine Ox and Inana of Uruk, Natiq elegantly but simply provides a modern look at issues that have challenged man from earliest times to the present - the struggles of good and evil, the search for the meaning of life and mans desire for immortality. Viewers are drawn to the fluidity of lines and elongation of shapes in Natiqs graceful and slender depictions of men, women and animals, evident in his sculpture and echoed in his paintings. Natiq has said that he hopes viewers will also sense the movement in all his pieces, even in such figures as Inana of Uruk, who, in this exhibit, is shown in a reclining position. In commenting further on his use of elongated shapes, Natiq said that he hates symmetry when it comes to representing the hands, arms, feet and legs of human and animal forms. His use of exaggeration and elongation he says, much more accurately represent the essence of both humans and animals. While no exact date has been announced for the closing, Away from Reality is expected to be on display at the Glade Gallery until December 2018. Some highlights from a tour of the exhibit led by Natiq and his wife Nada Houmadi, at the opening on July 26 of Away from Reality, afforded guests some additional insights into the artist and his artistic journey. With more fluency in the English language, and an obvious devotion to the artist and his work, Nada served as Natiqs interpreter. They began the tour with a bronze sculpture titled Enslavement, which Natiq called the Masterpiece of the current exhibit. Natiq explained that Enslavement, with its reference to the Epic of Gilgamesh, is meant to show that people are slaves to the gods; they worship them. He added, Dictators are modern forms of those ancient gods. The tour moved to a sculpture of a lithe and graceful woman with raised arms that seem to morph into a fan-like arrangement of palm fronds above her head, titled Divine Blessings. Natiq explained that this piece is meant to illustrate not only his view of mankinds many Divine Blessings (such as a womans beauty and the fertility of land) but also to illustrate the history of man. Referring to the palm frond, Natiq reminded guests that the palm is not only a symbol of Iraq but also an ancient symbol used by many cultures and many of the worlds religions. Responding to one guest who thought the rows of undulating lines on two sides of Divine Blessings might suggest the flowing tresses of the womans hair, Natiq explained that the lines flowing down two sides of the sculptures base, were intended to suggest the blessings of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which for centuries fed the fertile lands of Iraq and contributed to that part of the world being known as the cradle of civilization. Natiq also explained that the metal relief image affixed to the front of the sculptures stone base, was added to suggest celebration and victory. Born in Iraq in 1964, Natiq Al Alousi has said that art is in his blood. Many of his brothers are painters and so is an uncle. Natiqs formal art education includes a Fine Arts degree from the Fine Arts College of Baghdad, and a Diploma Certificate from the Sculptors Forum in Budapest. Participating in an art competition at the age of 18 brought his art to the attention of Saddam Hussein, (who ruled Iraq from 1979 to his deposing in 2003) and subsequent opportunities for heightened recognition in and outside of Iraq. By the late 1980s Natiq was producing many large-scale bronze and fiberglass sculptures for Iraqs presidential palaces. From 1991 to 2005, Natiq held various positions, including managing the bronze casting foundry for Iraqs Ministry of Culture and Communication, which Natiq pointed out, provided work for many Iraqi artists. From 2000 to 2005, he also headed the sculpture department of Baghdads Folklore Institute. Passionate about art, Natiq made time, while working on government-commissioned art projects, which Natiq calls social duty art, to pursue his own signature style of art. When Saddams government fell in 2003 so did many of Natiqs sculptures. Living in exile in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, since 2006, Natiq continued to explore the kind of art that feeds his soul, looking at the relationship between a man and a woman, finding new ways of expressing the beauty of the movement of the human body while also eliminating details which he feels are ineffective in truly expressing his feelings or a subjects essence. While some may view his sculpture and paintings as a form of abstract art, Natiq dismisses that term. He prefers to call his sculpture and paintings modern art. Though bronze is a favored material for his sculpture, Natiq has worked in many other media, including stone, wood and fiberglass. He has even used the metal from old cars to create sculpture, as he did for an exhibit in Abu Dhabi that focused on recycled materials. Natiq is a founding member and former art manager of Qibab Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi and continues to receive numerous commissions. Beyond Iraq, Natiqs work has been exhibited in Budapest, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Great Britain. Collectors range from Middle Eastern royal families to a British Member of Parliament. Parts of Natiq Al Alousis artistic journey have been highlighted by such English language media groups as The Huffington Post, CNN and The National (a Middle East English-language news service). See more about Natiq Al Alousi and his art online at his website, www.natiqalousi.com and at www.saatchiart.com, as well as on the website of the Glade Cultural Center at www.gladeculturalcenter.com or on the Glade Gallerys Facebook page. Though Natiq has travelled to many cities across the US, his current exhibit at the Glade Gallery in The Woodlands is his first in the United States. A chance meeting with Dragos Tapu in 2017 at the Glade Gallerys original location on Waterway Avenue in The Woodlands, set the stage for the current exhibit at the Glade Gallery, which earlier this year became part of the Glade Cultural Center and moved to its present location at 2000 Woodlands Parkway. A sculpture Natiq showed Dragos in 2017 titled Away from Reality led to the name of the current exhibit. Maggie Gutierrez may be reached at ggutmarina@aol.com. The grapes are coming in from Texas Vineyards with some outstanding fruit quality. Messina Hof is one of the first to plant Sagrantino in Texas. Their grapes have become almost legendary earning numerous Gold Medals, including the only American Sagrantino wine to earn a Gold Medal in Europe. The Sagrantino grapes were harvested this week and have proven to be a huge eye catcher with their big, juicy, luscious purple grapes coming in from the vineyards to Messina Hof Winery. Founder and CEO Paul Bonariggo told me, My Sagrantino was harvested with perfect chemistry and aroma. Sugar levels and pH were as textbook as one could get. The Friday kicks off two fabulous weekends of Harvest Festivities for Messina Hofs 41st Harvest at their wineries in Bryan and in Fredericksburg. Enjoy the opportunity to harvest grapes from their vineyards after an educational program on the Texas Wine Industry with Messina Hof being one of the original FIVE wineries established in Texas after Prohibition ended. There is a great heritage with Paul and Merrill Bonariggo being the Patriarch and Matriarch of Texas FIRST FAMILY of wine. Paul and his soul-mate have become icons in the Texas Wine Industry. You will have a wonderful opportunity to meet these two Legends of the Texas Wine industry on an intimate basis in Bryan. Paul and Merrill have become international ambassadors for both Messina Hof Winery and the Texas Wine Industry. The past several years, these two soul-mates have traveled internationally with their Texas Wines all over Europe and the World! They have achieved instant acclaim with their Gold-Medal Wines while their son Paul M. and his lovely wife, Karen, have taken over the daily operations of Messina Hof Winery. The death of a 59-year-old man, charged with public intoxication, continues to be investigated by the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office and the Texas Rangers. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the man as Magnolia resident William Otto Nuttall. This is an active investigation and no additional information is available at this time, DPS Sgt. Erik Burse said. The Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables Office arrested Nuttall on the misdemeanor charge at approximately 1:49 p.m. on Wednesday and transported him to the Montgomery County Jail. The Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables Office was also contacted for circumstances regarding the mans initial arrest, Chief Chris Jones responded, adding, At this time, there is an ongoing investigation into the in-custody death of a male who had been arrested by our agency. I cannot comment on any of the details at this moment. Precinct 5 Constables wish to give our condolences to the family and friends of the male involved. MCSO Lt. Scott Spencer said due to the males level of intoxication, he was placed into a detoxification cell. While in the cell, the male fell down and staff feared that if the male continued to remain in the cell he could possibly hurt himself. Nuttall was relocated from a detoxification cell to a single cell with protective walls to prevent him from falling and hurting himself while jail staff conducted regular checks on him, police said. MCSO jail staff entered the cell to feed the male at approximately 5:30 p.m. at which time they found him unresponsive on the floor, Spencer added. Medical staff was summoned to the cell and medical aid was administered. Nuttall was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Our thoughts and condolences are with the family and friends of the male during this difficult time, Spencer added. This is the third death of an inmate reported by MCSO in 2018. In January, two Montgomery County Jail inmates Mosheer Rashid, 41, and Carl Bible, 35 who tested positive for the flu died at an area hospital, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office reported at the time. Rashid had been arrested on a felony assault charge while Bible was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance and a Harris County warrant for failure to register as a sex offender. Although both deaths were not considered an in-custody death by law, MCSO jail administration, homicide and violent crimes detectives and the Texas Rangers investigated the incidents. In October 2017, Phillip Carl Tucker, 34, was in the jail facing a felony forgery charge after being arrested by the Montgomery County Precinct 4 Constables Office. According to a previous article in the Courier, MCSO jail staff were conducting routine security check rounds when they found Tucker unresponsive in his cell. The circumstances surrounding Tuckers death were never reported despite an investigation by MCSO and the Texas Rangers. jennifer.summer@hcnonline.com Google Earth A man died Wednesday evening in his cell after being arrested for public intoxication, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office stated in a news release. The 59-year-old man, whose identity has not been disclosed, was arrested Wednesday by Precinct 5 constables. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office took custody of him around 2 p.m., according to the news release. Montgomery County is offering Lone Star Bend and Lone Star Parkway to the city of Montgomery for continued maintenance, but the council has some concerns. Ive not done a thorough review of the financial costs over the years on the acceptance of Lone Star Parkway, but mowing alone will add about $35,000 per year to the contract, City Administrator Jack Yates said during the council meeting on July 24. Yates noted the mowing contract is already at about $80,000 per year. Thats a huge financial burden on us, Councilwoman Rebecca Huss said. The offer follows a $4 million project as part of a $280 million county road bond passed in 2015, which included reconstructing, stabilizing and widening the road to provide paved shoulders. The county also participated in the project by constructing the portion of Lone Star Bend through the Villas of Mia Lago to Bois DArc Bend. The roadways are finished and opened to traffic. A letter from Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Meador to city officials said now Lone Star Parkway from Texas 105 East of downtown Montgomery to the Montgomery County city limit located west of FM 149, a total of 15,020 ft., will be under the operation and maintenance jurisdiction of the city of Montgomery. The remaining 6,140 ft. of Lone Star Parkway from the city of Montgomery city limit located west of FM 149 to the intersection of Texas 105 west of downtown Montgomery will remain under the countys operation and maintenance jurisdiction. The entirety of Lone Star Bend through the Villas of Mia Lago, which is within the city limits of Montgomery, will be under the citys jurisdiction as well. It has been a productive joint effort between the city and the county to see these two important roadways for mobility in the Montgomery area improved, completed and open for the traveling public, Meador stated in the letter. As always, we look forward to working with the city of Montgomery on upcoming mobility projects as the area continues to grow and prosper. The county could continue to assist the city with maintenance of the street, Yates said. The city is also in a discussion with Texas Department of Transportation to make Lone Star Parkway a state highway as part of the business loop around the city. Should the state accept it as a state road the state would take over maintenance of the roadway itself but the mowing would still be the citys, Yates said and estimated that it could be about 10 years away from happening. Pot hole filling and any other work would be the citys cost. City Attorney Larry Foerster recommended that the council table the discussion to be able to review original documentation related to the construction of the road, correspondence, and contracts to see if there was any understanding that it would be a county maintained road forever or if there is any obligation the city has as part of an ongoing arrangement made several years ago that would lead the county to believe once finished that it would be the citys responsibility. During the discussion, Montgomery Police Chief Jim Napolitano mentioned an 18-wheeler made an illegal U-Turn that morning and crushed the shoulder of the road. When the police department did an inquiry, Napolitano said police were informed by the Meadors office that the county did not need to fix it because it was the citys road. Now we are between a rock and a hard place because we have damage to the road we could not complete our report because we dont have a victim, Napolitano said. So is it the city that is the victim or is it the county that is the victim on the damage to the road because we have the 18-wheeler and all of the information about the company that owns it but we just dont have anywhere to go with it. The council took no action to accept the offer of the right-of-way for Lone Star Parkway and the portion of Lone Star Bend in the Villas of Mia Lago subdivision. Instead, the council voted to table discussion to review the documentation. Plez Morgan The council unanimously approved the Houston-based IDS company to pursue the FEMA funded Plez Morgan street project. The recommendation was made by a committee that included Councilman T.J. Wilkerson, Huss, City Secretary Susan Hensley, and Yates who interviewed IDS, Jones and Carter, and GLS Engineers. The IDS Engineering group scored the highest on a rating sheet following telephone interviews with the committee and written proposals. As has been discussed by the Review Committee and the City Council the intention to use another engineering firm besides Jones and Carter on smaller, definable projects. The Plez Morgan resurfacing of the road as funded by FEMA appears to be such a project. mellsworth@hcnonline.com A man has been charged with misdemeanor assault in connection with the violent beating of a man in Montrose early Wednesday morning, Houston police said. Caleb Tout, 19, is accused of beating Christopher Bradford while he was walking home from a Montrose bar around 1:50 a.m., leaving him hospitalized with a brain bleed and significant head injuries. Bradford said he was beaten with a belt, rock and boots, and he ultimately needed staples in his head. Houston Police Department Police said Tout's father was also involved in the assault, but police have not been able to track him down for questioning, according to department spokesman Victor Senties. Tout told police he beat Bradford because he thought the man exposed himself to his girlfriend, Senties said. MAKING THE GRADE: Montrose makes list of '14 coolest hipster neighborhoods' in U.S. "It looks like [Bradford] was pretty much in the wrong place at the wrong time," Senties said. Police said they do not consider the incident a hate crime because the suspect referred to a man exposing himself during the beating. Bradford, however, was skeptical of the suspect's explanation. "I don't know if I believe that," Bradford said. "It sounds kind of weird." A REQUEST: New shirt begs to 'Make Montrose Gay Again' Bradford said he had been walking home alone from Barcode Houston around 1:50 a.m. near Taft and Westheimer when he heard someone run up behind him. He turned around, and a man punched him as another man joined in. "You're not going to convince me that it wasn't a hate crime, because it is Montrose," Bradford said of the historically gay neighborhood. "What else would you be doing in that community where all of a sudden you decide to beat the hell out of someone?" He said he had been on the phone with a friend, who was walking nearby, during the attack. The friend rushed to the scene and yelled that he was going to call the police, and the men dispersed, Bradford said. LGBTQ: Attacks on LGBT Texans are everywhere. Here's what you can do. He said two women were with the men at the time but were not involved in the attack. The friend drove Bradford to the hospital, where he was treated and sent home later that morning. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com The man accused of gunning down a prominent Houston doctor transferred the deed to his home the day before the death, according to the Harris County Clerk. Clerk records show that Joseph James Pappas, who is wanted in the death of cardiologist Mark Hausknecht, signed to convey his deed to an Ohio woman on July 19. The deed transfer was officially delivered on July 23. Joe Donalson, who owns the courier service that picked up the documents from Pappas, said the man displayed strange behavior throughout the transaction. Pappas called Donalsons company, Legal Express Texas, on July 19 to get the deed delivered, as originally reported by KPRC-2. The deed couldnt be delivered that day, and Donaldson instead picked up the documents on Monday, July 23, Donalson said. He was very nervous, opened the door a crack, Donalson said. I thought This was strange. Afterward, Pappas called a number of times asking whether the documents had been filed. Its not normal for people to be so antsy about transferring a property, Donalson said. It just indicated he was premeditating this before it ever happened." The manhunt for Pappas continues today. Police say he allegedly harbored a 20-year grudge against Hausknecht before gunning him down in broad daylight in the Texas Medical Center. Hausknecht was killed July 20. Pappas, 62, who is considered to be armed, dangerous and suicidal. He is accused of killing cardiologist Mark Hausknecht, who was performing surgery on Pappas mother when she died 20 years ago, police said. Police said they believe Pappas is the man who biked past Hausknecht during morning rush hour, turned around and shot the doctor several times, sending him immediately to the ground. FORMER DEPUTY CONSTABLE: What we know about the suspect in the Houston doctor slaying A surveillance video showing the suspect moments after the killing broke the case, when a tipster alerted police to a possible connection to Pappas. Police searched his home in Westbury on Wednesday, but he wasnt found there. He hasnt been seen in almost two days, according to police. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said they believe a grudge over Pappas' mother's death spurred the shooting. Hausknecht, 65, was a longtime cardiologist at Houston Methodist. He earned his degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1980 and started practicing in Houston seven years later. Hausknecht, who formerly treated former President George H.W. Bush, biked to work every day and took exceptional care of himself, according to those who knew him. The doctor's family released a statement on Wednesday thanking the police department for finding a suspect and urging the public to keep an eye out for him. At HoustonChronicle.com: Slain Houston doctor remembered at memorial service "The family further urges the public to focus on the photo of the suspect and other information about the suspect released by HPD Chief Acevedo yesterday," the statement reads. "They ask for the public's continued support of law enforcement's efforts in finding and apprehending this dangerous and armed individual as soon as possible. The family urges that if you know anything about the possible whereabouts of the suspect, please contact Houston Police Department as soon as possible." More information is being discovered about Pappas, who worked in Harris County law enforcement for roughly three decades up until about five years ago. From 1997 to 2013, he served as a reserve officer with Harris County Constable Precinct 2, after a number of years on the force there and at Precinct 7. Pappas also had an active real estate license with a business address on Westheimer. Five days after Hausknecht died, a man using the same phone number as Pappas tried to sell a stash of weapons, ammunition and tactical vests online. Police searched his Westbury home early Wednesday and found a gun and several holsters, although hed already given away many of his belongings, according to sources close to the investigation. This article has been updated to clarify the date that Joseph Pappas' deed transfer was executed. Although his deed transfer was officially filed with the Harris County Clerk on July 23, he signed the deed transfer on July 19. This article has been updated to correct the name of the owner of the courier service Legal Express Texas. As pumps furiously work 24 hours a day to continuously push the encroaching water of the Houston Ship Channel out of the dreadnought ships hull, The Battleship Texas Foundation, along with other organizations and local residents, work to raise awareness for the ships condition in an effort to keep her from sinking where shes docked or needing to be hauled out to salvage. This was the purpose of the Come and Save It campaign, a multi-city event that asks Texans to not only sign a petition which will be sent to their local lawmakers as well as Gov. Gregg Abbott and former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, but invites them out to local breweries to play games, enjoy a drink and raise the money needed to put the Battleship Texas, the worlds only remaining World War I-era dreadnaught ship, in permanent dry berth. On July 21, Houstonians showed up to the local event at Karbach Brewing Co. and the Battleship Texas Foundation was able to garner 1,200 petition signatures and raised more than $9,000 for the cause, said Kirsten Hinds, spokesperson for the event. There will be other events in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio as the summer progresses. The day was also recognized by the state as Battleship Texas Day. For Tony Gregory, chairman of the Battleship Texas Foundation board of trustees, helping to raise awareness isnt only about fighting to keep a piece of Texas history alive - its also part of a family legacy. My grandfather, Lloyd Gregory, Sr. helped bring the ship to Texas in 1948 and he served on the Battleship Texas commission as the chairman for about 25 years, said Gregory. His grandfather was instrumental in starting programs that would instill a sense of history in area-youth by putting together campaigns that targeted school kids by getting them interested, not only in the ships legacy, but in fundraising for the Texas. Later, my mother, Caroline Gregory, go involved, he said. She served on the commission for about 20 years and was an influential fundraiser as well. It was his mother who would later involve Gregory in the Foundation, which would spark a years-long commitment to save the ship which Gregory is still seeing through. She would go to these meetings for years, and for years she asked me to get involved and I always told her no - I had kids of my own and my own business and didnt think I could make the time for it. But she had been diagnosed with an illness and one day she called me and said, I cant make it to the foundation meeting. Will you take me? So with some perseverance and a little bit of mothers guilt I said ok. Then she did it to me a second time, and by then I was more interested and started thinking that it might be a good thing to get involved. By 2005, Gregory was on the board. Four or five years later, he said, I was the chairman. Petitions, donations, raising awareness - all of these things are incredibly important to the mission being fought to save the Texas, Gregory said. Theres an inherent challenge for a private foundation working with the state to try and preserve a piece of history like this, he said. Thats what interested me. We need to make sure that the Battleships interests are well represented - not only in the publics mind but also with the state legislature. "Every once in a while, there will be a story about how the ship is listing or is taking on water," said Stephanie Croatt, assistant superintendent with the Battleship Texas in a previous interview with the Chronicle. "Then people won't hear anything else about it and they'll assume the problem is fixed. The problem is not fixed. It will never be fixed in the ship's current condition." The condition Croatt refers to deals with major weaknesses in the ship's hull - holes and cracks where the steel has eroded away - that require pumps to run 24 hours a day just to keep up with the amount of water the ship is taking on. "We pump about 300,000 gallons of water a day out of the Battleship Texas," said Bruce Bramlett, executive director of the Battleship Texas Foundation. "There are places on the ship where the hull is so thin you can poke your finger through it. So we're constantly pumping water out and patching holes and the water is constantly seeping back in." But Bramlett said that time is running out. "This ship was commissioned one year after the Titanic," Bramlett explained. "It's historic - a living museum - and in order to save it, we can't keep patching it. "It needs to be dry berthed." Dry berthing the ship, an estimated $40 million project, isn't necessarily an easy task. It must be repaired so that the hull is structurally sound enough to be moved. Then a system must be built around the hull so that water can be pumped out or let in as it's deemed necessary. Being able to control the water in contact with the ship is vital to its longevity, Bramlett said. Right now, raising awareness and money can be accomplished by visiting the website www.comeandsaveit.com. Here, people can sign a petition that will be sent to their local and state representatives requesting state funding assistance. Donations can also be made by visiting the Come and Save It site or the Battleship Texas Foundations site at www.battleshiptexas.org. Its motivating for me to try and help save it, said Gregory. Its motivation to say, My grandfather helped get it here, and now its our job to do right by it. We to do it or were going to lose her, and losing that kind of legacy would be such a great loss. jennifer.bolton@chron.com Fort Bend ISD administrators came back to trustees with a new approach to their July recommendation to put a $1.7 billion bond proposal before voters in November and now advise dividing projects into two bond referendums to be held three years apart. Superintendent Charles Dupre told trustees the district had followed a fiscally conservative path for many years. But, many campuses are now in dire need of repairs and renovations because the district had under-invested in its facilities, he said. Our buildings are now aging and the under-investing is starting to show, Dupre told trustees Monday, July 23. But, we can continue to follow a fiscally conservative path by splitting this bond proposal into two parts. Previously, administrators said they expected state lawmakers in the next session to create new laws requiring a 30-percent voter turnout to pass school bond elections. However, Chief Financial Officer Steven Bassett said he was hearing that any new state laws would likely include a phase-in period over several years. Trustee Addie Heyliger said the change of plans was confusing given administrators had spent months urging trustees to hurry up and put a large bond referendum together. I think it would have made some of the decisions we voted on turn out differently, at least for me personally, because I felt I like I was boxed in to make certain decisions because we had this paranoia, this fear, because of this new legislation, she said. Dupre said he was unsure voters would approve a bond proposal more than $1 billion and was more comfortable proposing a two-phase approach with bond projects to be completed over two three-year periods. According to agenda documents, administrators now recommend a November 2018 bond election with projects totaling approximately $992.6 million and then a second bond election totaling $705 million in 2021. Trustee Grayle James and several other trustees voiced support for the two-phase approach. She urged administrators to plan campus expansions carefully to avoid ongoing problems with overcrowding at elementary and middle schools. I dont want to have any facilities where kids have to have a silent lunch because the numbers are too big in the common spaces that theyre not allowed to speak. I think thats unhealthy for children and we need to plan appropriately for the whole child, James said and described visiting middle schools where children were not allowed to speak during lunch or in the hallways because the schools were overcrowded. Its also not appropriate for these middle school students because they also arent able to go outside for recess, she said. According to proposed 2018 bond project documents presented by administrators, approximately $799.8 million of the bond package will be used to fund campus renovations and repairs. New construction, classroom additions and building modernization projects total $403.5 million and technology costs such as new tablets or laptops for all Fort Bend ISD students and new staff computers total $142.6 million. Safety and security project recommendations are not yet finalized but preliminary totals include $1.25 million for special education security cameras, $1.187 for door locks, $2.625 for storage for security camera files, $1.545 for new police vehicles, $4 million for window film and $4 million for student identification badges among other things. Among the new construction projects included in the proposed bond package are funds to re-build Lakeview and Meadows Elementary Schools totaling $65 million. Campus renovations and upgrades Four high schools are slated for renovations that account for more than 65 percent of the $118.8 million proposed for district-wide upgrades for high school campuses to include roughly $22.4 million for Elkins High School, $21.4 million for Kempner High School, $19.2 million for Austin High School and $15.2 million for Clements High School. Middle school renovations total approximately $96.2 million with the largest portions to go to Hodges Bend Middle School ($12.6 million), First Colony Middle School ($12.6 million) and Quail Valley Middle School ($10.5 million). A total of $137.9 million is proposed for the 2018 bond package recommendations for elementary school renovations to include $7.5 million for Briargate Elementary School. $6.7 million for Mission Glen Elementary School and $6.6 million for Blue Ridge Elementary School. Administrators also recommend including $178 million for a new high school in the Sienna Plantation area near Missouri City in the 2018 bond proposal and $45 million for a new elementary school in the Riverstone subdivision area near Sugar Land. If land cannot be located for the new Riverstone school, administrators recommend building additions to three existing elementary schools. In addition, the bond package recommendation includes $46 million for a new elementary school in the Aliana South area and $45 million to fund construction of a new elementary school near the Fort Bend Tollway. Trustees have not yet voted to approve the bond package recommendations and board members could decide to revise recommendations made by administrators. Trustees are expected to discuss their options and vote for final approval for a November bond election at the upcoming August 13 regular board meeting. A workshop meeting to discuss the proposal is scheduled Monday, Aug. 6, at 6 p.m. Both meetings are open to the public and are being held at the Fort Bend ISD administration building located at 16431 Lexington Blvd. knix@hcnonline.com An employee at a shelter for immigrant children in Phoenix has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl housed at the facility, according to court records in Maricopa County, Arizona. Fernando Magaz Negrete, a 32-year-old employee of federal contractor Southwest Key Programs, is accused of slipping into the girl's room late at night and forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching her, according to court documents. He was arrested and charged Tuesday with molestation of a child, sexual abuse and aggravated assault. A spokesman for Southwest Key Programs, which operates dozens of shelters across the country for migrant children, said the employee has been terminated. "When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate," the spokesman, Jeff Eller, said in a statement to The Washington Post. "That's what happened in this case. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted." The statement did not address questions about whether the girl was an immigrant previously separated from her parents at the border. The Arizona Republic reported that the specific facility where she was held - which is not specified in court documents - is intended to house separated children. Police documents in Magaz Negrete's case describe it as a "juvenile facility for refugee children." Melania Trump, in fact, visited this same facility in June, Phoenix's ABC15 reported. According to a probable cause statement, a teenage girl sharing the room with the 14-year-old victim witnessed the alleged June 27 incident and sparked the investigation when she reported it to authorities July 25. In interviews with investigators, the 14-year-old girl said Magaz Negrete entered her room and began kissing her on the lips. She then "pushed him away," got away from him and "went to her bed angry," police said in the probable cause statement. The two teenage witnesses sharing the bedroom with her told authorities they observed Magaz Negrete touching the 14-year-old's breasts and crotch over her clothes. Surveillance footage captured Magaz Negrete approaching the girls' bedroom several times between 9 and 10:30 on the night of June 27, according to the probable cause statement. The girls' doorway and bedroom, however, were out of the camera's view. Police said Magaz Negrete admitted to kissing the girl and touching her vagina over her clothing when police questioned him at his residence. Since the Trump administration ended its policy of family separation at the border in response to bipartisan outcry, the government has scrambled to reunite the families, including more than 2,500 children, under court-ordered deadlines. While the federal government said last week it had reunited most of the separated families, more than 700 children remained in shelters for various reasons, including because their parents have criminal records or are no longer in the United States, as The Post reported then. Thousands of other children are in shelters after arriving as unaccompanied minors. Conditions of those shelters have invited scrutiny as reports of the children's experiences have trickled out from immigration attorneys and families. For example, one boy The Post spoke with who spent time at a Chicago shelter said he "felt like a prisoner" and spent three weeks in isolation after getting chickenpox, while a girl said she had come down with conjunctivitis and had been placed in a room by herself at a shelter in Harlingen, Texas. Last week, a federal judge ordered a facility in Manvel, Texas, to stop giving children psychotropic drugs without their parents' consent. Complaints of sexual abuse at immigrant shelters for children, which are overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services department's Office of Refugee Resettlement and operated by contractors, are not uncommon. A recent ProPublica investigation found that police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offenses in the last five years at shelters primarily housing immigrant children. The investigation had analyzed incidents at more than 70 out of approximately 100 such shelters nationwide. "If you're a predator, it's a gold mine," Lisa Fortuna, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Boston Medical Center, told ProPublica. "You have full access and then you have kids that have already had this history of being victimized." Magaz Negrete is currently being held in the Maricopa County Jail on $150,000 bond. He made his first appearance in court Wednesday, where a judge pledged to appoint a lawyer for him. Magaz Negrete asked in Spanish whether he could hire his own. No attorney could be located for him in court records as of Wednesday night. A 9-year-old girl was reportedly last seen living in a homeless camp near Reno, Nevada after the child did not return home to her custodial parents on July 22, 2018. According to Go San Angelo, Urijah Livingston was scheduled to visit her non-custodial biological mother, Desiree Ward in Haskell, Texas for the summer from June 20 through July 22. MORE CRIME: Texas man convicted of sex trafficking children sentenced On July 21, Shannon Livingston Urijah's custodial stepmother who lives in just north of Haskell in Weinert, Texas got a call from the child saying they weren't going to make it. Seven days later she got another call from Urijah saying they were near Reno. "She seemed OK. She didn't seem scared but she knew that what her mom was doing was wrong and that she wanted to come home," Livingston told the publication. "If her mom found out she was talking to me, her mom would hide her." According to a police report, Haskell Police Chief Ken Barnett contacted the Sparks Police Department with the new information, and further investigation has led them to believe the two are staying at a homeless camp near the downtown area. MOST WANTED: 9 fugitives on Texas' most wanted sex offenders list "There is concern for the child's welfare and well-being in her mother's care and the conditions she has been exposed to," said the report. "It is also believed Desiree is concealing the child from detection." Anyone with information is being asked to call the Sparks Police Department at (775) 353-2225 or report a tip at Secret Witness.com or call 775) 322-4900. Daniela Sternitzky- Di Napoli is a digital producer covering Texas news and pop culture. | Daniela.DiNapoli@chron.com | @Dani_DiNapoli Three men were arrested, and four others are on the run, after deputies foiled a late-night bank heist in north Harris County. Seven men broke into the First Convenience Bank at the corner of Aldine Mail Route Road and the Eastex Freeway around 1:45 a.m. Thursday morning, hoping to steal the bank's ATM, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Deputies rushed to the bank and caught the burglars trying to load the ATM into a stolen work van, but the seven men fled throughout the parking lot as police arrived, authorities said. MOST WANTED: 9 fugitive sex offenders are on Texas' list Two of the men Rickey Watson and Shakia Frazier, both 21 were caught almost immediately. Watson has a money sign tattooed between his eyes. Frazier has many tattoos on his face and shoulders. A third suspect, Larry Gill, 17, was caught a short time later after backup deputies created a perimeter around the area. The four other suspects remain at large. The three captured suspects are facing felony charges of theft, evading arrest and engaging in organized criminal activity, authorities said. Anyone with information about the other suspects is urged to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477) or the HCSO Burglary and Theft unit at 713-274-9200. Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com Two Houston ISD trustees called Thursday for teachers to receive a modest salary increase in the upcoming school year, responding to the district administrations proposal this week to freeze educator pay amid a period of budget cuts. The call from trustees Elizabeth Santos and Sergio Lira, former educators who were elected to the school board this year, sets the stage for a potential split at HISDs Aug. 9 school board meeting, when trustees are scheduled to vote on the districts proposal for teacher salaries in 2018-19. Santos and Lira said HISD should spend about $6 million to maintain the districts current step salary schedule, which dictates that teachers with more experience receive higher salaries. By keeping the current schedule for another year, the vast majority of teachers would receive salary bumps ranging from $200 to $2,200 in 2018-19. An extra year of experience deserves extra compensation, said Santos, who taught at Northside High School before being elected last December. Ive heard from many teachers across the district who had no idea that they would be paid less than teachers with the same experience were paid last year. HISD administrators announced Monday they are recommending a salary schedule that ensures returning HISD teachers earn the same amount in 2018-19 as they did in 2017-18. The proposal comes about a month after HISD trustees agreed to slash $84 million from a $2 billion budget and pull up to $17 million from a district reserve fund in 2018-19. In announcing the proposed freeze, HISD administrators noted that the district allocated an additional $10 million this year for employee health insurance, ensuring that premiums did not rise. We were looking at the feedback we received: dont impact our health costs or premiums for the upcoming school year, HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said Monday. District administrators were not made available for interviews Thursday. Salary freeze surprise The administrations recommendation caught off guard many teachers who were expecting the districts existing salary schedule would remain in place for 2018-19, resulting in raises for most educators. Santos said she believes HISD already has budgeted enough money for teacher salaries to maintain the current step schedule. As a result, she is not advocating for additional spending cuts. It was not immediately clear whether HISD has budgeted more money for teacher salaries than it ultimately spent in years past. Lira said the district should be able to find $6 million, arguing the money is better spent on teachers than some unnecessary technology purchases. Its not a question of more money, Lira said. Its a question of effective management of money. Santos said she has not counted whether enough trustees will support overturning the districts proposal, but she is confident my colleagues will value the work of teachers. The Houston Federation of Teachers, which represents the largest number of educators in HISD, expected teachers would receive step increases this year, though the union did not receive official confirmation of the district administrations plan earlier this summer. In recent days, the HFT and many educators have protested the proposed freeze, arguing the district blindsided them and withheld notice about the recommendation. Several trustees this week lamented the timing of the announcement teachers were required to sign their 2018-19 contracts by late May and pledged to approve salary plans earlier in 2019. Trustee Sue Deigaard said she assumed teachers would receive no salary increase in 2018-19 because the district did not allocate more money for educator pay in the June budget. If a promise was made to teachers, we should figure out a way to fulfill it, but its still unclear to me what was promised to teachers, Deigaard said. This is a giant oops Deigaard added that the teacher salary dustup is symptomatic of poor communication and planning that has plagued the district in recent years amid constant leadership turnover. This is a giant oops. Never once, as a board, did we communicate to our administrative leader that this is a priority, she said. This is really part of a bigger conversation about whats our plan, long-term, to recruit, develop and retain our great teachers. Among the Greater Houston areas larger school districts, HISD teachers rank among the lowest-paid when comparing educators of the same experience level. The annual salary difference between the regions highest-paying and lowest-paying districts is about $2,000 to $5,000 per year, depending on years of experience. jacob.carpenter@chron.com twitter.com/chronjacob A woman died after drifting her car and crashing head-on into traffic in South Houston on Thursday, police said. The woman was driving a Volkswagen eastbound on Spencer Highway near 10th Street around 2 a.m., when she moved into the oncoming lanes and slammed into a Ford Mustang, according to the South Houston Police Department. Houston police arrested one of the 10 people on Texas' list of "most wanted" sex offenders in July. Anthony Fitzgerald Turner, 54, was arrested after being on the run for almost two years. AUSTIN The majority of Texans support legal abortions, and if the Supreme Court were to leave abortion rights to the states, most Texans believe abortions should be legal, according to a new poll Thursday. A Quinnipiac University Poll shows that 62 percent of Texas voters agree with the Roe v. Wade decision, a landmark Supreme Court case that struck down abortion restrictions. But legal and political experts say those abortion protections may be at risk if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative judge, is confirmed. If a new, more conservative Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, 60 percent of Texans say abortions in the state should be legal in most or all cases. But there are deep divides between parties. More than half of Texans Republicans who answered the survey disagree with Roe v. Wade, while 30 percent of GOP voters support it. In a state where conservative Republicans have pushed in recent years to outlaw abortions altogether, the poll shows that only 11 percent of Texas voters support that position. The state has tried to ban the most common second-trimester abortion procedure and recently passed a law requiring health clinics to bury or cremate fetal remain following an abortion or miscarriage. Both laws are being challenged in court. In other results, 50 percent of Texans support Kavanaughs confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, who could be a pivotal vote on the future of Roe V. Wade, while 33 percent oppose him. Nearly half of Texans said they do not feel Kavanaugh would make the Supreme Court too conservative, according to the pool. Women support Kavanaugh 42 percent to 39 percent against, and men support him 59 to 26 percent. On the issue of immigration, the majority of Texans said it "was a bad policy and a violation of human rights" to separate children from their families at the border. At the same time, Texans were divided in their support of the Trump administrations zero-tolerance immigration policy, with 48 percent opposed and 47 percent in support. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. Researchers surveyed 1,118 Texans in late July. Mike Ward covers Texas politics, the governor and executive branch, criminal justice and ethics issues, and investigations for the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and other Hearst Texas news organizations. He also co-hosts the leading Texas Take politics podcast. Reach him at Mike.Ward@Chron.com and follow him @ChronicleMike on Twitter. Quebec will consider U.S. work experience among ranking factors Quebec provides new details on Expression of Interest ranking system Quebec provides new details on Expression of Interest ranking system Quebec will consider U.S. work experience among ranking factors Quebec provides new details on Expression of Interest ranking system Quebec will consider U.S. work experience among ranking factors Quebec provides new details on Expression of Interest ranking system Quebec will consider U.S. work experience among ranking factors Stephen Smith Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Pour lire cet article en francais, cliquez ici. Quebec released new information Wednesday that details how candidates in its new skilled worker Expression of Interest bank will be organized and ranked. A key innovation is the fact the ranking system takes into consideration work experience in the United States, making Quebecs the only immigration system in Canada that currently considers U.S. work experience when ranking candidates. Quebec Skilled Worker Program (QSWP) candidates who submit a profile to the programs new Expression of Interest Bank will be classed in two groups one group for candidates with a job offer or who are living in Quebec and meet specific criteria, and another for candidates living outside of Quebec. According to regulations published August 1, the first group is for candidates who: have a job offer in Quebec; OR are residing in Quebec with the principal goal of working and have a work permit and an eligible degree from a Quebec educational institution; OR have a work permit that is valid for 12 months or more, six-months of full-time work experience and are currently working full-time. This first group will be ranked on the basis of scores obtained under the following seven factors: Age Quebec diploma Canadian or U.S. work experience Proficiency in French Knowledge of other languages Education A spouse or common-law partners education and proficiency in French. Candidates in this group will also receive points for the following Skill Transferability combinations: Education combined with proficiency in French (either their own or, if applicable, their spouses whichever score is highest); Education combined with work experience in Canada or the US and proficiency in French; Foreign work experience combined with proficiency in French; Foreign work experience combined with work experience in Canada or the U.S. and proficiency in French. The second group is for candidates who do not reside in Quebec. Candidates in this group will be ranked based on scores obtained under the following eight factors: Age Quebec diploma Canadian or U.S. work experience Area of Training Proficiency in French Knowledge of other languages Education A spouse or common-law partners education and proficiency in French. Candidates in this second group will also receive points for the Skill Transferability combinations listed above. Quebec has not detailed the points structure for the various factors and skills combinations. The regulations state that Quebecs Ministry of Immigration (MIDI) could issue invitations to apply for a Quebec Selection Certificate (Certificat de selection du Quebec, or CSQ) to the highest scoring candidates or based on selection criteria or conditions that are deemed a priority. Revisions to Quebecs Immigration Act say invitations could be issued based on criterion relating to a foreign nationals ability to successfully stay or settle in Quebec, such as training or a trade or occupation. Other criteria may include a region of destination in Quebec, a country or region affected by a humanitarian crisis or the existence of an international commitment. Candidates who receive an invitation to apply for a CSQ and submit an application will need to meet the passing scores required for the program based on the QSWP Points Grid. A more detailed explanation of this process can be found here. Calculate your Quebec Skilled Worker passing score now! Express Entry? Sort of There are clear similarities between the ranking structure for Quebecs Expression of Interest Bank and the federal Express Entry system, and also some important differences. The Express Entry pool consists of candidates in the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class. Express Entry holds regular invitation rounds, generally one every two weeks, and last year invited more than 86,000 candidates to apply for Canadian permanent residence. Like Quebec, candidates for all three classes managed by Express Entry are ranked based on core human capital factors and Skill Transferability combinations, with additional points awarded for a Canadian job offer, a provincial nomination, a sibling in Canada, Canadian education or French language proficiency. Additional points range from 15 points to 600 points for a provincial nomination, and help fast-track candidates for permanent residence. For the moment, the ranking details outlined by Quebec do not include such additional factors. However, the division of QSWP candidates into two groups depending on whether they have a Quebec job offer, education in Quebec or Quebec work experience could have a similar fast-track effect. This division of Quebec Skilled Worker Program candidates into two groups could result in something similar to Express Entrys program-specific draws, which are limited to one group of candidates, ie Federal Skilled Trades Class or Provincial Nominees. Based on what we know so far Quebecs EOI system, one major difference between it and the federal Express Entry system could be transparency. Invitations through Express Entry are based on a candidates score, whereas Quebecs EOI system has much more discretion built into it, says Attorney David Cohen, senior attorney with the Campbell Cohen Canadian immigration law firm. This leaves MIDI potentially free to select candidates who meet specific labour needs in the province. Whether those needs will be specified when candidates are invited remains to be seen. To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, fill out a free assessment form. 2018 CICNews All rights Reserved At the outset of the twentieth century, the reputations of the most famous nineteenth-century French painters differed from those of earlier generations of artists. Older masters had been admired for their work, but the French Realists, Impressionists, and Post-Impressionists were lauded not only for what they produced, but also for the reaction they provoked. Their art was judged largely on whether it rebelled against and offended establishment tastes. Young, ambitious artists of the early twentieth century sought admiration along the same lines. Doing good work wasnt enough; one also had to be a rebel. Since a wider public now admired art that had once been considered radical, new radicalisms had to be inventeda process that has persisted since Picasso created Les Demoiselles DAvignon in 1907, in order to outdo Matisses gentle Le Bonheur De Vivre, of 1906. Intellectuals who celebrated the violation of convention for its own sake formed an admiring chorus, ultimately making up a worldwide support system for Modernism. The cycle of trying to top earlier artists for shock value continues today. The contemporary art establishment that celebrates transgression has gained such power and influence that its fair to ask whether artists catering to it can truly be called rebellious, no matter how bizarre and unconventional their work might be. Such challenging art is intended almost solely for art-world intellectuals seeking new ironies, social-justice messages, or new ways to offend the conventional-minded, who have mostly stopped paying attention. Outbursts such as Mayor Rudy Giulianis about the Brooklyn Museums 1999 Sensation exhibit are rare. Part of Modernisms appeal is the persistent myth that great artists are rejected by society, which in fact was not the case for most of the artists we admire today. The reputations of earlier artists may have been more local or modest than we now think they deserved, but this did not constitute rejection. Six months before his death, Van Gogh, the archetype of the starving artist driven to despair because no one can see his genius, received a highly enthusiastic review from G.Albert Aurier in the Mercure De France. There is every reason to believe Van Gogh would have achieved fame during his life, had he not ended it. Another modernist myth holds that great artists have always confronted their publics with new and shocking work that takes a generation to be appreciated - which means, in effect, that all great artists were modernists, after a fashion. In fact, art history is a succession of retrogressions. Artists have always studied, copied, borrowed and stolen from previous art; those rebellious nineteenth century artists did also. In 2008, the Denver Museum of Arts exhibit Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past demonstrated how these painters drew ideas from great masters. A similar exhibit of twentieth-century artists would show Modernists distorting older works, as in Picassos Cubist variations on Velazquez and Delacroix; or quoting them ironically, as with Larry Riverss Dutch Masters Cigars; or making them horrific, as with Bacons screaming popes. But while it initially inspired some color and excitement, the trashing of artistic conventions over the last 100-plus years has left a wasteland, one in which curators and critics can only encourage further deconstruction. I wish for a different rebellion, in which young artists reconnect with a country that should never have become so foreignour cultural pastand discover the rich variations that remain possible there. Those who doubt this premise should take note of the American artist Reginald Marsh, who likened Coney Island crowds to compositions by Michelangelo and Rubens, and told his students to study and copy the old masters. Marshs devotion to the past did not eviscerate the astonishing vitality of his images of carnivals, burlesque houses, movie theaters, and Bowery drifters. His work was fresh because it was rooted in a tradition that he could draw upon for an original vision. Our heritage is not locked up in classrooms and textbooks. Its humanity is forever relevant. Even the non-devout can see that fifteenth-century nativity scenes express the wonder of newborn human life, and of parenthood, and offer glimpses of a higher perspective. Reclaiming and embracing Western culture, including not only its canvases but also its classical music and literature, can develop the eye, mind, and temperament needed to render our present reality into something arrestingand new. Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images With intelligence and ferocity, Michael Sheehan waged titanic, sometimes losing, battles against Americas enemies near and far. As a 1977 West Point graduate and young officer in the U.S. Armys Special Forces, he fought drug dealers, insurgents, and terrorists in Central America. While on active duty, and later in a variety of senior civilian posts, he battled al-Qaida, first in Sudan and Afghanistan, and, after 9/11, in New York. While he never lost focus on Americas resilient enemies abroad, what angered him most, friends know, was bureaucratic rigidity and passivity, government waste and distraction, and above all, conventional thinking. For the past seven years, he had fought painful, disabling multiple myeloma, a war he lost on July 30 at age 63. Despite holding prestigious and sensitive counterterrorism posts in the federal government and at the United Nations, where he coordinated the international bodys counterterrorism programs and supervised its peacekeeping forces, he was no household nameand that was fine with him. Unlike some senior military officers, high-ranking diplomats, and civilian officials eager for celebrity, Sheehan did not seek the limelight. But within the counterterrorism community, he was a hero, widely respected and deeply admired. His legacy is as enormous as his loss. We first met in the late 1980s, when he was serving as a military officer on the National Security Council staff for President George H. W. Bush, and later for President Bill Clinton. He was struggling, unsuccessfully, to persuade officials to place greater priority on the growing threat of militant Islamic groups, especially al-Qaida. It galled him that while Osama bin Laden and militant Shiite Islamists in Iran were blowing up American warships off the coast of Yemen and U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia, officials in Washington (and most reporters) were focused on domestic problemsfrom broken promises on taxes to a scandal over a presidents affair with a young intern. A legendary story circulates in Washington and is recounted in Daniel P. Bolgers book Why We Lost, about Sheehans confrontation with a group of senior military officers at the Clinton White House over their reluctance to take stronger action against al-Qaida. Whats it going to take to get them to hit al-Qaeda? he reportedly asked. Does al-Qaida have to attack the Pentagon? Sheehan is one of the few officials, along with Richard Clarke, another nonpartisan who worked for Republican and Democratic presidents, to be commended by the 9/11 Commission for his efforts to warn about the looming Islamist threat. Friends and colleagues recall Sheehans determination to do the right thing. He was not a howler, said David Cohen, a former senior CIA official who worked with him as a fellow NYPD deputy commissioner while creating police commissioner Ray Kellys post-9/11 counterterrorism program. But he had the fiercest mind anyone can imagine, and the courage to stand behind the fierceness of his thinking. There is no one I would have rather been in a foxhole with. Foxholes abounded, especially in the creation of what is still widely regarded as the gold standard in urban counterterrorism. Kelly and his key deputies Cohen and Sheehan often tangled with formidable adversariesNew York City bureaucrats, accustomed to independence; the F.B.I., jealous and protective of its turf; the citys powerful real estate, financial, and political interests; and sometimes even Mayor Bloomberg himself, though he almost always wound up backing them. Others note Sheehans enormous kindness and mentoring in helping younger national security analysts. One beneficiary was R.P. Eddy, who served as a director at the NSC and now heads global intelligence firm Ergo. Eddy is grateful for what he calls Sheehans invaluable advice and support when he joined the NSC after graduate school. He taught me how to handle bureaucratic B.S., said Eddy, who worked with Sheehan in five different posts. He was fiercely patriotic but also ruthlessly honest, especially about our own shortcomings. Eddy recalls a meeting in 2000 at the U.N. to issue a demarche to the foreign minister of Afghanistan, then under Taliban control. Mike told him in no uncertain terms that if the U.S. or its citizens were attacked, Washington would hold the Taliban responsible. Sheehan also said that if the Taliban expelled al-Qaida and turned bin Laden over to the U.S., Afghanistan could expect good things to happen in our relations and support. The Afghan official was unconvinced, Eddy recalled. He told us that even were the Taliban to comply with Americas request, relations would not improve, that the U.S. government would never accept the Taliban governments horrible treatment of women. You know, hes right, Eddy quoted Sheehan saying as they left the meeting. America had not yet decided that combating Islamic terrorism should take priority over human rights. James Rubin, a former aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton, praised Sheehans disdain for party politics and his devout bipartisanship, an increasingly rare quality in todays politically polarized environment. A Republican, Sheehan worked for Republican and Democratic presidents with equal dedication; he deplored what he considered petty partisan disputes that threatened national security. He didnt care what party you belonged to, Rubin said of his friend of 25 years. We could argue all the time as a Republican and Democrat, but still be friends. No one approached counterterrorism from as many angles as he didas a high level official, as a civilian in charge of snatch and grab missions, from the perspective of a Special Ops soldier operating by himself in El Salvadors jungles, continued Rubin. From working with New York City cops to devising global terrorism policy. Thats what made him unique. He not only knew how to teach a cop how to interrogate a terrorist suspect, but also the cultures of different countries and how they would respond to us, he said. No one fought the issue harder from as many different perspectives. Sheehan made the most of his astonishing range. The breadth of the jobs he had was unprecedentedassistant secretaries in both the State Department and the Pentagon, peace keeping for the U.N., supervising 14 different missions and some 40,000 soldiers, and then onto the NYPD, said Clarke, who mentored Sheehan when he was seconded by the military to the NSC. He noticed Sheehan early on, Clarke recalled. He was very unmilitary at the White House. He never wore a uniform or had that haircut, or acted like a military guy. He also became a skilled bureaucratic fighter. Clarke credits Sheehan with helping him, in 1999, to deliver to Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish nationalist who led the Kurdistan Workers Party, now declared a terrorist organization by the U.S., Turkey, and other countries. They also worked together to oust Boutros Boutros-Ghali as Secretary General of the U.N. and replace him with Kofi Annan, viewed as friendlier to U.S. interests. Neither was an easy bureaucratic lift, Clarke said. When we told President Clinton that Ghali was out and Annan was in, Clarke chuckled, Clinton told us that he would have to eat crow because he hadnt thought that it could be done. The battle for which Sheehan is best known in New York was his successful effort on behalf of Commissioner Kelly to change the design and location of the Freedom Tower, the citys great post-9/11 project. Looking at the architectural plans for the citys tallest building and its proximity to major highways, Sheehan sensed that the replacement structure was a terrorist catastrophe waiting to happen. With Kellys blessing, he launched a stealthy and ultimately public campaign to force a redesign that would eliminate the envisioned structures glass baseshattering glass being the most lethal weapon in an explosionand move the tower back from streets and major highways. Many city grandees were furious about the delay and added cost, but the NYPD prevailed. Sheehan did not stop battling terrorists after leaving the NYPD in 2006. He went on to work on counterterror at the Center for Law and Security at New York University, and he helped found the highly respected Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. One of the qualities I admired most about him was his ability to rethink problems and change his mind. Among the first to warn about the militant Islamic threat, he became a staunch critic of parts of the governments vast counterterrorism apparatus spawned by 9/11. The U.S. was spending too much on programs that didnt work and wasting resources, he told a gathering of counterterror specialists hosted by the Manhattan Institute, a decade after 9/11. Though al-Qaida and like-minded Islamists had not changed their goals or desire to kill as many Americans as possible, they were not ten feet tall, he said. If Americans underestimated the militant Islamist threat before 9/11, many were now overestimating its abilities. Their operational capability has been dramatically degraded between 2001 and 2003, Sheehan said, and losing their camps in Afghanistan was crucial to diminishing their strategic reach. Before 9/11, al-Qaida had conducted three strategic attacks in 37 months (in America). In the decade after 9/11, they were 0 for 10. Americans should take credit for what had been accomplished, he said. Our CIA, our Special Ops forces, our FBI have done extremely well in the last 10 years. But overreacting to terrorist threats, he warned, had adverse consequencesincluding stoking Islamophobia that alienated Muslim-American communities, the source of tips that had helped thwart and disrupt numerous plots. When we overreact to a terrorist attack, he warned, we empower them. Israelis and the Brits do it better. Well be better the next time around. Increasingly, Sheehan focused on non-Islamist threats to American peace and security. Having worked on a book of terrorism case studies that will be published posthumously, he began thinking about how to counter the wave of deadly active-shooter killings in our schools and public venues. Specifically, he recommended the creation of counter-violence centers within the FBI. Two weeks ago, David Cohen told me, Sheehan talked about collaborating on an op-ed on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan that basically endorsed the approach that President Trump is said to favor: keeping a limited number of American troops in the country to protect Kabul, heavily bomb ISIS and al-Qaida remnants wherever they are, but be prepared to give up the Afghan countryside to the Taliban, ending an unwinnable fight that will drain U.S. resources and divert government attention from greater threats. Mike was always two steps ahead of the policy community, Cohen said. Mike Sheehan never stopped fighting for American peace and security, or thinking about how best to do that, said James Rubin. What he hated more than anything were bureaucrats who preferred to do nothing rather than make a mistake. He was the opposite. Its what made him a unique public servant. New Yorks streets are clogged with cars and trucks, and the proliferation of tens of thousands of for-hire Ubers and Lyfts over the past half-decade has crowded traffic even more. In less than a decade, speeds on New York Citys busiest streets have plummeted. In 2010, the average car or truck travelled at 9.1 miles per hour in Manhattan (below 60th Street); by 2016, the average speed was 7.2 miles per hour, a 21 percent decline. Near-standstill speeds at peak hours arent just bad for drivers. Walkers and cyclists must thread their way through cars and trucks stopped in crosswalks, bike lanes, and even on sidewalks. While Uber, Lyft, and others have undeniably added a service for city residents, especially those living in the outer boroughsmore than 60 percent of Uber trips neither start nor end in core Manhattantheir presence has also clearly added to the citys traffic woes. When Uber and its smaller competitors entered the market, advocates claimed that the addition of tens of thousands more cars on city streets would actually cut traffic by making car-hailing more efficient. A yellow-cab driver, after all, had to trawl the streets for a random fare; a Lyft driver is directed via his app. Evidence over the past half-decade, plus a new study by consultant Bruce Schaller, a former city transportation official, has disproved this theory. New supply has induced new demand: in a survey of 616 New Yorkers, half said that if it hadnt been for the availability of Uber and its competitors, they would have taken mass transit; another 16 percent would have walked or cycled. The most logical solution is a congestion-pricing system, along the lines of what former mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a decade ago, but updated for technological advances, including the ability to price for miles driven or time idling in Manhattan, not just a fee to enter the borough. In January, a panel commissioned by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo proposed congestion pricing for all vehicles, but Cuomo hasnt pushed for it in the state legislature. The state approved a $2.75 fee on hired-car rides in core Manhattan as part of the state budget ($2 for yellow cabs), but the fee, effective next January, is likely more of a nuisance than a deterrent. Schaller calculates that the state and city would likely have to charge $50 an hour to make a dent in Manhattan traffic. Mayor Bill de Blasio, for his part, has not shown much interest in congestion pricing, except to say, incorrectly, that its a tax on the poor. The city council has announced a spate of new bills to govern traffic, which it may vote on next week. The headline-grabber among them is a one-year cap on the issuance of new for-hire car and SUV registrations (except for wheelchair-accessible vehicles), a proposal that punts on the issue; a three-month cap should be long enough for the city to find a permanent fix. The councils bills, taken together, are a crude form of congestion pricing, as they would direct the citys Taxi and Limousine Commission to use fines and penalties levied on each e-hailing company (not the driver) in order to spur the companies to meet new, to-be-determined standards on waiting and travel time when a driver doesnt have a passenger and on actual sharing of rides, to spur car companies to become more efficient on public streets. E-hail companies could then pass those costs on to customers: if Lyft knows that it cant meet its efficiency goal for a particular day, for example, it could jack the price up for a ride into Manhattan, thus directing many would-be passengers to find another way into town. Allowing the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) to impose this rough form of congestion pricing on the e-hail industry would, in turn, spur the industry to lobby the state legislature harder for congestion pricing on everyone, rather than be alone in facing the new levies. Yet for any congestion fee to be a fee for service and not just another tax, New York must improve its increasingly unpredictable mass-transit system, which is forcing subway and bus riders to find other ways to get around: after falling slightly in 20160.3 percentsubway ridership cratered last year, dropping 1.7 percent, and bus ridership is down by much more. The Bronx and Queens saw the steepest drops, with subway ridership in the Bronx down 6 percent in the first five months of 2018 alone, and Queens ridership down 5 percentthe very places where e-hail ridership is increasing. Last week, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Joe Lhota, the gubernatorial appointee ultimately responsible for the subways, said that some of this decline stems from people exercising free choice: Some days I drink Coke, and some days I drink Pepsi, he said. But to exercise free choice, people must have a choice. On Monday, the MTA abruptly shuttered a Brooklyn tunnel and rerouted trains due to failing beams, leaving riders stranded. An increasing number of commuters are resorting to Cokeoften at 10 times or more the cost of Pepsibecause the unreliable, state-run MTA has ensured that Pepsi isnt worth waiting for, at any price. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Cookie Preferences Cookie List Do Not Sell My Personal Information When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. 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If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page. The Local Government Association has called for some of the money going towards funding the National Citizen Service, the government's flagship volunteering programme, to be devolved to local youth services. The LGA, the membership organisation for local authorities, said that the 634m spent on the NCS by the government between 2014/15 and 2017/18, 95 per cent of its youth services budget, would be better spent on all-year-round provision for young people in their local areas. However Michael Lynas, chief executive of the NCS, has said that taking away money from a youth service that is working does not make sense. Youth centres closing The LGA said that more than 600 youth centres closed and nearly 139,000 youth service places were lost in the UK between 2012 and 2016. Central government funding for children and young peoples services has fallen by 2.4bn since 2010, and LGA analysis shows that a further 3bn will be needed by 2025 just to maintain services at their current levels. The LGA pointed out that just 12 per cent (93,000) of eligible youngsters took part in the NCS in 2016, while in some areas take-up was as low as 4 per cent. It said NCS money would be better spent on all-year-round provision for young people in their local areas, rather than a time-limited programme which is restricted to a certain age group and is attracting only a relatively small number of teenagers. It said that council leaders want some of the schemes funding to be devolved to councils to help make up the spending reductions in local youth services, which have been cut by nearly 40 per cent (260m) since 2010. Plug the shortfall The LGA is calling on the government to devolve the amount from the NCS programmes funding between now and 2020 to local councils to help plug the shortfall in youth services spending. It says that this would help councils reverse some of the cutbacks in local youth service provision. Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the LGAs Children and Young People Board, said: While the National Citizen Service is a good programme which can be a positive experience for those who take part, we believe this should be part of a much wider youth service offering to support children and young people. A time limited programme of work cannot provide the trusted, longer-term relationships that are a valued element of youth work, and that are needed by some young people to develop the self-esteem, confidence and skills to take part in such programmes. Councils have been forced to cut important services for thousands of young residents in recent years as a result of increasingly squeezed budgets, so it is wrong that nearly all of the governments funding for youth services is being spent on a very short programme which attracts only a small number of participants. The government needs to devolve a slice of the funding to councils so they can begin to scale back the cuts to council youth services and provide targeted support to a much wider group of young people locally all year round, whether that is giving them safe spaces to meet, diverting them away from crime or supporting them to succeed in school, training or employment. 'Like comparing apples and oranges' Michael Lynas, chief executive of the NCS Trust, told Civil Society News that although he agreed that local youth services do need more money, taking money from another service that is proven to work does not make sense. He said that comparing the NCS with local youth services was like comparing apples and oranges and said that the NCS is the fastest growing youth programme in 100 years. Over 400,000 16-17 year olds have participated in the NCS to date, with tens of thousands more expected by the end of the year. He added that the LGA figures are for 2016 and are out of date as they show that one in eight of the relevant age group are signed up to NCS, where as it is now one in six. He also said it was frustrating that much of the criticism levelled at the NCS in the past is that it is a middle class programme, but its own analysis of participants suggests it reaches a broad base. Last week the government announced a major consultation on the future of probation, which will be welcome to many people working in the voluntary sector and in the criminal justice system. Clinks has been calling for this since the publication in May of our research into the role of voluntary sector organisations in probation. The concerns we raise in that research have been echoed in a variety of other reports from the Public Accounts Committee, Justice Committee and HM Inspectorate of Probation which all highlight how the previous changes to probation, under the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, have negatively impacted the quality of probation services. Rehabilitation Transformed? In 2015, Chris Graylings Transforming Rehabilitation programme promised a rehabilitation revolution. It replaced the previous probation system with 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) contracted to provide support and supervision for low-medium risk offenders and a National Probation Service (NPS) which retained responsibility for high-risk offenders. The Community Rehabilitation Companies contracts were, in part, based on payment-by-results the more they reduced reoffending the more they would be paid. This was intended to drive innovation. In pursuance of reductions in reoffending it was envisaged that CRCs would develop extensive supply chains. This would involve the diverse range of voluntary sector organisations who provide support to people in the criminal justice system. The voluntary sector working in criminal justice is made up of around 1,700 organisations with a workforce larger than that of the prison and probation services combined. It has a long history of providing support alongside statutory probation services. These organisations offer specialist services to address the complex causes of offending such as homelessness, unemployment, mental ill health, and substance misuse. They do not, in the main, deliver the sentence of the court. Instead they provide the wrap around services needed to support an individual to complete that sentence and live a fulfilling life beyond it. But Clinks research has shown that the vital services these organisations provide have not been utilised to support people under probation supervision as envisaged. In fact the voluntary sector is under represented, under pressure and under resourced in the current delivery of probation. Voluntary sector involvement in supply chains is low and charities that are in supply chains have had to adapt services or subsidise them with other charitable funds, undermining their quality and sustainability. The unrealised vision of creating innovative probation services that contract a range of support to reduce reoffending has led to a lack of clarity about what CRCs and the NPS should be funding. This has negatively affected the ability of the voluntary sector working in criminal justice to fundraise from other sources. What next for probation? The Ministry of Justice is proposing that future arrangements will be much clearer about what providers are required to deliver something which Clinks has called for. This will be more clearly focused on 'core offender management functions' and 'delivering the standards that the courts require'. Beyond that they will also define where probation may seek to commission services, and where they should seek to influence the delivery of other local services. They also state an intention to set out a clearer role for the voluntary sector and better facilitate its involvement in the design and delivery of probation services. While this clarity is much needed, there is a potential contradiction and risk in the language used in the proposals. Describing offender management functions as the 'core' of probation risks interpretation that this is also the 'core' of rehabilitation and resettlement. In many cases what is 'core' to supporting a person's desistance is far more complex and the need for services that respond to that complexity, as well as consideration of how probation can secure access to them, must remain central in the development of these proposals. It will be vital, as the new contracts are developed, to ensure that these additional but nonetheless essential services are properly enabled to support offender management. The proposals do recognise this and ask how Ministry of Justice can better engage voluntary sector providers in the design and delivery of rehabilitation and resettlement services for offenders in the community. It is welcome that Ministry of Justice are asking this question openly of the sector and recognising the value of co-designing commissioning and partnership working arrangements. They briefly set out some potential future models for this such as separate frameworks or dynamic purchasing systems at national and regional levels but the detail is lacking. Given the experience of many organisations under the current system, as well as recent experiences of the commissioning of families services and the current education contracts commissioning process, significant assurances will be needed by many in the sector that the lessons of the past will be learnt and applied. Another key proposal is to better integrate the CRCs and NPS, in England, by co-locating them in 10 new probation areas, reduced from the current 21. This will mean that the areas in which future CRCs are operating will be significantly larger than they currently are. To ensure voluntary sector involvement it will be essential that consideration is given to the impact this might have on contract size and the provision of specialist and localised services. In Wales, the proposals are significantly different, with the functions of the CRC and NPS integrated into a single organisation with responsibility for all offenders. Additional services that support rehabilitation and resettlement will then be put out to tenders to enable a range of providers and voluntary sector organisations to compete to deliver them. There is currently very little Welsh voluntary sector involvement in the Welsh CRCs supply chain and this model will need to address this in order to ensure services are appropriately localised. Trexit or TRlite? There is much in these proposals to welcome and that responds to the concerns raised by Clinks research and others. The Ministry of Justices commitment to openly engage with the sector on all these issues is also good news and hopefully will mean that any future probation system will be able to take full advantage of the skills and expertise that reside in our sector. It is also clear that the Ministry of Justice is somewhat bound by the parameters of what it can do both politically, to avoid accusations of a full u-turn, and economically, given its current cash-strapped position. The final reforms arrived at after the consultation period must address the fundamental limitations of the current system and not just fiddle with detail and presentation or they will risk not changing anything at all. Jessica Mullen is interim head of policy at Clinks We face a staggering array of foreign policy challenges today: climate change, extremism, epidemics, increasing inequality, threats of nuclear war, and cyber-attacks. Yet, somehow, we continue to underutilize a valuable resource to address these challenges: women. The Womens Media Center notes that when it comes to bylines and credits in 2017, 62 percent of bylines belonged to men; 38 percent to women. Sixteen percent of Pulitzer Prize winners have been women. Womens voices and perspectives are equally scarce on the op-ed page, a critical forum for influencing public opinion, promoting and affecting policy, and exerting leadership. To quantify the gender gap, Foreign Policy Interrupted, an organization that aims to increase female voices in the media, undertook a systematic review of foreign policy op-eds in 1996, 2006, and 2016 in the four largest newspapers in the US: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. ICYMI: Youre probably not quoting enough women. Let us help you. We found that we are far from gender parity on the op-ed page, and its not changing fast enough. FPI identified 3,758 foreign policy op-eds across the three one-year periods. These articles spanned global affairs, national security, war, development, human rights, global trade and commerce, and bilateral and multilateral issues. Of these, 568, or 15 percent, were written by women. Sign up for CJR 's daily email At that rate, we wont approach parity until 2056, a full professional generation from now. The total number of op-eds by women has increased rapidly in two decadesfrom 58 in 1996 to 250 in 2016. However, this largely reflects the increase in total content available through online platforms, rather than an improvement in parity. Across the four publications combined, the proportion of op-eds authored by women increased more modestly over time: from 8 percent in 1996, to 15 percent in 2006, to 19 percent in 2016. In the Times and the Post, womens share of op-ed bylines has increased over time from 4 percent and 15 percent to 23 percent and 24 percent respectively. In the LA Times, the share of female bylines also increased, from 8 percent to 17 percent, though the number of foreign policy op-eds published by the LA Times decreased. The increase in equal representation did not hold across all publications. In The Wall Street Journal, women were no better represented in 2016 compared to 1996fewer than one in eight foreign policy opinion pieces was authored by a woman. The FPI review shows that the share of womens bylines has increased by as much as 7 percentage points per decade. At that rate, we wont approach parity until 2056, a full professional generation from now. The tendency to publish the same bylines and quote the same sources repeatedly is partly driven by the pressure on todays media to produce more content with fewer resources. When breaking news hits, daily beat journalists eager for sources reach out to the first people they can find working on and influencing any given issue, not the experts working outside the nerve center or think tank world. This gives men, who dominate the top spots in think tanks, the Pentagon, the State Department, National Security Council, and White House an advantage. The Wall Street Journal, for example, published seven pieces by John Bolton in 2016. This also leads to a self-reinforcing cycle: the more you are heard, the more influential you become. The numbers are daunting, but the problem is not intractable. There is no shortage of qualified women in the pipeline; Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs, Tuftss Fletcher School, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Study all had more than 50 percent female enrollment in 2016. There are clear steps to increasing the diversity of voices and thought leaders in foreign policyand other fields where womens voices are lacking. Editors need to widen their scope, and solicit and consider pitches from a more diverse range of voices and a more equal mix of women and men. Likewise journalists should be vigilant about reviewing their quoted sources to make sure theyre reaching out to women, too. ICYMI: A climate of hate toward the press at Trump rallies Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Elmira Bayrasli and Elizabeth Radin are the authors of this article. Elmira Bayrasli is the CEO and co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted. Elizabeth Radin is a researcher and lecturer at Columbia University and an FPI Fellow. On this weeks episode, Pete is joined by CJR Digital Editor Nausicaa Renner and CJR Chief Digital Writer Mathew Ingram to discuss Facebooks fight to control the narrative. The social media giant shut down more than 30 pages and accounts that it said were part of a political influence campaign potentially built to sow discord ahead of the midterm elections. But are the very public efforts too little, too late? Then, Nausicaa sticks around to talk about the vitriol toward the press at President Trumps rally in Tampa. SHOW NOTES: Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon. This story is published in partnership with The Trace, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of guns in the US. FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS, Ive reported almost exclusively on Americas gunshot survivors. When most people think of gun violence, they think of mass shootings or annual death tolls. But that overlooks the sprawling shadow population of people struggling to adjust to the repercussions of bullets that did not kill. Tens of thousands survive gunshot wounds every year. As one advocate put it, theres this whole middle place that a lot of people are left in. Those are the stories I try to tell. Despite their prevalence, theres little research on the long-term effects of gunshot injuries on peoples bodies, psyches, and relationships. To fill that gap, Ive interviewed or corresponded with more than 100 survivors from around the country whose lives have been changed by violence, whether psychologically, socially, or economically. I highlighted these stories in profiles, audio collaborations, and mini-narratives on Twitter. Recently, my reporting fed an eight-episode podcast about people trying to figure out their lives after being shot. ICYMI: The stories we should be writing after the Parkland shooting Many shooting victims Ive interviewed have dealt with post-traumatic symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, and jumpiness around loud noises. For these reasons, Im always trying to figure out ways to limit further harm during the reporting process. Ive also learned some things about how reporters can take care of themselves while covering trauma. 1. Know the data and its limits Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project Familiarize yourself with the data on gun violenceand be aware of where it falls short. An estimated 80,000 people survive nonfatal gun injuries in the US each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats more than double the number of yearly firearm fatalities. However, the CDCs data on nonfatal injuries isnt as thorough as death records, relying instead on data from a limited number of hospitals. That gives those estimates a high degree of uncertainty, but law enforcement statistics have their own downsides. Roughly a third of major cities dont track nonfatal shootings, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Keeping in mind those caveats, here are my go-to resources for shooting and injury data: For national stats, the CDCs nonfatal injury reports contain nonfatal firearm injury estimates going back to 2001. See what data your local police department keeps. If youre lucky to be reporting on or about a city that tracks nonfatal shootings, like Louisville or Oakland , these statistics add helpful context to an individuals story. Follow local criminologists or crime analysts. One of my favorites is Jeff Asher, a reporter and crime analyst based in New Orleans who keeps detailed tallies on nonfatal shootings in different cities. He also debunks common crime stat misconceptions for FiveThirtyEight like this essential explainer on why nonfatal shootings are a better barometer for violence than homicides. Stories of American gun violence often reflect disparity. Poor urban neighborhoods disproportionately experience shootings, a phenomenon dubbed murder inequality that applies to nonfatal gun violence as well. Young black men are especially vulnerable: Black males between the ages of 15 and 24 are killed at a rate 20 times greater than their white counterparts, per CDC figures. When looking for subjects, prioritize people who represent the communities hit hardest. 2. Get creative with your sourcing Gunshot victims interviewed in the immediate aftermath of a shooting might offer an opportunity for a follow-up piecesee if the reporter is willing to put you in touch. Victims often live with the repercussions of their injuries for years, even decades, after the incident, and aging survivors have a lot to teach us about what the young may face ahead. To identify more cases and narratives within a specific region or time range, theres Gun Violence Archive, which compiles an online archive of gun incidents primarily from media reports going back to 2013. You can narrow your search using filters like date, city, state, and whether a shooting involved multiple victims or took place at a certain type of location, such as a school or workplace. News articles on shootings dont always mention survivors by name for privacy reasons, and often heavily skew toward police perspectives, so youll likely need alternative methods for finding them. Look for GoFundMe pages, which often include a survivors name, a few details about the incident, and a contact person. Once I find a persons name, I usually search for them on Facebook and see if they respond to a direct message. If I can find a family member or friend, Ill ask them to reach out to a survivor on my behalf. If you dont already belong to a community that experiences high rates of gun violence, its helpful to identify the gatekeepers in communities that do, and who are likely to know survivors: activists, prevention workers, violence interrupters, and the heads of anti-violence nonprofits. Ask if theyre willing to see if the survivor wants to talk and connect you. 3. Be sensitive to your sources Experiencing violence can shatter a persons sense of safety or control. As with many other kinds of subjects, the people you speak to may also not be media-savvy, meaning theyre doubly vulnerable. So if youre reporting on shooting survivors, I dont think its possible to over-communicate with your subjects about what theyre getting into by talking to a journalist. Before I start interviewing gunshots survivors, I often walk them through what will happen during the reporting process, and how their story might be used. I explain what The Trace does, why I want to write about them, and how much of their time I will likely need. I share examples of my past work and give them a chance to ask me questions. If they seem to be getting overwhelmed, I suggest taking a break. I keep them informed about when the story will run, and follow up a few days afterward to see how theyre doing. Common symptoms of PTSD include hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma-related memories, emotional numbness, and poor concentrationany of which could seep into an interview. A survivor might have trouble recalling the exact timing or order of events. If that happens, I might ask the person to describe the emotions or sensations they experiencedsmells, sounds, colorsand then rely on police reports or other sources for the concrete details. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma has compiled a comprehensive handbook of expertise for journalists, editors, and managers covering any type of trauma. Some of my favorite tips: Say youre sorry for what happened to the person youre interviewing. Give them a heads up before asking a tough question. Be prepared for a wide range of emotional responsesdespair, anger, bitterness, confusion, numbnessand approach any response with kindness and understanding. The anniversary of a persons shooting can be an especially tough time, so be extra sensitive about reaching out or setting up an interview around then. If they arent up for talking, give them space but also check in later. 4. Find out where gunshot survivors are falling through the gaps Gun violence reporting is not all about statistics and physical injury. Its equally important to learn about the day-to-day realities gunshot survivors face. A single bullet can cause chronic pain, life-threatening infections, and isolating fear. It can also transform someones personal relationships, hamper their ability to get around their home or city, and place a huge financial burden on them or their family. People who work with gunshot survivors can offer broader perspectives into some of these issues. Trauma and pain doctors, psychiatrists, physical therapists, and social workers have all added important expertise to my stories. I interviewed victim service providers, who explained how once-simple tasks can become insurmountable under the weight of PTSD. After reporting on a hospital program in Ohio last year, I learned about the state victim compensation systems, which led me to investigate how gunshot survivors struggle to access it. Getting shot is often a brutal and traumatic experience, but that doesnt mean stories about gunshot survivors have to be depressing. People find creative ways to cope with their injurieswhether its starting a Facebook group for other survivors or teaching other paraplegic people how to drive. When survivors find solutions to problems on their own, it can reveal failures or shortcomings by the institutions that should be responsible for their care, raising opportunities for accountability reporting. 5. Watch for vicarious trauma Vicarious trauma is the cumulative negative effect of working with survivors of violence, disaster, or trauma. (Terms like secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout are sometimes used interchangeably, but experts define them differently.) Social workers, first responders, and therapists can develop distress over repeated exposure to tragedy and trauma. That goes for journalists, too. For me, learning about vicarious trauma has been a helpful guard against it. I read about trauma so I can recognize warning signs, both in myself and other colleagues. Heres one helpful guide to vicarious trauma for journalists and editors. Three other things I do: Establish clear boundaries between myself and sources, and between home and work. For example, I avoid scheduling interviews at night before bed. I also limit my news and social media exposure when Im not working. Nurture my relationships with friends, family, and mentors. Research suggests social connection can help people be more resilient to trauma. Talk with other reporters who cover difficult topics. Reporters dont traditionally discuss second-hand trauma, but encouraging open conversations can help journalists make this work more sustainable, both for them and their sources. Facebook groups like Journalists Covering Trauma offer forums for these conversations. I try to approach every interview with genuine empathy, and that requires time and energy. I space out interviews to give my brain and heart a chance to recharge. In interviewing shooting survivors, Ive witnessed people in profound isolation and sorrow, but Ive also been amazed by the human capacity to recover. ICYMI: Five ideas for more respectful media coverage after mass shootings Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Elizabeth Van Brocklin is a staff reporter at The Trace. She mainly covers urban violence, including the experiences and needs of gunshot survivors and institutions accountable to them. A jury properly determined that the operators of an Eau Claire mud buggy race werent negligent in a wild crash that cost a spectator part of his leg, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled Tuesday. The case revolves around Shawn Wallace, who was watching a race at Eau Claires Pioneer Park in 2012 when a buggy hit a guardrail, flew off the track and landed in the crowd. Wallace was injured so badly he had to have one of his legs amputated below the knee. He filed a lawsuit in 2013 alleging that the tracks owner, Chippewa Valley Antique and Engine Model Club Inc., and the races sanctioning body, Central Mudracing Association Inc., had been negligent. The jury at the 2016 trial found that the accident was unforeseeable and that neither defendant had been negligent. Wallace appealed, arguing that Eau Claire County Circuit Judge William Gabler had improperly barred him from telling the jury about a 2005 crash at the track that injured spectators and had improperly limited a crash reconstruction experts testimony. The 3rd District Court of Appeals sided with the judge. The court said in its ruling Tuesday that Gabler reasonably determined that the 2005 crash wasnt similar to the 2012 incident. The earlier crash occurred on a different part of the track, the spectators who were injured were viewing the race from a truck, not the bleachers, and the track operators extended guardrails following that crash, the appeals court noted. Therefore the crash was of little value in Wallaces case, the court concluded. As for the crash reconstruction experts testimony, the appeals court agreed with Gablers decision that the witness had no experience with mud buggies or mud track design. Wallaces attorneys, Russell and Adam Nicolet of Hudson, had no immediate comment. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. In the Hawaiian religion, Tutu Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiians believe Kilauea to be inhabited by a family of fire gods, one of the sisters being Pele, who is believed to govern Kilauea and is responsible for controlling its lava flows. On May 1, 2018, Pele spoke, and Hawaiis Big Island was rocked with the first of more than 50 earthquakes, representing the collapse of the crater floor at Puu Oo, the open vent below Kilaueas summit crater and lava lake. Sulfur dioxide gas, debris and lava bubbled up through a new crack in the Kilauea volcano and, within a month, molten lava with a temperature of 2,200F was flowing through and destroying entire neighborhoods before exploding in the ocean. Rivers of lava destroyed over 600 homes, making it the most destructive eruption in modern times. The resulting damage far surpassed the 215 homes destroyed by lava during a similar eruption of Kilauea in 1983. Even before the lava had cooled to form a tomb of solid rock over the once thriving neighborhoods, many escaped from their homes with their most valuable possession their homeowners policy. Hawaii is the home to five volcanos: Kohala, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. One is extinct, one is dormant, and the other three give homeowners just enough time to rebuild before they erupt again, repeating the cycle. These volcanos are extremely special and unique. Unlike most volcanos on earth, Hawaiis volcanos are located nearly 2,000 miles from the place youd normally find them tectonic plate boundaries. Instead, they are formed because of the Pacific plate moving very slowly (4 inches per year) over a deep, stationary hotspot in the earths mantle. How and why homeowners would rebuild homes in the path of an active volcano and why insurance companies would continue to insure those homes against the inevitable remains a question that touches on the essence of the insurance industry and the human spirit. The U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) has created nine zones on the Big Island known as lava hazard zones. Zone 1 is the highest risk zone based upon the degree of the risk of hazard, historical flows, and the geography of the area. Zone 2 is also a high-risk zone based upon the same criteria. As the hazard zone number increases in number, the degree of risk decreases. Zone 9 is a zone of least risk. Properties in Zones 1 and 2 are some of the cheapest on the island. Property insurance is limited in these areas, but the Hawaii Property Insurance Association a nonprofit created by the state legislatureoffers some coverage up to $350,000, with any replacement coverage above that available only through Lloyds of London. Any possible volcano coverage comes with a steep price tag an additional $3,000 or more per year for lava coverage. Even most lending institutions have curtailed or stopped altogether programs for financing in these areas, although the federal government offers a program through Rural Housing Development. You might as well be moving to Mars. There is no such thing as volcano or lava flow insurance, but it is possible for an all-risk homeowners policy to provide some coverage. While most homeowners policies cover natural disasters such as floods and hailstorms, insurance for volcanos and lava flow has become incredibly rare and very expensive especially in places like Hawaii. For those who live in designated U.S.G.S. lava-zoned areas, trying to get coverage is a monumental task. From the carriers perspective, its known as anti-selection the tendency of individuals who suspect or know they are more likely than average to experience loss to apply for or renew insurance to a greater extent than people. Many policyholders may have homeowners coverage but may not have paid the extra premiums to obtain protection from lava. There is usually coverage for vandalism and looting if the homeowners are displaced and there is anything left to loot. Damage to motor vehicles is covered under an automobile insurance policy if the owner has purchased comprehensive coverage. Ordinary property damage coverage applies if the car engine is damaged due to volcanic ash or dust. Some homeowners argue they should be able to recover under the fire peril coverage of their policies. After all, the fire which ultimately destroys the home is a wildfire which, at some point in its development, was started by burning lava. Before lava even reaches the house, the house catches on fire because of the heat. Since the fire was caused by heat, there is an argument that it should be covered by insurance. On the other hand, many claims professionals say that insurance policies that exclude lava damage will not cover a fire caused by lava. If lava came down the hill, and the insured has a lava exclusion and trees catch fire, which burns the house, thats not covered, according to some. When it comes to commercial property insurance, the Broad Causes of Loss Form and Basic Causes of Loss Form two of three ISO commercial property causes of loss forms covers volcanic activity with the following language: (11) Volcanic Action, meaning direct loss or damage resulting from the eruption of a volcano when the loss or damage is caused by: (a) Airborne volcanic blast or airborne shock waves; (b) Ash, dust or particulate matter; or (c) Lava flow. All volcanic eruptions that occur within any 168-hour period will constitute a single occurrence. This cause of loss does not include the cost to remove ash, dust or particulate matter that does not cause direct physical loss or damage to the described property. The Basic Causes of Loss Form covers damage from the above-ground effects of a volcanic eruption airborne blast and shock waves, ash, dust, particulate matter, and lava flow. It does not include, as detailed in the earth movement exclusion, the removal cost of volcanic ash or dust that has not physically damaged insured property, nor the seismic effects of a volcanic eruption. Coverage under this cause of loss applies to any volcanic eruptions occurring within a seven-day period (168 hours). Under the original versions of the form (prior to the 1988 revisions), this period was three days. On the other hand, the Special Form Policy covers all risks unless excluded. While it covers volcanic eruption, it then excludes volcanic eruption, leading to the following coverage: (5) Volcanic eruption, explosion or effusion. But if volcanic eruption, explosion or effusion results in fire or Volcanic Action, we will pay for the loss or damage caused by that fire or Volcanic Action. As a result, many ash claims will be denied because the ash arguably does not result in any physical damage. Until recently, volcanic action coverage was only available through an optional endorsement. Businesses must usually wait 72 hours before business interruption coverage kicks in. However, the insurance industry has begun to clamp down on business interruption claims resulting from volcanic activity because the losses (e.g., shutdown of busy airports, etc.) are simply too great. Homeowners affected by mandatory evacuations, fire, smoke, or noxious fumes may be able to make a claim. Obviously, insured homeowners must look carefully at their policies and parse the details of its terms, conditions, and exclusions. On the other hand, the problem is getting insured. State Farm stopped writing homeowners policies in Zones 1 and 2 in the 1990s, but it grandfathered in people with existing policies. Those policies usually cover fire from volcanic activity, but each claim must be looked at individually. According to State Farms website, Most homeowners policies provide coverage for property loss caused by volcanic eruption when it is the result of a volcanic blast, airborne shock waves, ash, dust, or lava flow. Fire or explosion resulting from volcanic eruption also is covered. They do not cover damage from earthquake, land tremors, landslide, mudflow, or other earth movement regardless of whether or not the quake is caused by or causes a volcanic eruption. The problem is getting insurance. Volcano coverage can confuse even experts on the subject. Gordon Ito, Hawaiis insurance commissioner since 2010, originally said that homes destroyed by Kilauea were covered for the damage under homeowners policies, but later clarified that coverages and exclusions varied from policy to policy and many homes may not have been covered. Coverage shouldnt vary from zone to zone, but premiums will. If property is in a higher-risk area, it will cost more. Insurance notwithstanding, a much greater question involving the human spirit comes into play when discussing building homes and communities in places in the path of an active volcano or below sea level and protected by a thin concrete levee. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many argued that the city should not be rebuilt because it is built on the sinking Mississippi River delta complex. As man-made levees have kept sediments from being deposited in inhabited areas, much of the city is now below sea level and at an even greater risk. Katrina will be repeated. In 100 years, New Orleans will be three to five feet lower than it is today. To maintain the rivers course through New Orleans, levees had to be built from the mouth of the Mississippi to New Orleans and up the river. Years ago, the Mississippi River normally would have taken a more direct route to the sea than through New Orleans. The citys very existence is a losing tug of war against nature itself. This is why 15 New Orleans zip codes saw the largest drop in home prices in the U.S. in 2017. Similar criticisms are leveled at the rebuilding of neighborhoods and communities directly in the path of future eruptions of Kilauea. In Hawaiis Volcano Country, the land is cheap, and life is risky. The reward of low home prices is offset by the very real risk of complete destruction. It isnt a question of if, but when the next catastrophe will strike. To expect the insurance industry to simply provide a safety net for what might aptly be called a pre-existing condition is counterintuitive to the concept of insurance itself. To insure means to arrange for compensation in the event of future damage or loss and secure against a possible contingency in the future. When the contingency is a certainty, it stops being insurance and veers wildly outside of the economic system we know as free enterprise. Compassionate and caring answers do not come easily when dealing with the certainty of future natural disasters. While the human heart strives for compassionate answers, another organ from which originates common sense compels an outcome where the risk is commensurate with the reward. Putting aside the risk and reward mumbo-jumbo which is the stuff of underwriting, when a volcano causes a loss, the concept of subrogation isnt something that usually comes to mind. Whether you blame God or Pele, when a volcano strikes, the resulting losses can be enough to put many insurance companies into receivership. With no third parties or obvious subrogation potential, these mammoth claim payments often disappear permanently. Acts of God such as these reveal a celestial tortfeasor who is both judgment proof and beyond reach by summons and subpoenas. However, rather than throwing in the towel, these losses present tremendous recovery potential for the proactive claims professional. It is said that opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Nowhere is that adage truer than when it comes to subrogating natural disasters. If a carrier is willing to invest the time and effort necessary to investigate third-party potential in the face of disaster, it is possible to turn tragedy into triumph. While liability for causing the volcano is beyond the reach of the civil justice system, subrogation potential may exist where the resulting fire intensified and spread due to the defendants negligence. For instance, in Dealers Serv. & Supply Co. v. St. Louis Nat. Stockyards Co., 508 N.E.2d 1241 (Ill. App. 1987), a property owner who suffered loss due to a wildfire sued an adjacent property owner alleging that adjacent property owner negligently and carelessly maintained its property so as to create conditions hazardous to the property owners land and allowed the fire to spread much faster. The defendant failed to prevent the dumping of combustible materials and the growth of weeds on its property despite being aware of open fires on its property. Nobody supervised the vacant land, there was no system of maintenance for the property, and the weeds had never been cut. Even though the cause of the fire was never established, firemen testified that the fire started in the weeds and spread to the plaintiffs building, aided by a wind from the west. While the typical case for recovery relating to a wildfire would pertain to the fires ignition, a fires spread may also present an opportunity for the subrogating insurer. Subrogating volcano losses is not for the faint of heart. Prompt investigation is required, and experts will be needed to assess ignition, spread, prevention, and damage if a carrier wants to see a recovery. One thing is certain: a carrier will fail at recovering every claim in which it takes no steps toward investigating subrogation potential. AKRON, Ohio - Akron's parks are overdue for improvement, so the city wants residents to help shape a new vision for the Akron Recreation Bureau. The city will ask residents what they know about recreational amenities and what their interests and needs are, as part of efforts to develop a strategic plan for "radically improving" community centers and recreation programming. Residents can take the bureau's five- to seven-minute survey here through Sept. 7. Responses are anonymous. Mayor Dan Horrigan announced the initiative in his 2018 state of the city address, saying he views public spaces and recreation as catalysts for neighborhood development. The mayor recalled the work of former Akron Mayor John Ballard in 1969. During a time of civil unrest, Ballard declared adequate public space and recreation an essential city service. "While we are proud to offer the Akron community a robust array of recreation services, we have not critically evaluated or changed the way we provide services or the types of programming we offer in at least a generation," Horrigan said in a news release. "The goal of this strategic planning process is to modernize our services, increase the use of our community centers, enhance public engagement in recreation programming, and better meet community needs by asking our citizens what they want and need from their city government." The survey questions focus on what should be added or improved as well as general thoughts about the Recreation Bureau. The city also wants ideas on attracting new park users, at what level people participate and how much they value existing offerings. To guide the planning process and apply the data gathered through the survey, the city hired Rick Adler and Associates, which has worked with the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association. The planning process is expected to be complete by the end of the year, when the city will report back its findings and future plans. "To create a new vision, we first have to fully understand the existing state of city recreation -- what the community knows, what they enjoy, and how they feel we can better serve them," Recreation Bureau Manager Brittany Schmoekel said in the release. "We encourage all those who live in Akron or use our services to add their voice to this important community conversation by taking our online survey." In April, the city announced development of the Akron Parks Collaborative, a partnership between the city and Friends of the Metro Parks. The collaborative, modeled after successful groups in New York City and Philadelphia, is to engage the community in "friends groups" near each Akron park to help keep them clean and inviting. At that time, the city released the Department of Planning and Urban Development's comprehensive study of Akron's parks system available here. The study encompasses 161 Akron parks, including Summit Metro Parks, which cover 3,804 acres. According to the city, Akron offers twice the national average of parkland - more than 19 acres per 1,000 residents. The Akron Recreation Bureau offers services and programming for residents of all ages, and manages 11 Akron community centers and the Balch Street fitness center. For more information about the Akron Recreation Bureau, visit the city's website. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed ethics charges against a Cleveland lawyer who carried out the appeal of a man he never met. But in dismissing the case against attorney Paul Mancino Jr., two of the court's justices, including Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, signed onto a concurring opinion that questioned whether it should change rules that bar the court from reviewing unanimous decisions made in the early steps of discipline. "(O)ur responsibility to protect the public from the attorney's possible misbehavior has been thwarted," Justice Patrick Fischer wrote in the concurring opinion that was signed by O'Connor and Justice Terrence O'Donnell. Mancino was paid a $1,000 flat fee by the father of one of his clients to represent the client's jail cellmate, according to the Court's report. The father told Mancino that the cellmate wanted to appeal his conviction, so Mancino took up the case and filed an appeal in March 2014 without talking to the cellmate. The only communication Mancino had with the cellmate was to send him a copy of the notice of the oral argument date and the appeals court's December 2014 decision upholding the man's convictions, the court wrote. The Geauga County Common Pleas judge who originally sentenced the man learned that Mancino filed the appeal without talking to the man and filed a grievance with the Office of the Disciplinary Counsel. In December 2016, the counsel charged Mancino with eight ethics violations. The cellmate testified before a three-member hearing panel with the Board of Professional Conduct that he did not know that Mancino filed an appeal, but said he was not harmed by Mancino's actions. The panel found Mancino violated rules requiring a lawyer to consult with a client. It also found that he failed to get permission from the client on certain strategic decisions and that he took money to represent a client without the client's consent, according to the court. The panel unanimously dismissed five other rule violations based on the "insufficiency of evidence," records say. Mancino objected to the conclusions, arguing the rules could not be violated if there was no attorney-client relationship. The Supreme Court begrudgingly agreed with Mancino's argument, finding that the three rules that the panel deemed he violated required an attorney-client relationship to exist and, because Mancino had never met his client, there was no relationship. Mancino likely broke other rules that were not for the court to consider. "Had the hearing panel properly discerned that lack of an attorney-client relationship, it may not have unanimously dismissed those counts for lack of sufficient evidence," Fischer wrote in his concurring opinion. Fischer questioned rules that bar anyone, from local bar associations to the Supreme Court, to challenge or review a hearing panel's dismissal of charges if the decision was unanimous. He also cautioned future hearing panels against unanimously dismissing rule violations based on insufficient evidence, especially in complex cases, and urged the Court to determine whether the rule that bars any challenge or review of a unanimous panel dismissal should be changed. To comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Case Western Reserve University's updated student information system will allow students to indicate gender identity. University applications and forms can often be difficult for those who identify with a different gender identity than the sex assigned at birth. It can also lead to problems in the classroom when professors work off of university information to refer to their students. CWRU students can pick from 20 different gender identities, according to Cleveland Scene. The university worked extensively with its LGBT Center on the update. "Students who are misgendered experience a range of emotion and realities -- a student might feel humiliated, unsafe, under scrutiny by classmates and/or pressured to affirm or deny the misgendering," directors Liz Roccoforte and Assistant Director AmariYah Israel told Scene. The choice will appear on class and advisor rosters. The university issued a emailed statement through a spokesman: "... Activating this feature aligns with Case Western Reserve's commitment to an inclusive culture, in that it demonstrates the university's respect for students for whom having this choice matters a great deal to their identity and sense of self." CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man is charged in connection with a stabbing that led to a standoff Tuesday in the city's Hough neighborhood. Deante Benjamin, 38, is charged with felonious assault in the stabbing at a home on Addison Road near East 79th Street, according to court records. He is accused of stabbing a 28-year-old woman under her left arm, according to a police report. Cleveland EMS took the woman to University Hospitals for treatment. A University Hospitals spokesman said Wednesday afternoon that the woman was not listed in the hospital's census, so he could not provide an update on her condition. Benjamin's sister called 911 on Tuesday to report that he stabbed the woman, and was holding the woman and a child at knifepoint, the police report says. Officers arrived about 3 p.m. and learned Benjamin jumped out a bedroom window and ran from the home. They found him in some brush on Decker Avenue near Addison Road. Cleveland police officers shot him with a beanbag round in an attempt to take him into custody, but it was ineffective, police said. Negotiators convinced Benjamin to surrender following an hour-long standoff. Benjamin had a pocket knife when officers arrested him. Officers also found a second knife stuck in the ground in the area, the police report says. Cleveland EMS took him to a hospital to be treated for bruises caused by the beanbag round, police said. He was released later Tuesday and taken to the Cuyahoga County Jail. Benjamin requested a preliminary hearing during his arraignment Thursday in Cleveland Municipal Court, records say. To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio - Runners and walkers can support the Cleveland Metroparks and explore one of its newest trails on Sept. 22 at the first Centennial Trail 5K. You'll need a little stamina not just to run the 5K but say its full name: the Cleveland Metroparks and Cleveland Foundation Centennial Trail 5K. The Cleveland Foundation has backed the Flats West Bank's growing trail, which has another long name: the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail. The trail offers rare views of urban architecture and the Cuyahoga River. The event will begin at the trailhead near the Columbus Street bridge. Runners and walkers will continue to the Scranton Peninsula stretch of the Centennial Trail, then travel part of the Towpath Trail. Brian Zimmerman, the Metroparks' chief executive officer, says, "The ever-evolving trail network continues moving Cleveland Metroparks closer to its vision of providing access for all Cleveland residents." The Metroparks plan to start next year to build a bridge from the Flats to Wendy Park, where the Cuyahoga meets Lake Erie. The 5K's website is clevelandmetroparks.com/5K. Adults may register ahead at that site or at 216-635-3200.for $20 or at the event for $30. Children 11 and under may register ahead for $15 or in person for $20. Children under 2 are free. The proceeds will benefit the foundation's Emerald Necklace Endowment Fund, whose yearly income helps the Metroparks. Check-in will begin at 8 a.m., and the event at 8:30 a.m. A party for registered guests will run from 9 a.m. to noon at Merwin's Wharf. The 5K's not a race. Participants may learn their times, but there will be no prizes. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A number of Cleveland police recruits are under investigation for possible cheating during training they're required to take before they become full-fledged police officers, according to four police sources. The cheating allegations center around several recruits' conduct during training, according to three police sources. However, the sources' account of the number of recruits at the center of the investigation differ. Cleveland police Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia confirmed that there is an active internal investigation into the recruits, but declined to give specifics of what investigators are probing. The sources said that since the officers are still considered "recruits," that the Cleveland Division of Police could fire them depending on the outcome of the investigation. The city could also elect to discipline them once they're full officers, or do nothing if the investigation finds no wrongdoing. Cleveland is trying to bolster its police force by some 150 officers by the end of the year and 250 by the end of March 2019 after voters approved a half-percent increase to the city's income tax. The current academy class began July 2. It is one of four planned 2018 recruitment classes. The training of Cleveland police has been the subject of some past controversy. Cleveland's police union fought, and eventually lost its effort to keep the city from shuttering the local police academy in favor of sending recruits to Columbus for training at the State Highway Patrol academy in Columbus. The move came after a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found new police officers were not getting proper training. Cadets started training at the state patrol's academy in December 2015, but the Cleveland police department also conducts its own training. The accusations stem from incidents at the Cleveland academy. State Highway Patrol Lt. Robert Sellers said his agency has no involvement in the ongoing Cleveland police investigation. The recent allegations are not the first time recruits came under suspicion of cheating on exams. Three cadets became the center of a 2006 investigation that accused them of plagiarizing each other's notebooks. Cadets take notes during lectures and are supposed to transfer the notes into special notebooks that are regularly inspected by the instructors. Those officers formed a study group and all three had misspelled a word for a sex act, the union said at the time. Officials suspended the recruits for two days and placed them lower on the seniority list than the rest of the class. The Cleveland Fire Department conducted an investigation in late December and early 2018 into cheating accusations on the promotional exams for lieutenant and captains. The investigation found no wrongdoing and no one was disciplined. CLEVELAND, Ohio - A draft audit report on Cuyahoga County's troubled IT Department raises questions about the authority and oversight of the department's general counsel, Emily McNeeley, who is a focus of an ongoing corruption investigation. Internal Auditor Cory Swaisgood suggests that the general counsel, whom he doesn't name, had been given too much authority and was not adequately supervised by the county Law Department despite assurances to the contrary by county Law Director Robert Triozzi. Swaisgood also suggests the county seek to recover $119,782 in payments to OneCommunity, a high-speed internet provider, for services that could not adequately be reconciled during the audit. Scot Rourke, the county's IT director, is OneCommunity's former chief executive. Rourke also is a focus of the corruption probe by the County Prosecutor's Office, and has been placed on leave along with McNeeley. A draft copy of the audit was leaked Thursday to cleveland.com after the administration of County Executive Armond Budish tried for weeks to keep the document secret by claiming it was not a public record - an assertion disputed by an expert on Ohio's public records laws. The Budish administration released its version of the draft audit after learning that cleveland.com had a copy. The county's version contains management responses to the report's recommendations. In most cases, management states that its in agreement, at least partially, with the findings and in some cases has already implemented changes. A copy of the county's version of the draft audit can be read below. Here are some of Swaisgood's findings along with some management responses : The IT Department lacked adequate segregation of duties, which resulted in McNeeley performing legal reviews and approvals of contracts while also serving on the department's leadership team. Management took no position on the segregation of duties issue because it is subject to investigation by the county prosecutor's office. McNeeley had access to perform - and at times did perform - multiple functions: requesting a procurement, giving departmental approval for the procurement, obtaining documents from vendors, and giving legal approval of the same procurement. Management partially agreed with a recommendation that the IT Department should institute logical controls to prevent on person from approving multiple steps. Swaisgood suggested that the legal review of contracts should be independent from the department requesting the contract in order to reduce the risk of procurement fraud. Management disagreed. The deputy chief information officer and McNeeley made the decision to go live with a new version of the OnBase data management system in July of 2017 against the desires of the director of Office and Procurement and Diversity, resulting in flawed performance. While Triozzi reported that his department supervised McNeeley's work, Swaisgood obtained no evidence that the Law Department adequately supervised McNeeley and noted McNeeley was categorized as an IT employee and paid out of IT's budget. Nearly half of the IT Department contracts, purchase orders and other deals reviewed for the audit - 47 of 96 - were awarded without competitive bidding and Swaisgood found no evidence that efforts were made to identify other possible vendors. The deals were worth more than $3.6 million. Swaisgood noted that competitive bidding ensures that taxpayers get the best value and reduces the risk of fraud. Management said it's committed to following rules related to competitive bidding. The user ID of a terminated employee from the Office of Budget and Management was used 25 times to perform required OBM approvals of more than $27 million in ontracts. In one case, the user ID was used 120 days after the employee's termination date. The audit report notes that a new version of the software prevents terminated employees from gaining access. The IT Department set effective dates on 29 contracts and other deals totaling more than $6 million before the deals were approved. The IT Department failed to obtain all required review authorizations on 30 contracts or other deals totaling more than $27 million. Required review authorizations were made on 62 contracts or other deals totaling more than $31 million after the deals already had been approved. Swaisgood could not properly analyze data in the OnBase system because it did not have the capacity to generate adequate reports. A technical advisory committee established in 2012 to advise whether IT purchases and contracts comply with county standards has not been operating in compliance with state open meetings law. Swaisgood began the audit as a matter of routine review of county operation. He expanded the scope in light of the corruption investigation. The audit includes a review of procurement practices, contract-related transactions and various controls to make sure systems are working as intended. Budish also released the following statement on Thursday. "We appreciate the good work of the Internal Auditor. With the exception of issues relating to two employees (who are subject to a separate investigation), the legacy weaknesses identified in systems of IT and procurement have generally existed for many years. The timing of this audit is particularly helpful, as it enables us to improve our processes at the same time we are beginning to implement a new, integrated, system-wide computer program (ERP). As can be seen from the management responses, we are adopting almost all of the recommendations made in the audit. The integration of process improvements into the new ERP system should make us much more efficient and save money in future years. The auditor's process is to draft a report, get and incorporate management responses, and then send it to the audit committee for consideration, possible changes, approval and release. At this time, the auditor has not yet had a chance to incorporate management responses or provide a draft to the audit committee. Management responses are important because they show that almost all of the changes recommended by the auditor have already been made or are being made. Accordingly, we are attaching draft management responses, although the Auditor has not yet had a chance to review and include them." CLEVELAND, Ohio- The administration of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish refuses to make public a draft of an internal audit report about its troubled IT Department or to even say why it wants the report kept secret. Responding to a cleveland.com public records request, county lawyers cited two sections of the Ohio Revised Code that they contend allows them to keep the draft a secret from taxpayers, an assertion disputed by an expert on Ohio's public records laws. The county lawyers contend the draft is a "working paper" that is exempt from public scrutiny. One of the sections cited by the lawyers relates to the distribution of "publications intended for general public use" and makes reference to branches of state government, but not county governments. Attorney David Marburger, who has written a book about Ohio's public records laws and has advised cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on records issues in the past, called the county's secrecy claims "baloney." Marburger said the statutes cited by the county do not apply to the draft. He said the draft audit is a public record because it represents a completed task, in this case the creation of a document worth circulating for feedback. Cleveland.com sought the draft report in part because the county's IT Department and two of the department's top administrators have been a focus of an ongoing public corruption investigation by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. County Internal Auditor Cory Swaisgood began his audit of IT contracts last year as part of a routine review of county operations from July 2016 to June 2017. The audit was expanded to include all of 2017 after county officials learned of the corruption investigation. Since January of this year, corruption investigators have served 13 subpoenas on the county, primarily seeking communications and information related to contracts in the IT Department and communications by IT Director Scot Rourke and IT General Counsel Emily McNeeley. Budish placed Rourke and McNeeley on unpaid leave in April. On Wednesday, cleveland.com disclosed that McNeeley is now collecting pay for unused vacation and sick time. County officials said county policy allowed her to receive the pay after giving birth in June and becoming eligible for a leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. In a telephone interview, Swaisgood said his draft audit was sent to managers of the IT and Procurement departments nearly two months ago for their feedback, which is due back to him by Aug. 7. A final report is expected to be ready for the Audit Committee's Aug. 24 meeting. The Audit Committee also declined to release the draft report. The seven-person committee includes five voting members, four of whom are private citizens appointed by Budish and approved by the County Council. The fifth voting member is Trevor McAleer, legislative budget advisor to the Council, who serves on behalf of Council President Dan Brady. Budish and County Finance Director Dennis Kennedy serve on the committee as non-voting members. Committee Chairman Michael Abouserhal, a retired certified public accountant, told cleveland.com that he consulted with three voting members of the Audit Committee regarding the records request and only McAleer, who believed Ohio law required the document's release, favored turning it over. Abouserhal quoted the audit committee's charter as stating that "the "committee shall review and approve all significant findings in internal audit reports prior to their release to the public." Asked if internal policy trumps state law, Abouserhal said, "It's a great question," but one that he was not sure he could answer. He said David Lambert, an assistant county prosecutor, advised the committee that "there was a possibility" a court might not deem the draft a public record. While stating that he had not yet read the draft, Abouserhal said good "business reasons" exist for withholding the document, including that the draft "may change based upon the response from management," as well as the from input provided by the committee. Marburger disagreed. If the document is ultimately revised, he said, the revisions constitute a second public document. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County inspectors checking prices on school supplies ahead of the statewide tax holiday found that nearly 29 percent of the stores they visited charged customers incorrect amounts. The Department of Consumer Affairs, which conducts sweeps every year around back-to-school time, inspected 52 stores to make sure shoppers are charged the advertised or posted prices on school supplies. Fifteen of those stores rang up at least one item incorrectly, and 11 stores rang up multiple items incorrectly, according to a news release. "This is a disappointing performance by area stores," said Director of Consumer Affairs Sheryl Harris in the release. "We only checked back-to-school supplies, which are popular right now. Whether stores undercharge or overcharge, it's hard for families to take advantage of the best deals if prices ring up wrong at the register." Weights-and-measures inspectors tested 25 items at each of the stores for 1,300 items in total. To avoid failing the inspection, stores must have no pricing errors. The worst offender was Dollar General at 27561 Euclid Avenue in Euclid, which registered 11 pricing errors, according to the release. Some of those supplies were shelved with price signs for different products, the release said. The other 14 stores that failed were: CVS Pharmacy, 212 W. Bagley Road, Berea CVS Pharmacy, 27089 Bagley Road, Olmsted Township Discount Drug Mart, 13123 Detroit Ave., Lakewood Family Dollar, 1915 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights Family Dollar, 5522 Turney Road, Garfield Heights Family Dollar, 7194 Columbia Road, Olmsted Township Marc's, 1650 Snow Road, Parma Office Max, 17171 Southpark Center Dr., Strongsville Office Max, 4057 Richmond Road, Warrensville Heights Target, 24646 Brookpark Road, North Olmsted Walgreens, 21010 Center Ridge Road, Rocky River Walgreens, 20200 Van Aken Blvd., Shaker Heights Walgreens, 3020 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights Walmart, 24801 Brookpark Road, North Olmsted Harris urged shoppers to file a complaint with the Consumer Affairs Department if they encounter similar errors this weekend or at any other time of the year. "Consumers should watch prices as they ring up on the register and demand a price check if there's an error," Harris said. "Consumers who can't get errors corrected at the store or who see multiple errors should file a complaint." Complaints can filed be filed at 216-443-7035, or online at consumeraffairs.cuyahogacounty.us CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 20-year-old woman is charged in connection with a car crash that caused a Jeep to spin out of control and kill a man in a wheelchair who was on the side of the road waiting to cross the street. Victoria Williams of Cleveland is charged with vehicular homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor. The charge was filed on Tuesday and an arraignment date has not yet been set. Glen Sage, 59, died in the crash that happened May 14 on Fulton Avenue and Walton Road in the city's Clark-Fulton neighborhood, police said. Sage was stopped at a red light facing west on Walton waiting to cross the street, police said. A man in 2018 Jeep was driving north on Fulton Road. Williams stopped her 2008 Ford Focus at the red light facing the opposite direction while she waited to turn left onto Walton, police reports say. She turned left and crashed into the side of the Jeep, police reports say. The Jeep spun counterclockwise and struck Sage. Williams told police at the scene that she waited until the light turned red before she turned, police reports say. She said she never saw the Jeep, police reports say. To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 48-year-old woman was stabbed to death early Thursday in Cleveland's Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhood, police said. Investigators arrested a suspect in the stabbing, which happened about 4:15 a.m. on Woodhill Road near Woodland Avenue, police said. The woman, whose name has not been released, died after being taken to University Hospitals. A Cleveland police spokesman did not immediately release any additional information about the stabbing or the suspect who is in custody. To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page. TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- President Donald Trump has wrongly claimed that shoppers need to show photo identification to buy groceries, and he is accusing Democrats of obstructing his agenda and stalling confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee. Trump also is defending his trade agenda and snapping at China and other U.S. competitors for having "targeted our farmers." The president addressed thousands of supporters Tuesday night at an event intended to boost two Republican candidates before the Aug. 28 primary in the battleground state. Trump was railing against the idea of noncitizens voting and advocating stricter voting laws when he asserted that IDs are required at the supermarket checkout. "If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID," he said. "You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture." A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about when the billionaire president last bought groceries or anything else himself. Photo IDs are required for certain purchases, such as alcohol, cigarettes or cold medicine. People who write checks for their grocery bills frequently need to show ID, but that's an increasingly less common form of payment. According to the National Grocers Association's most recent data, the use of checks as a percentage of total transactions dropped from 33 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2015. At the rally, Trump picked his sides among Republicans as he embraced U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis in the primary for governor and backed the U.S. Senate campaign of Gov. Rick Scott. "We have to make sure Rick Scott wins and wins big" against the incumbent, Democrat Bill Nelson, the president said. He also appealed for voters to elect more Republicans to Congress, saying Democrats are opposing his to-do list and slowing consideration of his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats "don't want to give Trump any victory," he said. "They will do anything they can to not help the Trump agenda." Trump has threatened to shut down the federal government over his push to overhaul the nation's immigration system and pau for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But officials say Trump has reassured staff in private that he will not provoke a fiscal crisis before the November election, when the GOP hopes to retain its majority. The president avoided making an outright reference to a government shutdown during the rally, saying, "We may have to do some pretty drastic things" unless Democrats support his agenda. He spent much of the rally highlight strong economic numbers and praising DeSantis as "a tough, brilliant cookie." He predicted DeSantis will defeat Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in this month's primary. Trump, who makes frequent trips to Florida and his private Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago club, criticized Nelson's policies and claimed the only time he sees the senator is "five months before every election." "After a while, you forget who's the senator," Trump said. Scott didn't join Trump at the rally but appeared with him at an earlier event. DeSantis has tied his campaign for governor to Trump, appearing on Fox News more than 100 times to talk about federal issues and defend the president. DeSantis has campaigned with Fox's Sean Hannity and Donald Trump Jr. and uses humor in a new ad to show his alliance with the president, teaching one of his two children to "build the wall" with blocks. Putnam, a state agriculture commissioner and former congressman, has run a more traditional campaign for governor, aiming to build upon his family's deep ties to the state. Trump railed against the idea of allowing noncitizens to vote in some elections and said only citizens should vote. He also advocated requiring voters to present photo identification; Florida already has such a law. "The time has come for voter ID like everything else," Trump said, before making his claim about groceries. COLUMBUS, Ohio--President Donald Trump is coming to campaign for the Republican nominee for Ohio's 12th Congressional District on Saturday, but it seems he's confused about exactly who that nominee is. On Thursday afternoon, Trump tweeted his support of U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, who represents the neighboring 15th Congressional District. "Get out and vote for Steve on Aug 7th," the president wrote. One problem: Stivers isn't on the ballot next Tuesday. State Sen. Troy Balderson of Zanesville is - he's running a neck-and-neck race against Democrat Danny O'Connor. Trump quickly deleted the tweet, but not before it was retweeted at least 1,400 times and liked by at least 5,200 people. The president later posted a new tweet mentioning Balderson, calling him "a truly talented future Congressman." Stivers is set to face Democrat Rick Neal in November. However, as the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, he's been involved with Balderson's race - including reportedly advising Balderson last month to spend more time fundraising and less time focusing on his legislative duties. While Trump was confused about who is running, Balderson made a gaffe of his own earlier this week about the date of the special election, telling a crowd of supporters, "I need you August 8th." SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Some additional cost overruns have gone through the ceiling at City Hall as work continues on the elevator. That's in a literal sense. Monetarily, it works out to another $120,000. "This is a classic case of, 'until you start opening things up in an old building, you never know what you're going to find,'" Mayor David Weiss told City Council on July 23. Back in April, council voted to add $64,000 to the elevator project to add a stop on the floor of the old fire department, where the kitchen is now used as an employee lunch area but is not accessible to individuals who have disabilities. Further exploratory drilling has since determined that because of electrical conduits, the regular second floor is nearly two feet higher than the floor of the old fire station. "What made it really problematic was the two feet of concrete and steel," Weiss added, referring to some "crisscrossing I-beams" as well. As a result, Thyssenkrupp Elevator Co. removed a section of flooring, including some of the steel beams, and installed replacements. This will cause the overall project budget to climb from $244,000 to $364,000, Chief Administrative Officer Jeri Chaikin explained in a memo to council. Weiss noted that council and city officials were anxious to get back into City Hall upon completion of the renovations. In the meantime, meetings continue to be held at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Building. This prompted another question from Councilwoman Julianna Johnston Senturia, who recalled from personal experience issues with some previous home improvement projects. "What's the level of comfort that this is the end of the 'surprises?'" she asked. Councilman Tres Roeder noted that, counting the additional scope of the work to add another floor stop in April, the cost of the project has doubled. Small cell wireless regulations In other business on July 23, council gave third and final reading to some limited local controls on "small cell wireless facilities," which City Law Director William Ondrey Gruber called a "compromise" after 90 cities sued the state over the original guidelines. As part of the new small cell technology, antenna boxes can be placed on utility poles in public rights-of-way to improve cellular data services and speeds. Gruber noted earlier that the new fixtures cannot compromise the structural integrity of poles, and that the height may be up to 35 to 40 feet. The city may also propose an alternate location within 100 feet. Responding to a question from Roeder about how many small cells there are in town, Gruber said at this point a handful, mostly around the high school and the Van Aken District, with more planned. Resident Brian Goforth thanked the city for taking the time to draft some local protections before the Aug. 1 deadline set by the state, noting that "wireless Internet is the infrastructure of the 21st century." Aging in place Council also accepted a $75,000 grant from the Carol M. Peterson Housing Fund to provide up to 10 households $7,500 apiece for accessibility and emergency repair work to help residents to "age in place." Some of the recipients may be carryovers from last year, when the city received funds for eight houses but contractors only completed four by the tight deadline. This year, the work has to be completed by Nov. 1 to receive full grant funding. UPDATED: September 2019 CLEVELAND, Ohio - As you make your way through the lobby at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center and into Il Venetian, it becomes clear this is not a typical hotel restaurant. Restaurants in hotels often have that perfunctory menu feel - beef, chicken, pasta, pizza and call it a day. Not here. Millennia Hospitality Group - which also owns Marble Room Steaks and Raw Bar - has created an elegant space with tall ceilings, white chandeliers and gold-colored couch seats. Clearly ambiance is as important to the owners as what's on the menu. It's easy to settle in amid the opulence and peruse the menu - which is physically large enough to double as a movie poster. Located in the space formerly occupied by David's at the Marriott, the restaurant opened in March. It has quickly found its footing and settled into the downtown restaurant landscape. Speaking of footing, construction is still being done in the restaurant's immediate exterior, so watch your steps over various taped mats. And while the menu offers an exquisite range of beautifully prepared dishes, the restaurant is doing the little things right. Water servers cover glasses with folded napkins to avoid spillage. When the bar area was slow, a bartender came out to serve water. Our amiable server Amber offered a taste of wine to see if we liked it. Along with a delicious olive oil served for dipping warm herbed bread, a culinary triune of parmesan cheese, vinegar and oil is placed on each table. But resist nibbling on too much bread to order an appetizer or two. The neat thing about antipasto is that you have a blank canvas from which you can select meats and cheeses. The only real requisite for creating an antipasto plate is to ensure contrasting flavors and textures, and this smorgasbord offers that. Spicy sausage, hard and soft cheeses and palate-cleansing pickled vegetables all served as a great, shareable nosh. Burrato is what it is - wonderfully fresh, creamy, spreadable and decadent. Eggplant rollatini is not starchy, and the tomato sauce is not sweet. And one bite of the housemade ricotta and you will have a new barometer by which to compare all cheese in baked dishes. Wagyu carpaccio was one of the most delicately prepared dishes I have ever had. Ever-so-thin slices feel as if they melt on your tongue. Arugula adds zest with the right amount of bitterness. Gently cut Parmesan flakes are almost as thin as the beef. And a deft touch of black truffle is used to give an earthy hint. Bell & Evans, a well-regarded farm in Pennsylvania, supplies the tender chicken in the Scallopini, which comes with prosciutto, eggplant, mozzarella, mushroom pan sauce and wilted baby spinach. Peas in the spring pea tortellini take on the consistency of a creamy puree instead of being scattered on top. Lobster anolini is described as "pillows" - delicate little al dente prepared pouches with caviar sauce. And tuna was succulent - thick, pistachio-crusted and served with pickled vegetables. Sangiovese pappardelle with wild boar ragu is a slow-roasted and hearty dish, satisfying pasta fiends with inch-wide noodles that were cooked perfectly and stayed warm. It was very good in summer; it will be even better as cold winds whip through downtown Cleveland soon. Six desserts are on the menu, and we opted for Napoleone di Cannoli. This is a deconstructed dessert, converging a Napoleon and a Cannoli into a vertical creation with housemade ricotta. It's about as deliciously light as you could imagine. Cleaning the plate: The best-Italian-restaurant-in-town debate has a new entry, smack dab in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Fantastic food, good service and elegant ambiance. More on Il Venetian * The names comes from the restaurants former chef, Alberto Leandri, who hails from Venice. * The company also owns Lockkeepers in Valley View. * Valet via the Marriott is $10, through multiple garages exist along with metered street parking. * Exceptional wine list for by-the-glass (amazingly, more than 40 selections) and more than 200 bottles. In sight of diners is the wine wall. On one visit our server Candice had a multitude of choices for our meals since our first selection was unavailable (Davis Bynum, a fantastic Pinot Noir from California making its way to Northeast Ohio restaurants). * For beer, no drafts and only three bottles are available, with Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Dortmunder Gold being the only local brew. I would have liked a few more options here. * On our visits chill tunes played - upbeat light jazzy sounds you might hear in the background on The Weather Channel. * The bar, which has one television, is close to the dining space but not intrusive at all. Taste Bites Il Venetian Where: 100 St. Clair Ave. NE, in the Marriott Cleveland Downtown at Key Center. (It's between Ontario Street and W. Mall Drive.) Contact: 216-241-4800. Online: ilvenetian.com Hours: Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner: 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Happy hour: 4:30-7 p.m. Prices: Appetizers, $12-$20; salads, $11-$16; entrees, $24-$48; dessert, $6-$11. Reservations: Accepted. Credit cards: All major. Cuisine: Italian. Accessibility: Good, and will be better when construction is completed. Handicap accessibility is via the Marriott front entrance, 1360 W. Mall Dr. Grade: **** Susan Drucker UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan has announced that former Solon mayor Susan Drucker will become University Heights first economic development director. "The process of finding our economic development director took longer than I anticipated, but I cannot be more pleased with the outcome," said Brennan, who earlier this year, at the start of his first term as mayor, made it a priority to establish the position. Drucker, last year, completed her second term as Solon's mayor and decided not to run for re-election. Since leaving office, Drucker has worked as a business management consultant and has served on Cuyahoga County's Charter Review Commission. "She was looking for a bigger project to undertake, and has now found it," Brennan stated in a release announcing the hiring. "I was attracted to this position because of how the city of University Heights wants to improve and grow its approach to economic development and its connection to the business community," Drucker stated in an email to cleveland.com. "We will be focusing on business attraction, retention, development and marketing the city. "I am excited about doing that and being part of Mayor Brennan's administration. "Some areas I see as having potential for redevelopment include the Cedar-Taylor area, University Square, and the Wiley School property," said Drucker, 49. "Identifying future uses for the school property needs to be addressed in collaboration with the school district." Brennan said he interviewed three other people for the position, which has an annual salary of $80,000. He said that he and Drucker spent much of Monday visiting each of University Heights' business districts, as well as the Wiley/Middle School building on Miramar Boulevard, Bellefaire JCB, and John Carroll University. Brennan listed highlights of Drucker's tenure as Solon mayor as working on the redevelopment of the Solon Village Shopping Center, including bringing the first Giant Eagle Market District to the county, and the development of the Nestle Global Research and Development Center. Drucker has also served on the Cuyahoga County Economic Development Commission, and the Mayors and Managers Economic Development Committee. Brennan said that a mutual friend, knowing of his interest in hiring an economic development director, and Drucker's interest in serving in that capacity, suggested they talk. "We met and had a three-hour conversation about our cities -- my goals for University Heights, and her experience in Solon -- and how her experience in development and redevelopment in Solon could translate and apply to our redevelopment goals in University Heights.," Brennan said. "She brings years of vision, practical experience, contacts and familiarity with the processes." When asked about his redevelopment goals for University Heights, Brennan said, "First is business retention. In the last few years, we lost a lot of businesses to neighboring communities. Susan shares our vision of making University Heights competitive. "Our business owners should know that city hall is here to help them, too, and not only come knocking to cite them for code violations. "Second, University Heights has redevelopment possibilities throughout the city. University Square is obvious, and has unique challenges, but it doesn't end there. We share the goal of realizing the full potential of these possibilities. "Finally, together with our City Council, we will collaborate to update our zoning code and the city's master plan," he said. "Ultimately, this will serve to strengthen our tax base and our community, promote redevelopment, and ensure a robust future for University Heights." Brennan further said that the addition of an economic development director will allow University Heights' Community Development Coordinator Patrick Grogan-Myers freedom to focus more on housing issues. "For years we have called ourselves 'The City of Beautiful Homes,' but most of our homes are well over 50 years old, with some approaching the century mark," Brennan said. "The enhancement of our housing stock is a critical goal of this city." Brennan said Drucker has expressed interest in meeting individually with members of City Council to discuss economic development issues and concerns. Drucker's first day of work in her new position will be Aug. 27. Planned for that day is the city's joint meeting with the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education. Drucker will attend that meeting. Dropbox, Inc.: "I want you to buy ahead of the quarter, actually. I'm quite surprised that the stock did, really, a round trip. I believe the business is quite robust there. Not as good as Spotify in terms of going from free to paid, but I think it's terrific down here and I would do some buying." MaxLinear: "Why would you buy MaxLinear if Texas Instruments just reported an unbelievable quarter? It's got that new-old leadership and I think it's a better book of business. That's what you want to do." TerraForm Power, Inc.: "I think it's OK. I think you're taking on a little too much risk. I don't want to be able to reach for yield and that's exactly what you're doing. If you want a 7 percent yield, I would actually go with that Dominion midstream because they just raised the dividend and I think that therefore it's safer. Just not my cup of tea." AGNC Investment Corp.: "You're going to get an 11 percent yield, but the stock is going to do absolutely nothing, so you're sitting there taking that yield in, but you might be losing on your principal. That is not what I want. I want to get capital gains and I want an increase in distribution, not just that distribution. I've been railing against [this stock] and I continue to do so. I'm going to throw in Annaly as another one I don't like." World Fuel Services Corp.: "I've looked at that a million times. There's not a lot of growth there and I think it's like a kooky little stock that doesn't have a lot of upside." Applied Optoelectronics, Inc.: "Fiber-optic networks are so hard. I mean, these are you're-taking-your-life-in-your-hands stocks. I don't want to do this. There are so many high-quality companies that I don't need to do that for. I'm going to say please stay away from Applied. It really is just very hard. And look, I don't even feel good about Juniper, Finisar, none of these. I'd throw in the whole shooting match." Pitney Bowes Inc.: "No, no. You're looking for yield there, and I've got to tell you, I think that's a total red flag. And that company has done quite poorly and I do not think that you should be in there for that dividend when I'm very worried about the actual principal. I think you could get very hurt." Vodafone Group PLC: "Frankly, I don't understand why Vodafone is doing as poorly as it is, but when I see that yield, again, I say red flag. I've got a lot of red flag yields tonight. Remember, we do want yields that are good, but we don't want to outsize that means there's too much risk." Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the company's custom-built chip for handling autonomous driving is nearly ready. Tesla is one of a few automakers developing self-driving technology, but it stands apart because it's been developing its own silicon for performing artificial-intelligence computations, rather than continuing to rely on systems from ongoing chipmakers like Nvidia. "Very importantly, the Tesla self-driving chip technology that we've been working on for three years is finally coming to fruition," Musk said on Tesla's second-quarter earnings call. Musk talked publicly about the chip for the first time in December at a company event. Musk brought key people from the Autopilot self-driving team on the earnings call. One of them was director Pete Bannon, who came to Tesla in 2016 after nearly eight years at Apple following the PA Semi acquisition. Bannon said his team at Tesla is leading the development of the third development of the Autopilot hardware. "The chips are up and working, and we have drop-in replacements for S, X and 3, all have been driven in the field," Bannon said. "They support the current networks running today in the car at full frame rates with a lot of idle cycles to spare. So I think we're all really excited about what Andre and his team will be able to do with this hardware in the future." Bannon was referring to Andrej Karpathy, Tesla's head of AI, who joined last year from OpenAI and previously worked as an intern at Alphabet's DeepMind unit. Another Alphabet subsidiary, self-driving group Waymo, uses Intel chips in its vehicles. Bannon said that when he joined Tesla, employees considered many options, including Nvidia graphics cards, and said they talked with people at Arm, whose technology is used in chips from Qualcomm and other companies. "Nobody was doing a bottoms-up design from scratch, which is what we elected to do," Bannon said. Musk said Tesla plans to grow the chip team and invest in the technology as fast as possible. Musk said it will cost the same amount as systems Tesla currently puts in its cars, but will bring much more processing power. Tesla vehicles have previously come with Nvidia components onboard. Bannon's predecessor, former Apple chip architect Jim Keller, left Tesla in April, following a Tesla vehicle crash that involved Autopilot. Correction: This story was revised to show that Andrej Karpathy joined Tesla from OpenAI, and correct the spelling of his name. Google has expanded its Google for Jobs initiative, launched last summer, to feature a job search tool that uses AI technology. The company believes it will radically change the online job-seeking experience. Bloomberg | Getty Images As an analog of the newspaper classified section, online job boards like Indeed and Monster have long sold themselves as a one-stop shop for job seekers. Yet in the past decade, they've become synonymous with poor search functions, black holelike resume portals and expired job posts. The boom of AI technology in the job-seeking market, however, is set to radically change the online job-seeking experience. One major player leading the charge in this transition is Google. The tech giant launched its own suite of job search products, Google for Jobs, last summer. The initiative was created to power smarter job search and recommendations within career sites, jobs boards and other job-matching sites and apps using AI and machine learning. Now, according to Google product manager Nick Zakrasek, the company has taken the next step in its Google for Jobs initiative by putting the power of this AI search technology into the hands of job seekers. With this new experience, Google aims to connect Americans to job opportunities across the United States that are specifically tailored to match their needs. The biggest benefit, said Zakrasek, is that it surfaces all the platforms where a particular job is posted, allowing the user to decide which job board they want to use. There is no special URL for this job search tool. Rather, job seekers simply enter a job-seeking query such as "jobs near me" or "insurance jobs" inside the regular Google search box. Filters sort key criteria, like commute time and the hours you want to work. It also includes salary-range estimates, which are pulled from sites like Glassdoor and PayScale. Many jobs also offer ratings and reviews of the employer from trusted sites. Zakrasek said Google will continuously be adding additional filters and information. "If we can just get a few more people connected with jobs over time, percentage point over percentage point, I strongly believe there's little more we can do in search that can have a strong impact," said Zakrasek. Google's push to improve the online job-recruitment process It's easy to understand why Google wants to capitalize on the $200 billion U.S. recruitment market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that 20 percent to 24 percent of Americans change jobs every year, which means more than 41 million people are searching for jobs and being recruited into jobs every single year. Several billion dollars are spent on job advertising, and even after people apply, companies on average spend approximately $4,000 per candidate on interviewing, scheduling and assessment. Google thinks it can bring more value to that process by focusing on tools that get valuable applicants past just clicking on a job posting to actually applying. But Zakrasek said that the company's aim isn't to eliminate job boards like LinkedIn and Monster. In fact, the company actively partners with these companies to get the best data for job searchers and wants to push forward a matching process that hasn't evolved much in over a decade. Google's desire to push the rest of the industry into the future seems to be working. "We're not trying to go in and rebuild everything that's already been built," he said. "We want to work with all of these providers to tackle these problems." Several billion dollars are spent each year on job advertising, and even after a candidate applies, a company spends about $4,000 per each applicant for the interview, schedule and assessment process. Getty Images An industry in transition Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer of Holmdel, New Jersey-based iCIMS, a company that designs applicant tracking system and recruiting software, thinks the entrance of Google for Jobs into the market has spurred more competition in the sector. iCIMS, which serves around 35 million users around the world, is one of many recruiting companies working with Google. Vitale said that since they've started using Google for Jobs, traffic to the iCIMS career site has increased 90 percent. Traffic from the site Indeed, by contrast, has decreased year over year. Vitale likens Google's transition into the recruitment process to the way the tech giant took over travel booking, overtaking third-party travel sites like Kayak. She explained that while she still might go to a site like TripAdvisor for better pictures than Google, she'll book most of her travel through Google. "If they're only serving up job listings, it won't be enough," said Vitale. "Google is going to serve up the best product." Which is why job boards like Indeed also have been experimenting with AI to stand out in an increasingly competitive market. Like Google, Indeed uses AI trained on a data set with trillions of data points to surface the most relevant jobs for job seekers. Indeed also employs natural language processing to the listings that go on its site, optimizing what Raj Mukherjee, senior vice president of product at Indeed, calls "just a bag of words," into text that appeals to the right candidates. He said that since the site started applying NLP, the rate of employers responding back to applicants has increased 10 percent across all industries. Indeed also employs AI to evaluate candidates resumes to help them see how much of a fit they are for a job before they apply. He sees matching candidates with employers as the fundamental challenge of the industry a challenge that he sees AI as poised to solve. "You could imagine pressing a button in the morning and getting a job offer," he said. "It won't happen next year, but certainly in the longer-term future we do see that as our overall thesis." But most job boards are just "on the surface" of what they can do with AI, said Angie College, vice president of operations and candidate experience at Adecco, a staffing company that serves 700,000 job seekers daily. She said that while the company is in talks with some unnamed job boards to directly integrate its recruiting software, most of their experience right now is with using advertising on the boards. For their application process, they use Mya Systems, an AI recruiting tool that engages directly with applicants via text, to more quickly place recruits. The job board of the future AI is one big way to carve out a competitive advantage, especially when it comes to job matching, but increasingly being able to integrate with other stages of the recruiting process is essential to having a competitive edge with employers and candidates alike. Being able to not only surface jobs for candidates but connect them directly with recruiters is one way that job boards will continue to differentiate themselves in the future. Increasingly, companies like Adecco and iCIMS are looking at both internal and external tools that can proactively serve up jobs to candidates, even when they might not be looking. And large job boards, like Indeed, are aware of the market demands. For instance, now Indeed offers Indeed Assessments, candidate evaluation models that can help employers figure out a candidate's fit for a job before interviewing them. If we can just get a few more people connected with jobs over time, percentage point over percentage point, I strongly believe there's little more we can do in search that can have a strong impact. Nick Zakrasek Google product manager Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday the upcoming midterm elections will be a referendum on impeaching the president. "I say this not in my role as a lawyer but as a concerned citizen and Republican," he said. "This election is going to be about impeachment or no impeachment." Giuliani made the comment while endorsing Eddie Edwards, who is seeking the Republican nomination in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District. The seat is currently held by Democrat Carol Shea-Porter, who isn't seeking re-election in November. "If Democrats get control of the House, do you think they're going to treat President Trump fairly?" Giuliani asked the crowd, some of whom shouted "No!" in response. "I don't think they will either," he said. The House overwhelmingly blocked two impeachment efforts last winter brought by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas. In December, he based his resolution on claims that Trump had associated his presidency with causes rooted in bigotry and racism, including Trump's blaming both sides for deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He tried again in January, saying Trump had incited "hate and hostility" by reportedly using a vulgarity to describe African countries. Democrats opposing the effort said then it was premature to act before special counsel Robert Mueller completes an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. But Giuliani said if Democrats hold the majority in the House, there won't be enough votes to prevent impeachment proceedings. "When you look at some of them on television 'Traitor. He's a traitor, he's this, he's that.' You get the sense that there isn't a fair-minded, large enough group of people there that we can trust not to take this country down this terrible road." Barclays reported improved figures for its second-quarter earnings, a welcome sign to markets after what has been a challenging few years. The British bank reported pretax profits of 1.9 billion ($2.49 billion) for the quarter. This nearly tripled the pretax profit of 659 million for same period last year and above a consensus estimate compiled by the bank, leading it to announce its best quarter in more than three years. Shares were up 2.7 percent on Thursday morning as European markets opened. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley expressed optimism over the numbers, speaking to CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday. "This is obviously a very strong quarter for Barclays, one of the first quarters since the restructuring began where we're really clear of all the major impediments there's no more litigation hanging over us, no more costs to achieve, no more restructuring costs. One of the first clean quarters for Barclays, and portends for things to come," Staley said. Here are the key takeaways: Barclays reported pretax profit at 1.9 billion ($2.49 billion) for the second quarter. First-half underlying profits rose 20 percent to 3.7 billion, excluding litigation and conduct costs. Including charges, first half profit fell 29 percent to 1.66 billion. The bank declared a interim dividend of 2.5 pence per share for the year's first half, with the intention to pay a dividend of 6.5 pence per share for 2018. "We're very pleased, generating a 12.3 percent return on tangible equity on the back of after tax earnings over 1.4 billion, that really shows the potential of this bank," Staley added. Long recovery The past year-and-a-half have been a tough one for the U.K. lender. The bank has struggled to shake off issues with its reputation after several years of scandal, the most recent of which centered on allegations of unlawful whistleblower mistreatment in early 2017. Barclays reduced its staff numbers by 56,000, sold 22 businesses globally and closed its retail banking business across continental Europe and Africa. The lender was also sued by the U.S. Department of Justice over its selling of toxic mortgage-backed securities ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, agreeing in March to pay $2 billion to settle the suit. Barclays reported a better-than-expected first-quarter pretax profit of 1.7 billion pounds in April. However, fines and legal costs led to a statutory loss. Staley took charge of the bank in 2015 on a pledge to rebuild the bank's image, and is its fifth CEO in seven years. Jes Staley, CEO, Barclays Plc Christopher Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images Brexit preparation Staley addressed questions over the bank's moves to bolster its European Union operations in the wake of the U.K.'s vote to leave the common market, including its plan to move about 40 investment banking jobs to Frankfurt, Germany. "We are getting prepared for whatever eventuality of the Brexit negotiations to continue the business in Europe we're doing today," the CEO said, detailing that Barclays was "strengthening our subsidiary in Dublin, re-licensing our branches across Europe, from branches of our British bank to branches of our Irish bank" as well as increasing its Dublin staff. But he made clear that this would be "not to the scale that would in any way question our view that London will remain a financial center for Europe." He emphasized his support for the continued free flow of goods and services between the U.K. and EU. Rising rates On his outlook for the economy and Federal Reserve policy, Staley described what he saw as competing trends: yield curve flattening in the bond markets versus continuously strong equity performance. "I think the environment in the U.S., and to a certain extent globally, is a tale of two cities right now. You've got strong economic growth ... But you've got a monetary policy that's still leaning towards accommodating," he said. "And now you've got a bond market in the U.S. and to certain extent in Europe, given its flatness, which is sort of signaling a warning that there may be some headwinds to economic growth in front of us that is balanced with the equity markets that continue to be quite robust," Staley said. Brookstone filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it is shuttering all of its 101 stores in malls across the United States. It blamed a "continued deterioration of traditional mall traffic." The company said it will continue to operate its 35 airport stores and e-commerce and wholesale businesses, and hopes to sell them. Several mall-based retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection during the past few months, many of them apparel brands, including The Limited, Wet Seal, Rue21 and department store chain Bon-Ton. A shift toward online spending among consumers has threatened many businesses that rely primarily on their brick-and-mortar locations to drive sales. Shopping malls in particular already have a glut of vacant stores to fill and are looking to online start-ups and international businesses to do so. CNBC reported earlier this year that U.S. malls haven't been this empty since 2012, but landlords are still hopeful they'll be able to find new uses for the space, many outside of retail. "The decision to close our mall stores was difficult, but ultimately provides an opportunity to maintain our well-respected brand and award-winning products while operating with a smaller physical footprint," Brookstone CEO Piau Phang Foo said in a statement. This is the second time the retailer finds itself in this situation. In 2014, Brookstone filed for bankruptcy protection and was later sold to a Chinese business that kept most of its more than 200 locations running at the time. To help pay vendors "on a priority basis for goods and services ordered and received from this point forward," Brookstone said it has secured roughly $30 million in post-petition financing through Wells Fargo Bank and Gordon Brother Finance. It hired Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor as legal advisors, Berkeley Research Group as a financial advisor, and GLC Advisors & Co. as its investment banker. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have hit business and consumer confidence and that's a bigger challenge to overcome right now compared to any economic damage inflicted by new tariffs, according to the chief executive of Southeast Asia's largest bank. "The bigger challenge is really the psychological challenge," Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Group Holdings, told CNBC's Martin Soong on Thursday. "The fact that people are more uncertain about where this is going creates a degree of lower confidence and that results whether it's the credit spreads or the stock market in animal spirits in the region coming off," he added. "Animal spirits" is a term coined by economist John Maynard Keynes to describe confidence driven by human emotions. The banking business, including that of DBS, relies to some extent on confidence to do well, Gupta said. He added that "unfortunately, there's not too much you can do about that and so you have to go with the cycle on that one." The Singapore-based lender on Thursday reported its second-quarter net profit that missed analyst expectations due to weaker trading income. DBS said its net profit rose 20 percent year-over-year to 1.37 billion Singapore dollars ($1 billion) in the three months to June. That was short of a Reuters estimate of 1.47 billion Singapore dollars. Shares of DBS traded almost 3 percent lower after the release of the earnings report. The bank is a heavyweight on the local benchmark Straits Times Index, which declined by 1.45 percent on Thursday. Gupta, however, said the bank's underlying business is still strong a point shared by many analysts, including those from J.P. Morgan and PhillipCapital. "I think what investors need to focus on is that our shortfall was really focused in the trading area ... That really is a function of the credit spreads widening in Asia, of a very flat yield curve and equity markets coming off very sharply in this quarter," said Gupta. "The good news is underlying business momentum in our institutional businesses, the corporate banking business, consumer business, wealth business, all are extremely solid," he added. BY THE NUMBERS IN THE NEWS TODAY STOCKS TO WATCH Sonos (SONO) priced its initial public offering at $15 per share, below the target range of $17-$19. The wireless speaker-maker raised $38.3 million in the offering, and the shares will begin trading today on the Nasdaq. Wynn Resorts (WYNN) reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.53 per share, short of the consensus $1.96 estimate. The hotel and casino operator's revenue also missed forecasts, although it did see stronger results from its Wynn Palace property in Macau. T-Mobile (TMUS) beat estimates by five cents with quarterly profit of 92 cents per share, although the wireless carrier's revenue fell short of forecast. T-Mobile also added 686,000 new wireless subscribers during the quarter, more than Wall Street was anticipating. TripAdvisor (TRIP) came in two cents above estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of 41 cents per share, though the travel website operator's revenue came up short of Street forecasts. Traffic on TripAdvisor-branded websites and apps was up 10 percent from a year earlier. Square (SQ) reported adjusted quarterly profit of 13 cents per share for the second quarter, two cents above estimates, while the mobile payments company's revenue also beat estimates. However, Square did issue weaker than expected current quarter guidance. WATERCOOLER A new report sponsored by NASA has put Elon Musk on the defensive about his plans for building a community on Mars. Now, the billionaire tech titan and the leading government space agency are at odds on social media about how possible it is for Mars to be habitable by humans in the near future. The science behind Musk and NASA's debate What's at stake for Musk and NASA One of President Donald Trump's most important outside advisors assured a group of top Koch network donors over the weekend that the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is just the beginning of an even bigger effort to load up the federal judiciary with conservative judges. This affirmation from the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo, who advised Trump on the Kavanaugh nomination, shows that while the president has been in a war of words with the organization led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, the administration and the group still have major goals in common particularly when it comes to the courts. At a private meeting Sunday at the Koch summit in Colorado Springs, Leo, along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told a small group of financiers that the Trump administration was looking to overhaul a large chunk of the federal court of appeals by the end of the year, according to a person who was in the room during the discussion. "By the end of this year my prediction is that basically 26 percent of the federal appellate bench will have changed under the Trump administration," Leo told donors, prompting a round of applause, said the person, who declined to be named. Throughout the first two years of his administration, Trump has nominated approximately 30 federal appeals judges with nearly 10 nominees still being reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Cornyn is a member. That's almost double the amount by his predecessor President Barack Obama, who nominated fewer than 20 nominees to the appeals court in his first two years in office. Cornyn told the donors in the meeting that the Senate plans to confirm more nominees to fill the vacancies on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Arizona, California, Montana and Washington, among other districts. The official website for the court says there are six vacancies. Trump has nominated three candidates to the court. "You're right we need to do some work on the Ninth Circuit," Cornyn said, according to the person who was in the room. The senator noted that the court has the highest percentage of cases overruled by the Supreme Court. "We're going to clear the decks on all nominations we can get through the Judiciary Committee before the end of the year," Cornyn added, the person said. A spokesman for the Koch network would not confirm or deny whether the meeting took place. A spokesman for Cornyn declined to comment. Leo did not return repeated requests for comment. The private meeting was a divergence from the combative rhetoric expressed by Koch network leaders during the weekend retreat. Publicly, top officials in the group, which traditionally backs Republican policy initiatives and candidates, suggested they could support some Democrats as the pivotal midterm elections approach. Officials also griped about some of Trump's policies, particularly his aggressive implementation of tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of imported goods. The Kochs espouse a free-trade philosophy. Trump, likewise, has criticized them as "globalists." [August 02, 2018] Rapid Commerce Now Available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace DataStax and Publicis.Sapient today announced the availability of Rapid Commerce in the Microsoft (News - Alert) Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Microsoft Azure. The Rapid Commerce solution is a fully cloud-native, microservices and "headless" architecture-based digital commerce platform accelerator. Publicis.Sapient and DataStax customers can now take advantage of the scalability, high availability, and security of Azure, with streamlined deployment and management. The Rapid Commerce solution is an out-of-the-box toolkit to quickly get large retailers up on to a modern commerce platform. Rapid Commerce delivers the agility, measurability, and flexibility modern retailers demand as they move into the "right-now economy" via highly personalized commerce platforms. The solution helps to: Reach new customers Grow product offerings Provide better service Increase loyalty Reduce overhead "Savvy retailers understand that in order to compete and win, they need modern data infrastructure and a cloud - and mobile- ready architecture that can quickly scale and support differentiating customer experiences," said Doug Henschen,Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. "We expect to see more software bundles integrating software, services and cloud infrastructure as enterprises across many industries look for help to thrive and innovate in this era of digital disruption." "Our new solution - Rapid Commerce - will help enterprises manage business-critical eCommerce applications in an increasingly complex, cloud-driven technology landscape," said Matt Rollender, Vice President of Global Business Development at DataStax. "As the underlying database, DataStax Enterprise (DSE) provides contextual experiences for application users and manages massive amounts of data from a variety of sources at cloud scale." "The Rapid Commerce solution and service model will enable retailers to accelerate their digital transformation journey and keep pace with the rapidly changing expectations of consumers," said Sudip Mazumder, SVP and Head of Delivery for Retail at Publicis.Sapient in North America. "Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, customers around the world can easily find, buy, and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure," said Sajan Parihar, Director, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. "We're happy to welcome DataStax/Publicis.Sapient's solution to the growing Azure Marketplace ecosystem." The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling finished Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS (News - Alert) ) applications and premium datasets. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use. Rapid Commerce is a venture with DataStax, powering the "right-now enterprise" with the always-on, distributed cloud database built on Apache Cassandra, and Publicis.Sapient. Rapid Commerce is available immediately, and more information can be found on the Azure Marketplace. To learn more about the DataStax and Publicis.Sapient partnership, please visit: https://www.datastax.com/partners/publicis-sapient About DataStax: DataStax powers the "right-now enterprise" with the always-on, distributed cloud database built on Apache Cassandra and designed for hybrid cloud. The foundation for real-time applications at massive scale, DataStax Enterprise, our flagship product, makes it possible for companies to exceed expectations through consumer and enterprise applications that provide responsive and meaningful engagement to each customer wherever he or she goes. Our product also gives businesses full data autonomy, allowing them to retain control and strategic ownership of their most valuable asset in a hybrid cloud world. DataStax helps more than 400 of the world's leading brands - like Capital One (News - Alert) , Cisco, Comcast, eBay, McDonald's, Microsoft, Safeway, Sony, UBS, and Walmart - transform their businesses through right-now applications focused on enterprise optimization and customer experience. For more information, visit DataStax.com and follow us on @DataStax. DataStax is a registered trademark of DataStax Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Apache Cassandra is a trademark of the Apache Software Foundation or its subsidiaries in Canada, the United States, and/or other countries. About Publicis.Sapient: Publicis.Sapient is purpose-designed to address today's digital business transformation imperative, with a core belief that success comes at the intersection of company and customer. We are pioneering a new way of working with clients, driven by a connected group of deep specialists and enabled by a specifically designed culture to foster platform behaviors: open, configurable, quick. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005171/en/ [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] The leaders of four U.S. intelligence agencies reaffirmed at the White House on Thursday the "pervasive" and "ongoing" threats from foreign actors, including Russia, to interfere in upcoming U.S. elections. President Donald Trump's national security advisor, John Bolton, announced the agency chiefs FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and NSA Director Paul Nakasone at a White House press briefing. The leaders said Trump has directed a governmentwide initiative to protect American elections in the wake of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential vote. Bolton said Trump has chaired two full National Security Council meetings, as well as "countless" other discussions on the subject. "The threat is real. It is continuing," Coats said, later adding, "We are doing everything we can to have a legitimate election." Yet the officials' united front at the White House was a contrast from the president's reticence to acknowledge the ongoing problem of attacks on U.S. elections. At a news conference in Helsinki alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, Trump refused to side with the conclusions of his own intelligence community over the Kremlin when given an opportunity to do so. Trump said he had "confidence in both" the U.S. officials, who say Russia meddled in the election, and Putin, who denied any interference. At the White House on Thursday, the intelligence and security officials stood in agreement that efforts are underway from foreign adversaries to impact both the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. Nielsen said that U.S. democracy is "in the crosshairs" of foreign adversaries seeking to sow discord in American life. While the officials were circumspect on the specifics of the ongoing efforts to fight back against election threats abroad, Nielsen's department and others said they are providing information and assistance to state and local governments to help counter interference efforts. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested in a tweet that Trump's history on Russia did not back up the message of the press conference. Warner tweet Asked if the Russian attacks served to benefit any specific political party in the U.S., Coats said that country is "looking for every opportunity, regardless of party," to meddle in elections. A January 2017 intelligence community assessment said Russia's efforts to impact the 2016 election showed a "clear preference" for Trump over Hillary Clinton. Trump has recently claimed, however, that Russians will be "pushing very hard" for Democrats to win elections in the November midterms, asserting "They definitely don't want Trump!" Trump tweet Nielsen, too, has said on multiple occasions that she was "not aware" of the conclusion that the Kremlin meddling campaign favored Trump. Papa John's founder John Schnatter said he has "no confidence" in the current management team at the pizza chain, including the CEO he handpicked as his successor, after executives forced his ouster last month over some off-color remarks he made on a conference call. In an interview with CNBC, Schnatter said he doesn't believe the current management team at Papa John's "has the capability to run the company." "Franchisees don't believe in this leadership, don't believe in this management team and I don't believe this board has the oversight or the confidence to help steer the company in the right direction," he said. Schnatter is locked in a bitter feud with the company he built into the nation's third-largest pizza chain, saying executives should reinstate him as CEO. Schnatter gave up his position in November after he provoked public outrage by blaming weak pizza sales on "poor leadership" by the NFL, which Papa John's sponsored, amid players kneeling during the national anthem. He then stepped down as chairman at the board's behest last month after Forbes reported, and Schnatter confirmed, that he said the N-word during a media training call with PR firm Laundry Service in May. He now says the company mishandled the controversy over his comments and should have defended him to the public. His statements, he says, were taken out of context and weren't intended to be offensive. Schnatter also said he promoted CEO Steve Ritchie, who took over in January, too quickly and Ritchie is in over his head. "I like Steve as a person. I don't like, of course, the way he's gone about this. I think he's been harsh, I think he's been cruel," he said. "Throwing the founder on the street isn't healthy for anybody." Schnatter said he told the board a few months ago that Ritchie was "drowning" and "needed help." "One of my biggest limitations is that I have a tendency to over-promote, and I think that's what I did with Steve," Schnatter said of his protege. The board of directors stripped Schnatter of his "Founders Agreement," removed him from all marketing material and prohibited him from using corporate offices at the company's Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters after he gave an interview July 13 to a local TV station claiming Laundry Service tried to extort $6 million from Papa John's. Laundry Service has denied Schnatter's claims. Papa John's also enacted a poison pill provision intended to keep Schnatter from amassing more control over the company by increasing his 30 percent stake. Last week, Schnatter sued his pizza chain, seeking documents related to his ouster as chairman and accusing the board of acting negligently or staging a possible coup. Schnatter's lawyer said that he still hasn't received any of the materials he requested, save for a letter saying the company would provide board meeting minutes. Schnatter has retained his seat on the board and doesn't intend to give it up anytime soon, despite rumors that directors may try to have him voted out. "I am principal shareholder, I'm the founder and I'm a director, so I have plenty of say in what goes on and what doesn't go on," Schnatter said. Papa John's didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for a hearing at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on May 23, 2018 in Washington, DC. Prosecutors have been eager to show jurors that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lived an opulent lifestyle as part of his ongoing criminal trial on financial fraud charges. But their biggest obstacle so far has not been Manafort's defense counsel it's been the judge. Manafort heads to Virginia federal district court Thursday for the third day of his trial. It's the first trial to be based on charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. The federal district court judge presiding over the case, 78-year-old Reagan appointee T.S. Ellis, has been quick to snap at the U.S. attorneys in the early days of the trial. Namely, he has lashed them for presenting evidence of Manafort's lavish spending habits that, he said, could prejudice the jury against him. Manafort is "not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle," Ellis said at one point. "To parade all of this," he said later, "seems to me unnecessary, irrelevant and maybe unfairly prejudicial." In his opening statement on Tuesday, prosecutor Uzo Asonye's attempt to detail Manafort's purchase of pricey suits, rugs, cars and home renovations was quickly was quickly censured by Ellis, who told Asonye to "focus on the elements" of the criminal charges. "It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis said. Prosecutors have argued that the dozens of invoices from high-end clothiers, contractors and other vendors provide salient evidence for their position that Manafort sought to maintain a cushy lifestyle when he allegedly resorted to bank fraud in 2014. They've used that position to offer new details about those spending habits, including that Manafort spent $15,000 on a jacket "made from an ostrich." Prosecutors also brought in numerous witnesses to discuss invoices found during a search of Manafort's Alexandria, Va., condominium, including a $160,000 invoice for two silk rugs. They put Maximilian Katzman, manager of his father's Manhattan luxury menswear shop Alan Couture, on the stand to discuss items such as a 2010 invoice for two suits and four pairs of trousers totaling $15,195. Manafort's yearly invoices from 2010 to 2014 totaled over $920,000, Katzman said, noting that Manafort was the only customer of Alan Couture at that time who paid by international wire transfer. Ronald Wall, a financial executive at famously expensive men's store House of Bijan, confirmed that Manafort's invoices from 2010 to 2012 at that shop totaled over $330,000. One 2010 invoice alone, tagged with a description for an assortment of jackets, suits, shirts and other items, came in at $128,000. Manafort paid that invoice with a wire transfer from a Cypriot bank, Wall said. Other vendors for Manafort included contractor Steve Jacobson, who said Manafort paid him more than $3 million from 2010 to 2014 for various construction and renovation projects. Ellis regularly interjected during witness testimony on Wednesday, keeping Manafort's wealth and purchases from being illustrated in especially rich detail. "That's enough," Ellis said when a prosecutor asked Katzman to total the annual invoices for those five years for the jurors' benefit. "They can add." Prosecutors pushed back hard against Ellis' claims in a court filing overnight, arguing "that Manafort had an expensive lifestyle that required lots of money to maintain is important proof as to why he would commit the bank frauds." They added: "The government is entitled to refute the common argument that a wealthy person has no need to commit bank fraud, by demonstrating that Manafort had grown accustomed to his material wealth." Trade war tensions could get worse before they get better. And if the U.S. and China aren't careful, one or both nations could get hurt, Joachim Fels, global economic advisor at Pimco, told CNBC on Thursday. "I don't think a trade war is the likely outcome a full-blown trade war but I think the situation is more like pro wrestling, right, where the big guys go at each other. They issue threats but they don't really want to hurt each other," Fels said on "Squawk on the Street." "The U.S. administration wants a deal, but the problem in this, as in pro wrestling, is sometimes people get really hurt," he added. Trade tensions between the world's two largest economies have ratcheted up significantly in the past weeks. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports, which were met with retaliatory charges by the Asian nation. After President Donald Trump instructed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to consider raising proposed tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded with a retaliatory threat on Thursday. "China is fully prepared and will have to retaliate to defend the nation's dignity and the interests of the people, defend free trade and the multilateral system, and defend the common interests of all countries," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. "The carrot and stick tactic won't work." Fels anticipates tensions will worsen, before they improve. The U.S. will likely slap more tariffs on China, and China will try to respond in kind. Tariffs may hurt China more initially, as China exports more to the U.S. than the U.S. does to China, but he said China has "other ways to hurt U.S. companies." "There are many multinational, including U.S., companies operating in the U.S., and [China] can make life for them very difficult," Fels said. "That's why I would not underestimate the tensions and the potential for escalation before eventually things get better." Members of the United Nations Command Honor Guard move dignified transfer cases from one C-17 Globemaster III to another during a repatriation ceremony at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Aug. 1, 2018. The Pentagon has begun reviewing the recently transferred remains that are believed to be those of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War. Last week the North Korean government handed over what they claim are American remains in 55 boxes. The boxes, draped in United Nations flags, were then flown from the Korean Peninsula to a military laboratory in Hawaii for analysis and identification. The repatriated remains mark the first tangible results to come from June's historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On the ground to verify the transition of the remains was Dr. John Byrd who heads the analysis effort for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, the Pentagon unit tasked with identifying the remains. "The North Korean officials that we spoke to were very forthcoming and candid with us and a couple of things they told us was that these were remains believed to be American and from the Korean War," Byrd told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. "They also, though, were clear with us that they couldn't be sure with how many individuals were represented in each box," Byrd added. Kelly McKeague, director of the DPAA, was also on hand to brief reporters on the identification process. "One [question] that none of us have been able to get a definitive answer to is how many they [North Koreans] possess," McKeague said in regard to the potential U.S. remains held in that country. Byrd noted that each box was accompanied with a paragraph of text in Korean that included information such as dates and geographical locations. During Byrd's preliminary assessment he found the remains were "consistent" with being those of American and from the Korean War. Meanwhile, Trump thanked the reclusive leader from the North via Twitter for the return of the remains. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen," Trump tweeted. TWEET Byrd explained that the process for identifying the remains could take months or a few years depending on their condition. "If we have teeth, especially teeth with dental restorations, we will be immediately begin comparing those to dental records," he said noting that his team of scientists will be able to run searches against a well-built database. Byrd added that the next step in this process is for all the remains to undergo DNA testing in the coming weeks. Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has "every intention" to call Rick Gates to testify in court against his longtime business partner, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a federal lawyer said Thursday. The remark from Mueller team member Greg Andres came a day after another federal prosecutor floated the possibility that Gates "may not" be called as a witness in Manafort's criminal trial on financial fraud charges. Defense lawyer Thomas Zehnle shifted the blame for Manafort's alleged crimes onto Gates, accusing him of embezzling money and betraying his partner's trust. Gates pleaded guilty in February to lying to investigators and conspiracy against the United States. He agreed as part of his plea deal to fully cooperate with the government. But on Wednesday, it began to look as though Gates might not take the stand against Manafort. Gates "may testify in this case, your honor, he may not," prosecutor Uzo Asonye said Wednesday to Judge T.S. Ellis, who is presiding over the case in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Ellis, who has regularly pressured prosecutors to hasten court proceedings in the trial, asked why certain evidence was worth presenting when Gates would eventually corroborate it in his own words. The prospect that the star witness in the trial may not even show up sent media running out of the courtroom and prompted Asonye to quickly walk back his comment. "It's not to suggest that we're not calling him," he said. On Thursday morning, the special counsel's team made sure to clarify their intention to call Gates to the stand. "We have absolutely put him on the witness list," Andres said before the jury entered the courtroom Thursday morning. "We have every intention to call him as a witness." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 25, 2018. U.S. engagement with Southeast Asia under President Donald Trump is typically framed as a counter to Chinese dominance in the region. While the issue of Beijing's influence will likely come up during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's tour of the area this week, it certainly won't dominate his talks with policymakers. Days after announcing a $113 million infrastructure fund for Asia-Pacific economies as part of the White House's Indo-Pacific blueprint, Pompeo is expected to flesh out details of that policy during a five-day visit of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia that began Wednesday. The trip comes at a time of deep skepticism in Southeast Asia about Washington's policies. Washington's pressure on other governments to reduce trade deficits is a major focus for many countries the U.S. Trade Representative in April warned about Jakarta's trade barriers as is Trump's willingness to reduce his country's military footprint overseas. At the conclusion of the U.S.-North Korea summit in June, the American president said he would suspend annual military exercises with South Korea in a surprise concession that unleashed widespread security unease. Pompeo's trip "is crucial to advancing American interests in a region where showing up is half the battle," said Michael Mazza, visiting fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The U.S. concept of a "free and open" Indo-Pacific has also rung alarm bells in Southeast Asia. "Several have worried that the Trump administration could force countries in the region to choose openly between Washington and Beijing, a move that they say would backfire," Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a note. The chief executive of one of Europe's biggest industrial firms has said the trade debate will likely affect corporate strategy. The business world has been unsettled by the probability that exports and imports could be made more expensive by additional costs imposed by countries looking to support their domestic economies. Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser said sentiment in his boardroom was being affected by talk coming out of Washington, Beijing and Brussels. "Capital goods means investment and investment always means confidence," Kaeser said during an appearance on "Squawk Box Europe." "I would not rule out that the debate about what is fair and unfair is going to affect sentiment in the mid-term as such that people will hold back investments until the dust settles," he added. The CEO said that while he saw no evidence of a slowdown in orders, Siemens' "short-cycle businesses" currently looked near their peak. The J.M. Smucker Co. is going big on renewable energy, entering into what it describes as a "long-term power purchase agreement" with wind and solar power developer Lincoln Clean Energy. Under the agreement, Smucker will purchase 60 megawatts of the 230 MW Plum Creek Wind Project in Wayne County, Nebraska. From 2020, the wind energy generated at Plum Creek will meet around 50 percent of the company's electricity use. "This agreement is an important step forward in our organization-wide effort to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity," Julia Sabin, Smucker's vice president of government relations and corporate sustainability, said in a statement Wednesday. "In 2017, electricity accounted for more than half our greenhouse gas emissions," Sabin added. "This agreement will not only reduce our carbon footprint, but will also allow us to make a lasting contribution to our nation's renewable energy capacity." The company's brands include Smucker's jellies and jams, Folgers coffee and Robin Hood flour and baking mixes. As well as wind power, the business has invested in solar arrays and methane turbines. It also wants to divert 95 percent of waste from landfills to alternative use by 2020. Smucker's is the latest big company embracing wind power. At the beginning of July, Nestle officially opened a nine-turbine wind farm that can produce enough power for half of its U.K. and Ireland factories, offices and warehouses. Last October, Amazon announced that its biggest wind farm to date was operational. The tech giant said that Amazon Wind Farm Texas, which is located in Scurry County, would add over 1 million MW hours of clean energy to the grid annually. French lender Societe Generale could make further acquisitions in the coming years as part of its transformation plan, the bank's deputy CEO told CNBC. SocGen announced in early July the acquisition of the equity markets and commodities activities of Commerzbank. The decision was part of the bank's 2016-2020 strategic plan to improve the business. Severin Cabannes, deputy CEO of Societe Generale, said that this deal should be approved by all the relevant authorities "by the end of this year." "At the end of this integration process, the positive impact on our gross operating income is expected to be around 150 million euros ($174.6 million)," Cabannes told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche, speaking about the impact of the deal on the bank's business. He also said that there could be further bolt-on acquisitions in the coming years, "but globally speaking it would be limited." Google could be preparing to launch a search engine in China that would conform to the country's strict censorship laws, after previously opting out of the country in 2010. Reports of Google's possible re-entry spurred a strong reaction on Chinese social media outlets on Wednesday evening, including debates over the merits of a censored search engine versus accessing the US version through illegal virtual private networks. The Trump administration ripped Beijing on Thursday over its apparently successful pressure on Google to launch a censored search engine in China. Google's main search platform is blocked in China along with its video platform YouTube - but it has been trying to make new inroads into China and its rapidly expanding economy. Lastly, Google bowning down to the Chinese government is a huge win for the latter as it sets a precedent for smaller companies not to challenge censorship in China. Google is said to be working on project Dragonfly which aims to bring the search back in China. Sources indicate that some Google employees have also claimed that the escalating trade war between the USA and China means that approval for the finalization of this project won't necessarily be granted. Chinese state media quickly refuted claims, saying that reports of Google's return to China weren't true. The initial plans to roll out the search service is through an Android app developed by Google; it's known by the names "Longfei" and "Maotai". If approved by the government officials, the app could launch in the next 6 to 9 months. Google has not been operative in China since 2010, when it shut down operations in the country over accusations of limiting free speech. In what is expected to be an extreme move, the report suggests Google will "blacklist sensitive queries" so that users see no results at all when searching for certain blocked words and phrases on the custom search engine. Only about a hundred odd employees within Google know about the existence of Project Dragonfly. Reuters is citing a China Securities Daily report that debunks the rumors of Google returning to China. The Intercept spoke to a Google whistleblower who said they had ethical concerns about the project. China's internet censorship laws are well-known. This gives Google a re-entry into the Chinese market but many see it as Google compromising on its own principles. At the same time, there are over 750 million internet users there, which Google would love to gain access to. "We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered-combined with attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger-had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn", the company wrote in a public statement at the time. Gwynne Shotwell has seen her share of success as the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, the private aerospace company founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk. Under the leadership of Musk and Shotwell, the latter of whom joined SpaceX 16 years ago as one of its first employees, SpaceX has grown to become one of the world's most valuable private companies, valued at $27.5 billion as of April. But, despite the success Shotwell has experienced at SpaceX, she says it's actually been the times she's failed that have taught her the most. "You don't learn anything from success, but you learn a lot from your failures," Shotwell says in an interview with the storytelling platform Makers that was posted online Friday. Specifically, Shotwell recalls the initial series of rocket launches that SpaceX attempted with its first rocket, the single-engine Falcon 1. The Falcon 1 eventually became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to orbit the Earth after its first successful launch in September 2008, but SpaceX initially had to struggle through three failed launch attempts over 2 years before it could celebrate that accomplishment. SpaceX first attempted to launch a Falcon 1 into orbit in March 2006. "We struggled with getting that vehicle to orbit on that first launch," Shotwell tells Makers. "That failure was pretty dramatic for us. We grew up overnight." The company "analyzed what went wrong," Shotwell says, (the rocket had a fuel leak that caused a fire) and SpaceX tried to fix the issue and attempt another launch roughly a year later. "We went back to launch a year later, but we still had an issue. And then it took almost another year," Shotwell says in the interview about the second failed attempt in 2007. Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump, exits the Loews Regency hotel and walks toward a taxi cab, July 27, 2018 in New York City. Just days before federal agents raided Michael Cohen's home and office, Donald Trump's then-personal lawyer secured a $10 million agreement with a top donor, The Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. The payment was conditional on Cohen securing funding for reactors at the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama, sources told the Journal. That included a $5 billion loan from the federal government, the Journal reported. Sources told the Journal that real-estate developer Franklin Haney also agreed to pay Cohen a monthly retainer. It reported that Haney's company still has a loan application pending at the Energy Department. The newspaper said, however, it was not able to determine how much Haney ultimately paid Cohen, if at all. But sources told the Journal that Cohen's agreed success fee would be among the largest of his known consulting deals. Last year, AT&T paid Cohen $600,000 for insight on how the Trump administration might approach its proposed merger with Time Warner, among other issues. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis said it paid the lawyer $1.2 million to help the company navigate proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act. Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York for his business dealings, as well as for a $130,000 hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 presidential election. A lawyer for Haney told the Journal, "Neither Mr. Haney nor Nuclear Development LLC ever entered into a contract with Michael Cohen or his affiliate for lobbying services related to the Bellefonte project." A representative for Cohen declined to comment to the Journal. The White House did not respond to Journal's request for comment. A lawyer for Cohen did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Read the full report in The Wall Street Journal. CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report. US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 2018. President Donald Trump has prodded his attorneys in recent days to arrange for him to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team, despite their warnings that doing so could increase his legal exposure, The New York Times reported, citing three people briefed on the matter. Trump believes, in effect, that he can convince prosecutors that the inquiry is a "witch hunt," and bring the investigation to a quick conclusion, the Times reported. On Wednesday, the president demanded that Attorney General Jeff Sessions end the probe "right now," though the White House later said the directive was an "opinion," not an order. The special counsel's office declined to comment. The White House referred questions to the president's outside counsel. Read more: Trump is tweeting the term "witch hunt" more frequently these days The president's outside attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, told reporters Wednesday that the special counsel's team had submitted its latest a proposal for an interview on Tuesday. Negotiations about the contours of a potential interview have stretched on for months. "They sent us a proposal. We responded to their proposal. They took about 10 days, and yesterday we got a letter back from them, and now we're in the process of responding to their proposal," Giuliani said. Giuliani said he didn't want to give reporters "hope" that the interview would happen, but said the president "has always been interested in testifying." He said that he, and the other attorneys representing the president, "have the most reservations." "I don't know if you find a lawyer on television that ever thinks their client should testify," Giuliani said. Trump has publicly said he wants to sit down for an interview with the special counsel. In a January press conference, the president said he was "looking forward to it." In their proposal Tuesday, Mueller's investigators said they wanted to discuss links between Trump associates and the Russian government, and whether Trump has obstructed justice, the Times reported. When it comes to food and drink, today's consumers can choose from a wide range of ingredients, restaurants and places to shop. In the takeout sector, the choice of dishes on offer has perhaps never been bigger. Technology is playing a significant role in the sector, and it's now possible to order food for delivery using smartphones, tablets, computers and virtual assistants such as Amazon's Alexa. One company looking to be at the forefront of this technological shift is London-headquartered Just Eat. With 24 million customers across the globe and more than 3,300 employees, the business is a big player in the takeout sector. It offers an online platform that allows restaurants to upload their menus. Consumers log on to the site, browse what's on offer close to where they live, and then order and pay online or in cash. The food is delivered to their door, with the restaurant paying Just Eat a commission. Unsurprisingly, digital innovation is key to Just Eat's plans. "In the short-term, we're looking at personalization and how we use machine learning," Storm Fagan, head of product at Just Eat, told CNBC's Juliet Mann. Fagan added that personalization would increase over the next few years and move onto new platforms such as voice, as assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri become more popular. Looking ahead, Fagan said that an ideal scenario would see ordering food from Just Eat becoming a seamless part of people's lifestyle. "It's as simple as having a conversation with your partner and you're talking about what takeaway to order of an evening and, as natural as that conversation is, a voice assistant like Amazon Alexa will join in with your conversation," she said. "It will know how many people are in your home and what sort of food you like, and they can start recommending food options to you," she added. "Rather than us having to go to a website, it's almost as if Just Eat will exist in your home with you." The way we order food is not the only aspect of takeout that is changing. Robots are set to play a key role in the years to come, too. "We're already trialling robots for delivery at the moment, in a couple of cities in the U.K.," Fagan said. The self-driving robots, which move at walking pace, travel to a restaurant to pick up orders and then deliver to customers. "We're looking to scale that out over the next few years," Fagan said. "And that means that restaurants can deliver more orders of an evening because the robots can take over the simple, close-by homes that need delivery and delivery drivers can then go further afield." Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook. [The stream is slated to start at 1 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is scheduled to face reporters Thursday, as the trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort presses on. Special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia probe also continues to provoke rage from the president. According to The New York Times, Trump wants a sit-down interview with Mueller's team. Trump believes he can convince prosecutors that the probe of potential coordination between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin is a "witch hunt," according to the report. On Wednesday, Trump made perhaps his most direct call yet for the investigation to be hastened to a close, saying that Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now." Trump tweet 2 Sessions had already recused himself from any matters related to federal investigations of Russian election meddling. At the White House briefing on Wednesday, Sanders said the tweet was only Trump's opinion, and was not an order. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Windows 10 breached the 70% share barrier last month when calculated as a portion of Windows-only desktops and laptops, putting the operating system on track to account for three out of every four Windows PCs by the end of January. According to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10's share jumped by 2.8 percentage points, the most since January, and ended October on 64% of all systems. When figured as a fraction of Windows-only machines, Windows 10 accounted for 72.2%, a record for the five-year-old OS. This second number is the more important of the pair, as it provides the most accurate representation of Windows 10's position within the business universe, where runs-on-Microsoft remains central. (Windows 10's percentage of only Windows PCs was larger than the percentage of all personal computers because Windows did not power every system last month. In October, Windows was the OS on 88.8% of all PCs worldwide, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September. Of the remaining 11% and bits, all but a picayune 10th of a point ran macOS, Linux or Chrome OS.) Windows 10 has been piling up the share this year, pandemic and business chaos be damned. Through the first 10 months of 2020, Windows 10 has added 10.7 percentage points of share, representing a 20% increase. Meanwhile, Windows 7 took a dive almost as steep as Windows 10's climb. Windows 7 lost 2.4 points of share, plummeting to 20.4% of all personal computers, representing 23% of Windows-only PCs. The downturn was the largest one-month decline since January 2020 and the final number was a record low for Windows 7 on its post-2015 swan song. So far this year, Windows 7 has shed 9.2 points of share, which represents a 31% decline in the operating system since January 1. Windows 10 shoots for 80% by mid-2021 The major changes to Windows' shares upended the forecasts Computerworld made as recently as a month ago. Windows 10's prognostication skewed upwards compared to the one issued at the beginning of October. By April, Windows 10 should account for more than 78% of all Windows, up two percentage points from the previous prediction. Come June 2021, Windows 10 should own 80% of all Windows editions, a point above the former forecast. On the other hand, Windows 7's decline-of-doom will continue. The now-retired OS will slip under the 20% mark (of all Windows) in February 2021, two months sooner than had been expected. And by August, the operating system should be below 15%, two points lower than the forecast of a month ago. (At the end of January 2021, near the one-year anniversary of its retirement, Windows 7 will account for about 20% of all Windows, a couple of points under October's estimate.) Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, Linux rebounded after two consecutive months of losses, adding seven-tenths of a percentage point and bringing its total share up to 2.2 points. While that was below its peak of 3.6 points in June and July 2020, it put paid to the Computerworld theory that the sudden growth of the OS (Net Applications tallies all distributions) was little more than the aftereffects of an open-source daydream. As Linux again jumped, macOS took a drubbing, losing 1.3 points a one-month record to end up licking its wounds at 8.4%, the lowest mark of the last three years. Net Applications calculates operating system share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers used to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The firm tallies visitor sessions of those browsers to measure global operating system activity. Or it used to. At the same time it published October's share numbers, Net Applications announced that it was pulling the plug on its OS metrics. "October 2020 is the last month of data," the company said. "Why? An upcoming change in browsers will break our device detection technology and will cause inaccuracies for a long period of time." The change Net Applications cited would remove much of the agent string information used not only to compile analytics such as operating system share, but also by advertisers and/or scammers to "fingerprint" individuals so that they can be more thoroughly tracked as they conduct their online lives. Computerworld has not yet decided whether to continue the "Windows by the numbers" series, and if so, which alternate data source might be used. Stay tuned. Indian-origin Stanford Professor awarded Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize for Mathematics Indian-Australian Mathematics Professor at Stanford Akshay Venkatesh is one of four winners of the prestigious Fields Medal, known as the Nobel prize for maths. New Delhi-born Stanford Professor Akshay Venkatesh, 36, won the Fields Medal for his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics". Photo courtesy; Twitter The medals are awarded every four years to the most promising mathematicians under the age of 40. New Delhi-born Venkatesh, 36, won the Fields Medal for his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics". The citation for his medal - awarded at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro - highlights his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics" and his "strikingly far-reaching conjectures." The other three winners are Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian-Kurdish origin; Germany's Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich. 2018 Fields Medallists (from left) Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Akshay Venkatesh, and Peter Scholze. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@FieldsInstitute Each winner receives a 15,000 Canadian-dollar cash prize. At least two, and preferably four people, are always honoured in the award ceremony. From being a child prodigy to becoming one of the most renowned researchers in the field of mathematics, Venkatesh's journey has been full of achievements and accolades. He moved to Perth, Australia, with his parents when he was 2. He participated in physics and math Olympiads - the premier international competitions for high school students and won medals in the two subjects at ages 11 and 12, respectively. He finished high school when he was 13 and went to the University of Western Australia, graduating with first class honours in mathematics in 1997, at the age of 16. In 2002, he earned his PhD at the age of 20. Since then, he has gone from holding a post-doctoral position at MIT to becoming a Clay Research Fellow and, now a professor at Stanford University. His research has been recognized with many awards, including the Ostrowski Prize, the Infosys Prize, the Salem Prize and Sastra Ramanujan Prize. There was a commotion at the venue as Birkars medal was stolen minutes after he accepted it. The Cambridge professor, who moved to the UK as a refugee from Iran two decades ago, had left the medal in a briefcase with his cellphone and wallet on top of a table in the pavilion where the event was being held. The events security team later found the briefcase under a bench, but the medal was missing. The prize was inaugurated in 1932 at the request of Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, who ran the 1924 Mathematics Congress in Toronto. Labour on brink of civil war over antisemitism Corbyn raised Nazi crimes to describe Israel in Gaza The Times Labour leader silenced Holocaust survivor Daily Telegraph McDonnell demands issue is sorted out, but Corbyn is silent Daily Mail Willsman dropped from NEC re-election list The Guardian Event leaflet accuses Israel of lies The Times as Mann claims that Jews believe Labour has declared war Labour was on the brink of civil war last night over anti-Semitism. The party endured a fevered day of briefing and counter-briefing following the revelation that Jeremy Corbyn hosted an event comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis. And last night two new pieces of footage surfaced of the Labour leader making controversial comments, both praising the release of Hamas terrorists on Iranian TV in 2012, and two years earlier comparing Israels blockade of Gaza to Nazi atrocities. It comes amid the fall-out from Mr Corbyns refusal to sign up to the full internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism which might be explained by fears that he knows he has fallen foul of it himself. Likening the actions of Israel to the Nazis, as Mr Corbyn did in the video that emerged yesterday, is a specific example of anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Daily Mail The Jewish community believes Labour has declared war on it, one of the partys MPs has claimed, as Jeremy Corbyn faced increasing pressure for hosting an event comparing the Israeli government to the Nazis on Holocaust Memorial Day. Mr Corbyn issued a personal apology on Tuesday evening after it emerged he spoke at and opened a meeting in the House of Commons in 2010 which was part of a UK tour called Never Again for Anyone Auschwitz to Gaza. John Mann, the Labour MP and chairman of the all party parliamentary group on anti-Semitism, said it was extraordinary Mr Corbyn had taken part in a counter, if you like a protest event on Holocaust Memorial Day. The Campaign Against Antisemitism has lodged a formal complaint against Mr Corbyn with the Labour Party and demanded disciplinary action over his attendance at the event when he was a backbench MP. Daily Telegraph Party shaken to the core by claims FT Comment: Labours refusal to tackle antisemitism is a stain on Britain Alex Brummer, Daily Mail As Corbyns leadership wavers, McDonnell edges closer to power Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph Holocaust survivors anger as Corbyn shuts down dissent Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail Editorial: Labour is failing a profound moral test Daily Telegraph Corbyn must go after vicious prejudice exposed The Sun >Yesterday: Joe Carlebach in Comment: Labours tolerance of antisemitism is a danger to all of us Hunt denies claims that Britain is trying to bypass Brussels French counterpart as part of a British diplomatic push to win the support of individual national leaders for its Brexit proposals. The Times Foreign Secretary warns that unfair deal will be mistake rued for decades The Sun Gove discussing plan to stay in single market FT Jeremy Hunt denied that Britain was seeking to bypass Brussels as it lobbies governments to soften the European Commissions tough line on Brexit negotiations. The foreign secretary warned against the real risk of a messy divorce that could poison future relations between the UK and the Continent after meeting his Austrian counterpart, Karin Kneissl, in Vienna. We are very concerned that as things stand at the moment we are heading for no deal by accident a no deal situation which would have a profound impact on the relations between Britain and the EU countries for a generation, he said. There is a real risk of a messy divorce, which would be a huge geo-strategic mistake. Mr Hunt was speaking a day after meeting his More: May told WTO exit will turn UK into powerhouse Daily Express City expected to lose just 5,000 jobs due to Brexit Daily Mail Look out for Gove as Mays successor Daily Express EU concedes that it will need to fudge negotiations Daily Express German sources deny Brexit deal offer The Guardian >Today: ToryDiary: Our Cabinet League Table. The Chequers effect blitzes everyone. Theyre all down. And May dives to her lowest rating ever. >Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Ici Londres Hannan sets out the advantages of mutual recognition over common standards Allister Heath: The Governments kamikaze strategy beggars belief What is wrong with this government? Its incompetence in its handling of the greatest question of our times is now so extraordinary, so mind-boggling, that it is at times hard to believe that any of this is actually happening. Did we all drop off to sleep the day after the referendum, and have yet to awaken? Tragically, dear readers, its all too real. We have ended up with a kamikaze government that appears to have deliberately or inadvertently put itself in a situation where the only way it thinks it can convince us to buy its ridiculous Chequers plan is to highlight all the problems, real, inflated or imaginary, that a no deal with zero preparations would entail. Never mind that it is actually this governments job to ensure such preparations are made, and to identify and implement policies to eliminate or minimise disruption from a no deal outcome: it is in effect campaigning against itself, exposing or even exaggerating its own failings. All governments are two-faced, but this one would make Janus blush. Daily Telegraph A no-deal Brexit will not happen. Heres why Jonathan Lis, The Guardian UK takes heart at Angela Merkels rethink on Brexit Alex Barker, FT Brexits new Project Fear threatens liberal democracy Bill Jamieson, The Scotsman >Today: James Arnell in Comment: No Deal 4) An outward-looking, global UK >Yesterday: James Arnell in Comment: No Deal 3) Contingency planning Is Hammond preparing to levy sin tax on vaping? Davis demands inquiry into British use of torture Britains 2.9million vapers could be taxed as Treasury bean counters try to find ways of funding the extra 20billion pledged to the NHS. Whitehall sources say so-called sin taxes will see increases in this autumns Budget. One told The Sun: Vapers are likely to be hit as they are not taxed at all. Users typically spend around 275 a year on vaping fluid. A five per cent tax would cost them 13.75 a year and raise almost 40million. But last night Chris Snowdon, of think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said a vaping tax would harm the nations health. He said: The UKs liberal approach to vaping has become a model for the rest of the world. Vaping supporters say it helps people quit smoking and cuts cigarette consumption. It is believed to be 95 per cent safer than cigarette smoking. The Sun David Davis today presses the Prime Minister to order a judge-led inquiry into Britains involvement in the mistreatment of terror suspects or face the prospect of a legal challenge. In a major intervention, the former Brexit Secretary calls on Theresa May to set up an independent probe to investigate UK complicity in wicked torture and rendition during the so-called war on terror. Failing to fulfil the Tory partys pledge to hold an inquiry, chaired by a senior judge, into the abuse of captives will mean never discovering the truth about some of Britains darkest days, he says. Mr Davis has backed a hard-hitting letter to Downing Street on torture signed by senior MPs. It comes just weeks after he quit the Cabinet in disgust at Mrs Mays Chequers blueprint for leaving the EU. Daily Mail We must finally tell the truth about our darkest days David Davis MP, Daily Mail Shapps resigns from firm after allegations of secret pay deal Councils urge Government to divert funds away from Camerons youth programme Former Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps resigned from a technology company yesterday following claims he failed to declare a secret pay deal. Mr Shapps, who denies any wrongdoing, quit from the management board of tech firm OpenBrix after it was reported that a secret bonus scheme could see him receive a payment of up to 700,000 for his work. In Parliaments register of MPs interests, Mr Shappss involvement with the firm is recorded as unpaid. But he had been in line for a major bonus after it floats later this year, the Financial Times claimed. The firm aims to bring the blockchain technology behind the Bitcoin phenomenon to the property market. Later this year it will make what is known as an initial coin offering when it effectively sells shares on the market. Mr Shapps was allegedly due to share in a bonus pool with three other board members after the sale. Daily Mail Councils have urged ministers to shift funds from David Camerons residential youth scheme to their own year-round schemes after it emerged his project used 95% of all government spending on youth services despite reaching relatively few teenagers. The Local Government Association said some of the 634m allocated to the National Citizen Service (NCS) over the past few years would make up for some of the cuts to council schemes. More than 600 youth centres had closed. Financial doubts surface over Camerons big society youth programme. The NCS was one of Camerons early announcements as prime minister in 2010 part of his big society policy. It offers three to four-week programmes where 15- to 17-year-olds work in teams on projects connected to skills and the community. The scheme, which was allocated 1.5bn in funding overall, has faced criticism for lax spending controls and poor management. The Guardian Bridgen scorns McDonnells proposals for Universal Basic Income Labours radical new benefits policy is a neo-Marxist dud Nick Timothy, Daily Telegraph Invisible Shadow Cabinet face the sack John McDonnell was ridiculed for backing a universal basic income today after Canada and Finland axed trials that showed it was too expensive. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said the policy was an example of the economics of the madhouse after the shadow chancellor said he wanted to pilot the scheme. Mr McDonnell said the idea of replacing the current benefits system with a flat rate handout to everyone was an idea that a lot of people are pressing for despite the eye-watering costs of introducing it. The Green Party campaigned for a minimum payment of 72 a week before the 2015 election, but dropped the idea from its manifesto because of the ruinous cost, which was estimated at 280billion a year. Daily Mail Jeremy Corbyns frontbenchers have been told to up their game or risk being dismissed amid complaints that a handful of the Labour leaders closest allies are doing all the heavy lifting. New spin doctors have been hired, in part to raise the shadow cabinets profile. Analysis by The Times shows that two thirds of national newspaper coverage of Mr Corbyns top team mentions only five members. There is unease in the leadership at the lack of impact that the holders of many key briefs are making. There are also concerns at the prospect of a reshuffle in which Mr Corbyn would have to sack colleagues who took on senior roles after dozens of Labour MPs quit in protest at his leadership. The walkout in summer 2016, after the EU referendum, deprived the frontbench of almost all MPs with experience of being in government. It also led to an exodus of experienced media advisers. As a result, reaction to events or embargoed committee reports often arrived too late. The Times Cooper attacks ministers over forced marriages Labour MP duped into helping family secure visa for groom The Times Visas are being granted to men who took girls as young as 15 abroad and forced them to marry, it was reported last night. Figures revealed 88 women in forced marriages appealed to block visa applications last year, but almost half were still accepted by the Home Office. Last night ministers were accused of ignoring the problem, amid claims the department was afraid of being labelled racist. It is believed most teenagers who are forced into such marriages are taken to South Asia, where they are raped as families think having children will make it easier for the husband to obtain a visa The revelations came after Yvette Cooper yesterday told a home affairs select committee: Despite being warned to do more to help victims of forced marriage, it looks as though the Home Office has failed and put victims at risk. Daily Mail Editorial: Forced misery The Times Reeves demands extension of controversial gender pay audits Controversial gender pay audits should be extended to all firms with more than 50 staff, MPs will say today. New laws forced all organisations with at least 250 staff to report on their pay structures this year. But the Commons business committee today urges ministers to go further saying the audit revealed obscene gaps of more than 40 per cent at some organisations. It said almost four out of five large firms have gender pay gaps in favour of men. Rachel Reeves, the committees Labour chairman, said the biggest gender pay gaps were obscene and entirely unacceptable. She said transparency about pay should be extended to smaller firms, and further action to close the gap was needed But critics have warned the audit is meaningless, as it takes no account of the fact men and women may be doing different jobs and said extending it would place an unfair financial burden for small firms. Daily Mail The pay gap and Brexit illustrate that, as a nation, were terrible negotiators Zoe Strimpel, Daily Telegraph >Today: Garvan Walshes column: To win back young voters, the Conservative Party should make feminism central to its platform Vaz relentlessly bullied Commons clerk News in Brief: The Norway Option is a realistic, quickly achievable Brexit solution George Yarrow, CapX May nailed it at Lancaster House, so how did we end up with the disastrous Chequers plan? Ross Thomson MP, Brexit Central Who wins when everyone is in crisis? James Forsyth, The Sun The Tories need to dump May James Cullimore, Reaction Elitist Britain is a closed shop Paul Embery, UnHerd Keith Vaz relentlessly bullied a clerk after she blew the whistle on his alleged opulent dining with mystery men on a trip to Ukraine, it was claimed last night. On another taxpayer-funded trip, the Labour MP invited a group of curry restaurateur lobbyists, an investigation by the BBCs Newsnight alleged. When House of Commons clerk Jenny McCullough complained, she claimed Mr Vaz responded by haranguing her about her fertility status, the BBC said. She later quit her job blaming the stress caused by the confrontations and the failure of Commons authorities to take her complaints seriously. Last night Leicester East MP Mr Vaz, 61, strenuously denied the accusations. They relate to 2007 and 2008 when he was chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. He stood down in 2016 when a newspaper sting exposed his liaison with male prostitutes, during which he discussed buying cocaine. Daily Mail At least 16 people were killed by falling debris and more than 350 were injured by Sunday's 6.4-magnitude Quake, majority seriously, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Among the fatalities were two tourists: Siti Nur Ismawida, a 30-year-old Malaysian, and Muhammad Ainul Muksin, from Indonesia's Sulawesi island. The epicentre of the quake was 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Lombok's main city Mataram, the United States Geological Survey said, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island. More than 600 were stranded on the side of the volcano but successfully climbed down the day after the quake struck, once landslides and debris were cleared from the two main paths by rescuers. Thousands of homes were damaged, but the East Lombok district was particularly hard hit.Reports say more than a thousand homes in that area alone were mangled. "Then we will submit recommendations to the bishop and Caritas Indonesia", he said. Beyond all the challenges the rescue personnel must face, the Rinjani mission will provide our search and rescue workers new knowledge and experience they may need in the future. The 3,726-metre (12,224-feet) Rinjani is the second-highest volcano in Indonesia and a favourite among sightseers. Thailand's embassy in Jakarta said 239 of its citizens were stuck in the area surrounding the mountain. "I saw landslides and there were some people falling down". A local hotel owner, Jean Paul Volchaert, reported his own experience of these aftershocks, saying, "we felt aftershocks for two hours after the initial quake, so we're anxious that there could be more damage caused". Video footage showed ambulances lining streets and many houses damaged, with only parts of brick walls standing. A Malaysian was among the dead, with another six citizens injured, the foreign ministry in Kuala Lumpur said. To prevent more fatalities, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who visited the displaced victims and ensured they would receive adequate assistance, ordered a quick rescue of the stranded climbers. "We were still sleeping when we felt the quake, so we rushed outside of our building", Jean Paul Volchaert, who owns the Puncak Hotel in West Lombok, told CNN. Momentum has lost control of the monster it created only Corbyn has the power to purge his movement of anti-semitism Yes, its belated. Yes, its just one issue among a host of others. Yes, they helped to push him to prominence in the first place. But beneath all the caveats, Momentum was at least right to distance itself from Peter Willsman this week, after the Corbynite candidate for Labours NEC was recorded claiming that Jewish Trump fanatics were making up claims of anti-semitism in the Labour Party without any evidence at all. Whatever the exact reasoning behind deciding Willsman was bad news at this particular point, its a welcome decision on Momentums part. However, the response within the Labour grassroots has been both alarming and instructive. Since announcing that they were withdrawing support for the candidate, Momentums social media outlets have been deluged with complaints and criticism from the groups members, supporters and sympathisers. It is a Blairite decision, apparently; an indulgence of smears by Jeremy Corbyns enemies; a cowardly retreat in the face of conspiratorial criticism. Some are even quitting the group in protest. Viewed from the outside, the stereotype of Momentum is often that it is carefully and authoritatively controlled by Jon Lansman and his lieutenants, the ranks of loyal Corbynites following orders on what to say and where to campaign. Perhaps some of those inside the machine sometimes believe that to be true, too. If so, this backlash is a rude awakening. The monster which Lansman and others have created is now refusing to obey them. The tactics used to forge the movement have worked rather too well. In the face of any criticism, no matter how serious or true, they soaked Corbynisms grassroots with the language of excuses and whataboutery; they encouraged the view that critics must be complicit in counter-revolutionary plots against the Dear Leader; in short, they inculcated a siege mentality, and their audience evidently listened closely. That might have seemed fine when the targets were Blairites and Tories, but it is probably less comfortable for Momentums leadership to be on the receiving end. Having made a relatively sensible decision, they now find a chunk of their own base have turned their vitriol on them. Prominent Corbyn-supporting commentators are experiencing the same attacks in response to their own objections to Willsman. This is familiar stuff to anyone who has ever expressed public doubts about Corbyn, his views or his allies. Criticism is not to be accepted, comrades are to be defended, and anyone attacking a comrade must be an enemy. Even on the serious issue of anti-semitism, apparently the interests of the movement win out above any other consideration. Aside from the rather poetic irony, there is a serious implication. Its no use relying on Momentum, or other supposedly influential Corbynite commentators, organisers, groups or politicians, to rein in the sickening extremes of their movement. Even when they are willing to do so too rarely, even now it turns out that they are not able to. Controlling their own creation is no longer in their power, if it ever was. Worse, that power to put a stop to this obscenity lies with one man and one man only: Jeremy Corbyn himself. And he still shows no sign of realising the nature, scale or severity of the problem. James Arnell is a partner at Charterhouse. He writes in a personal capacity. In this, my final article, I seek to provide some pointers to the Government when it comes to the direction in which to take the UK economy in a post-Brexit era. My reflections will apply regardless of whether there is a deal. However, in the event of Brexit discussions breaking down, there will be a serious bout of jitters, so the Government will need to come out fighting. And it will need to bolster its internationalist credentials as it does so. The rights we intend to give to EU citizens in the UK and those we expect for UK citizens in the EU On EU citizens rights, we need to get real, and I suspect that our politicians already have. We have the lowest unemployment rate for decades and we have millions of EU nationals working in the UK. It is obvious that we therefore need to retain EU workers in the UK. There are detailed quibbles about rights, but there are no deal breakers there, other than jurisdiction of the ECJ, which we should continue to reject. I dont think EU nationals will leave just because their rights are only enforceable in the UK courts. Our future immigration policy Going forward, I think there are plenty of options already on the table for an immigration system for the future: points, seasonal quotas, and so on. I wont add to the list. But the Government urgently needs to speak to employers, understand their needs, and compare these with their political objectives: to improve productivity, to improve wages and, most importantly, to reassure voters. And then tell us what the system will be so that businesses can plan their post-Brexit HR strategy. Taxation and international competitiveness On taxation, its easy. If we are leaving the EU with no deal, we are going to have to work very, very hard to retain companies and their activities in the UK. That means a low corporate tax rate. The Government prides itself on its flagship policy of reduction of corporate tax rates in recent years, and rightly so, but it should consider going even further and it should also consider much more aggressive tax breaks for research, to support export efforts and to encourage capital investment to drive productivity. Brexit can be used as a reason to be bold. A tax holiday may be part of that. In the immediate lead-up to and aftermath of Brexit, companies will be doing a lot of work against a backdrop of continued uncertainty. They may decide to relocate activities out of an excess of caution. Would a temporary reduction in Corporation Tax encourage them to retain their activities here, giving them time to work through the complexities and decide to remain in the UK after all? On personal taxation, the pill may be bitter to swallow, but we need to hold onto our non-doms in order to hold on to the City, so we need to reverse the changes to their tax treatment. It may not play well, but it will play better than a market crisis. Many Remainers see Brexit as indicative of an insular, small-minded mentality. There are plenty of Leavers who fit this description, but the Government, and Liam Fox and Boris Johnson (when he was in Government) in particular have been very clear that we aspire to be an outward facing, free trading nation. Upping our export game The problem is that the UK is not particularly good at exporting. UPDATE: Since this article was originally published, I have reviewed export flows to the top 20 export destinations of the UK and Germany. These top 20 destinations account for circa 80 per cent of our respective exports. The UK exports, each year, 0.96 per cent of destination country GDP to its export markets. Germany achieves 2.2 per cent. The Germans are more than twice as good at exporting as we are. There are many reasons for this, I am sure, but I have experienced the following over the years: We dont bribe as much as others; We have not understood the importance of regulatory standards (and the hijack thereof) in developing new markets; We dont invest for the longer term we are impatient when developing new markets; We dont get the right support government is not set up to support exporters properly; We dont convert R&D skills into new products and get them to market quickly; We have not developed Brand UK broadly enough; We dont adapt well our language skills are poor, and our cultural integration limited. We can fix a lot of these, with a lot of hard work, but two are going to cause us real difficulties: bribery and regulation. Contrary to popular belief, and contrary to most studies conducted by institutions who never seem to get under the surface of the international export machine, the country in which bribery is most endemic and the culture of bribery is most deep-rooted is Germany. It is an open secret among major exporters: German companies bribe systematically to win international business. I am not suggesting for a moment that we seek to expand our international trade footprint by increasing bribery. But it is not enough for us to control bribery by our own companies. We need to call it out wherever we find it. We need to drag other countries business practices into the light to help to create a level playing field. That should be part of a Brexit plan. Germany knows full well that Volkswagen and Siemens are the tip of an iceberg. We should be clear that we intend to support and, if necessary, found the institutions to stop these activities. The second tricky area is regulation. Good exporters use regulation. They work through trade and industry associations in their home market to establish standards which then determine whether a particular product is approved for a particular use. Other markets may adopt their own standards, but a lot of effort is made by successful exporters to encourage the target markets to adopt common standards the same as the exporters home country rules so that they have a competitive advantage. My perception is that the UK has never been very good at this: we do not invest in our trade associations to the same extent as others. Perhaps we have an inbuilt preference for less regulation. We have not captured the rule-setting bodies to the same extent as other countries within the EU; we have focused more on deregulation within the EU. And now, leaving the EU, we lose all influence over those standards and yet, realistically, our manufacturers will need to continue to produce to EU standards as the EU will remain a vital export market for some time to come, and many other markets around the world will follow the EUs standards. So, how to react? I dont have an answer, but the Governments Brexit plan should include one. Perhaps we should focus on new, dynamic digital sectors where the flexibility of the English law can give us the jump on clunky EU legal systems. By way of example, he who develops the legal and insurance framework for autonomous vehicles gets an advantage if he can make that a global standard. Perhaps we should consider shifting to US standards in some segments, so that we can access different markets around the world. Perhaps we should identify those sectors where we are genuinely globally market-leading and invest heavily in the trade association regulatory channel to develop our standards faster and better than the EU, to drive our global presence. UPDATE: the Chequers plan effectively rules this out. As a rule taker on goods, the Government has essentially accepted that we cannot improve our performance in this area and, worse, it has condemned us to applying future EU standards to domestic goods. Continuing down the list of barriers to the UK becoming a successful exporter, a Brexit plan needs to inspire confidence within the UK and around the world that the UK is going to engage internationally and be a force for good. A Brexit plan should highlight new initiatives to support exporters, with export guarantee facilities underpinning bids, tax credits on R&D and overseas investment. We need to demonstrate that we are serious about trading globally and not just say it. Talking the talk As a last indulgence at the end of this series, please permit me to suggest one last initiative for a post-Brexit UK. In my business life, I have always been amazed how much appreciation you get for speaking other languages and showing an interest in other countries culture, sport, politics and current affairs. This should be commonplace, but the reaction I see tells me that it is all too rare. I have always struggled to understand why this is: perhaps the ubiquity of English as a second language leads us to believe that we dont need to make the effort. But, for all Boriss rousing speeches, we are only going to succeed internationally if we change our mindset fundamentally and commit to learning foreign languages and culture. So, my last suggestion for Steve Bakers (UPDATE: now Dominic Raabs) contingency plan is to give the clearest indication that the UK is serious about being an outward-facing nation: make it clear that every degree course in the UK will include a requirement to learn a second language. I can hear a collective groan, but think about it: tens of thousands of young minds deploying across the globe, building friendships and networks and, in time, winning business. Google Translate is great, but its not as good as the real thing. Garvan Walshe is a former National and International Security Policy Adviser to the Conservative Party. He runs TRD Policy. If this year has been unusually pell-mell in Westminster, August at least gives us some breathing space. The long-term prospects for our party are not good. The last election saw us lose significant ground, not among the youngest (there wasnt much ground to lose) but among the 25-44 age group when people normally shed their idealism, start paying taxes, and conclude theres more to politics than spending other peoples money. The proximate cause is Brexit, but its a mistake to think that Britains young have suddenly become passionate admirers of the European idea. They are not tattoing themselves en masse with the 12 gold stars of the European flag. It is Brexitism, the colonel-blimp style ideology not the open and outward-looking global Britain, that they detest. They saw the Conservative Party serving up generous helpings of gammon, and recoiled. The Party has been knocked back to where it was before Cameron detoxified it: associated with the old, the white, the rich, and men. Once Brexit is done, this will need to be fixed. Camerons successful strategy for detoxifying the Party to was to seize ownership of an issue on which the Conservatives actually had quite a good record, but were not known for it, and use that to reach out to new, younger voters. For him the issue was the environment. For the next leader (if a challenge to May during the negotiations would surely be madness, asking her to carry on after the negotiations would be cruel and unusual punishment) it should be feminism. There is a feminist wave breaking, spurred by revulsion at Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein, and its one that the doddery male leaders of Labour and the Liberal Democrats are ill-placed to surf. The Conservatives, however, are better positioned. When May became leader I remember texting a Labour friend 2 nil, 2 nil, 2 nil. That is because it is the Conservatives that have had two female prime ministers, not any of the self-described progressive parties. And though its true that Margaret Thatcher did not associate herself with the feminist movement in the 1970s, as a pioneer she couldnt have done so and been able to get to the top (and she obviously disagreed with the socialist dogma that had insinuated itself into much of the feminism of that time). May is different; she put a lot of effort into getting more Tory women into Parliament through Women2Win and has appointed many women to top Cabinet posts. And it should not have gone without notice that the most nationally popular Conservative figure today is a working class lesbian from Glasgow. But what distinguishes conservative social reform from that of the left is its focus on practicality rather than symbolism. The reason to have more women at the top of the Tory Party is not just to set an example, though example and symbolism are important, but to ensure their perspectives are reflected in the Partys policy and presentation: their presence in is in many ways a means to an end. It ensures we make policy that reflects womens concerns and priorities, and appeals to younger voters. Were at the cusp of major cultural change, where women and young men are unwilling to leave the work of previous generations of feminists unfinished. The Tory task is to make that change happen in ways consistent with Tory principles and aligned with the way economics and social institutions work, and to prevent it being carried out as part of the heavy hand of Labour Party socialism. The first became evident to me a few years ago, when I proposed to my students what I thought would be a controversial policy: compulsory and equally shared parental leave, like happens in Norway. Id expected a debate, with some arguing that it was right for parents to share it half and half, and others advocating more flexibility. Arguments, I thought, would be made on both sides. Instead, there was, a strong consensus in sharing it equally, fully supported by male as well as female students. The second was during the height of the #MeToo furore over sexual harassment. Not only the usual suspects, but libertarian women, or businesswomen who had dismissed conventional feminism as irrelevant, who hated quotas and all-women shortlists and convoluted debates about gender identity, decided it was time to take a stand. What links these is, to use a Washington term: people make policy. To get true equality you need enough women with power to decide things in their favour: to make sure women are promoted into positions of power on merit, and not held back by sexist attitudes (even often unconscious sexist attitudes) of their male bosses; and, once there, for them to make sure public policy takes the effects of a historically sexist society on women and the decisions they have to make into account. This shows up most strongly in the gender pay gap. The issue here is not, or not necessarily, men being paid more than women for the same work (though that accounts for some of it), but of men and women ending up in different jobs, and men being paid better. The main cause of this is women taking time out of work to take care of children. We can see this by comparing similar families. This gap is about 35 per cent for a woman with a partner but without children; but more than doubles to 77 per cent once she has children. This has more consequences than just less pay. People paid more usually have jobs that give them higher status, more responsibilty and greater power. The gender pay gap is evidence of a society where women dont have the opportunities that they should. Worse, that it increases so sharply once couples have children shows that many women are still being forced to make a choice: money, power and responsibility, or a family. They do so because Britain is particularly bad at helping people pay for childcare. Theres only limited free childcare available, and full-time childcare is ruinously expensive. Employers receive only minimal tax breaks for providing it to their staff, and individuals have to pay for it out of their after-tax income. So when you need to earn an extra 35,000 a year just to pay for it, its not surprising that many women take years out of work. Its a choice that has had consequences for them, society and the economy. There are millions of British women who arent working to their full potential, or exercising positions of leadership. We all lose from their exclusion: from discoveries unmade, businesses unstarted and taxes unpaid. Women working below their potential because childcare isnt available earn less money, spend less time developing their skills and are less productive than they otherwise would be: behind the gender pay gap is a gender productivity gap. But its a problem within our capacity to solve. The economic benefit of more women working at more senior levels in the economy and of developing their skills instead of taking years out of the labour force far exceeds the cost of providing childcare. Furthermore, because it converts currently unpaid work into economic activity, paid childcare will show up in the national accounts as a boost to GDP even if had no effect on improving the productivity of women who were no longer priced out of returning to work and even if funded by borrowing, would not therefore worsen the ratio of debt to GDP. What remains is to work out the details. Its a task ideally suited to the new and highly numerate social policy think tank Onward, which is taking up the reforming approach of the early years of Policy Exchange. They have time to work on the detail, so that, after Brexit is done, a reforming Conservative Party can take it up, and start winning back votes of the young lost to the crisis and the last few years of instability. Courts call time on Bradleys Fabian strategy The News Letter reports that the Northern Irish Civil Service has decided not to appeal a court judgement which prevents them from governing the province in place of ministers despite the fact that Karen Bradley appears to have openly disagreed with the decision. As a result, the Northern Irish Secretary is now under enormous pressure to make an actual decision regarding the future governance of Ulster, where the devolved government has been non-functional for more than a year. Both Bradley and James Brokenshire have deferred making any decision about introducing direct rule from Westminster (the latter in the face of a number of decreasingly credible deadlines), preferring to allow the civil service to operate on autopilot. This meant that no elected representative was politically accountable for the day-to-day governance of part of the United Kingdom, a position which the judges in their ruling described as radical and anti-democratic. There are several explanations for the Governments reluctance to assume responsibility for Northern Ireland, including a tight parliamentary timetable and the sensitivity of the Provinces position during the Brexit negotiations. Indeed, the Democratic Unionists failure to secure direct rule illustrates that their influence over Theresa May has its limits. But with the civil service now legally barred from making crucial decisions, Bradleys wait-and-hope strategy is running out of road. Not that her back-up sounds much better. As Sam McBride explains, the Ulster Secretarys proposal is to try to take individual decisions on an as-needed basis, rather than assuming wholesale responsibility for Northern Irish departments. Given the sheer breadth of Stormonts responsibilities, that means either clogging up scarce Parliamentary time with a hugely inefficient process or consciously condemning Northern Ireland to continued drift. Neither is good enough. Welsh Tory hopefuls would give members final say on deals with other parties The two Assembly Members vying to replace Andrew RT Davies as leader of the Conservative group have both said that they are prepared to work with other parties to oust Labour from power in Cardiff Bay. However, ITV Wales reports that both Suzy Davies and Paul Davies (no relation) believe that the final decision should rest with the party membership. As I wrote last week, the prospect of a change in leadership over in Plaid Cymru, where the ardently left-wing Leanne Wood is under pressure from more conservative challengers, could open up the possibility of a workable Nat/Con pact after the next devolved elections in 2021. Both candidates are also determined to push for a change in the structure of the party so that they can be the leader of the Welsh Conservatives overall, rather than merely the Assembly Group. This would mirror the situation in Scotland. However Brandon Lewis, the UK Chairman, appeared to play down that possibility in comments last week. Unionists turn on Robinson after united Ireland comments Earlier this week Peter Robinson, the former leader of the DUP, gave a speech in which he urged Northern Ireland and Unionists in particular to prepare for the possibility of a united Ireland, the Irish Times reports. Highlighting the chaos which has stemmed from David Camerons failure to make contingency arrangements in case the United Kingdom voted for Brexit, the one-time First Minister stressed that he didnt think Ulster would elect to secede from the Union but that it should be insured against the possibility. The speech has won praise from some quarters predictably, on the nationalist side but has drawn a furious response from unionists both from his own party and the rival Ulster Unionists. Lord Empey, the ex-UUP leader who helped to broker the partys alliance with the Conservatives, accuses Robinson of playing into the hands of our countrys opponents. Something of a parallel story also emerged in the Republic this week when Micheal Martin, the leader of the once-dominant Fianna Fail party, accused Leo Varadkar of seriously undermining British-Irish relations and the Belfast Agreement. According to the Times, Martin charged the Taoiseach of choosing megaphone diplomacy and also short-term popularity instead of constructive engagement with Irelands neighbour. As a result relationships which took decades to build up, both with London and with the unionist community in Northern Ireland, have deteriorated. This story should be read far and wide. Too often Remainer sources in Britain present Varadkar as merely doing what is necessary to defend the Good Friday Agreement a treaty Martin explicitly accuses him of undermining and ignore the fact that he has deliberately chosen a confrontational nationalist strategy. SNPs Supreme Court case could be dry run for second referendum Writing in the Daily Record, Torcuil Crichton suggests that the current Supreme Court clash between the British and Scottish governments could be merely a foretaste of a future battle over a second referendum. The Scottish Nationalists have tabled their own Brexit legislation in the Scottish Parliament, which the Government is seeking to get struck down as outwith the competence of Holyrood. According to Crichton, the SNP could be stress-testing the limits of their ability to legislate on the constitution one of a dwindling number of areas explicitly and exclusively reserved to Westminster in preparation for trying to unilaterally run a second independence referendum. As a further sign of how badly Bradley has failed to come to grips with Northern Ireland, the Provinces Attorney General appears without any political masters to instruct him to have intervened off his own bat in this crucial case against the Government. Apple has announced that it will be offering two-hour shipping on items in its stores for a limited time. The company said the new service, which costs $5, is available in most metros. "With convenient delivery and pickup methods, Apple is making it easier and safer to get the products you want," Apple said on its website. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, deliveries will be contactless. Drivers can also ask for verbal confirmation that the customer received the item instead of having them sign for it. Adapting to the pandemic This isnt the first time Apple has modified its operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the tech giant said its reopened stores would have Express windows outdoors where customers could pick up orders or get items repaired. Apple says its new delivery option is available for eligible in-stock items. Consumers who dont need an item within two hours can choose the companys free next-day delivery option, which is available for any in-stock Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, or Apple Watch. The company notes that customers can get free two-day delivery on almost everything else. Workcred, an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) affiliate, released a report funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) examining how credentials are currently used in hiring and retention practices, and how credentialing can be improved to advance the manufacturing industry. The report, Examining the Quality, Market Value, and Effectiveness of Manufacturing Credentials in the United States, revealed credentials have uneven use in the manufacturing industry and are not routinely required or used as a major factor in hiring or promotion decisions. Many manufacturers do not know what credentials are available or how they are relevant to their workplace. Often, they do not view credentials as the most relevant tools to identify new skilled personnel or as incentives to improve the quality of their existing workforce. Notably, manufacturers believed that credentials could serve as a critical resource if they were better understood and made more in line with skills needed in their facilities. Based on findings drawn from survey and focus group participants representing a wide range of manufacturing sectors, facility sizes, geographic regions, and job roles, the report provides insights on how credentials are used and valued by industry at a time when U.S. manufacturers report a skills mismatch. With nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs likely to be needed over the next decade, 2 million positions are expected to go unfilled according to a Deloitte report. Credentials, increasingly recognized as valuable solutions to the skills mismatch, can vary from certificates and certifications to licenses, degrees, badges, and microcredentials. For the U.S. manufacturing industry, increasing the quality of credentials can help increase the effectiveness, efficiency, and performance of the labor market-and improve the quality of the U.S. workforce. The report provides recommendations for credentialing and workforce stakeholders in the following areas: Improving understanding about the content, use, and value of credentials Expanding the use of quality standards for credentials Strengthening relationships between employers, education and training providers, and credentialing organizations Adding an employability skills component to existing and new credentials Creating credentials that focus on performance and address new roles Increasing the number of apprentices and expanding apprenticeships to more occupations. Workcred www.workcred.org American National Standards Institute (ANSI) www.ansi.org Edited from a Workcred press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering education and training stories. We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds.. A couple of delays in signing contracts was not enough to hold back solution provider Perficient, which saw a huge jump in its services business in the last quarter. Perficient saw its third consecutive quarter of double-digit services growth, and delivered adjusted earnings above consensus and near the top of the company's previous guidance range, said Jeffrey Davis, chairman and CEO of the St. Louis-based company. Perficient had a couple of instances of business ramp-downs and delays in signing contracts, Davis told financial analysts during the company's second fiscal quarter 2018 earnings call Thursday. [Related: ManTech: Government Contracting Work Faces Possible Headwinds] "Despite those challenges, we did manage to drive the business to more than doubling of net income and GAAP earnings over the prior-year quarter," he said. A big change for Perficient during the quarter was its July acquisition of Stone Temple Consulting, a Boston-based digital marketing agency focused on search engine optimization and content marketing services, Davis said. "[Stone Temple] will play an important role as we continue to deliver the end-to-end customer experience solutions that our clients and clients-to-be are looking for," he said. Davis said Perficient signed 59 deals valued at $500,000 or more during the second quarter, which ended June 30. That compared with 54 such deals in the prior quarter and 46 such deals in the second fiscal quarter of 2017. Last week, Perficient closed its single largest deal, a multiyear commitment from a major health-care organization worth well into "eight figures" of revenue annually, Davis said. "Those types of deals, we're able to compete for and win now that we couldn't have just a few years ago. That win, plus several other multimillion-dollar deals during July, have Q3 off to a great start," he said. Davis said Perficient is especially excited about San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe's May acquisition of Magento Commerce, a provider of a cloud-based commerce platform expected to be integrated into the Adobe Experience Cloud. "We're an Adobe Premier partner and an award-winning Magento enterprise partner," he said. "We're one of the few firms with deep expertise in both platforms. In fact, we have more than 100 colleagues dedicated to each, and have launched more than 400 projects on these platforms in the last few years. As those two organizations come together, we're incredibly well positioned to offer a technology stack that allows enterprises to manage content and commerce in one place in an integrated fashion." In response to an analyst's question, Davis said the delays Perficient experienced in the quarter were isolated to just a couple of customers. "It means we have the opportunity to make it up in the second half," he said. Organically, the delays resulted in about a $10 million change on an annual basis, Davis said. "Our guidance reflects we can make up about half of that in the year," he said. When asked about the large health-care deal signed in the quarter, Davis said Perficient has had a 10-year relationship with that company, which has been its largest customer for the past four to five years. Perficient's average deal size in the second fiscal quarter, excluding that one large customer, was just under $300,000, compared with about $265,000 in the first fiscal quarter, said Paul Martin, CFO of the solution provider. For the second fiscal quarter of 2018, Perficient reported revenue of $121.80 million, up about 4 percent from the $117.03 million for its second fiscal quarter of 2017. That figure included services revenue of $120.91 million, up 12 percent over last year, which was slightly offset by fast-declining software and hardware revenue of $886,000. On a GAAP basis, Perficient reported net income of $5.85 million, or 17 cents per share, up significantly from last year's $2.41 million, or 7 cents per share. On a non-GAAP basis, the company reported net income of $12.78 million, or 38 cents per share, up from last year's $9.80 million, or 29 cents per share. Looking forward, Perficient expects third-quarter revenue in the $122 million to $127 million range, with GAAP earnings per share of 18 cents to 21 cents and non-GAAP earnings per share of 38 cents to 41 cents. That compares with third-quarter 2017 revenue of $123.7 million and GAAP earnings per share of 21 cents. For full fiscal year 2018, the company expects revenue of $490 million to $505 million, with GAAP earnings per share of 65 cents to 75 cents and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.45 to $1.55. Siemens wants to boost adoption of its industrial Internet of Things platform by making application development faster and easier with a new acquisition. The German industrial giant announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire Mendix, a Boston-based provider of low-code application development software. Siemens said the deal was valued at 628 million Euros, which amounts to roughly $730 million in U.S. dollars. The company expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of Siemen's 2019 fiscal year. Klaus Helmrich, a Siemens AG board member, said the acquisition is meant to extend the company's "leading position in digitalizing the industrial world." "Mendix is a leader in the rapidly expanding low-code segment and their platform will help our customers to adopt [Siemens' IoT operating system] MindSphere even faster by accelerating cloud-based application development for the industrial Internet of Things," he said in a statement. [Related: GE Looking To Sell Digital Assets: Report] When the acquisition closes, Mendix will become part of the software business of Siemens' Digital Factory Division, though the company is also expecting to use the platform across other divisions. Derek Roos, co-founder and CEO of Mendix, will retain his position and join the Siemens PLM Software senior leadership team. Siemens said it will invest in Mendix's independent product roadmap and while continuing to support the platform's wide range of verticals and customers. The company said it expects Mendix to accelerate Siemens' current cloud, IoT and digital enterprise software capabilities. Founded in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and headquartered in Boston, Mendix has more than 400 employees and raised at least $38 million in capital from investors, including Battery Ventures. Most recently, the company was listed in Gartner's 2018 Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms. It was also among CRN's 20 coolest cloud platform vendors of the 2018 Cloud 100. The acquisition announcement comes after Siemens launched a partner program for its MindSphere industrial IoT platform last fall, which targets systems integrators, app developers, consultants and other groups. Shawn Sandoval, president of KAASM, a Seattle-based solution provider that primarily sells Siemens software, told CRN that his company has been evaluating whether to switch to MindSphere for building its own IoT apps and said the Mendix news was encouraging. "It sounds like they made an acquisition to ease the development burden," he said. One of Siemens' challenges with MindSphere adoption, Sandoval said, is that systems integrators generally don't have as much coding experience as "type A" developers. "Just knowing the challenges that are there, I think it's a smart move trying to remove that disparity between the two," he said. With a number of competing IoT platforms out there, including PTC's Thingworx, Mendix is a way Siemens can further differentiate itself, according to Sandoval. "The problem with those platforms is you're fighting for developers," he said, "and to pull them away you have to make a really compelling argument." The Islamic State claim said its "soldiers" struck "citizens of coalition crusader countries" and that the next attacks will be more "devastating and bitter". This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire. Earlier, officials in Tajikistan said that a banned Islamic party was behind the attack. Authorities said they have arrested four suspects and recovered a damaged Leganza they believe was involved in the incident, which was initially reported as a hit-and-run. An armed gang attacked a group of seven foreign cyclists, killing four and injuring two, on a popular biking route in the south of the impoverished ex-Soviet nation on Sunday. Three other bikers who were Dutch and Swiss were also injured before the attackers drove away; one Swiss woman was stabbed and is no longer in critical condition. She survived the incident and was being treated for her injuries in hospital, it said. The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan confirmed that two of the fatalities were American citizens. Two terrorists attacked provincial department of refugees and repatriation at around midday in Police District 3 of the city when a meeting was underway at the building, the government said in a statement. One was detained, another was killed and three are on the run, he told reporters. RFE/RL reports that additional suspects are wanted by the authorities, including two 19-year-old men and a 21-year-old - the Tajik Interior Ministry published photos of the wanted suspects. "We condemn the senseless attack, offer our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and wish the injured a speedy recovery", the statement said. The four cyclists from the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands were killed on Sunday when a vehicle plowed into them on a rural road. Tajikistan's Interior Minister Ramazon Rakhimzoda said police were "looking at all versions, that includes accident, murder, any other version". That group was banned in 2015, accused of plotting a coup. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's AMAQ news agency claimed, but did not provide further detail or evidence for its claim. Party leaders now in exile have denied those charges and said the move against them aimed to consolidate the grip of President Imomali Rakhmon, in power since 1992, the second longest-serving leader of an ex-Soviet state. Lindblad Expeditions reported positive second quarter earnings on Thursday morning, with Sven-Olof Lindblad, president and CEO, continuing to paint a picture of a strong demand environment for expedition travel. Revenue at Lindblad was $59.5 million for Q2, up from $47.2 million in 2017. Net yields were reported at $1,002 per night at 90 percent occupancy, while Lindblad said the company was increasing pricing and seeing higher occupancy despite additional inventory. I know new entrants and new ships are (coming) at an unprecedented level, Lindblad said, noting the capacity increase in the expedition market in the next two years was still less than the introduction of one mass market ship. While some of those new ships will replace older inventory, Lindblad said the additional capacity will drive marketing and interest across the sector. Additional capacity across the market has not affected pricing either, he said. For 2019 Lindblad said he was expecting a stronger South Pacific season as the company was able to rebalance capacity to maximize revenue opportunities. Across the globe, the company is also eyeing building up deployment in Egypt, citing strong demand. Creating new geographic opportunities is a key ingredient to sustain growth, Lindblad said, speaking on the companys second quarter earnings call. A July deal to build a second blue-water expedition ship was based on increasing demand for high-quality expedition travel, Lindblad explained, as the company will get new 126-passenger polar-class ships in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The company has an option on a third vessel as well. We have done diligent research, he said, referring to the 126-guest ship size. Once you cross over into larger numbers the opportunities (to land guests) diminish dramatically. In addition, the company is exploring a variety of potential acquisitions. CFO Craig Felenstein also noted they are looking at anything and everything to increase growth opportunities, including buying existing vessels. The pervasiveness of the insider threat is something every company worries about. And according to the conclusions reached by Dtex Systems based on threat assessments from several global organizations, 100 percent of companies have blind spots that enable the continued presence of the insider threat. No argument there. Every company that provides their employees with decision-making authorities gives their employees the power to make decisions that undermine the company. What stops wholesale anarchy are unified goals, awareness training, and, above all, trust. There doesnt exist a company that can bring the insider threat down to zero percent. But there are many that bring it close to zero. The Dtex 2018 Threat Report serves to bring to the forefront those areas where companies, and that is every company, big or small, can invest their resources to bring down the threat posed by their trusted insiders. Clearly, visibility on the need to focus on basic cybersecurity 101 is required. Richard Stiennon, IT-Harvest Chief Research Analyst and Charles Stuart University Lecturer, tells us, Business needs to get out of the cybersecurity denial phase it is stuck in. To do this, it must accept that it needs more visibility into whats going on in its environment. Highlighted is the statistic that indicates third-party cloud storage is being misconfigured, allowing the public to access the information. Not just a few of the respondents, but 78 percent of the respondents say this has happened to them. We intellectually understand the downside when customer data goes flying out the proverbial cloud-window Houston, we have a problem. Now, think about the effect on the protection of trade secrets and intellectual property exposure. Call your legal team, and ask them about the piercing of the trade secret protection when information isnt afforded the required safeguards. This may incentivize those setting up cloud-based storage to pay closer attention, especially if it means the companys viability. The Dtex information shows us 90 percent of all assessments were transferring data to un-encrypted and unauthorized USB devices (phones, USB, data cards, etc.), proving once again, that convenience will always trump security. Perhaps epoxying all USB ports is a solution, or maybe providing encryption capability for storage of all company data is another. But if you think policy decrees will stop the employee from doing what they need to do to get their job done will stop this issue, then please allow me to sell you what is behind door number three. Which brings us to the crux of the issue when dealing with the insider threat. Should we distrust our employees? They are your colleagues. You hired them. Do you hire untrustworthy employees? Probably not. Dtex CEO Christy Wyatt commented, While malicious users are always looking for new ways to defy security controls, not all internal risk comes from bad intent. Trusted employees dont always understand when they are engaged in damaging activities and can fall prey to bad actors looking to steal their credentials. The lack of visibility into all types of user behaviors is creating employee-driven vulnerability problems for every business. As a former career intelligence officer who specialized in human intelligence, I know the human factor has always been the work-around to render ineffective technological defenses. The insiders who are compromising companies come in two flavors those who are acting in a malevolent manner and those whose actions put the company at risk in an unwitting manner. The former is far more dangerous than the latter. Interestingly, the Dtex assessments show an increase in the seemingly sophomoric revenge attacks where an individual in effect DOXs their colleagues (provide personal identifying information on their colleague in a public forum), which causes the individuals' inbox, voicemail, and other means of communication to be overwhelmed (think DDoS on a personal level). And not surprisingly, 67 percent of the assessment reported the malicious employees engaging in risky behavior, which puts their devices at greater risk than those who dont visit porn and gambling sites. Whats missing? What is missing from this report are the number of instances where an insider voluntarily opts to break trust with their employer. Revenge or greed are two primary motivators for such behavior. This might be a good question for the next survey. We read about these on a regular basis; indeed this blog is titled, The Trusted and Valued Insider (Threat) for a reason. These individuals are the ones who have staying power and are the ultimate insider threat. To that end, if a person has natural access and doesnt trigger any of the data loss prevention (DLP) or other safeguards in place by copying, sharing, or printing the information, it will be nearly impossible to catch them in the act unless you have the individual under full-time surveillance. Education, DLP implementation, timely system updates, and re-validation of employees privileged access (within the scope of least privileged access) are all worthy recommendations. The bottom line, as we said in at the beginning, achieving zero threat that an individual may go sideways is impossible. What is within arms reach of every company is bringing the threat down to a manageable level. We've got some work ahead of us. Well, that didnt take long! Now that the deadline has come and gone for any business that is subject to the EUs GDPR, I was wondering how long it would be before some legislature, here in the U.S., would follow the EUs lead and implement their own version of GDPR. As usual, California did not disappoint. At whirlwind speed, and bowing to political pressure from a privacy rights advocate, the California legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). But, unfortunately for the businesses that must comply with the CCPA, less actual thought was put into the drafting of this Act than any piece of privacy legislation Ive seen in the past two decades. Dont get me wrong, I think the Act has some good provisions to it. But, it is deeply flawed, and my hope is that California lawmakers will come to their senses and fix the CCPA before it goes into effect on January 1, 2020. Whether they actually make the necessary repairs or not, this new gift from California will cost businesses across the U.S. billions of dollars in new compliance investments. So, whats in the CCPA? There are a few key points to understand: The Act doesnt apply to all businesses, but the definition of who it does apply to is pretty broad, so youll need to look into that. Under the Act, the definition of personal data has been significantly broadened beyond its current, generally accepted, definition, to include a range of individual, or family, identifiers. The Act establishes a right to access and a right to request information, which, like GDPR, will allow any California resident the right to see what information a business has about them, and to do so up to twice each year. Also, like GDPR, the Act establish what is commonly referred to as the right to be forgotten. This is a particularly challenging area of the Act given how businesses leverage technology to manage data through the use of third-party cloud solutions and distributed formats. Most notably, the CCPA may establish (there is still some debate about this because of the wording of the Act) a right of individual action. This would allow individuals to sue businesses, not only for actual violations of the CCPA, with regards to their personal data, but also for a business failure to comply with the provisions of the CCPA in the absence of individual damage. So, why should you care? Well, as with most regulations, the riskiest point of failure as businesses seek to achieve compliance rests with the individuals who use the protected data. Like many businesses subject to GDPR youll need to train your employees to assure awareness of, and compliance with, the CCPAs requirements. Most compliance violations begin with an individual doing something wrong, and their actions, often unintentional, have the potential to cost your business in fines, reputational damage, and lawsuits. Youre also going to want to get ahead of the CCPA while there is runway to do so. There will likely be changes between now and 2020, so youll need to stay on top of them. Even if you do not conduct business with California residents I expect that other states will follow Californias lead and pass similar legislation pretty quickly. Were on an upswing of new regulations so hold on it will likely be a bumpy ride. ***** You can receive more insights into security awareness by signing up for the Security Smart Newsletter. The newsletter is an employee education program designed to help build security awareness by making security reminders and information fun, interesting, and engaging to all your employees; saving you and your organization precious time on your security awareness program. To learn more about the newsletter and the subscription options, please click here! BRIDGEPORT City Council President Aidee Nieves said if the allegations against Bridgeport Police Capt. Mark Straubel prove to be true, he really has no choice but to resign. Nieves released the statement Tuesday night saying she was appalled and shocked that Straubel engaged in derogatory commentary about fellow police officers. She said she supports Police Chief Armando Perezs decision to put Straubel on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. No one who has those types of feelings or expresses them belongs in a police uniform, her statement said. It puts other law enforcement officers and the community they police at great risk. As previously reported by Hearst Connecticut Media earlier this week, Perez put Straubel on administrative status effective immediately, a memo issued by the chief said, after a complaint was filed regarding a racist text sent by Straubel. Administrative leave is paid leave and is protocol pursuant to union contract. The City Council will work to ensure that the investigatory process is complete, thorough and transparent, Nieves said. Our community has zero tolerance for racism. A statement released Monday from Rowena White, Mayor Joseph Ganims director of communications, said Perez was notified by Internal Affairs about the complaint on July 26. In light of the sensitive nature of the allegations, I took swift action and immediately sent the captain home and placed him on administrative leave, Perez said Monday. The complaint, IA told Perez according to White, was filed by a retired police officer. Ken Kubel, a retired Bridgeport police sergeant who now works for the Stratford Police Department, confirmed to Hearst that he made the complaint against Straubel. BRIDGEPORT - Fearing deportation after police found a third of a pound of cocaine in his apartment, Martin Dejesus-Estevez rejected a plea bargain and instead chose to roll the dice with a jury. Ten minutes after they began deliberations, the Superior Court jury on Thursday found the 35-year-old citizen of the Dominican Republic not guilty of all charges. My clients very gratified with the verdict, said John R. Gulash, after he and his client embraced outside the courtroom. The jury was very attentive. The Statewide Narcotics Task Force had gotten a tip that Dejesus-Estevez, who was in this country on a green card, had been selling drugs out of a van in the city, according to testimony at trial. When police arrested him outside the Norman Street apartment on Jan. 11, 2016, police testified Dejesus-Estevez gave them the apartment keys. The Norman Street apartment was listed as his address on his drivers license. They obtained a search warrant and during a subsequent search of the apartment police said they found a third of a pound of cocaine, drug packaging materials and $69,000 in cash. Dejesus-Estevez was charged with possession of narcotics with intent to sell by a non-drug dependent person and illegal distribution of a controlled substance near a school. Dejesus-Estevez did not testify during the trial and his lawyer presented no witnesses. Instead, Gulash argued that the state had not proved that Dejesus-Estevez had sole control of the apartment where the drugs were found. They didnt prove he had exclusive possession, jurors said as they left the Fairfield County Courthouse. State prosecutors have filed a motion with Judge Earl Richards to seize the drugs and the cash. BRIDGEPORT Ned Lamont, the Democrats endorsed candidate for governor, opened his sixth city campaign office Thursday in the bailiwick of his primary opponent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. The Main Street office, which is one of 17 statewide, is down the street from Ganim, Ganim and Ganim, the law firm of Joe Ganims father and brother. Lamont said neither the decision to open an office in Bridgeport nor its timing 12 days before the primary is meant as a challenge to Ganim. There is no significance per se that this is Bridgeport. It just shows the breadth of our campaign. Were everywhere, said Lamont. Im not going to shy away either. If I win the nomination on Aug. 14, Im going to be working with Bridgeport and hopefully Mayor Ganim. But speaking to a group of about 20 supporters at the opening, Lamont did take a swing at Ganims record in the city. Ive heard a lot about Bridgeport during this campaign this last little while, about all the nascent things that are happening I have a feeling that about 98 percent of them started under (Ganims predecessor) Bill Finch, said Lamont. Finch, who was mayor of Bridgeport from 2007 to 2015 and attended the opening, declined to comment. Ganim, who was Bridgeports mayor from 1991 to 2003, when he was convicted of 16 federal charges involving the misuse of more than $500,000 in public funds, called Lamonts statement unfounded. Hes a nice guy but he doesnt have a clue, said Ganim, who was re-elected to the mayors spot five years after he finished serving seven years of a nine-year sentence by a city willing to give him a second chance. He obviously doesnt do his homework and his statements are not fact-based. Lamont spent the day in Bridgeport meeting with local small business owners at a barbershop, toured Housatonic Community College and visited a farmers market. State Sen. Ed Gomes, a Bridgeport Democrat, introduced Lamont Thursday night as his longtime friend and supporter. Hes going to be someone who can do something for working people, Gomes said. Ninety-two-year-old Laurayne Farrar-James, a former Bridgeport councilwoman for the 139th District, said she was at the event to hear Lamont spell out how he would bring fairness to government and support Bridgeport schools. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson MILFORD Its not often that the first topic in a state of the city speech is bird droppings, but such was the case Thursday as Mayor Ben Blake told his audience that Canada geese are despoiling much of the city, particularly the downtown business district. One great big obstacle amidst our flock of successes is the Canada goose, Blake, a Democrat, told a crowd of about 100 business leaders at the Milford Yacht Club for the Chamber of Commerce sponsored event. My office receives more feedback about goose poop than just about any other matter of city business. He said that City Hall was just about at wits end over the influx of the non-migratory Canada goose. As unbelievable as it sounds, one of Milford's greatest problems is the challenge we face from Canada Geese which are wreaking havoc in our parks and public spaces, Blake said. I'm ready to call President Trump and ask that he refocus priorities from building a wall between the United States and Mexico, and instead look to our northern border and build a wall to keep out the Canada geese. Part of the problem stems from one of Milfords successes, Blake said. The city has just completed a long and expensive dredging project involving three downtown ponds in which 15,000 cubic yards of muck was hauled away; much of that sediment was in the form of goose excrement, officials say. But, aside from that headache, the mayor said that the city was flying high and has seen advancements in its grand list in recent years, and approved tax cuts albeit small ones for three consecutive years. We've grown our tax base to over $6.7 billion, and we now have the largest grand list in New Haven County and one of the top ones in the state, he said. Our taxpayers have now experienced back-to-back-to-back tax cuts, three consecutive decreases no other town in the state can boast this experience. But Anthony Giannattasio, a Republican alderman from District 1, said that the tax cuts were largely the result of cost-savings that those on his side of the aisle put forth. Were the ones the came up with those spending cuts, said Giannattasio, who is also a candidate for the 14th District State Senate seat. Blake also said the city is moving forward to create an under- and above-ground parking facility downtown where the Corner Convenience store used to be 325 spaces in all. A small supermarket would also be on that site, too, he said, according to the plan being considered by City Hall. The added parking would help buoy the shops and restaurants in the center of town, he said. jburgeson@ctpost.com MILFORD Its the kind of 21st birthday celebration no mother wants to be able to throw for her daughter. But Donna Cimarelli, mother of slain Jonathan Law High School student Maren Sanchez, has decided since her daughter was killed nearly five years ago by a fellow student to use the tragedy to help other young women in Sanchezs name. To honor Sanchezs birthday, Cimarelli has launched a Gofundme campaign, #21forMaren, with a goal of raising $21,000 by Sanchezs birthday Aug. 26, to culminate in a celebration of her life at a venue yet to be determined. The campaign began Wednesday and asks for $21 donations to be used for a camp where teens would receive training in self-defense and self-awareness in recognizing and handling emotional and psychological manipulation before things turn violent. Jarrod Butts, Sanchezs boyfriend at the time of the slaying, said its a great idea and Sanchez would approve wholeheartedly. Butts, who was to take Sanchez to the junior prom the day she was killed in a school stairwell by classmate Christopher Plaskon whose prom invite she had turned down said, Im still in love with Maren. She was the most genuine person I ever met in my life and she was always happy, Butts said. Nobody ever had anything bad to say about her. When the tragedy occurred, My heart went out. I lost faith in everything, Butts said. He said its been difficult moving on in romance. The two, friends for many years who hung out together in groups, shared a love of music, and played the guitar together. The relationship turned romantic two months before Sanchez was killed. Young women should be prepared, said Butts, who has helped Cimarelli in her foundation work. Another close friend, Pat OBrien, met Sanchez during his sophomore year when he was the new kid in school and said that if it hadnt been for her influence, theres no telling where hed be now. I was the new kid and she came up to me (after geometry class) and said if you need anything you can always talk to me, OBrien said. They became fast friends. She made a huge impact during her time here, OBrien said, I wouldnt be as put together as I am now if it wasnt for Maren. She was also connected to people in the best way possible. She brought people together, OBrien said. OBrien said of the 21st birthday cause, Maren would love this. Longtime family friend Sandra Briggs said Sanchez was mature beyond her years and wise. Sanchez left a scarf in her car and Briggs hasnt taken it out since. Sanchez was a popular junior, involved in numerous activities and known most of all as a friend to everyone, which might have ultimately cost her life. She always had an ear or encouraging word for Plaskon, who was not always accepted by other peers, friends have said. He received a 25-year sentence for the killing in April 2014. Cimarelli, whose gut told her Plaskon might be risky, said shes pretty sure Sanchez felt the same, but her desire to be nice, as girls are taught, overrode following her gut. A couple of years after Sanchezs death, Cimarelli founded the Maren Sanchez Home Foundation and is making the circuit to schools and colleges to train young girls and women to act on their instincts and to physically defend themselves. The Her-Self Awareness and Her-Self Defense classes have had an impact on hundreds and Cimarelli dreams of a camp for both that she hopes to start through the current campaign. She told girls at a talk last year at University of Bridgeport that Sanchez and Plaskon spoke at her locker that morning of her killing and he said something to get her to the dark stairwell, Cimarelli said. Cimarelli said shes sure, When Maren walked through those doors (to the stairwell) something didnt feel right. The thrust of Cimarellis message to girls and young women: No is a complete sentence, and follow your instinct. She chose $21 because of the numerical significance and because she thought it was a doable amount for any young people who want to contribute. She wants girls and women to feel empowered. At some point she will bring young men into the education fold, Cimarelli said. Cimarelli said shes been going to birthday and graduation celebrations through the years for Sanchezs friends and wanted to celebrate her only child on the milestone birthday, as Sanchezs energy continues to drive so many others. Cimarelli wonders what Sanchez would have looked like now, what she would be doing and often sees her. She said a lot of Sanchezs friends are spending summers backpacking in other countries and can imagine Sanchez might be doing that in Spain if she were alive. Cimarelli, OBrien and Butts see signs of Sanchez all the time whether its her favorite song, Home by American Idol winner Phillip Phillips that she sang at the school talent show coming over the radio at the right time, or seeing her image. Sanchez talks to Cimarelli at times and many others have reported the same fox sightings ( Sanchez spirit animal) at pivotal juncture or in OBriens case, something very powerful. OBrien said the summer after Marens killing he was distraught so his father took him camping out of state. They were whitewater rafting and OBrien, who was having trouble dealing said when the water slowed down, a purple flower fell in his lap out of nowhere. Purple was known as Sanchezs favorite color and dominated at all the remembrances of her life. At a Maren Sanchez festival held at Jonathan Law after her death, a series of pictures of the stage area had a mysterious purple blotch down the middle that many attributed to Sanchez presence. At the end of the day we just miss her, OBrien said. Cimarelli noted that Butts, OBrien and other friends of Sanchez went from carefree high school kids to carrying a heavy burden when Sanchez was killed. Life changed for them that day, Cimarelli said. For more information about the foundation, visit www.marensanchezhomefoundation.org or email info@marensanchezhomefoundation.com. President Donald Trump on Wednesday made what appeared to be his most direct public call yet for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian Federation investigation, but his personal attorney later described it as only Trump's "opinion". Last week, The New York Times reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is "is scrutinizing tweets and negative statements from the president about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey". Trump called Mueller's team of investigators "17 Angry Democrats", accusing them of bias in favor of the Democratic party. The president's tweets also came on the second day of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort's trial-the first out of Mueller's probe. "Because the jury isn't sequestered, they may see this", Wine-Banks said. An element of Mueller's investigation includes whether Trump or anyone in the campaign tried to obstruct justice. Since Sessions announced his recusal in March 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has been tasked with overseeing Mueller's investigation. That "secret income" was used to pay for personal expenses such as a US$21,000 watch, a US$15,000 jacket made of ostrich and more than US$6 million worth of real estate paid for in cash, Asonye said. There was no immediate response from Sessions, the country's top law enforcement official, on the president's call to end the Russian Federation probe. In one message, Strzok vowed to "stop" Trump becoming president. The difficulty in trying to use Trump's tweet to prove obstruction is that he may have posted it for several reasons, including to rally support among his political base, said Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor in NY who now lectures at Columbia Law School. When pressed by reporters on how she tells the difference between a presidential order or an opinion, Sanders said Trump makes his intentions "pretty clear". "America must never accept it". Bharara has asked how Trump can call Jeff Sessions to stop the Russian probe that he terms a total hoax even if Sessions has recused himself from the ongoing probe. Tuesday marked the first day of Paul Manafort's trial on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud brought by Mr Mueller's team, charges that stemmed from Mr Manafort's consulting work for Ukraine, for which he allegedly received millions he did not report to the USA government. Mr Trump also labelled special counsel Robert Mueller, who leads the probe, "totally conflicted". Conservative writer Max Boot argued in a Washington Post column Wednesday that President Donald Trump's latest attack on the Russian Federation investigation is yet another "smoking gun" among many that demonstrate his criminal culpability. "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!" he wrote. Trump tweeted in reference to the Manafort trial. Due to the sheer volume of new businesses and products emerging year after year, finding a snappy name for your company or brand that has not already been snapped up has become difficult. Related: How to Name (or in Some Cases, Rename) Your Company A recent Harvard Law Review study highlighted the upwards of 6.7 million U.S. trademark applications (registered 1985 to 2016) that had been made over the last three decades and suggested that we might soon be at the point of actually running out of trademark options. Dealing with thousands of clients, ourselves, we have realized that being the "on demand" generation has changed our consumer expectations. We expect everything to be delivered "the next day," and content to be available at the click of a button. Unfortunately, however, in the trademarking world, such instantaneity isnt going to fly. If a name in your industry is already trademarked, it is off the table. End of story. But this in itself can be seen as a positive challenge: Be more creative. So, to save disappointment and stress when you're developing a name, here are four tips that might help you on your journey to find a strong mark that can be registered and will help you reach your business and communication goals: Be unique. Choosing an effective trademark means a trademark that's unique. With upwards of 6.7 million trademarks out there, and only 171,476 words in the English dictionary, you need to start thinking outside the box. Instead of trying to find a word or two words that sum up your entire brand, product and values, why not focus on capturing one single essential element? Often, this means looking past your product or business model, and at your brand attributes, values and customer experience. We always recommend that our clients start with an idea, or an image, and then try to create different versions of this idea or image, using various different brand name types. Get your team together, get a white board and some markers -- preferably non-permanent ones -- and then get to work! From visual descriptions, to compound phrases, to plays on words, to foreign phrases, the possibilities you brainstorm will get your creative juices flowing, and create some interesting -- and terrible -- ideas, which in turn will be food for thought for other ideas. For example, Apple, as a technology brand, aimed to disrupt a market filled with corporate names like IBM, HP and Microsoft. Instead of choosing a name which fit its products, the company Steve Jobs built instead went down the road of concentrating its focus on UX and customer experience. Apples are organic fruits which all of us have held in our hand, had in our lunchbox, picked from a tree or baked in an apple pie. Apples are linked to everyday lives, and to normal people. Related: 8 Ways to Pick a Great Name for Your Business As such, Apple chose a trademark and logo which could fit into peoples daily lives and become part of their routines. Voila! Know the danger zones. With so many trademarks in existence, the chances of being able to use a single recognizable English word are becoming slim. The common danger zones here include: Single English words Power words -- like Force, United, Omni and Icon Symbolic words -- like Bridge, Spring, Sage, Rocket But just because you cant use one stand-alone word doesnt mean you cant integrate these words into something more original. Types of names you might use to integrate more common words include: Transmutations -- like Zappos, Zumba This and that -- Haute and Bold, Dolce & Gabbana Compounds -- SnapChat, WordPress Phrases -- Mechanical Turk, Pliny the Elder Choosing the right trademark means being creative, but also being realistic. If you know that there is little chance that you'll be able to use a commonly used power word, think of an interesting way to integrate one you already like into a new form. Or move on to something entirely different. Start with the end in mind. If you cant have the name you wanted -- Heritage Capital, for example -- take a step back and look at what exactly it is about that combination which you love so much. What about the word "heritage" characterizes your business essence? Is it because your brand is classic and preeminent in your field, or because you are in the business of dealing with families and protecting peoples legacies? When you start to break this down, you can then pull out a lot of different words and ways to express the same image and feelings. Or you may realize that you liked "Heritage" because of its classic style and the opportunity it offers to align your brand with other desirable ones in your industry. Then you can look to duplicate that brand feel with a different name. Once you have decided on a central direction and style (classic, fun, pragmatic, powerful, modern, etc), create a one- or two-sentence project statement to keep your naming efforts laser-focused. Here are some examples: We need a fresh, modern name that captures one of our key ideas -- connectivity, productivity and gratitude. We need a descriptive name that captures our value proposition. We need a strong name that establishes us as a preeminent solution. We want, however, to stand apart from the standard industry names. We need an elegant name that sounds like a high-end womens fashion brand. A name is very short and has only so much communication power. As such, it is important to highlight your communication goal at an early stage. For example, consider Squatty Potty, which claims to offer buyers a more helpful squatting position for, um, bathroom visits. Had the company decided from the outset that it was targeting large medical retailers and as such wanted a serious, professional, clinical-sounding name, the branding probably never would have taken off as it did. Instead, the company decided that it was targeting millennials, and wanted a semi-comical name for a brand tackling the serious, but pretty "out there" issue of colon health. The founders made the right decision to build a light-hearted brand -- and starting with a fun name was a critical first step. So, go the Squatty Potty route, because it's important to set boundaries early on in the process, based upon factors such as what your company values are and who your target audience is. If it's appropriate, go crazy with silly ideas and see if anything sticks. Knowing the essence of the brand that youre building before you start the naming process will allow you to explore unique, trademark-able naming options without reverting to throwing letters and words together in hopes of finding a registration-friendly mark.. Realize that you dont have to explain everything in one name. Just because you havent found a name which immediately makes you think of your product, values and culture all at once doesnt mean you are failing. As mentioned before, the idea to is sum up one main idea in a unique way, not every single thing your company stands for. Remember that there are multiple other aspects of your branding which will complement your trademark and help create your overall image. For example: Your logo -- If you want to make it really clear you are a car brand, use a car. Your tagline -- "Just do it" is as famous as Nike. Your brand and website design -- Choose distinctive colors which stick in people's mind. Your marketing copy -- There are endless meme-able snappy one-liners. Your goal is to create a name and trademark (they're technically different because the trademark protects the name), plus a logo and tagline that all come together to create a truly powerful brand statement. If your name is more abstract, you can fill in the blanks with descriptive taglines and logos. Your name type and style offer clues about the character of your company, which can be brought together in one clear image through clever design, logos and taglines. The challenge is to find something that is functional, unique and most importantly won't result in a cease and desist letter. Related: How to Name a Business If you follow a structured process of starting with the end in mind, brainstorming unique name ideas and exploring diverse naming types, there is no reason why you won't find a strong trademark-able brand name that will resonate with your audience and help you succeed as fast as you'd like. Related: Make a Name for Yourself: 4 Expert Tips for Choosing a Name and Trademark How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Launching a Website? Here Are 5 Common Intellectual Property Pitfalls to Avoid. Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The next CUNA Business Lending Roundtable will be held Jan. 29-30, 2019, in San Diego. This discussion-based event will cover a wide array of current and upcoming developments and issues in business and commercial lending, from regulations to new products and services. As business and commercial lending topics continue to shift and grow, its vital to keep track of their developments and the opportunities to apply them throughout the credit union movement, said Kathy Smith, CUNA instructional design manager. By having dynamic conversations with other business lending professionals and industry experts, attendees will discover actionable strategies and new colleagues in their professional network to call upon for advice and questions. Donald Trump appeared to order his attorney general Jeff Sessions to pull the plug "right now" on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russian Federation with a tweet on Wednesday morning. Trump called any talk of collusion "a Hoax". This morning, back in Washington, Trump resumed his fire, saying Attorney Jeff Sessions "should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country and further". The Times article also indicates that Mueller has agreed to take some answers in writing, which would allow Trump's legal team to ... smooth out Trump's response. In June, he said the jailing of his former campaign chairman in advance of his trial was "a tough sentence", charging that a federal judge's decision to respond to allegations of witness tampering was "very unfair". The latter comment appeared a further attempt by the Trump camp to discredit any Justice Department official involved in the investigation, including Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, who is leading it. Six Republican senators going into a vote on Wednesday disapproved of Trump's tweet calling for an end to the probe. "These kinds of threats are no accident". Giuliani, speaking in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, called the obstruction of justice issue "nonsense". "He's panicking", Democratic Representative Don Beyer said on Twitter. "Congress must protect Mueller". In any case, Sessions recused himself from the investigation in March 2017 and does not have the power to stop it. Technically the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, can't fire Mueller as he has recused himself from the Russian Federation investigation. McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have defended Mueller's investigation in the face of Trump's attacks but said they don't believe Trump would fire the special counsel. In June, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called for Sessions to be fired and "end the Mueller investigation". At a time when reports suggest that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is looking at tweets for evidence of "corrupt intent' - a necessary element of the crime of obstruction of justice - Trump serves up tweets that evidence corrupt intent". She denied that Trump was obstructing the probe. Trump also said he "can be more presidential than any president in history, except for maybe Abe Lincoln with the big hat", and proclaimed that if not for his campaign, people wouldn't be able to say "Merry Christmas" in public. News accounts a year ago, however, said that Sessions had rebuffed Trump's earlier demands to retake control of the investigation. Jackson tonight told Wolf Blitzer, "I am of the view that it is not at all obstruction of justice". What to know from day one of Manafort trial MORE's trial on bank and fraud charges in Virginia. Four million people have been excluded from the list of Indian citizens in Assam after the National Register for Citizens (NRC) was released on July 30. There are concerns over the fate of these four million people. According to media reports, those whose names have been dropped from Assam's NRC list are mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims. Many political leaders have referred to them as illegal Bangladeshis even in the past saying they will be sent back to Bangladesh. It is thus important to understand how Bangladesh views the problem. In this context, what is the reason for the matter, whether there is any cause of concern for Bangladesh? Bangladesh is not in favour of people entering any country illegally. (Source: Reuters) Bangladesh, on its part, has maintained that NRC is India's internal matter not a bilateral issue. On July 31, I happened to speak to Bangladesh information minister Hasanul Haq Inu MP regarding the issue. Inu claims that there are no Bangladeshi migrants in Assam, the state's illegal immigrants are India's internal problem and the problem has to be resolved by the Indian government. He also said that those creating problems in Assam are India's own citizens. He also said that Bangladesh is not in favour of people entering any country illegally. Bangladesh is trying to send illegal Rohingyas back to Myanmar. Inu claimed that India shouldn't declare the people excluded from the NRC list as Bangladeshi nationals. Professor Roksana Kibria of Dhaka University's International Relations Department, said, "Even though Bangladesh has called NRC India's internal issue the matter could become Dhaka's own issue for the time being." She said that if the four million people excluded from the NRC are forced back into Bangladesh, it could very well become our issue. So, the big question has already been raised in Bangladesh - are these four million people, excluded from the citizen's list, going to cross into Bangladesh? The NRC list considers those who came to Assam after March 24, 1971, as illegal immigrants. The problem for both India and Bangladesh is where will these people go? Experts in Bangladesh are of the view that these people can try to enter the country and that is the reason why it is so important for Dhaka to discuss the issue with India. Bangladesh is not ready to face a Rohingya-like situation so it must discuss the issue with India. Rather than wait for New Delhi to raise the issue, Dhaka should demand that India clarify its position on the matter. Also read: NRC list: Why this is the right time for India to get tough on illegal immigrants The Washington Post reported this week that USA spy agencies are seeing signs that North Korea is constructing new missiles at a factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, according to officials familiar with the intelligence. Only one identification "dog tag" was delivered on by the North Koreans, complicating U.S. military efforts to identify the remains in the boxes. The pledge to deliver war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during his June summit with US President Donald Trump. Forensic experts will start work to identify the remains before returning them to their families. Only one identification "dog tag" was delivered by the North Koreans, underscoring the long path ahead for USA military efforts to identify the remains inside the 55 boxes presented by North Korea to the United States last week. More than 7,700 USA troops remain unaccounted for from the Korea War. Pfc. Joe Stanton Elmore was 20 when he died on December 2, 1950, in Changjim County, Hamgyeong Province, North Korea. U.S. President Donald Trump attends a Make America Great Again Rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida, U.S., July 31, 2018. Pence, in his address at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, said he trusted that Americans killed in the war were among the flag-draped cases flown to Hawaii on Wednesday. The letter comes amid concerns over North Korea's ballistic missile program and commitment to denuclearization. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea previously returned the purported remains of foreign soldiers that turned out to be misidentified. The age of the remains - at least 65 years old - will complicate the process. North and South Korea held military talks to build trust yesterday, while the USA detected renewed activity at a North Korean missile factory. On Wednesday, U.S. Consul General Angela Kerwin said Wednesday that no money was paid to North Korea for the remains. National anthems of the United States and South Korea were played, and the caskets were given a 21-gun salute by US riflemen. Sixteen other countries sent troops to fight in the 1950-53 Korean War under the United Nations umbrella, and several of them also are believed to have been lost in the North. It could be hard to find out if the remains are even American military members. Vice President Pence will take part in an Honorable Carry Ceremony for the remains when they arrive on Wednesday. "We don't know who's in those boxes", Mattis said last week, noting Australia and other countries also are missing troops. The defense official said, "It could take months, or even years to identify them". Pence said the return of the first set of the remains shows progress in the relationship with North Korea, but is only a first step. Some of the remains may prove not to be American, but may instead belong to service members from other allied countries who participated in the war against North Korea and China. The Kaakimaka family provided DNA samples to the US military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency over a decade ago, hoping officials would be able to make a match. About 5,300 of that total are believed to have died on battlefields and in prison camps in what is now North Korea. About 7,700 US soldiers are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, and 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. "We see them going to work, just as before", one U.S. official said. "UNC never leaves troops behind, living or deceased, and will continue the mission of repatriation until every service member returns home", it added. Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in signed the Panmunjom Declaration in April, which saw them agreeing to work together to begin a process of reconciliation and put an end to decades of conflict on the Korean Peninsula. United Nations honor guards carry a casket containing remains transferred by North Korea onto a plane at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on Wednesday. Trump's remark at a political rally Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, was the latest sign of friction between the U.S. and North Korea, as they attempt to implement on Kim's June 12 agreement to "work toward complete denuclearisation". Since Trump returned from that trip to tell America to "sleep well", North Korea has expanded production of nuclear materials and improved facilities for building missiles. Reports last week suggested that a separate North Korean site used to develop missile engines was dismantling its facilities. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is honest about denuclearization. The Washington Post reported Monday that U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained evidence indicating that North Korea is continuing to build long-range missiles. John Byrd, the director of analysis for the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), told reporters that an initial forensic review indicates that the "remains are what North Korea said they were", according to Reuters. The Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. However, just as in the case of all the supposed chemical and biological weapons sites in Iraq, US intelligence agencies have in the past declared that certain sites within North Korea were secret nuclear facilities, when further investigation showed less threatening answers. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of American Tower: 10 Presidential Way Associates LLC, 3267351 Nova Scotia Company, 3286208 Nova Scotia Company, 3298099 Nova Scotia Company, 52 Eighty LLC, 52 Eighty Partners LLC, 52 Eighty Tower Partners I LLC, ACC Tower Sub LLC, AT Kenya C.V., AT Netherlands C.V., AT Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT Sao Paulo C.V., AT Sher Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., AT South America C.V., ATC Africa Holding B.V., ATC Africa Shared Services (Pty) Ltd, ATC Antennas Holding LLC, ATC Antennas LLC, ATC Argentina C.V., ATC Argentina Cooperatief U.A., ATC Argentina Holding LLC, ATC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ATC Atlantic C.V., ATC Atlantic II B.V., ATC Atlantic III B.V., ATC Backhaul LLC, ATC Brasil Servicos de Conectividades Ltda., ATC Brazil Holding LLC, ATC Brazil I LLC, ATC Brazil II LLC, ATC Burkina Faso S.A., ATC CSR Foundation India, ATC Chile Holding LLC, ATC Colombia B.V., ATC Colombia Holding I LLC, ATC Colombia Holding LLC, ATC Colombia I LLC, ATC EH GmbH & Co. KG, ATC Ecuador Holding LLC, ATC Edge LLC, ATC Ethiopia Infrastructure Development Private Limited Company, ATC Europe B.V., ATC Europe LLC, ATC European Holdings Inc., ATC Fibra de Colombia S.A.S., ATC France Cooperatief U.A., ATC France Holding II SAS, ATC France Holding SAS, ATC France Reseaux SAS, ATC France SAS, ATC France Services SAS, ATC GP GmbH, ATC Germany Holdings GmbH, ATC Germany Services GmbH, ATC Ghana ServiceCo Limited, ATC Global Employment B.V., ATC Heston B.V., ATC Holding Fibra Mexico S. de R.L. DE C.V., ATC IP LLC, ATC India Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Indoor DAS Holding LLC, ATC Indoor DAS LLC, ATC International Cooperatief U.A., ATC International Financing B.V., ATC International Financing II B.V., ATC International Financing II Holding LLC, ATC International Holding Corp., ATC Iris I LLC, ATC Kenya Operations Limited, ATC Kenya Services Limited, ATC Latin America S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.N.R., ATC MIP III REIT Iron Holdings LLC, ATC Managed Sites Holding LLC, ATC Managed Sites LLC, ATC MexHold LLC, ATC Mexico Holding LLC, ATC Niger Wireless Infrastructure S.A., ATC Nigeria C.V., ATC Nigeria Cooperatief U.A., ATC Nigeria Holding LLC, ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Limited, ATC On Air + LLC, ATC Operations LLC, ATC Outdoor DAS LLC, ATC Paraguay Holding LLC, ATC Paraguay S.R.L., ATC Peru Holding LLC, ATC Polska sp. z o.o., ATC Ponderosa B-I LLC, ATC Ponderosa B-II LLC, ATC Ponderosa K LLC, ATC Ponderosa K-R LLC, ATC Sequoia LLC, ATC Sitios Infraco S.A.S., ATC Sitios de Chile S.A., ATC Sitios de Colombia S.A.S., ATC Sitios del Peru S.R.L., ATC South Africa Investment Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, ATC South Africa Services Pty Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure (Pty) Ltd, ATC South Africa Wireless Infrastructure II (Pty) Ltd, ATC South America Holding LLC, ATC South LLC, ATC Spain LLC, ATC TRS I LLC, ATC TRS II LLC, ATC TRS III LLC, ATC TRS IV LLC, ATC Tanzania Holding LLC, ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, ATC Tower (Ghana) Limited, ATC Tower Services LLC, ATC Uganda Limited, ATC Uganda ServiceCo (SMC) Limited, ATC Watertown LLC, ATC WiFi LLC, ATS-Needham LLC, ActiveX Telebroadband Services Private Limited, Adquisiciones y Proyectos Inalambricos S. de R. L. de C.V., Agile Airband Ohio LLC, Agile Connect LLC, Agile IWG Holdings LLC, Agile Network Builders LLC, Agile Networks Indiana LLC, Agile Networks Site Development LLC, Agile Towers LLC, Alternative Networking LLC, American Tower Asset Sub II LLC, American Tower Asset Sub LLC, American Tower Charitable Foundation Inc., American Tower Delaware Corporation, American Tower Depositor Sub LLC, American Tower Guarantor Sub LLC, American Tower Holding Sub II LLC, American Tower Holding Sub LLC, American Tower International Holding I LLC, American Tower International Holding II LLC, American Tower International Inc., American Tower Investments LLC, American Tower LLC, American Tower Management LLC, American Tower Mauritius, American Tower Servicios Fibra S. de R.L. de C.V., American Tower Tanzania Operations Limited, American Tower do Brasil - Cessao de Infraestruturas Ltda., American Tower do Brasil Communicacao Multimidia Ltda., American Towers LLC, BR Towers, Blue Sky Towers Pty Ltd, Blue Transfer Sociedad Anonima, Broadcast Towers LLC, CNC2 Associates LLC, California Tower Inc., Cell Site NewCo II LLC, Cell Tower Lease Acquisition LLC, Central States Tower Holdings LLC, Colo ATL LLC, Colo Atl, Communications Properties Inc., Comunicaciones y Consumos S.A., Connectivity Infrastructure Services Limited, DCS Tower Sub LLC, Eaton, Eaton Towers (Lilongwe) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana (M) Limited, Eaton Towers Ghana Limited, Eaton Towers Holdings Limited, Eaton Towers Kenya Limited, Eaton Towers Limited, Eaton Towers Niger S.A., Eaton Towers Uganda Limited, Essar Telecom Infrastructure, Eure-et-Loir Reseaux Mobiles SAS, GTP Acquisition Partners I LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners II LLC, GTP Acquisition Partners III LLC, GTP Costa Rica Finance LLC, GTP Infrastructure I LLC, GTP Infrastructure II LLC, GTP Infrastructure III LLC, GTP Investments LLC, GTP LATAM Holdings B.V., GTP LatAm Holdings Cooperatieve U.A., GTP Operations CR S.R.L., GTP South Acquisitions II LLC, GTP Structures I LLC, GTP Structures II LLC, GTP TRS I LLC, GTP Torres CR S.R.L., GTP Towers I LLC, GTP Towers II LLC, GTP Towers III LLC, GTP Towers IV LLC, GTP Towers IX LLC, GTP Towers V LLC, GTP Towers VII LLC, GTP Towers VIII LLC, GTPI HoldCo LLC, Ghana Tower InterCo B.V., Global Tower Assets III LLC, Global Tower Assets LLC, Global Tower Holdings LLC, Global Tower LLC, Global Tower Partners, Global Tower Services LLC, Gondola Tower Holdings LLC, Grain HoldCo LLC, Grain HoldCo Parent LLC, GrainComm I LLC, GrainComm II LLC, GrainComm III LLC, GrainComm LLC, GrainComm Marketing LLC, GrainComm V LLC, Haysville Towers LLC, IW Equipment LLC, IWD Equipment LLC, IWG Holdings LLC, IWG II Holdings LLC, IWG II LLC, IWG Miami LLC, IWG Towers Assets I LLC, IWG Towers Assets II LLC, IWG-TLA Australia Pty Ltd., IWG-TLA Canada Corp., IWG-TLA Encanto 1 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto 3 LLC, IWG-TLA Encanto LLC, IWG-TLA Holdings LLC, IWG-TLA Media 2 LLC, IWG-TLA Media LLC, IWG-TLA Telecom LLC, IWL-TLA Telecom 2 LLC, Idaho Tower Company LLC, InSite (BCEC) LLC, InSite (MBTA) LLC, InSite Borrower LLC, InSite Co-Issuer Corp., InSite Guarantor LLC, InSite Hawaii LLC, InSite Issuer LLC, InSite Licensing LLC, InSite Towers Development 2 LLC, InSite Towers Development LLC, InSite Towers International 2 LLC, InSite Towers International Development LLC, InSite Towers International LLC, InSite Towers LLC, InSite Towers of Puerto Rico LLC, InSite Wireless Development LLC, InSite Wireless Group, InSite Wireless Group LLC, Insite Wireless LLC, Invisible IWG Holdings LLC, Invisible Towers LLC, JT Communications LLC, LAP Inmobiliaria Limitada, LAP Inmobiliaria S.R.L., LL B Sheet 1 LLC, Lap do Brasil Empreendimentos Imobiliarios Ltda, Lease Advisors-AU PTY LTD, Loxel SAS, MATC Digital S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Infraestructura S. de R.L. de C.V., MATC Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., MC New Macland Properties LLC, MCSU Properties LLC, MHB Tower Rentals of America LLC, MIP III Iron Holdings LLC, MIP III U.S. Iron LLC, Microwave Inc., Municipal Bay LLC, Municipal-Bay Holdings LLC, New Towers LLC, PCS Structures Towers LLC, R-CAL I LLC, RSA Media Inc., Repeater Communications Group I LLC, Repeater Communications Group II LLC, Repeater Communications Group III LLC, Repeater Communications Group IV LLC, Repeater Communications Group LLC, Repeater Communications Group V LLC, Repeater Communications Group VI LLC, Repeater Communications Group of New York LLC, Repeater IWG Holdings LLC, Richland Towers LLC, Signum/IWG Tower Corp., Southeast Network Access Point LLC, SpectraSite Communications, SpectraSite Communications LLC, SpectraSite LLC, T8 Ulysses Site Management LLC, TLA PR-1 LLC, TLA PR-2 LLC, Telecom Lease Advisors Management 2 LLC, Tower Management Inc., Towers of America L.L.L.P., Transcend Infrastructure Holdings Pte. Ltd., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., Turris Sites Development Corp., Turris Sites IWG Corp, Tysons II DAS LLC, UNIsite, Uganda Tower Interco B.V., Ulysses Asset Sub I LLC, Ulysses Asset Sub II LLC, UniSite LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint FL Tower Venture LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint NE Tower Venture LLC, UniSite/Omnipoint PA Tower Venture LLC, Vangard Wireless LLC, Verus Management One LLC, Viom Networks, and Virdi IWG Holdings LLC. The Tunisian authorities have finally agreed to accept for humanitarian reasons a commercial vessel carrying around 40 African migrants who have been stranded for two weeks off the countrys coast, ending the ordeal of the migrants including children and two pregnant women. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) hailed the Tunisian decision. This group of African migrants was picked up on July 16 and experienced two difficult weeks aboard the vessel. According to IFRC, these vulnerable migrants will be placed in Tunisian Red Crescent reception center. IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy said: All people, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and have the right to access basic humanitarian services. Human traffickers are increasingly using Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as the Libyan coast guard, aided by armed groups, tightened controls. At least 80 migrants died when their boat sank off the Tunisian coast in June, one of the worst migrant boat accidents in the North African country of recent years. The new Italian government has closed its ports to charity ships operating in the Mediterranean, saying the European Union must share the burden of hosting hundreds of migrants. In 2017, about 119,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy from across the Mediterranean and, according to the International Organization for Migration, more than 3,100 died making the crossing. The EU member-country, now led by Giuseppe Contes anti-migration coalition, has lately refused to take in migrants, igniting the anger of NGOs and migrants charities. According to latest figures released Tuesday by the UN Migration Agency, 57,571 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through 29 July 2018. That total compares to 112,375 at this time last year. Spain has outpaced Italy and is currently the main arrival-by-sea country in the Mediterranean with 22,858 migrants arriving since the beginning of the year and 1,866 of them arriving since 25 July alone. This is approximately 16,345 more migrants that arrived in Spain in the same period in 2017. Some 18,392 migrants arrived by sea in Italy so far this year, which is 80.6 per cent less than the same period last year. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Read More Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. Read More Wall Street analysts have given Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Vivendi SE operates as a content, media, and communication company in France, the rest of Europe, the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Africa. It operates through Universal Music Group, Canal+ Group, Havas Group, Editis, Gameloft, Vivendi Village, and New Initiatives segments. The Universal Music Group segment engages in the sale of digital and physical recorded music; and exploitation of music publishing rights, as well as provision of the artist and merchandising services. The Canal+ Group segment publishes and distributes premium and thematic pay-TV and free-to-air channels; and produces, sells, and distributes movies and TV series. The Havas Group segment includes communications disciplines, such as creativity, media expertise, and healthcare/wellness. The Editis segment engages in the publishing of literature, educational, and reference books, as well as selling and distribution of books. The Gameloft segment engages in the creation and publishing of downloadable video games for mobile phones, tablets, triple-play boxes, and smart TVs. The Vivendi Village segment provides ticketing services and live performances through Olympia production, festival production, and venues. The New Initiatives segment operates Dailymotion, a video content aggregation and distribution platform, as well as develops ultra-high-speed Internet service. Vivendi SA was founded in 1853 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Read More EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker promised to release 55 million from the emergency fund to help Morocco and Spain tackle the rise of illegal migration in the Western Mediterranean. The news came after reports cited that Morocco requested help to address the illegal migration challenge in its north as an increasing number of migrants are shunning the insecure Libya route in favor of the Western Mediterranean option. Spain has also asked the EU for help to manage the growing migration flow in the Mediterranean. The Spanish government has requested additional emergency aid from the European Commission, said a spokesperson for this EU institution. In this context Juncker sent a letter to Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez saying that he shares the sense of urgency about the rise in irregular immigration, but warning that EU funds to stem the flow from Morocco are limited. In July, the EU agreed to spend 55 million ($64 million) to help Tunisia and Morocco manage their frontiers. In December last year, Morocco received a 6 million payment to purchase equipment. However, these figures are far from the 3 billion promised to Turkey in exchange for stemming the migration flow on the eastern Mediterranean. The Williams Cos., Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company, which explores, produces, transports, sells and processes natural gas and petroleum products. It operates through the following segments: Transmission and Gulf of Mexico; Northeast G&P; and West. The Transmission and Gulf of Mexico segment comprises of interstate natural gas pipelines, Transco and Northwest Pipeline, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region. The Northeast G&P segment includes midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation businesses in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio. The West segment consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of south Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of northwest Louisiana, and the Mid-Continent region which includes the Anadarko, Arkoma, and Permian basins. The company was founded by David Williams and Miller Williams in 1908 and is headquartered in Tulsa, Read More 8 hours ago Logitech Is Still A Logical Choice For Dividend-Growth Portfolios Logitech Invests In The Future Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) is one of the more appealing post-pandemic plays to us for many reasons. Not only is the company benefiting from COVID-related trends but it is also benefiting from strong secular trends, sustaining YOY growth in the face of double-digit comp, paying a very safe dividend, and investing in the future. Read Article The Bank of New York Mellon pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 2.30%. The Bank of New York Mellon does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of The Bank of New York Mellon is 33.92%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%. Based on earnings estimates, The Bank of New York Mellon will have a dividend payout ratio of 29.44% next year. This indicates that The Bank of New York Mellon will be able to sustain or increase its dividend. View The Bank of New York Mellon's dividend history. The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc.. The following companies are subsidiares of AMETEK: AMETEK CTS GmbH, AMETEK Germany GmbH, AMETEK Hong Kong Private Limited, AMETEK Instruments Group UK Limited, AMETEK Italia S.r.l., Amekai Singapore Private Ltd., Amekai Taiwan Co. Ltd., Haydon Linear Motors (Changzhou) Co. Ltd., SPECTRO Analytical Instruments Inc., Tubes Holdco Limited, AEM Limited, AIP/MPM Funding Inc., AIP/MPM Holdings Inc., AMESP USVI LLC, AMETEK (Barbados) SRL, AMETEK (Bermuda) Ltd., AMETEK (GB) Limited, AMETEK (Thailand) Co. Ltd., AMETEK Aegis Inc., AMETEK Aerospace & Defense Group UK Ltd, AMETEK Aerospace & Power Holdings Inc., AMETEK Aerospace LLC, AMETEK Aircraft Parts & Accessories Inc., AMETEK Airtechnology Group Limited., AMETEK Ameron LLC, AMETEK Arizona Instrument LLC, AMETEK B.V., AMETEK CTS Europe GmbH, AMETEK CTS US Inc., AMETEK Canada 2 ULC, AMETEK Canada 3 ULC., AMETEK Canada Limited Partnership, AMETEK Co. Ltd., AMETEK Commercial Enterprise Shanghai, AMETEK Costa Rica Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, AMETEK Customer Service S. de R. L. de C.v., AMETEK DE LLC, AMETEK DELCO Inc., AMETEK Denmark A/S, AMETEK Do Brasil Ltda., AMETEK EMG Holdings Inc., AMETEK Elektromotory s.r.o, AMETEK Engineered Materials Sdn. Bhd., AMETEK Europe L.L.C., AMETEK European Holdings GmbH, AMETEK European Holdings Limited, AMETEK Finland Oy, AMETEK Global Tubes LLC, AMETEK Grundbesitz GmbH, AMETEK HSA Inc., AMETEK Haydon Kerk Inc., AMETEK Holdings B.V. also registered as AMETEK Holdings B.V. Delaware Inc.1, AMETEK Holdings SARL, AMETEK Holdings de Mexico S. de R.L., AMETEK Hughes-Treitler, AMETEK Industrial Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., AMETEK Instrumentos S.L., AMETEK Instruments India Private Limited, AMETEK Korea Co. Ltd., AMETEK Lamb Motores de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., AMETEK Land Inc., AMETEK Latin America Holding Company S.a r.l., AMETEK MRO Florida Inc., AMETEK Material Analysis Holdings GmbH, AMETEK Mexico Holding Company LLC, AMETEK Motors Asia Pte. Ltd., AMETEK Nordic AB, AMETEK PIP Holdings Inc., AMETEK Precitech Inc., AMETEK Programmable Power Inc., AMETEK S.A.S., AMETEK S.r.l., AMETEK SCP (Barrow) Limited, AMETEK SCP Inc., AMETEK Singapore Private Ltd., AMETEK Taiwan Co. Ltd., AMETEK Technical & Industrial Products Inc., AMETEK Thermal Systems Inc., AMETEK d.o.o. Subotica., Abaco Systems, Advanced Industries, Advanced Measurement Technology Inc., Aero Components International Corp., Airtechnology Pension Trustees Limited, Akron Standard Bestry (Guangzhou) Measurement Equipment Co. Ltd., Amekai (BVI) Ltd., Amekai Meter (Xiamen) Co. Ltd., Ameron Global Inc, Ametek Advanced Industries Inc., Ametek-Reading Alloys Inc., Amptek Inc., Antavia SAS, Atlas Material Holdings Corporation, Atlas Material Testing Technology (India) Private Limited, Atlas Material Testing Technology BV, Atlas Material Testing Technology GmbH, Atlas Material Testing Technology L.L.C., Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC, Atlas Netherlands AcquisitionCo Cooperatief U.A., Avicenna Technology Inc., Avtech Avionics & Instruments LLC, B&S Aircraft, Brookfield Engineering, CAMECA Instruments Inc., CAMECA SAS, Cameca, Chandler Instruments Company L.L.C., Chandler Instruments Company LLC, Cognex - Surface Inspection Systems Division, Coining Holding Company, Coining Inc., Controls Southeast Inc., Crank, Creaform, Creaform Inc., Creaform Shanghai Ltd., Creaform Software Inc., Creaform U.S.A. Inc., Crystal Engineering Corp, Crystal Engineering Corporation, Direl GmbH, Direl Holding GmbH, Drake Air, Drake Air Inc., Drexelbrook Engineering Company, Dunkermotoren GmbH, Dunkermotoren Taicang Co. Ltd., Dunkermotoren USA Inc., EDAX Inc., EDAX LLC, EGS Automation, EMA Corp., EMA Finance 1 LLC, EMA Finance 2 LLC, EMA Holdings LLC, EMA Holdings UK Limited, EMA MX LLC, EMtest, ESP Holdco Inc., ESP/SurgeX, Electronic Systems Protection Inc., FMH Aerospace Corp., FMH Holdings Corp., FMH Intermediate LLC, Fine Tubes Limited, Forza Silicon Corporation, Frameflair Limited, GS Electric, Gatan, Gatan Inc., Gatan Service Corporation, Gatan U.K. Limited, Glasseal Products Inc., Global Tubes, Grabner Instruments Messtechnik Gesellschaft m.b.H., HCC Industries Inc., HDR Power Systems LLC, HS Foils Oy, Hamilton Precision Metals Inc., Hamilton Precision Metals of Delaware Inc., Haydon Kerk Motion, Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions Inc., Hermetic Seal Corporation, High Standard Aviation, Imago Scientific Instruments, IntelliPower Inc., Land Instruments International Ltd., Laserage Technology Corp, Luphos GmbH, MCG Acquisition Corporation, MOCON Europe A/S, MOCON Inc., Magnetrol International, Micro-Poise Industrial Equipment (Beijing) Ltd., Micro-Poise Measurement Systems LLC, Micro-Poise Measurement Systems LLC, Milmega Limited, Mocon, Motec GmbH, Motec GmbH, Motion Control Group, Muirhead Aerospace Limited, NSI-MI Technologies, Newage Testing Instruments Inc., Nu Instruments Asia Ltd., Nu Instruments Limited, Nu Instruments Ltd, O'Brien Corp, OBCORP LLC., OOO AMETEK, Pacific Design Technologies Inc., Patriot Sensors & Controls Corporation, PennEngineering Motion Technologies, Petrolab L.L.C., Powervar, Powervar Deutschland GmbH, Powervar Inc., Powervar Mexico S.A. de C.V., Precitech, Quizix Inc., RETE Holding GmbH, Rauland-Borg, Rauland-Borg Corporation, Rauland-Borg Corporation of Florida, Reichert Inc., Reichert Technologies, Responder Systems Corporation, Rotron Inc., Rotron Incorporated, SPECTRO Analytical Instruments (Pty) Ltd, SPECTRO Analytical Instruments GmbH, SSH Non-Destructive Testing Inc., Sealtron Inc., Six Brookside Drive Corporation., SkyBitz Inc., SkyBitz Petroleum Logistics LLC, SkyBitz Tank Monitoring Corporation, Solartron Group Ltd., Solartron Metrology Limited, Solidstate Controls Inc. de Argentina S.R.L., Solidstate Controls LLC, Solidstate Controls LLC, Solidstate Controls Mexico S.A. de C.V., Sound Com Corporation, Southern Aero Partners Inc., Southern Aeroparts Inc, Spectro Analytical Instruments Inc., Spectro Holdings Inc., Spectro Inc., Spectro International Holdings Inc., Spectro Scientific, Spectro Scientific (Beijing) Inc., Spectro Scientific Inc., Sterling Ultra Precision Inc., Sunpower, Sunpower Inc., Superior Tube Company Inc., TPM Russia Inc., Taylor Hobson Holdings Limited, Taylor Hobson Inc., Taylor Hobson Limited, Taylor Hobson Trustees Limited, Technical Manufacturing Corp, Technical Manufacturing Corporation, Technical Services for Electronics Inc., Telular Corporation, Telular Corporation, Teseq AG, Thelsha Technical Services, Tritex Corporation, Unispec Marketing Pvt. Ltd., Universal Analyzers Inc., VTI Instruments Corporation, VTI Instruments Private Limited, VTI Integrated Systems Private Limited, Vision Research Europe B.V., Vision Research Inc., Vision Research srl, Zemetrics Inc., Zygo Corporation, Zygo Pte Ltd., Zygo Richmond Corporation, and ZygoLamda Metrology Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.. The following companies are subsidiares of Fidelity National Information Services: 11601 Roosevelt Boulevard Realty LLC, AFSF II AIV Investors D-LP, AGES Participacoes Ltda., AKC Insurance Company LLC, Advanced Portfolio Technologies Ltd., Alphakinetic Ltd., Armed Forces Financial Network LLC, AssetExchange, Automated Securities Clearance LLC, Best Payment Solutions Inc., Bibit Spain S.L., Bitpay Payments KK, C&E Holdings Luxembourg S.a.r.l., CPRS Holdings Inc., Canadian Envoy Technology Services Ltd., Capco, Central Credit Services Limited, Certegy Canada Company, Certegy Card Services B.V., Certegy Dutch Holdings B.V., Certegy France Limited, Certegy SAS, Certegy UK Holdings B.V., Chex Systems Inc., Clear2Pay, Clear2Pay (Shenzhen) Company Limited, Clear2Pay APAC Pte. Ltd., Clear2Pay APAC Pty Ltd., Clear2Pay BV, Clear2Pay Belgium BV, Clear2Pay China Limited, Clear2Pay France SAS, Clear2Pay Germany GmbH, Clear2Pay Limited, Clear2Pay Nanjing Co. Limited, Clear2Pay Nederland BV, Clear2Pay Poland Sp. z o.o., Clear2Pay Scotland Holdings Limited, Clear2Pay Scotland Limited, Clear2Pay Spain S.l., ClearTwoPay Chile SpA, Complete Payment Recovery Services Inc., Compliance Coach, Credit Management Solutions, Decalog (UK) Limited, Decalog N.V., Envoy Services Bulgaria Limited, Envoy Services Ltd. (Asia) SDn BHD, Envoy Services Pty Ltd., Envoy Services South Africa (Pty) Limited, F.I.S. Systems (Middle East) Limited, FIS (Switzerland) SA, FIS (Tunisia) I SARL, FIS (Tunisia) II SARL, FIS Ambit Holdings Pty Ltd, FIS Apex (International) Limited, FIS Apex (UK) Limited, FIS Asia Pacific Inc., FIS AsiaPacRim Holdings Ltd., FIS Australasia Pty Ltd., FIS AvantGard LLC, FIS Banking Solutions UK Limited, FIS Bilgisayar Hizmetleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, FIS Brokerage & Securities Services LLC, FIS Business Integration (UK) Limited, FIS Capital Markets UK Limited, FIS Capital Markets US LLC, FIS Card Services (Caribbean) Ltd., FIS Card Services (Thailand) Co. Ltd., FIS Consulting Services (Ireland) Limited, FIS Consulting Services (UK) Limited, FIS Denmark ApS, FIS Derivatives Utility Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Derivatives Utility Services (UK) Limited, FIS Derivatives Utility Services LLC, FIS Energy Solutions Limited, FIS Financial Solutions Canada Inc., FIS Financial Systems (France) SAS, FIS Foundation Inc., FIS GCS LLC, FIS Global Business Solutions India Private Ltd., FIS Global Execution Services (Ireland) Limited, FIS Global Execution Services Limited, FIS Global Holdings S.a.r.l, FIS Global Recovery Services India Private Limited, FIS Global Solutions Philippines Inc., FIS Global Trading (Deutschland) GmbH, FIS Global Trading (Hong Kong) Limited, FIS Global Trading (Iberica) S.L. Unipersonal, FIS Global Trading (Nederland) B.V., FIS Global Trading (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, FIS Global Trading (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Global Trading (Suisse) SA, FIS Global Trading (UK) Limited, FIS Healthcare Trustee Limited, FIS Holdings (Germany) GmbH i.L., FIS Holdings Limited, FIS Holdings Mauritius, FIS Insurance Services Limited, FIS International Subsidiaries Holdings Inc., FIS Investment Systems (UK) Limited, FIS Investment Ventures LLC, FIS Investor Services LLC, FIS Japan KK, FIS Kingstar Cayman Islands Limited, FIS Korea Ltd., FIS Management Services LLC, FIS Management Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., FIS Pakistan (Private) Limited, FIS Payment Solutions & Services India Private Limited, FIS Payments (Ireland) Limited, FIS Payments (UK) Limited, FIS Pensions Limited, FIS Romania SRL, FIS SG (Italia) S.r.l., FIS SG International Holdings LLC, FIS SG Systems Philippines Inc., FIS Sherwood Systems Limited, FIS Solutions (India) Private Limited, FIS Solutions LLC, FIS Solutions Software (India) Private Limited, FIS Systeme GmbH, FIS Systems (Hong Kong) Limited, FIS Systems (Luxembourg) S.A., FIS Systems (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., FIS Systems (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., FIS Systems Canada Inc., FIS Systems International LLC, FIS Systems Kenya Limited, FIS Systems Limited, FIS Systems NZ Limited, FIS Systems Pty Ltd, FIS Systems South Africa (Pty) Limited, FIS Systems de Colombia S.A.S., FIS Technology (Beijing) Co. Limited, FIS Technology Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., FIS Technology Services (Tunisia) SARL, FIS Technology Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., FIS Treasury Systems (Europe) Limited, FIS Treasury Systems (UK) Limited, FIS UK Holdings Limited, FIS Vietnam LLC, FIS Worldpay (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, FIS Worldpay Jersey Limited, FIS-SG Holding Corp., FNIS Istanbul Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, FV General Partner LLC, Fidelity Holding Ltda., Fidelity Information Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Fidelity Information Services (Iberia) S.L.U., Fidelity Information Services (Israel) Ltd., Fidelity Information Services (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Fidelity Information Services (Thailand) Limited, Fidelity Information Services Front Arena AB, Fidelity Information Services GmbH, Fidelity Information Services Holdings B.V., Fidelity Information Services India Private Limited, Fidelity Information Services International Holdings Inc., Fidelity Information Services LLC, Fidelity Information Services Limited, Fidelity Information Services Operations GmbH, Fidelity Information Services SARL, Fidelity Information Services Slovakia s.r.o., Fidelity Information Services de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fidelity International Resource Management Inc., Fidelity National Card Services Inc., Fidelity National Global Card Services Inc., Fidelity National Information Services (Netherlands) B.V., Fidelity National Information Services C.V., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fidelity National Participacoes e Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Fidelity National Servicos de Tratamento de Documentos e Informatica Ltda., Fidelity National Servicos e Contact Center Ltda., Fidelity Participacoes e Servicos Ltda., Financial Insurance Marketing Group Inc., GL Settle Limited, GL Trade (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, GL Trade CMS (Thailand) Limited, GL Trade Software DOO, GL Trade Solutions CMS (Thailand) Limited, Glesia S.r.l., GoCart LLC, Information Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Integrity Treasury Solutions Europe Limited, Integrity Treasury Solutions Inc., Integrity Treasury Solutions Limited, Integrity Treasury Solutions Pty Limited, Link2Gov Corp., Memento, Metavante Corporation, Metavante Payment Services LLC, Metavante Technologies Inc, Metavante Technologies Limited, Minorca Corporation NV, Monis Management Limited, Monis Software Limited, NYCE Payments Network LLC, Oshap Software Industries Ltd., Oshap Technologies Ltd., PT FIS Systems Indonesia, PT Fidelity Information Services Indonesia, Panther Holdco 2 Inc., Panther Holdco Inc., Payment Brasil Holdings Ltda., Payment Chile S.A., Payment Trust Limited, Paymetric Inc., Pazien Inc., People's United Merchant Services LLC, Platform Securities Holdings Limited, Platform Securities International Limited, Platform Securities International Nominees Limited, Platform Securities LLP, Platform Securities Nominees Limited, Platform Securities Services Limited, Reech Capital Limited, Reliance Financial Corporation, Reliance Integrated Solutions LLC, Reliance Trust Company, Rocket Partners Holdings LLC, Sanchez Computer Associates Pty Limited, Secondco Limited, Ship Holdco Limited, Ship Luxco 2 S.a.r.l., Ship Luxco 3 S.a.r.l., Ship Midco Limited, Solutions Plus Consulting Services Limited, SunGard, SunGard Data Systems Beijing Co. Ltd., SunGard Global Services (Tunisia) III, SunGard Global Trading (Australia) Pty. Ltd., SunGard India Sales Private Limited, TP Technologies N.V., Tayvin 346 Limited, Transax Limited, Trax BV, Valuelink Information Services Limited, Valutec Card Solutions LLC, Virtus Fund Services, Virtus Group LP, Virtus LP Holdings LLC, Virtus Partners Fund Services Cayman Ltd., Virtus Partners Fund Services Holdings Company, Virtus Partners Fund Services Ireland Limited, Virtus Partners Fund Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Virtus Partners Ireland Ltd., Virtus Partners Ltd., Virtus Trade Settlement LLC, WebTone Technologies, Worldpay, Worldpay (HK) Limited, Worldpay (NZ) Limited, Worldpay (UK) Limited, Worldpay AP Ltd., Worldpay Argentina SRL, Worldpay B.V., Worldpay Canada Corporation, Worldpay Cayman Holdings Limited, Worldpay Company LLC, Worldpay Do Brasil Processamento De Pagamentos Ltda., Worldpay Finance Limited, Worldpay Gaming Solutions LLC, Worldpay Governance Limited, Worldpay Group Limited, Worldpay Holdings (Barbados) SRL, Worldpay Holdings Brasil Participacoes Ltda., Worldpay ISO Inc., Worldpay India Private Limited, Worldpay Integrated Payments Canada LLC, Worldpay Integrated Payments LLC., Worldpay Integrated Payments Solutions Inc., Worldpay International Group Limited, Worldpay International Holdings Limited, Worldpay International Limited, Worldpay International Payments Limited, Worldpay International Solutions Limited, Worldpay K.K., Worldpay LLC, Worldpay Latin America Limited, Worldpay Limited, Worldpay Marketing Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Limited, Worldpay Payments (Barbados) SRL, Worldpay Processing Services SRL, Worldpay Pte Ltd., Worldpay Pty Ltd., Worldpay S.a.r.l., Worldpay Services Company, Worldpay Services SRL, Worldpay Solutions SRL, Worldpay Technology Bucharest S.R.L., Worldpay Treasury Solutions SRL, Worldpay US Inc., Worldpay eCommerce LLC, Worldpay eCommerce Limited, Xpede, YES-Secure.com Limited, YESpay International Limited, Zenmonics Inc., Zenmonics Software Private Limited, eFunds Corporation, eFunds Holdings Limited, eFunds International Limited, i DLX International B.V., and mFoundry Inc.. The Tunisian Interior Ministry has linked the Wednesday robbery of a bank near the border with Algeria to a terrorism act. An armed group left with the money available in the bank after breaking into the financial institution in the town of Kasserine near the Algerian border on Wednesday, local media Tunisie Numerique reports. An official of the ministry described the robbery as an attack with a terrorist background. The four individuals, who carried out the hold-up against the Amen Bank agency in Kasserine, had hijacked a car and held the passengers as hostages. They then used this car to rob the bank. Three of the armed individuals went down and attacked the bank, while the fourth remained behind the wheel. The attackers were armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, Tunisie Numerique reports. The robbers immediately came out of the bank with their booty, initially estimated at some 30,000 dinars, including amounts in foreign currencies, and drove away in the same car. Eyewitnesses told the Tunisian media that some attackers were speaking an Algerian dialect among themselves during the operation. The North African country has been on high alert following three major attacks in 2015 in which over 70 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed by Tunisian fighters trained in neighboring Libya by the Islamic State group (ISIS). Radicalism and terror acts surged in the wake of the 2011 revolution that swept away autocratic leader Ben Ali. Attacks have died down but the country is bracing up to face the return of over 3,000 Tunisians who left to fight in the ranks of terror groups in hotbed conflict zones, namely Iraq, Syria and Libya. Some of the fighters have returned home and have appeared before courts. The following companies are subsidiares of Carnival Co. &: 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., A.J. Juneau Dock LLC, AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, Adventure Island Ltd., Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, Alaska Hotel Properties LLC, Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU, Bay Island Cruise Port S.A., Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, CC U.S. Ventures Inc., CCL Gifts LLC, CSSC Carnival Italy Cruise Investment S.r.L, Carnival (UK) Limited, Carnival Bahamas FC Limited, Carnival Bahamas Holdings Limited, Carnival Corporation & plc Asia Pte. Ltd., Carnival Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Carnival Corporation Korea Ltd., Carnival Corporation Ports Group Japan KK, Carnival Finance LLC, Carnival Grand Bahama Investment Limited, Carnival Investments Limited, Carnival Japan Inc., Carnival License Holdings Limited, Carnival Maritime GmbH, Carnival North America LLC, Carnival Port Holdings Limited, Carnival Ports Inc., Carnival Support Services India Private Limited, Carnival Technical Services (UK) Limited, Carnival Technical Services Finland Limited, Carnival Technical Services GmbH, Carnival Technical Services Inc., Carnival Vanuatu Limited, Costa Crociere PTE Ltd., Costa Crociere S.p.A., Costa Cruceros S.A., Costa Cruise Lines Inc., Costa Cruise Lines UK Limited, Costa Cruises Shipping Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Costa Cruises Travel Agency (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Costa Cruzeiros Agencia Maritima e Turismo Ltda., Costa Group Digital & Strategic Services GmbH, Costa International B.V., Costa Kreuzfahrten GmbH, Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Creative Travel Lab Ltd., Cruise Ships Catering & Services International N.V., Cruise Terminal Services S.A. de C.V., Cruiseport Curacao C.V., D.R. Cruise Port Ltd., Ecospray Technologies S.r.L., F.P.M. SAS, F.P.P. SAS, Fleet Maritime Services (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services Holdings (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services International Limited, GXI LLC, Gibs Inc., Global Experience Innovators Inc., Global Fine Arts Inc., Global Shipping Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Grand Cruise Shipping Unipessoal LdA, Grand Turk Cruise Center Ltd., HAL Antillen N.V., HAL Beheer B.V., HAL Cruises Limited, HAL Maritime Ltd., HAL Nederland N.V., HAL Properties Limited, HAL Services B.V., HSE Hamburg School of Entertainment GmbH, Holding Division Iberocruceros SLU, Holland America Line Inc., Holland America Line N.V., Holland America Line Paymaster of Washington LLC, Holland America Line U.S.A. Inc., Ibero Cruzeiros Ltda., Iberocruceros SLU, Information Assistance Corporation, International Cruise Services S.A. de C.V., International Leisure Travel Inc., International Maritime Recruitment Agency S.A. de C.V., Milestone N.V., Navitrans S.R.L., Ocean Bahamas Innovation Ltd., Ocean Medallion Fulfillment Ltd., Operadora Catalina S.r.L., P&O Princess American Holdings, P&O Princess Cruises International Limited, P&O Princess Cruises Pension Trustee Limited, P&O Properties (California) Inc., P&O Travel Limited, Prestige Cruises Management S.A.M., Prestige Cruises N.V., Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd., Princess Cays Ltd., Princess Cruise Corporation Inc., Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruises and Tours Inc., Princess U.S. Holdings Inc., RCT Maintenance & Related Services S.A., RCT Pilots & Related Services S.A., RCT Security & Related Services S.A., Roatan Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Royal Hyway Tours Inc., Santa Cruz Terminal S.L., SeaVacations Limited, SeaVacations UK Limited, Seabourn Cruise Line Limited, Shanghai Coast Cruise Consulting Co. Lda, Ship Care (Bahamas) Limited, Sitmar Cruises Inc., Spanish Cruise Services N.V., Sunshine Shipping Corporation Ltd., T&T International Inc., Tour Alaska LLC, Transnational Services Corporation, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., Westmark Hotels Inc., Westmark Hotels of Canada Ltd., Westours Motor Coaches LLC, Wind Surf Limited, and World Leading Cruise Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.. Trumps war with California over its refusal to hand over immigrants to ICE is not going all that well. Photo: Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images Confirming an interpretation by a district court judge last year, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (by a two-to-one margin) a Trump executive order seeking to deny grants to sanctuary cities an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. The order, which was a key part of the administrations efforts to intimidate and demonize California state and local governments accused of failing to cooperate with ICE, has not been implemented, mainly because Judge William Orrick issued a nationwide injunction against it in November of 2017 (after putting a hold on it in April until the case was heard). The appeals court panel concluded that the order usurped Congresss exclusive power over federal spending and did not reflect any inherent presidential power or any congressional delegation of authority. In a nice twist, the judges cited one of conservatives favorite jurists as authority for denying the Executive branch this kind of prerogative: As then-Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist noted in 1969, [w]ith respect to the suggestion that the President has a constitutional power to decline to spend appropriated funds, we must conclude that existence of such a broad power is supported by neither reason nor precedent. The Ninth Circuit also made short work of this rather interesting argument from the Justice Department: [T]he Administration argues that the Executive Order is all bluster and no bite, representing a perfectly legitimate use of the presidential bully pulpit, without any real meaninggesture without motion, as T.S. Eliot put it. There certainly was a lot of bluster, from Trump, from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and from thenWhite House press secretary Sean Spicer, when the order was promulgated just a few days after the presidents inauguration. But the judges concluded that the plain language of the order did represent a tangible threat to the two California counties that brought the suit, which were pretty clearly targeted along with the State of California itself. Speaking of bluster, you can be sure the administration and quite possibly the president himself will conduct their usual attacks on the liberal Ninth Circuit. Indeed, Orricks original ruling produced such an outburst from thenWhite House chief of staff Reince Priebus: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus says the ruling is another case of the 9th Circuit going bananas in response to the 9th Circuit Court based in San Francisco, where judges have also ruled against Trumps travel bans. The administration has often criticized the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Orrick does not sit on that court but his district is in the territory of the appeals court, which has ruled against one version of Trumps travel ban. Priebus also threatened to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which remains an option, though its arguments seem to lack much public appeal. The dissenting judge who sided with Team Trump did so only on grounds that the order had never actually been enforced, which isnt a good look for an administration trying to look tough on sanctuary cities and the godless State of California. Not enforcing an order designed to punish officials for not enforcing the law wont win much applause at MAGA rallies. The government did win one argument before the judges: they said Orricks nationwide injunction wasnt sufficiently justified by evidence the administration was targeting jurisdictions outside the Golden State. So they sent the case back to him for further examination of that issue. Since Orricks second deliberation will force Trumps lawyers to look toothless and feckless all over again in order to avoid a nationwide injunction, they may not put up that much of a fight. BNP Paribas SA provides a range of banking and financial services in France and internationally. It operates through two divisions, Retail Banking and Services, and Corporate and Institutional Banking. The company offers long-term corporate vehicle leasing, and rental and other financing solutions; and digital banking and investment services, cash management, and factoring services to corporate clients, as well as wealth management services. It also provides credit solutions for individuals under the Cetelem, Cofinoga, Findomestic, AlphaCredit, and Opel Vauxhall brands; savings and protection solutions, including insuring individuals, and their personal projects and assets; and asset management, private banking, and real estate services. In addition, the company offers global market services, including investment, hedging, financing, research, and market intellingence across asset classes; security services comprising clearing, custody, and asset and fund services, as well as corporate trust, and market and financing services; and corporate trade and treasury, debt financing, specialized financing, strategic advisory, mergers and acquisition, and equity capital market services for institutional and corporate clients. The company was formerly known as Banque Nationale de Paris and changed its name to BNP Paribas SA in May 2000. BNP Paribas SA was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Paris, France. Read More The Boeing Co. is an aerospace company, which engages in the manufacture of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space and Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital. The Commercial Airplanes segment includes the development, production, and market of commercial jet aircraft and provides fleet support services, principally to the commercial airline industry worldwide. The Defense, Space and Security segment refers to the research, development, production and modification of manned and unmanned military aircraft and weapons systems for global strike, including fighter and combat rotorcraft aircraft and missile systems; global mobility, including tanker, rotorcraft and tilt-rotor aircraft; and airborne surveillance and reconnaissance, including command and control, battle management and airborne anti-submarine aircraft. The Global Services segment provides services to commercial and defense customers. The Boeing Capital segment seeks to ensure that Boeing customers have the financing they need to buy and take delivery of their Boeing product and manages overall financing exposure. T Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Zimmer Biomet: Abbott Spine, Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., Beijing Montagne Medical Device Co. Ltd., BioMet, Biomet 3i Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet 3i Belgium N.V., Biomet 3i Benelux Holdings N.V., Biomet 3i Dental Iberica SL, Biomet 3i LLC, Biomet 3i Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet 3i Netherlands B.V., Biomet 3i Nordic AB, Biomet 3i Portugal Lda, Biomet 3i Switzerland GmbH, Biomet 3i Turkey, Biomet 3i UK Ltd., Biomet 3i do Brasil Comercio de Aparelhos Medicos Ltda., Biomet Acquisitions (Unlimited), Biomet Argentina SA, Biomet Australia Pty. Ltd., Biomet Biologics LLC, Biomet Brazil Medical Device Ltda., Biomet C.V., Biomet CV Holdings LLC, Biomet Cementing Technologies AB, Biomet Chile SA, Biomet China Co. Ltd., Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Biomet Deutschland Holding GmbH, Biomet Fair Lawn LLC, Biomet Finance US LLC, Biomet France Sarl, Biomet Global Supply Chain Center B.V., Biomet Healthcare Management GmbH, Biomet Holdings B.V., Biomet Hong Kong CBT Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong Holding Ltd., Biomet Hong Kong No. 1 Ltd., Biomet Inc., Biomet Insurance Ltd., Biomet International Inc., Biomet International Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Leasing Inc., Biomet Manufacturing LLC, Biomet Mexico S.A. de C.V., Biomet Microfixation B.V., Biomet Orthopedics LLC, Biomet Orthopedics Puerto Rico Inc., Biomet Spain Orthopaedics S.L., Biomet Sports Medicine LLC, Biomet Trauma LLC, Biomet U.S. Reconstruction LLC, Biomet UK Healthcare Ltd., Biomet UK Ltd., CD Diagnostics, CD Diagnostics Inc., CD Laboratories Inc., Cayenne Medical, Cayenne Medical Inc., CelgenTek Innovations Corporation, Centerpulse Ltd, Changzhou Biomet Medical Devices Co. Ltd., Citra Labs LLC, Clinical Graphics, Compression Therapy Concepts Inc., Compression Therapy Products, D.S. Comp Ltd., Dornoch Medical Systems, Dornoch Medical Systems Inc., EBI Holdings LLC, EBI LLC, EBI Medical Systems LLC, EBI Patient Care Inc., ETEX Corporation, ETEX Holdings Inc., Electro-Biology LLC, Endius, Espanormed S.L., Etex, ExtraOrtho, Hakuho Company Ltd., IC Guided Surgery SRL, Implant Concierge LLC, Implant Innovations Holdings LLC, Implex, InnoVision Inc., Interpore Cross International LLC, JERDS Luxembourg Holding Sarl, Kirschner Medical Corporation, Knee Creations, LDR Brasil Comercio Importacao e Exportacao Ltda., LDR Holding, LDR Medical Hong Kong (branch), LDR Medical S.A.S., LVB Acquisition Inc., Lanx Puerto Rico LLC , Lanx Srl, Medical Compression Systems Inc., Medtech SA, Medtech SAS, Medtech Surgical GmbH, Medtech Surgical Inc., NORMED Medizin-Technik GmbH, ORTHOsoft ULC, Ortho Transmission, Orthopaedic Advantage LLC, Ospol Participacoes Ltda., Representaciones Zimmer Inc. S. de R.L. de C.V., Respondwell, SM Re Ltd., Scandimed Holding AB, Shanghai Biomet Business Consulting Co. Ltd., Synvasive Technology, Synvasive Technology Inc., ZB COOP C.V., ZB COOP LLC, ZB Cayman (Asia) Holding Ltd., ZB Cayman Island CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Dental India Private Limited, ZB EMEA 1 LP, ZB EMEA Finance UK 1 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 2 Ltd., ZB EMEA Finance UK 3 Ltd., ZB EMEA US UK LLC, ZB Hong Kong CBT 2 Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Holding Ltd., ZB Hong Kong Ltd., ZB Manufacturing LLC, ZB UK Group Holdings Limited, ZH2LX Barbados Branch (branch), Zfx, Zfx GmbH, Zfx Innovation GmbH, Zhejiang Biomet Medical Products Co. Ltd., Zimmer (Shanghai) Medical International Trading Co. Ltd., Zimmer Asia (HK) Ltd., Zimmer Australia Holding Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Asel Alarabiya Limited Company, Zimmer Biomet Asia Holding B.V., Zimmer Biomet Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Austria GmbH, Zimmer Biomet BVBA, Zimmer Biomet CBT, Zimmer Biomet CBT 2, Zimmer Biomet CMF and Thoracic LLC, Zimmer Biomet Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Centroamerica SA, Zimmer Biomet Comp Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Denmark ApS, Zimmer Biomet Dental Canada Inc., Zimmer Biomet Dental K.K., Zimmer Biomet Deutschland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Distribution LLC, Zimmer Biomet Finance Srl, Zimmer Biomet Finance US Holding Inc., Zimmer Biomet Finland Oy, Zimmer Biomet France Holdings SAS, Zimmer Biomet France SAS, Zimmer Biomet GK, Zimmer Biomet Global Holdings Switzerland GmbH, Zimmer Biomet Hellas SA, Zimmer Biomet Ireland Limited, Zimmer Biomet Italia Srl, Zimmer Biomet Korea Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Nederland B.V., Zimmer Biomet New Zealand Company, Zimmer Biomet Norway AS, Zimmer Biomet OUS Holdings AG, Zimmer Biomet Polska Sp. z.o.o, Zimmer Biomet Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Zimmer Biomet Pty. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Romania S.R.L., Zimmer Biomet South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Zimmer Biomet Spain S.L., Zimmer Biomet Spine Inc., Zimmer Biomet Sweden AB, Zimmer Biomet Taiwan Co. Ltd., Zimmer Biomet UK Ltd., Zimmer Biomet US 2 Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT I Holding Inc., Zimmer CBT II Holding Inc., Zimmer CEP USA Holding Co., Zimmer CEP USA Inc., Zimmer CIS Ltd., Zimmer CV Inc., Zimmer Caribe LLC, Zimmer Cayman Islands Holding Co. Ltd., Zimmer Co-op Holdings LLC, Zimmer Colombia SAS, Zimmer Czech sro, Zimmer Dental (Shanghai) Medical Device Co. Ltd., Zimmer Dental Chile Spa, Zimmer Dental GmbH, Zimmer Dental Inc., Zimmer Dental Italy Srl, Zimmer Dental Ltd., Zimmer Dental SAS, Zimmer Finance Ireland, Zimmer France Manufacturing Sarl, Zimmer Germany Holdings GmbH, Zimmer GmbH, Zimmer GmbH Euro IP Branch (branch), Zimmer GmbH Winterthur Branch (branch), Zimmer Gulf FZ LLC, Zimmer Inc., Zimmer India Private Ltd., Zimmer International Logistics GmbH, Zimmer Investments LLC, Zimmer Knee Creations Inc., Zimmer Luxembourg II Sarl, Zimmer Luxembourg Sarl, Zimmer Manufacturing B.V., Zimmer Manufacturing B.V. (branch), Zimmer Medical Malaysia SDN BHD, Zimmer Netherlands Cooperatief U.A., Zimmer Orthobiologics Inc., Zimmer Orthopedics Manufacturing Limited, Zimmer Production Inc., Zimmer Pte. Ltd., Zimmer Slovakia sro, Zimmer Southeast Florida LLC, Zimmer Spine Next Inc., Zimmer Spine SAS, Zimmer Surgical, Zimmer Surgical Inc., Zimmer Surgical SA, Zimmer Switzerland Holdings LLC, Zimmer Switzerland Manufacturing GmbH, Zimmer Tibbi Cihazlar Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, Zimmer Trabecular Metal Technology Inc., Zimmer Trustee Ltd., Zimmer UK Limited, Zimmer US Inc., and Zimmer do Brasil Comercio Ltda.. Greene King plc operates as a pub retailer and brewer in the United Kingdom. The company operates through three segments: Pub Company, Pub Partners, and Brewing & Brands. Its brands include Greene King Local Pubs, Hungry Horse, Flaming Grill, Farmhouse Inns, and Chef & Brewer. The company is also involved in brewing, marketing, and selling beer under the Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, and Belhaven Best brands. In addition, Greene King plc engages in the employment, financing, pension trustee, and property businesses. As of April 30, 2018, it operated 2,855 managed, tenanted, leased, and franchised pubs, restaurants, and hotels. Greene King plc was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in Bury St Edmunds, the United Kingdom. Read More Paul Ryans PAC: Dont vote for Democrats because their House Speaker would support cutting Medicare. Photo: YouTube/CLFSuperPAC The Republican Party knows that it wont win many elections by campaigning on its governing agenda. After winning unified control of the federal government in 2016, the GOP Congress prioritized two legislative goals: slashing federal health-care spending by roughly $1 trillion, and cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations by even more than that. But one would hardly know that from the GOPs paid messaging in 2018. In their campaign ads, Republican candidates are avoiding all mention of their partys attempts to gut Medicaid and repeal the Affordable Care Act while giving short shrift to Donald Trumps signature tax cuts. As of May, only one-third of the ads arguing that Republicans should retain control of Congress mentioned the cut, the only major legislation that the current Republican Congress has passed. Instead, the GOP has opted to campaign against open borders (which no Democratic elected official supports), for loyalty to Donald Trump, and, above all, in opposition to Nancy Pelosi and the godless urbanism, rootless cosmopolitanism, and crytpo-communist femi-nazism she (apparently) represents. Troy Balderson, the Republican candidate in next weeks special congressional election in Ohio, abandoned talk of the tax cuts weeks ago. While his rival, Democrat Danny OConnor, has savaged the GOPs corporate tax giveaway, Balderson and his allies have tried to keep Buckeye voters focused on what really matters: how scary nonwhite immigrants are. Ill end sanctuary cities to stop illegals from taking our jobs and use conservative grit to build the darn wall, Balderson said in one recent ad. Meanwhile, the Paul Ryanaligned Congressional Leadership Fund PAC has informed Ohioans that OConnor wants to open Americas doors to more crime and drugs. But these appeals to white racial panic arent doing the trick. Weeks ago, internal GOP polls (reportedly) showed the Republican leading OConnor by double digits; now, they show OConnor at Baldersons heels. And a Monmouth University poll released this week found the two candidates in a statistical tie. Thats alarming for all Republicans the party has held Ohios 12 congressional district for 35 years. If they cant win areas like this, they cant keep the House. So, in the races final days, Paul Ryans super-PAC has provided Balderson with a new message. Instead of merely papering over the GOPs fiscal priorities, the Congressional Leadership Fund has opted to lie baldly about what those policies are. Its closing argument is, in essence: Dont vote for Danny OConnor because if Democrats control the House, they will elect a Speaker who supports cutting Medicare. After showing a clip of OConnor appearing to tell MSNBCs Chris Matthews that hed be open to supporting Nancy Pelosi for Speaker, a voice-over warns, Dishonest Danny lied about Pelosi. Now hes lying about Social Security and Medicare. OConnor supports a Pelosi-backed plan that cuts Medicare spending by eight hundred billion. That plan is Obamacare, which modestly reduced Medicare reimbursement rates to hospitals and insurers, while doing nothing to reduce benefits for seniors. Nancy Pelosi vociferously opposes cuts to such benefits in the future. The current Republican Speaker of the House, by contrast, has been calling for steep cuts to Medicare benefits for more than a decade and said, just last December, that his party is going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit its the health-care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health-care entitlements. Balderson, for his part, has expressed openness to raising the retirement age for Social Security. There is nothing unusual about Republicans campaigning on policies that are diametrically opposed to those that they intend to implement upon winning power. As Mitt Romneys running mate, Paul Ryan decried Obamacares nonexistent cuts to Medicare benefits, even as his own budget proposed draconian reductions in Medicare spending. Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency on promises to replace Obamacare with a health-care plan that would take care of everybody, oppose any and all cuts to Medicaid, and raise taxes on hedge-fund managers. Once in office, Trump and his party tried to do the opposite but never stopped lying about their intentions. Last September, Trump vowed that his tax plan would not benefit the wealthy, while Mitch McConnell suggested that his health-care bill would help the 25 million Americans who arent covered now. In recent years, the GOP has launched many attacks on the formal mechanisms of democracy, by attempting to suppress the votes of Democratic consitutencies through voter-ID laws, felon disenfranchisement, and racially discriminatory restrictions to early voting. But the partys hostility to the substance of democracy and its manifest contempt for its own voters is just as significant a threat to self-government in the United States. Democratic politicians certainly break campaign promises, and try to divert public attention from the more unpopular aspects of their agenda. But the party does generally run on the policies it intends to make its governing priorities and is at least directionally honest about what those policies are. (Barack Obama did not campaign on promises to reduce federal health-care spending and lower taxes on the superrich.) What the Republican Party has been doing running on one set of fiscal policies, and then attempting to implement the precise opposite once in power (typically, by rushing donor-approved bills through Congress without extended hearings or debate) should not be a source of outrage merely for Democrats. News outlets that claim a commitment to objectivity and democracy must not propagate the fiction that the GOP is a normal political party, which earnestly represents the interests of (nearly) half the country; because, if Americas governing political party pays no price for serially misleading voters about what it has done and intends to do with political power, then objective truth and popular sovereignty will have no meaningful place in American politics. The following companies are subsidiares of TransDigm Group: ARA Deutschland GmbH, ARA Holding GmbH, Abbott Electronics Ltd., Acme Aerospace, Acme Aerospace Inc., Adams Rite Aerospace GmbH, Adams Rite Aerospace Inc., Advanced Inflatable Products Limited, Aero-Instruments, AeroControlex Group Inc., Aerosonic, Aerosonic LLC, Air-Sea Survival Equipment Trustee Limited, Airborne Acquisition Inc., Airborne Global Inc., Airborne Holdings Inc., Airborne Systems, Airborne Systems Canada Ltd., Airborne Systems Group Limited, Airborne Systems Holdings Limited, Airborne Systems Limited, Airborne Systems NA Inc., Airborne Systems North America Inc., Airborne Systems North America of CA Inc., Airborne Systems North America of NJ Inc., Airborne Systems Pension Trust Limited, Airborne UK Acquisition Limited, Airborne UK Parent Limited, Aircraft Materials Limited, AmSafe, AmSafe Aviation (Chongqing) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., AmSafe Bridport (Private) Ltd., AmSafe Bridport Ltd., AmSafe Global Holdings Inc., AmSafe Global Services (Private) Limited, AmSafe Inc., Arkwin Industries, Arkwin Industries Inc., Aviation Technologies, Aviation Technologies Inc., Avionic Instruments, Avionics Instruments, Avionics Specialties Inc., AvtechTyee Inc., Beta Transformer Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Beta Transformer Technology Corporation, Beta Transformer Technology LLC, Breeze-Eastern Corporation, Breeze-Eastern LLC, Bridport Erie Aviation Inc., Bridport Holdings Inc., Bridport Ltd., Bridport-Air Carrier Inc., Bruce Aerospace Inc., Bruce Industries, CDA InterCorp, CEF Industries LLC, Champion Aerospace, Cobham, DDC Electronics K.K., DDC Electronics Ltd., DDC Electronics Private Limited, DDC Electronique S.A.R.L., DDC Elektronik GmbH, DDL195 Limited, Data Device Corp., Data Device Corporation, Dukes Aerospace Inc., Edlaw Limited, Electromech Technologies LLC, Elektro-Metall Export GmbH, Elektro-Metall Paks KFT, Esterline, Extant Components Group Holdings Inc., Extant Components Group Intermediate Inc., GQ Parachutes Limited, HARCO LLC, Harco, Hartwell Corporation, ILC Holdings Inc., Irvin Aerospace Limited, IrvinGQ France SAA, IrvinGQ Limited, Johnson Liverpool LLC, Kirkhill Elastomers, Kirkhill Inc., Kunshan Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., MarathonNorco Aerospace Inc., McKechnie Aerospace, McKechnie Aerospace (Europe) Ltd., McKechnie Aerospace DE Inc., McKechnie Aerospace DE LP, McKechnie Aerospace Holdings Inc., McKechnie Aerospace US LLC, Mecanismos de Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Militair Aviation Ltd., Norco, Nordisk Asia Pacific Limited, Nordisk Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Nordisk Aviation Products (Kunshan) Ltd., Nordisk Aviation Products AS, North Hills Signal Processing Corp., North Hills Signal Processing Overseas Corp., Pascall Electronics Limited, Pemberton 123 Ltd., Pexco Aerospace, Pexco Aerospace Inc., PneuDraulics, PneuDraulics Inc., Rancho TransTechnology Corporation, Retainers Inc., SSP Industries, Schneller, Schneller Asia Pte. Ltd., Schneller S.A.R.L., Schroth Safety Products, Semco Instruments, Semco Instruments Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Inc., Shield Restraint Systems Ltd., Signal Processing Matamoros S.A. de C.V., Skandia, Skandia Inc., Skurka Aerospace, Skurka Aerospace Inc., Symetrics, Symetrics Industries LLC, Symetrics Technology Group LLC, TDG Germany GmbH, TEAC Aerospace Holdings Inc., TEAC Aerospace Technologies Inc., TTERUSA Inc., Tactair Fluid Controls Inc., Takata Protection Systems, Technical Airborne Components Industries SPRL, Telair International, Telair International AB, Telair International GmbH, Telair International LLC, Telair International Services PTE Ltd (JV 70.5%), Telair US LLC, Texas Rotronics Inc., TransDigm (Barbados) SRL, TransDigm European Holdings Limited, TransDigm Ireland Ltd., TransDigm Receivables LLC, TransDigm UK Holdings plc, Transicoil (Malaysia) Sendirian Berhad, Transicoil LLC, Whippany Actuation Systems, Whippany Actuation Systems LLC, XCEL Power Systems Ltd., Young & Franklin, and Young & Franklin Inc.. American Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Sealed Air: A.P.S. (Holdings) Limited, AFP Trading (China) Co. Ltd., AFPTOH LTD, APS Automated Packaging Systems GmbH & Co. KG, APS Verwaltungs-GmbH, Air Ride Pallets Hong Kong Limited, Austin Foam Plastics Inc. (dba AFP Inc.), Automated Packaging Systems, Automated Packaging Systems Asia Holding Company Limited, Automated Packaging Systems Comerciale Importacao do Brasil Ltda., Automated Packaging Systems Europe, Automated Packaging Systems LLC, Automated Packaging Systems Limited, Automated Packaging Systems Southeast Asia Co. Ltd., B+ Equipment, B+ Equipment SAS, Beacon Holdings LLC, Biosphere Industries, BluPack (New Zealand), Blue Dot Packaging Pty Ltd., Cactus (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Cryovac (Malaysia) SDN. BHD, Cryovac Brasil Ltda., Cryovac Holdings II LLC, Cryovac International Holdings Inc., Cryovac LLC*, Cryovac Leasing Corporation, Cryovac Londrina Ltda., Cryovac Packaging Portugal Embalagens Ltda., Cryovac-Sealed Air de Costa Rica S.R.L., DELTAPLAM Embalagens Industria e Comercio, Diversey, Diversey J Trustee Limited, Diversey Trustee Limited, Entapack Pty. Ltd., Fagerdala (Chengdu) Packaging Co. Ltd, Fagerdala (Shanghai) Foams Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Shanghai) Polymer Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Suzhou) Packaging Co. Ltd., Fagerdala (Thailand) Limited, Fagerdala (Xiamen) Packaging Co. Ltd., Fagerdala Leamchabung Limited, Fagerdala Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Fagerdala Mexico S.A. de C.V., Fagerdala Mexico Supply Chain S.A. de C.V., Fagerdala Packaging Inc. (Indiana), Fagerdala Singapore Pte Ltd, Fagerdala Singapore Pte. Ltd., Getpacking.com GmbH, Invertol S. de R.L. de C.V., JSC Sealed Air Kaustik, KRIS Automated Packaging Systems Holding Company, Kevothermal LLC, Kevothermal Limited, Nelipak Holdings, Pack-Tiger GmbH, Polyrol Limited, Polyrol Packaging Systems LLC, ProAseptic Technologies S.L., Producembal- Producao de Embalagens LTDA, Reflectix Inc., SLD Air Packaging Paketleme Malzemeleri Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Saddle Brook Insurance Company, Sealed Air (Asia) Holdings BV, Sealed Air (Barbados) S.R.L., Sealed Air (Canada) Co./CIE, Sealed Air (Canada) Holdings B.V., Sealed Air (China) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air (China) Limited, Sealed Air (Israel) Ltd., Sealed Air (Korea) Limited, Sealed Air (Latin America) Holdings II LLC, Sealed Air (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sealed Air (New Zealand), Sealed Air (Philippines) Inc., Sealed Air (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Sealed Air (Ukraine) Limited, Sealed Air Africa (Pty.) Limited, Sealed Air Americas Manufacturing S. de R.L. de C.V., Sealed Air Argentina S.A., Sealed Air Australia (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sealed Air Australia Pty. Limited, Sealed Air Australia Real Estate Pty Ltd, Sealed Air B.V., Sealed Air Belgium N.V., Sealed Air Central America S.A., Sealed Air Chile SpA, Sealed Air Colombia Ltda., Sealed Air Corporation (US), Sealed Air Cyprus Ltd., Sealed Air Denmark A/S, Sealed Air Finance B.V., Sealed Air Finance II LLC, Sealed Air Finance Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Funding LLC, Sealed Air General Trading LLC, Sealed Air GmbH (Germany), Sealed Air GmbH (Switzerland), Sealed Air Hellas SA, Sealed Air Holding France SAS, Sealed Air Holdings (New Zealand) Pty. Ltd., Sealed Air Holdings South Africa Proprietary Limited, Sealed Air Holdings UK I Limited, Sealed Air Holdings UK Limited, Sealed Air Hong Kong Limited, Sealed Air Hungary Ltd., Sealed Air Investment and Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air Japan G.K., Sealed Air LLC, Sealed Air Limited (Ireland), Sealed Air Limited (UK), Sealed Air Luxembourg (I) S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Luxembourg (II) S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Sealed Air Management Holding Verwaltungs GmbH, Sealed Air Multiflex GmbH, Sealed Air Netherlands (Holdings) I B.V., Sealed Air Netherlands (Holdings) II B.V., Sealed Air Netherlands Holdings V B.V., Sealed Air Norge AS, Sealed Air OY, Sealed Air Packaging (India) Private Limited, Sealed Air Packaging (Shanghai) Co. Limited, Sealed Air Packaging (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sealed Air Packaging LLC, Sealed Air Packaging Materials (India) LLP, Sealed Air Packaging S.L.U., Sealed Air Peru S.A.C., Sealed Air Polska Sp. Zoo, Sealed Air Pty Limited, Sealed Air S.A S., Sealed Air S.r.l., Sealed Air South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Sealed Air Svenska AB, Sealed Air Taiwan Limited, Sealed Air UK Limited Partnership, Sealed Air US Holdings (Thailand) LLC, Sealed Air Uruguay S.A., Sealed Air Verpackungen GmbH, Sealed Air de Mexico Operations S. de RL. de C.V., Sealed Air de Venezuela S.A., Sealed Air s.r.o., Shanklin Corp, Shanklin Corporation, TTS-Ciptec, TXAFP Asia Pacific Ltd., TXAFP GP LLC, and Trigon Industries. Pope Francis has again done something sure to annoy conservatives and Donald J. Trump. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images In what looks like an evolutionary step but one that will strike some traditionalist Catholics as a leap bordering on heresy, Pope Francis has ordered the official Church catechism (the compilation of teachings for the instruction of the faithful) to be reworded to change its past acceptance of capital punishment in certain circumstances to instead deem it inadmissable as an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. He also committed the Church to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. This change in teaching was signaled by Francis in 2015. It follows an earlier modification of the traditional teaching on the subject by Pope John Paul II, who limited capital punishment to extreme cases where bloodless means of administering justice are not available. The classic full doctrinal defense of capital punishment was provided in 1955 by Pope Pius XII, reflecting a general position that dated back to St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. Most contemporary Catholic countries do not maintain the death penalty. It has vanished in Europe, with the exception of in Belarus. Its also gradually disappeared in practice, if not always officially in Latin America; only Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, and a smattering of small Caribbean states still maintain the right to put criminals to death. A big share of the countries that still use capital punishment are conservative Islamic or communist (or recently ex-communist) states. Along with Japan, the United States continues to be a big exception to the general rule of highly developed and democratic countries abandoning capital punishment. Along with a lot of other cultural and moral issues, though, it has become politically polarized in this country. The 2016 Democratic national platform pledged the party to abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment. The 2016 GOP platform went very much in the opposite direction: The constitutionality of the death penalty is firmly settled by its explicit mention in the Fifth Amendment. With the murder rate soaring in our great cities, we condemn the Supreme Courts erosion of the right of the people to enact capital punishment in their states. Francis formulation of an antideath penalty teaching is going to make life most uncomfortable for conservative Catholic state legislators, governors, and judges in the 31 states where executions still occur, as the New York Times notes: Francis decision is likely to put many American Catholic politicians in a difficult position, especially Catholic governors, like Greg Abbott of Texas and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, who have presided over executions It could also complicate the lives of judges who are practicing Catholics. In a 2002 article, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016, said, I do not find the death penalty immoral, and added that he was confident that Catholic doctrine allowed for it to be used in some cases. Not any more. That will create some interesting questions for the three Roman Catholic conservatives now on the Supreme Court: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. The subject will likely come up in the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, who is also Catholic. More generally, it will complicate life and rhetoric for Catholics who oppose legalized abortion on pro-life grounds but still support capital punishment. Pro-choice Catholics who oppose capital punishment will still have some big problems, but maybe fewer than before today. So far President Trump hasnt officially reacted to Francis announcement, and he probably shouldnt. But this will add to the number of issues where the administration is at odds with the Vatican, as the Independent notes: The pope made a global push for migrants rights during the height of the international refugee crisis, calling on nations to welcome those impacted by worldwide wars, famine and violence. The pope supported the US Bishops Conference after it denounced Mr Trumps zero tolerance policy along the US-Mexico border, describing the systematic separation of immigrant families as immoral and contrary to our Catholic values. Francis is also pretty clear on warning about a climate-change crisis that Trump largely wont admit to and certainly wont do anything to address. And the president clearly thinks more people need to be put to death: Mr Trump has demanded the Justice Department seek the death penalty in some drug trafficking cases, saying during a speech in March that the government is wasting our time by not executing certain criminals with drug charges. If we dont get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time, he said. And that toughness includes the death penalty. Some religious conservatives will now intensify a posture that might be described as more Catholic than the pope. The vaguely Protestant president with his heathenish habits should probably just leave Francis alone. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at contact@marketbeat.com | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom. Read More Trump has few bigger defenders on Russia than Rand Paul. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images Senator Rand Paul, who has carved out a spot as Donald Trumps Russia wingman, is headed to Moscow this weekend to meet with Russian lawmakers, Reuters reported Thursday. Pauls goal on the trip, he wrote in a Politico piece published last month, is to discuss common ground with their leaders and help prevent further, unnecessary escalation of tensions. Pauls trip to Moscow comes one month after a group of senators visited the Russian capital and confronted their counterparts, including Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, about the Kremlins actions in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But based on what hes said in the past, Paul appears to have little interest in taking the Russians to task. Last month on CNN, Paul said it was a waste of time to try to hold Vladimir Putin responsible for election interference. I think we mistake our response if we think its about accountability from the Russians. Theyre another country, theyre going to spy on us, they do spy on us, theyre going to interfere in our elections, Paul said. We all do it, he added on the eve of Donald Trumps meeting with Putin in Helsinki, drawing criticism for equating the U.S. to Russia. In recent months, Paul, a longtime skeptic of U.S. intelligence services, has emerged as Trumps biggest defender against the Russia investigation, even adopting the presidents language to talk about the witch hunt. He was also the most vocal defender of Trumps meeting with Putin, repeatedly saying that he thinks its a good idea for us to have conversation even with our adversaries. For his trouble, he got an atta boy from the president. HeidelbergCement AG, together with its subsidiaries, produces and distributes cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, and asphalt worldwide. It provides cement products, including special cements with targeted characteristics, special geotechnical building materials, and a range of binders. The company also offers natural stone aggregates, such as sand and gravel; crushed aggregates comprising stone chippings and crushed stones; and concrete/ready-mixed concrete for use in the construction of tunnels or bridges, office buildings, or schools, as well as for the production of precast concrete parts consisting of stairs, ceiling elements, or structural components. In addition, it provides asphalt primarily used in the construction of infrastructure, such as roads; and trades in cement, clinker, solid and alternative fuels, and other building materials. The company was founded in 1873 and is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Humana: 154th Street Medical Plaza, 516-526 West Main Street Condominium Council of Co-Owners, 54th Street Medical Plaza, American Eldercare, American Eldercare of North Florida, Anvita Health, Arcadian Health Plan, Arcadian Management Services, Atlantis Physician Group, CAC Medical Center Holdings, CAC-Florida Medical Centers, CDO 1, CDO 2, CHA HMO, CHA Service Company, Care Partners Home Care, CareNetwork, CarePlus Health, CarePlus Health Plans, Cariten Health Plan Inc., Certify Data Systems, CompBenefits, CompBenefits Company, CompBenefits Corporation, CompBenefits Dental, CompBenefits Direct, CompBenefits Insurance Company, Complex Clinical Management, Concentra Managed Care, Continucare Corporation, Continucare MDHC, Continucare MSO, Continucare Medical Management, Dental Care Plus Management, DentiCare, Emphesys, Emphesys Insurance Company, Enclara Healthcare, FPG, FPG Acquisition Corp., FPG Acquisition Holdings Corp., FPG Senior Services, Family Physicians of Winter Park, Go365, HUM Provider Holdings, HUM-e-FL, Harris Rothenberg International, Health Value Management, Humana Active Outlook, Humana At Home (Dallas), Humana At Home (Houston), Humana At Home (San Antonio), Humana At Home (TLC), Humana At Home 1, Humana Behavioral Health, Humana Benefit Plan of Illinois, Humana Dental Company, Humana Digital Health and Analytics Platform Services, Humana EAP and Work-Life Services of California, Humana Employers Health Plan of Georgia, Humana Government Business, Humana Health Benefit Plan of Louisiana, Humana Health Company of New York, Humana Health Insurance Company of Florida, Humana Health Plan, Humana Health Plan of California, Humana Health Plan of Ohio, Humana Health Plan of Texas, Humana Health Plans of Puerto Rico, Humana Healthcare Research, Humana Inc., Humana Innovation Enterprises, Humana Insurance Company, Humana Insurance Company of Kentucky, Humana Insurance Company of New York, Humana Insurance of Puerto Rico, Humana Management Services of Puerto Rico, Humana MarketPOINT, Humana MarketPOINT of Puerto Rico, Humana Medical Plan, Humana Medical Plan of Michigan, Humana Medical Plan of Pennsylvania, Humana Medical Plan of Utah, Humana Pharmacy, Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Humana Regional Health Plan, Humana Veterans Healthcare Services, Humana WellWorks LLC, Humana Wisconsin Health Organization Insurance Corporation, Humana at Home, HumanaDental, HumanaDental Insurance Company, Humco, Hummingbird Coaching Systems LLC, Independent Care Health Plan, KMG America, Kindred Healthcare, MCCI Group Holdings, MCCI Holdings, MCCI Medical Group, MCCI Specialty, MCCI/Lifetime of Aventura, MD Care, METCARE of Florida, Managed Care Indemnity, Medical Care Consortium Incorporated of Texas, MetCare, Metropolitan Health Networks, Naples Health Care Specialists, North Region Providers, Nursing Solutions, OSF HealthCare, PHP Companies, Partners in Integrated Care, Preferred Health Partnership, Preservation on Main, Primary Care Holdings, Primary Care Holdings II, Primary Care Specialists of the Palm Beaches, RMA Medical Centers of Florida, RMA Medical Group of Florida, ROHC, SeniorBridge, SeniorBridge Family Companies (CT), SeniorBridge Family Companies (FL), SeniorBridge Family Companies (IN), SeniorBridge Family Companies (MO), SeniorBridge Family Companies (NY), SeniorBridge-Florida, Texas Dental Plans, The Dental Concern, Transcend Population Health Management, and Transcend Population Health Management II. Lincoln National Corp. is a holding company, which operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses through its subsidiary companies. It provides advice and solutions that help empower people to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. The company operates through the following segments: Annuities, Retirement Plan Services, Life Insurance, Group Protection, and Other Operations. The Annuities segment provides tax-deferred investment growth and lifetime income opportunities for its clients by offering fixed and variable annuities. The Retirement Plan Services segment includes employers with retirement plan products and services, primarily in the defined contribution retirement plan marketplaces. The Life Insurance segment focuses on the creation and protection of wealth for its clients by providing life insurance products, including term insurance, both single and survivorship versions of universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance, and indexed universal life insurance products. The Group Protection segment offers group non-medical insurance products, which includes term life, disability, dental, vision and accident and critical illness Read More Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance and Wealth. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, credit cards, and other financial services to personal and small business customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt capital market services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and financial institutions. The Insurance and Wealth segment offers life, home, and car insurance products; and pension, investment, and wealth management products and services. It also provides digital and mobile banking, and telephone services, as well as advisory services for savings, investments, and planning for retirement. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, IWeb, and Agricultural Mortgage Corporation brands. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Wall Street analysts have given Marijuana Company of America a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Marijuana Company of America wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. Muellers witch hunt must be shut down but first, lets chat. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images On Wednesday President Trumps day started, as it often does, with a bizarre tirade attacking Special Counsel Robert Mueller. This tweet storm was particularly unhinged because for the first time, Trump explicitly called on Jeff Sessions to shut down the Mueller probe which isnt possible, since the attorney general recused himself from the investigation more than a year ago. ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One, or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Once again, Trump seemed to be undermining his own case, providing Mueller with fresh evidence of obstruction of justice as he lashed out at the special counsel. Theres no good explanation for Trumps tweet so instead, his team made one nonsensical claim after another, confusing the narrative to the point that well-known points about where Trump and Mueller stand seemed like new revelations. First Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the New York Times that everyone knows Trump only states opinions on Twitter though for months weve watched him use the medium to hire and fire staffers, announce new policies, and pick fights with foreign leaders. Later, Mr. Giuliani said that the fact that Mr. Trump had made the statement on Twitter, a medium that he uses for opinions, was proof that it should not be seen as an order. One of the good things about using that is hes established a clear sort of practice now that he expresses his opinions on Twitter, Mr. Giuliani told reporters. When asked about Giulianis remark, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued her own meaningless denial, saying The president is not obstructing, hes fighting back. Sarah Sanders on Trumps tweet calling for Jeff Sessions to end the Russia investigation: The president is not obstructing, he's fighting back pic.twitter.com/ZkFbfszx7m BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) August 1, 2018 Then when talking with reporters in New Hampshire, Giuliani seized on an opportunity to return to a topic hes been teasing since his first week on the job: Trumps willingness to sit for an interview with Mueller. Well hes always been interested in testifying, its us, meaning the team of lawyers, including me, that have the most reservations about that, Giuliani said. Why should we believe that though, because everything he says indicates the opposite, that he doesnt want to talk with Mueller, a reporter asked. Giuliani gave a quizzical look. Really? I havent heard him say that. Ive heard him say I want to be interviewed if my lawyers can reach an agreement on what the ground rules will be, he answered. Weve had a hard time doing that but were still Im not going to give you a lot of hope its going to happen but were still negotiating, we havent stopped negotiating with them. A few hours later, several stories emerged that built on Giulianis point. ABC News reported that Muellers office said in its latest exchange with Trumps team that prosecutors are willing to limit the scope of their questions, but they want to question the president about obstruction of justice and thats what sparked Trumps call for Sessions to end the probe: Special Counsel Robert Muellers office wants to ask President Donald Trump about obstruction of justice, sources close to the White House tell ABC News. According to sources, the president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to. According to sources familiar with the Presidents reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm. But as TPMs Josh Marshall notes, that doesnt really explain Trumps outburst, as weve known (as much as we know anything about Muellers moves) that he wants to talk to Trump about obstruction before wrapping up that part of his investigation: This simply doesnt make sense as an explanation for Trumps blow up because this is not different from anything that has been widely reported for some time. For months it has been widely reported that Muellers questions to Trump would focus on obstruction. Part of the effort to secure the interview was to finish a report on questions of obstruction of justice so that the Special Counsel could move on to finish the collusion part of the probe. He needed to talk to Trump before he could issue a report because state of mind and intent are so central to obstruction. Then the Times published a report that reiterated something else weve known for months in fact, Giuliani alluded to the point hours earlier: Trump cant wait to talk to Mueller, though his attorneys are against it. The Times said: President Trump pushed his lawyers in recent days to try once again to reach an agreement with the special counsels office about him sitting for an interview, flouting their advice that he should not answer investigators questions, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Mr. Trump has told advisers he is eager to meet with investigators to clear himself of wrongdoing, the people said. In effect, he believes he can convince the investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, of his belief that their own inquiry is a witch hunt. Trump is not known for his grasp of the law or for his consistency, so maybe he really is pushing to talk with Mueller, even as he calls on his attorney general to stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now. But its also possible that the Trump camp is just resurfacing a headline-grabbing story to send the message that Trump is tough and ready to stand up to Mueller, as he did nothing wrong. Later in the piece, the Times highlights the two most obvious explanations for the sudden escalation in the presidents attacks on Mueller: Michael Cohen leaking recordings of his conversations with Trump, and the start of Paul Manaforts trial: For the past week, Mr. Trump has expressed frustration about the confluences of investigations that have dogged him. The president told his advisers that the Russia inquiry and a separate federal investigation in Manhattan into his former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, have undermined him for too long and need to be brought to an end. The presidents concerns were reignited by both the start of the money fraud trial of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and the release last week of a recording on which he and Mr. Cohen are heard discussing hush money payments during the campaign to a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump. He denies the affair. But after a day chock full of seemingly significant revelations about the Trump teams negotiations with Mueller, who can ever remember what the president was ranting about this morning, let alone his embarrassing motivations? The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan. The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Longrun Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Picolabs Inc., Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Chromo G.A. SAS, CisBio US Inc., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio Group SAS, Cisbio KK, Cisbio.com, DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, EUROIMMUN (Hangzhou) Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN (South East Asia) Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN (Tianjin) Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L.U., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics (China) Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa (Pty) Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Spolka z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Discovery, Immunodiagnostic Systems, Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, ManCell SAS, Nexcelom Bioscience, NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Immunotec, Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin Elmer de Mexico S.A., Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer Instruments (Philippines) Corporation, PerkinElmer (Hong Kong) Ltd., PerkinElmer (India) Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer (Ireland) Ltd., PerkinElmer (Schweiz) AG, PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer (UK) Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer Analytical Solutions B.V., PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BVBA, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences (Australia) Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS (Germany) GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS (UK) Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V., PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa (Pty) Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Sweden Health Sciences Holdings AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments France SASU, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments Italia S.r.l., Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Solus Scientific Solutions Inc., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG. Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Read More National Bank of Canada provides various financial products and services to retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit and investment solutions, as well as international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services. The Wealth Management segment provides investment solutions, trust and estate services, banking services, lending services, guaranteed investment certificates, mutual funds, notes, structured products, and other wealth management solutions through internal and third-party distribution networks. The Financial Markets segment offers risk management products and services; and debt and equity underwriting; advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, and financing. The U.S. Specialty Finance and International segment provides specialty finance expertise; financial products and services to individuals and businesses in Cambodia; and the activities of targeted investments in certain emerging markets. The company also offers credit cards. It provides its services through a network of 483 branches and 1,573 banking machines. The company was founded in 1859 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Read More NEXT plc engages in the retail of clothing, footwear, and home products in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through NEXT Retail, NEXT Online, NEXT Finance, NEXT International Retail, NEXT Sourcing, Lipsy, NENA, and Property Management segments. It operates retail stores; an online retail platform; and 190 franchise stores in 36 countries. The company also offers consumer credit; NEXT branded products; and women's, men's, children's, home, and beauty products under the LABEL and Lipsy's own brand, and other third-party brands. In addition, it provides property management services, including holding and lease of properties. The company was formerly known as J Hepworth & Son and changed its name to NEXT plc in 1986. NEXT plc was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Enderby, the United Kingdom. Read More California auto emissions will likely get worse under the administrations new auto emissions proposal. Photo: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images You know you have a real controversy on your hands when the fossil-fuel lobbyist youve placed at the head of the nations chief environmental agency is balking at a major deregulatory action. Recently appointed EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler is reportedly alarmed that a long-planned freeze in auto fuel-efficiency standards, along with a revocation of Californias long-standing waiver to set its own standards (which are followed by 13 other states), will go too far. And hes been joined by the primary intended beneficiary of the proposal, auto manufacturers, who fear it will lead to endless litigation that will leave them in the dark about future regulatory requirements. But all these concerns have been brushed aside as EPA officially announced the big rollback of auto emissions regulations today, representing a major blow to decades of efforts to reduce air pollution and mitigate climate change. The New York Times offered a brief description: The Trump administrations proposal, jointly published by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, would roll back a 2012 rule that required automakers to nearly double the fuel economy of passenger vehicles to an average of about 54 miles per gallon by 2025. The new proposal would freeze the increase of average fuel economy standards after 2021 at about 37 miles per gallon. It would also revoke a legal waiver, granted to California under the 1970 Clean Air Act and now followed by 13 other states, that allows those states to set more stringent tailpipe pollution standards than the ones followed by the federal government. The action is subject to public comment requirements, and wont be final until later in the year, even if its not already snagged in the courts. But it will likely represent the biggest environmental policy fight of the Trump presidency, and an escalation of the administrations multi-front war with the State of California. Part of the fight will be a war of words, projections, and wildly disparate claims about the impact of more stringent fuel economy standards, as the Los Angeles Times reports: The rollback would undermine efforts by California and several other states to meet commitments the U.S. made in the Paris agreement on climate change. It would also worsen air quality problems in Southern California and other areas where officials are already struggling to clean smog and ease rates of asthma and other illnesses. [But] the administration argues its proposal will reduce traffic fatalities by keeping the cost of vehicles down compared with the current emissions standards, which it claims are a safety hazard that restrict the American people from being able to afford newer vehicles with more advanced safety features, better fuel economy, and associated environmental benefits. Embedded in the argument for junking the planned higher standards is the belief that the public is so enamored of gas-guzzling crossovers and pickup trucks that it will keep on driving old cars rather than adjusting to technological improvements. Thats not the way its worked in the past, when higher standards were often supported by the auto industry. The battle over Californias waiver will mostly happen in courtrooms, and the auto industrys concerns about extended litigation are entirely reasonable. The state has enjoyed the power to set its own higher air-quality standards all the way back to the enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970: The Clean Air Act empowers the EPA to regulate air pollution from motor vehicles. To promote uniformity, the law generally bars states from regulating car emissions. But when the Clean Air Act was passed, California was already developing innovative laws and standards to address its unique air pollution problems. So Congress carved out an exemption. As long as Californias standards protect public health and welfare at least as strictly as federal law, and are necessary to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions, the law requires the EPA to grant California a waiver so it can continue to apply its own regulations. California has received numerous waivers as it has worked to reduce vehicle emissions by enacting ever more stringent standards since the 1960s. Other states cant set their own standards, but they can opt to follow Californias motor vehicle emission regulations. California (and other states that follow its policies) will argue that its extended use of the waiver (most recently confirmed in 2013) precludes its termination by executive order. And fighting the states prerogatives (that go back to the tenure of Governor Ronald Reagan) wont be the best look for an administration supposedly dedicated to states rights, particularly in the environmental area. The litigation could, however, take some strange twists, as Grist notes: The legal wrangling could also reopen the case that gave the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases, giving an increasingly right-leaning Supreme Court the chance to weigh in. All this uncertainty explains why automakers would prefer that the Trump administration and the State of California sit down and negotiate a compromise. Given the tensions that have arisen between Sacramento and Washington on a range of issues, that doesnt seem very likely, at least for a while. But the future direction of this conflict is about as clear as a smoggy morning. Premium Brands Holdings Corporation, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes food products primarily in Canada and the United States. It operates in two segments, Specialty Foods and Premium Food Distribution. The company provides meat products and snacks, deli products, beef jerky and halal, sandwiches, pastries, specialty and gourmet products, salads and kettle products, entrees, panini, wraps, subs, hamburgers, burgers, muffins, breads, pastas, and baking and sushi products, as well as processed meat products. It is also involved in the distribution of food products, including meat, seafood, and halal food products, as well as operation of retail/convenience store and concessionary, and provision of food and seafood processing services. The company operates under the brand names of Harvest Meats, Hempler's, Grimm's Fine Foods, Piller's, Freybe, Isernio's, Expresco, SJ Fine Foods, McSweeney's, Made Rite, Fletcher's, Deli Chef, Belmont Meats, Conte Foods, SK Food Group, Oven Pride, Hygaard, Quality Fast Foods, HQ Fine Foods, Creekside Custom Foods, Stuyver's Bread, Bread Garden Express, Audrey's Patisserie, Duso's, Gourmet Chef, Island City Baking, Skilcor, Leadbetter's, Mclean Meats, Buddy's Kitchen, Raybern's, Partner's Crackers, Shaw Bakers, Oberto, Concord Meats, Country Prime Meats, The Meat Factory, and Golden Valley Farms. It serves chains and large format retailers, independent and specialty retailers, foodservice operators, foodservice distributors, and other food manufacturers and food brokers. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Richmond, Canada. Read More Conagra Brands, Inc. engages in the manufacture and sale of processed and packaged foods. It operates through the following segments: Grocery and Snacks; Refrigerated and Frozen; International; and Foodservice. The Grocery and Snacks segment includes branded, shelf stable food products sold in various retail channels in the United States. The Refrigerated and Frozen segment comprises branded, temperature controlled food products sold in various retail channels in the United States. The International segment consists branded food products, in various temperature states, sold in various retail and foodservice channels outside of the United States. The Foodservice segment focuses in the branded and customized food products, including meals, entrees, sauces, and a variety of custom-manufactured culinary products packaged for sale to restaurants and other foodservice establishments in the United States. The company was founded by Alva Kinney and Frank Little in 1919 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL. Read More Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On July 31, DearCC announced its high-end intelligent connected vehicle brand as well as the brand's name "ENOVATE". At the same time, the sketch of the brand's first electric SUV was also unveiled. It is said that the first model under EVOVATE is a pure electric mid-to-large SUV, which will take on the Tesla Model 3 and the BMW i5. Zhang Hailiang, CEO and chairman of DearCC, revealed that the new brand will be officially launched in the second half of this year. When it comes to DearCC's product deployment, to focus on an intelligent digitalized architecture, Zhang Hailiang said DearCC will develop three expansible platforms, and launch eight models over next five years, covering timing-leasing and sharing, privately-owned, as well as high-performance vehicle markets. Moreover, DearCC intends to achieve a sales goal of 360,000 units by 2025. Niu Shengfu, CTO of DearCC stated that ENOVATE will release an all-new intelligent digitalized architecture, IMA, which can quickly adapt the R&D of various models, ranging from A-class models to C-class models, as well as integrate hardware, software, application and cloud service. In the future, IMA can not only provide intelligent services based on different mobility scenarios, but also can support rapid cloud update for software. This architecture will offer an outstanding experience for customers via integrating intelligent driving, AI life assistant and voice control. It is known that DearCC's vehicles currently were manufactured by its contract manufacturer, SOUTH EASTFUJIANMOTOR CORPORATION LTD (South East Auto). 40,000 vehicles will be manufactured during the first phase of their cooperation. Till the end of June, DearCC had set up brand experience spaces in key cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shaoxing and Changsha. What's more, DearCC has formed partnerships with Star Charge, Teld, and Tuhu.cn, establishing a competed charging and aftersales services network. On July 6, Dearcc signed an agreement with Westtiger Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. (Westtiger Automobile), with which DearCC would be qualified to manufacture SUVs via acquiring the manufacturing qualification of SUVs in Westtiger. According to DearCC's plan, its first SUV under the high-end brand will be manufactured in Shaoxing manufacturing base with the manufacturing qualification of Weattiger Automobile. Kim and Trump in Singapore. Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images In a tweet early Thursday morning, President Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen and heaped praise on the brutal dictator. l look forward to seeing you soon! Trump wrote. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018 The problem with Trumps tweet beyond the sycophantic language for the murderous tyrant is that its not clear that the 55 boxes of remains North Korea has returned to the U.S. are authentic. Even Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the bone-filled boxes might not contain Americans. We dont know whos in those boxes, he said. They could go to Australia, they have missing. France has missing. Americans have. Theres a whole lot of us. So, this is an international effort to bring closure for those families. The process for identifying the remains is long, which will allow Trump to brag about how he succeeded in getting Kim to return the bones regardless of whom they belong to. Trumps praise for Kim and his suggestion that a second meeting is in the offing comes just as arms control experts are warning that the country is still producing ballistic missiles. Evidence of its continued work is shown in satellite photos, which indicate that Pyongyang is working on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong, the Washington Post reports. Its not clear which nice letter Trump is referring to in the tweet, but Kim did send him a note in July that mentioned a second meeting. Several locations for such a meeting have been kicked around since the men got together for the first time. Among the possibilities are the White House and New York City. The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel (Ireland) Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Buell Industries Inc., CAPMAX Logistica S.A. de C.V., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS (Australia) Pty Limited, CS (Finance) Europe S.a.r.l., CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, CSMTS LLC, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures (Australasia) S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur (Shanghai) Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Dorbyl U.K. (Holdings) Limited, Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO (Holding) AG, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elga Skandinavian AS, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, FEG Investments L.L.C., Fasver, Filtertek, Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech (Taicang) Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart (Japan) K.K., Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart Foster Belgium, Hobart International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW (China) Investment Company Limited, ITW (Deutschland) GmbH, ITW (EU) Holdings Ltd., ITW (European) Finance Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW (Ningbo) Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Alpha Sarl, ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components (Langfang) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium, ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS (UK) Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Contamination Control (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Delta Sarl, ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.A., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Finance Designated Activity Company, ITW Finance Europe S.A., ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW France Finance Alpha S.A.S., ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments II Inc., ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics (Thailand) Ltd., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Italy S.R.L. in liquidazione, ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France (Luxembourg) S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings UK, ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW Hungary Finance Beta Kft, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Finance Srl, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lombard Holdings Inc., ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW M FILMS II LLC, ITW MH LLC, ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology (China) Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Plastic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Philippines Holdings LLC, ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Spraytec, ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Ideal Molding Technologies LLC, Illinois Tool Works (Chile) Limitada, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Norway AS, Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron (Shanghai) Ltd., Instron (Thailand) Limited, Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Holdings Limited, Instron International Limited, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, International Leasing Company LLC, International Truss Systems Proprietary Limited, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kester Components (M) Sdn. Bhd., Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems (Canada) Inc., Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MOA Enterprises Inc, Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited (Enping), Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek (China) Limited, Teknek (Japan) Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V.. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc operates as an industrial technology company in the United Kingdom and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Civil Aerospace, Power Systems, Defence, and ITP Aero. The Civil Aerospace segment develops, manufactures, and sells aero engines for large commercial aircraft, regional jet, and business aviation markets, as well as provides aftermarket services. The Power Systems segment provides high-speed and medium-speed reciprocating engines, and propulsion and power generation systems for the marine, defense, power generation, and industrial markets. The Defence segment offers aero engines for military transport and patrol aircraft applications; and naval engines and submarine nuclear power plants, as well as aftermarket services. The ITP Aero segment engages in the design, research and development, manufacture and casting, assembly, and testing of aeronautical engines and gas turbines. It also provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for regional airlines, as well as business aviation, industrial, and defense applications. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More WellCare Health Plans, Inc. provides government-sponsored managed care services. The company operates in three segments: Medicaid Health Plans, Medicare Health Plans, and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs). The Medicaid Health Plans segment offers plans for beneficiaries of temporary assistance for needy families, supplemental security income, and aged blind and disabled residents; and other state-based programs, such as children's health insurance programs and long-term services and supports programs for qualifying families who are not eligible for Medicaid. The Medicare Health Plans segment provides Medicare, a federal program that provides eligible persons aged 65 and over, as well as some disabled persons with a range of hospital, medical, and prescription drug benefits; Medicare Advantage, a Medicare's managed care alternative to the original Medicare program, which offers individuals standard Medicare benefits directly through Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and coordinated care plans that are administered through health maintenance organizations and require members to seek health care services and select a primary care physician from a network of health care providers. The Medicare PDPs segment provides Medicare part D PDP plans to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries. Its PDP plans offer national in-network prescription drug coverage, including a preferred pharmacy network. As of December 31, 2018, the company served approximately 5.5 million members in the United States. WellCare Health Plans, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Read More The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada. Read More Photo: Merrick Morton/ 2010 Columbia Tristar Marketing Group, Inc. One of the most common pieces of advice for new college students is to keep your dorm-room door open so people feel comfortable popping in and introducing themselves. Once your new friends have arrived, though, theres the issue of finding comfortable seating in a tiny, 100-square-foot room thats already packed with two beds, two desks, and everything from your and your roommates Bed Bath & Beyond shopping hauls. Elyza Brillantes, a design expert at Havenly, recommends that students look for something thats space savvy, whether its an option that folds up to be stored when not in use, or something that can act as a double duty piece, like a storage bench or ottoman. And since college students arent always the neatest, its wise to choose stain-resistant materials in darker colors, according to Agnieszka Wilk, CEO and founder of online interior-design service Decorilla. Even after a long time, dark colors look better than light colors, which cant hide wear or dirt as well, she says. To find the best dorm-room chairs that meet all these requirements, we asked Brillantes, Wilk, and two more design experts to share their favorite versatile and compact options. Room Essentials Wood Butterfly Chair $75 $75 Butterfly chairs have long been a staple of dorm-room decor, says Alessandra Wood, director of style and interior-design expert at Modsy. Originally designed in 1938, the chair was developed for an apartment building, so its perfect for small spaces. This folding dorm-room classic can be easily stashed in a closet or under the bed when not in use. These days there can be some stylish options that feel a little more sophisticated, incorporating materials like leather, faux leather, or a wood frame, says Brillantes. She recommends this simple beechwood and linen style that looks pricier than it actually is. $75 at Target Buy Mistana Justa Leather Lounge Chair $225 $225 Its more of an investment than most butterfly chairs, but with its leather seat and elegant gold frame, this stylish option could go right from dorm room to first apartment. Brillantes loves how it feels more unique and elevated from your typical neon-colored options that are marketed to college students. $225 at Wayfair Buy PB Teen Ivory Canvas Butterfly Chair $129 $129 This white butterfly chair with fringe trim is a natural fit for a bohemian-style room decorated with tapestries and macrame wall hangings. Wood says it has a fun and youthful festival vibe, and feels like youre sitting in a hammock. The slipcover is also removable in case you want to swap it out for a shiny gold one if your sophomore-year vibe is more glam than boho. $129 at Pottery Barn Teen Buy Ollieroo Faux Leather Folding Storage Ottoman $28 $28 As far as multifunctional pieces go, Jackie Roessler, marketing director at the Birmingham, Alabama, store Dorm Decor, says you cant go wrong with a storage ottoman. Its more than just a place to sit, she says, its easy to store snacks or shoes in, provides extra seating when hanging out with friends, and can be used to stand on to get into bed or to get items from the top of the closet. This affordable ottoman can be completely folded down, which youll appreciate when loading the car for move-in day. $28 at Amazon Buy $28 at Amazon Buy Jaxx Pixel Bean Bag Chair $183 $183 A structured upgrade to the old-school beanbag chair, this lightweight seating option has a handle so it can easily be moved around, depending on your seating needs. Wilk likes that its low profile, sturdy, and most importantly, water- and stain-resistant. $183 at Wayfair Buy Gold Sparrow Austin Bean Bag Lounger $145 If you often have friends visiting from other schools, Wilk recommends this comfy beanbag lounger that converts to a bed. It can be very useful in case you want a friend to sleep over, she says, and takes up far less room than a futon or sofa bed. $145 at Wayfair Buy Viv + Rae Nola Rocking Chair $276 $276 Most dorm rooms come with a desk chair, but if you do most of your studying in your room, you may want something more comfortable or more your style. A rocking chair is a nice touch for making your room a cozy reading spot. Wilk says this one will help you relax with its high back and on-point ergonomics. $276 at Wayfair Buy George Oliver Draeger Tufted Upholstered Armchair $167 A plush reading chair might seem like itd take up too much space in a dorm room, so Wood advises picking one with a small footprint. Comfortable chairs can often be bulky, so opt for something that has legs, so its lifted from the ground, which creates a lighter and airier feel, she says. Choose a cushioned base and back for comfort. Shes a fan of this West Elm chair, but for something more budget-friendly, we like this tufted chair, available in fun colors like teal or $167 at Wayfair Buy Wrought Studio Altieri Upholstered Armchair $215 now 40% off $130 For a truly unique desk chair, Wilk likes this bold patchwork upholstered chair. It would be the right choice for someone who wants to add a personal touch to their dorm, she says. The style also comes in solid black or brown if the quilted look is a bit much for your room. $130 at Wayfair Buy get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, ultra-flattering pants, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. American Water Works Co., Inc. engages in the provision of complementary water and wastewater services. It operates through the following segments: Regulated Businesses; Market-Based Businesses; and Other. The Regulated Businesses segment provides water and wastewater services to customers. The Market-Based Businesses segment is responsible for Military Services Group, Contract Operations Group, Homeowner Services Group, and Keystone Operations. The Other segment includes corporate costs that are not allocated to the Company's operating segments, eliminations of inter-segment transactions, fair value adjustments and associated income and deductions related to the acquisitions that have not been allocated to the operating segments for evaluation of performance and allocation of resource purposes. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, NJ. Read More Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut. Read More Twiggys wide-leg pants look comfortable. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images Sitting in an airplane seat is never particularly comfortable, and its only gotten more cramped over time: Airplane seats have continued to shrink in width and legroom in recent decades, which helps explain why passengers often show up for flights in leggings and sweatshirts cozy, but not exactly sartorial, outfits. Nonetheless, there are actually some stealthily stylish and comfortable pants out there, perfect for frigid planes and the germy seats you sit in before and during a flight. As a companion to our guide to the best travel shoes, we asked frequent travelers who work in fashion designers, stylists, and writers to share their go-to pants for flights, absurd delays, and whatever else the sometimes-hellish journey of getting from point A to point B throws at you. The Cashmere Sweatpant $140 Despite what we just said about wearing sweats on a plane, several of our frequent travelers told us about the good-looking joggers that they often put on for long flights. There are a great many to choose from, starting with these cashmere Everlane joggers. As Denise Lee, founder of activewear brand Alala, explains, Cashmere actually regulates temperature really well, which is key when dealing with the unpredictable air-conditioning on airplanes. $140 at Everlane Buy Performance Cashmere Blend Lounge Pants $398 If you want to splurge on a really nice pair, we also like the dip-dyed drawstrings on this Tory Burch pair. $398 at Nordstrom Buy Markus Lupfer Appliqued Merino Wool Track Pants $335 Merino wool will also keep you warm on frigid flights, and as a bonus, its also a breathable and odor-repelling material. The slim fit on these gives them a cool look, but theyre just as comfortable as your old-school university sweats, says Sophie Kahn, co-founder of jewelry brand AUrate, of this pair emblazoned with a pair of lips. $335 at Net-A-Porter Buy Tibi Paper Bag Jogger Pants $395 Photo: 18-05-22 nicolepollard AM1 B6 raypfeiffer W For a more statement-making (read: not black, navy, or gray) pair of joggers, go for a pattern and a cut thats slouchy but not schlubby. Printed jogger pants give you comfort and style all in one, says Caroline Maguire, Shopbops fashion director, of this vibrant Tibi version, which gets extra comfort points for being high-waisted, she says. The bright floral pattern is cheery, but isnt too garishly bright, thanks to the navy background; plus, the paper-bag waist is super flattering. $395 at Shopbop Buy Isabel Marant Dobbs Stripe-Trimmed Track Pants $375 now 40% off $225 A close cousin of the go-to track pants: fancy track pants. When I find something I like, I tend to go overboard and get the item in every color. Such was the case with these track pants, says Felicity Sargent, stylist and writer, of this pair from Isabel Marant. Theyre cropped, making them look as great with a slide as they do with a sneak, and theyre high-waisted with a drawstring, so you can adjust to your comfort. Sargent pairs these with vintage T-shirts when traveling. She has also spilled red wine on one of her (multiple, thats how much she likes them) pairs, and says it came out in the wash at home. $225 at MatchesFashion Buy Opening Ceremony Velour Track Pant $175 You could also go for a more ostentatious, logo-striped pair in bright pink, like Kahn. If youre up for a bit more spunk and some yummy velour, these pants will do just the trick; they make me want to fall asleep when I wear them, she says of these Opening Ceremony pants, which have an elastic waistband. She likes to style them with a white tee and blazer. $175 at Orchard Mile Buy Ganni Dubois Polo Pull-On Pant $190 This white pair from hip Danish label Ganni has a faint floral print and a double tuxedo stripe on the sides. $190 at Need Supply Buy Active Icons Track Pants $66 Connie Wang, senior features writer at Refinery29, opts for thick sweatpants with an elastic waistband, like these Adidas styles. Drawstrings and gathered stretch waists end up digging into my torso on long flights, she says. I also like a thick fabric that wont show panty line because thongs on a plane are a form of torture. $66 at Adidas Buy Babaton Cohen Pant Pique $148 Aritzia really excels at travel-ready pants, says stylist and writer Felicity Sargent, who dubs it the master-life-hacking-maker of slacks that feel like sweats, with her favorite being this cropped pair. They have sneaky, invisible elastic bands on the sides, making them super comfy, and they have great slit pockets and are on the low-rise side, which makes them feel fun and 90s. Theyre also, in my experience, though not advertised as such, wrinkle-free, she says. For quickly dressing them up upon landing, add a black cami, mules, and some gold accent jewelry, Sargent suggests. $148 at Aritzia Buy Virtuoso Silk Cashmere Sweatpants $135 now 60% off $54 For lengthy flights, Lee likes this slinky, wide-legged cashmere style. Her favorite version of the luxe take on loungewear is from Naadam, are made from a silk-cashmere blend, and sport side slits to the mid-shin for some movement, and a sporty tux stripe on the sides. $54 at Naadam Buy Drape Wide Pants $15 Uniqlo also makes some whisper-thin rayon wide-leg pants that are especially ideal for warm travelers going to hot places. Comes in four colors. $15 at Uniqlo Buy Pleats Please by Issey Miyake Thicker Bottoms in Black $450 Claire Mazur, Of a Kinds co-founder, swears by voluminous pants with tight vertical pleating for traveling. The last time I boarded an airplane, the flight attendant greeting passengers looked at me and said, You look so comfy and chic. I later asked that same woman for extra barf bags and she did not retract her statement. The thing that prompted her compliment were my Issey Miyake Pleats Please pants, Mazur explains. They look like fancy silk but are actually polyester, they have an elastic waistband, they are loose, they are extremely soft, and, perhaps best of all, they are machine washable. While Mazur recommends any Pleats Please pants, she notes that the wide-leg silhouettes are particularly perfect for flying. $450 at Need Supply Buy Pleated Metallic Trousers $65 Heres a far cheaper alternative with a slight sheen, recommended by Gray. The hint of metallic in these elevates what are essentially pajama pants, she says of these, which are pleated, even though its hard to see in this photo. Also, pleated fabric tends not to wrinkle, so you dont get to the other side with a wrinkly butt, God forbid. $65 at & Other Stories Buy The Fifth Label Hideout Pants $78 Photo: 18-05-04 brunalirio AM1 B7 michaelconway W Harem pants with an exaggerated drop-crotch might be a polarizing style, but theyre an extremely comfortable travel alternative to leggings, says Maguire. She favors this stretchy pair with the slim legs of your favorite workout or couch-vegging leggings, but with a lot more ventilation. This olive color pairs well with anything, from a neutral to a pop of color, she adds. $78 at Shopbop Buy Siro Draped Jogger $118 Or a draped jogger style with a more modest drop-crotch, in dark hues (black, gray, or navy) and a slinky, soft fabric. $118 at Lunya Buy J Brand 8001 Lambskin Leather Pants $998 Last, well leave you with an idea that might be just crazy enough to work: leather pants on an airplane. Kahn explains the unlikely travel appeal, They keep you warm when its cold, which is often the case in the plane, and cool when its hot, and overall theyre super comfortable. She notes that she sizes up in this, and pairs it with a cozy sweater and sneakers for travel days. $998 at Nordstrom Buy OT Leggings $450 Bouchra Ezzahraoui has a similar recommendation: washable leather leggings. (Yes, really.) I find them to be the perfect compromise between a stylish pair of jeans and comfy yoga pants, she says of this pair. Theyre flattering, very flexible, and the leather is machine washable. $450 at Offtrack Buy get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, bed sheets, coffee makers, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. The following companies are subsidiares of Valero Energy: AIR BP-PBF DEL PERU SAC, BELFAST STORAGE LTD, CANADIAN ULTRAMAR COMPANY, COLONNADE TEXAS INSURANCE COMPANY LLC, COLONNADE VERMONT INSURANCE COMPANY, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY LLC, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OF CANADA INC., DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL HOLDINGS LLC, DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL LLC, DIAMOND K RANCH LLC, DIAMOND OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING COMPANY L.P., DIAMOND UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., DSRM NATIONAL BANK, ENTERPRISE CLAIMS MANAGEMENT INC., GCP LOGISTICS COMPANY LLC, GOLDEN EAGLE ASSURANCE LIMITED, HAMMOND MAINLINE PIPELINE LLC, HUNTWAY REFINING COMPANY, MAINLINE PIPELINES LIMITED, MAPLE ETHANOL LTD., MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT GP LLC, MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT L.P., MRP PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, NECHES RIVER HOLDING CORP., NORCO METHANOL LLC, OCEANIC TANKERS AGENCY LIMITED, PARKWAY PIPELINE LLC, PENTA TANKS TERMINALS S.A., PI DOCK FACILITIES LLC, PICKARD PLACE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, PORT ARTHUR COKER COMPANY L.P., PREMCOR USA INC., PROPERTY RESTORATION L.P., PURE BIOFUELS DEL PERU S.A.C., PURE BIOFUELS HOLDINGS L.P., Parkway Pipeline, Premcor, Pure Biofuels Del Peru, SABINE RIVER HOLDING CORP., SABINE RIVER LLC, SAINT BERNARD PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, SUNBELT REFINING COMPANY L.P., THE PREMCOR PIPELINE CO., THE PREMCOR REFINING GROUP INC., THE SHAMROCK PIPE LINE CORPORATION, TRANSPORT MARITIME ST. 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DE C.V., VALERO ARUBA ACQUISITION COMPANY I LTD., VALERO ARUBA FINANCE INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA HOLDING COMPANY N.V., VALERO ARUBA HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO ARUBA MAINTENANCE/OPERATIONS COMPANY N.V., VALERO BROWNSVILLE TERMINAL LLC, VALERO CANADA FINANCE INC., VALERO CANADA L.P., VALERO CAPITAL CORPORATION, VALERO CARIBBEAN SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO COKER CORPORATION ARUBA N.V., VALERO CUSTOMS & TRADE SERVICES INC., VALERO EAST BAY LLC, VALERO ENERGY (IRELAND) LIMITED, VALERO ENERGY ARUBA II COMPANY, VALERO ENERGY INC., VALERO ENERGY LTD, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS GP LLC, VALERO ENERGY PARTNERS LP, VALERO ENERGY UK LTD, VALERO ENTERPRISES INC., VALERO EQUITY SERVICES LTD, VALERO FINANCE L.P. I, VALERO FINANCE L.P. II, VALERO FINANCE L.P. III, VALERO FOREST CONTRIBUTION LLC, VALERO GRAIN MARKETING LLC, VALERO H2 PIPELINE COMPANY LLC, VALERO HOLDCO UK LTD, VALERO HOLDINGS INC., VALERO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS INC., VALERO LIVE OAK LLC, VALERO LOGISTICS UK LTD, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY (PANAMA) LLC, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY COMPANY, VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPLY DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO MARKETING AND SUPPY INTERNATIONAL LTD., VALERO MARKETING IRELAND LIMITED, VALERO MKS LOGISTICS L.L.C., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEDERLAND COOPERATIEF U.A., VALERO NEW AMSTERDAM B.V., VALERO OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONAL SERVICES DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO OPERATIONS SUPPORT LTD, VALERO PARTNERS CCTS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS EAST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS CORPUS WEST LLC, VALERO PARTNERS EP LLC, VALERO PARTNERS HOUSTON LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LOUISIANA LLC, VALERO PARTNERS LUCAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MCKEE LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS MERAUX LLC, VALERO PARTNERS NORTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS OPERATING CO. LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PAPS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS PORT ARTHUR LLC, VALERO PARTNERS SOUTH TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS TEXAS CITY LLC, VALERO PARTNERS THREE RIVERS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST MEMPHIS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WEST TEXAS LLC, VALERO PARTNERS WYNNEWOOD LLC, VALERO PAYMENT SERVICES COMPANY, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE LLC, VALERO PEMBROKESHIRE OIL TERMINAL LTD, VALERO PLAINS COMPANY LLC, VALERO POWER MARKETING LLC, VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL OPERATIONS DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO RAIL PARTNERS LLC, VALERO REFINING AND MARKETING COMPANY, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-ARUBA N.V., VALERO REFINING COMPANY-CALIFORNIA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-OKLAHOMA, VALERO REFINING COMPANY-TENNESSEE L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-MERAUX LLC, VALERO REFINING-NEW ORLEANS L.L.C., VALERO REFINING-TEXAS L.P., VALERO RENEWABLE FUELS COMPANY LLC, VALERO SECURITY SYSTEMS INC., VALERO SERVICES INC., VALERO SKELLYTOWN PIPELINE LLC, VALERO TEJAS COMPANY LLC, VALERO TERMINAL HOLDCO LTD, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, VALERO TERMINALING AND DISTRIBUTION DE MEXICO S.A. DE C.V., VALERO TEXAS POWER MARKETING INC., VALERO ULTRAMAR HOLDINGS INC., VALERO UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., VALERO WEST WALES LLC, VRG PROPERTIES COMPANY, VTD PROPERTIES COMPANY, WARSHALL COMPANY LLC, and ZELIG COMMERCIAL INC.. UniFirst Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, personalization, rental, cleaning, delivery, and sale of a range of uniforms and protective clothing. It operates through following segments: U.S. Rental and Cleaning, Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning, First Aid, and Corporate. The U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning segment purchases, rents, cleans, delivers and sells uniforms and protective clothing and non-garment items in the United States and Canada. The Manufacturing segment designs and manufactures uniforms and non-garment items primarily for the purpose of providing these goods to the U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning reporting segment. The Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning segment sells specialty garments and non-garment items primarily for nuclear and cleanroom applications and provides cleanroom cleaning services at limited customer locations. The First Aid segment provides first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies as well as maintains wholesale distribution and pill packaging operations. The Corporate segment consists of costs associated with its distribution center, sales and marketing, informatio Read More The Delhi High Court yesterday directed the erstwhile promoters of Fortis Healthcare (FHL), the Singh brothers, to appear in person for the next hearing of case filed by Daiichi Sankyo against the Fortis-IHH Healthcare deal. This is the first time that Malvinder and Shivinder Singh have been summoned to court in connection to the Daichii Sankyo-Ranbaxy tussle, where the Court in February upheld the Rs 3,500 crore arbitral award in favour of the Japanese drug maker. According to The Business Standard, the high court asked the Singh brothers to personally appear in the court on August 10 to explain the reasons for discrepancies in their statements over their holdings in FHL. The court wants to understand that whether the Singh brothers and entities related to them have sufficient funds to honour the arbitration order. In the course of the arguments, Justice Rajiv Shakdher observed that "things are getting out of hand" and sent out a strong message to the siblings asking them to cough up the arbitration award money "by any means" or go behind the bars. "Wherever you have to get it (money) from, you get it. You can't take the court for a ride," the judge said. To remind you, soon after the FHL approved the bid submitted by Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad, Daiichi had moved court to block the deal. In its plea, Daiichi had reportedly contended that the proposed transaction "will contravene orders issued by this honourable court, the honourable Supreme Court of India as well as significantly defeat the execution of the award in India". The Japanese company had further argued that the value of the unencumbered assets disclosed to court by Singhs' two holding companies had to be maintained. The daily reported that Daiichi's legal counsel had argued that the Singh brothers, RHC Holding - the holding company through which the Singh brothers had made the sale to Daiichi - and FHL are a single entity. However, the Fortis counsel objected to the same on the ground that the Singhs are no longer in control of the company. The Singh brothers tendered their resignation as FHL directors in February, after they lost the case over the enforcement of the arbitration award. Sources close to the Singh brothers told the daily that the duo is trying to monetise real estate assets of family members to raise funds. "The brothers cannot sell their assets as there is a 'status quo' order on them. Therefore, they are trying to strike deals on properties that belong to the Dhillon family, who are related to the Singh brothers through their maternal side," said a source. Private equity giants are reportedly interested in buying some of the office real estate portfolio that belong to the Dhillons -- Gurinder Singh Dhillon, maternal uncle to the brothers, currently heads the Radha Soami Satsang Trust - and the deal size can run to Rs 100 crore. The big concern for FHL is that a prolonged court battle could delay its deal with IHH, which would be pretty bad news for the cash-strapped healthcare chain. While on one hand Tata Motors is trying to make its business sustainably profitable with Turnaround 2.0 strategy, on the other hand company's share price has taken a beating because of the growing challenges to its luxury cars business, Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR). As part of the new strategy, the company has shut down manufacturing operations in Thailand; nearly closed Nano production; and increased prices of passenger cars in India from this month. But sales of JLR took a hit and its volume growth slowed to low single digits in the past few months due to uncertainty regarding diesel cars in Europe and sales slowdown and heavy discounting in China. The share price went down to Rs 260 -- a fall of around 2 per cent on Thursday -- compared to Rs 440 in the beginning of January, making TML among the worst performing automotive stocks in the world. The share slip is a worry for the company as it gears up for the launch of the new SUV Harrier. Tata Motors has hiked the prices of its passenger vehicles across models by up to 2.2 per cent from this month to offset increased input costs. Last time it had increased prices in April, by 3 per cent. Mayank Pareek, President of Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors told PTI recently, "We have been working on cost cutting, but the problem of input cost pressure is piling up and we will be taking a price increase on our passenger vehicles by August." The company has almost shut the business of its small car Nano. The car will be produced only if the manufacturing facility receives a confirmed order from a buyer. Nano was the brainchild of Ratan Tata, who envisaged giving a safer and more affordable alternative to families riding on two-wheelers. Just one unit of Nano was produced in June and the company sold just three cars in the domestic market. Tata Motors also decided to cease its manufacturing operations in Thailand due to a subscale and unsustainable business in the region. The auto company reported 21.3 per cent increase in domestic sales at 51,896 units in July. Domestic passenger vehicle sales were up 14.37 per cent at 17,079 units last month as compared to 14,933 units in July 2017, the company said in a statement. Mayank Pareek said strong demand of new generation vehicles -- Tiago, Tigor, Hexa and the Nexon -- helped in growing the domestic sales numbers. "The recently launched Nexon AMT has been received well in the market. We will continue to strive towards driving volumes and increasing our market share as part of our on-going turnaround journey," he added. It posted the worst bottom line performance in a decade, during the April-June quarter, registering a loss of Rs 1,863 crore because of slide in sales of JLR cars. JLR accounts for over 80 per cent of company's consolidated revenues and is facing varied risks across its key markets. While North American market is seeing a decline, the rising anti-diesel voices in Europe have hit the demand. Also the uncertainty over Brexit in its home market is still looming large in front of the company. S&P Global Ratings earlier lowered the long-term credit rating of TML to 'BB' from 'BB+', citing weakening volumes and other operational issues plaguing its cash-cow JLR but retained its outlook at 'stable'. Rating agency Moody's downgraded the corporate family rating (CFR) and senior unsecured instrument ratings of the company, by a notch from Ba1 to Ba2, based on expectation of "continued weakness" in the company's consolidated credit metrics over the next two years, led by JLR. In July, Bloomberg reported that Tata Motors restarted talks on the sale of a stake in Tata Technologies just months after a deal with Warburg Pincus was called off. Tata Motors plans to use proceeds from the sale on capital expenditures for its domestic automotive business, the report said. Tata Motors has Rs 12,000 crore investment outlay in the passenger vehicle business for the next three years, said a Financial Express report. The investments will go into its new manufacturing line in Pune, which is going through a complete overhaul and Sanand, Gujarat to house the new modular platforms Omega and Alfa, which are to be built in the next five years. The company looks to build up as much as a dozen new models with these platforms, the reports said. The investment is the part of the company's Turnaround 2.0 strategy, which focuses on winning sustainably in passenger vehicles. In the last financial year, the company had saved Rs 1,900 crore in its passenger vehicle business alone by its Improvement by Actions (ImpACT) initiatives. It first reduced the number of suppliers drastically to save costs and internally introduced an employee stock ownership plans (ESOP), through which Tata Motors is trying to align rewards with performance. ImpACT initiatives at Tata Motors have not just helped the company to cut down its losses, but have seen introduction of new platform, effective use of its plant's capacity utilisation and the new design language on its vehicles like the Nexon, Tiago and Tigor cars. "The global automobile industry is undergoing a structural shift due to technology and market disruption, evolving consumer preferences, market cyclicality, regulatory overhauls and geopolitical uncertainty and the situation calls for "Specific Intervention" to remain sustainably profitable," said N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Motors in his annual letter to the shareholders. He said that the India's automotive industry is the fourth-largest in the world, and the annual production in FY 2017-18 grew sharply at 14.8 per cent. "This sector is well positioned for growth, given low rates of auto penetration, rising incomes and increasing affordability," he said. MQM to join PTI in forming govt KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Wednesday said that it has decided to join the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government in the Centre. Pakistan Peoples Party does not need anyone in Sindh. We will sit alongside PTI on government benches, MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui told a private TV channel. We respect everyones mandate and want everyone to respect ours, he said. We are not aspirant to any office or ministry position, he added. While responding to a question, Siddiqui said that the MQM-P will not be attending the all-parties conference on Thursday. To another question, he said demands of the MQM-P will not change. Separately, Dr Farooq Sattar said that his party has pledged support to PTI as it was a great opportunity for the party to serve Karachi and solve the problems faced by the city and its people. He said that it is heartening to note that the federal government has shown interest in resolving the problems faced by Karachi, adding that MQM will support PTI in this regard. The MQM-P had reportedly put forward certain conditions for joining the PTI-led government in the Centre. An official privy to the engagements between PTI and MQM told reporters that the meetings between the leaders of two parties had remained positive and encouraging. He said the MQM-P had indicated its willingness to enter into coalition with the PTI in Centre if demands put forward by it were met. The MQM-P had reportedly asked the PTI to amend municipal laws, take the party into confidence while selecting the provincial governor and let party reopen offices that were closed in the previous regime. The MQM-P wanted more powers as well as funds for Karachi and Hyderabad local governments. The MQM-P had also called for an end to targeted operations against its workers and demanded release of those captured by the law enforcement agencies. The party had also asked for vote recount in 12 constituencies of Karachi. It further demanded that a university be set up in Hyderabad and quota system in the province be abolished. According to sources in PTI, several party leaders, including Faisal Vawda, were opposing the decision of entering into a coalition with the MQM-P and decided to record their protest with the partys supreme leadership. Another party leader believed that coalition with the MQM-P would ultimately damage the PTI. About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profile We missed you in 2020, but the village of Willy-Nilly roars back to life this fall with all of your favorite shows, games, and vendors! We cannot wait to see you back in our village! Prepare thyself for a non-stop, day-long adventure! Queen Elizabeth and over 150 costumed characters invite you to this 30-acre re-created 16th Century English village where you can enjoy over 400 years of fun in a single day! Featuring nearly 100 shows daily on 11 stages, over 135 unique arts and crafts shops, hearty food and drink fit for Kings, games of skill and human-powered rides to amuse all ages, the Ohio Renaissance Festival offers something for everyone! The most unique shopping experience found anywhere! Throughout the 30-acre village Marketplace youll find over 135 world-class artisans featuring hand made wares such as clothing, jewelry, pottery, weaponry, home decor, art, and more. Demonstrations of time honored crafts like coin striking, glass blowing, stone carving, leather tooling, boot making, candle making, blacksmithing, metalsmithing, and weaving can also be seen. Themed Weekends for 2021 Piaggio Vehicles, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Italian auto major Piaggio group, on Thursday unveiled new series of Ape model of three wheelers in CNG and LPG variants in the domestic market. (Photo courtesy: piaggio.co.in) Pune: Piaggio Vehicles, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Italian auto major Piaggio group, on Thursday unveiled new series of Ape model of three wheelers in CNG and LPG variants in the domestic market. The launch coincides with the roll out of the 2.5 millionth Piaggio vehicle from its sole manufacturing facility in Baramati, Maharashtra. The Ape Xtra LDX and Ape Auto DX are part of the new industry-first water-cooled engine technology range, the company said, adding, the new range of vehicles will meet the growing demand for commercial vehicle mobility solutions particularly suited to intra-city travel. Diego Graffi, managing director and chief executive officer, Piaggio Vehicles, said the launch of the new vehicles, which comprises both passenger as well as cargo categories, is part of firm's plan to strengthen the alternative fuel product portfolio. "The emphasis on alternate fuel technology is growing every day in the country and hence we introduced an improved range of alternate fuel vehicles to cater to the markets needs. The customer initiatives and improved range of alternate fuel vehicles are a part of the company's strategy to further consolidate and strengthen Piaggio's presence in the small commercial vehicle industry," said Graffi. Piaggio today also announced a warranty and insurance program, where customers buying Ape Diesel three wheelers will get a warranty for 42 months or 1.2 lakh kilometres, whichever is earlier). Customers buying the Ape CNG/LPG/petrol three wheelers will be entitled to a warranty of 36 months or 1 lakh kilometres, whichever is earlier. It is also offering each Piaggio customer buying a three wheeler from today a personal accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. Ravi Chopra, chairman, Piaggio Vehicles, said he sees many new opportunities for the company in the future as the Indian market is set to gain a more predominant role in Piaggio's global business. The government is also working on ways to improve the performance of Air India. New Delhi: The government remains committed to the disinvestment of Air India but has no plan to exit the national carrier altogether, Union minister Jayant Sinha said on Wednesday. The proposed stake sale in the debt-laden airline failed to take off as it did not receive any Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential bidders when the deadline ended on May 30. The government is also working on ways to improve the performance of Air India. Against this backdrop, Sinha told the Rajya Sabha that the government remains committed to the disinvestment of Air India. In a written reply, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said the government "has no such plan to exit Air India altogether". "In view of volatile crude prices and adverse fluctuations in exchange rates, the present environment is not conducive to stimulate interest amongst investors for strategic disinvestment of Air India in the immediate near future. "The issue would be revisited once global economic indicators, including oil prices and forex conditions stabilise," he said. As per its audited accounts, the airline's total cumulative losses stood at Rs 47,145.62 crore in financial year 2016-17. According to Sinha, Air India has been making losses since merger with Indian Airlines in 2007. High interest burden, increase in competition, high airport user charges, adverse impact of exchange rate variation and liberalised bilaterals to foreign carriers leading to excess capacity in the market are among the major reasons for the losses, he said. The NITI Aayog is preparing a strategy document to define clear objectives for 2022-23 in diverse areas that are critical for India's transformation including poverty alleviation, the government said on Thursday. New Delhi: The NITI Aayog is preparing a strategy document to define clear objectives for 2022-23 in diverse areas that are critical for India's transformation including poverty alleviation, the government said on Thursday. During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh said the draft 'Strategy for New India@75' document was in the process of being finalised. It is currently going through a wide-ranging consultative process with a range of stakeholders for seeking their comments and suggestions, Singh said. He said the purpose of the document was to define clear objectives in a diverse range of areas critical for India's transformation including poverty alleviation, to note the progress already made and challenges that remain and suggest the way forward. During the discussion Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sought to know what was the criteria to define poverty. The minister said deprivation was one criterion and the effort was to cater to the person standing last in the queue. Earlier as soon as the Question Hour began, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he would like to invite JD(U) member Kehkashan Perveen to chair proceedings. Naidu's decision was welcomed by members of the House who thumped their desks. Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday recommended pan India base price of Rs 492 crore per megahertz for 5G radiowaves, and lowered the base price of frequencies that remained unsold in the 2016 auctions. New Delhi: Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday recommended pan India base price of Rs 492 crore per megahertz for 5G radiowaves, and lowered the base price of frequencies that remained unsold in the 2016 auctions. The price suggested for 5G spectrum is about a third of the 1800 MHz band in 2012. Known as the 2G spectrum at that time, the government had fixed base price at around Rs 2,800 crore per Mhz on pan-India basis for paired spectrum (equal chunk of frequency for uplink and downlink) in the 1800 Mhz band. Trai has recommended that proposed based price of proposed 5G spectrum in 3300-3600 Mhz band "should be equal to 30 per cent of the reserve price of 1800 MHz FDD band" at about Rs 492 crore per Mhz unpaired spectrum on pan India basis. Telecom operators bidding in the next round of auctions for the spectrum to provide next generation of mobile services will have to shell out a minimum of Rs 9,840 crore on pan-India basis to buy spectrum in 3300-3600 Mhz band as Trai has suggested that it "should be put to auction in the block size of 20 MHz". Based on these recommendations submitted to the government, the base prices and timing for the next round of auctions will be finalised. It has recommended auction of entire spectrum available in various bands barring the specific locations or districts where ISRO is using the 25 MHz (3400 MHz - 3425 MHz) of spectrum. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested base price of Rs 3,285 per megahertz for paired spectrum in 1800 Mhz band. For the premium 700 Mhz band, Trai has said that its "reserve price...should be equal to 2 times of reserve price of 1800 MHz spectrum band", resulting in about 43 per cent reduction in price of this band to Rs 6,568 crore per Mhz for paired spectrum. In 2016, government had fixed the base price of 700 Mhz band at Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz, which was around 4 times the price of 1800 Mhz band. Operators were required to buy radiowaves worth Rs 57,425 crore to provide mobile service in this band. The cost of providing mobile services in 2G, 3G and 4G technology is estimated to be around a-third of service provisioning in 1800 Mhz band. About Rs 4 lakh crore of 700 Mhz spectrum was put for auction but there were no takers for this band due to its high price. If Trai recommendations are approved by government, then telecom operators in the next round will have shell out a minimum of Rs 32,840 crore for providing services in the 700 Mhz band on pan India basis. The regulator has suggested using higher of the two figures 80 per cent of the average valuation of spectrum band in the licensed service area or the price realised in the October 2016 auction for calculating base price of radiowaves in 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz and 2100 Mhz bands. Trai has recommended base price of Rs 4,651 crore for paired spectrum in 800 Mhz band covering 19 circles, Rs 1,622 crore per Mhz for 900 Mhz band covering seven circles, Rs 3,399 crore per Mhz of in 2100 Mhz covering 21 circles and Rs 821 crore per Mhz in 2500 Mhz band covering 12 circles. The regulator has recommended Rs 960 crore per Mhz for unpaired spectrum in 2300 Mhz band on pan-India basis. While all the spectrum at present can be used for 4G and 5G, experts have suggested use of higher frequency bands like 3300-3600 Mhz for 5G services. To avoid monopolisation of suggested 5G spectrum band, Trai has recommended a limit of 100 MHz per bidder and also "the lock-in period for spectrum in this band for becoming eligible for spectrum trading should be 5 years" instead of 2 years applicable for other bands. It has suggested no time bound network roll out obligation for buyers of the potential 5G spectrum. Trai has recommended that telecom operators buying spectrum 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz need to roll out network across 60 per cent of district head quarters (DHQs) or town by end of three years and 30 per cent of block head quarters by end of 5 years from the effective date of licence or the date of assignment of spectrum won in the auction process. Successful bidders of 2100 Mhz band, earlier known as 3G spectrum, will have to roll out network in 70 per cent of DHQ by end of 5 years, according to the recommendation. The regulator has recommended that in case a company has closed 2G GSM or CDMA services, it cannot hold the administratively (without auction) assigned spectrum for which it has not paid the market determined price. "Any such spectrum lying with TSPs (telecom service providers) should be taken back and put to auction in the forthcoming auction," Trai said. Its has reiterated need for urgent audit of all allocated spectrum -- commercial as well as the one given to various public sector units and government organizations through an independent agency on a regular basis. At an average crude price of $75 per barrel, the landed cost of fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is expected to be $14.3/mmBtu and $19.2/mmBtu, respectively. New Delhi: The recent run-up in the global prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is unlikely to impact demand for the fuel in India, but would affect the margins of city gas distribution (CGD) firms, said rating agency Crisil on Thursday. Over the past 5-6 months, LNG prices in Asia have increased by over 70 per cent, driven by rising imports from China, it said. In the past, higher prices have impacted LNG consumption in India, a price-sensitive market. However, things are slightly different this time around, with consumption rising 6-7 per cent to 20 million tonne in fiscal 2018, said Crisil. The Supreme Courts decision banning polluting fuels such as fuel oil and petcoke for industrial use ins ome northern states has been favourable for LNG demand. The Gujarat High Court has also tightened norms on use of coal gassifiers by ceramic companies in Morbi and Wankaner. These moves resulted in a 20 per cent on-year growth in LNG imports in the first half of fiscal 2018," said Rahul Prithiani, director, CRISIL Research. What enhances the attractiveness of LNG as an industrial fuel is its improved competitiveness compared with alternatives such as fuel oil and LPG, it said. The regulatory push to expand CGD networks is also stoking demand. At an average crude price of $75 per barrel, the landed cost of fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is expected to be $14.3/mmBtu and $19.2/mmBtu, respectively. In comparison, at an LNG price of $9.5/mmBtu, industrial piped natural gas is expected to rule at $14.8/mmBtu, said Crisil. In the medium term, LNG demand will be supported by development of gas infrastructure in the largely untapped eastern region, it said. The governments focus on increasing the share of gas in Indias overall energy mix, and the development of infrastructure in terms of LNG terminals and pipeline connectivity, also bode well for LNG demand over the medium to long term, it said. This, however, will have a bearing on the margins of CGD companies, said Mayur Patil, associate director, Crisil Research. The broader Nifty too succumbed to selling pressure and hit a low of 11,234.95, before ending at 11,244.70. (Photo: File/PTI) Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex tanked 356 points to close at a one-week low of 37,165.16 on Thursday, while the NSE Nifty ended below the 10,300-mark on widespread selling amid weak global cues. Asian and European stocks dropped as the latest escalation in the Sino-US trade spat weighed on investor sentiment. Heavy selling by foreign and domestic institutional investors after RBI's rate hike yesterday added to the selling pressure. The 30-share Sensex stayed in the negative zone for the whole day and ended at 37,165.16, showing a loss of 356.46 points, or 0.95 per cent. This is its lowest level since July 26, when it had closed at 36,984.64. The gauge had lost 84.96 points in the previous session. The broader Nifty too succumbed to selling pressure and hit a low of 11,234.95, before ending at 11,244.70, down 101.50 points, or 0.89 per cent. Profit-booking by participants in view of the domestic markets' recent record-setting run fuelled the downtrend, brokers said. On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 95.94 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded equities to the tune of Rs 562.33 crore on Tuesday, provisional data showed. Mumbai: Superstars are often accused of charging exorbitant money for working in a movie but Aamir Khan says he has a different model. If the film fails, he gets nothing and if it is successful, he has a higher profit share. The actor said he has always ensured that his producers earn money as it helps secure his career and film choices. "I think the script is the foundation. I ensure that once I love the story and the film is in the making, people who are investing money should not face loss. I don't allow the producer to shoulder the responsibility alone," Aamir said during an interaction with writer Anjum Rajabali at the Indian Screenwriters press conference here. Actor Shabana Azmi, who was in the audience, asked the actor about the trend of stars demanding 80 per cent as the fees and how was it possible to make a successful film in 20 per cent. The actor explained that he does not charge money until the film has recovered its costs, promotions budget and producers have earned their profit. "My first rupee comes to me when the film's cost is recovered in every aspect, after the producer's and everybody else's money is recovered. That's the model I work with, and I take a higher cut in the percentage because I am risking my time on that, and I think producers are happy with that too." Aamir believes it is the best business model because in most of his films, "if producer is not losing money, it is but obvious that he will sign me for the next film. That is why I always ensure that if I am signed in a film, there is no loss." The 53-year-old actor said he first tried this model with "Lagaan" in 2001. "Since that film was one of the expensive films of that time and was breaking a lot of rules of mainstream Indian cinema and that is why I felt the importance of taking the responsibility. When I come on board, producers and financiers do not question me on the subject I chose for a film because they trust me, they have faith in me. That is why I want to ensure the profit. Mumbai: Theres not an iota of doubt left in audiences minds that Salman Khan and Katrina Kaifs pairing is one of the most loved in recent times. After an affair more than a decade ago, their chemistry in movies and events have time and again made their fans wonder if they are just friends or more than that. Also read: Watch: Did Salman Khan just publicly call Katrina Kaif my baby? The pairs recent appearance together as showstoppers for Manish Malhotras latest collection, Haute Couture 2018, might just make their admirers want them to be a couple again. Sallu looked in a stylish black sherwani with fine embroidery and Kat looked graceful in a beige lehenga with floral work, cape and plunging neckline and together they were just perfect. Also read: 'I'll lock you both up in a room': Why Salman warned Katrina and Jacqueline recently While Manish and Katrina are very close friends and the actress has sashayed down the ramp several times for him, it was Salmans debut appearance for the designer. It was the also first time Salman and Katrina walked together alone on the ramp after she was one of the many ladies like Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor Khan, among others with him for a fashion show for his brand many years ago. This ramp walk couldnt have come at a better time as they are all set to collaborate on screen again in Bharat after Katrina replaced Priyanka, who walked out of the film. Also read: Bharat: Salman had taunted Peecee, but has something special to say about Katrina The Tiger Zinda Hai pair will kick off shooting next month, and their classy traditional avatars make us all the more excited. There was a time when the paparazzi had to chase a media-shy Suhana Khan for a comment or a photo. Now, Shah Rukh Khans daughter is not only doing full-length interviews but photoshoots as well. She is currently on the cover of Vogue. After launching the magazine at the Vogue Beauty Awards on Tuesday, Shah Rukh posted a picture of himself holding a copy of the glossy, captioning it, Holding her in my arms again thanks to Vogue. What imperfect carriers of love we are... except when it comes to our children. So sending u all my love & a big hug. Hello Suhana Khan! (sic) With all this attention being thrust upon her, were inclined to believe a Bollywood debut must be in the offing. Shah Rukh Khan has the bandwidth to launch his daughter under his own banner because he is an established producer whos bankrolling many films, and he also has his own VFX studio. But the buzz is that Karan Johar has expressed a keen interest in launching her, and he may very well get the nod, says an industry observer. Were expecting an announcement any moment now. Actress Mouni Roy, who made her big-screen debut with a dance number in Tum Bin 2, is gearing up for the release of Gold, her first film as a heroine. Meanwhile, she has also bagged three other prestigious projects. Mouni will be seen in Brahmastra with Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt; RAW with John Abraham; and Made In China with Rajkummar Rao. Of her foray into Bollywood, the former small-screen actress says, I love doing what I do. I am very excited and nervous about the future. I will talk about the projects when they happen. Mouni will soon be seen playing Akshay Kumars wife in Gold, and she seems to have had a great time working with the actor. It was great working with Akshay as a co-star. He doesnt believe in any hierarchy; he treats the director and the spot boys alike. He keeps playing pranks, and he tries to keep everyone happy, she says. The actress adds that her first Bollywood film has been truly memorable. It was my first film as an actress, and so every moment spent on the set was very dear to me. I also loved shooting both the songs in the film, she says. Sanskriti Media HT16 Washington: Baby talk words build infants' language skills better, a recent study has found. The more baby talk words that infants are exposed to, the quicker they grasp the language. Assessments of nine-month-old children suggest that those who hear words such as bunny or choo-choo more frequently are faster at picking up new words between nine and 21 months. Researchers say these findings suggest some types of baby talk words - more than other words - can help infants develop their vocabulary more quickly. The team says words that end in 'y' - such as tummy, mummy, and doggy - or words that repeat sounds - such as choo-choo and night-night - could help infants identify words in speech. Linguists at the University of Edinburgh recorded samples of speech addressed to 47 infants learning English. They checked the speech addressed to each infant for features that characterise baby talk words. Along with analysing diminutives ending in 'y' and reduplication - which contains repeated syllables - they checked for onomatopoeic words that sound like their meaning, such as woof and splash. They examined the rate of the infants' language development by measuring the size of the children's vocabulary at nine, 15 and 21 months. They found that infants who heard a higher proportion of diminutive words and words with repeated syllables developed their language more quickly between nine and 21 months. They did not find this effect on vocabulary growth for onomatopoeic baby talk words. Lead researcher Mitsuhiko Ota said, "Our findings suggest that diminutives and reduplication, which are frequently found in baby talk words - across many different languages - can facilitate the early stage of vocabulary development." The full findings are present in the journal- Cognitive Science. The epicenter of the quake was the border, so we had to re-plan our routes and also apply for permits to go through the Myanmar border. Overland tours, where one drives through nooks and crannies, are a great way to absorb the soul of any country. Sujal Patwardhan and Medha Joseph would attest to this since they run Embarq, an overland touring company set up in 2016 which also does bespoke tours. It was a road trip the duo undertook from India to Morocco that set the ball rolling for the women to quit their corporate careers and pursue their love for travelling. Since then, they have taken road trips to countries like Scotland, Spain, New Zealand, and traversed across the Silk Route and the Baltics. Sujal remembers the memorable Morocco trip when they drove for 57 days across 15 countries and three continents to reach their destination. When we planned the Morocco trip in 2015, we were faced with a challenging situation. We were supposed to cross the Nepal border into China when the unfortunate earthquake occurred. The epicenter of the quake was the border, so we had to re-plan our routes and also apply for permits to go through the Myanmar border. This required us to advance our travel dates and also reschedule our work lives. Sujal and Medha personally recce all the new routes. Right now they are planning an All India Womens Drive India to Thailand (which includes cars and a motorcycle) from October 20 to November 4, starting from Guwahati and ending in Bangkok covering a total distance of 2,800 km. This will be a pioneering trip as its the first all women trip, conceptualised and planned by women. Medha affirms that road trips are exciting and adventurous. Like any other travel plan, road trips also need some prep-work and planning. She elaborates, The type of vehicle, the route that will be followed, weather conditions, fuel availability, are a few essential things you need to know and plan beforehand to enjoy the road trip. Overland road trips involve a lot of paperwork and permits and information regarding the same is not available easily. She adds that road trips are a lot of fun if you plan them right but lack of time at hand often discourages people from opting for it. Sujal chips in, And that is why we recommend relying on experts who have experience in organising such overland expeditions and driving extensively in various countries to offer a refined experience. An increasing number of women are breaking free from the shackles of societal pressures that have bound them so far and trying a hand at driving trips that are arduous yet fun. Be it solo travel, inland travel or road trips, women are embracing it all. Sujal states, More and more women from all walks of life not only drive as a means to commute but enjoy road-tripping. But the biggest challenge for women is still safety. Medha agrees, but adds, In todays digital age its very convenient to access information and plan better, stay connected and be safe. This encourages them to travel more often. So what interests does the duo have besides travelling? Prior to co-founding Embarq, Sujal was the Vice President at a Mumbai-based investment bank and had worked in the field of Human Resources for 14 years. Sujal shares, When Im not driving, Im watching films. I also love gorging on biryani and have an amazing collection of wristwatches. I simply love having them, she reveals. And before making travel her full-time career, Medha, who drives a Toyota Land Cruiser, worked as a finance professional for 11 years. And when she is not traveling, you will find her immersed in a David Baldacci book or painting a canvas. He was super ambitious and was always trying to go above and beyond to make sure he could be as successful as possible. (Youtube Screengrab) Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, a gay valedictorian who was disowned by his conservative Christian parents because of his sexuality, and put through 'conversion therapy', has been able to attend college. According to NBC news, 18-year-old Seth Owen graduated from First Coast High School in Jacksonville with a 4.16 GPA, but was worried that he wouldn't be able to make his dream of attending college a reality because his family refused to offer him financial aid. With Georgetown refusing to amend his financial aid package, and $20,000 needed for his first year at college, the Florida teen began to lose hope, until his Biology teacher stepped in. Talking to NBC News, Jane Martin, the Biology teacher, told NBC News, that the boy stood out in her eyes. He was super ambitious and was always trying to go above and beyond to make sure he could be as successful as possible. Martin decided to set up a GoFundMe page to help him get to college, with a goal of $20,000. Writing on the page, she explained why she set it up, and her emotional connection to the high achieving student: Earlier this year (after a year of attempted conversion therapy), Seths parents gave him an ultimatum. He would either continue to attend the church that attacked him and his sexual orientation or he would need to leave home. Seth chose the later. Hes been living with friends and working to sustain himself since financially. His parents have refused to support him emotionally or financially because they deem his sexual orientation inconsistent with their religious beliefs. Trouble started for Owen in his sophomore year of high school, when his parents discovered he was gay. It wasn't long until they started to make him endure so called 'conversion therapy'. He then implored his parents to be allowed to not attend the family church, which he said was supportive of an anti-LGBT+ stance, and they offered him an ultimatum - that he either attend the church, or leave home. Owen was sleeping on friends' couches, and just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, his teacher stepped in. Since the campaign's incredible success, Owen has spoken of how he hopes that his story will encourage other oppressed people to speak out about their plights. Police dragged the "combative" teenager off the man and handcuffed him immediately, according to local media. (Photo: Pixabay) In a shocking criminal incident, an 18-year-old boy, Mahad Aziz was charged with first-degree assault after allegedly gouging out his elderly relative's eyes. The boy gouged out his 74-year-old relative's eyes with his bare hands, reports claim. The incident which happened in Rochester, Minnesota, saw cops breaking into the apartment to discover 18-year-old Mahad Aziz straddling his alleged victim. They dragged the "combative" teenager off the man and handcuffed him immediately, according to local media. Aziz is reported to have beaten the man so badly that most of his teeth had been knocked out. The man is expected to survive the ordeal, KTSP reported. According to police Captain John Sherwin, the teenager might be suffering from a mental health condition and was reportedly booked into Olmsted County Adult Detention Center where he was charged with first-degree assault. Speaking about the incident Sherwin said that it was a permanent loss of a bodily function. The paranoid spouse demanded her husband had no contact with any other women, including not talking to them, answering their calls or even smiling at them. (Photo: Pixabay) In what can be the worse thing to happen to a man, a jealous wife snipped off her husbands penis with a pair of scissors while he was brushing his teeth. The man from the Jiangxi Province city of Fengcheng, told shocked medics that his wife suspected he was cheating after starting a new job. The paranoid spouse demanded her husband had no contact with any other women, including not talking to them, answering their calls or even smiling at them. The man, reckoned she maimed his manhood in a desperate attempt for him not to stray. The wifes jealousy and fear climaxed when his unnamed possessive wife attacked him while he was naked in the bathroom about 7.30 in the morning. He managed to cover his blood-drenched groin to stop the bleeding before packing himself off to hospital. Doctors said they had successfully reattached Lis penis but warned him to be extra careful while recovering. In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation. Hindu Aikya Vedi members protest in front of DC books after the publishing house on Wednesday released the book 'Meesha'. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear that the culture of banning books was wrong as it affected the free flow of ideas. A three-judge bench of Chief Justices Dipak Misra and Justices A M Kanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud made this oral observation while hearing a petition demanding a ban on certain excerpts in Malayalam novel Meesha. The bench reserved its order on the plea filed by Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan, who sought a direction to delete certain portions from a novel by S Hareesh as it allegedly defamed temple going Hindu women. The Centre and the Kerala government also opposed the petition saying free speech should not be curtailed. This novel - Meesha (moustache) written by S Hareesh was discontinued after protests. The petitioner has objected to a dialogue between two characters in the novel, which allegedly insults Hindu women. He has also alleged that comments of the author about Brahmins amounted to cattiest or racial slur. Justice Chadrachud told counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner such kind of stuff should not be given undue importance in this age of the Internet. You are making this an issue. It is best forgotten. The Centre and the Kerala government also opposed the petition saying free speech should not be curtailed. Counsel cited the examples of books like Polyester Prince and Satanic Verses and said they still remain banned. The bench said both were different issues and could not be compared. We cannot make a virtue of banning those to ban this. Literary work is amenable to criticism. The culture of banning books directly impacts flow of ideas unless it hits Section 292 of Indian Penal Code. The characters are fictional in the book and we have to see the context in which the paras were mentioned, the CJI added. When it was brought to the notice of the court that a magazine run by a newspaper had serialised the novel containing the objectionable portions but stopped it after protests, the court asked the newspaper to reply within five days the English translation giving the theme of the book and the three chapters of the book carried by it. The petitioner alleged that the state government, despite having come across an incriminating piece of so-called literary work by an author of a novel in a popular and widely circulated periodical, which is absolutely insulting, derogatory to temple going women, having a cattiest / racist slur had refused to initiate any action against the author or the periodical for hurting the sentiments of the Hindu faith followers. The petitioner said in the incriminating novel titled as Meesha (meaning of Meesha in Malayalam is Moustache), the dialogues are not only defamatory to entire womanhood but also showed the temple going women in bad light. Unfortunately, the elected Government of State of Kerala, which is duty bound to protect the interest of everyone, did not take necessary steps to stop publication, online sale and dissemination of the novel. Hence, the present petition seeking a ban on the offending portions of the novel. The principal duty of any government, Arun Jaitley said, is to defend its borders, prevent any trespass and make the life of the country's citizens safe and secure. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of playing with India's sovereignty on the Assam NRC issue, saying citizens are the soul of the nation and not "imported vote banks". In a hard-hitting Facebook post, Jaitley accused Rahul Gandhi of taking a fringe position with regard to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, which is contrarian to what was advocated by former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The principal duty of any government, Jaitley said, is to defend its borders, prevent any trespass and make the life of the country's citizens safe and secure. "It (Congress) is now compromising the sovereignty of India. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee must realise that India's sovereignty is not a play thing. "Sovereignty and citizenship are the soul of India. Imported vote banks are not," Jaitley wrote in a post titled 'National Register of Citizens Sovereignty vs Vote Bank'. Jaitley also accused the West Bengal chief minister of changing her position on the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration. "Though Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Rajiv Gandhi took a particular position in 1972 and 1985 for the deletion and deportation of foreigners, Rahul Gandhi takes a contrarian position and his party turns turtle. "Similarly, the BJP ally of 2005, Ms Mamata Banerjee, took a particular position. As a federal front leader, she now talks to the contrary. Can India's sovereignty be decided by such fickle minds and fragile hands?" Jaitley questioned. Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC was published in Guwahati earlier this week. Also Read: 40 lakh left out of draft list of NRC in Assam, no threat of deportation Opposition Congress and TMC have stalled the functioning of the Rajya Sabha for two days over the issue. "A desperate argument has been given that this is a human rights cause. A refugee on account of persecution may have a humanitarian consideration. Illegal migration does not have it. There is not fundamental right to any person to do so," Jaitley said. Territory and citizens are the two most important aspects of a sovereign state, he said. "The principal duty of any Government is to defend the borders of the country, prevent any trespass and make the life of its citizens safe and secure. Independent India has faced a major challenge to protect its sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir. "At the time of Independence and partition of India, Assam was also a sore issue for Pakistan. They resented the fact that like Kashmir, Assam became a part of Independent India," Jaitley added. Jaitley, who is also the leader of the Rajya Sabha, said "the Congress was the mainstream party on Indian politics. It has increasingly started taking fringe position. Siding with the 'Tukde Tukde' gang was one such illustration." He said "historically, both Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Rajeev Gandhi, through the Congress Government that they headed, committed to this nation that post March 25, 1971, migrants would be detected, identified and deported". Jaitley further said that some pre-1971 migrants may have come to India for reasons of persecution, but the same is not true of all post-1971 migrants who have illegally entered the country. "There is a third category who are neither citizens nor refugees, who come for reasons of economic opportunities. These are illegal migrants. Their entry is silent invasion in the country to which they move," he said. Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu was among other personalities who had reportedly been invited by Khan to attend his oath-taking ceremony. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) Chandigarh: Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he has accepted the invitation extended by Imran Khan for attending his swearing-in ceremony as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. "It is (a) great honour, I accept the invitation. Men of genius are admired, men of power are feared, but men of character are trusted. Khan Sahab is a man of character. He can be trusted. Sportsmen build bridges, break barriers, unite people," Sidhu said in a statement issued here. Addressing the media on Thursday, Sidhu said, Its a huge honour for me. Its a personal invitation (for Imran Khan's swearing in) from him and not a political one. Praising Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and to be prime minister on Pakistan, Sidhu said: He (Imran Khan) has risen from scratch in politics. I see him as a ray of hope. Sidhu was among other personalities who had reportedly been invited by Khan to attend his oath-taking ceremony. Imran Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has emerged as the single-largest party in the National Assembly after last week's general election in the neighbouring country. Imran Khan had said he would take oath as Pakistan's prime minister on August 11. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan meets MK Stalin and Kanimozhi at Kauvery Hospital, where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi is admitted. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) Chennai: DMK president M Karunanidhi's health is improving, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday after he met the veteran Dravidian leader's family members at a hospital in Chennai to inquire about his health. Vijayan told reporters that he met Karunanidhi's son and the party's working president M K Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, besides others family members and DMK leaders. "They all informed us (CPI-M delegation) that his condition is improving," he said. "Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) is a fighter by birth itself. In his life he fought in several fields," Vijayan added and praised the 94-year-old leader's willpower. The chief minister said he wished Kalaignar a speedy recovery. Karunanidhi, who is admitted to a private hospital after his blood pressure dropped on July 27, has been advised an extended hospital stay. Also Read: DMK chief Karunanidhi to stay admitted for longer: Chennai hospital On July 18, he underwent a procedure at the same hospital to replace a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe normally. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Congress President Rahul Gandhi visited him in hospital. Many other leaders also visited the hospital and met the family of the veteran DMK chief. DMK workers have waited outside the hospital in upscale Alwarpet area, praying for the recovery of the party chief. Opposition parties led by Congress has prepared draft letter to protest certain actions of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and complain against him of what they allege, is his partisan role in conducting the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: Opposition parties led by the Congress has prepared a draft letter to protest certain actions of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and complain against him of what they allege, is his partisan role in conducting the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha. The parties are waiting for an appropriate time to hand over the letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman. This is the first time that such a letter will be sent to the Rajya Sabha chairman. Venkaiah Naidu's counterpart in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has already received one such rejoinder this Monsoon Session. In the letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, eight opposition leaders had questioned how she had dealt with their attempt to move a no-trust motion against the government in the last session (Budget Session). According to NDTV sources, apart from the Congress, leaders from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had agreed to the move. "Some more parties are expected to join in," a senior opposition leader told NDTV. A Congress leader said the parties had been discussing how to clearly convey their anguish to the presiding officer for some time, had debated harsher steps, but for now, had settled for a letter to send its message. The list of allegations against Venkaiah Naidu includes that he doesnt allow opposition parties any space for debate, favours ruling party (BJP) members and adjourns the house according to his whims and fancies, Hindustan Times quoted an opposition leader saying. Sources to NDTV said that the letter by the opposition parties is broadly expected to underline three points One, is the growing perception among opposition that television channel run by the Rajya Sabha secretariat was being used to run down the opposition and propagate the ruling party's view. Opposition said they were also annoyed with the suspicious manner in which two questions asked in parliament and the government's response recently disappeared from the Rajya Sabha website. They returned only after media reports about the omission. These two related to the amount of demonetised currency notes received by cooperative banks including one in which, the Congress said, BJP president Amit Shah was on the board. Inside the house, the opposition has repeatedly questioned the conduct of the House when BJP president Amit Shah was speaking this week. When opposition members objected to a disparaging comment Amit Shah made to former prime ministers in his speech on the row over Assam citizens' list on Tuesday, the Rajya Sabha chairman had adjourned the house. What opposition members found curious was that the House was adjourned at 1 pm for just 10 minutes rather than break for lunch as has been the tradition. According to reports, the 10-minute adjournment happened for the first time in the history of Rajya Sabha. They said it looked as if it was done to allow the BJP president Amit Shah to complete his speech. "Sir, why are you calling a break like this? It is ten past one," Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien asked about the unusually short break when the house resumed. "First you answer, why is this disturbance?" Venkaiah Naidu shot back. The house had to be adjourned for the day a few minutes later. On Wednesday, opposition leaders again found it odd that the chairman invited Amit Shah to complete his speech that he had not been able to conclude due to disruptions rather than straightaway ask Home Minister Rajnath Singh to respond. Naidu is supposed to be the umpire but at times he acts like a player, Hindustan Times quoted an opposition leader as saying. There is, however, no clarity when the opposition leaders would submit their letter. Karnataka Water Resources Minister and senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar said, 'At any cost, this government and Congress party will take Akhanda Karnataka (United Karnataka) forward.' (Photo: File | DC) Bengaluru: Karnataka Water Resources Minister and senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar, on Wednesday, termed the call for Thursday's north Karnataka bandh as a "BJP sponsored" protest. He alleged that the BJP was backing various outfits demanding separate statehood for the region. "Uttara Karnataka bandh is sponsored by the BJP...where did the issue start? Who has spoken? They are the ones who are dividing the state," Shivakumar alleged. "At any cost, this government and Congress party will take Akhanda Karnataka (United Karnataka) forward; we will not allow any injustice to happen to any part of this state...we will treat everyone equally," he said. A day-long bandh (shutdown) has been called in 13 districts of north Karnataka on Thursday, alleging discrimination by successive governments towards the region. 'Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti' (North Karnataka Separate Statehood Protest Committee) has alleged discrimination in allocation towards the region in the budget presented by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on July 5, and also inadequate representation in the cabinet. Representatives from the committee had met chief minister Kumaraswamy on Tuesday, who sought to mollify them by expressing his government's strong commitment for the region's development. He also said the state government was considering shifting certain government offices to the 'Suvarna Vidhana Soudha' in the region, in an attempt to address alleged discrimination. Following the meeting with Kumaraswamy, Samiti president Somashekar Kotambari had on Tuesday said that a decision on continuing with the bandh (shutdown) would be taken only after discussion with other organisations that supported the bandh. While some groups and organisations have said they will go ahead with the bandh, others have decided not to support it. BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa has blamed Kumaraswamy for giving room to the demand for statehood for North Karnataka. He, however, did not support dividing Karnataka and said whatever shortcomings were there could be set right. Over 30 minor girls were sedated, tortured and raped at a government funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district, from where 42 girls were rescued late last month. (Photo: YouTube | Screengrab) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the media from showing, even in morphed form, images of the alleged victims of rape and sexual assault at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, observing they cannot be compelled to "relive the trauma" again and again. The apex court ban in which the media was also asked not to interview the victims came on a day when a state-wide bandh was called by the Left parties in Bihar in protest against the alleged sex abuse at the shelter home run by a state-funded NGO. Expressing concern over the alleged victims being subjected to media interviews, a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta ordered the ban after taking cognizance of the letter received from one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna regarding the shocking incident. The court while restraining the media from telecasting or publishing the images of the victims even in morphed form also asked them not to interview the girls. "They (victims) cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again," the court said, as it issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre seeking their response on the incident. "The investigating agency will take the assistance of professional counsellors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims," it added. The court then posted the matter for further hearing on August 7. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, the chief of the state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI. In all, sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination, while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests. The TISS audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the local police in connection with the case. Hanan Hamid at the Onam Bakrid Khadi Expo in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. (Photo: Twitter | ANI) Thiruvananthapuram: Hanan Hamid, who was trolled incessantly on social media for selling fish in her uniform after college hours, walked the ramp at Onam Bakrid Khadi Expo in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Dressed in a Khadi saree, the 21-year-old college student attended the fashion show organised by the Kerala Khadi board. On July 27, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directed Kerala police to take action against people who trolled her on social media by posting derogatory comments against her. The Chief Minister's Office has also directed the respective district collector to provide protection to Hanan. Hanan, a native of Kerala's Thrissur, was trolled by social media users when her story of making ends meet and her determination to complete her studies appeared in a local newspaper. Hanan, a BSc student, lives with her mother and brother in a rented house. She sells fish after college hours to contribute to the family's livelihood. The girl's story was broadly shared on social media platforms by users, which included film artists and politicians. But, a section of viewers raised questions on the authenticity of her story, and termed it "fake" by calling it a "publicity stunt". A section of people on social media has also accused her of trying to make money by giving her bank account number through the media. Bengaluru: Various infrastructure projects at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) might take a hit if the User Development Fee (UDF) is reduced, a top airport official said on Wednesday. Mr Hari Marar, CEO of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), which operates the KIA, said that they have proposed to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) to maintain the same UDF for the next two-and-a-half years. Mr Marar told reporters that the airport is witnessing rapid growth in every aspect. There is a massive increase in passenger traffic and to facilitate the increase in demand, the second terminal and runway work is in progress. We are in the midst of a Rs 12,000 crore expansion plan. This is a crucial phase of expansion plan since the opening of the international airport, he said. At KIA, the UDF for domestic passengers is Rs 306, while for international passengers it is Rs 1,226. During a recent meeting of the Airport Users Consultative Committee (AUCC), a few civic activists and members pointed out that there is a rise in the number of passengers at the airport, the airport is growing and so are the profits. They said that UDF should be reduced, which will help cut fares, and help passengers. Mr Marar agreed that the airport is growing and so are profits. But it should be noted that 74 per cent of KIA is owned by private companies, while 26 percent by state and central governments. It doesnt mean that private companies have a bigger share and they take away the profits. It does not work like that. Private companies get profits, based on what AERA suggests, he said. The money collected through UDF is already being used for the second runway and terminal work. The new connectivity road passes through the second runway and there is a plan to construct tunnel, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore. The tunnel will pass through the second runway and go towards the parking lot. If UDF is reduced, we may not be able to carry out this work, Mr Marar explained He said that an alternative road to connect the airport with the eastern parts is needed as the lone route through Hebbal is crowded, which could hamper the growth of the airport. He said, We've proposed a plan for the suburban railway project. Once the project is through, we will transport customers free of cost to our terminals. We welcome the idea of a Metro Rail for easy access to the airport. He said that the number of people using the airport will increase from 27 million this year to 80 million in 2028. We are also working on various development projects, keeping in mind the growth of the airport in the next 50 years. If the UDF is reduced, there is a possibility of works getting affected. Looking at the works we have planned and carried out for the passenger requirement, we dont think there is a need for a reduced UDF, said Mr Marar. Hyderabad: BJP MLA and party floor leader in the Legislative Assembly, G Kishan Reddy, on Thursday accused the MIM of making Hyderabad a safe zone for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and other countries for its political gains. He alleged that, with the support of MIM, several illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Burma were entering the state. Due to the cooperation of a communal party like the MIM, Rohingyas and other illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Burma have entered Hyderabad. In Balapur, illegal migrants have set up their own dargah and even their own colony. Hafeezbaba Nagar, Paha-di Sharif and Kishan Bagh in the city have become a den for Rohin-gyas. Mr Reddy remar-ked, while addressing a press conference here. He asked the MIM why it was supporting illegal immigrants and asked Cova, an NGO, how it was issuing identity cards for such immigrants. Mr Reddy termed Rohingyas as 'illegal immigrants' and not 'refugees'. He said even Islamic countries were refusing entry to Rohingyas but MIM had been supporting them. Mr Reddy demanded that the Telangana state government disclose the details of illegal immigrants residing in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state, and submit those details to the Centre for necessary action. He said there was nothing wrong in allowing the entry of Hindus from Pakistan into India because they were refugees. Mr Reddy said the issue of Bangladesh illegal immigrants was not related to any religion or language but national security and sovereignty. The shed that collapsed at the New Century School in Kukatpally that killed two students and injured four others on Thursday. (Image: DC) Hyderabad: Two girls were killed and five other children were injured when a slab of cement fell on them at the New Century Public School on Thursday. A total of 25 students, all from Class IV were practicing Karate when the incident occurred. D. Mani Keerthana, 9, and Chandana, 8, were killed on the spot. The other children Naresh, 11, Sandeep, 10, Nikitha, 9, and Devisri, 10, were injured. Naresh is believed to be critical and was rushed to Apollo Hospital in Jubilee Hills for better medical treatment. The children were taken to the hospital in the school buses, which were later parked at the school. The school staff, however, managed to flee. As soon as the incident occurred, the school personnel sent the other children home and are allegedly absconding. Madhapur deputy commissioner of police, A Venkateshwar Rao said, The incident happened when the children were practicing Karate. Two girls died and five children were injured. Stern action will be taken against the management for their laxity in maintenance of the school. Haritha, principal of the school, is currently absconding and Sunitha, who supervises the daily functioning of the school, is also absconding. We are looking for them. Chandana, daughter of Naga Babu, a construction supervisor and Mani Keerthana, daughter of Venkatesh, were residents of Kukatpally. Their bodies have been shifted to Gandhi Hospital mortuary for the post-mortem examination, the DCP said. Meanwhile, various student organisations staged a protest in the school premises and also damaged the school buses, boards and other furniture in the school. They demanded immediate closure of the school and the arrest of those responsible. Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday found fault with the circular issued by the Telangana Legal and Metrology department applying provisions of Legal Metrology Act 2009 and Packaged Commodity Rules in relation to non-packaged food supplied and sold in multiplexes and cinema theatres. The judge in sarcasm said if the court allowed these conditions, then even the tea sold shall have toll free number. Stating that when the bills are being issued for every non-packaged items, the judge questioned the logic in pasting the stickers separately. The judge also found fault with the condition that only branded items have to be put on sale and said that one viewer may ask for the Aquafina water and another may ask for Kinley and it would be for the theatres to decide the brands to sell on their premises and how could the authorities decide what was to be sold and what was not. The counsel for the government submitted that they were implementing the rules which are in the Act. When the judge asked the counsel to show the provision which empowered the authorities to put such conditions, the counsel replied that it was after receiving complaints from the people that food items in theatres were selling at exorbitant rates that the authorities had decided to strictly implement the provisions. While questioning why they had not mentioned the complaint of the people in the circular, the judge also said that all the conditions in the circular were contrary to the law and the court would not allow implementing conditions whi-ch were not in the Act. The judge said that he will issue orders on Monday. The court cautioned the authorities not to show over-enthusiasm and not to try to enforce the provisions which are not in law. Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao while dealing with the petition by Multiplex Association of India and PVR Ltd challenging the circular issued on July 20, 2018 pointed out that the circular issued by the authorities was not in accordance with the law and the authorities had no power to issue restriction with regard to non-packaged food items. The judge wondered at the condition of having stickers indicating the weight, rate and toll free number on paper plates while selling non-packaged samosas. The judge felt that if this condition was allowed to be implemented, ultimately the cost for printing of stickers would be borne by the cine viewers. The counsel for the petitioners told the court that they had no objection with the conditions on the packaged food, but it was impossible to implement the regulations on non-packaged items. Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will rush to Delhi on Friday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the Centres approval for the Telangana state governments new zonal system, which aims to reserve 95 per cent government jobs to locals. Mr Rao wants to stay in Delhi for two to three days if needed to pursue the case with the PM. The state Cabinet on May 27 had approved the new zonal system categorising 31 districts into seven zones and two multi-zones. In each zone, 95 per cent of the jobs will be reserved for locals and five per cent for open category. School study from Class I to VII will be considered to determine local status. Those who study continuously for four years during this period in a particular zone/ district will be treated as local of that zone/ district. The Centres nod is a must for bringing in the new zonal system as the Presidential Order issued in 1975 in undivided AP needs to be amended. The CM had went to Delhi to meet Mr Modi soon after the Cabinet meet on May 27 but returned as he could not get an appointment due to the PMs foreign tour. The CM met the Union home minister Rajnath Singh on May 27 and submitted a represenation seeking amendment to the Presidential Order before returning to Hyderabad. The file is learnt to be cleared by the the home and law ministries and has now been referred to the PM for his approval. The CM now wants to meet PM and explain him personally on the need and importance for TS government to bring new zonal system to ensure jobs only for locals. Mr Rao has been meeting Mr Modi quite often amidst speculations of TRS moving closer to BJP. The TRS had recently not supported the no confidence motion moved by TDP and supported by Congress and other opposition parties. Mr Rao met PM less than two months ago on June 15. He again met PM on June 17 during Niti Aayog's governing council meeting. This was followed by his son and IT minister K.T.Rama Rao meeting PM within two weeks on June 27. While AP CM N.Chandrababu Naidu did not get the chance to meet PM personally for nearly two years, KCR got PM's apppointment easily. After his son KTR too got appointment, political speculations hit the roof that TRS is getting closer to BJP. Hyderabad: All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi will visit the city on August 13 for the first time after assuming the post. During his two-day visit, Mr Gandhi will take part in the partys bus yatra in Rangareddy district and address in a public meeting. He will also interact with students, youth and representatives of women's organisations. Mr Gandhi will also meet intellectuals to share his ideas and to know their opinions. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday said Mr Gandhi has confirmed his Hyderabad visit. He said the party chief would stay in Hyderabad on August 13 night. After participating in some programmes on the next day, Mr Gandhi would leave to Delhi in the evening, he said. Mr Uttam said if time permitted, Mr Gandhi would meet party leaders and give directions to face the general elections. TPCC sources said Mr Gandhi may also meet the editors and media heads at a dinner on August 13. HYDERABAD: The question that tops in political circles interestingly now is whether West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is really active in formation of Federal Front, will invite Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the proposed Federal Front rally to be held in Kolkata in January against NDA government or not. Ms Banerjee has already extended an invitation to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, through TD MPs, when she met them the other day. Telangana CM KCR and Ms Banerjee had earlier held discussions on the formation of a Federal Front. After the meeting some regional party leaders on the formation of Federal front, KCR has gone silent, but Ms Banerjee has been moving very fast on the formation of Federal Front and has been inviting leaders to Kolkata to participate in a meeting scheduled in January 2019, to mark the formation of Federal Front. CM KCR had proposed Federal Front against the BJP and the Congress, but there are speculations that KCR is moving closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi now. In just 10 days notice, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have given an appointment to KCR and his son IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao, strengthening speculation that KCR is not in a mood to go against the Prime Minister. Moreover, recently TRS had abstained themselves during the No Trust vote against NDA government led by the BJP, bringing down the Opposition number. Against this background, it is not yet clear whether West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will invite Mr Rao to the proposed Federal Front rally to be held at Kolkata in January next year. Mamata Banerjee recently said that all leaders of the potential Federal Front will come to Kolkata on January 19, 2019. After the recent political developments, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is moving towards Mamata Banerjee and showing interest in Federal Front. Naidu did not hesitate to share dais with Congress leaders. Mamata Banerjee also reportedly invited UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and AICC president Rahul Gandhi to the Federal Front rally. CM KCR is not interested in sharing dais with Congress leaders and due to this only, he avoided participating in the swearing in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumara Swamy recently. For TRS in Telangana, the main political enemy is Congress. If CM KCR shares dais with Congress leaders, it may give wrong signals to the public, a senior TRS leader opined. Guwahati: Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned on Thursday in protest against party supremo Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC, which has evoked a sharp reaction from different parties and organisations in the state. Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport in the Bengali-dominated Barak valley at Banerjee's instructions and being stopped from exiting it by the police. Diganta Saikia, a TMC leader from Golaghat and who was among the three to resign, even threatened to file a case against Banerjee for taking an anti-Assamese stand. The ruling BJP, as well as other parties in Assam, said the TMC had no existence in the Barak valley. Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters in Guwahati that he had apprised the party leaders of the "ground realities" in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and urged Banerjee not to send the delegation to the north-eastern state now. "The party did not pay heed to my suggestion and refused to understand the ground situation here. In this backdrop, it is not possible for me to remain in a party that does not value the Assamese sentiment," Pathak, who was a TMC MLA from 2011 to 2016, said. "The TMC has no existence in Assam," he added. Also Read: Super emergency: Mamata says TMC leaders manhandled at Silchar airport TMC leader Pradip Pachani of Sibsagar and Saikia resigned saying they could not remain members of a party that wanted to compromise the identity of the indigenous Assamese people. The TMC delegation that arrived at Silchar had to return from the Kumbhirgram airport as the district administration did not allow the leaders to enter the town, where prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC was in force since Wednesday night. Effigies of Banerjee were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party not to "meddle in Assam". Banerjee's effigies were burnt by the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Parishad, Asomiya Yuva Sanmilani and All Tai Ahom Students' Union, the police said. Congress MLA from the Karimganj (North) constituency in Barak valley Kamalakhya De Purkayastha spoke against the turning away of the TMC delegates at the airport. "The TMC has many wrong notions about the NRC and they (delegates) should have been allowed to come here, so that their misconceptions about the draft were cleared," he told news agency PTI. "We do not want the prevailing peace in Barak Valley to be disturbed at any cost. But turning the TMC delegates away from the airport was not a right thing to do," he said. Most political parties in the Barak valley too maintained that there was no sense of panic among the people and that Banerjee was "trying to use the issue to gain a political entry to Assam". State Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, who represents the Dholai constituency in the valley, said Banerjee was trying to "mislead and create confusion here, but the people have ignored it". "She has no idea about the ground realities in Assam and is trying to complicate the issue...The TMC has no existence in Barak Valley and they are trying to use the NRC to make an entry as well as gain political mileage," he added. Former BJP MP Kabindra Purkayastha said, "We are at a loss to understand why the TMC delegation wants to come to Assam when the people are not complaining." There was no confusion or panic among the people as they were aware that they could make claims and seek corrections to the NRC, he said, adding that moreover, the TMC should be aware that the NRC was updated under the Supreme Court's supervision and the government had no hand in it. A senior police officer said the situation in the Barak Valley and the rest of Assam was peaceful and no NRC-related incident was reported so far. "The people of the state are aware that this is not the final NRC list, but its final draft," he added. 'No injustice has been meted out to north Karnataka in allotment of funds in the state budget,' H D Deve Gowda said. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Thursday appealed to the people of north Karnataka not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's lifetime. Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts. "No injustice has been meted out to north Karnataka in allotment of funds in the state budget," he said and hit out at BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa for trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda". "The provocation made by Yeddyurappa will not come true. We will take care of it... If some people demand a separate north Karnataka, I want to tell them it will not happen, not during my lifetime and not during my son's lifetime," he told news agency PTI in an interview. He alleged that the BJP state president is "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats. Gowda further alleged that the former chief minister has started "intimidating" people on the farm loan waiver, state budget and other issues, with the sole motive to create unrest. The former prime minister said many leaders have made sacrifices for the unification of the state and appealed to people not to fall prey to provocation and to "trust the current government". Kumaraswamy has already ordered the shifting of some key government departments to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the secretariat building in Belagavi, Gowda added. The Samiti gave the bandh call to press for statehood for the region, alleging that successive governments discriminated against it. The Samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5 and also inadequate representation in the cabinet. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam pay homage to AIADMK legislator A.K. Bose who passed away in the wee hours of Thursday in Madurai. (Photo:DC) Chennai: Ruling AIADMKs legislator A.K. Bose, who represented the Tirupparankunram Assembly constituency, died in Madurai early on Thursday morning following prolonged illness. He was 69. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. This three-time MLA was not keeping good health for sometime. According to sources, Bose complained of chest pain and was rushed to hospital but died on the way. Bose was elected MLA from Thirupparankunram constituency in Madurai district thrice. He won the by-election after S M Seenivelu who won the seat in the May 2016 Assembly elections died before taking oath as an MLA. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam expressed their condolences. Bose was loyal to the AIADMK and J Jayalalithaa, a party statement said. DMK Working President and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly M.K. Stalin also condoled Boses death, saying it was a big loss to the people of Thirupparnkunram. Bose, who joined the AIADMK as the youth wing leader and had served as Partys Madurai Urban District Secretary, had unsuccessfully contested the Madurai Lok Sabha seat in the 2004 polls, before becoming MLA for the first time in 2006 when he was elected from Tirupparankunram. In 2011, he was elected from Madurai North Assembly seat, but was denied ticket in the 2016 Assembly polls. However, the death of Seenivelu, enabled Bose contest the bypoll and became MLA for the third time. He was one of the fence-sitters when former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaas close aide V.K Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran were expelled from the party, before he decided to support Chief Minsiter Edappadi K Palaniswami. Chennai: The second season of Big Boss has courted more controversy, this time involving the host of the show Kamal Haasan. The actor-turned politician has been accused of using the show to further the interests of the party he has founded - Makkal Needhi Maiyam. The advocate, Louisal Ramesh, who has filed a police complaint is seeking a ban on the show as it defames the late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa by portraying her as a dictator. The advocate has alleged in her complaint that Haasan was using the show to further his political interests and charged him with speaking about Jayalalithaa in a demeaning manner. Hassan and the production firm behind the show are portraying the late CM Amma as a dictator with an intention to bring disrepute to her, she said. While there is no guessing what the outcome of the complaint may be, it is a fact that Kamal has been targeting the former regime led by Jayalalithaa for having placed obstacles to the release of his film Vishwaroopam. At the height of the controversy then, Kamal had lamented that he may be forced to leave India as there was no freedom of expression here. Kamal can be seen as carrying on a tirade against Jaya, which is what the advocate is trying to bring out in her plaint. The advocate states in her complaint that one of the co-contestants is seen telling the person playing the part of the dictator that she was from north India and as such did not know what happened to those in Tamil Nadu who gave a dictatorial rule earlier. Kamal Haasan, speaking on Saturday while compiling (the week's episodes) will speak on similar lines saying what happened to such people who ruled like a dictator, she said. The Bigg Boss-2 programme is defaming Amma, who gave a peaceful rule, by portraying her as a dictator. The show should be banned and legal action should be initiated against Kamal Haasan and producer Endemolshine India, Ramesh said. There is no love lost between the ruling AIADMK party, which is a legacy Jayalalithaa has left behind, and the actor-politician who has taken a fierce anti-government stand on various issues, from the Sterlite agitation to the Salem-Chennai expressway project. Kamal political perch is clear as he has not minced words in his speeches and in his statements ever since he energised his MNM party this year. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan calls on DMK working president M. K. Stalin and MP Kanimozhi at the Kauvery hospital where DMK president M. Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment and enquires about the DMK stalwart's health. (Photo:DC) Chennai: In a dramatic development, doctors at the Kauvery Hospital where DMK chief M. Karunanidhi has been undergoing treatment for the last six days, made him rest on a chair for 30 minutes on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who visited Mr. Karunanidhi at the hospital, said his health is improving. Mr Pinarayi Vijayan who called on the DMK stalwart and enquired about his health on Thursday told reporters that he met Mr. Karunanidhis son and the partys working president M K Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, besides others family members and DMK leaders. They all informed us (CPI-M delegation) that his condition is improving, he said. Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) is a fighter by birth itself. In his life he fought in several fields, Mr. Vijayan added and praised the 94-year-old leaders willpower. The Chief Minister said he wished Kalaignar a speedy recovery. Mr. Karunanidhi was admitted to the hospital here after his blood pressure dropped on July 27, has been advised an extended hospital stay. As his condition remained stable, there was less crowding in front of the hospital on Thursday, compared to the last couple of days, where hundreds of DMK cadres thronged, eager to have an update on the health of their leader. Apart from Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Governor Banwarilal Purohit, leaders of various political parties from India and abroad, and people from various walks of life, including form the Tamil film industry, visited the hospital and enquired about his health condition. Chennai: DMK working president M.K. Stalin, on Thursday, visited Salem RR Biriyani Restaurant, where his party men unleashed violence on employees on Sunday night and consoled them. Meanwhile, the police arrested seven persons for the attack. The DMK leader, accompanied by senior party colleagues A. Raja, M. Subramanian, K.N. Nehru among others, visited the eatery in Virugambakkam and enquired about the incident. Stalin already reprimanded the incident involving his party men and said it was strongly condemnable. DMK working president M.K. Stalin also suspended K.L. Yuvaraj and Diwakar from the party on Wednesday after the incident came to light. They had violated the party discipline and brought disrepute to it, he said. I will not regret to take severe action against any of my party men who taint the name of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Stalin said in Twitter. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu general secretary Govindarajulu expressed gratification towards the DMK on behalf of its leader Vikramaraja and welcomed the suspension of Yuvarajs membership. 7 held for attacking restaurant staff Meanwhile, the Virugambakkam police on Thursday said that they have arrested and remanded seven persons in connection with the attack on restaurants staff. The arrested persons were identified as M. Kishore (25), J. kutty Kishore (24), M. Sathish (23), S. Karthik (22), M.Suresh (19), V. Mani (22) and H. Ruthra Kumar (26). While Ruthra Kumar was arrested on Wednesday, other six persons were arrested on Thursday. However, the main accused K.L. Yuvaraj and Diwakar have escaped to a neighbouring state, the police said. The incident that happened on Sunday went viral on Wednesday after the CCTV footage was circulated on social media. The promise of economic development which catapulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power in 2014 has become a staple of stand-up comics and fodder for Opposition politicians. Mr Modi knows that he needs to shape a new narrative for his 2019 campaign. Its contours have already begun to emerge. It will target the Congress to the exclusion of others. Rahul Gandhi will be fashioned into Prime Minister Modis main adversary; the Congress will be projected as a party of Muslims; its election machinery will be weakened by the investigative agencies of the government targeting the top decision-makers, and Mr Modi will project himself as the victim of over-ambitious dynasts. There will be no personal attacks against non-Congress leaders and an attempt to show up the Congress as an untrustworthy ally. The primary strand of his new narrative is to convert the 2019 general election from Modi versus Nobody into a Modi vs Rahul Gandhi contest. Through Rahul, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty can be blamed for all the misfortunes of India, and Mr Modi projected as the heir to the victims of the Dynastys arrogance. By the convoluted logic that Mr Modi is marketing, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehrus mistreatment of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhis bias against Subhash Chandra Bose and his anatgonism towards Babasaheb Ambedkar, somehow merge with the apparent disdain he himself suffers at the hands of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. It is completely unclear why one is expected to believe that Mr Modi represents the legacy of freedom fighters like Sardar Patel and Subhash Bose or the egalitarian and anti-caste struggle of Ambedkar. He and the ideology he represents continue to be antithetical to what these great leaders stood for. Meanwhile, the man of straw against whom he will direct his abusive rhetoric is Rahul Gandhi, a Pappu, a know-nothing who sees the prime ministership of India as his birthright a naamdar (dynast) who wants to take on a humble kaamdar (doer). By rubbishing Rahul Gandhi, Mr Modi and his ilk seek to rubbish his political criticism. Consider the ridiculous exercise by Mr Modis ministers of attacking the Congress president for criticising the mob lynching of poor Rakbar Khan. Piyush Goyal described him as a merchant of hate, the loquacious Smriti Irani declared that he was indulging in vulture politics and ace shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore took aim by accusing Mr Gandhi of sowing seeds of hatred. Someone visiting from Mars might be forgiven for thinking that the mobs on a killing spree had been unleashed by Mr Gandhi, and not the Hindutva forces the Modi government represents. Mr Modi attempts to invert what he sees as the elitism of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty by proclaiming himself the son of a humble tea-seller and sometimes a faqir with no worldly interests. Another major strand of Mr Modis emerging campaign strategy is to hype up the Congress as a party of Muslims. It fits in well with the BJPs appeal to its Hindu voters. After the Congress chief had a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, an Urdu daily carried a news story claiming Rahul Gandhi had said that the Congress was a party of Muslims. Participants denied that this statement had ever been made. Yet defence minister Nirmala Sitaraman reiterated the false charge, and a day later Prime Minister Modi played up the allegation in a public meeting in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. He said: For the last two days, I am hearing that a naamdar leader (Rahul Gandhi) recently said that the Congress is a party of Muslims. Im not surprised. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said that Muslims have the first right over the nations natural resources. As if on cue, another minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said: When Rahul Gandhi goes to Gujarat for elections, he becomes a janeudhari (wearer of sacred thread) and flaunts his brahmin lineage. He does the same in Karnataka. Now that those elections are over, he has started to patronise Muslims. Soon it was a chorus asking: Are you for or against triple talaaq? What is your view on nikah halala? Whether the Congress has always been a broad church or not and what Rahul Gandhi said in his meeting with Muslim intellectuals become secondary considerations in this cacophony. A series of measures are also being taken to hobble prominent Congress leaders in the run-up to 2019. These range from the Enforcement Directorate being set against them to notices being sent to some about their alleged benami properties. The attempt is to degrade the election machinery of the Congress systematically by targeting those who could play important roles in election strategising. With the rest of the Opposition, as Mr Modis speech in Parliament showed, he will criticise only those with whom there is no chance of reconciliation. He deliberately refrained from publicly belittling non-Congress leaders. The only non-Congress leader he belittled was his erstwhile colleague and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was several times dismissively referred to as Babu without any honorific. Mr Modis large-heartedness over the provocative actions of the Shiv Sena is another case in point. The Shiv Sena not only boycotted the no-confidence vote but also launched a frontal attack on Mr Modi in its newspaper Saamna. And yet a Shiv Sena minister continues in Mr Modis cabinet. It is doubtful, however, whether such cleverness will mean a walkover for Mr Modi in 2019. The ground is shifting and people recognise his rhetoric for what it is. People laugh at his histrionics. Even Rahul Gandhi no longer gets cowed down by his abuse. The Oppositions attack on the government over the Rafale deal shows how emboldened it has become. And the announcement by the Congress that it will opt for anti-BJP alliance wherever necessary and accept any anti-BJP leader as the next Prime shows that political cleverness is not the monopoly of tea-sellers. H10 BACK in 1961, when Israel voted against apartheid at the United Nations, South Africas Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd justly reviled as one of the architects of institutionalised racial discrimination in his homeland accused the still young Middle Eastern state of inconsistency. They took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years, he noted. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state. The comparison is unlikely to have delighted Israels Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who had privately acknowledged the logic and legitimacy of Palestinian resistance long before he emerged from retirement in 1967 to argue that Israel must give up the territories it had conquered in the Six-Day War, else the occupation would distort the nation. Just over half a century later, the extent of that distortion became clearer when the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, effectively overturned the 1948 declaration of independence, which sought to entrench complete equality of social and political rights for all of Israels inhabitants, regardless of race, religion or sex. In contrast, last months legislation formally makes the right of self-determination unique to the Jewish people and downgrades Arabic the native tongue of 22 per cent of Israels population from an official language to one with special status. Israeli policies have long been compared with apartheid that, coincidentally, South Africa formally put in place the same year that Israel emerged as an independent nation not only by the likes of Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter, but also by intellectuals and even prominent politicians within the country. The discrimination has now been institutionalised, declaring the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and vowing to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation. Dan Yakir, the chief legal counsel for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, has described it as a racist law. One of the obvious intents is to step up the establishment of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Another is to stave off the likelihood of a one-state solution to the core Middle Eastern dilemma, after the possibility of a two-state solution has been rendered impossible. Unsurprisingly, the international community has barely reacted. Its worth recalling that for more than a decade the UN overlooked apartheid, deeming it an internal South African affair. Even after the global attitude began to change following instances such as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, more than two decades later the Thatcher and Reagan administrations were still holding out against sanctions. In the case of Israel, the shift will be even harder, given the global extent of its lobbying powers and the deplorable tendency to cast criticism of the states egregious violations of human rights as some form of anti-Semitism. That trend has existed for decades, yet its recent manifestation in Britain exceeds the norm. There, a concerted effort is under way to topple the Leader of the Opposition by insinuating, occasionally directly alleging, that he is anti-Semitic. Last week, three Jewish community newspapers took the campaign against Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to a new level of absurdity by claiming that a government led by him would pose an existential threat to British Jews. Amid the Brexit chaos, with Prime Minister Theresa May facing a revolt within Conservative ranks, the possibility of a fresh general election cannot be ruled out; such an exercise may well yield a Labour government led by Mr Corbyn. The very idea of a Western leader who openly advocates for Palestinian rights is anathema to most Zionists. Hence, he cannot be allowed to succeed, and a number of Labour MPs are complicit in this project. The latest row revolves around the Labour Partys adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of anti-Semitism. It has taken the text on board which in itself is a considerable concession, given that less specific ban on all forms of racism, regardless of ethnicity or religion, ought to have sufficed but has so far refused to accept four of the 11 examples cited by the IHRA, some of which arguably delegitimise valid criticisms of Israel merely because it self-identifies as an exclusively Jewish state. The Labour Partys pushback ought to have been much more vociferous, not least because large numbers of British Jews activists, academics and other intellectuals, many of whom have participated in protests against Israels overkill in Gaza are appalled by the pro-Zionist lobbys actions. Further, Benjamin Netanyahu is happy to cavort with the anti-Semitic leaderships of Poland and Hungary, not to mention the Trump administration. On the other hand, any meaningful impetus to prevent Israel from digging its own grave must come from within the country. By arrangement with Dawn H10 The atmosphere must cool down over the Assam citizenship/migration issue. It is getting needlessly politicised and leading to extremely shrill rhetoric from both sides of the spectrum. A far more humane approach is needed if the matter of citizenship, a historical legacy, is to be resolved. At stake is the future of about 40 lakh people, although those numbers may come down a lot if many of those excluded from the National Register of Citizens are able to prove they are Indians or came here before the March 24, 1971 cutoff date. The hugely complicated issue, that became intensely political during the Assam student movement days, and the later Assam Accord with New Delhi, can't be resolved by any hardline stand taken now on the basis of religion. Of course, there was little need for West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to have warned of a "bloodbath" or a "civil war" if Muslims are discriminated against in this Assam exercise. It's unbecoming of a state chief minister to talk in such terms even if it is well known where her sympathies lie. On the other hand, there's equally little need for BJP president Amit Shah to make it appear that everything is black and white in this entire exercise and that there is a mechanism by which people not belonging here can be sent to another country. The air has been surcharged so much in this divisive targeting of Muslim immigrants from the former East Bengal over citizenship that a legislator has suggested, in quite a silly way, that all "illegals", including Rohingyas from Myanmar, be eliminated using guns. Many parties have played politics with the issue of illegal Bangladeshis in India but it's time they stopped lest greater damage be done to social harmony. India has had a long history and a tradition of accepting an influx from cataclysmic events like Partition and the Bangladesh, Sri Lankan and Afghanistan wars. The migrant numbers are hugely exaggerated by those who quote dubious demographic scenarios to build up a climate of opinion against refugees of a certain religion. To say India is for Indians has a ring of logic with which most people would agree. But would not a society accept those seeking asylum or even accommodate economic refugees as a sizeable number of people of Indian origin are also living abroad, having emigrated mostly looking for a better life? It's somewhat simplistic to say all illegal immigrants should be sent back to their country of origin, as such an exercise involving millions of people has never been attempted. H10 One of the things I value most in life are the friends I have and the lessons they teach. Their insights are not lectures but emerge from the way they live and think. The other day I met a friend, a philosopher, and I was telling him excitedly about the new liberal arts universities being planned across India. I cite in particular a speech by a distinguished banker. He talked about how he had examined various courses, studied what was missing in them. The deficit, he claimed, was the liberal arts, a sense of aesthetics and values which added a holism to managerial and corporate life. My friend laughed and said: You make the liberal arts sound like an extract, an educational potion to be instantly marketed. Corporations cannot redeem the liberal arts. Look at the way they have turned CSR into an oxymoron for ethics. I was angry, and then he laughed and said: A walk through the city is a better course in liberal arts than any college effort. He explained: You do not begin with a syllabus, which is like a shopping list, buying two parts Panini and three parts Socrates. Liberal arts do not begin with diktats and syllabi, but with storytelling. The return of storytelling is the first attempt to redeem education. Storytelling creates memory, returns orality to its place in society. He added that we need the classics and storytellers. Orality has to spring back to life. Our villagers can tell you a Mahabharat with myriad variants. A return to orality is what you need, not a course in the digital humanities, which tells how many times Shakespeare used the word evil. Orality links up to memory. Our street performances emphasise memory and the constant reinvention of memory. Memory is reinvention. When you can recite, you reinvent. Memory can give you as many variants of a legend or folklore as the uses of a coconut. Memory captures diversity. He asked me which liberal arts course has a sense of diversity, a profusion of languages. He quoted his friend, the wonderful Kannada writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, saying: An illiterate in India speaks five languages, while a convent school girl survives on one. The liberal arts are a celebration of language, of the playfulness of translation. Its an act of mourning for language loss, a wake for all the languages we have lost. Once memory is central, recovering languages, and celebrating their world views, is the task of liberal arts. A city is a diversity of languages which liberal arts course can quote such a diversity, pretend to be a costume ball of languages? A living city is a better model for the liberal arts than some stiff-necked course on the classics. We were walking near the sea. He was heading to his favourite cafe in Chennai. The addiction is not to drugs but to food and place. One has to have idlis at only one restaurant. My friends said: Food is central to the liberal arts. Food is a sensorium; food shows you the difference between need and desire. He asked: Can you think of any liberal arts course designed around food as a sensorium, as a celebration of diversity? Our liberal arts courses are like instant food, instantly digestible and forgettable. My friend became more thoughtful after a few idlis and a coffee. Food is science and ethics rolled into one. The fate of food can be a course which is futuristic. He went on to add: I mean it literally. Can you think of a single liberal arts course on food? You will have bits on dance and music, but little on food. Between food, fasting and festivals, you can write the history of a civilisation. Thats all a liberal arts course is. Its a return to civics, civility and civilisation. It is not managerial or corporate or policy-oriented. Policy vulgarises the liberal arts, turning a play into a gross act of instrumentalism. We decided to walk along the sea. For my friend, life is incomplete without the sea. The sea is his cosmos, and the fishermen his friends. He observed: Our liberal arts courses are landlocked imaginations. A Jesuit priest asked me: We all think from the land to the sea. How many think from the sea to land? Our notions of economics and security are all landlocked. This is why we do not understand fishing as a livelihood. We destroy these little worlds to build a port, Adani style. One needs to understand nature, the sea, forests and rivers as economies. Patrick Geddes, the ecologist, called it the economics of a leaf, as opposed to the economics of a metal. The liberal arts have to bring nature back into the syllabus, into science, even into the Constitution. You cannot do it with some course on environmental humanities. To grasp the poetics of air or water, you have to read a Bachelard, do a history of science. Science and ecology have to be reworked into the liberal arts. Otherwise you create an education based on dualism. My friend lost interest in my questions. He bought a roll of peanuts, and sat watching the sea. Our education, he felt, does not give us time to breathe between the Kota tutorials and entrance tests. The liberal arts are the return of dreams and reverie to education. He laughed sharply and asked: Can you think of any corporation which can do that? I sat silently next to him, content with a little packet of Sundal. H11 In addition to implementing basic best security measures and layered, predictive protection, businesses should restrict access to port 3389 (RDP) by only allowing staff who use a VPN to be able to remotely access any systems. (Photo: Pixabay) Sophos has released an in-depth investigative white paper on the SamSam ransomware attacks that first appeared in December 2015. Unlike most ransomware, SamSam is a thorough encryption tool, rendering not only work data files unusable but any program that is not essential to the operation of a Windows computer, most of which are not routinely backed up. SamSams attacking method unique as it is manual and as a result, attackers can employ countermeasures (if needed) to evade many security tools. If the process of encrypting data is interrupted, the malware is capable of comprehensively erasing all trace of itself immediately, hindering any investigation. Furthermore, recovery from the attack may require reimaging and/or reinstalling the software as well as restore backups. As a result, many victims were not able to recover sufficiently or quickly enough to ensure business continuity and had to pay the ransom. According to Peter Mackenzie, Global Malware Escalations Manager at Sophos, Most ransomware is spread in large, noisy and untargeted spam campaigns using simple techniques to infect victims and demand relatively small sums in ransom. What sets SamSam apart is that its a targeted attack tailored to cause maximum damage and ransom demands are measured in the tens of thousands of dollars. The attack method is surprisingly manual, and more cat burglar than smash-and-grab. As a result, the attacker can employ countermeasures to evade security tools and if interrupted can delete all trace of itself immediately, to hinder the investigation. Mackenzie added, SamSam is a reminder to businesses that they need to actively manage their security strategy. By deploying a defence-in-depth approach, they can ensure their network is less visible and open to attack to avoid being the low hanging fruit the hacker is searching for. We recommend IT managers follow security best practices, including hard-to-crack passwords and rigorous patching. SamSams relentless attack methodology combined with the growth in Ransomware-as-a-Service and the anticipation of the ever-evolving threat landscape, emphasises the need for a layered and synchronised cybersecurity approach for businesses of all sizes. Intrusions from exploits have been persistent and are still a prominent threat to businesses and often go undetected for months. Once inside a system, cybercriminals use complex malware that can hide in memory or camouflage itself. In many cases, businesses do not know theyve been breached until someone finds a large cache of stolen data on the Dark Web. Our recently conducted The State Of Endpoint Security Survey revealed that 90 per cent of the businesses in India have been either hit or expected to hit by ransomware and more than 90 per cent of Indian IT decision makers surveyed, were running up to date endpoint protection at the time of attack, confirming that traditional endpoint security is no longer enough to protect against todays evolving ransomware threats. This is an attack pattern were likely to see an increase in India and it is time for Indian business and individuals to synchronize their cybersecurity posture to defend against such attacks, concludes Mackenzie. Sophos recommends the following top four security measures: Restrict access to port 3389 (RDP) by only allowing staff who use a VPN to be able to remotely access any systems. Utilise multi-factor authentication for VPN access. Complete regular vulnerability scans and penetration tests across the network; if you have not followed through on recent pen-testing reports, do it now. Activate multi-factor authentication for sensitive internal systems, even for employees on the LAN or VPN. Create back-ups that are offline and offsite, and develop a disaster recovery plan that covers the restoration of data and whole systems. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. 'The United States and India have a deep and strategic partnership and we are going to continue to build on that partnership and advance co-operation,' Sarah Sanders said. (Photo: File) Washington: US President Donald Trump has received an invitation to visit India, but no decision has been taken yet, the White House said on Wednesday. "I know that the invitation has been extended, but I do not believe that a final decision has been made," the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters when asked about reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited President Trump to be the Chief Guest at the next year's Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. She said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis would be headed to New Delhi soon for the first India-US 2+2 Dialogue with their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "The 2+2 dialogue would begin discussion on the process of a presidential visit next year," Sanders said at daily press conference. "The United States and India have a deep and strategic partnership and we are going to continue to build on that partnership and advance co-operation," she said. "I think, you will see that in the meeting that would take place in September," Sanders added. This is significantly below the historic level of more than USD 1 billion per year. (Photo: File/AFP) Washington: Amidst tensions in bilateral ties, the US Congress has passed a defence spending bill capping its security-related aid to Pakistan at USD 150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than USD 1 billion per year. The National Defense Authorisation Act-2019 (NDAA-19), however, removes certain conditions, like action against Haqqani Network or the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as was the case in the past few years for disbursement of US aid to Pakistan. The Senate passed the conference report on NDAA-19 by 87 to 10 votes on Wednesday afternoon. The House of Representatives had passed the conference report last week. It now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump's assent. "The legislation reduces the total amount of funds provided for reimbursement to Pakistan to USD 150 million. This is a significant reduction from the USD 700 million that was authorised through Coalition Support Fund (CSF) last year," Anish Goel, who was part of Barack Obama's White House National Security Council, told news agency PTI. However, in doing so, the legislation gets rid of the certification requirements for Pakistan's action against the Haqqani Network and it also gets rid of the authority to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism, he said. "Hence, the Pentagon no longer has any tools to put pressure on Pakistan to undertake counter-terrorism activities or action against the Haqqani Network," Mr Goel, who till recently was a senior staffer in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. During the previous Obama administration, Pakistan used to get nearly USD 1.2 billion aid from the United States under the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 also known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act. US President Donald Trump since assuming office has been tough on Pakistan over its inaction against terror groups. President Trump in August last year unveiled his new South Asia policy and asked Pakistan to do more against such terror groups. The US in January suspended more than USD 1.15 billion security assistance to Pakistan, accusing it of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take "decisive actions" against them. The US has also voiced its disapproval of growing Chinese involvement in Pakistan, adding to tensions in bilateral ties. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday had cautioned the IMF (International Monetary Fund) against a possible fresh bailout for Pakistan's new government to pay off Chinese lenders who have invested in the strategic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Joshua White, who was also a part of then President Obama's White House National Security Council team and worked on Pakistan, said this year's defence legislation significantly reduces the amount of security assistance that Pakistan can theoretically receive outside of traditional Foreign Military Financing. "It makes Pakistan ineligible for Coalition Support Funds (CSF), but adds Pakistan to a list of countries that can receive a related form of assistance designed to help partner nations bolster border security," Mr White told news agency PTI and observed, "This legislation is a mixed blessing for Pakistan." "On one hand, these new border security funds will be capped at USD 150 million per year, significantly below historical levels of CSF. On the other hand, the legislation does away with the onerous reporting requirements and certifications that have, in practice, made it difficult for Pakistan to receive such funds," he said. The former White House official noted that it is important to consider this legislation in the current political context. The Trump administration has effectively frozen security assistance to Pakistan, and this new legislation will do nothing in the short-term to change that, he said. "It does, however, mean that if the administration decides to resume some form of modest security assistance in the future, it will be authorised by the Congress to do so without having to produce detailed reports and make difficult certifications regarding Pakistan's support vis-a-vis the Haqqani Network and other threats to the United States," Mr White said. "Over the longer term, that could prove to be a win for Pakistan," he said, while noting that in theory, the new funding authority does not permit counter-terrorism assistance, but only assistance related to border security. "In practice, these terms are so malleable that I do not expect that the Pentagon would find itself very limited as to the kind of support it could provide," Mr White said. India has sent to its High Commission in London a formal request for the government of United Kingdom to extradite fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi, who has been accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of Rs 14000 crore. The High Commission of India in London will forward the request for extradition of Nirav Modi to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK Government. V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the request for extradition of the jeweler from the UK had been sent to the High Commission of India in London. He informed in a written reply to a question that the Ministry of External Affairs had received a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs for the extradition of Modi from the UK. The request has been sent by a special diplomatic bag to the High Commission of India, London for onward transmission to the UK authorities, added Singh. Modi is going to be the 29th fugitive India asked UK to extradite since 2002. The UK Government in the past 16 years rejected India's request for extradition in case of nine fugitives. The UK courts declined to issue arrest warrants in case of three more fugitives whom New Delhi wanted London to extradite. In case of 15 other fugitives, including business tycoon Vijay Mallya, India's request to UK for extradition is still pending. Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel is the only fugitive whom the UK extradited to India in the past 16 years. Modi left India on January 1, while his business associate and uncle Mehul Choksi did so on January 4 much before the PNB lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation that the duo had defrauded it of Rs 280 crore. The subsequent complaints lodged by the PNB took the quantum of the scam to about Rs 14000 crore. Choksi got citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in November 2017 months before the scam came to light and the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate launched investigations. New Delhi earlier this week sent High Commissioner of India to Guyana, V Mahalingam, to St John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, to request the government of the West Indies island nation for extradition of the owner of Gitanjali Gems. The MEA had on February 16 revoked the passports issued to Modi and Choksi by Government of India. Singh on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that the Interpol had issued two Red Corner Notices against Modi. He said that the ministry had no means to verify the travels of Modi and the passport he used for travelling after the revocation of the one issued by Government of India. Singh had informed the Rajya Sabha earlier that New Delhi had on March 23 requested the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China to provisionally arrest Modi. The HKSAR authorities however later informed New Delhi that the fugitive jeweler had left Hong Kong much before the request for his provisional arrest was made. Karnataka BJP President B S Yeddyurappa charged that Chief Minister Kumaraswamy is adopting divide and rule policy to govern Karnataka. Speaking to media persons at Hubballi Airport en route to Belagavi on Tuesday, he said none of the previous chief ministers had indulged in such kind of discrimination as Kumaraswamy. This is the reason why there has been a greater demand for separate statehood now. BJP is not in favour of the separate state, he said and added that demand for separate State is not the solution for the problems faced by the people of North Karnataka. Several people have sacrificed their lives for the unification of Karnataka and all our efforts should be to make sure that Karnataka is united. Yeddyurappa also asked chief minister not make light comments against media to hide his failures. Media is not adding fire to the demands of separate State, but his (CMs) provocative statements are, he said and added that Kumaraswamy cannot make such provoking statements without the backing of JD(S) Supremo H D Deve Gowda. "What does Deve Gowdas silence against Kumaraswamys statements means, he asked. He said, as a chief minister it was Kumaraswamys duty to meet the protesting seers at Suvarana Vidhan Soudha, who are alleging step-motherly treatment from the State government. Instead, I am going to Belagavi to pacify them and request them to take back their protest and demand for separate State, he said. NK too contributes Yeddyurappa said, Bengaluru is the not only revenue generating place in Karnataka and it is Kalaburagi, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari that has been providing food grains and Kaiga, RTPS and YTPS that is providing power to entire State. The former chief minister claimed that he would soon release documents related to his contribution towards the development of North Karnataka. Training his gun on former chief minister Siddaramaih, Yeddyurappa said the previous Congress government did not release the assured Rs 50,000 crore for irrigation projects in the region. Only Rs 8,500 crore was released over five years, he said. The State government is planning to redesign the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam, while neglecting the Almatti reservoir, for which the court has given green signal to increase the height of the reservoir to 524. 25 meters. The previous government had also failed to fill 45,000 vacant group C and D employees under the provisions of Article 371(J), he said. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayan Gowda faction) members staged protests in Raichur and Ramanagar opposing the demand for separate North Karnataka state. They also demanded the state government to implement schemes for comprehensive development of the state. In Raichur, the protesters took out a procession from tahsildar's office to deputy commissioner's office. Progressive Organisations of Hyderabad-Karnataka also backed the protest. In Ramanagar, the protesters submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner. The police had made tight security arrangements to thwart any attempt of violence. Technology, dating, college, career: Heres why todays teens are the most anxious ever Share All sharing options for: Technology, dating, college, career: Heres why todays teens are the most anxious ever The Deseret News is exploring why teens are more anxious than ever and how families and communities can help. This is the latest in a multi-part series. SALT LAKE CITY More U.S. teens than ever say theyre feeling overwhelmed by their anxiety. Doctors and therapists are booked solid. The trends are alarming, spurring studies, books and, here at the Deseret News, a yearlong series of stories and events. But a reader could be forgiven for wondering: Are today's teens really overwhelmed by their anxiety like never before? Or are they less resilient and therefore more likely to describe everyday stresses as overwhelming? Both explanations might hold some truth. It's possible teens have a lower threshold for what they label as anxiety, yet teens have been experiencing more symptoms of anxiety, too nonsubjective experiences such as shortness of breath, trouble sleeping and racing heartbeats. Theres no clear consensus on why this is happening. Persuasive research connects rising anxiety to almost every imaginable factor, including air pollution, decreased religiosity, gut bacteria, vaccines and income inequality. Source: National Institute of Mental HealthBut some of the most popular explanations might surprise you: The very things that tend to make us think life should be easier for today's teens space-age devices, limitless opportunity and doting parents might be stoking teen angst. And maybe it's also that teens are viewing their anxiety, itself, as something to worry about. Is the struggle real? People are Googling "anxiety" twice as much as five years ago. As public schools conduct daily mindfulness exercises, an online retailer sells stigma-defying T-shirts that read ANXIOUS AND COURAGEOUS. The website BuzzFeed has published four compilations of humorous anxiety-related social media posts, many of which cast anxiety as a diabolical internal voice that seeds doubts for fun. Anxiety is trending, and Philip Kendall says it seems to have become the disorder du jour that depression, anorexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were in past decades. Kendall, director of the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Temple University and a leader in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy for youth anxiety, says teens also use (and misuse) mental health jargon in day-to-day conversation. On a bad day, theyre depressed. If theyre feeling happier the next day, theyre bipolar. These kids are defining themselves by their, quote-unquote, mental health condition. His clinic recently treated a girl whose legitimate phobias had prevented her from going to school and led her peers to call her Phobia Girl. After she was persuaded to come to the clinic no easy task she overcame many of those phobias. But she didnt want to give up the nickname. Yet Kendall and other practitioners dont dispute that teen anxiety is on the rise some of it pathological, like Phobia Girls, and some of it as a proportionate response to challenges faced by today's youths, from heightened academic expectations and campus shootings to gloomy economic projections and climate change. Between fall 2008 and fall 2017, college students became twice as likely to have been treated for anxiety within the past year, with anxiety overtaking depression as the foremost concern at campus counseling centers. (See box for more stats.) John Walkup, chairman of the psychiatry department at Lurie Childrens Hospital in Chicago, says diagnoses may have been fueled by a better understanding of treatment options, which includes his own seminal 2008 study about a combination of antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment. But is anxiety actually increasing? Allan Horwitz, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University and author of All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry's Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders and Anxiety: A Short History, said people have long claimed that anxiety is on the rise. You can go back centuries and find quotes that are almost identical to what we hear today, he said. I think back to when I was a young person and there was a possibility of a nuclear holocaust and missiles in Cuba. ... There have always been lots of things to be anxious about." Holed up with their FOMO Millennials grew up amid constant disruptions to the American lifestyle: Affordable and intuitive personal computers. Widespread, speedy internet. Portable phones. And, eventually, devices that combined the best of everything. Todays teens? They grew up not knowing anything else. Whether you call them post-millennials, homelanders or, as San Diego State psychologist Jean Twenge proposes, iGen, many teens are tethered to their devices all day and fall asleep beside them at night. Twenge researches generational trends, from boomers to Generation X to millennials and todays teens. Around 2012, she began to notice that in annual surveys of college students, traits like loneliness and anxiety were spiking dramatically after decades of more gradual change. Edward Shorter, a University of Toronto professor and author of A History of Psychiatry, believes social media is taking the place of face-to-face interactions, which tend to promote connectedness and reduce anxiety. We havent had technological changes of this magnitude ever, he said. Twenge acknowledges in her book "iGen: Why Todays Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood" that there's a chicken/egg question: Teens may be using their devices more frequently because theyre lonely or anxious, as opposed to being lonely or anxious because theyre using their devices. But she believes its more likely that devices are worsening whats come to be known as FOMO, or fear of missing out. Social media gives teens the perception that others are having more fun without them and makes them constantly assess whether they are spending their time in the right way. Barry Schwartz, a longtime psychologist and economist who wrote The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, said a teens self-esteem also suffers from constant comparisons to their peers best selves. You dont post pictures of yourself brushing your teeth or folding your laundry, he said. Youre seeing your friends and their perfect lives, and your life sucks. Washington, D.C.-area psychologist Mary Alvord, an author of Conquer Negative Thinking for Teens, said social media may have its pluses, too. For instance, it may give shyer kids a means to connect that they wouldnt have had in past eras. Alvord said after a recent Pew report found that 31 percent of teens feel social media mostly benefits them, many headlines focused on the 24 percent of teens who consider it a negative influence. Kendall says technology has probably contributed to teen anxiety levels, but its not the prime mover. He compared the current discussion of social media and cellphones to the debate over television and child violence. For years, they were studying the effects of television programs on child violence, he said. What they found was that aggressive kids watched more aggressive television. The consequence of caring Kendall believes teens have legitimate reasons to be fearful. The Twin Towers tumbled to dust before some of them were born. They never knew an airport security line without body scanners or schools that didnt have regular lockdown drills in case of a shooting. But Kendall says much of their anxiety has a far less malevolent source: Mom and Dad. A race for the superkid worrying about college essays from the early stages of child development has coincided with what experts say is a tendency for todays parents to be overprotective and hyperinvolved. A 2015 Pew survey found that about 3 in 5 parents felt they were sometimes overprotective. Twenge notes that parents of this generation have also become more likely to know at all times where their teens are and whom they're with. The takeaway for youths can be that without their parents, theyre sunk. And not only can that insecurity become a source of considerable anxiety, it may also cause teens to avoid situations that would otherwise hone their coping skills, such as jobs or social gatherings. Ian Robertson, an Irish clinical psychologist who wrote The Stress Test: How Pressure Can Make You Stronger and Sharper, said its not that todays teens are precious," or inherently more fragile than previous generations. But just as one study suggests children from especially clean households are more prone to allergies and asthma, today's teens aren't building a tolerance to life's challenges. People with a lifetime of anxiety do less stuff, he said. Because they do less stuff, they get less opportunities for discovering things about themselves. In his book "Free to Learn," Boston College psychologist Peter Gray argues that an emphasis on schooling and adult supervision has led to a deficit of playtime. The result is that children are deprived of the hunter-gatherer education he received as a child in the 1950s, prowling the neighborhood and learning how to overcome boredom and adversity. The 2015 Pew survey said today's average parent figures their child needs to be 14 before they can spend time in a public park unsupervised. Alvord has worked with teens for nearly four decades, sometimes speaking about resilience at elite schools attended by the children of presidents and congressmen, where middle schoolers are panicking about their college applications and kindergartners focus entirely on academics. When I went to kindergarten, we played, she said. At 12, Alvord rode the New York subway unsupervised with a friend. Once, when they got off at a wrong stop in what seemed to be a less-than-hospitable neighborhood, they solicited the help of a friendly-looking stranger to find their way home. They made it home, and "that gave us confidence," she said. The concept of exposure therapy, or facing your fears, is a cornerstone of cognitive approaches to treating anxiety. But Kendall said parents are increasingly letting their children retreat from their fears, and their children are becoming more adept at using physiological symptoms, like a stomachache, to excuse avoidance. A majority of his patients parents tell him they know they should put their foot down, he said. But its just so hard, they say: When he gets upset, its so much easier to just give in. The curse of opportunity Pennsylvanias Swarthmore College is reliably rated as one of the nations top liberal arts schools, with a 10 percent acceptance rate in 2017. And yet, about 15 years ago, many of Barry Schwartz's Swarthmore students stopped doing his assigned readings, accepting that their grades would be docked. What I came to realize, slowly, is it wasnt because they were lazy or irresponsible, he said. It was because they were facing all these decisions about their lives that previous students didnt have to face very much. They were paralyzed, said Schwartz, who has written about the anxiety-inducing effect of excessive choice in the modern era and the "too muchness" faced by today's youth. He took pity on his students, assigning them less work. And he stopped asking seniors what they were going to do when they graduated, knowing it was the last conversation they wanted to have. They get a job at Starbucks hoping that one morning, theyll wake up with an insight about what their future lives will be like, and it doesnt happen, he said. Todays youths feel pressure to pick the perfect college, the perfect career, the perfect spouse all while having what experts describe as diminished faith in themselves, less life experience and worse coping skills. And parents attempts to soothe their teens may have the opposite effect. Explained Walkup: When a parent says, All I want for my kid is to be happy, that puts enormous pressure on that kid to be happy for their parent. In the bad old days, it was, I just want you to get out of the house and get a job. Maybe the expectations were a little bit more concrete. Walkup tells parents that being happy is a byproduct of being competent and confident in your life choices, not stopping to obsess over every fork in the road. The other thing that modern families say is, Sweetie, you can do anything you want. You are really smart and really talented, he said. That sounds like an affirmation but it also puts enormous pressure on a child. Walkup says a parents focus should be on the developmental tasks that are appropriate for a child's age not their prospects to become president. At age 3, for instance, that means eating, sleeping and toileting. As teenagers, they need to master their emotions and build social relationship skills. Parents should affirm those goals. While it may seem kind to tell an aspiring young musician that she might one day play Carnegie Hall, Robertson said such feedback too often creates a dangerous itch that cant be scratched. Teens should be encouraged to judge themselves by their own values. If their passion is the violin, they should focus on the intrinsic satisfaction of improving, day by day. Carnegie Hall may not be a legitimate possibility. But should they have to resort to duller work to pay the bills, thats OK: At least theyll still be fulfilled by their music. Anxious? Try being excited, instead The efficacy of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating anxiety has been so often challenged and then again supported by clinical trials that its nigh impossible for a Googling layperson to make heads nor tails of the drugs, which are known as antidepressants. Their skeptics even include some psychiatrists, whove admitted they prescribe them without knowing for certain how well they stop anxiety, or why they would, precisely. And there are those who believe that by marketing their drugs to mental health professionals and consumers alike, pharmaceutical companies have fueled a perception that normal emotions constitute a medical disease, and that anxiety itself is something to worry about and not as it once was something to push through. Most experts who spoke to the Deseret News said severe anxiety can become a serious impediment to a teens well-being, and that in those cases, teens often benefit from professional treatment whether its cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), medication or the combination supported by Walkups 2008 study, in which 80 percent of child anxiety sufferers ages 7 to 17 saw much improvement after three months. For more on drugs used to treat anxiety, click here. But some pharmaceutical skeptics decry the industry's role in creating what Ian Dowbiggin, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island who studies the history of medicine, refers to as an illness-breeding and illness-affirming society. If you have to do a report in class and you get the butterflies in your stomach, youre told thats natural, and youre not to blame, Dowbiggin said. Youre, in a sense, a victim of outside sources, and therefore its OK to be anxious. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of young people today report their anxiousness. Christopher Lane, a Northwestern University English professor and author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, said he was alarmed to learn how many of his students were being prescribed medications after reporting temporary stresses from things like exams. Lane has written that the definitions in the American Psychiatric Associations industry standard Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, were arrived at arbitrarily and unscientifically. And pharmaceutical marketers have capitalized on the ambiguity, he said. In a full-page Paxil ad that ran in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2003, a woman looks downward as a floppy hat obscures the top half of her face, under the text: Is she just shy? Or is it Social Anxiety Disorder? The latest DSM definition says that adults have generalized anxiety disorder when they experience three of these symptoms more days than not for six months: 1. restlessness, 2. fatigue, 3. difficulty concentrating, 4. irritability, 5. muscle tension, 6. sleep problems. For a child, only one symptom is required. Lane said the vast gray area between normal nervousness or shyness and pathological anxiety makes it inevitable that SSRI drugs have been overprescribed, bringing with them side effects (including, in some cases, anxiety) and dependencies that partially self-fulfill the original diagnosis. [T]here are a great many inexpensive, harm-free ways to treat anxiety without medication, he wrote in an email to the Deseret News. Some leading psychiatrists prescribe walking, for centuries known to help calm the worried mind. Not all anxiety can be beaten with a walk in the park. But Robertson said that, physiologically speaking, most anxiety looks no different from excitement. That beating heart, dry mouth, churning stomach and sweat? Its how your body prepares for action. It doesnt really care what kind of action, he said. Robertson said teens will sometimes become frightened of their own anxiety, which begins a self-propelling spiral downward into avoidance and withdrawal. The power of reframing anxiety as excitement was demonstrated in a 2014 study conducted by Alison Wood Brooks, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School with a background in psychology. Brooks invited college-age students to complete a variety of stressful tasks. Some sang Journeys Dont Stop Believin in a karaoke game on the Nintendo Wii. Others delivered public speeches. Others were tested on their math abilities. All were treated in ways designed to freak them out. And there was one constant: They performed markedly better when they were told to say I am excited or to Try to get excited before the test. (I am calm or Try to stay calm, was no help at all.) Said Robertson: Its just a mental shift to say these feelings Im having, these are the feelings of when my teams winning. It puts you into a mindset where youre anticipating reward instead of getting punishment. With an increasing awareness of teen anxiety, the optimist can see an opportunity: Instead of being known as the most anxious generation, might they become known as the most excited? Join the Deseret News Anxiety Community Facebook group for more information. DRAPER Both of these men see a rezoning proposal as a project that will impact millions of lives in Salt Lake and Utah counties with effects lasting decades. That much is about all Dave Kallas and Dr. Brian Moench can agree on. Kallas, the spokesman for Geneva Rock, says a 73-acre proposed extension of its gravel pit operations at Point of the Mountain will provide needed materials for constructing new roads, houses and other buildings along the Wasatch Front over the next 20 years. Moench, president of the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, says the additional gravel pit operation will harm the lungs of millions of residents in the two counties and sap the economic vitality of one of the state's most promising areas for growth. The city of Draper, where the property is located, will be left sifting through the arguments as it weighs the proposal beginning in late August or early September. David Dobbins, Draper's city manager, said the city has posted information about the proposal on its website and will conduct a series of public hearings as part of the review of the rezoning application. Geneva is proposing to forego any mining at Steep Mountain and instead will establish a 78-acre conservation area with an easement granted to Draper or Salt Lake County, Kallas said. The company will also put in a dirt road and small parking lot to accommodate visitors and hang gliders at the top of the mountain pending county approval and allow Draper to extend its trails network. Kallas said the move will save both the south and north face of the mountain from any additional mining activity and enhance access for hang gliders and paragliders. "This secures in perpetuity Steep Mountain as a conservation area. We took a chunk of it that was legally permitted for mining and will leave that alone," he said. David Shallenberger, president of the Utah Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, said the world-class flying site at Point of the Mountain would receive long-term guarantees under Geneva's rezoning project. "Our main priority from our hang gliding groups is to do whatever we can to preserve the Point of the Mountain hill where we fly. So far, the Geneva proposal offers a conservation easement and other things that would offer some permanent and long-term protections and would really help our flying community," Shallenberger said. Kallas said the proposal for additional mining in an area abutting their existing operation is necessary to meet the demand of the explosive growth in Salt Lake and Utah counties. "We've seen our biggest year every year for several years in a row," he said. Moench predicts it would be an air pollution nightmare. "We are not arguing with the need for gravel, but expanding at that geological place at the Wasatch Front ends up being the worst possible place. There are winds that will kick up dust into the atmosphere that blow there 80 percent of the time," Moench said. Geneva is one of six gravel pits or related material operations at Point of the Mountain. The company originally sought an extension of its operations in a rezoning application with Draper in 2015. Although the planning commission approved its proposal, Geneva withdrew it amid continuing concerns from the public. Kallas said since then, Geneva has gathered input to craft a substantially different rezoning request, which if approved will allow its operation to continue for two decades plus. Moench believes that despite the alterations, Draper should kill the proposal. "It's a big deal for a lot of reasons. The rezoning is a permission slip to keep mining there for 30 years," he said. Geneva officials are well aware the proposal is not without controversy for communities and people who would wish away the gravel pit operation to another location, Kallas said. "We are seeing encroachment on gravel pits throughout the Wasatch Front. People move, communities grow up and they want the pit moved," he said. Geneva mines where the resource is, and moving it to some more remote location like the western desert is impractical, he added, and would increase the company's carbon footprint. "The impact would be significant. The costs would skyrocket." The shift in operations does not require any modification of Geneva's air quality permit with the state because Kallas said Geneva would remain within its operational limit for emissions. Under the permit, Geneva is able to produce 14 million tons of material and within that, process nearly 11 million tons per year, according to Alan Humphreys with the Utah Division of Air Quality. The permit allows up to 128.86 tons of PM10, or fine particulate matter, to be emitted each year. Jay Morris, who oversees compliance on "minor" source operations for the air quality division, said regulators conduct on-site inspections at gravel pits and keep a close watch for dust violations. "Probably more days than not we have eyes on that site," at Point of the Mountain, he said, noting inspection employees make that drive frequently. "It is pretty rare that we would see something we would stop for." But Moench said the state air quality permit is not a sufficient yardstick for a clean operation. "Compliance with state regulations is no barometer as to whether public health is being harmed," he and board members wrote in a letter to Draper officials. "All pollution is harmful to human health, even at levels far below state and federal standards." Moench said the fine particle pollution from gravel pit operations is dangerous, causing destruction of lung tissue and increasing susceptibility to tuberculous and lung cancer. "The toxic dust generated will continue for years, but the health consequences will last much longer," the letter states. Kallas said the company has invested more than $30 million in technology to reduce its emissions footprint, switching its fleet to compressed natural gas vehicles and installing an elaborate conveyor system to minimize internal truck traffic. The expenditure also includes the use of water cannons and sprinklers in its dust suppression operations. For Moench, it doesn't matter because of what he said is the inappropriate location of the gravel pit in such close proximity to residents and development. "Someone needs to evaluate the kind of effect this will have on the boon of development that will happen in the area with the opening of the prison site," Moench said, noting plans to relocate the Utah State Prison to the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake City. "This is the fastest growing area of the Wasatch Front." Kallas, however, said it is precisely that proximity that drove the location of the gravel pit in the beginning. "This material is literally being driven down the road to build a home, build a church or a new school. When you are talking about mining building materials, the source of the material needs to be where the community is that is being served. That is the reality. That is why Point of the Mountain became a gravel pit. We needed source material for our customers," he said. Moench said his organization and other opponents plan to fight the proposal and host town meetings. "It will impact everybody in Utah and Salt Lake counties, so it extends far beyond the purview of Draper residents," he said. "Everybody in these counties should be engaged in the issue." The conflict between gravel pits and residents continues to grow because of development, according to Morris. "We have been watching this perfect storm for 25 years as Draper continues to expand on the north side and Lehi expands on the south side," Morris said. "They are just building closer and closer to those pits and residents are unhappy about those pits. But without those pits, they would not have the material for their homes." LEHI While efforts to walk back the GOP-controlled Federal Communications Commission decision to unravel Obama-era net neutrality rules continue, some political leaders, including Utah's Rep. John Curtis, are ready to strip partisanship out of the ongoing debate. Curtis hosted an invite-only roundtable discussion Tuesday at Adobe's offices in Lehi, hoping to gather stakeholder input on how to best address efforts to maintain an appropriately open internet system. "We tried to get every position represented in the room," Curtis told the Deseret News. "We had (internet service providers), edge providers and both large and small tech businesses. I felt like we had a really productive dialogue about our mutually shared objective an open and fair internet." Curtis noted that see-sawing FCC internet rule modifications, which have been following the tides of political change in the nation's capital, lead to uncertainty in the industry. And that, he noted, results in negative outcomes for all involved, from internet and content providers down to everyday web users. "My personal feeling is the best answer is a congressional fix," Curtis said. "One of the problems we're experiencing right now is administration changes lead to (internet) policy changes and we whiplash back and forth. One of the resounding messages from the roundtable group was the need for predictability." Stringent net-neutrality rules, forbidding internet service providers from the practice of throttling service for certain websites or creating tiered levels of service based on business partnerships were implemented during President Barack Obama's time in office, when the five-member FCC board had a 3-2 Democratic majority. Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump promoted Ajit Pai from his FCC board position to chairman of the agency, which now splits on a 3-2 Republican majority. Last December, the body voted to undo those Obama-era rules. An effort to walk back that decision, leveraging the power vested in lawmakers to override administrative rule changes via the Congressional Review Act, has won Senate approval on a mostly partisan vote but is currently languishing in the U.S. House. Curtis said while he understands the impetus behind the push to address the most recent FCC changes using the Congressional Review Act, he sees it as perpetuating the partisan divisiveness on net neutrality issues. "One of the problems I see with the (Congressional Review Act) is it goes back to the whiplash effect and also precludes the FCC from fine-tuning (internet rule) changes in the future," Curtis said. "Handling it through congressional action, and legislating on principles of a fair and open internet while leaving some discretion to the administration ... would be the best approach." Roger Timmerman, executive director of Utopia Fiber, attended Tuesday's meeting and told the Deseret News he appreciated Curtis' efforts to address net neutrality issues at the congressional level. "The overall tone of the meeting was very good and (participants) were able to express diverse opinions on the issues," Timmerman said. "I think Curtis was able to find common ground and told us that he's evolved his view of net neutrality from one that was against federal regulation to the recognition that there needs to be a solution that comes from Congress ... one that does not fluctuate with the ebbs and flows of administration changes." Timmerman noted that while customers on Utopia's fiber network, which serves about 80,000 Utah households, are able to choose from over a half-dozen different internet service providers, the same competitive landscape doesn't exist for most internet users. "If we had a truly competitive internet provider market, then we wouldn't need regulation," Timmerman said. "But, we know that doesn't exist for most Utahns or for most people in the country. Most consumers have only one (internet service provider) option and you're lucky if you have two. "The need for net neutrality protections will be ongoing until we get where we want to be, as far as a competitive environment." Timmerman agrees with Curtis that the partisanship that has become attached to net neutrality issues is out of place. Timmerman also noted that while many GOP elected officials have taken stances opposing net neutrality regulation, that view is out of step with the Republican rank and file. "There is a lot of evidence that the Republican general public is strongly in support of maintaining net neutrality," Timmerman said. "I try to make the point all the time that there is no basis for making this a partisan issue. At all." Media and internet watchdog group Free Press has touted the same argument in its advocacy for maintaining a regulatory framework to keep internet access, for both customers and content providers, an equitable playing field. "Net Neutrality has never been a partisan issue except in a few buildings in Washington, D.C.," Free Press Action Fund Government Relations Director Sandra Fulton said in a recent statement. "The protections established under the Obama-era FCC in 2015 have broad bipartisan support from voters across the country. Eighty-two percent of Republicans opposed the Republican FCC's decision to repeal the rules. "Net Neutrality rules protect everyone's right to a free and open internet. They protect free speech and choice from corporate ISPs, ensuring that people can tell their own stories, take advantage of economic opportunities, further their education and fight for racial justice without fear of discrimination." When asked about potential next-steps on net neutrality legislation, Curtis said he plans to continue to both gather input from constituents and advocate in Congress on behalf of creating stable, thoughtful legislation to maintain a fair and open internet. "My goal is to be a thought-leader," Curtis said. "I've made a committment to understanding this issue as well or better than anyone ... and I will continue the dialogue in my district and be very active on the issue with my colleagues." SALT LAKE CITY Three Utahns would likely still be alive if it weren't for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the two men who allegedly murdered them early releases from prison, Sen. Orrin Hatch says. Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, introduced a bill Wednesday that would reinstate a law that they say would protect people from violent, repeat offenders. "Our bill will bring much-needed clarity to the law while empowering prosecutors to pursue justice," Hatch said. Prosecutors lost the ability to seek enhanced penalties for the worst career criminals when the Supreme Court found part of the 1984 Armed Career Criminal Act unconstitutionally vague, he said. "Criminals released early from prison as a result of that decision have gone on to commit heinous crimes, including the murder of three innocent Utahns, " Hatch said. U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber first raised the issue in a June Deseret News report. He said a young Ephraim couple who were brutally killed and then thrown down a mine shaft and an 89-year-old woman murdered in her South Salt Lake home would be alive today if the men accused of killing them had not been released early from federal prisons because of a change in the law resulting from the court ruling. That law changed in 2015, but Huber said lawmakers hadn't since bothered to respond to the ruling. He said the penalty enhancement could be fixed and called on lawmakers in Washington to reword the part of the statute that the Supreme Court determined was "ambiguous and vague." Huber told the Deseret News that 212 federal inmates who had been convicted in Utah under that act filed petitions with appeals courts to have their sentences reduced. "It overwhelmed us, it overwhelmed the federal public defenders, it overwhelmed the courts, it overwhelmed the probation officers, he said in June. "It really had a big effect on federal court system in Utah." Huber commissioned a study in his office to find out what happened to the inmates who got their sentences reduced and were released. The study found that 66 percent of those people reoffended within two years, he said. The average amount of time it took for a person to reoffend was 85 days. Some of those who reoffended were sent back to prison for drug convictions, stealing cars or burglaries, according to Huber. Two from that group, he said, murdered three Utahns. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also called on Congress to "fix" the law Wednesday in a speech in Arkansas. "Releasing hardened criminals into our communities before they serve their minimum term is not fair to crime victims," Sessions said. "And it is not fair to law enforcement. You shouldnt have to go into danger time and again to arrest the same people." The law required a minimum 15-year prison sentence for felons convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm who had three prior state or federal convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses, which must have been committed on three different occasions. The proposed Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act would do away with the concepts of violent felony and serious drug offense and replace them with a single category of serious felony. A serious felony would be any crime punishable by 10 years or more. By defining serious felony solely based on the potential prison term, the bill would address the vagueness issue and remove any discretion or doubt about which offenses qualify, according to Hatch and Cotton. Jerrod Baum and Abe Martinez were among those sentenced under the 1984 law and released early from prison after the Supreme Court decision in 2015. Baum, whose long criminal history includes an attempted murder conviction, left prison in 2016, about four years before his scheduled release date. Earlier this year, he is accused of slitting the throats of Riley Powell, 18, and Brelynne "Breezy" Otteson, 17, and throwing their bodies down a mine shaft. Baum, 41, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, and other charges. Abe Martinez, 44, had his sentence reduced after the ruling and was transferred to a halfway house in May. A day after walking away from the halfway house, Martinez went to the home of his grandparents in South Salt Lake and killed his 89-year-old grandmother, Rose Martinez, and seriously injured his 71-year-old stepgrandfather before police shot and killed him. SALT LAKE CITY Russia and China are out to embarrass the United States and prove that democracy and capitalism will fail, Rep. Chris Stewart said Thursday. Both Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping want to weaken the U.S., and Xi has a plan to make his country the "not a peer to the United States but the single dominant power in the world" by 2048, the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party in China, the Utah Republican said. "In some cases they will work together and in some cases they won't," Stewart said during a forum on national security hosted by the Sutherland Institute at the Utah Army National Guard North Salt Lake Readiness Center. Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he's often asked what he sees as the biggest threats to the U.S. Quoting a now retired military commander, he said Russia is the only existential threat, North Korea is the most dangerous and China is the most complicated. The three-term congressman defended President Donald Trump's approach to Russia, though he conceded he was frustrated with his joint press conference after meeting with Putin last month. "For almost two years now, this president and other people around him have been accused not of jaywalking or stealing bubble gum. Theyve been accused of treason virtually every day by many, many people," Stewart said. Stewart said he understands why Trump would be defensive about that. But the Trump administration's actions clearly show its willingness to confront Putin, "which is why his press conference was so frustrating to me because it clouded that reality and created this image that he somehow prefers a strongman like Vladimir Putin, who we know is a KGB thug," he said. "He makes my job harder with some of his tweets and some of the things he said in that press conference are an example of that," Stewart said. "But putting aside what he said and how ineloquent he might have been, who is the president who went to NATO and said, 'You have to increase your spending on defense,' and the point of that, of course, is Russia," he said. Trump also increased U.S. military spending in part to counter Russian aggression, according to Stewart. He said on a recent trip to the Baltic states, he saw Russian tanks across the border. "I can tell you, the Baltics have a legitimate reason to be afraid," he said, adding Putin could take them in 48 hours and the U.S. could initially not do anything about it. "Then the question we have is, 'Are willing to go to war with Russia over the Baltics?'' Stewart asked. "The thing we have to decide is does Vladimir Putin know the answer to that question." LA SAL, San Juan County A man driving a dump truck died Thursday after his truck tipped over and slid into a ditch, officials said. About 10 a.m., Kayonnie Rodriquez, 43, from Blanding, San Juan County, was traveling eastbound on state Route 46 hauling road base when he was unable to make a sharp curve in the road, Utah Highway Patrol said. The truck tipped over onto its passenger side, sliding into a ditch and landing upside-down against a hillside, UHP said. "Speed and distracted driving are being investigated as possible causes of the crash," UHP stated. A new method of reorganising human beta cells could improve the effectiveness of islet transplantation in type 1 diabetes. Scientists from the University of Calgary in Canada have bioengineered human pseudoislets which have demonstrated success in mice trials. These pseudoislets are engineered to have greater likelihood of survival following transplantatio, and researchers are keen to launch clinical trials to test the islets in humans. One of the problems with islet cell transplantation is that islets have to compete for limited oxygen and nutrients. This can eventually lead to islet cells dying out. To address this problem, Calgary researchers Dr Mark Ungri, PhD, and Yang Yu used tissue engineering technology called AggreWell to assemble islet cells into clusters with controlled size and composition. The method deviates from the Edmonton Protocol, a process which has helped hundreds of people with type 1 diabetes become less dependent on insulin, but focuses more on establishing the cells survival. Dr Ungrin worked with Edmonton Protocol pioneers Drs James Shapiro and Greg Korbutt on the technology. In laboratory experiments, the reorganised cells helped each other survive and function without competing for oxygen and nutrients. Our engineered pseudoislets perform very well in the lab, and in mice, said Dr Ungrin. Over the next few years we plan to establish the scale-up and quality control necessary to bring the approach to the clinic. In this paper we focused on donated human islet material since thats whats most commonly used in patients at present. However, the approach has been designed so when stem cell-derived pancreatic cells become available and receive approval, we can substitute them to alleviate the shortage of organ donors. The findings appear online in the journal Diabetologia. Google has just released a new update for its popular keyboard app, Gboard. In the new update, it brings a new Make a GIF feature, with which you canyou guessed itmake your short GIFs with images and text added to them. If youd rather not get into that sort of thing and just stick to well, stickers, then theres good news for you too. Googles added support for 15 more languages in the stickers search feature. Googles added support for 28 new languages in the keyboard. Alphabetically listed, they are Bagri, Batak Toba, Bench, Bhili, Capiznon, Chavacano, Eastern Min, Fiji Hindi, Geez, Gurani, Ingush, Karachay, Khorasani Turkic, Kipsigis, Maharashtrian Konkani, Lezgian, Mizo, Maguindanao, Malay (Brunei), Maranao, Southern Min, Northern Sami, Qashqai, Rinconada Bikol, Surjapuri, Tausug, Upper Saxon, and Vasavi. Many of these features were previously available on the Beta version of Gboard and are now part of the stable release. The updated keyboard is numbered version 7.14.19.206421213 and measures a shocking 142 megabytes in size. A three-figure file size for a keyboard makes one wonder if keyboard apps too should start getting a Lite version. The release of the Gboard update comes a week after Google released the final developer preview of Android P, in which several bugs were fixed, according to the company. As usual, the beta version of Android P is available for Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL. Any guesses on what the name will be this time around? Qualcomms legal battle with Apple has taken another turn. According to a report by The Register, the chipset manufacturer claims that Intel has not delivered on its promise of providing documents on the latest radio frequency components being used in the new Apple iPhones. In a motion filed against Intel, Qualcomm claims that it even agreed to limit its demands so that a resolution could be reached quickly. In its motion, Qualcomm stated, After several meet-and-confers and exchanges of written correspondence, on May 18, Intel appeared willing to cooperate, offering a 'limited supplemental production of technical materials relating to relevant components designed for 2018 iPhone models' in exchange for Qualcomm's agreement that the limited production would satisfy certain requests in the document subpoena. In the interests of obtaining a prompt resolution from Intel and hoping to reach a mutually agreeable resolution that would not unduly burden Intel, Qualcomm agreed. Qualcomm then notes that Intel went back on its word and failed to produce the material even after two months. It also alleges that Intel ignored repeated communications from Qualcomms counsel until finally responding on June 6. It notes that this was five days before the then-existing fact discovery cutoff in the Patent Infringement Action. Regardless, Qualcomm still wants Intel to produce the documents and things Inten had agreed to produce. This includes RTL code, source code an High Level Architecture Schematics related to Intels current generation of RF components. To recall, Qualcomm had sued Apple for breach of contract. The chipset maker claimed that Apple used its access to Qualcomms proprietary software to help Intel. There were also reports that Apple was planning to drop Qualcomm entirely and use Intels chips for its next iPhones. However, more recent reports suggest that Apple will have to work with Qualcomm for some quantities of the new modem as Intel faces some yet unresolved quality issue as it ramps up production. This update might prove to be a hindrance in cross-posting the tweets automatically, however, there is another (old school and time taking) way by which you can share your Twitter posts. You just have to copy the URL or the specific tweet and paste it into your post and share it. Another one of the Facebook measures to secure its API further is Facebook Login. This was Another one of the Facebook measures to secure its API further is Facebook Login. This was announced in April and dictates that the apps that had the autonomy to publish the posts on Facebook while being a logged in user, do not have that access or permission. The apps that are new are prohibited to make use of this feature as this update was announced. In case of the apps that have been around for longer, they had this update implemented on from 1st August 2018. It is also said by the company that the developers who have been using this API could now shift to Facebook's share dialogs for Android, iOS as well as the Web. Twitter, on the other hand, has yet to release another solution for this dilemma other than the already available Twitter, on the other hand, has yet to release another solution for this dilemma other than the already available Copy link to Tweet feature . This can't replace the automatic tweeting option as its merely a manual way to share the tweets. Also, on Twitter, the option for Facebook sharing is not gone as of yet all together. After the Cambridge Analytical Scandal, resulting in the mass data leak of over 87 million Facebook users , the company has been securing its API platform and now, it came down to the tweets being posted on your Facebook account automatically. Regarding the new update, your tweets will no longer be posted on your account like they used to. 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. Jet Airways wants pilots, engineers to take 25% salary cut Jet Airways is facing a major crisis with pilots and engineers refusing to accept the 25-per cent pay cut suggested by the management to tide over the current financial woes. The airline, which has been in operation for the past 25 years, has over 16,500 permanent employees. But with growing competition in India and rising turbine fuel costs, the airline has been battling a looming financial crisis. Naresh Goyal- promoted Jet Airways sold a 24-per cent stake to Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi in 2013. There has been speculation in the past about Etihad wanting to sell its stake, but both Jet and the Abu Dhabi-based carrier have denied the reports. The National Aviators Guild, which represents about 80 per cent of the 2,000 pilots of the airline, has instructed its members not to accept the 25-per cent cut in salaries. Guild sources claim that the airline management is not in favour of negotiating with it and that it might forcibly impose a pay cut. However, pilots have been told to quit en masse if the cuts are imposed, as there is huge demand for their services in the aviation sector. Goyal along with other senior airline staff is reportedly in talks with the pilots and engineers for the pay cut. Airline spokespersons, however, have refused to comment on the dispute. Online food business M&As heating up in India Things are cooking up in the online food ordering and delivery business, with well-funded companies including Ola, Uber, Swiggy and Zomato planning to acquire smaller but innovative outfits. The latest to do so is Ola, which is learnt to be in talks with Holachef Hospitality, a Mumbai-based company that shut shop about three months ago. Foodpanda, which Ola had acquired a few months earlier from its German parent, is expected to acquire Holachef soon. ANI Technologies, which operates the Ola taxi-hire brand, is planning to acquire other private food-related companies. Holachef was set up about four years ago and offered services in Mumbai and Pune. It had raised funds from high net worth individuals, but suddenly stopped operations recently. Several other food delivery startups are also believed to have shut down operations recently. According to media reports, they include Twigly, Spoonjoy, TinyOwl, Yumist and Dazo. Other food delivery service companies are however, raising funds and are bailing out the smaller entities. Zomato, which raised about $200 million in February, plans to get some more funding. Swiggy raised about $210 million last month. Both companies are also expanding rapidly. And Swiggy and Zomato each employ more than 50,000 highly-paid executives. AI firm Racetrack.ai raises maiden fundin Artificial intelligence-based sales and support startup Racetrack.ai has raised $5 million (nearly Rs33 crore) in a pre-Series A round, valuing the company at about $21 million. With the global AI market rocketing, Racetrack.ai is focussing on business verticals like BFSI, education, health, hospitality, and real estate. With the possibilities, capabilities, and scopes getting wider, Racetrack.ai is now set to expand its operation base to the US, Singapore, and Mauritius. The funding was raised from former president and founding member of Biocon, Murali Krishna US-based investor Dov Kagan , other investors from Singapore, Mauritius, apart from its existing investors. This is really an overwhelming and positive moment for all of us. We are now looking forward and are excited to announce our next overseas operation base in USA, Mauritius and Singapore, Subrat Parida, founder & CEO at Racetrack.ai said. This move will help us delve into newer business verticals like retail, banking and healthcare. This boost in our physical presence will open new doors for us to partner with intercontinental brands and decision makers while helping us to create global footprint in the AI industry, he added. This AI startup has products - MARVINTM & TURINGTM with MARVINTM a SmartBot for sales and support, and TURINGTM an online and offline Business Accelerator that helps to improve business planning and execution. With these two products, Racetrack.ai is targeting the $100-billion AI market. Trai releases norms for next spectrum auction, timing uncertain The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended rules and prices for the next round of spectrum auction, which will include radio waves for 5G mobile services. The regulator has recommended that the base price for bidding should be the higher of the two figures 80 per cent of the average valuation of spectrum band in the licensed service area and the price realised in the October 2016 auction, reports PTI. The government is yet to finalise the timing of the next round of auction. The regulator has recommended base price of Rs3,285 per megahertz for 1800MHz band on pan-India basis. According to The Economic Times, Trai has recommended slashing the base price of premium 4G airwaves in the 700 MHz band by almost 43 per cent, and set Rs492 crore per unit as the minimum rate for 5G spectrum that will debut in the next auction. While the sale could fetch the government over Rs5 lakh crore if all the spectrum is sold at the reserve prices, experts anticipate a lukewarm response by telecoms firms. Airwaves across the 4G bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz, besides 5G spectrum in the 3300-3600 MHz bands, will be offered to the three telcos that are likely to be operational by then Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The starting prices for most bands were lowered from those set at the previous sale in October 2016. The next auction could generate some Rs5,06,110 crore for the government, or about nine times the Rs65,789 crore raised in October 2016, if all of the over 8,500 MHz of airwaves are sold at the base price, according to analysts cited by ET. For 5G spectrum, it has issued recommendations for the proposed spectrum in 3300-3600MHz band and suggested that "reserve price of (this) band should be equal 30 percent of the reserve price of 1800MHz FDD band". It has suggested that spectrum in 3300-3600MHz band should be put up for auction in the block size of 20MHz. "To avoid monopolisation of this band, there should be limit of 100MHz per bidder. Since the TSPs are allowed to trade their partial or complete spectrum holding to another TSP, the limit of 100 MHz spectrum in 3300-3600 MHz band shall also apply for spectrum trading," Trai said. In a relief to the industry, Trai has suggested that the "reserve price of 700 MHz band should be equal to twice the reserve price of 1800MHz spectrum band" resulting in about 42 per cent reduction in price of this band at Rs6,568 crore per MHz. For 2016 auction, government had fixed base price of 700MHz band at Rs11,485 crore per MHz. The price of spectrum in premium 700MHz band was fixed at four times the price of 1800MHz band - a frequency range which was known as 2G spectrum earlier. In 2016, spectrum worth about Rs4 lakh crore was put up for auction but there were no takers for this band due to its high price. The regulator has recommended reduction of price in telecom circles where spectrum remained unsold in last auction of 2016. According to ET, operators and experts said the sale will likely evoke a lukewarm response, with hardly any takers for both 700 MHz and 5G airwaves at current prices. Jio is currently the only profitable telco, while Vodafone India and Idea Cellular on the verge of merging and Bharti Airtel have slipped into the red due to tariff wars. Besides, the industry has a debt of over Rs7 lakh crore, primarily blamed on high bandwidth prices. They said reducing the base price of airwaves wasnt enough to spur bidding and levies such as licence fees and spectrum usage charges should be lowered. An Post has received 13 applications for the voluntary retirement package from postmasters and postmistresses in Donegal, it has emerged. They are out of over 100 requests nationwide. The 13 potential post offices closures in Donegal are: Ballyliffin, Ballymagan, Bunbeg, Burnfoot, Churchill, Culdaff, Culkeeny, Dunaff, Dunfanaghy, Dunkineely, Gortahork, Kindrum and Quigleys Point. Donegal has the highest number of potential closure in the country. Donegal TD Pat the Cope Gallagher said the 13 different communities affected by the potential closures throughout Donegal are in a complete state of shock. The publication of the list of post offices is sending a shock wave right throughout this county, no area is left untouched by this recent policy decision of a Government that simply does not know or understand rural life, he said. Earlier I had warned that many closures could result from this poorly thought out policy of Leo Varadkars Government but the full extent of the closures is devastating and will result in many villages and towns being left without a Post Office. It is not terribly long since in the Dail that Government Ministers were giving absolute commitments that not one single Post Office would close on their watch these words ring hollow today with 13 due to close in Donegal alone. This entire policy of the Government and An Post has been a cloak and dagger approach, with An Post ordinarily offering a normal redundancy package to the various Post Offices but with the added sting which was if accepted then no replacement Post Office would be allowed in that area. This policy should never had been given Government approval especially in rural areas where little or no public transport exists in urban areas Post Office will be allowed every 2 km, but in rural areas the distance permitted is up to 15 km apart. It is self-evident that the rurally based Ministers of this Government sitting at cabinet were asleep when the details of this Post Office Scheme were approved by Cabinet. 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 subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. DKIT are creating a series of Data Analytics courses to address the growing analytics sector in Ireland. This is due to Ireland being a hub for companies like Facebook and Google, who require skilled graduates who can effectively perform data analytics. Skill Ireland has estimated that by 2020, there will be between 49,000 to 62,000 roles in analytics in Ireland. The analytics sector is undergoing significant growth in Ireland and employers are increasingly feeding back that they need people with deep analytical skills in both the areas of business and computing, said Anton Barrett, the Head of Lifelong Learning at DKIT, in a feature on the DkIT website. According to Dr. Fiona Lawless, a lecturer in DKIT, these are the first courses of their kind to be offered in the North Leinster and South Ulster region. They have been designed with flexibility in mind and were created through direct consultation with employers. Two of the courses available also benefit from subsidization through the Governments Springboard+ Scheme, which reduces tuition fees for anyone eligible. For more information go here. Turning the ship before it hits the iceberg Seven people were injured and hospitalized after a series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland County, Texas on Wednesday, according to local media. All pipelines in the region have been shut in. Midland sits in the booming oil- and shale-rich Permian Basin, which has multiple pipelines serving the field. The operator of the pipeline in question is unknown at this time, Midland public information officer Elana Ladd said to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. She added that fire department personnel are allowing the remaining gas to burn off. The incident occurred on a rural road, FM 1379. KWES reported that three total explosions occurredthe first at 11:30 a.m. After that fire was suppressed, a second and third explosion followed at 12:30 p.m. The cause is not yet known. "They had a leak on the pipeline. Fire department responded to it. Midland Fire Department and Greenwood Fire Department. And while they were down there, they were fighting some grass fires along with it. Apparently something happened to the pipeline. We don't know what it is yet, because we can't get in there to look at it. But they had a failure within the pipeline itself and the first one exploded. Then they had two other small explosions, one medium and one small," Midland Fire Marshall Dale Little told CBS 7. Initial reports said five people were injured from the explosions. Updated reports increased the number of injured people to seven. The seven were taken to the hospital with critical injuries, four with burns, according to CBS 7. One firefighter with the Greenwood Fire Department and another firefighter with Midland Fire Department were among the victims. The Midland Reporter-Telegram posted an eye-witness' video footage of the fire that broke out. Kinder Morgan told Reuters it isolated a portion of its El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline after being alerted of the fire near the line. One of its employees was injured and hospitalized, spokeswoman Sara Hughes said. "There was a third-party pipeline involved that also experienced a failure, and preliminary indications are that the third-party line failure occurred before the EPNG line failure," Hughes told Reuters in an email. She said the company is investigating the incident and evaluating any damages, adding that regulatory agencies and customers have been notified. As EcoWatch wrote previously, production in the Permian shale field in western Texas has been booming. According IEA's Oil 2018 forecast, global oil production capacity is expected to grow by 6.4 million barrels a day (mb/d) to reach 107 mb/d by 2023. Much of that growth is led by the U.S. due to oil produced from fracking the Permian, where output is expected to double by 2023. However, there is currently not enough pipeline capacity to retrieve Permian fuels, and that bottleneck has opened up opportunities for more pipeline development in the region. In June, Kinder Morgan's Texas subsidiary announced a $2 billion Permian pipeline to transport natural gas. Earlier that month, ExxonMobil and Plains All American Pipeline announced a joint pursuit to construct a multi-billion dollar pipeline that will transport more than 1 million barrels of crude oil and condensate per day from the basin to the Texas Gulf Coast. Motley Fool also reported that Epic Midstream has proposed a 440,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) crude oil pipeline in the region, and so has Magellan Midstream Partners, which has proposed a 600,000 bpd pipeline. Renewable energy is truly getting cheaper every day. The 800-megawatt wind farm Vineyard Wind project, the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S., has offered a total levelized price of $65 per megawatt-hour (MWh)a record low. The planned wind farm, located 15 mies south of Martha's Vineyard, will be jointly developed by Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Their contract was filed Wednesday with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. In all, Massachusetts electricity users will save about $1.4 billion over the 20-year duration of the contract, Bloomberg reported. Energy expert Peter Kelly-Detwiler tweeted that the $65/MWh figure was "astonishing." To put that price into context, he went on, the next record-low price for offshore wind was Maryland's recent $131.9/MWh offer. Rhode Island's Block Island wind farm is set at $244/MWh. Kriegers Flak, a proposed offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, will cost $73/MWh. Bloomberg reported that Vineyard Wind's bid is lower than the wind industry expected. "That's pretty shocking for us," explained Tom Harries, a wind analyst at Bloomberg NEF. "I think the wider industry expected much higher prices. The repercussions of this are it will probably awaken a lot of other coastal states to the value of offshore wind." As CommonWealth Magazine noted, while the price is above the average wholesale price of electricity in New England of $34/MWh, wind energy has a host of environmental benefits. Wind power could also offer public health benefits, especially areas that are heavily reliant on polluting fossil fuels to generate electricity. Lars Thaaning Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind, said in a press release that the "historic filing represents the start of an industry, one that will assure access to abundant clean energy resources for decades to come." He said that Vineyard Wind was "able to offer an attractive price to the benefit of consumers" thanks to Federal tax credits and a long-term power-purchase agreement. Massachusetts has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. In August 2016, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a law requiring utilities to competitively solicit and contract for approximately 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind. "By positioning Massachusetts as a hub for the emerging offshore wind industry, this competitive procurement will ensure the Commonwealth continues to lead the nation in innovation and renewable energy generation," Gov. Baker stated the Vineyard Wind project was selecting in May. The project is on track to start in-state construction in 2019 with a goal of entering operation by 2021. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the results of what it calls the "annual checkup for the planet" Wednesday, and the patient is not doing well. The 28th annual State of the Climate report, published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and based on the work of more than 500 scientists in 65 countries, confirmed 2017 as the second or third warmest year on record, depending on the data set, and the warmest without a temperature-boosting El Nino event. Since 2015 and 2016 are the other two warmest years in recorded history, NOAA climatologist and lead report author Deke Arndt said the report showed we have entered "a new neighborhood in terms of global temperature," The Huffington Post reported. Surface temperatures in 2017 were 0.380.48 Celsius above the 1981 to 2010 average. NOAA The report also had bad news for carbon dioxide levels, which reached 405 parts per million, the highest in at least 800,000 years. The oceans were especially hard hit, both in terms of sea level rise and temperature. The report found that sea level rise broke a new record of around 3 inches above the 1993 average. Sea surface temperatures had an average slightly below 2016's, but continued their upward trend, and the heat contributed to continued coral bleaching. Between 2014 and 2017, more than 95 percent of the corals in some reefs died. Sea levels in 2017 were, on average, the highest in the satellite record. NOAA NOAA oceanographer Greg Johnson told The Huffington Post that the feedback loops set in motion by climate change would continue to impact the oceans for years, even if emissions stopped tomorrow. "We've started to push them with greenhouse gases, and that freight train is now moving and actually it will continue to move," he said. "If we were to freeze greenhouse gases at the level they are today, the oceans would continue to warm and seas continue to rise for centuries to come." 2017 was also a perilous year for Arctic and Antarctic sea ice. In the Arctic, maximum sea ice extent was the lowest since record-keeping began 38 years ago. In Antarctica, sea ice coverage fell on March 1 to 811,000 square miles, the lowest it has been since the satellite record began in 1978. When it came to extreme weather , the number of tropical cyclones was slightly above average. Areas affected by drought dropped during the beginning of the year, but climbed back up to above average levels by the end. A Pakistani 2nd grader with dyslexia, a South American girl suffering from a benign brain tumor, and a Japanese teenager experiencing symptoms of attention deficit disorder might not have a lot in common at first glance. However, they are all English-language learners who have also been identified as having an intellectual, psychological, or physical disability. I have taught students much like theseand countless othersduring my 28 years as an English-as-a-new-language teacher in New York. Recent figures from the National Center for Educational Statistics indicate that more than 700,000 English-language learners with disabilities are currently enrolled in the nations public elementary and secondary schools. This comprises 14.7 percent of the total ELL population in U.S. public schools. Throughout my career, I have taught countless students who have struggled to overcome their learning differences, while also trying to learn English and master the content in their academic subjects. Many of these students have surprised their parents, teachers, and administrators by achieving success despite formidable odds. Despite their obstacles, English-language learners with disabilities can thrive with the help of specific teaching strategies. Teachers must also adopt a positive attitude to help ELLs with disabilities reach their full potential. This affirming approach focuses on emphasizing students strengths rather than their deficits. Students feel motivated when the teacher acknowledges their past experiences, special skills, interests, and talents. This gives them the confidence to try new and challenging activities. Discovering the 'hidden' talents of ELLs with disabilities is another way to motivate this population of students." As I learned more about this strength-based philosophy, I was reminded of one 7th grader from Central America who was classified as learning disabled. Although he had been in the United States for several years, he still struggled to comprehend what he read and had trouble writing using standard conventional English. Despite these difficulties, his oral language skills were well developed. He loved participating in class discussions and telling stories about his former home life on a family farm in his native country. One day when we were speaking about food preparation, this student told a story about his mother cooking a meal while standing knee high in water in their flooded kitchen. His classmates were intrigued. They asked, Why didnt you call a plumber? Wasnt it dangerous to use electricity while standing in water? Did this happen often? Later, I asked him if he would write about this experience, so it could be shared with students in other classes. Although he usually disliked writing, he was eager to begin this assignment. In fact, realizing that others were interested in his experiences gave my student a new mission: to write about the important events in his life. I met with him individually for a few minutes each day to provide feedback. We discussed his lack of punctuation, reviewed verb tenses, revised the paragraph organization, and examined the best way to express his ideas. Slowly, his writing began to improve. He became interested in reading other personal narratives as well. By validating his past experiences and acknowledging his strong verbal skills, this assignment changed my students attitude toward reading and writing. Discovering the hidden talents of ELLs with disabilities is another way to motivate this population of students. Research from John Hopkins University indicates that children pay closer attention , are more motivated, and are more likely to retain what they learn when the arts are integrated into the curriculum. Giving students an opportunity to use their creative abilities through music, theater, dance and other artistic expression helps them learn. When a student well call Hana entered my 5th grade classroom, I realized I would need to find an innovative way to help her succeed. Originally from Korea, Hana had suffered from a debilitating illness as a child that left her with both physical and cognitive disabilities. During one class, I discovered Hana doodling on a paper while the rest of the class was reading independently. Thats an interesting drawing, Hana, I commented. She had drawn a picture of students with their noses stuck in their books. Why dont you create a picture to go along with the book youre reading? For the first time that day, Hana opened the book she was supposed to be reading and drew a picture of the main character. The next day, Hana came to school eager to show me other illustrations she had drawn at home. I urged her to draw more pictures as she continued to read the book. Each day we looked at her artwork and discussed what was happening in the story. We also spoke about the characters motivations, the problem in the story, and its resolution. Later that year, our English-as-a-new-language class studied the Egyptian pyramids. We read how the pyramids were built, which materials and tools were used, how measurements were planned by architects and surveyors, and possible secret tunnels within the pyramids. One day, Hana surprised me with a project she had made at home. She had created a miniature three-dimensional pyramid out of construction paper, incorporating many of the facts we had studied. I was overcome with emotion to see that not only had she understood the topic, but she was also able to use her knowledge to produce an independent project. These vignettes reflect what I have learned from nearly three decades of teaching: Once students feel valued in the classroom, they will be more motivated to access language and content. When working with ELL students in particular, teachers need to use creative strategies to tap into students interests, talents, and experiences. English-language learners with disabilities are multifaceted and can be highly resistant, but with the proper approach, they can shine. Police seek tractor driver who dropped hay bale Police want to find the tractor driver responsible for shedding a hay bale in the north of the Island. The bale was dropped on Andreas Road near to Grest Home yesterday. The Northern Neighbourhood Policing Team is urging the driver to make contact with Ramsey Police Station on 812234. Police arranged for the bale to the moved and the road cleared. Deception has been part and parcel of warfare, politics and business for eons, so perhaps its not surprising that deception has become a big part of the 21st century cybersecurity battle. Successful war follows the path of deception, Sun Tsu wrote in The Art of War, and cybercriminals have certainly taken that advice to heart. From Nigerian bank transfer cons to elaborate phishing scams, and from CEO fraud to spearphishing campaigns, the bad guys have been quick to follow Sun Tsus philosophy of deception. Now a new generation of security startups is using deception techniques as a way to confuse and befuddle attackers and theyre quoting Sun Tsu to tout their deception technology. According to Sun Tzu, if an enemy has an incorrect view of the battlefield, they can be manipulated into manageable situations, said Rick Moy, CMO of Acalvio. This also applies in cybersecurity. If an attacker is spending time and energy breaking into a faux server, the defender is not only protecting valuable assets, but also learning about [the attackers] objectives, tools, tactics and procedures. That one example lays out the basic premise behind deception tools and technologies. It follows Sun Tzus advice: When your enemy seeks an advantage, lure him further. The idea is to mask real high-value assets in a sea of fake attack surfaces, said Ori Bach, VP of products and marketing at TrapX Security. By doing so, attackers are disoriented. The message may be catching on. Deception technology fared best among emerging technologies in eSecurity Planets 2019 State of IT Security survey. What is deception technology? Gartner analyst Lawrence Pingree laid out the technology in detail in a report titled, Emerging Technology Analysis: Deception Techniques and Technologies Create Security Technology Business Opportunities. Attackers, Pingree said, must trust the environment that they insert their malware into, or the web applications and services they attack over the internet. They sneak around the fringes of the enterprise, seeking a way inside. They might trick a user into clicking on a malicious link, opening an infected attachment, or providing credentials and passwords. Once inside, they feel free to roam as they please to steal confidential information or pull off a financial heist. Deception exploits their trust and tempts the attacker toward alarms, said Pingree. Deception also can be used to move an attacker away from sensitive assets and focus their efforts on fake assets burning their time and the attackers investment. How deception technology works As a case in point, imagine the ancient city of Troy behind its walls. The Greeks pretend to retreat and leave a large horse by the gates. The Trojans take it inside. Inside the horse, the Greeks hear the Trojans partying and eventually falling into a drunken stupor. They cautiously exit the horse, intent on killing the guards and opening the gates to let their army inside. Instead, they find themselves inside a well-guarded compound. They are taken captive. The Trojans then open the gates briefly to temp the Greek army to advance. When they do so, the gates are locked and arrows rain down on the exposed enemy. Result: a completely different version of Homers The Iliad. Such a victory over a covert attacker is one of the goals of deception tools. Distributed deception platforms (DDP) are solutions that create faked systems (often real operating systems, but used as sacrificial machines), lures (such as fake drive maps and browser histories) and honeytokens (fake credentials) on real end-user systems to entice and mislead the attacker to faked assets in order to enhance detection and to delay their actions as they attack those decoy assets, wrote Pingree. Core functions of such systems, he added, include: Centralized management of real-user endpoint lures and decoy endpoint hosts (servers and workstation hosts); the ability to manage deceptive services, web applications and other network integration capabilities of decoys; the ability to administer endpoint lures and honeytokens to entice the attacker; and the ability to administer and distribute deceptive data (Word documents, database tables/entries and files) in decoy host deceptions. Bach noted that positive results depend on being able to deploy credible deceptive elements on endpoints, network or application layers in sufficient scale to catch all potential intrusions. As such, various tactics are in play. TrapX Security breaks down the different deceptive elements into categories based on where they are deployed. Lures are placed on endpoints to attract the attention of would-be attackers. What the company calls medium interaction decoys are those located on the network layer. High interaction decoys are those operating within applications or within stored data to misdirect cybercriminals. Moy made a similar point. He stressed that deception solutions must go beyond just the deployment of a honeypot. They must be authentic, automated, scalable, and intelligent. Why? Deceptions that are easily identified are no help at all, so authenticity is key. Further, IT security personnel are often too busy to manage deceptions individually, so the system should automatically deploy and manage the right deceptions. This is where intelligence and machine learning come in. For example, Acalvio ShadowPlex is a DPP that provides early detection of malicious activity. It can be deployed on-premises, or in private clouds and public clouds. It includes integration with SIEM systems. Deception in depth Just as the long-term security mantra has been defense in depth, security experts recommend deception in depth: The deployment of these techniques along the entire attack chain. When attackers are conducting reconnaissance of network and enterprise weak points, feed them false information on topography and assets. If they are already inside and figuring out what tools to use, delay their deployment with false information. Trick them into sandboxes and keep them occupied there for long periods. Users can choose from standalone DDP tools or those that are integrated into enterprise security solutions for detection response. For example, some are combined with orchestration, network access control or intelligence sharing tools. Ideally, organizations can use DDP solutions to create intimate threat intelligence and use that to enrich their other tools to enhance prevention at the network and other security defensive layers, said Pingree. Deception technology vendors and tools Deception can be implemented to some degree using existing tools, said Pingree. Firewalls are one example. It is possible to configure their blacklists, intrusion prevention and URL filtering capabilities to relay connections from known malicious hosts to network emulation services or deception decoy services. Similarly, some intrusion prevention appliances can implement deceptive measures at the network protocol layer. TCP tarpits, too, can be established to respond to TCP handshake requests but not open the connection. And a few EDR tools allow the security team to implement deception at the malware host layer. While workable for certain attack vectors, these methods have their limitations. Pingree suggested they should be augmented with DPP tools, which are steadily gaining in maturity and functionality. There are several vendors operating in this space. The list includes: Illusive Networks Attivo Networks Cymmetria Acalvio GuardiCore CyberTrap Specter TopSpin Security TrapX The TrapX DeceptionGrid platform, for example, protects against malicious insiders and sophisticated cybercriminals. Its multi-tier architecture is said to present the deception attack surfaces that best match attacker activity. Since you never know where you might be attacked, the ideal deception strategy should cover as many layers of the network and as many types of assets as possible, said Bach. For a deception tool to be effective in an enterprise environment, it must be integrated with the infrastructure (e.g. Active Directory, the networking infrastructure) and the security ecosystem. Hes talking about such elements as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) and Network Access Control (NAC). Take the case of threat intelligence. Data from various threat intelligence feeds could be consolidated within a TIP and used to create deception tactics with far more precision and therefore, more likelihood of success. This threat intelligence data could lead us toward intelligence-led deceptions, where a threat actor that is known to originate from a certain location, or uses a certain pattern of engagement, can be led astray, said Pingree. This tactic can enable threat management teams to assert more active control of an attacker, its activities throughout the enterprise environment, and allow organizations to track and share even greater intelligence on threat actors. Among the vendors listed above, there is great variability in approach and scope. Gartner outlined four areas of potential deception coverage: the network, the endpoint, the application and the data. According to the analyst firm, no one vendor comprehensively covers all four sectors, though some do a good job on two or three zones. During the product evaluation phase, emphasis should be placed on DPP tool coverage, as well as integration with existing security platforms. The future of deception technology DPP technology, though, has a way to go to enter the mainstream, and for now the market is relatively small. Gartner expects no more than 10% of enterprises will be using it actively by next year. Among the most likely candidates are financial services, healthcare, government and software verticals a whos who of those who tend to suffer the most attacks. Imagine for a moment, that once malware is detected in an end users environment, the users systems had the ability to begin to lie to the attacker at the other end of the command-and-control console, or to the malware itself on the infected endpoint, or both; these capabilities are now becoming a reality, said Pingree. Distributed decoy solutions offer enhanced detection and stronger fidelity than other traditional security solutions because when an attacker touches a decoy, it is immediately recognized as an unwanted interaction, and likely an attacker or insider threat. Imagine traveling to the Moon in just 20 seconds! That's how fast material from a 170 year old stellar eruption sped away from the unstable, eruptive, and extremely massive star Eta Carinae. Astronomers conclude that this is the fastest jettisoned gas ever measured from a stellar outburst that didn't result in the complete annihilation of the star. The blast, from the most luminous star known in our galaxy, released almost as much energy as a typical supernova explosion that would have left behind a stellar corpse. However, in this case a double-star system remained and played a critical role in the circumstances that led to the colossal blast. Over the past seven years a team of astronomers led by Nathan Smith, of the University of Arizona, and Armin Rest, of the Space Telescope Science Institute, determined the extent of this extreme stellar blast by observing light echoes from Eta Carinae and its surroundings. Light echos occur when the light from bright, short-lived events are reflected off of clouds of dust, which act like distant mirrors redirecting light in our direction. Like an audio echo, the arriving signal of the reflected light has a time delay after the original event due to the finite speed of light. In the case of Eta Carinae, the bright event was a major eruption of the star that expelled a huge amount of mass back in the mid-1800s during what is known as the "Great Eruption." The delayed signal of these light echoes allowed astronomers to decode the light from the eruption with modern astronomical telescopes and instruments, even though the original eruption was seen from Earth back in the mid-19th century. That was a time before modern tools like the astronomical spectrograph were invented. "A light echo is the next best thing to time travel," Smith said. "That's why light echoes are so beautiful. They give us a chance to unravel the mysteries of a rare stellar eruption that was witnessed 170 years ago, but using our modern telescopes and cameras. We can also compare that information about the event itself with the 170-year old remnant nebula that was ejected. This was a behemoth stellar explosion from a very rare monster star, the likes of which has not happened since in our Milky Way Galaxy." The Great Eruption temporarily promoted Eta Carinae to the second brightest star visible in our nighttime sky, vasty outshining the energy output every other star in the Milky Way, after which the star faded from naked eye visibility. The outburst expelled material (about 10 times more than the mass of our Sun) that also formed the bright glowing gas cloud known as the Homunculus. This dumbbell-shaped remnant is visible surrounding the star from within a vast star-forming region. The eruptive remnant can even be seen in small amateur telescopes from the Earth's Southern Hemisphere and equatorial regions, but is best seen in images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The team used instruments on the 8-meter Gemini South telescope, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 4-meter Blanco telescope, and the Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory to decode the light from these light echoes and to understand the expansion speeds in the historical explosion. "Gemini spectroscopy helped pin down the unprecedented velocities we observed in this gas, which clocked in at between about 10,000 to 20,000 kilometers per second," according to Rest. The research team, Gemini Observatory, and Blanco telescope are all supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). "We see these really high velocities all the time in supernova explosions where the star is obliterated." Smith notes. However, in this case the star survived, and explaining that led the researchers into new territory. "Something must have dumped a lot of energy into the star in a short amount of time," said Smith. The material expelled by Eta Carinae is travelling up to 20 times faster than expected for typical winds from a massive star so, according to Smith and his collaborators, enlisting the help of two partner stars might explain the extreme outflow. The researchers suggest that the most straightforward way to simultaneously explain a wide range of observed facts surrounding the eruption and the remnant star system seen today is with an interaction of three stars, including a dramatic event where two of the three stars merged into one monster star. If that's the case, then the present-day binary system must have started out as triple system, with one of those two stars being the one that swallowed its sibling. "Understanding the dynamics and environment around the largest stars in our galaxy is one of the most difficult areas of astronomy," said Richard Green, Director of the Division of Astronomical Sciences at NSF, the major funding agency for Gemini. "Very massive stars live short lives compared to stars like our Sun, but nevertheless catching one in the act of a major evolutionary step is statistically unlikely. That's why a case like Eta Carinae is so critical, and why NSF supports this kind of research." Chris Smith, Head of Mission at the AURA Observatory in Chile and also part of the research team adds a historical perspective. "I'm thrilled that we can see light echoes coming from an event that John Herschel observed in the middle of the 19th century from South Africa," he said. "Now, over 150 years later we can look back in time, thanks to these light echoes, and unveil the secrets of this supernova wannabe using the modern instrumentation on Gemini to analyze the light in ways Hershel couldn't have even imagined!" Eta Carinae is an unstable type of star known as a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV), located about 7,500 light years from Earth in a young star forming nebula found in the southern constellation of Carinae. The star is one of the intrinsically brightest in our galaxy and shines some five million times brighter than our Sun with a mass about one hundred times greater. Stars like Eta Carinae have the greatest mass-loss rates prior to undergoing supernova explosions, but the amount of mass expelled in Eta Carinae's 19th century Great Eruption exceeds any others known. Eta Carinae will probably undergo a true supernova explosion sometime within the next half-million years at most, but possibly much sooner. Some types of supernovae have been seen to experience eruptive blasts like that of Eta Carinae in only the few years or decades before their final explosion, so some astronomers speculate that Eta Carinae might blow sooner rather than later. The Gemini Observations utilized the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile and used a powerful technique called Nod and Shuffle that enables greatly improved spectroscopic measurements of extremely faint sources by reducing the contaminating effects of the night sky. The new results are presented in two papers accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ### Media Contact: Peter Michaud Public Information and Outreach manager Gemini Observatory Email: pmichaud"at"gemini.edu Phone: 808-974-2510 Cell: 808-936-6643 Science Contacts: Nathan Smith Associate Professor Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory University of Arizona E-mail: nathans"at"as.arizona.edu Desk: 520-621-4513 Armin Rest Associate Astronomer Space Telescope Science Institute E-mail: arest"at"stsci.edu desk: 410-338-4358 cell: 443-794-4838 ABOUT THE GEMINI OBSERVATORY The Gemini Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF-United States), the National Research Council (NRC-Canada), the Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Technologica (CONICYT - Chile), the Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao (MCTI - Brazil), the Ministerio de Ciencia, Technologia e Innovacion Productiva (MCTIP - Argentina), and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI - Republic of Korea), operated under cooperative agreement by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA). The international Gemini collaboration provides access to two identical 8-meter telescopes. The Frederick C. Gillett Gemini telescope is located on Maunakea, Hawai'i (Gemini North) and the Gemini South telescope is on Cerro Pachon in central Chile; together the twin telescopes provide full coverage over both hemispheres of the sky. The telescopes incorporate technologies that allow large relatively thin mirrors, under active control, to collect and focus both visible and infrared radiation from space. The Observatory provides the astronomical communities in each of the five participating countries with state-of-the-art astronomical facilities that allocate observing time in proportion to each country's contribution. In addition to financial support, each country also contributes significant scientific and technical resources. By Shreya Chopra Southeast Asia, the worlds most ethno-culturally diverse region, is rapidly growing because of its strategic location and rising economies. A sub-region of ten countries, it has dynamically increased its influence in international affairs after the end of the Cold War. Constituting a population of over 620 million, the region represents a profound puzzle of politically unstable democracies which are in a constant state of flux. In Malaysia, the recent election marked the comeback of the Malay tsunami, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad revisiting democracy amidst turbulent challenges. With the Barisan National (BN) ending its six-decade-long monopoly, the country still faces major obstacles including corruption scandals, religious and political manipulation and reformation of the government. The ever-changing political landscape of Malaysia is a landmark change in the Southeast Asian democratic regime. Moreover, this development in Kuala Lumpur will be a litmus test of whether democracy can stand strong in the winds of change. Following its neighbours footsteps, Indonesia is also going for general elections next year. This year, Indonesia marked its 20th anniversary as a democratic country, with the end of the Suharto rule. In 2016, the democratic right to expression and religious tolerance in the country suffered a major setback when Christian governor Basuki Ahok was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy. This showcases the lack of a united national consciousness, which according to experts, is critical for the growth of democracy, especially when Indonesia is expected to play a critical role in the emerging importance of the Indo-Pacific and create an alliance of liberal democracies and spread its values around the world. Unfortunately, barring these two examples, recent trends in the rest of Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore indicate a slow transition from liberal multi-party systems to democratically elected leaders hoarding their powers. With the Philippines leader, Rodrigo Duterte, already challenging the judiciary and with the removal of the Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the country maybe heading for what is being termed by experts as an imperial presidency. The democratic nature of the country is deemed to be gravely wounded because of the human rights violations and poor economic conditions. Even in the past, Philippines had converted their democratic rule into authoritarian powers under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the mid-1980s. Similarly, Cambodias leader Hun Sen declared that the government will commit to protecting the multiparty democracy process. But after the dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in 2014, there is no major opposition party and Prime Minister Sen has desired to continue his leadership in the coming years. A report from Australian National University (ANU) suggests that Cambodia has not met even minimal democratic standards for the past 25 years. Further, the author of the book, Hun Sens Cambodia, Sebsatian Strangio notes, what were seeing now is the government increasingly dispensing with pretense of democratic rule and being much more openly authoritarian. With strongman leader Hun Sen continuing his rule of 33 years, it will be interesting to see if the upcoming selections will bring any changes in the ruling system. In addition, Thailand, which underwent a military coup in 2014, has brought in economic reforms for the country but has failed to recreate its democratic order. The Thai Junta have been promising free and fair elections but failed to deliver making the future of Thai democracy look bleak. With the commander-in-chief general-turned-Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha reiterating that elections wont be held before 2019 and the Junta government deepening its authoritarian rule in the state, chances of the return of democracy seem bleak. A member of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) stated that Chan-ocha experiences limitless authority and the country is far from having a return of democracy. Southeast Asias prominent economic hub, Singapore, continues to be growing at an unprecedented rate on the economic front, but continues to lag behind democratically with barely meeting the minimum standards of democracy. For starters, the ruling Peoples Action Party (PAP) is the only major political party in Singapore. The party has been in power since independence, managing to win 14 legislative elections and is said to be the third longest serving party in the world. This has driven many observers of Singapores history since its founder Lee Kuan Yews rule to term it as perpetually being ruled by a benevolent dictator. The Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia are all experiencing challenges albeit myriad ones to their respective democracies. While the continuation of democratic rule in the aforementioned countries remains uncertain, other nations in the region are facing stiff resistance to the establishment of a democracy. Such experiences are a cause for concern for Southeast Asian countries that have been historically marred in monarchies or military rule. For instance, three years ago, despite the optimism over the National League of Democracys (NLD) triumphant wave, the subsequent political inefficacy of democracy icon and the Noble Peace Prize-winning leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi has dashed hopes for a democratic upheaval in Myanmar. Although she is the de-facto leader of the state, she has refused to even use the term Rohingyas and avoided any moral stewardship on the ensuing crisis. One of the fastest growing economies of this region, Vietnam, continues to be ruled by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). As one of the last countries in the world under communist rule, experts argue that democratisation can only take place in Vietnam with the introduction of multi-party system which is highly unlikely. Its neighboring country, Laos, also looms under the communist shadow. The country has been termed as worlds most closed political system after North Korea. Whereas, Brunei, one of the small states in the Southeast Asia region, is often brandished as an absolute monarchy. The future for democracy in this state seems dark too, as the last legislative elections of the state were conducted in 1962. Many countries in Southeast Asia are also facing limitations on the media and the freedom of speech. Last year, the Cambodian government forced The Cambodia Daily and Radio Free Asia to shut their respective offices. Interestingly, the oldest newspaper of Cambodia published its last article on 4 September 2017 titled Descent into Outright Dictatorship. According to Hun Sen, the agenda of Radio Free Asia is to oppose the government and can be rightly referred to as servants of the foreigners. Further, keeping up with the worlds latest political snare over fake news, some of the regions leaders are adopting that allegation for any piece of news that stands critical of their rule. For example, the act of shutting down a local website Rappler by the Manila government is seen as an act to muzzle the free press. Similarly, Malaysia recently introduced a new media-gag law against fake news which many experts deemed to be a violation of the freedom of the media. According to an independent democracy watchdog, Freedom House, 2017 was the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. Democracy has been on a decline but according to ASEANs charter, maintaining democracy is essential and it is collective regional objective. With many nations like Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand going for elections in the upcoming times, it will be interesting to see if democracy can prevail. In the coming years, the challenge would be to safeguard democracy from the growing expansion of strongmen leaders which could further lead to corrosion of the democratic regime. There exists, however, some cause for optimism in the region. With democracy in retreat in the region, there are some countries (albeit small states) like Timor Leste amidst a serious attempt to maintain the tradition of a robust liberal democratic parliamentary system. With the fresh elections held on 12 May 2018, the nation is being declared to be boldly democratic and successful in maintaining a multi-party democratic regime. The 1967 ASEAN Bangkok Declarations major goal was to muster the collective will of the nations of the Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their people the blessing of peace, freedom and prosperity. Emerging trends suggest that Southeast Asian countries must pay heed to this past collective commitment to encourage liberal democratic values and institutions in each country. The article originally published in Observer Research Foundation Annual Reviews, the nonprofit publisher of scholarly review journals, today announced the publication of the inaugural volume of the Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science, its 50th publication to launch since the company was founded in 1932. Inaugural Co-Editors Russ B. Altman, winner of the 2018 International Society for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Outstanding Contribution Award, and Michael Levitt, joint winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the journal's Editorial Committee have invited recognized leaders to address broad challenges in the discipline. Contributors synthesize and analyze primary research addressing important new technologies for analyzing biomedical data such as deep learning, text mining, network analysis, visualization, privacy policy and technology, sequence analysis, protein-RNA interactions, molecular interaction networks, simulation of cells/tissues, challenges for mass spectrometry, clinical and genomic phenotyping, and cancer therapy resistance. The field of biomedical data science merges the disciplines of statistics, computer science, and computer engineering with the allied field of biomedical informatics to create and apply new methods to large sources of biological and medical data. The complexity of both the data streams and the science questions requires specialized understanding to convert rapidly expanding data into useful information and knowledge. Reviews addressing research and collaboration across the fields of bioinformatics, computational biology, biomedical, clinical and clinical research informatics, biostatistics, and imaging informatics are brought together within the scope of this journal. Reflecting on the need for a review journal in this rapidly expanding field, Dr. Altman shared: "The Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science offers readers deeper discussion of novel methods to explore the unprecedented volume and velocity of genomic data, sensor data, and health care data. The articles will summarize progress and challenges, becoming an archival record and source of deep information about the contributions of data science to the larger biological and medical research landscape. As more biologists, physician-scientists, clinical trialists and others need this specialized knowledge, the journal will be invaluable to address the most pressing research challenges to accelerate scientific discovery and improve patient outcomes and health care." Dr. Levitt said, "Many scientists who have not previously used or needed data-intensive computational approaches will find these articles to be valuable as they describe current approaches and define needs for further research. I have enjoyed working with Russ and the committee to launch this journal and will continue to provide counsel and advice as needed in my forthcoming role as Founding Co-Editor Emeritus." Richard Gallagher, President and Editor-in-Chief of Annual Reviews, commented: "Novel computational tools and access to large, robust data are already transforming biomedical research programs and advancing discoveries that can improve patient health care and global public health. The Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science will benefit researchers, industry-leaders, government funding agencies, and legislators who are addressing the opportunities of this leading-edge area of research. We greatly value the vision and contributions of our distinguished Editors, Editorial Committee, and authors to this important addition to the portfolio of Annual Reviews." The full volume is freely available online for an initial preview period. ### About Annual Reviews Annual Reviews is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society. For more than 85 years, Annual Reviews has offered expert review journals that today span over 50 titles across the biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences. Annual Reviews launched Knowable Magazine in 2017, an open access digital magazine to explore the real-world significance of this highly cited scholarship and make it accessible to broad audiences. Contact Information: Jenni Rankin, Product Marketing Manager jrankin@annualreviews.org Individuals with a DSL line sleep 25 minutes less, are less likely to reach the recommended amount of sleep and are less satisfied with it, according to a study by two Bocconi University scholars and a colleague, funded by the European Research Council About 200,000 working days are lost in Germany every year due to insufficient sleep, with an economic loss of $60bln, or about 1.6% of its GDP, according to a 2016 Report of the RAND Corporation. Francesco Billari and Luca Stella (Bocconi University), with Osea Giuntella (University of Pittsburgh), in a study just published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, find that access to broadband Internet is one of the causes of such sleep deprivation. Exploiting the fact that the deployment of broadband in Germany over the years was dependent on technical and historical reasons, they link data on broadband to surveys where individuals report their sleep duration. The researchers conclude that access to high-speed Internet reduces sleep duration and sleep satisfaction in individuals that face time constraints in the morning for work or family reasons. Individuals with DSL access tend to sleep 25 minutes less than their counterparts without DSL Internet. They are significantly less likely to sleep between 7 and 9 hours, the amount recommended by the scientific community, and are less likely to be satisfied with their sleep, Francesco Billari, a Full Professor of Demography at Bocconi University, Milan, and the Principal Investigator of the project DisCont, funded by the European Research Council, within which this research was conducted. The effect that the authors find is largely driven by individuals that face time constraints in the morning and by the use of electronic devices in the evening (not by their use throughout the day). Digital temptations may lead to a delay in bedtime, which ultimately decreases sleep duration for individuals who are not able to compensate for later bedtime by waking up later in the morning, Prof. Billari says. The temptations individuals are prone to vary according to age, the scholars find. Among teenagers and young adults (aged 13-30), there is a significant association between insufficient sleep and time spent on computer games or watching TV or videos in the evening, while for older adults (31-59) the correlation is with the use of PCs and smartphones. ### Francesco C. Billari, Osea Giuntella, Luca Stella, Broadband internet, digital temptations, and sleep, in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 153 (2018) 58-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2018.07.001 Annapolis, MD; July 31, 2018--The textbook approach to managing disease outbreaks focuses on three factors--pathogen, host, and environment--but it leaves out one critical component in the case of afflictions such as Zika, malaria, and Lyme: the insect or arthropod responsible for transmission to humans. The emergence of the mosquito-borne Zika virus captured the world's attention in 2016, and likewise the continued rise of tick-borne Lyme disease in the United States has highlighted the need for robust response capabilities to vector-borne disease. The classic "epidemiologic triad," however, is due for a revision in the case of infections spread primarily by insects and related arthropods, and a new report in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America proposes a new version that better reflects the complexities of managing vector-borne diseases. "Rather than focusing on managing diseases at the host or pathogen level, we suggest the focus should be at the environmental and vector levels, an approach known as integrated vector management, or IVM," says Natalia Cernicchiaro, DVM, MS, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at Kansas State University and senior author on the report. "Management strategies applied at these levels tend to be more sustainable and effective." Ana Oliveira, DVM, M.S., lead author on the report and currently a research consultant and collaborator at Kansas State, first proposed the enhanced epidemiologic triad in her thesis work. Rather than considering vectors to be a subset of the environment, the new model puts equal emphasis on vectors, pathogens, and hosts in the spread of vector-borne disease, all within the wider influence of their common environment. "We consider that by adopting this version of the triad, which highlights the role of the vector in vector-borne disease transmission, the public health community would shift their focus into increased vector surveillance and pesticide resistance testing, which are vital parts of any integrated vector management plan," says Cernicchiaro. "Similarly, involvement and education of the community through citizen science are essential to increase the individual's role in preventing mosquito and tick bites." Oliveira and colleagues point to the case of Japanese encephalitis as an important example of the need for adequate integrated vector management strategies. Japanese encephalitis affected approximately 68,000 people, mostly under the age of 14, in 2011, primarily in Asia and the western Pacific region. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those infected can develop inflammation of the brain, leading to headache, high fever, disorientation, coma, tremors, and convulsions, and about one in four cases are fatal. Humans, however, are considered a "dead-end" host for the Japanese encephalitis virus; it doesn't spread from human to human. Instead, the Japanese encephalitis virus is transmitted to humans exclusively by mosquitoes that become infected after biting "reservoir" hosts such as pigs and birds. The researchers say they hope that greater appreciation for the role of vectors in disease transmission will lead to more sustainable management methods that are cost-effective and reduce unnecessary pesticide use. "Vector-borne diseases are complex in nature. A simple schematic does not capture the transmission dynamics; however, too complex a diagram would lose the visual connections that are applicable to all arthropod-transmitted pathogens. As such, we hope this version of the triad will be more widely adopted for describing the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases," says Cernicchiaro. ### "Japanese Encephalitis Virus: Placing Disease Vectors in the Epidemiologic Triad," by Ana R. S. Oliveira, Lee W. Cohnstaedt, and Natalia Cernicchiaro, will be published online on August 2, 2018, in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Journalists may request advance copies of the article via the contact below or download the published paper after 10 a.m. August 2, 2018, at https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/say025. CONTACT: Joe Rominiecki, jrominiecki@entsoc.org, 301-731-4535 x3009 ABOUT: ESA is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has nearly 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the Society stands ready as a non-partisan scientific and educational resource for all insect-related topics. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org. The Annals of the Entomological Society of America publishes cutting-edge entomological research, reviews, collections of articles, and discussions of topics of broad interest and national or international importance. It aims to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue across the entomological disciplines and advance cooperative interaction among diverse groups of entomologists. For more information, visit https://academic.oup.com/aesa, or visit http://www.insectscience.org to view the full portfolio of ESA journals and publications. In separate studies published online in Nature on Aug. 1, two independent research teams report the discovery of a new, rare type of cell in the human airway. These cells appear to be the primary source of activity of the CFTR gene, mutations to which cause cystic fibrosis, a multiorgan disease that affects more than 70,000 people worldwide. Despite decades of study on CFTR and progress in treating the disease, there is still no cure. The new findings show that CFTR activity is concentrated in a small, previously unknown population of cells, which serve as promising targets for future therapeutic strategies against cystic fibrosis. The researchers named the cells "pulmonary ionocytes" due to similarities with ionocytes, a type of cell found in the gills of freshwater fish and frog skin, which regulate salt balance. One group was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). The other group was led by HMS researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital and scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "As researchers work toward cures for cystic fibrosis, knowing you are looking at 1 percent of the cell population seems essential for any type of trouble shooting to improve a therapy or develop new therapies," said Allon Klein, co-corresponding author of one of the Nature studies and assistant professor of systems biology at HMS. The studies also revealed the characteristics of other new, rare and poorly understood cell types, which expands the current understanding of lung biology and disease. "Cystic fibrosis is an amazingly well-studied disease, and we're still discovering completely new biology that may alter the way we approach it," said Jayaraj Rajagopal, co-corresponding author of the second study and HMS professor of medicine at Mass General. "We have the framework now for a new cellular narrative of lung disease." Single-cell surprise Both teams set out to build an atlas of the cells that make up the airway. Using single-cell sequencing technology, they analyzed gene expression in tens of thousands of individual cells isolated from human and mouse airways--one cell at a time. Comparing patterns of gene expression and using previously described cells as references, the teams created comprehensive catalogues of different cell types and states, as well as their abundance and distribution. The teams' analyses mapped out the genetic identities of both known and previously undescribed cell types. One new cell type, which they named pulmonary ionocytes, was particularly striking as these cells expressed higher levels of CFTR than any other cell. Pulmonary ionocytes appear to play a role in this process, which is necessary for clearing mucus from the airways. Video: Daniel Montoro, Hui Min Leung, Vladimir Vinarsky. Identified in the late 1980s, CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) codes for a protein that transports chloride ions across cell membranes. Mutations to CFTR can lead to the buildup of thick mucus in the lung, pancreas and other organs, which in turn leads to frequent respiratory infections and other symptoms that characterize cystic fibrosis. Scientists have long assumed that CFTR is expressed at low levels in ciliated cells, a common airway cell type. The new studies, however, suggest that the majority of CFTR expression occurs in pulmonary ionocytes, which make up only around 1 percent of airway cells. Klein, along with Aron Jaffe, a co-leader of respiratory disease research at NIBR, and colleagues additionally showed that the activity of CFTR, not just its expression, relates to the number of pulmonary ionocytes in the tissue. "With single-cell sequencing technology, and dedicated efforts to map cell types in different tissues, we're making new discoveries--new cells that we didn't know existed, cell subtypes that are rare or haven't been noticed before, even in systems that have been studied for decades," said Broad core institute member and MIT professor of biology Aviv Regev, co-corresponding author of the study with Rajagopal. When Regev, Rajagopal and colleagues disrupted a critical molecular process in pulmonary ionocytes in mice, they observed the onset of key features associated with cystic fibrosis, notably the formation of dense mucus. This finding underscores how important these cells are to airway-surface regulation, the researchers said. Together, the teams' discoveries point to new strategies for treating cystic fibrosis, such as increasing the amount of pulmonary ionocytes to increase the amount of CFTR activity, said Jaffe, who is co-corresponding author of the study with Klein. The identification of these cells can also help guide teams trying to use gene therapy to correct CFTR mutations, the authors suggest. "We can use this information to be a bit more clever when we devise therapeutic approaches to cystic fibrosis," Jaffe said. Here and rare The teams' analyses also shed light on new, rare or poorly described cell states and subtypes, and characterized changes to certain cells after injury or during development. Klein, Jaffe and colleagues, for example, identified cell states that emerge or expand following damage or injury by studying regenerating tracheas. Using InDrops, a single-cell sequencing technology developed at HMS by Klein and colleagues, at multiple points during regeneration, the team could track how cell states specific to the injury response transitioned over time. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues developed a new method called Pulse-Seq to monitor development of cell types from their progenitors in the mouse airway, which were verified in human tissue. By adding a label to progenitor cells, they showed that mature cells in the airway arise from a common progenitor known as basal cells. A comprehensive atlas of cell types and their genetic fingerprints, both in normal conditions and in development and regeneration, serves as potential baseline data for future studies of diseases and other health-related conditions, according to the research teams. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues, for example, found that a gene linked to asthma development is specifically expressed by ciliated cells. Another gene linked with asthma is expressed in tuft cells, which separated into at least two groups--one that senses chemicals in the airway and another that produces inflammation. These findings may inform understanding and treatment of the disease. "We've uncovered a whole distribution of cell types that seem to be functionally relevant," Rajagopal said. "What's more, genes associated with complex lung diseases can now be linked to specific cells that we've characterized. The data are starting to change the way we think about lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and asthma." ### Lindsey Plasschaert, postdoctoral researcher at NIBR, and Rapolas ?ilionis, graduate student at Vilnius University, Lithuania and visiting scholar at HMS, are co-first authors, and Klein and Jaffe are co-corresponding authors of the study "A single-cell atlas of the airway epithelium reveals the CFTR-rich pulmonary ionocyte." Additional authors include Rayman Choo-Wing, Virginia Savova, Judith Knehr and Guglielmo Roma. The study was supported by an award by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, an Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation Grant, the Lithuanian Education Exchanges Support Foundation and the National Cancer Institute (R33CA212697-01). Daniel Montoro, graduate student at HMS, and Adam Haber and Moshe Biton, both postdoctoral fellows at the Broad, are co-first authors, and Rajagopal and Regev are co-corresponding authors of the study "A revised airway epithelial hierarchy includes CFTR-expressing ionocytes." Additional authors include Vladimir Vinarsky, Brian Lin, Susan Birket, Feng Yuan, Sijia Chen, Hui Min Leung, Jorge Villoria, Noga Rogel, Grace Burgin, Alexander Tsankov, Avinash Waghray, Michal Slyper, Julia Waldman, Lan Nguyen, Danielle Dionne, Orit Rozenblatt-Rosen, Purushothama Rao Tata, Hongmei Mou, Manjunatha Shivaraju, Hermann Bihler, Martin Mense, Guillermo Tearney, Steven Rowe and John Engelhardt. The study was supported in part by the Klarman Cell Observatory at the Broad, the Manton Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Human Frontier Science Program and the National Institutes of Health. Author disclosures are listed in the respective studies. Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School has more than 11,000 faculty working in 10 academic departments located at the School's Boston campus or in hospital-based clinical departments at 15 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Hebrew SeniorLife, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and VA Boston Healthcare System. Inhibiting the Jagged 1 protein in mice prevents the proliferation and growth of colon and rectal tumours. What is more, this approach to the disease permits the removal of existing tumours. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), directed by Dr Lluis Espinosa, who is also a member of CIBERONC (the Network Centre for Biomedical Research into Cancer), in collaboration with the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology Units at Hospital del Mar, and the IDIBELL-Catalan Oncology Institute. The work has been published in Nature Communications. The researchers took tumours from patients and then implanted them into mice in order to analyse the role of this protein in cancer cell proliferation. Jagged 1 is essential for cancer cells due to its role in activating the so-called Notch cell-signalling pathway. Generally speaking, Notch inhibits cell differentiation, in other words, a cell's ability to become a mature cell that can no longer proliferate. In the case of colorectal tumours, the activation of this signalling pathway favours their proliferation and growth. In this study, the researchers discovered that the intestinal tumours of mice lack a protein known as Fringe, implying that Jagged 1 is essential for activating Notch. "The fact that Fringe is present in the normal cells of the small intestine represents a significant therapeutic opportunity for treating patients with colorectal cancer", says Dr Espinosa, since by inhibiting Jagged 1 you can halt tumour growth without affecting the function of normal tissue. In fact, researchers have been able to see how, in the case of healthy mice, the colon and rectum do not need Jagged 1, since in the presence of the Fringe protein there are other mechanisms for activating Notch. This need to have Jagged 1 in order to activate Notch in the absence of Fringe was observed in 239 of the cases of human tumours that were analysed. Therefore, inhibiting this protein could enable doctors to combat the disease without affecting the functioning of the body. Dr Espinosa explains that "we implanted human tumours with Jagged 1, without Fringe, into mice and then we treated them with antibodies. Post-treatment, the tumours were very small and had necrosed." In the study, the tumours had shrunk after 10 weeks of treatment. Prognostic factor The study also enabled the researchers to demonstrate that Jagged 1 protein levels in patients with colorectal cancer is a prognostic indicator. Where levels are high, the disease rapidly becomes worse. The researchers believe that this way of treating the cancer is very promising and there are already several pharmaceutical companies working with specific antibodies to inhibit Jagged 1. Even so, the work that has just been published is a preclinical trial, and not yet transferable to patient treatment. In this regard, Dr. Joan Albanell, one of the authors of the study, head of the Medical Oncology Unit at Hospital del Mar, and director of the IMIM's Cancer Research Programme, points out that "these results lead the way towards therapeutic strategies for selectively deactivating the properties of malignant multipotent stem cells in colon cancer. It is now very important to continue this research so that in the next few years it can culminate in clinical trials for patients with colorectal cancer. For these people, the identification of new therapeutic targets is essential." Colorectal cancer This is the most common type of cancer in Catalonia, with more than 6,000 new cases every year, and the second leading cause of cancer death. The frequency of colon cancer is similar in men and women, while rectal cancer is more common in men. In 2017, 6,201 people were diagnosed in Catalonia and 2,700 died. For Spain as a whole, the number of patients diagnosed exceeded 34,000, making it the most prevalent cancer in the country. Mortality, however, has gone down 5.3% in men and 6.7% in women since 2012, thanks to the success of early detection programmes, like the Early Detection Programme for Colorectal Cancer, a joint action between Hospital del Mar and Hospital Clinic that has been running since 2009. ### Reference article Lopez-Arribillaga, E, Rodilla V, Colomer C, Vert A, Shelton A, Cheng JH, Yan B, Gonzalez-Perez A, Junttila MR, Iglesias M, Torres F, Albanell J, Villanueva A, Bigas A, Siebel CW, Espinosa LL. Manic Fringe deficiency imposes Jagged1 addiction to intestinal tumor cells. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05385-0 NCOMMS-16-29845. BATON ROUGE - Mangroves are tropical forests that thrive in salt water and are found in a variety of coastal settings from deltas to estuaries to weathered reefs and limestone rocks worldwide. Mangroves can store greater amounts of carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem, which helps reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. When carbon is stored in the ocean or coastal ecosystems, including mangrove forests, it is called blue carbon. However, a more precise estimate of how much blue carbon is stored by mangroves around the world has not been available until recently. This research was published today in Ecological Society of America's journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. "While past estimates of blue carbon have done a remarkable job in delivering first order estimates of how ecosystems mitigate carbon enrichment in the atmosphere, we noted that the omission of unique coastal characteristics, such as tides and river flow, reduced the accuracy of global predictions, especially concerning how carbon storages may vary from one country to the next," said lead author Robert Twilley, who is a professor in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment's Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences and the executive director of the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program. Twilley and colleagues overlaid a high-resolution map of mangrove forest cover over the various types of nearshore coastal environmental systems to calculate a more accurate estimate of the amount of carbon stored by mangroves in its soil. They found that blue carbon has been underestimated by up to 50 percent in coasts with limestone rock, such as those found on the southern tip of Florida and in the Caribbean. They also found that blue carbon has been overestimated by up to 86 percent in coastal deltas in previous studies. In addition, this study provides new estimates for about 57 countries that lack blue carbon data. "We have developed a roadmap for ecological investigations on the global scale, highlighting that there may be patterns that govern how mangroves store carbon from the atmosphere," said co-author Andre Rovai, who is a postdoctoral researcher in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment's Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences. Having this roadmap is critical given how fast development and land-use changes are occurring around the world. The scientists hope that planners will become more aware of the environmental value of their country's mangroves and take it into account before losing these ecologically important resources. ### Funding support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation Coastal SEES program, Frontiers of Earth Surface Dynamics, the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and CAPES/CNPq Science without Borders. Twilley will also give the opening plenary talk at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting on Sunday, Aug. 5, at 5 p.m. (CDT). His talk will be live streamed. He will also be presenting his research, The resilience of coastal deltaic floodplains, on Thursday, Aug. 9, at 10:10 a.m. Additional Links: Coastal morphology explains global blue carbon distributions, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15409309 [doi: 10.1002/fee.1937] Live stream to Ecological Society of America opening plenary talk titled "Ecosystem design approaches in a highly engineered landscape of the Mississippi River Delta" by Robert Twilley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN5U_pd4ZBY A Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has used epigenome editing tools to investigate how the genetic abnormality that drives Ewing sarcoma - the second most common bone cancer in children and young adults - unleashes tumor growth. In their paper in the journal Genes & Development the researchers show that blocking the fusion protein EWS-FLI1 from binding and activating specific 'enhancer' sites in the genome prevents the expression of genes that promote tumor growth. "We previously showed that binding of EWS-FLI1 to GGAA microsatellite repeats in the genome converts these sites into active enhancers," says Miguel Rivera, MD, MGH Department of Pathology and Center for Cancer Research, co-senior author of the report. "Now we have used new epigenome editing tools to turn off individual microsatellites and demonstrate that they have important functions in controlling the expression of nearby genes that are critical for tumor growth." Ewing sarcoma is caused by a genetic alteration known as a chromosomal translocation in which the chromosome 22 gene EWS is fused to the chromosome 11 gene FLI1, leading to generation of the fusion protein EWS-FLI1. A 2014 Cancer Cell study led by Rivera and Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD, also of MGH Pathology and the Center for Cancer Research, found that EWS-FLI1 had two properties that could lead to tumor growth: conversion of microsatellite repeats - repetitive DNA elements commonly found in the genome - into active enhancers that stimulate the expression of other genes and repression of other factors that regulate gene transcription. In essence, EWS-FLI1 both steps on the gas and takes off the brakes to tumor growth. The current study was designed to directly test the links between microsatellite activation by EWS-FLI1, the expression of cancer-associated genes and tumor growth. The researchers focused on GGAA microsatellites - repeats of the nucleotides guanine and adenine - that are usually inactive but in Ewing sarcoma are bound and activated by EWS-FLI1. The investigators used a novel CRISPR-based system to bring a repressor module to sites adjacent to the GGAA microsatellites in Ewing sarcoma cells, which markedly reduced expression of nearby genes believed to stimulate tumor growth. In contrast, repression of GGAA repeats in cancer cells that did not express the fusion protein had no effect on gene expression. Finally, silencing a specific repeat known to regulate expression of SOX2, a transcription factor that acts as an oncogene, led to a significant decrease in the size of Ewing sarcoma tumors in mice. "Finding regulatory regions such as enhancers in the genome that are specifically utilized in tumors but not in normal cells may point to new therapeutic opportunities," says Rivera, an assistant professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "We're now working towards identifying other tumor-specific enhancers that are important for tumor growth in Ewing sarcoma and other types of cancer." ### Ivan Stamenkovic, MD, and Nicolo Riggi, MD, PhD, of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, are co-senior authors of the Genes & Development paper. The co-lead authors are Gaylor Boulay, PhD, and Angela Volorio, MD, BM, MGH Pathology and Center for Cancer Research (CCR). Additional co-authors are Sowmya Iyer, MGH Pathology/CCR; and Liliane Broye, University of Lausanne. Support for the study includes grants from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Charley Davidson Children's Cancer Fund at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, the Medic Foundation, the Swiss Cancer Research Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Cancer League, Oncosuisse and the Botnar Foundation. Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with an annual research budget of more than $900 million and major research centers in HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, genomic medicine, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, photomedicine and transplantation biology. The MGH topped the 2015 Nature Index list of health care organizations publishing in leading scientific journals and earned the prestigious 2015 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service. In August 2017 the MGH was once again named to the Honor Roll in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals." Lei Pan's team of chemical engineering students had worked long and hard on their research project, and they were happy just to be showing their results at the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition last April in Washington, DC. What they didn't expect was to be mobbed by enthusiastic onlookers. "We got a lot of 'oh wow!' responses, from eight-year-olds wanting to know how it worked to EPA officials wondering why no one had done this before," says senior Zachary Oldenburg. "My response to the EPA was, 'Because no one else had a project leader who's a mining engineer.'" Pan, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University, earned his graduate degrees in mining engineering. It was his idea to adapt 20th century mining technology to recycle lithium ion batteries, from the small ones in cell phones to the multi-kilowatt models that power electric cars. Pan figured the same technologies used to separate metal from ore could be applied to spent batteries. So he gave his students a crash course in basic minerals processing methods and set them loose in the lab. "My mind goes back to the beginning, when nothing was working," says Trevyn Payne, a chemical engineering senior. "A lot of times it was, honestly, 'Let's just try this.' Sometimes when things worked out, it was kind of an accident." Oldenburg provides an example. "We were trying all kinds of solvents to liberate chemicals, and after hours and hours, we found out that plain water worked the best." But eventually, everything came together. "You can see your results improve experiment by experiment," explains doctoral student Ruiting Zhan. "That's pretty good. It gives you a sense of achievement." The team used mining industry technologies to separate everything in the battery: the casing, metal foils and coatings for the anode and cathode, which includes lithium metal oxide, the most valuable part. The components can be returned to the manufacturer and re-made into new batteries. "The biggest advantage of our process is that it's inexpensive and energy efficient." Ruitang Zhan "For the purpose of remanufacturing, our recycled materials are as good as virgin materials, and they are cheaper," Oldenburg adds. The fact that their process is tried and true is perhaps its most attractive quality to industry, Pan notes. "We saw the opportunity to use an existing technology to address emerging challenges," he says. "We use standard gravity separations to separate copper from aluminum, and we use froth flotation to recover critical materials, including graphite, lithium and cobalt. These mining technologies are the cheapest available, and the infrastructure to implement them already exists." Passers-by weren't the only ones at the P3 competition impressed by the students' effort. AIChE's (the American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology (YCOSST) has announced it will be presenting the team its YCOSST P3 Award, which recognizes the project "that best employs sustainable practices, interdisciplinary collaborations, engineering principles and youth involvement, and whose design is simple enough to have a sustainable impact without requiring significant technical expertise of its users." ### The team members, including Oldenburg, Payne, Zhan and undergraduate Lucille Nunneley, will be given the award in October, at the AIChE annual meeting in Pittsburgh, where they will also present their results. The award includes $1,000 to help cover student travel costs. To advance their research, Pan has received funding from the Michigan Technological University Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) statewide Innovation Hub. The project was funded by a $15,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and an article on their work, "Recovery of Active Cathode Materials from Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Froth Flotation," authored by Pan, Zhan and Oldenburg, was published online June 15 in Sustainable Materials and Technologies. The internet gives people worldwide access to applications and services, but in many cases, internet traffic passes through a few dominant countries, according to new research from Princeton University. Following the 2013 revelations of U.S. government surveillance, officials from several countries expressed a desire to reduce their dependence on U.S. communications infrastructure. Brazil has taken notable steps toward this goal, including beginning construction of an underwater cable to Portugal and developing a large ecosystem of internet exchange points to help in-country networks better connect. This new study from Princeton researchers represents an early look at the effectiveness of these measures. Despite Brazil's efforts, a large proportion of its internet traffic continues to traverse the United States. One explanation, the researchers suggested, may be that business considerations prevent internet service providers from using internet exchange points in Brazil. By examining traffic to the 100 most popular websites in several countries, the researchers revealed that a large fraction of internet routing paths from Brazil, India and Kenya passed through the United States or Europe. They also piloted a tool called RAN (Region-Aware Networking) that allows users to reroute traffic to avoid going through a particular country by diverting traffic through intermediate points. The researchers found that Region Aware Networking was more successful in avoiding some countries than others. In particular, many popular websites are hosted only on servers in the United States or Europe. Other sites provide global access through contracts with content distribution networks, which often host websites in only a few countries, explained lead author Anne Edmundson, who graduated from Princeton this spring with a Ph.D. in computer science. Edmundson and her colleagues presented the study on June 21 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Sustainable Societies. The researchers measured internet routing paths through Brazil, Kenya, India, the Netherlands and the United States by accessing popular websites via virtual private networks, which provided vantage points from within the countries that were similar to those of users in those countries. They then downloaded the top 100 webpages in each country (as ranked by Alexa) and measured the paths between each client vantage point and the web servers that delivered the content within that country. The study found that more than half of all routing paths originating in other countries passed through the United States. Brazil showed the highest dependence, with 84 percent of traffic transiting the United States. A large fraction of paths from Kenya, India and the Netherlands also passed through Great Britain. In addition, traffic from Kenya commonly transited Mauritius and South Africa, while Singapore was a frequent stop for traffic from India. These paths generally tended to follow the paths of underwater communications cables between the respective countries and popular internet exchange points. The researchers also assessed the prevalence of "tromboning" paths that start and end in the same country but traverse a foreign country en route. Internet paths from Brazil and the Netherlands to popular websites often tromboned through the United States. About 13 percent of paths from Brazil were tromboning, and more than 80 percent of these traversed the United States; some paths also traversed countries such as Spain, Italy and Canada. "As soon as internet traffic enters a country's borders it becomes subject to that country's domestic laws and policies, including things like surveillance or censorship," said Edmundson. In response to this issue, the team designed and tested the Region-Aware Networking (RAN) system to give users more control over their internet routing. In addition to avoiding surveillance and censorship, reducing international routing could also improve connection speeds and lower costs. They set up a network of relays using machines in 10 countries and a mechanism to forward internet traffic through these relays. They then measured the system's ability to avoid routing traffic from the five countries in the study through other countries. In most cases, the tool significantly increased the percentage of routes to the top 100 websites that avoided a given country. For instance, without the tool's relays only 50 percent of paths from Kenya could avoid transiting Britain; Region-Aware Networking allowed 97 percent of paths to avoid Britain. The tool also led to modest decreases in tromboning paths. Traffic through the United States was more challenging to avoid. Routes from India achieved the highest avoidance level at 65 percent. "This could be for a couple of reasons," said Edmundson. "One reason is that the only path to a certain website goes through the United States, or that the content is only hosted in the United States and it is therefore unavoidable." Adding more relays to the network might improve the ability to avoid transiting the United States, she said. "The internet grew up without borders, but now people who care about privacy and freedom of expression are starting to be concerned about where their internet traffic goes," said Jedidiah Crandall, a computer scientist at the University of New Mexico who was not involved in the research. "At the same time, nation-states are developing their own ideas about borders on the internet. Where the borders actually are today is an important scientific question that this paper makes impressive progress towards answering." The researchers performed their measurements in early 2016; follow-up measurements could show whether Brazil and other countries have reduced their dependence on the United States and Europe for reaching popular internet websites. ### Edmundson's co-authors include computer science professors Nick Feamster, deputy director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy; Jennifer Rexford, the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering and chair of the Department of Computer Science; and Roya Ensafi, a former postdoctoral researcher in Feamster's group who is now a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan. Support for this research was provided by the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. RESTON, VA - Researchers have discovered a new nuclear medicine test that could improve care of patients with type 1 diabetes. The new positron emission tomography (PET) imaging method could measure beta-cell mass, which would greatly enhance the ability to monitor and guide diabetes therapies. This study is reported in the featured article of the month in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine's August issue. According to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 1.25 million American children and adults have type 1 diabetes. Jason Bini, PhD, at the Yale University PET Center in New Haven, Connecticut, explains the significance to patients of being able to track their beta-cell mass: "Beta-cell mass includes both functional and non-functional beta cells. Many indirect methods to measure beta-cell function are influenced by factors such as glucose and insulin levels and are not able to measure non-functional (dormant) beta cells that may be responsive to treatments. This work is important for patients because uptake of a radiotracer measured on a PET scan could guide treatment options. For example, if a patient has low beta-cell function with high signal in the PET scan, this could represent a patient with dormant beta cells that could respond to a treatment targeting existing cells. If a patient has low beta-cell function and low signal in the PET scan (very few viable or dormant beta cells present), that individual may be a candidate for beta-cell transplantation." Beta cells and neurological tissues have common cellular receptors and transporters, so, the Yale researchers screened brain radioligands for their ability to identify beta cells. Then, 12 healthy control subjects and two subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus underwent dynamic PET/CT scans with six tracers. The dopamine type 2/type 3 (D2/D3)-receptor agonist radioligand carbon-11 (11C)-(+)-4-propyl-9-hydroxynaphthoxazine (PHNO) was the only radioligand to demonstrate sustained uptake in the pancreas with high contrast versus abdominal organs such as the kidneys, liver, and spleen. The results provide preliminary evidence that 11C-(+)-PHNO is a potential marker of beta-cell mass with 2:1 binding of D3 receptors over D2 receptors. While further research is needed before clinical application, 11C-(+)-PHNO is a promising way to differentiate the beta-cell mass of healthy individuals from those with type 1 diabetes mellitus, as well as track and guide therapies for diabetes patients. Bini also points out, "These findings could facilitate development and wider dissemination of novel imaging methods in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine to assess receptor/enzyme pharmacology in diabetes and other endocrine disorders." ### Authors of "Evaluation of PET Brain Radioligands for Imaging Pancreatic -Cell Mass: Potential Utility of 11C-(+)-PHNO" include Jason Bini, Mika Naganawa, Nabeel Nabulsi, Yiyun Huang, Jim Ropchan, Keunpoong Lim, Soheila Najafzadeh, Kevan C. Herold, Gary W. Cline, and Richard E. Carson, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. This study was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant 1DP3DK104092-01 and was also made possible by NIH grant 1S10OD010322-01 and by Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) grant UL1 TR000142 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at NIH. Please visit the SNMMI Media Center to view the PDF of the study, including images, and more information about molecular imaging and personalized medicine. To schedule an interview with the researchers, please contact Laurie Callahan at (703) 652-6773 or lcallahan@snmmi.org. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org. ABOUT THE SOCIETY OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, vital elements of precision medicine that allow diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. SNMMI's more than 17,000 members set the standard for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine practice by creating guidelines, sharing information through journals and meetings and leading advocacy on key issues that affect molecular imaging and therapy research and practice. For more information, visit http://www.snmmi.org. By M A Hossain Recently, the US President Donald Trump has taken a step to reduce trade deficit and has made turbulent global economy and politics. President Trump has imposed tariff of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium which has justified on the basis of national security and huge trade deficit in goods import to US. US has 375 billion trade deficit with China which has crossed the previous record. Trump said that US already has lost in trade war with China. Just because of importing Chinese products, 60 thousand American factories got to shut down and 6 million Americans became jobless. Now Trump is using his Presidential special power, section -232 of Trade Expansion Act-1962 since after Ronald Regan. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump gave a clear indication of reducing trade deficit with other countries and made husting of 'Make America Great Again'. Just after sworn as president, he is fulfilling his promise to adopt a more protectionist approach to put 'America First' policy on trade which is spurring retaliatory measures by friends and foes of US. Trump has withdrawn the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP), North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and renegotiated its free trade agreement with South Korea. To protect the US interest, Trump resorted to import substitution policy. Tariff will make the imported goods more expensive for American consumers and business to buy. That will ramp up production of those goods in American industries to meet local demand. As a result it will create more jobs and will decline the graph of trade deficit. Initially, Mr. Trump actions are motivated by pure politics and he has made it in reality. US could reduce its world trade deficit. Even US-China trade deficit has reduced 11.5% as on march 2018. The manufacturing industries became vibrant and it created 224 thousands of new jobs in US market. Trump has opened number of fronts - Iran(JCPOA), China (trade), Jerusalem(US Embassy relocation), North Korea(denuclearization) and G-7(tariff). It is very well clear that all the fronts are his bargaining issues. And this trade war is nothing but to reduce Chinese dominance around the world. US President is well aware of China's vision "Made-in-China" by 2025. Many countries were lured by Chinese cheap products and huge investment. Over the period of decades, those nations became captive by China and started controlling the politics and national economy. And Beijing already has signalled it won't accept major change to its "Made-in-China" blueprint. Trump sees this escalating trade war with Beijing and the rest of the world, as an effort to tip the balance before it is too late and bring China into Thucydides Trap. But it also true, America's trade imbalance didn't occur overnight. Now if the balance needs to be readjusted it will take many years - perhaps decades - for this to happen. China is much more dependent on US to export than any other country. World trade contributes 37% to China's GDP where US is 27%. Trump is taking chance with China to put tremendous pressure on Chinese economic growth. US has complained of 150 billion dollar on intellectual property right. Mr. Trump wants to reduce its bilateral trade surplus with the US by 100 billion dollar which he demands to do by buying same worth of US oil or gas. Washington is more aggressive and offensive in the trade war while Beijing is being seen reactive, defensive and reciprocal. In my personal opinion, Beijing wants to avoid the Thucydides Trap. There is no reason to believe that both Washington and Beijing are interested to engage military conflict. What is unknown at this time is how long it will take two leaders in negotiating table for mutual beneficial trading partnership and at what cost for both countries. In the world of elementary particles, traces of a potential "new physics" may be concealed in processes related to the decay of baryons. Analysis of data from the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider performed by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have, however, shown that one of the rarest decays of baryons containing the charm quark so far shows no anomalies. Baryons, which are composite particles made of three quarks, can decay into lighter particles. These types of decays usually occur indirectly via intermediate state (resonant). Sometimes, however, the decay proceeds directly in one step (nonresonant). The Standard Model, the best tool of modern physics formulated half a century ago to describe phenomena occurring among elementary particles, predicts that some of nonresonant baryon decays are extremely rare: depending on the type of baryon they should occur once per billion cases or even less frequently. "If the frequency of some nonresonant decays were to be different than predicted by the Standard Model, it could indicate the existence of processes and particles not known yet, that indicate existence of 'new physics'. This is why nonresonant decays have attracted our attention for so long," explains Prof. Mariusz Witek from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow. Prof. Witek led a five-member group of physicists from Cracow searching for nonresonant decays of charmed baryon Lambda c in data collected in 2011 and 2012 by the international LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Why was the attention of the researchers drawn this time to Lambda c baryons, i.e. particles made of down (d), up (u) and charm (c) quarks? The most massive top (t) quark decays so fast that it does not combine with other quarks at all, so it does not create baryons, whose decays could be observed. The decays of particles containing the second largest quark in terms of mass, the beauty (b) quark, has already been analyzed earlier on, because their decays were slightly easier to detect. The Cracow group was involved here and contributed to observation of interesting deviation from theoretical predictions. In this situation, only the decays of charmed byrons remained largely unexplored. "The Standard Model predicts that nonresonant decays of Lambda c baryons into three particles: a proton and two muons, should occur more or less once in hundreds of billions of decays. This is a much rarer phenomenon than the decays of baryons containing the beauty quark, which we were analysed earlier," emphasizes Dr. Marcin Chrzaszcz (IFJ PAN) and adds, "Measurements and analyses are now much more difficult, we have to look into a much larger group of events registered in the LHCb experiment. However, it is worth doing, because as a reward you can come across a trail of much more subtle processes. If we manage to observe any inconsistencies with predictions, this would most likely be a signal of a 'new physics'." With such rare phenomena, the distinguishing of nonresonant decays of Lambda c baryons from background has proved to be a hard and time-consuming task. Nonetheless, the Cracow-based physicists have managed to improve an upper limit on frequency of nonresonant decays by up to 100 times. It was estimated to be less than one in hundreds of millions. "The taking into account of additional data, including the second run of the LHC accelerator, should soon improve our result by a factor of 10. So we would be very close to the predictions of the Standard Model. If some sort of 'new physics' is manifesting itself in the decays of Lambda c baryons, this will be the last chance for it to reveal itself. At present, there is not the slightest trace of it," sums up Prof. Witek. During the analyses, the Cracow-based researchers also observed resonant decays, in which the Lambda c baryon decayed into a proton and omega meson. The lack of signals indicating yet another path of resonant decay - into a proton and a rho meson - was somewhat surprising. However, this result turned out to be in line with theoretical predictions. The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently the largest research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The broad range of studies and activities of IFJ PAN includes basic and applied research, ranging from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of methods of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly yield of the IFJ PAN encompasses more than 600 scientific papers in the Journal Citation Reports published by the Thomson Reuters. The part of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) which is an infrastructure, unique in Central Europe, to serve as a clinical and research centre in the area of medical and nuclear physics. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium: "Matter-Energy-Future" which possesses the status of a Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics for the years 2012-2017. The Institute is of A+ Category (leading level in Poland) in the field of sciences and engineering. ### CONTACTS: Prof. Mariusz Witek The Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences tel. +48 12 6628047 email: mariusz.witek@ifj.edu.pl SCIENTIFIC PAPERS: "Search for the rare decay $\Lambda_ {c}^{+}\to p\mu^+\mu^-$" LHCb Collaboration Physical Review D 97, 091101(R) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.091101 LINKS: http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/ The website of the LHCb experiment. http://www.cern.ch/ The website of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). http://www.ifj.edu.pl/ The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences. http://press.ifj.edu.pl/ Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences. IMAGES: IFJ180802b_fot01s.jpg HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2018/08/02/IFJ180802b_fot01.jpg Baryons containing a charm quark can decay at once into a proton and two muons. Using data from the LHCb experiment, scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have shown that in these extremely rare processes there are still no signs of the 'new physics'. The signal of the nonresonant decay is visible at the top, the signal of the resonant decay into a proton and omega meson is presented below. (Source: IFJ PAN, CERN, The LHCb Collaboration) Funders: CERN and from the national agencies CAPES, CNPq, FAPERJ, and FINEP (Brazil); MOST and NSFC (China); CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and MPG (Germany); INFN (Italy); NWO (The Netherlands); MNiSW and NCN (Poland); MEN/IFA (Romania); MinES and FASO (Russia); MinECo (Spain); SNSF and SER (Switzerland); NASU (Ukraine); STFC (United Kingdom); and NSF (USA) With expertise rooted in personal experience, people who have had mental health problems could offer support, encouragement and a model for recovery, helping reduce readmission rates. Care from peer support workers with lived experience of mental health conditions may help reduce the likelihood of readmission for people who have recently left acute mental health care, according to a randomised controlled trial of more than 400 people in England published in The Lancet. The study found that fewer people who received this type of support were readmitted to acute care a year after the study began, compared to people who only received a workbook. In the UK, more than half of people admitted to acute care are readmitted within a year, and there is no robust evidence on how these readmissions can be reduced. Support from people with lived experience of mental health problems is used in the UK and USA in programmes such as the NHS' Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change and the USA's Wellness Recovery Action Plan. This study is the first randomised trial to evaluate the effectiveness and shows positive results. However, more research, including to understand what causes the effect found, is now needed before the strategy is implemented nationally in the UK. Self-management interventions may help people manage their mental health better, and in this study, the authors combined a self-management workbook with help from a support worker who had also experienced a mental health problem. "People discharged from community crisis services are often readmitted to acute care. Not only does this impede recovery, but also consumes resources that might otherwise be dedicated to longer term improvements in functioning and quality of life," says lead author Professor Sonia Johnson, UCL, UK. "Peer support workers could provide support and encouragement that is particularly warm and empathetic because it is rooted in personal experience, as well as providing service users with a role model for their recovery." [1] The new study took place across six crisis resolution teams in England, and people were recruited after they had been discharged by a crisis resolution team. Participants had a variety of diagnoses including schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, psychosis, depression anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and personality disorder. All people within the study continued treatment and usual care throughout the study. Participants either received a personal recovery workbook (220 people) or peer support and the workbook (221 people). The workbook included sections on setting personal recovery goals, re-establishing their place in the community and support networks, identifying early warning signs and creating an action plan to avoid or delay relapse, and planning strategies to maintain wellbeing. Participants were asked to record observations and plans in each of these areas. Participants who received support from a person who had also experienced mental health problems were offered ten one-hour sessions, which took place each week. The support worker listened to their problems and aimed to instil hope by sharing the skills and coping strategies they learnt during their own recovery. Support workers received training beforehand in listening skills, cultural awareness, self-disclosure, and confidentiality, and how to use the workbook. The authors monitored participants' health records to determine whether they were readmitted to acute care (such as acute inpatient wards, crisis resolution teams, crisis houses, and acute day care services) within one year, and conducted interviews with participants at four and 18 months to obtain their views on the intervention. After one year, readmission to acute care was lower in the intervention group than in the control group - with 29% (64/218) of participants readmitted in intervention group versus 38% (83/216) of participants in the control group. Uptake of the intervention was good - 72% (160/221) of people offered the support and workbook attended at least three meetings with their peer support worker, and a third (65/198) attended all ten meetings. Similar numbers of participants in the intervention and control groups read the booklet (84% [133/158] of people in the control group vs 88% [142/162] of people in the intervention group), but more people in the intervention group used it to make written plans (58-64% of people in the intervention group vs 28-44% of people in the control group). During the study there were 71 serious adverse events (29 in the intervention group and 42 in the control group), but none were deemed related to the study. These included 55 readmissions to acute care, 11 attempted suicides, one attempted murder, two suicides and two deaths with unclear circumstances. "Our study provides the most robust evidence for the effectiveness of any peer-provided support in a UK secondary mental health setting," continues Professor Johnson. "Our novel findings are potentially important as the intervention is acceptable to patients and feasible for service managers and users who would like to avoid relapse and readmission to acute care." [1] The authors note some limitations, including that the secondary outcomes of the study gave unclear results, so it is not possible to identify which part of the intervention caused the improvement in patient outcomes. In addition, a high proportion of people in the control group used the booklet, and readmission rates in this group were below the national average, which may suggest that the booklet is effective on its own too. This could mean the effectiveness of peer support was under estimated in the study. Writing in a linked Comment, Drs Marcia Valenstein and Paul Pfeiffer, University of Michigan, USA, says: "There is much to celebrate but also much left to do following the publication of these findings. The completion of a substantial, adequately powered randomised controlled trial with high ascertainment of the primary outcome and blinded raters is welcome. The finding of reduced readmissions is also welcome, given that implementation of peer support has proceeded apace despite the scarcity of substantial evidence regarding its efficacy. With the publication of this trial, peer-delivered self-management programmes might be considered one of the configurations of peer support with the strongest evidence. That said, the lack of a significant effect on almost all secondary outcomes and potential mediators leaves the mechanism of reduced readmissions unclear. We are left with a complex intervention that appears to reduce readmissions but with few insights into what the active or necessary parts of the intervention might be--eg, support and sharing of life experiences with the peer, engaging actively with the recovery workbook, changes in self-management behaviours that were not apparent through the self-reported measure." ### Peer-reviewed / Randomised Controlled Trial / People NOTES TO EDITORS This study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research . It was conducted by researchers from University College London, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, University of Surrey, King's College London, University of Sydney, University of Bristol, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, West London Mental Health Trust, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com [1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article. Researchers have determined that new mothers exposed to cigarette smoke in their homes, stop breastfeeding sooner than women not exposed to second-hand smoke. The study, conducted in Hong Kong, involved more than 1,200 women from four large hospitals, explains Professor Marie Tarrant, Director of UBC Okanagan's School of Nursing. Tarrant, whose research focuses on maternal and child health, taught in the faculty of Medicine in the University of Hong Kong before joining UBC. "Our study showed that just being in a smoking household--whether it was the husband, mother or member of the extended family--reduced the time that a child was breast fed," says Tarrant. "In fact, the more smokers there were in the home, the shorter the breastfeeding duration." This study, says Tarrant, is one of the first to examine the effect of family members' smoking on the duration of breastfeeding in Hong Kong after that country made substantial changes to tobacco control regulations in 2007. In Hong Kong about four per cent of women and 18 per cent of men smoke, for a national average of about 10 per cent of the population--compared to Mainland China where smoking statistics are still quite high. In Canada, about 14 per cent of the population smokes more than one cigarette a day. "Our findings were consistent with previous studies and we found that exposure to household smokers also had a substantial negative effect on breastfeeding practices," says Tarrant. "More than one-third of participants had partners or other household members who smoked. And fathers who smoked were significantly less likely to prefer breastfeeding when compared with non-smoking partners." Nicotine is transmitted in the breastmilk to the child and Tarrant says there is also some suggestion that it can may reduce the overall quantity of the breastmilk. There is also the concern regarding the environmental exposure of second-hand smoke on the child. "Our study did show that smoking partners may affect the mother's decision to stop breastfeeding and that paternal and household smoking exposure is strongly associated with a shorter breastfeeding duration." Tarrant says the takeaway from the study is to recommend that women and their families quit smoking before they become pregnant and for new mothers to wait until they have finished breastfeeding, if they choose to restart smoking. And she recommends if a woman chooses to smoke with a baby in the home, they make sure the infant is not exposed to second-hand smoke. "We know the effects of environmental tobacco smoke on young babies is very detrimental as babies who are around smoking are more like to get respiratory infections and other experience other respiratory problems," says Tarrant. "However, if a mother is breastfeeding, the benefits of her doing that still outweigh the negative effects of the smoking as long as she maintains good smoking hygiene and doesn't expose the baby to tobacco smoke." Tarrant's study was published recently in the Breastfeeding Medicine journal. ### Media Contact: Nathan Skolski Associate Director, Public Affairs | University Relations The University of British Columbia | Okanagan campus Phone: 250-807-9926 Email: nathan.skolski@ubc.ca ABOUT UBC's OKANAGAN CAMPUS UBC's Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia's stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is a globally recognized research-intensive institution whose Okanagan campus was established in 2005. The Okanagan campus emphasizes smaller class sizes, experiential learning, and research activity for students, combining a world-class UBC degree with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community. As part of North America's most international university, the campus is home to 9,000 students representing 98 countries. MIAMI--New research shows that not all corals respond the same to changes in climate. The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led study looked at the sensitivity of two types of corals found in Florida and the Caribbean and found that one of them--mountainous star coral--possesses an adaptation that allows it to survive under high temperatures and acidity conditions. "Stressful periods of high temperature and increasingly acidic conditions are becoming more frequent and longer lasting in Florida waters," said Chris Langdon, marine biology and ecology professor and lead author on the new study. "However, we found that not all coral species are equally sensitive to climate change and there's hope that some species that seemed doomed may yet develop adaptations that will allow them to survive as well." The researchers exposed two threatened Caribbean reef-building coral species, staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata), were exposed to combinations of normal (26 degrees Celsius) and elevated temperature (32 degrees Celsius) and increased carbon dioxide levels (pH 7.8/800 ppm) for nine weeks. Genetic and physiological data such as skeletal growth was then collected on the corals to determine if stress events are recorded in a coral's skeletal history. At the end of the nine weeks any corals that were still surviving were recovered at the cool temperature and normal pH to determine the capacity of these corals to bounce back once environmental conditions became more hospitable as naturally occurs as summer transitions into fall. The researchers found that the staghorn coral was more sensitive to heat stress. It experienced 100 percent mortality after 25 days at the elevated temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the historical maximum monthly mean temperature for the Florida Keys. South Florida waters could begin to experience hot spells of this intensity and duration once every five years by 2035, which according to the researchers suggests that the species could become increasingly rare within 20 years. The mountainous star coral survived 62 days at the elevated temperature and quickly recovered when temperature was reduced at the end of the experiment. Reduced pH did not affect survival but did significantly impact growth under normal temperatures. "Based on these results we predict that mountainous star coral will very conservatively be able to tolerate any warming the Florida Keys is likely to experience now until 2060 and very possibly to the end of the century," said Langdon. "This optimistic prediction needs to be qualified by the fact that decreasing pH will impact the reproductive potential of this species. While the decreasing pH won't kill the corals outright it will mean that fewer baby corals will be produced to replace adult corals that die of natural or unnatural causes." Coral reefs are especially vulnerable to climate change because they are easily affected by warm water. When ocean temperatures rise, the algae that give coral its bright colors leave their host, causing it to look white, a condition known as 'coral bleaching'. The loss of algae, which provide coral with much of its energy, make corals vulnerable to starvation and disease. The mountainous star coral had special algae, called D symbionts, which the researchers believe made it able to adapt to the experimental climate change conditions. Rapidly warming oceans are resulting in more frequent and severe mass bleaching events, while the uptake of CO2 by the surface ocean is driving down the pH making it more difficult for corals and other organisms to build their skeleton and shells. The study allows researchers to better understand how corals respond to heat stress and ocean acidification, which is important since these conditions are expected to affect corals in coming decades and to understand how these stressors are recorded in coral skeletons. ### The study, titled "Two threatened Caribbean coral species have contrasting responses to combined temperature and acidification stress," was published on July 31, 2018 in the journal Limnology and Oceanography, DOI: 10.1002/Ino.10952. The study's coauthors include: Chris Langdon and Andrew C. Baker from the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science; Rebecca Albright from the California Academy of Sciences; and Paul Jones of the UM Rosenstiel School-based NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS). Support for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation (grant # OCE-0547169). About the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School The University of Miami is one of the largest private research institutions in the southeastern United States. The University's mission is to provide quality education, attract and retain outstanding students, support the faculty and their research, and build an endowment for University initiatives. Founded in the 1940's, the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has grown into one of the world's premier marine and atmospheric research institutions. Offering dynamic interdisciplinary academics, the Rosenstiel School is dedicated to helping communities to better understand the planet, participating in the establishment of environmental policies, and aiding in the improvement of society and quality of life. For more information, visit: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu. PHILADELPHIA--A new study using machine learning has identified brain-based dimensions of mental health disorders, an advance towards much-needed biomarkers to more accurately diagnose and treat patients. A team at Penn Medicine led by Theodore D. Satterthwaite, MD, an assistant professor in the department of Psychiatry, mapped abnormalities in brain networks to four dimensions of psychopathology: mood, psychosis, fear, and disruptive externalizing behavior. The research is published in Nature Communications this week. Currently, psychiatry relies on patient reporting and physician observations alone for clinical decision making, while other branches of medicine have incorporated biomarkers to aid in diagnosis, determination of prognosis, and selection of treatment for patients. While previous studies using standard clinical diagnostic categories have found evidence for brain abnormalities, the high level of diversity within disorders and comorbidity between disorders has limited how this kind of research may lead to improvements in clinical care. "Psychiatry is behind the rest of medicine when it comes to diagnosing illness," said Satterthwaite. "For example, when a patient comes in to see a doctor with most problems, in addition to talking to the patient, the physician will recommend lab tests and imaging studies to help diagnose their condition. Right now, that is not how things work in psychiatry. In most cases, all psychiatric diagnoses rely on just talking to the patient. One of the reasons for this is that we don't understand how abnormalities in the brain lead to psychiatric symptoms. This research effort aims to link mental health issues and their associated brain network abnormalities to psychiatric symptoms using a data-driven approach." To uncover the brain networks associated with psychiatric disorders, the team studied a large sample of adolescents and young adults (999 participants, ages 8 to 22). All participants completed both functional MRI scans and a comprehensive evaluation of psychiatric symptoms as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC), an effort lead by Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology, that was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The brain and symptom data were then jointly analyzed using a machine learning method called sparse canonical correlation analysis. This analysis revealed patterns of changes in brain networks that were strongly related to psychiatric symptoms. In particular, the findings highlighted four distinct dimensions of psychopathology - mood, psychosis, fear, and disruptive behavior - all of which were associated with a distinct pattern of abnormal connectivity across the brain. The researchers found that each brain-guided dimension contained symptoms from several different clinical diagnostic categories. For example, the mood dimension was comprised of symptoms from three categories, e.g. depression (feeling sad), mania (irritability), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (recurrent thoughts of self-harm). Similarly, the disruptive externalizing behavior dimension was driven primarily by symptoms of both Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), but also included the irritability item from the depression domain. These findings suggest that when both brain and symptomatic data are taken into consideration, psychiatric symptoms do not neatly fall into established categories. Instead, groups of symptoms emerge from diverse clinical domains to form dimensions that are linked to specific patterns of abnormal connectivity in the brain. "In addition to these specific brain patterns in each dimension, we also found common brain connectivity abnormalities that are shared across dimensions," said Cedric Xia, a MD-PhD candidate and the paper's lead author. "Specifically, a pair of brain networks called default mode network and frontal-parietal network, whose connections usually grow apart during brain development, become abnormally integrated in all dimensions." These two brain networks have long intrigued psychiatrists and neuroscientists because of their crucial role in complex mental processes such as self-control, memory, and social interactions. The findings in this study support the theory that many types of psychiatric illness are related to abnormalities of brain development. The team also examined how psychopathology differed across age and sex. They found that patterns associated with both mood and psychosis became significantly more prominent with age. Additionally, brain connectivity patterns linked to mood and fear were both stronger in female participants than males. "This study shows that we can start to use the brain to guide our understanding of psychiatric disorders in a way that's fundamentally different than grouping symptoms into clinical diagnostic categories. By moving away from clinical labels developed decades ago, perhaps we can let the biology speak for itself," said Satterthwaite. "Our ultimate hope is that understanding the biology of mental illnesses will allow us to develop better treatments for our patients." ### Additional Penn authors include Zongming Ma, Rastko Ciric, Shi Gu, Richard F. Betzel, Antonia N. Kaczkurkin, Monica E. Calkins, Philip A. Cook, Angel Garcia de la Garza, Simon N. Vandekar, Zaixu Cui, Tyler M. Moore, David R. Roalf, Kosha Ruparel, Daniel H. Wolf, Christos Davatzikos, Ruben C. Gur, Raquel E. Gur, Russell T. Shinohara, and Danielle S. Bassett. This study was supported by grants from National Institute of Health (R01MH107703, R01MH112847, R21MH106799, R01MH107235, R01MH113550, R01EB022573, P50MH096891, R01MH101111, K01MH102609, K08MH079364, R01NS085211). The PNC was supported by MH089983 and MH089924. Additional support was provided by the Penn-CHOP Lifespan Brain Institute and the Dowshen Program for Neuroscience. Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $7.8 billion enterprise. The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $405 million awarded in the 2017 fiscal year. The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital - the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, a leading provider of highly skilled and compassionate behavioral healthcare. Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2017, Penn Medicine provided $500 million to benefit our community. TMAC at The University of Texas at Arlington has been granted a $6.6 million federal award to help accelerate the growth and competitiveness of small and mid-sized manufacturing firms. TMAC is the Texas affiliate of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. "This award enables The University of Texas at Arlington to continue being a catalyst in the economic development of the metroplex and state through helping small and mid-sized manufacturing firms develop or improve products, processes, and human capital to increase sales and profits, and create jobs," said UTA President Vistasp Karbhari. "This long term support enables the University to continue taking a leadership role in the community, ensuring that we are not just a creator and disseminator of knowledge, but that it is translated into actions that help create economic wealth for our state. I'm pleased that our faculty and staff are able to contribute in this manner, enhancing innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth." Texas ranks no. 2 in the country for manufacturing behind California, with $225 billion in manufacturing output, close to 14 percent of Texas' GDP. Over the last 10 years, TMAC at UTA has served more than 2,100 customers, helping save more than $1.2 billion in costs and retaining or generating more than 35,000 jobs. "Manufacturing is critical to Texas and generates real wealth for our citizens," said Mark Sessumes, TMAC Executive Director. "The average wage in the manufacturing sector is $83,000, much higher than the service sector, so making sure that our manufacturing is solid is vital for our future. TMAC is a key player in ensuring the health of this ecosystem." Some examples of TMAC success stories are: J. Berry Nursery: TMAC worked with the J. Berry team to identify more than 15 improvement opportunities that resulted in an estimated $127,000 in labor cost savings for the nursery. TMAC also designed a strategic plan that provided 5 bold steps to help the owners accomplish the 5-year vision for their growing nursery. The J. Berry team is now prepared for a clear vision on how to continue its growth for the future. "TMAC provided J Berry Nursery with insightful recommendations, strategy guidance and labor saving changes to make in several areas of our business. TMAC is a great resource for small businesses in Texas like J. Berry Nursery that might not able to afford their level of expertise otherwise." ~Jonathan Berry, Co-Founder J. Berry Nursery Revitalize Charging Solutions (RCS) was founded in 2013 to become the global leader in the electric vehicle charging industry. TMAC started working with RCS in 2015 on the design of a residential home charger and the final design was completed by 2017. Since then, RCS has seen improved investor interest opportunities and leads. The prototype is also aiding RCS to stay in the lead in the residential market, with a finalized moldable design ready to launch for mass production in the summer of 2018. "Juan Paramo, with TMAC, was instrumental in the success of our new residential home charger. Juan's professionalism and mechanical engineering experience was crucial." ~Edward Morgan, CEO MedHab has developed a device that can measure the weight placed on an injured leg to help with rehabilitation processes. The device, which resembles a shoe insert with electronics, has been patented. With TMAC's help, MedHab is now manufacturing three devices and working with a Fortune 500 Health Care Company that has an interest to license or acquire the technology. "This relationship has been incredible; TMAC provides a wealth of resources along the entire path of product commercialization. Their deep experience in industrial engineering and business growth provides us mature processes for delivering quality products without waste. This partnership is leading us to FDA certification. We are about to embark on a successful launch of a great product and profitable business that will speed patient recovery more cost-effectively with better results than anything currently found in the marketplace." Johnny Ross, co-founder and CEO Duane Dimos, UTA vice president for research, underlined the importance of the partnership of TMAC with UTA, which provides experts from its faculty to support many of the projects. "UTA has the strategic missions of strengthening the links between academia and industry, and between the University and the community," Dimos said. "TMAC at UTA enables us to succeed in both of these areas and in addition develop wealth and new jobs in our region, which raises the commitment of all involved." ### When Joan Jorgensen was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her roommate confided that she had just one period before going through menopause in high school. Doctors told Jorgensen's roommate that she would never have biological children. "This is devastating news at any age, let alone a high school girl," says Jorgensen, who is now a professor in the Department of Comparative Biosciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. That experience stuck with Jorgensen, whose research focuses on fertility problems like premature ovarian failure, which leads to an early loss of viable eggs and which her roommate experienced. Using animal models, Jorgensen tries to understand how female fertility is affected by development of the ovary, which includes how cells organize to support eggs for the entire lifetime of that individual. In new research published Aug. 2 in the journal PLOS Genetics, Jorgensen, graduate researcher Anqi Fu and others discovered that two genes work together to construct a cellular communication system in the ovaries of mice to maintain healthy eggs. The researchers describe this system as a series of junctions between the eggs and the cells that surround and support the eggs, known as granulosa cells. Both cells reach out to form multiple junctions that exchange information and ensure the proper development and survival of the egg leading up to ovulation. This research provides a piece of the puzzle of female infertility, and Jorgensen looks to build off these findings to uncover more information on premature ovarian failure and other fertility problems. Jorgensen and Fu collaborated with researchers at the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and the University of Toronto to complete this work. Premature ovarian failure, in which the ovaries stop producing estrogen, is often caused by premature loss of the egg supply and affects as many as 3 percent of all women, according to the National Institutes of Health. In most cases the cause is unknown. Problems with the development of follicles -- the combination of an egg and its surrounding granulosa cells -- are likely behind many cases of premature ovarian failure. Jorgensen's lab had previously found that mice missing two genes, IRX3 and IRX5, had defective follicles. In the current study, they looked for how these genes work together to keep follicles healthy. The researchers showed that mice with either IRX3 or IRX5 deleted had fewer pups, which led the researchers to suspect that communication within the follicle was breaking down. Looking within the ovary, they tracked the expression of each gene. Early on, the researchers saw that IRX3 and IRX5 were expressed throughout the follicle. But as the follicle began to mature, IRX3 became isolated to the egg, while IRX5 was only expressed in the granulosa cells. From their separate vantage points, these two genes synchronize the two cell types to help them establish communication networks. Jorgensen's team saw that the granulosa cells and the eggs extend parts of their membranes to form junctions with each other. These junctions allow signals to be transported in both directions. With IRX3 or IRX5 deleted, these junctions fell apart, interrupting communication within the follicle and destabilizing it. "We think of IRX3 and IRX5 as the supervisors in connecting these two cells," says Jorgensen. Despite this discovery of a role for these genes in follicle development in mice, researchers still aren't sure if these same genes have a similar effect in humans. "That's another thing we would like to learn -- we want to be able to link it to human causes," says Jorgensen. Jorgensen and Fu say the next step will be to evaluate exactly how these genes direct these key cell-to-cell interactions. "If we can figure out how those networks are placed, we think that will be a major step in understanding the basic foundations of how follicles are built," says Jorgensen. "That will go a long way towards helping women that have infertility, especially those that undergo premature ovarian failure." ### This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (R01HD075079), National Cancer Institute (P30 CA014520), and a University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center Support Grant. --Tyler Fox, (414) 813-0616, tfox5@wisc.edu A team of UCLA electrical and computer engineers has created a physical artificial neural network -- a device modeled on how the human brain works -- that can analyze large volumes of data and identify objects at the actual speed of light. The device was created using a 3D printer at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Numerous devices in everyday life today use computerized cameras to identify objects -- think of automated teller machines that can "read" handwritten dollar amounts when you deposit a check, or internet search engines that can quickly match photos to other similar images in their databases. But those systems rely on a piece of equipment to image the object, first by "seeing" it with a camera or optical sensor, then processing what it sees into data, and finally using computing programs to figure out what it is. The UCLA-developed device gets a head start. Called a "diffractive deep neural network," it uses the light bouncing from the object itself to identify that object in as little time as it would take for a computer to simply "see" the object. The UCLA device does not need advanced computing programs to process an image of the object and decide what the object is after its optical sensors pick it up. And no energy is consumed to run the device because it only uses diffraction of light. New technologies based on the device could be used to speed up data-intensive tasks that involve sorting and identifying objects. For example, a driverless car using the technology could react instantaneously -- even faster than it does using current technology -- to a stop sign. With a device based on the UCLA system, the car would "read" the sign as soon as the light from the sign hits it, as opposed to having to "wait" for the car's camera to image the object and then use its computers to figure out what the object is. Technology based on the invention could also be used in microscopic imaging and medicine, for example, to sort through millions of cells for signs of disease. The study was published online in Science on July 26. "This work opens up fundamentally new opportunities to use an artificial intelligence-based passive device to instantaneously analyze data, images and classify objects," said Aydogan Ozcan, the study's principal investigator and the UCLA Chancellor's Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "This optical artificial neural network device is intuitively modeled on how the brain processes information. It could be scaled up to enable new camera designs and unique optical components that work passively in medical technologies, robotics, security or any application where image and video data are essential." The process of creating the artificial neural network began with a computer-simulated design. Then, the researchers used a 3D printer to create very thin, 8 centimeter-square polymer wafers. Each wafer has uneven surfaces, which help diffract light coming from the object in different directions. The layers look opaque to the eye but submillimeter-wavelength terahertz frequencies of light used in the experiments can travel through them. And each layer is composed of tens of thousands of artificial neurons -- in this case, tiny pixels that the light travels through. Together, a series of pixelated layers functions as an "optical network" that shapes how incoming light from the object travels through them. The network identifies an object because the light coming from the object is mostly diffracted toward a single pixel that is assigned to that type of object. The researchers then trained the network using a computer to identify the objects in front of it by learning the pattern of diffracted light each object produces as the light from that object passes through the device. The "training" used a branch of artificial intelligence called deep learning, in which machines "learn" through repetition and over time as patterns emerge. "This is intuitively like a very complex maze of glass and mirrors," Ozcan said. "The light enters a diffractive network and bounces around the maze until it exits. The system determines what the object is by where most of the light ends up exiting." In their experiments, the researchers demonstrated that the device could accurately identify handwritten numbers and items of clothing -- both of which are commonly used tests in artificial intelligence studies. To do that, they placed images in front of a terahertz light source and let the device "see" those images through optical diffraction. They also trained the device to act as a lens that projects the image of an object placed in front of the optical network to the other side of it -- much like how a typical camera lens works, but using artificial intelligence instead of physics. Because its components can be created by a 3D printer, the artificial neural network can be made with larger and additional layers, resulting in a device with hundreds of millions of artificial neurons. Those bigger devices could identify many more objects at the same time or perform more complex data analysis. And the components can be made inexpensively -- the device created by the UCLA team could be reproduced for less than $50. While the study used light in the terahertz frequencies, Ozcan said it would also be possible to create neural networks that use visible, infrared or other frequencies of light. A network could also be made using lithography or other printing techniques, he said. ### The study's others authors, all from UCLA Samueli, are postdoctoral scholars Xing Lin, Yair Rivenson, and Nezih Yardimci; graduate students Muhammed Veli and Yi Luo; and Mona Jarrahi, UCLA professor of electrical and computer engineering. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Ozcan also has UCLA faculty appointments in bioengineering and in surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is the associate director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute and an HHMI professor. August 2, 2018 - A long-term follow-up study from Australia confirms that hip implants with components made of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) substantially lower the risk of revision surgery after total hip replacement, reports a study in the August 1, 2018 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. "The use of XLPE has resulted in a significant reduction in the rate of revision at 16 years following total hip arthroplasty for osteoarthritis," writes Professor Richard de Steiger, MBBS, FRACS, FAOrthA, and colleagues of the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry, Adelaide, South Australia. With less wear and better longevity than implants using conventional polyethylene (CPE) components, the superior durability of XLPE implants may encourage total hip replacement to be performed in younger patients. Cross-linked polyethylene bearing surfaces were developed to address the problem of wear occurring with hip components made with CPE. Excessive wear sometimes leads to the need for revision surgery, particularly in younger, more active patients. Cross-linking is a process by which the polyethylene molecules are bonded together to strengthen the material. Lower Revision Surgery Rate with XLPE versus CPE Components The study included more than 240,000 patients with hip osteoarthritis who underwent total hip replacement (arthroplasty) in Australia from 1999 through 2016. Outcomes were analyzed according to the type of bearing surface used in the hip implant. Implants with an XLPE bearing surface were used in approximately 199,000 procedures, while implants with CPE bearings were used in 41,000 procedures. Hip prostheses using XLPE bearings are not new - previous studies have confirmed that they are less prone to wear than CPE bearings. The data from this Australian study provide longer follow-up on the risk of revision surgery, "which ultimately is most important for the patient," Prof. de Steiger and coauthors write. The use of XLPE implants increased dramatically during the study period: from approximately nine percent of implants with polyethylene bearings in 2000 to 97 percent in 2016. Average follow-up times after hip replacement were about nine years in the CPE group and four years in the XLPE group. As early as six months after hip replacement, revision rates were substantially lower in patients with XLPE bearings. Over 16 years, the cumulative rate of revision surgery was 11.7 percent in the CPE group compared to 6.2 percent in the XPLE group. After adjustment for other risk factors, patients with CPE implants were about three times more likely to have revision surgery after nine years, compared to those with XLPE implants. Revisions directly related to wear of the bearing surface occurred in 0.81 percent of procedures that used CPE versus 0.05 percent of procedures that used XLPE. A subgroup analysis focused on approximately 18,000 patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty before age 55 found that the 15-year cumulative rate of revision was 17.4 percent in the CPE group versus 6.6 percent in the XLPE group. At seven years, younger patients with CPE hip prostheses were about five times more likely to need revision surgery. This new study of hip replacement outcomes in patients with XLPE prostheses provides the longest follow-up in the largest series of patients reported to date. The results provide important "real world" evidence that the reduced wear of XLPE bearings translates in a lower risk of revision surgery. "The use of XLPE makes total hip arthroplasty - already one of the most effective operations - even better," the researchers write. "Wear-related and implant-longevity issues are particularly important in younger patients, who are generally more active and have a longer life span than their older counterparts," Prof. de Steiger and colleagues conclude. "We believe that the evidence of reduced long-term wear with XLPE is now so strong that, when a polyethylene bearing surface is used in THA, it should be XLPE, particularly in younger patients." ### Click here to read "Cross-Linked Polyethylene for Total Hip Arthroplasty Markedly Reduces Revision Surgery at 16 Years" DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.17.01221 About The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS) has been the most valued source of information for orthopaedic surgeons and researchers for over 125 years and is the gold standard in peer-reviewed scientific information in the field. A core journal and essential reading for general as well as specialist orthopaedic surgeons worldwide, The Journal publishes evidence-based research to enhance the quality of care for orthopaedic patients. Standards of excellence and high quality are maintained in everything we do, from the science of the content published to the customer service we provide. JBJS is an independent, non-profit journal. About Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the health, tax & accounting, finance, risk & compliance, and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer, headquartered in the Netherlands, reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit http://healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth There has been increasing noise on the US-China trade war this week as Bloomberg reported both potentially positive and negative news. President Trump is unlikely to allow the doves to make any deals ahead of the mid-term elections. Expectations are low for Wednesdays FOMC meeting, but there may be important comments on the trade war in the prepared statement. A new month kicks off with the weeks second rate decision, this time from the Federal Reserve. Again, not much is expected in terms of rate changes or policy tweeks. And while the market is keen to know whether the Fed will bend to President Trumps wishes for less tightening (all indications say they wont), this issue is unlikely to be addressed on Wednesday as there is no press conference and only a prepared statement. The statement may again make reference to the trade war and concerns of adverse economic affects. These are yet to show up in US hard data, but industrial companies have been downgrading projections for 2018 during earnings season and many are under strain from surging metal prices (especially steel and aluminium). Fed references to the trade war will be watched closely as it is the biggest threat to the current rate hike projections. Trade War at Risk of Escalating Again Trade tensions quietened down for a while after the US President and the EUs Juncker came to an agreement last week, but the noise has increased again in recent days. As Danske Bank reported on Wednesday morning, A lot of news on the trade conflict between US and China. First, there was a story in Bloomberg saying the US and China are trying to restart trade talks, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are having private conversations on the subject. If this is true, it is the first time the two countries are trying to get back to the negotiation table, after Trump left it in May. Later, there was another story in Bloomberg saying the Trump administration is considering increasing the tariffs from 10% to 25% in the next round (USD200bn) in an attempt to put more pressure on China. So mixed messages, and the market is understandably nervous. The US dollar has stayed strong throughout, which has kept EURUSD and GBPUSD in their lower ranges. Equity markets are also resilient, with recent heavy falls in tech companies more related to earnings season than ongoing trade tensions. However, if Bloombergs article on a possible escalation by Trump plays out, equities could take a sizeable hit. With mid-term elections in November, campaigning and rhetoric will start to ramp up. Trump knows his hard-line stance is his main appeal, which makes a stand down or concession unlikely. Perhaps he even pressures China more so he can get a concession from them and claim victory in his campaign. But will this angle work, or back-fire? Heres Danske Banks view: Trump is still under pressure domestically to stick to a tough course with China ahead of the mid-term elections in November. The attempt to try to force China back to the negotiation table is probably also going to backfire, as China has little more to offer than it has done already. In our view, a deal is still far away, and we would consider an increase to the proposed tariff rates from 10% to 25% an escalation. Trade tensions likely keep weighing on equities, and the US dollar stays in its higher range until there is some sort of resolution. However, resolution often comes after escalation and the worry will be the situation gets worse and starts to show up in economic data before there is any will to tackle the problem long-term. This could even come after the mid-terms in November. Traders will be kept on their toes for some time yet. Guwahati : Security forces had apprehended two militants including a hardcore militant of banned NSCN (K) with arms in Nagaland. According to the reports, based on intelligence input, Dimapur Battalion of Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR(N) conducted an operation in general area Dalai Gate, Dimapur, along with a police representative. During the search operation security personnel had apprehended a NSCN (K) militant. along with . The nebbed militant was identified as Asheto Sema and security personnel had recovered one 9 mm factory made pistol with magazine, live ammunitions and Rs 2630 cash in possession from him. The nabbed militant along with the recovered items was handed over to West Police Station, Dimapur for further investigation. On the other hand, the troops of 36 Assam Rifles and police had apprehended a NSCN (KN) militant at Athibung area. The nabbed militant was identified as Daniel and security forces recovered one point 22mm country made pistol in possession from him. The militant has been actively involved in tax collection as Chief Guard Duty at Athibung. Later, the apprehendee along with the recovered item was handed over to Athibung Police Station for further investigation, an Assam Rifles official said. Privacy Settings This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/FBI-searching-house-in-Niskayuna-13122464.php "NISKAYUNA An engineer employed by General Electric Co. was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday and charged with using sophisticated techniques to steal digital files on the company's turbine technology to benefit his interest in Chinese companies that compete with GE." Guwahati: From nephews family of the fifth President of India to retired Army officer, AIUDF MLA, BJP MLAs wife, banned outfit ULFA-I leaders wife are some names among 40 lakh people, whose names didnt feature in the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), published on July 30. Azmal Haque, a resident of Chhaygaon area in Assams Kamrup district and a retired Army officer also left out of Assams complete draft of NRC. Azmal, who served the Indian army for 30 years from 1986 to 2016 and retired as a Junior Commanding Officer (JCO) in 2016. Not only Azmal, his son and daughters name too missing from the draft NRC. Azmal Haque, who presently living at Panjabari area in Guwahati with his family said that, this is very unfortunate after giving 30 years of his life to the nations security. I served the Indian army for 30 years and all verification process had done when I joined army. I submitted all documents to entry our names in the NRC. But, it is very unfortunate that, my elder brothers family names included in the draft NRC in same legacy which also used in our documents. But my name and my two children and younger brothers name were omitted despite submitting all valid documents, Azmal said. On the other hand, family members of former President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed too left out of the complete draft NRC. Ziauddin Ali Ahmed is the son of the countrys fifth presidents brother Late Ekramuddin Ali Ahmed and now living at Kalmoni Barhampur village under Jayantipur gram panchayat near Rangia town in Assams Kamrup district with his family. But, it is shocking that, Ziauddin and his wife and two sons had failed to find out their names in the complete draft of NRC. None of the family members were in the complete draft of NRC. The Assam government on Monday had published the complete draft of NRC by including the names of 2.89 crore persons out of 3.29 crore applicants. Ziauddin said that, he would try to find out the necessary documents to ensure his family members name is included in the list. I am the nephew of former president of India Late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. I would try to find out the Legacy data of our family, but failed. My fathers name is not in the Legacy data, so we have failed to collect legacy data as to show linkage with my father. I will again try to find out any linkage with my father, Ziauddin said. Apart from it, Md. Javed Ali, a resident of minority dominated lower Assam district South Salmara Mankachar also failed to find out his name in the draft NRC. But he is not fear about his name is not appeared in the complete draft list. Javed said that, six other people of his family names have included in the complete draft list, but his name is missing. Javed said that, he submitted all essential documents during the application submission process of NRC. I was shocked after missing my name in the complete draft, but not panic. I had submitted all documents during the application submission process. I dont know why my name was missing. I will again submit my claim and objection before the NRC official, Javed said. Not only Javed, there are over 40 lakh other people whose names were left out from the complete draft of NRC. Registrar General of India (RGI) Shri Shailesh said that, 2,89,83,677 numbers of persons are found eligible for inclusion in complete draft of NRC out of 3,29,91,384 applicants. That is over 40.07 lakh persons have been excluded from the list. The RGI further said that, persons who do not find their names in complete draft NRC have the legal right to apply again by filing of claim during the period August 30 to September 28 this year, they will be able to know the reasons for non-inclusion by visiting NRC Seva Kendras and enquiring from Local Registrar. The publishing of complete draft NRC is conducted under the monitoring and supervision and direction of the Supreme Court. It is a legal process under the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship Rules 2003, RGI Shri Shailesh said. The process of NRC updation was taken up in Assam as per order of the Supreme Court in 2013. The process of NRC update in Assam differs from the rest of the country and is governed by Rules 4A and the corresponding Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. These rules have been framed as per the cut-off date March 24, 1971 decided as per Assam Accord. Tafajjul Ali, a resident of Fatasil Ambari area in Assams capital city Guwahati also not able to find out his name in the complete draft of NRC. Tafajjul said that, name of other members of his family have included in the list, but his name is missing. Name of two others of my family have appeared in the list, but my name was missing. I will see actually what happened, Tafajjul said. The first draft of NRC was published on December 31 midnight by including 1.90 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The NRC updation process is continuing in Assam under the Supreme Court monitoring to identify the illegal foreigners residing in the state. Azima Purbin, a resident of Kalaidin village in religious minority dominated lower Assams Barpeta district is one of 4 millions who were excluded from the complete draft of NRC. Azima is one of them who didnt find out her name in the list. Azima said that, among five members of her family only her fathers name included in the list. Not only Azima, her mother and other three family members name wereexcluded from the complete draft NRC. Azima said that, they are genuine Indian citizens and submitted all documents including ration cards, bank passbook, birth certificates during the application filing process of NRC. I dont know why my and our other family member names were excluded from the draft NRC. We will again submit our documents before the NRC authorities to get Indian citizenship, Azima said. On the other hand, Shonajul Haque, a resident of Assams Barpeta district said that, among his six members family including his wife and four son-daughters, only his and wifes name have been appeared in the draft NRC. We had submitted all essential documents to include our names in the NRC. But I dont know why my children names were excluded from the draft NRC, Shonajul said. Apart from these, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA of South Abhayapuri constituency Ananta Kumar Malo, BJP MLA Dilip Kumar Pals wife Archana Pal, banned outfit ULFA-Is C-in-C Paresh Baruahs wife Boby Bhuyan Baruah and his two sons Ankur and Akash could not be included in the list. According to the Supreme Court, all Indian Citizens including their children and descendants who have moved to Assam post March 24 1971 would be eligible for inclusion in the updated NRC on adducing satisfactory proof= of residence in any part of the country (outside Assam) as on March 24, 1971. Large scale of illegal migration from the Bangladesh into Assam has been alerting to the demographic complexion of the state. Unabated influx from the Bangladesh also threat both to the identity of the indigenous people of Assam and the national security. It adversely affects the social, economic and political environment in Assam. Illegal migration from the East Pakistan/Bangladesh is continued since past couple of decades. The flow of immigrants started during the rule of British and it continued till. The NRC updation process is going on in Assam to detect illegal foreigners residing in Assam. Eden Home Inc., the bankrupt nonprofit that operates a New Braunfels retirement community, has reached an almost $18.4 million settlement with contractors over alleged construction defects on an expansion project. The company, which does business as EdenHill Communities, plans to use $5.6 million of the settlement proceeds for working capital and to make repairs and improvements to the facility, a Tuesday bankruptcy court filing shows. Eden Home adds it does not have and will not have the liquidity to satisfy its operational obligations without the $5.6 million. Mark Andrews, a Dallas-based bankruptcy lawyer who represents Eden Home, said he anticipates the settlement will be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Gargotta at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Andrews declined to say anything further about the settlement. Eden Home filed for Chapter 11 in March after defaulting on $52.6 million in bonds used to finance construction of 103 apartments, a health center and other improvements. Eden Home CEO Laurence Dahl had blamed the companys financial troubles on the construction defects and delays. Almost $4.3 million of the settlement proceeds have been earmarked for possible further repairs but will be held by the bond trustee. Nearly $3.3 million will be used to pay principal and interest on the bond debt. More than $5.2 million of the settlement will go to pay legal fees and expenses to the law firm Gravely & Pearson, which represented Eden Home in the litigation. Thats in addition to $1.4 million in expenses already paid to the firm, which has an office in San Antonio. Tuesdays court filing says the settlement amount represents a substantial concession by both Eden Home and the various contractors, led by JE Dunn Construction. Meanwhile, Eden Home received bankruptcy court approval in June to hire the real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield to market the property. Eden Home operates a 184-bed nursing home, 103 independent living apartment-style residences, 47 independent living cottages, 37 assisted living units and 30 memory support assisted living units. In connection with a possible sale, the Texas Department of Insurance last week filed a lawsuit in the bankruptcy against Eden Home relating to about $30 million in deposits put down by residents of the 150 independent living residences. The deposits average about $200,000 per resident, who have what the state describes as in essence a life-tenancy with certain limited exceptions. The state wants the bankruptcy court to, among other things, determine whether any sale is conditioned on Eden Home and the buyer providing those residents adequate protection under federal statutes. The state also wants the court to determine that any sale that purports to be free and clear of the Residential Leases cannot supersede the Residents rights to continued possession. Andrews said the various parties are working on a resolution to the lawsuit and expects to have something to report by the end of the month. In an April court filing, Eden Home reported $11 million in assets and $60 million in liabilities. The assets were all personal property. No value was assigned to the real estate. This article has been updated to report that the monies paid to Gravely & Pearson were for both legal fees and expenses. Patrick Danner is a staff writer in San Antonio. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD A six-member panel overseeing an Alamo master plan has put out a call for firms to design a museum and visitor center at the mission and battle site. Requests for qualifications for an architect of record and architectural designer have been posted on the Texas Comptrollers website as efforts continue to implement a master plan by 2024 300 years after the Mission San Antonio de Valero moved to its third and final site, where it became the fort known as the Alamo. A committee composed of officials of the city, Texas General Land Office and Alamo Endowment wants to hire creative teams with substantial experience in designing world-class museums and visitor centers, according to a news release. John Davenport, STAff / San Antonio Express-News Renters need to make $46,500 a year to comfortably afford the average two-bedroom apartment in San Antonio, a new study by SmartAsset finds. That places San Antonio on the more affordable side of 25 cities ranked by the financial website. But that annual pay wouldnt even cover the $52,600 it costs to rent an apartment in the nations most expensive market of San Francisco for a year, according to SmartAsset. To comfortably afford the rent in San Francisco, where units average $4,382 a month, residents would need to make $187,800 a year. The murder case that ended in a mistrial and sparked a feud more than a year ago between Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood and the Democratic candidate that beat him in the primary may be headed back to court. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Court of Appeals affirmed 2-1 Tuesday a previous trial courts order that Miguel Martinezs murder case can be retried after last years mistrial, and another judge declined to dismiss the case. Agreeing with the opinion, the DAs office released a statement late Tuesday pronouncing that LaHood and prosecutor Jason Goss are presently ready for trial. It should be noted that it has been three years since Jim and Jann Carters daughter, Laura, was murdered on January 11, 2015, according to the statement. We believe that justice demands that this still-pending murder trial be dealt with as expeditiously as possible. His attorneys have argued Martinezs retrial is barred based on double jeopardy because they believe the state goaded him into moving for a mistrial; did not disclose exculpatory evidence with the intent to avoid an acquittal, and to protect a colleague from personal embarrassment, according to the opinion filed Tuesday. Related: Both Bexar County DA candidates would seek death penalty In affirming a previous courts ruling, Justice Marialyn Barnard wrote that attorneys for Martinez failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that prosecutors intended to goad him into moving for a mistrial or feared an acquittal, and that retrial would not constitute double jeopardy. Attorney Mark Stevens, representing Martinezs lawyers, said Wednesday they agreed with Justice Rebeca Martinezs dissent and vowed to challenge the majority decision, written by Barnard. We think she (Justice Martinez) was right, with respect to the other two justices. Thats why we will ask for rehearing and hope that the court grants that, Stevens said, adding that they may ask for reconsideration by the entire court. If they do not grant it, then we will go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, he said. Martinez is accused of killing Laura Carter, 33, a University of Texas at San Antonio graduate student. She was shot five times in the head Jan. 11, 2015, as she sat in her Honda in the 300 block of Arrid Drive on the Southeast Side. She was reportedly there to invest in a heroin deal with Martinez, Goss told the jury at the opening of the trial Feb. 8, 2017. The state rested after one day of testimony and the defense had not begun to present a case. Judge Lori Valenzuela, who presides over the 437th state District Court, granted two motions for a continuance, and ended it Feb. 16. Martinezs lawyers, Joe D. Gonzales and Christian Henricksen, had several conferences with LaHood, Goss and Valenzuela in Valenzuelas chambers, and in one of those meetings, a heated exchange occurred. Martinez's lawyers said LaHood threatened to shut down their practices after they said they might raise issues of prosecutorial misconduct because they were told too late about a one-time sexual encounter between a second-chair prosecutor who had been on the case and a key witness that occurred three years before Carter was killed. Related: DA dismissed charge against deputy Senior District Judge W.C. Kirkendall of Seguin presided over the April 2017 hearing after Valenzuela recused herself. In testimony, Valenzuela backed the lawyers claims that LaHood made threats in her chambers. LaHood, in repeated public statements and in testimony before Kirkendall, emphatically denied making the threat. Kirkendall ultimately declined to dismiss the case, which led to the appeal with the Fourth Court. Gonzales has stated that the exchange in Valenzuelas chambers was an impetus for him to pursue an ambition to run for district attorney. He faces Republican candidate Tylden Shaeffer in the November general election. If the case makes it to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the panel decides not to hear it, it will be sent back to Kirkendall so he can set a trial date. Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 A Brazoria County man on death row for stomping his 3-month-old baby to death by the Galveston seawall filed a motion this week asking to waive his appeals and fire his attorneys, hoping to fast-track his path to the death chamber. Travis Mullis, the 31-year-old Alvin transplant sent to death row in 2011, previously sought to forfeit his appeals and in recent months repeatedly raised the possibility of doing so again. I support my death sentence and want it carried out ASAP, he told the Chronicle in a letter earlier this year. I was sentenced to death not indefinite detention. So-called volunteers inmates seeking to cut off appeals and offer themselves up to die account for only about 10 percent of executions, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. But earlier this week, another Texas prisoner fought to waive appeals, and in recent months the high-profile case of Scott Dozier has garnered national media attention as Nevada struggles to find the drugs to help the condemned man carry out his death wish. RELATED: With a man's execution days away, his victims react with fury or forgiveness The crime that landed Mullis on death row was an impulsive outburst that capped a string of what he called stupid decisions and an unequivocally wretched life. His mother died when he was still a baby and, growing up, he was sexually abused from ages 3 to 6, according to court records. He spent years in and out of institutions and when he turned 18, his adoptive mother kicked him out of the house. He moved to Texas, settling outside Houston with a woman hed met online. By 2008, he and his girlfriend found themselves broke and without a place to stay, so they started crashing in a trailer with a couple who agreed to take them in. But early one morning that January, Mullis took the couples 8-year-old daughter to a schoolyard and tried to pull her pants down. The girl started crying and Mullis brought her home but decided that he was screwed because hed stepped over the line, he told the Chronicle. Worried that the girl would tell her parents and hed would be evicted, on Jan. 29 Mullis drove to Galveston to ponder his predicament with his 3-month-old sleeping in the backseat. But the child started crying, and Mullis wanted him to be quiet. So, first, he molested the boy, then stomped his skull until it gave way. I make stupid decisions, what can I say, he told the Chronicle. I did it on impulse and killed him right after. He fled to Pennsylvania but turned himself in to Philadelphia police four days later, offering up a detailed confession. During trial, his attorneys outlined his rough life, describing their client as an emotional mental health quadriplegic who was unable to feel emotions. After he was sent to death row, Mullis waived his direct appeal as well as the later state post-conviction appeal, according to court records. But in federal court, he revived his claims again until recently. He told the Chronicle he didnt like what his lawyers were saying about him and disagreed with their claims regarding his mental health. Im 100 percent guilty of my crime nobody contests that, he said. The fight is over my sentence. Im accepting of my death sentence. My lawyers are against the death penalty for anyone. His legal team did not respond to a request for comment. RELATED: Heat wave sparks concerns in sweltering Texas prisons In some ways, said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center, Mullis fits the profile of those most apt to waive their appeals and volunteer for execution. Almost all the volunteers are white males, they almost all have had horrific upbringings, frequently involving serious sexual abuse, he said. And for most of them it is more painful for them to see the mitigating evidence presented than it is to terminate the proceedings and be killed. Texas has had more volunteers than any other state, Dunham said, which isnt surprising given the sheer volume of executions in the state. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the most recent volunteer was Barney Fuller, a Houston County man who shot up his neighbors home with an AR-15 then went inside and shot them both in the head. He was executed in 2016. More commonly, prisoners volunteer at some point in the process and change their minds later. Roughly 146 of more than 1,470 executed prisoners volunteered to die, according to DPIC data. Thirty-one of those were in the Lone Star State. But over the past year, its not a death case in Texas but one in Nevada which hasnt executed anyone in more than a decade thats garnered attention. Dozier has repeatedly, in several interviews, voiced his desire for death. The 47-year-old was sentenced to die for the 2002 murder and dismemberment of Jeremiah Miller. RELATED: After claims of botched executions, Supreme Court turns down Texas lethal injection case But his case has generated national press because of the complications surrounding the states efforts to kill him. Nevada has struggled to maintain supplies of its death drugs, and earlier this year sparked controversy by proposing an untested lethal injection protocol using the powerful opioid fentanyl. Dozier was set to die earlier this month, but a court called off the date at the last minute after one of the drugmakers filed a lawsuit objecting to its products use in the procedure. Mullis likely wont face those hurdles, though, as Texas has always managed to procure the drugs it needs for the Huntsville death chamber. Moving forward, Dunham said, he could have a competency hearing to determine that hes legally able to waive appeals. Records show hes been found competent in the past. The condemned killers latest handwritten filing asks the court to toss previous expert testimony and hold a hearing on competency, but Mullis ends by assuring the court hes serious about his intent to die. This motion to waive is final and will not be withdrawn under any circumstances, he wrote. No additional review or consultations with counsel will change this decision to exercise the right to waive appeals. keri.blakinger@chron.com Brookstone, the ubiquitous seller of cool but largely unneeded things, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again and closing the 100 stores that remain in malls, including one location at The Shops at La Cantera. Malls have suffered for years due to far-reaching shifts in the way that Americans shop for just about everything, which has diminished foot traffic at Brookstone. On Thursday, CEO Piau Phang Foo called the situation in malls "extremely challenging," and thanked employees who had staffed stores in those locations. While a growing number of Texas parents opt out of having their children vaccinated, a new poll shows that 86 percent of Republican voters want children to receive vaccines before starting school. The poll found the vast majority of Republican primary voters want schoolchildren immunized, an increasingly contentious issue in the Legislature. In recent sessions, some GOP members have sponsored bills to make opting out of vaccinations easier and opposed bills to make each school report its opt-out numbers. Given the increasing number of Texans opting out and all the noise out there, its comforting to see such huge numbers of Republican voters support the protection of schoolchildren from disease and the role of government in this area, said Dr. John Carlo, chairman of the Texas Public Health Coalition, which commissioned the poll. Republican lawmakers should have nothing to fear from extremists who dont reflect the views of most of their partys voters. The poll also found that 67 percent of Republican voters believe government should have a role in reducing the number of vaccine-preventable deaths; 68 percent oppose the concept of non-medical opt-outs; and nearly 80 percent believe schools should make their number of unvaccinated children publicly available. RELATED: Statewide data show Texas anti-vaccine movement is growing Texas is one of 18 states that allows waivers of school vaccine requirements based on parents conscience or personal beliefs. All but two states Mississippi and West Virginia grant exemptions on religious grounds and all states grant exemptions for medical conditions, such as a compromised immune system. Republican vaccine advocates in the Legislature expressed happiness about the polls results. But they told the Chronicle its greatest value likely will be to help stem the tide against attempts to weaken vaccine requirements, given the current legislative climate. Based on last legislative session, I am not particularly optimistic about passing pro-vaccine legislation, said Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, whose district includes the Texas Medical Center. Ill certainly try. Unfortunately, I dont see things changing much unless the state suffers from a vaccine preventable epidemic of some sort. Until Texans who support common sense vaccination requirements become more politically engaged, I think the best we can do is try and stop further anti-vax initiatives. The poll, taken in early July, was released a few days after new state data showed nearly 57,000 students received a non-medical exemption from their vaccinations during the 2017-2018 school year, a more than 2,000 percent increase since 2003, when the Legislature began allowing such conscientious objections. The trend has alarmed public health leaders, whove expressed concern it could eventually leave communities vulnerable to outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough. Such outbreaks have occurred in some U.S. communities in recent years, apparently because of declining vaccination. Those public health leaders and officials credit vaccines with bringing major infectious conditions under some degree of control smallpox, tetanus, diphtheria, yellow fever, whooping cough, polio and measles and saving an estimated 9 million lives worldwide each year. They emphasize vaccines are safe and effective. RELATED: Flu killed nearly 10,000 Texans in 2017-2018 Those who opt out say they are simply doing what they think is best for their child by avoiding vaccines. They argue that the assortment of shots Texas children are required to receive 11 immunizations to attend school are dangerous to developing bodies. Some believe a theory, considered discredited by health officials, that vaccines can cause autism in some children. Jackie Schlegel, executive director of Texans for Vaccine Choice, said she disagrees that Republican voters do not stand with us on this issue. Not only do the majority of legislators side with us, I can tell you from talking to different individuals, parents and professionals around the state, that when we mention our mission of choice and informed medical consent, the majority of Texans agree with us, said Schlegel. She downplayed the poll findings. Schlegel also cited the Texas GOP platform, which says that health-care decisions, including routine preventive care, such as immunizations, should be between a patient and health-care professional and should be protected from government intrusion. Texas public schools have a duty to inform parents they can opt out of Centers for Disease Control-recommended vaccines for their children. Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, sided with Schlegel in emailed comments Monday. As with every issue, I listen to the various options and points of view and then vote based on what is best for my constituents. I cant speak to the accuracy of the survey, all I can tell you is that vaccine choice is one the planks that is held in the Republican Party of Texas platform. Zedler then added: Most Republicans that I know, trust parents a whole lot more than they trust the government to do the right thing for their own children. Carlo said the poll results show the GOP platform is out of step with rank-and-file Republican voters. He said that the platform wrongly leaves out any mention of the value of immunizations. Rep. J.D. Sheffield, R-Gatesville, disagreed with Schlegel about Republican views on the matter, noting that when he spends time with the general public, its clear they understand how important vaccination is for kids and health in general. He said required vaccination would easily pass a popular vote, but within the confines of the party, because of the far right, you can hit walls from time to time. RELATED: Texas No. 1 'hotspot' for vaccine exemptions Sheffield, a doctor, said he agrees with his medical colleagues that non-medical exemptions need to go away. But he acknowledged that whether the House or Senate wants to take that up is another matter. Both Sheffield and Davis earlier this year prevailed in Republican primary elections against opponents backed by Texans for Vaccine Choice. A third candidate targeted by the organization, Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, did not prevail, though its unclear if the vaccination issue was a major factor. In his comments to the Chronicle, Zedler noted that Villalba made mandatory vaccinations a centerpiece of his campaign during the Republican primary, and he lost. No significant vaccine legislation passed in 2017, including the Parents Right to Know bill, which would have required the reporting of opt-out numbers at the individual school level important, said proponents, to allow parents whose children are highly susceptible to diseases to choose safer school environments. Bills to make it possible to opt out online and to change the system so people have to opt in to receive vaccines rather than opt out to forgo them also failed to pass. There have been inappropriate attempts by a few to inject politics into the public health discussion on vaccines, said Allison Winnike, president of the Immunization Partnership, a Houston-based vaccine advocacy group. These poll results show, yet again, that the excessive noise is coming from a very small group of people that does not represent the constituency at large. Ragnar Research Partner polled 750 Texas voters in the Republican 2018 primary elections by telephone July 7-10. The polls margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent. todd.ackerman@chron.com twitter.com/chronmed Guwahati, August 2 : To assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) publication, a delegation team of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) led by West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim will visit Assam on August 2-3. The 8-member TMC delegation team by MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, MLA Mohua Moitra will visit Silchar today. Meanwhile, the Cachar district administration has imposed Section 144 of CrPC in Silchar town ahead of TMC delegation team visit. The district administration has imposed Section 144 of CrPC in the Barak Valley town to maintain the law and order situation in the area. On other hand, tight security has been arranged at Silchar airport and heavy security personnel have been deployed. Assam Police ADGP (Law & Order) Mukesh Agarwala has monitored the situation. According to the reports, Rapid Action Force (RAF), CRPF, BSF, Assam Rifles and Assam police personnel have been deployed at Silchar airport and various areas of the Barak Valley town. A top source of the district administration said that, without permission from the district administration the TMC delegation team has planned to hold a meeting at Silchar Rajiv Bhawan and to discuss with the leaders of several Bengali organisations on the NRC issue. On Wednesday, Assam Transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said that, Assam government has no objection to TMC leaders visiting Assam, but if they try to create disturbance over the NRC issue, the government will be bound to take action. The chants of Save My Hood! echoed loudly through the streets of Robert Paomeres East Side neighborhood in the shadow of the Alamodome. He put down his yard work and stood on a wooden ladder, peering over a wire screen atop his fence to see a line of young girls carrying cameras. They walked along the 700 block of Cherry, heading to the historic Hays Street Bridge. They held cardboard signs painted with messages such as, Stay Out of Trouble, Warning: Gentrification in Progress and Mi Barrio No Se Vende, or My Neighborhood is Not For Sale. The chants didnt bother Paomeres. The 57-year-old watched as professional photographer Kristel A. Orta-Puente walked with the group from the Girls Zone Summer Camp, directing the girls on how to use a camera. Wearing eclectic garb, they snapped photos with their cellphones and cameras of old homes and refurbished houses. Amaya Spruell, 12, was swathed in a silver cape. Jazzalyaya Bethel, 11, wore bright, green wings strapped to her back. Nyomi Franklin, 13, had gold, sparkling strips sprouting from her hair. Now Playing: Local photographers work with more than 30 girls from the Girls Zone Summer Camp on how to use photography to document good things about their East Side neighborhood. Video: San Antonio Express-News My heart is exploding right now, said Orta-Puente, 45, as the budding photographers walked along Hays Street. Theyre so cute. They really inspire me a lot. As a middle schooler, if someone had given me a camera and said, Go create something and come back, it would have changed my life. Wednesday morning, 25 girls from the Martinez Street Womens Center, took part in the two-hour outing, learning how to tell stories about their neighborhood by drawing on their creative talents and lessons about social justice issues. RELATED: Summer camp students learn from trailblazing pilot Organizers plan to display a slideshow of the girls photos from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 25, on Cherry and Lamar. The slideshow will be sponsored by the Hays Street Bridge Coalition. They are also planning an art exhibit of the girls work at Bowden Elementary School in the fall. Girls Zone, located in the center at 801 N. Olive, is a place of empowerment for girls, ages 9 to 14 years old, emphasizing social justice and youth development. The photo session came about when Girls Zone coordinator Laura Rios-Ramirez asked Orta-Puente to share photography tips with the girls. Orta-Puente put out a call and received a quick response from colleagues Eliza Perez, 25; Zachry Smith, 25; Yaneth Flores, 21; and Tricia Buchhorn, a lab tech in the journalism-photography program at San Antonio College. Before the outing, Orta-Puente gave the girls a 30-minute session about using recycled items as art and a camera to tell their stories. Perez and Flores showed the girls helpful tips along the wooden planks of the bridge. Buchhorn worked with several girls, showing them how to enhance their photos by using different angles. Jazzalyaya used techniques she learned from Smith to capture Drashawna Tealer, 12, and Atiya Bethel, 14, bat a volleyball back and forth, that had justice, explore and achieve, written across it. RELATED: High school students honing leadership skills at St. Mary's Oh man, I was being a paparazzi out there! Jazzalyaya said, before showing friends handmade signs that called for change. People need to stop all the shooting and violence in our neighborhood. The outing made Nyomi feel proud about her community, but she had reservations about plans for an apartment complex near the Hays Street Bridge. The houses have a lot of historic value, even though they are old, she said. I feel that building a condo on top of the park is really suppressing what it was meant for originally. Girl Zone educator Madelein Santibanez said the session fell within the transformative justice talks at the camp. Helping them have a platform to share their voices and concern about their neighborhood is amazing, she said. Seeing them hold cameras in their hands and show me pictures they were proud of was rewarding. Theyre the future. This is just one step to them achieving their dreams. The movement to bring paid sick leave to San Antonio inched forward Thursday with the certification of signatures on a petition that forces council members to take action, ratcheting up tension between the business community, activists and the city. City Clerk Leticia Vaceks announcement did not require action from the council; instead, council members are planning to gather public input at a hearing Wednesday. Mayor Ron Nirenberg has said he plans to put paid sick leave on the agenda for the councils Aug. 16 meeting, when council members are expected to decide whether to enact it as an ordinance or place it on the November ballot. The proposed sick-time ordinance would require that private-sector employees, even those at nonprofits and small businesses, earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work, which would accrue to a minimum of 48 or 60 hours, depending on the size of the company. If approved, the ordinance would take effect for most businesses Aug. 1, 2019. For those with five or fewer employees, it would be implemented Aug. 1, 2021. According to a study by the Institute for Womens Policy Research, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, 354,000 workers in San Antonio do not have paid sick time. Vacek verified Thursday that Working Texans for Paid Sick Time, a coalition of community and labor organizations, had collected more than 70,000 valid signatures, reaching the required 69,950-signature threshold. In all, the group collected 145,000 signatures. By law, the council must put the proposal before voters if it decides not to enact it as an ordinance. The deadline for placing measures on the November ballot is Aug. 20. The councils Aug. 16 meeting is the last scheduled session before that deadline. Council has the option of putting the issue off until the May 2019 ballot, but Nirenberg said that would not happen. Before the meeting, about 50 activists rallied Thursday morning outside the downtown Municipal Plaza Building, urging council members not to delay the proposal beyond the November ballot. We're not going to let that happen, said Alex Birnel, advocacy manager for MOVE Texas, one of the Working Texans groups. All that we care about is the 354,000 workers getting paid sick time, Birnel said. We'd love to take it to the November ballot, grow the electorate, get a lot of people out to vote for a popular initiative, but at the end of the day we just want people to have paid sick time by whatever means. The proposal drew opposition during the council meeting from representatives of local business organizations. Many who oppose the measure argue businesses would struggle to cover the additional costs without reducing their workforce, and that consumers would bear the costs if businesses are required to pay their employees more. David Fry, the Cox Manufacturing Companys director of administration, said he was deeply concerned about the ordinance, asserting that the market should decide how businesses structure their leave policies. There are already many factors in play, many avenues by which employees can take time away when it's needed, Fry said, naming vacation time and paid disability leave, among other options. Ray Chavez, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, told council members to consider the consequences Austin is experiencing with its paid sick leave ordinance, which takes effect Oct. 1. It's a tough decision that you all have to make. I don't envy you, Chavez said. But I do have to represent my manufacturers and a lot of the businesses in San Antonio. ... They cannot afford to do this paid sick leave ordinance. Joleen Garcia, an activist with Working Texans, reminded council members the group had received broad support, and that hundreds of thousands remained without paid sick leave. Theyre the ones that are most vulnerable low-wage workers, very often. They work in industries that interact with most of the public: service, hospitality industries, she said. We want these folks to be healthy when they go to work. Councilman Manny Pelaez said he was unsure whether the council should pass the ordinance or put it to a public vote. Thats actually something that my staff hasn't decided. And one of the reasons we havent decided is because we havent had any of the advocates come to our office yet, Pelaez said, before chants from the nearby rally of Pelaez! Pelaez! Hear our call! drowned out his next words. Peoples voices always factor into decisions, he said. And thats the job, is to consider everybody's opinion. Councilman Rey Saldana indicated he would weigh the desire of Working Texans in deciding whether to pass the ordinance by council vote or place it on the ballot. I like the idea of having the city of San Antonio, as a population, as the resident base of voters, weigh in, he said after passing through the rally. But I know how urgent this issue is. We'll take their direction. Councilman John Courage said most people hes heard from about the issue have said they want it to go before voters, but hes not sure where its going to go yet. Hanging over the councils decision is opposition from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who told Nirenberg and City Council in a July letter that the city cannot mandate paid sick time for private employees. Paxton argued that the ordinance, whether enacted by the council or put to a vote, would defy Texas Minimum Wage Act by increasing wages beyond what the act permits. The law expressly pre-empts cities like San Antonio from passing a different law simply because they disagree with the judgment of the states elected representatives, an AG press release reads. Saldana disagreed with Paxtons reasoning. The attorney general has said and tweeted a lot of things that turned out to be inaccurate, so I'll take our batting average against the attorney generals statements, he said. We dont take direction from the attorney general, although well abide by anything that may be counter to the law. City Attorney Andy Segovia said the issue comes down to an interpretation of whether the laws definition of wages includes paid sick leave. Segovias office closely watched the outcome of a lawsuit backed by Paxton in which a Travis County district court judge denied business groups request for an injunction on Austins paid sick leave ordinance. If it was a clear issue of, its absolutely a slam dunk covered by state law, then our job is to make the council aware of that, Segovia said. A court has already said its not clear enough. ... That just goes to show its open to interpretation. Paxtons letter did not include a directive that the city is obligated to follow, Segovia said, pointing to a sentence near the end of the letter requesting that the council reject the ordinance. Further complicating City Councils decision is the prospect of paid sick leave appearing on the November ballot alongside three charter amendments proposed by the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association. Nirenberg and some council members oppose the measures, which include a reduction of the threshold for repealing council ordinances. They are relying on the business community some of whom oppose paid sick leave to aid the campaign to defeat the proposed charter amendments. The firefighters amendments are very concerning to me as a councilperson. They should be concerning to everyone in the city, Courage said. Having a fourth or a fifth issue tied into that simply makes the whole thing a little more confusing or difficult for the public to understand. Jasper Scherer is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jscherer@express-news.net | Twitter: @jaspscherer For months, two Democrats appeared well-positioned to reach the special election runoff for Texas Senate District 19. Only one survived the first round on Tuesday, emboldening conservatives who believe the historically Democratic seat is within reach. State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, the odd Democrat out, finished 10 percentage points behind Republican Pete Flores, despite beating Flores in early voting across the 17-county district. Election night returns showed Flores leading Democrat Pete Gallego, a former U.S. and state representative, 34 to 29 percent, with Gutierrez a distant third. A round of late endorsements from Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz appeared to boost Flores on Election Day: He outperformed his early vote percentages in 16 of 17 counties and won 48 percent of the vote Tuesday, better than Gallego (23 percent) and Gutierrez (20 percent) combined. Pete Flores came out of nowhere, said Colin Strother, Gutierrezs campaign strategist. I cannot overstate what they were able to achieve in basically six days. Its massive. Im literally in awe about what they were able to accomplish in such a short time. Though Gutierrez won Bexar County, he collected only single digits in seven counties and lost ground between early voting and Election Day in all but five counties. One of the five was Edwards County, where he did not tally a single vote of the 144 cast. Among counties with more than 1,000 votes, Gallego finished best in Val Verde (46 percent), Maverick (42 percent) and Brewster, his home county, with 63 percent. He lost the Bexar County vote to Flores, though some of his would-be voters there likely went to Gutierrez. Just empirically, its a Democratic district. Assuming we do our job of getting Democrats out to vote, we win in the end, Gallego said in an interview Wednesday. Pete Flores showed up last night in about the same spot he ended up two years ago, because thats just generally the way the district votes. The four Democratic candidates combined to draw 59 percent of the vote, to the Republicans 40 percent in line with former state Sen. Carlos Urestis margins of victory in 2012 and 2016. But Matt Mackowiak, Flores campaign strategist, argued thats not how special elections work. If you look at Election Day, it was 50-50. By then, we were at our peak in terms of our organizational strength, Mackowiak said. I think thats a much more fair comparison as to how this is going to shake out. Also, Mackowiak said, Abbott and Patrick seemed to indicate during Tuesday night phone calls with Flores that they are all in on the runoff, and theyre not the only ones. Christian Archer, Gallegos strategist, acknowledged outside money would likely play a role, but was confident that donors who contributed to Gutierrez by far the biggest fundraiser in the race would back Gallego. Flores generally made his biggest Election Day gains in the districts large counties: In Uvalde, which recorded the fifth-highest turnout, he received 67 percent of the vote Tuesday compared to 29 percent in early voting. The other five candidates in the race did little to dilute the vote, making up a combined 12.3 percent. None of the bottom five broke 3.5 percent, including state Rep. Tomas Uresti, who sought his brothers seat but spent little on the race. Tomas Uresti received just 798 votes, less than the difference between Gallego and Gutierrez, and just 5 percent of the Bexar vote. With Gutierrezs defeat, Strother pointed out that the next District 19 senator would no longer live in San Antonio: Flores and Gallego live in Pleasanton and Alpine, respectively, though questions remain about whether Gallego actually lives in Austin. Regardless, Democratic state Sen. Jose Menendez will continue to be the upper chambers lone San Antonio-based member. Strother wasnt sure if Gutierrez would endorse Gallego, but said some fresh campaign wounds would need to heal first. If Pete calls him, perhaps theyll talk about that, he said. Aside from Gutierrezs endorsement, what remains unknown is the runoff date; that responsibility falls on Gov. Greg Abbott. Texas Election Code lays out a rough timeframe: First, each county must complete its local canvass within 10 days of the election. Abbott concurrently has until the 14th day after the special election to complete a final, separate canvass. From there, the governor must call the runoff between 70 and 77 days after he completes the canvass unless he uses his authority granted by a separate provision to call the runoff earlier, between 20 and 45 days after the final canvass. If Abbott were to complete the canvass Aug. 14 14 days after the election then Sept. 3 to Sept. 28 would buffer the the 20- to 45-day window. Otherwise, the 70- to 77-day window would fall between Oct. 23 to Oct. 30. No matter when the runoff occurs, Flores and Gallego agreed their race will offer voters a stark ideological contrast. I think there are, fundamentally, some philosophical differences, Gallego said, naming education funding and criminal justice as key areas. Theres a reason Pete Flores is a Republican and Pete Gallego is a Democrat. I think voters will have a very clear contrast. Jasper Scherer is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jscherer@express-news.net | Twitter: @jaspscherer In politics, the early bird gets the worm if the worm is humbling electoral defeat, that is. It happened to former state Rep. Mike Villarreal, who started running for mayor almost immediately after news broke that then-Mayor Julian Castro would be whisked away to Washington. That was May 2014, a full year before the election. Villarreal would not even make it into the runoff. This week, it happened again to state Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, who drew just 24 percent of the vote in state Senate District 19 despite having campaigned for the seat since early 2017, months before its then-senator, Carlos Uresti, was indicted on 11 felony counts and more than a year before Uresti was convicted and resigned. The runoff will pit Democrat Pete Gallego against Republican Pete Flores. Different factors played a role in each race, but one proved true in both: Jumping in early and energetically did little to ensure victory. In fact, it might have backfired. Sometimes, being the first one out there isnt necessarily the winning move, said former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who edged Villarreal out of the mayoral runoff in 2015 but ultimately lost to former Mayor Ivy Taylor. Related: SAFA still 'proud' of Brehm At a candidate forum in 2015, Villarreal told voters just how quickly he felt driven to run after learning that Castro was joining the Obama administration. Before the day ended, I turned to my wife and asked her, Should I run for mayor? And if I do, would you support me? he said. Alone and eager in a wide-open field, the state representative immediately started seeking endorsements from community leaders beyond the breakfast table. Three months later, he was bumping into unexpected obstacles. At that point, only one of Villarreals nine local colleagues in the Texas House seven of them fellow Democrats had agreed to endorse his candidacy. The message from the hold-outs was the same: It was too early to get involved. Some wondered aloud whether other candidates would emerge in the future. The subtext was unmistakable: Villarreals rush to suck up all the oxygen so early was a bit presumptuous. (Villarreal hadnt even bothered asking for Gutierrezs support, considering their somewhat strained relationship.) In Senate District 19, Gutierrez showed a similar eagerness to tout endorsements. He rolled out several rounds of them; in June, one list numbered more than 100 individuals and organizations. Related: A second act in crypto? Van de Putte was sympathetic to Gutierrezs strategy of starting early, considering the sprawling size of the 35,000-square-mile district. In early 2017, Gutierrez started visiting the districts West Texas counties every six to eight weeks to make connections in places such as Alpine and Pecos. Roland Gutierrez made a strategic decision considering the vast geographic area, she said. Just to physically be able to visit key stakeholders needs a lot of lead-in time. It didnt help. For all of his traveling, Gutierrez drew a tiny fraction of support in many locales west of San Antonio; in one, Edwards County, he earned zero votes. Meanwhile, his early start earned him a relatively powerful enemy back home: former state Rep. Tomas Uresti, who shares Gutierrezs South Side Democratic base. Fiercely loyal to his brother, Tomas Uresti was reportedly upset that Gutierrez had started campaigning in the district before Carlos Uresti even was indicted. Getting in early angered the Uresti clan, Van de Putte said. I think the wrench was Rep. Urestis decision to jump in. The entrance of a vengeful foe into the race wasnt a decisive factor in Gutierrezs defeat; Tomas Uresti earned only about 3 percent of the statewide vote. Like Gutierrezs early fervor to run, however, it didnt help. bchasnoff@express-news.net AUSTIN Lyall Chuck Rodgers, who identifies himself as a dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican, concedes he often shakes his head about President Trump. Hes on board with conservatives on a lot of issues, especially his Supreme Court nominations, but Ill admit a lot of the rest of the time I have no idea where hes coming from, the retired Williamson County investments adviser said. Is he really a conservative? I have no idea. On Friday, more than 250 other like-minded political activists from at least 22 states will gather in Texas capital city, a well-known bastion of liberalism in an otherwise mostly Red State, to ponder that same question as conservatives try to come to grips with the Age of Trump, in what some expect could become a discussion about whether the Ronald Reagan brand of politics needs some tweaking. Even the presidents ongoing fight with the powerful Koch political network could figure in. The Resurgent Gathering, it is called. The goal is to try to find some common ground for conservatives who are not supportive of the president . . . and to have a discussion about conservative public policy, said Erick Erickson, a national conservative voice and radio host who is leading the conference at a downtown hotel. That discussion is scheduled to feature presentations by Republican notables with strong street cred among conservatives Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and tech exec Carly Fiorina, along with conservative Republicans from Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina. Michael Quinn Sullivan, the president and CEO of Empower Texans, a conservative organization that wields clout at the Texas Capitol, is scheduled to appear on a panel. Even though Trumps antics are expected to be the menu much of the time, Energy Secretary, former Texas governor and onetime presidential aspirant Rick Perry is on the program. So is Ajit Pai, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as well as representatives of the Koch Institute, a libertarian-oriented public policy organization founded by Charles Koch, a billionaire businessman and GOP megadonor who has drawn Trumps ire in recent days for criticizing the presidents trade policies. Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to foreign workers, Trump wrote in a Thursday morning tweet. He is correct, AMERICA FIRST! Also Thursday, the online news site Politico reported that the Republican National Committee sent a memo warning major GOP donors not to play ball with the powerful Koch political network, following a weekend retreat in Colorado at which Koch network officials criticized the Trump administration and hinted they would work with Democrats. Amid that tension, the program for the Resurgent event posits this bottom line: What policies should we, as conservatives, be championing regardless of who is in the White House? How should we try to get President Trump to stand with us on fiscal sanity and free markets? How can conservatives be heard over the noise in Washington? And can conservatives and major internet companies develop trust in the age of trolls? For Rodgers, the answers to those questions may reveal just how truly fractured conservatives are on many issues. And, perhaps, how the Never Trump movement may finally be coming to terms with how to best work with him as the president. Like Trump or not, hes not going anywhere, Rodgers said. For many conservatives, we need to find a way to peacefully coexist. The Reagan days are over. Nationally, the conference showcases the deep divisions that still exist within the Republican Party as many conservatives contend with the Trump Era, and critics in the Never Trump faction measure whether there are ways they can support some aspects of his presidency and rejoin party regulars who are now supporting Trump including most of Texas top Republican leaders even though they strongly disagree with him on many issues. OPINION: Donald Trump has already changed conservatism With Trumps new tariffs and the mushrooming federal debt as two of the most contentious issues, the schism highlights the growing divide between between the populist base of the GOP represented by Trump and the pro-business business wing that Republicans in Texas and other states have relied on for support and influence for decades. In Texas, where the conservative movement came to dominate Republican-led state politics in the past two decades with the help of the tea party, grassroots activists concede that while Trump has been unsettling, he has also been a champion some conservative causes like court appointments, gun rights, and opposition to abortion. Even so, said Dale Huls, a longtime conservative voice with the Clear Lake Tea Party in Houston, the core principles of conservatism have not changed, even as the politics in Washington have shifted. Conservatism is a principle, not a policy, he said. Erickson and others expected at the conference agree, but insist that a number of emerging issues over trade policy and tariffs, healthcare policy, internet privacy and access and growing federal deficits even energy policies are all ripe for discussion. This is more the beginning of a conversation that we will continue, Erickson said. I know were not going to be able to get everyone to agree on everything . . . but I would like conservatives to agree on some things. Some Texas conservative figures say they plan to sit out the conference because they already know where they stand on Trump and his policies. They can talk about whatever they want, but I dont know who died and made any of those guys king, said JoAnn Fleming, a prominent conservative in Texas who is executive director of Grassroots America, a tea party group based in Tyler. Sometimes its difficult for me to see where the presidents going. Its like hes playing a multi-dimension game of chess. But say what you will about the president, the economy is better, and hes making some decisions that conservatives agree with. His style is way different than anything Ive seen, and I think were just going to have to get used to that. Mike Ward covers Texas politics, the governor and executive branch, criminal justice and ethics issues, and investigations for the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and other Hearst Texas news organizations. He also co-hosts the leading Texas Take politics podcast. Reach him at Mike.Ward@Chron.com and follow him @ChronicleMike on Twitter. Re: Proposed high-rise hotel would stand near Alamo; Structure would be built on top of historic Joskes, front page, July 24: The citys Historic Design and Review Commission was right in denying a previous proposal for a 23-story hotel atop the Joskes building. It should also reject the 14-story Hard Rock Hotel on top of the building, the latest proposal. We cannot allow the desecration of the Joskes building, which was built in 1887, and is a San Antonio historic site. The developers can surely find another spot to build their hotel. Doris D. Kinsey Creation response Re: Pretty good theory, Thursday, Not all the same, Friday, Your Turn: Actually, fossils do not support evolution. The mere fact that thousands of living fossils exist seriously undermines evolutionary theory, as do the lack of fossil ancestors for insects, cephalopods, vertebrates, fish, besides other higher-level taxa. Instead, the fossil evidence shows animals always remaining the same kind of animals, which is what biblical taxonomy predicts. DNA was mentioned. The oxymoron evolutionary conservation abounds in the scientific literature. One gene transforming into another via simple mutations has never been demonstrated. Deletion of genetic information is rampant in genomes. That is what we observe in bacteria during genome decay, when genes are lost from wild type bacteria transitioning into parasitic species. Similarly, bacteria may lose repressor proteins, allowing enzymes to be mass-produced, which break down antibiotics, thereby conferring resistance. The evolutionary explanation of the gap-filled fossil record and gradual genetic mutations are contradictory but are nicely harmonized by creation theory. As for statements on my reference to Genesis 1:28 that science was mandated by God before the Greeks: The letter writer cites empirical testing but forgets to prove that evolution actually did happen, beyond merely offering theories. I question his definition of religion why is religion absolutely necessarily about God? Religion is a basic set of presupposed axioms, such as when atheists say that nature is everything. Matthew Cserhati Hurting consumers Congress is once again trying to sneak in harmful repeals of and changes to consumer protections. For example, one policy proposal added to the budget, as a so-called rider, would keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from holding companies like Wells Fargo, Equifax and predatory payday lenders accountable when they cheat us. Why use the budget for matters unrelated to spending? Because repeals and changes to important protections cant pass on their own. But if theyre added to the budget, which must be passed to fund our government and avoid another shutdown, members of Congress might feel the pressure to let them slide in an election year. Hopefully, the entire Texas congressional delegation will stand up for a clean budget that sticks to spending, which, after all, is the purpose of a budget. Jordan Leatherwood, TexPIRG, Austin Not victimless While visiting your beautiful city, I came upon a protest in front of San Fernando Cathedral concerning the reunification of families. Reunification is one thing, but massive illegal immigration is another crisis. That growing crisis is out of control, somehow hitting at the heart of many families, from Mexico to the U.S. People of goodwill who have mixed emotions about uncontrolled illegal immigration are often made to feel guilty and uncompassionate. But the reality is that there are too many negative consequences connected to this unsolved problem that even affects foreigners who dont stand a chance to enter legally! Plus, the whole picture is usually ignored, sometimes intentionally, by leaders who stand to gain by the numbers or financially. Patrick Bascio, a Catholic priest and Vietnam veteran (now deceased) wrote boldly about all the accompanying fallout, calling it the immorality of illegal immigration, believing that it is not a victimless action. He worked closely with African-Americans in Harlem and saw the effect that it is having on poor Americans; how it drives down the work and wages of Hispanics and blacks, nurtures lawlessness and diminishes security. The list goes on. He called for those injustices to also be recognized, acknowledged and courageously addressed by well-meaning leaders. A salute to Patrick Bascio! And speaking of families, it is a travesty for our youth to hear in public that it is OK to break the law, including the laws of other countries. Compassion goes hand in hand with responsibility. It should expand its love of neighbor to include all who are unjustly affected. Despite political loyalties, we deserve a sound immigration system that will restore peace, order and security for the greater common good. Rebecca Gonzales, Weslaco Mean, mean GOP Globe-trotting foodie extraordinaire Anthony Bourdain, who took his own life recently, once wrote: Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit. I believe Bourdain probably meant that somewhat facetiously, as he was as playful as he was seriously committed to his quest of devouring life in anything and everything that was edible. But upon reading that quote, a thought crossed my mind. Substitute the word Republicans for vegetarians, and youd have a fairly accurate assessment of that soul-crushing oligarchy of the mean-spirited rich the GOP. Jeff Devens Guwahati : A local court in central Assams Hojai district on Wednesday awarded death sentence to the prime accused in the rape and murder case of a 58-year-old school teacher more than a year ago. According to the reports, the court of Additional District and Session Judge had pronounced death sentence for prime accused in the rape and murder case Moinul Haque and given life imprisonment to co-accused Salimuddin. It may be mentioned that, the school teacher of Jamunamukh Changjurai Ilashi Deuri LP School in Hojai district was brutally raped and murdered on May 31 last year. Police had recovered the body of the teacher nearby Kapili river. On June 1, 2017, Jamunamukh police had arrested one accused person Salimuddin and later arrested another accused. The incident was happened on May 31, 2017 while the 58-year-old teacher returned to home. Following the incident police had registered a case (52/2017) at Jamunamukh police station and police arrested one accused Salimuddin next day. Police had arrested another accused Moinul Haque on June 2 night and submitted charge sheet before the court within short period. Today the court had pronounced death sentence for Moinul Haque and given life imprisonment to Salimuddin, an Advocate of Hojai district said. NEWS FLASH Low cost carrier easyJet has launched its third destination from Ljubljana by inaugurating three weekly flights to Berlin. "This new route from Berlin has been unserved for a few months so were really happy to connect the two capitals again. Berlin Tegel is easyJets third destination from Ljubljana Joze Pucnik Airport, in addition to our existing services to London Gatwick and London Stansted", Thomas Haagensen, easyJet Europe's Managing Director said recentlz. Ljubljana Airport's General Manger, Zmago Skobir, added, "Considering that Germany is Slovenia's largest trading partner, we are convinced that this and all other connections from our airport with German cities will be successful and that it will also significantly contribute to the further growth of the number of German tourists in Slovenia". easyJet is Slovenia's second largest airline based on capacity. In 2017, the carrier handled 126.537 passengers on its flights to and from Ljubljana, with 64.309 of those travelling on the Stansted route and the remaining 62.228 on the Gatwick service. Guwahati: Expressing annoyances over a State government chiefs disorderly comments against the process of citizens scanning under the direction of Supreme Court of India, the Patriotic Peoples Front Assam (PPFA) urges everyone to exercise restrain while commenting over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation in Assam. The forum, at the same time, appreciated the people of Assam for their political maturity, they have shown in the time of many divisive forces unwanted designs to divide the greater Assamese society in the linguistic and religious lines. Denouncing all kinds of speculation, floated by various local, national and international elements about impending disturbance & violence after the publication of final NRC draft, the habitants of Assam have shown utmost sensitivity, said a statement issued by the PPFA. But contrary to the restrain and greatness of the greater Assamese society few political party leaders, including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee, has tried their best to garner political mileages out of it. The Trinamool Congress chief even did not hesitate to make comments indirectly disobeying the SC for personal gains, it added. It may be noted that Ms Mamata has influenced a number of opposition political parties to raise voices against the NRC updation in Assam and the Parliament witnessed uproars for many days. She went on speaking that the Bhartiya Janata Party led governments in New Delhi and Dispur were hatching conspiracies against the Bengali (read Muslim) people of Assam. She even predicted colossal disturbances after the NRC draft publication, but later simply changed her version. Aviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities, and medical expenses. In addition, the company offers personal and commercial lines insurance products; long-term insurance and savings products, primarily for individuals. Further, it provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. Additionally, the company offers asset management and protection insurance products. Aviva plc markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Read More KAZ Minerals PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in mining and processing copper and other metals primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. It operates through Bozshakol, Aktogay, East Region and Bozymchak, and Mining Projects segments. The company operates the Aktogay and Bozshakol open pit copper mines in the east region and Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan; three underground mines in the east region of Kazakhstan; and the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan. It also develops greenfield metal deposits; operates Koksay deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Baimskaya licence area in the Chukotka region of Russia; and produces and sells various by-products, such as gold, silver, molybdenum, and zinc. In addition, the company supplies and distributes heat, water, and electricity; and offers construction, project management, financing, management, sales and logistics, and repairs and maintenance services. The company was formerly known as Kazakhmys PLC and changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC in October 2014. KAZ Minerals PLC was founded in 1930 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. operates as an independent specialty pharmacy in the United States. The company operates through Specialty and PBM (pharmacy benefit management) segment. It provides specialty infusion pharmacy, patient care coordination, clinical, compliance and persistency program, patient financial assistance, specialty pharmacy training, benefits investigation, prior authorization, risk evaluation and medication strategy, retail specialty, and hub services, as well as clinical and administrative support services to hospitals and health systems. The company primarily focuses on medication management programs for individuals with complex chronic diseases, including oncology, immunology, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, specialized infusion therapy, and various other serious or long-term conditions. It also offers PBM services, including electronic point-of-sale pharmacy claims management, retail pharmacy network management, mail pharmacy claims management, specialty pharmacy claims management, Medicare Part D services, benefit design consultation, drug review and analysis, consulting services, data access, and reporting, information analysis, and preferred drug management programs to managed care organizations, self-insured employer groups, unions, and third-party healthcare plan administrators and worker's compensation payers. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Flint, Michigan. Read More Schlumberger NV engages in the provision of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. It operates through the following business segments: Digital and Integration; Reservoir Performance; Well Construction; and Production Systems. The Digital and Integration segment combines the company's software and seismic businesses with its integrated offering of asset performance solutions. The Reservoir Performance segment consists of reservoir-centric technologies and services that are critical to optimizing reservoir productivity and performance. The Well Construction segment includes the full portfolio of products and services to optimize well placement and performance, maximize drilling efficiency, and improve wellbore assurance. The Production Systems segment develops technologies and provides expertise that enhances production and recovery from subsurface reservoirs to the surface, into pipelines, and to refineries. The company was founded by Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926 and is headquartered in Houston, TX. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of HCA Healthcare: 2490 Church LLC, 360 Community Alliance LLC, 4600 Waters Avenue Professional Building Condominium Association Inc., 52 Alderley Road LLP, AC Med LLC, ACH Inc., ADC Surgicenter LLC, AOGN LLC, AOSC Sports Medicine Inc., AR Holding 1 LLC, AR Holding 10 LLC, AR Holding 11 LLC, AR Holding 12 LLC, AR Holding 13 LLC, AR Holding 14 LLC, AR Holding 15 LLC, AR Holding 16 LLC, AR Holding 17 LLC, AR Holding 18 LLC, AR Holding 19 LLC, AR Holding 2 LLC, AR Holding 20 LLC, AR Holding 21 LLC, AR Holding 22 LLC, AR Holding 23 LLC, AR Holding 24 LLC, AR Holding 25 LLC, AR Holding 26 LLC, AR Holding 27 LLC, AR Holding 28 LLC, AR Holding 29 LLC, AR Holding 30 LLC, AR Holding 31 LLC, AR Holding 4 LLC, AR Holding 5 LLC, AR Holding 6 LLC, AR Holding 7 LLC, AR Holding 8 LLC, AR Holding 9 LLC, ASD Shared Services LLC, Acadiana Care Center Inc., Acadiana Practice Management Inc., Acadiana Regional Pharmacy Inc., Access 2 Health Care Physicians LLC, Access Health Care Physicians LLC, Access Management Co. LLC, Ace Leasing II LLC, Acute Kids Urgent Care of Medical City Childrens Hospital PLLC, Acworth Immediate Care LLC, Administrative Physicians of North Texas PLLC, Advanced Bundle Convener LLC, Advanced Plastic Surgery Center of Terre Haute LLC, Advanced Practice Providers of Gulf Coast PLLC, Alaska Regional Medical Group LLC, Albany Family Practice LLC, Aligned Business Consortium Group L.P., All About Staffing (India) Ltd., All About Staffing Inc., All About Staffing Philippines Inc., Alleghany General and Bariatric Services LLC, Alleghany Hospitalists LLC, Alleghany Primary Care Inc., Alleghany Specialists LLC, Alliance Surgicare LLC, Alpine Surgicenter LLC, Alta Internal Medicine LLC, Alternaco LLC, Altitude Mid Level Providers LLC, Ambulatory Endoscopy Clinic of Dallas Ltd., Ambulatory Endoscopy Holdco LLC, Ambulatory Laser Associates GP, Ambulatory Services Management Corporation of Chesterfield County Inc., Ambulatory Surgery Center Group Ltd., American Medicorp Development Co., Anchorage Surgicenter LLC, AppleCare/Memorial Immediate Care Joint Venture LLC, Appledore Medical Group II Inc., Appledore Medical Group Inc., Appomattox Imaging LLC, Arapahoe Surgicenter LLC, Arlington Diagnostic South Inc., Arlington Neurosurgeons PLLC, Arlington Primary Care PLLC, Arlington Primary Medicine PLLC, Arlington Surgery Center L.P., Arlington Surgicare LLC, Arthritis Specialists of Nashville Inc., Ashburn ASC LLC, Ashburn Imaging LLC, Athens Community Hospital Inc., Atlanta Healthcare Management L.P., Atlanta Home Care L.P., Atlanta Market GP Inc., Atlanta Outpatient Surgery Center Inc., Atlanta Surgery Center Ltd., Atlantis Surgicare LLC, Atrium Surgery Center L.P., Atrium Surgicare LLC, Augusta CyberKnife LLC, Augusta Inpatient Services LLC, Augusta Management Services LLC, Augusta Multispecialty Services LLC, Augusta Primary Care Services LLC, Augusta Specialty Hospitalists LLC, Augusta Urgent Care Services LLC, Aurora Endoscopy Surgicenter LLC, Austin GI Surgicenter LLC, Austin Heart Cardiology MSO LLC, Austin Medical Center Inc., Austin Physicians Management LLC, Austin Urogynecology PLLC, Aventura Cancer Center Manager LLC, Aventura Comprehensive Cancer Research Group of Florida Inc., Aventura Healthcare Specialists LLC, Aventura Neurosurgery LLC, BAMI Property LLC, Backlogs Limited, Bailey Square Ambulatory Surgical Center Ltd., Bailey Square Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Bannerman Family Care LLC, Barrow Medical Center CT Services Ltd., Basic American Medical Inc., Basil Street Practice Limited, Bay Area Healthcare Group Ltd., Bay Area Surgical Center Investors Ltd., Bay Area Surgicare Center Inc., Bay Area Surgicenter LLC, Bay Hospital Inc., Bayonet Point Surgery Center Ltd., Bayshore Family Practitioners PLLC, Bayshore Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Bayshore Occupational and Family Medicine PLLC, Bayshore Partner LLC, Bayshore Radiation Oncology Services PLLC, Bayshore Surgery Center Ltd., Bayside Ambulatory Center LLC, Bedford-Northeast Community Hospital Inc., Behavioral Health Sciences of West Florida LLC, Behavioral Health Wellness Center LLC, Bellaire Imaging Inc., Belleair Surgery Center Ltd., Belton Family Practice Clinic LLC, Big Cypress Medical Center Inc., Blacksburg Family Care LLC, Blossoms Healthcare LLP, Blue Ridge-TKC LLC, Bone & Joint Specialists Physician Group LLC, Bonita Bay Surgery Center Inc., Bonita Bay Surgery Center Ltd., Bountiful Surgery Center LLC, Boynton Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Bradenton Cardiology Physician Network LLC, Bradenton Outpatient Services LLC, Brandon Imaging Manager LLC, Brandon Regional Cancer Center LLC, Brentwood ASC LLC, Brigham City Community Hospital Inc., Brigham City Community Hospital Physician Services LLC, Brigham City Health Plan Inc., Brighton Surgicenter LLC, Brookwood Medical Center of Gulfport Inc., Broward Cardiovascular Surgeons LLC, Broward Healthcare System Inc., Broward Neurosurgeons LLC, Brownsville Specialists of Texas PLLC, Brownsville Surgery PLLC, Brownsville Surgical Specialists PLLC, Brownsville Surgicenter LLC, Brownsville-Valley Regional Medical Center Inc., Buford Road Imaging L.L.C., Byron Family Practice LLC, C. Medrano M.D. PLLC, C/HCA Capital Inc., C/HCA Development Inc., C/HCA Inc., CAREOS Surgicenter LLC, CC Clinic PLLC, CCBH Psychiatric Hospitalists LLC, CCH-GP Inc., CFC Investments Inc., CH Systems, CHC Finance Co., CHC Holdings Inc., CHC Management Ltd., CHC Payroll Agent Inc., CHC Payroll Company, CHC Realty Company, CHC Venture Co., CHC-El Paso Corp., CHC-Miami Corp., CHCA Bayshore L.P., CHCA Clear Lake L.P., CHCA Conroe L.P., CHCA Mainland L.P., CHCA Pearland L.P., CHCA West Houston L.P., CHCA Womans Hospital L.P., CHCK Inc., CJW Infectious Disease LLC, CJW Wound Healing Center LLC, CLASC Manager LLC, COL-NAMC Holdings Inc., COSCORP LLC, CP Surgery Center LLC, CPS TN Processor 1 Inc., CRMC-M LLC, CUC PLLC, CVMC Property LLC, Calder Immediate Care PLLC, California Imaging Center Manager LLC, California Urgent Care LLC, Calloway Creek Surgery Center L.P., Calloway Creek Surgicare LLC, Cancer Centers of North Florida LLC, Cancer Services of Aventura LLC, Capital Anesthesia Services LLC, Capital Area Cardiology, Capital Area CareNow Physician Associates, Capital Area Multispecialty Providers, Capital Area Neurosurgeons, Capital Area Occupational Medicine PLLC, Capital Area Primary Care PLLC, Capital Area Primary Care Providers, Capital Area Providers, Capital Area Specialists PLLC, Capital Area Specialty Providers, Capital Area Surgeons PLLC, Capital Division - CCA Inc., Capital Division Inc., Capital Network Services Inc., Capital Professional Billing LLC, Capital Regional Healthcare LLC, Capital Regional Heart Associates LLC, Capital Regional Psychiatry Associates LLC, Cardiac Surgical Associates LLC, Cardio Vascular Surgeons of North Texas PLLC, Cardiology Associates Medical Group LLC, Cardiology Clinic of San Antonio PLLC, Cardiology Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Texas PLLC, Care for Women LLC, CareNow, CareOne Home Health Services Inc., CarePartners HHA Holdings LLLP, CarePartners HHA LLLP, CarePartners Rehabilitation Hospital LLLP, CareSpot Professional Services of Middle Tennessee LLC, CareSpot of Brentwood (210 Franklin Road) LLC, CareSpot of Cool Springs (100 International Drive) LLC, CareSpot of Donelson (2372 Lebanon Road) LLC, CareSpot of Hendersonville (280 Indian Lake Boulevard) LLC, CareSpot of Hermitage (5225 Old Hickory Boulevard) LLC, CareSpot of Lebanon (1705 West Main Street) LLC, CareSpot of Mt. Juliet (S. Mt. Juliet Road) LLC, CareSpot of Murfreesboro (1340 Broad Street) LLC, CareSpot of Nashville (2001 Glen Echo Road) LLC, CareSpot of Nashville (West End Avenue) LLC, Career Staffing USA Inc., Carlin Springs Urgent Care LLC, Carolina Forest Imaging Manager LLC, Carolina Regional Surgery Center Inc., Carolina Regional Surgery Center Ltd., Cartersville Medical Center LLC, Cartersville Occupational Medicine Center LLC, Cartersville Physician Practice I LLC, Catalog360 Limited, Cedar Creek Medical Group LLC, Cedars International Cardiology Consultants LLC, Cedars Medical Center Hospitalists LLC, Centennial Cardiovascular Consultants LLC, Centennial CyberKnife Center LLC, Centennial CyberKnife Manager LLC, Centennial Heart LLC, Centennial Hospitalists LLC, Centennial Neuroscience LLC, Centennial Psychiatric Associates LLC, Centennial Surgery Center L.P., Centennial Surgical Associates LLC, Centennial Surgical Clinic LLC, Centennial Womens Group LLC, Center for Advanced Diagnostics LLC, Center for Advanced Imaging LLC, Center for Digestive Diseases LLC, Center for Occupational Medicine LLC, Centerpoint Cardiology Services LLC, Centerpoint Clinic of Blue Springs LLC, Centerpoint Hospital Based Physicians LLC, Centerpoint Medical Center of Independence LLC, Centerpoint Medical Specialists LLC, Centerpoint Orthopedics LLC, Centerpoint Physicians Group LLC, Centerpoint Womens Services LLC, Central Florida Cardiology Interpretations LLC, Central Florida Division Practice Inc., Central Florida Health Services LLC, Central Florida Imaging Services LLC, Central Florida Management Services LLC, Central Florida Obstetrics & Gynecology Associates LLC, Central Florida Physician Network LLC, Central Florida Regional Hospital Inc., Central Health Holding Company Inc., Central Pasco LLC, Central San Antonio Surgical Center Investors Ltd., Central Shared Services LLC, Central Tennessee Hospital Corporation, Central Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Physicians PLLC, Centrum Surgery Center Ltd., Charleston CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Chatsworth Hospital Corp., Chattanooga ASC Acquisition Inc., Chattanooga Diagnostic Associates LLC, Chattanooga Healthcare Network L.P., Chattanooga Healthcare Network Partner Inc., Chelsea Outpatient Centre LLP, Chesterfield Imaging LLC, Chicago Grant Hospital Inc., Childrens Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Chino Community Hospital Corporation Inc., Chippenham & Johnston-Willis Hospitals Inc., Chippenham & Johnston-Willis Sports Medicine LLC, Chippenham Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Chippenham Pediatric Specialists LLC, Chiswick Outpatient Centre LLP, Christiansburg Family Medicine LLC, Christiansburg Internal Medicine LLC, Christina Cano-Gonzalez M.D. PLLC, Chugach PT Inc., Church Street Partners, Citrus Memorial Hospital Inc., Citrus Memorial Property Management Inc., Citrus Primary Care Inc., Citrus Specialty Group Inc., Citrus Surgicenter LLC, City of San Antonio H2U Employee Health and Wellness Center PLLC, Clarksville Surgicenter LLC, Clear Creek Surgery Center LLC, Clear Lake Cardiac Catheterization Center L.P., Clear Lake Cardiac GP LLC, Clear Lake Family Physicians PLLC, Clear Lake Medical Tower Owners Association Inc., Clear Lake Merger LLC, Clear Lake Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Clear Lake Regional Medical Center Inc., Clear Lake Regional Partner LLC, Clear Lake Surgicare Ltd., ClinicServ LLC, Clinical Education Shared Services LLC, Clinishare Inc., Coastal Bend Hospital CT Services Ltd., Coastal Bend Hospital Inc., Coastal Carolina Home Care Inc., Coastal Carolina Multispecialty Associates LLC, Coastal Carolina Primary Care LLC, Coastal Healthcare Services Inc., Coastal Imaging Center L.P., Coastal Imaging Center of Gulfport Inc., Coastal Inpatient Physicians LLC, Coliseum Health Group Inc., Coliseum Health Group LLC, Coliseum Medical Center LLC, Coliseum Park Hospital Inc., Coliseum Primary Care Services LLC, Coliseum Primary Healthcare - Macon LLC, Coliseum Primary Healthcare - Riverside LLC, Coliseum Professional Associates LLC, Coliseum Same Day Surgery Center L.P., Coliseum Surgery Center L.L.C., College Park Ancillary LLC, College Park Endoscopy Center LLC, College Park Radiology LLC, Colleton Ambulatory Care LLC, Colleton Diagnostic Center LLC, Colleton Medical Anesthesia LLC, Colleton Medical Hospitalists LLC, Colleton Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery LLC, Collier County Home Health Agency Inc., Collin County Diagnostic Associates PLLC, Colorado Health Systems Inc., Columbia ASC Management L.P., Columbia Ambulatory Surgery Division Inc., Columbia Arlington Healthcare System L.L.C., Columbia Bay Area Realty Ltd., Columbia Behavioral Health Ltd., Columbia Behavioral Healthcare Inc., Columbia Behavioral Healthcare of South Florida Inc., Columbia Call Center Inc., Columbia Central Florida Division Inc., Columbia Central Group Inc., Columbia Champions Treatment Center Inc., Columbia Chicago Division Inc., Columbia Coliseum Same Day Surgery Center Inc., Columbia Development of Florida Inc., Columbia Doctors Hospital of Tulsa Inc., Columbia Eye and Specialty Surgery Center Ltd., Columbia Florida Group Inc., Columbia GP of Mesquite Inc., Columbia Good Samaritan Health System Limited Partnership, Columbia Greater Houston Division Healthcare Network Inc., Columbia Health System of Arkansas Inc., Columbia Healthcare System of Louisiana Inc., Columbia Healthcare of Central Virginia Inc., Columbia Hospital Corporation at the Medical Center, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Arlington, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Bay Area, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Central Miami, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Corpus Christi, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Fort Worth, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Houston, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Kendall, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Massachusetts Inc., Columbia Hospital Corporation of Miami, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Miami Beach, Columbia Hospital Corporation of North Miami Beach, Columbia Hospital Corporation of South Broward, Columbia Hospital Corporation of South Dade, Columbia Hospital Corporation of South Florida, Columbia Hospital Corporation of South Miami, Columbia Hospital Corporation of Tamarac, Columbia Hospital Corporation of West Houston, Columbia Hospital Corporation-Delaware, Columbia Hospital Corporation-SMM, Columbia Hospital at Medical City Dallas Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Hospital-El Paso Ltd., Columbia Integrated Health Systems Inc., Columbia Jacksonville Healthcare System Inc., Columbia LaGrange Hospital LLC, Columbia Lake Worth Surgical Center Limited Partnership, Columbia Medical Arts Hospital Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center Dallas Southwest Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center at Lancaster Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center of Arlington Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center of Denton Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center of Las Colinas Inc., Columbia Medical Center of Lewisville Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center of McKinney Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Center of Plano Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Medical Group - Centennial Inc., Columbia Medical Group - Daystar Inc., Columbia Medical Group - Parkridge Inc., Columbia Medical Group - Southern Hills Inc., Columbia Medical Group - Southwest Virginia Inc., Columbia Medical Group - The Frist Clinic Inc., Columbia Midtown Joint Venture, Columbia North Alaska Healthcare Inc., Columbia North Central Florida Health System Limited Partnership, Columbia North Florida Regional Medical Center Limited Partnership, Columbia North Hills Hospital Subsidiary L.P., Columbia North Texas Healthcare System L.P., Columbia North Texas Subsidiary GP LLC, Columbia North Texas Surgery Center Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Northwest Medical Center Inc., Columbia Northwest Medical Center Partners Ltd., Columbia Ocala Regional Medical Center Physician Group Inc., Columbia Ogden Medical Center Inc., Columbia Oklahoma Division Inc., Columbia Palm Beach GP LLC, Columbia Palm Beach Healthcare System Limited Partnership, Columbia Park Healthcare System Inc., Columbia Park Medical Center Inc., Columbia Parkersburg Healthcare System LLC, Columbia Pentagon City Hospital L.L.C., Columbia Physician Services - Florida Group Inc., Columbia Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Primary Care LLC, Columbia Psychiatric Management Co., Columbia Resource Network Inc., Columbia Rio Grande Healthcare L.P., Columbia Riverside Inc., Columbia South Texas Division Inc., Columbia Specialty Hospital of Dallas Subsidiary L.P., Columbia Specialty Hospitals Inc., Columbia Surgery Group Inc., Columbia Surgicare of Augusta Ltd., Columbia Tampa Bay Division Inc., Columbia Valley Healthcare System L.P., Columbia West Bank Hospital Inc., Columbia Westbank Healthcare L.P., Columbia-CSA/HS Greater Canton Area Healthcare System L.P., Columbia-CSA/HS Greater Cleveland Area Healthcare System L.P., Columbia-Georgia PT Inc., Columbia-Osceola Imaging Center Inc., Columbia-Quantum Inc., Columbia-SDH Holdings Inc., Columbia/Alleghany Regional Hospital Incorporated, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation of Central Texas, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation of Northern Ohio, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation of South Carolina, Columbia/HCA Heartcare of Corpus Christi Inc., Columbia/HCA International Group Inc., Columbia/HCA John Randolph Inc., Columbia/HCA Middle East Management Company, Columbia/HCA Physician Hospital Organization Medical Center Hospital, Columbia/HCA San Clemente Inc., Columbia/HCA of Baton Rouge Inc., Columbia/HCA of Houston Inc., Columbia/HCA of New Orleans Inc., Columbia/HCA of North Texas Inc., Columbine Psychiatric Center Inc., Columbus Cardiology Inc., Columbus Cath Lab Inc., Columbus Cath Lab LLC, Columbus Doctors Hospital Inc., Commonwealth Perinatal Services LLC, Commonwealth Specialists of Kentucky LLC, Community Hospital Family Practice LLC, Comprehensive Radiation Oncology LLC, Comprehensive Radiology Management Services Ltd., Concept EFL Imaging Center LLC, Concept West EFL Imaging Center LLC, Congenital Heart Surgery Center PLLC, Conroe Hospital Corporation, Conroe Montgomery Physicians Group PLLC, Conroe Orthopedic Specialists PLLC, Conroe Partner LLC, Conroe Specialists of Texas PLLC, Continental Division I Inc., Coral Springs Surgi-Center Ltd., CoralStone Management Inc., Corpus Christi Healthcare Group Ltd., Corpus Christi Heart Clinic PLLC, Corpus Christi Primary Care Associates PLLC, Corpus Christi Psychiatric Specialists PLLC, Corpus Christi Radiation Oncology PLLC, Corpus Christi Surgery Center L.P., Corpus Christi Surgery Ltd., Corpus Christi Surgicenter LLC, Corpus Surgicare Inc., Countryside Surgery Center Ltd., Crewe Outpatient Imaging LLC, Cumberland Medical Center Inc., Cy-Fair Medical Center Hospital LLC, DFW Physicians Group PLLC, DOMC Property LLC, DS Real Estate Holdings LLC, Daleville Imaging L.P., Daleville Imaging Manager LLC, Dallas CardioThoracic Surgery Consultants PLLC, Dallas Cardiology Specialists PLLC, Dallas Hand Surgery Center PLLC, Dallas Medical Specialists PLLC, Dallas Neuro-Stroke Affiliates PLLC, Dallas Pediatric Neurosurgery Specialists PLLC, Dallas/Ft. Worth Physician LLC, Davie Medical Center LLC, Daytona Medical Center Inc., Dean 4641 LLC, Deep Purple Investments LLC, Del Sol Bariatric Clinic PLLC, Delray EFL Imaging Center LLC, Denton Cancer Center PLLC, Denton County Hospitalist Program PLLC, Denton Pediatric Physicians PLLC, Denton Regional Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Denver Clinic Surgicenter LLC, Denver Mid-Town Surgery Center Ltd., Denver Surgicenter LLC, Derry ASC Inc., Diagnostic Breast Center Inc., Diagnostic Mammography Services G.P., Diagnostic Services G.P., Dickson Surgery Center L.P., Doctors Bay Area Physician Hospital Organization, Doctors Hospital (Conroe) Inc., Doctors Hospital Columbus GA-Joint Venture, Doctors Hospital Surgery Center L.P., Doctors Hospital of Augusta LLC, Doctors Hospital of Augusta Neurology LLC, Doctors Osteopathic Medical Center Inc., Doctors Same Day Surgery Center Inc., Doctors Same Day Surgery Center Ltd., Doctors-I Inc., Doctors-II Inc., Doctors-III Inc., Doctors-IV Inc., Doctors-IX Inc., Doctors-V Inc., Doctors-VI Inc., Doctors-VII Inc., Doctors-VIII Inc., Doctors-X Inc., Doctors Memorial Hospital of Spartanburg Limited Partnership, Dominion Hospital Physicians Group LLC, Dublin Community Hospital LLC, Dublin Heart Specialists LLC, Dublin Multispecialty LLC, Dura Medical Inc., E.P. Physical Therapy Centers Inc., EASTSIDE URGENT CARE LLC, EHCA Diagnostics LLC, EHCA Eastside Occupational Medicine Center LLC, EHCA LLC, EHCA Metropolitan LLC, EHCA Parkway LLC, EHCA Peachtree LLC, EHCA West Paces LLC, EIRMC Hospitalist Services LLC, EMMC LLC, EP Health LLC, EP Holdco LLC, EPIC Development Inc., EPIC Diagnostic Centers Inc., EPIC Healthcare Management Company, EPIC Properties Inc., EPIC Surgery Centers Inc., EPSC L.P., East Falls Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery LLC, East Falls Family Medicine LLC, East Falls Plastic Surgery LLC, East Florida - DMC Inc., East Florida Behavioral Health Network LLC, East Florida Cardiology Network LLC, East Florida CareNow Urgent Care LLC, East Florida Division Inc., East Florida Emergency Physician Group LLC, East Florida Healthcare LLC, East Florida Hospitalists LLC, East Florida Imaging Holdings LLC, East Florida Primary Care LLC, East Houston Primary Care PLLC, East Houston Specialists PLLC, East Layton Internal Medicine LLC, East Orthopedics PLLC, East Pointe Hospital Inc., Eastern Idaho Brachytherapy Equipment LLC, Eastern Idaho Brachytherapy Equipment Manager LLC, Eastern Idaho Care Partners ACO LLC, Eastern Idaho Care Partners Holdings LLC, Eastern Idaho Care Partners LLC, Eastern Idaho Health Services Inc., Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center Inpatient Services LLC, Eastside Behavioral Health Associates LLC, Eastside General Surgery LLC, Eastside Heart and Vascular LLC, Eastside Medical Center LLC, Eastside Surgery Center LLC, Edmond General Surgery LLC, Edmond Hospitalists LLC, Edmond Physician Hospital Organization Inc., Edward White Hospital Inc., El Paso CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, El Paso Healthcare Provider Network, El Paso Healthcare System Ltd., El Paso Healthcare System Physician Services LLC, El Paso Nurses Unlimited Inc., El Paso Primary Care PLLC, El Paso Surgery Centers L.P., El Paso Surgicenter Inc., Eldridge Family Practitioners PLLC, Elite Family Health of Plano PLLC, Elite OB-GYN Services of El Paso PLLC, Elite Orthopaedics of El Paso PLLC, Elite Orthopaedics of Irving PLLC, Elite Orthopaedics of Plano PLLC, Elstree Outpatient Centre LLP, Emergency Physicians at Wesley Medical Center LLC, Emergency Providers Group LLC, Emergency Psychiatric Medicine PLLC, Encino Hospital Corporation Inc., Endocrinology Associates of Lees Summit LLC, Endoscopy Surgicare of Plano LLC, Endoscopy of Plano L.P., Englewood Community Hospital Auxiliary Inc., Englewood Community Hospital Inc., Envision Stakes LLC, Eye Care Surgicare Ltd. a Missouri limited partnership, FHAL LLC, FMH Health Services LLC, Fairfax Surgical Center L.P., Fairview Medical Services LLC, Fairview Park GP LLC, Fairview Park Limited Partnership, Fairview Partner LLC, Family Care Partners LLC, Family Care of E. Jackson County LLC, Family First Medicine in Brownsville PLLC, Family Health Medical Group of Overland Park LLC, Family Health Specialists of Lees Summit LLC, Family Medicine of Blacksburg LLC, Family Practice at Forest Hill LLC, Family Practice at Retreat LLC, Family Practitioners of Montgomery PLLC, Family Practitioners of Pearland PLLC, Fannin MOB LLC, Fannin MOB Property Management LLC, Far West Division Inc., Fawcett Memorial Hospital Inc., Florida Care Partners LLC, Florida Care Partners Orlando LLC, Florida Home Health Services-Private Care Inc., Florida Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Flower Mound Surgery Center Ltd., Focus Hand Surgicenter LLC, Foot & Ankle Specialty Services LLC, Forest Park Surgery Pavilion Inc., Forest Park Surgery Pavilion L.P., Fort Bend Hospital Inc., Fort Chiswell Family Practice LLC, Fort Myers Market Inc., Fort Pierce Immediate Care Center Inc., Fort Pierce Orthopaedics LLC, Fort Pierce Surgery Center Ltd., Fort Walton Beach Medical Center Inc., Fort Worth Investments Inc., Forward Pathology Solutions LLC, Four Rivers Medical Center PHO Inc., Frankfort Hospital Inc., Frankfort Wound Care LLC, Freeport Family Medicine LLC, Fremont Womens Health LLC, Frisco Surgicare LLC, Frisco Warren Parkway 91 Inc., Frist Clinic Express LLC, Ft. Pierce Surgicare LLC, Ft. Walton Beach Anesthesia Services LLC, G. Rowe M.D. PLLC, G. Schnider M.D. PLLC, G. Voorhees M.D. PLLC, G.P. Martin Fletcher & Associates LLC, GA PHYSICIAN SERVICES LLC, GA Urgentcare Holding LLC, GHC-Galen Health Care LLC, GI Associates of Denton PLLC, GI Associates of Lewisville PLLC, GME Services of Osceola LLC, GPCH-GP Inc., GYN-Oncology of Southwest Virginia LLC, Gainesville GYN Oncology of North Florida Regional Medical Center LLC, Gainesville Physicians LLC, GalTex LLC, Galen (Kansas) Merger LLC, Galen BH Inc., Galen Center for Professional Development Inc., Galen College of Nursing, Galen Diagnostic Multicenter Ltd., Galen GOK LLC, Galen Global Finance Inc., Galen Health Institutes Inc., Galen Health Partners Limited, Galen Holdco LLC, Galen Hospital Alaska Inc., Galen Hospital of Baytown Inc., Galen Hospital-Pembroke Pines Inc., Galen International Holdings Inc., Galen KY LLC, Galen MCS LLC, Galen MRMC LLC, Galen Medical Corporation, Galen NMC LLC, Galen NSH LLC, Galen Property LLC, Galen SOM LLC, Galen SSH LLC, Galen Virginia Hospital Corporation, Galen of Aurora Inc., Galen of Florida Inc., Galen of Illinois Inc., Galen of Kentucky Inc., Galen of Mississippi Inc., Galen of Virginia Inc., Galen of West Virginia Inc., Galen-Soch Inc., Galencare Inc., Galendeco Inc., Galichia Anesthesia Services LLC, Galichia Emergency Physicians LLC, Garden Park Community Hospital Limited Partnership, Garden Park Hospitalist Program LLC, Garden Park Investments L.P., Garden Park Physician Group - Specialty Care LLC, Garden Park Physician Group Inc., Gardens EFL Imaging Center LLC, Gastroenterology Specialists of Middle Tennessee LLC, General Hospitals of Galen Inc., General Medical Clinics Limited, General Surgeons of Houston PLLC, General Surgeons of North Richland Hills PLLC, General Surgeons of Pasadena PLLC, General and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Conroe PLLC, Generations Family Practice Inc., GenoSpace LLC, Georgia Health Holdings Inc., Georgia L.P., Georgia Psychiatric Company Inc., Glemm SA, Good Samaritan Hospital L.P., Good Samaritan Hospital LLC, Good Samaritan Surgery Center L.P., Goppert-Trinity Family Care LLC, Grace Family Practice LLC, Gramercy Eye Surgicenter LLC, Gramercy Surgery Center Ltd., Grand Strand Regional Medical Center LLC, Grand Strand Senior Health Center LLC, Grand Strand Specialty Associates LLC, Grand Strand Surgical Specialists LLC, Grandview Health Care Clinic LLC, Grant Center Hospital of Ocala Inc., Grayson Primary Care LLC, Greater Gwinnett Internal Medicine Associates LLC, Greater Gwinnett Physician Corporation, Greater Houston Preferred Provider Option Inc., Greater Tampa Bay Physician Network LLC, Greater Tampa Bay Physician Specialists LLC, Greater Tampa Bay Physicians - Pinellas LLC, Green Oaks Hospital Subsidiary L.P., Greenview Hospital Inc., Greenview PrimeCare LLC, Greenview Specialty Associates LLC, Gulf Coast Division Inc., Gulf Coast Electrophysiology Associates PLLC, Gulf Coast Inpatient Specialists LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Center Primary Care LLC, Gulf Coast Medical Ventures Inc., Gulf Coast Multispecialty Services LLC, Gulf Coast Physician Administrators Inc., Gulf Coast Provider Network Inc., Gwinnett Community Hospital Inc., Gynecology Specialists of Utah LLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Del Sol Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Las Palmas Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - Medical City Dallas PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers - St. Davids Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers LLC, H2U Wellness Centers Clear Lake Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Conroe ISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Conroe Regional Medical Center PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers Corpus Christi PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers El Paso PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers PISD PLLC, H2U Wellness Centers San Benito CISD PLLC, HBP Lone Star Inc., HCA - IT&S Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S Inventory Management Inc., HCA - IT&S PBS Field Operations Inc., HCA - IT&S TN Field Operations Inc., HCA - Information Technology & Services Inc., HCA - Raleigh Community Hospital Inc., HCA - Viera ALF LLC, HCA - WHS Progressive LLC, HCA - WHS Services LLC, HCA ASD Financial Operations LLC, HCA ASD Sales Services LLC, HCA American Finance LLC, HCA Carenow Limited, HCA Central Group Inc., HCA Central/West Texas Physicians Management LLC, HCA Chattanooga Market Inc., HCA Development Company Inc., HCA Eastern Group Inc., HCA Global Capital LLP, HCA Gulf Coast GME PLLC, HCA Health Services of California Inc., HCA Health Services of Florida Inc., HCA Health Services of Georgia Inc., HCA Health Services of Louisiana Inc., HCA Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Health Services of Midwest Inc., HCA Health Services of New Hampshire Inc., HCA Health Services of Tennessee Inc., HCA Health Services of Texas Inc., HCA Health Services of Virginia Inc., HCA Health Services of West Virginia Inc., HCA Healthcare Mission Fund LLC, HCA Healthcare UK Limited, HCA Holdco LLC, HCA Human Resources LLC, HCA Imaging Services of North Florida Inc., HCA Inc., HCA International Holdings Limited, HCA International Limited, HCA LewisGale Regional Cancer Centers Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Long Term Health Services of Miami Inc., HCA Luxembourg 1 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg 2 Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Equities Sarl, HCA Luxembourg Finance Limited, HCA Luxembourg Investments Sarl, HCA Management Services L.P., HCA Medical City Limited, HCA Medical Services Inc., HCA Midwest Comprehensive Care Inc., HCA Outpatient Clinic Services of Miami Inc., HCA Outpatient Imaging Services Group Inc., HCA Patient Safety Organization LLC, HCA Pearland GP Inc., HCA Physician Services Inc., HCA Plano Imaging Inc., HCA Property GP LLC, HCA Psychiatric Company, HCA Purchasing Limited, HCA Realty Inc., HCA Richmond Cardiac Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA SF LLC, HCA SFB 1 LLC, HCA Sarasota Orthopedic and Spine Clinical Co-Management Company LLC, HCA Squared LLC, HCA Staffing Limited, HCA Swiss Capital 1 LLP, HCA Swiss Capital 2 LLP, HCA Switzerland Finance GmbH, HCA Switzerland Holding GmbH, HCA Switzerland Limited, HCA UK Capital Limited, HCA UK Holdings Limited, HCA UK Investments Limited, HCA UK Limited, HCA UK Services Limited, HCA Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital Inc., HCA Western Group Inc., HCA-Access Healthcare Holdings LLC, HCA-Access Healthcare Partner Inc., HCA-California Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-EMS Holdings LLC, HCA-EmCare Holdings LLC, HCA-Georgia Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCA-HBPS Holdings LLC, HCA-HealthONE LLC, HCA-Solis Holdings Inc., HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Continental LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of Gulf Coast LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of North Texas LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Service Holdings of TriStar LLC, HCA-Solis Mammography Services LLC, HCA-Solis Master LLC, HCA-Urgent Care Holdings LLC, HCAPS Anesthesia Manager LLC, HCAPS Conroe Affiliation Inc., HCOL Inc., HD&S Corp. Successor Inc., HDH Thoracic Surgeons LLC, HHBY Holdings LLC, HHNC LLC, HICCH-SCL LLC, HM Acquisition LLC, HM OMCOS LLC, HMMG 1226 LLC, HPG Energy L.P., HPG Enterprises LLC, HPG GP LLC, HPG Solutions LLC, HSS Holdco LLC, HSS Systems LLC, HSS Virginia L.P., HTI Gulf Coast Inc., HTI Health Services of North Carolina Inc., HTI Hospital Holdings Inc., HTI MOB LLC, HTI MSO LLC, HTI Memorial Hospital Corporation, HTI Physician Services of Utah Inc., HWCA PLLC, Hamilton Memorial Hospital Inc., Hamsard 3160 Limited, Harley Street Clinic @ The Groves LLP, Hathor Chelsea Ltd., Healdsburg General Hospital Inc., Health Care Indemnity Inc., Health Insight Capital LLC, Health International Billing Partners Limited, Health Midwest Medical Group Inc., Health Midwest Office Facilities Corporation, Health Midwest Ventures Group Inc., Health Partners of Kansas Inc., Health Service Partners Inc., Health Services (Delaware) Inc., Health Services Merger Inc., Health to You LLC, HealthCoast Physician Group LLC, HealthONE Aurora Investment LLC, HealthONE Care Partners LLC, HealthONE CareNow Urgent Care LLC, HealthONE Clear Creek LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Bariatric Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Behavioral Health LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cancer Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Cardiovascular LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Medical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Neurosciences LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Occupational Medicine LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Oncology Hematology LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Orthopedic Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Otolaryngology Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Pediatric Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Primary Care LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Specialists LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Spine Surgeons LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgery Neurological LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Surgical Specialties LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Transplant Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Womens Services LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services - Youth Rehabilitation LLC, HealthONE Clinic Services LLC, HealthONE High Street Primary Care Center LLC, HealthONE IRL Pathology Services LLC, HealthONE Institutes for Clinical Research LLC, HealthONE Lowry LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Red Rocks LLC, HealthONE Radiation Therapy at Thornton LLC, HealthONE Ridge View Endoscopy Center LLC, HealthONE Surgicare of Ridge View LLC, HealthONE Urologic LLC, HealthONE at Breckenridge LLC, HealthONE of Denver Inc., HealthOne Heart Care LLC, HealthOne Lincoln Investment LLC, HealthOne Westside Investment LLC, HealthTrust Europe Company Limited, HealthTrust Europe LLP, HealthTrust Locums Inc., HealthTrust Workforce Solutions LLC, Healthcare Oklahoma Inc., Healthcare Purchasing Alliance LLC, Healthcare Sales National Management Services Group LLC, Healthcare Technology Assessment Corporation, Healthco LLC, Healthnet of Kentucky LLC, Healthserv Acquisition LLC, Healthtrust Inc. - The Hospital Company, Healthtrust MOB Tennessee LLC, Healthtrust Purchasing Group L.P., Healthtrust Utah Management Services Inc., Healthy State Inc., Heart Specialist of North Texas PLLC, Heart of America ASC LLC, Heart of America Surgicenter LLC, Heartcare of Texas Ltd., Hearthstone Home Health Inc., Heartland Womens Group at Wesley LLC, Heathrow Imaging LLC, Heathrow Internal Medicine LLC, Hendersonville Hospital Corporation, Hendersonville Hospitalist Services Inc., Hendersonville OB/GYN LLC, Hendersonville ODC LLC, Hendersonville Primary Care LLC, Henrico Doctors Hospital - Forest Campus Property LLC, Henrico Doctors Neurology Associates LLC, Henrico Doctors OB GYN Specialists LLC, Henrico Surgical Specialists LLC, Heritage Family Care LLC, Heritage Hospital Inc., Heritage Medical Care LLC, Hermitage Primary Care LLC, Hidalgo County Family Practitioners PLLC, Hidden Lakes Health Center PLLC, Highlands Regional Medical Center, Hip & Joint Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Homecare North Inc., Hometrust Management Services Inc., Horizon Orthopedics LLC, Horizon Surgical LLC, Hospital Corp. LLC, Hospital Corporation of America, Hospital Corporation of Lake Worth, Hospital Corporation of Tennessee, Hospital Corporation of Utah, Hospital Development Properties Inc., Hospital Partners Merger LLC, Hospital Realty Corporation, Hospital-Based CRNA Services Inc., Hospitalists at Centennial Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Fairview Park LLC, Hospitalists at Greenview Regional Hospital LLC, Hospitalists at Horizon Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists at Parkridge LLC, Hospitalists at StoneCrest LLC, Hospitalists at Wesley Medical Center LLC, Hospitalists of the Wabash Valley LLC, Houston - PPH LLC, Houston CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Houston Healthcare Holdings Inc., Houston NW Manager LLC, Houston Northwest Concessions L.L.C., Houston Northwest Operating Company L.L.C., Houston Northwest Surgical Partners Inc., Houston Obstetrics and Gynecology for Women PLLC, Houston Pediatric Specialty Group PLLC, Houston Urologic Surgicenter LLC, Houston Womans Hospital Partner LLC, ICU Associates of West Houston PLLC, IMX Holdings LLC, IRL Pathology Services MidAmerica LLC, Idaho Behavioral Health Services LLC, Idaho Physician Services Inc., Illinois Psychiatric Hospital Company Inc., Imaging Realty LLC, Imaging Services of Appomattox LLC, Imaging Services of Jacksonville LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana LLC, Imaging Services of Louisiana Manager LLC, Imaging Services of Orlando LLC, Imaging Services of Richmond LLC, Imaging Services of Roanoke LLC, Imaging Services of West Boynton LLC, InVivoLink Inc., Independence Neurosurgery Services LLC, Independence Regional Medical Group LLC, Independence Surgicare Inc., Indian Path Hospital Inc., Indianapolis Hospital Partner LLC, Institute for Womens Health and Body LLC, Institute of Advanced ENT Surgery LLC, Integrated Regional Lab LLC, Integrated Regional Laboratories LLP, Integrated Regional Laboratories Pathology Services LLC, Intensive Care Consortium Inc., Internal Medicine Associates of Huntsville PLLC, Internal Medicine Associates of Southern Hills LLC, Internal Medicine of Blacksburg LLC, Internal Medicine of Pasadena PLLC, Internist Associates of Houston PLLC, Isleworth Partners Inc., J. M. Garcia M.D. PLLC, JCSH LLC, JDGC Management LLC, JFK Internal Medicine Faculty Practice LLC, JFK Medical Center Limited Partnership, JPM AA Housing LLC, Jackson County Medical Group LLC, Jackson County Pulmonary Medical Group LLC, Jacksonville CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Jacksonville Multispecialty Services LLC, Jacksonville Surgery Center Ltd., James River Internists LLC, John Randolph Family Practice LLC, John Randolph OB/GYN LLC, John Randolph Surgeons LLC, Johnson County Neurology LLC, Johnson County Surgery Center L.P., Johnson County Surgicenter L.L.C., Jordan Family Health L.L.C., Jupiter EFL Imaging Center LLC, KC Pain ASC LLC, KC Surgicare LLC, KPH-Consolidation Inc., Kansas CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Kansas City Cardiac Arrhythmia Research LLC, Kansas City Gastroenterology & Hepatology Physicians Group LLC, Kansas City Neurology Associates LLC, Kansas City Pulmonology Practice LLC, Kansas City Surgery Center Properties LLC, Kansas City Vascular & General Surgery Group LLC, Kansas City Womens Clinic Group LLC, Kansas Healthserv LLC, Kansas Pulmonary and Sleep Specialists LLC, Kansas Trauma and Critical Care Specialists LLC, Kathy L. Summers M.D. PLLC, Kendall Healthcare Group Ltd., Kendall Regional Medical Center LLC, Kendall Regional Urgent Care LLC, Kennedale Primary Care PLLC, Kingwood Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Kingwood Surgery Center LLC, Kingwood Surgicenter LLC, Kissimmee Surgicare Ltd., Kyle Primary Care PLLC, L E Corporation, LAD Imaging LLC, LGMC Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, LOC @ The Christie LLP, LOC @ The London Bridge Hospital LLP, LOC Partnership LLP, LPN TeleBehavioral Health PLLC, Lafayette OB Hospitalists LLC, Lafayette Urogynecology & Urology Center LLC, Lake City Imaging LLC, Lake City Regional Medical Group LLC, Lake Forest Family Health PLLC, Lakeside Radiology LLC, Lakeside Womens Services LLC, Lakeview Cardiology Specialists LLC, Lakeview Hospital Physician Services LLC, Lakeview Internal Medicine LLC, Lakeview Medical Center LLC, Lakeview Regional Medical Center Inpatient Services LLC, Lakeview Regional Physician Group LLC, Lakeview Urology & General Surgery LLC, Lakewood Surgicare Inc., Laredo Medco LLC, Largo Medical Center Inc., Largo Physician Group LLC, Las Colinas Primary Care PLLC, Las Colinas Surgery Center Ltd., Las Encinas Hospital, Las Palmas Del Sol Cardiology PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Internal Medicine PLLC, Las Palmas Del Sol Urgent Care PLLC, Las Vegas ASC LLC, Las Vegas Surgicare Inc., Las Vegas Surgicare Ltd. a Nevada Limited Partnership, Lawnwood Cardiovascular Surgery LLC, Lawnwood Healthcare Specialists LLC, Lawnwood Medical Center Inc., Layton Family Practice LLC, Leaders in Oncology Care Limited, Leadership Healthcare Holdings II L.P. L.L.P., Leadership Healthcare Holdings L.P. L.L.P., Lees Summit Family Care LLC, Leslie Cohan M.D. PLLC, Lewis-Gale Hospital Incorporated, Lewis-Gale Medical Center LLC, Lewis-Gale Physicians LLC, Lewisville Primary Care PLLC, Lewisville Surgicare LLC, Lincoln Surgery Center LLC, Live Oak Immediate Care Center LLC, London Oncology Clinic LLP, London Pathology Limited, London Radiography & Radiotherapy Services Limited, Lone Peak Hospital Inc., Lone Star Intensivists at Gulf Coast PLLC, Lonestar Provider Network, Longview Regional Physician Hospital Organization Inc., Lorain County Surgery Center Ltd., Los Gatos Surgical Center a California Limited Partnership, Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Los Robles Regional Medical Center MOB LLC, Los Robles SurgiCenter LLC, Loudoun Surgery Center LLC, Louisiana Psychiatric Company Inc., Loveland Surgicenter LLC, Low Country Health Services Inc. of the Southeast, Lowry Surgicenter LLC, M. Jamshidi D.O. PLLC, MCA Investment Company, MCA-CTMC Holdings LLC, MEC Endoscopy LLC, MFA G.P. LLC, MFM Fact PLLC, MGH Medical Inc., MH Anesthesiology Physicians LLC, MH Angel Medical Center LLLP, MH Asheville Specialty Hospital LLC, MH Blue Ridge Medical Center LLLP, MH Eckerd Living Center LLLP, MH Highlands-Cashiers Medical Center LLLP, MH Hospital Holdings Inc., MH Hospital Manager LLC, MH Master Holdings LLLP, MH Master LLC, MH McDowell Imaging LLLP, MH Mission Hospital LLLP, MH Mission Hospital McDowell LLLP, MH Mission Imaging LLLP, MH Physician Services LLC, MH Transylvania Imaging LLLP, MH Transylvania Regional Hospital LLLP, MHS Partnership Holdings JSC Inc., MHS Partnership Holdings SDS Inc., MHS SC Partner L.L.C., MHS Surgery Centers L.P., MMC Sleep Lab Management LLC, MOSC Sports Medicine Inc., MOVCO Inc., MP Management LLC, MRT&C Inc., MSL Acquisition LLC, MVH Professional Services LLC, Macon Healthcare LLC, Macon Northside Health Group LLC, Macon Northside Hospital LLC, Macon Psychiatric Hospitalists LLC, Madison Behavioral Health LLC, Mainland Family Medicine PLLC, Mainland Multi-Specialty Group PLLC, Mainland Primary Care Physicians PLLC, Management Services Holdings Inc., Manatee Surgicare Ltd., Marietta Outpatient Medical Building Inc., Marietta Outpatient Surgery Ltd., Marietta Surgical Center Inc., Marion Community Hospital Inc., Mark Gottesman M.D. PLLC, Martin Fletcher & Associates L.P., Martin Fletcher Associates Holdings Inc., Mary Alice Cowan M.D. PLLC, Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Maternal Fetal Services of Utah LLC, Maury County Behavioral Health LLC, Mayhill Cancer Center LLC, McAllen Comprehensive Upper Extremity Center PLLC, McKinney Surgeons PLLC, Mechanicsville Imaging LLC, Mecklenburg Surgical Land Development Ltd., Med City Dallas Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Med Corp. Inc., Med Group - Southern Hills Hospitalists LLC, Med-Center Hosp./Houston Inc., Med-Point of New Hampshire Inc., Medi Flight of Oklahoma LLC, MediCredit Inc., MediPurchase Inc., MediStone Healthcare Ventures Inc., MediVision Inc., MediVision of Mecklenburg County Inc., MediVision of Tampa Inc., Medical Arts Hospital of Texarkana Inc., Medical Associates of Ocala LLC, Medical Care America Colorado LLC, Medical Care America LLC, Medical Care Financial Services Corp., Medical Care Real Estate Finance Inc., Medical Care Surgery Center Inc., Medical Center - West Inc., Medical Center Imaging Inc., Medical Center Surgery Associates L.P., Medical Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Medical Center of Plano Partner LLC, Medical Center of Port St. Lucie Inc., Medical Center of Santa Rosa Inc., Medical Center of Southwest Florida LLC, Medical Centers of Oklahoma LLC, Medical City Dallas Hospital Inc., Medical City Dallas Partner LLC, Medical City Dallas Primary Care PLLC, Medical City Frisco, Medical City OB-GYN PLLC, Medical City Pediatrics PLLC, Medical City Specialty Surgicenter of Dallas LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Alliance LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Frisco LLC, Medical City Surgery Center of Lewisville LLC, Medical City Transplant PLLC, Medical Corporation of America, Medical Group - Dickson Inc., Medical Group - Southern Hills of Brentwood LLC, Medical Group - Southern Hills of Nolensville LLC, Medical Group - StoneCrest FP Inc., Medical Group - StoneCrest Inc., Medical Group - Stonecrest Pulmonology LLC, Medical Group - Summit Inc., Medical Imaging Inc., Medical Imaging of Colorado LLC, Medical Office Buildings of Kansas LLC, Medical Oncology Associates LLC, Medical Partners of North Florida LLC, Medical Plaza Ambulatory Surgery Center Associates L.P., Medical Specialties Inc., Memorial Family Practice Associates LLC, Memorial Health Primary Care at St. Johns Bluff LLC, Memorial Healthcare Group Inc., Memorial Neurosurgery Group LLC, Memorial Satilla Specialists LLC, Memorial University Medical Center, Menorah Medical Group LLC, Menorah Urgent Care LLC, Mercy ASC LLC, Metairie Primary Care Associates LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Boerne LLC, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center of Landmark LLC, Methodist Cardiology Physicians, Methodist CareNow Physician Associates, Methodist CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Methodist Healthcare System of San Antonio Ltd. L.L.P., Methodist Inpatient Management Group, Methodist Medical Center ASC L.P., Methodist Physician Alliance, Methodist Physician Practice Services LLC, Methodist Physician Practices PLLC, Metroplex Surgicenters Inc., Metropolitan Multispecialty Physicians Group Inc., Miami Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Miami Beach Healthcare Group Ltd., Miami Dade Surgical Specialists LLC, Miami Lakes Surgery Center Ltd., Miami-Dade Cardiology Consultants LLC, Michael Mann M.D. PLLC, Mid-America Surgery Center LLC, Mid-America Surgery Institute LLC, Mid-Cities Surgi-Center Inc., Mid-Continent Health Services Inc., MidAmerica Division Inc., MidAmerica Oncology LLC, Middle Georgia Hospital LLC, Middle Georgia Urgent Care Services LLC, Middle Tennessee Neurology LLC, Midtown Diagnostics LLC, Midwest Cardiology Specialists LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery LLC, Midwest Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Kansas LLC, Midwest Division - ACH LLC, Midwest Division - CMC LLC, Midwest Division - LRHC LLC, Midwest Division - LSH LLC, Midwest Division - MCI LLC, Midwest Division - MMC LLC, Midwest Division - OPRMC LLC, Midwest Division - RBH LLC, Midwest Division - RMC LLC, Midwest Division Spine Care LLC, Midwest Doctors Group LLC, Midwest Heart & Vascular Specialists LLC, Midwest Holdings Inc., Midwest Infectious Disease Specialists LLC, Midwest Medicine Associates LLC, Midwest Metropolitan Physicians Group LLC, Midwest Oncology Associates LLC, Midwest Trauma Services LLC, Midwest Womens Healthcare Specialists LLC, Mikrod Services Inc., Mill Creek Outpatient Services LLC, Millenium Health Care of Oklahoma Inc., Mission Bay Memorial Hospital Inc., Mission Community Anesthesiology Specialists LLC, Mission Employer Solutions LLC, Mission Health, Mission Health Partners Inc., Missouri Healthcare System L.P., Mobile Corps. Inc., Mobile Heartbeat, Mobile Heartbeat LLC, Montgomery Cancer Center LLC, Montgomery Hospitalists LLC, Montgomery Regional Hospital Inc., Montgomery Surgery Associates LLC, Mountain Division - CVH LLC, Mountain Division Inc., Mountain View Hospital Inc., Mountain View MRI Associates Ltd., Mountain West Surgery Center LLC, MountainStar Behavioral Health LLC, MountainStar Brigham General Surgery LLC, MountainStar Canyon Surgical Clinic LLC, MountainStar Cardiology Ogden Regional LLC, MountainStar Cardiology St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Intensivist Services LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Cache Valley LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - Ogden Regional Medical Center LLC, MountainStar Medical Group - St. Marks Hospital LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Neurosurgery-St. Marks LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Primary Care LLC, MountainStar Medical Group Timpanogos Specialty Care LLC, MountainStar Specialty Services LLC, MountainStar Urgent Care LLC, MountainView GME Primary Care LLC, Mountainstar Brigham OBGYN LLC, Mountainstar Cardiovascular Services LLC, Mountainstar Ogden Pediatrics LLC, Movement Disorders of North Texas PLLC, Mt. Ogden Utah Surgical Center LLC, NPAS Inc., NPAS Solutions LLC, NT Urgent Care PLLC, NTGP LLC, NTMC Management Company, NTMC Venture Inc., NTX Pathology Program PLLC, Nashville Psychiatric Company Inc., Nashville Shared Services General Partnership, Nashville Surgicenter LLC, Natchez Medical Associates LLC, Natchez Surgery Center LLC, National Association of Senior Friends, National Contact Center Management Group LLC, National Patient Account Services Inc., National Transfer Center Management Services LLC, Navarro Memorial Hospital Inc., NeighborMD Management LLC, Network MS of Florida Inc., Network Management Services Inc., Neuro Affiliates Company, Neuro-Hospitalist of Clear Lake PLLC, NeuroHospitalist of McAllen PLLC, Neurological Eye Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Neurological Specialists PLLC, Neurological Specialists of McKinney PLLC, Neurology Associates of Hendersonville LLC, Neurology Associates of Kansas LLC, Neurosurgery Atlanta LLC, Neurosurgery of Kingwood PLLC, Neurosurgical Associates of North Texas PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of El Paso PLLC, Neurosurgical Specialists of North Texas PLLC, Nevada Surgery Center of Southern Hills L.P., Nevada Surgicare of Southern Hills LLC, Nevada Urgent Care Holdings Inc., New Iberia Healthcare LLC, New Iberia Holdings Inc., New Port Richey Hospital Inc., New Port Richey Surgery Center Ltd., New Rose Holding Company Inc., Niceville Family Practice LLC, North Augusta Imaging Management LLC, North Augusta Imaging Services LLC, North Augusta Rehab Health Center LLC, North Austin Plastic Surgery Associates PLLC, North Austin Surgery Center L.P., North Brandon Imaging LLC, North Central Florida Health System Inc., North Central Methodist ASC L.P., North Charleston Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Lake City LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Live Oak LLC, North Florida Cancer Center Tallahassee LLC, North Florida Division I Inc., North Florida Division Practice Inc., North Florida GI Center GP Inc., North Florida GI Center Ltd., North Florida Immediate Care Center Inc., North Florida Neurosurgery LLC, North Florida Outpatient Imaging Center Ltd., North Florida Physician Services Inc., North Florida Physicians LLC, North Florida Radiation Oncology LLC, North Florida Regional Company Care LLC, North Florida Regional Freestanding Surgery Center L.P., North Florida Regional Investments Inc., North Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., North Florida Regional Psychiatry LLC, North Florida Regional Trauma LLC, North Florida Rehab Investments LLC, North Florida Surgical Associates LLC, North Georgia Primary Care Group LLC, North Hills Cardiac Catheterization Center L.P., North Hills Catheterization Lab LLC, North Hills Orthopaedic Surgeons PLLC, North Hills Surgicare L.P., North Houston - TRMC LLC, North Miami Beach Surgery Center Limited Partnership, North Miami Beach Surgical Center LLC, North Palm Beach County Surgery Center LLC, North River Physician Network LLC, North Shore Specialists of Texas PLLC, North Suburban Spine Center L.P., North Tampa Imaging LLC, North Texas - MCA LLC, North Texas Cardiology PLLC, North Texas Craniofacial Fellowship Program PLLC, North Texas Division Inc., North Texas General L.P., North Texas Geriatrics PLLC, North Texas Heart Surgery Center PLLC, North Texas Internal Medicine Specialists PLLC, North Texas Medical Center Inc., North Texas Neuro Stroke OP PLLC, North Texas Pulmonary Critical Care PLLC, North Texas Sports and Orthopedics Center PLLC, North Texas Stroke Center PLLC, North Texas of Hope PLLC, North Transfer Center LLC, Northeast Florida Cancer Services LLC, Northeast Methodist Surgicare Ltd., Northeast PHO Inc., Northern Utah Healthcare Corporation, Northern Utah Healthcare Imaging Holdco LLC, Northern Utah Imaging LLC, Northern Virginia CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Northern Virginia Community Hospital LLC, Northern Virginia Hospital Corporation, Northern Virginia Surgicenter LLC, Northlake Medical Center LLC, Northlake Physician Practice Network Inc., Northlake Surgical Center L.P., Northlake Surgicare Inc., Northside MRI Inc., Northwest Fla. Home Health Agency Inc., Northwest Florida Healthcare Systems Inc., Northwest Florida Multispecialty Physicians LLC, Northwest Florida Primary Care LLC, Northwest Medical Center Inc., Notami (Opelousas) Inc., Notami Hospitals LLC, Notami Hospitals of Florida Inc., Notami Hospitals of Louisiana Inc., Notami Hospitals of Missouri Inc., Notami LLC, Notco LLC, Nuclear Diagnosis Inc., OB Hospitalists of Womans Hospital PLLC, OB/GYN of Brownsville PLLC, OB/Gyn Associates of Denton PLLC, OBS Diagnostic and Treatment Centre LLP, ODP Holdings LLC, ODP Manager LLC, ODP Properties LLC, OHH Imaging Services LLC, OPRMC-HBP LLC, Oak Hill Acquisition Inc., Oak Hill Family Care LLC, Oak Hill Hospitalists LLC, Oakwood Surgery Center Ltd. LLP, Ocala Health Company Care LLC, Ocala Health Imaging Services LLC, Ocala Health Primary Care LLC, Ocala Health Surgical Group LLC, Ocala Health Trauma LLC, Ocala Regional Outpatient Services Inc., Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery LLC, Ocala Stereotactic Radiosurgery Partner LLC, Occupational Health Services of PRH LLC, Occupational and Family Medicine of South Texas, Ogden Imaging LLC, Ogden Internal Medicine & Urology LLC, Ogden Regional Health Plan Inc., Ogden Regional Medical Center Professional Billing LLC, Ogden Senior Center LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy LLC, Ogden Tomotherapy Manager LLC, Okaloosa Hospital Inc., Okeechobee Hospital Inc., Oklahoma Holding Company LLC, Oklahoma Outpatient Surgery Limited Partnership, Oklahoma Physicians - Medical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Obstetrics and Gynecology LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Primary Care LLC, Oklahoma Physicians - Surgical Specialties LLC, Oklahoma Surgicare Inc., Old Fort Village LLC, On-Site Primary Care PLLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi LLC, Oncology Services of Corpus Christi Manager LLC, OneSourceMed Inc., Online Pathology Services Limited, Orange County Healthcare LLC, Orange Park Hospitalists LLC, Orange Park Medical Center Inc., Orlando CareNow Urgent Care LLC, Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Orlando Outpatient Surgical Center Ltd., Orlando Surgicare Ltd., Orthopaedic Specialty Associates L.P., Orthopaedic Sports Specialty Associates Inc., Orthopedic Hospital Ltd., Orthopedics Specialists LLC, Osceola Neurological Associates LLC, Osceola Physician Network LLC, Osceola Regional Hospital Inc., Osceola Regional Hospitalists LLC, Osceola Surgical Associates LLC, Outpatient Cardiovascular Center of Central Florida LLC, Outpatient GP LLC, Outpatient Services - LAD LLC, Outpatient Services Holdings Inc., Outpatient Surgical Services Ltd., Outpatient Womens and Childrens Surgery Center Ltd., Overland Park Cardiovascular Inc., Overland Park Medical Specialists LLC, Overland Park Orthopedics LLC, Overland Park Surgical Specialties LLC, Oviedo Medical Center LLC, Ozarks Medical Services Inc., P&L Associates, P/SL Hyperbaric Partnership, PET CT LLP, PMM Inc., POH Holdings LLC, PSG Delegated Services LLC, PTS Solutions LLC, Pacific Partners Management Services Inc., Palm Beach EFL Imaging Center LLC, Palm Beach General Surgery LLC, Palm Beach Healthcare System Inc., Palm Beach Hospitalists Program LLC, Palmer Medical Center LLC, Palms West Gastroenterology LLC, Palms West Hospital Limited Partnership, Palms West Surgery Center Ltd., Paragon Physicians Hospital Organization of South Texas Inc., Paragon SDS Inc., Paragon Surgery Centers of Texas Inc., Paragon WSC Inc., Paragon of Texas Health Properties Inc., Parallon Business Solutions LLC, Parallon Enterprises LLC, Parallon Health Information Solutions LLC, Parallon Holdings LLC, Parallon Payroll Solutions LLC, Parallon Physician Services LLC, Parallon Revenue Cycle Services Inc., Park Central Surgical Center Ltd., Park Ridge Surgery Center LLC, Park South Imaging Center Ltd., Park View Insurance Company, Parkersburg SJ Holdings Inc., Parkland Hospitalists Program LLC, Parkland Oncology LLC, Parkland Physician Services Inc., Parkridge East Specialty Associates LLC, Parkridge Hospitalists Inc., Parkridge Medical Associates LLC, Parkridge Medical Center Inc., Parkridge Professionals Inc., Parkside Surgery Center Inc., Parkway Cardiac Center Ltd., Parkway Hospital Inc., Parkway Surgery Services Ltd., Parthenon Insurance Company Limited, Pasadena Bayshore Hospital Inc., PatientKeeper, PatientKeeper Inc., Patients First Neurology LLC, Pavilion 2 Condominium Property LLC, Pavilion 2 Medical Office Building Condominium Association Inc., Pavilion Surgicenter LLC, Peach State Anesthesia Partners LLC, Pearland Institute for Womens Health PLLC, Pearland Partner LLC, Pediatric Anesthesia Consultants of San Antonio PLLC, Pediatric Cardiac Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Critical Care of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Hospitalists of Conroe PLLC, Pediatric Intensivist Group LLC, Pediatric Intensivists of El Paso PLLC, Pediatric Intensivists of North Texas PLLC, Pediatric Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Pediatric Specialty Clinic LLC, Pediatric Surgicare Inc., Pediatrics of Greater Houston PLLC, Pensacola Primary Care Inc., Physician Associates of Corporate Woods LLC, Physicians Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Physicians West Surgicenter LLC, Pinellas Medical LLC, Pinnacle Physician Network LLC, Pioneer Medical LLC, Plains Healthcare System Inc., Plano Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., Plano Heart Institute L.P., Plano Heart Management LLC, Plano Surgery Center - GP LLC, Plano Surgery Center Real Estate LLC, Plano Surgicenter Real Estate Manager LLC, Plano Urology PLLC, Plantation General Hospital L.P., Plaza Medical Specialists PLLC, Plaza Primary Care PLLC, Plaza Transplant Center PLLC, Podiatry of Clear Lake PLLC, Poinciana Medical Center Inc., Port St. Lucie Surgery Center Ltd., Portland Primary Care LLC, Portsmouth Regional Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Portsmouth Surgicenter LLC, Preferred Hospitals Inc., Preferred Works WC LLC, Premier ASC LLC, Premier Medical Management Ltd., Primary Care Medical Associates Inc., Primary Care Plano PLLC, Primary Care Services of Orlando LLC, Primary Care South PLLC, Primary Care West PLLC, Primary Care of West End LLC, Primary Health Asset Holdings Ltd., Primary Health Group Inc., Primary Health Inc., Primary Health Network of South Texas, Primary Health Physicians PLLC, Primary Medical Management Inc., Proaxis Therapy HealthOne LLC, Provident Professional Building Condominium Association Inc., Psychiatry Services of Osceola LLC, Pulaski Community Hospital Inc., Pulaski Urology LLC, Pulmonary Renal Intensivist Group LLC, Putnam Community Medical Center of North Florida LLC, Putnam Hospital Inc., Putnam Radiation Oncology LLC, Putnam Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Putnam Surgical Group LLC, Quantum/Bellaire Imaging Ltd., Quick Care Centers LLC, Quivira Internal Medicine Inc., RCH LLC, RMC - Pulmonary LLC, RMC Transplant Physicians LLC, RMCA Professionals Mgmt LLC, ROi CPS LLC, Radford Family Medicine LLC, Radiation Oncology Center of Thornton LLC, Radiation Oncology Manager LLC, Raleigh Community Medical Office Building Ltd., Rapides After Hours Clinic L.L.C., Rapides Healthcare System L.L.C., Rapides Regional Physician Group LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Primary Care LLC, Rapides Regional Physician Group Specialty Care LLC, Rapides Surgery Center LLC, Raulerson GYN LLC, Raulerson Gastroenterology LLC, Raulerson Primary Care LLC, Raymore Medical Group LLC, Red Rock Holdco LLC, Red Rock at Smoke Ranch LLC, Red Rocks Surgery Center LLC, Redmond Anesthesia Services LLC, Redmond Hospital Services LLC, Redmond Neurosurgery LLC, Redmond Park Health Services Inc., Redmond Park Hospital LLC, Redmond Physician Practice Company, Redmond Specialty Services LLC, Regional Hospital Healthcare Partners LLC, Research Cardiology Associates LLC, Research Family Physicians LLC, Research Internal Medicine LLC, Research Neurology Associates LLC, Research Neuroscience Institute LLC, Resource Optimization & Innovation L.L.C., Reston Hospital Center LLC, Reston Hospitalists LLC, Reston Surgery Center L.P., Retreat Cardiology LLC, Retreat Hospital LLC, Retreat Internal Medicine LLC, Retreat Surgical Associates LLC, Rhodes Limited-Liability Company, Richmond Imaging Employer Corp., Richmond Multi-Specialty LLC, Richmond Pediatric Surgeons LLC, Ridgeline Surgicenter LLC, Rim Building Partners L.P., Rio Grande Healthcare MSO Inc., Rio Grande NP Inc., Rio Grande Regional Hospital Inc., Rio Grande Valley Cardiology PLLC, Rio Grande Valley CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, Rio Grande Valley Urology PLLC, Riverside CyberKnife Manager LLC, Riverside Healthcare System L.P., Riverside Holdings Inc., Riverside Hospital Inc., Riverside Imaging LLC, Riverwalk ASC LLC, Roanoke Imaging LLC, Roanoke Neurosurgery LLC, Roanoke Surgery Center L.P., Roanoke Valley Gynecology LLC, Robotic Radiosurgery LLP, Rocky Mountain Pediatric Hematology Oncology LLC, Rocky Mountain Surgery Center LLC, Rome Imaging Center Limited Partnership, Roodlane Medical Limited, Rose Ambulatory Surgery Center L.P., Rose Health Partners LLC, Rose Medical Plaza Ltd., Rose POB Inc., Rosewood Medical Center Inc., Rosewood Professional Building Ltd., Round Rock Hospital Inc., Round Rock Trauma Surgeons PLLC, Royal Oaks Surgery Center L.P., S.A. Medical Center Inc., SAPN LLC, SCRI Global Services Limited, SCRI Holdings LLC, SCRI Scientifics LLC, SJMC LLC, SSHR Holdco LLC, SSJ St. Petersburg Holdings Inc., STPN Manager LLC, SWMC Inc., Sahara Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Salem Hospitalists LLC, Salem Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Salt Lake City Surgicare Inc., Samaritan LLC, San Antonio Division Inc., San Antonio Regional Hospital Inc., San Antonio Surgicenter LLC, San Bernardino Imaging LLC, San Joaquin Surgical Center Inc., San Jose Healthcare System LP, San Jose Hospital L.P., San Jose LLC, San Jose Medical Center LLC, San Jose Pathology Outreach LLC, San Marcos ASC LLC, San Marcos Surgicenter LLC, Sante Fe Family Practitioners PLLC, Sarah Cannon Development Innovations LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute LLC, Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK Limited, Sarasota Doctors Hospital Inc., Savannah Behavioral Health Associates LLC, Savannah Health Network LLC, Savannah Health Services LLC, Savannah Inpatient Services LLC, Savannah Multispecialty Associates LLC, Savannah Pediatric Care LLC, Savannah Primary Care Associates LLC, Sebring Health Services LLC, Selma Medical Center Hospital Inc., Senior Health Associates LLC, Short Pump Imaging LLC, Silicon Valley Health Holdings LLC, Silicon Valley Surgery Center L.P., Silicon Valley Surgicenter LLC, Sky Ridge Spine Manager LLC, Sky Ridge Surgery Center L.P., Skyline Medical Group LLC, Skyline Neuroscience Associates LLC, Skyline Rehab Associates LLC, Skyline Specialty Associates LLC, Smith Laboratories Inc., Solis Mammography at Bayshore Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Conroe Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Denton Regional Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at HCA Houston Tomball LLC, Solis Mammography at Kingwood Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Las Colinas Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Alliance LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center Arlington LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Lewisville LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of McKinney LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical Center of Plano LLC, Solis Mammography at Medical City Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography at Pearland Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Rose Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Skyline Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at StoneCrest Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at West Houston Medical Center LLC, Solis Mammography at Womans Hospital of Texas LLC, Solis Mammography of Cedar Hill LLC, Solis Mammography of CyFair LLC, Solis Mammography of Dallas LLC, Solis Mammography of Flower Mound LLC, Solis Mammography of Frisco LLC, Solis Mammography of Garland LLC, Solis Mammography of Grand Prairie LLC, Solis Mammography of Houston NW LLC, Solis Mammography of Katy LLC, Solis Mammography of Louetta/249 LLC, Solis Mammography of Mainland LLC, Solis Mammography of Mansfield LLC, Solis Mammography of Mesquite LLC, Solis Mammography of Montgomery LLC, Solis Mammography of North Cypress LLC, Solis Mammography of North Loop LLC, Solis Mammography of Sugar Land LLC, Solis Mammography of West Plano LLC, Solis Mammography of Womans Place LLC, South Atlantic Division Inc., South Austin Surgery Center Ltd., South Austin Surgical Management LLC, South Austin Surgicenter LLC, South Brandon Imaging LLC, South Florida Division Practice Inc., South Texas Surgicare Inc., South Transfer Center LLC, South Valley Hospital L.P., Southeast Georgia Health Services LLC, Southern Hills Medical Center LLC, Southern Hills Neurology Consultants LLC, Southern Kentucky Medicine Associates LLC, Southern Kentucky Surgicenter LLC, Southern Texas Physicians Network, Southpoint LLC, Southtown Womens Clinic LLC, Southwest Florida Health System Inc., Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center Inc., Southwest Medical Center Family Practice LLC, Southwest Medical Center Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Southwest Medical Center Surgical Group LLC, Southwest Medpro Ltd., Southwest Surgical Clinic Inc., Southwest Virginia Orthopedics and Spine LLC, Spalding Rehabilitation L.L.C., Specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology PLLC, Specialty Associates of West Houston PLLC, Specialty Physicians of Northern Virginia LLC, Specialty Surgicare of Las Vegas LP, Spotsylvania Condominium Property LLC, Spotsylvania Medical Center Inc., Spotsylvania Multi-Specialty Group LLC, Spotsylvania Regional Surgery Center LLC, Spring Branch Family Practitioners PLLC, Spring Branch Medical Center Inc., Spring Hill Hospital Inc., Spring Hill Imaging LLC, Spring Hill Physicians LLC, Springview KY LLC, Spruce Pine Healthcare LLC, St. Davids Austin Area ASC LLC, St. Davids Cardiology PLLC, St. Davids CareNow Urgent Care PLLC, St. Davids Healthcare Partnership L.P. LLP, St. Davids Heart & Vascular PLLC, St. Davids Neurology PLLC, St. Davids OB Hospitalist PLLC, St. Davids Ortho Neuro and Rehab PLLC, St. Davids Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation PLLC, St. Davids Quality Alliance LLC, St. Davids Specialized Womens Services PLLC, St. Davids Trauma Surgeons PLLC, St. Lucie Hospitalists LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Hyperbarics LLC, St. Lucie Medical Center Walk-In Clinic LLC, St. Lucie Medical Specialists LLC, St. Lucie West Primary Care LLC, St. Marks Ambulatory Surgery Associates L.P., St. Marks Gynecology Oncology Care LLC, St. Marks Investments Inc., St. Marks Physician Billing LLC, St. Marks Professional Services LLC, St. Marks South Jordan Family Practice LLC, St. Martins Healthcare Limited, St. Martins Ltd., St. Martins Medical Services Limited, St. Petersburg General Surgery LLC, Stafford Imaging LLC, Statland Medical Group LLC, Steamboat Springs Surgicenter LLC, Sterling Primary Care Associates LLC, Stiles Road Imaging LLC, StoneCrest Surgery Center LLC, StoneSprings Medical Office Building Property LLC, StoneSprings Surgicenter LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - Family Practice of Murfreesboro LLC, Stonecrest Medical Group - SC Murfreesboro Family Practice LLC, Stones River Hospital LLC, Suburban Medical Center at Hoffman Estates Inc., Sugar Land Surgery Center Anesthesia LLC, Sugar Land Surgery Center Ltd., Sullins Surgical Center Inc., Summit Convenient Care at Lebanon LLC, Summit General Partner Inc., Summit Heart LLC, Summit Outpatient Diagnostic Center LLC, Summit Research Solutions LLC, Summit Surgery Center L.P., Summit Surgical Associates LLC, Summit Walk-in Clinic LLC, Sun Bay Medical Office Building Inc., Sun City Hospital Inc., Sun City Imaging LLC, Sun Towers/Vista Hills Holding Co., Sun-Med LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Holdings LLC, Sunrise Flamingo Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center LLC, Sunrise Mountainview Hospital Inc., Sunrise Mountainview Multi-Specialty Clinics LLC, Sunrise Outpatient Services Inc., Sunrise Physician Services LLC, Sunrise Trauma Services LLC, Surgery Associates of NTX PLLC, Surgery Center of Atlantis LLC, Surgery Center of Aventura Ltd., Surgery Center of Bay Area Houston LLC, Surgery Center of Greenview L.P., Surgery Center of Independence L.P., Surgery Center of Overland Park L.P., Surgery Center of Port Charlotte Ltd., Surgery Center of Rome L.P., Surgery Center of the Rockies LLC, Surgical Associates of Southwest Virginia LLC, Surgical Care Medical Group LLC, Surgical Center of Irving Inc., Surgical Facility of West Houston L.P., Surgical Park Center Ltd., Surgical Specialists of Clear Lake PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Conroe PLLC, Surgical Specialists of Corpus Christi PLLC, Surgicare America - Winter Park Inc., Surgicare Merger Company of Louisiana, Surgicare Outpatient Center of Baton Rouge Inc., Surgicare Outpatient Center of Jackson Inc., Surgicare of ADC LLC, Surgicare of AGI LLC, Surgicare of Alpine LLC, Surgicare of Altamonte Springs Inc., Surgicare of Anchorage LLC, Surgicare of Arapahoe LLC, Surgicare of Arlington LLC, Surgicare of Ashburn LLC, Surgicare of Augusta Inc., Surgicare of Aurora Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Aventura LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area Endoscopy LLC, Surgicare of Bay Area LLC, Surgicare of Bayonet Point Inc., Surgicare of Bayside LLC, Surgicare of Bountiful LLC, Surgicare of Brandon Inc., Surgicare of Brentwood LLC, Surgicare of Brighton LLC, Surgicare of Brooksville LLC, Surgicare of Brownsville LLC, Surgicare of Buckhead LLC, Surgicare of CAREOS LLC, Surgicare of Central Florida Inc., Surgicare of Central Park Surgery Center LLC, Surgicare of Central San Antonio Inc., Surgicare of Chattanooga LLC, Surgicare of Chippenham LLC, Surgicare of Citrus LLC, Surgicare of Clarksville LLC, Surgicare of Corpus Christi LLC, Surgicare of Countryside Inc., Surgicare of Dallas Specialty LLC, Surgicare of Denton Inc., Surgicare of Denver Clinic LLC, Surgicare of Denver LLC, Surgicare of Denver Mid-Town Inc., Surgicare of Dickson LLC, Surgicare of Eastside LLC, Surgicare of Evans Inc., Surgicare of Fairfax Inc., Surgicare of Florida Inc., Surgicare of Flower Mound Inc., Surgicare of Focus Hand LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Co-GP LLC, Surgicare of Fort Worth Inc., Surgicare of Ft. 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The largest UK organic dairy co-operative has said it is "optimistic" about the direction of EU and UK trade negotiations. The Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative (OMSCo), which is the second largest dedicated organic milk pool in the world, has stated it is "optimistic" following comments made by Defra Secretary Michael Gove. Mr Gove indicated last month that a free trade deal with Europe is in everyones interests. OMSCos chairman, Nicholas Saphir said following the Defra Secretary's comments, a comprehensive free trade deal with Europe is "vital" for UK agriculture, particularly the livestock and dairy industry. However, it must not be at the expense of global opportunities that would flow from ensuring market access for UK products in other markets, Mr Saphir said. 'Innovation and added-value' As agriculture is increasingly made to look to the market for its returns, Mr Saphir stressed that the UK industry must address the fact that the UK agricultural exports in many sectors lag behind those of the main competitors overseas. There is no fundamental reason as to why that should be the case, he added. UK farmers are as innovative as any in producing high-quality farm produce to meet growing global markets. However, innovation and added-value, rather than commodity, markets must be the way forward. OMSCo are now the leading exporter of organic dairy products such as cheese, powders, whey and specialist infant formula ingredients, made to a number of global organic certification standards. Mr Saphir said that it is "no accident" that in eight years OMSCo has developed the only European organic cheese that meets USDA organic equivalence standards, as well as supplying organic dairy ingredients to the fast-growing infant formula market in Asia. As we focus on Brexit and maintaining relationships and trade agreements in Europe, let us not forget the fast-growing global opportunities and the need to ensure that they remain open through recognition of standards and hard won existing equivalence agreements, he added. Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (India) PIPFPD (India) Office: F-10/12, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi pipfpdindia[at]gmail.com I Phone: 011-26680883 Mobile +91-9582452343/ +91-9582862682 New Delhi, 2"d August 2018 a We, the members of Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (India Chapter), welcome the statement of Pakistans newly elected Prime Minister, Mr. Imran Khan that his government would "want to improve our relations with India". He rightly points out the pointlessness of the "blame game that whatever goes wrong in Pakistans Baluchistan is because of India and vice versa", in his statement. Mr. Khan has added that this attitude has stood in the way of meaningful dialogue. He has made it clear that he would like the leaders of India and Pakistan to resolve all disputes, including the "core issue" of Kashmir, through talks, that the blame game between the two neighbours, detrimental to the subcontinent, should stop. This statement is significant particularly in the context that India and Pakistan relationship has reached its all-time to in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. Violations of the ceasefire agreement of 2003 between the two countries in the Jammu and Kashmir region, has caused immense sufferings to the residents of the border region in both the countries. The failure of both countries to systematically assess the causes of cease fire violations has resulted in both governments adopting policies that have been unsuccessful in curtailing recurrent violations. Ceasefire violations have the potential to not only spark bilateral crises but also escalate any ongoing crisis, especially in the aftermath of terror incidents. We have also seen that the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement tends to hold when a dialogue process is under way between India and Pakistan on key disputes, and all local factors seeming to have little or no influence under such a positive environment. Indian Government must engage with the newly elected Government of Pakistan to assure return to normalcy and positive engagement. The importance of resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan cannot be overemphasized. It is an absolute necessity for the normalization of relationship between India and Pakistan. We urge the Government of India to respond positively to Pakistans Prime Minister designate, Mr. Imran Khans invitation to dialogue for resolving all disputes. We believe a positive response will ease out the current negative visa and trade regime and will also save the miserable lives of hundreds of fishworkers and other prisoners, in each others prisons. An unconditional and open dialogue, is the way forward. Tape. K Bose Syeda Hameed Co-Chairpersons, PIPFPD (India Chapter) Vijayan MJ General Secretary Bhargavi Dilipkumar Executive Secretary Paltan Trailer Reaction: Jackie Shroff Arjun Rampal Gurmeet Chaudhary JP Dutta FilmiBeat After delivering superhits such as Border and LoC Kargil, J P Dutta is back with yet another hair-raising war-based movie Paltan, and this time the enemy is not Pakistan, but China. The story revolves around the Indo-Sino War that happened in 1962 and tells the untold story about the Indian soldiers who fought hard, and eventually won the battle against China in 1967. The movie focuses on India's relation with China during that period of time. Paltan stars Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal and Sonu Sood in the lead roles and the trailer, we must say, is very powerful, emotional and can move you to tears. Watch the trailer below... An amazing trailer, isn't it? It's good to see J P Dutta creating war movies time and again and he's one of the most-trusted film-maker when it comes to war movies. He's known to blend a soldier's family, feelings, love and various other things that'll move the audiences to tears and acknowledge that a soldier's life is not easy and needs so much of sacrifice to protect our mother land, India. Paltan also stars Gurmeet Choudhary, Harshvardhan Rane and Luv Sinha in prominent roles and the movie is expected to be as good as Border and LoC Kargil. J P Dutta has the ability to draw the audiences to the theatres, as war movies are rare in Bollywood and it'll be a refreshing change for the audiences to witness a movie based on Indian war victory. J P Dutta's Paltan is all set to hit the theatres on September 7, 2018. Rating: 3.5 /5 Star Cast: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar Director: Akarsh Khurana Karwaan PUBLIC REVIEW: Irrfan Khan| Dulquer Salmaan | Mithila Palkar | FilmiBeat 'Main akela hi chala tha janib-e-manzil magar, Log saath aate gaye aur karwaan banta gaya', these lines by Majrooh Sultanpuri on the walls of Shaukat (Irrfan Khan)'s blue van give you a hint about what Akarsh Khurana's Karwaan has in store for you. It would be wrong to call Karwaan just a road trip film. Instead, it's much deeper than that. What's intriguing is that the filmmaker uses death as a theme to make us realize that when you let go, you create space for something better. Coming to the plot, Avinash (Dulquer Salmaan) is a dejected soul who is stuck up in a mundane job in an IT firm in Bangalore. Through flashbacks, it's revealed that his heart always beats for photography, a career which his father (Akash Khurana) never approved and brushed off as something which few take up as an excuse for being a rebel. However, Avinash's life takes a drastic turn when he receives the news of his father's demise during his pilgrimage trip and takes the help of his friend (Shaukat) to collect the dead body, only to discover that it has been misplaced with another one, which belongs to Tanya's (Mithila Palkar) grandmother. The trio then embark on a road trip to Kochin to set things right, unaware that life has something unexpected in store for them. Akarsh Khurana's characters in Karwaan are as real as they can get and that's exactly what strikes an instant chord with you. They are flawed in their own ways and their problems are totally relatable. The film makes you laugh, it leaves you moist-eyed at times. On the flip-side, the film stumbles a little when it comes to pace and drags at places. But, the witty humour quickly puts things back in the place. Talking about the performance, Irrfan Khan brings in a fresh whiff of humour with his terrific comic timing and his hilarious one-liners that leave you asking for more. Malayalam hearthrob Dulquer Salmaan proves yet again why he is one of the best talents we have around. Bollywood, better watch out for this powerhouse performer! With his simplicity and charm, DQ has a tight grip on the emotions and makes sure your eyes don't leave the frame even for a minute. If Irrfan is the heart of Karwaan, then Dulquer is the soul. Mithila Palkar makes a confident debut, but one wished that the role was a little more fleshed out. Kriti Kharbanda's cameo works fine with the narrative, Dulquer-Mithila's Kodak vs Instagram debate, Dulquer's emotional scene towards the climax and Irrfan's sudden revelation are some of the scenes which leave a lasting impression. Avinash Arun's cinematography captures the picturesque locales with finesse and makes the road trip your very own. Ajay Sharma's editing could have been a tad more tauter. Speaking about the music, Chhota Sa Fasana is our pick from the music lot. Heartquake makes an interesting listen for its quirky lyrics. Karwaan is a refreshing sip for the parched soul with its relatable characters and their journey of self-discovery. This trip is not to be missed! To quote Michelle Sandlin - 'There's no greater journey than the one you must take to discover all the mysteries that lies within you.' Rating: 3.0 /5 Star Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Rishi Kapoor, Prateik Babbar, Rajat Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana Director: Anubhav Sinha Mulk Movie PUBLIC REVIEW: Rishi Kapoor | Taapsee Pannu | Anubhav Sinha | FilmiBeat 'Ek mulk kaagaz pe naksho ki lakeeron se nahin batataa, mulk batataa hain rang se, bhasha se, dharam se, zaat se," says Taapee Pannu's Aarti Mohammad during an intense courtroom scene in Mulk, and you almost find yourself nodding in agreement. In his latest outing, director Anubhav Sinha sets out to remind people that humanity is not blinded by religion. Mulk begins with a quick glimpse into the milieu of Benaras, post which Anubhav Sinha introduces us to his characters. Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) is a well-respected lawyer who has Hindu friends in his mohalla. His family comprises of his wife Tabassum (Neena Gupta), his younger brother Bilaal (Manoj Pahwa) and his wife Chhoti Tabassum (Prachi Shah), their son Shahid Mohammed (Prateik Babbar) and daughter Aayat. Soon, his daughter-in-law, Aarti Mohammed (Taapsee Pannu) also arrives from Germany after a tiff with her hubby. However, the life in the Mohammed household take a drastic turn when Shahid gets involved in terrorist activities and is shot down by the investigating cop Danish Javed (Rajat Kapur). Because of the perception their religion inadvertently causes them to be associated with, the Mohammeds find themselves in a soup where they not only have to defend themselves, but also prove their love for their 'mulk'. Anubhav Sinha picks up a burning issue about how people fall prey to political agendas without realising that terrorism has no religion. The filmmaker makes use of some heavy-weight dialogues to add more to the intensity and tries to present the truth without any filters. However, while doing so, the filmmaker ends up stretching the screenplay like a bubblegum, and the film starts losing steam at certain portions. Also, Mulk has Sinha spelling out certain topics aloud, as opposed to the subtlety, which would have made things even more impactful. Speaking about performances, the film majorly rests on Rishi Kapoor's sturdy shoulders and the veteran actor once again proves why he can pull off any role given to him. Taapsee Pannu plays her part effectively, though she does stumble a bit and goes a tad overboard when it comes to her long monologues towards the climax. Manoj Pahwa is in top form. Ashutosh Rana and Kumud Mishra in a guest appearance bring in some hint of humour with their dialogues. The rest of the cast - Neena Gupta, Rajat Kapoor, Prateik Babbar, Prachee Shah Pandya, Ashrut Jain and Indraneil Sengupta are fine in their parts. Evan Mulligan's cinematography captures the milieu of the small town quite effectively. Ballu Saluja's editing scissors should have been a little more sharper. The music of Mulk barely has anything new to offer and doesn't add much value to the film. With a slow-paced first half, Mulk takes its own sweet time to establish the plot, but turns into a gripping narrative once the courtroom scenes set in. Most importantly, it makes you come face to face with grappling issues that are often brushed under the carpet. With its heart in the right place, Mulk sets out to deliver a hard-hitting message, which is the need of the hour where religion is the most misunderstood thing. One Among The 5 Contestants David John was the first contestant to be evicted and he was followed by Hima Sankar. Other members like Sreelakshmi Sreekumar, Deepan Murali, Shwetha Menon, etc., got evicted in the weeks that followed. It seems like an Onam-special episode of Bigg Boss Malayalam is on the way and one among them will anchor that episode. Deepan Murali Yes, it is popular serial actor Deepan Murali, who will be hosting the Onam-special episode of Bigg Boss Malayalam. Reportedly, this special episode has been titled as Big Boss Housile Swanthakkar. Deepan Murali's Facebook Post In fact, it was Deepan Murali himself who revealed that he will be hosting the special episode. The actor took to his Facebook page to send out a selfie taken at the shooting spot of the special episode. He has also mentioned that the programme has been scheduled to be aired on the Thiruvonam day. Deepan Murali In Bigg Boss Deepan Murali had made his presence felt at the Bigg Boss house. At the same time, the actor had entered the eviction list twice. He entered the eviction list of the fourth week with as many as 6 votes. Later, he was evicted by the end of the week. Nithya Defends Balaji Lashing out at Aishwarya, Nithya said that her actions were completely unacceptable and 'inhuman'. She added that even though her estranged husband frequently uses foul language, the Aarathu Sinam had no business humiliating him on television. She Was Deeply Hurt By Aishwarya's Actions Nithya further added that she was so deeply hurt by the incidents that she reached out to her friends and indicated that she wanted Thadi Balaji to leave the house. Nithya About Balaji's Language Nithya, however, criticised Thadi Balaji for using the 'T' word while talking about Aishwarya. She went on to apologise to Aishwarya's mother for the RJ's language. Is Nithya Upset With Ponnambalam? She thanked Mumtaz for defending Thadi Balaji and indicated that she is grateful to her. However, at the same time, she added that Ponnambalam should have stepped in and stopped the fight. Will Kamal Support Balaji? On a parting note, Nithya indicated that she was expecting Kamal to take up the issue over the weekend and rebuke Aishwarya for her actions. The Hey Ram actor has previously reprimanded Aishwarya and Thadi Balaji on separate occasions. As such, one can expect him to deal with the latest controversy in the most unbiased way possible. Television actress Sanaya Irani is seen spending a lot of time off screen. She was on a holiday spree with husband Mohit Sehgal until recently. Their pictures from Switzerland were simply beautiful. Looks like the actress is back to work, as she recently performed at an event held in Thailand. After the event, Sanaya posted a picture along with her co-star Ashish Sharma and revealed that she is jealous of him! She captioned the image as, "When your co actor has longer and better hair than yours you just have to tie yours up @ashish30sharma84 #jealous #event @jkn.official". - (sic). Clad in colourful costumes at the event, both the actors looked vibrant at the event. On the professional front, Sanaya will be soon seen in Vikram Bhatt's upcoming web series Zindabaad. Sanaya will be seen playing the lead along with so-stars Aniruddh Dave, Sanaa Khan and Vikram Bhatt. The actress has undergone a lot of physical training, as she will be seen playing a RAW agent's role. Aniruddh Dave, who is also seen as a RAW agent in Zindabaad, told in an interview with Biz Asia Live that, "Zindabad is based on terrorism and investigation agencies. I have never played such a character and it's very challenging for an actor to play such roles. Sanaya Irani and me both are playing raw agents and we have shot action sequences as well. I am exploring myself as an actor through this series." Dave has been a part of two web series prior to this - 'Untouchables' and 'Unafraid'." "The content is very different and we all are working hard on the script. The difference between TV and the web is only of the mediums, the amount of effort required is the same. There are different enacting patterns and methods of stylisation. For someone like me, who started as an actor in theatre, sustained due to television and started doing films, the web poses a myriad of challenges. I am so happy that as an actor I am exploring myself with different roles looks and souls of different characters," he added. Also Read -This Television Actress Tweets Against Suhana Khan's Vogue Cover Picture Divyanka Tripathi gets SPECIAL gift from Karan Patel on friendship Day; Watch Video FilmiBeat Divyanka Tripathi and Karan Patel who play the roles of Ishita and Raman on Yeh Hai Mohabbatein are undoubtedly one of the most loved on-screen couples. The beauty of their relationship doesn't end on the screen alone, but has grown into a special bond off-screen, too. As friendship day is just around the corner, Karan Patel's special present for his friend and co-actor Divyanka Tripathi will leave you in awe. Divyanka Tripati took to her social media handle to share the picture of the beautiful present with her fans. Knowing what a big coffee lover Divyanka is, Karan gifted her a coffee making machine! Thanking him for such a special present, she wrote, "A thoughtful gift for a major coffee lover. Thanks KP. I'll take it to one a Friendship's Day Gift!" - (sic) After working with closely together for so many years, both Karan and Divyanka seem to know the likes and dislikes of each other. Divyanka had also presented Karan Patel with a very thoughtful present. She had gifted him an Iron Man pop-up socket once. He thanked her saying, "@divyankatripathidahiya love it! Thank you for this IronMan pop up socket." A few moths ago rumours were making rounds that the co-actors share cold vibes on the sets of their show Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. Clarifying this Divyanka said, "#DivyankaKaran #IshitaRaman...Our stories are kind of similar. People often wonder- Are they friends? Maybe yes.. But they don't have a matching frequency. Are they foes? Maybe but not like they'll hurt each other." " #ContrastingPersonalities, #DistinctTastes. But thrown in a situation together they function so well because few things are just meant to be. You resist, you fall! You collaborate, you rise! And here we are...fulfilling our destinies. So KP, let's stay #HandcuffedTogether in these situations and keep the #YHM magic going." - (sic) Karan responded beautifully saying, "@divyankatripathidahiya you have put it up so beautifully in your post that i am at a loss of words. So since you used up all the most beautiful and apt words in your post, i shall make do with sharing all the pictures .... #YHM #OnSetPic #IshRa #DT" - (sic) Also Read -Sushant Singh To Launch His Digital Series! Amsterdam, 2 August 2018 (Regulated Information) --- AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. ("AMG", EURONEXT AMSTERDAM: "AMG") hereby announces that the Supervisory Board has accepted the request of Mrs. Suzanne Folsom to resign as member of the Supervisory Board, effective 2 August 2018, due to various other professional commitments. The Supervisory Board has started the process to identify an appropriate replacement for Mrs. Folsom which it intends to announce in due course. In the interim, Dr. Donatella Ceccarelli will replace Mrs. Folsom as member of AMG's Audit & Risk Management Committee. Mr. Jack Messman, Chairman of AMG's Supervisory Board, stated, "As a well-recognized and respected corporate governance expert, Mrs. Folsom's experience, perspective and contribution have been most beneficial to the Supervisory Board and the Company. In addition, Mrs. Folsom's extensive knowledge of the US legal and regulatory environment has proved invaluable during her tenure. The Supervisory Board regrets but accepts her decision and thanks Mrs. Folsom for her invaluable insights and wishes her well in her future endeavors. This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This press release contains regulated information as defined in the Dutch Financial Markets Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht). About AMG AMG is a global critical materials company at the forefront of CO 2 reduction trends. AMG produces highly engineered specialty metals and mineral products and provides related vacuum furnace systems and services to the transportation, infrastructure, energy, and specialty metals & chemicals end markets. AMG Critical Materials produces aluminum master alloys and powders, titanium alloys and coatings, ferrovanadium, natural graphite, chromium metal, antimony, lithium, tantalum, niobium and silicon metal. AMG Engineering designs, engineers, and produces advanced vacuum furnace systems and operates vacuum heat treatment facilities, primarily for the transportation and energy industries. With approximately 3,300 employees, AMG operates globally with production facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, the United States, China, Mexico, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Mozambique, and has sales and customer service offices in Russia and Japan (www.amg-nv.com). For further information, please contact: AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. +1 610 293 5804 Steve Daniels Senior Vice President sdaniels@amg-nv.com (mailto:sdaniels@amg-nv.com) Disclaimer Certain statements in this press release are not historical facts and are "forward looking". Forward looking statements include statements concerning AMG's plans, expectations, projections, objectives, targets, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans and intentions relating to acquisitions, AMG's competitive strengths and weaknesses, plans or goals relating to forecasted production, reserves, financial position and future operations and development, AMG's business strategy and the trends AMG anticipates in the industries and the political and legal environment in which it operates and other information that is not historical information. When used in this press release, the words "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "may," "will," "should," and similar expressions, and the negatives thereof, are intended to identify forward looking statements. By their very nature, forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward looking statements will not be achieved. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. AMG expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in AMG's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any forward looking statement is based. AMG Announces Changes to the Composition of its Supervisory Board (http://hugin.info/138060/R/2208763/859285.pdf) This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. via Globenewswire Amsterdam, 2 August 2018 (Regulated Information) --- AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. ("AMG", EURONEXT AMSTERDAM: "AMG") is pleased to announce an increase in interim dividend to 0.20 per ordinary share from 0.14 per ordinary share in the prior year. The interim dividend in respect of the period from 1 January 2018 to 30 June 2018 of 0.20 per ordinary share, is payable on or around 14 August 2018, to shareholders of record on 7 August 2018. The ex-dividend date will be 6 August 2018. Dutch withholding tax will be deducted from the dividend at a rate of 15%. Furthermore, effective 2 August 2018, AMG's Supervisory Board has approved a change in dividend policy which targets an annual dividend payout of between 20-40% of net income attributable to shareholders. In line with Dutch corporate governance best practices, the change will be discussed during AMG's 2019 Annual General Meeting. The actual dividend payment will be determined on an annual basis and will be dependent on factors such as AMG's results of operation, financial position, financing requirements, organic and acquisitive growth opportunities. Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chairman of the Management Board and CEO stated, "In light of AMG's strong balance sheet position and strong cashflow generation, AMG's Supervisory Board has resolved to formalize our dividend policy, to ensure dividend stability and growth over the long-term." This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This press release contains regulated information as defined in the Dutch Financial Markets Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht). About AMG AMG is a global critical materials company at the forefront of CO 2 reduction trends. AMG produces highly engineered specialty metals and mineral products and provides related vacuum furnace systems and services to the transportation, infrastructure, energy, and specialty metals & chemicals end markets. AMG Critical Materials produces aluminum master alloys and powders, titanium alloys and coatings, ferrovanadium, natural graphite, chromium metal, antimony, lithium, tantalum, niobium and silicon metal. AMG Engineering designs, engineers, and produces advanced vacuum furnace systems and operates vacuum heat treatment facilities, primarily for the transportation and energy industries. With approximately 3,300 employees, AMG operates globally with production facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic, the United States, China, Mexico, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and Mozambique, and has sales and customer service offices in Russia and Japan (www.amg-nv.com). For further information, please contact: AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. +1 610 293 5804 Steve Daniels Senior Vice President sdaniels@amg-nv.com (mailto:sdaniels@amg-nv.com) Disclaimer Certain statements in this press release are not historical facts and are "forward looking". Forward looking statements include statements concerning AMG's plans, expectations, projections, objectives, targets, goals, strategies, future events, future revenues or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans and intentions relating to acquisitions, AMG's competitive strengths and weaknesses, plans or goals relating to forecasted production, reserves, financial position and future operations and development, AMG's business strategy and the trends AMG anticipates in the industries and the political and legal environment in which it operates and other information that is not historical information. When used in this press release, the words "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "may," "will," "should," and similar expressions, and the negatives thereof, are intended to identify forward looking statements. By their very nature, forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward looking statements will not be achieved. These forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. AMG expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in AMG's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any forward looking statement is based. AMG Announces New Dividend Policy and 2018 Interim Dividend (http://hugin.info/138060/R/2208767/859291.pdf) This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. via Globenewswire BENGALURU, India, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tejas Networks (BSE: 540595) (NSE: TEJASNET) today announced that ICOSNET, one of Algeria's leading Internet Service Providers (ISP), has chosen Tejas' Converged Packet Optical (CPO) products to serve the growing demand for its high-speed Internet access & Virtual Private Network (VPN) offerings in the country. ICOSNET has deployed Tejas' TJ1400 converged broadband access and optical aggregation platform at multiple Points of Presence (POP) within Algeria as well as in its international exchanges in London and Madrid. ICOSNET is a full-service operator in Algeria holding ISP, Voice over IP (VoIP) and WiMax licenses. It offers a comprehensive suite of telecommunications services to its blue-chip clientele. Mr. Ahmed Zerkouk, CTO at ICOSNET, said, "Over the past twelve months, we have been experiencing a dramatic rise in Internet and VPN traffic in our network that is driven by a faster adoption of higher-speed Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connections by our enterprise customers. Tejas TJ1400 CPO is an innovative product that is designed to seamlessly scale to address our escalating capacity demands in a flexible and 'pay-as-you-grow' manner. Moreover, as an MEF-certified CE2.0 compliant product, TJ1400 is purpose-built to carry SLA-driven premium and mission-critical enterprise data traffic with carrier-class availability and performance." "We are pleased to partner with ICOSNET as they enter into an exciting new phase of growth in their ISP business and expand their telecom offerings in Algeria beyond enterprise services into retail connectivity segment," said Sanjay Nayak, CEO and MD of Tejas Networks. "Tejas TJ1400 is a unique platform that combines high-capacity PTN/OTN-based packet optical transmission with high-speed GPON-based fiber broadband in a dense and power-efficient chassis. TJ1400 is a best-in-class product that is ideally suited for service providers like ICOSNET that operate in high-growth telecom markets since it can deliver high-quality Internet access and business connectivity services in a scalable and cost-efficient manner," he added. Yogesh Verma, Regional Director for Tejas MENA & West Africa, said, "We are thrilled to work with ICOSNET Broadband in their quest to provide better quality services to their customers. Broadband in Algeria is in the midst of a major transformation, and with this deployment ICOSNET will be able to grow its business by efficiently addressing their customers' need for a higher capacity and faster broadband network." About Tejas Networks Limited Tejas Networks designs, develops and sells high-performance and cost-competitive networking products to telecommunications service providers, internet service providers, utilities, defence and government entities in over 70 countries. Tejas products utilize programmable, software-defined hardware architecture with a common software code-base that delivers seamless upgrades of new features and technology standards. Tejas Networks is ranked among top-10 suppliers in the global optical aggregation segment and has filed 342 patents. For more information, visit Tejas Networks at http://www.tejasnetworks.com SAFE HARBOUR Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements due to risks or uncertainties associated with our expectations with respect to, but not limited to, our ability to successfully implement our strategy and our growth and expansion plans, technological changes, our exposure to market risks, general economic and political conditions in India which have an impact on our business activities or investments, changes in the laws and regulations that apply to the industry in which the Company operates. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company. Media Contact: Santosh Kesavan skeshavan@india.tejasnetworks.com +91-80-41794600 Tejas Networks The polisario is currently taking it on the chin day after day and from all sides, including from its main sponsor, Algeria. The Algerian justice sentenced 26 Sahrawis from the Tindouf camps for illicitly importing vehicles from Europe to Algeria, as the only justification documents they had bore the stamps of the customs of the SADR, the pseudo-republic self-proclaimed by the Polisario. Without hesitation, the judges of the court of the city of Mostaganem condemned the 26 Sahrawis to four years in prison and heavy fines. The sentence was felt with much bitterness by the Sahrawis. Obviously, almost no one in the Tindouf camps has any illusions about the far-fetched promises made by the Polisario leaders. Yet, they still believed in the sympathy of the Algerian mentors of the Polisario. As they could not imagine that the Algerian judges would deliver such a harsh sentence on Sahrawis from Tindouf, they indulged in importing cars that they sell to make some money and cope with the harsh living conditions in the camps. However, the Algerian justice was inflexible as the case concerns bringing goods into Algeria fraudulently, without the required authorizations. The justice refused to recognize the legality of the authorizations signed and sealed by the customs of the SADR. The Polisario propaganda websites have bitterly commented on the case and accused the Algerians of belittling the Sahrawis of Tindouf. The stubborn separatists are seemingly having a rude awakening. Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc / Index: AIM / Epic: EOG / Sector: Oil & Gas 1 August 2018 Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc ('Europa' or 'the Company') Update on Wressle, North Lincolnshire Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the UK and Ireland focussed oil and gas exploration, development and production company, notes today's update from Egdon Resources ('Egdon') which advises that its application to North Lincolnshire Council ('NLC') to extend planning consent for the Wressle site on PEDL 180 in the East Midlands ('the Application') was refused. Europa notes that the board of Egdon intends to appeal this decision without delay and will begin preparing documentation on receipt of the Committee's decision notice. Europa has a 30% working interest in Wressle alongside Egdon (operator, 30%), Union Jack Oil (27.5%), and Humber Oil & Gas Limited (12.5%) ('the Joint Venture partners'). Egdon's full RNS including Notes is reproduced at the end of this release. Europa's CEO, Hugh Mackay, said: "It is disappointing to note today's decision by the NLC, particularly when considering that this application had received support from North Lincolnshire County Council's planning officers. The board of Egdon has been forthright in its intention to appeal this decision and we will stand by for further updates in due course. "Bringing Wressle on-stream would augment our current net daily production to approximately 250 bopd and generate a valuable revenue stream for reinvestment across our multi-stage portfolio of licences onshore UK and offshore Ireland. With this in mind, we remain hopeful of a resolution to the outstanding issues to ensure a satisfactory outcome for all parties." Egdon's RNS published today is as follows: Egdon Resources plc (AIM:EDR) advises that its application to extend planning consent for the Wressle site to 1 August 2019 was refused at today's meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee ("the Committee"). The application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire County Council's planning officers. Mark Abbott, Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc, said: "The decision of the Committee is clearly disappointing given that the application had been recommended for approval by North Lincolnshire Council's own professional planning officers, that an appeal for a previous refusal of such an application had been successful and that we have recently submitted a new application for the development of the Wressle oil field which we strongly believe comprehensively addresses the reasons for the refusal of the original planning applications and the subsequent appeals. "We intend to appeal this decision without delay and will begin preparing documentation on receipt of the Committee's decision notice." Notes to Editors: Planning history: On 11 January 2017, North Lincolnshire Council refused planning consent for the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field at Lodge Farm, Wressle, North Lincolnshire. On 7 February 2017, Egdon announced that it would both appeal the decision of 11 January 2017 and in parallel submit a new Planning Application for the Wressle development which would include even more detailed information to address the specific concerns outlined by North Lincolnshire Council in their refusal. On 11 April 2017, Egdon submitted an appeal against North Lincolnshire Council's decision to refuse planning consent. On 28 April 2017, Egdon submitted a new application for the Wressle Development including additional detailed information to address the specific concerns raised by North Lincolnshire Council in its 11 January 2017 decision to refuse the original application for the development of the Wressle Oil Field. On 19 May 2017, Egdon announced the issue by the Environment Agency of the variation to the Mining Waste Permit for the planned Wressle field development and associated operations. On 3 July 2017, the new planning application was also refused. The variation of the existing planning for the site requesting a twelve month extension was also refused at the same meeting. During November 2017, a planning inquiry was held to consider the two appeals for development approval and the appeal of the variation of the existing planning for the site. On 5 January 2018, we announced that the Inspector had rejected the appeals by Egdon against the two planning refusals by North Lincolnshire County Council's Planning Committee. However, the Planning Inspectorate did uphold Egdon's appeal against the decision to refuse the application to retain the existing planning for the well site, which is was retained until the 28 April 2018. A new application to extend the current planning consent was submitted on 13 April 2018 and refused 8 August 2018 and the company announced its intention to appeal the decision On 5 July we announced the submission to North Lincolnshire Council of a new planning application for the development of the Wressle oil field. Egdon Resources plc (LSE: EDR) is an established UK-based exploration and production company focused on onshore exploration and production in the hydrocarbon-producing basins of the UK. Egdon holds interests in 44 licences in the UK and has an active programme of exploration, appraisal and development within its portfolio of oil and gas assets. Egdon is an approved operator in the UK. Egdon was formed in 1997 and listed on AIM in December 2004. In accordance with the AIM Rules - Note for Mining and Oil and Gas Companies, the information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and signed off by the Managing Director of Egdon Resources plc Mark Abbott, a Geoscientist with over 26 years' experience. The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. * * ENDS * * For further information please visit www.europaoil.com or contact: Hugh Mackay Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Phil Greenhalgh Europa + 44 (0) 20 7224 3770 Matt Goode finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Simon Hicks finnCap Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500 Frank Buhagiar St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Susie Geliher St Brides Partners Ltd + 44 (0) 20 7236 1177 Notes Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc has a diversified portfolio of multi-stage hydrocarbon assets that includes production, exploration and development interests, in countries that are politically stable, have transparent licensing processes, and offer attractive terms. In 2017 Europa produced 113 boepd. Its highly prospective exploration projects include the Wressle development in the UK (targeting production start-up in 2018 at 500 bopd gross) and six licences offshore Ireland with the potential to host gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 6.2 billion barrels oil equivalent and 2.5 tcf undiscovered GIIP across all six licences. Qualified Person Review This release has been reviewed by Hugh Mackay, Chief Executive of Europa, who is a petroleum geologist with 30 years' experience in petroleum exploration and a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Fellow of the Geological Society. Mr Mackay has consented to the inclusion of the technical information in this release in the form and context in which it appears. AMSTERDAM, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, the global information analytics business specializing in science and health, and the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI), announce their agreement to provide access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature, for universities and research institutions across Italy. Details of the subscription agreement were finalized at the end of June following negotiations held at the end of 2017, extending the current partnership between CRUI and Elsevier for the period 2018-2022. With the 5-year agreement more than 70 Italian universities and research institutions will have access to ScienceDirect, supporting researchers search, discover, read, and share scholarly literature. "Access to high quality scientific research is key for Italian researchers and scientific institutions to maintain our country's position as one of Europe's leading research nations," said Gaetano Manfredi, President, CRUI. "Elsevier's cooperation helps us expand Italy's knowledge infrastructure and therefore the range of tools at our researchers' disposal." CRUI and Elsevier have also initiated a pilot program that encourages Italian researchers to publish their articles open access in support of CRUI's open access ambitions. "In addition to providing over 70 Italian research institutions with continued access to ScienceDirect, we will support Italy's open access objectives by continuing to work closely with the research community to understand their needs and co-create a more inclusive, collaborative and transparent world of research," said Gino Ussi, EVP Global Sales, Elsevier. Joint CRUI and Elsevier press release. AboutCRUI The CRUI is the association of Italian state and non-state universities. Established in 1963, as a private association of Rectors, the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) has over time acquired an acknowledged institutional and representative role, as well as a practical capacity to influence the development of the university system, through its intense activity of study and experimentation. As the representative body of Italian universities, CRUI is in the front line for the introduction of innovative elements and the dissemination of methodologies, projects and programs among the universities. About Elsevier Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support and professional education, including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 38,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com Media contacts: Mario Santamaria, Communications and Media Relations CRUI - Conference of Italian University Rectors +39-0668441801 santamaria@crui.it Sacha Boucherie, Global Communications Elsevier +31-6-3066-7129 s.boucherie@elsevier.com NEW YORK, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Kaleyra , a leading provider of global messaging services for banks, SME and large enterprise clients, signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the American firm Hook Mobile. Hook Mobile is an innovative mobile cloud messaging services provider with extensive experience, global connectivity, and an enterprise grade CPaaS platform supporting clients worldwide and with specific expertise in the North, Central and South American markets. Hook Mobile has distinguished itself with its innovation in the area of virtual local numbers which it started offering internationally as early as 2013. Nowadays, it reaches over 50 countries, aiming for over 100 countries by 2019. As a result of this acquisition, Kaleyra becomes a true global leader with significant presence in Europe, Asia and the Americas, with combined revenues of over 100 million dollars and a team of over 200 people across 12 locations. "This transaction is a step forward in our aspiration to go global. Hook Mobile is a very innovative company with expertise in Virtual Local Number services. Thanks to this deal, Kaleyra will now be active in strategic markets such as the US and the LATAM's," commented Dario Calogero,CEO at Kaleyra. Terry Hsiao, Chairman at Hook Mobile , said: "We are very pleased to join such an impressive global player as Kaleyra. This acquisition enables us to enhance our service capabilities in the areas of banking and a multitude of enterprise-based solutions while enabling us to speed up our roll out of virtual local number services worldwide." In 1999 Dario Calogero launched Ubiquity, a Milan-based firm specialized in messaging solutions to the BFSI industry in Italy. In 2016, the company grew significantly, following the opening of a branch in Switzerland and the acquisition of Solutions Infini in India. Today, Kaleyra is made up of the combination of the European Ubiquity, the Asian Solutions Infini, and the American Hook Mobile. Kaleyra handles close to 3 billion messages per month. Together, they provide a broad range of integrated multi-channel communication services involving the use of messages, push notifications, e-mail, instant messaging, voice and chatbot services. Chiomenti acted as legal advisor of Kaleyra on the corporate side of the transaction. Venable was the legal advisor of Kaleyra for the US market. Orrick was the legal advisor of Hook Mobile. KPMG supported Kaleyra in the financial and tax structure of the due diligence. MUNICH, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In September 2010, Nichia Corporation ("Nichia") started a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek Corporation ("Harvatek") concerning Harvatek's white LED products "HT-V116TW", "HT-U158TW", "HT-T169TW" and "HT-P178TWU-PQPS-DG". Nichia claimed that these products distributed in Germany infringed its YAG patent EP 0 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) and sought, among others, for permanent injunction and damages. As a consequence, the Dusseldorf District Court in the first instance with judgment of March 29, 2012 (docket number 4a O 184/10) and the Dusseldorf Court of Appeal in the second instance with judgment of January 20, 2017 (docket number I-2 U 41/12) found for infringement in Germany against Harvatek with final effect, and thus confirmed Nichia's claims. Based on the abovementioned final judgment, Nichia and Harvatek have now been able to terminate the legal dispute for Germany concerning the YAG patent of Nichia. Harvatek made a considerable payment to Nichia as solution for damage claims which took into account also further products of Harvatek in addition to the aforementioned four LED. Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes actions against alleged infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary. Contact information: Public Relations, Nichia Corporation Tel:+81-884-22-2311 Fax:+81-884-23-7717 GENOA, Italy, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ESAOTE, one of the world leaders in the manufacture of diagnostic ultrasound systems and probes on the market for more than 30 years, introduces the new MyLabX7, MyLabX6 and MyLabX5 ultrasound systems. These new ultrasound models enrich the company's own portfolio by establishing a new concept of image quality beyond EFFICIENCY, FLEXIBILITY, EASE. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/557501/ESAOTE_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/720815/ESAOTE.jpg ) "The MyLabX7, MyLabX6 and MyLabX5systems renew and complete Esaote's product range," said Giovanni Altobelli, Ultrasound Product Marketing Manager. "Our goal is to make ultrasound acquisition faster and smarter,bearing in mind the increase in diagnostic confidence, the reliability of clinical performance, and the improvement of daily productivity." Esaote's MyLabX7 technology makes it possible to reach better, faster, and more reliable decisions thanks to extremely intuitive usability and ergonomics that meet every need. It is a resilient, green, and movable system with unprecedented image quality, optimally simple interface usage, and significantly faster outputs thanks to the zero-click automation functions. MyLabX7, ultrasound imaging beyond efficiency. The new MyLabX6 makes the clinical workflow so efficient and smooth that it not only increases productivity but also empowers all clinical performances. Fast response and easy interface usage also adapt flawlessly to all clinical needs, providing comfort and flexibility. MyLabX6, ultrasound imaging beyond flexibility. With Esaote's new MyLabX5, which is so smart and simple, you will no longer need to worry about time-consuming adjustments. Zero-click automation helps and speeds up any assessments and the enhanced image quality makes it possible to deliver them confidently and with the utmost precision. MyLabX5, ultrasound imaging beyond ease. Developed to provide high-quality ultrasound technology to hospitals, clinics, and private practices, MyLabX7, MyLabX6, and MyLabX5 offer advanced clinical tools and large probe portfolios with zero-click automation. For more information, visit our esaote.com website at: MyLabX7, MyLabX6, MyLabX5 Karl-Heinz Lumpi, Chief Executive Officer of Esaote said: "Today, efficiency and reliability are the most demanding challenges,especially in the clinical world.The three new MyLab ultrasound systems are the smartest and fastest answers to customers' diagnostic and clinical needs in everyday practice." The MyLabX7, MyLabX6, and MyLabX5 will be presented at JFR 2018 in Paris, October 12 to 15, Palais des Congres, BOOTH 1N01 - Niveau 1 - Hall Neuilly. About Esaote : The Esaote Group is a leader in the biomedical equipment sector. In particular, Esaote is recognized as one of the Top 10 diagnostic imaging companies in the world (source: VPG Market Research) in the areas of ultrasound, dedicated MRI and software for managing the diagnostic process. Headquartered in Genoa, Italy, the Group has its production and research units in Italy (Genoa and Florence) as well as in the Netherlands (Maastricht) and it is active in around 80 countries in the world. The Esaote Group recorded a consolidated turnover of around 250 million in 2017, 70% of which was generated on international markets. The Group employs about 1,150 individuals, 20% of whom work in research and development, a sector in which the company invests around 9% of its total turnover. Information on Esaote and its products is available at http://www.esaote.com Follow us on LinkedIn (Esaote), YouTube (esaotegroup), or Vimeo (Esaote) Copyright Esaote 2018 Technology and features are system/configuration dependent. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Information might refer to products or modalities not yet approved in all countries. For further details, please contact your Esaote sales representative. FREMONT, California, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a market research report titled "Global Automotive Telematics Insurance Market - Analysis and Forecast (2018-2022)" by BIS Research, the global automotive telematics insurance market is estimated to reach 169 million units by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 47.1% from 2018 to 2022. The growing importance of customer engagement has led to the integration of telematics insurance as a part of the automotive insurance market. The increasing demand for connectivity, safety, autonomy features, and increasing insurance premiums are expected to drive a higher number of applications of telematics insurance per vehicle. Moreover, growing implementation of telematics in vehicles provides a vast opportunity for service integration in the vehicle. An insurer can offer several bespoke package options to a consumer to select from with the help of telematics-based service. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/495163/BIS_Research_Logo.jpg ) Browse 30market data Tables and 92Figures spread through 173 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Global Automotive Telematics InsuranceMarket" The automotive market ecosystem has witnessed some of the drastic technological advances over the past decade. It is dominated by environmental challenges, intelligent, smart features, safety features, and occupant comfort. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology disruptors are set for a highly competitive product development race, evident from the high rate of new product launches. Telematics-Based insurance is a combination of telematics (communication of vehicle of its condition and position in real time) and insurance policy integration. BIS Research Report:https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/global-automotive-telematics-insurance-market.html The global automotive telematics insurance market is highly aggressive and is projected for exponential growth during the forecast period. Telematics-based insurance is a smart solution which connects a vehicle to a data center/analytics center, thus enabling the tracking of its activities during various operations. The advanced levels of telematics data are the integration of human psychology or human behavior with general data points to form a self-learning artificial intelligent system. The capabilities of telematics service are vast and have applications at various levels of industry, such as OEM's, service provider, and end users. In 2017, the Americas recorded an installed automotive telematics insurance policy of 14 million units, which is expected to increase by five times by 2022. EMEA holds the majority of technology companies which have diversified products for automotive telematics insurance market. The leading countries in the region are the U.K. and Italy. By 2022, EMEA is expected to lead the market share, and the APAC region is expected to register the highest CAGR for the forecast period (2018-2022). According to our analyst Nishant Pahwa, "The global automotive smartphone-based telematics insurance market is expected to grow over 64 million units by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 48.5% during the period 2018-2022. The smartphone device category drives the market. The dominance of smartphone technology in a consumer's lifestyle can be attributed to demand for connectivity platform, multi-functional ability of devices and high accessibility of cost effective solutions." Request for Sample Report: https://bisresearch.com/requestsample?id=543&type=download The market intelligence report provides a detailed analysis of the key growth drivers and restraining forces of the global automotive telematics insurance market, along with an extensive insight into various forms of developments, trends, and the key participants in the market. The automotive telematics insurance ecosystem comprises companies from incredibly diverse backgrounds such as automotive component suppliers (Tier 1 and Tier 2), system integrators, and solutions providers. The report analyzes a list of key collaborations, mergers and acquisitions, and the launching of new products to understand the market dynamics. Furthermore, OEMs have collaborated with telematics technology providers to provide end-to-end complete service solution to their consumers. For the study of this report, the final customer is the policy user or vehicle owner while the suppliers are telematics insurance platform or service providers. Increasing joint ventures and collaborations, as well as mergers and acquisitions, are anticipated to improve product development through conducive research. The market report includes a thorough analysis of the market trends and size, along with the market estimation based on the key geographical regions. Besides providing detailed financial analyses of the key players in the market, the report also includes individual SWOT analysis of each company. Some of the key players analyzed in the report are Octo Telematics, CalAmp, Agero Inc, AXA Group, Cambridge Mobile Technology, Intelligent Mechatronic System, The Floow Ltd, The Progressive Corporation, TomTom, Trakm8 Group, and TrueMotion Inc, among others. The key strategies adopted by the market players to attain their respective market shares in this emerging domain are joint ventures, collaborations, partnerships, contracts, and launching of products. This report is a meticulous compilation of research on more than 100 players in the automotive telematics insurance ecosystem and draws upon insights from in-depth interviews of the key opinion leaders, market participants, and vendors. The report addresses the following questions about the global automotive telematics insurance vehiclesmarket: What are the major market drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the global automotive telematics insurance market? What is the service flow in the global automotive telematics insurance market? What was the market value of the leading segments and sub-segments of the global automotive telematics insurance market in 2017? How will each segment of the global automotive telematics insurance market grow during the forecast period 2018-2022? What are the factors which influence the demand for various devices used in the global automotive telematics insurance market? What are the influencing factors that may affect the market share of the key players? How will the industry evolve during the forecast period 2018-2022? What are the key developmental strategies that are implemented by the key players to sustain this market? Who are the key players in the automotive telematics insurance market and what are their contributions? What are the region-specific key growth factors that would drive the market through the forecast period for the Americas, EMEA, and APAC? What is the scope of automotive telematics insurance in the emerging economies of APAC? Related Reports: Global Automotive Telematics MarketAnalysis and Forecast, 2017-2021 Global Intelligent Transportation Systems Market, Analysis and Forecast- 2017-2022 About BIS Research: BIS Research (Business Intelligence and Strategy Research) is a global B2B market intelligence and advisory firm focusing on those emerging technological trends which are likely to disrupt the dynamics of the market. With over 150 market research reports published annually, BIS Research focuses on high technology verticals such as 3D Printing, Advanced Materials and Chemicals, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Healthcare, Electronics and Semiconductors, Robotics and UAV, and other emerging technologies. Our in-depth market intelligence reports focus on the market estimations, technology analysis, emerging high-growth applications, deeply segmented granular country-level market data, and other important market parameters useful in the strategic decision-making for senior management. What distinguishes BIS Research from the rest of the players is that we don't simply provide data but also complement it with valuable insights and actionable inputs for the success of our clients. Contact: Bhavya Banga Email: media@bisresearch.com 39111 PASEO PADRE PKWY STE 315, FREMONT CA 94538-1686 Visit our Blog @ http://bisresearch.com/blog/ Connect with us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/3720474 Connect with us on Twitter@ https://twitter.com/BISResearch VANCOUVER, British Columbia, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CROP Infrastructure Corp. (CSE: CROP) (OTCMKTS: CRXPF) ("CROP" or the "Company") provides the following update on the company's joint venture; Xhemplar hemp farm in Italy. The 25-acre property was planted less than 50 days ago, has now produced approximately 600,000 healthy hemp plants. The plants are expected to be harvested in the next 20 days. Furthermore, the joint venture has erected three drying facilities in the preparation for saleable dried hemp biomass. The company has also identified multiple locations for an extraction facility. The joint venture's high CBD hemp will be sold as biomass or processed into CBD isolate for international markets. The joint venture's products will be branded under XHemplar and CROP brands Tiffany CBD and Hempire Italia. According to Arcview Market Research and its partner, BDS Analytics, government-subsidized health care spending (worldwide market at $1.3-trillion) is expected to make Europe among the fastest growing and largest medical cannabis markets in the world. Arcview expects Italy to be the second largest cannabis market in Europe by 2027 with $1.2 billion in sales. CROP Infrastructure Director & CEO Michael Yorke states: "The company is extremely encouraged by the fast pace of our partners at XHemplar having advanced into production in Italy. CROPs portfolio of cannabis infrastructure assets now includes cultivation properties in California, Washington State, Nevada, Italy and Jamaica. CROP also holds minority interests in West Hollywood and San Bernardino dispensary applications. Management will continue to aggressively pursue new international opportunities and expand its portfolio of tenant growers and infrastructure assets in strategic jurisdictions." XHemplar Chairman and CROP Infrastructure VP of M&A, EMEA Andrea Castiglione states: "We're looking forward to CROP building out the extraction facility and unlocking the true value of the hemp plant. In 2019 we will look to increase the scale of our operations and asset base in Italy with CROP Infrastructure." About CROP CROP Infrastructure Corp. is publicly listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange and trades under the symbol "CROP" and in the US under the symbol "CRXPF". CROP is primarily engaged in the business of investing, constructing, owning and leasing greenhouse projects as part of the provision of turnkey real estate solutions for lease-to-licensed cannabis producers and processors offering best-in-class operations. The Company's portfolio of projects includes cultivation properties in California, Washington State, Nevada, Italy, Jamaica and a joint venture on West Hollywood and San Bernardino dispensary applications. CROP has developed a portfolio of 15 Cannabis brands and has US and Italian distribution rights to a line of over 55 cannabis topical products from The Yield Growth Corp. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information Certain statements in this press release related to the Offering, the securities issuable thereunder and the Transaction are forward-looking statements and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the proceeds to be raised pursuant to the Offering, availability of exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 and the expected uses of the funds advanced under the Loan by CROP Italy. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding the Company's ability to complete the Offering and the uses of the funds advanced under the Loan by CROP Italy, including the risk that the Offering may not be completed as expected or at all, that the proceeds of the Offering may be used other than as set out in this news release, that the funds advanced under the Loan by CROP Italy may be used other than as set out in this news release and other factors beyond the control of the Company. Such forward-looking statements should therefore be construed in light of such factors, and the Company is not under any obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release. EDINBURGH, Scotland, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Proceeds will also be used to drive sales and optimise the commercial model for this novel imaging systemin the UK CALCIVIS, a medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of tooth decay and enabling preventive dentistry, announces it has closed a 3.15 million equity funding round from existing investors Archangel Investors, Julz and the Scottish Investment Bank. The proceeds will be used to support the completion of the FDA's Pre-Market Approval (PMA) review process for the CALCIVIS Imaging System in the United States (US), the world's largest dentistry market. The filing of the PMA application to the FDA was made in October 2017. The Company plans the launch of the CALCIVIS imaging system in the US in 2019, subject to the PMA being approved. The PMA submission contained positive data from the pivotal clinical study, which evaluated the CALCIVIS imaging system in the assessment of active dental demineralisation. Results showed a highly significant level of agreement between the original dentist doing the clinical assessment and the independent dentist's assessment using the CALCIVIS imaging system for teeth with active lesions (90.7%; p<0.0001) and sound (healthy) teeth (97.8%; p<0.0001). The results of the User and Patient Questionnaires showed high levels of usability and acceptance of the CALCIVIS system with patients reporting the procedure to be "quick and painless". The proceeds will also be used to drive the commercialisation of the imaging system in the UK. The CALCIVIS imaging system was launched in the UK in March this year and there has been a high level of interest following its introduction. CALCIVIS also intends to further optimize the commercial model for the system to maximise its uptake and use by the UK dental community. The CALCIVIS imaging system is a sophisticated medical device and consumable combination designed to transform the assessment and management of demineralisation associated with dental caries and erosion. The CALCIVIS imaging system, for the first time, allows the real-time visualisation of calcium ions released from demineralising tooth surfaces, in routine dental practice. The resulting images provide a focus for discussion with patients and enables the development of a preventive treatment plan in line with dental best practice. Adam Christie, CEO of CALCIVIS, said: "We are delighted by the continuing commitment of our existing investors in this financing round. This new investment positions us to gain PMA approval for our CALCIVIS Imaging System in the US ahead of a launch planned for the second half of 2019. We also plan to use the funds to drive sales and optimize the commercial model for the system in the UK where it has received a positive reception from both dentists and patients since its first launch earlier this year." Dr Sarah Hardy, Chief Investment Officer at Archangels, said: "This funding round will enable CALCIVIS to generate significant shareholder value by gaining FDA approval for its unique CALCIVIS Imaging System paving the way for the product US launch in 2019. We believe the system will bring significant benefits both to patients and dental practitioners by catalysing the adoption of preventive dentistry. We are proud to contribute to the growth of such an innovative company." Dr Zishan Haroon, Chairman and General Partner of Julz, said: "The CALCIVIS Imaging System is a breakthrough innovation in an industry that has for long been using visual inspection and X-ray images as the main detection and diagnostic aids for caries. The CALCIVIS Imaging System is designed to revolutionise the assessment and management of dental caries by paving the way for the adoption of preventive dentistry. We believe this approach will dramatically change care planning and intervention for patients leading to preservation of their original teeth and better oral hygiene. We are delighted to support such an innovative company providing dentists and patients with next-generation dentistry care." Kerry Sharp, Head of Scottish Investment Bank, said: "We're pleased to be co-investing with Archangels and Julz Co to help CALCIVIS gain FDA approval and launch the product in the US. We've assisted the company on its growth journey and it's now showing promising commercial development with the launch of its imaging system in the UK earlier this year a significant event for preventive dentistry. We look forward to working alongside CALCIVIS to help it continue to achieve its potential, both in Scotland and internationally." About CALCIVIS CALCIVIS is an innovative medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of dental caries or 'tooth decay'. CALCIVIS brings together novel biotechnology approaches and world-class device development expertise and is at the forefront of applying biotechnology to dentistry. The CALCIVIS imaging system will, for the first time, allow the real-time detection and visualisation of calcium ions released by demineralising caries lesions in routine dental practice. CALCIVIS began operations in 2012 and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Company has been funded by Archangel Investors Limited and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise and Julz, a US-based healthcare fund. The Company has raised equity and grant funding totalling over 12m since its inception. CALCIVIS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 666440 and Innovate UK's Biomedical Catalyst. www.calcivis.com About Julz Co Julz Co is a venture capital firm focused on investments in the health care industry with an emphasis on therapeutics, medical devices, digital healthcare and services. Julz invests globally in companies that have novel and proprietary technology addressing a vital market need and are driven by experienced management teams. The company has offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and Suzhou, China. www.julzco.com About Archangels Archangels is a prominent business angel syndicate which has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades. Its members invest in, and mentor, promising start-up and early stage companies from Scotland's vibrant technology and life sciences sectors. Originally formed in 1992 and based in Edinburgh, the syndicate now comprises over 80 investor members and leads investment of around 15m per year in early stage Scottish companies, including leverage from partners, the largest being the Scottish Investment Bank. Archangels is interested in Scottish technology companies, which are looking for initial funding of 50,000 to 2m. In addition, Archangels is keen to welcome new investors to its syndicate. www.archangelsonline.com About Scottish Investment Bank The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland's main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of co- investment funds including the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund. SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital's life sciences fund and is a participant in the Scottish European Growth Co-Investment Programme alongside the European Investment Fund. SIB's investment funds support Scotland's SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital. SIB also provides a team of Financial Readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance. Contacts: CALCIVIS Adam Christie, CEO Tel: +44-(0)-7795-600571 E-mail: info@calcivis.com Media relations Citigate Dewe Rogerson David Dible, Marine Perrier Tel: +44-(0)-207-638-9571 E-mail: calcivis@citigatedr.co.uk LONDON, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shedul.com, the world's most popular booking platform for salons and spas, announced today an investment of $5 million, led by Target Global, an international VC firm headquartered in Berlin, with backing from New York based FJ Labs. Investors personally joining the fundraise founders of two successful startups; Niklas Ostberg, Founder and CEO of Delivery Hero AG, and Hakan Koc, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of AUTO1 Group. The new funding brings the total amount raised by the company to over $11 million to date as the company prepares for an upcoming Series B round. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/725128/Shedul_and_Fresha_Founders.jpg ) Launched in 2015, Shedul.com (pronounced like the British schedule) streamlines business operations for salons and spas with intuitive, free-to-use software. In just three years, Shedul.com has quietly acquired a vast user base of merchants in more than 120 countries, primarily in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The platform takes the hassle out of running a business by managing appointments, point-of-sale, customer records, inventory and financial reporting. Recently Shedul.com was crowned the industry's most popular, most affordable and most user friendly software for 2018 by Gartner Inc's user rating service. It is also the world's fastest growing platform for salons and spas with over 6 million appointments booked each month, growing at an average rate of 20% month-on-month. The platform is on track to process $3.5 billion worth of appointment bookings by the end of 2018. "We're thrilled to have first-rate partners join our growth story, bringing their experience and networks to our rapidly expanding business," said Co-Founder and CEO William Zeqiri, commenting on the new fundraise. "We are modernizing the beauty and wellness industry at the same transformative scale seen in other spaces like food ordering and local transportation. The massive opportunity is clear, by bringing thousands of pen-and-paper based businesses on our platform, we're enabling a whole segment of businesses to connect with consumers online." "We have been impressed by founders and the product right from the start. Shedul has remarkably shown how a small company with very little VC funding can build the best product in the category, grow very fast and service millions of people every month," says Shmuel Chafets, General Partner at Target Global. "We strongly believe that they can build the leader in a global trillion dollar market - one of our key investment thesis at Target Global." In addition to the investment, the company also announced the launch of its consumer marketplace, Fresha.com, for everyday customers to book appointments at their favorite salons and spas. Currently in the initial rollout phase, the new offering provides mobile apps for customers and real-time booking integrations through Instagram, Facebook and Google along with in-app payment processing, allowing for the most seamless online booking experience for consumers. "The launch of Fresha.com is a triumph for people who want to look and feel their best," said Nick Miller, the company's Co-Founder and Chief of Product. "It is the easiest, most reliable way to book with salons and spas, and is a milestone in our mission to bring local businesses closer to their customers." The company intends to use the investment to supercharge product development and support the marketplace rollout. "We're incorporating intelligent features on our marketplace to help merchants grow revenues," explained Zeqiri. "For example, smartly displaying price and availability options, based on the customer's purchase history and the merchant's projected occupancy. This frees up merchants to do what they do best and spend more face time with customers." For more information, visit Shedul.com or Fresha.com or download Fresha on the App Store and Google Play. Follow Shedul on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Crunchbase. About Target Global Target Global is an international Venture Capital firm headquartered in Berlin, with 600m in assets under management. Connecting the key European startup ecosystems we leverage the unique DNA of each of our target geographies, across our global network. Building on our experienced team with substantial operational and investment experience, we help exceptional entrepreneurs to build market leaders. Target Global follows a lifecycle approach, investing in fast-growing online platforms, targeting trillion $ markets. Our partners have been investing for more than 15 years in the digital technology space, backing some of the European success stories. The Target Global portfolio includes companies such as Auto1, Delivery Hero, GoEuro, Dreamlines and WeFox. https://www.targetglobal.vc/ About FJ Labs FJ Labs is an investment firm that invests in and builds online marketplaces and e-commerce companies. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Jose Marin, FJ Labs has more than 250 active portfolio companies including Boxed, Delivery Hero, FanDuel, Flexport and LendingHome, and has been directly engaged in building companies such as AdoreMe, Instacarro, Letgo, OLX and Rebag. https://www.fjlabs.com/ NEW YORK, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CannabisNewsWire Editorial Coverage Cannabidiol (CBD) products are reaching into the mainstream through a growing health and wellness sector, and savvy companies are looking to position themselves to make the most of this momentum. The health and wellness market grown to over $1 trillion globally as of 2017 globally as of 2017 Positive shifting regulations globally is opening major international markets to CBD products, especially CBD infused food, beverages and natural health products Larger fortune 500 level food and beverage companies are beginning to consolidate this major growth market via major investments and mergers and acquisitions. In a groundbreaking move, Phivida Holdings, Inc. (CSE:VIDA) (OTC:PHVAF) (PHVAF Profile) has become the first CBD company to have their CBD food, beverage and natural health products cross over into major national mainstream grocery distribution in the United States. Isodiol International, Inc. (CSE:ISOL) (OTC:ISOLD) (FSE:LB6A.F) is also expanding CBD's reach through a growing chain of vaping shops. And the potential for wellness beverages is demonstrated by Koios Beverage (CSE:KBEV) (OTC:SNOVF), with its expanding range of brain-boosting drinks. Within the cannabis market, the Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX:TGOD) (OTC:TGODF) is providing organic, sustainable cannabis, a source of CBD that meets other consumer interests. And CV Sciences, Inc. (OTC:CVSI) is researching new CBD products and searching for ways to bring those products to market as the sector continues to grow in size and diversity. Adding to Health and Wellness The health and wellness sector is currently huge business. Conservative analysis places its value at over $1 trillion, while at least one commentator cites figures as high as $3.7 trillion. The willingness to make purchasing decisions based on better health and a longer life is no longer a niche interest. From gyms to health foods to counseling, consumers are spending a growing proportion of their income on creating healthier, happier lives. Cannabidiol (CBD) products have become significant recent additions to the wellness market. Derived from cannabis plants, CBD is an active ingredient that has shown many potential health benefits without the intoxicating "high" provided by cannabis' other main active ingredient, the THC found in marijuana. Research into CBD is still in its infancy, but that research has shown the ingredient's potential to improve wellness in several ways. As legal changes make it easier to develop and produce CBD products, those products appear set to take an important place in the health and wellness market. Reaching into the Grocery Market One of the companies benefiting from this trend is Phivida Holdings, Inc. (CSE:VIDA) (OTCQX:PHVAF). Phivida (pronounced "fii-vee-daa") is a producer of premium hemp oil extracts and capsules, the company provides health-conscious customers access to the benefits of CBD without unnatural chemicals. With a new C-suite management team in place consisting of former senior executives of Red Bull, Proctor & Gamble, Labatt's and the former CEO of Seagram's International, Phivida is now preparing to launch a CBD-infused beverage brand and has found a major partner to work with to ensure this strategic move is successful. Phivida recently announced a groundbreaking exclusive national agreement with Acosta, Inc., a sales and marketing leader for the consumer-packaged goods industry in the United States, to distribute Phivida's products, including the new beverage. Distributed through Acosta's Natural Specialty Sales (NSS) division, Phivida's drinks will be the first CBD hemp brand to cross over into the national mainstream distribution system in the states. Natural specialty groceries are a significant market in North America, currently valued at USD $4.1 billion and growing. Obtaining a foothold in this market marks a historic milestone for CBD products, as well as a commercial coup for Phivida. NSS's reach extends into 2,400 regional natural specialty grocery stores and the potential to expand into over 25,000 major national grocery stores across the U.S, including leading retailers such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Walmart, and Kroger's. The major disruptive nature of the rapidly expanding cannabis and CBD-hemp markets have begun to draw attention from big players in the food and beverage industry as well. For example, Constellation Brands (NYSE.STZ) behind Corona beer and Svedka vodka, recently made a major investment in cannabis company Canopy Growth. And Southern Glazer's, North America's biggest wine and spirits distributor, has created a Canadian subsidiary to sell cannabis-infused products. This trend is one that other major food, beverage and alcohol companies will almost certainly follow. As the market for CBD products grows, forward-thinking organizations will be looking for mergers and acquisition opportunities with CBD companies to gain exposure to this fast-growing market and protect their positions against disruption from the global cannabis sector. Changing Regulations Drive Growth The growth of the CBD sector is being driven by a global shift in the legal status of cannabis. In the United States, regulated cannabis is now legal for both medical and recreational use in a number of states. On a national level, the Senate and House of Representatives are working to resolve differences between the two Congressional bodies' versions of the 2018 Farm Bill, which include action to legalize industrial hemp. If the pro-hemp language remains in the final version of the bill, it would mark a significant shift in policy at the federal level, making it easier for businesses across the country to grow hemp and produce CBD products derived from it. In Canada, the passing of Bill C-45 is set to make recreational cannabis legal across the country in October. The bill also includes rules for the production and sale of CBD-infused food and drink, creating a market for companies such as Phivida to sell new products as early as 2019. Such moves are supported by the work of major global bodies. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently completed a report that found CBD is neither toxic nor addictive, making it safe for consumption. The report also highlighted CBD's health benefits. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has removed CBD from its list of prohibited substances, allowing athletes to use it for treatment of pain and inflammations. Making the most of this shift, Phivida is focusing on establishing an international presence. The deal with Acosta will provide distribution into a network of more than 27,000 U.S. retail outlets. In Canada, the company has created a joint venture with WeedMD to be the first to market with one of the first-ever federally legal cannabis beverage manufacturing facilities in the world - a major milestone. A deal with Namaste Technologies means Phivida products open the European Union and United Kingdom markets, while another deal with Asayake provides new opportunities for distribution in Japan. These partnerships have helped establish Phivida as the fastest-growing brand in CBD foods and beverages just as that market appears ready to take off. Building a Business Of course, CBD isn't a magic product that will instantly give businesses success. Phivida's achievements have been made possible by a skilled management team with experience in the beverages sector. The company's chief officers are all veterans of Red Bull's North American operations, where they helped build the energy drink category from nothing to $300 million a year. CEO James Bailey worked as president of Red Bull Canada and held senior positions at Merrell Outdoors, Beneath Apparel, Adidas, Blue Goose and Salomon. Chief Marketing Officer Michael Cornwell is a former director of marketing at Red Bull Canada and was CMO at both Samsung NZ and Microsoft NZ. Chief Commercial Officer Doug Campbell was previously director of sales at Red Bull North America and director of national accounts at Stoli Group. The company's advisers and directors also bring a powerful raft of experience to their roles, including time spent in senior management at Proctor and Gamble, in executive management at Labatt's, and as CEO at Seagram's International. This powerful team is committed to ensuring Phivida operates with a tight capital structure. The company has more than $15.5 million CAD in cash and no debt. Just over 60 million shares have been distributed or are outstanding. With a fully diluted total of 71 million shares available, the company has ready access to approximately CAD $29 million in cash. With a strong leadership team and financial foundations, Phivida has achieved the first crossover of CBD beverages into major national mainstream retail distribution across the United States, as well as globally. Surge of CBD Regulatory change and consumer interest are also driving growth for a range of CBD and wellness businesses. Isodiol International, Inc. (CSE:ISOL) (OTCQB:ISOLD) (FSE:LB6A.F) provides a wide range of CBD products. Through its KURE Corp. subsidiary, the company strongly promotes CBD in vaping products. KURE recently announced plans to expand its retail footprint by opening new premises and acquiring existing vaping stores. Koios Beverage (CSE:KBEV) (OTCPK:SNOVF) is a manufacturer and distributor of drinks and supplements designed to boost brain function, enhance health and improve productivity. The company recently announced the release of four new flavors of its brain-healthy drinks. Like Phidiva, Koios is turning beneficial supplements into beverages, making the drinks more appealing to a wide market. The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX:TGOD) (OTCQX:TGODF) produces cannabis tailored to the wider interests of health and well-being customers. Many of these consumers are deeply concerned with environmental issues, and the company's organic, sustainably grown cannabis means that its products live up to these ethical standards. CV Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:CVSI) is a CBD company with two distinct divisions. The pharmaceuticals part conducts research to develop new products, thereby expanding the possibilities of CBD. Meanwhile, the consumer products division focuses on getting those products to market. The intersection of the CBD and wellness sectors is creating opportunities for businesses and consumers alike. As laws, attitudes and expectations continue to change around the world, these opportunities will only continue growing. For more information about Phivida Holdings, please visit Phivida Holdings, Inc. (CSE:VIDA) (OTCQX:PHVAF). About CannabisNewsWire CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. 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New vanadium demand is coming from China due to an increase in vanadium flow batteries used for large scale energy storage. Active in the mining industry today includes: Maxtech Ventures Inc. (CSE:MVT) (OTC:MTEHF), Largo Resources Ltd (OTC:LGORF) (TSX:LGO), Blue Sky Uranium Corp (OTC:BKUCF) (TSX-V:BSK), Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE:URG) (TSX:URE), Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE:UEC). Maxtech Ventures Inc. (CSE:MVT) (OTCPK:MTEHF) (Frankfurt: M1N) BREAKING NEWS: Maxtech Ventures, is pleased to announce Maxtech Mining Zambia's two large scale exploration licenses filed in Zambia have been validated by the Minister of Mines and Mineral Development of Zambia. The first large-scale exploration license is for an area of interest claim in the Mukambala area within the Mkushi District of the Central Province. The second area of interest is for a large-scale exploration license is in the Kabamba area within the Masaiti & Mkushi Districts of the Copperbelt and Central Provinces. As previously announced on May 9th 2018 by the Company, two specific license areas have shown the potential for high-grade manganese mineralization with grades up to 70% Mn as well as vanadium from initial research prepared by the Company's Zambian-based geology team, GeoQuest. The exploration licenses submitted to the Minister of Mines have detailed exploration and production outlines up to 4 years covering cobalt, vanadium, nickel and copper mining rights on the areas. GeoQuest, based in Lusaka will begin the preparation of an EPB (Environmental Project Brief), their team will begin sampling the properties for Manganese and Vanadium mineralization, current status of formal mining activities in the area, the extent-status of any artisanal mining and if necessary, further secure the areas for the Company. Read this and more news for Maxtech at:http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/mvt.html In other miningdevelopments in the markets: Largo Resources Ltd (OTCQX:LGORF) (TSX:LGO.TO) in July released its Q2 2018 production results, which highlight a new average daily production record of 29.4 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) produced per day in June. Total production from the Maracas Menchen mine in the second quarter of 2018 was 2,458 tonnes of V2O5, representing a 13-per-cent increase over Q2 2017 and an 11-per-cent increase over Q1 2018. Overall V2O5 recovery rates for Q2 2018 averaged 79.2 per cent, which represents an increase of 6.6 per cent, compared with Q2 2017, and an increase of 4.3 per cent, compared with Q1 2018. The company is very pleased to report it has achieved a new daily average production record for the month of June with 29.4 tonnes of V2O5 produced per day. Total concentrate produced in Q2 2018 was 85,639 tonnes, compared with 88,186 in Q2 2017, representing a decrease of 2.9 per cent. Blue Sky Uranium Corp (OTCQB:BKUCF) (TSX-V:BSK.V) recently announced an update on activities at its wholly-owned Amarillo Grande Uranium-Vanadium project in Rio Negro, Argentina. The Company is currently engaged in completing metallurgical testing to support the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study it plans to complete by year-end, as well as conducting exploration work to identify and delineate additional resources. Recent and upcoming work programs include: PEA for the Ivana deposit - Preliminary mineralogical testing completed by the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") laboratory. Metallurgical and process test work underway at SRC. Exploration to expand resources/identify new mineralization. Ongoing auger drilling program in the Ivana area to delineate anomalous radiometric areas for follow-up with reverse circulation (RC) drilling 1000+ metre step-out (RC) drill program planned in the Ivana deposit area. Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE:URG) (TSX:URE) recently announced that on July 18, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce ("DOC") initiated an investigation into the effects of uranium imports on U.S. national security. This investigation was requested by Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy in their Petition for Relief Under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (the "Petition"), which was filed jointly by the companies on January 16, 2018. The Secretary of Commerce (the "Secretary") now has 270 days to conduct the investigation and submit a report to the President of the United States containing the Secretary's findings and proposed remedy, if any. Following receipt of the Secretary's report, the President then has up to 90 days to act on the Secretary's recommendations and, if necessary, take action to "adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives" and/or pursue other lawful, non-trade-related actions necessary to address the import threat. Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE:UEC) recently announced that, in conjunction with the holding of the Company's recent annual general meeting of stockholders on July 19, 2018 , the following matters were duly ratified by the Company's stockholders and have now been implemented by the Board of Directors which can be read entirely here. DISCLAIMER: MarketNewsUpdates.com (MNU) is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. MNU is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. MNU and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. MNU's market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. MNU is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed MNU has been compensated forty nine hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press release issued by Maxtech Ventures Inc. by a non-affiliated third party. MNU HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE. This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and MNU undertakes no obligation to update such statements. Media Contact: info@marketnewsupdates.com +1(561)325-8757 LOS ANGELES, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FN Media Group Presents USA News Group News Commentary Now entering its second full year of legalization, the state of Nevada is showing signs of being the surging winner in the cannabis revolution. Unlike in other adult-recreational markets such as Colorado, Washington state, and Oregon, Nevada'swholesale cannabis prices remain high, due to a more favorable supply-demand equation for growers and sellers. Since the state went legal on July 1st last year, the adult-use market has been on a tear, with sales averaging $1 million a day-thanks to the more than 40 million tourists who visit Las Vegas alone each year. Overall, the "Silver State" of Nevada has been consistently turning green, and has been drawing in a growing amount of cannabis investment. Companies are starting to seriously pay close attention to Nevada's positive-trending cannabis sales, including Aurora Cannabis (TSX: ACB) (OTC: ACBFF), Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (OTC: GLDFF) (CSE: GLH), MedMen Enterprises (OTC: MMNFF) (CSE: MMEN), Terra Tech Corp. (OTC: TRTC), and most recently C21 Investments Inc. (CSE: CXXI) (OTC: CXXIF). WHY NEVADA IS HOTTER THAN MOST MARKETS Wholesale per-pound prices received by growers has seen a 30% increase from July 2017 to July 2018-whereas whole cannabis prices in other states have been declining for years. The net benefit for the state has been overwhelmingly positive, as it continually breaks its own sales records. As of the end of June, Nevada had collected a total of $55.53 million in tax revenues from marijuana alone. Combining all sales for medical, recreational, and marijuana-related goods since legalization began, the total up to the end of June was $433.51 million. While neighboring California has a much larger population, the profitability of Nevada cannabis operations are much higher. The two states are quite different from each other, based on their approach. Where California's cannabis sector has run head-on into high taxes and excessive regulation, Nevada has simplified its market at the retail level. California's approach has translated to high legal prices and low sales volume, leaving plenty of sales on the table, or on the black market. California Cannabis Manufacturers Association estimates the black market outnumbers the legal market by a figure of five to one. Nevada just isn't having those same problems. Contrary to trends in other recreational markets across the United States, for instance, the fair market wholesale per-pound price received for marijuana growers has jumped more than $650 from July 2017 to July 2018, for an increase of 30%. NEVADA CANNABIS DEVELOPMENTS Aurora Cannabis (TSX: ACB) (OTCQX: ACBFF) - While not one of the company's larger deals, Aurora Cannabis made an entry into Nevada through an acquisition of CannaRoyalty's exclusive license to Wagner Dima's innovative cannabis pre-roll technology for $7 million. The privately-owned Wagner Dimas is based in Nevada, and gained the cannabis giant's interest by mass producing cannabis rolls and cones. The Nevada company produced 5 million rolls and cones last year. The move indicated that Aurora will be moving to produce pre-rolled products soon, which aren't currently offered among the company's line that includes whole-flower cannabis, milled cannabis, cannabis oils, and vaporizers. Golden Leaf Holdings Ltd. (OTCQB: GLDFF) (CSE: GLH) - Oregon-based Golden Leaf Holdings is working on expansion within the USA into multiple markets. Most recently the company made acquisitions in Nevada and California, believing it is in a position to take advantage of the presumption that the US is trailing Canada in cannabis market valuation. Earlier in July, Golden Leaf introduced new cannabis concentrate product lines in Nevada through its Greenpoint Nevada subsidiary. The products included its Golden Tinctures, Golden Private Stash distillate vape cartridges, and Golden CBD product lines. MedMen Enterprises (OTCQB: MMNFF) (CSE: MMEN) - Not wanting to miss out on the showbiz flair of the city, MedMen opened its first branded cannabis retail store in Las Vegas. Launched with red-featured showgirls and an Elvis impersonator to entertain the crowds, MedMen made its Las Vegas store the company's 14th store nationwide, near the Hard Rock Hotel, the Thomas and Mack Center and McCarran International Airport. The company is already constructing another location at the Las Vegas Airport itself. MedMen has received lots of positive support and comments from local politicians upon their arrival in Las Vegas, including from state senators and a city council member. Terra Tech Corp. (OTCQX: TRTC) - Earlier in July, Terra Tech sold 100% of its assets of its cannabis dispensary located on Western Avenue in Las Vegas to Exhale Brands Nevada for a total consideration of $6.25 million. While the sale appears to have been a sign of departure, Terra Tech retains a significant, focused presence in the Nevada market. Terra Tech continues to operate its Blum, Desert Inn Road and Blum, Decatur Boulevard dispensaries, both of which are located in Las Vegas, as well as its Blum Reno dispensary, in Northwest Nevada. The company also recently opened a new 30,000 sq ft cultivation facility in Sparks, Nevada, while also awaiting approval on a 15,000 sq ft extraction lab in Reno, Nevada, both of which Terra Tech owns 50%. C21 Investments Inc. (CSE: CXXI) (OTC: CXXIF) - By acquiring Nevada's first medical dispensary that opened in 2014, C21 Investments made a big splash in the state earlier in July. Based out of Sparks, Nevada, the previously privately-owned business, Silver State Relief, was a significant chess piece in C21's strategy to make an early impact through established revenue channels. Already, Silver State is alleged to be one of Nevada's top three revenue-producing dispensaries. The acquisition fits within C21's strategy of acquiring dispensaries across the legal states of the USA, which now include Oregon and Nevada. Among Silver State's assets are 155,000 sq ft of grow space, and multiple dispensaries either already opened or expected to open later this year. THE APPEAL OF SILVER STATE REVENUES When C21 Investments Inc. (CSE:CXXI) (OTC:CXXIF) acquired privately-owned Silver State Relief LLC and Silver State Cultivation LLC for $20 million, the company was setting itself up to make a major splash in Nevada. The acquisition was the first transaction in a larger plan by C21's expansion into the US cannabis industry. The Silver State acquisition immediately puts C21 into revenue generation mode, as the companies and their vertically-integrated assets already bring in annual revenues of $37.5 million CAD. "Our entire C21 leadership is very excited to enter the Nevada market and looks forward to working with our new partners at Silver State," said President and CEO of C21 Robert Cheney in the company's coinciding news release. "This represents our first acquisition of an established and profitable, vertically integrated business with strong potential for significant expansion on all levels, and is aligned with C21's long term growth objectives." In 2017, Silver State reported $17 million in revenue. During in the first six months of this year, the company has already hit $15 million in revenue. Much of this growth can be attributed to Nevada's overall cannabis market acceptance and maturation. However, there's still plenty of blue sky ahead as well. C21 not only acquired Silver State's 155,000 sq ft grow space and 8,000 sq ft dispensary in Sparks, Nevada, but there's yet another dispensary in Fernley, Nevada expected to open later this year. With the addition of the Fernley location, Silver State's revenues over the next 18 months are expected to double-further sweetening the acquisition for C21's investors. C21 is expanding its US footprint in other markets, including Oregon, however as part of the Silver State acquisition's terms, the company also has committed to expanding Silver State's footprint within Nevada. The C21 strategy as laid out to Silver State General Manager Aron Swan, ahead of the transaction, is to become the largest publicly-traded cannabis company in the world, by purchasing dispensaries all across the USA. By sidling up to a group such as C21, the move facilitates Silver State to grow much faster within Nevada, and be a part of something much bigger. "This is a tough business. Investment capital allows us to expand a little more quickly, rather than organically," said Swan to the Reno Gazette Journal. C21 recently completed another financing that should allow the company to pursue more strategic acquisitions in the near term. Adding significant revenue-generating businesses such as Silver State will only serve to help the company accelerate its acquisition goals both within Nevada, and in other US markets. To read more about C21, please visit: http://usanewsgroup.com/2018/07/17/the-one-sector-that-will-make-fang-investors-envious/ Article Source: USA News Group http://usanewsgroup.com info@usanewsgroup.com Legal Disclaimer/Disclosure: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. USA News Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. ("MIQ"). MIQ has been paid a fee for C21 Investments, Inc. advertising and digital media from the company directly. There may be 3rd parties who may have shares of C21 Investments, Inc., and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. 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Media Contact Information: FN Media Group, LLC Media Contact e-mail: editor@financialnewsmedia.com U.S. Phone: +1(954)345-0611 Dow Jones received a payment from EQS/DGAP to publish this press release. 'Surgutneftegas' PJSC (SGGD) 'Surgutneftegas' PJSC: Information statement on change in the share of the member of the management body of 'Surgutneftegas' PJSC in the charter capital of 'Surgutneftegas' PJSC 06-Feb-2019 / 12:44 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Information statement[i] on change in the share of the member of the management body of "Surgutneftegas" PJSC in the charter capital of "Surgutneftegas" PJSC Last name, first name, patronymic name of the person, whose share in the charter capital of the issuer has changed: Egorov Valery Nikolaevich. Position of the individual, whose share in the charter capital of the issuer has changed: Member of the Board of Directors of "Surgutneftegas" PJSC. Type of the organization, where the change in the share in the charter capital of the relevant person took place: the issuer. The relevant person's share in the charter capital of the issuer before the change: 0.0057%. The issuer's ordinary shares held by the person before the change: 0.0063%. The relevant person's share in the charter capital of the issuer after the change: 0.0047%. The issuer's ordinary shares held by this person after the change: 0.0050%. Date when the share of the relevant person in the charter capital of the issuer changed: 06 February 2019. Date on which the issuer became aware of the changes in the share of the relevant person in the charter capital of the issuer: 06 February 2019. Website used by the issuer to disclose information: http://www.surgutneftegas.ru/investors/; http://www.e-disclosure.ru/portal/company.aspx?id=312 =--------------------------------------------------------------------------- [i] This Statement is a disclosure of insider information. ISIN: US8688612048 Category Code: MSCM TIDM: SGGD LEI Code: 2138002GZLU65FRAC894 Sequence No.: 7387 EQS News ID: 773043 End of Announcement EQS News Service (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 06, 2019 06:44 ET (11:44 GMT) NEW YORK, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, the global information analytics business specializing in science and health, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aries Systems, a leader in scientific publication workflow solutions headquartered outside Boston, MA. Aries' offerings are used by journals, books and other publications for manuscript submission, peer review, production tracking and eCommerce. "Aries has built a best-in-class workflow solution for publishers, editors and scholars seeking to advance the discovery and dissemination of knowledge," said Lyndon Holmes, Aries' Founder. "I'm excited that now with Elsevier we'll be even stronger and better positioned with enhanced solutions and analytics to help our customers achieve their goals." Aries was founded by Lyndon Holmes in 1986 and has successfully developed several generations of technologies to support publications processes, including Editorial Manager, an online manuscript submission and peer-review system. Elsevier and Aries have worked closely for nearly 20 years and Elsevier already uses the Editorial Manager platform for a significant number of journals, including its high profile Cell Press portfolio and many society titles. "We have long admired the business Lyndon has built, both for its innovative solutions and its prestigious client base. Aries' strengths in the provision of publication workflow systems together with Elsevier's strengths in information analytics will enable us to continue to innovate the publishing process," said Dominic Feltham, President Research, Elsevier. Elsevier is committed to providing the same strong and consistent service for both publishers and researchers as Aries provides today. To that end, Elsevier will be establishing a customer advisory board comprised of Aries' customers and chaired by Lyndon Holmes, who has agreed to remain with the company. Elsevier also plans to retain the Aries team working for the company in the US, the UK and Germany. The acquisition is in line with Elsevier's organic growth driven strategy, supported by acquisitions of innovative open science companies that are helping improve the research information ecosystem, following the acquisitions of Mendeley, SSRN, Plum Analytics and bepress. The transaction is subject to customary conditions and regulatory consents and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. AboutAries Aries Systems transforms the way scholarly publishers bring high-value content to the world. The company's innovative and forward-looking workflow solutions manage the complexities of modern print and electronic publishing- from submission, to editorial management and peer review, to production tracking and publishing channel distribution. As the publishing environment evolves, Aries Systems is committed to delivering solutions that help publishers and scholars enhance the discovery and dissemination of human knowledge. Publish faster, publish smarter, with Aries Systems. Follow Aries on Twitter: @AriesMarketing. www.ariessys.com About Elsevier Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support and professional education, including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 38,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com About RELX Group RELX Group is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs about 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 32.7bn|36.7bn|$42.9bn. www.relx.com Media contact Tom Reller Vice President, Communications, Elsevier t.reller@elsevier.com Onsight Flow paperless work instructions empowers the digital field service worker WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Oct. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Librestream Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce the latest expansion of its Onsight augmented reality (AR) service platform with the launch of Onsight Flow (https://librestream.com/products/onsight-flow/), an enterprise-grade digital work instruction solution. This new capability provides a digital alternative to traditional workflows, replacing paper processes for consistent and safe performance in the field. Kerry Thacher, CEO of Librestream, explained, "Digital transformation is changing the way enterprises deliver services and build products. Our focus on digitizing the worker's day drives our investment in the Onsight platform. With digital work instructions, an enterprise delivers immediate value and assistance to workers with dynamic and relevant content." Librestream is the pioneer in delivering remote expert guidance technology for industrial workers. Today, every 15 seconds, teams engage Onsight Connect (https://librestream.com/products/onsight-connect/) remote expert guidance to perform remote inspections and troubleshoot assets globally. Earlier this year, Librestream added Onsight Workspace (https://librestream.com/products/onsight-workspace/), a specialized content system that streamlines how teams create, access, and share media in the field. With the launch of Onsight Flow, teams augment their experience with access to dynamic work instructions and content as they perform their jobs. Onsight Flow fits seamlessly into Librestream's AR ecosystem. As part of the full Onsight platform, enterprises can deploy Flow on enterprise wearables for hands-free operation or on the smartphones and tablets already in the hands of workers. Thacher added, "Our customers will continue to see advancements to our Onsight platform that further our vision of being the first digital tool workers pick up and the last one they put down. These advancements will include expanded capabilities in areas such as AR, IoT and data analytics." With Onsight Flow, the ability to consistently capture machine, time and geometric data provides critical information on asset and operational performance. With this ability to capture machine data digitally, an enterprise gains instant access to data analytics and dashboards to assist with continuous improvement initiatives. Onsight Flow is powered by Intoware and part of the overall Onsight AR service platform. For more information on Onsight Flow digital work instructions visit librestream.com/products/onsight-flow (https://librestream.com/products/onsight-flow/). About Librestream Technologies Inc. Librestream develops digital transformation technology that improves service operations within the industrial sector. Deployed globally, the Onsight augmented reality service platform empowers workers to rapidly diagnose, inspect, and manage assets in even the most difficult field environments. The Onsight platform includes core AR capabilities including remote expert, digital work instructions and rich content access. Visit Librestream at www.librestream.com (http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=11G131904-001&id=11159290&type=0&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.librestream.com%2f) and connect with us on LinkedIn (http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=11G131904-001&id=11159293&type=0&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.linkedin.com%2fcompany%2flibrestream-technologies-inc), Facebook (http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=11G131904-001&id=11159296&type=0&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2flibrestreaminc) & Twitter (http://ctt.marketwire.com/?release=11G131904-001&id=11159299&type=0&url=https%3a%2f%2ftwitter.com%2fLibrestream). CONTACT INFORMATION Marieke Wijtkamp Vice President of Marketing & Client Services Librestream Technologies Inc. Marieke.wijtkamp@librestream.com Tel: +1 204.487.0612 ext. 259 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8865af0e-199b-4801-be9e-1fd86dac7998 (http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8865af0e-199b-4801-be9e-1fd86dac7998). Philip Whitchelo, Vice President for Strategic Business Development, to share "Confessions of an M&A Dealmaker." NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Intralinks, the world's leading virtual data room (VDR) provider, announced today that Philip Whitchelo, Vice President for Strategic Business Development, will give the keynote address at the Third Annual Cass Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Research Centre Conference at Cass Business School, City, University of London on Monday, August 20. The event begins at 8:30 am BST. The conference, organized by the M&A Research Centre (MARC) at Cass Business School and the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), is an internationally recognized and attended annual forum on the theory and practice of mergers and acquisitions. Whitchelo, who is responsible for strategic business and corporate development at Intralinks, is a 25-year veteran of M&A investment banking, corporate finance and management consulting. "I'm looking forward to sharing my insights from the intersection of M&A theory and practice with members of the international M&A and finance community at the Cass conference," said Whitchelo. "The M&A market is being shaped by powerful forces, including technology developments, that are bringing profound changes in the way deals are sourced and executed." This year's conference will feature papers covering a wide range of topics including anti-competitive acquisitions, the liquidity of equity deal consideration, financial protectionism, creditor rights, employee behavior, cross-border acquisitions and synergies. Speakers at this year's conference come from Canada, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. The conference will be opened by Professor Scott Moeller, Director of the MARC. Professor Marianne Lewis, the Dean of Cass Business School, will introduce the keynote address. More information about the conference, including registration information, can be found at: https://www.cass.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/marc/events. About Intralinks Intralinks is a leading financial technology provider for the global banking, deal making and capital markets communities. As pioneers of the virtual data room, Intralinks enables and secures the flow of information facilitating strategic initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and investor reporting. In its 22-year history Intralinks has earned the trust and business of more than 99 percent of the Fortune 1000 and has executed over US$34.7 trillion worth of financial transactions on its platform. For more information, visit www.intralinks.com. Trademarks and Copyright "Intralinks" and the Intralinks stylized logo are the registered trademarks of Intralinks, Inc. 2018 Intralinks, Inc. About Cass Cass Business School, which is part of City, University of London, is a leading global business school driven by world-class knowledge, innovative education and a vibrant community. Located in the heart of one of the world's leading financial centres, Cass has strong links to both the City of London and the thriving entrepreneurial hub of Tech City. It is among the global elite of business schools that hold the gold standard of triple-crown accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Association of MBAs (AMBA) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). For further information, visit www.cass.city.ac.uk or on Twitter follow @cassbusiness. About the European Corporate Governance Institute The ECGI is an international scientific non-profit association which provides a forum for debate and dialogue focusing on major corporate governance issues and thereby promoting best practice. It is the home for all those with an interest in corporate governance offering membership categories for academics, practitioners, patrons and institutions. Its primary role is to undertake, commission and disseminate research on corporate governance. Based upon impartial and objective research and the collective knowledge and wisdom of its members, it can advise on the formulation of corporate governance policy and development of best practice. In seeking to achieve the aim of improving corporate governance, ECGI acts as a focal point for academics working on corporate governance in Europe and elsewhere, encouraging the interaction between the different disciplines, such as economics, law, finance and management. For further information, visit http://www.ecgi.global/. Media contact Jeff VanPelt jvanpelt@intralinks.com 1 (617) 574-5477 HONOLULU, HI / ACCESSWIRE / August 2, 2018 / The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council: The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is disappointed that America's seafood consumers may soon be deprived of sustainably harvested domestic marlin products should President Trump sign legislation to prohibit interstate commerce of billfish (not including swordfish) landed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Darren Soto's (D-Fla.), passed the House on June 26 and the Senate on July 30 and is now headed to the president. "It is upsetting, in this era of tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the $12 billion US seafood trade deficit, that highly monitored US Pacific Island fishing and seafood communities may suffer hardship should this legislation become law," notes Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. Under current law, billfish caught by U.S. vessels that are landed in Hawaii or other U.S. Pacific Islands may be sold to markets on the U.S. mainland. More than 550,000 pounds of American-caught billfish landed in the U.S. Pacific Islands are annually marketed in the continental United States. The billfish is worth approximately $830,000 in 2017 dockside value. When the dockside value is expanded through wholesale and retail markets, the estimated annual value is approximately $2.5 million. The commercial harvest of Atlantic billfish has been prohibited in the United States since 1988 because several Atlantic billfish species are overfished and/or subject to overfishing (e.g., blue marlin, white marlin and East Atlantic sailfish). By contrast, Pacific and Western Pacific billfish populations are not overfished nor subject to overfishing, with the exception of striped marlin, due to international fishing. A Billfish Certificate of Eligibility (COE) is required to accompany billfish to any dealer or processor who subsequently receives or possesses the billfish. The COE documents the vessel, homeport, port of offloading and date of offloading and ensures the fish is not from the Atlantic or foreign fisheries. Chris Oliver, NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, in December 2017, said he has "full confidence in these existing management processes to sustainably manage billfish populations." Congresswomen Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam) and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa), in an Additional Views statement on H.R. 4528, said the legislation "will negatively impact the livelihoods of fishermen in Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Insular Areas by closing off the only off-island market for U.S.-caught billfish." Acknowledging that several Atlantic billfish species are subject to overfishing, the Congresswomen said, "We support needed-conservation efforts in the Atlantic, but do not believe that Pacific fisheries need to be targeted in order to achieve these goals." Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, in a June 5, 2018, letter to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, said "we believe the legislation would not advance the conservation of billfish significantly, and would block a small amount of sustainably harvested domestic product from entering commerce on the U.S. mainland." NMFS estimates that the United States imports more than 80 percent of the seafood consumed in the nation (www.fishwatch.gov/sustainable-seafood/the-global-picture). According to NMFS data, the United States imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017, which is more imported seafood than at any point in the nation's history. For more information, go to www.wpcouncil.org/billfish. About Saving Seafood Saving Seafood is a a non-profit corporation funded by the fishing industry. Saving Seafood conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the seafood industry, operates the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, and undertakes communications efforts to keep industry members and the public aware of issues of concern. Saving Seafood works with vessel owners, fishermen, seafood processors and fishing organizations across the United States who are committed to the preservation of the resource that has provided their livelihood, and that of their American forebears, for generations. Contact: Sylvia Spalding (808) 522-5341 or info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov SOURCE: Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: SYH (http://web.tmxmoney.com/quote.php?qm_symbol=syh)) (OTCQB: SYHBF (http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/SYHBF/quote)) (Frankfurt: SC1P (http://en.boerse-frankfurt.de/stock/Skyharbour_Resources_2-share)) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of approx. CAD $2.6 million (the "Financing"). The Company now has over $3.2 million in the treasury and is fully funded for upcoming diamond drill programs at its flagship Moore Uranium project located on the southeast side of the Athabasca Basin proximal to regional infrastructure, as well as nearby development projects and producing mines. Moore Uranium Project Claims Map: http://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/MooreLakeRegionalTenure.jpg (http://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/MooreLakeRegionalTenure.jpg) The Financing consisted of 3,712,582 units (the "Units") at a price of CAD $0.40 per Unit as well as 2,462,256 flow-through units (the "FT Units") at a price of CAD $0.45 per FT Unit for combined total gross proceeds of CAD $2,593,050. Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one warrant ("Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share for two (2) years at a price of CAD $0.60 each. Each FT Unit will be comprised of one flow-through common share and one-half of one warrant ("Warrant"). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share for two (2) years at a price of CAD $0.60 each. In connection with the financing, Skyharbour issued a total of 79,097 warrants to finders (the "Finder's Warrants") who introduced certain subscribers to the private placement. Each Finder's Warrant will entitle the finder to purchase one additional common share for two (2) years at a price of CAD $0.60 per common share. The Company also paid to finders a total of CAD $40,059 in cash fees associated with this financing. The Units, FT Units and Warrants issued under the private placement and any shares issued pursuant to the exercise of the Warrants and Finder's Warrants are subject to a four month and one day hold period, expiring on December 3rd, 2018, under applicable securities laws and imposed by the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's President and CEO, Jordan Trimble, stated: "We are pleased to close this financing with several new institutional and strategic investors. The Company is well positioned financially with over $3.2 million in its treasury to fund the planned and upcoming exploration programs at its flagship Moore Uranium Project including the summer 2018 drill program slated to commence this month. Given the previously reported high grade drill results from our previous programs as well as new and refined targets in the underlying basement rock, the Company is excited to recommence drilling. Skyharbour will also benefit from news flow from upcoming exploration programs being planned with strategic partners Orano Canada Inc. and Azincourt at the Preston Uranium project. The Company continues to execute on its business model by adding value to its project base in the Athabasca Basin through focused mineral exploration at its flagship Moore Uranium Project, as well as utilizing the prospect generator model to advance its other projects with strategic partners." Upcoming Summer 2018 Drill Program Plans: Skyharbour is planning for a minimum 3,000 metre 2018 summer diamond drilling program slated to commence in late August. The majority of this drilling will test the high grade Maverick corridor both above the unconformity and below it in the basement rocks. Skyharbour's technical team has recently reinterpreted historical drill results and has identified new high-priority drill targets in the basement rock at the Maverick corridor below the known high grade mineralization. The underlying basement feeder zones for the unconformity-hosted high grade uranium at the Maverick corridor have yet to be discovered and have seen limited drill testing. About Skyharbour Resources Ltd.: Skyharbour holds an extensive portfolio of uranium and thorium exploration projects in Canada's Athabasca Basin and is well positioned to benefit from improving uranium market fundamentals with five drill-ready projects. In July 2016, Skyharbour acquired an option from Denison Mines, a large strategic shareholder of the Company, to acquire 100% of the Moore Uranium Project which is located approx. 15 kilometres east of Denison's Wheeler River project and 39 kilometres south of Cameco's McArthur River uranium mine. Moore is an advanced stage uranium exploration property with high grade uranium mineralization at the Maverick Zone with drill results returning 6.0% U 3 O 8 over 5.9 metres including 20.8% U 3 O 8 over 1.5 metres at a vertical depth of 265 metres. Skyharbour has signed option agreements with Orano Canada Inc. and Azincourt Energy whereby Orano and Azincourt can earn in up to 70% on the Preston Project through a combined $9,800,000 in total exploration expenditures, as well as $1,700,000 in total cash payments and Azincourt shares. Preston is a large, geologically prospective property proximal to Fission Uranium's Triple R deposit as well as NexGen Energy's Arrow deposit. The Company also owns a 100% interest in the Falcon Point Uranium Project on the eastern perimeter of the Basin which contains an NI 43-101 inferred resource totaling 7.0 million pounds of U 3 O 8 at 0.03% and 5.3 million pounds of ThO 2 at 0.023%. The project also hosts a high-grade surface showing with up to 68% U 3 O 8 in grab samples from a massive pitchblende vein, the source of which has yet to be discovered. The Company's 100% owned Mann Lake Uranium project on the east side of the Basin is strategically located adjacent to the Mann Lake Joint Venture operated by Cameco, where high-grade uranium mineralization was recently discovered. Skyharbour's goal is to maximize shareholder value through new mineral discoveries, committed long-term partnerships, and the advancement of exploration projects in geopolitically favourable jurisdictions. To find out more about Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: SYH) visit the Company's website at www.skyharbourltd.com (http://www.skyharbourltd.com/). SKYHARBOUR RESOURCES LTD. "Jordan Trimble" Jordan Trimble President and CEO For further information contact myself or: Nick Findler Corporate Development and Communications Skyharbour Resources Ltd. Telephone: 604-687-3850 Toll Free: 800-567-8181 Facsimile: 604-687-3119 Email: info@skyharbourltd.com (mailto:info@skyharbourltd.com) NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management 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. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com (http://www.sedar.com/) for further information. This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Skyharbour Resources Ltd via Globenewswire ClearView Wealthhave released a statement regarding Mondays arrest of independent non-executive director David Brown in Papua New Guinea saying that it was regarding a claim by the Melanesian Trustee Services.The claim concerns an attempt to remove and replace the current fund manager of the Pacific Balanced Fund by Browns employer National Superannuation Fund.The statement says that the charge against Mr Brown has not been proven and his employer, NASFUND, is fully supporting him, and believe he has not breached any laws.Brown is the chief investment officer of the National Superannuation Fund Ltd (NASFUND) in Papua New Guinea.Shares in ClearView Wealth Limitedclosed flat at $1.10 yesterday. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Absa Group on Wednesday officially launched Whatsapp banking, in its latest push to become a digitally-led African bank, with more than 10,000 customers already registered to date since early July. The service faces competition from WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform which launched in Africa in 2013 and offers an array of services including money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases. Absa Chief Executive Maria Ramos has drawn up an ambitious growth strategy to regain market share in retail banking at home and double sales across the continent from 6 percent to 12 percent after the bank's separation from Barclays PLC JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Absa Group on Wednesday officially launched Whatsapp banking, in its latest push to become a digitally-led African bank, with more than 10,000 customers already registered to date since early July. The service faces competition from WeChat, China's biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform which launched in Africa in 2013 and offers an array of services including money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases. Absa Chief Executive Maria Ramos has drawn up an ambitious growth strategy to regain market share in retail banking at home and double sales across the continent from 6 percent to 12 percent after the bank's separation from Barclays PLC. To achieve this, the group is adapting to changes in customer behaviour that requires banking to be available anytime, anywhere and accessible wherever the customer is. "As technology advances and more customers become connected, bringing banking to where our customers are is important to us, especially as we continue our journey to become a digitally-led business driven by innovation," Chief Executive of Absa retail and business banking Arrie Rautenbach said in a statement. Live on July 11, Absa ChatBanking on Facebook Inc's WhatsApp allows Absa account holders to perform simple banking such as checking their balance, buy airtime and make payment to an existing beneficiary using conversational languages and short commands. Speaking at the official launch event on Wednesday, Chief Information Officer, virtual channels for Absa retail and banking Jacques Barkhuizen said apart from Facebook, the bank has also partnered with mobile messaging firm Clickatell. ChatBanking on WhatsApp follows the momentum created by the launch of Absa ChatBanking on Facebook Messenger and Twitter in 2016. Separately, Societe Generale is in talks with Absa about selling its local unit as the French bank prepares to pull out of Africa's most industrialised economy, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The NCLAT last month had vacated its stay and asked the CoC to consider resolution plans submitted by three firms -- Tata Steel, Liberty House and JSW Steel. New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday allowed all three bidders for debt-ridden Bhushan Power & Steel -- Tata Steel, Liberty House and JSW -- to file revised offers by 6 August, a day after lenders picked the Tata Group company as the highest bidder. Passing an interim order, the appellate tribunal said that all the three contenders could upgrade their offer. The NCLAT was hearing a plea filed by Tata Steel challenging the revision of bid by JSW Steel on 27 July ahead of the meeting of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) to finalise a vote on offers for the debt-ridden company. The CoC in its meeting on Tuesday selected Tata Steel as the highest bidder (H1) for Bhushan Power & Steel (BPSL). Meanwhile, the NCLAT on Wednesday directed the CoC to take a decision over the revised bids and keep it in a sealed cover. "All resolution applicants can submit their revised offer by Monday", said an NCLAT bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya. The bench said that the bidders can only change the financial part of the bid. The NCLAT has directed the matter to be listed on 17 August for next hearing. During the proceedings, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Tata Steel submitted that the CoC has selected it as H1 in a meeting held on Tuesday and lenders should be allowed to proceed to vote over the existing proposals. However, this was objected to by other parties. The NCLAT last month had vacated its stay and asked the CoC to consider resolution plans submitted by three firms -- Tata Steel, Liberty House and JSW Steel. The tribunal on 20 July gave a go-ahead to the CoC meeting, directing it to finalise a bid for the company. However, JSW Steel revised up its offer from Rs 11,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore ahead of the CoC meeting. Tata Steel put in a bid of Rs 17,000 crore. Following the CoC picking Tata Steel as H1 bidder, UK-based Liberty House in a letter to the creditors' panel and resolution professional alleged that CoC has not been fair to the UK-based firm while evaluating its bid for BPSL, sources said. Liberty House alleged that "despite Liberty House bid provided superior recovery to the financial lenders and submitted firm financial commitment letters, CoC scored the company not fairly", a source privy to the development said. A Liberty House spokesperson declined to comment on the matter. Resolution Professional (RP) Mahender Kumar Khandelwal said he had no comments to offer as the matter was subjudice. Bhushan Power and Steel owes about Rs 45,000 crore to its lenders. It was among the 12 non-performing accounts referred by the RBI for NCLT proceedings. Allowing the petition of Gayatrai Devi's grandchildren, a Delhi bench of NCLT set aside the resolution of the extraordinary general meeting of the company held in March 1999 and March 2001 regarding appointments on board and dilution of their stake. New Delhi: Grandchildren of the late Maharani Gayatri Devi have won the control of Jaipur-based iconic property Jai Mahal Hotel as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has restored their majority holding in the company which controls the erstwhile royal palace. Allowing the petition of Gayatri Devi's grandchildren -- Maharaja Devraj and Rajkumari Lalitya Kumar, children of Late Maharaja Jagat Singha -- the Delhi bench of NCLT said that they have been "constantly denied" 99 percent of the paid-up capital of the Jai Mahal hotel owned by their father. The tribunal has "restored the position ante immediately upon the death of late Maharaja Jagat Singh" in terms of strength and directors of the board of Jai Mahal Hotel Ltd. Moreover, the tribunal in its 82-page-long order has also observed that their (Devraj and Lalitya) majority shareholding having been converted into a minority by the "overt and covert acts" of the respondents, which includes Gayatri Devi's stepson Maharaja Prithvi Raj and his son Rajkumar Vijit Singh. A single member bench of NCLT Member Judicial R Varadharajan has set aside the resolution of the extraordinary general meeting of the Jai Mahal Hotel Pvt Ltd held in March 1999 and March 2001 regarding appointments on board and dilution of their stake. "All the resolutions, which have been passed in relation to the increase in the authorises share capital of Hotel Jai Mahal in the board meeting and or in the EGM dated 27 March 2001 are set aside," the tribunal said. It further observed: "The tribunal is of the considered view that the company's affairs in relation to the petitioners (Devraj and Lalitya) have been conducted in an oppressive manner by respondents." The tribunal restored the position ante 27 March 2001 in terms of the authorised share capital of the company and said "any form filed in this regard with the ROC, NCT of Delhi & Haryana shall also stand cancelled". It also ordered the company, to rectify its register of members reflecting the status que ante prior to allotment of 60,882 equity shares as its paid-up equity capital. "All the resolutions passed either in the board meeting held on 4 April 2001, in relation to the resolution allotting additional capital of Hotel Jai Mahal to R2 (Prithvi Raj) and R3 (Vijit Singh) aggregating to 60,882 equity shares of Rs 100 each are set aside," the tribunal said. NCLT has also directed that the board of the company "shall be reconstituted with R2 and R3 along with three nominees to the board to be appointed by the petitioners within a period of four weeks from the day of this order." Maharaja Devraj and Rajkumari Lalitya Kumar had filed the petition in 2006 (in then the CLB) against the company and its directors, challenging the wrongful dilution of their shareholding from 99 percent to 6 percent by allotment of shares to Maharaj Prithviraj, who is the step-uncle of the grandchildren, and to his son Vijit Singh. The grandchildren had earlier won the battle for transmission of their father's shares in their names from the Supreme Court in 2015. Spread over around 18 acres, Jai Mahal - 260-years-old royal palace -- had been converted into a Heritage hotel and is managed by the Taj group of hotels. Jet Airways is in discussions with certain sections of employees on the salary cut proposal, which has been mooted amid efforts to save costs Mumbai: Battling financial woes, Jet Airways has proposed up to 25 percent pay cut for employees but the proposal has been rejected by pilots and engineers, sources said. Sources said the full-service carrier is in discussions with certain sections of employees on the salary cut proposal, which has been mooted amid efforts to save costs. Jet Airways has more than 16,000 employees. The Naresh Goyal-led airline, in which Gulf carrier Etihad holds 24 percent stake, has already slashed by 25 percent the salaries of its senior management, one of the sources told PTI in Mumbai. Senior management executives are those holding general manager post and above level positions. At a meeting held with Jet Airways' CEO Vinay Dube in Mumbai this evening, pilots made it clear that the proposed pay cut was not acceptable. "Last week, Jet Airways management held a meeting with the airline's pilots union National Aviator's Guild (NAG) and sought its cooperation with respect to proposed salary cuts," another source said. The management had told the pilots that they should go along with engineers and other employees by taking a 25 percent wage cut due to the prevailing financial health, the source added. As the union outrightly rejected the proposal, sources said the management decided to talk to the pilots separately and had called for Wednesday's meeting of all its Mumbai-based pilots. "However, the pilots reiterated the position taken by the union," one of the sources said. Engineers have also rejected the salary cut proposal, they added. Queries sent to Jet Airways Deputy CEO and CFO Amit Agarwal, and an airline spokesperson on the issue did not elicit any response. Another round of meeting with pilots is likely to be held tomorrow in the national capital, the sources said. Jet Airways -- which completed 25 years of operations earlier this year -- had 16,558 permanent employees as on 31 March, 2018. Besides, there were a total of 6,306 temporary /casual employees, as per the airline's annual report for 2017-18. New Delhi: In its largest-ever spectrum sale, regulator Trai on Wednesday recommended an auction of 8,293.95 Mhz of telecom frequencies at an estimated total base price of Rs 5.77 lakh crore, which is slightly higher than that for the previous sale. "Entire available spectrum should be put to auction in the forthcoming auction," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its recommendation on the auction of spectrum. The Department of Telecom (DoT) in its reference to Trai had informed the regulator about the availability of 8,096.45 Mhz of spectrum across nine bands. The recommendation, if approved by the government, will lead to the country's biggest spectrum auction in terms of quantum of frequencies and over three-fold the size of spectrum that was put for sale in 2016 at a cumulative base price of Rs 5.63 lakh crore. Trai has suggested a steep cut of 43 percent in the base price at around Rs 6,568 crore per Mhz for the premium 700Mhz band frequencies which failed to attract bidders in the last auction. For the next-generation services, the watchdog recommended a pan-India base price of Rs 492 crore per megahertz unpaired spectrum for proposed 5G spectrum (3300-3600Mhz). The price is about a third of that set for 2G (1800 MHz) frequencies during the 2012 sale. The government had fixed a pan-India base price at around Rs 2,800 crore per Mhz for 2G spectrum -- both uplink and downlink, translating into Rs 1,400 crore per Mhz for unpaired spectrum. Telecom operators bidding in the next round of auctions for the spectrum to provide next generation of mobile services will have to shell out a minimum of Rs 9,840 crore on pan-India basis to buy spectrum in 3300-3600 Mhz band as Trai has suggested that it "should be put to auction in the block size of 20 MHz". The proposed reduction in base prices received a thumbs-up by the telecom industry. "For now, we are glad that the government has decided to bring down the price of spectrum, especially for the 700 MHz band," Rajan S Mathews, the Director General of industry body COAI, said in a statement. Based on Trai recommendations submitted to the government, the base prices and timing for the next round of auctions will be finalised. Trai has recommended the auction of entire spectrum available in various bands barring the specific locations or districts where ISRO is using the 25 MHz (3400 MHz - 3425 MHz) of the spectrum. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested a base price of Rs 3,285 per megahertz for paired spectrum in 1800 Mhz band. For the premium 700 Mhz band, Trai has said that its "reserve price...should be equal to 2 times of reserve price of 1800 MHz spectrum band", resulting in about 43 per cent reduction in the price of this band to Rs 6,568 crore per Mhz for paired spectrum. In 2016, the government had fixed the base price of 700 Mhz band at Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz, which was around four times the price of 1800 Mhz band. Operators were required to buy radiowaves worth Rs 57,425 crore to provide mobile service in this band. The cost of providing 2G, 3G and 4G mobile services through 700Mhz band is estimated to be around one-third of that incurred in 1800 Mhz band. In the previous 2016 auction, a total of 2,354.55 megahertz of mobile airwaves were put for sale but nearly 60 per cent of the radio waves, including premium Rs 4 lakh crore worth spectrum in 700 Mhz band, remained unsold. If Trai recommendations are approved by the government, then telecom operators in the next round will have shell out a minimum of Rs 32,840 crore for providing services in the 700 Mhz band on pan India basis. "Considering the current financial stress the industry is going through, lowering the spectrum prices alone doesn't fix anything. Until and unless the SUC(spectrum usage charges), licence fees and other levies are lowered as well, the industry may not be able to cope with the requirements for state-of-the-art infrastructure needed for new technologies and early roll-out of 5G," Mathews said. Trai has recommended base price of Rs 4,651 crore for paired spectrum in 800 Mhz band covering 19 circles, Rs 1,622 crore per Mhz for 900 Mhz band covering seven circles, Rs 3,399 crore per Mhz of in 2100 Mhz covering 21 circles and Rs 821 crore per Mhz in 2500 Mhz band covering 12 circles. The regulator has recommended Rs 960 crore per Mhz for unpaired spectrum in 2300 Mhz band on a pan-India basis. To avoid monopolisation of suggested 5G spectrum band, Trai has recommended a limit of 100 MHz per bidder and also "the lock-in period for spectrum in this band for becoming eligible for spectrum trading should be 5 years" instead of 2 years applicable for other bands. It has suggested no time bound network roll out obligation for buyers of the potential 5G spectrum but for other sets of spectrum norms mentioned in the earlier auction should apply. The regulator has recommended that in case a company has closed 2G GSM or CDMA services, it cannot hold the administratively (without auction) assigned spectrum for which it has not paid the market-determined price. "Any such spectrum lying with TSPs (telecom service providers) should be taken back and put to auction in the forthcoming auction," Trai said. Its has reiterated need for an urgent audit of all allocated spectrum -- commercial as well as the one given to various public sector units and government organizations through an independent agency on a regular basis. In a letter addressed to Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh on 31 July, Anna Hazare said he would start his protest at Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. Mumbai: Social activist Anna Hazare has conveyed to the Centre that he will launch a hunger strike on 2 October against "non-fulfilment" of promises on welfare of farmers and appointment of Lokpal and Lokayuktas. In a letter addressed to Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh on 31 July, the anti-corruption crusader said he would start his protest at Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. Hazare said he had written to the Centre at least four times in the past demanding implementation of the written assurances made by the government on 29 March, when he called off his protest at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi. "I will go on a hunger strike from 2 October, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, at my native Ralegan Siddhi village," he said. Hazare criticised the NDA government, saying it had earlier assured to appoint the Lokpal and implement the Lokpal Bill, passed by Parliament and signed by the then president in January 2014. Hazare demanded the Central Agriculture Price Commission (CAPC), which is currently under the Ministry of Agriculture, need to function independently in interest of farmers. "At present, various State Agriculture Price Commissions (SAPC) send the support prices for different crops to the CAPC. The SAPC reduces the support prices recommended by the SAPCs by 50 percent because it is under the agriculture ministry," he said. Hazare said the farmers do not get adequate price for their crops due to the CAPC halving the recommended support prices. "The CAPC should consist of agriculture specialists and experienced agriculturists who are not associated with the government," he demanded. Recalling his Jantar-Mantar stir in March, Hazare said he was told that a high-level committee would be set up to implement the assurances. However, the response received (from the Centre) in June didn't mention implementation of them, he said. Hazare said his other demands included: fixing the milk price on per litre cost to the farmers; a monthly pension of Rs 5,000 to those farmers who are above 60 years and still dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Questioning the "delay" in appointment of a Lokpal, Hazare said the government seemed to be lacking the will to act. "Had the current government implemented the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act after coming to power in 2014, the level of corruption in the country could have been checked," he stated. The Supreme Court had last week expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's response on appointment of search committee members for a Lokpal. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that the Lokpal selection committee, headed by the prime minister, was scheduled to meet to set up a search panel for recommending a panel of names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman and its members. The government had said the search panel would lay down its procedures, following which the selection committee would fix the time frame within which the names for selecting the chairman and members of the Lokpal would be recommended. The committee comprises the prime minister, the chief justice of India, Lok Sabha speaker, the leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist. The Supreme Court, in its 2017's verdict, had said there was no justification to keep the enforcement of the Lokpal Act suspended till the proposed amendments, including on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, were cleared by Parliament. The first NRC was prepared in 1951 and included all those who were mentioned in the 1951 Census of India. The Assam NRC issue has become such a widely debated topic in India that even international media has taken note of the fact that there are over 40 lakh people who are now at risk of losing Indian citizenship. While the Opposition has accused the BJP-led central government of playing vote-bank politics over this issue, the government has responded by saying that the demand for the NRC being updated is a very old one. Here is all you need to know about this issue: What is NRC? The National Register of Citizens is a list of all the legal citizens of a state. It is governed by The Citizenship Act, 1955, and The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 (amended in 2009) and a 2010 order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, published in the Gazette of India. When was the first NRC done? The first NRC was prepared in 1951 and included all those who were mentioned in the 1951 Census of India. Why is the NRC being updated in Assam right now? The idea of updating the NRC in Assam stems from the demand to identify illegal migrants from the state from Bangladesh, something which the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) demanded during the six-year-long Assam Movement. The movement culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985. Even though the Assam Accord does not mandate updation of the NRC, it does talk about the deletion of foreigners' names from the electoral rolls. A formal decision to update the NRC was first taken by the Centre in 1999, but the work did not begin. In a tripartite meeting among the central government, the Assam government and AASU on 5 May, 2005, it was decided to update the NRC. But nothing much progressed beyond talks. In July 2009, Assam Public Works an NGO filed a case in the Supreme Court, demanding updation of the NRC. In 2010, the government decided to hold pilot projects of NRC updation in two blocks in the state. But violence in Barpeta district stalled the work yet again. It was only after the Supreme Court directed the government to update the NRC in 2014 that work on updating the list began in full swing. The court also fixed a cut-off date of 1971, meaning that anyone who came to Assam after 1971 would be considered a foreigner. Thus, the demand to update the NRC has existed for a long time. Who are eligible to register for the NRC? As The Telegraph explains, people whose names appear on the 1951 NRC and those who appear on any voter list in Assam up to midnight of 24 March, 1971, and the descendants of the above are eligible to register for the NRC. Moreover, people who came to Assam from Bangladesh between 1 January, 1966 and 24 March, 1971, registered themselves with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office, and were declared by the Foreigner Tribunal as Indian citizens are also eligible. Indian citizens who moved to Assam after 24 March, 1971 will need to provide proof of residence in another part of the country as on 24 March, 1971. Has the final NRC been published? No. The second and final draft of the NRC was published on Monday. The first draft of the NRC was published during the intervening night of 31 December and 1 January this year, containing 1.9 crore names. The final NRC will be published later during the year, after a process of claims and objections has ended. According to News18, the final NRC is expected to be published in December this year. What is the political controversy surrounding the final NRC draft? The names of 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the second and final NRC draft. This fact caused all the political outrage over the NRC, with the Opposition disrupting Parliament proceedings over the exclusion of such a large number of applicants. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the BJP over the draft NRC, accusing the party of playing vote-bank politics, while also warning that the issue will "destroy" India's relationship with Bangladesh. She said only one percent of the 40 lakh residents, whose names are missing from the draft NRC, could be infiltrators, and said that people are being "harassed" in the name of identifying infiltrators. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said that the BJP government's execution of the NRC has been tardy, leading to massive insecurity in Assam. Gandhi also said that even though the NRC was initiated by the UPA under Manmohan Singh, "the manner in which the exercise has been undertaken by the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state of Assam leaves much to be desired." The Congress in Tripura also alleged that the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Assam were involved in a "planned conspiracy" to exclude 40 lakh people in the state from the NRC. On the other hand, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back at the Opposition and said, "India's sovereignty is paying a heavy price because of the quality of its political discourse. Though Indira and Rajiv took a particular position in 1972 and 1985 for the deletion and deportation of foreigners, Rahul Gandhi takes a contrarian position and his party turns turtle. Similarly, the BJP ally of 2005, Mamata, took a particular position. As a federal front leader, she now talks to the contrary. Can Indias sovereignty be decided by such fickle minds and fragile hands?" BJP president Amit Shah also said that "the NRC is the soul of the Assam Accord which the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had signed and it clearly stipulates that every single illegal immigrant would be identified and his name struck off the voters list." What will happen to the 40.07 lakh applicants excluded from the final NRC draft? The applicants who have been excluded can go to the NRC Seva Kendras from 7 August onwards and find out the reasons of their exclusion. Furthermore, from 30 August to 28 September, they can submit their claims and objections at the NRC Seva Kendras. After that, according to state coordinator for NRC in Assam Prateek Hajela, hearings will be held to decide on each individual claim or objection. It is only after this process is finished that the final NRC will be published. Will the people excluded from the final NRC be deported? The people excluded from the final NRC which will be released later this year can appeal in the Foreigners' Tribunal or can even approach the Supreme Court. Is the NRC being used to target particular communities? There is no credible evidence as of now to suggest that the NRC is being used as a political tool to target particular communities. As this Hindustan Times report says, the exclusions from the final draft also have a fair share on Hindu Bengalis. With inputs from PTI With the National Register of Citizens (NRC) throwing up 4 million illegal immigrants after the first phase, the Congress' response is vague New Delhi: A WikiLeaks cable, dated 16 February 2006, authored by a US consulate officer in Kolkata had alleged that then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, campaigning for the May 2006 state Assembly election in Assam, "in a brazen appeal to the Muslims, offered to amend the Foreigners Act to prevent deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants". The cable said that the relationship between the Congress party and its traditional vote bank soured in July 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act as unconstitutional. It said the Congress supported the act, which made identification, detection and deportation of foreigners in Assam an incredibly complex task, and also protected post-1971 illegal Bangladeshi migrants. "The Congress has tried to appease the Muslims by not enforcing the Foreigners Act, and in her recent visit, Sonia offered to amend the Act The Muslim community's importance has been magnified by a steady influx of Bangladeshi immigrants, and Muslims presently hold 13 Congress seats in the Assembly. Traditionally, Congress had been the party of choice for the Muslims as it protected illegal Bangladeshi migrants from deportation," the cable said. But now, with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) throwing up 4 million illegal immigrants after the first phase, the Congress' response is vague. Former Congress MP from Assam, Kirip Chaliha, said he doesn't remember Sonia Gandhi making such a speech in 2006, but said he supported NRC. He has argued that infiltration by illegal immigrants changed the demography of the state. "It is not about Mulsims or non-Muslims, but infiltration that has potential national security implications. Politicians including Mamta Banerjee are trying to fish in the troubled water to protect the vote bank. But Assam Congress failed to tackle the illegal immigration issue and that is the primary reason the party was wiped out from the state. The NRC establishes the fact that there has been massive infiltration by illegal immigrants and now further action has to be taken as per law," Chaliha said. Chaliha himself features in one of the 2005 cables that was drafted immediately after Supreme Court repealed the IMDT Act in Assam. He appears to be taking a strong view against the illegal immigrants in the cable, though US officials observed that the Congress government, which passed the IMDT Act in 1983, has been accused of catering mostly to Muslim Bangladeshi migrants in order to use them as a vote bank, and of allowing "demographic aggression" in Assam. "Although Congress publicly supported the IMDT Act, Kirip Chaliha, an MP of the party from Assam, told Poloff that the repeal has been met with a 'majority sense of relief'. Acknowledging that the act 'put the government and all of its apparatus in favor of the migrants', he said the repeal was important to the people of Assam as a 'signal that government will not legitimise the presence of Bangladeshi migrants'. Although Congress must publicly oppose the repeal, Chaliha agreed privately that the act was a detriment to security and that the government cannot be blind on infiltration," the confidential cable from the US embassy New Delhi said. The current massive exercise to detect, delete and deport is far from over, but there are basic questions which the government officials and even political leaders from the state like Chaliha are not able to answer at the moment. What will the state and the Centre do with 4 million people since Bangladesh won't take them? Whether the government's plan is to keep them deprived of even basic privileges like food and legal care after deletion from records? Whether they will get ration cards? Would they be allowed to enter the manual job market? What would happen to the properties they might be holding? Illegal immigrants were not teleported into India, so who allowed them to settle? The government officials are tight-lipped on deportation while arguing that only draft NRC has been prepared and any mechanism could only be adopted after the process is declared complete. Chaliha too is not sure about deportation, but he said deletion appears to be the feasible option. He also blamed successive Congress governments for branding the party as pro-Muslim because they lost the touch with ground reality. He said even Assamese Muslims were opposing illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh but the leaders failed to assess the simmering anger. "I can tell you Assamese Muslims would prefer to vote for BJP and they are happy with the NRC exercise to weed out the illegal immigrants. There are rumors being spread in the state that RSS-BJP are playing divisive politics by identifying illegal immigrants, but this is only going to help them to strengthen their base. Political leaders like Mamata Banerjee should focus on national security issue and stop appeasement politics," Chaliha said. Bengal's Nightmare While politicians including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee are expending energy to reinvent the wheel, her own state's situation can be aptly described in another WikiLeaks cable from December 2005. The state was ruled by the CPM at the time, and Mamata's party was in Opposition. The cable quoted Indian intelligence and security officials and said the state government was protecting illegal immigrants. Indian security officials, the cable said, were frustrated by the deterioration of security in Bangladesh and the consequences for West Bengal, which politicians were unwilling to debate publicly for fear of alienating Muslim voters. Although, cable did not name Opposition parties, it clearly mentioned they were against the policies followed by the Communist government in the state. "The Opposition (political parties) also accuse the Left Front of giving immigrants instant citizenship and voting rights to maintain and gain support within the Muslim community," the WikiLeaks cable said. Thirteen years later, Mamata is now in power, and has taken the opposite stand. A senior official in the government said her statements may prove to be a recipe for disaster in West Bengal. Picking up some of her recent quotes on Assam's NRC, he said politicians are masters of fear-mongering, and Mamata is also using the same tool to exploit NRC and appease her electorate. "Cheap fear-mongering may solidify electoral base and help in pulling off elections but in this issue it may cost the nation, especially the affected state dearly," he said. The Guwahati Police Commissioner has issued an order prohibiting TMC delegation, party leaders and any other person who can make an inflammatory speech against NRC from entering Guwahati. Auto refresh feeds The Trinamool Congress has sent a six-member team of MPs to Bengali-dominated Silchar in south Assam's Barak Valley on Thursday to take stock of situation since the final draft of the NRC was released on Monday. The TMC delegation is expected to land in Silchar at around 2 pm on Thursday. The team will also go to Guwahati on Friday. In Guwahati, it is likely to meet some intellectuals and eminent citizens to discuss the Assam NRC issue. "We will be visiting Silchar, Guwahati and Nagaon. We will try to interact with the people whose names have been deleted in NRC," the TMC MPs said. Mamata Banerjee said that only one percent of the 40 lakh residents , whose names are missing from the draft NRC, could be infiltrators, but people are being "harassed" in the name of infiltrators. She said that she has appealed to all Opposition parties to send their respective delegations to Assam and that she has urged former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha also to visit the state. "The NRC will destroy the relationship between India and Bangladesh," she said. Earlier on Thursday, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen targeted the minority appeasement politics of TMC and tweeted to convey that Indian politicians need Muslims to solidify their vote banks. Senior TMC leader Derek O'Brien tweeted that 'citizenship is a fundamental right, not a gift or toy that is handed over or taken back by BJP trolls'. Section 144 of CrPC has imposed in Silchar in Assams Barak Valley ahead of the visit of the TMC delegation. Assembly of more than 5 people is prohibited in an area and no one is allowed to hold protest or deliver speech in a gathering. According to local media reports, security has been beefed up at Silchar airport with heavy deployment of Rapid Action Force (RAF), CRPF, BSF, Assam Rifles and Assam Police personnel in various areas of the Barak valley town. Assam Police ADGP (Law & Order) Mukesh Agarwala is monitoring the situation. On Wednesday, Assam Transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had said that the state government has no objection to TMC leaders visiting Assam, but if they try to create disturbances over the NRC issue, the government will be bound to take action. The flight carrying the TMC delegation has landed at the Silchar airport.The delegation is led by West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and comprises of 6 MPs and a woman MLA. Local reports say that they may be detained inside the airport as a precautionary measure. Assam Public Works (APW) President Abhijeet Sarma will meet with DGP Kuladhar Saikia regarding the visit of TMC delegation to Assam at 4.30 pm today. The meeting is also to discuss Mamanta Banerjee's recent comments on the Assam NRC issue.Pranjal Sharma According to NDTV reports, the TMC delegation has been stopped at the airport itself. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi said, "We welcome them. Since they are here we want them to visit the porous Indo-Bangla border and look for themselves the situation the state is in. Also, let them take a look at the unprecedented growth of illegal migrants in these areas. I hope their visit is pleasant and I am sure that they won't achieve what their leader has set out to achieve. People of the state have welcomed the NRC draft release and there is no apprehension among the people." Pranjal Sharma Assam Student Union welcomes TMC delegation, asks them to see for themselves the growth of illegal migrants in the State The TMC delegation that landed at Silchar around 2 pm was detained inside the airport by the police. Security has been beefed up in various areas of the Barak Valley town. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been deployed around the airport premises.Assam Police is also closely monitoring the situation. TMC leader Derek O'Brien on Thursday addressed a press conference in Delhi to allege manhandling TMC MPs at the Silchar aiport in Assam. He said that TMC has no intention of breaking the law. "Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergency like situation," said TMC MP Derek O'Brien "The Assam government under Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal is terrified. We will fight till the end for the Maa Mati Manush of Assam," said Trinamool Congress (TMC) in a tweet from its official handle. Detained TMC MPs shouted slogans at the Silchar aiport as police took assurances from them that they won't indulge in provocative speeches while in the State. TMC MP Sougato Roy on Thursday raised the issue of TMC MPs being detained at the Silchar airport by Assam police in the Parliament. He said that this is a "breach of privilege". Urban development minister of West Bengal, Firhad Hakim, who is also a part of the delegation trying to visit Assam, alleged that the police have retained only TMC members while they allowed other 71 passengers to go. "The situation is worse than Emergency in the country. BJP has adopted strong-arm tactics to intimidate us but we won't be afraid. We will fight the injustice meted out to Indian citizens until we find a logical conclusion to this problem," Hakim said. All eight TMC leaders are still at the Silchar airport. Party leader Kakali Ghosh Dastidar alleged that the Assam Police was misbehaving with her party colleagues. However, S Laxman, Assam's Cachar district 's deputy commissioner denied the allegations saying that nothing like this had happened. He had urged the Trinamool Congress to not send a delegation to Assam. He said that he cannot act against his state and that the TMC is trying to divide Assam through divisive politics and provocative remarks. President of Assam TMC, Dwipen Pathak who was the party's only MLA in Assam Assembly has resigned from his post. He held a press conference in Guwahati where he announced his decision to quit from his post. Party leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy told News18 that this was a political decision taken to stop TMC leaders from meeting the people and had nothing to do with administrative concerns According to News18 Assam and North East, the delegation of TMC leaders will sit on a dharna protest inside the Silchar airport in Assam to protest against the police action of preventing them from leaving airport and meeting the people. The Assam police has detained the TMC members at the Silchar airport after they threatened to sit on a dharna inside the airport. The TMC delegation was protesting against the police's move to prevent them fromleaving airport and meeting people who have been left out of NRC list. Reacting to the news that the TMC members have been detained at the Silchar Airport, party supremo Mamata Banerjee said , "It is not just enough to condemn these atrocities. I think this is the beginning of the end. They are frustrated, they are politically tensed and depressed and that's why they are showing muscle power." 'This is the beginning of the end': Mamata Banerjee says crackdown on TMC leaders shows BJP's frustration Pathak also said that party supremo Mamata Banerjee never cared about Assam and now she is interfering in the state's matter and spreading rumours about a sensitive issue. Dwipen Pathak, who resigned as the party's Assam unit president just an hour ago, said, "What Mamata Banerjee said about NRC, that it has been brought in Assam to drive out Bengalis, is not true. I don't agree with that. It might create disturbance here and the blame would be on me as the party president, so I've resigned from the post." Assam Deputy General of Police, Kuladhar Saikia said: "The order issued to TMC delegation was clear, they were told by Dist Administration not to visit Assam so that the existing peace and harmony in state is not disturbed but they were reluctant. One lady police was injured in the scuffle at Silchar Airport According to sources in the Assam Police, the authorities are thinking of shifting the eight TMC leaders to the NIT guest house in Silchar. The leaders are currently still inside the airport as the authorities did not allow them to walk out and meet the people left out of the NRC draft. "Well take a decision on arresting the TMC delegation only after hearing their next course of action as they still are inside Silchar airport. During the scuffle with the TMC delegation team, one of our lady was constable injured. We cannot allow deterioration of the law and order situation," Assam Deputy General of Police, Kuladhar Saikia said. The All India Trinamool Congres Party is mulling to bring a privilege motion in the Lok Sabha over the detention of party MPs at Silchar Airport in Assam, News18 reported. The party members also claimed that they were manhandled by the local police. Meanwhile, in Meghalaya, vigilantes led by Khasi Students Union (KSU) and other groups set up check posts on the highway and other border routes to keep illegal migrants out of our homeland, The Hindu reported. The controversy around the NRC list has spilled over to other states as well. In West Bengal, BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said, "More than a crore illegal immigrants live in Bengal too. We won't spare anyone. They will have a very bad time." BJP's Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari had also written to the home ministry to run a similar exercise in the national capital to weed out 'illegal' Rohingya Muslim immigrants from the region. NRC trouble spills over to other states: BJP wants list of citizens in Bengal, Delhi; Khasi students stop vehicles in Meghalaya During their stay in Silchar they cannot hold meeting or meet anyone and in Guwahati they are restricted to go out of Airport According to sources, the Assam Police has given the TMC delegation two options. They can either stay over at a guest house in Silchar under police protection and will be put on the first flight out of Silchar tomorrow. Alternatively, the TMC leaders can choose to go to Guwahati from where they will be put on a plane to Kolkata tonight as the state capital is also under section 144. Moinul Hoque, a government teacher who was deployed as Field Level Officer for NRC, Sepoy Inamul Hoque, and Osman Gani, a CISF jawan have something in common. According to The Indian Express , all of these people are on government pay role, are serving the nation, and claim to be Indian citizens but yet they find themselves among the 40 lakh people whose names are missing from the complete draft of the NRC. Assam Police DGP, Kuladhar Saikia said, "We had requested the delegation of TMC leaders not to come to Silchar now as it was important for us to maintain peace in the state. Moreover, Section 144 is imposed in Cachar district. We feared that their arrival might create differences among people and so they were stopped at the airport." "No one asked them to go to Assam. Why did they go there? Their party chief Mamata Banerjee said a civil war will start in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list but Assam has been peaceful so far. Maybe the Trinamool team went there to start a civil war," Ghosh alleged. West Bengal BJP leaders on Thursday accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation of going to Assam to foment trouble over the issue of the NRC. Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Trinamool delegation went to Assam to provoke tension in the region and possibly to fuel a "civil war" on the lines of their party supremo Mamata Banerjee's comments. He said it was a breach of their privilege. He was supported by other Trinamool Congress members. Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, who was in the chair, said that he would convey their sentiments to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Roy later said that the "freedom of MPs has been eroded by Assam government" and that he would give a privilege notice on the issue. Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Saugata Roy raised the issue of party delegation being stopped at Assam's Silchar Airport in Lok Sabha. He said a delegation of party leaders, including MPs, which was on its way to Assam to assess the situation after release of the final draft of the NRC, was "detained" at Silchar airport. "We have already demanded a review of the NRC in the state. We had submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs before the 18 February Assembly election. Assam and Tripura face more or less the same situation in terms of demographic balance," he said, adding that the IPFT was planning to organise a mega rally of tribals near Agartala to press its demand. PTI State Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who is also the IPFT general secretary, said he was hoping for a revision of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the demographic situation in Assam and Tripura was "more or less similar". The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling BJP in the north-eastern state, has raised a case for a revision of the citizens' register to safeguard the state's demography, despite Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's assertion that there is no need for it. "When I went to meet Union home minister Rajnath Singh, he told me that no one will be harassed. And after that, a TMC parliamentary delegation comprising a minister, one MLA and six MPs who went to meet the victims was not allowed to come out of the airport itself. Inside the airport, they were manhandled by Assam Police. Even female members were not spared," Banerjee said after returning to Kolkata from Delhi on Thursday evening. IANS Centre imposing super Emergency, says Mamata Banerjee West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that members of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation were "manhandled" by police at an Assam airport and accused the Centre of imposing "super Emergency". He said the matter was detected during the printing process of the draft in the district. These names would be omitted from the final NRC draft, which would be released after disposing of the claims and objections, Das added. The names of 200 suspected foreigners belonging to 39 families made it to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft that was released in Assam's Morigaon district, Deputy Commissioner Hemen Das said on Thursday. The eight members of the TMC delegation who arrived in Silchar over the Assam NRC issue were arrested by the Assam Police, News18 Assam and North East reported on Thursday. The TMC leaders are West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, MLA Mohua Moitra, and MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Mamta Thakur, Nadimul Haque, and Arpita Ghosh. Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwal has clarified that the delegation of the MPs and MLAs of Trinamool Congress has been taken in "preventive detention" under section 151 of the CrPC. The leaders were detained in view of a possible disruption of the law and order situation in Barak Valley, especially during the ongoing drive for concluding the process of NRC in the state. The Guwahati Police Commissioner has issued an order prohibiting TMC delegation, party leaders and any other person who can make an inflammatory speech against NRC from entering Guwahati. Police have kept them inside the airport with restrictions on their movement. In the scuffle,2 of our constables&1 worker from district administration were injured. Legal actions will be taken on the basis of FIRs by injured&for violation of Section 144: Kuladhar Saikia,Assam DGP pic.twitter.com/560KKt8e0c Assam Police DGP, Kuladhar Saikia said, "We had requested the delegation of TMC leaders not to come to Silchar now as it was important for us to maintain peace in the state. Moreover, Section 144 is imposed in Cachar district. We feared that their arrival might create differences among people and so they were stopped at the airport." "No one asked them to go to Assam. Why did they go there? Their party chief Mamata Banerjee said a civil war will start in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list but Assam has been peaceful so far. Maybe the Trinamool team went there to start a civil war," Ghosh alleged. West Bengal BJP leaders on Thursday accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation of going to Assam to foment trouble over the issue of the NRC. Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Trinamool delegation went to Assam to provoke tension in the region and possibly to fuel a "civil war" on the lines of their party supremo Mamata Banerjee's comments. He said it was a breach of their privilege. He was supported by other Trinamool Congress members. Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, who was in the chair, said that he would convey their sentiments to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Roy later said that the "freedom of MPs has been eroded by Assam government" and that he would give a privilege notice on the issue. Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Saugata Roy raised the issue of party delegation being stopped at Assam's Silchar Airport in Lok Sabha. He said a delegation of party leaders, including MPs, which was on its way to Assam to assess the situation after release of the final draft of the NRC, was "detained" at Silchar airport. "We have already demanded a review of the NRC in the state. We had submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs before the 18 February Assembly election. Assam and Tripura face more or less the same situation in terms of demographic balance," he said, adding that the IPFT was planning to organise a mega rally of tribals near Agartala to press its demand. PTI State Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who is also the IPFT general secretary, said he was hoping for a revision of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the demographic situation in Assam and Tripura was "more or less similar". The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling BJP in the north-eastern state, has raised a case for a revision of the citizens' register to safeguard the state's demography, despite Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's assertion that there is no need for it. "When I went to meet Union home minister Rajnath Singh, he told me that no one will be harassed. And after that, a TMC parliamentary delegation comprising a minister, one MLA and six MPs who went to meet the victims was not allowed to come out of the airport itself. Inside the airport, they were manhandled by Assam Police. Even female members were not spared," Banerjee said after returning to Kolkata from Delhi on Thursday evening. IANS Centre imposing super Emergency, says Mamata Banerjee West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that members of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation were "manhandled" by police at an Assam airport and accused the Centre of imposing "super Emergency". He said the matter was detected during the printing process of the draft in the district. These names would be omitted from the final NRC draft, which would be released after disposing of the claims and objections, Das added. The names of 200 suspected foreigners belonging to 39 families made it to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft that was released in Assam's Morigaon district, Deputy Commissioner Hemen Das said on Thursday. The eight members of the TMC delegation who arrived in Silchar over the Assam NRC issue were arrested by the Assam Police, News18 Assam and North East reported on Thursday. The TMC leaders are West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, MLA Mohua Moitra, and MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Mamta Thakur, Nadimul Haque, and Arpita Ghosh. #WATCH : TMCs Mahua Moitra seen assaulting lady constable who tried to restrain Mahua Moitra after TMC leaders were stopped at Silchar Airport. Constable received injuries. #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/FJjNQ77ngO Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwal has clarified that the delegation of the MPs and MLAs of Trinamool Congress has been taken in "preventive detention" under section 151 of the CrPC. The leaders were detained in view of a possible disruption of the law and order situation in Barak Valley, especially during the ongoing drive for concluding the process of NRC in the state. The Guwahati Police Commissioner has issued an order prohibiting TMC delegation, party leaders and any other person who can make an inflammatory speech against NRC from entering Guwahati. Assam NRC Row Live Updates: The Guwahati Police Commissioner has issued an order prohibiting TMC delegation, party leaders and any other person who can make an inflammatory speech against NRC from entering Guwahati. After reaching Kolkata from her Delhi trip, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that members of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation were "manhandled" by police at an Assam airport and accused the Centre of imposing "super Emergency". The Trinamool Congress leaders, who are detained at Silchar Airport, claimed that they were beaten up by the police. However, the Assam Police has said that three of its personnel, including two women constables, were injured in the scufflw with TMC members. TMC may bring in a privilege motion in Lok Sabha after the party's MPs were allegedly manhandled and detained at the Assam airport. According to News18, the party may bring in themotion in the ongoing Monsoon Session. The Assam police has detained the TMC members at the Silchar airport after they threatened to sit on a dharna inside the airport. The TMC delegation was protesting against the police's move to prevent them from leaving airport and meeting people who have been left out of NRC list. TMC Assam chief and party's lone MLA in Assam Assembly has quit his post over the NRC row. Pathak said that he had tried to dissuade the party from sending a delegation to Assam but since TMC has decided to play divisive politics, he cannot work against his state. TMC leader and West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim has said that the situation under BJP rule is worse than the Emergency. He said that the party has been using divisive politics to reap political gains "The Assam government under Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal is terrified. We will fight till the end for the Maa Mati Manush of Assam," said Trinamool Congress (TMC) in a tweet from its official handle. TMC leader Derek O'Brien on Thursday addressed a press conference in Delhi to allege manhandling TMC MPs at the Silchar aiport in Assam. He said that TMC has no intention of breaking the law. Security has been beefed up in various areas of the Barak Valley town. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been deployed around the airport premises.Assam Police is also closely monitoring the situation as TMC MPs have been detained at Silchar airport. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi said, "We welcome them. Since they are here we want them to visit the porous Indo-Bangla border and look for themselves the situation the state is in. Also, let them take a look at the unprecedented growth of illegal migrants in these areas. I hope their visit is pleasant and I am sure that they won't achieve what their leader has set out to achieve. People of the state have welcomed the NRC draft release and there is no apprehension among the people." According to NDTV reports, the TMC delegation has been stopped at the airport itself. Whereas, some local reports claimed that the TMC representatives were not allowed to enter Silchar. As soon as they landed at the Silchar Airport, the administration stopped them from exiting the airport. The six-member team of TMC MPs has reached Assam's Silchar, reports have said. However, there were reports which said that the delegation could be detained inside the airport and not be allowed to enter Silchar. Further sharpening her attack on the BJP, Mamata on Wednesday accused the saffron party of playing vote-bank politics, while also warning that the issue will "destroy" India's relationship with Bangladesh. The Trinamool Congress would send a six-member team of MPs to Bengali-dominated Silchar in south Assam's Barak Valley on Thursday to take stock of situation since the final draft of the NRC was released on Monday. The Telegraph quoted Mamata as saying that the NRC exercise was targeted at those with Bengali surnames and would lead to a "civil war". The TMC delegation is expected to land in Silchar at around 2 pm on Thursday. The team will also go to Guwahati on Friday. Mamata said only one percent of the 40 lakh residents, whose names are missing from the draft NRC, could be infiltrators, but people are being "harassed" in the name of infiltrators. She said she has appealed to all Opposition parties to send their respective delegations to Assam. The TMC chief said she has also urged former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha to visit the state. "The NRC will destroy relationship between India and Bangladesh. Out of 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list of NRC, only one percent could be illegal infiltrators. But the BJP is trying to show that all those not included (in NRC) are infiltrators," she told reporters outside the Parliament House. The TMC delegation includes the likes of Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh and Mamata Thakur apart from State Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra. "We will be visiting Silchar, Guwahati and Nagaon. We will try to interact with the people whose names have been deleted in NRC," one of the MPs told the Mumbai Mirror. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee and BJP chief Amit Shah were involved in a bitter war of words on Wednesday on the NRC issue with Shah asserting that the process will be implemented to the last full stop and comma as it was a matter of national security, and the TMC chief warning that this may lead to "civil war" and "blood bath". The Supreme Court ruling comes at a much-needed time in the Bihar shelter home cases, where over 40 minor girls have been raped in Muzaffarpur. The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the Bihar shelter home rape cases on Thursday, and has sought explanation from Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and the Women and Child Development Ministry as to why neither body took action to stop minor girls from being raped in shelters home in Muzaffarpur. A notice has been issued to both governments. Reports said that the chargesheet in the case detailed a network of police, politicians, administration and criminals behind the racket that has been going on for around four years. The apex court has also banned electronic media from putting up images of minor girls, even in morphed or blurred forms, who were allegedly raped at the shelter homes in Muzaffarpur, ANI reported. The Supreme Court also barred the media from conducting any interviews with the minor victims, Bar and Bench reported. The Supreme Court's decision comes at a time when the Opposition leaders in Bihar have heaped criticism on the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) for its inaction in the horrifying case. Over 40 minor girls and boys have been raped and sodomised over the last five months in multiple shelter homes in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. In the latest incident, according to The Times of India, Muzaffarpur police on Wednesday seized four boxes of condoms and medicines from the terrace of Swadhaar Grih, a shelter home from where 11 women were reportedly found missing. Officials from the Social Welfare Department, during an inspection of the home on 20 March, found the 11 women receiving various types of skill development training. However, on 9 June, the home was found locked, and the victims missing. In a parallel incident, 34 minor girls were raped in a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur called Balika Grih. A statement from one of the victims said that another girl was beaten to death after a disagreement with staff members, and buried in the shelter home premises. Police began the search for the body, but nothing has been dug up from the premises thus far. The two shelter homes were run by an NGO, the Seva Sankalp Evam Vikash Samiti. According to India Today, the Seva Sankalp Samiti is an NGO owned and run by a man named Brijesh Thakur, who is also the primary accused in the case. These homes were to give destitute women vocational training, but the women were instead harassed and raped by shelter home officials. Two FIRs have been filed against Thakur after the two incidents, who owns three newspapers and has even contested the Bihar polls. He is now in judicial custody, and his NGO has been blacklisted. The RJD, Congress, and the Communist Party of India took to the streets in Bihar to protest the situation. A procession, MLA Amit Kumar Tunna, was taken out by the National Students Union of India (NSUI) to protest against these incidents of sexual abuse. These left parties and groups are also demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said another report from India Today. The protesters forcibly tried to reach Kumar's residence, causing the police to resort to lathicharge to disperse agitating members. The report added that governor of Bihar, Satya Pal Malik, had earlier sent letters to Kumar, terming the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur as "heart-rending", and suggested measures for preventing recurrence of such incidents in the future. Sarman Ahirwar, a Dalit labourer from Chattarpur district, stands at the district collectorate with a train of four small children and a rope to hang himself. Sarmans wife was eligible for a house under the Indira Awas scheme, and now Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 12 years ago. But, their house remained under construction. When the rains hit Bundelkhand a few weeks ago, Sarmans kaccha house in Bhoyra village of Chattarpur, Madhya Pradesh, fell apart, leaving his family of five small children roofless. Sarman Ahirwar, a Dalit labourer from Chattarpur district, stands at the district collectorate with a train of four small children and a rope to hang himself. He has travelled over 100 kilometres to give the Sub Division Magistrate a petition which asks for assistance to rebuild his home, roofless for the past decade. 260 kilometres away in pre-election Bhopal, and 600 kilometres away in pre-election Delhi, claims are made to have a house and toilet built for each citizen who needs it. But maybe some citizens are less important than others. On Friday the 13th of July, as the monsoons teased Bundelkhand with surprising promptness and vigour, Sarmans kaccha (the front is kaccha, the back is pucca) house in Bhoyra village of Chattarpur, Madhya Pradesh, fell apart, leaving his family of five small children roofless. Sarman alleges that the house was pulled down in a conspiracy by the pradhan and secretary of the panchayat. The pradhan, Ashok Jain, who lives in a small town 6 kilometres from Bhoyra, denies the drama flatly, and says the rain and Sarmans own family is responsible for pulling the house down. According to the secretary of Bhoyra gram panchayat, Deshpal Singh Bundela, Sarmans wife was eligible for a house under the Indira Awas scheme 12 years ago. According to this scheme, launched in 1996, BPL families were eligible for assistance to build permanent houses with toilets. Lists of eligible beneficiaries were prepared by the gram sabha. According to Bundela, Sarman and his wife received the Rs 60,000 due to them under the Indira Awas Scheme and managed to build walls for one room, with a tin roof, and two more kaccha rooms. When the rains came a few weeks ago, the two kaccha rooms finally gave way. Sarman has been living with his children in the one room with walls since. Over the past decade, Sarman has been trying to get the pradhan to help him complete construction. Recently, he has been petitioning for a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a revised form of the Indira Awas Scheme, under which BPL families are eligible for assistance to build permanent structures. Jain insists that his records show that Sarman is not eligible for this scheme, as he has already been the beneficiary of a previous scheme for housing. This previous scheme, ironically, is the Awas Yojna, which had his Sarmans wifes name on the list. She died of tuberculosis a year ago. Khabar Lahariya is a women-only network of rural reporters from Bundelkhand. The Accord document, available online, does not even have the phrase National Register of Citizens (NRC) or any oblique reference to it. It mentions deletion of foreigners name from the electoral rolls Is National Register of Citizens (NRC) the soul of the Assam Accord? It has been claimed so by the BJPs president Amit Shah in a speech in the Rajya Sabha. "The Assam Accord says that illegal infiltrators would be identified and deleted from our Register of Citizens, and a correct National Register would be prepared. Shah was holding a bunch of papers and appeared to be reading from it. This gave the impression that he was reading the text of the Accord. Does the Assam Accord mandate updation of the NRC? It does not. The Accord document, available online, does not even have the phrase National Register of Citizens or any oblique reference to it. It mentions deletion of foreigners name from the electoral rolls (Clause 5.4). We need to remember, Assam Movement which culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985, had started with the demand of deletion of suspected foreigners names from the voters list. It is natural that the Accord will refer to electoral roll. If there is a soul of the Accord it resides in a corrected voters list. The National Register does not enter the picture. Which legal instruments the Accord proposed to use to nab foreigners? This is not clearly mentioned. However there are, at least, two reasons to believe it was to be done by the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983. In Clause 5.9 the government promised to consider the issues raised by the AASU/AAGSP regarding implementation of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. The second reason, from 1985 till 2005 when it was scrapped and replaced by the Foreigners Act, IM(DT) was in use to detect foreigners. The first agreement on NRC updation happened quite late in the day, in around 2005, a full twenty years after the Accord was released. The claim that updating the NRC was mandated by Assam Accord is thus false. The idea of NRC updation Shah was economical with the truth. Why is it important to highlight this particular untruth? Because it make a big difference if the NRC or the Foreigners Act is used. How big? More than three crore people big the entire population of Assam. Under the Foreigners Act the police, the court act on specific information. A person is charged and she has to prove that she is an Indian. This is problematic. There is presumption of guilt here. It goes against the spirit of natural justice that nobody is guilty unless proven so. In the NRC everyone has to prove that she is legal. There is presumption of guilt, plus, it is presumed that the entire population is guilty! This is why claiming NRC updation is mandated by the Assam Accord is not only incorrect, it is ominously so. However, it would be wrong to charge only the BJP for this. There has been a concerted campaign to conflate the Assam Accord with the NRC. It has become a part of common sense. Forget Assam Accord for the time being. What about the argument that existing bureaucratic-legal infrastructure of Assam is insufficient for nabbing infiltrators, which is why one needs the NRC? This leads to two questions. Is the NRC prepared in 1951 a reliable document? This is important because the 1951 NRC is a benchmark document to prove ones legality. Binayak Dutta, faculty member at NEHU, has shown that the 1951 NRC was prepared in a shoddy manner. It was completed in twenty days straight! In 1970 the Gauhati Court observed that the 1951 NRC was not even admissible in evidence. Second question, how many infiltrators are there? If the number is not large it does not make sense spend to massive resources on it. Not to speak of the manpower of thousands of government employees who have been directed to NRC work. There is a lack of solid research on this. In 2004 the central government said there were five million illegal Bangladeshis living in Assam in 2001. It is unclear how this figure was arrived at. A research paper by noted econometrician Vani Kant Borooah found between 1971 to 2011 there were hardly any net illegal infiltration into Assam (according to the Assam Accord foreigners who migrated since 25 March, 1971 are illegal). My own rough estimate, through a different method, arrived at a similar conclusion. The growth rate of population of Assam has been less than that of India after 1971. This raises doubts about the existence of massive infiltration. What next? Four million people could not find their name in the NRC. Most of them are likely to be poor, working class, Bengali Muslims or Bengali Namasudra (a Dalit sub-caste) Hindus. The less-privileged, being uninformed and uneducated, were more vulnerable in this bureaucratic citizenry drill. A saner society would have decided what to do with its non-citizens before embarking on this distressful exercise. Moving forward, we need to consider their fate with clarity and composure, without doing violence to their human dignity. We also need to ask if this has been a show of sound and fury after all. Except that, in this circus, the poor and marginalised are being fed to the lions. Seven of the 15 Congress MLAs and one of the two DMK members signed the memorandum alleging that the Kiran Bedi had made comments and issued statements that 'are derogatory in nature and cause slur on the privilege of the members and the house as a whole.' Puducherry: Legislators of the ruling Congress in Puducherry and its ally DMK presented a joint memorandum to Speaker V Vaithilingam, raising a privilege issue against Lt Governor Kiran Bedi for "airing derogatory remarks against the assembly and legislators."They submitted the memorandum to the speaker at his office in Puducherry. Seven of the 15 Congress MLAs and one of the two DMK members signed the memorandum alleging that the lt governor had made comments and issued statements that "are derogatory in nature and cause slur on the privilege of the members and the house as a whole." The MLAs said in the memorandum that the L-G had at one point stated that if the interim order of the Supreme Court directing permission for the three nominated legislators to participate in the house proceedings was not adhered to "serious consequences will follow." This, they said, is particularly "causing concern to the legislators and those supporting freedom of the house." She had 'insisted' that the three BJP members be permitted to participate in the proceedings of the house as per the interim order and fixed this as a condition precedent for her approving the introduction of the Appropriation Bill in the house. "The recent statement of the Lt governor that the lawmakers should not be law-breakers is particularly telling upon the privilege and the decorum of the house," the memorandum said, adding the statements created a wrong impression about legislators among the public. The MLAs wanted the speaker to take action against the lt governor for breach of privilege and causing contempt to the house. The signatories included the parliamentary secretary to the chief minister, K Lakshminarayan, and woman DMK legislator A Geetha Anandan. The Congress is likely to evolve its strategy on key issues of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Rafale deal at a meeting of the party's working committee on 4 August. New Delhi: The Congress is likely to evolve its strategy on key issues of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Rafale deal at a meeting of the party's working committee on 4 August. Sources said Congress president Rahul Gandhi has called the meeting of the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body. Top party leaders will discuss and evolve a strategy on current political and economic situation, especially the issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the controversial Rafale deal, they said. According to sources, the meeting is likely to take a call on the party's strategy moving forward on the contentious NRC issue. The police have arrested the Gujjar activist who led the agitation demanding justice in the case of rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua. Srinagar: The police have arrested Gujjar activist Chaudhary Talib Hussain, who led the agitation demanding justice in the case of rape and murder of an eight-year-old nomad girl in Kathua. Hussain was arrested for the alleged rape of his sister-in-law, years after he ran into a marital dispute with his wife. But his fellow Gujjar leaders have said that the action taken by the police was vindictive. The police had already come under fire for its shoddy investigation in Kathua case. Hussain was arrested in a raid carried out by Samba police in Srinagar while his brother is on the run after the case was registered against them at the local police station. Station House Officer of Samba police station, Chanchal Singh, however, said that the initial complaint was only of an attempt to rape. The police have said that they had received a complaint that Hussain, who was armed with a knife, had also thrashed his relative and later warned her not to disclose the incident. A complaint was filed only two days back. The Gujjar leaders have come down heavily on the police, saying it was angry with Hussain for his protests which had brought media attention on the case. Though the state is under governors rule after BJP backed out of its alliance with PDP on 20 June, the Gujjars allege that the police was working at the behest of right-wing groups. Former BJP ministers Lal Singh Chaudhary and Chander Prakash Ganga had come out in support of the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case, following which both were forced to resign from their ministries by their party. Hussain had himself been facing a marital row and was looking to divorce his wife. His family members do not rule out the possibility of a marital dispute leading to the charges against the Gujjar activist. His cousin, Anwar Famda, said that he was trying to iron out differences between Talib and his wife. He said that he was also trying to convince his sister-in-law not to give any statement before the magistrate that she was raped. Hussain has been married to his wife since 2013 and wanted a divorce, which she resisted, said Famda. However, the wife's uncle, Hassan Sardar, said that Talibs activism was fake. He had been suspended from Jammu University for breaking discipline and couldnt complete his law degree, he said. Although the protests related to Kathua case have died down, the action against Hussain has worsened a chasm in the already polarised Jammu region, which saw frequent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in 2008 over the transfer of land to Amarnath Shrine Board in Srinagar as well as in 2013 in Kishtwar during an Eid procession. President of Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, Javed Rahi, said that Hussain was being made a scapegoat. Talib was being framed. He has been targeted by right wing groups as he was talking about the issues of Muslims as the president of Gujjar and Bakerwal Students Welfare Association, he said. Deepika Singh Rajwat, the deceased girls lawyer, also said that he was targeted. The police is trying to frame him in a false case. There is a video by Lal Singh in which he has disclosed that he is in touch with his in-laws. We will take due course available with us. The charges are that he carried out rape one-and-half months back while he was not in Jammu for last two months (sic), she said. However, Jammu Deputy Inspector General of Police, Bhim Sen Tuti, said that the issue of whether the case was devoid of merit will be decided by the judiciary. The matter is under investigation and we dont want it to get hampered, he said. The allegations that the case was registered one-and-half months after the incident was reported will be answered in the court, he said. The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling BJP, raised a case for a revision of the citizens' register to safeguard the state's demography, despite Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's refusal Agartala: The Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the ruling BJP in the north-eastern state, has raised a case for a revision of the citizens' register to safeguard the state's demography, despite Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb's assertion that there is no need for it. State Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who is also the IPFT general secretary, said he was hoping for a revision of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the demographic situation in Assam and Tripura was "more or less similar". "We have already demanded a review of the NRC in the state. We had submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs before the 18 February Assembly election. Assam and Tripura face more or less the same situation in terms of demographic balance," he said, adding that the IPFT was planning to organize a mega rally of tribals near Agartala to press its demand. Soon after the publication of the final draft of the NRC in Assam on 30 July, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had said there was no demand for a citizens' register on the lines of the NRC in Assam as "everything is in order in Tripura and everyone has valid papers". Around 40.07 lakh applicants did not find a place in the final draft of the NRC in Assam, which is touted to be a proof of the Assamese identity. The IPFT is a regional party demanding statehood for the indigenous people of Tripura. It is an ally of the ruling BJP and had secured eight seats in the 60-member state Assembly in the February polls. The BJP had won 36 seats in the Assembly election. Echoing the IPFT's stance, another major tribal party - the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) - has also demanded a review of the citizens' register in the state. INPT president Bijoy Hrankhawl said they had demanded a revision of the NRC two months ago, following the party's central committee meeting. "To get the revision of the NRC is our constitutional right. The original citizens of the state suffer due to illegal infiltration. Being in proximity of Bangladesh, Tripura is the corridor of infiltration. We are not against anybody, but we want to safeguard our people," he told PTI. Almost a third of Tripura's 37 lakh population are tribals. INPT vice-president Ananta Debbarma said the party would soon organise a massive rally at Khumulwng, about 25 from here, where over one lakh people would assemble in support of NRC revision in the state. "More than one lakh tribals will gather at Khumulwng to demand NRC revision. This is necessary to safeguard and protect the socio-economic interests of the indigenous people of the state," he told reporters. The Jaipur Police recently attempted to warn the youth against participating in the Kiki Challenge by using the photograph of a 30-year-old man from Kochi. The Jaipur Police may have used the picture of a Kochi man with a garland around it to warn the youth against the dangers of participating in the Kiki challenge on social media, but there's one small problem: The man is still alive. According to a report in The Times of India, the individual in question, 30-year Jawahar Subhash Chandra, has been receiving calls from friends and relatives to enquire about his health. Though initially shocked, I am happy that the image for a social purpose to create awareness against a game that can take life, the report quoted him as saying. The Jaipur Police's tweet used a picture of Jawahar for which he'd modelled in 2008, according to the report. Responding to the use of Jawahar's image, Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal told Decccan Chronicle that their social media team did nothing wrong. It is not illegal. Our social media team has bought the photo from a website," he told the newspaper. The Jaipur Police had tweeted: The dance challenge involves jumping out of a moving car and dancing alongside it to Canadian rapper Drake's latest song, 'In My Feelings'. In view of the trend, several police agencies across the country issued warning advisories on their social media platforms. Kiki might not, But #PunjabPolice has a lot of love for its citizens. Which is why we challenge you to do the smart thing and not dance in the middle of the road with the car door open. What's your choice?#InMyFeelings or #InOurJail #KikiChallenge pic.twitter.com/7clEgGGqRY Punjab Police (@PunjabPolice) August 1, 2018 The scheme to provide livestock on demand to farmers would be implemented at the village level, an official said. Similarly, ponds for fish farming on demand ('Magel Tyala Matysa Tale') scheme will be taken up under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) in Maharashtra Mumbai: With an aim to boost the income of farmers, the Maharashtra government is considering a proposal to provide livestock and ponds for fish farming to them as per demand. The proposal was discussed at a meeting of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department, chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, here on Wednesday. The department will place the draft proposal to this effect before the state cabinet soon. The livestock scheme ('Pashu Dhan Yojana') will ensure that farmers are provided poultry, goats and milch animals on demand. The scheme to provide livestock on demand would be implemented at the village level, an official said. Similarly, ponds for fish farming on demand ('Magel Tyala Matysa Tale') scheme will be taken up under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA). "Fish seeds and feed will be provided by the Fisheries Department," a source in the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department told PTI. When implemented, these schemes will help the state save Rs 4.5 crore on a daily basis. "We get milk from Gujarat, eggs from Telangana and fish seeds from West Bengal," he said. In spite of the milk production being in excess, Gujarat's Amul is a big brand and is sold well here. "We are planning to develop the state's own milk brand 'Aarey' and 'Mahananda' by ensuring that they are used in all the nutritious food provided at anganwadis for children, pregnant women," he said. During the meeting on Wednesday, Fadnavis asked the department to effectively implement various schemes for doubling the income of the farmers. He said the central and state government schemes to increase the production of milk, eggs should be implemented so that the target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022 is achieved. The chief minister said the establishment of animal rearing companies should be encouraged at the tehsil level for ensuring employment to the youth. Annasaheb Patil Financial Development Corporation should provide financial assistance to such youth, he said. Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) on Thursday warned of a fresh wave of protests on 9 August across Maharashtra if the state government fails to grant reservation to the community by 7 August. Mumbai: Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) on Thursday warned of a fresh wave of protests on 9 August across Maharashtra if the state government fails to grant reservation to the community by 7 August. "All we want is quota in education and government jobs," said MKM leader Abasaheb Patil who held a sit-in protest in Parli town in Beed district, 370 kms from in Mumbai. He said there is nothing left now that needs to be discussed with the government on the issue. The MKM is the umbrella body of Maratha groups demanding 16 percent reservation under the OBC category. "If the state government fails to grant us reservation by August 7, then a massive agitation will be held across the state," he said. He said the Maratha youth has lost trust in the government, as it is dragging its feet on implementing the reservation. The police had detained at least 3,000 youths from the Maratha community for holding violent protests last week, of whom around 500 youths are facing serious criminal charges such as attempt murder. "Despite assurance from the chief minister, no police station has started withdrawing the cases against the youths," claimed Vinod Pokharkar, another leader of the Maratha community. Fadnavis on Thursday reiterated that the government is committed to grant quota to the Maratha community that can stand legal scrutiny. The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission is currently conducting a survey to assess socio-economic backwardness of the Maratha community. The state government had announced that it will convene a special session of the legislature to discuss the quota demand, after the panel submits its report. MK Stalin, accompanied by senior DMK colleagues A Raja among others, visited the eatery in Virugambakkam and enquired about the incident that took place on Sunday night Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president MK Stalin Thursday visited a restaurant here, whose employees were allegedly assaulted by some of his party cadres, and enquired about the health of those injured. The DMK leader, accompanied by senior party colleagues A Raja among others, visited the eatery in Virugambakkam and enquired about the incident that took place on Sunday night. Stalin had taken exception to the incident involving his partymen, saying it was "strongly condemnable." "Strong action will be taken against anyone bringing disrepute to the party," he had said in a tweet. The party had suspended Yuvaraj and Dhivakar, in connection with the incident, saying they had 'violated' the party discipline and brought disrepute to it. Meanwhile police said six people were arrested in this connection and a search is on for the two DMK workers. Those arrested were aged between 19 and 23. "A case was registered and the six accused were remanded," they said. According to the hotel staff, the group of men had demanded that they be served food but were told that the restaurant had closed for the day. "Following this, they got angry and suddenly started assaulting some staff members," the employees said. A video of the incident has gone viral. A BJP member in Lok Sabha on Thursday asked the government to bring a population control law to ensure a two-child norm for a family. New Delhi: A BJP member in Lok Sabha on Thursday asked the government to bring a population control law to ensure a two-child norm for a family. Making the demand during the Zero Hour, Uday Pratap Singh, representing Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, said that countries like China have taken steps to check population growth. Singh demanded that a law should be enacted to control population and ensure that a family can have only two children. Highlighting population growth in the country, he said this led to various problems, including on the employment front. He said a government that has implemented demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) can also come out with such a law and implement it. PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss raised concerns about the eligibility criteria set under the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and claimed that even students who have failed in physics and chemistry subjects have qualified. There are around 1.20 lakh medical seats but the number of students who cleared the NEET was more than 7 lakh, he noted. During the Zero Hour, AAP member Dharamvir Gandhi raised issues concerning Centre-state relations and claimed that the states have become "beggars" before the Centre. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has requested Modi for immediate interim assistance to combat the crisis in the state due to incessant rain. Kohima: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has requested the prime minister for granting immediate interim assistance to combat the crisis in the state due to incessant rain for the past few weeks. Nagaland has been receiving heavy rainfall for the past few weeks, which has resulted in loss of lives, displacement of many people in most of the districts and damage to public infrastructure, Rio said in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Road connectivity in many areas has been snapped and power line and communication network damaged, he said in the letter, a copy of which was made available to the media. Adequate supply of essential commodities, including petroleum products, to all district headquarters is not possible as stocks are getting depleted, the chief minister said. The aspirational district (backward) of Kiphire has been cut off from all directions. In the foothills and plain areas, floods have created enormous damage to property as the villages have been submerged, he said. Under the circumstances the state government is unable to address the challenges due to lack of resources, absence of adequate machinery and poor connectivity, he said and sought interim central assistance. Trinamool Congress would send a six-member TMC team of party MPs to Bengali-dominated Silchar in south Assam's Barak Valley to take stock of situation since NRC's final draft was released on Monday. Locked in constant disagreements over several issues, Mamata Banerjee and Amit Shah will be locking horns in the coming week in Kolkata when the combative BJP president lands in the city to hold a rally against the Trinamool Congress government and seek an Assam-like National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal. Upping the ante on the issue of alleged presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in West Bengal, Shah will take the battle to Mamata's turf with a rally in Kolkata on 11 August amid indications from his party leaders that they will make it a poll issue. With Mamata holding talks in the National Capital with Opposition leaders to take on the BJP over the NRC in Assam, Shah's proposed rally underscores his intention to build the issue as a major poll plank in Bengal as Lok Sabha elections are barely eight months away, leaders were quoted as saying. A defiant Shah told reporters that he would definitely go to Kolkata on August 11 and dared the Mamata Banerjee government to arrest him after his party leaders claimed that the local police had yet not given permission to his event. However, the Kolkata Police later said it had granted the permission, setting the stage for a showdown between the Trinamool Congress, the dominant political force in the state, and the BJP, which has emerged in recent polls as the main challenger to it but remains a distant second. The prevailing sense in the BJP is that it could project Mamata as an "anti-Hindu" leader driven by her "appeasement politics" for minority votes over her strident opposition to the NRC, according to party sources. 6-member TMC team to visit Assam's Silchar There were reports which claimed that Mamata would speak in Lok Sabha over the NRC issue, however, the West Bengal chief minister met with several Opposition leaders and with BJP veteran LK Advani. Further sharpening her attack on the BJP, Mamata on Wednesday accused the saffron party of playing vote-bank politics, while also warning that the issue will "destroy" India's relationship with Bangladesh. Reports said that Trinamool Congress would send a six-member team of MPs to Bengali-dominated Silchar in south Assam's Barak Valley on Thursday to take stock of situation since the final draft of the NRC was released on Monday. The Telegraph quoted Mamata as saying that the NRC exercise was targeted at those with Bengali surnames and would lead to a "civil war". The TMC delegation is expected to land in Silchar at around 2 pm on Thursday. The team will also go to Guwahati on Friday. In Guwahati, it is likely to meet some intellectuals and eminent citizens on Friday afternoon. The delegation includes Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh and Mamata Thakur apart from State Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra. "We will be visiting Silchar, Guwahati and Nagaon. We will try to interact with the people whose names have been deleted in NRC," one of the MPs told Mumbai Mirror. Mamata said only one percent of the 40 lakh residents, whose names are missing from the draft NRC, could be infiltrators, but people are being "harassed" in the name of infiltrators. She said she has appealed to all Opposition parties to send their respective delegations to Assam. The TMC chief said she has also urged former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha to visit the state. "The NRC will destroy relationship between India and Bangladesh. Out of 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list of NRC, only one percent could be illegal infiltrators. But the BJP is trying to show that all those not included (in NRC) are infiltrators," she told reporters outside the Parliament House. Mamata's criticism of the exercise did not stop even though the Election Commission of India sought to clarify on the controversy of the missing people from the list. Assam to keep eye on TMC team's Thursday visit The Assam Police plans to keep a strict watch on the TMC team arriving in Silchar to take stock of "situation". The Pioneer quoted a senior police officer of the Assam Police who said that the Assam government has asked the police to keep a close watch on the Trinamool MPs and to ensure that no one disturbs the prevailing peace in the state, "particularly after the publication of the NRC, which has kept over 40 lakh people of the state out of the document for some discrepancies." Amid heavy criticism by Mamata, the Assam government said that the West Bengal chief minister's opposition to the Supreme Court-monitored NRC in Assam amounted to "contempt of court" and she is not above the apex court. Mamata's allegations against the NRC are "baseless", Assam government spokesman Chandra Mohan Patowary, who is also the state's parliamentary affairs minister, said. Asked if the Assam government will file a contempt of court case against Mamata, Patowary said, "We will see at the appropriate time since she is speaking against the Supreme Court... She (Mamata) does not have the right to remark as the NRC is a legal process." "As a chief minister, Mamata Banerjee should have the basic knowledge that when she opposes a matter (NRC) monitored by the honourable Supreme Court it will amount to contempt of court. She is not above the Supreme Court," he added. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also cautioned people of Assam against "divisive forces" or to harbour any apprehension regarding the NRC updation process and reiterated that genuine Indian people whose names have not been included in the draft NRC would be provided ample opportunities to get themselves registered in the NRC through claims and objections. "Outsiders making provocative statements about NRC will not be accepted and the people of Assam have shown tremendous political maturity which has made the publication of complete draft NRC possible," Sonowal told reporters. Annoyed by her remarks, former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told The Telegraph, "Mamata should not lose sleep over Assam. We are not dead. We are still alive to take care of Assam's problems." Other states demand Assam-like NRC However, despite a bitter war of words between the two parties, BJP leaders in Delhi and Mumbai have also started pressing for similar action against 'foreign infiltrators'. BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya told reporters that there could be over one crore illegal immigrants in West Bengal and suggest that NRC should be adopted in all border states to identify them. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh had earlier said that NRC will be published, on the lines of the one in Assam, if the saffron party was voted to power in the state. Shah has targeted win in 22 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the next Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, the TMC had won 34 seats while the BJP could get only two. Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari is among those who have demanded an Assam-like NRC survey in Delhi, reports said. Reports claimed that Tiwari had urged the Union Home Ministry to conduct a similar survey in New Delhi citing an increase in the number of Rohingya Muslims. Tiwari wrote, "Please conduct a survey in Delhi too (like NRC) as a large number of Rohingya and foreign intruders are residing in Delhi and many of them have also attained Aadhaar and ration cards." BJP MLA Raj Purohit made a similar demand in Mumbai, seeking implement of NRC not only in the city, but across the country. I have written to district collector Mumbai, ACS Home, CP Mumbai, state EC to identify Bangladeshis in Colaba and Mumbai, he said. West Bengal biggest NRC defaulter, claims Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mamata's latest remarks bear significance for what the Registrar General of India had to say after the chief minister's allegations. Claiming that West Bengal was the biggest defaulter in the NRC verification process pertaining to people who belong to a different state but reside in Assam due to various reasons, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Sailesh said that he had deputed his own staff to help the West Bengal government in collecting the documents sought by the NRC authorities but the efforts were not fruitful. Sailesh, who oversaw the entire exercise of the NRC exercise in Assam, said, "The largest number of documents that we have not received among all states was from West Bengal. We had to struggle. We had to follow up. But we have not received substantial number of documents from West Bengal. The response (of West Bengal) in terms of results was not satisfactory." Sailesh also said that there was a meeting through video conference between the officials of the West Bengal government and the NRC authorities during which a request was made to send the responses. "West Bengal was the only state where we made an exception by deputing my own staff to assist the state government. But we have not received all required documents for the draft NRC," PTI quoted him as saying. Asked about the number of documents that the West Bengal did not provide, Sailesh said it would be a "substantial number". NRC and electoral rolls are "very different": Election Commission The poll panel said an exclusion from this list would not automatically result in their removal from the electoral rolls as registration of voters is decided by the election laws. Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat told PTI that the NRC and electoral rolls are "very different". He said the NRC is just one element that affects the electoral roll and quoted provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to say that anybody can register as an elector if that person is a citizen of India, is above 18 years of age on 1 January of the year of enrolment, and is ordinarily a resident of the constituency in which enrolment as a voter is sought. "These three conditions have to be fulfilled with documentary evidence and that person can be enrolled in electoral roll," he said. Giving an example, Rawat said there can be a person who has not applied for the NRC in Assam but may be living there for a few years for job or for studies. "He is a citizen of India working in Delhi and is transferred to Assam where he is now living for the past two years and has applied with documents to be included in the electoral roll. The electoral registration officer, after checking the veracity of the document, includes his name because he is an Indian citizen, though he is not in the NRC," he explained. Rawat also said that this is a draft NRC. After this, in the next one month all these 40 lakh individuals will be informed about the reasons why their names were not included. Thereafter they can file their claims and objections and after decision on the claims, final list of NRC will be published. The CEC said the chief electoral officer of Assam will give a factual report in the coming week on various aspects arising out of the publication of the final draft NRC. On whether there would a confusion, Rawat said, "No. There will be no confusion. If a person fulfils the three criteria and the electoral registration officer is convinced, he will be made part of the electoral roll." People will have to satisfy the electoral registration officers that they are citizens of India to be part of the voter list and they can use documents available with them to support their claim, he added. The EC voter enrolment exercise is independent of the NRC, though authorities responsible for the two lists are working in sync. "The EC, with its objective of 'no voter to be left behind', has asked CEO Assam to coordinate closely with State Coordinator NRC so as to ensure that all eligible persons are included in Electoral Roll during Summary Revision 2019. This way a final electoral roll will be published on 4 January, 2019 to be used for General Election," Rawat had said. Three days after the complete draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in Assam, the apex students' body in Arunachal on Thursday asked 'undocumented migrants' to leave the state within 15 days. Itanagar: Three days after the complete draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in Assam, the apex students' body in Arunachal on Thursday asked "undocumented migrants" to leave the state within 15 days. Apprehending that people from neighbouring Assam may "sneak into their territory" in the wake of NRC publication, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU), in a statement, said it would launch 'Operation Clean Drive' to evict "non-Arunachalees" and assist district authorities to keep vigil at the entry points of the state. Large number of illegal migrants, who did not find a mention in Assam's draft NRC, might try to enter the state to evade deportation, AAPSU general secretary Tobom Dai said. "A committee has been constituted with AAPSU member Tatung Taga as its chairman to spearhead 'Operation Clean Drive' across the state. It will assist the district authorities to conduct spot verification of people at all entry points along the inter-state boundary," he stated. Dai also urged people living here to keep their Inner Line Permit (ILP) and other documents ready to avoid "unnecessary harassments" during the drive. "The operation will also help in weeding out illegal immigrants, who have been residing here without valid documents," he added. Last week, the Arunachal government launched a drive in various districts to identify people, who do not have the necessary permits. Around 15 persons have been apprehended at Khonsa in Tirap district of the state as they did not have valid ILPs. In the state capital, too, more than 20 persons were sent back after they were found to have entered the state without valid ILPs. The AAPSU, in its statement, appealed to the Pema Khandu-led Arunachal government to come out with strong anti-influx measures by erecting more outposts across the state. Politicians like Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi, unfortunately are not the only people here who choose their vested interests over the nations security After a massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify illegal settlers in Assam, nearly 40 lakh people were found to be ineligible citizens or illegal migrants. Now when an exercise of this magnitude takes places, it is only obvious that there will be some errors. And so to address these errors, the government has repeatedly reiterated that this list is a draft and not conclusive. Therefore, those found ineligible have a right to apply for a review till September. In my opinion, the government's firm, principled and yet perfectly reasonable approach is commendable. However, as expected it has ruffled India's beleaguered Opposition to the extent that it does not know how to react. So while Mamata Banerjee doled out an open threat of civil war, Congress and TMC leaders disrupted BJP president Amit Shah's speech on the issue in Parliament. In fact, so reckless is the Opposition's reaction, that it makes one wonder what is it that is at stake for them. Politics of the Indian subcontinent has over the centuries had at its core the issue of religious demography. Now in the 1951 Census, the first after Independence, the percentage of Hindus stood at 84.1 percent and Muslims at 9.8 percent. In 2011, these figures stood at 79.8 percent and 14.23 percent respectively. This effectively means that in a span of 60 years, the percentage of Hindus in India reduced by over five percent, while the percentage of Muslims grew by nearly 5 percent. Now this alteration in demography was precipitated by an institutional patronisation for illegal migration in Assam, Bengal and the entire North East. This is not a problem of today. In fact, the first time this problem set alarm bells ringing was four decades ago, when in a Lok Sabha bypoll in Assam in 1978, 70,000 new and dubious voters were enrolled in the voters' list in the span of just two years. The late 1970s and early 1980s then saw one of the biggest student movements in the country against illegal migration, led by AASU (All Assam Students Union). This movement was to culminate in the signing of the Assam Accord, which carried at its core the decision, to prepare a new database of legal citizens. That this was not executed for the next three decades is a travesty. Why is the NRC exercise so crucial? There are three primary reasons: First, in the absence of even basic knowledge of the real quantum of illegal migrants in a country, there is no way, a government can ensure primacy for its legal citizens, especially in states that are particularly prone to the problem. Second, the exercise will pave the way for a formal refugee policy at the national level. Thirdly, wilful tampering of a country's religious demography is never healthy for the country's social fabric, especially in the long run. Many European countries face a similar problem and seem to be clueless about handling it. Is the NRC exercise a precursor to deportation? One would imagine that option to be next to impossible, given India's exemplary human rights record. However, other solutions like disenfranchisement or giving the illegal migrants temporary work permits, instead of citizenship, are certainly viable alternatives. What action will finally be taken, will be a long drawn process and will involve adequate deliberation. However, the NRC exercise in itself was long needed and will perhaps set an example for European countries, grappling with a similar problem. Why is Mamata furious ? Mamata had stated in the Lok Sabha on 4 August, 2005, "The infiltration in Bengal has become a disaster now... I have both the Bangladeshi and Indian voters lists. This is a very serious matter. I would like to know when it will be discussed in the House." At around the same time, the then governor of the state, SK Sinha had categorically warned that in case this migration is not combatted immediately, it poses a big national security risk. That Mamata is now doing a brazen U-turn should allay all misconceptions about her 'genuine care for humanity'. The point is the NRC has dealt a virtual death blow to the greedy vote bank politics of a whole lot of Opposition parties. In all the recent riots of Bengal, particularly in Malda and Bashirhat, the illegal Bangladeshi population is supposed to have played a big role. This constituency is ingratiated to Mamata because she shelters them and allows them impunity. In fact, through his years as Bihar chief minister during the 1990s, Lalu Prasad Yadav had facilitated the easy settling of Bangladeshis is border districts of Kishangunj, Purnea and Katihar. Now Mamata is doing the same in Bengal with greater brazenness and out of her venom against the Narendra Modi government. In fact, in the past three days, she has made some absolutely preposterous comments, first inviting the 40 lakh people of Assam left off the final NRC draft to come and settle in Bengal and then threatening an open civil war. Politicians like Mamata and Rahul Gandhi, unfortunately are not the only people here who choose their vested interests over the nations security. In fact, I was quite appalled by the sheer absence of logic in some key members of Lutyens fraternity comparing illegal migrants in Assam with Indians working in the US. Now, the H-1B visa is an employment-based non-immigrant visa, procured legally under Sec 101(a)17(H)of the US Immigration Act and renewed every three years. If you fail to get renewal, you are deported immediately. Do illegal migrants in Assam carry visas? Since when did professional naysayers care for logic anyway? The criticism which NRC has evoked, is low on logic and emanates out of sheer greed. In fact, on the contrary, this is a step, which the core constituency of the BJP backs wholeheartedly. The time is indeed right to extend this exercise to the whole country. Let India show the way to the world on the issue of illegal migration a problem half the world is confronting rather helplessly. The author is a BJP leader and tweets @tuhins. Views expressed are personal. Reba Chakraborty Deb, 71, and her son Suhartta are extremely dissatisfied with the NRC process as their names have been excluded from the final draft released on 30 July despite the fact that their family has lived in Assam for over 100 years Editor's Note: Of the 4 million who didn't make it to NRC, 2.48 lakh have been marked as 'D' voters. The Supreme Court has asked Assam government not to take any coercive action on those who are found to be without proper documents as required under recent National Register of Citizens. NRC, a product of Assam Accord, is expected to solve the fear of Bangladeshi immigrants that has been prevalent in the state for quite some time now. The Centre proposed in 1999 an updated NRC in Assam to solve the problem of "illegal immigration" and two pilot projects were conducted in Dhubri and Barpeta districts. But breaking out of a riot in Barpeta grounded the project. In 2005, when All Assam Student Union opposed the prime minister's visit to the state, tripartite talk between AASU, State government, and the Centre resulted in a decision to prepare a model for the NRC process, which was delayed yet again by over 5 years by the state government. It was only when Abhijeet Sharma of Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, filed a writ petition in 2009 that the SC's direct intervention led to the start of NRC process in 2014. Firstpost will run a series which will feature 30 profiles in 30 days of those residents of Assam who have not been covered under the final draft of NRC which will decide if they continue to live in the state that they call 'home'. *** Dibrugarh: Reba Chakraborty Deb, 71, and her son Suhartta Dev are extremely dissatisfied with the NRC process as their names have been excluded from the final draft released on 30 July. Reba is a retired primary school teacher at Santipara Bengali Primary School. A resident of Bansbari in Dibrugarh, Reba was born and brought up in Assam, but still could not find a place in the final draft of the NRC. "In 2015, we applied for the NRC with all the necessary documents but our name was not published in the first draft of the NRC released on 31 December, 2017. We thought that in the second draft our names will appear but our names were excluded the second time as well, said Reba. Reba was born in Ledo, a small town in the Tinsukia district in 1948. After having studied there up to class VIII, she took admission in Victoria Girls High school in Dibrugarh and completed her schooling from there. In 1967, she got a job as a school teacher in Shantipara Bengali primary school and after 40 years of her service, she retired from the school in 2007. Just like her, the names of her son and husband were also excluded from the NRC final draft. Although it has been a year since Rebas husband, Sitesh Chandra Deb, passed away, he applied for the NRC while he was still alive. So, technically, his name should have still appeared in the list is what she says. He too worked in the same primary school as Reba and had grown up up in Sadiya, Assam, says Reba. Sashi Bhushan Chakraborty, Rebas grandfather, was a postmaster during British Raj and served in various districts of Assam. He came to Assam in 1903 from present day Bangladesh before Partition and started working as a postmaster. At the time, Shillong was the capital of Assam. They are a Hindu Brahmin family that migrated to Assam before Partition and have been living in the state for over 100 years years now. Her grandfather had four sons and all of them were born in Assam. "Our names were not included in the final draft of the NRC. My son's and my brother's names were also excluded from the final list. I have been born and brought up in Assam, but still, my name was excluded from the final draft. My father was born in Assam and received a diploma degree in pharmacy from John Berry White medical school in Dibrugarh," said Reba. Expressing her dissatisfaction she added that she doesnt know what to do next. I worked as a teacher from 1967-2007 and I am a pension holder. But still, my name was not included in the final draft of NRC. The NRC list was published to detect the illegal migrants but seems that the genuine and indigenous people of Assam are facing harassment during the process too," said Reba. On the other hand, her son, Suhartta Dev, 33, is extremely annoyed with the situation as their names have been excluded despite having provided all necessary documents. We are not illegal migrants but now we feel like illegal citizens. After providing all the documents our names were missing. We support the government's move to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) because it will detect the illegal migrants who came after March 24, 1971, but it is harassing a genuine Indian citizen, Suhartta says. Recently, the family were summoned by the Naholia NRC Seva Kendra for hearing. My brother and I went to the NRC centre and they told us that our legacy data which we have submitted for NRC was wrong. They informed us that our legacy data was matching with another persons legacy data. The officials from NRC Seva Kendra told us to re-apply for NRC, Reba adds. (The author is a Dibrugarh-based freelance writer and a member of 101reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters) The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has decided to bring a constitutional amendment bill in Parliament to restore the original provisions of the SC/ST Act, amid growing pressure from alliance partners The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has decided to bring a constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament to restore the original provisions of the SC/ST Act, amid growing pressure from alliance partners such as Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Ramdas Athawale's Republican Party of India (RPI). The bill which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday will be tabled on Thursday during the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Parliament. The amendment, if passed by the Parliament will, in effect, nullify the Supreme Court's judgment pronounced on 20 March which had diluted the Act to bar the immediate arrest of an accused, stating that an arrest would only follow a preliminary enquiry by the probing agency or the police to check if the case fell within the ambit of the Act, or it was frivolous or motivated. The judges noted that there had been instances of abuse of the Act by vested interests for political or personal reasons. However, the judgment was met with nationwide agitation from various Dalit groups which claimed that the dilution of the Act will lead to more discrimination and crime against the backward community. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan gave an ultimatum to the Modi government to bring an amendment bill by 9 August as the Dalit groups have threatened to launch a massive nationwide agitation on that day. Paswan's son and Lok Sabha MP Chirag Paswan demanded that if the government fails to bring an amendment bill by 9 August, then the monsoon session should be curtailed and an Ordinance should be brought in to restore the Act. The Amendment Bill, accessed by CNN News18, seeks to insert Section 18A in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. According to this new Section, a preliminary enquiry won't be there required to conduct a preliminary inquiry before an FIR is to be registered. According to the Bill, any provision for conducting preliminary inquiry will delay the investigation and thus filing of the chargesheet. The Supreme Court in its judgement had also laid down that in cases of public servants, prior approval of the appointing authority shall be required to make an arrest and for private individuals, a sanction from the SSP was mandated. But the govt's Bill seeks to do away with these directions of the Court, and says that "arrest, if necessary, of a person shall not require any approval". The proposed Section also moves to do away with a provision for pre-arrest bail which was sought to be introduced in the statute. "The provision of Section 438 of the CrPC (anticipatory bail) shall not apply to a case under this Act, notwithstanding any judgment or any order of any court," states the proposed law, CNN News18 reported. Thus, the Amendment Bill seeks to insert three new clauses to Section 18 of the original Act. The first stating the purposes of the Act that, a preliminary enquiry shall not be required for registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against any person. Second that "the arrest of a person accused of having committed an offence under the Act would not require any approval", while third says that the provisions of Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which deals with anticipatory bail shall not apply to a case under this Act, notwithstanding any judgment or order of any Court". On 2 April, violence during a nationwide bandh left at least nine people dead and hundreds injured. Later, the Centre had filed a review petition against the ruling. However, the Supreme Court refused to stay its ruling and asked all parties to submit detailed replies, leading to the demand from Dalit groups that the government introduce an ordinance or an Amendment Bill to restore the earlier provisions. Protests intensified when the government appointed Justice AK Goel, who authored the 20 March verdict, as the Chairman of the National Green Tribunal on the day of his retirement from the Court. The SC/ST Act was originally passed in 1955 by the Parliament as the Untouchability (Offences) Act. It was renamed as the Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act in 1976 but the law was considered ineffective in 1980s and replaced with the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 1989. In 2015, more offences were brought under its ambit by including acts like tonsuring of head, moustache of backward caste people by upper-castes as a criminal activitiy. The Supreme Court in its March ruling had said the the aim of the Act was not to prevent the government officials from dispensing their duties in fair manner but to make sure that it was not used as a tool of blackmail or vengeance, according to an India Today report. Click here for LIVE updates on the Monsoon Session of the Parliament Besides an AK-47, an INSAS rifle, which was snatched from a policeman in Kandhar area of Kupwara on Tuesday, was recovered from the slain terrorists. Srinagar: Two Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists were killed in an encounter on Thursday after they fired upon security forces in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. An INSAS rifle, snatched earlier this week from a policeman in the Kupwara district of north Kashmir, was recovered from the terrorists, they said. Security forces had established a check-point this afternoon at Khumriyal in Lolab area, a police spokesman said. The checking was going on when the terrorists fired upon the security personnel who immediately retaliated, he added. In the brief encounter, two terrorists were killed by the security forces, the spokesman said. The slain terrorists were identified as Zahoor Ahmad and Bilal Ahmad Shah of Shatmuqam village, he added. "They were affiliated to the proscribed terror outfit HM. Both the terrorists were involved in several attacks on security establishments and civilian atrocities in the area," the spokesman said. He said besides an AK-47, an INSAS rifle, which was snatched from a policeman in Kandhar area of Kupwara on Tuesday, was recovered from the slain terrorists. No collateral damage occurred during the encounter, the spokesman said, adding police have registered a case and an investigation into the matter had been initiated. Sharad Yadav asks Congress to take responsibility in bringing opposition parties on single platform to defeat BJP Bhopal: Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav appealed to the Congress Thursday to take the lead in bringing together all opposition parties on a single platform to dislodge the BJP from power. Addressing a gathering, he said the country was currently reeling under an "undeclared democracy" in the BJP rule. "It (defeating the BJP) will not happen without opposition unity. Those getting 31 percent votes are ruling now because 69 percent votes stood divided. The Congress is the biggest opposition party and it should take responsibility to bring all parties on a single platform," Yadav said while addressing the state-level Lokkranti Sammelan. The former JD(U) leader also hinted that parties in the proposed Third Front would forge an alliance with the Congress at the national level and in Madhya Pradesh, where assembly polls were due later in 2018. "We will have an alliance with the Congress at the national level and also make an effort to have a coalition here (in Madhya Pradesh)," he said in an interaction with reporters after the function. He was responding to a query whether the parties under the proposed Third Front would stitch an alliance with the Congress. "An undeclared emergency is more dangerous than the declared one. At present, there is an undeclared emergency in the country," he said, alleging that the governments in Madhya Pradesh and Centre were spreading lies. He said every section of the society was suffering under the BJP-led central government which had caused the "maximum damage" to the country in just four years. Yadav appealed to the people to vote in the upcoming elections with an objective to save the country and the Constitution and not on the lines of caste and religion. He said the BJP under leaders like (former prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani was different from the present one under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "It is time for the people to ask the government to fulfill the electoral promises made by them," the socialist leader said. Yadav slammed the Modi-led government over the "non-fulfilment" of the electoral promise of creating 2 crore jobs and for demonetising higher currencies. Accusing the BJP of dividing the society, Yadav claimed, "Cows seem have become more important than their daughters and mothers." He alleged that the Madhya Pradesh government had "ruined" the Narmada and the Tawa rivers by allowing illegal mining. Taking a dig at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's "Jan Ashirvad (blessing) Yatra", Yadav dubbed the mass outreach campaign 'Jan Abhishap (curse) Yatra'. "The BJP rule has become an 'abhishap' (curse) for the common people," he claimed. Yadav said he had coined two slogans, "BJP Bhagao - Desh Bachao" and "Modi Hatao Samvidhan Bachao". He claimed that 102 people had died in mob lynching incidents in the country under the BJP rule. Speaking on the occasion, Bahujan Sangharsh Dal (BSD) president Phool Singh Baraiya alleged, "Most of the slaughter-houses exporting beef abroad are run by Hindus." He dared the BJP governments to cancel the licenses of these facilities. Congress leader and former East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit and Communist leaders from Madhya Pradesh also attended the convention. Shiv Sena said Maharashtra and Karnataka were embroiled in a border dispute, centering around Belagavi and Kumaraswamy's remark in the SC, reportedly made on 31 July, was 'like rubbing salt into the wounds of people wanting to be part of Maharashtra' Mumbai: The Shiv Sena Wednesday said that the Maharashtra government should approach the Supreme Court and urge it to send a contempt notice to the Karnataka government for its Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's remark about making Belagavi the second capital of the southern state. The Shiv Sena said Maharashtra and Karnataka were embroiled in a border dispute, centering around Belagavi, in the Supreme Court and Kumaraswamy's remark, reportedly made on 31 July, was "like rubbing salt into the wounds of people wanting to be part of Maharashtra". Maharashtra claims Belagavi, part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency but currently a district of Karnataka, on linguistic grounds. On 31 July, Kumaraswamy had said his government was mulling shifting of its offices to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi, in an attempt to address allegations of discrimination levelled by the people of north Karnataka. The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi (Belgaum), modelled on the lines of the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat and legislature in Bengaluru, functions only during the winter session of the state legislature and is shut during the rest of the year. "Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has announced that Belagavi will be made the second capital of the state. This is like rubbing salt into the wounds of people wanting to be a part of Maharashtra," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. The Sena sought to know how the Kumaraswamy government could take a decision on the disputed area while the matter was sub-judice. "The Maharashtra government should immediately take cognisance of this matter and lodge a protest with the Supreme Court. The state's lawyer should plead that the Supreme Court send a contempt notice to Karnataka government," it said. The Sena quoted Kumaraswamy as saying, "In order to ensure the development of Belagavi, making it the second capital of Karnataka was under consideration of the government for the last 12 years. This issue is pending since I became the chief minister in 2006. I am seriously considering how to implement the proposal," it said. Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Thursday appealed to the people of north Karnataka not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister HD Kumarswamy's lifetime. New Delhi: Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Thursday appealed to the people of north Karnataka not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister HD Kumarswamy's lifetime. Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts. "No injustice has been meted out to north Karnataka in allotment of funds in the state budget," he said and hit out at BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa for trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda". "The provocation made by Yeddyurappa will not come true. We will take care of it. If some people demand a separate north Karnataka, I want to tell them it will not happen, not during my lifetime and not during my son's lifetime," he told PTI in an interview. He alleged that the BJP state president is "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats. Gowda further alleged that the former chief minister has started "intimidating" people on the farm loan waiver, state budget and other issues, with the sole motive to create unrest. The former prime minister said many leaders have made sacrifices for the unification of the state and appealed to people to not fall prey to provocation but to "trust the current government". Kumaraswamy has already ordered the shifting of some key government departments to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the secretariat building in Belagavi, Gowda added. The Samiti gave the bandh call to press for statehood for the region, alleging that successive governments discriminated against it. The Samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on 5 July and also inadequate representation in the cabinet. Both parties in adultery derive the benefit of the act. Despite that, one is treated as a victim and another punished. There is no rationality in it. The provision is a reflection of the times it was drafted,' Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed. The Supreme Court on Thursday resumed hearing a petition challenging the constitutionality of criminalisation of adultery under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and an inherent gender bias in the provision. A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and comprising RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra resumed hearing the petition, one day after it said it won't touch the law to make it an offence for women to indulge in adultery. The petition seeks to make men and women equally liable for adultery, but the bench said that to allow sexual intercourse with the consent of a woman's husband is "an indication of treating the wife as husband's chattel", Live Law reported. "This is absurd!" Justice Indu Malhotra exclaimed. "Definitely the matrimonial sanctity aspect is there, but the way the provisions is enacted or made runs counter to Article 14 (Right to equality of the Constitution)," said the bench. "Both parties in adultery derive the benefit of the act. Despite that, one is treated as a victim and another punished. There is no rationality in it. The provision is a reflection of the times it was drafted," Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, according to Hindustan Times. Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, appearing for petitioner Joseph Shine, an Indian who is living in Italy, said that the law should be struck down, calling the law discriminatory. "If Section 497 cannot be read down or made gender neutral, it has to be struck down," according to Bar and Bench. He referred to various facets of Section 497 and said the provision does not apply to a consenting sexual relationship between two unmarried adults and it treats married men and women differently with regard to their prosecution for the offence of adultery. The bench called the law arbitrary, questioning the need for the wife to seek the husband's consent before having sexual intercourse with another man. It stated that it failed the test of arbitrariness. "As it says that sex with another's wife will not be offence if its done with the consent or connivance of that woman's husband, is manifestly arbitrary," said Rohinton Nariman J, Bar and Bench reported. Section 497 of the IPC says, "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery." "He shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor," the section says. On Wednesday, the bench observed that if section 497 fails the test of Article 14, it would be declared unconstitutional. It said adultery is also a ground of divorce and apart from other civil remedies under various statutes. "So, we have to examine whether the adultery provision requires to remain a criminal offence at all," the bench said. With inputs from PTI The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear two key petitions firstly, a plea seeking the ban on the publication of the Malayalam novel Meesha, and another that seeks the quashing of the adultery provision in the IPC The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear two key petitions firstly, a plea seeking the ban on the publication of the Malayalam novel Meesha, and another that seeks the quashing of the adultery provision in the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The first has been mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and the court said it would come up before an appropriate bench for hearing on Thursday. The petitioner, N Radhakrishnan, has claimed that the book, authored by S Harish, allegedly depicts temple-going Hindu women in a derogatory light. It has also alleged that certain comments in the book about Brahmins, who perform puja in the temples, amounted to "casteist slur". It has also alleged that the Kerala government has not taken necessary steps to stop the publication, online sale and dissemination of the novel. "The publication caused public outburst and protests across the nation, especially in the state of Kerala as the matter was published in Malayalam. Post the publication of the incriminating article, Hindu women visiting temple were subjected to ridicule and embarrassment through various social media platforms," the plea has alleged. "Trolls, which appeared and were circulated on social media, have caused deep pain and anguish to the temple going Hindu believers," it claimed. The petition claimed that if the government fails to take appropriate action, it would indirectly invite the public to react and it would not be far before there is a "Charlie Hebdo kind of backlash in India". Meesha was being published in a serialised form in a Malayalam periodical. The publication of subsequent parts of the novel in the periodical was discontinued after the controversy. The petition in the apex court urged the court to ensure that "no person under the guise of freedom of speech and expression as envisaged under the Constitution be permitted to meddle with the communal fabric of the nation and fix responsibility for such work on the person or medium promoting or propagating such materials". Adultery provision punishes men, not women Meanwhile, a separate petition before the court has claimed that the adultery provision of the IPC "only punishes married men for having extra-marital sexual relations with a married woman". A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Misra, said it will not touch the law to make it an offence for women too. "We will test whether Section 497 of the IPC on the basis of Article 214 (equality before law) should remain a criminal offence at all," the bench, also comprising justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, said. Section 497 of the IPC says, "Whoever has sexual intercourse with a person who is and whom he knows or has reason to believe to be the wife of another man, without the consent or connivance of that man, such sexual intercourse not amounting to the offence of rape, is guilty of the offence of adultery." "He shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine or with both. In such case the wife shall not be punishable as an abettor," the section says. During the brief hearing, the court also rejected the demand of Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand for referring the matter to a seven-judge bench, saying these issues were totally different than the issue that was being considered by a five-judge bench in 1954. "The issue, which was considered in the 1954 verdict of a five-judge bench, was whether a woman can be considered as an abettor. In the instant petition, it is totally different," the bench said. It said adultery is also a ground of divorce and apart from other civil remedies under various statutes. "So, we have to examine whether the adultery provision requires to remain a criminal offence at all," the bench said. Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, appearing for petitioner Joseph Shine, an Indian who is living in Italy, said he is seeking quashing of IPC Section 497 and CrPC Section 198(2). The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) section only allows the husband of the woman to file a complaint. He said they are seeking quashing of the provisions on the ground that it is not gender neutral and violative of the fundamental right to privacy. "The question before the bench is whether a person can be sent to jail on the ground that he had sexual relations with a married woman," he said. The bench said it would resume further hearing on the issue on Thursday. With inputs from PTI Saugata Ray said four Trinamool Congress members were detained at Silchar airport when they were visiting the state in the aftermath of the publication of Assam NRC New Delhi: All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) members, led by senior leader Saugata Ray, protested the detention of four of his party MPs at the Silchar airport in Assam Thursday and demanded a response from the government on it in the Lok Sabha. "Trinamool Congress members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur and Sukhendu Sekhar Ray were detained at the airport when they were visiting the state in the aftermath of the publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," Ray said. "Assam Police has detained them at Silchar Airport. They are interfering with the free movement of people. This is a breach of privilege," Ray said, adding "we want government response on this". Ray raised the issue when the House was discussing the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017 to provide for setting up of a National Commission for Backward Classes. Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai said he would convey his demand to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC published earlier this week has led to protests in the state and stalled Rajya Sabha proceedings for three days. President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at their summit in June summit, for the return of the Korean War remains. Honolulu: The US military is beginning the painstaking process of analysing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. Vice President Mike Pence and the top commander of US forces in Asia, Admiral Phil Davidson, received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after the caskets arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. "They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbours long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones," Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at their June summit in Singapore, for their return. Trump, in a tweet last night, thanked Kim "for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action." Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Pence said. "Today, our boys are coming home." The US military believes the bones are those of US servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the US on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." There are 7,699 US service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. During his summit with Trump, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearisation. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal concession. Experts say that the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of US security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralise the alleged US plans to attack it. In a no-holds-barred attack on Mamata Banerjee, WB Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that the CM is trying to divide a 'united opposition' by floating the idea of a federal front New Delhi: A day after Mamata Banerjee met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called the TMC supremo a "chameleon" and accused her of hankering after the prime minister's post. In a no-holds-barred attack on the West Bengal chief minister, Chowdhury alleged that Banerjee is acting like a "Trojan Horse" and trying to divide a "united opposition" by floating the idea of a federal front, and urged leaders of various parties not to trust her. "Her single objective is to be the prime minister of India. She is hankering after the post of prime minister. She is having a 'Deve Gowda-syndrome and Gujral-syndrome'," he said. Chowdhury also accused Banerjee of trying to "finish" and "eliminate" the Congress in West Bengal on one hand and seeking the party's support for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on the other. "She is nothing but a 'chameleon' who is changing her colours. She is an unreliable, unpredictable politician and Congress and other leaders should not trust her at all," he told PTI. "Mamata Banerjee is a dictator and is now trying to project herself as a 'female monk'. She is trying to eliminate the Congress in West Bengal by not allowing us to either vote or stand in elections and our leaders are put behind bars. It seems that doing politics in Bengal is a crime," he said adding "we are the victims of politics of elimination in the state". The PCC chief, who has been a staunch Mamata-baiter, said she is trying to extract as many seats as possible in Bengal so that she can stake her claim for the prime minister's post in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Chowdhury said Banerjee is thinking that she will become the prime minister with the support of the other opposition parties and that is why she is declining to offer the Congress any seats in Bengal. He said at a time when Rahul Gandhi is talking of uniting the entire opposition, "Mamata Banerjee is trying to create a divide in the opposition ranks" by talking of a third front. "She is only trying to suit herself," he said. Accusing Banerjee of adopting "double standards", the Congress leader said on one hand she is talking of 40 lakh people who were left out in Assam NRC, on the other she is putting up barricades on the state borders. He also recalled how Mamata Banerjee moved an adjournment motion in Parliament in 2005 against illegal immigrants in Bengal and demanded she clarify her stand on the issue. Banerjee Wednesday met leaders of various parties in the national capital including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi as part of efforts to forge an anti-BJP front . "We discussed the political situation. We discussed how the opposition can together take on the BJP because it knows that it will not come back to power," she had said after the nearly 30-minute meeting with the Gandhis. Banerjee said she also discussed the NRC issue as 40 lakh people have not been included in it and "genuine voters have been kept out". Introduction: Palestine rarely makes the news in Indian media. When it does, it is usually because "clashes" or hostilities have flared up yet again. Knee-jerk sentiments are often quick to ascribe Palestinians with terrorism. The reality is that the Palestinians are an exceptionally warm and welcoming people. Perceptions about Palestine are too often shaped by lack of information or by propaganda. It is easy to dehumanise those we are ignorant about. This 10-part series on Palestine consists of photographs from East Jerusalem and the West Bank taken by the author during a visit in early 2018. They convey varied aspects of Palestines natural beauty, her ancient and unique history, Palestinian art, education and culture, and the grim realities of their lives under Israeli military occupation. In part six, we look at Palestinians' lives under oppression. [Below: A map of West Bank, Gaza and Israel (L); the West Bank (R). Courtesy: palestinett.org] *** Palestinian lives those of children and adults alike are marked in every aspect by the occupation. Here are a few instances of its effect on their daily lives. All Palestinian children grow up in the midst of heavily armed Israeli soldiers. A child in the city of Hebron: The JD(S) and Congress, which are part of the ruling alliance in Karnataka, and the BJP are in panic over what anger in north Karnataka could mean to them. On Tuesday, Karnataka's chief minister HD Kumaraswamy promised to consider making Belagavi (earlier called Belgaum) the 'second capital' of Karnataka. With a population of five lakh, Belagavi is 20 kilometres from the border with Maharashtra, 50 kilometres from the border with Goa and 500 kilometres from Bengaluru. Its another matter that Belagavi is prominent among the places in Karnataka that Maharashtra lays claim to. Its yet another matter that BS Yeddyurappa of the BJP made the same promise of making Belagavi the second capital in 2010, when he was the chief minister. But Kumaraswamys latest assurance, and the other noises he has made about developing the backward north Karnataka, have prompted some organisations to call off a bandh they had called on 2 August to demand separate statehood for the region. The resentment over the neglect of this backward region, which intensified in recent weeks and led to the bandh call, however, continues. The JD(S) and Congress, which are part of the ruling alliance, and BJP are in panic over what this could mean to them as they prepare for the next Lok Sabha election, less than a year away. And as for the people of north Karnataka and the outfits that called and later cancelled the bandh, they are keeping fingers their crossed over the new promises to bring the region at par with the relatively prosperous south Karnataka. They are giving another chance to another government, aware that similar assurances were either forgotten or fulfilled only halfheartedly in the past. And nobody believes that the status of the second capital alone would guarantee development. Ballari as second capital? Kumaraswamys talk of a second capital at Belagavi takes me back to a day in 1995 when I accompanied former Chief Justice of India ES Venkataramiah and a few ministers and bureaucrats to a village in Karnatakas Ballari (earlier called Bellary) district. This is where the state can have its second capital, Venkataramiah told me, pointing at a vast expanse of vacant land from an elevated point. He had many reasons for proposing this. One was that Bengaluru, tucked in the states south-east corner, is a bit too far for people in the northern districts. The alternative place in Ballari was almost at the states geographical centre where land was available for building a second capital. This idea was primarily aimed at decongesting Bengaluru, from where a whole lot of government departments could be shifted to a second capital. When I reported this in the newspaper where I worked, the governments response was one of amusement. Venkataramaiahs suggestion could have served another purpose. It could have gladdened the hearts of many in north Karnataka, given the region some hope for development and assuaged their feeling of neglect at least to some extent. If HD Deve Gowda, chief minister at the time, had at least promised to look into the idea, which was the result of diligent research by the former Chief Justice, some activists wouldnt have given the first call for a separate state for north Karnataka in 2000. But they did. And after the demand was first raised, successive governments took several knee-jerk measures, which include these: -In 2000, the Congress government of SM Krishna appointed a committee led by economist DM Nanjundappa to look into 'regional imbalances' in the state. -In 2007, five years after the committee submitted its report, Kumaraswamy who was the chief minister and Yeddyurappa, who was the finance minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition government, began a painfully slow process of implementing some of the recommendations. -Also in 2007, Kumaraswamy initiated in Belagavi town the project of building Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, a smaller version of Bengalurus imposing Vidhana Soudha that houses the states secretariat and Legislature. -In 2008, the Karnataka High Court set up circuit benches in the northern towns of Dharwad and Gulbarga, which were made permanent in 2013. -Towards the end of 2012, just in time for the Assembly elections the next year, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre amended Article 371 to grant special benefits to Hyderabad-Karnataka, a part of north Karnataka that is Indias second largest arid region after western Rajasthan. (Under this Article, backward areas in as many as 11 states, including Maharashtras Vidarbha and Marathwada, supposedly enjoy special benefits.) None of these things brought north Karnataka, comprising 13 of the states 30 districts, any closer to the rest of the state in development than before. The most worthless of these measures is the Rs 450-crore Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, inaugurated in 2012. This has been used for a Legislature session once a year, with the promise of shifting some departments there remaining only on paper. Scepticism over separate state Besides the new promises, there are other reasons why the bandh has been called off. The call for a separate statehood lacks widespread support. Some see sense in the argument that Bengaluru contributes more than 60 percent of the states revenues and GDP, and a newly carved north Karnataka state would have little resources to develop itself. They fear that the situation of such a separate state might become like Andhra Pradesh after Telangana and Hyderabad were taken away from it. The voices of Kannada unity also drowned demands for bifurcation. There are also differences of perspective between north Karnatakas two regions: Hyderabad-Karnataka, with six districts formerly of the Hyderabad Nizams kingdom, and Bombay-Karnataka, with seven districts of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency. The people of Hyderabad-Karnataka, the less developed of the two regions, feel that Bombay-Karnataka corners most of the benefits that should have gone to them. Congress worst affected Despite all this, there is unanimity in the entire north over the way successive governments have given the region a cold-shoulder, and this is raising questions over its impact on the next Lok Sabha election. This is because the north-versus-south conflict in Karnataka is also a tug of war between the two dominant upper castes: Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The Lingayats, who dominate the north, have been generally inclined towards BJP and Congress, in that order in the recent past. And the Vokkaligas, who rule the roost in the south, are divided between JD(S) and Congress. While a regional conflict might help Kumaraswamy consolidate support within his own Vokkaliga community base in the south, Congress is fearful that, as a partner in the ruling alliance, it might bear the brunt of Lingayat anger in the north. And the BJP has been working overtime to prove that its the only party that can save the north from doom. The author tweets @sprasadindia NN Vohra first took over as Jammu and Kashmir governor on 26 June, 2008, when the state was in utter turmoil over the transfer of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Srinagar: Relations between the incumbent and the longest serving Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, NN Vohra and the Centre began to sour after the former sent a letter to the Union home ministry to postpone the date for hearing petitions challenging the Article 35-A in the Supreme Court until such time as a popular government assumes charges. According to sources, the Centre didn't like the idea and has begun to look for Vohra's replacement. The State Subject Law has become a new bone of contention between the state and the Centre in the wake of the hearing on the petitions challenging the Article 35-A of the Indian Constitution before the Supreme Court on 6 August. Kashmir is rife with rumours that the apex court will strike down the law. Sources in Raj Bhavan said the letter suggested to the Union home ministry that it will be "fitting" if the apex court schedules the hearing on Article 35-A only when an elected government is in office "after fresh elections" and that any adverse ruling would plunge the state into "chaos". The governor's office refused to comment on the issue saying it has no information about any letter; repeated calls made to the PRO of the governor went unanswered. "When you are governor of a state you represent interests of that state and not those of the Centre's. Even having an opinion on this constitutional provision might not have gone done well with many people in Delhi, that could be the reason, if at all it is true, for this sudden change of heart in the National Capital," senior advocate and constitutional lawyer advocate, Zaffar Shah, said, "He (Vohra) was supposed to be in the role (governor) for some time." According to sources, after Vohra's letter, New Delhi, which was earlier in favour of granting him a six-month extension until the panchayat elections, has actively began looking for his replacement. Vohra first took over as Jammu and Kashmir governor on 26 June, 2008, when the state was in utter turmoil over the transfer of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. He not only handled the extremely challenging tests his administration faced in both the Valley and the Jammu region until September 2008, but also conducted state Assembly elections at the end of the year. Article 35-A, which defines permanent residents of the state and prevents non-locals from buying or owning property in the state, has been challenged by an NGO called 'We the Citizens', and other groups in the Supreme Court. There are apprehensions that its removal through judicial process could lead to a demographic change in the state. The Article, which was added to the Indian Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from imposing a complete ban on the acquisition of immovable property by non-permanent residents of the state, it declares that a non-resident is disqualified for registration in the electoral rolls as a voter and from holding any government job in the state. They can, however, vote in the General Election. Analysts here feel the removal of the Article 35-A could plunge the state which has experienced a running insurgency for the past 30 years into perpetual conflict. They also argue that it would give rise to Kashmiri nationalism as people across the state are in consensus that the Article's removal reopens the 1947 Accession debate again. Civil society members, mainstream politicians and Hurriyat leaders alike have come together in a single voice that any tinkering with the law could lead to mayhem in the state. The elected lawmakers and political parties have already conveyed their angst over the issue to the Centre as the state prepares for a two-day shutdown on 5 and 6 August. "The reason why they want to replace Vohra is because he is not their 'yes-man'. He calls a spade a spade. The BJP tried earlier also to push policy decisions that were against the interests of Jammu and Kashmir, but Vohra stood his ground and didn't budge. At this stage of life, he would not like to be seen as a 'traitor' when he has won hearts in Jammu and Kashmir," said Nasir Aslam Wani, the National Conference leader. After serving Jammu and Kashmir for over a decade that witnessed mostly downs and fewer ups, Vohra, who will be known as an astute administrator, is likely to bid final farewell to his active role immediately after the end of the Amarnath Yatra. Sources said a former Union home secretary is among the contenders for the difficult post. "I think it is likely to happen soon now," Wani added. The Union home ministry had earlier suggested that due to the political uncertainty after the fall of the PDP-BJP coalition government, changing the governor would not be feasible due to the ongoing Amaranth Yatra and upcoming panchayat elections. A group of AAP legislators led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday declared the party's Punjab unit autonomous and dissolved its current organisational structure. Bathinda: In an act of rebellion, a group of AAP legislators led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Thursday declared the party's Punjab unit autonomous and dissolved its current organisational structure. But even while adopting this resolution at a public meeting, Khaira gave a week's time to the leadership in Delhi to review its decision to remove him from the post of Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly. Altogether, eight of the 20 AAP MLAs in Punjab took part in the volunteers' convention called by the Bolath legislator after his removal from the post. The AAP leadership had summoned all Punjab MLAs to Delhi on Thursday to indicate that they were not with Khaira's "anti-party" move. At least 11 of them came to meet the leaders in the capital, party leaders claimed. AAP state unit co-president Balbir Singh said the MLAs and other leaders who attended the Bathinda convention were "misguided" and hoped that they will fall in party line in coming days to strengthen the party. Holding a convention under the banner of Aam Aadmi Party without consulting the state and centre leadership is illegal and the leaders must avoid such activities in future," he said in a statement. The dissidents' convention unanimously resolved that the party's Punjab unit was autonomous, and will take its own decisions. It dissolved the current organisational structure in the state and tasked the dissident MLAs and the convention organisers to frame a new one. One of the resolutions said the existing organisational structure had eroded the AAP's image and its base in the state. The convention flayed Khaira's removal as Leader of Opposition in an "undemocratic way" and rejected Cheema's appointment. Launching a veiled attack on top leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia from the stage he shared with the seven other dissident MLAs, Khaira said, "Punjab cannot be run by remote control." Khaira said he does not accept the "dictatorial" approach adopted by the "subedars". "I can sacrifice hundreds of such posts for the welfare of the people of Punjab," he said, addressing a sizeable gathering of supporters. Khaira proposed forging a third front of like-minded parties to rid Punjab of the Congress and the Akali Dal as they had "ruined the state." "Power and money is in play in Punjab politics today," he said. He said he will start his journey by seeking blessings at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and will visit all 22 districts in the state. Rallies will be organised at various places, he said. He thanked the NRIs for their support in bringing the volunteers together and added that the other major parties are perplexed with the response they were getting. The other MLAs who expressed solidarity with Khaira are Kanwar Sandhu from Kharar, Nazar Singh Mansahia (Mansa), Kulwant Singh (Mehal Kalan), Baldev Singh (Jaitu), Pirmal Singh (Bhadaur), Jagdev Singh Kamalu (Maur) and Jagtar Singh Jagga (Raipur). The party plunged into a crisis in Punjab when Khaira was removed from his post in the Assembly on 26 July. AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu had earlier said 12-13 MLAs were expected to participate in the convention and claimed that the event was meant to "strengthen" the party. However, a tweet posted on AAP Punjab's twitter handle had said, "AAP derives strength from its volunteers, likewise every volunteer has only one hero i.e. Arvind Kejriwal. "No volunteer will support a person who tries to break the emotional thread between Arvind Kejriwal and his army," it said. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the possible prime ministerial candidates of the anti-Modi camp, seems to be moving in the direction of making what was once thought impossible possible. They say politics is the art of the possible. But weaved around that saying are a few improbable no-go areas and political myths: For instance, who can align with whom and what alliances can never be. Lately, several of those myths have been busted with the Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Janata Dal (United)-Rashtriya Janata Dal becoming friends in Bihar (for a while), the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) combine in Karnataka, growing proximity between Congress and Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, Trinamool Congress and the Left shedding their enmity and coming closer. Many such permutations and combinations have emerged in other parts of the country with a singular aim: To stop the onward march of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP or at least create obstacles in their path. Even in this season of political alignments and realignments, the possible coming together of the Shiv Sena (considered blatantly communal by secularists) and the Congress (the supposed fountainhead of secular politics) was considered extremely unlikely. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the possible prime ministerial candidates of the anti-Modi camp, seems to be moving in the direction of making what was once thought impossible possible. That too at a time when a highly-charged political discourse on the second draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, which seeks to identify illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who entered India after 24 March, 1971, yet again brought to the fore Indian politics' secular-communal divide. Mamata is positioning herself to be in the leadership position of the other side of that political divide. Two of the most defining pictures of Mamata's visit to New Delhi on Wednesday were her meeting with Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, the most trusted lieutenant of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and her meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia. Besides discussing fallout of NRC, the purpose of Mamatas meeting with these leaders and a host of others was to invite them to attend a grand Opposition rally on 19 January, 2019, in Kolkata. The rally would sound bugle for 2019 elections against Modi and BJP. Uddhav has accepted Mamata's invite. In any case, the Shiv Sena chief has, for long, been looking for an opportunity to be seen at the high table of the anti-Modi coalition. But until now, an invite remained elusive. Uddhav famously broke ranks with BJP and National Democratic Alliance when Pratibha Patil was presidential candidate in UPA-I and when Pranab Mukherjee was presidential candidate in UPA-II. On a number of occasions, Uddhav and Shiv Sena berated Modi and his policies and even praised Rahul's leadership. But he was not sent any invite by the Congress. To Uddhav's credit, he has been fighting hard to shed the tag of "politically untouchability". Mamata has provided him the opportunity to stand on the podium with so-called secular leaders such as Mayawati, Akhilesh, Tejashwi Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, MK Stalin, Kumaraswamy and so on. But the biggest photo-op of the day, if it occurs on 19 January, would be Thackeray sharing the dais with Rahul, along with a host of other potential UPA-III or hypothetical Federal Front allies. While Congress has not confirmed whether Rahul and Sonia will attend the rally, the hype is already building. It would be difficult for the Gandhis to stay away from the venue where other anti-Modi parties will make Mamatas new found slogan "Dui hajaar uneesh (2019), BJP finish" as their theme song for parliamentary election. If Rahul and Uddhav share the dais with Sharad Pawar in Kolkata then it will set off even more speculation: of whether the Congress-Shiv Sena and NCP can come together in Maharastra to take on the BJP. It is possible that the Maharastra Assembly elections will be held along with the parliamentary polls in April or May 2019. By greeting Uddhav on his birthday on 27 July through Twitter Best wishes to Shri Uddhav Thackeray ji, on his birthday. I wish him good health and happiness always Rahul indicated he has softened on Uddhav and is not averse to engaging with him. In politics, extending social courtesies are not entirely meaningless. Assam TMC president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned in protest against Mamata's stand on NRC. An eight-member Trinamool Congress (TMC) party delegation continues to remain inside the Silchar Airport over seven hours after they landed in the Bengali-dominated Barak valley to meet the people excluded from the final National Register of Citizens published by the state government. "They have sought time for discussions with their leader on their next course of action," Director General of Police (DGP) Kuladhar Saikia said. The delegation, including six TMC MPs, an MLA and a West Bengal minister, was restricted inside the Kumbhirgram airport, and was later taken into preventive detention as Section 144 of the CrPC was in force in Cachar district, Assam Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Agarwal said. Subsequently, the TMC leaders were also barred from entering Guwahati in accordance with an order issued by city police commissioner Hiren Nath. The TMC team is in Silchar at the instruction of party chief Mamata Banerjee to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the NRC. After the TMC leaders arrived at the airport, the district administration and police officials explained to them that they would not be allowed to come out as prohibitory orders were in force. However, the TMC leaders insisted on carrying out the visit and challenged the grounds on which the police stopped them from leaving the airport. Following this, a scuffle broke out between the police personnel and the TMC leaders. While party members alleged that the police manhandled and assaulted them, the Assam police also claimed that some personnel were injured in the scuffle. Two women constables and a male officer of Assam Police were injured during a scuffle with the TMC leaders, the police said. Some of the members of the Trinamool team, including the party's women leaders Arpita Ghosh, Mahua Moitra, Mamata Bala Thakur and Kakali Ghosh Gastidar, also received injuries, a member of the delegation said. The authorities had already explained to the TMC team on Wednesday that prohibitory orders were in force and that it should not visit Silchar and disturb peace when it had informed the district administration of its visit to the Bengali-dominated town on Thursday to address meetings, he said. "But the team members did not respond cordially and engaged in a scuffle with the security forces and other government staff. Two Assam policewomen constables and a civil staff were injured," Saikia said. TMC members barred from entering Guwahati Guwahati Police Commissioner Nath, in an order, said the TMC MPs, MLAs and any other political and non-political persons, who might deliver inflammatory speeches against the NRC, were prohibited from entering the city and address any gathering without the permission of the competent authority. Also, no passenger carrier, including surface or air transport, would carry such persons to the area under the Guwahati police commissionerate, the order said. The police commissioner stated that it was feared that the TMC leaders were likely to make controversial or inflammatory speeches in Guwahati, which might disturb peace and harmony in the commissionerate area. He said it was brought to his notice that after the publication of the draft NRC, TMC leaders had made inflammatory and controversial statements and speeches in West Bengal and were planning to address a press conference and group meetings in Guwahati on Friday. TMC faces rebellion in Assam over stand on NRC Assam TMC president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned in protest against Mamata's stand on NRC. Pathak's resignation came within hours of the delegation arriving in the state. Diganta Saikia, a TMC leader from Golaghat and who was among the three to resign, even threatened to file a case against Mamata for taking an anti-Assamese stand. The ruling BJP, as well as other parties in Assam, said the TMC had no existence in the Barak valley. Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters in Guwahati that he had apprised the party leaders of the 'ground realities' in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the NRC and urged Mamata not to send the delegation to the northeastern state now. "The party did not pay heed to my suggestion and refused to understand the ground situation here. In this backdrop, it is not possible for me to remain in a party that does not value the Assamese sentiment," Pathak, who was a TMC MLA from 2011 to 2016, said. "The TMC has no existence in Assam," he added. TMC leader Pradip Pachani of Sibsagar and Saikia resigned, saying they could not remain members of a party that wanted to compromise the identity of the indigenous Assamese people. Effigies of Mamata were burnt in Charaideo and Sonitpur districts in the Brahmaputra Valley by students' organisations, who warned the TMC supremo and her party not to 'meddle in Assam.' Mamata's effigies were burnt by the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Parishad, Asomiya Yuva Sanmilani and All Tai Ahom Students' Union, the police said. Congress MLA from the Karimganj (North) constituency in Barak valley Kamalakhya De Purkayastha spoke against the turning away of the TMC delegates at the airport. "The TMC has many wrong notions about the NRC and they (delegates) should have been allowed to come here, so that their misconceptions about the draft were cleared," he said. "We do not want the prevailing peace in Barak Valley to be disturbed at any cost. But turning the TMC delegates away from the airport was not a right thing to do," he said. Most political parties in the Barak valley too maintained that there was no sense of panic among the people and that Banerjee was "trying to use the issue to gain a political entry to Assam". State Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, who represents the Dholai constituency in the valley, said Banerjee was trying to "mislead and create confusion here, but the people have ignored it". "She has no idea about the ground realities in Assam and is trying to complicate the issue...The TMC has no existence in Barak Valley and they are trying to use the NRC to make an entry as well as gain political mileage," he added. Former BJP MP Kabindra Purkayastha said, "We are at a loss to understand why the TMC delegation wants to come to Assam when the people are not complaining." There was no confusion or panic among the people as they were aware that they could make claims and seek corrections to the NRC, he said, adding that moreover, the TMC should be aware that the NRC was updated under the Supreme Court's supervision and the government had no hand in it. A senior police officer said the situation in the Barak Valley and the rest of Assam was peaceful and no NRC-related incident was reported so far. "The people of the state are aware that this is not the final NRC list, but its final draft," he added. Issue resonates in Parliament After the three-day furore over the draft NRC, normalcy appeared to return in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday as Zero Hour and Question Hour ran smoothly but the issue again erupted in the post-lunch session after party MPs raised the issue of TMC delegation being detained in Assam. The Upper House was scheduled to take up a short-duration discussion on the "recent increase in MSP for kharif crops and challenges in agriculture", to be initiated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah during the post-lunch session. As soon as Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu called for taking up the debate, TMC's Derek O'Brien rose and demanded a statement from Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the detention of the party delegation in Assam and alleged manhandling of party MPs on the delegation. Meanwhile, TMC members trooped near the Chairman's podium and started sloganeering. In Lok Sabha, the issue was raised by party MP Saugata Ray who said that the issue pertained to the rights of the members, as it was a breach of their privilege. Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, who was in the chair, said that he would convey their sentiments to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Roy later said that the "freedom of MPs has been eroded by Assam government" and that he would give a privilege notice on the issue. BJP, TMC spar over issue While the TMC accused Assam government of showing muscle power and imposing "super Emergency", the BJP hit back at the West Bengal's ruling party for trying to incite violence in the state. The Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that the draft NRC published in Assam is the "central government's political vendetta to oust real Indians from the country". Claiming that her party lawmakers had gone to Assam only to meet the "victims" whose names have been left out NRC, she wondered if stopping the delegation was part of the BJP's "vendetta to suppress the real facts in Assam". Banerjee said: "This is the beginning of their end. They are frustrated, they are politically tensed. That's why they are only showing their muscle power." Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP leaders accused Mamata of sending a delegation to Assam to foment trouble in the state. Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Dilip Ghosh claimed that the Trinamool delegation went to Assam to provoke tension in the region and possibly to fuel a "civil war" on the lines of their party supremo Mamata Banerjee's comments. "No one asked them to go to Assam. Why did they go there? Their party chief Mamata Banerjee said a civil war will start in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list but Assam has been peaceful so far. May be the Trinamool team went there to start a civil war," Ghosh alleged. He refuted the Trinamool leaders' claims of being manhandled by the Assam Police and supported their detention at the airport, saying Bengal's ruling party is being given a dose of its own medicine. "No one has been beaten up. Police did the right thing by detaining them at the airport. All of them should be sent straight back to Kolkata," he said. "The party that did not let the West Bengal Governor visit Asansol after communal clashes erupted there, those who stopped me and my fellow BJP MPs from going to Bengal's Dhulagarh after the unrest... how can they expect that they will be allowed to move freely anywhere and say anything?" he questioned. The Assam government published the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on 30 July which included names of 2.89 crore people but kept over 40 lakh people out of the document due to some discrepancies. Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government on the NRC list and alleged that it was "a global issue and not just an issue of Assam or India". With inputs from PTI It was an eventful day in both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, as the Lok Sabha saw the Centre and Opposition sparring over the National Citizen's Register (NRC) in Assam, and the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day after disruptions during Amit Shah's speech. The Monsoon Session of Parliament saw heated proceedings in both Houses on Wednesday, with the government and Opposition sparring in the Lok Sabha over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft release in Assam, while the Rajya Sabha was adjourned following several disruptions during BJP president Amit Shah's speech. On Thursday, Parliament is likely to continue discussions on key topics such as NRC, Doka La dispute, among several other bills. The BJP has issued a three-line whip to its Lok Sabha MPs for Thursday and Friday, ANI reported. On Wednesday, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, asking to "conduct a survey in Delhi too (like NRC) as a large number of Rohingya and foreign intruders are residing in Delhi and many of them have also attained Aadhaar and ration cards", the news agency ANI wrote. Restoration of the SC/ST law The Union Cabinet on Wednesday agreed to a bill to restore the original provisions of a law preventing atrocities against Dalits and tribals, consenting to a key demand of Dalit groups ahead of their call for a 'Bharat Bandh' on 9 August, a top government source said. The bill to restore the original provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act will be brought in Parliament, he said. Doka La On Wednesday, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha that the main objective of the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping at Wuhan was to ensure mutual comfort, mutual understanding and mutual trust between the two leaders and all the three objectives have been achieved. "We have resolved the Doka La issue with diplomatic maturity without losing any ground. There is no change in the status quo (on the ground). There is not an iota of change," she said during Question Hour. "The face-off at sight has been resolved on 28 August 2017." Increase in MSP for Kharif crops PRS Legislative reported that the Rajya Sabha is likely to discuss the recent increase in MSP for Kharif crops. The Centre, in July, had decided to radically increase the minimum support price (MSP) for Kharif crops as a move to fulfill its Budget promise and address farmers' concerns about the cost of crops. However, some farmers' outfits expressed displeasure at the modifications, claiming that the hike for paddy, especially did not match the claims of the BJP government which had promised a greater increase. Bills that are listed to be discussed in Lok Sabha The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, The National Sports University Bill, 2018, The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, The National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, MoneyControl reported. Bills that are likely to be discussed in the Rajya Sabha: The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018, The National Council for Teacher Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018. Congress leader AM Singhvi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's definition of 'disruption' in when Opposition parties raise issues about the BJP government New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "definition" of disruption is that the Opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees. Congress spokesperson and senior leader AM Singhvi, when asked for his comments on the prime minister's remarks about disruptions in Parliament, said the whole nation knows that the Houses were running perfectly without interruption. Modi, while speaking at an event at the central hall of Parliament, said, "Sadly, when there is noise and chaos in the House, MPs are not able to speak and the loss is of the entire nation." "Government has the least to lose due to din in Parliament. It is the country which loses the most," the prime minister said. The Congress leader said, "Indeed, last time in the last session, the sabotage and the interruption came from the government when the no-confidence was to be moved. This time there was absolutely no disruption, but the prime minister's definition of disruption is that the opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees." "We are raising the issue, not of NRC (Assam's National Register of Citizens), but of exclusion of genuine Indian citizens, Hindus and Muslims alike. Now, if you don't like that issue you cannot say why the House is disrupted...you did not allow proper discussion," Singhvi told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. He said the Congress was "very much for" genuine Indian citizens to be included and "non-genuine non-citizens" to be excluded in Assam's NRC, but that does not mean that "there is arbitrary exclusion". Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC was published in Guwahati earlier this week. Opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) has stalled the functioning of the Rajya Sabha for two days over the issue. Mamata Banerjee's repeated inflammatory remarks on the National Register of Citizens may destabilise a sensitive issue. Mamata Banerjee is playing with fire. As a serving chief minister and a senior political leader with a rising national profile, her words carry weight. And also consequences. In the political controversy over publishing of the second National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, she finds an opportunity to strengthen TMCs foothold beyond West Bengal into Assam. She should be careful. Her repeated inflammatory and irresponsible remarks may destabilise a sensitive issue that lies at the crossroads of a long-standing socio-economic and ethno-cultural tension between Indias smaller indigenous communities in the North East and illegal migrants from Bangladesh who have trooped into the country on a massive scale for over a half a century. Unchecked and sustained infiltration has raised both demographic and national security challenges. Scholars have pointed out that insurgency movements in North East, especially Assam, 'rose on a response to illegal immigration' and the large-scale infiltration of chiefly Muslim immigrants has given rise to Pakistans ISI-sponsored Islamist militancy in the state (The Contours of Assam Insurgency by Dinesh Kotwal, Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis). In their March 2016 paper, 'Socio-Economic and Political Consequence of Illegal Migration into Assam from Bangladesh', professors J Das and D Talukdar wrote: The flow of immigrants started during the rule of the British and continues till today due to the pull and push factors. The deportation of illegal migrants becomes difficult due to the lack of strong law and political will, as illegal migrants are used as a vote bank by different political parties. The data provided in the study indicates that if necessary steps are not taken immediately, Assam, the elder sister of North East India would lose its identity from the map of India very soon. Sanjay Bhardwaj, Assistant Professor, Centre for South Asian Studies, JNU, points out in his paper for CLAWS Journal citing various sources that the growth rates of the Muslim population, according to the 2001 census, are the highest precisely in the districts that share a border with, or lie close to the border with Bangladesh, for example, in Assam, this is particularly in Dhubri, Barpeta, Karimganj, and Hailakandi. The 1998 report on 'Illegal Migration in Assam' submitted to the President of India by the then Assam Governor Lt Gen SK Sinha pointed out that the Muslim population of Assam has shown a rise of 77.42 percent in 1991 from what it was in 1971. The Hindu population has risen by nearly 41.89 percent in this period As per the 1991 census, four districts (Dhubri, Goalpara, Barpeta and Hailakandi) have become Muslim-majority districts. Two more districts (Nowgaon and Karimganj) should have become so by 1998 and one district (Morigaon) is fast approaching this population. The Assam Governor report also shed light on the historical background of infiltration, mentioned the case for 'lebensraum' (living space) made by Bangladesh politicians and intellectuals, and held as contributing factors the action of some political parties '(who) have been encouraging and even helping illegal migration, with a view to building vote banks.' The prolonged infiltration and subsequent demographic changes sparked an existential fear among Assams Ahoms, Bodos, Koch Rajbonshis, Santhalas, Kukis and many other smaller tribes and communities, and in the 1970s, a prolonged, grassroot-level student agitation in Assam took shape that resulted in the loss of over a hundred lives. It eventually led to the signing of the Assam Accord between the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government in 1985 and leaders of the Assam movement. The Accord holds that all illegal aliens who entered the state between January 1966 and March 1971 would be disenfranchised for ten years, and those who came after March 1971 would be deported. In the Sarbananda Sonowal versus Union of India case in 2005, a three-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices RC Lahoti, GP Mathur and PK Balasubramanyan had observed that: 22. The dangerous consequences of large scale illegal migration from Bangladesh, both for the people of Assam and more for the nation as a whole, need to be emphatically stressed. No misconceived and mistaken notions of secularism should be allowed to come in the way of doing so. 23. As a result of population movement from Bangladesh, the spectre looms large of the indigenous people of Assam being reduced to a minority in their home State. Their cultural survival will be in jeopardy, their political control will be a weakened and their employment opportunities will be undermined. Further, the Supreme Court also observed that: (5.8) Foreigners who came to Assam on or after 25 March, 1971 shall continue to be detected, deleted and expelled in accordance with law. Immediate and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners. In his seminal book 'Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India (Princeton University Press, 08-Mar-2015)', American scholar Myron Weiner whose area of expertise included internal and international migration, ethnic conflict, political demography, among others pointed out that if we accept the 1891 census estimate that one-fourth of the population of the Brahmaputra Valley was then of migrant origin, we can estimate that the migrant population (and its descendants) in 1971 was more like 8.5 million, as against an 'indigenous' population of 6.5 million. It is in this context that the Supreme Court in 2013 ordered an upgradation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) to detect cases of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The process of verification was held between May 2015 and 31 August, 2015, involving 3.29 crore people and included house-to-house field verification, determination of authenticity of documents, family tree investigations in order to rule out bogus claims of parenthood and linkages and separate hearings for married women. Such an elaborate, painstaking arrangement to scrutinise and quantify the alien population in Assam, that carries judicial sanction, was preceded by a sustained, organic mass movement. The exercise is necessary for national security and preserving the identity and social fabric of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic state that has fallen prey to a campaign of petty politics, obfuscation and deliberate misinformation. Speaking to the media outside the Parliament building on Wednesday, the West Bengal chief minister claimed the NRC will destroy relationship between India and Bangladesh. Out of 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list of NRC, only 1 percent could be illegal infiltrators. Mamata had earlier warned of a 'bloodbath' and civil war in the country over NRC and conflated an issue of illegal migration of aliens with free movement of Indian citizens across India. If Bengalis say Biharis can't stay in Bengal, South Indian people say North Indians can't stay there and North Indians say South Indians can't stay here. What will be state of this country, because we are together. Our country is a family: WB CM Mamata Banerjee in #Delhi pic.twitter.com/c0sf5GZ2nr ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2018 There were people who have Aaadhar cards and passports but still their names are not in the draft list. Names of people were removed on the basis of surnames also. Is the Govt trying to do forceful eviction?: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/AmMfo46kDQ ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2018 Mamata also claimed that 'people are being isolated through a game plan Its a plan to throw out Bengali speaking people and Biharis.' BSP chief Mayawati has joined in. She claimed that the publication of NRC that vetted 1.9 crore citizens in the first draft and 2.89 crore in the second (out of 3.29 crore applicants) is 'anarth', and a catastrophe that would bring more grief to the minorities and the disadvantaged in an election year. The debate over NRC is spurious. Nobody has said that this is the final draft, and no one has said that those whose names have not found mention in the second draft will be 'forcefully evicted'. The BJP has clarified its stand. Party president Amit Shah has said that the second draft isnt final, there will be enough opportunities for objections and cross-verifications. Names of only those who have not been able to prove their citizenship have been kept out. It is to be noted that under the Foreigners Act, the burden of proof for citizenship lies on the persons claiming to be a citizen. Union home minister Rajnath Singh has said that it isnt a final draft. Assam chief minister Sonowal and the state home ministry has clarified that 'based on this draft, no reference case will be sent to the foreigners' tribunal or put in a detention centre. An NRC co-ordinator has told The Indian Express in an interview that people will get another chance to prove their credentials. Then we will come out with a final NRC. The NRC process will be over then. Even after that, whether a person is an illegal migrant or not is something that can be decided only by judicial scrutiny and that is through a certain set of codes, which has been established in Assam called the Foreigners Tribunal. Finally, the Supreme Court has said that those excluded from the list 'must get a fair chance' and the draft cannot form the basis of coercive action. What, then, is the fuss all about? The political storm created by some cynical leaders is an attempt to muddy the waters where fishing for minority votes becomes easier. Take Mamatas revolving stance. In 2005, as TMC chief, she led the charge against Bangladeshi immigrants entering the state of West Bengal and accused the Left Front government of making them part of the voters list. To mark her protest, she had thrown a sheaf of papers at the deputy Speaker, and later sent her resignation through an officer of the House. The Congress has been caught on a sticky wicket, unable to extricate its name from the authorship of the Assam Accord or NRC draft. It has resorted to technicalities to create obstructions in the process and appears to be walking a tightrope. Its difficulties wont cease with the news that a Wikileaks cable caught Sonia Gandhi vowing to amend the Foreigners Act to create a backdoor entry for illegal aliens. As reported by Yatish Yadav in Firstpost, the cable, 'dated 16 February 2006, authored by a US consulate officer in Kolkata had alleged that then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, campaigning for the May 2006 state Assembly election in Assam, in a brazen appeal to the Muslims, offered to amend the Foreigners Act to prevent deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.' These positions are unfortunate but not inexplicable. The political process in India is now a perfection of the art of subverting democracy, and not even national security or sovereignty are off the table in exchange for votes. The TMC, BSP, or Congress, for instance, sense in the struggle for Assams identity an opportunity to consolidate their minority vote banks. For Mamata, there is the added incentive of extending TMCs reach in Assam by tapping into the Muslim vote bank and squeezing Congress or AIUDFs space. Her ambition arises out the sense of security that she feels about her position in Bengal. 2019 isnt far away and her eyes are fixed firmly on the prime ministers chair. Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav met senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal on Thursday. Bhopal: Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav met senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh in Bhopal on Thursday. Yadav did not elaborate the issues discussed in these meetings but stressed that the common aim was to ensure votes did not get divided in favour of the BJP. He met Nath at the latter's Shyamala Hills residence while the meeting with Singh took place at the VIP Guest House in Bhopal. "It was more of an apolitical meeting. But there is a need to ensure that division of votes does not take place and for that we are working with everyone," Yadav told reporters. Nath called it a fruitful meeting and said that division of votes should not happen as that was advantageous to the BJP. Replying to a query on the number of seats the Congress was willing to give probable allies in the Assembly polls slated for later this year, Nath said that what was more important was to stop the BJP from winning. "It is not a question of the number of seats. More important is to stop the BJP from coming to power and end its divisive politics. The criteria is winnability. Our aim is (to forge) an alliance and we are working in that direction," Nath said. Yadav also met former state party president Arun Yadav and shared the dais with like-minded leaders and Congress leaders (Sandeep Dikshit) during his day-long visit to the state. A native of Hoshangabad district in MP, Yadav got elected to the Lok Sabha two times from Jabalpur. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday announced that he will stage a demonstration at the national capital later this week in protest against 'heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur'. Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday announced that he will stage a demonstration at the national capital later this week in protest against "heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur". Yadav, who is the leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, urged "all to attend" the dharna at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, 4 August. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur sponsored and protected by Nitish government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday, 4 August at Jantar Mantar. Request all to attend", the RJD heir apparent tweeted. Yadav has been attacking the Nitish Kumar government over the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal involving sexual abuse of more than 30 girls. Although it was not known which other parties or leaders would be joining the proposed dharna, party sources said Yadav was likely to rope in Congress president Rahul Gandhi with whom he has come to share a good rapport in recent times. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal may also make an appearance at the RJD leader's dharna as he retweeted a post by a journalist which read "so @ArvindKejriwal will also join the Muzaffarpur rape protest organized by @yadavtejashwi at Jantar Mantar". Derek O'Brien alleged that Assam Police personnel at the Silchar airport 'roughed up' the TMC's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, and said that a 'super emergency' was on. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien on Thursday alleged that Assam Police personnel at the Silchar airport 'roughed up' the party's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, and said that a 'super Emergency' was on. He was reacting to the news of a six-member TMC delegation being detained at the airport as a 'precautionary measure.' The delegation was seeking to visit Assam to look into the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Speaking to the media, O'Brien said, "The situation at present is like a super Emergency... The TMC leaders did not go there to break the law. They are lawmakers, not law-breakers." He further said that the leaders even agreed to visit the city in groups of two, but were not allowed to do so. He also said, "When the delegation reached the airport, the director-general of police (DGP) and other police officials were waiting for it. The members of the delegation was not even allowed to leave the airport." Speaking about the party's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha being 'roughed up,' O'Brien said, "The police action took place even though he is a heart patient and has a pacemaker." The TMC delegation, including six MPs were kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport in Cachar district under Barak Valley region, official sources told PTI. The Cachar district administration on Wednesday night issued prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. The TMC team went there at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee has been accusing the BJP-led Central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and saying that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land. Follow LIVE updates on the Assam NRC row here. tech2 News Staff Social media is widely understood as a platform for freedom of expression. Among the many mediums it offers us to say what we think, is emojis, which are basically the animated version of our thoughts and words. While with every update, the emoji lexicon seems to be getting more elaborate and inclusive, two women have raised a pertinent issue, which we probably only had in our head and never said it out loud. Why is the only bathing suit available in the emoji lexicon a polka-dot bikini? Where's the one piece & coverup swimsuit emoji...my summer body hasn't come in yet Milley (@ThatsSoShaDae) April 13, 2017 I hate that theres no one-piece swimsuit emoji on the iPhone. No one wants to wear that pink bikini. jenni avins (@jenniavins) June 5, 2015 They should put a one piece swimsuit emoji for us swimmers Swimmer Forever (@swimm_probs) November 26, 2013 Florie Hutchinson and Jennifer Lee, you can probably call them emoji activists, have proposed to add more options for women to express themselves, and expanding the digital wardrobe of women users is seen as a first step. In doing this emoji proposal I learned one/piece bathing suites are called maillots. https://t.co/oT1P4R0gV1 Jennifer 8. Lee (@jenny8lee) July 31, 2018 Isn't it about time we had an alternative to the itsy-bitsy bikini emoji? The woman who brought us the flat shoe icon is on to another gap in the glyph lexicon -https://t.co/wm86TLYBQl Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) July 31, 2018 I have worn them. But not every woman or girl wants to wear one, and they should have the ability to make another choice, Hutchinson told NYTimes. Not to be mistaken this as a repel against a bikini, because this argument is not against a bikini, but in favour of women who may not identify with a two piece swimwear as their beach look. The idea behind the proposal is to be inclusive of women who would maybe want to just go for a simple sporty one-piece swimsuit. The two said that the one-piece swimwear emoji will encourage body positivity and female expression. Although, there is a parallel argument that with the bikini, the clothing has been unnecessarily sexualized. While Unicode Consortium, the forum that oversees the entire dictionary of emoji lexicon, is mulling over the proposal, everyone on the internet and in the industry are not convinced with the idea. Reportedly, two members of the International Organization for Standardization have expressed skepticism about the need for an additional swimsuit emoji. Why? A person wanting to indicate the use of swimwear cant use the existing BIKINI? Is this really necessary? What about a Victorian bathing costume? Or a wetsuit? Or water wings? Do not encode, one of the members recommends to the emoji sub-committee. Though the coders have nudged off the proposal, twitterati has come in full support of the idea. The fact there's no one-piece swimsuit emoji tells me there's not many 40+ women designing emojis. Darlin Darla (@Darlainky) July 12, 2017 Male coders vs. the swimsuit emoji https://t.co/udWzlsdotj Taryana Odayar (@Taryana_Odayar) August 1, 2018 Absolutely Agree with the idea.https://t.co/i4khOh3yCE varun sharma (@varunquotes) August 2, 2018 Its "a failure of theory of mind with regard to emoji: How could anyone want an emoji that I find useless or redundant? But I think its a subtle sign of the dearth of empathy in part of society @jenny8lee on fight (w/ @floriehutch) for better emoji https://t.co/Se2OJq34PD Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (@rasmus_kleis) August 1, 2018 What are your thoughts about the whole proposal? Do you think being able to relate to emojis, which has become a language in itself, is important, or do you think this argument is unnecessary? Let us know in the comments below. tech2 News Staff Blackberry Evolve and Evolve X were launched in India today at a price which starts at Rs 24,990 and Rs 34,990, respectively. Both the phones will be available exclusively on Amazon.in. While the Blackberry Evolve X will be available from the end of August, the Evolve will be available from mid-September.There are a number of launch offers up for grabs including a cashback of Rs 3,950 from Reliance Jio. Other offers include a 5 percent cashback for ICICI bank credit card holders on EMI transactions. This will also include additional launch benefits. Blackberry Evolve X The Evolve X fits a 6 GB RAM with 64 GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 2 TB using the microSD slot. Inside it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset. The device boasts of a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with a 18:9 aspect ratio and is protected by a 2.5 D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. While smartphones these days are trying to latch on to the almost bezel-less trend, both the Evolve X and Evolve come with chubby strips both on top and bottom of the display. On top of the display is a 16 MP front-facing camera with a 'selfie flash' while on the back it boasts a 12 MP+13 MP dual camera setup vertically placed near a dual-tone LED flash. The camera also comes equipped with a live bokeh mode. The phone is powered by a 4,000 mAh battery and is equipped with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 as well as wireless charging. Blackberry Evolve The more affordable of the two, the BlackBerry Evolve packs 4 GB RAM with 64 GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 256 GB using the microSD slot. It runs on an octa-core chipset and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor, clocked at 1.8 GHz. Boasting a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display and an 18:9 aspect ratio, the Evolve is also protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. On top of the display is a 16 MP front-facing camera with a 'selfie flash'. On the rear, it boasts a 13 MP+13 MP dual camera setup vertically placed near a dual-tone LED flash. The device comes powered by 4,000 mAh battery and is equipped with quick charge. In both Evolve X and Evolve, below the camera unit is a fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. These devices also support facial recognition to unlock phones and can save up to 3 face datasets. The sensors available in the phone are proximity sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope and a magnetometer while both handsets are powered by Android Oreo 8.1. Reuters Alphabets Google plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites and search terms, two sources said, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns. The plan comes even as China has stepped up scrutiny into business dealings involving US tech firms including Facebook, Apple and Qualcomm amid intensifying trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Google, which quit Chinas search engine market in 2010, has been actively seeking ways to re-enter China where many of its products are blocked by regulators. The Intercept earlier reported Googles China plans on 1 August, citing internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. The project is code-named Dragonfly and has been underway since the spring of 2017, the news website said. Progress on the project picked up after a December meeting between Googles chief executive Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, it added. Search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app, which The Intercept said had already been demonstrated to the Chinese government. The finalised version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials, it added. Chinese state-owned Securities Times, however, said reports of the return of Googles search engine to China were not true, citing information from relevant departments. But a Google employee familiar with the censored version of the search engine confirmed to Reuters that the project was alive and genuine. On an internal message board, the employee wrote: In my opinion, it is just as bad as the leak article mentions. The worker, who declined to be named, said that he had seen slides on the effort and that many executives at the vice president level were aware of it. He said he had transferred out of his unit to avoid being involved. Separately, a Chinese official with knowledge of the plans said that Google has been in contact with authorities at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) about a modified search program. The official, who declined to be named, said the project does not currently have approval from authorities and that it is very unlikely such a project would be made available this year. Google declined to comment on the accounts and the CAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters on Thursday. A day earlier, the search giant also declined to comment on specifics mentioned in The Intercept report, but noted that it has launched a number of mobile apps in China and works with local developers as part of maintaining its domestic presence. But the report pummeled shares of US-listed Baidu, which dominates Chinas search engine market. Baidu shares fell 7.7 percent on Wednesday, despite posting better than expected quarterly results. Googles main search platform is blocked in China along with its video platform YouTube, but it has been attempting to make new inroads into China. In January, the search engine joined an investment in Chinese live-stream mobile game platform Chushou, and earlier this month, launched an artificial intelligence (AI) game on Tencent Holdings Ltds social media app WeChat. Reports of its possible re-entry spurred a strong reaction on Chinese social media outlets on Wednesday evening, including debates over the merits of a censored search engine versus accessing the US version through illegal virtual private networks. Lets carry on jumping the Firewall, said one anonymous poster. Id rather not have it than use a castrated version. tech2 News Staff Google plans to launch a censored version of its search engine in China which will block some websites and search terms, and finally return to the countrys market after being abandoned eight years ago due to issues regarding censorship. The move, however, has been condemned by politicians, Google users and mostly by Google employees. First reported by The Intercept, the project is code-named Dragonfly and has been underway since the spring of 2017. The project progressed after Googles chief executive Sundar Pichai had a meeting with a top Chinese government official this last December. While Google hasnt yet officially communicated about the authenticity of the report, a representative from the company told the Business Insider that, We don't comment on speculation about future plans, which does not sound like a denial of the report. According to a report by the news publication, Google employees are confused and angry, and apparently, on a chat group used by a few Googlers, one of the employees has called the situation "the new Maven." This is in reference to the recent controversy when Google employees were furious over the companys project with the US Department of Defense on drone software, a venture dubbed Project Maven. More than 3,000 employees had signed a letter to the companys CEO Sundar Pichai, demanding that deal is scrapped. The Defence Department project which was to be used for analysing drone footage using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, was feared by the employees. They thought that the technology had the potential to and could help target people for death. Google later announced that it would not renew a contract with the Department of Defense and that it would never build artificial-intelligence tools for weapons or programs that could cause harm. It also said that it will draft new ethical standards to guide the companys use of technology and products. US Senator for Florida, Marco Rubio condemned Google in a tweet and saying that reading how Google has plans to help China set up a censored search engine is very disturbing. He, however, doesnt appreciate that the company dropped Project Maven. He said, they wont help the Department of Defense keep us safe but they will help China suppress the truth? Giving benefit of the doubt until we learn more. But reading how @Google has plans to help #China set up a censored search engine is very disturbing. They wont help @DeptofDefense keep us safe but they will help China suppress the truth? https://t.co/S0X3VemOIT Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 1, 2018 If Dragonfly is for real, then we could expect another revolt within the organization. The Intercept reports reveals, that search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app. However, in a recent update on 2 August, an updated report published by Reuters revealed that the return of Googles search engine to China was not true. On the contrary, US-listed Baidu, which is Chinas most dominant search engine was reported to have seen a dip in shares as they fell 7.7 percent on 1 August, despite posting better than expected quarterly results. There is no clear confirmation or denial of the report, but whatever it is, a false alarm or a yet another mass revolt within the company, we will know for sure in the coming days. Prez Trump says he thinks "well be able to" get the FIRST STEP Act passed into law | Main | "The Digital Wilderness: A Decade of Exile & the False Hopes of Lester Packingham" August 2, 2018 Senators Orrin Hatch and Tom Cotton proposing Johnson fix to expand reach of Armed Career Criminal Act As detailed in this press release, "Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced The Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act of 2018, legislation that will protect Americans from the most violent, repeat offenders." Here is part of the release: True criminal justice reform includes giving prosecutors the tools they need to seek enhanced penalties against the worst repeat offenders, said Hatch. Prosecutors lost one of those tools three years ago when the Supreme Court ruled that a provision of the Armed Career Criminal Act was unconstitutionally vague. Criminals released early from prison as a result of that decision have gone on to commit heinous crimes, including the murder of three innocent Utahns. Our bill will bring much-needed clarity to the law while empowering prosecutors to pursue justice.... The National Association of Police Organizations offered their full support for this bill. In addition, the National Sheriffs Association has written a letter of support with over 3,000 elected sheriffs nationwide. Click here to read the full letter.... Originally passed by a unanimous vote in the House and Senate in 1984, the Armed Career Criminal Act requires a minimum 15-year prison sentence for felons convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm who have three prior state or federal convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses, which must have been committed on three different occasions. These are the worst-of-the worst, career criminals. The ACCA defines serious drug offenses as those punishable by imprisonment for 10 years or more. It defines violent felonies [in three ways, one of which was declared by the Supreme Court in Johnson] unconstitutionally vague and thus effectively void.... The Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act of 2018 would do away with the concepts of violent felony and serious drug offense and replace them with a single category of serious felony. A serious felony would be any crime punishable by 10 years or more. By defining serious felony solely based on the potential term of imprisonment, the bill would address the vagueness issue and remove any discretion or doubt about which offenses qualify. The bill would give federal prosecutors an additional tool to go after the most dangerous, career criminals and would not apply to low-level offenders. Specifically, the ACCA would still apply only in a case where a felon who possesses a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g) has previously been convicted three times of serious felonies, which must have been committed on different occasions. I noted in this post that the Armed Career Criminal Act is long overdue for a fix, but the solution presented here strikes me as problematic because it expands the reach of a severe mandatory minimum and still has ACCA's reach turn on prior offense definitions. Statutory mandatory minimums are always clunky, and all that may be needed to effectively achieve ACCA's goals would be to raise the applicable maximum terms for illegal gun possession by those with three or more felony convictions. Judges could and would then use the US Sentencing Commission's guidelines, rather than the fortuity of some prior offense definitions, to determine who are truly the 'worst-of-the worst, career criminals" that should be imprisoned for decades. Prior related post: "Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks Calling for a Legislative Fix to the Armed Career Criminal Act" August 2, 2018 at 12:51 AM | Permalink Comments even "punishable by 10 years" will engender litigation and uncertainty, as CA4's Simmons/Harp debacle shows. does it mean that this particular D was punishable by 10 years? the D with the least aggravated record? the most aggravated? what about states with Guidelines systems that allow for upward departures/variances? states where the heightened maximum was available only if P filed a prior felony information? the most litigation-free measure (and the best measure of culpability, as determined in the prior state proceedings) is the actual sentence imposed. Posted by: hgd | Aug 2, 2018 10:10:52 AM Here are some examples of non-violent crimes carrying more than a ten year max in federal court; mail fraud, wire fraud, illegal reentry (just being here). Posted by: defendergirl | Aug 2, 2018 2:47:04 PM Putting aside federal courts where sentence roughly equals actually time served, a bigger problem from a practical perspective is state courts. A lot of states have rather broad sentencing ranges in which the sentence imposed has only a loose relation to the time actually served (which in turn leads to pressure for parole restrictions on certain offenses). Punishable seems to be pretty straightforward and looks to the maximum penalty under the authorized range of punishment. However, there will undoubtedly be some issues about the applicable range of punishment that will need to be sorted out by the courts. My hunch (which could be wrong) is that the Supreme Court will apply an Apprendi-type analysis. If a fact needs to be found by the jury (or admitted to in a plea) before the defendant is eligible for a particular range of punishment then the offense is only punishable by the enhanced range if that fact is actually found. (Unless the enhanced range is based on a prior offense in which case it has to be found by the judge to trigger the higher range of punishment.) If the fact is merely something for the judge to consider in determining the appropriate punishment and does not need to be found beyond a reasonable doubt, then the potential higher punishment is part of the range of punishment. However, basing it on the range of punishment leads to some weird results as state legislatures do not necessarily create a logical ranking of the seriousness of offenses -- particular in terms of always having a higher sentencing range for the type of offense that would suggest a risk of future violence. In my state using a weapon to cause physical injury or recklessly causing a serious physical injury In my state, the following offenses have a maximum punishment of exactly ten years and, thus would count under the proposed statute: involuntary (reckless) manslaughter; and stealing more than $25,000 (or $5,000 if victim is over 65). Some offenses with longer range of punishment include stealing from a bank (i.e. bank fraud) and perjury (but only if committed by a State witness in a criminal trial). Posted by: tmm | Aug 2, 2018 3:48:58 PM Problem with Federal anything is that they ratchet up the sentence on the flimsiest of evidence and rarely give reductions, mostly enhencements. Federal is a smoke screen, just to prop up egos and appear tough on crime. Yes, of coarse some deserve the gross sentences. Most federal judges could eSily be replaced by by robot or simply write a program to feed build the PSR, walla, thats your sentence. I would be most happy to do a 5 min layout of federal sentences for people in a position of power in govnt. Starting with Ex federal judge Jack Camp. Posted by: MidWestGuy | Aug 2, 2018 10:51:30 PM Post a comment Kshitij Pujari Honor as a brand has been rising quite dramatically in the Indian market space. A few years back it was Samsung, Apple and to a certain Xiaomi who had dominated the mobile sector. Now, Honor has also made its presence felt by offering great devices and at highly competitive price points. The budget and mid-range segment are filled with Honor phones such as the Honor 9 Lite, Honor 9N, Honor 7X, Honor 7A and more. Among the high-end sector, there is the Honor 10 which competes with the OnePlus 6. In China, the Honor Play has been marketed as a gaming phone owing to the big eSports industry in the country. However, in India, the phone is going to being introduced as a performance device. The actual launch of the phone will happen on 6 August but I got my hands on the Honor Play a bit earlier and here are my first impressions of the device. Build and Design Like any other Honor phone I've laid my eyes on, the Honor Play is a very sturdy looking device which is aesthetically pleasing. The curved bottom along with the unibody aluminum design makes the phone less slippery and easy to hold. This is also one of the first Honor phones to have a complete metal back. On the front, we see the notched display along with a small chin at the bottom wherein you can see the Honor branding. On the bottom, we see that the phone thankfully has a 3.5 mm headphone jack along with type-C port and speaker grill. I was a bit disappointed not to get dual-speakers. The back of the device sees a dual-camera system along with a fingerprint sensor which in my opinion is placed a bit higher than I would've wanted. Also one small but insignificant detail I noticed was that the Honor logo on the backside is written vertically instead of horizontally. The phone is quite light and is manageable for one-handed usage. Display The phone has 6.3-inch FulHD+ IPS LCD screen, and has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and in-line with the current design trend, we spot a notch at the top. I noticed that even at full brightness the screen was not quite as visible as I would've wanted. Though sunlight is a rare commodity these days in Mumbai, even in cloudy conditions the screen was quite dim. A full review will reveal if there is an anomaly in the display or not. Apart from that, the Honor Play has a soothing display with vibrant and punchy colours. This is to be expected if you are going to play a lot of games on it. Chipset, RAM and Storage As was the case with the Honor V10, Honor 10, Huawei P20 Pro, P20, Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, the Honor Play also comes with the Kirin 970 chipset. This makes me wonder how many phones will Huawei and Honor dump on us with the Kirin 970 chipset and still call it a flagship. In my opinion, this is getting too repetitive and needs to stop. However, Honor representatives told me that the Honor Play comes with an additional technology which is called as GPU Turbo out-of-the-box and this, in turn, will offer better gaming performance while conserving battery. This is a software-based feature and in time should be seen on other Honor and Huawei devices with the Kirin 970. Now I haven't tested this GPU Turbo feature so much but my initial impressions while playing PUBG on the phone was that it does indeed run quite smoothly. You can be quite sure that in my full review I'm going to put the phone through the metaphorical grinder and test how well games run on it. Apart from that, you see 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of hi-speed UFS 2.0 storage. As per Honor, this is the only variant that will be launching in India, however, there is the option to increase the storage of the device using a microSD card to 256 GB. Software No surprises that Honor Play comes with Huawei's custom EMUI skin which is overlayed on Android 8.1 Oreo. I expected the software to be the typical clunky experience I've had with other Honor phones. But to my relief using the phone was quite satisfying and quite unlike what Vivo offers with the FunTouch UI (more like iOS) or Xiaomi's MIUI. Even so, I still prefer stock Android over pretty much anything. Xiaomi and Nokia have opted for the Android One program for some of their devices (only the Mi A2 in case of Xiaomi) to provide stock Android experience for users. I would love to see Honor do the same sometime soon. More details about the UI and software will be revealed in the full review. Camera The dual-camera system on the back has a 16 MP + 2 MP configuration and as far as initial impressions go, I was quite satisfied with the photos clicked by the Honor Play. My full review will give more details on how good or bad the camera is. Oh, and it also has some AI functionality that seems to be more gimmicky than useful. On the front, we see a 16 MP front camera which also takes pretty good selfies. However, some of the portrait lighting features looked unnecessary. I shall give the front camera a more thorough test in my review. Conclusion While on paper the Honor Play is nearly the same as the Honor 10 (except for the cameras) it is the pricetag of the Honor Play which could be its main USP. Knock off the shiny, glossy back and downgrade the camera slightly from the Honor 10 and purely based on specs you get the Honor Play could be more economical than the Honor 10. The Honor Play has been launched in China for CNY 1,999 that works out to around Rs 20,000 here. We will come to know the actual price of the Honor Play on 6 August. While my initial impressions of this device have been good, it is the gaming sector which I'm itching to try out. My full review featuring an in-depth section related to the phone's gaming attributes will reveal if the phone is all that Honor claims it is. Reuters U.S. lawmakers demanded that technology firms do more to fight shocking foreign efforts to influence U.S. politics on Wednesday, a day after Facebook Inc identified a new influence campaign tied to Novembers elections and despite President Donald Trumps denunciation of the issue as a hoax. The Senate Intelligence Committee has called executives of Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Incs Google to testify on Sept. 5 to hear the plans they have in place, to press them to do more, and to work together to address this challenge, Senator Mark Warner, the panels Democratic vice chairman, said at a hearing. All the evidence this committee has seen to date suggests that the platform companies - namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google and YouTube - still have a lot of work to do, Warner said. Technology executives have traveled to Washington several times to testify in Congress over the past year, including 10 hours of questioning of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg over two days in April. The committee has been looking into reported Russian efforts to influence U.S. public opinion for more than a year, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin had sought to boost Republican Donald Trumps chances of winning the White House in 2016. Moscow denies involvement. Facebook said on Tuesday it had removed 32 pages and fake accounts from its platforms in a bid to combat foreign meddling ahead of Novembers U.S. congressional elections. Facebook stopped short of identifying the source of the misinformation. But members of Congress said it was clear Russia was involved. Core Of Our Democracy While it is shocking to think that foreign actors used the social networking and communication mediums that are so central to our lives in an effort to interfere in the core of our democracy, what is even more troubling is that its still happening today, Senator Richard Burr, the committees Republican chairman, told the hearing. Burr and several other senators said they were pleased Facebook had taken action. Warner said cyber criminals who have been caught were just the incompetent ones, and expressed concern that the U.S. government was not well positioned to detect or counter influence operations. Allegations of Russian involvement in Trumps 2016 victory have dogged his presidency. He has come under fire for discounting the threat of interference in Novembers impending elections, when his fellow Republicans majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate are at stake. As senators gathered for the hearing, Trump took to Twitter to urge Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end a federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which he described as a TOTAL HOAX. Both Republicans and Democrats at the hearing sought to make clear that foreign influence efforts extended beyond U.S. elections, and affected many countries. This is going on everywhere. Its not limited to politics, Burr said. Facebook and other technology firms have been on the defensive for many months over political influence activity on their sites as well as concerns over user privacy. Reuters Three Ukrainians have been arrested on criminal hacking charges including stealing payment card numbers, in attacks on more than 100 US companies that cost businesses tens of millions of dollars, the US Justice Department said on 1 August. US prosecutors alleged that the three Ukrainians, who were arrested in Europe between January and June, are members of FIN7, a notorious cybercrime gang. Victims include the Chipotle Mexican Grill, Emerald Queen Hotel and Casino in Washington state, Jasons Deli, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Sonic Drive-in and Taco Johns, according to the Justice Department. The Emerald Queen stopped the attack and no customer data was stolen, prosecutors said in a press release. FIN7 has previously been linked to breaches of Trump Hotels, Whole Foods, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, according to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro. One of the three defendants, Fedir Hladyr, 33, has been transferred to Seattle from Dresden, Germany, where he was arrested. Authorities said they are seeking the extradition of the other two: Dmytro Fedorov, 44, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30. Hladyr has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing, according to his attorney, Arkady Bukh. There is no clear decision at this time whether (we) will go to trial or will consider a plea, Bukh said via email. Reuters could not reach lawyers for the other two. The three stole and sold payment card numbers and other data belonging to US citizens and businesses, Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement. FIN7 sent phishing emails to companies, sometimes following up with phone calls urging employees to open tainted attachments, the indictments said. Ukrainian officials could not be reached for comment. FIN7, also widely known as Carbanak, employs dozens of individuals who handle highly specialized tasks such as breaking into networks, stealing payment card numbers and selling stolen data on underground criminal forums, said Adrian Nish, head of threat intelligence with BAE Systems. The defendants used a front company named Combi Security that claims to have offices in Moscow, Haifa and Odessa, to launch some intrusions, according to court documents. Combi Securitys website describes it as an expert in the field of comprehensive protection of large information systems from modern cyber threats. Cybersecurity firm FireEye said it found job advertisements for Combi Security posted to several different Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek job recruitment websites. FIN7 stole more than 15 million customer card records from US businesses and also targeted companies in Australia, France and the United Kingdom, according to US prosecutors. Agence France-Presse Kurdish refugee-turned-Cambridge University math professor Caucher Birkar was among four winners this Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro of the prestigious Fields prize, dubbed the Nobel for mathematics, but had his gold medal stolen minutes later. It was an embarrassing debut for crime-ridden Rio, the first Latin American city ever to host the Fields ceremony, which takes place every four years. Less than an hour had passed since Birkar, a 40-year-old specialist in algebraic geometry, had been handed his 14-karat gold medal when his briefcase went missing. The organizer behind the event, the International Congress of Mathematics, said it "profoundly regrets" the incident. Birkar celebrated his achievement alongside co-winners Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze and Akshay Venkatesh as a fairy tale come true for the often beleaguered Kurds. "I'm hoping this news will put a smile on the faces of those 40 million people," he said. Born in a village in the ethnic Kurdish province of Marivan, near the Iran-Iraq border, Birkar said "Kurdistan was an unlikely place for a kid to develop an interest in mathematics." Despite that, he went from Tehran University, where he recounts having looked up dreamily at portraits of past Fields winners, to get political asylum and citizenship in Britain and establish himself as an exceptional mathematical mind. The Fields medal recognizes the outstanding mathematical achievements of candidates who were under 40 years old at the start of the year. At least two and preferably four people are honored each time. Akshay Venkatesh, the fourth awardee, is an Indian-born and Australian-raised prodigy who began his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia when he was just 13. Now 36, and at Stanford University in the United States, Venkatesh specializes in number theory and describes his work in terms more often associated with the artistic fields. "A lot of the time, when you do math, you're stuck. But you feel privileged to work with it: you have a feeling of transcendence and feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," Venkatesh said. In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani from Iran, became the award's first and so far only female winner for her research in theoretical mathematics. She died in 2017 after having battled breast cancer for a long time. Indo-Asian News Service NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which is humanity's first mission to the Sun, has cleared the final procedures ahead of its launch on August 11. "NASA's Parker Solar Probe has cleared the final procedures in the clean room before its move to the launch pad, where it will be integrated onto its launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy," the space agency said in a statement. The mission termed as historic "will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun, where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and other worlds", it added. The Parker Solar Probe will travel through the Sun's atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star. In addition to using the largest operational launch vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, the Parker Solar Probe will use a third stage rocket to gain the speed needed to reach the Sun, which takes 55 times more energy than reaching Mars. The spacecraft will travel directly into the Sun's atmosphere, about 4 million miles from its surface and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before, due to its innovative Thermal Protection System. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. The mission will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and how processes there ultimately affect near-Earth space, NASA said. The US Congress has passed the $716 billion defence spending bill which has provisions that bar China from participating in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) The US Congress has passed the $716 billion defence spending bill which has provisions that bar China from participating in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the world's largest international maritime warfare drill, and prevent its companies from accessing certain telecom equipment for defence and security establishments. The bill not only seeks to strengthen American defence in the Indo-Pacific region and take a number of restrictive measures against China, but also strengthens its military ties with countries such as India, Australia and Japan to collectively address the "aggressive" Chinese military behaviour. "No country has been more aggressive than China in going after American technology in sectors like aviation, robotics, new energy vehicles, and others where the US has established itself as a global leader," Senator Sherrod Brown said after the John S McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for financial year 2019 was passed by the Senate by 87 to 10 votes on Wednesday. The bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives in July, and now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law, has a bipartisan measure that seeks to strengthen the tools the US uses to block national security threats posed by investments from China and other countries. This provision will ensure that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is better equipped to handle "emerging threats" from China. "Our bipartisan bill will give CFIUS and our export control agencies tools they need to ensure that these types of investments don't slip through the cracks," Brown said. "We have arrived at a new era where China is now in a leading position in terms of technological strength, defence capabilities, composite national strength and with a military which can fight and win," Senator Marco Rubio said on the Senate floor. "And you see evidence of these beliefs. You see it in their impressive and massive military buildup and quantum leaps in technological advances. You see how they're working to destroy the current world order that was built by America and our allies, and now seek to replace it with one that they build and one that will be led by them," he said. "That's how they offer loans, not just to get their companies more business, but to give them leverage and footholds in countries and they do so with no questions asked about democracy or human rights," Rubio said. The NDAA-2019 has Rubio's move that denies Chinese companies access to American small business programmes and "prevents taxpayer dollars from being awarded to the US' biggest economic competitor". Prominent among the several legislative moves which strengthened US posture toward China include provision requiring the Department of Defense to publish photos of Beijing's "offensive military forces deployed on their fake islands", to ensure Americans have the resources to understand the "dangerous role" being played by the Chinese government. It also has a provision to protect the Department of Defense from China's lobbying efforts and impose a prohibition on it from funding Confucius Institutes "used by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate American universities for influence and espionage operations". The provision in NDAA-2019 that bars China from participating in the RIMPAC naval exercises until they cease a range of activities "threatening" US security, was moved by Senator Ted Cruz. It reverses a policy set by former president Barack Obama. The bill preserves the US Commerce Department's export control authority and prohibits the federal government from purchasing products manufactured by Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei in order to ensure security of US military communication systems. It also protects critical technologies necessary for national security from being accessed by US' global competitors and requires further investigation into industrial espionage and cyber theft allegedly conducted by China. An accompanying conference report expressed concern that sufficient information has not been made publicly available in a timely manner regarding China's reclamation and militarisation activities in the South China Sea. It alleged that China has engaged in provocative military activities elsewhere throughout the Indo-Pacific Region, including the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the Indian Ocean. As such, it urged the Secretary of Defense to give full consideration to the strategic and public interest in selective declassification of China's activities in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said such provisions in NDAA would undermine the mutual trust between US and Beijing. "We urged the US side to discard the outdated Cold-War and zero-sum mentality," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy told The Wall Street Journal. Whereas, on the other hand, on President Donald Trump's direction, his administration is considering to increase the proposed tariff of 10 percent on import of Chinese products to 25 percent, a top trade negotiator has said. Such a move would more than double its proposed tariff on import of Chinese products worth $ 200 billion. "The bottom line is the president is going to continue to hold China responsible for their unfair trade practices. This has gone on for long enough and he is going to do something about it," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Wednesday. On 18 June, Trump had directed US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent, in response to China's decision to cause further "harm" to US workers, farmers, and businesses by imposing retaliatory duties on US goods. This process was initiated on 10 July. "This week, the president has directed that I consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty from 10 per cent to 25 percent. The 25 percent duty would be applied to the proposed list of products previously announced on 10 July," Lighthizer said. He said the Trump administration continues to urge China to stop its "unfair practices", open its market, and engage in true market competition. "We have been very clear about the specific changes China should undertake. Regrettably, instead of changing its harmful behaviour, China has illegally retaliated against US workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses, he alleged. Lighthizer said the increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is intended at providing the Trump administration with additional options to encourage China to change its "harmful" policies and behaviour, and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of Americans. "The United States has joined forces with like-minded partners around the world to address unfair trade practices such as forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and we remain ready to engage with China in negotiations that could resolve these and other problems detailed in our Section 301 report," he said. Sanders said the United States would like to see the playing field level. "The president, as both he and about 15 members of his administration have said repeatedly, we'd like to see the unfair trade practices stop," she said. "But until that happens, the president is going to hold their feet to the fire. He is going to continue to put pressure on China and he is not going to sit back and allow American industries and American workers to be taken advantage of," Sanders asserted. With inputs from PTI Ankara has threatened to retaliate after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the case of an American pastor as it warned the actions could damage ties. Ankara: Ankara has threatened to retaliate after Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers over the case of an American pastor as it warned the actions could damage ties. "There is no doubt that this will greatly damage constructive efforts working to solve the issues between the two countries," the foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday. "Without delay, there will be a response to this aggressive attitude that will not serve any purpose," the ministry added. "We call on the US administration to turn back from this wrong decision." Pastor Andrew Brunson, who led a Protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, is at the centre of one of the most bitter diplomatic spats between the NATO allies. Brunson was held for nearly two years in prison on terror-related charges before he was moved last week to house arrest. US officials said at the time that it was not enough and threatened to take measures against Turkey. Washington then slapped sanctions on Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said both men "played leading roles in the arrest and detention of Pastor Brunson". Relations between the NATO allies were already strained by Washington's support for a Syrian Kurdish militia viewed as terrorists by Ankara and the failure to extradite the US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the 2016 failed coup. Gul on Twitter later dismissed the sanctions, saying that he had no assets abroad. "I have neither a tree planted nor one penny in the US or any other country outside of Turkey," Gul said. Brunson's lawyer appealed to an Izmir court this week for his release but it was rejected. Brunson risks up to 35 years in jail over charges that he acted on behalf of two groups viewed as terrorists by Ankara: the movement led by Gulen and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). His next trial hearing is due on 12 October. Southeast Asian nations are set to announce agreement with China on a working text for negotiations over a code of conduct to ease tension in the disputed South China Sea at a meeting that began on Thursday Singapore: Southeast Asian nations are set to announce agreement with China on a working text for negotiations over a code of conduct to ease tension in the disputed South China Sea at a meeting that began on Thursday. A draft communique seen by Reuters shows the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also aims to soon reach a cybersecurity deal with Russia, which the United States has accused of election meddling, following hacks in the region. The communique, which reiterated ASEAN's commitment to an ambitious trade pact backed by China, is set to be issued by ASEAN foreign ministers on Saturday at the close of the meeting of top diplomats in Singapore. "We noted with satisfaction the ASEAN member states and China had agreed on a single draft COC (Code of Conduct) negotiating text," read the draft communique, adding that it was reached in June during high-level talks in China. ASEAN also urged steps for the "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula, saying it welcomed a pact between the US and North Korea at June's landmark summit in Singapore. Speaking on the event sidelines, the Chinese government's top diplomat on Thursday called for a push to establish a peace mechanism for the Korean peninsula as well as denuclearisation. China, along with North Korea and the US, is a signatory to the armistice that concluded the 1950-53 Korean War, rather than a peace treaty. "We should, at the same time as realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, push forward with establishing a peace mechanism for the peninsula," said Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi. Cyber security pact During the next few days, Southeast Asian nations also hope to strike a cybersecurity agreement with Russia, the draft document showed. "We welcome the further strengthening (of) our cooperation in cybersecurity with Russia through the issuance of the statement of ASEAN and Russian foreign ministers," it said. Singapore, the meeting's host, suffered its worst cyber attack in July, when hackers stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, from a government health database. Malaysia this year said it had foiled a cyber heist of its central bank. Neither country has identified the hackers and neither suggested the involvement of Russia, which last year appointed a dedicated ambassador to ASEAN based in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. US intelligence agencies have said a Russian propaganda arm tried to tamper with the 2016 presidential election by posting and buying ads on Facebook. Moscow has denied involvement. Facebook said it has identified a new coordinated political influence campaign to mislead its users and sow dissension among voters ahead of November's US congressional elections. South China Sea Southeast Asian nations and China have overlapping claims to islands in the South China Sea. For years they have been discussing an agreement to prevent escalation in one of the worlds busiest waterways. The draft to be announced will form the basis of further discussions, likely to be lengthy, before a final version is reached. Critics have said the emphasis on reaching a consensus for the code of conduct works in China's favour as a delaying tactic to ease criticism of its militarisation of man-made islands in the disputed region. The statement, set against the backdrop of the protectionist trade policies of the US, also reiterated ASEAN's commitment to wrap up a major trade pact backed by China, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). "We reiterated the priority placed by ASEAN on the RCEP as a centrepiece of its external economic relations, particularly at a time of growing uncertainties in global trade," it said. Singapore's prime minister said on Thursday the deal would create the worlds largest trading bloc, covering a third of the global economy. The US, set to meet ASEAN leaders on Friday, has said it will press Southeast Asia to keep up sanctions on Pyongyang. That follows reports of renewed activity at the factory that produced North Koreas first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US. Despite the IWC's prohibition on commercial whaling, Japan continues to kill the animals under what it calls a 'scientific research' programme. Sydney: Australia on Thursday vowed to "vehemently" oppose a new push by Japan to undermine a global moratorium on commercial whaling, and urged like-minded nations to stand firm against Tokyo. Japan has regularly sought an easing of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) prohibition on commercial whaling and continues to kill the animals under what it calls a "scientific research" programme, despite international criticism. At September's IWC meeting in Brazil, Tokyo said that it plans to "propose setting a catch quota for species whose stocks are recognised as healthy by the IWC scientific committee". Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was concerned by the proposal. "We strongly support the 30-year global moratorium on commercial whaling and will vehemently oppose any attempts to undermine the processes that support it," she said. This included "through changed voting regimes or the establishment of catch-limits for commercial whaling". She added that "at the commission meeting in September, Australia will be calling on like-minded nations to reject Japan's proposal." Hideki Moronuki, an official in charge of whaling at Japan's fisheries agency, told AFP in June that the proposal would not specify which whale species and how many mammals Japan wants to hunt. But he said the IWC classifies several species as no longer depleted. Japan also plans measures to change the body's decision-making process, lowering the threshold for proposals to pass from three-quarters of members to half. Tokyo claims its "scientific research" is necessary to prove whale populations are large enough to sustain a return to commercial hunting, but Bishop said this was not correct. "The science is clear, you do not need to kill whales in order to study them," she said. Japan makes no secret of the fact that meat from the expeditions ends up on dinner tables, despite a significant decline in the popularity of whale meat. During its most recent annual whale hunt, Japan reported it caught 333 minke whales, 122 of which were pregnant, sparking outrage among conservationists. Japanese officials said that the high rate of pregnant whales showed the strength of the minke population. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Iran of blocking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Jerusalem: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Iran of blocking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. "If Iran tries to block the Bab-el-Mandeb, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this," Netanyahu said at the navy base in Haifa city during the navy officers' course graduation ceremony, Xinhua reported. "This coalition would also include the State of Israel and all its arms," he warned. Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman also attended the ceremony. "Israel has recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea," he said in a separate speech, without elaborating. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a major sea channel for cargo ships and oil tankers, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Last week, Saudi Arabia halted oil shipments after Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militants reportedly attacked two tankers in the Red Sea. "The Digital Wilderness: A Decade of Exile & the False Hopes of Lester Packingham" | Main | "Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons" August 2, 2018 Pope Francis official changes Catholic teachings on death penalty to work for abolition worldwide As reported in this CNN piece, "Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is never admissible and that the Catholic Church will work towards its abolition around the world, the Vatican formally announced Thursday." Here is more: The change, which has been added to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, makes official a position that the Pope has articulated since he became pontiff. The Church now teaches that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and states that it will "work with determination towards its abolition worldwide," the Vatican said. The Catholic Church's teaching on the death penalty has been slowly evolving since the time of Pope John Paul II, who served from 1978 to 2005. In his Christmas message in 1998, he wished "the world the consensus concerning the need for urgent and adequate measures ... to end the death penalty." His successor Benedict XVI, in a document published in November 2011, called on society's leaders "to make every effort to eliminate the death penalty." Francis then wrote in a letter to the President of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty in March 2015 that "today capital punishment is unacceptable, however serious the condemned's crime may have been." He added that the death penalty "entails cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" and said it was to be rejected "due to the defective selectivity of the criminal justice system and in the face of the possibility of judicial error." August 2, 2018 at 10:05 AM | Permalink Comments Easy for the Pope to talk big. The Vatican is protected by Italian authorities. In 1998, the Commander of the Swiss Guard and his wife were murdered by a young Guard. The murderer then committed "suicide." Posted by: David Behar | Aug 2, 2018 11:44:15 AM Catholic Catechism 2266 Capital Punishment 2266 The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. The primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.[67] 2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor. "If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person. "Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.' [68] Posted by: Claudio Giusti | Aug 2, 2018 11:55:53 AM An important decision and announcement reflecting a changing world and evolving understanding of the capabilities of modern times which renders the Death Penalty obsolete and an anachronism. The Catholic faith and Christianity (amongst other religions) are infinitely older than the US Constitution yet more able, it seems, to recognize these truths. Time for the Justices to sit up, wake up, and act to eliminate the Death Penalty from the shores of the United States. Instead of permitting obscene lethal drug experimentation on fellow human beings, end this now for all time. Posted by: peter | Aug 2, 2018 12:05:14 PM Does anyone know what he actually did? Did he speak "ex catherda"? Or is this more hyperventilation by people ignorant of Catholicism. Posted by: Daniel | Aug 2, 2018 4:11:48 PM It is part of journalism ethics to provide both sides of a story. Not a word about murder victims from this unethical journalist. Priests, like the Pope, are advocate, and may be dismissed. https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/texas-death-row-reporter-reveals-what-its-really-like-to-watch-criminals-take-their-last-breaths/news-story/67c36baede5d6dc5bf08dd2c95b89b76 Posted by: David Behar | Aug 2, 2018 8:46:09 PM "Introibo ad altare Dei...." Posted by: Dave from Texas | Aug 2, 2018 11:21:52 PM Sorry clause, the news coverage was not a point / counterpoint article, or a debate of any kind. The news merely reported the fact that the Pope has ordained that the death penalty is now unacceptable to the Catholic faith. Further, any "victims" are not the "other side of the story." Rather, it's the punishment to be assessed in modernity to substitute for the death penalty, I doubt that anyone is advocating that those who commit murder should not be punished. Posted by: Mark M. | Aug 2, 2018 11:45:07 PM Mark. We are on our way. If the murder victim is black, only 40% of the murderers are arrested. Posted by: David Behar | Aug 3, 2018 1:08:12 AM Post a comment Authorities say that the California wildfire is only 35 percent contained. The flame that is still raging has destroyed 1,000 homes Upper Lake (California): A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities has said as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State. "Whatever resources are needed, we're putting them there," Governor Jerry Brown said at a news conference on Wednesday. "We're being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We're in uncharted territory" he added. Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $125 million, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said. Cal Fire said another 440 buildings, including barns and warehouses, have also been destroyed by the fire, which is now the sixth most destructive in California history. The huge Redding-area blaze, which started 23 July, forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. It has scorched 180 square miles (470 square kilometers) and is 35 percent contained. North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near the Mendocino National Forest, officials said. To the east, another blaze on Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 4 square kilometers in a few hours. The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder, said Scott McLean of Cal Fire. "It just goes on and on," McLean said. "We had this rain at the beginning of the year and all that did was promote the growing of grass and brush," McLean said. "It's a Catch-22. It's growing more product to catch on fire." He said the state really never left its drought status and several years of significant rainfall are needed to bring the state back. McLean also had a warning for people visiting rural and wilderness areas. "Pay attention," he said. "Don't park the car on dry grass ... no campfires, no flame. It doesn't take anything to start a fire right now." The new fire near Covelo was only about 64 kilometer north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area nearly three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed 10 homes and threatened 12,000 more. The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Containment grew overnight to 24 percent. Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother's memorabilia-filled Lake County home. Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother's new home as another wildfire advanced. "Honestly, what I'm thinking right now is I just want this to end," Lytle said, adding that she was "exhausted in every way possible physically, emotionally, all of that." Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, were evacuated on Saturday from their Lakeport home. "I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car," said Lew, 45. "I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars." Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert. "It's like three a year," he said. "It's kind of crazy." In Shasta County's Carr Fire, authorities said on Wednesday all those reported missing had been located. A relative identified the latest known fatal victim as Daniel Bush, 62. Bush had returned to his mobile home in the community of Keswick last Tuesday after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, but he was unable to drive and would have needed help to evacuate when the fire came through the neighbourhood on Thursday, his sister, Kathi Gaston, told the Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding. Gaston said her brother had wanted to stay in his own home, but he had spotty cell service and, with the power out, he might not have gotten word of the fire. Gaston said she could not get to her brother's house because, with the fire approaching, sheriff's deputies had blocked the roads and then she herself had to evacuate. "If we'd been able to go in when we wanted to, he'd be alive right now," she said. National Park Service officials said on Tuesday that the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed at least through Sunday due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began 25 July. It was the longest closure at Yosemite since 1997, when floods closed the park for over two months. By Joseph Ax CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - Every few weeks, Susan Bro walks down 4th Street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, until she gets to a brick wall covered in chalked messages like 'Love over hate' and 'Gone but not forgotten.' 'I come just to absorb the energy of the place,' Bro, 61, said on Tuesday as she stood on the block now named for her daughter, Heather Heyer, who was killed a year ago while marching against a white supremacist rally. Since August 12, 2017, when James Fields rammed his car into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heyer and injuring several others, Bro has channeled her rage and grief into spreading the same message that drew her daughter downtown that day. By Joseph Ax CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - Every few weeks, Susan Bro walks down 4th Street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, until she gets to a brick wall covered in chalked messages like "Love over hate" and "Gone but not forgotten." "I come just to absorb the energy of the place," Bro, 61, said on Tuesday as she stood on the block now named for her daughter, Heather Heyer, who was killed a year ago while marching against a white supremacist rally. Since August 12, 2017, when James Fields rammed his car into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heyer and injuring several others, Bro has channeled her rage and grief into spreading the same message that drew her daughter downtown that day. Bro said she made a promise to her daughter at her funeral, when she saw her bruised, broken body for the first time and broke down in tears. "I held her hand and said, 'I'm going to make this count.'" Heyer's death capped a day of clashes after hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and others descended upon the city, drawing national attention to the "alt right" movement that had grown bolder since President Donald Trump's election. Trump faced intense criticism after the protests when he seemed to equate the white nationalists with the counter-protesters, saying there were "very fine people on both sides." Bro said she chose not to return several phone calls from the White House after learning of the president's remarks. As the city prepares for the first anniversary of the so-called "Unite the Right" rally, Bro is readying herself for another difficult milestone in a year full of painful moments without Heather. "The 'firsts' are always hardest," she said, her voice cracking. "I got through the others: Mother's Day, her birthday, Christmas. This will be the last one." Bro said she would bring flowers to Heather Heyer Way on August 12 before speaking at an event to mark the anniversary. Law enforcement agencies have made extensive plans to combat any potential violence, though the leader of last year's gathering, local white nationalist Jason Kessler, failed to secure a permit for a sequel this year. Instead, he has obtained a permit to hold a rally in Washington outside the White House. Before last summer, Bro, a former elementary schoolteacher, led a relatively quiet life, doing secretarial work and living in a modest trailer home about 30 minutes north of Charlottesville. At Heyer's memorial service, which drew nearly 2,000 mourners and was broadcast live on large screens, Bro said the national response to the tragedy was "just the beginning of Heather's legacy." "They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well guess what? You just magnified her," she said, drawing a standing ovation. Within weeks of Heyer's death, Bro created the Heather Heyer Foundation, in part to install a formal and legal structure to handle the hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds that poured in from sympathizers around the country. Bro runs the foundation from her home and from an office at a Charlottesville law firm, filled with tributes to Heyer that she has received over the last year: a portrait painted by an artist, a humanitarian award given posthumously by the Muhammad Ali Center, notes written by Heyer's friends at her memorial service. The foundation has organized a scholarship program and is planning to launch a social justice youth program. Bro found herself making appearances on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show and at MTV's Video Music Awards. She acknowledged that the intense media attention has caused resentment among some activists in Charlottesville who feel the focus on Heyer, a white woman, has distracted from the racial issues at the core of the clashes. It has been a bit of a balancing act, she said, to amplify Heyer's message without making it seem as though her daughter was the only victim who mattered. She noted that violence against black people often does not generate the same level of interest and warned against the "white-centered" narrative that portrayed Heyer as a leader rather than simply one of many people who decided to march. "The issues have not changed," Bro said. "We still have police shootings, over-policing, a lack of affordable housing, the prison pipeline." A year after burying her daughter, Bro reflected on the activism that brought Heyer to the protests. "The point of Heather's death is that we have a responsibility to rise up to address that hate," Bro said. "Don't sit by and wring your hands." (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Toni Reinhold) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Officially recognised faith groups in China are promoting the flying of national flags at religious events amid a push by the ruling Communist Party to extend its ideological control over religious life Officially-recognised faith groups in China are promoting the flying of national flags at religious events amid a push by the ruling Communist Party to extend its ideological control over religious life. Flying the flag would emphasise that the fates of the party, nation and individual are "bound tightly together", a statement on the website of the party's United Front Work Department, that oversees such groups, said on Wednesday. "Raising the flag at religious venues abets the strengthening of religious figures' and religious believers' national and civic consciousness and creates a sense of the Chinese nation's community," said the statement, issued following a conference of groups representing Buddhists, Taoists, Protestants, Catholics and Muslims. A report on Global Times said the resolution was adopted following the sixth joint conference of the country's recognised religious groups, which met in Beijing on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by heads and representatives of the Buddhist Association of China, the Taoist Association of China, the Islamic Association of China, and the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China. In addition, Wang Zuoan, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, and director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, also participated in the event. A report in The Indian Express said that the national flag shall be raised at religious venues on important national celebrations and religious events such as National Day, International Labour Day, New Year's Day, Spring Festival, and also important events of each religion. It quoted from the statement to say, "Raising the flag at religious venues abets the strengthening of religious figures and religious believers' national and civic consciousness, and creates a sense of the Chinese nation's community." The resolution stated that when the national and religious flags are both present at a particular place, it's the former that would be given a more prominent display. But while some users on the internet criticised the move, saying raising the national flag at a religious site violates the principle of separation of politics from religion, Yan Kejia, director of the Institute of Religious Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted in Global Times as saying, "Raising the national flag is a way of expressing religious believers' spirit of patriotism. It has nothing to do with interference of religious freedom." The officially atheistic party has tightened its grip over the country's five officially recognised religions this year, ordering especially that Christians and Muslims religions considered foreign to China work toward "Sinosisation". Focus on Islam Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have been confined to re-education camps, where they are told to repudiate Islam and their traditional Uighur culture and pledge fealty to the party. Authorities have also removed crosses and other exterior identifiers from Christian churches and some have been demolished. In May this year, the country's top Islamic regulatory body has declared that all mosques must raise the national flag to "promote a spirit of patriotism" among Muslims. Flags should be hung in a "prominent position" in all mosque courtyards, the China Islamic Association said. This would "further strengthen the understanding of national and civic ideals, and promote a spirit of patriotism among Muslims of all ethnic groups", it read. Mosques should also publicly display information on the party's "core socialist values", and explain them to devotees via Islamic scripture, so that they will be "deeply rooted in people's hearts", the China Islamic Association, a government-affiliated body with sole power to accredit imams, said. Regulations on Religious Affairs China's newly revised 'Regulations on Religious Affairs' came into effect in February this year, and prompted rights groups to voice concern for religious freedoms. The new regulations intensified punishments for unsanctioned religious activities and increased State supervision of religion in a bid to "block extremism" and tackle what Beijing sees as internal threats. As per the new regulations, mosque staff had to organise studies of the Chinese Constitution and other relevant laws particularly the new religious regulations, the letter said. They should also study classics and set up courses on traditional Chinese culture, while being sure to focus only on Muslim sages of Chinese origin rather than those of foreign origin, it said. The goal, it was said, was for mosques to become a "solid platform for the study of the party and the country's laws and policies" in addition to houses of worship, and thereby develop among Muslims an understanding of a common Chinese identity" with the majority. With inputs from agencies SYDNEY (Reuters) - China's navy will join 26 countries in military exercises off Australia's north coast this month, but not live-fire drills, Australia's defence minister said on Wednesday at a time of strained ties between the two nations. The naval exercises are being hosted by Australia and will also include its major ally the United States, which expelled China in May from its military training around Hawaii - a response to what it sees as Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea. SYDNEY (Reuters) - China's navy will join 26 countries in military exercises off Australia's north coast this month, but not live-fire drills, Australia's defence minister said on Wednesday at a time of strained ties between the two nations. The naval exercises are being hosted by Australia and will also include its major ally the United States, which expelled China in May from its military training around Hawaii - a response to what it sees as Beijing's militarization of islands in the South China Sea. Ties between Australia and China hit a low after Canberra passed laws aimed at thwarting Chinese influence in domestic affairs and also over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. Australia has offered diplomatic support to U.S. "freedom of navigation" voyages through the South China Sea and its own vessels encountered Chinese warships there in April. But Australia stuck with an invitation it issued China last September, a sign analysts say hints at a thawing in relations ahead of the drills that begin at the end of August. "China is expected to participate in a range of activities including passage exercises, inter-ship communications and replenishment activities and sea-training manoeuvres," Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said in an emailed statement. "There are no plans for China to participate in live-fire activities," she said, without giving a reason, but adding the nations have "built a productive defence relationship that ... facilitates transparency and builds trust". China's Defence Ministry said in a statement it had received the invitation and was in communication with Australia about it, referring further questions to the Australian side. The drills will be held in strategic waters north of Darwin, where a decision to lease the city's port to a Chinese firm drew a sharp rebuke from the United States. They run to mid-September and involve 27 nations. China was involved in the drills as an observer in 2016. Only Britain declined an invitation to participate this time, a spokesman for Australia's defence minister said in an email. Analysts suggest China's involvement in the drills could mean a new willingness to engage. "The Chinese government has tended to cut down on official visits and official interactions so perhaps this is a sign that senior Chinese officials are happier," said Andre Carr, senior lecturer in the strategic and defence studies centre at the Australian National University. (Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Colin Packham; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Gao Liangping in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Lawyers for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a Texas court on Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit against him and his InfoWars website filed by parents of two children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre who accused him of defamation. Jones, who lives in Travis County, Texas, has used his media platform to call the mass shooting at an elementary school that killed 26 people a hoax, and suggested a political cover-up took place by left-wing forces seeking to take advantage of the shooting to promote gun control. Mark Enoch, an attorney for Jones, described his client as a political commentator and played a 2017 video of a broadcast where Jones said he did not believe the Sandy Hook shooting took place By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Lawyers for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a Texas court on Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit against him and his InfoWars website filed by parents of two children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre who accused him of defamation. Jones, who lives in Travis County, Texas, has used his media platform to call the mass shooting at an elementary school that killed 26 people a hoax, and suggested a political cover-up took place by left-wing forces seeking to take advantage of the shooting to promote gun control. Mark Enoch, an attorney for Jones, described his client as a political commentator and played a 2017 video of a broadcast where Jones said he did not believe the Sandy Hook shooting took place. "Maybe it's fringe speech. Maybe it's dangerous speech, but it is not defamation," he told Judge Scott Jenkins, who has 30 days to rule on the motion to dismiss the case. In 2013, Jones called the massacre "staged" and continued to stoke his conspiracy theory for years. "Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured," he said in a January 2015 broadcast. Although his theory is false, people who believe Jones have for years harassed and taunted families of the victims, court papers showed and the families have said. Some families said they have been subjected to death threats and been forced to move several times in an effort to escape harassment. The lawsuits filed in April by Leonard Pozner, Veronique De La Rosa and Neil Heslin seek at least $1 million in damages. Each claims Jones repeatedly asserted the Sandy Hook shootings were staged and that the parents were liars and frauds who helped in a cover-up, according to court documents. The parents have said Jones has engaged in a campaign of "false, cruel, and dangerous assertions," court filings showed. Mark Bankston, an attorney for the parents, told the judge that InfoWars viewers understood Jones as alleging the parents were part of a criminal conspiracy, and the parents have suffered emotional and reputational damage from harassment from Jones' followers and his false allegations. A gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, in an attack that ranks among the five deadliest mass shootings by a single gunman in U.S. history. Facebook last week suspended Jones from its social network for bullying and hate speech, after Google's YouTube removed four of his videos from its site. The lawsuits in Texas were the first defamation cases brought by parents of Sandy Hook victims against Jones. He is also facing civil action in Connecticut in a lawsuit by additional Sandy Hook parents. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Bill Berkrot) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. US President Donald Trump today expressed his frustration over the ongoing probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections and asked his Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop the 'witch-hunt' US President Donald Trump today expressed his frustration over the ongoing probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections and asked his Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop the "witch-hunt", a day after his former campaign chairman went on trial. Mueller, a former FBI director, is investigating whether the Trump camgain aided or abetted an attempt by Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election, or tried to cover up the conspiracy. In a series of tweets, the US President asserted that neither he nor his campaign had any collusion with the Russians, and allegations in this regard was a total hoax. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this rigged witch hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. "Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" Trump tweeted. Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Tuesday was the first day of his former campaign head Paul Manafort's trial on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud which were brought by Mueller's team. The charges stemmed from Manafort's consulting work from Ukraine for which he allegedly received millions which he did not report to the US government. "Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and "public enemy number one," or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian collusion?" he asked. "We already have a smoking gun about a campaign getting dirt on their opponent, it was Hillary Clinton. How is it okay for Hillary Clinton to proactively seek dirt from the Russians but the Trump campaign met at the Russians request and that is bad?" Marc Thiessen, Washington Post," he tweeted. He said that FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election. He should never, ever been allowed to........ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 "He should never, ever been allowed to remain in the FBI while he himself was being investigated. This is a real issue. It won't go into a Mueller Report because Mueller is going to protect these guys. Mueller has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation," he said. However, the White House has said Trump's tweets are his opinion and not an order. "It's not an order. It's the president's opinion, and it's ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty that's gone on with the launching of the witch-hunt the president has watched this process play out, but he also wants to see it come to an end as he stated many times and I we look forward to that," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Wednesday. By making such a tweet, Sanders argued that Trump is not indulging in obstruction of justice. "The president is not obstructing; he's fighting back. The president is stating his opinion, he's stating it clearly, and he's certainly expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we've seen from people like Jim Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe," she said. "There's a reason that the president's angry and, frankly, most of America is angry as well, and there's no reason he shouldn't be able to voice that opinion," Sanders said in response to a question. "We certainly think it should be completed. We'd like it to be completed sooner rather than later. It's gone on for an extensive amount of time. They've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. We'd like to see it come to a close," she said. The entire investigation is based on "a dirty, discredited dossier" that was paid for by an opposing campaign, and had a lot of corruption within the entity which was overseeing it, which was Strzok, Comey and McCabe, she alleged. With inputs from PTI US judge Paul Crotty released an Eucadorian immigrant from a detention camp. He slammed Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy as 'cruel and thoughtless' New York: A New York judge, who ordered an Ecuadorean immigrant who delivered pizza to an Army installation freed from an immigration detention camp, has said the government was applying its Trump's "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal entry in a "thoughtless and cruel" manner. US District Judge Paul Crotty explained on Wednesday in a written opinion why he ordered Pablo Villavicencio freed last week from a detention center in New Jersey. He also nullified a "supervised release" order Villavicencio was told to sign before he was freed that set special conditions he must follow. In the opinion, Crotty took a swipe at the government's decision to separate some children from their parents at the Mexican border and then transport the children to New York, saying he did not believe "this is accidental or random." Instead, he wrote, the government may be trying to break detainees' connections to their support system of families and friends and frustrate their ability to retain competent legal representation and effectively participate in legal proceedings. In Villavicencio's case, the government tried to move the case to a New Jersey court. In a footnote, Crotty said the behaviour reminded him that Thomas Jefferson cited in the Declaration of Independence how colonists were tried in "remote locations" to obstruct the laws for naturalization of foreigners. "Immigration was even then a critical issue," Crotty said. Villavicencio, 35, who is married to a US citizen with two young girls who also are citizens, is trying to establish legal residency. He was arrested and detained on 1 June after delivering pizza to the Army garrison in Fort Hamilton. When he arrived at the installation, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the US in 2010 but stayed. He unlawfully entered the country in 2008. Crotty ordered him freed a week ago and said he would explain his reasoning later. Crotty wrote that there was no justification for Villavicencio's detention and said the man had earned a right to apply to stay in the country legally under a special programme set up for individuals in his situation. "It should not be difficult to discern that families should be kept together rather than be separated by the thoughtless and cruel application of a so called 'zero tolerance' policy," Crotty wrote. "This is especially so where the organization seeking removal has also provided a pathway for a person in petitioner's position to regularize his immigration status with minimal disruption to his family life." He added that Villavicencio "deserves it due to his hard work, his dedication to the family, and his clean criminal record." The judge called Villavicencio's arrest a "mercurial exercise of executive power." He said the government had given Villavicencio no explanation or justification to deny him a chance to apply through a program it had established. "It is not unlike giving a person a job, and then taking away the tools necessary to perform the job. It is simply not right," Crotty said. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the "zero tolerance" policy in April. Through a spokesman, government lawyers declined comment on Wednesday. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday it has tapped a former Trump administration economic and trade adviser to head its public policy efforts. The largest U.S. automaker said it hired Everett Eissenstat, who was until recently a senior White House aide on economic and trade issues, as its new senior vice president for global public policy. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday it has tapped a former Trump administration economic and trade adviser to head its public policy efforts. The largest U.S. automaker said it hired Everett Eissenstat, who was until recently a senior White House aide on economic and trade issues, as its new senior vice president for global public policy. The 55-year-old Oklahoma native will report to Chief Executive Mary Barra. Eissenstat's "broad experience interacting at the highest levels of government, both within the U.S. and globally, and his track record for partnering and building relationships on both sides of the aisle make him a perfect fit to represent GM," Barra said in a statement. Eissenstat, who could not be reached for comment, was a deputy assistant to the U.S. president on international economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council until July 6. He worked for the U.S. trade representative during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama and was a key adviser to the Republican Trump administration on Chinese trade issues. "He is a true believer in free trade and the benefits free trade brings to our economy," Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, said in a speech in July 2017, speaking about Eissenstat. "The administration and the country are lucky to have such an important asset." Ongoing talks with Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could have a deep financial impact on GM, as could other trade disputes between the United States and China and the European Union. Last week, GM blamed higher steel and aluminum costs for a 2018 profit forecast reduction, citing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. GM buys most of its steel from U.S. producers, which have raised prices in reaction to the tariffs on imported steel. In June, GM said it would go ahead with its plan to manufacture the new Chevrolet Blazer SUV in Mexico, despite Trump's criticisms of U.S. companies making vehicles abroad. The Detroit automaker also faces concerns about the potential impact from trade worries on pickup trucks it builds in Mexico. In June, GM warned that imposing tariffs on imported cars and parts of up to 25 percent could lead to a "smaller GM." (Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Jonathan Oatis) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Indian national was one among three foreigners who were abducted and killed in Kabul and whose bodies were recovered by the Afghan police. Kabul: An Indian man was among three foreigners killed by unidentified gunmen on Thursday after they were abducted from Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, Tolo News reported. The bodies of an three individuals an Indian citizen, a Malaysian citizen and a Macedonianwere found in Mussahi district after they were abducted early Thursday morning from Kabul's PD9 area. Police confirmed the incident but have not given any further details although it is believed that the men worked for a logistics company, the report said. An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian citizen were abducted and killed. We have found their bodies, Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for Kabuls police chief, told Reuters. An Afghan security official said they found identity cards next to the bodies, the Hindustan Times reported. CNN News18 reported that according to local media, no terror group has claimed responsibility. It does not seem to be a specific case of an Indian being targeted but more details are being awaited, the report added. A senior diplomat from Kabul said the men were employed by food and catering services company Sodexo, reported The Times of India. With inputs from PTI. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Wednesday that if it were to try to block the key Red Sea Bab al-Mandeb strait, it would likely face an international coalition which would include Israel. 'If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this and this coalition will also include all of Israel's military branches.' Netanyahu was speaking at a passing out parade for new naval officers in Haifa, where Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman added in a separate speech that Israel had 'recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in Red Sea.' He gave no further details JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Wednesday that if it were to try to block the key Red Sea Bab al-Mandeb strait, it would likely face an international coalition which would include Israel. "If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this and this coalition will also include all of Israel's military branches." Netanyahu was speaking at a passing out parade for new naval officers in Haifa, where Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman added in a separate speech that Israel had "recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in Red Sea." He gave no further details. (Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) topped the list with a brand value of US$2.28 billion, followed by telecommunications group Viettel, and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) This is the third time Forbes Vietnam has announced the list which has been apllied company ranking methods of Forbes (an American Business Magazine), presenting the financial contribution of brands to the business result. 10 most valuable Vietnamese brandsselected by Forbes Vietnam: 1. Vinamilk: US$ 2.282,7 mil 2. Viettel: US$ 1.390 mil 3. VNPT: US$ 416 mil 4. Sabeco: US$ 393 mil 5. Vinhomes: US$ 384 mil 6. VinaPhone: US$ 308 mil 7. Vingroup: US$ 307,2 mil 8. Masan Consumer: US$ 238 mil 9. Vietcombank: US$ 177,9 mil 10. FPT: US$ 169 mil By KHANH CHI -Translated by Kim Khanh Thousands were either unable or have refused to leave their half-submerged homes, peering out from upper floor windows as they waited for relief boats bringing food and supplies, in Myanmar Bago: Monsoon rains have pummelled the Mekong region in recent days with Myanmar bearing the brunt of flooding that has forced 150,000 to flee and threatens to destroy levees shielding thousands of homes. The swirling inundations have started to recede in some areas in the low-lying southeast but the country is only just entering peak monsoon season and more downpours are expected in the coming weeks. Thousands were either unable or have refused to leave their half-submerged homes, peering out from upper floor windows as they waited for relief boats bringing food and supplies. Some waded out through the waist-deep water to collect the donations while others balanced precariously on rafts made from bamboo poles or jerry cans as they paddled through the waters. Evacuation orders are still in place across Bago, Kayin, Mon and Tanintharyi provinces with dozens of dams and reservoirs overflowing. In Madauk town in Bago region, warnings that key levees are at breaking point sparked fear among residents. "We are worried about the embankment. We are really afraid," 43-year-old Ma Wai told AFP on Thursday. "When the authorities warned us over the microphone, we didn't know where to run. Children and elderly people were crying." State media reported that nearly 150,000 people have been forced to seek refuge in 327 camps while nearly 28,000 are clinging on in their flooded homes. At least a dozen people have been killed. Tin Tun, 50, said he and his family decided they had no choice but to escape what he described as the worst flooding they had ever experienced. "We had to flee, taking people and our animals by boat. The water was up to our waists in our house when we left," he said. The particularly heavy monsoon is also lashing Myanmar's neighbours. Laos is still searching for scores of people missing after a dam collapsed last month, wiping out entire villages and killing at least 11 through earlier official tolls initially put the number as high as 27. Thai, South Korean and Chinese specialists have joined the effort to find the missing. Floodwaters from the disaster seeped into Cambodia and forced thousands from their homes. Thailand said Thursday that seven of its northeastern provinces have been hit by flooding, affecting at least 30,000 people. Heavy flooding has also submerged swathes of farmland near Vietnam's capital Hanoi this week, with water reaching the roofs of some homes causing 4,000 residents to scramble to dry ground. "We had to move our property, rice, our cattle, and poultry," Phung Thi Luan told AFP from a makeshift shelter in a community centre. "There's no road for us to get around and...there's no electricity." So far this year in Vietnam, 112 people have gone missing in natural disasters, with more than 900 homes completely destroyed and tens of thousands of hectares of farmland damaged. By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a South American trip planned for next week due to the situation around the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Thursday, as U.N. ceesefire talks pressed on By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a South American trip planned for next week due to the situation around the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Thursday, as U.N. ceesefire talks pressed on. Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet on Sunday to discuss an emerging deal, brokered by the United Nations and Egypt, for long-term peace in Gaza, a second Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu was due to travel to Colombia from Aug. 6-9. Tensions have flared in recent weeks along the border between Israel and Gaza - Palestinian territory which is controlled by Hamas Islamists. Israel, the United States and other Western countries regard Hamas as a terrorist organization. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008, the last of them in 2014. On Sunday, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said on Twitter that he held "productive meetings" with Egyptian officials in efforts to de-escalate Gaza tensions and resolve humanitarian issues. "The devil is always in the details but we are #movingforward in the interest of #peace," Mladenov said. The talks are being held in Cairo, though Mladenov said he had also held meeting with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank. In Gaza, Hamas said some of its top-ranking officials were expected to arrive from Egypt late on Thursday to discuss the deal. "The delegation will arrive in Gaza for consultation over issues of concern for the Palestinian people, foremost in achieving the national reconciliation and ending the Gaza blockade," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. A source in Hamas, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delegation included the group's deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, exiled by Israel in 2010. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have divulged few details of the talks. "The fact that the trip (to Colombia) has been called off shows that the prime minister has a feeling that these are decisive days, these are days that it is imperative that he should stay in the country, and he knows why," Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio. More than two million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave which suffers deep economic hardship. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, citing security concerns over Hamas and other militant groups. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border. Four months of weekly Palestinian protests along the border have calmed slightly but organisers have said they will continue until Israel lifts economic sanctions on Gaza. At least 155 Palestinians have been killed in the protests and one Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Gaza sniper. Palestinian militants have also fired hundreds of rockets over the border, drawing dozens of Israeli air and tank strikes. Israel has lost tracts of farmland and forests to fires set by kites and helium balloons laden with incendiary material and flown over the border by Palestinians in Gaza. On Wednesday, Israel said it was stopping shipments of fuel and gas to Gaza. The move, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday, was in response to a continuation of cross-border violence, despite assurances from Egypt that it would end. Palestinians in Gaza suffer up to 20 hours of power cuts per day due to fuel shortages. "We acceded to Egypt's request," Lieberman told reporters. "We allowed in gas and fuel, but there was an additional Egyptian commitment that there would be no more launches, no kites, no conflagrations, no friction along the fence." "Since those things are continuing, I decided to stop the supplies of gas and fuel to the Gaza Strip," he said. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Richard Balmforth) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Imran Khan's party had initially planned to invite several foreign leaders and personalities, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Islamabad: Pakistan said that no foreign leader will be invited to the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan as the prime minister in-waiting wants to keep the event very simple and dignified. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the elections held on 25 July. The 65-year-old leader is expected to take oath on 11 August. Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said a simple ceremony will be held at the President House for which no date has been fixed. "No dignitary from abroad except a few close friends of Chairman PTI Imran Khan would attend the simple and dignified oath-taking at Aiwan-e-Sadar (President House)," said Faisal. President Mamnoon Hussain will administer Khan the oath of the office. Khan's party had initially planned to invite several foreign leaders and personalities, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, in an apparent change of heart, Khan has opted against a fancy ceremony on Thursday. Faisal said that the PTI also announced that no foreign leaders would attend the oath-taking ceremony. In a tweet, the PTI announced that the oath taking will be a simple and dignified ceremony and "it has been decided not to invite foreign dignitaries". Earlier, PTI leaders had said that the Foreign Office was consulted to invite foreign leaders which may include leaders from SARRC nations as well as from China and Turkey. PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said that FO was approached to seek advice on the issue of inviting foreign leaders. According to reports, initial arguments from the Foreign Office suggested that it believes Pakistan would face a bigger embarrassment if the Indian Prime Minister declined the invitation. "There will be no show of extravagance at the event," Chaudhry said. "A few of Imran's friends are the only foreign nationals being invited to the event," he said. On Monday, Prime Minister Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his party's victory in the general elections and hoped that "Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties". Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue. The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition spokesman accused Houthi militia of being behind an attack that killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Hodeidah in Yemen on Thursday, adding the coalition did not carry out any operations in the port city. Earlier on Thursday, medical sources and aid agencies said an air strikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia on a fishing port and fish market in Hodeidah killed 26 people and wounded 50 others. 'The coalition follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules of international law. HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition spokesman accused Houthi militia of being behind an attack that killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Hodeidah in Yemen on Thursday, adding the coalition did not carry out any operations in the port city. Earlier on Thursday, medical sources and aid agencies said an air strikes by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia on a fishing port and fish market in Hodeidah killed 26 people and wounded 50 others. "The coalition follows a strict and transparent approach based on the rules of international law. We pursue any allegations and if there is any responsibility we will hold it transparently," Colonel Turki al-Malki told Al Arabiya television. "Coalition did not carry out any operations in Hodeidah today...Houthi militia are behind killing of civilians in Hodeidah on today," he added. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Sunni Muslim allies have been fighting in Yemen with Western backing for more than three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis. The Houthis control much of north Yemen including the capital Sanaa and drove its Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014. The strikes come as the United Nations tries to secure a ceasefire agreement between the warring sides. Yemen's Houthi group said on Tuesday it was unilaterally halting attacks in the Red Sea for two weeks to support peace efforts, a few days after Saudi Arabia suspended oil exports through a strategic Red Sea channel following Houthi attacks on crude tankers on July 25. Hodeidah port is the main conduit for supplies to Yemen, where around 8.4 million people are believed by aid workers to be on the verge of starvation. The Saudi-led alliance says capturing Hodeidah would cut off the main supply line of the Houthis and force the group to the negotiating table, but it has made no major gains since it launched the offensive on June 12. The Houthis have offered to hand over management of the port to the world body, according to the United Nations, but the coalition says the group must quit the western coast. (Reporting by Marwa Rashad, Aziz El Yakoubi and Ali Abdelaty; Editing by Alison Williams and Clive McKeef) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. A draft of the cybersecurity deal with Russia is set to be issued by foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Singapore: Southeast Asian nations hope to strike a joint agreement on cybersecurity in coming days with Russia, which is accused by the United States of meddling in its elections, after a series of high-profile hacks in the region. The draft of a document seen by Reuters discusses formalizing an agreement with Russia. It is set to be issued by foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the close of meetings underway with other global lawmakers in Singapore. We welcome the further strengthening [of] our cooperation in cybersecurity with Russia through the issuance of the statement of ASEAN and Russian foreign ministers on cooperation in the field of cybersecurity, the draft document said, adding the title would be updated depending on negotiations. It is due to be published on Saturday. The host of the ASEAN meeting, Singapore, recently suffered its worst ever cyber attack, when hackers stole the personal information of about 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, from a government health database. Earlier this year, Malaysia said it had foiled an attempted cyberheist on its central bank. Neither country has identified the hackers and neither suggested the involvement of Russia. US intelligence agencies have said that a Russian propaganda arm tried to tamper with the 2016 presidential election by posting and buying ads on Facebook. Moscow has denied involvement. Facebook said on Tuesday that it had identified a new coordinated political influence campaign to mislead its users and sow dissension among voters ahead of Novembers congressional elections in the US. Russia last year appointed a dedicated Ambassador to ASEAN based in Jakarta. Senior officials from ASEAN and Russia met in March in Jakarta for wide-ranging talks on co-operation in political, security and economic fields among others. Three Ukrainians have been arrested for hacking more than 100 US companies and stealing millions of credit and debit card numbers, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday. Washington: Three Ukrainians have been arrested for hacking more than 100 US companies and stealing millions of credit and debit card numbers, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday. Dmytro Fedorov (44), Fedir Hladyr (33), and Andrii Kolpakov (30), are high-ranking members of an "international cybercrime group" called "FIN7" which had dozens of members around the world, the department said in a statement. "Since at least 2015, FIN7 members engaged in a highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting more than 100 US companies, predominantly in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries," it said. "FIN7 hacked into thousands of computer systems and stole millions of customer credit and debit card numbers, which the group used or sold for profit," it said. The Justice Department said members of the "prolific hacking group" also targeted computer networks in Britain, Australia, and France. FBI special agent Jay Tabb told a press conference in Seattle, Washington, where the arrests were announced, that the hacking was not state-sponsored. "No linkage at all to any state-sponsored activity," Tabb said. "This is just old-fashioned organized crime." Fedorov, a "high-level hacker and manager," was arrested in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, in January and is being detained pending extradition to the United States, the Department of Justice said. Hladyr, FIN7's systems administrator, was arrested in Dresden, Germany, in January, it said, and is being held in Seattle, Washington, pending a trial scheduled to open on 22 October. Kolpakov, described as a "supervisor of a group of hackers," was arrested in Lepe, Spain, in late June and is being detained there pending a US extradition request, the department said. "Cyber criminals who believe that they can hide in faraway countries and operate from behind keyboards without getting caught are just plain wrong," said Annette Hayes, US Attorney for the Western District of Washington. The charges against the three were contained in federal indictments unsealed on Tuesday. They were charged with 26 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The Justice Department said that FIN7 also known as the "Carbanak Group" and the "Navigator Group," breached computer networks of companies in 47 US states and Washington DC. They allegedly stole "more than 15 million customer card records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 separate business locations." Among the companies which have publicly disclosed hacks by FIN7 are Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chili's, Arby's, Red Robin and Jason's Deli, the Justice Department said. Many of the businesses were targeted through phishing schemes involving email. "FIN7 carefully crafted email messages that would appear legitimate to a business' employee, and accompanied emails with telephone calls intended to further legitimize the email," it said. Once an attached file was opened, it would trigger malware to steal payment card data which was sold on online underground marketplaces. By Joseph White and David Shepardson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California and 18 other U.S. states said on Thursday they would sue to stop a Trump administration proposal to weaken Obama-era federal fuel efficiency standards, arguing the United States has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations. The administration billed the rollback it announced on Thursday, which would also revoke California's authority to set its own strict vehicle emissions rules, as a way to lower auto prices for consumers. By Joseph White and David Shepardson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California and 18 other U.S. states said on Thursday they would sue to stop a Trump administration proposal to weaken Obama-era federal fuel efficiency standards, arguing the United States has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations. The administration billed the rollback it announced on Thursday, which would also revoke California's authority to set its own strict vehicle emissions rules, as a way to lower auto prices for consumers. Critics said it would accelerate climate change and increase fuel prices. The 19 states, and Washington D.C, announced they would sue in what is likely to be a heated legal showdown over the proposal. "The Trump Administration has launched a brazen attack, no matter how it is cloaked, on our nation's Clean Car Standards," California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said in a statement. California "will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend today's national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them," he said. The states that have adopted California's emission rules together make up about one third of the U.S. auto market. The administration said car manufacturers would benefit from the proposed rollback, but the U.S. auto industry is pushing for a negotiated settlement between states and the administration to lift uncertainty over the kinds of cars and trucks it will need to produce for the American market in the coming years. The proposal to roll back anti-pollution efforts is in line with President Donald Trump's decision last year to abandon the 2015 Paris Agreement, under which countries agreed to take steps to mitigate global warming. It also dovetails with the Republican president's broader effort to unwind green regulation, much of it enacted by Democratic former President Barack Obama's administration, that he views as onerous to business. The proposal from the U.S. Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency would freeze fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels through 2026, and require dramatically fewer electric vehicles as more people continue to drive gasoline-powered vehicles. The administration said the freeze would boost U.S. oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels of oil a day by the 2030s, and argued it would prevent up to 1,000 traffic fatalities per year by reducing the price of new vehicles and so prompting people to buy newer, safer vehicles more quickly. Environmental groups criticized the assertion about reducing crash deaths, and said the proposal would drive up gasoline prices, increase asthma-inducing smog, and reverse one of the most significant steps Washington has taken to curb climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. "The clean car standards are already saving our families billions at the pump, supporting nearly 300,000 American jobs, and cleaning up dangerous tailpipe pollution," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We need to speed up that progress, not slide backward." The administration must gather feedback on the proposal before it is finalized, a process that could take months and that could be further delayed by lawsuits. GOOD FOR CARMAKERS? The Transportation Department says the proposal would shrink regulatory costs for automakers by $319 billion through 2029, reducing by more than $60 billion what General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV each would have been expected to spend to comply with the Obama-era rules. Toyota Motor Corp would save $34 billion and Volkswagen AG $20 billion. General Motors said in a statement that it wants to work "with all parties to achieve one national 50-state program," adding it was committed to "continually improving fuel economy and our commitment to an all-electric future." The administration also contends that hiking U.S. oil consumption by 2 to 3 percent over forecast levels would have a minimal impact on the environment, boosting global average temperature by just 3/1000th of a degree Celsius by 2100. Trump's decision to challenge California's authority to regulate vehicle emissions upends decades of federal policy that allowed the most populous and richest U.S. state to combat air pollution that particularly afflicts Los Angeles. Seventeen states, including California, had filed a lawsuit in May challenging the EPA's decision in April to declare current U.S. vehicle emission targets "not appropriate." The Trump administration proposal said California's zero emission vehicle rules, adopted by nine other states, are technologically infeasible. "California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible," Governor Edmund Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. The freeze would also eliminate $3 billion in estimated fines for automakers not meeting efficiency standards, but did not specify which automakers could avoid fines. EMISSIONS AND ELECTIONS Democrats hope to make any rollback of the emissions rules a key part of midterm elections in November, when they will be seeking to try to regain control of one or both chambers of Congress. Republicans in states with links to the auto industry may counter that the administration is working to ensure automakers can make more profitable, larger vehicles, including fuel-thirsty pickups and SUVs. Some middle ground might be possible. Acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler said on Wednesday he would welcome a deal between the industry and states. Bill Wehrum, an assistant EPA administrator, told reporters on Thursday that many things had changed, including a drop in fuel prices, since the efficiency rules were last set six years ago. He said gas prices are "at historically low levels and that changes driving habits, that changes the kind of cars and trucks that people want to buy. Federal and California officials would soon meet about the proposal, Wehrum said, adding, "All of us want one national program. We are going to try to work it out." (Reporting by Joe White and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Jonathan Stempel and Nichola Groom; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Joseph White and David Shepardson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California and 18 other U.S. states promised on Thursday to fight a Trump administration proposal to weaken fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks and force states into line, arguing the United States has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations By Joseph White and David Shepardson DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California and 18 other U.S. states promised on Thursday to fight a Trump administration proposal to weaken fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks and force states into line, arguing the United States has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations. The administration billed the proposed rollback from Obama-era fuel efficiency standards as a way to help car companies and lower vehicle prices for consumers, but critics said the plan would accelerate climate change and increase fuel prices. By seeking to strip California of its authority to set its own strict vehicle emissions standards, the proposal also opens new questions about the limits of federal powers over states. The 19 states, and Washington D.C, announced they would sue to halt the proposed rollback, touching off what will likely be a heated legal showdown that could last months and become a polarizing issue in elections in November. "The Trump Administration has launched a brazen attack, no matter how it is cloaked, on our nation's Clean Car Standards," said California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra. California "will use every legal tool at its disposal" to defend strict standards, he said in a statement. Many U.S. states have adopted California's emission rules, and together they make up about one third of the U.S. auto market - making the stakes for the autos industry enormous. The administration said the proposed rollback would mean billions of dollars in regulatory savings for car manufacturers. But the industry is pushing for a negotiated settlement between states and the administration to lift uncertainty over the kinds of cars and trucks it will need to produce for the American market in the coming years. The proposal to roll back anti-pollution efforts is in line with President Donald Trump's decision last year to abandon the 2015 Paris Agreement, under which countries agreed to take steps to mitigate global warming. It also dovetails with the Republican president's broader effort to unwind green regulation, much of it enacted by Democratic former President Barack Obama's administration, that he views as onerous to business. The proposal from the U.S. Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency would freeze fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels through 2026, and require dramatically fewer electric vehicles as more people continue to drive gasoline-powered vehicles. The administration said the freeze would boost U.S. oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels of oil a day by the 2030s, and argued it would prevent up to 1,000 traffic fatalities per year by reducing the price of new vehicles and so prompting people to buy newer, safer vehicles more quickly. Environmental groups criticized the assertion about reducing crash deaths, and said the proposal would drive up gasoline prices, increase asthma-inducing smog, and reverse one of the most significant steps Washington has taken to curb climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. "The clean car standards are already saving our families billions at the pump, supporting nearly 300,000 American jobs, and cleaning up dangerous tailpipe pollution," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We need to speed up that progress, not slide backward." The administration must gather feedback on the proposal before it is finalised, a process that could take months and that could be further delayed by lawsuits. GOOD FOR CARMAKERS? The Transportation Department says the proposal would shrink regulatory costs for automakers by $319 billion through 2029, reducing by more than $60 billion what General Motors Co , Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV each would have been expected to spend to comply with the Obama-era rules. Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> would save $34 billion and Volkswagen AG $20 billion. General Motors said in a statement that it wants to work "with all parties to achieve one national 50-state program," adding it was committed to "continually improving fuel economy and our commitment to an all-electric future." The administration also contends that hiking U.S. oil consumption by 2 to 3 percent over forecast levels would have a minimal impact on the environment, boosting global average temperature by just 3/1000th of a degree Celsius by 2100. Trump's decision to challenge California's authority to regulate vehicle emissions upends decades of federal policy that allowed the most populous and richest U.S. state to combat air pollution that particularly afflicts Los Angeles. The Trump administration proposal said California's zero emission vehicle rules, adopted by nine other states, are technologically infeasible. "California will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible," Governor Edmund Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. The freeze would also eliminate $3 billion in estimated fines for automakers not meeting efficiency standards, but did not specify which automakers could avoid fines. EMISSIONS AND ELECTIONS Democrats hope to make any rollback of the emissions rules a key part of November's midterm elections, when they will try to regain control of one or both chambers of Congress. Republicans in states with links to the auto industry may counter that the administration is working to ensure automakers can make more profitable, larger vehicles, including fuel-thirsty pickups and SUVs. Some middle ground might be possible. Acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler said on Wednesday he would welcome a deal between the industry and states. Bill Wehrum, an assistant EPA administrator, told reporters on Thursday that many things had changed, including a drop in fuel prices, since the efficiency rules were last set six years ago. He said gas prices are "at historically low levels and that changes driving habits, that changes the kind of cars and trucks that people want to buy." Federal and California officials would soon meet about the proposal, Wehrum said, adding, "All of us want one national program. We are going to try to work it out." Becerra said California is "ready and willing" to talk with Trump administration regulators, but that previous talks have not been fruitful. (Reporting by Joe White and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Jonathan Stempel and Nichola Groom; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The United States Congress has passed the conference report on National Defense Authorization Act-2019 (NDAA-19), which paves the way for waiver to India from punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA Washington: The United States Congress has passed the conference report on National Defense Authorization Act-2019 (NDAA-19), which paves the way for waiver to India from punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, under which sanctions kick off on countries that purchase significant military equipment from Russia. The Senate passed the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide $716 billion support in funding for national defense for fiscal year 2019. The bill, which now moves to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of CAATSA. Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology. "The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI. "The legislative language is designed to look very tough, as though the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said. "The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said. At the same time, it is important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects, he cautioned, adding this legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment. "This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward-looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said. Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the CAATSA waiver authority for strategic partners such as India. "By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI. The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority. Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining an once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said. Samsung has announced the Galaxy Tab S4, successor of last years Galaxy Tab S3, as expected. It has a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED WQXGA screen, is powered by a Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 SoC and runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo). It has quad-stereo speakers tuned by AKG by HARMAN, similar to the predecessor and comes with an an enhanced S Pen. It has got rid of the fingerprint scanner and the home button on the front for Iris scanner. Samsung has brought Samsung DeX to the tablet for the first time. When connected to the Book Cover Keyboard or launched from the Quick Panel, the Galaxy Tab S4 powers on Samsung DeX that lets you switch from the Android interface to a desktop experience. You can also extend Samsung DeX to an external monitor with a compatible HDMI to USB-C multi-port adapter. When connected, the Galaxy Tab S4 can serve as a track pad or a sketch pad, it continues to work as a fully functional Android tablet, giving users two screens to accomplish tasks. The new S Pen lets you take notes on the fly through the Screen-Off Memo feature, as well as navigate, translate and organize notes through Samsung Notes, and even send personalized texts through Samsung Live Message. It packs a 7,300mAh battery that promises up to 16 hours of video playback. Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 specifications 10.5-inch (25601600 pixel) WQXGA 16:10 aspect ratio Super AMOLED display Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform with Adreno 540 GPU 4GB RAM, 64GB / 256GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) 13MP rear camera with LED flash 5MP front-facing camera Iris Scanner 4 speakers tuned by AKG, Dolby Atmos Dimensions: 249.3 x 164.3 x 7.1mm; Weight: 482g (Wi-Fi) / 483g (LTE) 4G LTE (optional), WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz/5GHz) MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5, GPS, GLONASS, USB 3.1 Type-C, POGO pin 7,300mAh battery with Fast Charging The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 comes in Black and White colors, and starts at $649.99 ( 44,400 approx.) for the 64GB and $749.99 ( 51,230 approx.) for the 256GB WiFi variants. It will be available in the US from August 10, 2018 at Amazon, Best Buy and Samsung.com, and the LTE version will be available from Verizon first, along with other major wireless providers including AT&T, Sprint and US Cellular later in Q3 2018. Pre-orders starting today through August 9, 2018 on Samsung.com, and all the pre-orders get a free Book Cover Keyboard worth $149.99 ( 10,245 approx.) till September 8, 2018. Source Theo exports of key forestry reached $5.025 billion from January to July, said the Administration, accounting for 22.6 percent of the agricultures export turnover. Moreover, exports of key wooden products have kept rising with average growth rate over 14 percent compared to the same period last year. Therefore, the Ministry announced Vietnamese Prime Minister will work with 500 woodworking firms, exporters and relevant agencies to discuss the wood industrys sustainability. This year has seen slight increase of 0.4 percent in imported material because people plant more trees for wood processing industry; subsequently, the sectors trade surplus was $3.77 billion. Specifically, imported material dipped 51.3 percent, 8.9 percent, 7.8 percent and 2.7 percent in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand. The US, China, Japan and South Korea are four largest market of Vietnam consuming 78.5 percent of total exported wood and wooden products. By VAN PHUC - Translated by UYEN PHUONG Qin AI Phone, a new 4G VoLTE feature phone is now available for order from Xiaomis crowd funding platform in China. It has a 2.8-inch QVGA color display with T9 keyboard and runs Android-based Mocor 5 OS. The main highlight of the smartphone its AI voice features that promises real-time voice translation in 17 languages. The AI can also tell a story or poetry to children, in addition to answering questions. It doesnt have rear or front camera, but it features infrared sensor that lets you control home appliances like AC, TV and others. The 1480mAh battery promises up to 15 hours of talk time and 420 hours standby, and it charges via USB Type-C port. There is also a 2G version of the phone with Nucleus OS, MediaTek MT6260A ARM Cortex A7 SoC, 8MB RAM and 16MB internal storage. Qin AI Phone specifications 2.8-inch (320 x 240 pixels) QVGA display 1.3GHz dual-core SC9820E ARM Cortex A53 processor with ARM Mali T82 GPU 256MB RAM, 512MB internal storage, expandable memory with microSD Android-based Mocor 5 OS Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD) 3.5mm audio jack, AAC 1511 box speakers IR sensor Dimensions: 13253.88.5mm 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, GPS, USB Type-C 1480mAh battery The Qin AI Phone comes in Black and White colors, and is available for pre-order from Xiaomis crowdfunding platform for 199 yuan (US$ 29 / 1,990 approx.), and is expected to start shipping from September 15, 2018. At the time of writing this article, the company already got 4405 out of required 1000 registrations, and is increasing every minute, with 13 days remaining for the crowd funding to be fulfilled. Source A year after Amazon Prime Video released Baahubali: The Lost Legends, an animated series in India, Netflix today announced a new Netflix original series Baahubali: Before the Beginning, a prequel to Baahubali: the Beginning and Baahubali: the Conclusion movies. This will be based on Anand Neelakantans book, The Rise of Sivagami, and the first season will have 9 episodes, and Netflix has ordered two seasons. Netflix has partnered with the team behind the Baahubali universe, including Arka Media Works and SS Rajamouli. Deva Katta and Praveen Sataru will together direct the series. Netflix did not say when the new series will be released, but we should know more details in the coming months. Regarding the series, Netflix said: The series captures Queen Sivagamis journey from a rebellious and vengeful girl to a wise and unequalled queen. Power, politics and intrigue find themselves juxtaposed against the rise of Mahishmati from being a city-state to an empire. This is the rich backdrop and drama where the Baahubali franchise is set. The series promises to build on the incredible narrative style of the franchise including its high production values, spectacular visuals and connective-epic story-telling. Erik Barmack, VP, International Originals, Netflix, said: Baahubali is a world-class franchise that epitomizes the power of compelling stories that resonate globally. We are excited to work with some of the worlds most talented writers and producers on one of Indias most beloved stories. The series is a tremendous opportunity for us to give audiences more of the universe that they have come to love, and welcome millions more into the global Baahubali fandom. Source Xiaomi is celebrating 5th anniversary of Redmi phones, as first Redmi device was announced on 31st July 2013. In a tweet, the companys VP and India Head, Manu Kumar Jain shared a picture of Redmi devices he used till date, surprisingly, the picture shows a device with red rear panel which is yet to be introduced in India. #5YearsWithRedmi: 5 yrs since 1st #Redmi phone was launched globally. Today @RedmiIndia is the most loved smartphone series in India 1st Redmi phone in India was #Redmi1S & Ive used every single Redmi device. Still have all of them! Can u identify them? Which is ur fav 1? pic.twitter.com/Jx2fTYFPoj Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) August 2, 2018 In China, Xiaomi recently introduced flame red variant of Redmi Note 5 (called Redmi note 5 Pro in India) but company has not yet launched red variant of any Redmi device in India. Last year, Xiaomi launched Red variant of Mi A1 in India but since then we have not seen any Xiaomi device in red color in Indian market. In India, company sells limited color variants of devices including Black, Gold, Rose Gold, and Lake Blue. The red color device in the picture looks like Redmi 5 which was launched in India in March 2018. Redmi 5 was a major upgrade to its predecessor Redmi 4 in terms of design and internals but packed a smaller battery as compared to Redmi 4. Despite being a major upgrade over Redmi 4, it doesnt seem to do well in terms of sales if we go by customer ratings on Amazon. Its been more than 4 months since the device was introduced in India and less than 8000 users have rated it till date on Amazon.in, now it seems that company may introduce a new red variant to boost its sales, ahead of the Redmi 6 launch in coming months. What happened Shares of Italian supercar maker Ferrari N.V. (NYSE:RACE) fell sharply in trading on Wednesday. In his first earnings call since taking the top job, Ferrari's new CEO seemed to walk back earnings-growth expectations set by his late predecessor, characterizing a key profit target as "aspirational." Ferrari's shares closed at $118.00 in New York, down 11% from Tuesday's closing price. So what Ferrari reported its second-quarter earnings result before the market opened on Wednesday, and the numbers were mixed. While earnings per share of 0.84 euros beat Wall Street's 0.81-euro average estimate, Ferrari's 906 million euros in revenue fell short of expectations on unfavorable exchange-rate shifts. That revenue shortfall wasn't really the issue, though. Analysts on Ferrari's earnings call became concerned after new CEO Louis Camilleri, who succeeded the highly regarded Sergio Marchionne less than two weeks ago, seemed to walk back an aggressive profit-growth target that had been set by Marchionne earlier this year. In January, Marchionne said that Ferrari's adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) would reach 2 billion euros annually no later than 2022 -- roughly double the 1.04 billion euros in adjusted EBITDA that Ferrari generated in 2018. That target seemed to give considerable support to Ferrari's lofty stock price. But Camilleri seemed to want to reduce expectations, describing Marchionne's target as "aspirational" early on. Pressed by an analyst, he said, "That number [2 billion euros in adjusted EBITDA] is certainly an aspirational target, and we will do everything we can in terms of our plans to get there. Beyond that, I can't tell you." Needless to say, that didn't go over well with investors who were already concerned about the company's future without Marchionne. Now what Marchionne had planned to present Ferrari's growth strategy in detail in a briefing for investors in September. Camilleri confirmed that Ferrari will stick to that plan. Investors will have to wait several more weeks to learn how -- and perhaps if -- Ferrari intends to double its profit over the next four years. Shares of gold mining companies Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) and Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) are moving in opposite directions after their recent second-quarter earnings releases. As a matter of fact, that's how it has been for the two gold stocks in the past one year, with Yamana gaining almost 22% as of this writing even as Eldorado turned out to be the worst-performing gold stock in the one-year period through June. But before you decide which gold stock to buy now, it's important to see where Eldorado and Yamana see themselves headed for the rest of the year and beyond, and the valuations at which the stocks are currently trading. The latter, in particular, will shock you. Which gold miner fared better in Q2? Let's first check how Yamana Gold and Eldorado Gold performed in their respective second quarters. We have some really interesting numbers here (all year over year). Yamana Gold: Gold production up 1.4%. Revenue up 0.7%. Net income of $18 million versus a loss of $39.9 million in the year-ago period. Eldorado Gold: Gold production up 56%. Revenue up 85%. Net loss of $24.4 million versus a profit of $11.2 million in the year-ago quarter. What just happened there? Yamana's revenue was flat, but it turned its losses around to healthy profits. Eldorado did the reverse, incurring a huge loss despite a stunning recovery in sales. One company is evidently managing its costs better than the other. While greater production from Eldorado is hugely encouraging, higher costs -- right from production, operating, mine standby, and asset writedowns, to stock and pension-related -- punctured its bottom line. Eldorado's all-in sustaining cost (AISC) jumped 10% to $934 per ounce of gold. Yamana Gold, on the other hand, displayed remarkable cost efficiency last quarter, cutting down its co-product AISC by roughly 4% to $837 per gold ounce. Yamana's silver and copper production also came in higher than expected during the quarter, driving its gold equivalent ounce production up by nearly 7% year over year. That pretty much explains why the two stocks moved in opposite directions post-earnings. But with both Eldorado and Yamana upgrading their full-year guidance, could things look any different in the near future? Eldorado Gold has an update on Greece, and it's not what you want to hear Eldorado upgraded its fiscal 2018 production guidance by 8% at the midpoint to 330,000-340,000 ounces. That sounds great, and speculators might want to try their luck, but for long-term investors, Eldorado's biggest risk remains as-is: an uncertain future for its largest mine, Kisladag in Turkey. To be fair, Eldorado had already warned investors about low gold recoveries from Kisladag last year. The company is mulling an alternative mining process, but production won't pick up before 2020. Kisladag mine 2018 2019 2020 Production guidance (gold ounces) 140,000-150,000 40,000-50,000 20,000-25,000 Cash cost guidance (per ounce of gold) $700-$800 $900-$1,000 $600-$700 Meanwhile, Eldorado's latest statement on Greece sounds unconfident and cautious: Eldorado continues to engage the Greek government in discussions concerning the outstanding permits required to advance the Skouries project. However, the Company is unable to provide guidance as to when the permits may be issued. The Company is evaluating its legal options in this regard. That's not what investors want to hear; they were waiting for a positive update after the Greek government announced intentions to resolve its standoff with Eldorado within "weeks" in May. Eldorado now mulling "legal options" raises further questions. As the company elaborated, it requires "collaborative government dialogue and a clear line of sight to free cash flow" to develop Skouries, one of its key projects in Greece. One might argue that Eldorado has other projects, like Efemcukuru in Turkey, Lamaque in Canada, and Olympias in Greece, to fall back on, but I'll leave you with a final thought to ponder: Eldorado foresees its gold production to hit 600,000 ounces by 2021, but only if its Kisladag plan succeeds. Otherwise, even with Lamaque, Eldorado's production would be around 300,000 ounces in 2021, at best. Yamana Gold is exceeding its own expectations, and the stock's still cheap In a recent article about Yamana Gold, I outlined three promising areas that the market was overlooking. The miner delivered on all three fronts last quarter: rising production, falling costs, and healthy cash flows. With its low-cost seventh mine, Cerro Moro, rapidly ramping up, Yamana now expects to "exceed" its full-year gold production guidance of 900,000 ounces. That positions the miner for strong growth at favorable costs in coming years, as it highlighted in its latest corporate summary report. With production plans in place, Yamana Gold's management now plans to prioritize maximizing returns on capital invested and cash flows in the coming quarters. If the company can return to positive free cash flows, it will be one of the strongest gold-mining stocks in the industry from all aspects, right from production to costs to financials. Would you believe, then, that Yamana Gold is trading at only 5.6 times price to operating cash flow, or less than one-third the valuation Eldorado Gold shares are commanding right now? That should make it really easy for you to choose between Eldorado Gold and Yamana Gold. For years, Leucadia National was a highly diversified conglomerate, bringing together not only well-known financial services companies but also meat processing giant National Beef. Yet recently, the company realized it wanted to focus on its Jefferies subsidiary, and so it decided to change its name to Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) and sell off a substantial portion of its holdings of National Beef. Coming into its second-quarter financial report, investors were curious to see what Jefferies would look like after its recent strategic moves. The company's results were solid, but many investors focused on a couple of capital allocation decisions it made that could have a profound impact on the stock over time. Jefferies' first results as its own company Jefferies Financial Group's second-quarter financial results showed the continued success of that portion of Leucadia's old business. Revenue climbed 6% to $911.2 million, accelerating from the segment's pace of growth in the first quarter of 2018. Net income soared to $725.5 million, and that produced earnings of $2.03 per share, easily beating the $1.88 consensus forecast among those following the stock. A closer look at what's under Jefferies' corporate umbrella can shed light on what's working for the company right now. The primary Jefferies Group LLC unit, which makes up about 90% of revenue, saw good results from its investment banking division, which enjoyed a more than 40% jump in sales compared to the previous year's second quarter. The fixed income portion of that business struggled, but equities were relatively consistent with year-ago performance. Berkadia also contributed to Jefferies' overall success. The debt-origination business provided $6 billion in financing for clients during the second quarter, up by 25% from last year, and investment sales were also higher. Despite some tough conditions in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, Berkadia has sustained its servicing portfolio near current levels. Elsewhere, Jefferies expanded its asset management business by joining up with Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisors in a collaboration, as well as partnering with the newly combined businesses of Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and Folger Hill Asset Management. Vitesse Energy Finance kept working in the Bakken shale play, while positions in Spectrum Brands and Idaho Timber had relatively small impacts on Jefferies' overall performance. The sale of a 48% stake in National Beef generated $1.1 billion in cash, and that prompted the company to take steps to consider additional return of capital. Even after the sale, Jefferies will still own a 31% interest in National Beef, and solid performance in the beef and cattle industry made a positive contribution to Jefferies' financial results. What Jefferies is doing now Jefferies CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman focused on what the company has done with its spare cash. "We repurchased a total of over 24 million of our outstanding shares (7%) at an average price of $24.17 per share," Handler and Friedman said, "or a total of $582 million returns to shareholders in the second quarter." The CEO and president also noted the many milestones the company passed during the period, including the sale of its interest in Garcadia and the company's renaming. But Jefferies isn't stopping there. The company said it will allow repurchase of another 25 million shares, potentially further reducing the outstanding share count by roughly 7%. At the same time, Jefferies boosted its dividend by 25% and will now pay $0.125 per share on a quarterly basis. By doing so, Jefferies is making it clear that it wants to give back to its investors even as it cashes out some of what it now considers its non-core assets. Shareholders were happy with the report, and the stock jumped 7% on the day following the announcement before giving back ground over the ensuing week. With its new focus, Jefferies Financial Group aims to maintain the strong track record Leucadia put together, and it has a good chance of succeeding if it keeps following its current strategic vision. Green Motion Expands Global Car Hire Network to Canada August 02, 2018 // Franchising.com // Green Motion has added Canada to its global car hire network with the opening of a new location at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Green Motion International now offers its award winning, low cost and environmentally responsible service in more than 30 countries. The company marked its 10th anniversary of successful operation in 2017, servicing close to 850,000 reservations across 400 locations within its global network. Toronto is the first location to be opened by entrepreneur Pablo Mendoza following his acquisition of the Green Motion master franchise for Canada earlier in 2018. He has a successful track record with Green Motion, already co-owning and operating a master franchise in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Mendoza plans to expand the Green Motion network at key airports and city locations across the country over the next two years. Richard Lowden, CEO of Green Motion International, said: Im delighted this latest expansion of the Green Motion family means our leisure and business customers can now hire from us at this key international airport. Our franchise partners are focused on delivering the very best experience, so I know customers arriving in Toronto will enjoy great service at industry leading rates. The new location brings Green Motions unique proposition to both Canadas leisure and business customers. In line with the companys commitment to help drivers minimise the environmental impact of their travel, customers will be able to choose from a wide selection of cars including zero emissions vehicles such as the all-electric Nissan Leaf, plus hybrid models from Toyota and Honda. Green Motion Canadas founder, Pablo Mendoza said: Its a real honour to be expanding my partnership with Green Motion International. Canada has been my home for the last 10 years, so launching a major new venture in the country is a privilege. My new team in Toronto are whole heartedly committed to providing excellent service, so I look forward to welcoming new customers from Canada and around the world. Following the successful launch of Green Motion in Toronto, the company is actively seeking new sub-franchises and car rental partners throughout the country. Information for customers interested in hiring with Green Motion in Canada can be found at www.greenmotioncarrental.ca. About Green Motion International Established in 2007 by UK entrepreneur Richard Lowden, Green Motion Car and Van hire offers its customers - both leisure and business - the opportunity to enjoy great value vehicle rental, while helping to reduce the impact of global CO2 emissions associated with road travel. Green Motion International now offers its award winning, low cost and environmentally responsible service in more than 30 countries. The company marked its 10th anniversary of successful operation in 2017, servicing close to 850,000 reservations across the 400 locations within its global network. For more information, visit https://greenmotion.com/ Media Contact: Neil Bayley At Good Relations for Green Motion International E. nbayley@goodrelations.co.uk M. +44 (0)7788 352 046 SOURCE Green Motion International ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Huynh Cach Mang highlighted the development of the two countries' relations in various fields, especially after the official establishment of the Vietnam-Singapore strategic partnership in September 2013. Singapore has more than 1,000 projects worth US$10.6 billion in the city. It is the largest investor and second trade partner of HCM City. Cooperation activities in education, art, culture and society between the two sides have carried out regularly. Singaporean Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Leow Siu Lin affirmed that Singapore wants to further develop the relationship with HCMC in smart technology and applying smart technology in urban planning. By THUY VU - Translated by Kim Khanh The five-day camp has attracted 41 officials and 205 children who have achieved excellent results in their studies and other extra-curricular social activities in the three countries. Participants will take part in cultural-exchange programs, such as offering flowers to the late President Ho Chi Minh at the municipal Childrens House; visiting Ho Chi Minh Museum Branch of Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi Tunnel; taking waterway bus travelling around the city, campfire and more. Vietnamese delegates joining the event come from HCM City and border provinces such as Kon Tum, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, and Kien Giang. By THAI PHUONG - Translated by Kim Khanh This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most consequential anti-poverty programs in human history. Now, there is evidence that its spillover effects may lift millions more out of dire need. In 1978, 18 farmers from the Chinese village of Xiaogang secretly signed the document that changed the world. Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute writes: A few years earlier they had seen 67 of their 120 population starve to death in the Great Leap Forward Now they took matters into their own hands. By flickering lights (none had seen electricity), they came forward in turn to sign a document dividing up the collective farm into individual family plots, whose owners could keep most of the proceeds of their labours. They knew the dangers, and added a clause to the contract pledging that if any were betrayed and executed, the others would raise their children until aged 18. Following that historic contract, the village produced more food next harvest than it had in the previous 5 years combined. China leapt from being a net importer of food into being a net exporter, and the Chinese economic miracle was launched. The new openness to enterprise, private property, and investment led to Chinas meteoric economic rise. Now, Donald Trumps tariffs are encouraging manufacturers to take their factories elsewhere. Ian Chen, CEO of a Chinese technological exporter, said that Trumps tariffs have his fellow manufacturers seriously considering setting up a backup production line in Malaysia or Vietnam to prepare for the worst. This exodus did not begin with the trade war. As with the EUs purchase of U.S. soybeans, the tariffs expedited a natural market process that was already well underway. The recent escalation of costs in China is making us relocate in order to be competitive, said S. Kesavan, the Vietnam head of Jabil Circuit, a U.S. electronics manufacturer in 2012. Companies have been slowly moving their production lines to Malaysia, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia to avoid rising wages and land costs, Forbes reported. Chinese workers have followed the same evolution as their counterparts around the world. Desperate for jobs, they welcomed low wages, dangerous conditions, and menial tasks. As they became more productive, they could demand higher wages and shift to other lines of work. Chinese manufacturing workers saw their hourly wage rise 60 percent between 2011 and last year. Now, Chinas blue-collar workers make about three-times as much a month as those in Vietnam, and investors have taken note. The search for lower production costs has moved opportunity farther to the Global South. Critics might see the process of investors moving to lower-wage nations as evidence of unbridled greed and cupidity. But there are at least two factors worth bearing in mind. First, if even the state-owned industries of the worlds largest socialist regime engage in outsourcing to pay exploitative wages, perhaps socialism is not as committed to workers well-being as its followers believe. More importantly, this kind of investment has undeniably benefited the worlds most marginal populations. At the same time as jobs have crossed borders, poverty in Vietnam has fallen from 60 percent in the 1990s, to 21 percent in 2013, and just 10 percent in 2016. As Adam Smith wrote in his famous invisible hand passage, By pursuing his own interest, [a person] frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. Much of this is natural and organic. But job creation due entirely to trade tariffs may eventually revert to the norm, costing displaced workers both the jobs artificially produced and the time they could have used to develop their comparative advantage in another industry. But low wages dont explain everything: After all, laborers in Malaysia earn more than their Chinese competitors. Why would investors move there? Malaysia is the 22nd freest country in the world, according to the Heritage Foundation. The nation has one of the worlds most business-friendly environments, including offering manufacturers tax incentives that shelter 70 percent of their income. Malaysia is one of the most open economies in the world, the World Bank adds. Openness to trade and investment have been instrumental in employment creation and income growth. As a result, Malaysia has virtually wiped out poverty. While 17 percent of its population lived in poverty in 1990, that number crashed to 0.4 percent in 2016. The bottom 40 percent of the population saw its income rise more than the rest of society, according to the anti-poverty Borgen Project. Now Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is focusing on improving the lot of his less affluent citizens by offering long-term tax credits to attract white-collar jobs from China or any other country. The candlelight signing of a furtive farming compact in Xiaogang four decades ago lit the way to Chinas economic prosperity. Its beams shone beyond its borders, as the investment it generated has spilled over to raise the living standards of its neighbors. People of faith should take solace in the growing security of once-starving people, hope that the light shines into the darkest corner of the earth. We must realize that candle is held in the invisible hand, not clutched in the iron fist of the state. (Photo credit: Lucas Jans. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.) The areas near the border with Cambodia such as Tinh Bien, Tan Chau, An Phu (An Giang Province); Hong Ngu (Dong Thap Province), Dong Thap Muoi (Long An), floodwaters are forecast be able to break the dyke systems. Hundred hectares of rice crop outside dyke-protected areas have been flooded though local authorities issued flood warnings to local people about complicated flooding earlier. Dong Thap provinces Hong Ngu district department of agriculture & rural development said local farmers have harvested the autumn-summer rice crop of over 7,000 hectares out of 11,000 hectares. It is predicted the harvesting of 100 percent of crop will be done on August 5. However, floodwaters are threating many hectares of vegetables and fruit in the Mekong Delta region which were planted at the midland and down land areas. SGGPNews shot photos in the Mekong Delta provinces: TUAN QUANG-Translated by Van Ha Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on August 2, 2018 2018/08/02 At the invitation of the government of Colombia, Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng, as President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy, will travel to Bogota to attend the Colombian presidency handover ceremony on August 7. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1980, the China-Colombia relations have been growing steadily as evidenced by close high-level exchanges, ever stronger political mutual trust, increasingly deepening practical cooperation in various areas and fruitful outcomes in cultural exchanges. At the invitation of the government of Colombia, President Xi Jinping decided to send the Special Envoy to attend the Colombian presidency handover ceremony, which demonstrates the great importance China attaches to its ties with Colombia. The Chinese side is looking forward to working with the new Colombian government to build on past achievements and usher in a bright future, move forward bilateral relations and deliver greater benefits to our two countries and two peoples. Q: After the establishment of the new government in Malaysia, there has been a lot of interest in the prospect of China-Malaysia relations. We have noted that State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has wrapped up his visit to Malaysia. Can you offer us more details? What outcome and consensus have been achieved by the two sides? A: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Malaysia from July 31 to August 1, during which he met with Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir, Tun Daim Zainuddin, who leads the Council of Elders and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, and held talks and a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. Our two sides had an in-depth exchange of views and reached broad consensus on China-Malaysia relations and international and regional issues of mutual interest. The Chinese side has issued the readout and you may refer to it. The outcomes of this visit can be summarized as the following four aspects: Firstly, our two sides reaffirmed our strong commitment to developing bilateral ties. China-Malaysia friendship boasts a long history. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, our bilateral ties have achieved remarkable progress in various areas, which has delivered huge benefits to our two peoples. China always takes Malaysia as a priority in its diplomacy, especially neighborhood diplomacy. China's friendly policy towards Malaysia is steady and consistent, which will remain the same despite the change in Malaysia's domestic political situation. The Malaysian side also said that it always regards China as a good neighbor and good partner and that the change in its domestic political situation will not affect China-Malaysia ties. The new Malaysian government values its relations with China and the friendly cooperation between our two countries will enjoy steady development. Secondly, during the visit, our two sides had effective communication on and made good preparations for Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir's visit to China. Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir is Chinese people's good and old friend. During his long tenure, China-Malaysia relations achieved rapid development. He chooses China as his first destination for official visit outside ASEAN countries, which once again speaks volumes of the great importance the Malaysian side and Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir attach to China as well as the friendship between our two countries. The Malaysian side said that it has high expectations for Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir's visit to China. We are convinced that Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir's upcoming visit will elevate China-Malaysia ties to a new height and draw up a new blueprint for our mutually beneficial cooperation. Thirdly, our two sides held in-depth discussions on jointly advancing the Belt and Road Initiative. China and Malaysia are natural partners in this regard. Malaysia boasts unique geographic advantage in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative. Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir and other Malaysian senior officials said that the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping represents an important opportunity for the regional countries to achieve common development and prosperity. The Malaysian side will actively support and participate in this initiative. Both sides believe that jointly advancing this initiative on the part of China and Malaysia will not only open up broader prospects for our bilateral cooperation and fuel Malaysia's national development but also contribute to the prosperity and rejuvenation of Asia. Fourthly, our two sides sent out the positive signal of upholding multilateralism and free trade. Both China and Malaysia are developing countries. We both follow an independent foreign policy, cherish the Asian values, oppose power politics, stay committed to regional cooperation, especially the East Asian integration process and stand for democracy in international relations. Our two sides agreed that under the new circumstances, China and Malaysia should enhance communication and coordination to jointly uphold free trade, multilateralism and the rules-based international order, promote the building of the East Asian economic community and maintain the solidarity and safeguard the legitimate development interests of the developing countries. The Chinese side stands ready to work with Malaysia to take Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir's visit to China and jointly advancing the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity to further deepen and expand our practical cooperation across the board, open up a new bright future for China-Malaysia ties and contribute more to the peace, stability, development and prosperity of the region. Q: The Trump administration is proposing increasing the tariff level on $200 billion of Chinese imports from the original 10% to 25%. Yesterday you said China would not give in to pressure and China would take measures in response. Could you tell us specifically what measures China will take? A: Since yesterday I responded to this question, I will not repeat it today. I only want to stress the following two points: Firstly, we urge the US side to adopt a correct attitude and not attempt to blackmail China because it will not work. Secondly, we urge the US side to come back to its senses and refrain from acting impulsively, otherwise they will end up hurting themselves. Q: DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has just arrived in Beijing and is expected to attend the Foreign Ministers' Meetings on East Asia Cooperation in Singapore. Is China going to have a bilateral meeting with him? And if so, what is your expectation for that? A: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the Foreign Ministers' Meetings on East Asia Cooperation in Singapore. On the sidelines of these meetings, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold a series of bilateral meetings. You may have noted that yesterday he met with his counterparts from some countries and we have issued the relevant information in a timely manner. If State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with his DPRK counterpart in Singapore, we will also release the relevant information in a timely manner. Q: Two women with tourist visas from Russia's Republic of Buryatia arrived in Beijing on July 27. They should have been arranged to work in a restaurant. However, after they arrived in China, they were taken to a "nightclub" in Yiwu, Zhejiang and required to provide sexual services. On August 1, the Russian Consulate General in Shanghai said that the Chinese police in Yiwu have rescued the two women and now are helping them return to Russia. What is the Foreign Ministry's response to it? A: I am not aware of the situation mentioned by you. Q: The Myanmar government says that it wants to massively reduce the scale on the investments in the Kyaukpyu projects, and it is currently in discussions with China about this. Can you tell us how the negotiation is going? Does China agree with Myanmar's plan to downsize the investment? Myanmar officials say that downsizing the project is actually very good for China, because it shows that China understands that some of these very large-scale projects in poor countries are not necessarily beneficial for the host county and not necessarily beneficial for China's Belt and Road Initiative. Do you have any comment on that? A: I haven't seen the words of Myanmar officials as you mentioned and I need to check on that. What I want to say is that China supports Chinese enterprises in working with the Myanmar side for progress in the Kyaukpyu projects on the basis of equal-footed negotiations, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, so as to promote the socioeconomic development and improve the livelihood there. According to my information, the two sides are in commercial negotiations on the projects now. I will refer you to relevant authority and enterprise for specifics. Q: The US Senate passed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which is set to reinforce Taiwan's defense capability and expand joint training, arms sales and high-level military exchanges with Taiwan. It also advises the US Department of Defense to advance military exercises with Taiwan. What's your comment? A: The Chinese side has already made clear its position before, and lodged stern representations with the US side for many times. We urge the US to discard the outdated cold-war and zero-sum mentality, stop allowing the bill that contains negative China-related content to pass into law and refrain from implementing the relevant clauses, lest it should undermine the China-US relations and the cooperation in key areas. As to the Taiwan-related issues, I shall stress again that the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it is the most important and sensitive issue at the core of China-US relations. We firmly oppose any official exchange and military contact between Taiwan and any country. We demand that the US should abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques to properly handle the Taiwan-related issues. Q: On July 30 local time, Zimbabwe held presidential, parliamentary and local elections, and the results of the elections are being released. On August 1, the supporters of the opposition party took to the street, leading to unrest in some areas. The army helped the police dispel the demonstrators, which caused casualties. What's your comment? A: Recently, Zimbabwe held the presidential, parliamentary and local elections, which marks a major event in the political life of the country. As a friendly country to Zimbabwe, China has been closely following the situation in Zimbabwe. Upon invitation, China sent a delegation to observe the elections. According to what they observed on the ground, the Zimbabwe people are highly engaged in the elections, which are carried out in a peaceful and orderly manner in general. We have noted those reports on what happened after the elections, and hope that the relevant parties in Zimbabwe will bear in mind the interests of the state and their people and jointly maintain the peace, stability and development in Zimbabwe. Q: US White House officials reportedly said that the US could resume official talks with the Chinese side only when China agrees to open the market for more competitions and stop retaliatory trade measures. What's your comment? A: We already stated China's stance on the China-US trade issue on many occasions, and I'm not going to repeat that. Regarding to what the US side said about returning to talks and negotiations, I responded to that yesterday. China remains open to dialogue, as long as it is based on mutual respect, equality, rules and credibility. Coercing and pressuring others unilaterally on the part of the US would only be counterproductive. Posted Wednesday, August 01, 2018 9:25:48 PM Chrishell Hartley is back to work at Days of our Lives, reprising her role as Jordan Ridgeway. It's been more than three years since Hartley -- known then as Chrishell Stause -- last set foot in Salem, and this time around, the actress promises that her character's story will "definitely not" be what fans saw the last time around. "I love it here," Hartley tells Soap Opera Digest. "It's definitely not what we did last time... The audience will be surprised." Jordan never seemed to gain traction during the character's first outing. In fact, in a special 2016 "Summer of Swaps" feature, Soap Central's DAYS Two Scoops columnists had suggested that Hartley would have been better served had she been cast as Cassie Brady. You can read why (as well as some other suggested casting swaps here.) As for what Hartley has been up to since fans last saw her on Days of our Lives, the actress had a short-term role on The Young and the Restless, and, perhaps more importantly, in October 2017, she and This Is Us star Justin Hartley (ex-Adam Newman, Y&R; ex-Fox Crane, Passions) tied the knot. Hartley is already back on the DAYS set, but, as fans probably know by now, DAYS' production schedule means that she won't be seen until sometime in early 2019. President Duterte has partially realigned the Philippines geopolitics Filipinos are still very wary of China, despite its promises of investment The U.S. remains crucial to the Philippines security In 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to office with a jarring vision for his countrys geopolitical orientation: He would distance Manila from Washington and align it with Beijing. While this plan was never realistic true realignment would be a complex undertaking beyond the power of one president Mr. Duterte has succeeded in repositioning the Philippines closer to neutral in the regions great power dynamics. At the same time, however, the U.S. has kept a strong pull on the Philippines in ways President Duterte cannot ignore. Where the Philippines goes from here depends on several key variables. The South China Sea The central bet Mr. Duterte made was to set aside the South China Sea territorial dispute so that he could make the most of Chinese economic ties while reducing the Philippines reliance on the U.S. for security. President Duterte has made three visits to China. The first, in 2016 during which he publicly announced his separation from the United States garnered $24 billion in loan and investment pledges from the Chinese. In 2017, he attended Chinas high-profile Belt and Road Forum. Then, in April 2018, he made another visit, this time to the Boao economic forum, from which he brought home another $9.5 billion in investment pledges. For President Dutertes formula to succeed, the Chinese must moderate their behavior in the South China Sea Chinas promises, however, will take time to materialize if they ever do. There is some doubt on this score in the Philippines. Through 2017, Japanese companies invested 13 times more than Chinese firms in the country, and the gap grew in the first quarter of 2018. U.S. investments in the Philippines were three times larger than Chinas over the same period. Even Taiwan invests more. When it comes to trade, China is the Philippines biggest partner, but it exports far more to the Philippines than it imports. Japan and the U.S. are bigger export markets for Filipino goods. Beyond investment pledges, China has responded in other positive ways to President Dutertes overtures. In June and October of 2017, it made high-profile deliveries of arms mostly rifles to the Philippine police something the U.S. had refused to do out of concern for victims of Mr. Dutertes drug war. The Chinese navy also made its first port call to the Philippines in seven years. The flotilla, consisting of three ships, including a guided missile destroyer, called on Davao, where President Duterte boarded to greet them. This is an honor he has not yet granted to any of the many American ships to have visited the Philippines. For President Dutertes China formula to succeed, the Chinese must not only deliver on the promises of economic engagement, they must moderate their behavior toward the Philippines in the South China Sea. Without this, despite economic benefits, Mr. Duterte will face a domestic backlash that could cause him major political problems. Safeguarding the nations sovereignty is important to the Filipino electorate. Indeed, allegations that it was being compromised in the South China Sea contributed to the serious troubles of Gloria Macapagal- Arroyos presidency (2001-2010). Chinas actions there show a mixed picture. On one hand, it has permitted Filipino fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal, in accordance although not explicitly in compliance with the Permanent Court of Arbitrations 2016 ruling. On the other hand, the Chinese remain in sole control of the shoal and its coast guard regulates access, allegedly occasionally confiscating the catch of Filipino fishing boats. In May of this year, the Philippine Navy was harassed by a Chinese helicopter as it conducted a routine replenishment mission at Second Thomas Shoal. More importantly, the Chinese installed missiles on three of the seven islands it has reclaimed in the South China Sea. China has challenged Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea, while the U.S. has helped maintain it in places like Marawi (source: macpixxel for GIS) Developments like these attract attention and aggravate anti-Chinese feeling. They have led to a growing critique of President Dutertes China policy. This, in turn, led the administration to publicly lay down red lines on the South China Sea to include reclamation or building at Scarborough Shoal, aggression against Filipino troops at Second Thomas Shoal or a move to unilaterally drill for resources in disputed areas. The threat to go to war over any of these red lines is not credible especially outside of rigorous coordination with the U.S. Yet, they are very clear markers for evaluating Chinese behavior from which it would be difficult to retreat. War on Terror The most significant security development in the Philippines over the last two years was its battle against Islamist militants for control of the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao. The 2017 conflict which ended with Philippine national forces in full control claimed the lives of 165 Filipino troops and left the city thoroughly destroyed. The fighting was a stark reminder of the Philippines vulnerability to separatist violence and just how bloody it can become. It was also a reminder of how important the U.S.-Philippines security relationship is. In 2015, the U.S. ended a 13-year special operations train-and-assist mission in Mindanao. In response to the fighting in Marawi, the U.S. quietly ramped up a replacement: Operation Pacific EaglePhilippines. The new 200- to 300-person mission helped provide intelligence, surveillance, logistics and advisors in the field. Deployed in the midst of the conflict, its objectives are now much broader. The operation is intended to halt and reverse the degradation of an already unstable area and prevent the southern Philippines from becoming a safe haven for terrorists. It has no stated end date. This represents a major change of course for President Duterte, who only a year earlier had demanded the departure of what was then only a handful of U.S. Special Forces. The U.S. donated counterterrorism equipment early in the conflict, including carbines, pistols, grenade launchers and machine guns, as well as Cessna aircraft for surveillance. The Chinese contributed to the effort as well. There were the two arms shipments referenced above, which arrived during the fighting. President Duterte embellished the importance of these shipments by making the dubious claim that one of the Chinese sniper rifles was used to kill the terrorist ringleader in Marawi. In addition, the Chinese made modest pledges of humanitarian assistance and donated 47 pieces of heavy construction equipment to help with the rebuilding. Now, China is front and center in the $1 billion competition to reconstruct Marawi. In fact, a Chinese consortium won the first round of the bidding process, only to be disqualified later. The southern city of Marawi was devastated by a battle between Islamist militants and the Philippine armed forces. The U.S. was a crucial contributor to the latters victory (source: dpa) Reconstruction will involve a new set of political challenges. There are initial signs of discontent among the local population about the Chinese development approach. The Chinese, however, with President Dutertes assistance, have made the most of their contributions, despite distrust from the Filipino public and awareness among the ruling class that the U.S. was a far more consequential contributor to the victory in Marawi. U.S. adjustments and staying power Despite President Dutertes anti-American, pro-Chinese rhetoric, the U.S.-Philippines relationship has continued without major change. In November 2017, Mr. Duterte reaffirmed Philippine support for a 2014 agreement to allow the U.S. to rotate its military through five Philippine military bases (initially), as well as to preposition equipment for humanitarian and disaster-relief missions. Called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), it also provides for the U.S. to upgrade Philippine base installations. And though President Duterte continues to publicly express misgivings about this specific aspect of the relationship, construction began at one of the facilities Cesar Basa Air Base on the northern island of Luzon in April 2018. U.S.-Philippines joint military exercises continue as well, albeit with some adjustments to placate Manilas new concerns regarding China. For instance, joint naval patrols in the South China Sea begun under the Obama administration were halted. But new ones, with no China-related overtones, were conducted in the Sulu Sea. Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) naval exercises were canceled, but a new Maritime Training Activity called Sama Sama was inaugurated. A new exercise focused on counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance, KAMANDAG, took the place of the PHILBEX amphibious landing exercises. The alliances biggest annual exercise, Balikatan, took place on schedule in each of the last two years. After scaling back the size and mission in 2017, the two sides committed a total of 8,000 troops and restored live fire and amphibious exercises in 2018. These activities are among 261 interactions the U.S. will have with the Philippines armed forces in 2018. There have also been frequent U.S. Navy port calls, including visits by three different American aircraft carriers. At the political level, there has been an improvement in U.S.-Philippine relations At the political level, there has been an improvement in bilateral relations. President Trump and the current U.S. ambassador in Manila, Sung Kim, have gotten along much better with President Duterte than their predecessors. Whether Mr. Duterte used the change of administration in Washington as an excuse to tone down some of his extreme rhetoric, or whether it is because the U.S. government has been less publicly critical of him lately, there seems to be a new rapport at the head-of-state level. This has given President Duterte room to moderate his positions regarding the alliance. The wild card in the relationship remains President Dutertes war on drugs. The controversial policy has resulted in the deaths of between 4,000 (according to the Philippine police) and 12,000 (according to the human rights community) people. The U.S. Congress has reacted by legislating restrictions on counternarcotics assistance and otherwise pressuring the Trump administration to limit contact with the Philippine police. Thus far, its concern has largely exempted the Philippine armed forces. Scenarios The most likely scenario for the Philippines is what we could call pro-American neutrality. Under this scenario, both the U.S. and China play their cards right. The Chinese avoid provoking President Duterte into rethinking his gamble or providing fodder to his domestic opponents on matters of sovereignty. Mr. Duterte wins his bet to draw in China economically, but security needs and pressure from the Philippine defense establishment will require a strong relationship with the U.S. In this scenario, the Trump administration continues to refrain from high-profile public criticism of President Dutertes drug war. However, this approach could be undermined by a newly activist U.S. Congress. The Democrats regaining control of the House of Representatives or the Senate could precipitate this, as could charges of major abuses by the Philippine military. A possible change in the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines is another factor. Any transition will need to be managed very carefully, since Ambassador Kim has played a key stabilizing role. If China crosses any of the Philippines red lines, President Duterte will be forced to cool his pro-Beijing rhetoric If China misplays its cards and crosses any of the Philippines red lines, President Duterte will be forced to backtrack and cool his pro-Beijing rhetoric. An armed response from the Philippines is unlikely, not least because Manila lacks the military wherewithal. The Philippine Armed Forces are incapable of major operations without U.S. backing, which is doubtful unless the country were attacked and invoked the bilateral security treaty. Even in this case, the circumstances would shape the American reaction. Pressure will also build on President Dutertes China policy, albeit more slowly, if Beijing does not deliver on its investment promises. Mr. Dutertes personal antipathy to the U.S. will make it harder to modulate his rhetoric to more traditional, pro-American positions. But military-to-military relations would quickly improve and reorient their missions to the previous focus on countering China. The government would also step up its engagement with Russia, Japan and Australia. Either of these Chinese misplays would destabilize President Dutertes government. Today, he remains very popular in the Philippines. The South China Sea issue is not a central consideration for the electorate, but it is something that Filipinos care about, especially to the extent that it affects national sovereignty. Elite opinion in the Philippines has a way of filtering down to the larger public, then changing the whole thrust of domestic politics. Suddenly, a problem that involves disputed maritime claims could become a much bigger, multifaceted political crisis for President Duterte. Reliance Jio is the third most influential brand in India after Google and Amazon News oi-Vivek Reliance Jio is the telecom company in India which has 4G only network Reliance Jio started a mobile revolution by offering affordable mobile plans with unlimited voice and data packs when most of us were paying a whopping Rs 250+ for 1 GB of 3G data. And now, according to a report from the Most Influential Brands (MIB) in India, Reliance is in the 3rd position, whereas the Google and Amazon are in the first and second position, respectively. Do note that Google and Amazon are international entities, whereas Reliance Jio is an India brand lead by our own Mukesh Ambani the leader of Reliance Industries. The MIB will consider 100s of brands on different aspects and evaluate these brands using different parameters to find the top 10 brands, which really have a huge impact on the choices that an end customer will make. These brands will be evaluated using Leading Edge, Trustworthy Engagement and Presence and Corporate Citizenship and other factors. In the top 10 list, Patanjali is the only brand, which is not a technology or the telecom company. In the top 1o list, there are a total of three India brands and 7 are international brands. Reliance Jio, Flipkart, and Patanjali are in the 3rd, 5th, and 7th Positions, respectively. As Flipkart is now a property of Wallmart, it is both Indian and an International brand. Also note that the brand Reliance Jio is more influential than Facebook, which has a global presence and is the most used social media website across the globe (in India as well). Top 10 Influential Brands in India Google Amazon Reliance Jio Facebook Flipkart Samsung Patanjali Microsoft iPhone Apple Reliance Jio history The telecom brand Reliance Jio started its soft launch in India on 27th of December 2015 and the true rollout of 4G LTE and VoLTE services started to roll out on 5th September 2016 (limited to Reliance employees and a selected user base), where the company offered truly unlimited 4G data with free voice calls. Later on, the service was made available to the public with 4 GB per day data cap. Later on, the company did launch the Reliance JioPhone, the most affordable 4G phone with "smart-features" like live TV streaming, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. The company did launch the JioPhone 2 or the JioPhone with a QWERTY keypad recently for Rs 2,999. As a telecom provider, the company is also rolling out features like Jio GigaFiber and Jio Giga TV, which will be available to the public on 15th of August 2018. Conclusion It is good to see an Indian brand as the 3rd most influential entity in India (the biggest democratic country). Hope, reliance Jio launches more features and services (with interesting offers) in the future as well. Best Mobiles in India ZestMoney acquires PhotographAI to deepen access to credit for Indian consumers News oi-Vishal Kawadkar ZestMoney is expected to have one of the most advanced automated credit assessment capabilities in the market. ZestMoney, India's digital consumer lending platform has acquired PhotographAI, an AI-as-a-service platform offering various computer vision APIs. The strategic move will further strengthen ZestMoney's capabilities in AI, visual AI, and OCR. As a result of this acquisition, ZestMoney is expected to have one of the most advanced automated credit assessment capabilities in the market. This is also a further step to delivering the most hassle-free automated and paperless credit products to more than 300 million households who currently do not have access to credit cards or any other formal financing options because of insufficient credit history. Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder, and CEO said "ZestMoney strives to become the preferred lifestyle affordability solution for Indian consumers. Excitingly, we are seeing increasingly high levels of demand from consumers in Tier 1 and beyond - customers traditionally under-served by banks and credit cards. Having a completely digital application process and underwriting process is now critical to serving these customers" Talking about the technology, Ashish Anantharaman, Co-Founder and CTO, ZestMoney said, "The PhotographAI team has developed superior API based AI solutions that we have been testing for some time in authentication, on-boarding, and underwriting. This acquisition will help us strengthen our capabilities in these areas and build additional in-house solutions for OCR and facial recognition. We are excited to be building one of the most advanced AI lending teams in this market" Bengaluru based PhotographAI was founded in 2017 by IIT Delhi alumnus, Mikhil Raj and Karan Varshney. The team already has been building building AI driven products since 2013 together. In a short period of time, they built a platform that delivered image, video, and text analytics technologies such as image classification, OCR, document enhancement, text analytics and video analytics supporting e-commerce and Fintech companies to automate their process and minimize the costs. The company had raised funding from Venture Capital firms Orios Venture Partners and IndiaQuotient. ZestMoney was set up as a digital lending platform with the aim to offer a better lifestyle and to fulfill the aspirations of a growing number of Indians who have been ignored by traditional financial services companies. ZestMoney has built a completely digital automated back-end with an AI-based machine learning decision engine, offering configurable digital products, instant approval, and a seamless user experience. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus now supports Vodafone VoLTE across the country News oi-Vivek Moto E5 and the Moto E5 Plus have an 18:9 aspect ratio display. The Motorola Moto E5 and the Moto E5 Plus are the latest affordable smartphones from the Lenovo owned smartphone brand with a modern design offering an 18:9 aspect ratio display. Just like every other Motorola smartphone launched in India, these phones offer stock Android OS. Motorola has released a new software update for the dual, which enables Vodafone VoLTE on the E5 and the E5 Plus. With this feature enabled, these smartphones can get benefit from VoLTE to make high-quality voice and videos calls. Vodafone VoLTE is available in 13 circles, including Karnataka, Delhi & NCR, Gujarat, Haryana, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Maharashtra & Goa, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East and West). How to get VoLTE feature? Update your smartphone (either the Moto E5 or the Moto E5 Plus) to the latest software update available, which will enable VoLTE for Vodafone. Moto E5, E5 Plus price The Moto E5 is available for Rs 9,999, whereas the Moto E5 Plus is listed for Rs 11,999 on various e-commerce websites. The Moto E5 specs-sheet The Moto E5 has a 5.7-inch HD+ 1440 x 720px IPS LCD display with 2.5D curved tempered glass protection. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 Quad-core chipset with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage. The smartphone also has a micro SD card slot for additional storage expansion. In terms of optics, the smartphone packs in a 13 MP primary camera and a 5 MP front-facing selfie camera with 1080p and 720p video recording capability, respectively. The smartphone also has a massive 4000 mAh Li-ion battery with Turbo Charging support via micro USB port. Moto E5 Plus specs-sheet The Moto E5 Plus has a slightly bigger 6.0-inch IPS LCD display with HD+ resolution, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 Octa-core chipset with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage with a micro SD card slot. Just like the Moto E5, the Moto E5 Plus also has a single camera with 12 MP resolution, instead of 13 MP. On the front, the smartphone has an identical 5 MP selfie camera with 1080p video recording capability. Finally, the "plus" moniker on the Moto E5 Plus is the indicator of the mammoth 5000 mAh battery with Turbo Charging capability. Both devices are running on Android 8 Oreo with stock Android OS and these smartphones are also expected to receive Android P update in the near future, as Motorola is known to offer one major Android update across the devices. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Newly out on DVD, Max Emerson's Hooked is a powerful drama about a homeless New York street hustler. The film's world premiere, at Newfest, New York's LGBT film festival, was a benefit for The Ali Forney Center, a homeless shelter and advocacy group for LGBT kids in New York City. Director Emerson promises that 50 percent of the film's profits will be donated to not-for-profit affiliated organizations, including the Forney Center and GLAAD. Jack (Conor Donnally) is living in a New York City youth hostel with his boyfriend Tom (Sean Ormond). Jack, who has a penchant for getting into trouble due to his borderline personality disorder, hopes to build a better life for himself and Tom--he earns a living by turning tricks. In the film's opening scene Jack is punched by a coked-up client. Tom, meanwhile, is being subjected to sexual harassment at the youth hostel. Jack soon meets Ken (Terrance Murphy), a well-to-do closet case who lives with his wife and baby son in Connecticut. Ken is struggling against his "urges" and seeks counsel from a priest. Even though they have no reason to trust each other, Jack agrees to accompany Ken on a trip to Miami. While there, he finds out about the wife that Ken had lied about. An enraged Jack, who thought that Ken might be someone he could trust, steals Ken's gun and storms out--onto the streets of Miami where he ends up meeting some very seedy characters who put his life at risk. Desperate to get back to New York and to Tom, Jack accepts an offer to jack-off for a porn producer, who also hooks him up with a violent client. Things go from bad to worse. Emerson does a good job of illustrating the horrors that homeless LGBT youth face every day. Scenes where Jack is beaten are powerful and disturbing, as are the sequences in which Tom is sexually harassed. It's not the life that either of them chose. In one heartbreaking scene Jack leaves his estranged mom a voicemail--she had thrown him out of the house. As title cards at the end of the film note, LGBT youth are eight times more likely to end up homeless, twice as likely to be sexually abused, develop severe drug addiction, or commit suicide. Hooked underscores these issues. "I miss the days when you made everything OK," Jack tearfully tells his mom. The cast does good work. Conor Donnally is particularly convincing as Jack, who tries to cover up his unhappiness underneath a veneer of sarcasm. Terrance Murphy is equally good as Ken, a handsome, middle aged man who genuinely comes to care for Jack and wants to help him. Ken is torn between his feelings for Jack and his love for his family--his marriage ends when his wife finds out what's going on. Ken's wife is no villain. She's a nice woman who wants her husband to be exclusive to their wedding vows. When she realizes that he cannot do this, she leaves. But it's Jack and Tom who form the heart of Hooked--they struggle to survive under conditions that are not of their own making. The two actors have wonderful chemistry together as they plan for the future they dream of, make love, and worry about each other. Tom is particularly concerned for Jack, who cannot seem to avoid trouble and often makes things worse with his own actions. Hooked is a film that needs to be seen. Many who judge street kids, who think that these kids "want" to be on the street, might reconsider such opinions after seeing the film, which, without preaching, urges us to care for our LGBT youth. Even today, with acceptance for the LGBT community at an all time high, there are still thousands and thousands of parents who refuse to accept their kids' sexual and/or gender identity. What happens to Jack and Tom could happen to anyone. Look for Hooked on DVD and on Video on Demand platforms now. Google said to be working on a censored version of 'Search' for China News oi-Sandeep Sarkar The apps are dubbed as Maotai and Longfei and are still to receive the final approval from the Chinese government. China is known for imposing censorship on internet related content. Recently, the country has banned search queries related to John Oliver who is a comedian by profession. China had banned the search queries for Oliver following the comedian made fun of the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on one of his shows. Due to the censorship related issue, the tech giant Google was reluctant to launch its services in China. However, the company has not completely revived its operations in China. The Chinese user base prefers the Baidu search engine which is a Chinese homegrown search engine. Now, some reports from The Intercept suggest that Google is prepping up to launch a censored version of its search engine for China which will also filter the search queries. The content that is said to be censored out of the search results will include Keywords associated with the human rights violations, religion, freedom of speech and democracy. Also read, Google Chromebooks might get an official PUBG mobile support Some further information received from the insider sources reveals that the project for the censored version of Google search is being dubbed as Dragonfly. The Dragonfly has been under development since 2017. The project accelerated after a meeting that took place between the Google CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official whose identity has not been released. Google is said to have developed an Android app to launch the search engine in China again. The company has also demonstrated two versions of the search engine to the Chinese government. The apps are dubbed as Maotai and Longfei and are still to receive the final approval from the Chinese government. The search feature will comply with the stringent Chinese censorship laws. The app will also provide access only to the pages that fall under the counter-doctrinal to the ruling party's manifesto; this will specifically include the content that challenges the ideologies of the communists. Also, as per some documents which are marked as 'Google confidential,' the search engine for Chinese user will filter all the websites that are blocked by the Chinese online content filtering system automatically. If in case a user searches for a blocked content, he/she will be presented with a warning on the first page which will read as "Some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements". As mentioned earlier the censorship will be applicable on all the extensions of Google search which will include images, keyword recommendations, spell check along with suggested searches. The app is expected to be released for the Android platform. There is no information available currently as to when the feature will be available for the other platforms including the desktops. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Ceremony Marks Opening of Garuda Shield 2018 Aug. 1, 2018 By Army Capt. Marshall Howell, 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team PUSLATPUR, Indonesia -- With well-rehearsed precision, Indiana Army National Guardsmen from the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team held a joint ceremony here July 30 with their Indonesian army counterparts to mark the opening of the twelfth iteration of Exercise Garuda Shield, a bilateral exercise sponsored by U.S. Army Pacific. Garuda Shield 18 is the third exercise in USARPAC's second iteration of Pacific Pathways, a series of multinational engagements with ally and partner militaries in the Indo-Pacific region. This year also marks the first time an Army National Guard unit is participating in the series as the lead training element that will conduct a joint staff exercise with the Indonesian army. "The opening ceremony really highlighted the importance of the bilateral training experiences that we are having as the U.S. Army with many of our coalition, NATO and allied partners around the world," said Army Col. Robert D. Burke, commander of the 76th IBCT. "The camaraderie, the esprit de corps and just the vibrancy that we had in the opening ceremony really highlighted how great these next two weeks will be as we work through this staff exercise together." Exercises such as Garuda Shield contribute to peacekeeping capability in the Indo-Pacific region, which in turn fosters interoperability and competency with partner nations that strengthen the Army's capabilities to respond to a crisis situation. State Partnership Program Indonesian army Maj. Gen. Marga Taufiq, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, also welcomed the Hawaii National Guard Adjutant General, Army Maj. Gen. Arthur J. Logan, as his co-host of the opening ceremony while emphasizing the shared respect between the partner armies. "The Hawaii National Guard has had a state partnership with Indonesia since 2007 when we began with subject matter exchanges and exercises such as Garuda Shield, as well as senior leader visits," Logan said. "Participating in these numerous bilateral exercises allows the United States to focus on building capacity and relationships, thereby enhancing the sovereignty of Indonesia and security in this region." "I'm positive that the staff exercise between the [Indonesian army's] 9th Brigade and the 76th IBCT, focusing on the military decision-making process, will only enhance capacity building and relationships, and more importantly will encourage joint participation with the senior and junior officers, and noncommissioned officers, working together," he said. Burke agreed on the importance of the relationships being established between the two staffs participating in the exercise along with Army support personnel from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and Okinawa, Japan. "To have Maj. Gen. Logan as a part of this, representing the Hawaii National Guard and their state partnership program that they have with Indonesia, is really going to solidify that lasting, long-term relationship that we are going to have for many years to come as the U.S. Army, and have a National Guard flavor to that relationship, in a country that is truly a partner to the security of this region of the world," he said. Following the ceremony, the combined units showed their enthusiasm for working together by conducting a "Yel-Yel," a cry-and-response war dance similar to a Maori haka, to kick off the training. "It really set the tone for what we are looking forward to doing over the next few weeks and demonstrated the willingness of their soldiers and ours to embrace the environment we are in together and the cooperativeness that we are going to experience together as we both share and learn things that we each do well in our armies," said 76th IBCT Army Command Sgt. Maj. Steven J. Bishop. "We both share in our hearts similar things as professionals in the profession of arms, and, in that, we speak a common language that quickly tears down the barriers and walls that you see when you incorporate two different people and two different nations together in this type of exercise," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Using New Mission Set to Address Southern Flank Aug. 1, 2018 By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity WASHINGTON -- Peace, stability and the rule of law are at the heart of security, and the NATO alliance is using a non-traditional effort called NATO Strategic Direction South to encourage this process. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared the organization, also known as the Hub for the South, fully operational following the Brussels Summit July 12. The commander of NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Italy, Navy Adm. James G. Foggo III, said the hub is a "totally different mission set" for the alliance. The organization was formally established in September. "We are manned for 80 people at the headquarters and the NATO goal for the Hub for the South is to complete the 360-degree comprehensive approach to security and stability operations," the admiral said. NATO has done an excellent job of security operations in Europe's north and east, where Russia is the prime disturber of the peace, Foggo said. "The area where we need to continue to work is in the strategic direction south," he said. NATO's Southern Flank NATO's southern flank has a different set of dangers. Transnational threats such as terrorism, drug gangs, human traffickers and weapons smugglers take advantage of ungoverned or loosely governed areas in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel to threaten peace inside NATO allies. Creating stability and security in those regions requires different tools than deterring Russia, and the Hub for the South is designed to provide those tools, officials said. It is the hub of a network of people and organizations dedicated to helping nations on NATO's southern flank build the infrastructures needed to sustain security, promote the rule of law and encourage economic gains. The migration of people from North Africa and the Middle East is not a problem in and of itself, Foggo said, but it is a symptom of larger problems throughout the region. Getting at those problems will change the migration dynamic, he said. "There are other ways to get at this question of governance, rule of law and stability, and that is through the Hub sponsorship of connecting, consulting and coordinating," the admiral said. Maximizing Effectiveness The hub aims to contribute to coordination, synchronization and deconfliction of NATO's activities across the south, while optimizing resources and maximizing effectiveness, officials said. Hub personnel examined the drivers of instability in the region and that pointed to what the organization can do to help with governance and rule of law, Foggo said. "The nations struggling with training of police, military, border security, justice we can provide them with a non-governmental organization or a state actor that can help build a stronger judiciary that can help provide equitable justice," he said. "Also, we are trying to connect with a number of different organization on the continent, in Europe and America who want to help." Additionally the hub is building awareness of the extent of the problems in the area. "There is a broad spectrum of think tanks and organizations that understand Africa better than we do, and we are leveraging that," the admiral said. "Many of these organizations are helping us pro bono. They are interested in what NATO is trying to do." People and organizations are beginning to understand the resources of the hub, he said. Still there are some misconceptions. "A lot of folks think the hub is just about migration: That's incorrect," Foggo said. "People migrate from their homes because they don't feel safe. Our goal is to try to make people feel safer by helping nations, or people, or places have better governance, better rule of law so they can live in peace and have a family, educate their children and have economic prosperity. In some places, they can't do that right now because there is lawlessness." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Invaders stuck in Yemen: Ansarullah IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA -- The invaders underestimated the people and the Army of Yemen and have got stuck in Yemen's quagmire, a member of Ansarullah Political Council told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Wednesday. 'The enemies have suffered heavy defeats and there is no clear future for them, especially because Yemen's defensive power is increasing day by day,' said Ali Al-Qahoum. Al-Qahoum said 'it is the fourth year of the invasion of Yemen and the invaders have gained nothing, whereas has developed its weaponry and defense industries despite aerial, land and marine sanctions and targets economic and military bases in the depth of the invaders' capitals.' 'The invaders will be more surprised in the future.' He added that the United states has the most important role in the war and other parties are just mercenaries that take steps in line with the will of the US and Israel to balkanize Yemen through religious and ethnic seditions. Al-Qahoum said 'the future of the war is bright: the rightful owners of the country will be victorious', and adding, 'The advances made in the Yemeni defense industries were made due to Yemeni innovation and thought.' He also said that even if the war goes on for a hundred years, the people of Yemen will defend their country. Regarding the fact that some of the Yemenis were deceived to let the invaders in, he said that when the Saudis and Emiratis entered the area and got control of the ports, airports, oil and gas, they divided the area between themselves and started to loot Yemeni wealth. Al-Qahoumi said that the war in the western coast is in progress. The enemy counted a lot on the advanced warships and technology of the US, the UK and France, which have had nothing for them except damage and defeat. In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition began attacking the Arab impoverished country to restore to power Yemen's resigned president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. More than 14,700 Yemenis have been killed by the coalition forces so far. 9417**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudis fire 200 missiles, mortar shells at Saada IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA -- Saudi military forces have targeted residential areas in Saada Province with over 200 missiles and mortar shells, Yemeni TV Channel 'Al-Masirah reported. Based on the reports, at least seven Yemeni civilians were killed in Saudis' missile and air strikes. Meanwhile, Yemeni missile unit targeted Arab-coalition positions in al-Salu district with 'Zelzal-2' missile. Saudi Arabia and its regional allies attacked Yemen in March 2015 to bring back to power the deposed president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The invaders have committed horrible war crimes against Yemeni civilians over the past three years. In the meantime, Al-Masirah quoted Yemeni Army and Popular Committees as saying that 3,033 Saudi forces have been killed in western coast, 466 ones in Taiz and 214 others in Lahij Province. 9376**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Conducts Underwater Mine Countermeasures during RIMPAC 2018 Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180801-20 Release Date: 8/1/2018 3:09:00 PM By Lt. Andrew Thompson, Rim of the Pacific Public Affairs SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) personnel are conducting underwater mine countermeasure (MCM) operations with a mobile diving center, staged at Naval Base Point Loma, in support of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise 2018 in the southern California (SOCAL) area of operations. The JMSDF Task Element of seven explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians and three staff officers is comprised of JMSDF EOD Team (EODT) members homeported at various locations around Japan, including Kure, Maizuru, Ominato, and Yokosuka bases. The technicians were selected by JMSDF Mine Warfare Force Headquarters to participate in RIMPAC in order to work with partner nations, build capabilities, and to share their experiences with other JMSDF EODT members upon returning home. During the exercise, the JMSDF EODT searches the sea floor for exercise mines using unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) equipped with sonar. After the training mines are located, EOD divers don their wetsuits and descend to the sea floor to visually inspect the mines. Each dive can take from 5-30 minutes. JMSDF EODT managed about five dives per day without issue. This year's exercise also provided the opportunity for JMSDF personnel to participate with Airborne Mine Counter Measure (AMCM) assets provided by Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 14. Together, JMSDF, HM-14, and the Royal New Zealand navy (RNZN) Clearance Diving Team (CDT) completed Pouncer operations, where EOD divers jump from an MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter to recover drifting buoyant sea mines, a first for much of the JMSDF EODT members. These combined missions highlight RIMPAC's value to build capability with partner nations in order to develop combined teams capable of working together to adapt to challenging operating environments. The JMSDF Task Element falls under the exercise's MCM Combined Task Group (CTG 177.2). Additional task units participating within CTG 177.2 are a RNZN CDT, the Royal Canadian navy's coastal defence vessels HMCS Whitehorse (MM 705) and HMCS Yellowknife (MM 706), the Royal Netherlands navy (RNLN) UUV Unit, HM-14, and mine countermeasure ship USS Ardent (MCM 12). Together they bring a wide range of mine countermeasure capabilities to locate and neutralize sea mines in support of the operational commander. CTG 177.2 is part of Combined Task Force (CTF) 177 led by U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Dave Welch, commander, Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC), and the U.S. Navy's Global Mine Warfare commander. CTF 177. CTF 177 is comprised of 26 units with approximately 1,100 personnel representing the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Japan, the Netherlands and New Zealand. It is conducting mine warfare operations in support of RIMPAC. Twenty-five nations, 46 ships, five submarines, and about 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 27 to Aug. 2 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security of the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Red Hill: Fueling RIMPAC and Ensuring Global Strategic Alliances Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180801-16 Release Date: 8/1/2018 2:23:00 PM From NAVSUP FLC Public Affairs JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii - (NNS) -- The Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility has issued over 19 million gallons of fuel to U.S. and foreign ships and aircraft participating in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise. Red Hill, operated by Navy Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Pearl Harbor's Fuel Department, consists of 20 tanks, each able to store 12 million gallons of fuel. RIMPAC's theme is "Capable, Adaptive, Partners." With 'Capable' being an important part of the theme of this exercise, it is clear that Red Hill and the fuel it delivers is one of the most important factors of RIMPAC 2018. "Red Hill enables fleet readiness and is a key component of operations in the Pacific," said Lt. Cmdr. Blake Whittle, fuel department director. "We are capable of fueling three fleet replenishment oilers simultaneously via pier connection to conduct quick turnarounds to get the vessels back underway to conduct replenishments-at-sea (RASs)." The RASs allow the surface ships participating in RIMPAC 2018 to maintain the proper amount of fuel and supplies so the ships can continue the exercise without pulling into port for logistical needs. A gravity-fed distribution system delivers fuel from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility tanks to Pearl Harbor, three-and-a- half miles away. The facility can operate manually, requiring no connection to the Internet or outside power source. "Red Hill is reliable and delivers fuel quickly, three times faster than comparable facilities", said Whittle. "It is also two times faster than refueling from a barge or truck. The faster the fueling evolution progresses, the less likely a mishap will occur." Red Hill fuel is used by each of the military services in Hawaii, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which frequently conducts rescue missions in Hawaiian waters. Along with the Hawaii Air National Guard, which is also fueled by Red Hill, the Coast Guard assisted in relief and reconnaissance efforts in Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii in recent months. "The Red Hill fuel facility is considered essential for providing the fuel necessary to defend our nation, safeguard our national interests and support humanitarian missions," said Whittle. RIMPAC 2018 is the world's largest international maritime exercise. Twenty-five nations, more than 45 surface ships and submarines, 17 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are taking part in a unique training opportunity designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's interconnected oceans. NAVSUP FLC Pearl Harbor is one of eight FLCs under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address HM 14 Supports Mine Countermeasure Ops during RIMPAC SOCAL Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180801-03 Release Date: 8/1/2018 12:58:00 PM By Lt. Andrew Thompson, Rim of the Pacific Public Affairs SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 14 conducted airborne mine countermeasure (MCM) operations during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in the Southern California (SOCAL) area of operations as part of Combined Task Force (CTF) 177. HM 14 delivered mine detection and airborne mine sweeping capabilities to the exercise. They were also able to use their MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters to support diving operations for multiple evolutions. RIMPAC provided the opportunity for HM 14 to train and work with both U.S. and international partners in support of Commander, Task Force 177. HM 14 participated in the exercise with USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), Mine Countermeasures Squadron (MCMRON) 3 and Mine Countermeasures Division (COMCMDIV) 31. They also supported international partners during the exercise including the Royal New Zealand Navy Clearance Diving Team, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, Royal Canadian Navy coastal defense vessel HMCS Whitehorse (MM 705) and Royal Netherlands Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Unit during the exercise. Twenty-five nations, 46 ships, five submarines, 200 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 27 to Aug. 2 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. The world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity while fostering and sustaining cooperative relationships among participants critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security of the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2018 is the 26th exercise in the series that began in 1971. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zimbabwe opposition march turns into bloodshed in Harare Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 06:28PM At least one person has been killed in Zimbabwe's capital when security forces fired on opposition supporters protesting against what they say was electoral fraud. Media reports said the protester was shot dead near a bus rank in Harare on Wednesday as soldiers stepped in to disperse stone-throwing supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Witnesses said the man was shot in the stomach and lay in a pool of his own blood that seeped onto the dusty tarmac. The protest descended into chaos after security forces opened fire, sprayed tear gas and unleashed water cannon. Some soldiers beat fleeing protesters with their assault rifles. Protesters are angry at a delay in announcing the results of the presidential election. Dozens of soldiers fanned out across central Harare as armored personnel carriers with roof-mounted machine guns sped through the streets. The opposition accuses President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling ZANU-PF party of stalling so it can steal the landmark election. The growing crowd of protesters lit fires and chanted "Chamisa," referring to MDC leader and presidential hopeful Nelson Chamisa. It had been hoped that the first election following former President Robert Mugabe's removal after a brief army takeover led by former army chief Constantino Chiwenga would turn the page for the country. "You said you were better than Mugabe, you are the picture of Mugabe," shouted one young protester. "We need security for the people." United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Zimbabwe's political leaders and people "to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting resolution of the disputes and announcement of the election results." "We are concerned about the reports that there have been incidences of violence in parts of Zimbabwe," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said. "We'd like to remind the incumbents and the political parties of the commitments they made, the peace pledge and the code of conduct to ensure a peaceful electoral process." Millions of people voted peacefully in the Monday election, the first ever vote without Mugabe in almost 40 years in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's 37-year rule came to an end last November after the military took over the capital and the state broadcaster and held Mugabe and his wife under house arrest in a bloodless coup. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Irked Trump says Russia probe should end 'right now' Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 06:28PM US President Donald Trump has again lashed out at an ongoing investigation into an alleged collusion between his 2016 election campaign and Russia, saying it should end "right now". In a Wednesday tweet, Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop the Russia investigation which many say is entering sensitive stages that could see the US president really implicated. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted, adding that "17 Democrats" were behind the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. This is the first time Trump says that the Russia probe should stop. He had previously downplayed the significance of the investigation and insisted it will end nowhere. However, he has been more pointed in his recent remarks about the probe, suggesting that he has felt the tide. On Tuesday, Trump repeated assertions by his lawyer and advisor Rudy Giuliani that the alleged collusion between his 2016 election campaign and Russia would not be illegal. "Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!" Trump wrote on Twitter while making a reference to his rival in the 2016 presidential elections Hillary Clinton. However, analysts said after the tweet that although collusion was not a crime in nature, Mueller could find evidence that Trump's 2016 election campaign cooperated with the Kremlin in an illegal manner. They said there were laws that could lead to charges for the campaign over conspiracy, fraud and computer hacking, among others. Mueller has already accused the Russians of hacking into Democrats' computers and stealing emails while trying to use the social media to stoke tensions in the 2016 elections. Trump's intensified attack on the probe comes as Mueller heard testimonies from former campaign chairman Paul Manafort earlier in the day, a first trial in the probe. Manafort, who is to face 18 charges, had pleaded not guilty. His business partner Rick Gates has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the probe. In another tweet, Trump distanced himself from Manafort, saying he only "worked for me for a very short time". "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax!" read Trump's tweet on Wednesday. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At best its being described as a Hollywood Police Department with its priorities out of whack. At worst, as described by a Miami attorney, it was a witch hunt targeting gay men, coupled with overblown media coverage that has cost at least one man his job. According to a police report, members of the street crimes unit went to the Pleasure Emporium, located at 1321 S. 30th Avenue, at about 6 p.m. on July 25. The officers said they were there to investigate a complaint from an anonymous tip that patrons were seen performing sex acts at the business. The Pleasure Emporium has a retail section with items like lingerie, lotions, sex toys and DVDs. It also operates two small theater areas in the back of the store as well as private rooms designed for the viewing of X-rated videos. Inside the Pleasure Emporium. The police report said officers waited in unmarked patrol cars outside the business while two undercover detectives went inside and paid $25 each for a private viewing room. At some point after entering the back area, the undercover detectives reported they saw two men performing sex acts both alone and on each other. Those two men along with another 11 were charged with exposure of sexual organs and/or lascivious acts, according to police. The 13 men range in age from 33 to 70 years old. Court records show bond was set at $100 for each case. Hollywood police said they arrested six people on similar charges at the Pleasure Emporium in February. Witch hunt Its clearly a witch hunt targeting gay men, said Abbie B. Cuellar, a partner at Miamis Amador & Cuellar law firm. They went in to smear, humiliate and out them. Abbie B. Cuellar. Cuellar is representing one of the men who she said has been fired from his job in the medical field because of the arrest and subsequent publicity. She said another man has been suspended from his job and another has faced harassment from neighbors in his condominium complex who have demanded he move out, calling him a pedophile, pervert and faggot. Cuellar did note that its possible not all the men arrested July 25 identify as gay, but she thinks most of them do. The manager of the Pleasure Emporium told her he thinks about 20 percent of his customers are straight men. The Pleasure Emporium is not located near a residential neighborhood. It abuts I-95 on one side and train tracks on the other. The surrounding businesses are largely warehouses. Entrapment? Part of what baffles Cuellar and others about these arrests is that the men were in an area of the business that is very nonpublic. She said all of the men charged were in private locked rooms or in private areas. She said there have been no claims of drug use, prostitution or minors being present. So how are they being charged with exposure of sexual organs in public? Cuellar said. Further, Cuellar said the behavior of the undercover police is questionable. They encouraged the individuals to come into one of the private rooms [and] encouraged them to touch themselves and engage in consensual touching with each other, she said. They proceeded to then watch them until the men completed whatever they were doing, and then allowed them to leave the room and arrested them outside in the hall. They arrested everyone they found in the back area. Cuellar said that as a former prosecutor, she has never heard of police officers engaged in watching alleged criminal behavior to that extent. If, in fact, what these men were doing was illegal, then the mere exposure would have been sufficient to arrest them under the police departments theory that this behavior was a crime, Cuellar said. This is also a classic case of entrapment. Police priorities Cuellar, like others who have heard about the arrests and are commenting on social media, wonder why the Hollywood Police Department would focus resources and time to pursue adults engaged in consensual behavior at a business of this type. Miranda Grossman, the Hollywood Police Department's public information manager told SFGN the police investigate any sort of complaints or tips that they get, from narcotics to traffic. They received a tip and its a retail establishment, a business open to the public, a public venue, Grossman said. These types of investigations occur, not just at the Pleasure Emporium, but at places like massage parlors. There were men in there who were self-pleasuring and thats a misdemeanor in public, she said. SFGN attempted to contact Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy for his take on the arrests. Both Raelin Storey, the director of the communications department for Levy, and Joanne Hussey, spokesperson for the city of Hollywood, said Levy was on vacation with his family and that he was touring around and was out of cell phone range. Crime of the century Cuellar said her client has not only lost his job, but was effectively outed as gay. She said it is precisely the reason he previously fled the oppressive anti-gay regime in Cuba. He has now lost his job, his privacy and any semblance of safety from persecution that he felt, she said. And the media has made this the crime of the century, and these are consenting adults. The Miami Herald, WPLG Local 10 news and CBS-4 WFOR all published the mens names and mugshots. Other media outlets, like the Sun Sentinel, reported on the story without publishing names and images. The Miami Herald later took down the names and mugshots, but the story remained on several sites and outlets in the regurgitated loop that is most often seen with local TV news. The media went out of their way to put the spotlight on this amplified 20 times with pictures and names published, Cuellar said. Next steps Cuellar said her motivation is to expose what she sees as an anti-gay bias at the Hollywood Police Department. She is encouraging her client and the other men to reject any plea deals. The police cannot win on these charges they know it but they are banking on these men taking a plea because of the shame and the humiliation they have endured, she said. I hope that not one of these men takes a plea and exposes these bogus charges and the true reason the Hollywood police undertook this sting with all the real serious crimes Hollywood is dealing with. I cant really believe this is happening in 2018. If it happens to gay men, it can happen to anyone. Over 150 Daesh terrorists surrender in Afghanistan Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 02:39PM Over 150 Daesh Takfiri terrorists have surrendered to Afghan security forces in the northern province of Jawzjan after they were defeated by Taliban. Local Afghan officials said 152 terrorists from the Daesh strongholds of Darzab and Qush Tepa surrendered in the early hours of Wednesday. "Their fighters have surrendered in the past, but this time it is more important because the Daesh leader and deputy surrendered with more than 150 fighters all at once," said Mohammad Hanif Rezaee, an army spokesman. "With this the Daesh chapter is going to be closed in the north." General Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, the provincial police chief, said Habib-ul Rahman, a senior Daesh leader, was among those who surrendered. The Taliban militant group took credit for the surrender announced by Afghan officials, saying it had "cleared" the north of Daesh terrorists. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said more than 150 Daesh terrorists had been killed and more than 130 captured by Taliban with the rest surrendering to government forces rather than Taliban. "The evil phenomenon of Daesh has completely been eliminated and people have been freed from its tortures in Jawzjan province of Afghanistan." Taliban launched an offensive several weeks ago in Jawzjan against Daesh. In a separate development, the UN mission to Afghanistan said an employee of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was among the people who were killed in a coordinated attack on a refugee and repatriation center in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday. The UN said in a statement that the employee who died was a 22-year-old woman whose husband had died in a bombing in Kabul three years earlier. It said she leaves behind a six-year-old daughter who is "now an orphan." No one immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack. Since late last year, Daesh, which has already lost all its urban strongholds in Syria and Iraq, has taken advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan and established a foothold in the Asian country's eastern and northern regions, launching brutal attacks against civilians and security forces alike. According to Afghan intelligence documents, Daesh is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab, and Badakhshan in the north, and Ghor in the central west. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN bodies alarmed at humanitarian crisis in Yemen Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 10:24AM The United Nations Children's Fund and Food Program have voiced grave concern about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen, especially in its lifeline port city of al-Hudaydah. On Wednesday, the UNICEF's Executive Director Henrietta H. called for an immediate halt to attacks on water facilities and civilian infrastructure in the war-battered country. Such attacks, she said in a statement, were "unacceptable, inhumane, and in breach of the basic laws of war." "Ongoing violence and repeated attacks on lifesaving civilian infrastructure in al-Hudaydah are a direct threat to the survival of hundreds of thousands of children and their families," she added. "Yet the past few days have seen an escalation in the targeting of systems and facilities that are essential to sustaining the lives of children and families," the statement read. She cited two recent airstrikes respectively targeting a UNICEF-supported sanitation center in al-Hudaydah's Zabid District, and another against the water station in al-Mina District, which provides the port city with most of its drinking water. The official said the destruction of the facilities could directly contribute to the outbreak of cholera and acute diarrhea. "The war in Yemen has no winners. It is robbing Yemeni children of their futures," she added. Yemen has been under Saudi-led attacks since March 2015. The invasion, which seeks to bring back Yemen's former Saudi-allied officials, has killed thousands of civilians. The invaders have now turned their focus on al-Hudaydah, which receives the bulk of vital imports into Yemen. Days earlier, international NGO Save the Children likewise warned that fresh Saudi attacks could create the ideal conditions for a new catastrophic cholera outbreak affecting thousands of people in Hudaydah. On Monday, the World Food Program (WFP) said more than eight million people in Yemen were now living in extreme hunger and depended entirely on external food. The WFP's country director Stephen Anderson visited a family of 11, which has been displaced by the fighting in the city and asserted that the Yemeni people desperately needed peace in order to rebuild their livelihoods. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zanu-PF wins most parliamentary seats in post-Mugabe Zimbabwe Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 09:19AM Zimbabwe's ruling party ZANU-PF has won the majority of seats in parliamentary elections, official results show, as vote counting continues separately in the presidential vote. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said on Wednesday that ZANU-PF had picked up 110 seats against the 41 for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Another 58 seats are yet to be declared. The final results of the presidential poll are expected by Saturday. ZANU-PF, which ousted former president Robert Mugabe after 37 years last November, would need an additional 30 seats to have a two-thirds majority, which would allow it to change the constitution at will. Opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa, who leads the MDC, has accused the electoral commission of delaying presidential results to favor the ruling party, led by his rival, President Emmerson Dambudz Mnangagwa. He accused the commission of releasing the parliamentary results first to prepare people for a Mnangagwa victory. "The strategy is meant to prepare Zimbabwe mentally to accept fake presidential results. We've more votes than ED (Emmerson Dambudzo)," he said in a Twitter message. "We won the popular vote (and) will defend it." His supporters took to the streets on Tuesday, protesting the delay in the results. Crowds also gathered outside the MDC Alliance headquarters in the capital, Harare, celebrating what they believed to be Chamisa's victory. The gathering was followed by the deployment of a truckload of policemen and water cannon to the area. Allegations of fraud risk plunging the country into violence. Millions of people voted peacefully in the Monday election, the first-ever vote without Mugabe in almost 40 years in Zimbabwe. His 37-year old ruling came to an end last November after Zimbabwe's military took over the capital and the state broadcaster and held Mugabe and his wife under house arrest in a bloodless coup d'etat. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen's Houthis unilaterally halt retaliatory attacks in Red Sea Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 05:27AM Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement has unilaterally suspended its retaliatory attacks in the Red Sea, from where Saudi-led warships have been targeting the war-torn state, especially its strategic port city of Hudaydah. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Houthi-run Supreme Revolutionary Committee (SRC) said the two-week suspension was meant to support efforts aimed at resolving the Yemeni conflict. "The unilateral halt in naval military operations will be for a limited time period and could be extended and include all fronts if this move is reciprocated by the leadership of the [Saudi-led] coalition," SRC head Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said. The announcement comes less than a week after Saudi Arabia temporarily suspended all oil shipments through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Riyadh's move followed Yemeni retaliatory attacks on the Saudi Dammam frigate off the western coast of Yemen and a coalition boat off the coast of el-Durayhmi in southern Hudaydah, which the Saudi-led coalition and their allied militants have been seeking to seize in a weeks-long military push. However, Saudi Arabia claimed that Houthi fighters had attacked two oil tankers in the Red Sea, and thus it had decided to halt oil shipments via Bab el-Mandeb until the waterway was safe. Elsewhere in his statement, Houthi complained that as a result of the Saudi-led aggression and siege of Yemen, people are suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The halt to retaliatory attacks in the Red Sea is aimed at "preserving the Yemeni bloods and in response to the regional and international moves and efforts aiming to bring peace," he noted. Additionally on Tuesday, a Yemeni Defense Ministry official confirmed that the Houthis were halting naval operations for two weeks, starting at midnight (2000 GMT) on August 1. "We welcome any initiative to spare bloodshed and stop aggression against Yemen," the official said in a statement carried by Yemen's official SABA news agency. Over the past weeks, the UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths has been shuttling between the warring parties to help stop the Saudi-led offensive on Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, which the world body says could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war in March 2015 in support of Yemen's former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthis. Several Western countries have been supplying Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment. Yemeni forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia and fire rockets at the coalition's battleships in retaliatory attacks against the Riyadh-led military operation on Yemen. Saudi Arabia has also imposed a blockade on Yemen, which has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At Least 200 IS Fighters 'Surrender' In Northern Afghanistan RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan August 01, 2018 Dozens of Islamic State (IS) fighters have surrendered to Afghan forces, amid intense fighting between followers of the extremist group and the Taliban in the northern province of Jawzjan, an official says. Provincial police chief Faqeer Mohammad Jawzjani told RFE/RL on August 1 that at least 200 militants had surrendered in Darzab district since late on July 31. Jawzjani said the main IS stronghold in northern Afghanistan was now under the control of the Taliban, which has been fighting its rival group there for a month. "The evil phenomenon of Daesh has completely been eliminated and people have been freed from its tortures in Jawzjan Province," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group. There were no immediate comments from IS. Mohammad Ismail, head of police in Darzab district, confirmed that groups of IS militants were turning themselves over to Afghan security forces amid ongoing clashes. Other officials said a senior IS commander in northern Afghanistan, identified as Mawlawi Habiburrahman, was among the militants who surrendered. Jawzjan Province's police deputy chief, Abdul Hafeez Khashi, said that fighting between the two rival groups broke out in the area late on July 31 and was still under way. Eight Taliban militants and six IS fighters were killed in the battle, Khashi told Pajhwok news agency. There have been no immediate comments from the Taliban or the IS group. Last month, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, expressed concern about the IS presence in the country. "We are going fully at ISIS. And we also note that the Taliban is fighting ISIS, and we encourage that because ISIS needs to be destroyed," Nicholson told reporters on July 23, using another acronym for the extremist group. "There is no place for them in the future of Afghanistan," he added. The Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban, IS, and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014. On July 31, at least 15 people were killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad when gunmen stormed a government building, officials said. A 22-year-old female employee of the International Organization for Migration was among those killed, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. In the western province of Farah's Bala Baluk district, 11 people were reported killed when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks. With reporting by Pajhwok, AFP, Reuters, and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/at-least- 200-is-fighters-surrender-in-northern -afghanistan/29402416.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 Afghanistan Sets Date For 2019 Presidential Election RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan August 01, 2018 Afghanistan's electoral authorities say the country will hold its next presidential election on April 20, 2019, six months after parliamentary polls. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) made the announcement on August 1, as Afghanistan's Western-backed government has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014. Security, funding, and the short time frame between the elections would present the biggest challenges to the polls, IEC spokesman Hafeezullah Hashemi said during a televised news conference. Nearly 14 percent, or 56 of the war-torn country's more than 400 districts, are under Taliban control or influence, according to a report published on July 31 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed the IEC's announcement, calling it "an important moment for democracy in Afghanistan." In a statement, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan and the head of UNAMA, also urged "all parties to perform their respective roles in order to ensure necessary timelines and conditions are met for credible presidential elections." Confirmation of the presidential election date comes amid preparations for long-delayed parliamentary and district-council polls scheduled for October 20 this year. Nearly 9 million people have registered to vote, including more than 3 million women, according to the IEC. But the run-up to the elections has been marred by technical and organizational problems as well as accusations of fraud and abuse. In its statement, UNAMA said it expected a "thorough verification process of registered voters in order for any irregularities to be addressed." Presidential candidates will not be registered until November, but maneuvering among potential contenders and their allies has already kicked off. President Ashraf Ghani is expected to run for a second five-year term, while one of his main backers, ethnic Uzbek Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum, has formed an alliance with powerful leaders. These include former Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor, a leading figure in the largely ethnic Tajik Jamiat-e Islami party, and ethnic Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqeq. The last presidential election, in 2014, produced no clear winner after accusations of massive electoral fraud. Months after the vote, Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah agreed to form a national-unity government in which Ghani took the presidency and Abdullah took the specially created post of chief executive. Parliamentary elections, initially scheduled to be held in 2015, were postponed in the aftermath of the contested presidential poll. With reporting by dpa and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan- sets-date-for-2019-presidentia l-election/29404813.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 US Congress Passes $716Bln Defense Spending Bill for 2019 Sputnik News 23:17 01.08.2018 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Senate on Wednesday passed the $716 billion National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2019. The measure passed with an 87-10 vote and now heads to US President Donald Trump's office to be signed into law. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the measure in a 359-54 vote. The measure also funds the Trump administration's request for Ukraine, which included $250 million for lethal defensive items. In addition, the bill adds $150 million to accelerate US efforts to field a conventional prompt strike capability before fiscal year 2022, in response to the critical advances Russia and China have made in developing their prompt strike hypersonic weapons. The bill also funds the Trump administration's request for $6.3 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) to further increase the number of US troops in Europe and deter what it calls "Russian aggression." The bill, in addition, prohibits military-to-military cooperation with Russia. The bill obligates US Defense Secretary James Mattis to submit a plan to Congress to ban Turkey from acquiring the F-35 aircraft to punish it for purchasing Russian S-400 air defense systems and for detaining US Pastor Andrew Brunson. The bill will also include Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waivers for India, Vietnam and Indonesia. The United States and NATO have significantly increased their presence in Eastern Europe since the eruption of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014. Moscow has repeatedly voiced its protest over the military buildup, saying that it will undermine regional stability and result in a new arms race. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At the Speed of Relevance': US Air Force Building AI to Sort Drone Data Faster Sputnik News 22:12 01.08.2018 The US Air Force says that it must rely on artificial intelligence technology to sift through vast troves of data gathered from surveillance drones because, "if you are not first in developing artificial intelligence and the means to employ [it] you're going to be last." Airborne data collecting platforms like the RQ-4 Global Hawk have a problem: the usefulness of the data they collect is limited by how fast and how well it can be analyzed. US military intelligence gathers a lot of data, but in order to make the data useful for a decision making process, the Air Force needs a "sensing grid that fuses together data," C4ISRNET reported Wednesday. AI will help the force interpret that fused data. The AI will harvest information from airborne systems in development such as Gremlin drones, which the US military portrays as a swarm of small drones that take off from an aircraft mid-flight and are recovered by the same aircraft. "How do I get the data so I can fuse it, look at it and then ask the right questions from the data to reveal what trends are out there?" Lt. Gen. VeraLinn Jamieson said in a July 31 interview with the news outlet. "We have to do all of that at the speed of relevance," she said. The Air Force plans roll out complex AI architecture over the coming decade to solve that problem, Jamieson revealed, but most of the "flight plan" describing how the service branch will do this is classified, C4ISRNET noted. "I don't want to give them anything that's going to tip off what we're doing," she said, referring to Russia and China, but "the Chinese especially." "If you are not first in developing artificial intelligence and the means to employ with structured data, with the infrastructure to support that, with a multi-cloud approach you're going to be last, because catch-up in this arena with disruptive technologies, it's too hard, and it's too fast," the officer said. A 2011 report by the US Defense Science Board states that while the Pentagon's demand for information is "insatiable" and many technologies emphasize collection of data, there is actually so much data it's not always useful. "The deluge of sensor data is creating a crisis in processing, exploitation, and dissemination (PED) and associated communication," DSB noted. "The insatiable demand for information and emphasis on collection is producing a deluge of data, overwhelming the ability to provide useful, actionable intelligence in a timely manner." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Senators Privately Assured NATO Members of Support for Alliance - Reports Sputnik News 21:35 01.08.2018 The US president has expressed skepticism regarding NATO's usefulness on multiple occasions and has even reportedly threatened to leave the bloc unless other members start spending more on their defense. A bipartisan group of US senators has organized a private meeting with a group of representatives from NATO member-states and European countries in order to assure them of the Senate's commitment to the Atlantic Alliance, the AP reported. Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said in an interview with the AP that President Donald Trump's name "never came up" during the consultations, but noted that all participants had taken him into consideration as one of the factors. He added that Trump's policy and statements towards NATO was one of the reasons for the meeting. "Everyone knows he's the big actor in the room. And the purpose of this meeting was to overcome some of things he has said and done that raised questions about the future of NATO," Durbin said. According to the news outlet, Republican Senator Richard Shelby said that the organizers of the event wanted to let participants know that the US Senate is "committed to NATO" and wants them to be as well. Representatives of nine countries were present at the meeting, the AP reported. One of the attendees, Polish Ambassador to the US Piotr Wilczek, expressed gratitude for the Senate's support, but noted that its position might differ from that of the presidential administration. He expressed hope, in an interview with the news outlet, that the White House would join the upper house of the Congress in reassuring US allies of Washington's support. Trump has criticized NATO on multiple occasions, blaming member-states for not contributing enough and not reaching the targeted spending of 2% of GDP, which is required by the alliance's agreements. After the recent NATO summit in Brussels, where Trump had reportedly threatened to abandon the alliance in the closed-door meeting, member-states announced that they would reach the target and negotiated deadlines for doing so. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen's Houthis Declare Two-Week Halt of Military Ops in Red Sea - Official Sputnik News 17:20 01.08.2018 DUBAI (Sputnik) - The Defense Ministry of the government of the Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement declared a two-week suspension of military operations in the Red Sea after a recent attack on Saudi oil tankers, the Houthis' Supreme Revolutionary Committee head Mohammed Ali al-Houthi wrote in a statement published on Twitter Wednesday. "The truce, which was welcomed by the Defense Ministry, began at 12:00 a.m. [local time, 21:00 GMT] on August 1 and will last until Wednesday night, August 15. It can be extended in response to reciprocal steps of the US-Saudi coalition and its allies. We have announced this initiative in an appeal to [the government of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi] to halt military operations at sea for a certain period as well with the possibility of extension," al-Houthi said. Last week, the Houthis attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea close to the West coast of the country, slightly damaging one of them. The Saudi authorities in response suspended the oil transportation across the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden until the security situation in the region improves. The conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthis has been ongoing since August 2014. The conflict further escalated after the Saudi-led coalition came into conflict in March 2015. The operation against the Houthis, dubbed Decisive Storm, was supported by Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, which were then joined by Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Sudan. Saudi Arabia supports the ousted Hadi government, which was toppled in a series of uprisings in 2014 and 2015 by the Houthis, after which Hadi fled to Riyadh. The coalition has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months, with the Houthis reportedly counterattacking and launching a series of ballistic missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia and attacking coalition warships. The war-torn country is now divided into several factions, including the Houthis, who control the capital of Sanaa, the Hadi-led government, the so-called Southern Transitional Council, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula* and Daesh (ISIS)*. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Daesh Commander, 152 Militants Surrender to Military in Afghanistan - Reports Sputnik News 14:01 01.08.2018 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A senior commander of the Afghan branch of the Daesh terrorist organization and 152 fighters have surrendered to the country's military in northern Afghanistan, Khaama Press News Agency reported on Wednesday. According to the Khaama Press News Agency, who cited a statement by the Afghan forces, the terrorists, including senior commander Mawlavi Habib Ur Rehman, surrendered in the northern Afghan province of Jawzjan on Tuesday night handing over their weapons and part of their military gear. The news agency added that the Jawzjan province had been considered rather calm in terms of the terrorist activities, however, the situation worsened in the last few years with Daesh fighters operating in some areas of the province. Earlier in June, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani announced a temporary unilateral ceasefire with the Taliban for the period between June 11 and June 19 in order to to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and the movement later joined the truce. However, other radical groups, including Daesh, continued their operations in the country. The Afghan forces conducted several major US-backed operations against members of the Daesh branch in 2017 while also facing other extremist groups operating in the country and continuing to fight the Taliban insurgency since 2002. Daesh, also known as IS/ISIS/ISIL, is a terrorist organization, banned in Russia. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Death of local UN staffer in latest Afghan suicide attack highlights tragic toll of violence against civilians 1 August 2018 - The death of a local United Nations staff member in a suicide attack on Wednesday in the city of Jalalabad, has highlighted the tragic and relentless effects of terrorist attacks targeting civilians across Afghanistan. A 22-year-old employee of the UN migration agency, IOM, was among at least 13 killed. The woman, who is not being named, lost her husband during a bombing in the capital Kabul three years ago, and the couple had a daughter, aged six, who has now been orphaned. "Our immediate thoughts are with her family and friends," IOM said in a press statement, expressing the UN's "deep sense of revulsion at this senseless attack that claimed the lives of at least 13 civilians." The agency said that another colleague was among the 20 injured in Wednesday's armed attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad, When the government Department of Refugees and Returnees was strafed by gunfire for hours. IOM wished "him and all the injured a speedy and full recovery." IOM Director General William Lacy Swing condemned "this heinous crime which has taken the life of a brave colleague in Jalalabad and left another grievously injured." "My heart goes out to the families of the victims, and all of us in IOM are thinking of our staff working in difficult conditions across the country on behalf of the Afghan people," he added. The bombing is the latest in a series of attacks attributed to the ISIL terrorist group, also known as Da'esh, that have killed or wounded hundreds of people in eastern Afghanistan since mid-June amidst growing political and territorial rivalry between ISIL and the Taliban, according to news reports. "There is no justification for such acts of terror," IOM underscored, calling her "one of thousands of Afghans who form the backbone" of the UN's daily work in the country "to help the most in need, supporting development and contributing to the restoration of peace and stability." According to figures released mid-July by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, 1,692 civilians were killed and another 3,430 injured in the first six months of 2018 a record high number for the first six months of any year, despite an unprecedented ceasefire between the Government and Taliban extremists in mid-June. Referring to the young IOM worker, Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the UN Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said: "We mourn the loss of our colleague and, in tribute, commit ourselves to re-double our work to serve Afghanistan and its peoples." IOM stressed that deliberately targeting civilians and their places of work, such as the department in Jalalabad, is an "appalling crime." The agency called for the "architects" of the attack to be brought to justice. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen: Attacks on water facilities, civilian infrastructure, breach 'basic laws of war' says UNICEF 1 August 2018 - Ongoing violence and attacks on civilian infrastructure in Hudaydah directly threaten hundreds of thousands of children and their families in Yemen, according to the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a statement released on Wednesday "Attacks against civilian facilities and services are unacceptable, inhumane and in breach of the basic laws of war," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "Yet the past few days have seen an escalation in the targeting of systems and facilities that are essential to sustaining the lives of children and families," she added. It was reported at the weekend that a UNICEF-supported warehouse containing humanitarian provisions, including hygiene and water-related supplies, was hit by two airstrikes. On Saturday, a UNICEF-supported sanitation centre in the Zabid District came under attack, damaging the facility's fuel tank. A day earlier, the al-Mina District water station was hit, which is the main source of water for the key port city. Overall, 22 million people need some kind of assistance in Yemen after years of grinding conflict between government and Saudi-led coalition forces, who've been battling Houthi rebels for control of the country. Hudaydah is the main port for the shattered import-dependent economy, as more than 70 per cent of all humanitarian supplies, commercial goods and food brought into the country, passes through the docks there. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, on Sunday described Hudaydah as just "one airstrike away from an unstoppable epidemic" due to the looming risk of a fresh outbreak of deadly water-borne cholera. The UNICEF chief said on Wednesday that the country was "already facing a severe shortage of drinking water, which is directly linked to outbreaks of cholera and acute watery diarrhea," underscoring that attacks on water infrastructure "jeopardize efforts to prevent another outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea in Yemen." The World Health Organization (WHO) said that Hudaydah had registered the highest incidences of suspected cholera cases of any city; around 14 per cent of those reported nationwide since the start of a crippling outbreak, in April 2017. Ms. Fore again called on everyone involved in fighting to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. "The war in Yemen has no winners. It is robbing Yemeni children of their futures," she concluded. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN officials call for children's rights to be respected in Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel 1 August 2018 - Children's rights continue to be violated in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel, according to three leading UN officials in the region who on Wednesday called on all parties responsible to take concrete and immediate steps to "allow children to live free of fear and to realize all their rights". In a joint statement, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Jamie McGoldrick; the Head of the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) in the OPT, James Heenan; and the Special Representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the State of Palestine, Genevieve Boutin, said they were "deeply concerned" by continued reports of "children killed or seriously injured, some as young as 11" in Palestinian-administered areas. They also denounced the fact that "children in Israel are exposed to fear, trauma, and grave injuries". "This month alone, seven Palestinian children were killed by live ammunition and shelling from Israel", they said, adding that "two Israeli girls aged 14 and 15 also reportedly sustained injuries from rockets and mortar shells indiscriminately launched by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel". According to figures provided by UN agencies in the region, since the start of demonstrations at the border fence against Israel's longstanding blockade and deteriorating living conditions in Gaza on 30 March, 26 Palestinian children have been killed. 21 were shot during the demonstrations, and five others were killed by Israeli shelling, or outside the context of demonstrations. In the same period, hundreds more children have been injured by live ammunition. "A number of these children will suffer lifelong disabilities, including as a result of the amputation of limbs," the UN officials said. "Thousands are in need of urgent psycho-social assistance, specialised medical care, and support for their rehabilitation." The statement stressed that "all over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but particularly in the Gaza Strip", children are "robbed of every right." "Families cope with four hours of electricity per day in the sweltering heat, clean drinking water is expensive and hard to find. The start of the school year in one month will be very difficult for tens of thousands of families who cannot afford basic school supplies," said the three UN officials. In addition, they deplored the "too often cynical use of children in political rhetoric and propaganda on all sides," citing last week's call by the organisers of the 'Great March of Return' for Palestinians to demonstrate under the banner of "the Friday of our Child Martyrs" and the reported exposure of children to violence. "Children should never be the target of violence and must not be put at risk of violence, nor encouraged to participate in violence," the joint statement read. "We call on Israel, as well as the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas authorities in Gaza to put children's rights ahead of any other considerations and to take immediate steps to alleviate their suffering," said Mr. McGoldrick, Mr. Heenan and Ms. Boutin. "Respecting the rights of children and refraining from instrumentalising their plight should be a priority for all", they insisted, stressing that the Israeli-Palestinian context is "not an exception". On 23 July, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, briefed the UN's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, on the many human rights violations facing women, children and men living in the OPT. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Exercise restraint,' UN urges Zimbabwe after post-election violence 1 August 2018 - After reported attacks on demonstrators protesting election results in Zimbabwe that have left three dead, the United Nations called on the country's leaders on Wednesday to reject any form of violence. "We are concerned about reports that there have been incidents of violence in some parts of Zimbabwe," UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York at a regular briefing. According to media reports, at least three protesters was killed in the capital Harare after troops were deployed to quell presidential election protests. The violence erupted days after Zimbabwe's first general elections since former President Robert Mugabe was pressured to step down after more than three decades in office, last year. Mr. Haq reminded current office holders and political parties of the commitments they made through the Peace Pledge, signed on 26 June, and the agreed Code of Conduct for a peaceful electoral process. "We call on the political leaders and the population as a whole to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting resolution of the disputes and announcement of the election results," he continued. Trouble on the horizon Back in June, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned an explosion that took place at an election rally in Zimbabwe, shortly after sitting President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is running again for a full term - left the stage. And in July, amid increasing reports of voter intimidation and coercion linked to the ruling ZANU-PF party, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, underscored the need for a peaceful and credible election. According to news reports, official results so far, show that while ZANU-PF has won the most seats in the parliamentary ballot, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is alleging ballot-rigging and impatience has been growing at the delayed release of full results. Mr. Haq concluded by saying that the UN was monitoring the situation and again called on all the people of Zimbabwe to respect electoral law, the peace pledge and code of conduct, and to "desist from any inflammatory statements and refrain from violence." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zimbabwe's Ruling Party Wins Majority in Parliament By VOA News August 01, 2018 Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has won a majority in parliament, according to partial results released Wednesday. The figures from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission showed ZANU-PF with 109 seats in the 210-seat parliament.The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had 41 seats. The remaining winners were still to be declared. European Union observers said the elections were held on an "unlevel playing field," citing voter intimidation, and mistrust in the electoral commission and media bias. The assessment by the EU, which also questioned delays in releasing the presidential results, is considered important in determining whether Zimbabwe can improve its global reputation, which could help spark an economic resurgence. If ZANU-PF wins at least 30 of the outstanding seats it would have a two-thirds majority that would allow it to make constitutional changes without the votes of other members of parliament. Ballots are still being counted in the presidential election with results expected to be announced later this week. The main candidates in that race are ZANU-PF's candidate, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after longtime leader Robert Mugabe's resignation in November, and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of MDC. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Clashes Erupt as Zimbabwe Election Results Delayed By Anita Powell August 01, 2018 Two people were shot dead in Zimbabwe's capital Wednesday as security forces clashed with protesters who were demanding the release of presidential election results. Following the clash, police invoked a law formally calling on the army to help maintain order in Harare. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans were anxiously waiting for tallies from Monday's presidential election, the first in 38 years without longtime leader Robert Mugabe on the ballot. The opposition maintained that its leader, Nelson Chamisa, defeated current President Emmerson Mnangagwa. About 150 demonstrators gathered Wednesday afternoon outside the offices of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Police tried to disperse the protesters using water cannons and tear gas. Protesters threw rocks in their direction and started fires in the street. Then the army appeared, in armored personnel carriers on Harare's main boulevard and overhead in a helicopter. VOA saw five armored vehicles with mounted high-caliber weapons, navigating around large rocks that littered the road. Gunfire echoed in the distance. VOA saw three soldiers beating a young man with batons; other witnesses reported seeing one man shot dead and a woman face down on the pavement, a bullet hole in the middle of her back. Protesters did not give their names but had plenty to say. "You see, they are using military! How can a general be a president? That government is full of military personnel!" shouted one young man. Chamisa's spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, rejected an accusation from Mnangagwa that the opposition was responsible for the violence. Chamisa "has not ordered any guns on the street. So he cannot be accused of being violent, because he has put no guns on the street," Sibanda said. He said the opposition had serious doubts about official results that showed the ruling ZANU-PF party was winning control of parliament, and about the delay in the release of presidential results. "How do we have results from a place that has no telephone line first before we have results from Harare central?" he asked. Harare is an opposition stronghold. Inside the headquarters of ZEC, international observers aired their concerns, with the European Union and American observer missions voicing worry over "subtle intimidation" ahead of the vote and noting that the longer the results took, the more tense this wounded nation would be. Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn urged the ZEC to conclude the electoral process "in a speedy manner in accordance with the law." "We also urge other stakeholders, particularly political party leaders and their supporters, to continue to maintain peace and refrain from acts that might undermine the integrity of the process or threaten the peace and stability of the country," Desalegn said. Mnangagwa urged calm on Twitter. Mnangagwa, who took over in November after Mugabe resigned as president under pressure from the military, has promised to restore the nation's fractured international relations. U.S. Democratic Representative Karen Bass of California, who was in Harare, said this election could make a difference in Zimbabwe. "Shortly before coming here, we passed out of the House of Representatives a resolution really calling on the Zimbabwean people to have a peaceful, transparent and fair election, and raising the possibility of evaluating U.S. policy. So that hangs in the air," she said. But as the sun set on Harare with soldiers patrolling the streets, the only thing in the air was tension, and the fear of more violence in the days to come. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US 10th Fleet Breaks Ground to Compete in Cyberspace with New Reserve Unit Navy News Service Story Number: NNS180801-12 Release Date: 8/1/2018 1:42:00 PM By Lt. Robert Mook, Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet Public Affairs FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (NNS) -- As Navy leaders envision the future of the fleet, cyberspace is top of mind. It spans almost every aspect of Navy operations: command and control, weapons systems, intelligence, navigation, and operations. But as the role of cyber in the Navy mission evolves, senior leaders face a nagging challenge of how to keep offensive and defensive capabilities competitive with the rapid pace of innovation and ever-shifting threats and opportunities. As the rate of change has accelerated, officials are increasingly looking for ways to directly connect the Navy's cyber forces with private decor research and insights. Last September, leadership at U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet (FCC/C10F) decided to try something completely new by standing up a detachment in Pittsburgh to work directly with Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (CMU-SEI) and more rapidly surface new capabilities in cyberspace. It is the first time a Navy Reserve unit is attached to a specific academic program, or any organization in the private sector. "We are ... establishing reserve detachments with high-performing academic research institutions," Vice Adm. Michael Gilday told the Senate Armed Services Committee when the detachment was announced in March. "This was initiated to better connect with advances in the academic world in order to enhance our cyber mission force training and cyber tool development." The unit will be created from a directorate currently within the U.S. 10th Fleet Reserve unit tasked with identifying best practices and needed skill sets for the Navy's cyber efforts. Capt. James H. Lee, who leads the directorate, has been tasked with conducting the manpower assessment and completing the administrative work to stand up the unit. Eight Reserve officers recruited from U.S. 10th Fleet and other commands are already actively drilling with the detachment, including cryptologic warfare, informational professionals, and engineering duty officers. Members are drilling and conducting annual training on the CMU campus and working directly with CMU staff. At his testimony in March, Gilday said the mission of the new detachment would be "to ensure that we are investing in the right systems, technologies, and methodologies to provide a resilient information environment that can be operated and maintained by our personnel." The Software Engineering Institute is a federally-funded research and development center (FFRDC) that provides new insights, access to new technologies, and trusted advice on technological capabilities. It is one of only two such institutes that receives funding directly from Congress, and is focused primarily on supporting efforts at the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security with more than 60 projects active at any given time. It's no mistake that CMU's Software Engineering Institute was U.S. 10th Fleet's first choice for this new endeavor. Founded in 1984, SEI's express mission is to "support the defense of the United States," according to its website. The Institute's Computer Emergency Response Team coordination center (CERT-CC), is sometimes called the "birthplace of cybersecurity" because it pioneered research into proactive security measures when the term "cybersecurity" did not yet exist. Since 2002, the institute has also led the National Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) for the Department of Homeland Security. CMU-SEI personnel work mostly in Pittsburgh, but have staff in Arlington, Virginia, and with strategic partners such as U.S. Cyber Command. The detachment is the first of its kind for the Navy Reserve, and one of Lee's objectives is to enable the Navy to take greater advantage of reserve Sailors' civilian experience, professional networks and expertise. The inaugural members of the Reserve unit were hand-selected as civilian subject matter experts in areas of critical need, especially systems engineering. The creation of the unit comes as part of a broader effort by the Commander of Navy Reserve Forces, Vice Adm. Luke M. McCollum, to better leverage the special skill sets and depth of experience Reservists bring to the force. His effort, entitled "Ready to Win," calls on the Navy to "leverage Reserve Sailors' civilian skills and relationships within their prospective industry to further enhance our contributions to the fleet." The Navy and a myriad of other government agencies have collaborated with academic institutions for a long time, especially FFRDCs. But using Reservists to bridge technological demand signals in the military with innovation in the private sector in this way is a new model for the Reserve and active components. This change comes as the U.S. 10th Fleet and the combatant command it supports, U.S. Cyber Command, are evolving rapidly, as are threats and opportunities in the cyber domain. Recognizing the ever-increasing strategic importance of cyber, President Donald Trump designated U.S. Cyber Command as a full combatant command last August, at which point officials began building out the capabilities for it to operate as an independent combatant command. The mission of the 150-member U.S. 10th Fleet Reserve unit is to support U.S. FCC/C10F with exercising operational control of assigned naval forces and coordinating with other naval, coalition, and Joint Task Forces to execute full spectrum cyber, electronic warfare, information operations and signal intelligence capabilities and missions across the cyber, electromagnetic and space domains. The unit drills at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Since its establishment, FCC/C10F has grown into an operational force composed of more than 16,000 active and Reserve Sailors and civilians organized into 26 active commands, 40 Cyber Mission Force units, and 26 Reserve commands around the globe. C10F, the operational arm of FCC, executes its mission through a task force structure similar to other warfare commanders. In this role, C10F provides support of Navy and joint missions in cyberspace operations, space operations and signals intelligence and space. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Facebook Finds 'Sophisticated' Effort To Influence U.S. Election; Russia Suspected RFE/RL August 01, 2018 Facebook says it has discovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to manipulate U.S. politics ahead of November's congressional elections, setting off a fury among politicians in Washington. The social media giant said late on July 31 that it could not connect the efforts directly to Russia or to the midterm elections, which are less than 100 days away, but legislators briefed by Facebook said the methodology used by the perpetrators pointed to Russian involvement. The company said it found 32 "fake" accounts on Facebook and Instagram, which it said it removed because they were involved in "coordinated" and "inauthentic" political behavior. While Facebook would not say who was behind the efforts, it said it found links between the deleted accounts and those created by Russia's Internet Research Agency, which has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with a major effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Nearly 300,000 people followed at least one of the deleted accounts, Facebook said, and hundreds of thousands expressed interest in some 30 political events the sites were promoting. "This is an absolute attack on our democracy," said Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose members received a briefing about the findings from Facebook. "I think with pretty high confidence that...this was Russian-related," he said. "The goal of these operations is to sow discord, distrust, and division," said Senator Richard Burr, the committee's chairman. "The Russians want a weak America." U.S. Vice President Mike Pence vowed to protect the upcoming elections from such foreign interference. "Any attempt to interfere in our elections is an affront to our democracy and it will not be allowed," Pence said at a cybersecurity summit in New York late on July 31. "The United States of America will not tolerate any foreign interference in our elections from any nation state." But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer accused the White House of "not doing close to enough" to "shield" U.S. voters from such foreign influence efforts. The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab worked with Facebook to find the political influence efforts on its web pages and viewed the "fake" accounts cited by Facebook before they were removed. It said that the websites sought to "promote divisions and set Americans against one another," and used "language patterns that indicate non-native English and consistent mistranslation, as well as an overwhelming focus on polarizing issues." The council said the accounts used an approach that was similar to fake accounts set up by Russia's Internet Research Agency, which has been widely described as a "troll factory," and seemed focused on building support for some 30 political events they were promoting, including political protests. In February, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the Internet Research Agency and 13 Russian nationals for allegedly using a widespread social media campaign to foster divisions among Americans and interfere in the 2016 election. Facebook said the perpetrators it found this year set up Facebook pages as early as March 2017, and the most followed pages had names such as "Aztlan Warriors," ''Black Elevation," ''Mindful Being," and "Resisters." The Atlantic Council said the Resisters page, which advocated left-wing feminist causes, raised alarms because it was pushing for confrontation at multiple protests, including against supporters of the right-wing "Unite the Right 2" group, raising the potential for violence. A counterprotest touted by the Resisters site was planned for next week at a Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C. Facebook said it was disclosing the influence effort now in part because of the planned rallies. A previous event last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to violent clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters, and the death of one counterprotester. The names Facebook said were given to some of the deleted pages paralleled those of 2016 groups allegedly established by Russian agents to manipulate American voters with particular ethnic, cultural, or political identities. That effort targeted people with both liberal and conservative leanings. This time, though, the pages Facebook found focused "exclusively at engaging and influencing the left end of the American political spectrum," the Atlantic Council researchers said. Facebook said the pages it deleted ran about 150 ads costing $11,000 on Facebook and Instagram, paid for in U.S. and Canadian dollars. It said the first ad was created in April 2017 and the last was created in June 2018. Facebook said the perpetrators this year were "more careful to cover their tracks" than those it found trying to influence the 2016 election, in part because of steps it has taken to prevent a recurrence of the 2016 abuses. For example, it said they used virtual private networks and Internet phone services to mask their locations, and paid third parties to run ads on their behalf. Since the 2016 election, Facebook has cracked down on fake accounts and tried to slow the spread of fake news and misinformation through outside fact-checkers. The company has also announced new guidelines around political advertisements, requiring disclosure of who paid for them and keeping a database of political advertisers. On a conference call, Facebook executives declined to say much more, including whether the pages mentioned specific candidates or politicians running for reelection in Congress. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said Facebook's discovery showed that more work is needed to guard against foreign interference in the upcoming elections. "Foreign bad actors are using the exact same playbook they used in 2016," he said. They are "dividing us along political and ideological lines, to the detriment of our cherished democratic system." The intelligence panel is planning a hearing in early September with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, and an executive from Google. With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/facebook-finds- sophisticaed-effort-influence-us-election- russia-suspected/29402247.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 New cluster of Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - World Health Organization 1 August 2018 - The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced on Wednesday that preliminary laboratory results indicate a new cluster of cases of the deadly Ebola virus in North Kivu province. The announcement was issued just eight days after the Ministry of Health declared the official end of an Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province, some 2,500 km from North Kivu. A total of 29 died during the most recent outbreak, which was declared over when two weeks had passed without a new case emerging, following the release of the last patient from care. Concern heightened in the early days of the outbreak, when cases emerged in a major urban area on the Congo River. "Ebola is a constant threat in the DRC," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). "What adds to our confidence in the country's ability to respond is the transparency they have displayed once again. Working closely with the Ministry of Health and partners, we will fight this one as we did the last." The Government informed WHO that four out of six samples tested positive for Ebola virus at the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB) in Kinshasa but that further testing is ongoing. "Since we are coming out of another Ebola outbreak, we have kept staff and equipment in place," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. "This allows us to have a head start in response to this cluster." The majority of the cases are in the Mangina health area which is 30 kilometres from the city of Beni. "This new cluster is occurring in an environment which is very different from where we were operating in the north-west," said Dr. Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General of the Emergency Preparedness and Response team at WHO. He explained that given that North-Kivu is an active conflict zone, "the major barrier will be safely accessing the affected population." North Kivu hosts over 1 million displaced people. The province shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda with a great deal of cross-border movement due to the trade activities, which could increase the risk of possible spread of the virus. WHO said it will "continue to work with neighbouring countries to ensure health authorities are alerted and prepared to respond". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hurricanes bring heavy rainfall and strong winds to coastal communities, a potent combination that can lead to devastating damage. In 2016 NASA launched a set of eight satellites called the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, or CYGNSS, mission to gather more data on the winds in these tropical cyclones as part of an effort to increase data coverage of hurricanes and aid forecasts. As the first year of data is being evaluated, a new and unexpected capability has emerged: the ability to see through clouds and rain to flooded landscapes. The flood maps are possible thanks to one of the innovations of the CYGNSS constellation. The microwave signal the CYGNSS satellites use to detect wind speed based on the choppiness of the ocean is actually not generated by the satellites at all. Instead the satellites use the constant and ubiquitous signals from the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system, which is also responsive to reflections from standing water and the amount of moisture in the soil. "Before about 2015, people had inklings that you could use GPS reflection data over land to look at various things, but there hadn't been many observations to prove it," said Clara Chew, a researcher at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "With the launch of CYGNSS we've finally been able to really prove that yes, these signals are very sensitive to the amount of water either in the soil or on the surface." Chew developed flood inundation maps of the Texas coastline after Hurricane Harvey and of Cuba after Hurricane Irma, as well as flood maps of the Amazon River in Brazil, which overflows its banks seasonally. "When we made our first complete map of the Amazon, everyone was really shocked because you can see a lot of the tiniest, tiniest rivers throughout the basin, and nobody knew that we were going to see rivers a hundred meters wide or so in the data," Chew said, noting that the native resolution of data over the ocean varies between 10 and 15 km and it is averaged to a consistent 25 kilometers. "When I saw the first land images of inland water bodies, I was amazed at their quality," said Chris Ruf, CYGNSS's principal investigator at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "We had known beforehand that there would be some instances of coherent scattering possible. That's the phenomenon that creates such high-resolution images. It rarely happens over the ocean and we hadn't really considered how often it might happen over land. It turns out that it happens quite frequently, and almost always when observing small inland water bodies. This promises to open up entirely new areas of scientific investigation." CYGNSS's advantage over other space-based sensors for flood detection is its ability to see through clouds, rain and vegetation that may otherwise obscure floodwaters. Currently, flood detection is generally done by optical sensors on the U.S. Geological Survey-NASA Landsat satellites, which can't see through clouds, and the microwave sensors on the European Space Agency's Sentinel 1 and 2, which can't see through vegetation. Capturing data from eight satellites instead of one is another advantage because it decreases the time between observations for locations, meaning more coverage, more rapidly, of flooding in the tropics. Together this means CYGNSS could bridge gaps in current coverage. However, this type of detection is still in its early days of development, and Chew and others are exploring how to infer the amount of water present and other parameters to complement soil moisture and flood data from other satellites. In addition, CYGNSS data currently takes two days to go from observation to data users. "It's very fitting that one of the new things that CYGNSS is unexpectedly good at determining, the extent of flood inundation, is very often a direct consequence of the thing it was designed to measure, namely hurricanes," Ruf said. "So now, not only will we be able to observe the hurricanes while they are over the ocean, we will now also be able to map much of the damage they cause from flooding after landfall." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Deadly Ebola Outbreak Confirmed in Eastern DRC By VOA News August 01, 2018 Four cases of the Ebola virus have been confirmed in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials confirmed Wednesday. Julien Paluku, governor of North Kivu province, announced the outbreak on Twitter, just a week after Congolese and U.N. health officials announced the end of a separate outbreak that killed 33 people in the country's northwest. There is no evidence yet suggesting the two outbreaks in the Congo are linked. "Although we did not expect to face a tenth epidemic so early, the detection of the virus is an indicator of the proper functioning of the surveillance system," said the country's health minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, in a statement. Ebola was first identified in the Congo in 1976. A highly infective virus, it can be spread via contact with animals or the bodily fluids of the infected including the dead. The health ministry said there were 26 cases of hemorrhagic fever in the North Kivu province, including 20 deaths. Six samples from these patients were tested, and four tested positive for Ebola, the ministry said. Officials have said they now feel better prepared for Ebola outbreaks, in sharp contrast to the 2014 epidemic of the virus, which killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. To contain the most recent outbreak, health workers distributed an experimental but effective vaccine to anyone who had come into contact with those infected. "We had a vaccine and that I think is going to be extremely important for the future of Ebola control," Peter Salama, deputy director-general of emergency preparedness and response at the World Health Organization, told CNN of the July outbreak. Experts from the health ministry will arrive in the region on Thursday to coordinate a response to the virus, the ministry said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA to end commercial services People's Daily Online (China Daily) 07:49, August 01, 2018 President Xi Jinping has called for greater resolve and synergy in efforts to put an end to commercial activities of the military across the board. Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission and general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remark at a collective study session of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau on Tuesday, one day ahead of Army Day. Xi said that innovation and breakthroughs should be made in a manner that is both proactive and secure, and commercial activities of the military must be halted without any compromise. The military is expected to stop all its commercial activities by the end of the year, and related work is being conducted with good momentum, he said. Over the past two years, the military has seen major progress in halting its commercial activities thanks to efforts to implement the decision by the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission and focus on tackling difficulties, he said. The target of separating the military from commercial operations has been basically reached, which helped promote stricter governance of the Party and the military and helped the military to focus on its main mission of battle readiness, he said. However, the tasks at hand are still arduous and heavy, and it is important to continue the momentum, face difficulties head-on and ensure the targets already set can be fully reached, he said. They should also face contradictions and problems head-on and work unswervingly toward solving problems. Xi stressed that it is important to free the mind, step up exploration in practices and enhance innovation in mechanisms and systems. Innovation and breakthroughs should be achieved in areas such as the unified management of military assets, following a path of replacement of assets between military and local governments, and pushing forward integration between military and civil sectors. More work will also be done to push forward the optimized combination of resources for military and local governments to enable better utilization, he said. Xi noted that there are many complicated factors that are related to work in halting the commercial activities of the military. It is important to ensure the stability of both the military and society, he said. Related policies and regulations should be further refined, and legal awareness should be further strengthened to better use legal tools so that there are rules to follow and the legitimate interests of the military and the people can be protected, he said. He also stressed that the work must be comprehensive and has no forbidden areas and zero tolerance for wrongdoing. Clues to solving problems must be followed thoroughly, and individuals and cases of legal or disciplinary violations must be dealt with stringently, he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Xi requires resolute ending of military's paid services People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 07:19, August 01, 2018 BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Tuesday stressed resolute efforts to terminate all paid services provided by the armed forces. Xi made the call while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on this issue. Military's paid services generally refer to those provided by the armed forces such as kindergarten education, publishing services, and real estate rentals to the civilian sector. The implementation allows no exception, discount or makeshift compromise, Xi said, noting that such work is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission (CMC) aiming to strengthen the armed forces as well as an important part in reforming national defense and the armed forces. He also stressed that ending military paid services would create a sound environment for building a strong military in the new era. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, Xi extended Army Day greetings to the personnel of the People's Liberation Army, the Armed Police Force, the militia and the reserve force. China's Army Day falls on Aug. 1. Xi stressed that the group study session was arranged to get a better understanding of the situation and mobilize all forces to promote the work in ending military paid services. In the last more than two years, major advances had been achieved in this regard, and the military has generally relinquished commercial activities, said Xi. Xi highlighted the move's significance in purifying the political ecosystem in the armed forces, maintaining its nature, implementing the Party's goal of building a strong military in the new era, building the forces into world-class forces in an all-round way, and strengthening the Party's ruling status and ensuring the country's long-term stability. Xi said that according to the set schedule, all paid services provided by the military should stop by the end of this year. At present, the momentum for related work is generally good, but the mission remains arduous. He called for efforts to maintain the good momentum, overcome all difficulties, carry the mission through, and achieve the goal as scheduled. He stressed that such work should be advanced in a vigorous and orderly manner and that the overall stability within the armed forces and society should be maintained. Also, policies and regulations in this regard should be improved to ensure that there are rules to be observed and all works are done in a law-based manner, Xi said. Legitimate rights of the armed forces and the interests of the public should be well protected, Xi said, pledging full coverage, zero tolerance, and thorough investigation of all violations detected in this cause. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Defense ministry holds reception to celebrate PLA founding anniversary People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 07:45, August 01, 2018 A reception was held by the Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday to celebrate the 91st anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which falls on Aug. 1. On behalf of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission, State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe extended Army Day greetings to the personnel of the PLA, the Armed Police Force, the reserve force, the militia, veterans, army heroes and role models, among others. China will firmly stay on the path of peaceful development, pursue a national defense policy that is in nature defensive, and work with other countries to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, Wei said at the reception. China will promote the building of a new type of international relations, build a community with a shared future for humanity, and continue its efforts to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and uphold international order, he noted. There is only one China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, said the defense minister, pledging that the PLA has the resolve, the confidence, and the ability to defeat separatist attempts for "Taiwan independence" in any form and any external interference. The army will stay true to its founding mission and work hard to build the people's forces into world-class forces, Wei said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Inter-Korean Conventional Military Reductions Tied to Denuclearization By Brian Padden August 01, 2018 Inter-Korean military talks have so far yielded trust building measures, but no significant reductions in troops or artillery at the border Military delegations from North and South Korea held talks on Tuesday in the truce village of Panmunjom, within the demilitarized zone (DMZ) border region, the same site where North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in April. The military leaders discussed how they might implement the security related aspects of the inter-Korean summit agreement to ease border tensions and "cease all hostile acts against each another." The two sides exchanged views on possibly reducing the number of military forces and arms in the DMZ and to conduct a joint excavation in the border area for the remains of soldiers that were killed in the Korean War. The four-kilometer wide DMZ along the 250-kilometer inter-Korean border is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world, guarded by thousands of troops, artillery and littered with landmines. In April, Kim and Moon agreed to transform the DMZ, and the Northern Limit Line that extends the borderline out to sea, into peace zones to prevent accidental military clashes. But the two sides were unable to reach an agreement to release a joint statement on progress made at Tuesday's meeting. General Kim Do-gyun, the South's chief negotiator who is in charge of North Korea policy at the Ministry of Defense, said Tuesday's talks were meaningful in "creating understanding" in ways to implement the summit agreement. Ahn Ik-san, the general leading the North Korean delegation at the military talks, said both sides agreed on "some issues," without elaborating. Confidence building In terms of concrete measures to be taken, General Kim said the two sides agreed to pull out guard posts on a trial basis within the Joint Security Area (JSA), a particularly tense part of the DMZ, where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. Cho Seong-ryoul, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy in South Korea, said such a pullback within the JSA is small but significant progress. "In order to reduce the military forces and weapons in the border area, it is necessary to remove the guard posts, as well as to withdraw military forces and its heavy weapons in the demilitarized zone. This would be a meaningful measure that could prevent accidental conflicts between the two Koreas," he said. North Korea analyst Robert Kelly with Pusan National University in South Korea said the limited gains made at the military talks reflect the tough and prolonged negotiation process ahead to move North Korea beyond confidence building measures and to make real concessions to downsize its military forces at the border. "I mean that is one of the reasons why this thing is going to take forever, right, because the North Koreans aren't going to do it unless we do it. And we're not going to do it unless they do it. So everybody is sort of watching everybody else," said Kelly. Denuclearization link Increased inter-Korean cooperation to ease cross border tensions and improve relations is also tied to U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks that seemed to have stalled following the Singapore Summit in June between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. "In the situation where there is no progress regarding North Korea's denuclearization, it is difficult to implement the substantive issues, such as the operational arms control or reduction of weapons," said Cho, who is also a member of advisory group for President Moon Jae-in. Washington and Pyongyang remain at odds over U.S. demands that the North give up its complete nuclear arsenal before concessions would be granted, versus the North's call for early sanctions relief. This week, U.S. spy satellites reportedly detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week also told a U.S. Congressional committee that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs. Both Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho will attend the ASEAN East Asia ministerial summit in Singapore this week. There is no planned meeting between the two leaders, but the State Department said there is a possibility they will hold talks on the sideline of the conference. Inter-Korean limitations South Korea is restrained from offering the significant concessions that the North most wants. Seoul says it cannot restart economic cooperation until international sanctions that ban 90 percent of North Korean trade are lifted. At the inter-Korean military talks, the head of the North Korean delegation also pushed for Seoul's support for a joint declaration with the United States to formally end the war. The Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, technically still at war with the North. But Washington has indicated it would not support a peace treaty or peace declaration until there is denuclearization progress. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official party newspaper, recently accused Seoul of "wasting time" waiting for sanctions to be lifted only after denuclearization is completed, without "taking a single action" on its own. Lee Yoon-jee contributed to this report NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India Expresses Apprehension Over Military Pact Ahead of US Delegation's Arrival Sputnik News 15:51 01.08.2018(updated 17:37 01.08.2018) A senior fellow of a New Delhi-based think-tank has warned that the COMCASA would restrict India's defense ties with Russia, invite periodic inspection by the US of Indian weapons platforms, while still subjecting India's access to US weapons systems to various export control regimes. New Delhi (Sputnik): India has penned down a series of questions to put before US officials of the Hawaii-based Indo-Pacific Command who are in Delhi for the 17th Indo-US Military Cooperation Meeting. The two sides will be discussing the key military pact Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA). The most pressing question before the Indian authorities is whether the communication equipment supplied by the US under the pact will remain with India even if the bilateral ties go awry in the future. The two countries have been negotiating the COMCASA, which enables the transfer of critical, secure and encrypted communications between weapon platforms to facilitate "interoperability." "What if the bilateral relations between the two countries go awry? Will the communication equipment supplied to India under the pact remain with us or will the US make them useless? We want assurance from them," a government official who did not desire to be named told Sputnik. Besides, India also wants an assurance that the American side will not use the access it gets to the military communications system for spying on India. The Indian Army shot this question to the defense ministry earlier this month. In August 2016, India and the US signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) a customized version of the Logistic Support Agreement (LSA), to facilitate each other's operations for purposes of refueling and replenishment with no obligations on India to provide any basing arrangements. But the deal has been under immense scrutiny. "The government has been delaying the signing of the pacts, for there have been intense internal resentment and lingering fear among Defence Ministry officials that COMCASA would a) severely compromise India's military ties with Russia and curtail access to Russian weapon systems, b) once it comes into force, the agreement would demand periodic inspection access of the equipment to US personnel and, c) access to US weapons would remain subjected to various export control regimes, irrespective of these pacts," P. Stobdan, a senior fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi writes. The US officials are coming to New Delhi to sort out these issues ahead of a 2+2 ministerial dialogue scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 6. The ministerial dialogue will be attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from the Indian side, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis will join them from the US side. "However, despite these red-flags, various allurements may have already drawn India into the American strategic fold, not knowing that the trap door would soon slam shut leaving India with no options but to be guided by the US terms," Stobdan added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Urges India Not to Strip Millions of People of Their Rights By Lisa Schlein August 01, 2018 U.N. agencies are urging Indian authorities to ensure that more than four million people threatened with statelessness retain their basic rights and access to services while their claims of citizenship are under review. The U.N. refugee agency says it is too soon to know the implications of India's recent decision to strip more than four million people of their citizenship. People threatened with statelessness are those or descendants of those who have arrived in Assam State after March 1971 when Bangladesh became independent. The prospect of what lies ahead is very worrisome for an organization that is campaigning to end statelessness globally for some 10 million people by 2024. UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told VOA the nationality status of those excluded is not yet clear. "Many may ultimately be declared Indian citizens at the end of this process. At the same time, others may be at risk of statelessness... The process is still under way and we are appealing to the Indian authorities to ensure that even those who do not qualify for citizenship are not subject to deportation," he said. Spokeswoman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani agrees with the UNHCR it is premature to talk about statelessness. But, she told VOA it is critical for the Indian government to ensure that whatever processes it carries out are done in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner. "There must not be any disenfranchisement. They should ensure that people have access to their basic services; that they are adequately informed about the policies, the situations and, if necessary, they have avenues for legal redress," said Shamdasani. The U.N. agencies say they will be closely monitoring the situation. They are urging the Indian authorities to provide these millions of people living in limbo with all the opportunities and help they need to file their claims for citizenship. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran describes Russia's role in JCPOA as 'positive' IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA -- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday described the role of Russia in saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as 'positive'. Russia had a positive role in the JCPOA and after the US pull-out from the nuclear deal, other sides of the deal should find new mechanisms for its implementation, Ali Larijani said in a meeting with Chairman of the Russian State Duma's Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky. Iran-Russia trade relations are being developed on a daily basis, he added. Larijani underlined development of the two countries' relations in the banking field. Elsewhere in his remarks, he referred to Iran-Russia cooperation on Syria, and said that despite the complicated situation, there, the two countries can help resolve the crisis through cooperation. US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington would pull out of Iran's nuclear deal and re-impose nuclear sanctions on the country. This is while most world powers, including Russia, China, and the European Union have repeatedly stressed that keeping the deal is in the interest of the global peace and security. 9191**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address FM Zarif urges US to respect int'l commitments IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, August 1, IRNA -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message referred to US unilateral withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal, urging the country to respect international commitments. "Iran & US had 2 yrs of talks. With EU/E3+Russia+China, we produced a unique multilateral accordthe JCPOA. It's been working. US can only blame itself for pulling out & leaving the table. Threats, sanctions & PR stunts won't work. Try respect: for Iranians & for int'l commitments," Zarif wrote in his Twitter account on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement. Trump also said he would reinstate the US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic. Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. 9376**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address "Iran sanctions at odds with Trump's call for dialogue" ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Wed / 1 August 2018 / 10:54 Tehran (ISNA) - Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi says Tehran believes in dialogue and logic, but the basic requirements for holding negotiation cannot be seen in the words and behaviours of US President Donald Trump and his administration. In response to IRNA's question on Trump's call for holding talks with Iran without any preconditions, Qassemi said, "We must make sure if the president of the US, after being frustrated with his useless war of words, has decided to change the way he talks and stop talking with the language of threat to the Iranian people". The Iranian official added that the remarks made by US Secretary of State shortly after Trumps speech were indeed a sign of confusion and chaos in the US' foreign policy. "Mr. Trumps call for dialogue with Iran comes at a time when the US government, without any justification and in contravention of all international standards, has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, and imposed its unfair sanctions on the Iranian people again." The Iranian spokesperson said the Islamic Republic of Iran has proved in practice that it believes in dialogue and logic, and if it accepts an obligation, it will adhere to it. "But can Donald Tramp also make such a claim? Holding negotiations needs some conditions and requirements, no sign of which has been seen in the words and behaviour of Trump and his colleagues so far." "How can he prove to the Iranian people that his Monday nights remarks showed his true will and were not demagogic?" asked Qassemi. Trump's call for dialogue with Iran comes as the US Treasury Department's delegates go from one country to another to push them to stop economic and trade cooperation with Iran, he noted. The Iranian spokesman said sanctions and pressure are at odds with holding dialogue, which requires mutual respect and adherence to international obligations. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address A trio of studies taking place today aboard the International Space Station explored a potential cancer therapy, researched human reproduction and observed protein crystals. Eye exams were also on the schedule to understand how microgravity impacts vision. NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor started her morning peering at endothelial cells through a microscope for the AngieX Cancer Therapy study. Afterward, she moved on to the Micro-11 investigation examining more biological samples in a microscope to gain fundamental data about successful reproduction in space. Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, contributed to pharmaceutical research during the afternoon stowing protein molecules in a science freezer. Microgravity enables the growth of high quality protein crystals revealing structures and properties that could improve disease-fighting therapies on Earth. Gerst first started his day scanning NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold's for eyes using Optical Coherence Tomography, a light imaging technique analogous to ultrasound. The data helps doctors understand how the weightless environment of microgravity impacts vision so mission controllers can plan safer spaceflight missions. Finally, the SpaceX Dragon space freighter is being packed for its return to Earth on Aug. 3. Arnold and Commander Drew Feustel took turns today loading Dragon with station hardware and research samples for retrieval and analysis on Earth. On-Orbit Status Report Micro-11: Today the crew performed the final two sessions for the Micro-11 investigation. They checked out, configured and calibrated the Micro-11 microscope, thawed samples removed from a General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator (GLACIER), fixed those samples and loaded them into the microscope for imaging. Afterwards, they inserted the samples into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). There are thirteen runs for the Micro-11 investigation. Micro-11 examines whether spaceflight alters human sperm, by tracking the swimming patterns of human and bull sperm during spaceflight. This investigation also assesses other aspects of sperm functionality related to male fertility. As a result, Micro-11 provides fundamental data indicating whether successful human reproduction beyond Earth is possible, and whether countermeasures are needed to protect sperm function in space. AngieX Cancer Therapy: The crew performed microscope and operations sessions for the AngieX Cancer Therapy investigation today. The AngieX Cancer Therapy investigation examines whether endothelial cells cultured in microgravity represent a valid in vitromodel to test effects of vascular-targeted agents on normal blood vessels. AngieX has developed a treatment that targets both tumor cells and vasculature, but needs a better model on which to test it. This study may facilitate development of a cost-effective method that does not require animal testing and which may help develop safer and more effective vascular-targeted drugs. Aerosol Samplers: Today the crew deployed Active Aerosol Samplers (AASs) in Nodes 2 and 3. The battery-powered AASs actively pull in air and collect particles using the principal of thermophoresis. This is accomplished by flowing the sampled air through a large thermal gradient in a narrow channel. During this process, particles are driven to the cold side of the channel, where an electron microscope (EM) grid is held in place by a tiny magnet. When returned to Earth, these grids are easily removed and placed directly in an EM for analysis. Light Microscopy Module (LMM) Biophysics 4: Today a crewmember retrieved Biophysics 4 Plate 2 from the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) at the end of its science run. They inspected it and then placed it inside a Microgravity Experiment Research Locker / INcubator (MERLIN). Proteins are important biological molecules that can be crystallized to provide better views of their structure, which helps scientists understand how they work. Proteins crystallized in microgravity are often higher in quality than those grown on Earth. LMM Biophysics 4 examines the movement of single protein molecules in microgravity. MagVector 3D: The crew exchanged a MagVector 3D sample today. Twelve different samples will be processed on the ISS (1 per day). ESA's MagVector investigation supports a study of how Earth's magnetic field interacts with an electrical conductor. Using extremely sensitive magnetic sensors placed around and above a conductor, researchers can gain insight into ways that the magnetic field influences how conductors work. This research is expected to help improve future ISS experiments and electrical experiments, and could offer insights into how magnetic fields influence electrical conductors in general Made in Space Fiber Optics (MSFO): The crew disconnected and removed the MSFO and stowed it for return. Plant Habitat-1: Today the crew cleaned the Plant Habitat facility. The final harvest of the plants was performed on Monday. Dragon Cargo Ops: Today the crew started work on the fourth SpaceX-15 Cargo Message as they continue to pack and load items slated for return on SpX-15. Specialists estimate the crew will require 10 hours to finish loading the vehicle prior to the planned departure date of 3 August. Eye Exams: This morning the crew completed routine eye exams using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). OCT is an imaging technique analogous to ultrasound imaging that uses light instead of sound to capture micrometer-resolution, two- and three-dimensional images of tissue; In this case, the objects of interest are the crewmember's eyes. Eye exams are performed regularly onboard in order to monitor eye health. Eyesight is one of the many aspects of the human body that is affected by long-duration stays in a microgravity environment. Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank [E-K] Remove and Replace (R&R): Today the crew R&R'd the E-K tank as part of nominal WHC preventative maintenance. Each tank contains five liters of pre-treat solution, a mix of acid, chromium oxide, and water, used for toilet flushing and required for nominal WHC operation. Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) N21A4A-C Remote Power Controller (RPC) 7 Trip: On June 30, the RPC feeding the Node 2 Port Aft Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) Valve tripped with indications of a true overcurrent. Today, this RPCM was loaded with the firmware version 07P1 update that enables additional data collection at 1 kHz frequency. RPC 7 was closed, and remained closed for 77 minutes before tripping open again. Review of the trip signature indicates the trip today is due to Overcurrent. Per agreement at the July17 Ops tagup, RPC 7 will remain open (closed command inhibited) and the crew will manually close the IMV valve if required in an emergency. Ground teams will investigate the latest signature and the path forward. Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Inventory Management System (IMS) conference Cleaning Z93 Particulate from the A/L Bacteria Filters. JAXA ISPR Racks and ICS Rack MTL Reconfiguration AQM Sieve Cartridge Remove and Replace Max CEVIS Consumables Audit TV Conference for the Laboratorium show on Karusel TV channel - COL Aerosol Samplers Battery Charge JEM Airlock Press Telescience Resource Kit Laptop Shutdown Replacing Fire Detection and Suppression Set COL1D4 CTB Relocate ACE Sample Locate Replacement of 1 pump on 4 panel in 2 heating loop. Rodent Research Access Unit Clean JEM Airlock Leak Check Magvector 3D Sensor Array Sample Exchange ESA Nutritional Assessment Rodent Research Sample Relocation -1 Personal Protective Equipment (15 items) remove and replace on RS AngieX Cancer Therapy Microscope Operations OCT Exam AngieX Cancer Therapy Ops Session EPO crew message recording Cargo Transfer to Dragon Vacuum Cleaning 1 and 2 air ducts in DC1 MELFI Sample Return Bag Insertion 1,2 dust filters in MRM1 Aerosol Active Samplers Hardware Deployment 2 Magvector shutdown sequence Replacement of Pretreat and Water Dispenser () and the hose Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT) Plant Habitat Facility Clean Micro-11 Microscope Checkout Micro-11 Microscope Operations Micro-11 Glacier Sample Removal 1 On-Orbit Hearing Assessment (O-OHA) with EarQ Software Setup and Test maintenance Micro-11 MELFI Sample Return Bag Insertion RADIOSKAF. Disconnecting Tanusha-SWSU No.3 nanosatellite from the charger. Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank Remove & Replace SPHERES Satellite Preparation IDENTIFICATION. Copy - micro-accelerometer data to laptop Made In Space Fiber Optics Removal & Stow Fluids Integrated Rack Doors Open LMM Biophysics Plate Removal Dragon Cargo Operations Conference PK-4 data hard drives exchange Fluids Integrated Rack Doors Close PK-4 Data Hard Drives Packing Photo T/V (P/TV) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Exercise Video Stow Completed Task List Activities: None Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. JEMAL Pressurization RPCM N21A4A_C Firmware Update Three-Day Look Ahead: Saturday, 07/28: Weekly Housekeeping, Crew Off Duty, Aerosol Sampling, RR-7 Sunday, 07/29: Crew Off Duty, Space Algae, Nanoracks Module 9, Micro-12 Monday, 07/30: Dragon Cargo, HXP Rmv / SSOD9 Inst, MICS, Aerosol Sampling, Plant Habitat, Time Perception, EVA Battery Ops, ARED Quarterly, MEREOR Grating, BCAT, EarthKAM, Winscat, ELF, AngieX QUICK ISS Status - Environmental Control Group: Component - Status Elektron - On Vozdukh - Manual [] 1 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV1") - Off [] 2 - SM Air Conditioner System ("SKV2") - Off Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab - Operate Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 - Standby Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab - Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 - Idle Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) - Process Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) - Standby Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab - Full Up Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 - Off Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Trump says could talk with Iran "pretty soon" People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 13:45, August 01, 2018 WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States and Iran could meet "pretty soon." Trump said during a rally at Tampa, Florida that "I hope it works out well. And I have a feeling they'll be talking to us pretty soon." "And maybe not, and that's OK too," he added. The White House host again blasted the "horrible, one-sided" Iran nuclear deal, saying "it's a horror show." Earlier on the same day, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told the media that Trump "does want to meet" and "wants to come to a solution." State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also told a briefing that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supports Trump's latest statement on Iran. Trump said on Monday that a meeting between U.S. and Iranian leaders is good for both sides and the world, and he is ready to meet anytime with his Iranian counterpart with "no preconditions." U.S.-Iranian relations have been tense as the Trump administration left the historic Iran nuclear deal, delegitimized its government, vowed to re-impose sanctions on the nation and pressed other nations to cut down their purchase of Iranian oil to zero. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran no longer vulnerable to US gasoline sanctions Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 02:15PM As the United States is preparing to re-impose a series of economic sanctions against Iran, signs show Washington will not be able to exploit what was generally believed to be Iran's Achilles heel in the previous round of sanctions. Iran's gasoline production was below 50 million liters per day (ml/d) before the administration of former US president Barack Obama implemented sanctions against the country at the heart of which was a universal ban on sales of the crucial fuel to the country. In 2010 when the sanctions were put into force, Iran's consumption stood at about 60 m//d and the country had to purchase around 10 ml/d from international vendors to satisfy its domestic demand. While Obama's sanctions appeared to have hit Iran where it hurt, recent indications show the sanctions devised by President Donald Trump would be toothless as far as gasoline is involved. Figures released by Iran's Ministry of Petroleum show the country's overall gasoline consumption stood at 91 ml/d over the last Persian calendar month of Tir (21 June-July 2018) - the first month of the hot summer season. Figures also showed that Iran's production capacity had already surpassed 93 million liters per day (ml/d) and would soon increase high enough to not only support domestic demand but also create some space for exports. Alireza Arman-Moqaddam, the director for corporate planning affairs of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), was quoted by media as saying that Iran's gasoline production from 21 July 2018 so far had seen a rise of 6.7 percent compared to the whole production of a period of 31 days between 21 June and 21 July 2018. Arman-Moqaddam said Iran's gasoline production over last month's period stood at 87 ml/d, stressing that the figure showed a rise of around 30 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a report by IRIB News. He added that Iran's overall gasoline production would reach 95.5 ml/d once the required basic materials most importantly the Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) are provided. What is largely believed to have helped Iran address its gasoline consumption needs is a major production facility - the Persian Gulf Star Refinery - that the country is developing in its south. The refinery feeds on condensate supplies from South Pars and its total production is expected to increase to as high as 36 million liters per day when the third phase becomes complete before next April. In late June, Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the Persian Gulf Star Refinery had made the country immune to US sanctions against its purchases of gasoline. Zanganeh said Iran was previously vulnerable to pressures over supplies of gasoline, but said Iran's gasoline supply status had already been stabilized now that production had increased by a collective of 24 million liters per day from the current two phases of Persian Gulf Star Refinery. Other key projects that are believed to have helped Iran better address its gasoline consumption needs are those that involve overhauling the ageing refineries including Tehran, Isfahan and Abadan. Iran produces gasoline in 10 major refineries. It has ambitious plans to become self-sufficient in production of the strategic fuel and even become an exporter in the near future. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's Navy Assembles Near Mouth of Persian Gulf, US 'Monitoring it Closely' Sputnik News 01:21 02.08.2018(updated 01:26 02.08.2018) Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) appears to be preparing for a major display of force in the Strait of Hormuz, the only outlet from the Persian Gulf to the open sea, demonstrating its ability to shut down the strategically important waterway. US Central Command tweeted Wednesday that American forces are closely watching the developing situation, with the Iranian exercise expected to begin in the next 48 hours. "We are aware of the increase in #Iran naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of #Hormuz and Gulf of Oman We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways We also continue to advocate for all maritime forces to conform to international maritime customs, standards and laws," said a trio of tweets attributed to CENTCOM spokesperson Navy Captain Bill Urban. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital trade route, with 20 percent of the world's crude oil passing through the waterway, which is only 29 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point. Although Iran borders the strait, it doesn't totally control it half is claimed by Oman. Both countries have asserted the right for decades to block warships whose use of the waterway they don't consider to be "innocent passage," and Iran annually holds exercises in the strait. At present, the IRGC has assembled over a hundred boats, many of them fast-moving vessels, near the strait, CNN noted. Iranian air and ground forces, as well as coastal defense missile batteries, could also become involved. US officials have indicated they see no signs of hostile intent on the part of the Iranians, but remain on high alert because of recent hostile rhetoric by the IRGC and the unusually early timing of the exercise, which is typically held in January or February. The war of words between Iran and the US has gotten very nasty in recent weeks, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani saying on July 22 that "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars." US President Donald Trump responded later that day with an all-caps tweet, saying that Iran would "suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before Be cautious!" Two days later, on July 24, Iran responded by noting, "As the dominant power in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, [Iran] has been the guarantor of the security of shipping and the global economy in this vital waterway and has the strength to take action against any scheme in this region," Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said, Reuters reported. Then last Friday, July 27, US Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon, "Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. They've done that previously in years past. They saw the international community put dozens of nations of the international community put their naval forces in for exercises to clear the straits. Clearly, this would be an attack on international shipping, and and it would have, obviously, an international response to reopen the shipping lanes with whatever that took, because of the world's economy depends on that energy, those energy supplies flowing out of there." Although Iran has stated its intent to close the waterway if the Trump administration goes forward with its plan to sanction countries that buy Iranian oil, the set of economic sanctions set to go into effect August 6 doesn't include Iran's petroleum products, only metal exports, automotive sales and debt financing, Sputnik reported. US sanctions on buyers of Iranian oil aren't due to begin until November. Iranian naval activity has steadily increased in recent weeks in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, both of which border war-stricken Yemen, where proxies of Iran, Saudi Arabia and others have engaged in the country's brutal civil war since 2015. Saudi Arabia announced last week that it was halting oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandeb strait that connects the Red Sea to the Sea of Oman after Houthi forces from Yemen attacked two Saudi-owned oil tankers passing through the waterway. Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US and others have long accused Tehran of pulling the strings of the Houthis, and Israeli officials promised a military response if Iran shuts down either the Strait of Hormuz or the Straits of Bab al-Mandeb. "If Iran tries to block the Straits of Bab al-Mandeb, it will find itself facing an international coalition determined to prevent it from doing so, and this coalition will also include the State of Israel and all its arms," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience of graduating naval officers August 1, Haaretz reported. "I would like to emphasize: the Israeli military is ready to respond simultaneously on two fronts, and also on the Red Sea," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at the ceremony. "Only in that case, we would be less selective, and the harm to our enemies would be greater. I hope they take that into account." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Myanmar roundly shamed over human rights inquiry panel Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 05:39AM Various human rights activists and observers have roundly denounced Myanmar's decision to appoint a commission of inquiry into widespread human rights abuses perpetrated with the state's own backing and with the military's direct participation against the Rohingya Muslim community. The Myanmarese government said on Monday that it had established a new "independent" commission to investigate the "allegations" of human rights abuses in Rakhine State where the Rohingya had been primarily located despite the mountain of evidence indicating "systematic ethnic cleansing" against the minority Muslims. Rakhine first came under a military crackdown in late 2016, when the government laid siege to the state and blocked media access. Nevertheless, reports slowly began to emerge of horrific violence committed against the Muslim community. Accounts of killings, beheadings, arson attacks, and rapes by Myanmarese government soldiers and Buddhist mobs leaked out as many Rohingya Muslims began to flee in August last year. Tens of thousands of the Muslims are now living in crowded, squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where international medics have verified that wounds on the bodies of the Muslim survivors of the violence correspond with their accounts of brutal violence, including, in some cases, rape with sharp objects. The Myanmarese government and military have denied almost all allegations of violence. The government has previously established other inquiries only to conclude that no violations had taken place. The new body includes, among others, senior adviser to Myanmar's president, Aung Tun Thet; the former chair of Myanmar's constitutional tribunal U Mya Thein; former Philippine deputy foreign minister Rosario Manalo; and Japan's former UN representative Kenzo Oshima. The government did not provide further information, including about the commission's powers or the time frame it has been given to complete a potential report. 'A rude gesture' - 'a distraction' - 'emboldening perpetrators' Sean Bain, a legal adviser to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), has criticized the appointments. Such commissions, he wrote on Twitter, "tend to be ad hoc, rarely if ever lead to prosecution & fail to provide redress. Impunity results, undermining justice & emboldening perpetrators." Myanmar-based analyst David Mathieson also condemned the move, calling it a "political gimmick." "Given the weight of evidence collected by Amnesty International, the UN and the media, this CoI (Commission of Inquiry) is tantamount to a rude gesture, not a genuine inquiry," he said, adding that the move could only "collide with a military covering up ethnic cleansing." Human Rights Watch Myanmar researcher Rich Weir said the country would use the new body as "distractions and shields from criticism and pressure," as it did with the previous such inquiries. A coordinator for the London-based Free Rohingya Coalition, Nay San Lwin, said Myanmar had been forming inquiry, investigation, and advisory commissions since 2012, none of which "found any solution for the Rohingya, but mostly advocated for the government and military." He said the former Advisory Commission on Rakhine, led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, "only advised." The government did not even implement the recommendations made by that commission, he said. Other state-run commissions also claimed the military had not committed any crimes against the Rohingya people, Lwin said. One of the members of the new commission, Aung Tun Thet, has already denied ethnic cleansing charges. This is while the United Nations has effectively confirmed such cleansing has occurred. The UN has said "acts of genocide" have also most likely been perpetrated against the Rohingya people. The Rohingya, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship there and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship but has been sheltering them on humanitarian grounds. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address More Than One--Quarter Of Russians Ready To Protest: Levada Poll RFE/RL August 01, 2018 A new poll shows that more than one-quarter of Russians are ready to protest against the economic policies of President Vladimir Putin's government -- the highest number since Putin came to power in 2000. The poll, released on August 1 by the independent pollster Levada Center, showed that 28 percent of respondents said they would attend mass rallies to push forward economic demands. That number was higher only in September 1998, when one-third of Russia's population said it was ready to take to the streets amid an ongoing economic crisis. The number of people who said they are ready to take part in political protests was 23 percent -- the highest level since 2009, when Levada first included a question on political protests in its poll. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they are ready to protest against an unpopular bill to increase the retirement age from 55 to 63 for women and from 60 to 65 for men. Seventy-one percent said they want the bill scrapped; only 5 percent said they support it. Some 1,600 people took part in the poll, which was held between July 19-25 in 136 towns and cities across Russia's 52 regions. Despite his continued popularity among Russians, Putin faces major long-term economic and demographic problems. Some political observers have said Russia has entered a period of "stagnation." The government is grappling with how to raise the retirement age to prevent looming fiscal problems in the future. Levada's previous poll, released in June, put the number of Russians who think that "decisive, full-scale changes" were needed at 57 percent, up from 42 percent in August last year. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/more-than-one --quarter-of-russians-ready-to-protest- levada-poll/29405432.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 OSCE Envoy 'Saddened And Shocked' By Killing Of Russian Journalists RFE/RL August 01, 2018 The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) media-freedom representative says he is "deeply saddened and shocked" by the killing of three Russian journalists who were investigating the activities of a Russian paramilitary organization in the Central African Republic (CAR). In a tweet on August 1, Harlem Desir offered his sympathies and condolences to the families and colleagues of Orkhan Dzhemal, Aleksandr Rastorguyev, and Kirill Radchenko, who local authorities and the news organization they were reporting for said were ambushed and shot dead the previous day. Reporters Without Borders, meanwhile, condemned the killings "in the strongest terms" and urged "the CAR and Russian authorities to conduct a serious and thorough investigation." Questions swirled along with grief and anger a day after the news of the deaths of the journalists, who were investigating a shadowy group that evidence indicates President Vladimir Putin's government has been using to fight battles abroad when it does not want to use the Russian military. The online news organization Investigation Control Center (TsUR), funded by exiled Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said on Facebook on July 31 that the journalists were in the CAR to make a documentary film about ChVK Vagner, a private contractor employing hundreds of mercenaries that reportedly is funded by Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin and has carried out clandestine combat missions in eastern Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere. Local and international media have reported that Vagner has been operating in the CAR since Russia delivered light arms to the country's security forces this year and deployed hundreds of military and civilian instructors to train them. Russian authorities have denied that the Vagner contractors are carrying out their orders. Russian investigators said they have opened a criminal case to look into the deaths of the journalists. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 1 that the stated purpose of their visit to the CAR was tourism, seeming to take them to task for allegedly misstating the intent of the trip. That remark drew rare criticism of the ministry from a senior pro-Kremlin lawmaker. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, wrote on Telegram that issues such as the purpose of the trip were "not very important now." "What is important is that Russian citizens have been killed," he wrote. "Here we should follow the example of our 'strategic friends' from across the ocean: the United States does not leave the death of any of its citizens without consequences. No matter what country they were in and what political views they adhered to." Henri Depele, the mayor of the town of Sibut, around 200 kilometers northeast of the capital, Bangui, said the journalists were killed late on July 30. Their driver survived the attack. "According to the driver's explanations, when they were 23 kilometers from Sibut...armed men emerged from the bush and opened fire on the vehicle. The three journalists died instantly," Depele told Reuters. A CAR government spokesman gave a somewhat different account on August 1, saying that the journalists had encountered about a dozen "turbaned gunmen" after being stoppped at a checkpoint and venturing further despite being advised against it. "When they resisted the theft of their vehicle, they were shot dead, while their driver was injured" but was able to flee, German news agency dpa quoted the spokesman, Ange Maxime Kazagui, as saying. Other media reports quoted Kazagui as saying the assailants spoke Arabic rather than French or Sango, the national language of the country in which Muslims make up about 15 percent of the population of 5.6 million. CAR has been plagued by violence, often fought along religious lines between predominantly Christian and Muslim militias, since a 2013 rebellion overthrew then-President Francois Bozize. Most of the country is beyond the control of the Bangui government, and a 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission has struggled to keep a lid on the violence. TsUR's statement said the journalists flew to CAR on July 27 and that its last contact with them was late on July 29. Anastasia Gorshkova, deputy editor of the media outlet, told the Russian news network Dozhd that the journalists had tried to enter an estate where members of the security company reportedly stayed, but they were told that they needed accreditation from the CAR Defense Ministry. On July 30, the journalists planned to meet with a local contact in the town of Bambari, 380 kilometers from Bangui, Gorshkova said. The road to Bambari runs through Sibut. TsUR is financed by Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who spent 10 years in prison following convictions in financial crimes trials supporters contend were a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to seize his company's production assets and punish him for challenges to President Vladimir Putin. He was pardoned by Putin, released, and flown out of Russia in 2010. He now lives in Europe. TsUR has published a number of investigations alleging corruption by senior members of Putin's entourage. Khodorkovsky called the three journalists who were killed "brave men who were not prepared simply to collect documentary material, but wanted to 'feel' it in the palms of their hands.... Rest in peace." Dzhemal, 51, was a respected Russian military correspondent who covered conflicts around the world. He was seriously injured in Libya in 2011 and published a book in 2008 giving a firsthand account of the five-day Russia-Georgia war. Rastorguyev, 47, was a prominent documentary filmmaker and a contributor to RFE/RL. He was among the three directors of an award-winning 2013 film about leaders of the Russian opposition. Radchenko, 33, started his career as a projectionist and had become a cameraman in recent years. With reporting by dpa, AP, Reuters, AFP, and The New York Times Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/osce- saddened-and-shocked-by-killing-of- russian-journalists/29404995.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 Journalists Investigating Paramilitary Group Killed In Africa RFE/RL August 01, 2018 Three Russian journalists investigating the activities of a Russian paramilitary organization in the Central African Republic were ambushed and killed, their news outlet and local authorities say. The Russian online news organization Investigation Control Center (TsUR) said in a Facebook post on July 31 that the journalists -- identified as Orkhan Dzhemal, Aleksandr Rastorguyev, and Kirill Radchenko -- were in the country to make a documentary film about ChVK Vagner, a private contractor employing hundreds of mercenaries that has reportedly carried out clandestine combat missions on the Kremlin's behalf in eastern Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere. Local and international media have reported that Vagner has been operating in the Central African Republic since Russia delivered light arms to the country's security forces this year and deployed hundreds of military and civilian instructors to train them. Russian authorities have denied that the Vagner contractors are carrying out their orders. The group's relationship with the Kremlin is murky, but its leaders have received awards from the Kremlin and its mercenaries have been trained at Russian Defense Ministry facilities. It is reportedly funded by Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Russian Foreign Ministry on July 31 confirmed that three people with identification documents belonging to Dzhemal, Rastorguyev, and Radchenko were found dead and their bodies were brought back to the capital, Bangui. Russian investigators said they have opened a criminal case to look into the deaths. Henri Depele, the mayor of the town of Sibut, around 200 kilometers northeast of Bangui, said the journalists were killed late on July 30. Their driver survived the attack. "According to the driver's explanations, when they were 23 kilometers from Sibut...armed men emerged from the bush and opened fire on the vehicle. The three journalists died instantly," he told Reuters. TsUR's statement said the journalists flew into the violence-ridden African country on July 27 and that its last contact with them was late on July 29. Anastasia Gorshkova, deputy editor of the media outlet, told the Russian Dozhd news network that the journalists had tried to enter an estate where members of the security company reportedly stayed, but they were told that they needed accreditation from the country's Defense Ministry. On July 30, the journalists planned to meet with a local contact in the town of Bambari, 380 kilometers away from Bangui, Gorshkova said. The road to Bambari runs through Sibut. The investigative media outlet the journalists worked for is financed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who spent 10 years in prison following convictions in financial-crimes trials supporters contend were a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to seize his company's production assets and punish him for challenges to President Vladimir Putin. He was pardoned by Putin, released, and flown out of Russia in 2010, and now lives in Europe, where he is one of Putin's most vehement critics. TsUR has published a number of investigations alleging corruption by senior members of Putin's entourage. Khodorkovsky called the three journalists who were killed "brave men who were not prepared simply to collect documentary material, but wanted to 'feel' it in the palms of their hands.... Rest in peace." Dzhemal, 51, was a respected Russian military correspondent who covered conflicts around the world. He was seriously injured in Libya in 2011 and published a book in 2008 giving a firsthand account of the five-day Russia-Georgia war. Rastorguyev, 47, was a prominent documentary filmmaker and a contributor to RFE/RL. He was among the three directors of an award-winning 2013 film about leaders of the Russian opposition. Radchenko, 33, started his career as a projectionist, but had become a cameraman in recent years. He served as an election observer in Chechnya in March. The Central African Republic has been riddled by violence, often fought along religious lines between predominantly Christian and Muslim militias, since a 2013 rebellion overthrew then-President Francois Bozize. Most of the country is beyond the control of the Bangui government, and a 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission has struggled to keep a lid on the violence. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and The New York Times Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/three-russian -journalists-reportedly-killed-in- central-african-republic/29401654.html Copyright (c) 2018. 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 Army liberates al-Qasir village in Daraa countryside IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Aug 1, IRNA -- Syrian army units clashed with the last groups of Daesh (ISIS) terrorists in the village of al-Qasir. The army continued to advance and encircle the remnants of terrorists in the village as their last hotbeds were destroyed and the village was declared free of terrorism, SANA reporter in Daraa said. The reporter said that the storming units are hunting down the remnants of the Takfiri terrorists who fled away to the neighboring valleys as a state of collapse prevailed among them. Meanwhile, SANA camera escorted the combing operations of the army and the engineering units in the villages and towns liberated during the last two days in al-Yarmouk Basin. The army units unearthed an Israeli-made drone inside a cache left by Daesh remnants in Abdin village. The cache also included rocket shells, anti-tank shells and big quantities of munitions. 1396**1396 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria's army retakes more towns in southwest Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 01:24PM Syrian army troops have liberated more towns in southwestern Syria from the foreign-backed Takfiri militants. Syria's official news agency SANA reported that the government forces raised the Syrian flag in the town of Jubata al-Khashab, Quneitra province, on Wednesday, a day after militants were evacuated under a deal with Damascus. Jubata al-Khashab was a stronghold of militants. According to the report, the last batch of militants who refused to reconcile with the government left the town with their families and headed to northern Syria on Tuesday. In the neighboring province of Dara'a, the Syrian army gained ground too, retaking the town of Qasir from the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. SANA said the town was the terrorists' last stronghold in Dara'a. The government advances come as President Bashar al-Assad said the final victory over terrorism was close thanks to the sacrifices of the Syrian Armed Forces. In recent weeks, the Syrian army has been trying to wrest control over the southern provinces of Dara'a and Quneitra, which border the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Takfiri militants have been handing over their heavy weapons to Syrian government forces and leaving the region in negotiated surrender deals. The full liberation of both Dara'a and Quneitra by Syrian government forces would cut the much-reported collaboration between Israel and anti-Damascus militants operating in the two regions. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian president praises armed forces for sacrifices in battle against terrorism Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 10:01AM President Bashar al-Assad has hailed the achievements of Syrian Armed Forces on the battlefield against foreign-backed militant groups, saying final victory over terrorism is close thanks to their sacrifices. He made the remarks in a speech published by the Jaish al-Sha'ab (People's Army) magazine on Wednesday in commemoration of the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the national Syrian military. Assad congratulated Syrian soldiers for "moving from one achievement to another and from one victory to another in the face of the systematic terrorism and its regional and international backers." The army, he said, has managed to foil the "Zionist-American" plot against Syria by liberating most of the country from the grip of terrorists, and thus should be regarded as an example of nationalism and sacrifice. "Our heroic armed forces, you have proven to the whole world over the past seven years that you are an integrated example to follow in nationalism and sacrifice and that you are the fortresses in the face of terrorism," Assad said. The Syrian army's sacrifices led to the restoration of security and stability to most areas and undermined the Zionist-American plot against the country's sovereignty, he pointed out. The Syrian president further noted that locals are now returning to the liberated areas, vowing that "victory will be achieved soon." "They (the terrorists) were ultimately forced to leave -- humiliated, rolled back, their tails between their legs -- after you gave them a taste of bitter defeat," he added. In recent weeks, the Syrian army has been trying to wrest control over the southern provinces of Dara'a and Quneitra, which border the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Takfiri militants have been handing over their heavy weapons to Syrian government forces and leaving the region in negotiated surrender deals. The full liberation of both Dara'a and Quneitra by Syrian government forces would cut the much-reported collaboration between Israel and anti-Damascus militants operating in the two regions. Recently, President Assad told Russian media that Damascus' next priority would be retaking the northwestern Idlib Province, which is mostly held by terrorists. "Now Idlib is our goal, but not just Idlib," he said. "There are of course territories in the eastern part of Syria that are controlled by various groups... So we will be moving into all these regions." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Something mysterious is going on at the Sun. In defiance of all logic, its atmosphere gets much, much hotter the farther it stretches from the Sun's blazing surface. Temperatures in the corona -- the tenuous, outermost layer of the solar atmosphere -- spike upwards of 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, while just 1,000 miles below, the underlying surface simmers at a balmy 10,000 F. How the Sun manages this feat remains one of the greatest unanswered questions in astrophysics; scientists call it the coronal heating problem. A new, landmark mission, NASA's Parker Solar Probe -- scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 11, 2018 -- will fly through the corona itself, seeking clues to its behavior and offering the chance for scientists to solve this mystery. From Earth, as we see it in visible light, the Sun's appearance -- quiet, unchanging -- belies the life and drama of our nearest star. Its turbulent surface is rocked by eruptions and intense bursts of radiation, which hurl solar material at incredible speeds to every corner of the solar system. This solar activity can trigger space weather events that have the potential to disrupt radio communications, harm satellites and astronauts, and at their most severe, interfere with power grids. Above the surface, the corona extends for millions of miles and roils with plasma, gases superheated so much that they separate into an electric flow of ions and free electrons. Eventually, it continues outward as the solar wind, a supersonic stream of plasma permeating the entire solar system. And so, it is that humans live well within the extended atmosphere of our Sun. To fully understand the corona and all its secrets is to understand not only the star that powers life on Earth, but also, the very space around us. A 150-year-old mystery Most of what we know about the corona is deeply rooted in the history of total solar eclipses. Before sophisticated instruments and spacecraft, the only way to study the corona from Earth was during a total eclipse, when the Moon blocks the Sun's bright face, revealing the surrounding, dimmer corona. The story of the coronal heating problem begins with a green spectral line observed during an 1869 total eclipse. Because different elements emit light at characteristic wavelengths, scientists can use spectrometers to analyze light from the Sun and identify its composition. But the green line observed in 1869 didn't correspond to any known elements on Earth. Scientists thought perhaps they'd discovered a new element, and they called it coronium. Not until 70 years later did a Swedish physicist discover the element responsible for the emission is iron, superheated to the point that it's ionized 13 times, leaving it with just half the electrons of a normal atom of iron. And therein lies the problem: Scientists calculated that such high levels of ionization would require coronal temperatures around 2 million degrees Fahrenheit -- nearly 200 times hotter than the surface. For decades, this deceptively simple green line has been the Mona Lisa of solar science, baffling scientists who can't explain its existence. Since identifying its source, we've come to understand the puzzle is even more complex than it first appeared. "I think of the coronal heating problem as an umbrella that covers a couple of related confusing problems," said Justin Kasper, a space scientist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Kasper is also principal investigator for SWEAP, short for the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation, an instrument suite aboard Parker Solar Probe. "First, how does the corona get that hot that quickly? But the second part of the problem is that it doesn't just start, it keeps going. And not only does heating continue, but different elements are heated at different rates." It's an intriguing hint at what's going on with heating in the Sun. Since discovering the hot corona, scientists and engineers have done a great deal of work to understand its behavior. They've developed powerful models and instruments and launched spacecraft that watch the Sun around the clock. But even the most complex models and high-resolution observations can only partially explain coronal heating, and some theories contradict each other. There's also the problem of studying the corona from afar. We may live within the Sun's expansive atmosphere, but the corona and solar plasma in near-Earth space differ dramatically. It takes the slow solar wind around four days to travel 93 million miles and reach Earth or the spacecraft that study it -- plenty of time for it to intermix with other particles zipping through space and lose its defining features. Studying this homogenous soup of plasma for clues to coronal heating is like trying to study the geology of a mountain, by sifting through sediment in a river delta thousands of miles downstream. By traveling to the corona, Parker Solar Probe will sample just-heated particles, removing the uncertainties of a 93-million-mile journey and sending back to Earth the most pristine measurements of the corona ever recorded. "All of our work over the years has culminated to this point: We realized we can never fully solve the coronal heating problem until we send a probe to make measurements in the corona itself," said Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe deputy project scientist and solar physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Traveling to the Sun is an idea older than NASA itself, but it's taken decades to engineer the technology that makes its journey possible. In that time, scientists have determined exactly what kinds of data -- and corresponding instruments -- they need in order to complete a picture of the corona and answer this ultimate of burning questions. Explaining the corona's secrets Parker Solar Probe will test two chief theories to explain coronal heating. The outer layers of the Sun are constantly boiling and roil with mechanical energy. As massive cells of charged plasma churn through the Sun -- much the way distinct bubbles roll up through a pot of boiling water -- their fluid motion generates complex magnetic fields that extend far up into the corona. Somehow, the tangled fields channel this ferocious energy into the corona as heat -- how they do so is what each theory attempts to explain. One theory proposes electromagnetic waves are the root of the corona's extreme heat. Perhaps that boiling motion launches magnetic waves of a certain frequency -- called Alfven waves -- from deep within the Sun out into the corona, which send charged particles spinning and heat the atmosphere, a bit like how ocean waves push and accelerate surfers toward the shore. Another suggests bomb-like explosions, called nanoflares, across the Sun's surface dump heat into the solar atmosphere. Like their larger counterparts, solar flares, nanoflares are thought to result from an explosive process called magnetic reconnection. Turbulent boiling on the Sun twists and contorts magnetic field lines, building up stress and tension until they explosively snap -- like breaking an over-wound rubber band -- accelerating and heating particles in their wake. The two theories aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. In fact, to complicate matters, many scientists think both may be involved in heating the corona. Sometimes, for example, the magnetic reconnection that sets off a nanoflare could also launch Alfven waves, which then further heat surrounding plasma. The other big question is, how often do these processes happen -- constantly or in distinct bursts? Answering that requires a level of detail we don't have from 93 million miles away. "We're going close to the heating, and there are times Parker Solar Probe will co-rotate, or orbit the Sun at the same speed the Sun itself rotates," said Eric Christian, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and member of the mission's science team. "That's an important part of the science. By hovering over the same spot, we'll see the evolution of heating." Uncovering the evidence Once Parker Solar Probe arrives at the corona, how will it help scientists distinguish whether waves or nanoflares drive heating? While the spacecraft carries four instrument suites for a variety of types of research, two in particular will obtain data useful for solving the coronal heating mystery: the FIELDS experiment and SWEAP. Surveyor of invisible forces, FIELDS, led by the University of California, Berkeley, directly measures electric and magnetic fields, in order to understand the shocks, waves and magnetic reconnection events that heat the solar wind. SWEAP -- led by the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- is the complementary half of the investigation, gathering data on the hot plasma itself. It counts the most abundant particles in the solar wind -- electrons, protons and helium ions -- and measures their temperature, how fast they're moving after they've been heated, and in what direction. Together, the two instrument suites paint a picture of the electromagnetic fields thought to be responsible for heating, as well as the just-heated solar particles swirling through the corona. Key to their success are high-resolution measurements, capable of resolving interactions between waves and particles at mere fractions of a second. Parker Solar Probe will swoop within 3.9 million miles of the Sun's surface -- and while this distance may seem great, the spacecraft is well-positioned to detect signatures of coronal heating. "Even though magnetic reconnection events take place lower down near the Sun's surface, the spacecraft will see the plasma right after they occur," said Goddard solar scientist Nicholeen Viall. "We have a chance to stick our thermometer right in the corona and watch the temperature rise. Compare that to studying plasma that was heated four days ago from Earth, where a lot of the 3D structures and time-sensitive information are washed out." This part of the corona is entirely unexplored territory, and scientists expect sights unlike anything they've seen before. Some think the plasma there will be wispy and tenuous, like cirrus clouds. Or perhaps it will appear like massive pipe cleaner-like structures radiating from the Sun. "I'm pretty sure when we get that first round of data back, we'll see the solar wind at lower altitudes near the Sun is spiky and impulsive," said Stuart Bale, University of California, Berkeley, astrophysicist and FIELDS principal investigator. "I'd lay my money on the data being much more exciting than what we see near Earth." The data is complicated enough -- and comes from multiple instruments -- that it will take scientists some time to piece together an explanation for coronal heating. And because the Sun's surface isn't smooth and varies throughout, Parker Solar Probe needs to make multiple passes over the Sun to tell the whole story. But scientists are confident it has the tools to answer their questions. The basic idea is that each proposed mechanism for heating has its own distinct signature. If Alfven waves are the source of the corona's extreme heat, FIELDS will detect their activity. Since heavier ions are heated at different rates, it appears that different classes of particles interact with those waves in specific ways; SWEAP will characterize their unique interactions. If nanoflares are responsible, scientists expect to see jets of accelerated particles shooting out in opposite directions -- a telltale sign of explosive magnetic reconnection. Where magnetic reconnection occurs, they should also detect hot spots where magnetic fields are rapidly changing and heating the surrounding plasma. Discoveries lie ahead There is an eagerness and excitement buzzing among solar scientists: Parker Solar Probe's mission marks a watershed moment in the history of astrophysics, and they have a real chance of unraveling the mysteries that have confounded their field for nearly 150 years. By piecing together the inner workings of the corona, scientists will reach a deeper understanding of the dynamics that spark space weather events, shaping conditions in near-Earth space. But the applications of this science extend beyond the solar system too. The Sun opens a window into understanding other stars -- especially those that also exhibit Sun-like heating -- stars that could potentially foster habitable environments but are too far to ever study. And illuminating the fundamental physics of plasmas could likely teach scientists a great deal about how plasmas behave elsewhere in the universe, like in clusters of galaxies or around black holes. It's also entirely possible that we haven't even conceived of the greatest discoveries to come. It's hard to predict how solving coronal heating will shift our understanding of the space around us, but fundamental discoveries such as this have the capacity to change science and technology forever. Parker Solar Probe's journey takes human curiosity to a never-before-seen region of the solar system, where every observation is a potential discovery. "I'm almost certain we'll discover new phenomena we don't know anything about now, and that's very exciting for us," Raouafi said. "Parker Solar Probe will make history by helping us understand coronal heating -- as well as solar wind acceleration and solar energetic particles -- but I think it also has the potential to steer the direction of solar physics' future." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Syrian Servicemen Ambushed in Dumayr, Brigadier General Killed - Source Sputnik News 16:59 01.08.2018 DAMASCUS (Sputnik) - Daesh* terrorist organization militants organized an ambush near Dumayr airport in the Syrian province of Damascus. As a result, three officers and 10 Syrian servicemen were killed, a Syrian security service source told Sputnik Wednesday. "Brigadier General Nadim Asaad, responsible for the security of Dumayr area, and two more officers were killed; ten servicemen were also killed, another five were wounded as a result of an ambush organized by Daesh militants to the east of Dumayr airport in Damascus province," the source said. The news comes just a day after the Syrian government forces have seized the last villages of Daraa province, captured by the terrorists, finishing the liberation of the region. The military operation started in June after several cities had been shelled by local militants despite an ongoing ceasefire reached with the help of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria. Despite the fact that a considerable amount of anti-government militants has been evacuated from the country, various jihadist groups continue their fight against Damascus in the war-torn country. Daesh*, also known as IS/ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State, is a terrorist organization, banned in Russia Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US imposes sanctions on 2 Turkish officials over detention of US pastor Iran Press TV Wed Aug 1, 2018 09:05PM The United States Treasury Department is imposing sanctions on two Turkish officials over detention of a US pastor. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders made the announcement on Wednesday, calling Andrew Brunson's incarceration "unfair and unjust." "We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong," she said. Washington is "not happy with Turkey's decision not to release" the pastor, said the White House spokeswoman, adding that US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have discussed the issue "on several occasions." The two officials, Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, will have their assets and properties under US jurisdiction blocked and Americans will be prohibited from engaging in financial transactions with them. "These officials serve as leaders of Turkish government organizations responsible for implementing Turkey's serious human rights abuses, and are being targeted pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, 'Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption,' which builds upon Treasury's Global Magnitsky Act authorities," the Treasury said in a statement. Turkey to retaliate Turkey issued a written statement to "protest" the new sanctions. "We strongly protest the sanctions announced by the US Treasury Department," it read. "This aggressive stance that does not serve any interest will be retaliated in the same, without delay," According to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately." The sanctions come before a scheduled meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Singapore on Friday. "The Turkish government refused to release Pastor Brunson after numerous conversations between President Trump and President Erdogan, and my conversations with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. President Trump concluded that these sanctions are the appropriate action," Pompeo said. US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has also called the detention "unjust," adding, "Turkey knows our position well. This has gone on far too long." Speaking to reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara earlier in the day, Erdogan asserted that Turkey does not "give credit for using such threatening language." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address White House Announces Sanctions on Turkish Ministers Over Detention of US Pastor Sputnik News 20:37 01.08.2018(updated 21:12 01.08.2018) The sanctions were introduced by Washington against Turkish officials, including Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu due to the detention of American pastor Andrew Brunson. The US Treasury Department announced on Friday that it would place sanctions on members of the Turkish government. "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a subsequent statement formally announcing the financial restrictions. "President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately." According to the White House, President Donald Trump has discussed the issue with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on several occasions. "We believe he's a victim of unfair and unjust attention by the government of Turkey," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders added, referring to Brunson. Brunson, an evangelical pastor, has lived and worked in Turkey for over 23 years and was arrested in October 2016 in the aftermath of the July 2016 military coup attempt against President Erdogan. He was accused of being affiliated with the movement of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara considers to be the mastermind behind the coup attempt. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Treasury Sanctions Turkish Officials with Leading Roles in Unjust Detention of U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson U.S. Department of the Treasury August 1, 2018 Washington The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today targeting Turkey's Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, both of whom played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson. These officials serve as leaders of Turkish government organizations responsible for implementing Turkey's serious human rights abuses, and are being targeted pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, "Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption," which builds upon Treasury's Global Magnitsky Act authorities. "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately." Pastor Andrew Brunson has reportedly been a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the Government of Turkey. He was arrested in Izmir, Turkey in October 2016, and with an absence of evidence to support the charges, he was accused of aiding armed terrorist organizations and obtaining confidential government information for political and military espionage. As the head of Turkey's Ministry of Justice, Abdulhamit Gul is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being the leader of an entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse. As head of Turkey's Ministry of Interior, Suleyman Soylu is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being the leader of an entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse. As a result of these actions, any property, or interest in property, of both Turkey's Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Turkey's Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Identifying information on the individuals designated today. #### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Targets Turkish Officials for Sanctions Over Pastor's Detention By VOA News August 01, 2018 Turkey says it strongly protests the decision by the United States to impose sanctions on two of its government officials over the detention of a U.S. pastor accused of aiding terrorists. Turkey's foreign ministry said Wednesday that the decision "neither complies with state seriousness, nor is it explicable within the terms of law and justice." The statement encourages the United States to reverse its decision and promises "an equivalent response to this aggressive attitude will be given without delay." The statement late Wednesday followed an announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it has targeted two Turkish government officials for sanctions following Turkey's refusal to release U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson from house arrest ahead of his trial. The Treasury Department announced the move Wednesday, saying Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu are the targets of the sanctions that will freeze any U.S. assets owned by the two men and prohibit U.S. citizens from making financial transactions with them. Gul responded on Twitter: "I have neither a tree planted nor one penny in the U.S. or any other country outside of Turkey." The Treasury statement said Gul and Soylu played leading roles in the organizations responsible for Brunson's arrest and detention over the past 21 months. "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable. President [Donald] Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also weighed in, saying in a statement that "the Turkish government refused to release Pastor Brunson after numerous conversations between President Trump and President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, and my conversations with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. President Trump concluded that these sanctions are the appropriate action." Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said at a briefing Wednesday: "The president has been closely following the ongoing situation in Turkey involving Pastor Brunson. We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government of Turkey." On Tuesday, a Turkish court rejected an appeal for Brunson to be released from house arrest while awaiting trial. Brunson is next expected in court October 12 to defend against charges of helping a network led by U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey blames for a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan. Brunson is also charged with supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The 50-year-old pastor, who denies the charges, could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted. The detention of Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, has strained relations between Turkey and the U.S., both NATO allies. Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release. The U.S. president has tweeted that Brunson's detention is "a total disgrace" and added, "He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!" Brunson is among tens of thousands of people Erdogan detained on similar charges during the state of emergency he declared following the failed coup in 2016. Turkey specialist Howard Eissenstat, associate professor of history at St. Lawrence University in New York, told VOA that the sanctions fit into a long-term effort by the United States to build a tougher stance on Turkey. But he said Wednesday's move is "unlikely to be successful it is too public and too focused on a single U.S. citizen, Brunson, rather than the more basic principle: Our citizens and staff should not be detained on clearly political grounds." He added, "We've made this very personal, and we've sacrificed the moral high ground by only talking about one case." The state of emergency ended July 18, but the Turkish legislature passed a new "anti-terror" law last week that gives authorities more power to detain suspects and restore public order. VOA's Nike Ching contributed to this report. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Vancouver, August 2, 2018 - Gitennes Exploration Inc. ("Gitennes" or the "Company") - (TSXV - GIT) announces it has completed 1,612 metres in 10 holes in its second phase of diamond drilling at its Snowbird High Grade Gold Project located near Fort St. James, British Columbia. Phase II discovered a new zone with increased deformation, alteration, quartz veining and disseminated sulphides relative to the Main Zone where Gitennes completed its first phase of drilling in 2017. Highlights New target zone indicated by geology, alteration, sulphide content, and structure including brecciation and shearing is higher in the hanging wall; Holes encountered strong alteration - quartz-carbonate "flooding" with mariposite and/or sericite; Increased sulphide content - pyrite, chalcopyrite, and stibnite; Sulphides occurr as disseminations, stringers and seam/ fracture fill with quartz; The "gap" in historical drilling between the Main Zone and North Zone has now been addressed and is a new target; The host units to the gold mineralized quartz veins identified in the Main Zone have undergone extensive deformation and alteration in the new zone. Quartz veinlets and disseminated mineralization also appears to have increased in amount relative to the Main Zone. Confirmed that the prospective structure (shear/fault) continues unabated to the northwest from the Main Zone. High-grade gold at Snowbird occurs within and adjacent to a 25 to 150 metre wide silica-carbonate altered ultramafic unit in areas of high deformation (faulting/shearing) and is associated with key pathfinder elements arsenic and antimony. Gold in quartz veins is hosted in the footwall and in the hanging wall of the ultramafic unit in close proximity to a thick mudstone unit. The strike length of the known gold mineralization is approximately 2.3 km. Mineralization is open at depth and presently it is known to be at least 250 metres based on previous operators drilling. Gitennes is compiling the geological information from the drill programme and will provide a further update. The Company took 434 samples from drill core and 63 standards, blanks and duplicates were incorporated as part of the quality control / quality assurance procedure. All samples have been submitted to ALS Global of North Vancouver for precious and multi-element analysis. About Gitennes Exploration Inc. Gitennes is in the business of exploring for and advancing mineral deposits. The Company currently has two high grade gold exploration properties, Snowbird and Maroon, both in British Columbia and a 1% Net Smelter Returns royalty on the 18 million ounce Urumalqui Silver Project in Peru. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Justin Rensby (P.Geo.), technical adviser to the Company who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101. For further information on the Company, readers are referred to the Company's website at www.gitennes.com and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Gitennes Exploration Inc. "Ken Booth" Ken Booth President For further information, please contact: Ken Booth Phone: 604-682-7970 Email: info@gitennes.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 news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain statements that constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of the Company. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "schedules", estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the exercise of the Option to acquire the Snowbird Project and to conduct exploration activities thereon. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including risks and uncertainties relating to exploration and development and actual results of exploration activities; the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing; delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the TSX-V), permits or financing; the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations; potential defects in title to the Company's properties; fluctuations in the prices of commodities and precious metals; operating hazards and risks; environmental issues and liabilities; and competition and other risks and uncertainties of the mining industry. Although the Company believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that those beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consider all of the information set forth herein and should review the Company's periodic reports filed from time-to-time with Canadian securities regulators. These reports and the Company's filings are available at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and, except as otherwise required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained herein, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Copyright (c) 2018 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- A California murder suspect was just taken into custody after surrendering to police after barricading himself in a home in Pascagoula, according the Jackson County Sheriff spokeswoman Marcia Hill. Police and other law enforcement officials surrounded the Brazil Street home just after 1 p.m. on Thursday. The suspect, whose identity is unknown at this time is wanted in Calif., on a murder charge. Multiple agencies are on the scene, including the U.S. Marshals, Pascagoula Police Department, and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, according to Hill. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. A big week for Pennsylvania-sired two-year-old colts and geldings at Harrahs Philadelphia started on Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 1) with six divisions of the second preliminary leg of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series for trotters. Trainer Domenico Cecere, head trainer for the powerful Lindy Farms, conditioned the first two winners. The first was an impressive Muscle Hill-Brooklyn colt named Kings County, who was the fastest of all entrants in the six divisions going into the contest by virtue of a 1:56 morning Meadowlands outing. He followed the cover of Holiday Hangover, went on when that one cleared before the three-quarters, and out-duelled him by a neck while trotting his own back half in :56.2 to complete a 1:57.1 mile. David Miller drove Kings County for Lindy Farms of Connecticut. Cecere then sent out the Cantab Hall-Southwind Catlin colt Union Forces for his purse debut, and the youngster, a winner in all three of his morning races, needed only a 2:00.1 effort to take his initial pari-mutuel contest. Scott Zeron just let the colt grind away first-over, and the pair finished in :29 to be three lengths clear at the finish for Lindy Farms, Robert Rudolph, David Anderson and John Fielding. The Donato Hanover-Seducer Hall gelding Faithfulandtrue remained undefeated after three starts, including two in the Stallion Series, after coming home in :57.4 on the engine while taking a new mark of 1:58. Mike Cole sat in the sulky behind the streaking freshman for trainer Joe Columbo and George & Tina Dennis Racing. Donato Hanover then added a second baby with a 2-for-2 Stallion Series record to his credit when the colt Crossfit, out of the mare Muscle Test, rallied from second-over to take a new mark of 2:00.2 in a finish that saw five competitors within a length at the finish. George Napolitano Jr. guided the Chris Beaver pupil for owner Joe Sbrocco, with the two Stallion Series wins constituting Crossfits lifetime purse record. The Muscle HillProclaiming April gelding Final Claim put it all together in his division, setting the pace and stepping home in :57.3 to leave his field 8-1/4 lengths behind while winning in the stakes actions fastest time of 1:56.4, only a tick off the North American seasons record. Matt Kakaley and Ron Burke teamed behind the fast winner for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Phil Collura, J&T Silva Purnel & Libby and Michelle Yanek. In the final Stallion Series event, Cecere captured his third training win of the day, as Cantab Hall-Lindys Gone Crazy colt Lindys Crazy Hall made his purse debut a winning one in 1:57.4. David Miller had the colt on an open lead the last half and still had three lengths in early stretch, but Forecast closed in late. However, as Forecast narrowed in he also bore wide, and that may have contributed to Lindys Crazy Hall keeping a half-length advantage to the finish. Lindy Farms of Connecticut is the owner of the developing youngster. On Thursday (Aug. 2) three divisions of this sections Pennsylvania Sire Stakes group go postward, with a pair of Muscle Hill colts, Prospect Hill and Demon On The Hill, hoping to take their PASS records to 2-for-2. (PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia) Tuesday (July 31) and Wednesday (Aug. 1) were devoted to three-year-old Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes at the end of the four-day meeting at the Clearfield (Pa.) County Fair. The same pattern repeated from the Sunday and Monday sessions for two-year-olds: the trotters, who went first in each group, got the better of the weather. Another pattern that repeated was that the trotting fillies generally went a little bit faster than their colt counterparts. The fastest mile of Tuesday came in the very first race of the day by the Crazed filly Critical Hanover, who won her third straight on the county fair circuit, overcoming the outside post four in 2:03.4 for the dominant performer of the meet, trainer-driver Todd Schadel, and for his wife and son, owners Christine and Cody Schadel. In the other "A" division for sophomore trotting fillies, trainer-driver Roger Hammer won with the Explosive Matter miss Blow Back, running her fair record to 5-3-2-0 in 2:04.2. Vicki Fair shares ownership with Hammer. The quickest of the trotting males was the Muscle Massive gelding What A Hunk, a 2:04.4 winner for driver Steve Schoeffel, trainer Bill Daugherty Jr. and owner Susan Daugherty. Grapple Hanover won for the third time on the fair circuit for trainer-driver Wayne Long and the partnership of William Kreutzer and Denton Barrett. The rains came back for the pacers on Wednesday, and again the track crew at Clearfield worked wonders to keep the surface safe. Hammer swept the A male events, with Cirrus De Vie becoming the first horse to win at the fairs five times this year with a 1:59.2 mile, only two-fifths off the divisional track record. Hammer shares ownership with Vicki Fair. In the other cut, Marvalous Falcon, a two-time winner in the "B" division, survived being three-wide to the quarter to post a 1:59.3 time, a seasonal best. The A Rocknroll Dance miss Dance For Kisses earned top honours among fillies with a 2:01.2 win over sloppy going. Tony Schadel handled the sulky duties for owner-trainer Justin Lebo. Todd Schadel, with nine sulky victories, won Clearfields annual Buster DiSalvo trophy for that accomplishment. All his winners were from his barn, so he also topped that category. Schadel now has 25 wins on the fair circuit in both categories, six ahead of friendly rival Hammer. The Pennsylvania fair circuit will be doing a split for next weeks racing. Some horses will go to the far northeast corner of the state, to Honesdale, which will conduct its two-day meet on Sunday (Aug. 5) and Monday (Aug. 6) and then its fair meet on Wednesday (Aug. 8) and Thursday (Aug. 9). The other group will be 358 miles away in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, where the Greene County Fair will race at Waynesburg on Tuesday (Aug. 7) and Wednesday (Aug. 8). (Pennsylvania Fair Harness Horsemen's Association) As Patrick Eldredge fielded myriad questions from construction foremen this week in South Norwalk, a woman walked up to the entrance of his four-story office building inquiring about how to find a tenant. Eldredge steered her to the organizations temporary quarters not far distant and gave her a friendly reminder to have anyone she knew contact him if looking for new office space. Such are the days of a developer, with Eldredge among Norwalks newest after purchasing the Thornton Building at 149 Water St. in South Norwalk, visible among a small handful of sizable office buildings in the neighborhood. Eldredge is now overhauling the building for new tenants, just his second project after the reclamation of a small building at the crossroads of SoNo. A Greenwich resident today, Eldredge grew up in the Indianapolis area the son of the president of Keystone Senior, a developer of senior living and assisted care facilities that is currently building a new community on Wooster Heights Road in Danbury. The younger Eldredge took a detour before finding his own path in the real estate industry. After enrolling in Northeastern University, Eldredge met his future wife and followed her to Connecticut where she had grown up, completing his studies at Norwalk Community College and UConn Stamford. He took a job with Modem Media and successor company Digitas, followed by positions with Louis Dreyfus and Noble Americas. It was at the latter firm that Eldredge decided he wanted to trace the steps of his father in real estate development, as he describes it seeing the light during an office fire drill. We were all outside squinting in the sun and I thought, I think this is the first time I have seen any of you guys before in daylight, Eldredge said. And I knew I had to get out. A January deluge, a July deal He became a broker with William Raveis Real Estate to get a better understanding of the real estate industry, and began hunting a small commercial property to buy as a fixer upper. Ultimately he chose a building at 23 S. Main St. in South Norwalk adjacent to the Residence Inn by Marriott SoNo under construction by the Stamford-based developer F.D. Rich, purchasing it in August 2016 and bringing in new tenants, including the office suite operator SoNo Spaces. That was a huge risk for me. A lot of people said you shouldnt invest there, Eldredge said. And I was able to get that to be a very successful building, worth a lot more than I paid for it. A real estate broker knew of Eldredges appetite for a second project, and alerted him of the possibility of the Thornton Building at 149 Water St., one of a small handful of large office buildings in South Norwalk, along with 50 Washington St. and the Lock Building on North Water Street. The Thornton Buildings late owner Thomas Thornton had died in February 2014 after a career running the Thornton Floss periodontal floss manufacturer that sold more than 10 billion units, while leasing out office space on the lower levels to other tenants. Eldredge contacted Thorntons estate and reached agreement on a price late last year, but prior to the transaction closing this past January, a window blew open. Pipes in the overhead sprinkler system froze and burst, flooding commercial spaces below and forcing tenants like ABCD, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and the Norwalk Housing Authority to find temporary new homes. With an adjacent condominium association learning of the pending sale, the group filed a lien on the building to receive recompense for prior water damage from the commercial building, and Eldredge was left scrambling to salvage the deal. The purchase went through in early July and Eldredge has been hard at work since, with much of the 42,000-square-foot interior having been gutted for a new interior created by the Stamford design firm Workspace. A huge believer in South Norwalk Eldredge aims to complete the 149 Water St. rescue by November, and to reach out to professional services firms like marketing agencies and architects in his initial push for tenants but as he demonstrated this week, with a willingness to talk to anybody. He believes that South Norwalk is under a renaissance as F.D. Rich works on the Residence Inn by Marriott SoNo and its planned Harbourside SoNo apartments a few steps down Water Street from the Thornton Building near the southern terminus of the commercial district, with the SoNo Collection malls construction dominating South Norwalks scene to the north. Further out, Eldredge anticipates more projects in South Norwalk and perhaps in time the larger region in southwestern Connecticut, but said he will finish the current building before scouting any future possibilities. Im a huge believer in South Norwalk, Eldredge said. There is a little bit of pride to me to pick a city as my own. ... I would like to get it to where my name is known here not because of how much money and development Ive done, but because of what Ive done for the community. Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman This holiday Monday (Aug. 6) could be one of the best days for race fans ever at Dresden Raceway. Fans will be treated to free hot buttered corn on the cob, as well as a plethora of drawings, prizes and giveaways, especially for the kids. This Monday will be so exciting as we are expecting to have an amazing crowd and some top-notch racing, said track publicist and announcer Gary Patterson. Our free corn day is always one of the biggest days of the year, and with all the extra kids draws and the draws for the bicycles, it should be a monster day. The usual drawings will be held for $25 gift cards from Tim Hortons, Subway, Shoppers Drug Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Burns Family Restaurant, The Track Kitchen at Dresden Raceway and Marios Pizza Plus, as well as a drawing for a barbecue from Thamesville Home Hardware. Holiday Monday will feature extra draws for kids' prizes, including six bicycles. There will also be free face painting at the track as well as freezies for all the kids. Dresden Raceway will also have miniature horses racing on Civic Holiday Monday as well. The horsemen will not be left out at Dresden Raceway, as extra purse money has been added for Monday's card, bumping the top purse to $6,200 which should bring out some of the top horses in southwestern Ontario and Michigan. Dresden has had a phenomenal year of racing. Attendance has been up by almost 1,500 people and the year-to-date handle is up over $31,000 compared to the same days as last year. Mondays post time is 1:30 p.m. (Dresden Raceway) STAMFORD The city man who said he was just creating the news by allegedly robbing a downtown bank last month pleaded not guilty on Wednesday. Charles Redshirt, 35, of Franklin Street, pleaded not guilty to charges of armed robbery, fourth-degree larceny, carrying a dangerous weapon, threatening and criminal trespass. He remains in custody unable to post a $500,000 court appearance bond. Public Defender Howard Ehring said his client was at the Garner Correctional Facility, where prisoners with severe mental heath issues are housed. Ehring requested Judge Margarita Hartley Moore to order his client to receive appropriate medical care. Ehring declined to comment on the specifics of the case. Redshirt is accused of robbing the First Bank of Greenwich on July 16 before being captured at the Inspirica offices on nearby Franklin Avenue. Redshirt has a criminal record dating back to 1999 that includes convictions for assault, burglary, violation of probation, failure to appear in court, having a weapon in a motor vehicle and drunken driving, the bail commissioner said. Officer Brian McKay and Sgt. Chris Petrizzi apprehended Redshirt at gunpoint in the lobby of the Inspirica building within 10 minutes of the 911 call reporting the robbery. Police said Redshirt was in possession of some money taken in the bank robbery. Police said the last bank robbery in the city occurred in December 2016 at the First County Bank in Springdale. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com GREENWICH When someone has overdosed on opioids, every second counts. What is done in the ones that tick away before help arrives can mean the difference between life and death. But often those seconds fall to a loved one with no medical training. To that end, the town Department of Health and the Greenwich Emergency Medical Service teamed this week to educate people about opioids, and train them in life-saving actions, including the use of Narcan, a medication designed to temporarily block the effects of opioids. That session at Greenwich Library included a demonstration of how to administer Narcan. This is a life-threatening emergency, said GEMS Operations Manager Colin Bassett as he led Tuesday nights presentation. When you stop breathing, you have about four to six minutes in a normal, healthy individual before brain damage can start to occur. Thats not a lot of time and unless it happens right in front of you, youre always coming against the clock. GEMS carries Narcan in its ambulances. Greenwich Police announced this spring that officers would soon begin carrying it. But the medication can be obtained for home use by those worried about overdose. Those interested were told to consult their pharmacist. As a drug, Narcans only effect is blocking reaction to opioids. Narcan can be administered several ways including through a high-concentration nasal spray in each nostril, which Bassett and GEMS Executive Director Tracy Schietinger demonstrated on a dummy. Bassett said people should not worry they are giving too much when administering Narcan and recommended using all of what is in a dose. The goal, he stressed, is to keep people breathing after theyve suffered an overdose. Narcan can also be administered with an EpiPen type of device. As part of his presentation, Bassett stressed that the effects of Narcan are only temporary and the effects of the opioid can last much longer. That is why people need to call 911 as their first reaction to a loved ones overdose. When people ask, If I give someone Narcan do they still have to go to the hospital? the answer I give them is absolutely, 100 percent, Bassett said. You cant just walk away. ... You dont have the choice to not go because in 45 minutes when no one is around there you go, youre back in an overdose again. Another potential danger is a person without proper medical attention can going into withdrawal once the Narcan wears off. Connecticut has a good Samaritan law which means people will not be prosecuted after calling 911 and administering assistance even if they were taking drugs with the overdose victim. From our point of view in EMS, were trying to keep people from dying so if more people are calling because theyre not going to get in trouble then less people are dying, Bassett said. Nationally opioids are the most-abused prescription narcotic, Bassett said, adding that while the United States accounts for only 4.6 percent of the worlds population it consumes 80 percent of the worlds opioid supply and 98 percent of the worlds supply of hydrocodone. There were 63,000 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers in the United States in 2016, almost double the amount from 2015, he said. Connecticut had 729 drug overdose deaths in 2015 including five in Greenwich. In 2016, there were 917 drug overdose deaths in Connecticut, which was higher than the national average, including one in Greenwich. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com GREENWICH Town police officers this month will begin carrying Narcan, a medication to revive people who are in danger of dying of drug overdoses, part of a range of initiatives that local law enforcement is enacting to cope with the burgeoning opioid epidemic. According to Capt. Robert Berry, the department is working on a multifaceted approach to the hard-drug scourge that has claimed numerous lives in recent years. Greenwich police are using a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue: providing life-saving efforts in the field; connecting users to addiction services; arrests of those manufacturing and distributing drugs; and education, the police captain wrote in a statement this week. Greenwich police will start training on Narcan use and storage next week, said police spokesman Lt. John Slusarz. Narcan, commonly packaged as an aerosol spray, is an opioid antidote that restores breathing functions that shut down during an overdose. Greenwich paramedics have been carrying Narcan, and have saved dozens of lives with use of the medication. Police officers typically arrive first on the scene when a 911 medical call comes in, followed shortly by an emergency medical team. Those few minutes matter a great deal, said the police spokesman. Slusarz said officers all have medical training, and the Narcan dispensers are easy to use, but proper storage is necessary for effective use. The Narcan dispensers lose potency if theyre exposed to high heat or extreme cold, so storage protocols need to be reviewed, the lieutenant said. The new medication will become standard gear for police by the end of the month. Besides the new emergency medical equipment, police are also making a community effort to connect with families and residents coping with drug abuse. Slusarz said officers in the neighborhoods will be making an extra effort to provide information and guidance on getting services to those in need. A lot of times we see people come to us, at their wits end, when were out there in the community. We hear from parents, brothers and sisters, looking for help, Slusarz said. Were working with Greenwich Hospital and other agencies. When someone is in crisis, we can steer them or their families to services or support. Finally, police are re-doubling efforts to go after dealers. Its not just arrests, but we are making arrests to interdict the drug supply, the lieutenant said. Police arrested a Stamford man, Christopher Brokaw, this week in connection with a fatal overdose of a local man in July. The Greenwich police spokesman said the arrest was an example of the kind of intensive investigation, tracing the supply of drugs and working with regional counterparts, that the department is employing against the drug trade. Brokaw is currently being held on $250,000 bail after being charged with manslaughter and possession of narcotics with intent to sell. Seventeen drug overdoses were recorded by Greenwich police in town in 2016, including five fatalities. In 2017, through November when the latest tally was recorded, police had reported 11 overdoses, and one fatality. rmarchant@greenwichtime.com MILFORD A city woman said she didnt steal a thing after she was arrested on suspicion of depositing money raised from a GoFundMe page into her personal bank account. Suzanne Maraczi, 47, of Milford, was charged last Friday with forth-degree larceny, police said Wednesday. Supporters of Maraczi reached out to Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday and said there was no arrest and there is no court date, adding that she was falsely accused. But Milford police confirmed she was charged. Police said Maraczi was released on a promise to appear and is expected to appear in court on Aug. 21. Milford police said Maraczi was taken into custody last Friday after a three month investigation into a complaint filed against her. Its all sickening to me, Maraczi said via text Wednesday afternoon. I swear to god I didnt steal a thing from them. On Feb. 27, someone filed a complaint with Milford police that Maraczi opened a GoFundMe page for an animal rescue group and had the donations deposited into her personal bank account, police said. Some of the donations raised were turned over to the animal rescue group but the complaint states that after numerous requests, Maraczi failed to turn over the remaining donated money, Milford police said. Investigation led to an arrest warrant being issues for Maraczi. Maraczi said she feels she has been harassed by those who filed the complaint. They made me (out) to be a terrible person. Ive been constantly harassed, she said in a text. Its very cut and dry. I live for these animals. The GoFundMe page is no longer active on the site, but it was unclear whether it was closed on its own or if police shut it down. Were sorry, but the campaign link you entered cannot be found, the site read on Wednesday. As was previously reported by Hearst Connecticut Media, Maraczi works as a licensed emergency and critical care nurse at the Animal Medical Center in New York City. Last September, Maraczi and several veterinary professionals throughout the region initiated a massive food relief effort to help hungry animals after Hurricane Irma devastated the Caribbean area on Sept. 6, 2017. Maraczi and Melissa Marter, who lives in Stratford and owns Whos Your Doggie in Milford, jumped on board a plane on Oct. 5, 2017, to Antigua to help out on the ground. Marter stayed for about a week and Maraczi stayed until early January. While in the Caribbean, the duo connected with the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, an international nonprofit group made famous through the television show Whale Wars. The captain of one of the Sea Shepard boats invited the two to join the crew, engaging in similar efforts. HARARE, Zimbabwe - Government forces opened fire on rioting opposition supporters Wednesday, shattering the fragile peace that had persisted through Zimbabwe's first election since the fall of Robert Mugabe. At least three people were killed, police confirmed to the ZBC, Zimbabwe's state broadcaster. Given that many of the injured were quickly whisked away by protesters, the number of dead could be higher. The number of injured remained unknown. The sudden outbreak of violence risked derailing an election that was seen by many as a chance for Zimbabwe to emerge from decades of isolation after 37 years of increasingly authoritarian rule by Mugabe. The conflict began with protests by backers of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over the delayed release of results from Monday's election that they believed signaled an attempt by the ruling party to steal victory from their candidate, Nelson Chamisa. Amid a heavy police presence, the tense atmosphere slipped into violence. Armed with metal rods and rocks, small groups roved downtown Harare, the capital, destroying everything from stoplights to storefronts. Police fired warning shots, water cannons and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. About an hour later, the army arrived and turned the city into a war zone, firing live rounds indiscriminately into a crowd gathered outside the MDC's headquarters on Nelson Mandela Avenue in the center of Harare. In the crowd, a man in a red Chamisa sweatshirt was shot in the arm. A man nearby fell to the ground, gasping and pointing to his abdomen; others removed his pants, revealing that his genitals had been mangled by a bullet. A woman in a smart green suit looked out upon the smoldering fires lit by the rioters and the blood and glass strewn on a street corner and said, "This is heartbreak." While the presidential contest involved 23 candidates, the main race was between Chamisa, a 40-year-old lawyer and pastor, and 75-year-old Emmerson Mnangagwa, who helped engineer Mugabe's downfall in November. Chamisa primed his supporters for a confrontation Tuesday by declaring a victory long before the counting had been completed. The violence recalled the bloodshed that followed a disputed election in 2008, which the opposition claimed to have won outright. Instead, there was a presidential runoff, during which regime supporters engaged in a countrywide campaign of intimidation and violence that eventually forced the opposition candidate to withdraw. Around 200 of his supporters were killed. Just before the violence broke out Wednesday, observer missions from around the world released preliminary statements. They largely withheld judgment on the allegations of rigging and other irregularities in Monday's contest, though most noted polarization and bias in the media ahead of the election. "In some senses, up to this point, the conduct of the polls has had a number of positive features," said Elmar Brok, leader of the European Union's observer mission. But he also criticized the election commission's "lack of transparency" and "some problems around polling stations" on election day. He said he did not understand why the election commission was taking so long to release results and predicted that it would lose credibility with further delays. "A true level playing field has not yet been achieved," Brok said. A prominent election observer, former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, warned that delays in announcing the results could feed "suspicions, tensions and volatility." "The more the presidential vote is delayed, the more it calls into question the population's confidence in the election process," she said. Protesters surrounded vehicles belonging to the observer missions as they passed through downtown Harare on Wednesday on their way to give their preliminary report briefings. "What they have done is intimidate people in the rural areas, saying, 'We will kill you if you vote MDC' and so on, and then the international observers say this election was free and fair. Why are they even here then?" asked Wellington Chigwendere, one of the protesters. "It is so obvious that rigging has taken place since Monday. There is a mountain of evidence. We will not live and die in such a Zimbabwe. "What you see here is real support - not people being brought on buses like ZANU-PF does," he said, referring to the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. On Wednesday, the election commission announced that ZANU-PF had taken the majority of the seats in the parliament, winning 109 out of 210, with 41 going to the opposition MDC and 58 yet to be allocated. The United States and the European Union have been clear that a credible election is their foremost condition for the lifting of sanctions on various Mugabe-era officials and their family members, as well as for backing a bailout for Zimbabwe from the International Monetary Fund. Those hopes could be threatened if MDC supporters feel that the election was marred by questions and abuses, as frequently happened under Mugabe. "I will stay here until Chamisa is president," said Amandishe Muzhinji, who returned from Swaziland, where he works as a migrant laborer, to vote in Monday's election. "I will not allow my vote to be stolen in plain sight." The opposition alleges that irregularities occurred, saying that voting results were not posted, as required by law, outside one-fifth of polling stations. MDC officials also questioned possible discrepancies in the vote count from small, rural constituencies that they say are posting numbers higher than their voting population. Mnangagwa's government, meanwhile, accused Chamisa and his supporters of inciting violence by already declaring he had won the election, the first after Mugabe stepped down in November. If neither candidate receives an outright majority, there will be a Sept. 8 runoff. --- The Washington Post's Paul Schemm in Swansea, Wales, and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. The live racing card and all simulcast scheduled for Thursday afternoon (Aug. 2) at Plainridge Park have been postponed as a result of the Massachusetts legislature adjourning without taking action on a replacement or extension of the live racing and simulcast bill before the end of formal business for the year on Wednesday (Aug. 1). The Senate will be holding an informal session on Thursday (Aug. 2), and the hope is this issue gets resolved by the end of the day. If that happens, Thursdays race card will be run on Friday (Aug. 3) at 4 p.m. as drawn. Eric Schippers, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations at the track's parent company, Penn National Gaming, said the company is hopeful that the Senate will take action on the bill Thursday morning. "We are optimistic that lawmakers will work toward a solution that allows live racing and simulcast wagering to resume in the Commonwealth soon," Schippers said in a statement. "More than 200 people including track employees, trainers, drivers and grooms earn a living as part of our racing program at Plainridge Park Casino and are unable to work until the suspension is lifted." Updates from Plainridge Park concerning this issue will be forthcoming as information becomes available. (Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts) Back in June, Google released its own Podcasts app for Android, aptly called Google Podcasts. However, since its release, some have likely been wondering when the app would get official Android Auto integration. Android Police reports that one of its readers began seeing Google Podcasts integration working, but not entirely. According to this reader, if you start Playing a Google Podcast before firing up Android Auto, it appears in the media controls. However the option to actually select Google Podcasts among other music apps like Google Play Music or Pocket Casts is not available. Source: Android Police The standalone Android Auto app makes it safer to operate a device while driving with a less distracting UI. Adding Google Podcasts to be integrated with Googles own Android Auto app would be a welcome addition. Speaking of great app integrations, Spotify (and not Google or YouTube Music) was recently integrated to work with the default Google Clock app to be set as an Alarm tone and the feature is currently rolling out over the next week. Source | Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. After its official launch in China as the Nokia X6, the Nokia 6.1 Plus began its global rollout with Hong Kong and now it's about to hit India. All the Nokia fans out there tell us your favorite Nokia smartphone experience and stand a chance to witness the next exclusive launch event. Click the link below to participate and stay tuned for more! https://t.co/uJpt3Onj7w pic.twitter.com/yrFkgnqpAE Nokia Mobile India (@NokiamobileIN) August 1, 2018 HMD Global just teased a launch event in India and has organized a contest for the fans that want to attend it. Of course, we can't be sure if this is the phone they are planning to release, but it's the most likely handset since the 6.1 Plus support page already went live in India. The other options are Nokia 5.1 Plus (Nokia X5) and Nokia 2.1. It's also possible that HMD Global is releasing the entire trio. Sadly, the teaser on Twitter doesn't say anything specific about dates - it just hints at an exclusive launch event and that's pretty much it. Source Billy Graham Rapid Response Team Chaplains Offer Hope and Comfort as Carr Wildfire Rages in Redding, California Fire being called one of the most destructive in state history, has claimed hundreds of homes CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 1, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Crisis-trained chaplains with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team are in Redding, Calif., ministering to the emotional and spiritual needs of homeowners and those displaced by the Carr wildfire. According to current news reports , the fire has destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and has claimed the lives of six people, including two firefighters. It's already being ranked as one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the state. "Every time we witness a wildfire we are amazed and grieved by the power of the blaze and the devastating impact that it has on those caught in its path," said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. "Many are staying in shelters right now, unsure of what is happening to their homes. Others have been confronted with the sad reality that all they've worked for is now ash and rubble. Our teams will offer the hope and comfort of Jesus as people begin to search for answers and a 'new normal' in their lives." The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is deploying in coordination with Samaritan's Purse , the Christian disaster relief organization also headed by Franklin Graham . Together the two ministries will address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those who have been affected. "Please pray for those in the path of this deadly wildfire that is tearing through communities in California," said Graham. "Especially pray for the protection of all those battling this and many blazes in several states in the west." The deployment to California is the latest in a series of outreaches following natural disasters. Crisis-trained chaplains are also currently meeting emotional and spiritual needs in Mati, Greece (wildfire); Hidalgo County, Texas (flooding); and Marshalltown, Iowa (tornado). For more information on the ministry, including videos, photos, news articles and an interactive map of former and current deployments, visit www.billygraham.org/rrt . Updates can also be found at www.facebook.com/RRTChaplains About the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team: Oppo has been teasing the upcoming F9 for a couple of days now, with its small triangle-shaped notch and VOOC charging. The online campaign continues with the promo images below, which present us with two color versions of the handset: Sunrise Red and Twilight Blue. At the same time, the company has started plastering billboards across Indonesian cities, showcasing the phone in the hands of actress Chelsea Islan. The billboards tell us that VOOC will enable two-hour talk time from just a five-minute charge. The Sunrise Red variant of the F9 has also been leaked in a hands-on image with its diamond-like pattern and hue that changes depending on the angle the light hits the rear at. The smartphone will launch in Vietnam on August 15, and that may be the date on which it becomes official across Asia. That said, it's likely that the F9 Pro will launch in India first, with the F9 going to Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam before any other places. According to past rumors, the F9 Pro has a 6.3-inch 19.5:9 touchscreen with 1080x2280 resolution and a 90.8% screen-to-body ratio, dual 16 MP cameras on the rear, a 25 MP selfie snapper, 128GB of expandable storage, 6GB of RAM, and the MediaTek Helio P60 chipset at the helm. It will have dual-SIM functionality and 4G support, while a 3,400 mAh battery will keep the lights on. We expect the F9 to come with lesser specs, but these haven't been outed yet. Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Source 4 Published on 2018/08/01 | Source On the first episode of "Familiar Wife", Ji Sung decided to divroce Han Ji-min who had changed a lot since they married. Ji Sung coincidentally travelled back to 2006. Advertisement Cha Joo-hyeok (Ji Sung) decided to get married to Seo Woo-jin (Han Ji-min) when Lee Hye-won (Kang Han-na), who he loved when he was in university, appeared. On the way to Incheon International Airport, Joo-hyeok tries to answer Woo-jin's call and gets into an accident. He fell unconscious right after looking at the word 'wife' on his smart phone. Joo-hyeok and Woo-jin couldn't sleep due to a crying baby. Joo-hyeok overslept and was late for work and was yelled at by his superior. Cha Bong-hee (Son Jong-hak) saved Cha Joo-hyeok, but then he met a difficult client. Joo-hyeok headed to Incheon International Airport to cover up the mess made by Kim Hwan (Cha Hak-yeon), a rookie. Woo-jin who works at a skin care facility, had to pick up her child from daycare, but she had a big group of customers so she called Joo-hyeok whodidn't pick up because he was in an accident. Not knowing this, she was angry at him. She threw a crab leg at him and he ducked. Joo-hyeok decided to divorce Woo-jin who had become so different. He said, "it's like I'm sleeping with a monster, I don't even remember when she last cooked for me". His biggest problem was her disability in controlling her anger. She'd cussed at Joo-hyeok for disappearing while they were waiting in line at the supermarket. Joo-hyeok ran into an old school friend while working and had dinner. Hye-won told him she'd liked him and he was shocked that he did, too. He'd had a crush on her for a long time. Joo-hyeok was just a poor student, but he got the autograph of her favorite cellist. Hye-won suggested they watched a performance together and Joo-hyeok was happy. Joo-hyeok was late because Woo-jin had been harassed by a pervert on the bus. However, the show had already started and he waited for Hye-won until the show was over. Hye-won was disappointed in him. Woo-jin suggested he gave her lessons and he refused. At the same time, Woo-jin's father passed away suddenly and Joo-hyeok stayed with her throughout the funeral. Joo-hyeok came home one night late after a work dinner. Woo-jin scolded him while he was throwing up and kicked him out of the bedroom. Joo-hyeok slept in the bathroom and regretted getting married to Woo-jin. Joo-hyeok happened to help a madman on the subway. Then on the way back from a colleague's mother's funeral, he used a toll gate that used coins and threw the 500 won that the madman gave him. Suddenly his car accelerated and he was in 2006. Provides documents requested by court; Justice Court hearings still on the docket Hearings in state District Court in Havre requiring former Hill County Attorney Jessica Cole-Hodginson have been vacated after she provided documents to the court, but hearings in Hill County Justice Court still are pending. District Judge Dan Boucher vacated the hearings requiring Cole-Hodgkinson show cause as to why she did not file judgments for him to sign on sentences imposed in seven cases. In a letter to Boucher dated Monday, Cole-Hodgkinson, who resigned last week effective 8 a.m. Monday, said she prepared the "belated judgments" and included them with the letter. She wrote that she would be out of the state today and requested the hearings be vacated or rescheduled or she be allowed to appear by telephone. "I apologize for missing the deadlines," Cole-Hodgkinson wrote, "I have been largely away from the office for the past few weeks dealing with three rather overwhelming and unexpected personal matters. I trusted that the office would take care of things, and I was unaware of the judge's order." She also notified Boucher of her resignation. "My other obligations must come first," she said. She still faces hearings Aug. 7 before Hill County Justice of the Peace Audrey Barger to answer why she failed to provide someone to represent the state in three cases in which her sole deputy, Karen Alley, had conflicts and could not prosecute the cases. The Hill County Commission appointed Alley as Cole-Hodgkinson's replacement Monday. She said she has two new deputies coming in this month and the Montana Attorney General's Office is providing assistance as well. Barger denied a request by Cole-Hodgkinson in a similar letter to vacate the hearing or allow her to appear by telephone. Complaints about Cole-Hodgkinson started coming in shortly after she was appointed in November 2016 to replace Gina Dahl, who left the office to take a job in Billings. Several cases were dismissed due to Cole-Hodgkinson failing to appear at trials or hearings and failing to prepare, including her saying she was not prepared to prosecute several cases the day they were scheduled for trial. Karen Alley In June, Boucher ruled that Cole-Hodkginson had failed to provide an attorney who did not have a conflict when filing a case involving two-year-old accusations of embezzlement and ruled that the Hill County Attorney's Office could not prosecute the case. Complaints about Cole-Hodgkinson were raised during her career before she was appointed in Hill County. In 2014, when she was a Lake County deputy attorney, a judge dismissed charges alleging a Pablo man made a "vicious" attack on a jailer in May 2014 because Cole-Hodgkinson did not file a request for the judge to allow charges to be filed until 18 days after the man was arrested. The judge ruled the 18-day delay exceeded any case found in Montana history for which a delay was found reasonable. Cole-Hodgkinson did not return a call the Havre Daily News made Friday requesting comments. A sign stands in front of Eagles Manor in Havre. Residents of the manor are dealing with extreme heat while sale negotiations delay repair of its heating and air conditioning unit. Residents at the Eagles Manor retirement living facility are trapped by real estate negotiations in an overheating building. The air conditioning has been broken this summer, they said, causing rooms to overheat during the hottest months of the year. July temperatures in Havre reached 103 degrees fahrenheit, Weather Underground reported. A member of the Eagles Manor Resident Council spoke about the temperatures in the building with the Havre Daily News Wednesday on condition of anonymity. "The people on the south side of the building," the council member said, "the sun beats down on the... A man was assaulted Wednesday afternoon on the east edge of Havre and taken to the hospital, and law enforcement are searching for the assailant. Hill County Sheriffs Office dispatch received a call at 5:07 p.m. about an assault in progress on 22nd Avenue North near the east crossing of the BNSF Railway tracks. Sheriffs deputies, Havre Police officers and emergency medical personnel with Havre Fire Department all responded to the scene. Witnesses who work for BNSF saw two men fighting. The victim said he and another man had been drinking together when the other man suddenly started... Shay Tatsey ropes a calf during the ladies breakaway event during the Rocky Boy Rodeo at Sibyl Sangrey-Colliflower Memorial Arena Wednesday. Rocky Boy's 54th Annual Celebration kicks off Friday but related events have already begun this week with a Youth Rodeo Monday and the Rocky Boy Rodeo starting Tuesday. The Rocky Boy Rodeo is a United Indian Rodeo Association-sanctioned event and a qualifying round in the Indian National Finals Rodeo, with the winners having a chance to go to Las Vegas to compete. The event was sponsored by Jitterbugs in Box Elder and Yeti Coolers LLC. In addition to prize money, winners of the competitions were given their own Yeti Coolers as a prize. The rodeo saw 171 competitors, with many of them co... Employers should always take the necessary steps to ensure staff feel comfortable talking to them about sensitive topics such as domestic violence, said Hackenberg. They need to reassure their staff that all conversations will be handled appropriately and will be confidential. Family and domestic violence means violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by an employee's family member that seeks to coerce or control the employee, or causes them fear or harm. Employees can take the leave if they need to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence and it's impractical to do so outside their ordinary hours of work. So how much proof will an employee have to provide so they can be eligible for this new leave entitlement? We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here DOWNTOWN ROUNDUP: Blue Ridge Health to move offices to King Street Blue Ridge Health will move about 50 administrative and office jobs to North King Street. Downtown will be home on weekdays to 50 administrators and office workers, thanks to a large nonprofit health care agency's need for more space. Blue Ridge Community Health Services last month purchased the 11,000-square-foot building on North King Street at Fifth Avenue and will begin moving workers in as soon as it completes repairs and renovations. Blue Ridge Health has grown tremendously in the past few years, said Dr. Richard Hudspeth, CEO of Blue Ridge Health. We needed additional space. Some of our administrative space is in our clinical space and we need to keep our clinical space for the demand were seeing. Really all our service lines pediatrics, family medicine, behavioral health, dental and pharmacy are expanding. We explored a lot of different options and this was really the best one. He expects the agency to move 40 to 50 people into the space. The property has 50 parking spaces so having a new employer downtown wont add to the central business district parking crunch. The agency bought the property last month from Boyd L. Bub Hyder for $1.7 million. I think its good news for Henderson County, Hudspeth said. I think its a good thing for downtown. This was a space that really works well for us. A business that adds workers within walking distance of Main Street always helps downtown, said Lew Holloway, the city's downtown development coordinator. It adds more employees right in the downtown district coming downtown to take advantage of shopping and food, he said. Those are great jobs to have in that kind of proximity to downtown. Im sure that was one of the factors in choosing the property. We think of that as a win and a great addition to the downtown area. We really do have a tremendous health care economy downtown and its another example of while not everybody lives in the city of Hendersonville a lot of people really do work there. Whats that smell please? The Oceanside Police Department told residents not to panic after the department received several calls about a strong smell. According to authorities, the smell is outgassing from the ocean and is non-toxic. Ocean outgassing happens when the ocean releases gasses that were trapped or dissolved. A similar incident was reported in La Jolla earlier this year. The next video features a similar case of foul, gas-like odor taht rolled inn from the ocean in Southern CA on July 25, 2012: At this time, its unclear what is causing the outgassing. Well people, this region is seismically very active. It wouldnt surprise me that this smell has a geological explanation. Or is it more likely to be man-made (oil, gas, so geology at the end)? In any cases: Take care. Be prepared. Follow us: Facebook and Twitter 10 News Ocean outgassing causing strong odor in Oceanside Judge finds probable cause on murder charges A 35-year-old will face murder charges in Superior Court after a District Court judge found probable cause on the charges on Wednesday, District Attorney Greg Newman said in a news release. District Court Judge Emily Cowan found that probable cause exists in the first degree murder case of Terry Jason Brank, of the Crab Creek community. Judge Cowan heard testimony yesterday from two witnesses," Newman said. "She determined that probable cause exists that Brank committed the crime. We intend to have the case presented to the grand jury that convenes in September." Assistant District Attorneys Doug Mundy and Heather Brittain represented the state. Brevard attorney Tony Dalton represented the defendant. Following the presentation of evidence and judges findings, Brittain requested that Mr. Branks bond be modified from $800,000 to no bond during the pendency of the case. Cowan granted the States request. We appreciate the judge making this change in the bond, because it is customary for a defendant facing a first-degree murder charge to be held with no bond, Newman said. Brank was charged on July 11 in the death of Laura Cox. At the hearing on Wednesday, Detective Aaron Lisenbee of the Henderson County Sheriffs Office and medical examiner Brian Hyson testified about their findings in the case. The defendant offered no evidence. If the grand jury returns an indictment, the case will be transferred to Superior Court and trial dates will be decided later this year. Brank remains in custody at the Henderson County jail. A teenager who has become the first Irish person chosen for a groundbreaking cancer treatment trial flew out yesterday to meet doctors in New York. Robyn Smyth (13) has been fighting the aggressive cancer neuroblastoma since she was three. She first went for treatment to a hospital in Michigan in 2015 when Irish doctors said there was nothing more they could do for her. After two good scans at the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital several months ago, she was accepted for the trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. Robyn and mum Bernadette Dornan Smyth, from Whitehall, Dublin, caught an early morning flight yesterday. "We can't believe we're actually going and at last we're getting on this dreamed-for flight," said Bernadette. "It's been a battle financially, but this treatment will mean so much for Robyn's health. "I'm so nervous travelling out here, more than ever, but also so relieved. "I can't thank the public enough for all their financial help, which we are always going to need. "The next few days out here will be intense, but it has to be that way." Bernadette had feared the worst when the fundraising effort to collect the 326,000 needed for Robyn to take part in the trial stalled at 70,000. As they waited, Robyn's health was deteriorating, raising fears that she would become too unwell to have the treatment. The family had already worked tirelessly to raise vast sums for her previous treatment in Michigan. Then an emotional outpouring by a desperately worried Bernadette spurred a new wave of donations. Celebrities Erin McGregor, the sister of UFC king Conor, who had already been secretly helping Robyn, started a floss dance challenge to boost the cause, which won support from several celebrities. After the fund reached the target, Bernadette spoke of the family's gratitude. "We reached the magic mark of having enough money to pay for the groundbreaking trial treatment over the weekend. All of the family can't put into words how grateful and relieved we are," she said. "My head was spinning at the thought of getting Robyn this far and not being able to get her on the trial that could potentially put an end to this monster." However, Bernadette warned that they still needed to raise more money to meet ongoing costs. "We're all so relieved, but worried too," she said. "After we make the up-front payment to the hospital, then there will be no money left. "So I'm pleading with people to keep donating as there will be non-stop flight and living costs while in the US." Robyn was given only a 30pc chance of surviving when she was first diagnosed by experts at Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin. Three years ago her chances of survival dropped to 5pc and her family were told to take her home to die, prompting them to seek help in the US. Donations can be made on robynslife@live.com, idonate.ie/robynslife and gofundme.com/robynslife. 'Boyle, of Sheephill Green, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of robbery, one of false imprisonment and one of attempted unlawful seizure of a vehicle between November 7 and 15, 2016.' (stock photo) A man who wielded large knives in two robberies during a week-long spree fuelled by alcohol and drugs has been jailed for six years. Jordon Boyle (21) held a machete up to a woman's face and told a cashier "this woman's life depends on you" during one of the robberies. He was caught after returning to the scene of one of the crimes and telling a staff member he had robbed the garage the previous week. He was later arrested after trying to hijack a Bentley car at the same garage. Boyle, of Sheephill Green, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of robbery, one of false imprisonment and one of attempted unlawful seizure of a vehicle between November 7 and 15, 2016. Machete Gda Michael Parry Jones said that on November 7, 2016, Boyle entered the Esso garage on Navan Road with a butcher's knife and screamed at a woman to get on to the floor. He stole from the till and pressed his knife to the head of the cashier, ordered her to get on to the ground and then stole a bottle of vodka as he fled. Gda Jones said that on the evening of November 14 a woman in her 60s walking her dog in Castleknock was grabbed from behind by Boyle, who held a machete in front of her. He pushed her into a Topaz petrol station where he put the machete to her face and told the cashier "this woman's life depends on you" before demanding money. The cashier, afraid the woman would be hurt, handed over cash. Jason and his wife Sharon, who said she was delighted for him. Pic: Frank McGrath Climber Jason Black was given a hero's welcome at Dublin Airport last night when he returned from successfully scaling the world's second-highest mountain. Jason (47) reached the summit of K2 in Pakistan on July 22. Expand Close Irish climber Jason Black is greeted by his wife Sharon and children Kate, Ella, Billy and Laura as he arrives back home. Pic: Frank McGrath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Irish climber Jason Black is greeted by his wife Sharon and children Kate, Ella, Billy and Laura as he arrives back home. Pic: Frank McGrath Tragically, fellow Irish climber Ger McDonnell, who was the first Irishman to reach the same summit, died along with 10 other mountaineers exactly a decade ago today, when they were buried by an avalanche on their descent. Tricolour To honour him, Jason retrieved the Tricolour that Ger had proudly erected on the summit and brought it home to Ireland. "I was standing there on the summit with the Donegal flag and Irish flag in my hand, knowing the Irish flag had only got there once but had never been recovered," he told the Herald last night. "I felt a real sense of responsibility to take it home. "I have it here in my hand today," he added of the Tricolour he proudly draped over himself and his family on his return. A group of around 30 relatives and friends from his home in Letterkenny hired a bus to welcome him home after he returned from his Himalayan mountain adventure. His wife Sharon Black (44), joked that she wished she could "tape him to the couch", but she knows she won't ever be able to stop the extreme adventurer from future mountain-climbing treks. For the time being, she said she is just happy that he is home safe and well and able to spend time with her and their four children, Laura (19), Kate (18), Billy (14) and Ella (12). Party The former publican will be feted by locals in Letterkenny tonight at a homecoming party to thank his family, friends and other supporters for their encouragement as he embarked on his dream of a lifetime. "We're absolutely delighted for him, he's worked so hard," Sharon said. A spokeswoman for the Irish Red Cross, for which Jason is an ambassador, said the charity was delighted that he also erected its own flag at the summit as part of his ongoing support for the charity. A 1,000 grant for grandparents who provide free childcare for their grandchildren could be extended to other family members who mind children while their parents are working. Transport Minister Shane Ross yesterday doubled down on his Budget demand by insisting the controversial payment could be extended to aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers who provide free childcare. Despite growing criticism of his proposal, Mr Ross also said the payment would be available to a child's four grandparents if they all provided more than 10 hours of childcare a week for the same grandchild. This means the State could potentially pay 4,000 per child under a scheme the Independent Alliance has insisted should be included in the Budget. "We will start by looking at how it worked with grandparents and if there was a demand or a justification of extending it to other people that would be absolutely fair enough," Mr Ross said. COMPLICATED During an interview on RTE, the minister also revealed that the "grandparent and grandchild reimbursement scheme" would not be policed or inspected as he believes it will not be abused. Mr Ross said grandparents would also not be required to make vouched expense claims as it would be "pretty complicated" and involve an "awful lot of administration and paperwork". However, the proposal is expected to face resistance from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who said there were "really big questions" surrounding how the payment would work. "If you think of all the other members of family, and friends, who also perform duties looking after young children and do so on a voluntary basis, I think they would be asking me in particular, what about them?," Mr Donohoe said. However, he said he would examine the proposal with Children's Minister Katherine Zappone. She has previously said she is opposed to a grandparent grant. Within Fine Gael, ministers were privately critical of the proposal. One minister described it as a "load of s***e", while another said the Independent Alliance ministers would have to fund it out of their own departmental budgets. Opposition politicians also roundly criticised the plans. Fianna Fail social protection spokesman Willie O'Dea said the idea was "not very well thought out". "There are a lot grandparents providing childminding services free but some of them are very wealthy and the last thing they need is a payment from the State," he said. Fianna Fail senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee said the payment was a "pathetic attempt" by the Alliance to resolve the childcare crisis. "An annual payment of 1,000 will give the princely sum of 19.20 per week to grandparents - hardly an appropriate recognition of the sacrifice and dedication involved in caring for children," she said. older Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan weighed in behind Mr Ross, saying: "We should recognise the social and economic contribution made by older people in our communities." It has also emerged that only one in five grandparents will be eligible to apply for the controversial childminding grant, according to internal Independent Alliance analysis. A pre-Budget submission compiled by Mr Ross estimated that there are around 330,000 grandparents in the country. However, the two-page document stated some 70,000 would be eligible for the 1,000 grant. SINEAD RYAN ANALYSIS: SEE PAGE 14 Pope Francis is expected to address crowds of around 500,000 in the park. Photo: Reuters Organisers of the papal visit have delayed issuing tickets over concerns about the number of people travelling to the event by car. Tens of thousands of people are still planning on driving to the once-in-a-generation event despite the repeated warnings about lack of capacity for traffic and parking. Free public transport is to be offered to all attendees at the closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families in the Phoenix Park on August 26. Challenge Organisers have appealed for people to use this public transport where possible. Pope Francis is expected to address crowds of around 500,000 in the park. The size of the crowd and security arrangements necessary mean there is a significant logistical challenge for organisers. Tickets were due to be issued on July 31 but this has now been pushed back to August 10, organisers said in an email to attendees. "We had planned to email all tickets by July 31, but we were unable to do so due to the large number of people who have indicated to us that they intend to travel to the event by car," they said. "The available infrastructure in Dublin cannot cater for all those who have indicated that they are coming by car. "We have delayed the issue of tickets to August 10, so we can finalise the colour coded routes based on the information we have received about where those attending are coming from." People planning to travel by bus or train have also been urged to book their tickets well in advance, as many people have still to book their seats. Gardai previously warned that those who insist on driving to see Pope Francis in the Phoenix Park could find themselves turned back at the M50. Report by Adv. Rabindra Ghosh, BDMW Country : Bangladesh Act : Right to Religion. Crime : Attack on Hindu Temple & Deities desecrated. Date of occurrence : 11th June 2018 Place of occurrence : Village: Char Biswanath, Serajdikhan PS, District: Munshigonj, Bangladesh, within the Temple at Bashail. Name of perpetrators : Not identified. Name of the Temple : Dharma Dev & Radha Mondir Date of investigation : 27th July 2018 FACTS IN BRIEF : On the night of 11th June 2018 at about 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. there was an attack on the Hindu Temple situated at Serajdikhan P.S. of Munshingonj District when the Pujaries were sleeping outside the Temple. Some unknown perpetrators at the house of Horogowri of Radha Krishna Mandir, trespassed into the Temple, destructed Hindu deities, cut away the head of Dharma Dev, broken some glasses of the Temple causing multiple damages and left the place. Police visited the spot, enquired about the names of perpetrators, but the HIndu people could not identify the perpetrators. LEGAL ACTION : Shri Dilip Mondal Babu Secretary of the Temple went to make complaint before Akhtaruzzaman- Assistant Superintendent of Police, Serajdikhan Circle who refused to take cognizance of the case and asked the local Hindus to find out perpetrators, but the local Hindus could not identify the perpetrators, but said unknown perpetrators might have destroyed the Hindu deities and desecrated with religious motivation. But it is very much unfortunate that the Police became unhappy with the news published in different media and trying to suppress the material facts for obvious reasons. INVESTIGATION : I, Adv. Rabindra Ghosh, Dilip Kumar Ray of BDMW visited the spot on 27.07.2018 at about 5 p.m.at the Temple requesting police to be present there and to take a statement of witnesses. We took video statements of witnesses present at the time of our fact-finding. Most of the people admitted that the incident of such destruction of Hindu deities and its damages caused by perpetrators. But nobody could see the perpetrators at night. During our visit to spot one S.I. of Police was present and he said Hindu communities did not lodge any F.I.R. at the police station and as such, no case has been recorded We also asked the Hindus why they did not lodge any complaint to police. Those Hindus showed us some copies of complain before the Police, but police kept those complaints without any tangible action and thereby delayed the investigation and trying to suppress the facts of attack on Temple. I also communicated with S.P. Munshigonj who also said without mentioning the names of perpetrators it is very difficult to find out criminals to justice. But in our opinion there is no necessity of mentioning names of perpetrators during filing of F.I.R. It is the duty of the police to find out criminals during an investigation. So, lapses on the part of police the result of cases will be zero. RECOMMENDATIONS : Bangladesh Minority Watch is concerned about the desecration of Hindu deities and also very much concerned about negligence on the part of police to entertain cases from the justice-seekers. BDMW demand the perpetrators responsible for the desecration of deities and attack on Temple causing losses to Temple should be arrested and be punished as per law of the country. The religious rights of Minorities should be protected and their deities should be installed for peaceful co-existence. Actor Irrfan Khan is a Bollywood star and Hollywood chameleon, who has bounced between the two with ease for decades, working with everyone from Mira Nair to Wes Anderson and Ang Lee and stealing scenes in both Oscar-winners (Slumdog Millionaire) and blockbusters (Jurassic World) alike. But all thats been put on hold as he undergoes treatment in London for a neuroendocrine tumour, a rare form of cancer. Although Khans life now is very different from only a few months ago, he still has films that he worked on as recently last year coming out, including Puzzle, a poignant character drama expanding to 11 cities this weekend. The indie film from Oscar-nominated producer Marc Turtletaub (Little Miss Sunshine) is about a stifled suburban housewife, played by Kelly Macdonald, who forms a bond with a more cosmopolitan man, (Khan), over a shared fondness for puzzles. Its one that the 51-year-old actor is immensely proud of, and eager to talk about, but, he also knows very keenly how unpredictable his life has become. When I call him for our interview, he answers politely and informs me that hes been hospitalized the night prior and asks if might be possible to call him back in 10 minutes. Of course, I say. This happens again, when Khans doctors come in to talk to him and he politely asks if we might pick it up tomorrow. Below are excerpts from our conversations. They have been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Puzzle is quite lovely, but also a small character drama a bit of a departure from the bigger Hollywood films youve become known for. Khan: I was looking for something for a long time in American cinema, Hollywood cinema. I have been reaching for this, for a personal experience where I could invest myself and I could have more meat that I could get apart from myself completely and get into something which is unknown. This character had complexity and a strange unpredictability where he himself doesnt know where things are moving and is in a limbo state. There are so many interesting angles to this person. I was looking for something more personal and to redefine my involvement in a story, where my soul could entangle with this story. You want residue, you want it to last. So it had all that. And the simplicity of writing was fantastic. It was a complex situation, but I love that the way it comes out of the characters mouths is very simple. So I fell in love it with it and I shifted my schedule in India and said, Im going to do it. It worked out and I really loved it. AP: How are you doing in general? Khan: Ive seen life from a completely different angle. You sit down and you see the other side and thats fascinating. Im engaged on a journey. Irrfan Khans Twitter display picture, looked like this till sometime back. AP: Theres been a lot of speculation in the media about your condition and youve made pleas on social media not to trust the reports. But what do you want people to know about what youre going through? Khan: There are challenges which life throws at you. But I have started believing in the way this condition has tested me, really, really tested me in all aspects physical, emotional and spiritual. It has put me in a rapture state. Initially I was shaken. I didnt know. I was very, very vulnerable. But slowly, there is another way to look at things that is much more powerful and much more productive and much more healthy and I just want people to believe that nature is much more trustworthy and one must trust that. The problem with me initially was everyone was speculating whether I would be out of this disease or not. Because its not in my hand. Thats nature that will do whatever it has to do. What is in my hand, I could take care of that. And it offers so much that you feel thankful. The way it is opening your windows to look at life. I would have never reached that state even if I had done meditation for 30 years, I wouldnt have reached it. But this sudden jolt has put me into a platform where I could look at things in a completely different manner. And for that I am really thankful. It sounds strange, but they should trust nature rather than feel sad, and trust that whatever the outcome, it will be for good and it will be for the best. AP: What is your day to day like now? Are you reading scripts or planning to work at all? Khan: No, Im completely out of reading scripts. This has become a surreal experience. My days are unpredictable. I used to think my life would be like that, but I could never practice unpredictability and spontaneity. That has happened now. I dont plan. I go for breakfast and then I dont have a plan. I take things as they come. That has been really helping me a lot. I dont make plans. Im just spontaneous. And Im loving this experience. There was something missing in my life. I was feeling a little manipulated by myself, by my own mind. There was a kind of disharmony in myself. It was bothering me. And I think this is what I was missing, this spontaneity. I know because we live in a world that is packed with plans, it sounds unrealistic. How could you live your life like that? But life is so mysterious and has so much to offer, we dont really try things. And Im trying and Im loving it. Im in a really fortunate state. Irrfan Khan is undergoing treatment in London for the last couple of months. (Shivam Saxena, HT Photo) AP: Youre in London going through treatments. Is there anything you can share about that? Khan: I have had the fourth cycle of chemo. And I have to have six cycles and then we need to have a scan. After the third cycle, the scan was positive. But we need to see after the sixth scan. And then well see where it takes me. Theres no guarantee of life with anybody. My mind could always tell me to hang a kind of chip on your neck and say, I have this disease and I could die in a few months or a year or two. Or I could just avoid this conversation completely and live my life the way it offers me. And it offers so much. I admit I was walking around with blinders. I couldnt see what it offered me. AP: So there is some sort of clarity with this experience? Khan: Exactly, and clarity came like lightning. You stop your contemplation, you stop your planning, you stop the noise. You see the other aspect of it. It gives you so much. Life offers you so much. Thats why I feel like I have no other words but thanks. There are no other words, theres no other demand, theres no other prayer. Interviewed by AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr Follow @htshowbiz for more Bollywood stars Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon are ready to roll as they kick-started the shooting for their upcoming flick, Luka Chuppi. The actors shared the first look from the film on Instagram and they look truly perfect together. The film, in which the Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety star will play the role of a star reporter of a local TV channel, travels from Mathura to Gwalior to Agra. According to media reports, Kriti will play the role of Aaryans love interest in the movie. For the film, the two are required to speak in the local dialect and in the right lingo, and for that, they have already started preparing. Helmed by Laxman Utekar, the desi rom-com will hit the big screens in March 2019. Apart from Luka Chuppi, Kartik will also be seen in Hindi remake of Kannada blockbuster Kirik Party. He will also star opposite Ajay Devgn in Luv Ranjans next. Follow @htshowbiz for more Ranbir Kapoor is currently shooting for Ayan Mukherjis Brahmastra in Bulgaria. The actor, however, took a much deserved break with his co-star Amitabh Bachchan as they caught a show of Tom Cruises Mission Impossible: Fallout. At the movies .. Ranbir and I for IMPOSSIBLE Mr Tom Cruise, Amitabh captioned a photo of himself and Ranbir on Instagram. The two are seen in black sweats and sneakers as they exchanged a hug at the theatre and took their seats. According to Amitabhs blog, they were joined by Akhil, son of his co-actor from the film, Nagarjuna. A rare day off from work and the joy of being independent with near and dear to languish in side a movie theatre to see the Impossible .. and then to get together for an evening in the room .. chatter and fun poking , rumour mongering, or the lack of it , deciphering the makers of our industry, the talents to come and to stay, incidents of the past , and relating to the present and future .. and the outcome of the meetings for the present on board film, Amitabh wrote about his day. Brahmastras female lead, Alia Bhatt, also shared a picture of the Mission Impossible: Fallout title on her Instagram stories, which meant she was also watching the movie with her co-stars. She also shared a picture of herself, clicked by Ranbir earlier on Wednesday. They are also dating in real life. Brahmastra is being directed by Ayan Mukherji of Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani. It is slated for an August 15, 2019 release. Follow @htshowbiz for more Bollywood film Mulk starring Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu has become the latest victim of a clampdown by Pakistan, which has banned Indian films in the past in response to the state of its political and military ties with New Delhi. Mulk, which released on Friday in India, was reportedly banned by the Federal Censor Board of Pakistan on Thursday. It had its share of controversy before the ban as Kapoor was trolled on social media after he praised Pakistans prime minister-elect Imran Khan and was accused of piggy-backing on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party leaders speech for promoting his film. Well spoken Imran Khan. I have been saying whatever you said on all channels past two days regarding India-Pakistan! I hope you succeed in making your Mulk have good relations with my Mulk, Kapoor had tweeted. Khan even spoke about the Indian film industry, which is immensely popular in his country, as he complained that he was portrayed as a Bollywood villain by the media in the neighbouring country. Several Indian films, including those of superstar Amitabh Bachchan who is popular on both sides of the border, have been banned in the past by Pakistan after diplomatic fallouts with India. Last year, Indian blockbuster movie Raees starring Shah Rukh Khan and famous Pakistani actress Mahira Khan was banned by Islamabad for having inappropriate content. Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper, said that the films content undermines Islam, and a specific religious sect, (while also) portraying Muslims as criminals, wanted persons and terrorists. Raees, the debut film for Mahira, was banned after tension escalated between the two neighbours as Indian security forces launched a crackdown on protests in Kashmir in July 2016, following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideens Burhan Wani by security forces. Ties worsened further in September of that year when militants attacked an Indian Army base in Uri and killed 18 soldiers, a raid India blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad said it had no involvement in the attack. And in May this year, Pakistans information and broadcasting ministry asked film exhibitors not to screen Indian films two days before and two weeks after Eid. The ministry said the move was in order to revive and promote the local film industry in Pakistan, which faces stiff competition from Bollywood. Mulk, directed by Anubhav Sinha, centres around a Muslim family caught in a terror plot and becomes a pariah. Kapoor plays the familys head, who approaches a court to fight the prejudice and is represented by his daughter-in-law, played by Pannu. Pannu essays the role of a Hindu girl married into the family. We are disturbed by this prejudiced verdict and its such an irony because our film talks about this very prejudice. We urge the Pakistani Censor Board to reconsider their decision, films producer Deepal Mukut has said in a statement after the film was banned. They will realise how essential it is to the well-being of the human race across the world, Mukut added. Mulk also stars Prateik Babbar, Rajat Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana and Neena Gupta. The first reviews for the film is out and both Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu have received great reviews. Follow @htshowbiz for more Battling financial woes, Jet Airways has proposed up to 25% pay cut for employees but the proposal has been rejected by pilots and and engineers, sources said. Sources said the full-service carrier is in discussions with certain sections of employees on the salary cut proposal, which has been mooted amid efforts to save costs. Jet Airways has more than 16,000 employees. The Naresh Goyal-led airline, in which Gulf carrier Etihad holds 24% stake, has already slashed by 25% the salaries of its senior management, one of the sources told PTI in Mumbai. Senior management executives are those holding general manager post and above level positions. At a meeting held with Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, pilots made it clear that the proposed pay cut was not acceptable. Last week, Jet Airways management held a meeting with the airlines pilots union National Aviators Guild (NAG) and sought its cooperation with respect to proposed salary cuts, another source said. The management had told the pilots that they should go along with engineers and other employees by taking a 25% wage cut due to the prevailing financial health, the source added. As the union outrightly rejected the proposal, sources said the management decided to talk to the pilots separately and had called for todays meeting of all its Mumbai-based pilots. However, the pilots reiterated the position taken by the union, one of the sources said. Engineers have also rejected the salary cut proposal, they added. Queries sent to Jet Airways Deputy CEO and CFO Amit Agarwal, and an airline spokesperson on the issue did not elicit any response. Another round of meeting with pilots is likely to be held tomorrow in the national capital, the sources said. Jet Airways -- which completed 25 years of operations earlier this year -- had 16,558 permanent employees as on March 31, 2018. Besides, there were a total of 6,306 temporary /casual employees, as per the airlines annual report for 2017-18. A class 11 student was injured after being stabbed by a junior following a fight at a government school in Shahdaras Krishna Nagar area, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred in the ground floor of the school premises after morning prayers, they said. The student sustained injuries in his hands, legs and back. He has been hospitalised and is stated to be stable, they said, adding that the other student has been apprehended. What good does a toughly worded law do if it is rendered toothless on the ground? This question has roiled India since the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, on March 20, banning automatic FIRs, arrests and providing for anticipatory bail provisions. The decision immediately sparked violent protests by Dalit groups, who saw the judgment as a dilution of the only law protecting them against bias and discrimination. After months of criticism by Dalits, opposition parties , even some members of the ruling coalition, the Union Cabinet cleared a bill effectively rolling back the top courts changes, and restoring the original version of the act. The decision is unlikely to drastically change ground-level implementation of the law, which is hobbled by widespread bias against SC/ST communities. The conviction rate under the law was around 16% in 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, and was in single digits in states such as Karnataka. The difference in social standing between the accused, who are from dominant communities, and poor Dalit complainants, ensures that police investigations often collapse, and the cases dont end up in conviction. Even cases of major atrocities, such as the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre in Bihar in 1997 which killed 58 people, dont end in convictions. But in a country as diverse and complex as India, the impact of a law cannot be gauged merely with data. The importance of the SC/ST Act lies in symbolism and the notion of power and dignity it bestows on Dalits and tribals. After it was introduced in 1989, the SC/ST Act fundamentally altered the power structure between castes, especially in rural areas where upper castes have a stranglehold on police and political power. For the first time, a poor landless labourer could file a case against his landed master without getting cowed by the police and local, upper-caste muscle power. This is why the SC/ST Act bred widespread resentment among upper caste communities, who, for the first time, faced a challenge from men and women they had never considered their equal. The situation is not unlike Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises consensual same-sex acts. Activists opposing the British-era law say prejudice against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community is unlikely to vanish soon, but add that the reading down of the law is essential to beginning the process of ending discrimination. Similarly, the SC/ST Act might not always result in a conviction, but its presence is required to prevent upper-caste aggression in a country where caste power and brutality are grim realities. The United States has recently taken two major steps towards sustaining the defence relationship with India. One, the US Congress passed a new sanctions bill against Russia that allowed for a qualified exemption for India and other legacy buyers of Russian weapons. The bill now awaits White House approval. Two, the Donald Trump administration announced India would be given Strategic Trade Authorisation One (STA-1) status when it came to acquiring advanced US military equipment. This status has so far been granted only to very close US allies only 36 countries in the world and none in South Asia have this standing. The exemption from anti-Russian sanctions has still become actual law. More importantly it has yet to be tested. Even the present language requires evidence of a reduced defence relationship with Russia to be eligible for an exemption. And whether a country even deserves an exemption is left to the discretion of the White House. But the signalling from Washington indicates that the US accepts New Delhis Moscow connection. The cynical will argue all this does is help the US to sell more expensive weaponry to India. This is certainly a factor. US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, when announcing the move, noted the lack of STA-1 status for India had affected over $ 9 billion worth of US arms sales to India. However, the real import of this decision is strategic. Underlying the years of tortuous defence negotiations between New Delhi and Washington is the recognition that if India is to maintain a military edge over China that edge would come from technology. While the US is easily the world leader in defence technology, it has also surrounded this with a thicket of legal and administrative safeguards to ensure it does not get into the wrong foreign hands. India has been a victim of these rules because it is not a formal US ally. The Barack Obama administration redesignated India a major defence partner and thus a STA-2 country. But it also ruled India would have to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)before it could be promoted to STA-1. The Trump administration has now removed that requirement. There are more milestones to be passed. India needs to sign up to the US Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement, better known as Comcasa, so it can access to advanced communications and surveillance technology. Ultimately, Indo-US defence cooperation needs to move faster than the expansion of Chinese power on Indias periphery. Three men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly assaulting, abusing and chopping off a Muslim mans beard in Gurugram, here, police said. The accused were identified as Gaurav, Eklash from Uttar Pradesh and Nitin from Harayana, the police said. The incident occurred on July 31 when the accused started insulting Jaffruddin in Khandsa Mandi. Jaffruddin initially ignored the religious insults but he finally retorted. Following which, the accused persons assaulted Jaffruddin. Then they took him to a saloon and chopped his beard off, Gurgaon Police PRO Subhash Bokan told PTI. Before leaving the saloon, the accused warned Jaffruddin against contacting the police, the officer said. On the next day, Jaffruddin approached sector 37 Police Station and registered a case. A native of Haryanas Mewat, Jaffruddin had come to Gurgaon to meet his friend Ibrahim. Seventeen opposition parties have come together to make a fresh, concerted demand that voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections exercise their franchise by stamping the ballot paper, not pressing the button, according to leaders of several parties familiar with the developments. Contending that electronic voting machines (EVMs), even those with voter verifiable paper audit trial (VVPATs), would not be acceptable, the parties , led by the Congress, will first hold a joint meeting on Monday, then push a discussion on the issue in Parliament, followed by a fresh appeal to the Election Commission of India (EC) over the next week, the leaders added. ECI has maintained that EVMs are tamper proof, and that VVPATs provide an additional layer to guarantee that voting is accurately captured. It has also repeatedly urged parties to refrain from expressing doubts about their efficacy. The latest demand to scrap EVMs underlines the aggressive mood of the Opposition camp, which has over the past year often attributed the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) victories in state assembly elections to EVMs. The demand for ballot boxes has also brought an unlikely set of parties together, even those warring against each other the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Left, the Nationalist Congress Party and the ruling National Democratic Alliances (NDA) partner Shiv Sena, and the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress, among others. Among non-NDA parties, only the AIADMK, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi and the Biju Janata Dal are not supporting the demand. EVM is the next big issue for us. We want to revert to the ballot system, TMCs floor leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek OBrien announced on Thursday. This is not an issue of just one party. All like-minded parties are playing as a team to make this happen, he added. The Congress passed a resolution in the plenary session in which it expressed preference for ballot papers because of the concerns about the EVMs. It is imperative to ensure full faith in the electoral process, said the partys spokesperson Rajeev Gowda. In the political resolution adopted at its 84th plenary session this March, the Congress urged EC to revert to ballot papers instead of EVMs, which have come under scrutiny following allegations of tampering. There are apprehensions among the political parties and people over the misuse of EVMs to manipulate the outcome contrary to the popular verdict. To ensure the credibility of the electoral process, EC should revert to the old practice of paper ballot, as most major democracies have done, it said. A senior Congress leader, who asked not to be named, said a a broad understanding has already been reached between different opposition parties on what exactly the united group will demand from the government and EC. The demand will specifically focus on reverting to the ballot, and relaying to EC that VVPAT is not a sufficient guarantor for transparency. The opposition parties will meet on Monday to chalk out the strategy and demand a debate in the House, followed by a meeting with the election commissioner. Aam Admi Party leader Sanjay Singh has been asked to draft the points of contention with the help of TMC MP Subrata Bakshi. These two leaders have in-depth knowledge of the problems of EVMs, said an opposition leader. The AAP was among the first parties to cast doubts about EVMs after the Punjab Assembly elections of 2017. A TMC leader said that during her recent trip to Delhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee told each and every opposition leader she met to raise the demand for ballots in the upcoming election. Earlier, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray too demanded that the 2019 Lok Sabha election be conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs. In July 2017, during an all-party meeting, the election commission said that all future elections would be conducted with EVMs coupled with VVPATs. Chief election commissioner OP Rawat has made public statements ruling out reverting to ballot papers in elections, asserting that the new EVMs have been designed with more stringent checks to rule out tampering or manipulation. An EC official, who asked not to be named, said the body has also communicated to the political parties to refrain from raising doubts about the efficacy and safety of EVMs and VVPAT machines when the poll outcome is different from what they expect. Rajya Sabha MP and head of BJPs media cell Anil Baluni said opposition parties only complain about EVMs when they lose elections. They do not make a hue and cry when they win an election conducted through EVMs. These parties did not appear before the election commission when it invited them to appear before it and prove that EVMs can be tampered with. The problem, actually, is not with the EVM but with the intention of these parties. Experts suggested that EC should work towards increasing voter confidence in EVMs. EC needs to be more proactive in increasing voter confidence. There is no problem with the machines, but there may be some concerns over the process, so EC must address those, said Jagdeep Chhokar of the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reform. There were some concerns about the functioning of the VVPats in the recent by polls; so EC should improve on the technology, he added. Two persons were killed and five others were critically injured after unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire in a village in Jalaun district, about 100 km from here early Wednesday, police said. Most of the victims were sleeping outside their houses in Sandi village when three criminals started shooting randomly in an area of around 500 metres at around 2:30 am. The police are baffled as the investigation so far has failed to find a reason which could have led to the shootings. It is not clear who the criminals were and why they fired randomly at the people, said Surendra Tiwari, additional superintendent of police, Jalaun. Five police teams assisted by the surveillance cell and Special Operation Group are working on the case. The criminals were apparently well versed with the geography of the Sandi village and cleverly avoided two lanes where CCTV cameras were installed, said police. One of the injured, Bala Prasad, 60, told the police that the criminals shot him after he said Ram Ram to them. Prasad told police that he was woken up by the sound of some men running around. He saw three men and greeted them traditionally. In return, he was shot at. Two bullets hit him in the abdomen and in a leg. Those dead have been identified as Mohammad Azad (61) and Jai Devi (55). Azad was shot while he was sleeping and Jai Devi was shot when she was going to attend natures call, the police said. Zeeshan (45) and Mahendra Pal (32) were shot outside their houses. Both of them have been rushed to a hospital in Kanpur in critical condition. The police said the villagers were not able to explain the shooting or tell anything about the shooters. There is no motive known to us as of now, said Tiwari. The investigators believe the criminal may have been in the village for a crime and felt threatened by those they saw. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been the Centres fiercest critic over the updated Assam citizen list, which leaves out names of nearly 40 lakh people and plans to crackdown on illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But 13 years ago in 2005, the Trinamool chief took an entirely opposite stand over the same issue. Mamata Banerjee, who said the Centres National Registry of Citizens (NRC) move will lead to a civil war and bloodbath, had back then said in Lok sabha that infiltration into Bengal has become a disaster and Bangladesh nationals were on the voting list. Banerjee, an opposition lawmaker then, wanted a discussion on a very serious matter and had come with two sets of papers on illegal immigration from Bangladesh. When denied debate by then Lok Sabha deputy speaker Charanjeet Singh Atwal, who was presiding the House, she rushed to the well and started crying, tore and threw papers at him as stunned MPs watched. Mamata also alleged that the ruling CPI-M were benefiting from illegal Bangladeshis as they have been a vote bank for the Left party. She also resigned from her Lok Sabha seat. The resignation, however, was rejected because, according to Atwal it was not submitted in proper form. The notice given by Banerjee for an adjournment motion on the issue was disallowed by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee earlier but she insisted on raising it despite being repeatedly told by Atwal, who was in the chair, that the notice of your motion has already been disallowed by the Speaker. I cannot do anything about it. Amid dramatic protest by Mamata Banerjee over the NRC, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted the incident from 2005. The West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee has stated in the LS on 4.8..2005: "The infiltration in Bengal has become a disaster now... I have both the Bangladeshi & the Indian voters list. This is a very serious matter. I would like to know when would it be discussed in the House?" Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) August 1, 2018 Jaitley, who wrote a blog attacking the Congress and Mamata Banerjee for criticising NRC, stressed on the change in the stance on the political parties. Can Indias sovereignty be decided by such fickle minds and fragile hands? Mr Jaitley said in a Facebook post. The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) - an exercise to identify illegal immigrants from Bangladesh - has triggered a massive political controversy with opposition parties including Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress accusing the BJP of trying to drive out people for political reasons. Mamata Banerjee met with top opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday over NRC and said the united opposition will stop the BJP in 2019 elections. On Assam citizen list, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it is a draft and no coercive action would be taken against people whose names were excluded. Tamil Nadus ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) legislator AK Bose, 69, died of heart attack at a hospital in Madurai Thursday. The three-time MLA had been unwell for about two years. The MLAs passing away came as chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami-led governments majority in the state assembly is at stake. The Madras high court is hearing a petition against the disqualification of 18 MLAs of a separate AIADMK faction. In case the court set asides the speakers decision, the government will be short of a simple majority in the 234-member state assembly. AIADMK strength in the assembly has been reduced to 116 after Boses death. Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has 89 members. Other parties have 11. The 18 MLAs support rebel TTV Dhinakaran. The state assemblys strength was reduced to 233 after Jayalalithaas death. The speaker disqualified 18, reducing the House strength to 215 with the required majority now being 108. Boses Thiruparankundram constituency will go to the by-election for the second time in two years. His predecessor, S M Seenivel, had died two days after he was elected in May 2016 and before he could take the oath. The current AIADMK government is surviving on a wafer thin margin and the death of a loyalist is certainly a setback, said political analyst Tharasu Shyam. Further, five MLAs (Karunas, Thamimun Ansari, U Thaniyarasu, Aranthangi Rathinasabapathy and A Prabhu) are often seen with rebel leader Dhinakaran, and there is a threat to the longevity of the government. Soft spoken Bose was one of the fence sitters when Jayalalithaas close confidantes, V K Sasikala and her nephew Dhinakaran, were expelled from the party. Bose later declared his loyalty for the Palaniswami government. Palaniswami and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam expressed their condolences in a statement. They called him a loyal Jayalalithaa supporter. Bose started his political career in 1972. He was a member of AIADMKs youth wing, and served as the partys Madurai urban district secretary. He was elected MLA in 2006, 2011 and 2016. Bose is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. Separately, AIADMK rebel leader Dhinakaran said his faction was ready to ally with the Congress provided it walks out of arch rival DMK alliance. Dhinakaran had earlier ruled out a tie-up with Bharatiya Janata Party. A day after the technical committee, probing the damages caused to the bungalow vacated by Akhilesh Yadav gave its report, the state government on Thursday said it will initiate legal action against the former chief minister for flouting rules. In its 266-page report, the committee has estimated damage to the tune of Rs 5.84 lakh, which includes floor, brickworks, plaster, paint and sanitary fixtures. The report said Yadav made illegal constructions in the guest house, security quarter and waiting room. He had spent Rs 4.67 crore on the illegal construction. The report submitted by the five-member committee states that Yadav not only caused damage to the government bungalow but also carried out illegal construction inside it. He carried out extra construction without taking permission of the estate department. Legal action will be taken against him for flouting the rules, said state government spokesperson and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh. Singh said that after the media highlighted the damages in the bungalow, Yadav levelled charges against the state government. He tried to make it a political issue but now the report of the committee has made it clear that Yadav damaged the bungalow. Now he should respond to the probe report, said the minister. A state government officer said the estate department will issue notice to Yadav for the recovery of the damage to the government bungalow. Singh said governor Ram Naik had shot off a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath to order a probe against Yadav for damaging the government bungalow. He vacated the bungalow on June 8 after the Supreme Court turned the allotment void. The bungalow was thrown open to the media. The photographs and video clips of the damaged bungalow were circulated on social media. Yadav termed it as a deliberate attempt to tarnish his image. SP spokesperson Sunil Sajan said the BJP government is trying to divert attention of the people from its failure and lawlessness in the state. The report was concocted on the direction of BJP leaders, he said. The Supreme Court on May 7, 2018 struck down the amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1981 to provide for allotment of government residence to former chief ministers for lifetime. Former CMs, including Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rajnath Singh, Kalyan Singh, Akhilesh Yadav and ND Tiwari vacated the government bungalows following the Supreme Court order. The CBI has taken over the probe into the killing of a 12-year-old boy as part of the Supreme Court-mandated investigation into fake encounters in Manipur and booked an army officer in the case. So far the agency has registered 29 FIRs in connection with fake encounters in Manipur. Major Vijay Singh Balhara was with the Assam Rifles at the time of the encounter, said CBI. The family of Azad said the boy, a student of class VII, had no criminal antecedents and he was allegedly picked up from his home before being killed on March 4, 2009. HT has seen the FIR registered by the CBI. The case was initially registered by the Manipur police. Now the CBI has been asked to take over the probe. Besides Major Balhara, seven other security personnel too have been named as accused in the case. The case was reviewed by a Supreme Court- appointed commission led by retired apex court judge Santosh Hegde which termed it as a fake encounter. The army officer too had deposed before the commission. On July 30, the Supreme Court had asked CBI director Alok Verma to appear in person and explain as to why the probe into Manipur encounter cases have a slow pace. The director has been called again by the top court on August 20 to tell the court on progress made by the agency in probe into the encounter cases. Among the three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that go to the polls later this year, Rajasthan holds the biggest promise for the Congress. The state has been ruled by the BJP and the Congress alternatively since 1993. The Congress will be hoping for a continuation of this trend. This cycle notwithstanding, an HT analysis has found another interesting pattern which has emerged in the states politics during this period. Successive elections have made the Congresss performance in terms of seats more volatile in the state, while the BJP has gained more stability. This is borne out by looking at two statistics of volatility: the ratio of change in seat share and change in vote share between two elections, and the number of seats retained by the two parties in the next election. Electoral predictions in a first-pastthe-post system are always tricky due to the difficulty of converting vote shares into seat shares. Similar vote share levels can lead to different seat shares due to factors such as pre-poll alliances and number of effective political competitors in an election. However, it is to be expected that an electoral victory or loss in the state will normally lead to an increase or decrease in both seat share and vote share figures for a party. The smaller the ratio of change in seat share and change in vote share between two elections, the more stable a partys political performance is. This is because a lower ratio shows that change in vote share has a muted impact on its seat share. This ratio has been increasing for the Congress, while it has been coming down for both the BJP and all other political parties taken together. To be sure, this measure of volatility doesnt tell us about the likelihood of victory or loss. A large value only tells us that a small increase or decrease in vote share can make a big increase or decrease in seat share. Another way to test the volatility of a partys performance is by looking at its ability to retain a constituency from one election to the next one. In Rajasthan, this number has consistently increased for the BJP, and decreased for the Congress between 1993 and 2013. For this analysis, constituencies with the same names before and after the delimitation between 2003 and 2008 elections were assumed to be the same. These figures also find a reflection in the seat share to vote share ratio of the BJP and the Congress in successive elections. Seat share to vote share ratio measures a partys efficacy in converting popular support into seats. This figure has improved for the BJP in both cases: when it has won elections as well as lost them. This means that the BJP has been successful in making its victories bigger for a given vote share, while it has been able to cut down its losses in terms of seats even when it has lost power. For the Congress, the opposite holds true. What explains these developments? The BJPs growing social and geographical reach in the state explains the rise in volatility in the performance of the Congress, said Sanjay Lodha, professor of political science at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur. The BJP has expanded its support among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and lower Other Backward Classes, which used to traditionally support the Congress, Lodha said. Geographically too, the BJP has spread beyond large urban centres, which used to be its primary area of influence, he added. Does this mean that the Congress is likely to do badly in the next elections? Not necessarily. Given its old roots, the party still has formidable support across the state. This increases the likelihood of the Congress winning seats from all regions of the state in case there is a favourable environment for it. In fact, a simple statistical analysis shows that previous Congress victories in Rajasthan have seen a more uniform performance by the party, than the BJPs showing in case of a BJP victory. We compare standard deviation of the vote share of the Congress and the BJP across all assembly constituencies to check this. A higher value of standard deviation means that a partys performance in terms of vote shares has more variation than its average vote share in the state. This increases the likelihood that its seats will not be spread uniformly across the state. The fact that the BJP is also facing organisational and caste arithmetic troubles in the state (see https:// bit.ly/2lCC472 for details), might further complicate its problems and give an edge to the Congress. What our analysis shows, however, is that poll predictions about Rajasthan are likely to be even more hazardous than they usually are. Abhishek Jha is a Hindustan TimesMint How India Lives Data Journalism Fellow On July 9th, Michael Ondaatje was awarded the prestigious Golden Man Booker Prize for his international bestseller, The English Patient, voted the readers favourite winner in 50 years. Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka of Dutch-Tamil-Sinhalese descent, and moved to England as a twelve-year-old before settling in Canada eight years later. His novel, written in 1992, moves between Egypt, Italy, India, Canada and England and marked a turning point for Canadian literature. Not only was it the first Canadian book ever to win the Booker Prize, but by instantly becoming an international bestseller it arguably paved the way for fellow migrant/multicultural Canadian writers on the international scene. Its seemingly never-ending success underlines our contemporary and apparently unwavering fascination with migrant writing since the 1980s. Given the current context of global migration, the related refugee crises and the fact that 3.3% of the worlds population currently lives outside the country of their birth, Ondaatjes achievement is a useful opportunity to explore the importance of immigrant writing in Canadian literature. Michael Ondaatje speaks for the Tulane Great Writer Series presented by the Creative Writing Fund of the Department of English. Dixon Hall; October 25, 2010. Wikimedia Commons In recent years, much attention has been given to migrant literature from the United States. You may have come across some critically-acclaimed and award-winning migrant bestsellers such as Imbolo Mbues Behold the Dreamers (2016), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Americanah (2013), Junot Diazs The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), Mohsin Hamids The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) or Khaled Hosseinis The Kite Runner (2003). Experiences of migration have proven to be creatively inspiring for writers and lucrative for publishers, and fiction writers from both migrant backgrounds and others were encouraged to give the genre a try. There is some debate over the definition of migrant literature, and many writers are uncomfortable with the label, but for the sake of clarity I will define it as the literature produced by first- or second-generation migrant writers. Odds are, whether in conversation, in the media or online, migrant literature almost always refers to books produced in the English language and on U.S territory, with only a few exceptions. The United States are, after all, the birthplace of the American Dream, the nation of immigrants, the melting pot take your pick. Map of French Canada by Pierre Du Val, 1653. Maps 70615.(8.) But Canada is also a settler colony; in fact it is the country which takes in the largest number of immigrants yearly: since 2001 it has welcomed an average 220,000 to 260,000 immigrants per year, and as a result more than one person in five is foreign-born. Inevitably, each newcomer brings with them a suitcase full of stories, and migrant literature is bound to flourish in such a context. Canadas immigration patterns have changed considerably in the past hundred years, and so has its literature. The post-war period was especially important as the borders were opened to increase the workforce and expand Canadas growing economy. In 1966, 87% of the newcomers were European, and many others were Americans escaping the Vietnam War. But by 1970, following a change in immigration law intended to end discriminatory policies against non-Western immigrants, 50% of new immigrants came from Third World countries. They were either economic migrants (like Ondaatje for example) or people fleeing repressive dictatorships and wars. As the years went by, the latter group included Asian Ugandans (a minority expelled after Uganda gained independence from colonial rule); Haitians fleeing the repressive Duvalier regime; Chileans fleeing Pinochets military dictatorship; people from Hong Kong worried about their freedom in the run-up to the transfer to Chinese rule; Salvadorians escaping their civil war; and South-East Asians from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos seeking refuge from the Vietnam war. This changed the Canadian demographic make-up significantly and led to a new policy-making paradigm: multiculturalism. Contrary to the American "melting pot", where newcomers are expected to merge into the American Way of Life through assimilation policies, Canadian multiculturalism is often compared to a mosaic where different cultures live alongside each other, retaining their specificities inside a single country. While this paradigm has been widely criticized both by migrant and non-migrant Canadians, it has nonetheless played a substantial role in shaping Canadian federal government policies and influencing the publishing industry. Canadian Mosaic Wall, 2013, photo by Tim Van Horn. Wikimedia Commons. President Pierre Trudeau implemented multiculturalism as a policy in 1971 and appointed a minister specifically in charge of multiculturalism and launching cultural initiatives. Once such instance was the Writing and Publication Program. Set up in 1977, its aim was to encourage writing and publishing by migrant minorities in any language and to bring the literary establishment to consider such writing part of mainstream Canadian literature. This program provided grants for writing, translation, conferences and research. Meanwhile, French-language cultural periodicals promoting migrant writing offered a parallel channel for writers and magazines. Derives, first issue X.0958/169 Derives, final issue X.0958/169 Derives ran from 1975 to 1987 and is accessible in the BLs collections. The archives of the multilingual Vice Versa (1983-1996) are all available in pdf form on its website. And the British Library is actively seeking to add the feminist magazine La Parole Meteque (1987-1990), which gave a voice to migrant women at a time when they were generally overlooked, to its holdings. While migrant writing (like immigration) was nothing new in the 1980s and subsequently, critics from Quebec often point to this period as the beginning of critical engagement with Canadian migrant/multicultural literature. - Laura Gallon Laura Gallon is a PhD placement student at the British Library where she is working on a project assessing holdings of migrant narratives in the North American collections. She is in the second year of her PhD at the University of Sussex which is looking at contemporary American short fiction by immigrant writers. Her placement is supported by the Eccles Centre for American Studies. References/Further reading Carriere, Marie and Catherine Khordoc. For Better or For Worse: Revisiting Ecriture Migrante in Quebec. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature, edited by Cynthia Sugars, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 621-638. Jaggi, Maya. Michael Oondatje: The Soul of a Migrant. The Guardian, 29/04/2000. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/apr/29/fiction.features Kamboureli, Smaro. Scandalous Bodies: Diasporic Literature in English Canada. Oxford University Press, 2000. Kamboureli, Smaro (ed.). Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature. Oxford University Press, 1996. Kenyeres, Janos. Aspects of Canadian Multiculturalism: History, Policy, Theory and Impact. Revue dEtudes Canadiennes en Europe Centrale, vol. 9, 2014, pp. 27-44. Krauss, Clifford. For Canadas Top Novelists, Being Born Abroad Helps. The New York Times, 05/11/2002. Loschnigg, Maria and Martin Loschnigg (eds.). Migration and Fiction: Narratives of Migration in Contemporary Canadian Literature. Universitatsverlag Winter Heidelberg, 2009. Morgenstern-Clarren, Rachel. The Vagaries of Exile: Migrant Literature From Quebec. Words Without Borders, October 2017. https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/october-2017-quebec-the-vagaries-of-exile-migrant-literature-from-quebec Simon, Sherry and David Leahy. La Recherche au Quebec Portant sur lEcriture Ethnique. Ethnicity and Culture in Canada: The Research Landscape, edited by J.W. Berry and J.A. Laponce, University of Toronto Press, 1994, pp. 387-409. Troper, Harold. Immigration in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 09/19/2017. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/immigration/ Two DMK members have landed in trouble over biryani. The party general secretary Anbazhagan on Wednesday ordered suspension of youth wing secretary Yuvraj and Diwekar from the primary membership of the party temporarily after a video went viral featuring the two beating up a restaurant staff in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, over his refusal to serve biryani free. They attacked staff for not giving them free briyani. They have been suspended over their unruly behaviour, the DMK statement read. Party working president MK Stalin warned such kind of indiscipline will not be tolerated. Strong action will be taken against anyone bringing disrepute to the party, he said in a tweet. The incident comes at a time when the party president M Karunanidhi is unwell and in hospital. On July 28, Yuvraj and others went to Salem RR Anbu Biryani restaurant at Virugabakkam. Soon a scuffle broke out after the staff informed them that the shop has been closed. In the CCTV footage, Yuvraj is seen having an argument with the hotel cashier, who is seen sitting behind the counter. Soon he starts slapping the cashier and a waiter who tries to intervene. Two people have reportedly been hospitalised with injuries, while a case has been registered and police are on the lookout for the accused. (With agency inputs) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) considers the final draft of the National Register of Citizens a promise fulfilled, but is wary about four challenges it may throw up, two senior leaders of the party said. The draft, which was unveiled on Monday, left out four million applicants in Assam who had sought inclusion in the NRC. The draft is an attempt to identify and deport illegal immigrants from the northeastern state. The BJP is excited that the NRC saw the light of day under its government in Assam and Delhi and it showcased the partys commitment to issues of national security, a senior office bearer of the party said on condition of anonymity. The BJP has its share of worries too. First, the four million residents whose names have excluded from the draft include about one million Hindus. The BJP would want them to be included through appeal, the second leader, also a senior union minister, said, requesting anonymity. This country was divided in 1947 in the name of religion. India is the only homeland of Hindus in the entire world, the minister said. We cannot just shut the doors on them like this. A Bill to amend existing law to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship is pending Parliamentary approval. Without such a provision, the minister said, a large number of Hindus face the prospect of being excluded if they fail to prove citizenship. This has drawn opposition from within Assam itself. The second concern is more political and electoral. Most of these Hindus, who have been left out of the draft NRC, are settled in Lower Assam and the Barak valley and their exclusion will increase Muslim dominance in the parliamentary and assembly seats of this region; Muslims traditionally prefer to vote against the BJP. Dynamics of at least six Lok Sabha seats and 46 assembly segments of these two regions will be affected, the first leader said. We are conscious of this fact, and there are concerns, both in Guwahati and in Delhi. A third leader said the NRC could have a psychological impact on the Bengali-speaking population and Muslims also in West Bengal, a state where the BJP is seeking to build a big footprint. There has been a discussion within the ruling dispensation about the changing demographic profile of the bordering states of Bengal, and how the minority population in nearly 18 districts of Bengal ranges between 25% and over 50%. This limits the BJPs room to expand in these districts, but if a sense is conveyed as West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is seeking to do that even Bengali-speaking Hindus have been excluded, it could cause trouble for the BJP. Tripura is another state where the dominant voting bloc is composed of Bengali-speaking Hindus. The third concern within the BJP is that while it has showcased NRC as an achievement to the nation, its next phase is going to be troublesome, both administratively and politically. Deporting infiltrators from Bangladesh is BJPs demand since 1980. It is a big achievement that it was done under a BJP government, the first leader said. Next steps are crucial. What do we do with infiltrators once having identified them? Many of them are settled in India for 30-40 years. The relief for the BJP is that it may not have to cross that bridge in the immediate future. And here lies the fourth concern for the party. It is going to be a long haul, the second leader said. To accept claims of four million people between August 30 and September 28, examine them, and amend the register by December is going to be difficult, the first leader said. How the issue will pan out in Assam by then, we do not know. The government is planning to clear the appointment of two high court chief justices, Indira Banerjee and Vineet Sharan, to the Supreme Court in the coming week, but not that of Justice KM Joseph , a top government functionary said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The SC collegium recommended the two new names and sent its recommendation again on Joseph to the law ministry on July 16. A second government functionary, while confirming the development, said the law ministry had moved the file of the two judges to the Prime Ministers Office for final clearance. While Justice Banerjee heads the Madras HC, Justice Sharan is the CJ of the Orissa HC. Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad declined to comment. The collegium, a body of the SCs top five judges headed by the Chief Justice of India that appoints judges to the higher judiciary, first recommended justice Josephs elevation to the top court (he is currently chief justice of the Uttarakhand high court ) in January. In April, law minister Prasad wrote to chief justice of India Dipak Misra asking for reconsideration of the decision (communicated in January) to appoint Justice Joseph. The law minister said Justice Joseph was at No. 42 in the all India seniority list of HC judges and there was already a judge from his parent HC (Kerala) in the SC. It would also not be fair and justified to other more senior, suitable and deserving Chief Justices and senior judges of various high courts if Josephs name goes through, Prasad said at that time. The SC and the government have been sparring over appointments ever since the apex court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) bill in 2015 that said all appointments to the higher judiciary would be made by the NJAC. The government had passed the bill in 2014. Subsequently, the two sides decided to agree to a Memorandum of Procedure or MoP on judicial appointments that would address gaps in the collegium system. Not much has progressed on this front. On July 16, the collegium rejected the ministers contention and reiterated its January decision. We have carefully considered the observations made by the Law Minister in his letters dated 26th April, 2018 and 30th April, 2018 addressed to the Chief Justice of India referring back, for reconsideration, the recommendation made by us on 10th January, 2018 for appointment of Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, as Judge of the Supreme Court, the five-judge body wrote to the law ministry. The collegium said the reiteration was being made since the two letters pointed out nothing adverse regarding Justice Josephs suitability for the SC. The governments plan is to delay Justice Josephs appointment to the SC. After studying the so-called Three Judges Cases three of the Supreme Courts own judgements on appointments, laying down guidelines for appointments to the higher judiciary the ministry has concluded the file cannot be referred back to the collegium and the appointment is inevitable, the first functionary said. With no timeline stipulated for making the appointment, the government is in no hurry to clear his file, this person added. The government came under flak in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday for sending back justice Josephs name to the collegium. Congress leader in the House, Mallikarjun Kharge, charged the government with playing favourites. Once the name has been reiterated, the file is still lying with them. Whomsoever you like, you support. Whoever you dont like, you oppose, he said. Is it a sin if two judges in the SC speak the same mother tongue or belong to the same state, Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker A Sampath asked while the House was discussing an amendment bill on commercial courts. Prasad defended the governments decision, saying it is was his duty to express his concern if while making an appointment to the Supreme Court, a high court is being ignored. On October 30, 2008, serial bombings carried out by the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) at Guwahati, Barpeta Road, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar in Assam killed 81 people and injured over 400 others. The same evening, Aabhijeet Sharma, president of Assam Public Works (APW), a Guwahati-based NGO, met Pradip Kumar Bhuyan and his wife Bonti Bhuyan, an elderly couple, in Guwahati to discuss the situation in the state. We all cried at the happenings in Assam and decided to do something. That meeting was the genesis of the fight against illegal immigrants, said Sharma. In July 2009, the Supreme Court accepted a petition filed by APW which stated that 41 lakh illegal migrants had been included in the voters list of 2006 and sought directions to strike their names from electoral rolls. Updating the NRC of 1951 to weed out illegal immigrants was part of the Assam Accord signed in 1985 after a six year agitation against foreigners. But due to vote bank politics successive governments didnt do anything in this regard, said Sharma. In 2013, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to start work on updating the NRC. It set the ball rolling and on Monday the complete updated draft NRC was released. Of the 3.29 crore applicants in the state, 2.89 crore were included in the list and 40 lakhs left out. Not many within Assam know that the petition that started the NRC updating process was drafted by Pradip Kumar Bhuyan, an engineer who passed out of from the IIT-Kharagpur in 1956. When we contacted Arvind Kumar Sharma, an advocate in Delhi, to represent us, he was surprised at how well the petition had been drafted. He wanted to know if a lawyer had prepared it, said Sharma. Senior journalist Mrinal Talukdar who has been covering the NRC issue for many years and taking it up as the subject for his next book also recalled contribution of the Bhuyan couple. I have seen how they have contributed their time, money and effort towards finding a solution to the long pending foreigners issue in Assam. They realized the battle could be won only by going to court and not through agitations. People of Assam should realize their contribution, he said. While Sharma, a 44-year-businessman, became the public face of the fight for updating NRC and kept shuttling between Guwahati and New Delhi for hearings of the petition. The media-shy Bhuyan couple stayed in the background. Eighty three-year old Pradip Bhuyan is an industrialist, academician and crusader while his wife Bonti (76) is one of the main trustees of one of the best private schools in the northeast region. It would be wrong to quantify the amounts they spent on the NRC legal battle. But one can easily calculate the costs of pursuing a case in SC for nearly 10 years that involves travel, stay in Delhi and other legal costs, Talukdar said. Despite repeated attempts both Pradip Bhuyan and his wife Bonti refused to talk and give their views. They are extremely private people. Bonti borma (elder mother) is scolding me for revealing their roles in our fight. I tell her, its our guru dakshina (repayment to teacher/guide) to them, said Sharma. Besides Sharma, who runs a housekeeping and catering company, several other people are involved in the legal battle for NRC. They all contribute four days of their time every month to carry forward the work. Illegal immigrants have flooded Assam. Publication of the complete draft is only a step in the process. We want names of all foreigners removed from electoral rolls. I want my 13-year-old daughter to live in a safe Assam without fear of foreigners, said Sharma. Meanwhile, the legal fight for NRC continues. On August 16, the Centre will submit to the apex court modalities for submission of claims by those left out of the complete NRC draft. Several other NRC related petitions are also pending in Supreme Court. Bengaluru The State Election Commission announced on Thursday that elections to 105 urban local bodies will be held on August 29, leading to questions if the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition governments alliance will continuing for the contest. In 2013, these polls were held before the state assembly elections and proved to be a pointer to the eventual sweep by the Congress in the state. This time around, though, the polls will be held over two phases, as the term of 102 of the 207 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) is yet to near completion. A total of 2,574 wards or seats will be up for grabs, and a majority of them are located in the northern regions of the state. As many as 70 of the 105 ULBs are in northern Karnataka, where protests are on to press the demand for a separate state. While the bandh called by some northern Karnataka groups found little resonance in the region, the protests against the state government for its alleged neglect of the region in the state Cabinet and in the Budget presented by chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on July 5, have not abated. Govind Karajol, Bharatiya Janata Partys state vice-president, said his partys aim would be to highlight the injustice meted out to the northern region of the state by the Kumaraswamy-led government. While the contest in that area is a direct one between us and the Congress, because the JD(S) does not exist in those areas, we will highlight Congresss failure to ensure that the northern region was allocated more funds despite being a coalition partner, he said. According to Karajol, the BJP was best placed to corner most of the seats as its organisation was still very strong, having ensured that the party won 104 of the 224 assembly seats in the state. Our organisation is very strong and the misrule of the current government is very obvious. Hence, it is almost certain that the people will vote predominantly for us rather than the coalition, he added. With Lok Sabha polls next year, the coalition partners can ill afford a breakdown in their alliance. However, the Congress and JD(S) are yet to come to a decision on whether they want to contest the polls as an alliance or individually, as they had done when they had an alliance between 2004 and 2006. Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao said while a decision to contest the Lok Sabha polls together had been reached there was no decision yet on the ULB polls. Our coordination committee will meet soon and we will come to a decision on this matter, he said. Danish Ali, Secretary General of the JD(S), too, said the parties had not reached any decision on this matter. We will reach a consensus based on our discussions, which will happen shortly, he said. Days after two eminent journalists of a TV channel quit their jobs, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday alleged the Modi government was behind their resignation and that the Centre was killing independent media in the country. In a tweet, Kejriwal said: Free media is life-line of democracy. But Modi government is hell-bent to kill independent media. The resignation of two eminent TV journalists from ABP News in two days is another proof. Media should rise now, otherwise it will be too late. Within two days, ABPs editorial head Milind Khandekar and anchor Punya Prasun Bajpai have resigned from the channel and the ABPs flagship show, Masterstroke is taken off. In one of its shows, it had covered Prime Minister Narendra Modis interaction with a Chhattisgarh woman who claimed her agricultural income had doubled after she switched from paddy to sitafal farming. A report broadcast by Masterstroke later interviewed the same woman, who claimed that officials from Delhi had tutored her before her interaction with the Prime Minister to falsely claim that her income had doubled. As the news spread widely on Twitter, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore slammed the media organisation and questioned its journalistic ethics. Days later, viewers complained that they were facing difficulties in watching the programme because of disturbance and blackouts. The Lok Sabha on Thursday unanimously passed a key bill to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The House passed with over two-third majority the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017, superseding the amendments adopted by the Rajya Sabha. All the 406 members present in the House voted in favour of the bill after nearly a five-hour-long debate in which 32 MPs, majority of them from the BJP, took part. The bill seeks to bring the NCBC on par with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. The passage comes a day after the Union cabinet approved a bill to amend the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to restore the original provisions of the law. The move followed widespread protests by Dalits groups, opposition parties and the ruling BJPs own allies over the watering down of some of its provisions. Home minister Rajnath Singh said the bill will be taken up for consideration and passage in the ongoing session itself. Both the bills are seen as a push by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to consolidate its support among these communities ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present during the voting, congratulated social justice and empowerment minister Thaawarchand Gehlot for successfully piloting the bill. The Lok Sabha had on April 10, 2017, passed the legislation and sent it to the Rajya Sabha. However, the Rajya Sabha passed the bill on July 31, 2017, after incorporating the amendments moved by the Opposition and returned it to the Lok Sabha for ratification. Gehlot said the rules will be framed in a way that one of the members of the commission is a woman. The government was committed to the uplift of the downtrodden and backward classes of the society, he said. Giving details, Gehlot said a committee under Justice G Rohini had been set up to examine sub-categorisation of OBCs. The minister asserted that states will have their own list of OBC and can incorporate any caste into the OBC list. However, he added that states will have to approach the Centre for inclusion in the central list. Taking a dig at the Congress, Gehlot said its members had supported the bill in the Lok Sabha last year but had changed their position in the Rajya Sabha. Congress members in the Rajya Sabha moved an amendment to clause 3 of the bill seeking to provide for appointment of all the five members of the commission from the OBC community, including a woman and a person from the minority community. Gehlot said the suggestion for religion-based reservation in the composition of the commission was unconstitutional. Once the OBC commission gets constitutional status, he said 80% of the demands of members will be met. He said the Modi government was trying to bring back reservation in Jamia Milia Islamia varsity and also the Aligarh Muslim University. Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan questioned Congress president Rahul Gandhis silence on the dilution in the provisions of SC/ ST Atrocities Act, which was countered by the opposition members. Tamradhwaj Sahu of the Congress dismissed suggestions that his party opposed the bill. He questioned the delay in bringing the bill, arguing that it will take time to implement the proposed legislation. Are you doing this keeping election in mind? asked Sahu. The amendments moved by Biju Janata Dals Bhratruhari Mahtab, were rejected by 302 voting against it and 84 in favour. NK Premchandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party claimed this was the first time in the legislative history that the Lok Sabha is amending an amended bill passed by the Rajya Sabha. Some members supported creamy layer but others opposed it. Major changes in the external affairs ministry, including top ambassadorial postings, are on the cards, people familiar with the developments said. D Bala Venkatesh Varma, a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is set to become Indias envoy to Russia. He will replace Pankaj Saran, who has been appointed as a deputy national security adviser. Ruchi Ghanashyam, secretary (west) at the headquarters and a 1982 batch officer, is likely to be next Indian high commissioner to the UK in place of Y K Sinha. Varma is a Russian speaker and has served the Indian embassy in Moscow as third secretary, second secretary as well as counselor (political). An expert on disarmament issues, Varma was the first recipient in 2010 of the SK Singh Award for Excellence in the IFS for the role he played in civil nuclear deals India has signed with other countries. Sanjay Verma, a 1990 batch officer, is set to become Indias next envoy to Spain in place of Bala Venkatesh Varma. The people familiar with the developments said Indian envoy in Beijing, Gautam Bambawale, who is retiring soon, could get an extension. The 1984 batch officer is a Mandarin speaker with long experience in dealing with China at a time when the reset in the ties is working as per the script. These factors could work in Bambawales favour. He served in Hong Kong and Beijing between 1985 and 1991. Bambawale then served as deputy chief of mission, besides heading East Asia desk in the ministry. He also served as envoy to Bhutan. Indias ambassador and permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva Amandeep Gill, a 1992 batch IFS officer, is taking a break. Gill is joining a United Nations task force on digital cooperation as an executive director. The task force has been set up for a safe and inclusive digital future of the world. But it is unclear whether the vacancy will be filled as Gill will be away only for a year. The MEA has internally advertised for the post, the people said. The extended term of Indias envoy to Washington, Navtej Sarna, will end in December. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a 1984 batch officer and envoy in Bangladesh, could be one of the main choices for Washington. Shringla has won much acclaim for his deft handling of ties with Dhaka. He has vast experience in handling various diplomatic issues in his 33-year-old service. Shringla will be busy ahead of crucial elections in Bangladesh as Prime Minister Narendra Modi attaches high-level importance to the ties with Dhaka. The permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, is another senior diplomat likely to get a big posting. Vijaya Singh Thakur, a 1985 batch officer, will take over as secretary (East) next month following the retirement of incumbent Preeti Saran. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A mob of villagers, allegedly in an inebriated condition stormed a police station in Andhra Pradeshs Nellore district on Wednesday night and thrashed a Sub Inspector and three constables after the former had called three people for questioning at the Rapur police station and allegedly beat them up. Police said more than 150 people from Rapuru village stormed the local police station on coming to know that the police were allegedly torturing four residents of their colony, including three women in connection with a monetary dispute. The fight inside the police station was captured on mobile phones They ransacked the police station, dragged Rapur police sub-inspector B Lakshman and beat him up indiscriminately. They also thrashed three constables, who tried to stop the mob. Additional police forces from neighbouring police stations rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control. It all began with a dispute over some money taken as loan by three Dalits - Pichaiah, Kanakamma and Lakshmamma from one Joseph. When they expressed their inability to repay the loan, Joseph lodged a complaint with the Rapur police on Wednesday. In the evening, the police brought the three Dalits along with another youth Penchalaiah to the police station for questioning. The villagers alleged that the police had subjected them to third-degree torture in the name of interrogation and one of them, Pichaiah suffered serious internal injuries. As the police were trying to shift Pichaiah to a hospital, scores of residents of the Dalit colony came to know about it and stormed the police station, demanding that the accused be released. When the police tried to use to force to disperse them, the agitated mob attacked the SI and the constables. DSP Rambabu, who rushed to the police station, said the villagers were drunk when they attacked the police. The SI who suffered head injuries and the constables were shifted to the Rapur government hospital for treatment, he said. We are verifying the available evidence to identify the attackers. All those who participated in the attack on public servants on duty will be booked, he said. LS passes bill to give constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed in Lok Sabha. The bill grants National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status, par with National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (NCSC and NCST Bring a law to control population: BJP MP Uday Pratap Singh BJP member Uday Pratap Singh today asked the government to bring a population control law to ensure a two-child norm for a family. Rajya Sabha adjourned over NRC issue Rajya Sabha adjourned for the day following opposition uproar over NRC issue. Carve out Mithilanchal from Bihar, grant statehood: BJP MP Kirti Azad BJP MP Kirti Azad today demanded a separate state of Mithilanchal to be carved out of Bihar, saying the region has become more backward over the years and granting it statehood would be a just decision. NRC should be prepared for entire country: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey BJP member Nishikant Dubey today demanded that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be prepared for the whole country, triggering protests from Opposition benches. Rahul attacks Swaraj over Doklam issue, says buckled in front of Chinese power Congress president Rahul Gandhi today attacked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj over the Doklam issue, alleging that she had buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Rajnath Singh: Want to enact the SC/ST Bill in this session itself Home minister Rajnath Singh, responding to Congresss Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP government, led by Prime Minister Modi, wants to enact the SC/ST bill in the parliament in the monsoon session itself. Rajnath Singh to address Parliament? Unconfirmed reports say home minister Rajnath Singh may address Parliament today. TDP MPs continue protest TDP MPs protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament over the demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh. TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad has dressed up as a magician today. He has earlier dressed up as a woman, a washerman & a school boy among others. Adjournment motion in Lok Sabha Asaduddin Owaisi moves adjournment motion in Lok Sabha, saying, India is on the verge of hastily signing a Communications Compatibility & Security Agreement with US during 2+2 meeting. The government is willingly relinquishing sovereignty to foreign nation &compromising national security. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday sought several documents from Bihars social welfare department regarding the shelter home in Muzaffarpur city, where more than 30 girls were allegedly sexually abused for months, as part of its probe in the case, officials said. Though CBI officials did not divulge details of their visit, a senior government official said the documents included the agreement between the non-government organisation, Seva Sankalp Ewam Vikas Samiti (SSEVS), which ran the state-funded shelter home, and the department. The agencys team asked the department about the ways it monitored the NGO during its second visit to its office in Patna since taking over the probe. They also sought details about the funds given to Brajesh Thakurs NGOs for advertisements and running welfare schemes, a senior state government official, who was not willing to be quoted, said. They are trying to corroborate if the inspection reports of the stay home ever raised concerns about what was going on there and if yes, what action was initiated. Investigators have suggested that 34 of the 42 girls examined so far were found to have been sexually exploited. Two other girls were not subjected to medical examination because of their poor mental health. Ten of the eleven accused, including Brajesh Thakur who ran the NGO operating the shelter home and seven womens homes, have been arrested so far. The central agencys officials also discussed various aspects of the case and clout of Thakur. According to officials, Thakur and his family members ran 17 NGOs and they were involved with different government projects. The moot point is that on what basis these NGOs were able to sign agreements with the government departments and if its credentials were properly verified, they added. The CBI has found out there were 46 girls in the Muzaffarpur stay home and out of which two were handed over to their families and two others were admitted to a hospital. Besides, the stay home also had the record of 35 other girls, with no information about the rest seven and where did they come from. The team has visited Madhubani district, where 13 girls from the Muzaffarpur shelter were shifted following its closure. It also went to shelter homes in Patna and Mokama, where the remaining girls are staying. An official at the agencys headquarters said a separate team will soon conduct an exhaustive forensic examination of the shelter home where the minor girls were allegedly raped by officials of the Centre. He said the team from Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) would go to Muzzafarpur to reconstruct crime scenes and collect forensic samples. Our investigation will be scientific and based on documents to establish the linkages, the CBI official added. The statements of the victims will be used to reconstruct the crime scene and develop a timeline which will be used to prosecute the accused, he added. The agency may also take help child psychologists to record the statements of the girls, some of who are as young as seven years, the official said. The Supreme Court on Thursday took note of the alleged rapes in the shelter home and imposed a blanket ban on showing images, hidden or morphed, of the girls. The top court directed the media not to interview the girls, saying they cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again. It also issued notices to the Bihar government, women and child development ministry and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), whose audit brought the case to the fore. The state government has been asked to give the status of investigation in the case. Enamul Haque, a soldier in the Indian Army, has been a worried man ever since the National Register of Citizens that seeks to prove citizenship and weed out illegal immigrants was released in Assam on Monday. Naik Haque is one the several serving and retired defence personnel from Assam whose names are among the 40 lakh people missing from the controversial document. All the members of Haques family figure in the complete draft of NRC and he now will have to file claims to ensure that his name is included in the final list. Like everyone else I too had applied for inclusion in the NRC list. I also got a notice from the NRC centre 3 months ago for verification of documents. But since I couldnt get leave, my family members went and verified them. But while their names are in the complete draft, I am surprised that mine is excluded, Haque, posted in Uttarakhands Roorkee, said over the phone. The 29-year-old hopes the process for registering claims is over soon and his name included in the final list so that he doesnt have to worry about being tagged as a foreigner. The NRC, which was first prepared for Assam in 1951, is being updated at the insistence of the Supreme Court, although it has been a longstanding demand of most political organisations in the state. The register is aimed at distinguishing the states citizens from illegal immigrants, mostly from Bangladesh. The first draft of the updated NRC, released on December 31 last year, listed 19 million people. Sana Ullah, a retired junior commissioned officer (JCO) in the Indian Army, is also worried. During the verification of documents at the NRC centre in April, the officials had told us that all our papers are in order. But when the complete draft came out, my name, my wifes name and those of my three children were missing, Ullah said. The names of all the other family members of the 51-year-old, who retired after 30 years of service, and now works as an accountant in a Bengaluru firm, are included in the draft. Similarly, Samsul Haque had hoped he would lead a smooth life at Balikuri, his ancestral village in Barpeta district, after retiring in 2014 as a sergeant in the Indian Air Force (IAF). But since retirement, I have been busy trying to prove I am an Indian. I got notices in 2016 that I have been listed as a D-voter (doubtful voter) in electoral rolls. I fought the case in foreigners tribunal, which ruled in my favour, the 57-year-old said. I submitted the tribunals verdict in the election office as well as the NRC centre. But my name, my wifes name and my two children are missing in the complete draft. All my other family members, who submitted same legacy data, find mention in the list, Haque, who served for 35 years, added. Retired IAF sergeant Sadullah Ahmed and his two sons are also missing from the complete draft. His wife, however, is included in the list. After taking retirement, I have been working as an assistant audit officer in the auditor generals office in Guwahati since 2010. We completed all formalities needed for inclusion in NRC. Now we will have to go through the entire process again, the 49-year-old said. The names of two other ex-servicemen, Azmal Hoque and Mahiruddin Ahmed, both of whom were declared Indians by the foreigners tribunals after they were summoned to prove citizenship, are also missing from the complete draft. The government has said there is no need to panic as those excluded from the draft will not be declared foreigners immediately and that no one would be deported or arrested. Claims and objections from those not included in the final draft list will be taken up from August 30 to September 28. The complete list would be published only after all these claims are settled. There is no deadline yet for that process. With communication between Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu and some Opposition leaders at a new low, a section of non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentarians has drafted a letter to protest against some of his actions. The members are also mulling other ways to convey their anguish. The list of grievances mentions no space for opposition parties for debate, favouring ruling party members and adjourning the house according to his whims and fancies, said an opposition leader who asked not to be named. Other opposition leaders alleged that two questions on demonetisation and their answers were removed from the Rajya Sabha website. Hindustan Times learns that the letter is currently with one of the senior-most opposition leaders, who is considering the next step. A non-Congress leader added: Most of the opposition leaders are upset. There are different ways of expressing our objections. We may put it in writing or meet him or informally convey the message. A BJP member who attends the daily meeting of Rajya Sabha floor leaders with Naidu denied there was any communication breakdown between the chairman and opposition leaders. He said the problem is that the chairman takes House matters too seriously, emotionally and even personally. A few opposition leaders even told him not to lose sleep if the House doesnt function smoothly. The member, who asked not to be identified, added that when another BJP parliamentarian recently met Naidu and expressed concern over the strain he was taking, the chairman said he was deeply worried about the image of the House of elders among the public and wouldnt mind if something happened to him if that resulted in better functioning of the Rajya Sabha. But opposition leaders said that on Wednesday morning the usual meeting at Naidus chamber was disastrous. Naidu spoke in an angry tone for a few minutes and left the room. It took others some time to grasp the intensity of the situation. Then, an opposition leader confronted junior minister for parliamentary affairs Vijay Goel and said, Are we here to listen to a monologue? The chairman doesnt want to hear us, said a political partys floor leader, who asked not to be named. After that incident, leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Trinamool Congress floor leader Derek OBrien decided to stop attending any such meetings. The opposition camp also pointed out that out of two short-duration discussions and two calling-attention notices taken up in the House, only one was moved by an opposition leader. Why should a ruling side member be given a chance to seek the attention of the government? This should be a space only for us, said an opposition leader. This is Parliament, not a BJP party office. We urge the chairman to give more chances to the opposition. Where is the space for opposition? We will not allow Parliament to be used as a BJP back garden, said OBrien. But a functionary close to the establishment who asked not to be identified rejected all charges against Naidu and said that he has always heard the concerns of the Opposition with patience even as the House has been disrupted without any basis. On Wednesday, the Congress created uproar and claimed in the House that Amit Shah should apologise for saying no prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi and those after him had the courage to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Naidu checked the record of verbatim proceedings of the House and saw that Shah did not make any such references to other PMs during his speech, the functionary added. Another Rajya Sabha functionary pointed out that a notice from Congresss Anand Sharma for a calling attention debate had already been admitted. This person added that another debate under a notice from a Rashtriya Janata Dal leader could not happen as the Opposition disrupted the proceedings. Refuting allegations that Rajya Sabha TV blacked out speeches of some opposition leaders earlier, a senior official of the channel said, The chairman ordered an inquiry immediately. The allegation was found to be untrue. Regarding the missing questions, a government official who asked not to be identified said respective ministries have been authorised to upload questions on RS website and RS secretariat has no hand in this. Putting all speculations to rest, the Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who has been in the United States (US) since May 2017, and has repeatedly extended his stay citing a medical checkup, has said that he may return to India by November. Rumors were rife that he may not return to India at all. In an interview on Monday to Radio Free Asia (RFA), a Washington-based online news broadcaster, the 33-year-old head of Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, said he has been in talks with the Indian government over his return. There are rumours that I may go to China. My intention has been all along to go back to India, Karmapa told the Tibetan language service of RFA. There will be a meeting of reincarnate lamas of the major Tibetan Buddhism traditions in Dharamshala in November and I want to attend it, he said and added that the Central Tibetan Administration and the spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are expecting him to be present at the meeting. Talks with the Indian government have been constructive, he said. Karmapa also said that when he arrived in India in 2000, he had many difficulties, including being a suspected Chinese spy, and his access to Indian authorities was limited to lower-level officials. But, now we have an opportunity to meet higher-level Indian leaders to explain my situation, which has made a huge difference, he said. He also allayed concerns about his health stating that there is no serious threat to his health. Since Karmapa has been out of India for over a year now, he may have to seek renewal of his identification certificate (IC), a travel document, granted to Tibetan refugees by the Indian government. A Tibetan travelling abroad on IC, gets three months at the most to return to India. If he fails, the validity of the IC expires and the renewal can be done from the Indian embassy in the country concerned . Who is Karmapa? Born on June 26, 1985 in the Lhatok region of East Tibet, Ogeyn Tinley Dorjee was initially called Apo Gaga. He was discovered to be the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the head of the 900-year-old and powerful Karma Kagyu sect at the age of 7. He was recognised by both the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama and was enthroned on September 27, 1992. At the age of 14, Ogyen Trinley Dorje made a stunning escape to India through Nepal by dodging the Chinese security ring and arrived at Dharamsala on January 5, 2000. Since then he has lived under the watchful eyes of Indian intelligence agencies and his movement strictly restricted. The Karmapa controversy The recognition of the Karmapa is a controversial subject in itself. There is another claimant to the title, Trinley Thaye Dorje, who lives in Kalimpong, West Bengal, and have been independently performing ceremonial duties in the role. Controversy erupted when two members of the search team, out to look for the 17th Karmapa, identified both Ogyen and Thay as claimants to the title. The Chhattisgarh Police claimed to have killed 247 Maoists in last two years but has been able to recover only 15% of the total high grade automatic assault rifles by rebels since 2001, the state police data shows. Police records show Maoists have looted 750 high grade weapons in Bastar region. These include 550 automatic assault rifles and 190 self-loading rifles from personnel since 2001, enough to keep its firing power intact in the countrys fieriest rebel battleground, which has witnessed almost 3,000 encounters between 2001 and April 2018, claiming 3,849 lives. The police, however, claimed that in last three years the recovery rate of graded weapons has improved by engaging Maoists in their core areas. In July, eight Maoists, including six women, were killed in an encounter in Dantewada, in which two Insas rifles were recovered. Earlier, security forces used to engage with lower ranked Maoists and were able to recover 302 bore or 303 bore rifles, special director general (anti-Naxal operations) DM Awasthi said. Now forces are entering in core Maoist areas and hence the recovery of automatic assault rifles has increased. Data show that of the 14 grenade launchers looted by the Maoists, not one has been recovered. Some of the launchers have been used by a Maoist battalion headed by Mandvi Hidma to attack forces in the recent past, admitted a police officer. Of the automatic assault rifles taken by rebels, only 100 have been seized. An assistant superintendent of police, part of anti-Maoist operations, said Maoists having access to high grade weapons was a matter of concern. He said the police plan to conduct more operations to hit their ammunition storage. The check on ammunition is most important strategy for us, the officer said, requesting anonymity. On the positive side, officials in Bastar said the number of looted weapons has decreased since 2015, barring 2017 attack in Bhejji and Burkapal, where rebels took away 50 weapons. Former Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan said the only way to recover more automatic weapons is to ambush rebels the way they attack. The quality of weapons they have got is a matter of concern and the forces should intensify operations to reduce their firepower, he said. But the security forces have witnessed some success in the recent past with special DGP Awasthi saying Maoists have admitted in a press release this week that 247 of their members in Chhattisgarh were killed between August 2016 and July 2018. In last two years, a total of 2,834 Maoists were arrested while 1,852 surrendered, he said, claiming this was because of a shift in anti-Maoist strategy by targeting their core areas. Pakistan on Thursday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modis congratulatory phone call to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and said it wants resumption of bilateral talks which were halted in 2015. On Monday, Prime Minister Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his partys victory in the general elections and hoped that Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties. Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue. During his weekly press briefing here, Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that he hoped the phone call would pave the way for bilateral talks between both India and Pakistan. Faisal said that Pakistan was ready to host the SAARC Summit postponed in November 2016, which will help to address regional issues. He hoped that it would lead to an improvement in ties with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, in addition to India. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad but after a major terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to prevailing circumstances and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate. The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and Indias surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a military court in April last year further deteriorated bilateral ties. The two sides often accuse each other of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, resulting in civilian casualties. In his victory speech, Khan had said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be good for all of us. (The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text, only the headline has been changed) Day after foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said in Lok Sabha that the Doklam standoff had been resolved with diplomatic maturity without losing any ground, Rahul Gandhi attacked her with an acerbic tweet, along with a report that quotes top US official saying that China has quietly resumed its activities in the Doklam area and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it. The claim was, however, denied by the government. Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border. Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border. #Doklamhttps://t.co/UALkmH0jZ1 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 2, 2018 Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday told Lok Sabha that the government has resolved the Doklam issue with diplomatic maturity without losing any ground. There is no change in the status quo (on the ground). There is not an iota of change. The face off at sight has been resolved on August 28, 2017. Last month, a US Congresswoman Ann Wagner during a Congressional hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee for Asia and the Pacific made the claim that China has quietly resumed its activities in the Doklam area. Although both countries backed down, China has quietly resumed its activities in Doklam and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it. Chinas activities in the Himalayas remind me of its south China Sea policies. How should our failure to respond to the militarisation of the South China Sea inform the international response to these Himalayan border disputes? Wagner asked. Wager did not elaborate on her claim of China resuming its activities. Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a 73-day stand-off last year at the Doklam near Bhutan over Beijings construction of a road in the area. The standoff ended after both sides agreed to disengage, and there have been no confirmed or official reports of China resuming any activities since then. A trial court in Ranchi on Thursday convicted 13 people and sentenced each of them to life imprisonment for killing five women for witchcraft in the districts Mandar block three years ago. The incident dates back to the intervening night of August 7-8, 2015, when a mob at Kanjiya village in Ranchis Mandar block hacked five women--Tetri Oraon,35, Etwaria Oraon, 50, Madni Oraon, 55, Jasinta Toppo, 55 and Ratia Oraon, 70--to death after branding them witches. As many as 43 villagers, including two minors, had faced trial for the murder. Four separate cases had been registered by the police in this connection. The court of additional judicial commissioner SS Prasad found 13 people guilty of murder while 26 were acquitted 26 of all charges. An inquiry is being conducted against the two minors. While one of the accused had died, trial against another was separated and is yet to be concluded. Those who have been convicted are Xavier Khalkho, Mojesh Khalkho, Krishna Khalkho, Baldeo Khalkho, Sandeep Khalkho, Sachin Khalkho, Arun Bara, Rajesh Tigga, Barnwas Khalkho, Sannu Khalkho, Sannu Oraon, Albinat Khalkho and Rohit Khalkho. The court convicted the first six accused in all the four cases and awarded them life term in each of the cases. It said that the sentences would run consecutively (one after another). Similarly, convicts Bara and Tigga, who were booked in three and two cases respectively, were awarded life imprisonment in each of the cases. The other convicts, however, faced trial in only one case. The court found the 13 convicts guilty under sections 302 (murder) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Panel Code (IPC) and various sections of the Prevention of Witch (DAAIN) Practices Act. It also slapped a fine of Rs 38,000 on each of the convicts. On default of payment of fine amount, the convicts have to undergo additional 10 months imprisonment. On August 7 night, people from at least four villages under Mandar police station held a meeting that began after 9pm and stretched up to midnight to discuss the causes of death of several youngsters of the village. In the meeting, they unanimously decided to eliminate the five women, who allegedly practised witchcraft, to prevent further deaths in the village. The next morning, the village mob killed the five women. When police arrived in the morning, the accused villagers showed no remorse for committing the crime and even prevented them from picking the stripped and badly mutilated bodies. The villagers have submitted a written confession to the police claiming responsibility for the killings. As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, a total of 54, 47 and 32 cases were reported under murder for witchcraft in Jharkhand during 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. An analysis of the data since 2001 for Jharkhand shows a total of 523 women had been lynched till 2016 after being branding as witches. The state showed the most witch-hunting murders in 2013, when 54 persons were killed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON If the red flag raised last year by Bihar child rights commission had been acted upon, girls in Bihars Muzaffarpur shelter would have been spared the torture they suffered. In November last year, a State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (BSCPCR) team, headed by its chairperson Dr Harpal Kaur, visited the shelter home, run by Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, and detected serious irregularities. We could not make out the extent of malaise that is now emerging from there, but the girls did cry before me without opening up much, as the caretaker Madhu Kumari, who is now wanted in the case, was present and did not allow others to speak. She was interfering a lot and I had to ask her to keep mum, as the girls were virtually caged there, said Kaur. Kaur said she also submitted her report to the district magistrate and social welfare department recommending immediate shifting of girls from there and making proper arrangements for them. I also held a meeting with DM and all officials concerned. The girls did appear tormented, though they did not speak about sexual abuse then, may be out of fear. Still, seeing their condition, I did ask how the girls stayed there for beyond four months and why efforts were not made to unite them with their families, she added. Kaur said she and her team had started visiting all the children and girls shelter homes. BSCPCR is a monitoring agency. We have started our inspection. Had the officials concerned acted when we raised the red flag in case of Muzaffarpur shelter home, things could have improved by now. The issue cropped up even at the recently held NCPCR meeting in Delhi also. There is a detailed mechanism for inspection and monitoring, which has not been followed. Now, we will do division and district-wise inspection, she added. When contacted the then DM of Muzaffarpur Dharmendra Singh said he wil try to find out what happened after the BSCPCR meeting. I am presently in a meeting. I will have to see the file for this, he added. Earlier this year, the exercise of conducting social audit of child care institutions was initiated by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in the light of the 2017 Supreme Court order in the matter of exploitation of children in orphanages in Tamil Nadu. The SC had observed that it is imperative that the process of conducting social audit must be taken up in right earnestness by the NCPCR as well as by each state commission for protection of child rights. This is perhaps the best possible method by which transparency and accountability in the management and functioning of child care institutions and other bodies under the JJ Act and Model Rules can be monitored and supervised. The Supreme Court on Thursday took note of the alleged rapes in a shelter home in Bihars Muzaffarpur and imposed a blanket ban on showing images (hidden or morphed) of minor victims. A bench of justice MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta took cognisance of the matter on its own and expressed concern that the alleged victims of sexual assault at the shelter home were subjected to media interviews again and again. It asked the media not to interview the victims, saying they cannot be compelled to relive the trauma repeatedly. The top court said the probe agency would take the help of professional councillors and qualified child psychiatrist to question the victims. The top court also issued notices to the Bihar government, Women and Child Development ministry and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The Bihar government has been asked to give the status of investigation in the case, While TISS has been asked to submit a copy of the audit that had unearthed the whole matter.. TISS, in May this year, had uncovered the sexual abuse scam while doing a social audit of 110 institutions in Bihar. More than 30 girls were allegedly raped and tortured at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district, from where 42 girls were rescued earlier this month. A medical board of Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in June had confirmed the sexual abuse of a majority of the girls of the Balika Grih. The Nitish Kumar-led government is under pressure from opposition parties in the state to act against the culprits and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav has even accused it of shielding the culprits in the case. Opposition parties had raised the case in the Lok Sabha and Congress member Ranjeet Ranjan demanded a probe. Union home minister Rajnath Singh had said it was a serious issue.If there is a recommendation from the state government, the Centre will consider ordering a CBI probe, Singh had said during Zero Hour. And, an aggressive opposition led by RJD, Congress and CPI-ML(Liberation) disrupted the proceedings in the Bihar assembly and pressed for their demand for a CBI probe into the sexual exploitation of the inmates of Muzaffarpur shelter home. Yadav, Leader of opposition in the Bihar legislative assembly, also demanded a CBI inquiry under the Patna high courts watch and slammed the state government for rejecting the central probe. The RJD leader accused that the leaders of the ruling Janata Dal(United) were involved in the case. He also wondered about the reason behind the state governments opposition to an impartial probe by the CBI if the Centre was willing to get it done. He alleged that chief minister Kumar had gone to campaign during the 1995 assembly elections for the main accused in the case. Two Hizbul Mujahedeen militants, allegedly involved in a rifle-snatching incident in Lolab, were killed in an encounter in Kupwara on Thursday. Bilal Ahmad Shah, of Shatmuqam, and Zahoor Ahmad, of Thayeen village, were locals from Kupwara who had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen ranks this year. They were killed at Khumriyal, around 12 km from Kandhar village where they had snatched the rifle of a policeman on Wednesday. Officials said the police had been tracking movement of the militants involved in rifle snatching as it was the first rifle snatching incident in Kupwara district in recent years. Locals said the militants who were travelling in a car were intercepted by joint team of police and the army, two kilometres before Kupwara town, and were killed after a brief encounter. A police spokesman said the militants fired at cops conducting checking at a post, prompting retaliation. The militant were involved in several attacks on the security establishments and civilian atrocities in the area. An AK 47 rifle and an INSAS rifle was recovered from the slain militants which was yesterday snatched from a policeman in Kandhar, the spokesman said. In March, a picture of Bilal Ahmad Shah, who had been missing, appeared on the social media holding the rifle. His father was a former Hizbul Mujahideen militant, who was killed in an encounter during the initial years of the militancy in 1991. Shah was working in Srinagar fruit market before he joined the militant ranks. Zahoor was a former militant and had rejoined two months ago. Both the youths joined militancy after Manan Wani, a research scholar who also hailed from the Kupwara district joined militancy. Last month, a militant from Chogal village in Kupwara district was killed in Pulwama during an encounter. Police said though foreign militants are operating in Kupwara district, militants are making desperate attempts to lure local youths or former militants to join their ranks. A test pilot flying a light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas on Thursday successfully snagged the jets tail hook on the arresting wire at a test facility in Goa, said a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) spokesperson. The naval variant of the homegrown LCA took the first step towards landing on the flight deck of Indias only aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya. The carrier, currently, operates Russian-origin MiG-29K fighters from its deck. This was the first in a series of rigourous tests that will be carried out before the fighter can be tested for actual flight deck operations, which could take more than a year. Landing on a carrier requires snagging a maritime fighters tailhook on one of the arresting wires on the flight deck as the runway space is scarce. The arrested landing brings the fighter to a grinding halt, with its landing speed coming down from 130 knots to zero in a couple of seconds. India has joined the select club of US, Europe, Russia and China having the capability of deck landing of fighter aircraft, the spokesperson said. He said the naval prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by captain Shivnath Dahiya, executed the first contact of the arrestor-hook system at moderate taxi-in speeds at the shore-based test facility (SBTF) in Goa, by which he meant that it was a ground test (the plane wasnt actually landing) carried out at 50 to 60 knots. The next ground tests will involve testing the landing system at taxi-in speeds of 80 to 90 knots. This will be followed by an actual test with the plane landing at its actual speed of 130 knots, said a senior navy official monitoring the project. A Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation scuffled with security personnel at Assams Silchar airport after they were refused entry into Assams Cachar district on Thursday. The delegation flew to Silchar to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the publication on Monday of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that has excluded over 40 lakh. Airport officials said the district administration was making arrangements for the delegations stay at the airport as the TMC members refused to leave. They have agreed to return to Kolkata on the 7.50 am Air India flight. Tickets have been booked, an official said on condition of anonymity. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier this week announced she would send a to Assam after calling the NRC a plan to evict Bengalis and Biharis from Assam. She had warned the move will lead to a civil war and bloodbath. Officials said the delegation was shown a copy of deputy commissioner S Lakhsmanans prohibitory order barring them from entering Silchar. They were asked to take a return flight to Kolkata. They refused, a police officer deputed to prevent them from entering the city said on condition of anonymity. TMC parliament member Sukhendu Shekhar Ray alleged they were assaulted. As soon as we reached the arrival lounge of the Silchar airport, we were confronted by a delegation comprising the district magistrate and police officers. A police officer hit me on the chest. Cops also manhandled Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mamata Bala Thakur and Mahua Moitra. Dastidar, who is a Lok Sabha MP, accused police of snatching their cellphones and thrashing them. Assam police chief Kuladhar Saikia accused the delegation of attacking police. We have kept them inside the airport. Some of them indulged in the scuffle in which two women police constables were injured. Banerjee directed the delegation not to leave the airport as they were detained. Officials said the TMC had been informed about the orders on Wednesday. This is super emergency. Trinamool MPs and MLAs were not allowed to come out of the airport. Police assaulted them. They are not lawbreakers but lawmakers. In Parliament, the government is making silly excuses and the home minister did not reply, said TMCs Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O Brien. Congresss Silchar MP Sushmita Dev asked the government to allow TMC members to enter the city. Assam BJP chief Ranjit Das justified the government action saying their intention was malafide and they had come to emotionally motivate people. Three Assam unit TMC leaders, including state president Dwipen Pathak, resigned in protest against the partys stand on NRC. The party never raised issues concerning Assam in parliament. But when the state is about to get a complete NRC after years of struggle, Banerjee chose to oppose it and try and create tension in the state, said Pathak, a former MLA. Two more cases were lodged against Banerjee in Guwahati and North Lakhimpur for her civil war and bloodbath comments. Saikia said action will be taken as per the law. (With agency inputs) In a relief for India, the US senate on Wednesday passed a defence spending bill that also seeks to amend another law that threatens secondary sanctions against countries such as India which conduct significant business with Russia if New Delhi went ahead with plans to buy Russian air defence systems. The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2019, had already been passed in the House of Representatives and is now headed for President Donald Trump for his signature. He is not expected to withhold approval given the support the White House has already extended to the bill. I am grateful for the strong commitment of members on both sides of the aisle to pass this years NDAA in record time. Together, they have demonstrated the deep and abiding bipartisan support our military enjoys, Defense Secretary James N Mattis said in a statement. It is now our duty to implement these policies responsibly and ensure a culture of performance and accountability. The statement also noted listing highlights of the legislation, it provides waiver relief to key US partners and allies from certain Russian-related sanctions under the Countering Americas Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). NDAA 2019 would amend CAATSA allowing countries such as India to continue to buy from Russia provided they fulfill certain conditions, which, most American and Indian officials and experts aver, New Delhi does such as reducing orders placed with Russia and stepping up calls to the US. Secretary Mattis had emerged as the most ardent advocate of these waivers. Backed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Mattis had argued that sanctioning these countries to punish Russia would drive them even closer to Moscow. CAATSA was enacted in 2017, and came into effect in 2018 to punish Russia for the 2016 election meddling. Among other things, CAATSA forbade third-party countries from doing significant transactions with Russia in military and intelligence sectors through the threat of secondary sanctions. India was directly in line of fire under this law for plans going back from before CAATSA came into force to buy five S-400 air defense systems from a Russian company on the US list of sanctioned entities. While India enjoys unparalleled bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, there were worries that CAATSA waiver could get caught in political crossfire as Democrats took aim at Trump over his controversial news conference with Russias President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last month. The Democratic leadership in the senate had, in fact, expressly warned against diluting sanctions pertaining to Russia. And the defence spending bill that made it out of the upper chamber had not contained the waiver clause the Trump administration had specifically requested, for India and other countries. The White House on Wednesday acknowledged that India has invited US President Donald Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in 2019, but said no decision has been taken at the moment. I know that the invitation has been extended, but I dont believe a final decision has been made, press secretary Sarah Sanders said in response to a question at the daily press briefing. She added that defence secretary James Mattis and secretary of state Mike Pompeo will travel to India in September and will begin the dialogue and the process and potential discussion for a presidential visit later in the year. Mattis and Pompeo will travel to New Delhi to September 6 for the inaugural 2+2 ministerial dialogue with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. India has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in 2019. If he accepts, he will be the second US president to do so his predecessor Barack Obama was the first to attend the Republic Day parade. When first reports of the invitation emerged some weeks ago, a spokesperson for Trumps National Security Council had said to Hindustan Times: We have nothing to announce at this time. That language is generally described as officialese for saying work is on but no dates yet, according to former White House staffers who spoke only on background to explain how presidential visits are arranged. On July 29, the Thane division of the Maharashtra forest department seized 75kg of agarwood. Earlier, on July 20, customs official had seized another 75kg. Over the past seven months, 10 people have been arrested for illegally exporting agarwood to the Middle East and the Thane division of Maharashtra forest department has seized 525 kg of smuggled agarwood, said forest officers. Agarwood, or aquilaria malaccensis, has a long history of being taken to the Arabian peninsula by Indian traders. In ancient times, it was known as the the wood of the gods and the resin extracted from it is still described as liquid gold because of the exorbitant prices it fetches. Only now, with agarwood heading towards extinction, this trade is illegal. Jitendra Ramgaokar, deputy conservator of forest, Thane, estimates over 2,000kg of agarwood have been seized in Mumbai over the past two years and 32 people have been arrested for smuggling this precious cargo. The source of the wood is forest areas in Assam, and smugglers are using fake forest authorisation papers to transport the wood to Mumbai, said Ramgaokar. A team from Mumbai was sent to Assam to track down the trade earlier this year, where they found that no permissions were issued by the Assam forest department. Thereafter, regular seizures have been taking place. Recently categorised as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), agarwood grows naturally in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring states. According to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau(WCCB), agarwood is a protected species under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and scheduled tree species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. IUCN estimates deforestation has led to an 80% population decline for the species over the past 150 years. There is hardly any agarwood left in forest spaces in Assam under our jurisdiction, and most of it has been exploited. However, there are private forests and home estates in the state where plantations exist, and also neighbouring states that have pockets of these plantations. For transporting the wood, permission from our divisional forest officers is necessary, and in some cases, the papers are being forged, said Niranjan Kumar Vasu, principal chief conservator of forest, Assam forest department. Only when agarwood is infected by a fungus, it produces a protective covering around its bark which is dense and fragrant. The essence extracted from this covering is used to make perfumes and oud oil. This is what makes for the high value of the tree. However, poachers dont know or realise which tree is infected, and hack healthy ones in the process, said Vasu. Aside from oud oil, which forms the base of expensive high-end perfumes, the aromatic wood is used for products like fragrances and incense. Agarwood can be a source of good income, but it all has to be done in a legal manner. Over the past year, we have carried out lakhs of plantations in the state to protect this species, said Vasu. Its actually illegal to export agarwood, according to Indian laws. The export of agarwood is prohibited since 1991 and products in the form of logs, timber, stumps, roots, bark, chips, powder, flakes, dust, charcoal and chip form under the foreign trade policy are not allowed, said an official from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climage Change. Apart from prohibiting harvest of agarwood in protected areas, we have designated Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI), Jorhat, Assam as CITES Scientific Authority for conducting research on Agarwood in North East India for better protection of the species. Despite the strictures, authorities are seeing more activity in the illegal trade of this product. Agarwood is in high demand and Mumbai is closest and easiest trade route. So such illegal activities will only increase, said Jose Louies, who leads the wildlife trade control and litigation division at Wildlife Trust of India. It is very difficult to detect agarwood when it is being transported because traders make handicrafts, furniture, and various other products to hide the wood. They mis-declare the name of the species. Since the entire process of issuing permissions and certificates is not digitized and fluid communication between state forest departments is missing, such kind of high-value timber trade is on the rise. Louies said there needs to be better coordination between agencies to tackle the illegal trade. The only way out is creating awareness, capacity building and interdepartmental coordination among state governments, forest officials, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Customs and Central Reserve Police Force, he said. Commuters of a crowded CSMT-bound local train panicked on Thursday morning when they spotted a snake in their compartment and pulled the emergency chain. After the train stopped at Thane station, some passengers released the reptile on the tracks, and the train left soon after. The incident took place during the morning peak hours in the 8.33am Titwala-CSMT local. One of the male commuters in the general first-class compartment spotted the snake near the rod close to one of the overhead fans as the train was heading to Thane station and raised an alarm. Passengers switched off the fans and lights immediately and pulled the chain, after which the train halted at Thane station. The train stopped at Thane stations platform no. 4 for 5-10 minutes. By the time, officials reached the spot, some of the commuters had caught the snake and released it on the tracks. The train left soon after, said a Central Railway (CR) official from Thane station, who did not wish to be named. The snake was around 1.5 feet long. Snake expert Kaustubh Darves from Thane looked at photos and a video of the snake and identified it as a green vine snake. Its also known as the long-nosed whip snake [scientific name: Ahaetulla nasuta]. Its a mildly venomous snake commonly found in Mumbais suburban region. In damage control mode in the wake of Maratha protests across the state, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday invited eminent personalities from the community to seek their opinion on the reservation demand. After the meeting, the invitees and state issued a joint statement, urging the community to maintain peace and refrain from extreme steps such as suicide. The agitating Maratha outfits have refused to hold talks with the government on the pending demands alleging that the government was not serious. Those who attended the meeting included scholar AH Salunkkhe, historian Pandurang Balakawade, legal experts Harshad Nimbalkar and Shailesh Mhaske, actors Sayaji Shinde and Amol Kolhe, art director Nitin Desai and industrialists Bhairavnath Thombare, Satish Parab. The government discussed short- and long-term steps to be taken for the welfare of the community, and reiterated their resolve to give reservation to Marathas. The state apprised the invitees of their various welfare schemes in the field of education, industries and social justice. The personalities suggested making the schemes more user-friendly. According to a minister, this was the CMs attempt to engage the Marathas or at least show that the community members are interacting with the government on the issue. The state is positive and committed to reservation that will stand legal scrutiny. We have been tapping all possibilities to ensure time-bound reservation. As already declared, we will convene a special session to discuss the reservation. The community members were apprised about the steps taken and status of the process being followed for the legal battle of reservation, CM Fadnavis said after the meeting. A scholar said the government should look at employment opportunities for youngsters from the state. They said despite being agriculture-intensive state, the farmers are in distress owing to poor rates for their crops. Another participant said: The community is upset over unfulfilled promises and it triggers confrontation. The government should walk the talk. Actor Sayaji Shinde later said, The discussion was fruitful, amid positive atmosphere. We expect the tension to subside very soon. Nepal and India are not just two countries; they are two great and ancient civilisations. The bonds between the two countries are so strong and sacred that no contemporary development can disturb them. Three Cs form the basis of this bonding and relationship: culture, connectivity and commerce. From time immemorial, India and Nepal have been cultural and civilisational cousins. Historical and civilisational linkages form a strong bond. Hinduism and Buddhism have always brought them together. From Janakpur to Ayodhya and from Lumbini to Bodh Gaya, the historical journey of the religions and culture remain an inspiring bond between the two countries. Talking of culture, it is pertinent to mention that grassroots democracy is in the blood of the South Asian nations. Institutions such as the gram sabhas, which existed as a part of the social organisation, make these nations most amenable to democratic institution-building. Modern-day democratic institutions were introduced to India by the British in the last century. After Independence, India had very naturally adopted those institutions and enriched them with native wisdom, as they suited its core cultural ethos. It is today the largest and most successful democracy in the world. In Indias neighbourhood, all the people that shared this cultural marker have succeeded in promoting democratic way of life. These include Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Nepal, too, has successfully turned to democracy. India, as a neighbour, has extended its fullest support in Nepals endeavour to emerge as a parliamentary democracy. It played a pivotal role in the Maoists in Nepal deciding to join the democratic mainstream of the country in 2006. Like India, Nepals democracy, too, has matured. On the lines of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nepal, too, has a stable government today with a majority in the parliament. Stability is the key to a democracys success and that comes when people repose faith in one party or alliance. India sees an independent and stable Nepal as beneficial to its interests. The mighty Himalayas with Mount Everest and the sacred Mansarovar lake as well as Lord Pashupatinath in Kathmandu and Buddha at Lumbini have connected India and Nepal for ages. This spiritual connectivity has transcended into physical connectivity with highways, I-ways and roadways. The two governments are working on enhancing this connectivity through railways and waterways. The RaxaulKathmandu railway line will be a reality soon, thanks to the determination of Modi and Nepal PM KP Oli. This connectivity is critical for the growth of bilateral commerce too. India-Nepal bilateral trade and commercial ties are too strong to be ever dismantled. Modi has championed a new neighbourhood policy popularly known as Neighbourhood First. In our relations with Nepal, as with other neighbours, we are guided by the policy of sovereign equality. Sovereignty brings with it a lot of responsibility. As two sovereign neighbours, the two countries have to understand each others strategic priorities and concerns. An important element of Indias Neighbourhood First policy is that each country has a sovereign right to pursue its developmental agenda while keeping the strategic concerns of the other in mind. Nepals development will help benefit India and vice versa. India and Nepal are both old and young nations with large young populations. Under the dynamic leadership of Modi, India is undergoing a huge transition. In Nepal, Oli has put emphasis on an economic and development agenda.Nepal, too, is changing fast. So, the challenge in both the countries is to understand and manage consistency and change in our bilateral relations. India is committed to supporting Olis ambitious development agenda. Sab ka saath Sab ka vikas (development for all sections of society) has been the mantra of Modi. He appreciates that the fruits of development should reach the last citizen. In Nepal, too, various sections such as Adivasis, Dalits, women and Madhesis will gain from the governments focused development activity. Nepal can adopt Look South as its development policy. Look South doesnt mean India alone. Today, oceans play an important role in the economic development of the nations. They are the lifelines of prosperity and development. In the south, the Indian Ocean offers Nepal a huge opportunity.Nepal can access the most happening region of the Indian Ocean through Kolkata in India and Chittagong in Bangladesh. It opens up huge opportunities for the countrys development. It will also benefit the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. Amid these attractive propositions, there exist some challenges too. Both countries so far have very limited activity with respect to building a knowledge base about each other. Very few universities and centres in India focus on deepening the knowledge base about Nepal. I assume the same is the situation in Nepal. It is time we built new institutions for this purpose in both the countries. Both Nepal and India are committed to the principles of democracy and inclusive development. Three visits by Modi to Nepal in this one year indicate Indias growing affinity with the Himalayan neighbour which is being enthusiastically reciprocated by the Oli-led government in Nepal. Ram Madhav is general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. This is the text of his address at the inauguration of the Nepal-India Think Tank Summit in Kathmandu. The views expressed are personal Maratha Kranti Morcha, Pune district, has announced a dharna outside the residence of public representatives from August 2 as a part of its outgoing stir for reservation. Sachin Adhekar, president of Maratha Seva Sangh, said the outfit has planned a protest outside the residence of all 17 public representatives in Pune district, including those belonging to the Maratha community. Adhekar said, On Thursday, we will start our protest outside the residence of guardian minister Girish Bapat at 8.30 am. After that, we will move towards the residence of Vandana Chavan, Rajya Sabha member of parliament and Nationalist Congress Party leader. We have made a proper schedule and the agitation will go according to that till August 9. In the afternoon, protesters will move towards the house of Dilip Kamble, minister of state for social justice. Meanwhile, the community also observed a peaceful bandh in Junner on Wednesday. Earlier, on Monday, Maratha protests had turned violent in Chakan, where protestors vandalised and torched public vehicles and targeted police personnel as a mark of protest against the government, amidst heightened security in all parts of the state. The Maratha groups have also planned protests across the state from August Kranti Day, August 9. Dhangar community to protest from September 1 On Wednesday, thousands of Dhangar community members gathered at Dudhane lawns in Karvenagar, Pune, and gave an ultimatum of 30 days to the government to explain what the reservation status of the Dhangad community is. They said that they will start an agitation from September 1 in Aurangabad if the government fails to reply. Dhangars currently enjoy reservation under the nomadic tribe (NT) category, which is entitled to a 3.5 per cent quota. However, the community members are now demanding that their caste be included in the scheduled tribe category, which has a seven per cent quota. A 35-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI), who landed here from Jordan on Wednesday night, set himself, his wife and two minor children ablaze at Alamgir village in the district on Thursday, resulting in the death of all four. Police said Kulwinder Singh committed the crime at around 4 am after he allegedly came to know about an illicit relationship of his wife Mandeep Kaur, 30, with a villager. Kulwinder and his son Abhi, 5, died on the spot while daughter Sonal, 8, succumbed to her injuries in Kapurthala civil hospital. Mandeep was referred to the Jalandhar civil hospital where she died after making a statement to the police. Police said Mandeep told them that a villager had started blackmailing her for sexual favours after he had filmed her obscene video, which he had also shared with his two friends. When I talked to my husband about this, he got furious. Later, when we were sleeping he poured kerosene on us and set us on fire, she told the police. Kulwinders sister Jaswinder Kaur, who was sleeping in the adjoining room, came to know about the incident after hearing the screams of the victims and raised alarm. She also sustained minor burn injuries and was discharged after the first aid, MS Bawa, medical superintendent, Jalandhar civil hospital, said. Superintendent of police (SP) Jagjit Singh Saroya said Kulwinder had been living in Jordan for some years and returned to his village on Wednesday night. He came to know about his wifes affair when she told him that a man was threatening to post her obscene video on social media and demanding sexual favours, the SP said. Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Sarabjit Singh said on the basis of the womans statement, a case has been registered against four persons belonging to the same village under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 of IPC. He said the accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Sunny, his mother Satya Devi, two friends Balkar Singh and Tirath Singh. The DSP said Sunny and Balkar have been arrested while efforts are on to arrest the other two accused. He said Gurpreet had reportedly made the obscene video of the woman that he shared with his friends, and they later started blackmailing her. Satya also blackmailed the woman to extort money from her, he added. Delhi-born Australian mathematician, Akshay Venkatesh, 36, a child prodigy who finished school at the age of 13 and received a PhD at 20, is one of the four recipients of this years Fields Medal, the highest honour for a mathematician that is popularly known as the Mathematicians Nobel Prize. It is awarded to two to four mathematicians every four years. A lot of the time, when you do math, youre stuck. But you feel privileged to work with it: you have a feeling of transcendence and feel like youve been part of something really meaningful, Venkatesh told AFP. Venkatesh is recognised for his work in Number Theory a theoretical branch of mathematics dedicated to studying integers. This has applications in cryptography writing or solving codes. He also works with theory of representation (a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures), Ergodic Theory, and Automorphic Forms. I am a number theorist; I study whole numbers, prime numbers, and integers, said Venkatesh in 2016 after winning the Infosys award. He added: I look for new patterns in the arithmetic of numbers. It borders on a huge number of fields of mathematics differential equation, geometry, theory of symmetry. I have moved around the borders with other fields. It means I have been able to keep learning other things. The other recipients of the Fields Medal are Italian Alessio Figalli, Iranian Kurdish Caucher Birkar, and German Peter Scholze. Each winner receives a $C (CANADIAN DOLLAR) 15,000 r cash prize. The Fields Medal was first awarded in 1932 and is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields. Venkateshs work earned him the Salem Prize in 2007, Sastra Ramanujan Prize in 2008, Infosys Prize in 2016, and Ostrowski Prize in 2017. Venkatesh was a child prodigy born in New Delhi in 1981. At 11, he won a bronze medal at the International Physics Olympiad and then went on to win two medals at the International Mathematics Olympiad after switching subjects. At 13, he completed highschool and went to the University of Western Australia. He graduated with first class honours, becoming the youngest to do so. At 20, Venkatesh finished his PhD at Princeton University. After this, he was awarded a post-doctoral position an instructor at CLE Moore -- at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a prestigious position offered to recent graduates in the area of Pure Mathematics and previously occupied by prominent figures such as the American John Nash. In 2004, he became a Clay Research Fellow and was appointed associate professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He became a professor at Stanford University at the age of 27, and is currently a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). Chinas highest ranking Buddhist monk who is also a political advisor to the government has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting nuns at a monastery in Beijing. Xuecheng, abbot of Beijing-based Longquan temple, has denied allegations he sexually assaulted and harassed nuns by controlling their minds in the garb of religious teachings. This is the latest case in Chinas escalating incidence of high-profile persons being accused of sexual misconduct. Hundreds of monks stay and study at the monastery located on the outskirts of Beijing. Xuecheng is a member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference the countrys top political advisory body and head of the government-affiliated Buddhist Association of China. Two monks from Longquan temple, Xianjia and Xianqi, said in a report submitted to the public security department (police) which was leaked online on Wednesday that Xuecheng sexually harassed several nuns, including sending illicit messages to them and forcing them to have sexual relations with him. However, the temple said the two whistleblowers have forged materials, distorted facts and spread false information that misled the public, the Global Times tabloid reported. Investigations into the case began after the two monks submitted their report. Xuecheng was taken for questioning by relevant authorities days ago before being released, the newspaper reported, quoting an anonymous source. Longquan Temple is under his spell. Xuecheng manipulated disciples to serve his Buddhist Empiredisciples under his control sacrificed their precious practices of Buddhist doctrines and violated these doctrines, even laws, the report submitted by the two monks alleged. The two monks started investigating Xuechengs messages after a nun, who stayed in Beijing in December 2017, showed them messages with sexual content. The Global Times reported they contacted experts from the public security ministry to confirm the messages were sent by Xuecheng. The messages showed that Xuecheng tempted or threatened at least six nuns to have sex with him, four of whom capitulated to his requests, it added. One of the nuns reported to a police station in Haidian district in Beijing on June 29 that Xuecheng had sexually assaulted her. The man at the centre of the scandal seemed unperturbed. He posted pictures of a national flag-raising ceremony on social media on Wednesday, vowing to carry forward the Communist Partys campaign to infuse patriotism in religion. Chinas #MeToo movement has been slow to take off but appears to have escalated in July with accusations being levelled against influential persons, including a journalist and the founder of a charity. The movement seems to be gaining ground despite allegations that reports on it are being widely censored. Did half of the United Kingdom turn vegetarian on Wednesday night after the BBC showed a butcher in Udaipur decapitating a chicken? As the first episode of the third series of The Real Marigold Hotel was on air during prime time, many took to social media to express horror at seeing the head of a chicken being graphically chopped off, prompting several counter-responses. The latest series of the show features nine British celebrities including former MP Stanley Johnson, father of former foreign secretary Boris Johnson travelling across north India, mostly amazed and delighted at the many hues of everyday life in India. The series is inspired by the 2011 film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Dev Patel and Judi Dench, in which a group of cash-strapped British senior citizens travel to Jaipur to spend their last years. Previous two series on BBC won a wide audience. There was absolutely no need to show a chicken having its (sic) head taken off. Half the UK have just gone vegetarian, tweeted Jo Gattenberg, while el added: That chicken decapitation scene was horrific Im definitely being a vegetarian now. Anil Mohanlal countered: Hypocrites showing disgust at the chicken being killed and skinned in The Real marigold Hotel must think their chickens in Waitrose and Tesco are still born with plastic wrapping. Besides Johnson, the latest series stars comedian Syd Little; TV presenter and journalist Selina Scott; actress Stephanie Beacham; Grand National winning jockey Bob Champion; actress Susan George; Krankies double act Janette and Ian Tough; and Eastenders actor Peter Dean. Champion came in for some flak for trying the curry for the first time in his life: Well done Bob for trying Indian food for the first time at 69 but it does say something about the man. I mean how can you not have had Indian food as a born and bred Englishman, asked Lady Day. Revelling in traditional hospitality and settling in a house by the Pichola lake in Udaipur, the nine celebrities most had never been to India expressed their surprise, delight and at times dislike using understated British humour. They also travel to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Of the lot, the most comfortable person in the Indian environs was Johnson, 77, who has visited India several times since 1961; his daughter-in-law, Marina Wheeler (Boris Johnsons wife) is of Indian origin. The first episode of series three was received well, with many wishing they could just take a flight to India, but The Daily Telegraph saw a fundamental flaw, since it is quite obvious that not one of those nine aged luminaries has any intention of doing such a thing (retiring in India). Indian-origin viewers too gave the series a thumbs-up, mainly because it had less of the orientalist perspective that has long dominated British films and television shows with Indian themes. For once, it showed genuine delight and effort by Britons to appreciate, adjust and enjoy the warmth of our people. There was none of the former colonialist-returning-to-former-colony treatment that is often seen on British television, said Ravi Singh, a senior IT consultant in Maidenhead. Pipeline 2 August 2018 Charlestowne Hotels has been selected by Elon University to manage its new campus hotel, opening fall 2019. The Inn at Elon will feature 80 well-appointed guestrooms, ten of which will be suites. The three-story property will also feature a fitness center, as well as two dining venue options, including an upscale bar and restaurant. Event space will be available for conferences, weddings, corporate meetings, private dining, and university functions. Coupled with significant university and community outreach, Charlestowne will apply its marketing and profit expertise to ensure the property enjoys its full revenue potential. A development that was strongly supported by the local community, The Inn at Elon meets the university's long-standing need for on-campus lodging and conference space. Further encouraging student development, 100 percent of net income will be dedicated to student scholarships. Situated next to Elon's Love School of Business, the hotel will offer current and prospective students, returning alumni, and members of the community a central location with unparalleled access to the esteemed Elon campus. "The relationship between the university and community were focal points of the hotel's brand development," says Charlestowne's vice president of marketing, Michael Cady. "A destination unto itself, the hotel must be reflective of Elon's prestige among students, alumni and staff, as well as a gathering place for members of the community." During hotel's construction phase this summer, Charlestowne will provide programming and design counsel to ensure both operational functionality and optimal guest experience upon opening. "Charlestowne Hotels is known for its tailored management approach, which constantly evolves to meet the specific needs and goals of our diverse properties," says Charlestowne president and chief operating officer Michael Tall. "We prefer to be involved in new projects as early as possible to provide strategic recommendations. Whether it's suggesting a more durable flooring for a high traffic area or forecasting nightly dinner covers, our participation ensures the hotel is set up for success as soon as the doors open." Charlestowne Hotels brings a history of success with hotels in university markets, offering experience in key elements ranging from the capitalization of campus calendar revenue sources, to the shift in guest demographics from prospective students to older alumni. The Inn at Elon joins Charlestowne's growing collection of college town hotels including: The Abernathy at Clemson University, The Sewanee Inn at the University of the South, Inn at Carnall Hall at the University of Arkansas, Colgate Inn at Colgate University and Hotel Indigo Tuscaloosa at University of Alabama. Now Open 2 August 2018 Istanbul's bustling business district today welcomed a stunning addition to Hilton's growing portfolio in Turkey - Hilton Istanbul Maslak. Boasting a stylish and chic design, beautiful interiors and unmatched amenities, including a dedicated art gallery, Hilton Istanbul Maslak promises both business and leisure travellers alike an unequivocal first-class hospitality experience. The hotel joins 61 existing Hilton properties in Turkey and is the latest addition to the hospitality leader's flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand. Conveniently located just a 30-minute drive from Ataturk Airport and a short walk to the subway station, corporate offices, high-end shopping centers, and concert halls, Hilton Istanbul Maslak offers 284 contemporary spacious guestrooms, from Deluxe Rooms to Executive Rooms and Suites - all boasting a functional design and beautiful city views. Guests staying in the hotel's Executive Rooms also have exclusive access to the Executive Lounge, where they can sit back and relax or make the final touches to a work assignment, all while enjoying a continental breakfast or complimentary refreshments. The perfect address for hosting a business meeting or a memorable occasion or event, Hilton Istanbul Maslak offers more than 6,600m of event space, including a starlit rooftop venue, a 850m pillarless ballroom, and 22 meeting rooms spread across three floors and that can accommodate up to 1,200 guests, all equipped with the latest and most sophisticated A/V technology. The property's unique features also include a dedicated art gallery in the lobby area, which allows guests to catch a glimpse of the universe through a vibrant display of artistic talent from around the globe. Guests can experience the world of art and photography with the hotel's ever-changing art exhibition and enjoy a few quiet moments in the inviting lounge area. From the moment they walk in, visitors will feel inspired by the creative brilliance on showcase. Supplier News 2 August 2018 Orlando, Fla. -- 2018 is shaping up to be a pretty good year. A recent article published by Lodging magazine reports that "across the board, hotels are making their guests happier than ever." Citing results from a newly released J.D. Power 2018 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index study, "overall satisfaction for the industry increased eight points to 825 on a 1,000-point scale." Guestroom technology is one contributing factor to hotel-stay happiness. A significant finding in this study, Lodging reports, is that guest satisfaction can rise by as much as 47 points when a hotel provides an in-room tablet. Hotels offering a mobile app can achieve a 58-point approval increase. "Intelity has always been a forward-looking company," said David Adelson, Intelity president and CEO. "Back in 2010, we were the first hospitality company to introduce a guest-service mobile app (ICEapp) and an in-room touch tablet (ICEbedside). These tools make it possible for travelers to engage with a hotel before, during and after their stays. It's gratifying to see that these mobile technologies continue to drive guest satisfaction. Both the ICEapp and ICEbedside are growing in demand daily across the globe for their ability to keep hoteliers connected to their guests, and vice versa. "Our customers tell us that their guests appreciate ICEapp and ICEbedside because both provide an efficient way to interact with the hotel," Hopkins said. "As operators, they enjoy being able to offer the conveniences of technology without compromising their high-standards of service. Today, 90% of guests are using ICEbedside when provided, of whom 75% are using it to order room service. On average, customers report that checks have increased by 12% from upselling through the digital in-room dining menu presented on ICEbedside." Early Adopter Says ICE is Nice When Stephen Johnston, managing director and general manager of the Boston Harbor Hotel, heard about the ICEapp after its initial launch, he said he was skeptical. From increased revenue and guest satisfaction to a stronger ability to communicate with hotel guests, it sounded too good to be true. Understanding the growing importance for weaving technology into the guest experience, Johnson and his hotel's management team knew that hospitality technology was no longer a "nice to have" but rather a "must have." "When Intelity was first presented to me years ago, I was intrigued because at the time the Boston Harbor Hotel did not fully utilize technology, and we were looking for new ways to do so," Johnston said. "After installing Intelity's ICEbedside and launching the mobile ICEapp, any doubts have dissipated. The numerous benefits realized through use of the platform surpassed expectations. "We listen to our guests a lot and value their feedback," he said. "We're very engaged as a Forbes Five-Star hotel. Since we added the hotel tablets to the rooms, I have received so many positive comments from our guests. Guests appreciate this new and efficient way to interact with the hotel, and we enjoy being able to offer the conveniences of technology without compromising our high standards of service." Johnston said about 80 percent to 90 percent of guests use the ICEapp and ICEbedside as the primary method of placing requests and communicating with hotel staff. Both tools offer a new interactive guest experience. In addition, in-room print costs have decreased by 90 percent. Satisfaction Spreading Across the Globe Intelity's guest technology is also enabling the Rancho Santana in Nicaragua to more efficiently share and update information about onsite activities, amenities, events, pricing and marketing promotions. Resort guests and residence owners are receiving important notifications without stopping by the front desk. "With the ICEapp and ICEbedside, we have one space we can constantly keep updated and don't constantly waste so much paper," said Stephanie Judge, the hotel's marketing and administrative specialist. "Guests really like being able to see the information and not have to come to the concierge to get it. Because our property is so large, it might be a drive for a guest to get to the concierge. Instead they can just pull up information right on the in-room tablet or their phone." Rancho Santana's staff are also benefitting from these mobile guest-satisfaction and engagement tools. Receiving guest requests directly through the Request Manager module of Intelity's back-end system has increased accuracy, as staff are no longer required to manually record requests. Members of staff also don't have to field as many questions from guests about basic information that is now entirely housed on the in-room tablets and app. "Since implementing these Intelity technologies, I stayed at a 5-star luxury hotel in Orlando and was able to experience the ICEapp and ICEbedside as a guest," Judge said. "It was cool to realize that our coastal hotel is in the same league as other prestigious 5-star properties as far as being progressive with technology. It was fun to see other creative ways to use this technology to improve the guest experience and I have new ideas for how we can use it in the future." Opinion Article 2 August 2018 With Oracle Hospitality having the largest market share of any property management system (PMS) in the world, when they move the world listens. Fortunately, I was invited to share in the experience of their annual partners conference, Oracle Industry Connect, held in New York City in mid-April. Advertisements Stemming from this conference, the company's hospitality division has released a new white paper addressing some of the ways modern travelers' purchasing and loyalty habits are changing as well as what hotels can do to take advantage of the findings. Please note that while Oracle's strategic position is formidable, there are many other PMS solutions available to hoteliers and this posting should not be construed as an endorsement of one system over any other. During a brief interview with Laura Calin, Vice President of Solutions and Strategy for Oracle Hospitality, it was made clear that the company's primary goal is to help improve and personalize the guest experience. To accomplish this, as a software solutions provider, Oracle is actively working to increase data connectivity through its open API technologies and building systems with adaptive intelligence, otherwise known as machine learning. Armed with more data, enriched guest profiles and heightened inference tools, hoteliers can then make better-informed decisions about how best to service their customers, especially when combined with Oracle's new simplified dashboard to give frontline staff immediate access to actionable intelligence. When faced with a mounting loyalty challenge, hoteliers must now wield all the data at their disposal to craft highly personalized experiences in order to convert indirect to direct bookings and to derive advocacy from an increasingly fickle audience. Where the divide comes into play is in how hotels perceive travelers versus what the latter group is actually saying. Based upon a survey of some 13,000 consumers across nine countries, the study reveals that guests are in fact quite discerning when it comes to joining a loyalty program, with three-quarters stating that they rarely sign up or only do so when it's highly relevant. Moreover, just over one-fifth of guests believe that hotel offerings are mostly relevant to them while another two-fifths claiming that hotel offerings are rarely pertinent to their travel goals. In other words, we aren't listening to our guests enough, nor are using what's been said and what's been purchased to hone our products to meet this new consumer paradigm. Interestingly, the study also highlights the rise of social advocacy as playing a dominant role in travel behavior. Over half of travelers will scrutinize a brand's social presence before buying while just under 50% will publicly support a hotel on social media in exchange for a reward. And speaking of loyalty programs, three-quarters of those surveyed prefer immediate benefits over accumulating points, frequent rewards that are not dependent on earning points and systems that tailor future offers to customers based upon past acceptances or rejections. My takeaway from this is that hotels must first fully integrate their rewards programs into their CRMs so that we not only know our guests better but can give them exactly what they want in order to keep them loyal, or at the very least offer them something that's actually appealing. Central to the white paper were four modern traveler archetypes that Oracle derived from these statistics and for you to take note so you can adjust your marketing efforts accordingly. Broadcaster: more likely to rave about a great hotel experience on social media; also motivated to do so by prospect of rewards or improved online status more likely to rave about a great hotel experience on social media; also motivated to do so by prospect of rewards or improved online status Enthusiast: drawn to exceptional service and amenities; likes to fully engage with a beloved brand by experiencing all that it has to offer drawn to exceptional service and amenities; likes to fully engage with a beloved brand by experiencing all that it has to offer Lazy Loyal: follows a 'better the devil you know' mentality; seeking features that streamline or automate hotel experience follows a 'better the devil you know' mentality; seeking features that streamline or automate hotel experience Seeker: likes to shop around; price and personalized promotions are by far the dominant decision-making factors While I'm not one to typically typecast customers according to a specific set of criteria, there are indeed some powerful observations here that can be utilized to enhance sales. Primarily, by integrating your guest profile history with your marketing systems, you can now customize your offers according to what you already know about a person or by asking a prospective consumer for a bit of personal information before suggesting a bespoke promotion. Next, this attitude should also be applied to your onsite experience where you now have the technological resources to design new features and retrofit existing ones so that they'll be appreciated by visitors. Above all, what we are talking about here is the personalization of the guest experience, from initial sales offer right through to checkout. For some hotels, taking the first step in this direction may be training your front desk staff to use the systems already in place so they are ready to greet guests by name. For others, it might mean a joint rewards program that offers onsite credits for social media posts. Whichever way you choose, PMS companies such as Oracle are going giving you the tools to unify all your disparate data points to make this possible. Revenue per available room up 2.7 Percent to CAD145.98 The Canadian hotel industry recorded mixed year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 22-28 July 2018, according to data from STR. In comparison with the week of 23-29 July 2017, the industry reported the following: Occupancy: -1.0% to 80.0% Average daily rate (ADR): +3.8% to CAD182.37 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +2.7% to CAD145.98 Among the provinces and territories, British Columbia, registered the largest increase in RevPAR (+10.5% to CAD218.17), due to the only double-digit increase in ADR (+11.3% to CAD246.87). Manitoba experienced the highest rise in occupancy (+9.9% to 80.9%) and the second-largest jump in RevPAR (+9.7% to CAD99.39). Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest decrease in occupancy (-11.0% to 78.6%), which resulted in the steepest decline in RevPAR (-13.9% to CAD121.39). Saskatchewan posted the largest drop in ADR (-6.4% to CAD112.10) and the second-largest decrease in RevPAR (-12.4% to CAD66.64). The Northwest Territories experienced the only other double-digit decrease in occupancy (-10.4% to 51.8%) and the third-largest decline in RevPAR (-5.3% to CAD82.24). STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource In 2017, Google rolled out a number of new initiatives at their Google Marketing Next event. In 2018, this event is called Google Marketing Live, but once again were getting an inside look at what the internet giant has been up to for the past year. In 2017, Google rolled out a number of new initiatives at their Google Marketing Next event. In 2018, this event is called Google Marketing Live, but once again were getting an inside look at what the internet giant has been up to for the past year. In the weeks leading up to the Google Live event, the company announced some new branding initiatives, including a naming shift from AdWords to Ads, and the combining of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers into a single platform: Google Ad Manager. On Tuesday, Google made more announcements around their advancement of machine learning, and how they will be applying this to the Google Ads platform. What You Need to Know As many of you know, search ads were one of Googles first offerings, and new responsive search ads leverage machine learning to be helpful and personalized at scale. According to the companys recent testing, this approach results in 15% more ad clicks, with the feature rolling out to all advertisers over the next several months. Simply provide up to 15 headlines and 4 description lines, and Google will do the rest. By testing different combinations, Google learns which ad creative performs best for any search query. So people searching for the same thing might see different ads based on context. In addition to these Responsive Search Ads, Google also announced the following enhancements revolving around machine learning during Tuesdays session: Maximize lift for YouTube Uses machine learning to optimize ad performance on YouTube by automatically adjusting bids. Local campaigns Uses machine learning to help get more customers into physical stores by optimizing where ads appear across various Google platforms. Smart shopping campaigns Uses machine learning to optimize campaigns based on criteria and goals selected by marketers. What the Recent Update Means for the Hospitality Industry Google has already made an impact, targeting hotels with their Hotel Ads feature, allowing properties to showcase their business on Google.com and Google Maps, across all devices. However, unlike most meta-search entities (which is still at the heart of Googles foray into Hotel bookings), the company is allowing travelers to book directly on the property website, in a sense owning the relationship from the interaction with the ad to the booking. Google has already integrated with a number of booking engines to ensure they have easy access to available room inventory for a variety of lodging providers including TravelClick, Sabre Hospitality, IBC Hospitality Solutions, and SHR to name a few. New Ways to Manage Audiences A new audience manager lets you set a hotel marketing campaign to target people who have already engaged with your website in some way. Along with this is the ability to target by demographics, allowing advertisers to cater their ads to appeal to different genders and ages. While this functionality was available before, Google has taken this a step further with targets able to be based on household income and parental status. A capability like this enables advertisers, such as hotels, to get really specific about their audience, making it easier to attract the right guests. Ad Placement In addition to all of these recent releases, our team has also noticed Google testing a new placement of these high conversion Hotel Ads, above the first organic placement on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). As you can see from the screenshots below, these ad placements have moved from the right sidebar to a traditional native ad placement, right within the results area of the page: How will these new placements impact your business? By the sheer measure of pushing organic results further down the page, these Hotel Ads placements will likely decrease organic brand traffic to your website. You will need to put a greater SEO focus on local search terms and long tail keywords to ensure that your property is staying on top of non-brand related search term results. Brand bidding becomes more important as your rates will not be the only ones showing up in the Book Now box. OTAs will also be bidding to be included in this area, and while these bookings will help you increase your occupancy, we all know that they arent optimizing revenue. The only way for your website to display above this inline Book Now format will be to bid on your own brand keywords. If you arent already using Google Hotel Ads, now is the time to learn more about how your property can be included. The first step is finding out whether or not your booking engine has integrated with Google. About ResortsandLodges.com: ResortsandLodges.com is a comprehensive online resource for leisure travel with access to unique accommodations worldwide. The site provides the ability to plan and book memorable experiences at resorts, vacation rentals, cabins, holiday rentals, villas, condos, cottages, lodges, boutique hotels, B&B's and vacation hotels. Founded in 1998, ResortsandLodges.com was one of the first major leisure travel sites established online, and has received numerous awards and accolades for web design, outstanding usability, fast page loading speeds, and skillful information display. ResortsandLodges For Business puts todays vacation properties in front of millions of travelers annually using comprehensive business listing techniques and strategic digital content marketing. Our team of industry experts manages Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC), Display and Banner Advertising, Email Marketing Automation, and Drip Email Marketing for properties across North America. In addition to these managed services, ResortsandLodges also has a dedicated website development and implementation team, giving independent properties a comprehensive suite of services to choose from to gain brand dominance over their competition. Visit business.resortsandlodges.com to learn more. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource RevPAR at Athenian hotels improved 13.2% y-o-y during H1 2018, mainly because of strong improvements of ADR. The 3-star category benefited the least of the surge in demand with an improvement of RevPAR of 6.2% y-o-y during H1 2018. International arrivals at the Athens International Airport increased by 21.8% y-o-y in Q2 2018, which means that the airport attracted nearly 550,000 more international arrivals during first six months of 2018 than last year. RevPAR at Athenian hotels improved 13.2% y-o-y during H1 2018, mainly because of strong improvements of ADR. The 3-star category benefited the least of the surge in demand with an improvement of RevPAR of 6.2% y-o-y during H1 2018. In Thessaloniki the second quarter was particularly strong. International arrivals increased 13.6% y-o-y, while RevPAR increased by 15.0% y-o-y in Q2 2018. Except the airports of Aktio and Skiathos all other main international airports of Greece recorded double digit growth during the first half of this year. Resort hotels benefited with improvements in both occupancy levels and revenues, leading to an increase of the Total Revenue per Available room of 19.2% y-o-y for H1 2018. Data of the Bank of Greece up to May 2018 shows that international arrivals in Greece increased by 16.8% y-o-y and travel receipts by 23.1% y-o-y, meaning that the average expenditure per arrival is increasing. The hotel sector of Rome improved their RevPAR with 4.8% y-o-y during H1 2018, while Madrid had an increase of their RevPAR of 1.9% y-o-y over the same period after a difficult second quarter. Cairo continues its recovery with double digit growth of occupancy during the first half of 2018 compared to same period last year. Click here ( Adobe Acrobat PDF file) to download the complete article. GBR Consulting is a leading Greek business consultant firm. GBR Consulting supports clients develop their businesses in a structured manner leading to growth. The firm offers their clients, who are mainly active in the tourism, retail, food, construction and energy sectors, lasting solutions in the field of strategy, marketing, organisation and finance, while also delivering litigation support. GBR Consulting 4 Sekeri Street, 106 74 Athens, Greece T (+30) 210 36 05 002 F (+30) 210 36 06 935 www.gbrconsulting.gr gbr@gbrconsulting.gr Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Wyndham Palau is being developed by the Sea Sky International Development Group, a subsidiary of Global International Development Group. The resort is located in the unspoiled region of Aimeliik, which is home to spectacular natural landscapes, ancient villages and crystal clear seas teeming with colourful marine life. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts unveiled a new resort with over-water villas in Palau, the pristine western Pacific island paradise, under its namesake Wyndham brand at a recent ground breaking ceremony. Wyndham Palau is being developed by the Sea Sky International Development Group, a subsidiary of Global International Development Group. The resort is located in the unspoiled region of Aimeliik, which is home to spectacular natural landscapes, ancient villages and crystal clear seas teeming with colourful marine life. Upon completion, this 593-key resort will offer a choice of beautifully-appointed accommodations, including 132 hotel guestrooms and over 400 villas, with some perched on stilts over the warm, shallow seas. These exotic rooms will be accompanied by other luxury villas nestled in the hillside and on the edge of the mangroves. Wyndham Palau welcomes guests with a VIP lounge and offers an Executive Lounge - a private sanctuary featuring an array of additional amenities - for VIPs and Wyndham Rewards members. Guests can access two free-form pools surrounded by a large sun deck and shady cabanas, a children's pool, a kid's club and a serene wellness centre. The resort also includes a purpose-built conference centre with a wide variety of options for event planners, including a ballroom seating up to 140 guests and four meeting rooms for up to 60 people. A collection of distinct F&B outlets will include a chic lobby lounge, beach bar and terrace, and pool bar. The resort's all-day dining pool restaurant will serve Asian and international cuisine throughout the day, with indoor and alfresco seating, while a specialty Chinese restaurant will create exquisite epicurean experiences, including the option of private dining rooms. "With its tropical climate, rich history and pristine landscapes, Palau is a compelling proposition for international travellers," said Joon Aun OOI, President and Managing Director, South East Asia and Pacific Rim, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. "Wyndham Palau will break new ground in this beautiful country, becoming the first upscale international resort in the Aimeliik region." "International visitor arrivals to Palau have jumped 50 percent since 2010, and the country remains an intriguing and appealing destination for many Asian travellers. With direct air links from key source markets such as Seoul and Taipei, the prospects for Palau's tourism industry - including the MICE sector - remain incredibly bright," Mr Ooi added. Palau comprises more than 200 lush, jungle-clad islands in the western Pacific Ocean, about 1,500 kilometres east of the Philippines. While the country is small, its surrounding marine sanctuary is anything but; Palau's government has committed to protecting about 500,000 square kilometres of ocean - an area about the size of Thailand. This makes it a paradise for divers and snorkellers, with healthy reefs that house an abundance of marine life, including approximately 1,500 species of fish, sharks, rays, turtles and more. In fact, Palau's waters are so vibrant they have been dubbed the "Underwater Serengeti." "We identified Aimeliik as the perfect place to open up a new frontier in Palau's tourism industry. Easily accessible from the Koror City and the airport, this is a stunning region with pure shores and lush natural landscapes. With the global support of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, one of the hotel industry's most famous and respected names, I am confident that our stunning new resort will mark the start of an exciting new era for Palau," commented Ms Selina Zhong, President, Global International Development Group. Wyndham Palau will be located just 20 minutes' drive from the Palau International Airport and a short boat transfer from Koror, the country's main commercial centre. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts offers more than 120 properties in the South East Asia and Pacific Rim region, including 12 under the Wyndham flag. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe 2021 Hotel News Resource Earlier this week, French Montana's home was targeted in a home invasion by armed robbers. Thankfully, there hasn't been any reported injuries. Unfortunately, the perpetrators are still on the loose but French's neighbors are taking the initiative to help authorities find who may have done it. According to The Blast, French Montana's neighbors are being asked to hand over any security footage from the neighborhood to try and find the robbers. A message was put out on the Mureau Estates of Calabasas message board asking neighbors to bring forth any possible video evidence of the home invasion to the L.A. County Sheriff. Despite gated access and the exclusivity of French's neighborhood, there's a possibility that the thieves could've made their in and out through surrounding properties. Another message on the community board asked neighbors to keep their eye out for any suspicious activity. In April, there was a message that warned residents of a man driving up and down our street" pretending to sell cleaning supplies. The Calabasas neighborhood, specifically French's mansion, has faced problems in the past. Selena Gomez, who previously owned the home before French, called police in 2015 after a stalker showed up at her place on numerous occasions. The home invasion on French Montana's home happened at the early Tuesday morning, although police were called a few hours later. Police have since reviewed surveillance footage. The beloved "Grape" Air Jordan 5s are rumored to return to retailers next month, but they'll look slightly different this time around. While the kicks will still feature the familiar white leather upper accompanied by hits of emerald green, purple and black, it is being reported that they'll come without laces as a nod to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Judging from early images of the Fresh Prince "Grape" Air Jordan 5s, the eyelets have been sealed shut so sneakerheads will have to rock them the way Will Smith did during the 90s. Additional details include "West Philadelphia" text debossed just below the puffy purple tongue, Fresh Prince-inspired insoles and emerald green "Nike Air" branding on the heel. Release details have not yet been announced but rumors suggest September 25 is a date to watch out for. Take a look at early images in the IG posts embedded below. DJ Muggs is getting ready to release his forthcoming album, Dia Del Asesinato next week. The Cypress Hill member has given us a few teasers of what to expect off the project with the Mach-Hommy assisted "Contagion Theory" as well as the Doom and Freddie Gibbs collab, "Death Wish." Yesterday marked the 23rd anniversary of Raekwon's debut album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and today, Muggs unleashes his collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan member off of the project. DJ Muggs recruits Raekwon for their new collaboration, "Yacht Party." Muggs brings out that classic mafioso raps out of Raekwon with the production on the track. It's a great marriage between one of the most iconic rappers of the 90's as well as one of the tightest producers. Dia Del Asesinato drops on August 10th. Quotable Lyrics At any second, we could disrespect it So who the fuck tryna check me? Pull the gilette, yo chill, kids is in here At least one worker remains in critical condition after an explosion at a natural gas pipeline sent seven people, including two firefighters, to the hospital Wednesday. At least three pipelines, including the El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan of Houston, may have been involved in the incident, authorities said. Sara Hughes, a company spokeswoman, said Kinder Morgan's 12-inch El Paso Natural Gas pipeline exploded Wednesday, but it appeared that another company's nearby pipeline exploded before the El Paso line. This summer was supposed to be brutal with days of triple-digit temperatures, less generating capacity and predictions the power grid couldnt support the states electricity needs. Some of the dire warnings were spot on, as Texas broke records for heat and electricity use during the heat wave last month. But regulators didnt call for consumers to cut back. The lights stayed on. And wholesale prices didnt spike as high as some feared. Power experts figure it will take months for state regulators to report on whether there was any behind the scenes drama during the hour-by-hour power surges during the July heat wave that pushed temperatures in Houston above 100 degrees. At the moment, though, the states grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, credits careful planning for weathering conditions that tested grid reliability in Texas. RELATED: Texas breaks power record again ERCOT said it expected extreme temperatures and took steps to ensure it had enough supply by restricting planned transmission outages during the summer months and conferred with pipeline companies to ensure that natural gas needed to generate electricity made it to power plants. Generators also responded to the higher prices, which peaked at $2,172.70 per megawatt hour during the hottest days compared to last years average of $28 per megawatt hour cranking up power plants during the peak demand periods, said ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko. Consequently, with supplies sufficient to meet demand, ERCOT didnt have to issue pleas to consumers and businesses to conserve power. Instead, the pleas to conserve came from the retail electricity companies that must buy power on the the spot market if they havent contracted far enough in advance. Typically, retail companies buy futures contracts to secure electricity for their customers and set prices for their power plans. But when temperatures spike and demand soars, retail companies must often turn to the spot market to acquire additional supplies. That leaves retail firms at the mercy of the marketplace, where prices can spike as high as $9,000 per megawatt hour and quickly shrink if not wipe out the retailers profit margins. Several retail electricity providers, including Direct Energy, Cirro Energy and Reliant Energy, sent out email alerts asking their customers to turn off pool pumps, turn up thermostats and refrain from using washing machines, dryers and dishwashers during the late afternoon hours when power use peaked and wholesale prices were at their highest. Cirro and Reliant are both owned by NRG Energy. It was pretty clear we were getting to the point we were strained, said Ed Hirs, energy economist at the University of Houston. RELATED: Texas power companies ask consumers to cut back as heat intensifies Power use hit 72,192 megawatts on July 18, surpassing the previous 2016 record. The following day Texas set another all-time, system-wide peak demand record, topping out at 73,259 megawatts between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. One megawatt can power about 200 homes during a hot summer day in Texas. Direct Energy wont provide an analysis of its power buys, noting that the information is confidential. But spokeswoman Jessica Michan said the retail provider regularly calls on customers to conserve during peak times summer in the South and winter in the Northregardless of how the companys hedging, or purchases of futures contracts. NRG Energy said information about how its retail companies supplied customers in July wont be made public until the company announces its third quarter earnings in the fall. But NRG spokeswoman Pat Hammond said that its request to customers to conserve power was made to protect the integrity of the power grid, knowing how hot it would be and how much it would strain electricity supplies. DeAnn Walker, chairman of the Public Utility Commission, said her agency is already examining how ERCOT handled the hot weather demands this summer. The summer season is halfway over, Walker said in a statement, but we anticipate continued reliability, READ MORE: It pays to switch power plans, but few do One former power trader said it appears ERCOT encouraged generators to operate their plants at maximum capacity and sell the power on whats known as the day ahead market, a financially-binding forward energy market where generators agree to sell their power at a contracted price on the following day. That caused day-ahead prices to rise, which in turn spurred generators to produce more electricity, said Trent Crow, who left trading to launch the electricity shopping service Real Simple Energy. At those prices every single power plant is making money, said Crow, noting that the price per megawatt hour in the day ahead market hovered between $1,400 and $2,000 during the hottest afternoons last month, compared to typical prices of $100 to $200. Conversely, the spot market which is usually more expensive than the day-ahead market was tame, rarely going above $500 per megawatt hour, Crow said. The soaring wholesale prices in the day-ahead market will likely filter down to retail customers in the form of higher rates, as would spikes in spot market prices, Crowe said. An Alabama native and Crimson Tide alum, Vicki Hollub started her oil and gas career in 1981 working in Mississippi with Cities Service, the company best known for founding the Citgo brand. One year later, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum bought Cities Service, and Hollub embarked on her long Oxy career that, in 2016, made her the first female chief executive of a major oil company. Hollub has worked with Oxy everywhere from Ecuadorian jungles to Russia, but shes spent much of her time in Houston, which became Oxys headquarters in 2014. Oxy isnt leaving Houston, but it aims to leave its Greenway Plaza headquarters for a bigger space, possibly in the Energy Corridor complex being abandoned by ConocoPhillips, which is switching to a new Energy Corridor hub. Hollub took over at Oxy after it moved to Houston and also after it went on a divestment spree, selling pipeline assets and much of its acreage in the Middle East and northern Africa. The company also sold off its U.S. assets in the Mid-continent and Rockies regions, as well as South Texas Eagle Ford shale and North Dakotas Williston Basin. Oxy even spun off its California business into the California Resources Corp. All the while, Oxy was doubling and tripling down on focusing the company on West Texas Permian Basin, even before the Permian started booming again. Hollub took over during the recent oil bust, but that region is now going gangbusters and so is much of Oxys business. Q: Does Houston feel like home for Oxy now? A: Weve always had a big presence here. We were somewhat always a Houston company. We had this almost disconnected corporate office in LA. But I think the heartthrob of the company has always been in Houston. So when (former CEO) Steve Chazen had the opportunity to move us here, he took the first opportunity he had and certainly that was a great decision because it connected the corporate part of the company with the main part of the operations. Q: Why did Oxy perform relatively well during the recent oil bust that lasted from late 2014 into 2017? A: Right before the downturn started, we had started a portfolio optimization process. So, during the downturn, when you saw other companies selling their assets, they were doing that mainly to gain some cash because they needed cash. What made us stronger is we actually exited 40 percent of our production, but then we were able to make that up by investing in our very high return Permian Resources business. So we exited low-margin, low-return businesses four internationally, three domestically and then we spun off California. And then we were able to restore that cash flow with investments in our highest-return asset, the Permian business. We never wavered from that commitment and it made our company stronger. That was incredibly tough to do because we got hit with not only losing 40 percent of our production and associated cash flow, but with declining oil prices happening at the same time. What it did was it made it us very motivated to weather through it and survive it. Q: Besides the acreage, whats given Oxy an edge in the Permian? A: We were able to work on our subsurface characterization so that we believe weve now developed a breakthrough in how we develop our Permian shale business. So the productivity of what were developing now is much higher than it was before. If you looked at the top 50 wells in the Permian Basin over the past year, 21 of those are our wells. So with the 3D seismic that we have and we have 10,000 square miles of it that coupled with our broader data analytics initiative that we started in late 2016, that enabled us to figure out what it really takes to complete the wells in the shale play. How does it benefit Oxy having a combination of Permian shale coupled with an enhanced oil recovery business in more mature parts of the Permian? The process involves injecting gas and carbon dioxide into wells to extract additional volumes of oil. Our enhanced oil recovery business is very low production decline. That gives us a lot of support for our short-cycle, high-decline Permian shale business. Most of the other players in the Permian only have the very high declines from their shale wells. Then they have to spend even more capital above that to achieve a growth rate. When you have that scenario, its like being on a treadmill that youre always trying to stay caught up. But the EOR business props it up so that its easier for us to grow than some other companies. Q: How do you describe how Permian-centric Oxy has become? A: At least since 2000 (when Oxy bought Altura Energy), the Permian became the foundation of our company and has been since then. So the Permian also is now our growth engine as well. So the Permian is now the foundation and the growth of our company. Q: What about the rest of the company and diversification? A: The (OxyChem) chemicals business is critically important to us because it generates a very good return. All of this also is supported by our international business because it generates a lot of cash flow. Our midstream business exists to ensure the best realized prices for our products and that we get our products to market without interruption. So all the businesses really fit together and have a purpose. We do have growth opportunities internationally as well in Colombia and Oman both of which we believe over the next few years well start allocating more growth capital dollars to. And then we have operations in Abu Dhabi and Qatar as well. Q: What is Oxys role in the industry with respect to climate change concerns? A: A big piece of the companys sustainability is how do you deal with climate change. We are the only company in the United States that has an MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) plan from the EPA, which means were the only company that has a permit to sequester carbon dioxide for our EOR. We believe our niche in this environment is to be the company that can help the United States lower CO2 emissions. We can do that by sequestering CO2 in the Permian, because were the largest operator of CO2 enhanced oil recovery all over the world. So the sustainability around climate change gives us the edge in the U.S. to be the leader to help that. You have almost unlimited sequestration opportunities in the Permian. We want to do that anyway because its the right thing to do, but if there ever happens to be a federal carbon tax then were advantaged. Q: What about the industrys concerns with pipeline constraints in the Permian? A: We have contracted takeaway capacity from the Permian on over four pipelines. That 470,000 barrels a day is much larger than our equity production. We actually produce 225,000 barrels of oil a day. So we are now picking up third-party barrels buying them cheaper in Midland and selling them at a much higher price on the Gulf Coast, so were taking advantage of this pipeline bottleneck. But the good news story doesnt stop there for us. In Ingleside, we just recently built the Ingleside oil export terminal. We initially bought that in (2012) for about $85 million. We converted it from a naval station into an oil export terminal. Now were getting oil on the water thats going to Asian sources, European destinations. We were the first company to send oil to India. Those markets really like the Permian crude. Were going to expand it to 750,000 barrels. Thats the first phase. Ultimately well get it to 1 million barrels a day. We have a lot of area to expand that terminal. Q: For two years its been highlighted that youre the first female CEO of a major oil company. Do you get sick of those female CEO questions? A: I certainly dont mind people asking the question. I think its important for people to know that being the first CEO is not the most important thing. The most important thing in our industry has been those many women over the years who have done even more difficult things. There were the first women to go out and work on platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the first women decades ago to go out and work in the rough, scary North Sea. Those were true trailblazers. Being the first female CEO is not as impressive as what so many achieved going back decades ago. Coline Creuzot taps rapper Paul Wall for new single "Link Up," a slinky throwback track that will have you gyrating before you even realize what you're doing. Listen to the song below. And try not to bop to it. Live roaches in the hand sink, ceiling tiles, and dining area were just some of the health code violations observed at Houston area restaurants from July 23-30. During health inspections, inspectors distribute violations that carry a weight between 1 and 25, increasing in severity. The term "demerit" is used by city health inspectors to describe the weighted value assigned to each violation. Less than a year after opening in August 2016, The Pit Room made Texas Monthly's vaunted list of the Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas. For a newbie craft barbecue operation it was a remarkable triumph. The Pit Room hasn't rested on its laurels, though. The restaurant owned by Michael Sambrooks continues to evolve. The house-made Czech and cheesy jalapeno sausage still amazes, as do the tacos made with brisket-fat tortillas. It's even turning out one of the city's most delicious version of Frito Pie. The Pit Room is also getting national exposure: The Cooking Channel's "Man Fire Food" recently featured the restaurant's custom-built trailer that can cook up to 600 pounds of meat. WASHINGTON - Ivanka Trump distanced herself from her father on two high-profile issues Thursday, saying that she did not agree with his characterization of the media as "the enemy of the people" and that she was "vehemently against" separating migrant children from their parents at the border - calling the latter a low point of her tenure in the White House. Her comments at a public event underscored the difficult balance Trump has sought as she provides private counsel to a president and father with whom she does not always see eye to eye, while enduring criticism for not being more outspoken about their differences. Toward the end of a forum hosted by the news site Axios that focused largely on workforce issues, an area of focus for Trump in her capacity as a White House adviser, she was asked whether she considered journalists in the room to be "the enemy of the people." "No, I do not," Trump replied, prompting nervous laughter in the room. Asked to elaborate, Trump offered what she said was "my own personal perspective." Now Playing: Ivanka Trump recently called the family separations at the border a "low point." Video: GeoBeats "I've certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripes, especially when they sort of feel targeted, but no, I do not consider the media the enemy of the people." President Donald Trump has used the term on multiple occasions, and his animus for the media was on display again this week as he promoted a video on Twitter showing his supporters chanting "CNN sucks" as a reporter from the network did a live shot from the site of a campaign rally hosted by the president in Tampa. The video was tweeted by Trump's son Eric and then shared by the president with his 53 million followers. The president tweeted a defense of his daughter later Thursday, arguing that his "enemy of the people" line did not apply to all of the news media but rather only "a large percentage" of it. "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people," Trump said. "She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!" Trump's tweet came hours after a testy briefing with reporters at which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined multiple invitations to say that she did not consider the media to be "the enemy of the people." "I'm here to speak on behalf of the president," Sanders said, ticking off several grievances against reporters. "The president is rightfully frustrated," Sanders said. "Ninety percent of the coverage on him is negative." During Thursday's event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Ivanka Trump was also asked by Mike Allen of Axios to share the high point and low point of her time in the White House. Allen suggested a possible low point for her: the separations of migrant children at the southern border that resulted from the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration. As a national controversy flared, Ivanka Trump reportedly asked her father to end the practice but remained publicly silent, prompting harsh criticism in some quarters - including from comedian Samantha Bee, who made national headlines by using a vulgarity to describe Trump's reticence. After Allen said that the forced family separations were a low point for many, Trump said "that was a low point for me, as well." "I feel very strongly about that," she said. "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children." She went on to say that "immigration is incredibly complex as a topic." "I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of laws," Trump said. "These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues. I experience them in a very emotional way." Her comments Thursday prompted a cascade of criticism from adversaries of the president, who said Ivanka Trump should speak up more forcefully and more frequently. "It's easy and convenient to denounce an abhorrent policy after it's ended," Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said in a tweet. "Doing the right thing is speaking out when it matters. Where were you to stand up to @realDonaldTrump months ago, @IvankaTrump?" A tweet from an account maintained by the organizers of the Women's March also took Ivanka Trump to task, saying that "no amount of regret about or 'strong feelings against' the separation and detention of families and communities will ever make up for what this administration has done." "We have asked you before. We are asking you again now: Take action," the tweet said. Others were quick to point out that presidential aides do not typically speak out publicly when they disagree with their boss. "In any administration, a staffer cannot publicly disagree with the president, so the constant calls for this or that staffer to speak out against the president isn't based in reality," said Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee. While Heye acknowledged that Ivanka Trump "isn't just any staffer," he said it's hard to image how her speaking out more regularly would lead to different postures from her father. "That's up to the president. He's the decider," Heye said. Ivanka Trump first broke her silence on the issue of family separations shortly after her father issued an executive order in June seeking to end the policy that his administration had put in place. "Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border," she wrote. She called on Congress to find a "lasting solution" that is "consistent with our shared values." Ivanka Trump said in a television interview in late June that she had advised her father before his issuance of the executive order. "Of course, I have very strong opinions on that topic," Trump told host Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. During the same interview, Trump sought to explain why she had remained silent while Bee and others attacked her. "I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray, and that means that I'll absorb the body blows that come my way," she said. "It is important to me to focus on the task at hand, which is serving the American people and using this moment in my life to advance an agenda that I deeply believe in and feel very fortunate to be able to work on." During a segment of her "Full Frontal" show on TBS in May, Bee took aim at Trump for tweeting a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year. "You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child," Bee said. "Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c---. He listens to you." Bee later apologized, saying her use of the vulgarity was "inappropriate and inexcusable" and that she had "crossed a line." As for a high point of her White House tenure, Trump on Thursday cited the president's commutation of the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old woman serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction after her case was brought to his attention by reality television star Kim Kardashian. Ivanka Trump said she was moved while watching news coverage of Johnson leaving prison and running into the arms of her waiting family members. "I was crying," Trump said. "It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It reminds you of the real impact you have on people." --- Video Embed Code Video: Senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump broke with President Trump on Aug. 2, saying the media is not the enemy of the people.(C-SPAN) Embed code: WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicated this week that he is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to President Donald Trump in an interview, renewing negotiations with Trump's lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended standoff, according to two people briefed on the negotiations. The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and Mueller personally. For months, Mueller has been seeking to question the president as part of his investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 campaign, which is also examining whether Trump has sought to block that probe. In a letter sent Monday, Mueller's team suggested that investigators would reduce the number of questions about potential obstruction of justice they would ask in person and instead seek some answers in written form, according to one person. The special counsel is still seeking to press Trump on topics related to obstruction, including some questions about the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, but not as many as Mueller originally sought. Now Playing: President Trump may be changing his tone, after months of saying he would agree to sit down with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Video: Buzz 60 The two sides have been at an impasse since March, when Mueller raised the possible threat of subpoenaing the president. Earlier this summer, Trump's legal team sought to set specific conditions on an interview and make central topics off limits - conditions they believed would be dealbreakers for the special counsel. Among them: that Mueller not ask any questions about actions Trump has taken as president, including his private discussions with Comey. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told The Washington Post earlier this month that he believe such questions could unfairly expose Trump to claims of perjury. Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's attorneys, declined to comment on the new Mueller proposal about a presidential interview and and whether the Trump team might accept the offer. "There continue to be ongoing discussions," Sekulow said. "Nothing's decided." Giuliani told reporters in New Hampshire on Wednesday said that Trump remains willing to be interviewed if the lawyers can agree on ground rules. "I'm not going to give you a lot of hope it's going to happen," he said on CNN. "But we're still negotiating." "He's always been interested in testifying," he added. "It's us - meaning the team of lawyers, including me - that have the most reservations about that." Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, declined to comment. In the wake of the proposal by Mueller's team, Trump stepped up his assault on the special counsel investigation, tweeting Wednesday that the Justice Department should shut it down. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" he wrote. When Mueller first proposed a presidential interview in late December, Trump was keen to do it. He told his lawyers he wanted to clear up any questions Mueller had and believed he could put to rest questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 election. But Trump's lawyers have been wary of a sit-down with prosecutors. Giuliani has repeatedly warned that such an interview would expose Trump to legal danger, saying that if Trump made any misstep or if Mueller later determined that other witnesses were more credible than Trump about what he had said and done, the president could face accusations of perjury. In negotiations with Mueller this spring, Trump's legal team sought a deal in which the president could provide written answers to some of the special counsel's questions. They also pressed Mueller's investigators to demonstrate that they cannot obtain the information they are seeking without interviewing the president. --- The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - The National Archives said Thursday it will not be able to produce the full cache of documents requested by the Senate on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh until the end of October, but Republicans indicated they would press ahead with plans to hold confirmation hearings next month. Gary Stern, the archives' general counsel, told Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in a letter Thursday that the records he has requested could total more than 900,000 pages. Grassley, backed by other Senate Republicans, asked for all documents from Kavanaugh's tenure in the George W. Bush White House as an associate White House counsel. "[P]lease note that we will not be able to complete our review of all of the records that you have requested by Aug. 15, 2018," Stern wrote to Grassley. The archives would be able to review emails received from Kavanaugh - about 49,000 emails, or 300,000 pages - by roughly Aug. 20, and the rest of the pages would be reviewed by the end of October. But a committee spokesman said Senate Republicans are still on track for September hearings because senators will be able to obtain the documents more expeditiously through a separate process directly involving the Bush Presidential Library. "The committee will receive documents in an even more rapid fashion from the Bush Library as the Archives continues its statutory document review," spokesman Taylor Foy said in a statement. "As a result, I expect the committee will be able to undertake its thorough review process along the same timeline set in previous Supreme Court confirmations." That review process has already been conducted on a parallel track by a group of lawyers led by Bush's presidential-records representative, Bill Burck. In a separate letter dated Thursday and obtained by The Washington Post, Burck says the legal team has already gone through 125,035 pages of Kavanaugh's records and handed those documents over to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its review. "As you know, President Bush is under no obligation to produce records of his administration but has authorized this production to assist" the committee on its consideration of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Burck wrote to Grassley. Bush also has "no objection to making these presidential records available to the public," Burck wrote. Earlier this week, Burck wrote to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., that Bush asked his legal team to begin reviewing Kavanaugh's records to help "expedite the committee's access to the records," as a "courtesy" to senators. More than 50 lawyers from three law firms are on the Burck-led team, according to an official familiar with the process. It will take the group about two more weeks to complete the review, the official said. Nonetheless, the Archives' timeline throws more political obstacles into the confirmation process for President Trump's pick to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Republicans had hoped to confirm Kavanaugh in time for the opening of the Supreme Court's fall term on the first Monday in October. After the Archives combs through all of the estimated 900,000 pages, more vetting would have to occur. And Democrats are already citing the Archives' delayed timeline to cry foul on the process. Politically, a delay in document production could give red-state Democrats a reason to wait on saying how they would vote on the Trump nominee. Among those in the spotlight are three facing tough reelections in November - Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. All three voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the court. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had foreshadowed these issues. In private calls to the White House before Kavanaugh was nominated, McConnell stressed that Kavanaugh's significant paper trail could slow down his confirmation process, according to the New York Times. Democrats have raised concerns about Bush's legal team going through Kavanaugh's documents, warning that the Senate may not receive all of the documents that they are entitled to, because they are being reviewed by a group of lawyers outside the Archives. "Today, the National Archives confirmed our worst fear - that the vast majority of even the small portion of records the American public will see from Brett Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House will be prescreened by a political operative and attorney for George W. Bush, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, and Donald McGahn," Schumer said in a statement Thursday. Schumer added: "This unprecedented process appears to be designed intentionally by Republicans to deny the Senate and the American people the information they need to evaluate this critically important nomination." Burck has represented Bannon, Priebus and McGahn in Russia-related investigations. The veteran lawyer said in the letter to Schumer that his "representation of other clients in unrelated matters . . . has no bearing on the advice I provide to President Bush." The scope of documents requested by Republicans does not touch on an even bigger group of documents from Kavanaugh's three years as Bush's staff secretary. Democrats are demanding those papers, but Republicans say they are out of bounds. In comparison, the Archives reviewed about 70,000 pages for John Roberts Jr. during his confirmation process for chief justice and about 170,000 pages for Elena Kagan. She'd been bracing for the bad news. It landed last month. U.S. Army Specialist Yea Ji Sea, a medic at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, was called into her commander's office. The senior officer explained to the 29-year-old that her time in uniform was over. He said he was sorry, Sea would later recall. He promised she still had the military's support. But for now, Sea was being honorably discharged due to her immigration status. Born in South Korea, Sea had come to the United States in 1998 when she was 9 on a visitor's visa. At 26 she joined the Army, hoping to tap a program allowing active duty service members to earn their American citizenship. But Sea's naturalization application had been stymied throughout her decorated four and a half years as a soldier. Now she was out. Absorbing the news, Sea was initially optimistic her chosen career in the service would not be cut short. Since her first hours of basic training, the Army had drilled into Sea ideas about service and duty, placing the Army and country first. As she explained to The Washington Post this week, Sea figured the loyalty ran both ways - the Army would fix this. RELATED VIDEO: Mike Pence Says Calls To Abolish ICE Are 'Irresponsible' Now Playing: Mike Pence on Friday slammed calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Video: GeoBeats "I wasn't so worried," she explained. "I thought I really had their support when they said that. I thought it was going to be somehow OK, that they wouldn't kick me out because it's just not right, and it's legally wrong. I believed them because I was stupid." That optimism has now drained away. Following the news of her discharge, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in July on the specialist's behalf against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The federal complaint argues that U.S. officials have improperly failed to process her rightful naturalization application. The complaint asks a judge to force the government to rule on her application within 20 days. Her attorney maintains Sea's situation syncs with a larger pattern of immigrant service members recently booted from the military due to President Donald Trump's hard line immigration policy. "They're trying to discharge her now, and it's part of a larger anti-immigration scheme of the Trump administration," Sameer Ahmed, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, told The Post. Sea's situation has reached a critical point. Her honorable discharge is scheduled to take effect on Friday. Without valid immigration status, she'll be unable to work and subject to deportation. On Friday, she could end up leaving the base in federal custody. "My biggest fear right now is my commander calling ICE," she told The Post as she packed up her home at the base in Texas. "I've been unofficially warned that ICE might come to pick me up. After four and a half years, once I get my discharge papers, my reality is ICE might come pick me up." Neither DHS nor USCIS responded immediately to a request for comment. According to her lawsuit, between January 1998 and March 2008, Sea remained in the United States on a visitor visa and an investor visa as a dependent. In March 2008, she filed paperwork to apply for an F-1 student visa, which was granted in October 2008. The possibility of obtaining her U.S. citizenship is what drew her to the Army. By Sea's own account, in her early 20s, she was rudderless, floating around with little idea about what she wanted to do with her life. Then she learned about the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program or MAVNI. Under the program, noncitizens "lawfully present" in the country are able to enlist in the military and work for their citizenship. As the recipient of a F-1 visa and a native Korean speaker, she qualified. "I figured I'd join, work for it, get my citizenship, and have a chance at a normal life," Sea said. She enlisted in October 2013 at 26. Coming from a nonmilitary background, the decision shocked her friends and family. Basic training delivered its own surprise for the recruit. The grueling physical training, being surrounded by mostly male cohorts, the Army's discipline and codes - it was an adjustment. "You definitely learn to be part of a whole new culture. It's a different way of life, and they shape you to it," she said. "Coming out I felt like a badass." When she hit active duty, she flourished. An Army health care specialist, she first did stints at bases in Oklahoma and Texas before shipping out to Camp Casey in South Korea in August 2014. Overseas, she worked as an ambulance aid driver and pharmacy technician, providing health care to hundreds of fellow soldiers. Sea's work earned her a promotion and two Army Achievement Medals, according to her legal complaint. "SPC Sea has the drive and professionalism needed to bring the U.S. Army to new heights," a supervisor wrote in a character assessment. "She represents the best that the Army has to offer: a smart, agile young leader capable of handling immense challenges with marked success." But there was an unforeseen problem hidden in her immigration visa that would upset her bid for citizenship. Under MAVNI, service members are required to apply for naturalization as soon as they receive an honorable service designation. Sea submitted her first application in February 2014. That's when investigators discovered the issue. In 2008, Sea had obtained her F-1 student visa from an institution called the Neo-America Language School. Unbeknown to Sea or her family, the school's owner at the time was working with a corrupt U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent to rubberstamp visas for brides. In 2013, federal immigration officials were indicted for the scheme. Sea had no idea the visas were fraudulent - the school was listed as an approved program by ICE, the legal complaint stated - and she believed her paperwork was legitimate. In reality, a date was off in the application about when she entered the country. "The fraud was actually perpetrated by the corrupt CBP officer," attorney Ahmed said. "She had no idea there was this . . . document that was put in her student visa application. No one told her." The officer pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months. But officials flagged the visa tied to the fraudulent school when she applied for naturalization in 2014. In an interview with officials, Sea "stated that she had never given false information to any U.S. government official while applying for any immigration benefits," her lawsuit argues. She maintained the document was accurate "even though it was not," her complaint admits. Recognizing the inaccuracy, the government rejected her first naturalization bid because she had not established herself as a person of "good moral character." Under MAVNI, she had to wait another year, until July 2016, to reapply. In January 2017, she also applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. But she has received no answer on either request. She hoped for career in the service but the wait left her in limbo. Sea continued to perform her duties but also worked toward advancing her military career. She looked into both a physician assistant program and medical school, but neither were realistic with her citizenship unsettled. Sea also pursued two degrees - one in pre-med and the other in Spanish - while waiting for her applications to go through. She also applied to enter non-commissioned officer classes, but she was dropped each time due to her status. Sea said she was dropped from the last officer class the day before she was called into her commander's office and told she was being discharged. The Army is using her alien status as justification for her exit from the ranks. Service members in the same situation have been discharged throughout the last year. The Associated Press reported at least 40 MAVNI participants have recently been discharged or have their status put on hold. "They knew about the student visa at least since 2014, and she's been honorably serving the military since then," Ahmed said. "Throughout the entire time, they never sought to discharge her. Their claiming now the reason for discharging her is based on her being an alien, which makes no sense. Everyone in the MAVNI program is an alien." Regardless of the MAVNI program, under DACA Sea still would be eligible for continued service, her lawyer argued. "There's no reason to discharge her now. She's eligible now, she could keep serving." As she hurries her life into boxes in Texas, Sea is now facing down the reality of her predicament. A military career, serving the Army as a doctor, earning her citizenship - all that's out the window, she said. "It's never going to happen. I was still hoping last week that someone would listen. No one seems to be listening." Recently, I heard from a conservative source who was alarmed by an article in Politico Magazine, by Paul Roberts, about Americas increasingly assertive leftists. The article focused on Seattle, where progressives are pursuing a variety of measures intended to support workers in the lower income quartiles, in part because they would like to see all of us on the path to serfdom someday. From the lefts perspective, Roberts explained, Seattle is an ideal place for pioneering experiments in what one of its councilwomen refers to as municipal socialism. It isnt the only city dabbling in such things these days. That makes sense, given that Democrats still have influence in most major American cities, even if theyre in red states such as Texas. And cities, like states, can serve as laboratories of democracy. When state or national groups stage fights at the city level, theyre advocating for a one-size-fits-all approach informed by ideology rather than a communitys actual needs. This years fight for paid sick leave in Texas shows what I mean. In February, Austin adopted an ordinance requiring most of the citys employers to provide paid sick leave. San Antonio soon may do the same. Earlier this month, the city clerks office reported advocates successfully petitioned for at least a debate on the proposal. That means San Antonio voters will decide whether to adopt a paid sick leave ordinance in November unless City Council adopts one in the meantime. Many conservatives are opposed to this kind of thing. Several Republican lawmakers have said they want to ban such ordinances via legislation during next years session, which begins in January. The Texas Public Policy Foundation sued the Austin to block its ordinance from taking effect in the meantime. State Attorney General Ken Paxton has warned San Antonio leaders against following Austins lead. In a letter to Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council, Paxton asserted that Texas law pre-empts such ordinances because they increase wages for the workweek beyond those permitted by the Texas Minimum Wage Act. I only can assume the Texas bar exam consists entirely of multiple choice questions. Paxtons reasoning on the subject is not persuasive, even by his standards. The minimum wage is a floor, not a ceiling; the attorney generals letter acknowledges that. To be more specific, its a floor on the market rate of an hour of labor. In Texas, that floor is set by the federal government, the laws of which are grudgingly recognized in the Texas Minimum Wage Act. What Paxton may not realize is that paid sick leave is a benefit, the value of which often is derived from a formula that takes into account how long a worker has been employed by a company in addition to his or her usual hourly rate. State law doesnt prevent employers from offering this benefit or pre-empt local ordinances requiring them to do so. So city leaders in San Antonio should feel free to ignore the attorney generals unsolicited opinion on this matter and instead consider whether such an ordinance would be good for San Antonio. It doesnt seem like a bad idea, necessarily. Working Texans for Paid Sick Time, the coalition that petitioned the city to take up the question, notes on its website that approximately 40 percent of Texas workers lack paid sick leave. The statewide issue, however, wont be resolved by a citywide ordinance, even if the city is the second-largest in Texas. And while San Antonio leaders dont seem to be against paid sick leave per se, they have prioritized other issues. So the petitions success presents them with a bit of a dilemma because a city often sends a message by adopting or rejecting a high-profile ordinance. Austin, for example, is the capital of the state, and not exactly a center of industry. Even now, after decades of explosive growth, the state of Texas and the University of Texas are among the citys largest employers. That growth can be explained by Austins low cost of living compared to coastal cities such as San Francisco, but it also has walkable neighborhoods, coffee shops and light rail. As a result, Austin now is teeming with highly skilled, highly paid yuppies who can easily bear the minor cost increases that could be passed along to them as a result of a paid sick leave ordinance. And the message Austin City Council sent, in adopting its ordinance, was that employers in the service and retail sectors shouldnt forget about the workers who have made it possible for them to capitalize on the growth of the city. San Antonio would be sending a different message if it follows suit. The ordinances may be the same, but San Antonio and Austin arent. Thats why Austin has a long tradition of leftist grandstanding, whereas San Antonios leaders have espoused more centrist, pro-business policies in their ongoing efforts to encourage economic growth. The differences between these two cities explain why the left should proceed with caution before pursuing its agenda via local governments. A city with Austin's economic base probably can afford to dabble in municipal socialism. But policies like the paid sick leave ordinance could leave employers in a city like San Antonio reluctant to expand their payrolls. In that case, workers would pay the price. erica.grieder@chron.com twitter.com/ericagrieder The sister of a man killed in 1999 testified Wednesday that long before two highly publicized honor killings shocked the Houston area, the man convicted of both those 2012 slayings showed up at her home brandishing a gun and threatened to kill her brother. Alya Alidam testified in the punishment phase of the honor killings capital murder trial that her brother married a 18-year-old daughter of Jordanian immigrant Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, who was convicted by a Harris County jury last week of two separate honor killings that took place 11 months apart in 2012. Alidam said Irsan came to her home in 1999 desperate to find his daughter, and threatened to kill the whole family because her brother had eloped with the young girl. Soon after that visit, Irsan fatally shot her brother, 29-year-old Amjad Alidam with a 12-gauge shotgun after invivting him to their home in east Montgomery County. Earlier, a neighbor recounted how Irsan told him he got away with murder by planting a gun on Alidams body, and then telling investigators his new son-in-law had been abusing his daughter and had threatened harm his family. 'ANGEL OF DEATH': Honor killings defendant in Houston death penalty trial had shank & smuggled drugs in jail Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle But Alidams sister, along with three of the dead mans friends, testified that Alidam was a friendly, peaceful man. The sister told the jury how before the killing that Irsan, who had also befriended her brother, became furious and frantic when he learned his daughter had left home to get married. Irsan urged Alidam to get into his car so she could help him find out where the couple had gone, she recalled. He kidnapped my daughter. I will kill him, she recalled Irsan saying. I will kill you and will kill everyone if my daughter doesnt come back to me. Ali threatened to kill you? Anna Louise Emmons, one of the three pro tem prosecutors on the case asked. Yes. Threatened to kill your family? Yes. Alya Alidam testified that Irsan forced her to drive like crazy with him around Houston for an hour and wait in the car while he broke into her brothers home and yanked out an answering machine. He then proceeded to call every number he recovered from caller ID. Two of the homicide victims friends told the jury that Irsan opposed the marriage despite both men being Muslims but of different denominations, as the family of Amjad Alidam is Shia while the Irsans are Sunni. The Montgomery County district attorneys office declined to prosecute the fatal shooting. But the lead detective on the case testified that it had been her first time leading an investigation of a homicide, and many of the conditions were less than ideal. She noted she had to interview the victims new wife on the phone because the family had sent her to Jordan. Prosecutors contend that Irsan , whom they characterized as a radical extremist Muslim, should be given the death penalty for coordinating the 2012 fatal shootings of his daughter Nesreens 28-year-old husband, Coty Beavers, and Iranian activist and medical researcher Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30. Nasreen Irsan testified that she ran away from the family compound in Montgomery County, infuriating her father who began to stalk her with the help of other family members. RELATED: Jordanian patriarch facing death in Houston honor killings praised 9/11 attacks Witnesses in the five-week trial have told jurors that Irsan orchestrated the slayings because he was outraged about Nasreen Irsans conversion to Christianity. A jury will decide if Irsan will receive the death penalty or life without parole. The jury found Irsan guilty last week of killing Beavers after sneaking into the couples unlocked northwest Harris County apartment in November 2012. They also convicted him for his role in the January 2012 slaying of Nesreen Irsans close friend, Bagherzadeh, outside her parents home in the Galleria area. Nesreen Irsan previously told the jury that Irsan had bragged about killing her older sisters husband in the 1999 honor killing, and then covered his tracks to make it look like the shooting was in self defense. Irsans defense team is expected to put on mitigating evidence, including witnesses from Jordan who will talk about Irsans upbringing in the coming weeks. gabrielle.banks@chron.com twitter.com/gabmobanks Eight years after voters narrowly backed the idea, the controversial street and drainage program known as ReBuild Houston is expected to appear again on the November ballot in the form of an amendment to the city charter. The immediate outcome of the election, however, may be unusually muted: Mayor Sylvester Turner said he will implement the program as it is being run today even if voters repeal the legal language that would force him to do so. The drainage fee at the heart of the program also is not at risk in the election. We are simply saying in November to the voters: Go and reaffirm the dedicated purpose for which this fee is intended, put a lockbox around it, Turner said. Voters are not being asked to increase the fee or create another fee, just to reaffirm what already is. The conservative opponents who forced the do-over by convincing the Texas Supreme Court that the citys 2010 ballot language did not make clear the initiative would include a new rain tax, as they call it, agree the citys ability to collect the fee is not at issue. However, they say the items defeat this fall could, depending on the outcome of other pending cases, force the city to change how it spends that money. A more immediate concern for plaintiffs attorney Andy Taylor is that the citys proposed ballot language for the measure still fails, in his view, to clarify that local property owners will be the ones to pay the drainage fee. Mayoral spokesman Alan Bernstein said the city is aware of the courts position and prepared the ballot language accordingly. City Council members will discuss the item next week. If a majority of Houston voters want to tax themselves, thats their right to do so, but if the voters are misled into taxing themselves Ive got a major problem with that, Taylor said Wednesday. The whole reason the Supreme Court invalidated the last election on the drainage fee was because the city in the ballot language failed to inform the voters that they would be paying for the drainage fee if they supported it. Dispute over fees Engineers, long upset with what they saw as City Halls chronic underinvestment in Houstons drainage systems, gathered signatures in 2010 to force a referendum that would enshrine a two-decade, $8 billion infrastructure renewal program in the city charter. The charter change, the city argues, chiefly was about financing. It barred the issuance of new debt for street and drainage repairs, switching instead to a pay-as-you-go model to be paid for with the new fee. It committed a portion of the citys annual property tax revenue to streets and drainage so that, as old road bonds were paid off, more cash would become available for projects. And it capped maintenance and operations spending from the new fund at 25 percent. Grant funds from other governments also were added to the pot. The roughly $5 monthly drainage fee that was added to residents water bills in July 2011 was established not by the charter amendment, the city says, but by an ordinance the City Council passed that year. The fee is based on the square footage of impervious surface essentially, pavement on each property. Conservative opponents have launched a number of lawsuits against ReBuild since then. In one case, Taylor argues the drainage fees the city has collected should be repaid to taxpayers or that the portion of the fees spent on street surfaces should be refunded. In another, he argues the fees Houston has collected have exceeded its 14-year-old, voter-imposed revenue cap. Those cases rely on the fact that the courts have voided the 2010 charter change, which exempted the fees from the revenue cap and also added streets and curbs to the definition of drainage infrastructure words that are not in the state law that lets city levy drainage fees. While those fights have wound their way through the courts, about $1.8 billion has flowed through the ReBuild program for reconstruction or repair work including an estimated $785 million in drainage fees and roughly $1 billion in debt has been paid off, Houston Public Works Director Carol Haddock said. More weight on drainage Responding to a directive from Turner ahead of the fall referendum, Haddock said Public Works leaders are re-evaluating how ReBuild money is allocated, with the intention of placing greater weight on the drainage needs associated with a project. What the mayor is saying is, back in 2010, this was sold on flooding and drainage. What hes told me is that 50 percent of the money needs to go into projects that were identified for the purposes of solving flooding and drainage, Haddock said. Within the confines of whats written on the ballot language, we can shift those percentages and we can go to what was promised to the public and we can reformulate this program, reaffirm it, in what they originally bought into. Turner said there is much about the program he does not intend to change, noting he sees benefits to pay-as-you-go financing. He also said that in the context of Harris Countys $2.5 billion flood bond election on Aug. 25 and incoming federal funds tied to Hurricane Harvey, it is not necessary for the city to take on more debt to try to fix the regions inadequate infrastructure by itself. We don't necessarily have to take a look at another approach, Turner said. We just have to tie in with things that are already taking place or in progress. Local Democratic political consultant Keir Murray said ReBuild Houston, broadly, is unpopular. In his view, the shift away from debt financing and a resulting lean period when there was less money available for projects started the program off on the wrong foot with the public. Council members also disliked the extent to which Public Works worst-first formulas dictated spending; the council ultimately pushed for more control over project lists and shifted more money to local street and drainage projects and away from reconstructions of major thoroughfares. Its complicated to communicate under any circumstances, but Im not aware of any efforts that were ever made to communicate any of that, Murray said. City officials should say, Yes, were collecting this money but this is how its being used, so people feel like theyre getting something for what what theyre paying. Im not sure people feel that way or know what theyre paying for at this point. mike.morris@chron.com twitter.com/mmorris011 Randy Scales perches on the edge of his chair, eyes squinting as he watches footage of a young man in a red-and-black work uniform hopping out of a cargo truck carrying a mountain of trash. This is Scales morning routine: Get to work and fire up last nights surveillance tapes, beginning a new chapter of the never-ending investigation into illegal dumping in Houston. Today, his subject is a perpetrator who pays two strangers a few bucks to help him unload a pile of oil drums, tires and more than a dozen wooden pallets into a ditch on the otherwise deserted road. At the crime scene, investigators overwhelmed by the rancid smell of petroleum and stewing trash take pictures and comb for evidence. The company name on the side of the truck, the address listed on an oil drum and other clues they collect could help lead them to the suspect. We catch 1 percent of the 1 percent of people violating, Scales said. Everyday there are people dumping trash on land or in waterways. Scales, a Harris County Environmental Crimes Unit lieutenant, and his team of nine investigators depend heavily on video cameras to crack down on illegal dumping, a crime that disproportionally affects the citys poorest neighborhoods. The City Council voted last month to add 22 cameras to create a portfolio of nearly 150 total. Precinct 1s nearly $600,000 program also includes a fleet of drones, as well as several full-time employees. More Information Contact: environmental@cn1.hctx.net Hotline: 832-927-1567 See More Collapse Its paying dividends: A two-year program started in 2016 to catch those who illegally dump their trash in remote locations across Houston yielded 694 investigations and 396 charges. Its been working for the city as a whole better than what we thought, said Jerry Davis, the councilman for District B, who initiated the program to catch illegal dumping. The majority are people charged in the crime are private citizens: The average offender is a 50-year-old who dumps 75 pounds of waste, according to statistics the county provided. Contractors looking to dodge the expense of paying to throw away their garbage at a designated facility account for just 20 percent of offenders. Custom-designed cameras track movement of cars and people and automatically zoom, according to Assistant Chief Deputy Chris Gore. And where the cameras cant go, drones can. They are flown once a week to gather evidence, Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said, adding that they can obtain search warrants through the District Attorneys office when needed. For instance, Rosen said drones could be used to track a business that has been routinely dumping in a back parking lot. Our drone pilot can fly above a scene if we need them to with the proper paperwork and get video footage that way as well, he said. When you have video evidence, its pretty conclusive. Video evidence is all the District Attorneys Office needs to prosecute someone. Prosecutors who specialize in environmental crimes can charge violators with anything from a Class C misdemeanor, the equivalent of a traffic ticket, to a felony depending on the weight, quality and type of debris. Waste greater than 1,000 pounds can lead to a felony. Toxic chemicals or waste dumped into water can also carry more severe charges. The suspect caught in the most recent footage could face two felony charges: One for illegally dumping roughly 2,000 pounds of trash and the other for illegally dumping used oil cans. To make matters worse, the trash was dumped roughly 50 feet away from the bayou, which leads to the Ship Channel and Galveston Bay. A person charged under the Used Oil Collection Act which prohibits the dumping of used oil, which contains total petroleum hydrocarbons and metal shavings that can harm wildlife and pollute waterways faces an automatic fine of $50,000. Beyond just being eyesores, illegal dumping sites present serious consequences, including being safety hazards and serving as a breeding ground for potentially disease-ridden mosquitoes, snakes and other wildlife. Dumping sites can also contribute to flooding and could potentially have a serious impact in future weather disasters. When you have drains that have been stopped up because people put furniture and tires and plastic, its going to cause flooding, Rosen said. He said people often begin dumping sites in ditches, where water collects and carries debris downstream, blocking waterways. But Rosen said it is especially unfair because it affects the quality of life for many communities. Is it right that people illegally dump in one neighborhood, but they dont in another neighborhood? he said. We have to protect those vulnerable neighborhoods from people who go into the neighborhoods that are more vulnerable and trash them. Chris Powell, who lives down the street from the crime scene being investigated, said he has given up on the site because it routinely goes through a cycle of being cleaned up and then trashed. I dont know what can be done, Powell said, holding his 10-month-old son Frederick on his hip. No one is watching it consistently, unaware of the cameras which are monitoring the road. He said the solution is community members taking ownership of the neighborhood. Whatever our city is spending money on, it will only change with more development, he said. Rosalind Raikes, Powells 64-year-old neighbor, grew up on the block and called it aggravating and frustrating to watch her neighborhood being trashed. Its just nasty, she said with disgust. Im sick of it. Her home first belonged to her grandmother, and the address is listed on the birth certificates of her 10 brothers and sisters, but the living conditions have pushed her to move. She calls the health department, the citys 311 hotline for illegal dumping and animal control. She is an active member of her community who makes the effort to maintain her property with groomed flower beds and a tidy front porch Why should I have to move out of my grandmothers house? she demanded. Raikes was unaware of the steps the city is taking to crack down on the dumping. But in the shadows, the Environmental Crimes Unit carries on its investigation. Its just a matter of when were gonna catch you, Scales said. Not if, but when. Well catch you. Justice Department prosecutors have appealed what they consider a lenient sentence for a Houston college student who tried to travel overseas to support ISIS militants, in what experts say is an unprecedented move in the prosecution of homegrown ISIS recruits. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes issued an 18-month sentence to Asher Abid Khan in June after the 23-year-old University of Houston engineering student pleaded guilty to trying to join jihadist fighters in Syria. We feel the court did not apply the sentencing guidelines properly and gave the defendant an unreasonably low sentence for such a crime, said Ted Imperato, deputy chief of the national security division for the U.S. Attorneys office. SENTENCING: UH engineering student who tried to join ISIS in Syria sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle The Justice Departments appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals signals a new line in the sand, said Seamus Hughes, who tracks extremist plotters on U.S. soil at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. Its a first for ISIS criminal cases in America, said Hughes, who is deputy director of the project in Washington. I think its very clear the Department of Justice was not happy with Judge Hughes decision. He said most prosecutors have asked for 20-year terms in these cases but judges have generally issued sentences in the eight- to 15-year range. The sentence surprised federal authorities, who had recommended more than 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision for Khan. At sentencing, Imperato noted that Khans sentence was a significant departure from what federal probation officials originally determined his sentence should be, which was over 20 years. Khans defense attorney, David Adler, asked for a departure from the guidelines, explaining that Khan, an engineering student at University of Houston, had dedicated himself in recent years to work, school and family and had been speaking openly about his experience with young people who might consider joining terrorist groups. The man that stands here is a very, very, very different man than the stupid, naive man who believed this was a good thing to do, Adler said during the sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alamdar Shabbir Hamdani, countered this argument, saying Khan had not changed his ways. After his return to the U.S. he had helped connect a former Klein Oak High School classmate with a recruiter in Syria and he continued to share ideas about ISIS online. PLEA HEARING: College student admits to conspiracy to support ISIS Khan, a U.S. citizen, was the sixth person in Texas to plead guilty to attempting to provide support for ISIS. Three others are awaiting trial: Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya in Houston, Said Azzam Mohammad Rahim in Dallas and Matin Azizi-Yarand in Plano, according to Seamus Hughes. Khan caught the attention of federal officials at the McAllen division while he was living in Australia in 2014. An agent testified that Khan sent a Facebook friend request to Sixto Ramiro Garcia, whom he knew from high school and their local Houston-area mosque. Garcia had re-located to South Texas. He told Garcia, known as SRG, via Facebook that he wanted to join ISIS. A few weeks later, he told an alleged ISIS recruiter that he wanted to die as a shahid, or martyr. Federal officials said Khan and Garcia made plans to meet in Turkey near the Syrian border. Garcia departed on Feb. 24, 2014, and Khan left for Istanbul the next day with plans to continue on to Syria, but he cut short the trip and returned to Houston after family members falsely told him his mother was in intensive care. Garcia made it through to Syria, where he sent panicked messages to his friend after he failed to show up. Once he was back in Houston, Khan helped Garcia connect with an ISIS recruiter and gave him $200 or $300 to cover costs. By August 2014, Garcia made it to ISIS boot camp. On Dec. 25, 2014, Garcia's mother saw a notice on Facebook that her son had died fighting for the cause. After Seamus Hughes tweeted about the Justice Departments unique appeal, Stephen Vladeck, an expert in federal procedure at the University of Texas Law School provided further context. Its a first for #ISIS cases, but not for post-September 11 terrorism prosecutions. There are actually several examples of high-profile cases where sentences were _increased_ on appeal, including Jose Padilla in the Eleventh Circuit and Ahmed Omar Abu Ali in the Fourth Circuit, he wrote. gabrielle.banks@chron.com twitter.com/gabmobanks AUSTIN Most of the top politicians in Texas said nothing publicly on Wednesday about an Austin-based nonprofit groups legal battle over homemade guns that can be forged from plastic with a 3-D printer. Defense Distributed posted blueprints for the guns on the internet on Tuesday, but was ordered later in the day to take them down by a federal judge in Seattle. Attorneys general in eight states and the District of Columbia had filed suit, alleging that making the directions publicly available posed a national security risk. The judges decision sparked heated debate about the intersection of the First and Second amendments, public safety and emerging technologies. But while they are all vocal supporters of gun rights, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton declined to comment on the controversy over the do-it-yourself firearms - the second time this summer they have balked at taking sides on a national issue centered in Texas. Abbott and Patrick also had little to say six weeks ago, when news broke that thousands of children had been separated from their families at the U.S. and Mexico border. Paxton came closest to weighing in on 3-D printer guns. We all want to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and criminals, but we should handle this particular issue with the utmost care, said his spokesman, Marc Rylander. Policy choices like this one involve both the right to keep and bear arms and freedom of speech, and the people deserve an approach that protects both of those fundamental rights. Former University of Texas law school student Cody Wilson, 30, is founder of Defense Distributed and has been pushing for five years to publish blueprints for the weapons. He struck a deal with the Justice Department in June that allowed him to post them starting Wednesday, but that was halted when U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnick issued a restraining order, saying There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made. MORE: Dispute over 3D-printed guns raises many legal issues The guns have no serial numbers and cannot be spotted by some metal detectors, according to court documents filed by the states that oppose him. They are already illegal to manufacture, purchase or possess if they dont trigger a metal detector. While top Republican officials in Texas were largely silent about the 3-D printed guns on Wednesday, President Donald Trump was questioning whether his administration should have agreed to allow Wilsons company to post the blueprints online. Trumps staff said the Justice Department never consulted with the president before making the deal. Blueprints for at least one gun a plastic pistol called the Liberator had been posted on the companys website since Friday. Although a lawyer for the company said he didnt know how many blueprints had been downloaded since then, Wired Magazine reports blueprints for 10 guns total had been posted, garnering thousands of downloads before the restraining order. That same magazine listed company founder Wilson as one of the 15 Most Dangerous People in the World in 2012. A year later, Wilson had published blueprints for the guns which were downloaded more than 100,000 times before he was stopped by the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, according to the New York Times. Plastic gun debate a no win in Texas? Wilson began trying to design a functional gun with a 3-D printer when he was studying law at UT. I still believe in the rights to keep and bear arms, and I believe what Im doing is a way of protecting them, he told the Times. He is also an avid defender of free speech rights. By 2017, Wilson had created a crowdfunding site, Hatreon, that has been used by neo-Nazi groups removed from websites like PayPal. Hatreon was used by organizers of a white supremacist rally last year in Charlottesville, Va., according to the Times. The NRA said in a statement that anti-gun politicians and some members of the news media are distorting the impact of the gun he invented by claiming it will allow for the production and widespread proliferation of undetectable plastic firearms. In truth, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years, said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRAs political arm. A federal law passed in 1988 crafted with NRA support bars the manufacture, sale or possession of an undetectable firearm. People shouldnt be under the impression they can download this and make an undetectable firearm, said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican and one of few Texas statewide officials willing to comment on the issue. Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley made much the same point, saying the administration supports the law against wholly plastic guns, including those made with a 3D printer. But Democrats in Congress called the law weak and said gun users can get around it with weapons that have a removable metal block the gun doesnt need in order to function. Democrats filed legislation that would prohibit the publication of a digital file online that allows a 3D printer to manufacture a firearm. Democrats also filed a separate bill to require that all guns have at least one non-removable component made of metal so they can be discovered by metal detectors. Statewide elected officials in Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Congressman Michael McCaul, R-Austin, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, declined a request for an interview. MORE: States suing Trump administration, company over 3D guns MORE: Abbott, Patrick quiet on zero tolerance policy They likely see it as a no-win issue, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. If they come out in favor of 3-D printed guns, they antagonize many centrist and moderate conservatives who are pro-Second Amendment but believe 3-D printed guns represent a danger, said Jones. But if you come out against it, then you antagonize staunch Second Amendment rights advocates who effectively are angered by anything that is seen as constraining their right to own and bear arms. Industry experts have expressed doubts that criminals would go to the trouble of making their own plastic guns, since the printers needed to make them can cost thousands of dollars, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by. Why would Greg Abbott make any sort of comment on a non-problem? said Alice Tripp, legislative director for the Texas State Rifle Association which advocates for gun rights. The group has no position on the court case over blueprints for 3-D printed guns, which she stressed are already illegal to make or own. While a blueprint might made for interesting art decor, Tripp said the guns are so cotton-picking ugly, who would ever want one? This report contains information from the Associated Press and the New York Times. Andrea Zelinski is a staff writer who covers politics. Read her latest stories here . Follow her on Twitter and Facebook . Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com . andrea.zelinski@chron.com Twitter.com/andreazelinski One chilling truth about the Trump administrations separation of migrant families turns an unfortunate policy blunder into an unconscionable atrocity. They knew. Officials were warned, far in advance, about the harm that tearing children from their parents arms could cause. They did it anyway. Average Americans following the aftermath of Trumps zero-tolerance policy may have been disturbed by articles about horrific mental health issues inflicted upon little kids who probably thought they were on some grand journey to a better life. They may have been troubled by a recording circulating online of a little girl crying for Mommy and Daddy. But if you thought it was all an accident, a bunch of unforeseen consequences, youd be wrong. The shocking reality was laid out clearly on Tuesday before a Senate Judiciary Committee by Commander Jonathan White, the official overseeing efforts to reunite more than 2,500 migrant children with their parents. During the deliberative process over the previous year, we raised a number of concerns in the [Office of Refugee Resettlement] program about any policy which would result in family separation, White said, referring to his time at the ORR, which he left on March 15. You told the administration that kids would suffer as a result, that pain would be inflicted, correct? asked Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Separation of children from their parents entails significant risk of harm to children, White responded. Since the Trump administration first implemented its family separation policy, the nation has been forced to watch while, drip by drip, evidence of its disastrous effects trickles out of detention centers, courthouses and newsrooms. A five-year-old boy regressing to an infant state. A six-year-old girl sexually abused at an Arizona detention facility. Allegations that a young girl died after contracting a disease at the Family Residential Center outside San Antonio. Children kids entrusted to the United States government forcibly injected with psychotropic drugs at the Shiloh Treatment Center south of Houston. Its the sort of thing you might associate with Soviet mental hospitals occurring in the shadow of Houston skyscrapers. A short drive from our homes, children were allegedly hurled to the ground for trying to open a window and fed mood-altering drugs they had been told were vitamins. These revelations shock the conscience, but theres little reason for anyone in the Trump administration to act surprised. Shiloh had been scrutinized for years. Members of Congress are calling for someone, anyone, in the White House to stand up and take responsibility. This week, a bipartisan team of senators asked federal investigators to look into the alleged mistreatment and abuse of migrants in U.S. custody. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., called for Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign over this scandal. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said members of the Trump administration should face criminal charges. But for millions of Americans who have endured the Trump presidency with foreboding worry, waiting to see where the presidents inexperience, his careless boasting, his inexplicable lack of shame would lead, now we know to this moment. To a human rights violation that deserves global attention and condemnation the sort America used to have the moral high ground to give. The damage cannot be undone. Children cant unlearn the things theyve been through. All we can do is do right by families going forward, and try to prevent this kind of harm from ever being done again in our names. We must reunite hundreds of children still split from their parents. We must pass laws that fund alternatives to detention and add immigration judges. We must work with Central American nations to end violence that drives families to our borders in the first place. We must demand that those responsible are held accountable whether at the ballot box or the jury box. Americans must be clear: Our concern for national security does not justify the premeditated abuse of children. The next time you read about an infant being ripped from its mothers breast, remember: They knew. And now we know. And we know this, too: Election Day is November 6. WASHINGTON Thank God for Uncle Rudy. You know Rudy the eccentric, sometimes batty, uncle who lives in the attic? One thing about Rudy, he always seems to know when family gatherings are becoming tense and descends to the rescue with some gibberish to lighten the mood. What would we do without him? Uncle Rudy used to be New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani long before becoming Donald Trumps attorney. What a difference 17 years makes. The commanding leader who helped America navigate the horror of 9/11 is again making the TV rounds, but this time he seems to be speaking English as a second language. Quite a few cable anchors were at risk of reversing their Botox injections as they attempted to follow what he was saying. Someone must have whispered in his ear, because Monday afternoon, Giuliani called into Fox News Outnumbered to try to explain what he had said earlier in the day on CNN and Fox and Friends. You might need a notepad to follow this. On CNN, Giuliani had talked about a pre-meeting of Trump aides to discuss a strategy for the infamous June 9 meeting that took place a few days later at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and members of a Russian delegation. But, apparently, there was no such pre-meeting, Giuliani tried to explain on Outnumbered. He said he had heard about it from reporters, who had apparently heard about it from Michael Cohen, Trumps previous attorney who now appears willing to cooperate with the Robert Mueller investigation. Giuliani said hed only brought up the pretend pre-meeting because he was trying to get ahead of the story. (Believe me, Im making this easy for you.) But now, he wanted to unwind the whole thing because apparently there wasnt going to be any story to get ahead of. In other words, his third-hand information via reporters via Cohen was, apparently, false. In his morning Fox & Friends appearance, Giuliani also had talked about collusion. Again, Cohen is reportedly prepared to tell Mueller that the president knew ahead of time about the June 9 meeting, which, if true, could suggest collusion with the Kremlin to interfere with the 2016 election. Unless Cohen or someone else can provide corroborating evidence, then Trumps denial stands. Giuliani scoffed at the notion that Trump knew of the meeting, and the attorney added that he doesnt believe collusion is against the law. I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime, he said during the Fox & Friends interview. Collusion is not a crime. Later on CNN, he said, I dont even know if thats a crime colluding with Russians. Hacking is the crime. The president didnt hack. He didnt pay for the hacking. Technically, Giuliani is correct that theres nothing in the U.S. legal code directly related to collusion, and the word is not even mentioned in the administration memo that appointed Mueller as special counsel. But, as lawyer Giuliani surely knows, conspiracy to defraud the United States , if found to be the case, would be a criminal offense under 18 U.S.C. 371. Giulianis convoluted dodge brought to mind the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex and President Richard Nixon, whose fate revolved around a similar, operative question what did he know and when did he know it? If Nixon knew in advance of the burglary, then hed have been at least a co-conspirator if not an accessory to the crime. It has never been conclusively established that he did know beforehand, though he certainly did lie and participate in an attempted cover-up. One can imagine that had Giuliani been Nixons attorney at the time, he might have mused: I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find knowing about as a crime. ... I dont even know if thats a crime knowing about a break-in. Burglary is the crime. The president didnt burgle. Trump may not have known about the Russian meeting in advance and we may never find out. Giuliani did have one moment of lucidity when CNNs Alisyn Camerota asked whether he could be sure that Trump didnt know of the meeting: Nobody can be sure of anything, he said. That. And, also, this: What I think and what I know may be two different things, Giuliani told Camerota. No one would argue with that to be sure. Kathleen Parkers email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com. In a box in my parents basement sits a videotape featuring perhaps the most embarrassing thing Mark Zuckerberg has ever done: dance to the Backstreet Boys Everybody (Backstreets Back) at our summer camp talent show. The second most embarrassing thing Zuckerberg has ever done? Prostrate himself to Beijing. And as the years go by and Facebook grows more mature, its becoming more painful to watch. Zuckerberg blurbed Chinese Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinpings book The Governance of China - which one reviewer called a mix of stilted Communist Party argot, pleasant-sounding generalizations, and Father Knows Best style advice - and displayed it on his desk when Chinas then-Internet czar Lu Wei visited him in December 2014. In March 2016, he posted a picture of himself cheerfully running through Tiananmen Square, the site of the infamous June 1989 massacre. In November 2016, The New York Times revealed that Zuckerberg facilitated the development of a tool that would help Beijing censor Facebook. Zuckerberg even reportedly asked President Xi to give a Chinese name to his unborn daughter - a report that a Zuckerberg spokesperson denied. EDITORIAL: Lets regulate Facebook In response, Chinese officials toy with him. I didnt say Facebook could not enter China, Lu said in October 2014, but nor did I say that it could. (Zuckerberg wasted his time courting Lu: Beijing just accused the now-disgraced official of taking a huge amount of bribes.) And on July 25, the New York Times reported that the government had revoked Facebooks permission to set up an innovation hub in China - just hours after notice of approval appeared in a government database. (In what was almost certainly just an unfortunate coincidence, the report of Beijing yanking its approval came on the day that Facebook announced lackluster earnings, sending its stock down by roughly 20 percent.) In another article published that day, the Global Times, Chinas top internet troll masquerading as a newspaper, quoted a Chinese analyst making the absurd claim that China is more open in the high-tech sector compared with the U.S. Facebook could succeed in China, the analyst said, but first it has to understand and obey Chinese laws and regulations. To avoid further embarrassment, Zuckerberg should give up on entering China. Yes, China has more than twice the number of innternet users as the United States, and Facebook believes it cannot be a truly global company without China. And yes, even though Facebook is blocked in China, it is the companys largest ad market in Asia, because Chinese companies use Facebook to sell to consumers globally. EDITORIAL: What do they call Texas Tea in China? But the costs of Facebook (as well as Instagram and WhatsApp, both also blocked on the mainland) entering China clearly outweigh the benefits - a calculus that has changed little since Beijing blocked the company in 2009. As Chinese internet regulators, government officials, academics and even Xi himself have slyly reminded Facebook for years, the company wont succeed in China unless it plays by Chinese rules. That almost certainly means censoring content, storing servers in China and giving Beijing some access to all Facebook accounts anywhere. This has been a terrible year for Facebooks reputation as a moral steward of Americas data. But if Facebook yields to Beijing, things could get far worse. OPINION: Facebook should get out of politics for 2018 Consider what happened to Yahoo. In 2004, Yahoo gave Beijing information about the online activities of Chinese dissident journalist Shi Tao, who was later sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hauled in front of Congress, the companys co-founder, Jerry Yang, found himself excoriated. While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies, the late Rep. Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, told him. How unkindly would Congress and Americans see Zuckerberg if he facilitated the arrest of a Chinese dissident, or if he helped Beijing more effectively arrest Muslims in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang and send them to concentration camps? (Yes. That is a thing that is happening.) Lets say Beijing allowed Facebook to operate in China. It would face one of the worlds toughest internet markets, with several battle-ready competitors - companies like Tencent, which owns Chinas most popular social networking app, WeChat; and Alibaba, which seems to own everything else. Beijing far prefers WeChat because it has access to every message sent on the platform, because Tencents founder, Pony Ma, needs the approval of the party to stay out of prison, and because it wants Chinese companies to succeed. Internet regulators and local government officials would stymie and extort Facebook every chance they could. To imagine an even unlikelier hypothetical, lets take Beijing at its word and imagine it would allow Facebook a fair playing field. Two well-funded Facebook clones - RenRen and Kaixin001 - lost the social media battle to WeChat years ago. Facebook launching in China, the writer Charlie Custer wrote in the blog Tech in Asia, would be like MySpace relaunching in the U.S. OPINION: Facebook makes editorial decisions about content, but refuses to take responsibility Facebook does have one real chance of succeeding in China: Localize. Become a Chinese company. Follow the guidelines Xi set out in a major April 2018 speech and strengthen online positive propaganda, and unequivocally adhere to the correct political direction and the guidance of public opinion. The world now has two dominant internet models. There is the American model, which although it sometimes facilitates hate speech, monopolies and anarchy, prioritizes the free exchange of ideas. And there is Beijings model, which prioritizes national sovereignty, order and blandness. Facebook can stay an American company, or become a Chinese one. For Facebook, there is no middle ground. Fish is an international affairs journalist, a senior fellow at the Asia Societys Center on U.S.-China Relations, and a visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund. The company also recently recieved the Rainbow Tick accreditation for 2018 which is an international accreditation where businesses are formally recognised as LGBTQAI+ friendly. HRD recently interviewed Susan Lowe, Amatil NZs general manager of people and culture about her advice to be a great HR professional. Im extremely passionate about the need for HR professionals to understand their business or organisation first, then think how their HR strategy can help achieve its objectives, said Lowe. Lowe said what this boils down to is being a business person who specialises in HR, not an HR specialist who happens to work for that business. Lowe would advise any young HR professional to spend time in the business units they represent and build relationships with the wider team, not just to ensure policies and procedures are the right fit, but to learn how to boost your whole organisations success. Argentina and Spain sign fisheries MoU to promote conservation and management of straddling species July 31,2018 | Source: MercoPress Argentina and Spain have signed a fisheries and aquaculture bilateral cooperation Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU was stamped in Buenos Aires during the recent G20 Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries ministerial meeting by Argentina's Luis Miguel Etchevehere and Spain's Luis Planas. The MoU establishes a framework of cooperation to reinforce the bases for an improved maritime sector potential exploitation and ensure conservation and a sustainable management of straddling species. It will also coordinate efforts to combat illegal, undeclared, unreported fishing and collaboration in scientific research in the area adjacent to Argentina's Exclusive Economic Zone. Cooperation will also be extensive to technological exchange on production and marketing, with training and formation programs. The two countries will exchange information on fisheries, scientific knowledge in fisheries research and related activities. Argentina and Spain will share information and technology in the fields of catches, aquaculture breeding, transformation, distribution and related activities, are some of the outstanding points of the MoU. At the signing ceremony minister Etchevehere praised the deal and also thanked Spain for being a crucial ally in the region's efforts to reach a trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. Minister Plana described the MoU signed with Argentina as very significant, adding I believe this is the first deal of this nature that Argentina has signed, since we consider it most important for us and for Argentina, and a reference for the whole region in the cooperation and sustainable fields. 1997 - 2016, MercoPress Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. New map shows that only 13% of the oceans are still truly wild August 01,2018 | Source: The Conversation Just 13% of the worlds oceans are now free from intense human activities such as fishing, according to a new map of ocean wilderness areas. Our research, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that only 55 million square km of the global ocean can still be classified as wilderness, out of a total of 500 million square km. There is almost no wilderness left in coastal seas, where human activities are most intense. Much of the remaining marine wilderness is clustered around the poles or near remote Pacific island nations with low populations. Humans rely on the ocean for food, livelihoods, and almost three-quarters of atmospheric oxygen. We use the ocean for the vast majority of global trade, and more than 2.8 billion people rely on seafood as an important protein source. Its little wonder that more than eight in ten Australians live within 50km of the coast. Earths ocean wilderness areas are home to unparalleled levels of marine life and are some of the only places where large predators are still found in historical numbers. Top predators such as sharks and tuna depend on these areas, as their slow reproduction rates make them particularly susceptible to decline even at mild levels of fishing. Even the strictest, best-managed marine reserves cannot sustain the same levels of wildlife diversity as wilderness areas. This is either because reserves are too small, or because human activities in neighbouring areas impact wildlife as soon as they swim outside of reserve boundaries. According to our research, only 4.9% of marine wilderness is currently within marine protected areas. There is evidence that wilderness areas are more resilient to rising sea temperatures and coral bleaching stressors that cannot be halted without globally coordinated efforts to reduce emissions. These areas also give scientists a true baseline for system health, providing important information for restoring degraded marine ecosystems. Human impacts on marine ecosystems are becoming more intense and widespread each year, threatening wilderness areas across the planet. Fishing is now one of the most widespread activities by which humans harvest natural resources. Industrial fishing covers 55% of the ocean, an area four times larger than is used for terrestrial agriculture. In many places, fishing has become so intense that large predators and charismatic species such as sea turtles have almost been wiped out. Technological improvements have allowed humans to fish in the farthest reaches of international waters. In the high Arctic, places that were once safe because of year-round ice cover are now open to fishing and shipping as warming seas melt the ice. Even in nations with world-class fisheries management, such as Australia and the United States, marine environments are being severely impacted by sediment and nutrient runoff due to poor land management and deforestation. Sediment runoff onto the once pristine Great Barrier Reef is now five to ten times higher than historical levels, contributing to declining coral diversity and more frequent crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, and reducing the resilience of reefs against climate change. Marine wilderness is overlooked in both global and national conservation strategies, as these areas are often assumed to be free from threatening processes and are therefore not a priority for conservation efforts. Our results show that this is a myth wilderness areas in the ocean and on land are being rapidly lost, and protecting what remains is crucial. The Arctic, once thought of as untouched, is now likely to see new shipping channels, fisheries, and mining operations as sea ice disappears. Protecting wilderness will require a combination of national and international efforts, but the fundamental goal must be to curb the impacts of current threats such as commercial fishing, shipping, resource extraction, and land-based runoff. In nations like Australia and Canada, which still have substantial wilderness remaining within their national waters, using marine protected areas or fishery management regulations to protect wilderness will be crucial. Because even low levels of human activity can severely impact vulnerable species such as sharks and tuna, these areas should be strictly protected and cannot allow activities like commercial fishing. However, current government plans to almost halve the area of strict protection in the Australian marine reserve system do not bode well for the future of wilderness protection. While protecting wilderness within national waters is legally straightforward, preserving wilderness on the high seas will likely prove much more challenging, as no country has jurisdiction over these areas. One option may be to harness existing international and regional agreements, such as Regional Fisheries Management Organisations international agencies formed by countries to manage shared fishing interests in a certain area. These organisations are already accustomed to set fishing limits, and have been used to close large areas of the high seas to damaging bottom-trawl fishing. An extension of their powers to create high seas conservation areas is certainly feasible, but this is likely to require substantial lobbying from member nations. The need for improved high-seas management is also now being recognised by the international community, with the UN currently negotiating a Paris Agreement for the Ocean a legally binding high-seas conservation treaty to be established under the existing Law of the Sea Convention. Australia, as a wealthy nation and a signatory to fishing agreements in the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans, has the potential to be a world leader in marine wilderness conservation if it so chooses. Just like wilderness on land, pristine oceans are difficult to restore once lost. Our research should be a clarion call for immediate action to protect the worlds remaining wild oceans so that future generations can see the sea as it once was. 20102018, The Conversation Media Group Ltd Theme(s): Others. PESCAO project launched to address challenges in fishing industry in Ghana The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea has launched a project in Accra called PESCAO aimed at improving the fisheries sector in West Africa . The project, funded by the European Union, is expected to address the challenges of poor management of fish stock, Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and lack of coordination among regional institutions and national authorities. The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) is an inter-governmental body, established in 2007 with its secretariat based in Tema and has the aim of facilitating cooperation in fisheries management between member countries, namely Liberia, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. Fish export is a significant economic activity to member states of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea. However, the sector is fraught with challenges which include poor access and conditions at major fish markets in the sub-region. The Secretary-General of the FCWC, Seraphin Dedi, said the PESCAO project among other things will build the capacities of regional monitoring, control and surveillance authorities to deal with challenges within the fishing industry. Dealing to combat this illegal fishing and within this PESCAO project, we are being given opportunity to strengthen the coordination among the six member countries of the committee to improve the governance of the fishing management throughout the establishment of a regional vessel monitoring system, he said. The Deputy Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Francis Ato Cudjoe, called for a regional approach to combat illegal fishing. Fish is a migrating resource, so the fishes move around the West African region and therefore if we are going to develop policies, we need to develop that. Negotiating with EU stronger bodies that have developed stronger policies, and we are going as Ghana, we already stand at a disadvantage. When we come together and we harmonize the policies we take strong positions at international level everybody will respect us. Media General Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Fisheries compliance audit rolled out in Manila Bay, Philippines August 02,2018 | Source: SunStar The majority of the tested local government units (LGUs) in Manila Bay, the Philippines, are not compliant with Republic Act 10654, or the amended Fisheries Code, according to results of the Fisheries Law Compliance Audit (FishCA) conducted by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The audit, which was initially tested in 19 of the 35 coastal LGUs in Manila Bay, aims to monitor the compliance of LGUs to the amended Fisheries Code and the DILG Memorandum Circular 2018-59, which provides the guidelines and regulations for fishery activities within municipal waters nationwide. It also seeks to remind LGUs to exercise their mandate in managing municipal waters especially in fishery law enforcement, fisherfolk registration, and implementing management measures such as closed season. Starting this month, the DILG will roll out the Fisheries Law Audit nationwide. It was first tested in Manila Bay, which include cities with major fishing grounds such as Navotas, Paranaque and Las Pinas in Metro Manila, and LGUs from Bataan, Batangas and Pampanga. Results of the audit include the following: * All tested LGUs have an updated list of registered fishing boats * 52 percent of the tested LGUs monitor their fish catch * 21 percent of the tested LGUs do not have a local ordinance regulating the use of active fishing gears such as bottom trawling, ring net or Danish Siene (hulbot-hulbot) * 47 percent of LGUs have an ordinance related to law enforcement * 53 percent have no ordinance on the delineation of municipal waters The amended Fisheries Code lapsed into law on February 27, 2015. It seeks to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated or IUU fishing in the country. One of the most significant features is the installation of a Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) system in all Philippine flagged fishing vessels regardless of fishing area and destination of catch, which would make it easier to ensure compliance with fisheries regulations. Meanwhile, DILG Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Ano emphasized the crucial role of LGUs in implementing the law to manage and protect municipal waters, where commercial fishing and destructive gears, such as bottom trawling and Danish Seine or hulbot-hulbot, are prohibited. Millions of lives depend in water and its natural resources. It is imperative, therefore, for LGUs to be on top of ensuring that their marine and water resources are nurtured and protected because these assets are vital to national development, Ano said in a statement. Lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines, said that findings from the audit will be useful in determining fisheries management measures in the Manila Bay and municipal waters nationwide. "We commend the DILG for providing this tool to measure the state of compliance by the coastal local government units of their responsibility in protecting their municipal waters. By ensuring its sustainable management, they are also protecting the livelihoods of millions who depend on our ocean for sustenance," Ramos said. 2018 SunStar Publishing Inc. Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture. Fishermen in Thailand issue fresh ultimatum to government August 02,2018 | Source: The Nation Fishermen in 22 seaside provinces in Thailand have threatened to stop catching fish, bringing the countrys fishing industry to a standstill, if the government fails to address their grievances within seven days. They issued the ultimatum yesterday after hearing that the government is preparing to ratify the C188 Work in Fishing Convention, which they deem as too strict. The appendix of this convention requires that each fishing boat has one bathroom per four crewmen, a library, a fitness room and a recreational room. Compliance with such rules means that all fishing boats in Thailand would have to be reconfigured, said Ranong Fishermen Association vice president Surasak Jimaphan. He said even the United States and Australia had not yet ratified the C188. He was speaking as representatives of local fishing operators in 22 provinces simultaneously submitted a similar petition to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha via their provincial governors. The petition listed seven demands and required the government to respond within seven days. The key demands are that the government refrain from ratifying the C188 and the government solve the labour shortage in the fishing industry. It is estimated that the industry is short by about 50,000 workers. According to the petition, the government should allow illegal migrants to work in the sector for two years by registering themselves and acquiring fishing-related identification papers. Also, the government should urgently implement its stated plan to buy fishing boats from those fishermen who wish to sell in the face of the stricter new regulations. The National Fisheries Association of Thailand has passed a resolution for its members to press for the demands. The Pattani Fisheries Associations president Phubes Jantanamit said his group also wanted the Fisheries Department to improve current regulations governing fishing boats. The current rules are too complicated to implement. And each governing centre has different standards, he said. He also complained that requiring fishermen to install vessel monitoring systems (VMS) on their boats meant they would have to shoulder the VMS cost even if the boats were moored. Sittichai Pamornwisit, who represents Trang fishermen, said the number of fishing boats in his province had declined from more than 400 to just a little over 100 now. So, we ask for sympathy and help from the government, he said. Adviser to the Samut Songkhram Fisheries Association, Pongsathorn Chaiwat, said the authorities move to regulate the Thai fishing sector based on European practices had adversely affected local fishermen. He said some fishing families had been prosecuted and driven into bankruptcy. At present, the maximum fine against fishing operators is Bt30 million. If the government does not respond to our demands, we will submit our petition to the King, Pongsathorn said. The government has taken significant measures to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in recent years, partly because the countrys ranking in the Trafficking in Persons report of the United States (US) dropped to Tier 3 - the worst - in 2014. The EC had also threatened to bar imports of Thai fishing products. Between 2016 and 2017, Thailand was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List. This year, Thailands ranking improved further at Tier 2. 2017 by THE NATION Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Kenya fishermen group defends Chinese fish imports by WINNIE ATIENO August 01,2018 | Source: Business Daily A fishermen lobby at the Coast has defended fish imports such as tilapia and salmon from China saying it helps address shortage locally. Wavuvi Association of Kenya chairman Hamid Omar said there is a huge demand for fish in the country. We can get enough fish in our waters but due to lack of modern fishing gears we cannot meet the huge demand which China is trying to address. More so, Chinese fish are cheaper compared to Kenyan, Mr Omar said. However, he urged the government to equip fishermen with modern fishing gears to revamp the sector. Mr Omar said in Mombasa there were more than 50 landing sites that have been grabbed by land grabbers eying business from the port. Like in Kibarani which used to be a landing site more than 50 acres of the sea which used to be a breeding site for crabs, lobster and prawns was grabbed by private developers. Fishermen should also be taught new fishing methods, Mr Omar added. He also complained over brokers who are fleecing the fishermen at the fishing sites within the region. They buy our fish and go sell at beach hotels at high prices. We also want the Ward Representatives and the six governors in the region to protect landing sites at the Coast from being grabbed, Mr Omar said. His remarks come as other Kenyan fishermen and traders urged the government to ban the imports. The traders protested the flooding of cheap imports which they say has skewed the local market. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has, in a past interview, said that the government cannot ban imported fish. It is about supply and demand, said the CS. Fish from China is cheaper compared to local catch with tilapia going for Sh150-Sh300 a kilo while the Kenyan variety goes for Sh400. Mr Omar said fish from Lake Victoria is the most expensive, forcing most households to rely on fish imports from the Asian countries. Why would anyone sell tilapia at Sh500 while those from China goes for Sh200? he asked. Nation Media Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. Made in Fukushima: Aided by rigorous radiation checks, farmers and fishermen struggle to win trust by ANNE BEADE The pumpkin is diced, the chicken carved and the eggs beaten into an omelet, but the people preparing the food are not chefs they are scientists testing produce from the Fukushima region. Seven years after the March 2011 nuclear crisis caused by devastating tsunami, rigorous testing shows no radioactive threat from Fukushimas produce, officials and experts say. But local producers say they still face crippling suspicion from consumers. More than 205,000 food items have been tested at the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre since March 2011, with Japan setting a standard of no more than 100 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram (bq/kg). The European Union, by comparison, sets that level at 1,250 bq/kg and the U.S. at 1,200. In the last year, the center says no cultivated produce or farm-reared livestock have exceeded the governments limit. In all just nine samples out of tens of thousands were over the limit: eight from fish bred in inland ponds and one from a sample of wild mushrooms. Each day, more than 150 samples are prepared, coded, weighed and then passed through a germanium semiconductor detector. Rice undergoes screening elsewhere. While radiation affected several regions, which have their own testing processes, Fukushimas program is the most systematic, testament to the particularly severe reputational damage it suffered. In the wake of the nuclear crisis, a wide-scale decontamination program has been carried out in Fukushima. It cant be done in forests, where thick tree growth makes it impractical. But elsewhere topsoil has been removed, trees washed down and potassium sprinkled to reduce cesium uptake. But the testing process is the cornerstone of efforts to win consumer trust. Some people are still worried, in Japan and abroad, so we want to continue to explain to people in other prefectures and in foreign countries that our products are safe, said Kenji Kusano, an official at the testing center. And occasionally radioactivity is detected, for example in wild plants and mushrooms, which are destroyed if they exceed the government standard. Kusano said testing will remain important as residents gradually return. When residents come back to areas that are off-limits at the moment and start producing their own fruit and vegetables, they must be tested, he said. The Fukushima disaster has devastated a previously flourishing local agricultural sector. Profits have not yet reached pre-2011 levels and prices remain below the national average, said Fukushima representative Nobuhide Takahashi. The situation is even worse for fisherman, many of whom have survived only on compensation paid by the manager of the defunct Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. The tsunami destroyed ports across the region and demand for Fukushima seafood is low despite an even stricter testing standard of 50 bq/kg. When we catch fish and send it to market in Tokyo, some people dont want to buy it, said Kazunori Yoshida, director of Iwakis fishing cooperative. As a result, fishermen brought in just 3,200 tons of seafood in the area last year, down from 24,700 in 2010. The problem remains one of perception, despite the fact that independent testing confirms what government labs show. The Minna no Data (Our Data) NGO carries out its own testing and spokesman Hidetake Ishimaru said the group was very surprised by the mostly very low levels it found in Fukushima produce. At the international level, there has been some progress: Of the 54 countries that imposed restrictions on food from Fukushima after 2011, 27 have lifted the bans. And another 23 markets, including the United States and European Union, have relaxed restrictions, though some regional neighbors, including China and South Korea, have kept bans in place. The perception problem persists domestically too, with surveys showing some Japanese consumers still avoid Fukushima produce. Experts say the governments science-based approach has done little to convince people. Nobody believes, just by shouting safety, said Katsumi Shozugawa, a University of Tokyo professor who has studied Fukushima food safety. He said government testing was appropriate but attempts to convince consumers remained poor. Tomiko Yamaguchi, sociology professor at Tokyos International Christian University, said some consumers were torn between fear over Fukushima produce and solidarity with residents there. People cant talk about these things. Its almost like a taboo, she said. But regardless . . . if you are very concerned for your children, it doesnt matter if theres scientific evidence or not. On a farm in Fukushima where peaches hang ready to be picked, 14th-generation farmer Chusaku Anzai said he was resigned to the situation. Theres no point wasting our energy trying to convince those who dont want our products, the 69-year-old said, his face worn by five decades of farm work. We cant do anything but wait for them to change their minds. THE JAPAN TIMES LTD. Theme(s): Communities and Organisations. Proposals to arm teachers and school staff have stirred controversy since the February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., but such plans are sometimes the best options for rural schools far from first responders, state and school officials told the Federal School Safety Commission at a site visit in Arkansas on Wednesday. While we are blessed to have excellent law enforcement officers ... because of where were located, the last two sheriffs here in Garland County told me we could expect 20 to 30 minutes wait time if an active shooter situation happened on campus before an officer could be here, Lake Hamilton, Ark., schools Superintendent Steve Anderson, who carries a gun at school, told the commission. Were not willing to take that chance. We need someone to protect our kids. Cutter Morning Star district Superintendent Nancy Anderson told the panel of a time she heard three gunshots on an elementary playground. Armed, she rushed to respond as the gunman ran away. I was never so happy, and never so relieved, and never so empowered that I knew I had a gun and I could protect our children, she said. The federal task force, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, has held public comment hearings, convened panels of experts, and visited schools of various sizes to hear about how they prevent and respond to school violence since it was formed in the spring. DeVos was not present at Wednesdays meeting in Pearcy, Arkansas, which was led by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The commission heard testimony from local supporters of armed school staff, but it did not hear from any of the groups who have opposed such proposals. School Shootings Are Rare School shootings remain statistically rare, and schools remain relatively safe . Federal data show that student victimizations have trended downward for years. And the number of violent student homicides in schools have not trended significantly upward since the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., which sparked many school safety conversations. Still, large shootings like those in Parkland and in Santa Fe, Texas, lead schools to explore their safety procedures, often in order to reassure anxious parents. A recent poll found about a third of public school parents fear for their childrens safety at school. In the days following the Parkland shootiing, President Donald Trump spoke in favor of arming teachers and hardening schools by increasing the presence of armed adults. Federal law prohibits guns in school zones unless specific people are authorized to carry them under state and local laws. Recent polling data show a majority of teachers and parents do not favor such proposals. In the spring, the National Association of School Resource Officers discouraged arming school staff. Responding to active shooters requires hours of specialized training and ongoing practice that arent feasible for many educators, the organization said. Anyone who hasnt received the extensive training provided to law enforcement officers will likely be mentally unprepared to take a life, especially the life of a student assailant, the organization said. And some educators whove survived school shootings have told Education Week they dont believe educators should be armed. Arming School Staff Lake Hamilton has armed some school staff since 1993, first having them secure licenses meant for security guards of private businesses. After that use was deemed unpermissable by a state licensing board in 2013, the state passed a law allowing districts to commission screened staff members to carry weapons after they received an initial 60 hours of specialized training developed by the Arkansas State Police. Participating staff must receive 24 hours of additional training each year to maintain their commission. In Lake Hamilton, armed staff include a few school resource officers, security guards, administrators, and a small number of noninstructional staff who have access to firearms that are double-locked in secured locations along with vests, radios, and other gear, Anderson said. Other Arkansas districts also arm staff, but state law exempts school safety plans from open records laws, so the exact number is not publicly known. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican and former undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security, led the National Rifle Associations response to Sandy Hook. That response, called Operation School Shield, recommended increasing the presence of armed adults in schools. Some Arkansas districts, like Bentonville, have opened up rooms to allow city police officers to have a quiet place to fill out paperwork, adding an informal armed presence off-and-on throughout the day, Hutchinson told the commission Wednesday, calling for layered security in schools. A school safety task force assembled by Hutchinson has also found that the states school counselors are often burdened with administrative paperwork, leaving them little time to help support students who may be at-risk, he said. While most professional groups and teachers unions favor on-campus law enforcement over armed staff, Arkansas struggles to recruit and retain a sufficient number of officers, said Jami Cook, director of the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training. She noted that one rural chief had a position open for a full year and saw no qualifed applicants. It may not be popular, but this is where we are, she said of armed school staff. We have to give schools options to protect our babies. While Hutchinson said he favored giving schools options, he said no teacher should be required to carry a firearm. Jay Barth, the chair of the states board of education, took that a step further, telling the commission that armed school staff should never include teachers. To be an effective classroom teacher, it requires 100 percent of ones attention, Barth said. I think that to alter ones mindset in a way that is problematic. Barth also challenged the panel to take a broader view of school safety, considering issues like bullying and school climate in addition to rare worst-case scenarios like shootings. He noted that several schools around the country have had mass shootings, despite the presence of armed security and law enforcement on campus. It is not a panacea, Barth said of arming staff. Absent from the meeting where representatives of groups that have opposed arming educators . Some of those groups have shared their thoughts at the commissions previous public hearings. Among their concerns: The presence of firearms may make students feel scared or anxious; The presence of firearms could create security risks and increase liability for schools; Firearms training for educators may be insufficient for complicated active-shooter situations; and Arming educators may shift valuable resources away from necessary school programs , like those used to support students. Photo: Teachers and staff of the Clifton Independent School District in Clifton, Texas, participate in a handgun training session in February 2013. --Lance Rosenfield/Prime for Education Week-File Imperial Valley News Center FTC alleges car dealers falsified consumers income on financing forms Washington, DC - Whether its a slimmer waist or an imaginary yacht superimposed in the background, were all familiar with the dramatic changes that retouching can make to a photo. A lawsuit the FTC has filed against Tates Auto Group and related companies alleges among other things that the defendants substantially retouched the financial circumstances of customers trying to finance cars. The defendants are four affiliated auto dealers in New Mexico and Arizona near the border of the Navajo Nation. When customers want to finance a car, Tates includes the terms of the deal in a retail installment contract. Like others in the industry, Tates seeks to assign that contract to a third party for example, a bank or finance company. To decide whether to accept the contract, those companies will look at the customers financing application, which discloses their monthly income and down payment. If the companies dont like what they see, the deal may not go through. The FTC alleges that in many instances, Tates fidgeted with the digits to make it look like customers had higher monthly incomes and bigger down payments than they really had. Were not talking about nickel-and-dime discrepancies. According to just one of the examples in the complaint, a consumer told Tates she had a fixed monthly income of about $1,200, but a Tates staffer allegedly inflated it to $5,200 in the paperwork. Wouldnt customers spot the false information? Not necessarily. The complaint charges that the defendants often used tactics that prevented people from reviewing the documents. Tates personnel allegedly rushed some consumers through the process; had them fill out forms over the phone or in places like grocery store parking lots or restaurants; or altered the documents after consumers signed them. What was in it for Tates? Increased sales, says the FTC. In addition, the complaint explains the ways in which the practice harmed consumers. For example, based on Tates bogus figures, financing companies extended credit to consumers who defaulted at a higher rate. Furthermore, by making it look like consumers were the source of the inflated numbers, Tates exposed them to the risk of liability for submitting false information to financing companies. Of course, because of the location of the dealerships, many of the consumers affected by Tates alleged conduct were members of the Navajo Nation. The complaint charges that over time, others in the industry got wise to what Tates was doing. In December 2015, a major financing company that regularly worked with Tates conducted a review. The company reported inflated income on 17.9% of applications from Tates Auto Center of Gallup, 37.5% of applications from Tates Auto Center, 38.7% of applications from Tates Nissan Buick GMC, and 44.8% of applications from Tates Auto Center of Winslow. The FTC also alleges Tates engaged in deceptive advertising. One YouTube ad claimed the featured car can be in your driveway for only $169 per month. In fact, consumers cant buy that car for the advertised monthly payment. That amount applies only to a lease. Whats more, the FTC says the ad didnt clearly disclose that to get that monthly payment, consumers must shell out $2899 plus other fees at lease signing. Then theres the online ad where the company touted an incentive discount of $5,250. But buried behind multiple hyperlinks was the fact that the discount was available only to consumers who trade in a 1995 or newer vehicle or terminate a lease from another car company 30 days before or 90 days after delivery. In addition, the lawsuit charges that Tates social media posts failed to disclose required terms and that they violated the Truth in Lending Act and Consumer Leasing Act. The case is pending in federal court in Arizona. Imperial Valley News Center UL and NAAEE Announce 2018 Winners of UL Innovative Education Award San Diego, California - UL, in partnership with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), today announced five recipients of this years annual UL Innovative Education Award (ULIEA). These nonprofit organizations have made a difference in their communities through their work to advance environmental education via STEM principles (E-STEM). As a result, they will each receive a monetary award between $25,000 and $100,000 and join an impressive network of like-minded ULIEA alumni. In addition, the winners will be paired with UL employees, including science, engineering and technical experts, to help build upon their existing successes. The 2018 award winners include the Alala Reintroduction Community Inquiry Program ($25,000 award recipient). Spearheaded by San Diego Zoo Global, this program provides Hawaii-based students with the opportunity to help inform the reintroduction of the critically endangered alala (Hawaiian crow), while also learning about its ecological significance. ULIEA is open each year to nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada that advance E-STEM, sustainable communities and youth empowerment. This year, there were applicants from 33 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. The proposals submitted as part of the 2018 program were particularly impressive and exhibited the measurable impact each program has had on its participants, said Cara Gizzi, ULs director of public safety education and outreach. We are thrilled to celebrate the 2018 Innovative Education Award winners for their efforts to elevate E-STEM in their communities and empower youth to become changemakers through environmental problem-solving, Gizzi said. These five organizations join a group of past ULIEA winners who have an opportunity to collaborate with one another to further extend E-STEM education and opportunities for todays youth. ULIEA annually awards $250,000 to organizations that demonstrate effective educational benefits and community engagement. Past winners have promoted E-STEM in a variety of ways, including teaching youth about sustainability and agriculture in urban environments, building science labs in urban public schools using hydroponic farming technology, providing hands-on education programming aboard floating classrooms, teaching students the skills to achieve zero waste standards in cafeterias, and much more. This year marks the millionth dollar donated to deserving nonprofit education organizations since the programs inception four years ago. Previous winners have used the award money in a variety of ways, to extend their reach, scale their programs or launch new learning initiatives. For instance, SPARK, a nature-based family learning program that operates as a part of Chincoteage Bay Field Station, was able to purchase a minibus to help transport families on Virginias Eastern Shore and ensure they have consistent access to the program, and opportunities to participate. Another past winner, NY Sun Works, an organization that builds innovative science labs in urban schools, used the award to build an online learning center that hosts K-12 grade-level Discovering Sustainability Science curriculum, training videos and other resources to help teachers and educators make the most of the program. This years winners are leading the charge in providing innovative and accessible learning opportunities to youth in need, said Christiane Maertens, NAAEEs deputy director. Were proud to celebrate the fourth year of our partnership with UL and look forward to meeting the leaders of these inspiring organizations in person. The 2018 winners will convene Aug. 8-10 for a leadership summit. The summit provides each winner the opportunity to network with other organizations and work with professionals from UL and NAAEE to further their causes. Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is made accessible to children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global. President Donald J. Trumps Administration is Working to Provide More Flexible, Affordable Healthcare Options for All Americans Washington, DC - "We will deliver relief to American workers, families, and small businesses, who right now are being crushed by Obamacare, by increasing freedom, choice, and opportunity for the American people." ~ President Donald J. Trump CREATING NEW HEALTHCARE PLANS: President Trumps new rules on short-term, limited-duration health plans will increase health insurance options for Americans. On August 1, 2018, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury issued their final rule on short-term, limited-duration health plans. The new rule allows for the sale and renewal of short-term, limited-duration plans that cover longer periods than the previous maximum of less than three months. Coverage under short-term, limited-duration plans can now cover an initial period of less than 12 months, with an option to extend the coverage to a maximum duration of 36 months. This new rule will increase choices for Americans facing extremely high premiums and create flexible options that are not currently available to individuals. Short-term, limited-duration insurance plans can provide beneficial coverage for multiple groups, especially middle-class individuals and families who have faced large premium increases and dwindling choices since Obamacare was first implemented. These plans are expected to be 50 to 80 percent cheaper than Obamacare plans. This rule largely reverses an Obama Administration rule published in late October 2016. The rule also clarifies that people can combine these plans with separate commercial products that provide people financial protection from possible future premium increases if they fall ill. PROVIDING OPTIONS: Short term, limited-duration health plans will help millions of Americans who were shut out of insurance markets due to Obamacare. Obamacare has failed to provide a suitable healthcare option for millions of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 28 million Americans are without insurance coverage. Americans are increasingly being priced out of Obamacare plans. In just the first five years of Obamacares full implementation, insurance premiums more than doubled. Under the prior administrations policies, unsubsidized Obamacare enrollment dropped 20 percent from 2016 to 2017, including a 73 percent decline in Arizona. In many American counties, options are nonexistent. Over 52 percent of American counties have just one Obamacare exchange insurer. This rule does not modify any rules governing Obamacare plans (such as pre-existing conditions or essential health benefit requirements); it simply gives consumers another option. DELIVERING ON PROMISES: President Trump has made delivering more affordable and flexible healthcare options and increasing healthcare freedom a key priority. Applauding Facebook's Action Targeting Malign Activity Washington, DC - We applaud Facebooks decision to expunge accounts, orchestrated from abroad, that foment division and violence inside the United States. These efforts are part of a broader external campaign aimed at weakening America and threatening our way of life by pitting citizens against each other and sowing discord in general. We urge all technology companies to take an aggressive approach to this insidious problem. We demand that Russia and all other malign actors immediately cease this reckless behavior. As President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Secretary Pompeo have said repeatedly, the United States will not tolerate foreign, including Russian, attempts to subvert our democratic processes and institutions. The U.S. Department of State Announces Expansion of Program To Promote U.S. Study Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce the addition of five new U.S. host campuses to the Departments EducationUSA Academy network. Boston University, St. Cloud State University, St. Johns University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and University of Wisconsin-Madison will join eleven other institutions which have been selected through a competitive application process to host EducationUSA Academy participants across the United States in summer 2019. The EducationUSA Academy offers two-to-four-week academic programs for self-funded international students who range in age from 15 to 17 and reside outside the United States. It provides students with a rewarding summer study and cultural experience in the United States, allowing them to develop their English language skills while pursuing specialized and academic writing courses, tours of diverse college and university campuses, and cultural activities. The Academy creates a pathway for international high school students who may not otherwise have considered attending university in the United States by providing them with the information and skills necessary to become successful students at U.S. higher education institutions. The following U.S. university campuses will host EducationUSA Academy sessions in 2019: Diablo Valley College (California), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Florida), Johns Hopkins University (Maryland), Montana State University (Montana), Northwestern University (Illinois), Syracuse University (New York), Temple University (Pennsylvania), University of Alabama-Huntsville (Alabama), University of Colorado Boulder (Colorado), University of Massachusetts Amherst (Massachusetts), University of North Georgia (Georgia), Boston University (Massachusetts), St. Cloud State University (Minnesota), St. Johns University (New York), University of Tennessee-Knoxville (Tennessee), University of Wisconsin-Madison (Wisconsin). Potential applicants can apply directly to the institution of their choice. The EducationUSAAcademy website has a brief description of each institutions program and links to the individual institution websites which contain more details about each program, such as applicable fees, and application procedures and deadlines. International education prepares students for todays globalized economy, and develops the relationships between people and communities in the United States and around the world that are necessary to solve shared global challenges. The U.S. Department of States EducationUSA advising network includes more than 400 advising centers in over 180 countries around the world that provide prospective international students with accurate, current, and comprehensive information about U.S. higher education. For more information about the EducationUSA network, visit educationusa.state.gov. EducationUSA is working in partnership with World Learning, Inc. to administer this program. For more information on international exchange programs administered by the U.S. Department of State, please visit: http://exchanges.state.gov. Rapper Raja Kumari: Bindis and Bangles are Part of My Identity Now and It's Not a Gimmick Everyone makes mistakes. Not all are willing to apologize. Last night on Tesla's earnings call, Elon Musk learned how much some humility and honesty in the form of an apology can be worth: $5 billion. Musk has been making some terrible decisions of late, whether to insult one of the hero Thai cave rescuers by calling him a pedophile or seek retroactive discounts from suppliers. The first demonstrated a lack of the control and probity a CEO must demonstrate, especially in front of investors. The second showed Tesla to be weak and desperate over cash flow. And then there was the 2018 Q1 earnings call in May when Musk had this interaction with a major equities analyst (transcripts from Seeking Alpha): "And so where specifically will you be in terms of capital requirements?" asked Antonio Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "Excuse me. Next. Boring bonehead questions are not cool. Next?" Musk replied. And then there was the analyst asking about how news reports were affecting purchase reservations for a Model 3 and Musk said, "These questions are so dry. They're killing me." Musk basically told investors that basic questions about financial position or forces affecting sales weren't worth addressing. In doing so, he was dismissive of people who could have a big effect on share prices. It was a shocking moment, and not in a good way. Then there was Musk taking to Twitter to try and write off deserved bad press, hinting that it had something to do with oil company influence. Problem is journos are under constant pressure to get max clicks & earn advertising dollars or get fired. Tricky situation, as Tesla doesn't advertise, but fossil fuel companies & gas/diesel car companies are among world's biggest advertisers. -- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2018 Whatever has been happening, Musk displayed some real control in yesterday's call. He apologized outright to the analysts he had treated badly. Here's the first of the apologies: First of all, I'd like to apologize for being impolite on the prior call. Honestly, I think there's really no excuse for bad manners and I was violating my own rule in that regard. Certainly, I have some excuse. There are reasons for it and I'd gotten no sleep and been working sort of 110-hour, 120-hour weeks. But, nonetheless, there's still no excuse. My apologies for not being polite on the prior call. And to the second analyst he had dismissed, Joseph Spak of RBC Capital Markets, he said, " And I would also like to apologize for being impolite on the last call with you. It's not right, and hope you accept my apologies." Both the analysts thanked him. Maybe he mended some bridges with them, at least partway. More importantly, he showed that he could control his temper and admit some degree of fault -- important when many things, including financial performance, production management, and car feature safety, had shown major shortcomings. Even though the company had record net losses, the stock gained in value after the call. As Fortune reported: Although Tesla stock rose slightly upon the release of the financial results themselves, it wasn't until Musk started talking that it really took off, boosting Tesla's market value by more than $5 billion in after-hours trading. Whatever else you want to say about Facebook, don't say the company doesn't learn from its mistakes. The past few weeks have provided plenty of evidence that Mark Zuckerberg and his crew know they're operating in a changed world, one where they must at least appear responsible and responsive. Just this week, Facebook introduced new tools to help its users manage how much time they spend every day scrolling through status updates and photos. It also revealed a swift crackdown on 32 pages operated by "bad actors" whose goals seemed to mesh with those of the Russian intelligence operatives who used Facebook and other social media platforms to spread propaganda and controversy during the 2016 presidential election. Last week, the company imposed a temporary personal ban on Alex Jones, host of the conspiracy website Infowars, for videos that violated its policies on bullying and hate speech, and warned him that continued transgressions would get his outlets kicked off the platform altogether. And, of course, all this comes on the heels of Facebook, having committed itself to expensive new security safeguards, suffering the largest-ever single-day stock market loss by a single corporation. If you squint just right, it all looks a little like the actions of a company that's been born again in righteousness, or at least scared straight. And that's how it's being greeted. "Unlike after the 2016 election, when it took Facebook more than a year to come clean in a public post to its users about disinformation from Russian agents, Facebook is being more forthright this time around," Slate noted approvingly after the announcement about bad actors. Wired's Alex Whitcomb, who spent more than a year working at Facebook, went further, declaring, "We're lucky Mark Zuckerberg is in charge." Responding to Facebook's $120 billion stock market nosedive, Whitcomb took his hat off to its founder. "Mark Zuckerberg told us all he would put our safety and fixing the problems of Facebook ahead of profits. He did that," he wrote. "He has gone from his 'move fast and break things' mentality to breaking the Wall Street bank with how much he's unwilling to give up our safety." Easy there, Sparky. The notion that Zuckerberg sacrificed something dear to him by accepting a reduction in Facebook's quarterly earnings or share price is a pure canard. While Zuckerberg has a fiduciary duty to create value for shareholders, Facebook's ownership structure makes him virtually immune to firing, and the company is in no danger of a hostile takeover. Zuckerberg has always said he's not all that interested in money, and even his critics concede it doesn't seem to be a primary motivator for him. In any case, a 20 percent poorer Zuck is still one of the world's richest individuals. Heaping praise on him for passing up an opportunity to be marginally richer is like commending your cat for not barking at the mailman. No, what gets Zuckerberg out of bed in the morning is impact, the ability to effect change--power, basically, though that's not a word Silicon Valley idealists like. For him, that means getting everyone in the world on Facebook, or "building a global community that works for everyone," as he would put it. The best way to gauge how much Zuckerberg values this goal is watching what happens when it comes into conflict with another one of his priorities, like free speech. Notionally, the goal of "giving everyone a voice" is so important, he is unwilling even to say posts denying the Holocaust happened should be censored. "At the end of the day, I don't believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong," he told Recode's Kara Swisher, necessitating a hasty clarification that clarified little. But even as he was standing up for anti-Semites' speech rights, Zuckerberg was continuing his tireless efforts to secure a toehold for Facebook in China, where it has long been clear that the price of entry for U.S. tech companies is playing along with the government's strict censorship over news and personal expression. (To facilitate its return to China after an eight-year absence, Google reportedly built a version of its search engine "that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest," according to the Intercept. ("We don't comment on speculation about future plans," Google says.) While insatiable profit thirst helped create the conditions for the spread of fake news and Cambridge Analytica's data banditry, Zuckerberg's obsession with getting every Earthling inside the big blue tent has made the company vulnerable in other ways. For starters, 2.5 billion users make for an awfully big target. And Zuckerberg's palpable fear of ever alienating any constituency makes him comically easy to game with bad-faith complaints. After hosting a delegation of huffy conservatives in May 2016 to hear out their bias concerns, he was so keen to appear fair and to not be taking sides in the presidential election that he let Russian propaganda run rampant on the platform. A Facebook that was comfortable articulating values other than inclusiveness for the sake of growth would have an easier time making tough calls around things like the limits of acceptable speech. It would also inevitably pique some people who disagree with those calls, or who profit from stoking ignorance and hatred. Remote work isn't a huge deal anymore for individual workers. But what happens when you tell 300 employees all at once? not to come into the office for days at a time? To find out, payroll, benefits, HR and compliance company Justworks implemented Work From Anywhere (WFA) Week across its offices. The concept, as Justworks founder and CEO Isaac Oates explains, came from the military practice of "block leave," in which an entire unit temporarily shuts down. "We gave everyone the option to switch up their work environment at the same time," Oates says. "Not as leave, of course, but as an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective on new markets, inspire a different kind of productivity, and encourage them to get some deep work done toward their business goals." The only caveat? Workers had to keep their regular New York City hours and meet all of Justworks' shared core responsibilities. The results Oates says that, because the workers had already established good in-person connections, going remote for the week wasn't a huge shock to productivity. Even the team leadership meeting, which never had happened remotely before, took place without a hitch via video. Many of the employees took advantage of the time to visit and get insights from existing customers. People went all over the country, with some workers even hopping on planes for international excursions. But some of the workers found it was more convenient and logical to stay put and focus on deep, local work, conducting phone calls and meetings around town. Most came back with actionable insights into new markets, customer case studies, and other information. The sense of energy in the office that first Monday we all came back was pretty remarkable. That actually really stuck with me--seeing that people wanted to be back and seeing each other. Since we'd all broken our routines at the same time, it was a very different feeling than coming back from vacation or a long weekend. Plus, there wasn't the usual cloud of "catching up" hanging over anyone's head. That first week back, I actually asked everyone to take a survey and share their experience with WFA--97 percent of the team said they were able to accomplish their goals and get in touch with their co-workers, 98 percent said it was a welcome change of scenery, and 97 percent thought we should repeat WFA next year. The interpersonal result is consistent with the assertion by Cary Cooper, professor of organizational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, that most individuals don't want to work exclusively from home--they all eventually want some degree of social contact. Oates adds that, in addition to the psychological refresh, WFA was also important as a test. The company proved it could keep everything rolling even if the offices had to physically shut down, so the WFA approach now is rolled into the Justworks emergency continuity plan. The hurdles you have to face before it can work According to Oates, the most common hang-up companies have with remote work is ensuring that the workers treat the flexible work as real work. The best way to address this right off the bat is with selective hiring that guarantees you've got people with the grit to get the job done. He also recommends setting clear expectations (e.g., travel arrangements and expenses) ahead of time so the process is both safe and successful. Little details, such as whether someone has the right charger available, have to be addressed to keep the policy from falling apart. Lastly, you also have to acknowledge that there's no one-size-fits-all solution. For instance, some jobs (e.g., software development) are more conducive to flexibility, whereas others (e.g., sales and operations) need more structure or have to be covered at different times. "I think the majority of companies can overcome these discrepancies by focusing less on broad, top-down policy and more on empowering their team leads," Oates advises. "Managers and department heads are leading the work. So, in my view, they should be able to take ownership and create the policies that work best for their team getting work done." Modern workers demand a modern work plan, but the design is up to you Justworks' experiment shows that purposely shoving hundreds of employees out of your offices at a time is far from featherbrained nonsense. It can help you gather information you wouldn't get otherwise, improve energy and connection between employees, and even ensure you're ready for unexpected hurdles. In that positive context, Oates says that employers should be responsive to the fact that workers--especially Millennials--are desperate for work-life balance, especially given that today's workers are so comfortable with the technologies that enable non-office work. James Gunn is unlikely to be re-hired by Disney as Guardians of the Galaxy director despite huge blow-back from Hollywood, a report claims. According to Variety, the filmmaker - who was fired for offensive tweets he posted up to a decade ago - won't be returning for the third instalment of the Marvel franchise he made so successful despite his cast writing an open letter in favour of his reinstatement. Walt Disney Studios has faced a huge backlash in the wake of its decision to let Gunn go after an alt-right site unearthed controversial tweets he made joking about paedophilia and rape. Gunn has long been critical of Donald Trump. Bosses announced they had - somewhat hypocritically - severed its ties with Gunn as his comments were indefensible and inconsistent with its values. I dont see Disney re-hiring him, one source told Variety. Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios. Gunn previously apologised for the ill-judged tweets ahead of his employment by Disney for the first Guardians of the Galaxy back in 2012. Despite this, Disney claims it had no idea they existed and only learned about them when they recirculated. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel His Guardians cast, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista, pledged their full support of Gunn, but Disney is said to be standing its ground. There has been no word on who could replace Gunn, though many are calling upon Disney to hire a female director in his place. Standing at a compact 5ft 2in, ever-smiling Spanish artist Ester Segarra hardly cuts an intimidating figure. Yet, with towering standards, a no-nonsense attitude and a unique ritualistic approach to photography, she has earned the hard-won respect of the worlds most extreme bands. Satanists, pagans, anarchists and church burners go to Segarra to bring their images to life, and she has the creative know-how to get these tortured subjects to bare their souls, sometimes reluctantly, in front of the camera. With [Swedish black metal band] Watain, we did snakes we had all these boxes full of snakes on the set, she tells The Independent from her second flat in Stockholm, home of death metal, where she lives with her partner, a chef. The other half of the time she resides in London, where her 15-year career documenting niche genres of heavy music has been made. Segarra has the creative know-how to get subjects such as Watain to bare their souls (Ester Segarra) They were covered in pig's blood, which was interesting. I have used human ashes, too. I didnt ask questions, but I trusted that if they were being used, then [the band] had permission to use them. Ive used fire paste to set parking lots on fire. I use a lot of fire: torches on fire; scythes on fire; a bow and arrows on fire. Sometimes, its been close to going wrong on set, but amazingly, there hasnt ever been a huge accident, she reassures. I always have wet towels and a fire extinguisher. These describe just a handful of the shoots Segarra has masterminded for magazines and metal labels. From the pomp and ceremony of satanic rock band Ghost to the ghoulish corpse paint of Norwegian Occultists Abbath, she creates fantastical images that transport their audience from the comfort of their homes to the darker recesses of their imaginations; a course that now seems unlikely, given her strict Catholic upbringing in post-Franco Barcelona. I was very shy as a child. I used to paint and draw a lot. I was always into creative stuff that was never encouraged. In Spain, there was a dictatorship and people were angry. I grew up in the late 1970s, early 1980s, when the country was getting its first taste of freedom. The culture was subversive. There was a little devil attitude. I grew up influenced by the first generation that were given room to do something that wasnt allowed. The photographer masterminded the ghoulish corpse paint of Norwegian band Abbath (Ester Segarra) Much against the wishes of her parents, she was drawn away from an academic degree in economics to train in photography. She pursued her passion in London, working waitressing jobs to fund her studies and taking pictures of glass sculptures something she still finds pleasure in today. It was a little white lie that got her into a gig with a camera for the first time. Nebula was playing at the Borderline and I wanted to go to the gig. It was sold out, so I told the venue that I worked for a Spanish magazine and asked for a photo pass. Amazingly, it worked. Seizing her opportunity, she sent the shots to several extreme publications, including Terrorizer. The editor liked them so much that he offered her a job. Fast-forward 15 years, and shes one of the most sought-after extreme metal photographers in the industry. Why? Through determination, skill and negotiation. Some people have very particular ideas, she says of how she collaborates with larger-than-life personalities. You could take these approaches as difficult, but they take their art seriously. Sometimes, there is a clash of ideas. There are provocateurs, but you dont get respect by default you earn it. They will do things they know will make you feel uncomfortable. It is about the strong, not about the weak. If youre a cry baby, you better go somewhere else, because youre going to cry. 'When a symbol becomes devoid of meaning, it becomes a cliche,' she says. Venom (Ester Segarra) A notoriously challenging character she found herself face-to-face with was Varg Vikernes, formerly of one-man Norwegian black metal project Burzum, an act considered among the genres most influential. In 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in jail for the murder of Oystein Euronymous Aarseth, the guitarist of rival band Mayhem (whom Segarra has also worked with). He was also found guilty for the arson of three Christian churches. He maintains a fearsome reputation for his far-right ideology and hatred of the media. I was well aware of what he had done, and I do not condone it, she continues gravely, but I was curious about him. I was expecting him to be unfriendly, unhelpful and suspicious of me not only am I Spanish, but I was also from the media! At first he was distant and cold, but at one point, the ice broke and he was actually warm, funny. Ive met people on the streets who have given me the creeps more than him. Often with extreme bands comes extreme ideology, including, with artists such as Vikernes, fascism. With the rise of the far right threatening democracy in Europe, how does she feel about photographing artists who promote nationalistic views? What worries me more is the rise of absolutism, she says. Both by the far right and those fighting against it by being just as fascist in their approach. Is cancelling tours that different from book burnings? Cancelling tours based on rumours is just as much a threat to democracy. Maybe there should be more talks about the fears and concerns that have lead to the rise of the far right instead. And then there is the misogyny. In the era of #MeToo, how do testosterone-fuelled bands singing about female dismemberment come to terms with their leading photographer being a woman? Unlike men, you are first seen as a woman and then for what you do. Yes, I have worked with people who might have taken me less seriously, but I havent let them get to me. Ive just found a way to turn it around, in the only way I know, as a woman. To celebrate her prolific career, Segarra has just released her first book called Ars Umbra. Electric Wizard (Ester Segarra) One of the things Segarra takes extremely seriously is symbolism. She loathes gratuitous violence or insincere iconography, and though there is little subject matter that she will not capture, there is always an ethical line. That isnt with the use human skulls, however. There are some bands that have access to things that most people would not use. For me, if that band has a genuine ethos and understanding about what it means to use something, I am up for it. When a symbol becomes devoid of meaning, it becomes a cliche. And I hate cliches. They have to pay a price for what they use. You take something, you give something. Using a human skull for some people might be shocking, but if it is done with intent and with an awareness of the power of it To me, its not different from people buying clothing when they dont know where it comes from. A skull found after someone has died causes far less harm than having a child almost dying to make clothing for the west. Morally, Id rather use a human skull than buy that skirt. To celebrate her prolific career thus far, Segarra has just released her first anthology called Ars Umbra, or the art of shadow. The vinyl-sized book works on different levels. For those interested in photography, it provides a wealth of fascinating material capturing musics most controversial subgenres. And if youre a fan of the bands featured? Even better. There is one image, however, that she urges us all to take a moment with. The most special picture in the book is in a section called In Memoriam that pays homage to the fallen. The last picture is of Selim Lemouchi from the Devils Blood and Erik Danielsson from Watain. It is a silhouette showing them sharing a cigarette. Selim was a personal friend of mine. That was the last time I saw him alive before he killed himself a few months later. It was a private moment and the sun was setting. When you take pictures of people, you hardly ever think that it will become connected to their death. That is the power of photography it captures those moments beyond the grave. Ars Umbra is out now via Season of Mist Almost every species of lemur is at risk of extinction, making it the worlds most endangered primate, scientists have warned. The destruction of their tropical forest habitat in Madagascar, caused by illegal tree logging, charcoal production and mining, is the chief cause. But the round-eyed primates are also being increasingly hunted by humans for restaurant food. And some are captured for the pet trade. More than 100 types of lemur 95 per cent of all known the species and subspecies are likely to be critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable to extinction in the wild, the conservationists believe. Dozens of experts in primate conservation from around the world have reviewed the conservation status of the 111 species and subspecies of lemurs, all native to Madagascar, and provide updated assessments for the IUCN Red List of extinctions. Russ Mittermeier, from the charity Global Wildlife Conservation, said the groups findings highlighted the very high extinction risk to Madagascar's unique lemurs" and was "indicative of the grave threats to Madagascar biodiversity as a whole". This is, without a doubt, the highest percentage of threat for any large group of mammals and for any large group of vertebrates, he said. Professor Christoph Schwitzer from Bristol Zoological Society and deputy chairman of the Primate Specialist Group, told the BBC: "More and more, we are seeing unsustainable levels of lemur poaching. "We see commercial hunting as well probably for local restaurants. And this is a new phenomenon for Madagascar we didn't see it at this scale 15 years ago." Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them safe for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA The findings will go through a peer review process before the Red List is officially updated to reflect them. The IUCN already has a "lemur action plan" to save the animals, which includes protecting habitats where the most threatened species live and tackling poverty through ecotourism schemes to help local people to avoid hunting the animals. Princess Eugenie has revealed that she intends for her wedding to Jack Brooksbank in October to be entirely plastic-free. Speaking to British Vogue for the magazines September issue, the 28-year-old royal explained that her and Brooksbank are completely anti-plastic at home and that she is keen for her impending nuptials to reflect her views on sustainability. Eugenie recently became an ambassador for Project 0, a charitable initiative committed to protecting the ocean from pollution via single-use plastic. Recommended Rihanna appears on British Vogue with super slim eyebrows Its been eye-opening, the young royal tells the magazine in reference to joining the anti-plastic movement and its environmental impact. My whole house is anti-plastic now, she continues, and Jack and I want our wedding to be like that as well. The ceremony will take place on 12 October at St Georges Chapel in Windsor Castle, the same venue where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in May. As for pre-wedding jitters, the young royal explained she has felt fairly relaxed about it all thus far, but added that some anxieties are inevitable. Im not stressed at all, she said. Its very nerve-wracking because you want it to be perfect but then you realise that youre going to be with the person you love forever and nothing else really matters. The couple met after they were introduced by mutual friends at a ski resort in Verbier in 2011. Brooksbank proposed in January while the duo were on holiday in Nicaragua. The young royal is set to tie the knot to Jack Brooksbank in October (Sean Thomas) The magazine also asked Eugenie to discuss her thoughts on Instagram and the pressures imposed by social media, at which point she took the opportunity to champion authenticity. Nowadays, its so easy to recoil when you see a perfect image on Instagram, she said, but its important that its real." Were real, she added, with regards to her sister, Princess Beatrice, who was interviewed alongside her. Meanwhile, Beatrice addressed the difficulties of being a Princess in the public eye, describing it as a situation that is hard to navigate due to there being no official protocol. We are the first, she said of her and her sister, we are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and were also princesses and doing all of this in the public eye. See the full feature in the September issue of British Vogue, available on digital download and newsstands on Friday August 3. Government plans for a new NHS whistleblowing service have come in for criticism from MPs over conflict of interest concerns about letting NHS hospitals investigate themselves. The introduction of a statutorily independent Health Service Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) to investigate cases of compromised patient safety was supported by a joint Lords and Commons committee. But allowing the HSSIB to accredit NHS trusts and foundation trusts run their run their own internal investigations was a step too far, the committee said. The concerns come weeks after a report revealed up to 650 people had their lives cut short by lethal opiate prescribing at Gosport War Memorial Hospital, where staff and patient concerns went unheeded for decades. The committee considers this idea to be wholly misconceived, the committees chair and backbench Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said. It represents too great a conflict of interest for the accredited trusts, compromises HSSIBs independence from the system it is investigating and would risk damaging confidence in the safe space concept itself. To win the confidence of patients, healthcare practitioners and other bodies with responsibility for patient safety, HSSIB had to be, and be seen to be, independent of existing healthcare structures, including the Department of Health and Social Care. It also said that proposals did not go far enough to protect and investigate concerns from whistleblowers in the private sector, and this must also be addressed. With an estimated 12,000 avoidable hospital deaths every year, the committee said change is clearly needed for the benefit of patients and staff. Previous major public inquiries revealed a system slow to detect and learn and, in some cases, designed to protect clinical staff and hospitals rather than discover the truth, cautioned the report. Committee members said creating a safe space within the HSSIB was crucial to changing this, so the body will operate on a closed doors model and make recommendations for the whole NHS and not just the incident under investigation. The report said: When serious incidents take place patients have a right to find out what went wrong and staff need to feel that they can be open without being blamed or made a scapegoat. Far from restricting patients from finding out what happened to them, we believe that the safe space will help HSSIB to establish facts and identify the underlying causes of the most serious incidents that take place each year. NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images Dr Robert Harwood, chair of the British Medical Associations consultants committee welcomed the issues flagged by MPs. When mistakes occur in the medical environment, the results can be tragic, he said. However, if we as doctors, and the health service as a whole, are to learn from such mistakes and stop them happening again, staff must feel able to report and reflect openly. We do have concerns with some parts of the draft bill, he added. Namely, we believe that private healthcare should be held to the same high standards as NHS services and included within the remit of the HSSIB. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: We want to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world and welcome the committees recognition of our efforts to do this through this landmark draft bill. We will now consider the recommendations carefully before responding in the autumn. Additional reporting by PA These birds are racing to their mating grounds. Its exhausting Shifting environmental signals caused by global warming are making barnacle geese race northward on their spring migration, flying faster and skipping the stops they normally use to rest and refuel, according to a study published recently in the journal Current Biology. This is the first one I know of where a long distance migrant is increasing its travel speed, says Matthew P Ayres, a professor of biology at Dartmouth College. The geese spend their summers in the Arctic, where warmer temperatures transform the snowy landscape into an all-you-can-eat buffet of grasses, roots and mosses. Their migration is triggered by changes in daylight. As days grow longer in spring, the geese take sunlight as a cue to head north. The goal is to arrive early enough in the spring to take advantage of the tender spring greens that are especially beneficial for chicks. Once the birds are en route, environmental cues like lots of greenery make them realise that spring has arrived early in the north. The geese take the time to rebuild their strength when they arrive, but that means nesting is delayed. As a result, their chicks are born when the food supply is past its prime. They hatch while the vegetation is already not optimal, and they grow less and they survive less, says Bart Nolet, a professor at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and an author of the study. Babies cries may foretell their adult voices (Getty ) (Getty) Research has already shown that the pitch of a persons voice stays basically the same during adulthood and that how we sound as adults may be determined before puberty. A recent study indicates that the pitch of a boys voice at age seven can mostly predict what he will sound like as an adult. So when do our voices start emerging? One group of researchers hypothesise that differences in pitch would emerge very early even in babies who have not yet learned how to speak. Now, their new research published recently in the journal Biology Letters indicates that the pitch of babies cries at four-months-old may predict the pitch of their speech at age five. In fact, the researchers say, the differences identifiable in babies whines can explain 41 per cent of the differences in voice pitch that appear by age five. Taken together with previous studies, they say, this suggests a discovery that may be surprising: that a substantial proportion of the difference between how we sound in adulthood may be traceable back to the time we spend in utero. Indeed, they say, that would explain why there are differences in baby screams so soon after birth. In utero, you have a lot of different things that can alter and impact your life not only as a baby, but also at an adult stage, says Nicolas Mathevon, a professor who studies animal behaviour at the University of Lyon in France and was one of the authors of the study. Carolyn Hodges, an assistant professor of anthropology at Boston University who was not involved in the study, says research had shown that voice pitch affects our impressions of a persons physical and social dominance, attractiveness and trust, which can have real-world consequences. There arent many studies that address these questions, so that makes this research especially intriguing, she says. Still, the researchers caution that their sample size was small and noted that further investigations involving a larger sample were needed to confirm the correlations they found. Fossils trapped in amber offer clues to the origins of snakes In 2016, Lida Xing was combing the amber markets of Myanmar when a merchant enticed him over to his booth with what he said was the skin of a crocodile trapped in amber. When Xing inspected the specimen and noticed the diamond-shaped pattern of its scales, he realised what he was holding was actually a 99-million-year-old snakeskin. Xing, who is a palaeontologist from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing, said that of the hundreds of thousands of amber pieces discovered in the area, no one had ever before found a snake. He purchased the snakeskin and set up a meeting with Michael Caldwell, a snake palaeontologist at the University of Alberta. Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary A few minutes before Xing boarded his flight to Canada, a different colleague alerted him to another recently discovered snake specimen that was more amazing than the first: entombed in a silver-dollar-size chunk of amber was a baby snake. The fossil is the first baby snake and the oldest baby snake to yet be found, said Xing. Before this finding, palaeontologists had not uncovered a fossilised baby snake even in the rock fossil record, says Caldwell. Only the bottom half of the baby snakes sinuous body was preserved in the amber, which is fossilised tree resin. Because the skull was missing, the people who found the fossil thought the tiny creature inside was either a centipede or millipede. Through the use of a micro-CT scanner and a synchrotron, scientists confirmed that the specimen was a baby snake, a new species they named Xiaophis myanmarensis. It resembles existing species of pipe and grass snakes. You should actually send that thank you note youve been meaning to write Dear reader, We are grateful that you are taking the time to read this article. Because without you reading the story, whats the point? We are now going to use your precious time to share a surprising new finding: people like getting thank you notes. OK, its not that surprising. But what did surprise two psychologists as they attempted to get to bottom of why so few people actually send thank yous is that many people totally miscalibrate the effect of an appreciative email. They underestimate the positive feelings it will bring. They think its not going to be that big a deal, says Amit Kumar, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies wellbeing. But after receiving thank you notes and filling out questionnaires about how it felt to get them, many said they were ecstatic, scoring the happiness rating at 4 of 5. The senders typically guessed theyd evoke a 3. Sample letters included missives of appreciation to fellow students and friends who offered guidance through the college admissions process, job searches and tough times. In lab experiments, Kumar observed that it took most subjects less than five minutes to write the letters. The study, published in June in the journal Psychological Science, is an effort to fill a hole in gratitude research. Dont squish the jellyfish. Catch it with a robotic claw (Wyss Institute at Harvard University (Wyss Institute at Harvard University) The ocean is filled with jellyfish. They form critical links in the marine food chain, some are immortal and others remain floating enigmas. Some scientists consider them and other squishy creatures similar to living works of art, and they do not want to kill or injure these masterpieces they are trying to understand. Its almost akin to how a scientist would study a painting in the Louvre, says David Gruber, a marine biologist at the City University of New Yorks Baruch College. Someone studying the Mona Lisa wouldnt just cut a piece off and do some analysis on it. We want to get as much information as we can without harming the painting. That is why Gruber and a team of engineers and marine scientists are announcing a new invention for studying soft sea creatures like jellyfish or squid in their natural habitat. The RAD sampler (short for rotary actuated dodecahedron), is essentially a 3D printed, origami catchers mitt. It uses a single motor to fold itself from a 20 inch flat star into a 12-sided encasement, 8 inches wide. With it, researchers can gently hold squishy sea animals temporarily for observation without harming, killing or having to bring them to the surface. This sampler, which was detailed recently in a paper in Science Robotics, is part of a larger effort to design robots that aid in the study of our planets most mysterious habitat. You get used to the fact that there are these animals that wont get described, or wont get described by you, Brennan Phillips, an ocean engineer and remote operated vehicle pilot at the University of Rhode Island and co-author on the study, says. One day when Phillips was studying at a microengineering lab at Harvard, a graduate student named Zhi Teoh presented a tiny paper model of a polyhedron he had hand-folded, like origami, from a single panel with tweezers under a microscope. After the meeting, Phillips asked if Teoh could make it bigger to capture sea creatures. Teoh overcame many challenges, including making it easy to repair, not reliant on too many motors, able to withstand the deep oceans pressures and gentle on the animals when it closed. New York Times The BBC has been accused of legitimising right-wing extremists by giving the former Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam a "platform to spout bile" on Radio 4's flagship Today programme. Mr Kassam, who formerly served as chief adviser to Nigel Farage when he was Ukip leader, was brought on to discuss the release of Tommy Robinson from prison. A prominent supporter of the far-right figurehead, he has led Free Tommy rallies and publicised his cause during a two-month imprisonment for contempt of court. But Mr Kassams views were not debated on the Today programme, which broadcast his comments in a pre-recorded interview. Labour MP David Lammy said Radio 4 did not even bother to push back on [Mr Kassam's] claims that Steve Bannon the former Breitbart chairman and chief strategist to Republican president Donald Trump - was a Kennedy Democrat. The legitimation of white supremacists and fascists who plan to interfere in our politics is a grave threat, Mr Lammy added. Many listeners took to Twitter to ask why Radio 4 did not invite guests to counter Mr Kassams claims, and it was further criticised for allowing Jordan Peterson, a professor celebrated by the misogynist incel movement and Islamophobes, to appear later in the programme. Meanwhile, BBC 5 Live Breakfast broadcast comments by Ezra Levant, Robinson's former employer at The Rebel Media, a Canadian far-right website. The furore came as figures showed the Today programme has lost more than 800,000 listeners in the past year, pulling in an average of 6.82 million every week. Tommy Robinson wins appeal: Far-right leader freed from prison on bail Human rights lawyer Adam Wagner said the broadcast allowed Mr Kassam to make out he's a legal expert commenting on legal policy, asking: What on earth is going on? One critic said the BBC had given him a platform to spout dishonest and divisive bile on national radio, and another said he should not be given the oxygen of publicity. Catherine Mayer, co-founder of the Womens Equality Party, pointed out issues including climate change and gender equality had been balanced with deniers by the BBC, but it then gives Raheem Kassam a solo slot to peddle far-right poison. A spokesperson for the BBC said: Martha Kearneys interview robustly challenged Raheem Kassams opinions and assertions on Tommy Robinson and Islam. She also clearly explained the legal points around his release on bail and impending re-trial. We believe our job is to give our audience facts, analysis and information, especially in the case of contentious issues which are surrounded by misinformation. Mr Kassam appeared to call for people to watch the Facebook Live video that saw Robinson jailed, after it violated blanket reporting restrictions and threatened to derail a trial at Leeds Crown Court. He claimed his own network, including his former manager Mr Bannon, is not far-right as they set up a new pan-European political alliance called The Movement. Mr Kassam said it would unite what we think of as patriotic, populist nationalist parties across the continent, including Ukip. He said his Today programme interview was pre-recorded on Wednesday and claimed he would publish the full audio if they cut things out. As criticism raged on Twitter, Mr Kassam said he felt the interview was tough but fair. The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters scuffle with police at the junction of Whitehall and The Mall during a 'Free Tommy Robinson' protest AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures A protester wearing a mask of US president Donald Trump was among thousands of supporters of far-right activist and former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson staging a protest outside Downing Street in central London. Rex Features The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures A man empties his beer over passing police AFP/Getty The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Reuters The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Dutch far-right opposition leader Geert Wilders addresses thousands of supporters Rex Features The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Rex The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters scuffle with police on Whitehall during a 'Free Tommy Robinson' protest on 9 June AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Police watch supporters of Tommy Robinson PA The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures People take part in a support rally for Tommy Robinson Rex Features The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Supporters of far-right spokesman Tommy Robinson demonstrate in Trafalgar square AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters scuffle with police at the junction of Whitehall and The Mall during a 'Free Tommy Robinson' protest on 9 June AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures A man climbs on one of the lions in Trafalgar Square Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters scuffle with police at the junction of Whitehall and The Mall AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Police clear supporters PA The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Beer is thrown as demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters scuffle with police AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Demonstrators clash with police Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Supporters of English Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson clash with the police in Whitehall, London on 9 June Reuters The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures An injured police officer during a 'Free Tommy Robinson' protest in London on 9 June AFP/Getty The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Protesters take over a sight-seeing bus on at the junction of Whitehall and The Mall during a 'Free Tommy Robinson' protest on 9 June AFP/Getty Images The Tommy Robinson protest: in pictures Police watch supporters of Tommy Robinson during their protest in Trafalgar Square PA Mr Kassam has previously hit out at journalists online, publishing a photo of an LBC Radio producer alongside his contact details and urging Twitter and Facebook followers to tell him what you think" last month. After the Court of Appeals verdict on Robinson, he accused the media of lying over his case and told journalists: F*** youwe won. Judges upheld a finding that the English Defence League co-founder committed contempt of court during a trial in Canterbury, but quashed a second finding in Leeds from May and ordered his release from prison. The appeal was allowed because of fundamentally flawed legal procedures at Leeds Crown Court and judges released Robinson on bail to attend another hearing over the allegations. The 35-year-old is accused of breaking blanket reporting restrictions on an ongoing set of trials, and causing an application for a jury to be dismissed, with a Facebook Live video on 25 May. The Court of Appeals judgment said Robinsons interest in the case was sparked by the ethnicity or religion of the defendants and that he made generally prejudicial remarkscapable of amounting to a freestanding contempt of court. Robinsons lawyer argued that the case should not be re-heard but judges refused, saying the contempt allegations must be settled in the public interest. The alleged contempt was serious and the sentence might be longer than that already served if a finding is again made against Robinson, judges warned. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has previous convictions for offences including assault, threatening behaviour, mortgage fraud and false representation. After leaving the EDL and failing to set up a British arm of the German anti-Islam Pegida movement, he now characterises himself as an independent reporter and has spent the last two years touring the world and building connections with far-right figures in the US and Europe. Robinson has emerged from prison with more money and more international support than when he was jailed in May, receiving almost 20,000 of bitcoin donations while in prison. Robinson's following on social media has also surged and he has garnered public support from prominent figures including the US president's son, Donald Trump Jr. Id have done six months just for that recognition, he purportedly wrote in a letter from prison. Grenfell Tower is no longer a crime scene after police completed forensic examination of the buildings charred husk. The Metropolitan Police is handing responsibility for the tower over to the Government, which will consult the community about creating a memorial at the site of the tragedy in which 72 people died. Commander Stuart Cundy, who is leading the Metropolitan Police investigation, said huge quantities of material of evidential value had been gathered during the towers 13-month inspection, adding: Simply put, we have everything we need from the tower. Scotland Yard said in July it had conducted three interviews under caution as part of its investigation, which is considering whether manslaughter has been committed. While the council still owns the plot, it has not had been involved in running the site since the tragedy, and it will not resume responsibility or have input into its future. Instead, the site will continue to be managed day-to-day by the independent site team under the command of Doug Patterson, chief executive of Bromley council. Members of the survivors group Grenfell United on Wednesday said they were relieved at the news that the Government would be taking over the site. The towers blackened shell has been covered with white plastic sheeting and banners featuring green hearts since the one-year anniversary on 14 June. Announcing the completion of the forensic work on the tower, Commander Cundy said in a statement: Police specialists and forensic experts have worked meticulously over the past year to ensure that the detailed examination of Grenfell Tower has been completed to the highest standards. Former firefighter Tony Sullivan who was at Grenfell Tower explains 'the truth behind the myths' This has been supported by a series of off-site tests and reconstructions. We have documented the results of a thorough forensic examination and recovered huge quantities of material of evidential value, working with experts to examine the building construction and maintenance systems. We have recorded every aspect of the tower, both inside and out, using laser scanning as well as extensive photography and videography which enables us to virtually recreate the Grenfell Tower as part of our ongoing investigation. We have carefully planned for this day and are satisfied that passing over control of the tower will have no bearing on the ongoing criminal investigation or any subsequent criminal proceedings. Simply put, we have everything we need from the tower. He continued: In the six months following the fire, one of our key priorities was to recover, identify and return all those who tragically died to their families. From the outset, we have also been relentless in our investigations at the tower. I recognise that releasing the tower as a crime scene is a significant milestone and we have updated bereaved families and survivors that whilst our work on the site is now complete, our large and complex police investigation continues. Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Show all 18 1 /18 Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Kitchen in flat 16 where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 ReutersGrenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Hallway in flat 16, leading to the kitchen where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Toilet in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom 2 of flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom 2 of flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Kitchen in flat 16 where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Door to flat 16 from the lobby on floor 4 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Hallway in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA The police investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire is taking place at the same time as a public inquiry into the disaster, with each probe informing the other. A hospital serving Dominic Raabs constituents has released an internal document identifying potential Brexit risks, warning that an expectation for a flow of funds into the health service after leaving the EU may be false. The paper from Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust situated in the Brexit secretarys local area outlines how NHS officials have highlighted the possibility of staff shortages and how costs may go up. Specialist equipment or parts sourced from the EU could potentially be less accessible, IT servers based in the EU may be affected and there could be delays to accessing medicines, the hospital added in details released to the Daily Mirror. The report, prepared for the hospitals executive management committee in March, mentions risks such as resource pool shrinkage already an issue [which] affects EU nationals and those partnered to EU nationals, and distraction for staff even if they dont plan to leave attending meetings, sorting out visas etc. It also noted: It was thought that the upsides should also be considered as there may be opportunities from Brexit, such as the return of British nationals. Dr Andrew Dearden, treasurer of the British Medical Association, told the newspaper: It is clear from these documents that Brexit could negatively affect every corner of the NHS. Its a tragedy that the public were led to believe figures plastered on the side of a bus when many authoritative sources are now saying that there could instead be less money for trusts, limited access to life saving medicines and a Brexit brain drain of much needed staff. A Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokeswoman said that the potential risks identified are only possibilities and not definite, only relate to its trust and that various contingency options are being worked up. Brexit casualties Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit casualties Brexit casualties Andrea Jenkyns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary at the ministry for housing, communities and local government role May 2018 - The Morley and Outwood MP said: We want to see a new relationship with Europe, with a new model not enjoyed by other countries nothing that leaves us half-in, half-out. And in order to achieve this, we need to leave the customs union. Ms Jenkyns also said she wished to dedicate more of her time to Parliaments influential Exiting the European Union select committee, after a series of unbalanced reports produced by MPs PA Brexit casualties David Davis - Resigned from Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - quit following a major row with May over her plans for post-Brexit relations with the EU. Davis resignation letter said: As you know there have been a significant number of occasions in the last year or so on which I have disagreed with the Number 10 policy line, ranging from accepting the [European] Commissions sequencing of negotiations, through to the language on Northern Ireland in the December Joint Report. At each stage I have accepted collective responsibility because it is part of my task to find workable compromises, and because I considered it was still possible to deliver on the mandate of the referendum, and on our manifesto commitment to leave the Customs Union and the Single Market. I am afraid that I think the current trend of policy and tactics is making that look less and less likely. He went on to argue that the general direction of Ms Mays policies would leave the UK in at best a weak negotiating position, and possibly an inescapable one. AFP/Getty Brexit casualties Steve Baker - Resigned from Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union role July 2018 - Mr Baker, a key Tory figure in the Leave campaign, was David Daviss main lieutenant at Dexeu, and was hailed as courageous and principled by other Brexiteer Tories as he also left. Reuters Brexit casualties Boris Johnson - Resigned from Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "On Friday, I acknowledged that my side of the argument were too few to prevail and congratulated you on at least reaching a Cabinet decision on the way forward. "As I said then, the government now has a song to sing. "The trouble is that I have practised the words over the weekend and find that they stick in the throat." Reuters Brexit casualties Conor Burns - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary to Foreign Secretary role July 2018 - A Brexit supporter who worked alongside Boris Johnson stated in his resignation letter: I've decided it's time to have greater freedom. I want to see the referendum result respected. And there are other areas of policy I want to speak more openly on. Rex Brexit casualties Chris Green - Resigned from Department for Transport role July 2018 - The Bolton West MP said: "Parliament overwhelmingly decided to give the decision of whether to leave or remain in the European Union to the British people and they made an unambiguous decision that we ought to leave. "I have always understood the idea in 'Brexit means Brexit' is that the final deal should be clear to me and my constituents - that we have, in no uncertain terms, left the European Union. Twitter Ads info and privacy "The direction the negotiations had been taking have suggested that we would not really leave the EU and the conclusion and statements following the Chequers summit confirmed my fears. "I recognise that delivering Brexit is challenging, however I had hoped at tonight's meeting that there would be some certainty that my fears were unfounded but, instead, they have been confirmed. "I have been grateful for the opportunity to serve as Parliamentary Private Secretary and it is with regret that I offer my resignation with immediate effect." PA Brexit casualties Maria Caulfield - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for women role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. Lewes MP warned that the direction of travel did not fully embrace the opportunities that Brexit can provide. Ms Caulfield said in her letter to the PM: The policy may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out. This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. The direct consequences of that will be prime minister Corbyn. PA Brexit casualties Ben Bradley - Resigned from Conservative Party vice-chair for young people role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. The Mansfield MP said: I admit that I voted to Remain in that ballot. What has swayed me over the last two years to fully back the Brexit vision is the immense opportunities that are available from global trade, and for the ability for Britain to be an outward looking nation in control of our own destiny once again. I fear that this agreement at Chequers damages those opportunities; that being tied to EU regulations, and the EU tying our hands when seeking to make new trade agreements, will be the worst of all worlds if we do not deliver Brexit in spirit as well as in name, then we are handing Jeremy Corbyn the keys to No10. PA Brexit casualties Robert Courts - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. MP Mr Courts said: I have taken a very difficult decision to resign my position as [parliamentary private secretary] to express discontent with the Chequers [plans] in votes tomorrow. I had to think who I wanted to see in the mirror for the rest of my life. I cannot tell the people of Woxon that I support the proposals in their current form. Getty Brexit casualties Scott Mann - Resigned from Parliamentary Private Secretary role July 2018 - resigned over May's Chequers plan. "I fear elements of the Brexit white paper will inevitably put me in direct conflict with the views expressed by a large section of my constituents. I am not prepared to compromise their wishes to deliver a watered-down Brexit. "The residents of North Cornwall made it very clear that they wish to have control over our fishery, our agricultural policy, our money, our laws and our borders. I will evaluate those principles against the Brexit white paper and ensure that I vote in line with their wishes." Rex The spokeswoman added: We can say that to date there has been a definite impact on our workforce where we have already experienced issues with regards to recruitment from the EU and retention with our existing EU staff members. However, we have implemented specific plans to support these very important members of our team and help them to continue to deliver the vital care they give our patients. We are pleased to say that these measures have already resulted in a recent stabilisation in numbers of EU staff. The Electoral Commission has dismissed allegations made by Tory MP Priti Patel about the spending of pro-EU groups during the 2016 Brexit referendum. The watchdog said there was no evidence that laws on campaign spending had been breached. Ms Patel, a prominent Leave supporter, had suggested that the cost of three videos from the main Remain group, Britain Stronger in Europe (BSIE) should have been declared as "joint spending" with other groups. The alleged collaboration could have resulted in the lead group exceeding its 7m spending limit, she said. Recommended Electoral Commission urged to investigate Remain campaign The former international development secretary, who was forced to resign last year over undeclared meetings with the Israeli government, had called on the Commission to either investigate the Remain campaign or drop its inquiry into Vote Leave for similar spending breaches. Having investigated the allegations, the watchdog said there was "not sufficient grounds" to suspect rules had been broken. The Commission said a company called DDB, which also operated under the name Adam and Eve, had been involved in making the videos but had correctly reported its spending. "In this matter, there is not sufficient grounds to suspect that BSIE breached the joint spending rules," it said. However, the Commission said information provided by Ms Patel had led it to open an investigation into another campaign group, called Wake Up and Vote, regarding potentially undeclared joint spending with DDB. The videos in question included one titled "Don't F*** My Future" that featured Keira Knightley and cost more than 76,000 to produce. Ms Patel also claimed a number of campaigners with links to BSIE had been late in registering payments, but the Electoral Commission said: "The Commission has not been provided with, or found evidence for an investigation to be opened." People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS The watchdog also hit back at Ms Patel's claims that its investigations were politically motivated. In her response to the MP, the Commission's head of regulation, Louise Edwards, said: "Finally, I must express my disappointment at your continued suggestion that the Commissions impartiality has been compromised in respect of how we regulate EU referendum campaigners....Our investigations cover parties from across the political spectrum, and campaigners from both sides of the EU referendum." Responding to Ms Patel's suggestion that the watchdog should investigate groups on both sides of the Brexit debate or neither, she added: "I appreciate your support for the Commissions role and independence and believe the best way for us to maintain our independence is to continue our evidence-led approach. "It would be wrong for us to take decisions on the basis that we must balance action in respect of leave campaigners with action in respect of remain campaigners. That would undermine our neutrality, rather than ensure it." The Electoral Commission also said it had decided not to open an investigation into claims the DUP failed to declare joint spending with other referendum campaigners. The allegations were made in a BBC Northern Ireland programme called "Spotlight - Brexit, Dark Money and the DUP". The watchdog said it had asked BBC Northern Ireland for evidence but was told there was no further "significant information" available. Having considered whether there were other potential sources of evidence, the Commission said it "does not have grounds to open an investigation". Theresa May should not expect Emmanuel Macron to soften his stance towards Brexit as she gears up for talks at his holiday retreat, a former ambassador to France has warned. Lord Peter Ricketts urged ministers against brandishing threats of a no-deal exit from the bloc, as the EU knows that warnings of walking away without an agreement with Brussels are a bluff. His comments came after Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, told French and German leaders to intervene to prevent the UK crashing out of the EU, as he warned the prospect of no deal was increasing by the day. Later, an Elysee Palace offical said the meeting between Ms May and Mr Macron is not a negotiation, and would not substitute for a discussion with Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, and whom has Mr Macrons full trust. The prime minister has cut short her holiday in the Italian Lakes to meet with the French president on Friday at his retreat, Fort Bregancon, on the French Riviera, while her senior ministers have been attempting to woo European leaders through a series of high-level visits. Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, is due to hold talks in Paris today ahead of a meeting with UK and French leaders. Lord Ricketts told the Today programme: I would have said lets not go out and brief everyone that Theresa May is going to France to try and get Macron to soften the French position. I dont see why there is any chance of that. First of all he doesnt believe in softening it, he is a passionate pro-European. Secondly hes the last person to want to break ranks from what has been quite an impressively disciplined EU side. Britain has got to accept it must do the hard yards of negotiating in Brussels rather than taking their charm offensive to European leaders who are not going to break ranks, Lord Ricketts said. Brexit Casualties 9 show all Brexit Casualties 1/9 Brexit Resignation: July 16th 2018 Scott Mann MP Rex 2/9 Brexit Resignation: July 15th 2018 Robert Courts MP Getty 3/9 Brexit Resignation: July 10th 2018 Ben Bradley MP Alamy 4/9 Brexit Resignation: July 10th 2018 Maria Caulfield MP Conservative Partys vice chair for women July 10th 2018 PA 5/9 Brexit Resignation: July 9th 2018 Conservative MP for Bolton West Chris Green MP PA 6/9 Brexit Resignation: July 9th 2018 Conor Burns MP next to Boris Johnson Rex 7/9 Brexit Resignation: July 9th 2018 Steve Baker, EX-Minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union REUTERS 8/9 Brexit Resignation: July 9th 2018 Boris Johnson MP Former British Foreign Secretary REUTERS 9/9 Brexit Resignation: July 8th 2018 MP David Davis Ex-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union AFP/Getty The senior diplomat, who acted as ambassador to France from 2012 to 2016, said: I still dont understand why the new foreign secretary is going around brandishing this threat of no deal as if its going to make the European countries more likely to soften their position on this. He added: The problem with no deal is these crafty foreigners also read our own media and they can see how little preparation has been done. Its a bluff and I dont think its going to work. French politician Bruno Bonnell, a member of President Macrons En Marche party, said Mr Hunt was playing a dangerous game with his no-deal warnings, which are ramping up the tensions with the French. He said: This position of threatening for no deal for me is not the best way to seduce or to open the door for the possibilities of deals. The prime minister and her top team were rebuffed by senior EU figures for trying to go directly to European leaders to end the deadlock and arrange a more favourable deal for the UK. Speculation over the threat of a no-deal Brexit has also ramped up, after Mr Barnier, rejected a key part of Ms Mays new Brexit plan, which has also received the cold shoulder from Brexiteers. Ministers have also been forced to concede there are emergency plans to stockpile medicines, food and blood products to prepare for a no-deal scenario. It comes as pro-EU campaigners raised the alarm of the prospect of a blind Brexit amid reports that Mr Barnier will offer Britain a warmly-worded but vague declaration that lacks specific details. Labour MP Chris Leslie, who backs the Peoples Vote campaign, said: A blind Brexit would take the UK to the same place as a no-deal Brexit without the clarity. In fact, many Brextremists are happy to go with it because they think it will lead straight to the outcome theyve always wanted and all they have to do is pull the plug on the Irish backstop after exit day. The idea that the fundamental contradictions of the governments Brexit policy can be more easily resolved after the UK has left the EU is simply ludicrous. The UK would be walking to the end of gang plank, blindfolded, only to turn around at the end and try to talk tough; it would be the weakest negotiating position in history. The EU has insisted it will not soften its strong opposition to Theresa Mays Brexit plan, amid claims that Angela Merkel is pushing for a fudge. Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator, issued a hardline message ruling out any compromise that would undermine our single market which is one of the EU's biggest achievements. In an article published in 20 newspapers, Mr Barnier dismissed the prime ministers Chequers proposals for trying to keep free movement of goods between us, but not of people and services. And he again ruled out her facilitated customs arrangement, under which the UK would leave the customs union, yet collect EU duties while being allowed to set its own tariffs. It proposes to apply EU customs rules without being part of the EU's legal order, Mr Barnier wrote. Thus, the UK wants to take back sovereignty and control of its own laws, which we respect, but it cannot ask the EU to lose control of its borders and laws. The article comes hard on the heels of reports that the German chancellor is ready to press for a softening of Brussels red lines, to make it easier for the embattled Ms May to secure a deal. The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty British officials believe Ms Merkel after a positive meeting with the prime minister earlier this month now wants Mr Barnier to settle for a vague blueprint for future economic ties. The approach dubbed a blind Brexit by some could allow the UK to ease into the post-Brexit transition period without making hard choices, provided the Irish border dispute is settled. Cabinet ministers have mounted a summer charm offensive across the continent, in the belief that EU capitals are their route to success with Ms May herself holding talks with Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday. However, in his article, Mr Barnier sought to stress that he was not increasingly isolated, but instead was working with the full backing of EU national leaders. The European Council the 27 heads of state or government as well as the European Parliament have often recalled that these economic foundations cannot be weakened, he said. A European Commission source said the article did not represent any shift in position, or that it was meant as a riposte to reports about Germanys stance. Despite his rejection of the Chequers plan, Mr Barnier insisted: I remain confident that the negotiations can reach a good outcome. It is possible to respect EU principles and create a new and ambitious partnership. The negotiator also stated a willingness to be flexible about the text designed to ensure no hard border in Ireland while warning it remained the biggest risk posed by Brexit. The EU's suggested solution effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union and part of the single market has so far been rejected by the UK as annexing part of the UK. Mr Barnier said the EU was ready to improve the text of our proposal with the UK. But he warned: Since we will not know what the future relationship will bring by autumn 2018, we need to have a backstop solution in the withdrawal agreement. Libyas coast guard intercepted 574 refugees bound for Europe from the Mediterranean Sea in a single day, a spokesperson has said. The three groups included 388 men, 66 women and 19 children, a coast guard spokesman, Ayoub Gassim, said in a statement. He said one group of 292 refugees, including 42 women and 10 children, embarked on the perilous trip for Europe on three rubber boats, but the coast guard stopped them off the coast of the western town of Zawiya. The three groups included 388 men, 66 women and 19 children (MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty) Another group of 101 refugees on a rubber boat were also rescued off the coast of the capital, Tripoli, the coast guard said in a separate statement. It also said it had rescued 181 others, including 24 women and nine children, who were in two boats in a separate incident off Tripoli. Mr Gassim said the refugees came from both African and Middle Eastern countries. Donald Trump attacks Angela Merkel for giving sanctuary to refugees The three groups were intercepted on Monday. All were given humanitarian aid and were handed over to anti-migration authorities in the town of Tajoura and Tripoli, Mr Gassim said. The coastguards operation should not be considered a rescue, said Aloys Vimard, MSF project coordinator on board the Aquarius, a rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean Sea. He told The Independent that Libya could not be recognised as a place of safety. There is no process to claim international protection. People are exposed to a high level of violence and torture. We cannot call it a rescue. Mr Vimard said the coastguard ships were also unequipped to rescue refugees from the sea. They dont have life jackets, they dont have rescue boats. If there is someone in the water,. they cannot retrieve those people from the water. They are not equipped as a rescue boat. Its concerning. He said the operations could be considered a method to pull back refugees to Libya, because Italian authorities cannot push back. Once the refugees are returned to Libya, they are sent to detention centres, which Mr Vimard said were in dire condition. Those people are cramped into large cells without ventilation. They have very little food, one bowl of rice or pasta per day, with very limited access to health. Those conditions are inhuman and terrible. In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Refugees sleep on the deck of MV Aquarius Alva White/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship An overcrowded rubber vote before a rescue by the MV Aquarius Alva White/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Young boy being rescued from a rubber boat by the MV Aquarius Isabelle Serro/SOS Mediterranee In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship The rescue of a wooden boat with more than 400 peopl on board by the MV Aquarius on 21 August Isabelle Serro/SOS Mediterranee In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Women rescued on MV Aquarius approaching Italy in the early morning Alva White/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Crew on the MV Aquarius search for a missing boat Alva White/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Rescue on the 21st August of a wooden boat carrying more than 400 people and a rubber boat with 120 people crammed on board. Ferry Schippers/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship The night rescue of 124 people after they had been on the water for 20 hours by the MV Aquarius Peter Eickmeyer/SOS Mediterranee In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship The MV Aquarius rescue vessel operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee in the Mediterranean Sea Alva White/MSF In pictures: Life on board a refugee rescue ship Jacob Goldberg, MSF's team leader on board the MV Aquarius rescue ship Alva White/MSF The interceptions came a day after the UN refugee agency said it is looking into possible violations of international law involving the transport to Libya of 108 migrants rescued at sea by an Italian-flagged mercantile ship. The UN high commissioner for refugees in Italy said on Twitter that Libya is not a secure port, making such a transfer a violation of international law. An Italian politician aboard a rescue ship operated by a non-governmental organisation, Nicola Frantoianni, said on Facebook they had proof the ship, Asso Ventotto, was taking the migrants to Libya, calling it a very serious precedent if ordered by the Italian coast guard. Responding to the suspicions, Italys interior minister, Matteo Salvini said on Facebook that the Italian coast guard was not involved in the rescue, which was coordinated by the Libyan coast guard. Libya has emerged as a major transit point to Europe for those fleeing poverty and civil war elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East. Traffickers have exploited the chaos in Libya following the 2011 uprising in which longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed. Libyan authorities have stepped up efforts to stem the flow of migrants, with assistance from European countries, who are eager to slow a phenomenon far-right wing parties have seized upon to gain electoral support. Zimbabwe's army has been condemned by Commonwealth Observers for its deadly use of force to break up protesters in the capital, Harare. At least three people were killed when troops opened fire during clashes on the streets following the early results of the country's first election since Robert Mugabe was deposed in a coup in November 2017. The army also beat up opposition demonstrators, many of whom were throwing rocks and setting fires to protest alleged fraud in the election on Monday. Opposition supporters claimed the countrys presidential election had been rigged by the ruling party. Reporting from the streets of Harare, The Independents Kim Sengupta described running battles where troops opened fire on rioting opposition supporters, tanks took to the streets and military helicopters flew overhead. He wrote: Initial exchanges saw bottles and rocks flung from the crowd and police responding with tear gas, baton rounds and water cannons. The confrontation suddenly escalated with the appearance machine-gun mounted armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Troops streamed out of the vehicles into the crowd to, at first, use their rifle butts to hit people, and then open fire. Some military officers claimed later that they had shot back in self-defence after coming under fire. There were sounds of some single shots, but most of it appeared to be staccato controlled bursts of semi-automatic rounds from assault rifles. Road blocks began to be put up shortly after the gunfire, tanks and APCs positioned themselves in Harare city centre. In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Show all 55 1 /55 In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate after officials announced the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters celebrate at the Harare International Convention Centre in the early hours Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the announcement EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the results of the Presidential elections were announced at the Harare International Convention Centre EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor sells sponges near newspaper headlines on the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the newly reelected Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate in Mbare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man reads a Zimbabwean newspaper the day after the violence on the streets of Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man reacts at the sight of soldiers while taking shelter in a stall at a market in Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) light a fire in the streets of Harare. Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the party's headquarters in Harare REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Opposition MDC party supporters hold a voting placard up high on a street in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of Zimbabwean opposition MDC Alliance allegedly beaten up by soldiers sits with blood on his face as other protesters assist him AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor scurries for cover with her wares as soldiers disperse demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man hides under a tarpauling while the Zimbabwean Army patrols the streets of Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Anti-riot police officers close the entrance to the Rainbow Towers, where the election results were announced in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire on citizens REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run the Zimbabwean army during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) protest the result of the election, which they allege to be fraudulent Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier assaults a man on the streets of Harare during protests AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean anti riot police officers sit in a truck amidst protesters on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run from riot police amidst protests in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers patrol the streets during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man lies dead after the Zimbabwean army shot at protesters in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition party protests in the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean soldiers beats an opposition supporter on the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition burn a campaign banner of the ruling Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Mbare, a suburb of Zimbabwean capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer keeps watch of queuing voters in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Election officials remove political posters near a polling station on voting day Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa arrives at a polling station in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives to cast his vote in Kwekwe Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Kwekwe AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters arrive at a polling station in Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe prepares to cast his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in Mbare, a suburb of capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in the township of Makokoba Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer casts his vote in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays near a polling station in Mbare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe speaks at a press conference the day before the vote where he stated that he would not be voting for his former Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition MDC party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA Zimbabwes president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said he had been talking to the leader of the opposition MDC Alliance, Nelson Chamisa, to try to defuse the tension. The violence erupted after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the ruling Zanu-PF party won a majority in parliament. There was no response from Mr Chamisa, who claimed several times on Twitter to have won the popular vote but gave no numbers or concrete evidence of fraud by Zanu-PF. Former leader Mugabe arrives to vote in Zimbabwe election Observers from the Commonwealth, a group of mainly former British colonies Mr Mangagwa had been hoping to rejoin, did not hold back in criticising the military crackdown. We categorically denounce the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians, Ghanas former president, John Mahama, said in a statement on behalf of the Commonwealth. Britain also said it was deeply concerned by the situation, while the United Nations had earlier called for restraint from all sides in the aftermath of the election. The Commonwealth also urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to expedite the announcement of the results of the presidential vote. On Wednesday, the observers had reported a number of problems with the poll, including voter intimidation. However, China, an important source of funding under Mr Mugabe and Mr Mnangagwa, said it believed the election had generally proceeded in an orderly fashion, though a foreign ministry spokesman noted reports of violence on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, the streets of Harare were calm as soldiers on foot and in trucks moved around, instructing vendors and other people to leave the city centre by noon. Shops were shut and the streets were strewn with rocks and embers from the fires set by demonstrators. Members of the military gesture to the photographer as they patrol the streets of the capital Harare, Zimbabwe (REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko) There was a heavy police presence around the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, which had sought to dislodge the ruling party at the polls after decades of rule by the dictator Robert Mugabe. The website of the election commission, which is expected to start announcing presidential election results on Thursday, was offline after being taken out by unidentified hackers overnight. The military deployment was the first time soldiers had appeared on the streets of the capital since the military coup during the ousting of Mr Mugabe in November, when they were welcomed as liberators. Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the partys headquarters in Harare (REUTERS) The deployment of soldiers and their shooting and beating of unarmed protesters is likely to set back efforts to end the pariah status Zimbabwe acquired in the latter half of Mr Mugabes nearly four decades in charge. It is also likely to confirm suspicions that the generals who ousted the 94-year-old - including Constantino Chiwenga, an army chief who became vice president remain the pre-eminent political force Additional reporting by agencies Close Zimbabwe election: Shots fired at protesting crowds in Harare as violence escalates Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former spy chief installed after Robert Mugabe's removal in a coup in November, won Zimbabwe's presidential election after a poll marred by the deaths of six people in an army crackdown on opposition protests. After two days of claims and counterclaims, the 75-year-old incumbent secured a comfortable victory, polling 2.46 million votes against 2.15 million for 40-year-old opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. Earlier in the week, soldiers beat and shot at opposition protesters after Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Mr Chamisa claimed he had won the popular vote and accused Zanu-PF, the ruling party, of fraud. Police raided MDC offices and detained 18 people while a search warrant suggested Mr Chamisa and others were suspected of the crimes of possession of dangerous weapons and public violence; Mr Mnangagwa has publicly accused his opponent of inciting violence. Please allow a moment for the live blog to load Mr Mnangagwas spokesman declared on state television that no order was issued by the army to clear central Harare, terming such reports fake news. George Charamba said Thursday was a normal working day, though nearly all shops in the downtown area were shuttered and the streets quieter than usual. Commonwealth observers condemned the approach taken by the army in Harare yesterday, with former Ghanaian president John Mahama saying the bloc categorically [denounced] the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians. The electoral commission announced yesterday that the ruling Zanu-PF party, led by Mr Mnangagwa, had won a two-thirds majority in the national assembly of parliament. In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Show all 55 1 /55 In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate after officials announced the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters celebrate at the Harare International Convention Centre in the early hours Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the announcement EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the results of the Presidential elections were announced at the Harare International Convention Centre EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor sells sponges near newspaper headlines on the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the newly reelected Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate in Mbare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man reads a Zimbabwean newspaper the day after the violence on the streets of Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man reacts at the sight of soldiers while taking shelter in a stall at a market in Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) light a fire in the streets of Harare. Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the party's headquarters in Harare REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Opposition MDC party supporters hold a voting placard up high on a street in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of Zimbabwean opposition MDC Alliance allegedly beaten up by soldiers sits with blood on his face as other protesters assist him AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor scurries for cover with her wares as soldiers disperse demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man hides under a tarpauling while the Zimbabwean Army patrols the streets of Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Anti-riot police officers close the entrance to the Rainbow Towers, where the election results were announced in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire on citizens REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run the Zimbabwean army during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) protest the result of the election, which they allege to be fraudulent Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier assaults a man on the streets of Harare during protests AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean anti riot police officers sit in a truck amidst protesters on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run from riot police amidst protests in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers patrol the streets during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man lies dead after the Zimbabwean army shot at protesters in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition party protests in the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean soldiers beats an opposition supporter on the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition burn a campaign banner of the ruling Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Mbare, a suburb of Zimbabwean capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer keeps watch of queuing voters in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Election officials remove political posters near a polling station on voting day Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa arrives at a polling station in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives to cast his vote in Kwekwe Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Kwekwe AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters arrive at a polling station in Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe prepares to cast his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in Mbare, a suburb of capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in the township of Makokoba Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer casts his vote in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays near a polling station in Mbare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe speaks at a press conference the day before the vote where he stated that he would not be voting for his former Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition MDC party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA European Union observers said they had identified a string of problems with Mondays election, though it had been an improvement over polls conducted under former leader Robert Mugabe. Voter intimidation, misuse of state resources and bias in state media meant a level playing field was not achieved, they said. Identical twin sisters plan to wed identical twin brothers in Michigan one day apart and plan to all move in together. The love story of the two pairs of twins began with Kassie Bevier and Nicholas Lewan who met in psychology class at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. In an interview with NBC, Ms Bevier explained that her professor at the time had asked the class to raise their hands if they had a twin sibling both Ms Bevier and Mr Lewan raised their hands and the rest was history. Both him and I raised our hands, and then he turned around and saw me, Ms Bevier said. That was it, Mr Lewan chimed in. Recommended Identical twin sisters running for office in opposing parties Soon after, Ms Bevier and Mr Lewan attended church together and they both brought their twin siblings along. As it was, Ms Beviers twin sister, Krissie Bevier, later agreed to go on a date with Mr Lewans twin, Zack Lewan. Eventually, Ms Bevier told the Jackson Citizen Patriot that 90 per cent of their dates turned into double dates. Although the 24-year-old pairs have emphasised their individualism who work differently and have different interests they all experienced one memorable moment together at the same time their engagements. The Lewan brothers proposed to the Bevier sisters at the same time during a family trip last year. I'm just really thankful that we met two girls, not just because they're twins, but they grew up the same as we did, Zack Lewan said. Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair Show all 18 1 /18 Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177019.bin Kent Gavin/Keystone/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177020.bin Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177004.bin Jasper Juinen/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177046.bin David Rogers/Getty Image Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177035.bin Adrian Murrell/Allsport UK/Central Press/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177032.bin Warren Little/Getty Images/Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177007.bin Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177039.bin Laurence Griffiths/ALLSPORT Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177045.bin Phil Cole/Julian Herbert/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177038.bin Adam Pretty/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177010.bin GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177009.bin Roger Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177008.bin Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177024.bin John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images/John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177006.bin PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177029.bin SimonBruty/Allsport/Keystone/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177011.bin KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images Sporting siblings: It's a Family Affair 177012.bin Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images The twin duos will get married one day apart on 3, August and 4, August in Michigan. According to the newspaper. The Beviers and Lewans will move in together into a two-bedroom apartment as the sisters finish their doctorates in physical therapy. There is a woman at our church who was like, 'You guys just need to marry brothers and get a duplex,' Krissie Bevier said. And we were just like, 'Oh, OK, that's a funny story.' But it just became our reality. An Ohio judge ordered a defendant in his courtroom to have his mouth bound with tape during a hearing. Judge John Russo felt Franklyn Williams had engaged in too many outbursts, despite repeated warnings. A video showed Williams, donning an orange jumpsuit, being surrounded by several police officers while also being in handcuffs. One of the officers placed a large piece of red tape over Williams mouth. Williams had been accused of three armed robberies and this was his sentencing hearing at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court after a jury had found him guilty in December 2017. During the course of that trial, Williams had cut off his ankle monitor and fled the state. He was arrested in Nebraska in July 2018 and brought back to the Cleveland court for sentencing. Williams had originally pleaded guilty in 2016 for the armed robberies and had been sentenced to 14 years in prison. The Plain Dealer newspaper reported: He appealed his sentence and argued that, because his attorney wrongly told him at the time that he would be eligible for early release after he served just seven years when he actually had to serve his entire sentence, he did not fully understand what he was pleading to. Father of murdered Muslim pizza delivery driver forgives convict then hugs him in court The appeals court sided with Williams, threw out that sentence, and ordered the second trial. He continued to speak for 30 minutes as Mr Russo asked him to stop several times. The judge said: Im going to hear from your lawyers and that means zip it. Mr Russo confirmed Williams understood the directions to stop speaking as well but kept saying: Im not being allowed to speak how I need to speak. UK prison conditions: in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 UK prison conditions: in pictures UK prison conditions: in pictures A cell covered in graffiti at HMP Liverpool. PA UK prison conditions: in pictures HMP Liverpool has some of the worst conditions inspectors have seen. HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA UK prison conditions: in pictures A broken window in a cell at HMP Liverpool HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA Wire UK prison conditions: in pictures A shower unit with protruding electric cable at HMP Liverpool HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA UK prison conditions: in pictures Litter at HMP Liverpool HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA Wire UK prison conditions: in pictures A wall damaged by damp at HMP Liverpool HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA UK prison conditions: in pictures A pool table at HMP Liverpool HM Inspectorate of Prisons/PA UK prison conditions: in pictures A sign for HMP Liverpool, where drones are seized at a rate of more than one a week. The prisons watchdog flagged up the impact of the remote-controlled flying devices at HMP Liverpool. PA The pair were not strangers, according to Mr Russo he has presided over four of Williams court appearances. I will say, knowing Mr. Williams due to my handling of his four cases, Mr. Williams was someone who liked to speak. To speak and interrupt. When lawyers were talking, witnesses were talking. More importantly when I was talking, the judge said, according to news station WJW. Despite ordering the tape gag, Mr Russo said his intention was not to deny Williams his right to speak in court in his own defence. Everybody has the right to go on the record with my court reporter. But we cant do it at the same time or yelling over each other, Mr Russo said. The judge indicated it is legal for a sheriffs deputy to gag a defendant in court, should that defendant be deemed in contempt of court as Williams had been. Mr Russo sentenced Williams to 24 years in prison. Close Ex-Trump Campaign Chair Manafort's Court Arrival Paul Manafort's former bookkeeper has testified that the former Donald Trump campaign chairman kept her in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to allegedly buy millions in luxury items and personal expenses. Mr Manafort, facing trial on back fraud and tax charges otherwise approved every penny of the personal bills she paid for him, said Heather Washkuhn of the accounting firm NKFSB. Washkuhn's testimony on the third day of the trial appeared to undercut an argument by Manafort's attorneys that he can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others, including his longtime associate Rick Gates. Washkuhn said Gates was involved only in Manafort's business dealings, not his personal expenses. When it came to personal expenses, Mr Manafort - who denies all the charges against him approved every penny of everything we paid, Ms Washkuhn told jurors. Please allow a moment for the live blog to load. Earlier, prosecutors asked the judge to allow photographs of his lavish lifestyle to be shown to jurors, arguing it is crucial to their case. Judge TS Ellis has so far stopped the prosecutors from showing photos of Mr Manaforts luxury purchases to the jury. Mr Ellis has reminded the lawyers and Northern Virginia jurors multiple times that it is not a crime for a person to be rich. Prosecutors spent the first two days of the trial attempting to portray Mr Manafort as a tax cheat and a liar who hid much of the $60 million he earned from political work in Ukraine by stashing it in undisclosed overseas accounts. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Mr Manafort routed millions of dollars to the United States by putting it in real estate, and spending it on expensive suits, cars and home renovations, according to half a dozen witnesses who testified on Wednesday. Prosecutors allege that Mr Manafort evaded taxes through this scheme. Five of the 18 counts he faces relate to filing false tax returns. Mr Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In a new filing, prosecutors wrote: Manafort had an expensive lifestyle that required lots of money to maintain is important proof as to why he would commit the bank frauds after lobbying work in Ukraine declined in 2014. The trial is the first stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 14-month investigation of Russia's apparent meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow, though none of the charges against Mr Manafort involve this issue. Prosecutors are due to question the head of a landscaping firm and one other vendor on Thursday before moving on to call accountants and a series of tax preparers to the stand. After suggesting on Wednesday that their potential star witness, Mr Manafort's former associate Rick Gates, may not take the stand, the prosecution have also clarified they do intend to call him. We have every intention of calling him as a witness, Greg Andres, a member of Mr Mueller's team said in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Mr Gates pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mr Mueller and took a plea deal. Defence lawyers have sought to paint Mr Gates as an untrustworthy business partner who dealt with the funds from Mr Manafort's consulting firm. Mr Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies as part of his investigation. President Trump has repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a witch hunt and on Tuesday, he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end it. Additional reporting by AP and Reuters If any singular organisation stands to gain the most from a possible wave of Democrat wins in November's crucial midterm elections, its Planned Parenthood. The nonprofit, which provides reproductive health care in the US and abroad, has endured nearly two years of battling Donald Trump's administration amid lengthy court battles and drastic threats to its funding. Now, the group is taking a stand for progressive causes, linking sexual health to issues like paid family leave and equal pay in a new campaign titled "UNSTOPPABLE". "Because of the false narratives that are being propagated by people in positions of power, its crucial to set the record straight," said Tanya Selvaratnam, an Emmy-nominated producer who formed an artist collective of women to create the campaign's "manifesto" video, along with other upcoming projects. "It's a beautiful experience to bring together a vital organisation that's more than a hundred years old with a lot of creative people who are honoured to support its work." Recommended Trump admin to prioritise faith group funding over Planned Parenthood The new campaign is not a push for voters to head to the ballot box in 2018, but it does seek to link Planned Parenthood's priorities to national policy. The UNSTOPPABLE manifesto includes eight core tenets: affordable access to birth control, health care and abortions for all, freedom from sexual violence and government regulation surrounding womens bodies, economic equality, paid family leave and LGBT rights. "The Trump-Pence administration has worked to restrict access to abortion, undermined birth control access by allowing virtually any employer to refuse to provide coverage for birth control based on a religious or moral objection, and tried to block people from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centres," a statement on the campaign website reads. "We should be working towards a world where our bodies are our own, and women are able to access full reproductive care." In establishing UNSTOPPABLE, Planned Parenthood seeks to answer a common question for Americans concerned by threats to progressive causes under Donald Trump: What can be done to fight back? For years, the Republican Party has sought to defund Planned Parenthood for providing abortions one of the reproductive health services the organisation offers. Planned Parenthood supporters hold signs at a protest in downtown Denver (Reuters) The White House has recently undermined the organisation by blocking abortion access at Planned Parenthood locations funded in part by Title X, which provides health-care to low-income Americans. Meanwhile, Mr Trump is stacking conservative judges in federal courthouses across the country, and appointing Supreme Court justices like Neil Gorsuch and the recently-nominated Brett Kavanaugh, who is reportedly "hostile" to abortion rights. If the Supreme Court were to overturn or undermine Roe vs Wade, the landmark case establishing abortion access as a constitutional right, it would prove further damaging to groups determined to provide women with safe and legal abortions. But Planned Parenthood is looking to be at the vanguard of a movement to protect those rights. The UNSTOPPABLE website provides facts about each of its eight core issues, along with ways to get involved in the organisations fight and information on donating to progressive causes. Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Show all 35 1 /35 Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Women's rights demonstrators hold placards and shout slogans during the Time's Up rally at Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street in London. Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London The Time's Up initiative was launched at the start of January 2018 as a response to the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Berlin Women's March in Berlin. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London The Time's Up Women's March marks the one year anniversary of the first Women's March in London and in 2018 it is inspired by the Time's Up movement against sexual abuse. Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Paris Women hold a banner reading "still feminist" with the Eiffel tower in background on the Trocadero esplanade in Paris. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Protesters hold up placards at the Women's March in central London. Rex Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Paris A demonstator hold signs on the Trocadero esplanade in Paris during a women's march organised as part of global protests. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Chanting Times Up in the cold rain - On the anniversary of the Women's March on London. Rex Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Thousands of people gather holding protest signs on Central Park West. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Demonstrators take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Chicago A woman holds a sign during the Second Annual Womens March in Chicago AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather near Central Park before the beginning of the Women's March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington Supporters gather during the Women's March in Washington AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York The crowd lines up near Central Park Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Chicago Demostrators attend the Second Annual Womens March in Chicago AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Thousands hold signs and rally while attending the Womens March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather near Central Park before the beginning of the Women's March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People hold signs up during the women's march Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Philadelphia Oscar Janicki, 6, participates in the Second Annual Women's March in Philadelphia Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Philadelphia Crowds gather to participate in the Second Annual Women's March in Philadelphia Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Women pose as they attend the second annual National Womens March in New York City AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather prior to the second annual National Womens March in New York City AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather the second annual National Womens March AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the Second Annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman holds a banner reading "Womwn united will never be defeated" during Rome Resists demonstration part of the Women's March in downtown. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome Italian actress Asia Argento (3rdL) attends the Rome Resists demonstration part of the Women's March in downtown Rome. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome The Women's March Rome, designed to show solidarity for the protection of civil and social rights, women's rights and the environment included Italian actress Asia Argento, one of the first women to accuse US film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Zurich A US citizen holds a poster on the anniversary of the inauguration of President Trump apologising to the world on behalf of her country, in Zurich, Switzerland. A year after millions of people took to the streets across the US and countries around the world, women's marches are being held in lots of cities this weekend. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman holds a banner reading "The rising of the women means rising of us all" during Rome Resists demonstration. AFP/Getty Images Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman lifts her fist while holding a banner reading "Hear our voice" during Rome Resists demonstration. AFP/Getty "The UNSTOPPABLE Manifesto video is a rallying call for people to join the movement and build the world we want to see where everyone has the freedom and opportunity to control their own bodies and their own futures regardless of race, gender, income, zip code, or immigration status," said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for Planned Parenthood. "There is unprecedented energy and momentum to unite around full equality for all and women are leading the way." "One of us can be dismissed, two of us can be ignored. But, together, we are a movement, and we are unstoppable," she added. The manifesto video, which showcases women of various backgrounds discussing equality and civil rights, is just one of several art projects Ms Selvaratnam will create for UNSTOPPABLE. "We're going to be making many more videos this first one is the launch of the manifesto to encourage everyone to sign it and become part of our network. Then we are going to be making videos inspired by each of the 8 tenets of the manifesto," she said. "I think because its hard to navigate these difficult and divisive times, its important to give people tangible, laser-focused ways that they can help and that they can join a broader community." An Ohio police chief has died after allegedly overdosing on drugs taken from the departments evidence room. Former Kirkersville, Ohio Police Chief James Hughes Jr was found unresponsive in his home in May, according to local reports. Syringes containing fentanyl and a plastic bag with traces of cocaine were reportedly found at the scene. An autopsy later concluded the 35-year-old had died of a fentanyl overdose. Recommended Child opioid overdoses nearly double in America Officers from the neighbouring Reynoldsburg Police Department said this week that it appeared Mr Hughes had taken the drugs from his departments evidence room. "There was packaging that indicated that he was taking controlled substances from there," Lieutenant Ron Wright said, according to the Newark Advocate. Mr Wright said detectives had found materials from the evidence room in Mr Hughes home, along with packages of fentanyl, heroin, and LSD, according to a local NBC affiliate. The packages all came from the police station. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Show all 14 1 /14 Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Heroin the chemical name for which is diacetylmorphine was originally synthesized by British chemist C.R.Alder Wright (pictured overleaf) in 1874, by adding two acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, which is naturally found in the opium poppy. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company behind Alka-Seltzer and Aspirin, bought the rights to diacetylmorphine, marketing it under the name Heroin in 1895 because early testers said that it made them feel heroisch or heroic. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin By 1898, it was ready for mass marketing. It was originally sold as an over-the-counter cough suppressant that didnt have problematic side effects, like addiction (the irony) - while alternative treatments morphine and codeine did. This was before they realised that, when taken into the body, it actually converts into morphine, and is ferociously addictive. Thus defeating the object and defining what was to become a historically embarrassing moment for the company in later years. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin By 1899 Bayer was producing a ton of Heroin and exporting the drug to 23 countries, while free samples sent to doctors and studies appeared in medical journals. It was also around this time that early reports of addiction began to surface. The company wisely released Aspirin this year, which would go on to become one of the most popular and widely used pain relief drugs in the world. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin US medicines containing heroin were available over the counter from 1907, after the American Medical Association gave it its stamp of approval. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin As Heroin dependency became a torrent and overdoses began to be reported, Heroin was made illegal to obtain without a prescription from a doctor in the US in 1914. Bayer lost some of its trademark rights to Heroin and Aspirin under the Treaty Of Versailles in 1919, after the German defeat in World War I. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin In the early 1920s, a number of addicted users in New York supported themselves by collecting and selling scrap metal retrieved from industrial dumps. It was from this that the label junkies was born. The behavior of Heroin addicts was soon, however, to cause a concern to the public and the authorities. In 1924, it became completely illegal, and doctors were told they could no longer prescribe the drug. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin By this point, Heroin had become popular among creative industries. Pictured left is famed actress Jeanne Eagels, who died of a Heroin overdose in 1929. Its outlawed use had pushed manufacturers underground, and the purity of the product illegal traders now used varied in quality. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin In the UK, the Rolleston Committee Report in 1926, illegal Heroin dealers were prosecuted, but doctors could prescribe diacetylmorphine to users when they were withdrawing from it, if it would cause harm or severe distress to the patient to go without it. This would be the law until 1959 when the number of diacetylmorphine addicts doubled every 16 months between 1959 and 1968. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin The Brain Committee recommended that only selected, specially approved doctors at specialized centres were allowed to prescribe diacetylmorphine to users in 1964. The law was further restricted in 1968, and by the 1970s, the emphasis shifted to encouraging abstinence and the use of substitute methadone. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin In the 1980s, the UK experienced a surge in Heroin supply because of a sudden cheap influx from Pakistan (the main supplier had been and is now Afghanistan). Cues from popular culture and a social downtown caused by the economic and industrial crisis in the late 1970s created the perfect environment for the Trainspotting generation. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin In the 1990s, Heroin use was again popularized by the rise of grunge and Britpop, while the emergence of the waif in fashion, of which Kate Moss is often cited as the originator, would give rise to the term Heroin chic. In 1994, the Swiss began to trial a diamorphine maintenance program for users who had failed multiple withdrawal programs. It aimed to maintain the health of the user, by discouraging the use of illicit street Heroin. It was deemed a success. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Today, the largest producer of opium, needed to create Heroin is Afghanistan. This is closely followed by Mexico, who increased their rate of production sixfold between 2007 and 2011. Diacetylmorphine is a controlled, Class A substance in the UK, but continues to be used in palliative care for the treatment of acute pain, such as in severe physical trauma, post-surgical and chronic pain, as well as relieving sufferers of terminal illnesses. Drug addiction, overdoses, and a very brief history of Heroin Key figures continue to campaign for greater sympathies and better treatment of Heroin addicts as they attempt to rehabilitate themselves and re-enter society. Russell Brands Give it Up Fund, run in conjunction with Comic Relief, aims to provide financial aid to help people remain free from substance abuse by setting up support groups. "It's integral that people entering a life of abstinence after the chaos of addiction have stability, support and a role to play in the wider community," he said. Mr Wright said his department was still investigating the incident, but would likely contact the Ohio Attorney Generals Office when they finished their probe. "There appeared to be some practices happening out there that probably someone from the state AG's office should probably look into," he said. The Kirkersville Police Department did not respond to The Independents request for comment. Mr Hughes worked part-time at the largely volunteer department in Kirkersville a 535-person town located some 25 miles east of Columbus. He had served as police chief for little more than two months before his death, but had already stoked controversy in the area. Police toss a coin to decide whether to arrest woman for speeding Shortly after his hiring, the Advocate uncovered Mr Hughes checked employment history, including a 14-month stint at the nearby Fairfield County Sheriff's Office, where he was the subject of at least three internal investigations. One of the investigations reportedly began when Mr Hughes was charged with disorderly conduct while intoxicated for allegedly yelling expletives at a fast-food restaurant employee. He ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanour disorderly conduct. Mr Hughes hiring came at a time of immense upheaval for Kirkersville, which has seen three police chiefs in the last 14 months. Mr Hughes replaced former Police Chief Jeff Finley, who quit after five months on the job, citing a hostile work environment caused by the village mayor. His predecessor was Chief Eric DiSario, who was killed in the line of duty last May. Many of the towns residents lobbied heavily for the two-person police department to continue after Mr DiSarios death. "In communities like this, its good to have the local presence, resident Nattie Groves told local radio station WOSU at the time, because they get to know the people in the community and the community gets to know the law enforcement officers, so you really have that small-town Mayberry feel." Pope Francis reversal of the Catholic Churchs teachings on the death penalty could prove to have tremendous impacts extending far beyond the walls of the Vatican. In ordering a change to the churchs official position on capital punishment, the pope has signalled his support for ending the practice worldwide. Under the new teachings, the church will work "with determination" towards abolishing the death penalty in all 53 countries where it still exists, similar to how it has lobbied in other social and political issues in recent years. The reversal arrives as Donald Trumps administration in the US which is among the largest nations carrying out state-sanctioned executions threatens to broaden its use of the death penalty against drug dealers and traffickers. What are the Catholic Churchs new teachings on the death penalty? Pope Francis has said "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person". The reversal comes in the form of a codified change to the churchs official doctrine outlining its teachings and practices, called the catechism. Pope Francis talks with the group of nuns after the general audience at the Paul VI Hall in Vatican, August 1, 2018. (Reuters) The catechism was first released in 1992 to provide a "full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine, enabling everyone to know what the church professes, celebrates, lives and prays in her daily life". The new text goes on to say that, in the light of the Gospel," capital punishment is considered "an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person". According to the new teachings under Pope Francis, the church encourages authorities to provide as many opportunities for reconciliation as possible. The move follows years of Catholic leadership denouncing the use of capital punishment in most cases. However, the pope appears to go a step further from previous statements by describing lifetime imprisonment as a variation of the death penalty. Pope Francis blesses Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar The Catholic Church previously said capital punishment was a "right and duty" for authorities In the original 1992 catechism, Pope John Paul II said it was "the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty". "The primary effect of punishment is to redress the disorder caused by the offence," the writing continued. "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person." By 1997, however, the former pope removed sections of the teaching on capital punishment related to protecting the public. In a 2008 address to Emory University, Archbishop Wilton Gregory said this greatly reduced the necessity for state-sanctioned deaths according to the Catholic church. "In looking at the revised version of the text, one would have to conclude that the only purpose that would render an execution morally licit, according to Catholic teaching, is the defence of society from the particular criminal whose sentencing is under question," he said. Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Live and let live.' GETTY IMAGES Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Proceed calmly" in life' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Be giving of yourself to others' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Even though many parents work long hours, they must set aside time to play with their children' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Sunday is for family' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Respect and take care of nature' OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Stop being negative' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: Respect others' beliefs' AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness Pope Francis: 'Peace sometimes gives the impression of being quiet, but it is never quiet, peace is always proactive' FP/Getty Images Pope Francis gives life advice: in pictures Pope Francis' guide to happiness AFP/Getty Images The 1997 version of the catechism urged US bishops to imply "a very restrictive application of the death penalty". This change led the Church to take the official position that all types of punishment should ultimately seek to provide "the condition to regain the exercise of his or her freedom". What does this mean for US-Vatican relations? This isn't the first time Mr Trump and Pope Francis have disagreed in their policy positions. The pope made a global push for migrants' rights during the height of the international refugee crisis, calling on nations to welcome those impacted by worldwide wars, famine and violence. The Pope supported the US Bishops Conference after it denounced Mr Trump's "zero tolerance" policy along the US-Mexico border, describing the systematic separation of immigrant families as "immoral" and "contrary to our Catholic values". "I am on the side of the Bishops Conference," the pope told Reuters. "Populism does not resolve things. What resolves things is acceptance, study, prudence." During their meeting, the two leaders discussed assistance for immigrants and the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and inter religious dialogue, according to a Vatican statement. It can be expected the church will now urge Mr Trump's administration to consider softening its position on the death penalty. Currently, the death penalty is still legal in 31 states across the US, where 22 per cent of the nations overall population are Catholic. Whether the White House heeds the calls of the Vatican is another story. Mr Trump has demanded the Justice Department seek the death penalty in some drug trafficking cases, saying during a speech in March that the government is "wasting our time" by not executing certain criminals with drug charges. "If we don't get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time," he said. "And that toughness includes the death penalty." The speech led Attorney General Jeff Sessions to release a statement pledging to "seek the death penalty wherever appropriate". Many nations with significant Catholic populations still carry out the death penalty While Catholics make up one of the largest religious subsets in the US at 22 per cent, half of the population in nations like Cuba, Dominica and Uganda are also Catholic and they continue carrying out state executions as well. It remains unclear what policy changes could arrive in any of the 53 nations where the death penalty is still legal, following the Churchs reversal. Capital punishment also remains legal in countries with notable Catholic minority populations like India, where there are nearly 20 million Catholics. Pope Francis greets a child as he arrives to lead the general audience at the Paul VI Hall in Vatican, 1 August, 2018. (Reuters) However, several nations with significant Catholic populations have outlawed the death penalty in recent years, the BBC reported, including Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Benin. At least 993 state-sanctioned executions occurred in 23 countries last year, Amnesty International reported, with the majority of those deaths occurring in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. Meanwhile, all 53 nations where capital punishment is legal issued death sentences in 2017. In its new teachings, the Church said the death penalty was once "an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good". "Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes," the new text continued. "More effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption." Chicago activists have warned a sprawling anti-violence protest may lead to multiple arrests and the shutdown of busy streets. The demonstration was being organised in an effort to unseat Rahm Emanuel, Chicagos Democratic mayor, and Eddie Johnson, the citys police superintendent, according to organisers. Protestors planned to march from Lake Shore Drive to Wrigleyville in the middle of Thursday rush hour, and had not ruled out entering the Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs were scheduled to play against the San Diego Padres. "We have people who are committed, who are ready to get arrested," Ira Acree, a reverend of Greater St. John Bible Church who was providing buses to transport protestors to the march, told the Chicago Tribune. "And those who dont, theyll stay back. But certainly, people are going to get arrested. And we will have attorneys and people who will provide resources to bail them out." Several major protests have occurred throughout Chicago in response to the citys unending issues with gun violence. The region became an epicentre for gun violence after local courts rolled back the citys strict gun ordinances and weapons guidelines from over a decade ago, which banned residents from keeping handguns in their homes and required that all firearms were registered and obtained a permit. Chicago has suffered a spike in gun violence ever since, with over 50 people being shot during a single week in May this year including law enforcement. The city has also seen an increase in homicides, with a rate of 25.1 per 100,000 residents, compared to New York's 2.3 per 100,000. 5-year-old boy shot for second time in two years in Chicago Protestors, who have not officially coordinated their demonstration with City Hall, have demanded the mayor step down due to his apparent inability to reduce violence. "Honestly, when the mayor endorses a protest, its no longer a protest," Mr Acree continued. "It becomes a parade, and were on serious business." Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Show all 10 1 /10 Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Young people march from the White House to Capitol Hill while participating in the national school walkout over gun violence. EPA Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Thousands of local students march down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the US Capitol during a nationwide student walkout for gun control. AFP/Getty Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence A student has the words,'don't shoot,' written on her hands as she joins with other students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after walking out of their school to honor the memories of 17 students and teachers that were killed. Getty Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students take part in a walkout at General McLane High School. AP Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students from Harvest Collegiate High School stand in Washington Square Park in New York to take part in a national walkout to protest gun violence. AFP/Getty Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students rally in front of the White House in Washington after walking out of school to protest gun violence in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged in response to last month's massacre of 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. AP Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Airport High School juniors Tony LaFata, 16, left, and Noah Doederlein, 17, stands for a moment of silence during a walkout at General McLane High School. AP Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Young people rally on the West Front of the US Capitol to participate in the national school walkout over gun violence, in Washington. EPA Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students from Passaic High School hold photos of some of the 17 victims killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. AP Students walk out of US schools to protest gun violence Students join hands as they take part in a student walkout in Lafayette. AP In a statement, the Chicago police department said it was prepared to protect demonstrators during the march and said it had met with several organisers in an unofficial capacity to discuss their plans. "In the end, CPD will protect individuals right to demonstrate but we also have a responsibility to balance the potential public safety and traffic implications of the event," Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for the department, told the Chicago Tribune. Fourteen days after her initial arrest, a young immigrant woman with schizophrenia remains in a Texas jail because of a federal immigration request, even though her family and mental health professionals say that continued detention runs the risk of severe consequences. Tania Silva, 21, was arrested by police in Austin, Texas, who were responding to a missing person request her family filed after she went missing a day earlier during a mental health emergency - charging her with assaulting the officers for an outburst while she was in handcuffs. Since her arrest, she has been detained in the Travis County Correctional Facility and cannot be released to receive 24-hour care for her mental health issues because of a Texas law signed earlier this year that forces local police to cooperate with all federal immigration enforcement requests. Recommended Texas police are refusing to take an immigrant detaine to the hospital We are worried because she is sometimes not able to speak or function properly. Her mother told us that they are giving her medicine she used to take in the past but stopped taking because it was causing her damage to her heart, said Mayra Huerta, an organiser with the Workers Defence Project, which is advocating on Ms Silvas behalf. They are not giving her the correct medicine, she continued, noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which suspects Ms Silva, a student at a local college studying to become a veterinarian, came to the US illegally from Mexico has indicated they will interview Ms Silva any day now. Ms Silvas detention highlights the impact of that Texas law, SB4, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in March, and limited so-called sanctuary cities that refused to comply with some immigration detainer requests from federal authorities. Austin, before the passage of that law, was such a city, and Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez has previously responded to Ms Silvas case denouncing the law. People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Show all 16 1 /16 People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Washington, DC, U.S., February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 16: Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants High school student Kathia Suarez holds up a sign as she protests with others outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. LM Otero/AP People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants High school senior Vicky Sosa holds a sign outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. In an action called "A Day Without Immigrants," immigrants across the country are expected to stay home from school, work and close businesses to show how critical they are to the U.S. economy and way of life. LM Otero/AP Situations like this are heartbreaking and unfortunately, not uncommon. We deal with this issue on a daily basis in our jails as men and women suffering a mental health crisis are arrested and booked instead of being diverted to treatment facilities. A persons immigration status compounds the matter. This is one of the reasons I continue to oppose SB4. It denies law enforcement the discretion to do the right thing for the right reason, Ms Hernandez said last week in a statement. A spokesperson for the sheriffs department noted that Ms Silva could post bail at any time her current detention is technically because of the assault charges which the family has refused, fearing that Ms Silva would simply be detained by ICE and potentially transported to a facility in a different state. Witnesses have said that Ms Silva was calm when officers first approached her and was holding a puppy and voluntarily sat in the back of a police car. Officers say she scratched and kicked an officer after they took the puppy from her, though records do not indicate that either officer sought medical treatment after arresting the woman. Her family has said that Ms Silva can generally manage her condition, but occasionally has episodes like the one that led her to go missing, and to forget her name and address. Greg Hasch, the public policy director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas affiliate, said that inadequate treatment for mental health needs is commonplace in detention facilities and poses grave risks to those struggling. Detention can be a difficult situation for a person experiencing alive symptoms of mental illness to be in. It can exacerbate those symptoms and it is not the therapeutic environment that a person needs, Mr Hasch said. This can be a life or death situation, Mr Hasch continued, noting that jails have a legal obligation to provide care to detained individuals, but that it is often inadequate. People can sort of experience an exacerbation of symptoms, whether medical or mental health, and sometimes their lives are threatened. A spokesperson for ICE confirmed that a detainer request has been placed on Ms Silva, but refused to comment further on the case. The spokesperson said that ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agencys custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care. The agency spends more than $250m a year on healthcare services for detainees, the spokesperson said. A woman has been charged after intentionally ramming into a car that was sporting a Trump bumper sticker, police say. Chloe Wright, 25, was arrested following the alleged hit-and-run in Hyannis, Massachusetts on 30 June, according to the Cape Cod Times. A driver told police that a woman was repeatedly honking her car horn as he waited at a red light. By the time he stopped at another traffic light, she had begun shouting at him, the newspaper reported. The man got out, fearing he had a problem with his car, but instead, heard the woman shouting about his bumper sticker. I could hear her screaming out the car, so Im like: Man, maybe theres something wrong with my car, the victim, whose name was not revealed, told CBS Boston. So I get out and then all of a sudden I hear: Youre racist' and a bunch of cuss words. The first thing she said to me when I came out of the car was: Did you vote for Trump? I was just like: Yeah, what of it? and thats pretty much what triggered it. Police say Chloe Wright, 25, rammed into a Trump supporter's car (CBS Boston) The woman then allegedly rammed her car into his before fleeing the scene, according to a police report. She bent my door and I had to lean back to avoid getting hit, the man said. She also hit the side of my car. Barrage of hostility against media at Trump rally Police reviewed mobile phone footage of the incident shot by the victim, while his partner, who was with him at the time, corroborated the alleged incident, according to Cape Cod Times. Ms Wright was detained on Monday and appeared at Barnstaple County Court, where she was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, vandalising property and leaving the scene of property damage, Fox News reported. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Show all 14 1 /14 The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Time for a break-up? Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Sometimes simplicity works best. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Theres no place for Trump's other policies in our society. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Many were quick to point out that in the UK, Trump means 'fart'. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Some people were looking out for The Queen Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There's a Mean Girl's quote for every occasion Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests There were a lot of hair references at the march toupee. Sorry, today. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Frack off. The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Try and read this out without singing it... Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests A message all Brits will understand. Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Simple, and to the point Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests We don't entirely understand this one, but we do rather like it Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests The Inbetweeners sends a hilariously petulant message Harriet Hall The best anti-Trump placards from the London protests Never underestimate Cher Horowitz Harriet Hall She was reportedly freed on $1,250 (955) bail after pleading not guilty. Barnstable Police Department have been contacted for comment. Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration Wednesday over what they call the biased makeup of a wildlife advisory council. The lawsuit filed in US district court in New York alleges that the International Wildlife Conservation Council is made of hunting enthusiasts and politically connected donors who are likely to craft favourable policy for groups that profit from hunting imperiled animals, the complaint said. Its very obvious [that the 17-member council has] an intent to undermine some of the protections put in place based on the affiliations of its members, Zak Smith, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The Washington Post. Mr Smith said the law requires advisory councils to be balanced so that all sides are represented. The panel was announced in November 2017 by Interior secretary Ryan Zinke. Its purpose is to increase American awareness of conservation, ensure the support of hunting as a tool to combat illegal poaching and review bans of imported animal trophies, the charter said. In its ranks are a National Rifle Association official, six members who are listed as active hunters and five members who are said to represent wildlife conservation groups. Paul Babaz, the president of Safari Club International, is listed as a conservationist, and his organisation has been criticised for endorsing the hunting of vulnerable animals. SCI, which told The Washington Post in an email it is monitoring the lawsuit, endorsed Mr Zinke in his House campaign in Montana in 2016 and donated $10,000 (7,600), according to website OpenSecrets. The lawsuit is largely cautionary, Mr Smith said, as the council has yet to publicly issue an advisory. But advocates are still worried about the potential sway that the biased council might have as advisory recommendations are looked at more closely and are likely to be readily adopted, Mr Smith said. If we have to sue to get our government to listen to wildlife conservation experts, were happy to do so, Mr Smith said in a statement. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Show all 8 1 /8 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Winner Pikin and Appolinaire Pikin, a lowland gorilla, had been captured and was going to be sold for bushmeat but was rescued by Ape Action Africa. Jo-Anne took this photograph as the gorilla was being moved from her former enclosure within a safe forest sanctuary in Cameroon to a new and larger one, along with a group of gorilla companions. She was first sedated, but during the transfer to the new enclosure she awoke. Luckily, she was not only very drowsy, but she was also in the arms of her caretaker, Appolinaire Ndohoudou, and so she remained calm for the duration of the bumpy drive Jo-Anne McArthur Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Finalist Elegant Mother and Calf Every year from July to late October southern humpback whales migrate north from their Antarctic feeding grounds to give birth in the warm sheltered waters off Tonga. Ray encountered this humpback mother and calf peacefully floating in the plankton-filled water around the island group of Vavau, Tonga. After Ray gently approached them, the giants swam a bit closer to have a look at him. While they made this elegant turn, Ray took the shot. He later converted the image into black and white which he felt represented the simplicity of the scene Ray Chin/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Finalist Warm Embrace When polar bear mothers and cubs emerge from their dens in the early spring, the cubs stay close to their mothers for warmth and protection. Once the cubs are strong and confident enough, they make the trek to the sea ice with their mother so that she can resume hunting for seals. Debra waited six days near the den of this family, in Wapusk National Park, Manitoba, Canada, before they finally emerged. In the most challenging conditions she has ever faced, temperatures ranged from -35C to -55C with high winds, making it almost impossible to avoid frostbite and keep her camera gear functioning properly Debra Garside/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Finalist Roller Rider Lakshitha was on safari in MaasaiMara National Reserve, Kenya, when he spotted an unusual sight a lilac-breasted roller riding a zebra. Normally they prefer to perch high up in the foliage, but his roller spent an hour or more riding around and enjoying the occasional insect meal. Lakshitha waited for the surrounding zebras to form the perfect background before taking this tight crop Lakshitha Karunarathna/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Finalist Sloth Hanging Out Luciano had to climb the cecropia tree, in the protected Atlantic rainforest of southern Bahia, Brazil, to take an eye-level shot of this three-toed sloth. Sloths like to feed on the leaves of these trees,and so they are often seen high up in the canopy. Luciano Candisani/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Shortlisted Reach for the Sky Steven was taking pictures of a small group of adult roseate spoonbills in a rookery in Tampa Bay, Florida, when he noticed a newcomer flying in from afar. With just enough time to back up a few steps, Steven photographed the bird landing exactly square to his camera with its wings in a stunning symmetrical U-shape Steve Blandin/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Shortlisted Holding On This close-up captures the touching moment an infant lays its small hand in the big hand of its mother. Jami took this photograph while she was in Borneo working on a story about the effects of palm-oil agriculture on orangutan habitat. Loss of primary rainforest is a serious threat to this already critically endangered species Jami Tarris/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Wildlife Photographer of the Year Peoples Choice award Shortlisted Blood Ivory In a protected area of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a rangers bloody hand rests on a heavily grained ivory tusk, also covered in the blood of an African elephant. The bull had to be destroyed due to a severe tusk infection that couldnt be treated.The tusks were removed to a place of safekeeping, where they were carefully catalogued in accordance with legislation Peter Chadwick/Wildlife Photographer of the Year The lawsuit was filed by the Democracy Forward Foundation on behalf of the Nrdc, the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International. Advocacy groups in the complaint also allege that the council disobeyed long standing rules by not publishing transcripts and detailed notes of its meetings in the proper amount of time. Groups in the complaint said they diverted organisational resources to procure records that should [already be] public. The Interior Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, announced in March that it would break with an Obama-era ban on elephant trophies, saying it would permit entry on an individual basis. The NRA and SCI heralded the Trump administrations decision, according to The Hill. Thirty-three permits were granted between 2016 and 2018, and half of the recipients donated to Republicans or have a connection to SCI, according to a Friends of Animals report. The Washington Post A US congressional candidate has been criticised after he described Melania Trump as a hoebag on Twitter. Mark Roberts, who is running in Oregons 2nd district was responding to a tweet from conservative activist Charlie Kirk about the First Lady. Did you know the First Lady works by the hour? #thinkdirty #hoebag," Mr Roberts wrote. As fellow Twitter users began criticising his comment, the candidate doubled down, responding to one tweet by saying: You start whipping out $100s and see how #classy she gets #makeitrain! Eventually his comments came to the attention of Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who asked Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to remove the tweet and suspend Mr Roberts account. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a similar request, tweeting: Comments like these have no business on any platform. Mr Roberts account was still active as of Wednesday afternoon. The 48-year-old who has previously described himself as a conservative is running as an independent in Novembers midterms. To win, he will have to unseat nine-time incumbent Representative Greg Walden something political experts believe it a long shot. Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Show all 10 1 /10 Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit First Lady, Melania Trump, tries her hand at bowls as she meets British Army veterans, known as Chelsea Pensioners, at Royal Hospital Chelsea Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Melania Trump gives a thumbs up AFP/Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit A school boy instructs Philip May during a game of bowls Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Melania Trump reacts Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Lady Melania Trumphigh-fives with a Chelsea pensioner AP Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit REUTERS Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Melania Trump is congratulated by Philip May and a Chelsea pensioner after taking part in a game of bowls REUTERS Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Getty Images Melania Trump and Philip May play bowls during UK visit Lady Melania Trumphigh-fives with a Chelsea pensioner AFP/Getty Images On his campaign website, Mr Roberts says he is not a fan of the Trump administration and lists Mr Trump as one of the top five people he would not take a selfie with. In previous tweets, he referred to US Senator Kamala Harris as hot, and said of the president: Get that man a haircut and non-fat chocolate cake! In the FAQ section of his website, Mr Roberts says he would spend his first day in Washington viewing Nazi artwork in the Centre for Military History. Not to worry, Im Jewish, he adds. Mr Roberts did not respond to The Independent's request for comment. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. An Illinois state representative has resigned following allegations that he created a fake Instagram account filled with naked photos of his ex-girlfriend in order to "catfish" other men. Nick Sauer posted privately shared naked photos of Kate Kelly on Instagram without her consent, she reportedly alleged when she filed a complaint with the state Legislative Inspector General . Nick would use this account to direct message men with my photos to engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature, Ms Kelly wrote in the complaint which was obtained by the Politico website. The men believed they were communicating with me and Nick shared private details of my life, she added. Mr Sauer, a member of the state House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Force, stepped down on Wednesday following widespread calls for his resignation, including from within his own party. In a statement, Mr Sauer said his duties would be affected "by the distraction of addressing these allegations. "After speaking with my family, I feel it best to step away from my public responsibilities," the first term lawmaker said. Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Show all 35 1 /35 Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Women's rights demonstrators hold placards and shout slogans during the Time's Up rally at Richmond Terrace, opposite Downing Street in London. Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London The Time's Up initiative was launched at the start of January 2018 as a response to the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Berlin Women's March in Berlin. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London The Time's Up Women's March marks the one year anniversary of the first Women's March in London and in 2018 it is inspired by the Time's Up movement against sexual abuse. Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Paris Women hold a banner reading "still feminist" with the Eiffel tower in background on the Trocadero esplanade in Paris. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Protesters hold up placards at the Women's March in central London. Rex Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Paris A demonstator hold signs on the Trocadero esplanade in Paris during a women's march organised as part of global protests. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures London Chanting Times Up in the cold rain - On the anniversary of the Women's March on London. Rex Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Thousands of people gather holding protest signs on Central Park West. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Demonstrators take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Chicago A woman holds a sign during the Second Annual Womens March in Chicago AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather near Central Park before the beginning of the Women's March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington Supporters gather during the Women's March in Washington AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York The crowd lines up near Central Park Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Chicago Demostrators attend the Second Annual Womens March in Chicago AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Thousands hold signs and rally while attending the Womens March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather near Central Park before the beginning of the Women's March in New York Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People hold signs up during the women's march Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Philadelphia Oscar Janicki, 6, participates in the Second Annual Women's March in Philadelphia Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Philadelphia Crowds gather to participate in the Second Annual Women's March in Philadelphia Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York Women pose as they attend the second annual National Womens March in New York City AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the second annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather prior to the second annual National Womens March in New York City AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People gather the second annual National Womens March AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Washington People participate in the Second Annual Women's March in Washington Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman holds a banner reading "Womwn united will never be defeated" during Rome Resists demonstration part of the Women's March in downtown. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome Italian actress Asia Argento (3rdL) attends the Rome Resists demonstration part of the Women's March in downtown Rome. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome The Women's March Rome, designed to show solidarity for the protection of civil and social rights, women's rights and the environment included Italian actress Asia Argento, one of the first women to accuse US film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. AFP/Getty Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Zurich A US citizen holds a poster on the anniversary of the inauguration of President Trump apologising to the world on behalf of her country, in Zurich, Switzerland. A year after millions of people took to the streets across the US and countries around the world, women's marches are being held in lots of cities this weekend. EPA Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures New York People take part in the Women's March in Manhattan Reuters Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman holds a banner reading "The rising of the women means rising of us all" during Rome Resists demonstration. AFP/Getty Images Women's March 2018 across the world: in pictures Rome A woman lifts her fist while holding a banner reading "Hear our voice" during Rome Resists demonstration. AFP/Getty Ms Kelly, who is from California, says she met Mr Sauer on Tinder in 2016. She told Politico that the pair started a long-distance relationship and would share very private photos with each other, as many couples do". He complaint alleged that she moved to Chicago to be closer to her boyfriend. After the two broke up, she discovered an Instagram account featuring her nude photos. When she confronted Mr Sauer about it, Ms Kelly claims, he confessed to catfishing at least eight men with her photos over the last two years. Catfishing refers to creating fake personas to trick others into sham conversations on the internet. The states Acting Legislative Inspector General, Julie Porter, would not confirm the report, telling The Independent in a statement that she is not able to comment on investigations. State Senator Melinda Bush, co-chair of the Senate Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention Task Force, said the allegations against Mr Sauer go beyond harassment and crosses the line between predatory and criminal. The non-consensual dissemination of private, sexual images is a felony offence in Illinois. Mr Sauer has not been charged with any crimes. The allegations come after more than 300 women signed onto a letter describing a culture of sexual harassment and misogyny at the state capital. The legislature quickly adopted a bill prohibiting the sexual harassment of legislators and lobbyists, and requiring state agencies to adopt harassment policies. Barack Obama is preparing to go head to head with Donald Trump, as he hits the campaign trail in support of Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. While neither mans name will be on any ballot in November, both will be the star attractions for their respective parties, as they seek to use their popularity and fame to help push candidates over the winning line. And while supporters of each will thrall to the differences between the two - Mr Trumps off-the-cuff, nationalist bravura, and his predecessors more measured, multilateral inclusiveness - both men have the ability to excite and energise an audience. I think what will be very interesting is to see what Obama says on immigration, after what has been happening at the border, Juliette Kayyem, a senior official in the Department of Homeland Security during Mr Obamas first term, told The Independent. I think he will be say that Democrats can be tough on immigration without being cruel. Mr Obama this week released a list of 81 candidates - which his office said would be the first batch of several - he is backing for 2018. Im proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates - leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they're running to represent, he said in a statement. Im confident that, together, theyll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity, repairing our alliances and standing in the world, and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility, and the rule of law. But first, they need our votes. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have lunch at Dog Tag Bakery Among the candidates were several people who served either in his administration or his campaign. Around half were candidates for state legislatures, something on which the 44th president has been focussing since he left office in January 2017. So far, the former president has steered clear of some of the more contentious races; he did not immediately endorse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic lefts latest star, who recently defeated longtime congressman in the primary contest for New Yorks 14th congressional district. Neither did he weigh in on New Yorks race for governor, where incumbent Andrew Cuomo faces a progressive primary challenge from Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon. Among the names he backed for governorships were Jared Polis of Colorado, Gavin Newsom of California, Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Richard Cordray of Ohio and JB Pritzker of Illinois. Mr Obamas office said the list was heavy on young and diverse state-level Democrats because the former president hopes to help current and aspiring Democratic leaders establish themselves, build their profiles, and lead their communities. It also said he would try and help the party retake the House of Representatives. Democrats need to flip 23 seats if they are to secure the lower chamber of Congress, which is the place where any impeachment effort of Mr Trump would begin. The former president has admitted that during his two terms in office, the party failed to properly address defeats in state legislatures and governors mansions across the country. His office said he would be campaigning for some of the candidates he has endorsed, without specifying which or where. Both his office and that of the Democratic National Committee did not immediately respond to enquiries on Thursday. The announcement followed a move by former first lady Michelle Obama who said last month she would help help lead When We All Vote, a non-partisan, not-for-profit group working to help register new voters. Mr Trump has already been busy campaigning ahead of election day, with recent rallies in Florida, Montana and Iowa. On Thursday night, he was holding a so-called Make America Great Again rally in Pennsylvania. Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Show all 11 1 /11 Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama's best moments in the White House May 19, 2009 The President was leaving the State Floor after an event and found Sasha in the elevator ready to head upstairs to the private residence. He decided to ride upstairs with her before returning to the Oval Office, Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Oct. 26, 2012 President Barack Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets the son of a White House staffer in the Outer Oval Office Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House A National Security staffer, Carlton Philadelphia, brought his family to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama. Carltons son, Jacob, softly told the President he had just gotten a haircut like President Obama, and asked if he could feel the Presidents head to see if it felt the same as his. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House March 21, 2010 The President, Vice President and senior staff applaud after watching on television the House vote on H.R. 4872 for health care reform, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Dec. 3, 2009 President Barack Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following the opening session of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Sept. 22, 2015 "The Obama family and Biden family greet Pope Francis as he arrives in the United States for the first time at Joint Base Andrews," Sept. 22, 2015. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 21, 2014 President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a "Let's Move!" video taping on the Colonnade of the White House, Feb. 21, 2014 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Feb. 18, 2016 President Barack Obama watches First Lady Michelle Obama dance with 106-Year-Old Virginia McLaurin in the Blue Room of the White House prior to a reception celebrating African American History Month, Feb. 18, 2016 Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Jan. 21, 2013 "The President and First Lady wave to supporters as they ride in the inaugural parade. I had asked the President if I could ride in the presidential limousine and the President joked, 'But Michelle and I were planning to make out," Jan. 21, 2013. Peter Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama share a private moment in a freight elevator at an Inaugural Ball, January 2009 all pics: Pete Souza Barack Obama's best moments in the White House Barack Obama rests his hand on the bible that President Lincoln used for his swear-in, being held by his wife Michelle Obama as he is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America Rex He has also been busy endorsing Republican candidates and claiming credit for those who have won their primaries, among them congresswoman Martha Roby who last month easily defeated a primary challenge from Bobby Bright. My endorsement came appropriately late, but when it came the flood gates opened and you had the kind of landslide victory that you deserve, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. Enjoy! Republicans sought to shrug off Mr Obamas involvement, saying that Democrats had lost nearly 1,000 political offices around the country under his leadership and then lost the White House in the 2016 presidential election. No ones more to blame for how weak todays Democratic Party is than President Obama, said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens, according to Reuters. But polls suggest Mr Obama retains considerable star power, 18 months after he left the White House. Last month, the Pew Research Centre revealed the findings of a survey which asked people to name who they thought did the best job as president in their lifetime. Mr Obama was the top choice on 44 per cent, ahead of Bill Clinton on 33 per cent and Ronald Reagan on 32 per cent. Mr Trump was placed fourth with 19 per cent. While Mr Trump has frequently criticised Mr Obama and accused his administration of illegally bugging his campaign during the 2016 White House race, Mr Obama has, as has been the convention for former presidents, been all but silent about the man who succeeded him - something that has angered many in the party. Last month, in a speech at an event in South Africa celebrating Nelson Mandelas 100th birthday, Mr Obama was perhaps his most outspoken about Mr Trump. Donald Trump has taken aim at the environment again by proposing to weaken fuel efficiency standards set by predecessor Barack Obama for cars and trucks - setting up a legal showdown with more than a dozen states who have pledged to stop the move. The new standards would roll back of the tougher gas mileage requirements Mr Obama had enacted which were expected to go into effect in 2020. Nineteen states and Washington DC immediately released a statement pledging to take to the courts, arguing that the US has an obligation to protect the environment for future generations The Trump administration said it also wants to revoke states authority to set their own mileage standards separate to the federal ones. California has already set stricter rules than those suggested by the government and has been followed by a number of other staes. We are prepared to go to court to put the brakes on this reckless and illegal plan, the coalition of states' attorneys general opposing in the move, led by Massachusetts Maura Healey, said in a statement. The states that have adopted California's emission rules together make up about one third of the U.S. auto market. Recommended Environment must be protected with binding targets to avoid crisis Previously, 17 states including California filed a lawsuit in May against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who Obama-era standards were "not appropriate". The new proposal from the US Transportation Department and the EPA would freeze fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels through 2026, and require dramatically fewer electric vehicles as more people continue to drive gasoline-powered vehicles. The EPA said in a statement that relaxing mileage standards in the years ahead would give the American people greater access to safer, more affordable vehicles that are cleaner for the environment. Public comment must now be sought on the proposal and a range of others, including leaving the tighter, Obama administration fuel standards in place. That process will likely take months, with further possible delays caused by legal cases. The move is just the latest in a string of policy changes to dismantle Mr Obama's climate legacy including beginning the US withdrawal from the global Paris Agreement on climate change and repealing the Clean Power Plan, which would have reduced power plants carbon emissions by 2030 to a level 32 per cent lower than they were in 2005. Emmanuel Macron takes a swipe at Donald Trump over climate change Mr Trumps proposal would also negate any efforts to curb tailpipe emissions, in another policy to dismantle legislation aimed at fighting the effects of climate change. Mr Obamas standards called for car manufacturers to make a fleet of vehicles averaging 51.4 miles per gallon by 2025. The Trump administration is arguing that would drive up the prices of vehicles, limiting sales within the US of new vehicles so halting the Obama-era standards before they go into place would save money and help automakers. We are delivering on President Trumps promise to the American public that his administration would address and fix the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards, acting director of the EPA Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan But, environmental groups do not feel it is a fix at all. There is simply no good reason -- economic, health, technological or otherwise -- for the Trump Administration to halt progress on vehicle emission standards that the automobile industry agreed to in 2012, Dan Lashof, the US Director of the World Resources Institute said. Rather than spur investments to meet the growing global demand for cleaner, more efficient vehicles, this proposal will lead to years of litigation and uncertainty, putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, Mr Lashof said. Paul Cort, a lawyer with environmental charity Earth Justice estimated in a statement: "By 2030, the pollution equivalent of this rollback will be like firing up 30 coal power plants". He called the proposed, lower fuel efficiency standards "a boon" for the oil and gas industry. The Trump administration said the freeze would boost US oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels of oil a day by the 2030s, and argued it would prevent up to 1,000 traffic fatalities per year by reducing the price of new vehicles and so prompting people to buy newer, safer vehicles more quickly. Experts have also said the move to limit states' abilities to set their own standards is counter to the Trump administration's ethos of protecting states' rights in all other policy matters - like election security, abortion, and taxes. President Donald Trump is reportedly pushing for an interview with Robert Mueller despite his lawyers advice, believing that he can convince the special counsel that the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials is a witch hunt. Mr Mueller has been negotiating with the president's legal team for months in hopes of securing an interview. The special counsel reportedly wants to question Mr Trump about his associates possible coordination with Moscow and his own possible obstruction of justice as the final stage in his probe. The two teams have been negotiating both the scope and form of the interview, with Mr Mueller pushing for an in-person question-and-answer session and the president's advisers advocating for written responses. Mr Mueller sent his latest proposal to the White House on Tuesday, according to the New York Times, saying he would accept some written responses from the president if in-person follow-up questions were allowed. Mr Trumps lawyers disliked the idea of in-person follow-ups, according to the Times, and were prepared to take the matter to court. But Mr Trump urged his team to keep negotiating, convinced that he could show Mr Muellers team he did nothing wrong. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images The president has strenuously maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, and repeatedly urged Mr Muellers team to wrap it up quickly. He aired his frustrations with the investigation on Wednesday, tweeting what many saw as an order to his attorney general to shut down the probe. This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, the president wrote. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Ex-Trump Campaign Chair Manafort's Court Arrival Mr Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe in March of last year. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday that Mr Trump was not ordering the attorney general to take action, but instead simply expressing his opinion. It is ridiculous all the dishonesty thats gone on, and the president has watched this process play out, but also wants to see this come to an end, she told reporters. The Russia investigation has received renewed attention of late, as the trial begins for Paul Manafort one of 32 people and three companies from which Mr Mueller has secured charges or guilty pleas. Mr Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, is charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, conspiracy against the US, and other crimes. The majority of the charges stem from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. Mr Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges. US president Donald Trump has thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his nice letter and kind action, just days after US intelligence agencies reported signs that the North was constructing new a ballistic missile. Mr Trump tweeted his thanks to Mr Kim for returning select remains from the Korean War some 65 years after the conflict ended. The remains were transported to the US in 55 flag-draped coffins on Wednesday, and were received by Vice President Mike Pence. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday night. I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. He added: Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon! White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that the ongoing correspondence between the two leaders was aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK joint statement. The White House did not comment on whether Mr Trump and Mr Kim would meet again. Trump says media coverage of his North Korea summit 'almost treasonous' The two leaders meeting in June resulted in a vaguely-worded statement, in which Mr Kim agreed to "work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" but provided few concrete promises towards achieving that goal. Mr Trump has since halted joint military drills with South Korea, and the North appears to have shut down its nuclear test site and started dismantling its rocket launch site. Earlier this week, however, the Washington Post reported that US intelligence agencies had received evidence that North Korea was constructing at least one liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile. The construction was reportedly taking place at the same factory that produced the countrys first missile capable of reaching the US. Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Show all 20 1 /20 Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim leave following their historic meeting AFP/Getty Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim sign a document committing to peace between their nations, amongst other things EPA Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump holds up a document that both he and Mr Kim have signed AFP/Getty Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un The two leaders reach out to shake hands for the first time AP Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim shake hands as they meet for the first time Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim walk off stage, following their historic meeting Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim take a stroll after their meeting on June 12 Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim interrupt their stroll to talk to the media AP Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Kim and Mr Trump look out over a balcony at the Capella hotel, where they held their meeting on June 12 Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump takes questions at the press conference following his meeting with with Mr Kim AP Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump appreciates the crowd in the press conference following his meeting with Mr Kim Getty Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump travels to the Istana ahead of the summit with Kim Jong Un on June 12 Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Kim Jong Un travels to the Istana ahead of the summit with President Trump on June 12 Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Kim poses for a photo with Singapore's Finance Minister Vivian Balkrishnan and Education Minister Ong Ye Kung ahead of the summit with Mr Trump Twitter/Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump shakes hands with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, meeting on Monday June 11 in the Istana, Singapore's presidential palace AP Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un At a working lunch on Monday, Singapore's Prime Minister surprised Mr Trump with a birthday cake, in early celebration of his 72nd birthday later in the week EPA Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo answers questions about the summit at a press briefing in Singapore on Monday, June 11 Getty Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un US President Donald Trump arrives at the Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore on June 10, two days prior to his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Reuters Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump and Mr Kim met on Tuesday June 12 in the Capella hotel on the island resort of Sentosa, just off the south coast of Singapore AFP/Getty Singapore Summit: historic first meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un Mr Trump boards Air Force One following the summit AFP/Getty Officials familiar with the intelligence, told the Post that senior North Korean officials had also discussed plans to deceive the US about the number of nuclear warheads, missiles, and facilities they possessed, as well as plans to rebuff international inspectors. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged last week that North Korean factories continued to produce materials used in making nuclear weapons, despite the Singapore agreement. Asked whether Pyongyangs nuclear programme was advancing on the whole, Mr Pompeo declined to answer, saying public statements on the matter would not be helpful in negotiations with a difficult adversary. "I'm not trying to be cute, the secretary said at a Senate hearing. We're engaged in a complex negotiation with a difficult adversary, and each of the activities that we undertake is not going to be fully apparent to the world at the moment it is undertaken." The town of Soacha, on the southern outskirts of Colombias capital Bogota, doesnt receive many leisure visitors. Home to thousands of people displaced by the countrys long civil war, Soacha is seen as highly dangerous by many Bogota residents. Gangs, guerrillas and paramilitaries are said to be active in the area all of which makes it an unusual destination for a tourist trip. But Soacha, and the nearby Sumapaz Paramo a type of plateau unique to Latin America and a biodiversity hotspot are the destinations of the maiden tour of Justice Travel, a new travel agency which claims to use tourism to support human rights. The company made up largely of former humanitarian workers says it goes much further than other ethical travel operators. Recommended 10 of the most unethical travel experiences Human rights [activism] needs new actors and methods, says Juan Orjuela Alvarez, the country representative for Colombia. We believe travel and travellers are part of this. Travellers care about the places and communities they visit, and have ideas, energy and networks, he adds. We should make the most of this, and not just see tourism as an economic resource. With long and short tours arranged in three beautiful but troubled countries Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico and more planned elsewhere, Justice Travel aims to facilitate a version of tourism which Alvarez says supports peacebuilding. He envisions the tours as an exchange of ideas which expose both hosts and visitors to new thinking. Soacha has long been considered a dangerous area of Bogota (Will Worley) In Colombia, the tours come at a time of great difficulty for social activists, who were murdered in record numbers last year. Theres further uncertainty following the election of right-winger Ivan Duque Marquez, who comes from a political tradition viewed as hostile to human rights and community activism. But on the one-day tour to Soacha, Justice Travels community partners are determined to show visitors the most interesting aspects of their beleaguered hometown. Caminando el Territorio, a group of young locals who learned to love their area by hiking around it, act as guides for the day. Gathering in the towns main square where in 1989 presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan was shot in front of 10,000 people by Pablo Escobars gunmen my group is met by Gabriel Romero, Caminando el Territorios chief. Bogota's burgeoning food scene Show all 10 1 /10 Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene The food markets are the place to try exotic ingredients and local dishes ProColombia Bogota's burgeoning food scene Leonor Espinosa is one of Bogota's best loved chefs Leo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Leonor Espinosa focuses on Colombian ingredients at Leo Leo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene Bogota's burgeoning food scene Scallop ceviche at El Cielo El Cielo Bogota's burgeoning food scene El Cielo is a full-on sensory immersion El Cielo Bogota's burgeoning food scene Criterion's 10-course taster menu is a work of art Bogota's burgeoning food scene Chef brothers Jorge and Mark Rasch Mario Inti Garcia Bogota's burgeoning food scene Criterion's Jorge Rausch cut his teeth at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir Mario Inti Garcia We want to change the bad impression of Soacha, Romero says. We used to want to run away from here. But that perspective changed when we walked around, exploring different areas. Now we want to show other Colombians and visitors the good side of Soacha. He explains the towns historical importance in the indigenous Muisca culture, whose language spawned the towns original name, Sucacha, meaning Sun God. The first stop on the tour is at a local community hub, Xucasa (your house), run by several community groups. There, after we are shown the building interesting but typical of activist-type spaces the tour takes an unexpectedly intense twist. We met Luz Marina Bernal, who has had a front row seat to one of the most disturbing episodes in Colombian history. A founding member of another local group called Madres of Soacha (Mothers of Soacha), her 26-year-old mentally-impaired son, Fair Leonardo Porras, was murdered in 2008 by Colombian troops during the notorious "false positives" scandal. Gabriel Romero leads the tour (Will Worley) Under the government of former president Alvaro Uribe, an estimated 10,000 civilians were murdered and then dressed in insurgents clothing by soldiers, in return for rewards from the government. Accountability remains fleeting, and few officers have been prosecuted. Bernal whose tireless campaigning for justice led her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 proceeds to perform an intimate, moving performance in memory of her son. She then speaks to us about falsos positivos, taking questions at the end. Its here that Justice Travel proves the strength of its relationships with the communities that it tours. Few organisations visit Soacha, let alone facilitate access to one of the countrys most famous human rights activists, week in, and week out. Bernal welcomes the prospect of foreign visitors: These years under [president-elect] Ivan Duque Marquez will be tough, but international partners visiting will be one way for us to have hope until we have a government that is friendly towards human rights. Nobel Peace Prize nominee Luz Marina shares her story (Will Worley) Afterwards, we move on to the Sumapaz Paramo, part of a protected natural area which has suffered from illegal mining. Before a picturesque hike through the dream-like landscape, the tour stops by the illegal open pit mine of Caracoli. Joined by a local farmer whose community fought for it to be closed, were told about how the pit has polluted the air and the local water supply. A key aim of Justice Travel and perhaps its biggest challenge is for its clients to continue advocating for the communities they visit after they return home. While in some cases its unclear how this would be done, Alvarez provides an example in the case of the illegal mine, formerly operated by a Swiss company. A Swiss visitor could go back home and directly lobby the company that owns the mine, he says, highlighting that this campaigning would be more effective coming from a citizen rather than a far-off community. Illegal mining is a big problem in the community (Will Worley) The idea wont appeal to all travellers, but definitely to some. The packed short tours, which can fit into a longer holiday, are likely to have broad appeal, even to those seeking a more relaxing break. While the tour was moving and insightful, it remains to be seen whether the participants will continue lobbying for communities after their trip has ended. But theres no doubt Justice Travel has achieved an impressive feat creating tours that go beyond the standard tourist-friendly veneer of a place and actually deep-dive into the issues facing host communities. Its not something an outsider could do alone, but their experiences will be all the richer for it. Travel essentials Getting there Avianca flies direct from London Heathrow to Bogota El Dorado International Airport from 590 return. Staying there Justice Travel offers 14 day tours from $3,550 per person (2,706) including accommodation, 70 per cent of meals, tours, internal transport and translation; 30 per cent of the profits go to local partners. More than 1,800 years in the making, 21,000km in length and one of humanitys most incredible feats of engineering, the Great Wall of China remains high on many people's bucket lists. Those seeking a more immersive experience are in luck, however, as Airbnb has launched a competition for four lucky winners and their guests to stay overnight on the historic wall in a custom-designed house. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity begins with a short hike to the unique sleeping quarters, followed by a multi-course gourmet dinner, which aims to represent different aspects of Chinese culture and the culinary traditions of its people. A traditional Chinese concert will accompany the meal, before guests retire to their bedroom. Recommended 5 ways to see the Great Wall of China while avoiding the crowds Upon waking, guests will hike to the highest watchtower to witness the sun rise. The experience doesnt end there, as winners are invited to learn Chinese calligraphy and create a customised stamp to commemorate their experience. Finally, guests will learn about the conservation efforts on the Great Wall, which is under threat from a number of sources, including erosion, mining, graffiti and construction and you guessed it mass tourism. Recommended Why modern Beijing beats the Forbidden City Concern for the Walls welfare is such that it was included in Fodors annual No List in 2018, a round-up of 10 destinations that editors at the popular travel group advises against travel to due to environmental, social and ethical concerns. To be in with a chance of winning this truly unique experience, entrants are invited to submit an artistic and creative story of 550 characters maximum on why it is more important now than ever to break down barriers between cultures and to detail how you would go about building new connections. The deadline for entries is 11 August 2018. Pariss Eiffel Tower remains closed for a second day following strikes by staff over monstrous visitor queues. Workers at the iconic landmark are unhappy about a new visitor access policy, which they argue has created exceptionally long wait times of up to three hours and lopsided queueing systems. Separate lifts for advanced internet ticket holders and walk-in customers are contributing to congestion, particularly during off-peak periods. The number of tickets set aside for advanced internet booking has also been increased from 20 to 50 per cent. As a result, lifts for advanced customers are reported to be half-empty during off-peak times, despite walk-in customers waiting for extended periods. The Iron Lady has been closed since Wednesday afternoon as unions try to negotiate with management over a decision to separate pre-booked and walk-in visitors to the site, according to AFP. Staff have requested more flexibility in managing the thousands of visitors who flock to the tourist attraction every day during this peak summer period. Recommended 5 ways to experience the Eiffel Tower The sites operator SETE, which is majority owned by the city of Paris, made the following statement on Wednesday afternoon: The SETE is well aware of the disappointment for visitors because of the monuments closure, and its negative impact on the image of both the city and country. Visitors' responses were mixed, with frustration and anger combining with resignation. One visitor described the strikes as an injustice to visitors, while another was more circumspect, telling France 24: This has to be the Frenchest story of them all. The Eiffel Tower is on strike. This isnt the first time the tower has closed due to industrial action. Numerous strikes have occurred in recent years over pay, pickpocketing and maintenance work. Despite this, it continues to be one of the worlds most popular tourist attractions, with more than six million people visiting every year. Visitors are advised to monitor the Eiffel Towers social media pages and website for further updates. On the eve of the latest strike by Ryanair pilots employed in Ireland, tens of thousands more travellers face finding their flights cancelled by industrial action on Friday 10 August one of the busiest days of the summer. The airline is telling passengers: Ryanair has received notice of strikes on Friday 10 August by pilot unions in Belgium and Sweden. We have also been notified of possible strike actions by pilot unions in Germany and the Netherlands which we believe will be coordinated and occur on Friday 10 August. Recommended Ryanair boss threatens to move jobs to Poland if strikes continue Twenty Ryanair flights between Dublin and airports in Britain have already been cancelled on Friday 3 August, as a result of the fourth one-day strike by pilots based in Ireland. They are involved in a dispute with airline management over seniority and base transfers. Around 3,500 passengers have been notified that their flights have been cancelled, and offered a choice of full refunds or alternative departures. The strike the following week is likely to affect far more people, with Irish pilots employed by Ryanair having also given notice of a fifth one-day strike on the same day. Members of the Irish Airline Pilots Association (IALPA) say industrial action will continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters. In a statement, IALPA said: The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks. The airlines escalation of the dispute last Wednesday when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff. Recommended Ryanair passengers forced to evacuate plane after mobile catches fire Ryanairs chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, blamed pilots from a rival airline for stirring up trouble, saying: In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute. In this case, after four days of unsuccessful strikes, a handful of Aer Lingus pilots are working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, and Germany to further disrupt Ryanairs business. Ryanair has asked unions to give a weeks notice of strikes so that we can notify our customers and offer them alternative flights or refunds. Finding alternative flights will be a challenge, because the airline is flying its aircraft fuller than ever this summer, with a 97 per cent load factor in other words, only five or six seats are spare on the average flight. Ryanair says: We have written to each of these pilot unions today and invited them to meet us in the coming days to make further progress in concluding Union Recognition and Collective Labour Agreements in each of these markets. The airline has recognised trade unions only since December last year. Last week Ryanair cabin crew in Spain, Portugal and Belgium stopped work for two days, leading to the cancellation of 600 flights and scuppering the travel plans of 100,000 passengers. The UK Civil Aviation Authority has urged passengers whose Ryanair flights are cancelled by strikes to claim compensation of 250 (for journeys of up to 1,500km) or 400 (for longer journeys). But the airline insists the stoppages are beyond its control and says that claims will be refused. Natural wonders come in all shapes and sizes. From Hawaiis Na Pali Coast to the Verdon Gorge in southeastern France, there are incredible places all over the planet. Here are 30 of the most beautiful natural wonders on Earth. The Dead Sea, Israel and Jordan The Dead Sea, Israel (www.elonatheexplorer.com) Sitting at 1,410 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on Earths surface. Located in a desert and featuring a high concentration of salt, its the perfect spot for floating. The water is beautiful enough on its own, but the deposits and columns of salt that rise out of the water give it a unique, otherworldly look. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia When lakes near these Bolivian salt flats overflow, they create a majestic mirrored surface that reflects the sky and clouds above. The Salar de Uyuni are the largest of their kind and cover 4,050 square miles of the Bolivian Altiplano. The vast oasis of salt boasts a horizon that never seems to end, making this spot a photographers dream. Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park, Gansu, China Danxia refers to a special type of landscape found in southwestern China. The colourful, striped mountains are made up of layers of minerals and rock, which were disrupted when tectonic plates caused the island that is now India to collide with the rest of the Eurasia continent. Now a protected Unesco World Heritage Site, the once little-known wonder is a popular tourist draw. Geiranger Fjord, Mre og Romsdal County, Norway A fjord is best described as an underwater valley. Formed by glaciers, these long and narrow waterways are deep and surrounded by steep mountains on all sides. The Geiranger Fjord is one of Norways most famous, and is also a Unesco World Heritage site. Go in the warmer months to see lush greenery offset by deep blue waters. Tegalalang Rice Terrace, Tegalalang and Ubud, Indonesia Indonesia is known for its terraced rice fields and Tegalalang is one of the most well-known. Entering the vibrant green landscape with its towering palm trees will make you feel like time has stopped. And theres some truth to that feeling. Farmers here use an irrigation system thats been passed down for centuries. Reynisfjara Beach, Vik, Iceland You probably wont want to sunbathe on Reynisfjara, but that doesnt mean its not worth a visit. The stunning beach looks otherworldly thanks to its black sand, basalt stone columns, and the fog that sometimes envelops it. If youre lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland One of Irelands most-visited natural attractions, the Cliffs of Moher stretch along the countrys west coast for five majestic miles. The rugged cliffs offer unparalleled views of the ocean below. The Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States A general view of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (Getty) (RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images) The Grand Canyon is Arizonas best-known natural beauty, and for good reason: between its immense size and breathtaking views, this natural phenomenon is a must-see. The canyon stretches for 277 river miles and spans 18 miles from side to side. While the South Rim is open all year round, the North Rim is open to visitors on a more seasonal basis. Monteverde Cloud Forest, Monte Verde, Costa Rica Because its a rainforest, the weather might not always be ideal at Monteverde, but the fact is it will feel and look like a jungle paradise no matter if its misty or not. Even better, this biological reserve is known to be home to a multitude of species. In fact, its one of only a few places around the world that boasts all six species of the cat family. Ha Long Bay, Vietnam Ha Long Bays natural beauty makes it one of Vietnams number one tourist sites. The bay is also a Unesco World Heritage site. The best way to see Ha Longs awe-inspiring limestone towers is by boat. In fact, many tourists stay overnight on a boat in the bay. Na Pali Coast, Hawaii, United States The huge green cliffs and valleys of the Na Pali coast Between the colourful cliffs and the azure blue waters below, Hawaiis Na Pali Coast is sure to wow any visitor. Hiking the cliffs will afford you 4,000-foot-high views of the Pacific Ocean and Kalalau Valley, as well as plenty of beautiful waterfalls along the way. Skogafoss, Skogar, Iceland Skogafoss flows from not one, but two glaciers (Eyjafjallajokull and Myrdalsjokull). According to legend, a viking named Thrasi hid his chest of gold under this stunning waterfall. Gold or not, the heavy amount of spray that the waterfall produces makes a sunny-day rainbow sighting here very likely. White Sands National Monument, New Mexico The largest gypsum deposit in the world, White Sands National Monument is a serene expanse of glittering, white sand thats located in the Chihuahuan Desert. The gypsum that forms these gently sloping dunes comes from a nearby ephemeral lake that has a high mineral content. As the water from this lake evaporates, minerals remain, which then form gypsum deposits that are carried by the wind. Bioluminescent Beaches, Maldives To experience the Maldives magical glowing beaches, you can visit any of the 1,190 islands that comprise the South Asian sovereign state. Some of the top spots to see this natural light show the result of bioluminescent plankton include Athuruga, Reethi, and Mirihi. Marble Caves, Chile Located in Patagonia on Lake General Carrera, Chiles Marble Caves (also known as the Marble Cathedral) were created more than 6,000 years ago by waves that eroded the rocks. The caverns stunning colours vary as water levels fluctuate throughout the year. Verdon Gorge, France The Verdon Gorges blue-green waters are a picturesque setting for activities ranging from swimming to kayaking. Mono Lake, California, United States Mono Lake (ALAMY) Mono Lake, which spans 65 square miles, is known for eye-catching, calcium-carbonite structures known as tufa towers. With a high salt content, this ethereal lake is also extremely buoyant. El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico Situated outside of San Juan, El Yunque National Forest earns the distinction of being the sole tropical rainforest in the US National Forest System. Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye, Scotland Isle of Skye, Scotland (Rex) Skyes enchanting Fairy Pools are only accessible on foot via the Glen Brittle forest but its worth the hike to see the clear waters of these natural pools in person. Beach of the Cathedrals, Galicia, Spain Youll do a double take when you see the rocky arches at the Beach of the Cathedrals: these incredible buttress-like formations were shaped solely by nature. Milford Sound, New Zealand Created by glaciers during the ice age, this fjord located off the coast of New Zealands South Island is renowned for its dynamic scenery, from waterfalls to soaring mountain peaks. Jeju Island, South Korea Jeju Island boasts South Koreas highest mountain, Hallasan, a dormant volcano that towers nearly 6,400 feet above sea level. The island is also known for its spectacular lava tubes (caves formed by cooling lava). Mt Erebus, Antarctica Mount Erebus (Getty) (AFP/Getty Images) It may seem hard to believe, but there are volcanoes in the arctic. Mount Erebus, the worlds southernmost active volcano, dates back 1.3 million years and stands at 12,448 feet above sea level. Kjeragbolten, Norway Kjeragbolten is a 177-cubic-foot boulder nestled in a mountain crevice. Its surprisingly accessible (you dont need special equipment to reach it), which makes it a popular photo op for adventurous Instagrammers. Iguazu Falls, Argentina and Brazil Spanning Argentina and Brazil, the Iguazu Falls are part of a massive waterfall system that totals around 275 waterfalls. Tianmen Cave, Zhangjiajie, China Situated 5,000 feet above sea level, Tianmen Cave is one of the highest naturally formed arches on the planet. Visitors have to mount a 999-step stairway to heaven to reach the site. Masazir Lake, Azerbaijan Masazir Lake is not far from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. This pink saline lake gets its colour which is strongest in the summer from microorganisms called halophiles. Harbour Islands, Bahamas Known mostly for its pink sand beaches, Harbour Island remains mostly untouched by humans, at least compared to the rest of the Bahamas. The islands other draws include Devils Backbone, a coral reef filled with marine life, and Dunmore Town, whose pastel-coloured homes will charm any visitor. The Blyde River Canyon, South Africa For gorgeous natural views, go for a hike along the Blyde River Canyon, which sits at an elevation of more than 2,600 feet. This canyon, known for its unique geology including the Pinnacle, a looming quartzite column also boasts diverse flora and fauna. Garni Gorge, Armenia The Garni Gorge is characterised by vertical cliffs notable for their basalt columns. You can only reach the site by car. Read more: This chart is easy to interpret: It says were screwed How Uber became the worlds most valuable startup These 4 things could trigger the next crisis in Europe Read the original article on Business Insider UK. 2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter. Hindsight is unfair but it might tell the truth. First, Donald Trump proclaims Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thus depriving the Palestinians of their capital in the east of the city. The Palestinians are appalled. Mahmoud Abbas says he will no longer talk to the United States. So Trump rages that we pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. It was only a tweet, but he means it. Those ungrateful Palestinian wretches! And he cuts $300m from Americas aid to the refugees, giving the oppressed and besieged and dispossessed Palestinians a mere $60m. Already the United Nations Relief and Works Agency recipients of international aid for 5.3 million Palestinian refugees is having to get rid of its employees, 113 of them in Gaza alone last week. Unrwa has been caring for the Palestinians since 1949, and already has a current deficit of $49m. Its 30,000 Palestinian doctors, nurses, teachers and other staff face unemployment. Starvation thus threatens even more of the tired, poor and huddled masses of Gaza. One 53-year-old father of six has just been told hes got no job after 32 years working for Unwra. But wait. Help is at hand. For did not Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the aforesaid Trump and giver of a future peace deal of the century to Palestinians and Israelis alike, promise a better life for the losing side? Why, he did indeed. Just a month ago. Let me quote: I believe that Palestinian people are less invested in the politicians talking points that they are in seeing how a deal will give them and their future generations new opportunities, more and better paying jobs and prospects for a better life. Ive remarked before that this is cash for peace instead of land for peace dollars instead of a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, an end to Jewish colonisation, a right of return, and so on. A truly Trumpian solution. But the playback of chronological events makes the deal even more cynical. First Trump gives Jerusalem to the Israelis. Then, when the Palestinians dare to complain, he cuts their humanitarian aid and drives them to despair. Then, courtesy of young Jared, Trump offers to shower them with money in the ultimate deal if they will just stop making these exorbitant, irrational, antisemitic, Nazi-like and racist demands for statehood, dignity and an end to colonisation. Their hearts may thus be empty but their stomachs shall be filled. Their hopes may be dead but their bank accounts will be in the black. Instead of all the gloom and violence fostered by their corrupt political leaders who can neither pay nor feed their people, the Palestinians can walk tall with new opportunities better-paying jobs and prospects for a better life. Yes, do watch the prospects bit. Ahed Tamimi: Teenage Palestinian protester released from Israeli prison And with that much lolly floating around, there wont be any need for Unwra, will there? Because there will be no more poverty-stricken refugees. For the refugees will be well-off, if not rich, with all those better-paying jobs and prospects. Goodbye the middens of Gaza. Goodbye all threats to Israel. And since the same financial salvation will be available to the Palestinians of the West Bank, why should its inhabitants care any more about the campaign of Israeli land theft which engulfs them? Just remember the dog-day destitution of the summer of 2018 when even Unwra could no longer relieve their oppression. The equation is impossible to conceal. When the Palestinians objected to the destruction of their political aspirations refused to talk peace in the obscene semantics of the Americans and Israelis they would be quite deliberately impoverished. With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, Trump said, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them? More than half of Gazas 2 million population, with a 44 per cent unemployment rate, are dependent on Unwra. The Palestinian cause, in other words and one Unwra staffer put it like this must be replaced with a humanitarian cause. Peace will therefore be economic, rather than political. The Saudis and Emiratis and Egyptians are being hustled to share in this new Levantine bonanza. Electricity stations paid for by Abu Dhabi, Egyptian duty free shops in Raffah, Saudi shares in Palestinian firms; dreams, perhaps, but suitable for the masses. Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Show all 22 1 /22 Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of Difa-e-Pakistan Council a coalition of right wing Islamic parties, burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump, during a protest in Quetta, Pakistan EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli police scuffle with a Palestinian protester outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu following Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protesters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on 7 December 2017 AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), an Islamic organization, chant slogans as they burn Israeli and US flags during a protest against Donald Trump in Peshawar REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump which was painted on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors burn the Israeli flag and a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against Donald Trump in Lahore AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn the US and Israeli flags in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is burnt during a protest against Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes that followed protests against US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters shout slogans against Donald Trump EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A Palestinian protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask used by the anonymous movement during clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops during protests AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party chant anti-American slogans during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Young Palestinian women look on as smoke billows from burning tyres as fellow Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protesters burn a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest in Islamabad REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protestors shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump as they hold Palestinian and Turkish flags during a protest near the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors put their feet over a picture of US president Donald Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistani protesters burn tires at an anti-Donald Trump rally in Multan AP In some ways, its back to the old fantasy of a Dubai in the West Bank, a Singapore in Gaza, which Shimon Peres used to espouse and which even the lamentable John Kerry suggested. For who now remembers the forgotten Secretary of States $4bn economic plan for Palestine which he proposed at the World Economic Forum more than five years ago? The same old Abbas was then, too, being told he must restart negotiations with Israel, as Kerry waffled on about a ground-breaking plan to develop a healthy, sustainable, private sector-led Palestinian economy ... bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anything proposed since Oslo more than 20 years ago. But then at least Kerry was offering a Palestinian state in return for Abbass compliance. Nothing, however, is groundbreaking about the Trump deal of the century today, except the continued breaking of ground for new Jewish settlements, as we still must call them, on the hilltops of the West Bank. But I suppose if theyre less hungry, better fed, look forward to better jobs and prospects for the future and dont have the nightmare Unwra to watch over them, the Palestinians will be able to reflect how much worse off theyd be if they had their own state, borders, security, East Jerusalem and no more Israeli colonies on occupied Palestinian land. How quickly the mood, and the forecasts, can change. Last weekend, Zimbabwe was preparing for elections intended to seal the transition to the post-Mugabe era through the democratic process. There was praise for the spirited and generally orderly campaign; optimism that the elections for both president and parliament would be judged (sufficiently) free and fair, and joy pervading the lines of voters waiting patiently from early Monday morning to perform their civic duty. Nowhere perhaps was the relief more palpable than in the corridors of power in London. The former colonial power tried not to sound too patronising as it willed this particularly troubled child to come at last, responsibly, of age. In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Show all 55 1 /55 In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate after officials announced the re-election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters celebrate at the Harare International Convention Centre in the early hours Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the announcement EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters sing and dance soon after the results of the Presidential elections were announced at the Harare International Convention Centre EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor sells sponges near newspaper headlines on the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the newly reelected Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate in Mbare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election People in Mbare celebrate Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man reads a Zimbabwean newspaper the day after the violence on the streets of Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man reacts at the sight of soldiers while taking shelter in a stall at a market in Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) light a fire in the streets of Harare. Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the party's headquarters in Harare REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Opposition MDC party supporters hold a voting placard up high on a street in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of Zimbabwean opposition MDC Alliance allegedly beaten up by soldiers sits with blood on his face as other protesters assist him AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A vendor scurries for cover with her wares as soldiers disperse demonstrators AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A wounded man hides under a tarpauling while the Zimbabwean Army patrols the streets of Harare AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Anti-riot police officers close the entrance to the Rainbow Towers, where the election results were announced in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers open fire on citizens REUTERS In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run the Zimbabwean army during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) protest the result of the election, which they allege to be fraudulent Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A soldier assaults a man on the streets of Harare during protests AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean anti riot police officers sit in a truck amidst protesters on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Citizens run from riot police amidst protests in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Soldiers patrol the streets during protests in Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man on the streets of Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man lies dead after the Zimbabwean army shot at protesters in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition party protests in the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean soldiers beats an opposition supporter on the streets of Harare Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition protest in the streets of Harare as police fire tear gas Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition burn a campaign banner of the ruling Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Mbare, a suburb of Zimbabwean capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer keeps watch of queuing voters in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Election officials remove political posters near a polling station on voting day Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa arrives at a polling station in Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Oppostion leader Nelson Chamisa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives to cast his vote in Kwekwe Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa casts his vote AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters stand in line outside a polling station in Kwekwe AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays outside a polling station in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Voters arrive at a polling station in Harare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe prepares to cast his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in Mbare, a suburb of capital Harare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman casts her vote in the township of Makokoba Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A police officer casts his vote in Mbare Getty In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A woman prays near a polling station in Mbare EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A man casts his vote in Harare AP In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Former president Robert Mugabe speaks at a press conference the day before the vote where he stated that he would not be voting for his former Zanu-PF party Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election A supporter of the opposition MDC party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 Reuters In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA In pictures: Zimbabwe votes in historic election Supporters of the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party attends the final campaign rally in Harare on July 28 EPA Within 48 hours of the polls closing, however, much of that hope had been shattered. With the ruling Zanu-PF declared to have won two-thirds of parliamentary seats and no result even on the horizon for the presidency, angry crowds descended on the electoral commission in the capital, calling the vote stolen and rigged. There were running battles with the police; the army was ordered in, and calm was restored only because of troops on the streets and military helicopters overhead. By this time, many were injured and at least four people were dead. And as the mood changed, so did the messages. The UN Secretary General called on all sides to show restraint. A UK foreign office minister called on Zimbabwes political leaders to take responsibility for ensuring calm and restraint. Amnesty International said that peoples right to respect had to be protected, while the home affairs minister warned of a further crackdown if the protestors did not desist. At the time of writing, it is still not clear whether the sitting president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, or his much younger rival, Nelson Chamisa, will prevail as the countrys next leader. The result has to be declared at the latest on Saturday. But will it be, and how much trust will any announcement command now? What are the chances that Zimbabwe will be able to settle down under a new president and attract the international help and investment it so desperately needs or will a close and now doubtless disputed result stoke future conflict? With the benefit of hindsight, of course, it was unrealistic to expect that the transition from 40 chequered years under Robert Mugabe would be smooth. Yet the figures for the election were seductive: more than 50 parties competing for parliament; 23 candidates for president; more than 40 per cent of registered voters under 35, and EU and US election monitors invited for the first time in 16 years. It all made for a sharp and welcome contrast with 2008, when violence was endemic and and an estimated 200 people lost their lives. Chamisa supporters celebrate in capital, but no Zimbabwe result yet In some respects, the prelude to this election was also heartening. Mugabes departure, when it came last November, was reluctant and grudging in the extreme, but it was peaceful. Crowds descended on the streets not to protest, but to rejoice. There was also a successor in the wings in the shape of Emmerson Mnangagwa (the crocodile). Those very same facts, however, also contained warnings. For all that there was public celebration, this was very far from being a consensual or democratic transfer of power. It was enforced, and the military helped the process along. What is more, with his security background, and in his seventies, Mnangagwa hardly constituted a new broom. It is no wonder that many, especially younger voters, hailed Chamisa, a pastor and lawyer 30 years younger, when the ballot-box appeared, at least, to give them the choice. It is too early to write off this election. But at least some of the fault for what has happened and what may yet happen is ours. By which I mean not just the UK as the former colonial power, which showed more inconsistency and lack of principle in its handling of Zimbabwe over longer than in its handling of almost anywhere else. I also mean all those outside Zimbabwe who rejoiced at the removal of Mugabe, while turning a blind eye to what was essentially a military coup. The desired end does not itself justify the means still less should the means be dressed up as somehow an expression of democracy. Above all, though, I wonder whether the form of democracy that we in the West extol as the gold standard and have foisted on so many others for that reason, is really such a good idea for everyone. Elections based on competing political parties may indeed be the best that we can do, and electoral systems can be refined (or manipulated) with the use of different mechanisms: proportional representation, first past the post, electoral colleges and the like. But the fact remains that elections based on parties which in many countries reflect ethnic groups or past enemies are divisive, or contain built-in majorities that then have to be re-adjusted for, if the minority or minorities are ever to gain representation in central organs of power. It is all very well for evangelists for elections to cite Churchill to the effect that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. Recommended Both sides claim victory in Zimbabwe presidential election But perhaps, with all the new resources at our disposal since those words were uttered, it might be time to look for something that could improve the narrow electoral form of democracy the West has settled on, and now preaches to others. Iraq and Afghanistan have provided graphic testimony in recent years of the deficiencies of this sort of electoral democracy, and Syria may be next. Is there nothing better we, and they, could do to make orderly government by consent a reality? And from high principle to nuts and bolts. A final element that was surely underestimated, by outsiders at least, in these Zimbabwe elections, was the extent to which any even half-genuine election is fraught with risk. Just ask Theresa May, Hillary Clinton, or Al Gore. The moment when voters enter the booth, mark, punch or tap their choice, is a moment when the future hangs in the balance. Even in countries where voting can be how to put it? controlled by a variety of methods, the electoral process is still not 100 per cent reliable. In this world of instant communications, if enough people do not like, or trust, the result, they may take to the streets in the hope of getting their way by other means. Remember the crowds camped out in the snow during what became known as Ukraines Orange Revolution, who eventually forced the re-run of a rigged election? Contingencies have to be built in for unexpected, or unwelcome, results. We should have been more cautious about the prospects for Zimbabwes first meaningful election for more than 40 years. Five days after Zimbabweans voted, this election is not over yet. Irish-based Ryanair pilots are to stage their fifth one-day strike next week. The 24-hour stoppage will start next Friday August 10 at 1am. It is not yet clear how many flights and passengers will be affected by the industrial action. This is the fifth strike by pilots since July 12. Last month, the budget airline criticised the strikes as unnecessary and warned that if they continue, there could be job losses. Trade union Forsa, which represents the pilots, hit out at the airline company following the warning. In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsas repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any timeForsa It said that the pilots continue to seek a fair and transparent method to govern base transfers and related matters which they say is common practice in the industry. In a statement, Forsa said on Thursday: For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters. In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsas repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. The union has today told Ryanair that it remains available for talks. The airlines escalation of the dispute last Wednesday when it threatened to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland led to a predictable hardening of resolve among its staff. Company management met the union the day before the first one-day strike, and two days before the second one-day strike (on July 18). It then changed its position and said it would not negotiate while strike action was planned. Ryanair today (Thurs August 2) asks FORSA to confirm they will meet us at 11am on August 7. https://t.co/ZAZMVweLpe Ryanair (@Ryanair) August 2, 2018 The union said that two weeks have passed since their last meeting with management and warned that a resolution to the dispute cannot be reached if the airline has precondition talks. The union added: On a number of occasions in recent weeks and months, there have been suggestions that third-party facilitation could assist in reaching consensus on issues of disagreement. Forsa has today repeated to the company that it is willing to explore this option. Any perceived tightening of UK immigration controls could see "illegals" look across the Irish Sea instead, a Department of Justice briefing warns. The report, prepared for Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, warned Brexit could also have an enormous impact here. It also said even the smallest changes in Ireland's system of direct provision had the potential to "sink the asylum system" here. The warnings were contained in a ministerial briefing prepared after a Supreme Court judgment gave asylum seekers living in the direct provision system the right to work. The briefing also said the State could face a significant childcare bill due to the changes, as many asylum seekers in the system are single parents. It explained how the common travel area between Ireland and the UK meant it was important the immigration systems in the two countries were "broadly similar". This avoided "creating pull factors" that could be taken advantage of by people moving from Britain to Northern Ireland and then into the Republic. "We have seen situations where major difficulties have arisen, which can often take years to correct and which has major knock-on effects for various arms of the State," it said. In 2015, asylum applications in Ireland rose by a third, mostly from Pakistan and India. These were people who "either were illegal in the UK or whose immigration permission was about to run out there". "Many of these applicants used the asylum process to get a foothold in the State before attempting sham marriages," it said. The department officials said the fallout of this was still being dealt with, even after a crackdown on new applications of this type. The briefing, released under Freedom of Information laws, said even "small changes and deviations" between Ireland and the UK in the asylum system could have a huge impact. "One critical point to note is that the impact on Ireland is hugely disproportionate because of our respective population size," it said. The report said that in the UK there was an estimated population of "illegal" nationals from outside the European Economic Area of between 400,000 and 800,000. "Taking the mid-point of that range, even if only 1pc were to come to Ireland and claim asylum, it would mean an additional 6,000 applicants. "This would literally sink the asylum system, putting massive pressures on other State services, such as housing," it said. The briefing also warned Brexit now needed to be factored in and that even a "perception of a tightening" in UK immigration could see "illegals" look elsewhere. "The most obvious option would be to seek to exploit the common travel area and come to Ireland," it said. An artist's impression of the proposed 'Project Waterfront' scheme in Dublin's Docklands. Joint agents Savills and Cushman & Wakefield are guiding a price of 120m for the 4.6 acre site The rapid growth of the Dublin's Private Rented Sector (PRS) helped Ireland's commercial property market to buck the slowdown in transactions recorded across Europe in the first half of this year. That's according to the latest report on European investment activity by real estate data firm, Real Capital Analytics (RCA). While the report shows transactions with a total value of 109.8bn were completed across Europe in the six months to the end of June, the figure represents a 19pc decline on that recorded in the same period last year. High prices were among the factors that led investors to scale back their direct property acquisitions, RCA says. According to its research, no sector escaped the slowdown, which affected 14 of Europe's 20 most active national markets. Sovereign wealth funds accounted for 0.2pc of Europe's total investment volumes in the first half, compared with a 4.5pc share for the whole of 2017. That negative trend didn't extend to here however, with RCA reporting that transaction volumes in the Irish market grew substantially in the first half from a year earlier, following a surge in the purchase of rental apartment blocks in Dublin. The largest of these PRS deals was AXA IM Real Assets' 161m purchase of The Grange and four acres of adjacent development land in Stillorgan, through its private rental sector (PRS) joint venture with Kennedy Wilson. Other major PRS transactions in the first half of this year included Irish Life's acquisition of 262 apartments from Park Developments at Fernbank, Churchtown, Dublin 14 for 138.5m; Carysfort Capital's deal to buy the 120-unit Six Hanover Quay development from Cairns for 101m and IRES Reit's acquisition of the 128 apartment Hampton Wood scheme in Finglas, Dublin 11 for 40m. The Netherlands meanwhile was Europe's fourth most active market in the six-month period to the end of June, according to RCA, with 9.8bn of transactions, a 17pc increase from the same period in 2017. A major driver of activity in the Dutch market was the residential rental sector. This follows rules introduced in July 2015 that oblige housing associations to focus on lower-income social housing, prompting their withdrawal from the free-market rental sector. A housing shortage and a booming home sales market have attracted investors to the sector. Other active European markets included the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, which jumped to 13th place from 53rd in 2017 as a result of some larger deals, including Blackstone's portfolio sale of a retail park and two shopping centres to Immochan for a total of more than 400m. Europe's two most-active markets, the UK and Germany, recorded declines in investment volumes of 11pc and 31pc respectively in the first half. The pair accounted for 48pc of total investment activity in Europe. Commenting on the overall performance of the European commercial property market, Mr Leahy said: "These are the weakest investment levels by sovereign wealth funds since 2010 and they were not alone. RCA's data for the first half show that most major sources of capital were less active and US-headquartered investors as a group were net-sellers. Our indicators show that pricing in the core Western European markets is well above the previous peak, reached in 2007." With RCA's research indicating that some 33bn in deals are pending completion across Europe, the second highest pipeline of potential deals it has recorded, Mr Leahy said he expects to see an improvement in the performance of the European market. He said: "We should see an improvement in the second half of this year, although it's very unlikely that we shall see a repeat of the record final quarter of last year. "Real estate continues to appeal to generalist investors, who are looking for income-producing assets. Property is expensive in core markets in historical terms, however, so investors will have to focus on adding value through asset management or targeting markets and sectors where rental growth prospects are good." Meat processors have hit back at accusations that factories have engaged in profiteering by slashing cattle prices during the drought. The farm organisations claimed the meat factories were taking advantage of the ongoing grass shortages and the severe on-farm drought conditions by cutting cattle prices by 10-15c/kg. But Meat Industry Ireland (MII) rejected these assertions and described the recent criticism as "inaccurate and unwarranted". Cormac Healy of MII blamed the reduced prices on weaker demand for particular beef cuts and increased beef supplies right across Europe. "Over recent weeks, we have seen significantly higher cattle numbers coming out than is normal for this time of year. The month of July to-date has seen cattle throughput up over 11pc on the same period last year and 18pc higher than in 2016," Mr Healy said. "The same trend is evident in many EU member states. Additional cattle are coming onto the market throughout Europe which is experiencing the same drought conditions as Ireland, resulting in more beef than the market can contend with. "Meat plants are purchasing in more cattle, on average 3,500 head per week more than this time last year, but it is a delicate balancing act at present." Mr Healy said the pressure of increased supplies from EU producers had been exacerbated by a 16pc lift in beef imports from South America. The supply surplus had also resulted in factories being forced to freeze product, which devalues it, he claimed. Mr Healy pointed out that Irish plants still paid 405-406c/kg for R grade steers and 418c/kg for R grade heifers last week and that these returns were well ahead of prices prevailing in key continental markets. However, Angus Woods of IFA pointed out cattle prices in Britain, Ireland's main export market, were the equivalent of 4.46/kg including VAT. This is a difference of close to 40c/kg or around 140/hd. Last week IFA president Joe Healy called on Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to intervene with the factories to halt the beef price cuts. He claimed the factories had cut cattle prices unnecessarily over recent weeks and had destabilised the beef market and eroded farmer confidence. ICSA president Patrick Kent has called for an urgent review of market support measures such as the Aids to Private Storage (APS) scheme for beef. "Drought conditions are causing a myriad of problems for beef farmers so it is imperative that we look at all possible options to avert a crisis," he said. "APS could provide a means for getting prime cattle moving through the factories in sufficient numbers in a manner that wouldn't distort the market significantly." Cabin crew who went on strike last week have threatened to walk out again, while pilots in Sweden and Belgium will hold stoppages on the same day next week. Photo: REUTERS Ryanair pilots in four countries may co-ordinate strikes on Friday week, Ryanair has revealed. The budget airline said it received notice of strikes on August 10 from unions in Belgium and Sweden. "We have also been notified of possible strike actions by pilot unions in Germany and the Netherlands which we believe will be co-ordinated and occur on Friday, August 10," it said. It said it had written to each of the unions to hold talks and asked them to give seven days' notice of strikes to minimise disruption for passengers. It issued the statement to the Irish Independent as a campaign of industrial action took off across Europe. Cabin crew who went on strike last week have threatened to walk out again, while pilots in Sweden and Belgium will hold stoppages on the same day next week. Members of the Swedish Airline Pilots' Association and Belgian Cockpit Association revealed they would strike on Friday week. This will follow a fourth strike by pilots in Ireland tomorrow. Some 3,500 passengers will be affected after the airline cancelled 20 of 300 flights that are scheduled. In a letter to Ryanair's chief people officer, Eddie Wilson, Forsa national secretary Angela Kirk said it would notify him of further strike dates by the pilots in Ireland "in due course". It accused the airline of "rewording" its demands for a seniority agreement in a briefing document to members. Pilots in Germany and the Netherlands have voted in favour of industrial action but have not announced dates. The International Transport Workers' Federation, which is organising cabin crew, said further strikes over the summer were probable if the airline "continues to ignore the legitimate demands of its workforce". It said it was "standing in solidarity" with the striking pilots who want better terms and conditions. The organisation accused the company of threatening job cuts by issuing protective notice to 300 Irish-based pilots and cabin crew last week rather than "engaging" with them. "Calls for industrial action will continue until the company makes good collective bargaining agreements with unions," it said. It questioned whether the current management was capable of transitioning to a "sustainable, unionised business model". Promotion Isabelle De Gandt, of the Belgian union, denied the strike on Friday week was co-ordinated with its Swedish counterpart. Ryanair denied participation in a strike would affect promotion or transfer decisions relating to its workers. A letter from its inflight operations manager, Thomas McLoughlin, to cabin crew said their absence due to a strike was unauthorised and would be recorded as a "no-show". "All no-shows are recorded in your absence record and are taken into consideration along with all relevant factors of performance when assessing promotion and transfer opportunities," he said. A later message to Belgian cabin crew from Andrea Doolan, head of in-flight operations, said it received a number of queries from crew regarding the no-show letters. She said participation in the strike would not affect their current or future transfer or promotion applications. A Ryanair spokesperson confirmed taking part in a strike does not affect promotion or transfer decisions. In July Ryanair saw its traffic grow 4pc year-on-year to 13.1 million customers. However almost 200,000 customers suffered flight cancellations last month due to strikes and weather. Huawei pulled ahead of Apple to claim the No 2 position in global smartphone shipments in the second quarter just behind Samsung - solidifying the rise of Chinese competitors. Huawei shipped 54.2 million phones in the quarter, 41pc more than a year earlier, to jump ahead of the iPhone maker for the first time, according to market research firm IDC. The telecoms giant accounted for 16pc of the market, compared with 21pc for South Korea's Samsung and 12pc for Apple. Xiaomi and Oppo, both based in China, rounded out the top five. Chinese smartphone makers have been gaining influence as their domestic market grows and they expand abroad. Huawei has pushed into Europe and Africa, though it's failed to crack the massive US market. Apple tends to sell iPhones at higher prices than its rivals and profits from services like iTunes, which helped it top earnings estimates for the quarter. "The importance of Huawei overtaking Apple this quarter cannot be overstated," said Ben Stanton, a senior analyst at Canalys, which also reported the shift in quarterly market share. "It is the first time in seven years that Samsung and Apple have not held the top two positions. Huawei's exclusion from the US has forced it to work harder in Asia and Europe to achieve its goals." Canalys pointed out that the second quarter has historically been a weak one for Apple. The Cupertino, California-based company introduces new phones late in the year, then usually sees sales climb in the fourth and first quarters. That momentum for the iPhone X, which starts at $1,000, wasn't sustained into the second quarter, the firm said. Globally, the smartphone market continued its slowdown with shipments slipping 1.8pc for the quarter to 342 million units. The number of smartphones shipped in 2017 fell 0.3pc, according to IDC, the first decline after years of strong growth. Samsung earnings took a hit from the sluggish market when it reported earnings on Tuesday. The South Korean company, which makes memory chips and screens as well as smartphones themselves, reported net income that fell short of analysts' estimates. "Huawei's momentum will obviously concern Samsung, but it should also serve as a warning to Apple, which needs to ship volume to support its growing services division," Stanton said in a statement. "If Apple and Samsung want to maintain their market positions, they must make their portfolios more competitive." Physical Gold Fund SP (PGF), a world leader in physical allocated gold, has announced that it has been endorsed as Shariah-compliant by Amanie Advisors, a leading Shariah advisory firm specializing in Islamic finance solutions. Amanie Advisors issued the fatwa in accordance with the Shariah Standard on Gold set by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and developed in cooperation with the World Gold Council. Physical Gold Fund SP offers an exceptional solution to investors seeking a regulated product that employs the best practices of private allocated custody in gold ownership developed over decades of operational experience, a company statement said. PGF takes the hassle out of physical gold allocation by providing a one-stop solution for acquisition, governance, custody, security, insurance, and liquidation of physical gold in an approved regulated structure, it added. We are pleased to work with Physical Gold Fund and provide our qualified assurance that it meets the highest level of Shariah requirements in line with AAOIFI Standards," said Maya Marissa Malek, managing director of Amanie Advisors LLC, Dubai. "Physical gold is still a new asset class for Islamic finance and we hope this offering will help to grow and diversify the industry. Gold is certainly a unique asset class with distinct hedging features not found in traditional asset classes such as Sukuk. Meeting compliance with the Shariah Standard on Gold is something we are very proud of, said Alex Stanczyk, managing director of Physical Gold Fund SP. This fund is unique, and there is nothing like it in the Mena region right now. Physical allocated gold is a perfect fit for the values expected here. We are excited to make this available to Islamic investors. TradeArabia News Service Maurice Sheedy, CEO of Fleet, is seeking to raise 275k on the Spark platform. Photo: Shane O'Neill Photography. Ireland's first equity crowdfunding provider has been launched as an "online Dragons' Den". Spark, set up by Chris Burge, is aimed at those looking to invest in startups with small amounts of money. The minimum investment is 25. The service is focused on companies that are considered to be at "too early a stage" for venture capital or bank loans, according to its founders. Less than a year old, the platform has already been used by three companies to raise funding of 130,000. The three firms are Snap Mail, Give it Direct and Serenity & Grace. Fleet, an Irish person-to-person car sharing app set up by Maurice Sheehy, has announced that it is seeking to raise 275k on the Spark platform. The sharing app allows car owners and enterprise clients to earn extra income by renting cars to the public from both driveways and forecourts. Sheehy says that the 275k funding sought will be used for planned online expansion, with the company having already been approved by Enterprise Ireland for 'matched funding' as part of its High Potential Start-up Programme. The startup is raising the 275,000 to value the firm at 1.1m. Google plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites and search terms, two sources said, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns. The plan, which was criticised by human rights advocates, comes as China has stepped up scrutiny of business dealings involving U.S. tech firms including Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and Qualcomm Inc amid intensifying trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Google, which quit China's search engine market in 2010, has been actively seeking ways to re-enter China where many of its products are blocked by regulators. The Intercept earlier reported Google's China plans on Wednesday, citing internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. The project is code named "Dragonfly" and has been underway since the spring of 2017, the news website said. Progress on the project picked up after a December meeting between Google's Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, it added. Search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app, which The Intercept said had already been demonstrated to the Chinese government. The finalised version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials, it added. Chinese state-owned Securities Times, however, said reports of the return of Google's search engine to China were not true, citing information from "relevant departments". But a Google employee familiar with the censored version of the search engine confirmed to Reuters that the project was alive and genuine. On an internal message board, the employee wrote: "In my opinion, it is just as bad as the leak article mentions." The worker, who declined to be named, said that he had seen slides on the effort and that many executives at the vice president level were aware of it. He said he had transferred out of his unit to avoid being involved. Separately, a Chinese official with knowledge of the plans said that Google has been in contact with authorities at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) about a modified search program. The official, who declined to be named, said the project does not currently have approval from authorities and that it is "very unlikely" such a project would be made available this year. A separate report, by technology news site The Information on Wednesday, said that Google was developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that would comply with the country's censorship laws. Google declined to comment on the accounts and the CAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters on Thursday. A day earlier, the search giant also declined to comment on specifics mentioned in The Intercept report, but noted that it has launched a number of mobile apps in China and works with local developers as part of maintaining its domestic presence. 'CHILLING PRECEDENT' But the report pummelled shares of U.S.-listed Baidu , which dominates China's search engine market. Baidu shares fell 7.7pc on Wednesday, despite posting better than expected quarterly results. Human rights group Amnesty International said it was calling on Google to change course. "Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory," its China researcher, Patrick Poon, said in an e-mailed statement. "This also raises serious questions as to what safeguards Google is putting in place to protect users' privacy," he said. Google's main search platform has been blocked in China since 2010, but it has been attempting to make new inroads into China. In January, the search engine joined an investment in Chinese live-stream mobile game platform Chushou, and earlier this month, launched an artificial intelligence (AI) game on Tencent Holdings Ltd's social media app WeChat. Facebook's website is also banned in China but the company has also signalled its interest to enter the market. Reports of Google's possible re-entry spurred a strong reaction on Chinese social media outlets on Wednesday evening, including debates over the merits of a censored search engine versus accessing the U.S. version through illegal virtual private networks. "Let's carry on jumping the Firewall," said one anonymous poster. "I'd rather not have it than use a castrated version." Facebook is considering allowing content showing child physical abuse to remain online for a "specified period" following controversy over its content moderation policies. It comes as the Government faces increased pressure to establish a Digital Safety Commissioner office in a bid to regulate social media companies. Two senior Facebook executives faced difficult questions at a meeting of the Oireachtas Communications Committee after an undercover expose found serious flaws in training provided to content moderators. Following the programme it emerged that the tech giant's policy allows material showing child physical abuse to remain online in an effort to identify the child at risk. Niamh Sweeney, head of public policy with Facebook Ireland, admitted there were "major gaps" in its policy around such content "which is that we were not closing the loop effectively enough". The company met with gardai this week as part of its review of policies. Expand Close Screengrab taken from Oireachtas TV of Facebook executive Niamh Sweeney, Head of Public Policy, Facebook Ireland, appearing before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment in Dublin. Photo: Oireachtas TV/PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Screengrab taken from Oireachtas TV of Facebook executive Niamh Sweeney, Head of Public Policy, Facebook Ireland, appearing before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment in Dublin. Photo: Oireachtas TV/PA Ms Sweeney said one of the options being considered is if such content would be left up for a limited period before being taken down. The committee chair, Hildegarde Naughton, said it was law enforcement that should have oversight in this area, noting it was not appropriate that Facebook act as the sole arbiters in what can and cannot remain online. The committee also heard that the era of self-regulation for social media companies was over. Facebook said that it agrees regulation is needed. Fail TD Timmy Dooley suggested such content was like "cocaine" for users and that even if they were outraged by it they still engaged with it. However, Facebook strongly refuted the suggestion that it was in its commercial interests to allow distressing or graphic content on the site. Legislation which would allow for the office of a digital safety commissioner to be established will face detailed scrutiny in the autumn. The committee will also be writing to Communications Minister Denis Naughten to impress the need to pursue the bill. The committee members will now seek a meeting with the European commissioner for the digital economy and society, Mariya Ivanova Gabriel, and others at European level in an effort to encourage a European legislative response. Ms Naughton said that she wanted to see a regulator "with teeth". Green Party TD Eamon Ryan also challenged the company to find a new business model. He noted that the users of Facebook and their data were the product and that this needed to be overhauled. Hundreds of Microsoft Ireland employees downed their usual tools to collaborate in an event aimed at using technology to solve societal challenges. More than 300 members of staff at the company's new Dublin campus took part in the Hackathon, interacting with teams across the globe towards their common goal. The private three-day hacking event, believed to be the world's largest, took place as part of Microsoft's fourth annual One Week. Over this period, employees are encouraged to think 'outside the box' in terms of using technology to make a difference, whether it's to empower innovation in healthcare or to assist positive mental health, education, communication and sustainability. Read More Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland said that the company's ambition is "to empower every person and organisation to do more and achieve more". "The breadth and depth of our mission unlocks unprecedented opportunities as technology transforms every industry and has the power to make a difference in the lives of everyone." The participants, ranging from developers and engineers to digital sales executives, have yielded "amazing" results. "From using technology to transform healthcare for women to harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance collaboration, our teams are helping to push the boundaries of whats possible to the benefit of all in society," said Ms Hallahan. Teams from countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Norway, Spain, the UK and the US took part in this year's Hackathon. Stakes are high for the 540,000 rural homes waiting to be connected after SSE withdrew from the plan to roll out the network SSE, the major utilities and energy company that was set to build out the rural fibre network to 540,000 homes and businesses, quit the process at the last minute. It leaves Enet with a huge gap in how it is to deliver the project. So whats going to happen next? Heres a 10-point guide on the main issues and players. 1 What is the National Broadband Plan? The National Broadband Plan (NBP) is the Government's taxpayer-funded scheme to connect a quarter of Ireland's homes and businesses (540,000) to top-level fibre broadband. Most of these premises are in rural areas, where conventional broadband firms won't invest in infrastructure due to sparsely laid-out properties that would be unprofitable. The criteria for a house or business to be included in the NBP catchment area is the lack of any existing broadband service capable of delivering a minimum of 30Mbs. Because most of the planned new NBP service will be fibre, this will give the fastest speeds in the country. But laying all that fibre (right up to your home or company) is a laborious, expensive business that is expected to take at least three years and cost well over 1bn. 2 Who are the main players? There are three main players. (i) Enet, a relatively small Irish company that has run a number of fibre networks on behalf of the State for some 20 years. Its boss is the wealthy American businessman David McCourt, who also part-owns Enet's minority shareholder, Granahan McCourt. McCourt has a number of other business interests, including TV production. His main business partner is Walter Scott, an American tycoon who sits on the board of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company. Against formidable odds, Enet is the presumptive winner of the State's upcoming National Broadband Plan tender because it is the only company left in the bidding process: it saw off giants such as Vodafone and the ESB (through their joint venture, Siro) and Eir (which withdrew earlier this year). Enet got this far partially because it assembled a consortium of credible companies to design, build and run a national fibre network. This included the UK infrastructure giant SSE, which was to physically build the network. In the last week, however, SSE has confirmed that it has withdrawn from Enet's consortium and has exited any NBP involvement. (ii) Minister Denis Naughten and 15 Department of Communications officials Formerly a staunch critic of State inactivity on rolling out rural broadband, the Independent TD for Roscommon now heads up the Government's efforts to procure a public-private partner in building and maintaining a state-wide rural fibre network for 25 years. Key officials leading the process in the Department include programme director Fergal Mulligan, assistant secretary Ciaran O hObain, chief technology officer Patrick Neary and principal officer Orla Ryan. Eleven other officials are also attached to the process. There is also a wide array of external advisers to the Department, including Analysys Mason, PWC, Deloitte, KPMG, Mason Hayes and Curran and others. One significant departure from the programme was former Communications Department assistant secretary Katherine Licken, who left to become secretary general of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. (iii) Eir. Even though it dropped out as a main bidder for the National Broadband Plan contract earlier this year, Eir remains a critical actor in the NBP's fate. It still owns most of the country's telecoms infrastructure. This means that any plan to build a new rural network will inevitably intersect or cross Eir's infrastructure at regular points. This has led to tension between all three parties, with both Enet and government officials warning that Eir needs to be co-operative for the scheme to work. For its part, Eir has insisted that it cannot be asked to subsidise a new network out of its own pocket, either through below-market access rates or undue extra maintenance. Eir may yet have a larger role in the process if Enet cannot find a suitable replacement for SSE, as the former Telecom Eireann remains one of the few telecoms companies within reach that has the capability of doing what SSE was supposed to. 3 The SSE departure While specifics aren't being put on the record, SSE appeared to have acquired cold feet in recent months. From an initial position of optimism, it became unhappy with its overall prospects in the National Broadband Plan process. The exact trigger hasn't yet been revealed by SSE Ireland boss Stephen Wheeler, who was initially an enthusiastic advocate for the plan. "It's a natural next step," Wheeler told me late last year. "I don't think that anyone can dispute that broadband in the future is an essential service. The next step for us is networks." But not with Enet and the NBP, it seems. SSE is a large FTSE 100 company with annual revenues of almost 40bn. It may have come around to the idea that the NBP had too many unforeseen downsides, from the perspective of time management and regulatory issues, compared to the potential upsides. 4 Does Enet need to replace SSE? Yes. Enet manages networks once they are built but does not build the networks itself. UK infrastructure investment firm John Laing is part of the consortium, but is not a direct builder. 5 Who will replace SSE? Eir? The ESB? Some specialist firm from the UK or France? Ironically, in Ireland the most qualified company to replace SSE is Eir. It has the most experience, especially given its own current fibre buildout to 330,000 rural Irish homes and businesses (which are separate to the 540,000 premises still waiting for the NBP). As of the time of writing, Enet had not approached Eir as a replacement to SSE, even though Eir and Enet are in continual discussions about other elements of the NBP, especially issues around poles and ducts. 6 What about the State's exposure to Enet's success or failure? This is a background issue worth keeping in mind - 78pc of Enet is owned by the Irish Infrastructure Fund (IIF), a private fund which is backed by the State's Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) to the tune of 250m. That 250m is state money. So Ireland's treasury has an added iron in the fire when it comes to Enet's success or failure. 7 Is the NBP cost likely to go up? Yes. Current industry estimates put the cost to the taxpayer at up to 1bn. But the Government's negotiation power has diminished substantially. If it wants to proceed with this process, it may now have to agree to whatever revised costing it placed before it by Enet. Enet's own costs may go up, given its frantic search for an SSE replacement at a late stage. Those costs will likely be passed on to the taxpayer. 8 So could it be delayed again? That's quite possible. Even though the Government needs this plan to become a reality soon, it can't simply give a blank cheque to an incomplete bid. So Enet may now require more time to replace what was a critical partner in SSE. That would mean no deal in 2018 and no connected homes before the end of next year or 2020. 9 Why is there such a fuss over rural broadband? Because without it, life is much harder in 2018 - both at home and especially at work. Ironically, EU surveys over the last three years consistently show that when Irish small firms get access to good broadband, they crush European competitors on cross-border selling and ecommerce. It turns out that we're rather good at doing business online when we get the chance. But with a quarter of the country's premises in dead internet areas, that potential may be wasted. One recent survey (from Amarach) claimed that one in four rural dwellers have considered leaving their local areas for a bigger town because of lack of internet access. 10 What happens now? Is the NBP scuppered? Despite the significant problems, it seems politically unimaginable that the National Broadband Plan would be scrapped outright. With 540,000 rural homes in the mix, the stakes are simply too high. A return to the drawing board could set rural broadband access back several years, which would be a disaster for up to 1.5 million people. So despite all the difficulties, it still seems more likely that some form of subsidised rural broadband scheme will be pursued. It's been a dramatic week for the National Broadband Plan, writes Adrian Weckler. SSE, the major utilities and energy company that was set to build out the rural fibre network to 540,000 homes and businesses, quit the process at the last minute. It leaves Enet with a huge gap in how it is to deliver the project. So what's going to happen next? Here's a 10-point guide on the main issues and players. Capita's shares fell by more than 6pc yesterday after it reported a 60pc drop in first half pre-tax profit, underlining the huge challenge facing the British outsourcing firm's new CEO Jon Lewis. With IT-based business services for the public and private sectors ranging from managing London's congestion charge to paying National Health Service dentists, Capita has been hit by a slowdown in British business and tighter corporate budgeting. "Clients are very thoughtful about their investment decisions and the sales cycle is taking a little longer," Lewis, who is trying to simplify Capita's unwieldy structure, told Reuters in a telephone interview after the results. Capita, which raised 700m from investors earlier this year, also said 2018 underlying pre-tax profit would now be between 250-275m (281-309m), less than the 270-300m it predicted earlier this year. This reflected an adjustment for the sale of businesses which had contributed around 25m, Capita said. Shares in Capita were down 6.6pc to 151 pence at 08.56 GMT. They have gained sharply since April, but are still down 65pc year-on-year. Capita repeated its long-term forecast of a return to growth in 2020 after reporting a 60pc decline in profit before tax in the first half to 80.5m. It also forecast organic growth would be weaker in the second half of 2018. Lewis said profit had partly been sapped by long-delayed investment in new technology, although he was "encouraged" by the customer reception to Capita's progress and around 1bn in new orders in the first half. Capita's order book stood at 7.7bn at June 2018 compared to 8.2bn at the end of 2017. Reuters Q: You've studied the sector for a long time, so what do you class as the best supermarket in the world? A: The definition of the supermarket itself is probably now even a challenge. In America, you quite often hear about 'grocerants' -a kind of hybrid between supermarket and restaurant-style grocery shop - so even the very definition has become challenged. High up on my list certainly is Danny Wegman and his Wegman supermarket chain in New Jersey, which has stood the test of time and has that magic component of theatre and a whole experience when you do your grocery shopping. Draeger's in San Mateo in San Francisco is another one that sticks in my mind. This supermarket had its own glass-walled cookery school in the middle of the shop and a separate wine-tasting class where customers paid up to $100 for tutored wine tasting. They had an award-winning restaurant on the first floor and the shopping experience could be summarised as a mind-blowing experience with something different around every corner. On a more practical level, Waitrose in the UK along with Monoprix in France offer a differentiated supermarket shopping experience. On home territory, we have more than our fair share of iconic food shopping retailers with Donnybrook Fair, Avoca, Fallon & Byrne and many more providing a very different experience. In the more mainstream categories, some individual outlets within the Dunne's chain like Cornelscourt are at world-class level, as are many of SuperValu's newer model stores. Pat Joyce of Joyce's supermarkets in the West of Ireland, and the Jephson family Ardkeen Store in Waterford are all operations to be proud of. I have no doubt that this article will get me into lots of trouble with dozens of great retailers I have omitted, so I apologise and do forgive me! Q: Is it important for retailers to call out when a product is produced in Ireland, or is it a case that the customer does not care where it comes from? A: All of the research which is conducted across various different categories suggests that consumers have a preference for buying Irish goods. That can vary by sector, and can even vary by product in a single sector. Within the foodservice sector the majority of chicken on menus is imported and the consumer seems to accept this, however when it comes to beef, there seems to be a strong demand from consumers to ensure that it is sourced in Ireland. I view it a little bit like this - consumers will buy a product because of what the product stands for. If it was a gifting item, the design aspects, the craftsmanship, etc, might all be the first things to attract the consumer. The fact that it was made in Ireland might be a nice bonus for many consumers but not an essential requirement. On the other hand, a tourist visiting from America, might have Irishness as their number one criterion to purchase a gift to take home for someone else. It's a complex area, but the overriding answer to your question is that regardless of what business you are in, calling out the Irish provenance will be important in the majority of cases. I have seen some really great examples of Irish manufacturers telling their story on the product packaging itself, through their digital media campaigns and meeting and greeting their customers in store. It is certainly worth exploring and putting some time into in the retail sector you are operating in. Footage has emerged of a hit Irish band performing a spine-tingling cover of 'Dreams' and 'Zombie' by The Cranberries at a sold-out concert in Limerick in June. Hermitage Green returned to their native Co Limerick over the summer to perform at King John's Castle, and paid tribute to the late Dolores O'Riordan by performing some of The Cranberries top songs. Speaking with Independent.ie about the performance, the band said it was "really important" to them to pay tribute to O'Riordan, who passed away in January. "As a Limerick band we grew up listening to The Cranberries," they said. "So it was really important for us to pay tribute to them at such an important homecoming gig in King Johns Castle last month." Emotions were high as the band took to the stage for an emotional performance. The audience clearly enjoyed their stunning performance and the crowd were seeing going wild to the tribute. The performance follows another emotional rendition by American heavy metal band Bad Wolves in June, who pledged proceeds from their cover of 'Zombie' to the O'Riordan family. O'Riordan's two sons Donny Jr. and Taylor Burton, alongside their father, Don Burton were presented a cheque for $250,000 (215,000) at New York Citys Gramercy Theatre. The cheque was also accepted on behalf of their younger sisters, Molly and Dakota Burton. Expand Close Dolores O'Riordan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dolores O'Riordan Video of the Day As MANY as 42,000 distressed mortgages are actively or tentatively for sale by Irish banks, Independent.ie has established. It comes following the week's 1.3bn deal by Permanent TSB to sell customer home loans to a vulture fund. Ulster Bank is already in the market with an auction of 6,500 Irish mortgages, with combined debts of 1.6bn. The sale, launched in May, is split between 2,900 buy-to-let investor loans and 3,600 primary dwelling homes - standard owner-occupier mortgages. The owner-occupier mortgages are in deep arrears with an average of 44 months. Almost three-quarters of the borrowers first entered arrears between seven and nine years ago. A sale is expected later this year. Bank of Ireland chief executive Francesca McDonagh said on Monday her bank is for the first time considering a sale of some or all of its 2.5bn of bad mortgages, after coming under increased pressure from European regulators. About 60pc of the 14,128 problem mortgages involved are owner occupier loans. KBC Bank Ireland has the highest share of bad loans of any Irish lender. Like Bank of Ireland it has avoided loans sales up to now, but is under increased pressure due to the hardening stance from regulators. The bank declined to comment on its plans yesterday, because it is in a "closed period" where it cannot communicate with the market before financial results due next week. Last month, however, the head of its Irish arm Wim Verbraeken told the Oireachtas Finance Committee the Belgian-owned lender is assessing "all options" to reduce the non-performing exposures. The most recent figures from KBC Ireland show around 2bn of its owner-occupied mortgages were classed as non-performing, along with 1.5bn of buy-to let loans. AIB has the biggest stock of non-performing mortgages of any Irish bank. Its latest results last week showed it is sitting on 4.16bn of problem mortgages. State-controlled AIB sold off more than 1bn of bad commercial loans in recent weeks. However, the bank is understood to have stripped out mortgages tied to residential homes before launching that sale, and ruled out sales of home loans back in March - in the midst of a controversy around the PTSB sale. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been urged to recall the Dail to deal with the fall-out of the revelation that PTSB has sold 1.3bn of its mortgage book to a vulture fund. PTSB, 75pc owned by the State, struck the deal with Start Mortgages, an affiliate of US-based Lone Star for the portfolio of 10,700 home loans - 7,400 owner occupied and 3,300 buy-to-let properties. John McGuinness, chairman of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, tweeted: "The Dail should be recalled to stop the PTSB sale of family homes to vulture funds and to debate the Affordable Housing and Fair Mortgage Bill 2018." "We need to be fair to the people affected," Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on 'Morning Ireland' yesterday. He said he was confident holders of non-performing mortgages from PTSB, sold to a vulture fund, will continue to have Central Bank protection. Mr Donohoe said that 25pc of mortgages at the bank were in arrears for more than three-and-a-half years and that was a real issue for it. I was minding my own business, looking after toddler Arthur and our Yorkie, when this lady wheeled her buggy right up to ours and starting giving out. Im exhausted, she said as she sat down on the seafront wall and pointed almost accusingly at her angelic young charge sprawled out asleep in his chariot. Having obviously identified me as a fellow member of the Union of Put Upon Grandparents, she gave me chapter, verse and epilogue about how she was helping out her son and daughter-in-law. She didnt say they were ungrateful, but it was implied. I didnt get a word in edgeways, so I heard exactly what she was saying. That is, shed rather be doing something else. Which was very little by the sounds of it. She loved the little demon, of course, but she had reared her own. Fair enough. Perhaps it was this frazzled granny and more like her that Shane Ross and the Independence Alliance had in mind when they met with the Taoiseach to bring him up to date on their Budget proposals. One of their priorities is the introduction of a grandparent and grandchild reimbursement scheme which would amount to 1,000 per year for grandparents who mind their grandchildren for at least 10 hours a week. Well, whats not to like? If I bumped into grumpy granny again Im sure shed be all for it. After all, keep your eyes open at school gates, in public parks, on the streets of your city or town and youll find grandparents are everywhere doing the State a favour. Read More They do this by picking up the tab for a childcare system that might have been fit for purpose before Devs comely maidens abandoned the crossroads for universities, offices, shops and factories. But not any more. Not for a long time. Grandparents should indeed be appreciated and their role recognised. But not by an empty gesture of a paltry grant that has been vaguely costed at 70m-ish, wouldnt be means-tested and seems to have no administrative apparatus around application. No paperwork? How does that work? How would I claim? Would I walk into my local post office dragging little Arthur, point at him, and demand my 19-ish a week? What proof would I have to offer? What proof could I offer? And could four grandparents claim in the same week? After all, 40 hours minding is just about right. What about aunts, uncles or other relatives who might be sheltering little tearaways? Shouldnt Shane Ross high-five them too? But then the Independent Alliance has earned a reputation for shooting from the hip only to blow a hole in its foot. It has form. Last November, the Alliance offered to knock heads together over the North Korean crisis and it only came to its senses when embarrassed member Boxer Moran launched a ballistic missile of his own. Just last week Shane Ross was accused by former justice minister Alan Shatter of bombastry and faking over the reopening of Stepaside garda station. Ross had spent a lot of political capital on this issue and the side-swipe stung. Another bad day at the office. If Ross and his disciples are really interested in showing appreciation of grandparents, theyd work hard at producing a grown-up, researched, costed policy on our chaotic, shambolic, ruinously expensive system of childcare. That way grandchildren would get the sort of educative care and support they deserve and parents wouldnt be forced to pay a second mortgage just so they can go out to work. Not that I mind. About 4pm each afternoon Arthur, his little legs having run themselves to a standstill, will saddle up on the couch next to me and well watch Paw Patrol or Masha and the Bear together. You couldnt put a price on that and Shane Ross shouldnt try. KBR, a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies, has been awarded an LNG FEED contract by Nigeria LNG (NLNG) for further expansion of the Bonny Island LNG plant at Bonny Island, Nigeria. Under the terms of the contract, KBR, as leader of the Bonny7JV with partners TechnipFMC and JGC, will provide the basic design package and EPC bid for the expansion. The Train 7 project covers the addition of a Complete LNG Train and an additional Common Liquefaction Unit (CLU) at the facility. The CLU draws feedstock from the six existing LNG trains delivered by KBR and partners from 1995 to 2007. "We are excited to be a part of this significant project and to continue to grow and maintain a substantial presence in the EMEA Region," said Jay Ibrahim, KBR president, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific. "This award is indicative of KBR's strategic commitment to support NLNG, building on past success to deliver a high level of Nigerian content and helping to build a better Nigeria." Estimated revenue associated with this project will be booked into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's Hydrocarbons Services Business Segment in the third quarter of 2018. TradeArabia News Service Convicted murderer Warren Dumbrell, who with his brother Jeffrey is serving a life sentence for the brutal fatal stabbing of a father of six, has been granted a High Court declaration that his detention conditions have on occasion been breached. Dumbrell (44) who was described in a High Court hearing as a violent and particularly challenging prisoner with a poor disciplinary record, has for a number of years been detained away from the mainstream prison population. Expand Close Prisoner Warren Dumbrell (Collins Dublin) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prisoner Warren Dumbrell (Collins Dublin) For Dumbrell, formerly of Emmet Place, Incihcore, Dublin, the declaration by Ms Justice Miriam ORegan will have little effect on his detention regime apart from being kept informed more often and in more detail as to the reasons behind his continued segregation. The Dumbrells were found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of the murder of 33-year-old Christopher Cawley who they chased in October 2006, trapped in a stairwell at Tyrone Place Flats, Inchicore, where their victim lived, and repeatedly stabbed him, leaving him to bleed to death in front of his wife and two of his children. During Warren Dumbrells High Court challenge against his detention conditions it was revealed that he had been considered to be a most volatile and dangerous prisoner and had accumulated 51 discipline charges. Judge ORegan noted in a reserved judgment said that although there was considerable controversy between the parties as to the circumstances of Dumbrells incarceration, it did appear that for a long number of years he had been detained away from the mainstream prison population. The prison authorities had argued that this had arisen because of his behaviour which, since 2015, had deteriorated and his personality had changed in such a manner as to his becoming more intimidating. Moving him to the mainstream prison population would negatively impact on his behaviour and access to contraband and potential altercations with prisoners and staff. Michael Lynn SC had told the court that reports showed he had made positive changes by a reduction in violence and other previously challenging behaviour and had made great strides to improving his relations with those he was in contact with. Expand Close Jailed: Warren Dumbrell / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jailed: Warren Dumbrell In the initial application for leave for judicial review of Dumbrells detention conditions, Micheal P OHiggins SC said his client believed his conditions related to an incident in 1997 when he was one of several inmates involved in a siege at Mountjoy Prison when prison officers were taken hostage and threatened. Dumbrell received a 10-year prison sentence for his role in that incident. Conor Devally SC, for the prison authorities, had told the court that while the applicant had been incarcerated in The Midlands Prison prior to his application he had since been moved to Portlaoise Prison. Mr Devally had argued that insofar as the applicant complained of unnatural confinement over an 11-year period this stemmed from the complexity of the challenges posed by him and the threats he had made. Judge ORegan stated that the applicants claim for relief should not be denied to him merely because of his behaviour which ultimately created the need for The Midlands Prison to implement a tighter regime in managing him. She granted Dumbrell a declaration that the prison had on occasion breached Rule 62 of the Prison Rules which, among other things, directed that a prison governor shall conduct a review not less than once in seven days to determine whether a direction limiting a prisoners activities might be revoked and inform the prisoner of the outcome of such reviews. Charlie McCarthy died in hospital after he was attacked in a violent incident last December 23. A man accused of murdering an Irish dad-of-two in Perth last year will go on trial next year. Charlie McCarthy (32) from Co Cork died in hospital after he was attacked in a violent incident in the city on December 23 2017. Fisherman Andrew Doan (34) was originally charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Mr McCarthy. However, at a hearing in Perth Magistrates Court in January the charge was upgraded to murder. A trial date of February 11 2019 was set at the Magistrates Court of Western Australia in Perth this morning, according to RTE News. The case will be heard in the Supreme Court in Perth and is listed for 6 days, Mr Doan's solicitor, Michael Perrella, told RTE News. Mr McCarthy, from Aghada in east Cork, was living in Australia with his wife Nicole and their two young children at the time of the incident. The incident unfolded at around 1.30am on Saturday December 23, on Riverside Road in East Fremantle, Perth where Mr McCarthy was walking with his wife. It is alleged that during the altercation Mr Doan struck Mr McCarthy on the head with an object. Mr McCarthy was rushed to hospital in a critical condition with traumatic brain injuries and died around 24 hours later. Senior associates of the Kinahan cartel have fled the country in an effort to protect their remaining assets following a lengthy and complex Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) investigation into the gang. The High Court this week ruled that around 1.4m of assets seized from Liam Byrne and 11 of his associates were the proceeds of crime. Detailed evidence was given against what was described in court as the Byrne Organised Crime Gang (OCG) - led by Byrne - which is currently central to a feud with the Hutch gang. This dispute has claimed up to 18 lives to date. The High Court heard how Byrne was a trusted associate of gang boss Daniel Kinahan, and that Sean McGovern, Liam Roe and Darren Foster were senior members of the gang. When the CAB investigation against the gang intensified, its main members fled the country and have since made efforts to hide their remaining assets. Several, including Byrne, have relocated to Birmingham in England, while others, including McGovern, have absconded to Dubai. McGovern, described in court as a "trusted lieutenant within the OCG", was wounded in the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016. Sources said that, while some return here occasionally, they are predominately based abroad as a result of the massive Garda crackdown on the gang. As well as the CAB probe, officers from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) are also continuing investigations into the criminal group. The property at the centre of the High Court proceedings includes two homes worth 520,000, 29 high-end vehicles valued at 544,115, six designer watches worth 83,750 and two rings worth 29,740. On Tuesday, Ms Justice Carmel Stewart said she had no hesitation in finding, on the balance of probabilities, that all of the property was acquired directly or indirectly using the proceeds of crime. The inquiry into the gang, known as Operation Lamp, found that the crime gang "originated in Dublin but now has interests in Spain, the Netherlands, South America and Dubai". The court heard that the gang was previously led and directed by Christopher Kinahan Sr, but that the day-to-day operations are now managed by his sons, Christopher Jr and Daniel Kinahan. Sisters Deirdre Fahy and Stephanie Hickey leave the Central Criminal Court after Bartholomew Prendergast was sentenced for abusing both women. Photos: Collins Courts A woman who was raped by her brother-in-law has said she "lost everything" as a result of the prolonged sexual abuse. Bartholomew 'Batty' Prendergast (65) was this week convicted of the sexual assault and rape of Stephanie Hickey (46), her sister Deirdre Fahy (52) and another woman over the course of 12 years. A priest had told one of the victims the paedophile was 'fixed' after receiving counselling, but the sexual abuse continued. Ms Hickey, who along with Ms Fahy waived her right to anonymity so that Prendergast could be named, said that she "lost everything" as a result of the abuse. "I lost those beautiful memories young girls have when they hit 12 or 13 becoming a teenager and your first crush which I know all young girls love. "He started being really nice, but I suppose as a child I didn't see the danger because he was my brother-in-law and he was an adult and I felt this was ok, this was normal," Ms Hickey told Eamon Keane on WLRFM. Expand Close Bartholomew Prendergast. Photo: Collins Courts / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bartholomew Prendergast. Photo: Collins Courts She was first sexually abused by Prendergast, her sister's husband, at the age of 12 and it continued up to her teenage years until she was 16. "When I was around 12, I used to visit them [her sister and Batty] for the weekends or throughout the summer and he would collect me or arrange to pick me up at my parents and transport me to Tallow," she said. Ms Hickey said as Prendergast would be working in Dungarvan County Council it was easier for him to pick her up and take her to her sister's house to help with housework or work in her sister's hairdressing shop in Tallow. As a result of the abuse also taking place on journeys, and at other locations around Co Waterford, she never wanted to be left alone in the van, car or lorry with him. Describing what she felt when being abused for the first time, she said it was hard to say. "I can't actually describe the feeling frightening, just in disbelief but he always led me to believe this was ok and it was normal and that no one would believe me, he was the adult and I was the child and it was our secret," she said. Ms Hickey went on to describe her feelings as the abuse continued. "The fear, the shame, the hurt, the anger, but I was frozen - I couldn't, and I knew I couldn't, control this," she said. "I didn't have the courage to speak out because again he was the adult, people looked up to him including my family, who would have seen him as this pillar of society, if you would like to call it." She said her sister Deirdre, who was also abused by Prendergast, is carrying a lot of guilt that if she had spoken up then maybe she could have protected her. "That is a hard thing for my sister Deirdre to carry, I love her and I don't blame her one bit for what has happened to me. "She didn't have anyone to protect her but she got out because she was older and she met Kieran, who is now her husband, and he saved her because she was able to leave that situation and I was the next sibling, so it moved on to me," Ms Hickey said. "I always dreamed that if the day did come and I did get to speak up and my voice be heard that I could go forward in helping other woman, men, young girls and young boys going through or had being going through similar situations. "I still think the stigma that is attached to this has to change and I want the law to change on the anonymity." Prendergast will be sentenced in November for the sexual abuse and rape of the sisters and a third woman over the course of 12 years. The scene of the murder of Peter Butterly Peter Butterly (pictured) was shot dead outside the Huntsman Inn, Gormanston, Co Meath Dean Evans was handed a life sentence today for the murder of Peter Butterly Pic Ciara Wilkinson. THE widow of a man shot dead in a dissident republican attack has said she hopes a letter of remorse from the gunman who pulled the trigger is genuine but stressed she can never forgive him. Dean Evans (27) was handed a mandatory life sentence on Tuesday for his role in the murder of Peter Butterly in a pub car park in Gormanston, Co Meath, in 2013. He pleaded guilty to being a member of a gang that blocked in Mr Butterlys car at the Huntsman Inn on March 6, 2013 and also admitted being the gunman. Just before his trial was due to open in January last year Evans, of Grange Park Rise, Raheny, went on the run with his girlfriend, Stacey Roche. SUFFERING Two of his co-accused were found guilty of murder in the trial that Evans avoided. They were Edward McGrath (35), of Landale Lawns, Springfield, Tallaght, and Sharif Kelly (47), of Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan. Expand Close Eithne Butterly, widow of murdered Peter Butterly / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Eithne Butterly, widow of murdered Peter Butterly Evans spent 15 months in Spain with Roche, an ex-partner of slain RIRA boss Alan Ryan, before gardai tracked him down and brought him back to face trial in April. Evans pleaded guilty and accepted his fate of a mandatory life sentence as a result. Before sentence was passed on Tuesday, his legal team handed in a letter to the Special Criminal Court in which he expressed remorse for his actions. His barrister, Hugh Hartnett, outlined its contents, saying Evans wished to submit a real expression of remorse and to apologise to his victims family for the pain and suffering he caused them. He wishes to express regret and remorse for the impact it has had on the deceaseds family and the suffering that has resulted from his actions, Mr Hartnett said. He wishes to express his apologies to the family, and that decisions that he made at an earlier stage in his life are not decisions that would be made today or in the future. Expand Close Peter Butterly (pictured) was shot dead outside the Huntsman Inn, Gormanston, Co Meath / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Peter Butterly (pictured) was shot dead outside the Huntsman Inn, Gormanston, Co Meath Read More It is understood that in the letter, Evans said that his time on the run was for him a time of reflection in which he re-evaluated his position and realised the immense impact and infinite amount of suffering he had caused to Mr Butterlys family. He also apologised for the suffering he caused to his own family, and promised to follow the guidance given to him toward rehabilitation when the time comes for him to reintegrate into society. Reacting to the letter, Mr Butterlys widow, Eithne, said Evans was to be pitied more than anything else. He was duped into doing this by cowardly scumbags, she told Independent.ie. DIFFICULT I do hope his words are true and there is genuine remorse there. I cant forgive him but I hope his words of regret are genuine. Evans admissions of guilt, and acknowledgement that decisions he made in the past are ones he regrets, could make life behind bars difficult for him if they are seen as disassociating himself from past connections with people in republican circles. Read More However, Eithne said she hoped there were no consequences for him as a result of his expressions of remorse. I wish him no harm. This started with Peters death and it should end there, she said. Enough is enough. There are no winners. The HSE has issued a warning after being notified of four further cases of measles in Dublin this week, bringing the total count to six. Last month, two cases of the measles were identified after an adult and a child contracted the contagious illness. It is likely that the two adults and two children that developed measles are likely to have been in contact with one of the two earlier cases in hospitals in Dublin. It was reported last month that the two original patients, who returned to Ireland after being in mainland Europe, attended four hospitals in Dublin while at their most contagious. Specialist in Public Health Medicine Dr Helena Murray said: "Measles can be a serious illness and is highly infectious. The best protection is to be fully vaccinated with two doses of MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine". The risk of measles is for up to 21 days after contact with a case of measles. People who are most at risk are those who are not fully vaccinated with two doses of MMR vaccine or have not had measles in the past. Measles symptoms include high fever, funny nose, red eyes and a red rash that starts on the head and spreads down the body. Brown blotches or a flat red rash are signs to look out for, as well as vomiting, diarrhoea and tummy pain. "The time between exposure to measles and developing the rash is usually 14 days," the HSE said. "People are infectious from four days before rash starts until four days after." The HSE are urging the public to remain vigilant and to stay at home if you think you have the measles. Some 31 deaths are associated with measles in Europe this year so far, with most cases reported in Romania, France, Greece, and Italy. A father of six, whose wife died from cervical cancer on their wedding anniversary, is demanding that authorities are held accountable for the smear test scandal. Widower Ben Lawless, from Dublin, said his wife Edel (45) died on their wedding anniversary in October 2017, four days after slipping into a coma from terminal cervical cancer. She was among 18 women to have since died of cancer among more than 200 whose smear tests were reviewed when questions were raised about their accuracy - but were never told of the suspect results. Mr Lawless spoke of the ongoing ordeal he and his children have been forced to endure after Edel was given the all-clear on smear tests conducted by the State's CervicalCheck programme in both 2011 and 2013. Despite this, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August 2014 and succumbed to the disease despite going into remission in April 2015. "It was the most devastating and horrible news that I've ever been given," he told RTE One's 'News at One' programme yesterday. Expand Close Widower Ben Lawless. Photo: RTE / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Widower Ben Lawless. Photo: RTE He first learned Edel was among the women whose suspect smear results were not communicated to them, despite the knowledge of health authorities, earlier this year when the scandal broke. "I think it was probably the second week in June when I got a phone call from a woman who works at the HSE," he said. "I asked her was she [Edel] one of the women that passed away, because obviously my wife had passed away, but she just told me that she was part of the scope of inquiry," he said. And if it were not for Vicky Phelan, he and other grieving families would still be in the dark over their loved ones' demise, he added. "Myself, personally, and probably a lot of other men - there's other women that passed away and their husbands have been left with children - they probably wouldn't have done anything about this," he said. "We probably wouldn't have known what to do. I just want to know who, when, what and why," he said. "My wife went through absolute hell for the last three years of her life, the last 12 months mainly, she went through absolute hell," he said. As for the heartbreak he and his children are going through, he said: "I never thought I'd be a widower at 44 years of age. Just somebody has to be accountable." He made the comments as Ms Phelan met with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for the first time yesterday. The mother of two from Limerick is now battling terminal cancer after she brought the scandal to light in April, when she was awarded 2.5m in a settlement from the US lab that incorrectly gave her smear results the all-clear in 2011. The Government will, if necessary, introduce legislation to ensure a public commission of inquiry is held into the CervicalCheck scandal. High Court judge Mr Justice Charles Meenan has been tasked with examining an alternative mechanism to court proceedings for women affected, including a redress scheme. He will report in two months. Vicky Phelan, whose court case shone a light on the CervicalCheck scandal, met for the first time with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to urge the Government to intervene in ongoing court cases involving women caught up in the scandal. The Taoiseach was forced this week to clarify earlier assurances he gave that women affected by the controversy would not be forced to go to court. At the meeting, Ms Phelan said he reiterated assurances that the State will seek mediation where possible and also confirmed an alternative approach is to be examined by Mr Meenan. Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Photo: Steve Humphreys "The Taoiseach has promised me that he meant what he said - the State is going to endeavour to settle all cases through mediation," she said. "Where mediation doesn't work and labs are contesting an alternative dispute resolution mechanism will be sculpted out." Mr Meenan will engage with women affected and all parties associated with the cases and report on a means of dealing with the cases in a "timely manner" outside of adversarial court proceedings. However, Ms Phelan warned any redress scheme would need to be rolled out more effectively than previous State schemes. Ms Phelan also said the Fine Gael leader confirmed the State Claims Agency is willing to return to mediation talks in relation to Ruth Morrissey's case when it returns in September. She was informed at the meeting that offer could not have been made previously because expert reports were not ready. In a two-hour meeting, Ms Phelan said she was "frank" and "brutally honest" about the need for women to be spared the "harrowing" ordeal of attending court. Since the controversy erupted both Ms Phelan and Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene was also affected and has died, have been determined a public inquiry be held. Ms Phelan said she will await the terms of reference but welcomed the commitment. She also sought an update on the independent review of the smear tests by the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists which was expected to be underway by now. Letters of consent are being sent out to the 221 women directly affected and then to the other women involved, she said. Another issue she raised was the Patient Safety Bill brought forward by Health Minister Simon Harris, about which Ms Phelan has reservations as it does not include sanctions for individual practitioners. She said fines currently being meted out to healthcare providers were a "joke". Mr Varadkar said: "Vicky and all those affected by the CervicalCheck controversy have made a deep impression on the Irish public and on me." Ms Phelan has also revealed she plans to take a break from her activism on the CervicalCheck scandal, saying she has been accused of trying to bring down the screening programme. Ms Phelan said that she is "deeply disturbed" by some people and their attitude towards some of the affected women and their families. IRISH-based Ryanair pilots have announced they will hold another strike on August 10. It comes amid little progress in talks between unions and the company. The new date comes after pilots have already announced a strike to take place tomorrow. Friday week will be the fifth one-day stoppage by directly-employed Irish-based Ryanair pilots since July 12. Its pilots from other countries including Belgium and Sweden have already announced a strike for that day. For over a month, the union has said that industrial action is likely to continue until there is substantial movement on the pilots reasonable demands for an agreement on a fair and transparent approach to base transfers and related matters, a statement from the union Forsa said. In the 19 days since the first one-day strike took place, company management has agreed to just two hours of talks, despite Forsas repeated assurance that it is available for discussions at any time. Ryanair called the latest strike notice "irresponsible and unwarranted", as they have said that the airline's offer to meet with FORSA representatives next Tuesday is "pointless". Ryanair's Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said in a statement this evening: "This fifth strike notice by FORSA is irresponsible, unwarranted and is disrupting customers and (a way of damaging) Ryanairs business. "FORSA has called for meetings with Ryanair, yet during each of the last two weeks when Ryanair has invited FORSA to meet, FORSA has rejected these invitations and instead called a fourth strike tomorrow, and now a fifth strike by just 25 per cent of Irish pilots." Forsa has previously denied that Aer Lingus captain Evan Cullen has attended the talks that have taken place between union negotiators and management. Mr Jacobs continued to say: "In most unions where four strikes have failed to have any effect, the unions and employer would be entering into negotiations to resolve the dispute. "In this case, after four days of unsuccessful strikes, a handful of Aer Lingus pilots are working behind the scenes with pilot unions in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, and Germany to further disrupt Ryanairs business and Ryanairs customers next Friday August 10." Mr Jacobs said that 3,500 Irish passengers will be affected due to 20 further flight cancellation on August 10. "We apologise sincerely to the 3,500 Irish customers whose flights next Friday August 10 will be disrupted simply because FORSA wont accept our offers to meet us to resolve this dispute, even though we have agreed 9 of FORSAs 11 requirements, and why when we have met them, they cant/wont negotiate without deferring to Aer Lingus pilots who are outside the room. "FORSA must remove Aer Lingus pilots from this process since they are intent on damaging Ryanairs business for the benefit of Aer Lingus, he added. Fidu Properties, one of the leading Chinese companies in the UAE property market, said it has sought clarity from the country's property watchdog on telesales of real estate projects in Dubai to prospective customers in the emirate. As per a recent directive, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) had urged real estate brokers to stop making unsolicited telemarketing calls or face up to Dh50,000 ($13,611) fine in penalty. The brokerage firms will need to obtain permission from Rera if they wish to proceed with telemarketing or SMS messages, while communication via WhatsApp was strictly not allowed, the directive said. Fidu Properties has said that clarity on the guidelines over telesales will help clear the air on the approach to reach out to customers. "While Fidu Properties remains totally committed to adhere with the regulations set by Rera on telesales, a clear dos and donts framework for the brokers will definitely help make the whole process transparent and effective," stated Amit Dahima, the marketing manager of Fidu Properties. The Chinese group had recently announced targeting investments worth Dh5 billion in UAE alone in the coming three years, with nearly 450 branches across GCC and Asian subcontinent. The company has plans to invest about Dh2 billion in the Dubai real estate sector before the end of 2018. "Dubai and the UAE offers massive growth potential and we feel the growth in the coming years would be phenomenal. Fidu wants to play a pivotal role in this growth direction and hence we request Rera to facilitate the process with a clear ordinance on telesales," he added. Fidu, which opened its regional office in Dubai in April this year, aims to create around 3,000 jobs in the region and beyond through this expansion, said Dahima. The strong growth plans reinforces Fidu Properties commitment to the region, and the strong potential it sees in the real estate growth across UAE, the GCC and beyond, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Waiting game: For many parents living in Direct Provision, it can be hard telling their children that Santa may not come to them A new report, which warned that an influx of illegals into Ireland post-Brexit could sink the asylum system, has been dubbed verging on hysterical by the Irish Refugee Council. The briefing, prepared for Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, warned that any perceived tightening of UK immigration controls could prompt people living illegally in the UK to look across the Irish Sea instead. It also said even the smallest changes in Ireland's system of direct provision had the potential to "sink the asylum system" here. But this morning, Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, called the report wild. He also claimed that post Brexit, the Irish State will have a number of powers to move people back to the UK, if they have previously resided there. The International Protection Law allows the Irish state to remove people back to the UK if they previously had the permission to stay in the UK. We do think there is an element of possible hysteria to this report, he said. Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Henderson said that he would ask the Government to be a bit cautious in their approach, and encouraged planning. We do think that planning is a good thing; thats one of the problems with the current asylum situation, that the Government has tended to be quite reactionary and does things on an emergency basis. The report said that in the UK there was an estimated population of between 400,000 and 800,000 of "illegal" nationals from outside the European Economic Area. "Taking the midpoint of that range, even if only 1pc were to come to Ireland and claim asylum, it would mean an additional 6,000 applicants. "This would literally sink the asylum system, putting massive pressures on other State services, such as housing," it said. But Mr Henderson said that he questions whether these people will want to come to Ireland. Many people in the UK have particular, unique, connections to that country and would wish to stay there, he said. In 2015, asylum applications in Ireland rose by a third, mostly from Pakistan and India, these were people who "either were illegal in the UK or whose immigration permission was about to run out there". That was a phenomenon that happened in 2015, said Mr Henderson. From our records, it hasnt been continued. Speaking about the suggestions that the Supreme Court decision last May, which granted asylum seekers the Right to Work, may cause a spike in the number of people coming to Ireland, he said: You dont see that in the figures. There have been 1600 people claiming asylum in Ireland this year. In the last ten years, it has been on an average 2,200 people per year. Now, were just over halfway through this year at 1600 people. Thats maybe just above average, but not a particular spike. Mr Henderson said that the Irish asylum system is not that prone to fluctuations that are as wild as those suggested by the report. Lets remember as well, that the Right to Work that was given to people by the Supreme Court in May last year- we were the last EU country to give, or acknowledge that right, Mr Henderson said. Its not as if were the only country that has done so, and people around Europe will turning their head and looking to Ireland, thinking maybe we should go there. He also said: Ireland is a small country at the edge of Europe, and we should be provide to be giving asylum to people. Mr Henderson added that he is concerned about the language in the report. There is a long standing right to claim asylum under international human rights law, he told Independent.ie. The term illegals is both derogatory and inaccurate. Independent.ie has reached out to the Department of Justice for a comment. A 1,000 State grant for grandparents who provide childcare for their grandchildren could be extended to other family members who mind children while their parents are working. Transport Minister Shane Ross yesterday doubled down on his Budget demand by insisting the controversial payment could be extended to aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers who provide free childcare. Despite growing criticism of his proposal, Mr Ross also said the payment would be available to a childs four grandparents if they all provided more than 10 hours childcare a week for the same grandchild. This means the State could potentially pay 4,000 per child under a scheme the Independent Alliance has insisted should be included in this years Budget. We will start by looking at how it worked with grandparents and if there was a demand or a justification of extending it to other people that would be absolutely fair enough, Mr Ross said. During an interview with Miriam OCallaghan on RTE, the Independent minister also revealed that the grandparent and grandchild reimbursement scheme would not be policed or inspected as he believes it will not be abused. Mr Ross said grandparents would also not be required to make vouched expense claims as it would be pretty complicated and involve an awful lot of administration and paperwork. However, the proposal is expected to face resistance from Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who yesterday said there were really big questions surrounding how the payment would work. If you think of all the other members of family, and friends, who also perform duties looking after young children and do so on a voluntary basis, I think they would be asking me in particular what about them? Mr Donohoe said. However, he said he would examine the proposal with Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone. Ms Zappone has previously said she is opposed to a grandparent grant. Within Fine Gael, ministers were privately critical of the proposal. One minister described the proposal as a load of s***e, while another said the Independent Alliance ministers would have to fund the proposal out of their own departmental budgets. Expand Close Transport Minister Shane Ross wants to reduce the impact of childcare costs for parents. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Transport Minister Shane Ross wants to reduce the impact of childcare costs for parents. Photo: Steve Humphreys Opposition politicians also roundly criticised the grant. Fianna Fail social protection spokesman Willie ODea said the idea was not very well thought out. There are a lot grandparents providing childminding services free but some of them are very wealthy and the last thing they need is a payment from the State, Mr ODea said. Fianna Fail senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee said the payment was a pathetic attempt by the Alliance to resolve the childcare crisis. An annual payment of 1,000 will give the princely sum of 19.20 per week to grandparents; hardly an appropriate recognition of the sacrifice and dedication involved in caring for children, she said. Early Childhood Ireland director of policy Frances Byrne said she believed there was not much merit to the grant as it was not evidence based. She said it was a willy nilly payment delivered into peoples pockets without any paperwork. Third Age communication manager Anne Dempsey said she was in favour of rewarding older people who allow mothers and fathers to return to work. Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan said: We should recognise the social and economic contribution made by older people in our communities. Mr Halligan insisted he got a great reaction from constituents who heard about the grandparent grant proposal. Two more Labour Party councillors have said publicly their leader must consider resigning as the party continues to languish in opinion polls. In Kerry, Councillor Terry O'Brien, of Tralee, has called on Brendan Howlin to step down, saying his leadership was "not working" with the party only on 3pc in the polls. That poll ranking suggests the party is half as popular as its disastrous 2016 General Election result, when it got 6.6pc of the vote and reduced the party to just seven TDs. "We need to soul-search and do something very quickly," Mr O'Brien told Kerry Radio. He supported a similar call by Portlaoise-based Labour councillor Noel Tuohy, who called on Tuesday for the leader to go. Later yesterday, Cllr Mick Duff, based in Dublin South West, called on Mr Howlin to allow an early leadership election. "I have been very concerned for months about the direction our party is heading," he said. Yesterday a small number of other councillors backed resignation calls, but declined to be named. Emma DArcy, Nathan Donovan, and Jamie Righini devised the pamper box service, which provides a reusable menstrual cup to girls in developing countries for each box of cosmetics sold to a consumer A group of inspired secondary school students managed to find potential solutions to wildfires, period poverty, and the homeless crisis within five days. Over 40 teenagers had to devise and pitch innovations tackling local and global issues at the STEAM+ICE "innovation incubator" in Dublin yesterday. The top prize went to Lunar who developed a way of tackling period poverty. In the majority of the world, sanitary products women use during their menstrual cycle are considered a luxury item and are taxed accordingly. For many young women and girls in disadvantaged backgrounds or in parts of the developing world, this means products can be difficult to access. In many countries, such as India, many girls and women resort to using unhygienic substances such as sand, sawdust and leaves as substitutes for sanitary products. Students Emma D'Arcy (15), from Temple Carrig School in Greystones, Jamie Righini (15) from Nenagh, Tipperary, and Nathan Donovan (15) developed Lunar to support girls in developing countries. Lunar is a not-for-profit, subscription "pamper box" service, where a reusable menstrual cup is donated to a girl in a developing country for each box of cosmetics and pamper products sold to the consumer. "We wanted people to think of it as 'guilt-free self-care,'" Emma D'Arcy said. Other entries included Spark Watch - thermo-electrical wildfire warning pods planted in forested areas that would activate once they detected a change in air pressure and soil moisture. Hexahomes was an initiative designed to tackle Dublin's housing crisis using modular buildings. Dylan Smith (16) said he hoped the hexagonal spaces would prevent the "ghettoisation'"of council housing. Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae once said that eating a big meal before driving could be a factor in causing accidents. The opinionated TD, who is also a publican, went on to say that he personally avoids eating large meals after work, because he knows they would make him sleepy on the drive home. The revelation came as a surprise, not only to the scientific and medical community, but also to the people he was addressing at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, as they were discussing drink driving, not dinner driving. But maybe there is a vague semblance of truth between the facts on alcohol - it is a factor in 38pc of all road fatalities in Ireland - and Deputy Healy-Rae's folksy musings when we put alcohol-laced foods under the breathalyser test. Granted, cooking removes most of the alcoholic content in food, but there is one course that is the final bastion of boozy dining - dessert. Desserts like tiramisu or sherry trifle are famous for their drink content, so the question posed here is can eating desserts put you over the drink driving limit? According to a study by All Car Leasing, the answer is yes: two portions of tiramisu can put you over the limit. Their study also covered lesser-known foods like orange juice, which can contain tiny amounts of alcohol produced as the orange ferments - but boozy desserts are the most direct way to inadvertently go over the line. So this was the test - just how easy is it to get over the drink driving limit by eating treats? The initial step in any scientific endeavour is to seek the advice of an expert. The first warning sign that this might not be the most important piece of investigative journalism since Watergate was that the medical expert I consulted didn't wish to be named. "I just don't see the merit in what you're doing," they said. I took this as a sign that I was on the right track - if the medical community was against me eating desserts until I was hammered, then there was something here that was just waiting to be blown wide open, either a looming war on liquor-laden desserts from the neo-prohibitionists, or possibly just my belt. My so-called medical advisor pointed out that as I am six foot and weigh 13 stone, I would need to consume a very large amount of dessert to actually get that much alcohol in my system, and would possibly just make myself sick in trying. Challenge accepted. The first time I got drunk, it was on sherry trifle. The story became family lore, of how after my dessert I was singing, waving out the window and trying to open the door while the car was moving. I was 11. The lesson I took home from this is that sherry trifle is wonderful, and that booze makes me hilarious. So I set about finding a sherry trifle with which to start my test. It turns out that most modern sherry trifles now don't have sherry in them, but rather have sherry flavouring. After a pathetic trek asking various supermarket staff if any of their desserts had booze in them ("I'm a journalist," I told them, as if this explained my tragic quest), I tried Midleton's The Farmgate, where the local petite bourgeoisie go to get sozzled on cake. I was relieved to find they had a delightful sherry trifle which had a decent whack of sherry. After that it was off to Aldi and Lidl (the Germans know their booze, and their desserts) where I picked up any dessert that had an alcohol warning on the front label. Then it was off home to gorge. First up was the Aldi Irish Cream Liqueur Cheesecake, which contains an impressive 15pc of Irish cream liqueur. It's meant to serve four to six people, but as I hadn't eaten all day, I downed it all in about five minutes. I used my AlcoSense breathalyser - which, at 80 from Boots, is a solid purchase for any dessertaholics - and it told me I was still well under the limit for learner or new drivers, which is 0.02pc blood alcohol concentration (the level for full licence drivers is 0.05pc BAC). So it was on to two portions of Aldi profiteroles, which still failed to take me over the lower limit. It was time to take a more direct route: a box of Aldi Mister Roth Whiskey Truffles, eaten in the most joyless way possible. At this stage, I was wondering if it was all a terrible mistake, but I knew the experiment was being done in the name of science. I waited half an hour and tried the breathalyser: I was at a solid 0.029pc BAC, easily over the limit for learner drivers. I didn't feel especially under the influence of anything other than the sugar screaming through my bloodstream, but the breathalyser doesn't lie - I would have been unfit to drive. I knew that if I was to cross the upper limit, I would need to go to Defcon One - with a Marsala wine-soaked tiramisu from Aldi. Meant to serve four to six people, I sat there alone, forcing down its rich creamy goodness as I broke a mild sweat. I waited, puffed into my breathalyser and saw that I had pushed myself to 0.037pc BAC, a worthwhile return for the horror of gulping down a platter of tiramisu. Next was a box of Lidl Deluxe Cocktail Truffles, 10 chocolate malty balls infused with spirit. Eating them was akin to the boiled egg challenge in Cool Hand Luke, but I got there in the end, and while I was still able to sit upright in my chair, I shoved a number of Marc De Champagne truffles down my throat, and another portion of Aldi profiteroles just to be certain. With the last wheeze left in my bloated, corpse-like form, I huffed into my breathalyser, which gave me the warning beep I was praying for - I was at a decadent 0.058pc BAC, over the limit for driving in Ireland. I was also yearning for the cold embrace of the grave due to the amount of treats I had consumed, but the facts were clear - it is possible to get over the drink driving limit by eating a large amount of desserts. There were two take-homes from this - one is that the majority of Irish people understand that drinking and driving is not acceptable. The staff in The Farmgate said that many diners will deliberately avoid any dessert that has alcohol in it, so the days of getting trolleyed on desserts appears to be disappearing fast. Alcohol is rapidly becoming an indulgence that we enjoy in the comfort of our homes, and there is nothing wrong with that. The second take-home was that it was easier to get over the limit than I thought - I never would have considered tiramisu as something that could possibly influence my ability to drive, or to consider it as a potential unit of alcohol - but it is. There are, as Deputy Healy-Rae pointed out, many factors that can influence our ability to drive safely - tiredness being one of them - but the days when we can pretend that consuming alcohol in any form and getting behind the wheel as an acceptable practice are gone. Anyone who does it and ends up in a motoring mishap of their own creation is simply getting their just desserts. Bernie Loeb, Director of Aviation Safety of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), holds up the flight data recorder 10 November, 1999 from Egypt Air Flight 990 that crashed in the early hours of 31 October, 1999 of Nantucket island killing all 217 on board. Photo: STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images The shadow of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion aircraft, seen on low cloud cover while it searched for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The airplane remains missing. Photo: ROB GRIFFITH/AFP/Getty Images) The final report into the disappearance of Flight MH370 has been published, but struggled to reveal definitive conclusions about the final hours of the doomed aircraft. You can read more on the MH370 report here, in which investigators say the Boeing 777's controls were likely manipulated to take it off course, but they were unable to determine who was responsible. Here are 10 more of the greatest mysteries in aviation, from the early history of flight to modern day. 1. Amelia Earhart Expand Close Pilot Amelia Earhart poses for a portrait in and airplane in circa 1936. (Photo courtesty Library of Congress/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pilot Amelia Earhart poses for a portrait in and airplane in circa 1936. (Photo courtesty Library of Congress/Getty Images) A photograph discovered last year (below) was said to prove that Amelia Earhart did not die in a plane crash but was captured by the Japanese, experts claimed 80 years after her disappearance. The pioneering aviator vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe. Various reasons have been given for her disappearance. The theory that she was captured by Japanese forces has been suggested before; others believe she faked her own death; a few oddballs even claim she was abducted by aliens. Expand Close A photograph from the US National Archive which it is claimed shows Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan in the Marshall Islands in 1937 / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A photograph from the US National Archive which it is claimed shows Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan in the Marshall Islands in 1937 The photo, found in a former top secret file at the US National Archives, and thought to have been taken in 1937, has been subjected to facial-recognition and other forensic testing and could put the mystery to bed. A documentary, Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, aired on the History channel, argued that the photograph proves Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were picked up by the Japanese military, who believed they were spies, and taken prisoner. It states that the pair crash-landed in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands and proposed that the US government knew of Earhart's whereabouts and did nothing to rescue her. The theory was somewhat disproved, however, after the new image was said to have appeared in a Japanese travel brochure published years before Earhart disappeared. 2. The Bermuda Triangle Expand Close Bermuda Triangle. Photo: Getty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bermuda Triangle. Photo: Getty The roughly triangular area bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico is where dozens of aircraft and ships are said to have vanished in unusual circumstances, with the disappearances attributed to paranormal or extraterrestrial activity. Notable incidents include the disappearance of Flight 19, a US Navy bomber, on December 5, 1945, as well as the aircraft sent to search for it; that of a Douglas DC-3 aircraft with 32 people on board in 1948; and a mid-air collision between two US Air Force planes in 1963. 3. D B Cooper Expand Close The FBI released 11/27, this artist's drawing of "D. B. Cooper," a suspected skyjacker, who parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 jet after collecting $200,000 ransom in Seattle. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The FBI released 11/27, this artist's drawing of "D. B. Cooper," a suspected skyjacker, who parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 jet after collecting $200,000 ransom in Seattle. In 1971, an unidentified man travelling under the name of Dan Cooper managed to hijack a Boeing 727, extort a $200,000 ransom, and leap from the rear exit on the aircraft (with a parachute), never to be seen again. No conclusive evidence has emerged confirming his true identity or subsequent whereabouts, but FBI investigators claimed he would not have survived the jump. A year after the incident Cooper vanes were installed to disable aircraft doors while the landing gear is up. 4. TWA Flight 800 Expand Close The reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800 in a hangar (AP/ Ed Betz) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800 in a hangar (AP/ Ed Betz) Trans World Airlines Flight 800, a Boeing 747, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, resulting in the deaths of all 230 people on board. While many speculated that terrorists were to blame, no evidence of a criminal act was discovered by the FBI following a 16-month investigation. Others suggested that a US Navy vessel blew up the plane with a missile strike, and that the US Government has since instigated a cover-up. A report published on August 23, 2000, however, concluded that a short circuit was the most likely cause of the explosion. 5. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan air force plane carrying 40 passengers and five crew members disappeared while crossing the Andes. Seventy-two days later, after everyone on board was presumed dead, 16 survivors emerged. The story of how starvation drove them to eat some of the dead passengers was made into the 1993 film "Alive". 6. Air France Flight 447 Expand Close Brazilian Navy sailors pick a piece of debris from Air France flight AF447 out of the Atlantic Ocean / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brazilian Navy sailors pick a piece of debris from Air France flight AF447 out of the Atlantic Ocean In the early hours of June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went missing, along with 216 passengers and 12 crew. The Airbus A330-200 disappeared in the middle of the ocean, beyond radar coverage and in darkness. It took a shocked and bewildered Air France six hours to concede its loss and for several days no trace of it was found. Even when wreckage was discovered, the tragedy was no less perplexing. The aircraft had flown through a thunderstorm, but there was no distress signal, and the jet was state-of-the-art, a type that had never before been involved in a fatal accident. The aircrafts black boxes were recovered nearly two years later, at the bottom of the ocean. A final report, published in July 2012, said the accident occurred due to obstruction of the pitot tubes due to ice crystals, which caused the auto-pilot to disengage, as well as human error. It later emerged that the pilot had only slept one hour the previous night after a romantic jaunt in Brazil with his girlfriend. 7. Helios Airways Flight 522 On August 14, 2005, air traffic controllers in Greece lost contact with Helios Airways Flight 522, but the plane remained in the holding pattern for Athens Airport for more than an hour. At one point, a Greek fighter jet was scrambled, and spotted the pilot slumped over the controls. Around half an hour later the plane started to descend, crashing into the hills near Grammatiko, killing all 121 passengers and crew (the deadliest air disaster in Greek history). An investigation revealed that a gradual loss of cabin pressure had left the crew incapacitated. 8. Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 On March 16, 1962, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation propliner carrying 93 US soldiers and 3 South Vietnamese, disappeared in clear weather on its way to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, prompting an eight-day search of more than 200,000 square miles. Eye witnesses on a civilian tanker reported seeing an explosion, but no remains were ever found. 9. Egyptair Flight 990 Expand Close Bernie Loeb, Director of Aviation Safety of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), holds up the flight data recorder 10 November, 1999 from Egypt Air Flight 990 that crashed in the early hours of 31 October, 1999 of Nantucket island killing all 217 on board. Photo: STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bernie Loeb, Director of Aviation Safety of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), holds up the flight data recorder 10 November, 1999 from Egypt Air Flight 990 that crashed in the early hours of 31 October, 1999 of Nantucket island killing all 217 on board. Photo: STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images In 1999, Egyptair Flight 990 from New York to Cairo plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean around 60 miles off the US coast. All 217 people died in the crash, but mystery still surrounds its cause. The Egyptian Flight Officer controlling the plane was recorded repeatedly saying "I rely on God" moments before the disaster, and a colleague claimed he crashed the jet as an act of revenge after being reprimanded by the airline for sexual misconduct, but an investigation concluded he did not deliberately cause the accident. 10. BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust In August 1947, Star Dust, a British South American Airways airliner vanished as it flew between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile, via Mendoza. No wreckage was discovered for over 50 years, provoking conspiracy theories about sabotage and abduction by aliens. A Rolls Royce engine and the remains of nine of the eleven victims were eventually found at the foot of a glacier in the Andes. Read more: Read More Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Actor Jennifer Aniston attends the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) US actress Jennifer Aniston poses during a photocall ahead of a diner for the launch of a Louis Vuitton leather goods collection in collaboration with US artist Jeff Koons, at the Louvre in Paris on April 11, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYSGABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images Actress Jennifer Aniston arrives to attend a dinner organized by French luxury group Louis Vuitton for the launching of new leather accessories in Paris, France, April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes Jennifer Aniston has updated her stance on body shaming, insisting very little has changed since the publication of an essay she wrote last year. The former Friends star went public with her thoughts about tabloid attacks on women in the media after reports suggesting she was pregnant hit the headlines. The 48-year-old lashed out at her critics, insisting she was sick of the constant negative attention surrounding her personal life in an impassioned op-ed for the Huffington Post. She also detailed her thoughts and feelings about the stories that swirl around her in a Marie Claire interview, stating, "My marital status has been shamed; my divorce status was shamed; my lack of a mate had been shamed; my nipples have been shamed. Expand Close Actor Jennifer Aniston (L) and Justin Theroux attend Jason Bateman's star unveiling ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on July 26, 2017, in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / VALERIE MACONVALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Actor Jennifer Aniston (L) and Justin Theroux attend Jason Bateman's star unveiling ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on July 26, 2017, in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / VALERIE MACONVALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images "It's like, 'Why are we only looking at women through this particular lens of picking us apart? Why are we listening to it?' I just thought, 'I have worked too hard in this life and this career to be whittled down to a sad, childless human!'" Now, in a new Vogue piece, Jennifer has revisited the issue, stating, "I dont think its getting much better. "I think the problem is the tabloids and the gossip columns taking the human body and putting it in a category. Theyre either fat-shaming, or body-shaming, or childless-shaming. Its a weird obsession that people have and I dont understand exactly why they need to take people who are out there to entertain you, and rip them apart and bully them. "Why are we teaching young women this? Its incredibly damaging. I was finally like, 'This has just got to stop!' I couldnt hear this narrative anymore about being pregnant or not pregnant; you have no idea what is going on personally in our lives and why that is or is not happening." Expand Close Actor Jennifer Aniston attends the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Actor Jennifer Aniston attends the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 26, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) "If youre going to walk out and have your nipples showing, or your belly is a little bloated, or youre not at the weight you want to be - you are perfect no matter what you are and no matter where you are and who cares," she adds. "You have to tune out the noise, which is fine by me, because I just know that Im happy and healthy and doing everything I can to be good in the world." Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (Dafza) has reduced business setup cost by up to 65 per cent, as part of its aim to increase Dafzas regional competitiveness and activate a number of key sectors by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). Supporting Dubais efforts to become an ideal destination for investment and prosperity, the decision will help achieve further stability for the operational processes of free zone companies and consequently sustain and drive investment growth, said a statement from Dafza. Dr Mohammed Al Zarooni, director general, Dafza, said: This new approach falls in line with the directions of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to boost Dubais economic competitiveness. This is being done through a number of initiatives and incentives that aim to attract and promote FDI into the Emirate, ensuring sustainable growth across all economic sectors and strengthening Dubais status on the world economic stage, he said. Al Zarooni continued: These incentives were agreed upon following comprehensive studies and polls evaluating the free zones initiatives, services, and business environment. This has allowed us to ensure flexibility at Dafza in meeting the requirements of new foreign investors and current customers. We are offering unique services that take into account the global economic climate and allow customers to increase earnings and operational profits as well as achieve business growth and prosperity. The ultimate goal is to drive local economic development and support the sustainability of direct FDI, accelerating and increasing its contribution to Dubais GDP, he added. Dafza has revisited and reduced registration, license, and staff visa fees for new investors by 65 per cent, 33 per cent, and 20 per cent, respectively. Establishment card issuance fees have been cut by 17 per cent, while fees for Board Resolution and MOA issuance have been waived, it said. The new incentives include facilitating the process of obtaining general trading licenses for new investors by halving the capital requirement from Dh1 million ($272,242) to Dh500,000 ($136,121). Dafza has also allowed its member companies to be structured as a Limited Liability Free Zone Company (FZ-LLC), in a bid to provide more flexibility in business setup, licensing and operation, it added. In addition, Dafza has waived license expiry fines in an effort to relax the terms of license renewal. Allowing the restoration of legal records and licenses, the decision will help investors renew their expired license without paying any late renewal fines, said a statement. This reflects Dafzas constant support for the growth of business sectors and its commitment to remove all the obstacles faced by them in order to develop the economy and create a competitive, investment-friendly business environment. Dafza has launched a restructuring process of free zone licenses and related fees. This will enhance the setup and operation experience for investors who wish to set up in the free zone by offering them greater flexibility in choosing the business and service activities that best correspond to the nature of their work. Seeing the number of economic activities which are over 2,000 across 18 major sectors, the new license structure will be in line with ISIC Rev 4, the UN benchmark for classification of economic activities. The new license structure will be introduced to new investors and current customers at the end of Q3 2018, it said. Dafza declared that more initiatives and incentives are in the pipeline, including facilitating the issuance of No Objection Certificates, in order to facilitate investment processes and provide an optimum business environment that will continue to attract FDI. The new facilities are in line with the strategic objectives set by the free zone to contribute to boosting the economy by offering comprehensive solutions instrumental to promoting investment and encouraging investors to setup and expand businesses. They are also part of wider efforts to realize Dubai Plan 2021 and other governmental strategies that aim to achieve the transition to the post-oil era by supporting economic diversification policies, it stated. TradeArabia News Service Nine months ago they were greeted as heroes, posing for selfies with civilians overjoyed at liberation from a corrupt dictator who plunged the country into economic misery. But last night Zimbabwean troops were back on the streets of Harare, with bayonets fixed and in armoured cars to impose order with a blunt force that brought back unpleasant memories. Expand Close Protesters block a Harare street with a bonfire. Photo: reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Protesters block a Harare street with a bonfire. Photo: reuters The fragile hopes that Zimbabwe's first elections since Robert Mugabe was overthrown would be peaceful went up in a pall of black smoke and tear gas. Police said three were killed in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in Harare yesterday afternoon. At least one was shot by soldiers, deployed after police were unable to quell the violence. Tensions have been building since Monday's historic presidential and parliamentary elections, in which Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC alliance sought to topple Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF, who ousted Mr Mugabe in a coup in November. Mr Chamisa, who repeatedly accused the country's electoral authorities of colluding with Zanu-PF to falsify the vote, claimed victory shortly after polls closed and said he would not accept any result that favoured his opponent. Expand Close A woman flees as soldiers disperse protesters in Harare. Photo: Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A woman flees as soldiers disperse protesters in Harare. Photo: Reuters MDC supporters began to gather at the party's headquarters in Harare yesterday morning after early parliamentary results gave Zanu-PF a resounding majority. "We are determined to stay on the streets until we have the real result," said Tereai Obey Sithole. "We are not going to accept any result that is not victory for Mr Chamisa." But by midday, MDC activists near the headquarters began to chant "Chamisa! Chamisa! We are prepared to die for you!" And "Jambanja! Jambanja!" - the Shona word for war. By 12.15pm, hundreds of people in MDC regalia had gathered outside the Rainbow Towers hotel, where journalists and observers had gathered to hear electoral officials announce the final results. Inside, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) confirmed a landslide for Zanu-PF in the 210-seat parliament. Of 205 seats counted, Zanu-PF took 144 and the MDC Alliance 61. But Justice Priscilla Chigumba said presidential results could not be released until representatives of all 23 candidates had reviewed the returns and approved them or objected. She said several representatives had failed to present themselves at the ZEC and appealed to them to do so. It was not clear whether the protesters were aware the announcement had been delayed, but there was fury at the parliamentary results and many lit fires. "They are saying it is free and fair but it is not fair," said Charles, an MDC activist. "No one told us to come and protest. People are angry." Within moments, shots were ringing out, the thud and bang of baton rounds and tear gas canisters interspersed with the sporadic automatic fire. President Mnangagwa issued a statement, blaming Mr Chamisa for the violence in an attempt "to disrupt the electoral process." MDC officials said they were "shocked" by the violence but said the decision to deploy troops was disproportionate and unjustified. "Police are trained to keep public order. Soldiers are trained to kill in war," an MDC spokesman said. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Trips to see the doctor can be a little unnerving, especially for children, but it always helps if the paediatrician is an expert balloon artist. Thats the situation Trevor Smith, 30, from California, found himself in when his son Hudson was getting an initial check-up with a new doctor. My son is a very social person, and he loves interacting with doctors because the focus is on him, Trevor told the Press Association. The doctor is doing her residency, and after the check-up, stated that she did balloon art in her undergrad. She asked Hudson if hed like something made and listed off a few options sword, dog, jet pack. Hudson picked jet pack. She left and came back with this whole balloon art tool belt, and she got to work. With the doctor expertly crafting the balloon technology, Hudson waited excitedly, but things were about to get even better as the doctor added: Jet packs need flames, before adding the finishing touch. When she did finish, he ran over, and she helped him put it on, said Trevor. He was jumping and turning, and he was pretending he couldnt control it. It was definitely a paediatrician visit well not soon forget. Insurer Aviva suffered a 2% drop in first-half profits as bad weather, divestments and poor performance from its Canadian motor insurance division weighed on results. The company said operating profits declined slightly to 1.44 billion over the first six months of the year, from 1.47 billion a year earlier. It was knocked in part by a significant increase in weather-related claims, including from its UK division, which suffered the effects of the Beast from the East in early spring. Aviva was also impacted by challenging market conditions in the Canadian motor insurance market, where it continues to see heightened claims activity, as well as business divestments in the first half of the year. Expand Close Mark Wilson said Aviva remains on track to achieve its financial targets (Aviva/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mark Wilson said Aviva remains on track to achieve its financial targets (Aviva/PA) But Aviva insisted it was still delivering attractive growth from its major businesses and subsequently increased its dividend by 10%. Chief executive Mark Wilson said: The 10% increase in the interim dividend is our fourth consecutive half-year of double-digit dividend growth and further proof of Avivas progress. During these choppy market conditions, it is reassuring that Avivas results are consistent, dependable and growing. Aviva remains financially strong with a capital surplus of 11 billion. In the first half of 2018, we started a 600 million share buy-back and paid off 500 million euro of expensive debt. We remain on track to achieve our financial targets. Aviva shares were down 1.6% in midday trading. Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the results signalled steady growth. Tough conditions in the Canadian motor insurance business, the big freeze earlier in the year and exits from Spain and Taiwan mean the headline numbers dont look great at Aviva. But underneath that noise its another half of steady growth from a business which has become pleasantly dependable. Capital generation is steady, new business in life insurance is ticking along nicely and costs have generally been kept under control. He said Aviva was also making progress with digital customers. Aviva seems to have been able to increase cross-selling to digital customers and given its huge legacy customer base, that could support relatively cheap growth for years to come. Some of the crown jewels stolen in the cathedral heist. Photo: Reuters Swedish police are hunting two men who brazenly stole the country's crown jewels during daylight before escaping in a motorboat. Reminiscent of the 'Pink Panther' heist films, the crowns of King Karl IX and Queen Christina, as well as a royal orb, were snatched from Strangnas cathedral on Tuesday around lunchtime. Expand Close Police near the scene of the theft from a cathedral in Strangnas, Sweden. Photo: AP / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Police near the scene of the theft from a cathedral in Strangnas, Sweden. Photo: AP Police raided two locations in Strangnas yesterday but admitted they were struggling to find any clues. "It's 1-0 to them right now," Thomas Agnevik, a police spokesman, told reporters. "It is not possible to put an economic value on this, it is invaluable items of national interest." The 1611 gold burial crowns were originally interred with the couple but were later exhumed and had been on display in a locked cabinet in the cathedral, 100km west of Stockholm. Visitors to the exhibition were inside the cathedral at the time. "The alarm went off when the burglars smashed the security glass and stole the artefacts," said Catharina Frojd, a spokeswoman for the 14th-century Strangnas Cathedral. The church wrote on its website that the stolen items were kept "in accordance with the prevailing safety regulations in locked and alarmed displays in the cathedral". Police sent out a helicopter and boat to hunt for the thieves, but found nothing. Authorities said nobody was harmed in the raid, Stefan Dangardt, another police spokesman, said Interpol had been brought in to help apprehend the thieves, along with Swedish helicopters and canine units. "Several people were seen leaving the church by boat or waterscooter after the theft. We have spoken to witnesses, but we are interested in further information from anyone," he added. Tom Rowsell was having lunch outside the cathedral where he is to marry this weekend. He told 'Aftonbladet', a Swedish newspaper: "I saw a white little boat with an outboard motor on the back. The two men hurriedly jumped on board and it sped off. I knew immediately they were burglars, because of the way they were behaving." In 2013, the burial regalia of Johan III, Sweden's 16th-century king, was stolen from Vasteras Cathedral but was recovered days later in a rubbish bag left on a country road. While the items are of great historic and cultural value, police expressed doubt that the theft would bring the perpetrators financial gain. The stolen items are "impossible to sell" because of their uniqueness and high visibility, said Maria Ellior, of the Swedish police's national operations department. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] A 77-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the 1985 killing of exiled Seychelles politician Gerard Hoarau. The dissident was gunned down on his doorstep in Greencourt Avenue, Edgware, north London, on November 29 1985. He was shot with a Sterling sub-machine gun. Scotland Yard announced on Thursday that a suspect had been arrested at 9.50am in Antrim, Northern Ireland, on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland assisted the operation and are now helping search his property. Several individuals were previously been arrested in connection with the 1985 assassination, but no charges followed. Three people were convicted of perverting the course of justice by meddling with the investigation in 1986, police said. The trail then went cold for decades, prompting a review in 2016 from which fresh lines of inquiry were established, according to the force. The man arrested on Thursday had not previously been arrested as part of the investigation. He has been transported to a police station in south London for questioning. Anyone with information in relation to the murder of Mr Hoarau is asked to contact the investigation team at EdgwareMurderAppeal@met.police.uk or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort personally directed millions of dollars in international wire transfers to pay for high-end suits and more than 3 million dollars (2.3 million) in improvements at his homes, witnesses have said at his trial. The testimony on the second day of his financial fraud trial on Wednesday was aimed at bolstering the prosecutions argument that Manafort hid millions of dollars in income from the IRS and used the funds for a lavish lifestyle. The witness accounts were also intended to contradict Manaforts lawyers, who have signalled they will pin blame for any illegal conduct on his longtime deputy, Rick Gates. The prosecutions focus on Manaforts personal finances at times laid out in painstaking detail underscored the vast amount of documents accumulated by special counsel Robert Muellers team in their case against the longtime political consultant. But it also tried the patience of US district judge TS Ellis III, who repeatedly scolded the governments lawyers for what he said was excessive and unnecessary information. Expand Close This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers (Dana Verkouteren via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers (Dana Verkouteren via AP) He warned prosecutors against using the word oligarchs to describe wealthy Ukrainians and admonished them for spending so much time documenting Manaforts extravagant lifestyle. The government doesnt want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they? he said, amid testimony that Manafort had spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) on clothing from a boutique retailer where he was one of only about 40 clients. The trial is the first courtroom test for the special counsel, who was tasked last year with investigating Russias efforts to sway the 2016 election and to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved. So far, Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion. However, the trial has pulled back the curtain on the former lobbyist who steered Trumps election efforts for a time. One witness, Maximillian Katzman, testified that Manafort spent more than 900,000 dollars (687,000) at his boutique retailer in New York. He said Manafort was the only business client of his who paid via international wire transfer. An FBI agent described the July 2017 raid on Manaforts Virginia condominium, and said searches found expensively tailored suits and documents related to other luxury items allegedly bought by Manafort, including two silk rugs bought for 160,000 dollars (122,000) paid from offshore accounts. But when prosecutors introduced photos of Manaforts high-end condo and expensive suits, the judge interrupted so as to limit the growing list of evidence jurors would have to consider. All this document shows is that Mr Manafort had a lavish lifestyle, he said. It isnt relevant. Prosecutor Greg Andres argued that documenting Manaforts spending for the jury was important to the case. Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr Manafort lived lavishly, Andres said. Its evidence of his income. The proceedings clearly caught the attention of president Donald Trump, who defended his 2016 hiring of Manafort and suggested Manafort was being treated worse than mobster Al Capone. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president indeed felt Manafort had been treated unfairly. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation, Trump tweeted on Wednesday. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax! Testimony was due to resume on Thursday morning with witnesses including bookkeepers and accountants. A U.S. soldier salutes during a repatriation ceremony for the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War and collected in North Korea. Photo: Jung Yeon-je/Pool Photo via AP The 55 sets of human remains handed over by North Korea to the United States may include troops from other nations that fought in the Korean War after it was confirmed only one identification tag was included with the bodies. A US defence official told the Associated Press it will probably take months, if not years, to identify the troops with any certainty. As the remains were due to land on US soil for the first time yesterday, John Byrd, director of scientific analysis at the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the US agency that deals with soldiers missing in action, said preliminary findings suggested "they are likely to be American remains" as they were consistent with those repatriated in the past. "But I would caution to keep in mind it's not necessarily the case that the dog-tag goes with the remains in the box," he said. There are no further details about the military dog-tag handed over when a US military aircraft flew to Kalma Airport, near the North Korean city of Wonsan, on Friday. The aircraft returned to the US Air Force base at Osan where the remains were handed over to representatives of the DPAA. The caskets containing the remains are being flown to the agency's laboratories at the Pearl Harbour-Hickam military base in Hawaii for full forensic examinations to begin. The remains in each box may not be those of a single person and are likely to be fragments of bones, said Paul Cole, an expert on recovery of soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war, who worked as a visiting scientific fellow at Hawaii's Central Identification Laboratory. "Problems such as inability to get DNA from bones and lack of a DNA reference sample from the family can be major stumbling blocks," added Chuck Prichard, director of public affairs for the DPAA. US defence secretary Jim Mattis said the return of the remains was a positive step, but there were no guarantees they were of US military personnel. 'Most states have dropped the laws as archaic and for treating women as chattels, but they remain in six states, including North Carolina.' (stock photo) Adultery is a serious - and expensive - matter in the US state of North Carolina, as one man has discovered. A court last week ordered Francisco Huizar to pay $8.8m (7.5m) to Keith King, whose wife he had been seeing for more than a year. Mr King (48), a businessman, sued Mr Huizar for "alienation of affection" and "criminal conversation" based on centuries-old English common law that has been removed from most states' books. A Superior Court judge in Durham awarded him $2.2m in compensatory damages and $6.6m in punitive damages. Mr King married his wife, Danielle, now 33, in 2010. He said he discovered flirtatious text messages sent to Mr Huizar, from San Antonio, Texas, on her phone five years later. Most states have dropped the laws as archaic and for treating women as chattels, but they remain in six states, including North Carolina. A law firm in Raleigh said 200 claims were made in the state each year. Successful cases must show plaintiff and spouse were happily married until the "malicious conduct of defendant was a cause of the loss and alienation of such love and affection". "Criminal conversation" covers extra-marital sexual acts. Joanne Foil, Mr King's lawyer, said the extramarital affair and an alleged assault by Mr Huizar cost Mr King's company BMX Stunt Shows, revenue and an employee since Mrs King worked for the company. ( Daily Telegraph, London) A JUDGE ordered a convict to have his mouth taped shut during a court hearing as he kept interrupting proceedings. Judge John Russo was presiding over a hearing in Ohio which saw Franklyn Williams sentenced to 24 years for aggravated robbery, theft and kidnapping. Williams (32) interrupted around a dozen times, Sky News reports. The judge ordered him to allow his layers to speak on his behalf and in the end directed that red duct tape be taped across his mouth. "I will say that over my time handling his four cases, Mr Williams, I know for a fact, was someone who liked to speak," the judge told Fox News. "Everybody has the opportunity to make a record with my court reporter but we can't do it at the same time, we can't do it yelling over each other. "So my intent today was never to silence Mr Williams. I gave him an opportunity to speak when it was appropriate but more than not he continued to speak over me." The new question-of-the-week is: What advice would you offer to textbook publishers? There are some pretty terrible textbooks out there. In fact, Ive published a popular post titled The Best Resources For Adapting Your Textbook So It Doesnt Bore Students To Death. Today, Dr. Barbara Blackburn, Meghan Everette, Rachael George, Jody Passanisi, and readers share their advice to textbook publishers about how they can improved their products. Though this column doesnt have an accompanying podcast, you can still listen to past ones here . Response From Dr. Barbara Blackburn Dr. Barbara Blackburn was recently named one of the top 30 education global gurus. She is the author of 17 books, including Rigor is Not a Four Letter Word and Motivating Struggling Learners. A regular consultant who works with schools and districts, she can be reached through her website, www.barbarablackburnonline.com: As a former consultant for two textbook companies, I gained an insiders perspective on textbooks. My first recommendation is that publishers quit trying to be everything to everyone. I saw (and continue to see) programs that are packed with strategies and resources, and its just overwhelming for teachers. Especially with new teachers, streamlined resources are more helpful, still allowing some choice. It reminds me of a friend of mine, who lived in Turkey for a few years. When she came home, she struggled with grocery shopping. As she said, I cant even pick what to buy. There are over 40 choices of cereal! Next, I would make sure the resources that are recommended are not only research-based, but they are practical for teachers and relevant to students. There are research-based strategies recommended now, but they may be complicated and time-consuming for teachers. While quality instruction does take time, there must be strategies that can be implemented within the normal course of instruction. Also, too often, the material is not relevant for students, other than information in a box labeled Real World Connections. Its also important for teachers and students that the material is engaging. Finally, and most importantly, Id recommend that textbooks not be viewed as the only source of information. Although some of this issue may be teachers who are looking for a one-stop shop, Ive seen textbook publishers promote their materials as such. For students in todays society, we need to pull in a variety of resources, and even when textbook publishers provide those, we still need to go beyond what any publisher will create or curate. Ultimately, the best judge of what a student needs is the teacher, and any textbook should only be one resource. Response From Meghan Everette Meghan Everette is a Teacher on Special Assignment in the Salt Lake City School District and a regularly blogger for Scholastics Top Teaching site: Having sat through several textbook adoptions in the last few years, I can tell you this: textbooks are terrible. Now, Im not opposed to textbooks as a resource and teaching tool, and in fact, I believe we need them to support teachers and lighten the load of finding every trick, tool, and model to teach with. Textbooks hold great promise; they can provide a roadmap for teaching standards and offering best practices in a neat package that requires no printing. However, most textbooks are not written by teachers. Most are not actually aligned to standards. And some even deteriorate quality instruction. There are very few resources written after Common Core that were intentionally aligned from the outset of their design. Sure, existing resources were updated but all too often side-by-side comparisons show relatively little change in the method of instruction or content. We are being offered last years model with this years sticker on the front, and thats the case whether its CCSS or state standards. Moreover, the books that are aligned tend to focus equally across standards and yet standards werent designed this way. There are priority standards or focus areas that requires much more attention. For example, this past year in reviewing mathematics materials, we discovered that while fractions are a focus area and critical foundation to learn in third grade, very few programs gave fractions more than a handful of lessons. Teachers then are relying on too little material or are forced to find supportive work on their own, both of which diminish the purpose and power in a textbook. Second, work is being created without teachers. Sure, sure, if you turn in the front of any book on the market, teachers were consulted. Rows and rows of them usually. But is this true? A close inspection of elementary reading materials from a variety of textbook publishers showed that nearly all the names were high school teachers or administrators. Some of the names repeated throughout companies. And reviewers will tell you first hand that they see finished materials, not help in the concept development or program structure early on. Educators should be designing programs from the ground up. It shouldnt be reliant on which text you know you have access to easily, or what the company decides is important. Teacher design, coupled with the intentional focus on standards, can help develop a learning arc throughout the grades that is powerful. Leave teachers out, and you will get it wrong. Finally, textbooks are trying to be everything instead of being anything good. Pick up any ELA reading materials today. They are incorporating science and social studies, albeit in a peripheral way. They are teaching grammar and spelling in some disconnected context. They include forced vocabulary that may or may not be valuable or important in life. And then, of course, they include reading text. The reality is, teachers ignore the writing, devalue the science and social studies, and have to recreate grammar because it is rarely aligned. Just two years ago, our grade level spent five weeks on textbook grammar that didnt address a single standard in our grade. If teachers have to rewrite it anyway, whats the point? Instead of trying to sell schools on a program that has so many shrink-wrapped elements youll find them packages years from now when the program changes, textbook publishers need to create quality, stripped down instruction that does what it promises and nothing more. Quit with the everyone-in-one million dollar programs. Textbooks are not bad. They are not evil. They do not replace a teacher, but they can support or discourage quality teaching practices based on standards by their content. Textbook publishers need to quit promising the world and promise they are doing more to support students and teachers instead of their profit line. Response From Rachael George Rachael George is a member of the ASCD Emerging Leaders Class of 2015 and currently serves as the principal of Sandy Grade School in the Oregon Trail School District. Prior to serving as an elementary principal, George was a middle school principal of an outstanding and two-time Level 5: Model School as recognized by the State of Oregon. George specializes in curriculum development and instructional improvement as well as working with at-risk students and closing the achievement gap. Connect with George on Twitter @runnin26 : Do textbook publishers get real feedback? The biggest piece of advice I would offer textbook publishers is to review the content of their curriculum and make sure it truly aligns to the standards and whatever assessment the state is using to evaluate learning. I frequently get my hopes up and then they are quickly crushed as I find the textbook dont hold up to what they claim to provide. While I know there isnt a silver bullet curriculum and the teacher is the major player when it comes to student growth and achievement, we cant have core curriculums that require teachers to still spend a significant amount of time finding materials to supplement their lessons to make it more student centered, rigorous, or aligned to the standards. I am sure these requests create an incredible amount of work and money on the end of the publisher to customize their materials but it ultimately serves the students at a much higher level and it positively supports teachers. Response From Jody Passanisi Jody Passanisi is the middle school director at an independent school in Silicon Valley. Prior to this, she was a middle school social studies teacher and an adjunct instructor in social studies methods at Mt. St. Marys University in Los Angeles. Jodys book: History Class Revisited: Tools and Projects to Engage Middle School Students in Social Studies was published in 2016 by Routledge and Middleweb: Using history textbooks in class can be a hot-button issue with social studies teachers. There are some to whom the book is sacrosanct, and others who barely use it at all. To present my biases in all their glory, I will state for the record that I am generally part of the latter category. While history textbooks can often be useful for presenting information in a logically and developmentally appropriate way, it is often difficult in current formats for students to do much more than read and answer questions. While textbooks do offer context in a way that is hard to beat--I am thinking especially in terms of maps and some primary source documents-- it is the natural state of textbooks to be two dimensional in their ability to interact with students-- and they often primarily present the dominant narrative. The textbook can be a great resource to compare to other resources-- for example if a student is looking at multiple perspectives of the same event, the textbooks take on the event can be useful as a more neutral source for comparison. But the tools that students need to make those comparisons - those secondary sources and primary sources - are often not present in textbook, nor are the graphic organizers or brain tools that students could use to do that kind of work. As I wrote about in my book History Class Revisited: Tools and Projects to Engage Middle School Students in Social Studies, published by Routledge and Middleweb, I often used resources from Social Studies School Service in conjunction with the textbook and other primary and secondary source texts for my students to engage in those kind of textual comparisons. Textbooks still seem to be clinging to the vestiges of old school teaching tactics where frontal teaching was paramount and students were recipients of information. I would recommend that textbook publishers keep making steps in that regard. History Alive!, for example, has interactive options. In the digital age, much of what textbooks have to offer is the fact that they are written developmentally. While students can glean much of what is in the textbook from the Internet in various sources, what they find may not be comprehensible or reliable-- the textbook at least is a source they can rely on to try to not be as biased as other sources. Textbook publishers would benefit, and teachers and students too, from taking a page from design thinking and project based learning models, or from programs like Stanford History Education Groups Resources: Reading Like a Historian-- where students are more actively engaged in the creation, interpretation, and much more opportunity in terms of evaluation of resources, not just comprehension. Responses From Readers Carolanne Brandt: I teach middle school science and were moving forward with NGSS. I have a few things Id like to see in science textbooks. 1) Id love to see books in a EyeWitness style format. Most Science textbooks that Ive seen are very dry. Lets jazz it up a little. Learning doesnt have to be boring. 2) Id like to see sections where students can relate science to everyday life. In fact, lets try using more diverse people as role models, also. Most Science books highlight white males. I know there is a diverse array of people whove contributed to Science. Kids learn better when the subject is relevant. 3) Id like to see a reading comprehension and vocabulary section, not just a list of chapter vocabulary, but some suggestions for teaching vocabulary rather than memorization. The questions in the back of the chapters arent very thought-provoking and I dont feel that they help with comprehension. 4) a teachers media guide would be nice. An interactive component that can supplement the textbook that includes resources for YouTube videos, slide presentations, etc. Many teachers are purchasing supplemental activities with their own money. Why not include this in these pricey textbooks? Pamela Broussard: 1. Make support material editable. If we can even delete some questions, that would be helpful or change a few words to words that might work better in our context. 2. Have a less white space or a fewer examples version. A teacher may have already covered it or have examples on the board for the students to review. I know the importance of white space and include it in the material I create, but sometimes I need a quick warm-up or quiz. It is frustrating when the actual exercise or handout has so little for a student to do on it. Sometimes the material only has 4-5 questions and to review the topic would take 3 pages of something that could fit on one page if examples were deleted. A teacher can cover examples in many formats but if we need students to practice and write on a paper, have a no graphics/no examples version so we can save on printing allotments. Textbook publishers should read Minds Made for Stories (Newkirk) and focus on compelling writing, not just compounded facts. #beatboredom -- Martha Rush (@MarthaSRush) July 26, 2018 At the very least, create textbooks youd want your own children to have. -- Daphne Russell (@gtwybookpusher) July 25, 2018 Thanks to Barbara, Meghan, Rachael, Jody and readers for their contributions! Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post. Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if its selected or if youd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind. You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo . Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a number of education publishers. Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. Its titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching . Just a reminder--you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And, if you missed any of the highlights from the first six years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. They dont include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the answers category found in the sidebar. This Years Most Popular Q&A Posts Classroom Management Advice Race & Gender Challenges Implementing The Common Core Best Ways To Begin The School Year Best Ways To End The School Year Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning Teaching Social Studies Project-Based Learning Using Tech In The Classroom Parent Engagement In Schools Teaching English Language Learners Student Assessment Brain-Based Learning Reading Instruction Writing Instruction Education Policy Issues Differentiating Instruction Math Instruction Science Instruction Advice For New Teachers Author Interviews Entering The Teaching Profession Administrator Leadership Teacher Leadership Relationships In Schools Professional Development Instructional Strategies I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributers to this column . Look for the next question-of-the-week in a few days. The Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Department of Economic Development in Ajman have discussed with the branch of the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), in Dubai and the Middle East, ways of reinforcing their cooperation, said a report. The sides mainly discussed way of taking advantage of available investment opportunities in Ajman and Japan, for the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reported state news agency Wam. During the meeting, Salem Al Suwaidi, director-general of the Ajman Chamber, received the Jetro delegation, which was led by Masami Ando, director-general of Jetro, in the presence of several officials from both sides Al Suwaidi highlighted the strong relations and economic cooperation between the UAE and Japan and the importance of the meeting, as well as the desire of Ajman to promote communication and establish effective external economic ties, in light of the cooperation between its government authorities, as per the directives of the wise leadership. Al Suwaidi also explained the features and advantages of Ajman, which make its business environment competitive while noting the services, activities and events provided and organised by its economic authorities. He called on the participants to take part in various events taking place in both, Ajman and Japan and to organise bilateral meetings between businessmen from both countries. Ando praised Ajmans location and its various features and investment opportunities while considering the meeting as an opportunity to boost the economic cooperation between both sides, and benefit from Japans technical and technological expertise. At the end of the meeting, both sides highlighted the importance of enhancing their future economic and investment cooperation, to serve their mutual interests, added the report. Education secretary Betsy DeVos, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump walk to Air Force One for a campaign rally in Florida. Photo: AP The decision by Ivanka Trump to close her clothing brand last week was celebrated by her critics as another blow struck for the forces of democracy against a family intent on milking the presidency for all it was worth. And you can't blame Ms Trump for her decision. She has been the most put-upon member of the Trump inner circle, criticised for speaking up (how did she earn her position?) and for not speaking up (doesn't she care?); accused again and again of conflicts of interest, while opponents pored over her company's employment and manufacturing records. Far from being a defeat, however, her decision was a choice. It was a choice to put politics ahead of commerce and a signal that Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who are frequently rumoured to be on the brink of quitting politics in Washington, are in for the long haul, taking on more responsibility after vanquishing enemy after enemy. Once again, it suggests President Donald Trump has the White House exactly where he wants it to be - run by family. When Ms Trump said she was closing her company, the announcement was accompanied by messages that made clear she would be doubling down on her work in Washington. A convenient smokescreen for a troubled brand? Maybe. But the couple are on a roll. Things are so good that they are reportedly looking for a new home in the capital, scotching frequent headlines that they yearned for their old, more cosmopolitan, life in New York. Jared and Ivanka have been spending plenty of time with the president in his private dining room adjoining the Oval Office, according to the well-connected 'Axios' news website - often without the presence of John Kelly, the chief of staff. Order Remember how he was appointed to impose order, restricting Oval Office access to fringe characters and rationing Mr Trump's use of social media? One look at the president's Twitter feed tells you how that is going. Even if he does now stay on to 2020, his standing is diminished. His decline reflects the reduced standing of the last independent power centres in this administration - the generals. (Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, one of the retired Marine generals once beloved by the president, hangs on at the Pentagon but does so only by staying out of the country as much as possible.) The globalists and bankers are also in retreat as Mr Trump wages his trade wars. And the Republican apparatchiks and Bannonite populists are no longer needed now the controversial president has largely rebuilt the party in his own, barnstorming image. Meanwhile, the first lady has emerged as the most captivating figure of this administration. She has ditched the usual rules for a more combative position, whether criticising the media or highlighting the plight of children separated from parents at the US border with a visit to a detention centre in that coat. Dragged So too, is 'Javanka' on a roll. Jared finally has his security clearance after FBI checks dragged on for more than a year. And Ivanka has been leading plans to overhaul the US workforce, writing a recent 'Wall Street Journal' article on the jobs of tomorrow ("Our vision is to create a workforce culture that fosters and prioritises life-long learning"). Both are also expected to play important roles in campaigning ahead of November's mid-term elections. Both will also act as lightning rods, particularly while Mr Kushner's family has sprawling business interests that risk overlapping with his work on Middle East peace and trade negotiations. But they are going nowhere, just as long-time Trump-watchers said from the very start. This is a president who surrounds himself with loyalists and knows that they don't come much more loyal than family. Amid all the reports of White House turmoil and of turnover tittle-tattle, there is a predictable stability at the very heart of Mr Trump's world. ( Daily Telegraph) The remains were returned to the US on Wednesday (Susan Walsh/AP) The remains handed over by North Korea last week in 55 boxes are consistent with being Americans based on an initial examination, according to a US scientist. The expert, who has seen the remains, said none have been positively identified. Although President Donald Trump has publicly thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for fulfilling the promise he made at their June 12 Singapore summit to return American war remains, US officials cautioned that little was known about the remains and that they could not be quickly identified. John E. Byrd, director of the Defence Department laboratory in Hawaii where the 55 cases arrived on Wednesday, cited several reasons for saying at least some of the remains appear to be those of Americans missing from the Korean War. Mr Byrd was present when North Korean officials turned over the 55 boxes at Wonsan airport in North Korea last Friday, and he was among the US government specialists who made a further preliminary examination of the contents after the boxes were flown to Osan air base in South Korea the same day. A cursory examination at Wonsan confirmed the remains were human, he said, and a closer look at Osan gave reason to believe they likely are Americans. Mr Byrd, speaking by video teleconference from Hawaii, said: What we saw were remains that were consistent with what we have found from the Korean War recoveries that weve done over the years, and we found remains that were consistent with being Americans. We have remains that look to have been in a state of preservation consistent with coming from the Korean War era, adding that materials provided with the remains included US-issued military equipment such as canteens and buttons. We have remains that look to have been in a state of preservation consistent with coming from the Korean War eraJohn E. Byrd He said the remains are good candidates to be missing Americans from the Korean War where thousands died on battlefields and in prisoner-of-war camps during the 1950-53 conflict and remain officially unaccounted for. Mr Byrd said he would not venture a guess at how many individuals are represented by the bones contained in the 55 boxes. The US and North Korean militaries conducted joint excavations of war remains in the North between 1996 and 2005, yielding more than 200 set of remains not all of which have been positively identified. Separately, North Korea had handed over 208 boxes of remains between 1990 and 1994, some of which have also yet to be identified. When the North Koreans turned over the 55 boxes to Byrd and other US officials at Wonsan on July 27 they said the cases contained remains of an undetermined number of Americans, but the only identification item provided was a single military dog tag, Mr Byrd said. Two members of that persons family have been notified, Kelly McKeague, the director of the Defence POW-MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters. Mr McKeague declined to reveal the name on the dog tag. Mr Byrd said the North Koreans at Wonsan provided what he described as a short bit, a little paragraph of information with each of the 55 boxes. The most significant bit of information in each case was the name of the village where the remains were recovered, he said. One of the villages was Sin Hung-ri, which he said is on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir where US Army soldiers fought a fierce battle in the fall of 1950 after Chinese forces entered the war. North Korea had told American officials more than once in recent years that it had about 200 sets of US war remains in storage. Mr McKeague said the North Koreans who provided the 55 boxes last week did not say whether they have others. He added the US is prepared to discuss arrangements for future US-North Korean excavations but this process is not yet underway, but his laboratory in Hawaii has already begun working on the remains. The first step, he said, is sampling the bones for DNA that potentially could be matched with DNA samples provided over the years by relatives of Korean War MIAs. If matches are achieved, identification can be done relatively quickly, he said, but in other cases the identification work will take years. The forensics work in some cases is aided by records of chest X-rays that US soldiers commonly were given upon entering the military, as well as dental records. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is greeted by the participants of a Korean War veterans meeting in Pyongyang. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) The remains handed over by North Korea last week in 55 boxes are "consistent with being Americans" based on an initial examination, according to a US scientist. The expert, who has seen the remains, said none have been positively identified. Although President Donald Trump has publicly thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for fulfilling the promise he made at their June 12 Singapore summit to return American war remains, US officials cautioned that little was known about the remains and that they could not be quickly identified. John E. Byrd, director of the Defence Department laboratory in Hawaii where the 55 cases arrived on Wednesday, cited several reasons for saying at least some of the remains appear to be those of Americans missing from the Korean War. Mr Byrd was present when North Korean officials turned over the 55 boxes at Wonsan airport in North Korea last Friday, and he was among the US government specialists who made a further preliminary examination of the contents after the boxes were flown to Osan air base in South Korea the same day. A cursory examination at Wonsan confirmed the remains were human, he said, and a closer look at Osan gave reason to believe they likely are Americans. Mr Byrd, speaking by video teleconference from Hawaii, said: "What we saw were remains that were consistent with what we have found from the Korean War recoveries that we've done over the years, and we found remains that were consistent with being Americans. "We have remains that look to have been in a state of preservation consistent with coming from the Korean War era," adding that materials provided with the remains included US-issued military equipment such as canteens and buttons. He said the remains are "good candidates to be missing Americans from the Korean War" where thousands died on battlefields and in prisoner-of-war camps during the 1950-53 conflict and remain officially unaccounted for. Mr Byrd said he would not venture a guess at how many individuals are represented by the bones contained in the 55 boxes. The US and North Korean militaries conducted joint excavations of war remains in the North between 1996 and 2005, yielding more than 200 set of remains - not all of which have been positively identified. Separately, North Korea had handed over 208 boxes of remains between 1990 and 1994, some of which have also yet to be identified. When the North Koreans turned over the 55 boxes to Byrd and other US officials at Wonsan on July 27 they said the cases contained remains of an undetermined number of Americans, but the only identification item provided was a single military dog tag, Mr Byrd said. Two members of that person's family have been notified, Kelly McKeague, the director of the Defence POW-MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters. Mr McKeague declined to reveal the name on the dog tag. Mr Byrd said the North Koreans at Wonsan provided what he described as a "short bit, a little paragraph of information" with each of the 55 boxes. The most significant bit of information in each case was the name of the village where the remains were recovered, he said. One of the villages was Sin Hung-ri, which he said is on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir where US Army soldiers fought a fierce battle in the fall of 1950 after Chinese forces entered the war. North Korea had told American officials more than once in recent years that it had about 200 sets of US war remains in storage. Mr McKeague said the North Koreans who provided the 55 boxes last week did not say whether they have others. He added the US is prepared to discuss arrangements for future US-North Korean excavations but this process is not yet underway, but his laboratory in Hawaii has already begun working on the remains. The first step, he said, is sampling the bones for DNA that potentially could be matched with DNA samples provided over the years by relatives of Korean War MIAs. If matches are achieved, identification can be done relatively quickly, he said, but in other cases the identification work will take years. The forensics work in some cases is aided by records of chest X-rays that US soldiers commonly were given upon entering the military, as well as dental records. President Donald Trump said he received a new letter from Kim Jong Un (Andrew Harnik/AP) Donald Trump has said he is looking forward to meeting North Koreas leader again soon after receiving a nice letter. The US president tweeted his thanks to Kim Jong Un for your nice letter I look forward to seeing you soon!. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the correspondence is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the leaders joint statement there. Vice President Mike Pence and US military leaders earlier received the remains of missing US soldiers from the Korean War during a ceremony in Hawaii. The letter comes amid concerns over North Koreas ballistic missile programme and commitment to denuclearisation following the Singapore summit. Mr Trump in his tweet expressed gratitude to Kim for keeping your word on the return of the remains of more than 50 Americans service members killed during the Korean War. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to an Asian security meeting in Singapore, where a meeting this weekend with North Koreas foreign minister is possible. Mr Trump has sought to show progress from his June 12 summit with Mr Kim in Singapore. He said during a Tuesday rally in Tampa, Florida, that the US was doing well with North Korea and noted the return of detained Americans and Pyongyangs ceasing of nuclear testing or missile tests. A lot of good things are happening. No tests. No rockets flying. But well see what happens, Mr Trump said. US officials have been closely watching North Koreas willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that US intelligence officials suspect that North Korea is continuing to build new missiles in the same research facility that manufactured the countrys ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. The Post also reported that North Korean officials have talked about how they plan to deceive the US about the size of their arsenal of missiles and nuclear warheads and facilities. Syrian fighters and civilians celebrate the return of government authority to the southern town of Quneitra adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (AP) UN peacekeepers have returned to patrol the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 2014, Russian authorities said. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman told reporters in Moscow that the UN peacekeepers, aided by Russian forces, conducted their first patrolling mission in the area earlier in the day. The development also marked the first time that Russian forces, a major ally of the Damascus government, where involved in the patrols. The peacekeeping mission was halted in 2014 amid the violence in Syrians civil war over security concerns. Expand Close A map of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon was shown by Russian authorities (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A map of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon was shown by Russian authorities (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) As the situation stabilises, these posts will be handed over to Syrian government forces, the spokesman said. The UN peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. After Syrias civil war erupted, clashes broke out between Syrian President Bashar Assads forces and rebels inside the disengagement zone. In 2014, al Qaida militants in the area kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers before releasing them after two weeks. The UN withdrew from many of its positions shortly after that incident. Meanwhile, an Israeli military spokesman said the countrys forces had targeted and killed seven armed terror operatives who had crossed into Israeli territory in the southern Golan Heights. Israel tracked the armed infiltrators who approached the border on Wednesday night and a military aircraft struck as they attempted to cross a security fence on the Israeli side of the frontier. A subsequent search of the area yielded several assault rifles and explosives. The spokesman said a preliminary assessment was that the infiltrators were Islamic State militants. Israeli troops were on high alert and readiness following the strike. Israels defence minister said the situation on the border with Syria has reverted to the way it was before the civil war now that Syrian government forces have recaptured the area. Avigdor Lieberman toured a Patriot missile battery in northern Israel on Thursday after Russia said it reached an agreement to keep Iranian forces about 50 miles away from the Syrian-Israeli frontier. Mr Lieberman said that Israel had no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement, and as long as Syria does not become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. UAE-based Gulf Craft, a builder of luxury yachts and leisure boats, has appointed Dubai-based Bush & Noble Yacht Brokerage as the official broker for the shipyards select pre-owned yachts and boats. The move is part of Gulf Crafts continued focus on international growth and recognition, said a statement from the company. The appointment will provide a full marketing and distribution service to help expand and promote the trading of pre-owned Gulf Craft vessels to international prospects, it said. Bush & Noble was established in 2012 by co-founders John Bush and Brett Noble. With over 30 years combined experience in the luxury motor yacht sector, the company is directed by two industry professionals and is recognised as the leading yacht brokerage in the Middle East with clients from all over the world. This wealth of experience and industry passion combined with Gulf Crafts globally recognised standing of quality yachts and magnificent range provide its international clients with the highest levels of service. Gregory Yeakle, chief executive officer of Gulf Craft, said: We are proud to welcome Bush & Noble into our network. It is the beginning of yet another exciting new voyage, as we foresee immense growth potential. The Majesty Yachts collection holds its value longer than comparable models and promises even next generation owners many more exciting years of service, he said. Bush & Noble are renowned for their consultancy services along with their impartial guidance to the yacht owners and they are sure to enhance our global presence, he added. This exciting new business venture will be led by John Bush, co-founder and director of Bush & Noble. He said: The global Yacht industry is projected to reach $74.7 billion by 2022, driven by the rising interest in luxury cruising among high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals. This is a fantastic opportunity for Gulf Craft to identify new growth markets for their products. Our new appointment as used stock dealer will truly support the brands growth, and we are very excited about the opportunities ahead, he added. Meanwhile, Gulf Crafts Majesty 100 has garnered great attention in Australia ever since it was delivered to an experienced Australian yacht owner earlier this year, the company said. Following its high profile global debut, the spectacular Majesty 100 M/Y Oneworld commenced operations on the East Coast with Oneworld Charters and is now one of the most successful charter superyachts in Sydney, said a statement. Gulf Craft is currently the only foreign superyacht builder that has been able to build and deliver purpose-built AMSA certified charter superyachts to the Australian market, it said. The Majesty 100 M/Y Oneworld features an exquisite sky-lounge, an expansive saloon with full height glass windows and 5 luxurious en-suite staterooms, it added. Richard Morris, managing director of Australian Superyachts, said: Superyacht owners are looking for the most intelligent way to own their assets and chartering their yacht helps them partially offset running costs, enabling them to realize their dream of ownership in a far more economical manner. With multiple superyachts in build, we are proud to be putting Australia on the map as a charter destination recognised around the globe with world-class superyachts built and delivered by Gulf Craft. Currently, the top three superyachts available for charter in Australia are all Gulf Craft Majesty Yachts; De Lisle III, Ghost II and now OneWorld, he added. TradeArabia News Service India is embracing luxury at its best. This increasing sense of brand-consciousness among Indians is principally attributed to the countrys burgeoning aspirational and younger middle class. At the same time, increased internet penetration has also contributed to this consumer behavior, allowing consumers to search and satisfy their desire to own and possess designer brands. Taken together, these factors will help Indias luxury sector grow by about 30 to 35 percent over the next three years across categories as diverse as fine dining, electronics, luxury travel, luxury personal care, fashion, and jewelry. Investing in Indias luxury sector Indias share of the global luxury market is presently 1 to 2 percent; sales of luxury goods grew faster in India than anywhere else in the world in the last few years. An annual sector trends report from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and research agency Kantar notes that between 2015 and 2016, the Indian luxury market grew from US$14.7 billion to a whopping US$18.6 billion, at a growth rate of 25 percent year-on-year. The CII-Kantar report also breaks down the share of the countrys luxury market geographically. North India accounts for 40 percent of spending on luxury products and services, with the Delhi National Capital Region leading the consumption share, followed by Punjab and Haryana. Southern and western India, each, account for around 25 percent and eastern India lags in the luxury market with a 10 percent market share. With their growing affluence, Indias Tier-II and Tier-III cities are also emerging as new reservoirs of luxury spending. Scope for foreign companies With the rapid rise of online shopping for luxury brands in India, it is expected that online luxury stores will see investments of US$35 billion in 2016, which will double by 2020. Previously, the traditional luxury clientele in India consisted of those who mostly shopped on their trips abroad. This trend still continues and needs to be tackled by luxury brands entering or operating in India. Nevertheless, the modern Indian luxury consumer base is expanding, with a growing middle and upper middle class earning higher disposable incomes. Moreover, 70 percent of Indias population is younger than 35 years, and youngsters are highly discerning consumers due to increased awareness through the internet, growing influence of Western culture, and expansion of modern retailing. Yet, while Indias consumer base is steadily growing and is more liberal in its spending habits, the desire for value proposition poses the greatest challenge. In this regard, luxury brands will have to contend with such perceptions even as they differentiate themselves on the price platform. Indias FDI policy Authorities allow 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retailing and 51 percent in multi-brand retailing. This opens up opportunities for international luxury brand companies when strategizing their business operations in the Indian market. For instance, many French brands have already made plans to invest in India and open stores in the short term. Established brands such as Louis Vuitton and LOreal are expanding further and increasing their investments, while some companies are recalibrating their joint venture partnerships to widen their Indian presence. The removal of the cap on foreign ownership in single-brand retail and liberalization of FDI limits in multi-brand retail should encourage international brands to invest more. Reflecting optimism over FDI liberalization, Tikka Shatrujit Singh, chief representative in Asia for LVMH, the French parent firm of Louis Vuitton and other global luxury brands, comments This was the last frontier to be opened. It will make India a preferred market. Indias competitive luxury market These growth trends and drivers are some of the reasons why, apart from China, India is viewed as the most promising among all emerging markets. Indias luxury spend is on par with the UAE, far ahead of Turkey, Thailand, and Argentina, and growing faster than Singapore and Australia. Further, even as China is poised to become the worlds second largest luxury market by 2020, its ageing population and the growing chasm between its haves and have-nots, is throwing up tremendous challenges to its political and economic stability. With the recent slowdown in the luxury sector in China, global markets have shifted their focus to players in India. Indias luxury sector is still in its emergent phase and will have many opportunities for future expansion and diversification. The government, too, has taken progressive steps to make the process of entering the Indian market easier. Key among these are the Make in India, Digital India, and Smart Cities initiatives. Cumulatively, they seek to work on the gaps in Indias infrastructure (both physical and digital), expand the urban ecosystem in a sustainable manner, and revitalize the job market. While these reforms are expected to help bring in more luxury brands to the country over the next few years, a young demography, strong economic fundamentals, and rising income levels serve to be the force multipliers responsible for the future growth of Indias luxury market. Just think about it at this point in your life when you are already sulking over the little things, you could just hit rock bottom. Itll be like an uninvited guest coming to your home and refusing to leave. Youll be hanging in the balance, and like Irrfan Khan said, uncertainty is going to be the only certainty. Irrfan Khan was riding high on success, getting the deserved recognition in Bollywood as well as Hollywood when he was detected with neuroendocrine tumour, a rare form of cancer. He had to rush to London to get treated. It has been months he hasnt come back, but he has been keeping fans updated through various mediums. Also Read: Irrfan Khan Talks About His Battle With Cancer, Says Pain Felt More Enormous Than God Twitter Ive seen life from a completely different angle. You sit down and you see the other side and thats fascinating. Im engaged on a journey, he said when asked how he was feeling in general. medylife.com What is he going through? Irrfan says initially he was shaken. There are challenges which life throws at you. But I have started believing in the way this condition has tested me, really, really tested me in all aspects physical, emotional and spiritual. It has put me in a rapture state. Initially I was shaken. I didnt know. I was very, very vulnerable. But slowly, there is another way to look at things that is much more powerful and much more productive and much more healthy and I just want people to believe that nature is much more trustworthy and one must trust that. The problem with me initially was everyone was speculating whether I would be out of this disease or not. Because its not in my hand. Thats nature that will do whatever it has to do. What is in my hand, I could take care of that. Twitter He says the disease has changed his outlook towards life. And it offers so much that you feel thankful. The way it is opening your windows to look at life. I would have never reached that state even if I had done meditation for 30 years, I wouldnt have reached it. But this sudden jolt has put me into a platform where I could look at things in a completely different manner. And for that I am really thankful. It sounds strange, but they should trust nature rather than feel sad, and trust that whatever the outcome, it will be for good and it will be for the best. cinestaan.com Is he reading scripts and planning to work? He says not as of now. At the moment his life is unpredictable and he is enjoying that. My days are unpredictable I dont plan. I go for breakfast and then I dont have a plan. I take things as they come. That has been really helping me a lot. I dont make plans. Im just spontaneous. And Im loving this experience I know because we live in a world that is packed with plans, it sounds unrealistic. How could you live your life like that? But life is so mysterious and has so much to offer, we dont really try things. And Im trying and Im loving it. Im in a really fortunate state. Giving update on his health and treatment, he said, I have had the fourth cycle of chemo. And I have to have six cycles and then we need to have a scan. After the third cycle, the scan was positive. But we need to see after the sixth scan. And then well see where it takes me. Theres no guarantee of life with anybody. My mind could always tell me to hang a kind of chip on your neck and say, I have this disease and I could die in a few months or a year or two. Or I could just avoid this conversation completely and live my life the way it offers me. And it offers so much. I admit I was walking around with blinders. I couldnt see what it offered me. Irrfan Khan says he has learnt so much by seeing the other aspect of life. I feel like I have no other words but thanks. There are no other words, theres no other demand, theres no other prayer. We wish you a speedy recorvery. Get well soon. In 2016, Actor/Model/Politician Gul Panag added another feather in her cap by announcing the news of becoming licensed Pilot. When it comes to breaking stereotypes and doing things her own way, no one does it better than her. Instagram Gul has never followed the usual route and has experimented in every area of her life. Be it doing films like Dor, Manorama 6 Feet Under or Turning 30, or choosing to embrace motherhood at 39 like a boss, she is a woman who has never stopped inspiring others to follow their own heart. The magic hour. #photography #shotoniphone8plus A post shared by Gul Panag (@gulpanag) on May 11, 2018 at 6:33am PDT Yes, Gul Panag is also a mother of six-month-old Baby Nihal. Gul, who chose to keep her pregnancy a secret gave birth to Nihal six months ago and since then, she has been trying to get back to her normal fitter self by extensive work-out routines. Talking about embracing motherhood at 39, she spoke to Verve magazine and said, Ive always lived life on my own terms, and hopefully will always continue to do that. Rishi and I definitely wanted a baby and Nihal is a delightfully welcome addition to our family. Motherhood is a massive experience with an ever-expanding array of emotions and experiences, and its not something that can be defined flippantly in a moment, and I feel you grow as a parent, just as your child grows into an adult. Gul kept everything away from her social media accounts, where she has always been active. Talking about her choice of why all of it was kept away from public attention, Gul spoke to Mumbai Mirror and said, Twitter Rishi (her husband) and I have always valued our privacy. Becoming parents is a special experience and we decided that wed like to go through it without the distraction of public attention. Family and close friends knew about Nihal but we refrained from posting anything on the social media. He is almost six months old and it has been a roller coaster ride! Im charmed by his gurgles and giggles even if it is a bit of a struggle with erratic sleep and feeding schedules. Life and goals are taking shape parallelly, with a little more coordination between Rishi and me to include Nihal. If you are following Gul on Instagram, you would know how her fitness regime for herself is stricter than ever. Her Insta stories are all about inspiring people to eat healthy and clean. Talking about shedding her post-pregnancy weight, she said, Instagram Nihal was born prematurely so I didnt put on too much weight. Even through the pregnancy, I took care to eat healthily and have always been very active, so it was easy to get back to my workouts and shed the extra kilos." She also had a wise advice for every woman is planning to conceive in her 30's. She said, I think having a baby is a very significant step in life, and like marriage, you should think it through carefully before committing to it. Have children when you are ready to welcome them and can raise them happily and responsibly, not when society says you must. They can treat us when we are ill, but can't be our neighbours. This "message" was allegedly conveyed to four Medical College and Hospital alumni, now doing their house-staffship at various hospitals in West Bengal, by their neighbours at a south Kolkata housing society. Aftab Alam, Mojtaba Hassan, Nasir Shaikh and Sawkat Shaikh are now counting their days at their Kudghat flat and have approached a volunteers' group, Sanghati Abhijan, to resist their eviction. "Our members will file a general diary... we plan to talk to the neighbours and the local municipal councillor to find a solution," said Dwaipayan Banerjee, on behalf of Sanghati Abhijan. facebook/Nasir Shaikh The four MCH alumni rented the Kudghat flat two months ago. "Our landlord did not have any problem with us but, right from the beginning, some of our neighbours created a hostile situation. Things worsened on Monday when a friend came to visit us. He was heckled by some neighbours who asked him to show an 'identity proof'. facebook/Sawkat Shaikh One of them - a middle-aged man - has asked us to find accommodation elsewhere as we are Muslims," Alam, a resident of neighbouring Howrah district, said on Wednesday . "Many landlords rejected us because of our religion. We got this flat after several weeks of house-hunting," he added. The four have not yet moved out of the flat but Sawkat said they had "more or less decided" to shift. "No one can stay peacefully in such an environment," he said . facabook/Aftab Alam TOI spoke to their landlord, who said, "A few of my neighbours spoke to me against my decision... Their sole objection was my tenants' religion." He added that it would set "a bad example" if he was forced to turn out his tenants. "But I can take only so much of pressure," he said. Amid the reports of Chinese army returning to Doklam and quietly resuming its construction activities, the Indian army might have to brace itself for another standoff against a known enemy. Although the report that came from the US has been firmly denied by the Indian army, the possibility of the Chinese army resuming construction in Doklam in near future can't be denied. Last year, India-China had a 73-day long standoff at Doklam tri-junction that connects India-Bhutan-China. Since Bhutan is Indias protectorate, India objected to Chinese construction on the area, which Bhutan and China, both stake claims to. Indian army rushed to the spot and did the needful. However, in the absence of motorable roads connecting borders to important military establishments, around 120 soldiers had to walk for 19 hours to reach the spot and then they took positions against the Chinese. GettyImage Despite repeated alarms, stand-offs and threats from the Chinese, the Indian government hasn't budged at all. The apathy can be understood by the fact that in 2005-06, the government had approved the construction of 73 roads alongside China border. The work for it was supposed to be completed in 2012, but even out of 73 proposed roads, only 34 have been completed. In May last year, the longest bridge with length 9.2 km over river Brahmaputra which enables troops smooth movement to North-Eastern states especially Arunachal Pradesh which shares the border with China was inaugurated. GettyImage Modi government was hailed for this effort, but this 9.2 km long concrete on polls cant bridge the deficit that India has against the infrastructure developed by China alongside 4056 km (2520 miles) long border with India. But inaugurating a few miles long bridges won't help in case of any serious escalation by China. pti Since the was of 1962, a theory has been given that India isnt building up that infrastructure alongside the border so that Beijing doesnt get easy path if at all it tries to repeat 1962 endeavour. But this argument isnt strong enough and especially for a country that dreams to become an asian power. afp The current status Minister of State (home affairs) Kiran Rijiju gave the recent status of the construction of roads near China border in Lok Sabha during on the ongoing Monsoon session. He put his answer on the floor of the house saying, The Government has undertaken construction of 73 roads of operational significance along Indo-China border. Out of 73 roads, 48 roads are being constructed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and 25 roads by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Out of 73 roads, 34 roads have been completed. AFP Last year, India-China had a 70-day long standoff at Doklam tri-junction that connects India-Bhutan-China. Since Bhutan is Indias protectorate, India objected to Chinese construction on the area which Bhutan and China, both stake claims to. A porter spotted the Chinese machines and construction material and India ordered to troop movement from Arunachal Pradesh. But since we dont have roads till miles insides Indian territory, the soldiers had to walk for 19 hours to reach to the point of intrusion. India had deployed 120 soldiers there and since there were no roads, the army had to use the company of 300 porters, raised long back, perhaps for this purpose to supply rations and other necessities to the soldiers. Lack of cohesion between various stakeholders AFP Like all other developmental works in India, here too lack of cohesion between state and centre, various departments and even ministries at Centre has contributed to the delay in the completion of these projects. However, the minister decided to call it a 'dynamic process'. The construction of roads is a dynamic process which takes into account various challenges faced by executing agencies like tough working condition, inhospitable terrain, non-availability of construction material, mobilization of goods and logistic and vulnerability of the area to natural calamity, earthquake, landslide etc. The speed with which things move in India is slower than one can imagine and the administrative bottlenecks that come up at bureaucratic levels are major reasons why the majority of the projects dont finish in time, even if it involves countrys security. AFP The Committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Special Secretary (Border Management), MHA meets periodically to sort out various bottlenecks in the implementation of the project with all agencies concerned including State Governments. Empowered Committee has also been constituted by the States of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura to resolve issues related to land acquisition, forest/wild clearance, allotment of quarries etc. Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change has accorded general approval under Section (2) of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 for diversion of forest land for construction and widening of border roads in the areas falling within 100 Kms aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control (LAC). MoD has given enhanced financial and administrative powers to executives of BRO and also allowed outsourcing to augment the capacity of BRO, read ministers answer. While China has signed the pact with Nepal for building the rail link between Kathmandu and Tibet, India since 2013 has been talking about building railway links near borders with China. In 2013, reports came that government is planning to lay 14 rail links near borders of China and Pakistan, and even now surveys are being done. Indias recent push to infrastructure development Following are the projects India is pushing to complete and their status near borders with China. 1. The 9 km long tunnel at Zojila pass: PM laid the foundation stone in August last year. 2. The 3.5 km long tunnel at Sonmarg: work in progress 3. The 10.9 km long Chenani-Nashri tunnel on Jammu Srinagar highway: inaugurated 4. The 498 km long Bilaspur-Manali-Leh railway line: a survey in progress 5. The 44 km long Agartala-Udaipur new railway line: work in progress 6. The 21 km Dudhnoi-Mendipathar railway line: project completed 7. The 20 km Harmuti-Naharlagun railway line: project completed 8. Trans-Arunachal highway linking three towns Tawang-Kanubari-Akajan: in progress 9. The 377.5 km long Bhalukpong-Tenga-Tawang railway line: the survey in progress 10. The 248 km long North Lakhimpur-Bame-Along railway line: the survey in progress 11. The 4.9 km long Bogibeel bridge: likely to be inaugurated by October this year. The Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam 12. The 9.15 km long Dhola-Sadiya bridge: inaugurated last year. 13. The 226 km long Pasighat-Tezu-Parsuramkund-Rupai railway line: the survey in progress (The status of these projects may have changed since this was taken from an Outlook report published last year). An Indian national working for an international food services company in Afghanistan was among three foreigners killed by unidentified gunmen after they were abducted from capital city Kabul, the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn country. The three men -- one Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian -- were working as chefs for the French food services and facilities management giant Sodexo, the ToloNews said, citing a senior diplomat in Kabul. Reuters/Representational Image The identities of the victims have not been disclosed. They were abducted early this morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi, a volatile area of the Afghan capital, the report said. According to local media reports, the armed men took off the foreigners from their vehicle at around 8:30 am (local time) and abducted them in a Toyota Corolla at the industrial park area of 9th Police District in Kabul city. The driver of the foreign nationals after 20 minutes reached the office and informed the staff about the abduction, the report said. Police launched a search operation and cordoned off the area. After around two hours, the bodies were recovered. Police is investigating it as terror incident. Reuters/Representational Image No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killings. The Taliban militants group often claim responsibility behind the abduction although some of the kidnappings are done for ransom by criminal gangs. It is the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn capital. The incident came nearly three months after seven Indian engineers of an RPG group company working in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province were abducted by Taliban gunmen who apparently mistook them for government employees. The Indian Penal Code's provision on adultery violates the fundamental Right to Equality as it treats married men and women differently, the Supreme Court said today.Read More. Here's More Top News Of The Day: 1) After Drinking Water Row, Dalit Students Denied Admission In Uttar Pradesh Government School In the most recent case, two Dalit students were denied admission in a government primary school in Panchchali Patti village in Mawana area of Meerut. Jagjeevan Ram, a Dalit by caste, alleged that his two sons Kautuk and Gaurav, were denied admission in the Government Primary School when his wife went to the school.Read More. 2) School Girl Impregnated By Kerala Priest Says She Is Not A Minor And The Sex Was Consensual In a major setback in the rape case involving a Catholic priest in Kerala, the first prosecution witness, the petitioner has turned hostile in the court. Read More. 3) Burari Again? Four Member Family In Kerala Found Buried, Black Magic Suspected In what appears to be a repeat of the Burari mass family suicide, a four-member family in Kerala has been found dead under mysterious circumstances in Thodupuzha, Idukki. Read More. 4) National Register Of Citizens Has Left Out Veteran Army Officer Who Served The Country For 30 Years Army Jawan, a former Junior Commissioned Officer, who served the Indian Army for 30 years, does not have his name in the recently released National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft. The first draft of the NRC has triggered a massive political uproar, with four million people in Assam being excluded from the charter. Read More. 5) Mishap Averted: Flight Catches Fire At Hyderabad Airport, All 149 Passengers Safely Evacuated Jazeera Airways, a Kuwait based airline was saved from a major tragedy when one of its engines caught fire on Wednesday night. The accident took place soon after the aircraft made a landing at Hyderabads Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. Read More. To follow the quirks of nature can be taxing. Every now and then nature puts on a display and reaffirms that there is nothing on this planet more gorgeous, powerful and fulfilling than the tricks and magic of nature. It was a surprise for the folks in China, when the looked up at the skyand were able to see clouds kissing. Pictures of 'Kiss In The Air' clouds form a "romantic" shape in Shaoxing City in east China's Zhejiang Province are now going viral and making everyone on the internet stare in sheer amusement. 1. #ICYMI Kiss in the air. Clouds form a "romantic" shape in Shaoxing City in east China's Zhejiang Province pic.twitter.com/w6CbCZbefp CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) July 29, 2018 2. Two #clouds on the horizon act like stars in a romantic movie, kissing each other soulfully during nightfall in Zhejiang Province. https://t.co/56lBs02JCg pic.twitter.com/cnF8h8Y2hS China Plus News (@ChinaPlusNews) July 29, 2018 3. 4. Kissing couple cloud as seen in China pic.twitter.com/jGwK1KTrgb blessing olomu (@blessingolomu) July 30, 2018 5. Two clouds appear to kiss over the sky in romantic photo taken at dusk in China https://t.co/qAM8cLelRq pic.twitter.com/pJ5SFZTvxJ Daily Mail Pics (@DailyMailPics) July 30, 2018 Following the display, Chinese journalists joked that nature might be playing a prank on single people with the formation. 'Even the clouds are torturing singles,' wrote a report on sina.com. Trade unionists, journalists and civil rights advocates rallied and spoke out in San Francisco at the UK Consulate to oppose the expulsion of Julian Assange and also for his full freedom without jailing by the UK and US governments. On August 1, 2018 a rally and march was held to demand the freedom of Julian Assange and against the expulsion of him from the Ecuadoran embassy in London. Speaking from New York was journalist, WBAI host and activist Randy Credico as well as OSHA whistleblower Darrell Whitman who was able to use WikiLeaks to find the connection between Obama operative John Podesta and Karen Lerner who ran the Office of Special Counsel OSC which was supposed to investigate and stop corruption in the government.Trade unionists, journalists and civil rights activists talked about the need to defend whistleblower Julian Assange and prevent his arrest and incarceration by the UK and US government.They also marched to the San Francisco UK consulate and also challenged the UK government for it's attack on Assange.The rally was endorsed by:WorkWeek RadioProject CensoredUnited Public Workers For Action http://www.upwa.info Ann Garrison, Journalist, San Francisco Bay View, Black Agenda ReportRandy Credico, NYC Journalist, and WBAI Radio Host will speak by cell phoneDr. Darrell Whitman, OSHA WhistleblowerSocialist ViewpointSocialist ActionBerkeley Fellowship of UU's Social Justice CommitteeClassconscious.orgLaura WellsCandidate for Congress, District 13, Green PartyProduction ofLabor Video ProjectDr. Darrell Whitman: Statement in Support of Julian AssangeThe continuing threats to Julian Assange are an offense to decency and justice. Those who issue these threats are our enemy, using the power of the corporate state and its camp followers in the deep state and media to obscure their true intentions. The attacks are not on Julian Assange the man, but on democracy and the peoples right to know what their governments are doing, and the evil of what they are doing thrives in the darkness they protect.Six years ago, when I first began to challenge corruption in the federal government, I didnt know that same government was secretly monitoring my and every Americans activities. We only learned about it BECAUSE Julian Assange and Wikileaks gave Ed Snowden the opportunity to tell us. We didnt know about corrupt schemes of the superrich to spirit away their stolen money until we read about it when Julian Assange and Wikileaks published the Panama Papers. These revelations earned Assange and Wikileaks the hatred of powerful criminals which are heavily invested in corrupting governments all over the world.In the summer of 2016, Assange and Wikileaks earned the hatred of a new class of criminals the corrupt masters of the Democratic Party, when they published the John Podesta emails. These emails revealed not only the manipulation of the Democratic Party, but the extension of that corruption into the very heart of our government. When I read about the connections between Podesta and Carolyn Lerner, the head of the federal Office of Special Counsel, I began to connect the dots between the corruption inside the government and the corruption outside the government. Once those dots were connected, I saw the depth and breadth of the corruption and how it presented a direct assault on our Constitutional democracy.Without Assange and Wikileaks, we are blind. We must now act to protect him and those who work with him in Wikileaks because they are essential to protecting ourselves. Julian should be free to leave the Ecuadorian embassy on his own terms, as the European Court of Justice has declared. And rather than threats, Julian and Wikileaks should be lauded as the defenders of democracy that they are. Today, I proudly stand with Julian and all other whistleblowers who have put their selfish interests aside to protect their families, friends, fellow workers, and communities by standing up for truth and justice.FREEDOM FOR JULIAN ASSANGE, JUSTICE FOR ALL WHISTLEBLOWERS!! Dubai Municipality has received 170,823 food shipments through the emirate's entry points during the first six months of the year, a media report said. Imported food containers reached 238,190 in the same period, reported Emirates news agency Wam, citing the civic body figures. Essam Sayed Sharaf, head of Food Trade Control Section, said export health certificate numbered 41,250 while new food companies registered with Dubai Municipality stood at 1,714. Switch the Market flag Open the menu and switch the Market flag for targeted data from your country of choice. for targeted data from your country of choice. An NSW insurance brokerage has lost its licence to operate a financial-service business after ASIC took action against it. NSW Independent Insurance Brokers Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence has been cancelled by the corporate regulator after the firm was found to have ceased carrying on a financial-services business. The cancellation became effective on July 19. Of the attacks registered by the OAIC over the quarter, 59% were criminal or malicious in nature, and 36% could have been due to human error highlighting that more can be done to boost cyber security for businesses own protection. Cyber is no longer silent, said Robyn Adcock, Gallaghers client manager of professional and financial risks. With GDPR [the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation] and mandatory breach notifications now a reality, cyber breaches are part of the public sphere, which brings with it challenges for all businesses. From a compliance perspective, it is better to be safe than sorry. If you think you fall under the regulation, a framework you put in place will only benefit your business from a security and trust standpoint. The majority of the attacks were due to cyber incidents, such as phishing, malware, and ransomware, as 97 were reported in total. Theft of paperwork or data storage devices was the second-most popular attack method with 31 breaches, followed by social engineering and insider threats as the third-most common attack method with seven breaches each. Adcock said cyber insurance and adequate protection against cyberattacks is paramount. Conversations around cyber insurance have picked up markedly in the last 12 months following new legislation and a series of major global ransomware attacks in 2017, Adcock said. As legislation at home and abroad continues to develop, it is key that all businesses understand the cyber exposures they face and how best to mitigate against the threat of breaches that could be costly from both a financial and reputational perspective. Related stories: Gallagher urges businesses to get cyber covered IBM looks at the "hidden" costs of data breaches JLT on a "soft underbelly" for cybercriminals Nominations for the awards can be lodged until Sept. 14 via the CASE Awards website. Successful award finalists will be notified on Oct. 2018. The CASE Awards keeps evolving to recognise how dynamic our industry is, Nagle said. 2018 has seen vast improvements across the industry and I fully expect this years awards to be more competitive and inspiring than ever before. CASE Awards winners will be announced on Nov. 13 at a gala event at the International Convention Centre in Sydney. Tickets for the events are now available and can be purchased through the CASE Awards website. Related stories: icare opens applications for the aware awards CASE Awards winners unveiled Employers that adopt leadership and management practices that engage and motivate individuals to achieve a high standard of performance have been recognised in this years Employer of Choice Awards, said Tara Johnston, program director for the Australian Business Awards. Higher-performing organisations make better workplaces because people are more invested in the organisations goals and are generally more satisfied with their working conditions, than those of lower-performing organisations, she added. Craig Hodgson, GM of QUS, said the award is recognition of the culture, leadership, employee education, and training & development within the company. As an organisation we believe the brand of our employees is equally as important as our company brand, he said. We have invested heavily in working with all our employees to develop and promote their own brand and expertise in all things strata insurance. Hodgson also told Insurance Business that the companys achievement should send a message to brokers that they can expect a superior service from QUS. Having a happy and engaged team means that as an organisation we are able to deliver exceptional levels of service and expertise to our broker partners, helping them in turn to grow their business, he said. The Employer of Choice Award recipients will go on to participate in the international chapter of the program at the World Business Awards whereby participants are provided with the unique opportunity to benchmark themselves against the top performers globally. Related stories: Nominations for icare's 2018 CASE Awards open Retired fire chief scoops inaugural FM Global award Binder has filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court contesting the boards decision to deny him the contract. In his lawsuit, Binder claimed that, in 2015, Mayor Alan Simon invited him to offer a quote to compete with Bauer-Crowley. However, Binder said that the village later held a meeting without him and awarded Bauer-Crowley the contract on June 20, 2015. Simon had signed several Broker of Record documents for both Binder and Bauer-Crowley, the broker claimed. The document designates an agent to represent and manage a policyholders insurance policy. I was invited to bid by the mayor, Binder told Rockland/Westchester Journal News. I never got a chance to present my bid. It became very, very clear that the fix was in. Binder alleged that Simon wanted the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal (NYMIR) to provide insurance for Spring Valley, despite the insurer dropping the village years prior due to financial losses from insurance claims. NYMIRs coverage would include legal actions under the Religious Land Use Protection Act. The broker also alleged in his lawsuit that Spring Valley trustee Asher Grossman who is a licensed insurance broker through his Trumper Insurance Agency took action on behalf of Bauer-Crowley in 2015, along with then-trustees Emilia White and Vilair Fonvil. The Village of Spring Valley spends over $2 million a year on property and casualty insurance, Binder said. Sabotaging the bidding process on an account this size probably cost the village taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating competition. Clearly the cost to the taxpayers is of no concern by this administration. Related stories: Charlottesville terror raises new insurance need Lone wolf terrorist attacks press companies to evaluate risk Do you have middle market commercial clients looking for an alternative to the unpredictable, cyclical insurance market? Perhaps theyve recorded 10-years of minimal losses and are fed up of paying premiums into a corporate pot and seeing little in return. As risk management and general health and safety awareness continue to weave their ways into corporate culture, more and more medium-sized businesses are looking for alternative risk transfer solutions and its up to brokers to meet their demands for something different. Group captive insurance solutions sit in-between traditional guaranteed cost policies and self-insurance solutions. Business owners who join a captive will take the reins of their insurance business, enabling them to generate premium savings, benefit from investment income on funds held, and gain access to shared risk management resources. The captive concept has a very simple value proposition. Members will receive an insurance proposal that looks a lot like a typical guaranteed cost proposal, but the premium is divided into two buckets: expenses of running the program (including commissions, claims handling, insurer fees, and reinsurance) and the loss fund. If the captive members have fewer losses than anticipated, all excess funds in the buckets will be returned to the members in the form of a dividend so its a cost-plus proposition, explained John Shea, chief underwriting officer at Tangram Insurance Services, an MGA that offers a successful captive solution in the form of the Bodega Insurance Program. A middle market account with an excellent loss ratio in the traditional market can achieve great cost efficiencies with a captive solution. Firms can invest in themselves and reap the rewards of good risk management practices and claims controls. They remove themselves from market swings and can avoid the trials of renewals and re-marketing. From a brokers perspective, group captives will generally pay the broker a lower retail commission than what they can get in the standard market. So, why should a broker consider this as a solution? The value proposition for the broker is the same for the insured owner, Shea told Insurance Business. Once the broker puts a client into the captive, they will never have to market that account again in all likelihood, because the client is now a co-owner of the group captive and will not be going to market every year. This reduces the costs a broker has to incur year-on-year in marketing the account. Its also a very powerful prospecting tool, as not many brokers are yet talking to their clients about captive solutions. Tangram Insurance Services launched its member-owned group captive solution called the Bodega Insurance Program in partnership with Great American Insurance Company in 2015. The program offers workers compensation, general liability, auto liability and physical damage coverages, which are all fronted by Great American. The captive is part of Grand Cayman-licensed Bodega Insurance Company Limited, from which all members must buy a share of stock if they wish to join the captive. On December 01, the Bodega Insurance Program will have been running for three years. Its a heterogeneous group captive, with privately held companies of similar sizes spread across various industry sectors. At present, the captive is made up of 13 members and is experiencing controlled growth of around three to four members every year, Shea explained. All members are actively involved in the captives growth and have the opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level. With Tangram as an MGA, marketing the Bodega captive solution to our retail broker partners is an extra value-add, Shea added. We strongly believe our interests align with our retail brokers very closely because we do most of our business with them on a traditional basis. This captive solution is a way to supplement and enhance that relationship because it gives the broker an alternative product offering for some of their larger accounts. Related stories: Building the MGA of the future starts right now Captive insurance market booms as firms spot profit opportunities The National Transportation Safety Board says a twin-engine propeller aircraft reported a loss of power right before a crash that killed three people. A spokesman for the NTSB said the plane, called an Aerostar AEST, was hauled to a secure location for further examination. The plane crashed Monday just short of the runway at the small airport in the rural Maine town of Greenville. It had departed Pembroke, Ontario, and was headed for Prince Edward Island. Authorities have not provided names of those killed in the crash, and the cause remains under investigation. The NTSB plans to be on the scene for three to four days as it works with federal aviation officials and engine manufacturer Lycoming Engines. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Profit Loss Maine A grand jury has indicted a Virginia man in a boat crashed that killed his friend. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports authorities say 32-year-old John Randolph Hooper was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter while operating the boat under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash. Lancaster Commonwealths Attorney Jan Smith said Hooper also was indicted on an additional felony count of failing to render aid 31-year-old Graham McCormick after the boat the men were in crashed into a bulkhead in Carter Creek off the Rappahannock River last Aug. 11. McCormicks parents in April reached a $4 million settlement in a lawsuit they brought against Hooper in which they accused him of driving while under the influence of alcohol and then leaving their son behind. Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Abuse Molestation Virginia Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo walked out a big winner at the World Luxury Spa & Restaurants Awards, taking home six awards including Best Unique Spa Experience and Best Thai Cuisine. The awards serve as recognition of sustained commitment to service excellence and outstanding achievement in the international luxury spa and wellness, as well as, restaurant industry. The intricate Devarana Spa was recognized for the 'Best Unique Spa Experience' and for having the 'Best Spa Manager in Africa'. TAO Multi Asian Restaurant was recognised for having the 'Most Luxurious Ambiance in Egypt' as well as for offering 'Best Asian Fusion Cuisine in Africa'. Ruen Thai Restaurant & Bar was recognised for being the 'Best Luxury Restaurant Bar' as well as for offering the 'Best Thai Cuisine in Africa'. We are proud of this achievement and of our professional team who always show devotion and dedication to perfection, said Rady Rady, general manager of Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo Thank you to all of our loyal guests who voted for us. We remain committed to offering the best authentic Thai experience in the heart of New Cairo." - TradeArabia News Service A federal appeals court in Ohio on July 31 heard arguments by opposing attorneys in a class action involving whether agents working for an insurance carrier on an exclusive basis should be classified as independent contractors or as company employees. The 6th U.S Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has agreed to consider an appeal of the district courts interlocutory opinion in Walid Jammal, et al. v. American Family Ins Co, et al., finding that the plaintiff insurance agents are American Family Insurance Group employees as opposed to independent contractors. Following a 12-day trial in April 2017, a federal advisory jury in United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio concluded that Madison, Wisconsin-based American Family Insurance Group had misclassified thousands of sales agents as independent contractors. In July 2017, Judge Donald Nugent affirmed that finding. He wrote in his order that the presented evidence supports a finding that the American Family agents defined in the class description should have been classified as employees and not independent contractors. However, Nugent authorized the parties to take an interlocutory appeal of the order and stayed the case pending the outcome of the appeal. He wrote that such an appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation because: (1) there was evidence supporting both sides in this case; (2) prior case law has been nearly unanimous in finding that insurance agents generally are to be classified as independent contractors; (3) the repercussions of this finding are so far-reaching; and, (4) the resolution of damages will be unusually complicated. The case was originally brought by four former American Family agents, and its outcome will impact the retirement benefits for nearly 7,000 current and former agents. Plaintiffs in the class action had alleged that American Family avoids complying with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA,) the federal law that protects retirement benefits, by improperly classifying its agents as independent contractors when they are actually employees. The arguments before the federal district court had centered on the degree of control that company held over its sales agents. Judge Nugent wrote: In order to determine employment status under ERISA, courts are instructed to look at the degree to which the hiring party retains the right to control the manner and means by which the service is accomplished. The agent agreement with the company states that agents are independent contractors responsible for payment of taxes and having the right to exercise independent judgement in how they conduct their business. As independent contractors, the agents are not eligible for workers compensation and unemployment benefits. However, plaintiffs argued, while the company on paper regards them as independent contractors, company managers routinely direct the ways and means by which agents did their jobs, sometimes forcefully. The agents are required to purchase the items necessary to run their agencies but are not allowed to sell the agency if they decide to terminate their relationship with American Family. American Family maintained that its managers work with agents only on sales goals and the outcome of those goals, not on how agents achieved them. In lieu of the retirement plan offered to American Family employees, testimony showed that agents were offered an extended earnings benefit based on their years of service, Judge Nugent wrote. This plan offered a lifetime annuity, and was described to the agents as a retirement plan. And in filings with state insurance regulators American Family characterized the extended earnings plan as a defined benefit. The amount an agent could receive from the plan upon leaving the company was based on how many years worked, as well as the amount earned during the last six months of the agents exclusive relationship with American Family. Questions asked by the 6th Circuit panel on July 31 indicated that the judges would again be looking at the degree of control the company has over agent activity. Judges also questioned how/whether an agent can be considered an employee when it comes to retirement benefits but an independent contractor for tax purposes. The wide-ranging impact of the case, if any, was also a subject the judges seemed to want to explore. Related: Topics Agencies USA Contractors Activist investor Carl Icahn has built a sizable stake in Cigna Corp. and plans to oppose the health insurers $54 billion takeover of pharmacy-benefits firm Express Scripts Holding Co., according to people familiar with the matter. Chief among Icahns concerns is that Amazon.com Inc.s entrance into the prescription-drug industry could threaten Express Scriptss business there over time, said the people. The size of the billionaires stake is somewhere below the 5 percent threshold that would require him to disclose it, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private Express Scripts shares fell 6.3 percent to $74.44 at the close in New York [on Aug. 1], the biggest one-day drop since April 2017. Cigna climbed 2 percent to its highest price since March. With the moves, theres now a 25 percent difference between where Express Scripts is trading and the agreed-upon takeover price the third-widest gap of any of the pending deals being monitored by Bloomberg. Icahn, 82, has spoken to other investors who also think Cigna should walk away from the deal because Express Scripts is unlikely to add value to the company, the people said. Cigna shareholders are scheduled to vote on whether to approve the merger on Aug. 24. Terminating the deal would require Cigna to pay a fee to Express Scripts of as much as $2.1 billion, according to a filing. Brian Henry, an Express Scripts spokesman, said that our combination with Cigna will deliver significant value to shareholders and position our companies to continue transforming health care. Representatives for Icahn declined to comment on the stake, which was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal. Matthew Asensio, a Cigna spokesman, didnt respond to requests for comment. Cigna, a major provider of health insurance to companies, agreed in March to pay about $54 billion in cash and stock for Express Scripts, which helps insurers and employers manage their prescription drug benefits. The goal was to streamline different parts of the health-care system by bringing them under one roof, saving money for clients of the combined firm. Under Pressure Express Scripts is the largest stand-alone pharmacy benefit manager, and managed about 1.4 billion prescriptions last year for its insurer and employer clients. Investors were wary of the deal from the start, and since the deal was announced the threats to Express Scriptss business have only increased. The Trump administration has targeted the business model of PBMs, which are intermediaries in the drug-supply business, as it works to lower prescription-drug prices. In June, Amazon signaled its entrance into the U.S. drug business by agreeing to pay $1 billion to buy online pharmacy PillPack, which sends customers their drugs in the mail. Express Scripts has a large mail-order operation. Express Scripts was a very controversial asset as the last remaining standalone PBM and we believe many investors were surprised by the deal in the first place, said Ross Muken, an analyst with Evercore ISI. We expect a full debate to now tick-up regarding the merits of the deal. Also on Wednesday, Express Scripts announced its second-quarter earnings results, results that will be closely watched for the companys health heading into the vote. The company said it expects to retain 97.5 percent to 98.5 percent of its customers next year, up from the 96 to 98 percent projection it gave in February. However, prescription claims a key measure of business volume declined 3.5 percent in the quarter after the company lost several government clients. Express Scripts said in the release that it expects to complete the Cigna merger to be complete by the end of the year. Cigna will report its quarterly earnings on Thursday [Aug. 2]. Busy Year Opposing the deal is the latest in a busy year for Icahn. Xerox Inc. walked away from its proposed $6.1 billion takeover by Fujifilm Holdings Corp. in May after Icahn and fellow billionaire Darwin Deason came out in opposition. He also successfully got a higher price in June for the proposed take-private transaction at AmTrust Financial Services Inc. after Icahn came out against the original terms of that deal. That fight followed on the heels of him successfully blocking Sandridge Energy Inc.s proposed takeover of Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. before winning five of eight seats on Sandridges board in June. Icahn also won three seats on the board of Crock-Pot maker Newell Brands Inc. a fight that not only saw him scrap with the company but also with fellow activist Starboard Value. Related: Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Amazon Drugs A national panel of judges has refused to merge more than 40 wetland damage lawsuits filed by six Louisiana parishes against oil and gas companies. NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has refused an attempt by oil and gas companies to consolidate the lawsuits. The panel said there are enough differences between the cases that combining them isnt necessary. The 42 lawsuits charge that the exploration, production and transportation by oil and gas companies have led to coastal land loss and damage. An attorney representing the parishes, John Carmouche, says the decision is a victory. The lawsuits, originally filed in state courts, now head to federal judges for hearings on whether they properly moved between the two court systems Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Louisiana Energy Oil Gas An Arkansas judge has rejected an initial request to disqualify a ballot measure that would place limits on damages awarded in lawsuits and give the Legislature control of state court rules. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce rejected the motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from counting any votes cast for the proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Pierce said former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey, who is challenging the measure, failed to show he would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction issued. Pierce did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit, which is still pending in his court. He said Humphrey still has an adequate remedy left through that lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that the proposal violates the constitutional separation of powers between legislative and judicial branches, and unconstitutionally combines disparate measures into one amendment. An attorney for Humphrey declined to comment on Pierces ruling. The proposed amendment would cap noneconomic damages awarded in lawsuits to $500,000 and would restrict punitive damages to $500,000 or three times the amount of compensatory damages awarded, whichever is higher. The Legislature would be able to increase these limits with a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate. It also would cap attorneys contingency fees at 33 1/3 percent of the net amount recovered in the lawsuit. The measure also would give the Legislature the power to change, repeal or adopt rules for the states courts. Opponents of the measure have said it would supersede juries and place arbitrary limits on damages. The measure has the backing of business groups like the state Chamber of Commerce, which argue the limits are needed to make Arkansas more competitive with surrounding states. Ultimately, this lawsuit will be decided by the Arkansas Supreme Court and we remain confident that the Court will allow Arkansans to vote on Issue 1 and decide whether Arkansas should be a tort reform state like most of the country, Carl Vogelpohl, campaign manager for Arkansans for Jobs and Justice, the group campaigning for the measure. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Legislation One moment she was having a sneezing fit and the next, her SUV had rear-ended a minivan. Thats what a 43-year Mississippi woman told officers in Athens, Georgia, after the sneeze-induced crash. Citing an Athens-Clarke County police report, The Athens Banner-Herald reports the minivan had slowed for a yellow light when it was struck by the SUV Thursday night. Police said the SUV driver said shed been sneezing constantly and that after one of her sneezes, the next thing she knew the air bag hit her in her face. No injuries were reported in the crash. Police said the SUV driver was cited for following another vehicle too closely. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Personal Auto Georgia Metro Atlanta-based InsuranceHub has promoted industry veteran Ed Hemmer to the role of associate vice president in charge of the tech-driven insurance agencys commercial transportation division. InsuranceHub launched the division in October 2017 to be solely devoted to the provision of commercial transportation insurance and advisement. Hemmer came on board when InsuranceHub joined forces with CoverYou in April of last year. The team that Hemmer will soon oversee consists of seven commercial producers, who develop relationships with potential clients, and four account managers, who provide customer service to existing clients. The seven producers will advise clients on coverage options and pricing. The service team will assist with insurance needs or changes for businesses including adding trucks to a policy, adding or removing drivers, and more. Hemmer said the team will seek to assist its trucking and towing insurance clients by advising them about their potential risks and helping clients manage those risks. InsuranceHub is technology-driven insurance agency that serves over 15,000 clients all across the United States. Originally launched as a small Nationwide Insurance agency in Metro Atlanta in 1985, InsuranceHub has grown to include multiple offices throughout the Southeast. Topics Georgia What Is the Forex Club? The forex club is a national association of wholesale foreign exchange professionals, dealers, brokers, and treasury managers whose primary goals are education and networking for its members. Key Takeaways The forex club is an association of professionals involved in various aspects of the forex markets. Regional forex clubs are part of the Paris-based ACI Financial Markets Association, an umbrella organization for wholesale financial market professionals that was founded in 1955. All ACI members, and thus all members of a forex club, must adhere to the principles contained in the recently formed FX Global Code. The large numbers of formal and informal forex clubs reflect the size of the global foreign exchange market, which is the largest and most liquid in the world. 1:28 Forex Market Basics Understanding Forex Club A nation or regions' forex club will usually be affiliated with the Paris-based ACI Financial Markets Association, an umbrella organization for wholesale financial market professionals. ACI was founded in 1955. Today the ACI has more than 9,000 members in 63 national associations across six continents, with the mission of supporting best market practices and ethical conduct. Forex clubs are a generic term and not related to Forex Club, a privately-held, for-profit company that provides trading platforms for FX, stocks, commodities, energy, and related instruments. Forex clubs, however, can include forex trading meetups, informally arranged meetings of individuals interested in trading the FX markets as a career. According to the social aggregating site, Meetup, over 200,000 individuals are members of forex meetups, with over 620 meetups currently in operation as of June 2021. The large numbers of formal and informal forex clubs reflect the size of the global foreign exchange market. The FX market is the largest and most liquid in the world, with 90% of all trades involving the U.S. dollar (USD). The market is many multiples larger than the futures market and global equities market, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Forex Club and Trading Industry Standards All ACI members, and thus all members of a forex club, must adhere to the principles contained in the recently formed FX Global Code. The code replaced national codes of conduct in Dec. 2017 and covers the FX, over-the-counter (OTC), and related financial markets. It is maintained by the Global Foreign Exchange Committee, an organization formed in 2017 to support a transparent global FX market. The code includes global principles of good practice in the foreign exchange market and was formulated to support the integrity and effective operation of the wholesale foreign exchange market. The code resulted from the contributions of central banks and market participants around the world. The membership of the ACI, and thus forex clubs, is not limited to FX or financial market participants. They typically include representatives from central banks, consultants, investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, commercial banks, regulators, and academics. By including such a diverse group of professionals related to FX markets, one of the chief goals of forex clubs is to provide a forum for sharing best practices to ensure the optimal functioning of the markets. In addition to networking, forex clubs affiliated with ACI have access to educational programs and specialized certifications for the FX, fixed income, money market, derivatives, and repo markets. Catch up on all the headlines this lunchtime... GET INFORMED ... IRELAND: A 35-year-old Dubliner shouted "guilty of f*cking what" when a jury convicted him of murdering two men who had arranged to sell him a stolen car. IRELAND: The Health Minister has moved to reassure women that "everything that could possibly be done is being done" in relation to the CervicalCheck scandal. IRELAND: EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has signalled a willingness to be flexible in Brexit negotiations around the Northern Ireland border. IRELAND: Growing concerns are being expressed about the potential impact on rural post offices of a voluntary retirement scheme brokered between An Post and the Postmasters Union. WORLD: Zimbabwes President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his government has been in touch with the main opposition leader in an attempt to ease tensions after election-related violence in the capital. BUSINESS: An economic monitor is reporting that Dublin is experiencing an economic resurgence with unemployment in the capital falling to its lowest level in a decade. SPORT: The Galway hurlers have lost their tag of invincibility, according to former Tribes boss John McIntyre. ... SOME DISTRACTION VIRAL: Our favourite Cork entrepreneur is back and this time hes the eccentric proprietor of a fruit and veg stall. SHOWBIZ: JJ Abrams posted a photo from the Star Wars: Episode IX set including a special nod to the late Carrie Fisher. LIFESTYLE: Norbert Nkengurutse is 36 years old and from Burundi, a country in east Africa with a history of violent conflict and a cultural heritage so rich that UNESCO listed its ceremonial drumming on its Intangible Cultural Heritage lists. Padraig Hoare The US Treasury has extended the deadline to investors to divest interests in the Russian firm that owns Aughinish Alumina, in Limerick, but has not removed it from its sanctions list. Around 650 jobs in Limerick have been under a cloud, because US sanctions, imposed on Aughinishs owner, Rusal, have played havoc with metal markets over the past four months. Rusal is majority-owned by En+, a company controlled by Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, who was targeted because of his purported ties to the Kremlin. In all, 450 staff and 220 contractors are employed at the Aughinish Alumina plant, near Askeaton, which has been described as one of Limericks best employers. The US Treasury Department gave investors more time to sell their shares and debt in En+ and Rusal, extending it to October 23 from August 5, the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said. The decision suggests further negotiations are needed, before making progress on lifting sanctions, after OFAC shunned a request by En+ and its lobbyist, Mercury, to temporarily withdraw the company and Rusal from the list. Mr Deripaska agreed, in April, to cut his stake in En+ to less than 50%, from 66%, and to appoint a majority of independent directors to the companys board, as part of a plan to persuade the US to lift sanctions. Three months after announcing the plan, however, the company hasnt publicly identified any potential independent directors, nor any buyer for Mr Deripaskas shares. The US penalties against Rusal, the worlds largest producer outside China, initially disrupted the global supply chain for the metal and sent prices soaring. As well as Aughinish, Rusal supplied about 6% of the worlds aluminium and operates mines, smelters, or refineries in locations including Guinea, Jamaica, and Russia. The Treasury earlier set the October 23 deadline for winding down operations with the company, which is now the deadline for selling out, too. Rusal shares fell more than 2.5% in Hong Kong. Additional reporting, Bloomberg Tom Tuite A 13-year-old boy has been released pending trial for the murder of Kildare schoolgirl Ana Kriegel but has been ordered to comply with a bail supervision programme. The boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, was the first to be charged with the murder of the 14-year-old girl at Glenwood House, Laraghcon, Clonee Road, Lucan on May 14, contrary to common law. Her body was found at the disused farmhouse three days after she was reported missing. The teenage boy was charged and remanded in custody on May 25 last but on Monday bail terms were set in the High Court. It was taken up later this week and the teenager arrived on bail for his latest hearing at the Dublin Childrens Court today. He was accompanied by his father and his grandfather but did not address the court. A State solicitor told Judge Flann Brennan the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has issued a direction under Section 52.4 of the 2001 Children Act confirming the case will proceed. The Children Act is the legal framework of the juvenile justice system. This part of the legislation states: Where a child under 14 years of age is charged with an offence, no further proceedings in the matter (other than any remand in custody or on bail) shall be taken except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The judge heard the DPP has consented and has directed trial on indictment in respect of this charge which means the case will be transferred to the Central Criminal Court once the book of evidence has been completed. Defence solicitor Donough Molloy told Judge Brennan there was consent to a four-week adjournment. The terms of bail, which required an independent surety, were not stated at the hearing on Thursday. However, Garda Inspector Mark ONeill said the High Court had ordered the boy and his family to liaise with the Extern Ireland organisation with regard to bail issues. A youth worker from the agency has met the boy's family already and was in court for the hearing. The social justice charity has been allowed work alongside the juvenile justice system in providing a bail supervision scheme to ensure young people and their families are supported to help them comply with court orders. Inspector ONeill proposed that the youth worker assigned to the case would provide an assessment for next hearing at the Childrens Court on August 30 next. He acknowledged that in the High Court order there was no provision to have a report. Judge Brennan agreed to make the order after the defence solicitor said there was no objection to a report being furnished. Mr Molloy said there was a requirement on his client to liaise with the bail support agency and we are happy to do that. The teen was then remanded on bail. The book of evidence was being drafted and would probably be ready in three or four weeks, the court had heard at an earlier hearing on July 23 last. Anastasia, known as Ana, who was adopted from Russia at the age of two, left her home in Leixlip, at about 5pm on May 14 however, she did not return. Her parents were unable to contact her phone and alerted gardai. Her body was found at a disused farmhouse three days later. At the boy's first hearing on May 25, Garda Inspector ONeill told the court: In reply to that charge after caution, he had nothing to say. Legal aid had been granted after the court was told the the teens age and that he was a schoolchild. On July 12 last, a second 13-year-old boy, was also charged with the girls murder and he too was remanded to the Oberstown youth detention centre. He remains in custody, however, and is due to face his next hearing on August 14 next. At that boy's first hearing, Det Sergeant Damien Gannon said that teen made no reply to the charge after caution. There has been no indication yet as to how either of them intended to plead. The Children's Court has issued a warning that any attempt to identify the pair on social media would result in prosecution. Fianna Fail TD Eamon O Cuiv has been urged to make a public statement on his potential presidential intentions amid growing speculation he could be set to enter the Aras race. Party colleague John McGuinness called for the clarification as Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin faced a second backbench revolt against his decision not to run a candidate after another TD said he will back Gavin Duffys election bid. Speculation over Mr O Cuivs intentions has been growing since Fianna Fails Cllr Ollie Crowe, a confidante of Mr O Cuiv, wrote to all party councillors in recent days urging them to back the Galway West TD. A number of Galway councillors are also due to write to Mr Martin to press home their hopes Mr O Cuiv will enter the contest, despite party headquarters insisting it will not have a candidate. Mr McGuinnes said he would support Mr O Cuivs Aras bid if he chooses to enter the race. But noting Mr O Cuiv has yet to comment, the Kilkenny TD said it was now time for his parliamentary party colleague to release a public statement. I think the membership of the party would like a debate on Eamon O Cuiv and other members because I understand theres two other senators who have offered, he told RTE Radios Today with Miriam programme yesterday. I havent heard from Eamon O Cuiv, but the fact that the councillor has written to every other councillor in the country, perhaps he might make a statement on whether or not hes interested. Meanwhile, Louth TD Declan Breathnach (FF) confirmed to LMFM Radio he will ignore the partys wishes to support President Michael D Higgins re-election bid and will, instead, throw his weight behind Independent candidate Gavin Duffy. Separately, potential Independent candidate, artist Kevin Sharkey, has criticised Waterford city and county council for excluding him from Tuesdays debates despite his request to attend. Incumbent president Michael D Higgins also attended the Galway Races, but did not comment to the media. By Fiachra O Cionnaith and Elaine Loughlin Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has agreed to hold all of the State cervical cancer investigation in public and to set up a redress scheme for victims after a lengthy meeting with campaigner Vicky Phelan. A High Court judge will also be appointed to find ways to avoid cases going to court. Mr Varadkar, Health Minister Simon Harris, and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, said Mr Justice Charles Meenan would try and identify further mechanisms to avoid adversarial court proceedings for the women and families affected by the CervicalCheck controversy and would report back in two months with recommendations. Ms Phelan had earlier confirmed the Government U-turn almost four months after public demands for swift action on the scandal, saying it is now up to Mr Varadkar to finally deliver on his promises. Speaking to reporters outside Government Buildings after a brutally honest two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Mr Varadkar yesterday, Ms Phelan said that the Taoiseach has agreed to a series of demands issued by her and fellow campaigners including Stephen Teap. She said they include: a commitment to hold all of the planned State cervical cancer inquiry in public, with emergency legislation changing the existing commission of investigation act to allow for public hearings to be tabled in September plans to set up a Government redress scheme for victims, on the condition it will work more effectively than the symphysiotomy and clerical abuse compensation systems and confirmation "letters of consent" are being drawn up before being sent to hundreds of women affected by the scandal so that their cases can be examined as part of an independent UK review Ms Phelan is now taking time away from campaigning due to her health. As everybody knows I want this [inquiry] public, no more than the rest of the families involved, she said. Ms Phelan said the Taoiseach confirmed this will be the preferred option and the Government and opposition are in agreement. Mr Justice Meenan will be asked to make recommendations on how the situation can be dealt with, including by engaging with the women, their families and their representatives to assess what could be done to provide an alternative to court, and by assessing cases, liability and quantum that arise, in conjunction with the State Claims Agency and other relevant bodies, such as laboratories and insurers. Vicky Phelan says Taoiseach has told her he is committed to holding CervicalCheck Commission of Investigation in public pic.twitter.com/xt2yO3m4KK RTE News (@rtenews) August 1, 2018 The High Court judge will also take the work of Dr Gabriel Scallys scoping inquiry into account, alongside that of the International Clinical Expert Panel Review led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. Mr Justice Meenan was recently installed as chair of an expert group to consider an alternative mechanism to the court process for resolving clinical negligence claims. He will then report to the minister for health within two months. Notwithstanding that parties always retain the right to go to court, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms must be found which avoid causing unnecessary distress for the women and their loved ones, said Mr Varadkar. Growing concerns are being expressed about the potential impact on rural post offices of a voluntary retirement scheme brokered between An Post and the Postmasters Union. It has been reported that An Post has received applications from over 100 post offices expressing interest in a voluntary retirement package. It is understood that An Post are assessing the applications and their impact. Irish Rural Link has expressed concern the scheme could see the closure of a number of post offices in rural Ireland. Speaking on RTE Radio 1s Morning Ireland show this morning Louise Lennon, policy and communications officer with Irish Rural Link, said they were concerned by the news. The post office is still at the heart of a lot of rural communities and a lot of the smaller towns and villages." Recating to the growing concern Fianna Fail Communications Spokesperson Timmy Dooley TD has said that the Government should not and must not allow the closure of post offices in rural Ireland. Deputy Dooley was commenting after an unverified list was put into the public domain which showed over 100 post offices were at risk of closure due to their post master or mistress deciding to take voluntary redundancy. Speaking today Mr Dooley said that post masters and mistresses who opt to take the redundancy package are absolutely entitled to do so after years of fantastic service to their local communities. However An Post and the Government cannot be allowed to use these redundancies as a smokescreen to close the post offices. This would constitute a direct attack on these communities and on rural Ireland. Taking away the State harp from over the door signals the States withdrawal from the village and effectively tells people that they State no longer sees that village as a viable place to live and work. There is a domino effect when it comes to the removal of State services from villages and rural towns. Mr Dooley suggested this was the Government admitting publicly that living in these communities will not be supported by the State. Fianna Fail believes that the Department should initiate a Public Service Obligation (PSO) to keep these at risk post offices open and to maintain the post office network at current levels. Minister Naughten cannot allow these decisions to be made solely on the basis of profit margins. Rural post offices deliver a service that cannot be measured in profit and loss. Fine Gael must come clean and explain why they are allowing this to happen. In particular they need to explain to the 150 rural communities why they are being targeted on this occasion. An Post have yet to comment specifically on these reports but earlier this year released their 'New Vision for Post Offices Services in Ireland. Read it here - Digital Desk By Dan Buckley and Noel Baker The policing watchdog has voiced serious concerns over the deliberate tampering with key documents held by gardai relating to the investigation into the 1996 murder in West Cork of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier. In a report published yesterday, the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) found no evidence of any high-level corruption by gardai, as alleged by journalist Ian Bailey, his partner Jules Thomas, and witness Marie Farrell. The report also found that other important garda exhibits connected with the case went missing, including a blood-spattered gate taken from close to where Ms Toscan Du Plantiers body was found, a wine bottle found four months after the murder in a field near the scene, and a black overcoat belonging to Ian Bailey. Mr Bailey told the Irish Examiner he is disappointed, but not surprised at the findings of the GSOC report. My initial reaction, having not studied the report in detail, is clearly that I am disappointed, but I am not surprised, Mr Bailey said. Also speaking to this paper, Mr Baileys solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said: The reality of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission as an organisation is that it is powerless, in any meaningful way, to carry out any form of proper investigation into garda corruption. I believe it was never intended to be properly resourced or to have proper investigative powers. Accordingly, nothing in the report is anything other than as expected. The lack of any meaningful outcome in the report will not deter Mr Bailey from continuing to seek whatever remedies are available to vindicate his position. In the report, GSOC says its deliberations had been hampered by the refusal of a number of garda detectives involved in the case to co-operate with them and the fact that some of the gardai who investigated the murder have since retired or died. In relation to this, Mr Bailey said: It is interesting to note that a number of members of the guards were able to shield behind their retirement as a way of refusing to co-operate. In its report, GSOC says it is most concerned with pages that went missing from the original garda jobs book while in the custody of gardai. Garda jobs books are meant to contain an entire record of the progress of a major investigation, outlining all actions undertaken by gardai and the reasons that these actions were raised. This concern is compounded further by the fact that the specific pages missing are from an area of the book when Ian Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect in the murder by gardai and, as such, they are potentially very significant, says the report. It notes that while the name of Ian Bailey appeared in Jobs Book 1 at a relatively early stage of the investigation, the first formal nomination of him as a suspect was contained at Job number 166 in Book 2 on page 9. The next two pages of the book had been seemingly ripped (or cut) out of the book and had left a rough torn stub. GSOC said it was unable to clarify when the interference may have taken place other than believing it was likely to have occurred since a review of the file in 2002, but possibly as far back as the 1990s. The commission said it had considered whether the interference with the Jobs Book warranted sending a file to the DPP, but they had chosen not to on the basis that one of the main gardai who had responsibility for the documents had since died. The report says: While there was general co-operation from garda members during the course of the GSOC investigation, a number of garda members were less than co-operative and thus it was not possible for GSOC to fully establish some of the details pertaining to the arrests of Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas. Other garda members who may [or who may not] have had information of relevance to the GSOC investigation, are deceased. There was no explanation offered by gardai for the missing pages. GSOC concluded that there was a lack of administration and management of the incident room during the murder investigation, but found no evidence of malpractice or corruption. The report says: The significant amount of missing original garda documentation, witness statements, suspect files and physical exhibits in the garda murder investigation suggest to GSOC that there was a lack of administration and management of the incident room [even when viewed through the lens of the time] as opposed to clear evidence of malpractice or corruption. Among the missing exhibits outlined by GSOC are: A blood-spattered gate taken from close to where Ms Toscan du Plantiers body; A French wine bottle found four months after the murder in a field next to the scene; A black overcoat belonging to Ian Bailey; The original memo of interview of Jules Thomas following her arrest in 1997; An original witness statement from Marie Farrell provided on March 5, 2004; An original witness statement from Jules Thomas dated February 19, 1997. A number of factors led to Ian Bailey being identified as a suspect at an early stage of the murder inquiry his subsequent arrest and the arrest of his partner, Jules Thomas, therefore could not, as the complainants allege, have been construed as unlawful or illegal, says the report. GSOC found no evidence that Marie Farrell was coerced or intimidated [as alleged by Ian Bailey and Marie Farrell] into making false statements against Ian Bailey; in fact, a phonecall from the Gsoc at the completion of the investigation into the complaints of Ian Bailey, Catherine Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell listened to in the course of the investigation could be seen as evidence of a relationship between Marie Farrell and an investigating garda that was not coercive. While it does certainly appear that journalists were in possession of information in advance of Ian Baileys arrests, Gsoc was unable to establish the source of the medias information. The report also notes contact by phone between journalists reporting on the case and Bandon Garda Station. While it concludes that no specific inappropriate disclosure of information by garda members to journalists was found by Gsoc in the phonecalls, conversations between garda members indicated a concern that there were members of the press being briefed. Garda watchdog draws 10 conclusions in complaints report The 10 conclusions made in the Garda Ombudsmans report into complaints by Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas, and Marie Farrell: 1. It is GSOCs view, formed after an extensive investigation, that while there was evidence of a lack of administration and management of aspects of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, there was no evidence of the high-level corruption by gardai alleged by the complainants Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas, and Marie Farrell. A number of factors led to Ian Bailey being identified as a suspect at an early stage of the murder inquiry his subsequent arrest and the arrest of his partner, Jules Thomas, therefore could not, as the complainants allege, have been construed as unlawful or illegal. Sophie Toscan Du Plantier 2. GSOC found no evidence that Marie Farrell was coerced or intimidated (as alleged by Ian Bailey and Marie Farrell) into making false statements against Ian Bailey; in fact, a phone call listened to in the course of the investigation could be seen as evidence of a relationship between Marie Farrell and an investigating garda that was not coercive. While it does certainly appear that journalists were in possession of information in advance of Ian Baileys arrests, GSOC was unable to establish the source of the medias information. 3. It is a matter of grave concern to GSOC that a large number of original statements and exhibits relating to the murder investigation are missing. It is GSOCs view that a lack of administration and management are the likely explanation for this state of affairs. GSOC found no evidence of corruption. 4. As a result of the examination of material conducted during this investigation, it is GSOCs view that it does appear that journalists were in possession of sensitive information about the murder at the time of the Garda murder enquiry. 5. While there was general co-operation from Garda members during the course of the GSOC investigation, a number of Garda members were less than co-operative and thus it was not possible for GSOC to fully establish some of the details pertaining to the arrests of Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas. Other Garda members who may (or who may not) have had information of relevance to the GSOC investigation are now deceased. Ian Bailey 6. Pages missing from the original Garda Jobs Books in relation to the Garda murder investigation are of the most concern to GSOC. These books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident (or investigation) along with rationale for the decisions made. This concern is compounded further by the fact the specific pages missing are from an area of the book when Ian Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect in the murder by gardai and as such, they are potentially very significant. 7. The books are hard-backed in nature, A4 in size, and the pages are retained in the book by way of a glued-in spine. As a result, it would not be possible for pages to simply fall out of the book by accident and for them to be removed, this would have to have been a deliberate act. The original books were seized by GSOC as part of this investigation in order that forensic tests could be conducted to try and establish if the missing pages held any information of significance (or to offer clues as to why they may have been removed). The results of these tests are discussed earlier in this report... At the time of writing, no explanation has been found from anyone within An Garda Siochana as to when these pages were removed, how this was done, by whom, and for what purpose. However, this may well have occurred after December 2002. 8. The significant amount of missing original Garda documentation, witness statements, suspect files, and physical exhibits in the Garda murder investigation suggest to GSOC that there was a lack of administration and management of the incident room (even when viewed through the lens of the time) as opposed to clear evidence of malpractice or corruption. It was not entirely clear from statements provided to GSOC who was in charge of the investigation at any particular moment in time and who was ultimately responsible for strategic decisions (including the arrest plans). The lack of forensic material obtained from the scene, particularly given the precise nature of the murder and the state in which the body of Madame Toscan Du Plantier was discovered, is also of concern to GSOC. 9. The review of telephone call recordings provided to GSOC during this investigation indicate that Marie Farrell had not been under pressure in her interactions with a detective garda to provide accounts. The relationship between the detective garda and Marie Farrell appears to GSOC to not have been appropriate at times. 10. GSOC was not able to substantiate other serious allegations such as that a witness had been provided with illegal drugs by gardai, though the telephone calls which have been reviewed noted that drugs were mentioned by the witness himself. The reluctance of witnesses (including the witness himself) to co-operate with Gsoc in relation to this aspect of the case has resulted in these allegations being incapable of being proven to any evidential standard. gardaombudsman.ie Report says no evidence to suggest Bailey was framed By Noel Baker On December 20, 2011, a complaint was received at GSOC from Ian Bailey, close to 15 years to the day since the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Almost seven years later, the report by the Garda watchdog found issues of grave concern, but sums up the situation in one sentence: There is no evidence to suggest that Ian Bailey was framed for the murder or that evidence was falsified, forged, or fabricated by members of the Garda Siochana. The report outlines Mr Baileys arrests, on suspicion of a murder he has always denied, on February 10, 1997, and January 27, 1998. On both occasions, Mr Bailey was released without charge. In his witness statements to GSOC, provided on March 22, 2012, Mr Bailey describes the atmosphere during his first arrest as aggressive, accusatory, and hostile, claiming that one detective garda repeatedly jabbed his finger into his side and arm, stating: You did it, just admit it, everyone knows you did it, you better get your act together. He alleged a garda said: Even if we dont pin this on you, youre finished in Ireland and youll be found dead in a ditch with a bullet in the back of your head. He made further allegations, including of being given a black and tan colour shirt at the garda station, of being told his partner, Jules Thomas, accepted his guilt, and that stories repeatedly appeared about him in the media as the self-confessed prime suspect. Regarding the January 1998 arrest, Mr Bailey made allegations including being told that a small basement cell was waiting for him in Mountjoy. On February 12, 1998, a file was submitted by gardai to the DPP which decided on November 7, 2001, that a prosecution would not be sustainable. It has been a long and winding road, pockmarked by complaints made by Mr Bailey in relation to the gardai and its handling of the case, including that it was a corrupt investigation in so far as it related to Mr Bailey and that he had been unlawfully arrested. The GSOC reports note that Mr Bailey was first formally nominated as a suspect for the murder of Ms du Plantier by gardai on December 27, 1996. From the material reviewed by GSOC in this investigation, it appears that there was a reasonable belief held by gardai at that time that Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas were responsible for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, says the report. The arrests of both were therefore lawful. GSOC found no evidence sufficient to sustain either a criminal or disciplinary charge that Mr Bailey or Ms Thomass identities and personal details were transmitted at the time of their arrest in February 1997 by gardai to the media. [gallery]23[/gallery] As for Mr Baileys rearrest a year later, GSOC said there is nothing to suggest this was unwarranted or that he was wrongly accused given the context of the probe at that time. It said the recollection by a former state solicitor did not support an allegation by Mr Bailey that unidentified senior garda officers had exhorted the state solicitor in West Cork to bring improper influence as a result of his collegiate acquaintance with the then Minister for Justice to bring a prosecution against Mr Bailey in the late nineties. On December 20, 2011, a complaint was received at GSOC from Ian Bailey, close to 15 years to the day since the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Marie Farrells relationship with garda questionable By Joe Leogue A detective garda on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case had a questionable relationship with a key witness in the investigation that appears to GSOC to not have been appropriate at times, the garda watchdog found. However, the GSOC report into the complaints of Ian Bailey, Jules Thomas, and Marie Farrell found no evidence to support Ms Farrells allegation that she was put under pressure to provide statements that implicated Mr Bailey in the murder. Marie Farrell Ms Farrell alleges she was coerced and cajoled by gardai into making false statements against Mr Bailey, and that she was asked to sign blank statements, after which a detective garda told her that he would fill in the statements to say that Ian Bailey had threatened her. Retired gardai denied this; told GSOC that Marie Farrell was attention seeking and not credible; and said she willingly co-operated with their investigation. Ms Farrell told GSOC that a detective garda involved in the case got very close to her family in 1997 and that there were rumours around Schull that she and this detective garda were having an affair, which she denied. The report notes that: The relationship between the detective garda and Marie Farrell appears to GSOC to not have been appropriate at times. However, a review of telephone recordings indicate that Marie Farrell had been under no pressure in her interactions with a detective garda [and indeed other members of the Garda Siochana] to provide accounts, GSOC found. GSOC reported that in fact, a phone call listened to in the course of the investigation could be seen as evidence of a relationship between Marie Farrell and an investigating garda that was not coercive. The relationship between this detective garda and Marie Farrell would appear to have been questionable at times, GSOC concluded. It cannot be explained why Marie Farrell provided witness statements in the first instance before retracting her evidence in the garda investigation. Two arrests of Jules Thomas ruled as lawful by GSOC By Niall Murray The two arrests of Ian Baileys partner Jules Thomas in connection with the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder were lawful, GSOC has found. She complained to the Garda watchdog in April 2012 about her treatment by gardai in its investigation of the December 1996 killing. Jules Thomas Originally from Cardiff in Wales, Ms Thomas has lived in Ireland since 1972. She had three daughters before beginning her relationship with Mr Baileys in 1992, and the couple live outside Schull in West Cork. Mr Bailey told GSOC that he and Ms Thomas attended the murder scene on the afternoon the news emerged in December 1996. She was arrested twice in connection with the murder inquiry, but has never been charged in relation to it. The couple were both arrested on February 10, 1997, and taken, 90 minutes apart, to Bandon Garda Station, where local and national media had gathered. She was further arrested by a detective sergeant on September 22, 2000, on suspicion of assisting an offender. One of her three daughters was also arrested on the same occasion. Ms Thomas complained to GSOC that both her arrests and detention periods were unlawful. The GSOC report said the decision to arrest her on the first occasion was based on information gardai had at the time, and on her account of her and Mr Baileys movements at times material to the murder investigation. GSOC said that, from the material it has reviewed, it appears there was a reasonable belief held by gardai at that time that Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas were responsible for Ms Toscan du Plantiers murder. The arrests of both were therefore lawful, states the long-awaited investigation report. A similar view was taken in relation to her September 2000 detention. There was no evidence to suggest that Ms Thomas was arrested for any other reason than a reasonable suspicion was held by members of the Garda Siochana at that time as to her involvement in the murder of Madame du Plantier [(or of assisting Ian Bailey in his commission of the offence], it states. In relation to both arrests, GSOC notes that no successful challenge to the legality of the arrests has been pursued by Ms Thomas. GSOC is of the view that the aforementioned arrests and periods of detention concerning Jules Thomas were lawful and that the required custody regulations were complied with. it said. Ms Thomas had complained of aggressive and hostile behaviour to her by gardai, claiming that some told her Mr Bailey had confessed to the murder. She said one of two named detectives told her while in custody that Mr Bailey would kill her next, and that the same detective later made a late-night phone call telling her to get the fuck out, get the fuck out. GSOC said some details about matters complained of, about the arrests of her and Mr Bailey, could not be fully established because of the non co-operation of a number of gardai, principally from detective ranks. The GSOC report highlighted that the significant numbers of missing witness statements and exhibits in connection with the murder inquiry included the original memo of interview following Ms Thomass 1997 arrest and an original February 1997 witness statement made by her. The two arrests of Ian Baileys partner Jules Thomas in connection with the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder were lawful, GSOC has found. GSOC concern over missing exhibits By Sean ORiordan GSOC investigators said it is a matter of grave concern to them that a large number of original statements and exhibits relating to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation are missing. However, in their report, they say this is likely due to a lack of administration and management and theres no evidence of high-level corruption by gardai. The GSOC report states that in 2013 its investigators received documentation from the gardai which outlined an extensive list of significant documents including witness statements and 22 exhibits that can no longer be located. These include a blood-spattered gate taken from close to where Ms Du Plantiers body was found; a French wine bottle discovered in a field next to the murder scene; and a black overcoat belonging to Ian Bailey. A total of 139 original statements are missing from witnesses and include original memos of interviews with Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell. In addition, witness statements were taken by the French police from a number of people but only typed copies of witness statements were held by the Garda Siochana. Meanwhile, GSOC investigators also discovered that other miscellaneous items are missing which include a diary belonging to Ian Bailey and tape recordings/transcripts of conversations between Ian Bailey and a foreign journalist. The GSOC report also expressed concern that there are pages missing from the original garda Jobs Books in relation to the murder investigation. The A4-sized jobs books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident investigation and the rationale for the decisions made in relation to the direction of inquiries. There were more references to Mr Bailey than any other person of interest in the jobs books in the first month of the murder investigation. GSOC said their concern is further compounded by the fact that the specific pages missing are from the time when Mr Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect and as such they are potentially very significant. Forensic scientist Brian Craythorne found several pages had been removed from the Jobs Book, possibly by cutting with scissors. He found that the front fly sheet, the pages numbered 1 to 7 and pages 10 and 11 were missing. It was noted during the review of the jobs books by GSOC that there were a number of issues about the actual records which could not be explained. These included the numbering such as Job number 277 jumping to 288 on the next page but there were no apparent missing pages. A number of pages were glued together with nothing in between them, meaning that the page numberings were also out of sequence. GSOC said that, at this stage, their investigators had received no explanation from anyone within An Garda Siochana as to when the pages were removed, or how this was done, by whom and for what purpose. GSOC investigators said it is a matter of grave concern to them that a large number of original statements and exhibits relating to the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation are missing. A 1,000 granny grant could apply to aunts, uncles, and other relatives as part of an Independent Alliance budget proposal which has been deemed a hunt for the grey vote. Transport Minister Shane Ross was forced to defend his idea yesterday as campaigners and politicians including a Fine Gael Gael minister called the proposal a crazy idea without detail. Dubbed the granny grant, the payment of 1,000 could be claimed by grandparents who self-certify that they provide a minimum of ten hours per week of childcare. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe shot down the kite-flying budget notion, telling Newstalk there were really big questions over the grant for grandparents helping with childcare. Mr Ross told RTE that grandparents caring for children need to be recognised by the State and are forking out for meals, heating, and petrol, among other expenses. The grant would not be policed but would not be unique if self-assessed, he added. I dont see it being abused, he said, conceding a vouched-for system may be needed otherwise. The proposed grant, he claimed, would not compete with childcare subsidies. To see this as some sort of rival for the childcare subvention would be a misunderstanding, it would initially certainly be a reimbursement but it would be a recognition as well for the great service theyre doing. This is a very serious proposal. Maybe hundreds of thousands of grandparents in the State are doing a job which, maybe, the State should be doing itself. Theyre making great sacrifices. Mr Ross conceded that, if the grant was introduced, it may have to be extended to other relatives, including uncles and aunts and others caring for children. Grandparents had allowed their adult children work by taking on childcaring roles, saving on creche fees, said Mr Ross. Some of them are absolutely exhausted because they are doing this work on a full-time basis. Some feel that they are being taken for granted, he said. "The Independent Alliance need to get real about the scale of Irelands childcare crisis & examine tangible proposals to help families rather than emphasising the need to turn to grandparents." Read @LorrCliff's statement in full: https://t.co/JOlXRYONHr#GrannyGrant pic.twitter.com/GEBg1Gs3Ex Fianna Fail (@fiannafailparty) August 1, 2018 Asked if the grant could apply to up to four grandparents if they were all involving in childminding, Mr Ross said: I dont see any reason why not. I see no reason why it wouldnt apply to them all. Mr Ross said the grant cost could be 70m. This would likely mean only 70,000 people could apply. Other estimates suggested the bill for the grant would amount to hundreds of millions of euro a year. The Stay-At-Home Parents Association said parents themselves should be entitled to the fund. What families really want is flexibility and therefore to receive the subsidy directly themselves, it said. Fine Gael also criticised the idea. Seanad spokeswoman on children Catherine Noone tweeted: It is a crazy idea. Fine Gael TD Noel Rock said it lacked detail. Opposition figures said the alliances idea was blatantly targeting a certain group in society. Rather than suggesting populist and tokenistic ideas that appeal to a small cohort, Minister Ross could have suggested professional wages for the childcare and early years sector, said Deirdre Kingston, a Labour Party councillor for Dun Laoghaire. Callers to RTEs Liveline programme called the move a hunt for the grey vote. The Green Party called on the Government to pay childcare subsidies directly to parents who stay at home to care for children. The Department of Finance said budget proposals are assessed on cost, fairness, and equality. Estimating the value could be difficult with no figures compiled by the CSO on grandparents. One in five mothers do not realise that their young children are overweight or obese. And mothers are more likely to be unaware of the weight problem if the child is a girl. The NUI Galway study found that mothers who fail to correctly identify their childs obesity at age three are likely to do so again when the child is five years old. 25% of three-year-olds and 20% of five-year-old children are overweight or obese in Ireland. The study suggests that health professionals and public health campaigns may need to play a greater role in helping mothers correctly identify their childs weight status. It found that 22% of mothers failed to accurately identify that their child is overweight or obese at age three. The figure decreased to 18% when the child was aged five. The study, published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, used data from the Longitudinal Growing Up in Ireland study. NUI Galway Study Finds Low Awareness of Early Childhood Obesity in Ireland https://t.co/weK97Vo5rg pic.twitter.com/8q4576ii4M NUI Galway (@nuigalway) August 1, 2018 Data was collected from 10,000 families of children aged three years and 9,000 families of children aged five years. Among the key findings is that childhood obesity is disproportionately characteristic of low-income families. Developing tailored intervention programmes for the formative, pre-school cohort could prove to be a beneficial strategy to change attitudes and promote awareness of obesity in children within lower socioeconomic groups, it states. The failure to identify someone who is overweight or obese may be particularly evident for three- to five-year-olds, because the prevailing health message to mothers of young children is to encourage growth and keep pace with development charts. The issue of identification may be further clouded by the increased prevalence of obesity in children defining a new, heavier norm against which parents compare their children. Meanwhile, another study has found that a higher measure of belly fat in older adults is linked with cognitive impairment. Researchers showed that a higher waist-to-hip ratio was associated with reduced cognitive function. This could be explained by an increased secretion of inflammatory markers by belly fat, which has been previously associated with a higher risk of impaired cognition. The finding was based on data from the Trinity, Ulster Department of Agriculture (TUDA) study. The cross-border collaborative research project gathered data from thousands of elderly adults on both sides of the border. Previous studies have shown that people who are overweight do not perform as well on tests of memory and visuo-spatial ability, compared to those who are of normal weight. However, until now, it was not well-known if this was true in older adults. It is a matter of concern, as half of the over-50s population in Ireland is classified as being centrally obese, with only 16% of men and 26% of women reported to have a body mass index within the normal range. The senior study author, professor in medical gerontology at Trinity, Conal Cunningham, said the study added to emerging evidence, suggesting that obesity and where we deposit our excess weight could influence our brain health. This has significant public health implications, he said. The study was led by St Jamess Hospital in Dublin, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin and University of Ulster, Coleraine. By Joe Leogue Permanent TSBs sale of family home loans to Lone Star is a disaster, according to the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO) who called on the Government to provide alternative solutions to mortgages in long-term arrears. The IMHO said Irish homeowners have now found themselves at the mercy of Lone Star who dont offer term extension, split mortgage, rate reduction, or capitalisation of arrears. PTSB has sold 7,400 family homes to vultures who will throw them out; it is also unclear how many are co-operating or in a restructure, said David Hall, IMHOs chief executive. Lone Star dont offer any restructuring. It is a horrible day for mortgage holders. There is uncertainty around the numbers given. IMHO are calling for the minister for finance, the banks, and the Central Bank to finally admit that most of these people, and others in long-term arrears, simply cannot pay. The lies perpetrated by the establishment about strategic defaulters need to be stopped and a realisation [is needed] that these people and others are going to end up homeless. Alternatives must be found as flogging citizens to vulture funds in the middle of a housing crisis is not acceptable, he said. Padraic Kissane, an independent financial adviser, said he was concerned that vulture funds like Lone Star take a short-term approach to make money which is at odds with a long-term view to keeping people in their homes. Lone Star specifically, and this is in their own website, seek investment opportunities in markets that have suffered an economic and/ or a banking crisis. "At the bottom of that page it says they are continually evaluating their exit strategy, Mr Kissane told Miriam OCallaghan on RTE Radio One. He also highlighted how 1,050 of the loans sold as part of the Permanent TSB portfolio are not classified and it is not known whether or not these are performing loans. The warning that I have here is that the customers dont know whether they are a co-operating borrower or a non-co-operating borrower. Mr Kissane also said he believed the portfolio may also contain cases where there are issues surrounding the margins charged on the loan, and that some customers may question the classification of their loan performance by Permanent TSB. I am absolutely certain a lot of customers would challenge that position because I know of customers making every effort they can to meet obligations, he said. Mr Kissane warned that the recovery in the property market could spell bad news for people whose loans have been bought up by vulture funds. If the value of the property equates to the current value of the loan, then the vulture fund will be pressing to get that property sold because they get their return on money in the greatest degree by doing that, he said. Holders of mortgages sold to vulture fund will be protected, says Donohoe By Fiachra O Cionnaith Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said people who hold mortgages in arrears sold by PTSB to a vulture fund-linked group will continue to be protected but admitted the State was powerless to prevent anything else happening. Opposition TDs calls for the Dail to be recalled immediately to address the controversy amid growing fears thousands of families could at some stage lose their homes. On Tuesday, Permanent TSB sold 10,700 mortgages in arrears to State Mortgages, a group which is backed by US vulture fund Loan Star, for 1.3bn. The sale immediately raised concerns of increased payment demands leading to the risk that mortgage holders could ultimately lose their homes. Mr Donohoe, on RTEs Morning Ireland, said people affected will continue to receive the same protections prior to the sale. However, asked if he had rubber-stamped the deal or could block any changed practices due to the States 75% stake in PTSB, the minister conceded he would be unable to intervene. I am confident that because of protections, we have in place we will be able to give protections. If you are a tenant or borrower, your tenancy is not affected by who owns the loan book. However, when asked if he could intervene, the minister said: I am prohibited to be involved in any issue guided by the regulator or Central Bank. Opposition parties yesterday lambasted the decision to permit the sale and demanded a recall of the Dail to introduce legislation to halt the deal. Fianna Fail finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said there were real fears over how the thousands of people holding the mortgages will now be affected. Party colleague John McGuinness said: It is wrong for the minister to say they are protected, while Sinn Feins Jonathan OBrien said people had been thrown to the mercy of an American vulture fund. Lone Star profile Lone Star Funds is a Dallas-based vulture fund founded by John Grayken in 1995. It has organised 17 funds with aggregate capital commitments totalling over 60bn in the past 23 years. Its interest in distressed debts such as portfolios of non-performing mortgages sees the firm classified as a vulture fund, but it has been known to invest elsewhere. Last year, for example, the firm announced that it was ending a co-financing partnership it had with Sony Pictures after a series of flop movies, including The Brothers Grimsby, Life, and Smurfs: The Lost Village, failed to return a profit for the fund. Leo Varadkar has insisted there is no evidence of a land bubble amid increasing home prices but said the Government is monitoring the escalating cost of property. His comments are in stark contrast to a number of recent reports which warn of a bust and boom cycle and wider concerns around a potential development land price or property bubble. Mr Varadkar outlined measures taken to ease the housing crisis. He said the Government is now getting much more involved and this is evident from the proposed land development agency which will have compulsory powers to buy sites. There has also been a 75% rise in the number of new homes built over the last two years, he said. This year, we anticipate 20,000 new homes being built. Thats still not enough. So we need more interventions and this will be part of that, the Government getting much more involved in developing land for housing. Asked whether there is now the prospect of a property or land bubble, Mr Varadkar said: On land bubble, I dont. But I do think there is a lot of land that isnt being made available for development quickly enough. "That is why we brought in the derelict site levy, for example, and the vacant site tax to make sure there is more land available and is also why we are setting up the land development agency which will have CPO powers to acquire land and develop it. But I havent seen convincing evidence of a land bubble at this stage. Its something obviously we have to look out for. The Central Bank this week warned the economy risked overheating and entering a boom-bust cycle. In May, the OECD said there were signs of overheating and it warned of a fresh housing bubble in the event of no cooling down in house price growth. Data published by the Central Statistics Office also showed residential property prices were increasing at 12.4% a year. Cork developer Michael OFlynn recently told a conference about land being sold for far more than it is worth. Facebook has denied using disturbing material as the cocaine to boost revenues by attracting people onto the social media site for longer. Its representatives have apologised for failings in monitoring which allowed inappropriate content, including child abuse, to remain online. However, the Oireachtas communications committee believes Facebook and other social media platforms cannot be trusted to self-regulate and will be prioritising a bill to appoint a digital commissioner with significant powers. Committee chairwoman Hildegarde Naughton is to write to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Communications Minister Denis Naughten to press the need for regulation. The Governments Action Plan for Online Safety, published last month, was described as another talking shop after it rowed back on promises to appoint a digital commissioner and instead opted for self-regulation. After the committee grilled Facebook officials, Ms Naughton said: The clear signal is that we need regulation and I think the fact that Facebook has its European headquarters based here in Dublin, we as a country need to be leading on this and working with Europe. We are prioritising the scrutiny of Deputy Donnchadh O Laoghaires private members bill, the Digital Safety Commissioner Bill 2017. "That will take place as soon as it can be arranged when we return in September. I think we need to look at everything in relation to the digital safety commissioner and the powers, she said. .@1Hildegarde: Social Media cannot regulate itself any longerhttps://t.co/bLgOCic5ih Fine Gael (@FineGael) August 1, 2018 Facebook was hauled before the committee after a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary carried out a six-week undercover investigation of the platforms content moderation. The reporter who spent time at the offices of Facebooks Dublin-based training partner, CPL Resources, revealed how graphic and disturbing content was not taken down. Niamh Sweeney, head of public policy of Facebook Ireland, said staff had been upset by the footage which showed moderators being instructed not to remove extremely offensive content even when it violated the companys guidelines. Fianna Fail communications spokesman Timmy Dooley said Facebook has a commercial interest in ignoring much of the offensive material. Fianna Fail TD @timmydooley attacks @facebook over a 2016 internal memo from executive @boztank Andrew Bosworth. Niamh Sweeney, Head of Public Policy for Facebook Ireland responds pic.twitter.com/QhzvjAXGKB RTE Politics (@rtepolitics) August 1, 2018 You make money, your company makes vast amounts of money on the back of selling advertising, he said. This is the kind of material that attracts lots of eyeballs. It makes people outraged but, in their outrage, they copy, they paste, and they share. Mr Dooley said Facebook is not actually concerned about what people view, instead its priority is keeping people on the platform for a number of other minutes. Its the cocaine of the business, its attractive, its interesting and it holds their attention, and its addictive. Ms Sweeney said: Advertisers do not approve of this so, in reality, if financial interests were driving all of our decisions we would probably remove far more than we do. Ms Naughton questioned why the online giant is the one to decide whether violent, abusive, and criminal activity is removed. Facebook being the sole arbiters on that is just not acceptable, she said, adding gardai and other law enforcers should be notified. The Escape opens tomorrow Dominic Cooper and Gemma Arterton tell Helen Barlow about their new film in which they play a couple in a doomed relationship. A film title like The Escape might conjure images of prisoners fleeing their captors or Thai teenagers being rescued from an underground cave. Yet the new film by British director Dominic Savage is a relationship drama where Dominic Cooper, 40, and Gemma Arterton, 32, deliver some of their best work to date. Artertons Tara is feeling trapped in the day-to-day suburban routine of raising her kids and in what has become a loveless marriage. In a performance that was improvised from Savages 30-page treatment we feel every bit of her depression as the camera lingers over her face as she internalises her emotions. Cooper has to be commended too for bringing a kind of normalcy to Mark, the breadwinner husband who fails to see anything is wrong. He had previously worked with Savage on 2009s Freefall and loves the directors improvised approach. Theres so much freedom, the star of televisions Preacher explains. The dialogue isnt given to you, so you have to try and make it your own. Youre instinctively going into a scene and youre thinking on your feet and it can be quite daring. It comes out of a real place. I found it completely exhilarating and it was nice that we felt like we could make a mistake and not be embarrassed. I know Gemma so well and there was that trust, he says of an actress he also worked with in 2010 film Tamara Drewe. That trust came in handy during one of the films most disturbing scenes when the couple has a morning quickie and its as if Tara isnt there. It really repels when the person you dont find attractive any more is all over you, Cooper concedes. It was difficult to portray that but it was great knowing Gemma and being comfortable with one another physically. I felt sorry for Mark because hes not a horrible man. Everything that hes done hes done for his family and he has provided in the exact way he thought was necessary. But its clear he doesnt know who this woman is. He sees something is wrong but he doesnt have the faculty to understand what she needs. I think he knows he doesnt, so he gets violent and aggressive. In keeping with drawing on reality, Savage set his film in Tara Artertons home county of Kent (the director also hails from Kent), and had her escape to France. He wanted it to be as close to the bone as possible, Arterton notes. Its only two stops in the Eurostar so l always had easy access to Paris when I was growing up. Ive made three films in France and learnt French and lived there for a couple years and I still go there to work and I have a French agent. For two years shed also dated a French man, Franklin Ohanessian, an assistant director on her 2014 film Gemma Bovery, before ending the relationship in October 2016. Now shes with Irish actor Rory Keenan (Peaky Blinders, Striking Out), though her relationships arent something she likes to talk about in interviews. She does, however, mention another new movie, Vita and Virginia, which she filmed in Dublin last September. In that film, she plays socialite and popular author Vita Sackville-West and the story follows her characters love affair with literary icon Virginia Woolf, portrayed by Elizabeth Debicki. Its another relationship drama. Its about the time in Virginia Woolfs life when she was the most happy, Arterton notes. She was the most incredible writer, as we know, and we also know that she ended up drowning herself. But she was also this vivacious, incredibly bright and happy person, particularly in this period of her life when she wrote Orlando, her most joyful book. Vita inspired her to write Orlando so the film is about someone at the height of their creativity. There are parallels to The Escape because Tara is a woman who is not being creative and descends into that very dark place because of it and also because of her unhappy relationship. But in Vita and Virginia we see a woman who takes that energy and puts it into creating something and thats what keeps her up and alive In The Escape its never mentioned that Tara is suffering from depression even if that is very much the case. With people in my life who have suffered from depression it was something that wasnt spoken about until it was too late and I think thats a tragic thing, Arterton says. Its not spoken about enough, especially among older people like my mum in the film who says, Youll get over it. Its a phase. But you have to take it seriously. Incredibly, in the film the couples children were played by the actual kids who live in the suburban Kent house where they filmed. It wasnt easy, says Cooper. They missed their mummy and daddy and it was quite an upheaval for them having their house taken over. I think for Gemma it worked well that they were slightly removed, because thats what Tara felt they were. Arterton is yet to have children of her own, and the tough shoot ensured she was glad to have precious time to herself. At the end of the shoot Dom and I over a glass of wine said, Lets not have kids then! she laughs. But we moved on from that quite quickly. Im sure I will one day. The thing you wonder is what if you have a kid and they dont like you or you dont like them? Cooper, likewise, says he wants to have kids, though notes, Its definitely all consuming and you should do it when the time is right. Given that he has reportedly split from his partner of eight years, Irish actress Ruth Negga, any baby-making plans may have to wait. He describes his Preacher co-star as a phenomenal actress, and the two can currently be seen in season three of the supernatural series on Amazon Prime. Cooper has also been busy in recent times working on Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. July marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VIs strict prohibition against artificial contraception, issued in the aftermath of the development of the birth control pill, writes Lisa McClain At the time, the decision shocked many Catholic priests and laypeople. Conservative Catholics, however, praised the pope for what they saw as a confirmation of traditional teachings. As a scholar specializing in both the history of the Catholic Church and gender studies, I can attest that for almost 2,000 years, the Catholic Churchs stance on contraception has been one of constant change and development. And although Catholic moral theology has consistently condemned contraception, it has not always been the church battleground that it is today. Early church practice The first Christians knew about contraception and likely practiced it. Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek and Roman texts, for example, discuss well-known contraceptive practices, ranging from the withdrawal method to the use of crocodile dung, dates and honey to block or kill semen. Indeed, while Judeo-Christian scripture encourages humans to be fruitful and multiply, nothing in Scripture explicitly prohibits contraception. When the first Christian theologians condemned contraception, they did so not on the basis of religion but in a give-and-take with cultural practices and social pressures. Early opposition to contraception was often a reaction to the threat of heretic groups, such as the Gnostics and Manichees. And before the 20th century, theologians assumed that those who practiced contraception were fornicators and prostitutes. The purpose of marriage, they believed, was producing offspring. While sex within marriage was not itself considered a sin, pleasure in sex was. The fourth-century Christian theologian Augustine characterized the sexual act between spouses as immoral self-indulgence if the couple tried to prevent conception. Not a church priority The church, however, had little to say about contraception for many centuries. For example, after the decline of the Roman Empire, the church did little to explicitly prohibit contraception, teach against it, or stop it, though people undoubtedly practiced it. Most penitence manuals from the Middle Ages, which directed priests what types of sins to ask parishioners about, did not even mention contraception. It was only in 1588 that Pope Sixtus V took the strongest conservative stance against contraception in Catholic history. With his papal bull Effraenatam, he ordered all church and civil penalties for homicide to be brought against those who practiced contraception. However, both church and civil authorities refused to enforce his orders, and laypeople virtually ignored them. In fact, three years after Sixtuss death, the next pope repealed most of the sanctions and told Christians to treat Effraenatam as if it had never been issued. By the mid-17th century, some church leaders even admitted couples might have legitimate reasons to limit family size to better provide for the children they already had. Birth control becomes more visible By the 19th century, scientific knowledge about the human reproductive system advanced, and contraceptive technologies improved. New discussions were needed. Victorian-era sensibilities, however, deterred most Catholic clergy from preaching on issues of sex and contraception. When an 1886 penitential manual instructed confessors to ask parishioners explicitly whether they practiced contraception and to refuse absolution for sins unless they stopped, the order was virtually ignored. By the 20th century, Christians in some of the most heavily Catholic countries in the world, such as France and Brazil, were among the most prodigious users of artificial contraception, leading to dramatic decline in family size. As a consequence of this increasing availability and use of contraceptives by Catholics, church teaching on birth control which had always been there began to become a visible priority. The papacy decided to bring the dialogue about contraception out of scholarly theological discussions between clergy into ordinary exchanges between Catholic couples and their priests. Regarding his frank 1930 pronouncement on birth control, Casti Connubii, Pope Pius XI declared that contraception was inherently evil and any spouse practicing any act of contraception "violates the law of God and nature and was stained by a great and mortal flaw." Condoms, diaphragms, the rhythm method and even the withdrawal method were forbidden. Only abstinence was permissible to prevent conception. Priests were to teach this so clearly and so often that no Catholic could claim ignorance of the Churchs prohibition of contraception. Many theologians presumed this to be an infallible statement and taught it thus to Catholic laypersons for decades. Other theologians saw it as binding but subject to future reconsideration. In 1951, the church modified its stance again. Without overturning Casti Connubiis prohibition of artificial birth control, Pius XIs successor, Pius XII, deviated from its intent. He approved the rhythm method for couples who had morally valid reasons for avoiding procreation, defining such situations quite broadly. The pill and the church The Museum of Sex, in New York, marks the 50th anniversary of the worlds first oral contraceptive in 2010. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews By the early 1950s, however, options for artificial contraception were growing, including the pill. Devout Catholics wanted explicit permission to use them. Church leaders confronted the issue head-on, expressing a variety of viewpoints. In light of these new contraceptive technologies and developing scientific knowledge about when and how conception occurs, some leaders believed the church could not know Gods will on this issue and should stop pretending that it did, as Dutch Bishop William Bekkers said outright on national television in 1963. Even Paul VI admitted his confusion. In an interview with an Italian journalist in 1965, he stated, The world asks what we think and we find ourselves trying to give an answer. But what answer? We cant keep silent. And yet to speak is a real problem. But what? The Church has never in her history confronted such a problem. There were others, however, such as Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the body that promotes and defends Catholic doctrine who disagreed. Among those adamantly convinced of the truth of the prohibitions was the Jesuit John Ford, perhaps the most influential U.S. Catholic moralist of the last century. Although no Scripture mentioned contraception, Ford believed the churchs teachings were grounded in divine revelation and therefore not to be questioned. The question was left for consideration by the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control, held between 1963 to 1966. This commission by an overwhelming majority a reported 80 percent recommended the church expand its teaching to accept artificial contraception. That was not at all unusual. The Catholic Church had changed its stance on many controversial issues over the centuries, such as slavery, usury and Galileos theory that the Earth revolves around the sun. Minority opinion, however, feared that to suggest the church had been wrong these last decades would be to admit the church had been lacking in direction by the Holy Spirit. Humanae Vitae ignored A protest in Charleston, S.C., in 2012, against a federal mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance that includes birth control for workers. AP Photo/Bruce Smith Paul VI eventually sided with this minority view and issued Humanae Vitae, prohibiting all forms of artificial birth control. His decision, many argue, was not about contraception per se but the preservation of church authority. An outcry ensued from both priests and laypeople. One lay member of the commission commented, It was as if they had found some old unpublished encyclical from the 1920s in a drawer somewhere in the Vatican, dusted it off, and handed it out. Much has changed in the Catholic Church since 1968. Today, priests make it a pastoral priority to encourage sexual pleasure between spouses. While prohibitions on birth control continue, many pastors discuss the reasons a couple might want to use artificial contraception, from protecting one partner against a sexually transmitted disease to limiting family size for the good of the family or the planet. Despite the changes in the churchs attitudes about sex, the prohibitions of Humanae Vitae remain. Millions of Catholics around the world, however, have simply chosen to ignore them. This article was written by Lisa McClain of Boise State University and was originally published on The Conversation Read the original article here. A widely shared video of a woman being attacked by a man outside a Parisian cafe when she told him to shut up after he allegedly used dirty words that were humiliating and provocative brought the issue of misogynistic hate crime to the attention of millions, write Louise Mullany and Loretta Trickett. But this wasnt a one-off incident. Its an example of something countless women endure every day as we discovered during our research. Our research focused on the UK, where Nottinghamshire Police became the first force in the country to introduce misogyny as a hate crime in April 2016. Other forces have started to follow suit and police chiefs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are being urged to support a national roll out. Stella Creasy MP has argued that misogyny should become a national crime as part of the upskirting bill currently making its way through parliament, and a national roll out has the backing of the Fawcett Society, Citizens UK and a number of other pressure groups. Two years on from the policys introduction in Nottinghamshire, our research assessed the impact that the policy has had on the everyday lives of the general public and the police. Our research, consisting of surveys, focus groups and interviews with almost 700 residents, demonstrated overwhelming public support for a national roll out of the policy. Incidents of misogyny hate crime are highly prevalent in society, with 93.7% of respondents experiencing or witnessing street harassment in Nottinghamshire alone. Many participants reported experiencing the same behaviours across the country, in locations where they have either lived or visited. This accords with the growing evidence base that demonstrates the endemic nature of harassment of women in public spaces across the UK and internationally. A widespread problem In our study, high percentages of women regularly experienced harassment at the higher end of the crime continuum, including unwanted sexual advances (48.9%), groping (46.2%), sexually explicit language (54.3%) and indecent exposure (25.9%). A quarter (24.7%) of respondents reported that they had experienced sexual assault. These incidents are taking place in a variety of public spaces, including public transport, workplaces, bars, clubs, restaurants, gyms and car parks, as well as on the street and online a fifth of respondents reported experiencing online abuse (21.7%). These findings are in stark contrast to the mass medias initial trivialisation of the policy as political correctness gone mad, ridiculing it as the criminalisation of wolf-whistling. In fact, the law has not changed at all instead, it is the way that crimes and incidents are recorded that has changed. Serious crimes are clearly taking place, and one of Nottinghamshire Polices key goals is to assure women that they will be taken seriously if they come forward to report. However, as with all hate crimes and crimes and incidents against women, reporting levels remain very low. Society has consistently underplayed violence against women and girls in contexts other than the street, including domestic violence within the home. In fact, only 6.6% of victims reported incidents of misogyny hate crime to police. This is partly due to factors including the normalisation of these incidents in wider society, fear of not being taken seriously and/or fear of victim blaming. It is also due to the need for more publicity surrounding the policy. Of those who did report, 75% had a positive experience of interacting with the police. Most importantly, 100% of those who reported said that they would report again. Victims stressed the importance of the police taking them seriously and demonstrating empathy, which was often more important than potential prosecutions often street crimes take place very quickly, with little chance to get decent descriptions of perpetrators. Nevertheless, victims value the opportunity to report and to know that their concerns are taken seriously. Worryingly, 74.9% of women reported that incidents have had a long-term impact on them, with 63.1% changing their behaviour as a consequence. These incidents are having a damaging impact on womens freedom of movement in public spaces, their fear of crime and are a clear infringement of their human rights. Notably, women from black and minority ethnic groups often experience misogyny hate crime and race hate crime simultaneously and report feeling doubly vulnerable to attack. Men want to prevent it, too The vast majority of male respondents found the behaviours characteristic of misogyny hate crime completely unacceptable and wanted to prevent it from happening. They valued the opportunity to be consulted and wanted to help by being fully integrated in discussions and follow-up initiatives. Many of the men we spoke to advocated the need for high profile male role models to be identified as supporting the initiative, akin to how anti-racism campaigns in sport have been successfully implemented. Participants also suggested on the spot fines for perpetrators, a policy which is already being used in France. Some 45.6% of all respondents thought that education was key to changing societal attitudes, with 95.2% reporting that they perceived these behaviours to be part of a broader social problem. In our view, these educational initiatives need to start early, in primary school, and be prioritised within national and international teaching curricula, with mutual respect, healthy relationships and the use of inappropriate behaviours and language being openly discussed and addressed. These practices should be fully integrated with continuing initiatives into adulthood, including workplaces, community groups and other highly influential institutions, such as national sporting organisations. Working in direct conjunction with policing initiatives, the implementation of strategies to make such behaviour socially unacceptable, as well as criminal, would be a clear step in the right direction to change such behaviour in future. This article was written by Louise Mullany, Professor in Sociolinguistics, University of Nottingham and Loretta Trickett, Senior lecturer, College of Business Law and Social Sciences, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University and was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here. One of the worst seasons of wildfires in 2017 has been followed by raging fires this year that have devastated our most valuable habitats, writes Padraic Fogarty. Ireland has a major wildfire problem. Last year, we witnessed one of the worst seasons of wildfires in recent times mostly as a result of human activity. For very different reasons, this year has proven to be just as deadly as 2017. Last spring, megafires at Cloosh in Connemara, the hills of Gougane Barra, and the Ox Mountains in Sligo were among hundreds of smaller fires across mostly mountain areas which devastated habitats in their path. At least half of these were in areas designated for nature conservation. It wasnt a one-off. Wildfires have been an annual occurrence since the turn of the century, driven in no small part by the need for the shrinking number of upland sheep farmers to comply with rules qualifying them for State subsidies. This year, in response, the Department of Agriculture vowed to withhold payments to farmers with burnt land and although no one wants to see blameless landowners penalised, there was at least the feeling that the message that torching land was not acceptable was sinking in. Gougane Barra fire, April 2017 This spring was uncharacteristically wet and whether it was the new rules or the bad weather, it was mercifully quiet on the fire front. By May, we thought the worst was over as new growth tends to reduce the flammability of vegetation. For the first time in many years, it was felt that the hills were finally getting some respite. Alas, we hadnt counted on the summer drought which has parched land across the country. Raging fires have swept across some of our most valuable natural areas, including the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the Liffey Head Bog, and Bray Head in Wicklow and even the sand dunes in Cahore in Co Wexford, where miraculously people escaped without injury. The problem with wildfires is not new. Not only do we have a tradition of burning uplands to accommodate grazing animals, but we also have a general lack of awareness of the vulnerability of our landscape to fires. In hotter, drier countries like Australia, lighting fires in the outback is met with stiff penalties while no one would dream of holding an event releasing Chinese lanterns into the hot summer air (itself an act of pretty littering). Deforestation, river drainage schemes, closely packed plantations of non-native trees, and the stripping away of our peatlands, mostly designed to speed the departure of water off the land, have left our landscape woefully vulnerable to weather extremes. Gorse fire in Dublin last month It has left upland and mountain areas in particular practically devoid of its distinctive wildlife. Birds which were common and widespread only 30 years ago like the red grouse, the curlew, and the ring ouzel, now hang on in few corners. The nightjar may already be extinct as no one has seen it in years. The much-vaunted reintroduction of the golden eagle, now nearly 20 years ago, cant yet be considered a success as the tiny population struggles to find food in a barren landscape. The effects of climate change, with warmer, drier summers and wetter winters, were long predicted by our scientists but societys leaders plugged their ears. Now that its coming to pass, we find that we have destroyed the natural systems our native forests, wetlands, bogs, and rivers which had developed over thousands of years to be resilient to such extremes and are now not able to cope. More than 11,500km of rivers (predominantly in the lowlands) are subject to arterial drainage schemes which straighten and deepen naturally meandering water courses. Drainage programmes are still carried out under legislation from 1945 with little sympathy for fish life, never mind the fact that these days natural flood alleviation is now widely regarded as cheaper and more effective. The River Bandon in Cork, for instance, has been a construction site for the last year and a half, with heavy vehicles literally using the river bed as roadway. Less than 1% of the midlands bogs remain while only around 28% of the vast western blanket bogs are worthy of conservation (ie salvageable). So much effort has been put into drying out a habitat which has evolved to hold on to water that our peatlands are now a massive source of carbon emissions, and that is before it is burnt in one of the three ESB turf electricity stations. Less than 2% of our land cover is under native woodland as our expensive, State-funded forestry model is based on monoculture plantations and all its attendant land drainage, pesticide use, and pollution. Restoring our rivers, bogs, and woodlands is surely the best insurance programme we can invest in to minimise the worst impacts of climate change. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature in the UK said last year that the most effective long-term sustainable solution for addressing wildfire risk on peatlands is to return sites to fully functioning bog habitat by removing those factors that can cause degradation, such as drainage, livestock, management and burning regimes. Native forest, meanwhile, holds water with its deeper roots and leafy shade. That nature also protects our water supply, traps carbon in long-term stores, and is a joy to behold surely makes this argument a no-brainer. Its time to bring nature back. Padraic Fogarty is campaigns officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust By Seamus O Tuama Conor McGuigan and Eamon Bowen clash in a fascinating All-Ireland intermediate bowling final on Sunday, in the feature score of the second All-Ireland series at Tullysaran in Armagh. McGuigan was a comprehensive winner of the Ulster final, totally dismissing James Oliver. He brings with him a history of success, causing one of the greatest upsets in bowling history in 2011 when he beat David Murphy by almost three bowls of odds in the All-Ireland senior final on the Markethill Road. That was on a day when Murphy got a dream start, but McGuigan was unfazed, storming back to take control. McGuigan not only retained the senior title in 2012, but pushed Martin Coppinger to the last shot of an epic All-Ireland final at Derrinasafa, as the lead changed eight times. While Eamon Bowen is flying high after a splendid run through Munster, McGuigan is an incredible competitor and will raise the psychological stakes when the chips are down. Bowen is a gifted athlete, but he will need to be totally focused to win this one. In the Junior A final, by coincidence, both John ORourke and Sean Donnelly will be bidding for a second All-Ireland title, both having had previous success at U12. ORourke won the inaugural title in Armagh in 1998 and Donnelly won the 2002 final. Both have had good days since, but a second All-Ireland has eluded them. ORourke was an impressive winner of the Munster title and the big challenge for him will be to adapt his style of play to the pristine, smooth surface at Tassagh. This is made for low, fast bowls with plenty of reward for accuracy. ORourke is gifted with class and should be able to adjust but Donnelly has a massive advantage in knowledge of the road. He won the Ulster final here and has all the requisites to go one step further. This may boil down to a test of temperament. Kelly Mallon will contest a record ninth consecutive All-Ireland senior final when she faces Munster champion Carmel Ryan. It is her tenth senior final, having won seven, only losing in 2013 to Ryan and the previous year to Catriona OFarrell-Kidney. Ryan will be bidding for her fourth All-Ireland, having recently won her eighth Munster crown. In the girls U18 final Hannah Sexton and Geraldine Kiernan meet in a repeat of last years U16 final at Madden. Sexton won that by almost two bowls. She was caught on the line in this years U16 final at Grenagh by Shannon Maguire, so she will not suffer from complacency. In the boys U18 final Ronan Toal is the latest of the greatest bowling dynasty to contest an All-Ireland final. He is lightning fast, but not always as accurate. He faces an impressive Munster champion in Colm McLoughlin, who defeated last years u16 champion Jordan OSullivan. In the Ulster U14 final Niall Stevenson proved a worthy winner over Cathal Maguire. Jamie Kelleher had to come from behind against Darragh Dempsey, to win the Munster U14 final in Templemartin. The UNs two-pronged approach will reduce neonatal mortality rates to 12 per 1,000 births by 2030, says Melvin Sanicas. One of the more ambitious targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the commitment to end preventable deaths of newborns and children over the next decade. If this target is met, by 2030 no country will have a neonatal mortality rate above 12 deaths per 1,000 births (thats a quarter of the current rate in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa). Given the magnitude of the challenge, huge investments will be needed in health-care infrastructure and planning. Perhaps the most effective way to reduce infant mortality would be to encourage uptake of two readily available resources: maternal vaccinations and breast milk. Protecting children from early deaths begins before they are born. When a woman is vaccinated against common illnesses, like influenza, her body creates antibodies that recognise viruses and boost natural defences against pathogens. When she becomes pregnant, these protective proteins are transferred to her baby across the placenta. Remarkably, the benefits continue after birth. For example, while the flu shot is not approved for infants younger than six months old, clinical trials have shown that children born to mothers who have been vaccinated are better-protected against the illness. Happy #Breastfeeding Week! #Breastfeeding is a universal solution that gives everyone a fair start in life and lays the foundation for women and children to survive AND thrive. You can support #breastfeeding anytime, anywhere! pic.twitter.com/pcX0FecI9k 1,000 Days (@1000Days) August 1, 2018 In one study of mothers and their babies, in Bangladesh, researchers recorded a staggering 63% reduction in influenza among infants born to vaccinated mothers, a 36% reduction in respiratory illnesses for mothers, and a 29% reduction in such illnesses among infants. Maternal immunisation against the flu also protect infants from pneumonia, a common cause of childhood mortality. A 2018 analysis of flu-vaccine trials conducted in Nepal, Mali, and South Africa found that infants were 20% less likely to develop pneumonia, if their mothers had been inoculated. Children too young to be completely vaccinated against streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza were the biggest beneficiaries. Armed with data from these and other studies, governments in low-income countries should be able to plan smarter immunisation campaigns and substantially lower rates of infant morbidity and mortality. Breastfeeding, the second way to reduce childhood mortality, arguably has a greater impact. Breast milk is the perfect nutrition for a baby, providing all the proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that a young body needs to stay healthy. Best of all, mothers create new antibodies in real time, which help strengthen young immune systems. Unfortunately, rates of breastfeeding and breast-milk consumption are well below desired levels. Only 40% of infants worldwide are breastfed exclusively until they are at least six months old, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends. The reasons are complex, but, in many countries, lack of education, together with aggressive marketing by makers of baby formula, has contributed to a decline in breastfeeding. Recently, the US has been accused of siding with the formula industry, by opposing a WHO resolution in support of breastfeeding. Convincing mothers to breastfeed should be easier. For starters, breastfed babies are less likely to contract ear infections and meningitis, or to suffer gastrointestinal illnesses and diarrhoea. These advantages continue for as long as a baby is breastfed. Mothers also benefit from breastfeeding. Research shows that women who have breastfed are less likely to develop non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular illness, breast cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Breastfeeding breaks down the extra fat that accumulates in a womans body during pregnancy. In fact, producing milk for a single infant burns as much as 500 calories a day. Even though the majority of new mothers are able to breastfeed, not all women can produce enough milk, owing to exhaustion, depression, or physical weakness, following postpartum surgery. Some mothers are simply unable to meet their childs needs, while others lack the medical or social support to navigate the logistics of breastfeeding. Nonetheless, for those who can supply their babies with at least six months of breast milk, the benefits are significant. If the international community is serious about meeting the health targets set by the SDGs, it must redouble its efforts to encourage more mothers to be vaccinated against preventable illnesses and to feed their newborns breast milk. These two practices alone could do more to reduce infant mortality than just about any other global health initiative. Melvin Sanicas, a public health physician and vaccinologist, is a regional medical expert at Sanofi Pasteur. Copyright: Project-syndicate.org If anyone deserves time well away from the public arena, its Vicky Phelan, the Limerick mother who uncovered and publicised so robustly the travesty of the cervical screening programme. She yesterday met the Taoiseach to discuss the scandal and the ways in which the system that let her down so badly can be improved. While coping with her own cancer, she has raised funds for the drug she needs and helped other sufferers desperate for trustworthy information and advice. If that were not enough, she has had to deal with the downside of Twitter, which she has used to promote her campaign and which, of course, has been used by many of those who quite rightly have offered her encouragement. The downside is that channels such as Twitter are unmediated or unedited which means that along with the good stuff comes the dross. In Ms Phelans case, its been tweets of which she says: I am deeply disturbed by the lack of empathy in some quarters towards the women and families affected by the scandal. I will be taking a break from Twitter and from all #CervicalCheckScandal campaigning after tomorrow, some of you will be glad to know. I am deeply disturbed by the lack of empathy in some quarters towards the women & families affected by the scandal. Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) July 31, 2018 She has, understandably, been angered and upset by Twitter messages in which shes accused, bizarrely, of bringing down the cervical screening programme. I can only speak for myself here. For those of you who are condemning me for 'bringing down the cervical screening programme', I never missed a smear and NEVER had an abnormal smear until I was diagnosed in July 2014 with invasive cervical cancer Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) July 31, 2018 In what sort of parallel universe can such rubbish be written? One in which, perhaps, people who uncover paedophile rings are criticised for undermining confidence in child protection services? Also understandable, therefore, is her decision to, as she says, take a break from Twitter and campaigning. Some might conclude that she has been hounded off Twitter. In any event, she has earned a break. Its very possible that, refreshed after a rest with her family, well hear from her again as she keeps a watchful eye on the Governments promised review of the programme. There is, meanwhile, the social media problem, picked at coincidentally in the Oireachtas yesterday when Facebook executives were questioned about the control it does or doesnt have of the material it publishes. The posture taken by Facebook when challenged by legislators is becoming predictable; its been seen in Washington DC and London. In Ireland, it apologises for failings in policing content, blames its training agency, and moves quickly to carp about proposed legislation to help protect children from harmful communication online, chucking in the customary freedom of expression red herring. The bill, says Facebook, needs a clearer definition of harmful communication. No, it doesnt. Social media executives need to be reminded of United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who, in an obscenity case judgement declined to offer an intelligible definition of hard-core pornography, adding: But I know it when see it. Social media managers know it, too. I couldnt help thinking that, as I watched head of content policy for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Siobhan Cummiskey, and head of public policy, Niamh Sweeney, yesterday, addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Communications. These women have the best and the highest qualifications, like Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, the woman who leant in and told us all to do the same. If this is Facebooks secret policy, it is brilliant. Because though Niamh Sweeney repeated that the training outsourced by Facebook to Cpl, which was filmed under-cover by Channel 4 for its Dispatches programme, did not reflect Facebooks underlying values, I dont think there are any. And thats what separates Facebook from other private companies that sell information and rely on advertising revenue, such as this newspaper. Traditional media outlets are informed by decades of self-regulation and then regulated by law. Facebook, too, is a publisher and should have all the responsibilities, and be subject to all the regulations, which apply to publishers. The UK House of Commons interim report into Disinformation and Fake News, published this week, argues that there should be a third category for information sources such as Facebook, making them neither publishers nor neutral platforms. None of the distinctions they found between online platforms and traditional publishers holds up for me. Its not significant that Facebook does not commission its material. The letters this newspaper publishes are not solicited, either, any more than most of the calls to chat shows. Despite the fact that such content isnt commissioned, the publishers or broadcasters head is on the block if its inaccurate or hurts innocent people. The fact that Facebook is free to the user should not impact on its responsibilities. The platform should be bound by all the strictures we traditional publishers face. Those strictures are as tight as Houdinis. In this country and in the UK, most of us are bound by our own professional code of conduct, as members of the National Union of Journalism, which has existed since 1936. This means lots of things, including that we dont publish information which is not true, we dont intrude on peoples grief, we make a clear distinction between news and opinion, we take care not to incite hatred, we dont take financial inducements to promote services or products, and we dont go undercover, unless in cases of overwhelming public interest, such as Channel 4s Dispatches programme on Facebook. Since 2007, we have had our own Press Council in Ireland, which holds members, such as this newspaper, to the highest ethical standards. Journalists sometimes fail to uphold these standards and thats why its important there has been, since 2008, a press ombudsman to deal with complaints. The very existence of the regulated media is threatened by publishers like Facebook, who abide by no rules worthy of the name and take little or no responsibility for the content they publish. Facebook should be bound by all the strictures that traditional publishers, like newspapers, face The company attempts to absolve itself of responsibility by presenting itself as a neutral platform. The interim report on Disinformation and Fake News claimed that Facebook consistently chose to avoid answering the commissions written and oral questions, to the point of obfuscation, and, to date, Facebooks CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has steadfastly refused to be questioned by the committee. They rubbished Facebooks claims that it should not thoroughly mediate its content, because, as the companys head of global policy management, Monika Bickert, put it, our community would not want us, a private company, to be the arbiter of truth. Neither would Irish Examiner readers want its editors to be the arbiter of truth. This newspaper presents facts and a range of carefully labelled opinion. Editorials set out the stance of a newspaper and are thus useful to readers, who may agree or disagree. It is clear that the only arbiter of truth is the reader. On a platform like Facebook, both the arbiter and his truth are hidden. The idea that a free-for-all platform can be a force for good is utopian and cynical at the same time. Such a platform will be manipulated by those with the deepest pockets and they are unlikely to be striving for world peace. It will also come to be dominated by the outrage and hatred which were seen being carefully protected by Facebook not Cpl, the company running the training for Facebook and now being saddled with most of the blame for the outrages in the Dispatches programme. Facebook employs engineers who, as evidence to the House of Commons put it, know a lot more about how your brain works than you do. They design algorithms to make sure you stay interested in their platform, because it is by targeting you with advertising that Facebook made $40bn last year. They know your location, your age, your social connections, their locations, your interests, your sexual orientation, your political outlook, and much more besides. That is why Facebook is such a useful tool, if you want to sway a political system. We know that it was by using information gleaned from, and not adequately protected by, Facebook that Cambridge Analytica helped Donald Trump to victory in the US presidential election. We do not yet know exactly how the platform might have been used to promote Brexit, but we should be keenly interested, because any regime that is interested in destabilising Europe will be likely to focus on the issue of the Irish border. How worried we should be is underlined by the tragic influence of Facebook on the Rohingya pogrom in Burma. The UN has named Facebook as being responsible for inciting hatred against the Rohingya Muslim minority, through its Free Basics, no-cost mobile phone package. The company could not show the House of Commons committee that it had since done anything to stop the spread of this hatred. The report calls this a further example of Facebook failing to take responsibility for the misuse of its platform I hadnt watched half of Channel 4s Dispatches programme, Inside Facebook: Secrets of a Social Network, which first aired on July 17, before I deleted my account. I dont want my name associated with a publisher who left a video of a toddler being beaten up by his step-father on its platform for six years. We must take urgent action to protect our democracy. Fianna Fails Timmy Dooley is right when he says we need a seriously-resourced digital safety commissioner to regulate online media platforms in Ireland and the platforms need to pay for it. There would be less call to make Facebook pay a levy to fund Irish journalism if Facebook were forced to adopt the same standards as the newspaper you are reading and to compete, not by way of anorexic children, racist hatred and bloody cuts of self-harm, but by way of quality content. Lifestyle Street Dance Scene Is Maturing But Still Faces Resistance From Older Generation Thant Zaw, winner of the Open Side category, competing in his battle round of the Yangon High for Dance Vol:2 Street Dance contest. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy In Myanmar, the street dance industry is growing up. It is becoming more and more popular with young people, although it still has a long way to go to win over the wider sections of society, said Henry Chang, a 29-year-old Taiwanese who works as both a street dancer and teacher in Yangon. Chang recently organized the second edition of a dance competition, Yangon Dance for High, which drew a big crowd to Yangons Junction City on July 29. It was bigger and more people came (especially the younger ones) this year. It went from 30 to 50 contestants, which means that more people are interested in street dance and that next year it will grow more, Chang told The Irrawaddy. YDFH is the local version of an international dance competition that started in Taiwan and is aimed at helping young people in Myanmar develop their dancing skills. Contestants competed in different dance styles including hip-hop, house, breaking, locking, popping, and waacking. There were three judges, two from overseas: Andrew Agame from the US, who dances house and breaking, and the other from Taiwan, TSZ, who is a part of a well-known dance crew IP Lockers. The last judge, Falcon, is from Myanmar and a member of the Massive Souls dance crew. The contest had two different categories: Open side and Young Side (for those aged under 22). The winners will go to Taiwan in mid-October as the representatives of Myanmar. The judges chose one winner from each category based on musicality, dance techniques and other dance-related factors, Chang said. Speaking at the event, Agame said he saw potential for street dance to grow in Myanmar. I taught a few classes at the Dance Camp before this event and I saw a lot of students who are really trying hard and they have passion. Im so happy to be a part of this event and I would like to see more street dancers in the future, he said. The event drew a big crowd with two Yangon locals emerging as the winners: Thant Zaw (Open side) and a dancer known as Bboy GB (Young Side). A lot of dancers in Myanmar worked hard to make this event happen and Im just one of them, Chang said, adding that he felt the event had made encouraging progress since last year. Last years event took place in August at The Vibe bar and it was combined with Youk Shi, a local underground concert series. Last year was the first time and it was a bit difficult. I decided to bring this competition to Myanmar to support the street dance community here but it was a bit rushed. We got only two months to prepare for the event, Chang said. This year, the street dancers have improved a lot. Even though street dance is popular among young people, their elders still find it hard to accept the culture. It is true, older people have a hard time accepting street dance culture in Myanmar because they havent grown up with it, Chang said. My plan is to make younger people accept it first and also to educate older people that dance is not a bad thing, but an art form. As a foreigner, the main difficulty he faced as a street dancer in Myanmar was the language, Chang said. Sometimes it is hard to communicate with the dancers in Myanmar as my Burmese is not perfect. Apart from that, another struggle is that the street dance market in Myanmar is still at an early stage of development and it is hard to just do dance for a living as the wages are low, he said. Chang has been living in Yangon for five years. At first, he worked as a restaurant manager at his uncles shop, then he became friends with local street dancers and that was the beginning of his teaching career. A few years ago, I met with some local street dancers and found out that Myanmar doesnt have a locking dancer. Im good at locking and I thought of it as a chance for me to find more opportunities. Then, I became a street dance teacher, he recounted. In the street dance community, there are two kinds of people, he said. One is the dancer on center stage and the other plays a supporting role. I want to be the second one because even though Im a bit old now I can still dance and support the young generation to enter street dance and help the community grow. Myanmar is very different from Taiwan, he said, describing Myanmar people as warm-hearted and kind. Even though he is a foreigner, he still feels like he is at home, he said. Chang believes the social stratification in Myanmar is a big problem though its rich people are too rich and poor people too poor. Chang has previously worked with an NGO and he visited some schools and places such as orphanages. Those kids dont have parents and they dont have a chance to know what is street dance. So, we used our time and energy to share that with them. At the time, they were really happy and I could feel their passion and I really wanted to do something for them, Chang said. That is the one of the reasons that has encouraged him to stay in Myanmar, he said. But, I need to make myself stronger at first and need to make this street dance community better. Thats why I work, teaching dance classes and staging events. Then when I have free time, I go to see those kids. Taiwan, he said, already has a lot of dancers and street dance is popular. So, Taiwan doesnt really need my support. Thats why I want to help those local kids by doing my little bit to help this street dance community grow up. Asia Burst Laos Dam Floods Some Vietnam Rice Fields, Damage Limited A man rows a boat through floodwaters after the Xepian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu Province, Laos, on July 26. / Reuters HANOI Floods from a burst dam in Laos have inundated thousands of hectares of paddy fields in Vietnams rice-growing Mekong Delta region, officials said on Wednesday, although the damage is limited and not expected to affect the countrys export crop. A saddle dam that was part of Laos $1.2 billion Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project collapsed last week, sending torrents of water crashing into neighboring villages. At least 11 people were killed in the accident, and a further 120 people are still missing, the state-run Vientiane Times in Laos reported on Wednesday. The flood water is hampering the ongoing harvest of the summer-autumn rice crop in some areas, especially in Dong Thap, Long An and An Giang provinces, Tran Xuan Dinh, deputy head of the Department of Crop Production under Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Reuters. The Mekong Delta is the largest rice-growing area in Vietnam, which is the worlds third-largest rice exporter after India and Thailand. The water level in the Mekong Delta region has risen by 7-10 centimeters since the dam burst, Dinh said. Although heavy rains and excess waters from the dam in Laos have damaged crops, the impact of the floods will not significantly impact rice production, said Nguyen Si Lam, deputy director of An Giang Provinces agricultural department. Farmers in the delta provinces have planted more than 1.69 million hectares of rice for the summer-autumn crop, with unhusked paddy output estimated at 9.51 million tons, an increase of 3 percent in terms of output from a year ago, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Farmers in the Mekong Delta have brought in more than 40 percent of the summer-autumn rice crop and the harvest is expected to end in 15-20 days, Dinh said. The flooding season in the Mekong Delta was previously forecast to begin around August 5-7, but the water from Laos made it start sooner, he said. Burma Five Kyaukse Police Officers Jailed for Taking Bribes from Timber Smuggler Logs seized by police are stored at the Kyaukse Township police station in Mandalay on April 24. / Nay Soe Moe / Facebook MANDALAY Five police officers from Kyaukse Township in Mandalay Division were demoted and sentenced to prison terms on Wednesday for accepting bribes to release a timber smuggler. The police court in Mandalay Division sentenced former Kyaukse Township Police Station chief Pol. Captain Myint Oo to one year in prison, while Pol. Lieutenant Than Htike was jailed for two years and Pol. Lance Corporal Chit San Ko received a three-year sentence. (The ranks shown are their ranks before demotion.) The officers will be dismissed from duty after serving their sentences. In addition, the officer who replaced Pol. Capt. Myint Oo as Kyaukse Police Station, Pol. Captain Win Naing, and the Kyaukse Township police chief, Pol. Major Win Zaw, were demoted one rank and stripped of their current positions. We have to say that the punishment is fair in light of the need to stop corruption in the police force, said U Ko Ko Lwin, a member of Kyaukse Townships 88 Generation Open Society, who testified at the court hearing. We submitted the case to the Myanmar Human Rights Council, but the council said that since the case is being handled by the police court, [the council] cannot influence the court. However, we are satisfied with the decision of the court, he said. The 88 Generation Open Society in Kyaukse assisted policemen who came forward to expose the corruption. The case, in which the former police station chief, Pol. Capt. Myint Oo, took a bribe to release timber log smugglers was exposed by five other police officers in early May. Pol. Corporals Tun Tun Win and Zeyar Maung and two others seized a truck hauling illegal logs on April 24. They later said the township police chief admonished them for making the bust, ordering them to release the logs alleged owner and report the incident as a seizure of abandoned logs. After the case was exposed to the public, the police officers who made the initial bust were arrested. Shortly after their arrest, local residents, rights activists and local lawmakers sent a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking justice on behalf of the detainees and calling for the corrupt officers to be prosecuted. The smuggler of the timber Moan Lar, also known as Aung Soe Moe is well known for paying off police and government officials in exchange for protection. He was arrested, and the five corrupt officers were detained soon after. The police officers who exposed the corruption were released and received citations for excellence from the Mandalay Division chief minister and police chief. Moan Lar was charged under the Public Property Protection Act for smuggling timber logs, while the five police officers were charged under the police code of conduct. The Kyaukse District police chief, who was responsible for sentencing the five police officers, was not available for comment. Burma Online Company Registry Crashes on First Day A user tries to access the MyCO website. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy YANGON Due to a high volume of traffic, the Myanmar Companies Online (MyCO) registry crashed repeatedly on the first day of re-registration, denying access to most users. U Myo Min, director of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, said the website would be back online by Monday. The MyCO system was opened to the public on the morning of Aug. 1. But by the afternoon, DICA Director General U Aung Naing Oo was forced to issue an apology on Facebook as the website locked out most users. Many people posted complaints about the issue on DICAs Facebook page with some users saying they had unsuccessfully tried to access the website until midnight. U Myo Min said there were three main reasons causing the website to fail: 1) the high volume of users seeking to create accounts at the same time; 2) the many users uploading incomplete or wrong information, prompting the website system to reject those files; and 3) users needing to reload pages and resubmit forms repeatedly. As a result, the website couldnt function properly and kept recording errors. According to the administrations own figures, there are more than 50,000 locally owned companies and 7,000 foreign companies registered with DICA. But the agency couldnt confirm the exact volume of traffic on the first day the online registrys launch. According to the procedure, before submitting a registration form, the applicant needed to create a user account. On the first day, 670 companies created accounts on MyCO and 30 companies were successfully approved by the electronic system. Of these, 28 were existing companies and two were new entities, U Myo Min said. Under the Myanmar Company Law that took effect on Aug. 1, all existing companies are required to re-register electronically via the MyCO online system within six months. So far we have found how to solve the problem when a registrant uploads the wrong or incomplete information, U Myo Min said. DICA announced companies that want to register before Monday can visit the public services counter at any of DICAs offices across the country from Aug. 2-4. According to company regulations, the registration submission may be rejected if the applicant fails to complete forms in line with the instructions or fails to attach the required documents, provide the required information, or pay the requisite fee. If a company fails to re-register within the six-month time limit, it will be struck from the company registry and dissolved. However, companies can get back on the registry, although they would need to pay a 100,000-kyat restoration fee. News Court to Hear Arguments from Both Sides in Trial of 8 Injured Arakanese Protesters on Aug. 13 Eight people detained in connection with a protest in Rakhine States Mrauk-U in January appear at Sittwe Court on Aug. 1, 2018. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy SITTWEProsecution and defense lawyers will present their final arguments to the court later this month on whether eight Arakanese youths detained in connection with a protest in Rakhine States Mrauk-U in January should be tried. The court heard from the last prosecution witnesses in the case on Monday, and lawyers on both sides will present their closing arguments in the first phase of the trial to Sittwe Court on Aug. 13, prosecution lawyer U Tun Aung Kyaw told The Irrawaddy. Thousands of Mrauk-U residents staged a protest on Jan. 16 after officials banned a memorial event to mark the 233rd anniversary of the end of the Arakan Dynasty. Local police opened fire on the crowd, killing seven and wounding 12. Eight of the wounded sustained serious injuries and were transferred to Sittwe Hospital. A few days later, authorities shackled the eight patients in the hospitals prison ward, before moving them to Sittwe Prison in early February. Police opened cases against the eight under Article 6 (1) for allegedly destroying government property and public assets. A list of 16 prosecution witnesses was presented to the court in connection with the case, but only 12 including police officials appeared at the court. Four other officials including the Mrauk-U district administrator failed to appear as they had been transferred to other areas. It is the rainy season now, and they will have to travel long distances to get here from their current locations. So, in accordance with court procedures, the four will have to testify at the courts in their areas, and their testimony will be sent to Sittwe Court, U Tun Aung Kyaw said. Only four of the eight detainees, all of whom were injured during the police crackdown on protesters, have fully recovered from their wounds. Three still need crutches to walk, and a fourth still cannot use his injured arm. Having to attend the trial has caused us many problems. It disrupts our work, said U Aye Maung Thein, the father of one of the detainees. Police opened fire on people who were expressing their views. [In addition to their injuries] the government has prosecuted them. If the Arakanese people are to be shot whenever they express views the government doesnt agree with, then we dont want this government, he told The Irrawaddy. News Karenni State Lawmaker Calls on Union Ministers, Lawmakers to Disclose Assets U Soe Thein / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAWU Soe Thein, who served as Presidents Office minister under U Thein Seins administration, has called on government officials and members of the legislature to disclose their financial assets. While asking the government if it would proceed with its predecessors plan to join the Open Government Partnership during Wednesdays session of the Upper House of Parliament, U Soe Thein asked the ministers of the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government and lawmakers to disclose their financial assets publicly. People have the right to know how much you owned before you became a minister or lawmaker, and what the difference is after you step down, U Soe Thein, who is also a Karenni State lawmaker, told reporters. Then-President U Thein Seins administration, he said, formed a committee tasked with joining the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international platform launched in 2011 for domestic reformers committed to making their governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. The committee held its first workshop in January 2015, said U Soe Thein, who asked if the current government would continue working to join the OGP. State Counselors Office Deputy Minister U Khin Maung Tin responded that the plan would not proceed as the previous government had abolished the relevant leading committee and working committees on March 29, 2016, before the transfer of power. Though Myanmar is not an OGP country, it is clear that the current government is doing things that meet the norms of the OGP, the deputy minister said. The OGP focuses on budget transparency, the right to information, citizens engagement, and disclosure of financial assets by elected lawmakers and high-ranking government officials. The deputy minister said the current government publicly releases the budget, and permits the publication of 26 newspapers, 219 journals, and 210 magazines, besides state-owned media. There is also an anti-graft body, he pointed out. Lists of government ministers assets and businesses, along with their estimated value, had already been submitted to the president, the deputy minister said. Lawmaker Dr. Khun Thaung Win of the NLD said U Soe Thein had raised a good question at an appropriate time. People have no trust in ministers, and there are reasons not to trust them. No one is perfect, so they should disclose their assets, he said. Under then-President U Thein Seins administration, current President U Win Myint, who was then an NLD lawmaker, submitted a proposal calling for asset disclosures by ministers. His proposal was voted down, however. Asked by a reporter in 2016 if the Parliament would require asset disclosure, U Win Myint, who was then serving as the speaker of the Lower House, said it wouldnt because disclosing assets would invite crimes. His answer drew criticism and people asked if the government was afraid of criminals. U Soe Thein said whether or not Myanmar joins the OGP is purely a matter of political will. The government could benefit from joining the OGP, he said. The image of the current government will improve a lot if it can show that it is not corrupt, and is dedicated to forming a clean government. Only the president and two vice presidents are required to disclose assets under the 2008 Constitution, although these are not publicly released and are only presented to the national legislature. Former President U Thein Sein took back the sealed envelope containing the list of his assets from Mahn Win Khin Than, the speaker of the Upper House, when the NLD took office. News National Rights Body Urges Action Against Police Over Detainee's Death : People gather outside the Dedaye Township police station in Irrawaddy Region. / Salai Thant Zin / The Irrawaddy YANGON The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday called for action against police at the Dedaye Township police station in Irrawaddy Region in connection with the death of a detainee last week. After speaking with the dead mans relatives, the township medical superintendent and witnesses over two days, the commission sent a report to the Home Affairs Ministry suggesting that action be taken against the police station chief, inspector and other responsible officers. Police arrested Zaw Min Tun, 38, a resident of Dedayes Nyaung Ta Bin Village, on the evening of July 26 after locals filed a complaint against him for allegedly stealing their fishing nets. According to Irrawaddy Region police, Zaw Min Tun admitted to stealing the nets. They say he died of breathing problems while on the way to a hospital at about 11 p.m. the same day. An internal investigation led by the Pyapon District deputy police chief was launched on Friday and the Dedaye police inspector and some officers were detained, police Lieutenant Colonel Khin Maung Latt told The Irrawaddy. Ma Thi Thi Win, a sister of Zaw Min Tun, claims that a person who was detained along with her brother said Zaw Min Tun was tied up and beaten. Beating to death goes far beyond the legal framework. We hope that harsh actions will be taken against them, she said Zaw Min Tuns relatives said they found dark bruises on his face, chest and elsewhere on the body. The human rights commission also claimed that the Dedaye police chief was an alcoholic and not suited for command. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Three members of a cyber crime group known as FIN7 have been arrested in Europe and indicted in the US over charges of using malware to steal millions of credit and debit card numbers which they then either used or sold. Ukrainians Dmytro Fedorov, 44, Fedir Hladyr, 33, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30, belonged to the gang also known as the Carbanak Group because of the malware that they used. The US Justice Department said in an indictment that the trio had targeted more than 100 American companies in the gaming, restaurant and hospitality sectors since 2015. Australian agencies also played a role in the arrest. Fedorov, Hladyr and Kolpakov operated out of Eastern Europe and also attacked companies in the UK, Australia and France. In the US, FIN7 breached networks of companies in 47 states and the District of Columbia, stealing more than 15 million customer card records from 6500 individual PoS terminals at 3600 separate locations. Each of the three is charged with 26 felony counts, alleging conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Hladyr was arrested in Dresden, Germany, and extradited to Seattle where he is awaiting trial. Fedorov was arrested in Poland and his extradition has been sought by the US. The third man, Kolpakov, was arrested in Spain and his extradition. too, is pending. The FIN7 gang operated by sending carefully crafted messages to likely victims with Microsoft Word attachments that contained embedded malware. This then connected to a command and control server and downloaded more malicious software, among which was the Carbanak malware, which has been used by others in a big transnational attack on the banking industry. One of the phishing emails used by the gang. Courtesy: US Department of Justice The gang used a front company, Combi Security, said to be headquartered in Russia and Israel, to guise their actions and to recruit people to join their criminal enterprise. The three Ukrainian nationals indicted today allegedly were part of a prolific hacking group that targeted American companies and citizens by stealing valuable consumer data, including personal credit card information, that they then sold on the Darknet, said Assistant Attorney-General Brian Benczkowski. Because hackers are committed to finding new ways to harm the American public and our economy, the Department of Justice remains steadfast in its commitment to working with our law enforcement partners to identify, interdict, and prosecute those responsible for these threats. Australian Law Enforcement and Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor said: This operation is a great example of how the Australian Government is targeting cyber criminals wherever they are. FIN7 is accused of hacking systems and stealing millions of customer credit and debit card details. Australian agencies are deploying their most sophisticated cyber capabilities, combined with traditional police work, to go after criminals and stop them from targeting Australia. International crime requires an international response. There is an ongoing global effort to crack down on cyber criminals who are targeting our businesses and hardworking Australians. "Australia has helped deal a body blow to a prolific international hacking group. US or foreign technology companies that disclose source code of software used by the American military to governments like Russia and China which are deemed adversaries in order to facilitate a sale, will have to inform the US Government about it, according to new legislation. Reuters said the legislation, part of the defence spending bill, came in the wake of its report last year that a Russian defence agency was allowed to look at the source code of ArcSight, software used by the US military in cyber defence. The law specifies that any security risks identified by the US Government would have to be mitigated by the company in question or the contract would be terminated. The Russian review of the ArcSight source code was facilitated by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in order to obtain the certification needed to get orders for Russia's public sector. ArcSight alerts analysts when computer systems are attacked and is also used in the private sector. It is now owned by British mainframe company Micro Focus whichHPE's software assets in a sale that was completed in 2017. Microsoft allowed China to inspect the source code of Windows as a prerequisite to craft a product Windows 10 China Government Edition that could be sold to the Chinese public sector. Last year, Symantec chief executive Greg Clark said in an interview that, while his company was willing to sell its products in any country, that is a different thing than saying, Okay, were going to let people crack it open and grind all the way through it and see how it all works. The legislation on source code disclosure was drafted by Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. It has been passed by Congress and sent to President Donald Trump for his signature. Shaheen told Reuters in a statement: "This disclosure mandate is the first of its kind, and is necessary to close a critical security gap in our federal acquisition process. The Department of Defence and other federal agencies must be aware of foreign source code exposure and other risky business practices that can make our national security systems vulnerable to adversaries." Professional services firm KPMG is creating a new program aimed at unlocking sustainable high performance by Australian start-up executives faced with high stress levels due to long working hours and other pressures in establishing their businesses. KPMG Australia is preparing to launch its Founder Program following research it undertook revealing a link between founder well-being and business performance due to long hours, high stress and low pay, which it says is now the norm for most Australia star-tup leaders. The KPMG Founder Program launches later this year and has been designed to enhance both personal and business performance. It will be led by a team of facilitators ranging from athletes to serial entrepreneurs, and focuses not only on the health of the start-up, but on the well-being of the founder as a whole, says Amanda Price, head of KPMG Australia High Growth Ventures. The first-of-kind research by KPMG Australias High Growth Ventures, supported by venture capital firms including Blackbird Ventures, AirTree Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Reinventure and Right Click Capital, polled the founders of 70 Australian venture-backed startups. Founders play a key role in driving innovation, taking massive risks, both personal and financial, to solve industry problems and build global businesses yet there is very little data around the mental and physical toll of leading a startup, Price said. A founders individual performance is one of the critical factors to the success or failure of their business. Our research aims to shine a light on some of the unspoken challenges founders face, and to help highlight the link between founder wellbeing and business performance. The KPMG research found that, on average, start-up founders work 64 hours a week, with 40% working seven days a week. Two-thirds (66%) said they were very, or extremely, stressed, and 57% said their stress had a large impact on the ability of their start-up to succeed. A significant majority of founders (70%) told researchers they drew less salary than in their previous role, and some reported that personal financial worries were affecting family relationships. Other findings include: The top three barriers to success for start-up founders were the ability to hire the right people (66%), ability to close sales (57%) and access to funding (53%) Fifty-three percent of founders work during time off. Fifty-eight percent relax for less than an hour a day. Twenty-three percent havent taken three consecutive days off for over a year. Sevnety-two percent take their mobiles to bed. When it came to health and fitness, and the relationship it has with business success, founders viewed a decline in physical activity as adversely impacting their business and 88% of founders acknowledged that their physical well-being had a direct impact on their start-ups. Yet only 26% of founders reported being able to devote more than four hours per week to physical activity and, 43% were unhappy with their level of fitness. Price said that leading a high-growth venture also affected family relationships, with the research finding that the overwhelming majority of start-up founders felt they were not spending enough quality time with the people they care about. In addition, only a third feel they spend sufficient time with their spouse, and only 22% say they spend enough time with their children. While the Australian start-up ecosystem offers a lot of support and understanding for founders, much of this is one dimensional, focusing on the mechanics of starting and building a business, Price says. If we want more Australian start-ups to transition into global businesses, we need to help more founders become world class leaders. This means taking a more holistic approach, and participating in programs focused as much on the mental and physical well-being of the founder as on the performance of the start-up. For the full KPMG report Fitness, fulfilment and foresight: Research into the well-being of start-up founders and entrepreneuers click here. Whenever a new wireless technology is announced, there's always someone out there who suggests it is going to cause health problems, but is it true? A news report from controversial health website Natural News has suggested that "5G is already linked to rising health problems... concerns about the 'health calamity' on the rise". Naturally, some think this is complete and total BS, and some would suggest the Natural News site is full of conspiracy theories, but before it is possible to write them off, one must apply logic to what one is reading. Undeniable in the story is a link to Sacramento firefighters in California, with CBS13 Sacramento reporting on 29 May that there are "Questions raised about 5G health risks months before Sacramento launches service". As noted in the CBS13 article, "Firefighters in San Francisco have reported memory problems and confusion after the 5G equipment was installed outside of fire stations. The firefighters claim the symptoms stopped when they relocated to stations without equipment nearby." CBS13 quotes the the wireless industry telling it that "decades of research shows no known health risk from this type of energy". It even quotes a spokesperson stating "the occurrence of brain tumours in the United States has actually gone down since cell phones were introduced": The safety of cellphone consumers is important to CTIA and the wireless industry. We follow the guidance of the experts when it comes to antennas and health effects. "Following numerous scientific studies conducted over several decades, the FCC, the FDA, the World Health Organisation, the American Cancer Society and numerous other international and US organisations and health experts continue to say that the scientific evidence shows no known health risk to humans due to the RF energy emitted by antennas and cellphones. "The evidence includes analysis of official federal brain tumour statistics showing that since the introduction of cellphones in the mid-1980s, the rate of brain tumours in the United States has decreased. So, what is true about the health risks of 5G, or otherwise? As usual, equipment makers say there is no risk, but with a huge proliferation of 5G towers expected, one does wonder whether all this coming extra super-fast 5G activity around us will truly have any consequences to health, or not. Time will tell! Until then, here's the CBS13 Sacramento video: More than a decade ago, I was giving an introductory presentation on quantum cryptography, as I had done many times before. I discussed the basic concepts of quantum physics, quantum computers, and quantum cryptography. I ended it with the promise that when quantum computing went mainstream that most of our current digital encryption secrets, which rely on hard-to-solve large prime-number equations, would be immediately revealed to the world. Most secrets have been protected with some form of asymmetric encryption ever since Whitfield Diffie, Mark Hellman and Ralph Merkle publicly revealed the concept in 1976 in their seminal paper called New Directions in Cryptography. Think RSA, SSL, TLS and HTTPS. Were talking most websites, digitally signed downloads, online financial transactions, your VPN, smartcards, and most wireless networksall capable of being broken an instant. Modern day secure communications rely on the fact that traditional digital computers cannot easily factor multi-factor equations involving large prime numbers. If a computer could do that, and quantum computers can, then it would be game over for any secrets encrypted by that protection. Its been theorized that most of the worlds major nation-states have been recording and storing much of the worlds encrypted network traffic for future decryption, just waiting for that day of reckoning to come. America will be able to read Russias and Chinas top-secret communications and vice-versa. I wrote about this threat nearly eight years ago in a column. Back to my talk many years ago: When I took questions at the end of the presentation, I was asked how long I thought it would be until quantum computers would be good enough to break all those secrets. I said 10 years. Most quantum physics experts think its only 10 years off. As I walked off stage, industry luminary Bruce Schneier was walking on to follow me. He casually said to me as he walked on by without breaking stride, How long have you been saying 10 years? I had probably been saying 10 years as the answer for at least 10 years. Bruce made me realize that none of us really knew the answer. The running joke in quantum physics circles is that quantum computers are always 10 years off. How quantum computers work Well, its not 10 years away anymore. According to Dr. Mark Jackson, theoretical physicist and scientific lead of business development at Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC), we might be four to five years away, and in certain areas, limited commercial applicationquantum chemistry, for examplemight even be possible by the middle of 2021. Whats changed? Well, we now have many quantum computers, devices and software with enough sophistication to be useful without something called error correction. Quantum computers can slay traditional digital computers because of how they work. Obviously, quantum computers rely on quantum mechanics (a subject too big and complex to cover here), but here is the advantage in a nutshell. A digital computer is binary. Each transistor or logic gate within its central processing unit (CPU) is capable of holding only one state at one time. It can either be open or closed, energized or not, be a 1 or a 0. Hence, the word binary. Quantum computers are based on something called quantum bits (qubits or qbits). Each qubit can be both states at the same time. Thus, one qubit is equivalent to two binary logic gates. Qubits get exponential as you add them. Two qubits can hold four simultaneous states, three qubits can hold eight simultaneous states, and so on. A relatively modest quantum computer, then, could break all our previous public/private key pair secrets but would require effective error correction. How and when quantum computers can break public key cryptography Weve been waiting a long time for quantum computing to become a reality. How long? At least since 1959 when Dr. Richard Feynman gave a lecture on it. Many quantum computing experts consider Dr. Peter Shors algorithm released in 1994 as being the real start of quantum computing. Shors algorithm showed that quantum-based computing could rapidly decrypt most traditional forms of asymmetric encryption. More than two decades later, the promise (and threat) of quantum computing is nearly here--not just theoretical models, but multiple, working quantum computers, software, networks, and other communication devices. One of the biggest challenges is getting qubits stable enough, long enough, without errors to be useful in serious computing. I use the non-technical terms perfect and imperfect. To break public-key crypto, youd indeed need thousands of logical or encoded qubits, says Scott Aaronson, professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. In the real world, because of the need for error-correction and the large overheads of existing fault-tolerance schemes, that could easily translate into millions of high-quality physical qubits. So where are we in the quantum computing lifecycle? According to Dr. Jackson, it would take a quantum computer with only 49 perfect qubits to outperform traditional binary computers. This is known as quantum supremacy, the seminal moment when quantum computers finally become more powerful than binary computers. Its like IBMs Deep Blue supercomputer beating world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. To crack most current public key encryption, it would take a quantum computer with at least 4,000 perfect qubits or many times that number if the qubits were imperfect. How close are we to a perfect 4,000 qubits? It depends on who you ask. Dr. Jackson is confident that well have perfect 4,000-qubit quantum computers in the next five years. He has some evidence to support his claim, although we are nowhere near 4,000 perfect qubits. In March 2018, Google announced an imperfect 72-qubit computer. Googles current (publicly known) implementation makes a mistake about once every 200 calculations. When youre doing billions of calculations a second, that error rate is an unusable disaster. Tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent around the world trying to make more stable quantum computers. Some say that the jump needed to get to 4,000-qubits is not as daunting as it once was. Dr. Jackson, who is directly working with quantum computers says, We have gone from nine to 72 qubits in just one year, so its not crazy at all that we could get 4,000 in another five [years]. Given that the US government finally got on board a few months ago, I think thats now a conservative estimate. A greater number of knowledgeable sources still think we still dont know when the quantum break of public key crypto will be. Schneier, who has written about quantum cryptography for a long time, when told of the 5-year claim, says I don't buy it. No one knows about the unforeseen implementation problems. Dr. Aaronson was also skeptical. He wrote, Ill be astonished if that happens in five years. I cant say its impossible, but I expect it to take quite a bit longer. Ill be happy if, in three to five years, Google, IBM and others succeed in their current efforts to build noisy 70-qubit [quantum computers], and if they start to outperform classical computers at some (mostly artificial) tasks. Even if so, thats still a long way from threatening public-key cryptography, because of the need for error-correction and the large overheads of existing fault-tolerance schemes, that could easily translate into [requiring] millions of high-quality physical qubits. Clearly, the jury is out on when quantum computers can break public-key crypto, but it is no longer the stuff of science fiction. The National Security Agency (NSA) has not admitted that a quantum break is coming anytime soon, but they have said now is the time to start preparing. Specifically, in a related FAQ they wrote, The NSA believes the time is right now right. Consistent advances in quantum computing are being made.... The NSA is looking to all NSA vendors and operators to implement standards-based, quantum resistant cryptography to protect their data and communications. The emerging quantum computing industry A growing number of companies and organizationsat least 44 known entitiesare attempting to build quantum computer. The four globally prominent American companies are Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. A growing number of startups appear to be making progress, too. One of them, Dr. Jacksons firm, CQC, is currently working with Google and IBM, among others. Many of these companies are using similar technologies, a few are using their own methods, and a few others are using multiple methods at the same time in the race to be the winner. In the past few months, IBM and Google have established business development units showing that the focus is turning from the theoretical to the commercial. The presence of so many competing companies spending billions of dollars is important. When billions of dollars across many companies and countries begins to flow, its a virtual certainty that the killer application is at hand. Think cloud computing as an example. For years, cloud was just a discredited buzzword, until it wasnt. Same thing here. Common quantum computing methods include superconducting, ion trapping and Majorana fermions. Superconducting and ion trapping are resulting in the greatest number of qubits right now. Superconducting requires very cold temperatures, close to absolute zero (nearly -460F or -273C), and the resulting qubits can be fragile and unstable. The less mature Majorana fermion method being used by Microsoft is currently resulting in fewer qubits than the other methods but appears to be far less fragile. Dr. Jackson described the Majorana fermion method like tying braids of hair. They can be jostled about by the external environment, but their quantum state remains the same. Dr. Jackson says, If we could get them to work at scale, they would be the clear winners. But we know less about them. The race is an international one, and it is widely believed the Chinese are very competitive, if not leading. As Dr. Jackson puts it, They are heavily committed to it and have virtually no budget constraints. The Chinese have even claimed to have performed quantum communications using a satellite, but there is some skepticism about this claim. Cambridge Quantum Computing CQC formed four years ago, when the focus on investment started to shift from university laboratories to private firms such as Microsoft, Google and IBM. They are active in the building of tools that enable quantum computers to become effective. They have recently designed and tested a novel device that works in the encryption space providing theoretically unhackable protection. CQC has a proprietary quantum programming language and compiler, which they call t|ket.. Dr. Jackson says the language is somewhat C-like. The compiler is platform agnostic and works with all types of quantum computers based on many different platforms. It works to split computing effort between a traditional digital CPU and the new quantum processing unit, or QPU. Dr. Jackson says that just like a traditional graphical processing unit, or GPU, handles the intensive graphical loads or a traditional numeric processor unit (NPU) handles the heavy mathematical loads for a regular digital computer, a QPU will handle the quantum stuff. CQCs compiler hands off the workloads that traditional digital computers do well to the regular CPU and hands off the specialized quantum computing needs to the QPU. Then the results are re-synthesized into a common output stream. You wont be needing to throw away your digital computers anytime soon. We still need them, says Dr. Jackson. This is great news because I was wondering how we were going to carry around computers needing super cool temperatures. Verifiably random number generators CQC also builds hardware, including a verifiably quantum random number generator. Traditional digital computers have never been able to generate truly random numbers. Its just impossible. Traditional computers are driven by very stable and naturally predictable quartz clocks that determine how fast and when a CPU can move information into and out of the CPUs registers. Every clock tick is the same amount of time as before. This means the ultimate source of truth behind any traditional random number generator is predictable (i.e., not truly random). Randomness in a traditional computer is really someones approximation of randomness. The lack of true randomness has been the downfall of many encryption solutions, which start with a randomly generated number. So, not only do we need truly random number generators, we also need to verify that they are truly random to completely trust them. The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) discussed the need for truly random number generators in the April 2018 issue of Nature magazine. Turns out quantum computing is also really good at generating verified random numbers. The earliest verifiable quantum random number generators were very big (the size of a building at 200 meters long) and fairly slow. In years past, many scholars criticized Japan for being a reactive state incapable of proactive or strategic action. I argued in my book Japans Reluctant Realism (2001) that the rise of Chinese power was propelling Japan away from an earlier era of checkbook diplomacy towards a foreign policy strategy based on more proactive balance-of-power logic. At the time, I was very much in the minority among Japan scholars in the United States in making that point. Today there is a much broader consensus among scholars and diplomats that Japan is, in fact, attempting to lead in the development of an open and rules based order in the Indo-Pacific region. Now the debate is focused on whether Japans grand strategy is effective. Dr. Michael J. Green Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Director of Asian Studies and Chair in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy at Georgetown University. He was Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Senior Director for Asia on the NSC staff. Is the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy Japans grand strategy? What is grand strategy? It is the integration of all instruments of national power to shape a more favorable external environment for peace and prosperity. These comprehensive instruments of power are diplomatic, informational, military and economic. Successful grand strategies are most important in peacetime, since war may be considered the failure of strategy. Sometimes states pursue grand strategies without any explicit announcement. Sometimes states ceremonially announce grand strategies, but fail to actually execute them. Prime Minister Abe Shinzos government has announced the Free and Open Indo-Pacific. Is it a grand strategy? And will it be effectively executed? I believe the Free and Open Indo-Pacific flows from a strategic worldview in Japan, even if it does not spell-out every detail of the national objectives and instruments of power to be employed. That worldview is that Japan benefits from a regional order that is based on rule-of-law; transparency; openness; high quality rules for trade, investment and infrastructure; and the prevention of coercive actions against smaller states. That is a worldview that is strongly shared by the United States, as one can easily discern from the Trump administrations decision to adopt the same label of Free and Open Indo-Pacific for its strategy towards the region. One can rightly criticize the Trump administrations withdrawal from TPP as undermining that vision, but the fact remains that a strong majority in the Congress and the American public support free trade, strong alliances, and expanded American engagement in Asia. Australia and India also explicitly identify with the Free and Open Indo-Pacific framework, as the formation of a Quad forum among these four maritime democracies demonstrates. Middle and smaller powers ranging from Korea to Indonesia and Sri Lanka would strongly support this vision as well, though these powers are more vulnerable to Chinese pressure and careful about appearing to align against Beijing. Indeed, both Tokyo and Washington will have to accept that not all governments will openly sign on to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy even though they will privately want the major maritime democracies to stand together for an open and rules based regional orderand most importantly, to dissuade Beijing from thinking it can change that order based on coercion. The Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy for investment and sustainable economic development in the region Japans version of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific has one strength over the Trump administrations version, and that is the recognition that all the nations encompassed in the arc from Africa to the Western Pacific desire investment and sustainable economic development. Indeed, most are more interested in that aspect than open competition with China, as much as they each worry about Beijing using its Belt and Road initiative to establish a more hegemonic position that might limit their own freedom of action. The U.S.-Japan-Australia-India Quad has begun taking up the theme of quality infrastructure, which suggests that Washington has realized this shortcoming in its own formulation. Japan provides far more government-supported infrastructure assistance through yen loans that the United States does through its official lending, but together the United States and Japan can bring a great deal to the table through cooperation with the Asia Development Bank and the World Bank. The Japanese decision to cooperate with China on the Belt and Road was wise, since this will give Tokyo some opportunity to hold China to higher levels of transparency and accountability through cooperation rather than competition. Japan and other like-minded states will have more leverage in this approach if there are parallel efforts to expand support for infrastructure investment by the developed countries and the international institutions. The role of values of Japanese and American strategies in the Indo-Pacific region There is another dimension to shaping the direction and impact of the Belt and Road that Tokyo and Washington must both take more seriouslyand that is the role of values in our respective Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategies. The goal should not be to force the diverse political systems across Africa, South Asia and East Asia into one model of liberal democracy. On the other hand, the United States and Japan should not ignore governance issues within countries so that we can keep up with China. The reason is simple: states that have greater transparency, freedom of press, legislative accountability, and rule-of-law will be more resistant to bribery, coercion and subjugation and will insist on higher quality infrastructure. Our goal is not to stop Chinas infrastructure investment, but instead to keep healthy pressure on Beijing to conform with established international norms. That pressure will only be effective if it also comes from within recipient nations. I would conclude by arguing therefore that Japans Free and Open Indo Pacific framework is an important element of grand strategy and that it has a good chance of being effective, if we define the goal as shaping the regions response to Chinas rise rather than somehow trying to contain China. The international relations of the Indo-Asia-Pacific are a contradictory mix of cooperation and competition, and the United States and Japan will need nuanced approaches that recognize both aspects of the problem and leverage our strong alliance and our partnerships with like-minded states. Reddit Email 620 Shares Launched by professors at Princeton University and signed by experts on both sides of the Atlantic, this declaration calls for a break with the policy of unconditional support for the Likud government in Israel by US president Donald Trump, and an engagement with the region toward its denuclearization, including the signing by Israel of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Middle East is in turmoil now, possibly again on the verge of a major war that could draw in the United States and Russia. President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the six nation nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. Although a few of his advisers counseled against leaving the agreement, he has brought into his cabinet advisers who are known to be hawkish toward the Middle East and prefer regime change in that area to regime reform. The most notable of these advisers is John Bolton, appointed as director of the National Security Agency. His policies align well with those of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who condemned the nuclear accord with Iran from the outset. On May 14 of this year Israel celebrated the seventieth anniversary of its existence. It has enjoyed extraordinary military successes against its Arab neighbors in 1948, 1956, and 1967, and after suffering a setback at the outset of the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria, the Israel Defense Force crossed the Suez Canal and was in a position to threaten the capitals of Egypt and Syria and their many population centers. Yet, in spite of its unmatched military capabilities in the Middle East, its strong cultural institutions, its technological capacities, and its high standards of living with respect to the other states in the region, Israel has negotiated peace agreements only with Egypt and Jordan. The United States government has provided immense financial and military support to Israel as have American citizens and American corporations. The American-Israeli Political Action Committee is one of the strongest pressure groups in the United States on a par with corporate lobbies and the National Rifle Association. The recent decision of the American government to move its embassy to Jerusalem, done without extracting any concessions from the government of Israel and with no support from its European allies, makes clear the American governments support for the state of Israel. Equally important and distinctly related, perhaps as severe as the tensions between Iran and Israel, is the presence of Israels soldiers on the west bank of the Jordan River, with its heavy Palestinian population. The Israel Defense Force has been in military occupation of that region for five decades, making it one of the longest military occupations of modern times. The Israeli state has used its power in that area to deny statehood to the Palestinians, to oppress the Palestinian population, to dispossess Palestinians of houses and land, and has established a substantial settler population, strongly committed to annexing these territories. American political decision makers, as well as Israeli political leaders, need to rethink their political, military, economic, and cultural policies in the region. If Israel maintains its army in the West Bank and continues, with Egypt, to isolate Gaza from the outside world, surely Israel will be seen as responsible for the well-being of the Palestinian populations. It will take on apartheid-like policies. American and Korean political elites have contemplated a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Would not such a policy, namely the denuclearization of the Middle East, be a worthwhile development and a major first step toward resolving the rising tensions in the area? To this day, the Israelis, possessing, according to some sources, 150 nuclear warheads and refusing to sign the non-nuclear proliferation accord or to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct inspections of its facilities, claim that Israel will never be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the region. Although the Iranians have not claimed that their nuclear program was a response to the presence of nuclear weapons in Israel, surely that must be a factor. It is time that those of us interested in the Middle East and world peace make our voices heard. We call on others to endorse policies that favor denuclearization of the Middle East and a just and fair resolution of the Arab-Israeli dispute. This statement originated at Princeton University through conversations involving Arno J. Mayer, Stanley J. Stein, and Robert L. Tignor, all retired faculty from the history department of Princeton University. It was agreed to and signed by Abdel Aziz Ezz el-Arab (American University in Cairo), Joel Beinin (Stanford University), Noam Chomsky (MIT), Richard Falk (Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara), Khaled Fahmy (University of Cambridge), James Gelvin (UCLA), Israel Gershoni (Tel Aviv University), Molly Greene (Princeton University), Alain Gresh (former editor of Le Monde Diplomatique and general editor of Orient XXI), Chris Hedges (former Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times); Yoram Meital (Ben Gurion University in the Negev; Ralph Nader (public citizen), Ilan Pappe (University of Exeter), Vijay Prashad (Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research); Roger Owen (Harvard University), Cyrus Schayegh (University of Geneva), Taqadum al-Khatib (Free University of Berlin), Michael Wood (Princeton University) and Juan Cole (University of Michigan). Most of the signers do research and teach courses on the modern Middle East. Featured Photo added by Juan Cole: AFP / ABBAS MOMANI. Palestinians wave national flags during a protest on August 1, 2018, along a highway leading to the village Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank. Reddit 4 Email 171 Shares Alex Emmons at The Intercept interviewed two former State Department officials and one intelligence official who confirmed to him that in early June, 2017, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been on the cusp of invading Qatar, but were stopped by Rex Tillerson. Emmons suggests that Tillerson lost his job over his intervention, given the sway evil genius Yousef al-Otaiba (UAE ambassador in Washington, DC) has over Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. As I noted in a Nation article last February, high Qatari officials had repeatedly alleged that their intelligence told them of an impending Saudi invasion in June of last year. Emmons speculates that a primary motive for the planned invasion was that Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman wanted Qatars $300 bn sovereign wealth fund and future revenues from the sale of Qatari natural gas. Saudi Arabia itself is blowing through its own dollar reserves and faces a bleak future if it does not repair its spendthrift ways or find a new source of income other than the failing oil business. It is a plausible speculation. Otherwise, it is difficult to see what Saudi Arabia and the UAE could possibly get from this move, which has hurt them in world opinion. Mohamed Bin Salman has acted so erratically and recklessly that he has scared off foreign investors almost entirely. His plan for an Aramco Saudi IPO appears to be in severe trouble. Of course, the cover story is that Qatar supports the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism and its freewheeling Al Jazeera television channel provokes critical thinking in the Arab publics. In essence, the Saudi and United Arab Emirate absolute monarchies were afraid of the democratization that began during the 2011 Arab Spring youth movement, and have used their oil billions to crush it. Qatar was on the other side of that struggle, supporting moves toward electoral democracy and the inclusion of the Muslim religious right in politics, and crushing it would be the final nail in the coffin of any sort of popular liberties in the Arab world. On the other hand, Emmons fine piece does unduly discount some other actors. Secretary of Defense James Mattis surely acted behind the scenes to protect the US-leased al-Udeid air base, from which 80% of US sorties against extremists in the region are flow. Mattis is said by some Qataris to have a special connection to al-Udeid Base and a special affection for Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani. In fact, a Mattis intervention with King Salman surely would have carried much more weight than one from Tillerson. Then, many Qataris to whom I spoke when I was there the first half of this year were convinced that a Turkish parliament vote to allow sending troops to Qatar was what deterred the Saudis. (A couple hundred Turkish troops subsequently turned up in Qatar, putting some teeth into the threat). In the end, I think the article is a little US State Department-centric. Tillerson no doubt played a role (and Exxon-Mobil will likely do well out of Qatars expansion of its natural gas exports). But Mattis also likely swung into action, and he wasnt thereafter sacked. And Turkey was enormously important. The plot has failed, leaving the old Gulf Cooperation Council in permanent limbo, it seems to me. The Qatari stock market and the economy have completely recovered from the momentary wobble in confidence of summer 2017, and prognostications for the future are bright. Qatar has become a Singapore (which was cast out of Malaysia in 1965), though I think it will take time for the Qataris to adjust to that status. It isnt a bad fate, if managed properly. Ive been to Singapore several times, and it is nice. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asanko Gold Inc. (Asanko or the Company) (TSX, NYSE American: AKG) reports its second quarter (Q2) 2018 operating and financial results. The Company released its production and revenue results for Q2 on July 12, 2018. All amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise stated. Management will host a conference call and webcast today at 9am Eastern Time, further details below. Q2 2018 Highlights: Gold production of 53,501 ounces and half year production of 101,731 ounces, exceeding upper end of H1 2018 guidance of 90,000 100,000 ounces Quarterly gold sales of 51,785 ounces at an average realized price of $1,286 per ounce generating gold revenue of $66.6 million Mining operations at Nkran returned to steady state levels in June, mining 178,000 tonnes at 1.9g/t Another record quarterly mill throughput achieved with 1.37 million tonnes of ore processed No LTIs during the quarter or on a rolling 12-month basis, maintaining industry leading LTIFR of zero per million man hours worked Operating cash costs 2 of $582/oz (Q1 2018: $571/oz) and total cash costs 2 of $646/oz (Q1 2018: $637/oz) of $582/oz (Q1 2018: $571/oz) and total cash costs of $646/oz (Q1 2018: $637/oz) AISC 3 decreased 13% quarter on quarter to $1,068/oz (Q1 2018: $1,226/oz), while AISC 3 of $1,145/oz for the half year was below the Companys H1 2018 cost guidance of $1,200-1,300/oz decreased 13% quarter on quarter to $1,068/oz (Q1 2018: $1,226/oz), while AISC of $1,145/oz for the half year was below the Companys H1 2018 cost guidance of $1,200-1,300/oz Cash provided by operating activities of $13.4 million ($28.6 million before working capital changes), compared to $19.1 million in Q1 2018. The reduction in cash provided by operating activities was primarily due to change in non-cash working capital and higher exploration expenditures Net loss attributable to common shareholders of $142.3 million ($0.63/common share) solely attributable to the recognition of a loss ($144.6 million) due to the reclassification of the Companys Ghanaian subsidiaries to assets and associated liabilities held for sale, resulting from the Gold Fields JV Transaction Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders of $2.3 million ($0.01/common share) As at June 30, 2018, including assets classified as held for sale, the Company had cash and immediately convertible working capital of $48.1 million, of which $18.8 million is attributable to Asanko post-completion of the Gold Fields JV Transaction Receipt of amended Environmental Permit for Esaase which includes a trucking operation Completion of $185.0 million Gold Fields JV Transaction, with Gold Fields acquiring a 50% interest in all of Asankos Ghanaian interests, including the Asanko Gold Mine. Asanko to remain operator and manager of the Asanko Gold Mine Repayment in full of the Red Kite project debt facility with proceeds from the Gold Fields JV Transaction, Asanko now debt free Commenting on the quarter Peter Breese, President and CEO, said: The mines solid operational performance for the quarter, predominantly the mills fantastic performance and Nkran resuming steady-state operations, enabled us to beat the top end of our guidance for the first half of 2018, producing 101,731 ounces at AISC3 of $1,145/oz. We are well positioned to meet our H2 2018 and full year guidance. AISC3 decreased by 13% to $1,068/oz quarter on quarter, as the Eastern portion of the Nkran Cut 2 pushback was completed ahead of schedule, resulting in a 32% reduction in deferred stripping costs. Processing costs also dropped again this quarter as a result of the mills record throughput, posting a 23% decrease since we commissioned the P5M volumetric plant upgrade in Q4 2017. We maintained profitable operations this quarter, reporting an adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders of $2.3 million or $0.01 per common share. This quarter pre-production work at Esaase got underway in anticipation of commencing mining operations in Q1 2019. The focus was primarily on additional infill exploration drilling and an extensive core re-logging exercise to improve the understanding of the geology and controls to mineralization within the Esaase pit. In addition, we also received an amended Environmental Permit that includes a trucking operation to transport ore from Esaase to the central processing facility, which completes the permitting process for Esaase. We expect an initial development decision to be made by the Joint Venture management committee in Q4 2018. This news release should be read in conjunction with Asankos Management Discussion and Analysis and the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, which are available at www.asanko.com and filed on SEDAR. Key Operating and Financial Highlights Asanko Gold Mine 100% Basis Q2 2018 Q1 2018 Q2 2017 Waste Mined (000t) 9,814 11,976 6,457 Ore Mined (000t) 945 767 1,049 Average Gold Grade Mined (g/t) 1.5 1.3 1.5 Strip Ratio (W:O) 10.4:1 15.7:1 6.2:1 Mining Cost ($/t mined) 3.65 3.23 3.22 Ore Treated (000t) 1,374 1,269 887 Gold Feed Grade (g/t) 1.4 1.3 1.7 Gold Recovery (%) 94 93 94 Processing Cost ($/t treated) 9.95 11.17 12.80 Gold Production (oz) 53,501 48,229 46,017 Gold Sales (oz) 51,785 48,899 48,461 Average Realized Gold Price ($/oz) 1,286 1,314 1,238 Operating Cash Costs2 ($/oz) 582 571 572 Total Cash Costs2 ($/oz) 646 637 634 All-in Sustaining Costs3 ($/oz) 1,068 1,226 930 All-in Sustaining Margin1 ($/oz) 218 88 308 Revenue ($m) 66.8 64.4 60.2 Production Costs, including Royalties ($m) 33.8 31.6 31.3 Income from Mine Operations ($m) 16.1 19.5 14.5 Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders ($m) (142.3) 2.1 0.6 Net income (loss) per share attributable to common shareholders ($0.63) $0.01 $0.00 Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders ($m) 1 2.3 2.1 0.6 Adjusted net income per share attributable to common shareholders1 $0.01 $0.01 $0.00 Cash provided by operating activities ($m) 13.4 19.1 33.7 Cash provided by operating activities before working capital changes ($m) 28.6 30.5 26.7 Cash provided by operating activities per common share1 $0.06 $0.09 $0.17 Q2 2018 Operating Results The Company produced 53,501 ounces of gold for Q2 2018 and 101,731 ounces of gold for the half year, exceeding the upper end of H1 2018 guidance of 90,000 100,000 ounces. Ore mining rates for Q2 2018 averaged 315,000 tonnes per month (tpm) at an average mining grade of 1.5g/t and a strip ratio of 10.4:1. Ore tonnes and average grade mined increased from Q1 2018 as steady state mining operations resumed at Nkran in June. During the quarter, the Asanko Gold Mine (AGM) sourced ore from Nkran, Akwasiso, Dynamite Hill and on-surface stockpiles: At Nkran, 321,000 tonnes of ore was mined at an average grade of 1.8 g/t while mining operations focused on progressing the Eastern portion of the Cut 2 pushback. In June, steady state operations resumed a month ahead of schedule, mining 178,000 tonnes at 1.9g/t. The Akwasiso satellite deposit delivered 356,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of 1.1g/t and Dynamite Hill delivered 251,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.9 g/t. There were no lost time injuries (LTI) reported during the quarter, and the AGM has now achieved over fifteen months and more than 7.7 million man hours worked without a single LTI. During Q2 2018, the processing plant achieved another quarterly record milling performance of 1.37 million tonnes (Mt), which exceeds the design throughput rate of the recently upgraded 5Mtpa processing plant. In order to meet the higher-than-planned throughput, mined ore was supplemented with lower-grade stockpiled ore, resulting in lower plant feed grades (1.4g/t), compared to the average grade that was mined during the period. Completed the commissioning of the recovery circuit upgrades and installation of the new upgraded mill motor on the SAG mill. In addition, a secondary cone crusher was installed during the quarter, which contributed to a finer product being delivered to the SAG mill. The addition of this crusher to the circuit contributed to the significant improvement in processing throughput rate for the quarter. Gold recovery continued to exceed design at 94% despite the elevated mill throughput rates and lower feed grade. Completed the commissioning of the P5M recovery circuit upgrades. On July 31, 2018, the Company announced the completion of the $185.0 million JV Transaction with Gold Fields under which Gold Fields acquired a 50% interest in all of Asankos Ghanaian interests, including the AGM. Asanko to remain operator and manager of the AGM. The Company received an amended Esaase Environmental Permit, which allows for a trucking operation to haul ore from the large-scale Esaase deposit to the central processing facility at the AGM. With the receipt of the amended permit, the Esaase mine is now fully permitted. In support of commencing mining operations at Esaase in January 2019, an extensive pre-production program got underway at Esaase, including additional infill exploration drilling and an extensive core re-logging exercise to improve the definition of the geology and controls to mineralization within the proposed pit and to facilitate a more robust resource model. All the new data will be incorporated to enhance the Mineral Resource Estimate and associated mine plan for Esaase which is targeted to be completed during Q4 2018. Q2 2018 Financial Performance The Company recognized revenues of $66.8 million in Q2 2018 compared to $60.2 million in Q2 2017. The $6.6 million increase in revenues was a result of higher sales volume, augmented by higher average realized selling prices. Total cost of sales (including depreciation and depletion and royalties) amounted to $50.7 million in Q2 2018, an increase of $5.0 million from Q2 2017. The increase in cost of sales was predominantly due to a $2.5 million increase in depreciation and depletion resulting from a higher asset cost base, as well as increased mill throughput, in Q2 2018 compared to Q2 2017. In addition, cost of sales was $1.9 million higher in Q2 2018 compared to the prior year as a result of higher sales volumes, which also gave rise to a $0.3 million increase in royalty expense. The Company reported a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $142.3 million in Q2 2018 compared to net income of $0.6 million in Q2 2017. The net loss during Q2 2018 was solely attributable to the recognition of a loss ($144.6 million) due to reclassification of the Companys Ghanaian subsidiaries to net assets held for sale, resulting from the Gold Fields JV Transaction. In addition, the Company incurred higher exploration expense ($1.7 million increase) and an increase in finance expense of $1.0 million. These factors were partially offset by higher mine operating earnings ($1.6 million increase) and a lower income tax expense ($2.2 million decrease). Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders was $2.3 million in Q2 2018, compared to $0.7 million in Q2 2017, corresponding to the $1.6 million higher income from mine operations. Mining costs averaged $3.65/t mined during Q2 2018 compared to $3.22/t in Q2 2017. Mining costs per tonne were higher than Q2 2017 as a result of higher drilling and blasting and loading and hauling costs associated with the progression of Cut 2 at Nkran. Of the mining costs incurred during Q2 2018, a total of $17.8 million was deferred as stripping costs. Processing costs averaged $9.95/t milled compared to $12.80/t in Q2 2017. Processing unit costs were lower than Q2 2017 due the very strong operating performance of the plant, which on an annualized basis surpassed the newly upgraded throughput levels of 5Mtpa. As a result, there was a 55% increase in treated tonnes compared to Q2 2017, which had the impact of decreasing fixed processing costs on a per unit basis. In addition, the Company benefitted from a reduction in the unit price of power. In Q2 2018, the Company incurred operating cash costs per ounce 2 , total cash costs per ounce 2 and AISC 3 of $582, $646 and $1,068, respectively. , total cash costs per ounce and AISC of $582, $646 and $1,068, respectively. AISC 3 for H1 2018 was $1,145/oz, which is below the Companys H1 2018 cost guidance of $1,200-$1,300/oz. The relatively lower AISC for H1 2018 was a result of more gold ounces sold relative to plan and lower processing costs and overhead expenses. for H1 2018 was $1,145/oz, which is below the Companys H1 2018 cost guidance of $1,200-$1,300/oz. The relatively lower AISC for H1 2018 was a result of more gold ounces sold relative to plan and lower processing costs and overhead expenses. Cash provided by operating activities in Q2 2018 was $13.4 million, a 60% decrease from Q2 2017. Operating cash flow before working capital changes was $28.6 million in Q2 2018, 7% higher than Q2 2017 of $26.7 million. The increase in operating cash flows before working capital changes was primarily due to higher revenues, partially offset by higher cash production costs and exploration expenditures. Q2 2018 Liquidity and Capital Resources As at June 30, 2018, the Company had cash of $42.4 million on hand, $0.8 million in receivables from gold sales and unrefined gold dore at a cost of $5.1 million (and a market value of $6.8 million). Concurrent with the closing of the JV Transaction, the Company used the proceeds from the Gold Fields JV Transaction to repay in full the outstanding debt principal and accrued interest to Red Kite. Asanko is now debt-free. 2018 Guidance The Company is on track to meet its 2018 guidance of 200,000 - 220,000 ounces at AISC3 of $1,050 - 1,150/oz for 2018. For H1 2018, the Company exceeded guidance producing 101,731 ounces at AISC3 of $1,145/oz against a forecast of 90,000 - 100,000 ounces at AISC3 of $1,200 - 1,300/oz. In H2 2018, with Nkran Cut 2 pushback yielding steady-state levels of ore production, guidance is expected to be 110,000 - 120,000 ounces at AISC3 $950 - 1,050/oz. Notes: 1 Non-GAAP Performance Measures The Company has included certain non-GAAP performance measures in this press release, including working capital, operating cash costs, total cash costs, all-in sustaining costs per ounce of gold produced, all-in sustaining margin and operating cash flow per common share. These non-GAAP performance measures do not have any standardized meaning. Accordingly, these performance measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. 2 Operating Cash Costs per ounce and Total Cash Costs per ounce Operating cash costs are reflective of the cost of production, adjusted for share-based payments and by-product revenue per ounce of gold sold. Total cash costs include production royalties of 5%. 3 All-in Sustaining Costs Per Gold Ounce The Company has adopted the reporting of all-in sustaining costs per gold ounce (AISC) as per the World Gold Councils guidance. AISC include total cash costs, corporate overhead expenses, sustaining capital expenditure, capitalized stripping costs and reclamation cost accretion per ounce of gold sold. Qualified Person Statement Frederik Fourie, Asanko Senior Mining Engineer (Pr.Eng) is the Asanko Qualified Person, as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (Standards of Mineral Disclosure), who has approved the preparation of the technical contents of this news release. Q2 2018 Operating & Financial Results Conference Call & Webcast today at 9am ET US/Canada Toll Free: 800 954 0629 UK Toll Free: 0800 496 0445 International: +1 212 231 2933 Webcast: Please click on the link: Click Here Replay: A recorded playback will be available approximately two hours after the call until September 1, 2018: US/Canada Toll Free: 800 558 5253 UK Toll Free: 0800 692 0831 International: +1 416 626 4100 Passcode: 21891372 About Asanko Gold Inc. Asankos vision is to become a mid-tier gold mining company that maximizes value for all its stakeholders. The Companys flagship project is the multi-million ounce Asanko Gold Mine located in Ghana, West Africa. Asanko is managed by highly skilled and successful technical, operational and financial professionals. The Company is strongly committed to the highest standards for environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighbouring communities. Forward-Looking and other Cautionary Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address estimated resource quantities, grades and contained metals, possible future mining, exploration and development activities, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements should not be in any way construed as 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 for metals, the conclusions of detailed feasibility and technical analyses, the timely renewal of key permits, lower than expected grades and quantities of resources, mining rates and recovery rates and the lack of availability of necessary capital, which may not be available to the Company on terms acceptable to it or at all. The Company is subject to the specific risks inherent in the mining business as well as general economic and business conditions. For more information on the Company, Investors should review the Companys most recent AIF and 40-F filings, available under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Neither Toronto Stock Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Condor Resources Inc. - (Condor or the Company) (TSX.V: CN) Further to our news release of July 26th, we are pleased to announce that an access and surface rights agreement has been reached with the two local communities at Huinac Punta. The agreements were reached subsequent to the community general assemblies held in late July, and are for a term of four years. With these agreements and the work that has been conducted in parallel by our environmental consultant, we expect our DIA application to proceed relatively smoothly. The Huinac Punta project is located on the eastern part of the Mesozoic polymetallic carbonate replacement belt in central Peru, which metallogenic belt is host to the Antamina Mine approximately 65 km to the north-west of the project. Huinac Punta covers approximately 20 sq km and is 100% owned by Condor, subject to a 0.5% NSR held by Sandstorm Gold Ltd. The Company is also pleased to announce the addition of Matt Johnston to the Company's advisory board. Mr. Johnston is the President of Johnston-Sequoia Capital Corporation, which firm provides strategic and advisory services to select clients, including Sama Resources Inc., Terraco Gold Corp., and SRG Graphite Inc. Subject to regulatory approval, Mr. Johnston has been granted 500,000 stock options, exercisable at $0.09 per share. Condor is an explorer and project generator focused exclusively on Peru, and our objective is the discovery of a major new precious metals or base metals deposit. Project acquisition and development is managed by our Lima based exploration team. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Lyle Davis, President & Chief Executive Officer For further information please contact the Company at 1-866-642-5707, or by email at 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 news release. TORONTO, Aug. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO) (Wesdome or the Company) today announces second quarter (Q2 2018) financial results. All figures are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO, commented, The Eagle River Complex continues to outperform. 2018 production guidance was originally forecast to range between 62,000 68,000 ounces of gold. With gold production in Q2 at 16,628 ounces, this brings our H1 2018 total gold production to 34,576 ounces, which is ahead of our internal expectations by 15%. As a result, we are raising 2018 production guidance to 70,000 75,000 ounces. Production in the second half the year is expected to be bolstered by the commencement of stope production in the high grade 303 lens. Operating and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) for Q2 of $886 per ounce and $1,242 per ounce were 7% and 11% below the low end of our cost guidance, respectively. Accordingly, we are lowering operating cost guidance to $925 - $1,000 per ounce (US$720 - $770) and All-in Sustaining Costs to $1,350 - $1,425 per ounce (US$1,050 1,100). Free cash flow generation during Q2, after incurring $5.1 million of exploration expenditures at Kiena, was $2.0 million, the third consecutive quarter of free cash flow generation. At Kiena, drilling continues to return high grade results at economic widths, and we intend to release a resource update by the end of the year. As previously announced, we have also decided to immediately extend four drill drifts located off of the exploration ramp by a total of 450 metres in order to effectively test the size of this deposit and complete infill drilling more quickly. Additionally, this development could be useful for production purposes in a restart scenario. With a current cash balance of $26.7M, we are well positioned to continue our development plans for both the Eagle River Complex and Kiena Mine. Key operating and financial highlights in Q2 2018 include: Gold production of 16,628 ounces from the Eagle River Complex, a 33% increase over the same period in the previous year (Q2 2017: 12,529 ounces): Eagle River Underground - 43,378 tonnes at a head grade of 11.0 grams per tonne (g/t Au) for 14,767 ounces produced, a 39% increase over the previous year (Q2 2017: 10,597 ounces). Mishi Open Pit - 25,233 tonnes at a head grade of 2.7 g/t Au for 1,860 ounces produced (Q2 2017: 1,932 ounces). Revenue of $31.4 million, a 35% increase over the previous year (Q2 2017: $23.2 million). Ounces sold 18,573 at an average sales price of $1,692/oz (Q2 2017: 13,030 ounces at an average price of $1,715/oz). Cash costs 1 of $886/oz or US$686/oz, a 30% decrease over the same period in 2017 (Q2 2017: $1,264/oz or US$940/oz). of $886/oz or US$686/oz, a 30% decrease over the same period in 2017 (Q2 2017: $1,264/oz or US$940/oz). AISC 1 of $1,242/oz or US$962/oz, a 28% decrease over the same period of $1,242/oz or US$962/oz, a 28% decrease over the same period Earned mine profit 1 of $15.0 million, a 2.5 times increase over Q2 2017 (Q2 2017 - $5.9 million). of $15.0 million, a 2.5 times increase over Q2 2017 (Q2 2017 - $5.9 million). Operating cash flow of $12.4 million or $0.09 per share 1 , a 2.1 times increase over the previous year (Q2 2017: $5.9 million or $0.04 per share). , a 2.1 times increase over the previous year (Q2 2017: $5.9 million or $0.04 per share). Free cash flow of $2.0 million or $0.01 per share 1 (Q2 2017: outflow of $4.6 million or ($0.03) per share). (Q2 2017: outflow of $4.6 million or ($0.03) per share). Net income of $5.7 million or $0.04 per share (Q2 2017: $0.9 million or $0.01 per share). Net income (adjusted) 1 for Q2 2018 was also $5.7 million or $0.04 per share. for Q2 2018 was also $5.7 million or $0.04 per share. Cash position of $26.7 million. Refer to the Companys 2018 Interim Management Discussion and Analysis for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, section entitled Non-IFRS Performance Measures for the reconciliation of these non-IFRS measurements to the financial statements. Exploration Highlights for Q2 2018 Eagle River Mine development on the 864 metre level (m-level) within the 300E Zone has continued to confirm the continuity of the strong grades and the geometry of the mineralized zones between drifts and the encompassing drill holes. Lens 303 returned 50.5 g/t Au over an average width of 8.6 m and over a strike length of 20.1 m. The 303E Zone accounts for approximately 19% of the current mineral reserves and will continue to be the focus of mining development in the latter half of the year. Development drifting on 7 Zone continues to return longer than average strike lengths including a combined 23.8 g/t Au (20.2 g/t Au cut) over a width of 2.2 m and a total strike length of 122.8 m from the 1022 m-level. Exploration drilling is continuing in the second half of the year to identify new zones along strike and to the east of the 7 and 300 zones at upper levels of the mine that would have the potential to positively impact the gold production from the Eagle River underground mine. Kiena The development of the 105 m-level from the exploration ramp was completed in Q2 (140 m developed) allowing the exploration drilling program to commence on the north-west portion of the Kiena Deep A Zone. Drilling of the Kiena Deep A Zone is ongoing with three drill rigs. Recent drilling from the exploration ramp intersected multiple high grade lenses comprised of shear zone hosted quartz veins, including 77.4 g/t Au over 14.4 m core length (12.8 g/t cut, 10.8 m true width in hole 6299). Drilling along the northern and southern extensions of the Kiena Deep A Zone has now extended the A Zone along strike in excess of 350 m. The A Zone remains open along strike in both directions and down dip The Company has commenced the extension of the current exploration ramp by 450 m in order to further expand the zone. The extended ramp development is expected to be completed in Q4 2018 and drilling is continuing during development. One drill has been actively drilling several auxiliary targets near existing underground development including the S-50 and VC zone sectors and has returned encouraging results, including 6.7 g/t Au uncut (6.0 g/t Au cut) over 37.6 m core length and 17.9 g/t Au uncut (16.3 g/t Au cut) over 6.0 m core length from S-50 Zone. As follow up to this successful drilling campaign, development of the VC exploration drift was completed in Q2 (122 metres developed) in order to better define and extend the mineralization of the VC zone. Technical Disclosure The technical content of this release has been compiled, reviewed and approved by Marc-Andre Pelletier, P. Eng, Chief Operating Officer, and Michael Michaud, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration of the Company and each a "Qualified Person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101 -Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Reserves and Resources The mineral reserve and resource estimates reported in this news release were prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101) as required by Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) applies different standards in order to classify and report mineralization. This news release uses the terms measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources, as required by NI 43-101. Readers are advised that although such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities regulations, the SEC does not recognize such terms. Canadian standards differ significantly from the requirements of the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories constitute or will ever be converted into mineral reserves. In addition, inferred mineral resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, is economically or legally mineable or will ever be upgraded to a higher category of mineral resource. 2018 Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call: The Companys 2018 Second Quarter Financial Results conference call will take place on August 2, 2018 at 10:00 am. ET. Conference details are found below. North American Toll Free: + 1 (844) 202-7109 International Dial-In Number: +1 (703) 639-1272 Conference ID: 2380168 Webcast link: Click Here A webcast of the earnings call can also be accessed under the News and Events section of the Companys website (www.wesdome.com) Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. Summarized Operating and Financial Data (Unaudited, expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars, except per share and per unit amounts and otherwise indicated) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, Jun 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Operating data Milling (tonnes) Eagle River 43,378 34,960 87,858 73,538 Mishi 25,233 39,117 58,079 75,758 Throughput 2 68,610 74,077 145,937 149,296 Head grades (g/t) Eagle River 11.0 9.8 11.5 10.7 Mishi 2.7 1.8 2.2 1.8 Recovery (%) Eagle River 96.2 96.3 95.8 95.7 Mishi 83.6 83.1 82.7 82.1 Production (ounces) Eagle River 14,767 10,597 31,166 24,185 Mishi 1,860 1,932 3,411 3,506 Total gold produced 2 16,628 12,529 34,576 27,691 Total gold sales (ounces) 18,573 13,030 34,003 25,350 Eagle River Complex (per ounce of gold sold) 1 Average realized price $ 1,692 $ 1,715 $ 1,694 $ 1,674 Cash costs 886 1,264 937 1,201 Cash margin $ 806 $ 451 $ 757 $ 473 All-in Sustaining Costs 1 $ 1,242 $ 1,718 $ 1,288 $ 1,667 Mine operating costs/tonne milled 1 $ 225 $ 215 $ 216 $ 214 Average 1 USD CAD exchange rate 1.2911 1.3449 1.2781 1.3351 Cash costs per ounce of gold sold (US$) 1 $ 686 $ 940 $ 733 $ 899 All-in Sustaining Costs (US$) 1 $ 962 $ 1,277 $ 1,007 $ 1,249 Financial Data Mine profit 1 $ 14,957 $ 5,883 $ 25,731 $ 12,010 Net income $ 5,725 $ 863 $ 8,584 $ 1,558 Net income adjusted 1 $ 5,725 $ 863 $ 8,584 $ 1,558 Operating cash flow $ 12,422 $ 5,898 $ 24,845 $ 10,216 Free cash flow $ 1,962 $ (4,619 ) $ 5,178 $ (10,561 ) Per share data Net income $ 0.04 $ 0.01 $ 0.06 $ 0.01 Adjusted net earnings 1 $ 0.04 $ 0.01 $ 0.06 $ 0.01 Operating cash flow $ 0.09 $ 0.04 $ 0.19 $ 0.08 Free cash flow 1 $ 0.01 $ (0.03 ) $ 0.04 $ (0.08 ) Notes Refer to the Companys Interim Management Discussion and Analysis for the three months and six months ended June 30, 2018, section entitled Non-IFRS Performance Measures for the reconciliation of these non-IFRS measurements to the financial statements. Totals for tonnage and gold ounces information may not add due to rounding. Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (Unaudited) (Expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars) June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Assets Current Cash and cash equivalents $ 26,719 $ 22,092 Receivables and prepaids 444 3,821 Tax receivable 2,000 1,932 Inventories 6,374 5,314 Total current assets 35,537 33,159 Deferred income tax assets 1,855 5,450 Mining properties, plant and equipment 85,635 81,375 Exploration properties 69,992 59,929 Total assets $ 193,019 $ 179,913 Liabilities Current Payables and accruals $ 16,238 $ 17,003 Mining and income taxes payable 1,185 671 Current portion of obligations under finance leases 3,593 2,541 Total current liabilities 21,016 20,215 Obligations under finance leases 4,826 3,983 Deferred mining tax liability 6,830 6,300 Decommissioning provisions 11,400 11,192 Total liabilities 44,072 41,690 Equity Equity attributable to owners of the Company Capital stock 164,649 164,161 Contributed surplus 5,586 3,967 Deficit (21,288 ) (29,905) Total equity attributable to owners of the Company 148,947 138,223 Total liabilities and equity $ 193,019 $ 179,913 Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. Interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income (Unaudited) (Expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars except for per share amounts) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenues $ 31,443 $ 23,248 $ 57,660 $ 43,348 Cost of sales 20,405 18,736 39,169 34,854 Gross profit 11,038 4,512 18,491 8,494 Other expenses Corporate and general 1,416 1,355 2,493 2,786 Share-based payments 964 822 1,831 1,686 Kiena care and maintenance 321 346 777 567 Loss on disposal of equipment - 159 - 159 Write-off of mining equipment 9 - 290 - 2,710 2,682 5,391 5,198 Operating income 8,328 1,830 13,100 3,296 Interest on long-term debt (72 ) (84 ) (123 ) (344 ) Accretion of decommissioning provisions (104 ) (78 ) (208 ) (250 ) Interest and other 1,105 25 1,149 126 Income before income tax 9,257 1,693 13,918 2,828 Mining and income tax expense Current 727 51 1,208 51 Deferred 2,805 779 4,126 1,219 3,532 830 5,334 1,270 Net income and total comprehensive income $ 5,725 $ 863 $ 8,584 $ 1,558 Net earnings per share Basic $ 0.04 $ 0.01 $ 0.06 $ 0.01 Diluted $ 0.04 $ 0.01 $ 0.06 $ 0.01 Weighted average number of common shares (000s) Basic 134,276 133,000 134,204 131,844 Diluted 135,646 135,565 135,340 134,260 Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. Interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Total Equity (Unaudited) For the six months ended June 30, 2018 (Expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars) Equity Component Capital Contributed of Convertible Total Stock Surplus Debentures Deficit Equity Balance, December 31,2016 $ 156,402 $ 2,173 $ 932 $ (32,106 ) $ 127,401 Net income for the period ended June 30, 2017 - - - 1,558 1,558 Conversion of convertible debentures 4,912 - (932 ) 932 4,912 Exercise of options 1,860 - - - 1,860 Value attributed to options exercised 908 (908 ) - - - Value attributed to options expired - (18 ) - 18 - Share-based payments - 1,686 - - 1,686 Balance, June 30, 2017 $ 164,082 $ 2,933 $ - $ (29,598 ) $ 137,417 Balance, December 31,2017 $ 164,161 $ 3,967 $ - $ (29,905 ) $ 138,223 Net income for the period ended June 30, 2018 - - - 8,584 8,584 Exercise of options 309 - - - 309 Value attributed to options exercised 179 (179 ) - - - Value attributed to options expired - (33 ) - 33 - Share-based payments - 1,831 - - 1,831 Balance, June 30, 2018 $ 164,649 $ 5,586 $ - $ (21,288 ) $ 148,947 Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. Interim Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited, expressed in thousands of Canadian dollars) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Operating activities Net income $ 5,725 $ 863 $ 8,584 $ 1,558 Depletion and depreciation 3,919 2,271 7,240 4,416 Share-based payments 964 822 1,831 1,686 Decommissioning provisions 104 78 208 250 Deferred mining and income tax expense 2,805 779 4,126 1,219 Interest on long-term debt 72 265 123 351 Accretion of discount on convertible debentures - 13 - 103 Write-off of mining equipment 9 - 290 - Loss on disposal of equipment - 159 - 159 13,598 5,250 22,402 9,742 Net changes in non-cash working capital (483 ) 699 3,136 (375 ) Mining tax received (paid) (693 ) (51 ) (693 ) 849 Net cash from operating activities 12,422 5,898 24,845 10,216 Financing activities Repayment of convertible debentures - (2,091 ) - (2,091 ) Exercise of options 89 190 309 1,860 Finance lease payments (956 ) (672 ) (1,615 ) (1,317 ) Interest paid (72 ) (265 ) (123 ) (351 ) Net cash used in financing activities (939 ) (2,838 ) (1,429 ) (1,899 ) Investing activities Additions to mining properties (4,433 ) (4,082 ) (7,989 ) (7,885 ) Additions to exploration properties (5,071 ) (5,853 ) (10,063 ) (11,641 ) Funds released from restricted cash - - - 6,920 Proceeds on sale of equipment - 90 - 90 Net changes in non-cash working capital (1,720 ) (127 ) (737 ) 120 Net cash used in investing activities (11,224 ) (9,972 ) (18,789 ) (12,396 ) Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 259 (6,912 ) 4,627 (4,079 ) Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 26,460 29,593 22,092 26,760 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 26,719 $ 22,681 $ 26,719 $ 22,681 Cash and cash equivalents consist of: Cash $ 17,677 $ 7,741 $ 17,677 $ 7,741 Term deposits 9,042 14,940 9,042 14,940 $ 26,719 $ 22,681 $ 26,719 $ 22,681 ABOUT WESDOME Wesdome Gold Mines has had over 30 years of continuous gold mining operations in Canada. The Company is 100% Canadian focused with a pipeline of projects in various stages of development. The Eagle River Complex in Wawa, Ontario is currently producing gold from two mines, the Eagle River Underground Mine and the Mishi Open pit, from a central mill. Wesdome is actively exploring its brownfields asset, the Kiena Complex in Val dOr, Quebec. The Kiena Complex is a fully permitted former mine with a 930-metre shaft and 2,000 tonne-per-day mill. The Company has further upside at its Moss Lake gold deposit, located 100 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Company has approximately 134.2 million shares issued and outstanding and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WDO. For further information, please contact: Duncan Middlemiss President and CEO 416-360-3743 ext. 29 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Lindsay Carpenter Dunlop VP Investor Relations 416-360-3743 ext. 25 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 220 Bay St., Suite 1200 Toronto, ON, M5J 2W4 Toll Free: 1-866-4-WDO-TSX Phone: 416-360-3743, Fax: 416-360-7620 Website: www.wesdome.com This news release contains forward-looking information which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the future financial or operating performance of the Company and its projects. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, or believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances, managements estimates or opinions should change, except as required by securities legislation. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company has included in this news release certain non-IFRS performance measures, including, but not limited to, average realized price of gold sold; cash costs per ounce of gold sold; production costs per tonne milled; mine profit (loss); all-in sustaining costs per ounce of gold sold; free cash flow and operating and free cash flow per share; and net income (adjusted) and adjusted net earnings per share. These measures are not defined under IFRS and therefore should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to or more meaningful than, net income or cash flow from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of our financial performance or liquidity. The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to generate cash flow. Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus partners with Air Force Junior ROTC to help train young pilots Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 The Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is a partner school in the Air Force Junior ROTC's new chief of staff of the Air Force scholarship program, Flight Academy, helping 12 cadets earn their private pilot certificate this summer. Front row, from left: Tiffany Swallow, Emma Rick, Angela Xiong, Alexis Ehlbeck, Brooks Franklin and Tomas Frances. Back row, from left: Sebastian Wolf, Dylan Snedeker, Carson Beck, Koby Battema, Aaron Falk and Angelo Wilder. | Download this photo. SALINA The Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus has joined a new aviation initiative created by the Air Force Junior ROTC that is aimed at boosting enthusiasm for flying among high school students as well as contributing to the industry's pilot shortage solution. Kansas State Polytechnic is a partner school in the Air Force Junior ROTC's Flight Academy, a scholarship program awarded by the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force for the first time this summer that assists cadets with earning their private pilot certificate at an accelerated pace. The campus is one of six institutions across the country hosting students and providing their flight training. Out of the 800 who applied, 120 cadets were accepted into the inaugural program with 12 participants landing at Kansas State Polytechnic. The idea for Flight Academy first was conceived as a way to address the Air Force's ongoing aircrew shortage. While high school students enrolled in Junior ROTC and selected for the program are not required to commit to a military track, the initiative hopes to inspire an interest in aviation that eventually leads to a career in aviation either military or civilian and an overall positive effect on the nationwide pilot shortage dilemma. Flight Academy also addresses the aviation community's diversity concern: 55 percent of those who applied for the 2018 scholarships are female or minority cadets. "Supporting the advancement of aviation education, especially in youth, has always been an important priority to Kansas State Polytechnic and we're proud to be collaborating with an organization that has such a positive influence over young people's lives," said Bill Gross, chief flight instructor and aviation professor at Kansas State Polytechnic. "Learning to fly is challenging and requires focus, but it has the ability to open doors and transform someone's future. We're excited to spark a passion for aviation in these students and help set them on a path to personal and professional success." Beginning June 11, Air Force Junior ROTC cadets were on campus for seven weeks working toward their private pilot certificate. They attended ground school three hours a day, Monday through Thursday, and were in the cockpit flying at least two times a day, several days a week. The young aviators learned about such topics as federal aviation regulations, aerodynamics, aircraft performance, weight and balance, weather and navigation, and the systems on an airplane. Because they stayed in the residence halls, cadets also got the opportunity to build camaraderie and experience typical collegiate student life, participating in off-campus outings, late-night study sessions and recreational events. They even met with Kansas State University President Richard Myers, eating dinner with him at his home on the Manhattan campus. Myers is a retired four-star Air Force general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A K-State alumnus, his military career began as a member of the university's Air Force ROTC program. The cadets' last day at Kansas State Polytechnic was July 27 when they were honored for their achievements in front of family and friends at a closing ceremony. At the event, they wore their official Air Force flight suits and received a completion certificate from Kansas State Polytechnic as well as a wings patch from the Air Force Junior ROTC. "I want to thank Kansas State University and the Polytechnic Campus for stepping up, taking a chance and investing in a new program that develops young people and gets them interested in aviation," said Todd Taylor, retired Air Force colonel and director of program development for the Air Force Junior ROTC, at the closing ceremony. "Being a pilot changes you the way you think and react to different situations. Because of this program and the training that was received, the manner in which these cadets take on missions and take on life is forever strengthened. I am so proud of your hard work, determination and your success." Contingent on funding, Flight Academy will grow exponentially in the coming years. This year, the Air Force awarded 120 scholarships, and if financing continues, will grow to 250 in summer 2019, and 500 in summer 2020. Plans also could open the program to Army, Navy, and Marine Junior ROTC programs as well as Civil Air Patrol cadets by 2020. Kansas State Polytechnic was chosen as a partner school in the Flight Academy initiative because of its accreditation with AABI, the Aviation Accreditation Board International, and the university's Air Force ROTC program. To learn more about the professional pilot bachelor's degree option at Kansas State Polytechnic, contact admissions at 785-826-2640 or polytechnic@k-state.edu. 168 Shares Share We want competent physicians, but we also want compassionate ones. How do we get them? Is it nature or is it nurture? Is it more important to search out more compassionate students, or should we instill compassion somehow in the ones we start along the training pipeline? I think the answer lies in nurturing what nature has already put there. My background is in pediatric critical care, which I have practiced for thirty-five years. Throughout most of my career, I have taught medical students, residents, and fellows. So I have seen young physicians as they made their way as best they could through the long training process. I also served on a medical school admissions committee for some years and interviewed many prospective students, so I have had the opportunity to see and speak with them before the medical education system even got hold of them. I think the main principle to keep before us is not so much to figure out a way to teach compassion, but rather to devise ways such that the training process does not reduce, or even extinguish, the innate compassion all humans have toward one another. Unfortunately, our current way of doing things does not do a very good job at that task. But I do not think our present state of affairs is anyones fault. We are hobbled by our success. Some historical background is helpful, I think, to explain what I mean. When my grandfather graduated from medical school in 1901, he had only a few tools to help the sick. He could do useful things to help injuries mend. He had the newly discovered techniques of aseptic surgery, as well as ether to allow him to do it painlessly. Other than that, though, he did not have much narcotics to relieve pain, powdered digitalis leaf to help a failing heart, and a few other things. Mostly, though, he had bagful of useless nostrums. Some of them were even harmful. Because he had little to offer, compassion figured prominently in whatever therapy he did. It had to. When my father graduated from the same medical school in 1944, things were better. Surgery had advanced further from his fathers day, although only brave surgeons entered the chest cavity. There was sulfa, and penicillin soon became available, working miracles with previously deadly infections. Streptomycin and later drugs made the scourge of tuberculosis treatable. He soon had some drugs to treat high blood pressure, which by then had killed his father, plus a rapidly enlarging stock of other useful drugs to put in the black bag he took on house calls. But there were still many things for which he could do nothing. For a heart attack, he gave some morphine to take away the pain and then waited to see what happened. If a cancer could not be removed surgically, he had nothing to offer. Although my fathers black bag held more than his fathers had contained, compassion was still a crucial part of my fathers armamentarium. As for his father, it had to be. I graduated from medical school in 1978. If scientific medicine was just spreading its wings during my fathers training, I experienced it in full flight. By then our medical-industrial complex had rolled out nearly all of the varieties of therapies we have still, although of course we have polished and improved them. What has happened, I think, is not that we have become less compassionate on purpose, but that we came to act as if we no longer needed the compassion of my father or my grandfathers era, now that we had so many really useful and exciting therapies to offer. I also think one other historical change is key to understanding how our young doctors react to the experience of seeing death and dying. In my grandfathers era, it was an unusual person, even an unusual child, who had not personally seen someone die. Children and young adults saw how those around them behaved and reacted to death. If they became doctors, both they and their patients had shared this common experience, so both knew how to act. I saw death for the first time when I was sixteen on my very first day working as an orderly in our local hospital. I was giving a bath to an old man; he looked at me oddly, and then he was dead. None of my friends or schoolmates had ever seen such a thing. I still recall it vividly. I also remember well how helpful the nurses, all women in their fifties or sixties, were to me afterwards. I watched them wash the body, a once sacramental task now largely done by nurses in hospitals instead of families in their homes. They were respectful, but matter-of-fact as they went about it. After all, it was a natural thing. I think compassion for others is innate in all of us, although it is stronger in some than in others. All of us possess an inner light. Perhaps that opinion makes my theology show, but I think it is fair to say our medical school selection process already skews toward selecting students more compassionate than the average person. We need to encourage that quality, certainly, but that is not the key issue in my mind; mainly we need to prevent medical training from driving it into the background, belittling it, or even snuffing it out. So I do not think we need so much to ponder how to teach compassion as we need to find ways of letting students natural humanity shine through. For medical educators, that would seem to me to be good news. Framed that way, it ought to be doable but how? There are many things in medicine that can be taught with the old see one, do one, teach one model that those of us older than fifty remember. We also remember never seeing a faculty attending physician in the hospital at night, because, after sundown, the place belonged to the residents. Even during the day, attending physicians were more likely to be found in their offices or their research laboratories than out and about on the wards. I learned how to intubate a baby and place an umbilical artery catheter from my senior resident, who had learned the year before from her senior resident. But my senior resident was not much help when a premature baby died; she was as much at sea as I was. All she had learned about that from her senior resident was to cultivate a sort of hard-boiled persona. We aspired to it partly because it gave us a mental escape hatch in those situations. But mainly it was because nobody showed us any other way. How to show that other way? In my mind, there is no substitute for senior, seasoned physicians demonstrating, in the moment, how to let out our own innate empathy and compassion. Good, experienced physicians are comfortable admitting their medical ignorance and failures to families; nothing terrifies residents more than that. When they see it in action, students and residents respond with a version of: Thats why I became a doctor. Structurally, medical education has already made great strides in the right direction. We now have rules for resident supervision that involve much more oversight, even at night, than I ever had. This was done mostly for patient safety, I think, with education as a secondary and really unintended consequence. So the opportunities are there we just need to implement them better. For example, after an unsuccessful resuscitation and a death, the folks with the grey hair should spend as much time discussing with students and residents the psychic dimensions of the death as they do the sequence of medical decisions. Most of my colleagues already do that to varying degrees, but it should be an expectation. We should never again send a resident, alone and emotionally at sea, to comfort a grieving family without backup. We do not do that for complicated invasive procedures; we should not do it for this other, equally important task either. Certainly some organized instruction seminars, discussion groups, lectures and the like can be part of the process. But the training curriculum is already stuffed with subjects. Taking residents by the hand and leading them through these experiences does not require another fat syllabus. It only takes a little time. If we want to foster compassion in our students we should ourselves show them compassion for the situations we put them in. We should let their innate, inner compassion and empathy find an outlet and breathe free. Christopher Johnson is a pediatric intensive care physician and author of Keeping Your Kids Out of the Emergency Room: A Guide to Childhood Injuries and Illnesses, Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face, How to Talk to Your Childs Doctor: A Handbook for Parents, and How Your Child Heals: An Inside Look At Common Childhood Ailments. He blogs at his self-titled site, Christopher Johnson, MD. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 58 Shares Share The digital divide used to be about who had internet access and who didnt, with broad implications for every aspect of life especially health care. But digital health innovation is growing rapidly, with projections showing a $536.6 billion market by the end of 2025 compared to the $179.6 billion market at the end of 2016. So, what does that mean for the digital divide? We believe the digital divide no longer just refers to access, but to the level of understanding and ability to comfortably use digital health technology. Unfortunately, older adults seem at risk for being on the wrong side of this split. In the U.S., roughly 80 percent of older adults have at least one chronic condition and more than two-thirds have two or more chronic diseases. Regular exercise is an effective strategy for chronic condition prevention and management and can safely be incorporated into the lives of older adults. However, less than 16 percent of older adults meet the weekly guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Digital health innovations such as wearable technologies can help people consistently track their physical activity and lead to improved health outcomes and may serve as a means for older adults to safely incorporate exercise into their daily routines. However, its evident that older adults are not a target population for activity tracker vendors, as ads tend to showcase younger and healthier adults, who are in fact the highest purchasers of these devices. To counteract this problem, in 2015, we started RecycleHealth based on the hypothesis that people who may be least likely to purchase wearable activity trackers may be the ones who benefit the most from their use. Since then, we have received over 3,000 donated trackers, which we refurbish and provide to underserved populations, mostly in Greater Boston, all while studying the effects on health, well-being, and fitness. While results have been quite positive improved health outcomes, positive behavior change and increased acceptance we stumbled upon a new digital divide, one that is keeping older adults from accessing digital health. In recruiting participants (age 50-75) at senior centers, a primary care practice and a church, mostly in lower-income areas around Greater Boston, weve observed that cost and difficulty with setup are just two barriers to adoption, but the issues of access go well beyond these. For example, to take advantage of tracker features and be part of our studies, potential participants are required to have smartphones, but we have found that ownership is not enough and there exist several other barriers to engagement. In some cases, the phones may be a few generations old, which can lead to compatibility issues when downloading a required app or connecting an activity tracker to a phone. The set-up, design, and implementation of these apps can be challenging for seniors. Whats considered intuitive for a millennial is anything but for many older adults. For example, the default step goal is often 10,000 steps per day, yet this is often more than older adults can physically manage. Its also more than what the CDC physical activity guidelines would equal in number of steps. In working with older adults, we try to understand their current activity levels, provide guidance on a more realistic starting point and show them how to change the default setting. Other features are designed in ways that inadvertently make people feel old, like dials to set date of birth. When setting the year, several people have said to us, I have to spin that a lot! Furthermore, devices typically come with minimal guidance on setup and ongoing use. Some apps during setup use jargon-heavy language, such as sync with Bluetooth, or direct users to the vendors website. The idea of helping consumers through setup and use of a product is not novel. Think about what you receive when you buy a car or a printer. Theres often a thinner overview guide and then a thicker, more detailed manual. While barriers to adoption and use clearly exist, we are also interested in understanding potential facilitators to engagement, so we can better help older adults to comfortably and adeptly use and benefit from digital health technologies. One facilitator that weve been exploring is access to individual hands-on training. When we give someone a tracker, we sit with them and walk them through the setup process and help them configure the device to meet their unique needs. This not only helps improve an individuals digital literacy but also helps the individual feel more comfortable using the technology on their own. The challenge is how we bring this high-touch support to scale. We have found that often you only get one shot at this. If the technology fails once, many people will give up on it. Integration of digital health technologies in the lives of older adults will also require more attention to the design of apps and devices to ensure they are both appealing and usable by older adults. This includes looking at fine motor skills (or dexterity) of older adults and the type and frequency of messages that the devices send to users. With the number of adults age 65 and older projected to make up 20 percent of the U.S. population by 2030, it seems imperative for clinicians, researchers, digital health manufacturers and developers to work together with older adults to combat this new digital divide. Lisa Gualtieri is founder and program director, RecycleHealth, can be reached on Twitter @lisagualtieri. Jeff Phillips is a family physician and wellness leader, RecycleHealth, and can be reached on Twitter @DocJeffPhillips. Sandra Rosenbluth is program coordinator and communication specialist, RecycleHealth and can be reached on Twitter @sanrosenb. Steph Synoracki is a RecycleHealth volunteer and strategic health communication consultant. She can be reached on Twitter @stephsynoracki. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 473 Shares Share I left the library at 10 p.m. the night before the last exam of my first year of med school. As I hopped on my bike, I took comfort in my typical pre-test refrain: Im done studying. I did everything I could. Of course, Im not really done studying: I still have three years of school left packed with end-of-block finals, end-of-rotation exams, and the behemoths of the medical testing world, the national licensing examinations called Step. I havent even taken the first Step, but biking home that night, I realized that Ive taken a major leap in the past ten months. In medical school, doing everything I could is both more and less than ever before. The more: I can spend more hours with more resources learning more than I thought possible. Im stunned by how much medical lingo Ive picked up, how many drug names Ive memorized, and how many different diseases I understand. The less: Theres never enough time to learn the material, to understand the physiology and pathology in full. I certainly know a whole lot more than I did when I first started here, but Ive also become acutely aware of how much I dont know and how much I have left to learn. I head into this summer break the last of my educational years taking stock of the more. After ten months of juggling school and extracurriculars while trying to be a good friend, partner, sister, and child, its easy for me to feel like I fell short, to focus on the things I couldve and shouldve done. I shouldve been there for my brothers graduation. I couldve hammered out my studying tactics a little earlier in the quarter. I shouldve checked in with my friends more, said yes to every opportunity to be with them. I couldve flown home when my relative got sick. I couldve and shouldve, but at the same time, I need to remind myself of how much Ive accomplished and of how much I handled to the best of my ability. I need to take some pride in my first giant leap into the medical world where I landed firmly on my feet. This year I learned a lot of science: anatomy, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, embryology, histology, and more. I also learned how to enter a patients room with confidence, a strong handshake, and a gentle touch. I learned how to hear the murmurs and gallops of a sick heart. I grew more comfortable asking sensitive, deeply personal questions of total strangers. I acquired new ways of listening, moving, and connecting. In addition to the required curriculum, I rounded out my education. I took courses in creative writing, anthropology, bioethics, and medical humanities. I re-read Frankenstein after having dissected a body myself. I went to art exhibits, student-run concerts, and attended writing retreats. I tried my hand at policy writing, and participated in the California Medical Associations advocacy day in Sacramento and the American Medical Associations annual meeting in Chicago. Along the way, I also reflected on my experiences. I probably couldve done more and I couldve done it all better, but I did enough. For now, thats the most I can ask of myself. I hope that my classmates and other first-year pre-clinical students step back a bit this summer. If, like me, youre prone to focusing on the endless possibilities for improvement or the opportunities you should have seized, just pause for a moment and look at how far youve come. Sure, theres still a long road ahead, but the first year of medical school is done. I hope you take pride in your accomplishments and enjoy the break you have earned. Perhaps next year we can do even more, but for now, we did everything we could. Orly Farber is a medical student who blogs at Scope, where this article originally appeared. Image credit: Shutterstock.com More than 150,000 is to be invested in the water supply for Castlecomer - Clogh - Moneenroe. The good news was announced following a meeting involving Irish Waters Ivan Corcoran, Capital Programmes Regional Lead, Phil Pettit, SUEZ-UK Ice Pigging Operations and Shane Carroll, Adrian Barry, Veronica Barry of Glan Uisce Environmental Solutions Ltd and local Cllrs Maurice Shortall and John Brennan. The concentration of manganese in the system (due to over 300 years of mining in the area) has been causing ongoing problems in the piping network, and outdated treatment plant at Loon. The scope of the works are: Refurbishment of key elements of the Water Treatment Plant at Loon; Reservoirs at Kiltown, Aughamuckey, Mayhora and Gorteen will be prioritised for cleaning during July and August; the full extents of the networks are to be cleaned using a technique called ice-pigging. Ice-Pigging is a pipeline cleaning process in which an ice slurry solution is pumped into a pipeline under pressure to remove built-up sediment and deposits and is a very effective solution for the removal of manganese deposits. It is proposed that Ice-Pigging will be carried on the network following the treatment plant refurbishment works and reservoir cleaning works in August. Cllrs Maurice Shortall and John Brennan thanked all present at the meeting for their co-operation on what had become an ongoing problem in their areas. Kilkenny farmers are among almost half (46%) of dairy farmers from Leinster who have a fodder deficit of greater than 25%. Over 400 dairy farmers attended the AIB sponsored Irish Grassland Association (IGA) Dairy Summer Tour which took place in West Cork last week. A survey of those in attendance identified that 9 in 10 dairy farmers from the Leinster area had completed a fodder budget.* Just over 20% of those from the Leinster area had sufficient fodder reserves in place for the coming winter, which was lower than the national figure of 25%. Of those who do not have sufficient reserves from Leinster, almost half (46%) identified that they had a deficit of greater than 25%, while just 3% identified that they had a deficit in excess of 50%. 3 in 4 farmers are currently eating into existing winter fodder supplies by feeding grass silage slightly higher in Leinster with 4 in 5 feeding silage. This is just one of a number of strategies being implemented on farm to deal with the current challenges. A number of supply orientated strategies are being implemented and considered on farm at present. Nationally over 70% of farmers were feeding or planning to feed straights, while 20% of farmers identified that they were going to sow a forage crop, and a similar number suggested that they were going to purchase wholecrop/maize. And almost 50% of farmers said they were planning to sell stock to reduce demand. From a financial perspective, over 60% of farmers from Leinster suggested that they should be able to cope with the financial impact of the drought from cash flow, while almost 40% suggested that short term bank cash flow support would be required. Speaking after the event Chris Nolan, AIB Agri Advisor in Kilkenny said It is encouraging that many farmers who attended the IGA Dairy Summer Tour have completed a fodder budget and are working to reduce their deficits on farm. The regional impact of the drought is highlighted in the results, with farmers from Leinster more affected that those in other parts of the country. Last weekends rain was very welcome. However, it will be some time before grass growth rates return to normal levels. We are encouraging our farming customers to determine how the additional costs associated with the drought are likely to affect their individual farm systems and to engage with us if support is required. Chris Nolan - AIB Agri Advisor Kilkenny George Ramsbottom, IGA organising committee and Teagasc said, Both of our tour hosts found themselves short of winter forage but sourced forage from outside the farm to fill the shortfall. We urge farmers across the country to establish what the winter forage situation is on their farms and where deficits are identified, to put a plan in place now rather than later in the autumn. The south Kilkenny towns of Thomastown and Inistioge are to see a 10 million investment from Irish Water to upgrade their existing water supply schemes. A contract has now been signed with Ward and Burke Construction Ltd, and the work is expected to take 18 months to complete. Its expected the project will provide a safer, more reliable, and secure water supply for the 4,000 or so customers in both areas. This scheme will target water quality and supply issues in the Inistioge area. It will enable the removal of the Inistioge supply from the EPAs Remedial Action List. The works also enhances the supply and treatment capacity at Thomastown. The work includes the upgrade of the Thomastown Water Treatment Plant and the construction of new reservoirs at Thomastown and Inistioge. It will involve the construction of 17.6km of new water mains linking Inistioge with the existing Thomastown Water Supply Scheme to replace the existing surface water source in Inistioge. We are very pleased to be progressing with this project in Kilkenny, which represents an investment of 10 million by Irish Water, said Lisa Cogan of Irish Water. When it is complete, residents, businesses and the agricultural community in Thomastown, Inistioge and the surrounding rural areas will benefit from better drinking water quality, reduced disruptions to supply, improved security of supply and water pressure. The work will enable the removal of the Inistioge scheme from the EPAs Remedial Action List by replacing the supply with a more sustainable supply. The project will include construction of approximately 17.6km of new trunk mains and rising mains; the development of new/existing borewells in the townland of Grennan; construction of a new 1.3 million litre reservoir, at Thomastown; upgrade of treatment facilities at Thomastown; construction of a new 560,000 litre reservoir in the townland of Kilmacshane, Inistioge. It will also see the construction of a new booster pumping station at Kilcross; upgrade works at the Ballygub reservoir and decommissioning of existing water treatment plant; and the upgrading of existing booster station at Woodstock, Inistioge. Irish Water has said it, and the project team, will work closely with the local community to minimise the impact on residents, businesses and road users while the work is under way. The project team will also ensure that householders and businesses are advised of any works in their area in advance and will be given a minimum of 48 hours prior notice of any planned water shut offs. For additional information, customers can contact the Irish Water customer care line at 1850 278 278 or go to the service and supply section of the Irish Water website at https://www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/. There was a 36% year-on-year increase in new '.ie' domains registered in Kilkenny in the first half of this year, according to the latest Domain Profile Report Some 420 new .ie domains were registered in Kilkenny between January 1 and June 30, according to the report, published by the IE Domain Registry, the company that manages and maintains Irelands official country domain name. The figure compares to the 300 new .ie domains registered in Kilkenny in the first half of last year, which then represented a 46% increase on the previous year. Overall new .ie domain registrations in Leinster in the first half of 2018 numbered 17,544 - a 39% year-on-year increase. NATIONALLY Nationally, .ie domain registrations grew by 39% year-on-year to 28,126, bringing the total .ie domain database to 252,222 at the end of H1 2018. The majority (62.5%), of new .ie domains were registered by businesses (including corporate bodies and sole traders). In total, 154 .ie domains were registered every day in the first half of the year, with increases in 31 of the 32 counties of Ireland. Virtually every county in Ireland recorded an increase in .ie domain registrations in the first half of 2018," says David Curtin, Chief Executive of IE Domain Registry. The increase in registrations in Kilkenny and in Leinster during this period is good news, as increased online activity among businesses is a leading indicator of Irelands broader economic growth. In particular, the growth of .ie in regional parts of Ireland is a fantastic example of how the internet can help businesses in less-infrastructurally developed counties overcome traditional barriers to growth, such as a smaller customer base or slower road and rail links. Part of IE Domain Registrys overarching mission is to ensure that Irelands small businesses are taking full advantage of the internet economy by getting online, connecting with their customers, and selling to them. We are confident that continued innovation within the .ie namespace, and ongoing digital advocacy for e-commerce, will have positive, long-term results for Irelands SMEs. LIBERALISATION Mr Curtin said that a significant part of .ies growth in the last six months is a result of IE Domain Registrys new liberalisation policy. The policy, implemented in March after extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and the general public, makes it easier and faster to register a .ie domain. Businesses are moving away from generic, anonymous email addresses, like eircom.net or gmail.com. Liberalisation has resulted in a streamlined registration process," says Mr Curtin. "While applicants are still required to prove their connection to Ireland, they can now register their preferred name on a first-come, first-served basis. For new business start-ups and small-scale enterprises, liberalisation has removed an administrative obstacle to .ie domain registration. Businesses, organisations and community groups across the island of Ireland recognise the unique power and benefit of .ies identifiably Irish brand for their websites and email addresses. For an SME, a .ie online address signals to local customers that they are local and trustworthy. To international customers, .ie is an authentic and protected marker of Irishness. The fate of at least three local post offices hangs in the balance this week, following the deadline for offers for a retirement scheme worked out between An Post and the Postmasters Union. Post offices in Glenmore and Mullinavat are both understood to have expressed interest in the voluntary retirement package. Gortnahoe, near Urlingford, and Rathoe just over the border in Carlow also reportedly under threat. An Post has not yet responded to enquiries from the Kilkenny People as to exactly how many post offices in this county may be affected. However, nationally, it's understood there are applications from 110 post offices expressing interest in the voluntary retirement package. A meeting is due to take place tonight in Mullinavat Community Centre at 8.30pm, with local TD Bobby Aylward set to attend. He is calling for Government intervention to prevent the closure of post offices in rural communities. The closure of the post offices in Mullinavat and Glenmore represents a direct attack on these communities and on rural Ireland," said Deputy Aylward. Public Meeting tonight about the future of Mullinavat Post Office at 8.30pm in the Community Centre. We need to send a strong message to An Post that our community wants and needs a Post Office in our village. Bobby Aylward (@bobby_aylward) August 2, 2018 "It marks the continuation of the Government policy to withdraw vital services from rural Ireland. We have already seen Garda station closures, the shutting down of small schools and the withdrawal of banking services. The Government is effectively telling people that the State no longer sees rural Ireland as a viable place to live and work. Postmasters are perfectly entitled to avail of redundancy packages and must be thanked for their years of dedicated service to their respective communities but the Government needs to be proactive in securing the continuation of postal services. The Government cannot be allowed to use those redundancies as a smokescreen to dismantle the post office network. Serious efforts must be made to encourage people to continue offering postal services in rural Ireland. READ MORE HERE: MULLINAVAT POST OFFICE SHOCK Fianna Fail believes that the Department should initiate a Public Service Obligation (PSO) to keep post offices open and to maintain the post office network around the country. Decisions should not be made solely on the basis of profit margins. Post offices play an invaluable role in ensuring communities have access to State services. The Government needs to recognise this and play their part in helping secure the post office network. The Government claims it has no operational responsibility for An Post but as far as Fianna Fail is concerned the buck stops with the Minister. If the Minister had the foresight to implement the recommendations contained within the Kerr Report, when it was furnished in 2016, regarding the need of additional services to be made available through Post Offices, the likes of Mullinavat and Glenmore would have had the chance to increase their footfall and maximise their commercial viability. We could have saved many of the rural Post Offices now under threat of closure if immediate action was taken at Ministerial level." READ MORE: MEETING CALLED OVER GLENMORE POST OFFICE A teacher from Maddoxtown will represent Kilkenny in the International Miss Macra Festival this weekend. Josephine O'Neill, who is a leading member of Callan Macra, will be setting off to Thurles, Tipperary, for the festival which takes place over the bank holiday weekend. She will join with her 23 fellow contestants, from 20 counties, to compete for the honour of being crowned International Miss Macra 2018 - the lucky winner will be named at a banquet on Sunday night, following on in the footsteps of last years winner, Lynsay Hawkes of Tyrone. Josephine is currently working as a secondary school teacher, teaching both Home Economics and Irish, in Cross and Passion College, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. She is heavily involved in Macra both at club and county level. She has been secretary (2016 - 2018), assistant secretary and vice president for the county and has organised many events with others such as the hurling competition over the weekend of Mr. Personality, which was hosted in Kilkenny for Macra members from across Ireland. Josephine was a member of the Callan Macra na Feirme 70th anniversary celebrations committee, received a silver leadership award in 2017, and has reached national finals in impromptu public speaking and debating with Macra. Josephine shows her support to Macra events but also gets involved when possible whether it is singing, debating, fundraising or anything to do with sports. Various fun activities will be taking place over a jam-packed Miss Macra Festival weekend in Thurles, where supporters are always welcome! This Friday, August 3, the festival will kick off with a Charity Night, which will be held in Coffeys of Stouke, Rossmore, with all door proceeds being donated to charity. On Saturday, Josephine and her fellow contestants will take to the famous stage in The Dome, Semple Stadium. There they will be interviewed by Spin South-West DJ Valerie Wheeler on one of the main nights of the festival. The interview night will be followed by music from The Waxies and a DJ. On Sunday, a gala banquet will be held in the magnificent Anner Hotel, Thurles, followed by music from Silver Dollar and a DJ. Sunday will see the excitement of the weekend reach it's peak with the crowning of International Miss Macra 2018. Clonoulty / Rossmore Macra na Feirme are the host club for this year's festival, in this the 47th year of the Miss macra Festival. This is the third year the festival has been held in Thurles since returning in 2016. The International Miss Macra Festival 2018 committee wish Josephine O'Neill the very best of luck with the weekends festivities! A balanced report on Lauren Southern by Luke Kinsella in Australia: The event started at 8pm. Stefan spoke first, then Lauren, followed by a Q&A. Neither speaker shied away from the touchy subjects we all avoid at dinner parties. The whole thing felt like a two-hour ode to Western civilisation. Lauren and Stefan are on the front line of whats called the culture war a series of disagreements over the Wests acceptance of political correctness, immigration, feminism, gender theory and multiculturalism. Lauren believes the left has won this culture war. So shes fighting back with an army behind her a growing online movement of people who, like her, are sceptical of the entrenched conventional wisdom surrounding these cultural issues. The first rule of multiculturalism is that you cant talk about multiculturalism, she said. Everyone likes to think theyre speaking truth to power nowadays. Lauren and her audience believe their voices have been marginalised by a left-wing political and media establishment that prioritises what isnt offensive over whats true. To automatically dismiss this online movement as an epidemic-level revival of racism seems careless and overly simplistic. Lauren and Stefan are echoing the concerns of potentially millions of Australians. Censoring them from democratic debate could be devastating. Feminism, Islam and multiculturalism arent beyond criticism. Most polls suggest that the majority of women dont even identify as feminists. Are we not allowed to question why? Or is that yet another topic thats off limits? Theres a fundamentalist brand of social justice out there that takes values like equality, diversity and acceptance to their perverted extreme. Laurens $67,000 security bill is evidence of it. I think this hits the nail on the head. It is because of the attempted closing down of debate on these issues, that people like Southern have become so popular. But Id like to warn Lauren against adopting the tactics of her adversaries. It takes years of study to fully understand Islam, political philosophy, feminism and immigration. Yet somehow, a 23-year old college dropout seems to have figured them all out? Lauren is entitled to her opinions, but to pretend shes some kind of intellectual authority is ridiculous. She might not claim to be an expert, but she is certainly treated like one. I hope her audience doesnt blindly accept everything she says. Her critiques of multiculturalism were interesting and not completely outrageous. But for Lauren to be treated like an expert by more than her own fans, she first must understand the arts of expertise: nuance, balance and compromise. A useful critique. Just because Southern is willing to speak up on these issues, doesnt mean she is right on them. Lauren spares no time for discussing the ugly side of Western civilisation, or the beautiful side of multiculturalism. Everything is either completely bad, or completely good. Im a fan of both. I dont think they are mutually exclusive. But I do think you need cultures that can integrate into Western civilisation, rather than be hostile to them. The followers of this online right-wing movement have an astounding level of certainty in their ideology. Certainty is comforting for people who desperately want to understand the world. Like her radical left-wing enemies, Lauren understands half the story of whatever she talks about (Islam, feminism, multiculturalism), and thinks its the whole story. Nevertheless, Lauren represents a large number of Australians who feel they have no voice. There was a genuine feeling of persecution emanating from her audience. Considering so far in 2018 there have been 1,184 Islamic terror attacks in 46 countries killing 7,158 people it is absolutely rational and reasonable that large numbers of people want to debate Islam. Telling them that you cant do so, makes the problem worse. Lauren, Stefan and their crew of right-wing internet commentators may not realise it, but they hold considerable power over a generation of young conservative contrarians. They criticise the left for being intolerant towards differing opinions and yet, I saw that same intolerance in their own audience; the same dogmatism, anger and stubbornness displayed by Laurens supposed arch-enemies: the social justice warriors. You can become that which you fight against. She did manage to convince me about one thing: the Australian media is wrong to describe Lauren as alt-right a mistake I myself have made. Lauren has some very controversial opinions and she has engaged in some very provocative antics. But she simply doesnt meet the criteria of alt-right. Associating Lauren with the alt-right makes a good headline, but its just not true. The alt-right is a white nationalist movement with links to Neo-Nazism. The term alt-right was coined by a man named Richard Spencer, who is considered the movements leader. Spencer supports the creation of a country exclusively for white people. Hes opposed to interracial relationships. And he supports abortion rights, partly because of their capacity to reduce the African population. To lump Lauren in with Spencer is lazy and uncharitable. Whereas Spencer believes different races cant coexist, Lauren believes different cultures cant coexist. Spencer takes pride in the white race; Lauren takes pride in Western culture. And culture is very different to race. You cant choose your race. Race has an influence on culture but they are again very different things. If you care about defeating the alt-right, dont use the label as a cudgel to describe every right-winger on the internet. We should reserve the label for whom it actually applies. Do we want to become the boy who cried alt-right? I think the battle is almost lost. The bar for being called a Nazi now is so low, that it is meaningless. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr Stuff reported: The minister leading labour law reform has accused leading employer groups of running a deliberately misleading scare campaign, contributing to a plunge in business confidence. BusinessNZs regional member groups have been running media campaigns claiming the Employment Relations Bill would slow business growth and make it difficult for employers to engage and develop staff. Which of course it will. There are around 30 different key provisions and each and every one makes it harder for employers and better for unions. Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said the employer campaign was disproportionate and was creating unnecessary concern. Yet another Minister complaining that organisations are lobbying against Government policy they disagree with. They really dont like dissent. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr Barry Soper writes: The endorsements from Kingi came on the Linked-in career website who gave him her tick of approval on all the skills hes listed as having. Shes the only one to endorse him for firearms, security and workshop facilitation, so if the endorsements mean anything, she knows him better than the others. So can she be an impartial adjudicator of whether the process to appoint him was above board? Its even questionable whether the Minister who gave her the job, Tracy Martin, who was on the board of New Zealand First when Haumaha had a crack at getting into Parliament for the party, should have been in charge of that process. The requirements for an inquiry head should have been pretty simple. You need a lawyer who: Doesnt know Wally Haumaha Doesnt or hasnt worked for the Police Tracey Martin managed to appoint someone who failed the only two criteria independence. Was this deliberate or just incompetence? TVNZ reports that she acted on behalf of TPK to monitor Police development of the Maori Potential Framework. This must have meant she worked closely with Haumaha. She was on two Police recruitment panels. Shes also worked with Mike Bush, and a key focus of the inquiry will be what he knew, and whether he shared it. It should have been blindingly obvious that Kingi wasnt suitable for this inquiry (shed be suitable for many others). This whole thing has been a mess from the start. Commissioner Mike Bush was on the panel selecting Haumaha for the job and its been claimed he apparently knew of his views on the Nicholas case and was warned about the damage that could be done if the promotion went ahead. The Minister who recommended the appointment Stuart Nash has adopted the Sergeant Schultz approach about everything from the start, insisting he knows nothing but admitting if things had been different the outcome may not have been the same. Kingis inquirys scheduled to begin next week and run for six weeks lets hope the outcome isnt as confusing and muddy as the establishments been. Well they now need a new inquiry head. I suggest a QC from the South Island to be safe. Share this: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More Reddit Pinterest Print Tumblr Karachi [Pakistan], Aug 1 (ANI): The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday summoned former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in connection to a money laundering case on August 4. It has slapped notices to the brother-sister duo and ordered them to appear before a joint investigation team. On July 28, Zardari and Talpur failed to appear before the FIA's joint investigation team. The sibling duo was summoned to the FIA office by 11 am (local time) to record their statements. However, their lawyers appeared on their behalf and submitted replies to the joint investigation team, Samaa TV reported. Meanwhile, Talpur filed a petition asking for more time to appear before the joint investigation team. Last week, Zardari and Faryal were declared as absconders by the FIA in connection with the aforementioned case. A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar, took suo motu notice of the FIA's investigation into the money-laundering scam. At least 20 others, including Zardari's close aide Anwar Majeed and his son, were also declared as absconders by the FIA. In January this year, the FIA inquiry began when the State Bank of Pakistan's financial monitoring unit issued a "suspicious transaction report" on ten bank accounts. Transactions worth billions were made over the years when over 20 'benami' accounts were opened at a private bank. At least 32 people are under legal scanner by the FIA for laundering money from fictitious accounts. Zardari, however, has denied such allegations. On July 6, the FIA had arrested Stock Exchange of Pakistan chairman Hussain Lawai, who is considered to be Zardari's close aide. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Astana, Aug 2 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today praised the Kazakh people for their warmth in welcoming the Indian diaspora as she interacted with the Indian community living in the Central Asian country. Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India's efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich nations. She today arrived in Kazakhstan, India's largest trade and investment partner in Central Asia, after a brief transit halt in Turkmenistan. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "Meeting our very own away from home in her first engagement since arriving in Astana! EAM @SushmaSwaraj in her address to the Indian community: I have been told that Astana is the second coldest capital of the world but the warmth of Kazakh people do not let you feel this chill!" During her visit to Astana, the minister will hold a bilateral meeting with her Kazakhstani counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the MEA said in a statement in New Delhi. She will also call on the country's leadership and interact with Indian community, it said. India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and multi-faceted relations. The bilateral relations have been strengthened by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and by his visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June 2017 when he had a productive meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, the statement said. There have also been meetings between the leaders on the margins of the SCO and Nuclear Security Summits keeping up the momentum in the growth of bilateral relations, it said. Swaraj's visit to the three Central Asian countries is her first visit to these countries as External Affairs Minister. The visit is in pursuit of India's objective of enhanced engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. PTI (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Hyderabad, Aug 2: Vietnamese smartphone brand Mobiistar launched its series of selfie smartphones here today, marking its entry into the offline market of the southern States of India. The phones were priced in the range of Rs 4,000-Rs 11,000 in the country. Mobiistar was co-founded by Carl Ngo in 2009 and it established itself as a leading brand in Vietnam and recently expanded to Southeast Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. "On May 23, we officially announced our presence in India," Carl Ngo told reporters. The products were available online. "With our new range of selfie-centric smartphones, we aim to be the part of top five smartphone brands in the affordable segment by this year-end," he said. The company launched the offline operation with the partnership of 600 distributors across India, he said. The company plans to hire about 3,000 people, he added. New Delhi, August 2: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday embarked on a three-nation visit to Central Asia region. Swaraj will be visiting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan from August 2 to August 5. It should be noted that it is her first trip to these countries as External Affairs Minister. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar took to Twitter and wrote,"Advancing our growing engagement with an extended neighbourhood! EAM @SushmaSwaraj embarks on a visit to 3 Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz & Uzbekistan - from 2-5 August. This will be her first visit to these countries as EAM." Advancing our growing engagement with an extended neighborhood! EAM @SushmaSwaraj embarks on a visit to 3 Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz & Uzbekistan - from 2-5 August. This will be her first visit to these countries as EAM. Press Release at https://t.co/K6G2CKQrbB pic.twitter.com/gwu41iXZLZ Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) August 2, 2018 During her visit to Astana, Kazakhstan, Swaraj will hold a bilateral meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov. She is also scheduled to interact with the Indian community in the country. In the second leg of her visit, Swaraj will meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic Erlan Abdyldaev and also call on the leadership of the country. In the final segment of the trip, the Minister of External Affairs will visit Tashkent, Uzbekistan on August 4. The minister will also hold in-depth discussions with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov. Swaraj is also scheduled to address the ideologists and members of the Indian community in Uzbekistan. She will also offer tribute at the memorial of former Prime Minister of India late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. The visit to the three nations is aimed at enhancing engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will also provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. "Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name... Aug 2, 2018, 4:05pm ET Idaho begins enforcing new 'slowpoke' passing-lane law State police argue hogging the left lane can cause accidents. Idaho has begun enforcing a new law that prohibits drivers from impeding traffic in the passing lane on highways. The new law, which rolled out on July 1, prohibits drivers from blocking traffic by going below the speed limit in the left lane. Violations carry a modest $90 fine. "If vehicles are moving slower, it can cause accidents and crashes," Idaho State Police Lt. Shawn Staley told the Idaho Press. Similar laws are worded differently depending on the individual state. In Idaho, some of the fastest drivers may be disappointed to learn that a driver can't be ticketed for hogging the left lane if they are going the speed limit, even if they are impeding the flow of slightly faster vehicles. "If you're going the lawful rate of speed, another person shouldn't push up behind you," Staley said. The state has only issued two tickets and three warnings in the law's first month. In contrast, Idaho State Police wrote nearly 2,500 speeding tickets. Bethlehem police are asking for the public's help in finding a man they say exposed himself to two young girls in the city, and who had fled Chicago after doing the same thing. Bernardo Fontanez-Cintron, 49, is wanted on two counts each of indecent assault, luring a child to a motor vehicle and corruption of minors. Fontanez-Cintron told police he recently moved into his mother's house on Evans Street in Bethlehem from Chicago, and was seen driving her vehicle in the alleged incidents, a maroon Chevrolet Cobalt with a Pennsylvania license plate. Investigators ask anyone with information on his whereabouts to call the Bethlehem Police Department at 610-865-7187. Police said Fontanez-Cintron was arrested May 1 in Chicago, for allegedly calling kids over to his car and performing a sex act. Fontanez-Cintron fled to Bethlehem after that arrest, police said, and is accused of two separate exposure cases in the city. The first was on July 6 near Sixth and Buchanan streets involving a 7-year-old girl, and a second was on July 8 near Sixth Street and Lynn Avenue involving an 8-year-old girl. Both times the girls told officers a man driving a red car called them over to the car, and the man was performing a sex act. After the first incident, the girl's parents tried to approach the car but the man drove off. The second girl described the suspect as an older Hispanic man between 40 and 50 years, with gray hair, facial hair and glasses, police said. Police said they were able to get surveillance photos of the car involved, and on July 11 found Fontanez-Cintron driving a similar looking vehicle near Yosko Park on the South Side, where there is a playground, pool and splash pad. In an interview with police, Fontanez-Cintron said he had been living in Bethlehem for about three to four weeks after moving here from Chicago. Fontanez-Cintron told police he had been arrested in Chicago for public urination, but police said they learned he was arrested in 2014 for indecent exposure and then in 2016 for allegedly masturbating in public. He was released from custody as police continued to investigate the incidents. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Burglaries are nothing new for Richard Folkner. The South Side Easton man been committing them along with other property crimes for more than 30 years, according to his criminal record. His latest four burglaries on Easton's South Side landed the 52-year-old resident of East Kleinhans Street in state prison on Thursday for six to 12 years. Police caught him by following footprints in the snow leading from Easton's Finest Urban Gear on Jan. 17. The tracks led from the rear of the store at 142 W. St. Joseph St. to Folkner lugging a blue garbage bin full of boots, sneakers, clothes and DVDs, police said. He also had a gun, a crowbar, a screwdriver, a flashlight and jewelry, according to police. He burglarized Easton Chinese No. 1 restaurant the same night, police said. It's next door to the clothes store. Later Folkner admitted to burglarizing Dunkin' Donuts on Sept. 3, 2017, and Liberty Hose social club on Nov. 21, 2017. Folkner pleaded guilty to the burglaries on May 10 and was sentenced Thursday by Northampton County Judge Paula Roscioli. He blamed drugs for his crimes. "I was under the influence for every one of them," he said. He was accepted into the Treatment Continuum Alternative to Prison program, a Northampton County drug rehab program. But his entry into the program was opposed by Assistant District Attorney David Ceraul and denied by Roscioli. She said Folkner's criminal history is significant and warrants a serious prison sentence. "I consider you to be a threat to the community," Roscioli said. "A sentence of total confinement is appropriate." Defense attorney Philip Viglione said the prison sentence will keep Folkner away from his family, which includes several children. Folkner said his 78-year-old father suffered a recent brain injury. He might die before Folkner finishes serving his time. "He can go a month from now. He can go a year from now. He's dying slowly is what it is," Folkner said. The judge said Folkner should have thought of that when he committed his crimes. He could have sought drug rehabilitation but he sought drugs instead, she said. "These are the consequences of criminal activity. It takes you away from your family. I have more sympathy for them than I have for you," Roscioli said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. The protesters chanted his name loudly and often. He was Joey Santos. He was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. He was a father to three children, ages 21, 18, and 8. He loved animals. He had run-ins with the law years ago, but, family says, his life had turned around. He had a clothing line called D.R.E.A.M., which stood for Drugs Ruin Everything Around Me. He was engaged to be married. He went to Dorney Park on Saturday to celebrate the middle child's birthday. He died there, just outside the park, the tops of the rides within clear view. He was shot five times by a South Whitehall Township police officer responding to calls of a man banging on cars passing on Hamilton Boulevard late that afternoon. Whatever Joey Santos did that day, his family and fellow protesters said Wednesday night, it did not warrant a death sentence. They believe his race -- Santos was Latino -- played a role in the officer's decision to open fire. A man shot by police outside Dorney Park didnt deserve to die, protestors say. They are holding a vigil in South Whitehall to remember Joseph Santos who was shot five times after allegedly disrupting traffic. Posted by lehighvalleylive.com on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 Dozens gathered at 5:30 p.m. along the boulevard, also known as Route 222, just outside the park. It seemed there was almost as strong a media presence. The group covered all ages and many ethnicities. They chanted in English and Spanish, waving signs and flags that read "sin miedo," which means "without fear." They stopped traffic to march to the spot where the 44-year-old was fatally shot. There, his family dropped to the ground, overcome with grief. "We've been sitting on our hands, resting on our laurels, saying it wouldn't happen here. The day has arrived," said Tony Phillips, of the NAACP's Allentown chapter. Joseph "Joey" Santos, 44, was killed by police outside Dorney Park. (Photo courtesy of Juliana Valenzuela) Joseph "Joey" Santos, who was living in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, went to Dorney Park on Saturday with his fiance and her son to celebrate the son's 18th birthday. At the end of the day, they headed back to the waterpark lockers, and Santos went missing. His fiance thought he was getting cigarettes but he was gone for hours. There were several calls to Lehigh County 911 about a man interfering with traffic and reportedly jumping on cars. Police arrived about 5:45 p.m. A video posted on Facebook shows Santos approaching the police car, then backing away. The officer yells repeatedly for Santos to get on the ground but Santos is seen walking casually up to the officer, who has parked by the side of the road. The officer, who continues to yell at Santos to get on the ground, fires five shots and Santos drops forward to the ground. Soon after he's shot, a second officer begins CPR. An ambulance arrives a few minutes later and he is rushed to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township. Santos was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. No weapons are seen on Santos in the video. Witnesses also said Santos wasn't armed. "Our communities entrust law enforcement officers with the power to use lethal force in fulfilling their responsibility to 'serve and protect' under the law," said John Paul Marosy, a leader with the human-rights group POWER Lehigh Valley, in prepared statements sent ahead of the rally. "Yet, we have seen time and time again, instances of police officers using disproportionate force in confronting young men of color, commonly shooting and killing them for minor alleged offenses. This pattern of police behavior represents an ugly manifestation of the racism that pervades our social institutions. "The behavior of a police officer does not take place in a social vacuum," Marosy continued. "A police officer is an extension of the values of the wider community." Marosy compared Santos' death to another incident July 19 in Easton. There, 27-year-old Jeffrey Folkner, who is white, was taken into custody after an overnight standoff in which he allegedly attacked officers: He threw Molotov cocktails, hitting a police cruiser and starting a fire, according to police; he fired a shotgun through a window, and Folkner later came out of the house with a 16-inch machete. Folkner was subdued with a stun gun and arrested on 14 charges, including attempted homicide. Officials on Wednesday also called for Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin to turn the ongoing investigation over to the state attorney general. The speeches included passionate stories and tears from Santos' family. More than an hour after the assembly began, they began their walk up the road to the spot Santos was shot. Their path took them by a small counter-protest, comprising fewer than 10 people, who stood on a nearby corner. The march appeared to proceed without incident. On the way, they continued to chant: "His name was Joey Santos." Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Pike County man died Wednesday evening in a crash in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania State Police report. Ricky Nelson Marlatt Sr., 58, of Bushkill, was driving south at 7:04 p.m. in the 8200 block of North Delaware Drive (Route 611) when the vehicle left the right side of the road and hit a pole, state police at Belfast said. Responders found Marlatt dead in the vehicle, police said Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek said Marlatt died from multiple blunt force trauma. The death was ruled accidental, Lysek said. A friend said Marlatt used to live in Easton. Troopers were assisted at the scene by the township fire department and the coroner's office. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Two men were breaking into ATMs about 3 a.m. Thursday at the Land of Make Believe in Hope Township when New Jersey State Police arrived, a trooper said. Jose Torres, 29, of Reading, was arrested almost immediately and eventually taken to Morristown Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, Trooper Alejandro Goez said. Torres remained in state police custody Thursday afternoon and charges were pending, the trooper said. But the second man ran off then drove away, followed by a trooper, according to Goez, a state police spokesman. The suspect headed south in a white Dodge SUV with a Pennsylvania license plate on Route 519, initially about 40 mph but that quickly accelerating to 58 mph, according to Broadcastify recordings of the dispatches reviewed by lehighvalleylive.com. His headlights were off, one dispatch said. The trooper was regularly reporting in, each time saying the road was clear and there was no traffic, something Goez said is standard procedure in such a pursuit. It's not clear the same trooper was involved in the pursuit the entire way. While Phillipsburg and Greenwich Township police were being alerted -- Greenwich had spike strips, but Goez said they weren't deployed -- the driver passed through the blinking light at Brass Castle Road at 70 mph, dispatches say. When he went by Mackey's Orchards, he was going 80, a recording says. The next dispatch had him at 92 mph, and at mile post 32 the speed was 110, the pursuing trooper reported. Two miles later the man was still going 100, according to the recordings. The man went onto Belvidere Road and passed Raub Lane at 85 mph in Lopatcong Township, recordings show. He then was driving 50 mph on Roseberry Street in Phillipsburg and next was heading west on Route 22 when he got off at the South Main Street exit, dispatches say. Town police were just behind state police on this stretch, dispatches say. The SUV made a left onto Main and was making a right onto the free bridge about 3:40 a.m. when the driver crashed into another vehicle in Union Square, but kept going over the bridge into Easton and made a right onto Larry Holmes Drive, dispatches and an official said. Easton police and Pennsylvania State Police were to be notified, dispatches say, and New Jersey troopers cut off the pursuit, Goez said. The broadcasts show an Easton officer contacts Northampton County dispatch at 3:41 a.m. and asks if "PSP is involved in some kind of incident now? They just flew through the city." The dispatcher says the incident "just popped up" on her screen and she then details a bit of the pursuit when the officer comes back on and says, "They're probably in Palmer or Wilson. They're moving." City police, who cover Route 22 with Easton, and state police at Belfast, who patrol the bridge, couldn't immediately provide details Thursday. The call remained open for 30 minutes, records show. Palmer and Wilson Borough police, which cover Route 22 west of Easton, didn't get called upon, officials said. Phillipsburg police did not immediately respond to a request for information. Pennsylvania State Police at Bethlehem, who cover Route 22 west of Route 33, said they had no record of a pursuit on Thursday for that barracks, or for troopers from Fogelsville or Belfast. It wasn't immediately clear where the man drove next. The investigation is continuing, Goez said. Police were not immediately releasing the fleeing suspect's identity. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Emergency responders from New Jersey and Pennsylvania were searching the Delaware River for a missing canoeist Thursday afternoon, authorities said. Responders were first called about 12:30 p.m. for a capsized boat in the river near Simpson Road in Knowlton Township, according to a dispatch log from the Warren County Department of Public Safety. The Knowlton Township Fire and Rescue Co. No. 1 reports three people had been in the capsized canoe with no life vests. Two of the boaters were found safe on the Portland side of the river in Northampton County, but the search was continuing for one male occupant of the canoe, the fire company said on its Facebook page. The missing boater was last seen in the area of the railroad viaduct spanning the river. "Search efforts are currently being hampered due to thunderstorm activity in the area," the fire company posted. Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast were among those agencies responding, but troopers were not immediately releasing information on the search. New Jersey State Police were assisting, but deferred to their Pennsylvania counterparts for details. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Expect the unexpected, magical performances from friends old and new, songs for the head and the heart This September, Other Voices will return to the heart of Electric Picnics woodland area for three days of music. In keeping with the ethos of Other Voices, festival-goers can expect memorable, intimate, engaging performances from Irish and international artists. Picture a multi-dimensional musical spectrum that will fill you with delight and inspiration. The Other Voices stage will be presented by Huw Stephens (BBC 1) and May Kay. Check out the legends who are joining us at @EPfestival this year! We're counting down the days now. See you all in a few weeks #EP2018 pic.twitter.com/tfMX1xx79D Other Voices (@OtherVoicesLive) August 2, 2018 Full line-up below: DAVID KITT | SOAK | DAVID KEENAN | GWENNO | SEAMUS FOGARTY STELLA DONNELLY | THE LOST BROTHERS | KORMAC: EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE WHENYOUNG | COLUMBIA MILLS | BOOKA BRASS THE MURDER CAPITAL | DOWRY | HALO MAUD DAVID KEENAN is a 23 year old Irish songwriter. An obsession with words and melody took hold of David at a very early age. Exposed to the writings of Behan, Yeats and Wilde with the soundtrack of Dylan, Buckley and The Dubliners illuminating his formative years. David has played alongside the likes of Mick Flannery, Hothouse Flowers, Damien Dempsey and Glen Hansard and is fast becoming one of Ireland's most talked about young artists. SEAMUS FOGARTY grew up in Co. Mayo in the west of Ireland and spent his early years writing songs about mountains that steal t-shirts, women who look like dinosaurs and various other unfortunate incidents. In 2017, he released his second album The Curious Hand which received a 5-star review in The Guardian, alongside great reviews in Mojo, Q, Uncut, Irish Times and Hot Press amongst others. Seamus will be bringing his unique sound home to Mayo for Other Voices Ballina in September but first we get a taste of him here at Electric Picnic INHALER formed in 2016 when all four members, Ryan McMahon (drums), Josh Jenkinson (lead guitar), Robert Keating (bass) and Elijah Hewson (vocals/guitar) were still in Transition Year. Playing original material inspired by the likes of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, they played their first gig in the Grand Social in Dublin, and have moved on to play other venues in the area such as the Workmans Club and the Button Factory a number of times. Their first single 'I Want You' was released in January of 2017 and a B-side 'She's my girl?' (Demo) was released following the single being uploaded onto streaming platforms. After a slightly dodgy encounter with the Leaving Certificate, 'The Inhalers' have planned a number of gigs for the coming months and are in the process of recording more music to be released very soon. HALO MAUD is the creation of Paris based Maud Nadal. Halo Maud writes and records songs that combine dream-pop sensibility and swirling-synth psychedelia, while singing in both English and French. Maud brings her unique style to Other Voices Electric Picnic for her debut performance in Ireland hot on the heels of the release of her debut album Je Suis Une Ile. THE LOST BROTHERS (Oisin Leech from Navan and Mark McCausland from Omagh) have been on a non-stop world tour, taking in sold-out theatre shows in Ireland and the UK, a stint in America, and their first Australian tour. Their new album Halfway Towards A Healing was recorded between Sligo and Tucson Arizona. We are delighted that they will now travel to Electric Picnic to make their Live debut on the Other Voices stage COLUMBIA MILLS describe themselves as "Joy Division playing the Grand Ole Opry". Their live performances are emotionally charged and the combination of live instruments and electronic elements make for an all-encompassing show. Columbia Mills joined us on the Music Trail in Dingle in 2017 and now its their time to take to join us in the woods in Stradbally. KORMAC: EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE is a brand new show by leading Irish producer, DJ and composer, Kormac with The Irish Chamber Orchestra and an array of special guests. Kormac debuted the show in March 2018 to a sold out Vicar Street with show visuals designed by leading Irish artist, Maser. It was the closing show of the St. Patricks Day Festival and it will close the Other Voices stage for us this year at Electric Picnic. PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED ARTISTS - We are delighted to announce that SOAK will make her long-awaited return to Other Voices at Electric Picnic 2018. SOAK [Rough Trade] is one of the most fascinating artists to emerge from Northern Ireland in recent years. Her debut record Before We Forgot How to Dream was described as a vivid portrait of teenage deep-thinking' by The Guardian and was awarded the Choice Music Prize Album of the Year award when SOAK was just 19. SOAK will perform music from her highly anticipated forthcoming record at Other Voices stage, tucked away in the Stradbally Woods. Welsh artist GWENNO will join us for her debut Other Voices performance. Her first record Y Dydd Olaf (The Final Day), was a concept album based on Welsh writer Owain Owains 1976 sci-fi novel of the same name, in which robots take over the human race. It was described as one of the best British debuts of 2015 by Pitchfork. Her most recent release Le Kov (The Place of Memory) is a beautiful and stirring record, swirling with ancient myths and urgent modern thems, recorded in Cornish. STELLA DONNELLY will join us at Electric Picnic all the way from Australia. Stellas brutally honest and witty observations of people and relationships are transformed into blissful poems and lyrical punch lines on her standout debut EP Thrush Metal. Donnellys relatable way of writing is her lens to the world in which we live, a glimpse into what its like to be a millennial woman in the age of Trump, Tinder and third wave feminism. WHENYOUNG are Aoife Power, Niall Burns and Andrew Flood. Their story started in Limerick, when the three teenagers met for the first time after sneaking into Costellos Tavern: the only bar in town that floated their musical tastes. After bonding over The Velvet Underground, they began playing music together and moved to Dublin. Developing their sound, still with a DIY approach, the band moved to London in 2017 and became whenyoung. DOWRY is the recent solo project of artist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Ena Brennan. Since moving to Dublin from Brussels nearly 10 years ago she has obtained an MPhil in Composition from Trinity College Dublin and collaborated with a vast array of artists, be it as a composer, arranger or violinist, weaving in between many layers of the Irish music scene. Only a year into her solo project she already has a long list of gigs to her name including performances at Electric Picnic and Sounds From A Safe Harbour, and she has been noted as one to watch in 2018 by The Thin Air, State.ie and Whelans. Over the last few years musical guests at Other Voices Electric Picnic have included Hozier, Villagers, St. Vincent, Julia Jacklin, Annie Mac, The Staves, Glen Hansard, East India Youth and many, many more. Well have several very special guest slots at Electric Picnic 2018 which will be revealed during the festival. Keep an eye out! Other Voices (www.othervoices.ie) started as a one-off music event in a small Dingle church and over the last 14 years the idea has grown. Other Voices is now an established fixture in the musical calendar - a must attend event for performers and audiences alike. It has led to the creation of an international music TV series and the filming of that series subsequently became a music festival, a tourism event in its own right that celebrates the local on a global scale. While the stellar quality of the music at Other Voices continues to reach ever higher levels, it is a constantly evolving and innovating force in the world of music events and cultural tourism, constantly exploring and experimenting multi-dimensionally across content programming, event formats and distribution channels. MORE: BIG Electric Picnic announcement expected THIS WEEK. A Laois teenager joined 250 other young people from India, the USA and Ireland in Kildare this week for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference. Chloe Kerry from Portlaoise attended the conference in Maynooth which brought together teenagers to empower them to become leaders in their own lives. Former professional Irish rugby star Paul O'Connell gave a talk to the young people on Wednesday, as part of the Aldi guest lecture series, where he highlighted the importance of staying positive. Speaking at the conference, O'Connell inspired young people to work hard. God given talent is a myth, successful people work harder and smarter and thats how they achieve their goals. Its really important to keep positive. Dont let anyone say you cant do something. You have the capacity to work, train and do anything you put your mind to. It doesnt matter what it is, stay the course and be the person you want to be," he said. Sean Campbell is the CEO of Foroige. These young people have come to this conference because someone in their lives saw their potential to lead, grow, develop and influence, whether that was a parent, Foroige youth worker, or teacher. Amongst other things, these teens will learn about resilience and perseverance this week, and further develop their ability to believe in themselves. Its more important than ever for these young people to realise that leadership is not about ego or personal advancement, its about showing the way and inspiring those around you to be the best that they can be. The conference offers these young people the fantastic opportunity of exploring their own unique set of leadership skills, whilst encouraging them to believe in their own ability to make real and powerful positive change in the world. The 250 delegates, aged 15 to 18, will graduated on Friday morning, August 3, having completed various stages of the leadership programme. As part of the week-long conference, the delegates also met inspirational guest speakers Louise Foody, Director of Digital & Brand at Kingspan Group and Maria Walsh, former Rose of Tralee, entrepreneur, and broadcaster The Foroige Leadership for Life Programme was developed in Ireland in 2009 and is open to young adults aged 15-18. Delegates attending have been nominated by youth workers and volunteer leaders from their own countries because they have demonstrated an innate sense of justice, determination, passion and ability to lead and make positive changes in their own communities. The programme includes lectures by a host of inspirational speakers, workshops on team building, critical thinking and communication skills and peer discussions on matters of global importance. Young people were also be challenged to understand their own values and prejudices. Participants are encouraged to go beyond their own personal comfort zones and perceived capabilities to be better than they thought they could be. Concerns have been raised over the closure of Moone and Donadea Post Offices. Kildare South cllr Martin Miley said it devastating news for two Kildare communities and the far stretching hinterland as An Post announces plans to shut down post offices in Moone and Donadea. "Thinking about the wider community, particularly the elderly in Moone, who use this post office and a constant basis. I would like to thank Tom and Bernie Wall for the service they have delivered in the community. I know they are devastated with the news also," he said. Deputy Fiona OLoughlin, TD said she is deeply concerned over yet another closure of a rural post office in Kildare. Deputy Fiona OLoughlin stated that Our Post Office network must be valued for the role it plays in Irish life and the essential service it provides. The services are vital to rural towns and to people living in rural areas. While these closures across the country are being made in consultation with the owners, this is yet again a major blow to rural communities. People living in the Moone area will now have to travel to Ballitore to their closest post office and means that Moone have lost another service to the area. There are 28 post offices left open in Kildare. 179 new .ie domains were registered in Leitrim in the first half of 2018 (1 January30 June), according to the latest Domain Profile Report published today by the IE Domain Registry, the company that manages and maintains Irelands official country domain name, .ie. The figure is a 113% year-on-year increase, the highest increase of any county in Ireland. Overall new .ie domain registrations in Connacht in H1 2018 numbered 2,364, a 39% year-on-year increase. Nationally, .ie domain registrations grew by 39% year-on-year to 28,126, bringing the total .ie domain database to 252,222 at the end of H1 2018. The majority (62.5%), of new .ie domains were registered by businesses (including corporate bodies and sole traders). Read: Collapse of National Broadband Plan In total, 154 .ie domains were registered every day in 2018, with increases in 31 of the 32 counties of Ireland. Commenting, David Curtin, Chief Executive of IE Domain Registry, said, Virtually every county in Ireland recorded an increase in .ie domain registrations in the first half of 2018. The increase in registrations in Leitrim and in Connacht during this period is good news, as increased online activity among businesses is a leading indicator of Irelands broader economic growth. In particular, the growth of .ie in regional parts of Ireland is a fantastic example of how the internet can help businesses in less infrastructurally developed counties overcome traditional barriers to growth, such as a smaller customer base or slower road and rail links. Part of IE Domain Registrys overarching mission is to ensure that Irelands small businesses are taking full advantage of the internet economy by getting online, connecting with their customers, and selling to them. We are confident that continued innovation within the .ie namespace, and ongoing digital advocacy for e-commerce, will have positive, long-term results for Irelands SMEs. Mr Curtin said that a significant part of .ies growth in the last six months is a result of IE Domain Registrys new liberalisation policy. The policy, implemented in March after extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and the general public, makes it easier and faster to register a .ie domain. This change is timely as businesses are moving away from generic, anonymous email addresses, like eircom.net orgmail.com. Liberalisation has resulted in a streamlined registration process. While applicants are still required to prove their connection to Ireland, they can now register their preferred name on a first-come, first-served basis. For new business start-ups and small-scale enterprises, liberalisation has removed an administrative obstacle to .ie domain registration. Businesses, organisations and community groups across the island of Ireland recognise the unique power and benefit of .ies identifiably Irish brand for their websites and email addresses. For an SME, a .ie online address signals to local customers that they are local and trustworthy. To international customers, .ie is an authentic and protected marker of Irishness. Also read: Leitrim Jobs Alert: Advertising Sales Executives required Five young people from Leitrim - Grainne Reynolds, Killian Quinn, Darragh Mc Cann, John Heslin, & Saoirse Lynch - joined 250 other teenagers from India, the USA and Ireland in Kildare this week for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference. The conference, takes place throughout this week on the grounds of NUI Maynooth, and brings together teenagers to empower them to become leaders in their own lives. Paul OConnell gave a talk to the young people yesterday, as part of the Aldi guest lecture series, where he highlighted the importance of staying positive. Paul OConnell, Aldi Play Rugby Ambassador said, "God given talent is a myth, successful people work harder and smarter and thats how they achieve their goals. Its really important to keep positive. Dont let anyone say you cant do something. You have the capacity to work, train and do anything you put your mind to. It doesnt matter what it is, stay the course and be the person you want to be." Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, said, These young people have come to this conference because someone in their lives saw their potential to lead, grow, develop and influence, whether that was a parent, Foroige youth worker, or teacher. Amongst other things, these teens will learn about resilience and perseverance this week, and further develop their ability to believe in themselves. Its more important than ever for these young people to realise that leadership is not about ego or personal advancement, its about showing the way and inspiring those around you to be the best that they can be. The conference offers these young people the fantastic opportunity of exploring their own unique set of leadership skills, whilst encouraging them to believe in their own ability to make real and powerful positive change in the world. The 250 delegates, aged 15 to 18, will graduate on Friday morning (August 3rd) having completed various stages of the leadership programme. As part of the week-long conference, the delegates also met inspirational guest speakers Louise Foody, Director of Digital & Brand at Kingspan Group and Maria Walsh, former Rose of Tralee, entrepreneur, and broadcaster. Read Also: 179 new .ie domains registered in Leitrim this year A YOUNG man who broke into several commercial and industrial premises on the outskirts of the city has been jailed for four years. Gerard ONeill, aged 23, of New Crescent Halting Site, Childers Road, had earlier pleaded guilty to multiple charges relating to the theft of property worth more than 12,000. Detective Garda Neil OGorman told Limerick Circuit Court all of the offences occurred on dates between January and April 2016. He said a specific garda operation was put in place after gardai became concerned about a series of burglaries which had occurred at industrial premises in the Ballysimon area. A modus operandi and a pattern were identified and ONeill soon emerged as a suspect. During a sentencing hearing, Judge Tom ODonnell was told that one premises at Garryglass Industrial Estate Indespension Trailers was targeted several times by the defendant who was described as a recidivist. None of the stolen property was ever recovered and compensation has not been paid for the damage that was caused. Yvonne Quinn BL said her client told gardai he was stoned off his head when he committed the offences and that there are mental health issues in the background. Judge ODonnell said the planned and pre-meditated nature of the offences was a concern but he noted ONeills guilty plea saying it was pivotal. The sentenced were back-dated to reflect the defendants time in custody. A STAG party weekend turned into a fiasco for a group of West Limerick men who have been left waiting four days to get home. The groom-to-be Brian Geary from Kilmeedy and nine pals including his brother John, set off in high spirits for Newcastle early last Friday. They were due to return home via Dublin on Sunday morning. But by last night, they were still stuck in Newcastle waiting for a 10.30pm flight. It has been a draining experience, Brian, who is due to get married on September 1, told the Limerick Leader this Wednesday as he catalogued the waiting shambles they found themselves in. The plan, he explained was to come back on the Sunday morning flight but shortly after 6am they got a text saying their flight was cancelled. We were told the next flight available was Tuesday night at 10.30pm, Brian continued. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth. We asked them (Ryanair) could they send us from Manchester or Edinburgh but it was no all the way. They asked for flights on other airlines but were not offered any. They even offered to split the group if it would make things easier. Instead, they were offered a hotel for Sunday and Monday night, an hotel which they said was of poor standard. On Tuesday morning, they had to check out early from the hotel and spent the day waiting at the airport. But by 5pm, hope fell through the floor yet again. We got a message that our second flight was cancelled. The ten men found themselves back in a different hotel on Tuesday night with money running out and emotions drained. Ryanair, they are now convinced, did not fulfil its obligations to them once their flight had been cancelled. They were, they feel, entitled to be offered rerouting alternatives. Ryanair blamed Sundays cancellation on the knock-on effect of thunderstorms in the UK coupled with Air Traffic Control staff shortages. Tuesdays cancellation was due to continuing weather disruptions in the UK and air traffic restrictions. The men, they say, were advised of their options of a refund or free move to the next available flight and to keep their receipts. HELICOPTER crews which helped to quench a gorse fire on Knockfierna Hill last week enjoyed the spectacular sight of Adare Manor from above while collecting water there. The helicopter wing of the Defence Forces made sure to take photographs of the view, later posting them to social media. The unit was called on to help the local fire service, who worked overnight last Wednesday into Thursday morning. Chairman of the Knockfierna heritage group that aims to preserve and enhance the history of the hill and surrounding areas Pat ODonovan, complimented the fire service for their dedication throughout the night. We are disappointed that it has taken place, and its disappointing for the walkers who use the hill, he said. But I must compliment the fire brigades they kept it within one area and crucially stopped it from spreading too much. The Rambling House was in danger there but they kept it away from that and other facilities around. Its still quite smoky," he said. Officer Commanding the Helicopter Wing of the Irish Air Corps, Phil Bonner, tweeted about the mission along with the above picture from the skies. Thanks to the staff of @TheAdareManor who allowed #3ops to lift water from their grounds to fight a local wild fire in support of @LimerickFire today. Our water sources are rarely as picturesque! pic.twitter.com/ig71E34wnd OC No.3 Ops Wing (@OC3OPS) July 26, 2018 Thanks to the staff of @TheAdareManor who allowed #3ops to lift water from their grounds to fight a local wild fire in support of @LimerickFire today. Our water sources are rarely as picturesque! Limerick Fire Service responded: Thanks for your assistance, great work as always! THE Mayor of Limerick, Cllr James Collins said he hopes the opportunity to create over 100 new broadband jobs in Plassey has not been lost. It comes after it emerged that energy company SSE had pulled out of the consortium to deliver the National Broadband Plan with E/Net, which has its headquarters in the National Technology park. The Limerick Leader revealed in May that the chairman of E/Net, David McCourt, was seeking to almost double the size of his 100-strong headcount in Limerick if his consortium got the green light to deliver broadband nationwide. Now, the future of the scheme is unclear, with the exit from the consortium of SSE, which was the final bid standing, following the withdrawal of several other key players. While Mr McCourt was not available for comment this Tuesday, the firm said it is considering and reviewing structures. Speaking to Leader Business, Mayor Collins said: The whole implementation of the National Broadband Plan has been a bit of a shambles. Its doubly unfortunate for Limerick given that it is a Limerick consortium which was the last involved in the tender process. Youd hope the opportunity of additional jobs has not been lost, said Mayor Collins. E/Net has created the largest alternative telecoms network in Ireland and manages and operates the fibre broadband scheme. Mr McCourt had previously said he would like to see 100 new roles put in place within 18 to 24 months of the firm getting permission. He said he would like to hire engineers, operations staff, customer service workers and accounting staff. Mayor Collins added he finds it strange that Ireland is home to so many high-tech companies, yet the national broadband network is insufficient for the needs of the nation. There are a lot of people who would like to live in their own communities and be able to work from home a couple of days a week. But you have companies which have to drive to business centres to send emails or make submissions to tenders. Its really been mismanaged by government, the mayor added. THE ten young men who found themselves stranded and waiting for a flight for four days have finally made it home from the stag party that turned into a fiasco. The groom-to-be Brian Geary from Kilmeedy and nine pals including his brother, finally made it back to West Limerick at 4am this Thursday morning. They had planned to be home in time for lunch last Sunday but a series of Ryanair cancellations put paid to that and instead they had an unexpected and unwelcome four-day break in Newcastle-on-Tyne. They arrived back, drained and weary, and facing difficult explanations to employers. It was all so different from when they set off in high spirits for Newcastle-on-Tyne in north east England early last Friday. They were due to return home via Dublin on Sunday morning. But by last night, they were still stuck in Newcastle waiting for a 10.30pm flight. It has been a draining experience, Brian, who is due to get married on September 1, told the Limerick Leader on Wednesday as he catalogued the days spent waiting for a flight home. The plan was to come back on Sunday on a flight out at 8.45am, he explained. But shortly after 6am, they got a text saying their flight was cancelled. We were told the next flight available was Tuesday night at 10.30pm, Brian continued. It was a bit of a kick We asked them (Ryanair) could they send us from Manchester or Edinburgh but it was no all the way. They asked for flights on other airlines but were not offered any. They even offered to split the group if it would make things easier. Instead, they were offered a hotel for Sunday and Monday night, an hotel which they said was of poor standard. On Tuesday morning, they had to check out early from the hotel and spent the day waiting at the airport. But by 5pm, hope fell through the floor yet again. We got a message that our second flight was cancelled. The ten men found themselves back in a different hotel on Tuesday night with money running out and not entirely sure they would get away on the Wednesday flight. Their big fear was if Wednesdays flight was cancelled they could find themselves stuck in Newcastle until Sunday. Three of us are dads, Brian explained. And one mans son is going to be two on Sunday. Ryanair, they are now convinced, did not fulfil its obligations to them once their flight had been cancelled. They were, they feel, entitled to be offered rerouting alternatives other than waiting three and then four days for a flight home. But Ryanair made to response to this when it was put to them. The company blamed Sundays cancellation on the knock-on effect of thunderstorms in the UK coupled with Air Traffic Control staff shortages. The Tuesday flight was cancelled due to continuing weather disruptions in the UK and again Air Traffic Control restrictions. They were advised of their options of a refund or free move to the next available flight. And they were advised to keep all receipted expenses. Following the decision of the Constitutional Court (CC), Georgia became the first and only country in the Caucasus to fully legalize marijuana. It is unlikely that any of the neighboring countries, including Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey will allow cannabis smoking. Although one of the high-ranking local officials in Armenia recently also expressed opinion that it would be good to abolish any punishment for "smoking weed". After months of consideration, the Georgian Constitutional Court lifted the last obstacle to the legal consumption of marijuana. From now on, it can be smoked without fear of being fined - the court considered that even a weak regulation of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provided for a fine of $200 dollars for smoking marijuana, is contrary to the Constitution. Last November, the same court decriminalized "soft drugs" use. However, experts say that it is wrong to separate narcotic substances into "hard" and "soft" ones - marijuana causes a number of severe nervous and mental diseases. It causes real drug addiction and soon people switch to using cocaine and heroin. The only difference is that the latter cause a painful affection from the second or even the first injection. Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court ruled that if a person smokes marijuana, he uses his sacred right to choose how to "relax," and concluded that restricting a person's right to smoke marijuana means violating his right to "free development". A reservation is made here: it refers to cases where a person "harms only his health," which is his right. But selling drugs (in any form), that is, "getting other people addicted" to it, is still a crime. In addition, smoking marijuana is prohibited in the presence of minors, as well as in schools, transport and public places. Deputies from the Georgian Dream ruling party were shocked by the decisions of the Constitutional Court. They intend to use the aforementioned restrictions to narrow the areal for marijuana lovers as much as possible. If the Constitutional Court prohibits smoking "weed" in crowded places, then the situation, usual for Amsterdam, when marijuana can be bought and used in an ordinary cafe, is impossible for Georgia. The former head of the State Chancellery, Petre Mamradze, told Vestnik Kavkaza that drug addiction, started with "weed consumption", killed entire generations of young people, broke hundreds of thousands of families, led to degradation and impoverishment, and worsened the crime situation." The Constitutional Court's verdict turned out to be such unacceptable for Georgian politicians that the apparently irreconcilable enemies - Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement, the European Georgia party and the Georgian Dream party - have teamed up. All three parliamentary factions unanimously stated that the decision of the Constitutional Court does not mean immediate licence to smoke marijuana: at first, the legislators will bring the legislation into line with the verdict of the court, rework the legal acts, amend the criminal code and the code of administrative violations. It will take months. But the problem is that, as the Georgian Dream MP Akaki Zoidze told journalists, the Constitutional Court's decision "took away a tool for combating drug addiction from the state." That is, any policeman can arrest a person for smoking or storing a dangerous potion, but the detainee's lawyers will immediately refer to the decision of the Constitutional Court, and the White Noise movement members, which advocates decriminalization and legalization of drugs, may start new mass protests in Georgian cities. They already held stormy actions in the spring after "anti-drug raids" in several city nightclubs. It is easy to imagine how much their arguments will strengthen after the decision of the country's highest court. Another aspect of the problem is the attitude of neighboring countries. Drug addiction, drug trafficking and drug distribution are considered a global disaster, but there is no slightest indication that those who took a fateful decision in Georgia were interested in the position of neighboring states on this issue. Earth, at left, shown with Kepler-452b, which receives the right amount of light to support life, new research suggests. Kepler-452b was the first exoplanet that scientists identified as being approximately Earth size and in the habitable zone of its star. With every new exoplanet discovered, the same question arises: Could this world host life? The default way scientists first approach that question is to check if the planet lies in the so-called habitable zone, the range of distances from a star in which a planet can hold liquid water on its surface. But water alone doesn't make life, so in a new paper, a team of scientists looked at another aspect of habitability: whether a planet receives enough ultraviolet radiation to create life's building blocks. "The thing that you know best about any exoplanet system is the star," Paul Rimmer, lead author on the new study and an astrochemist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, told Space.com. "So, that seemed like a natural thing to start with." [9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why We Haven't Found Aliens Yet] Building life in the lab Most scientists think that life began with ribonucleic acid (RNA). Like DNA, this molecule can transmit information, but unlike DNA, it can also help other molecules react with each other, potentially allowing RNA to replicate itself. But getting that RNA in the first place is tricky. This feat is so tricky, in fact, that the problem of creating RNA has haunted chemists interested in the origins of life for almost half a century, Sukrit Ranjan, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Space.com. Ranjan has collaborated with the researchers in the recent study but was not involved in the new work. He said that scientists know how to create each of the three building blocks that make up a molecule of RNA. In previous work, chemists have also figured out how to piece those building blocks together into two of the four flavors of RNA by focusing on a specific tricky chemical bond first. "The thing that jumped out to planetary scientists was that this mechanism requires UV [ultraviolet] light to function," Ranjan said. So, Rimmer asked questions like what type of lights the chemists were using in their experiments and how closely those setups mimic the light produced by stars. For the new paper, Rimmer and his colleagues watched that mechanism work on two different chemical mixes meant to imitate a sulfur-rich young world and under a range of ultraviolet conditions. Those experiments let them calculate a minimum amount of ultraviolet light required for RNA formation. This was Rimmer's first time doing formal chemistry lab research, and he said he appreciated taking the new approach. "I really enjoyed that aspect, because I think that experimentation is really the way that you can ground yourself in reality," he said. "It's like observation. It's something that you can very much see." Others may not be so convinced by the new experiments: Frances Westall, an astrobiologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France who was not involved with the study, called the paper more of an "interesting thought experiment" in an email to Space.com. She said she's particularly concerned that one of the two initial sulfur mixes the team used didn't create RNA under Earth-like conditions and, after all, we're positive life started here somehow. "One of my problems with many prebiotic chemistry experiments run by chemists is that they do not consider what the early Earth really was like," she wrote, mentioning that the team used what she considers an outdated recipe of gases to represent our planet's early atmosphere. "[Chemists] use spurious concepts simply because they can get good results under certain physicochemical conditions," Westall wrote. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens] Bringing it to the stars Once Rimmer and his colleagues had that minimum requirement for ultraviolet light, they pored over exoplanets, selecting which worlds to include in their analysis. The researchers wanted planets that scientists are confident are rocky and so focused on planets less than 1.4 Earth radiuses in size. The scientists also wanted planets that previous studies had shown were the right distances from their sun to be able to hold liquid water on their surfaces. Those criteria narrowed the study's focus down to a dozen exoplanets, a list that includes some of the most astrobiologically intriguing worlds we know of, like TRAPPIST-1e, f and g Kepler-452b; and LHS 1140b. (The team eliminated another popular contender, Proxima b, because astronomers don't have a firm enough measure of that world's size.) Then, they turned to ultraviolet radiation, calculating how much light these planets receive from their stars today. That left just one firm contender, Kepler-452b, which was discovered in 2015 and which NASA billed at the time as "the first near-Earth-size planet [identified] in the 'habitable zone' around a sun-like star." Similar calculations for yet-to-be discovered planets could help scientists prioritize where they look for life, Rimmer said. That could be particularly helpful given how expensive the necessary observations of these planets' atmospheres will be once such work is even technologically possible. These measures will happen via instruments like the long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope. "You want to make sure you're looking at the places where you have the best chances," he said. That said, the team's ultraviolet radiation calculations are not the last word on habitability. Their analyses leave out two key factors: the impact of solar flares, which can cause dramatic fluctuations in the ultraviolet radiation the star releases, and the changes a star undergoes as it ages, becoming calmer and less active. The second factor could be particularly important, Rimmer said. That's because, right now, astronomers' best bet for finding exoplanets where they can identify life is to search around small, faint M dwarf stars which currently produce much less light than they did when they were younger. That means that while these stars may not currently foster the conditions RNA needs to form, they may have done so long ago. And life that arose in the past could still be hiding out on the surface of planets surrounding these stars. Rimmer already has plans to build on the new research: He said he wants to use xenon lamps, which more closely mimic the ultraviolet light coming from stars, providing better estimates of where RNA formation can occur. The research is described in a paper published today (Aug. 1) in the journal Science Advances. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. In a "horrific accident," a woman in Washington died from exposure to dry ice fumes, according to news reports. The 77-year-old woman was found unresponsive in a car with several containers of dry ice on July 27, according to local news outlet KOMO. The car belonged to the woman's son, an ice cream salesman, who kept four coolers of dry ice in the back of the vehicle. The man's wife had borrowed the car to give the woman, her mother-in-law, a ride home. But when the man found his wife and mother unconscious in the car, he called 911. The mother likely died of suffocation from the dry ice fumes, and the wife is in critical condition. "Somehow ... the fumes escaped from the coolers," said Ed Troyer, a spokesperson for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. "At this point, we're just looking at this as [a] horrific accident," Troyer told local news outlet The News Tribune. Dry ice is known for the eerie-looking vapor it produces, which is not usually dangerous. But in rare cases, it can be deadly. Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide and has a freezing point of minus 109 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 78 degrees Celsius). As dry ice melts, it undergoes a process called sublimation, in which the solid is converted directly into a gas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If dry ice is stored in an area without proper ventilation, it may cause people to inhale large amounts of the gas CO2, which displaces oxygen in the body, the CDC says. This, in turn, can lead to harmful effects, including headache, confusion, disorientation and death. Although rare, cases like this have happened before. In 2004, the CDC reported a case of a man who passed out while driving with several bags of dry ice in his car, which he bought to keep food cool in case of a power outage after Hurricane Ivan. The man's wife found him unconscious in the car, but he woke up when she opened the door. In the new case, officials said there were likely several things that went wrong to cause the woman's death. For instance, the ice cream salesman had recently bought a new car, which probably had better sealing and less ventilation, which trapped in the fumes, Troyer said. "It was a combination of things that went terribly wrong," Troyer told KOMO. Original article on Live Science. Iraqi southern crude oil exports in July surged to a record high of 3.543 million b/d, data from the oil ministry showed Wednesday, despite OPEC's second largest oil producer facing major protests near its key oil assets. S&P Global Platts reports in its article Iraqi southern July crude oil exports hit record high of 3.543 million b/d that exports in July were up 22,000 b/d from June as loadings from the Persian Gulf terminals beat the previous record of 3.535 million b/d set in December 2017, data showed. The rise occurred despite the continued suspension of loadings from the Khor Al-Amaya terminal due to sea line leaks and routine maintenance. The exports comprised 2.70 million b/d of Basrah Light crude and 843,000 b/d of Basrah Heavy, according to figures obtained from sources close to the State Oil Marketing Organization. Iraq oil output and exports have not been impacted by civil disturbances and violent demonstrations around some of the key oil fields such as Rumaila (1.5 million b/d), West Qurna 1 (500,000 b/d) and West Qurna 2 (380,000 b/d), all in Basra province, which currently account for 55% of federal Iraq production. The demonstrations are over jobs and basic services, with anger at the government directed at the oil industry of which Basra is by far the largest participating province. The ministry statement quoted spokesman Asim Jihad as saying the average provisional price during July was $69.16/b, a rise of 40 cents/b from the price in June while oil revenues totaled $7.6 billion last month. All of the federal exports were from Iraq's southern Persian Gulf oil terminals, with no shipments from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. A political dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government has prevented federal exports of some Kirkuk crude through the region's own pipeline to Turkey, while the federal pipeline to Turkey was destroyed by the self-styled Islamic State militant group in early 2014. Meanwhile, the KRG shipped 9.8 million barrels or 316,129 b/d in July compared to 9.5 million barrels or 316,666 b/d in June, according to reports obtained from sources at Ceyhan. and then they just disappeared. The Bermuda Triangle, a mysterious stretch of ocean between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the tip of Florida, has allegedly, throughout the years, swallowed a horde of unsuspecting ships, planes and people. Many tales have been told about the vanishings. Aliens captured the humans for research. Some geomagnetic storm confused the pilots' navigational systems. The lost continent of Atlantis sucked the vessels into its grasp with a mysterious, unidentified force. Better yet, strong vortexes slurped the victims straight into another dimension. But scientists throughout the years have pointed out that there are plausible explanations for the vanishings, and that the risks of traveling through the Bermuda Triangle are no different than other spots in the ocean. [Gallery: Lost in the Bermuda Triangle] New life has been breathed into one such theory: that the vessels could have easily been overcome by giant and unexpected rogue waves. This hypothesis isn't new, but a group of U.K. scientists recently discussed the evidence for freak waves and other theories (including the role of human error) in a three-episode documentary series "The Bermuda Triangle Enigma," produced by the BBC for Channel 5. "There is no doubt this area is prone to rogue waves," Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton and one of the scientists on the team, told Live Science. They are possible "anywhere you get multiple storms coming together." Rogue waves are steep and tall, like "walls of water," and they often hit unexpectedly, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The tip of South Africa, for example, is very prone to them, where waves from storms in the South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean all come together at once, Boxall said. Indeed, there were similar disappearances of big container vessels and tankers off the tip of South Africa throughout the years, he said. A map shows the location of the so-called Bermuda Triangle. (Image credit: Shutterstock) This also holds true for the Bermuda Triangle, where storms can come from all directions, like Mexico, the equator and farther east in the Atlantic. If each wave can reach over 30 feet (10 meters) tall, occasionally they can coincide at the right moment and create a rogue, or "freak," wave that can be over 100 feet (30 m) high. Engineers at the University of Southampton in England built some ship models, including one of the USS Cyclops, a vessel that vanished in the Bermuda Triangle in 1918 with over 300 people on board. They simulated rogue waves in a wave tank and found that, indeed, ships can sink quickly if hit by them. The bigger the ship, the bigger the difficulty staying afloat, they found. Small ships can get swamped by them, but sometimes they can ride the wave if they hit it bow-on, Boxall said. But big ships designed to be supported in the front by the top of one wave and in the back by the top of another snap in two. Gas bubbles, magnetic anomalieshumans being humans? People often talk about weird magnetic anomalies over the Bermuda Triangle, Boxall said. "There aren't any," he said. There are magnetic anomalies in the world that have to do with the Earth's mantle moving beneath the crust, but the nearest one is about 1,000 miles [1,600 km] south, off the coast of Brazil a long way away from the Bermuda Triangle, he said. Another theory has to do with pockets of explosive methane gas that could, due to some disturbance, float up toward the water's surface and cause the water to be less dense than the ship, leading the ship to sink. However, no experiment to date has been able to prove that this is possible, Boxall said. "Theoretically, it could be happening, but there are lots of places in the world where this can happen," not just in the Bermuda Triangle, Boxall said. Instead, he thinks the most common cause for the mysterious vanishings is human error. [The 20 Most Mysterious Shipwrecks Ever] The famous disappearance of Flight 19 five U.S. Navy aircraft that vanished during a training mission in 1945 that led one journalist in 1964 to give the area its current name, probably occurred because the crew got lost and ran out of fuel, Boxall said. About a third of all registered and privately owned ocean craft in the U.S. are in the states and islands of the Bermuda Triangle area, he said. And according to the most recent 2016 figures from the Coast Guard, 82 percent of incidents in this area that year involved people who had no formal training or experience of being at sea, he added. "So, you take a third of the entire boating population of the U.S., you dump them in the Bermuda Triangle," and what you get is mysterious vanishings, Boxall said. You don't need any licensing or specific equipment like radios or navigation maps to take a boat to sea, he added. "A number of times, working at sea, we've come across people who are navigating using a road map, who are relying on their mobile phones as their means of communication, discovering you get 30 miles offshore [and] you lose the signal," Boxall said. In addition, "environmental considerations could explain many, if not most, of the disappearances," NOAA wrote on its website. "The ocean has always been a mysterious place to humans, and when foul weather or poor navigation is involved, it can be a very deadly place." NOAA also says the area could be prone to accidents because of the Gulf Stream, a strong and fast ocean current that can cause "rapid, sometimes violent, changes in weather," and shallow waters around the Caribbean islands that can prove fatal for ships. "You can extend the Bermuda Triangle to ever bigger areaswhat you'll find is that the Bermuda Triangle covers the entire globe," Boxall said. "Rogue waves can hit lots of different places, methane bubbles can hit lots of different places, and wherever you get a high concentration of amateurs without any experience you're going to get a high concentration of mysterious disappearances." But, you know, maybe it is aliens capturing unsuspecting humans using vortexes that lead straight into their laboratories that they've set up in the lost city of Atlantis. Editor's Note: This article was updated on Aug. 3. The original map showing the Bermuda Triangle was incorrect. The so-called Bermuda Triangle is an area between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Originally published on Live Science A group of geese stare up into the sky during a hailstorm in this screenshot from a video posted to Twitter. Take a gander at these Canada geese staring up into the sky as hail pounds the pavement all around them. If you or I were to try this form of high-intensity storm watching, we'd likely walk away with bruises or a black eye. However, according to Jeremy Ross, a biologist and bird expert at the University of Oklahoma, this behavior has been spotted before in feathered creatures when hail is falling. And it probably helps them survive the storms, by presenting a smaller target for the falling ice, he said. What's more, "a few individuals seem to be actually reacting to individual hailstones," Ross told Live Science. "So not only are they looking up into the sky to reduce their profile, but perhaps when a hailstone was imminently going to hit them in the face, they dodge[d] it really quickly." [The Weirdest Things That Fell from the Sky] Naturalists and biologists have recorded birds of all sorts of species in all sorts of places staring defiantly into the sky during hailstorms. Ross said the first reference to the behavior that he's aware of was a description, published in 1919 by the naturalist Aldo Leopold, of a group of pintail ducks that "presented a very strange appearance" during a 1918 hailstorm along the Rio Grande south of Los Lunas, New Mexico. "Each bird was facing toward the storm, and each had his head and bill pointed almost vertically into the air," Leopold wrote. "I was puzzled for a moment as to the meaning of the unusual posture. Then it dawned on me what they were doing. In a normal position, the hailstones would have hurt their sensitive bills, but pointed up vertically, the bill presented a negligible surface from which hailstones would naturally be deflected. The correctness of this explanation was later proven by the fact that a normal position was resumed as soon as the hail changed into a slow rain." In the decades that followed, there have been occasional observations of other species exhibiting the same behavior. An article published in 1986 describes sightings of birds as varied as gulls and turkey vultures landing and pointing their beaks skyward during such storms. A December 2007 report published in the Kansas Ornithological Society Bulletin (titled "Hailstone Strike Reduction Behaviors in Southwest Kansas Birds" and not available online) documented a robin in Kansas that landed in the middle of a street and stared up into the sky as dime-size ice balls more than heavy enough to break its delicate wing bones or smash its beak clattered all around it. However, Ross said he'd never seen a video of the behavior until Twitter user @Blitzs_Dad captured this one in Toronto and posted it to Twitter. See more For birds as big as Canada geese, Ross said, the goal is probably to protect their sensitive heads and delicate beaks. But smaller birds risk severe damage to their wings as well when hail is falling. "After hailstorms, we do find reports of birds with broken wings, of course, but also broken bills, so there obviously are a few that are unlucky," he said. A broken wing is bad potentially deadly news for a bird, Ross said. But a shattered bill can be even worse. That's because a beak, covered in sensitive nerve endings, won't heal after a catastrophic injury, leaving birds unable to eat. Scientists aren't sure exactly how widespread the sky-staring behavior is, or whether it's primarily learned or instinctual, Ross said. There's some evidence that younger birds don't always stare into the sky during hail, he said, suggesting it's a technique they acquire with experience. But given how widespread the behavior is, there's likely a strong genetic component, possibly related to other instincts some birds have to stare up into the sky when a predator circles overhead, he added. Ross said that he hopes this video will put "citizen scientists" on the lookout for bird activity during hailstorms and that it will lead to more videos that will help scientists better understand the behavior. Editor's Note: This article was updated on Aug. 6 to correct the name of the geese. They are called Canada geese, not Canadian geese. Originally published on Live Science. Despite the efforts of more than 10,000 firefighters, Northern Californias four big wildfires are still growing and resisting containment and even forcing new evacuations. The evacuation area for the raging Mendocino Complex, which has burned more than 120,000 acres and consists of the Ranch Fire and River Fire, was enlarged by the Lake County Sheriffs Office and Cal Fire on Thursday. The River Fire, near Hopland, has consumed 41,278 acres and was about 50 percent contained by Thursday night, officials said. The Ranch Fire, outside Ukiah, has burned 83,890 acres and is 33 percent contained. Flames from the Mendocino Complex have destroyed 16 residences and 17 other buildings, and the two blazes are being fought by 3,069 firefighters. Early Thursday, the Lake County Sheriff Fire moved to clear everyone from Blue Lakes, Upper Lake, Nice, Lakeport, Witter Springs, Bachelor Valley, Scotts Valley, Saratoga Springs. Most of those areas had been ordered evacuated Saturday, but some residents were allowed to linger. Cal Fire expanded evacuations late Thursday to include areas throughout Lake County and the Mendocino National Forest. Meanwhile, the Carr Fire west of Redding and the Ferguson Fire outside Yosemite National Park continued to grow Thursday. Two firefighters were killed last month while battling the blaze near Yosemite. The Carr fire has claimed six lives, including those of two firefighters. Even as most evacuations in Redding were lifted, the Carr Fire continued to spread into rural and wilderness areas. The conflagration has destroyed 125,842 acres and is 35 percent contained. More than 4,200 firefighters are battling the inferno. So far, 1,060 homes, 18 commercial buildings and 477 other structures have been destroyed. Just west of Yosemite, some of the 3,344 firefighters battling the Ferguson blaze worked through the night to contain spot fires outside of Wawona, a small town inside the park that was evacuated Wednesday night. The historic community inside the parks southern boundary is home to the Big Trees Lodge, formerly the famed Wawona Hotel. The area features Park Service housing, a golf course, post office, library, two markets and private cabins. Along with the evacuation of Wawona, the Mariposa Grove and the southern entrance to the park on Highway 41 have been closed. The Ferguson Fire grew by 6,557 from Wednesday, reaching 69,440 acres by 6 p.m Thursday. Containment was at 41 percent Thursday night. The inferno has destroyed 10 structures, including nine abandoned houses found along a washed-out road. The numbers reflect newly discovered homes that burned prior to Wednesday, officials said. Damage assessment teams cant get out there until the fire is out, said Michelle Eidam, a Ferguson Fire spokeswoman. While Yosemite National Park remains open, its most popular areas Yosemite Valley, Wawona and the Mariposa Grove have been evacuated at the peak of the tourist season due to fire danger and unhealthy levels of smoke. The valley closure, which started July 25, has twice been extended and the area isnt expected to reopen until Sunday, air quality permitting. No estimate has been made for the reopening of the southern entrance, Wawona and Mariposa Grove. With the closure of the park entrances, only the Highway 120 entrance through Big Oak Flat remains open to Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass. Several popular camps have also closed as a result of the Ferguson Fire, including the San Francisco-operated Camp Mather, which announced it wont open until at least Aug. 12. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Shrimp cocktails. Shrimp poboys. Shrimp gumbo. Fried shrimp. All those dishes and more featuring Americas favorite shellfish will be available when Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant & Market opens its new River Walk location. The restaurant will open for business following a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 2. The Express-News got a sneak peek at the chains newest address Wednesday, located in the former home of Dicks Last Resort at 406 Navarro St. The Bubba Gump restaurant concept was inspired by a supporting character from the movie adaptation of Winston Grooms Forrest Gump. RELATED: San Antonio eatery named one of the 50 best southern restaurants in the country The new Bubba Gump location will be the fifth eatery from the Houston-based Landrys Inc. to open along the River Walk. Its preceded by Joes Crab Shack, Landrys Seafood House, Mortons The Steakhouse, Saltgrass Steak House and the Rainforest Cafe. Landrys also operates the city-owned Tower of the Americas and the is the owner of the Chart House restaurant that sits atop the landmark structure, and it is a partner in Go Rio San Antonio, which operates the barges found motoring up and down the San Antonio river. Paul Stephen is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen The number of migrant sea arrivals in populist Italy, so far in 2018, is down 80 percent compared to last year, whilst surging by over 350 percent in the same period in socialist Spain. Over 57,500 illegal migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, compared to 112,375 over the same period last year, the UN Migration Agency said in a paper Tuesday. Breitbart reports in its article Boat Migrants Down 80 Percent in Populist Italy, up 350 Percent in Socialist Spain that as the number of clandestine crossings fell, deaths in the Mediterranean Sea more than halved, falling from 2,240 to 1,111. The significant fall is likely to be partly thanks to Italys new, populist government, which is fighting to end illegal crossings and to protect their borders. There were just 18,392 migrants arriving in Italy so far this year, 80.6 percent less than the same period last year. However, Spain, which has a new socialist government, has become the new main arrival-by-sea country in the Mediterranean. More than 22,800 migrants have arrived there since the beginning of the year, with 1,866 since the 25th of July alone. This is approximately 16,345 more migrants than arrived in Spain in the same period in 2017 and represents a rise of more than 350 percent when the two periods, just one year apart, are compared. Meanwhile, there were 15,970 arrivals in Greece so far this year, compared to 10,783 in the first part of 2017 a rise of almost 50 percent. The Italian parliament was dissolved at the end of last year, with the country going to the polls in March, and a populist coalition government taking power in May. Perhaps the best-known member of the new government is hardliner Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League party, who has led the nation to immediately shut off illegal migration, closing ports to pro-migrant charity boats bringing thousands over from just off the African coast. In June, Mr Salvini revealed an immigration reform programme, including more repatriation centres for housing immigrants, reducing arrivals with stricter border control, and speeding up deportations. Spain, meanwhile, formed a new socialist government at the beginning of June after the previous conservative executive was engulfed in a corruption scandal, and quickly offeredto take the migrant boats turned away by Italy. We've seen Whataburger fans incorporate the brand into their weddings, prom dinners and other special occasions and one Texas girl has added to that list. Evelyn Lopez Terrazas of Natalia turned 15 on Nov. 12 and weeks before, she took photos ahead of her quinceanera festivities in her quince ball gown surrounded by Texas accents, including cowgirl boots and, of course, Whataburger. TRUE LOVE: Guy dances with a bag of Whataburger at his own wedding When Evelyn told her mom, Evelyn, that she wanted to incorporate the Texas burger chain into her quinceanera photo shoot, she admittedly didn't know what to do. "I had one of my friends make a big Whataburger sign for me with the 15 on the front," Evelyn told Chron.com over a phone interview. "We didn't think anything big would ever happen. She is in love with the brand and she wanted to do the photo shoot as a fun one." Following the shoot, the 15-year-old shared her photos on Twitter and it quickly took off with more than 1,500 retweets and 11,500 likes. "She told me that before this she had never gotten more than five likes on Twitter," Evelyn said. "Her friends were like, 'This is so awesome.' A lot of them are fans of Whataburger, too." WHATAPROM: Teens have the most Texans prom ever at Whataburger According to Evelyn, her friends at the high school call her the "Whata-model" now because of the photos. Furthermore, because of the popularity of the post, Whataburger has reached out to the family to send them some Whataburger swag. To see the photos of the Whataburger-themed photo shoot, go through the gallery above. Heather Leighton is a digital reporter at Chron.com. She considers herself as a Jack(ie) of all trades and covers various topics from entertainment to politics. You can read more of her stories here and follow her on Twitter at @loveheathernoel. Three men were arrested Tuesday night for allegedly leading Laredo police officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents on a pursuit in a marijuana-laden vehicle. Agents said LPD notified them they were in pursuit of a red 2006 Dodge Durango suspected of being loaded with narcotics. Blindspotting: One of the best films of the year so far, this story, about friends coping with an Oakland in transition, was written by its two stars, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, the film is a seamless mix of extreme humor and tense drama, an inspired work of intuition and artistry. Rated R. 95 minutes. Mick LaSalle The Cakemaker: This Israeli-German co-production is an impressive debut from director Ofir Raul Graizer. When a German bakers male lover is killed, he travels to Jerusalem and gets a job with the lovers wife, without telling her who he is. The story could have been melodramatic or sentimental, but in Graizers hands it is genuinely affecting. Not rated. 113 minutes. In German, Hebrew and English with English subtitles. Walter Addiego Eighth Grade: Bo Burnhams film about the struggles of an unpopular eighth-grade girl is one of the more thoughtful and valiant feature film directorial debuts in recent memory. Elsie Fisher is terrific in the lead role, adding compassion to a difficult part. Burnham takes viewers back to a place they would rather not go, and finds goodness without sacrificing accuracy. Rated R. 94 minutes. Peter Hartlaub Mission: Impossible Fallout: The latest and best installment of the series an astonishing mix of action and expert story construction finds Ethan Hunt and his crew looking for plutonium balls that have fallen into the hands of terrorists. Buckle up. This one never stops. Its what summer movies used to be, and should be. Rated PG-13. 147 minutes. Mick LaSalle After an astonishing 27 years at odds, in June, Macedonia and Greece reached a dramatic breakthrough in negotiations over what's known as the Macedonia naming dispute. The dispute was, yes, over the former Yugoslavian nation's name - but over much more as well, as we'll see below. And after all that time, the June agreement solved the dispute simply: by renaming Macedonia as the "Republic of North Macedonia." What was at stake here - and why did resolving it take nearly three decades? Examining the long and complicated process can teach us a few practical lessons about international mediation. - - - In 1991, Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia and wrote into its constitution that its name was the Republic of Macedonia. The new nation's southern neighbor, Greece, immediately opposed this, arguing that it implied territorial claims over Greece's northern region - also called Macedonia. That geographical claim has some history. Since the region was divided during the Ottoman Empire's dissolution, various partisans have attempted to reunite broader Macedonia, which includes the present-day nation, northern Greece and southwestern Bulgaria. But underlying this territorial dispute was one over which nation could claim the ancient Macedonian kingdom - birthplace and homeland of Alexander the Great - as its national heritage. For almost three decades, neither side would budge from its core demands. Greece demanded that "Macedonia" must not appear anywhere in the new nation's name and insisted that its constitution be changed to eliminate that word as well. Macedonia was willing to take a different name for international use but refused to change its constitution. At times, the standoff threatened the stability of the Balkans. In the 1990s, Greece blocked Macedonian attempts to join the United Nations and imposed an economic embargo. In 2008, Greece vetoed Macedonian membership in NATO, citing the stalemate over Macedonia's name. A year later, Greece blocked Macedonia's bid for EU membership. Twice, the countries relaxed tensions slightly, but without reaching a real solution. In 1993, Macedonia agreed to use the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in return for U.N. membership. And in 1995, in an interim agreement, Macedonia agreed to change its flag and confirmed that it had no territorial ambitions over the Greek province of Macedonia. In return, Greece promised not to block Macedonian attempts to join international organizations. But agreement over the name remained elusive - which blocked Macedonia's membership in the European Union and NATO, despite accession support from both these institutions. The European Union and NATO fear that leaving Macedonia out might bolster Russia, which has engaged in activities aimed at preventing Balkan countries from joining NATO and succumbing to Western influence. So how did Macedonia and Greece finally resolve the naming dispute? Three factors allowed Macedonia and Greece to finally reach a solution to their long-standing dispute: proper timing for negotiation, high-intensity negotiations and relaxation of core demands. Let's look at each of these. - 1. Timing of the negotiations In 2017, a new pro-Western government came to power in Macedonia. Led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the government was eager to move ahead with integrating into Europe and the Atlantic alliance - and quickly reopened negotiations with Greece, mediated by U.N. envoy Matthew Nimetz. By 2017, the conflict had reached what researchers call a "hurting stalemate": a situation in which all parties would gain more from solving the conflict than from continuing it. Macedonia wanted EU and NATO memberships, which were contingent upon reaching a deal with Greece. The Greek side wanted to capitalize on Zaev's willingness to amend the Macedonian constitution - a Greek demand that had been rejected by previous Skopje administrations. This made the timing for negotiations favorable, with both sides wanting the dispute over. - 2. Intensity of the negotiations With both sides motivated, the talks became intense - and productive. Greece and Macedonia reached several low points during the negotiations - but kept pushing for a solution. In May, Nimetz described the negotiations as "very serious, hard-working, and intense." - 3. Willingness to compromise on bottom-line demands Shortly after entering negotiations, Macedonia's prime minister stated that absolute demands "only serve as obstacles to finding a solution." Nimetz skillfully moved to relax the parties' bottom lines and emphasized clearly formulating what each side wanted in a solution. Greece wanted a name that clearly distinguished between the Greek region of Macedonia and the new country and asked for constitutional changes to guarantee the longevity of the new name. Macedonia sought a name that preserved a Macedonian identity, as well as guarantees that Greece would not block European Union or NATO membership. The final agreement satisfied these demands - but with significant concessions from both. First, the agreement distinguished the ancient Hellenic heritage linked to Alexander the Great from the Macedonian cultural identity - a huge concession by Macedonia, considering the history of claims to Alexander. Macedonia also agreed to adopt a new name qualified with the geographic identification "North," and to change its constitution to reflect the new name. Greece agreed to recognize the nation's right to use the Macedonian language and a Macedonian identity, overcoming previous refusals to do either. - - - Both nations now have to get their legislatures to ratify the agreement, which could be rocky. But the negotiated solution is already changing the European landscape. The European Union recommended starting accession talks with Macedonia to begin in 2019. NATO leaders officially invited Macedonia to join. If ratified, this agreement will not only end the unusual dispute between Macedonia and Greece, but will also serve as an important case study of successful international mediation. - - - Danilo Gjukovikj (@DaniloGjukovikj) is a PhD student in international relations at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For more analysis and commentary from The Monkey Cage, an independent blog anchored by a group of political scientists from universities around the country, see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage The South Korean government said yesterday it is hoping to make new economic inroads in Turkey as their upgraded free trade agreement (FTA) comes into effect this week. As Daily Sabah writes in the article South Korea looks for deeper economic ties with Turkey, the new FTA, which goes beyond goods into the services and investment sectors, was actually agreed on in 2015, just two years after their original trade pact went into force. It was only confirmed last year just after President Moon Jae-in took office in the South, but Seoul revealed at the time that certain processes would have to be finalized. Moon welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Seoul in May, when a joint release stated that "the South Korea-Turkey free trade agreement has become an important foundation of mutually beneficial economic cooperation by ensuring balanced growth of trade between the two countries." With the new deal starting today, South Korea's Trade Ministry is hoping there will be opportunities for South Korean firms in Turkey's movie and construction markets, according to local news agency Yonhap. Wholesale and retail trade, automotive, IT and electronics, mining, tourism and manufacturing industries stand as the most common areas where the 300 Korean companies that have investments in Turkey are currently operating. According to the data compiled from the South Korean Embassy in Ankara, the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the total amount of the investments carried out by Korean companies in Turkey from 1980 to 2017 reached $2.63 billion. Korean firms made investments totaling approximately $1.73 billion only in the last five years, which corresponds to 66 percent of the total investments made in the 38 years. The trade volume between the two countries, which stood at $6.5 billion in 2013, reached $7.2 billion last year, an increase of 9.8 percent. Turkey exported goods totaling around $584.1 million to South Korea last year, while its imports totaled $6.6 billion in the same period. The number of Korean tourists who visited Turkey in 2017, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, stood at 120,622. The same figure was 106,904 a year before. The number of Koreans that visited Turkey in the first five months of this year reached 59,208 ZHUJIAJIAO, China - The cost of pig feet was climbing, and Xu Min wondered: Had the trade war reached her market stall? The 29-year-old mother of two sells every part of the hog in a town known for braised hoofs, a classic snack here called trotters. She carves the meat for local vendors, who slather the feet in soy sauce and hawk them along a nearby canal for as little as 15 yuan, or about $2. Geopolitical sparring does not come up often at this market of fresh cuts, watermelon crates and crabs wriggling in plastic bags, Xu said, but lately she and other merchants have swapped grim predictions about the commercial fight between the United States and China. "Importing less American pork will bring up the prices," the butcher said, frowning behind her bloodstained counter. "Fewer people will be buying - a bad effect." The first signs of trouble from President Donald Trump's tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods - and Beijing's retaliatory levies on an equal amount of U.S. imports, including pork and soybeans - are just emerging in both countries, where some workers are bracing for economic turmoil. Foreign swine that arrives frozen in Shanghai and other port cities is crucial to Xu's business, she said, even though she purchases pork from local farmers. The imports roll in on refrigerated trucks to warehouses across China, bolstering the national supply, she said, and helping to keep her costs low. "Things are getting more expensive," she said, noting that her supplier had asked for a few extra yuan over the past two weeks. The latest round of 25 percent duties, which took effect in early July, is expected to shrink U.S. exports to China, the fourth-biggest buyer of American swine and the world's largest pork consumer. China bought 309,000 tons of pork last year from farmers throughout the Midwest and the South, and a lot of the shipments carried parts that many Americans don't normally eat: heads, tails, guts and feet. The United States was China's top foreign supplier of these "variety meats" last year, with $874 million in sales, Chinese customs data shows. (Germany ranked No. 2.) The deal is a boon for American producers. Chinese buyers pay a premium for the hoofs, which are considered a delicacy and even a beauty booster - collagen in the fatty flesh is supposed to help make skin glow. But the new tariffs could severely jeopardize this Sino-American arrangement, landing on top of another 25 percent duty China imposed on American pork in April in response to levies that Trump placed on Chinese steel and aluminum. Already, the U.S. loads of pork variety meats to China have diminished, according to the most recent export data, from 12,354 tons in March to 11,095 tons in April to 9,071 in May. "We are looking at an $800 million loss on variety meats alone," said Joel Haggard, senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region at the U.S. Meat Export Federation, a trade association. "It's brutal." The damage is harder to measure in China, where the official line is: We can handily replace these outside goods with homegrown livestock. Industry observers, though, say the country should protect its trade alliances to meet the growing demand from the exploding middle class. The cost of pork overall in China has increased 10 percent since May, according to the Agriculture Ministry, which does not release corresponding price data on variety meats. However, the price of pig heads, tails and feet in the eastern province of Shandong jumped 7 percent from May to late July, said Barney Wu, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai. "The trade war has begun to hurt," Wu said. "No one gains." Even Rogers Pay, an agriculture analyst at a Beijing consulting firm called China Policy, said the swelling price of soybeans, another tariff-affected commodity, could also increase expenses for sellers. "Most of that soy is for pig feed," she said. On the trade warpath, Trump has shown no sign of backing down, threatening in July to impose duties on an extra $200 billion in Chinese products. The president has said he aims to close the United States' $376 billion trade deficit with China and pressure the Asian nation to scrap policies that force U.S. firms to divulge their proprietary secrets if they want to enter the Chinese market. This escalation has startled vendors such as Xu, who wants the spat to be resolved. Pig feet, tails and ribs support her 5-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. Pork allows her to pay their monthly rent of 500 yuan, or about $75. "I have no choice but to take it," Xu said of trade war-related fluctuations. "This is all I can do." One aisle over, another butcher said he was happy to absorb a loss for the good of his country. Gao Jun Gui, 56, has sold pig feet to local stands here for five years. His supplier lifted prices by 2 percent in July, he said, and he suspects the tariffs have something to do with it. "I'll earn a little less for now, but in a battle we will definitely win," the shirtless merchant said. "Trump is simple like a 3-year-old - always changing his mind." This could be an opportunity for China to reduce its reliance on outsiders, he added. Across town, one of the market's regular customers brushed sweet, reddish sauce on her domestically produced trotters and displayed them on steel trays in a shop window. Wu Lin, a 45-year-old stall owner in clear jelly sandals, doesn't think the U.S. tussle with China could jeopardize a treat this juicy. Tourists from Asia, Africa, South America - "everywhere," she said - come to try it. "My local pork tastes better than the frozen stuff," she said, "and I think it's more hygienic." But in Qibao, south of Shanghai, another pork foot dealer in a Hello Kitty apron said the food company she partners with recently made a significant change: Six days before Trump's first tariffs were scheduled to begin, the business stopped sending her imports. She doesn't know what that means for the future of her business, the Most Nostalgic Shop. "We used to get a mix of the local and frozen product," said Xiao Lu, 40. "It changed because of the tariffs." On paper, everything was going well for Seth Owen. A valedictorian of a high school in Jacksonville, Florida, with a 4.16 grade-point average, the 18-year-old had been accepted to Georgetown University as part of its Class of 2022. But he had left his parents' house in February after they had given him an ultimatum to attend their church, after years of disagreements related to his sexuality - Owen is gay - or move out, he told NBC News. And Georgetown's financial aid package for him had been calculated based on what his family was expected to contribute, leaving him with a $20,000 gap to pay the tuition for his first year. "I started to cry, because I realized there was no way that I could go to college," Owen told NBC News. "Georgetown was my only option, because I had already denied my other acceptances." The school would not change his financial aid package, NBC News reported. "While we cannot comment on any individual case, we work closely with students whose financial circumstances change after admission to modify financial aid assistance and ensure they can still enroll regardless of their ability to pay," a school official told NBC. Luckily, a former teacher stepped in. Jane Martin, who teaches biology, set up a GoFundMe account to raise the money for Owen's first year's tuition. "Seth was just a kid that really stood out to me," Martin told NBC News. "He was super ambitious and was always trying to go above and beyond to make sure he could be as successful as possible." A month later, the account has wildly exceeded its goal, raising more than $100,000. "After we had hit $2,000, Seth was just like, 'I'm so surprised that people, like, actually care about me,' " Martin said. The two plan to use the donations for scholarships for other students in situations like Owen if Georgetown adjusts the financial aid package. Owen spoke to NBC about his upbringing. He said that his parents, who are Southern Baptist, discovered that he was gay as a sophomore when his father found a photograph of him with another guy that indicated that he was gay. His parents questioned him around that time one night until 4:30 a.m. They then sent him to a Christian counselor, he said. "It was not like a conversion camp, but it was definitely awkward conversion therapy where they tried encouraging stereotypical masculine tasks and things like that," Owen said. The disagreements started coming to a head his final year of high school. "I started bringing up my disagreements with the church that they attend. I mean, there was just incident after incident," Owen said. "They talked very negatively about the LGBTQ-plus community. They said that gay people would not serve in the church. Then they were talking about transgender people as though they weren't human, and that really, really bothered me." His parents would not let him attend a church of his choosing, he said. His father, Randy Owen, told First Coast News that the family did not force Seth out. "As far as kicking him out because he wouldn't attend the church we attend - that's a lie," he told the ABC affiliate. "I made clear we are not kicking him out, but we worship as a family. He's allowed to live here as long as he worships the same way we worship." Seth Owen told NBC that he hopes to send a message to others like him. "I remember growing up and saying I had really strict religious parents, and people would brush it off," he said. "If someone were to say that to me today, I would sit down, and I would ask them, 'What's going on? What's going on at home? What's happening? What kind of messages are being preached in your church?' " Is cannabis yet another rapid growth industry that is essentially a boys club? Opinions differ. Some have praised the marijuana industry as a fantastic opportunity for female entrepreneurs. Others report that its still unclear how many opportunities women are getting for executive positions, such as this Associated Press article which states: Cannabis remains a male-dominated industry. Certainly, there have already been notable achievements by women in the cannabis world. They range from the well-known, such as Whoopi Goldberg co-founding the Whoopi & Maya line of cannabis-infused products, to the emergence of people such as Emily Paxhia who co-founded Poseidon Asset Management, the first investment fund dedicated solely to the cannabis industry. There are many women on the science end of the business. For example, Julie Kowalski is the director of science and research for Trace Analytics, a testing laboratory in Spokane, Wash. The potential for marijuana jobs has led to formation of groups such as the Women Grow organization and the OG GirlsClub in Los Angeles. The clubs invitation-only parties allow professional women the chance to socialize and support each other in marijuana-related business ventures, as well as create new partnerships. Valery Sepulveda, co-founder of the OG GirlsClub, told L.A. Weekly the club attracts professionals both inside and outside of the cannabis industry who are fighting gender inequalities in a system that has been ruled by a 'boys club' for far too long." Related: Post Apocolypse Aftermath: How Is California Adapting to New Cannabis Regulations? The Anti-Stoner Movement Against this backdrop, one of the newest areas for female entrepreneurs is beginning to emerge: fashion. Its part of an overall cultural shift in tone away from pot being associated with stoners and instead associated with professionals. Much of this shift is being driven by women. Cannabis fashion designer Emma Baron told CBC that one of the inspirations for founding her company, Milkweed, came from meeting older women who use marijuana but are embarrassed by cannabis fashion that screams weed. Milkweed focuses on making cannabis accessories for women that are both elegant and discreet. They include hand-crafted tins, ceramic pipes and embossed, pre-rolled joints. Related: 3 Ways Blockchain Could Help Solve the Cannabis Business's Biggest Roadblocks Embracing Beautiful Design In the U.S., Seattle-based Van der Pop, founded by designer April Pride, is doing much the same for women who use marijuana but dont want to carry around the type of paraphernalia thats been associated with weed for decades. Their products include sleek tools for rolling joints, cleaning pipes and attractive cases for carrying pot. The Van der Pop brand is sold exclusively on Tokyo Smoke, a Canadian company that bought Van der Pop in 2017. Tokyo Smoke sells cannabis-related products online and in brick-and-mortar stores in Toronto and Calgary. The site offers a good example of how elegant design is moving into the cannabis industry. The focus is on products for those who embrace beautiful design along with alternative states of mind. Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news. Related: Female Cannabis Entrepreneurs Are Pioneers in Science, Finance and Fashion How One Cannabis Company Aims to Disrupt Big Pharma's Blockbuster Pipeline New York Officials Urge Banks to Work With Marijuana Industry Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved A former middle school assistant principal accused in 2015 of sexually assaulting a San Antonio high school student beginning when she was 14 years old pleaded guilty to two charges. Severo Campos Jr. was 42 and the assistant principal of Wrenn Middle School in the Edgewood Independent School District when he was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. Authorities had discovered he was having an inappropriate relationship with a John F. Kennedy High School student that began when she was in the eighth grade. Top Hamas chiefs from abroad traveled to the Gaza Strip in a bid to decide with local leaders whether to call off four months of conflict with Israel and accept a cease-fire proposed by mediators from Egypt and the United Nations. Salah al-Arouri, Turkey-based deputy head of the militant group that rules Gaza, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, another senior leader, crossed from Egypt to Gaza for three days of talks, spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in an email. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and European Union. The arrival of the Hamas leadership follows a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at curtailing the violence between Palestinians in Gaza and Israel, while also trying to end the 11-year-old schism between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Nikolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for Middle East peace efforts, has over the past two weeks been shuttling among Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah and Gaza to sell the cease-fire. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr to Gaza for the talks. The aim of Al-Arouri's visit is "to achieve an internal reconciliation and end the unfair Israeli siege that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for 12 years," Barhoum said. Gaza, a tiny coastal wedge that is home to 2 million Palestinians, has been the scene of air-raids, firefights and missile battles since the end of March when residents started weekly protest marches to the fence separating them from Israel. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed since then, many by Israeli army snipers. Palestinians have also sent hundreds of kites and balloons carrying flaming torches across the border, setting fire to Israeli farmland on the other side. While Israel and Hamas say they don't talk directly, speculation that a deal is in the works was heightened when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled a visit to Colombia planned for next week. The Security Cabinet will meet Sunday to discuss efforts to arrange a cease-fire with Hamas, Israel's Channel 10 reported. Israel also approved the entry of six truckloads of equipment for water projects carried out by the U.S. government agency, USAID, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry. Israel has been seeking the release of two citizens held in Gaza and the bodies of two soldiers killed in a 2014 war with Hamas. Israel had to free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011 to secure the release of a single soldier held prisoner by Hamas for five years, but opposition to another such transaction has grown among the public and politicians, who say it incentivizes Hamas to kidnap Israelis. Netanyahu's deputy minister for public diplomacy, Michael Oren, acknowledged that efforts were being made to halt the violence, without discussing Israel's involvement. "We always communicate through third parties," he said. "There's no viable solution for Gaza that does not involve Egypt." To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net, Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza City at sramadan@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Michael S. Arnold 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Second president of Armenia Robert Kocharian recently arrested on charges of toppling constitutional order in the context of the shooting of demonstrators on March 1, 2008, may be too tough nut to crack for the current government. People's prime-minister Nikol Pashinyan initially realized that the greatest danger to his regime comes from Kocharyan, therefore, it must be disposed of until the new government has exhausted the revolutionary fuse of the population. However, the inner and foreign policy events may not allow pushing the matter through. An arrest as a pre-trial restriction was a complete surprise not only for Kocharyan himself. If earlier Pashinyan team's actions were perceived in Moscow with some kind of irritation, which was manifested in some publications of the influential Russian media, like Gazeta.ru or Lenta.ru, or in skeptical statements at the expert level, the Russian Foreign Ministry was unable to hide disappointment and concern over the recent actions of the government of new Armenia. "The events of recent days clearly violate the positive attitude, run counter to the recent statements by the new leadership of Armenia, that it has no intentions to organize the persecution of its predecessors for the political reasons. As an ally of Yerevan, Russia has always been interested in the stability of the Armenian state. That is why we are concerned with the events happening there, including from the point of view of the normal work of those organizations in the CIS area, in which Armenia participates, Sergey Lavrov said. Two days before the unprecedented in its rigidity statement made by Lavrov, an unnamed high-ranking representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed in a conversation with TASS the astonishment of the Armenian Foreign Ministry's unprofessionalism in the matter of the procedure for recalling CSTO Secretary General Yury Khachaturov. In general, it could be assumed that the Kremlin will remain indifferent in a situation when without prior warning, the Armenian authorities arrest the CSTO Secretary General. Even considering the fact that he is a citizen of Armenia, Khachaturov is currently representing a pro-Russian military bloc and his criminal prosecution can negatively affect the image and functioning of the organization. This is not the only secret line that Nicol Pashinyan passes in the relations with Moscow. On the one hand, his security officials are setting up a case against the head of the CSTO, Khachaturov. On the other hand, after Pashinyan's presence at the NATO summit in Brussels in mid-July (he was there, incidentally, the only head of the CSTO member country), Armenia decided to participate in the NATO military exercises in Georgia entitled Noble Partner. Recall that previous year, under the regime of Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia attempted to participate in these drills, but at the last moment, Yerevan refused this idea - as experts noted then, the decision was taken with an eye to the Kremlin. However, let's return to detained ex-president Robert Kocharyan. After his detention, he made a cunning move, which put the authorities in a deadlock. 38 deputies of the National Assembly of Armenia signed a guarantee to change the measure of restraint to the arrested Robert Kocharyan. Among the signatories are the speaker and two vice-speakers of the parliament. Now Pashinyan faced a difficult dilemma. If the court does not change the measure of restraint for Kocharyan who is under the investigation under to the guarantee of as many as 38 deputies, then on this background, the release of numerous members of the Sasna Tsrrer terrorist group, whose hands are in blood of the policemen killed in 2016, under the guarantee of one or two parliamentarians will be monstrous. If the court releases Kocharyan, then the enemy number one of the current government will be free, and this will inevitably be perceived as the slack of the people's prime minister, who surrendered to Moscow and the Republicans. The next move after Pashinyan. He has already called on his supporters to attend the rally on August 17 on the occasion of the 100 days of his tenure as prime minister. Probably, Nikol wants to demonstrate both raising their heads Republicans and criticizing his actions Moscow, that he can still rely firmly on mass support of the population of Armenia. It can not be ruled out that until then the pro-government media will be actively heating up the sentiment against Russia. The Aravot and 1in.am newspapers close to the current authorities already fired sharp anti-Russian articles yesterday. If this is the way that the current Armenian government wants to go, then it's time for Russia to think about the preventive measures in order to recall Armenia from the Brussels dreams to the land still protected by Russian soldiers. Cases disposed for the week of July 24-31: Joseph James Ales, 18, of Caseville, bound over to Huron County Circuit Court on a charge of killing/torturing an animal. Randal Thomas Butch, 59, of Port Huron, defective equipment, $130 in fines and costs. Robert Lee Logan, 41, of Harbor Beach, disorderly while intoxicated-attempted, $425 in fines and costs. Kyle Ronald Mausolf, 35, of Marlette, moving violation causing death, 120 days in jail, 18 months probation, 10 days community service, $1,645 in fines and costs. Dennis Allen McKheen, 49, of Kenockee, marine equipment safety, $130 in fines and costs. Andrea Michelle Merritt, 29, of Port Hope, bound over to Huron County Circuit Court on a charge of assaulting/resisting a police office. Jennifer Lynn Moolhuizen, 32, of Filion, domestic violence, 25 days in jail, 12 months probation, $905 in fines and costs. Gerald Pitcher, 59, of Oakland City, Indiana, marine safety violation, $255 in fines and costs. Harry James Redeemar, 72, of Saginaw, allowing a suspended driver to operate a motor vehicle, $535 in fines and costs. Shianne Louise Sanders, 26, of Sebewaing, driving while license suspended-second offense, two days community service, $615 in fines and costs. Christopher R. Scott, 27, of Pleasant Lake, operating while intoxicated-second offense, five days in jail, 12 months probation, $1,626 in fines and costs. Austin R. Smith, 18, of Kinde, possession of a controlled substance-marijuana, 60 days in jail, six months probation, four days community service, $1,248 in fines and costs. Michael Harry Williams, 60, of Port Austin, operating while visibly impaired-first offense, nine months probation, five days community service, $1,465 in fines and costs. Michael A. Sheehan, who led counterterrorism efforts around the globe with the United Nations, State Department and New York City Police Department, and later, as a top Defense Department official, directed the country's Special Forces units and drone programs, died July 30 at a military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 63. The cause was multiple myeloma, said his wife, Sita Graham Vasan. Sheehan, who began his career as an Army Ranger, first took part in clandestine operations in Panama in 1979. Later, he was part of drug-interdiction and counterterrorism operations in Colombia, El Salvador and Honduras, scaling buildings and jumping out of helicopters as a "real-life Rambo," in the words of a New York Daily News profile. He helped investigate the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" incident in Somalia, in which two U.S. helicopters were shot down, killing 18 service members. In 2000, almost a year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Sheehan raised alarms about Osama bin Laden and the dangers of al-Qaida. "What's it going to take to get them to hit al-Qaida?" he reportedly asked at the time. "Does al-Qaida have to attack the Pentagon?" After the 9/11 attacks, Sheehan spent two years as an assistant secretary general of the U.N., coordinating antiterror efforts around the world. In 2003, he joined the New York City police as a deputy commissioner and directed what was widely recognized as one of the country's foremost counterterrorism units. He trained thousands of police officers in how to deal with potential threats, from car bombs to nuclear weapons. "There are few people in the country, let alone the world, that really have his knowledge and understanding of terrorism as a phenomenon and from the diversity of perspective he brought to bear on it,'' Rand Corp. terrorism authority Bruce Hoffman told the New York Times in 2006. Sheehan later founded an international security firm and, from 2006 to 2011, often appeared as an NBC News commentator on terrorism. His 2008 book, "Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves," spelled out his sometimes unorthodox theories of fighting terrorism. "Having spent the first twenty years of my career as a soldier," he wrote, "the need to be on the front lines was firmly imbedded in my psyche." He believed the most effective way to prevent terrorist cells from attacking the United States and other countries was to stop them from forming in the first place, through diplomacy and what he called a "small-footprint" and low-cost presence in countries that gave rise to militants. He recommended that U.S. spy services and military forces "drain the swamps" through strategic operations to eliminate training camps for terrorists. "It is important to understand that terrorism is an instrument of the weak," he said in 2008, "and that the terrorist depends on a psychological overreaction to an attack on an innocent civilian target." Some of Sheehan's harshest criticism was directed toward Congress and the geyser of cash dumped into the fight against terrorism - much of which did little but line the pockets of contractors. "Since 9/11," he told Harper's Magazine in 2008, "the U.S. Government has spent hundreds of billions on activities I consider a complete waste of time and money, or on activities that have a very marginal impact on our safety." Security checkpoints at airports did little to deter terrorism, he said, and only served to annoy the "white haired grandma" whose life was "turned upside down by overzealous airport inspectors." He pointed out that when he drove onto military bases, armed guards looked through the dirty laundry in his luggage - but the hotels next to the bases were completely unguarded because they weren't funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Instead, he believed the war on terror should be carried out primarily by joint efforts of diplomats, military officials, the CIA and the FBI. From 2011 to 2013, Sheehan was able to put his ideas into practice as the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and low intensity conflict. In that role, he directed all Special Operations branches of the military, including the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, as well as the drone strikes that targeted terrorist leaders overseas. "He had both the global experience of fighting al-Qaida on a diplomatic level but also the experience of carrying an M-16 in the jungle," James Rubin, a former State Department spokesman, said in an interview. Michael Andrew Sheehan was born Feb. 10, 1955, in Red Bank, New Jersey, and grew up in Hazlet, New Jersey. He father was an engineer, his mother a teacher. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1977, he entered the Special Forces. He received a master's degree in 1988 from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a second master's degree, in 1992, from the Army Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The next year, while still on active duty with the Army, he joined the staff of his former Georgetown professor, Madeleine Albright, when she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 1997. After leaving the Defense Department in 2013, Sheehan became a fellow at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and lectured and consulted. His first marriage, to Maria Eitel, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 18 years, Sita Graham Vasan of Washington, D.C.; a daughter from his first marriage, Alexandra Eitel of Los Angeles; a son from his second marriage, Michael V. Sheehan of Washington, D.C.; his father, John Sheehan of Devon, Pennsylvania; three brothers; and two sisters. In 2000, Sheehan was asked by USA Today how the country could best confront the threat of terrorism. "What works," he said, is "sustained diplomatic pressure, political will and courage." When Russian troops left Czechoslovakia after more than two decades in the mid-1990s, many residents rejoiced and celebrated the end of Soviet military occupation. Czechoslovakia has since split up into two countries - the Czech Republic and Slovakia - but animosity toward Russian military might persists on both sides of the border. So, when members of the Putin-linked biker club "Night Wolves" recently showed up in the Slovak village of Dolna Krupa to set up a military-style base with tanks and other army equipment inside a former pig farm, the government was rather puzzled, if not outright alarmed The Russian government argued that the base was simply the club's "European headquarters." The club itself described the camouflaged-painted armored vehicles and heavy weapons as part of a harmless World War II museum to honor Soviet troops. But in the nearby Slovak capital Bratislava, officials soon suspected far more sinister motives, calling the isolated base "disturbing" and part of an effort to "rewrite history," according to the BBC. During World War II, Slovak forces collaborated with German troops until a resistance movement launched an uprising toward the end of the war, prompting a full Nazi invasion. Slovak forces also fought against Soviet troops, who later occupied Slovak territory as the Germans were pushed out. Whereas Russia frequently emphasizes its role in freeing the country from the Germans, many Slovaks mostly remember the Soviet military occupation after the 1968 Prague Spring uprising. Today, Slovakia shares more common interests with the United States and Western Europe than with Russia, including the rejection of attempts by Moscow to expand its influence abroad. The Night Wolves biker gang that is now so worrying the country is under U.S. sanctions for their involvement in past Russian annexations and military operations abroad. In 2014, for instance, they paraded through the streets of Crimea after the peninsula's annexation, led by former physician Alexander Zaldostanov - nicknamed "the surgeon." "Zaldostanov is being designated for being a leader of a group, the Night Wolves, that is engaging in, directly or indirectly, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine," the U.S. Department of the Treasury argued in 2014, justifying sanctions against Zaldostanov. According to the U.S. sanctions documents, Zaldostanov was involved in the confiscation of Ukrainian weapons when the Ukrainian Naval Forces headquarters in Crimea were stormed by Russian forces in March 2014. They're certainly not just "harmless motorcycle lovers," Slovak President Andrej Kiska said earlier this week, referring to the 2014 incident. His government is now considering ways to monitor and expel the bikers from the country that is both part of NATO and the European Union. But any attempt to remove the bikers from Slovak soil would likely provoke a strong reaction from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has associated himself with the group publicly. Since its early days in the 1980s, the group has evolved from a rock concert biker club to a distinctively political and patriotic organization under the firm grip of Zaldostanov. When Putin first publicly encountered the bike group in 2009, many assumed it to be yet another public relations stunt of a leader who has produced a remarkable number of stunning photos throughout his career: on horses, near dolphins or at the steering-wheel of a microlight aircraft. But Putin's public embrace of the Night Wolves turned out to be different. The club's influence was further elevated after Russia's interference in Georgia, Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Today, the group - that still frequently embarks on rally-style trips across Europe - stands for vigorous Russian patriotism with the sort of aggressive undertone that has emerged in recent years. Since 2009, the Russian leader and the club's top officials have backed each other up - both on and off the road. Zaldostanov, for example, was a prominent supporter of the so-called "Anti-maidan" protests in Moscow, against the pro-European uprising in Ukraine in 2014. The club's deep entanglement with Russian foreign policy has not gone unnoticed in Europe, where Poland denied the bikers access to the country in 2015. While the Night Wolves said they wanted to pass through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria to imitate the conquest of the Soviet Union that helped free Germany from the Nazis, Polish officials criticized the annual tour as a "provocation." Other European nations along the Night Wolves route have struggled to come up with a legally sound justification for banning the group, however. Expelling its members from Slovakia may prove equally difficult. Reagor Dykes Auto Group filed for bankruptcy in Lubbock federal court Wednesday, a day after Ford Motor Credit Co. filed a lawsuit accusing the dealership of defaulting on over $40 million in vehicles. Reagor Dykes Auto Company, Motors, Imports, Amarillo, Plainview and Floydada filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows an individual or corporation to reorganize and restructure debt. The same locations were listed in the Ford lawsuit as being in default. In a statement, owners Bart Reagor and Rick Dykes said: "The Reagor Dykes Auto Group regrets that it became necessary this morning to seek legal protection for several of its dealerships due to a dispute with one of its lenders. We are doing everything in our power to work through the issues. We are eternally grateful for our loyal employees, customers and friends in Lubbock and the West Texas community." On Tuesday, Ford Motor Credit Co. filed a complaint and application for writ of sequestration against Reagor Dykes Auto Company, citing breach of agreements among other claims, according to the document filed in federal court. A hearing is set in federal court on Aug. 8. The court document states that during a June 2018 of inventory of the Reagor-Dykes Dealership, an initial analysis found that 147 of 150 vehicles sold by the dealerships were sold, on average, 55 days before the date upon which the dealerships paid them off. "As a result," reads the complaint, "the dealerships were able to delay making payments to Ford Credit for extended periods of time, well beyond the seven processing days permitted under their agreements with Ford Credit." The document also alleges the dealerships sold vehicles out of trust, having sold vehicles that were subject to Ford Credit's security interests without remitting proceeds of those sales to Ford Credit, reads the court document. The court document states a total amount of over $116 million is currently owed to Ford Credit. Amounts currently due are estimated to exceed $40 million. The auto group attempted to pay over $41 million, but the payment did not process for insufficient funds or because the auto group stopped the payment, according to the documents. Ford Motor Company awarded Reagor Dykes Ford in Lamesa and Plainview the President's Award in mid-July. The awards are given for customer service, satisfaction and overall experience. Bart Reagor founded Reagor Auto mall in downtown Lubbock in 2003. Partner Rick Dykes joined in 2006, according to their company website. Thangam Debbonaire MP, the Member of Parliament representing Bristol West, visited CONNECTED Network Director, Professor Gary Foster, to find out more about the global project, which is based in her constituency at The University of Bristols Life Sciences building. The MP joined Professor Foster to view work in university laboratories, seeing first-hand some examples of the devastating impact that plant diseases has on food crops in Sub-Saharan African countries. Plant diseases significantly limit the ability of many countries to produce sufficient staple and cash crops such as cassava, sweet potato, maize and yam. The CONNECTED project focuses on addressing their spread by vectors insects that transmit a disease from one plant to another. The impact of the diseases includes: Poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity, caused by the limited production of a range of food crops cassava, sweet potato, maize and yam, for example. Economic and social development of the affected countries Migration - since insufficient food and crop-derived income can lead to people wanting to leave the country. Thangam Debbonaire MP said: From its Bristol base, the CONNECTED project is co-ordinating research work of global significance. With a growing global population and accelerating climate change, crop science is becoming ever more important. I was very pleased to see such cutting-edge work happening in my constituency. Professor Foster added: A number of scientific research projects have been undertaken in recent years in different parts of the world. There is a great deal of expertise in the field. It is vital to bring these experts together, creating more effective research communities. There needs to be a relentless focus on refining the most pressing research targets, ensuring academic excellence has maximum impact on the ground. This is what CONNECTED is working to achieve. We are encouraging new collaborations between scientists from a range of institutions across the globe, developing training programmes and offering opportunities for pump-prime research funding. By developing a network of world-class scientists and researchers we aim to produce a pipeline of innovative disease-control strategies that will improve food security for years to come. The CONNECTED network project is funded by a 2 million grant from the UK governments Global Challenges Research Fund, which supports research on global issues that affect developing countries. It is co-ordinated by Professor Foster from the University of Bristol School of Biological Sciences, long recognised as world-leading in plant virology and vector-transmitted diseases. In the projects first few months it has run two major international conferences: one in Bristol, UK, and one in Kampala, Uganda, drawing together scores of world-class researchers. Its growing network membership so far brings together hundreds of researchers from 34 countries. US President Donald Trumps announcement of his readiness to hold negotiations with Iran has sparked a raging debate in Tehran among various officials. Some have expressed caution and their doubt over his intentions, while President Hassan Rouhani has so far remained silent and thrown the ball in Europes court to take transparent measures to compensate for the US pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal. As Asharq Al-Awsat writes in the article Trumps proposal for direct dialogue confuses Iran, he said that Tehran does not want to stoke tensions in the region or international straits, however, it will not easily abandon its right to export oil. "Today we are at a very critical point in history regarding the nuclear deal, and Europe's transparent measures to compensate for the United States' unlawful withdrawal from it are very important for the Iranian nation," Rouhani said after talks with new British Ambassador Rob Macaire. This is the second time that Trump expresses a readiness to negotiate with Tehran in wake of last weeks war of words with Rouhani. The first time he made the proposal, it had fallen on deaf ears. Trump made his proposal on Monday, a week before the first phase of US sanctions are due to be re-imposed on Iran. Prominent member of the Expediency Council Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri stated on Tuesday that Tehran must accept Trumps offer without preconditions. We cannot stand idly by and refuse talks. We have to contemplate, the gesture, he said, while also warning that "we should not rejoice over this offer and not get excited." "Trump may take advantage of this over-excitement," he said, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. "It could be a test for us." He hinted that Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawis upcoming visit to the US, days after his meeting with Iranian FM Mohammed Javad Zarif, is aimed at mediating between Tehran and Washington. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi later denied Nategh-Nouris hints over the Omani officials visit. Rouhanis political aide, meanwhile, Hamid Aboutalebi tweeted: Those who believe in dialogue as a way to end disputes must commit to it. Respecting the Iranian people, easing the calming the hostile behavior and the United States return to the nuclear deal will lead the way on the unpaved road. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who heads the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, said that Iranian-American negotiations should not turn into a taboo issue. The Iranian-American disputes are being run by other players, he remarked, while demanding efforts to be exerted to set up a hotline between the two sides to protect Iranian and American national interests against those seeking to take advantage of the escalation between the two sides. Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli stated: The US is not trustworthy. How can we trust this country after it unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal? The head of Irans Strategic Council on Foreign Relations said Tehran saw no value in Trumps offer. Based on our bad experiences in negotiations with America and based on US officials violation of their commitments, it is natural that we see no value in his proposal, Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency. Ali Motahari, the deputy speaker of parliament said that to negotiate with Trump now would be a humiliation. If Trump had not withdrawn from the nuclear deal and not imposed sanctions on Iran, there would be no problem with negotiations with America, he told state news agency IRNA. ALBANY - The scope of PFOA ground contamination from three manufacturing plants in Rensselaer County and southern Vermont is more "extensive" than initially anticipated, according to a new study. Elevated levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, a chemical used to make heat-resistant, non-stick products, were found in soil samples stretching more than 10 miles east of the ChemFab facility in North Bennington, Vermont by a team of faculty and students at Bennington College. The elevated levels were repeatedly discovered in a 120 square mile area east of the North Bennington facility, while a consent order with Vermont only identified about 12 square miles of contaminated land and the plant owner, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, has maintained that emissions of PFOA were limited to the surrounding neighborhoods only. The study, which tried to gauge the breadth of the contamination, highlights the discovery of elevated PFOA levels in soil downwind of the Saint-Gobain plants, including its Hoosick Falls location, but they didn't find the same levels of contamination in northern areas that are outside of dominant wind patterns. "The pattern in soil seem fairly clear," said David Bond, a contributor to the study and professor at Bennington College. "They all point back to the Saint-Gobain plants in North Bennington and Hoosick Falls." "Our research suggests Saint-Gobain has been insisting on a microscopic view of a wide angle problem. When you zoom out, you begin to see just how extensive PFOA contamination may actually be," he added. In response to questions about airborne disbursement of PFOA, Saint-Gobain said in a statement that their focus is limited to the Bennington and North Bennington areas and highlighted their work in these communities to address the presence of PFOA. The company added that they had not reviewed the new study. In 2014, PFOA contamination was discovered in the water supplies for Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh. Both plant owners then entered into consent orders with the state, which require them to install new filtration systems. While PFOA levels in the new soil samples are below the health guidance levels set by Vermont, researchers with Bennington College are worried about it leaking out and contaminating ground water. PFOA exposure has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, as well as thyroid diseases and other serious health problems. The study was based on PFOA levels in the top 14 inches of soil, which were collected by the Bennington College professors and students. This latest effort is part of a PFOA contamination review in New York and Vermont since 2016 that was funded by the National Science Foundation. In the coming months, the researchers anticipate they will expand their search area, including south and west of the Saint-Gobain plants. "Saint-Gobain has been spending untold sums laying blame for PFOA contamination at the feet of local residents and glossing up domain names like www.benningtonwater.com and www.hoosickwater.com," Bond said. "Our research suggests that money might be better spent connecting impacted communities in New York and Vermont to clean, public drinking water." In New York, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is examining contamination from air deposition as part of the remedial investigations in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, where the 23.5 acre Taconic Plastics facility is located. "DEC will expand the air deposition investigation beyond the site boundaries to a regional scope as we continue to evaluate actions to address contamination in these communities," said department spokesman Sean Mahar. At the Hoosick Falls site, in conjunction with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the DEC is conducting air emission sampling at the Hoosick Falls plant to assess the potential for air emissions containing PFOA and similar chemicals. Several people who worked at the plant in Hoosick Falls previously told the Times Union about seeing powder-like smoke plumes that often settled in the valley around the plant. In the 1980s, the plant installed "scrubbers" in its smokestacks to prevent toxic pollutants from entering the air. Kevin Allard, a former Hoosick Falls village board member who worked at the plant, told the Times Union in 2015 that the scrubbers probably didn't prevent all the toxic pollutants from escaping. "Before the scrubbers were put on there was a good 15 years of running full-out and all that material going up into the air, up out of the stacks and just floating down," Allard said. "It was heavier than air." A lawsuit in Petersburgh alleged that PFOA took a vapor form when heated during a manufacturing process at Taconic and was released through smoke stacks. The DEC announced an environmental study in June at the facility in Petersburgh to determine the extent of pollution and how to address it. The results of the study, which is being paid for by Taconic'c corporate owner, is expected to be done by next year. The study will "define the nature and extent of contamination in soil, surface water, groundwater and any other parts of the environment," DEC said in June. While the federal government and other states have established advisory levels for PFOA in water supplies, there is no law in place establishing enforceable limits for these chemicals. David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87 Tennessee voters will choose their nominees for governor Thursday after competitive and sometimes bitter primaries, while Republicans farther down the ballot pick their candidates in a few reliably red House districts. The race to replace Gov. Bill Haslam, R-Tenn., turned into a familiar battle between a seasoned politician and self-described outsiders. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., chair of the House Budget Committee, entered the race exactly one year ago, and positioned herself as an ally of President Donald Trump who would crack down on illegal immigration and introduce work requirements for government benefits. The president, however, stayed out of the race, as Black's early lead over businessmen Randy Boyd and Bill Lee and state House Speaker Beth Harwell began to shrink. All four candidates ran as Trump allies; all ran against so-called "sanctuary cities," which the state banned this spring. But Lee and Boyd attacked Black as a creature of the Washington, D.C., "swamp," with some effect. "In the D.C. swamp, D.C. Diane's net worth increased by more than $40 million," said a narrator in one of Boyd's attack ads. "As budget chair, D.C. Diane let the debt soar to $21 trillion." Black fought back, using images of herself with the president - and praise from Vice President Pence - to portray herself as the White House's choice for the job. "Helping write the president's tax cut was one of my proudest moments," Black said in one of her campaign spots. But according to some polls, the back-and-forth helped Lee, who began to gain support in the campaign's final weeks, and who then dismissed attacks on him as the last gasps of the political establishment. "I've got three politicians running attack ads against me," he said in one ad. "We're winning, and they're scared." The winner of the GOP's primary is likely to face Karl Dean, a former mayor of Nashville who is the heavy favorite for the Democratic nomination. And there's little drama in either party's U.S. Senate primary; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who's been endorsed by Republican leaders, faces a token challenge from a truck driver, while former governor Phil Bredesen is expected to roll past a gadfly candidate who ran for president twice. There's more competition in two of the state's most conservative congressional districts, where whichever Republican wins today's primary is likely to head to Congress. Seven Republicans are competing in the Knoxville, Tennessee-based 2nd district, where libertarian-leaning Rep. Jimmy Duncan, R-Tenn., is retiring. The congressman has endorsed state Rep. Jimmy Matlock, calling him "one of the finest men I've ever known." Former Knox County mayor Tim Burchett calls himself "the only candidate who supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election," while national Young Republicans Chair Jason Emert has run a jokey ad that shows him building a wall in his yard to practice for wall-building on the Mexican border. The race to replace Black in the 6th district is similar, with former state agricultural commissioner John Rose leading the field in fundraising, and airing ads that show him smiling behind the president at a Tennessee rally. Retired judge Bob Corlew has torn into Rose with ads accusing him of being supported "by liberals who spread fake news about the president" - a reference to Rose's support from the American Future Fund, a political organization that ran anti-Trump ads in 2016 but has since become supportive of the president. Republicans are also closely watching the race in the 8th district, where freshman Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., has been outspent by challenger George Flinn. But the primary has been settled in Blackburn's 7th district, with Mark Green, who withdrew his 2017 nomination for Army secretary over comments he'd made criticizing LGBT rights and Islam, facing no challenger. The Justice Department appears to have put a dent in the global cybercrime ring known as FIN7, or Carbanak Group. Prosecutors said Wednesday they arrested three senior members of the organization, which has targeted more than 100 U.S. businesses and stolen about 15 million credit card numbers in a long-running hacking campaign, as my colleague Devlin Barrett reported. The FBI arranged the arrests of the three suspects, all Ukrainian nationals, as they traveled outside their home country. They're charged with more than two dozen counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, fraud and aggravated identity theft. Officials acknowledge they're still a long way from dismantling the criminal network entirely. But law enforcement and cybersecurity researchers are holding the case up as an example of the cooperation between government and private organizations they say is essential to thwart increasingly sophisticated cybercrime schemes. "In the future we're going to see more groups like this evolve. And in order to combat these operations, we're going to have to work together to fight this threat," said Kimberly Goody, manager of financial crime analysis at the FireEye, which has tracked FIN7 since 2015 and conducted intrusion investigations for numerous victim organizations. Prosecutors said FIN7 members hacked thousands of businesses in the hospitality and restaurant industries, including Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chili's and Arby's. A bevy of the hacked companies acknowledged data breaches affecting millions of customers over roughly the past year and a half. Private security researchers have also issued a string of reports on FIN7's activities. Officials said they tracked down the suspects and uncovered the hacking campaign by working closely with some of the targeted companies, as well as investigators from Mastercard and Visa, whose executives appeared alongside prosecutors in a news conference announcing the charges. While offering few specifics about the nature of that collaboration, officials said they would have had trouble bringing the case together without them. "The information shared by these companies has allowed the FBI to assist in protecting other potential victims and their networks from compromise," FBI special agent Jay S. Tabb said. The praise might have felt a bit contrived were it not for the magnitude of the cybercrime group's alleged activities. From CyberScoop editor Greg Otto, who tweeted "A lot of people roll their eyes when talk of 'public-private partnerships' and 'information sharing' comes up (i'm not immune from it, either), but in this case, hard to say anything but that both of those things were vital" Indeed, officials described a shockingly elaborate scheme. FIN7 members, said to number in the dozens, allegedly used email spearphishing techniques to trick employees into opening attachments containing malware. This allowed them to access computer systems and make off with credit card data, which they sold on the dark Web, according to the indictments. In some instances, prosecutors said, FIN7 members sent malware-tainted Microsoft Word documents that were made to look like corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other spearphishing emails were said to contain malicious attachments disguised as catering orders or customer complaints. FIN7 members would even follow up with phone calls to make the emails appear legitimate, as Devlin reported. The defendants also allegedly used a sham computer security services company dubbed Combi Security to help recruit members. The company, headquartered in Russia and Israel, advertised penetration testing and other security services, prosecutors said. Some of the recruits may not have even realized they were doing illicit work, FireEye researchers said in a blog post Wednesday detailing their findings about FIN7. From FireEye's Goody, who tweeted "Threat actors have a long history of recruiting unwitting individuals as props to further their operations - FIN7 apparently did this via the front company Combi Security." Others took note of how advanced the group's tactics were. From threat intelligence researcher Charles Gardner, who tweeted "#FIN7 also excel at manipulating targets into opening exploit-laden documents. Whilst many threat actors do little beyond labeling documents as invoices, FIN7 have been known to prime targets by engaging directly via phone-calls before sending spear-phishing emails 4/n" Security researcher Daniel Cuthbert tweeted "The FIN7 crew have shown some truly innovative skills never seen before in criminal groups. Their approach to targeting, obsfucation (fog of war tactics) and exfil has been noteworthy. Good write up by the Fireeye team." And FireEye's chief security architect Christopher Glyer tweeted "#FIN7 had some 'fun' social engineering techniques: "1) Using web forms on a company's website to initiate contact and deliver a weaponized complaint document "2) Calling victim at store prior to sending phishing email "3) Following up with phone call after sending phishing email" Penetrating deeper into the criminal network will probably be challenging for investigators. For years, FIN7 has used cutting-edge technical tools to evade detection. "In terms of financially motivated threat groups, this is definitely one of the most sophisticated we've seen to date," Goody told me. What's more, some of its members may be operating out of adversarial countries, meaning it could be hard to coordinate with local authorities to make arrests or extraditions. The case has been a heavy lift for U.S. authorities. Tabb, of the FBI, said the agency's Seattle field office had devoted half of its "cyber resources" to the investigation. He added that it was "among the top three criminal computer intrusion cases that the FBI is working right now, in terms of loss, the number of victims, the global reach of it, and the size of the organization." And there's still more work to do. "We are under no illusion that we've taken this down altogether," U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said in Wednesday's news conference, "but we've made a significant impact." WASHINGTON - The Trump administration levied sanctions against two top Turkish government officials Wednesday, fulfilling its pledge to punish Turkey for not releasing a detained American pastor and sending relations between the NATO allies to a new low. In announcing the sanctions against Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, the Treasury Department said the two had "played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson." Those organizations, it said, were responsible for "serious human rights abuses," including Brunson's arrest in 2016 and continued detention on terrorism charges. The measures came less than a week after President Donald Trump promised to "impose large sanctions" on Turkey if Brunson was not immediately freed and allowed to come home, and Vice President Pence warned the Turkish government to "be prepared to face the consequences." Turkey's Foreign Ministry registered a "strong protest" against actions it called inexplicable, disrespectful and illegal. The sanctions, it said in a statement, will "seriously damage" efforts to put already tenuous U.S.-Turkey relations back on track, and the Foreign Ministry called for them to be rescinded. "The aggressive attitude of the U.S. serves no purpose," it said in a statement, adding that Turkey would reciprocate "without delay." Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted that "U.S. attempts to impose sanctions on our two ministers will not go unanswered," although no immediate reciprocation was announced. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long cited a separation of powers to say that he has no control over his country's judiciary, although in the past he has expressed an interest in trading "pastors" with the United States. The reference was to Turkey's request for extradition of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a onetime Erdogan ally who has lived in the United States as a permanent resident for decades and whom Turkey charged with orchestrating a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for nearly two decades, was arrested later that year and charged with complicity in the attempt to overthrow Erdogan's government. Tens of thousands of Turks were arrested on similar charges. U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Brunson is innocent and demanded his release. Trump, who met with Erdogan last month at a NATO summit in Brussels, believed he had made a deal with the Turkish leader that included releasing Brunson in exchange for a Turkish woman being held in Israel on terrorism charges. Although the woman was released and deported to Istanbul, the Turkish court hearing Brunson's case agreed last week only to allow him to leave prison for house arrest while his trial continued. White House officials accused Erdogan of reneging on the secret agreement and attempting to use Brunson as a "bargaining chip" to win concessions. Trump's sanctions threat came the next day. In a briefing for reporters after the sanctions were announced, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump was "not happy with Turkey's decision not to release Pastor Brunson" and had directed the Treasury Department to impose the measures. "We've seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government of Turkey," Sanders said. Gul and Soylu, she said, "played leading roles in the arrest and detention" of Brunson. "As a result, any property or interest in property of both ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them." The indictment against Brunson accuses him of participating in the coup, as well as attempting to convert Turkish Kurds to Christianity. Outrage over his detention has been bipartisan, although the case has taken on particular importance for evangelical Christians in the United States, who form an important part of Trump's political base. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement: "The president is not acting alone. A bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate are supportive of the president acting on behalf of an innocent American being held by tyrants in Turkey. Now is the time for Turkey to begin acting like the NATO ally that it claims to be and live up to its own constitution." In a statement issued as he was en route to meetings in East Asia, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the "Turkish government refused to release Pastor Brunson after numerous conversations between President Trump and President Erdogan, and my conversations with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. President Trump concluded that these sanctions are the appropriate action." State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters that the administration will continue its talks with Turkish officials even as the sanctions take effect. Pompeo and Cavusoglu spoke by phone about Brunson's detention earlier Wednesday and are expected to meet on the margins of the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this week in Singapore, she said. "We are still pursuing a diplomatic approach," Nauert said. According to the Treasury Department, Wednesday's sanctions were imposed in accordance with an executive order Trump signed in December pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Act, a human rights measure Congress passed in 2016. The global order, included in the fiscal 2017 Defense Department funding authorization, expanded authority under the 2012 Magnitsky Act, named after a Russian lawyer and auditor who uncovered tax fraud and graft linked to the Kremlin, leading to his arrest and death in prison under mysterious circumstances. Trump's executive order was used this summer to sanction people in Nicaragua deemed responsible for human rights abuses and corruption. The upheaval over the Brunson case comes as U.S.-Turkey relations had begun to improve slowly after years of tension, mostly having to do with conflicting objectives in Syria. Trump has repeatedly lauded Erdogan as a strong leader and, after their meeting last month in Brussels, praised the Turkish president while criticizing other NATO leaders. --- The Washington Post's Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem contributed to this report. President Donald Trump's lawyers and Special Counsel Robert Mueller appear to be nearing the final stages of negotiations over whether the president will sit for questioning as the two sides continue jockeying over the scope of a possible interview. Mueller's team responded earlier this week to a proposal Trump's lawyers submitted some 11 days ago that suggested the president would only answer questions about whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, not whether Trump obstructed justice, said Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani wouldn't describe Mueller's offer in detail, but the Washington Post reported Mueller pared down his list of questions, which still include ones related to obstruction of justice. "I would describe it as a tiny bit of movement, not anything dramatic, but at least it is worth responding to," Giuliani said of the offer in an interview with Bloomberg News. "At least it wasn't like it's all over with." The quiet exchange of proposals between the two sides stands in sharp contrast to a series of broadsides that Trump and his aides have launched at Mueller and his investigation. Trump has accused Mueller of having unspecified conflicts of interest and said Wednesday on Twitter that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should "stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now." Giuliani told CNN earlier in the day that Mueller and his team "should put up or shut up." And White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, "The president has allowed this process to play out but he thinks it's time for it to come to an end." Giuliani said he "is not going to give a lot of hope" that an interview happens, and said he is opposed to the idea, even though he said Trump wants to do one. Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump said Thursday that she hasn't been interviewed by Mueller. Speaking at an event hosted by Axios, she added that she wasn't aware of a controversial meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and her husband Jared Kushner and brother Donald Trump Jr. Giuliani is pressing Mueller to submit a report on his finding to the Justice Department by early September to avoid interfering with the November congressional elections. To do so, terms of an interview would have to be agreed upon within the next few weeks. It's not clear that Mueller feels bound by any particular timeline. Giuliani said negotiations are still ongoing and the two sides haven't reached a point where they need to make their "last and best offer." Trump's lawyers have been negotiating over an interview with Mueller since the end of last year. At one point, the two sides had agreed to an interview at the end of January and were discussing the logistics when one of Trump's lawyers at the time, John Dowd, called it off. Dowd, who resigned from the president's legal team in late March, has said that Mueller's team made clear they would consider subpoenaing the president if he refused to sit voluntarily for an interview. Dowd and Trump's other lawyers have said they could fight such a subpoena on constitutional grounds. In that case, it would be up to the courts to determine if a president can be compelled to testify in a criminal investigation. Given the legal ambiguity in current law around presidential privilege, the challenge could go to the Supreme Court, legal experts have said. Trump's lawyers have argued that a president cannot be charged with obstruction of justice given the sweeping executive powers granted under the Constitution. - - - Bloomberg's Chris Strohm and Justin Sink contributed. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded that the United States reverse its decision to impose sanctions over detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson and threatened to retaliate. "The U.S. attempt to impose sanctions will not remain without an answer," he wrote on Twitter. The U.S. announced sanctions against Turkey's Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the detention of American pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, who is being tried on espionage and terror-related charges. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the ministers agencies were responsible for the pastors arrest and detention. First female chairperson of the Georgian Supreme Court Nino Gvenetadze has announced her resignation today, citing health reasons. Gvenetadze, 54, who was selected for the role by President Giorgi Margvelashvili and approved by parliament in 2015, said in a special statement that her treatment requires a several-month stay abroad, Agenda.ge reported. She said that the achievements made under her leadership include: random, electronic distribution of cases between judges; opening of a special data centre at Tbilisi City Court which is tasked with electronically distributing cases; the establishment of a rule which obliges courts to release their verdicts online; the adoption of a Juvenile Code, for the first time in the history of Georgia; closer cooperation with the parliament, the Ministry of Justice and NGOs , which will lead to new legislative initiatives, and he implementation of more than 40 infrastructure projects. A San Antonio woman, in concert with an unnamed male defendant, is accused of forging 150 doctors prescriptions. Belen Magdaleno, 29, has been charged with obtaining drugs by fraud. She was released on bond Wednesday. RELATED: BCSO: Deputies bust 3 people making major drug deal in H-E-B parking lot Magdaleno and the male defendant used each others names, as well as those of various family members, to fill out the prescriptions, according to her arrest affidavit. They forged the signature of hematology specialist doctor Devendra Bhachawat, according to the affidavit, which doesnt specify the type of drugs involved. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine admitted Thursday that the proposal to end federal funding for the International Space Station after 2024 may not be feasible. "There's still a lot to be determined," Bridenstine told a small group of reporters at Houston's Johnson Space Center on Thursday. "But it's important ... to start that conversation now." The 2024 cut off date was outlined earlier this year in President Donald Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for the space agency. In that plan, which still must be approved by Congress, commercial entities would take over operation of the station by 2025. SPACE CENTER HOUSTON: New scientist in residence hopes to inspire next generation with space tidbits in this HoustonChronicle.com report Bridenstine said Thursday some commercial companies already have expressed interest in this idea, and they're submitted plans to the agency on how to accomplish this feat. NASA personnel currently are reviewing them. "It sounds really difficult and it is, no doubt, really difficult, but there definitely is interest," he said. But "that doesn't mean it can be done and it doesn't mean it can be done in seven years." Congressional leaders have spoken out against this plan, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, sponsored legislation extending the station's life until 2030. U.S. operations currently are scheduled to end by the end of 2024, but Congress can extend it past that date. And they have before The former Oklahoma congressman and Rice University graduate spoke to a select group of reporters Thursday ahead of a Friday event at Johnson naming the astronauts assigned to be the first humans to fly on commercial spacecrafts headed to space. The group announced Friday will be the first astronauts to launch from American soil since NASA's Space Shuttle program was shuttered in 2011. The Houston center is home to the nation's astronaut corps, where human space flight research and training take place. It is also home to the International Space Station's mission operations and the Orion program. The two spacecrafts, being built by Boeing and SpaceX, have been under development in partnership with NASA since 2014. Both companies have experienced delays in development, so much so that accountability organizations are worried that it could impact the country's access to the space station. U.S. astronauts currently rely on Russia to transport them to the space station from Kazakhstan, but that contract ends next year. Bridenstine said Thursday he is concerned about these delays, but NASA personnel are "working to make sure we don't have to be concerned about it." For example, he added, the agency is mulling whether to send U.S. astronauts to the station for longer periods of time to make the number of seats we have last until 2020. "Launching American astronauts from American soil for the first time since the retirement of the space shuttle is a really big deal for us and we are focused on that," he said. "We're committed to it, we're going to get it done." The whole idea behind heightened commercialization of Low Earth Orbit, where the space station flies, is to allow the space agency to go where commercial companies can't. "We want to enable NASA to use its resources to go further and do things that haven't been done before," Bridenstine said. "Do we want to use government resources in Low Earth Orbit for the next 20 years, or do we want to spend that money on new things." JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE: Unexpected cost increases could cause cuts to other programs New things like the $2.7 billion Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway basically a mini-space station orbiting the moon where astronauts could live and work. The gateway was proposed in Trump's budget request, setting aside $504.2 million in the coming year to begin working on the foundation. Returning to the moon, and establishing a continued presence in it's vicinity, will help NASA get to Mars faster, Bridenstine said. The moon is the perfect place to test new technologies for the Mars trip because it is just three days away from Earth -- astronauts could return quickly if need be. Using current technology, a trip to Mars will take six to nine months. If something goes wrong on Mars, there may not be a return journey, Bridenstine added. "The way to get to Mars soonest is to prove out all technologies on the moon," he said. "The visionary goal is the 2030s to go to Mars, but putting that out as a specific time -- we just don't know what we don't know." Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that capital punishment could be restored in the country if a corresponding law is adopted by the Turkish parliament. "You know that we are very sensitive on this issue. If the law passes parliament, then I will ratify it, because we know the position of the killers. We know that they must pay the price for committing atrocities," Erdogan told NTV broadcaster. Last year, a debate in Turkey on the reintroduction of the death penalty for crimes of terrorism or high treason triggered a firm rebuke from European institutions. Discussions on the issue were prompted by an attempted military coup in 2016, which led to harsh security policies, including mass detentions of the alleged conspirators, Sputnik recalls. Capital punishment was abolished in Turkey in 2002, but Ankara has already stated that it could be re-introduced despite protests from the European countries. Texas officials are again in court defending yet another medically unnecessary anti-abortion law. But this new law isnt just the latest effort by politicians to interfere with the right of women to make their own health care decisions. It also tramples over the varying faith perspectives and beliefs around the issue. Senate Bill 8, which the Legislature passed last year, requires abortion facilities specifically to bury or cremate any cells or other fetal tissue after a procedure, regardless of the faith beliefs or wishes of the woman. A federal judge is currently considering the constitutionality of that requirement. I am a rabbi and social worker, serving my Reform Jewish community for six years. I have tremendous gratitude toward the medical community for helping me safely conceive, carry and deliver my three beautiful children in a state struggling with a serious maternal health and mortality crisis. And I firmly believe our laws should respect the dignity and autonomy of women when it comes to our reproductive health care. As a religious leader, I often counsel my congregants during the most joyous and painful times of their lives. I do not judge their decisions surrounding their medical care. Therefore, I do not determine when or how a woman deals with the end of a pregnancy. I simply respect the varying emotions an individual or couple is experiencing, offer tradition and rituals, and walk with them on their journeys. I expect this same level of respect from leaders of all faiths. But too often I see political leaders impose their own faith beliefs on those who dont share them, particularly regarding the treatment of women. For Jewish women, this new law creates a great deal of distress because it is incompatible with our beliefs around when and if a fetus should be buried. We also differ greatly with some of our Christian neighbors on when life begins. Jewish rituals surrounding the loss of an unborn fetus vary tremendously, providing a woman and her partner the ability to work with their rabbi to decide if any rituals at all will be observed. For example, I often counsel women experiencing grief and loss after a miscarriage or a stillbirth. I have heard stories of women being asked, just minutes before their procedure, to decide how they would like their fetal remains to be buried. Just recently, I met with a woman who was notified months after she lost her fetus that the tissue from her miscarriage was buried in a Catholic cemetery. She was devastated by the shocking disregard for her personal beliefs. Was she now expected to mourn the loss of a fetus that according to Jewish law, as well as modern medicine, was not viable to begin with? This new burial law offers no exceptions for women whose faith beliefs are different from the politicians who passed it. Thats largely because the laws real purpose is to honor only one religious tradition, which by default shames and stigmatizes all women who have an abortion. In fact, abortion providers are the only medical facilities required to comply with this regulation. The law doesnt apply to other procedures that involve embryos, like in-vitro fertilization or even medication abortions. Moreover, the law bars a woman from donating the fetal tissue after her abortion to a medical research facility. For years now, in a series of legislative sessions, politicians have passed new regulations designed to make it harder for women to access abortion and shame them when they do. The Supreme Court has already struck down some of these measures as unconstitutional. This new law should be struck down as well. Lets be clear: discouraging women from making medical choices that are right for them is an affront to their dignity and the freedom to live their lives based on their own values. I trust women to control their own reproductive health care, including when they access safe abortion care. When politicians create barriers for women to receive the medical attention that they need and deserve, they ultimately put the lives of our mothers, sisters and daughters at risk. Texans of all faiths and backgrounds should be able to make the decisions that are best for them, based on their own beliefs not those imposed on them by politicians. Amy Cohen is Associate Rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom in Austin. The is also part of Just Texas, an organization of clergy who support reproductive justice. (http://justtx.org/) Dru Estes will never play guitar again or dream of a bohemian lifestyle filled with travel and coffee shops. His neighbor, James Miranda, will never reunite with his girlfriend in San Marcos as they had planned. David Ortiz will never finish his engineering degree at Texas State University. Haley Frizzell will never sing in another choir or perform in a production at Texas State. A fifth victim in the raging blaze that consumed Iconic Village Apartments in San Marcos has not been identified, but Belinda Moats who lived at the complex, has been missing since the fire. If it is her, she may never have the chance to return to college and pursue her dreams. The ages of these five victims of the fire range from 19 to 23. Six others were injured in the inferno, which began in the early hours of July 20. Investigation of the fires cause is ongoing, but the need for residential sprinklers is nonetheless clear. The Iconic, which had 108 units, was an old building. It was built in 1970 before sprinklers were required. There is also no requirement to retrofit the building, local officials have said. This is because its an incredibly expensive proposition for property owners. But its a cost that pales in comparison to the loss of so many lives, the nightmares that will haunt survivors and the destruction of a property. Survivors described a hellish nightmare as the fire popped like gunfire and devoured Building 500 in the complex. Residents jumped from second-floor windows. By the time firefighters were on the scene, the fire was in control. James Mirandas father has filed a lawsuit alleging negligence by the buildings owner and manager, specifically citing the lack of sprinklers. There will likely be other lawsuits along these lines. However the legal arguments play out, this is not a new issue. Look no further than the 2014 fatal fire at the Wedgwood Senior Apartments in Castle Hills. That fire killed five residents. Again, people were living in an older building that lacked a sprinkler system and had no requirement to be retrofitted. Again, the ultimate costs of not installing sprinklers were incomparable to the loss of life. Data show sprinklers make a huge difference in preventing fire deaths in multifamily housing. Between 2005 and 2016, 144 people in Texas died in multifamily residential fires, according to the state fire marshals office. Two people died in buildings with sprinkler systems. The Wedgewood fire sparked meaningful reforms. The city of San Antonio updated its fire code to require sprinklers in all high-rise buildings where people are living more than 75 feet above the lowest floor. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law in 2015 that requires high-rises in Bexar County to have sprinklers if the majority of residents are seniors, disabled or have mobility issues. But the San Marcos tragedy shows those reforms dont go far enough. Sprinklers should be required in older apartment complexes. If costs are a concern, they could be alleviated through incentives. But again the cost of retrofitting pales in comparison to the loss of life. It makes no sense to stick with something so outdated and clearly dangerous when we know and can do better. Sprinklers save lives in these older residential buildings. Texas should require them. One Disney employee was killed and another was injured as a result of two separate industrial accidents that occurred at Walt Disney World on Monday. Disney Cast Member Fatally Struck by Utility Vehicle According to FOX News, the first accident occurred around 9:00 am and claimed the life of cast member Juan Alberto Ojeda, 34. Early reports suggest Ojeda was fatally injured when he became trapped under a utility vehicle that hopped a curb at 1153 Century Drive, where the Pop Century Resort is located, and landed on top of him. Ojeda told witnesses that he could not breath before falling unconscious. Paramedics pronounced Ojeda dead at the scene. OSHA announced that they have initiated an investigation of the incident. Second Disney Employee Injured in Industrial Accident The second Disney employee was injured after falling at the parks Animal Kingdom Lodge at around 10:20 pm. The extent of the employees injuries was not immediately available, though they were said to be non-life-threatening. The worker is recovering at Orlando Regional Medical Center. On the Job Injury Statistics The following information was provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): 5,190 work-related deaths were recorded in 2016, marking an average of more than 99 deaths a week or more than 14 deaths every day. Of the 4,693 fatalities recorded in the private industry, 991 or 21.1 percent occurred in construction. Among the leading causes of work-related deaths were: Falls Transportation accidents Struck-by object Electrocution Caught-in/between Contact an Experienced Work Injury Attorney If you or a loved one were injured on the job, contact Thomas J. Henry. Workplace accident victims deserve quality, dynamic representation from attorneys with the experience and legal resources to properly develop their case. Oftentimes, workplace injuries are severe and debilitating and put individuals out of work for an extended period of time. Our work accident lawyers will take immediate action on your case and make sure you are comfortable and informed throughout the entire legal process. Contact us today for a free case review. Our firm has offices in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, serving clients across Texas and nationwide. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry Personal Injury Law. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. Tourism bosses have reiterated their pledge to ensure Longford plays a leading part in the rollout of Ireland's Hidden Heartlands brand. It comes after recent comments from a number of local politicians over Longford's omission from a television advert to signal the launch of the concept. Fine Gael Cllr Peggy Nolan was among the most critical as she questioned why a clutch of neighbouring counties had featured while Longford had been left out. ALSO READ: Longford ranked among top 50 of world's best places to visit Leitrim got two beautiful shows on that ad, so did Roscommon, so did Westmeath and yet we werent even included in that at all, so from that, Irelands hidden heartland model is still very much hidden and I am very, very upset about it, she told a recent meeting of Longford County Council. However, the State's National Tourism Development Authority, responded by insisting Longford was very much part of its plans to highlight its new tourism model. In a statement, Failte Irelands Director of Marketing, Niall Tracey said its multi-media brand awareness campaign, worth 1m, was scheduled to include a specially-commissioned radio advertisement featuring Clondra and the Royal Canal over the coming weeks. Our Irelands Hidden Heartlands brand has been incredibly well received by the industry and resonated strongly during research in our target markets, said Mr Tracey. It is tapping into a growing tourism trend for soft activities by encouraging visitors to be active in nature and to explore the region by going off the beaten tracks. The brands appeal also very much lies in its offer for visitors to get away from the stresses and pressures of modern life and to experience the tranquility of rural Ireland. Over the coming weeks, through our domestic brand awareness campaign, we will be reinforcing Irelands Hidden Heartlands as a key brand in the Irish tourism offering, and presenting Irish consumers with compelling reasons to consider Longford and the wider region for their future travel plans. Longford farmers are being called upon to make nominations for the annual Zurich Farmer of the Year awards. Nominations have now opened for what will be the 5th annual Farmer of the Year Awards in association with Zurich Farm Insurance and in partnership with Farming Independent. The Farmer of the Year Awards celebrate one of the biggest and most important sectors within the Irish economy and the Award Ceremony - in The Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone on November 1 2018 - brings the industry together to recognise and reward the very best in Irish farming. Graham Minogue, Head of Agri for Zurich Insurance said that as Irelands fastest growing farm insurer, Zurich Insurance was hugely passionate about recognising best practice across Irelands farming community and showcasing the world leading talent that this special industry has in abundance. The Farmer of the Year Awards has become an annual highlight of the farming calendar and were delighted to be involved once again in celebrating the key success stories over the past year, he added. Were expecting a record number of entries for 2018 and are looking forward to hearing from Longfords brightest stars. Free to enter, this competition allows entrants to choose from six farming categories. There is also a Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grand Prix overall Farmer of the Year 2018 award. The Farmer of the Year 2017 Grand Prix was won by Peter Hynes from Co Cork. Farmers can enter themselves or be nominated by any third party including Teagasc advisor, friend, family member, fellow farmer etc. Winners in each category will receive a prize of 2,500. Full details of categories and how to enter are available at www.farmeroftheyear.ie. Entry deadline is Monday, October 1, 2018. Read Also: Longford firm takes aim at latest setback to hit national broadband rollout Cllr Joe Flaherty has criticised the Government's failure to challenge the wholesale closure of Post Offices. Two Co Longford Post Offices (Carrickboy and Cloonagh) are scheduled to close with the local operators deciding to take voluntary redundancy. The Fianna Fail Councillor said that the local operators were perfectly entitled to make these decisions and would only have done so after many weeks of agonising debate and worry. They have given a fantastic service to the local community and An Post and the Government should not be allowed to use these redundancies as a means of closing these vital local services, he added, before pointing out that the loss of one service begets the loss of another. Carrickboy lost its national school in 2011 and news of these latest closures comes on the back of yet another setback for the Government's flawed rural broadband plans." Cllr Flaherty, meanwhile, is adamant that the Government should initiate a Public Service Obligation (PSO) to keep these at risk post offices open and maintain the local post office network at current levels. The standard defence for the closures is that An Post needs to be returned to profitability but the reality is that the company is profitable, Cllr Flaherty continued. An Post made a profit of 12.4m in 2017 as against a loss of 8.4m in 2016. This is one of the few companies that are actually profiting on the back of online shopping. Parcel business was up 30% in 2017 and will certainly continue to grow. An Post is the preferred delivery partner for Amazon and DHL." Cllr Flaherty went on to say that An Post had made a heartless business decision. An Post are well aware of their obligations and responsibilities to rural Ireland but are simply choosing to walk away from them. According to their annual report, 76% of the population are using the Post Office. Name any other local business that can say three out of every four people are availing of their services?" An angry Cllr Flaherty added, The Government should not allow this to happen and An Post management are well aware of the ramifications of their actions. In his commentary to their 2017 annual report, An Post CEO, David McRedmond, wrote 'the post office is often the last shop standing in towns and villages. An Post makes no secret of the fact that their future plans are modeled on the German Deutsche Post and other European models that have also been allowed to turn their backs on rural communities. Once again rural Longford is set to lose further services and pay the price in the shameful march towards even greater profits." Read Also: Longford Cllr wants local authority to address parking fees' anomaly for electric cars Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has pardoned 83 convicts today, the Chairperson of the Pardon Commission Zviad Koridze said at a press conference. According to him, 40 prisoners will leave the penitentiary institution today, while the sentences of the other 43 will be mitigated. Koridze added that there are three women and a minor among the pardoned prisoners, Agenda.ge reported. The commission examined the cases of 976 convicts between July 23 and July 29 and then sent their recommendations to the president. Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: August 02 2018 Senator will bestow NYS Senate 2018 Commendation Awards and Empire Awards upon locals. Long Island, NY - August 2, 2018 - New York State Senator John E. Brooks requests residents of his Senate District 8 to nominate exceptional local individuals and businesses for consideration for two NYS Senate awards: the Commendation Award and Senate Empire Award. NYS Senate Commendation Awards The NYS Senate Commendation Awards are bestowed upon exceptional people who have made a lasting contribution to their community. If you know of an individual you would like to nominate for this award, they should meet the following criteria: Individuals or families that exemplify the spirit of volunteerism at its best. They devote their personal time, energy, creativity, and expertise to others; they participate in philanthropic efforts, display exceptional generosity, either through direct financial support, or outstanding civic and charitable work; their drive and generosity encourages others to get involved in their community. Leaders in the community who enrich the health, social, and educational well-being of their fellow citizens. They demonstrate leadership by chairing committees, working on neighborhood causes, mentoring others, volunteering or simply serving as a role model. Their efforts and dedication improve the quality of life in every aspect of their communities. NYS Senate Empire Awards The NYS Senate Empire Awards recognize excellence in business in our Senate District. If you know of a business that you would like to nominate for this award, please be sure it meets the following criteria: Businesses that are leaders in their industry, and are developing an outstanding, thriving business; using innovative methods or product(s); increasing jobs, economic growth; and making significant community contributions that influence New York State. Businesses that encourage other area businesses or have formed partnerships within the community; those that hire veterans; that hire/train New Yorkers with disabilities; those that have created entrepreneurial success; growing and creating increased economic opportunities; a family-owned business that has passed from one generation to another; or an emerging innovative business that has developed an outstanding and successful business product or service. Businesses that have created a culture of philanthropy; those that volunteer their time and services and demonstrate exceptional leadership in the community; conduct virtuous ethical practices, green practices, outstanding service, or have contributed significantly to their communitys quality of life. Senator John E. Brooks is the New York State Senator for the 8th District, representing portions of Nassau and Suffolk Counties along the South Shore of Long Island. Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: August 02 2018 While Working at JFK Airport, Marlene Mizzi Allegedly Took Gifts and Benefits from Joseph Jourieh and Others in Exchange for Providing Special Treatment Including to the Qatari and Other Foreign Governments. Queens, NY - August 2, 2018 - Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today announced grand jury indictments charging Port Authority official Marlene Mizzi, 54, with three counts of Receiving a Reward for Official Misconduct in the Second Degree, a class E felony in violation of Penal Law Section 200.25, and Joseph Jourieh, 58, with two counts of Rewarding Official Misconduct in the Second Degree. Mizzi is also facing multiple misdemeanor counts of Receiving Unlawful Gratuities and Official Misconduct. Mizzi has been suspended from her job. According to the indictments and other documents filed in Queens County, Mizzi is alleged to have accepted numerous benefits from Jourieh and other individuals for having violated her duty as a public servant as a Port Authority Official at John F. Kennedy Airport. The defendants each face a maximum sentence of up to four years if convicted on the top counts. The indictments stem from a joint investigation conducted by the Office of the Attorney General and the Port Authority Inspector Generals Office. We have zero tolerance for those who violate the public trust for personal benefit, said Attorney General Underwood. As we detail in the indictment, the defendant used her position at the Port Authority for personal gain, accepting gifts and benefits from individuals working for foreign governments in exchange for special treatment. Well continue to work with our partners in government to hold accountable those who jeopardize the integrity of our government agencies. Michael Nestor, Inspector General for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said, The defendant is alleged to have violated her position of public trust and used her position for personal gain. In this case, the defendant chose to enrich herself and tarnish the reputation of the agency by allegedly accepting cash, travel, meals and other things of value from representatives of foreign governments. The Port Authority will not tolerate employee misconduct or corruption of any kind. Todays indictment will serve notice to all Port Authority employees that the agency will not tolerate violations of the public trust or any other corrupt acts. The Port Authority Office of Inspector General and its Law Enforcement partners will aggressively identify, investigate and bring to justice those who corrupt the integrity of the agency. As alleged in the indictment, Mizzi has been an employee of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for 35 years and, prior to her suspension earlier this year, worked as an Assistant Airport Duty Supervisor at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK). Jourieh operates a company, East Coast Concierge, which works on behalf of the Permanent Mission of Qatar to the United Nations, arranging transportation and other services when government officials travel to New York. During the annual United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, with airport security at a heightened state, Port Authority rules clearly state that foreign state aircraft must depart JFK within two hours of arrival and there is no overnight parking of foreign state aircraft. However, the Attorney General alleges that, from 2014 until she left the Port Authority in June 2018, Mizzi would unilaterally grant exceptions to these rules without proper approval, for certain foreign countries, most notably Qatar. During these years, Mizzi authorized numerous Qatari diplomatic planes to stay overnight during the United Nations General Assembly, sometimes for multiple days allegedly in exchange for gifts and benefits from Jourieh. In 2014 and 2015, Jourieh arranged free limousine rides and meals for Mizzi, and provided her with a gift of a watch. In 2017, Mizzi received bottles of wine and other gifts from another foreign states representative in return for the same overnight parking privilege. Mizzi also allegedly received other gifts, including bottles of wine, from other foreign countries for her work at JFK. On numerous occasions, representatives from foreign countries would personally deliver gifts to Mizzi on JFK property. The Port Authority Code of Ethics has a strict zero tolerance policy on the acceptance of payments, gifts, free meals, or transportation from vendors or anyone with whom the Port Authority does or is likely to do business. The Attorney General thanks the Office of the Port Authority Inspector General for its assistance in this investigation. Assistant Attorney General Russell Y. Satin of the Attorney Generals Public Integrity Bureau is prosecuting this case, under the supervision of Public Integrity Bureau Chief Daniel Cort and Deputy Bureau Chief Stacy Aronowitz. Executive Deputy Attorney General Margaret Garnett leads the Criminal Justice Division. Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: August 02 2018 Defendant Misappropriated State Funds Allocated for Two Storm-Damaged Homes in Lindenhurst. Lee Moser of Smithtown, 49, was sentenced for misappropriating state funds to repair two homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Riverhead, NY - August 2, 2018 - Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the sentencing of a Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini today announced the sentencing of a Smithtown home improvement contractor in connection with misappropriating state funds allocated to repair two homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, we saw many residents who had suffered devastating damage to their homes become re-victimized by unscrupulous contractors, District Attorney Sini said. Thanks to the hard work of Assistant District Attorney Tara Fairgrieve, this defendant is being held accountable for scamming Suffolk County residents in their time of need and is repaying his debts to the victims. Lee Moser, 49, pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree on March 22 and agreed to pay $31,110 in restitution, half of the total amount of restitution he owed, by his sentencing date. If he did not pay the required restitution amount, he faced a sentence of one year in prison. The defendant provided proof of the payment and was sentenced today by Suffolk County Court Justice Timothy Mazzei to five years of probation, during which time he is required to pay the remaining $31,110 in restitution. In 2016, Moser entered into contracts with two Lindenhurst residents to lift their respective homes, which sustained damage in 2012 during Superstorm Sandy, through his contracting business, Capstone Realty Holdings, Inc. The homeowners had received funding from the Governors Office of Storm Recoverys New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program for home improvement projects to prevent future flooding. According to New York State Lien Law, Moser was required to hold the funds in trust and was only authorized to use the funds to pay for expenditures stemming from the lifting projects. He is convicted of misappropriating those funds, using the victims money to fund unrelated home improvement projects and on personal expenses. Moser misappropriated $42,500 from one victim and $19,720 from the second victim for a total of $62,220. If Moser fails to pay the remaining $31,110 in restitution during his probationary sentence, he could face a maximum sentence of two and one-third to seven years in prison. Nature & Weather, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: August 02 2018 Heastie joined Assemblymember Christine Pellegrino to continue his annual statewide tour in Long Island. Pictured with Speaker Heastie in the first photo at YES Community Counseling Center (from left to right): Assemblymember Christine Pellegrino, YES Community Counseling Center Executive Director Jamie Bogenschultz and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. Long Island, NY - August 2, 2018 - Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie today joined Assemblymember Christine Pellegrino to continue his annual statewide tour in Long Island. The pair visited a local community counseling center, as well as an area along the south shore that is still struggling in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Each year, this statewide tour has given me a glimpse into the challenges and strengths of communities all across the state, said Speaker Heastie. When we return to Albany, these experiences help us shape our legislative priorities and remind us just how important that work is. These breathtaking shore communities add to the beauty of New York, but we must continue to find new and innovative ways to protect their future. It was a privilege to show Speaker Heastie all that these amazing communities have to offer, said Assemblymember Pellegrino. We face many unique challenges, but organizations like YES Community Counseling Center demonstrate the resilience and sense of community that make this region truly special. I am also extremely grateful for the Speakers continued support of efforts to safeguard and prepare these shore communities from future natural disasters. Speaker Heastie and Assemblymember Pellegrino first stopped at YES Community Counseling Center, a local nonprofit that helps community members in southeastern Nassau County overcome issues that include domestic violence, substance use and addiction, family conflict, sexual abuse, marital/peer difficulties, suicide and loss, bereavement and other important issues. YES also provides social work services to Massapequa elementary students through their partnership with the schools. The organization works tirelessly to address issues related to the nations heroin and opioid epidemic. In the 2018 budget, Assemblymember Pellegrino was able to secure $50,000 for the Centers Family Life Support Project. Sports & Recreation, Nature & Weather, Local News, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: August 02 2018 Environmental Project will Bolster Healthy Fisheries, Expand Recreation and Revitalization at Lower Lake Dam. Suffolk County, NY - August 2, 2018 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today signed a resolution that will appropriate $1 million in County Water Quality Projection funding towards the completion of the Carmans River Fish Ladder Project, the only remaining barrier to fish passage on the Carmans River. The project will transport migratory fish safely and effectively across the stream barrier while protecting public welfare concerning flooding and existing infrastructure. Healthy fisheries are critical for the Long Island economy and this project will improve the quality of our waterways, said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. The investment in a fish ladder will ensure there is an abundance of fish while returning the river to its natural habitat. I thank our partners at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as well as Legislators Sunderman and Browning for their partnership in bringing this project to fruition. DEC welcomes Suffolk Countys investment in improving fish habitat along the Carmans River. As one of Long Islands Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers the Carmans has long been a top destination for anglers, New York State DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said. Once this ladder is completed it will open up approximately six miles of river and lake habitat for alewife, eels and various trout species. The work builds upon work done by DEC and the New York State Department of Transportation which installed a fish ladder near Hards Lake which jump started the movement of these fish species through one of Long Islands most important river systems. The Carmans River originates in the hamlet of Middle Island and flows into the Great South Bay , spanning 10 miles and utilized by residents for hunting, fishing and other recreational activities. The first eight miles of the river is freshwater, and the surrounding watershed is environmentally and ecologically significant on a local and regional scale, with more than a dozen ecological habitat types supporting a diversity of species. In addition, the Carmans River is one of Long Islands four major river systems that include Connetquot, Nissequogue and the Peconic, and flows through the Central Pine Barrens. The first eight miles The construction of dams and other barriers have prevented fish species in the Carmans River the ability to migrate between fresh and salt-water habitats, critical to their growth. Historic mill structures on the north side of the river made it difficult to install the original plan of a prefab ladder without disturbing the integrity of the historic structures. The current design integrates a high-pressure natural gas line and will not disturb the dam. The fish ladder will also allow access for alewives and blueback herring, brook trout, and the American eel to swim upstream to spawn, contributing to the growth of the species and the health of the marine environment. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation earlier this year awarded Suffolk County a $200,000 grant that will be utilized towards the construction of the fish ladder. The Carmans River Fish Project is expected to begin construction in February 2019 and coincide with the time that the water ha been drawn down for a concurrent Town of Brookhaven project. Suffolk County Legislator Rudy Sunderman said: I am happy to announce to the residents of Yaphank, the long wait is over and construction of the fish ladder at the Yaphank Avenue Culvert has officially been signed into law. Since taking office, Ive worked tirelessly to see this long awaited project come to fruition. This fish ladder is the final link that connects Carmans River and the Yaphank Lakes and will allow fish to migrate from the Bay to Upper Lake. Thank you to my colleagues on the Legislature, County Executive Bellone, Councilman Michael Loguercio, Yaphank Historical Society, Coalition to Save the Yaphank Lakes, and Yaphank Civic Association for working together to get this project underway. Russia's journalist Okhran Dzhemal, director Alexander Rastorguyev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko were killed in the Central African Republic on July 30. The tragedy was reported on July 31, the information about the accident is still incomplete. It is known that the killed journalists entered the country with tourist visas without the proper accreditation. A spokesman for Central African Republic's government, Ange Maxime Kazagui, said that the journalists were shot dead at a roadblock by a group of about 10 men who wore turbans and did not speak languages commonly used in CAR. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, urged to punish the perpetrators of the killing according to the laws of war. Kadyrov also expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased and expressed hope that law enforcement agencies and the Russian Foreign Ministry will do everything possible to ensure that criminals are punished. The head of Chechnya added that clarifying the religious affiliation of the guilty does not make sense. "They were shot not by Muslims, not by Christians, but by criminals, bandits, regardless of what organization or agency they represent," he stressed. A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, called Okhran Dzhemal a very peculiar person. "He was harsh, categorical. Nevertheless, he had his own opinions, I treated him with respect - although I almost never agreed with him," the expert explained. Victor Litovkin suggested that to some extent it was special traits of character that resulted the journalist's death. "He did not always listen to sanity. It should be understood that a person should not visit such countries as the CAR without security, there is a great chance of encountering corrupt people. I think that the driver ambushed them - it's no accident he does not have a single scratch, but all of its passengers were killed," the military observer pointed out. "I express my deep sympathy and condolences to to his family and friends," the expert said. The World Congress of the IMT, meeting in Italy at the end of July, passed a unanimous resolution demanding the release of Catalan political prisoners jailed for their part in organising the independence referendum on 1 October 2017. Over 370 delegates and visitors from all over the world (from Canada to Brazil, Sweden to Greece, Russia to Indonesia) passed the resolution, the full English text of which is as follows (CATALA / ESPANOL): The 2018 World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency notes that: There are 9 Catalan political and social leaders being kept in pre-trial detention by the Spanish state as a punishment for the attempt to exercise the democratic right of self-determination through a referendum on 1 October, 2017. The leaders of the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Sanchez, and Omnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart have been jailed since October 16, charged with rebellion for their part in the mass protests against the actions of the Spanish police on 20 September. The Catalan Vice-president Oriol Junqueras and Catalan Minister Joaquim Forn were jailed on 2 November. Catalan Ministers Raul Romeva, Dolors Bassa, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull were jailed on 23 March, as was the Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell. They are also charged with rebellion for their part in organising the democratic referendum on independence on 1 October. Several other Catalan politicians, including Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, have had to go into exile. Dozens of Catalan Republican activists have been charged for their part in mass peaceful protests against police repression and for the Catalan Republic, including the 3 October and 8 November general strikes. At least one has had to go into hiding. This repression reveals the fundamentally undemocratic character of the Spanish regime, inherited from the Franco era through the betrayal of the so-called transition, which ensured the impunity of the crimes of the old regime, the continuation, unpurged, of the state apparatus, the reactionary Monarchy and the denial of the democratic right of self-determination. This repression is part of a more general assault on democratic rights on the part of the Spanish regime which has seen dozens charged for crimes of opinion, rap artists sentenced to jail for their lyrics, Basque youth condemned to lengthy jail sentences for a bar brawl, puppeteers charged with apology of terrorism, an actor has been charged for offending God, etc. The Catalan struggle for a democratic Republic has starkly revealed that in Spain the exercise of the democratic right of self-determination is a revolutionary task. It has also revealed that the Catalan bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalist politicians which led the movement are unable and unwilling to use the necessary revolutionary means to carry it to victory. It has also exposed the bankruptcy of the leaders of the Left in Spain which at the crucial moment retreated into crass Spanish nationalism instead of defending the democratic rights of the Catalan people. We demand the immediate release of the Catalan political prisoners and all others jailed for their political opinions in the Spanish state. We demand the dropping of all charges against those who have been forced into exile. We demand the repeal of the Gag Law (Ley Mordaza). We stand by the democratic right of self-determination of the Catalan people and the other peoples of the Spanish State. We commit ourselves to participate in the broadest international solidarity campaign with those prosecuted by the Spanish state. The struggle for a Catalan Republic can only succeed if it is carried out by revolutionary means, linking the struggle for the democratic rights to the struggle against capitalism. The Candidatures dUnitat Popular (CUP) and the Committees for the Defence of the Republic should put themselves at the forefront of this struggle. The struggle for the democratic rights of Catalonia questions the foundations of the Spanish 1978 regime. Workers across the Spanish State should stand in solidarity with it as part of their own struggle against the same regime. For a Catalan Socialist Republic. For a Socialist Federation of Free Iberian Peoples. Update: Reports of Marcel Noebels' new contract with the Bruins appear to be a bit premature, as was informed by Noebels' agent, Allain Roy, that the 26-year-old winger has yet to agree to terms on a deal. "I think that was the German media jumping on something ahead of time," Roy told Porter. "We are talking with the Bruins, but there's nothing concrete yet." If Boston does ink Noebels to a contract, it would likely be a professional tryout (PTO) contract for training camp, per Mark Divver of the Providence Journal. Per multiple reports earlier this week out of Germany, Noebels had already signed a contract with the Bruins, giving the Black and Gold another option up front. The Bruins have been active this offseason when it comes to picking up talent from overseas, with the Black and Gold signing Slovakian forward Martin Bakos to a one-year contract back on June 14. Noebels, who has spent the last four seasons with the Berlin Polar Bears of the DEL, was part of a German team that took silver in the 2018 Winter Olympics, with Noebels tallying one goal over seven games. During his tenure with Berlin, Noebels scored 32 goals and posted 87 points over 144 games. The 6-foot-2 forward was drafted in the fourth round (No. 118 overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers, playing with the Adirondack Phantoms of the AHL for two seasons before heading back to Germany. WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Plato's Closet in West Springfield needed to open before it can open. The shop at 1472 Riverdale St. sells secondhand clothing. That means it has to buy secondhand clothing. Getting the store ready meant buying more than 20,000 items over the past few weeks so it has something to sell. "We call it 'open to buy,'" owner Larry White said this week as his employees sorted through stacks of gently used clothing. The people who sold those clothes might have wanted to, but can't yet, buy more clothing. They won't be able to do so until Plato's Closet's grand opening Aug. 9. "It's all from the public," White said of the merchandise. "The only things we have to sell are what comes in the door." That's not strictly true, but the only new goods at Plato's Closet are a few jewelry items. White also had to meet a bunch of newfangled business goals before opening, like social media impressions and a certain number of Instagram followers, he said. Marketing the store is largely an exercise in reaching a largely female customer base in their teens and 20s. While there are men's clothes, the majority of the clothing items sold are for women. White's store is a return of the Plato's Closet name to the Pioneer Valley. Stores in West Springfield, Amherst and Springfield closed about nine years ago. Today, the only other Plato's Closet in Massachusetts is in Waltham. There is also a store in Enfield, Connecticut. Plato's Closet, along with Once Upon A Child, Style Encore and Play it Again Sports, is a franchised brand of Winmark Corp. White and his wife, Kathy, already own the Once Upon a Child on the other side of the plaza on Riverdale Street. The Plato's Closet concept is simple. People come in with clothes to sell. White's staff members -- he's hired 18 so far just for the new store and has more than 20 at Once Upon a Child -- sort through the goods to determine what the store is interested in buying. At Plato's Closet, it's gently used clothing for teens and twentysomethings that is in demand. Bras and swimsuits have to be new. Plato's Closet staffers plug the item description into a proprietary computer program that came with the franchise. That program gives White and his staff the price he'll pay. There's no haggling -- it's accept or reject. But a seller can reject the offer to buy some items while agreeing to sell others. The store can turn down an item completely. It's not a consignment shop where the seller has to wait for the shop to sell the item before the seller can get paid. In general, White offers sellers about 30 to 40 percent of what he'll sell the item for. And at that sales price, Plato's Closet is 50 to 70 percent off from retail. For example, a pair of jeans that sells for $40 at a department store might be on sale at Plato's Closet for $15. White paid $6 to the person who brought them in. That's not much, even though few clothes shoppers pay full retail even at a department store. "You can do better selling it on Facebook," White said. "I tell people that every day of the week. But how many times will you have to post it? And you have to meet a stranger in a parking lot. And if the stranger doesn't show up?" Many of the items already on the sales racks at Plato's Closet this week still had department-store tags on them. Years ago Larry and Kathy White shopped at a Once Upon a Child elsewhere for their grandchildren and thought it was a great concept: gently used baby and child clothing as well as toys, games and equipment like swings and strollers sold at deep discounts. Larry White said he's been in business before, including owning a Christian bookstore in Springfield and a bookstore in Agawam. The Whites opened their own Once Upon A Child in West Springfield three years ago. In those three years, White said he's bought more than 1.5 million items and has 1,200 totes of merchandise stored and ready to stock. "We back-stock items that are out of season," White said. "I don't make you wait for things to be in season." Last week, workers at Once Upon a Child were putting out Halloween costumes. DEERFIELD -- Yankee Candle owner Newell Brands laid off 16 office employees Thursday at Yankee Candle's headquarters in South Deerfield. The layoffs were the result of a change in reporting structure, Newell spokesman Michael Sinatra said. Yankee Candle has 1,400 employees in Massachusetts including at the offices and flagship store in South Deerfield, a factory in Whately and a facility in East Longmeadow. Sinatra works at Newell's corporate headquarters in Hoboken, New Jersey. According to a written statement: "Today, some employees in South Deerfield were informed of changes to our organization that will impact their roles at our company. Decisions impacting people, are some of the hardest we make as an organization and a process we don't take lightly. Our team is dedicated to working in partnership with impacted employees to ensure a smooth transition for them and our goal is always to achieve the best outcome for the company and our people. That said, following the company's announcement of its Accelerated Transformation Plan in January, Newell Brands continues to make progress in reshaping the company. Newell Brands is making sharp portfolio choices and strengthening the organization as the company drives toward its goal of becoming a leading consumer goods company that is simpler, faster and stronger." The company makes more than 200,000 scented jar candles a week and about 75 million a year for worldwide distribution. Michael J. Kittredge II founded Yankee Candle in his parents' garage in South Hadley in 1969. He sold 90 percent of his shares in the company in 1998 for an estimated $400 million, and the new management took the company public the next year. The Kittredges no longer have a stake in Yankee Candle. Kittridge's son, Mick, has since created and owns the Kringle Candle Co. and brand in Bernardston. Yankee Candle changed hands repeatedly over the years. Jarden Corp. bought it for $1.75 billion in 2013 from a Chicago investment company. Madison Dearborn Partners acquired Yankee Candle for $1.6 billion in 2007. Newell Rubbermaid, now known as Newell Brands, bought Jarden Corp. and with it Yankee Candle in 2015 in a cash and stock deal worth about $13.2 billion. This spring there was a prolonged battle for control between Newell management and investor Carl Icahn. Icahn and his allies are disappointed with Newell's performance and wanted a shakeup. They were given seats on the board. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP - THREE STARS - (PG-13) A lighter, brighter superhero movie powered by the effortless charisma of Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. In the aftermath of "Captain America: Civil War," Scott Lang (Rudd) grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father. (125 min.) AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - THREE STARS - (PG-13) An unprecedented cinematic journey 10years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Universe, "Avengers: Infinity War" brings to the screen a showdown in which the Avengers and their allies must defeat the powerful Thanos. (156 min.) CHRISTOPHER ROBIN - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (PG) A sweetly good-natured fable. Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) is now grown up with a family and his share of adult problems. His old friend Winnie-the-Pooh helps him rediscover the joy that he has been missing in his life. (104 min.) DEADPOOL 2 - THREE STARS - (R) Though it threatens to buckle under the weight of its meta gags, Deadpool 2 is a gory, gleeful lampoon of the superhero genre buoyed by Ryan Reynolds' undeniable charm. (103 min.) EQUALIZER 2 - THREE STARS - (R) Denzel Washington returns in this guilty pleasure for anyone who enjoys that old-school, blue-collar American chivalric hero with a dark past. He's the kind of guy who cauterizes his own wounds, never permits collateral damage when he's on a killing spree, wears a knit polo to a showdown with four heavily armed tactical fighters, and reads great books of literature to honor his beloved dead wife. (120 min.) THE FIRST PURGE - TWO STARS - (R) To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But the violence explodes beyond the trial city and spreads across the nation. (112 min.) HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION - TWO STARS - (PG) Sony's animated "Hotel Transylvania" franchise takes to the high seas in this limp effort. Featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Kevin James. (97 min.) THE INCREDIBLES 2 - THREE STARS - (PG) The animated feature reunites Pixar's family crimefighting team for a long-awaited follow-up that may not quite live up to the original, but comes close enough to earn its name. (118 min.) JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM - TWO AND a HALF STARS - (PG-13) "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is more fun than "Jurassic World." It's not exactly a high bar, but still a welcome surprise. In the hands of a new director, J.A. Bayona, with Chris Pratt's high-wattage charisma on full blast and a fair amount of self-aware humor intact, there are certainly worse ways to spend a couple hours in the air-conditioned multiplex this summer. (128 min.) MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN - THREE STARS - (PG-13) The ABBA-fueled musical doubles down on just about everything fans loved about the original, though fans of the first will miss Meryl Streep. (114 min.) MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- FALLOUT - THREE AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them.(147 min.) OCEAN'S 8 - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) Not quite as smooth as its predecessors, but this Sandra Bullock led effort still has enough cast chemistry and flair to enjoyably lift the price of a ticket from filmgoers up for an undemanding caper.(110 min.) SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (R) Federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) calls on the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), whose family was murdered by a cartel kingpin, to escalate a drug war. (123 min.) SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - THREE STARS - (PG-13) Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes. (143 min.) THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME - TWO STARS - (R) Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon play two 30-year-old best friends, who are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when an ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail. (116 min.) TAG - TWO STARS - (PG-13) For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they've been playing since the first grade--risking their necks, their jobs and their relationships to take each other down. (105 min.) TEEN TITANS GO! - THREE STARS - (PG) - A fresh, gleefully clever, kid-appropriately crass and tongue-in-cheek play on the superhero genre, complete with musical numbers. (92 min.) UNCLE DREWS - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) After draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic street ball tournament in Harlem, Dax (LilRel Howery) is dealt a series of unfortunate setbacks, including losing his team to his longtime rival (Nick Kroll). Desperate to win the tournament and the cash prize, Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend Uncle Drew (NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving) and convinces him to return to the court one more time. (103 mon.) SPRINGFIELD -- The Massachusetts Gaming Commission, after hearing glowing reports about MGM Springfield's casino project, including the quality of its work and workforce diversity, gave unanimous first-step approvals to the casino in advance of its opening Aug. 24. The commission, meeting at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, voted 5-0 that MGM Springfield is in "material compliance" with all state and commission regulations based on a series of inspections and reports from commission staff and submissions from MGM officials. Prior to the meeting, commissioners toured both the exterior and interior of the casino complex. The project aspects that were evaluated included the project construction and commitments to date, workforce and hiring efforts, technology, responsible gaming criteria, gaming regulatory compliance, employee and vendor licensing, finance and legal requirements. The staff reports dominated the meeting lasting more than three hours. Edward Bedrosian, executive director of the Gaming Commission, stressed that the review and oversight continues, but described the overall project as being of "superior quality." "The men and women who designed, constructed and decorated the casino should be very proud," Bedrosian said. He said the project, which was designed to blend in with the architecture of the downtown and South End, is "truly unique." Michael Mathis, president of MGM Springfield, said the process has been "an incredible journey ... and something we all can be proud of." The commission authorized the casino to be open for test play on Aug. 14, evaluation play on Aug. 16 and 20 and an opening VIP evening on Aug. 23. The test and evaluation nights will allow gambling only for permitted players such as casino associates and friends and project laborers, to make sure the casino is ready for opening. In a related vote, the commission authorized one of its members, Bruce Stebbins, to attend and observe the testing and to have the power to issue a "Conditional Operations Certificate" to open Aug. 24 if all goes well in the testing. The Gaming Commission would consider granting a permanent certificate when it meets in September. Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, speaking to MGM Springfield officials, said the commission serves as regulators, "but we know quality work, quality people, integrity when we see it." He praised Mathis for "excellent leadership" and for building a great team. A 21-year-old man faces a murder charge after police said he shot two men, killing one of them, in Dorchester last month. Officers from the Boston Police Homicide Unit and Fugitive Unit arrested Odell Sanders near 41 Ellington St. in Dorchester Wednesday. He is charged with murder and assault with intent to murder following the July 25 shooting. At 10:57 p.m. that night police were called to Norfolk Street in Dorchester where they found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. One man, since identified as 27-year-old Jorge Baez of Boston, was pronounced dead a the scene. Another man, in his late teens, was taken to the hospital where he was treated for injuries. He is expected to recover. Sanders is scheduled for arraignment in Dorchester District Court Thursday, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office. STURBRIDGE - A quarter-century ago 10-year-old Holly Piirainen had walked a short distance from her grandmother's home to play with a neighbor's puppies. She was never seen again. The child, who lived in Grafton but was vacationing with her father and other family members at her grandmother's cottage in Sturbridge, was abducted around noon in the area of Allen and South Shore roads on Aug. 5, 1993. On the 25th anniversary of her death, her family and Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni is renewing their efforts to ask the public for any information they may have about her abduction and subsequent killing. When Holly did not return, her family members started searching and then called police. A massive search was conducted in the nearby woods for the missing child by more than 80 police officers and volunteers. The searchers only found one of her sneakers on the side of the road. On Oct. 23 Holly's remains were found by hunters in a wooded area off Five Bridge Road in Brimfield. "The Piirainen family has been coping with this tragedy for 25 years. Along with Holly's family, I, members of my office, and the Massachusetts State Police Detectives assigned to the case have never stopped investigating to bring justice to Holly and her family. We continue to ask members of the public who may have any information please contact us," Gulluni said in writing. Police and Holly's family have put out a call asking for more information several times over the years, most recently on the 23rd anniversary of her death. Over the years law enforcement agencies have amassed a number of possible suspects and gathered information about the homicide but have never been able to find her killer. In 2013 State Police tried to gather evidence to connect convicted child serial killer Lewis L. Lent Jr. to her unsolved murder and others in Western Massachusetts. In 2012 law enforcement put out a call asking for more information about David E. Pouliot, who was linked by forensic testing of evidence collected. Pouliot, who died in 2003, was never named in her death. Holly was the daughter of Christina Harrington and Richard Piirainen. She also had two younger brothers. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Hampden District Attorney's Office (413) 505-5993. People can also use text-a-tip by texting the word CRIMES (2-7-4-6-3-7) and type the word SOLVE into the body of the message followed by the tip. Members of the Federation Council Committee for Foreign Affairs will meet with US Republican senator Rand Paul on August 6, Chairman of the Federation Council committee Konstantin Kosachyov said. The chairman noted that the meeting will take place on August 6 at 11:00 Moscow time at the Federation Council. The Russian side will be represented by First Deputy Chairman of the committee and former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak, First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov and Deputy Chairman Vladimir Lukin, who also headed the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington. The US delegation includes member of the Texas State Senate Don Huffines and President of the Cato Institute Peter Goettler, TASS reported. "The issues of Russian-American relations and the prospects of bilateral interparliamentary ties will be discussed," Kosachyov said, adding that the US side has planned meetings in the State Duma and the Russian Foreign Ministry, as well as a visit to St. Petersburg. The body of a missing boater was pulled from a pond in Canton early Thursday morning. First responders began searching for the man, reported to be in his 20s, at Reservoir Pond Wednesday night. His body was pulled from the water around 2 a.m., multiple media outlets have reported. "Our hearts are broken for the family," Police Chief Ken Berkowitz told WHDH. "It's a town where everybody knows everybody and we do know the family. Our hearts go out and our condolences to the family." Officials believe the man was fishing before falling into the pond. He has not yet been identified. A Cape Cod police officer was stuck with a used syringe Wednesday as police conducted a drug investigation that began with a traffic stop. Authorities say the detective was later treated at Cape Cod Hospital for the infectious exposure. Yarmouth Police Department Proactive Anti-Crime Unit Officer Sean Geary stopped an SUV around 4 p.m. Wednesday on Autumn Way in South Yarmouth. A small bag of heroin was located inside the SUV, according to police. The officer learned a wanted person was inside a nearby home at 12 Amelia Way. Yarmouth police officers went to the home and located 28-year-old Michael Geggatt, a Yarmouth man wanted on outstanding warrants. "Inside the home police officers observed in plain view a large amount of drug paraphernalia, syringes, cotton swabs, metal caps used for cooking heroin, and empty corner cut bags," police said. Officers say they saw Michael Santos, 29, of Yarmouth, hiding heroin with a syringe in his hand. A small bag of heroin was next to him, police said. Detectives were called to the scene and began to sweep the home. Police say a man slammed a door on a detective and tried to escape. Police say the detective was stuck with a used syringe while apprehending the suspect, identified as Euclides Matias, 31, of Boston. Authorities say heroin was found inside the bedroom. Matias had two large bags of heroin hidden in his underwear, according to police. Investigators seized drug paraphernalia and $1,600 in cash inside the home. All of the people arrested had multiple prior arrests, according to police. Arrested were: Michael Geggatt, 28, of Yarmouth: arrested on outstanding warrants Timothy Daffinee, 32, of Yarmouth: charged with heroin possession Michael Santos, 29, of Yarmouth: charged with heroin possession Zachary Tuers, 29, of Yarmouth: arrested on outstanding warrants Euclides Matias, 31, of Roxbury: charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, heroin trafficking and arrested on an outstanding warrant Police also issued a summons for 26-Paulina Gontarz of Yarmouth, for heroin possession. Town officials will also review the rental property at 12 Amelia Way and review the building. BLANDFORD - One of the four officers who resigned Monday leaving the town with no police department said they made the bold statement to get the town's attention. Police Chief Roberta Sarnacki and officers Krysten Scapin, Chris Anciello and Gage Kerlik abruptly quit Monday night by submitting a letter to the Board of Selectmen. The group said a lack of funding compromised their safety and lead them to resign immediately. Wednesday Scapin, who has been a part-time officer for a year, released a letter explaining her reason for resigning. She posted it on a Facebook page titled "Former Blandford Police Officers." "The officers of the Blandford Police Department have made this bold resignation to receive the attention this department needs," Scapin said. "We worked very hard to make the equipment work and wanted nothing but to protect the community." In their letter of resignation, the four officers said they had been struggling with police cruisers that were in poor condition - the best of which is a 2010 second-hand car from Otis with no air conditioning and a driver's stuck in recline - ill-fitting hand-me-down bulletproof vests that were expired and radios which did not work in many parts of the about 53-square-mile town. "It has always been my passion to be a police officer and it saddens me to leave a town that could contain such potential," Scapin said, adding she had three years of police experience before joining the department. The resignation definitely brought attention. The New York Times, CNN, The New York Post, The Boston Globe and other national press published stories about the police force in the rural town of 1,200 quitting together. "We have witnessed the multiple opinions about our actions, but it is important that everybody knows that we just want what is best for the town and our safety. We were not able to perform our fullest duty with malfunctioning and unreliable vehicles, expired vests, radios with no signal. But most importantly, we could not perform at our best without the towns support by our side," she said. The officers pointed out that radios which do not work well mean they cannot call for backup in case of an emergency. That is complicated by the fact that cell phones often do not get service in a number of parts of the hilly town. Selectmen said they knew little about the equipment concerns and Sarnacki never submitted a request for new vests or radios. She did ask for one of the cruisers to be fixed and was told to submit three quotes. The repairs were made and the cruiser was picked up on Tuesday, the day after the police force resigned, said Joshua Garcia, interim town manager. But records show former Police Chief Kevin Hennessey, who left in June to become the Russell police chief, wrote in the 2017 annual town report that the department had endured a significant budget and staff reduction while calls for service had increased in 2016. Sarnacki, who was appointed as interim chief, had the full support of the other three members. "We have tirelessly tried to voice our opinions about how great Chief Roberta Sarnacki was doing as interim Chief," Scapin said. Even the Board of Selectmen said in a written statement they were happy with the work Sarnacki had done to improve training and boost morale in the department and said they were encouraging her to apply for the position of longer term, but still acting, police chief. The Board of Selectmen have recently begun talks to merge the police department with the Chester Police Department. The talks are very preliminary and will likely take two to three years before a merger could happen if everyone agrees to the plan. Meanwhile town officials do not want to hire a permanent chief, they are instead planning to interview candidates who will work as interim chief for the next two years or more, Garcia said. Since releasing the letter, Sarnacki, who had been the acting chief since June, has not returned requests for further comment. "I want to protect your families, but I have a family too. I want to come home to my child and husband, but felt that was becoming at risk with the poor conditions I was put in. Being a police officer is one of the most difficult, dangerous, idealistic jobs in the world. We did our duty, now it's up to the town," Scapin said. Town officials have repeatedly said residents will not face a spike in crime. The Massachusetts State Police in the Russell barracks, which already covered the town at night and probably handled between 80 to 90 percent of calls for service in the town, now answer all emergency calls. Hampden Sheriff Nick Cocchi also sent deputy sheriffs to the town to do some extra patrolling. The four officers were all part time and worked a total of about 25 hours a week doing speed control, directing traffic, processing license to carry applications and handling emergency calls and calls for service before their resignation, Selectwoman Cara Letendre said. The Board of Selectmen is now planning to search for candidates to fill the interim chief's position. Once a chief is hired, selectmen will work with the person to decide how best to rebuild the police force, Garcia said. Scapin's letter was also posted on the Blandford Police Department Facebook page which has a message on the page saying: "This page will be deactivated soon, as there is no current Blandford Police Department." FITCHBURG - Police arrested a Rhode Island man Wednesday after finding heroin, cocaine and cash in his car during a routine traffic stop. Jorge Rosado, 29, of Providence, was charged with trafficking in cocaine and heroin and driving on a suspended license, Massachusetts State Police said. Troopers initially spotted a blue Hyundai Santa Fe fail to stop at an intersection in Westminster. They followed the driver, later identified as Rosado, a short distance and stopped him at about 5 p.m. near Route 2 in Fitchburg, police said. During the stop troopers Ryan Dolan, Justin Burd and Michael Coflesky allegedly found 86 grams of heroin, 26 grams of cocaine and $1,546 in cash in Rosado's possession, police said. Rosado is being held on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in court Thursday morning, police said. NORTHAMPTON - After six months of searching, a new executive director of Mass Humanities has been selected, the organization announced Thursday. Brian Boyles, a native of Pittsburgh with a background in humanities and publishing, will head the large state agency that creates and supports cultural and civic programs throughout Massachusetts. "Brian impressed us with his energy, enthusiasm, and practical grasp of the humanities," said search committee member Hilda Ramirez. "His record of accomplishment in engaging diverse groups in Louisiana was most impressive." Boyles will be replacing outgoing executive director David Tebaldi, who served with the organization for 33 years and has acted in his current post since 1985. "I've long admired David Tebaldi's leadership in Massachusetts and his advocacy for the public humanities nationally," said Boyles. "I'm grateful to the board of directors for selecting me to join the incredible team there." For the last four years has Boyles served as the Vice President of Content for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH). During his time with the organization, Boyles oversaw publications, public programming and grant-making, and also opened the Louisiana Humanities Center--a center for civic dialogue. He also acted as the Publisher/Editor of LEH's award-winning magazine, Louisiana Cultural Vistas. In a statement, a representative for Mass Humanities said that Boyles' arrival comes at "a difficult time for the humanities nationally, when civil discourse seems to be at an all-time low and politicians openly question the value of the humanities and our shared democratic cultural inheritance." However, the organization expressed optimism for Boyles's ability "lead the council into a prosperous future--to the benefit of all the state's residents." "The challenges we face demand bold approaches to the humanities," said Boyles. "I look forward to working with communities, scholars, and our supporters to advance the council's mission." Boyles, who received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Western History from Tulane University, is the father of two young children. His career started in publishing, with his employment at Simon & Schuster. NORTHAMPTON -- Smith College officials say an incident in which an employee summoned campus police this week because a black woman eating lunch in a common area "seemed to be out of place" has "raised concerns in our community about bias and equity." The woman, Oumou Kanoute, is an undergraduate student working at the school over the summer, and was on her lunch break when she says the officer arrived and asked what she was doing there. "All I did was be black," she said in a Facebook post about the incident. Amy Hunter, the Interim Director of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at the school, offered this account: "Yesterday, Campus Police responded to a call from an employee reporting an unknown person who 'seemed to be out of place' in a Smith building where the dining area was in use by the college's summer programs. A Campus Police officer responded to the site and spoke with the individual, a Smith undergraduate student of color, who was on a break from her on-campus job. Campus Police found nothing suspicious about the student's presence." The statement, posted to Smith College's Facebook page, also said: "We have reached out to the student to offer support and discuss next steps, and will conduct an investigation of the incident with the employee, with Human Resources and with Campus Police." Kanoute, in her Facebook post, said she was "traumatized" by the incident and said it was outrageous police were called. "I am blown away at the fact that I cannot even sit down and eat lunch peacefully," she said. I am blown away at the fact that i cannot even sit down and eat lunch peacefully. Today someone felt the need to call... Posted by Oumou Kanoute on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 In her post Kanoute also embedded video of herself speaking with the campus police officer who came to question her. "I did nothing wrong, I wasn't making any noise or bothering anyone. All I did was be black," Kanoute wrote. She also said: "No student of color should have to explain why they belong at prestigious white institutions. I worked my hardest to get into Smith, and I deserve to feel safe on my campus." In a later post, Kanoute said she wanted people to help her identify the person who called campus police on her. "I demanded that the administration share the name of the person who made the 9-1-1 call so that they can confront and acknowledge the harm done to me as s student," Kanoute wrote. A comment from the college's Facebook account, posted to its statement on the incident, said: "We have received multiple requests to release the name of the individual who called Campus Police. Under college policy, any campus police records that are released must redact the names of parties involved. This policy recognizes the potentially adverse consequences of releasing identifying information, especially in those cases where doing so may discourage the use of this critical safety resource." Kanoute, a member of the Smith College class of 2021, could not immediately be reached for comment. A similar situation unfolded at Yale University in May, when a white student summoned police over a black graduate student who was napping in her dorm's common area. SPRINGFIELD -- The city has received two requests for grants for public art displays in the Cultural District downtown -- one for a proposed mural on a parking garage with a Dr. Seuss theme and the other for a spiral staircase art structure suggested at Court Square. While the city had hoped for more bids, a local official involved in the review said Wednesday the focus is on quality, not the number of bids. "We'll take a look," said Brian Connors, the city's deputy planner for economic development. "If there is one great proposal that is impactful, that is a good thing for the Cultural District, it's not necessarily quantity. We look for quality." The city is offering grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 each, for a total of up to $25,000 this year under the city's federally funded Community Development Block Grant program. Damien Mitchell, a mural artist from Brooklyn, New York, is proposing a mural painted on the wall of a city parking garage on Taylor Street on a bare brick wall. The mural would depict Springfield's renowned children's book author Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, who would be "surrounded by and is interacting with some of his most famous characters," Mitchell said, in a summary of the project. The total project cost was listed as $8,950, and there was a letter from the Springfield Business Improvement District giving its approval for the mural project. The second proposal was submitted by Chris Thibault of Chris Teebo Films, West Springfield, which suggests Court Square as a great location for the art. His proposal calls for the creation of a wooden spiral structure with the names of numerous Springfield "Firsts" painted on each beam. In addition, it would feature lifelike "Choowalas," custom-created characters described as "mammal-like 'creativity creatures' native to Springfield." Thibault asks for a city investment of $16,000. The city's Office of Procurement opened both bids. The submission from Chris Teebo Films was missing some forms and signatures, which will be considered in the grant review process, city officials said. A review committee consisting of members of the Planning Office and Cultural District will review the proposals and provide recommendations to Chief Procurement Officer Lauren Stabilo and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Connors said. The conditions of the grant program include that the art installations must be completed by June 2019. The public art program was launched last year, with two art installations approved the first year. The 2017 awards resulted in a mural by Kim Carlino on the Gifford Lock building themed on the history of board games in Springfield, and a sculpture by James Kitchen in front of the MassMutual Center highlighting the history of the wrench in Springfield. The program this year was offered for all types of art including paint, structure, visual, projection and audio. Easthampton's private Tri-County Schools will remain closed for at least a year after an investigation found that staffers had repeatedly abused and neglected special education students. Investigators with the Disability Law Center found a disturbing pattern of unnecessary violence, physical injury and psychological harm at the school, which provided services to students with severe special education needs or behavioral problems. And students and parents reported that the physical violence was accompanied by insults, with staffers calling students "asshole," "retard" and "SPED" during and before confrontations. Those staffers were later fired. "TCS staff repeatedly utiilized excessive force and ignored student distress during restraints, used restraints as a non-emergency intervention, and intentionally antagonized students into restraints, resulting in physical and psychological injury to students with disabilities," the DLC said in a report released Thursday. The Tri-County Schools, operated by the nonprofit Northeast Center for Youth & Families, is largely funded by public schools, who pay tuition to send students whose behavioral needs cannot be met in conventional classrooms. The investigation was sparked in early April after three complaints were received by the DLC, a nonprofit organization empowered by the state to investigate abuses of people with disabilities. The findings come three years after a state review found problems with the school's use of restraints and time-out rooms. Attorney Colleen Shea, who helped lead the investigation, said abuses at the school were unusually severe, though not unique. In 2015, the DLC found similar violent treatment of students at Holyoke's Peck School. "People don't come to us when things are going well," Shea said. "It was particularly dysfunctional and bad at every level, but it's not unprecedented." The nine pages of the report dedicated to specific findings of misconduct reveal a litany of abuses, failures of judgment and disregard for the emotional and physical safety of students. An 8-year-old boy's finger was broken after staffers restrained him "almost daily" for behavioral incidents, the report found. One staffer, who was later fired, put a student into a headlock. One high school age student was injured after being slammed into a HVAC unit outside the school; another came home with a black eye after being restrained by staff. A former student told investigators he witnessed a classmate being "repeatedly slammed" into a locker by a laughing staff member. The physical restraint of students is strictly governed by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regulations, which specifically prohibit restrains as a response to property damage, refusal to comply with school rules or verbal threats that "do not constitute a threat of assault, or imminent, serious, physical harm." "Physical restraint is an emergency procedure of last resort," the regulations state. But Tri-County Schools staff repeatedly violated those rules, the DLC found. One student was restrained for "sprinting through the school attempting to encourage others to join her," as well as for destroying school property. And a middle school student was restrained after running away from a staff member. And rather than use physical force as a last resort, staffers would often intentionally provoke confrontations to justify the use of restraints, the DLC found. "In the surveillance video DLC reviewed, staff repeatedly stood in front of a student 'blocking' him or her from moving in a given direction, but when the student attempted to push past, he or she would be restrained, even though allowing the student to pass was a safe option," the report said. "At one point in the video footage, a staff member also stood near a locker and shoulder-bumped a female student to provoke a reaction." School staff also ignored documented histories of trauma, restraining two students with histories of sexual assault who were psychologically triggered by physical force. And one mother said she witnessed a student tell staff he could not breath during a restraint. "You would not be able to talk, if you couldn't breathe," the staffer allegedly replied. Parents were frequently not informed when their children had been restrained, the report found. Some students were kept in isolation, locked in rooms with concrete walls and bare tile floors. Such "exclusionary time-out" rooms are only supposed to be used as a temporary measure to calm a student, but several parents told investigators their children were left there for hours at a time. "One parent noted he was called to pick up his son early, who he found curled up in a ball on the floor of an empty time-out room crying," the report said. "The eleven year old explained that he had been taken to the room in the morning and left there for several hours." Staffers also used the isolation rooms as a punishment for rule violations, even when it worsened students' behavioral issues, the investigation found. School staff also repeatedly criminalized student behavior caused by disabilities, calling police 35 times from Sept. 5, 2017 to May 7, 2018. The calls were frequently for unruly behavior or student disruption, not physical violence, and led to 34 separate criminal or juvenile charges against students. "In effect, TCS staff repeatedly called the police to intervene when its special education students with serious social/emotional and behavioral disabilities were dysregulated, disruptive and breaking things," the report said. "Local school districts referred these students to a specialized school for therapeutic intervention, but many instead left with an avoidable criminal or juvenile court record." In one case, school staff called police saying a student had a knife and was threatening to harm himself. When officers arrived, they found the "knife" was in fact a paper clip. In early June, the school publicly announced that it would temporarily close -- but attributed the closure to the approval process for a new 11-month school year, without mentioning the ongoing abuse investigation. In a statement, Northeast Center for Youth and Families Executive Director Paul Rilla decided to close for restructuring in May, before the investigation was completed. "Subsequently the Disability Law Center conducted an investigation based on complaints which they received," Rilla wrote. "Tri-County cooperated fully with the investigation." The Disability Law Center's report gives a different timeline, saying they found probably cause to investigate in April and notified the school of their intent to investigate on May 3. The school will need to obtain approval from the state to again receive students from public schools after it reopens, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis said. Northeast Center for Youth & Families did not return a request for comment prior to publication. The school cooperated with the investigation and agreed to temporarily close its program to address the violations found by investigators. TCS intends to reopen in the 2019-2020 school year following a series of reforms, including revamping its restraint policies, eliminating the use of time-out areas as a disciplinary tool and improving staff training. The DLC will monitor the school for a year after its reopening. Each quarter, TCS will provide the agency with extensive records, including all restraint and incident reports and policies for student interventions. Tri-County Schools served students from ages 6 through 22 and first opened in 1986. It moved to its current campus on East Street in Easthampton in 2000. MassLive will continue to report on this story. If you are a staffer or parent whose student attended Tri-County Schools and wish to share your story, please contact reporter Dan Glaun at dglaun@masslive.com. CANTON - Police and firefighters are searching for a missing boater at Reservoir Pond Wednesday night. Police are asking residents if they know someone who had gone fishing in the area and has not returned to call police at 781-828-1212, Massachusetts State Police said. State Police dive team, helicopter and troopers are assisting Canton Police and Fire Departments in the search, police said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have discussed bilateral relations at a meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. The parties exchanged views on bilateral relations and cooperation within the framework of the ASEAN-centric mechanisms. "The two ministers discussed the situation around the Korean Peninsula," TASS cited the ministry as saying. SOUTHWICK - For 16-year-old Aynsley Davidson, a member of the Westover Young Marines, a recent trip to Washington was an experience she will never forget. A contingent of 48 Young Marines from around the country gathered July 14-21 and participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "This opportunity was unlike any other during my trip, and pretty much my life," said Davidson. "I was a little nervous, really. But I think what I will take away most from the experience was how much it really put the perspective into my mind of how much the brave men and women who choose to serve our country truly sacrifice." Young Marines is a national youth service and education program for boys and girls age 8 through completion of high school. The local unit is affiliated with Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. Davidson and her fellow Young Marines visited the Capitol, Smithsonian Institution, White House, Quantico, Virginia, and more. But the tomb was the most memorable. "Seeing the tomb and Arlington Cemetery in history books is nothing like going there in person," she said. "I felt very honored to be part of the wreath laying ceremony and have a chance to remember those who have given their lives to protect us, so we may keep on existing with the freedoms that we have." Davidson said it's something you can't fully appreciate from afar. "You never really grasp the full meaning and severity of what our service men and women do for us, until you see a sight like this," she said. "Even though I was only at Arlington for a short part of my Sunday, my fellow Young Marines and I wanted to do our best job possible in rendering honors." Westovers own YM Cpl Davidson was one of the luck YM's to participate in this moving ceremony and is pictured here on... Posted by Westover Young Marines - Verified on Monday, July 16, 2018 A Westfield Technical Academy junior, Davidson plans to join the U.S. Marine Corps or U.S. Navy upon graduation and hopes to have a career in firefighting. "While on my trip, we visited the Air Rescue and Firefighting Wing at Quantico. That experience made me think about joining the Marines and what it could do for my life and future career," she said. Davidson said she believes the military will help her "do things in life that I never thought I could do. Accomplish tasks with many other motivated people for a greater goal. And then, I can take those skills back into civilian life and benefit those around me." The best thing about Westover Young Marines, Davidson said, is the camaraderie and sense of family among members. "I joined the Westover unit in 2015 after seeing them in the previous year's Veteran's Day Parade, and I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into. I saw them marching at the front of the parade, and all I knew was that I wanted to be involved," she said. "It's changed my life in so many ways. I've met people I am grateful to call my best friends, brothers and sisters, really. Whenever I'm having a bad day, or I'm struggling, it's not long before that is completely turned around. Whenever something goes wrong, we all help each other, and we work together until the task is accomplished, no matter what it takes." Davidson said the Westover Young Marines has given her the confidence to succeed. "This program has given me the ability to know that whatever I choose to do in life, I am able to accomplish it no matter how difficult," she said. The Worcester Fire Department responded to a two-alarm blaze at an abandoned home on Charlton Street early Thursday morning. Deputy Fire Chief Martin Dyer said the call came in at 12:34 a.m. Smoke and flames were showing from the 25 Charlton St. home when firefighters arrived. "It was a vacant building, most if not all the windows were boarded up, which required an enormous amount of work by our firefighters to get the wood off of the windows and to get water to the scene of the fire," Dyer said. It took firefighters about an hour to get the blaze under control. The two-and-a-half story, multi-family home was vacant, so no residents were displaced, but three firefighters suffered minor injuries, Dyer said. As far as the cause of the fire, he said it's too early to tell. "The Fire Investigation Unit was on scene late last night and early this morning and I'm sure they will be returning his morning," Dyer said. A State Police K-9 was brought in, but did not detect any accelerants. Dyer said the building was condemned in 2016. The home was built in 1900 and was worth $96,400, according to Worcester property records. Absentee ballots are now available for those unable to get to the polls for the Sept. 4 Massachusetts primary. "Anyone who expects to be away or otherwise unable to get to their precinct on September 4th should apply for an absentee ballot as soon as possible," Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said in a statement. With the primary being held the day after Labor Day, voting could be tricky for some residents. Galvin said Massachusetts residents who are college students who are leaving for campus before Labor Day can cast absentee ballots before they leave. Absentee voters can vote in person at their city or town clerk's office. They can also submit a written request to their city or town hall to have an absentee ballot mailed to them. Applications for absentee ballots are available on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website. All absentee ballot requests must be received by local elections officials by 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31. Absentee ballots are due by 8 p.m. Sept. 4, the same time the polls close. When Galvin set the primary date for Sept. 4, he suggested that lawmakers allow for early voting. But the Legislature did not take up his suggestion. Galvin's opponent in the Democratic primary, Josh Zakim, has criticized Galvin for setting the primary date on a day likely to have low turnout. On the Republican side, there will be primary races for U.S. Senate, governor, attorney general and congressional seats in the 2nd and 5th districts, in addition to some legislative seats. On the Democratic side, there will be primary races for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of the commonwealth, congressional seats in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 9th districts, and some governor's council and legislative seats. EASTHAMPTON -- The City Council Wednesday called for volunteers to serve on a charter review committee, with four members chosen from the public, and four from the council. "The charter is our constitution," said councilor Daniel Rist. "It's what rules our city, and it should be hard to change it." He said interested parties must commit to meeting twice a month for a full year, probably starting in September. While the Easthampton Home Rule Charter must be reviewed every ten years, the City Council, at the urging of councilors Thomas Peake, Salem Derby, and Rist, decided to launch the project early. The current charter contains ambiguous language that needs to be cleared up, the three asserted last month. For instance, Rist and Peake in March engaged in civil debate over whether the City Council has any authority over the Easthampton Police Department, and each eventually agreed that some language in the charter is unclear. When Easthampton became a city in 1999, voters approved a new charter to reflect that a mayor and city council -- instead of a board of selectmen -- would govern. Major changes were adopted in 2011. As for the current process, one procedural item needs to be clarified. State law seems to say that any changes involving elections or terms of office be approved by a charter commission formed through a local election, and City Solicitor Jack Fitz-Gibbon backs that position, said Rist. However, other cities and towns in Massachusetts have adopted such changes through a special act of the Massachusetts Legislature, said Peake. Rist, who chairs the Rules and Government Relations Committee, said he would conduct more research. He said Stephen McGoldrick, director of the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass Boston, has offered to help and may attend an upcoming meeting. People interested in serving on Easthampton's charter review committee should send a letter of interest to City Council President Joseph McCoy. Time is of the essence, because the committee will be announced Sept. 5. McCoy can be reached at (413) 527-7636 or jmccoy@easthampton.org. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other chamber Democrats urged defense officials this week to look into reports that members of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club were given private tours of Air Force One. The senators, in a Wednesday letter sent to U.S. Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and Air Force Inspector General Stayce Harris, requested reviews of when and how individuals have been provided tours or other access to the presidential plane since Trump took office in January 2017. Pointing to reports that some members of the Trump's Florida club were invited to tour Air Force One at the Atlantic Aviation FBO at Palm Beach International in February 2017, the Democrats called such alleged access "particularly troublesome because their relationship to the president arises out of an ongoing business relationship." "If true, these reports could mean that the president or his family have used government property for private gain -- giving tours of Air Force One as a perk for club membership -- or that some citizens have potentially been able to buy access to Air Force One via their personal payments to the president's private club," they wrote. Warren and her colleagues further argued that such use of Air Force One "would not only raise questions about readiness, security and taxpayer cost, but it also violates the basic principle against using public office for private gain, and could constitute a violation of federal ethics rules." They noted that ethics regulations bar the use of government property, like Air Force One, "for other than authorized purposes." The senators asked the inspectors general to investigate who has been provided tours or access to the president's plane when it is not being used for official travel, including how individuals are vetted for security purposes, whether anyone receiving such access had a business relationship with the president or his family and whether any ethics violations may have occurred. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut; Thomas Carper, D-Delaware; and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, joined Warren in signing the letter. The senators' request for an investigation came weeks after BuzzFeed News reported that it had obtained an Air Force One tour invitation that may have been sent to some Mar-a-Lago members. According to the news outlet, two separate tours were scheduled for Feb. 18, 2017 -- shortly before Trump was set to hold his first 2020 campaign rally in Orlando. Government records suggested that they recorded differently compared to all other Air Force One tours given in the 14 months after the president took office, BuzzFeed reported. BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday said he thinks the lateness of the state budget was part of what led to the inability of lawmakers to agree on major bills related to health care and education funding. "I was concerned about the fact the budget dragged into July," Baker told reporters. "I was afraid of the opportunity cost with respect to dealing with some other things, and in some cases, that turned out to be true." The Legislature delivered the budget to Baker more than two weeks into the fiscal year, which meant lawmakers were busy negotiating the budget as the legislative session wrapped up. Although there was a flurry of activity over the past few days, before the session ended Tuesday night, talks on major bills on health care and education funding collapsed. On education funding, Baker said his administration has put significant new money into public schools, but "there's more work to do there." Baker said if he is re-elected, he will file a budget next January that puts more money into the schools that were the subject of concern during the debate. On health care, Baker said he thinks the "shortness of time" to negotiate a final bill may have been partly due to the budget delays. While he said an opioid bill that passed the Legislature Tuesday, which Baker had championed, is "very much a health care bill," he pledged to "be back at this January" with regard to a larger discussion of health care. Baker said he was "very pleased" to have gotten the bill dealing with opioid addiction from the Legislature. He also thanked lawmakers for delivering environmental and economic development bond bills. Baker said he will continue pushing for his housing production bill, which was not taken up by the Legislature. Baker said he will look at what lawmakers sent back to him regarding a pilot program for congestion pricing, which Baker already rejected once when he signed the budget. The governor reiterated that he thinks a look at congestion should be "about more than tolling on two or three roads." "We ought to take a look at this on a more holistic basis," Baker said. Baker said he will take the next 10 days to review the approximately 40 bills that are now sitting on his desk awaiting his signature. Gov. Charlie Baker wants to exempt people who rent out their homes for less than two weeks a year from having to register as a short-term rental and collect taxes. Baker's proposal is imperiling the bill that would create the registration and tax system for short-term rentals. On Monday, the day before the legislative session ended, the Massachusetts Legislature sent Baker a bill that would tax and regulate short-term rentals, like those rented through Airbnb. The point of the bill is to ensure that short-term rentals, which are increasingly competing with the hotel industry, are treated by the state in a manner similar to hotels. The bill would require all rentals to be listed in a statewide public registry. Renters would have to pay the state's 5.7 percent hotel room tax and local option taxes and fees of up to 9 percent, or 9.5 percent in Boston. The 2.75 percent convention center fee that applies to hotels in certain municipalities, including Springfield, would be extended to short-term rentals. The state would require operators to carry $1 million in liability insurance and meet certain safety requirements. On Wednesday, Baker returned the bill with an amendment. "The administration believes the state must level the playing field for short term rental operators who are using their properties as de facto hotels, and Governor Baker filed a bill over a year and a half ago to do just that while protecting citizens who occasionally rent their property from burdensome government bureaucracy," said Baker spokeswoman Lizzy Guyton. Baker, in his version of the fiscal 2018 budget, wanted to tax only people who rented their units out for more than 150 days -- essentially, owners who were treating an apartment like a hotel. After the Legislature rejected Baker's approach, Baker is now seeking to impose a minimum of 14 days, so that a homeowner who rents out their apartment for only a short time does not have to register, purchase insurance and collect taxes. Baker wrote in his amendment letter to the Legislature that this exemption would reduce the revenue collected by the state by about $300,000, out of approximately $25 million that the state anticipates collecting from the tax. It would exempt around one-sixth of the operators who would otherwise be required to register. "This change would exempt those who participate in this new industry only occasionally, while allowing the extension of fair tax treatment to the growing short-term rental sector as it competes with hotel and motel businesses," Baker wrote. Baker is also proposing modifying the public registry to include the street number and the town where a rental is located, but not the unit number. If a registry were to make the full address public, Baker wrote, he worries that it would "threaten the privacy of thousands of Massachusetts residents by requiring the publication of personally identifiable information." A final change proposed by Baker relates to who must pay the convention center fee, since he says the bill as drafted violates the terms of bond documents related to the convention centers. Guyton said Baker hopes to work with lawmakers to reach an accord soon. But whether that can be accomplished remains uncertain. Because the Legislature finished its formal sessions for the year on Tuesday, it is only meeting informally, where opposition from a single lawmaker can stop a bill from passing. That will make it difficult for lawmakers to pass any compromise bill. The initial bill passed with 30 no votes in the House and eight no votes in the Senate. Additionally, if lawmakers decide not to adopt Baker's amendment and send back their original bill, Baker can veto the bill, and the Legislature is no longer in session to override his veto. House and Senate leaders have said they are considering their options. Sarah Blodgett, a spokeswoman for Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said, "The Senate is reviewing the text of the legislation sent to us by the Governor." The Massachusetts Lodging Association, which represents the hotel industry and has been pushing for the regulation of Airbnb and similar sites, supported the initial bill. "We're disappointed that the governor has not yet lent his signature to this important legislation, but we are hopeful that after the years of effort and compromise that has been put into it, legislators will come together to address his concerns and not let this opportunity slip yet again," said Paul Sacco, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, in a statement. Airbnb had expressed concern about the public registry provision. Crystal Davis, a spokeswoman for Airbnb, said in a statement, "Over 15,000 Massachusetts families use Airbnb to make ends meet, and attempts to deter home sharing hurt them and their communities. Governor Baker's action allows for a more robust conversation on their access to supplemental income, their privacy, and the Commonwealth's economic future." Davis said she also hopes to use the time to address other issues surrounding the complexity of compliance and the collection of taxes for hosts and for hosting platforms like Airbnb. BOSTON -- Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday scrambled to re-legalize horse racing in the state after it was temporarily banned because of a legislative snafu. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill extending the legality of horse racing to July 31, 2019, almost immediately after he received it from the Legislature. "The House took action today to extend simulcasting, preserving jobs," said House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop. "We look forward to an exciting weekend." WGBH first reported that, in the end-of-session rush, lawmakers missed taking a final vote extending the legalization of live horse racing and simulcast racing. Although both the House and Senate took initial votes on the noncontroversial bill, they did not take the final procedural step. Without that extension, the authorization for horse racing expired July 31. Plainridge Park in Plainville, which had scheduled live races for Thursday, canceled them. The park plans to reschedule the races for Friday. Suffolk Downs in East Boston is planning races for Saturday. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission sent a letter to tracks on Wednesday informing them that they must suspend their simulcasting and live racing. On Thursday morning, in informal sessions, the Senate and the House took the final procedural votes and sent the bill to Baker, who signed it. "We want to thank the House, Senate and governor for addressing this today and we're looking forward to two great days of racing this weekend," said Suffolk Downs Chief Operating Officer Chip Tuttle. This story was updated with information from the Gaming Commission. SPRINGFIELD -- With just weeks left before Massachusetts' Democratic primary, the Springfield attorney challenging U.S. Rep. Richard Neal called on the longtime incumbent Thursday to square-off in a debate before 1st Congressional District voters. Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who is looking to unseat the fellow Springfield Democrat in the Sept. 4 election, said she'd like to take on her opponent in town hall-style debates before any such events move behind closed television studio doors. Arguing that Western Massachusetts voters should be able to witness such matchups in person, Amatul-Wadud challenged Neal to join her for an upcoming NAACP of Berkshire County-sponsored debate in Pittsfield. She further urged him to agree to another debate involving various media outlets. "Then, if we need to do a studio debate, somewhere in the darkness of some private forum, we can, but, in my opinion, democracy happens in the light of day and by engaging the citizens," she said in an interview. "They deserve to be able to sit there, and see, and hear and ask questions -- that's the sort of debate that this seat deserves the dignity of." Amatul-Wadud, whose challenge came just days after Neal told reporters he was open to debating his opponent, said she was not surprised to hear the congressman say his campaign was actively working to set up such events. "At this point, we have been very aggressive and direct about the need for a debate. We've issued statements challenging him on his positions, on his votes, on how he accepts corporate money -- he had no choice, but to say that he'd have a conversation," she said. "But sadly, his concession to the idea of a debate comes after he's already publicly questioned whether the metrics would measure up properly for him to engage in a debate, where he already questioned my seriousness of purpose in terms of wanting a debate and -- on that same day he said he'd debate -- WAMC quoted him as saying that what I've been posting about his accepting of corporate cash is 'nonsense.'" "So let's talk about it," the Democrat continued. "Let's bring it out to the public and talk about it if you think those things. That's my position." Neal, following a Monday event in Springfield, said he looks forward to the possibility of debating Amatul-Wadud, noting that his campaign was in the process of hammering out details for at least two televised events. The congressman's campaign confirmed Thursday that it was working on setting up debates with WWLP Channel 22 and WGBY 57 in conjunction with the League of Women Voters and The Berkshire Eagle. "Congressman Neal has always debated his political opponents ... Congressman Neal's priority is ensuring as many constituents and voters as possible are reached," spokesman Peter Panos said in a statement. "These two debates allow that to happen so voters can hear about his leading the fight against Donald Trump's inhumane immigration policies, attempts to gut healthcare, slash Social Security and Medicare and cut taxes for corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent, while simultaneously presenting a vision for fairer taxes, making healthcare more affordable and accessible, defending Social Security and Medicare, combating the opioid epidemic and addressing income inequality." Love visiting distilleries? So does everyone, it would seem! The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has crunched the numbers and it turns out we collectively made a record 1.9 million visits to Scotlands whisky distilleries in 2017! 1.9 million people is the equivalent of the entire population of Latvia, or of Guinea Bissau. Or the same as everyone in Cyprus visiting a distillery twice. Its also an 11.4% rise year-on-year, and a figure 45% higher than 2010s visitor numbers. Thats a hefty increase. And it also puts whisky distilleries squarely on the tourism road map. The National Museum of Scotland and Edinburgh Castle are the top attractions outside London, and they both attracted 2 million visitors each in 2017. The distilleries are catching up! Were spending more when were there, too. We spent 60.9 million between us while at visitor centres 15.6% more than last year. Thats a lot of fancy fill-your-own bottlings and serious quantities of distillery cafe sandwiches. We hail from all around the world, too. The highest number of visitors came to Scotland from Germany, followed by the US, India, China and Japan. Hurrah! Visitors gather for Ardbeg Day! These are exciting times, said Karen Betts, Scotch Whisky Association chief executive. Scotch whisky distilleries have invested and continue to invest hugely in providing world-class visitor facilities at their sites all over Scotland, and they are collaborating in establishing new whisky trails and finding new ways of telling the story of Scotch to British and foreign visitors alike. And its a wonderful story: part traditional, part modern and set among Scotlands communities and in its breathtaking landscapes. We will continue to work closely and collaboratively with tourist organisations, local councils and the Scottish Government to ensure that Scotlands tourists have a memorable time visiting our country and experiencing all it has to offer. Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland, added: Were delighted that the popularity of Scotch whisky distilleries is continuing to grow with our visitors, which reflects the hard work and investment by the industry in delivering a world-class experience. Scotch whisky is a culinary and cultural icon and one of Scotlands most valuable commodities, with visitors from across the globe coming to our shores to experience an authentic Scottish dram. It is a vital part of local tourism as not only do distilleries benefit from the draw of the water of life but so too do the surrounding towns and villages. VisitScotland continues to work with the Scotch whisky industry to promote events, trails and films associated with Scotlands national drink. If all this isnt worth raising a dram over, were not sure what is. Where did you head in 2017? What were your Scotch whisky distillery highlights? Let us know in the comments below! Protests broke out in several Iranian cities today over the dramatic drop of the country's currency and other economic problems ahead of the imposition of renewed US sanctions, IRNA reported. Protests that began in Iran on Tuesday afternoon continued across the country in Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Karaj, Sari, Bandar Abbas, and Ahvaz. Today protesters in Shiraz were attacked with tear gas by security forces during strikes, Express reported. Dozens of store owners in the area have closed their shops and are on strike after the rials value dropped by 120% in the last 6 months alone. Iran has also been hit by falling salaries set against the rising cost of living, while water shortages and power outages have also hit the embattled country. Yesterday, Iranian lawmakers have given President Hassan Rouhani one month to appear before parliament to answer questions on his governments handling of Irans economic struggles. Market Scenario: Acute care is a branch of health care in which short-term treatment is provided to patients with medical conditions such as severe injury and recovery from surgery. Acute conditions such as asthma attack, broken bone, bronchitis, burn, common cold, flu, heart attack, pneumonia, and others require treatment in acute hospital care. Various services are included in acute hospital care such as coronary care, intensive care, neonatal intensive care, cardiology, and others. The acute care market growth is majorly attributed due to the rising incidences of trauma injury, the presence of a large base of the patient population, increasing number of hospital, unmet medical needs in emerging economies. Moreover, the geriatric population having acute diseases are projected to boost the market growth over the forecast period. Get Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4931 According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, during 2011-2014, asthma prevalence was 8.8% among all adults. During this period, asthma was more common among adults with obesity (11.1%) compared with adults in normal weight (7.1%) and overweight (7.8%) people. As per reports from American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon, broken bones are a common injury i.e an average of 6 million people in the U.S is likely to break a bone each year. Most of these broken bones heal without problems. However, about 300,000 patients are slow to heal or do not heal at all with traditional methods. Since broken bone is a common problem, it needs acute hospital care, Therefore, it is estimated to fuel the market growth during the forecast period. However, limited availability of facilities and equipment may hamper the market growth during the forecast period. The global acute hospital care market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~7.8% during the forecast period 2017-2023. Key players for Acute Hospital Care market Some of key the players in the market are HCA Holdings, Inc. (U.S.), Community Health Systems LLC (U.S.), Universal Health Services, Inc. (U.S.), Tenet Healthcare Corp. (U.S.), Vanguard Health System Inc. (U.S.), Ardent Health Services (U.S.), Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (U.S.), PruittHealth (U.S.), National HealthCare Corp.(U.S.), and others. Segmentation The global acute hospital care market is segmented on the basis of medical condition and services. On the basis of the medical condition, it is segmented into emergency care, urgent care, short-term stabilization, pre-hospital care, critical care, trauma care, and acute care surgery. On the basis of the services, it is segmented into coronary care, intensive care, neonatal intensive care, cardiology, and emergency department. Apply for Exclusive Discount @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4931 Regional Analysis The Americas dominate the global acute hospital care market owing to well-developed technology, increasing patient population, high health care spending, and increasing government support for research & development. Furthermore, increased R&D activities and the concentration of major companies have fuelled the growth of the market in this region. Europe holds the second position in the global acute hospital care market owing to the government support for research & development and availability of funds for research. This is expected to continue to drive the European market over the forecasted period. For instance, developed economies such countries such as Germany and France are increasing investment in the healthcare domain and are focusing more on hospital infrastructure. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing acute hospital care market owing to the presence of rapidly developing healthcare technology, huge patient population, and high healthcare expenditure. Moreover, increasing demand for acute hospital care in countries like India and South Korea are likely to emerge as the fastest growing market across the globe. Furthermore, increasing demand for quality devices in the healthcare is projected to lead the use of advanced equipment, which, in turn, may increase the market growth in this region. On the other hand, the Middle East & Africa holds the least share of the market owing to less availability of funds, limited medical facilities, and deprived political conditions in Africa. Detailed Table Of Contents 1 Report Prologue 2 Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope Of The Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations 3 Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Drivers 4.2 Restrains 4.3 Opportunities 4.4 Challenges 4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators 4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment 5 Market Factor Analysis 5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis 5.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers 5.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Buyers 5.1.3 Threat Of New Entrants Continued Send An Enquiry @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/4931 About US: Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Medical Sensors Market Industry Trends and News LifePlus, a healthcare startup has recently revealed what the company believes is the world-first noninvasive continuous blood glucose monitoring multi-sensor wearable. The company has named the device LifeLeaf, which will be part of the companys effort to capitalise on the growing medical wearables category. Apart from monitoring blood glucose, the devices will be capable of tracking blood pressure, track heart rate, oxygen saturation and respiration rate. Get Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2038 Leading wearable technology company Fitbit is reportedly going to leverage Googles new Cloud Healthcare API to increase its healthcare-centric capabilities. With the help of Cloud Healthcare API, the company will be able to connect its devices to EMRs and provide clinicians and patients a more complete view of the patient profile. Medical Sensors Market Segmental Analysis Based on types, the market has been segmented into blood glucose sensors, ECG sensors, motion sensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors, blood oxygen sensors, image sensors, inertial sensors, and others. On the basis of sensor placement, the market has been segmented into wearable sensors, invasive/non-invasive sensors, strip sensors, ingestible sensors and implantable sensors. Based on application, the market has been segmented into monitoring, imaging, diagnostics, medical therapeutics, fitness, and others. Medical Sensors Market Competitive Landscape Some of the leading market participants discussed in MRFRs report include Medtronic Plc. Measurement Specialties Inc. NXP Semiconductors N.V. Smiths Medical Given Imaging, Inc. GE Healthcare First Sensor AG Honeywell International, Inc STMicroelectronics N.V. Philips Healthcare STMicroelectronics Medical Sensors Market Highlights Medical sensors are steadily coming under the spotlight in healthcare; they are used in an array of applications. Advances in technology has broadened the application base for medical sensors, which in turn is driving their adoption. Today, medical sensors are used in monitoring health conditions of patients with diabetes, cardiovascular or respiratory diseases. The technology is being utilised in diagnostics and therapeutics as well. Factors as such are driving the sales of medical sensors worldwide. A study conducted by Market Research Future (MRFR), claims that the Global Medical Sensors Market will exhibit a rapid growth during the forecast period (2016-2022). Medical sensors are playing a critical role in health monitoring. The advent of such sensor technologies have greatly contributed to the improved quality of care giving. Medical sensors facilitate a holistic diagnostics approach, reaching parameters beyond just monitoring of blood pressure, temperature or vibration. Increased prevalence of acute and chronic disorders coupled with the rising geriatric population is also expected to support the growth of the market during the assessment period. Sensor-based devices are becoming a crucial healthcare technology for patients with chronic ailments, at the same time they are also gaining popularity among elderly people. In addition, medical sensors are being integrated with other medical devices to make them more effective and safe, while enhancing their functional capabilities. Healthcare devices manufacturers are exploring application possibilities of medical sensors in number of new segments. This is likely to creating growth opportunities for market players in the forthcoming years. Sensor can easily adapt to the requirements of specific healthcare device, making them a go-to solution for achieving various medical endeavours. Meanwhile, the research and development landscape is ostensibly active and remains a favourable factor for the market. The arrival of sensor-based healthcare wearable devices for daily use has created new growth avenues for manufacturers. Modern consumer are becoming more health conscious and constantly look for solutions that can help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Nonetheless, a majority of the novel healthcare technologies is currently accessible to deep-pocketed patients, hence limiting the overall consumer base. Medical Sensors Market Regional Outlook On the basis of region, the market is North America expected to remain highly attractive throughout he review period. High healthcare expenditure and presence of prominent healthcare focused tech firms in the regions is supporting the growth of the market in North America. The region is expected to be followed by Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC) respectively. During the forecast period, the APAC medical sensors market is projected witness a relatively higher CAGR. To Know More Enquire @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2038 Major Table of Content Chapter 1. Report Prologue Chapter 2. Market Introduction 2.1 Definition 2.2 Scope of the Study 2.2.1 Research Objective 2.2.2 Assumptions 2.2.3 Limitations Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Primary Research 3.3 Secondary Research 3.4 Market Size Estimation Chapter 4. Market Dynamics Continued. About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India +1 646 845 9312 Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com by Chuck Martin , August 2, 2018 Boeing plans to open a new innovation center with MIT to work on the development of autonomous aircraft. The new Boeing Aerospace and Autonomy Center will become the first tenant of the Kendall Square Initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Boeing is leasing 100,000 square feet of research and lab space inside the new 17-floor building, where it will house Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, the maker of automated drones and aviation parts, which Boeing acquired last year. The unit will focus on designing, building and flying autonomous aircraft along with enabling technologies, according to the announcement by Boeing. "Boeing is leading the development of new autonomous vehicles and future transportation systems that will bring flight closer to home," stated Greg Hyslop, Boeing chief technology officer. "By investing in this new research facility, we are creating a hub where our engineers can collaborate with other Boeing engineers and research partners around the world and leverage the Cambridge innovation ecosystem." The Boeing investment follows the creation of Boeing Next, the internal organization that teamed researchers and projects in the company, including the development of a next-generation airspace management system to enable the coexistence of piloted and autonomous air vehicles. Boeing is not alone in working on passenger-carrying, flying vehicles. Rolls-Royce has plans to create a flying taxi cab for four to five passengers and Airbus is working on creating an air transportation network involving electric, pilotless air taxis. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, August 1, 2018 Democratic lawmakers are seeking a wide-ranging examination of facial recognition technology, including whether data brokers are purchasing images of people for marketing purposes. "Given the recent advances in commercial facial recognition technology ... we ask that you investigate and evaluate the facial recognition industry," Democratic Senators Roy Wyden (Oregon), Chris Coons (Delaware), Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Cory Booker (New Jersey) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (New York) say in a letter sent Tuesday to the Government Accountability Office. The letter comes several days after the ACLU reported that facial recognition technology sold by Amazon is flawed. The ACLU tested the technology by comparing a database of 25,000 mugshots with photos of Congress members. The technology incorrectly matched 28 Congress members with people depicted in mugshots. The incorrect matches "were disproportionately of people of color," the ACLU reported. advertisement advertisement Wyden and the other lawmakers are now seeking a probe of facial recognition technology and its possible impact on privacy and civil rights. The lawmakers want the GAO to address numerous about the technology's use by law enforcement agencies, but also ask about the use of facial recognition in marketing. "Data collection and sale of facial imagery -- and its associated concerns with location tracking -- is a critical policy issue for Congress to understand," they write. They then pose a series of questions about how vendors compile facial databases, as well as questions about their purchase. "Please describe the market for selling images, including data brokers that may buy from multiple vendors with the intention of creating individualized profiles for marketing or other purposes," they letter states. Only a few states, including Illinois, currently regulate collection of biometric data. Illinois requires companies to obtain people's consent before collecting or storing biometric data, including scans of facial geometry. Facebook and Google are currently facing lawsuits for allegedly violating that law by compiling databases of faceprints. Seattle Times, Thursday, August 2, 2018 8 AM The Seattle Times is reporting that the airline asked a gay couple to give up their seats so that a straight couple could sit together. And, even though the gay couple accepted Alaska Airs apology for the mistake, social media went nuts and the airlines image as an LGBT-friendly brand is damaged. Read the whole story at Seattle Times Reuters, Thursday, August 2, 2018 6:26 AM Reuters reports that the allegation about Google returning to China with a censored search engine is not true, citing China Securities Daily, which is a state-owned media outlet. The latest news came from "relevant departments" within China. The Intercept reported on the news Wednesday, citing internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. Read the whole story at Reuters by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, August 2, 2018 Omnicom has acquired Credera, which the holding company said today is its first acquisition in the management and IT consulting space. The purchase was made via the Omnicom Precision Marketing Group (OPMG), the digital and CRM specialist unit expanded last fall with the addition of Luke Taylor as CEO. It includes agencies Javelin, Organic, Proximity, RAPP and Targetbase. Taylor was previously CEO at Publicis Groupes DigitasLBi. Crederas core focus is martech and ecommerce platforms designed to help clients increase customer engagement and sales. Clients include Southwest Airlines, National Geographic, EmployBridge, NRG, HomeAdvisor among others. The firm, with more than 300 employees, is headquartered in Dallas with offices in Denver and Houston. advertisement advertisement Credera works directly with the C Suite to help companies transform their business for the digital age, stated Taylor. We welcome them to the Omnicom family. Crederas CEO and Chairman, Rob Borrego, will continue at the helm of the company. He noted that the sale provides the company with a global footprint and access to resources that should accelerate growth. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran it would join military action to stop it blocking a key seaway after Yemen's Iranian-aligned Huthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil tankers. Speaking at a navy ceremony late Wednesday, Netanyahu warned against any attempt to block the Bab al-Mandab strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and the southern entrance to the Red Sea. "At the start of the week we witnessed a sharp clash with Iranian proxies who tried to obstruct international navigation in the straits at the entrance to the Red Sea," AFP cited Netanyahu as saying. "If Iran tries to block the Bab al-Mandab, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this," the Israeli PM said. "This coalition would also include the state of Israel and all its arms." On July 26, Saudi Arabia said it had temporarily halted all oil shipments through the waterway after the Huthi rebels attacked two of its tankers. On August 1, the Huthis announced a two-week pause in Red Sea operations. by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, August 2, 2018 Tom Rogers, who as head of NBC Cable ushered in the era of vertical news channels that have contributed to the political polarization of news programming and audiences, this morning used one of his progeny -- MSNBC -- to call out the media industry for failing to defend threats to their First Amendment rights from the Trump Administration. I think the entire media industry has to be called out here, said Rogers, now executive chairman of WinView, on a segment of MSNBCs Morning Joe that began by discussing a new wave of Russian disinformation attacks on digital media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit, Tumblr, 4Chan, etc., implying that mainstream news media outlets are equally as complicit in their negligence, or maybe even worse. advertisement advertisement Weve talked a lot about Republican enablers here but weve got trade associations in Washington -- National Association of Broadcasters, [National] Cable Television Association, the News Media Council that represents national newspapers, the internet association that represents internet companies -- these are advocacy trade organizations, incredibly well-funded and the product of the industry they represent is being damaged everyday by a President who is trying to delegitimize them. Where are they, he continued, adding, They [defend] First Amendment rights on the smallest of issues. And here, the First Amendment is really under attack. Citing a recent poll that only 11% of Republicans believe news from mainstream media outlets, Rogers said the delegitimization of news media is beginning to impact independent voters as well. Rogers seemed dumbfounded, if no apoplectic about the media industrys failure to counter the attacks being made by the White House, and especially by President Donald Trump in his tweets, campaign rallies and other public statements. That Rogers is the one blowing the whistle is a little ironic, given that he may be the person most responsible for the niching of the U.S. news marketplace. As head of NBC Cable, he created CNBC, then spawned Americas Talking, a short-lived national cable TV channel that gave rise to Roger Ailes, who left to start the Fox News Channel. Americas Talking was then rebooted as MSNBC. Rogers was prescient in understanding the appetite the American public has for vertical -- even niche point-of-view journalism -- after NBC he ran special interest journalism publisher Primedia, and then moved on to the most niche form of programming of all, serving as CEO of personalized media platform TiVo, before forming WinView. What Rogers may not have seen back then, was the unintended consequences unleashing niche news would have on polarizing Americas consensus view of information, values and, yes, even truth. Weve come a long way since The Powers That Be, when a handful of powerful, centrist, mainstream news organizations set the baseline of U.S. sensibility. And digital hyper-fragmentation is just the latest manifestation of that. Leading into Rogers was a segment with Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance For Securing Democracy, who testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on "Foreign Influence Operations and their use of Social Media on Wednesday about a new wave of Russian disinformation attacks on America via a wide variety of social media platforms (see embedded video below). While most of the attention has been on Facebook, Rosenberger noted that Russian active measures to spread disinformation are present on Google, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, 4Chan and other platforms. She also indicated that Russian operatives are utilizing search optimization techniques to move their disinformation up search result rankings, though she didnt say whether they were organic, paid or a combination. Rogers concurred that the focus should not just be on Facebook, which has become the poster child for Russias active measures, and whose stock recently took a major hit related to that. Asked why Americas big media organizations and trade associations have become Trumps lapdogs by Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, Rogers said its a combination of cowardice, complicity, pragmatism and, possibly even corruption. I think the answer is that they like the deregulation stuff that theyre getting a piece of too, Rogers said about the media industrys tepid response to Trumps attacks. And trade associations dont want to rock the boat, because theyre getting their piece, whether its Net Neutrality or ownership limits being relaxed. Rogers implied that the short-term gains in regulatory action might not be worth the long-term impact on the delegitimization of their product. The product of the entire media industry is being debased, degraded, tainted, and the person who is now calling for the death of the traditional media industry by the end of his presidency is not being countered in any systematic way by the very industry whose product is being taken down by this. And I dont get that, he said. While other MediaPost newsletters and articles remain free to all ... our new Research Intelligencer service is reserved for paid subscribers ... Subscribe today to gain access to every Research Intelligencer article we publish as well as the exclusive daily newsletter, full access to The MediaPost Cases, first-look research and daily insights from Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief. by Ray Schultz , August 2, 2018 Jersey Mikes, the submarine sandwich chain, is advising customers to change their passwords. The circumstances are unclear. The companys website has a message saying, On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, we sent a select number of Jersey Mike's customers an email regarding their account security, asking them to reset their passwords. The email is legitimate. However, Jersey Mikes was not the source of any breach. According to The Patch, that email tells customers, "We believe your email address and/or password may have been obtained by an unauthorized party not from Jersey Mike's but from a compromised account you have with another website or online service where you used the same credentials. As a result, your Jersey Mike's account may have been accessed without your authorization, or such access may be attempted in the future." Founded as a single shop in Point Pleasant, New Jersey in 1956, Jersey Mikes now has hundreds of outlets. It also has a loyalty program and a mobile app. What are the recommendations for alcohol consumption while breast-feeding? Moderate alcohol consumption is safe for mothers breast-feeding their infants. Moderate alcohol consumption is defined as about one drink per day. At this level, research shows there are no known harmful effects to the infant. However, more than one drink per day is not recommended. Of course, not drinking alcohol while breast-feeding is the safest option. Avoiding alcohol while nursing will prevent any exposure to alcohol in your infant. Its also the best way to prevent possible drinking-related nursing issues, including reduced milk production. While it is safe to nurse and drink in moderation, its important to understand how long alcohol is present in your breast milk after you drink and what you can do if you want to avoid sharing any alcohol with your infant. Alcohol and breastmilk Share on Pinterest Alcohol can be detected in breast milk for two to three hours after drinking. Research shows that only about 5 to 6 percent of the amount of alcohol in the mothers bloodstream enters the babys bloodstream via breast milk. Thats very low. Even if a mother were binge drinking, one study found that the levels of alcohol in her breast milk would not reach clinically significant amounts. Of course, binge drinking is not advised. Alcohol levels typically peak 30 to 60 minutes after drinking an alcoholic beverage. The alcohol can be detected in breast milk for two to three hours . If youre concerned about transferring alcohol to your infant, you can wait two hours after a single drink before you nurse. This will give your liver time to filter the alcohol. The more alcohol you drink, the higher your blood alcohol level will climb. The level of alcohol in your breast milk is equivalent to the alcohol level in your blood. Extra drinks prolong the duration that alcohol will be detectable in blood and breast milk. Does pumping remove alcohol from milk? Alcohol is in breast milk as long as alcohol is in your bloodstream. Once the blood alcohol level peaks, it will slowly dissipate as your liver is able to process it. You may have heard of women pumping breast milk immediately after drinking alcohol and discarding it. This pump and dump practice is not necessary, and it doesnt reduce the amount of alcohol present in your milk more quickly. It can help reduce engorgement, though, if youve been drinking alcohol and are unable or unwilling to breast-feed to avoid potentially passing alcohol to your baby. If you plan to drink alcohol and know your baby will be hungry within the two-hour window after you drink, you can always pump ahead of time. However, unless you are experiencing discomfort, there is no need to pump breast milk until your infant is ready to nurse again, even if youve been drinking. As your blood alcohol level falls, the level of alcohol in your breast milk will fall, too. If the baby is hungry within two hours after you drink a moderate amount of alcohol and you did not pump ahead, it is likely safe to breast-feed. Again, the amount of alcohol transferred to your baby through breast milk is so low there are no known problems, complications, or issues. Effects of alcohol on babies At moderate levels (one drink per day), alcohol has no known complications or side effects for babies, especially if the mother waits two hours after drinking to breast-feed or pump. Exposure to alcohol above this moderate level, however, may lead to delayed development, growth problems, and interrupted sleep patterns for the infant. Despite the all-clear from leading health organizations , some studies have raised concerns that low-level drinking may cause issues for babies, even if they are not long-term and chronic. For example, one very small, older study from 1998 found that infants who had alcohol via breast milk slept for 25 percent less time than infants who did not have breast milk with alcohol. Another study from 1989 , which is often cited among groups who do not think mothers should drink while breast-feeding, concluded that 400 one-year-olds who had been exposed to alcohol via breast milk in their first year of life had lower scores in motor skill development than children who were not exposed to alcohol. However, the researchers were unable to replicate those findings in a follow-up study six months after their initial findings. In short, research does not suggest that infants experience any negative side effects or complications if their mothers have a drink occasionally. Of course, its important to keep in mind that higher levels of alcohol consumption may be problematic for both mother and baby. How long do you need to wait after drinking? Alcohol will be in breast milk as long as alcohol is in your blood. The length of time alcohol will be in your blood and breast milk will increase as you drink more alcohol. In moderate drinking terms, one drink is defined as: 12 ounces of beer (with an ABV of 5 percent or less) 8 ounces of malt liquor (with an ABV of 7 percent or less) 5 ounces of wine (with 12 percent ABV or less) 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor Keep in mind that some high-gravity beers have higher alcohol by volume (ABV) ratings, and drinking one of these is the equivalent to drinking more than one drink. For example, 12 ounces of beer with 9 percent alcohol contains as much alcohol as two standard drinks . If you drink alcohol, this guide will help you know how long you should wait to breast-feed if youre concerned about passing alcohol to your infant. 1 drink = 2 to 3 hours 2 drinks = 4 to 5 hours 3 drinks = 6 to 8 hours These are general guidelines. How long alcohol will be in your bloodstream and breast milk depends on several factors, including: your weight if you ate food when you drank how much alcohol you had how quickly you drank it how fast your body naturally breaks the alcohol down in the liver You cannot speed up the process. Drinking water will help you feel hydrated and more alert, but it will not increase the speed at which your liver metabolizes liquor. Advertisement "Though memory loss is the best-known symptom of dementia, more than 80 percent of people with dementia will also experience sleep disturbances, anxiety and wandering" says Chang, also the associate dean for research and scholarship in the School of Nursing."These disruptions have negative effects on caregivers' health, which in turn will diminish their ability to provide optimal care."However, the effects are felt by the more than 16 million people, often family members, providing unpaid care, according to the Alzheimer's Association.Past research has found that between 50 and 70 percent of caregivers have sleep complaints, but the data used in those studies was self-reported. Few researchers have taken objective measurements to gain a more accurate picture of caregiver sleep quality, says Chang.The study, published in July in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, analyzed the sleep of 43 people serving as the primary caregiver for a family member with dementia. All participants were over the age of 50 and lived in the Western New York region.Participants were given an actigraphy watch (a sensor worn on the wrist) to measure sleep time, efficiency, and awakenings in their home over seven days.Caregivers were also required to complete a sleep diary for themselves and their care recipients, and self-assessments on depression, burden of care, sleep quality and sleep hygiene -- behaviors that may interfere with sleep such as daytime naps, exercise and watching television before bed.The research team found that nearly 92 percent of participants experienced poor sleep quality, awoke frequently and slept less than six hours per night -- below the recommended total of seven or eight hours per night.Poor sleep hygiene was found to increase sleep latency, or the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. Although caregivers self-reported taking an average of 30 minutes to fall asleep, data collected from the actigraphy watches showed a longer sleep latency of 40 minutes.The results, says Chang, highlight the gap between caregivers' subjective perception and objective measurements of their sleep quality."Understanding how well caregivers are sleeping and the variables that affect them is an important first step toward the development of tailored and effective treatment," says Chang. "This would help the millions of caregivers receive the optimum sleep needed to protect their health and continue to provide quality care."Source: Eurekalert Porn has been around for decades, we all remember the days of passing around CDs with movie covers. Distribution of the forbidden content is now done online and thanks to deep internet penetration worldwide, the volume at which we are consuming porn is enormous. While it continues to remain a forbidden thing in many cultures including India, there have been no signs of consumption going down. While many countries like the USA have accepted the hard truth that porn is practically unstoppable and better to function like every other industry with regulations, Uganda thinks in the opposite direction. Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has given out a directive to all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to block 27 websites for streaming porn. Kampala Dispatch / President Yoweri Museveni Godfrey Mutabazi, Executive Director of the UCC said they have identified 17 popular local sites as well as 10 international sites and have asked ISPs to block them. He also added, "The commission is in receipt of a list of Internet sites with pornographic content from the Pornography Control Committee. The committee has established that the list of the websites attached hereto is currently streaming pornography to Uganda in breach of section 13 of the Anti-Pornography Act, 2014." The Observer Back in 2016, the country had announced the purchase of a pornography-detection machine and it was set to arrive in September 2016; thankfully we haven't heard more on that since then. Seems like the policy-makers are busy "identifying" porn websites since it's actually their job now. The country also has a special Pornography Control Committee (PCC), it is responsible for generating the list of banned websites and block them by coordinating with the ISPs. Pexels This isn't the first time we are hearing weird laws and regulations coming out of the country though. In June, Uganda's parliament passed a law that let the government tax the use of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and more. President Yoweri Museveni had pushed for the changes, arguing that social media encouraged gossip. The President has also said in the past that he wants to ban oral sex in the country because he believes the mouth is only for eating. Source: iAfrikan Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are more likely than other women to have an autistic child, according to an analysis of NHS data carried out by a team at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre. The research is published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry. The team stressed that the likelihood of having an autistic child is still very low, even among women with PCOS but finding this link provides an important clue in understanding one of the multiple causal factors in autism. The research team previously published work in 2015 which showed that before they are born, autistic children have elevated levels of sex steroid hormones (including testosterone) which 'masculinise' the baby's body and brain. The discovery that prenatal sex steroid hormones are involved in the development of autism is one possible explanation for why autism is diagnosed more often in boys. The scientists wondered where these elevated sex steroid hormones were coming from, one possible source being the mother. If she had higher levels of testosterone than usual, as is the case in women with PCOS, then some of the hormone might cross the placenta during pregnancy, exposing her unborn baby to more of this hormone, and changing the baby's brain development. Using anonymous data from a large database of GP health records, the study looked at 8,588 women with PCOS and their first-born children, compared to a group of 41,127 women without PCOS. The team found that, even after taking into account other factors (like maternal mental health problems or complications during pregnancy), women with PCOS had a 2.3 per cent chance of having an autistic child, compared with the 1.7 per cent chance for mothers without PCOS. The team presented their findings at the International Meeting for Autism Research in 2016, and their findings were replicated in a Swedish study in the same year, adding to the reliability of the result. The team also conducted two other studies using the same data and found that autistic women were more likely to have PCOS, and women with PCOS were more likely to have autism themselves. This strongly suggests that these two conditions are linked, probably because they both share elevated sex steroid hormone levels. Adriana Cherskov, the Master's student who analysed the data, and who is now studying medicine in the US, said: "This is an important piece of new evidence for the theory that autism is not only caused by genes but also by prenatal sex steroid hormones such as testosterone." Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, who supervised the research, said: "This new research is helping us understand the effects of testosterone on the developing fetal brain, and on the childs later behaviour and mind. These hormonal effects are not necessarily independent of genetic factors, as a mother or her baby may have higher levels of the hormone for genetic reasons, and testosterone can affect how genes function." Dr Carrie Allison who co-supervised the research, said: "We need to think about the practical steps we can put in place to support women with PCOS as they go through their pregnancies. The likelihood is statistically significant but nevertheless still small, in that most women with PCOS wont have a child with autism, but we want to be transparent with this new information." Dr Rupert Payne from the University of Bristol Centre for Academic Primary Care, a GP and the expert on the team in using GP health record data for this type of research, said: "Autism can have a significant impact on a persons wellbeing, and on their parents, and many autistic people have significant health, social care and educational special needs. This is an important step in trying to understand what causes autism. It is also an excellent example of the value of using anonymous routine healthcare data to answer vital medical research questions." The study was supported by the Autism Research Trust, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, a Gates Cambridge Trust Scholarship and Rouse Ball/Eddington Research Fund Award at Trinity College. Paper: 'Polycystic ovary syndrome and autism: A test of the prenatal sex steroid theory' by Adriana Cherskov, Alexa Pohl, Carrie Allison, Heping Zhang, Rupert A. Payne and Simon Baron-Cohen in Translational Psychiatry The OSCE monitoring held on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops near Fizuli district passed without incidents, according to the website of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry. The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Personal Representative. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his U.S. counterpart Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held another phone conversation on August 1 amid high-running tensions between Ankara and Washington over the arrest of U.S Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson. This is the third conversation held between Cavusoglu and Pompeo on the matter since US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey if Brunson is not released, Hurriyet Daily News reported. Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, was indicted on charges of having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), which Ankara blames for the failed coup in 2016. He was moved from prison to house arrest on July 25. Trump tweeted on July 26 to warn Ankara about large sanctions over the arrest of Brunson. Cavusoglu called Pompeo the same day to convey Turkeys response to the strong statements from the U.S. administration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif have held a meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) events in Singapore. "Two top diplomats discussed the Iran nuclear deal and preparations for the next Caspian summit," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. According to the ministry, the parties "continued to discuss the situation surrounding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Irans nuclear program, the Syria issue and preparations for the fifth Caspian summit." The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers also touched upon bilateral cooperation, focusing on the implementation of agreements on boosting trade and economic ties. Deputy head of the International Committee of the State Duma Alexey Chepa criticized a U.S. move to impose sanctions on two Turkish Cabinet members as "counterproductive and destructive". "Every day we hear some news that the U.S. either impose sanctions or announces a trade war against those who do not want to act as the U.S. wants," Anadolu Agency cited him as saying. "At the same time the U.S. sticks with some politicians and organizations which are notorious for human rights violations but ready to do everything Washington tells them," Chepa stressed. On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the U.S. would impose sanctions on Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul for not releasing American Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, who faces terrorism charges in Turkey. Sanders said the U.S. would block "any property, or interest in property of the two ministers". Secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Yuri Khachaturov, has a right to leave Armenias territory, press secretary of the Special Investigative Service of Armenia Marina Ohanjanyan said. According to her, Khachaturovs release on bail doesnt imply any travel lock. "He is allowed to be absent from Armenia for a certain period of time," ARKA cited the press secretary as saying. Ohanjanyan added that it is not decided so far how long his absence can be. Khachaturov, who was the chief of the Yerevan garrison in 2008, is charged in connection with the order to send police and soldiers to break up a demonstration in the Armenian capital in March 2008. However, he has been released from custody after posting bail. Turkey's Parliament Speaker Binali Yildirim has termed the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on two Turkish ministers as "unlawful and extremely arbitrary". "The sanctions decision taken by the U.S. Secretary of Treasury has targeted our Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and our Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, which is unlawful and extremely arbitrary," Yildirim said in a statement, "I strongly condemn this decision that is an indicator of a disrespectful manner on judicially process in Turkey," Anadolu Agency cited him as saying. Yildirim called on the U.S. administration to reverse its decision. On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the U.S. was imposing sanctions on Soylu, and Gul for not releasing American Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, who faces terrorism charges in Turkey. BAD AXE The Bad Axe Church of Christ is hosting 12th annual Free School Supply Giveaway next weekend. The giveaway will start at 10 a.m. on Aug. 11 at the church, located at 1274 Sand Beach Road in Bad Axe. The school supplies will be provided free of charge on a first come, first serve basis to students attending Huron County schools. No offering will be taken. Snacks will be provided for free. The congregation wants to help kids get a good start to the new school year. This giveaway is now the largest community outreach of the small congregation. For more information, call the church at 989-269-5024 or Jimmy at 810-513-4603. To the editor: Michael McCarthy graduated from Michigan State University in pre-med and psychology. Michael worked for 33 years as a physician assistant in rural and urban community based clinics. He was on the Sanilac County Health board for two years and worked for Sanilac County Community Mental Health. Michael was a participant and volunteer recruiter for AmeriCorps, Peace Corps and medical mission projects. He has been married to Ande Gaines McCarthy, an accomplished registered nurse, for 40 years, and they have been blessed with four children who have grown to become caring and competent professionals. I would be hard pressed to name anyone in our community who has reached out to help the needy, poor or disadvantaged persons on the level Michael has in our community. He has gone to other countries, eight mission medical clinic sessions in Chiapas, Mexico and Michigan Peace team work in Haiti to help and support others in need. Michael respects all life from unborn until elderly. Michael has headed up Pax Christi in our area for years and speaks out strongly and has written often to prevent any kind of nuclear war. As a congressman, he would advocate requiring national service for rich and poor with an AmeriCorps/Peace Corps and faith based mission option, as well supported as the Marine Corps. He would also advocate payment for college and trade schools for all who serve helping eliminate the burden of student debt. He is for protecting peoples pensions and social security; stop raiding them for government debt and private profit. Michael McCarthy advocates we should convert the vast amount of military dollars spent on weapons programs to meeting citizens real needs education, roads and infrastructure, family farms, affordable healthcare and renewable energy. I would advocate you who read this letter to consider joining me in voting on Tuesday, Aug. 7, in the primary election on the democratic ballot for Michael McCarthy as representative in congress for the 10th district. Peter E. Deegan Retired Circuit Judge Google staff awoke on Wednesday to surprising news: Their company is working on a search app tailored, and censored, for China. The project, kept secret from all but select teams and leaders, sparked a furious internal debate. Yet the move couldn't have been entirely surprising for Googlers. Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer since 2015, has made no secret of his desire to take the search giant back to mainland China. The executive is more pragmatic about the world's largest internet market than Google's founders, who pulled search from the mainland in 2010 over censorship concerns. Under Pichai, Google has invested in Chinese companies, met with its leaders and made it a priority to spread Google's artificial intelligence technology across the country. But bringing search back would be Pichai's boldest move yet and will put his personal stamp firmly on the company. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built Google to "organize the world's information and make it universally available." They viewed China as a threat to the company's stance as a defender of the open web. Pichai, in contrast, sees China as a hotbed of engineering talent and an appealing market. Pichai's new leadership style and priorities haven't always sat well with the Google rank and file. Within hours of the China search news breaking, several staff privately criticized the plans. Two employees who spoke to Bloomberg News compared it to Project Maven, a Google AI contract with the Pentagon that sparked an internal revolt earlier this year. The company is not renewing that deal. Another person who has seen some early examples of the Chinese search app, code-named Dragonfly, described it as a "censorship engine." People trust Google to share true information and the Chinese search app is a betrayal of that, the employee said. The Google workers asked not to be identified because they're not permitted to discuss internal matters. One employee transferred to a different role at the company because of ethical concerns with Dragonfly, according to an internal message viewed by Bloomberg News. An unnamed company vice president asked to keep details of the project private so they would not leak to the public, the internal message read. Google said on Wednesday that the company does not "comment on speculation about future plans" and declined to comment further. In 2010, Brin, now president of parent Alphabet Inc., told the Wall Street Journal, that China's policies of censorship and surveillance has the "same earmarks of totalitarianism" as Soviet Russia, where he was born. Brin did not respond to an email requesting comment on Wednesday. Some Googlers, however, posted missives of support for the project on internal message boards on Wednesday. Google's mission of organizing the world's information shouldn't leave out a fifth of the planet, one person wrote in a post viewed by Bloomberg News. Another said that boycotting the country did little to change the Chinese government or "bring any positive change." A worker in China lamented their inability to access Google services in the country, such as sharing pictures through Google Photos or even recommending the app engine they are working on. "As a Chinese citizen working for a company that my parents and relatives can't access is demotivating," the person wrote on a message board. Dragonfly was a popular topic on Memegen, an internal online photo messaging board and cultural barometer at the company. One meme cited a popular Google slogan -- "Put the user first" -- with an asterisk attached: "Chinese users excluded, because we do not agree with your government." A second post questioned the merits of American staff deciding global policies. Westerners debating Google entering China "feels somehow like men debating regulating women's bodies," it read. Pichai has not directly addressed the issue of Chinese censorship. But he and his deputies often note the international scope of the company's ambition. Diane Greene, CEO of Google's cloud-computing unit, would not comment on plans to enter China in an interview with Bloomberg News last week. "We want to be a global cloud. Customers want us to be a global cloud," she said. In March, two months after opening an AI lab in Beijing, Pichai visited the city and said he was "looking forward to expanding" research efforts there. Two years before that, at the Code Conference, Pichai said, "Google is for everyone. We want to be in China serving Chinese users." Search might not be the only way Google is trying to build a China presence. The company is developing a news aggregation app that would comply with the country's censorship laws, the Information reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the project. Even if Google were to launch search in China now, it's unclear if people would use it. Since its departure, Baidu Inc. has come to dominate traditional search while many users have turned away from desktops in favor of using specific mobile apps. That includes looking through Meituan for food, Alibaba for e-commerce, Toutiao for news and WeChat for most other things. "While Google was blocked, China's market continued to develop," said Brock Silvers, managing director of Kaiyuan Capital in Shanghai. "Google may now set aside principle in exchange for Chinese market access, but it seems unlikely to dominate." Pichai has been plotting Google's search moves in China for months, if not years, with an approach focused more on partnerships. Cooperation with internet leader Tencent Holdings Ltd. stands out. Google struck a long-term patent deal with the Chinese company, the owner of WeChat, and said it would usher in further tie-ups. The U.S. company also launched a game available exclusively on WeChat and invested $550 million in Tencent-backed e-commerce site JD.com. Yet relations between China and Google's home country have soured recently amid trade tensions. Facebook's attempt to open an innovation hub was rejected while Qualcomm Inc. walked away from the chip industry's biggest deal when mainland regulators didn't approve it. It's hard to imagine Chinese authorities deciding Google's fate without considering the political climate, said Charles Mok, a legislative counselor in Hong Kong. "Anything that has to do with big American companies now has to do with the U.S.-China trade war," he said. - - - Bloomberg's Alistair Barr and Lulu Yilun Chen contributed. The gap is getting wider, and Connecticut is a focal point of the chasm. According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute issued this week, the incomes of the top 1 percent of earners grew faster than that of the bottom 99 percent in 43 states. Connecticut had the third-largest gap, trailing New York and Florida. When you look at these states, it speaks to the economic polarization we are seeing all throughout the U.S., especially in the East, Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research at DataCore Partners, said. How you rectify this, I dont know. Thats a challenge for policy makers to stimulate economic growth in the aggregate. How do all boats get lifted? States with wide gaps, he said, create an environment of haves and have-nots, which stress the economy and put additional burdens on social services. Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management for Connecticut, said federal laws have allowed hedge funds to flourish and many individuals among the top 1 percent in the state are managers of hedge funds. Add that into the mix and it makes our income gap that much more striking, he said. Barnes said Connecticut is a state of high standards and is known for taking care of its people. The top 1 percent, he said, contribute much to the state in the form of taxes and charitable giving. Id rather have them live in Connecticut than not live in Connecticut, Barnes said. They make significant contributions to the state each year. Connecticut had 17 residents on the latest Forbes magazines List of the Worlds Billionaires, led by Greenwichs Ray Dalio. The hedge fund manager has a net worth of $17.7 billion, according to Forbes. Steven Cohen, another hedge fund manager from Greenwich, was the second state resident on the list with a net worth of $14 billion. Fellow hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones II, of Greenwich; Andreas Halvorsen, of Darien; Clifford Asness, of Greenwich; and Stephen Mandel Jr., of Greenwich; were also in the top seven. Thirteen of the 17 billionaires in the state live in Greenwich. According to the EPI report, Connecticut had the highest threshold in the country for making the top 1 percent with annual earnings of $700,800. The national average is $421,926. The report is based on 2015 figures. Authors of the report, Estelle Sommeiller of France and Mark Price of Harrisburg, Pa., found that the top 1 percent in the country earned 26.3 times as much as the bottom 99 percent. In Connecticut, the top 1 percent earned 37.1 times as much as the lower 99 percent, which earned an average of nearly $68,000. The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk region was the fifth-most unequal metropolitan region with the top 1 percent earning $6,290,951 and the lower 99 percent making an average of $101,213, a top-to-bottom ratio of 62.2. Barnes said closing the gap should be a matter a elevating the lower 99 percent with better educational and employment opportunities. Klepper-Smith agreed: It comes down to economic policy that is conducive to spurring business activity. Thats not something we have here and it makes it hard for policy makers to create aggregate economic growth. Without education and knowledge of technology, which not all residents have the means to acquire, you are left behind. Rising inequality affects virtually every part of the country, not just large urban areas or financial centers, Sommeiller, an author of the report, said in a statement. While the economy continues to recover, policymakers should make it a top priority to grow the incomes of working people while reigning in corporate profits. Price, the reports other author, said policies should be enacted to boost bargaining rights for workers, rein in CEO salaries and financial sector managers, and implement a progressive tax system. The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338 Bucknell University LEWISBURG, Pennsylvania Eliza Romeyn of Durham, Class of 2019 at Bucknell University, was named to the deans list during the spring semester of the 2017-18 academic year. A student must earn a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher on a scale of 4.0 to receive recognition. Southern New Hampshire University MANCHESTER, New Hampshire Southern New Hampshire University has named students to the winter 2018 presidents list. Eligibility requires a student accumulate an academic GPA of 3.7 to 4.0 and earn 12 credits for the semester. Locals are Erika Cantarella of Cromwell, Megan Decker of Durham, Kristopher Kuchinski of Durham and Grace Kucharski of East Haddam. Pennsylvania College of Technology WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania College of Technology has released the names of local students who made the spring deans list and earned degrees. Austen J. Caron of Higganum received a bachelor of science degree in building automation technology, cum laude. He also made the deans list. Jonathon M. Conway of Durham earned two associates degrees: in applied science, diesel technology; and heavy construction equipment technology with an emphasis in Caterpillar equipment. He also earned high honors. Conway also won the William J. Stitzel Memorial Award, presented to a diesel technology major graduate who best exemplifies Stitzels dedication to the institution through service to the college community and to fellow students and academic achievement. University of Scranton SCRANTON, Pennsylvania Kevin Banach of Middletown was among the 54 University of Scranton students inducted into Upsilon Phi Delta, the national honor society for graduate and undergraduate students in health-care administration programs. Banach is a graduate student pursuing a health administration degree. Students must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.5 for induction. The universitys chapter of the honor society was established in 2002. Salisbury University SALISBURY, Maryland Two Middlesex County area students were named to the deans list at Salisbury University for the spring semester: Alexander Van Vilet of Old Saybrook and Hillary Ramsdell of Westbrook. Wheaton College NORTON, Massachusetts Sarah Kavalkovich of Cobalt was placed on the deans list at Wheaton College for the spring semester. This member of the class of 2020 is the daughter of William Kavalkovich and Susan Mahler. Students named receive the honor by earning a GPA for the semester of 3.50 or higher. Mackenzie Goller of Ivoryton graduated from Wheaton May 19, during the colleges 183rd commencement ceremony. Goller earned a bachelor of arts in agriculture: food/society. He is the son of Ethan Goller and Rona Malakoff. Regis University WESTON, Massachusetts Regis University announces 415 students have made the deans list for academic achievement for the spring semester, including Nicole Bitinaitis of Cromwell, class of 2021. To be eligible as a senior, junior or sophomore, a student must have a semester GPA of at least 3.50. For first-year students, a semester GPA of at least 3.25 must be attained. The Department of Veterans Affairs opposed a bill Wednesday that has overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate to extend Agent Orange health care and disability benefits to "blue water" sailors who served offshore during the Vietnam War. "The science is not there" to show that the freshwater systems of Navy ships were contaminated by dioxin from Agent Orange defoliants widely used in Vietnam, said Paul Lawrence, the undersecretary for benefits at the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration. "It's difficult to hear from veterans who are ill" as they file claims, he said at a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, but "there is no conclusive science" from a report by the Institute of Medicine to show a service connection. Several senators from both sides of the aisle and representatives of veterans service organizations (VSOs) disputed Lawrence on the evidence for a service connection and urged passage of the bill, something the committee chairman, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, has made a "top priority." The House has already passed by a vote of 382-0 the bill, which would allow sailors who served offshore in Vietnam to claim care and benefits for so-called "presumptive" diseases from exposure to Agent Orange, including respiratory cancers, heart disease, Parkinson's and chloracne. Those who served on the ground and on the rivers of Vietnam are already able to claim Agent Orange benefits, and "it doesn't make any sense" to exclude the blue water sailors, said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York. "I think this is an injustice that we can and must rectify," she said. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 90,000 sailors could be covered by the bill, which would likely cost about $1.1 billion over 10 years. Lawrence and Dr. Ralph Erickson, the VA's chief consultant for post-deployment health at the Veterans Health Administration, also expressed concerns about Congress' proposal to "offset" the cost of the bill, H.R 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018. In the House version of the bill, the money would come from a small increase in payments from non-disabled veterans who use the VA's home loan program, about $2 per month. The dispute over whether there is a service connection for the blue water sailors centered on a study for the Australian Navy. The study showed that water drawn by Australian ships close to shore could have been contaminated with dioxin from Agent Orange from the runoff to the sea from the rivers and streams of Vietnam. Erickson said U.S. Navy ships drew water from at least 12 miles off shore, where any presence of dioxin would have been more diluted. He said the later study by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, was unable to correlate the Australian study with the operation of U.S. ships. "The Australian format allowed them to draw water close to shore," Erickson said. "You cannot go from that experiment and make a conclusion about U.S. naval personnel." The VSO representatives disputed Erickson on the findings of the Institute of Medicine and pointed to illnesses possibly related to Agent Orange now suffered by the blue water sailors. "People are not science projects," said Thomas Snee, national executive director of the Fleet Reserve Association and a Vietnam veteran. "We are the consequences of an era gone by." -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. "Welcome home," Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday to begin the "honorable carry" ceremony for the return of 55 transfer cases believed to contain the remains of American service members lost in what has been called the "Forgotten War." On the tarmac at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, two Air Force C-17 Globemasters were parked tail to tail, their huge aft hatches lowered. The two aircraft earlier Wednesday had taken aboard the 55 cases, each draped in the flag of the United Nations Command, at Osan Air Base in South Korea. Slowly, honor guards from all the services entered the C-17s and emerged with the cases, now draped in the flag of the United States. Each casket was carried by four service members, one of them giving a hushed cadence call. The cases were placed on stanchions in a Hickam hangar, where veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War and families of the missing observed the event. As each was lowered to the stanchion, Pence placed his hand over his heart. Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of U.S Indo-Pacific Command, and Rear Adm. Jon Kreitz, deputy director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, gave slow salutes. The honor guards then gathered in formation. The command "Present Arms" was given as they came to attention and saluted. A bugler played "Taps," ending the ceremony. In his remarks earlier in the event, Davidson said the honorable carry ceremony was a "tribute to fallen warriors more than 65 years after they stepped into battle." Across those decades, the fallen were "entitled to one certainty -- that they will never be forgotten," Davidson said. Pence, the son of a decorated Korean War veteran, called the returns a "historic occasion" and an accomplishment for President Donald Trump, "whose leadership and compassion brought this day about." He noted that Korea had been called the "Forgotten War." "Today we proved these heroes were never forgotten," he said. "Today our boys are coming home." "Today is just a beginning. Our work will not be complete until all our fallen heroes are home," said Pence, whose father, Edward J. Pence, Jr., was an Army lieutenant who earned the Bronze Star in Korea. Pence said his father saw combat and returned with a medal on his chest. "He always told us that the real heroes of the Korean War were the ones who didn't get to come home," Pence said. The cases came off the C-17s "draped in the colors of the country they served. Today they are known but to God, but soon we will know their names." DPAA officials have cautioned that identifications could be made quickly in some cases, but the process could take years. According to DPAA, about 7,700 U.S. service members are still listed as missing from the Korean War, and about 5,300 are believed to have been lost on battlefields and in prison camps in what is now North Korea. Earlier at Osan, Dr. John Byrd, laboratory director of DPAA, confirmed that a single dog tag had been found among the remains. He declined to disclose the name on the tag but said the service member's family had been notified. North Korea handed over the 55 cases on July 27, when an Air Force C-17 flew to an airbase near Wonsan on North Korea's east coast and returned with the remains to Osan. Trump said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to the return of remains and future cooperation in joint recovery efforts at their June 12 Singapore summit. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. The first look at the Army's initial standards for passing the new Army Combat Fitness Test has leaked onto the internet. The chart, first reported by Army Times, outlines the proposed scoring for an upcoming field test in which 60 battalions across the service will start taking the six-event ACFT beginning in October. The current Army Physical Fitness Test will remain the test of record until October 2020, when the entire service begins taking the new ACFT. The chart shows the minimum scores soldiers in the field test must meet for three categories: Black for soldiers in "heavy" physically demanding units or jobs, Grey for soldiers in "significant" physically demanding units or jobs, and Gold for soldiers in "moderate" physically demanding units or jobs. Check out the recently leaked Army Combat Fitness Test standards chart Gold is also the proposed overall Army minimum standard for passing the ACFT, according to the chart. Army officials were surprised by the leak but acknowledged that "the chart is in fact accurate," Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pray, a spokesman for the Army Center for Initial Military Training, said in an emailed statement. "These standards will be used for testing 60 battalions throughout the Army over the next year," he said. "The field testing will help inform our final test procedures and grading standards." The ACFT is made up of six events: a strength deadlift; standing power throw; hand raised, or release, push-ups; a 250-meter sprint, drag and carry; leg tucks; and a two-mile run. Here is a look at the minimum standards: Black, for 70 points. 180 pounds on the strength deadlift; 8.5 meters for the power throw; 30 release push-ups, 2 minutes, 9 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 5 leg tucks; and 18 minutes for the two-mile run. 180 pounds on the strength deadlift; 8.5 meters for the power throw; 30 release push-ups, 2 minutes, 9 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 5 leg tucks; and 18 minutes for the two-mile run. Grey, for 65 points. 160 pounds on the strength deadlift; 6.5 meters for the power throw; 20 release push-ups; 2 minutes, 45 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 3 leg tucks; and 19 minutes for the two-mile run. 160 pounds on the strength deadlift; 6.5 meters for the power throw; 20 release push-ups; 2 minutes, 45 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 3 leg tucks; and 19 minutes for the two-mile run. Gold, the Army minimum standard, for 60 points. 140 pounds for the strength deadlift; 4.6 meters for the power throw; 10 release push-ups; 3 minutes, 35 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 1 leg tuck; and 21 minutes, 7 seconds for the two-mile run. To get a maximum score of 100 points on the ACFT, the proposed standard is 340 pounds for the strength deadlift; 13.5 meters for the power throw; 70 release push-ups; one minute, 40 seconds for the sprint, drag and carry; 20 leg tucks; and 12 minutes, 45 seconds on the two-mile run. The final standards for the ACFT "are not expected to be approved until October of 2019, and may be adjusted up until the test is approved for record on/about 1 October 2020," Pray said. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. A New Jersey heart doctor who billed the Department of Veterans Affairs hundreds of thousands of dollars for procedures he never performed on veterans is finally facing the consequences of his actions. Apostolos Voudouris, 44, will serve 20 months in prison and pay a total of $722,190 in restitution, a civil settlement and fines after billing the VA for more than 350 procedures he never did over a four-year period, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey. He faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Voudouris pleaded guilty last August to the fraud, which took place between 2011 and 2015, the U.S. attorney said. The cardiologist began working on a contract for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in East Orange, New Jersey, in 2006 and presumably conducted many real procedures during his nine-year tenure. He still has a profile up at Healthgrades.com, where he enjoys a four-star rating. According to his profile, he has been practicing for 14 years and is a 1998 graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. But the instances in which Voudouris submitted paperwork to the VA but never actually performed a procedure totaled $238,230 in phony bills, the U.S. Attorney announced. In addition to Voudouris' prison term, he will serve two years of supervised release, U.S. District Judge William Walls decided. The sentence was handed down Tuesday in Newark federal court. In addition to full restitution to the VA, Voudouris must pay a $7,500 fine and $476,460 in a civil settlement with the government, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Special agents with the VA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the FBI participated in the investigation into Voudouris' wrongdoing, according to releases. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date. It's time for North Korea to start disarming, U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris said a day after the presumed remains of as many as 55 U.S. service members missing from the Korean War were returned. Speaking to the South Korean media Thursday at his residence in Seoul, Harris said there could be no movement toward ending the state of war on the peninsula until North Korean leader Kim Jong Un starts living up to his commitment to "denuclearization," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. "I think for the denuclearization to happen, we need to see the move, and I haven't seen that yet," said Harris, a retired four-star admiral and former commander of U.S. Pacific Command. In talks with the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean officials have pressed for a peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean war, but the outspoken Harris said disarmament must come first. "One of the things that hasn't happened is the demonstrable moves toward denuclearization before we can entertain something like the end-of-war declaration," he said. Rather than disarm, North Korea has continued producing fissile material for nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. President Donald Trump hailed satellite photos indicating that North Korea was dismantling a missile test facility, but other reports have suggested that the North is expanding missile production. Trump has said that Kim committed to denuclearization and the return of the remains of U.S. service members missing from the Korean War at their June 12 summit in Singapore. At his news conference, Harris urged caution in any negotiations on a peace treaty. "It is my hope that we move forward the issue of the end of war declaration with South Korea," he said. "This, in my view, should be an alliance decision, and we should not be precipitous in declaring an end of the war." Harris' remarks came a day after he attended the honor guard ceremony at Osan Air Base south of Seoul where 55 transfer cases believed to contain the remains of U.S. service members missing from the Korean War were placed aboard two Air Force C-17 Globemasters. The two aircraft brought the remains to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to begin the process of identification and eventual return to their families. Harris, who retired as PACOM commander in June, was originally the Trump administration's choice to become ambassador to Australia. The administration ultimately changed course and nominated him to become ambassador to South Korea, a post that had been vacant since Trump's inauguration when then-Ambassador Mark Lippert resigned. The Australia post is still vacant. "I've spoken in the past about the need to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, and not to his knees," Harris said at his Senate confirmation hearing. His remarks contrasted with a conciliatory tweet from Trump thanking Kim for the return of remains and expressing eagerness for another summit with him. Trump also referenced a recent letter he received from Kim but did not disclose the contents. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump said. "Also, thank you for your nice letter -- l look forward to seeing you soon!" -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Lawmakers have cleared the way for the posthumous awarding of the nation's second-highest valor medal to a U.S. Army staff sergeant for his bravery during the deadly 2009 battle for Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan, according to the fiscal 2019 defense budget. The final version of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2019 included a provision that would award the Distinguished Service Cross to Justin Gallegos for his heroism. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill contained similar provisions supporting Gallegos, who fought repulse a determined Taliban assault at the COP, located in Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province. The language waives the official deadline, which had expired, for awarding medals for the 2009 battle. Policy requires that medals be awarded within five years of the date of action, although Congress has approved numerous exceptions. The brutal battle resulted in the award of two Medals of Honor and claimed the lives of eight U.S. soldiers, including Gallegos. Gallegos posthumously received the Silver Star for his heroism; this provision would upgrade that award. The Distinguished Service Cross is ranked just below the Medal of Honor in prestige. About 300 Taliban attacked the small outpost before dawn Oct. 3. Gallegos was there with roughly 50 soldiers from B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Approximately 30 Afghan troops were with the 3-61st. When the attack began, "Staff Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos, Sgt. Bradley Larson, and Spc. Stephan L. Mace raced to fortified High-Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles, or Humvees, at the southern side that served as a Battalion Position," according to an official Army account of the battle. "Larson and Gallegos immediately engaged the enemy in the hills with the Humvee's .50 caliber machine gun and ground-mounted, belt-fed M240 machine gun, while Mace engaged the east with his M4 carbine." Gallegos and his fellow soldiers defended the position while Spc. Ty Michael Carter repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to keep Gallegos' 240 and Larson's .50 cal. resupplied with ammunition. Carter would later receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the battle. "The enemy attack was unrelenting; the cacophony of gunfire deafening, and the crew at the southern battle position quickly expended the additional M240 rounds," according to the account of the battle. The enemy began pounding the Humvee position with rocket-propelled grenades. "One rocket detonated on the turret and destroyed the .50 caliber, spraying the interior with shrapnel," according to the account. "Larson, Martin and Carter were wounded." Dozens of Taliban were firing on the position from high ground. Gallegos decided to take two other soldiers to link up with the remaining members of B Troop, while Carter and Larson provided covering fire. As he led his team through enemy fire, "Gallegos was hit by machine gun fire ... killing him instantly. Martin was hit in the leg and scrambled beneath a nearby laundry trailer. RPG shrapnel wounded Mace, who managed to crawl to low ground 30 meters from the Humvee," the account states. A handful of 3-61st soldiers in a second Humvee soon reinforced the besieged position, and the fighting raged on. It took several hours for reinforcements to arrive from Observation Post Fritsche. In addition to Gallegos and the seven other deaths, more than 20 troops were wounded in the attack on Keating. -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com. The sometimes-rigid officer promotion system could see major shake-ups after Congress approved a series of reforms offering more flexible career paths -- changes experts say were long overdue. The 2019 defense authorization bill, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, paves the way for more officers to join the military at higher ranks, a promotion system based on merit over seniority, and an end to some up-or-out rules that prematurely end some careers. The changes could upend sections of the 1980 Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, or DOPMA, which standardized personnel management for the officer corps across the military branches. Many of those rules date back to World War II, and the branches will be freed to move their promotion systems into the 21st century, said Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs, installations and logistics. "Now if you have someone with a particular skill you want to keep, but he or she says, 'I don't want to wait four years to be a commander' or whatever it might be -- and you really need the person -- you can promote them more rapidly," Korb said. The changes, first reported by Military Times, include: The ability for high-performing officers to be promoted ahead of their peers, regardless of time in grade. The chance for civilians with certain skills to enter the military up to the grade of O-6. The removal of predetermined officer-promotion timelines, known as up-or-out rules. The chance for officers in grades O-2 and above to extend their careers out to 40 years of service. Congress isn't mandating that the services implement the changes, which Blaise Misztal, director of national security at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said is the right approach. The Bipartisan Policy Center issued a report last year about the military's future force that included several recommendations similar to the personnel reforms passed by Congress this week. "It allows the services to figure out and implement those changes that are best suited to their particular missions," Misztal said. "The types of skills, and therefore career paths, that the Air Force or a new Space Force might require are obviously different from those of the Army or Marine Corps." A Changing Workforce Military leaders have long pushed for more career flexibility. Former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus wanted to give more sailors and Marines the chance to pause their careers to pursue an education or start a family. And former Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson wanted to offer troops targeted pay raises to reward the military's best and brightest. As warfare gets more technical and millennials search for flexible career paths, the newly authorized reforms will be imperative, Misztal said. Gone are the days of working for one company your entire life. Young people expect a more varied career path, and this helps the military fall in line with what young people are looking for, he said. "Particularly in technical fields where competition with the private sector might be fiercest," he said. "The flexibility to bring officers in at higher ranks, promote them faster, or not promote them -- and thereby keep them focused on missions in which they excel and not at a desk that they aren't interested in -- will give the military greater access to the talent it needs." Up-or-out rules create a one-size-fits-all military career, Misztal added. That might've been effective when previous generations commanded untrained troops, but today's reality is different. Korb agrees. You don't need every officer to be on a path to become the next Air Force chief of staff or Marine Corps commandant, he said. But you do need the flexibility to keep the right people in the right jobs. Up-or-out rules don't always allow for that. "You're essentially throwing people out that you really want to keep," he said. "... Any job outside the military, you can stay in the same job as long as you're effective. You don't have to become the president of the company." As the military competes against the private sector for in-demand personnel, such as those in cyber fields, it's important to give officers a chance to attain a depth of expertise, said retired Army Col. George Reed, a professor and leadership expert at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. "I think this definitely has potential for helping retain high performers," said Reed, who served as the Army War College's director of command and leadership studies. "In a system that highly values seniority and time in grade, there are some high-performing people who are stifled in that system who have a lot of potential." A Cultural Shift Any change in the military comes with a degree of resistance, and overhauling officer promotions won't be exempt from that, Reed said. Enlisted troops might have to get used to having newly commissioned colonels commanding them. While there are benefits to recruiting those officers or ditching up-or-out rules, Reed said one can't underestimate the changes all of that will have on the officer corps' culture. "Everybody in the military has traditionally been focused either on their next level of responsibility or exit from the force -- without exception," he said. "The up-or-out policy has served us well to a certain degree and has certainly produced extraordinary generalists -- those who have an awful lot of experience across a broad range of assignments. There is goodness in that." On the flip side, though, Misztal said the new policies could allow more officers to do what they love instead of what they need to do to get promoted. That could keep more pilots flying, for example, rather than "riding a desk," he said, which could help with retention in some of those in-demand fields. The Navy and Air Force might be more likely to embrace some of these moves for their more technical fields, Korb said, while soldiers and Marines resist. That kind of flexibility isn't necessarily a bad thing, he said. But if the new policies are a big success, the services slower to embrace the changes might need to be pushed into adopting them. Just as a one-size-fits-all approach for officers' careers isn't always appropriate, Reed said that's true of the services too. "The military is not monolithic," he said. "The Special Forces community is different than medical as a community. Bringing people in at very high ranks may work very well for cyber as we try to get people with skills, but that likely wouldn't work well at all in a conventional infantry or special operations unit." -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins. U.S. Africa Command wants to pull hundreds of troops from Africa and downsize special operations missions there in a move that coincides with the Pentagon's shift to threats posed by Russia and China. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, said the potential drawdown doesn't amount to a retreat from Africa, but that it would help the military better deal with other threats around the world. "We're not walking away," Waldhauser said, adding that the U.S. will "reserve the right to unilaterally return." Waldhauser's recommendation is now under review by senior officials. In the wake of an October ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers, military missions in Africa have been under greater scrutiny. American commanders have acknowledged that extremists operating in places like Niger don't pose a direct threat to the United States, which has prompted questions over whether U.S. forces are taking unnecessary risks in the region. AFRICOM has about 6,000 troops throughout Africa. Roughly 4,000 of them are based at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. The second largest contingent is in Niger, where there are about 800 personnel. Roughly 1,200 special operations troops are on missions in Africa. As part of Waldhauser's plan, those numbers would be cut by 25 percent over 18 months and 50 percent over three years, the Times reported. That would leave 700 special operators in on the continent. Most of the cuts are expected to come from Central and West Africa. In West Africa, Niger has been a focal point. Earlier this year, the U.S. began conducting armed unmanned surveillance flights in that country. A new $110 million new drone base also is under construction in Niger. In places like Cameroon, training missions led by U.S. special operators have achieved their main objective: building a capable indigenous force, Waldhauser said. "That would be an example of a country where we have worked ourselves out of a job," Waldhauser said. AFRICOM's main effort is along the eastern Horn of Africa in Somalia, where special operations troops have worked for the past several years in a campaign to assist indigenous forces in their fight against the Al-Shabab extremist group. Earlier this year, the Pentagon released a new defense strategy that shifts attention from counterterrorism missions that have absorbed the military's attention for more than a decade to dealing with great power competition. Editor's note: This discount was valid for August 2018 and is no longer available. LEGOLAND California Resort is thanking military personnel for their service with free park admission throughout the month of August 2018. When presenting a valid military ID at the resort ticket booth, active duty service members get one same day, one-day Resort Hopper ticket. This ticket includes admission to LEGOLAND, SEA LIFE Aquarium and LEGOLAND Water Park. The resort also offers discounted admission tickets for family and friends. Get up to 50% off regular admission prices by visiting the ticket office at your local military base or by purchasing in advance online at www.legoland.com/Military. Discounts for family and friends are also available at the front gate of the park for up to 10% off. While LEGOLAND California Resort does offer military discounts regularly throughout the year, the free admission offer is good only in August. So grab your military ID, and dont miss out on this great summer deal. Keep up with all military discounts Whether you're an active duty service member, a military family member, or a veteran, stay on top of all the military discounts you're eligible for, from travel accommodations to auto and entertainment deals. Sign up for a free Military.com membership to get full access to all discounts. Forget air mobility aircraft. U.S. troops will someday deliver cargo to forward operating locations and other bases around the world via reusable rockets, according to a top general. "We've got to get at the speed of war. Mobility in space -- what a concept. I need rapid access to space," said Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II, head of Air Mobility Command. Everhart, who will retire soon, spoke during a defense writers' group breakfast in Washington, D.C., laying out his vision for the command's future priorities. "They tell me [the BFR rocket] can go around the globe in 30 minutes," he said, referring to SpaceX's next-generation reusable rocket concept. "Thirty minutes with 150 metric tons; [that's] less than the cost of [using and flying] a C-5 [Galaxy]." Everhart said he recently met with officials from California-based SpaceX as well as launch service Virgin Orbit. He plans to meet with Jeff Bezos' aerospace company Blue Origin. His meetings took place after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein tasked him with looking at how Air Mobility Command could leverage the space domain. Related content: "This vertical lift intrigues me, and to coin a phrase, 'Space is the final frontier,' " Everhart said. If the U.S. pre-positions cargo in space, he said, it would free up shipments by air, land and sea. Everhart said the concept could lead to cargo and port stations or a "floating island" in space that could house Humvees, ammunition, tactical equipment, building materials and other wartime supplies. "I don't have to have people there," he said. "I just have to have cargo there [plus] automated loading systems, those types of things." As to how the system would work, Everhart said it's up to industry partners to leverage their own technologies to supply the service with the biggest tactical advantage. Details on how cargo would be guarded from adversaries such as Russia and China are still being discussed, he added. Physical protections and cyber-hardening systems are both options. Everhart said several internal white paper studies on the idea have been written and there is an ongoing conversation with Gen. John Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command. "I want to put mobility [airmen] in Space Command so they learn space, and they learn mobility," Everhard said. It is unclear if the Air Force would keep the potential space-cargo mission itself, or if it would eventually belong to the Trump administration's proposed "Space Force." Everhart said he would like the concept added to future budget requests quickly so lawmakers can approve the program as soon as possible. "I have to get these concepts now if we're [talking] acquisition. I need it now. I need to look at different avenues," he said, adding that having a line in the budget by 2022 is "too late." That's because space launch companies have the ability to move even faster, Everhart said. "I think the concepts are there within the next five years," he said, adding that companies like SpaceX are already looking to perform similar launches and resupply for the commercial sector. "Five years after that, I think it will be happening," he said. "We're starting to spin this up pretty good, because ... if we don't do this and we stay just within the air domain, Air Mobility Command will become irrelevant." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Department of Veterans Affairs officials say they strongly oppose passage of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act (HR 299), which would extend Agent Orange disability benefits and health care to between 70,000 and 90,000 veterans who served aboard ships in territorial waters off Vietnam during the war, and today suffer ailments associated with herbicides sprayed across its jungles for years. The Blue Water Navy bill passed the House unanimously in late June and seemed certain to fly through the Senate, given reports of close coordination on the bill between veterans affairs committees, and the House having negotiated a plan to pay for the benefits with major veteran service organizations. On Wednesday, however, with Robert Wilkie installed two days earlier as VA secretary, his undersecretary for benefits, Paul R. Lawrence, delivered a blistering attack on the Blue Water Navy bill, and on a proposal to test providing routine dental care to veterans, during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing. Lawrence testified that theres still no credible scientific evidence to support extending Agent Orange-related benefits to shipboard personnel who never went ashore in Vietnam or patrolled its rivers. Without such evidence, he said, it would be wrong, and would create a disastrous precedent, to award VA benefits. This committee set the standard to use science to be fair and consistent in cases such as this, said Lawrence, referring to the Agent Orange Act of 1991. Once that standard is removed from the equation, it becomes nearly impossible to adjudicate a claim of this type on the merits. The resulting lower threshold sets in motion the prospect of uncontrolled demands for [VA] support. Lawrence, who took charge of veteran benefit programs in May, warned that if HR 299 is enacted, it will be referenced when other exposure claims are presented to this committee. At that point, Congress will be under greater pressure to accommodate these requests too, regardless of the evidence. It wasnt immediately clear what damage Lawrence and his top official on post-deployment health issues, Dr. Ralph Erickson, inflicted on the popular Blue Water Navy bill. A majority of senators on the committee still spoke in favor. But the Trump administration has reversed signals of support that a beleaguered VA Secretary, David Shulkin, gave Blue Water advocates in March. VA for years had opposed the legislation. The usual hardline softened a year after Shulkin became President Trumps first VA Secretary when he told Rep. David Valado (R-Ga.), lead sponsor of the House bill, that these veterans have waited too long and this is a responsibility that this country has. Shulkin noted that VA lacked scientific evidence that shipboard personnel were exposed to dioxin. But he said his staff was working hard to look at offsets cuts to other parts of the VA budget -- to pay for Blue Water Navy benefits. And it is a high priority for us, he added. Two weeks later Shulkin was fired, deepening a leadership vacuum at VA caused by political chaos at the White House. Trump initially nominated his White House physician, a Navy admiral, to replace Shulkin. The choice soon fell victim to controversy. The House, meanwhile, passed its Blue Water Navy bill after the veterans affairs committee negotiated with major veterans organizations a way to pay for it, by raising user fees modestly on VA guaranteed home loans. Robert Wilkie became VA Secretary this past Monday. By Wednesday, there was no trace of the accommodating tone on the Blue Water Navy issue that Shulkin had expressed months earlier. Lawrence scorched the bill and its pay for plan. VA is opposed to paying for the provisions of this bill by increasing the cost that some veterans must pay to access their [home loan] benefits. Veterans will either have to finance the VA funding fee with interest, or pay up front with cash. This means fewer veterans will buy homes or [will] buy homes using non-VA options, potentially opening them to predator lenders, Lawrence said. He further argued that opening Agent Orange benefits to thousands more veterans would stunt ongoing efforts to reduce the backlog of compensation claims on appeal, adding time and cost to claim processes. In written testimony, Lawrence gave fresh estimates on the cost of the Blue Water Navy bill, at total of almost $7 billion over the first 10 years. Some senators pushed back at his attack on the bill, arguing it wouldnt be needed if VA didnt set a high bar for these Navy veterans to gain benefits for conditions on VAs list of 14 ailments linked to Agent Orange. Erickson told senators most of the ailments presumed to be caused by Agent Orange also are tied to aging, therefore VA needs evidence of dioxin exposure for ships at sea. He said a Blue Water Navy review conducted by the Institute of Medicine in 2011 failed to find sufficient evidence of dioxin exposure. He and Lawrence dismissed an oft-cited Australian study that was the scientific foundation for that government to award Agent Orange-related benefits to its shipboard veterans. That study, said Lawrence, was based on an experiment involving distillation of water with presumed levels of dioxin near to shore. It was U.S. Navy policy to take on water for shipboard use more than 12-miles out to sea, to avoid contaminants, Erickson explained. Rick Weidman, with Vietnam Veterans of America, made the strongest case in support of Blue Water veterans. VA officials have misinterpreted the 2011 study, which did find it plausible that shipboard veterans were exposed to dioxin. Given that Congress already presumes veterans who served anywhere in Vietnam were exposed, and doesnt try to calculate level of exposure, that benefit of the doubt should be applied to shipboard personnel too, Weidman said. How much [exposure] makes no difference, he said. You dont know [the] difference for folks who served in the delta versus the central highlands where I served. Who knows? And you cant put it together 40 years later. VAs hardline appears to leave Senate Committee Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) in a tough spot. Veteran service organizations and leaders of the House Veterans Affairs Committee thought Isakson was set to endorse the bill and shepherd it swiftly toward enactment. At the hearing, however, Isakson said we have more work to do on these issues. He promised the committee would work deliberately to understand all facets of the Blue Water bill, including whether the House plan to raise VA home loans fees was enough to pay for it. Isakson asked Lawrence whether charging non-disabled veterans an extra $250 on every $100,000 in loan value would cover the cost of extending Agent Orange benefits to Blue Water Navy veterans. Not in our opinion, no, said Lawrence. Isakson nodded agreement. I did real estate sales my entire life, Isakson said. A lot of VA loans, FHA loans. You can make those numbers look like a lot of things. That is not a lot of money if VA home loan fees are raised, as the House voted, from 2.25 percent of loan amounts to 2.4 percent, for veterans with active duty service. Its variable too, and depends on number of loans that actually are closed in any year, he said. It seems the Blue Water Navy bill will be adrift in uncertainty for at least several more months, its future dependent on how Senate leaders react to stiffened resistance from the Trump administration. To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update. Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but... As WarbirdsNews readers will remember, a few weeks ago, the Yankee Air Museum unveiled their freshly refinished Douglas C-47D Skytrain 44-76716. The aircraft had for decades worn a polished metal and white post-war livery, and the nickname Yankee Doodle Dandy. However, the vintage transport now wears a much more interesting, and under-represented paint scheme from the China-Burma-India Theatre belonging to the 1st Air Commando Group. At the time of her roll-out on June 29th, the aircraft had yet to receive her personalized squadron markings though. However, in a rather dramatic flourish, this all changed last week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018, when the museum had the final markings hand-painted on the airframe. The aircraft now represents Hairless Joe, an aircraft flown by the legendary Lt.Col. Dick Cole in the 319th Troop Carrier Squadron within the 1st Air Commando. As readers will remember, as a Lieutenant, Dick Cole was Jimmy Doolittles co-pilot during the daring April 1942 raid when 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers launched from the heaving deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb the Japanese mainland for the first time since the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the Doolittle Raid, as the mission subsequently became known, the Cole went on to serve with the 1st Air Commando Group during their push into Burma. At the grand age of 103, Dick Cole is the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders, and the gallant man was on hand at Oshkosh to witness the Yankee Air Museums C-47 being marked in his honor. The Yankee Air Museum released the following statement about this moment Dick Cole is the heros hero, said Kevin Walsh, Executive Director of Yankee Air Museum. In 1942, as a lieutenant, Dick Cole was Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittles co-pilot in the daring raid on Tokyo, flying a B-25 bomber and leading 15 others from the deck of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission and went on to fly many more in the CBI theater. Walsh explained the Hairless Joe moniker was actually selected by Coles crew and originates with a character from the popular Lil Abner comic strip of the 1940s. Walsh said there were other types of aircraft named Hairless Joe in the war, including P-47 and P-38 fighters as well as B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers. He says this plane will live on to complete a new mission. As a Museum, we have a responsibility to keep history alive, and for us to be able to tell the story of the CBI, often called The Forgotten Theater with this airplane, is very important, continued Walsh. Its also very humbling to do this in the presence of Dick Cole, the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders and a giant among men. Walsh said the plane also received squadron insignias while at Oshkosh. The 319th TCS insignia was a large question mark within a circle and it appears on the vertical stabilizer of the tail section [Ed. this is true today for the units successor, the 319th Special Operations Squadron]. The [Squadron] never knew what their next special operation would be, so its fitting they adopted a question mark as their insignia, said Walsh. As for us, we know our mission is to take this great example of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain to as many air shows as possible, and tell the secret history of the Forgotten Theater. Walsh said the new paint job was made possible through the generous support of Kalitta Air. The plane was ferried to Kalitta Maintenance in Oscoda, Michigan on June 8, stripped of its old paint, thoroughly inspected, primed and re-painted by June 29, 2018. With these finishing touches, were ready, said Walsh, concluding, Well be flying the plane for years to come honoring our Greatest Generation and providing people with Air Adventure rides. To find out about an Air Adventure ride on Hairless Joe, visit www.yankeeairmuseum.org/fly VICENZA, Italy -- The Ederle Inn evicted some unwanted guests from a guest room last week when a military family discovered bed bugs in the room they stayed in seven nights previously. U.S. Army Health Clinic Vicenza, Chief of Environmental Health Capt. Lileshwaran Reddy and an entomologist from U.S. Army Garrison Italy Public Works were called to put their experience to work. The room and guests' room and luggage were inspected and treated with insecticide to kill the bugs. "We follow a protocol used by many hotels in the lodging industry and called our garrison experts," said Family and Morale Welfare and Recreation Director Chris Bradford. "The family was relocated to another room and the affected room will not be made available to another guest until we're sure all the bugs are dead and gone." No other guest reports of bed bugs were made after notification by Ederle Inn management, social media and a distributed memo to guests from the garrison commander. "This was an isolated incident," said Reddy. "You can think of bed bugs as expert hitchhikers. They're stowaways in luggage, purses, boxes, furniture, and other belongings. PCS season increases the likelihood of bed bugs. When families store clothes and luggage for two or three years and then only pull things out again when it comes time to move back stateside, there's no telling what's in them. The best defense is knowing what to look for," said Reddy. Stopping an infestation dead in its tracks from the onset is critical. A widespread infestation last summer at the Army's Human Resource Command in Fort Knox shuttered six buildings for several days for fumigation. This incident impacted the entire U.S. Army as thousands of workers were sent home. Summer weather and PCS season combine to increase the likelihood of bed bugs because high visitor traffic and lots of luggage. Bed bugs are usually transported from place to place as people travel. Most people do not realize they are transporting them as they travel from location to location, infecting areas as they travel. Since bed bug eggs hatch 4-12 days after they are laid, their presence may not be evident until days after a resident arrives in a room. Families preparing to PCS can prevent bed bugs from tagging along. The Army Public Health Center recommends keeping luggage on racks or otherwise off the floor. Inspect luggage prior to repacking. Laundering clothing using the highest heat settings for washing and drying for at least 30 minutes goes a long way. Bed bugs and their eggs can be killed when exposed to temperatures of 115 F (46 C) for 15 minutes. If it's possible, launder luggage. Otherwise examine it carefully under bright light. If bed bugs are discovered, determine a treatment option appropriate for the size and type of luggage. Proactive measures can go a long way in preventing bed bug infestations. Housekeeping staff in Army Lodging received additional training this past week to reinforce the importance of being alert for bed bug infestation. "We took this incident very seriously and we followed our Installation Pest Management Plan. Army Lodging strives to provide the best customer services for our Soldiers, civilians, and their families. It's a team effort to ensure the Ederle Inn provides the most comfortable and secure temporary home for transitioning personnel," said USAG Italy Garrison Commander Col. Erik Berdy. The Smithsonian Channel's "The Pacific War in Color" has been one of the summer's most rewarding shows and episode 7 looks to be one of its best. "No Surrender" premieres on Sunday, August 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. We've got a clip from the episode that features compelling footage of the prisoners of war compelled by the Japanese to build a bridge over the River Kwai as part of a railroad line from Thailand to Burma. No matter how many times you've seen the Oscar-winning movie, these images are a revelation. In this episode, the war in Europe is winding down, but the Japanese forces dig in and prepare for a long siege. By the spring of 1945, America begins to take back the Philippines, Manila is liberated after a devastating battle, and the USO show comes to boost morale. On Borneo, the Australians invade Labuan and liberate the Indonesians from oppressive Japanese occupation. When the U.S. invades Okinawa, Japan makes a strong stand and launches the biggest kamikaze attacks of the war. Record-shattering casualties - including the generals from both sides - mount in island-hopping's last epic battle. POWs are rare. Japanese forces fight to the end, with no sign of surrender. Key Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A) This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary. The Mets will select the contract of reliever Bobby Wahl, assistant GM John Ricco said today in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). Hes one of the two players acquired in the pre-deadline swap that sent out veteran closer Jeurys Familia. Wahl, a hard-throwing righty, has continued to rack up the strikeouts at Triple-A in four appearances since coming over from the Oakland organization. On the year, he has retired 73 batters on strikes while issuing 19 walks in 45 frames at the highest level of the minors. In that span, he has permitted just eleven earned runs on a meager twenty base hits. Of course, Wahl has shown an interesting power arm in the past, and that did not prevent him from clearing waivers after a brief MLB debut in 2017. If the As were convinced he is a notable near-term bullpen asset, perhaps they would not have dealt him for the rental rights to Familia. That said, Wahls campaign last year was cut short by injury, which explains why he went unclaimed, and he has certainly bounced back with vigor in 2018. Perhaps hell provide a glimmer of hope for the Mets down the stretch. In other news, the Mets are slated to activate third baseman Todd Frazier, per MLB.coms Todd Frazier (via Twitter). He could perhaps become an August trade candidate, though there has been no rumor of trade talks to this point. One active roster spot could be opened by sending starter Steven Matz to the DL. While Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets that Matz was cleared of structural concerns after undergoing an MRI, Mike Puma of the New York post suggests on Twitter that the southpaw may still hit the shelf. As Tim Healey of Newsday notes in a tweet, though, the club is still listing Matz as a probable starter this weekend. Fiat Chrysler is recalling more than 1.1 million of its newer Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks due to the increased risk that the tailgate could open unexpectedly while in motion. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports the recall includes 1,149,237 2015-2107 Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 trucks equipped with either the 5-foot-7 or 6-foot-4 bed. In federal documents, the agency says that "the tailgate actuator limiter tab may fracture and cause the tailgate to unlatch and open while driving." Affected Ram trucks were built at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant and Saltillo Truck Assembly Plant between July 31, 2014 and Dec. 15, 2017. The automaker has not reported any injuries or crashes related to the recall as of now. "The tailgate actuator limiter tab within the power lock actuatory control assembly may fracture allowing the lock rod control bracket to over-travel which may pull the lock rods and release the latches, potentially resulting in the tailgate inadvertently falling open at any time," NHTSA documents read. "An unintended opening of the tailgate while driving may result in a loss of unrestrained cargo from the truck bed while driving. Lost cargo may create a road hazard to operators and occupants of other vehicles and can cause such vehicles to crash without prior warning." This wide-ranging recall for one of the best-selling vehicles in the world continues an unfortunate trend for FCA in 2018, as it already led all automakers for recalls through the first half of the year. The automaker had already recalled more than 6 million vehicles through mid-June, which put it ahead of second-place Ford by about 2 million. FCA has led the U.S. in recalls the past three years, according to a report. FCA recalled 5.4 million last year, 8.8 million in 2016 and 11.5 million in 2015. Earlier this year, FCA recalled more than 2 million 2017 and 2018 Ram 1500, 22500 and 3500 series pickups due to the risk they could shift out of park without the ignition engaged or the driver's foot on the brake pedal. Certain 2010 through 2017 Ram 2500 and 3500s, 2011 through 2017 Ram 3500, 4500 and 5500 chassis cabs, 2016 and 2017 Ram 3500 chassis cab less than 10,000 pounds, and 2009 through 2017 Ram 1500s were also included in that massive recall. The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker says it will begin notifying affected owners on Sept. 1. Once this occurs, dealers will make necessary repairs free of charge. To search active recalls, use the NHTSA's website to search your 17-character VIN at this link. VIN numbers are typically located under the driver's side windshield, or along the inside of the doors behind the seat or under the steering wheel. To sign up for NHTSA safety alerts for a specific vehicle, sign up at this link. UPDATE: Adam Gainsley indicated on Friday afternoon, Aug. 3, he has suspended his campaign. YPSILANTI, MI - A Democrat running for a 3rd Ward seat on the Ypsilanti City Council was convicted of felony assault and disorderly conduct seven years ago, records show. Two years before that, he was convicted of operating a vehicle while impaired, records show. Adam Gainsley "That's in the past and I've grown and moved on from that, and I'm working hard to be a good citizen now," said Adam Gainsley, the 36-year-old council candidate running against community activist Anthony Morgan in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary. Gainsley said he's in a good place now and hoping voters can look past his criminal record. "I think my record of work in Ypsilanti shows I'm an effective and positive member of the community," said Gainsley, an Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority board member. Records show Gainsley was arrested by Pittsfield Township police in early 2011 after a felony warrant was issued in late 2010 for an alleged sexual assault of a female in her 20s. Gainsley was charged by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office with third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving an incapacitated victim, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The prosecutor's office alleged Gainsley "did engage in sexual penetration" of a female victim while "knowing or having reason to know that the victim was physically helpless." The case ended up in Washtenaw County's 22nd Circuit Court where records show Gainsley got the sexual assault charge dismissed and pled no contest to lesser charges. In that case, he was sentenced in July 2011 to three years probation for felony assault, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or $5,000 in fines, and disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or $500 in fines. As part of his probation terms, records show he was ordered to go through a sex offender treatment program, refrain from drinking or using drugs, stay out of bars, undergo drug and alcohol testing, and attend Alcoholics Anonymous or equivalent meetings. He also was ordered to have no contact with the victim and to pay more than $1,700 in court fines plus $40 per month for Michigan Department of Corrections supervision fees. After serving more than half of the three-year term, he was discharged from probation early in February 2013 based on good behavior. His earlier alcohol-related arrest for operating a vehicle while impaired occurred in Jackson in 2009, records show. He pled guilty in Jackson's 12th District Court and paid more than $1,000 in fines, records show. "I've done what I needed to do to get past that," Gainsley said of his past criminal convictions. He said the incidents occurred before he moved to Ypsilanti and are not related to his involvement in the community. His opponent, Morgan, couldn't be reached for comment. Gainsley, a software developer at Arsenal Studios, said he's lucky to have kept his life on track after having a criminal record. He has served on the Ypsilanti DDA since 2013, including the last three years as treasurer. He touts that the DDA's budget has gone from deep deficits to balanced during his time serving. Gainsley also was the campaign manager for Citizens for Ypsi, helping to win voter approval last year of a millage to repay debt associated with the city's Water Street Redevelopment Area. He also has been involved with non-motorized transportation advocacy in Ypsilanti and is married to Gillian Ream Gainsley, an Ypsilanti rep on the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority board. More info MLive has partnered with the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Michigan to provide information to voters. Check out the league's election guide at Vote411.org to find out more about candidates and proposals on the ballot. Additional election information from the nonpartisan CivCity Initiative in Ann Arbor can be found at AnnArborVotes.org. To find out where to vote and view what's on your ballot, go to the Michigan Voter Information Center website. ANN ARBOR, MI - Traci Farmer is a woman of great faith, but she cannot forgive the man who shot her son and left him to die in a ditch, she said. "Damn your soul to hell," Farmer told the man convicted of shooting and killing her son more than two years ago. "I'm a believer in God, but I cannot forgive you. You shot him three times and left him to die like a dog on the side of the road." Washtenaw County Trial Judge Darlene O'Brien on Thursday, Aug. 2, sentenced Marcus Palmer, 24, to serve 30 to 50 years. A jury convicted Palmer of second-degree murder and felony firearm, July 12, almost two years after Zachary Currie, 18, was found dead. Currie was found fatally shot in front of his girlfriend's house in the 5400 block of Willis Road in Augusta Township on July 24, 2016. That's about two miles southeast of Ann Arbor. Prosecutors alleged throughout the trial Currie was the victim of a drug dealer hit that was carried out by Palmer who was later arrested and charged with open murder. Open murder allows a jury to decide the degree of murder. "I'm still upset (Palmer) was wasn't convicted of premeditated murder, but I'm happy the judge saw the case for what it was and is punishing him beyond the recommended sentence (of 36 years)," Farmer said after the hearing. Palmer's attorney, Harry Boffman III, asked O'Brien to show leniency, reminding the court Palmer was convicted of second-degree murder not first-degree, premeditated murder. Palmer had no criminal record until he was charged in Currie's death and had open scholarship opportunities at universities in both Texas and Alabama. "Palmer was not an individual who was given a rough lot in life," Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Childers said. "He had these scholarship opportunities, but he made the decision to execute Currie." O'Brien said the nature and factual information of the case called for a stricter sentence. "There was testimony (at trial) his actions were cold and calculated," O'Brien said. "He tried to get someone to drive him to where Zach was, then he got someone else to call him to get him to come out of the house. This was an ambush." Currie's father, Tyrone Currie, called Palmer a "cold-blooded murderer" who spent the whole of his trial staring him down without a hint of remorse. "My last name, Currie, stops here. I will never have a grandchild with the last name Currie," he said. "He did not give my son mercy, I ask you (O'Brien,) show him none. I hope your time in prison goes by real slow." Palmer said only, "I'm sorry." An unrelated felony possession of a controlled substance case against Palmer was dismissed by prosecutors at sentencing. Palmer was credited for 636 day served for the felony firearms conviction, a mandatory two-year sentence, which is being served preceding his murder conviction. Additionally, O'Brien ordered Palmer to pay more than $14,000 to Currie's family for burial expenses. ANN ARBOR, MI - A fight is brewing following the firing of a popular University of Michigan professor before the conclusion of his contract. John Rubadeau, 78, a longtime senior lecturer in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will be terminated effective Aug. 3 after more than 30 years with the university. My English professor @umich, John Rubadeau, rocked a festive #green beard & brows in honor of St. Patrick's Day! pic.twitter.com/4FOusqbWoV Sydney Berger (@SYDNEYBERGER) March 17, 2014 A termination letter cited interactions with colleagues, said Kirsten Herold, vice president of the Lecturers' Employee Organization, a union for the university's more than 1,700 non-tenured lecturers. The union believes Rubadeau's five-year contract - on which he had four years remaining - was violated, and intends to fight the dismissal, Herold said. "He's extremely well-regarded as a teacher," Herold said. "I think that issues that led the department and college together (to terminate him) were some things about interactions with other colleagues - it's not about students." Rubadeau had attained a perfect rating of 5.0 on ratemyprofessors.com, where multpile students described the professor as humorous and prone to foul language, and his class as life-changing. Rubadeau declined to comment, citing the pending legal matter, but Herold noted there were several incidents that preceded the termination. Rubadeau was investigated and cleared of sexual harassment allegations within the last year, Herold said. A report on the matter was issued within the last several months. She also noted that other colleagues might not be as quite "eccentric" or "unorthodox" as Rubadeau. A Twitter search for Rubadeau shows he dyed his long beard lime green in 2014 for St. Patrick's Day. He also used the word "f**k" in class and course packets, warning his writing students not to take the class if that offended them, according to a report by the university's student newspaper, The Michigan Daily. He stopped that when it was raised as an issue, according to the report. Herold said he also corrected himself when approached about issues using preferred pronouns for students that don't wish to use "he" or "she." He's a beloved teacher, Herold said, who was given the Golden Apple Award in 2005 by a student organization for being a teacher who's made a significant impact. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald declined comment on the termination, citing it as a personnel matter. "I can tell you, generally, that the university takes the termination of any employee very seriously and in each case these matters are carefully considered," he said. Herold said Rubadeau was upset by the firing. "He has loved his job, he's loved his teaching, he's loved his interactions with his students," she said. "He's also angry. He didn't think he did anything wrong and certainly doesn't think he did anything that merits this kind of response." YPSILANTI, MI - Ka'Ron Gaines said he was only trying to help his sick baby when he was accused of harming the 3-month-old in 2008 at his Ypsilanti Township home. Gaines, a candidate for Ypsilanti City Council, pleaded guilty to 4th-degree child abuse in July 2010. He was sentenced in August 2011 and served 14 days in jail following two years of probation, according to court records. His campaign manager, Bryan Foley, said the court system charged Gaines "too harshly." "It's a very false allegation and (Gaines) has spoken on it publicly," Foley said. "The incident is in his past and he shouldn't have to explain himself again and again." Gaines faces Nicole Brown in the Aug. 7 primary in the first ward race for City Council. He is a member of Ypsilanti's Human Relations Commission, and said he is "very active in school systems." Gaines explained the 2008 incident to Foley in a YouTube video posted on April 24. He starts explaining the details at 2:54. In the video, Gaines said his son was sick and he gave him Children's Tylenol. He goes on to explain that his daughter, who is three years older than his son, was sick days prior and Gaines mistakenly gave his son the same amount of medicine he gave his daughter. "I was uneducated and it's my fault for not knowing," said Gaines, who was 22 at the time. "The same amount of Tylenol for his age isn't the same for her age." After a few hours, his son was unresponsive. Gaines recalled calling his child's mother, and then calling a pediatrician, who gave him steps to wake up his son. "The steps didn't work so I kind of panicked, and I shook him," Gaines said. He went on to say his son seemed normal for a few weeks until he took him in for checkups. That was when Gaines' son's doctor started questioning him, and Child Protective Services was called. Gaines was asked to take parenting classes, which he said he "aced" in 2011 and was able to be around his children again, according to the YouTube video. Gaines also pleaded guilty to assault and battery and resisting and obstructing a police officer in 2010. That same year, Gaines also pleaded guilty to operating on a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance. An Ann Arbor News article from 2011 states that Gaines' son was having seizures and was taken to the University of Michigan hospital in 2008. Gaines was never quoted or reached for comment, according the article. More info MLive has partnered with the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Michigan to provide information to voters. Check out the league's election guide at Vote411.org to find out more about candidates and proposals on the ballot. Additional election information from the nonpartisan CivCity Initiative in Ann Arbor can be found at AnnArborVotes.org. To find out where to vote and view what's on your ballot, go to the Michigan Voter Information Center website. BAY CITY, MI -- The Bay City Commission is considering more applications for medical marijuana dispensaries, including another downtown location. The Bay City Commission votes on three more applications during the next regularly scheduled meeting Monday, Aug. 6. The applications to be voted on are: MM Bay City LLC, 210 Center Ave. (first floor) 103 Walnut Inc., 103 N. Walnut St. NM Bay City LLC/Nature's Medicines, 800 Broadway St. The meeting takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Bay City Hall, 301 Washington Ave. If all applications are approved, it would bring the total number of approved dispensaries, also known as provisioning centers, in the city to 22. One grow facility license has been accepted so far. All applicants still need to get approval from the state and pass an inspection by the city before opening for business. Earlier this year, the commission approved licenses at 821 Washington Ave., 512 Saginaw St. and 300 Center Ave. in the downtown district. The latest application at 210 Center Ave. was formerly occupied by Bijou Antiques. In December 2017, Bay City commissioners approved an ordinance to allow medical marijuana facilities to operate within the city limits. Bangor, Hampton, Pinconning, Gibson and Kawkawlin townships have approved similar ordinances. The city's ordinance limits the number of dispensaries to 25. City officials have said the city has received 25 provisioning center applications for review and currently isn't accepting anymore as officials work through those documents. City Manager Dana Muscott said there are three more pending, bringing the total to 25, and there's a waiting list of 13. "If, say, they go out of business, they don't open and forfeit their license...if they're closed for some reason, then we would go to the next person on the waiting list," Muscott said. The preppers survival guide: What you need to know about the Israeli bandage Should SHTF, you may find yourself unable to obtain proper medical treatment for a wound of considerable severity. In such situations, having an Israeli bandage on hand could be the difference between death and survival. The Israeli bandage, also called the Emergency Bandage, is a special type of bandage used for traumatic injuries. These are physical injuries that are sudden, severe, and require immediate medical attention to ensure survival. Traumatic injuries pose the risk of causing shock, a condition characterized by extremely low blood pressure, among other symptoms. Shock is fatal when left untreated. The Israeli bandage has three distinct features: Sterile non-adhering dressing The bandage uses a dressing that does not contain adhesives and doesnt adhere to the skin. This prevents the risk of reopening the wound once the bandage is removed. Its elasticized to increase the amount of pressure it applies to the wound. The bandage uses a dressing that does not contain adhesives and doesnt adhere to the skin. This prevents the risk of reopening the wound once the bandage is removed. Its elasticized to increase the amount of pressure it applies to the wound. Pressure applicator This banana-shaped pressure bar is aligned over the wound to provide pressure and help in stopping the bleeding. This replaces the rocks that soldiers used to apply pressure to wounds before the Israeli bandage was invented. This banana-shaped pressure bar is aligned over the wound to provide pressure and help in stopping the bleeding. This replaces the rocks that soldiers used to apply pressure to wounds before the Israeli bandage was invented. Closure bar This has two functions. Aside from keeping the bandage securely wrapped, it provides additional pressure to the wound. The Israeli bandage was developed by Bernard Bar-natan in Israel in 1984. Through support from the government, the concept was developed and soon manufactured. It hit the market around 1998. Today, the Israeli bandage is standard supply in the military, although its also used in emergency medical services (EMS), hospitals, industrial areas, and anywhere where there is a risk of traumatic injuries occurring. You can also purchase the Israeli bandage and add it to your own first aid kits. (Related: Surviving a gunshot wound: What to do if you get shot.) How to use the Israeli bandage The Israeli bandage is needed in emergency situations, so its designed to be easy to use. How you apply it will depend on the injured body part, so basic knowledge of dressing wounds would make the bandage more effective. Open the outer package. A corner notch makes it easy to tear and open the package. Rip apart the clear wrapping that covers the bandage. As with the outer package, you can easily do this using the center notch. Unfold the dressing to expose the bandage. Hold the end with one hand and the wrap roll with another. Place the bandage applicator over the wound. Make sure the pressure applicator is offset to the side of the injury. Wrap the elasticized fabric around the wound. After one revolution, insert the fabric through the pressure applicator and then wrap in the opposite direction. Tighten the fabric around the wound as you go. Once you have fully wrapped the wound, insert the end of the closure bar into the wrapped fabric. This should hold the entire bandage in place. Watch this video for more detailed instructions. Here are a few things to remember about the Israeli bandage: The bandage is considered sterile as long as the package remains closed and its seal unbroken. If you have broken the seal, perhaps by accident, the bandage will no longer be sterile but may still be safe to use as long as you keep it clean. Do not attempt to reuse the bandage. If you expect several instances of injuries warranting an Israeli bandage, its best to just get another package as a backup instead. You can use the bandage for amputated limbs. Use the pad to cover the stump and create a sort of protective cup. Wrap as with other wounds, but twist the last few rolls to turn them into a thin narrow band. This increases pressure and turns the bandage into a tourniquet of sorts to help quell bleeding. Needless to say, nothing beats using a real tourniquet for this purpose. You may also use the bandage on burns, but be sure to coat the absorption pad with Burn and Wound (B&W) ointment to seal the injury and prevent infections. Learn more survival tips on wound care at SurvivalMedicine.news. Sources include: ModernSurvivalBlog.com InsideFirstAid.com BAY CITY, MI -- An Oscoda sex offender is facing a federal charge after he was accused of making false threats against a former U.S. attorney. Michael Lee Bourquin, 62, on July 26 was charged with one count of maliciously conveying false information. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Charging documents state that on Aug. 8, 2017, Bourquin used a phone to convey information he knew to be false concerning an attempt to kill, injure, or intimidate former Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade by means of fire. Bourquin, accompanied by defense attorney James F. Piazza, on July 27 appeared for his arraignment before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Patricia T. Morris at the federal courthouse in downtown Bay City. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael J. Freeman and Thomas P. Weldon, both of the Northern District of Ohio, appeared at Bourquin's arraignment. Addressing Morris, Weldon described Bourquin's alleged offense as "a malicious threat, although it turned out to be a hoax." Weldon did not oppose Bourquin being freed on bond, but requested he be ordered to have no contact with McQuade or her family. Piazza told Morris he plans on filing a motion to have Bourquin undergo a psychiatric evaluation to assess his competency and criminal responsibility. Morris freed Bourquin on a $20,000 unsecured bond. McQuade worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit for 12 years before being promoted to the top job in 2010 by President Barack Obama. She is perhaps best known for having led the prosecution of imprisoned former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. In March, McQuade was one of 46 federal prosecutors appointed by Obama that was forced to resign by President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Jeff B. Sessions III. Since then, McQuade joined the University of Michigan's Law School faculty as a professor from practice teaching in the areas of national security, criminal law, and criminal procedure. McQuade was succeeded as the U.S. attorney for Michigan's Eastern District by Frankenmuth native Matthew J. Schneider. Bourquin must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, having been convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct using force or coercion in Genesee County in 1999. Bourquin's case is scheduled for a telephonic conference before Morris at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 15. FLINT, MI -- Attorneys for the state's chief medical executive are asking Genesee District Judge William Crawford not to bind her Flint water crisis case over for a jury trial, saying she's "a hero of the situation rather than a criminal." In objections filed with the court Wednesday, Aug. 1, attorneys call Dr. Eden Wells "a distinguished public health professional" and say binding her case over to Genesee Circuit Court for trial "would simply prolong a case which should never have been brought in the first place and has gone on far too long already." Wells, 55, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office, obstruction of justice and lying to a peace officer -- charges tied to the water crisis and her role in it. More than a year after Wells was arraigned, Crawford is scheduled to hear arguments from attorneys for her and special prosecutor Todd Flood Monday, Aug. 6, and could announce his bindover decision at another hearing scheduled for Aug. 16. Flood filed a bindover motion with the court Thursday, Aug. 2, detailing his arguments for a jury trial, claiming Wells had knowledge of outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County while the city continued to use the Flint River as its water source. The special prosecutor alleges she had a legal duty as chief medical executive to protect the public's health by warning of the outbreaks but remained silent while state-appointed emergency managers ran the city. More specifically, Flood's motion says Wells showed gross negligence in allowing the death of John Snyder, who died June 30, 2015. Witnesses at the preliminary examination for Wells disagreed whether Snyder died of Legionnaires' or another condition. Wells' motion filed Wednesday says Snyder's death occurred before she was even informed of the possibility of a Legionnaires' epidemic and says she had no duty to warn the general public of the outbreaks. On the other charges, prosecutors claim Wells committed misconduct by preventing the Genesee County Health Department from releasing information about Legionnaires'. They claim she obstructed justice by intentionally preventing and delaying investigations aimed at proving a connection between Legionnaires' and Flint River water. Prosecutors have also claimed that in the course of their work, Wells lied to investigators. Like attorneys for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, attorneys for Wells are attempting to separate their clients from responsibility for the water crisis while acknowledging that it occurred and was "an undeniably serious situation." Their filing with the court calls Wells a hero during the water emergency, in part for having given credence to work by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Hurley Medical Center pediatrician who studied the blood lead levels of Flint children, concluding the percentage with elevated blood lead levels doubled after Flint's water source was changed. Hanna-Attisha testified during Wells' preliminary examination that while others in state government attempted to discredit her work, Wells was supportive. FLINT, MI - The mother who investigators believe killed her 3-year-old daughter and then continued to collect state benefits after her death took a plea deal on Wednesday in Genesee Circuit Court. Erika Shantae Finley, 29, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse, first-degree child abuse in the presence of another child, tampering with evidence, lying to a police officer and welfare fraud, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. Finley was accused of killing her 3-year-old daughter, Kimora Lee Simon, in 2015. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such at sentencing. There is no sentencing agreement for Finley, Leyton said. "I expect she's going to get a lengthy prison sentence," Leyton said. "Had we not made the offer, there would have been a trial and more trauma for the extended family." Finley also will pay $7,368.05 in restitution for accepting state benefits meant for Simon after the girl was dead, Leyton said. "Under the circumstances, I believe this is a just resolution," he said. Leyton said Finley faces up to life in prison. The prosecutor said he will seek a minimum sentence of more than 31 years in prison. Khairy Joshuawon Simon previously pleaded guilty to killing his daughter and investigators believe he put her body in a backpack and buried her along railroad tracks near the Evergreen Regency apartments. "The dad was cooperative and remorseful. He showed police where her body was supposed to be buried," Leyton said. Simon agreed to testify against Finley, Leyton previously said. Leyton said Simon could face between 13.5 years to life in prison at sentencing. Police believe the parents killed the girl together and that the father buried her, MLive-The Flint Journal previously reported. Investigators started asking questions about Kimora Simon when the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was investigating potential abuse of her brother. A DHHS employee visited Finley's home at Evergreen Regency and asked Finley where Kimora Simon was, MLive-The Flint Journal previously reported. Finley told police the child was with her father, Khairy Simon, in Detroit, but he provided a conflicting story regarding the child's whereabouts, Leyton previously said. Relatives had not seen the child in more than a year and Khari's girlfriend said she'd never seen the child once in the eight months they'd been together. Along with the parents' conflicting stories, Leyton also noted in 2015 that "other information gleaned" led investigators to believe Kimora was dead and buried along the railroad tracks near Evergreen Regency. Her body has never been recovered. Investigators believe the child was taken from the grave by animals. Both Khairy Simon and Finley are set to be sentenced on Sept. 5 before Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut. ALGOMA TOWNSHIP, MI -- A 49-year-old Casnovia man died in a two-vehicle collision at an intersection east of Sparta, police said. Todd Carlson was driving a 2011 Ford Econo Van west on 13 Mile Road when the driver of an eastbound car tried to turn left onto northbound Pine Island Drive NE. The crash happened about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1 The two vehicles collided, sending the van off the road and into a ditch, where it rolled several times. The other driver, 58-year-old Nancy Cuellar of Wyoming, was taken to Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. She had two young girls in the car, a 1998 Ford Contour, and both were taken to a hospital for injuries not considered life-threatening. The girls are ages 8 and 5. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Lyonel LaGrone was in Washington D.C. with his family on Nov. 4, 2008 when Barack Obama won the election to become the nation's 44th president. LaGrone felt similar feelings of pride and joy Tuesday, July 31, when he heard the Grand Rapids City Commission announce Mark Washington as the next city manager. Washington's appointment was historic, as he became Grand Rapids' first African-American city manager. "That is absolutely significant, very significant," said LaGrone, policy liaison for LINC Up and a civil rights activist of 18 years. "I watched the votes come in one at a time and I was reminiscent of that day in 2008. "For the first time, I was proud to be a citizen of Grand Rapids. It showed me we are really making progress." Washington, 45, was selected by a 6-1 vote to be the next city manager, ending a search process that began in August 2017 when former city manager Greg Sundstrom announced his plan to retire. A Port Arthur, Texas native, Washington has served as one of five assistant city managers in Austin, Texas, for the last three years. The previous six years he served as Austin's human resources director. Washington has 22 years of work experience in local government. He's also been a pastor for more than 20 years. The Grand Rapids City Commission planned to wait a week before selecting one of the five finalists who interviewed Tuesday. But the final candidate to interview said enough to win the commission over. Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear, the lone vote in opposition of Washington, said Washington would have been her second pick behind Grand Rapids' acting deputy city manager, Tom Almonte. More than anything, her vote was in opposition of making a hurried decision when the initial plan was to allow time for public input on the interviews. "That's what I was expressing as my concern, it's important to get public feedback," Lenear said. "We have a very engaged citizenry and so I assumed people would want to weigh-in. I'm confident Mr. Washington will be an excellent city manager, but that was my concern." Lenear said Washington's experience working in a big city was appealing. Austin had a population of more than 947,000 in 2016 -- more than four times the population of Grand Rapids -- according to U.S. Census Bureau data estimates. Other commissioners praised Washington's work setting up an equity office in Austin, as well as his experience dealing with city-wide challenges including healthcare costs, affordable housing, homelessness, and community-police relations. LaGrone said he was "shocked and blown away" by Washington's interview. He said the 20 or so community members he spoke with after Monday's meet-and-greet event with the finalists agreed that Washington was the front-runner. Lenear added that Washington appeared to be the top pick among those who met the candidates Monday evening, based on a summary of public comment the commission received. Never did Washington's skin color come up during the commission's discussion of candidates, Lenear said. But she said the "significant" historic appointment gives her "great pleasure." "Representation matters," Lenear said. "It's important for people to see people who look like them in different roles so they can recognize, and now I'm talking about children, their possibilities. "By way of representation, it helps you to think about pursing something that you might not have considered for yourself." Third Ward Commissioner Nathaniel Moody said his vote for Washington on Tuesday had nothing to do with him being black, and everything to do with his qualifications. "I didn't look at it in terms of hiring the first African-American city manager," Moody said. "I looked at it as the city hired someone who was qualified, someone with experience. In this case, the city looked at an individual whose expertise and management skills are impeccable." LaGrone said some organizations seem to hire minority candidates as figureheads, rather than putting them in real positions of power. He called Tuesday's appointment "the city putting its money where its mouth is." As city manager, Washington will oversee 1,500 employees, 14 collective bargaining units, and a combined budget of more than $590 million. He'll be responsible for overseeing all city departments, including the police and fire departments. LaGrone said he believes Washington's leadership can further the dialogue around police-community relations and ensuring equitable outcomes for all members of the community. "The commission said they're interested in diversity and ending discrimination and they didn't just search for a figurehead," LaGrone said. "They hired someone to run the city and to do something about discrimination. "Now will he agree with everything we say? No. But I think his understanding is there and that's key. When you bring in someone who hasn't been here, you bring in fresh eyes and perspective and you're open to looking at the systems as they exist compared to places you've been. This is a win for the city." The city commission hopes to have Washington in his new role by September. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The family of a missing 1-year-old boy said police told them he has been found safe in Benton Harbor. "I'm relieved that he's safe, and coming back home," his grandmother, LaTishya White, told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press on Tuesday, Aug. 2. She said that the boy's mother, Laquaya Gillard, was told at Grand Rapids police headquarters that Benton Harbor police found her son. She said police told her daughter her son was OK. Police later confirmed the boy was safe. Police are making arrangements for the boy to be brought back to Grand Rapids. The boy had been missing since 1 p.m. Monday when he left his home with his babysitter, Iyesha Catherine Gibbs, 19. Police expect to interview her in Grand Rapids. It is too soon to determine what charges she may face, police said. The boys' family talked to Gibbs in a video chat around noon Tuesday. They expected her to bring the boy home.They were told nearly three hours later that the boy was safe. They were very concerned, uncle Anthony Garner said. He said his sister was distraught and no one slept while he was gone. "All the hope went away" before they heard the boy was safe. Gillard, the mother of the missing boy, said it was her "worst" nightmare. She said she remained hopeful throughout the ordeal and just wanted to have her son back. "I'm just glad he's OK," she said. Many were near her home on Jefferson Avenue SE to offer support. HOLLAND, MI - Ottawa County's 30th District Senate seat will be the most closely watched primary election race in the region on Tuesday, Aug. 7. In addition to high interest, the four-way Republican primary has drawn a lot of money. Around $600,000 has been raised, according to the most recently submitted campaign finance statements to the Secretary of State. The seat is open because Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, is term limited. That's true of nearly 70 percent of the Michigan Senate. Battling in the close Republican primary are current two-term state Rep Daniela Garcia, R-Holland; term-limited Rep. Roger Victory, R-Hudsonville; former state Rep. Joe Haveman; and Rett DeBoer, a member of the Ottawa County Republican Party Executive Committee. More than $590,000 has been raised by Garcia, Victory and Haveman. However, Garcia and Victory account for close to a half-million dollars, according to reports filed July 27. "One possible impact of funding, in a close race, is elevating your name recognition," said political scientist David Ryden, who teaches electoral politics at Hope College. "Many voters don't pay that much attention to state legislative races and will go to the ballot box and pull the lever for the name they recognize." Ryden said Garcia, Haveman and Victory have a solid baseline of name recognition based on their public service that DeBoer doesn't have in this race. "The average voter is not going to be able to draw significant distinctions from them on their policy stances or even on their record, so than money, name recognition, negative campaigning, and retail politicking - the ground game - come into play,'' Ryden said. In addition to mailers and social media, candidates tout a rigorous ground game, knocking on doors since the first of the year. Longtime Michigan political pundit Bill Ballenger, of The Ballenger Report, said the 30th District is "one of the toughest races in the state to call.'' In a race where maybe a couple percentage points separate candidates, Ballenger said funding can have quite an impact if used in the right way. "There are very few races around the state where the result of the primary helps determine the November general election, Ballenger said of the reliably Republican district. Campaign finance disclosure forms were due July 27. As of Friday, Garcia had raised the most money with $258,681.26, including $86,881.26 for this reporting period, which ran from January through July 22. Garcia had an ending balance of $115,732.27. The bulk of her funding, more than $180,000, has come from Friends of Daniela Garcia, $171,438 and the Garcia Majority Fund, $9,000. However, one of her notable and biggest donors was the Moving Michigan Forward Fund I, a leadership PAC Meekhof raises money through, which contributed $10,000. The Michigan Jobs Fund and HealthPac (The Michigan Health & Hospital Association's PAC) were the other biggest donors at $5,000 and $7,500, respectively. Garcia had several smaller donations from some recognizable PACs and individuals including: Meijer PAC of MI, $1,000 Friends of Spectrum Health, $1,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan PAC, $1,000 HCAM PAC (Health Care Association of Michigan), $1,000 Auto Dealers of Michigan PAC, $1,500 Compete Michigan PAC, $2,018 Grand Rapids Chamber $2,500 J.C. Huizenga, founder and chair of National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter school management company, $1,000 Steve Heacock, senior vice president of public affairs at Spectrum Health, $1,000 Victory, who owns Victory Farms, has raised $236,378, including $226,378 this reporting period. He had an ending balance of $114,973.70. The most cash, $177,000, was received from Roger Victory. The campaign's biggest outside donor was the Michigan Farm Bureau, which contributed $10,000. Ottawa County Commissioners Matthew Fenske and Gregory DeJonge each gave $250. As expected, he received a lot support from farmers. Some of the PACs supporting him include: Michigan Insurance Coalition PAC, $2,000; Compete Michigan PAC, $2,018; and AmericPAC, $1,000 Haveman, director of government relations for Hope Network, raised $96,789, including $65,198 this reporting period. His ending balance was $36,132. He served the 90th District for three terms prior to Garcia. Haveman's biggest donor was the Michigan Realtor's Association, which contributed $3,000. He also received $2,018 from Stamas Leadership PAC. He also received several $2,000 contributions, including from Vincenzo Ciraulo, president of Ciraulo Brothers Building, as well as Giovanni Ciraulo, Gioacchino Ciraulo, and Sheri Ciraulo and Mary Vander Lugt, owner of Equilibrium Therapeutic Massage. DeBoer's biggest contributor has been herself with $4,320. The next biggest contribution, $1,500, came from attorney Teddy Baird. Ryden said the strategic elements of the campaign becomes very important for the top three candidates heading into the final days before the election. He said they have to overcome the cynicism among many voters. "The ability of the candidates to use their money to micro-target potential supporters can be factor in the outcome,'' he said. "There are people who still have not tuned in yet to this high profile, highly competitive state race.'' The primary winner will face Democrat Jeanette Schipper and Libertarian Mary Buzuma in the Nov. 6 election. SPARTA, MI -- A cloud of dust forms as the propeller of a 1942 Boeing Stearman airplane starts to spin, the engine is fired up, and World War II veteran Milton Moxon, 93, begins to take flight to the sky. "Just as smooth as could be, I had a lot of time to look around, had no concerns at all," Moxon said afterward. "Felt very safe, very steady, it was good flying." Moxon was one of nine residents of the Covenant Village of the Great Lakes, ages from 71 to 93, had the opportunity to fly Thursday from Sparta Miller Airport north of Grand Rapids. The adventure was courtesy of The Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Darryl Fisher in 2011 to honor U.S. military veterans living in long-term care facilities. Out of the nine individuals, five served in the U.S. military and the other four had relatives, loved ones, or an interest in the military. However, they all come from a diverse background and a different purpose for getting inside the cockpit. With his walker and WWII veterans hat set aside, Moxon landed the plane with a giant smile on his face. Onlookers cheered him on as he made his way back to the deck of the Sparta Miller Airport Office. Moxon served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. Following his basic training and a semester of college, Moxon was assigned to the 94th Division and was then shipped to England via the Queen Mary. Reflecting on memories of the war, Moxon recalled a time when he set off an anti-personnel mine during the Battle of the Bulge and how a fellow soldier saved his life and his leg. For his heroic services during the war, Moxon was later awarded a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal. Pauline Werner, 89, flew on her husband's behalf who was unable to fly due to medical reasons. Werner's husband, Bob, served in Europe from 1943 to 1945 during WWII. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and was a staff sergeant. "I had to lead the platoon and I wasn't filled with with fear -- it was that I never went to battle before," Bob Werner said. "One of the soldiers came to me and said, 'Sergeant, I can't go any further' and I said, 'Harry, you're doing fine. Just go tree to tree, we're going to make it." With emotions running high, many of the flyers had flashbacks of memories during the war or were thinking about their loved ones who once served for the U.S. military. Barbara Rosga, 86, said she could remember hearing that Pearl Harbor was under attack on the radio when she was 10 years old. "It was a Sunday afternoon, and I remember running into my mother and telling her that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, so that was the start of World War II," Rosga said. "My brothers were sophomores and juniors in high school but they could hardly wait to enlist." Linda Kirpes, resident life director of Covenant Village of the Great Lakes, helped coordinate the event and said that days like Thursday brought back some of the most deep memories that the nine residents carry every day. "Ageless Aviation Foundation named their foundation so appropriately because what I see when the men and women climb into that Stearman plane, they do become ageless," Kirpes said. "Their faces change, they start glowing and smiling in a whole new way, and these are residents I see everyday. The expressions they keep throughout the flight, it last days on their faces ... It's amazing." The Ageless Aviation Foundation has provided more than 3,000 Dream Flights to veterans nationwide. The 1942 Boeing Stearman was the same airplane used to train military aviators in the 1940s. Below is a list of the nine residents and their history of flying and serving in the U.S. military: Nel Kastner, 87 Her husband served in the Navy. Since she was a small child, Nel had always been intrigued by flight and how far it has progressed to open the universe. She is excited for this opportunity. Fred La Huis, 88, PFC U.S. Army, Korean War Following basic training, Fred served as military police at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. He also was a desk sergeant for his squad. Milt Moxon, 93, PFC, U.S. Army 1943-1945, World War II Following basic training and a semester of college, Milt was assigned to the 94th Division and was eventually shipped to England via the Queen Mary. He later moved to hold German troops at the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded in a counter attack and sent to England to recuperate. Barbara Rosga, 86 Barbara had brothers enlisted in Army and Navy. She recalled news of the attack on Pearl Harbor when she was just 10 years old. She has vivid memories of the war years. In her lifetime she has flown around the world on trips, but still looks forward to flying in an open cockpit. Dan Sprich, 86. 1st Lt. USAF, 1955-1958 Dan is no stranger to flight as he served in the Air Force as a pilot. Training occurred in Missouri and Texas. He eventually became part of the 5th Bomb Wing at Travis AFB in California and 31st Bomb Squadron at the Strategic Air Command. He flew many missions. Tom Stahr, 71 Tom is a retired government and history teacher. During his career, he taught many students about the history of flight and both World Wars. Tom is no stranger to thrills-- he went sky diving just a few years ago. Jim Stephens, 84. A1 class, USAF 1953-1957, Korean War Jim served in Greenland as a radar tech helping to land planes. Jim will also be a photographer during the flights. Pauline Werner, 89 Flying on behalf of her husband, Bob, who served in WWII. Bob Werner was a staff sergeanta and served at Battle of the Bulge. Bob Wilkinson, 88, Yeoman 3rd Class, U.S. Naval Reserve, 1951-1957 Bob served in the reserves one night each week and for six years every summer for two weeks of training in the Great Lakes, Virginia, and Connecticut. As concern over the Trump administration's steel and aluminum tariffs mounts, at least three West Michigan companies are asking for a federal exemption, with one official saying the tariffs could cost her business "hundreds of thousands of dollars." "These tariffs will not change our company's buying practices, but will financially punish this American manufacturer who now must buy materials at a higher price, regardless of whether the steel was is imported or made in the United States," Aida Tanaka, general counsel at Shape Corporation, a Grand Haven-based auto parts supplier, said in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. In addition to Shape, other West Michigan companies seeking exemptions include Autocam Precision Components Group and Hastings Manufacturing Company in Barry County. An exemption request by PolyVision Corporation, a division of Steelcase based in Georgia, was approved by the commerce department in late June. It was one of seven companies nationwide whose request was approved. Trump signed a proclamation in March to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, a move aimed at strengthening U.S. steel manufacturers that has drawn bipartisan criticism and stoked fears of a trade war. The administration is giving companies the option to apply for an exemption if the necessary steel or aluminum is not available in the U.S. and if there are no national security issues. Thousands of companies throughout the U.S. have done so. The commerce department is responding to the requests on a rolling basis, officials said. Shape - a private company with 1,900 employees and manufacturing plants in Grand Haven, Athens, Alabama, and Garland, Texas - imports a "significant volume" of steel from a Swedish supplier to manufacture steel automotive bumper beams. The company submitted 26 separate exemption requests, which would last one-year, for the various types of steel it imports. In laying out Shape's argument for the exemption, Tanaka said the company has multi-year supply contracts that do not allow for price increases or material changes, and that switching suppliers would require testing and validation that averages 11 months and costs $785,000 per part. "It is important to understand that any attempt to change material sources to a different steel supplier is contractually prohibited, difficult, and costly because of Shape Corp.'s products are part of an integrated safety system in vehicles," Tanaka wrote. Later, she added: "Any such change to avoid imposed tariffs will require substantially increased tooling costs, costing potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, and diversion of hundreds of hours of engineering time and test equipment usage from developing new products." The Trump administration has faced pushback from Democrats and Republicans, as well as business groups, who say tariffs hurt U.S. companies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the practice amounts to a tax increase on businesses and shoppers who will pay more for a wide range of products and materials. "We're hearing concern about potential trade wars and tariffs," said Andy Johnston, vice president of government and corporate affairs at the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. "Even for companies that don't import things, they're still concerned about tariffs because the prices are going to go up." Autocam Precision Components Group, a Kentwood-based manufacturer is requesting an exemption for a "cold drawn carbon steel bar" it imports from Germany to make transmission components. The company that Autocam produces the components for, Bosch Toluca, requires a grade of steel only manufactured in Germany, the company said in its exemption request. "If Autocam cannot obtain the imported steel product at a competitive cost to produce the components for Bosch at a competitive price, Bosch would simply change vendors," the company wrote. Such a change could affect employment at Autocam, the company said. Autocam, which was bought in 2014 by NN, Inc. of Johnson City, Tenn., has about 400 employees at its Kentwood plant. Company officials did not respond to a request for comment. Hastings Manufacturing Company, in Barry County, applied for an exemption for Japanese steel it uses to manufacture piston rings. Materials from the company's exemption request did not specify how the tariffs would impact the company, and officials there did not respond to a request for comment. But the company's request did indicate it had checked with five U.S. suppliers and was told by each one that they could not supply the steel Hastings Manufacturing Company uses. The commerce department granted its first round of exemptions in late June, approving requests from seven companies but denying the applications of 11 others. Moving forward, department officials say they are updating a federal website with decisions on the tariff request on a regular basis. A department official did not respond when asked about the timeline for responding to the remaining requests. One of the seven companies that was granted an exemption was PolyVision Corporation, a company based in Johns Creek, Georgia, that imports steel from Europe and Japan to manufacturer porcelain enameled steel that it uses to create whiteboards for schools and businesses. A division of Steelcase, the company's exemption approved in late June was for steel PolyVision imports from Japan. An exemption request for steel imported from Europe is pending. In a filing with the commerce department, the company said in 2016 it attempted to use steel from two U.S. suppliers - California Steel Industries and U.S. Steel - but the "final product quality was not consistently acceptable." "Both Steelcase and PolyVision strongly support measures to ensure a fair and level playing field and are working with other organizations and government officials to reach that goal," Audra Hartges, a spokesperson for Steelcase, said in a statement. Meanwhile, other companies are anxiously awaiting word on their exemption requests. Shape President Mark White said the exemption application process is "cumbersome" and that his company has spent "hundreds and hundreds of hours" putting it together. It was required to submit 26 separate exemption requests for each type of steel it imports. "I want our team working on how to make our business grow, how to create more jobs, how to win more contracts and be more competitive," he said, adding that the one-year exemption that Shape is requesting would give his company time to transition to a U.S. steel supplier. "This activity doesn't do any of that." OMAHA - A red panda that came from the Detroit Zoo has died at Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. Tofu, a 3-year-old female, died on Tuesday, July 31. She had arrived in Omaha from the Detroit Zoo in October 2017. She was moved into the Cat Complex in January until was introduced to her habitat in Asian Highlands in May. A necropsy was performed on Wednesday by the Zoo's Board Certified Veterinary Anatomic Pathologist, Dr. Alison Righton. According to the preliminary necropsy results, Tofu had excess fluid in her abdomen as well as her chest cavity, a finding that is most commonly observed in cases of heart failure or cardiomyopathy. Another potential cause of death includes inflammation of the heart from bacterial or viral causes, which will be tested through a histopathology performed by Dr. Righton. Heart failure and cardiomyopathy are population-wide health issues within the red panda species. Currently, little is known about the predisposing causes of these complications. Staff at Henry Doorly Zoo plan to collaborate with other pathologists and scientists regarding their findings in hopes to better understand these health issues. Four red panda remain at the Omaha zoo; one pair, a male and a female. With less than a week to go before the Aug. 7 primary election, Lt. Gov. and Republican candidate for governor Brian Calley has not yet released details of his schedule after attacking an opponent for his hours on the job. Calley unleashed an attack ad at a July 24 press conference, criticizing Attorney General and fellow gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette for being more "off duty" than "on duty" after analyzing Schuette's calendar through a public records request. At the same press conference, Calley said he would release highlights of his own schedule. "I have my team going back," Calley said in response to a reporter's question about his own schedule July 24. "I'll share with you the stats when we're done compiling it." Unlike Schuette's office, Calley's office is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Calley claimed releasing his entire calendar would release others' schedules at the same time. As of Thursday, Aug. 2, no details of Calley's calendar have been released. "These things take time. It took two months for Bill Schuette to respond to the FOIA," said Calley's spokesoman, Michael Schrimpf, in an email to MLive Aug. 1. "We will have it a lot sooner than that but it is not available yet." When asked if Calley's schedule would be released before the primary, Schrimpf said it would be released as soon as it is ready. Voters will decide in the Aug. 7 primary election which Republican candidate for governor will ultimately be on the ballot in the November election. Republican candidates include Calley, Schuette, Patrick Colbeck and Jim Hines. Better Jobs Stronger Families, a super PAC that backs Schuette, accused Calley of hiding behind FOIA. "Who knows what is in Calley's calendar and emails? It's time to stop the double standard," the PAC said in an email blast Thursday. Calley's campaign analyzed Schuette's calendar, obtained through a FOIA request, and determined Schuette worked a full eight-hour day a total of 104 times in his seven and a half years as the state's Attorney General. In turn, Schuette's campaign has criticized Calley in the past for obtaining a degree from Harvard University. Calley said his Harvard courses were mostly completed online. Schuette has been under the microscope for how he's used state resources while in office. This week the political group Progress Michigan released emails obtained through its lawsuit against Schuette that it claims show Schuette used his state-funded office for political purposes. The most recent batch of emails are in addition to emails showing a political conference call involving Schuette staffers arranged during work hours. Schuette the subject of a complaint that's been referred to the FBI, an open request for a grand jury investigation and a lawsuit, all based in part on the alleged mixing of political and official business and staff. Thursday, Aug. 2, Calley called on Schuette to resign. MICHIGAN CITY, IN - A 67-year-old Indiana man was killed when the vehicle he was driving was hit by an Amtrak train in Michigan City. According to a news release, the Michigan City Police Department was dispatched to a railroad intersect at Eastwood and Tryon roads at 7:26 a.m. on Thursday. Upon arrival, police found a severely damaged Honda Accord embedded against the front of an Amtrak train about 500 yards from where impact took place. Further investigation revealed that the 2014 Honda Accord had been traveling eastbound on Tryon Road when it crossed into the railroad intersect into the path of the westbound train traveling 59 miles per hour. It is unknown why the Michigan City man, who died upon impact, crossed in front of the train. All 198 passengers and four crew members aboard the train were unharmed, police said. The involvement of drugs and alcohol is not being ruled out, pending further investigation. The deceased name has not been released. Amtrak passengers were taken by the Michigan City Bus Department to the South Shore Station to arrange for travel into Chicago. Others chose to arrange their own transportation. The Michigan City Police Department was assisted at the scene by the Michigan City Fire Department, LaPorte County EMS, LaPorte County Coroner's Office, Amtrak Police, CSX Police, Michigan City Bus Service and Cloverleaf Towing. Michigan City, Indiana is located on the shores of Lake Michigan just south of the Michigan border. CHICAGO - Murals are being installed in Chicago with the hope that they will inspire residents to travel to Michigan. The project is a partnership between Pure Michigan and Detroit artist Sheefy McFly as part of the Seek AuthentiCITY campaign geared to showcase the unique cultures found in Michigan's largest cities. The murals will be located in the Uptown and Wicker Park neighborhoods of Chicago. Specifically, at 4813 Ashland Ave. and 1555 N. Western Ave. "Using the idea of the Pure Mural, we are partnering with multi-talented, multi-dimensional artist Sheefy McFly to illustrate Michigan's vibrant downtowns," said Dave Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. "Sheefy's mural depicts the 'seek authenticity' concept of the campaign by highlighting the energy and uniqueness of our cities, while also incorporating Michigan's natural beauty. We hope these murals inspire travelers to come experience all that Michigan cities have to offer." Sheefy McFly's murals are a staple in Metro Detroit. Examples of his work can be seen at the Eastern Market, the Lululemon store at the Somerset Collection in Troy, and Two James distillery in Detroit's Corktown. He was named the 2017 best artist by the readers of Metro Times and won a grant in 2017 from Artprize. McFly was chosen as the mural artist for the campaign because of his authentic, colorful street style that can be appreciated by everyone, Lorenz said. "But what makes his art special is that it also reveals something unexpected when viewed on a deeper level," he said. The $1.2 million Seek AuthentiCITY campaign features many of Michigan's most prominent cities including Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. In addition to attracting Chicago residents, Pure Michigan also hopes to lure travelers from Great Lakes centers such as Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to take an overnight trip get to know one of Michigan's vibrant cities. Bill Schuette is pictured at a campaign stop on July 31, 2018. At it, he denied state staffers having done political work on state time, something that's come up again after emails arranging a political meeting during work hours surfaced. (Emily Lawler | MLive.com) GRASS LAKE, MI - These clearly aren't a usual set of unions. Identical twins marrying identical twins this weekend in Grass Lake appeared Thursday morning on the "Today" show. "Now to a story that will have you seeing double times two," co-anchor Hoda Kotb said at the start of the segment. The story of Krissie and Kassie Bevier, who grew up in Michigan Center, and Zach and Nicholas Lewan of White Lake is garnering national attention since their story was published Tuesday on MLive.com. People and Time magazines and Fox News were among the other news organizations to feature the couples. The four are having consecutive, but separate weddings Friday and Saturday at Eyry of the Eagle Farm Wedding and Reception Center on Norvell Road. "You're identical so maybe you have the same tastes," remarked co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. It was definitely a "love at first sight kind of thing," Zach said of Krissie. He went to church with his brother and the sisters after Kassie and Nick met in psychology class at Grand Valley State University. Despite Krissie's initial resistance, it evolved from there, and all four were engaged in February 2017 by the end of a family trip to Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. "Today" regular Jenna Bush Hager, a twin herself, commented she always dreamed of such a scenario. "I may need to get remarried," she joked. KALAMAZOO, MI -- Three robbers forced their way into a home after entering an open garage and one pistol whipped a resident before stealing marijuana and leaving, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety said. Police were called to a house on the 1600 block of Kingston at 4:36 a.m. Monday, July 30, Lt. Craig Habel of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety said. Once the three robbers were inside, the resident noticed and when he made contact with the robbers, one of them produced a gun and pistol-whipped the resident, Habel said. The robber hit the man in the face with the butt of a gun, Habel said, and the three masked men took three ounces or less of marijuana. The robbers then fled the area, Habel said. Police do not have a description of the suspects to release, besides that they were three masked men, he said. Police did not know if the victim was targeted or not, Habel said, and noted that the type of crime is "pretty uncommon" in the city. An ambulance responded and the victim had lacerations on his face, along with bumps and bruises, Habel said. The man said he was going to seek medical attention on his own, Habel said. Habel suggested people remember to secure their doors and to have outdoor lighting and motion lights to help secure their property. STURGIS, MI -- A police pursuit that started in Indiana ended when the suspect vehicle crashed into a pond at the Sturgis wastewater plant, police say. About 10:50 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1, the Sturgis Police Department was advised of a vehicle that heading toward the city while being pursued by multiple Indiana law enforcement agencies. Sturgis PD joined the pursuit on South Centerville Road at the Michigan/Indiana state line. The driver of the suspect vehicle lead police in to an industrial area of the city off of Wade Street and travelled through the properties of two large factories in the area, attempting to eluded officers. The vehicle went down Treatment Plant Road, which leads to the City of Sturgis Wastewater Treatment Plant, and crashed through the front gates of the plant, police said in a news release. The vehicle then continued to attempt to escape, driving through the wastewater treatment plant, until it drove into a retention pond on the property. Three male suspects exited the vehicle and were arrested, police said. The driver of the vehicle, a 27-year-old Angola, Indiana, man was held on charges including fleeing and eluding, possession of meth with intent to distribute, possession of a stolen vehicle, a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated under the influence of drugs and other drug and property crimes, police said. One passenger, a 41-year-old Kendalville, Indiana, man was held on drug charges and outstanding warrants. Both were lodged in the St. Joseph County Jail with no bond, pending a hearing, according to police. A second passenger, a 30-year-old Muncie, Indiana, man was cited and released for misdemeanor charges. PARCHMENT, MI -- Parchment public water customers are being asked to flush their pipes and plumbing systems as part of the switch to Kalamazoo City water because of PFAS contamination. Authorities in the two communities issued the request Wednesday, Aug. 1. Workers plan to visit each household and business in the next few days and deliver a pamphlet titled "Flushing your home: How to flush an entire house plumbing system." The process essentially involves running each tap for an extended period, starting with hot water for 15 minutes, then cold water for five minutes, but also flushing appliances, refrigerator water lines and other devices. While the flushing request was issued Wednesday, that water isn't yet safe to drink. State Department of Environmental Quality analysts need to collect and test additional water samples and give their approval before the water is deemed safe. Health leaders on Thursday, July 26 learned that Parchment public water contained high levels of PFAS and immediately told residents to stop drinking it. They devised a plan to connect to Kalamazoo City water and began providing bottled water to residents. As part of a daily update, Kalamazoo County administrators provided the latest bottled water distribution dates Wednesday. Residents can pick up water from 12-8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at Parchment High School this week, then from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Residents must verify their address when they pick up the water. In another update, the DEQ has tested 68 private wells in the area since the issue came to light. They plan to test other wells and are placing door-hangers at locations where residents are not home. Once the results come back, the residents will be notified "right away." DEQ staff also is testing water from four of 18 existing monitoring wells at the former Crown Vantage paper mill property, which is considered a potential source of the PFAS contamination. A series of DEQ documents -- presented at a Tuesday town hall meeting on the PFAS issue -- have been placed online for the public to view. BATTLE CREEK, MI -- U.S. Rep. Fred Upton said it is unacceptable and irresponsible that information about PFAS would be withheld from people who are possibly affected by them. Upton, R-St. Joseph, sent a letter on Wednesday, Aug. 1, to General Joseph Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau and Lieutenant General L. Scott Rice, Director of the Air National Guard, urging the swift release of data related to PFAS contamination testing at the W.K. Kellogg Air National Guard Base in Battle Creek, as well as any plans to remediate possible contamination. The military tested 16 monitoring wells for PFAS contamination at the base between April 16 and May 11, but the results of that sampling weren't ready for a meeting about the contamination held at the Burma Center in Springfield on July 30. "It is utterly unacceptable and irresponsible that any information on PFAS levels would be withheld from individuals who are possibly affected," he wrote in the letter. Upton said the testing data, which was collected months ago, is under review at the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. "With PFAS exposure linked to certain cancers as well as other serious health problems, it is critical that on-base testing results are expeditiously shared with state officials working on PFAS testing and remediation as well as local residents that might be impacted," the letter reads. Although the Air National Guard did not present results from testing on the base during the meeting, the state of Michigan has information on groundwater contamination at the base from "split sampling" conducted several months ago. Test results show very high contamination levels in the base groundwater. The highest results were 21,500-ppt PFOA, 55,500-ppt PFOS, and 38,400-ppt PFHxS, according to DEQ. The National Guard should move swiftly to share critical on-base contamination data that may be impacting off-base communities, Upton said. "Furthermore, every effort should be made to quickly implement necessary remediation plans to protect the health of service members, their families, and area residents," Upton said. Exposure to PFAS has been linked in human studies to some cancers, thyroid disorders, elevated cholesterol and other diseases. PFAS compounds are called "forever chemicals" because they accumulate in the body and do not breakdown in the environment. MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, MI - Two former owners of a Muskegon manufacturing site have been court ordered to spend a combined $8.1 million on an environmental cleanup effort. Contaminants at the site include arsenic, cyanide, chromium, PCBs, lead, mercury and others, according to court documents. The pollution has affected groundwater on the site and there are concerns about air quality. The 170-acre site at 76 Getty St. in Muskegon Township is owned by military manufacturer L3 Technologies, but the contamination occurred prior to the company's ownership, according to the court order that enforces a consent agreement between the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, L3 and previous owners. L3 will cooperate with the cleanup being conducted by former owner TDY, previously known as Teledyne, Inc. In the early 1940s, the U.S. government built a military aircraft and tank engine manufacturing plant at the site. Around 1944, the government entered into an agreement with Continental Motors Corporation to operate the site. In the early 1970s, Teledyne, Inc. purchased the site and Continental. In 1996, Teledyne sold the site. In 2004, L3 purchased it from General Dynamics. L3 Technologies is at 76 Getty St. in Muskegon Township. (Google Images) Contamination occurred between the 1920s to 1996. It is estimated that the cleanup will cost $8.1 million. TDY is tasked with the cleanup and will pay for it upfront. The United States Department of Defense will reimburse TDY for 76 percent of the final cost, estimated at $6.2 million. That makes TDY's final contribution about $1.9 million. The site is contaminated with high levels of numerous toxic chemicals, including solvents, heavy metals and PCBs. The list of chemicals in the former coal storage area, sludge drying beds, basement trench, waste storage areas and lagoons include trichloroethylene, benzene, hexavalent chromium, mercury, lead, cyanide and many other contaminants. Monitoring, remediation and corrective measures have taken place, but don't satisfy the DEQ's updated cleanup criteria for human and environmental health, according to the consent decree. "With regard to threats from drinking water, adjacent homes and businesses are on municipal water," said Scott Dean, director of communication for the DEQ, in an email. "In addition, the facility is pumping groundwater to pull groundwater in and keep the significantly contaminated groundwater on site. Any contaminated groundwater that does leave the site is compliant with DEQ-approved standards. Because of this, DEQ expects that exposures from drinking contaminated groundwater are largely prevented." However, there are concerns about air quality, he said. "DEQ does have concerns about possible vapor intrusion, which is the migration of vapor-forming contaminants from below ground into indoor air," Dean said. "Volatile organic compounds such as those released from this site, if present in contaminated groundwater, might pose a risk to homes and businesses depending on the concentration in the soil or groundwater, the condition of buildings, and other site-specific factors." However, sampling at several properties near L3 indicate that vapor intrusion is not occurring at levels that present a human health risk, he said. Additional sampling is required under the consent agreement. "This consent decree resolves an ongoing dispute about historic conditions that predate L3 Technologies at our Muskegon plant," an L3 spokesperson said in a previous statement. "Prior owners/operators are responsible for remediation under MDEQ oversight, and this work is ongoing. L3 continues to cooperate in this matter and looks forward to the completion of the cleanup." MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - Voters in Muskegon County will see a number of statewide and local races, as well as five separate millage renewal requests on the Aug. 7 primary election ballot. Winners from each race will appear on the general election ballot on Tuesday, Nov. 6. In the Muskegon area, the Chronicle has previewed contested races for open seats in the state Senate and House of Representatives, as well as local races around around Muskegon and Ottawa counties. Below are links to stories on those races. Here's a breakdown of the entire ballot for the Muskegon area. Incumbents are marked with an (i). GOVERNOR Democrats Abdul El-Sayed Shri Thanedar Gretchen Whitmer Republicans Brian Calley Patrick Colbeck Jim Hines Bill Schuette Libertarians Bill Gelineau John J. Tatar U.S. SENATE Democrats Debbie Stabenow (i) Republicans John James Sandy Pensler U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Democrats Rob Davidson Republicans Bill Huizenga (i) STATE LEGISLATURE State Senate 34th District Democrats Collene Lamonte Poppy Sias-Hernandez State Senate 34th District Republicans Jon Bumstead Holly Hughes State House 91st District Democrats Tanya Cabala Andy O'Riley State House 91st District Republicans Alan W. Jager Greg VanWoerkom State House 92nd District Democrats Terry Sabo (i) State House 92nd District Republicans Gail Echorst MUSKEGON COUNTY COMMISSION District 1 Democrats Rillastine Wilkins (i) Pat Jones District 1 Republicans Demario Phillips District 2 Democrats Ben Cross (i) Marcia Hovey Wright District 3 Democrats Susie Hughes (i) District 4 Democrats Adam Bell District 4 Republicans Bob Scolnik (i) District 5 Democrats Brandon Popps District 5 Republicans David Farhat Zach Lahring District 6 Democrats Charles Nash (i) District 7 Democrats Ken Ferrier District 7 Republicans Gary Foster (i) District 8 Democrats Sean Mullally District 8 Republicans John Snider District 9 Democrats Ken Mahoney (i) Andrew Heykoop District 9 Republicans Richard Holman Eric Rothoff MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP Supervisor Jennifer Hernandez (D) (i) Anne D. Oakes (D) Board of Trustees Democrats Robert Grabinski Tim Koens Peggy Watkins Board of Trustees Republicans Dave Barham EGELSTON TOWNSHIP Fire department millage renewal Egelston Township officials are asking voters to approve a renewal of its fire department millage of one mill - $1 per $1,000 of state taxable value - for a period of five years to fund fire service operations in the township. A tax of one mill costs a township resident with a $100,000 home $50 per year. The millage is expected to raise $178,110 in the first year. Streetlight millage renewal Egleston Township officials are asking voters to approve a renewal of its streetlights millage of .80 mills - 80 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value - for a period of five years to fund streetlight operations in the township. A tax of .80 mills costs a township resident with a $100,000 home $40 per year. The millage is expected to raise an estimated $142,488 in the first year. FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP Board of Trustees Todd Dunham (D) Terry Knoll (D) Fruitport District Library millage Fruitport Township officials are asking voters to approve a new millage of .75 mills - 75 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value - for 10 years to funds the Fruitport District Library. A tax of .75 mills would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $37 per year. The millage is expected to raise an estimated $366,000 in the first year. FRUITLAND TOWNSHIP Parks & Recreation Commission Democrats Lynn Knopf Bob Murray Debra Svensson Parks & Recreation Commission Republicans Herb Huch LAKETON TOWNSHIP Public safety millage renewal proposal Laketon Township officials are asking voters to approve a renewal of its public safety millage of 1.9298 mills - $1.93 per $1,000 of taxable value - for a period of five years to fund fire and police protection and pay for fire hydrant fees. A tax of 1.9298 costs the owner of a $100,000 home an estimated $96 per year. The millage is expected raise an estimated $452,767 in the first year. OTTAWA COUNTY State Senate 30th District Democrats Jeanette Schipper Rett DeBoer Daniela Garcia Joe Haveman Roger Victory Grand Haven officials are asking voters to approve a renewal of its Tri-Cities Historical Museum of .25 mil - 25 cents per $1,000 - for a period of six years to fund the Tri-Cities Historical Museum, located at 200 Washington Ave. in downtown in Grand Haven. If approved, the renewal is said to generate $140,476 in the first year. Full MLive coverage of races around the state can be found here. Reporter Emma Dale contributed to this story. SAGINAW, MI -- On a recent Wednesday afternoon, a group of veterans gathered in the activities pavilion at Saginaw's Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center to practice the ancient Chinese tradition of tai chi. Relaxing music played as physical therapist Ashtin Swaim stood at the front of the room, directing their attention inward toward their breath and posture. Once everyone had found the proper alignment, she led the group in doing gentle, synchronized movements with names such as "heavy arms" and "riding the horse." "Bring your arm up and then slowly let it fall. Gravity kind of takes over," she said. "It should be a relaxed momentum. Just let that tension go in your neck and shoulders." Swaim said the benefits of tai chi include improved balance and mobility and relief from stress and pain. "It's very basic. It's low impact," she said. "(It's a good way to) get you moving and kind of connect with other veterans." Allen Schreur, 71 of Bay City, only wishes he had tried it sooner. "I think it's an excellent thing. Unfortunately, I started 50 years too late," said Schreur, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969 to 1971. After several weeks of practice, he has noticed the effects of tai chi on his body. The movements may be small, but "you're also using muscles you haven't used," he said. The Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center is now offering walk-in tai chi and yoga classes for veterans, no prescription or doctor's note required. The classes, offered every Thursday morning, are free for veterans who are enrolled in VA health care at the Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center or any of its clinics in Alpena, Bad Axe, Cadillac, Cheboygan County, Claire, Gaylord, Gladwin, Oscoda or Traverse City, said spokeswoman Carrie Seward. Although the weekly walk-in classes are new as of June, the VA has been offering tai chi and yoga for veterans with chronic pain to promote comfort and increase function as part of its whole health and integrative therapies initiative for the past few years, she said. Now, VA officials hope to increase awareness of the new walk-in classes so more veterans can give tai chi and yoga a try. Anthony Bosco, 75, of Freeland, started tai chi about six months ago. He has had two knee operations and said tai chi is helping him. "I think it's great. It's good for balance. It's good for old people. It's a way to exercise ... relax, breathe properly," said Bosco, a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force mobile strike force from 1962 to 1966. Bosco practiced judo while he was in the Air Force, but had no prior experience with tai chi. It takes some "getting used to your body," he said. And "it's good for the mind, good for the brain." Drop-in yoga classes are offered at 8:30 a.m. and tai chi begins at 10 a.m. every Thursday. The Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center is located at 1500 Weiss St. KOCHVILLE TWP, MI -- After 12 years as director of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University, Marilyn Wheaton is retiring and a national search for her successor will soon begin. Wheaton was hired as director of the museum dedicated to Fredericks in 2006, 18 years after it opened on SVSU's campus. The late sculptor's iconic works include "The Spirit of Detroit" and "Cleveland War Memorial Fountain of Eternal Life." In a statement, Wheaton said, "I have accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish here, and more." "There's a big, wonderful world of art that I still want to be part of in some way, but I feel like I have done everything I can do here. It's time for someone new to step in," she said. Over the past 12 years, with Wheaton as director, the museum's offerings have expanded and attendance has grown, according to a SVSU news release announcing her upcoming retirement. Before Wheaton was named director, about 10,000 people visited the museum annually. Within a decade, the museum counted a record 18,000 visitors in a single year. "Marilyn has worked tirelessly to promote both Marshall Fredericks's museum and his life's work," SVSU President Don Bachand said in a statement. Wheaton, a Missouri native, first arrived in Michigan in the late-1960s. She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Madonna University in Livonia and then worked as a research assistant at the Detroit Institute of Arts in the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. She became "immersed in the Detroit arts scene" and met Fredericks in his Royal Oak studio, according to the release. She went on to spend eight years as director of the city of Detroit's Cultural Affairs Department and 11 years leading Michigan's first statewide arts advocacy organization, Concerned Citizens for the Arts in Michigan. After retiring in December, Wheaton plans to return full time to Detroit, where she and her husband have a home. "I'm not leaving here to go to another job, but I'm confident there will be other opportunities in the Detroit area that present themselves," her statement continued. University spokesman J.J. Boehm said there is no job posting for the director position yet, but "by announcing her retirement at this time, Marilyn has given SVSU and the museum board ample opportunity to conduct an effective search." NASA shared satellite imagery Wednesday, Aug. 1 of the wildfires blazing through California that are responsible for six deaths and the destruction of more than 1,000 homes. The Associated Press reports firefighters are making progress in containing the Northern California wildfires on Thursday. California has spent at least $125 million combating the fires, which the news organization says represents more than 25 percent of its annual wildfire budget. More than 13,000 firefighters are said to be fighting the fires, and that the largest fires have burned in the Redding area north of Sacramento. A.P. reports that six people -- including two firefighters -- have been killed, and that tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders. This wildfire is said to be the sixth most destructive in California's history with 1,060 homes and an addition 500 other buildings destroyed in its path. Officials have said that the wildfire is twice the size of California's capital city of Sacramento. "The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite passed over California on July 27 and July 29, observing the Carr Fire on July 27 and the Ferguson Fire on July 29," the U.S. space agency describes of the photos at the top of this page. "The MISR instrument has nine cameras that view Earth at different angles. It collected images from MISR's nadir (downward-pointing) camera on each day. The angular information from MISR's images is used to calculate the height of the smoke plume, results of which are superimposed on the right-hand side of each figure." .@NASAEarth satellites continue watch of California wildfires as high winds & hot weather fan the flames: https://t.co/zjf0aPyTWo pic.twitter.com/W0fXB1U7LX NASA (@NASA) October 12, 2017 North America's 2018 wildfire season is well under way, with blazes burning and smoke streaming from fires in nearly every western U.S. state. @NASAEarth satellite images continue to show smoke and burn scars from fires. Take a look: https://t.co/4NeF5xkIVN pic.twitter.com/0TyVSBe9Z3 NASA (@NASA) July 31, 2018 Dangerous, deadly fires have broken out across California and the western U.S., seen shrouded in smoke from space by our @NASAEarth-observing satellites. Imagery like this is available to first responders, with red dots showing active burning. Take a look: https://t.co/pSgVKqJVz8 pic.twitter.com/Q5BThT1Rxg NASA (@NASA) July 30, 2018 Sharing and downloading blueprints for 3D-printed guns in the U.S., while tied up in a messy court drama, is now theoretically legal. This new policy comes after the Trump administration settled a lawsuit filed by DIY gunmaker Cody Wilson, who argued the government violated both his Second Amendment and First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from sharing gun blueprints online. But eight states and the District of Columbia have sued the government to prevent the release of the blueprints, claiming they pose a danger to the public. What do you think? PERSPECTIVES The U.S. State Department initially ordered Cody Wilson--a DIY gunmaker and anarchist--to remove his blueprints for 3D-printed guns from the Internet, based on a set of regulations knowns as the International Trade in Arms Regulations. According to these rules, by sharing the blueprints for a weapon widely online, Wilson had exported weapons without a license. Wilson countered he was not sharing weapons, but sharing information and should, therefore, be protected by the First Amendment. Wilson believes it doesn't matter what the code ultimately builds, it's protected under the First Amendment. On July 30, attorneys general from eight states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to prevent the release of the plans the next day. According to NPR, the court documents state: The attorneys general contend because of the danger posed by these 3D-printed guns, the blueprints should not be publicly available. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Tata Steel Tata Steel has reasons to feel slighted, twice over. In February, it had emerged as the highest bidder in the auction of Bhushan Power & Steel after its bid of Rs 18,000 crore came on top of JSW Steel's Rs 11,000 crore . It was even selected as the preferred bidder by Bhushan's lenders. But just when the company was about to touch the finishing line, Liberty House entered the race and called time. Worse, it offered a higher bid of Rs 18,500 crore. A couple of months later in July, it looked like the Tata company again had its hands around the Bhushan trophy. The Bhushan lenders selected Tata Steel as the H1 bidder, as they had questions over Liberty House's funding. The banks were set to vote on the Tata company's bid and give it the stamp of approval. But just then, JSW Steel re-entered the scene with a revised offer that was higher than Tata Steel's and matched that of Liberty House. "It's not fair," senior Tata Steel officials told dailies off the record. "There was no concept of a re-bid," they claimed. That's not all. Another setback was in store on Wednesday, when the National Company Law Tribunal asked the lenders to invite fresh bids, setting August 6 as the deadline. The question now on everyone's lips is "Will Tata Steel approach the Supreme Court against the NCLAT order? It may. But even if it doesn't, it won't be surprising as the court may say that maximising the value is the main intention of an auction," said an executive from the industry. That will be music for the banks' ears. Happier lenders The lenders couldn't be happier. Bhushan Power & Steel owes them Rs 49,700 crore. If Tata Steel had won the auction, then its Rs 17,000-crore bid would have meant a haircut of over 65 percent. All the three bidders have promised to invest an additional Rs 7,000 crore in Bhushan Power's operations. But with JSW Steel's sweetening the offer, and the NCLAT directive for fresh bids, the banks can be rightful in hoping for a lower haircut. JSW Steel's interest There was no inkling that JSW Steel intended to revise its bids. In fact, everyone thought that it was no longer interested in Bhushan Power. The company had also bid for Bhushan Steel, which is now under the control of Tata Steel. Something similar was expected to happen with Bhushan Power too. A few day ago, at the press conference to announce its first quarterly results or at its AGM a day before none of the company's top officials gave an indication of what was coming. So why did JSW Steel suddenly change its mind? In reality, it may not have been sudden. The only success for the Sajjan Jindal company in the distressed asset sale has been in the form of Monnet Ispat. Bhushan Steel had slipped out of the hands. What remained was Essar Steel. But the auction of Essar Steel has been oft delayed, and is presently with the NCLAT which is expected to next week give its order on the eligibility of ArcelorMittal and Numetal. JSW Steel had joined the auction in its second round. But as things stand now, there is no clear view on how things will pan out in the case of Essar Steel. "Essar Steel is taking time. So Bhushan Power was the only opportunity left. The revised offer is one attempt in exploring opportunities," said an executive. Bhushan Power, which has a capacity of 3 million tons a year, could make the crucial difference as Tata Steel and JSW Steel compete to become the largest steelmaker in India. As of now, JSW Steel is slightly ahead of Tata Steel after the Monnet Ispat acquisition took the Jindal company's capacity to 19.6 million tons, a million ton more than the Tata company's. With Bhushan Power, JSW Steel can cement the lead. Or, Tata Steel can get back the crown. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More HDFC Life Insurance and Vijaya Bank have entered into a corporate agency tie-up. As part of this plan, the bank will sell the insurer's products through its branches. Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director & CEO, HDFC Life said they aim to service the semi-urban and rural geographies that typically have low insurance penetration. Vijaya Bank has a pan India presence with 2129 branches, spanning all States and Union Territories in the country. HDFC Life already has 163 bancassurance partners, 26 non-traditional distribution partners and an agency force of more than 77,000 individuals. Sankara Narayanan, Managing Director & CEO, Vijaya Bank said that apart from deposits and loans, their customers will also get access to life insurance products. Banks are allowed to tie-up with three life, three non-life and three standalone health insurers to sell their policies. India is likely to delay implementation of retaliatory sanctions on US products by 45 days, according to a report by CNBC-TV18. A notification on the extension of the duties is likely on Thursday or Friday, the report added. India's retaliatory sanctions on 29 US products was supposed to come into effect from August 4. The government is also in talks with the US to seek exemptions on steel and aluminium duties, the report said. In June, India had joined the European Union (EU) in announcing an imposition of retaliatory sanctions against the US after the Trump administrations tariff hikes on steel and aluminium. India plans to raise import duties on a number of goods, including almonds, apples and metal products. The hiked tariff is reported to cost America about $240 million, equal to the implications of US' tariff on India. On March 9, US President Donald Trump imposed a heavy tariff on imported steel and aluminium items, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war. The report suggests India would like to wait for some more time before implementing retaliatory duties as it is expected to hold 2+2 strategic and defence dialogue with the US in September. It was reported earlier that both countries are working together "hand in glove" diplomatically to build dimensions of one of America's most critical bilateral relationships ahead of the dialogue to be held in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly invited Donald Trump to be the chief guest at next year's Republic Day celebrations. A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Jet Airways has said that it is implementing several measures to reduce costs and realise higher revenues. In a statement issued to the media, the airline has said that some of the cost cutting measures include sales and distribution, payroll and maintenance, among others. Jet said that the airline management is in dialogue with key stakeholders to enlist their full support and cooperation for realising necessary savings. Earlier, reports had suggested that the private carrier has informed its staff that they will have to take up to cuts in their salaries as the cost of operations has increased due to rising crude oil prices and a falling rupee. According to a report by Financial Express, Jet's top management has pitched for a nearly 15 percent cut in their pilot's salary and a reduction in the number of leaves to reduce employee cost. The airline is meeting with their pilots in Delhi and Mumbai over two days (August 1-August 2) for negotiating these terms. Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube, along with EVP flight operations and engineering Nikhil Vaid and chief people officer Rahul Taneja, will be addressing the pilots. This will be followed by an open house to discuss the proposed salary cut with the representatives of the airline's pilot union, National Aviation Guild (NAG). The airlines has about 2,000 pilots and a workforce of 16,000. According to the report, the pilots, however, are not likely to agree to the managements proposal of salary reduction. "If pilot salaries are touched there will be repercussions. The management needs to find alternate means, asking pilots to take a salary cut will not be acceptable," a senior pilot told the paper. The move is a part of airline's strategy to reduce employee cost as Jet Airways has not posted a profit for the past 11 years, barring FY16 and FY17, but its employee costs have been on the rise. In FY18, the airline's employee cost stood at Rs 3174.22 crore, up from the Rs 3084.21 of FY17. In FY17 alone, employee costs shot up by a big margin of 21.79 percent from the Rs 2,532.33 employee expense in FY16, the report said. The airlines' revenue figures for the past five years do not seem too encouraging either. The airlines' employee costs grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7 percent for Jet but revenues grew at just 4.8 percent. On the other hand, its rival, IndiGo, has expanded in the market adding almost three aircraft every month and has been reporting better performance for the past five years. In terms of CAGR, IndiGo's revenues grew 20.13 percent and employee costs went up by 28.63 percent. Also, IndiGos manpower costs have shown a steady rationalisation. Owing to these factors, over the past year Jet is aggressively working towards reducing its debt that stood at Rs 3,000 crore by the end of Q4FY17-18. Jet has a gross debt of Rs 8,424 crore of which Rs 2,054 crore is aircraft-related debt and 65 percent of its debt is in dollar denominations. Jet Airways is committed to creating a competitive cost structure that ensures a sustainable future for the airline and its stakeholders. As part of its cost rationalisation measures the airline continues to evaluate all initiatives to achieve greater business efficiencies. Payroll is one of the important components of the airlines cost structure and the senior leadership team has undertaken a reduction in their salary to lead by example, a Jet Airways spokesperson told the paper. The copy has been updated to incorporate Jet Airways' official statement. IRB Infrastructure Developers | In 2020 so far, the share price has moved up 76 percent to Rs 131.20. It's trailing twelve months (TTM) P/E was 6.40 multiple while 5-year average P/E was 8.30 multiple. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of GPT Infraprojects rose more than 8 percent in the early trade on Thursday as company received an order worth Rs 362.16 crore. Chief Project Manager 1, Rail Vikas Nigam, Varanasi has awarded the project to the company, which will get completed in 24 months. The project includes construction of roadbed, viaduct, major and minor bridges, RUBs, ROBs, track linking and general electrical works at both the approaches of rail cum road bridge at Ghazipur in connection with construction of new BG Line from Mau to Tarighat in Varanasi division of NE Railway and Danapur division of EC Railway in Uttar Pradesh. The 38th annual general meeting of the company will be held on August 21, 2018. The share touched its 52-week high Rs 247.25 and 52-week low Rs 119.05 on 16 January, 2018 and 27 June, 2018, respectively. Currently, it is trading 37.11 percent below its 52-week high and 30.62 percent above its 52-week low. At 09:38 hrs GPT Infraprojects was quoting at Rs 157.50, up Rs 6.10, or 4.03 percent on the BSE. Posted by Rakesh Patil live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Sequent Scientific share price rallied 20 percent intraday Thursday after its subsidiary's facility received good manufacturing practice (CMP) certificate from the European health regulator. The pharma company informed exchanges that subsidiary Alivira Animal Health has received European Union (EU) GMP approval from Bulgarian authority's for its manufacturing unit in Ankara, Turkey. Ankara facility has a wide range of manufacturing capabilities with 8 GMP-certified manufacturing lines, which include beta lactam, non-beta lactam, terminal sterilization, mastitis, powder beta lactam, aerosol, pesticides, and solid lines for various forms such as injectables, intramammaries, intrauterines, topicl aerosols, oral liquid and solid forms. Ankara facility is also approved by Saudi FDA and Ethiopian GMP authorities. With this approval, Alivira now has 4 EU GMP certified manufacturing units, with one each in Turkey, Spain, Germany & India, Sequent said in its filing. At 14:02 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 57.90, up Rs 6.30, or 12.21 percent on the BSE. Moneycontrol News After a failed attempt with flavoured milk Vio, Coca-Cola is still considering re-entering the dairy business, Coca Cola India President T Krishnakumar said. The company had to take Vio off the shelves after 2016 launch as it did not do well in the market. The company may now relaunch the Vio brand, according to a report in Hindu Business Line. Coca-Cola has been running pilots (with Vio) to finalise its strategy in the dairy space for some time, the report states. We want to have a presence in every category, including the dairy segment, with focus on nutrition, Krishnakumar said. The company has developed new producted under Vio brand, including a chocolate-flavoured variant. Moneycontrol couldn't independently verify the report. The company did not comment on whether the company is going to bid for GSKs Horlicks or Kraft-Heinzs Complan. ITC and Hindustan Unilever are also considering purchase of Horlicks, media reports suggest. ALSO READ - Possible sale of Complan, Horlicks casts spell on Rs 7,000 crore malt-based health drinks market Coca-Cola reported double-digit growth in their revenue and volumes for the April-June quarter. "We had reached a stage where growth was not good, but in the last four quarters we have been able to slowly get the mojo back. We ended the second quarter (April-June) with double- digit growth in volumes and revenues. So overall we are seeing good growth momentum," Krishnakumar said, as quoted by Hindu Business Line. Coca-Cola India has been making efforts to expand its beverage offerings. The company had three months ago launched nutrition dilutable drink called Minute Maid Vitingo priced at Rs 5. Shishir Asthana One of the fastest-moving sectors in the country is being closely watched by the government. The Centre will be introducing a national regulator for e-commerce with rules that include mandatory basing of servers in India, and a draft policy has already been floated. While some may point out to loss of freedom after the government starts regulating the sector, theres no arguing that these steps are necessary as aggressive marketing by companies was resulting in the destruction of other players in the marketplace. The draft policy document identifies options for addressing anti-competitive practices, effectively protecting both small market players and consumers, who are at risk of being landed with sub-standard goods. But as long as price is paramount, as it is likely to remain in a market like India, such measures are unlikely to work. E-commerce companies, especially the bigger ones, have been using predatory pricing as a means of client acquisition. Through their billion-dollar-sale days, they achieved their goal of deeper market penetration. Though the consumers were, broadly speaking, benefited by cheaper prices, the brick and mortar stores were badly impacted, especially since such sales were timed around the festive season. The government has introduced a sunset clause, which defines the maximum duration of differential pricing strategies (such as deep discounts). There is, however, a problem here. Nothing really changes in compacting the duration of the sale. These e-commerce companies are not bound by restrictions of space like a mall where a flash sale would attract lots of people and security has to be used to control the crowd. In the e-commerce space, the same sale is applicable to every single person with a mobile phone. Reducing the period from four days to even one day would not make much of a difference: a move by the companies themselves to limit the duration of a certain flash sale to 15 minutes from four hours earlier did not in any way hamper sales of mobile phones. All that is needed is higher quality machinery to support higher number of consumers who will be in the market place for a lesser period of time. The income tax department had also tried to attack this practice earlier. The IT department argued that the discounts which were classified as market expenditure and discounts needed to be classified as capital expenditure. For an e-commerce company, client acquisition is as important, if not more, as selling goods. Such deep discounts were meant to attract the client. This was the crux of the logic behind the IT departments demand of Rs 110 crore in taxes from Flipkart, an argument eventually rejected by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. The above mentioned cases were fought in Karnataka: whether other states will abide by this ruling has to be seen. The draft policy has also touched upon the point of related parties exploiting the system. This issue was pointed out in the report where it addressed the issue of bulk purchases of branded goods such as electronic products (especially mobile phones), white goods and branded fashion by certain dealers, who would then sell these goods through e-commerce platforms, leading to distortions in the market place. This is not too difficult to circumvent as such dealers could sell their products to individuals or other traders who would then sell through e-commerce sites. The introduction of Goods and Services Tax has made this easier; the individual or trader merely claims the GST back after the sale through the platform. While the government has tried to create a level-playing field, there are still enough gaps in the system that can be exploited. The new generation of entrepreneurs who mainly operate in the e-commerce space is swift-footed and with international experience. In fact, India is now the battleground for two of the largest e-commerce companies in the world Amazon and Walmart who have the experience, size and money power to influence decisions. The smaller players and the brick and mortar players are on a weak wicket, since for the customer what matters is price, everything else being equal. State-run NBCC (India) today said it has bagged a Rs 400-crore project from the commerce ministry to construct the India Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo 2020. It has signed memorandum of understanding with the ministry for the project and the scope of work includes conceptualisation, design and construction of the 4,614-square-metre India pavilion and other utilities, an official release said. Apart from showcasing government's various programmes like 'Make in India', smart cities, digital India, the aim of pavilion is to also showcase the country's strength in innovation and startups which are pushing the boundaries in high technology areas like artificial intelligence, fin-tech, space and green energy. The Dubai World Expo 2020, which will remain open for six months, is expected to have footfalls of more than 10 million visitors from 200 countries. NBCC has a strong overseas presence with several ongoing and completed projects in countries like Maldives, Turkey, Oman and Mauritius. Recently, the company has bagged an order worth Rs 2,000 crore to build high-capacity convention centres in nine different African countries namely Niger, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Liberia, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gabon. Goa Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai today refuted allegations that the state government was favouring the construction industry by allowing uncontrolled conversion of land. The minister said the growth in the construction industry is usually reflected in the collection of the infrastructure tax, which is collected by the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department. The collection figures for the last three financial years are showing a downward trend, he said. "The TCP department had collected Rs 72 crore in the infrastructure tax in fiscal 2016-17 and Rs 39 crore in FY 2017-18. In the current financial year, we have collected Rs 15 crore in infrastructure tax," he said. This could be because of implementation of RERA or due to "over activism", he said, adding that the construction industry is "on the rocks" in the state. The minister said the confidence of investors in Goa is going down due to various factors, which should not happen. "Goans should not be seen as thieves who promise certain things, make a contract and then change their mind," he said. He also took a dig at the Congress for criticising the Manohar Parrikar-led government over the Regional Plan 2021. "The RP 2021 was the baby of the (erstwhile) Congress (government)," he said. "We speak about the Regional Plan 2021. It is not me, but you all have created the RP. It was your wish to operationalise the land use plan. But now you are speaking in different tone," he said targetting the Congress. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Reliance Industries (RIL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India (SBI) to integrate its MyJio platform with the latters YONO application. The two companies are entering into the digital partnership which will help SBI widen its digital customer base multi-fold and Jio will now bring in financial services capabilities of SBI and Jio Payments Bank. YONOs digital banking features will be enabled through the MyJio platform for an integrated customer experience. In an official release, the two companies said that they are deepening their partnership to bring next generation bilateral frictionless experience with exclusive digital Banking, Payments and Commerce journeys for their customers. SBI YONO is an online platform offering digital banking, commerce and financial superstore services. In a statement released to the media, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said, As Indias largest Bank with leadership in digital banking, we are delighted to partner with Jio the worlds largest network. All the areas of co-operation are mutually beneficial enhancing the digital foot-print for SBI customers with superior and rewarding customer experiences. RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said, The scale of the SBI customer base is unmatched globally. Jio is committed to using its superior network and platforms combined with the retail ecosystem to accelerate digital adoption serving all the needs for SBIs and Jios customers. The Jio Payments Bank is a 70:30 venture between RIL and SBI. Moreover, Jio Phones will be available on special offers for SBI customers, the release added. The two companies said that Jio and SBI customers will benefit from the exclusive membership programme Jio Prime. Additionally, there will be an integration of SBI Rewards, the lenders loyalty programme, with Jio Prime under which SBI customers will be offered additional loyalty reward earning opportunities. Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. Aditya Birla Fashion | The company will acquire 51 percent stake in Sabyasachi for Rs 398 crore. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shoppers Stop, a part of the K Raheja group, is among Indias largest retailers. The company operates 242 departmental stores (spanning 4.39 million square feet) in 38 cities across the country. Its First Citizen Loyalty Programme covers nearly 55.36 lakh members. In Q1 FY19, the companys sales fell year-on-year (YoY) mainly because of a high base (in FY18, purchases were preponed to Q1 owing to GST implementation from Q2), reclassification norms as per accounting standards, and an increase in taxes YoY (GST versus Value Added Tax). Cost control steps and debt repayment were the key contributors to operating/bottom-line margin expansion, respectively. Going forward, which factors will influence revenue growth? Integration of operations with Amazon will bolster the visibility of Shoppers Stop as a brand. Presently, 80 percent of the companys products are already available on the e-commerce majors website. To facilitate network augmentation, 5-6 Shoppers Stop large format stores are likely to be added every year. As far as own brands are concerned, investments are being made to set up design studios and testing labs. This will be crucial in achieving the objective of doubling private label sales over the next 3 years. Impetus towards high-value branded beauty products is gaining traction. This is evident from the managements intent to launch 10-12 outlets in due course. Growth in the companys First Citizen Members Club (constituting roughly 77 percent of the annual top-line) has been pretty encouraging and is expected to continue. Among other segments, womens ethnic wear sales have grown substantially year-on-year, whereas demand in the luggage and watches categories seems to be picking up too. What can boost margins? The contribution of private label brands to total sales, that currently stands at 10.2 percent, is likely to gradually increase to 15 percent or more in the upcoming years. Repayment of long-term debt in entirety has been targeted by the end of FY19. Proceeds from the sale of the erstwhile Hypercity outlets to Future Retail will be primarily used for this purpose. Capex of Rs 120 crore has been allocated for adding new stores and refurbishing some existing ones. Since this will be funded through internal accruals, savings in interest costs should keep the strain away from the bottom-line. Beauty segment, comprising 10 percent of revenue, yields higher margins than the core department store vertical. Addition of new outlets on this front should therefore improve overall profitability. Home products (4.5 percent of revenue), which is a breakeven business, have been witnessing good sales momentum of late. Benefits of operating leverage could kick in as this segment keeps expanding. Any concerns that merit attention? A decline in footfalls at the offline outlets may be witnessed owing to adoption of the online retailing model (through the Amazon tie-up). Lower-than-anticipated same-store sales growth has been a sore point for the company since quite some time. Recently, there has been a sharp decline in mens formal wear sales. Though the number of gift voucher days have reduced, extended end of season sale periods during the peak phase (second half of the fiscal year) may cause margins to contract. Should you invest? After facing numerous headwinds in the past, Shoppers Stop is at the cusp of a noticeable turnaround. On the back of a new management team, improving fundamentals, exit from non-core businesses and a better product mix, the companys prospects are undoubtedly promising. However, a glance at the price movement of the stock over the past year suggests that it already trades in the upper range of the chart. At 37 times FY20 projected earnings, though near-term upside is limited, we remain bullish on the companys ability to reap the benefits of its turnaround strategy in the long-run. Follow @krishnakarwa152 Professor VV John, an eminent vice chancellor, once made a profound observation. He stated that outside the gates of heaven, there was one long queue and one short queue. The persons in the longer queue were required to first serve a term in purgatory or hell, before they gained admission to heaven. The second queue was meant for vice-chancellors who had already served in Indian universities. Persons who have served in regulatory organisations should also be entitled to join the shorter queue. Clearly, the price of steering the ship, through stormy seas and to safe shores, in an effort to promote orderly conduct in the regulated universe should suffice. The life of a regulator, especially in the emerging markets, is as exciting as it is challenging. One securities market regulator of a relatively small jurisdiction once mentioned that when the stock market indices were going up, no one knew of his existence; but when they came down, everyone knew his telephone number and residential address. A regulator's role is a combination of the roles of the FIFA and that of the match referee. The regulator lays down the rules, and also enforces them on the field of play. What lends credibility to this role is an attempt to make the rules and regulations clear, and to give them reasonable continuity of existence, so that the players are aware of what is fair, and what is not, on the playground. Domain familiarity is clearly a necessary requirement. What is more critical is equanimity and poise and a sense of justice and fair play, treating all regulated entities alike. Those that need to be rapped on their knuckles should be dealt with in a manner significantly different from those that need to be hanged for material system-destroying offences. The need for regulatory organisations arises when it is recognised that smaller entities, with a disadvantage of limitation of size and scale, are unable to stand up and be counted on their own strength. This is best illustrated in the preamble to the SEBI Act, which states that the objective of the statute is to protect the interest of investors and to provide for the development and the regulation of markets. It follows that a regulators role is not only that of a policeman pulling up persons for real or perceived offences, but also one that creates a large universe in which more and more persons can take part in the process of wealth creation. (One regulator who years ago made a statement that regulation was his only objective, may be forgiven for not reading the preamble!). How is this role discharged? Rules and regulation can at best provide the enabling framework. What is essential is that all contending parties involved in any transaction are given a fair hearing, and thereafter, a reasoned order is passed in order to do justice to the party that has been adversely affected. 'Audi alteram partem' (Latin for 'hear the other side') is a pillar of natural justice, not a comment on an automobile of choice. The requirements of impartiality and fairness are often explained in terms of the demand for 'independence' of regulators. Regulatory independence is a misconceived notion. What is required is functional autonomy to operate within an ecosystem in which there are multiple participants. Functional autonomy, without any accountability, would be the perfect recipe for disaster. Accountability, however, should not mean being responsive on a continuing basis to the demands that government functionaries or the political executive might make in regard to individual transactions. Further, in a country as vast as India, with a significant public sector presence, it is not unusual for regulators to be requested to grant exemptions, with extension of time being the fallback option. Responding positively to such requests weakens the regulatory system since exemptions and carve-outs based on ownership can be disruptive to discipline in the regulatory environment. As far as accountability is concerned, the best option is to provide for every regulator to appear before an appropriate committee of Parliament once a year to explain what that regulatory body set out to do in the year gone by, what thereof was accomplished, and the reasons for falling short of the identified objectives. It is equally important for the regulator to explain to a parliamentary committee what the state of the regulated universe is, and what major issues are proposed to be addressed in the forthcoming year. The necessity for giving evidence annually to a parliamentary committee derives from the clear understanding that regulation is subordinate legislation, and that Parliament, as the supreme lawmaker in the country, is entitled to know how subordinate legislation is being conceived and implemented. To see such rendering of evidence as interference by Parliament is to close ones eyes to the representative form of government that we have chosen for India. The functioning of regulators in recent times has often raised eyebrows. As corporate skeletons tumbled out of cupboards in rapid succession, the inadequacy of the regulatory organisations in the United States manifested itself. The position was no better in other developed jurisdictions. Nearer home, we have an example of the banking regulator stating that it is not adequately empowered to deal with public sector banks, and that it has powers to discipline only private sector banks. The question whether such powers are being exercised with respect to private sector banks need not detain us here. What is more significant is the admission of absence of powers over public sector banks, when everyone, including the government, believed that the regulator was adequately empowered. Statements of this kind are destabilising for the credibility of the organisation. Recently, we have seen the insurance regulator clear a proposal by a government-owned insurance company for investment in a bank to the extent of 51% of the share capital, when the statutory limit is 15%. It is not unlikely that the larger public interest, which the regulator perceived, merited such a decision. It would have, however, helped the optics, if the decision was not seen as taken immediately on receipt of the application by the insurance company. The related question whether the board of the insurance company was fully in the picture, or was cajoled or coerced into taking this decision is a tale which will be told another day. Suffice it to say that the announcement of the decision of the board to the public was made by a senior government official, and not by any executive of the insurance company. It remains to be seen whether the regulatory system looks into these aspects, and investigates them to decide whether the board has done what it needs to do as the custodian of corporate governance. Reports seem to indicate that in-principle approval was obtained from the banking regulator before any application was made to the insurance regulator. Other regulated entities are entitled to ask when the informal in-principle approval system came into being. Strengthening of regulatory organisations is clearly a high priority. Unless this is done, ownership-derived preferential treatment, for the mere asking, is likely to be the order of the day. Regulatory organisations must also be financially self-sufficient, so that their existence does not owe itself to handouts from the government. Handouts, as is well known, come with strings attached, and regulatory organisations cannot afford to pay that price. Debates and discussions on the structure of regulatory organisations are meaningless, unless the business of regulation is taken seriously by the creators of regulatory organisations and by the leaders of those organisations. Failing this, one will have to fall back on Alexander Popes contextually amended observation For forms of regulation, let the fools contest. /Whatever is best regulated is best. (Reproduced from www.excellenceenablers.com with permission. M Damodaran is chairperson, Excellence Enablers and former chairman, SEBI, UTI and IDBI. Views expressed are personal.) Anna Hazare Social activist Anna Hazare has conveyed to the Centre that he will launch a hunger strike on October 2 against "non-fulfilment" of promises on welfare of farmers and appointment of Lokpal and Lokayuktas. In a letter addressed to Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh on July 31, the anti-corruption crusader said he would start his protest at Ralegan Siddhi village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. Hazare said he had written to the Centre at least four times in the past demanding implementation of the written assurances made by the government on March 29 this year, when he called off his protest at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi. "I will go on a hunger strike from October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, at my native Ralegan Siddhi village," he said. Hazare criticised the NDA government, saying it had earlier assured to appoint the Lokpal and implement the Lokpal Bill, passed by Parliament and signed by the then President in January 2014. Hazare demanded the Central Agriculture Price Commission (CAPC), which is currently under the Ministry of Agriculture, need to function independently in the interest of farmers. "At present, various State Agriculture Price Commissions (SAPC) send the support prices for different crops to the CPAC. The CPAC reduces the support prices recommended by the SAPCs by 50 per cent because it is under the Agriculture ministry," he said. Hazare said the farmers do not get adequate price for their crops due to the CAPC halving the recommended support prices. "The CPAC should consist of agriculture specialists and experienced agriculturists who are not associated with the government," he demanded. Recalling his Jantar-Mantar stir in March, Hazare said he was told that a high-level committee would be set up to implement the assurances. However, the response received (from the Centre) last month didn't mention their implementation, he said. Hazare said his other demands included: fixing the milk price on per litre cost to the farmers; a monthly pension of Rs 5,000 to those farmers who are above 60 years and still dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Questioning the "delay" in the appointment of a Lokpal, Hazare said the government seemed to be lacking the will to act. "Had the current government implemented the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act after coming to power in 2014, the level of corruption in the country could have been checked," he stated. The Supreme Court had last week expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's response on the appointment of search committee members for a Lokpal. The Centre had earlier told the apex court that the Lokpal selection committee, headed by the prime minister, was scheduled to meet to set up a search panel for recommending a panel of names for the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman and its members. The government had said the search panel would lay down its procedures, following which the selection committee would fix the time frame within which the names for selecting the chairman and members of the Lokpal would be recommended. The committee comprises the prime minister, the chief justice of India, Lok Sabha speaker, the leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist. The SC, in its last year's verdict, had said there was no justification to keep the enforcement of the Lokpal Act suspended till the proposed amendments, including on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, were cleared by Parliament. In a tussle regarding the appointment process of judges, the government has approached the collegium and asked for revisions in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), according to an Indian Express report. In 2015, the Supreme Court had struck down the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act 2014, which proposed giving the executive a bigger role in appointing members of the judiciary. After that, multiple recommendations by the collegium have either been delayed or rejected by the government. One of the reasons for sitting on the file maybe that once the government rejects a file and the collegium reiterates the name, the government is bound to accept the recommendation. The government has communicated to the Supreme Court collegium that some of the names recommended by the Allahabad HC and Kerala HC collegium are close to the judicial officers. By citing these examples, the government has the asked the SC to make certain changes to the MoP. Including a wider pool of judges, stringent scrutiny of judges being recommended and a permanent secretariat of the collegium are the changes being demanded by the government. The Hindustan Times has reported that the government will agree to the recommendation of appointing Indira Banerjee and Vineet Sharan to the Supreme Court while delaying KM Josephs appointment. The centre had rejected Josephs name earlier citing that the Supreme Court already had a judge from his state. Joseph is one of the judges that set aside Presidents rule in Uttarakhand imposed by NDA in 2016. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has requested the prime minister for granting immediate interim assistance to combat the crisis in the state due to incessant rain for the past few weeks. Nagaland has been receiving heavy rainfall for the past few weeks, which has resulted in loss of lives, displacement of many people in most of the districts and damage to public infrastructure, Rio said in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. Road connectivity in many areas has been snapped and power line and communication network damaged, he said in the letter, a copy of which was made available to the media. Adequate supply of essential commodities, including petroleum products, to all district headquarters is not possible as stocks are getting depleted, the chief minister said. The aspirational district (backward) of Kiphire has been cut off from all directions. In the foothills and plain areas, floods have created enormous damage to property as the villages have been submerged, he said. Under the circumstances the state government is unable to address the challenges due to lack of resources, absence of adequate machinery and poor connectivity, he said and sought interim central assistance. August 02, 2018 / 09:31 PM IST That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights. August 02, 2018 / 05:10 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 04:23 PM IST JUST IN | About 17 political parties to approach Election Commission, demanding 2019 general elections be conducted on a ballot paper, reports ANI quoting sources. August 02, 2018 / 03:43 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 03:21 PM IST Maharashtra: 18 people have been arrested in connection with violence that broke out in Chakan over Maratha reservation issue: Sandip Patil, SP Pune Rural told ANI. August 02, 2018 / 03:20 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 02:40 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 02:37 PM IST PNB fraud case: Mehul Choksi's lawyer has told media that Choksi had a loose alliance with the Congress party. Between 2011-13 his income grew unprecedentedly : Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister said. (ANI) August 02, 2018 / 02:33 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 02:12 PM IST August 02, 2018 / 01:58 PM IST JUST IN | No foreign leaders to be invited for PTI's Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony, reports CNN News18 quoting Pakistan Foreign Office. Rahul Gandhi Congress president Congress president Rahul Gandhi would visit Hyderabad for two days from August 13. Besides participating in the 'Praja Chaitanya bus yatra,' a campaign launched by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, Gandhi would address several meetings during his two-day visit, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said today. The 'bus yatra', being conducted by the state congress in phases, is aimed at exposing the alleged failures of the TRS government in Telangana. Earlier, Reddy inaugurated the TPCC's IT Cell. Observing that Congress was trying to make optimum use of technology to reach out to people, Reddy said the IT Cell would play a major role in establishing a link between the party, leaders and cadres. IT cell chairman Madan Mohan Rao said the cell would act as a bridge between the party and cadre through an innovative programme named 'Congress Human Resources Management System (CHARMS).' At the stroke of noon on July 30, 2018, the Assam government rolled back the years to bring to fruition the second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which has been hanging fire since the Assam Accord was signed in 1985. Of the 3.29 crore applicants who had submitted proof of nationality, the list contains only 2.89 crore names, rendering 40 lakh people stateless, roughly the population of Croatia. From August 7, those whose names are not in the list will be able to determine the reason for their non-inclusion. They are reserved the right to apply again between August 7 and September 28, following which they face the risk of deportation. The polity of Assam has been long fraught with the question of nativity, and the NRC signals a progression in the State's efforts at identifying foreigners who may have illegally entered the State. Those who have migrated after the midnight of March 24, 1971, face the threat of deportation, according to the Assam Accord which was signed 32 years ago by the central government, then under the helm of Rajiv Gandhi, and the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The first draft of the NRC listed 1.9 crore names out of 3.29 applications received. The Assam government called for calm, assuring citizens whose names have been excluded from the preliminary draft, that subsequent revision to the registry will encompass the entire populace. The final draft was prepared by combing through data collated from population surveys undertaken across Assams diverse topography. However, the final estimate of the States legitimate residents is underwhelming. The government's ongoing efforts at identifying illegal migrants is not the first such attempt. Data collected in previous rounds of the census throw considerable light on the influx of migrants into Assam. Here is what we know about the migratory trends in the demographic of the State from existing data. According to a World Bank-Development Indicators Group report published in 2013, the Bangladesh - India corridor is the third largest migration corridor in the world by volume. The total number of people crossing the international border between the two countries estimated at 3.2 million. This is comparable with the Russia-Ukraine corridor, where migrants numbered 3.5 million. However, the Mexico - United States border remains the most porous, with 13 million migrants making their way across the border. The India Bangladesh border spans 4,156km, and is the fifth-longest international border in the world. Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and West Bengal share a border with Bangladesh. Demographic of Assam There are 27 districts in Assam, four of which were created between the 2011 and 2001 rounds of the Census. According to data from the census of 2011, Nalbari and Nagaon are the two most populous districts. The major religions practiced in the State are Hinduism and Islam. While the Muslim population has been historically targeted in the State and equated with Bangladeshi migrants, these claims have not been verified owing to political expediency since many migrants - both legal and illegal - are on the electoral rolls. Dhubri district, which shares a border with Bangladesh, has the highest Muslim population in the State, amounting to 79.67% of the population. Those who contend that illegal migrants from Bangladesh have altered the demographic of the State claim that there was a spurt in inflow refugees after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Since there has been no comprehensive effort at demographic accounting as yet, these fears remain unsubstantiated. However, census data reveals that between 1971 and 1991, the decadal growth rate of the Muslim population in the State grew at 77.41% while the corresponding rate for Hindus stood at 41.89%, dipping behind the national average for the first time since independence. Another cause for this anomaly could be the migration of non-Assamese Hindus from the State in the aftermath of the students' movement, which was a period where the assertion of Assamese ethnicity was on the rise. The Assam movement, which culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord was led by student groups who demanded the expulsion of illegal migrants. Since 1911, there is documentary evidence that the decadal growth of population in Assam was far greater than the national average. After hitting a plateau between 1921 and 1951, the population of the State increased rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, with the population growing at 35% in each of the two decades. This period of enhanced fertility coincides with civil war in Bangladesh and the ascent of the Assamese identity among the polity. Migration As of 2001, there were 5,15,924 migrants from other states who were residing in Assam. The migrant contingent from Bihar and West Bengal accounted for 1,72,825 and 99,034 of the population of Assam. There was also a sizeable number of people from the neighbouring states of Tripura and Meghalaya who had made Assam their domicile. The district-level data from the 2001 Census reveals that districts on the western border of Assam have the highest share of migrants. Kamrup has the highest number of migrants with 1,08,217 people who hail from outside the State. The trend reverses towards the eastern part of the State, which is home to less migrants. The number of migrants from outside the country amount to 1,90,588, or 37% the number of domestic migrants according to the 2001 Census. The majority of foreigners in Assam were from Bangladesh, which accounted for 86.14% of the total number of expatriates who had made the state, legally or illegally. The district-wise distribution of foreigners reveals that those districts which border Bangladesh have the highest share of migrants from outside the country. Cachar, followed by Karimganj had the highest proportion of foreign migrants to the total population, at 1.63% and 1.61% respectively. However, contrary to expectations, Dhubri, which has the highest Muslim population in the State, has one of the smallest population of migrants from Bangladesh. In absolute terms, Nagaon had the highest tally of migrants at 26,131, with 24,258 hailing from Bangladesh. Government action In answer to Unstarred Question no. 1966 raised in the Rajya Sabha on 11th May, 2016, Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home Affairs clarified that the central government was taking measures to seal all international borders and check migration from neighbouring countries, especially Bangladesh. Rijiju stated that the Ministry classified migrants into two broad categories - those that have entered the country without valid travel documents, and those that entered on valid travel documents but were found to be overstaying after the expiry of their visa. He conceded that since the entry of "Bangladeshi nationals into the country is clandestine and surreptitious," the accuracy of the data would be compromised. According to the data presented in the Upper House, 24,364 Bangladeshi nationals were found to be overstaying, of which 6,761 were deported. This number has reduced drastically over the years. The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that 116 individuals from Bangladesh were found to be overstaying in 2015. The number of deportations stood at 474. The power to identify, detain, and deport foreign nationals who are illegally staying in India has been delegated to the State governments and the Union Territory Administrations under Section 3(2)(c) of the Foreigners Act, 1946. The National Registry of Citizens being compiled by the Assam government will seek to remove the blind spots in demographic accounting. However, the social and political ramifications could be manifold. The State government will be empowered to act against individuals who may have arrived in the country before the cut-off date set in the Assam Accord, but might not have been able to acquire documents to prove their domicile. Sujata Anandan From August 9, 2016, the Marathas held 58 mook morchas (silent protests) across all districts of Maharashtra culminating in a huge rally in Mumbai on August 9, 2017. Among the demands they presented to the government were the scrapping of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, that brought them into direct conflict with the Dalits, exemplary punishment to the three Dalit men who raped and murdered a Maratha teen in Kopardi, Ahmednagar, in July 2016, and, of course, reservations for the Marathas in government jobs. Clearly the impossible among these demands is the reservation issue, which requires a constitutional amendment and cannot be ceded by a state government. While the Supreme Court ruling on the atrocities Act has calmed the Maratha nerves somewhat, a trial court has awarded the death sentence to all three accused in the Kopardi rape case. Marathas are demanding the fast-tracking of the sentence. It is to be seen what will be the reaction to the Union Cabinets decision on Wednesday to restore the original provisions of the Act. However, it is the reservation issue which bothers them the most and the agitation for this is all set to snowball as various Maratha groups have decided a mass blockade of the entire state on Thursday, August 9. Our peaceful morchas showed them the strength of our numbers but life was not disturbed. If we get violent, they will not know what has hit them, says Karan Gaykar, a Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) leader from Nashik. For the moment, however, the MKM plans to agitate only in a peaceful manner. Since August 1, they are picketing government offices in every district, and have plans to bring the whole state to a standstill with all members of the community including children descending on highways and main roads of every village and town, along with their livestock, tools and vehicles. The planned blockade of highways is not only bound to cause huge traffic jams but will also stall the movement of goods. This, in turn, will cause enormous financial losses, especially for the private sector. More importantly, the Maratha groups have decided to stop paying taxes to the government until their demand for reservation is met in full. The Marathas are more than 30 percent of the population in Maharashtra and Kunbis, a subcaste, constitute another nine percent. If they stop paying property taxes, agricultural cess and income taxes, the revenue losses for the government are likely to be enormous. The Marathas are traditionally the ruling class of Maharashtra who have governed the state from the times of Chhatrapati Shivaji to long decades after Independence. Most chief ministers of Maharashtra were Marathas or, if not, governed with the benevolence of Maratha leaders in the state. Since 2014, when Devendra Fadnavis became chief minister and control slipped from their hands with a complete inability to extend any influence over the RSS, the Marathas have been a politically restless and disgruntled community. They have always been in conflict with two castes in the state the Brahmins and the Dalits. Economically, the Marathas are in conflict with the Dalits, who not only have access to government jobs through reservation but have also received much largesse from successive governments in terms of land for farming and industry. Most Marathas are farmers, and until a few years ago the landless farmers were able to find gainful employment on land owned by members of their own community. The agrarian crisis across India has made farming no longer a viable option. The Marathas, who until recently enjoyed power, now find themselves kowtowing to Dalits who have benefitted because of reservation and have returned to their villages as tehsildars. Many Marathas find it difficult to accept the inversion of the social pyramid and thus are now demanding reservation. They see reservations as the only means to financially uplift them and are seeking a strange kind of reverse social equalisation in comparison to the Dalits. At this juncture, there is not much the Fadnavis government can do except hope that the Marathas tire and run out of steam. Last year, while conceding to their demands, Fadnavis promised to constitute a committee to study the reservation issue. Despite several reminders from the courts, the committee has yet to submit its report. These reservations will require a constitutional amendment but giving the Marathas reservation will open a Pandoras box for the central government given that the Patidars in Gujarat, the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Jats in Haryana are demanding similar quotas for the same reasons. It is impossible for any government to grant these demands. And for the moment there seems to be no let up. rajya sabha PTI1_4_2018_000050B rajya sabha The Opposition is drafting a "protest letter" to Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu over his handling of proceedings, media reports suggest. This is the first time that such a letter is being sent to Naidu. The Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have agreed to the move, NDTV reports. "Some more parties are expected to join in," a senior opposition leader told NDTV. Opposition parties are upset because the Vice President has not allowed them to speak in the Rajya Sabha. The Opposition has even accused Naidu of being partisan by favouring the ruling BJP. Rajya Sabha proceedings have been disrupted this week over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC). The Congress, TMC and other Opposition members expressed anger over BJP President Amit Shahs remarks on the NRC. In the letter, the Opposition has accused Naidu of "not allowing any space for debate, favouring ruling party members and adjourning the house according to his whims and fancies", News 18 reports. The Opposition has also noted the suspicious manner in which replies to questions on demonetization were deleted from the Rajya Sabha website, according to NDTV. On Wednesday, Naidu had asked Amit Shah to conclude the previous days address, causing a ruckus in Rajya Sabha. The Opposition wondered why Naidu let Shah continue speaking instead of directly letting Home Minister Rajnath Singh address the House. Narendra Modi The Congress said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "definition" of disruption is that the opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees. Congress spokesperson and senior leader A M Singhvi, when asked for his comments on the prime minister's remarks about disruptions in Parliament, said the whole nation knows that the Houses were running perfectly without interruption. Modi, while speaking at an event at the central hall of Parliament, said, "Sadly, when there is noise and chaos in the House, MPs are not able to speak and the loss is of the entire nation." "Government has the least to lose due to din in Parliament. It is the country which loses the most," the prime minister said. The Congress leader said, "Indeed, last time in the last session, the sabotage and the interruption came from the government when the no-confidence was to be moved. This time there was absolutely no disruption, but the prime minister's definition of disruption is that the opposition should not raise anything with which the government disagrees." "We are raising the issue, not of NRC (Assam's National Register of Citizens), but of exclusion of genuine Indian citizens, Hindus and Muslims alike. Now, if you don't like that issue you cannot say why the House is disrupted...you did not allow proper discussion," Singhvi told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. He said the Congress was "very much for" genuine Indian citizens to be included and "non-genuine non-citizens" to be excluded in Assam's NRC, but that does not mean that "there is arbitrary exclusion". Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam do not figure in the draft NRC, which is being prepared to identify illegal migrants in the state. The second draft of the NRC was published in Guwahati earlier this week. Opposition Congress and TMC has stalled the functioning of the Rajya Sabha for two days over the issue. California-based tech giant Apple and leading global chipmaker Qualcomm could make peace and enter into an agreement to supply 5G chips for the next generation of iPhones. According to a report by DigiTimes, supply chain sources claim that the two could bury their differences in the 5G era, as Apple is in no place to risk betting on good returns by adopting non-Qualcomm modems. Both companies have been embroiled in patent battles since the beginning of 2017. In January of that year, Apple sued Qualcomm claiming that the global microchip manufacturer was taxing Apple for technological breakthroughs it had nothing to do with basically charging Apple for its own innovation. Qualcomm responded that its technology is a combination of connectivity, multimedia, GPS, imaging and much more. It said without its tech, the iPhone would not exist in the first place. Sources say Qualcomm has no intention of backing off from pursuing Apple for royalty fees that are allegedly owed to them; Apple, in turn, is fighting back by dropping Qualcomms modems for other alternatives. One such alternative chipset provider is Intel, as the company is able to better provide for long-term orders from Apple. Meanwhile, MediaTek has preponed the release of its new-gen Helio M70 5G chipset by about a year. It completed the project early by using the 7nm (nanometre) lithography process at its Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Taiwan, and it hopes to capture a deal with Apple to provide chipsets for new iPhones. The DigiTimes report points out that Apple cannot afford to sever ties with Qualcomm as the company is one of only three mobile modem chip manufacturers in the world. Global smartphone makers can barely avoid collaborating with Qualcomm, as the company has been involved in technological partnerships with several telecom operators in the world. It has also already provided a complete product design solution and chip platform for its 5G modems with trials already underway. The Baleno was not too far behind its cousin the Swift, but fell short by a few thousands. The Baleno sold close to 2 lakh units last year. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Maruti Suzuki, the countrys largest car maker, said it is on track to achieve the targeted double-digit growth this financial year despite flat sales in July. The Delhi-based maker of top-selling models like Swift, Baleno and Dzire saw a drop of 0.6 percent in domestic sales of passenger vehicles on the back of a high base of July 2017 when GST was implemented. Speaking to Moneycontrol, R S Kalsi, senior executive director, Maruti Suzuki India, said, Demand is in place and customers are coming forward. Some bit of seasonality happens in India monsoon season, cities are flooded but otherwise, the demand story is fine. Waiting period is two-three weeks on Swift and Dzire, while it is four weeks for Baleno. Production is ready to support the guidance of double-digit growth announced by the company." Companies and their dealer partners had to destock inventory during June due to GST implementation in July followed by restocking in July. This is the reason behind the high base of July 2017. The other reason behind low growth in July 2018 was the weeklong truckers strike that hit shipments of vehicles. Maruti Suzuki clocked sales of 152,427 units during last month as against 153,298 units sold in the same month last year. Hyundais sales grew by one percent while that of Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota dropped by six percent and 23 percent last month, respectively. Tata Motors and Honda remained the outliers, posting growth of 14 and 17 percent respectively, thanks to strong demand for new models such as Tata Nexon and Honda Amaze. Though growth in percentages is flat, it is a highly deceptive figure to go by. Marutis volume is more than 1.52 lakh, which is a very high volume by any standard. It is also that this growth is coming on a high base of last years July. And last year June sales were low when we sold 1.34 lakh vehicles and still we had a growth of 45.5 percent. June and July sales have to be put together to see the correct picture and the growth there comes to 17 percent," added Kalsi. This month will see the launch of the facelifted Ciaz, which will replace the existing model that competes against the Honda City and Hyundai Verna. The company had to destock the sedans inventory from its channels before dispatching the new version. Tata Motors fully Electric Bus showcased at the Auto Expo 2018 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Tata Motors, the country largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, will increase its capital expenditure (capex) by as much as 20 percent for the truck and bus division over the next two years. The company's total capex for the commercial vehicle division will rise to Rs 1,800-2,200 crore a year by the end of FY20, from the current Rs 1,500 crore per year. "The overall capex of the company is Rs 3000 crore, and for the commercial vehicle is half of that at Rs 1500 crore. This will address the needs of R&D, manufacturing process and productionisation of new products. In addition to that due to BSVI our capex is going to inch up over the next two years. It will go up by 10-20 percent," Girish Wagh, Head - Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, told Moneycontrol. Tata Motors is among a clutch of companies that are bending their backs to meet the soon-to-come Bharat Stage VI emission norms, which will be implemented at the start of FY21. The Mumbai-based automobile manufacturer said it has increased its market share significantly during the quarter gone by. "We have gained market share of 5 percent in overall CV segment in the June quarter as against the June quarter of last year," Wagh said. Tata Motors' commercial vehicles sales grew 75 percent on year to 105,610 units during the April-June quarter, much higher than the industry's growth of 52 percent. This led to an increase in the company's market share in the segment to 46 percent, 6 percentage points higher than at the end of the same quarter last year, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Furthermore, the company declared that it had bagged additional orders for supply of fully-electric buses from municipal corporations across the country. After the initial order of 200 buses from six corporations, the company bagged another order for 90 electric buses a few months ago. This makes it the recipient of the most number of orders for these buses. "We had won tenders for 6 areas where the initial order was for supplying 200 and some municipal corporations increased the order to 290. Deliveries should begin in the second half of this year," Wagh said. The CV business head also said that tackling the new axle-load norms announced by the government will be a challenge as vehicles will have to be re-engineered and re-certified to be declared fit for sale by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). "We have started with reengineering of our vehicles to comply with new norms. At the same time we have been engaging with the government as a body and requesting for whether we can defer and decide a date for the implementation. If anything has to be changed then it has to recertified as per CMVR norms," Wagh said. As the school session in the US is about to begin and students are busy in preparing for them, Google has released an ad for its Chromebook notebooks taking a dig at rivals Apple and Microsoft. The one-minute-long commercial highlights the problem of frequent errors which crop up in Windows and MacOS to prove that Chromebook laptops are better than Apple and Windows laptops. The ad is in many ways similar to Samsung ads directed at Apple in which the South Korean company digs reasons to criticise the iPhones. Recently, the company released an ad which mocked iPhone X over a slower download speed than its flagship Galaxy S9. However, the Chromebook ad also promotes its product by pointing out its features, unlike the Samsung ads. Nonetheless, the ad is also being criticised for exaggerating the errors in MacOS and Windows. The latest versions of both operating systems are less prone to displayed errors. Google has been targeting the market share of Apple and Microsoft for a while now. It has, more or less, succeeded in breaching the fort especially in student laptop segment. Chromebooks in India start from Rs 13,499. In the US, the range starts at $179. Not just Google, even traditional Windows vendors are selling ChromeOS laptops. Google recently launched a high-end Google Pixelbook with 7th Gen Intel Core and up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The laptop is priced at $999. During the June quarter, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) raised their stake in nearly 300 companies, whose stocks have fallen by up to 50 percent so far this year, data showed. The FIIs used the correction in the broader market to increase their stake in as many as 272 stocks during the quarter, according to data compiled from AceEquity. Stocks in which FIIs raised stake include Ballarpur Industries, National Fertilisers, Jindal Stainless, Oil India, ACC, Care Ratings, Century Enka, Gateway Distriparks, MCX, and Chennai Petro, among others. The good part is that foreign institutional investors turned net buyers in July. On a net basis, they bought equities worth nearly Rs 100 crore while for the year FIIs have sold equities worth over Rs 500 crore. FIIs also sold or reduced stake in as many as 285 companies during the June quarter, including Shriram EPC, GTL Infrastructure, IVRCL, Ziocom, Jaiprakash Power Ventures, Bajaj Hindustan, Quadrant Televentures, GTL Ltd, HCC, and Fortis Healthcare, among others. They held their stake constant in over 100 companies in June quarter which include names like Gujarat NRE Coke, Gujarat Foils, Sakthi Sugars, Mysore Paper, Indosolar, Zydus Wellness, NMDC, The New India Assurance, Coal India, Bharat Financial, as well as Mawana Sugars among others. The road ahead for markets Indian markets remained under pressure in the June quarter, weighed down by regulatory headwinds, fall in the rupee, rise in crude oil prices, global trade war fears, tightening of monetary policy by major central banks including RBI, and selling by foreign investors. But, after a turbulent June quarter, the bulls managed to regain control in July, thanks to stable June quarter earnings, favourable global cues, fall in crude oil and a stable currency. On the earnings front, most analysts are factoring in a double-digit recovery in earnings in FY19-20, which should further boost Indian markets. Historical data shows that there is a good correlation between earnings growth and market returns over the long term, although there could be intermittent divergences in the short term. "Markets have moved up on the back of a recovery in corporate earnings and generally good corporate results. Consumer sector has seen pick up volumes, IT has benefited from a depreciating rupee, and private financials have mostly also delivered results in-line or better than expectations," Sampath Reddy, CIO, Bajaj Allianz Life told Moneycontrol. "Over the past few years, market returns have largely been contributed by P/E expansion, as corporate earnings growth had been muted. However, going forward, we expect corporate earnings growth to recover meaningfully in FY19 and FY20, on the back of a recovery in earlier underperforming sectors. Therefore, we believe that future market returns are going to be guided by corporate earnings growth rather than PE expansion," he said. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Viswanath Pilla From opening a bank account or buying an insurance policy to fighting cancer or even buying a pair of shoes, we are increasingly being helped or influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). In Mumbai, designers Falguni and Shane Peacock used AI to create their latest collection. In Bengaluru, a startup is using AI to improve detection of breast cancer and also make treatment cheaper. And in Tata Motors plant in Pune, a robot is skilled enough to do 30 different tasks that's artificial intelligence again. The world around is changing much faster than we can imagine, and this six-part series goes behind the scenes to understand how. Today, we look at how artificial intelligence is disrupting medical diagnostics. Part I dealt with AI's impact on the auto sector while Part II on insurance segment. So far, Indian women have been fighting a losing battle against breast cancer. More women in India succumb to breast cancer than any other form of cancer. The breast cancer rate in India is as high as 25.8 per 100,000 women, while all forms of cancer together range between 95 and 104. Around 1.8 million Indian women are expected to live with breast cancer by 2020. Worse still, India has a low survival rate for breast cancer, according to a study published in Lancet earlier this year. Only 66.1 percent of Indian women diagnosed with the disease between 2010 and 2014 are surviving, while US and Australia had survival rates as high as 90 percent for the women diagnosed with the ailment, during the same period. Breast cancer experts attribute the low survival rate in India to cases being detected at the third or fourth stage where treatment is much more difficult. This happens because screening for breast cancer in Indian women is very low, and the widely used mammogram - an x-ray based imaging test--has its own limitations. Doctors typically advise women aged between 45 and 74 years, to get a mammogram done every two years as a precautionary measure. A mammogram test costs anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 4,000 depending on the diagnostic centre and the technology of x-ray machine used. But cost is just one of the many factors that discourage women from undergoing breast cancer screening. Other issues include accuracy (mammograms are more likely to miss cancers in women with dense breasts), pain during the test and cultural inhibitions. Use of X-rays is not considered safe as they cause radiation. Also mammogram isn't the most convenient test for women who have underwent mastectomy or surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. It is evident that India is losing the battle against breast cancer at the very first stage diagnosis itself. But there is cause for hope, now that machines have evolved to the point that they can perform some tasks even better than humans. The adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare is slowly on rise. At a basic level, chatbots help patients to book an appointment with a specialist doctors. Further, AI can also advise doctors on treatment plans, remind patients about their medicines, track their physical activity and monitor vital body parameters using internet of things. But one area thats ripe for disruption is diagnostics as successful diagnosis depends on recognition of patterns, mostly visual. That is where AI has an edge compared to humans. The AI edge Bengaluru-based health technology startup Nirmai has developed an AI-based kit to test for breast cancer. Founded by two former Xerox executives Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur after three and half years of research and validation Nirmai works with the help of artificial intelligence layered on top of thermal imaging. The kit is low-cost, non-invasive, portable, painless and radiation-free, addressing most of the problems that conventional mammograms grapple with. Nirmai, or Non-Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Intelligence, uses digital infrared thermal camera to capture the images of the breasts and detect minute variations in heat patterns. Cancerous cells produce more heat compared to normal cells due to excessive formation of blood vessels and high rate of metabolism. In traditional diagnosis, the thermal images are scanned by a radiologist. But here is a problem not all heat forming cells can be attributed to cancer and verification by a radiologist takes lot of time and effort. Also there are chances of false positive or missing the cancer altogether. This is where automation comes into the picture. The back-end computers based on cloud are extensively trained on heaps of mammogram data using machine learning algorithms and cloud technologies. These computers then apply artificial intelligence to analyse and interpret data and will throw up results on whether the abnormal heat patterns are related to cancerous cells. Niramais screening device can detect tumors five times smaller than what a clinical exam can catch at a much lower cost than that for a conventional mammogram. "The cost will fall further as volumes pick up," says Geetha Manjunath, CEO and CTO of Niramai. Manjunath says the product is slowly finding acceptance with doctors and hospitals as they compare the results of mammograms and "thermolytics". Manjunath calls her product as thermolytics, and claims her product has "16% higher accuracy than mammography" at one-tenth the price of mammogram machine. A mammogram machine costs around Rs 1 crore and is not portable and needs a radiologist to operate. Given social and cultural reasons, more often women find it uncomfortable to get test done by a male radiologist. Manjunath said her company is in discussions with multinational device makers to distribute their solution across India and globally in future. While Nirmai is trying to disrupt breast cancer screening, another Bengaluru-based AI startup SigTuple has built a solution that automates the job of a pathologist by studying microscopic images of blood samples, interpreting them and issuing reports. A pathologist is a doctor who specialises in interpreting laboratory tests by evaluating samples of body tissue to diagnose disease. For instance, in the most commonly-prescribed blood test or Complete Blood Count (CBC), a pathologist or technician has to view the slide under the microscope and manually count their number and analyse their morphology (structure) to find any abnormalities. CBC test is used to measure components of blood such as red blood cells, white blood cells, haemoglobin, plasma and platelets. A pathologist has to review every slide under the microscope before giving out the report. SigTuple's solution automates that process all it needs is a high-resolution image of blood sample and its AI technology does the rest. "Since a human is reviewing the samples under a microscope - the outcome of the analysis is the function of his or her skill sets, experience and even the state of mind. That is the reason why we see lot of variation in reports from one lab to another, said Rohit Kumar Pandey, CEO and co-founder of SigTuple. We have developed AI models which can itself do this entire analysis, and present virtual report which the pathologist using their handheld device can review and approve the report sitting anywhere in the globe, Pandey said. SigTuple study found out that for every 100 manually-analysed reports pathologists differed on their conclusion in 33 percent of the cases. The error rates were sometimes as high as 60-70 percent, while mean average error for SigTuple AI solution is less than 3 percent, much below the acceptable range of 7-8 percent. Its not just the accuracy alone the AI solution unlocks the capacity of pathological laboratory by five times. Typically, a pathologist takes 5-10 min to analyse a slide, at best he can review 100 slides in a day. The SigTuple solution now helps him to review at least 500 slides. Pandey says SigTuple is not a threat to pathologists but enables them to be more efficient and productive. There are around 90,000 pathologists eligible to sign a report, and close to 300,000 path labs in the country there is a clear shortage of medical experts and scaling of tests with existing resources is the need of the hour, Pandey added. Founded in 2015 by three former American Express executives Pandey, Apruv Anand and Tathagato Rai Dastidar, SigTuple so far raised around $6 million from investors including the likes of Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. The startup now looks to commercialise its AI solution. Brining down medical costs To be sure it's not just Nirmai or SigTuple, startups like Ten3T (portable, easy-to-use electrocardiograms) and iNICU (child health monitoring), among others are developing disruptive diagnostic solutions that will significantly lower costs, while making physical distance a non-issue. They and others in this area do this via cloud-based linkages to hospitals and clinics, chatbots, smart apps and AI-enabled data analytics. "This means that sensors, real-time tracking and analytics will enable us to take pre-emptive charge of our own health, helping us to live more aware, healthier, longer lives," said Manish Singhal founding partner of pi Ventures. Pi Ventures invests in early stage startups using artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT to solve real world problems in healthcare. The VC firm has invested in Nirmai, SigTuple and Ten3T. Even big hospitals are now adopting artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare delivery. Manipal Hospitals for instance has been using IBMs Watson an artificial intelligence based computing platform to support its cancer specialists for last two years. Watson analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers on cancer treatment. Oncologists in India and across the globe are struggling to keep up with the large volume of research, medical records and clinical trials. Further, doctors face gruelling battle to stay up to date about best practices in treatment and care management. It's early days but there is a bright future for the AI, says Ranjan Pai, the Chairman of Manipal Hospitals IBM Watson done it for cancer care, there are few other areas where we are talking, Pai said. Pai indicated that digital pathology and radiology are other areas where he sees lot scope for artificial intelligence based application. We look at it from doctor-patient perspective, its utility, cost benefit ratio, effectiveness the cost benefits and how does it work, before embarking on any artificial intelligence solution. Indias largest healthcare provider Apollo Hospitals isnt far behind. Apollo partnered with Microsoft last month to develop and deploy new machine learning models to predict patient risk for heart disease and assists doctors on treatment plans. The team is already working on an artificial intelligence -powered Cardio API (application program interface) platform. Apollo also recently signed up with IBM to access Watson across its hospital network to aid its cancer specialists. Access to data Arup Roy, Research Vice President at research and consulting firm Gartner says the big challenge in India in terms of leveraging AI in health is having data in the digital format. Hospitals need to keep medical history (in a digital format) for AI to be successful. The lack of proper sophistication in hospital information systems is a challenge, Roy says. Pai concurs with Roy. All these things work better if you have more and more data, Pai says. His company now stores a lot of data on cloud which is accessible. With exception of a few large metros and tier-2 cities - India has been facing acute shortage of healthcare infrastructure from hospitals to human resources like specialist doctors, radiologists and paramedics, while the costs of healthcare shoots up. According to government data India has 0.6 doctors and 0.8 nurses per thousand of population, while the number of beds per thousand stands at 1.5. World Health Organisation prescribes 1 doctor and 3 nurses per thousand population and 5 beds for 1,000 people. Essentially, what we need is to fill the gap between the needs of the plenty and the services of the few. In my view, artificial intelligence (AI) has the capability to enable solutions that form the critical middle layer of accessmaking healthcare accessible and affordable to a large population base at the same quality level irrespective of peoples social standing, Singhal of Pi Ventures said. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he looked forward to meeting Kim Jong Un soon and thanked the North Korean leader for sending the suspected remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War back to the United States. "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action," Trump wrote in a Twitter message. "Also, thank you for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!", Trump said, without elaborating. The pledge to return the remains of U.S. soldiers was made during a landmark summit between Trump and Kim in June in Singapore, where North Korea committed to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Kim sent a letter to Trump in mid-July in which the North Korean leader said he hoped there would be a second meeting between the two but it was unclear if that was the "nice letter" to which Trump referred on Thursday. Trump also took to Twitter earlier to praise an "incredibly beautiful ceremony" in Hawaii, where Vice President Mike Pence helped welcome the remains to the United States. The United States said during a solemn ceremony on Wednesday the human remains presumably included Americans killed in the Korean War and thanked North Korea for making good on its pledge to hand them over. The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the Singapore summit and was the most concrete agreement reached by the two sides so far. "I know that President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim has kept his word, and we see today this tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula," said Pence, whose father fought in the Korean War. More than 7,700 U.S. troops remain unaccounted for from the Korea War. About 5,300 were lost in what is now North Korea. Other countries under the command of the United Nations also lost troops that are still unaccounted for, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Experts say positively identifying the decades-old remains could take anywhere from days to decades. Still, an initial field forensic review indicated the "remains are what North Korea said they were", John Byrd, director of analysis for the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters at an air base in South Korea before the remains were flown to Hawaii. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern smiles as she answers a question during a media conference in Sydney, Australia, November 5, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray - RC19D437A6D0 New Zealand Prime Minister and new mum Jacinda Ardern, only the second world leader to give birth while in office, resumed her duties today, ending six weeks of maternity leave. The 38-year-old has opted to work from home in Auckland until the weekend when she will relocate to the capital Wellington. In a Facebook message last weekend, Ardern said the family were doing "really, really well, still we have absolutely no routine to speak of". "Life is obviously going to be a little bit different," she added as she rocked her daughter Neve in a bassinet. Ardern's partner Clarke Gayford, who hosts a television fishing show, plans to be a stay-at-home dad and the main caregiver for their daughter. The birth capped an eventful year for Ardern, who became prime minister in October just three months after taking charge of the Labour Party as it languished in the polls. While she announced her pregnancy five months before the birth, Benazir Bhutto - the first world leader to have a child while in office - told almost no one she was pregnant until her daughter was born in January 1990. Unlike Ardern, who was able to take maternity leave, the Pakistani prime minister underwent a caesarean section and then returned to work. During Ardern's absence, her deputy Winston Peters led the country. She resumed control when he left overnight for an ASEAN foreign ministers summit in Singapore. Ardern said she will be "hitting the ground running" when she turns up at the office on Monday. Her first week back would focus on issues that "really matter to me", including mental health, the environment, trade-related affairs and an "employment-related announcement". With the veteran 73-year-old Peters at the helm, affairs of state ticked over quietly although business unease continues to quietly simmer in the background with a growing number of surveys showing a lack of confidence in the centre-left government. Ardern has said she is keen to work with business leaders and has been active in steps to rescue the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, with her government also pushing an aggressive trade agenda. In an emotional and solemn ceremony, the remains of dozens of presumed casualties from the Korean War were escorted by military honour guards onto US soil, 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The US military believes the bones are those of US servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the US on behalf of South Korea during the war. What is expected to be an exhaustive analysis and identification process will soon begin. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Vice President Mike Pence said at a ceremony welcoming the remains, which were flown from South Korea earlier in the day. "Today, our boys are coming home." Each container was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. They set them gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Adm Phil Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes. Sixteen other United Nations member countries fought alongside U.S. service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said some remains could turn out to be those of missing from other nations. He said last week that the return was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." North Korea handed over the remains last week. A US military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases. Hanwell Kaakimaka's uncle, John Kaakimaka, is among those who never came home. "We've been watching the news, and we've been hopeful that my uncle is among the remains," he said, adding that it could bring his family some closure. His uncle, who was from Honolulu, was a corporal in the 31st Infantry Regiment of the Army's 7th Infantry Division. He went missing on or about December 2, 1950. Hanwell Kaakimaka said the story he heard from his dad was that his uncle was injured and was being brought back from the front when Chinese troops overran the area and attacked the convoy. The Kaakimaka family provided DNA samples to the US military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency over a decade ago, hoping officials would be able to make a match. The agency identifies remains of servicemen killed in past conflicts. It typically uses bones, teeth and DNA to identify remains along with any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. Before the remains were put on military planes bound for Hawaii, hundreds of US and South Korean troops gathered at a hanger at the Osan base in South Korean for the repatriation ceremony. The repatriation is a breakthrough in a long-stalled US effort to obtain war remains from North Korea. There are 7,699 US service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. The bones' return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Trump thanked Kim for the return. During the summit, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal US concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of US security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged US plans to attack it. Electing a successor to Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain could be delayed up to September as the electoral college, which has to choose the next head of state, is yet to be constituted after the July 25 general elections, according to media reports. President Hussain's five-year term is set to expire on September 9. According to the Constitution, the presidential election must be held at least a month prior to the expiry of the incumbent's term, which in this case would be August 8, DawnNewsTV reported. With just over a month to go until the expiry of the President's tenure, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) expects the next presidential election to face delays, it quoted a source from the poll body as saying. The president is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. Voting is held through a secret ballot. Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerged as the single largest party in the general elections on July 25, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies. Khan has to seek support from other political parties and independents to form the next federal government, expected to be formed around August 11. Since neither the National Assembly nor the provincial assemblies are functional as yet - and will likely not be up and running until at least August 10, holding a presidential election on August 8 will be nearly out of the question, the ECP source said. Additionally, if the general and presidential elections fall in close proximity to each other, the Constitution requires that the presidential election be held a month after the general election - which in this case would mean August 25, the report said. Since the ECP is legally bound to issue a schedule for the presidential election at least 15 days in advance - Aug 10 in this case - the incomplete status of the electoral college means that a schedule is unlikely to be issued by this date, putting the August 25 date in jeopardy as well, the report said. Therefore, the ECP source said, the commission would likely take cover of a constitutional provision and hold the election in early September, the report said. The ECP will issue the final schedule for the presidential elections after the national and provincial legislatures have formed and taken their oaths, Geo News reported. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday ordered and oversaw the destruction of luxury cars and motorcycles worth $5.5 million. A CNN video shows a bulldozer crushing 76 illegal cars and motorcycles, as Duterte watches on. The cars include Lamborghinis, Mercedes-Benzes, Ferraris, Porsches and many more imported vehicles. Pres. Duterte witnesses the condemnation and public destruction of contraband luxury vehicles and motorbikes at Port Irene in Sta. Ana, Cagayan on July 30, 2018. #TatakNgPagbabago pic.twitter.com/QIDv4Eh2q0 Presidential Comm (@pcoogov) July 31, 2018 government statement said that the vehicles were only a part of a larger haul of 800 that were illegally imported into the Philippines. This exhibition was part of Dutertes ongoing war against corruption and smuggling and it was not the first time that he ordered the destruction of luxury vehicles. In February, he oversaw the destruction of 30 luxury cars and explained that auctioning off the same cars would allow crime syndicates to bid for them under false identities. He also said that he wanted the Philippines to become an environment where businesses could thrive and where the economy can absorb the populations productivity. But in order for the country to be viable for business, law and order should be established first. Since he was elected in 2016, Duterte has waged a brutal war on drugs, journalist purging and government official dismissals. He cites his fight against corruption as a justification for his violent approach and has also vowed to step down if he fails to put an end to corruption. Shehbaz Sharif, PML(N) leader, Pakistan Pakistan's anti-corruption body has summoned the beleaguered chief of the PML-N party and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif to appear before it on August 20 in a housing scandal case, according to a media report. Shehbaz, the younger brother of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is already under pressure after his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party failed to return to power in Islamabad and looks certain to yield to Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the crucial Punjab provinicial assembly. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif in relation to the Ashiana housing scandal, Geo News reported. He has been ordered to appear before the accountability bureau on August 20 for the hearing of Ashiana housing scandal as well as the power company case. Shehbaz, 66, has already appeared before the NAB in the case while former Lahore Development Authority chairman Ahad Cheema is on judicial remand after having been arrested over the case, the report said. Last month the accountability bureau arrested senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad in various corruption cases, including the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case. Quoting sources, the report said that Shehbaz was summoned by the NAB after revelations made by Fawad during interrogation. According to NAB officials, Fawad wrongfully awarded the Rs 14 billion Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme's contract to 'favourites', illegally ordered the shifting of nine Compressed Natural Gas stations and also worked in a private bank from 2005 to 2006 without official permission. Fawad has served as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's principal secretary. Sharif was sentenced by a NAB court to 10 years in jail in a corruption case over the family's ownership of four luxury flats in London. Fawad was removed from the post of principal secretary on June 1 this year and was appointed director general of Civil Services Academy, Lahore. The accused bureaucrat was also being probed by the NAB for possession of assets beyond known sources of income, the report said. Foreign exchange earnings totaled USD 24 billion in January-October 2019, with a growth (year-on-year) of two percent. Amidst tensions in bilateral ties, the US Congress has passed a defence spending bill capping its security-related aid to Pakistan at USD 150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than USD one billion per year. The National Defense Authorisation Act-2019 (NDAA-19), however, removes certain conditions like action against Haqqani Network orthe Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) -- as was the case in the past few years for disbursement of US aid to Pakistan. The Senate passed the conference report on NDAA-19 by 87 to 10 votes yesterday afternoon. The House of Representatives had passed the conference report last week. It now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump's assent. "The legislation reduces the total amount of funds provided for reimbursement to Pakistan to USD 150 million. This is a significant reduction from the USD 700 million that was authorised through Coalition Support Fund (CSF) last year," Anish Goel, who was part of Barack Obama's White House National Security Council, told PTI. However, in doing so, the legislation gets rid of the certification requirements for Pakistan's action against the Haqqani Network and it also gets rid of the authority to reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism, he said. "Hence, the Pentagon no longer has any tools to put pressure on Pakistan to undertake counter-terrorism activities or action against the Haqqani Network," Goel, who till recently was a senior staffer in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. During the previous Obama administration, Pakistan used to get nearly 1.2 billion aid from the US under the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 also known as the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act. US President Donald Trump since assuming office has been tough on Pakistan over its inaction against terror groups. Trump in August last year unveiled his new South Asia policy and asked Pakistan to do more against such groups. The US in January suspended more than USD 1.15 billion security assistance to Pakistan, accusing it of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take "decisive actions" against them. The US has also voiced its disapproval of growing Chinese involvement in Pakistan, adding to tensions in bilateral ties. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday had cautioned the IMF against a possible fresh bailout for Pakistan's new government to pay off Chinese lenders who have invested in the strategic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Joshua White, who was also a part of Obama's White House National Security Council team and worked on Pakistan, said this year's defense legislation significantly reduces the amount of security assistance that Pakistan can theoretically receive outside of traditional Foreign Military Financing. "It makes Pakistan ineligible for Coalition Support Funds (CSF), but adds Pakistan to a list of countries that can receive a related form of assistance designed to help partner nations bolster border security," White told PTI and observed, "This legislation is a mixed blessing for Pakistan." "On one hand, these new border security funds will be capped at USD 150 million per year, significantly below historical levels of CSF. On the other hand, the legislation does away with the onerous reporting requirements and certifications that have, in practice, made it difficult for Pakistan to receive such funds," he said. The former White House official noted that it is important to consider this legislation in the current political context. The Trump administration has effectively frozen security assistance to Pakistan, and this new legislation will do nothing in the short-term to change that, he said. "It does, however, mean that if the administration decides to resume some form of modest security assistance in the future, it will be authorised by the Congress to do so without having to produce detailed reports and make difficult certifications regarding Pakistan's support vis-a-vis the Haqqani Network and other threats to the United States," White said. "Over the longer term, that could prove to be a win for Pakistan," he said, while noting that in theory, the new funding authority does not permit counter-terrorism assistance, but only assistance related to border security. "In practice, these terms are so malleable that I do not expect that the Pentagon would find itself very limited as to the kind of support it could provide," White said. Akshay Venkatesh (Picture credit: International Mathematical Union) Renowned Indian-Australian mathematician, Akshay Venkatesh, was announced at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union in Rio de Janeiro as one of the four winners of the prestigious Fields Medal for the year 2018. Apart from Venkatesh, Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin; Germany's Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli, an Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich have also won the Fields Medal that is touted as the Nobel for Mathematics. The medals along with, a 15,000 Canadian dollar cash prize, are awarded every four years to the most promising mathematicians under the age of 40 recognising outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement. In 2014, another Indian-origin mathematician - Manjul Bhargava - was awarded the Fields Medal for his contribution in number theory. As per the International Mathematical Unions website, Akshay Venkatesh has received the medal for his synthesis of analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory, which has resolved long-standing problems in areas such as the equidistribution of arithmetic objects. 36-year-old, Akshay Venkatesh was born in New Delhi. He currently teaches at the Stanford University. From being a child prodigy to becoming one of the most renowned researchers in the field of mathematics, Venkatesh's journey has been full of achievements and accolades. He moved to Perth, Australia, with his parents when he was 2. He participated in physics and math Olympiads the premier international competitions for high school students and won medals in the two subjects at ages 11 and 12, respectively. He finished high school when he was 13 and went to the University of Western Australia, graduating with first class honours in mathematics in 1997, at the age of 16. In 2002, he earned his PhD at the age of 20. Since then, he has gone from holding a post-doctoral position at MIT to becoming a Clay Research Fellow and, now a professor at Stanford University. Venkatesh has worked at the highest level in number theory, arithmetic geometry, topology, automorphic forms and ergodic theory. His research has been recognized with many awards, including the Ostrowski Prize, the Infosys Prize, the Salem Prize and Sastra Ramanujan Prize. The prestigious award was inaugurated in 1932 at the request of Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, who ran the 1924 Mathematics Congress in Toronto. (With inputs from PTI) For many people, chocolate is the number one guilty pleasure - so this job could be perfect for them! Ferrero Rocher are on the hunt for 60 chocolate tasters to head over to Europe to taste test the ingredients in the chocolate treat to make sure the chocolate continues to be of a high standard. The job is paid but will only give you 3 months worth of work. Although the job isn't fulltime, you will have to go to Europe for it, so it isn't all bad. You don't need any previous experience or knowledge of chocolate making as they'll teach you that on the job, but what you will need is an empty stomach to eat a lot of chocolate. So if you're getting a bit sick of your current 9 - 5 and want a change, you can apply online here. As Facebook, its users, and regulators all grapple with the firm's data-privacy and content-oversight issues, the bulk of fund investors have gotten caught in the sell-off. Facebook (FB) is the seventh most widely held stock among mutual funds, according to Morningstar data. It is in all of the main U.S. and global equity indexes that are so popular with investors. It is held by all but one of the 20 largest U.S. large-growth funds and by 15 of the 20 largest U.S. large-blend funds. By contrast, less than half of the large-growth and large-blend sustainable funds hold Facebook. Sustainalytics issued a report in early June assessing how seven tech companies--the so-called FAANG+ stocks--are positioned to handle data-privacy concerns. (These stocks are Facebook, Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX), Alphabet [Google] (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Twitter (TWTR).) It singled out Facebook as being the most at-risk because the firm's advertising-based business model is vulnerable to breaches in user privacy, and it has had relatively weak data-management programs in place relative to the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft. In addition, as evidence mounts that Facebook's platform was deliberately used by Russians to disseminate disinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the firm faces pressure from stakeholders for better content oversight, transparency, and improved policies on what type of content is permitted and promoted. Some investors, including environmental, social, and governance asset manager Trillium Asset Management, have called for Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to step down as board chairman to focus on the chief executive role. Investors have also called for the company to dissolve its dual-class stock structure, which gives a significant majority of voting rights to Zuckerberg. Sustainable funds available to U.S. investors appear to have considerably less exposure to Facebook than funds overall. Morningstar categorizes Facebook as a large-cap growth stock. Large-growth indexes had been weighting Facebook at between 3% and 4% of assets, depending on the index, as of midyear. Nearly three fourths (73%) of funds in the large-growth Morningstar Category had positions in the stock as of their most-recent publicly available portfolios. But among sustainable large-growth funds available to U.S. investors, more than half (10 of 18) did not own the stock. Of the eight that did, four were underweight. Facebook is also a top holding in broad market indexes of U.S. stocks. Its midyear weight in the S&P 500 was 2% of assets. Nearly 60% of funds in the large-blend Morningstar Category had positions in Facebook in their most recently released portfolios. Among sustainable large-blend funds, more than half (21 of 38) did not own Facebook. Of the 17 that did, 13 were underweight and the other four were close to market weight. Only two of the 10 largest large-cap sustainable funds hold Facebook. The following is our latest Fund Analyst Report for American Funds American Mutual Fund (AMRMX). Morningstar Premium Members have access to full analyst reports such as this for more than 1,000 of the largest and best mutual funds. Not a Premium Member? Gain full access to our analyst reports and advanced tools immediately when you try Morningstar Premium free for 14 days. American Funds American Mutuals effective balance between capital preservation and growth merits a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold. The funds approach is old, but not outdated. Since its 1950 inception, the fund has focused on dividend-paying industry leaders while avoiding firms that derive most of their revenue from alcohol or tobacco products. The alcohol and tobacco component of the mandate anticipated by decades the proliferation of socially conscious strategies; and while it limits the funds opportunity set, it hasnt impaired long-term results. Risk management company Assurant has agreed to sell its Assurant Mortgage Solutions business to Xome, a Texas-based provider of technology and data products for homebuyers, sellers, real estate agency and mortgage origination and servicing companies. The sale, which closed Wednesday, encompassed all of the Mortgage Solutions business, including title, valuation, mortgage technology and field services. Nearly all of Assurant Mortgage Solutions employees will join Xome. Successful execution of our profitable growth strategy requires us to align our resources with our best opportunities, said Michael Campbell, president of Assurant Global Home. Our sale of the Mortgage Solutions business is driven by our ongoing desire to focus on lines of business where we have leadership positions, as well as to strengthen our offerings and capabilities in lender-placed homeowners insurance, multifamily housing, and the connected home. Assurant will work closely with Xome to ensure a smooth transition of the business for its clients, employees and business partners. This settlement holds Wells Fargo responsible for actions that contributed to the financial crisis, said Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. It sends a strong message that the department is protecting the nations economy and financial markets against fraud. Prosecutors alleged that in 2005, Wells Fargo began an initiative to double production of its subprime and Alt-A loans. The bank loosened its requirements for originating stated-income loans. in order to evaluate the strength of these loans, the bank subjected a representative sample of them to 4506-T testing. The testing involves comparing a borrowers tax transcripts with the income stated on the borrowers loan application. The bank implemented the testing on two of its loan programs and found that more than 70% of the sampled loans had an unacceptable variance (greater than a 20% discrepancy between the borrowers stated income and the income reflected on tax forms). The average variance was about 65%. The bank then conducted further internal testing to determine if plausible explanations could be found for the unacceptable variances. For nearly half of the stated-income loans Wells Fargo tested, no plausible explanation could be found. The results of the testing were disclosed in reports distributed widely among employees, the US Attorneys Office said. One Wells Fargo risk management employee called the test results astounding, but said that instead of reacting in a way consistent with what is being reported (Wells Fargo) is expanding (stated-income) programs in all business lines. Prosecutors said that despite its knowledge that a substantial portion of its stated-income loans contained misrepresentations, Wells Fargo failed to disclose that information. Instead, the bank allegedly reported to investors phony debt-to-income rations in connection with the loans it sold. Authorities also said that Wells Fargo insulated itself from the risks of its stated-income loans by screening out many of the loans from its own portfolio, and by limiting its liability for the accuracy of the loans. The banking giant sold at least 73,529 stated income loans that were included in RMBS between 200 and 2007, and almost half of the loans have since defaulted. Wells Fargo has not admitted liability in the case. The Irvine workshop hosted around 400 guests, and AIME built upon the energy and excitement for the Denver workshop, which hosted around 300 guestswhich is considered a good turnout for that market. Although organizers were expecting brokers from within the local areas, the events were open to all AIME members, some of whom traveled from other states to attend. Part of AIMEs mission is to provide resources, networking opportunities, and avenues for sharing best practices to independent brokers across the country. In a way, these workshops and events are a kind of safe space where they can discuss both successes and pain points. We have really been breaking down that perception that theyre in competition with each other, Solomkin said. Theyre not; theres plenty of business to go around, and weve really been emphasizing that and creating a community instead. In addition to providing industry insights and hearing from industry leaders, AIME members also like the fact that the organization provides tools to grow a small businessalthough AIME members have mortgage broker shops of various sizes, most of them are small business owners. AIME sees it as a strength that they understand the unique challenges that small businesses face, and they are able to offer some resources to support the small business owners, especially in regards to technology. A lot of them are either not technology savvy or cant afford some of the bigger platforms that bigger players are using, so in providing that education and resource and tools to use more advanced technology, were really leveling the playing field with everyone else, Solomkin said. Route 285 is the formal designation for one of the main roads used to carry supplies to and from the oilfields of West Texas. Locals call it something else: Death Highway. Last year, 93 people died in accidents involving trucks just on the Texas-side of the Permian Basin, or 43 percent more than in 2012. Want to know how many fatalities to expect moving forward? Keep an eye on the price of oil. The number of traffic deaths involving big trucks shrank in 2015, when oil prices started to collapse. They surged last year as crude rallied, boosting the need for more and more truckers to manhandle the huge 18-wheelers that can carry anything from water and sand, to steel pipes and fuel. DRIVERS WANTED: Shortage of truckers crimps Permian's boom Route 285, which runs through Pecos, Texas, and Carlsbad, New Mexico, may be the deadliest highway in the United States," said Ralph McIngvale, a partner at Permian Lodging, which builds and runs so-called man camps in the region. "Youve got to be very defensive. Youve got to look as much in your rear-view window as your front windshield." Drivers are so in demand in the basin that one can easily rake in $120,000 a year, Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said in an interview. But that comes with its problems. "Some of them are speeding, some of them are too tired to be driving, but theyre making money," he said. "Some of these guys are just trying to make as much money as they can." James "Whiskey Stroup, 57, is an experienced trucker. He pilots sand trucks now, but in the past hes also worked as a trainer of new drivers. He knows to get the rest he needs, he said, but not everyone does. When youve been in the oilfield for ten to 11 days, working 14 hours a day, you just become so tired that youre not thinking straight, he said in an interview. Youre just brain dead, because youre living off four to six hours of sleep. REPORT: Crashes more common in rural counties where oil well work increases truck traffic While Stroups a veteran, a great many of the drivers are young, fearless and generally inexperienced. Thats why oilfield service companies look to trainers like Jeffrey Walker, coordinator of transportation training at New Mexico Junior College, to whip drivers into shape. Walkers program gives three-week long sessions, after which drivers take a three-part test to get their Commercial Drivers License. The pool of drivers with at least two to three years of oilfield experience with the big rigs "has dwindled to nothing," Walker said. Companies now are "substituting formal training for experience." The worst of the driving stems from over-sized trucks being on roads that werent designed for the amount of traffic theyre now carrying, Walker said in an interview. In New Mexico, where Walker lives, drivers hit sinkholes that can run several feet wide, a phenomenon many people blame on fracking, Walker said. And finding funds to repair the road is a "never-ending battle," he said. The Texas Department of Public Safety is tackling the problem, Sergeant Oscar Villarreal said in an interview. Speed limits that were as high as 75 miles per hour have been lowered and the department has more troopers to monitor roads. But with the number of drivers growing so rapidly, he said, theres only so much they can do. TOXIC MIX: As dollars flow into Permian Basin, dangerous substance abuse increases Texas "cant build new roads or widen roads overnight," Villarreal said. "Those things take time. Weve had significant growth in the area" and "the roads dont have time to keep up." At the same time, the trucks used to carry oilfield supplies arent always properly maintained, according to Walker. "The upkeep on an oilfield truck is a lot more than an on-the-road truck," Walker said. "Little things end up turning into big things." Local drivers are very aware of the risks, according to Angie Sims, a business development manager for Airswift, a workforce services company. We travel on some very busy oilfield roads, she said in an interview. Thats the most dangerous part of our jobs. Its not a mythical region where ships unexplainedly disappear, but the Permian triangle can make oil industry profits and jobs appear or disappear. The triangle is three crude trunk line routes that extend from Midland to Cushing, Oklahoma, from Midland to the Gulf Coast and from Cushing to the Gulf Coast. The fiscal health of these three trading hubs influence crude prices and the interplay between U.S. crude that is sold domestically or exported. Those three points are where people look, Sandy Fielden, director, oil and products research at Morningstar, said in a phone interview from his Austin office. Theres clearly linkage between those three points. The markets are paying huge attention to those three points. But now, theres a transition going on, he said. Rather than moving from Midland to Cushing, Permian crude is moving directly to the Gulf Coast or through Cushing to the Gulf Coast, he said. Exports are increasingly a part of the process of setting prices, Fielden said. What we see is every new barrel of crude has no domestic market. Refiners are importing the heavier crudes the Gulf Coast uses, and the light barrels get exported. If it doesnt go onto the export market, like 2014 when there was too much price reduction, it goes into storage. Fielden said Cushing has served as a balancing mechanism of sorts for the three legs of the Permian triangle. It stores crude not only from the Permian Basin but from other areas, such as the Anadarko Basin, the Bakken in North Dakota, the Rocky Mountains and Canada. That crude is then shipped between refining markets on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest. But in recent months that balancing mechanism has come unbalanced, he said. In the last two months weve seen Cushing going short storage is reaching the Gulf Coast, Fielden said. He cites Energy Information Administration data that puts Cushing crude inventories at 23.7 million barrels as of July 20, just 4.9 million barrels above the 10-year low point for that time of year. He said Cushing inventories have fallen almost continually since peaking at 69 million barrels in April 2017. There are several factors behind the inventory decline. Flows leaving Cushing are higher than crude flows coming into Cushing, and refineries are processing more crude than usual and drawing inventory from Cushing. The third factor is that Cushing crude is in demand at Gulf Coast refineries or the export market. Since June, as a result of the storage drawdown, Midwest refiners have bid up Cushing prices relative to Houston, narrowing the West Texas Intermediate Cushing-Houston differential to less than $2 a barrel, removing the incentive to ship crude from Cushing to Houston. Pricing signals now encourage Permian crude flowing between Midland and Cushing to stay in Cushing, Fielden said. Higher prices should also be bringing incremental barrels into Cushing from North Dakota and the Rockies. We expect the WTI Houston premium over Cushing to remain narrow until the Midwest supply equilibrium is restored and for Cushing demand to slow the pace of Gulf Coast exports in coming months. Mella McEwen is the Oil Editor and covers the latest business and energy news. You can read more from her here. | mmcewen@mrt.com | At 18 months old, one little San Antonio girl already has her tastes figured out Whataburger and H-E-B. Adelyn Gonzales' love for the two Texas institutions was on full display in a series of H-E-B- and Whataburger-themed photos taken by her aunt, Abbey Lopez, of AbbeyLee Photography. Though the infancy of Adelyn's infatuation coincided with her actual infancy, her allegiance to the two brands is full grown. Two men from Marshall, Texas, were arrested in Splendora early Wednesday morning, accused of allegedly transporting 12 bottles of Promethazine with Codeine cough syrup, Xanax and Loracet with Hydrocodone. Roy Hale Richardson Jr., 38, and Bruce Edward Powell III, 25, were arrested by the Splendora Police Department and remain in the Montgomery County Jail on charges of felony manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance. Bail was set at $100,000 each. PETERSBURG Charles Dickens Victorian-era novel Oliver Twist tells the tale of an orphan born into a workhouse and sold into an abusive apprenticeship before managing to escape and befriend a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the old man Fagin. Oliver! is Lionel Barts musical take on the Dickens story and follows a similar path, though director Mark Wheeler is hoping his version is a bit less bleak and a bit more family friendly. The production opens Friday at Theatre in the Park at Lincolns New Salem State Historic Site. When the original came out, it was kind of dark, Wheeler said of the musical. I remember doing this show back in the 80s myself. Weve taken that tone and lightened it up a bit. Its more of a family production. Lightening up a somewhat dark play about abused and impoverished children in Victorian England, perhaps surprisingly, wasnt that hard, Wheeler said. Instead, Wheeler said, characters names alone bring quite a bit of humor to the show. The workhouse (warden), by virtue of his name, Mr. Bumble, it was always written that way, Wheeler said, noting that one expects the character to be a bumbling fool. What we try to do is develop over-the-top characters, so kids of all ages can come and not get frightened by it, he said. While many might think an actor is limited in his choices to the ones already made by the script, thats not really true. Any one actor can have multiple ways of portraying a particular character, he said. What weve allowed the actors to do is take it in their own spin, he said. The humor his cast has found in the show isnt new, Wheeler said. It was already written that way, he said. Its just how the actors (portray it) and make that character something relatable today. Wheeler, his cast and crew also have lightened up the play in other ways, without losing the heart of the story, he said. We looked at ways to freshen up the music, he said. Rearranged it, added steam whistles and deep tones. Sounds that werent in the original production. And rather than Victorian-era rags, the costumes and set, for that matter have a Victorian steampunk theme. Its the clash of the Industrial era and the Victorian era, Wheeler said. The costuming reflects that, the set design reflects that. It typically wouldnt (be part) of the time Oliver was conceived, but it doesnt really take away from the story at all. The musics still the same, the story is still the same. Theres just a different type of costuming, clashes between Victorian and steampunk. Its a whimsical approach. Theatre in the Park will stage Oliver! at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Aug. 9-11 at Lincolns New Salem State Historic Site in Petersburg. Tickets, which are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and $12 for children 12 and under, are available online at theatreinthepark.net or by calling 217-632-5440. A preshow also will be presented at 7 p.m. nightly. Director Mark Wheeler will talk about the production during each preshow, which also will feature other entertainment. That schedule includes Manning and Lowder on Friday, Blessed Sacrament Youth Choir Jubilate on Saturday and Menard County Singers on Sunday. Next weekends preshow performers include Kris Olson on Aug. 9, Edward Donathan on Aug. 10 and Seraphim on Aug. 11. Angela Bauer can be reached at 217-408-2057. By Aug. 02, 2018 Events of the celebration are organized by the W.C. Young Community Center. They include an opening ceremony, a back-to-school dance, the Annual Emancipation Dance, a Womens Empowerment Lawn Party at the Hotel Metropolitan, the Emancipation Celebration Breakfast, and more. The theme of this year's celebration is The Year of the Woman. The Parks & Recreation Department invites everyone to Wilson Stage on Paducahs riverfront, Thursday, August 2nd for another free Riverfront Concert Series featuring Jon Duo from 5 - 6 pm, and Bizz & Everyday People from 6 until approximately 8:30 pm. The concerts are partnerships of local and/or up-and-coming artists taking the stage for the first hour starting at 5 pm. The nationally-known artists entertain the crowds starting at 6 pm. A variety of beverages are available for purchase at the concerts. This is the fifth year for the Riverfront Concert Series. The annual Emancipation Celebration Parade will begin at 11 am on Saturday, August 4th. Parade line-up will begin an hour earlier at 10. The parade, which typically attracts nearly 60 entries, will start at Walter Jetton Boulevard and Washington Street, travel south along Walter Jetton Boulevard, and finish at Robert Coleman Park. Festivities and vendors will be at Robert Coleman Park after the parade and throughout the afternoon and early evening. Since activities and vendors will be at Robert Coleman Park on Friday, August 3rd and Saturday, August 4th after the parade, several of the streets around the park will be closed for safety reasons. Caldwell and Husbands Streets between 9th Street and Walter Jetton Boulevard will be closed to traffic while activities are underway. Ninth Street also will be closed between Husbands and Caldwell Streets. For details about the 8th of August Emancipation Celebration activities, contact the W.C. Young Community Center at 270-444-6583. A full events schedule is posted on the Citys website below: PADUCAH - The annual 8th of August Emancipation Celebration began Wednesday and continues through the 8th. On the Net: Kristine Schneller of iFoster and TC Supervisor Randy Hanvelt at foster youth laptop event View Photos Sonora, CA Nearly two dozen foster youth are receiving a valuable tool that researchers say can help boost their academic performance, social connectedness, and life satisfaction as they prepare to step out on their own. The recent gifting of laptop computers is part of a multi-agency effort in partnership with the Truckee-based national nonprofit iFoster. Heading up the distribution to 23 of Tuolumne Countys foster youth and former foster youth ages 16-21 was District 2 Supervisor Randy Hanvelt, who is also the current First Vice Chair on the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) Executive Board, and Kristine Schneller, a business development specialist at iFoster. Last year, the boards of RCRC and National Homebuyers Fund both approved providing $200,000 to support the 1 Laptop Program for Foster Youth run through iFoster. The one-time donation is benefitting eligible candidates within Californias 35 RCRC counties; specifically by providing them with personal laptops outfitted with the iFoster-developed Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Assistant, which includes a secure online digital locker that is always accessible. iFosters work is focused on helping ensure that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful, independent adults. It turns out and certainly makes sense that owning a computer helps foster youth as they move through placements personally address challenges such as accessing needed resources and preventing the loss or misplacement of important life documents. Connecting Foster Youth With Resources, Outlets A 2016 study that tracked youth across California who received iFoster computers found that only five percent of rural foster youth have consistent access to a computer in their homes, compared to earlier Pew Research Center research, which indicated 90 percent of all teens and 79 percent of low-income teens had that. Further findings showed that when provided with a computer, 98 percent of youth reported using it daily or weekly and as a result did better at school and were also more socially connected and satisfied with their life. Hanvelt is proud to recount RCRCs philanthropic activities, which range from helping provide transitional housing for vets and aid for wildfire survivors to educational outreach increasing awareness and ways to recognize and report signs of sex and human labor trafficking. He confides that after hearing iFosters presentation at the RCRC boards last annual meeting, he pushed support for the laptop funding project. With obvious enthusiasm, he says, Now RCRC is giving a laptop to every single foster kid in the rural counties that is in the age group that qualifies for near-emancipationto help them survive and thrive. He further shares, I am very thrilled to be a part of it and it was fun to be a part of being part of the giveaway of the first ones in Tuolumne County. Advertisement By Tim Brockwell Aug. 01, 2018 | MURRAY By Tim Brockwell Aug. 01, 2018 | 01:31 PM | MURRAY As the Calloway and Marshall County Republican Parties plan to host a speech by National Rifle Association President Oliver North at Murray State University's Lovett Auditorium Friday night, several groups are planning to participate in a protest and vigil on the school's campus. North's speech is the main event at the GOP's annual "Night Before Fancy Farm" rally. North was named President of the NRA in May. He is also a decorated Marine Corps veteran and former television host, and is perhaps best known for his involvement in the Iran Contra affair during the 1980's. Bobbie Foust represents some of the groups planning to attend the protest. She says many people are offended that North was asked to come speak so soon after the deadly mass shooting at Marshall County High School in January. "We feel it's insensitive to bring the head of the NRA to western Kentucky just a few months after our students were killed by a shooter." She said. The group "Say NO to Oliver North" helped organize the protest and vigil. In a Facebook post, the group expressed similar views. "Not even six months after a deadly shooting at Marshall County High School, Marshall County Republicans have invited Oliver North to come speak at an event the night before Fancy Farm. We believe this is a grave error in judgement on their part, and will not let his visit go unanswered." they said. Shaundelle Brooks, mother of Antioch, TN Waffle House shooting victim Akilah Dasilva, said in a press release she will attend the protest to show support. I just want to let (the students) know that Im in there in the fight with them until the end. she said. I totally understand how they feel as a parent losing a child to gun violence. My child spoke against gun violence in his music and in life, and for him to lose his life like that, I dont have a choice but to be part of the fight. Other speakers at the protest will include Heath High School shooting survivor Hollan Holms, Mark Bryant of the Gun Violence Archive, Rev. Dr. Darvin A. Adams, and Joey King, member of Chapter 89 Veteran's For Peace. Danny Holt from the Marshall County Republican Party said his organization chose North as their speaker this year before he became NRA President, and that the decision was made based on North's many accomplishments over the years. "We were looking at him as a highly decorated retired lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps who had served his country and been highly decorated, even with two purple hearts. A man who had served his country as the head of the National Counterterrorism Department. A man who had been part of many different things." Holt said. Holt added that it was not his or anyone else's intention to be insensitive, or to disrespect any of the victims of the Marshall County High School shooting. North's speech is set to begin at 7 p.m. Protestors will assemble at the "free speech zone" near the Curris Center from 4-6 p.m. They will then march to Lovett Auditorium for a silent vigil from 6:15 to 7:30. Last week, The New York Times reported on how special counsel Robert Mueller is looking at President Donald Trump's tweets as potential evidence in an obstruction of justice case. On Wednesday, Trump gave him more potential evidence. In a tweetstorm, Trump called upon Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut the whole Mueller probe down - the first time he has done that. It wasn't altogether surprising, given his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani has called for the investigation to be closed. But it was notable because it came directly from Trump this time and his call focused on Sessions. The attorney general has recused himself from the matter because of potential conflicts of interest, given he campaigned for Trump. So Trump is apparently calling for Sessions to un-recuse himself from a case in which he's acknowledged he can't been seen as neutral, and then to end it. ". . . .This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!," Trump tweeted. In defending the tweet, Trump's lawyers told The Post that it wasn't an explicit command. "He carefully used the word, 'should,'" Giuliani noted. Trump's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow added: "The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this." But that cleanup effort betrays the problematic nature of the tweet. And this is hardly the first time Trump has broadcast a desire to change the course of the investigation. Whether any of them rise to the level of obstruction of justice or may be used to build such a case, we don't know. But Trump has clearly played with fire - and is continuing to do so. Let's review his other tweets that could similarly factor into the obstruction probe, ranked by how troublesome they seem to be. "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!," - Dec. 2, 2017 This is a big one, and it was so problematic that the Trump team was forced to argue that Trump didn't actually send it (they blamed it on attorney John Dowd). The problem is basically this: Shortly after Trump fired Michael Flynn in February 2017, he suggested in a private meeting that then-FBI Director James B. Comey be lenient on Flynn, according to Comey's testimony under oath ("I hope you can let this go," Comey quoted Trump as saying). If Trump knew at that time that Flynn had lied to the FBI - which Flynn later pleaded guilty to - it would make for a more compelling argument that he was trying to obstruct an investigation of Flynn and, by extension, protect himself. Trump's legal team told Mueller in January that Trump "had every reason to believe at that time that the FBI was not investigating Lt. Gen. Flynn," according to a memo obtained by the Times. That's yet another indication that they see how troublesome it would be were Trump to have known Flynn was under investigation at the time. "....doing things that nobody thought possible, despite the never ending and corrupt Russia Investigation, which takes tremendous time and focus. No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back), so now they do the Unthinkable, and RAID a lawyers office for information! BAD!" - April 11, 2018 In this tweet, Trump appears to acknowledge that the actions that some have construed as potential obstruction of justice are actually just him "figh[ing] back." But that's also him acknowledging that he's acting in his own self-interest - rather than for other, less obstruction-y reasons like promoting good government. The tweet echoed a January interview with ABC News in which Trump explained, "You fight back. Jon - you fight back," Trump said, before mockingly quoting his opponents: " 'Oh, it's obstruction.' " Given all that, it's totally reasonable to ask whether events like firing Comey were Trump "fighting back" - rather than getting rid of an FBI director who had lost the faith of his agency, which was the initial explanation. This is Lester Holt interview-esque. See above. "No Collusion, No Obstruction - but that doesn't matter because the 13 Angry Democrats, who are only after Republicans and totally protecting Democrats, want this Witch Hunt to drag out to the November Election. Republicans better get smart fast and expose what they are doing!" - July 21, 2018 It's one thing to decry the "witch hunt"; it's another to issue a call for action against it. Much like Trump calling for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton could be a key moment in the collusion investigation, calling for Republicans to "expose what [Mueller's investigators] are doing" sounds a lot like he's trying to damage the investigation. Perhaps he would argue that's justifiable and it would be based on facts, but it's still an effort to impact the investigation. There are almost too many to list here, but Trump has regularly attacked figures involved in the Mueller probe, up to and including the man overseeing it, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, and Mueller's lawyers. "Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!" - April 11, 2018 "Is Robert Mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to President Trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship, I turned him down to head the FBI (one day before appointment as S.C.) & Comey is his close friend." - July 29, 2018 "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt" - June 16, 2017 Every person has the right to defend themselves publicly, but as the Starr Report showed, a president's misleading public statements can be used against them. And maliciously attacking the credibility of investigators could conceivably play into this. At My Book, The Movie Ronlyn Domingue's "The Mapmaker's War" There were a record number of small business transfers in 2018's second quarter, according to BizBuySell.com, which dubs itself the largest business-for-sale site online. BizBuySell's 2018 Insight Report aggregates statistics from business-for-sale transactions as reported to the company by business brokers throughout the U.S. A generational transition in ownership and "improving business financials" were attributed for the increase. Russia boosted oil production to levels not seen since it joined OPEC in a coordinated output cut, helping the group offset supply disruptions elsewhere. The worlds biggest energy exporter raised production last month to 11.215 million barrels a day, a jump of 148,000 barrels from a month earlier and just below the post-Soviet record set in October 2016, according to government data emailed Thursday. The country is currently forecasting output will remain at these levels in the next five months, a government official said, asking not to be named as the information isnt public yet. Since Russia joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in reducing output, crude prices have risen to three-year highs as the glutted market rebalanced. The cartel and its allies -- known as OPEC+ -- decided in June to increase production in response to consumers concerns over rising prices and supply disruptions, so traders and investors have been watching Russias oil data closely. EARNINGS: Refiners rake in big profits for now Russias output last month was just 40,540 barrels a day lower than in October 2016, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in a statement Wednesday. The country has been pumping more following joint efforts of OPEC and non-OPEC countries aimed at stabilizing the oil market, he said. The nations production may remain around the 11.2 million barrels a day level for the remainder of the year, the government official said, citing the oil ministrys most recent calculations. Supply could even increase if there are further agreements with OPEC+ to change current output policy and boost supplies, though there havent been any detailed talks on this yet, the person said. OPEC+ may discuss whether a bigger production increase is needed when they meet in September, Novak said last month. Russias key partner in the OPEC+ group, Saudi Arabia, in July was also close to an all-time peak reached in 2016, boosting its oil production by some 230,000 barrels a day to 10.65 million. OPECs overall output jumped by 300,000 barrels a day last month, according to a Bloomberg survey, as the cartel offset losses from an economic collapse in Venezuela, political clashes in Libya and an expectation that Iranian exports will drop due to U.S. sanctions. SUPPLY: U.S. oil stockpiles rise as crude prices dip Back in 2016, Russia pledged to cut its output by 300,000 barrels per day in the OPEC+ deal. In June, Novak said that the groups new pact allows it to roll back about 200,000 barrels, but government data show the nation had brought 268,000 barrels back by the end of last month. Russia began ramping up output in June, led by its biggest producer -- state-run Rosneft PJSC. The number of working oil wells in the country increased that month by more than 2 percent from a year before. While both Russia and Saudi Arabia have said they are lifting production to make up for countries unable to do so, some OPEC+ members, notably Iran, argue that theyre violating the groups agreements and individual country quotas. --With assistance from Dina Khrennikova. 2018 Bloomberg L.P. Alaska Airlines apologized this week after a flight attendant asked a gay man to give up his seat next to his partner so a straight couple could sit together, an exchange that put the airline on the defensive as it rebutted claims of discrimination. David Cooley, the owner of a gay bar in West Hollywood, California, called the Abbey, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he and his partner had boarded a flight to Los Angeles from New York when a flight attendant asked if Cooleys partner would move from his seat so a couple could sit together. Cooley said he told the attendant that the two men were a couple and that he wanted to sit with his partner. But the attendant gave Cooleys partner a choice: Move for the other couple or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane, Cooley said. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. Through a spokesman, Cooley declined to comment further Wednesday. But his posts about the exchange on Facebook and Twitter brought a wave of criticism, with many noting that the exchange was a stark example of the discrimination that LGBT people experience in travel and business. The conversation around such discrimination gained national attention in June when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who had refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple. The decision left open a larger question of whether a business can discriminate against gay men and lesbians based on rights protected by the First Amendment. Stories like Cooleys, however, are not as cut-and-dry as the Colorado baker case, which stemmed from a flat-out refusal to make the cake, said Naomi Goldberg, policy and research director at the Movement Advancement Project, a research group that recently helped organize a campaign encouraging businesses to be more inclusive. Goldberg said that instances where LGBT people are treated in a less positive or different way from others are pretty pervasive and that they alter how people live their lives. A 2017 survey from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress showed that more than 36 percent of LGBT people hid personal relationships for fear of discrimination. Twelve percent avoided public places like restaurants and stores for the same reason, according to the survey. Social media has allowed people to lift up more of a national conversation about the less obvious forms of discrimination that people typically had not publicly responded to, Goldberg said. Obviously, this couples experience should not have happened, Goldberg said of Cooleys story. Whether or not its in line with Alaska Airlines values, or even policies, it did happen. My hope would be the company would obviously do some internal work or have conversations about what it means to serve the public and be open to all. Alaska Airlines reached out to Cooley on Twitter on Sunday and issued a public apology Tuesday, saying the company would offer to refund his ticket and was deeply sorry for the situation and did not intend to make Mr. Cooley and his partner feel uncomfortable in any way. But the airline said the encounter was not a case of discrimination, characterizing what happened as a seating error and calling itself a zero-tolerance company that does not support discrimination of any kind. Before its public apology, the airline said on Twitter that it was investigating Cooleys story and that it had inadvertently booked two people in one seat on a full flight. The airline did not immediately respond to further questions Wednesday. Alaska Airlines also said in its statement that it had received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaigns Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on their treatment of LGBT employees. Companies gain points for having nondiscrimination policies and benefits for LGBT workers, among other metrics. Cooley said on social media Tuesday that he had accepted the airlines apology. We are discussing making things right, he said. The Public Theater of San Antonio has acquired a little more land. The spot, at 741W. Ashby Place, which is across the street from the theater at the corner of Ashby and Flores, was purchased for $350,000. It was most recently home to the Pho Sure Vietnamese restaurant. That building remains on the property. The new acquisition is right next to the plot at 725 W. Ashby that was donated to the theater last year by the Aleman family John R. Rick and Christina Aleman and their children, Richie and Selena. The objective is to combine both of those properties and rezone it, and then we will be moving into a capital campaign in the near future, said George Green, the theaters CEO and artistic director. RELATED: Round Rock theater chain enters San Antonio market with land purchase on far West Side Plans are still being worked out as to what to do with the property. A third performance space is at the top of the wish list, said Omar Leos, chairman of the theaters executive committee. We do want to see another performance space there, said Leos. A bigger black box than we currently have would be great. Other than that, were open to suggestions and ideas. Other possibilities include office and classroom space, Green said. There is no timeline for figuring out what to do with the space or for a capital campaign at this point. The original theater building itself which is known as the San Pedro Playhouse is owned by the city. I feel it is important to state that we have no intention of moving, and the acquisition of land should not be misunderstood, Green said in a statement. Its great that we are expanding our footprint, and the possibility of having additional land will help further our vision of theater for all, Leos said. Deborah Martin is an arts writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN Sooner or later, the time to hang up the apron and take off the toque comes for all chefs. Such is the case for Francois Maeder, who in a media release Thursday announced plans to retire and close his venerable San Antonio restaurant Crumpets Restaurant & Bakery. The business, located at 3920 Harry Wurzbach, has been in operation for 38 years. Maeder will lock the doors for the last time Sept. 1. In 1997, the Old Yoakum Community Hospital closed its doors to make way for a bigger, more modern facility. More than 20 years later it continues to attract guests with its rumors of haunted appearances. This weekend, that hospital is partnering with Haunted Rooms America in inviting the public to join a team of paranormal investigators on a ghost hunt and sleepover at the haunted location in Yoakum, about 100 miles east of San Antonio. It's a rare opportunity for the public to investigate the hospital, at which access is usually limited to individuals in the paranormal field, a hospital spokesperson said. Attendees will have full access to the hospital, available paranormal investigating equipment, a psychic in attendance, paranormal investigation 101, and snacks and drinks all night. RELATED: San Antonio cafe that closed after a ghost visit reopened with paranormal theme Old Yoakum Community Hospital was built in 1922 as Huth Community hospital, according to Haunted Rooms America's website. In 1933, the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Victoria bought the hospital and grew it until the late 1990s, when it closed. But a number of the deceased staff members and patients there are rumored to still check in, the website said. A young nurse who was working in the Intensive Care Unit in the 1990 reportedly died after being shot by her jilted lover several times, according to the website. Some say she can still be seen walking through the second floor, and members of a paranormal team reported hearing her say "hey." Father Kraum, a beloved priest who said Mass at the hospital though he was a victim of polio, is also rumored to have a presence in the old chapel on the first floor, where his wheelchair is still kept, the website said. An old surgery schedule still hangs on a clipboard, old medical equipment litters some of the areas, a former patient was reportedly heard calling for help, and the former director of nursing allegedly still haunts her area, according to the website. The event, which costs $99, lasts from Aug. 4 at 9 p.m. until Aug. 5 at 10 a.m. Booking information is available online. S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchavey DANBURY A jury blinded by the gore of a dismembered body and a potential deal to pardon a key witness -- kept a restauranteur from getting a fair murder trial, his attorney argued Thursday, In a petition for a new trial for Marash Gojcaj, attorney Stephen Seeger presented his final arguments in Superior Court. Gojcaj, 42, was convicted in 2010 of murdering his uncle, Joseph Vulevic, after an arguement in 2004 at the Gusto Restaurant the pair operated on the citys Main Street. Gojcaj has already served about eight years of a 50-year sentence at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in Suffield. Gojcaj shot his uncle twice in the head and used a meat saw to cut the body into seven pieces before dumping the remains off Interstate 84 in New York state, authorities said. But Seeger claims new evidence including emails and text messages show a deal was in the works for a key witness, Stephen Nanai, that was not disclosed during the trial. Only after he was promised a pardon did Nanai decide to sign his statement, Seeger said in court Thursday. That is very telling. Nanai, a former waiter at the restaurant with a past drug conviction, testified during the trial that he saw Gojcaj with a gun. Nanai also claimed Gojcaj called him months before the trial wanting to talk because statements Nanai had made were the only ones damaging to him. While prosecutors admitted that former Danbury Detective Dan Trompetta discussed a pardon with Nanai and authored a letter to the pardon board after the trial -- they claim no deal was ever in the works and no promises were made for his testimony. The evidence shows there was a general discussion about a pardon but that no deal was in place, Assistant States Attorney Sharmese Hodge said in court Thursday. While Trompetta testified in court last year that he never told prosecutors about the discussion, Seeger said Thursday that doesnt really matter. What does matter, he said, is what Nanai believed when he testified. Trompetta testified last year that he decided to write the letter to the parole board on his own because it was the right thing to do. Information about the letter was uncovered during a subsequent trial on a tampering charge. Gojcaj was acquitted of the charge. Seeger said he believes the jury in the murder case may have come to a different verdict if information about a potential deal had been disclosed during the trial and Nanais credibility was called into question. Nanai put the gun into Gojcajs hands, Seeger said, and statements Gojcaj made to him were offered as consciousness of guilt. But Hodge rejected that claim. To say it would have turned the murder conviction around if his testimony wasnt there is pure fantasy, Hodge said, adding that there were more than 40 witnesses in the case. "There were other witnesses during the trial who saw Gojcaj with a gun including a Danbury police officer. Peter Vulevic, the victims brother, was one of nearly a dozen family members in court to support Gojcaj during the hearing Thursday. I was startled by the conviction, he told The News-Times after the hearing concluded. I am convinced of my nephews innocence. I never had any doubt. If Gojcaj had been killed in the restaurant as investigators claimed, then why, Vulevic questioned, was there not a drop of blood found inside the establishment. With the forensics they have today, that would be impossible, he said. Evidence shown during the trial suggested the carpeting inside the restaurant had been replaced after the murder and that a van that was used to transport the body had been cleaned. Judge Kevin Russo said he would consider all the arguments before handing down his decision. dperrefort@newstimes.com RYE, N.Y. A 22-year-old Stamford woman was killed early Thursday morning in a motorcycle accident on Interstate 287. Damariz D. Rosales-Beltran lost control of her motorcycle while heading eastbound on I-287 near the northbound ramp to Interstate 95 in the City of Rye around 1:15 a.m. Thursday, New York State Police said. Rosales-Beltran was thrown from the motorcycle, which continued to travel eastbound along the shoulder of the roadway until stopping near a guardrail on the right shoulder of the I-95 northbound ramp, police said. Rosales-Beltran was taken to Greenwich Hospital where she was pronounced dead. There were no other injuries and no other vehicles were involved in the accident, which remains under investigation. State Police An Albany man convicted in June of forging checks that totaled over $15,000 was sentenced to 4 to 8 years in state prison, according to the Albany County District Attorney's office. County Judge William Carter imposed the sentence on Germaine Montes, 28, on Wednesday. San Francisco President Donald Trump's executive order threatening to withhold funding from "sanctuary cities" that limit cooperation with immigration authorities is unconstitutional, but a judge went too far when he blocked its enforcement nationwide, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that the order exceeded the president's authority. Congress alone controls spending under the U.S. Constitution, and presidents do not have the power to cut off funding it approves to pursue their policy goals, the court majority said. "By its plain terms, the executive order directs the agencies of the executive branch to withhold funds appropriated by Congress in order to further the administration's policy objective of punishing cities and counties that adopt so-called 'sanctuary' policies," wrote Chief Judge Sidney Thomas, joined by Judge Ronald Gould. The ruling came in a lawsuit from two California counties San Francisco and Santa Clara. Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said the president's order was legal. He called the court's ruling a victory for "criminal aliens in California, who can continue to commit crimes knowing that the state's leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers whose job it is to hold them accountable and remove them from the country." "The Justice Department remains committed to the rule of law, to protecting public safety, and to keeping criminal aliens off the streets," he said. The court, however, also said there wasn't enough evidence to support a nationwide ban on Trump's order. It limited the injunction and sent the case back to the lower court for more arguments on whether such a ban was warranted. The decision overall is a big victory for opponents of the executive order, but Trump could try to enforce it against jurisdictions outside the 10 Western states covered by the 9th Circuit, said David Levine, an expert on federal court procedure at the University of California, Hastings, College of Law. "If they wanted to go after Chicago, if they wanted to go after Denver or Philadelphia, they would not be bound by an injunction," he said. "Those places would have to bring their own lawsuits and whatever happens, happens in those cases." Trump signed the executive order in January 2017 part of a push by his administration to crack down on cities and states that don't work with U.S. immigration authorities. The government also has moved to withhold a particular law enforcement grant from sanctuary jurisdictions and sued California over three laws that extend protections to people in the country illegally. The Trump administration says sanctuary cities and states allow dangerous criminals back on the street. San Francisco and other sanctuary cities say turning local police into immigration officers erodes the trust needed to get people to report crime. The executive order directed the attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that jurisdictions refusing to comply with a particular immigration law generally are not eligible to receive U.S. grants. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco ruled in November that the order threatened all federal funding and that the president lacked the authority to attach new conditions to spending approved by Congress. The executive order potentially jeopardized hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the two counties who filed the suits, Orrick said, citing comments by Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as evidence of the order's scope. The Trump administration said the order applied to a relatively small pot of money that already required compliance with the immigration law. "When a president overreaches and tries to assert authority he doesn't have under the Constitution, there needs to be a check on that power grab," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement Wednesday. WESTPORT For the second time in a month, the board of finance has rejected a proposal to hire two police officers for Westports middle schools. The issue here is whether this incremental spending is giving an incremental safety, and Im just not convinced of that, board of finance Chairman Brian Stern, a Democrat, said of his vote against an appropriation of $260,000 to hire two school resource officers for Westports middle schools. Democrat Lee Caney and Republican Jim Westphal also voted against the proposal, while Republicans Andrea Moore and Michael Rea voted in favor of the appropriation. Democrat Sheri Gordon was absent and newly appointed Democrat Nancie Dupier abstained. The boards rejection comes after two members of the Representative Town Meeting, Nicole Klein and Andrew Colabella, petitioned to overturn the finance boards original denial on July 11 to fund the two additional school resource officers (SRO). The RTM will still vote on whether to overturn the BOFs decision not to fund the SROs at the Aug. 7 RTM meeting. A full-time officer will be present at Staples High School for the start of the coming school year after the board voted to reappropriate funding for the D.A.R.E. program to hire an SRO for the high school. Its an awful lot cheaper if our objective is to deal with mental health issues and troubled children, to do it with trained people who are paid an awful lot less than 170 thousand dollars a year, Westphal said. RTM members Peter Gold and Kristan Hamlin both spoke in favor of rejecting the appropriation, saying if the goal of an SRO is to perform emotional intervention on students who may execute a shooting at the school, then a mental health professional would be a more effective and less costly hire. The therapist meets with them in an office, possibly sedated, possibly restrained. Our officers are dealing with them at their worst. Id put an officer in a crisis situation over any trained counselor, Police Chief Foti Koskinas said. Together with Superintendent Colleen Palmer and First Selectman Jim Marpe, Koskinas has been a strong proponent of hiring SROs for Westports schools ever since Palmer first recommended the idea to the Board of Education (BOE) last fall. Bottom line, for me, is if we have the police in the buildings, response time is minimized and god forbid, in a shooting situation, thats going to save lives, BOE member Candice Savin said, voicing an argument in favor of the response time officers in the schools could provide that was reiterated by several other RTM members and residents in favor of the appropriation. Id hate to see Westport in the news as the town that made the decision to forgo this and have something happen that we didnt necessarily expect, but could have anticipated, RTM member Ellen Lautenberg, said. The RTM will meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1 Sid Edwards and his 17-year-old son Jack Ryan Edwards were walking through the dairy aisle at their local supermarket in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday when the teen suddenly stopped. Jack Ryan, who has autism, was staring at the orange juice. Because of his autism, it wasn't unusual for Jack Ryan to become fixated on different things. His father figured he wanted to buy juice. The store employee at Rouses Supermarket, Jordan Taylor, noticed the same thing. He saw Jack staring. So Taylor turned to the teen and offered him a bottle. No reaction. Then it clicked for Taylor. "Hey, do you want to help me?" Taylor asked, according to Edwards. Jack Ryan, who is limited verbally, repeated, "Help me." So the employee and the teen carefully and methodically refilled the store's dairy supply together for about half an hour. Edwards took out his phone and started recording. In the video, Edwards can be heard saying, "I'm watching a miracle in action." Edwards knows a lot about autism, and he knows that most strangers he meets don't understand his son, let alone go out of their way to connect with him. Jack Ryan has an older brother who is also autistic and both his sister and mother work as special education teachers. "What I've learned is our world doesn't accept autistic kids. It's impossible for those kids to enter our world," Edwards said. "We spend so much time working on that, but this man figured it out in eight seconds: He went into Jack Ryan's world." Jack Ryan's sister, Delaney Edwards Alwosaibi, 27, was not at the store but she saw the video. She said she noticed Taylor's patience. He could have finished the job a lot faster on his own, but took the time to let Jack Ryan help, encouraging him the whole way. "Jordan was a champion of inclusion that day," Alwosaibi said. "He might not have known at the time but he was an advocate for our kids, for everyone who has a sibling, child or student with disability." Alwosaibi said she hopes Taylor's act will open employer's minds about hiring people with autism. She posted the video on Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of people have seen it and applauded Taylor. Rouses Supermarket has since offered Jack Ryan a part-time job shadowing and stocking shelves. The Edwards family said they are considering letting him try out the job, perhaps with some with assistance. The Edwards family said they are so grateful to Taylor for his simple yet extraordinary act. "I told [Taylor], the things you do when no ones watching, that's who you really are, that shows your true character," Alwosaibi said. She started a GoFundMe college fund for Taylor, writing that he loves math and wants to be an educator one day. The campaign has raised more than $28,000. "There's a lot that's wrong in the world, but to know that that humanity exists is truly rare," Edwards said. "[Taylor] was just being him, and boy if we had more of hims in the world, how would great that be?" --- Video Embed Code Video: Grocery store worker Jordan Taylor allowed Jack Ryan Edwards, an autistic teen, to help him stock shelves at Rouses Market in Baton Rouge on July 29.(The Washington Post) Embed code: WASHINGTON - Ivanka Trump distanced herself from her father on two high-profile issues Thursday, saying that she did not agree with his characterization of the media as "the enemy of the people" and that she was "vehemently against" separating migrant children from their parents at the border - calling the latter a low point of her tenure in the White House. Her comments at a public event underscored the difficult balance Trump has sought as she provides private counsel to a president and father with whom she does not always see eye to eye, while enduring criticism for not being more outspoken about their differences. Toward the end of a forum hosted by the news site Axios that focused largely on workforce issues, an area of focus for Trump in her capacity as a White House adviser, she was asked whether she considered journalists in the room to be "the enemy of the people." "No, I do not," Trump replied, prompting nervous laughter in the room. Asked to elaborate, Trump offered what she said was "my own personal perspective." "I've certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripes, especially when they sort of feel targeted, but no, I do not consider the media the enemy of the people." President Donald Trump has used the term on multiple occasions, and his animus for the media was on display again this week as he promoted a video on Twitter showing his supporters chanting "CNN sucks" as a reporter from the network did a live shot from the site of a campaign rally hosted by the president in Tampa. The video was tweeted by Trump's son Eric and then shared by the president with his 53 million followers. The president tweeted a defense of his daughter later Thursday, arguing that his "enemy of the people" line did not apply to all of the news media but rather only "a large percentage" of it. "They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people," Trump said. "She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!" Trump's tweet came hours after a testy briefing with reporters at which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined multiple invitations to say that she did not consider the media to be "the enemy of the people." "I'm here to speak on behalf of the president," Sanders said, ticking off several grievances against reporters. "The president is rightfully frustrated," Sanders said. "Ninety percent of the coverage on him is negative." During Thursday's event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Ivanka Trump was also asked by Mike Allen of Axios to share the high point and low point of her time in the White House. Allen suggested a possible low point for her: the separations of migrant children at the southern border that resulted from the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration. As a national controversy flared, Ivanka Trump reportedly asked her father to end the practice but remained publicly silent, prompting harsh criticism in some quarters - including from comedian Samantha Bee, who made national headlines by using a vulgarity to describe Trump's reticence. After Allen said that the forced family separations were a low point for many, Trump said "that was a low point for me, as well." "I feel very strongly about that," she said. "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children." She went on to say that "immigration is incredibly complex as a topic." "I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of laws," Trump said. "These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues. I experience them in a very emotional way." Her comments Thursday prompted a cascade of criticism from adversaries of the president, who said Ivanka Trump should speak up more forcefully and more frequently. "It's easy and convenient to denounce an abhorrent policy after it's ended," Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said in a tweet. "Doing the right thing is speaking out when it matters. Where were you to stand up to @realDonaldTrump months ago, @IvankaTrump?" A tweet from an account maintained by the organizers of the Women's March also took Ivanka Trump to task, saying that "no amount of regret about or 'strong feelings against' the separation and detention of families and communities will ever make up for what this administration has done." "We have asked you before. We are asking you again now: Take action," the tweet said. Others were quick to point out that presidential aides do not typically speak out publicly when they disagree with their boss. "In any administration, a staffer cannot publicly disagree with the president, so the constant calls for this or that staffer to speak out against the president isn't based in reality," said Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee. While Heye acknowledged that Ivanka Trump "isn't just any staffer," he said it's hard to image how her speaking out more regularly would lead to different postures from her father. "That's up to the president. He's the decider," Heye said. Ivanka Trump first broke her silence on the issue of family separations shortly after her father issued an executive order in June seeking to end the policy that his administration had put in place. "Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border," she wrote. She called on Congress to find a "lasting solution" that is "consistent with our shared values." Ivanka Trump said in a television interview in late June that she had advised her father before his issuance of the executive order. "Of course, I have very strong opinions on that topic," Trump told host Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. During the same interview, Trump sought to explain why she had remained silent while Bee and others attacked her. "I have chosen, and I made a conscientious decision a long time ago, that I was not going to get into the fray, and that means that I'll absorb the body blows that come my way," she said. "It is important to me to focus on the task at hand, which is serving the American people and using this moment in my life to advance an agenda that I deeply believe in and feel very fortunate to be able to work on." During a segment of her "Full Frontal" show on TBS in May, Bee took aim at Trump for tweeting a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year. "You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child," Bee said. "Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c---. He listens to you." Bee later apologized, saying her use of the vulgarity was "inappropriate and inexcusable" and that she had "crossed a line." As for a high point of her White House tenure, Trump on Thursday cited the president's commutation of the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old woman serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction after her case was brought to his attention by reality television star Kim Kardashian. Ivanka Trump said she was moved while watching news coverage of Johnson leaving prison and running into the arms of her waiting family members. "I was crying," Trump said. "It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It reminds you of the real impact you have on people." --- Video Embed Code Video: Senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump broke with President Trump on Aug. 2, saying the media is not the enemy of the people.(C-SPAN) Embed code: Somewhere in time, the people we are a part of come together. Each is surprised at what they find. Here is the patriarch and there a grandson. Here a soldier and there a farmer who owned a distillery. Here a young mother who died when she was 29 and there is her great granddaughter. Ancestors and descendants meet, strangers to each other yet bound to each other. Family forever. On Feb. 8, 1919 William Yeakle purchased a farm at 3828 S. Poseyville Road from August Short for $2,300 dollars at 7 percent interest. Three generations of Yeakles have lived on that farm. On Feb. 8, 2019 it will become a Centennial Farm in the state of Michigan. On Aug. 11, 2018 a celebration will be held at 3828 S. Poseyville Road in Hemlock, marking the occasion. The William Yeakle branch of the family begins with Benedict Youghli. Benedict Youghli was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1710. Benedict and his family emigrated to America in 1736, settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had one daughter, Susan, and two sons. George was born in 1738. Benedict is the great-great-great grandfather of William Yeakle. The other son was named Jacob. The Yeakle name went through various spellings through the years. The spelling of the name as Yeakley was George's contribution. George fathered Michael who was born in 1774 and changed his name to Yeakle and that became the accepted spelling for the William Yeakle branch. Michael became very prosperous owning 730 acres, four farms and a distillery in Butler County, Ohio. Michael's son John born in 1798 did not inherit his father's ethic of hard work and quickly went through the estate. At John's death he owed $1,500 and only had assets worth $365. Joseph Yeakle, a son of John, was born in 1842, married Mary Ann Fravel in 1866 and they had two children, William and Julia. Mary Ann died when William was 4 years old and four years later Julia died. Joseph remarried and decided to leave Adams County, Ohio and move to Geneva, Indiana. Before he left, he asked his brother Jacob to care for William, who remained in Ohio as he grew up. William Yeakle, born in 1867 and raised by his Uncle Jacob, decided to move to Geneva, Indiana and live with his aunt Julia (Yeakle) Rumple when he was about 20 years old. Always ambitious and mechanical, he bought a steam engine and used it for working in sawmills and threshing for farmers. William Yeakle found himself on the cusp of the new field opening up for steam power. While everyone wanted to take advantage of the new steam engine, it had its drawbacks. Boiler explosions were frequent, usually caused by low water. The steam engine was also very heavy and often would collapse country bridges built originally to carry people and animals. William Yeakle's future wife, Sarah Maurer, born in 1871, was the child of Samuel Maurer and his fourth wife. Samuel had been in the Battle at Shiloh during the Civil War. The two day battle was responsible for 23,000 casualties with the Union Army defeating the Confederate Army. Samuel Maurer was wounded but survived to return to Ohio. Samuel and all eight of his brothers fought in the Civil War. Much later, Samuel received a pension of $12 each month for his service and being wounded in the Civil War. He died in 1906. The Maurer family moved to Geneva, Indiana in 1885 when Sarah was 14 years old. In 1888 a young woman named Gene Stratton Porter moved to Geneva where her husband Charles Porter owned a drug store. He also owned drug stores in Decatur and Fort Wayne. Gene (short for Geneva Grace) was 25. Sarah began working at the Porter's log cabin, one mile from the Limberlost Swamp situated at the edge of Geneva, Indiana. The Limberlost Swamp was comprised of 13,000 acres of woodlands and swamps and was known for two things: quicksand and unsavory characters. It got the name when a man named Limber Jim Corbus went hunting in the swamp but never returned. When people asked where Jim was, the reply was, "Limber's lost!" The meeting of Sarah and Gene Stratton Porter was a new chapter in the life of 17-year-old Sarah Maurer. Although there was an eight year difference in their ages, their status of hired girl and mistress of the house soon changed to one of deep friendship. Sarah watched as Gene wrote her novels and magazine articles and Rollin Yeakle, Sarah's grandson, has found articles dated 1899 in the Geneva Herald newspapers that sound like his grandmother's writing but with no byline. In 1909 Sarah, now living in Michigan, began a regular correspondence with the Geneva Herald for the next 45 years. Her letters were the connection between the people who had moved to Michigan and to the friends and relatives who had stayed in Indiana. The letters were located in the Geneva Library when her grandson Rollin Yeakle began doing genealogy. No one in Rollin's family had read any of those letters. Sarah Maurer met William Yeakle when he roomed at the Maurer home for a short time. They were married on Feb. 2, 1892. Their marriage produced five children: Lexie, Leroy, Merrill, George and Coy. After Lexie and Leroy were born, William purchased a steam traction engine and a grain thresher and began his career in Adams County, Indiana. Since he was the only thresher in the area to use steam power to run a thresher, he was in great demand. The old method of using a horse, mule or oxen to generate power for a machine by walking in a circle while hitched to a pole was slow and the power generated was miniscule. Records show that approximately 100 people moved from Geneva, Indiana to Midland County in Michigan. But once in Michigan the farmers had to return to using horse power to run their threshing machines. Charles Hollingsworth, one of the farmers who emigrated to Michigan, wrote a letter to William Yeakle in Geneva, Indiana asking him to come to Michigan. The summer of 1908 found William and Sarah spending the summer months in Midland County, living with her half-brother who had come to Michigan several years before. Apparently this was enough time for the couple to make up their mind that they would move to Michigan. Returning to Geneva, William sold his machinery in Adams County and moved to Ingersoll Township in 1909. (This ends Part I. Part II of the William Yeakle Centennial Farm will continue in two weeks.) The American Immigration Lawyers Association said Wednesday that a migrant toddler died shortly after being released from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Dilley, Texas. "AILA has learned that a toddler died soon after release from the Dilley South Texas Family Residential Center," Gregory Chen, director of government relations for the 15,000-member association, said in a statement. "We do not have information on the cause of death or information that confirms a connection between medical treatment at STFRC and this death." Chen did not name the child or say when the alleged death occurred, and The Washington Post was unable to independently verify the death. ICE said Wednesday that it could not investigate the situation without the child's name or other information. However the agency made clear that no child died while in its care. "Reports that a child died in ICE custody at Dilley are false," the agency tweeted. Chen said the association's lawyers have "seen ongoing inadequacies in the standard of care provided to mothers and children in Dilley, and have filed complaints with the government raising these concerns." Word that a child may have died emerged on social media late Tuesday and spread quickly on the Internet, igniting fresh outrage weeks after the Trump administration halted its controversial practice of separating parents and children after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Hundreds of separated families have been reunited in recent days at Dilley and at least one other ICE family detention center. Those centers also house families taken into custody at the border but not separated by the government. Because there is so little information available about the child who reportedly died, it is impossible to say whether that child was among the minors who had been separated. "Without a name or more specific information, we are unable to research this allegation," ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said in a statement. "That doesn't make the allegation true, just impossible to refute." Dilley is the largest of ICE's three family detention centers, with a capacity of about 2,400 people. It is located about an hour southwest of San Antonio. A June 2017 report by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general said the family detention centers are "clean, well-organized, and efficiently run." The report also found that the agency was working to address "the inherent challenges of providing medical care and language services" in detention. A Houston immigration lawyer, Mana Yegani, tweeted late Tuesday that a girl, who had suffered a respiratory illness while at Dilley, had died soon after her release. "The child died following her stay at an ICE Detention Center, as a result of possible negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children," the tweet said. She added that the girl had a grandmother in New Jersey. Yegani said she learned of the death online through a Washington, D.C., lawyer, Melissa Turcios. In an email to The Washington Post, Turcios said she is a friend of the child's family and is helping them to obtain pro bono legal counsel but had no further comment. WESTPORT Accused rapist Harvey Weinstein has been seen in the area multiple times in recent days, catching the attention of moviegoers and visitors to a town deli. He comes here on weekends a lot, Mariola Zhizhpon, who works at Calises Food Market, said on Wednesday. Hes very friendly. He reads newspapers and eats cookies. Weinstein posted his second $1 million bond in several months in July, which allows the disgraced mogul to move between New York City and his Beachside Avenue home in Westport, provided he forfeits his passport, wears an ankle monitor and stays away from the three women whose accusations have resulted in charges in New York courts. Although he sold his Westport property to a neighbor for $16 million in February, Weinstein returned after spending several months at an addiction treatment center in Arizona earlier this year. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he has been living there since May and is permitted under the sale agreement to live there until February, according to The Washington Post. Weinstein, who is working as a paralegal at his lawyers Manhattan law firm and commutes from Westport to the office, was indicted last month on two counts of predatory sexual assault. The 66-year-old also faces charges for allegedly raping a woman in a hotel room in 2013 and for forcing former actress, Lucia Evans, to perform oral sex at his office in 2004. More than 75 women have now accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. He could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. More for you Harvey Weinstein spotted at Norwalk movie theater According to Zhizhpon, Weinstein is seen regularly at the Westport deli, often in dark sunglasses, hooded sweatshirts and hats pulled low over his face. He stops here frequently and has lunch or dinner or whatever, Michael Calise, father-in-law of the owner of Calises, said. Weinstein was also allegedly spotted in neighboring Norwalk at the Bow Tie Ultimate Royale 6 on July 29 and 30, according to celebrity gossip site TMZ. The disgraced movie producer, wearing all black, a hat and sunglasses, watched Transylvania 3 and Mission: Impossible Fallout. Weinstein is due back in New York Superior Court Sept. 20, and in the meantime, may still be seen catching a movie or reading the days news at one of his favorite spots in the area. He grabs a lot of attention, Zhizhpon said. She said she hasnt seen customers approach Weinstein. But, once hes left the deli, surprised and worried customers will often ask her to confirm whether it was really the alleged rapist they just saw standing in line. People are still upset about what happened, she said. Includes prior reporting from the Associated Press. Sophie Vaughan also contributed to this report. President Donald Trump's tariffs threaten to throw his "America First" vision into reverse, prompting manufacturers to ship production and jobs overseas to dodge new trade barriers. That's one takeaway from the Institute for Supply Management's July survey, which tracks sentiment among industry executives. It reveals a rising tide of alarm among manufacturers about the direction of the administration's trade offensive - even before the White House announced Wednesday that it is considering hiking proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent. "We're seeing a lot of comments from the respondents about evaluating whether to manufacture something in the U.S. or make it in Canada or make it in Mexico," Timothy Fiore, chairman of the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing survey, said Wednesday, per Bloomberg News. "If the end market is Europe or China . . . you're going to want to move it outside the U.S. at this point." Ned Hill, an Ohio State University professor who studies manufacturing, tells me he's hearing the same thing. "Companies I talk to are starting to compare their offshore production pricing to their North American production pricing. . . Their pricing departments are working overtime and exercising spreadsheets quite actively," he says. They have yet to make any decisions, pending more clarity about where the trade war is headed, Hill says. But for many, shifting production wouldn't require major investments. He said the Trump administration may be "missing the Rubik's cube that a modern, U.S.-headquartered global corporation plays with. The big change since 2000 is putting production platforms near major markets. . . They can ship into any market in the world from any of their other factories." The state of play suggest Harley-Davidson - which in June announced it would move some manufacturing abroad to duck retaliatory European tariffs, drawing a tirade from Trump - may be a harbinger of a wider trend. If more U.S. companies follow the motorcycle maker's lead, the headlines alone would create a political migraine for a president who campaigned on promises to restore American manufacturing might. That factory flight is hardly inevitable. The ISM survey showed the manufacturing index in July had slipped to 58.1 percent - it's the lowest in fourth months, representing a steeper drop than forecasters anticipated. But it remains close to a multiyear high. (Anything above 50 percent indicates companies are expanding.) "The report was not as strong as [last] month's, but it was still quite strong, despite continued angst about trade policy," Jim O'Sullivan, chief economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients. Others said the relative strength in the report represents a lagging indicator, especially if the trade fight continues to escalate. "The ISM index remains at a high level, consistent with decent growth and strong payrolls, but that will change if the relatively small tariffs imposed so far are followed by the $200B-worth of new levies now under consideration by the administration," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a research note to clients. "Dumb policy hurts." And Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics predicted in a note that the manufacturing growth will continue to weaken through the second half of the year. Detroit automakers, for example, are showing worrying signs. Ford last week reported that its second-quarter profit fell almost by half, and it slashed its outlook for the rest of the year, citing in part rising commodity costs from tariffs. General Motors likewise pointed to spiking steel and aluminum prices as it cut its profit forecast for the year. The specter of an uglier trade war is factoring into a decision the company is struggling to make over whether to close a plant in Lordstown, Ohio - and potentially move that production to Mexico. Manufacturers' anxiety about the trade war was evident in the feedback they offered ISM. About half mentioned tariffs in their general comments, up from a third when the survey started tracking the issue in March, per Bloomberg. The sentiment is also showing up in second-quarter earnings calls. Bespoke Investment Group reports in a note that halfway through this earnings season, mentions of tariffs by S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have already doubled relative to the entire first quarter. KABUL, Afghanistan - Three foreigners were kidnapped in Kabul and found shot dead in a car on Thursday, in the latest sign of the capital's declining security. No group has asserted immediate responsibility for the incident which comes amid rising criminal activities mostly involving Afghan nationals in recent months in Kabul in some other major cities. WASHINGTON - Republicans say two states that President Donald Trump won in landslides are heading in opposite directions in the battle for the Senate majority, as they expressed increasing confidence about capturing North Dakota but diminishing hopes about West Virginia. With fewer than 100 days to the midterm elections, top Republicans have concluded that North Dakota represents their best chance to flip a seat from blue to red, with Rep. Kevin Cramer, R, looking to unseat first-term Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. A win in North Dakota would be a major step toward the GOP majority protecting its slim advantage in the Senate. At the same time, Republicans have grown more pessimistic about West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, is trying to fend off state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Officials in both parties, though, say the seats are still up for grabs and cautioned that much can change between now and Election Day. The top Senate Democratic super PAC, Senate Majority PAC, said this week that it is spending $17 million to reserve airtime for August television commercials in six states, including those two. No other states where Democratic senators are running for reelection went more heavily for Trump in 2016 than North Dakota and West Virginia. Trump won the former by 36 percentage points over Hillary Clinton and prevailed in the latter by 43. But conversations with lawmakers and strategists trying to keep the Senate under Republican control underscored a shift in the political landscape for Trump's party. Strategists attribute the development heavily to the ability of the Republican challengers. "I think that's probably one of the top pickup opportunities for us," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaking of North Dakota. "Most things I've seen, people list that as the number one." At the same time, Cornyn called Manchin a "formidable politician." On camera Tuesday, the Republican senator even congratulated Manchin for breaking ranks with Democratic leaders and meeting with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. "He's a nice guy. Everybody likes Joe. Problem is he votes wrong 95 percent of the time," Cornyn added. One top Republican strategist in close contact with Senate Republican leaders offered a more dramatic view. The strategist was willing to bet their mortgage on victory in North Dakota, but in West Virginia, the strategist said, Manchin has "done quite a bit to solidify himself" against a GOP challenger who "still hasn't found his voice." The strategist spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 advantage in the Senate, making every competitive race potentially decisive in the fight for control of the chamber. The GOP is defending far fewer seats than Democrats, who are trying to fortify 10 states Trump won where Democrats are facing reelection. North Dakota has long been a top priority for both parties. Several GOP strategists said they have reviewed recent private polling showing Cramer leading Heitkamp. Public polling has been sparse and has shown a tight race. Trump campaigned for Cramer in June, following a period of tense relations between the congressman and the White House. GOP strategists believe this allowed the party to frame the contest as a national one and remind voters of their party allegiances. But Heitkamp has defied the odds before, narrowly winning an open race in 2012 that many Republicans had counted on winning. She emphasized that history in a brief conversation on Wednesday. "The significance of actually getting things done for the state and being able to have a record is pretty important in North Dakota," said Heitkamp. "And we've got a record that I think cannot be matched by the congressman." But Cramer has been in Congress for as long as Heitkamp has, effectively holding a statewide office, since North Dakota has only one House representative. He has aligned himself closely with Trump, while Heitkamp has sided with the president on some issues and broken with him on others, most notably the tax law and trade. "He's a conservative. He's a good candidate," Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said of Cramer. The powerful network backed by conservative industrialist Charles Koch and like-minded donors announced Monday that it had no plans to back Cramer. The announcement marked the network's latest show of hostility toward Trump and his allies. Trump personally recruited Cramer to run, and Cramer has strongly backed the president's policies. Republican leaders have been less effusive about Morrisey. The most recent public polling has shown Manchin leading the Republican, who emerged from a bruising primary in May. Morrisey's past lobbying ties to the pharmaceutical industry and his run for Congress in New Jersey in 2000 have given Democrats fodder to portray him as out of touch with West Virginia. "I know my state," said Manchin. "I'm born and raised there." Some Democrats privately acknowledged that North Dakota and West Virginia have been trending in different directions. But they said they believe West Virginia has moved further in their favor than North Dakota has faded from their grasp. Nathan Gonzales, a nonpartisan political analyst for Inside Elections, moved both races out of the "toss-up" category last month. North Dakota headed to "Tilts Republican." West Virginia went to "Tilts Democratic." Beyond North Dakota, Republicans are most hopeful about flipping Indiana, where Democrats are trying to protect Sen. Joe Donnelly from Republican businessman Mike Braun, and Missouri, where GOP leaders recruited state Attorney General Josh Hawley to try to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D. They are also hopeful about Florida. There, Sen. Bill Nelson, D, is in a tough race against Gov. Rick Scott, R. But Democrats have their own chances to make gains. In Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller, R, faces an uphill climb against Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, who received an endorsement from former president Barack Obama on Wednesday. In Arizona, a strong early showing by Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D, has given her party a chance to pick up the seat Sen. Jeff Flake, R, is vacating. In Tennessee, which holds its primary Thursday, Republican Sen. Bob Corker's retirement has led to a competitive open race. Top national security officials made a rare appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday to warn that Russia continues to target U.S. elections and to outline what is being done to combat the interference. "In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats said. "We know there are others who have the capability and may be considering influence activities." The joint appearance by Coats, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, national security adviser John Bolton, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone comes as the administration is facing criticism over its efforts to deal with election interference and continuing questions over how seriously President Donald Trump takes the threat. Lawmakers and independent analysts say that voting systems are more secure against hackers, thanks to action at the federal and state levels - and that the Russians have not targeted those systems to the degree they did in 2016. But Russian efforts to manipulate U.S. voters through misleading social media postings are likely to have grown more sophisticated and harder to detect, and there is not a sufficiently strong government strategy to combat information warfare against the U.S., outside experts warn. Thursday's press conference was the first time that the heads of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies with a role in preventing election interference have appeared together to address the threat. It follows a meeting last week of the National Security Council on election security, the first Trump has led on the matter, which lasted less than an hour and produced no new orders on how to counter or deter the interference. The agency leaders announced no new policies and in some instances did not directly answer questions about what particular guidance or orders they were given to counteract Russian moves. The officials described Russian actions observed to date as significant, but not as multi-faceted as what intelligence agencies saw during the 2016 campaign. "We are not yet seeing the same kinds of efforts to specifically target election infrastructure" as in 2016, Wray said, referring to Russian penetration of voter rolls and other efforts to attack the machinery that collects and tabulates vote counts. "What we are seeing are the malign influence operations," he said, which has played out in propaganda efforts on social media that Wray called "information warfare." Coats said that Russian activity in preparation for the midterms "is not the kind of robust campaign" the country launched two years ago. Nakasone, who is also the newly installed commander of U.S. Cyber Command, which has the authority to attack and disable foreign computer networks, was asked what orders he'd been given to counteract Russian interference. Nakasone didn't answer that question directly and said, "We're not going to accept meddling in the elections." Hours earlier, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled legislation that would impose aggressive new sanctions on Russia. The move represents the latest attempt by lawmakers to push congressional leaders to intensify punitive measures against would-be election hackers and symbolizes their growing frustration with the White House, which has offered mixed messages on Russia's attempts to manipulate the American electorate and so far declined to fully implement sanctions already available to the administration. - - - The Washington Post's Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration announced plans Thursday to freeze fuel-efficiency requirements for the nation's cars and trucks through 2026 - a massive regulatory rollback likely to spur a legal battle with California and other states, as well as create potential upheaval in the nation's automotive market. The proposal represents an abrupt reversal of the findings that the government reached under President Barack Obama, when regulators argued that requiring more fuel-efficient vehicles would improve public health, combat climate change and save consumers money without compromising safety. Trump's plan also would revoke California's long-standing legal waiver to set its own tailpipe restrictions, granted under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which the state has used most recently to try to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. It also would restrict the ability of states to follow California's lead - something a dozen states and the District of Columbia already have done. The likely legal clash over the policy threatens to rupture the nation's auto market, doing away with uniform national standards negotiated by the Obama administration and potentially forcing automakers to produce different vehicles to meet standards in different states - something the industry has said it does not want. On Thursday, a group of 19 attorneys general joined California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who vowed that the state would "use every legal tool at its disposal to defend today's national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them." California Gov. Jerry Brown was more emphatic, saying his state "will fight this stupidity in every conceivable way possible." The Trump administration's proposal argues that forcing automakers to essentially double the fuel economy of their fleets to reach an average of roughly 54 miles per gallon by 2025, as the Obama administration proposed in 2012, would make vehicles more expensive and encourage people to stick to driving older, less-safe cars and trucks. Rather, the administration's analysis, published jointly by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, estimates that halting fuel-efficiency targets at 2020 levels could save $500 billion in "societal costs," avoid thousands of highway fatalities and save Americans an estimated $2,340 on the cost of each new car. The same analysis acknowledges that easing the Obama-era standards would increase U.S. fuel consumption by roughly half a million barrels of oil per day and contribute to global warming from increased greenhouse gas emissions. Public-health experts and environmental groups quickly condemned the White House proposal, arguing that it ignores the health benefits from less-polluting cars and would lead to Americans spending more money at the gas pump. They said the rollback would allow more carbon dioxide to spew from the nation's vehicles, squandering a chance to combat climate change in the transportation sector, which has emerged as the nation's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. "By 2030, the pollution equivalent of this rollback will be like firing up 30 coal power plants," Paul Cort, an attorney at the advocacy group Earthjustice, said in a statement. "It's a boon for big oil that ordinary Americans will pay for with their health and their wallets." Some automakers privately have expressed unease at the abrupt freezing of fuel economy standards and the prospect of having to meet different requirements in different states. Industry representatives commended the Trump administration Thursday for putting out multiple options for public comment but stressed that they continue to support fuel-economy increases. "With today's release of the Administration's proposals, it's time for substantive negotiations to begin," Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement. "We urge California and the federal government to find a common sense solution that sets continued increases in vehicle efficiency standards while also meeting the needs of America's drivers." Ross Eisenberg, vice president for energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, added that while the industry had pushed to revisit the Obama-era standards, "ultimately, manufacturers need a single national program that provides regulatory certainty and maintains vehicle affordability." Despite the ambivalence of automakers and the vehement opposition from environmental activists, the Trump administration's push to ease fuel economy standards got a warm reception from oil and gas interests. "What started as a mandate in the mid-1970's to reduce foreign imports of oil morphed into a costly and unworkable environmental regulation thanks to bureaucrats in the previous administration and in Sacramento," Thomas J. Pyle, president of the free-market advocacy group American Energy Alliance, said in a statement. "President Trump should be commended for standing up for American consumers by reducing the regulatory burden placed unnecessarily on automakers." Trump administration officials fought for weeks behind the scenes over the details of how to relax Obama-era standards. Top officials at the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency clashed over whether the White House's justifications for the new policy can stand up to legal scrutiny. In one recent internal presentation, part of which was obtained by The Washington Post, officials at the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality warned that the proposal at that point contained "a wide range of errors, use of outdated data, and unsupported assumptions." Ultimately, the two agencies published Thursday's proposal jointly, and acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler publicly defended the proposal during testimony Wednesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In hundreds of pages of analysis, NHTSA argues that the costs of meeting federal mileage requirements over the next few years would boost the sticker price of vehicles, prompting people to continue driving older cars and trucks rather than buying newer, more efficient ones. That would in turn increase the risks of accidents, they said. EPA officials questioned some of those estimates, as well as the Department of Transportation'sidea that federal officials could block California and other states from imposing their own vehicle tailpipe standards on the grounds that a 1975 energy law reserved that right for the DOT. One key proponent of the new plan is Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen, who oversees the department's deregulatory efforts. NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King, who declined at her confirmation hearing to say whether she believes humans cause climate change, also helped lead the drive to scale back the fuel efficiency regulations, which were among the Obama administration's most significant climate change initiatives. The administration's proposal argues that freezing the fleetwide average of 37 miles per gallon in 2020 would prevent roughly 12,700 traffic fatalities in vehicles built through model year 2029. But it discounts figures showing that more stringent fuel standards would save consumers thousands of dollars in gas costs and prevent the release of billions of tons of greenhouse gases in coming years. President Donald Trump's sparring over trade with Mexico, Canada and much of the rest of the world, his steel and aluminum tariffs, and his threat to impose 25 percent auto-related tariffs, have exacerbated automakers' concerns. The automobile tariffs alone could add thousands of dollars to the price of a car, General Motors told regulators this month. The administration's proposal Thursday centers on two primary arguments: affordability and safety. In both cases, the current administration came to different conclusions than its predecessor. In 2016, EPA and NHTSA estimated that complying with the tighter tailpipe standards would cost roughly $900 and $1,200 per car, respectively, by 2025. Two years later, Trump officials argue that keeping the Obama-era standards could raise vehicle sticker prices by more than $2,300. That shift is crucial, because the proposed Trump freeze, which would block higher fuel standards from taking effect, is based on the idea that meeting stricter emissions targets harms both the economy and motorist safety. The idea that higher gas mileage would translate into less-safe cars has preoccupied policymakers for decades, but a growing body of research challenges that idea. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a study in April 2017 that examined how automakers reduced the weight of vehicles to improve fuel efficiency, and concluded that fatalities declined as a result of stricter efficiency standards. The authors noted that by taking weight out of the fleet overall, it reduced the overall severity of crashes. "Despite considerable resistance to [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards based on concerns that downweighting leads to increased fatalities, we find that CAFE likely saved lives," the authors wrote. "The fatality risk of decreasing the weight of all vehicles by 50 lbs is different than the relative risk of a vehicle that is 50 lbs lighter in a multivehicle crash." Officials at the Aluminum Association, which has urged the Trump administration to reach a compromise with California on a uniform tailpipe standard, said that reducing the weight of cars and light trucks can actually increase safety. David Friedman, who directs cars and product policy and analysis at the Consumers Union and served as NHTSA's acting administrator under the Obama administration, said that for more than a decade, the standards have given manufacturers an incentive to take more weight out of heavier cars and leave the weight in lighter vehicles, which has bolstered safety. "It lowers the energy of the crashes, and it does so in the safest way possible," he said. Last year, 37,150 people died on U.S. roads, and several factors contributed far more to that grim toll than any potential impact related to tailpipe regulations. For example, more than a quarter of all road deaths were connected to drunken driving, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 25 percent of deaths involved speeding, the CDC said. The Trump administration said Thursday that it will accept public comment on its latest proposal for 60 days. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the EPA also plan to hold public hearings in Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles. The suspect accused of fatally shooting a beloved local physician was a former Harris County constable who, according to one former acquaintance, shied away from talking about his past. Joseph James Pappas, 62, was identified Wednesday as the suspect who shot and killed Houston physician Dr. Mark Hausknecht two weeks ago. Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a news conference Wednesday that Pappas's mother had been a patient of Hausknecht more than 20 years ago when she died in surgery. SEARCHING: Arrest warrant out for suspect in slaying of Houston doctor Acevedo said there had been a 20-year grudge between the suspect and the doctor. "There was a lot of planning that went into this and, sadly, some skill," Acevedo said. "The shots that he took took some skill." Pappas served in the Harris County Constable's Office in precinct 2 and precinct 7 for about 30 years, according to records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. He is believed to be suicidal, armed and dangerous, Acevedo said. He recently sent someone a text message saying he wanted to kill himself. He also has not been seen for around 36 hours. Acevedo did not go into specifics about the physical evidence that ties Pappas to the crime. However, he said police believe he is in possession of multiple firearms. He was also known to ride a 10-speed bicycle as his primary mode of transportation. Pappas lives in the Westbury neighborhood. His neighbors said they believed he was retired and that he lived alone in the home that was his parents. RECENT CONTACT: Ohio woman reveals recent conversations with suspect A former acquaintance, Yvonne Shaw, said she had been homeless around 2000 when Pappas let her stay with him at his apartment in Houston for about two weeks. He told her he worked as an undercover police officer, but she said he didn't like to talk about his job or his past. "I couldn't figure anything out, and I didn't want to ask him too much because I hardly knew him," Shaw said, later adding, "I thought he was a little secretive about that stuff." She also described him as caring. At one point during her brief stay, she said Pappas let her three children stay in his apartment. Shaw, now a truck driver in Alabama, said he also gave her money to travel to Georgia to be with her mother. AT HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Slain Houston doctor remembered at memorial service She said they lost contact when she left Texas, and she hasn't heard from him. "To me, he was a very nice person," she said. "He cared about people. He didn't seem like someone who would hurt anybody." Shaw said he never talked about his family or his relationship with his mother. However, she said he frequently rode a 10-speed bicycle. "He always had it inside so no one would steal it," Shaw said. Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com Galveston County deputies arrested disgraced former Judge Christopher Dupuy near Austin on Monday morning on outstanding warrants from both Galveston and Harris County. Dupuy, who served as a Galveston County judge from 2010 to 2013, faces two charges of online impersonation stemming from a 2015 arrest and was being held on a $400,000 in bond in Galveston County jail, Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset said. WEBSTER: Ex-HPD officer charged in stalking, "revenge porn" case Harris County also issued a warrant for a stalking charge against Dupuy in May, which carries an $888,888 bond, after a woman filed a stalking complaint alleging Dupuy had followed and threatened to kill her. Trochesset said deputies from the Galveston County Sheriff's warrant division traveled to the Austin area to find Dupuy. With the help of U.S. Marshals and Austin Police Department officers, they executed a search warrant at a residence south of Austin on Monday morning. "At the time when they walked in, (Dupuy) was pulling the attic door down like he was making an attempt to climb into the attic to hide," Trochesset said. Dupuy was arrested and booked in Hays County jail on Monday, where he appeared before a magistrate judge. He was then transferred to Galveston County jail on Tuesday. Dupuy was arrested in League City in July 2015 on two felony counts of online impersonation. Court records claim Dupuy created fake escort ads to take revenge on two of his ex-girlfriends. He allegedly took pictures from the women's facebook's accounts and one texted to him during a previous dating relationship and purchased fake escort ads on Backpage.com promising sex. The ads reportedly included the victims' personal phone numbers. Investigators were able to track down a fake name Dupuy allegedly used to purchase the ads: Don Tequila. And although software was used that masked his computer's IP address, investigators obtained a search warrant and were reportedly able to locate evidence that showed Dupuy was the person behind the fake ads. A visiting judge in the 405th District Court in June 2016 dismissed two counts of online harassment, arguing the state's online impersonation statute was unconstitutional. The 14th Court of Appeals reversed the judge's decision. The Harris County warrant for Dupuy was issued May 24 after a woman filed a complaint that Dupuy had called her about 200 times beginning at 11 p.m. the night before threatening to kill her. The woman told Harris County deputies Dupuy had represented her former husband in their divorce. Dupuy resigned from the bench in 2013 after being charged with multiple counts of lying under oath and abuse of office, including retaliation against the attorney representing his wife in a divorce case. Nick Powell covers Galveston County for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and send him tips at nick.powell@chron.com A teenager is facing a felony charge after deputies discovered him allegedly having sex with an underage girl in a park-and-ride lot near The Woodlands. Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputies were patrolling in the Woodlands Express park-and-ride lot in the 700 block of Westridge Road on Tuesday when they spotted 19-year-old Nicholas Hamauei, of Houston, and a 14-year-old girl allegedly having sex inside a parked car. A woman is dead and another is hospitalized after a driver struck both of them near downtown before fleeing the scene, according to San Antonio police. The two women were crossing Martin Street Wednesday night around 9:40 p.m. when they were hit by a speeding red pickup, police said. 3 1 of 3 Ronald Cortes / Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Ronald Cortes /Contributor Show More Show Less 3 of 3 City Clerk Leticia Vacek on Thursday certified that a coalition of grassroots activists had collected enough valid signatures to force City Council to adopt a paid sick leave ordinance, or put the measure to a public vote. The council did not take action on the proposal; instead, council members are planning to gather public input at a hearing Aug. 8 ahead of an Aug. 16 council meeting. As of Monday, 711 children who were effectively kidnapped and held hostage by the Trump administration remain in government custody, supposedly ineligible to be reunited with their families. What happens to them now? The government wont say, apparently doesnt know and evidently doesnt care. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who had ordered that those children and nearly 2,000 others be returned to their loved ones by last week, summed up the administrations cruel incompetence at a court hearing Friday: What was lost in the process was the family. The parents didnt know where the children were, and the children didnt know where the parents were. And the government didnt know either. That was, of course, the whole point of this sordid and unforgivable exercise. The xenophobic cultural warriors in the administration President Trump, policy adviser Stephen Miller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a message to refugees fleeing rampant violence in Central America: If you show up at the border seeking asylum, as is your right, you might have your children taken away and never see them again. The administration knew that child separations would be the inevitable result of a zero tolerance policy in which all undocumented border-crossers most of them accused of nothing more than a misdemeanor offense were jailed and put on trial. But officials did not care enough to implement a system for keeping track of parents and their children, some still in diapers. Imagine the terror and despair those 711 ineligible children must feel. It is monstrous to gratuitously inflict such pain. It is, in a word, torture. In 120 cases, according to the government, a parent waived reunification with the child. This claim cannot be taken at face value, however, since immigration advocates cite widespread reports of parents being coerced or fooled into signing documents they did not understand. It shocks and depresses me to have to write this, but I wonder whether Trump and his minions see these Central Americans brown-skinned, with indigenous features as fully human. In 431 cases involving children between 5 and 17, officials reported, the parents have either been deported or have left the country voluntarily. If these parents were going to be denied permission to stay in the United States, what was the big hurry to kick them out? Why couldnt the administration wait until their children could be brought back from wherever they were being kept? Even more incredibly, in 79 cases the childrens parents have been released into the United States. In other words, the parents have some legal status but the government has their children. And in 94 cases, according to Trump administration officials, the parents cannot be located. What are the odds, do you think, that these men and women will ever be found? Where do parents go to begin the process of tracking down their children? How do you tell a 5-year-old that she may never see her mother and father again? The government is also still holding 46 children under 5 whom officials cannot or will not give back to their parents. Think of the trauma being inflicted on 2-year-olds to make a political point. All of this is happening because Trump has no respect for law or due process and no sense of empathy. He was reportedly upset this spring by a rise in border crossings by asylum-seekers, who by law had to be allowed to stay pending resolution of their claims. He and Sessions seized upon the pretext for which they have not provided evidence that children were being trafficked into the country for some reason. If youre smuggling a child, then were going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law, Sessions said in May. If you dont want your child separated, then dont bring them across the border illegally. Think, for a moment, of the millions of Irish, Italian, Eastern European and other immigrants who smuggled children into the United States families such as Trumps own. The only difference is that those earlier immigrants, though sometimes rejected at first, came to be seen as white. Brown immigrants need not apply. Not if they want to see their kids again. eugenerobinson@washpost.com Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently asked President Donald Trump, Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack? It is a fair question one that many Americans were asking following Trumps performance at the NATO summit and it deserved a better answer than the presidents musing on the aggressive nature of Montenegrins. Instead, Trump should have recalled the words he spoke last year in Poland praising the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising, the 74th anniversary of which was marked on Wednesday. In one of the most powerful speeches of his presidency, Trump recalled the terrible price that millions paid for the Wests failure to deter Nazi and Soviet aggression. Under a double occupation, the Polish people endured evils beyond description, Trump recalled: the Katyn forest massacre, the occupations, the Holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the destruction of this beautiful capital city and the deaths of nearly 1 in 5 Polish people. A vibrant Jewish population the largest in Europe was reduced to almost nothing after the Nazis systematically murdered millions of Polands Jewish citizens. The reason NATO was created out of the ashes of World War II was precisely to make certain such destruction never happens again. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain famously dismissed Germanys threats to Czechoslovakia, declaring that Britain should not get drawn into war because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing. The lesson we learned from that experience is that weakness is provocative. When adversaries believe you are weak, they are emboldened to act and prone to miscalculate. When they believe you are strong and determined, however, they are far less likely to test you and start cataclysmic wars. Trump believes in peace through strength. But to have peace requires not just military strength. As Trump said in Warsaw, President Ronald Reagan used the military far less than any of those who succeeded him in office not just because he rebuilt Americas military strength but also because Americas adversaries did not doubt his willingness to use it. Why did Russian President Vladimir Putin believe he could invade Ukraine and annex Crimea without consequence? It was no mere coincidence that Russias intervention happened just six months after President Barack Obama failed to enforce his red line in Syria. Putin saw that Obama imposed no costs on Syrian President Bashar al-Assads defiance, unwilling to launch strikes that a U.S. official said would be just muscular enough not to get mocked. At that moment, he knew there would be no real costs for his intervention in Ukraine. Obama projected weakness. On taking office, Trump rectified that situation by enforcing Obamas Syria red line, not once but twice sending a message of strength that was heard not just in Damascus but in Moscow as well. There is a reason Putin despises the NATO alliance so much and has fought to prevent further integration of the countries of Eastern Europe into it. He knows he may be able to bully his unallied neighbors, but he cant bully a NATO ally because that ally is backed up by 28 others, bonded by a mutual commitment to each others security and led by an American president who, while seeking friendship with all, is unafraid to flex U.S. military muscle. That is why Putin opposed the admission of Montenegro into the NATO alliance, reportedly even backing a plot to assassinate Montenegros prime minister in an effort to stop it. That is why Putin wants Trump to fail in his effort to get the NATO allies to meet their commitments and spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. He understands that a weak NATO cannot deter him but a strong NATO can. As Trump said in Warsaw, As long as we know our history, we will know how to build our future. Americans know that a strong alliance of free, sovereign and independent nations is the best defense for our freedoms and for our interests. The whole point of NATO is not to defend Montenegro; it is to make sure we never have to defend Montenegro or Warsaw, or Paris, or London again. Jeff Sessions policy against immigrants wanting into the United States legally because of domestic and/or gang violence is first and foremost about stopping women and kids who need help and sanctuary. I find it impossible to get it into my head that I once identified myself as a republican. Please dont capitalize that word not deserving of my beliefs as a conservative. As a Christian who tries to walk the walk with Jesus and often fails miserably, I am astounded by the hypocrisy of this party that implies that Democrats cannot possibly be Christian. A Republican Party whose policies are devoid of any compassion or sense of justice, who employ harsh rhetoric and commit ethical misdeeds, is a party that begs the question: who in this great state of Texas would want to be be associated with it? Dianne Lavake, Zapata Water waste Did you know that six-plus hours of water running between two homes and down the street during Stage 1 water restrictions is not considered an emergency, according to SAWS. It is up to the person who reports it to say its an emergency. If the caller doesnt say this is an emergency, than SAWS has two days to respond. Really? How much water would be wasted in 48 hours if someone doesnt do something to stop the flow of water. Does this make sense to anyone? John D. Shicora Why the denial? Most Republicans seem to accept science such as medicine and engineering, but when it comes to climate science suddenly sirens wail, red lights flash and climate scientists are vilified and ridiculed. What dark arts do these scientists possess to cause such extreme agitation? Surely climate scientists are as well trained and competent as other scientists, so whats going on? Actually, this hysteria has less to do with science, and far more to do with the massive contributions that most GOP politicians receive from the fossil fuel industry; including retiring Congressional District 21 Rep. Lamar Smith the inconceivable chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. And sadly, his wannabe successor, Republican Chip Roy, is following in Smiths anti-environmental footsteps. Fortunately however, Joseph Kopser, the Democratic nominee for Congressional District 21, is a strong champion for science, climate and clean energy. Stephen Shackelford, Austin Bad statistic Re: Oil promises, Your Turn, June 10: The writer states that the price of gasoline today has almost doubled in the last year. In a recent edition of the San Antonio Express-News, an article states that the national average for gasoline is presently $2.91 per gallon. So if the price has doubled in the past year according to the letter, then we were supposedly paying only on average nationally $1.405 per gallon a year ago!! The last time we were paying this kind of national average price per gallon of gasoline was in 2001, according to data that can be found at statista.com, which is definitely not a year ago! Edward Esparza Educate yourself I chuckle to myself when I read the letters calling for the resignation of Cynthia Brehm, the recently elected chairman of the Bexar County Republican Party. All anyone had to do was spend a little time educating themselves on the candidates and had they done that Ms. Brehm would not have been elected. That task, educating oneself, simple as it is, seems to elude most Texas voters. If anyone had attended any event where Ms. Brehm spoke or looked into her stance on the issues, they would have realized in short order that she is not qualified to hold any elected office. Period! This, I believe, can be said of many of the candidates in our electorate. Voters simply are uneducated about for whom they are voting. I am a lifelong Republican but I have never voted a straight ticket in the general election in my life and I have never missed voting in an election. I research every candidate, regardless of party, and prepare an analysis, without passion, based on a variety of criteria. My wife and I then discuss and debate my analysis. We may not vote for the most qualified candidate but at least we go to the polls with the knowledge that we have done our homework and we are voting for someone that we believe will do the best job for the office the respective candidate seeks. As long as Texans keep going to the polls uneducated about what the candidate actually stands for, we will continue to elect people like Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton and Sid Miller and Cynthia Brehm. Richard E. Gohn Hollywood hate I just want to say one thing I think the Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro is the lowest form of human life in the United States. The shameful and disgusting things he continues to say about the POTUS on national television are traitorous. He and his liberal Hollywood friends hate the POTUS more than they love their own country. Lawrence McMahan King Trump? Premature? The movie The Man Who Would Be King was released way back in 1975. Jim Douglas The three Republican candidates for lieutenant governor met in their first debate Wednesday night on NBC Connecticut. Endorsed candidate state Sen. Joe Markley, Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson and New Britain mayor Erin Stewart showed their distinct personalities in the debate, which was mostly cordial until the closing statements. Senator Markley, however, has a voting record with some very difficult votes that are going to be very difficult and likely risk the Republicans being able to win in November, Stevenson said, then turning to attack Stewart for being too liberal. Ive won consistently in areas where Im not supposed to win, Stewart said. Markley defended his no vote on a yes means yes college campus sexual assault bill, and said he is unabashedly pro-life. Both Markley and Stewart said they would support legislation requiring parental notification for teenagers to get an abortion. Stevenson, a mother of four daughters, said she would like to add her experience to the discussion if it were to take place. I dont think any discussion is an unhealthy discussion, Markley said. I think that we have to be frank about what we believe and I think we have to be respectful of peoples opinions and I think as a party, we have to be open to a complete range of ideology. A second debate featuring the Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor will take place at 8:30 p.m. Thursday night and will air live on NBC Connecticuts Facebook page and website. NBC political reporter Max Reiss will moderate as he did Wednesday. kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt The future of some of the South Sides oldest businesses and busiest thoroughfares is at stake as City Council decides Thursday whether to downzone dozens of properties near the historic missions. For the last six months, the city has been butting heads with property owners as it seeks to downzone their land in order to reduce the number of mechanics, tire shops and motels on corridors such as Roosevelt and Presa streets. The city hopes the new zoning will diversify the South Sides economy and clean up the areas around the missions, which became international tourist destinations when they achieved World Heritage status in 2015. The citys proposal, led by its World Heritage Office, has deeply divided South Side residents, who are confronting the question of how to preserve their neighborhoods while accepting new development and an influx of tourists. Many residents support the citys effort, including the neighborhood associations for Mission San Jose, Roosevelt Park and Lone Star. They say that the areas zoning was too permissive in the past, leading to an overabundance of mechanics and motels. Many of the businesses arent well-kept, and some of the motels are hotspots for crime, they say. The new zoning would give residents more say in what gets built in their neighborhoods, said Theresa Ybanez, president of the Mission San Jose Neighborhood Association. She wants to see new businesses such as coffee shops, pet groomers and bakeries. If those businesses were good neighbors, we wouldnt have a problem at all, Ybanez said. Im very confident that the right thing is going to happen. But to the business owners who would be affected many of whom have been in the area for decades the citys proposal is a violation of property rights. A few South Side groups have come out against it, including the Alliance for San Antonio Missions, an organization set up to protect the missions. The city has assured the property owners that their businesses will be grandfathered into the new zoning, meaning they could remain there indefinitely and could be sold or passed to relatives. But many of the owners simply dont trust the city and fear they will be pushed aside for new development. To read more about the rezoning battle, see Thursdays front page or click here for the full story on our subscriber website, ExpressNews.com. Richard Webner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rwebner@express-news.net | Twitter: @RWebner The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging consumers to immediately replace or remove latches and locks on recalled Lane and Virginia Maid cedar chests. The chests have been linked to the deaths of at least 14 children. Million of Dangerous Chests Remain Unfixed According to a release, the CPSC originally recalled 12 million cedar chests manufactured by Lane and Virginia Maid in 1996 after noting that the automatically locking latches pose an entrapment and suffocation hazard to children. However, millions of these dangerous products remain unfixed. Federal authorities state that between 1977 and 2015, 14 children have suffocated to death after becoming locked in the recalled chests. However, because the chests were initially manufactured in 1912, it is likely that additional deaths remain unrecorded. The Lane Company and brand were recently acquired by United Furniture Industries, Inc. who is now distributing free replacement latches and locks to affected consumers. Until a replace lock and latch is received, consumers should remove old style latches to eliminate the hazard. Consumers should remember that in many cases, these recalled chests are handed down or purchased second-hand. Child Choking, Suffocation, and Strangulation Statistics The following statistics are provided by SafeKids USA: In 2013, 1,268 children under the age of 19 died from airway obstruction injuries and suffocation. Sadly, 77% of children who suffocated were under 12 months old and 60% were boys. 819 children under the age of 1 died from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed and 155 died from choking on food or foreign objects. Cribs and playpens are responsible for 20% of all nursery product-related injuries among children ages 5 and under. An additional 24,000 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms for nonfatal suffocation or inhalation annually. Button batteries are particularly dangerous because when they gets stuck in a childs throat, saliva triggers an electrical current that causes a chemical reaction resulting in burns to the esophagus. Contact an Experienced Child Injury Attorney If your child sustained a choking or strangulation injury due to someone else's negligence or due to a defective or dangerous product, contact Thomas J. Henry. Thousands of children are injured each year after being choked or strangled by a defective product, unsafe toy, or due to the negligence of daycare or school staff. Let us help you and your child get justice and the compensation you deserve. Call our experienced child choking hazard attorneys today for a free case review. Editors Note: This content is made possible by Thomas J. Henry Personal Injury Law. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The San Antonio Express-News' or mySanAntonio.com's editorial staff. Learn more about our advertising products at www.hearstmediasanantonio.com. - No fewer than 18 APC lawmakers defected to the PDP in Sokoto - The lawmakers said this was as a result of the inability to bring unity to the APC - They joined Governor Aminu Tambuwal to announce his defection earlier Eighteen out of the 30 members of the Sokoto state House of Assembly on Wednesday, August 1, defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the speaker, Salihu Maidaji, who was among the 18 defecting members, made the announcement at the Assembly plenary on Wednesday. Maidaji said: We the undersigned 18 members of the Sokoto State House of Assembly belong and identify with the faction of the APC led by one of its founders, Buba Galadima. READ ALSO: Breaking: Buhari embarks on 10-day London vacation, transfers power to Osinbajo We are aware that all efforts to bring sanity into the APC and unite the different groups, camps and faction have proved abortive. After several attempts and efforts and the election is around the corner and we stand in danger if we remained in a party that is divided against itself. As such, in accordance with the letters and spirit of Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution as amended, hereby defect to PDP forthwith." Reacting to the resolution by the 18 members, the remaining 12 members at a press briefing after the plenary wished them well in their new party. Sani Yakubu (APC-Gudu), who spoke on their behalf said that the 12 members would continue to remain committed and loyal to the APC-led government under President Muhammadu Buhari. PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state on Wednesday, August 1, who defected from the ruling All Progressive Congress to his former party, Peoples Democratic Party said the APC has brazenly turned itself into a sanctuary for the corrupt and a machine for rigging. In a statement he released on Wednesday, the governor said the country economy is not showing any real signs of improvement saying that it is unacceptable that majority of those who voted for APC in 2015 should have nothing good to show for it. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? | Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit President Muhammadu Buhari met with some senators of the All Progressives Congress at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, August 1. The development was made public by the personal assistant to the president on new media, Bashir Ahmad, via his Twitter handle, @BashirAhmaad. READ ALSO: Buhari receives Gambian president in Aso Rock As he tweeted: Details of the meeting are not yet known at this time. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari met with senators on the platform of the All Progressives Congress at the Aso Rock Villa on Wednesday, July 25. The meeting was reportedly related to the mass defection of senators on the platform to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Days after the meeting, no fewer than three governors have dumped the APC for the PDP. Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state on Wednesday, August 1, defected from the ruling party to his former party, the PDP. He said the APC has brazenly turned itself into a sanctuary for the corrupt and a machine for rigging. The governor also said the country's economy is not showing any real signs of improvement saying that it is unacceptable that majority of those who voted for APC in 2015 should have nothing good to show for it. Eighteen out of the 30 members of the Sokoto state House of Assembly also defected from the ruling party. Buhari reacts to APC senators betrayal - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng - The gale of defection in Nigeria's politics in recent times continues to generate reactions - A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Anthony Chima, says the move is a ploy to derail the chances of the Southeast region to produce a president in 2023 - He called on south-easterners not to be deceived by the defectors and vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the upcoming election The gale of defection from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties has been described as a strategic plan by enemies of Ndigbo to ensure that the presidency eludes the southeast come 2023. This was stated by an APC chieftain in Imo state, Prince Anthony Chyma, in a press statement sent to Legit.ng on Tuesday, July 31, in Abuja. He said a calculated attempt is being made to thwart the chances of President Muhammudu Buhari from handing over power to a candidate from the southeast come 2023. READ ALSO: 12 Sokoto lawmakers declare support for President Buhari, abandon Tambuwal His words: The gale of defection is a strategic plan by enemies of Ndigbo to ensure that the presidency eludes the Southeast come 2023. I call on all well meaning Ndigbo to lend their support to President Mahammudu Buhari to reciprocate his kind gesture of supporting the Southeast come 2023 for Nigerian president. Enough of sectional politics for Ndigbo. Can we ask ourselves why the Southeast people are rather joining APC instead of defecting, those defectors are out to frustrating the plans of an Ndigbo man being president in the next dispensation. This is our chance now. We should not be deceived by the antics of anti Southeast politicians who would rather die than see a man from the region become the President of Nigeria. Those preaching restructuring are playing on your intelligence. Can they preach it in their regions which definitely does not support such ambiguous claim? I enjoin our great leaders to jettison the call for restructuring which was coined to deceive the people of the Southeast. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app He further stated that the defectors only agenda is to frustrate President Buharis plan for a southeast presidency in 2023. Meanwhile, a member of the APC Board of Trustees, Ismael Ahmed, has said Nigerians now know better and will reject the PDP in the 2019 general elections. Ahmed stated this during his appearance on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, July 25, in Abuja. What we are interested in is the survival of this platform; Nigerians have rejected PDP over and over again and they will reject it in 2019, Gods willing, he said. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Some governors and senators of the PDP on Wednesday, August 1, visited the Benue state governor Samuel Ortom - The PDP politicians said they were in Benue in solidarity with the governor who was faced with an impeachment challenge - Ortom hosting the politicians of the opposition, described himself as a prodigal ready to return home The Peoples democratic Party's national chairman Uche Secondus on Wednesday, August 1, led some PDP governors and senators on a solidarity visit to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state following recent threats to impeach him. In a brief speech when they met Ortom at the Government House, Makurdi, Secondus described the impeachment plot initiated by eight members of the Benue legislature as an act of illegality, and urged Nigerians to rise against it. The House has 30 members; eight members cannot form a quorum to seat, much less plot an impeachment process," he said. The PDP chairman said that they were in Benue to support the governor and welcome him back to the PDP family. He assured him that the PDP would stand by him, urging him to ignore recent allegations hurled at him by people angry that he had left the All Progressives Congress. Ortom, you are not alone, Ben Bruce told the Benue state governor. Photo Credit: Ben Murray-Bruce Twitter READ ALSO: Mama Taraba writes letter to President Buhari on her political plan Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, who spoke on behalf of the governors, assured Ortom of his colleagues support in his trying times. Dickson described the impeachment notice to Ortom by a minority group at the Benue state House of Assembly as nonsense, vowing that the governors would never allow it. Democracy and the rule of law must be given the proper respect in Nigeria, he said. He decried the spate of killings of innocent Nigerians in different parts of the country, and urged the federal government to tackle the phenomenon. Dickson called on the people of Benue to stand by their governor, especially now that he was passing through a trying moment. READ ALSO: President Buhari meets APC governors behind closed door (photos) Responding, Ortom described himself as a prodigal son, and pleaded that PDP should fully receive him back into its fold. He described PDP as his home, saying that he had returned to his family, given that he was no longer comfortable in APC. The governor charged the federal government to respect democratic norms and principle, saying that he would resist any attempt by any agency of government or persons to intimidate him. The governor decried the withdrawal of police personnel from the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the state, and described the action as very dangerous. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Also speaking, the state chairman of the PDP, John Ngbede, admonished the governor to remain firm and not be intimated, saying that the PDP family was solidly behind him in his travails. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin said that not less than four governors on the platform of the PDP are working for the ruling party. Jibrin said the APC has a cross-party arrangement with these governors. He said the APC still remains strong despite losing some key members recently at the National Assembly and the various states. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - The PDP hosted those that just returned to the party, particularly from APC - The national chairman of the party described the returnees as heroes of democracy - According to him, they returned to the party in order to save the country The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday, August 1, hosted some of the rebels of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who defected to its fold. The national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, addressing the defectors at the glitzy Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, described them as true heroes of democracy. Secondus said that the defectors took the bold steps of switching allegiance from the APC to the PDP not only for themselves, for their families, but also for the interest of the country. READ ALSO: Mass defection: President Buhari holds important meeting with APC governors (photos) This is a selfless effort but because it has something to do about our nation with about 200 million people. They took this decision because they cannot continue to sit and watch what is happening in our country today. We need to honour them. They are heroes of democracy. Their decision is to defend our democracy," he said. Secondus reminded the defectors that it is going to be a long walk to freedom. He gave the assurance that the PDP would conduct free primaries that would be the hallmark of democracy in Nigeria. The chairman especially commended the National Assembly members for opening the door of defection to the party. He called on people yet to make up their minds about defecting to PDP to do so, while assuring them of level playing field in the PDP. He said: We have assured you before. We are reassuring you that everything will be in your favour." Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi West Senatorial District, spoke on behalf of the one dozen senators, who left the APC. Melaye, who was also a former member of the party, commended the PDP leadership for welcoming them back. He claimed that more senators would be joining the PDP in next coming weeks. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Bode Ayorinde, representing Owo/Ose federal constituency, Ondo state, spoke on behalf of members of the House of Representatives. He said they decided to rejoin the PDP because they saw it as a rebranded party. Ayorinde said contrary to views that they left APC because there was no money to share, they joined the PDP to put an end to hunger, poverty, killings and dictatorship in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors Forum, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo, has assured that no governor will defect from the party anymore. The governor gave the assurance at the end of a closed door meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and APC governors at the presidential villa on Wednesday night. Okorocha, who briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, said they deliberated on the defections of two of their colleagues. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng - An Anglican Bishop has called for the support of any political party focused on moving Nigeria forward - Rt. Reverend Samuel Ezeofor said the ruling party has disappointed Nigerians - According to him, the All Progressives Congress since taking leadership in 2015 has moved Nigeria backwards The Anglican Bishop of Aguata Diocese, Rt. Reverend Samuel Ezeofor, has called on Nigerians to support any of the political parties that would move the nation forward. Ezeofor while speaking at the Basilica of St. James the Great Cathedral, Atani, headquarters of Anglican Diocese of Ogbaru, during the enthronement of Rt. Rev. Prosper Amah as the second Bishop of Ogbaru Diocese, said the ruling party has disappointed Nigerians. The Bishop said what is important now is for politicians to look around and find out which of the parties that will move the nation forward and then join the bandwagon. READ ALSO: Mama Taraba writes letter to President Buhari on her political plan Vanguard reports that Ezeofor said the All Progressives Congress since taking leadership in 2015 has moved Nigeria backwards. He said: APC has moved us backward and if we must progress, we must do the needful by leaving the APC which could not lead Nigeria to the promised land and queue behind a party that can guarantee our progress because we must progress as a nation since Nigeria is bigger than a single individual or APC as a political party." Ezeofor also urged the new bishop who took over from him as the Anglican Bishop of Ogbaru to surpass his footprints in Ogbaru Diocese by completing the structures he started and at the same time, lead the Anglican faithful to God. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a member of the House of Representatives from Kano state, Abdulmumin Jibrin, claimed that not less than four governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are working for the APC. Jibrin while speaking in Abuja on Wednesday, August 1, said the ruling party have a cross-party arrangement. He also said the APC still remains strong despite losing some key members. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit - Senator Ike Ekweremadu has hurriedly been released by the EFCC - The senator was said to have been released after he suffered high blood pressure while in custody The deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, was said to have been hurriedly released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, August 1, after suffering high blood pressure during an interrogation session. Punch reports that Ekweremadu who was interrogated for over eight hours on Tuesday, July 31, returned for another round of questioning on Wednesday morning. He was however allowed to leave the commission as he took ill hours later. READ ALSO: 2019: 4 PDP governors are secretly working for APC - Jibrin Source at the EFCC said officials of the agency immediately released the deputy Senate president on noticing the symptoms of his ailment. The source said: "During the interrogation on Wednesday, the deputy Senate president started to complain of discomfort and he told us that he had high blood pressure. We noticed the symptoms and we immediately released him." Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the EFCC invited the deputy Senate President for interrogation in its Abuja office. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The commission's detectives began its interrogation with Ekweremadu on Monday, July 30, The Nation reports. A source who spoke on the matter said the fresh invitation followed the DSP's request that he be given a new date for interrogation. READ ALSO: Mama Taraba writes letter to President Buhari on her 2019 political plan The senator is being accused of owning 22 properties which were allegedly not listed in the assets declaration form which he submitted. Street Gist: Should the Nigerian Senate be scrapped? - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng News Like...design your own sparkler, hit up the Haight for pens and pads, and pop into Modern Citizen's latest pop-up. New lady shoe spot in Berkeley will make you and your feet so very happy. A bunch of months ago we went on about our mad love for up-and-coming Oakland footwear designer Shayla Dopp. Now, we're just as psyched to share the news that Dopp is opening the doors to her first, ahem, shoebox-sized store in Berkeley on Sunday, August 5th. To celebrate, there will be a lavender wine, music, and shopping (noon to 6pm). The 270-square-foot space is just as colorful and minimalist as the leather stunners themselves. (Yes, we'e still crushing on the Cindy heel). Dopp describes the boutique as "meant to evoke a mini palatial sitting room with colors of Pompeii frescoes, plants, and scores of colorful shoes." Yes, please. // 2115 Allston Way (Berkeley), dopp.city (Courtesy of Modern Citizen) Modern Citizen settles into new Pac Heights home for a spell. The Cow Hollow e-brand moved out of its (long-term) temporary digs on Union Street a couple months ago. Through September, a new spot on Fillmore Street will serve as its pop-up HQ. Then, word is, it will head back to Union to christen its very first, true brick-and-mortar. Got all that? The current Pac Heights digs sport the familiar minimalist-chic Modern Citizen aesthetic. It's bright, homey yet spare, and you'll find racks and shelves filled with a mostly neutral palette of tops, pants, sweaters, accessories and dresses, as a well as a few home items. (We can't get enough of the Basik candles.) // 2053 Fillmore St, (Pac Heights), moderncitizen.com (Courtesy of Rothy's) Rothy's are even more adorable in girls' sizes. Last week, SF's favorite maker of flats crafted of recycled water bottles introduced its first pairs for kid-sized feet. Rothy's girls loafer comes in a range of bold, bright hues and prints like Flamingo, Lemondrop, Jellybean, Cowgirl, and Camo. Available in toddler sizes 1013 and kid sizes 14, they generally fit five- to 12-year-olds and sell for $65. Like the women's styles, the mini-me versions are washable, comfortable, sustainable and durable. Plus, they're kid-tested: Co-founder Roth Martin, who's been developing these pint-sized kicks for more than a year, had his daughters and other girlies put them through their paces. Available online and in store. // 2448 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights), rothys.com (Courtesy of Topdrawer) Get your notebook, pen, and bento box fix in the Haight. As of yesterday, an overwhelming array (in a good way) of writing instruments and stationery, travel items, backpacks, and old-school scrapbooks are yours for the ogling, and buying. Topdrawer, a Japanese-American retailer of the aforementioned goodies plus more, opened its third store in the city in the former Black Scale space on Haight Street. (Cow Hollow and the Mission are home to the other shops.) "Opening a store in the Haight, where historically there has always been that creative culture, is an exciting decision for us. We look to be in creative hubs just like this. We're very much looking forward to becoming a part of the community," beams Topdrawer president Peter Dunn. Peace, love and pens, indeed. //1409 Haight St. (Haight-Ashbury), topdrawer.com (Courtesy of Vrai & Oro) Designing your own engagement ring is a thing. Using diamonds grown in an SF lab, obvi. Vrai & Oro and the Diamond Foundry recently launched Design Studio, which allows users to customize engagement rings online. You choose all the details (i.e. setting type, band color and style, diamond shape, size and quality, high polish or low, blah blah) in an easy-to-navigate digital experience. Once created, your ring is 3D printed, and cast and set by hand in V & O's L.A. hometown. All the lab-grown, 100 percent carbon-neutral diamonds come from the Bay Area's Diamond Foundry, the second largest producer of above-ground diamonds on the planet. The process is fun and easy, and the transparent pricing is wallet-friendly (relatively speaking). Will you freak out if we tell you there are more than 3,500 possible style combos? // vraiandoro.com - PDP lawmakers alleged that some APC senators were plotting to remove Saraki - Senators Abdullahi Adamu, Ovie Omo-Agege and Ali Ndume were listed as the plotters - They vowed to resist any attempt to do so and also insisted they will keep vigil at the National Assembly The Peoples Democratic Party )PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives has vowed to prevent any attempt to take over the National Assembly by some All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers and impeach Bukolas Saraki. The Nation reports that the caucus is keeping vigilance at the Senate chamber. The deputy minority leader of the House Chukwuka Onyema said they were keeping watch to scuttle any plans to remove Saraki. He alleged that Senators Abdullahi Adamu, Ovie Omo-Agege and Ali Ndume were heading the plot to remove Saraki. READ ALSO: 2019: 4 PDP governors are secretly working for APC - Jibrin He said: The aim of their invasion while other senators are on recess is to come and sit illegally when everybody is on recess to impeach the senate president. We also have it on good authority that they are planning to come back this night and tomorrow morning aided by security forces; our own security forces whose job is to protect the lives of Nigerians. They are the ones leading these dissident senators to come and truncate our democracy. We might think they want to take over the senate; thats not what they want to do. They want to truncate this democracy of ours. But we the PDP caucus has decided to stay here to keep vigil and wait to s whats going to happen tonight and tomorrow night. If we allow this to happen, then we can as well go back to when we use to have a military junta. We also have some information that some policemen have arrived. We want to find out what they are doing here. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday, August 1, hosted some of the rebels of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who defected to its fold. The national chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, addressing the defectors at the glitzy Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, described them as true heroes of democracy. Secondus said that the defectors took the bold steps of switching allegiance from the APC to the PDP not only for themselves, for their families, but also for the interest of the country. Nigeria News: Will Senators, Lawmakers Defection from APC Change Power in 2019? on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng To the youths of Nigeria, our attention has been brought to the negative posts on social media about The 67Million Youth Initiative. As the originators of the initiative we owe it to all the delegates that we come forward and set the record straight for the brave delegates that believe in this initiative and signed their names on it. Many of our delegates have received backlash from the misinformed and agitators on social media. These delegates have put their reputations on the line for this cause and it is now time we bring our selves forward and face any consequence alongside the other delegates. Seven of us initially came together to start this initiative: Maryam Laushi (founding member of Not-Too-Young-To-Run); Asuquo Ekpenyoung (PDP Commissioner of Finance for Cross River) Mohammad Sani Abdullahi (APC Commissioner of Budget and Planning for Kaduna State); Mark Okoye (APGA Commissioner of Budget and Planning for Anambra State); Adebola Williams (Co-founder of RED); Moji Rhodes (First female deputy Chief of Staff for Lagos State); and Luqman Edu (CEO FilmoRealty). As young progressive leaders we purposefully chose to build an initiative that cuts across party lines, religions, and ethnic backgrounds. We jointly signed up to the following guidelines so that the initiative could not be hijacked for ulterior motives. We agreed on the following: 1. OUR VISIONTo advance Nigeria with a new generation of leaders at all levels of politics and government 2. OUR MISSIONTo build/organise and leverage on the block vote for the interest of the collective youth 3. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR 2018/2019 a. 67Million will NOT support or make any endorsement for the presidential or governorship races in 2019. b. We will focus on getting as many young people APPOINTED into various positions in their states and on the national level. c. We shall support the emergence and success of young candidates across ALL platforms and will particularly endorse our members that are running for state and national assemblies, and local government positions across party lines. Furthermore, we agreed that all major decisions and activities will be decided through a democratic voting process by delegate members. Once we reached a consensus, EACH trustee convinced 15 people to join this initiative as delegates. A lot of attention has been put on the Muslim APC delegates but if you carefully go through the delegate list you will find delegates from cross-section of political parties, faith, and tribes. To date, the initiative has only been funded by delegates and supporters that have donated between 10,000 to 1 million naira. We admit to some mistakes such as engaging a media consultant who proceeded to acquire an existing twitter handle without doing proper vetting, we knew of the plan but not what the account was used for in 2015this is indefensible. We shall meet three different kinds of people in this journey; people that will never believe or support us, people that will buy into what we are trying to do, and people in the middle that will have an open enough mind to make decisions with the information presented to them. The truth is on our side, so we shall only focus on the last two. As for the first set, we say to them, CARRY GO!. We shall continue with this initiative and endeavour to accomplish the mission we have all come together for. We know that this task shall be hard and there shall be resistance from people that will not want the youth united, the youth should not be distracted and together we should forge on. We invite all youth to join s by registering on our website: www.67million.ng Yours sincerely, Trustees of 67 Million Youth Initiative: Maryam Laushi Asuquo Ekpenyong Mohammad Sani Abdullahi Mark Okoye Moji Rhodes Adebola Williams Luqman Edu [Sponsored] Source: Legit Nigeria - President Muhammadu Buhari's victory at the 2019 presidential election has been predicted by Satguru Maharaji - Maharaji says he's supporting Buhari because of his impressive performance - The spiritual leader describes APC defectors as hungry politicians As the 2019 general elections draw nearer, President Muhammadu Buhari's victory at the poll has been predicted by the spiritual leader of One Love Family, Satguru Maharaji. Leadership reports that Maharaji said in a statement he issued in Ibadan that President Buhari would win the forthcoming general elections. Legit.ng gathers that the spiritual leader, who said his support for Buhari was borne out of his impressive performance in office as president, stated that the general elections would be successful, peaceful and won by Buhari. He faulted the decisions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) members who recently defected to other parties, describing them as hungry politicians without integrity. READ ALSO: 19 LG cabinets dissolved by Governor Jibrilla of Adamawa Maharaji, however, called on the federal government to resolve the issue of insecurity bedeviling the country, adding that leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) should be arrested. He said since the association had admitted responsibility for the killings across the country, they should be arrested. The spiritual leader added: The inertia so far exhibited by the government in the face of continuous killings by the Fulani perpetrators is highly intriguing. Why is the government not responding to criminality of Fulani murderers the way it did in the Niger Delta against agitators who did not kill but only torched machines and equipment to demand for decent conditions of living?" PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said the defection by All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not affect the president's re-election bid. Keyamo said this in a statement on Sunday, July 29, in which he said the president won with large margins in the past in some states without the support of majority of the politicians from those states who are now members of the opposition party. President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit.ng News - Political parties are warming up for the 2019 general elections in a bid to outdo one another at the polls - A coalition of 36 political parties has shown its readiness to oust power from the ruling All Progressives Congress - The coalition unveiled its national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, August 2 As the 2019 general elections draw nearer, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has unveiled its national secretariat in Abuja. Punch reports that CUPP is an alliance of 39 political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party and Labour Party. Legit.ng gathers that the aim of the coalition is to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019. READ ALSO: 19 LG cabinets dissolved by Governor Jibrilla of Adamawa A memorandum of understanding was signed by members of the coalition to field a joint presidential candidate to confront the ruling party in 2019. Key committees were created by the coalition to kickstart its operation ahead of the forthcoming general elections. The committees created are the blueprint/manifesto committee, publicity/media committee, strategy committee and the contact/mobilisation committee. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that in preparation for the forthcoming 2019 general elections, several parties were said to be battle ready to wrestle power from the ruling party. A coalition of 36 political parties on Wednesday, July 4, said that it had set up a steering committee saddled with the responsibility of coming out with a blueprint on the solutions to the nations problems. The national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Falae, while meeting with representatives of the chairmen of the parties of the coalition under the umbrella of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), said the merging of coalition is aimed at solving Nigeria's complex problem. APC Is The Worst Party in Nigeria, I Regret Being a Member | - on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit By Lambert Strether of Corrente. Patient readers, this will be even more sparse than yesterdays initial cut, because I spent most of the morning researching the neoliberal assault on the UKs NHS, and not getting enough writing done; Ill make a final cut shortly. Talk amongst yourselves! lambert UPDATE 5:15PM All doe, done. (My n key is ow stickig, I thik because of cat hair.) This is a bit of a pantry clearout on the midterms, but theres so much amazing stuff happening. Bangs n key furiously * * * Trade Trump considers raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 25% [Financial Times]. Geng Shuang, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, on Thursday urged the US to correct its attitude and not to try to engage in blackmail. This does not work for China. We advise the US to return to reason and not to act in anger, which will ultimately hurt themselves.' Although I dont have time to do a round-up, Im getting the impression from the headlines that Chinas message isnt completely unified. For example, this from the South China Morning Post: China is consulting businesspeople and think tanks at home and abroad as it considers whether to adapt its strategy in the trade war between the worlds two biggest economies, according to Chinese government advisers and a US business representative. The thing is, once blackmail enters a relationship leaving aside whether blackmail is the, er, norm in international relations it never really leaves; you cant walk it back. So this is not really a very Foreign Minister-y thing for a Foreign Minister to say. Politics 2020 Meghan McCain talks to Joe Biden all the time' [CNN]. Thats nice. Hillary Clinton political group gives to candidates who helped her campaigns [Politico]. Thats nice. Kamala Harris brings the complexity: This is wild and is a great example of how democrats don't understand private taxation. Rather than just limiting what landlords are allowed to appropriate from households, they're going to subsidize it ; and of course rather than with a cash payment, its a complicated tax credit https://t.co/AZ97nvzWEn Cultist (@NathanTankus) July 29, 2018 2018 Obama announces his first wave of 2018 midterm endorsements, and doesnt include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [Business Insider] Thats nice. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won in New York. Now her allies are taking on the Midwest. [CNN]. Over the past two weeks, the aggressive new voice of the progressive left has crisscrossed the Midwest, making a stop in Kansas to campaign alongside Bernie Sanders as well as solo trips to Missouri and Michigan to stump for insurgent candidates hoping to follow in her path. Our swing voter is not red-to-blue, she said at a stop in Flint. Our swing voter is the voter to the non-voter, the non-voter to the voter.' If not this time, next time, and as long as they go back to non-voter status if their needs are ignored (Nice little party you have here). More: Members of the Justice Democrats have supported each other leading up to this years midterm elections. @Ocasio2018s rally efforts for Kansas Congressional candidate Brent Welder gave him 254 more volunteers and $110,000 in donations https://t.co/PsDEU4dijt by @realchriswilson pic.twitter.com/dUcCwIbZ8Z Yahoo News (@YahooNews) August 1, 2018 NY Governor: Dracula has risen from the grave: Joe Crowley's first words at this presser with Cuomo: "I'm still here!" pic.twitter.com/PBDQtiKRCR Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 31, 2018 OH-12: With GOP District in Jeopardy, Trump to Stump in Ohio Special Election [Wall Street Journal]. The Tuesday special election between Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny OConnor offers a preview of dozens of midterm races across the country: a reliably Republican district that harbors a supercharged Democratic base and a core of suburban voters who polls show are frustrated with the presidents leadership. The district is emblematic of those Democrats seek to snatch from the GOP, which holds a 23-seat House majority. Republicans have represented the area since 1980 and outnumber Democrats about two-to-one in voter registration. It is the wealthiest district in the state, full of college-educated suburbanites like those who have fled the GOP in previous special elections. It includes Delaware County and parts of Franklin County, two of six Ohio counties where Mr. Trump underperformed 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. New Cold War Yesterdays Russia social media panic (thread): 1/ The Russian Troll Patrol has some interesting findings: https://t.co/lrJChF9EfF Aaron Mate (@aaronjmate) July 31, 2018 And todays: From Russia with Love? Mystery Facebook account sent New York activist a bunch of roses [CNN]. A Facebook event promoting a demonstration advocating universal health care* that took place in New York City on July 17, 2017, was managed and promoted by 13 different Facebook pages. While most of the pages were seemingly legitimate activist groups, among them was a page called Resisters, one of the pages Facebook removed on Tuesday. What went on behind the scenes of the New York rally has all the hallmarks of tactics used by Kremlin-linked groups. Attribution is hard, but that aside, I dont like the pattern Im starting to see from 30,000 feet: The intelligence community (NSA, CIA, FBI) having veto power over Presidential legitimacy, the intelligence community getti involved in the legitimacy of voter rolls and vote counts (DHS), and now enormous media monopolies (Facebook) and whoever their techical experts are, determining the legitimacy of demostrations. Oh, and Democrats are encouraging, sometimes feverishly, all three trends. Good for our democracy or nah? Note also the qualifications throughout: suspected, all the hallmarks of tactics, and suspects. After Cointelpro? Really? If the powers that be want to set up every #MedicareForAll advocate as being a Russia stooge, theyre doing an excellent job. (Note the tactic of sending an activist a megaphone. If I were truly cynical and paranoid, Id be reminded of FBI entrapment tactics: Sure, I know where to find) NOTE * Sic. The demostration was in support of #MedicareForAll, which is not equal to universal health care. Shoddy. The Liberal Democrats Have Lost Their Minds On January 20, 2017, Evil entered The Shire: America is fighting for its life. DT has injected US with the toxins of racism, misogyny, xenophobia & lies. He is obstructing justice & conspiring with an enemy to destroy Democracy. Patriots will not let America die. VOTE!!! Rob Reiner (@robreiner) August 2, 2018 Always on message: Every single day, I find myself asking: what do the Russians have on @realDonaldTrump personally, financially, & politically? The answer to that question is that only thing that explains his behavior & his refusal to stand up to Putin. #ABetterDeal Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 16, 2018 Combining Chuck Schumers almost forgotten economic message, A Better Deal, with RussiaRussiaRussia? Really? Hows that working out? Thanks, Obama: Wow. This graph. From @kuhmo MShularick and USteins; data is new historical SCF series. Suggests why so many Americans don't feel recovery is complete despite lots of progress in other areas. Full paper: https://t.co/sFv8ZAAkSo pic.twitter.com/iMVsEP1emt Abigail Wozniak (@AbigailWozniak) August 1, 2018 Helps to understand why Democrats, the party of the 9.9%, see no reason to change. And why volatility voters do. Universal concrete material benefits, especially for the working class: When elites on the right and the center left unite to tell you that working class whites and working class blacks could never agree on policy, consider whose interests they're promoting. https://t.co/3AzSqiEeqX Briahna "Working Class Has No Color" Gray (@briebriejoy) August 1, 2018 Im basically a so the last shall be first (Matt 20:16) kinda guy, both in terms of a state thats run of, by, and for the people, and in terms of Maslows Heirarchy: I think that that the base of Maslows pyramid physiological and safety needs are morally and politically should be more important than the self-actualization needs at the tip of the pyramid. I also believe that self-actualization through labor is more important and self-actualization through identity, and indeed the former drives the latter, although the causalities are complex. Wow, Netroots Nation. Remember when we all had hopes it would be effective at anything? Fresh off their Clinton endorsement: Were excited to be at #NN18 this year! Here's where you can find Indivisible staff today: pic.twitter.com/JutLUqekl5 Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) August 2, 2018 Mercenary. Democratic Socialism Is About Democracy [Jacobin]. [D]emocratic socialists have something more far-reaching in mind. To us, democracy is not simply a banal amalgamation of procedures, an uncontroversial set of norms and rules that everyone can get behind. It is the quite radical idea that ordinary people not experts, not elites, not their betters can rule themselves. It is the word we use to describe the flattening of steep hierarchies, the shattering of structures that confer undue wealth and power and privilege.. The radical reforms we advocate are all intended to increase the amount and degree of decisions, relationships, and structures in society that operate according to democratic principles. Capitals control over investment gives it too much say over the direction of the political economy; we should socialize key industries and foster worker cooperatives. More crazy talk: If they didn't already exist, bright red trucks full of 1,134,400 unionized, pensioned public workers putting out fires for free would strike people as the most outlandish radical leftist idea. Rafael (@rafaelshimunov) July 30, 2018 Stats Watch Factory Orders, June 2018: Factory orders for June rose [sharply but miss Econodays consensus in a report that does include some slowing. [Econoday]. Core capital goods (nondefense ex-aircraft) were revised down. Todays strong headline aside, June wasnt that great of a month for the factory sector which perhaps was held down to a degree by tariff-related disruptions. Year-on-year growth in orders is very positive Nevertheless, indications including strong readings in regional and private manufacturing reports point to second-half acceleration for the sector and second-half leadership for the 2018 economy. Jobless Claims, week of July 28, 2018: Convincing strength for tomorrows employment report is the indication from jobless claims data [Econoday]. Challenger Job-Cut Report, July 2018: A very low number of layoff announcements underscores how strong demand for labor is [Econoday]. Finance: Hedge Funds Humans Are Kicking Some Algo Behind [Bloomberg]. Yeah, but maybe the algos are just having a bad year. Uber Is Calling New Yorkers And Pushing Them To Say I Support Uber In Group Calls With Local Council Members [Buzzfeed]. Hmm. I wonder how they got the names to call. Tech: The Little Ion Engine That Could [Bloomberg]. Accion Systems Inc. essentially makes one product, a device about the size of a deck of cards thats designed to slowly and silently nudge satellites, spacecraft, and other galactic ephemera through the blackness. Technically, the Tilean acronym for tiled ionic liquid electrosprayis an ion engine, which is to say it runs on a stream of charged particles, much like a battery. Stick enough of them onto a giant craft, and you can putter out to Mars. This is interesting (and hopefully the charismatic (female) entrepreneurial founder isnt another Elizabeth Holmes. She doesnt seem like it). Health Care Trump administration to allow renewable, short-term insurance [Modern Healthcare]. The Trump administration will finalize a rule on Wednesday that expands access to health insurance policies that skirt many of the Affordable Care Acts regulations. The rule would allow people to buy short-term, limited-duration health coverage that lasts up to 12 months and renew that coverage for a maximum of 36 months. Insurers can deny short-term coverage to people who have pre-existing conditions. But after the administration issued the proposed rule to expand short-term, limited-duration insurance back in February, many insurers, provider groups and consumer advocates said plans could harm consumers who dont understand the limitations of the coverage they are buying. Critics also argued that premiums in the individual market would rise as young, healthy people leave exchanges that need those young people to balance out the risk pool. It would be helpful if, in the context of health care policy, the concept of consumer advocacy were contextualized. The real problem is buying, not understand the limitations of the coverage they are buying.* The whole concept of consumer should be stuffed back in its neoliberal box, and health care free at the point of delivery under Medicare for All should become the focus. NOTE * This is also the issue with consumer protection (Elizabeth Warrens focus) generally. Police State Watch Entire police department resigns at once, saying town seemingly cares so little about us' [ABC]. Blandford, Mass. Presenting the possibility of an interesting natural experiment Gaia If youre thinking about building your soil: One square yard of prairie soil may contain 20 linear miles of roots and root hairs! #prairiefacts pic.twitter.com/90x7RX0NEQ Daniel Kinka (@DanielKinka) July 29, 2018 Petrichor: why does rain smell so good? [BBC]. Bacteria, plants and even lightning can all play a role in the pleasant smell we experience after a thunderstorm; that of clean air and wet earth. Known as petrichor, the scent has long been chased by scientists and even perfumers for its enduring appeal. Our new word for the day, from petr(o)- + ichor. Find shows 4,000-year-old trade routes stretched from Carolinas to Great Lakes [Ars Technica]. Widespread trade networks once linked communities in northeastern US with those around the Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley and extended south to the Tennessee River Valley. Other social practices also travelled along trade routes, wrote Binghamton University archaeologist Matthew Sanger and his colleagues. One of those was the practice of cremating the dead, which shows up, along with copper grave goods, at sites from the Great Lakes to Tennessee. That implies, to some extent, that people spread across hundreds of miles had come to share some common beliefs about proper treatment of the deadand probably other aspects of life, too. Historical collections reveal patterns of diffusion of sweet potato in Oceania obscured by modern plant movements and recombination [PNAS]. Our results provide strong support for prehistoric transfer(s) of sweet potato from South America (Peru-Ecuador region) into Polynesia. Our results also document a temporal shift in the pattern of distribution of genetic variation in sweet potato in Oceania. Later reintroductions, accompanied by recombination between distinct sweet potato gene pools, have reshuffled the crops initial genetic base, obscuring primary patterns of diffusion and, at the same time, giving rise to an impressive number of local variants.. Multidisciplinary approaches, thus, appear necessary for accurate reconstruction of the intertwined histories of plants and humans. Environmentalists by Necessity [Citylab]. Infant mortality is a devastating problem in Pennsylvanias Allegheny County, where Braddock is locatedbetween 2008 and 2012, white infants had average infant mortality rate of 4.75 deaths for every 1,000 live births, while the rate for black infants was 13.73. Its an issue that perplexes public health researchers and reproductive rights advocates like Rawls. One suspected cause is the mill that sits directly behind her office, the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, which has been active since Andrew Carnegie opened it in 1872, and is now owned by U.S. Steel. Its a major reason why Braddock sits below some of the most polluted air in America, and possibly explains the areas high rates of sickness. Oddly, or not, theres no moral panic about these babies. The band of biologists who redrew the tree of life [Nature]. At the molecular level, lifes history is more accurately depicted as a network, a tangled web through which organisms have been exchanging genes for more than 3 billion years. This perspective is indeed radical As usual think gossip and back-channels in org charts what is presented as a tree is in reality a graph. Our Famously Free Press Where Profits Come From (PDF) [The Jerome Levy Forecasting Center]. I dont think The Bearded One would agree, but I could be wrong. Note that Jerome Levy is not the Levy Institute, although the paper does seem to take an MMT-inflected approach. Readers? Class War An Amazon staffer is posting YouTube videos of herself living in a warehouse parking lot after an accident at work [Business Insider]. Horrible stuff, although to be fair, Vickie Shannon Allen is financing Jeff Bezos escape from The Jackpot to Mars. So theres that. Key point: [ALLEN: They offered me a buyout, only for $3,500, which meant I would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement to not say anything derogatory about Amazon or my experience, she said. Hmm. I wonder how many former Amazon workers have been forced by circumstances to sign NDAs, and what the NDA looks like. Maybe some kind and fully anonymized soul will throw one over the transom. Online labor markets may look competitive. They arent [WaPo] (original). NBER researcher Suresh Naidu: Mechanical Turk (which is often abbreviated as MTurk) is a very popular crowdsourcing platform. Its a website where requesters can post tasks and workers can do those tasks for pay. At first glance, MTurk looks like the archetypical competitive market; after all, here is a market with no legal barriers to entry, many employers and none of the noncompete or no-poaching agreements that have become increasingly common in the regular economy. Turkers dont respond very much to increased pay a 10 percent increase in the wage actually increases the number of Turkers by only 1.4 percent. This implies a considerable degree of market power, and we have evidence that requesters (the people who hire Turkers) are using this power. Monopsony power may arise because of employer concentration on the platform, because of search frictions that make it harder for Turkers to locate higher-paying tasks, or because of idiosyncratic preferences over task characteristics that make the market less competitive. Research has shown that all three of these reasons are at play in MTurk. WaPo summarizes: highly important online labor market is characterized by power relations so that workers lose out, and the people and organizations who hire them enjoy market power. This is a must-read. Solving The Wage Puzzle: Why Arent Paychecks Growing? [NPR]. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has called this a puzzle that defies a single or easy explanation. Phases of the moon? Sunspots? A disturbance in the force? Tenants in Southeast Portland Launch a Rent Strike, Hoping to Stay in Their Gentrifying Apartment Complex [Willamette Week]. Five months ago, the landlord at a Southeast Portland apartment complex deployed an extraordinary tactic to try to dislodge low-income renters: offering them cash to leave. Now the tenants who remain have voted to use a radical strategy to fight back: a rent strike, when they withhold monthly payments until the landlord meets their demands. White, and in the minority [Terrence McCoy, WaPo]. This article has elicited an intense response. This tweet is typical: I have no idea what would possess you to publish this. Chicken processing plants are hellholes where the majority-immigrant workforce are treated worse than animals. The crisis of hurt white feelings in that environment does not seem urgent. https://t.co/mVZ2dqCkQu Sam Thielman (@samthielman) July 31, 2018 However, I think the key paragraph is all the way at the end: It was seven minutes until her shift began, and with nothing better to do, and no one to talk to, she went to the clock-in station, where she watched the woman with a black ponytail coming down the hallway, hugging people as she went. This time, however, when she reached Heaven, the woman stopped. Heaven stayed motionless, unsure. Without a trace of caution, the woman embraced her, saying something Heaven didnt understand. Then an older woman kissed her cheek. Then the women crowding around Heaven began to laugh, and, as the final minutes went by, she started laughing, too. The story isnt about hurt feelings at all. NOTE * An obvious class marker. This is an enormous country (1). Excellent thread: Democrats dont have black votes in the bag. And theyre deluded if they think so. Statements like this conflate the varying priorities of people of color, and for the purpose of this thread, black people specifically. *a longass thread* https://t.co/Lr3US6amMZ Miss Jabali (@MalaikaJabali) July 31, 2018 This is an enormous country (2). Another excellent thread: It's officially angry Yooper twitter evening. Fuck the capitalists, the corporations, the developments, the warmongers, the imperialists, the racists, the exploiters, the extractors, and the coastals, who don't understand what the rural Great Lakes are even like. Upper Peninsula DSA (@YooperDSA) August 1, 2018 The moral of these two tweets being: All the criticis of McCoys story on Heaven ignore or erase the hug at the end. But thats the moral of the story. Exposing the American Okie-Doke: Russiagate, Corporate Propaganda, and the Historical Obstruction of Class Consciousness [Hampton Institute]. If you still believe your 5th-grade textbook and think you have a say in determining public policy in the US, you are furious right now. Because you believe democracy exists and that it was hijacked by a foreign government. However, if you realize democracy (or a republic) does not exist, the Russia/Trump revelations mean only one thing: the traded commodity known as the US government has gone global, following all of the other capitalist markets that have been globalized over the past 40 years. Needless to say, these are not the New York Hamptons. Five months after strike, West Virginia teachers say nothing has changed' [WSWS]. [T]he [West Virginia teachers] strike was summarily ended by the bureaucracy March 6 at the point that public support was snowballing, other states were poised to strike and communication workers were walking out. The stab-in-the-back was accomplished under the direct supervision of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, National Education Association President Lily Garcia and an army of union functionaries who descended on Charleston to smother the strike. Teachers were told to Remember in November, in other words turn out the vote for the Democrats. Gad. To understand Cubas emerging class system, try the ice cream [Quartz]. growing divide between poor and rich Cubans. While bland scoops of the state-made fare remain the only option for most, theres a growing array of choices for those who can afford more, from cafeteria-bought pints to fancy gelati. We sampled all of themand got a taste of Cubas rapidly melting dream of an egalitarian society.,, For the hapless bottom 80%subsisting on meager government salaries of about $30 per monththe best place to get ice cream in Havana is Coppelia For the hapless bottom 80%subsisting on meager government salaries of about $30 per monththe best place to get ice cream in Havana is Coppelia. Well worth a read. News of The Wired The Dos and Donts of Supporting Your Local Library [Literary Hub]. Dont change the call numbers, or write grammar corrections in the margins! Your Secrets Are Safe: How Browsers Explanations Impact Misconceptions About Private Browsing Mode (PDF) [Yuxi Wu, Panya Gupta, Miranda Wei, Yasemin Acar, Sascha Fahl, Blase Ur, International World Wide Web Consortium]. [B]rowsers disclosures fail to correct the majority of the misconceptions we tested. These misconceptions included beliefs that private browsing mode would prevent geolocation, advertisements, viruses, and tracking by both the websites visited and the network provider. Furthermore, participants who saw certain disclosures were more likely to have misconceptions about private browsings impact on targeted advertising, the persistence of lists of downloaded files, and tracking by ISPs, employers, and governments. * * * Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi 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. Todays plant (via): If you believe that spirits live in trees. * * * Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: 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 five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor that trickle in when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click the hat! To give more, click on the arrow heads to the right of the amount. Donate $25 $50 $75 $100 If you hate PayPal even though you can use a credit card or debit card on 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. Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Mike Hilzik returned to the sorry affair of CalPERS hiring of Charles Asubonten, an unqualified Chief Financial Officer candidate, in an article titled CalPERS says its ex-CFO misrepresented his background but how did he get hired in the first place? We published a series exposing the numerous fabrications on his resume. Yet despite the obvious danger of having a senior executive who appeared to have committed perjury by making false sworn statements during his application process and after his hire, CalPERS doubled down and kept defending Asubonten even though Hiltzik had started investigating. Only after Hiltzik published a critical article did CalPERS do what it should have done in the first place, which is examine Asubontens claims. Asubtontens appeal to the State Personnel Board appeal of his rejection during probation, which we published earlier this week, made clear his story fell apart as soon as CalPERS started asking serious questions. As he has consistently, Hiltzik gave us prominent credit for breaking this story and for our later reporting. Hiltzik spoke to CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost about CalPERS settlement with Asubonten, in which he received no monetary damages and CalPERS agreed to say that Asubonten resigned. He was not impressed with what he heard. Key points from his story, which I urge you to read in full: CalPERS has now reported that its former chief financial officer, Charles Asubonten, misrepresented his work history and earnings before he was hired in October 2017the giant pension fund plainly desires to close the book on this disastrously botched appointment of a top-level official CalPERS made a big noise last September when it hired AsubontenThe [news] release said that most recently, he was the managing director in a private equity firm. As we reported, the private equity firm mentioned in the release was nothing of the kind, at least not as that term is commonly understood. Once Webber started blowing the whistle on Asubontens background, CalPERS closed ranks behind him. He had dismissed her questions as character assassination, an assertion later repeated to me by a CalPERS spokesman. In a phone conversation, with Asubonten on the line, Frost gave him an unqualified endorsement. We thought Charles would be an excellent candidate, she said, and over the last five months that has proven to be exactly true. But she also initiated an investigation into his work history. CalPERS investigators interviewed Asubonten on April 20 and 23. According to their account, his story appears to have come apart almost instantly. Hiltzik hits the high points of Asubontens fabrications, such as presenting W-2s from unrelated activities and arguing they should be attributed to his apparently non-existant consulting business, his presenting a sole proprietorship as a partnership, his claim that I am Transmax and RSA when CalPERS got no hits when it put Transmax plus Charles Asubonten in a web search. Back to Hiltziks article: Asubonten also cited Frosts unqualified expression of support in their April conversation with me. Thats embarrassing for her, at least, but also brings us back to what kind of hiring process was in place when he was recruited. Webber calls this a due diligence failure, and shes right. There was vetting, Frost told me this week. But what kind of vetting? She said Asubonten was interviewed and his references checked, and was found to be technically qualified for the job of CFO. Hiltzik didnt contest these claims, but our earlier posts show they are bogus. We wrote an entire post on why Asubonten was not qualified for the job; its a mystery how he could be deemed to be technically qualified unless she is merely referring to his professional credentials (MBA, CPA, CFA). But how can Frost possibly claim that what CalPERS did rose to the level of vetting when the fund apparently didnt do basic searches, which among other things would have uncovered the suit he lost contesting the lapsing of his contract with Rio Tinto-Palabora Mining Company? Reading that alone would have revealed numerous falsehoods on his resume, like claims of exemplary performance when hed gotten poor reviews for the last two years of his three and a half year tenure, as well as him not being a man of his word (he signed a separation agreement waiving all rights to pursue claims, yet he broke that via his legal action). CalPERS didnt even have the nous to check if Asubontens references were legit. As we wrote: Through JJ Jelincic, Marcie Frost offered to have the CEO of Palabora contact me and reassure me about Asubonten after my posts ran. But even more bizarre was that the idea of speaking to the Palabora CEO was nonsensical. Asubonten left Palabora at the end of 2009. Palabora now has a Chinese CEO who worked previously in the steel busines. Most important, the South African court decision in Asubontens dispute with Palabora made clear that Asubontens personnel records were at Rio Tinto, not Palabora. So current Palabora management could not possibly have any information about Asubonten beyond what was in past company annual reports that were already available online. I called a contact who had taken interest in this situation to sputter about it. He too had been encouraged to speak to a Palabora CEOand he was not Chinese. He sent me the references CalPERS provided for Asubonten by e-mail: Dennis Brazier CEO Palabora Mining Co. +27 83 634 0758 Australia Peter Daniel Sr. VP & Corp. Controller Ford Motor Co. 313-729-6656 Gunter Dufey Prof. Emeritus, Finance & International Business Univ. of Michigan +65 9654 7505 Singapore The Australia bit is puzzling, particularly since Palabora never had operations in Australia and the number provided for Brazier is in South Africa (country code +27), not Australia (country code +61). But the far more important part is that Dennis Brazier was never CEO, Managing Director, or even a board member of Palabora. Marcie Frost can only have gotten this information from Asubonten, and it is flagrantly false. Worse, the fact that she would try to fob off a bogus reference on me and an independent party shows she continues to rely blindly on information Asubonten has provided even after his honesty has come into question by virtue of anextensively-documented series of posts. Dennis Brazier was only general manager Copper Processing from August 2004 through all of 2007 as Palaboras 2007 and 2008 annual reports show. The 2008 annual report does not list Brazier as part of the management of Palabora but does describe Bill Scheding as having been appointed General Manager Copper Processing and Magnetite business in October 2008. This is consistent with Dennis Braziers LinkedIn profile, which show him joining Palabora in January 2001 and rising through the ranks to his promotion to General Manager of Copper Processing in August 2004, a position he held though June 2008, when he left for Union Copper. LinkedIn also shows Brazier as back in South Africa, and the phone number for him is from South Africa Consider what this means. Asubonten and Brazier together are misrepresenting to CalPERS that Brazier was the CEO of Palabora Bear in mind that if Asubonten listed Brazier on his employment application as his supervisor, that is perjury, a felony in California. It is also worth noting that CalPERS due diligence is so wanting that the phone number it gave for Peter Daniel at Ford is out of service. That means Hiltziks skepticism is fully warranted: Its certainly encouraging that CalPERS has has taken a serious look at its procedures in the wake of the Asubonten botch, as Frost says. We have found areas where we can strengthen the process, she told me, though she wasnt very specific. Maybe the CalPERS board can get a more complete answer, but to do so it will have to start asking questions and devoting serious time to figuring out what due diligence is performed on high-level CalPERS applicants. Or doesnt it think that the way CalPERS fills some of its top jobs is important? Sadly, Im not holding my breath that CalPERS will change its ways until it has more changes in key players, particularly on its board. There are concerns five Co. Tipperary rural communities face permanently losing their post office service as a result of a voluntary retirement scheme being offered by An Post. Clogheen, Ballingarry, Gortnahoe, Littleton and Moyne/Templetuohy post offices are on a leaked list of 112 post offices throughout the country where the postmaster or postmistress have applied for the voluntary retirement package. An Post has stressed there will be no compulsory closure of post offices but there are concerns contractors from rural post offices with a low volume of transactions will not be replaced resulting in closures. Cllr Imelda Goldsboro from Ballingarry said the An Post retirement scheme was another attack on rural Ireland and pointed out that the loss of Ballingarry Post Office would have a huge detrimental social and economic impact on her community. She said people from her area would have to travel to Killenaule, Mullinahone, Urlingford or Callan to to avail of post office services if Ballingarry Post Office closes. This would be difficult for many elderly people and those without their own transport, she pointed out. Independent TD Mattie McGrath said the planned closures were part of an agreement reached between the Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) and An Post earlier this year. He described it as just another aspect of the " contempt for rural Ireland that is poisoning all levels of central government policy". "This list of proposed closures is a damning indictment of the utter ruthlessness that kicks in when it comes to rural Ireland," he declared. Cllr Goldsboro criticised the retirement/redundancy package An Post is offering post office contractors on this list. If they accept the package, she fears An Post will not offer the post office contract to any other shop or individual in the community, effectively closing the service. She said it was very unfair of An Post to put the onus for the survival of rural post offices back on individual postmasters and postmistress. "After 30 or 40 years service they should be allowed to retire at their ease," she said. An Post responded that there will no compulsory closure of post offices in Co. Tipperary and pointed out that neither national nor county figures for post office closures have been confirmed. "Any figures circulating are speculative and not from official sources," she said referring to the list of 112 post offices released by Senator Robbie Gallagher. A spokesperson said An Post reached an agreement with the Irish Postmasters Union in April following a period of intense research and planning to come up with a plan to save the "seriously loss making" post office network. She pointed out that the contractors offered the voluntary retirement package are all in offices with "very low" transaction levels. "As part of the agreement, voted on and accepted by postmasters, a voluntary retirement scheme was made available to contractors in post offices with particularly low levels of business. Some postmasters have wanted this for a considerable time. " "The closing date for those applications was Tuesday, July 31 and An Post will now assess those applications and decide how the business in those offices small as it is may best be transferred to a neighbouring office, bolstering transactions for that post office." (Natural News) Without the pen of the author Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain. John Adams (Article by Daniel Taylor republished from NewsWars.com) If the outright lies of MSM are whats left after alternative media is banned, we are in big trouble. Alternative media like Infowars now under threat of total censorship rose up to counter the dishonesty and outright manipulation of mainstream news outlets. There was a gap in truthful, honest reporting that was filled by individuals like Matt Drudge, Alex Jones and others. The public was hungry for it. These trailblazers threatened the power monopoly. More importantly, they inspired others to join the ranks of other citizen journalists who began using the tools of the internet to research seemingly outrageous claims, only to find that most of the time they were in fact true. This is the real reason the power structure is afraid. The masses cannot be empowered. Before the rise of social media, thousands of others started blogs and news websites of their own, amplifying the broadcast of alternative news and information. Now that the reach of alternative media has expanded to an unprecedented level, thanks in part to the tools of social media, efforts to silence it have reached a fever pitch. Outright lies are being manufactured to create a precedent to silence one of the most prominent outlets: Alex Jones on Infowars.com The claim is that alternative media pushes fake news and should not be trusted. The reality is that Infowars and other alternative media exposed major issues that were proven to be true. Three examples Alternative media exposed the Bilderberg group, who is now forced to admit their existence but claim they are the good guys. Alternative media exposed plans for world government, the leaders of which now claim that populism and Donald Trump are destroying hopes for this once non existent plan. Alternative media exposed the big brother surveillance state and was ridiculed, now this structure is openly admitted. If the left has its way, only approved voices will be allowed to reach the masses. Even if you buy into this wrong line of thought, even its adherents will be hurt by this agenda. Once a system of regulating speech is in place, their voice will be silenced next. A different tyranny will rise under a different banner. Humanity is crushed either way. Free speech must be defended. Read more at: NewsWars.com (Natural News) Leave it to vehemently anti-Trump fake news giant CNN to go after yet another person associated with Donald Trump this time the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, Bill Shine. In a segment of his show, available at Brighteon.com, Robert Scott Bell defends Darla Shine, revealing that the only reason CNN has decided to launch an ugly smear campaign against her is because her husband works for the president. The media is ganging up on her because her husband is now in the Trump White House, Bell is heard stating during an eye-opening segment on his wildly popular The Robert Scott Bell Show. In a recent article that seems better fit for a tabloid than an international news outlet, CNN discussed an old radio show that Darla used to host back in the late 2000s, falsely accusing her of having mocked victims of sexual harassment in the military, as well as having repeatedly pushed fringe conspiracy theories about vaccines. Its typical form for CNN, whose own Jim Acosta had to be verbally reprimanded and escorted out of the press room by a White House aide for refusing to follow the rules during a recent photo op with President Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Its a shame that CNN has seen fit to listen to her old radio shows and smear her, Bell adds, noting that he, at one time, personally appeared on Darlas show. Darla Shine is supportive of vaccine freedom which means CNN hates her even more Why this is important is that it shows the high degree of aggression that CNN has for folks like Darla who counter mainstream narratives on issues related to women in the military and freedom of choice with vaccines. Her husband, Bill, also used to appear on Fox News the arch enemy of CNN and the leading cable news outlet when it comes to presenting conservative points of view, not to mention basic respect for our president. Bell and his producer, Super Don, play a clip during the video segment, recorded back in 2009 on her Happy Housewives Club program, in which Darla welcomes Bell on her show to talk about swine flu and health freedom. This recording begins around the 4:20 mark in the below video at Brighteon.com: Darla is heard referring to Bell as the national health freedom guru of America obviously a monicker of respect towards his work associated with issues related to health freedom. One of these is vaccines and flu shots, both of which are at the forefront of a social battle over whether or not they should be mandatory. Darla also challenged a growing narrative at the time that America is a country full of racists taking a very patriotic approach to the situation that must have enraged CNN even more. I want to make it clear that I love everyone, Darla is heard stating during the 2009 broadcast. I am the most welcoming person that you could come up with, and let me tell you, and remind you all, that America just voted in a multi-racial president We are welcoming people. America has had its arms open to the world for 200-and-something years. We have been around the globe defending other countries, helping fight their wars, sending our boys to other places to help protect people. Our people have died to help protect other peoples freedoms. Be sure to watch the full segment of this important broadcast of The Robert Scott Bell Show at Brighteon.com. For more stories on fake news insanity, check out Faked.news. Sources for this article include: Brighteon.com NaturalNews.com DailyCaller.com (Natural News) A couple of politicians in the California city of San Francisco have decided that corporate employees shouldnt be allowed to eat lunch at company cafeterias where they work, but should instead be forced to eat out at local restaurants in order to boost support for the local economy. According to San Francisco Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin, both of whom are co-sponsoring new legislation towards this end, banning workplace cafeterias like the ones currently found at both Google and Apple headquarters represents a forward thinking move, and one that everyone should embrace. The proposed new law would basically change local zoning laws to disallow companies from even having workplace cafeterias, making it illegal for them to have industrial kitchens inside their office buildings. As a result, employees would be forced to leave their company campuses and find local shops to grab a bite during their lunch breaks. Not at all shocking is the fact that the Golden Gate Restaurant Association is in full support of the proposal, as it would essentially lead to government-mandated patronizing of its members restaurant establishments by employees throughout the city. This is the intended goal, anyway the assumption of the bureaucrats behind this ridiculous legislation being that all corporate employees will willingly waste their precious lunch break time trekking across the city in search of the trendiest new farm-to-fork eateries. While San Francisco loses tens of millions of tourism dollars due to rampant homelessness and feces-ridden sidewalks, its legislators are busy banning straws and cafeterias It is somewhat perplexing that San Franciscos politicians are spending their time and resources targeting things like plastic straws and company cafeterias when the citys largest industry, tourism, is seeing major declines due to rampant homelessness, high crime rates, and feces-ridden sidewalks. As we recently reported, a major medical convention has actually decided to stop holding its events in San Francisco because attendees are disgusted with the citys decline and no longer feel safe there a decision that will cost the city more than $40 million in lost economic activity annually. One would think that San Franciscos leaders might be a little bit more concerned with cleaning up the citys streets, ending its anything goes policy of open drug use in city parks, dealing with the homeless epidemic, and addressing the fact that more than 31,000 vehicle thefts occur throughout San Francisco annually. But no, that would be too rational and common sense. San Francisco would rather forcibly eliminate the freedom of companies to provide food for their employees, as well as control what company employees are allowed to eat. Its the epitome of libtard insanity especially because it likely wont even work anyway, and will only end up harming San Franciscos already flailing economy even more. Part of the allure of on-site cafeterias is the cost and convenience. You can get a good meal just steps away from your desk, writes Tom Knighton for PJMedia.com. If you take that away, [employees are] not going to flock to sit-down restaurants in the city where theres going to be a rush, possibly a wait for seating, then a wait for food. Those are all things that take away that time from the workers. Instead, theyll grab fast food just to avoid being rushed. In the end, large companies that currently reside in San Francisco may simply choose to relocate elsewhere where there are fewer restrictions on the perks theyre allowed to offer their employees. If they dont, they could end up losing many of their employees, which simply isnt good for business. Its well past time that governments stop trying to regulate people into the behavior they want, adds Knighton. Not only does this hurt tech companies like Twitter, it also doesnt help the restaurants like these lawmakers think it will. It just pisses people off. See more example of left-wing insanity and derangement at Libtards.news. Sources for this article include: PJMedia.com SFExaminer.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Leftist media are fond of saying they have support for and sympathize with those who are most defenseless in the face of evil, but theyre also the first ones to support depriving defenseless citizens of the means to adequately protect themselves when theyre in danger. The medias knee-jerk support for Democratic anti-gun policies belies their compassion for the defenseless due to the impact restrictive gun regulations have on real people, which is profound. And deadly. As TownHalls Matt Vespa reports, insane gun laws in New Jersey contributed to the death of a woman in June 2015 who was stabbed by an ex-boyfriend as she waited on a state agency to issue her a firearm identification card so she could legally obtain a handgun a process that takes months. The Courier-Post reported further that Carol Bowne, 39, described as a petite hairdresser, felt threatened by domestic violence to the point where she began the months-long process of getting a handgun to defend herself in her Berlin Township home. She had gotten a restraining order against a former boyfriend, Michael Eitel, 45, but like so many others before and after him Eitel ignored it, showed up at Bownes home and allegedly stabbed her to death. The paper reported: [Bowne] got a restraining order against a former boyfriend, installed security cameras and an alarm system to her home and began the months-long process of obtaining a handgun, friends said. But it wasnt enough. Eitel reportedly stabbed Bowne to death in her driveway, then fled. He was being sought by U.S. Marshals but he didnt run far; authorities found him in the garage of a nearby home where he hanged himself. Her co-workers at the White House Pike salon were devastated. To them, theyd lost a family member. Were family, Linda OHara, the salon owner and Bownes boss of 20 years, told the local paper. She absolutely did everything she was supposed to, added Denise Lovallo, a co-worker, after Eitel reportedly broke her car windows. Anti-gun laws are killers Well, she was sure trying to do everything she was supposed to. But the authoritarian nannies who run the state of New Jersey that would be anti-gun Democrats werent doing everything they could do to ensure that one of their citizens was as well-defended as she could be. (Related: Second Amendment WIN: Feds declare AR-15s are not weapons of war as anti-gun Left frequently claim.) The arduous process to obtain a firearm ID card includes these measures: Applicants have to surrender their statutory and other rights to confidentiality regarding institutional confinement; Applicants have to supply the names and addresses of tworeputable citizens as references; The endorsement of the local police chief after said chief investigates the applicant fully; Applicants must be fingerprinted. And again, this process takes months. Its heartbreaking what happened to Carol Bowne, who checked on her gun ID card application process just days before she was murdered. Its pathetic that New Jersey lawmakers were essentially enablers and co-conspirators in the murder through their passage of laws, rules, and other restrictions that undermine the Second Amendment and put peoples lives at risk. Why do Americans elect candidates whose objectives in life are to restrict their rights? What legitimacy does a lawmaker have who is protected by men and women with guns when taking away citizens right to defend themselves with a gun? We see all of these nonsensical protests against POTUS Donald Trump replete with accusations about how hes a Nazi and a tyrant, when hes done nothing to take away anyones rights and does not support such actions. How come we never see those same people protesting Democrats who are really the ones who are guilty of limiting rights or taking them away altogether? These laws arguably cost Bowne her life, Vespa writes. Without a doubt. Read more about how the Left is destroying the Second Amendment at SecondAmendment.news. Sources include: CourierPostOnline.com Townhall.com NewsTarget.com (Natural News) Perhaps youve never heard of Kim Dotcom. Or perhaps youve only heard the controversial stuff about how New Zealands court of appeal recently ruled that he could be extradited to the United States to face criminal copyright and other charges. Irrespective of what you may have been told about him, one thing is sure: Kim Dotcom is passionate about making information available to the masses unfiltered and uncensored. As evidence of this commitment to upholding the right to free speech, Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz in West Germany) recently announced that he is building a new, uncensored social media platform in opposition to more mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Its true and its going to be great, he told True Pundit. Make Social Media Great Again. Who is Kim Dotcom? Kim Dotcom is a German-Finnish entrepreneur who shot to fame in Germany in the 1990s when he became one of the worlds largest tech entrepreneurs. He was the founder of the file hosting service Megaupload, and became famous over the years for his lavish lifestyle and, at one time, for being the worlds number-one-ranked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 player out of more than 15 million online players. Dotcoms legal woes have all revolved around his commitment to the free dissemination of information. As reported by The Guardian: The six-year legal saga is widely seen as a test for how far the United States can reach globally to apply American firms intellectual property rights. U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500m and generated more than $175m by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material. A social media revolution Kim Dotcom recently confirmed to True Pundit that he is taking this commitment to the next level by building a new social media platform that will protect its users, respect their privacy and uphold free speech. U.S. tech companies are selling out their users to the Deep State, Dotcom told True Pundit. And they engage in opinion manipulation by censorship and promotion of their political biases. They have been exposed. (Related: SILENCE! Twitter, YouTube scrubbing all content and banning all users who question the official (false) narrative on the Florida school shooting.) Ironically, it was the overwhelmingly positive response to a Twitter poll of his 732,000 followers that convinced Dotcom that many people are convinced that Twitter is in bed with the deep state, and that an alternative platform is needed. All it takes is a real alternative with real privacy protection and zero censorship from a trusted source and Twitter will become the next MySpace, an online ghost town, he tweeted. (Related: Online censorship is a WAR against human knowledge and sustainable civilization.) Of course, it is not only Twitter and Facebook that have been increasing the censorship of the information that passes through their platforms; YouTube has become infamous for doing the same thing. It is refreshing to know, then, that there is a brand-new alternative called Brighteon.com that provides uncensored content that can be trusted. And it looks like, more alternatives to come. Find out what theyre hiding from you at Censored.news. Sources for this article include: TruePundit.com TheGuardian.com (Natural News) A study published in the journal Acta Alimentaria indicated that the damage afflicted by pests on crops not only reduces its visual appeal, but it can also affect its nutritional value. Researchers from Kaposvar University and the University of Pecs in Hungary concluded this after examining the effects that the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae Koch) had on soybeans. The two-spotted spider mite comes from the Tetranychidae family, which has 900 species and can be recognized by their modified mouthparts called stylets. Of all the species from the Tetranychidae family, two-spotted spider mite has the most economic significance, as it is considered a pest of many crops. In the study, researchers note that the damage that it can do on soybeans is widely recognized; however, it can also wreak havoc on other crops including cotton, strawberries, watermelons, tomatoes, and even ornamental plants. In the U.S., yield losses attributed to spider mite damage have reached 15 percent, while France reported a 14-percent loss of corn yield and up to 44 percent for cotton because of the two-spotted spider mite. Managing spider mite infestation also is an economic burden: The EU spent an estimated $1 billion for pest control measures. In soybean, two-spotted spider mites are kept in check by their natural enemies, weather, and the quality of the plant itself. However, outbreaks are more likely to happen in drought because of the following factors: Cutting down surrounding vegetation during drought accelerates its movement to soybean and corn. The food quality of soybean improves during a drought. The hot weather inhibits fungal diseases that affect the two-spotted spider mite. The condition speeds up reproduction that natural predators cant keep up. The research team, however, wanted to know whether there was any link between the visual damage and the nutritional value of the harvest. To do this, the team used the Weendei analysis; that is, a method that examines food products for nitrogen (for protein), ether extract, crude fiber, and ash as well as soluble carbohydrates for the study. They found that the damage made by the spider mite changed the protein content and structure in affected soybeans. In the study, the researchers wrote that there was a significant change in the protein content in the mite-injured seeds, as well as in its composition. There was no change noted in the raw fat content of the soybeans. In addition, the levels of ash and fiber also yielded no differences as well. The gel electrophoresis method also showed distinct protein changes that were present in the mite-infested samples but not in the control sample which reduced the feed-consuming capacity of the soybeans in farm animals. Scientists have suggested a link between pest-related crop damage and nutritional content. An earlier study led by researchers from Africa have shown that the damage made by the larger grain borer on cassava chips affected its chemical composition, particularly its starch content. Other studies recorded similar cases: The amount of caffeine in kola nuts a major flavor additive in beverages decreased when it was attacked by kola weevils, and chickpeas that were damaged by the cowpea weevil lost some of its thiamine content. (Related: Essential oils found to be effective fumigants against the pulse beetle, a pest common in chickpeas, lentils and other legumes.) This is also another blow to the already diminishing nutritive value of crops. Based on a separate study, the wheat cultivars grown today contained much fewer nutrients than those grown in 1842. Researchers from the Washington State University found an 11 percent reduction in the iron content from todays wheat, as well as 16 percent for copper, 25 percent for zinc, and up to 50 percent decline in selenium. Learn more about the food we eat by heading to Harvest.news today. Sources include: Science.news Akademiai.com Encyclopedia.com ARS.USDA.gov Agri.HUJI.ac.il Extension.UMN.edu PDF.SemanticScholar.org [PDF] Worldwatch.org (Natural News) You dont have to be insane or dumb to drink Starbucks coffee, but you might want to stop thinking for a few minutes if youre trying to make sense of their environmentally-conscious (or unconscious in this case) efforts to reduce single-use plastic situations. Before you cast judgment though, this is not a one-time mistake or misrepresentation of a mission for conservation, because Starbucks isnt just replacing plastic straws with extra heavy plastic lids, but theyre replacing plastic single straws with paper straws sold in plastic wrappers that use MORE plastic than the single plastic straw did. If your brain is aching right now, thats because Starbucks isnt catering to you, but to their usual Leftists who like vying for causes that make no sense at all. While certain businesses (and even U.S. cities) move to ban plastic straws and plastic utensils (and also make them illegal), nobodys considering the billions of plastic water bottles sold by those same polluting propagandists. You see, the War on Straws is not based on facts or even sensibility; its based on emotion and petty thinking. This supports the irrational idealism of the far Left, a cabal of hypocritical intolerant Millennials who only support causes that fit their immediate gratification lifestyles, but pay no mind to common sense, safety, important laws, and the big picture in general. The War on Straws earns praise from moronic environmentalists who cant see the plastic for the trees Quick, run to Starbucks and buy a sugar-laden customized frappuccino and celebrate conserving plastic while using a plastic lid that wastes even more plastic. Then, buy your kids a couple fancy flavored paper straws to save even more plastic yes, the ones wrapped in enough plastic to make 10 plastic straws. Then, on your way out of the store, be sure not to trip on the homeless guy sleeping by the door, who wont be kicked out because its Starbucks policy. Believe it or not, the city of Seattle just imposed our countrys first ban on plastic straws. Starbucks is leading the charge, so expect more hypocritical corporate robber-barons to follow suit. The best part of the new sippy-cup style lid at Starbucks is that it contains 4.11 grams of plastic, where the old lid and straw combo only contained 3.55 grams of plastic. Way to conserve! Thats like running over a family of ducks in the road in your rush to get your sugar fix at Starbucks while driving your car that brandishes a save the dolphins bumper sticker. Starbucks is now serving EXTRA plastic to snowflakes who believe in global warming, no borders, no police, no prisons, and no private businesses If you fall for one hoax this decade, you might as well fall for all of them. To be anti-Trump is hip for the brainwashed, spoiled, fake hippies (with Mommy and Daddys credit cards in their wallets and purses) who drink over-priced, luxury cafe mochas, lattes, and the Americano. To support liberalism while being completely intolerant of differing opinions and throwing temper tantrums if someone walks into Starbucks wearing a MAGA hat or t-shirt is quite typical of this recent generation of activists who are complete hypocrites. Consumers falling for the Starbucks Ponzi scheme of investing in conservation efforts that literally pollute the Earth even more are the same consumers of fake news CNN and the socialism movement (thats really a communist front). Regulars at Starbucks are giving their money to a corporation with 28,000 stores worldwide that sell Ethos brand bottled water by the thousands daily. Do you really think if you support the plastic straw ban that youre helping anybody with anything anywhere? Ready to join the Straw-less in Seattle campaign? While Starbucks claims theyre saving our oceans from the pollution caused by single-use plastic straws, have you ever wondered where all the garbage from Starbucks plastic juice bottles and plastic water bottles ends up? If youre really concerned about the environment, tune into GMO.news for updates on how pesticides and GMOs are polluting our world. Meanwhile, the whole War on Straws (and plastic utensils) is really just a litmus test to see how many morons are completely brain-washable, so Starbucks, Facebook and Twitter can track your smart phone locations and posts and advertise some socialist political propaganda this fall, in order to support another New World Order led by the crooked Clintons, George Soros, and Obumma. Beware. Sources for this article include: Greenbiz.com NaturalNews.com GMO.news Starbucks.com (Natural News) Weve been highly critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the past over his needless recusal from anything having to do with the bogus Russian collusion scandal currently being dragged out needlessly by special counsel Robert Mueller. But on just about every other issue, Sessions has been spot-on. Hes been the point man for POTUS Donald Trump in his efforts to enforce all immigration laws. And Sessions has also been a champion regarding the protection of the First Amendments religious liberty guarantee. In October, Sessions signed a memorandum 0utlining Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty, in which he noted that it is a foundational principle of enduring importance in America, enshrined in our Constitution and other sources of federal law. This week he is acting on the memorandum: Sessions has established a new Religious Liberty Task Force within the Justice Department to defend all forms of religious expression. Notably, as reported by PJ Media, Sessions mentioned one of countrys leading hate groups masquerading as a civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, which the Left relies on to attack legitimate religious groups (mostly Christian organizations) under the guise of exposing hate, bigotry, and intolerance. A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom, Sessions said in Washington, D.C., as he announced the new task force. Saying the movement must be confronted and defeated, the AG added that one group can actively target religious groups by labeling them a hate group on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs. PJ Media reported further: Sessions emphasized that the new religious liberty task force represents a sea change from the Obama administration, under which federal agencies often used the SPLC hate group markings. His direct reference to the SPLC in his remarks suggested that the new task force may investigate the left-wing smear group. And if so, would prosecutions follow? Christian groups see relief ahead The DoJ notes that the new task force will develop and implement new strategies that involve litigation, policy, and legislation all with the focus of ensuring that religious liberty is defended and protected. PJ Media reported that Christian leaders are of the opinion that Sessions announcement and the task forces formation are not going to be viewed favorably by the Left-wing smear organization. (Related: Left-wing hate group SPLC now being used by Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter to determine hate groups.) Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Christian legal nonprofit Liberty Counsel, told the news site, I think that by the attorney general making this statement today, warning against this dangerous movement, we can predict that [he] and the DoJ will take active steps regarding the SPLC. Stavers group is currently suing charity navigation site Guidestar for adopting the SPLCs hate group designations which included the Liberty Counsel. Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Jerry Boykin, the executive vice president of the Family Research Council, also a Christian-themed organization, agreed. My guess is that Sessions is setting the FBI or some outlet of the Justice Department to take an objective look at this whole concept of hate labeling, its impact, its origins, and its legitimacy, he told PJ Media. He added that the task force itself might wind up investigating the Alabama-based SPLC. The group, said Boykin, has particularly targeted Christian organizations. The SPLC regularly claims that Biblically-based objections to homosexuality and gay marriage by Christian organizations really amounts to bigotry, intolerance, and hate simply for taking the Bibles view of such behaviors. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has got to get to the bottom of that problem, said Boykin. He very well may be prepared to do just that with the appointment of this new special task force as a means of enforcing the presidents policy objectives with respect to defending religious freedom. Read more about Left-wing hate LeftCult.com. Sources include: PJMedia.com NewsTarget.com (Natural News) President Donald Trump recently announced that a multi-billion dollar financial aid plan for farmers would soon be coming down the pike. The subsidies for farmers are intended to help farmers whove been hit hard by new, retaliatory tariffs. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the three-part, $12 billion plan will help ensure that farmers and ranchers arent overly burdened by the Trump administrations vigorous efforts to restore balance to the United States trade affairs. Keeping American farmers in business is a top priority, no doubt. But many are wondering why this administration hasnt tried to shift focus onto a more profitable plant for farmers: hemp. It was recently revealed that the Senates 2018 Farm Bill included legislation which would legalize the cultivation of hemp here in the U.S. If passed, the bill would allow for hemp to be sold as an agricultural commodity and remove it from the list of federally controlled substances. Further, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office reports that the bill would give hemp researchers the ability to apply for grants from the Agriculture Department and make hemp farmers eligible for crop insurance and states would be allowed to regulate hemp, too. This is all great news; hemp is a plant with enormous potential for profits. Why isnt it legal yet? Hemp could revolutionize American farming industry For farmers, hemp could be the next big thing. In fact, cultivating hemp could help restore agricultural economy in the U.S. While it may be illegal, hemp does not have the same psychoactive properties as its closely related (and also federally prohibited) cousin, cannabis. But it does share many of the same health benefits: Hemp contains cannabidiol (CBD) and can be used to make medicinal but non-psychoactive CBD extracts. Many people have turned to CBD extract as a last line of treatment for diseases like cancer. But CBDs biggest claim to fame may be its ability to help children with intractable seizure disorders; the plant compound has been proven as an effective treatment for seizure disorders like Dravets syndrome. The FDA has even given a CBD synthetic produced by Big Pharma the green light. And yet, growing the plants which contain CBD on American soil remains illegal at a federal level. Hemp can also be used for a wide variety of things: Hemp can be used to make paper, clothing, food, medicine, fuel and more. Its estimated that some 25,000 products can be made from hemp. But its usefulness as a product isnt its only benefit: For farmers, hemp is fairly simple to grow and cheap too. Not only will hemp unleash billions of profits for the farming industry, it is a very environmentally friendly crop. In some areas of the U.S., farmers have already gotten the green light to grow hemp and those farms are reporting revenue of $90,000 per acre from CBD oil alone. Comparatively, farmers make $600 per acre on alfalfa plants, which are grown under similar conditions. Hemp is good for the planet, and for farmers The hemp plant requires just half the amount of water needed to grow corn, it can grow successfully in a range of climates and soil types, requires no pesticides and grows very fast up to 20 feet in just 100 days. It is truly an all-purpose crop; it can be grown virtually anywhere, with less water and fewer chemicals. This is all money saved for farmers and once legalized, the demand for hemp will skyrocket. Profits for hemp farmers are practically in the bag already, but this could also be big news for environmental advocates. Geoff Whaling, chairman of the National Hemp Association explains, It uses more water at the very beginning of its growth, said But once it kind of passes its early development stageabout three weeksit becomes one of the most drought-tolerant crops on the planet. Because of this, hemp could be a vital tool for water preservation. You can learn more about hemp, CBDs and legalization at CBDS.news. Sources for this article include: Politico.com TheHill.com BlacklistedNews.com PSMag.com The historical and cultural significance of the Great Pyramid of Giza is well-documented, but new research reveals that it has immense scientific value, too. As it turns out, the magnificent Egyptian pyramid can focus electromagnetic energy through its hidden internal chambers. Great Pyramid Yields Great Potential In the research published in the Journal of Applied Physics, physicists from the ITMO University in Russia and Laser Zentrum Hannover in Germany conducted the study that aimed to see what the electromagnetic response of the Great Pyramid would be to radio waves. They predicted that in a resonant state, the pyramid would be able to concentrate electromagnetic energy in and beneath it. "Egyptian pyramids have always attracted great attention. We as scientists were interested in them as well, so we decided to look at the Great Pyramid as a particle dissipating radio waves resonantly," Dr. Sc. Andrey Evlyukhin, the scientific supervisor and coordinator for the research, explains in a statement in Eurekalert. Evlyukhin adds that there are limited information on the physical properties of the Great Pyramid of Giza, so the team made certain assumptions such as the absence of unknown cavities inside and the building material being ordinary limestone that's evenly distributed throughout the structure. The Experiment First, the physicists determined that a resonant state can be induced with radio waves as long as 200 to 600 meters. Then, they created a model of the pyramid's electromagnetic response, calculating the part of the incident wave energy can be scattered or absorbed by the pyramid in resonance. Finally, the electromagnetic fields distribution inside the pyramid was determined using the same conditions. True enough, their measurements revealed that in a resonant state, the pyramid can focus electromagnetic energy in its internal chambers as well as a third unfinished chamber on the structure's base. Practical Implications Of The Study More than just a cool trivia fact about the Great Pyramid, the findings from the new study will usher in a wave of new advancements in scientific circles. One of the next steps that researchers are eager to explore is whether nanoparticles in the shape of the pyramid would interact with light the same way it did with radio waves, according to the Telegraph. If it is able to concentrate energy in specific areas in these conditions, it could have groundbreaking effects on solar energy, among others. "Choosing a material with suitable electromagnetic properties, we can obtain pyramidal nanoparticles with a promise for practical application in nanosensors and effective solar cells," Dr. Polina Kapitanova, a physicist at ITMO University, tells Telegraph. Mothers diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome are found to be more at risk of giving birth to children with autism, new data shows. Furthermore, these women are also more prone to autism themselves. New Study Links PCOS, Autism Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have discovered a link between PCOS and autism in a study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry. Women with PCOS have a 2.3 percent chance of having an autistic child, while those without the syndrome only have a 1.7 percent chance. According to a press release from the university, the team analyzed NHS records to reach the conclusion. The study includes data from 8,588 women with PCOS and their children. A previously published report has revealed that autistic children have increased levels of "sex steroid" hormones such as testosterone prior to their birth. This discovery led the researchers to ask where these extra sex steroid hormones are coming from. A possible source is mothers with elevated testosterone levels, which is what happens in PCOS. The testosterone may make its way to the placenta and expose the unborn child to extra levels of the hormones, which could lead to a change in its brain development. Indeed, even after taking other factors into account such as complications and mental health problems, researchers found that women with PCOS are more likely to have children with autism than those without. The team stresses that even with PCOS, giving birth to a child with autism is still statistically small, but the findings could shed more light in the understanding of both conditions. In two separate studies with the same data, the team also discovered that women with autism are more likely to have PCOS and women with PCOS are more likely to have autism. This suggests that the two conditions are strongly linked. "This new research is helping us understand the effects of testosterone on the developing fetal brain, and on the child's later behavior and mind," research supervisor Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre, explains in a statement. "These hormonal effects are not necessarily independent of genetic factors, as a mother or her baby may have higher levels of the hormone for genetic reasons, and testosterone can affect how genes function." About PCOS NHS says that PCOS is a common condition affecting the ovaries that lead to irregular periods, excess androgen, and polycystic ovaries. It usually arises when a woman is in her late teens or early 20s. Other symptoms include pregnancy difficulties, excessive hair growth, weight gain, thinning hair, and oily skin. Women with PCOS have also been found to have an increased risk of health problems later in life, including high cholesterol and diabetes. Reports of an active shooter at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, California, resulted in a massive police response Wednesday night. KGET, NBC's local Bakersfield affiliate, was reporting that the hospital was on lockdown with police searching room-to-room with patients and visitors barricaded inside rooms at 9:45 p.m. The initial reports of a possible shooting came in at approximately 8 p.m. #Now Bakersfield Police responding to SW Mercy Hospital. No shots have been fired while emergency personnel have been onscene. No victims located & officers are still searching the hospital. Please stay out of the area. More news to follow. Bakersfield Police (@bakersfieldpd) August 2, 2018 At 10 p.m., the Bakersfield Police Department used Twitter to confirm that personnel were responding to a situation at the hospital and advised the public to stay away. Police also said that no victims had been located and no shots had been fired after emergency personnel had arrived on scene. Mercy Southwest Hospital is located on Old River Road in southwest Bakersfield. At 10:43 p.m., the Bakersfield PD updated that the initial search of the hospital had been completed and no evidence of any shots fire or victims had been located. At 11:57 p.m., the Bakersfield PD stated that the scene had been cleared and that all roads would be reopened shortly. What to Know Twenty-year-old Joel Ortiz of Boston's Allston neighborhood was arrested on July 12 at Los Angeles International Airport. He's been ordered to be held on $1 million bail following his arraignment on 28 counts of grand theft, computer hacking and identity theft. Ortiz was a Boston high school valedictorian and is an information technology major at UMass Boston. A college student from Boston was arrested last month after allegedly stealing at least $2 million in cryptocurrency and hacking phones owned by tech executives, according to prosecutors in California. Joel Ortiz, 20, of Allston was ordered held on $1 million bail following his arraignment on 28 counts of grand theft, computer hacking and identity theft in the wake of his July 12 arrest. He allegedly had $250,000 in cryptocurrency when he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on his way to Europe. Prosecutors in California said Ortiz took control of his victims' cell phones using their SIM card, changed their passwords and then hacked into email, social media and cryptocurrency accounts, stealing millions in the digital currency. Court documents show that Ortiz managed to take over the cell phones by impersonating victims for cell phone carriers such as AT&T, talking them into granting him access to his victims' phone numbers. In one case, Ortiz allegedly even walked into an AT&T reseller in Georgia to do a SIM swap. One victim told investigators he was attending the Consensus NY cryptocurrency conference in New York City in May when he lost cell phone service and immediately knew he was being hacked because he had heard of this happening to others in cryptocurrency circles, according to court documents. Despite the victim immediately making efforts to get his cell phone back at an AT&T store across the street from the conference, investigators say Ortiz stole $1.7 million in cryptocurrency from him. Ortiz, an information technology major at UMass Boston and a Boston high school valedictorian, also spent thousands on parties in rented mansions and on designer clothes, according to The Boston Globe. He's due back in court on Aug. 9. The Santa Clara County public defender's office in California, which is representing Ortiz, declined to comment to the Associated Press Wednesday. His family in Hyde Park and a woman at his apartment in Allston also declined to comment on the case. Prosecutors say Ortiz also withdrew cryptocurrencies, holding them in a so-called "cold storage," which holds cryptocurrencies in a way not connected to the internet; the location of the withdrawn cryptocurrencies is unknown to authorities. Thousands of firefighters are working around the clock at wildfires throughout the state, and its racking up a huge bill for California, with typically the worst months of the fire season still ahead. Cal Fire said Wednesday there are 30,000 firefighters on the fire lines in California, and 16 states across the country are sending help. While the federal government has stepped in to pay for the out of town fire crews, the situation seems to worsen with each day. "Our average wildland response is around 300 fires a week in the state of California," Cal Fire Deputy Chief Scott McLean said. "Last week, there were over a thousand." Only one month into the new fiscal year, the state has spent $115 million on fighting fires. Thats amounts to a quarter of California's emergency fund to cover the fight against all 17 major wildfires burning across the state. Gov. Jerry Brown told the media Wednesday the state has money to deal with it now, but as the weather becomes more extreme, itll get tight. "Over a decade or so, were going to have more fire, more destructive fire, more billions that will be have to be spent on it," he said. If the state ends up spending more than it budgets for fires, it has the option of tapping into reserves and has done so multiple times over the past decade. "This goes to show you what were up against," McLean said. "I mean, the firefight is huge." Eight people, including four firefighters, have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in the Northern California fires. Cal Fire said theyre putting more money into fire prevention such as removing some of the fuel. "Youre going in there, and youre thinning out the forest or the brush," McLean said. "Youre making it where the trees arent as dense, the brush isnt as dense. Youre taking all that dead material off the ground." Cal Fire says 95 percent of wildland fires in California are caused by people. San Francisco police say a driver fatally struck a man who was lying at the bottom of a parking garage ramp. The San Francisco Police Department said Wednesday that a 74-year-old driver struck the victim while entering in a private garage around 7 a.m. in the city's North Beach neighborhood. It's an area where many of San Francisco's homeless population find darkened commercial doorways, unlocked vehicles and other hidden nooks to sleep. A body covered by a blanket at the bottom of the ramp was clearly visible to passing pedestrians Tuesday morning. Police spokesman Robert Rueca said the victim has not been identified and officials don't know if he was homeless. Rueca said the medical examiner is performing an autopsy and police are testing the driver for drugs and alcohol. An advocacy group and family members of a 26-year-old Berkeley woman found dead at the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station early Saturday morning are criticizing the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for releasing her from jail overnight, just hours before she was found dead. Jessica St. Louis was released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday and was found dead at the BART station about four hours later. Alameda County sheriff's officials said that a medical exam of St. Louis showed no signs of foul play and the preliminary indication is that she died from a drug overdose, although a toxicology report hasn't yet been completed. Jessica Nowlan, the executive director of the Young Women's Freedom Center, a San Francisco group that advocates for women of color who have grown up in poverty and been incarcerated, said in a statement, "It was a death sentence to release Jessica in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere." Nowlan said, "To send vulnerable system-involved women and girls into the streets at night, without access to support or even public transportation, is an act of violence." She said, "All over the state of California women are being released into such dangerously unsafe conditions. We demand that this horrific practice stop now." St. Louis' body was discovered near the passenger pick-up/drop-off area at the station, according to BART officials. Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said today that St. Louis' death was "an unfortunate situation" but said the jail releases up to 100 people a day around the clock and can't keep people in custody after they're released. "Not many people volunteer to stay in jail longer than they have to and most people who head out the door aren't walking back" to the jail, Kelly said. He said it's a mile from Santa Rita Jail to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station but noted it's a well-lit, heavily traveled and safe corridor that's patrolled by sheriff's deputies and Dublin police at all hours to make sure the community is safe. He said the sheriff's office can arrange transportation to BART for people who request it. "The real issue is that it appears that she (St. Louis) got some controlled substances after she left the jail and ingested them and died from it," Kelly said. He said St. Louis didn't ingest any drugs when she was at the jail. Kelly said she was in Santa Rita for 11 days for arrest warrants for a previous case. He said she allegedly was involved in "low-level criminal activity" in the Emeryville and Berkeley areas. Alameda County court records indicate that St. Louis was charged with felony grand theft for an offense last Nov. 16 and that she entered a not guilty plea on June 15. Court records also indicate that she was charged with two misdemeanor counts of second-degree burglary and one count each of misdemeanor grand theft and misdemeanor vandalism for offenses last Sept. 29. According to her family, St. Louis was born in Haiti and moved to the U.S. to live with her father when she was 7 years old after her mother died. She was placed in foster care when she was in seventh grade and her father died when she was in high school. In a statement, her family members said, "Jessica was one of the warmest and most loving people you would ever meet. She could talk to literally any person she met -- she made friends with everyone." They said, "She had an openness to the world that people responded to and wanted to connect with. She really loved people and cared about each person's story. She was upset by others' suffering and deeply wanted to help others." The family said, "What has happened to her is tragic and there are many questions that we want to be answered. There is no reason why Jessica should have been released in the middle of the night, alone and without any supportive services." The family said, "While there is no way to bring Jessica back, we believe this should never happen to any other woman being released from a correctional facility again." After more than three decades painstakingly engraving names for the dearly departed, Oakland artist Manuel Alvarez is packing up his hammer and heading into the sunset leaving a legacy of more than 20,000 customized urns in his wake at Oaklands Chapel of the Chimes. "Im going to frame it someday," Alvarez said, handling the wooden engraving hammer he crafted for himself around 1984 when he started the job and still uses today. Alvarez retired this week after 34 years stationed inside a small bunker-like studio, behind a narrow pine door amid the marble walls of the Julia Morgan-designed building, working in quiet obscurity during his entire career. On urns of all shapes and sizes, he etched the names of loved ones, often times adding names to family urns that were first inscribed more than a century back. On those, he had to mimic by hand the intricate lettering of engraving artists from long ago. "You have a one shot deal," Alvarez said. "You have to do it pretty much right anytime." Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area Alvarez worked as an art professor in his native Mexico before coming to the Bay Area. A cousin taught him jewelry engraving but he never imagined it would someday open a door to his lifes work. He answered a newspaper ad for an engraver at Chapel of the Chimes and got the job. After apprenticing several months, he settled into the work, referring to the walls of ornately inscribed urns as "my school." "The thing about copying this other persons handwriting," he said, "you look through the 30s, 40s the craftsman ship is incredible." Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area Originally Alvarez worked in a postage stamp-sized room on the roof before moving into a small studio on the ground floor which is filled end to end with the cluttered implements of the trade. Alvarez job wasnt strictly updating urns. He also figured out how to create reliefs such as a Navy ship for a veteran, a tree, as well as engraving characters in Chinese, Korean and Russian even though he doesnt speak those languages. Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area As prolific as any artist, Alvarez was content to toil behind the scenes. Since engravers dont sign their names to their work, passion for the work propelled his perfectionists obsession. "No one who has their loved one placed in this building has had the opportunity to sit and watch him engrave," said David Madden, Chapel of the Chimes general manager. "They have no idea what goes into it. They just see the final product." On adding a name to an existing urn, Alvarez would examine the font of the earlier engraving, before taking up his hammer and chisel and begin tapping it out imitating the font down to the intricate lines that filled the lettering. The decades of engraving took its toll on his hands, which eventually required surgery. Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area About 15 years back, the shop got a computer which made the engraving job less physical, although Alvarez said the task became programming the computer to engrave fonts that didnt exist in its libraries. On occasion, Alvarez still takes up the hammer and chisel for special jobs. He said ultimately a computer cant match the hands of a skilled craftsman. "It loses that personality," he lamented. Joe Rosato Jr./NBC Bay Area But in an occupation of farewells, Alvarez is now the one departing retiring at the age of 69 although he plans to continue on as an occasional consultant. Hes trained other workers to continue the work although he expects theyll mainly rely on technology for the engravings. "I just want to leave a legacy," Alvarez said, looking around his studio. "I dont want this to die." As of Wednesday, 16 large wildfires were burning across California, putting a huge strain on fire departments. But they are coordinating and sharing resources, as was the case for two South Bay teams. The crew from Cal Fire's station in Morgan Hill is assisting at the Mendocino Complex and Carr fires up north, and that move activated some teams from the San Jose Fire Department to cover the Morgan Hill station. The mutual aid is needed more than ever. "Fire season used to be May to the end of October, and then we would get a break from November through April," San Jose fire Capt. Mitchell Matlow said. "It isn't like that anymore. Fire season is essentially year-round. Things slow down in the winter, but it doesn't really stop." Reserve firefighters have been called in, and crews are working overtime to keep the San Jose Fire Department fully staffed while the regular crews are away. San Jose police made good use of their brand-new helicopter Wednesday when they tracked down and arrested a suspected bank robber, according to the department. Brian Edward Austin, 46, of Oceanside, was taken into custody at Mineta San Jose International Airport after a robbery at the City National Bank branch at 1 Almaden Blvd. in downtown San Jose, police said. San Jose PD Officers responded to the bank about 12:45 p.m. on reports of a man handing a note to a teller saying he had a gun and demanding money, police said. No weapon was seen, and the suspect fled with money. SJPD's new helicopter, Air3, was giving a presentation at the San Jose Police Academy in South San Jose when the robbery occurred, police said. The flight crew heard the police radio broadcast of the bank robbery and subsequent information that the suspect was in the area of the airport. The helicopter responded to the area and located the suspects vehicle by camera, witnessing Austin park in Terminal B, exit the vehicle, and change clothes, police said. Austin then was seen walking from the parked vehicle and boarding a shuttle bus, and an officer arrested him as he got off the shuttle at Terminal A. The stolen money was recovered, and Austin was booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on robbery charges, police said. San Jose detectives are investigating Austins possible involvement with bank robberies in other jurisdictions, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jason Park of the San Jose Police Departments Robbery Unit at (408) 277-4166. Persons wishing to remain anonymous may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, (408) 947-STOP (7867). A jury has convicted a man of attacking a woman outside of a New Hampshire fitness club. Jordan Lamonde, of Portsmouth, was on trial on a second-degree felony assault charge and three misdemeanor assault charges. He had pleaded not guilty. Both sides agree the motive was revenge; the woman's then-boyfriend stole a safe containing $30,000 from Lamonde on New Year's Day 2016. Seacoastonline.com reports jurors deliberated for just under two hours Thursday. Police say the 23-year-old Lamonde parked outside a Planet Fitness in Rochester for nearly eight hours last year before attacking the 18-year-old woman as she got off work there. It was caught on surveillance video. Lamonde's lawyer said the charge was "out of proportion with the facts." A prosecutor said the case is about the "blatant disregard" for her life. What to Know Maine State Police say an off-duty South Portland firefighter, identified as Lt. Harry Weymouth, died following an overnight crash in Hollis State police say it appears Lt. Weymouth fell asleep at the wheel as he was driving home to Buxton Lt. Weymouth was a 21-year veteran of the South Portland Fire Department, and was also a registered nurse An off-duty South Portland, Maine firefighter was killed in a crash overnight Thursday, according to authorities. Forty-six-year-old Lt. Harry Weymouth of Buxton died from his injuries sustained in the two-vehicle crash at Maine Medical Center around 4 a.m. State police say it appears Weymouth fell asleep at the wheel as he was driving home. "It is with deep sadness that the South Portland Fire Department announces the death of veteran Fire Lieutenant Harry Weymouth," the department said in a statement. Weymouth was a 21-year veteran of the South Portland Fire Department and a volunteer with the Buxton Fire Department. He was also a registered nurse at Southern Maine Health Care at the Goodall Campus in Sanford. He leaves behind a wife and three children, according to South Portland's fire chief. State police troopers responded to the crash on Route 202 in Hollis just before 1 a.m., where they found Weymouth's 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt had crossed the centerline and hit a 2014 Ford Fusion being driven by a 45-year-old Portland woman. Officials say paramedics from the Buxton Fire Department were the first to respond to their co-worker's fatal crash. "It's tough for us," Buxton Fire Chief Nate Schools said. "Not just losing a 30-year member of our department that was an integral part of that over the years, it's also that our crews are hurting, too." The driver of the other car and her passenger were also taken to Maine Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators say speed and alcohol do not appear to be factors in the crash. South Portland Fire Chief James Wilson said Lt. Weymouth's last shift with the department was a 24-hour shift and left Wednesday morning. It's unclear if he worked a nursing shift after his final shift at the South Portland Fire Department. His coworkers at Southern Maine Health Care have established a GoFundMe page to support his family. Vermont may have a sterling reputation as a top destination for beer-lovers, but at times, the process of making it has left a bad taste in the mouths of environmental advocates. All across Vermont, we were seeing wastewater compliance issues, said Catherine Coteus, who leads the Vermont Green Business Program under the states Department of Environmental Conservation. Coteus noted that breweries create a great deal of wastewater, full of yeasts and hops that can upset the biological balance inside municipal water treatment plants. In cases of accidental discharges from those plants, nutrients in brewers untreated wastewater can feed potentially toxic blue-green algae blooms. The connection between Vermonts famous craft beer industry and its goals for clean water came into focus for the public earlier this summer on Lake Champlain, after an alarming pollution problem. In June, the city dumped into the lake 1.8 million gallons of only partially-treated stormwater and wastewater, including from bathrooms, briefly closing nearby beaches for higher-than-allowable bacteria levels. The Burlington Department of Public Works blamed the failure of the treatment plant on a combo of intense rain and large discharges from food and drink producers into the system. The DPW told necn in June that its now working with those companies to find better ways to manage their flows, especially at times of stress for the wastewater treatment facilities. Bringing tourists here for beerthis thriving economy we have for production of beerwe want to make sure that can continue to grow without adverse environmental impacts, Coteus said Wednesday. I think all breweries are trying to do the right thing, said Jen Kimmich, the co-owner of The Alchemist in Stowe, which makes Heady Topper, a popular double IPA. I think the challenges are finding access to financing. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation praised The Alchemist for diverting much of its organic waste to farms, compost facilities, and to a center that digests it to make electricity. The Alchemist also has its own on-site wastewater treatment room to remove nutrients before they can even flow to Stowes water handling plant. It takes a lot of all the businesses who are putting a lot of effluent down the drain to work with your municipality and figure out what you need to do so you dont overwhelm them and then they dont end up doing a discharge to the waterways, said Steve Miller, The Alchemists director of wastewater management. Kimmich said some of the steps her business took to work toward a light environmental footprint were easynamely the diversion of organic waste to composters. Others, such as the installation of the on-site wastewater handling facility, were rather expensive, she acknowledged. However, Kimmich called the hard work well worth it for a company that depends on clean water as its critical ingredient, in a state that relies on pristine lakes and rivers for its tourism sector. Without clean water, we cant have real economic progress in Vermont, Kimmich told necn. Coteus said the DECs Green Business Program plans to work even more closely with breweries in months and years ahead to help them continually improve wastewater practices. Authorities are investigating a report that a missing Iowa college student might have been seen in northwest Missouri. Police in Kearney, Missouri, say an employee at a truck stop reported Sunday that she saw a young girl resembling Mollie Tibbetts. The department said in a statement that it spoke to witnesses and reviewed video footage before forwarding a report to a task force investigating Tibbetts' disappearance. KMBC-TV reports Kearney police Sgt. Joe Kantola said only one person reported seeing the woman who resembled Mollie. And he noted he didn't say in the statement that she had been seen on video from the truck stop. Kearney is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City. Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, hasn't been seen since July 18. She was last seen jogging in the evening in Brooklyn, Iowa a small town Tibbetts had been living this summer. Her family reported her missing the next day after she didn't show up to work. The reward for the safe return of Tibbetts has recently jumped to $30,000. KCCI-TV reports that donations are fueling the reward as authorities search for the missing 20-year-old. A fund for the reward was set up at First State Bank in Brooklyn. Dozens of local, state and federal agents are working to determine what happened to the young woman. Investigators said at a news conference Tuesday that they still don't know what happened to her. Authorities have released photos of two people suspected of stealing from a hardware store last week in northwest Indiana. On July 25, the suspects entered the Ace Hardware store at 1820 45th St. in Munster, Indiana, according to a statement from Munster police. While one of them returned a stolen item for a cash refund, the other stole a charity donation box from the front counter. The item had been stolen from another Ace Hardware in south suburban Lansing, according to police. Police released surveillance photos Wednesday morning of the suspects and a vehicle they used and are asking anyone with information to contact Det. Brian Bernadino at (219) 836-6679 or bbernadino@munster.org. Kristin Skelly is giving back to others after overcoming her own battle with cancer. Skelly is a mom living in Madison and teaches in her hometown, Guilford. Im excited about the ride, Im nervous about the ride, she told NBC Connecticut. Its my first ride. Skelly will join hundreds of riders in the Closer to Free Ride in support of the Smilow Cancer Hospital on Saturday, September 8. I've always wanted to give back, she said, especially after going through so much and Closer to Free, it just seemed like the right time for me. I feel like enough time went by." Enough time since she began adjusting to a new normal after her battle with cancer. I think its so important to pay attention to your body, and if you notice anything thats changing at all, then just to follow-up on it, Skelly said. Its important to get regular screenings, mammograms, ultrasounds, whatever you need. During the week of Thanksgiving 2014, Skelly said she felt a small lump in her right breast that led her to the doctors at Smilow. In January, I underwent a double mastectomy," she said. After recuperating from surgery, Skelly spent the next several months undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. It was pretty aggressive so the support of my family, friends, my Baldwin community where I work, the communities of Guilford and Madison really gave me so much strength," she said. An old high school friend suggested she join his team for this years Closer to Free ride. He wanted to honor me, Skelly said, but also his sister is a two time breast cancer survivor." Skelly said she is riding to raise money for Smilows medical teams that save lives and the hospital programs providing support for patients. Sometimes people think when you're treatments are over that you're all better, Skelly said, and I found that time after, probably the two years after my radiation had ended were the most difficult for me." Skelly said sessions of Reiki, a Japanese relaxation technique, yoga classes and therapeutic massages have helped her heal. Take advantage of so many programs Smilow offers, she said, it really did bring me comfort during a difficult time." Now, proudly wearing her survivor jersey, Skelly said she is ready for the 40 mile bike ride. Ten days after the ride, I will be three years cancer free, she said. There is still time to sign up for this years CTF Ride. In addition to the new 40-mile option, there are 10, 25, 65 and 100-mile rides. Farmington Avenue is closed at the intersection with Buena Vista Road due to a crash, according to police. An NBC Connecticut crew on scene reported multiple vehicles involved, one flipped onto its roof. More information was not immediately available. Check back for updates. A Connecticut woman has been sentenced to serve eight years in prison in connection with the fatal shootings of her boyfriend's parents. Jennifer Valiante said nothing in court Wednesday as the sentence was handed down by a Superior Court judge in Bridgeport. Valiante pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution in the case of her boyfriend, Kyle Navin, who was sentenced in June to 55 years in prison. Navin pleaded guilty in April to two counts of murder just before his trial was to begin in the slayings of Jeffrey and Jeannette Navin, of Easton. The couple went missing in August 2015. Their bodies were found in a wooded area more than two months later. Judge Robert Devlin told Valiante during sentencing that she "could have stopped the madness." What to Know Talks between President Trump's lawyers and the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election have restarted A source says Robert Mueller's team may be willing to limit some questions asked of Trump or accept some answers in writing The negotiations come amid Trump's escalating attacks on the probe, including his declaration that Jeff Sessions should end it "right now" Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has offered the White House format changes for a possible interview with President Donald Trump, perhaps willing to limit some questions asked of him or accept some answers in writing, according to a person briefed on the proposal. Talks between Trump's lawyers and the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election have restarted in recent days, and it is not clear a deal will be struck, according to the person, who spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations. Trump has publicly expressed a desire to be interviewed, but his lawyers have repeatedly objected to the investigators' proposals. Trump attorneys say both sides have exchanged proposals for conditions for such a Trump interview. Meanwhile, the special counsel has also requested an interview with Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, the man who helped set up the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to Agalarov's lawyer. Lawyer Scott Balber said the conversations about a potential interview "are ongoing" but that it's "unclear how this will play out." A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment. Agalarov and his father were partners in the Trump Organization's hosting of the 2013 Miss America pageant in Moscow. They also played a key role in arranging the June 2016 meeting of Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and now senior adviser; Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager at the time; a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya; and others, according to congressional testimony. Negotiations of a meeting between Mueller's team and Trump come amid a backdrop of the president's escalating attacks on the probe, including his blunt declaration that his attorney general should terminate it "right now," a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just underway, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsel's team. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet Wednesday was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. "It's the president's opinion," she said. But Trump's early morning tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. And it revived the idea that the president's tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Trump has raged privately in recent days that both the forces of government and the media are trying to undermine him. That includes trumped-up charges against his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and distorting the outcome of the Helsinki summit to make it appear he was beholden to Russia, according to two Republicans close to the White House not authorized to speak about private conversations. Trump was closely monitoring news coverage of the Manafort proceedings, which provoked the spate of incendiary tweets, according to the two Republicans and two White House officials. "The president's not obstructing, he's fighting back," said Sanders, dismissing the idea Trump's tweets could be tantamount to obstruction of justice. The most inflammatory of Trump's tweets said, "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" The president's anger came the day after the start of the trial of Manafort, who is facing federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. And while Mueller did not bring any election-related charges against Manafort, the specter of the Russian investigation is hanging over the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse. And Trump's White House. "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders," Trump tweeted. "He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!" Later the president invoked one of the nation's most notorious criminals, 1920s gangster Al Capone, and posed the question "who was treated worse" while airing his grievance about Manafort being held in solitary confinement ahead of a conviction. Manafort is in detention after having his bail revoked because of allegations that he was attempting to tamper with witnesses in his case. Federal prosecutors revealed last month that he was afforded unusual privileges while in detention. Trump has spent more than a year trying to distance himself from his one-time top political aide, and to minimize the role Manafort played in his campaign. Trump's protestations aside, Manafort worked on the campaign during a critical six-month period in 2016, during which he led the effort to ensure Trump won the Republican nomination. He oversaw the early days of the general election effort. Sanders said Trump wants Mueller's investigation concluded swiftly without intervention, though Trump has publicly mused as recently as May about interfering in the Department of Justice's oversight of the probe. "At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!" he tweeted then. Trump has repeatedly belittled the probe as "a hoax," as those close to him suggest he feels that any talk of Russian interference tarnishes his electoral victory and delegitimizes his presidency. One of the president's confidants deemed Trump in "a dark place," seething about the longlasting probe and the media's depiction of his White House under siege. Though long antagonistic toward the press, Trump's anger toward the media has only grown over the past month, as he has berated coverage of his Singapore and Helsinki summits, the possible prosecutorial cooperation of his former legal "fixer" Michael Cohen and the Mueller probe. After complaining about the tough questions he received from American reporters in Finland, Trump has largely steered clear of the mainstream media, instead opting for safer spaces like an interview with ally Rush Limbaugh this week. From the White House briefing room podium on Wednesday, Sanders declined to denounce the harassment of a CNN reporter during a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday. The president's social media outburst renewed discussion of the significance of his tweets. Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, stressed that Trump was just issuing an opinion, though he also said the White House believes "the investigation should be brought to a close." "I guess, if we were playing poker we're not put up or shut up, what do you got?" Giuliani said. "We have every reason to believe they don't have anything." When pressed by reporters on how she tells the difference between a presidential order or an opinion, Sanders said Trump makes his intentions "pretty clear." But the line between registering an opinion or governing by tweet has bedeviled the White House from the start, even when former press secretary Sean Spicer declared tweets could be official White House statements. Earlier this year, Trump blindsided the Defense Department when he tweeted out a transgender ban for the military, prompting the Pentagon to slow walk the program. Mueller already is interested in some of Trump's tweets to the extent they raise obstruction of justice concerns. Though experts believe obstruction by tweet is possible, prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular act got in the way of an investigation and that the person who did it intended to obstruct. The president's tweets on Wednesday were greeted warily on Capitol Hill, with most lawmakers, regardless of party, urging Trump to let the probe run its course. No. 3 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota said, "The idea that they should truncate it doesn't make sense to me." Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut went much further, declaring. There is now highly credible evidence that the president of the United States is committing obstruction of justice in real time, right before our eyes." Nearly 50 law enforcement professionals including officers, school resource officers and administrators gathered in Fort Worth this week for training on how better work with people on the autism spectrum in the community. The training was hosted by the Tarrant County Sheriffs office and taught by Autism Safety 101 from Florida. My goal is to familiarize Texas law enforcement with autism, instructor Bart Barta said. How people with autism react and respond. Barta is familiar with both sides of the lesson. Not only is his 14-year-old son on the autism spectrum, he is also a former member of the law enforcement community. I believe if they understand these challenges, its going to help these contacts with persons who have autism be it victims, be it suspects or witnesses, Barta said. Gary Moore is one of the school resource officers (SRO) who attended the training. He has been the SRO at Colleyville Heritage High School for more than 20 years. I generally eat lunch with the special needs students every day, Moore said. At the beginning of the school year, many parents of students on the autism spectrum have back to school plans that include introducing their student to teachers and administrators. They are urged to include the SRO in the introductions to foster a relationship between the officer and the student. So the student is familiar and know that that officer is a person to go to if they need help and a person not to be afraid and so that officer is aware of that persons disability, Moore said. Parents can also create a wallet card or information handout for teachers and officers with information about the student. What might be some triggers that help the officer deal with them in a way that makes that a successful interaction and tells them things that might set them off as well, Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller said. Its really important that the school resource officer know these children and know the unique challenges that particular child faces, Barta said. Parents are encouraged to ask their school about drills and practice for emergencies; especially for children on the spectrum. They can sometimes have difficulty with the added excitement of an emergency situation and repeated drills could help not only the student, but also their interaction with SROs who are trying to get them to safety. Many of these children will be able to transition and comply and understand what is expected of them during one of these crisis situations, but you cant do it on the fly, Barta said. You have to put the training on the front end and rehearse this repeatedly with the students and the staff. A 72-year-old Dallas man has died after tripping and falling in a hiking accident this week in Colorado. San Juan County coroner Keri Metzler says Robert Rader, of Dallas, died Tuesday when he fell 100 feet to 150 feet while hiking with family and friends. The Durango Herald reports that the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management received a call of the incident shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday. San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad declined to immediately release more information about the incident. Oklahoma police say a woman fled to Texas after shooting her roommate and setting their home on fire. The Oklahoman reports that Cooke County sheriff's deputies arrested 21-year-old Kristen Elizabeth Jones on Monday during a traffic stop near Gainesville, Texas. She was booked into the Oklahoma County jail Tuesday on charges of murder, arson and desecrating a corpse. The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office alleges Jones fatally shot 23-year-old Miranda Pederson following a fight over the roommate texting Jones' fiance. An affidavit says Pederson stabbed Jones in her hand. Court documents say Jones then shot Pederson and tried to burn the house to hide the evidence. A burned body was allegedly found Monday at a home near Luther. Investigators are waiting for formal identification from the state medical examiner. Authorities say Jones admitted to the crimes when she was arrested. Paleontologists at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science are making new dinosaur discoveries in rarely studied parts of Alaska. Since 2002, museum staff have been making trips to Alaska and have so far discovered two new species of dinosaur. "This is an area that was under-explored, our research program here is sort of blazing the trails and making the discoveries," Ron Tykoski, the museum's director of paleontology, said. Earlier this summer, the museum opened a new traveling exhibit focused on the dinosaurs of South America and Asia. Tykoski said increasingly their discoveries in Alaska are showing how land bridges helped connect dinosaur species millions of years ago. "Most of the dinosaurs we are finding up in Alaska have some ties, relationships and similarities to dinosaurs we are finding mostly in Asia," Tykoski said. Tykoski said he hoped the traveling exhibit will help museum visitors draw a tangible connection to the dinosaurs of North America that the museum currently has on permanent display. "That's the goal for most of us, to make those discoveries known both to the scientific community and to the public," Tykoski said. Over 200 ISIS fighters have surrendered to the Afghan army in the country's north, with some reports suggesting they handed themselves over to the military rather than be captured by the Taliban. Among the fighters who gave themselves up after days of intense fighting with the Taliban were the leader in the north of the Islamic State Khorasan -- or IS-K, as the terror group is known in Afghanistan -- Habib Rahman, and his deputy, according to a spokesman for the local Jawzjan provincial government, Mohammad Reza Ghafori. Afghanistan Afghanistan war Armed forces Asia Conflicts and wars Continents and regions Donald Trump Middle East Middle East and North Africa Military North America Political Figures - US South Asia Taliban The Americas United States Unrest, conflicts and war ISIS Government and public administration Government bodies and offices US federal government White House IS-K has fought for the past few years against the more established and widespread Taliban insurgency as they vie for influence and the Afghan government struggles to assert control. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that 153 IS-K fighters had been killed, more than 100 injured and 134 captured. He added the surrender meant the Taliban had now cleared the north of Afghanistan of IS-K. Yet it remained unclear exactly why the IS-K fighters had surrendered. A spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense, Mohammad Radmanish, said the IS-K fighters surrendered because of an Afghan army onslaught instead. The US military has also expended significant resources, and lost several soldiers, in assisting Afghan forces fighting IS-K in the country's east. Mufti Nehmatullah, the IS-K deputy leader in the north, said the fighters surrendered because "we were tired of fighting and pressure was on us from both sides." He added that the Taliban repeatedly asked the fighters to join them but "we chose to join Afghan security forces rather than the Taliban." Potentially a key moment The events in northern Jawzjan province come at a particularly important time on the Afghan battlefield, with the government struggling to regain territory from the Taliban, and the US apparently beginning the first direct talks with the insurgent group. The Taliban prevailing over IS-K in this fight would be another sign of their seeming potency in the war. IS-K fighters are often unpopular among the Afghan population and are seen as outsiders. Their ruthless tactics such as beheadings and the detonation of bombs under live victims have given the Taliban room to appeal to Afghans by creating specific "elite" units to tackle the terror group. IS-K attacks often focus on civilian targets, and have frequently penetrated the secure heart of the capital, Kabul. The Taliban's apparent role, however, in vanquishing the terror group from the north of the country will be uncomfortable news for an Afghan government struggling to assert itself territorially. The recent report by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) cites US military figures to say that nearly two-thirds of the population is under Afghan government control (65%), but that the percentage under insurgent control has risen from 11% to 12% from the same period last year. An Afghan government security plan states an aim to control 80% by the end of next year. Last year, US President Donald Trump made the rare move of giving a personal speech outlining his policy for Afghanistan -- the US' longest war, which he had previously suggested it should withdraw from. The White House's strategy replicated many elements of the Obama administration's closing policy, and focused on special forces to hunt terrorists, the beefing up of Afghan security forces and finally a negotiated settlement with the insurgency. Discussions begin The latter part of the strategy -- talks -- has picked up pace in the past week with the disclosure that the State Department's top official for the region was recently in Doha for possible exploratory discussions. One tribal figure and a Taliban official have confirmed reports that Alice Wells, a top US envoy for South Asia, did in fact meet with a low-level Taliban official to discuss openings for direct US-Taliban negotiations. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has said the US is "exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the government of Afghanistan." Yet if the talks had occurred they would be a stark concession to the Taliban, who have always sought direct talks with the US -- which they see as their predominant military opponent -- rather than only with the Afghan government. Such a sudden shift would also be in keeping with Trump's recent appeals to North Korea and even Iran. While Trump's policy speech was focused on staying the course and "winning" the war, the problems he faces remain amplified versions of those Obama confronted, hobbled by fewer US troops in the field and a slow eroding of the legitimacy of President Ashraf Ghani, who is under pressure to hold elections and faces several internal challengers. Prosecutors in Texas say a New York City man must serve nine months in federal prison for trafficking more than $150,000 worth of body parts from endangered African lions and tigers. Arongkron "Paul" Malasukum was sentenced Wednesday in Sherman. Malasukum in November pleaded guilty to wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act, a conservation law. Malasukum acknowledged buying a tiger skull from undercover agents working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He also acknowledged purchasing lion skulls from an auction house in Texas. Authorities say Malasukum shipped the skulls to his New York home, then sent the items to Thailand for sale to a wholesale buyer. Malasukum during 2015 and 2016 exported to Thailand nearly 70 packages with skulls, claws and parts from endangered and protected species. Police officers occasionally shoot armed citizens defending themselves from crime, including a decorated Vietnam War veteran fatally shot in his own home in Colorado this week, NBC News reported. Richard Black Jr. shot and killed a naked intruder who was attacking his 11-year-old grandson early Monday morning, according to family lawyer Qusair Mohamedbhai. Aurora police said that an officer arriving at the scene who heard gunfire opened fire when he encountered Black. "It's fraught with peril if a homeowner is armed and protecting their family from danger and simultaneously injecting police into that situation," Mohamedbhai said. "The homeowner is at extraordinary risk and unfortunately what may happen may be a chilling effect on people calling police for assistance." Firearms instructors say they stress to students that they should tell police they're armed when calling 911 and police training often involves discussions about armed citizens. What to Know The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday that they've received reports of large fish kills in SW Florida Photos posted on social media show beaches strewn with dead fishes. Other photos show dead dolphins, manatees and turtles State agencies are warning of a red tide outbreak in southwest Florida that's believed to be responsible for the deaths of hordes of fish and other sea life in recent days. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday that they've received reports of large fish kills at multiple locations in Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier County. Photos posted on social media show beaches strewn with dead fishes. Other photos show dead dolphins, manatees and turtles. On Tuesday, FWC officials said three dead female manatees were found among male manatees that were displaying mating behavior. Preliminary necropsy results showed the manatees' cause of death to be red tide-related. Another manatee that was showing signs of red tide exposure was rescued the same day and brought to SeaWorld for recovery. "We are committed to a comprehensive approach while we continue responding to the ongoing red tide event in southwest Florida, which we have been monitoring since late last year," FWC said in a statement last month. The Florida red tide, also called Karenia brevis, produces neurotoxins called brevetoxins that can sicken or kill fish, seabirds, turtles, and marine mammals. The toxins can also affect humans, causing respiratory irritation or shellfish poisoning if shellfish contaminated with toxins are consumed. Typically, red tide season is from late summer to early fall, and occurs nearly every year. The red tides can last as little as a few weeks or longer than a year. This year, the red tide has been around since at least the spring. The FWC said they're working with the Florida Department of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups on the issue. Meanwhile, counties on the southwest coast are working to clean dead sea life off the beaches and out of the waterways amid complaints from residents, tourists and business owners. Lee County has even placed dumpsters specifically for residents to dispose of wish that have washed ashore due to red tide. "Lee County is actively working to clean up the debris along our beaches as a result of the recent red tide bloom," Cecil Pendergrass, Chairman of the Lee Board of County Commissioners and the Tourist Development Council, said in a statement. "I will continue to strongly advocate for water quality improvements by working with our state and federal agencies, pushing for action. What to Know The Marion County Sheriffs Office published on Facebook that 30-year-old Sara Resko was arrested at her home near Ocala on Tuesday. According to MCSO, deputies were called to the home after a 2-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy were seen wandering in the road. While investigating, four more children ranging in age from six to 13 years old arrived at the home all of them also covered in lice. A Florida mother is behind bars after being arrested after deputies found six children living in conditions they called some of the worst they had ever seen. The Marion County Sheriffs Office published on Facebook that 30-year-old Sara Resko was arrested at her home near Ocala on Tuesday and charged with six counts of child neglect. According to MCSO, deputies were called to the home after a 2-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy were seen wandering in the road with the female child not fully clothed and both children infested with lice and suffering from open sores. While investigating, four more children ranging in age from six to 13 years old arrived at the home all of them also covered in lice and open sores saying Resko left them there while she went to work. Once deputies entered the home, they found no food, electricity or running water along with an infestation of flies and dog feces covering the floor. Resko arrived at the home 90 minutes after deputies responded, saying she had been gone just a few minutes. Officials discovered two incidents in the past 16 months where children had been left alone at the home including a February 2018 incident in which Floridas Department of Children and Families responded. The children were taken into DCF custody while Resko was placed under arrest. One South Florida couple canceled their home warranty contract after they said it was not worth the hassle. Jeanne and Jay Johnston reached out to NBC 6 Responds after they say three claims for their air conditioner, ice maker and hot water heater were denied or not fixed to their satisfaction. One claim was for a broken air conditioner. "Your arm is dripping in sweat, you have fans on in the house to run your electric bill even higher, it's miserable," Jeanne Johnston said. The couple says their frustration is with Choice Home Warranty. They paid $2,700 when they signed up for a five-year plan less than a year ago. "Nothing here was fixed," Jeanne said. The couple has already made the decision to cancel their warranty policy. The AC unit was serviced last September, but by October they say it wasn't working again. The company advised them to pay out of pocket to hire another company to do a leak test which wasn't covered. "It's 90 degrees outside and we are lucky if the house cools to 81 or 86," Jeanne said. Then when their ice maker had issues, the company approved a technician to fix it but did not cover repairs to the part that crushes ice and releases it through the refrigerator door. "If they fix an ice maker then why are they not fixing the motor in the door," Jeanne said. When their hot water stopped working, they say a repair claim was denied after the company said it wasn't being properly maintained. The couple disputes that. "I complained again and threatened to cancel the policy and at that point, they said they would cut us a check for just the water heater that doesn't include labor," Jay said. Like many other home warranty companies, Choice Home Warranty states in its User Agreement that they have "the sole right to determine whether a covered system or appliance will be repaired or replaced." The user agreement also lays out what's "included" and "excluded" in the policy. The Johnston's admit they should have done more research before signing up, but they are not alone in their frustration. NBC Responds units across the country have received 97 complaints about Choice Home Warranty since 2016. The company has earned a C rating with the Better Business Bureau. More than half of the complaints are "problems dealing with the product or service." Three years ago, the company agreed to pay $780,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Attorney General after they were accused of using "deceptive tactics to deny consumers' claims." "I would like to see Choice Home warranty make this right. Give us the money we are due and no more," Jay told us. When the Johnston's canceled their policy, Choice Home Warranty agreed to refund the couple $1,100. Choice Home Warranty did not respond to our request for a statement, but the company did respond to the Johnstons' complaint with the Better Business Bureau. The company stated "Our Mission at Choice Home Warranty is to provide property owners with peace of mind by offering a high quality, easy, and affordable way to protect their most valuable asset. We are committed to providing a positive customer experience and we take all feedback very seriously. Choice Home Warranty provides home warranty service coverage on the systems and appliances listed as 'Included' under the terms of the User Agreement sent to you at purchase" The company also stated, "Reviewing your policy with CHW, you paid a total of $2700 for a 5-year term. CHW has paid a total of $767.30 in authorized claims. The policy has been canceled and CHW has refunded back to your credit card a total $1100.20." After NBC 6 Responds reached out to the company, the couple heard from them. Choice Home Warranty agreed to pay an additional $1,015 as a "goodwill gesture." In order to get that money, the couple was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement which they chose not to do. They instead disputed the charge through their credit union and got reimbursed for the full settlement amount of $2,115. A high school valedictorian with dreams of going to Georgetown University suddenly found himself homeless, with his college dream slipping away. Seth Owen says his parents kicked him out and refused to pay his college tuition after they learned he was gay. But his "chosen family" stepped up to help him, starting a tuition fund that had raised more than $95,000 as of Wednesday evening. Owen, 18, said he was devastated to be rejected by his parents and made to go to gay conversion therapy in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. "In letting me walk out the door, they were saying, 'We don't care where you're staying. We don't care if you're safe. Our religious beliefs are more important,'" he told First Coast News, which was first to tell his story. The star student's father suspected his son was gay after scrolling through his phone and seeing a photo. Owen said the photo wasn't "inappropriate," but it was enough to raise questions for his dad. His parents, strict Christians, questioned him for hours. They sent him to their Baptist church for therapy. When Owen told his parents the therapy didn't change his sexual orientation, they kicked him out. Owen was accepted to Georgetown and received a partial scholarship. But he still had a $22,000 annual bill and no idea how to pay it. He told university officials his financial situation had changed and that he needed more help, but they refused. Then, his teachers pitched in. Teacher Kim Martin started a GoFundMe page. She said she wanted to help her student though Georgetown officials would not. "It's almost like they don't care about his situation, and it's heartbreaking," she told News4. The university declined to comment on Owen's case but said in a statement that they "work closely with students whose financial circumstances change after admission to modify financial aid assistance and ensure they can still enroll regardless of their ability to pay. If Georgetown reverses their decision or if the fund raises more than Owen needs, he said he plans to use the money to help young people in similar situations. What to Know Pastor Andrew Brunson is on trial in Turkey on espionage and terror-related charges The US imposed the sanctions, saying there is no evidence against Brunson and he is being treated in an "unfair" and unjust" manner A top Turkish official vowed to retaliate against the move aimed at pressuring Turkey, a key NATO ally A senior Turkish official on Thursday accused U.S. President Donald Trump of jeopardizing long-standing close ties between Turkey and the United States, after Washington slapped sanctions on two Turkish ministers over the detention of an American pastor. Turkey called on the United States to reverse its decision to impose financial sanctions on the interior and justice ministers. Ankara however, also vowed to retaliate against the move aimed at pressuring Turkey, a key NATO ally, into releasing Pastor Andrew Brunson, who is on trial on espionage and terror-related charges. Ilnur Cevik, a senior adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told The Associated Press in an interview that Turkey was still deliberating possible measures but wanted to "minimize the damage." "Everyone's very disappointed. Nobody expected this kind of treatment (toward) two Cabinet ministers," Cevik said. "President Trump is taking a very small case and jeopardizing Turkish-American relations and Turkish-American friendship." "What the Turkish side is doing is not burning all the bridges but trying to keep the bridge intact and try to salvage whatever is left of the relations," he added. The White House said the sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department would target Turkey's justice and interior ministers, whom it held responsible for the pastor's arrest and detention. Washington insists that there is no evidence against Brunson and says he is being treated in an "unfair and unjust" manner. "President Trump insults the Turkish judicial system," Cevik said. "He says the pastor is being kept a hostage in Turkey. He is not a hostage he is under trial in Turkey." Under the sanctions to be imposed by the Treasury Department, any property, or interest in property, belonging to Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul or Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu within U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked. Americans would generally be prohibited from doing business with them. Soylu on Thursday mocked the sanctions, saying his only asset in the United States is U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016 and wants extradited. Soylu tweeted: "We will not leave him there. We will take him." Brunson, 50, was arrested in December 2016 following the coup on charges of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member" and espionage. He was recently released to home detention. He faces a prison sentence of up to 35 years if he is convicted on both counts at the end of his ongoing trial. The evangelical pastor, who is originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, has lived in Turkey for 23 years and leads the Izmir Resurrection Church. Erdogan has denied speculation that there had been an agreement to swap Brunson for Turkish citizens being held abroad, particularly 27-year-old Ebru Ozkan. Ozkan had been detained by Israel on terror-related charges, but was deported this month. The Turkish leader previously connected Brunson's return to the U.S. to Gulen's extradition. The cleric denies involvement in the coup. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the sanctions against the Turkish minister on his Twitter account, saying Washington's "addiction to sanctions knows no bounds." What to Know North Korea returned what is said to be 55 sets of war remains to the United States Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the Korean War and about 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea In an emotional and solemn ceremony, the remains of dozens of presumed casualties from the Korean War were escorted by military honor guards onto U.S. soil on Wednesday, 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. What is expected to be an exhaustive analysis and identification process will soon begin. "Some have called the Korean War the 'forgotten war.' But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten," Vice President Mike Pence said at a ceremony welcoming the remains, which were flown from South Korea earlier in the day. "Today, our boys are coming home." Each container was accompanied by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. They set them gently on risers lined up inside the hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Adm. Phil Davidson, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession of the containers off the planes. Sixteen other United Nations member countries fought alongside U.S. service members on behalf of South Korea. Some of them, including Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines, have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said some remains could turn out to be those of missing from other nations. He said last week that the return was a positive step but not a guarantee that the bones are American. "Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen," Pence said. "Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure." North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve the 55 cases. Hanwell Kaakimaka's uncle, John Kaakimaka, is among those who never came home. "We've been watching the news, and we've been hopeful that my uncle is among the remains," he said, adding that it could bring his family some closure. His uncle, who was from Honolulu, was a corporal in the 31st Infantry Regiment of the Army's 7th Infantry Division. He went missing on or about Dec. 2, 1950. Hanwell Kaakimaka said the story he heard from his dad was that his uncle was injured and was being brought back from the front when Chinese troops overran the area and attacked the convoy. The Kaakimaka family provided DNA samples to the U.S. military's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency over a decade ago, hoping officials would be able to make a match. The agency identifies remains of servicemen killed in past conflicts. It typically uses bones, teeth and DNA to identify remains along with any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. Before the remains were put on military planes bound for Hawaii, hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops gathered at a hanger at the Osan base in South Korean for the repatriation ceremony. The repatriation is a breakthrough in a long-stalled U.S. effort to obtain war remains from North Korea. There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. The bones' return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump thanked Kim for the return. In a tweet early Thursday, the president wrote, in part, "Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action." During the summit, Kim also agreed to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in return for Trump's promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasn't taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains' return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. The mayor and NYPD brass Thursday called on district attorneys in all five boroughs to come down harder on many defendants caught with illegal loaded handguns in the city. "All of us have to better," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "There has to be a culture of consequence. There has to be a realization that anyone who thinks that they can get away with having an illegal gun in New York City, that that is not going to work and theyll do a lot of time." The mayors criticisms came after the I-Team reported that in many felony gun cases where the law calls for a minimum three and a half years in prison, defendants often receive reduced charges and little or no jail time. In Brooklyn, for example, just 25 percent of felony gun prosecutions resulted in a top count charge and conviction. In the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, that number is about 40 percent. In Manhattan, 61 percent of defendants were prosecuted and received at least the minimum prison sentence. "This is without a doubt our bread and butter by targeting people that carry guns and use guns," said NYPD Commissioner James ONeill. He said prosecutions, especially in Brooklyn, need to increase. "It needs to be much higher than that. Some of that is Eric's (Gonzalez's) office, and some of that is the work we do, quite frankly," he said. "We have to make sure we do our job correctly so we present them with good cases." The I-Team highlighted numerous cases where repeat offenders were released, only to later commit new gun crimes. A review of 2016 gun prosecution data found disparities in how DAs and judges handled cases borough by borough. In Brooklyn, 72 percent of felony gun defendants got lesser charges and sentences. In Manhattan, that number was 30 percent. District attorney offices say the issues are complex. There are diversion programs, bail rules, judges and juries, and the need to strike plea deals in order to keep the courts from getting backlogged. And prosecutors stress that not every case can be handled the same. Youthful offenders and out-of-towners not familiar with New York gun laws should not be treated the same as a gang leader with a violent past, they said. "Let me be clear, there are not people that have used a weapon for a robbery or shooting or a crime," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said of defendants who get breaks. A D.A. spokesman also said gun diversion programs give many offenders a second chance while helping to reduce chances of recidivism. What to Know Officials have identified the body of a man pulled from the Hudson River this week as Paul Moschitta The 49-year-old man was swimming last Tuesday near downtown Poughkeepsie when he got caught in a current The search for him ended Sunday before his body was recovered Tuesday Police say a body recovered from the Hudson River on Tuesday has been identified as the missing swimmer who disappeared in the waters last week. The Dutchess County medical examiner's office identified the body as Paul P. Moschitta, a 49-year-old Poughkeepsie man who's been missing since July 24. Moschitta was swimming last Tuesday with four other people in the river near downtown Poughkeepsie when he and one other swimmer got caught in the current. The other swimmer was brought to the Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie. After a days-long search that included helicopters, boats and sonar and police divers, authorities ended their search for Moschitta on Sunday. Swimming is legal in that part of the river, but authorities recommend all swimmers wear flotation devices. (NBC News) Police in New York is looking for the man who tried to blow up a Staten Island gas station earlier this week. The NYPD has released video of the Monday morning incident. It shows the man purposely spraying gas around the pump as he fills a red gas can. He then lights a piece of paper on fire and places the flaming paper on the spilled gasoline. The fuel quickly ignites with flames engulfing the man in less than a second. The gas station's fire suppression system activated and extinguished the flames as the arsonist fled the scene. A 21-year-old man who was pumping gas nearby was hospitalized with internal injuries. Read more here. What to Know Gov. Cuomo appointed a panel to draft legislation to legalize marijuana in the state of New York According to Thursday's announcement, Cuomo looks for legislature to consider the bill in the upcoming session The proposed legislation will be based on the findings of a multi-agency study Cuomo commissioned in January New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed a panel to draft legislation to legalize marijuana in the state. According to Thursday's announcement, Cuomo looks for legislature to consider the bill in the upcoming session. The proposed legislation will be based on the findings of a multi-agency study Cuomo commissioned in January, which was led by the Department of Health and concluded the positive impacts of regulated marijuana use in the state outweigh the negative impacts. "As we work to implement the report's recommendations through legislation, we must thoroughly consider all aspects of a regulated marijuana program, including its impact on public health, criminal justice and State revenue, and mitigate any potential risks associated with it." said Cuomo in a statement. "I thank the members of the workgroup for their time and expertise as we work to craft a model program." The workgroup will be overseen by Counsel to the Governor Alphonso David, who will work with the panel to provide them with information and support, while being a liaison who will coordinate among the Executive Branch and stakeholders. The panel will be comprised of experts in public health, public safety and economic, as well as leaders of various state agencies. According to the governors office, the workgroup will be responsible for engaging with the leadership of the State Senate and State Assembly as well as bill sponsors of medical and regulated marijuana legislation, advocates, and academic experts with experience from other states. In January of 2018, Cuomo directed the DOH to conduct a study of a regulated marijuana program in the state to determine the health, economic and criminal justice impacts of a regulated market and the consequences marijuana legalization will have in the state of New York. According to the DOH report, which was published on July 13, the positive impact of a regulated marijuana market in the state outweigh the potential negative aspects. The report found that regulation of marijuana benefits public health by enabling government oversight of the production, testing, labeling, distribution and sale of marijuana if New York is allowed to control licensing, ensure quality control and consumer protection, and set age and quantity restrictions. Additionally, the study found that a regulated program would reduce racial disparities in criminalization and incarceration rates. It also recommended sealing the criminal records of individuals with prior low-level marijuana-related offenses. The announcement comes one day after Manhattan prosecutors officially stopped taking people to court for smoking pot in public or possessing small amounts of weed. Manhattan joined Brooklyn in moving to a declined-prosecution model as the city moves toward decriminalizing low-level marijuana offenses and the state grapples with potential legalization. Police officers in the city will shift to issuing criminal summonses for public marijuana smoking, instead of making arrests, starting Sept. 1. What to Know The Bronx bodega where Lesandro Guzman-Feliz was dragged from to his death now has new owners The OCME said Juniors June 20 death was a stab wound to the neck and classified the death as a homicide Alleged gang members have been indicted on murder, manslaughter, conspiracy and other charges A once bustling Bronx bodega that serves as a reminder of a heinous crime has changed hands, and those new owners are offering to honor the victim but the parents of the teenager killed there want just one thing instead. The new owners have offered to name the corner store after Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, also known as "Junior." However, Junior's parents don't want a name change, but instead a different concept: Safety. "I dont want to put his name here," Lisandro Guzman, Junior's father, said. "I don't celebrate this corner or this bodega that killed my son." Junior's June 20 slaying has captivated communities nationwide, partly because the brutal attack was caught on surveillance video. The teen is seen being dragged outside the bodega and attacked by a gang of men who stabbed him with knives and hacked him with a machete as he struggled to defend himself. The boy was slashed in the neck and died after running to a hospital three blocks away. It still pains Junior's mother to walk past that block, a corner she says is "evil." When I pass over there I feel my knees shaking from the bottom of my feet, Leandra Feliz said. I feel my blood running everywhere and I feel like I am going to faint. In the days after the killing, the bodega's owner received death threats and feared for his safety. The community felt he could have done more to help Junior and the bodega had been shut down since the gruesome attack. It's not clear what happened to the former owner, but he told News 4 last month that he tried to help save the 15-year-old boy. By Thursday, the "Cruz and Chiky" signange indicating the old owners' name on the store had been taken down. Information on the new owners wasn't immediately available, but Junior's parents aren't moved by the offer to rename the store for their dead son. "This is an evil corner," Feliz said. "In a few years we are going to see another death at that corner." Neighbors also remain uneasy about the move to reopen the store under new management, and some are even calling for a boycott of the new store. Community members are planning on meeting there next Monday evening to call for a boycott of the new store and to demand that it remain closed. "Keep it closed for a little longer," said Angela Vargas. "It takes a while to get back to normal, because people are still angry," said Malcolm Lenford. But Beverly Durant said, "It is time. It is time. Yes, we are hurting because of what happened but we need to settle down and get back to normal." Feliz did attend an event in support of a separate proposal to rename a Bronx street for her son. The bodega's offer comes a day after the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner officially announced the cause of death for Junior, saying he died from a stab wound to the neck and classifying the case as a homicide. A dozen alleged gang members have been indicted in the case. They're due back in court Oct. 25. Guzman-Feliz had been part of the NYPD's Explorers program, a group for youths interested in a law enforcement career. The New York City Police Foundation announced it planned to set up a scholarship in his name. Police in West Virginia have recovered a stolen school van believed to have been abandoned by a Pennsylvania man wanted for allegedly threatening President Donald Trump. U.S. Marshals believe that fugitive Shawn Christy, 26, of McAdoo, stole the 2008 Dodge Caravan in Butler Township just days before the president was slated to hold a rally at a nearby town. The van, which has a yellow and black decal on the front and back that reads "SCHOOL STUDENTS, was found Thursday near Nitro, West Virginia, the FBI's Pittsburgh office said on Twitter. The van also has red decals on the passenger and drive doors that read "ROHRER." U.S. Marshal Martin Pane of the Middle District of Pennsylvania told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that authorities aren't sure how long the van had been there. The FBI believes Christy has stolen numerous handguns, as well. Christy has been wanted since June for threatening to kill Trump. The president was in Scranton Thursday for a political rally in support of U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta. U.S. Marshalls, FBI and Secret Service officials have been working with local law enforcement to search for Christy. He faces federal charges for posting threats last month on Facebook against the president, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and a police chief. Keep it up Morganelli, I promise Ill put a bullet in your head as soon as I put one in the head of Donald J. Trump. Remember where you came from punk, Christy wrote in a now-deleted post. This is not Christys first time harassing elected officials. In 2011, an Alaskan magistrate issued a restraining order against him for harassing Sarah Palin and he has been known to attack local elected officials, police said. He was also charged with aggravated assault last year after he allegedly swung a large stick at McAddo Mayor Stephen Holly. The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information that could lead to Christys arrest. They warned the public that Christy is violent and could be armed. They encourage anyone with information to call the U.S. Marshal 24-hour tip line at 484-358-1974. The TSA is considering ending screening of passengers at smaller airports across the country to focus security efforts at the largest airports. It is unclear how advanced the proposal is and whether it will ever be adopted. Still, aviation-security experts reacted with alarm, saying that dropping security at smaller airports could make those flights an inviting target for terrorists. CNN reported that the Transportation Security Administration is considering whether to end passenger screening at about 150 airports that serve planes with 60 seats or fewer. The report cited senior agency officials and internal documents from June and July. In a statement, TSA said no decision has been made. The agency said that any changes "to better allocate limited taxpayer resources" would be preceded by "a risk assessment to ensure the security of the aviation system." Security experts said that while passengers would still be screened before boarding the largest jets the types used in the September 2001 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon terrorists could still target regional planes at small airports. Those flights still carry dozens of passengers. "I find that unbelievable, totally beyond comprehension," said Glen Winn, who spent more than 30 years in airline security, retiring as United's chief security officer, and now teaches security at the University of Southern California. Terrorists, he said, "will just begin their plans immediately." Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said TSA would save money by shutting down screening at smaller airports. The agency could take screeners who have a lot of time on their hands between flights at small airports and move them to bigger ones where there is more passenger traffic. Price said smaller planes that would go unscreened are lighter and carry less fuel, making them less dangerous as weapons in the hands of terrorists like those who crashed four planes on Sept. 11, 2001. But, Price added, a crash involving a smaller regional jet could still kill dozens of passengers. He said terrorists could also fly from an unprotected small airport and attack after reaching a bigger airport, where they would already be beyond the current ring of security checkpoints in terminals. Ending screening at smaller airports would reverse a trend of tighter security measures under the Trump administration. Since last year, the TSA has introduced new procedures to help screeners examine laptops and tablets that might contain bombs. TSA has backed away from controversial plans before. In 2013, the agency dropped a plan to let passengers carry small knives something that was allowed before 9/11 after an outcry from the public and flight attendants. Broaching the idea of cutting back screening could also help TSA argue for more money from Congress. The TSA said in its statement that as part of its yearly budget process, it is asked to discuss "potential operational efficiencies this year is no different." What to Know Fernando Magaz Negrete is accused of fondling and kissing a 14-year-old girl at a facility for migrant children in Phoenix Southwest Key, a nonprofit which houses children separated from their parents at the border and unaccompanied minors, operates the facility The facility where the alleged abuse occurred was visited on June 28 by first lady Melania Trump A worker at a nonprofit organization that houses immigrant children separated from their parents at the border has been booked on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl at its one of its facilities in Phoenix, police said Wednesday. Southwest Key, which operates the facility, declined to say whether the 14-year-old girl was an immigrant who was separated from her parents at the border. Fernando Magaz Negrete kissed and fondled the girl in her bedroom at the facility on June 27 in an encounter witnessed by the girl's 16-year-old roommate, police said. They said surveillance video shows Magaz Negrete, 32, approaching the bedroom several times throughout the night, though the bedroom itself was outside the camera's view. "When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate," Southwest Key spokesman Jeff Eller said. "That's what happened in this case. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted." The nonprofit said it has fired Magaz Negrete. The facility where the alleged abuse occurred was visited on June 28 by first lady Melania Trump, who met with people directly affected by her husband's hard-line immigration policies. Shelters that house immigrant children have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration introduced a "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal entries that has led to the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. The news website ProPublica published a report in late July saying police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offenses at shelters that primarily serve immigrant children since 2014. The ProPublica report detailed a 2015 incident at a Tucson, Arizona, shelter operated by Southwest Key in which authorities said an employee touched a 15-year-old Honduran boy's penis from outside his clothing. The worker was fired and later convicted of molestation. Magaz Negrete was booked Tuesday on suspicion of child molestation, sexual abuse and aggravated assault. Efforts to find an attorney for Magaz Negrete through court records and from a court official were unsuccessful. Magaz Negrete made a brief court appearance Tuesday night, asking the court commissioner who presided over the bond hearing, "Who is bringing up these charges?" Court Commissioner Tracy Nadzieja responded that Magaz Negrete's court-appointed attorney will explain the allegations against him at some point in the future. Magaz Negrete, whose bond was set at $150,000, remained in jail on Wednesday. President Donald Trump's tweet on Wednesday calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end the Russia investigation raises difficult questions about whether Trump's frequent use of Twitter might be used to build a case of obstruction of justice against him. The latest round of presidential tweets bashing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation fueled criticism that Trump is illegally interfering with the investigation. Just as quickly, the White House defended the tweets as expressing Trump's opinion. Amid a series of morning tweets, Trump wrote, "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" Mueller already is interested in some of Trump's tweets to the extent they raise obstruction of justice concerns. In obstruction cases, prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular act got in the way of an investigation and that the person who did it intended to obstruct. The difficulty in trying to use Trump's tweet to prove obstruction is that he may have posted it for several reasons, including to rally support among his political base, said Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor in New York who now lectures at Columbia Law School. In addition, Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, and Trump certainly knows that, having previously complained about it publicly, Rodgers said. "If there are other credible reasons for doing something, you've kind of lost the beyond a reasonable doubt," Rodgers said. But statements like the one Trump made Wednesday could help round out an obstruction case that might be focused on an earlier act, like the firing of FBI Director James Comey, she said. Rodgers was among several lawyers who said there is no reason a tweet could not be considered evidence taking issue with comments from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani that scoffed at the idea of "obstruction by tweet." "I don't know why Rudy seemed to think that obstruction by tweet is a crazy notion," Rodgers said. Postings from Facebook and other social media are used in criminal cases, Rodgers said. "There are no separate rules of evidence for obstruction cases," she said. Former Justice Department official Neal Katyal said the medium is unimportant. "A tweet is like anything else. It's a statement. Of course it can be considered evidence of obstruction, depending on what is said. The form (spoken, written, tweeted) is irrelevant, it's the substance that matters," Katyal wrote. Trump critics said they read the tweet as pointed interference in the Mueller investigation. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a former prosecutor, took to Twitter to weigh in. "When I was a prosecutor, obstruction of justice was often hard to prove, requiring difficult-to-obtain evidence that the individual's actions were truly intended to interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation. Oh how times have changed," Leahy said. Richard Painter, who served as an ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he would read the tweet as instructing Sessions to put himself back in charge of the Russia probe. "He's instructing his attorney general, via Twitter perhaps, to stop the Russia investigation," said Painter, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Minnesota. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump's tweets are simply the president "fighting back." She disputed the notion that Trump was directing Sessions to take action. "It's not an order," Sanders said. "It's the president's opinion." Giuliani, speaking in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, called the obstruction of justice issue "nonsense." Trump could bring the investigation to a halt if he wants to, Giuliani said. "If he wanted to obstruct it, he'd obstruct it, just end it. Then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that, which I think he does. But he's not going to do that. He's made it clear he wants it to run its course," he said. On the other hand, Trump has a right to express his opinion, and he uses Twitter to do so, Giuliani said. "If he believes he's innocent, and he is innocent, he should speak out," he said. The wife of a former Marine and Iraq war veteran is set to be deported on Friday unless President Donald Trump intervenes, NBC News reported. Alejandra Juarez, 39, entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico, escaping violence in her home country. She married Cuauhtemoc Juarez in Florida, and they have a 9-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old daughter, both born in the U.S. Juarez, who describes himself as a conservative who voted for Trump, wrote the president a letter asking for a reprieve, according to Stars and Stripes. There is an immigration policy for military members and their families called "parole in place." The Citizen and Immigration Services website says they provide discretionary options such as parole in place or deferred action on a case-by-case basis. Alejandra checked in regularly with immigration authorities, during the Obama administration, and says she was always told she is not a criminal and has nothing to worry about. But now, with Trumps zero tolerance immigration policy, few exceptions are made for unauthorized immigrants even in cases when a crime has not been committed. What to Know Paul Manafort's trial is the first to stem from the Russia probe by special counsel Robert Mueller Expected to testify were bookkeepers and accountants The witnesses testimonies are an effort from prosecutors to link Manafort to the financial fraud they say enabled his lavish lifestyle Paul Manafort inflated his business income by millions of dollars and kept his bookkeeper in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy luxury items and pay personal expenses, according to testimony and documents during his trial Thursday. But he otherwise approved "every penny" of the personal bills bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn paid for him, she said during hours on the witness stand. That testimony is important to special counsel Robert Mueller's team as it looks to rebut defense arguments that Manafort can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others. That includes his longtime associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year and is expected to testify soon as the government's star witness. "I would say he was very knowledgeable. He was very detail-oriented. He approved every penny of everything we paid," Washkuhn told jurors. With Washkuhn on the stand, prosecutors showed jurors a series of documents submitted by Manafort to obtain bank loans, including one in which he appeared to inflate the net income of his business by roughly $4 million. Prosecutors say he tried to pass the documents off as coming from her accounting firm. The fraudulent loan documents came after Manafort's political consulting work in the Ukraine had dried up and as he had begun to financially struggle, prosecutors say. Jurors saw a series of emails Washkuhn sent him in 2016 warning that he was behind on his payments, including to her, and that money was swiftly needed. Manafort faces charges of bank fraud and tax evasion that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. It's the first courtroom test of Mueller's team, which is tasked with looking into Russia's efforts to interfere with the U.S. election and whether the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Moscow to sway voters. While the question of collusion remains unanswered, Manafort's financial fraud trial has exposed the lucrative and secretive world of foreign lobbying that made Manafort rich. Other witnesses testifying this week said Manafort paid them millions from the offshore accounts tied to foreign shell companies for landscaping, expensive clothing and even a karaoke machine. When prosecutor Greg Andres read off some of the offshore companies to Manafort's bookkeeper, she said Manafort never told her about them. She said she would have documented them for tax purposes if he had. On cross-examination, Manafort attorney Thomas Zehnle tried to get Washkuhn to say Gates was heavily involved in approving expenses. The Manafort legal team has been working to convince the jury that Gates is to blame rather than their client. But Washkuhn said that while Gates dealt with some business matters for Manafort's consulting firm, "mainly Mr. Manafort was the approval source." The federal judge overseeing the trial has questioned the hundreds of exhibits prosecutors want to submit as evidence of Manafort's lavish spending. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said Thursday that while the money was relevant, he didn't see the need for prosecutors to "gild the lily," especially considering Manafort's lawyers have not disputed that their client spent his money on luxury items. "This is a case in which the government has alleged that he underreported his income," Ellis said. Prosecutors told Ellis they expect to rest their case next week, noting that they are ahead of schedule. Manafort has a second trial scheduled for September in the District of Columbia. It would address allegations that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests and made false statements to the U.S. government. What to Know A black baby doll was found on Thursday hanging from a noose at Weccacoe Playground at 4th and Queen streets in Queen Village. Mother Bethel AME Church Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler said the playground was the original burial ground for the church. A group of boys later came to the park and claimed they hung the doll to "creep people out." A group of children claimed Thursday evening that they hung a black baby doll from a noose at a Philadelphia playground to "creep people out" an action that prompted a police investigation and swift condemnation from spiritual and city leaders. The doll was discovered Thursday afternoon in a tree at the Weccacoe Playground at 4th and Queen streets in the citys Queen Village section. The site is historic as it was the former burial ground for Mother Bethel AME Church, one of the nation's original black congregations. The display angered many including Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, Mother Bethel AMEs senior pastor, who called it a "hate crime." Earlier Thursday, Tyler made his way over to the city playground as police and firefighters arrived to cut down the doll posting a photo of the doll and livestreaming the operation on Facebook. "For our people, there was a time when they weren't baby dolls, but they were real people and real bodies," Tyler said on a Facebook Live. "That didn't stop us and this won't either." Shortly after 6 p.m., a group of boys all under the age of 13 and of mixed races walked up to NBC10 reporter Rosemary Connors and photojournalist John Panfile and claimed they hung the doll. Tyler, the pastor, took the boys aside and let them explain why they decided to hang the doll. According to Tyler, the boys claimed they found the doll on the roof of a structure in the park and found it "creepy." "They thought like little boys [do], Lets use it to creep people out," Tyler said. "Later they found the noose, the hangmans noose, and thought better to put the noose around the baby dolls neck and just hang it in an area to scare people." "They had no idea about the historical legacy of lynching, what that image would do, the terror that it put into people," Tyler added. Tyler called Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross to share what the boys told him. Tyler said he was told surveillance video from the park appeared to corroborate the boys story. "Unfortunately, this is a perfect storm. The wrong prank, the wrong place, the wrong time," Tyler said. Police have not yet commented on the new developments and whether the boys will face charges. The incident, which quickly mushroomed to garner national attention online via social media, prompted denouncements from multiple city officials including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who called it a "despicable act" that left him "sickened." The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Asked for comment in light of the boys' claims, Kenney's spokesman said the mayor's statement is unchanged. Despite the furor, Tyler said hes heartened that the boys came forward to fess up. "I cant say enough about these kids who were not compelled to come by their parents, their parents didnt force them, but who came on their own and told the truth when they realized this was a bigger story than they thought," Tyler said. What to Know A toddler died from his injuries after being attacked by pit bulls inside a home in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Responding officers killed one dog and injured two others. People inside the home at the time of the attack were cooperating with investigators, police said. A toddler died from his injuries after being attacked by several pit bulls inside a home in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia Wednesday, police said. "It's just horrible all around," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said. "It breaks our heart to see this poor later baby was injured and ultimately killed." Officers first responded to several 911 calls reporting a person screaming and a child being attacked by dogs in a home on the 3000 block of Agate Street about 5:15 p.m. "When police arrived on location they could see through the front door that a small child was laying on the living room floor being attacked," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Officers went inside the home and were attacked by at least two of the dogs present, Small said. The officers opened fire, killing one dog and injuring two others. Ross said Thursday morning that three of five dogs in the home attacked the boy while the two others remained in a cage. "The dogs had blood all over them," witness Jason Rash told NBC10. "From biting the aunt and the baby, they had blood all over them." Once inside, the officers found the child unconscious with severe injuries to his head and face as well as bites all over his body. Video obtained by NBC10 shows officers firing shots into the home and going inside, then medics rushing the child out of the house and into an ambulance. The boy was taken to St. Christopher's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. Police initially said the boy's aunt suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the incident. They later clarified that she wasn't seriously hurt and had gone to the hospital to be with the child. No police officers were injured during the incident. Ross spoke of the impact the incident had on everyone involved from the boy's family to neighbors to the officers who responded. The aunt, a 36-year-old and a 16-year-old were inside the home at the time. They were taken into police custody for questioning. All of the dogs that were found belong to residents of the home, police said. There were no obvious signs of dog fighting, Ross said. A woman in the home let one dog out of its cage prior to the attack but two other dogs got out as well, Ross said. The Special Victims Unit is looking into possible reckless endangerment or child endangerment charges though no arrests have been made, Small said. The ultimate decision to press charges would be up to District Attorney Larry Krasner. Animal control removed all of the pit bulls from the home. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Jerry Brown joined leaders of Cal OES, the Office of Emergency Services, Wednesday morning for an overview of efforts to squelch some 17 fires burning around California. Brown thanked members of Cal Fire and supporting agencies and he also acknowledged inmate crews helping in the firefight. A state of emergency has been declared in several counties including Shasta and Mendocino. The governor also talked about sparing no cost to win this battle. Whatever resources are needed, we're putting them there. We did allocate money in the budget for these kinds of contingencies and that money is there to do exactly what its doing, Brown said. Keep your eyes peeled for a light blue cape this week as Puerto Rican superhero La Borinquena soars into Philadelphia's Amalgam Coffee and Comics book store. Created by Puerto Rican writer and Marvel illustrator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, La Borinquena is a young, Puerto Rican female superhero who defies stereotypes. Unlike other comic book characters, she does not fight supervillains. Instead, she battles the humanitarian crisis facing Puerto Rico while cloaked in the colors of the islands original flag. Most cultural icons have been written from the position of white privilege," Miranda-Rodriguez told NBC10. I wanted to create a character that was unapologetically patriotic and truly representative of my heritage. For inspiration, Miranda-Rodriguez looked to the women in his life, including his own sister who shares a name with the superhero he created. When La Borinquena is not flying around helping Puerto Rico, Marisol is a senior at Columbia University studying environmental science. Miranda-Rodriguezs mentors, author Iris Morales and New York University professor Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, also inspired him to create a character who challenged the patriarchal world of superheroes. La Boriquena is not scantily clad like Wonder Woman or Catwoman. Instead, she wears sweats and uses an inhaler to "reflect young women today," Miranda-Rodriguez said. I think were producing images, as a culture, that are hurtful for young women to see, he said. Superman was about creating the image of the perfect man and the women were always portrayed as the [damsels] in distress. These conventional depictions influenced the founding of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, the city's only black woman-owned comic book store. A connoisseur of all things superhero, Ariell Johnson noticed that women of color were barely represented in comics and there were virtually no shops owned by them. Like Marisol, she wanted to change that. There are not enough creators of color, queer creators, women creators and its the result of the industry as a whole not valuing those voices on a larger scale, she said. The focus of Amalgam is to celebrate diverse voices in comics. La Borinquenas mission, however, extends beyond Miranda-Rodriguezs goal to diversify the medium. She also tackles problems currently facing the Puerto Rican community. In the series' first issue, for instance, La Boriquena does not fight a supervillain. She fights a hurricane. Miranda-Rodriguez was inspired by his own research into Puerto Ricos history and the island's present-day political, economic and structural woes. His research helped him understand the devastation that a natural disaster could cause and it allowed him to write about a fictitious natural disaster nine months before the very real Hurricane Maria struck. When it did, the storm's effects reverberated far beyond the island. To alleviate the humanitarian crisis left in the storm's wake, Philadelphia opened a Disaster Assistance Services Center in October 2017 to help people who self-evacuated from Puerto Rico find housing and obtain medical care. But the city has not provided the support people truly need, Philadelphia-based artist and activist Grimaldi Baez said. Baez, whose family evacuated from Puerto Rico after the hurricane, has visited the island several times since the storm hit. He met people living in tarps and shared food with those who could barely feed themselves. In Philadelphia, he helped hurricane victims register as homeless in order to receive services. Things that affect the island affect people here, Baez said. You had a lot of people coming here who were in need of resources that were already scarce. You had families coming who were not able to access housing." Women, like those who influenced Miranda-Rodriguez, largely led the relief efforts, Baez said. It was mothers, it was teachers, it was librarians, it was social workers, it was women putting in time, he said. And just like in the real world, the consequences of Hurricane Maria persist beyond La Borinquena's first issue. In the second issue, Marisol finds herself in the midst of the islands recovery where people are protesting the displacement of families and wildlife. Marisol also discovers, in the second issue, that she can travel through time and learns how Puerto Ricos present-day struggles are connected to its colonial history. I knew that Puerto Rico would not be able to recover [from a massive storm] because it was operating on an electrical grid from the 1950s, Miranda-Rodriguez said. Im creating this book that is earmarking these historical events. Its not conjured by my imagination. Miranda-Rodriguez will be in Philadelphia Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. to sign copies of the "La Borinquenas" second issue at Amalgam Comics. Police arrested two men accused of sexually assaulting an elderly woman during a home invasion and robbery in West Philadelphia. On July 19, two men wearing towels over their heads broke into a home on the 6000 block of Sansom Street. They then sexually assaulted an 82-year-old woman inside the house and stole several items before fleeing the scene, police said. Investigators identified the suspects as Darius Johnson, 23, of East Lansdowne, and Raheem White, 30. Johnson was arrested Monday and charged with attempted rape, burglary, robbery, simple assault, risking catastrophe, conspiracy and other related offenses. Police arrested White, whose last known address was in Folcroft, Pennsylvania, Wednesday night. An El Cajon grandfather who suffered half a dozen stab wounds in a random attack told his dramatic story of survival only to NBC 7 Wednesday. Without warning, without a word, he was jumped on by a stranger on July 26, and for what must have seemed like an eternity, in a fight for his life. "Without saying anything. Not a word. No nothing. He was looking for killing," said the 75-year-old man who asked to be identified only as Sam. Sam was stabbed six times while on an evening walk with his daughter and grandchildren at the corner of North Second Street and East Madison Avenue. Sam remembers the accused attacker, Lester Kenji Riley, 39, a man half his age, angling for him and his daughter and grandchildren while securing his grip on a kitchen knife. If a killing is what the attacker was after, he almost accomplished the task. Sam sat on the sidewalk trying to stop the bleeding from a half dozen wounds while waiting for an ambulance. When asked if he felt like he was going to die, Sam replied, Of course. Of course. So I requested from God, save me." While Sam said his prayers, witnesses say Riley sauntered away, slowly zigzagging down East Madison with the knife in his hand. According to the El Cajon Police Department (EPD), Riley refused officer commands to drop the knife and was taken into custody with the use of less lethal bean bag rounds and a Taser. Bruised and stitched, he is counting his blessings. "I'm afraid many others will follow him. The benefit of the jail is much more than the benefit in the freedom," the victim said. The motive was not made clear when it was Riley's turn to speak that night. He only mumbled under his breath as he was arrested. "If you go to the court and they punish him for 10 or 15 years they will start nothing. He will not cry. He will not say I am sorry because that's what he wants," Sam said. Riley pleaded not guilty Wednesday to an attempted murder charge, which carried an elder abuse enhancement because of Sam's age, the District Attorneys Office said. Sam's wounds will heal. He is supposed to get the stitches removed in three days and make a full recovery. "This is trial from God. From Jesus Christ. He tried my belief and I think I passed the exam," Sam said. He says he doesn't hate Riley but the pleasantness of an evening walk with his family will never feel the same. NBC 7 learned at Riley's arraignment that he has a long and violent criminal history that his brother says includes an attack on his own mother. His brother also says Riley has a history of mental illness. Court records show Riley has been convicted in at least six criminal cases dating back to 2004. Those cases include battery, DUI, and possession of a dangerous weapon a knife. In 2008, he was sentenced to a year in prison for the attack on his mother. His brother says Riley was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 17 years old and believed his brother was homeless during the latest incident. Riley was also charged with willful cruelty to an elder causing great bodily injury and was ordered held on $1 million bail. He is facing a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted. What to Know A 12-year-old girl was abducted from DCA airport Thursday morning. She was visiting from China. She was found in Queens, NY, Friday, officials said. Authorities said she is safe and with her parents. A 12-year-old girl who left Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with an unknown woman has been found safe in New York City, officials said Friday. "We are pleased to share that Jinjing Ma has been found and is safe," the Reagan Airport tweeted. Jinjing Ma was reported missing Thursday from Reagan Airport in D.C. and was located Friday in Queens. The Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that Ma was found "safe and in the custody of her parents." Ma, who is visiting the U.S. from China, was reported last seen at the airport at 8:15 a.m. Thursday. Her tour group had visited multiple cities in the country, and after spending a night in D.C., they arrived at the airport for the next leg of their journey. Authority police Chief David Huchler said at a news conference Friday that the girl excused herself to go to the bathroom Thursday after getting her passport at Reagan Airport. He said the girl met a woman, changed clothes and got into an SUV with New York tags. Huchler said a couple had earlier approached Ma while her tour group was at the World Trade Center. He said there appeared to be a link between that couple and the people she met at the airport. Investigators previously said Ma was abducted. They later called her a "critical missing juvenile." Investigators said there appeared to be some familiarity between Ma and the couple, but they didn't know what they said or whether they knew each other. Police didn't say when the New York encounter occurred. It's not clear if the woman who approached Ma at Reagan National Airport was the woman who approached her in New York. Police believed Ma and the woman left the airport in a white 2016 or 2018 Infiniti QX70 with New York plates. A man was driving. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority released photos Thursday, including the following photo of a woman and a man arriving at the airport's ticketing and departures level. Another photo showed the woman with the girl. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority A witness told police he may have seen the woman meet up with Ma in New York and give her food. Police said they were working to contact Ma's grandfather, who lives in China, and reaching out to her relatives who live in the U.S. An 88-year-old man who was abducted by a woman pretending to be his daughter has been found safe in the Washington, D.C. area, police say. John Alee Wimbush was last seen at 10:28 a.m. Wednesday on Forest Street in Martinsville, Virginia. Police say he was with 59-year-old Valerie Vianna Swinson of Fort Washington, Maryland. According to the Martinsville Police Department, Swinson, who also goes by Valerie Vianna Condell, has been posing as Wimbush's daughter. She was wanted for abduction and intent to extort money. She is in police custody in D.C. and will be extradited back to Virginia. Wimbush appears to be in good health and is being evaluated at the Veteran's Affair's Hospital in D.C. Facebook stunned and angered organizers of a protest against white supremacists when it disabled their Washington event's page this week, saying it and others had been created by "bad actors" misusing the social media platform. The company said the page one of 32 pages or accounts it removed Tuesday from Facebook and Instagram violated its ban on "coordinated inauthentic behavior" and may be linked to an account created by Russia's Internet Research Agency, a so-called troll farm that has sown discord in the U.S. But the organizers of next weekend's protest in Washington say Facebook has unfairly and recklessly tarnished their work by suggesting their event could be linked to a Russian campaign to interfere in U.S. politics. April Goggans, an organizer of Black Lives Matter DC, said protest organizers began planning the event before the Facebook page's creation. Organizers have set up a new page, but Goggans fears Facebook's crackdown left many people with the false impression that a Russian bot is behind their event. "Our participation may take a hit because people are trying to find out what's legit and what's not," she said Wednesday. For weeks, activists have been planning a counterprotest to the Washington rally organized by Jason Kessler, the principal organizer of last summer's deadly white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hundreds of Facebook users clicked on the event's Facebook page to signal their intent to attend the counterprotest. Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, said in a statement Tuesday that "inauthentic" administrators of a page called "Resisters" connected with administrators from five legitimate pages to co-host the event and enlist support from "real people." "These legitimate Pages unwittingly helped build interest in 'No Unite Right 2 - DC' and posted information about transportation, materials, and locations so people could get to the protests," Gleicher wrote. Gleicher's statement said Facebook disabled the event page Tuesday and reached out to the administrators of the five other pages "to update them on what happened." Facebook also planned to report the issue to approximately 2,600 users who had expressed interest in the event and to more than 600 users who said they planned to attend it. Andrew Batcher, an organizer for the Shut It Down DC coalition formed to protest Kessler's rally, said the event page created by "Resisters" was taken over and controlled by "a lot of real people doing real work." Batcher said he hasn't seen any evidence that any of administrators for the "Resisters' page was a "bad actor." "All the content on the page came from local organizers," he said. "Facebook took it all down, which I see as censorship of a real protest event." Researchers at the Atlantic Council, a nonprofit working with Facebook to analyze abuse on its service, said the accounts identified for removal sought to promote divisions between Americans. The accounts seemed focused on building an online audience and moving it to offline events such as protests. Facebook didn't directly link Tuesday's crackdown to Russia or U.S. midterm elections in the fall. But the company said it found evidence of "some connections" between the deleted accounts and accounts that Russia's IRA created before Facebook disabled them last year. Facebook said one of the disabled IRA accounts shared a Facebook event hosted by the "Resisters" page, which had an IRA account as one of its administrators "for only seven minutes." "If that's the case, then it's pretty meaningless infiltration," Batcher said. But that discovery "could be a sign of something deeper" and not necessarily the full extent of the IRA account's activity on the page, said Dipayan Ghosh, a former Facebook employee who worked on global privacy and public policy issues for the company. "It just raises a bunch of questions that suggest there is a complicated ecosystem here and we're only scratching the surface," said Ghosh, a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. In February, a federal indictment accused 13 Russians of operating a hidden social media trolling campaign, posing as U.S. activists and posting about divisive political and social issues. Investigators have concluded the Russians coordinated and leveraged the support of unwitting Americans in carrying out their campaign. Kessler scheduled his Aug. 12 event in Washington to mark the anniversary of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, where hundreds of white supremacists and counterprotesters clashed in the streets before a car plowed into a crowd, killing 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer. The National Park Service approved Kessler's application for a "white civil rights" rally at Lafayette Square, near the White House, but hasn't issued a permit for the event. Goggans said Facebook's crackdown has been a time-consuming distraction for counterprotest organizers. "Over the past 18 hours, we've been having to prove we exist," she said. A 10-year-old girl who had just been tucked in for bed was killed when a tree crashed onto her bedroom Wednesday in Northern Virginia. Lydia Gherghis was preparing to start fifth grade. But a large tree fell onto her family's house in Warrenton during a thunderstorm. The 911 call came in about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday. A tree had fallen, trapping someone, the caller told the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office. Emergency crews rushed to the 6200 block of Highmeadow Place, off Route 29. "The tree had fallen through the roof, through the ceiling, onto the bed and pinned her. They tried, frantically, everything that they could, to try to free the victim and couldn't," Sgt. James Hartman said. A special tactical unit from nearby Prince William County had to stabilize the structure and tree so that they could remove Gherghis. The little girl was pronounced dead. Her distraught parents had to be escorted out of the house, for fear it would collapse. First responders, shaken by the call, took time to pay their respects as Gherghis' body was removed from the wreckage and driven away. "There was a tribute after the victim was removed from the house. The first responders lined the driveway as she was brought out," Hartman said somberly. Gherghis played softball and was "the embodiment of the phrase 'full of life,'" family friends wrote on a GoFundMe page they created for the family. "Her smile and laugh were contagious, and she always had a twinkle in her eyes," the page says. Gherghis attended Gravely Elementary School in Haymarket. Her mother is a school bus driver for the district, Prince William County Public Schools. Police are working to learn why the tree fell. Rain had been heavy, and the ground was saturated. Gherghis' family only moved into their house earlier this summer. Neighbors are mourning the family's loss. "My heart breaks, as a mom, for them to have to go through something like that," one woman said though tears. Go here to learn more about the fund for Gherghis' family. A woman who was fired from her job at a restaurant in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, set fire to the business early Thursday morning, causing damage to several businesses, fire officials say. The fire started at Al's Country Kitchen about 1:30 a.m. in the 14700 block of Main Street in downtown Upper Marlboro, the Prince George's County Fire Department said. Fire investigators say 26-year-old Jessica Marie Poole, of Harwood, Maryland, was later arrested and charged with arson and reckless endangerment. Poole had recently been fired from the restaurant, the fire department said. "Awful. Just beyond belief," a regular customer of the deli, Keith Smith, told News4 on Friday. Around 1:30 am Building Fire in 14700 block of Main Street in downtown Upper Marlboro. 2-story commercial building that includes a resteraunt. Fire showing on arrival. Went to 3-Alarms. Appx 100 Firefighters. Fire out at about 3am. Video by PGFD Fire Chief @BenBmbarksdale pic.twitter.com/UwvBzrhrFh Mark Brady (@PGFDPIO) August 2, 2018 Smith said he's had Poole as his server. "You wouldnt see it in her. I didnt know she was capable," he said. Across the street from the Al's, workers at CZig's Barbeque said they also knew Poole. "She used to come over here and eat lunch all the time. But I always thought she was a nice girl, real nice girl. Pretty surprised that she did something like that, but you never know," Charlie Hyatt said. About 100 fire and rescue workers responded to the fire that quickly spread to nearby businesses. The blaze caused about $250,000 in damages, fire officials say. Video from the scene shows flames shooting out of the roof of the building. Fire officials say there were three apartments on the third floor of the building. Two of the apartments were occupied, but fire officials say all three adults inside the apartments were able to get out safely. One firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion. No injuries were reported. I commend the firefighters that battled this difficult fire and to our fire investigators and law enforcement officers for determining the cause, identifying a suspect and ensuring the suspect was arrested, said Prince George's County Fire Chief Benjamin Barksdale. I would also like to acknowledge our County Police Department for making the arrest and to the Anne Arundel County Fire and Police Departments for assisting in this investigation. A 17-year-old Iraqi boy who went missing in Chevy Chase, Maryland, last week has been found safe in Canada, police say. Abdalla Ahmed was last seen about 2 a.m. July 30 at the National 4-H Conference Center on Connecticut Avenue, according to Montgomery County Police. Ahmed was with a group of students from Iraq who were staying in the conference center as part of their visit to the D.C. area. He was found safe on Saturday, police announced Monday. The Human Papilloma Vaccine (HPV) is a treatment in widespread use but its efficacy in preventing cancer is medically unproven, while unintended, adverse reactions are blighting and even ending the lives of girls and young women across the world. However, pharmaceutical manufacturers and many health authorities are refusing to acknowledge there is a problem and the medical community is continuing to offer the vaccine. Sacrificial Virgins so named because the vaccine is often given to girls before they become sexually active exposes increasing evidence of serious neurological damage following the HPV injections. It calls for the vaccine to be withdrawn in the hope that this will help to halt another global tragedy. What to Know Firefighters are still battling blazes in Northern Calif., including one that has destroyed more than 1,000 homes near Redding. That fire alone has forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. Officials said it is 35 percent contained. Just a month into the budget year, California has already spent one quarter of its annual fire budget. A massive wildfire in Northern California has torched more than 1,000 homes in and around the city of Redding, authorities said Wednesday as some evacuees were allowed to return home and new blazes exploded in what has become an endless summer of flame in the Golden State. "Whatever resources are needed, we're putting them there," Gov. Jerry Brown said at a news conference. "We're being surprised. Every year is teaching the fire authorities new lessons. We're in uncharted territory." Just a month into the budget year, the state has already spent more than one-quarter of its annual fire budget, at least $125 million, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Mike Mohler said. Cal Fire said another 488 buildings, including barns and warehouses, have also been destroyed by the fire, which is now the sixth most destructive in California history. The 121,000-acre Redding-area blaze, which started July 23, forced 38,000 people from their homes and killed six. It has scorched 189 square miles (490 square kilometers) and is 35 percent contained. At least three new fires erupted Wednesday in the Sierra Nevada region, including a blaze in Placer County that had consumed 1 1/2 square miles (1,000 acres or 4 square kilometers) of land. North of San Francisco, a fire threatened homes in an old ranching and farming area near Covelo. About 60 homes were ordered evacuated as the blaze erupted late Tuesday and winds whipped flames through brush, grass, oak, pine and fir near the Mendocino National Forest, officials said. To the east, another blaze Tuesday night raged through grassy cattle lands near Yuba City, covering more than 1 1/2 square miles (4 square kilometers) in a few hours. The new fires erupted without warning and spread with shocking speed through forest and brush that have literally become tinder, said Scott McLean of CalFire. "It just goes on and on," McLean said. "We had this rain at the beginning of the year and all that did was promote the growing of grass and brush," McLean said. "It's a Catch-22. It's growing more product to catch on fire." He said the state really never left its drought status and several years of significant rainfall are needed to bring the state back. McLean also had a warning for people visiting rural and wilderness areas. "Pay attention," he said. "Don't park the car on dry grass ... no campfires, no flame. It doesn't take anything to start a fire right now." The new fire near Covelo was only about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of where twin fires in Mendocino and Lake counties have burned an area three times the size of San Francisco, destroyed 14 homes and threatened 12,000 more. The Lake County seat of Lakeport remained under evacuation orders and was a virtual ghost town, although people were allowed back home in several smaller communities as firefighters shored up containment lines. Containment grew overnight to 24 percent. Jessyca Lytle fled a fast-moving wildfire in 2015 that spared her property but destroyed her mother's memorabilia-filled Lake County home. Lytle found herself listening to scanner traffic Tuesday and fire-proofing her mother's new home as another wildfire advanced. "Honestly, what I'm thinking right now is I just want this to end," Lytle said, adding that she was "exhausted in every way possible physically, emotionally, all of that." Paul Lew and his two boys, ages 13 and 16, evacuated Saturday from their Lakeport home. "I told them to throw everything they care about in the back of the car," said Lew, 45. "I grabbed computers, cellphones, papers. I just started bagging all my paperwork up, clothes, my guitars." Lew, who is divorced from Lytle, is camped out at the house in the nearby community of Cobb that she fled in 2015. He is watching over her chickens, sheep and other animals. With a laugh, he said repeated fire alerts have made him an emergency preparation expert. "It's like three a year," he said. "It's kind of crazy." In Shasta County's Carr Fire, authorities said Wednesday all those reported missing had been located. A relative identified the latest known fatal victim as Daniel Bush, 62. Bush had returned to his mobile home in the community of Keswick last Tuesday after undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, but he was unable to drive and would have needed help to evacuate when the fire came through the neighborhood on Thursday, his sister, Kathi Gaston, told the Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding. Gaston said her brother had wanted to stay in his own home, but he had spotty cell service and, with the power out, he might not have gotten word of the fire. Gaston said she could not get to her brother's house because, with the fire approaching, sheriff's deputies had blocked the roads and then she herself had to evacuate. "If we'd been able to go in when we wanted to, he'd be alive right now," she said. "I'm very upset about it." National Park Service officials said Tuesday that the scenic Yosemite Valley and other areas will be closed at least through Sunday due to heavy smoke from the so-called Ferguson Fire. The closure began July 25. It was the longest closure at Yosemite since 1997, when floods closed the park for over two months. Authorities on Wednesday also ordered the evacuation of the tiny community of Wawona, south of the park, which has fewer than 200 residents. Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report. The special counsel in the Russia probe has referred investigations into possible unlawful foreign lobbying to federal prosecutors in New York, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The people said Wednesday that three Washington insiders Tony Podesta, Gregory Craig and Vin Weber were suspected of failing to register as foreign agents. They said the referrals were made earlier this year. The people were not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The referrals stemming from Robert Mueller's investigation were first reported Tuesday by CNN and confirmed by NBC News, which reported in October that Mueller's office was investigating Podesta and the Podesta Group. The same U.S. attorney's office is handling a separate fraud investigation of Michael Cohen, the former attorney for President Donald Trump. Podesta is the brother of John Podesta, an Obama White House chief of staff and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign chairman. Weber is a former Republican congressman from Minnesota and Craig was White House counsel to Barack Obama. Prosecutors and a lawyer for Podesta declined comment Wednesday. Attempts to contact Craig and Weber weren't immediately successful. A report that a child died shortly after being released from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas inflamed the debate Wednesday over the detention of immigrant families, though there were few details about what actually happened. The American Immigration Lawyers Association said it had learned of the death of a child shortly after the child and parent left the ICE family detention center at Dilley, Texas. The legal group said it was made aware of the death through someone in contact with the family it could not identify, and that it had no further details. ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said that the agency would investigate the report, "but without any specifics about who this was we are unable to provide anything further at this time." ICE denied that a child died at the detention center. The story began to spread after Houston-based lawyer Mana Yegani tweeted Tuesday night that she had heard reports "that a child died in ICE custody in Dilley, Texas." Yegani then followed up to say she heard the child had actually died after leaving Dilley. She would delete her original tweet. But her initial report was widely shared and discussed on social media, reflecting the impassioned nature of the debate over immigrant children and the separation of families at the border under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy. Yegani said Wednesday that she based her tweets off a Facebook post written by another lawyer, Melissa Turcios. Turcios, based in Washington, confirmed to The Associated Press that she wrote the Facebook post Yegani saw, but declined to comment further. Her post said the granddaughter of a friend of hers died "as a result of negligent care and a respiratory illness she contracted from one of the other children." Human Rights Watch and the Dilley Pro Bono Project, which represents families held at the facility, both said they did not know how the child had died or whether medical care in the facility was to blame. Immigrant advocates have long complained about the quality of medical care at detention facilities and have urged federal authorities to release immigrants from custody wherever possible. The conditions at the facilities made headlines on Tuesday when a top ICE official told lawmakers at a congressional hearing that the "the best way to describe" conditions at family detention centers was "like a summer camp." Matthew Albence, an executive associate director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said facilities undergo rigorous inspections and offer recreation, food and water around the clock and medical and dental care. The San Antonio-based advocacy group RAICES said Wednesday that 500 detained fathers and children were organizing a strike at the other ICE family detention facility in Texas, in the town of Karnes. RAICES says the fathers participating in the strike would refuse to eat or obey orders. In 2015, immigrant mothers filed a complaint about medical care at two family detention facilities in Texas that opened during the Obama administration, including Dilley. The mothers said they were told to drink water to treat a range of problems including broken bones in a hand and a child who had diarrhea for two weeks. What to Know Paul Manafort's bank fraud and tax evasion trial began Tuesday, with prosecutors saying he considered himself above the law President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday that Manafort only worked for him for a "very short time" He also called on the attorney general to "stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now," in reference to the special counsel's investigation President Donald Trump bluntly declared on Wednesday his attorney general should terminate "right now" the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just underway, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsel's team. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. "It's the president's opinion," she said. But Trump's early morning tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. And it revived the idea that the president's tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Meanwhile, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said negotiations are continuing to have Trump sit down for questions from Mueller, though the lawyer said "I'm not going to give you a lot of hope that it's going to happen." He said both sides had exchanged proposals for conditions for such an interview, "and yesterday we got a letter back from them and now we're in the process of responding." Trump has raged privately in recent days that both the forces of government and the media are trying to undermine him. That includes trumped-up charges against his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and distorting the outcome of the Helsinki summit to make it appear he was beholden to Russia, according to two Republicans close to the White House not authorized to speak about private conversations. Trump was closely monitoring news coverage of the Manafort proceedings, which provoked the spate of incendiary tweets, according to the two Republicans and two White House officials. "The president's not obstructing, he's fighting back," said Sanders, dismissing the idea Trump's tweets could be tantamount to obstruction of justice. The most inflammatory of Trump's tweets said, "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" The president's anger came the day after the start of the trial of Manafort, who is facing federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. And while Mueller did not bring any election-related charges against Manafort, the specter of the Russian investigation is hanging over the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse. And Trump's White House. "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders," Trump tweeted. "He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!" Later the president invoked one of the nation's most notorious criminals, 1920s gangster Al Capone, and posed the question "who was treated worse" while airing his grievance about Manafort being held in solitary confinement ahead of a conviction. Manafort is in detention after having his bail revoked because of allegations that he was attempting to tamper with witnesses in his case. Federal prosecutors revealed last month that he was afforded unusual privileges while in detention. Trump has spent more than a year trying to distance himself from his one-time top political aide, and to minimize the role Manafort played in his campaign. Trump's protestations aside, Manafort worked on the campaign during a critical six-month period in 2016, during which he led the effort to ensure Trump won the Republican nomination. He oversaw the early days of the general election effort. Sanders said Trump wants Mueller's investigation concluded swiftly without intervention, though Trump has publicly mused as recently as May about interfering in the Department of Justice's oversight of the probe. "At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!" he tweeted then. Trump has repeatedly belittled the probe as "a hoax," as those close to him suggest he feels that any talk of Russian interference tarnishes his electoral victory and delegitimizes his presidency. One of the president's confidants deemed Trump in "a dark place," seething about the longlasting probe and the media's depiction of his White House under siege. Though long antagonistic toward the press, Trump's anger toward the media has only grown over the past month, as he has berated coverage of his Singapore and Helsinki summits, the possible prosecutorial cooperation of his former legal "fixer" Michael Cohen and the Mueller probe. After complaining about the tough questions he received from American reporters in Finland, Trump has largely steered clear of the mainstream media, instead opting for safer spaces like an interview with ally Rush Limbaugh this week. From the White House briefing room podium on Wednesday, Sanders declined to denounce the harassment of a CNN reporter during a Trump rally in Florida on Tuesday. The president's social media outburst renewed discussion of the significance of his tweets. Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, stressed that Trump was just issuing an opinion, though he also said the White House believes "the investigation should be brought to a close." "I guess, if we were playing poker we're not put up or shut up, what do you got?" Giuliani said. "We have every reason to believe they don't have anything." When pressed by reporters on how she tells the difference between a presidential order or an opinion, Sanders said Trump makes his intentions "pretty clear." But the line between registering an opinion or governing by tweet has bedeviled the White House from the start, even when former press secretary Sean Spicer declared tweets could be official White House statements. Earlier this year, Trump blindsided the Defense Department when he tweeted out a transgender ban for the military, prompting the Pentagon to slow walk the program. Mueller already is interested in some of Trump's tweets to the extent they raise obstruction of justice concerns. Though experts believe obstruction by tweet is possible, prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular act got in the way of an investigation and that the person who did it intended to obstruct. The president's tweets on Wednesday were greeted warily on Capitol Hill, with most lawmakers, regardless of party, urging Trump to let the probe run its course. No. 3 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota said, "The idea that they should truncate it doesn't make sense to me." Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut went much further, declaring. There is now highly credible evidence that the president of the United States is committing obstruction of justice in real time, right before our eyes." Meanwhile, during the second day of Manafort's financial fraud trial, witnesses testified Wednesday that he personally directed millions of dollars in international wire transfers to pay for high-end suits and more than $3 million in improvements at his various houses. The testimony was aimed at bolstering the prosecution's argument that Manafort hid millions of dollars in income from the IRS and used the funds for a lavish lifestyle. The witness accounts were also intended to contradict Manafort's lawyers, who have signaled they will pin blame for any illegal conduct on his longtime deputy, Rick Gates. The prosecution's focus on Manafort's personal finances at times laid out in painstaking detail underscored the vast amount of documents accumulated by special counsel Robert Mueller's team in their case against the longtime political consultant. But it also tried the patience of U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who repeatedly scolded the government's attorneys for what he said was excessive and unnecessary information. Ellis, who warned prosecutors against using the word "oligarchs" to describe wealthy Ukrainians, several times admonished them for spending so much time documenting Manafort's extravagant lifestyle. It's not a crime to be wealthy, he noted. And the pejorative term "oligarchs" and evidence of home renovations aren't necessarily relevant to the charges in question, he added. "The government doesn't want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, do they?" Ellis said amid testimony that Manafort had spent more than $900,000 on clothing from a boutique retailer where he was one of only about 40 clients. "Let's move on." Ellis even called out lawyers from both sides for rolling their eyes. The trial is the first courtroom test for the special counsel, who was tasked last year with investigating Russia's efforts to sway the 2016 election and to determine whether the Trump campaign was involved. So far, Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion. Still, the trial has pulled back the curtain on the former lobbyist who steered Trump's election efforts for a time, including descriptions of Manafort's $15,000 jacket made of ostrich and the more than $6 million in cash he put toward real estate. One witness, Maximillian Katzman, testified that Manafort spent more than $900,000 at his boutique retailer in New York. He said Manafort was the only business client of his who paid via international wire transfer. An FBI agent described the July 2017 raid on Manafort's Virginia condominium, saying he knocked multiple times before entering with a key and finding Manafort inside. The searches described by agent Matthew Mikuska found expensively tailored suits and documents related to other luxury items allegedly bought by Manafort, including two silk rugs bought for $160,000 paid from offshore accounts. But when prosecutors introduced photos of Manafort's high-end condo and expensive suits, Ellis interrupted so as to limit the growing list of evidence jurors would have to consider. "All this document shows is that Mr. Manafort had a lavish lifestyle," Ellis said. "It isn't relevant." On the term "oligarchs," Ellis said use of the word implied that Manafort was associating with "despicable people and therefore he's despicable." "That's not the American way," the judge said. Prosecutor Greg Andres argued that documenting Manafort's spending for the jury was important to the case. "Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr. Manafort lived lavishly," Andres said. "It's evidence of his income." Ellis seemed to grow impatient after being told that attorneys on both sides were seen rolling their eyes after leaving the bench or in response to his rulings. The lawyers' facial expressions, Ellis said, appeared to show them thinking: "Why do we have to put up with this idiot judge?" The proceedings clearly caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who defended his 2016 hiring of Manafort and suggested Manafort was being treated worse than mobster Al Capone. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president indeed felt Manafort had been treated unfairly. "Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!" Manafort's attorneys are putting the blame on Gates, Manafort's business associate. Gates was expected to be the government's star witness at trial, but prosecutor Uzo Asonye said he could not say with certainty whether Gates would or would not testify. He later clarified to say that that uncertainty applies to any witness, not just Gates, as the prosecution team assesses the pace of the trial and the evidence it needs. Asonye also told Ellis that prosecutors expect to rest their case next week, noting that they are "ahead of schedule." Testimony was to resume Thursday morning with witnesses including bookkeepers and accountants. Manafort has a second trial scheduled for September in the District of Columbia. It involves allegations that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukrainian interests and made false statements to the U.S. government. A firefighter was injured early Thursday while battling a 2-alarm fire in Worcester, Massachusetts. The structure fire was reported before 1:25 a.m. at a vacant building on Charlton Street. The cause of the fire is under investigation. A Massachusetts man was convicted by a federal jury for attacking the computer network of a world-renowned hospital. Prosecutors said 32-year-old Martin Gottesfeld was convicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston on two counts related to attempting to damage and damaging protected computers. Gottesfeld acknowledged that he launched a computer network attack against Boston Children's Hospital and Wayside Youth & Family Support Network in 2014. The attack on the Children's Hospital flooded 65,000 IP addresses with junk data, and disrupted the facility's network for at least two weeks. Prosecutors said it cost the hospital about $600,000. Gottesfeld is a self-proclaimed member of Anonymous, an international decentralizing hacktivist group, and said he launched the attacks on behalf of the group. After being charged for conspiracy, he fled Massachusetts and was later arrested by the FBI. He previously said he did this to protest the treatment of Connecticut teenager Justina Pelletier, who was at the center of a custody fight between Massachusetts and her parents. The dispute was based on conflicting medical diagnoses. Gottesfeld went on a hunger strike that ended in January 2017. He said his reasoning was to bring attention to the treatment of troubled youths by medical institutions and by prosecutors he said are overzealous. Gottesfeld will be sentenced in November. The conspiracy charge carries a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 and restitution. The charge of damaging protected computers calls for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. For Rigoberto Mendez, as the time ticks closer to mid-August, he can't help but get more, and more nervous. "We have a broken heart, we have a broken heart," Mendez said Wednesday. Mendez and his family joined by dozens Wednesday night in Newton for a rally held outside the school where Mendez's youngest son attends. Many in the crowd carrying signs of support, other signing letters to be sent to elected officials in support of Mendez. "I'm so proud of my town, without them, it isn't easy," Mendez said. All this comes as Mendez faces the growing reality he could be sent back to his native Guatemala. In a statement, ICE said Mendez has a, "Active final order of removal issued by an immigration judge in 2009." A few weeks ago, Mendez was fitted a GPS ankle bracelet. Mendez's attorney says he is hoping ICE will have some compassion since Mendez's wife is currently battling brain cancer, and his eldest son was just accepted to college, the first member of his entire family to do so. "He had his day in court, and it didn't work out, but there are special circumstances here that we be believe warrants discretion," Victor Maldonado, Mendez's attorney, said at the rally. Maldonado says Mendez must show up at an ICE hearing in Mid-August with proof he has a plane ticket to Guatemala. "My wish is to continue here, like, the way I have been here and take care of my family as always," Mendez said. What to Know Two MIT officers were injured when a Rhode Island sergeant's gun fell out of his holster, went off as he tried to catch it. Police say the round was discharged inside the bus and hit the ground, sending up debris that hit the officers, who refused treatment. An internal investigation is underway at the Cranston Police Department; the sergeant's name has not been released. Two police officers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were reportedly injured when a Cranston, Rhode Island police sergeant's gun accidentally misfired following the funeral for slain Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna. WJAR reports the officer was changing out of his uniform on a parked bus in a staging area for police in Braintree following Chesna's funeral on July 20. The officer's gun reportedly fell out of the holster and went off as he tried to catch it, according to police. Police said that a round was discharged inside the bus and struck the ground, sending up debris that then struck the officers. Police said neither officer was seriously hurt and that both refused medical treatment at the scene. Cranston police told WJAR an internal investigation is underway, and did not release the sergeant's name. The sergeant is reportedly still on full duty and allowed to carry a gun. "Obviously, we take the matter very seriously. We're very happy no one was seriously hurt," Cranston Police Col. Michael Winquist told WJAR. Sgt. Chesna was killed on July 15 after responding to a report of an erratic driver. He was disarmed after being hit with a stone, and the accused gunman allegedly shot him multiple times. A 77-year-old woman was also shot and killed as she stood in her home's sunroom. The suspect has been ordered to be held without bail since his arraignment. A man was arrested for driving under the influence overnight Thursday after officials received a call of a vehicle traveling on its rims at the hands of an erratic driver. Pelham, New Hampshire resident Michael Medeiros, 37, was arrested shortly after midnight after Pelham police were dispatched to Bridge Street following a report that a car was "all over the road" with sparks shooting from its wheel. The caller also stated that the vehicle previously struck a guard rail. When Medeiros' vehicle was spotted, officers pulled him over, determined the driver was driving under the influence and tried to arrest him, officials said. Medeiros refused to comply with officers and resisted arrest, according to Pelham police. After a brief struggle, officers were able to bring Medeiros to the ground and cuff him. The suspect suffered minor abrasions and refused further medical treatment. He was released to the Hillsborough County House of Corrections in Manchester because he failed to find a sober adult to assume responsibility of him. Medeiros was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest, open container and defective equipment. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 13 at Salem District Court. It is unclear if he has an attorney. What to Know Members of the New Democracy Coalition held a protest Aug. 2 to call on Boston city officials to rename Faneuil Hall. The historic landmark is named for Peter Faneuil, a wealthy 18th-century slave owner. The group wants the hall to commemorate Crispus Attucks, a black man who was killed during the 1770 Boston Massacre. Neighborhood activists and members of the faith-based community marched to Boston's Faneuil Hall on Thursday afternoon to call on city officials to rename the historic landmark. Activist Kevin Peterson, who is leading the charge, said the hall was constructed from money derived from the sale of slaves, and that the city's African-American population doesn't feel a connection to the site. Peterson said letters to Mayor Marty Walsh's office and the Boston City Council calling for a public hearing have gone unanswered. As an alternative, Peterson and other members of the New Democracy Coalition are calling for the name to be changed to commemorate Crispus Attucks, a black man who was killed during the 1770 Boston Massacre, generally considered the first casualty of the American Revolution. Charles Clemons Muhammad, a Massachusetts state legislative candidate for the 11th Suffolk District, was among those in attendance Thursday and who feel strongly for renaming Faneuil Hall. "I'm here to stand in solidarity with the organizations that support the removal of the name Faneuil Hall," he said. "Understanding that Peter Faneuil was a slave owner and there's no reason why we should be honoring slave owners, particularly their names." After some members of the New Democracy Coalition spoke, they marched from Park Street to Faneuil Hall holding signs reading "Respect Black Voices in Boston." The mayor's office declined to comment and instead referred The Associated Press to a previous statement saying, "We can't erase history, but we can learn from it." Torontos municipal government has voted to allow its lawyers to review the possible legal routes that could be taken to stop Ontarios premier, Doug Ford from reducing the size of the city council. Even though a good number of councillors have supported this move by Mayor Ford, a majority of the citys councillors are vehemently opposed to it and have decried it as unfair. News reports on The Star.com, state that some of the councillors spoke out about their issues with Doug Fords decision, (Ford) wants us distracted. He wants us back on our heels, fighting with each other. He wants us to not notice that hes trying to gut the things that make Toronto great, said Councillor Gord Perks. Another was also reported to have said It was a clear signal today by the City of Toronto that this fly-by-night attack on our residents, on our local democracy and on this institution will not stand, said Joe Cressy, who was among the left-leaning downtown councillors who pushed for the city to challenge the move in court. "... The fight to stop this is one we have agreed as a council to take up. The site reports. The council votes were counted at a 24-17 votes with a majority agreeing to oppose the provinces intention of cutting council seats. They also voted to ask the province to conduct a referendum on the issue before the coming elections. Ford has promised that the cuts would save the city $25 million in addition to making it more efficient. Richard Tindal, a retired professor, as reported on The Star.com, has saiddespite being under the ultimate control of provincial legislatures, cities like Toronto are emerging as major centres of culture and economic activity. The law gave Toronto special powers to tax things like alcohol, land transfers and vehicle registrations.The level of sovereignty already practised by Toronto, may be to its legal advantage, as it shows that the city has always governed over their own decisions. Chief opposition to this move,Toronto Mayor John Tory also condemned the Premiers intentions, saying the issue needs a referendum. He described the move as an attempt to ram a change down his throat. According to a report on Ottawacitizen.com,Tory accused Ford of meddling with the citys affairs and said the premier should not be interfering as candidates begin campaigning and fundraising for the October vote. Ford has scheduled a news conference for Friday morning, just hours before the 2 p.m. deadline to register for the Toronto municipal race. Doug Ford plans to introduce legislation to cut the number of council seats from 47 to 25.He gave his major reasons for this as cited in the Ottawa-sun, Good governance in any company says you should not have more than 7 to 9 people on the board, you could have 20 of the smartest people around the table, nothing gets done, we are going to get things done, we are going to run city hall a lot more efficiently than before. What do we really mean by "Tolerance"? John Myhill has been pondering the tolerance that abounds in our society, and shares his thoughts with us. I believe that tolerance has become the most dangerous ideology of our time. Originally a political mechanism to prevent people with different faiths from killing one another, it has mutated into the justification for privileging certain minorities, whilst refusing to engage with ideas which might transform the "tolerant" person's way of life. Modern technology is dismissive of unfashionable ideas like God, evil, mission, living presence, and Truth. These are all "beliefs" that must be tolerated, despite being clearly absurd to the "tolerant" person. The expression of such beliefs will be met by amused indulgence or a superior smile, but there will be no real listening, no genuine engagement with the ideas expressed. Better to be tortured or imprisoned than suffer the mocking face of this "tolerance". I am offering you the Grace of God, eternal life, perfect happiness, and you look at me as if I was a small boy who has told an outrageous fib or let off a stink bomb. The "tolerant people have no sense of shame or guilt, regarding the people who have suffered to make their lives comfortable and easy; so they have no fear of the punishment that awaits those who reject the Word of God. On the contrary, they are confident in their ability to reverse injustice, save the planet and ensure that everything is permitted between consenting adults; and that all contrary ideas will be ignored or, as they put it, "tolerated". Reading this piece, they might be puzzled as to why such behaviour is dangerous. But they are suffering from a conceit that humans can manage without God, despite the record of the history of the Jews in the Old Testament, and the fall of the British Empire which coincided with secularisation of our country. "Tolerance" is an ideology blown by the wind: the "victims" to be protected are constantly changing. Will it be migrants or transsexuals? Claimants or knife-wielding children? Women or flat-dwellers? Who can we blame for their suffering? Whoever the "victims" are, it is those pulling their strings who have maintained and increased their power. The "victims" learn that they have no responsibility for their own lives, or for the harm they cause to others (including the tax payer who usually ends up paying the compensation). Thus the "victims" are prevented from seeking God's way and His forgiveness, and thus fail to discover their true ability to contribute to the common good. Being part of a minority can give us a sense of identity and belonging, but these may be false comforts preventing us from discovering who we really are and where we belong. Thus, I would join with Dawkins style atheists in trying to persuade members of a cult, that they should think through their membership, and consider a deeper search for Truth. Any minority can take on some of the aspects of a cult, so I would happily discuss with a Muslim, or a Catholic, a Jew or a fellow Quaker; whether they were right to identify themselves by one of these labels. But it may soon be illegal to have that kind of a discussion with a homosexual - or presumably any person who identifies themselves as a member of sexual minority - only heterosexuals will be asked to consider if they might be mistaken in their identity. I know of drug-takers who would like a similar law to protect them from all those who try to persuade them to give up what the majority see as an addiction, and what they see as a minority status - their identity. At Celebrate Norfolk this year I had a stall mapping the links around the world connecting Norwich to those emerging as Christians far away. This coincided with Quakers nationally remembering 150 years since the first Quaker mission abroad. No-one told me that we should NOT share our faith, or give others the chance to make "Christian" their minority identity, knowing that they might then become "victims" of abuse or even torture and death. No-one said we were being "intolerant (but in the sense I am describing we are). Lots of people expressed an interest and said they could not find a church that fitted their spiritual experience and religious yearnings, although "Christian" is already their minority identity. I will leave it to the "tolerant" to provide them with therapy, until they give up their identity, which I share, own and confess. The image above is courtesy of www.pixabay.com ANSONIA Joe Shapiros dream in purchasing Bankos was to make it the center of the music scene in the Valley and beyond. Rising costs and flat sales shelved those plans after two years. It was a gamble, said Shapiro, a Shelton resident who previously made a living designing management software for jewelry stores. I thought it was a gamble I could win. Shapiro announced hes closing the retail business on Sept. 1. Shapiro was a former customer who bought the business and the building it was housed in in October 2016 from Joe and Sherry Salvati and kept them on as store managers. During his ownership, he poured money into the shop, giving Bankos a new look. The outside got a deep blue coat of paint to stand out on East Main Street. Inside, the floor-level clutter was gone, premium guitars were hung from the walls and the seven soundproofed lesson rooms upstairs were refurbished. He advertised that hed beat internet prices and would not be undersold. And while he claimed business doubled during his ownership, he needed it to increase sevenfold to support inventory, expenses and two full-time employees, he said. Ive been putting money in every month for the last two years and just couldnt do it anymore, he said. Its disappointing. We did not have enough people coming in to buy musical instruments, said Shapiro. The economy in the Valley is not conducive to independent musical instrument stores. He let go his marketing director and informed the Salvatis their last day is Aug. 31. Bankos merchandise will be on clearance through Aug. 25 with all in-stock merchandise discounted between 10 and 25 percent. Despite the end of the retail store, Bankos will continue offering music lessons upstairs. Shapiro guaranteed the lesson prices for students will remain the same for at least two years. Starting Sept. 1, only the center door (that leads upstairs) will be open, Shapiro said. We continue to be committed to music education, so we will keep and even hope to expand, the lesson program. The two storefronts that remain will be rented, said Shapiro. Were still going to have the open mic every Tuesday at 7 p.m., said Shapiro, who enjoys joining in with his guitar. Itll just be upstairs. The non-profit Bankos Music Foundation, which funded Saturdays rain-hampered Rock the Summer concert at Nolan Field featuring NRBQ, will continue. Whether or not the foundation offers another free concert next year is up in the air. Well still raise money for music scholarships, he said. Were very sad it didnt succeed, said Sherry Salvati. She said her husband, Joe, has been part of the store since 1979 when he began working for Frank Banko, the Oxford resident who started the business in 1955. In its heyday, Bankos was the place to go for music. It rented instruments to most of the Valley schools music students. That business was lost years ago to national rental companies. It would have been helpful if we got it back, said Shapiro. But it wouldnt have put us over the top. Music programs are declining in the schools. Customer Kevin Anderson of Seymour said hell miss the personal touch the retail store offered. The staff was like family, said Anderson, who said he will continue to take jazz guitar lessons there. HORSE of Connecticut will hold a two-day tack sale Aug. 4-5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to benefit the organizations newest rescue, Thunder Heart. Thunder Heart is a 13-year-old Warmblood gelding that is recovering from being hit by lightning. A life-sized Playmobil character greets patrons outside Nordica Toys in New Milford. Once inside, an expansive inventory of colorful stuffed animals and toys catch ones eyes. Whether shoppers are looking for something special for themselves or for another as a gift, Nordica Toys is the go-to place, according to local residents. Under the ownership of Marie McCarthy, who marks her 15th year as owner, and in the spirit of the stores founders, the late Christian and Aviva Trost, Nordica continues to cater to generations of toy enthusiasts. The tradition continues, Joe Fitzgerald said of why he recently introduced his grandson, Owen Fitzgerald Burke, 2, to the longtime store. Owens mother frequented the store when she was a child and once wrote, Nordica, where all my dreams come true, Fitzgerald said. His daughters son, Owen, carries on the tradition. He happily hugged the new stuffed Elmo Fitzgerald purchased for him during his first visit to the store recently. Elmo, Elmo, hes red, Owen cheered. Toys, puzzles, arts and crafts, wooden toys, puppets, traditional and modern games, dinosaurs, Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, musical instruments, books, action figures, trucks and cars, infant and toddler toys and stuffed animals, and so much more line the shelves of Nordica. In addition, Nordica carries all things Girl Scouts, including uniforms and books, and can order badges. I feel a responsibility to the community of the New Milford area to maintain the store with high standards and continuity for generations past, present and future, McCarthy said. Nordica Toys is a real gem started by the Trosts and it is up to me to continue with that legacy, she said. People come from all over to revisit the store and remember their past visits with children and grandchildren. The Trosts opened the store in 1981, moved it from Bank Street to its present location at 7 Main St. in 2001 and retired in 2003, selling the business to McCarthy. Karen Larson of New Milford has been a customer of Nordica since her children were young. She remains a loyal customer, now buying gifts for her 12 great-nieces and -nephews and other family members. I like that its small, Larson said of the store. Its not your typical commercial toys. Larson said she also appreciates the free gift-wrapping services available at Nordica. Big-name brands such as Lego, Callico Critters, Playmobil, Ty and Melissa & Doug are among the brands carried. Lukes Toy Factory in Danbury and Green Toys are among the newer lines McCarthy has added. As a small business, McCarthy said she tries to support other small companies. Theres always something new coming in, McCarthy said of the stores inventory. McCarthy said business has ebbed and flowed over the years, depending on the economy and peoples buying habits. But Nordica keeps up with the times. The store follows all the latest toy trends, by carrying things like fidget spinners and other fidget toys, body glitter, sunscreen glitter and lip gloss glitter. Every day is different, McCarthy said. Nordicas customer service is something customers appreciate, too. Nordica provides free assembly of products, and will not charge a service fee for shipping customer gifts. The store offers a Loyal Customer Club, which features a periodic newsletter. And if a customer spends $30 or more, he/she will get 10 percent off . Nordica, located at 7 Main St., Suite D, New Milford, is open Mondays through Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 860-355-2034. For more information, visit www.nordicatoys.com or follow the business on Facebook. The American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) applauds the federal agencies that will be involved in updating the Surgeon General's Report on oral health. This update will document progress in oral health over the last 20 years and create a vision for the future. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the update on July 27 and is working alongside several federal agencies to commission this Surgeon General's Report. The original Surgeon General's Report on oral health was first released in 2000 and evaluated the link between oral health and overall well-being. The updated report will further assess how poor oral health affects physical and economic well-being, how oral health care is often treated as a supplemental benefit and more. ADHA commends these efforts to update the nation on key issues in oral health and will continue to support the updated report as it is developed. Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, announced recently the launch of the 'In Reach Africa' program, an initiative aimed at facilitating quality and innovative human and animal healthcare access across the African continent. The program is set to kick off in Kenya and to expand throughout major African markets including Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. It comprises a range of key elements that aim at adding more value to overall health systems, in an effort to drive access to care, support with the development of innovative health solutions, creating community based partnerships and raising awareness around key disease areas as well as prevention mechanisms. A series of activities and workshops that are the building blocks of the newly launched program already started in July as for example the 'Making More Health (MMH) Accelerator program. This program supports social health entrepreneurs to strengthen and scale their work, by bringing some of the best experiences in social and health innovation as well as global health to improve access across Sub-Saharan Africa. Empowering individuals is a core part of the initiative's strategy and the fundamental element throughout 'In Reach Africa'. MMH is a long-term global initiative driven by Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with Ashoka, a global non-governmental organization. Through MMH in Kenya, Boehringer Ingelheim and Askoka supported iSikCure, an application developed to improve access to quality care and safe medicine. In 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim, in partnership with Access Afya and PharmAccess, launched Akiba Ya Roho, a micro-savings program geared towards driving more healthcare awareness and overall understanding and management of non-communicable disease in some rural areas within Kenya. "'In Reach Africa' shares a vision of driving accessibility, sustainability and innovation through enhancing health systems in Africa by providing an accessible range of medication and healthcare solutions, increasing awareness of key disease priorities through reach and enriching knowledge and education initiatives. In doing so, it is designed to add more value to the socioeconomic structure by working with and supporting low income families on multiple fronts," said Yew Looi Liew, Head of Corporate Division Prescription Medicine Emerging Markets at Boehringer Ingelheim. Reducing the avoidable burden caused by Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is central to the initiative. (NCDs) are a silent epidemic in low and middle-income countries, which account for 75 per cent of global NCDs deaths. Africa is expected to experience 3.9 million NCD-related deaths a year by 2020, a rise of more than 20 per cent.1 "Accordingly, we need to commit ourselves as an organization to working together with all other healthcare players to build an infrastructure that is sustainable, and one, which can ensure needed therapies are available in even the most remote areas. At Boehringer Ingelheim, we believe that everyone should have access to good health, no matter where they live," commented Enrique Manzoni, Regional Managing Director - Middle East, Turkey, Africa (META) at Boehringer Ingelheim. Skip to Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive type of adult brain tumor, and occurs in a variety of forms. At present, patients with a newly diagnosed tumor are advised to have surgery along with radiation and chemotherapy. Despite the most energetic treatment using resection, where the diseased tissue is removed surgically, chemotherapy and radiation, patients typically do not live long. Less than two per cent of patients survive five years after diagnosis, the average length of survival is estimated to be only 12 to 15 months. Patients under 45 years of age and those with a higher KPS (Karnofsky Performance Status) score before surgery, a method of scoring a patients functional impairment, have a slightly better prognosis. These patients are more likely to have a total resection (by postsurgical evaluation) and additional chemotherapy. Glioblastomas result from abnormal growth of the glial cells which form a major part of the brain. In fact, they comprise 90% of brain cells. Glia are support cells of various types that provide mechanical strength and other vital elements to the neurons. Most glioblastomas begin from a type of star-shaped glial cell called astrocytes, which help to make up the blood-brain barrier. Most glioblastomas begin in the frontal or temporal lobes of the brain, and spread in all directions. The ubiquity of glial cells in the brain make tumor spread easy and unpredictable. Glioblastoma stem cells organized in tumor niche formation. Image Credit: Anna Durinikova / Shutterstock What happens when glioblastomas are resected? Research has suggested that surgical resection of a glioblastoma causes the remaining part of the tumor to become more aggressive, resulting in a more rapid rate of growth of malignant cells into the space left by the resection. This is because of the normal events that occur during a wound healing response in any part of the body. To investigate this process, the researchers allowed implanted glioblastoma cells to grow in mice to form symptomatic tumors. At this point they removed about 90% of the tumor, corresponding to the resection percentage typically achieved by neurosurgeons. On observation, they found that the tumor cells that were left behind grew around 75% faster than the average rate of growth before the surgery. The ratio of blood vessels to cells is also altered from that of the presurgical glioblastoma. The researchers concluded that post-surgical tumor growth differed in some important ways from that of the primary tumor, and this was one of the reasons that recurrent glioblastomas were difficult to treat. MRI brain show left frontal gliblastoma. Image Credit: O_Akira / Shutterstock How does wound healing contribute to glioblastoma regrowth? A simplified explanation for this phenomenon is that after removal of a large part of the tumor, normal astrocytes react to the removal of the healthy tissue which is inevitable with resection of cancers. The reactive astrocytes release multiple growth factors, which are chemicals produced by cells that encourage rapid multiplication and growth of tissue. These signals mediate compensatory cell growth, cell migration, and new vascular growth. As a result, the injured glial cells around the tumor cavity go into overdrive, proliferating to fill up the void as fast as possible. In normal circumstances, these reactive astrocytes would form the glial scars that follow many types of brain injury. They produce high levels of proteins like glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which help to form the cytoskeleton. When these GFAP+ cells are in the vicinity of an invasive tumor, they pile up near the edges. These cells are affected by blunt force as a result of tumor resection. In response, they try to heal the perceived injury to normal tissue by expressing other proteins like nestin as well, which may cause them to behave more like stem cells, than mature glia. The effect of these changes on tumor growth Following surgery, the proportion of reactive astrocytes around the tumor, that is, the tumor microenvironment, is altered. The astrocytic growth signals are, unfortunately, also received and read by the cancerous glial cells, which also go into a frenzy of growth and migration. This leads to tumor progression as well as invasion of the surrounding area by malignant cells. This research suggests that tumor resection is followed by reactive astrocyte response, which causes increased tumor proliferation and migration, increasing the grade of the malignant cells. The recurrent tumor is very invasive and grows faster than tumors that are not resected. This research has proved vital in helping researchers understand how tumor biology alters after glioblastoma resection. More studies will be needed to identify the various factors involved in these changes. Ideally, this knowledge would assist the development of local treatments that can reduce the negative effects of surgery on tumor growth and invasion. Sources Pirzkall A., et al., (2009). Tumor regrowth between surgery and initiation of adjuvant therapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. NeuroOncology. https://dx.doi.org/10.1215%2F15228517-2009-005 Scott J. N., et al., (2001). Which glioblastoma multiforme patient will become a long-term survivor? A population-based study. Annals of Neurology. doi.org/10.1002/1531-8249(199908)46:2%3C183::AID-ANA7%3E3.0.CO;2-7 Okolie O., et al., (2016). Reactive astrocytes potentiate tumor aggressiveness in a murine glioma resection and recurrence model. Neuro-Oncology. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/now117 Further Reading Women who take epilepsy drugs while they are pregnant may have a lower risk of having a child with delays in language skills if they take folic acid supplements before and early in pregnancy, according to a study published in the August 1, 2018, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that among children whose mothers took epilepsy drugs while they were pregnant, those whose mothers did not take folic acid supplements were four times more likely to have delays in their language skills when they were 18 months old compared to children of mothers without epilepsy whose mothers did not take folic acid supplements. By three years old, those whose mothers took no supplements were nearly five times as likely to have language delays compared to children of mothers without epilepsy. The study was conducted in Norway, where the government does not require foods to be fortified with folic acid, which is required in the United States. Even with folic acid added to foods, taking additional supplements is recommended for pregnant women in the United States. "These results are important for women with epilepsy all over the world because many epilepsy drugs interact with the way folate is metabolized by the body, so we are still learning how much folic acid is needed for women with epilepsy and how it benefits their children," said study author Elisabeth Synnve Nilsen Husebye, MD, of the University of Bergen in Bergen, Norway. The study involved 335 children of mothers with epilepsy who took epilepsy drugs while they were pregnant and 104,222 children of mothers without epilepsy. Maintaining effective epilepsy treatment during pregnancy is important because seizures may cause harm to the fetus and the mother. Researchers collected information on use of epilepsy drugs and folic acid supplements. Parents filled out surveys about their children's language development at 18 months and three years. Among the children whose mothers did not take folic acid, 34 percent of the children of mothers with epilepsy had delayed language skills at 18 months, compared to 11 percent of the children whose mothers did not have epilepsy. At three years old, 24 percent of the children of mothers with epilepsy had a delay in expressive language skills, compared to 6 percent of those with mothers without epilepsy. Among the children whose mothers did take folic acid, 17 percent of children of mothers with epilepsy had language delay at 18 months, compared to 11 percent in the control group. The results remained the same after researchers controlled for other factors that could affect language skills, such as education level of the parents, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy and gestational age. Husebye also noted that the mothers of children exposed to epilepsy drugs with language delays started taking folic acid later in pregnancy, with the average starting at week 6.5 of pregnancy for those with language delay at 18 months. Mothers with children exposed to epilepsy drugs with no delays in language skills most often started taking folic acid three weeks before they conceived. "The apparently protective effect of taking folic acid supplements was striking," Husebye said. "Half of the risk of having language delays at 18 months could be attributed to the lack of folic acid in children exposed to epilepsy drugs, while in children of mothers without epilepsy only 6 percent of the risk was attributed to the lack of supplements." Husebye also noted that the critical period for supplementation to prevent language delays was from four weeks before the start of pregnancy until the end of the first trimester. A limitation of the study was that the children's language skills were not assessed by a researcher but provided by the parents. Implantation of a stent-like flow diverter can offer one option for less invasive treatment of brain aneurysms bulges in blood vessels but the procedure requires frequent monitoring while the vessels heal. Now, a multi-university research team has demonstrated proof-of-concept for a highly flexible and stretchable sensor that could be integrated with the flow diverter to monitor hemodynamics in a blood vessel without costly diagnostic procedures. The sensor, which uses capacitance changes to measure blood flow, could reduce the need for testing to monitor the flow through the diverter. Researchers, led by Georgia Tech, have shown that the sensor accurately measures fluid flow in animal blood vessels in vitro, and are working on the next challenge: wireless operation that could allow in vivo testing. The research was reported July 18 in the journal ACS Nano and was supported by multiple grants from Georgia Tech's Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, the University of Pittsburgh and the Korea Institute of Materials Science. "The nanostructured sensor system could provide advantages for patients, including a less invasive aneurysm treatment and an active monitoring capability," said Woon-Hong Yeo, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. "The integrated system could provide active monitoring of hemodynamics after surgery, allowing the doctor to follow up with quantitative measurement of how well the flow diverter is working in the treatment." Cerebral aneurysms occur in up to five percent of the population, with each aneurysm carrying a one percent risk per year of rupturing, noted Youngjae Chun, an associate professor in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Aneurysm rupture will cause death in up to half of affected patients. Endovascular therapy using platinum coils to fill the aneurysm sac has become the standard of care for most aneurysms, but recently a new endovascular approach a flow diverter has been developed to treat cerebral aneurysms. Flow diversion involves placing a porous stent across the neck of an aneurysm to redirect flow away from the sac, generating local blood clots within the sac. "We have developed a highly stretchable, hyper-elastic flow diverter using a highly-porous thin film nitinol," Chun explained. "None of the existing flow diverters, however, provide quantitative, real-time monitoring of hemodynamics within the sac of cerebral aneurysm. Through the collaboration with Dr. Yeo's group at Georgia Tech, we have developed a smart flow-diverter system that can actively monitor the flow alterations during and after surgery." Repairing the damaged artery takes months or even years, during which the flow diverter must be monitored using MRI and angiogram technology, which is costly and involves injection of a magnetic dye into the blood stream. Yeo and his colleagues hope their sensor could provide simpler monitoring in a doctor's office using a wireless inductive coil to send electromagnetic energy through the sensor. By measuring how the energy's resonant frequency changes as it passes through the sensor, the system could measure blood flow changes into the sac. "We are trying to develop a batteryless, wireless device that is extremely stretchable and flexible that can be miniaturized enough to be routed through the tiny and complex blood vessels of the brain and then deployed without damage," said Yeo. "It's a very challenging to insert such electronic system into the brain's narrow and contoured blood vessels." The sensor uses a micro-membrane made of two metal layers surrounding a dielectric material, and wraps around the flow diverter. The device is just a few hundred nanometers thick, and is produced using nanofabrication and material transfer printing techniques, encapsulated in a soft elastomeric material. "The membrane is deflected by the flow through the diverter, and depending on the strength of the flow, the velocity difference, the amount of deflection changes," Yeo explained. "We measure the amount of deflection based on the capacitance change, because the capacitance is inversely proportional to the distance between two metal layers." Because the brain's blood vessels are so small, the flow diverters can be no more than five to ten millimeters long and a few millimeters in diameter. That rules out the use of conventional sensors with rigid and bulky electronic circuits. "Putting functional materials and circuits into something that size is pretty much impossible right now," Yeo said. "What we are doing is very challenging based on conventional materials and design strategies." The researchers tested three materials for their sensors: gold, magnesium and the nickel-titanium alloy known as nitinol. All can be safely used in the body, but magnesium offers the potential to be dissolved into the bloodstream after it is no longer needed. The proof-of-principle sensor was connected to a guide wire in the in vitro testing, but Yeo and his colleagues are now working on a wireless version that could be implanted in a living animal model. While implantable sensors are being used clinically to monitor abdominal blood vessels, application in the brain creates significant challenges. "The sensor has to be completely compressed for placement, so it must be capable of stretching 300 or 400 percent," said Yeo. "The sensor structure has to be able to endure that kind of handling while being conformable and bending to fit inside the blood vessel." Source: http://www.gatech.edu/ For years, a French company sold breast implants made of cheap industrial silicone components. Headline news when it broke in 2010, this scandal is still keeping the courts busy today. Now, a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP has come up with a method to prevent this sort of fraud. It gives manufacturers the opportunity to counterfeit-proof implants - by tagging them with encapsulated tomato DNA. With business going global, product counterfeiting has become a growing problem for manufacturers. Consumers are at risk when counterfeiters set their sights on sensitive products such as medical equipment and drugs. Fakes are usually inferior. They can seriously harm patients' health and even jeopardize lives, as the scandal surrounding a French breast implant manufacturer goes to show. The company cut corners, blending in unapproved silicones to slash production costs (more on this in the box "How breast implants are made"). This kind of illegal manipulation is almost untraceable. It takes elaborate analyses to detect such tampering. "Counterfeiters generally buy high-quality individual components from reputable suppliers and stretch them with cheap silicone, which costs a fraction of the premium material. Product pirates turn huge profits," says Dr. Joachim Storsberg, a scientist at the Fraunhofer IAP in Potsdam and an expert witness in court cases centered on breast implants. A method to substantiate both quantitative and qualitative manipulations of one or more components would be ideal. Zero chances of product piracy Storsberg and his team - which includes Marina Volkert from Berlin's Beuth University of Applied Sciences - developed precisely this type of procedure. It has already been patented. The idea is to use DNA sequences as permanent markers to positively identify implants. This gives manufacturers the opportunity to tag products with a counterfeit-proof marker and thereby enhance patient safety. The source material is sure to raise eyebrows: tomato DNA makes the perfect marker, as various experiments have substantiated. "We isolated genomic DNA (gDNA) from tomato leaves and embedded it in the silicone matrix. We used approved siloxanes, which are building blocks for silicone products, to manufacture breast implants," explains Storsberg. The researchers managed to demonstrate the extracted DNA's temperature stability in pilot experiments. They vulcanized the gDNA in the host silicone at 150 degrees for five hours and then tested it with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique to amplify DNA, and with a special analytical method call gel electrophoresis. The DNA remained stable and did not degrade. "Breast implants are made up of components; that is, several silicone polymers that cross-link to form a gel. The components' manufacturer now has the option of marking silicones with the encapsulated tomato DNA sequence during the production process. He alone knows the type and concentration of the DNA used. The components are marked first, and then sold to the implant manufacturer. The PCR method can detect if the manufacturer stretched components with inferior materials or used a lower concentration. "This works much like a paternity test," says Storsberg. The advantage of tomato DNA is that it costs next to nothing and is suitable as a counterfeit-proof marker for many polymer-based implants such lens implants. The US/EU Love Affair With Syria's Kurds Endangers Global Security For years, the United States and its European allies have been fighting in Syria alongside members of the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG. In spite of the PKK being listed by Washington and Brussels as a terror group, somehow its Syrian branch has become a "partner" of western governments in their increasingly aimless intervention in Syria. Because of this, many were surprised when a retired British soldier James Matthews was arrested after he flew to the Middle East of his own volition in order to fight alongside the YPG/PKK in Syria. While initially arrested "for purposes connected to the commission of preparation of terrorism", all charges against him have now been dropped in spite of the PKK remaining on the UK's list of proscribed terror organisations. According to the court which freed Matthews, his release was based on "evidential grounds". The entire matter demonstrates a doubly hypocritical attitude on behalf of the UK government. First of all, it appears logically ludicrous to arrest a man for effectively volunteering for what NATO soldiers in Syria are already doing: fighting with and aiding the YPG/PKK. Secondly, the case reveals a clear case of double-standards as a man who fought with the proscribed PKK is now free while another UK man called Benjamin Stimson remains in prison for volunteering to aid the Donetsk People's Republic whose armed forces are not classified as a terror group by the UK or European Union. Britain's latest twist in logical acrobatics is indicative of a wide trend across Europe where the horrifying crimes of the PKK and its offshoots are either dismissed or ignored. Since the beginning of March of 2018, over 42 PKK inspired attacks against Turks have taken place on German soil while the German government continues to feed domestic violence through a foreign policy of overt Turkophobia. This year, mosques frequented not just by Turks but other Muslims have been firebombed in Germany while Turkish owned shops have been attacked throughout the central European nation. On the whole, the PKK's war against Turkey has cost the lives of 40,000 people including thousands of civilians. As the PKK has violated numerous ceasefire deals, the death toll from PKK attacks continues to rise. Not only have the PKK waged war against Turks, but they have waged a brutal war against Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin who fail to comply with the blackmail techniques that the PKK employ in areas where they seek to attain control through the use of brute force. A new documentary on the mafioso/terrorist tactics of the extremist PKK by TRT World helps shed light on the violent, coercive and illegal acts that the terrorist group commits both against Turks and against the Kurdish communities they claim to kill for. In recent years, the PKK's Syrian branch YPG has employed many of these same techniques in the service of a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Arab and non-Kurdish minority populations in areas of northern Syria where a YPG/PKK occupation has supplanted an illegal Daesh occupation. Much of north eastern Syria, including the city of al-Raqqa was once ruled by the outlawed terrorist organisation Daesh. Today these areas are occupied by the United States and their radical Kurdish terrorist allies in the YPG/PKK. Here, I encourage the reader to re-read Andrew Kroybko's dire warning of what was to come for the Sunni Arab populations of Syria's north-east in a piece written during the Battle for Raqqa in which the geopolitical expert predicted much of what has since transpired in the region. While Daesh made life hell for all, including the vast majority of moderate Sunni Arabs of north eastern Syria, under the radical Kurdish YPG/PKK terror groups who are in charge of the day-to-day life in most areas of the illegal US occupation, the Sunni Arab majority is not only suppressed but they are shunned. Since riding on the coattails of US hegemonic power in north eastern Syria, Kurdish YPG/PKK extremists have illegally seized Arab property and fought Arab tribes and families trying to return to their land, they have changed the names of streets, villages and even towns from their ancient Arab names to Kurdish names. In areas like Manbij and elsewhere where the YPG/PKK run schools, the textbooks are now filled with anti-Arab racism, as are the regional political manifestos while basic goods like food and clean water are scarce in areas occupied by the YPG/PKK with Arabs and non-Kurdish minorities often paying double the prices of ethnic Kurds and triple the prices of members of the YPG/PKK. It must be reiterated that in the areas where the YPG and PKK have taken over from Daesh as the de-facto illegal terrorist occupier, the majority of people are Arab Sunnis, there are significant minority groups including Armenian Christians, Assyrians and Circassians -- all of whom are equally victimised by the YPG/PKK as are Kurdish families who refuse to support their terrorist occupiers. A true war against terrorism is a war against all terrorism without any exceptions. The notion that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is as absurd as saying that one group of child rapists or one group of drug traffickers is somehow acceptable while another is not. Fighting terror can only be achieved if all responsible nations develop and implement a zero-tolerance policy for terrorism across the board. Until the US and Europe become firm in disassociating themselves from the PKK in all its forms, innocent lives throughout multiple nations will remain at risk. The Affordable Care Act - or Obamacare - most benefited those closest to the federal poverty line, a study led by Drexel University researchers shows. Individuals below or nearest to the poverty line (with incomes up to twice its value) experienced the most significant reductions in health-related financial strain and un-insurance rates between 2011 and 2016 - during which the poverty line stood between $11,000 and $12,000. "This population, who have historically had high rates of financial strain, had large increases in their rates of insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act expanding Medicaid and establishing health insurance exchanges," said the study's lead author, Ryan McKenna, PhD, an assistant professor in Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health. Although the study, published in INQUIRY, was good news, it also gives McKenna and his co-authors some concern due to the present political climate. The current administration and Congress have plainly expressed their desire to replace or even remove the law. "Given that past - and, likely, future - reform efforts have sought to change the provisions of the ACA, we're trying to give policymakers a better understanding of who has the most to lose," McKenna said. Almost 20 percent of the United States falls into the category of those making an income of twice the poverty line designation or below, those the study found benefitted the most, McKenna pointed out. Using data from 133,672 adults pulled from the 2011-16 National Health Interview Surveys, McKenna sought to compare the near-poverty line population to those making an income four times greater than it or more, which would be more than $47,000 for an individual in 2016. The researchers looked at three main areas: -Health care financial strain - consisting of things like delaying care due to cost or being unable to afford prescriptions -Health care access - whether someone had insurance or experienced extreme wait times when seeking medical care -Health utilization - measured as whether an individual saw a doctor or went to the emergency department in the last year The groups of people below or near the poverty line were more likely to experience poor results related to all of these compared to those well above it. For example, people earning incomes between 1.25 and two times the poverty line were almost 14 percent more likely to delay medical care because of costs and roughly 17 percent more likely to have problems paying medical bills than the population earning four times the poverty line or more. But when the study compared the numbers before the Affordable Care Act (2011-2012) to after (2013 was the first year Medicaid expansion kicked in), numbers for the less-moneyed groups significantly improved. Un-insurance rates for those below or near the poverty line dropped by between 11.2 and 14.1 percent. Moreover, they experienced significant improvement in their ability to pay for their prescriptions and pay for care when they needed it. "Really, the insurance expansion did more than just provide access to the health care system," McKenna said. "Our work shows that the ACA reduced financial strain for all citizens, with the largest gains occurring among the most financially vulnerable individuals." Seeing positive gains under the Affordable Care Act, McKenna hopes to now take a "deep dive" into the quality of insurance coverage available to those who are on the federal exchanges and Medicaid. "Specifically, we want to look at the availability of providers within an enrollee's insurance network," McKenna said. "It is unclear how the emergence of narrow provider networks - which might not contain all the necessary specialists and could be far apart - affect the access to and utilization of care for those gaining coverage under the ACA." In the meantime, though, McKenna will carefully watch further developments regarding the law. "The ACA is certainly not perfect and there are areas in need of reform - such as the improvement of network advocacy. However, it saddens me when I see proposed alternatives to the current law that will do more harm than good," McKenna said. "While we have the data showing the benefits of the ACA, these are all too often ignored for the sake of advancing a political agenda. Ultimately, the most vulnerable and at-risk among us are those caught in the middle." Inhibiting the Jagged 1 protein in mice prevents the proliferation and growth of colon and rectal tumors. What is more, this approach to the disease permits the removal of existing tumors. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), directed by Dr Lluis Espinosa, who is also a member of CIBERONC (the Network Centre for Biomedical Research into Cancer), in collaboration with the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology Units at Hospital del Mar, and the IDIBELL-Catalan Oncology Institute. The work has been published in Nature Communications. The researchers took tumors from patients and then implanted them into mice in order to analyze the role of this protein in cancer cell proliferation. Jagged 1 is essential for cancer cells due to its role in activating the so-called Notch cell-signaling pathway. Generally speaking, Notch inhibits cell differentiation, in other words, a cell's ability to become a mature cell that can no longer proliferate. In the case of colorectal tumors, the activation of this signaling pathway favors their proliferation and growth. In this study, the researchers discovered that the intestinal tumors of mice lack a protein known as Fringe, implying that Jagged 1 is essential for activating Notch. "The fact that Fringe is present in the normal cells of the small intestine represents a significant therapeutic opportunity for treating patients with colorectal cancer", says Dr Espinosa, since by inhibiting Jagged 1 you can halt tumor growth without affecting the function of normal tissue. In fact, researchers have been able to see how, in the case of healthy mice, the colon and rectum do not need Jagged 1, since in the presence of the Fringe protein there are other mechanisms for activating Notch. This need to have Jagged 1 in order to activate Notch in the absence of Fringe was observed in 239 of the cases of human tumors that were analyzed. Therefore, inhibiting this protein could enable doctors to combat the disease without affecting the functioning of the body. Dr Espinosa explains that "we implanted human tumors with Jagged 1, without Fringe, into mice and then we treated them with antibodies. Post-treatment, the tumors were very small and had necrosed." In the study, the tumors had shrunk after 10 weeks of treatment. Prognostic factor The study also enabled the researchers to demonstrate that Jagged 1 protein levels in patients with colorectal cancer is a prognostic indicator. Where levels are high, the disease rapidly becomes worse. The researchers believe that this way of treating the cancer is very promising and there are already several pharmaceutical companies working with specific antibodies to inhibit Jagged 1. Even so, the work that has just been published is a preclinical trial, and not yet transferable to patient treatment. In this regard, Dr. Joan Albanell, one of the authors of the study, head of the Medical Oncology Unit at Hospital del Mar, and director of the IMIM's Cancer Research Program, points out that "these results lead the way towards therapeutic strategies for selectively deactivating the properties of malignant multipotent stem cells in colon cancer. It is now very important to continue this research so that in the next few years it can culminate in clinical trials for patients with colorectal cancer. For these people, the identification of new therapeutic targets is essential." Colorectal cancer This is the most common type of cancer in Catalonia, with more than 6,000 new cases every year, and the second leading cause of cancer death. The frequency of colon cancer is similar in men and women, while rectal cancer is more common in men. In 2017, 6,201 people were diagnosed in Catalonia and 2,700 died. For Spain as a whole, the number of patients diagnosed exceeded 34,000, making it the most prevalent cancer in the country. Mortality, however, has gone down 5.3% in men and 6.7% in women since 2012, thanks to the success of early detection programs, like the Early Detection Program for Colorectal Cancer, a joint action between Hospital del Mar and Hospital Clinic that has been running since 2009. In separate studies published online in Nature on Aug. 1, two independent research teams report the discovery of a new, rare type of cell in the human airway. These cells appear to be the primary source of activity of the CFTR gene, mutations to which cause cystic fibrosis, a multiorgan disease that affects more than 70,000 people worldwide. Despite decades of study on CFTR and progress in treating the disease, there is still no cure. The new findings show that CFTR activity is concentrated in a small, previously unknown population of cells, which serve as promising targets for future therapeutic strategies against cystic fibrosis. The researchers named the cells "pulmonary ionocytes" due to similarities with ionocytes, a type of cell found in the gills of freshwater fish and frog skin, which regulate salt balance. One group was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). The other group was led by HMS researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital and scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "As researchers work toward cures for cystic fibrosis, knowing you are looking at 1 percent of the cell population seems essential for any type of trouble shooting to improve a therapy or develop new therapies," said Allon Klein, co-corresponding author of one of the Nature studies and assistant professor of systems biology at HMS. The studies also revealed the characteristics of other new, rare and poorly understood cell types, which expands the current understanding of lung biology and disease. "Cystic fibrosis is an amazingly well-studied disease, and we're still discovering completely new biology that may alter the way we approach it," said Jayaraj Rajagopal, co-corresponding author of the second study and HMS professor of medicine at Mass General. "We have the framework now for a new cellular narrative of lung disease." Single-cell surprise Both teams set out to build an atlas of the cells that make up the airway. Using single-cell sequencing technology, they analyzed gene expression in tens of thousands of individual cells isolated from human and mouse airways-;one cell at a time. Comparing patterns of gene expression and using previously described cells as references, the teams created comprehensive catalogs of different cell types and states, as well as their abundance and distribution. The teams' analyses mapped out the genetic identities of both known and previously undescribed cell types. One new cell type, which they named pulmonary ionocytes, was particularly striking as these cells expressed higher levels of CFTR than any other cell. Identified in the late 1980s, CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) codes for a protein that transports chloride ions across cell membranes. Mutations to CFTR can lead to the buildup of thick mucus in the lung, pancreas and other organs, which in turn leads to frequent respiratory infections and other symptoms that characterize cystic fibrosis. Scientists have long assumed that CFTR is expressed at low levels in ciliated cells, a common airway cell type. The new studies, however, suggest that the majority of CFTR expression occurs in pulmonary ionocytes, which make up only around 1 percent of airway cells. Klein, along with Aron Jaffe, a co-leader of respiratory disease research at NIBR, and colleagues additionally showed that the activity of CFTR, not just its expression, relates to the number of pulmonary ionocytes in the tissue. "With single-cell sequencing technology, and dedicated efforts to map cell types in different tissues, we're making new discoveries-;new cells that we didn't know existed, cell subtypes that are rare or haven't been noticed before, even in systems that have been studied for decades," said Broad core institute member and MIT professor of biology Aviv Regev, co-corresponding author of the study with Rajagopal. When Regev, Rajagopal and colleagues disrupted a critical molecular process in pulmonary ionocytes in mice, they observed the onset of key features associated with cystic fibrosis, notably the formation of dense mucus. This finding underscores how important these cells are to airway-surface regulation, the researchers said. Together, the teams' discoveries point to new strategies for treating cystic fibrosis, such as increasing the amount of pulmonary ionocytes to increase the amount of CFTR activity, said Jaffe, who is co-corresponding author of the study with Klein. The identification of these cells can also help guide teams trying to use gene therapy to correct CFTR mutations, the authors suggest. "We can use this information to be a bit more clever when we devise therapeutic approaches to cystic fibrosis," Jaffe said. Here and rare The teams' analyses also shed light on new, rare or poorly described cell states and subtypes, and characterized changes to certain cells after injury or during development. Klein, Jaffe and colleagues, for example, identified cell states that emerge or expand following damage or injury by studying regenerating tracheas. Using InDrops, a single-cell sequencing technology developed at HMS by Klein and colleagues, at multiple points during regeneration, the team could track how cell states specific to the injury response transitioned over time. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues developed a new method called Pulse-Seq to monitor development of cell types from their progenitors in the mouse airway, which were verified in human tissue. By adding a label to progenitor cells, they showed that mature cells in the airway arise from a common progenitor known as basal cells. A comprehensive atlas of cell types and their genetic fingerprints, both in normal conditions and in development and regeneration, serves as potential baseline data for future studies of diseases and other health-related conditions, according to the research teams. Rajagopal, Regev and colleagues, for example, found that a gene linked to asthma development is specifically expressed by ciliated cells. Another gene linked with asthma is expressed in tuft cells, which separated into at least two groups-;one that senses chemicals in the airway and another that produces inflammation. These findings may inform understanding and treatment of the disease. "We've uncovered a whole distribution of cell types that seem to be functionally relevant," Rajagopal said. "What's more, genes associated with complex lung diseases can now be linked to specific cells that we've characterized. The data are starting to change the way we think about lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis and asthma." STUDY HIGHLIGHTS NEED FOR OPTIMUM HEATING AND COOLING TEMPERATURES IN AGED CARE HOMES Indoor temperatures in aged care homes could have a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of residents, particularly those living with dementia. Data was collected from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Researchers at the University of Wollongong's (UOW) Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) undertook a study of thermal comfort in aged care centers in the Illawarra to determine what temperature variations residents were living with. Not only do perceptions of thermal comfort change as people age, indoor temperature has been cited as a key factor in comfort for older people, but indoor temperature also affects the wellbeing, health and behavior of residents including the frequency and disruptiveness of agitation manifested by people living with dementia. With estimates of more than 75,000 additional aged care places needed over the next decade to support an aging population, the findings of the study could have major implications for the design and operation of new facilities. Prior to the present study there has been very little research into how residents of nursing homes perceive their thermal environment as well as a lack of guidelines for thermal conditions for the aged care sector. Researcher Dr Federico Tartarini collected data from five aged care facilities in the Illawarra, in both warmer and cooler months, using a high-tech, wheeled-walker fitted with temperature, humidity and air velocity sensors. Residents and non-residents (typically aged care staff) were also asked to complete a questionnaire to find out how thermally comfortable they felt. The World Health Organization suggests that older people should not be exposed to temperatures lower than 20 degrees, while the International Organization for Standardization recommends maximum temperatures not exceed 26 degrees. Dr Tartarinis study found: The researchers concluded that a comfort band between 20 degrees and 26.2 degrees would appear to be appropriate and desirable for residents living in nursing homes. Indoor air temperatures in the case study facilities were found to range between 17.2 degrees and 31.6 degrees. During the warm season, 53 per cent of residents and 40 per cent of non-residents were exposed to temperatures colder than those recommended by usual thermal comfort standards for summer clothing, which indicated air conditioning systems were not being operated correctly. It was interesting to note that residents felt comfortable over a wider range of temperature than staff members, Dr Tartarini said. Some residents reported that even though they sometimes felt uncomfortable, either too hot or cold, they still felt that the thermal conditions in their aged care facility were acceptable. Importantly we also found that there was a statistically significant increase in the frequency of agitated behavior manifested by residents living with dementia for those who were exposed to temperatures outside the comfort band Older people, and in particular those with dementia, may have decreased sensitivity to temperature changes and dementia may impair their ability to adapt to their environment, that is why good thermal care should be provided to them. Dr Tartarini said the results, published recently in the journal Building and Environment, could be used to inform the design of new facilities and the assessment of thermal comfort conditions in existing residential care homes. By designing or refurbishing new or existing care homes using good design principles such as passive solar design, good insulation, shading, thermal mass and natural ventilation, and ensuring any air conditioning systems have good control systems, could significantly reduce temperature variations indoors. The study recommended that staff at aged care homes should be trained to provide good thermal care to residents, by operating air-conditioners appropriately, for example. Until specific guidelines for thermal comfort are developed for the sector, many residential care homes may continue to offer less than optimal thermal conditions which may negatively impact the health and wellbeing of residents and staff. The study will also provide valuable insights to assist in the design and operation of the Desert Rose House, a student-led project to design and build a sustainable home with a focus on improved quality of life for people with dementia. Warrigal CEO, Mark Sewell, said Warrigal assisted in the funding of the scholarship to support Dr Tartarinis research to better understand the effects of thermal temperature on customers. The findings of the research have influenced how we program our building management systems, such as setting the temperatures throughout our residential care home, which has now been implemented across all of our sites. Its also helped create our environmental design guides that have recommended temperatures for different parts of the home across our network of residential care communities. Such research is so valuable in ensuring we continue to improve our services to older people thats why we have formalized our partnership with UOW into a collaboration agreement to ensure more of these evidence-based approaches to improvement, Mr Sewell said. For specialist nurses on neurocritical care units, accompanying patients for imaging scans and other procedures has a major impact on nurse staffing ratios, reports a study in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, official journal of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Patients in a neurologic critical care unit require more staffing to account for the frequent neurologic assessments, charting, and traveling," according to the workflow study by Michelle Hill, MS, RN, AGCNS-BC, CNRN, CCRN, SCRN, and Jessica DeWitt, BSN, RN, of Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. The study led to the addition of staff members, including a new "circulating nurse" position, with the goals of improving patient care and nurse retention rates. 'Are Neurocritical Care Nurses Performing 14 Hours of Work in a 12-Hour Shift?' "Neurocritical care units are unique from other critical care areas," according to the authors. These specialist units care for patients with diagnoses like stroke and brain or spinal cord injuries, who require frequent neurological assessments and diagnostic tests. "These imaging and diagnostic examinations are often time sensitive and may happen at any time," Hill and DeWitt write. During a period of multiple changes, the 32-bed neurocritical care unit at the authors' hospital was experiencing high nurse turnover rates. "This started us asking the question, 'Are neurocritical care nurses performing 14 hours of work on a 12-hour shift?'" To answer this question, the authors performed a study to assess relationships between various nursing tasks: neurological assessment, documentation, and traveling with patients for diagnostic tests. The study also looked at the effects of patient acuity (severity of illness) and nurse experience. Over 30 days, observations showed that neurocritical care nurses spent more than 226 hours traveling with patients. The main tests and procedures involved were computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans and vascular interventional radiology procedures. "Approximately 4.5 hours of a 12-hour shift were spent off the unit traveling for these tests, indicating that at least one nurse was off the unit for 38 percent of the shift," Hill and DeWitt write. "When a nurse travels there is a patient left behind for another nurse to care for," Michelle Hill explains. "This alters the staffing and requires 'flexing up' meaning that the nurse-patient ratio increases 33 to 50 percent during those times." On its own, the nurses' level of experience was not significantly related to the amount of time needed to perform and document the results of neurological assessments. However, less-experienced nurses spent more time documenting the status of higher-acuity patients, compared to veteran nurses. The study also identified an average of 2.5 high-acuity patients per day who required a dedicated one-to-one nurse assignment for procedures and recovery time. Based on their workflow analysis, the authors recommended a new "circulator" nurse position, who would travel and assist with patients, freeing primary nurses on the unit to stay with their patient. They also recommended three new "one-to-one" staff positions, allowing high-acuity patients or those with multiple diagnostic tests scheduled to be assigned to a dedicated nurse. "Implementing additional staffing will counteract this unique characteristic of neurologic critical care patients and provide a possible tool to enhance retention," Hill and DeWitt conclude. They note previous research showing that higher nurse staffing levels can have positive effects on patient outcomes but further studies will be needed to evaluate the impact of their changes in staffing on the neurocritical care unit. New Delhi: Opposition parties are "actively considering" writing to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu about his perceived "unfairness" in not granting them adequate space and not letting them raise key issues in the Upper House, sources said on Thursday. The issue was discussed at a meeting of opposition leaders ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament and a draft letter is being prepared. The issue will be discussed again soon at a joint meeting of various opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left parties, the TMC and the SP, sources said. "The issue of the opposition writing a protest letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman against the unfairness of the chair in the Upper House in not allowing them to raise crucial burning issues confronting the country is under our active consideration," said a senior opposition leader. A final call will be taken by Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. The opposition is upset with the chairman for not permitting leaders of various parties to raise burning issues such as lynchings, the current economic situation, the Bofors issue and the plight of farmers in the House. Some MPs from Assam also aired their displeasure over not being allowed to speak in the House during the debate on the National Register of Citizen (NRC). "All the agenda being discussed in the Rajya Sabha is tilted in favour of the ruling party. The opposition is being disallowed any space to raise some key issues and this is not acceptable," an opposition leader said. Key issues need to be urgently discussed in the Rajya Sabha but the chair does not allow them to be raised and this is unfair, he said. The opposition respects the Chair, he said, but opposition space "cannot be usurped" and the government alone will not decide on how the Upper House will be run. Another leader added that the opposition wishes to convey its sentiments and anguish that it is not being accorded its rightful space and time in the Rajya Sabha. The leaders pointed out that the issues raised are the ones sought by ruling party members. The house was being adjourned in accordance with the Chairman's "whims and fancies", some of them alleged. New Delhi : The Centre on Tuesday said that the Army has been deployed to stop Rohingya Muslims' infiltration into the country and has also directed the states not to let them spread. "The Border Security Force (BSF) and the Assam Rifles are deployed to stop further infiltration of the Rohingyas," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour. He also said he has issued an advisory to states to monitor those who have already infiltrated. "They have been asked to keep them in one place and not let them spread. States also have the right to deport them," Rajnath Singh said. Trinamool Congress member Sugata Bose raised the issue that the Ministry of External Affairs is carrying out "Operation Insaniyat" (Operation Humanity) in Bangladesh while on the other hand it started the process of deportation of Rohingyas from the country. "External Affairs Ministry is conducting operation insaniyat (humanity) for Rohingyas in Bangladesh. There are about 40,000 Rohingyas in India," Bose said. "Will we show insaniyat for only those who are in Bangladesh?" Bose asked. The Trinamool member also questioned whether the country was prepared to abide by all international law. He said it was the Indian tradition to give refuge to people. Responding to Bose's remarks, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said: This is an unfortunate statement by him. India is probably the only country which has adopted such a soft approach to refugees. He said that despite being not in the UN treaty to receive refugees, India has given shelter to millions. "Still, thousands of refugees are staying in India. India has been very soft towards immigrants but that doesn't mean that there will be no system to regularise it. Our priority is taking care of our citizens first," Rijiju said. "Our government created refugee camps in Rakhine province. But instead of lauding the works of the government you are defaming the country," he said. It even offered help to Myanmar to assist in their resettlement. "Rohingya population is highest in Jammu and Kashmir but they cannot be allowed to become a burden," the minister added. Bharatiya Janata Party member Jugal Kishore Sharma alleged that in February the Sunjuwan army camp attackers came via Rohingya Muslims' houses in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi : As India continues to boost its ties with Central Asia, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will visit Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan from August 2 to 5, it was announced on Tuesday. According to a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry, Sushma Swaraj will be in Kazakhstan on August 2-3, in the Kyrgyz Republic on August 3-4 and in Uzbekistan on August 4-5. In Astana, Kazakhstan, she will hold a bilateral meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov, call on the leadership of the country and interact with the Indian community there. "India and Kazakhstan have strategic partnership and multi faceted relations that have been strengthened by the visits of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and 2017," the statement said. "There have been also meetings on the margins of SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) Summits keeping momentum in the growth of bilateral relations," it said. The SCO is a Eurasian inter-governmental organisation, the creation of which was announced in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism. India and Pakistan were granted full membership of the bloc in June last year. In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Sushma Swaraj will meet Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev, call on the country's leadership and interact with the Indian community. According to the ministry statement, India and Kazakhstan "have strategic partnership and multi faceted relations" that have been strengthened by the visits of Prime Minister Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and 2017. On the third and last leg of her visit, Sushma Swaraj will arrive in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on August 4 and hold in-depth discussions with Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamilov. She will also call on the country's leadership, interact with Indologists and the Indian community there. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Uzbekistan comes in the wake of Modi's visits in July 2015 and June 2016 which saw intense interactions between the two sides. "The visit to the three Central Asian countries is in line with India's enhanced engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood," the ministry statement said. "It will provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and advance our growing engagement with the Central Asian region," it added. DCW received tip-off and rescued 39 Nepali girls from Hotel Hriday Inn, Paharganj, Delhi New Delhi : In an anti-trafficking operation conducted by Delhi Police, close to 39 Nepalese women were "rescued" from a hotel in Paharganj, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) claimed today. The cops, conversely, said the women were staying in the hotel on their own decision, and they had come to Delhi in search of employment. The statement has led to a war of words between the DCW and the police force. "From their medical examination, statements and enquiry conducted so far it has come out that they were staying in hotel on their own volition and they had come to Delhi in search of employment opportunity. They have not indicated any cognizable offense committed against them," Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa tweeted. Source close to the development said that the anti-trafficking operation started at 1 am and continued till 6 am. The women panel's chairperson, Swati Maliwal has mentioned about the operation in the Twitter, micro-blogging networking site. "DCW received tip-off and rescued 39 Nepali girls from Hotel Hriday Inn, Paharganj. Raid lasted the entire night and assistance was provided by Delhi Police. Entire hotel had only trafficked Nepali girls who were being sent to Gulf countries. Huge trafficking racket busted!" she said. Randhawa also added that Delhi police were informed around 12.15 am by the DCW helpline about some trafficked women staying at a hotel in Paharganj. A team from the Paharganj police station went there but nothing suspicious was found. Around 1.45 am, Maliwal came there and told the police personnel that she had received information about another hotel. "We give full support whenever there are issues related to women safety. She said there is a hotel where Nepali girls have been kept and our staff accompanied her there," the DCP said. Some woman found during the investigation had Nepalese citizenship cards. The women were sent for medical examination but some of them refused to undertake the medical investigation process. Sixteen of the women agreed to the medical examination, police said, adding that their medical examination did not show any signs of assault. The DCW hit back, saying the complaints of some of the women received during the raid last night by the DCW clearly reveal trafficking. "Instead of registering an FIR on the basis of these complaints, SHO Paharganj has made a mockery of law. He has detained girls in police station entire day and even beyond sunset. Pressurised and instilled fear in them to not reveal anything. Till now, no arrest, no FIR and girls continue to be detained in PS," the DCW said. In the meantime, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal questioned Lt Governor Anil Baijal and the BJP for not taking required action in the matter. "Complete breakdown of law and order in Delhi. Is it possible at such a large scale without collusion at the top? BJP, LG and Rajnath ji ought to respond. People of Delhi feeling very unsafe," he said in a tweet. "Are police helping the accused for free? Till where the money is reaching? Why LG Sahab and BJP are not doing anything (in the matter)?" he tweeted in Hindi. Randhawa said further investigation is on progress and statements of the women are being recorded though no trafficking angle has come up so far. Police are also contacting the Nepal Embassy. Sorry! This content is not available in your region Contributed Photo / Department of Justice / Contributed Photo STRATFORD A town man will be behind bars for two and a half years for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, the Department of Justice said Wednesday. Matthew Petrovitch, 38, of Stratford, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for having guns and ammunition as a convicted felon, the agency said. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon on May 8. One of the biggest problems any website can have is maintaining site speed and functionality during times of heavy traffic. Perhaps the most notable example of this over the past few years was the website for the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance shopping website that was meant to provide coverage to millions of Americans. According to NBC, only six people managed to sign up on the first day. An influx of website traffic wasn't the only problem for the website, but it certainly was a factor -- according to an article for Time, there were problems with the coding itself -- but the traffic certainly didn't help matters. As then-President Barack Obama said, "The website got overwhelmed by the volume [of people coming to the site -- more than 250,000 people at once]." And while some might simply chalk this up to a failure of government and bureaucracy, the truth is that major businesses often struggle just as much with this problem as anyone else. Here are some examples of crashing websites that have cost companies millions over the past year. Related: Amazon Will Let Entrepreneurs Start Their Own Delivery Business and Earn Up to $300,000 a Year 1. Amazon crashed on Prime Day According to Alexa.com (an Amazon-owned website), Amazon is the fourth most-visited website in the United States and the 10th most popular website in the world. In addition, Amazon Web Services is the worlds largest cloud computing provider, according to an article by Money. So, if anyone should know how to build a platform and website that can withstand massive amounts of traffic, it ought to be Amazon, right? Yet, the company went down on Prime Day. It might only have lasted an hour, and Amazon claims that 2018 was the best Prime Day in company history, so it wasn't a total loss. But, the fact that Amazon crashed during Prime Day this year proves that this can happen to anyone. 2. Macy's crashed on Black Friday Everyone knows what Black Friday means for retailers such as Macy's -- it's an all-hands-on-deck environment that can lead to a massive number of sales and chaos. But while the company's Chicago employees seemed to be prepared for that chaos last year, the company's credit card machines struggled. Hey @Macys just left $300 of items on counter because your credit card machines are down at State St Chicago. Can't even look up Macy's account. What. A. Joke. #macys #blackfridayfail MEGHAN (@meghan_mcc) November 24, 2017 So many stores were using the machines at the same time, that employees sometimes had to either enter credit card information manually or else allow the sale to fall through. Again, Macy's was able to resolve the issue in a matter of hours, according to an ABC report. They then issued the following statement: "We have fully resolved todays system issues. We highly value our customers and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience todays system slowdown may have caused during their shopping experience. The delays we experienced this afternoon were due to a capacity-related issue that caused some transactions to take longer to process. We do not anticipate any additional delays." However, the window had already passed for closing some sales, as in the case of Meghan's tweet -- for the day, at the very least. Related: Chipotle Isn't Franchising Yet. Here's What You Can Do in the Meantime. 3. Chipotle crashes on Guac Day Tuesday was supposed to be Guac Day at Chipotle, where the burrito chain would give away free guac with online or mobile orders. The good news was that many people took Chipotle up on this deal. The bad news was that Chipotle was unprepared for the traffic that came with it, resulting in a crash. This was part of a difficult week for the burrito chain, which also saw an outbreak of food poisoning in Ohio and a subsequent drop in stock prices, per CNBC. However, the company looked to rebound by extending its offer of free guacamole for another day, saying in a statement: "To thank our customers for their understanding during our challenges today, were extending the promo. Get free guac with any entree ordered online or via the app through Wednesday, while supplies last with no code necessary." Are you ready for a website promotion? Running a promotion such as Guac Day or Prime Day can be a great way to drive traffic to your website. Just make sure you're ready for that traffic. You want to make a good first impression, and if your website crashes, there's a chance people won't come back to see everything you have to offer. Related: How Amazon, Chipotle and Macy's Have Potentially Lost Millions on Website Crashes The 10 Most Popular Emoji in Web Addresses 5 SEO Mistakes that People are Still Doing in 2018 Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved MANAGUA, Nicaragua - When Nicaraguan paramilitaries stripped him naked and pushed him into a grave-like hole, Marco Noel Novoa assumed his life would end soon. The 26-year-old student was an active participant in the protests against Nicaragua's powerful president, Daniel Ortega. He helped occupy a university. He collected money for the opposition. And he was an American citizen - born in Macon, Georgia - in the middle of a conflict for which the State Department has denounced Ortega's government and demanded an end to state-sponsored violence. With guns trained on him, Novoa said, he cried out in desperation, hurling insults at Ortega and calling for a free Nicaragua. "I was thinking I was going to die," Novoa recalled in an interview weeks later. "And those were my last words." Nicaraguans have watched paramilitaries - plainclothes militiamen who appear to be working in close coordination with government security forces - fight pitched battles against protesters since an uprising against Ortega's government began three months ago. They have burned homes, businesses and university buildings. But there is a less visible side to the violence: These roving bands of masked gunmen have quietly kidnapped and tortured dissidents like Novoa. Some 600 people have been captured by armed groups and have gone missing, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. Novoa spent seven days in captivity in late May, where he said he endured regular beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and waterboarding. The torture reached its most severe point, he said, when his captors sodomized him using a metal mortar tube of the type that protesters have been firing at government forces during the past three months of upheaval in Nicaragua. "They took my humanity," he said. Novoa's account could not be independently verified but was corroborated by his father. His medical reports, viewed by The Washington Post, were consistent with the injuries he described. Novoa and his family have fled Nicaragua and are now in the United States. Ortega has denied that paramilitary forces are carrying out violence on behalf of his government. Nicaragua's National Police did not respond to a written request for comment about Novoa's case. His story is echoed in reports by human rights groups and other victims of abuse and torture at the hands of pro-government forces. In some places, the paramilitaries have gone house to house hunting protesters and participated in "illegal detentions, forced disappearances, and executions," the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights said in a July report. "It is impossible that [paramilitaries] could operate without the direct participation of the state," said Gonzalo Carrion, the legal director of the organization. "They are an apparatus of repression and terror." The Trump administration has been increasingly critical of Ortega's government as the conflict has progressed. In July, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions against three top Nicaraguan officials. On Monday, the White House said in a statement that "President Ortega and Vice President Murillo are ultimately responsible for the pro-government parapolice that have brutalized their own people." So far, human rights groups estimate that as many as 450 people have been killed since the protests began in April amid a groundswell of anger over social security reforms and general frustrations that Ortega's government had eroded democratic institutions while enriching himself and his family. More than 2,800 have been injured, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla during Nicaragua's civil war who is now in his fourth term as president, has denied collaboration between the government and the paramilitary forces and has referred to these gunmen as "voluntary police." Ortega has said in televised interviews in recent weeks that these forces are organized by other political parties, including opponents of the government, and receive funding from drug traffickers and the United States. "They are not paramilitaries," Ortega told CNN on Monday. "They are citizens defending themselves." Felix Maradiaga, a Harvard-trained academic and former top Nicaraguan government official, was leading a focus group discussing nonviolence inside a restaurant in the town of Leon when a few dozen men marched into the room. Maradiaga had been accused by a top police commander of being a mastermind behind the protests, something he denies. The militiamen who entered the restaurant July 11 began shouting "assassin" at him. "They began to throw glasses, tables, chairs," he recalled. The men pounced on Maradiaga and dislocated his jaw, broke his nose and injured three fingers. On Twitter, Francisco Palmieri, principal deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs at the State Department, condemned the assault on Maradiaga and the "brazen gov't-sponsored violence & intimidation." Maradiaga, who remains in Nicaragua, said the government's public criticism of him is terrifying. "It's basically a death sentence," he said. Nicaragua's paramilitary forces are a motley band of current and former soldiers and police, ex-Sandinista combatants from the 1980s civil war, local officials, neighborhood-level party loyalists, and Ortega supporters young and old, according to security experts and human rights groups. The paramilitaries travel in convoys of trucks, at times flying red-and-black flags of the ruling Sandinista party, and brandish AK-47s and other guns. Those who have seen them say that their organized patrols, on foot and in vehicles, and their familiarity with weaponry suggest prior military or police training. "It's difficult to pin down their numbers, but they have a national presence," said Roberto Cajina, a security expert in Nicaragua. Paramilitaries ransacked Catholic churches in several cities after government supporters accused churches of giving refuge to protesters, whom the government considers criminals and terrorists. "They get to act totally outside the law," said Tanya Mroczek-Amador, chief executive of Corner of Love, a religious organization based in Washington state that imports medicine to Nicaragua and whose church near the northern city of Matagalpa was shot at by paramilitaries during a recent service. "They're hunting down doctors and people providing medicine." On the facade of the ransacked Basilica of San Sebastian in Diriamba, a city south of the capital, someone scrawled in graffiti a slur against priests and the phrase "my commander stays," a reference to Ortega. After Nicaragua's uprising started in April, protesters set fire to the town's police station, attacked the mayor's office and erected brick barricades intended to keep out government forces. In July, the paramilitaries cleared the city in a battle that left several dead. "Thank God the population rose up and took away the barricades," said Abbali Barahona, an official in the Diriamba mayor's office, as he waited in the town plaza for a pro-government caravan to begin. The protesters, he said, are "lazy criminals." As he spoke, a couple dozen masked militiamen carrying rifles took up positions guarding the basilica and central plaza before escorting the caravan on its journey. "Paramilitaries don't exist here," Barahona said. The paramilitaries came for Novoa as he was collecting money. On the evening of May 24, he recalled, a few dozen masked gunmen surrounded a house in Managua where Novoa had been told a friend's father wanted to make a donation. He was quickly captured, beaten, blindfolded and gagged with a chemical-soaked rag that was duct-taped in place, he said. "They throw me in the truck. They put a pistol on my neck. And a pistol on my back," he said. "They tell me if I move, I'm going to get shot." Novoa grew up all over the world - the United States, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, Malaysia. The son of a tobacco company employee, he moved back to Nicaragua for high school and college. He was about a month away from graduating from American University in Managua when the protests began. He joined marches along with classmates, but his conviction deepened when he saw pro-government forces attacking students and volunteers inside the Managua Metropolitan Cathedral with guns and tear gas. "We were trying to protect ourselves. They were shooting at us with real bullets," Novoa told me when I met him in April inside the Polytechnic University, which he and other student protesters had seized at the time. "It's like Tiananmen Square." When he was captured later, Novoa said, he was taken to a place he came to believe was a private prison on a farm somewhere near the capital. He was kept naked in a small, dirt-floored cell, and he could hear several other prisoners. In moments when his blindfold slipped, Novoa said he identified policemen along with the plainclothes gunmen inside. During his days in captivity, Novoa said he was regularly doused with water and shocked with a stun gun. During one session, a guard broke his right ankle with the butt of a rifle. During another, his captors waterboarded him, he said, strapping him to a wooden contraption, his feet elevated, and poured water over his mouth and nose. Later, he said, a group of guards came into his cell, threw him against the wall, and shoved a metal mortar tube in his rectum. "And they kicked it inside until I bled," he said. "I was crying. I was saying - I remember the words - I was saying, 'God, why are you doing this? Why do I deserve this?' " Novoa said he was dropped off on the side of the road in Managua on the evening of May 31. He stumbled to a nearby security guard, called his parents and was taken to the Vivian Pellas hospital. His hospital report notes his broken ankle and effects of "psychological and physical aggression" due to kidnapping. Now that he is out of Nicaragua, Novoa thinks that his status as an American citizen, from an upper-class family, may have been the only thing that saved his life. "I'm a U.S. citizen, and that's what I got," he said. "Imagine just being Nicaraguan." - - - The Washington Post's Ismael Lopez Ocampo in Managua and Gabriela Martinez in Mexico City contributed to this report. The following editorial appears on Bloomberg Opinion: The White House has indicated President Trump will convene leaders of the Gulf Arab countries for a mid-October summit in Washington, to encourage them to collaborate and stiffen their resolve in the escalating struggle with Iran. That's a good idea, and overdue. Encouraging cooperation is one thing, but leading a formal Arab coalition is quite another. U.S. officials talk of creating an "Arab NATO." This would attach American power and prestige to a project with little chance of success. U.S. interests and the fight against Iran will be best served if Trump achieves a more modest goal - persuading the Arab states to stop fighting each other. Iran has many ways of making mischief, from cyber-attacks to the use of proxy militias. To contain these threats, the U.S. needs allies to coordinate their efforts. For best effect, the circle ought to be widened to include Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and NATO. (It's probably too much to ask that Israel be invited, although it will carry a large share of the burden in containing Iran's regional ambitions.) To better align Arab states against Iran, Trump should more firmly oppose the embargo that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain have imposed on Qatar. This year-old internecine squabble has greatly benefited Iran by deflecting Arab energies and deepening the bond between Doha and Tehran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already communicated America's lack of patience with the feud, to no apparent effect. Trump should insist on an end to it. He should also urge a speedy resolution to the much bloodier inter-Arab conflict in Yemen. The civil war has already claimed over 10,000 lives and threatens one of the gravest humanitarian disasters in decades. The embargo of Qatar and the war in Yemen highlight two unfortunate truths. First, the Gulf states have many unresolved quarrels. Second, their fighting forces aren't of much use. In Yemen, a ragtag militia, with limited support from Iran, has held off the vastly better-resourced coalition for over four years. The Gulf's militaries were designed primarily to protect their regimes from civilian unrest. They'd be little help in a conflict with a foe such as Iran. The Arab states have other weapons - economic tools and intelligence assets, to name two. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama were able to command these in the war against terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State without requiring a formal, institutionalized alliance. That's the more promising approach. If Trump can get the Arab states to stop using those weapons against each other, so much the better. President Donald Trump's defender-in-chief, Rudolph W. Giuliani, departed from his client's usual mantra of "no collusion" on Monday by arguing that even if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, that is not a crime. On Tuesday, Trump repeated on Twitter that "collusion is not a crime." While he and Giuliani are technically correct, that's only because collusion is a rubric that in fact encompasses many crimes. As criminal law experts with a collective century of experience prosecuting and defending criminal charges, we believe the sudden pivot to this baseless legal defense signals concern among Trump and his attorneys about emerging evidence that will show collusion. That term has come to be shorthand for the possibility that the Trump campaign, its advisers or the president himself coordinated with Russia, a hostile foreign power, to help Trump win the election. The argument that such coordination would be lawful is striking, including the fact that it follows 191 charges against 35 individuals and companies brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which have yielded five guilty pleas. Taken together, that work spells out the many crimes Russia committed to attempt to affect the outcome of the 2016 election. That conduct was deeply illegal, and it logically follows that if the president or his campaign team actually worked with the Russians in connection with their efforts, they, too, could be liable. That is not only common sense: It is also the law, with a raft of specific "collusion" crimes implicated. Many fall under the rubric of conspiracy: an agreement to further illegal action. The core federal conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. 371, would be triggered here if there were any agreement by Trump or those around him with Russian agents to do something that the law forbids. For example, if in or around the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, the Russians and a Trump representative tacitly or explicitly agreed about the release or use of illegally obtained information, that could plausibly support a conspiracy charge. Indeed, there is already some evidence of just that, including Donald Trump Jr.'s infamous email that "if it's what you say I love it." To take another example of a "collusion" crime, the special counsel's February and July 2018 indictments against alleged Russian hackers charged them with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Their cyber-misconduct defrauded the government by interfering with federal elections. If Trump campaign operatives were a part of that -- say, by coordinating the release of hacked DNC emails with Russian operatives or planning speeches or other campaign events around those releases -- then the campaign, too, could plausibly be a part of the conspiracy to defraud the United States. Again, there is already enough evidence to warrant searching review, such as the fact that within hours of the Russian offer of dirt, Trump announced a major speech promising revelations about his opponent (a speech that he would promise again the following week but never actually deliver). Such campaign encouragement of, or involvement in, illegal Russian activity would not just implicate conspiracy law. The Russian conduct appears to have violated federal anti-hacking statutes, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Wiretap Act. The Wiretap Act is especially relevant because we know that the Russians infected the DNC servers with malware that transmitted emails to the Russians' main server in real time. They were literally intercepting communications, one of the precise activities the act criminalizes. Even if members of the campaign didn't encourage or direct that hack, they could still be subject to prosecution for aiding and abetting -- in lay terms, helping -- a violation of those statutes. Aiding and abetting liability could become a factor if, for example, campaign operatives took a step to make sure the Russians used the hacked materials in the best possible way. (Indeed, campaign aides could even have directly violated the Wiretap Act if they themselves used the contents of any illegally intercepted communication, if they knew or had reason to know the communication was intercepted illegally.) Nor do the varieties of possible criminal "collusion" with Russia end there. If the president knowingly accepted something of value from the Russians, such as harmful information about his opponent, that could be an illegal contribution by foreign nationals. That is an election law crime. If he accepted that information in exchange for the promise of some action (like taking a more accommodating posture toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine) that he or his administration would take if his campaign proved successful, that could constitute an illegal quid pro quo -- that is, bribery. What if the Russians only informed the campaign about their plans to disseminate stolen emails and the campaign did something that interfered with the crime being uncovered? That could constitute the crime of misprision of a felony -- essentially of hiding crimes. And if any money transfers were involved to further the collusion -- like if the Russians wired money to the National Rifle Association to avoid FEC scrutiny -- that could violate the money laundering statute. Both would be forms of illegally working with the Russians. In a word: "collusion." This list merely scratches the surface of the criminal collusion that may be under investigation. In addition, there is of course the coverup of the collusion, which implicates an entirely different set of crimes. Michael T. Flynn and George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to the crime of making false statements in connection with their dealings with Russia. If recent reports that the president knew about the Trump Tower meeting are true, then Trump Jr. could face similar charges based on his congressional testimony to the contrary. Those reports are of course based upon Michael Cohen's alleged willingness to testify about what Trump knew of the meeting with the Russians and when he knew it. It could well be that there is other corroborating evidence that Cohen has or the special counsel has gotten from other sources. There is also the corroboration offered by common sense: Given everything we know about the paterfamilias, it seems unlikely that no one would have told him about a meeting that was important enough to draw the entire senior leadership of the campaign. As seasoned criminal law practitioners, we recognize when the tactic of arguing that facts do not constitute a crime is used. That typically happens only after it becomes clear that the prosecution will be able to prove the conduct at issue occurred. That makes it particularly interesting that the president and his lawyer are now reaching for the "collusion is not a crime" defense, after the reports that Cohen will say Trump knew of the Trump Tower meeting. At any rate, there can be no question of the legitimate law enforcement interest in investigating the many "collusion" crimes that may have been committed. The American people have a fundamental right to know if the president of the United States worked with Russia to win the election and undermine American democracy. The president and his lawyers' embrace of the extraordinary defense that such collusion would be entirely lawful raises an obvious question: Why are they so busy defending collusion if there was none? - Berke is co-chairman of the litigation department at Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel, where he is a partner specializing in white-collar criminal defense. Eisen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a former United States ambassador to the Czech Republic and author of the forthcoming "The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House." James is co-chair of the white-collar defense and investigations practice at Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel and a former federal prosecutor. Posted on: August 2, 2018 3:46 PM The Mothers Union in Burundi has played a key role in transforming individuals, families and communities by equipping women with basic skills required for their daily responsibilities since 1948. In the early days, the movement focused on weaving, sewing and cooking while sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ. At the beginning, we did not understand much of what it was to join a movement of women and the importance of what we were supposed to learn from it, 83-year-old passionate MU member Marcienne Wimana said. Women who served the Lord as missionaries in the 40s kept calling us to join. Since the time we have enrolled our life has completely changed and we now bear marks of Mothers Union in our hearts. Another MU member, 86-year-old Emilienne Mudende, commented: We had been taught how to look after the members of our families; and the Gospel we heard has transformed our lives so that our reputation within communities was such that many women from every corner and different denominations joined the program. Some of them joined the Anglican Church and then became members of Mothers Union. Thats how the movement kept growing. Over the years, the Mothers Union in Burundi has been at the forefront of tackling illiteracy in the country through its Literacy and Development Programme that has been an unprecedented success. Now the Literacy and Financial Education Programme is facilitating the setting up of small businesses and the management of savings and assets. Advocacy has also been an important part of the MUs contribution as it has engaged with social issues, including gender-based violence. Their contribution to the education of children and economic development, and their commitment to end gender-based violence is something that members of Mothers Union can be proud of, the Church said in its provincial newsletter. Waymo has been testing self-driving cars without any safety drivers in Phoenix for nearly a year. Waymo will launch the first commercial program in Phoenix within months. They have applied California regulators to begin testing without safety drivers. The commercial self-driving in California will likely start in 2019. Waymo is buying 62,000 plug-in hybrid Pacifica minivans and 20,000 electric I-Pace SUVs over the next few years. Waymo has self-driving commercial Peterbilt Class 8 semi trucks. Google Alphabet is testing the commercial trucks in Atlanta to move equipment between their own buildings. Waymo is in talks with most of the global carmakers including Chrysler about personal self-driving cars. Personal Waymo self-driving cars will likely start appearing in 2-3 years. Waymo will also be used for self-driving cars, vans and buses for public transportation. This will start with pickups for the disabled. Currently cities pay $25-50 for each public transportation trips for the disabled. Waymo could cut those costs. The self-driving car market could be over$1.5 trillion a year by 2030, according to UBS analyst Eric Sheridan. Waymo software have 60% of autonomous cars in 2030 and Google could make $114 billion in revenue, not including the trucking business. Tasha Keeney, ARK Invest, believes Waymo could charge around 70 cents a milea quarter of the cost for Uber passengers in San Francisco. Robotaxis should get down to 35 cents a mile by 2020. Cruise Automation, the number self-driving car company and unit of GM can see getting prices to less than $1 per mile cost by 2025. Waymo is safer than teenage and senior driving and should be cheaper than owning a car and paying for insurance. ORANGE The nearly vacant Firelite Shopping Center at the corner of Racebrook and Old Tavern roads one of the most prominent commercial spots in town recently was sold for $3.8 million and First Selectman James Zeoli couldnt be happier. The approximately 6-acre property that houses Patriot Bank, a nail shop, China Wok restaurant and a few other businesses had fallen into disrepair over the last several years, even though its a prominent spot that is a sort of gateway to Orange. The parcel can be seen from the Boston Post Road. NEW HAVEN A Woodbridge woman who invaded her neighbors home has been sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for third-degree assault on an elderly person and other charges. Jasmine Bookert, 24, of Mettler Street, went into another house on the same street twice and caused significant damage, according to police. The events occurred on the afternoon of Jan. 9 . Police said they were called to the home to respond to a report of a burglary in progress. The caller said an unknown person was in the house. Shortly afterward police found Bookert in her own residence, where they arrested her. Assistant Public Defender Angelica Papastavros, who appeared beside Bookert during the sentencing hearing, said later that police took Bookert to the hospital the day she was arrested because, It was clear something was wrong with her. She was half-naked and confused. Papastavros said of the crime, This was just a drug-fueled act. Papastavros called the disposition of the case very fair, given her background. She had a horrific childhood. She was raped at about age 15 by a stranger. Thats why her substance abuse started. She used drugs to numb the pain. Bookert pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary, third-degree assault on an elderly person and second-degree threatening. Under the negotiated agreement, she was to receive a sentence of no more than four years and Papastavros was given the right to argue for less time than that. The sentence was imposed by Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford. For the burglary charge he sentenced her to eight years in jail, suspended after serving 18 months, with three years of probation. The sentences for the assault and threatening charges, one year in jail on each charge, were made concurrent with the burglary time. The bedridden elderly victim, who was at home with a nurse at the time of the crime, did not appear at the sentencing hearing. But Papastavros said Bookert apologized in court to them. Assistant States Attorney Sean McGuinness, who prosecuted the case, could not be reached for comment. randall.beach@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN A city-based attorney who spent less than two years in prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme has been conditionally reinstated to practice law. David Kinney, 59, of Wallingford, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, in May 2013 for participating in a mortgage fraud scheme and for making false statements to federal law enforcement. Kinney, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making a false statement, was also ordered to pay more than $507,000 in restitution and forfeit more than $65,000, according to a federal press release. Following his release from prison, Kinney applied for reinstatement, and court documents show New Haven Superior Court Judge Linda K. Lager granted his request June 12, with a two-year probationary period attached, effective immediately. Kinney, who is now employed at the Gunning Law Firm, did not respond to a request for comment. William Dow III, who represented Kinney and worked on his application for readmission, said Kinney is gratified not to be defined by a single act. Following his time in prison, Dow said, Kinney has grown and learned from his mistakes and truly appreciates that he has the ability to practice law again. David didnt volunteer to spend time incarcerated, but the result of it is, you end up with somebody who takes what he does extremely seriously and has a much higher respect for it, Dow said. Along with the probationary period, Kinney must abide by numerous conditions set forth by Lager, all of which are reasonable, Dow said. If those are the conditions that are appropriate to allow him to practice a profession he enjoys and respects, hes more than willing to accept them and live by them, Dow said. According to Lagers two-page order, Kinney has to complete 20 hours of continuing legal education every year, with two of the courses being in legal ethics. He must also use mentor attorney David Grudberg for the probationary period, meeting with Grudberg in person twice a month and communicating with the mentor attorney weekly by email or phone. Grudberg must also report Kinneys compliance with the judges conditions to the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel. Kinney must have malpractice insurance coverage until he retires and make a plan to comply with all of his outstanding financial obligations. He is also allowed to practice law only if he is employed by a firm or a member of one and is limited to personal injury and workers compensation matters, Lagers order states. Dow said clients can trust Kinney because when you sit and talk to David about his experiences, he quickly convinces you how much hes learned and how much he wants to practice law the right way. Kinney participated in a mortgage fraud conspiracy in 2006 and 2007 by acting as the settlement agent in connection with fraudulent real estate transactions in New London County. As part of the scheme, he submitted, or caused to be submitted, materially false HUD-l settlement statements to lenders. In certain cases, Kinney released a disbursement check before he had received the down payment listed on the HUD-1, the federal release said. On Nov. 5, 2007, in connection with the investigation of the case, FBI special agents served Kinney a subpoena at his New Haven office. Kinney told agents hed never given anyone a closing check before he received the down payment money in connection with real estate closings that he handled when, in fact, he had done so on multiple occasions, according to the federal release. We learn from our mistakes, and the people who make mistakes become better for having done them, as opposed to people who skate through life and never have to deal with adversity. Thats what makes him better. Now hes more empathetic, hes more understanding, hes more caring, Dow said. jessica.lerner@hearstmediact.com; @jesslerner on Twitter What happened to Amelia Earhart? That question has been asked, and not answered, countless times over the 81 years since she disappeared on July 2, 1937 on the third-to-last leg of her planned flight around the world. Now, finally, one of the great mysteries of the 20th century may have been solved. Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, left Oakland on May 20, 1937 in her two-engine Lockheed Electra 10E plane, accompanied by Fred Noonan, her navigator. Circling the globe from west to east, by July 2 she had reached New Guinea and left that day on the longest leg of the flight more than 2500 miles for Howland Island, from which, after refueling, she would fly to Hawaii and then to California. Howland is a small island, less than two square miles in size, on which runways had been built specifically for Earhart by the WPA. Given the rudimentary communication and navigation instruments available at the time, flying more than 2,500 miles to a speck of land in a vast ocean was undoubtedly the most challenging leg of the entire round-the-world flight. Earhart never arrived at Howland. Some think she simply missed the intended destination, blown off course by the winds, ran out of fuel, and crashed somewhere in the Pacific. But that theory is contradicted by the fact that between July 2 and July 7, radio messages from Earhart were heard by the Coast Guard at Howland, a Department of the Interior radio operator at nearby Baker Island, the Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and Pan Am station in Hawaii, and the Pan Am stations on Midway and Wake Islands, as well as by a number of individuals in the U.S. and Canada listening on short wave at her frequency. In many of the messages, Earhart identified herself, gave the planes call letters, said they were down on a small and uncharted island and needed help. In one of the last calls, heard by a woman in New Brunswick, Canada, Earhart said they were taking on water, that Noonan was badly injured, and that we cant hold on much longer. By triangulating from the directional bearings of the radio messages received at Howland, Baker, Midway, Wake, and Hawaii, the U.S. Navy soon focused on the area around Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro, a small uninhabited island roughly 350 miles southeast of Howland. On July 9, two days after the last signal from Earhart, three observation bi-planes were launched from the USS Colorado battleship and flew over Gardner. But they saw no aircraft, no individuals and, perhaps because of the time of day and tides, no place a plane could land. Another theory one that received considerable attention last summer thanks to a History Channel broadcast is that Earhart and Noonan were found by the Japanese navy, taken to Saipan and died in captivity. That theory was supported by a photograph of a group of individuals on the dock of an atoll in the Marshall Islands, controlled at the time by the Japanese. One of the standing figures resembles Noonan. A person sitting on the edge of the dock with back to the camera and looking at a Japanese navy vessel in the distance resembles Earhart. However, it turns out the photo originally appeared in a Japanese travel book published in 1935. In 1940, a British working party on Gardner came across the partial skeletal remains of a person. The bones were sent to a medical center in the British colony of Fiji, where they were examined and measured. The bones were subsequently lost but the measurements survived. Recently a forensic anthropologist compared the measurements of specific bones with estimates, based on photographs of Earhart with objects of known size, of Earharts bones. He concluded theres good reason to believe the bones found in 1940 were those of Amelia Earhart. So what happened to Amelia Earhart? The best guess is that, unable to find Howland, perhaps because of a defective radio direction finder, and running low on fuel, she landed at Gardner on a reef, used what little fuel was left to periodically start an engine and recharge the radio battery until the fuel ran out or the engine wouldnt start for some other reason and, after surviving for some unknown amount of time, died - a tragic death of a truly remarkable and courageous woman. David R. Cameron is a professor of political science. Like a cocaine-fueled Homeric epic, Colombia's long tragic battle with the drug cartels has produced countless heroes and villains. But one figure cutting across the country's current narco battlefield, a name drawing praise and hate alike, is actually a six-year-old German Shepard you can find trotting through the country's airports. Sombra - "Shadow" in English - is a drug detection dog with the Colombian National Police. Over the last few years, her radar nose has led to more than 200 arrests and the seizure of at least 9 tons of illicit drugs. That success has turned the dog into something of a folk hero in a country consumed by ongoing bloodshed piled on top of a long legacy of drug violence. The Colombian press has even dubbed Sombra "the terror" of drug traffickers. THE DIFFERENCE: MS-13 is a street gang, not a drug cartel But Sombra is so good at her job that Colombia's dominant drug crew is retaliating. They've put a price on the dog's head. According to Colombia's RCN Radio, police intelligence recently learned about the bounty set by the Urabenos, also known as the "Gulf Clan." Reports vary on the price tag for killing the dog, between 20 and 200 million Colombian pesos - or about $7,000 and $70,000 in American currency. But the threat is serious enough for the National Police to take extra precautions for Sombra's security. "The fact they want to hurt Sombra and offer such a high reward for her capture or death shows the impact she's had on their profits," a police spokesperson told the Telegraph. Sombra came to Colombian law enforcement from a kennel in Antioquia, the region of the country that's home to Medellin, the springboard for Colombia's fearsome cartels of the 1980s and 1990s. Outfitted in a neon-yellow vest, the dog is tasked with thrusting her trained snout into luggage and packages in Colombia's ports and airports along the country's Gulf Coast. RCN Radio reports her first major bust was in March 2016, when Sombra nosed her way toward a container of banana boxes that secretly held 2,958 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride. The shipment was on its way to Belgium. FEMININE SIDE: Charming, but ruthless females taking over Mexico's cartels In May 2017, Sombra discovered another shipment heading to Belgium containing 1.1 tons of cocaine. Last June she led police to an even larger find - 5.3 tons of cocaine, the BBC reported. Later she discovered 4 more tons secreted in an auto parts shipment. In total, her busts have resulted in 245 arrests, Colonel Carlos Fernando Villareal told RCN Radio. Sombra's efforts for law enforcement have twice earned her the Wilson Quintero medal, an honor awarded for critical contributions to the fight against drug trafficking. Sombra's accomplishments have made her the cuddly face of Colombia's anti-drug effort. She's been featured on local television. In airports, the dog is asked to pose for selfies with admirers. And the narcotics police regularly post about her accomplishments on Twitter. This month, police used Sombra to specifically call out the Urabenos's alleged notorious chief, a former paramilitary guerrilla turned drug trafficker named Dairo Antonio Usuga. In Colombia, he's known as "Otoniel." "[I]n the last three years she's become the torment of 'Otoniel,'" a recent tweet stated. The dog can handle the high profile, her owners have said. "Sombra is a very friendly, calm canine, and for that reason, she has no problem approaching children or people who want to say hello to her," Oscar Favian Solarte, head of the anti-narcotics division, told El Tiempo. "She's playful, and in fact that is part of the development of her job. Not only to look for caches of illicit drugs but also, after her work is done, to de-stress, so to speak." AUTHOR NOTES: Joe Tone talks drug cartels and horses, exclusively on HoustonChronicle.com But all that attention has put Sombra in the Urabenos's crosshairs. Originally a paramilitary outfit, one of the many armed groups trading bullets in Colombia's long national struggle, the Urabenos are now the country's largest criminal organization and control much of the drug trade, according to InSight Crime. Consolidating power by taking on all rivals, the group's power base spreads along Colombia's northwest coast. According to InSight, the group pulls money from various criminal activities, such as extortion, illegal mining, and smuggling. Otoniel remains at large and in control of the vast organization. In response to the bounty on Sombra's life, General Jorge Nieto, head of the national police, has ordered the dog transferred to Bogota's El Dorado International Airport, outside of the Urabenos's territory on the coast. According to the Telegraph, additional officers will now accompany Sombra on her rounds. - - - The Washington Post's Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report. One story is about Melissa Schlag and the controversy over her kneeling during the pledge of allegiance. Another story is about Tim Herbst and the gubernatorial candidates willingness to drag Haddams first selectwoman for political gain. But the real story is about Herbst siding with Russia. He didnt mean to. I hope not. Maybe he did. We'd better get to the bottom of this. Like many Americans, Melissa Schlag, a Democrat, was outraged by the sight of President Trump throwing his country under the bus, as a conservative pundit put it. This was in Helsinki, Finland, standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president last month said he took the enemys word over that of U.S. officials bound by oath to defend the United States. They said Russia attacked us in 2015. Putin said nope, didnt do it. Trump said OK. To Schlag, this was a moment of betrayal. On July 16, at a Board of Selectmen meeting, she quietly protested by kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance. Im pretty sure no one outside of Haddam would ever have heard the name Melissa Schlag, or that she kneeled, had Herbst not been running fourth in the race for governor of Connecticut to party-endorsed candidate Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and two former Democrats. Far behind and against the odds, Herbst recognized an opportunity to stoke the rage lobes of Republican voters while bettering his chances in the run-up to the Republican Partys primary next week. So he got on Fox News to blast Schlag and demand her resignation. This was the beginning of the controversy you have heard, the one about Schlag and the question of kneeling during the pledge, or the national anthem, and whether thats an act of love or hate of ones country. Its a stupid debate, not least because it cant be settled. Its stupid, because very few people cared before Herbst went on Fox News, at least they didnt care enough to travel all the way to Haddam to condemn Schlag to her face. They only care now because Herbst, who has nothing to do with Haddam and likely never will, attacked Schlag on Fox in order to get more attention, and more primary votes. To her immense credit, Schlag stood her ground during a town meeting Monday, as did many commendable residents. Together, they defended her, and anyones, right to speak freely and dissent. Yes, many there called the flag sacred and accused Schlag of disrespecting the sacrifice of veterans. But in attendance were veterans who said they served to protect her right. I love Connecticut Yankees! Lost in the fray, though, is the substance of Schlags protest that Trump sided with the enemy. This is key, but something that does not help Herbst. It hurts him. Or should. In attacking Schlag, Herbst inadvertently (I think) defended the president, which is to say, defended the fact that Trump took Putins side against his own country. Now, I dont know about you, but that looks to me like Herbst is taking Putins side, too. Looks can be deceiving, so we better get to the bottom of this, applying as much scrutiny as we did in the Schlag case. A new story, or the real one, Id say, is this: Does Herbst side with Russia? John Stoehr is the publisher of the Editorial Board, a newsletter about politics. He lives in Westville. ANSONIA A newly appointed Charter Revision Commission is exploring ways to streamline the annual budget process, possibly reduce the number of city voting wards and increase terms for the mayor and aldermen. However, before the commission delves into any possible charter changes, several residents told them this week to put on the brakes. During the commissions second meeting Wednesday, a roomful of residents were not only disappointed to learn there was no public speaking portion on the agenda, but another resident alleged the commission is in violation of state law. Former Town Clerk Beth Lynch called a point of order, saying the current make-up of the commission is not in compliance with the state statute. State law says not more than one-third of commission members may hold any other public office in the city. The commission is comprised of five members: Lorie Vaccaro, Board of Alderman president; Domenic Filippone, a 3rd Ward alderman; Robert Knott; Sharon Voroschak; and Robert MacDowell. The problem is Vaccaro and Filippone hold other city offices as aldermen, which Lynch said violates the no more than one-third provision in the law, rendering the commission null and void. Vaccarro, after the meeting, told reporters he has no problem with the mayor appointing another member to ensure the commission is in full compliance with the law. Our goal is to be transparent and of course we will do it the right way, Vaccaro said. The commission also took some heat for not sufficiently advertising meetings or discussing how the potential changes came to be. Resident William Luneski raised several points this week in a newspaper letter to the editor, expressing the citys lack of publicizing information about important decisions that could change city laws. A band is playing at Nolan Field and we have posters, banners on fences, stories in the news, postings on Facebook and CodeRed notifications thru the emergency system, Luneski wrote in his letter. Changing the laws of Ansonia, zero stories, postings, calls and texts. Vaccaro vowed to do a better job in getting information out to the public. All city meetings are posted on Ansonias website. The commission held its first public hearing July 24, and with input from some city boards and residents, devised a list of possible charter changes. I want to be clear that some recommendations were added after listening to the public, Vaccaro said. The changes the commission may explore include: Referendum votes on the annual city and school budgets. Changing the terms of the mayor and aldermen from two years to four years. Reducing the number of city wards. Changes to the Recreation Commission, including making the Rev. Al Smith a lifetime, honorary chairman. Prohibiting aldermen from receiving salaries or payments from the city or school board. Any changes the commission approves, and which gains approval from aldermen, would go to a public hearing and ultimately to voters at a referendum. Vaccaro said the commission is in no rush and has 16 months to complete its charge. This commission was established to find ways to make the charter and government more efficient and effective for the taxpayers, Vaccaro said. We will strive to do that. The overall goal is to spend less of the taxpayers money. One cost-saving change, Vaccaro said, is a recommendation from Registrar of Voters Nancy Valentine to reduce the number of city wards. Vaccaro said he could support reducing the number from seven to five, which would reduce the number of aldermen representing residents living in those wards from 14 to 10. Fewer wards mean fewer voting places and reduced referendum costs. jean.sos@snet.net The chair of a New Mexico legislative committee that monitors radioactive and hazardous materials in the state says he finds it troubling Attorney General Hector Balderas has concluded the state cannot legally stop a New Jersey-based company from the building a nuclear waste storage facility. Holtec International, a New Jersey-based company specializing in nuclear storage, has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to construct a nuclear waste storage facility about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Carlsbad. The facility, to be located in western Lea County, could eventually store up to 10,000 shipments of spent nuclear fuel, as much as 120,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive waste, from nuclear power plants around the country. It would be stored just below the surface. The facility is intended to be a temporary storage site, storing nuclear waste only until a permanent storage facility can be built. But opponents fear that it could become permanent because plans for a long-term repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, have stalled because of opposition. Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said Wednesday that New Mexico should have a say about the proposal and that he was disappointed in the attorney general's opinion, The Hobbs News-Sun reports . "It's troubling that a project of this magnitude with this much exposure to the state -- I mean exposure in the sense of the hazardous materials involved and long-term ramifications of it being here -- that our state would not have a say in being able to approve it or not," said Steinborn, who chairs interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee. Balderas said in a letter last month the state cannot legally stop Holtec International from temporarily storing up to 100,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico. Balderas cited the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and two court cases clearly establishing two principles. "(F)irst, that the NRC has the statutory authority to license and regulate consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facilities, and secondly, that the comprehensiveness of that federal regulatory scheme pre-empts virtually any state involvement," Balderas wrote. Thirty four employees were dismissed from the state Department of Education earlier last month in a controversial move that's prompted questions about the department's leadership. The employees, including three who retired when they learned they would be let go, were dismissed as part of a larger reorganization of the agency, Department of Education spokesman Michael Yaple said Wednesday. New Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet is "moving the Department of Education in a bold, new direction to help all New Jersey students excel both in and out of the classroom," Yaple said. Repollet is expected to present his reorganization plan to the state Board of Education next month, state officials said. The dismissals were first reported Tuesday by education blogger Laura Waters, a former Board of Education member in Lawrence Township. Waters reported that an anonymous former Department of Education employee told her dozens of staff members were abruptly let go on July 20, after only one day of notice that they needed to meet with the personnel department. Many of the staffers worked in the Office of Comprehensive Support, a division that provides guidance to the state's lowest-performing school districts, Waters reported. Yaple said those districts will continue to receive support from the state under Repollet's reorganization plan. It's not uncommon for state agencies to overhaul their staff after a new governor takes office. But Waters' anonymous sources suggested the moves were politically motivated and possibly ordered by the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. Steve Baker, a spokesman for the union, dismissed that idea, calling it "pure nonsense." "NJEA does not make staffing decisions at the NJDOE and learned about these staffing changes after they happened," Baker said. "Laura's anonymous sources are wrong. Of course, we don't know who those sources are, so we don't know what motive they might have to 'confirm' something that didn't happen." The state Board of Education was informed of the dismissals during an executive session Wednesday, Board President Arcelio Aponte said. He's unsure of the reason for the changes, he said. "I don't know the rationale other than the commissioner feeling that he needed to reorganize in order to focus in on the type and level of services that he wants," Aponte said. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook BAYONNE -- The Bayonne Energy Center, a gas-fired power generation facility that sends energy to New York City, is set to be sold for roughly $900 million in cash. Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (MIC), a publicly traded company managed by Australia's largest investment bank, Macquarie Group Ltd., announced this weekend that it was selling the power generation facility, which sits on the Peninsula City's eastern-most shoreline on Constable Hook. The company is selling the facility for $900 million in cash and assumed debt to NHIP II Bayonne Holdings LLC, MIC announced Sunday. The company in 2016 announced it was expanding the Bayonne site after making several nearby land purchases. That expansion was completed earlier this year and allowed MIC to increase the total megawatt generation from 512 megawatts to 644 megawatts. While an incandescent light bulb uses between 60 and 100 watts, one megawatt is equal to a million watts. The Bayonne facility powers at least 500,000 homes in New York City. "Having completed various capacity and capability expansion projects at BEC, we concluded that this was an appropriate time to sell the facility and redeploy the proceeds to address strategic priorities including strengthening our balance sheet," said Christopher Frost, chief executive officer of MIC. MIC, the parent company of International-Matex Tank Terminals (IMTT), said in a release that it "anticipates using part of the net proceeds of approximately $650 million... to reduce debt... at the Company's IMTT business." IMTT, a bulk liquid storage and handling facility located at 250 East 22nd St., has more than 600 storage tanks. Located at the intersection of the Kill Van Kull and Upper New York Harbor, the complex also has truck- and rail car-loading facilities. The transaction is expected to be closed sometime in the fourth financial quarter (October to December), pending approvals from the New York Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The facility was built in 2012 and sends power to New York City through a cable running from Bayonne -- beneath the New York Harbor -- to a substation in Brooklyn. The power plant was originally built as part of a $400 million joint venture between Hess Corporation and an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners to "serve New York City's power needs without taxing the energy grid in New Jersey," The Jersey Journal reported. The city, under then-Mayor Mark Smith, gave final approvals for the facility in 2009 and awarded the site a 30-year tax abatement. The site was purchased by MIC in 2015 for $720 million. At the time of the tax abatement vote, city officials said the abatement would generate $45 million in revenue for the city over the next three decades. The facility currently pays a little more than $1.66 million to the city annually from both the PILOT fee and an administrative fee: $1,588,445 from the abatement tax and $77,520 in administrative fees, according to the city spokesman Joe Ryan. The facility comprises approximately 12 jobs, according to Ryan, although it is unclear if those jobs are held by city residents. Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. HOBOKEN The City Council on Wednesday night voted to sever the city's contract with a Montville law firm that has been defending Mayor Ravi Bhalla during an appeal of a 2013 decision that found Bhalla violated state ethics laws eight years ago. The council split 7-2 on the resolution, with Bhalla's two close allies voting no and Bhalla's critics calling the contract a "misuse of taxpayer funds." The law firm, Buzak Law Group, has been paid over $10,000 to defend Bhalla, who told The Jersey Journal he has no intention of ending the contract and called any attempt to classify the council's action as legitimate as "like literally fake news." The council's action comes less than two months after Bhalla, an attorney, was censured by the state Supreme Court for an unrelated ethical violation. Buzak has been representing Bhalla regarding a matter that came before the state Local Finance Board. In 2010, then-Councilman Bhalla voted to renew a city contract with an attorney, Paul Condon, with whom Bhalla shared an office. The LFB said in 2013 that Bhalla should have recused himself because sharing a lease with Condon represented a conflict of interest. The decision was later overturned by a judge, whose ruling was then reversed by the LFB in December. The board waived the $100 fine. In a joint statement, Council President Ruben Ramos and Councilman Mike DeFusco, who voted in favor of Wednesday's action, said they wanted to stop Bhalla from using more taxpayer dollars "to defend himself against a personal ethical violation." "This has gone on for eight years and it's clear that the mayor's lack of candor when the situation first developed led the city down a path of being unfairly forced to foot the bill for Bhalla's indiscretion," the statement reads. "That misuse of taxpayer funds needs to end and we're glad to see the City Council continue to act as a watchdog on this administration." DeFusco lost the mayoralty to Bhalla in November and remains his most aggressive critic. Bhalla has accused DeFusco and other council members of attacking him because they remain angry over his election victory. Bhalla, DeFusco and Ramos are all Democrats. "The City Council has no legal ability to sever a contract," Bhalla said in an email. "Mr. Buzak represents me and will continue to do so, uninterrupted. A council resolution doesn't change this basic fact." Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. A North Bergen man was arrested on drug distribution charges after authorities seized nearly $60,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine earlier this week, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced. Christopher Durkin, 55, was arrested Tuesday at the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office in Jersey City after a search of his vehicle and home turned up 20 ounces of crystal meth and approximately $3,500 in cash, Suarez said. Durkin was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, and one count of possession with intent to distribute while within 500 feet of public property. He was also charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute while within 1,000 feet of school property and one count of possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia. The crystal meth that was recovered is estimated to be worth $59,000. Members of the HCPO Narcotics Task Force made the arrest with assistance from the Hudson County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit. A twice-convicted rapist awaiting trial for the killing of his cousin and her foster daughter died in July from cancer, officials said Thursday. Brian Farmer, 61, of Long Branch, was charged with murder and child endangerment related to the deaths of Joan Colbert, 62, and her 10-year-old child Veronica Roach. The bodies of Colbert and Roach were found Aug. 1, 2014, in their Lippincott Avenue apartment in Long Branch. Authorities said Farmer strangled his cousin and the girl on July 30, 2014, after Colbert found him taking pornographic photos of the girl. He was arrested on Aug. 13, 2014. Farmer was taken to CentraState Medical Center in Freehold on July 14 where he died from cancer, according to a spokeswoman for the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the Monmouth County Correctional Institute. Information on what type of cancer killed him was not available as of Thursday evening. Farmer's case was held up because of appeals regarding the evidence. Detectives, authorities said, found pornographic pictures of the girl after they searched Farmer's cell phone. But, in January, a three-judge appellate court ruling agreed with the trial court's ruling that Farmer did not fully consent to a search of his phone and that the photos shouldn't be admissible in court. The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office made an appeal to the state Supreme Court to overturn the lower court's ruling. Farmer was convicted of rape in 1984 and sentenced to five years in prison. Almost 10 years later, Farmer was accused of taking his girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter hostage and sexually assaulting the teen. He was convicted of rape again and sentenced in 1996 to 25 years in prison but was released in October 2009, according to Department of Corrections records. Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced Thursday the arrests of 166 fugitives from four cities across the state in a summer effort to curb violent crime. From July 16 to 20, The U.S. Marshals NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force teamed with local authorities to target New Jersey's gang members and most violent offenders in Jersey City, Camden, Trenton and Newark, the Attorney General's statement said. Marshals and task force officers focused on fugitives with violent charges and documented gang relations. Among the 166 fugitive arrests, 61 of which were documented gang members. They included 42 Bloods, 13 Crips, three Latin Kings, and one Surenos member and one Trinitarios gangster. The attorney general's office did not identify any of the arrestees. Eleven firearms, over seven kilograms of narcotics, one vehicle, and $100,000 in cash were seized confiscated during the arrests. The operation, called "Operation Summer in the City," also aimed to impact on the quality of life for the residents in the four cities, the statement said. "Law enforcement agencies work best when they work together, and this sweep of gang members and violent offenders is an outstanding example," Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in the statement. "We listened to you loud and clearly, and we will continue pursuing these violent fugitives that are hiding in every corner of your city," Juan Mattos, the U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey said. Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross. By Jennifer Rubin Wednesday morning President Trump freaked out in a series of tweets after The Washington Post reported that his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort went on trial in federal court. The article went on: "Prosecutors charged that his personal fortune was propped up by years of lies to tax authorities and banks. "The first trial to arise out of the investigation run by special counsel Robert Mueller got off to a fast start Tuesday, as a six-man, six-woman jury was picked - and opening statements delivered - in less than a day. . . . "Manafort faces 18 charges of financial fraud, as prosecutors say he failed to pay taxes on some of the millions of dollars he made working as a strategist for a political party in Ukraine, and then lied to banks to get loans when those payments stopped. Though the case grew out of the special counsel probe, the trial will not delve into issues surrounding Russian interference in the 2016 election; it is about Manafort's money." Trump's tweetstorm included these missives: ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 For all the talk from Trump defenders and even some in the mainstream media that the Manafort trial has nothing to do with Trump, Trump plainly feels differently. So why should he be so upset, again showing that his objective has been to shut down (i.e., obstruct) the ongoing Russia investigation? There are a slew of reasons why the trial should trouble Trump, not the least of which is a possible conviction (carrying what amounts to a life sentence) against the president's former campaign chairman. That's not going to help Trump's effort to paint the entire Russia investigation as a "hoax." And this is not the only trial Manafort has to worry about. A separate case in Washington involving failure to register as a foreign agent and witness-tampering claims will come in September. Conviction in either of those cases will increase the incentive for Manafort to make a deal with Mueller. The trial also connects to Trump in other ways. The Post report continues: "Manafort collected more than $60 million between 2010 and 2014 from his Ukraine work, where President Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of the Kremlin, was Manafort's 'golden goose,' [Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo] Asonye said. "When Yanukovych had to flee Ukraine for Russia in 2014, Manafort's 'cash spigot' was shut off, the prosecutor said, and the political strategist set out to generate money by lying to banks on loan applications." And then Manafort went to work for Trump. For free! And led the campaign when the Republican National Committee platform was changed in Russia's favor (dropping support for arming Ukraine, for example). And offered briefings for a Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. In essence, the trial is the prequel to the story of the Trump campaign's multiple contacts with Russia. "Manafort is a mirror image of Trump. He is a man seduced by the oligarch wealth of the former Soviet Union," says Max Bergmann of the Moscow Project. "Putting profit over principles he ends up becoming entangled, entrapped, and then a witting tool of Russian interests. The trial is a preview for much of what's to come." He adds, "The trial is going to help us understand why the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. It is going to spell out Manafort's motive. It will show that Manafort had deep ties to Russia (just like Trump) and was financially desperate prior to joining the Trump campaign." Frankly, confirming the presence on the campaign -- at its highest level -- of a guy as thick as thieves with the Russians will begin to chip away at Trump's emphatic denial of any contacts or ties with Russia. Remember, in July 2016, Manafort was asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?" Manafort answered, "No, there are not. That's absurd. And you know, there's no basis to it." Except that was patently false. Trump also denied campaign contacts with Russians, as did Reince Priebus, the president's one-time chief of staff. In February 2017, Priebus declared, "The New York Times put out an article with no direct sources that said that the Trump campaign had constant contacts with Russian spies, basically, you know, some treasonous type of accusations. We have now all kinds of people looking into this. I can assure you and I have been approved to say this - that the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that story is not only inaccurate, but it's grossly overstated and it was wrong. And there's nothing to it." Except there were dozens and dozens of contacts, including by Manafort. In short, establishing that Trump's one-time campaign chief was heavily connected with Kremlin characters doesn't prove conspiracy to acquire help during the election, but it sure does bolster the credibility of the investigators and underscores how preposterous were the dozens of denials that the campaign had any Russia contacts. A campaign chief down on his luck going to work for free for Trump certainly provides the back story for Manafort's efforts to "monetize" those Russian connections. As Bergmann suggests, "This trial will also highlight, but not answer, many outstanding questions, such as: How did Manafort end up on the campaign?; Why did someone so cash-strapped work for free?; and, What did he do to conspire with Russia during the campaign? Mueller's answers to those question will come later." In other words, Paul Manafort's trial will set the table for what follows. (Details of Day 2 of Manafort's trial.) Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a center-right perspective. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. By Hope Yen and Calvin Woodward President Donald Trump is justifying his call for voter ID cards by saying photo identification is already a universal requirement in the marketplace. As anyone who frequents a grocery store knows, it's not. A look at his comments on the subject Tuesday and his Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' attempt to explain them Wednesday: TRUMP: "We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID like everything else. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture." -- remarks Tuesday at Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. THE FACTS: No photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards. Identifications are required to purchase limited items such as alcohol, cigarettes or cold medicine and in rapidly declining situations in which a customer opts to pay with a personal check. According to the National Grocers Association's most recent data, the use of checks as a percentage of total transactions dropped from 33 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2015, due in part to the popularity of debit cards, which use PIN codes. The group's members are independent food retailers, family-owned or privately held, both large and small. *** SANDERS: "He's not saying every time he went in; he said when you go to the grocery store." -- press briefing Wednesday. THE FACTS: Actually, Trump did claim, erroneously, that photo IDs are required whenever "you want to buy anything," not only in limited cases. Asked when Trump last bought groceries, Sanders responded, "I'm not sure. I'm not sure why that matters, either." SANDERS: "The president wants to see the integrity of our election systems upheld, and that's the purpose of his comments. He wants to make sure that anybody that's voting is somebody that should be voting." THE FACTS: This concern, often voiced by Trump as well, stems from an unsupported theory that voter fraud has shaped election outcomes. The actual number of fraud cases is very small, and the type that voter IDs are designed to prevent -- voter impersonation at the ballot box -- is virtually nonexistent. In court cases that have invalidated some ID laws as having discriminatory effects, election officials could barely cite a case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud. Democrats have opposed voter-ID laws as unnecessarily restricting access for nonwhites and young people, who tend to vote Democratic. Republicans accuse Democrats of wanting noncitizens to be able to vote in U.S. elections. Neither Sanders nor Trump has offered evidence of consequential fraud. Sanders said Wednesday that "even if there are 10 people that are voting illegally, it shouldn't happen." A teenager is being sought in the slaying of a New Jersey pizza deliveryman last month in which two men have already been arrested. NorthJersey.com reports that arrest records indicate that a 16-year-old youth who hasn't been identified is being sought in the killing of 27-year-old Elmwood Park resident Dervy Almonte-Moore. Authorities say the victim was delivering pizzas for Jumbo's Pizza in Wallington to a Clifton address shortly after 2 a.m. on July 15. Police believe he was approached by multiple people and shot while attempting to drive away. Police responding to a report of a motor vehicle accident found him in his car with a gunshot wound. Eighteen-year-old Andy DeJesus and 18-year-old Joel Nunez, both from Garfield, were charged earlier with murder, robbery and other offenses. WASHINGTON -- New Jersey officials will try to block President Donald Trump's proposed rollback of automobile mileage and emission standards. "I am committed to challenging this reckless and unlawful action in court," state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said. "We need to be doing more to solve the problem of climate change, not less. This is especially important in New Jersey, where storms and rising sea level will hit us hard. So even as the federal government fails to do its job, we're going to do ours." The proposal announced Thursday by the U.S. Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency would freeze the standards requiring an average of 37 miles per gallon instead of letting them rise to 54.5 miles per gallon in 2026 as originally agreed to by President Barack Obama and the automobile industry. "Our proposal aims to strike the right regulatory balance based on the most recent information and create a 50-state solution that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles that pollute less," EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said. "More realistic standards can save lives while continuing to improve the environment." The 2012 rules came after Obama led the successful federal effort over Republican objections to rescue American car companies in danger of failing during the Great Recession. "This decision is terrible for consumers, imperils public health, and pushes us further toward unchecked climate change amidst an unprecedented global heat wave," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th Dist. the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. New Jersey is one of 13 states that have gone even further than the federal standards and signed on to the more stringent rules crafted by California. Under Trump's proposals, California no longer could get a waiver from the EPA to impose more stringent standards, which it was given the right to do under the Clean Air Act. A report issued last month by Environment New Jersey said that almost every metropolitan area in New Jersey averaged around 90 days a year with elevated levels of soot, smog or other toxics in the air. Relaxing the emission standards could affect New Jersey more than other states because of the heavy traffic just passing through the state en route to other destinations, said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "This affects New Jersey more than any other state because 45 percent of our pollution comes from automobiles," Tittel said "We also get (affected) because we are a corridor state getting pollution from in and out of state that are driving on our turnpikes and other major highways." Seventeen states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia already have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block the federal government's effort to roll back the standards. And the U.S. Climate Alliance, which represents 17 states and territories, including New Jersey, criticized the decision. "Weakening the nation's clean car standards will not only cost Americans more at the pump, but hurt children, senior citizens and people living with respiratory illness, and will impede the ability of our states to meet our own emission reduction targets," the group said in a statement. Since taking office, Gov. Phil Murphy has opposed Trump administration efforts to roll back environmental protections. "New Jersey will use every tool at our disposal to fight misguided efforts by the Trump Administration to roll back federal fuel emissions standards that save New Jersey consumers money, protect the environment, and drive innovation in the transportation sector," Murphy said in April. The state won one last month when the EPA dropped plans to allow super-polluting trucks known as gliders on U.S. highways. New Jersey and other states had sued to block the proposal. Two industry groups, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, issued a statement urging the Trump administration to reach an agreement with California on a uniform standard. "It's time for substantive negotiations to begin," the groups said in a statement. "We urge California and the federal government to find a common sense solution that sets continued increases in vehicle efficiency standards while also meeting the needs of America's drivers." The administration said freezing the standards would save up to 1,000 lives a year now lost in fatal crashes and reduce car prices by an average of $2,340. But the original rule was projected to save Americans more than $8,000 in fuel costs per car in 2025, far more than a higher purchase price. The proposal begins a months-long process in which the administration will seek comments before issuing final regulations. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Alarmed by the sudden prospect of everyone in the U.S. having unlimited access to untraceable, undetectable guns, Democrats in New Jersey's state Senate are urgently moving to ban them. On Tuesday, Defense Distributed -- the online organization that develops downloadable digital firearms files that allow anyone with a 3D printer to sculpt themselves a gun -- agreed to not publish any printable gun codes nationwide until a court challenge from New Jersey's state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and other state attorneys general occurs in September. But Senate Democrats aren't willing to chance the outcome, and tell NJ Advance Media they plan to introduce at least two pieces of legislation that would seek to ban guns made from such downloadable files in New Jersey. "We have to use whatever ability we have prevent this from getting into the wrong hands," said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen. Weinberg said she will introduce legislation next month that would specifically ban domestic abusers from owning firearms. The state already has a law that keeps firearms out of the hands of people deemed a threat to themselves and others in New Jersey. But Weinberg said such untraceable "ghost guns" would be an unacceptable threat for victims of domestic abuse. Meanwhile, state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, will re-introduce a bill calling for their outright ban for the general population. "We need to ban them," said Codey on Tuesday. But Codey said it's not yet clear if the legislation would ban the final "printed" product or even the downloaded plans. The question turns on at what point a 3D gun file becomes an actual firearm: When it's blueprint file is loaded into the printer, or only after it's finished printing. "I don't know," said Codey. "We'd want to reach a consensus on that issue." He will reintroduce his broader "ghost gun" ban bill, which was pre-filed in the last legislative session, and hold hearings on it in the Law and Public Safety committee in September. On Monday, 10 state attorneys general filed suit in federal court in Washington state, seeking a nationwide injunction against Defense Distributed, the Second Amendment Foundation, the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies regulating weapons. At a Newark press conference on Wednesday, Grewal addressed the controversy. "We are not preventing anyone in this state who can lawfully obtain a firearm from obtaining a lawful firearm. What this case is about is public safety," he said. "We are trying to untraceable guns out of the hands of individuals who can not own them." Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. Authorities have located the woman they say picked up a live, potentially rabid bat from the floor of a South Jersey supermarket and took it home. The Elsinboro woman and her family went to The Memorial Hospital of Salem County late Wednesday to seek "medical consultation," according to Salem County Spokeswoman Brenda P. Banks. Banks said the New Jersey State Police at the Woodstown Station, working with staff at the Acme in Pilesgrove Township where the incident took place, were able to track the woman down. Authorities were aggressively searching for the woman because they feared because of the bat's erratic behavior, witnessed by many in the market, it could be rabid. Banks said the county could release no further information on the woman because of medical confidentiality laws so it was unclear whether she and potentially her children had been advised to begin treatment for rabies exposure. "Our main concern was the health and safety of those who came in contact with the bate," Banks said Thursday. Bats are nocturnal mammals and their appearance during daylight hours and erratic behavior can sometimes be a sign they are rabid. Whether the bat was in fact rabid, won't ever be known, officials said. The woman told officials she did what she had planned to do -- take the bat home and release it at dusk. County employees who happened to be shopping in the market Sunday afternoon witnessed the bat in flight and advised a supervisor they should call animal control, officials said. If a human contracts rabies and does not seek treatment it can be fatal, officials say. Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips A member of the New Jersey National Guard used his phone to take photos up women's skirts at a mall in Salt Lake City and later admitted to police that he had also done so in his home state, court documents show. Stephen Glenn Grogan, 41, of Branchville, a National Guardsman who was in Utah for training when the incident occurred in June, was charged with two counts of voyeurism. A woman shopping at the City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City on June 9 said that a man, later identified as Grogan, knelt and put a phone up her skirt "with the camera lens turned upward" without her consent, according to the court documents. The woman told a security officer and together they witnessed Grogan do the same thing to another woman, according to the documents. The woman also posted about her experience on Facebook in June. "On Saturday June 9, 2018, I was at American Eagle at City Creek Mall and this guy came right up and took an upskirt shot of me with his cell phone camera," Merilee Allred Benson said in the post. "I caught him in the act and at first I was so shocked and I second-guessed myself. Then I hung around and Mark & I saw him do it to another woman!" ***UPDATE 6/13/18: Continue to share this post, I'm hearing from more victims who are recognizing him. This guy has a... Posted by Merilee Allred Benson on Saturday, June 9, 2018 On June 11, police were able to identify Grogan and contacted him at Camp Williams, a National Guard training site operated by the Utah National Guard, according to Deseret News. A Utah National Guard spokesman told the Deseret News that Grogan was in the state for training and that the Guard was aware of the situation. Grogan admitted to police that he had "previously taken photos up female's skirts in New Jersey, his home state," according to Deseret News. The report did not specify where he allegedly took the photos in New Jersey. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrsheldon Find NJ.com on Facebook. Authorities in Virginia last weekend searched the former home of a New Jersey woman who went missing in Elizabeth 13 years ago, but didn't uncover any additional clues about her whereabouts. Sherry L. Stout The search was launched after investigators learned Sherry L. Stout's former husband "told someone she could have been buried at the residence," the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said in a statement sent to local media there. Sheriff's officers and Virginia State Police used four K9s and metal detectors and got help from volunteers as they combed over the property in Charlotte County. Stout, then 35 and her 1-year-old daughter were last seen on the 200 block of South Street in Elizabeth on Jan. 13, 2005. The girl was found in June 2009 in the Bronx, N.Y. living with friends of her father, Laquan GIlliam, but there has been no sign of Stout. Police located the girl after receiving a tip from Gilliam, an Elizabeth man who was at the time being held in state prison on drug charges. Before landing in prison, Gilliam asked the family to watch the girl, then 4, for a few days. He never returned as promised and it's not clear how the girl ended up with Gilliam. Stout is 5-foot-3 and weighs 135 pounds. She would now be 49 and remains listed in the national missing persons registry. Elizabeth police declined to comment Thursday, saying it was an active investigation and that they had nothing to release. The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said no one was available to discuss the search. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: businessman L.H. Hayward Sr. The icon: L.H. Hayward Sr. The legacy: Without L.H. Hayward and Co., Mondays just wouldn't be the same in New Orleans. Credit for the idea of first selling red beans in the city goes to Sawyer Hayward, who imported them from the West Indies, where he lived before moving to New Orleans in the 1850s and where it is believed he was first turned on to the glory of the red bean. Credit for the introduction of the company's Camellia brand of beans goes to L.H. Hayward Jr., who named them after his wife's favorite flower. But it was L.H. Hayward Sr. -- son of Sawyer, father of L.H. Hayward Jr. -- who loaned the company his name, taking the reins from his father and steering the business on the path to becoming one of the most noted sellers of what has become a Monday staple in New Orleans, and one of its most beloved (and mouth-watering) culinary traditions. The artist: Jeff Morgan. The quote: "What we produce we want to be proud of. It has our name on it, for one thing." -- Vince Hayward, of L.H. Hayward and Co., in a 2013 interview with The Times-Picayune Explore more of Morgan's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St. Why are red beans served on Monday's in New Orleans? Because Monday was also traditionally the day laundry was done, a time-consuming chore before the advent of electric washing machines. While their hands were occupied with the wash, housewives would put a pot of beans on the stove to simmer and soften. Source: The Times-Picayune archives; staff research More on 300 for 300: Darren Sharper, the former New Orleans Saints player convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting nine women, has renewed efforts to get a reduction in his 18-year federal prison sentence, according to court documents. Sharper's lawyers filed a 52-page memorandum this week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, arguing he was not adequately advised by his trial lawyers on the consequences of his 2016 guilty plea. That plea came after a judge rejected a nine-year sentence that was called for in his initial plea deal. Sharper, 40, pleaded guilty or no contest in May 2015 to charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted nine women in California, Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana. It included Sharper pleading guilty to raping three women in two New Orleans incidents between August and September of 2013. The plea deal originally sentenced Sharper to a nine-year federal prison term, but U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo rejected the deal in February 2016. Under the second plea agreement, Sharper was sent to jail for 18 years and expected to cooperate with the federal investigation involving his accomplices, Brandon Licciardi and Erik Nunez, who pleaded guilty to charges related to the New Orleans attacks. The second agreement conforms with federal sentencing guidelines that recommend 188 to 235 months for the drug conspiracy and distribution violations to which he admitted guilt. The new memorandum argues that Sharper was misled into accepting the second plea deal and pleaded guilty without "knowing fully what rights he was losing or what consequences he was facing" due to ineffective trial counsel. Defense attorney Billy Gibbens represented Sharper in the agreements. Gibbens did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This is the second time Sharper has attempted to appeal the sentencing. In May 2017, Sharper's lawyers contended that U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo did not adequately explain the consequences of Sharper's guilty plea. A federal appears court dismissed his appeal. A Harvey man accused of trying to set fire to a French Quarter residential building was arrested Wednesday (Aug. 1) while "creating a minor disturbance" at a French Quarter business, according to state fire officials. Nicholas Layburn, 29, was booked with aggravated arson -- and criminal damage to property after officials say he broke a camera in the police car while en route to jail. The attempted arson occurred Friday afternoon and was captured on surveillance camera, according to the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office. Video captured the arsonist, later identified as Layburn, pouring a liquid from a red fuel can onto a stack of bricks outside a building in the 900 block of Governor Nicholls Street, state fire officials said. In the video, the man identified as Layburn crosses the street and then returns to the stack of bricks -- and "a bright flash of flames then appears," state fire officials said. The man stands and watches the flames until firefighters approach. At that point, he flees southbound on Dauphine Street. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The New Orleans Fire Department was able to quickly extinguish the fire, and no damage occurred, state fire officials said. Layburn was identified as a suspect through public tips generated by images of the arson suspect, which were released Tuesday to local news media. Officers arrested Layburn at a business in the 300 block of Chartres Street, where Layburn was creating a "minor disturbance." State fire officials did not provide details on the disturbance. According to the state fire marshal's office, Layburn could face additional charges as New Orleans police are in the process of reviewing unrelated crimes possibly involving Layburn. The Harvey man has prior convictions in Orleans Parish for obscenity and theft of goods stemming from an October 2016 arrest. He pleaded guilty to those charges in July 2017 and was sentenced to six months in jail, with credit for time served, Orleans Parish court records show. The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office is asking a judge to set higher bonds for four out-of-town men charged in connection with separate beatings in the French Quarter and CBD this week. Joshua Neely, 25; Shawn D. Miller, 24; William Cody, 26; and Richard Gum, 17, were charged Wednesday (Aug. 1) in a bill of information with second-degree battery and simple robbery, court records show. They are accused of beating two men in separate incidents Monday night, and posted bonds totaling $650 Wednesday. One of the victims was beaten and kicked so severely he had to be treated at a hospital. District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said his office plans to argue for "a more appropriate bond" at a hearing Monday in Judge Ben Willard's courtroom. "Our community will not tolerate unprovoked, violent attacks upon our citizens such as the ones of which these four out-of-state individuals are accused," he said. "When a victim has been so severely beaten and kicked that hospitalization is required, our magistrate commissioners ought to take into account the seriousness of the charge, the danger the defendants pose to other members of our community, and the probability they will show up in court as required." According to a report filed by NOPD Officer Harry Parker, a 32-year-old man from Westwego was sitting in his car with his girlfriend in the 100 block of Bourbon Street around 9 p.m. when Neely banged his hand on the rear spoiler. The man got out and asked why Neely hit his car, according to Parker's report. Then, Gum punched him in the face, the report said. Gum continued to throw punches after the man fell to the ground, the report said. The victim temporarily lost consciousness, then Neely and one other man joined in, punching and kicking the victim, according to the report. Parker's report said when he approached the victim, he was "semi-conscious," his face was swollen and he couldn't talk because his left jaw was swollen. The man was treated at a local hospital for his injuries. The victim's girlfriend told police she tried to help her boyfriend, but one of the men threw a drink on her. The man pushed her upper body and told her to get away, according to the report. The report lists "Cody Gum" as the man who threw the drink and pushed the woman. It was not immediately clear whether the report was referring to William Cody or Richard Gum. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The men fled the scene. Parker's report said he was alerted to another victim in the 200 block of Carondelet Street who had his cell phone stolen and was beaten by four men who approached him as he was smoking a cigarette on a bench. The man told police the suspects started a conversation with him, and Gum grabbed his cell phone that was next to him on the bench. The man told Gum to give his phone back, the NOPD report said, and the four men punched him. Gum then fled with the cell phone. Downtown Development District Ranger Michael Weaver gave chase and saw the phone fall out of Gum's back pocket, according to the report. He apprehended Gum in a parking lot in the 400 block of O'Keefe Avenue, according to the report. A witness to both incidents corroborated the victims' statements, according to police, and the victims positively identified the four men as their attackers. Court records show Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman set $350 bonds for the simple battery, theft, second-degree battery and simple robbery charges the men were arrested on at a hearing Wednesday. On a second set of second-degree battery charges, Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux set a $350 bond for all of the men except Miller. Court records do not show a second-degree battery arrest for Miller. It wasn't immediately clear whether the men had attorneys. The Orleans Public Defenders office was appointed to represent them at their initial appearances in magistrate court, but records show that appointment only would last while they were in jail. Arrest records list Neely's address as Hixson, Tenn., Miller's as Lake Ozark, Mo., Cody's as Franklin, Il. And Gum's address as Carlinville, Il. CORRECTION: This story previously incorrectly said Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell set $350 bonds. A French Quarter shooting that left a 30-year-old man dead early Thursday morning (Aug. 2) appeared to be sparked by a dispute between former co-workers, New Orleans police said. Police were able to quickly apprehend the shooter, who remained on scene holding his weapon. Police were called to the shooting at 3:10 a.m. outside Attiki Bar & Grill near the intersection of Bienville and Decatur streets and officers were on scene by 3:11 a.m., 8th District Commander Nicholas Gernon said during a press conference. Officers arrived to find the man suffering from a gunshot wound. The man later died at the hospital. Gernon called the shooting "really unfortunate," but emphasized "by all accounts it appears to be some sort of workplace dispute." An initial investigation indicated the shooting happened after the two men -- one an employee at a nearby bar and the other a former employee -- got into an argument on the street outside the establishment, Gernon said. He said the shooter went to a nearby vehicle, grabbed a gun and shot the victim. Police did not name the bar where the two men worked. NOPD apprehended the suspected shooter, James Nero, 21, at the scene. He will be charged with second-degree murder. Detectives are also investigating a possible accomplice who arrived at the scene in a SUV. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Gernon said the entire incident was captured by NOPD's real-time crime cameras, which investigators are reviewing. He added detectives are also seeking any witnesses and additional surveillance video that can give a clearer picture of what happened. Homicide Detective Sarah Cherny is in charge of the investigation into the murder, which is the first homicide of 2018 in NOPD's 8th District, which polices the French Quarter, Central Business District and Faubourg Marigny. It is the seventh fatal shooting in New Orleans in the past two weeks. The press conference occurred at the 8th District Police Station at 334 Royal Street in the middle of the French Quarter. Before Gernon began speaking, a street performer crooned Louis Armstrong melodies and the hymn "Amazing Grace" on the sidewalk outside the station as clouds threatened to downpour. Check back with NOLA.com for more on this story. The man who fatally shot his former coworker outside Attiki Bar & Grill in the French Quarter was handed a gun by a man in a nearby SUV, according to the owner of a nearby business. The owner described a scene, caught on surveillance videos in the area, that lasted no longer than ten minutes and ended with a 30-year-old man bleeding in the middle of Decatur Street and ultimately dying at a local hospital. The business owner, who asked not to be named out of concern for her safety, said she heard gunshots and called 911, and later reviewed her own surveillance camera's footage to see what happened. The video showed, she said, that at about 3:04 a.m. Thursday (August 2), a GMC SUV parked near the intersection of Bienville and Decatur streets. Minutes later, the SUV's driver handed a gun to a man who just exited the Attiki Bar. The man placed the gun in his waistband, while the driver continued to loiter in the area, she said. Another man then left the bar and tried to punch the armed man in the middle of the street. The armed man pulled his gun from his waistband and shot the 30-year-old once, the business owner said. A woman ran into the frame and applied pressure to the injured man's neck. All the while, the man who arrived in the SUV and handed the shooter the gun, lingered sitting on the hood of his SUV as the chaos unfolded, the business owner said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Police arrived at the scene around 3:11 a.m. to find the man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to the hospital where he later died, according to NOPD. However, the nearby business owner described the aftermath of the shooting as "the oddest thing." After striking the 30-year-old, the shooter placed the gun down in the middle of the road and stood there. The man atop the SUV also made no attempt to flee. While police ultimately apprehend the alleged shooter, James Nero, 21, the man on the SUV was not apprehended. The business owner said the man arrived the next morning and retrieved his SUV without a problem. "I've been in this city for many, many years and witnessed a lot of shootings. This was by far the weirdest one," said the business owner. In a Thursday morning press conference, NOPD's 8th District Commander Nicholas Gernon said the two men were former coworkers who got into an argument on the street outside the Attiki Bar. The two men were arguing about what time the bar should close, according to court documents. As for the man atop the nearby SUV, Gernon said police are investigating whether or not Nero had any accomplices in the homicide. Gernon said the entire incident was captured by NOPD's real-time crime cameras, which investigators are reviewing. Gernon said police are aware of a person who pulled up at the scene in a vehicle and said they've spoken to that person, declining to comment further. The incident marks the first homicide of the year in the 8th District, which covers the French Quarter, Central Business District and Faubourg Marigny. However, it is the seventh shooting homicide citywide within two weeks, in addition to the homicides of two people whose bodies were found burned in Algiers. Since July 22, 34 people have been shot, including 4 young children, in seventeen different shootings. Thousands of families in Louisiana seeking child care assistance will now be given financial aid after Congress agreed to provide additional one-time funding to the state, officials announced Wednesday (Aug. 1). The Louisiana Department of Education stated the names of 4,500 children statewide are being removed from the waiting list for the Child Care Assistance Program. The CCAP is intended to provide low-income families access to high-quality child care when parents are working or attending school. It is Louisiana's only state-administered program for early care and education for children under age four. Families eligible to be taken off the waitlist will receive notification electronically or by mail, according to an LDOE news release. Those families will get access to child care with CCAP funding in the week following Labor Day at the earliest, officials stated. The federal Office of Child Care will offer states additional money from the federal Child Care Development Fund grant after Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. Louisiana now has $39 million to expand the number of available seats at child care centers. The funding will also expand infant and toddler-focused programs, as well as initiatives to improve the quality of care, the LDOE stated. Approximately $28 million of Louisiana's one-time funding may directly benefit CCAP, the LDOE stated. The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children Wednesday stated this new federal funding is the first increase to Louisiana's CCAP program in nine years. Funding cuts have decreased CCAP enrollment from almost 40,000 children in 2007 to 17,000 in 2017. The program currently serves more than 14,600 children. The LDOE stated 2,500 children will remain on the waiting list. That means 70 percent of the 607 New Orleans children on the CCAP waitlist will be removed, according to the Education Department. The waitlist in the Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes will also be reduced by 70 percent and 77 percent, respectively. The state expects the number of children on the CCAP waitlist to return to at least 7,000 once the one-time funds are spent. Officials stated it would cost nearly $16 million, about $6,300 per child, to completely clear the waitlist for one year. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The Policy Institute for Children stated the CCAP will be serving only 20,000 children, which is roughly half the number served by CCAP nine years ago. A total of 140,000 low-income children under age four still lack access to CCAP funding. In a statement, institute executive director Melanie Bronfin said state funding cuts have forced the program to serve far fewer children than it did a decade ago. Louisiana is currently serving 56,588 at-risk children through various federal and state funds, but state data from October 2017 shows there are nearly 200,000 at-risk children from birth to age five. This means 70 percent more at-risk children remain eligible for assistance, the LDOE stated. In a statement, State Superintendent John White said they "are grateful" for the one-time funding, but he stressed it's only "a small portion" of the funding needed to help Louisiana's children. Brofin's institute and Jonathan Pearce, President of the Child Care Association of Louisiana, urged lawmakers to increase and prioritize funding for CCAP. . . . . . . . Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. Mardi Gras season in Metairie would lose one parade but gain another, a new krewe organized by longtime float builder Mac Cantrell Jr., according to applications for 2019 permits. Cantrell's Krewe of Kings wants to parade on Feb. 24, the Sunday of Family Gras weekend 10 days before Fat Tuesday. Parade applications for next year's Carnival and other events were due in the Jefferson Parish Citizens Affairs Department last week. As expected, the Corps de Napoleon, which historically rolls on the Sunday before Mardi Gras, did not seek a permit after 38 years of parading. The Krewe of Kings has about 180 members, both men and women, and is seeking more, Cantrell said. It plans to present 17 floats with a royalty theme in 2019. "After that we might switch to satire," Cantrell said Wednesday (Aug. 1). "We're off to a good start." Political satire is a hallmark of a few New Orleans krewes but would be something new for a Jefferson parade, where Carnival has been in flux for about 20 years. West Jefferson krewes have folded or abandoned the Algiers-Terrytown and Gretna routes in favor of Uptown New Orleans. East Jefferson krewes regularly die or arise as parish officials seek to revive the celebration. In Metairie, one thought is to change the parade route. Another is to concentrate parades on the Family Gras weekend, largely ceding the final weekend of Carnival to New Orleans. Cantrell, 69, has a long history with parades, having founded the Krewe of Thor in 1974 and served as its captain for four decades. Thor quit parading in Metairie after 2013. "When we first started, Metairie was booming and everything in New Orleans was dying. We had 700 members," he said. "Now it's the reverse." His father, McKinley Cantrell Sr., started building and decorating floats more than a half-century ago and was captain of the Krewe of Mardi Gras, which paraded in Metairie before 1994. His son, Mackie Cantrell III, also is involved in the family company, which supplies floats to eight southeast Louisiana parades. The permit applications are subject to approval from parish government. Except for the St. Patrick's parade, for which no application has been filed, here is a list of organizations that have applied for 2019 parade permits: . . . . . . . CORRECTION: An earlier version of the table presented with this story incorrectly said the Irish-Italian parade rolls on Metairie Road. Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and Louisiana interests in Congress, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach. The exercise is as old as the Republic, but the first thing you need to understand about redistricting is that hot-water cornbread is as ubiquitous in north Louisiana as etouffee is in the south, says Rick Gallot, the Ruston Democratic representat Members of several Catholic groups are uniting their efforts in New Orleans as they push to strengthen the case for canonizing five African Americans, including the city's own Venerable Henriette Delille. The new coalition held one of its first meetings Tuesday (July 31) at the St. Katharine Drexel Chapel on Xavier University of Louisiana's campus. Xavier and its Institute for Black Catholic Studies hosted more than 80 Catholics who are dedicated to elevating five candidates for sainthood, including Delille. The group of candidates also includes: The Venerable Pierre Toussaint Members of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Black Sisters Conference, the National Black Catholic Seminarians Association, and the National Association of Black Catholic Deacons filled the chapel Tuesday to advocate for the five candidates. Those involved in the effort say their causes are important for all people -- including people of color -- who long for a relatable role model. Most know the names and faces of those whose deaths or lives sparked today's civil rights and social movements. Rev. A. Gerard Jordan, the diocesan postulator for Tolton's cause, said that's not the case for these five people who lived in the late 18th Century and the 19th Century. "You don't remember Pierre or Henriette or Father Augustus because they've been forgotten about," Jordan said, speaking after the conference. "They've been hidden, and something's wrong about that." Toussaint was taken from Haiti, enslaved and brought to New York City to work as a hairdresser, where he eventually was able to keep his earnings and buy his freedom. Many scholars, including Jordan, view Toussaint as the "father" of Catholic Charities, which is considered the largest social service provider nationwide after the federal government. Delille founded the Holy Family Sisters, an order of nuns committed to caring for the city's elderly, poor and sick. Jordan said Delille's order essentially started the nursing home system in the nation. The Holy Family order also taught people who were unable to get an education in a segregated society. Lange, another person formally enslaved, founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore. The order educated black children and gave black women an opportunity to enter religious life. Tolton, a Missouri native considered among many to be America's first black priest, traveled to Rome for his priestly training because no U.S. seminary would accept him. His ministry at home attracted white congregants, and he eventually moved to Chicago and founded St. Monica's, the city's first black Roman Catholic parish. Greeley, who is viewed as "Denver's Angel of Charity," was born into slavery in Missouri. She lost her right eye as a child after a slavemaster hit her while he was beating Greeley's mother. Greeley became a housekeeper for white families in several states after being freed by Missouri's 1865 Emancipation Act. She eventually entered a Catholic church in Denver and joined the Secular Franciscan Order, where she worked to serve the poor until her death in 1918. The Roman Catholic Church does not have any African American saints, though there are several saints of African descent. The process to sainthood itself can take years, if not decades, because candidates must be vetted through four major steps, according to the Catholic Education Resource Center. Lange, Tolton and Greeley have passed the first level of the approval process, which requires a bishop to ask the Vatican for permission to open a tribunal to determine if a candidate should be named a "servant of God." A candidate is declared venerable when the Vatican is convinced, after studying the historical record, that they lived a life of "heroic virtue." Toussaint and Delille have both been formally declared venerable, Toussaint by Pope John Paul II in 1996 and Delille by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Beatification is the third level that requires martyrdom or documentation of a miracle. Canonization requires documentation of a second miracle. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are also expected to approve efforts to put Thea Bowman, who both taught at Xavier and helped to create the first African American hymnal, on the path to sainthood. Xavier President Reynold Verret said Thursday the university is committed to celebrating Bowman if she's officially deemed a "servant of God." To that end, Xavier is working to create a national resource center to serve as a sort of hub for the various sainthood efforts. The center will help gather scholarly research focused on the lives of the candidates, as well as that of Xavier foundress St. Katharine Drexel and St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Verret said Xavier's standing as the only historically black and Catholic university in the nation makes it the ideal host for such an effort. He also said it fits with the school's mission to serve the community. For too long, the achievements of African Americans and other people of color have been overlooked or left out of historical record entirely, he said. He considers the effort to teach the public about the lesser-known Catholics "a mass education" campaign. "It's about telling the truth," Verret said. . . . . . . . Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles. Two Air Force cargo planes left South Korea for Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii on Wednesday carrying 55 flag-draped crates that are thought to contain the remains of American troops lost during the Korean War. The bones, which were turned over by the North Korean government after a meeting in June between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, are bound for a forensic laboratory run by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Honolulu, for testing that may finally offer answers to families that have been waiting for 65 years or more. I was a kid who would run to the phone and the mailbox every day, hoping there was some news about my dad it never came, said John Zimmerlee, 69, whose father was a navigator in a B-26 bomber that was shot down over Korea in 1952. But if past efforts to identify remains returned by the secretive dictatorship are any indication, experts say, it will be no simple task to put names to any of the latest batch, and the job may never be entirely completed. Paul Manafort was once President Trumps campaign manager. By the fall of 2018, he was expected to face at least a decade in prison for 10 felony counts. Those counts included financial fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr. Manafort is disappointed of not getting acquittals all the way through. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. In the hopes of getting a more lenient punishment, Manafort agreed to fully cooperate with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Now, federal prosecutors are saying he violated his plea deal by repeatedly lying during their investigation. Manaforts lawyer also allegedly passed information to President Trumps legal team. But this isnt Manaforts first scandal. Controversy has trailed the veteran Republican adviser since his earliest work as an international lobbyist and consultant. In the 1980s, Manafort testified before Congress and admitted to using his political influence to win millions of dollars in contracts from federal low-income housing programs. The technical term for what we do and what law firms, associations and professional groups do is lobbying. For purposes of today, I will admit that in a narrow sense some people might term it influence peddling. That same decade, Manafort advised the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, on improving his image in the U.S. Manafort allegedly received $10 million in cash from a Marcos confidante. It was apparently money intended for Ronald Reagans presidential campaign. But the campaign said it never received that money. Foreign contributions to U.S. presidential elections are illegal. Also in the 1980s, Manafort was linked to the prime minister of the Bahamas at a time when the island nation had alleged ties to drug traffickers. Manaforts company said that the goal of its work was to help the Bahamas obtain more U.S. aid to help curb the drug smuggling. Decades later, Manafort would run Trumps presidential campaign. We want America to understand who Donald Trump the man is. Not just Donald Trump the candidate. The composite of his career. Not just from a business standpoint or a political standpoint, from a human standpoint as well. But he resigned five months into the job in August 2016, in the wake of reports that he received more than $12 million from Viktor Yanukovich, the former Ukrainian president and pro-Russia politician. Yanukovich and his political party relied on advice from Manafort and his firm, which helped them win several elections. The Times uncovered that Manafort and others close to Trump met with the Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016. That lawyer claimed to have damaging political information about Hillary Clinton. As for this latest brush with controversy, Manaforts lawyers insist that their client has been truthful. But they acknowledge that Manafort and Muellers team are at an impasse. Several of the presidents friends one of them a billionaire owner of a chain of grocery stores said they cannot recall Mr. Trump ever doing his own grocery shopping. John A. Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristedes Foods, a chain of small grocery stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, said in an interview that he has known the president for 40 years, but cannot recall a time when Mr. Trump entered one of his stores. I wouldnt know, Mr. Catsimatidis said. I dont have any pictures with him in Gristedes. Thomas J. Barrack Jr., another billionaire friend of the presidents, was blunt when asked if Mr. Trump ever did his own grocery shopping. No, Mr. Barrack said in a text complete with a smiley face emoji. Mr. Barrack, a financier, did not respond to a follow-up question about how he got his own groceries. Mr. Catsimatidis said that he knew Mr. Trump as a homebody who preferred to host associates in the comfort of a Trump Tower boardroom rather than go out to dinner. When he did dine out, Mr. Catsimatidis said, Mr. Trump was often in the company of one or two bodyguards, perhaps making him too conspicuous for the express lane at Whole Foods on 57th Street between Second and Third Avenues, four blocks from Trump Tower. Mr. Trump has, at the very least, shown that he knows his way around a shopping cart. Last December, the president was photographed as he nudged a cart around a food distribution center in Utah, pointing at his bounty with a can you believe this look on his face and a grin before setting off through the facility. I like this question, because I like any question that seems to come out of the blue. What we knew is that The Washington Post reported that President Trump actually tried to get Dan Coats to pressure the F.B.I. to shut down its investigation. But we didnt know anything that suggested there was something going on behind the scenes when the special counsel showed up to interview these three senior intelligence officials. So it really makes me wonder: Does Bob Mueller know something? Does he have some indication that something went on behind the scenes? Or is this just kind of an open-ended question? It seems far more likely that Bob Mueller thinks theres a reason for lifting up this rock. This question is toward the bottom of the list, but it gets at the heart of Robert Muellers investigation. His mandate is to look at Russian election interference and whether the Trump campaign was complicit. Weve already seen evidence that a Trump campaign adviser was told that the Russians had compromising emails about Hillary Clinton. This question gets at whether the candidate himself knew. President Trump has said repeatedly to the public that there is no collusion. Theres been no collusion. No collusion. No collusion whatsoever with Russia. Will he say the same thing when hes asked by federal investigators? Well see. Well, if you remember, President Trump met with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, inside the White House. And during their meeting he told the Russian ambassador, quote: I think this question stands out to me because it really goes to the heart of this case. Did President Trump try to end the Russia investigation into whether any of his associates colluded with that country by firing James Comey. This question cuts at one of the most sacred powers the president has: the ability to pardon someone. But in this case, was the president using that power as a way of stopping his former national security adviser from cooperating with Mr. Muellers investigation? But ZTEs future began looking dubious in mid-April, when the Commerce Department banned the company from buying any American products for seven years as punishment for lying about efforts to resolve the issues that led to the sanctions violation. The ban threatened to cripple ZTEs global telecommunications business and put Chinese employees out of work, a huge embarrassment for President Xi Jinping of China. ZTE quickly retained Hogan Lovells, whose lead lobbyist was Norm Coleman, the former senator of Minnesota, according to congressional lobbying filings. Hogan Lovells spearheaded the congressional lobbying and also handled legal aspects, including negotiations with the Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security, according to people familiar with the lobbying push. Using its subsidiary, ZTE USA, the company paid Hogan Lovells $1.28 million through the end of June, the period covered by the most recent filings, to lobby the White House, Congress, the Commerce Department and the Treasury Department on national security concerns and other issues related to the sanctions. Because Hogan Lovells lobbying was done through ZTEs American entity, its lobbyists were only required to file disclosures with Congress that revealed relatively little about their activities. By contrast, companies representing foreign clients are required to complete more detailed filings with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Through Hogan Lovells, ZTE also retained the services of the lobbying and public relations firm Mercury Public Affairs, which relied on a former Trump campaign and transition official to lobby officials in the White House and Commerce Department. Mercury registered its lobbying with the Justice Department, explaining in its filings that the work done under this arrangement may inure to the benefit of the Peoples Republic of China. The filings reveal that the firm was paid $75,000 a month for three months to engage in work such as setting up meetings with U.S. government officials related to U.S. sanctions on the foreign principal. The fate of the telecom company seemed to improve in May, after Mr. Xi made a personal appeal to Mr. Trump on its behalf and Mr. Trump, concerned about relations with China, promised publicly to help. On June 7, the Commerce Department said it had reached a deal to rescind the sanctions in exchange for ZTE paying a $1.4 billion penalty, replacing its senior executives and embedding a team of compliance officers who were answerable to the American government. LOS ANGELES The board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles may have voted unanimously this week to hire Klaus Biesenbach from MoMA PS1 as its new director, replacing Philippe Vergne, who resigned in May. But so far theres been little consensus outside the boardroom about his selection. Mr. Biesenbachs supporters here maintain he has the vision and skill set to help MOCA reinvent yet again to become a more compelling destination backed by more committed donors. The museum, which averted financial collapse a decade ago, currently has a $125 million endowment but no chief curator and a long-ineffective board. Just one example of the dysfunction that Mr. Vergne couldnt escape: last year, its board co-chair Maurice Marciano started his own competing museum across town. Maybe Klaus can do for MOCA what Michael Govan did for Lacma, said Nicolas Berggruen, a trustee of that museum, pointing to Mr. Govans rebuilding of his board and his reinvention of a sleepy campus into a popular destination. Mr. Biesenbach understands art, artists and cities and he understands museums from both sides, institutional and entrepreneurial. MOCA has a great collection and history but in other ways it is like a new start-up. Deborah McLeod, director of the Gagosian Beverly Hills gallery, called the hire radically good news. Referring to Mr. Biesenbachs experience managing the staff and board at PS1, she added, MOCA needs this level of organizational leadership and vision. Its really the caliber of appointment we were all hoping for. Over my many years of reviewing, Ive often been asked for advice from newcomers to classical music, people excited by what theyve heard, and eager to hear and to learn more. Naturally, I urge those exploring classical music to find out whatever they can. Yet Ive found that many people assume that knowledge of the art form is a prerequisite to appreciation. Newcomers to other performing arts, like theater or dance, dont seem to feel this level of intimidation. Id encourage those who are curious to just go to a performance and see what they think. A symphony orchestra program or an opera, or a piano recital is not an exam. Its an escape, an adventure, an enrichment. Still, let me offer a bit of advice, by answering some of the questions Ive received. What exactly is classical music, and what differentiates it from other musical genres? Ah, that inevitable question. Labels can be problematic in any field; classical music especially so. One complication is that music history refers to the years from roughly 1750 to 1825 as the classical period, when Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven achieved their glory. But in a broader sense the term classical music has been adopted as a way to describe the continuing heritage of music mostly written to be performed in concert halls and opera houses by orchestras, singers, choruses, chamber ensembles and solo instrumentalists. Another characteristic is that composers in this tradition have been drawn to larger, structured forms. Still, the term is far from ideal, but no one has come up with a good alternative yet. Noname at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Margot, Whats the Plan? They say 2018 is the year of the female rapper, and I think they are spot on. While Cardi B is staking out territory on the charts, Tierra Whack, Princess Nokia, Yaeji and many others are producing exciting new work. So its no wonder that the poet-rapper Noname is considered one of the crown jewels of this years BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn lineup, playing the Prospect Park Bandshell this Friday night. Originally from Chicago, Fatimah Warner who records as Noname first dipped into music with appearances on tracks with her friends Chance the Rapper, Saba, Kirk Knight and Mick Jenkins. Then in 2016, Noname made, well, a name for herself, releasing Telefone, a hip-hop album of her life told through a series of phone conversations. Shes known for her ambling, conversational flow and for kicking around heavy subjects like abortion and gun violence in a light, almost childlike voice, often over gospel-driven chord progressions. If were lucky, maybe well hear some new tracks off her forthcoming album, Room 25. So bring along your friends, a picnic and blankets to spread in the back (you can always approach the stage on foot if you want a closer view). The one thing youll want to leave to the venue is alcohol, since youre not allowed to bring your own. Youre about to catch one of the years most exciting acts, for free, under a canopy of leaves strung with tiny lights. Yep, thats why you live here. Or at least, thats why I do. See you there. This fall at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, visitors will have the opportunity to hear Renee Fleming talk about music, see a preview of Akram Khans Giselle and witness the reconstruction of a lost dance solo by Jerome Robbins as part of the museums Works & Process season. Ms. Fleming will discuss the music in the film adaptation of Ann Patchetts Bel Canto with the films composer, David Majzlin, and two of the producers (Sept. 16). In the film, she provides the singing voice for Roxane Coss, a famous soprano who finds herself caught up in a hostage crisis in an unspecified South American country. To celebrate Jerome Robbinss centennial, the Pacific Northwest Ballet will perform male solos choreographed by Robbins, including one that he created for Peter Boal, that companys artistic director. The solo, cut from Ives, Songs, has never been seen live. (Oct. 2 and 3.) Highlights of Akram Khans Giselle will be danced on Nov. 11 before the acclaimed production makes its American debut at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago in 2019. Tamara Rojo, the artistic director and the lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet, and three company dancers will perform excerpts from the piece, Mr. Khans first featuring dancers on point. Mr. Khan and Ms. Rojo will also discuss the work. WELCOME TO LAGOS By Chibundu Onuzo 293 pp. Catapult. $26. Certain cities New York, London, Paris, Berlin are commonly associated with the drama of self-exploration. Their stories, at the center of countless novels, plays and films, are familiar, their terrain well-worn. In comparison, postcolonial cities feel fresh, the landscape of their literary and artistic production ripe with potential. And with that their narratives continue to change, not just in how they are told but in who does the telling and to whom. Welcome to Lagos, the American debut of Chibundu Onuzo, a Nigerian writer whose previous novel, The Spider Kings Daughter, won Britains Betty Trask Award, offers an earnest though at times frustratingly frenetic portrait of Nigerias sprawling metropolis. The book opens in the Niger Delta, with an army officer, Chike Ameobi, and his friend Pvt. Yemi Oke, who are tired of killing civilians in the name of an obscure national mission. Chike is a serious man with a rigid morality underlying his mildness; despite his self-proclaimed agnosticism, he finds solace in the Bible. Yemi, on the other hand, remains a mystery for much of the novel and his quiet demeanor is often mistaken for stupidity. During yet another violent raid on a village, the two men abandon their posts and head for Lagos. On the way, they encounter Fineboy, a clever young man obsessed with honing his radio voice; a recently orphaned young woman named Isoken; and Oma, who is running from her abusive husband and oppressive life. The five form a kind of family, each hoping to fashion a different, if not altogether new, life. Image Lagos comes most alive early in the novel, when survival is the groups only concern. Their walks through the streets, attempts to find jobs and search for makeshift lodging give Onuzo an opportunity to provide colorful commentary on the city. The crews first home, under a bridge, offers a view of hawkers who sauntered by, holding their wares to passing traffic while traders sat beside fresh fruit and vegetables, waiting for customers to beckon, and thin, agile conductors who hang from moving minibuses, calling for passengers. A near accident with a motorcycle snaps Chike out of a daydream and reminds him that Lagos would kill you if you wasted time on yesterday. Nostalgia is a luxury he cant afford. Ive seen the soldiers and the trucks of the soldiers theyre holding guns. It wasnt supposed to be like this. People have been beaten by the soldiers. Some of our guys have been killed. This was supposed to be the moment that proved that Zimbabwe was moving on from its oppressive past. Instead, city streets look like this, with soldiers opening fire on protesters and leaving at least three people dead only days after an election. Its not safe, its not safe the soldiers, they are coming, that side. Reporter: O.K. Oh, we should go? Lets go. So what happened? Heres what we saw. This is Harare, the capital, two days earlier. Polls are about to open, but the lines are already long. Voters are peaceful and excited. I woke up early in the morning. I didnt have time to bathe today because I was really eager to come and vote. This is the first election in decades without the name of Zimbabwes longtime leader, Robert Mugabe, on the ballot. A military coup in November forced Mugabe out, raising hopes that the system he put in place would also go away. For a while, violence subsided, and people talked more openly, allowing someone like Vincent to show his support for the opposition. People were not free to express our feelings, like we are doing right now. So now voting is something that we are doing willingly. Today Ive exercised my right. Im very happy. We drive east, away from the city. We see fewer signs of support for the opposition. Rural areas are traditional strongholds for the ruling party, mostly because of years of intimidation and vote rigging. We saw people walk miles to reach their polling centers. Unlike in previous elections, this time the ruling party promised transparency. And to convince the world, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ruling party candidate who replaced Mugabe after the coup, invited international observers. But in these rural villages, we didnt see any of those observers. Instead, we saw this: This man is camped outside a polling station, writing down the names of everyone coming to vote. Its an old strategy that could mean food and fertilizer for those on his list or retribution for those who are not. His name is Norman. When confronted, he shows us his list and quickly starts to explain that hes part of a larger group, mobilized by the ruling party, spread across multiple villages. Police and election officials watch. So this is the complaint. They dont try to stop him, but they ask us to stop shooting. Off the camera, yes we can talk off the camera. Reporter: Well turn it off. Its the next day and markets reopen, while people wait for official results. But they dont come. Optimism turns to unease, with growing concerns that the vote count will not be fair. In a preemptive move, Nelson Chamisa, the leading opposition candidate takes to social media and claims victory. Hours later, he deletes this tweet. But its too late. Hundreds of his supporters take to the streets to celebrate in front of the party headquarters. Wednesday morning, still no winner. In the meantime, officials announce a sweeping parliamentary victory for the ruling party and international observers release statements criticizing the election. Protests form, peaceful at first. But quickly escalate. Soldiers and army tanks deploy, hunting down opposition supporters. In just over 48 hours, we watched as a hopeful city was overtaken by fear and now is bracing for the announcement of who the next president will be. Increasing investor concern about tariffs has hit stocks in recent weeks. Shares of Whirlpool, Alcoa and General Motors tumbled after the companies warned of the financial hit from the higher costs related in part to the Trump administrations tariffs on steel and aluminum. So far, the tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the United States and China have had little impact on Sonos, the company said. But as trade tensions ramp up, Sonos looks particularly vulnerable. Like most American consumer electronics, the speakers sold by Sonos are made in China and, for that reason, could be included in the proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods that the White House released last month. A final decision on the size and scope of the tariffs is not expected before September. In its filing with the S.E.C. ahead of its I.P.O., Sonos warned that tariffs were a potential risk to anyone buying its shares: If the tariff list remains unaltered, all of our inbound products to the United States would be subject to a 10 percent tariff assessed on the cost of goods as imported. If these duties are imposed on our products, we may be required to raise our prices, which may result in the loss of customers and harm our operating performance. Alternatively, we may seek to shift production outside of China, resulting in significant costs and disruption to our operations. The possible hit to Sonoss bottom line could be even worse. The New York Times reported this week that the White House was considering more than doubling the proposed tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent. Of course, the trade worries only add to the list of more traditional investor concerns. The company, which started life as a multiroom speaker maker, has more recently ridden the wave of smart speakers. That has put the company in the position of both teaming up and competing with heavyweights like Amazon, Google and Apple. FRANKFURT Higher prices. Disrupted supply chains. Wavering exports. Those are some of the ways that some of Europes biggest companies have been affected by President Trumps trade war, offering a preview of how tensions in global commerce could begin to ripple through the European economy. As companies like BMW, Siemens and Volkswagen reported otherwise solid earnings this week, they warned that Mr. Trumps aggressive stance on trade presented them with a host of new risks, which may already be acting as a drag on growth. The presidents tariffs have not just raised the costs of materials like steel, they have also diverted trade worldwide and warped the complex global supply systems that businesses rely on. Here in Europe, there are signs of strain, which, along with risks ranging from Britains withdrawal from the European Union to the excessive debt loads of Italy and Greece, are piling pressure on the regions economy. Beyond the direct effect of Mr. Trumps policies, surveys in both the United States and Europe show that businesses are nervous about the fragile detente reached in late July between Mr. Trump and the region he had referred to only a few weeks earlier as a foe. When managers are afraid, they may cancel or delay investments in new equipment or expansion, hurting companies like Siemens, the German industrial goods giant, whose products include technology to operate factories or manage buildings. Lt. Saul Rodriguez, the public information officer of the Santa Monica Police Department, said he knew of three or four serious scooter injuries that he believed would require long-term treatment. Thats if they ever recover, he said. Knock on wood, nobody has died. The imminent return of the electric scooters to San Francisco, even in smaller numbers and in a limited one-year pilot, puts pressure on the doctors and public health professionals working on a taxonomy of e-vehicle types, sorting out shared and not shared, with or without a helmet, severity of the injury, and so on. The ideal is to be ready with standardized data-collection instruments when the pilot rolls out, said Megan Wier, an epidemiologist with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. With the clock ticking, Ms. Wier and her colleagues combed through months of police and hospital records to help inform the classifications. But she believes the most useful injury patterns will emerge only after a data schema is established and the scooters return to San Francisco. In Californias Legislature, there is a movement afoot to loosen some regulations on the scooters. Assembly Bill 2989 would relax helmet requirements, stipulate that only riders under 18 need to wear protective headgear and allow electric scooters to be used freely on streets with speed limits up to 35 miles per hour, rather than the current limit of 25 m.p.h. Bird, which has pushed hard for the bill, pointed out that adults riding electric bicycles are not required to wear a helmet. The company said it had passed out some 40,000 free helmets to its riders, but nonetheless felt the bills passage would provide riders with more consistent ridership rules. Euwyn Poon, president of Spin, another scooter company, said it was sensible to allow electric scooter users to ride without a helmet, even on streets with higher speed limits. SHANGHAI For years, Starbucks was the undisputed king of coffee in China. It single-handedly created a market of coffee drinkers in a nation of tea lovers, cashing in on a wave of affluent Chinese who looked to Starbucks as an aspirational brand. The country quickly became the coffee chains second-largest market after the United States. But Starbuckss dominance in China is increasingly under attack, as growth begins to slow and competitors aggressively target coffee drinkers. Starbucks executives have come under scrutiny for being slow to adapt to technological shifts and retail trends in the country, namely delivery. On Thursday, in a bid to revitalize its China operation, the company announced what it called a strategic new retail partnership with the Chinese tech giant Alibaba. The partnership will allow Starbucks to pilot delivery services next month with an Alibaba subsidiary, Ele.me, and establish what it called delivery kitchens in Alibabas Hema supermarkets. Dungan cuisine says the sign, without fanfare, on a drowsing street. The address is just off Sheepshead Bay Road, not far from the waterfront in southern Brooklyn. Once the space was home to an Azerbaijani restaurant, one of many outposts in the neighborhood with roots in the former Soviet Union. Now it is Lagman House, likely the first and only restaurant in the city to offer the food of the Dungans, Chinese Muslims descended from seventh-century Arab and Persian Silk Road traders who married Han Chinese. In the late 19th century, thousands of them fled China after the governments brutal suppression of a Muslim uprising. Ten million lives were lost, one of historys highest wartime death tolls. The Dungans escape route went through the Tien Shan mountains in deep winter; many died on the snowy passes. On the other side lay Imperial Russia, where they found refuge in what is today Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Among them were the great-grandparents of Damirzhan Azimov and his wife, Gulshat Azimova, who grew up in the village of Zhalpaktobe in southern Kazakhstan, immigrated to the United States in 2012 and opened Lagman House in June. This is how the world unfolds in New York City: Turn a corner, and theres a portal to another hemisphere, a glimmer of a different life. The growing cost of college is driving parents to get students into these dual-enrollment programs, said Adam Lowe, executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships. Take Goose Creek Memorial High School, in the oil-industry hub of Baytown, Tex. The school has made a point of hiring teachers with masters degrees who are credentialed to teach classes in which teenagers earn dual credit with nearby Lee College. Some students have even earned an associates degree while still in high school. Goose Creek has started sharing data with Lee College to track academic progress and help connect the students with local employers. With these and other changes, Susan Jackson, the principal, says the share of her students who are graduating ready for college and careers has grown from 40 percent a few years ago to 75 percent. Joel Vargas, a vice president of the nonprofit group Jobs for the Future, says educators will need to keep a close eye on quality as demographic changes compel colleges to scour for students to fill emptying classrooms. But stitching together high school with college and careers will become only more important as good jobs for people without advanced training disappear, he says. Communities will need to be more thoughtful about how to provide an on-ramp into the future for young people. Caroline Preston What I Wish Id Known Before College We asked some of The New York Timess 2018 newsroom interns what they wish they had known before they went to college. Illustrations by Kyle Hilton. The concerns are especially acute at community colleges, which have more open admissions policies than selective four-year institutions. According to a report from the California Community Colleges System, up to 70,000 undocumented students attend the states 114 community colleges, more than 3 percent of the 2.1 million students enrolled. We have, as our primary mission, the embracing of all students, and it is our desire to be there for the most vulnerable and the most marginalized populations, said Judy C. Miner, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which serves Silicon Valley. The official policy of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is to steer clear of college campuses, unless there is an extraordinary safety threat. Enforcement actions are not to occur at schools, according to the agencys Sensitive Locations policy, to ensure that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services provided at any sensitive location are free to do so, without fear or hesitation. The same policy applies to churches and hospitals. But after Donald J. Trump was elected president, following a campaign filled with rhetoric against undocumented people, colleges became concerned about the future of the Sensitive Locations policy. The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement to colleges in November 2016 that said the policy would remain in effect. However, in recent months, as scenes have unfolded of young immigrant children being separated from their parents and placed in detention centers, there are renewed doubts about how the current administration will treat undocumented college students. We dont feel a level of confidence and security on behalf of our students, said Dr. Miner, given the fact that we hear so many stories that would indicate that our own laws are not being honored. While the initial force is debatable whether it be President Trumps locker room talk, the growing womens rights movement, or simply women banding together against Harvey Weinstein it is evident that a strong force had pushed this moment into action. The once silenced women gained courage and support to speak up; this cause that was once at rest, is now in motion and will remain in motion. Andrea B., 17 Whether heroes take the form of a mighty Anglo-Saxon warrior like Beowulf or a fierce princess like Wonder Woman, the people who rise up to lead us out of the shadows of death are cultivated by the trials they face and the hope for a brighter future that we project upon them, which are often rooted in the injustices we experience. Victoria Li, 16 Sinking into pillows with a pair of fuzzy socks hugging my feet, I lost myself in the world of The Great Gatsby. Beyond the ball gowns and fancy cars, a sense of deja vu washed over me. I realized that the same issues F. Scott Fitzgerald was commenting on in 1925 still exist today. We live in a society suffering from a severe lack of authenticity. There is no substance beneath our shiny exterior of purported principles. Maybe some of our historical documents provide a gilded barrier between what we say we represent and what we actually are. Abby VanLonkhuyzen, 16 The motivations behind the Chinese Exclusion Act and President Trumps executive order barring people from seven Muslim countries are shockingly similar. Both were designed to limit the immigration of one particular ethnic group. But unlike the Chinese Exclusion Act, the presidents executive order faced harsh criticism and was challenged in court on several occasions. Despite similarities between the two laws, the American people have learned a lot in the last 100 years. Weve learned that immigration doesnt hurt the economy it might even help it. Weve learned that, true to American beliefs, the color of a persons skin or the religion they practice does not matter. Betsy Jenifer, 18 Considering that Dr. Faustus was written in the 16th century, during the Renaissance, it is surprising and even baffling that it is more relevant now than ever before. Today, everybody wants to be famous. Everyone wants to be noticed, loved and desired by everyone else. They want to raise eyebrows and swivel heads the moment they walk into a room and be important enough to make people stop chewing their food at the mention of their name. Ive learned that what matters isnt what texts I teach, what set of symbols or themes we analyze. Rather, what matters most are the opportunities we can give students to make sense of any text and to see the immediate relevance of those texts to the urgent conversations of now. As devastating details about the migrant crisis and family separation policies emerge and with continued hate crimes against Muslim Americans and anti-immigrant rhetoric I believe it is imperative to help students think critically and responsibly about how language is often used as a weapon to dehumanize others, particularly communities of color. I start this fall teaching two Vietnam War novels, Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers and The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien. By examining how language in both texts characterizes the enemy in dehumanizing ways, we can draw a connection to the ways in which language today is used to marginalize immigrants and refugees and what this means for us as diverse citizens in the land of the free and home of the brave. We will also ask, what additional perspectives are missing in the dominant narratives about the Vietnam War? Students will seek these points of view by browsing The Timess Vietnam 67 collection of essays, including Lan Caos compelling analysis of Hollywoods distorted depictions of the Vietnam War, and then share what they discover in Socratic Seminar discussions. Kenny, Philadelphia, High School During our reading of George Orwells 1984, I ask students to observe their own relationships as citizens to their government. We also discuss contemporary examples of surveillance and the complexities of living in a world Orwell would have never predicted: one where we the citizens are the ones wielding the cameras and creating a society that challenges the boundaries between public and private life. Often, I will remind students of topics in our text and ask them to search for related articles in the news. When we read Frankenstein, I ask students to research and discuss contemporary science issues such as cloning, stem cell research and technology. They also delve into existentialism, parenting, prejudice and identity. All of these universal concepts seem to make their way into discussions about current events. Discussing the outsider persona of the Creature can lead to rich and meaningful conversations about civility, diversity and acceptance. Chris Cerrone, Hamburg, N.Y., Middle School As a seventh-grade social studies teacher, I have done congressional civics simulations about how a bill becomes a law for many years. Students research and prepare their bill for two days and then we spend two days as members of Congress. Inspired by my childrens social studies teacher and the Summer Institute of Human Rights and Genocide Studies, I have incorporated more current events and civics into my classroom. For example, we have done simulations of presidential cabinet meetings to deal with Hurricane Harvey, North Korea and Syria. Each student is assigned a cabinet position, and they work in small groups to come up with suggestions for the president. Old American Can Factory, Gowanus, Brooklyn, Aug. 9; rooftopfilms.com. When you hear the words outdoor movie, who doesnt think found-footage documentary presenting the 2016 election and the first year of Donald J. Trumps presidency as it was portrayed by the state-consolidated Russian news media? Such news clips, along with videos made by Russians apparently influenced by the coverage, make up this provocative collage film from Maxim Pozdorovkin, which meditates on the creation and influence of propaganda. The documentary is part of the Rooftop Films series, which favors recent independent fare. Thunder Road, acclaimed at this years South by Southwest film festival, will screen at the same location two days later. Ghostbusters Parade Ground, Governors Island, Aug. 10; govisland.com (check there for the ferry schedule as well). If you cross the stream, er, New York Harbor to Governors Island, the skyline view could give you a great look at the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man if Gozer suddenly decides to return to New York in that form. Still, without a proton pack, youre probably safer just watching Ghostbusters. This showing is part of a series, Escape in New York, thats a collaboration of the island trust and the Film Society of Lincoln Center and that focuses on movies filmed in the city. Malcolm X Hansborough Recreation Center, Harlem, Aug. 10; nycgovparks.org. Screening on the opening day of Spike Lees new feature, BlacKkKlansman, Mr. Lees 1992 biography of Malcolm X holds up brilliantly, honoring its subject (played by Denzel Washington in one of his most defining turns) with its considerable narrative detail, its political fire and its devotion to probing Malcolms ideas. Three hours can be long for an outdoor screening, but the film never flags and the Harlem location is perfect. The following Friday, Selma, Ava DuVernays 2014 biopic of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., shows at the same location. Autumn Sonata Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, Aug. 11, nyc.gov.parks. No, its not autumn yet. But were in the middle of Ingmar Bergmans centennial, which means its as good a time as any to watch the Swedish titans 1978 chamber piece outdoors, even without Scandinavian scenery. The great Ingrid Bergman (not to be confused with the great Ingmar) stars as a prideful pianist whose semi-estranged daughter (Liv Ullmann) invites her for a visit after a death. Two days later you can also catch Ms. Bergman in what is almost certainly her most famous role when Casablanca screens on Astoria Park Lawn in Queens on Aug. 13. Movies made in the Dominican Republic, by Dominican artists who live there, are not common. According to an article last year in Variety, production there is now yielding around 20 films a year. So the release here of Cocote, a Dominican film directed by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, is a noteworthy event. I wish I were able to give it an enthusiastic endorsement. The films protagonist, Alberto (Vicente Santos), works as a landscaper for a wealthy woman in Santo Domingo. The death of his father summons him back to his rural village. There, his sisters inform him that the patriarch was murdered by a hoodlum to whom he owed money. Alberto, an evangelical Christian, balks at the demand that he avenge their father. This is a straightforward story that Mr. de Los Santos Arias, making his fictional feature debut, tells in an ever-changing style, shooting in color and black and white. He also alternates the shape of the frame, mostly toggling between a boxy frame and the wider one most mainstream movies are shown in. Whatever effect was hoped for, this viewer just saw affectation. In the latter part of the 1970s, the films of Larry Cohen caught the attention of the critic Robin Wood, the author of classic studies of Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. Mr. Cohens low-budget genre films, running the gamut from killer-baby horror picture Its Alive to tabloid-style political expose The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, had a sketchiness and sense of haste, Wood wrote in his 1984 book Hollywood: From Vietnam to Reagan. But, Wood averred, they also had a genuinely subversive conceptual audacity. Ive more than once seen Mr. Cohen shrug his shoulders in perhaps faux bemusement at praise from highbrows such as Wood (who died in 2009). But, lets face it: A movie featuring an alien Christ figure outfitted with both male and female genitalia (thats the quasi-antagonist of Mr. Cohens deathless 1976 God Told Me To) is bound to attract all manner of interpretation. I suspect Mr. Cohen isnt sorry to have had Wood as one of his champions. Many more of his champions, including Martin Scorsese, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson and Traci Lords, sing Mr. Cohens praises in King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen. Directed by Steve Mitchell, its as conventional as Mr. Cohens movies are not. After a same-sex couple was denied a marriage license in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has not only opened an investigation into the case, he has offered to officiate the couples wedding in Albany. Dylan Toften and Thomas Hurd sought the license in Root, N.Y., about 50 miles from Albany. But the towns clerk, Laurel Eriksen, denied the couples request. The Human Rights Division is investigating why Ms. Eriksen refused the couple their license. Mr. Toften wrote on Facebook on Monday that Ms. Eriksen denied the request because she personally objects to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Ms. Eriksen told Robert Subik, Roots town attorney, she did not grant the license because the couple had not made an appointment. Though Ms. Eriksen did mention her personal objection to same-sex marriage to the couple, Mr. Subik said, she did not deny the couple the license because of her personal views. He said people requesting licenses are required to make appointments in advance because Ms. Eriksen is a part-time employee. It was the 1970s, and marijuana raids and mass arrests had been sweeping college campuses and suburban concert venues in New York. The crackdown outraged parents. There was talk of ruined reputations and Gestapo police tactics. State legislators in 1977 devised what they took to be a simple fix: a bill that made carrying small supplies of marijuana a ticket-worthy violation, not a crime. To win enough votes from Republicans, the authors carved out an exception that said it was still a crime to carry marijuana open to public view. The bills backers thought the addition was harmless enough, given that people did not usually take out their stash in front of the police anyway. The era of mass arrests for carrying around marijuana seemed to be over. It wasnt. Annual arrests for marijuana possession, which dipped below 1,000 by the early 1990s, rocketed above 50,000 during some years in New York City under Mayors Rudolph W. Giuliani and Michael R. Bloomberg. Officers strayed so far from the bounds of the 1977 law that in 2011, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, had to issue an order reminding officers not to arrest people who had marijuana hidden in their pockets. Frank Ciaramella has not been in a family photo in years, and he also cannot remember the last time he had good veal scaloppine. Without any teeth, Mr. Ciaramella, a Staten Island resident, faces a host of challenges, but he said his most pressing concern is his inability to chew food. As a result, he said he cannot follow a prescribed diet related to his end-stage renal disease, and hes at risk of being too overweight for a much-needed kidney transplant. Though dentures seemed to be the solution, Mr. Ciaramella, who qualifies for Medicaid, said he has run into a litany of problems since he received them in 2016. He said his bottom dentures never fit properly because of bone erosion, a problem dental implants could rectify, but Medicaid does not cover that procedure. Then, a few months ago, he said his top dentures fell out and were run over by a car, and Medicaid will not pay for a replacement until 2024. Now, Mr. Ciaramella, 57, is one of the lead plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan against the New York State Department of Health for the Medicaid programs categorical ban on dental implants and limits on replacement dentures. The Legal Aid Society and Willkie Farr & Gallagher filed the suit, saying the state is denying medically necessary treatments for thousands of low-income New Yorkers. Within a week, Fox News retracted the story, saying that it had not met its standards, but the conspiracy theory has persisted, fueled by prominent conservatives like Newt Gingrich, the Fox News pundit Sean Hannity and the right-wing broadcasters Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones of Infowars. The rumors about Mr. Richs death were embraced by some supporters of President Trump, who used them to undercut the notion that Russian operatives had been responsible for the leak. It is understandable that plaintiffs might feel that their grief and personal loss were taken advantage of, and that the tragic death of their son was exploited for political purposes, Judge Daniels wrote. But he added that he had no choice but to dismiss the suit, because Foxs conduct did not amount to the intentional infliction of emotional distress. The judge also noted that Mr. Rich could not have been defamed by the story under New York law, because he was dead. Malia Zimmerman, a Fox News reporter who was the author of the retracted article, and Ed Butowsky, a regular guest on the network who assisted Ms. Zimmerman, were also named in the lawsuit. Judge Daniels dismissed the accusations against them, as well, saying that even though the story they had put together was untrue, their behavior did not meet the legal standard of extreme and outrageous conduct. Suyash Agrawal, a lawyer for Mr. Richs parents, said they were disappointed by the decision. But they look forward to vindicating their rights on appeal, he said. WASHINGTON Michael A. Sheehan, a former top counterterrorism official for the State Department, the Pentagon and New York City, who sounded an early, and unheeded, warning about Osama bin Laden and the dangers of Al Qaeda before 9/11, died on Monday in Bethesda, Md. He was 63. His death, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, was confirmed by his wife, Sita Graham Vasan. He had multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, she said. Mr. Sheehan, an intensely energetic man, started a counterterrorism career of more than three decades as an Army Green Beret, leading a clandestine hostage-rescue assault team in Panama in 1979. Fluent in Spanish, he later carried out antidrug and counterinsurgency missions in El Salvador, Colombia and Honduras. A year after retiring from the Army, he was named, in 1998, the State Departments chief of counterterrorism. Soon he was presciently raising alarms about Al Qaeda and its leader. CARSON CITY, Nev. I will always remember where I was on July 19, 1979. Six months earlier, my mom and I had arrived in the United States, fleeing the violence of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua. I was 8 years old. It was a beautiful summer day in San Francisco. My friends and I were skateboarding on the courtyard of our apartment complex when my friends mom came out and said: Somoza is gone. I was 9 years old when we returned to Nicaragua. Everything was different. You could still see the war scars in the town I was from. A whole city block was gone after Somozas aircraft bombed it. It was never rebuilt. We called it la manzana bombardeada, or the bombed city block, and used it as a landmark for directions. Yet despite the destruction, there was a feeling of excitement, of possibility, of freedom. The revolution ushered in a brief period of social and economic reforms. In 1980, the Sandinista government started the National Literacy Crusade with the objective to wipe out illiteracy in the country. Between March and August, thousands of Nicaraguan volunteers went to the rural areas to teach people how to read and write. My mom was one of those volunteers. A college-educated teacher with years of experience, she oversaw a team of teachers. I would visit her on weekends, as she had been posted to a town that was only about an hour away by bus from where we lived. Id tag along on her supervisory rounds, and I learned to appreciate what she was doing, and how important it was. My mom became wary of Sandinismo soon after the Literacy Crusade. While she felt the initial surge of enthusiasm, there were red flags early on. From 2016 to 2018, the percentage of voters describing Democratic candidates as in the mainstream fell from 48 percent to 33 percent. The percentage describing Democratic candidates as out of step with most Americans thinking rose from 42 percent to 56 percent. Over the same period, the evaluation of Republican candidates remained virtually unchanged, 59 percent out of step in 2016 and 56 percent in 2018; 31 percent in the mainstream in 2016, 33 percent in 2018. In other words, over the past two years voters have become substantially more distrustful of the Democratic Party. I asked political scientists who study political parties for their evaluation of the dual function of the Democratic Party. Their responses varied widely. Ryan Enos, a political scientist at Harvard, wrote back to say that one problem the party seems to have is that it cant accommodate all social justice demands at once. In the 1960s and 1970s, the party became an advocate for urban areas and racial minorities, Enos argued, but then slowly, over time, it has become less of an advocate for rural areas, union members, and other things associated with the white working class. This left a portion of the social justice agenda on the table for another party to capture and part of that capture was the election of Trump. Morris Fiorina, a political scientist at Stanford and the author of Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, expressed his substantial agreement in an email: In my fathers time the modern Democratic Party emphasized reducing economic inequality making working people better off. Over time the relative emphasis shifted as the importance of inclusiveness/diversity/identity grew. This happened in concert with the rise of a new class that was relatively more economically secure and obviously created a more divisive agenda. Fiorina drew my attention to the book Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse, by Mary Ann Glendon, a law professor at Harvard, who, he said, argued that making so many policy issues into matters of rights and taking them to the courts was counterproductive. It put opponents in the position of denying other people their rights. The latter are more difficult to compromise because if its a right, compromise is an abrogation of it. Fiorina pointed to the anger my working class steelworker friends expressed about the concept of welfare rights. Welfare is charity; no one has a right to it was their view. This was the transformation of an issue that previously would have been seen as an economic redistribution issue into what would be considered a social justice issue. Fiorinas example shows how what can be seen as rights for one constituency can be seen as costs for another. Fiorina cited the results of the 2016 Voter Study Group Survey of 8000 adults to argue that Democratic elites have adopted a set of issue priorities that are significantly different from those of all voters. The Voter Study Group identifies 15 percent of voters who fit into what it calls the Democratic-Independent Liberal Elite category. This is the cohort that has often provided leadership for the social justice movement within the Democratic Party. Members of this group have generally been younger, more liberal, better educated and more affluent than average voters. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he is considering lifting the sanctions altogether because they are punishing the hardworking people of Rusal. But Mr. Mnuchin has it backward. If he was truly concerned about Rusals 61,000 employees, he would not relent until the company fully washed its hands of Mr. Deripaska and the corrupt regime the aluminum giant serves. Behind Mr. Deripaskas estimated fortune of as much as $5.3 billion, there stands a great crime. During the aluminum wars of the 1990s, when that economic sector was consolidating in the chaotic privatization that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the young metals trader was suspected of ties to gangsters as he seized control of huge Siberian smelters. According to testimony by a gang member in Stuttgart, Germany, part of Mr. Deripaskas value to the group were his links to Russias security services. While his rivals were killed off or fled Russia, Mr. Deripaska somehow emerged as the director general of Rusal, a company that reported revenues last year of nearly $10 billion. But suspicions that the oligarch has had links to organized crime have denied him a visa to enter the United States. Mr. Deripaska is little more than a trustee for his aluminum concern. In Russia, oligarchs like him owe their wealth and status to the Kremlin. In return, they must do its bidding, which in Mr. Deripaskas case meant spending more than $1 billion, through his holding company, on new infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Mr. Deripaska has embraced his role, stating that he does not separate himself from the Russian state. In line with that conceit, a memo obtained by The Associated Press showed that Mr. Manafort tried to pitch him a plan for an influence campaign to greatly benefit the Putin government. Mr. Deripaska was sanctioned on April 6 by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a senior official of the government of the Russian Federation. Also sanctioned were Rusal and the publicly traded holding company that controls it, En+. The sanctions caused Rusals share price to plummet by 50 percent and roiled the global aluminum market. Mr. Deripaska soon announced that he would relinquish control of Rusal and resigned from the boards of En+ and Rusal. To the Editor: Re The Racism Behind Womens Suffrage (Editorial Observer, July 29): Brent Staples is correct that the commemoration of the 19th Amendment needs to recognize the racism of the time. Yet he is wrong to say that Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a classic liberal racist who denounced African-American men after the 15th Amendments passage, which gave suffrage to black men but not women of any race. Despite the essays statement that women wanted the vote only as a symbol of parity with their brothers and husbands, Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and others devoted decades to campaigning for suffrage for blacks and women because only the ballot could help end the discrimination both faced. Stantons lifetime of action supporting rights for African-Americans speaks louder than her angry outburst after female suffrage was denied. Frederick Douglass attested more than once to the strength and solace he found in her presence. The respect was mutual. Coline Jenkins Old Greenwich, Conn. The writer is the great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. We supported the judicial investigation into the accusations against Mr. Kozinski. As lawyers, we understood the importance of fact-finding in uncovering hard truths, and the legitimacy that fair processes afford. So has Mr. Kozinski. In a dissent in an ethics case, Mr. Kozinski wrote that fully and fairly investigating and disciplining a fellow judge is uncomfortable, but urged his colleagues not to shy away from the important task, for the sake of judicial integrity. Now, through his lawyer, Mr. Kozinski has said that he does not fear the results of an inquiry, but is unwilling to put the people and the institution he cared about through that. (Mr. Kozinski receives his federal pension.) #MeToo is about more than stopping harassment. It should also be about addressing the ways society may allow men to get away with misconduct. Sexual harassment often persists because third parties are silently complicit in it. #MeToo requires some retrospection from people who are not harassers themselves. What should people do when there are rumors that a friend, colleague or mentor acts inappropriately toward women in professional settings? And now, what should people do when there are corroborated allegations? The absence of a formal reckoning does not mean we should continue on like nothing happened at all. Looking only forward, without reckoning with the past, risks failing women in the profession, as men who have been accused of serious misconduct in the workplace are permitted to return without so much as a caveat. Where formal processes fail or are subverted, the legal community should insist on informal reckonings before any rehabilitation, rather than turn a collective blind eye to allegations of harassment. Those affording Mr. Kozinski a public platform now should at the very least consistently acknowledge that he was accused of sexual harassment by many women. Institutions may also want to consider breaking their silence; law schools, legal organizations and the bar could make clear that they will not tolerate harassment from anyone, regardless of his or her status. To usher Mr. Kozinski back into professional circles without qualification implies a deference that is stunning in light of the circumstances of his retirement. That choice paves the way for a next step perhaps a speaking engagement on a panel or at a conference or a law school, or an opportunity to consult with a law firm and interact with junior associates. That process may already be in the works; in his radio interview, Mr. Kozinski talked about his plan to teach. Formerly a frequent presence on law school campuses, Mr. Kozinski was specifically accused of thumbing a law students breast, among other allegations. Though the E.P.A. approved Californias greenhouse gas standards in 2013, the agency now argues that they impermissibly conflict with another federal law, the Energy Policy Conservation Act. That law, passed in 1975 in response to the energy crisis, gives the Transportation Department the sole power to set standards relating to fuel economy. Because auto companies comply with Californias greenhouse gas standards primarily by improving fuel efficiency, the E.P.A. now says in an about-face that the standards are pre-empted by those Transportation Department regulations. On the same theory, Californias program to promote electric and hybrid vehicles would also be eliminated. If the Trump administration succeeds in scuttling the federal standards and neutralizing California, it could be the most significant setback for American progress on climate change so far under President Trump. Worse, this disastrous policy could continue well beyond his tenure. Future presidents could not simply undo the decision, if courts rule that the Trump administrations interpretation of the law is categorically correct. In that case only Congress could restore Californias authority. Here is what is at stake: The Obama-era standards that President Trump seeks to scrap would gradually raise average fuel economy under test conditions from about 37 miles per gallon in 2020 to 50 miles per gallon in 2025 a near-doubling of fuel efficiency and halving of greenhouse gas emissions since 2010. This would reduce American oil consumption by 1.2 billion barrels, cut half a billion metric tons of carbon pollution and save consumers billions of dollars in fuel costs, according to the E.P. As own recent estimates. For over 50 years, California has been the undisputed leader among the states in addressing air pollution and its harms. In the 1950s and 1960s, the state had some of the dirtiest air in the world, in large part because of vehicular pollution. California required auto companies to install the first pollution control technology in 1961, and set the nations first tailpipe standards for emissions in 1966. In 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating the powerful California Air Resources Board to regulate air pollution statewide, including by strictly curbing vehicle emissions. Congress recognized Californias leadership when it passed the Air Quality Act of 1967, allowing the state to set its own stricter-than federal standards for vehicles. Congress cemented this approach in the 1970 Clean Air Act, and reinforced it again in 1977, letting other states adopt Californias standards. Are ride-sharing and -hailing services like Uber and Lyft causing road congestion? This has been the perception in cities across the country, and the companies have come under fire for it. In New York City, it has led to a proposal to curb, for a year, for-hire-vehicle companies from adding new driver's licenses (except for wheelchair-accessible vehicles). Will proposals to limit ride hailing succeed at reducing road congestion? In New York, the answer can be found in a report by the mayors office. This $2 million study was conducted by McKinsey and other consultants to investigate whether ride-hailing companies have worsened traffic in the city. From 2009 (before ride hailing) through 2015, the study finds that reductions in vehicular speeds began long before ride hailing hit the stage, and the pattern did not change after ride hailing. The primary factors of reductions in vehicular speed, according to the study, are increased freight movement, construction activity and tourism, population and job growth. In short, ride hailing is not responsible for greater road congestion. From 2009 to 2015, pedestrian growth in Manhattans central business district grew by about 18 to 24 percent. This slows cars down; at turns, they have to wait for crossing pedestrians. Furthermore, last year, New York City set a record of hosting almost 63 million tourists a nearly 30 percent increase from 2010. The next time you complain about how noisy your corner of New York City is, just remember it could probably be worse. Localize.city, a website that provides data on any address in the city, found that some neighborhoods are much noisier than others. By digging through the citys official 311 complaint database, the site was able to analyze noise complaints in every neighborhood for the year ending July 23, 2018. And according to Michal Eisenberg, a data scientist with Localize, In 90 percent of the neighborhoods, the most complained-about category was loud music and party. Her analysis found that 53 percent of all complaints from residences, businesses or elsewhere fell in this category. The second biggest category, representing 15 percent of complaints, was banging and pounding, which might be even more irritating than the sound of others enjoying themselves. SAN FRANCISCO In 1997, Apple was on the ropes. The Silicon Valley pioneer was being decimated by Microsoft and its many partners in the personal-computer market. It had just cut a third of its work force, and it was about 90 days from going broke, Apples late co-founder, Steve Jobs, later said. On Thursday, Apple became the first publicly traded American company to be worth more than $1 trillion when its shares climbed 3 percent to end the day at $207.39. The gains came two days after the company announced the latest in a series of remarkably profitable quarters. Apples ascent from the brink of bankruptcy to the worlds most valuable public company has been a business tour de force, marked by rapid innovation, a series of smash-hit products and the creation of a sophisticated, globe-spanning supply chain that keeps costs down while producing enormous volumes of cutting-edge devices. That ascent has also been marked by controversy, tragedy and challenges. Apples aggressive use of outside manufacturers in China, for example, has led to criticism that it is taking advantage of poorly paid workers in other countries and robbing Americans of good manufacturing jobs. The company faces numerous questions about how it can continue to grow. Penthesilea is a shocking play of passion and blood lust set against the backdrop of the Trojan War. Before the gates of Troy, the Greek hero, Achilles, and Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, meet and fall desperately in love. Yet both refuse to surrender to their passion, because of a mix of disbelief, denial and pride. And so they fight and woo in equal measure. When Achilles playfully suggests a fight to the death and approaches the virgin queen unarmed, Penthesilea slaughters him and throws herself on his body along with her dogs, in a scene of cannibalistic derangement. Coming out of her delirium, she kills herself, in one of literatures weirdest and wildest love-deaths. Kleist claimed that the play contained the entire filth and brilliance of his soul, and it is possible to get drunk on his rich and precise blank verse. His better-known contemporary, Goethe, held Penthesilea in low esteem and thought it was impossible to stage, and it was ignored or ridiculed for most of the 19th century. Since then, writers and scholars including Georg Lukacs and Christa Wolf have subjected the play to such interpretations as Marxist and postfeminist. Mr. Simons doesnt bother with ideology, although the plays subversion of gender roles is hinted at by the black dress that Achilles sometimes wears. (The costumes are by Nina von Mechow.) Kleists sizable cast has been whittled down to the two lead characters, turning the play into a staged dialogue that showcases the sensational, often ferocious, acting of Sandra Huller in the title role and Jens Harzer as Achilles. Alone together onstage, they often achieve a raw and dangerous intimacy. And their masterly and unexpected delivery of Kleists florid and archaic verse can make the poetic language sound fragile and hesitant. Assaulted by the force of their new passion, neither can quite believe in the intensity of these new emotions or admit that they might be reciprocated. As Achilles, Mr. Harzer is often nervous and flirty, although a scene when he strips naked makes clear his intentions toward the Amazon queen. Ms. Huller, best known for her performance in the 2016 movie Toni Erdmann, gets to show an even wider range, tearing through the role with bluster, rapture and anguish, emitting cries, shrieks and howls that are sometimes slightly comic. At times, the two actors leave their characters and provide the narration or commentary that would usually be provided by the plays supporting characters. Especially in the slow first half-hour of exposition, before the actors fully settle into the lead roles, the idea of making this a two-person show can seem less than convincing. Still, in a production of such intimate intensity, one imagines the result might look very different from night to night. As an unflinching examination of destructive love, Mr. Simonss concentrated and demanding Penthesilea is a far cry from Mr. Sturmingers crowd-pleasing Jedermann. Despite its morbid theme, Hofmannsthals work celebrates the Christian promise of salvation. It isnt clear what redemptive message Penthesilea could possibly hold, beyond a belief in the power of theater to plumb the depths of human passion. But for a festival that for nearly 100 years has presented drama at the highest level, thats more than enough. But what I love most now is that high-quality chefs that could bank money with locations near downtowns convention and tourist-friendly hotels are opening their restaurants in outlying residential neighborhoods instead, like Giant and Daisies in Logan Square, Acadia in the South Loop or Band of Bohemia in Ravenswood, where the great majority of diners can walk to the restaurant from their homes. Your advice for an eating weekend in the city? We are a city of vibrant ethnic enclaves really, only San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston can compare and to truly experience the breadth and depth of Chicagos food scene, you need to be adventurous. Yes, some good food can be found on Michigan Avenue (Purple Pig, Im looking at you!) but I recommend heading to 5 Rabinitos or Birrieria Zaragoza for authentic Mexican food; visiting Maxwell Street Market on a warm day to grab some tongue tacos and agua fresca from the food carts; or heading to other neighborhood places where chefs are celebrating their culture and putting a hip twist on it Fat Rice for Macanese food, Parachute for modernized Korean cooking or Mi Tocaya Antonjeria for regional Mexican. Your pick for emerging food destinations in the United States? The Midwest is having a moment. It started with Chicago and no, its not hometown bias. Weve been touted Bon Appetits restaurant city of the year, and the James Beard Awards moved here five years ago. As Chicago has risen to culinary dominance, our chefs have pollinated the region. Detroit is luring top toques away, like the chef Thomas Lents, who left his post at Chicagos Michelin-starred Sixteen [currently closed] to bring his vision to the Apparatus Room. And Jonathon Sawyer is turning Cleveland into a culinary stop (the Greenhouse Tavern, Trentina, Noodlecat). Local civil-rights groups and black leaders have urged the district attorney to drop the prosecution, saying that black voters were being disproportionately punished for an unwitting mistake. African-Americans in North Carolina are more likely to be disqualified from voting because of felony convictions; their rate of incarceration is more than four times that of white residents, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization. It smacks of Jim Crow, said Barrett Brown, the head of the Alamance County N.A.A.C.P. Referring to the district attorney, he added, I dont think he targeted black people. But if you cast that net, youre going to catch more African-Americans. Mr. Nadolski said that race and ethnicity are not a factor in any case he prosecutes. The prosecution comes even as several states are reconsidering longstanding laws that strip voting rights from an estimated 6 million Americans who have been convicted of felonies. A growing national movement is encouraging former felons to register to vote, or to push to have their rights restored, with the hope of empowering them and shedding the stigma of criminal convictions. [ Read a Q. and A. with Jack Healy about the case and American election law. ] The North Carolina case also has become part of a partisan war over voting rights ahead of this Novembers midterm elections. At a rally on Tuesday, President Trump who has made baseless claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016 renewed his calls for laws requiring voters to show photo identification. He said, incorrectly, that shoppers need to show identification to buy groceries, while people voting for president and senator do not. When asked Wednesday about the presidents comments, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that Mr. Trump wants to see the integrity of our elections system upheld. In separate interviews, five of the defendants in Alamance County said their votes were an unwitting mistake a product of not understanding the voter forms they signed and not knowing the law. Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) The longstanding feud between old and new in San Francisco has found a fresh battleground: lunch. In a move meant to wrest tech workers from their increasingly luxurious offices, two members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have proposed an ordinance to ban new corporate offices from including cafeterias. They hope this would force workers to mingle socially with others in the city and support local restaurants, which sprung up around tech headquarters only to find disappointing traffic. Aaron Peskin, a sponsor of the measure, said he knew it was a nanny state ordinance, but countered that all zoning is exactly that. To live in San Francisco in 2018 is a vexing situation. The streets can be alarming scenes of human misery. The rents are astronomical. The ideas coming out of warehouses and bedrooms may be brilliant, but they never seem to improve the spaces we all share. And tensions continue to rise. Each candidate has been heaping praise on Mr. Trump and attacking the others as insufficiently loyal to the president. The Associated Press estimated last week that roughly $45.7 million had been spent in the race. Last week, Vice President Mike Pence endorsed Ms. Black, who could become the states first female governor if she wins in November. The two-way race on the Democratic side between former Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville and State House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh has been placid in comparison; Mr. Dean is favored to win. The Tennessean, a local newspaper, estimated that Mr. Dean had raised 15 times as much as Mr. Fitzhugh, and spent four times as much. Its ironic, Jim, that not only you and the media attack the president for his rhetoric when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country. Repeatedly, repeatedly the media resorts to personal attacks without any content other than to incite anger. The media has attacked me personally on a number of occasions, including your own network. Said I should be harassed as a life sentence, that I should be choked. I.C.E. officials are not welcomed in their place of worship and personal information is shared on the internet. When I was hosted by the Correspondents Association of which almost all of you are members of you brought a comedian up to attack my appearance and call me a traitor to my own gender. In fact, as I know as far as I know, Im the first press secretary in the history of the United States thats required Secret Service protection. The media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration. And certainly we have a role to play, but the media has a role to play for the discourse in this country as well. Reporter: For the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what youre saying, Sarah. And the White House for the United States of America, the president of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. His own daughter acknowledges that. And all Im asking you to do, Sarah, is to acknowledge that right now and right here. I appreciate your passion. I share it. Ive addressed this question. Ive addressed my personal feelings. Im here to speak on behalf of the president. Hes made his comments clear. The 13th Congressional District also has unemployment rates well above the national average, which can be seen in the stark dichotomy between communities. While some areas of the congressional district are the hub of new investment, others remain blighted and residents say that though the country at large may be experiencing times of robust economic growth, it is yet to become a reality in The D. We need things done around here, said Vernon Boswell, a 67-year-old homeowner. We need new people who can help get this community back on track. At a recent forum of candidates who are running to replace Mr. Conyers, several tried to lean into their social justice bona fides to win over minority voters, some of whom expect a vocal civil rights advocate to occupy the seat. On Tuesday, voters will cast ballots in not one, but two Conyers-related elections a special election determining who will finish Mr. Conyerss 2018 term, and a primary that will likely determine Mr. Conyerss permanent successor. With little reliable polling on the race, no clear front-runner has emerged among the candidates on the ballot (most of the major candidates are competing in both the special election and the primary election). The result is a campaign that seems equally about politics and personality, with six major candidates all heading into the elections homestretch feeling confident about their chances of success. [Heres whats coming up next on the primary calendar.] The biggest fund-raiser has been Rashida Tlaib, the state lawmaker who could become the first Muslim woman successfully elected to Congress, but Brenda Jones, Detroits well-liked City Council president, may have the highest name recognition in the city. Also running are State Senator Coleman Young II, the only son of legendary Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, and State Senator Ian Conyers, the great-nephew of the now-resigned congressman. A former Detroit state legislator named Shanelle Jackson is also in the race, as is Bill Wild, a white mayor of a Detroit suburb called Westland, who could benefit from the fractured field. Because theres little policy daylight among the Democrats, issues of race, gender, age and dynastic politics have all received more attention and discussion in the primary race, as candidates have attempted to use their personal identity and legislative experience to differentiate themselves from their opponents. None will have the seniority and influence of Mr. Conyers, whose signature legislative legacy includes helping found the Congressional Black Caucus and being the first lawmaker to propose the establishment of a Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. But the candidates said their fresh faces would bring the much needed enthusiasm the 89-year-old Conyers missed. The Republican-led Congress passed a package of withering sanctions targeting Russia a year ago, in part to punish its 2016 efforts. But a debate over how to amp up pressure has blossomed anew in recent weeks, as lawmakers have grappled with new disclosures about continued Russian activity and Mr. Trumps widely panned meeting last month with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Mr. Trump spent the days leading up to the meeting bashing the Atlantic alliance, which is committed to counteracting Russias influence. Once there, he appeared to accept Mr. Putins denials that Russia did not interfere in 2016 and cast doubt on American intelligence agencies findings on the matter. Many Republicans, long uncomfortable with the presidents forgiving stance toward Russia, condemned Mr. Trumps performance but have been unwilling or unable to take direct action. The possibility of additional sanctions appears to be an exception. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the typically reserved majority leader, called out Mr. Rubios bill by name last month and asked the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees to hold hearings on Russia and the imposing of sanctions already on the books. Those hearings are underway, though Democrats fret that Mr. McConnell may not have any intention of actually pushing through legislation. Still, the senators argument for tough immediate action received an added boost this week, when Facebook disclosed that it had detected and tried to disrupt a sophisticated influence campaign on its networks sowing discord ahead of Novembers elections. Though the company said it was unable to definitively attribute the activity to Russia, the tactics bore a striking resemblance to those used around the 2016 election. And some of the accounts interacted with accounts known to be operated by the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-linked group that was at the center of an indictment related to earlier interference. Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, also confirmed a Daily Beast report that her office was unsuccessfully targeted by Russian hackers last year. American intelligence officials have indicated that she is not alone, but no other office or candidate has been publicly identified. The sanctions package is intended to mount pressure on Russia to stop such activity. It includes a long list of provisions meant to embarrass Mr. Putin, cripple his allies financially and create new criminal vulnerabilities for Russia and other nations participating in cyberattacks. It would mandate that the United States assemble a report on Mr. Putins finances and assets a move long advocated by Russia hawks who believe it would expose the extent of any financial crimes committed by Mr. Putin. And it penalizes projects involving Russian sovereign debt and state-owned energy companies a move that some Republicans, including in the Trump administration, fear could wreak havoc across global markets. KABUL, Afghanistan Three foreign catering workers were found shot dead outside the Afghan capital on Thursday after being kidnapped during their morning commute, the Afghan police said. It was the latest in a yearslong series of such attacks, this time against employees of Sodexo, a global food services company that works for several international organizations in Kabul. The men killed came from India, Malaysia and Macedonia. According to Hashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for the Kabul Police Department, gunmen stopped the car in which the three men were being driven to work and forced them to switch to another. But Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said it appeared that the men had gotten into the second car voluntarily and were accompanied by their Afghan driver. The driver returned an hour later and said the three men had been kidnapped. Ms. Korhonen, 28, who lives in the central Finnish city of Oulu, said in an email that she was surprised by the cartoons popularity in general, and in China in particular. This makes me think I should take Chinese classes or something so I could understand better whats happening, haha! she wrote. News of the cartoons Chinese fan base was first reported in English by the news site Sixth Tone. In some ways, Mattis gently caricatured Finnish environment is the antithesis of Chinas acquisitive, in-your-face public life and that may explain why Finnish Nightmares has touched a nerve among some Chinese readers. Yang Yixin, a professor of Finnish language and culture at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said the series resonates in China because essentially Chinese people do have a shy, introverted and bashful side, like the Finnish. Moreover, modern technology has changed our way of communication, Professor Yang added. It estranges us from each other, especially young people. They might become a little anthropophobic, just like Matti. Song Zhengyao, a student in the universitys Finnish program, said that Chinese fans like the series because it presents an authenticity that is lacking in their day-to-day lives. People have to meet their clients and their superiors for work, they have to be hypocritical even though they dont want to be, he said of life in China. When they read Finnish Nightmares they see the frank and sincere life they want to live. Listen to what I say, is it wrong? he asks. People are poor. Lets not throw our money in Africa. The seven, eight of you here, he says to the officers in the clip, listen up, throwing money like this is of no good to our country and society. Then he grows more alarmed, saying, What are you doing? What are you doing? Let me tell you, its illegal for you to come to my home. I have my freedom of speech! he adds. The phone then goes dead. The host of the program, Bo Xu, said, This is the status quo of human rights in China. Voice of America Mandarin said it had tried to reach Mr. Sun after the incident but was unsuccessful. As well-heeled tourists sunbathed at the Maldives luxury resorts, efforts to report on extremism and corruption were violently countered in Male, the densely populated capital. In the years since Mr. Abdullas abduction, newsrooms have been set ablaze by masked intruders or vandalized with a rusty machete. In 2016, the government passed a bill criminalizing defamation that critics argued would curb free speech. Last year, Yameen Rasheed, a liberal blogger who wrote satirical critiques of the Maldivian government and led a campaign to find Mr. Abdulla, died after being repeatedly stabbed by assailants in his apartment building in Male. Before his murder, Mr. Rasheed, 29, had complained repeatedly to the police about receiving death threats. The authorities often failed to return his calls or dropped his complaints without investigating them, he said. Over the course of a long inquiry into Mr. Abdullas disappearance, the authorities flip-flopped on whether they thought he had been abducted, and observers criticized the government for allowing a third suspect to leave the Maldives after the police released him from custody. In an interview last year, Aminath Easa, Mr. Abdullas mother, angrily recalled attempts by the police to spray a pepper-based irritant into her eyes during an event marking 500 days since her sons disappearance. Ms. Easa said the investigation had never been transparent and that efforts to obtain information from the police were ignored. School-aged children spending the summer at Chambliss Center for Children had a blast at UNUMs annual Back to School Bash."As summer is coming to an end, UNUM employees came out to host a special day on our campus that included inflatables, face painting, temporary tattoos, popcorn and pizza. As an added bonus to the children and their families, volunteers also stuffed 125 backpacks and boxes full of required school supplies, which are given out in preparation for the start of the school year," officials said.We always have a great time when UNUM comes out, said Lesley Berryhill, director of Special Projects and Events for Chambliss Center for Children.Not only do our kids get treated to a fun day, they also receive items to help them get the school year started. This is a huge help to our families. (ANSA) - Caracas, August 2 - An Italian businessman was killed during an attempted kidnapping in Venezuela on Wednesday, local media reported Thursday. Elio Jose Simonelli Datellis, 45, was reportedly killed in a shootout between kidnappers and police in Maracay, in the State of Aragua. Datellis was reportedly taken captive while travelling on a street near to a car-repair garage he owned. But the gang was tracked down by the police, who opened fire. All five kidnappers were reportedly killed along with Datellis, who was hit in the stomach. The authorities have said they are considering possible criminal charges including gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health and Safety Act. [Read more about the manslaughter charges that are being considered.] The blaze, which broke out in the early hours of June 14, 2017, shattered the community, highlighted serious inequality in one of Londons richest areas and raised questions about building deregulation after it emerged that cheap external cladding had helped the fire spread rapidly. The building is now covered in white sheets, green hearts and the words Grenfell. Forever in our hearts. But the emotions of survivors, their families and neighbors are still raw, and questions still linger about what caused the fire and who was ultimately responsible. Last Sunday, it emerged that the site would return to the local government for the North Kensington district where the tower stood, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is under investigation and could face charges of corporate manslaughter. Survivors groups were outraged by the decision, which, they said, created a conflict of interest. Survivors say they expect the site to be turned into a memorial to victims. On Wednesday, the government announced it would take over responsibility for the site. The local council would remain the owner, a statement said, but it would have no role in the buildings management or in decision-making about its fate. ROME Pope Francis has declared the death penalty wrong in all cases, a definitive change in church teaching that is likely to challenge Catholic politicians, judges and officials who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment. Before, church doctrine accepted the death penalty if it was the only practicable way to defend lives, an opening that some Catholics took as license to support capital punishment in many cases. But Francis said executions were unacceptable in all cases because they are an attack on human dignity, the Vatican announced on Thursday, adding that the church would work with determination to abolish capital punishment worldwide. Francis made the change to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, the book of doctrine that is taught to Catholic children worldwide and studied by adults in a church with 1.2 billion members. Abolishing the death penalty has long been one of his top priorities, along with saving the environment and caring for immigrants and refugees. AL HUDAYDAH, Yemen Warplanes of the Saudi-led coalition fired more than two dozen missiles into this rebel-held Yemeni port city on Thursday, hitting the fish market, the entrance to the main hospital and a security compound in an attack that killed at least 30 people, medical workers said. The missile strikes, which were an escalation of the conflict, came after a week of tensions in which Saudi Arabia accused its Yemeni adversaries, the Houthi rebels who occupy Al Hudaydah, of attacking a Saudi oil vessel in a Red Sea shipping lane. At the same time, aid agencies sharpened criticism of the Saudi coalition over civilian suffering in the city, which the coalition has been threatening to invade for months. Hours after the missile strikes, the United Nations special representative for Yemen briefed the Security Council in New York about a possible renewal of peace talks in the country, which the United Nations has declared the scene of the worlds worst humanitarian disaster. (ANSA) - Reggio Calabria, August 2 - Carabinieri police in Reggio Calabria on Thursday carried out an operation to arrest 45 people accused of mafia association, international drug trafficking, extortion and attempted murder, among others charges, on behalf of two local 'Ndrangheta clans. The operation, coordinated by the DDA anti-mafia investigative unit, followed a year-long probe that led earlier this month to the arrest of 32 people. The suspects are alleged members of two Ndrangheta clans in Rosarno identified as Cacciola and Grasso mainly dealing in extortion and drug trafficking, importing cocaine from South America and hashish from Spain and Morocco, investigators said. The drug was then mainly sold in Lombardy, Piedmont and Sicily, according to police. Investigators said four women, including a criminologist, had a leading role within the organization. The women are in particular accused of dispatching messages to affiliates, including detained clan members, and of laundering proceeds of the drug trade. One of them has been identified as Angela Tibullo, 36, who faces charges including external mafia association, judicial corruption and obstruction of justice. Carabinieri police believe that the criminologist, thanks to her profession, "was key in the dynamics" of the organization and in "pursuing the illicit interests of a number of Ndrangheta clans", according to investigative sources. Members of parliament have registered their intention to appeal against last week's judgment issued by the Constitutional court that upheld the lifting of presidential age limits. Four of the five justices of the Constitutional court last week ruled that the Constitutional Amendment Act passed by parliament and assented to by President Yoweri Museveni last year meets all the sine qua non of the Constitution. Now, six MPs including Winnie Kiiza, Gerald Karuhanga, Jonathan Odur, Ibrahim Semujju, Allan Sewanyana and Mubarak Munyagwa, are appealing against 11 of the 14 decisions by the panel of five judges comprising of Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo, Cheborion Barishaki, Elizabeth Musoke, Remmy Kasule and Kenneth Kakuru. The MPs are challenging the decision of the Constitutional court While the judges upheld the age limit amendment, they declared that amendments on reinstating presidential term limits and extending the term of office for legislators and local government leaders from five to seven years was erroneous since they did not go through the right legislation procedure. Only justice Kakuru ruled that the entire act is annulled while others voted to severe some clauses from the Act and maintain those that went through the entire legislation cycle. Now the MPs want the Appellant court to declare the decisions of the Constitutional court irregular and unconstitutional. The decisions being challenged include; the pronouncement by four of the judges that members of parliament held fair consultations among Ugandans and that the petitioners had no sufficient evidence to show instances of widespread interruption of public consultation. They argue that the judges erred when they ruled that despite being arbitrary, unfortunate, and unconstitutional, the directive by the police director of operations Asuman Mugyenyi stopping consultations by MPs, did not affect the outcome of the consultation process. They add that it was wrong for the judges to conclude that the Shs 29 million given to each MP for consultations did not have any financial implication on the consolidated fund. The MPs are also challenging the decision that the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga did not violate the rules of parliament despite failing to ensure that doors were closed before voting, suspending a cross-section of legislators and refusing others to participate in the proceedings of the House. Lawyer Erias Lukwago says that if the judges had concentrated on the 11 issues raised, they would have nullified the entire Constitutional Amendment Act. "The president himself, who, assented to the bill with a defective certificate, and, who also features prominently, and am not shy to say; the sole beneficiary of this bill or the Constitutional Amendment Act was never summoned to come and testify. So, where did they get all that evidence on the other side to justify all the decisions they made, the actions they took, the way they handled and processed the bill to the extent that they actually had to use violence, they had to violate rules of procedure, they had to stampede parliament, they had to do all sorts of things to pass this law?" said Lukwago. While the notice has been filed in the Court of Appeal, the mandate to hear such appeals lies with the Supreme court. Telecommunication companies MTN and Airtel have asked government to scrap the new mobile money tax that came into effect last month due to the negative impacts it's having on the economy. Starting July 1, 2018 government introduced a 1% tax on all mobile money transactions and Shs 200/daily levy on social media usage. Following public outcry and pressure, government has since tabled an amendment bill, Excise Duty Amendment Bill No. 2, 2018 to have the mobile money tax reduced to 0.5% and only limited to withdrawals. Appearing before the parliamentary committee on finance which is scrutinising the Excise Duty Amendment Bill, officials from MTN and Airtel said mobile money tax has had massive negative effects on the economy. The telecoms say they have registered over 33% reduction in mobile money transactions since the taxes were introduced Wim Vanhelleputte, chief executive officer of MTN Uganda, said there has been a drop in use of mobile money following the introduction of the tax. He said mobile money supports 5,000 Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Saccos) and taxing the business is a big risk. "Because were still a young new industry, so if you over tax a young industry you might end up killing that industry. So we need to find the right balance between taxes and growing the industry to its full potential. What is the full potential of the industry? Let us cross the border into Kenya, today in Kenya, Lyca and Mpesa are a whole new system of doing digital payments. Today in Uganda were not there yet. We have the ambition to continue to develop mobile money to make sure people can use the mobile phone to do payments, payments, payments. They can go to the bar and pay for a coke using mobile money, they to the boda boda they can use mobile money to pay for the taxi," said Vanhelleputte. Denis Kakonge, the Airtel Uganda legal and regulatory director said since the introduction of the tax, the volume of their mobile money transactions has dropped by 33 per cent. He says the tax is not only discriminative but people have no option but keep the money in cash, which is risky. "We think that the taxation of the mobile money service which is still in its infancy, were not like Kenya. Were still growing, if you tax it, it will reduce the uptake of the service and undo the positive contribution that mobile money has contributed which includes employment and making it easy for people to transfer money." he said. The telecoms concerns were backed up by Bank of Uganda officials who called the new taxes discriminative and unfair and risk retarding growth of financial inclusion. Bank of Uganda director of statistics Charles Abuka noted that although placing a charge on mobile money withdrawals would increase revenue, the tax is inefficient, uncertain and complex. He explained that the mobile money levy goes against tax policy considerations that have traditionally guided the development of the taxation system. He further revealed that mobile money transactions declined by Shs 672 billion in the first two weeks of July 2018 when the mobile money tax came into force. Abuka also said the 1 per cent mobile money levy on withdrawals is discriminative since it isn't applicable on withdrawals from the banks, micro finance institutions and Saccos, adding that equity suggests that taxpayers in similar circumstances should bear a similar tax burden. "A student who receives school fees through mobile money shouldn't be taxed in the same manner as a business person who receives payment using mobile money platform in this sense the tax is not equitable," Abuka said. He also warned that the tax could offer various avenues of tax avoidance and evasion including use of informal methods of sending money. Abuka noted that government has already increased the excise duty on mobile money agents from 10 to 15%, which will also affect mobile money users. Abuka adds that on the financial inclusion agenda, the tax will deter the growth of access to financial services, which stood at 55% in 2016 up from 28% in 2010 due to the increased use of mobile money. He says on average, mobile money transactions were valued at Shs 6 trillion (6% of GDP) in 2017/2018 and an increase of Shs 2 trillion in one year. The number of registered mobile money users stands at 23 million with 10 million of them considered active following their transactions in last three months. Abuka says there is still a high level of financial exclusion in rural areas. "Unfortunately this tax is exacerbating the costs associated with provision of the financial services," Abuka said. Henry Musasizi, the parliamentary finance committee chairperson, said although Bank of Uganda says the proposal is unfair and discriminatory, parliament still needs to raise Shs 115 billion to support the budget. The committee expects to handle the proposal within ten days and report back to parliament. President Yoweri Museveni has attacked the West for 'imposing' homosexuality and leaders of their choice on Africans, saying that this is an act of intolerance and lack of respect. Museveni said for the Africans, sexuality is treated as a private matter but now the West is imposing its own values on the continent, ignoring the fact that as Africans they have an identity and a set of values that should be respected. "Tolerance is something I find missing in the Middle East and even in Europe and it causes a lot of problems. On every issue, somebody wants to impose his views on other people. You come to the issue of homosexuality, they want to impose it on you," said Museveni. President Museveni was given a Global Peace Leadership award Museveni was on Thursday addressing the Global Peace Leadership Conference at Commonwealth Resort, Munyonyo. He said that the mishandling of identity is a big mistake saying that every body's identity should be respected. "Africans here, we know a few people who are rumoured to be homosexuals, even in history we had some few being rumoured but you cannot stand up here and say 'am a homosexual.' People will not like it, but whenever we talk to our partners from other part of the world, and say that is a private matter, you leave it. They say no; they want to impose it on you that I should stand up and say; oyee, homosexuals oyee," said Museveni. In attendance at the conference was the first vice president of South Sudan Taban Deng Gai, first vice president for Burundi Gaston Sindimwo, former President of Zanzibar Dr Abeid Amani Karume and others. The conference attracted delegates from Canada, United States of America, India, Korea, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, and South Sudan among others under the theme, "Moral and innovative leadership: new models for sustainable peace and development." It is organized by US-based interfaith NGO, the Global Peace Foundation. Museveni noted four reasons which cause lack of peace - intolerance and lack of respect of other people's identities. The other reasons he cited are conflict between man and man, conflict between man and nature and weakness. He said that most people do not want to want to live by honest labour but at the expense of others which deters peace to prevail. "Some use knowledge of science to disadvantage others. Some people like to kill and these are cowards and selfish people. These are bad elements to humans," Museveni noted. He gave an example of conflicts in Libya and Iraq as having been caused by the Americans describing them as greedy. "The issue of scarce resources, these wars in the Middle East in Libya, in North Africa, in Iraq, they have been about oil. People are talking of Iran, Iran, Iran but the original problem was caused by Americans because in 1953 there were democratic elections in Iran and a man called [Mohammed] Mosaddegh was not an extremist, not an Islamist, he was a secularist." he said. "He was elected but he wanted to change the laws on petroleum and the CIA organised a coup against Mosaddegh, 1953. So that is how this Shah man - the king was being pumped by the Americans, a puppet, they were looking for a puppets. They did not like Mosaddegh because Mosaddegh had different ideas about petroleum. They used this Shah but this Shah was actually annoying Iranians and this movement went underground. it became a big issue now and was taken over by the Islamic clerics and now you have what you have in Iran. But who caused it? It was the greed of the Americans." He also said that the unending conflicts in Congo are caused by the greed of Western governments. "We have been having the UN in Congo since 1960. The Congolese had never had elections in their lives. They had elections in 1960, they elected their leader Patrice Lumumba who won national elections but some people did not like Lumumba because they did not like his politics. So they organised for him to be killedand Congo has never had peace since 1960 up to now. And UN is always there. So what was the original causer of problems in Congo? Those who killed Patrice Lumumba and they know themselves." said Museveni. Museveni further advised Africans to avoid weakness saying it is another cause of conflict since it tempts greedy people to invade them. He said Africans should stop complaining of persecution by the western powers because they choose to concentrate on factors that make them weak instead of concentrating on factors that make them strong. In his statement read out by the Tanzanian prime minister Kassim Majaliwa, President John Pombe Magufuli said that peace is an essential prerequisite for development. He said that there cannot be peace where human rights are violated, discrimination and intolerance, injustice, marginalization, favouritism, poverty and hunger. Kenya's cabinet secretary Eugene Wamalwa represented President Uhuru Kenyatta at the conference noted that political disputes should not be allowed to define national agendas. The Council of Europe is looking for a PR firm to promote its effort in Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve the country's justice system, fight economic crime and combat discrimination. SIRACUSA - Police on Thursday apprehended 40 migrants believed to be Iraqi nationals as they were walking between the beach resort of Fontane Bianche and Avola, near the Sicilian city of Siracusa. According to the task force against illegal immigration of the State attorney's office in Siracusa, the immigrants are believed to have traveled on a sailboat from Turkey. Investigative sources said migrant smugglers, mainly from Ukraine and Russia, are increasingly using the route from Turkey to transport migrants aboard sailboats. Ivanka Trump First Daughter Ivanka Trump said today that she doesnt view journalists as the enemy of the people. Hurrah! Thats a far cry from her dad who tweeted a video of Mondays media-hate-fest in Tampa at which the crowd roared CNN sucks and jeered its chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Ivanka said at the Axios forum at the Newseum in Washington: Ive certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripes, especially when they sort of feel targeted, but no, I do not consider the media the enemy of the people. Her statement was in sharp contrast to the sorry performance of press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at todays White House briefing, where she passed on multiple times to declare that the press is not the enemy. A day after her tweet accusing Democrats of suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome" for freaking out about the booming Trump economy, Sanders whiffed on the press/enemy question. Im here to speak on behalf of the president, she said. The president is rightfully frustrated. Ninety percent of the coverage on him is negative. Thats a total cop-out. Sanders then turned the tables, griping about coverage that she has received from the media. That's a page from Trump's diversion book to change the subject. A fed-up Acosta walked out of the briefing and then tweeted that Sanders unwillingness to say the press isn't the enemy was shameful. White House advisor Ivanka should have a chat with Sanders about the need to tone down her rhetoric. After all, her title is press secretary, not press provocateur. Gardai in Offaly have reiterated a warning for residents to be vigilant for suspicious traders after reports of callers to houses in the north of the county today, Thursday, August 2. Two different vans offering furniture have been spotted in a number of locations in the greater Edenderry area, prompting gardai into the warning. The men are travelling in northern registered and Republic of Ireland registered vans and are being described as suspicious by residents. One report suggested the four to five men were "looking around" the yard of an elderly woman in Rhode on Thursday afternoon. Another group approached the door of an elderly Edenderry resident with a piece of furniture that the resident had not ordered and had showed no interest in. Similar activity has been reported in Clonbullogue. People are being told "not to engage" with the men, while gardai have repeated their calls for people to use only reputable tradespeople. Sightings are to be reported to local garda stations. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you have a story for us, sports news, an event happening in your area, or if you want to submit pictures or videos, contact the Offaly Express team via email to justin.kelly@iconicnews.ie, or through our Facebook. Fianna Fail TD for Offaly Barry Cowen says the government must not use the retirement of Postmasters and Postmistresses to close rural Post Offices. An unverified list, which has now entered the public domain, suggests that up to 150 Post Offices in rural Ireland could close. Deputy Cowen explained, According to this list, there are two Post Offices in Offaly, Mount Lucas and Walsh Island, in which the Postmaster or Postmistress is retiring and face the prospect of closure. These are people who have provided essential services to their local communities and are now retiring; however, the government has made no real effort to find a replacement or to protect these services." The latest An Post strategy commits to rural dwellers having a Post Office within 15km of their homes. However, for people who live in remote areas, or who dont have their own transport, 15kms will be an unacceptable distance to travel to access basic services." "While it may be argued that many of these services are available online, the fact of the matter is that much of rural Ireland is still waiting for a decent broadband connection and is therefore being hit on the double with the loss of their Post Office," Cowen claimed. The government, and Minister Naughten in particular, must to more to support access to services for people living in rural Ireland. The record to date is extremely poor." Ministers need to seriously examine the possibility of a public service payment for unviable post offices as has been done in the UK. This could be used to keep post offices open and maintain the current levels of service," Barry stated. This governments relentless attack on rural communities must be stopped and the importance of rural services and links must be recognised and supported." Cowen concluded by saying, "I am calling on Minister Naughten to outline what steps he intends taking to ensure that these Post Offices are protected from the risk of closure so that these communities can continue to avail of essential everyday services." ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you have a story for us, sports news, an event happening in your area, or if you want to submit pictures or videos, contact the Offaly Express team via email to justin.kelly@iconicnews.ie, or through our Facebook. More rain in store as IMD puts Bengaluru on yellow alert Karnataka school reopening date for 1-5th std revealed: When will offline classes begin for primary kids? Karnataka: Six dead after a crane collapses in Kalaburagi Bengaluru oi-Vikas By Vikas Bengaluru, Aug 2: At least six people were killed and one person is injured after a crane collapsed at an under-construction cement factory in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, on Thursday evening. Initially, it was reported that three people had died and four were injured. But later, three of the four injured succumbed to injuries, taking the death toll to six. One injured person is said to be critical. The injured labourers were rushed to nearby hospital for the treatment. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Friday, August 3, 2018, 0:27 [IST] How a text message helped Chennai police nab pickpockets targeting DMK cadre Chennai oi-Deepika By Deepika Chennai, Aug 2: Chennai police have nabbed a trio of pickpockets who targeted DMK cadres standing outside Kauvery Hospital where party President M Karunanidhi is admitted. Interestingly, the police have managed to nab a trio with just the use of a single-word text message. The message just said "come". The officer hid under the bed, overheard the conversation of the pickpockets, texted a team waiting outside and minutes later, they were caught. As many as 13 people, who went on a pickpocketing spree targeting the DMK cadre who had assembled outside Kauvery Hospital in anticipation of news about ailing party patriarch M. Karunanidhi's health, were apprehended on Tuesday. According to the reports, two of the accused, Annadurai, 31, and Murali, 25, collected information of the gathering around the state from the news and passed on the information to Jeevarathinam, 54, who would take some pickpockets and daily wage labourers to steal there. The men also confessed to having purchased flags and towels of political parties to use whenever necessary, police said. A number of mobile phones along with 10 wallets were recovered by the police from the gang that had been tapping in on the downhearted DMK cadre. Another thief was caught by the Chennai police, reportedly trying to blend in with the DMK cadre in an attempt to pickpocket a party member. Some mobile phones, a watch and Rs 60,000 in cash was found on the accused. Their interrogation revealed that they hailed from different districts and had met in prison. They often targeted party cadre who gathered in large numbers on special occasions like the birthday or the anniversary of their leaders. For more Chennai news Click Here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 14:06 [IST] Refused biriyani after closing hours, DMK members beat up eatery staff members; 2 suspended Chennai oi-Shubham By Shubham Chennai, Aug 2: A few workers of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were on the run after beating up several employees at an eatery here because they refused to serve biryani after closing hours. A video footage went viral later showing the men bashing up people as the eatery staff members try to pull them away. The police were in the hunt for the offenders. The incident happened on Sunday (July 29) when thousands of DMK workers assembled outside the city's Kauvery Hospital where party patriarch and former chief minister of the state M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. The supporters assembled hearing the 94-year-old Kalaignar's deteriorating health conditions and stayed there for a long time despite appeals from the party leaders and the lawkeepers. It was one such group of DMK supporters went to the eatery, located 10 kilometres from the hospital at Virugambakkam where they sought food. But when the restaurant staff members refused to serve them food, saying the kitchen was shut, they were attacked by the party workers. The accused was identified as Yuvaraj and a case has been registered against him and some of his accomplices, police sources said, agencies reported. The DMK leadership also took a strong step by suspending Yuvaraj besides another person Divakar. Party president MK Stalin, son of Karunanidhi, said the actions of the suspended workers were "strongly condemnable" and warned against indulging in such acts. "Strong action will be taken against anyone bringing disrepute to the party," Stalin tweeted. DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan also confirmed the suspension of the two members, saying they were suspended from the party's primary membership. Inside sources in the party even said that the two "will be ultimately expelled", reports said. For More Chennai News, Click Here Thiruparankundram AIADMK legislator AK Bose passes away at 69 Chennai oi-Madhuri Chennai, Aug 2: Thiruparankundram AIADMK legislator AK Bose on Thursday passed away from a cardiac arrest. Bose who was staying in Madurai's Jaihindpuram complained of chest pain. However, he was pronounced dead as soon as his family took him to a private hospital in Madurai on Wednesday night, according to reports. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is likely to visit his home later in the day. The Thiruparankundram assembly will now see a second by-election in two years. Bose had contested and won a by-election after his predecessor SM Seenivelu died in 2016. AK Bose had represented Tiruparangundram earlier in 2006 and Madurai North in 2011. With the death of the lawmaker, AIADMK's tally in the 234-member assembly has dropped down to 115. He was one of the fence-sitters when former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's close confidante V.K. Sasikala and T.T.V. Dhinakaran were expelled from the party. Bose started his political career as a member of AIADMK youth wing. He had also served as party's Madurai urban district secretary. He became MLA for the first time in 2006 from the Thiruparankundram Assembly Constituency. He won from the Madurai North Assembly Constituency in 2011, but was denied a seat in the 2016 assembly general election. Bose is survived by his wife Bagyalakshmi, two sons and two daughters. For More Chennai News, Click Here For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 12:49 [IST] Fake: This is not an image of a protest in Assam against Bangladesh violence Assam police mulling FIR against TMC delegation that has been detained at Silchar airport India oi-Vikas By Vikas Guwahati, Aug 2: The Assam Police on Thursday said legal action would be taken against the TMC delegation which has been detained at Silchar Airport as two constables were injured in a scuffle with them. The eight-member team of TMC legislators and parliamentarians landed at Silchar airport in Assam to campaign against National Register of Citizens (NRC). "We had requested the delegation of TMC leaders not to come to Silchar now as it was important for us to maintain peace in the state. Moreover,Section 144 is imposed in Cachar district. We feared that their arrival might create differences among people," Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia told the media. "Police have kept them inside the airport with restrictions on their movement. In the scuffle, 2 of our constables and 1 worker from district administration were injured. Legal actions will be taken on the basis of FIRs by injured and for violation of Section 144," he added. #WATCH: TMCs Mahua Moitra seen assaulting lady constable who tried to restrain Mahua Moitra after TMC leaders were stopped at Silchar Airport. Constable received injuries. #NRCAssam pic.twitter.com/FJjNQ77ngO ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2018 Six MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh and Mamata Thakur and Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra are part of the delegation. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier today lashed out at the Centre and the Assam government after TMC delegation was detained and allegedly manhandled at Silchar Airport. Condemning the incident, TMC MP Derek O Brien said, "It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergency like situation." He said they were waiting for instructions from the party leadership to decide on their next step and that they will bring a privilege motion in Parliament. Television channels played video clips of police personnel jostling with members of the Trinamool delegation. The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, alleged that the delegation went to Silchar to "spread tension and create trouble" and that they have no business in Assam. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 20:22 [IST] French FM meets king Abdullah, discuss Syria, peace talks Le Drian calls for a road map to solve crisis (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, AUGUST 2 - French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks with king Abdullah on Thursday on the political development in the region and bilateral cooperation, promising that his country would provide Jordan with one billion euro in financial assistance. The French top diplomat earlier in the day held a press conference in the Jordanian capital after meeting Nasser al Safadi, Jordan FM, as both declared the discussed the Middle East peace talks, Syria security and refugee crisis as well as the economic conditions in Jordan. Le Drian called for a road map to solve the Syrian crisis. If there is an American initiative, we will coordinate continuously in order to judge the developments," he said during the press conference. He also called for supporting Jordan financially to help the government cope with the aid provided to Syrian refugees. "I know that Jordan is paying a heavy bill to the Syrian refugees. Jordan must be helped and the international community must do its part," he added, declaring that his country will provide financial assistance worth one billion euros, but he did not say conditions of the package. (ANSAmed). Better if every state has NRC prepared: Assam Governor India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Guwahati, Aug 2: Assam Governor on Thursday supported Assm NRC issue, saying the Central government has right to know about the foreigners staying in the state or country. Assam Governor, Jagdish Mukhi, said, "Draft of NRC is historical for Assamese people as it has been done as per wishes of Assamese and Assam accord. Many people are worried over non-inclusion of their names in NRC, I assure them that anyone who is an Indian their name will certainly be there in final NRC report." "Government assured that each and every Indian shall be included in the final NRC report and guarantees security of each and every citizen in the stat, " said the Governor. He further said that Central government has the right to know about the foreigners staying in the state or country. "It will be better if every state has NRC prepared, they should not only prepare NRC rather they should update it with every census, this will ensure full proof security in the country, " he added. The NRC issue has become bone of contention between the ruling BJP and opposition parties in the Parliament. The NRC issue continued to disrupt Parliament proceedings for the third consecutive day. Like Tuesday, Rajya Sabha had to be adjourned early even on Wednesday after the Upper House witnessed unruly scenes when Chairman Venkaiah Naidu asked BJP president Amit Shah to conclude his statement over the final draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC). For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 11:28 [IST] Covid test must for those visiting Bihar from other states during Diwali, Chhath Bihar By-polls: Lalu Yadav to campaign for RJD candidates on Wednesday to ensure 'visarjan' of Nitish Kumar Bihar bandh: Left, RJD, Congress protest against sexual abuse in Muzaffarpur India oi-Deepika By Deepika Patna, Aug 2: A state-wide bandh has been called by Left parties in Bihar today against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes in Bihar. The bandh is being supported by the Congress and RJD who are demanding CM Nitish Kumar's resignation. Taking to Twitter, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav had said on Wednesday, "Against ghastly, dreadful & gruesome mass rape sponsored by Nitish Kumar, Left parties have called Bihar Bandh tomorrow supported by RJD & Congress demanding CM Nitish Kumar resignation. I assure that I will compel Nitish Kumar to speak up. Chacha, get ready to walk the talk." As many as 34 girls were sedated, tortured, burned and sexually abused by administration and visitors at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The case came to light in a social audit report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 11:29 [IST] BJP-ruled states' chief ministers to reach Delhi on August 28 to discuss strategy India oi-Vinod New Delhi, Aug 2: Top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national party president Amit Shah will meet chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states in Delhi on August 28, 2018, to discuss preparations of the Lok Sabha elections for their respective states. Party general secretary (organizations) Ram Lal will also be present in the meeting with some other senior leaders. Sources in the BJP said that chief ministers of all the BJP-ruled states will reach Delhi with a roadmap for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party wants every detail about the Lok Sabha constituencies of the respective states. Over one hundred RSS pracharaks are already gathering their feedback from the every nook and cranny of the country. Party and other affiliate organisations are also gathering their election-specific information so not only weakness but strong points of the constituency could be gathered. After the meeting all the chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states will be given a roadmap for the 2019 Lok Sabha lections. Chief ministers will be asked for star campaigners from the Central BJP leadership. The BJP in power in a state like Uttar Pradesh where there are 80 Lok Sabha seats and also in states where there are just one or two LS seats. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 23:26 [IST] Right to be forgotten: HC asks Centre, Google to reply to plea for removing verdict from search engine Delhi air-hostess death case: Court extends interim protection from arresting parents till Sep 17 India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 2: The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended the interim protection from arresting parents of the husband of a woman flight attendant, who had allegedly committed suicide in the national capital earlier this month, till 17th September. Anissia, who was working with a German airline, had allegedly jumped from the terrace of her house in Panchsheel Park in South Delhi on July 13 and Mayank had taken her to a nearby hospital, where she was declared brought dead. Her family has alleged that her husband used to physically abuse her and often demand money from the victim. The family have claimed before the trial court that it was not a suicide, but murder. On the other hand, Mayank's parents have sought anticipatory bail claiming that they had no role in the matter and any dispute between their son and daughter-in-law was their internal matter. Mayank, who was married to Anissia for over two years, was arrested on July 16. Before jumping off the terrace, she had sent a message to her husband that she would kill herself, police had said earlier. The husband, a software engineer in Gurgaon, had told the police that they had regular fights due to "compatibility issues". They had an argument on the day of incident as well, following which she jumped from the terrace, police had said. The victim's family had also given a complaint to police on June 27 saying that if anything happens to their daughter, Mayank would be responsible, police had said. (with PTI inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 12:30 [IST] You have right to protest not right to block roads: SC to farmers DK Shivakumar gets interim bail in money laundering case India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Bengaluru, Aug 2: Economic Crimes Court granted conditional interim bail to Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar and four others in a money laundering and Hawala case on Thursday. The High Court ordered them to deposits a bond of Rs 50,000 each. The IT dept had filed a case before the Special Court for Economic Offences, Bengaluru based on the raids conducted on Shivakumar's residence in Sadashivanagar and simultaneous raids in other parts of the state and in Delhi. I-T officials had seized Rs 8.59 cr cash, diary and notes during raids in Delhi. Raids were conducted from August 2, 2017, and lasted for more than a week. Shivakumar had been accused of operating a hawala network by the Income Tax department. DK Shivakumar was named as accused number 1 in the case while his business associate Sachin Narayan accused number 2. Other accused include Sunil Kumar Sharma (proprietor of Sharma Travels), Anjaneya Hanumanthaia (a state government employee at Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi), Rajendra (former state government employee and presently working for Sharma). Floods in Bengal are man-made says MP India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 2: Alleging that floods in West Bengal were man-made, independent member Ritabrata Banerjee today demanded that the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) should consult the state government before releasing excess river water. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Banerjee said DVC was releasing excess water every year resulting in severe floods in West Bengal. Excess water is released as several barrages under DVC have not been cleared or dredged. The state government has been raising this issue from time to time but no action has been taken, he said. Last year, two lakh cusecs of water was released that caused flood in more than 106 blocks. "DVC needs to sit with the state government on an immediate basis on the issue of releasing water. No water should be released without consultation with the state, he said. "Man-made flood is happening. This needs to be stopped. State should be taken on board," he said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 14:20 [IST] GST Council may discuss exemption of temples from paying tax under u/s 23 (2) India oi-Vinod New Delhi, Aug 2: The next Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting may take up the issue of exemption of temple and other religious shrines from the GST purview. Shrines like Tirupati Tirumala Devsthanam, Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, Sidhdhi Vinakay Temple in Mumbai and many more have been demanding exemption from the GST by saying that they are not involved in business activities rather in social and charitable activities. The next meeting of GST Council is scheduled for August 4, 2018. One of the GST members and minister of finance, planning, commercial taxes and legislative affairs the Andhra Pradesh government Yanamala Ramakrishnudu has written a letter to GST Council chairman demanding exemption of temple from GST. Ramakrishnudu writes, "I request you to consider granting exemption u/s 23 (2) to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD). The TTD is a religious Trust and manages world renowned Lord Venkateswara temple. It is not engaged in business activity. Its main objective is to spread Hindu Dharma. Providing services to the devotees is part of that main objective. Therefore levying tax on the amounts it receives in providing services or sale of goods is not justified. TTD utilises the surplus amounts for charitable purposes such as running several educational institutions, hospitals etc. Therefore TTD may be exempted from obtaining registration and payment of GST by issuing a suitable notification under sec 23 (2) of CGST, SGST Acts." Shirdi Sai Trust's Baba Saheb Ghorpade said that they too have written to the GST Council demanding exemption because Shirdi Sai temple also running hospitals, schools and many other charitable institution and is involved in social activities. It is not doing business, selling products or making profit. So it must necessarily be kept out of the GST. Organisations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad too pitching in for them when its joint general secretary Surendra Jain said, "We have been demanding this from very long that these religious shrines must be kept out of GST. These temples are involved in religious activities not in commercial activities. Even trusties involved in these temple do their own business separately. TTD, Shirdi Temple and Sidhdhi Vinayak are some important shrines that should be kept out of GST the way community dining (Langer) has been exempted from it. Manager at Shirdi Sai Temple, Lodhi Road, Delhi too accepted that the temple must be kept out of GST purview as no activity of temple comes under the commercial purview. A big amount of money goes for donation and charitable activities. Deputy chief minister Delhi who too is member of the GST council could be reached for his comment on the issue as there are big temples in Delhi like Jhandelwalan and Birla Temple. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 19:05 [IST] Issues like corruption, Dalits, OBC sub-quota and infiltration to be poll issues in 2019 India oi-Vinod By Vinod New Delhi, Aug 2: It is too early to say but the government is getting ready for 2019 Lok Sabha elections by cajoling Dalit community with all issues concerning the community, advocating Other Backward Classes (OBC) sub quota matter, taking up corruption matters and lastly the issue of infiltration. These can be corroborated from the decisions taken by the government not only at the government level but at the organisational of the ruling party. Sources in the government informed that the decision of the government to amend SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act that was nullified by the Supreme Court order on March 20 is to keep the community in good humour. The OBC Sub Quota Bill will break the hegemony of some strong group within the group benefiting the ruling dispensation. But the government seems to be reeping maximum benefit from the infiltration issue by publishing National Register for Citizenship (NRC) in which over 40 lakh people living in Assam fail to get their names in it and corruption issue to be by bringing Vijay Malya and other fugitives to India. Since Dalits are an important factor across the country so not only the government but the ruling party is treading on the matter very cautiously. The recent cabinet decision on SC/ST Act is one such move and similarly some appointments in the BJP organisation and some more to come also tells the real story about the party where it is heading to. Sources say that the government is serious about getting the OBC sub quota bill passed that would give the party a huge electoral dividend. Sources also said that narrative built around infiltration will definitely give the BJP an edge over others as this will polarize majority votes towards the party. This is the reason that the BJP is taking the matter of National Register of Citizenship very seriously and state president of the West Bengal BJP Dilip Ghosh had gone up to the extant of saying that if the BJP comes to power in the state it will do the Assam in West Bengal. The government submission to the court on the issue of Rohingya that they are not refugees but infiltrators tells the one more tale. Political analysts feel that NRC is such an issue that will definitely polarize majority votes in favour of the BJP with its pan-India impact but it will have adverse impact also that will bring all BJP adversaries together. Another thing that the BJP is looking at as an election issue is bringing people like Vijay Malya, Mehul Choksi and other offenders to the country by making the corruption an issue. The aggressive posturing of the government in London and other places where these economic offenders have fled is quite visible. This shows the government resolve against the corruption. They government may also try to link these corruption issue with the poverty. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 20:29 [IST] It is targeted killing: MEA condemns terrorist attack on civilians in Srinagar Delimitation will happen, J&K statehood to be restored: Amit Shah in Srinagar J&K: 2 terrorists killed in gunfight with security forces in Kupwara India oi-Deepika By Deepika Srinagar, Aug 2: Two terrorists were killed in a fresh exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. The encounter began after the militants opened fire on the security forces' personnel on patrol duty in Lolab valley, they said. The militants were yet to be identified. "Two terrorists were killed in an encounter with J&K Police/SF (security forces) in Lolab Kupwara few minutes back," Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police S P Vaid said on Twitter. The exchange of fire comes two days after terrorists hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party at Sherbagh in Anantnag district. Three CRPF personnel had sustained injuries in the attack launched by the terrorists. PM Modi to visit Italy, UK from Oct 29 to Nov 2 for G-20 summit, COP-26 conference PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission: What we know about the scheme, so far? Karunanidhi laid to rest with full-state honours at Marina Beach India oi-Oneindia Staff By Oneindia Staff Chennai, Aug 8: DMK patriarch and five-time Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi was finally laid to rest on Wednesday alongside Jayalalithaa, DMK founder CN Annadurai and MGR at Marina beachfront in Chennai as a sea of humanity bid him a tearful farewell. He was buried with full state honours next to his mentor and former chief minister C N Annadurai at the Marina beach. No Hindu rituals were performed as Karunanidhi was a self-proclaimed atheist and rationalist. Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin received the national flag wrapped around his father's body. Other family members including the leader's wife Rajathi Ammal, other sons and daughters showered flower petals at his feet. Draped in a tricolour, the five-time chief minister was taken for his burial in an open procession. A sea of supporters were lined up along the route to catch a final glimpse of the departed leader and chanted slogans for their Thalaivar. The last journey of 'Kalaignar' Karunanidhi began at 4:00 pm. The 94-year-old Dravidian icon, who was affectionately called as Thalaivar and Kalaignar, had breathed his last at Kauvery hospital after fighting for life for 11 days. He had been battling age-related ailments for a long time. Earlier today, leaders from across the country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, came to Chennai to pay their last respects to the doyen of Tamil Nadu politocs who breathed his last at Kauvery hospital in Chennai on Tuesday. Several Chief Ministers and political leaders paid tribute to late DMK chief M Karunanidhi at the Rajaji Hall here today. Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, former chief ministers of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, Oommen Chandy and Akilesh Yadav respectively, among other leaders paid homage to the departed leader. Here are the Highlights: DMK working president MK Stalin said in an interview that DMK supremo Karunanidhi's health is stable and that doctors are monitoring his condition at the hospital. Actor Vijay meets DMK leader MK Stalin at Kauvery hospital where former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment Chennai: Actor Vijay meets DMK leader MK Stalin at Kauvery hospital where former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment pic.twitter.com/CxRFxzKYOz ANI (@ANI) August 1, 2018 Rajnikanth meets Karunanidhi. On July 31, Congress president Rahul Gandhi met Karunanidhi and wished him a speedy recovery. I wanted to come and see M Karunanidhi Ji. He is a tough person, I met him & he is stable. Sonia ji has sent her best wishes and regards to the family: Rahul Gandhi Congress President Rahul Gandhi to travel to Chennai today to meet DMK chief M Karunanidhi who is admitted to Kauvery Hospital. Stalin says Karunanidhi's condition is stable and that the veteran leader continues to remain under keen observation of doctors. Representatives of Sri Lanka President, Maithripala Sirisena, visited Kauvery hospital to meet former Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi. They submitted a letter from Sirisena to DMK working President MK Stalin wishing speedy recovery to Karunanidhi. NCP leader Sharad Pawar visited Chennai's Kauvery hospital today. He met M K Stalin and Kanimozhi and inquired about the Karunanidhi's health. Supporters of DMK chief M Karunanidhi pray at his residence in Coimbatore where he used to reside in 1945. He is currently admitted in Chennai's Kauvery hospital. Visuals from outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment #Visuals from outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/ious2kR6GT ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2018 DMK supremo Karunanidhi is fighting with Yaman (the God of death) but he will return victorious, said MDMK general secretary Vaiko Kaveri after visting him at Kauvery Hospital on Monday. Isha Yoga founder and spiritual guru Jaggi vasudev also visited DMK chief Karunanidhi at the Kauvery Hospital on Monday, News18 Tamil reported. AIADMK member Nanjil Sampath and famous Tamil poet Vairamuthu visited DMK chief Karunanidhi in Kauvery Hospital on Monday, according to local media reports. E Palaniswami met Karunanidhi in ICU. He said that the DMK chief is doing fine and a team of expert doctors team is monitoring him, according to reports. DMK volunteers need to maintain peace and cooperate with the police, MK Stalin requests to supporters. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami and and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam have arrived at the Kauvery hospital to enquire about M Karunanidhi's health, according to sources. DMK workers continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. According to Thanthi TV, DMK chief Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi who had stayed at the hospital overnight has said that he is doing good and his well-wishers and party workers should be "brave" in these testing times. DMK workers continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai where DMK Chief M #Karunanidhi is undergoing treatment. pic.twitter.com/Y98hwdh0RZ ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2018 A DMK worker died of a heart attack in Thiruvarur on Sunday morning after hearing about the deteriorating health of party veteran M Karunanidhi. Another DMK worker, Raju, committed suicide by hanging himself on Sunday, according to local media reports. The security was beefed up both at the hospital and Karunanidhi's residence on Sunday. DMK leader A Raja, in an address to people outside Kauvery Hospital in Chennai, asked not to believe in rumours. Raja said, "Karunanidhi is responding well to treatment". A massive crowd has gathered outside Kauvery hostpital and a tight security has been put in place. Some reports had earlier said that Karunanidhi's condition was upgraded to 'very critical' from 'critical'. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami, who was in Salem, has reportedly cancelled all his meetings and rushed for Chennai. Leaders cutting across party lines are arriving at Kauvery hospital. Massive crowds have gathered outside the hospital. People are shouting slogans "Long live Kalaignar". MK Stalin issues statement over M Karunanidhi's health condition,states 'There was unexpected setback in his health but after intense medical care,he's normalising.Doctors' team is continuously monitoring him.Appeal to cadres to not indulge in violence or disturb police or public pic.twitter.com/1tsAoUF4mU ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2018 Karunanidhi was admitted to the Hospital in a critical condition around 1.30 a.m. on Saturday after his blood pressure began to fall. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance past Friday midnight from his Gopalapuram residence. Former BJD leader Bijayant Jay Panda earlier called on M Karunanidhi at Kauvery hospital today and wished for the DMK president's speedy recovery. "I came here to convey my best wishes for Karunanidhi Ji's speedy recovery. He has played a tremendous role in social transformation and economic development of the nation. I met MK Stalin, Kanimozhi and other DMK leaders," Panda told ANI after meeting. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu earlier today met the DMK Chief at Kauvery hospital where Karunanidhi is admitted following a drop in blood pressure. The crowd stayed put outside the hospital even past midnight. Despite assurances that Karunanidhi was recovering, the crowd refused to disperse. Anna University has announced that there has been no holiday declared for its constituent colleges. BJD leader Bijayant Jay Panda calls on M Karunanidhi. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu meets DMK Chief M Karunanidhi at Kauvery hospital where the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was admitted following a drop in blood pressure. DMK supporters gathered outside Chennai's Kauvery hospital, where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi was admitted following drop in blood pressure. Police personnel have cordoned off for the entire area for general public. Karunanidhi's condition has hogged attention over the past couple of days, with political leaders from across the spectrum lining up to visit him. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will meet Karunanidhi at the hospital on Sunday. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi's health condition continues to remain stable with ongoing active medical support, said the latest bulletin issued by Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. The hospital statement said, "DMK President and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Kalaignar Dr M Karunanidhi's health condition continues to be remain stable with ongoing active medical support. He is continuously being monitored & treated by the panel of expert doctors in the Intensive Care Unit." Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meets DMK's MK Stalin at Chennai's Kauvery hospital to inquire about M Karunanidhi's health condition Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad visits Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital TN CM E Palainiswami's statement: Karunanidhi was not feeling well & was undergoing treatment at home. Now, he is being given the best treatment at the hospital. Our ministers had met MK Stalin and inquired about his health. He will recover soon. If necessary we are willing to provide any help with medical aid. He is better. His blood pressure has stabilised: DMK leader Kanimozhi on DMK President M Karunanidhi's health condition. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit met MK Stalin at Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President M Karunanidhi was admitted late last night. DMK supporters continue to gather outside Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President M Karunanidhi is admitted. Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit visits DMK President M Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital who was admitted to the hospital late last night following a drop in blood pressure. MK Stalin arrived at Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President Karunanidhi is admitted following a drop in blood pressure. DMK supporters gathered outside Kauvery Hospital, where DMK President is admitted. Karunanidhi, 94, was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of Kauvery Hospital at 1:30 am. After the hospital informed that Karunanidhi was responding to treatment, the crowd started to disperse. His family members including Stalin and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran too left the hospital. The hospital in a statement said he was brought there after his blood pressure had dropped. "His blood pressure has been stabilised with medical management and he continues to be monitored and treated by the panel of experts," the hospital said. Several senior DMK leaders, including working president M K Stalin and his estranged elder brother M K Alagiri were at the hospital. Other frontline leaders such as Duraimurugan, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and former Union minister A Raja were also there. Hundreds of party cadres and well-wishers have gathered at the hospital. Security beefed up in and around the area. Slogans like "Long Live Kalaignar Karunanidhi" rent the air. Earlier in the day, Kauvery hospital in Chennai released a medical bulletin stating that Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi's health had deteriorated and a team of medical experts were treating him for fever due to urinary tract infection and had kept him under observation for 24 hours. "There has been a decline in the health of DMK president M Karunanidhi's due to age-related ailments. He is being treated for fever due to urinary tract infection. He is being given hospital level treatment at home," a medical bulletin released by the Kauvery Hospital said. Given his condition, the team of doctors attending to him has recommended the restriction on visitors. DMK working president and Karunanidhi's son, M K Stalin, told that the veteran leader is recovering steadily as his fever is coming down. News agency ANI quoted him as saying "he (M Karunanidhi) is recovering steadily as his fever is coming down." Stalin was made the party's working president in 2016 after Karunanidhi retreated from the mainstream politics. He tweeted: "I am thankful to Rahul Gandhi, SitaramYechury & D Raja for calling to inquire about Thalaivar Kalaignar's health. The concern and wishes from everyone will surely aid @kalaignar89's recovery and we hope he will be able to meet everyone soon." On behalf of the DMK, I thank @rashtrapatibhvn & @PMOIndia for their enquiries about @kalaignar89's health. I am extremely grateful for their offers of help. Thalaivar is getting the best medical care and treatment. We hope he will recover soon and thank everyone in his own words M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) July 27, 2018 Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that he spoke with Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin, who is the Leader of Opposition, and daughter Kanimozhi and enquired about the veteran leader's health. "I pray for his quick recovery and good health," wrote Modi on Twitter and added that he has offered any assistance required. Also, President Ram Nath Kovind spoke to Karunanidhi's family members, President's office tweeted, "Spoke to Thiru Karunanidhi's family members on the phone and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery." Spoke to Thiru Karunanidhis family members on the phone and inquired about his health. Wishing the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, a veteran of our public life, a quick recovery #PresidentKovind President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 27, 2018 Arpudhamaal, the mother of Perarivaalan who is accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, visited Gopalapuram to meet Karunanidhi. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to wish for Karunanidhi's speedy recovery. MK Stalin took to Twitter to thank PM Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi for enquiring about Karunanidhi's health. Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot took to Twitter to wish Karunanidhi a speedy recovery. Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said that meeting MK Stalin & Kanimozhi, he was apprised that Karunanidhi's health is improving and that PM Modi spoke to them inquiring about his health. Karunanidhi's house has been flooded with party workers today after Kauvery Hospital stated a "slight decline" in his health Thursday night. Stalin's estranged brother and former union minister M K Alagiri arrived at the residence along with his son Durai Dayanidhi. Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan said, "Kalaignar should get back to active life and that is my prayer. He presided over my marriage..." Among other visitors were, MDMK chief Vaiko, Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, CPI leader D Pandian and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader Velmurugan who enquired about his health from family members and Stalin. "Such fever after a tracheostomy procedure is usual. Stalin told me that he is fine. I am confident that he will bounce back with the same magnetic voice," Vaiko told reporters. Karunanidhi completed 50 years as party chief today and the DMK had planned to celebrate it by distributing sweets and welfare assistance. TUNIS2 - The Festival MaTerrE will be held in Tabarka on August 10-12 with a rich program focusing on promoting the products of the mountain region of Kroumirie-Mogods, in the governorate of Jendouba (north-west Tunisia). In order to promote the region and its characteristic local products, stands will be set up with exhibitors (craftsmen, associations, guides, farmers, young entrepreneurs) involved in MaTerrE and Start Up Tunisia with events for children and a closing conference during which the results of the two projects will be presented. The projects are funded by the European Union, the Emilia-Romagna region and the Italian agency for cooperation and development (Aics). They are implemented by the association Cefa and local partners in the governorates of Jendouba, Beja and Bizerte. The objective is to facilitate the creation of jobs by promoting small and medium-sized companies managed by Tunisian woman and youths in the sectors of agriculture and services to preserve and promote the territory. Despite highest disruptions since 2014, here's the list of bills passed in Parliament New parliament building will be a monumental work of skill, speed, scale: Govt official Monsoon Session ends, most productive for Lok Sabha since 2000 India oi-Staff By Oneindia Staff Writer New Delhi, Aug 10: The Monsoon session of Parliament, which ended, was the "most productive" for Lok Sabha since 2000, a think tank has said. According to the data compiled by PRS Legislative Research, 20 bills were introduced during the session and 12 were passed. The Lok Sabha, it said, worked for 110 per cent of the scheduled hours and the Rajya Sabha for 66 per cent. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha spent 50 per cent and 48 per cent of their time on legislative business respectively, the data said. This, the PRS Legislative Research data said, is the highest by both Houses in the 16th Lok Sabha and second highest since 2004. Fewer bills (26 per cent) were referred to parliamentary committees, as compared to the 15th Lok Sabha (71 per cent) and the 14th Lok Sabha (60 per cent). This Monsoon session also had one of the most productive Question Hours of the 16th Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha functioned for 84 per cent and 68 per cent of their scheduled Question Hour time respectively, the data said. The highest number of 999 Private Member Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha since 2000, the think tank said. In the 16th Lok Sabha, the highest number of government Bills were introduced by the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the 15th Lok Sabha, the highest number of Bills were introduced by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Law and Justice. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the session has been the "more productive and safisfactory" compared to the previous Budget Session and last year's monsoon session. The session, which began on July 18, also witnessed a discussion on a no confidence motion against the Government brought by Opposition. The motion was defeated later. The House also greeted the people in advance on the occasion of the Independence Day. Here are the Highlights from the Monsoon Session: Newest First Oldest First Monsoon Session of the Lok Sabha adjourned Sine Die. "Triple Talaq Bill will not be taken up today because no consensus could be built around it," says Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. Some reports say that the Triple Talaq Bill could be tabled in the Winter Session. The government and opposition failed to reached a consensus on the issue of triple talaq. Senior ministers in the government including Union law minister and senior Congress leaders are discussing the matter to reach a meeting point. However consensus seems unlikely. Congress demands JPC into Rafale issue. After ruckus over the matter, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned. Uproar by Opposition in Rajya Sabha over Rafale Deal issue. Congress raises Rafale deal issue in Rajya Sabha. Sonia Gandhi takes part in the protest by Opposition in Parliament premises over Rafale Deal issue. "Our party's position is absolutely clear on this, I will not say anything on this further," former Congress president Sonia Gandhi tells media when asked about Triple Talaq Bill. Congress, CPI, RJD and AAP hold protest outside Parliament over Rafale deal issue, reports ANI. The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved amendments in the Triple Talaq Bill. Under the amendments cleared, a magistrate will have powers to grant bail. The woman can approach the magistrate to seek subsistence allowance for herself and her minor children, and can also seek custody of her minor children from the magistrate who will take a final call on the matter. Union Cabinet yesterday also approved inclusion of provisions that the complaint in such a case can only be filed by the victim (wife) or blood relations With the Union Goverment set to table the Triple Talaq Bill in the Rajya Sabha today, a BJP strategy meeting is curently underway in the Parliament. BJP President Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh , Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and other senior leaders are present at the meeting, reported ANI. Triple Talaq Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha today Lok Sabha adjourned till 11am tomorrow. Triple Talaq Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha tomorrow TDP MP demands Centre intervention in view of several kidney ailment cases in Uddanam Zero Hour begins Lok Sabha has passed the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will rally across the country & expose Congress who ruled for 55 years but did nothing. It's a slap in the face of those who call NDA & Modi govt as anti-dalit, says Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister, on passage of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Amendment Bill New talent would do better in upcoming games&championships. Manipur is known as sports powerhouse.I want to make it super sports powerhouse. Whatever Govt needs to do in this, I would be very happy to help:Mary Kom,Rajya Sabha MP,on passage of National Sports University Bill 2018 Lok Sabha extends functioning till 7 pm LS debates the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Bill seeks to amend the Representation of People Act, 1950 and the Representation of People Act, 1951 to allow for proxy voting for NRI voters and to make certain provisions of the Acts gender-neutral. Lok Sabha has passed The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill, 2018 and The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018. National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 has been passed by Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, The DNA Technology (Use And Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 11.00 am tomorrow. Parliament has passed the National Sports University Bill 2018 as the Rajya Sabha has given its approval. The Rajya Sabha is currently discussing The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The Lok Sabha is discussing The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018. "We've proposed 3 changes. If any husband gives triple talaq instantaneously & breaks marriage then FIR shall only become cognizable when it is filed by victim or blood relation or relation by marriage," he said. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, or TDP, has given notice for a no trust motion against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha. The no-trust motion does not endanger the BJP-led government which has 273 members in the Lok Sabha, much more than the half-way mark. Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said at the all-party meeting: We will not allow the House to function till an assurance is given by the government on the floor of the House on reservations to SCs and STs in higher education. With the Supreme Court coming down heavily on inaction by states in cases of cow vigilantism, a debate on an anti-lynching law is likely to take place. With parliament session starting from today, several key bills are likely to be passed, tabled or debated. Before the bills are tabled and discussed, the opposition is likely to rake up issues that might delay the session. Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has urged both ruling and opposition parties to stop blame game over house disruptions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday sought cooperation of all political parties and asked them to ensure that it turns out to be a productive session. While the BJP has accused the Congress of Muslim appeasement and practising divisive politics, the Congress on its part has accused Modi of pursuing divisive agenda to win elections after his governance "failure". In Rajya Sabha, members will pay their Obituary References to the passing away of- Vishwasrao Ramrao Patil, Mohammed Amin, Ashok Mitra, Balkavi Bairagi, Kameshwar Paswan, Shantaram Naik, Surinder Kumar Singla and M.M. Jacob Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the government through a pop quiz. In a veiled attack at the BJP-led central government, Gandhi said, "Pop Quiz I bow to the most powerful in the line. A person's strength & power are all that are important to me. I use hatred & fear to maintain the hierarchy of power. I seek out the weakest & crush them. I rank all living beings based on their usefulness to me. Who am I? (sic)." Over eight opposition leaders have sent an unusual rejoinder to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's request to cooperation during parliament's monsoon session with a letter of their own. The opposition leaders wonder whether she had written to the government too, pointing that it was the ruling BJP-led coalition which disrupted parliament for 13 days during the budget session. The Shiv Sena was undecided on supporting the no-confidence motion that the TDP sought to move in Parliament against the BJP-led NDA government. Trinamool Congress gives Zero hour notice in Rajya Sabha over Mob Lynching issue. List of Issues Opposition Will Raise During Monsoon Session Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said opposition parties will demand grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh, apart from raising issues such as lynchings, atrocities against women and Dalits and dilution of a law meant for SCs. He said that attempts to abolish reservation policy and the falling value of the Rupee will be also be raised in the monsoon session. After TMC in Rajya Sabha, now RJD MP JP Yadav has also given an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over cases of mob lynching. CPI MP D Raja has given adjournment motion notice in Rajya Sabha over cases of mob lynching and attack on Swami Agnivesh. With opposition all geared up to corner the Centre over host of issues including contentious mob lynching incident, what the Members of the Parliament should remember is that a total of 68 pending bills need to to be taken up the next 18 sessions. The Budget Session of Parliement was a toatl chaos during which the Lok Sabha worked for only 21 per cent of its scheduled time while the Rajya Sabha worked just 27 per cent. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to express hope for a peaceful Monsoon Session, while taking a dig at the BJP and its allies. "It would be a disgrace if we saw a repeat of proxy disruption so the government can push its bills through in the din," he said in the tweet. Looking forward to a productive #MonsoonSession2018 with support from all political parties. #Parliament pic.twitter.com/fqu5AecGyD Ananthkumar (@AnanthKumar_BJP) July 18, 2018 Ananth Kumar hopes for a productive session. TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas has already wrote to Lok Sabha Secretary-General to include a no-confidence motion in the list of business for the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins today. The government is unlikely to go for election to the post of Rajya Sabha's deputy chairman in Parliament's Monsoon Session beginning tomorrow and will push for a consensus candidate. The post has been lying vacant since June after the retirement of PJ Kurien, who was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on the Congress ticket from Kerala, and later became its deputy chairman in the UPA government. Meeting of Telugu Desam Party(TDP) MPs underway at YS Choudhary's residence in Delhi. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrive in Parliament. YSR Congress MPs protest at Gandhi statue in Parliament, demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. Special category status for Andhra has been a long pending demand. It over this issues that the TDP severed ties with the BJP and walked out of the NDA. "We hope that MonsoonSession of Parliament functions smoothly, whatever issues any party has, it can raise on the floor of the house. Government is ready for discussion on all issues," says PM Modi before entering Parliament. PM Modi seeks cooperation of all political parties and asked them to ensure that the Monsoon Session turns out to be productive. The Budget Session of Parliament was a total chaos during which the Lok Sabha worked for only 21 per cent of its scheduled time while the Rajya Sabha worked just 27 per cent. "May the productivity of the forthcoming session and the rich levels of debate also become a source of inspiration for the various state assemblies," the PM says. Important bills and ordinances listed for the Monsoon Session: 123rd Constitutional Amendment bill Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill or the triple talaq bill Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill National Medical Commission Bill, 2017. Code of Wages Bill, the Factories (Amendment) Bill Contract Labour Amendment Bill Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill Ordinances that would be replaced: Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of HCs (Amendment) Ordinance Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance National Sports University Ordinance Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance Muzzafarpur shelter home rapes: CBI to carry out forensic examination India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 2: The CBI will soon be conducting an exhaustive forensic examination of the Muzzafarpur shelter home where minor girls were allegedly raped by officials of the centre, officials said. They said a team from CFSL will soon be sent to Muzzafarpur to reconstruct crime scenes and collect forensic samples from the centre. The statements of the victims will be used to reconstruct the crime scene and develop a timeline which will be used to prosecute the accused, they said. The agency may also take help child psychologists to record the statements of the girls, some of them as young as seven years, the officials said. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, chief of the state-funded NGO. The agency will also record statements of doctors and forensic specialists, used by the local police during its probe, and collect evidence from them, they said. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's Social Welfare Department in April. An FIR was lodged on May 31 against 11 people, including Brajesh Thakur, the owner of the NGO which ran the government-funded shelter home for destitute girls. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI. In all, sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests. The TISS audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Brajesh Thakur, who ran the NGO, were among those who were arrested by the local police in connection with the case. During the probe by local police, two types of epilepsy injection were recovered from the centre. If administered to a healthy person, these injections would render him unconscious. It was apprehended that this injection might have been used on the inmates to sexually abuse them, the sources from local agencies had said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 8:20 [IST] North Karnataka bandh call withdrawn India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Bengaluru, Aug 2: The bandh called by Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti (PRHS) and its affiliate organisations in 13 districts of the region has been withdrawn on Thursday. Kannada activists protested against north Karnataka bandh call in Belagavi city. Activists requested passengers &and motorists not to support bandh by giving roses. Karnataka Nava Nirmana Sene condemned demand for a separate state. According to reports, pro-Kannada organisations and the Hyderabad-Karnataka Horatta Samiti have also decided to stay away from the proposed bandh. The only organisation which has decided to continue with the bandh is the Uttara Karnataka Raitha Sangha (North Karnataka farmers' association). Shankar Bidari, former DGP Karnataka Police, who hails from North Karnataka region, requested people not to get influenced by the caste, religion or talk of any political leader. Bidari tweeted, "North Karnataka People of North Karnataka should not get influenced by the caste, religion or talk of any political leader. They should judge and support him, only if he has done something tangible for North Karnataka and believe the words of politicians with only One tongue." # North Karnataka People of North Karnataka should not get influenced by the caste, religion or talk of any political leader. They should judge and support him, only if he has done something tangible for North Karnataka and believe the words of politicians with only One tongue. Shankar Bidari (@Shankar_Bidari) July 31, 2018 For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 9:47 [IST] Fake: This is not an image of a protest in Assam against Bangladesh violence NRC issue: Assam TMC chief quits party over Mamata Banerjee's statement India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Guwahati, Aug 2: Assam Trinamool Congress Chief resigned from the party on Thursday over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee' statement on Assam NRC issue. Dwipen Pathak after resigning from Assam TMC Chief's post, said, "What Mamata Banerjee said about NRC, that it has been brought in Assam to drive out Bengalis, I don't agree with that. It might create disturbance here & the blame would be on me as a president, so I've resigned from the post." Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday had said the NRC could lead to a "bloodbath and a civil war in the country". Also, in a rally held in Kolkata she accused the central government of conspiring to drive Bengalis out of Assam. She said the central government is "discriminating" against Bengali-speaking people in Assam. The Assam Police has registered two FIRs against Mamata Banerjee after receiving complaints that her statements are divisive in nature and may create animosity between communities in Assam. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 18:01 [IST] Congress trying to copy us: TMC on decision to field 40 per cent women candidates for UP polls Have never seen such chaos, anarchy as what is playing out in Punjab Cong: Manish Tewari Captain Singh set to resign from Congress: New party may be named The Punjab Lok Congress Rahul Gandhi to launch poll campaign in Rajasthan this month India pti-PTI Jaipur, Aug 10: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Rajasthan this month to launch the party's election campaign in the state that goes to polls later this year. Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot said though Gandhi's programme is not yet finalised, he is likely to visit the state after Parliament's Monsoon Session wraps up. "The party president's programme will be finalised very soon and he may visit the state after August 10," Pilot told reporters at the Congress headquarters here today. "The preparations of the Congress party for the elections are in full swing and we are in a position, from block to state level, to not only challenge, but to defeat the BJP," he said. Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Pilot said she should undertake a 'Jawabdehi (accountability) Yatra' instead of her proposed 'Rajasthan Gaurav Yatra', which will be flagged off by BJP president Amit Shah on August 4 from Rajsamand district. "She was away from the people of the state for the last four years and now she is trying to get in touch with them, but the public has rejected her. She should answer the public's questions instead of only communicating with the party workers," he said. The Rajasthan Congress chief also condemned Raje's statement during an interview with a news channel wherein she blamed the incidents of lynching on people's anger over lack of jobs and their circumstances. "She has only exposed the reality about lack of jobs and people's frustration under the BJP rule by making such an irresponsible statement," he said. Speaking about the recent controversy over the Congress' chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly elections, Pilot said his focus was to ensure the party's victory in the state. "People are looking at the Congress with hope and my aim is to make sure that the party wins the election. Leaders and workers have collectively worked hard for the party for years," Pilot said. He said he was making all efforts, despite challenges, to revive and strengthen the party in the state. The controversy erupted last week when party leader Lalchand Kataria said former chief minister Ashok Gehlot should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate to save the Congress in Rajasthan. Gehlot has been the chief minister of Rajasthan for two terms. However, Gehlot said no one should project himself as the chief ministerial candidate as it is against the party's tradition. PTI Covid test must for those visiting Bihar from other states during Diwali, Chhath Bihar By-polls: Lalu Yadav to campaign for RJD candidates on Wednesday to ensure 'visarjan' of Nitish Kumar RJD to protest at Jantar Mantar on Aug 4 over Muzaffarpur shelter home case India oi-Vikas By Vikas Patna, Aug 2: Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said that the RJD will hold protest at several parts of the country, including Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on August 4 over the rape of over 30 girls at a state-run shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. "RJD will hold a strike in Bihar and across the country, including at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, on 4th August to seek answers from CM Nitish Kumar on Muzaffarpur shelter home case and several other crimes in the state," Tejashwi told ANI. Earlier today, the Supreme Court took suo moto cognizance of Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The Apex Court issued a notice to Bihar Government and Centre, and sought a detailed reply from them. The apex court took suo moto cognizance a day after the CBI decided to conduct an exhaustive forensic examination of the Muzzafarpur shelter home where minor girls were allegedly raped by officials of the centre. A team from CFSL will soon be sent to Muzzafarpur to reconstruct crime scenes and collect forensic samples from the centre. The statements of the victims will be used to reconstruct the crime scene and develop a timeline which will be used to prosecute the accused, according to PTI. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 22:19 [IST] You have right to protest not right to block roads: SC to farmers SC takes suo moto cognizance of Muzaffarpur shelter home case India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar New Delhi, Aug 2: The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo moto cognizance of Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The Apex Court issued a notice to Bihar Government and Centre and sought a detailed reply from them. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, chief of the state-funded NGO Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The apex court took suo moto cognizance a day after the CBI decided to conduct an exhaustive forensic examination of the Muzzafarpur shelter home where minor girls were allegedly raped by officials of the centre. A team from CFSL will soon be sent to Muzzafarpur to reconstruct crime scenes and collect forensic samples from the centre. The statements of the victims will be used to reconstruct the crime scene and develop a timeline which will be used to prosecute the accused, according to PTI. Jan Adhikar Party supporters protest Jan Adhikar Party supporters protest against Bihar's Social Welfare Department Minister Manju Verma after allegations against her husband Chandeshwar Verma of frequently visiting the Muzaffarpur shelter home, in Patna on Sunday, July 29, 2018. PTI Rashtriya Janata Dal protesters Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Communist Party of India legislators stage a protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, during the ongoing Monsoon Session, outside Bihar Assembly in Patna on Thursday, July 26, 2018. PTI Mahila Congress members protest Police detain Mahila Congress members who were holding a protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, outside the Bihar Assembly in Patna on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (PTI Photo) Left parties take out protest Left parties and groups protest against Muzaffarpur shelter home case in Patna. Bihar bandh has been called by Left parties and the protest supported by RJD. ANI news Separate North Karnataka will not happen during my, my son's lifetime: Deve Gowda India oi-PTI New Delhi, Aug 2: Opposing any move to divide Karnataka, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda today appealed to the people of north Karnataka not to get provoked by the BJP, and said the demand for a separate statehood for the region will not be met during his or his son and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's lifetime. Gowda's remarks came on a day the Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti, a committee fighting for a separate statehood to north Karnataka, called a day-long bandh in 13 districts. "No injustice has been meted out to north Karnataka in allotment of funds in the state budget," he said and hit out at BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa for trying to create unrest through "malicious propaganda". "The provocation made by Yeddyurappa will not come true. We will take care of it... If some people demand a separate north Karnataka, I want to tell them it will not happen, not during my lifetime and not during my son's lifetime," he told PTI in an interview. He alleged that the BJP state president is "provoking" people of north Karnataka, as his "anger has not cooled down" after failing to form the government despite winning substantial seats. Gowda further alleged that the former chief minister has started "intimidating" people on the farm loan waiver, state budget and other issues, with the sole motive to create unrest. The former prime minister said many leaders have made sacrifices for the unification of the state and appealed to people not fall prey to provocation and to "trust the current government". Kumaraswamy has already ordered the shifting of some key government departments to the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the secretariat building in Belagavi, Gowda added. The Samiti gave the bandh call to press for statehood for the region, alleging that successive governments discriminated against it. The Samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Kumaraswamy on July 5 and also inadequate representation in the cabinet. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 15:32 [IST] Supersonic interceptor missile successfully test fired India oi-PTI Bhubaneswar, Aug 2: India today successfully test fired an indigenously-developed supersonic interceptor missile from a test range off the Odisha coast to validate "some improved features", defence sources said. The state-of-the-art missile was test fired from a canister at 11.24 am engaging a simulated target at low altitude, the sources said. The interceptor, an advanced air defence missile which is yet to get a formal name, was positioned at launchpad-4 of the Integrated Test Range on Dr Abdul Kalam Island and roared on its trajectory to hit the target mid-air on sea surface, the sources said. Developed as part of efforts to have a multi-layer ballistic missile defence system, it is capable of destroying incoming hostile ballistic missiles, they said. "While the missile's major health parameters, including its 'kill' effect, have already been validated in earlier tests, the current test was to validate some improved features incorporated in the system," they said. The interceptor is a 7.5-metre-long single-stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with a navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator. The interceptor missile had its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and sophisticated radars, the sources added. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 15:09 [IST] First World Tsunami Awareness Day to be observed on Nov 5 Obama arrives in Peru in last stop on final world tour In Pics: Oregon Zoo bids adieu to Packy who was euthanised Sushma Swaraj leaves for three nation tour of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan & Uzbekistan India oi-Madhuri New Delhi, Aug 2: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left for a four-day visit to three Central Asian nations on Thursday, reflecting India's pursuit of enhanced engagement with the region. Swaraj will be in Kazakhstan on August and 2-3, in the Kyrgyzstan on August 3-4 and Uzbekistan from August 4-5, a statement said. India and Kazakhstan have a close strategic partnership and multi-faceted relations. The central Asian country is one of the nations from whom India imports uranium for powering its atomic reactors. The bilateral relations between India and Kazakhstan got fillip by the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan in 2015 and by his visit for SCO Summit in June 2017 when he had a productive meeting with the president of Kazakhstan, the statement said. (with PTI inputs) 40 migrants reach Siracusa from Turkey on sailboat Migrants believed to have reached Sicily through new route (ANSAmed) - SIRACUSA, AUGUST 2 - Police on Thursday apprehended 40 migrants believed to be Iraqi nationals as they were walking between the beach resort of Fontane Bianche and Avola, near the Sicilian city of Siracusa. According to the task force against illegal immigration of the State attorney's office in Siracusa, the immigrants are believed to have traveled on a sailboat from Turkey. Investigative sources said migrant smugglers, mainly from Ukraine and Russia, are increasingly using the route from Turkey to transport migrants aboard sailboats. (ANSAmed) Why the big influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants into South India will happen through Kerala India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Aug 2: On March 16 2017, the Kerala police arrested seven Bangladeshi nationals employed at a plywood factory and charged them with illegal immigration. This is just one of the many cases that were reported from Kerala over the years where several lakhs of Bangladeshis live illegally. It become important to discuss the Kerala scenario in the wake of an Intelligence Bureau report stating that there would be more influx of illegal immigrants into South India after the NRC was published by the Assam government. There are already reports that suggest that the touts in Kerala are already active and would look to facilitate the entry of more such persons into the state. Officials say that the route into South India would be through Kerala, following which attempts would be made to infiltrate into the other southern states such as Telangana and Karnataka. They would be brought in as estate labour like has been done in the past officials say. In the midst of all this, there is also talk in Kodagu district, Karnataka, not to employe such persons until and unless they have a valid Indian citizenship document. Kerala has always had an issue with migrant labour. There has been a high influx of migrant population from West Bengal and this has made it easy for the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. An official from Kerala tells OneIndia that the Bangladeshi's blend with the Bengali speaking population and there is no proper or effective mechanism to identify them. Officials point out that the problem becomes harder to deal with as the population is a floating one. They move from one state to another with the help of touts and this makes it even harder to keep tabs on them. Moreover illegal immigration from Bangladesh extended up to Kerala through the migration corridor. This corridor starting at Bangladesh connects to Kerala through Assam and West Bengal. The illegal immigrants also find Kerala to be a good place to live in as it has the country's highest wage rate in the unorganised sector. Further the chances of interceptions are less in Kerala and this has made the place even more ideal to be in. The AAWAZ health insurance scheme too has come in handy for the illegal immigrants. Data with the Ministry for Home Affairs states that, Kerala has issued nearly 62,000 registration cards to migrant workers. Moreover no real effort has gone in to sort out the illegal immigrants including Rohingyas from the migrants, officials in the Home Ministry tell OneIndia. The IB had after the publication of the NRC had sounded an alert stating that more people from Assam could infiltrate into southern states. The respective state police have been told to keep a close watch on the borders and also track down touts who have been aiding illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The alert is particularly high in states such as Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal. A high alert has also been sounded along the Assam-Bengal border after the final draft of the NRC was released on Monday, by the Assam government. The forces have been asked to intensify vigil along the border to stop any spill over or influx by those whose names do not feature in the list. On Monday over 40 lakh persons did not feature in the final draft of the NRC. They have now been given time to file a claim or objection before the final list is released. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 16:35 [IST] Indian citizen kidnapped in Kabul: In touch with Taliban says New Delhi Qatar flies more foreigners out of Kabul The Kabul Airport bomber was originally tasked to attack Delhi Afghanistan: Indian among three foreigners found dead after being kidnapped in Kabul International oi-Madhuri Kabul, Aug 2: Three foreigners were found dead after being kidnapped in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday. The victims are from India, Malaysia and Macedoni. "An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian citizen were abducted and killed. We have found their bodies," Hashmat Stanekzai, spokesman for Kabul's police chief, as reported by Reuters. Meanwhile, no group has yet claimed the responsibility for the incident. Meanwhile, more details are awaited. On July 31, an assailant was killed and 11 people were injured when an explosion and ensuing gunfire rocked a government office building in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city. DNA of those who burst firecrackers in India on Pakistans win cannot be Indian: Anil Vij Shoaib Akhtar takes mic off, walks out of TV show after being asked to leave by the PTV host IMF bailout for Pak will benefit China, US charges infuriate Pakistans caretaker foreign minister International oi-Shubham By Shubham Islamabad, Aug 2: Pakistan's Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Hussain Haroon on Wednesday, August 1, lashed out at the US over its claim that any bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the new government of Pakistan has to seek would be used to repay Chinese loans, APP reported. Haroon said it was "totally wrong" to link the two things. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently objected to the idea of an IMF bailout for Pakistan and made a specific reference to China saying the latter would be the end beneficiary. Pompeo's concern over China allegedly benefitting from Pakistan's bailout could add to an already tense relationship between two of the world's largest economies, the report added. The state secretary said the US will keep a watch on the IMF's next steps in response to reports that the South Asian state is planning to seek a bailout package of up to $12 billion to accomplish an economic recovery. "There's no rationale for IMF tax dollars - and associated with that, American dollars that are part of the IMF funding - for those to go to bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself," the American diplomat was quoted as saying. Haroon said the new government of Pakistan would have to take a call on whether to approach the international banking organisation amid fears of balance of payments crisis. The new government of the country is set to take oath this month after Imran Khan's Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the largest party in the July 25 elections that were marred with controversy. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 15:04 [IST] Indian-Australian mathematician Akshay Venkatesh wins prestigious Fields Medal International oi-Shubham New York, Aug 2: Renowned Indian-Australian mathematician Akshay Venkatesh has been judged as one of the four winners of mathematics' prestigious Fields Medal, also referred to as the Nobel for the subject, PTI reported. The Fields medals are given every four years to the most promising mathematicians below 40. Thirty-six-year-old Vankatesh, who was born in New Delhi and is currently teaching at Stanford University, has been awarded the prestigious medal for his contributions to various subjects in mathematics, PTI added. New Delhi-born Venkatesh, 36, who is currently teaching at Stanford University, has won the Fields Medal for his profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics. Venkatesh was honoured with the award at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, August 1. Venkatesh, who moved with his parents to Australia's Perth at the age of 2 grew up as a mathematics prodigy and won several awards and accolades since his school days. He also won prizes in physics besides mathematics in his younger days, the PTI report said. Finishing high school at the age of 13, Venkatesh graduated with first class honours in mathematics from the University of Western Australia in 1997, at the age of 16. Venkatesh then earned his PhD in 2002 at 20 and has held high academic positions since then. From a post-doctoral position at MIT to becoming a Clay Research Fellow, Akshay has achieved it all and now is a professor at Stanford University. The man has already won prestigious awards like the Infosys Prize, the Salem Prize, the Sastra Ramanujan Prize and the Ostrowski Prize. Besides Venkatesh, the other three winners of the Field Medal this year are Caucher Birkar, an Iranian-Kurdish origin Cambridge University professor; Peter Scholze, a German professor who teaches at the University of Bonn and Alessio Figalli from Italy who teaches at ETH Zurich, the PTI report added. Each winner got a prize money of 15,000 Canadian dollar (USD11,525) The Fields Medal was started in 1932 following the request of Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, who ran the 1924 Mathematics Congress in the city of Toronto. Quad going to be vital arena for cooperation in Indo-Pacific: Joe Biden No decision on Trump's India visit yet: White House International pti-PTI Washington, Aug 2: US President Donald Trump has received an invitation to visit India, but no decision has been taken yet, the White House said on Thursday. "I know that the invitation has been extended, but I do not believe that a final decision has been made," the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters when asked about reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the Chief Guest at the next year's Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. She said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis would be headed to New Delhi soon for the first India-US 2+2 Dialogue with their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "The 2+2 dialogue would begin discussion on the process of a presidential visit next year," Sanders said at daily press conference. The United States and India have a deep and strategic partnership and "we are going to continue to build on that partnership" and advance co-operation. "I think, you will see that in the meeting that would take place in September," Sanders said. PTI US Senate passes bill to waive sanctions against India for buying Russian arms International oi-PTI Washington, Aug 2: The US senate on Wednesday passed a defence spending bill that also seeks to amend another law that threatens secondary sanctions against countries such as India which conduct "significant" business with Russia if New Delhi went ahead with plans to buy Russian air defence systems. The Senate passed the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide USD 716 billion support in funding for national defense for fiscal year 2019. The bill, which now moves to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of CAATSA. Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology. "The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI. "The legislative language is designed to look very tough, as though the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said. "The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said. At the same time, it is important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects, he cautioned, adding this legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment. "This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward-looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said. Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the CAATSA waiver authority for strategic partners such as India. "By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI. The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority. Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining an once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Thursday, August 2, 2018, 10:30 [IST] 2008-2021 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. ROME - An Israeli airstrike killed "seven ISIS gunmen" in the Golan Heights on the border with Syria, according to the Israeli Army, cited by local media sources. It said "no terrorist infiltrated into Israeli territory" and the seven bodies were found with grenades, explosive belts, and five Kalashnikov rifles. According to the Jerusalem Post, the gunmen may have been ISIS members fleeing areas in Syria recently retaken by Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces, who wanted to carry out an attack. "The Assad regime is responsible for anything that happens in Syrian territory that is carried out against Israel," the Army said. Pope: Catechism revised, death penalty 'inadmissible' Francis writes to bishops about change (ANSAmed) - VATICAN CITY, AUGUST 2 - The Vatican said Thursday that Pope Francis has written to bishops about a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty. It said that while the death penalty was long considered an appropriate response to certain crimes, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. As a result, it said that Church now teaches that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", adding the Church works for its abolition worldwide. (ANSAmed). You would have thought it was Christmas Eve yesterday to hear Bill Lees laugh, the excitement rich in his voice. I think we are in a good place, said the frontrunner for todays Republican primary, and, yeah, I think we are going to win. Lee is one of four absolute blue-chip candidates aching to follow Bill Haslam as the states Governor but the bigger truth is that whoever wins the Republican nomination in todays election is virtually assured to win it all in November. Tennessee is a deep red state, with just four of its 95 counties failing to reflect a very conservative populous, and of the top Republicans in a chariot race today that is too close to call, the states mood has gravitated to Lee with his deep Christian convictions, his refusal to campaign ugly, and his relentless drive that the night before last was highlighted by his 100th Town Hall gathering. Our first Town Hall meeting was in Van Buren County. We picked it on purpose, knowing the states next governor must embrace and better our rural areas. So when we met at this little restaurant, with maybe 30 people there, I could almost immediately sense a thirst from the crowd. It was like the biggest thing was Do you know how much it means to have somebody who cares about us? Everywhere we have been in the past two years, that Van Buren start has reminded me that my No. 1 priority is the people of Tennessee. The Van Buren County start has electrified our campaign from the very beginning and our campaign team thrives on spreading the message you matter to me. That said, are your feet tired yet? Lees laugh was proof hes still good for one day more. We are going to make one last swing I was in Chattanooga today (Wednesday) and Ill be back Thursday as we make our way back home for a victory celebration and, while I feel good about our standing in virtually every county, Chattanooga has been a pivotal point for us and I am not saying that to cater to your audience. The Decosimo family got us in with people I really admire so we were on good standing early. But when the Times Free Press endorsed us, that really propelled our campaign. Just as I told you what it means in rural areas when people are so grateful you care about us, the newspaper endorsement put us on the other side on wanting somebody to care about us. That message was huge, and after that happened, Lee admitted, weve never looked back. Political observers at first believed Lee could not stay with the leaders if he didnt join in dirty, scurrilous campaigning but, by avoiding all appearance of attack or antagonistic slurs, Lee enhanced his image with positive, bold, and promising statesmanship. We believe people dont appreciate slander or taunting. Add the fact thats definitely abhorrent to Marcia (wife) and me and our goal has been as positive as we can make it. After Thursday elections, what are your immediate plans? I told Marcia were going to sleep in! he laughed. On Saturday well begin campaigning for the general election but, believe it or not, campaigning for the last two years has been as much fun as Ive ever had. Nobody not until you do it and relish this --- can possibly understand, nor envision, what a prize the State of Tennessee truly is. Governor Haslam warned me about falling in love but the people who make Tennessee what it most certainly is are the finest of the finest in the United States. Becoming the Governor is a dream, something every child should aspire to be, Lee said, but when you lie awake at night and think about what a difference recidivism could make in our crime statistics, how we can diminish poverty in 15 rural counties, and so much more you dont want to fall back to sleep. Lee believes Tennessees major callings are better education, vastly improved jobs and the preparation to fill them, and safe neighborhoods. He said, "As I have traveled and met so many in local and state governments, were all on the same page. And at the beginning and end of every street there is a Tennessean who wants to know the same answer to the same question: 'Do you care about me?'" Well, do you, Bill Lee? You mighty right I do and thats why I think I am going to win this Thursday. royexum@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WASHINGTON, D.C. Nearly 80 New Mexico county commissioners, county sheriff s, county managers, and guests traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend a private briefing and tour at the White House on July 27. The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs has organized similar events for county officials in each state to visit the White House and attend a personalized briefing from federal officials. The purpose is to develop a working relationship between the White House/Federal Agencies and the county commissioners. Among them, attending was Lea County Commissioner and New Mexico Counties President Rebecca Long and Eddy County Sheriff and New Mexico Counties President Elect Mark Cage. It was a real honor to also hear from Vice President Pence. The White House understands that county commissioners are the front line and know the needs of our communities, said Commissioner Long. The White House furthermore understands that we need to know who to contact on the federal level so we were given a contact list during our conference. Commissioners and county managers must now use this list and make it known on the federal level that New Mexico is serious about taking care of the needs of our citizens in all 33 counties. Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise visit to welcome the delegation from New Mexico and spoke about the economic recovery and the administrations desire to work closer with county officials. Kellyanne Conway, Assistant to the President and Senior Counselor, addressed the opioid epidemic spreading across America, making it a priority of solving the problem and helping families. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson talked about solutions to the nations poverty problems. Department of Interior Tim Williams spoke about the proposed changes to ESA and the goal to streamline regulations. The New Mexico Counties is a non-profit, nonpartisan association representing New Mexicos 33 counties since 1936. Its mission is to strengthen New Mexico counties ability to govern their own affairs and to improve the well-being and quality of life of their constituents. NM Counties provides numerous services to counties including legislative advocacy, self-insurance administration, legal assistance, and professional development. For more information, please visit http://www.nmcounties.org. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LAS CRUCES Its that chile time of year, and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Standards and Consumer Services inspectors will be out in full force conducting a chile blitz around the state. The purpose is to ensure processed and fresh chile products are in compliance under the New Mexico Chile Advertising Act and NMAC 21.16.7. The Act stipulates that it is unlawful for a person to: Knowingly advertise, describe, label or off er for sale chile peppers as New Mexico chile, or to advertise, describe, label or off er for sale a product as containing New Mexico chile, unless the chile peppers or chile peppers in the product were grown in New Mexico Knowingly advertise, describe, label or off er for sale chile peppers, or a product containing chile peppers, using the name of any city, town, county, village, pueblo, mountain, river or other geographic feature or features located in New Mexico in a misleading or deceptive manner that states or reasonably implies that the chile peppers are, or the product contains, New Mexico chile unless the chile peppers or chile peppers in the product were grown in New Mexico You may find the New Mexico Chile Advertising Act, NMAC 21.16.7 New Mexico Chile Verifi cation and Record requirements, and the verifi cation/registration forms at: http://www.mda.nmsu.edu/scs/licenseregistration/ new-mexico-chile-labelingregistration/. If you are growing or selling fresh chile and advertising it as New Mexico chile, you must register with the NMDA Standards and Consumer services division by completing a verifi cation/registration form. The verifi cation form for New Mexico fresh chile must accompany each load of chile and be followed through with the chile to the point of sale. If you are producing or selling processed chile products and advertising it as New Mexico chile, you must register with the NMDA Standards and Consumer services division by completing a verifi cation/ registration form. You are only required to complete the form once for each product. A list of registered vendors and products may be found at http://http://www.nmda.nmsu.edu/helpfaq/new-mexico-chile-verified/. For more information, contact Raymond Johnson at 646-1616 or [email protected]. Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Swiss investment manager GAM said today that all subscriptions and redemptions in its unconstrained/absolute return bond funds (ARBF) have been suspended as of 31 July 2018. The gating comes as investors have started rushing for the exits following the removal of star manager Tim Haywood. The gated funds represent CHF 7.3 billion in assets under management. GAM suspended Haywood earlier this week citing risk management concerns resulting from an internal investigation, but didn't provide much detail. Haywood is not personally implicated beyond what appears to be a failure to follow internal procedure. Investment directors Jack Flaherty and Alex McKnight have assumed joint responsibility for the strategy in the interim. GAM shares dropped on the news. On Tuesday, GAM reported a 62% decline in net profit for the first half of 2018, alongside a gloomy outlook for the second half of the year. The performance drop is partially related to a significant loss the firm took over its acquisition of hedge fund Cantab in 2016. Cantab's funds and AUM missed their targets prompting an impairment charge. "Although the funds have the necessary liquidity to serve these requests, such actions would lead to a disproportional shift in their portfolio composition, which could compromise the interests of remaining invest...................... To view our full article Click here Currently: Cash Looking to: Short @ 1,765.50 As of 3/21/21 @ 9:02pm EST: 1,738.90 LAST WEEK: We suggested covering shorts / getting long at 1,655 with stops on a close below 1,617 and with a target of 1,775 for selling longs / getting short. Stops on shorts were suggested on a close above 1,783 and we gave a target of 1,655. UPDATE: Technically it looks like gold may have strong resistance at either 1,753.8 or 1,765.5 in the very short-term and that it should trade down towards 1,655.4 or 1,617.30. We would look to sell longs at 1,753.80 and get short at 1,765.50 and would look to cover shorts at 1,655.40. We would look to get long of gold on an extended dip to 1,617.30 with stops on a close below 1,613 and would look to take profits on longs at 1,765. Opalesque Industry Update - Epoch Investment Partners, the $42.2-billion-under-assets investment arm of TD Bank, announced today that Philipp Hensler joined the firm as President and Chief Operating Officer. Timothy Taussig, who co-founded the firm in 2004, stepped down and will retire in at the end of the year. In a letter to investors William Priest, co-founder, Chief Executive and co-Chief Investment Officer of Epoch hailed Taussig as a "great leader and business builder." Hensler, who previously served as President and CEO of Vontobel Asset Management and head of distribution for Oppenheimer Funds, brings a wealth of experience to Epoch, a global asset management firm that provides U.S., non-U.S. and global equity strategies for institutional and intermediary clients. A native of Switzerland, he holds an M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a D.M from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. "Philipp brings to the role extensive experience working with clients and a broad array of sophisticated asset allocators, while his earlier background as a global equities investor adds valuable breadth to his perspective," said Priest. "I look forward to partnering with him as we lead Epoch together in the next phase of our evolution." Epoch uses fundamental research to uncover opportunities that others may miss. It believes that the growth and applications of free cash flow represent the best predictor of long-term shareholder return. As a result, Epoch's security selection process is focused on free-cash-flow metrics and capital allocation, rather than traditional accounting-based metrics such as price-to-book and price-to-earnings. "We look for strong company management with a commitment to financial transparency and a track record of delivering returns to shareholders," said Priest. "I'm excited to be joining an investment led organization with a clear investment philosophy and process," remarked Hensler. "I look forward to working with Bill Priest and the Epoch team, who have a tremendous culture of intellectual curiosity and continuous innovation." Epoch manages institutional money for the likes of CalPERS, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas and ArcelorMittal USA; and it sub-advises funds for John Hancock Funds, New York Life-MainStay Funds and TD Bank Group Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Palestine Chronicle Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Image by independent.co.uk) Details DMCA Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Israel on 19 July where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. Orban's visit would have not required much pause except that the Hungarian leader has been repeatedly branded for his often racist, anti-Semitic remarks. So why is Orban wining and dining with the leaders of the so-called "Jewish State"? The answer does not pertain only to Orban and Hungary, but to Israel's attitude towards the rapidly growing far-right movements in Europe as a whole. Netanyahu and Zionist leaders everywhere are not just aware of this massive political shift in European politics but are, in fact, working diligently to utilize it in Israel's favor. On his visit to Israel, Orban asserted that Hungarian Jewish citizens should feel safe in his country, an odd statement considering that it was Orban and his party that deprived many Jews and other members of minority groups of any feeling of safety. Still, Netanyahu has welcomed Orban as a "true friend of Israel" and Orban called on his European counterparts to show more support for Israel. Mission accomplished. Netanyahu visited Budapest in July 2017 but that supposedly historic visit did nothing to change Hungary's official discourse, which is dotted with racism and anti-Semitism. In fact, in March 2018, Orban derided Jews, focusing his criticism mostly on Jewish financiers such as George Soros. At an election rally campaign, Orban said, "We are fighting an enemy that is different from us. Not open but hiding; not straightforward but crafty; not honest but base; not national but international; does not believe in working but speculates with money; does not have its own homeland but feels it owns the whole world." It is well-known that Israel and Zionist leaders are quite selective in manipulating the definition of "anti-Semitism" to serve their political agendas, but Israel's attitude towards the racist far-right movements in Europe takes this truth to a whole new level. Indeed, the "special relationship" between Netanyahu and Orban is only the tip of the iceberg. For years, Netanyahu's Israel has been "flirting" with radical right movements in Europe. The unmistakable Israeli strategy, of course, has its own logic. Israeli leaders feel that Europe's move to the far-right is irrevocable and are keen to benefit from the anti-Muslim sentiment that accompanies this shift as much as possible. Moreover, the EU's resolve to label illegal settlement products and refusal to heed calls for moving their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is pushing Netanyahu to explore these new routes. During his previous visit to Hungary Netanyahu met with leaders from the so-called Visegrad-4, which includes Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. On that visit, Netanyahu hoped to find new channels of support within the EU, through exerting pressure by using his new allies in these countries. In an audio recording obtained by Reuters, Netanyahu chastised Europe for daring to criticize Israel's dismal human rights record, illegal settlement policies, and military occupation. "I think Europe has to decide whether it wants to live and thrive or it wants to shrivel and disappear," he said. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). You know who I never meet when I'm on the campaign trail? People who think that Washington should be doing MORE to help huge corporations. Washington already works like a dream for the wealthy and the well-connected. Our courts have been no exception, delivering blow after blow to working Americans while making sure that the rich and powerful get to call the shots. And it could get worse -- if Brett Kavanaugh ends up on the Supreme Court. He's a walking, talking, gift-wrapped present for powerful interests, with a big bow on top. When right-wing billionaires look at him, big green dollar signs dance in their eyes. Just minutes after Donald Trump announced his nomination, the White House sent an email to corporate groups across Washington bragging about Brett Kavanaugh's rulings in favor of corporate interests and against everyone else. They're not even hiding it. He's already sided with giant financial institutions to try to strike down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and he sang the tune of big telecom and cable companies when he tried to eliminate net neutrality. He authored an opinion that would have allowed two giant health insurance companies to merge, despite the evidence that the merger could hurt consumers across 14 states. He wants to make it harder for agencies to protect public health, safety, and economic security. Lately, the Supreme Court has delivered more victories to corporations -- and more punches to the gut to working people -- than any institution in Washington. And it's gotten worse since Neil Gorsuch, a virtual clone of Brett Kavanaugh, was snatched straight from big business's wishlist and plopped onto the Supreme Court. There's too much at stake to let Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. Soon, he could be deciding whether insurance companies can discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, whether giant corporations can poison the air we breathe and the water we drink, and whether the Supreme Court will continue to break the backs of unions. His record is clear. We need to fight to make sure that the Supreme Court doesn't get stacked with another Justice who'll cozy up to the rich and powerful. And I'm in this fight all the way. On the night when Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, I went to the steps of the Supreme Court to join the rally against him. Behind us, carved in stone, the building promised "Equal Justice Under Law." But there's only one way to make sure that everyone -- not just the richest Americans -- will get treated fairly in our courts: We need to reject corporate-coddling nominees like Brett Kavanaugh. We can't win if we don't fight. Brett Kavanaugh could swing the history of the Supreme Court. When we look back on this moment, we need to be able to say that we fought on the side of equal justice for all. Raise your voice and tell the Senate to say NO to Brett Kavanaugh. Right-wing billionaires want their dollars to do all of the talking. But in a democracy, our voices matter. And there are more of us than there are of them. Thanks for being a part of this. Quicklink Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them. To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here. Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Alon Ben-Meir Website By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra (Image by Artwork by Michael Anderson and Sam Ben-Meir) Details DMCA Banned from promoting his dangerous Islamic agenda across the European Union, Turkish President Erdogan is now seeking to use his growing influence in the Balkans against the Western countries. Erdogan's aggressive return to the Balkans increased concerns among critics in southeastern Europe -- the region where he is pursuing more assertive policies and strategically spreading his brand of Islamist nationalism through a network of mosques and religious institutions. The EU countries have come to realize the danger emanating from his Islamic scheme. As a result, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany banned Erdogan from organizing electoral campaigns. Furthermore, two months ago, Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ordered the closing of seven mosques and expelled Turkish-funded Imams while placing under tight scrutiny dozens more Turkish Imams. "Parallel societies, politicized Islam or radical tendencies have no place in our country," Kurz said as was reported by the New York Times. Austria's move to close mosques prompted a furious reaction from Erdogan, who condemned the decision, labeling it Islamophobic and promising to retaliate against them. He used the rally in Bosnia to underline his proclivity for challenging the Western countries. He declared in front of a crowd of more than 12,000 supporters that "At a time when the glorious European countries that claim to be the cradle of democracy failed, Bosnia and Herzegovina proved to be not ostensibly, but truly democratic by giving us the opportunity to gather here." Many corrupt politicians, Imams, representatives of NGOs, and members of academia in the Balkans remain united in their resolve to campaign on Erdogan's behalf, as they have been enjoying over the years the largess and comfort that Erdogan provides to his loyalists. This is how Erdogan succeeded in winning hearts and minds, especially among the region's Muslim population. Albanian politician Grida Duma, representing the Democratic Party, the second-largest group in the parliament, said to us that, "For Rama, the Albanian Prime Minister's challenge to the EU by appeasing Erdogan is dangerous... and would create serious consequences" as the closeness between Rama and Erdogan does not serve Albania's geostrategic interests." Journalists and civil society representatives from Balkan countries are deeply concerned about what may come next, notably following the amendment to the Turkish constitution and Erdogan's reelection, which granted him unprecedented powers. Andi Bushati, a journalist and publisher from Albania, affirms Duma's observation and suggested that "This closeness manifests itself not only by symbolic acts, such as Rama's applause to Erdogan's statement that 'Kosovo is Turkey and Turkey is Kosovo,' but also politically, for example, by endorsing Erdogan's condemnation of Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital." To express their admiration of this authoritarian leader, Serbian, Macedonian, Kosovar, Albanian, and Bosnian leaders hailed Erdogan's re-election and attended his inauguration in a show of solidarity. Meanwhile, Kosovo's acquiescence to Erdogan's Islamic agenda is becoming increasingly transparent. A few weeks ago, hundreds of Kosovars marched in support of "Turkish democracy" led by the Turkish Ambassador in Kosovo, Kvlcm Klc. Bekim Kupina, a seasoned journalist from Kosovo, said that Kosovo's leaders must not allow Erdogan to use their country as a springboard to Europe. "Kosovo needs schools, kindergartens, and job opportunities, and not religious institutions that Turkey is building." As the EU seeks to increase its influence in the Balkans, Russia and Turkey have been working hard to strengthen their own ties to the region. The EU's renewed interest in its southern backyard has also been prompted by fears of Moscow's mounting influence in the Balkans. Jelena Milic, director of the Center for Euro-Atlantic Studies in Belgrade, confirms that Erdogan and Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic are developing increasingly strong ties. "Erdogan's track record is not criticized by Serbia's government-controlled media. Erdogan and Vucic visited Sandzak, a Bosnian Muslim populated province of Serbia, but Erdogan was very cautious to highlight only economic ties and investment opportunities," says Milic. According to her, Turkey's influence in the region is growing at an alarming speed. Former Bosnian diplomat Zlatko Dizdarevic, who served as ambassador to Jordan, Croatia, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, describes Turkish meddling in Bosnia as a "threat" which further weakens the country by deepening internal divisions. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. From Consortium News The two primary sources of international law are treaties, and what's known as "customary international law." Ratified treaties are part of domestic U.S. law under the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which says treaties "shall be the supreme law of the land." Furthermore, it has long been established that customary international law, which arises from the consistent and general practice of nations, is also part of U.S. law. Although he professes to interpret the Constitution as written by the founders, Kavanaugh has apparently overlooked the supremacy clause and simply scorns customary international law. Jordan Paust, international law scholar and professor emeritus at University of Houston Law Center, told me in an email, "The unanimous views of the Founders, Framers, and Supreme Court Justice opinions is that the President and all members of the Executive Branch are bound by international law." Paust also referenced a 2016 article he wrote in the Houston Journal of International Law documenting this fact. Kavanaugh, however, erroneously conflates international law with foreign law. The U.S. agrees to the terms of treaties it ratifies. And in most instances, the United States can opt out of a customary international law norm if the U.S. objected while the norm was being developed. Foreign law, on the other hand, is the law of other countries -- such as French law, German law, etc. In the 2016 case of Al Bahlul v. United States, a Guanta'namo detainee argued that since "conspiracy" was not an offense under the international laws of war, he should not be tried for conspiracy before a military commission. Kavanaugh's concurrence in that case characterized al-Bahlul's argument as "extraordinary" because "it would incorporate international law into the U.S. Constitution as a judicially enforceable constraint on Congress and the President." That would mean, Kavanaugh cynically wrote, that wartime decisions made by the president and Congress to try unlawful enemy combatants before military commissions "would be subject to the dictates of foreign nations and the international community, as embodied in international law." He added: "The federal courts are not roving enforcers of international law. And the federal courts are not empowered to smuggle international law into the U.S. Constitution and then wield it as a club against Congress and the President in wartime." Kavanaugh and the War on Terror For 12 years, while serving as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh had the opportunity to rule on several cases stemming from the "war on terror." In nearly all of them, he demonstrated nothing but disdain for international law and an uncritical deference to executive power. During the Bush administration, the Supreme Court checked and balanced the executive branch in several war on terror cases. They included Rasul v. Bush (which established that federal courts have jurisdiction to hear Guanta'namo detainees' habeas corpus petitions); Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (which held that a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant has due process rights to contest his or her detention); and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (which concluded that Bush's military commissions violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions). In 2008, the high court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that Guanta'namo detainees held as enemy combatants have the right to file habeas corpus petitions in U.S. federal courts to challenge their detention. But in the wake of the Boumediene decision, Kavanaugh tried to neuter detainees' habeas corpus rights in cases that came before him on the Court of Appeals, such as Omar v. McHugh and Uthman v. Obama. University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck noted in a 2011 article that since Boumediene was decided, commentators "have accused the D.C. Circuit in general -- and some of its judges in particular -- of actively subverting [Boumediene] by adopting holdings and reaching results that have both the intent and the effect of vitiating the ... decision." "Prominent among those judges is Kavanaugh," Edith Roberts wrote at SCOTUSblog. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. Boetian black-figure pottery skyphos (wine-cup), found at Thebes, 4th century BC, Odysseus at sea on a raft of amphoras, Ashmolean Museum (Image by Following Hadrian) Details DMCA OpEd News's own Rob Kall, also host of the "Rob Kall Bottom-Up Radio Show," spoke at the Whistleblower Summit on Monday about "how to do power stories," summing up his message with two guidelines: First tell what you'll say, and then what you've said. Develop an elevator pitch in this process. Twentieth-century physics can't be explained in the linear way that the Cartesian "old white men" used to explain previous categories of science, Kall said. "The new way looks at cycles and circles and immersion properties." ________________ To illustrate, he told two brief "elevator stories": In the first, a man named Randy Keller gave a talk about whistleblowing, inspiring one of his listeners to take action on some information eating away at his gut. That is, Daniel Ellsberg was inspired to release the Pentagon Papers. Kall's second story focused on the renowned suffragist Alice Paul, who protested in front of the White House during World War I. She was imprisoned and responded with a hunger strike. In turn she was force-fed with a tube shoved down her throat. She begged a prison guard for a pencil and paper and wrote a note begging the president of the United States to grant women the right to vote. His response? The Nineteenth Amendment, Women's Suffrage. Both of these protagonists reached the right people. They had a story to tell and it was heard. ***** Kall then turned to the story we all share, the Hero's Journey (and all whistleblowers are heroes), popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and the PBS series on it narrated by Bill Moyers. There is first the call to adventure, which some reject but ultimately take up when summoned a second time (think about the ruses of Odysseus and Achilles to avoid participating in the Trojan War--their subterfuges didn't work). The tale of the Hero's Journey is told in thousands of worldwide stories and myths. It should be taught in grade school, Kall said. Mentors are often part of the tale, which originates in a womb of sorts (lack of experience) and leads to a road of trials, along which the Hero acquires new allies, skills, and knowledge. On this voyage the Hero meets with mom and dad, defines his or her gender, meets a god, and then returns home with a magic elixir. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. John Wilkes Booth derringer used to kill Abraham Lincoln 02 - Fords Theatre - 2012-05-20 (Image by Tim Evanson) Details DMCA "Stop the Presses--Challenging Conventional Wisdom in Newsrooms" was the title of a panel moderated by attorney and investigative reporter Andrew Kreig, also owner of that iconoclastic treasure trove of truth, the Justice Integrity Project. The panel's focus was "courageous and effective" challenges to the conventional historical wisdom (?) on two major events that occurred 50 years ago, the assassinations of two twentieth-century progressive icons, Robert F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The failure to address these issues fully has brought us to our present impasse, wrote Kreig in his introductory summary. One panelist, attorney and activist, as well as author of three books researching the truth beyond the received stories, Dr. William Pepper, was unable to attend. And so Kreig offered Pepper's presentation in "elevator format," along with his own findings and thoughts. As a journalist and lawyer for 40 years, Kreig said, he first got involved with Pepper by way of a series done by Tom Jackman for the Washington Post. In a nutshell, Jackman posed serious questions about the official accounts of the assassinations. Indeed, MLK's family didn't believe mainstream media (MSM) descriptions and analyses; nor did RFK Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend believe the MSM explanations of their father's murder. Pepper also asked who really killed these towering figures. 2500 books have been written questioning the given story of the lone assassin of JFK, said Kreig, who has written extensively about all three assassinations at his website justice-integrity.org . He also arranged talks delivered by Pepper on the RFK and MLK assassinations. Pepper was a recipient of this year's prestigious Pillar Award for Human Rights, which OpEd News won previously. ***** Working for a communications organization In New York, Pepper got to know RFK, before embarking on a voyage to war-torn Vietnam to photograph children maimed and slaughtered by bombings. MLK read it and befriended Pepper. After the two assassinations, Pepper obtained a JD degree and subsequently met with MLK's family, who expressed their doubts about the MSM account of the death. Bravely seeking out the truth, Pepper went South to question the "Dixie mafia," and discovered Loyd Jowers's version of what really happened: that the alleged assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, was nothing more than a scapegoat, drugged and fed liquor and then handed a gun to approach RFK at his final rally in Los Angeles. Sirhan shot at RFK from the front, but the bullets that killed him were fired from the back--all aimed at his head. Totally convinced by the evidence offered by Jowers, including the identity of the real killer, Pepper published it to a bland and minimal readership. Jackman's follow-up years later was thus crucial to spreading the word. The political environment favored RFK. His victory in the L.A. primary was considered key to his winning the Democratic nomination. His popularity in the South would have handed him the presidency, many believed. Sirhan was blamed for annihilating a future that instead served us the bleak and muddy Nixon. The L.A. coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi supplied the information that the three shots from behind murdered RFK. Jackman's article therefore sympathized with the "Mid East terrorist" absorbing so much infamy. Pepper filed a 200-page application to the Organization of American States (OAS) for a retrial, with evidence that Sirhan had never been given a fair trial. Eyewitnesses testified to 13 shots fired, and SIrhan's gun could hold only eight bullets. Noguchi said that he never blamed Sirhan. Pepper defended him for 20 years as Sirhan again and again denied his guilt, maintaining that he didn't remember the incident at all. Witnesses were too scared to come forward. On the subject of MLK, southerners were okay with his epochal battle for civil rights but objected to his opposition to the Vietnam war and the economy of those days. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too. Honing in on one of many stories presented by Panelists at the Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights (July 30-August 1) LIVING IN FEAR* Sandy Schenkat of Scottsdale also paid a steep price after she became entangled in city court. The trouble began as a dispute with her homeowners association (HOA). It ended after HOA board members had her arrested and eventually convicted of a criminal misdemeanor in city court. Schenkat said she was forced to sell her condominium at a $65,000 loss once it became clear that she would face the constant threat of civil sanctions from the HOA board and criminal charges from the city if she remained in the complex. Schenkat bought the condominium near Mountain View and Via Linda roads in 2009, and shortly thereafter became active in an effort to recall members of the HOA board. The bitter recall effort was successful, and in 2011 Schenkat became a member of the board. There were the usual squabbles between board members. They reached a peak when four of the seven board members authorized hiring a lawyer to sue homeowners in the complex for blog posts critical of the association, according to documents related to her court case. Schenkat objected, claiming the payment, made against the advice of the HOA lawyer, amounted to a misappropriation of funds, she said. She demanded an investigation. Two HOA board members who backed the lawsuit-the secretary and the treasurer-went to Scottsdale city court and obtained injunctions against harassment, prohibiting Schenkat from having any contact with them and restricting her presence in the condominium complex. The injunctions would become valid only when the orders were delivered to Schenkat by a process server. Schenkat said she was served with one of the orders, the one obtained by the board treasurer, but not the second one from the secretary. She challenged the single injunction she did receive, successfully making her argument in city court. The judge dismissed the injunction in February 2012. About a week later, Schenkat was swimming in the community pool with friends when she was approached by a police officer. The board secretary, whose injunction Schenkat said she never received, had called police and reported Schenkat was in violation of the court order. Schenkat was arrested and jailed for 19 hours. She also was charged with violating the injunction, a criminal misdemeanor. For the next several months, Schenkat tried unsuccessfully to have the charge dismissed, arguing she had never been served with the second injunction. If she had been, she would have challenged it when she had the other one dismissed. Schenkat's lawyers also noted the process server's affidavit of service, which should have been filed with the court within a week, was not filed for more than a month. It was only delivered to the court the day after Schenkat successfully had the first injunction dismissed. When Schenkat's case went to Scottsdale city court in August 2012, the judge said it didn't matter whether the process server's affidavit was filed by the legal deadline. All that mattered was that the process server said Schenkat was served. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Biopharmaceutical Fermentation Systems Market Is Registering A Healthy CAGR Of 6.0% During The Forecast Period From 2018 To 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/biopharmaceutical-fermentation-systems-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=46989 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=46989 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report titled Biopharmaceutical Fermentation Systems Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026. According to the report, the global biopharmaceutical fermentation systems market was valued at US$ 10.0 Bn in 2017 and is projected to reach US$ 17.8 Bn by 2026, expanding at a CAGR of over 6.0% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. Biopharmaceuticals is an exponentially growing therapeutic segment, with several novel therapies in pipeline. Microbial produced biopharmaceuticals generated revenue of around US$ 100 Bn in 2017 and the segment is estimated to expand at a significant CAGR. The global biopharmaceutical fermentation system market is driven by increased usage of fermentation derived products in various industries across the globe due to their natural structure, low cost, and better output. Moreover, rise in research and developmental activities in different fields of fermentation technology, technological advancements, rise in awareness about products, and launch of new products are the factors expected to drive the market in the near future.Read Report Overview:Increase in geriatric population, rise in prevalence of chronic diseases across the world, and surge in health care expenditure propel demand for biopharmaceuticals. This in turn is likely to fuel the growth of the global biopharmaceutical fermentation systems market during the forecast period. Several pharmaceutical companies are engaged in research and development of innovative new formulations and biological drugs to meet the unmet therapeutic needs. For instance, Biocon, Indias largest, innovation-led, fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company which ranks among top three biosimilar global players for insulin, has commercialized the rh-insulin (recombinant human insulin) through Pichia fermentation technology. Rh Insulin and Insulin Glargine are registered in over 60 and 20 emerging markets, respectively.Request A Sample:The report offers detailed segmentation of the global biopharmaceutical fermentation systems market based on product type, application, and end-user. The market has also been segmented based on region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa). Development of new biotherapeutics with smaller molecular weight is expected to drive adoption of fermentation systems. Usage of these systems for production of antibody fragments, antibody drug conjugate (ADCs) components, and small peptide fragments is likely to increase in the near future. Introduction of personalized medicines and varying product portfolio are likely to propel demand for more flexible and small to medium capacity production systems for fermentation. Instead of using large capacity fermenters, biopharmaceutical manufacturers can rely on small scale single use systems with capacity of 100 liters to 500 liters to produce these biotherapeutics.Downstream Process Products to Account for Major Share and Register Strong GrowthTechnological advancements in bioproduction and development of genetically engineered microbial strains contributes to the high yield of microbial-based biopharmaceutical production. Stringent regulations and trend of continuous manufacturing & single use technology are poised to augment the downstream process products segment. In terms of application, the recombinant protein segment is expected to account for a leading share of the market by 2026. The segment is also likely to expand at a rapid pace during the forecast period. Advancement in recombinant technologies such as gene translation in microbial systems is anticipated to drive the segment. Use of these systems in production of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) is projected to propel the segment during the forecast period. Moreover, microbial systems have been widely used in the production of recombinant protein since the introduction of insulin produced using genetically engineered E.coli strains. Technological expertise, high production capacities, and large number of raw material suppliers have contributed to the leading share of the segment.Request Report For Discount:Asia Pacific to Register Exponential Growth and Create High Incremental OpportunityAsia Pacific is expected to present significant opportunities in the biopharmaceutical fermentation systems market due to changing economic profiles, rapid urbanization, rise in health care spending and investment, and increase in incidence of chronic lifestyle diseases. However, in terms of revenue, North America was the leading market for biopharmaceutical fermentation systems in 2017. The market in North America is anticipated to witness moderate growth during the forecast period. Presence of key players, well-established health care infrastructure, increase in geriatric population, and rise in health care expenditure propel the market in the region.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Aircraft Carrier Market 2018 Key Country Analysis By Thales, Fincantieri, BAE, Huntington Ingalls, Navantia, Wincanton, Leonardo, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Others Aircraft Carrier https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6133 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/6133 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/aircraft-carrier-market-6133 Global Aircraft Carrier Market by Type (Conventional-powered, Nuclear-powered), by Configuration (Catapult-Assisted Take-Off but Arrested Recovery, Short Take-Off but Arrested Recovery, Short Take-Off but Vertical Recovery), & by Region - Forecast Till 2023Market ScenarioThere are various classes of ships, such as aircraft carrier, littoral combat warships, destroyers, amphibious assault warships, support craft, and submarines. The aircraft carrier is identified for its mobility, versatility, and competencies. The aircraft carrier is a floating military base, consisting of a fleet of fighter jets and military personnel, radar absorbent material, missile launching systems, catapult system, and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.Get Sample Report @The increasing focus on gaining more dominance over the sea will drive the growth of the aircraft carrier market during the forecast period. Many countries are involved in the development and procurement of a number of battleships, including aircraft carrier to upgrade their maritime defense divisions. Such expansion of assets will result in the overall improvement of naval combat vessels. This will allow the defense authorities to have a greater dominance over oceans and seas. These aircraft carriers are floating airbases that carry dive bombers, fighter aircraft, and torpedo planes and provide readily available air support to the naval fleets. As of 2016, 39 aircraft carriers had been deployed in the oceans, and concurrently, countries such as the U.S., India, Russia, China, and the U.K are looking forward to replacing the existing aircraft carrier with new ones. This would reinforce their defense capabilities in the neighboring seas. Some of the examples of aircraft carrier programs include the Vikrant-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and Liaoning-class aircraft carrier of the People's Liberation Army Navy China. Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy, Ulyanovsk-class aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy, and Izumo-class aircraft carrier of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF). Moreover, the growing emphasis on the development of smaller aircraft carrier will improve the growth prospect for the aircraft carrier market during the forecast period. At present, small aircraft carrier is used for the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which help in gathering intelligence and provision of surveillance for the support of airborne and naval forces.Key PlayersThe key players in aircraft carrier market are Thales Group (France), Fincantieri S.p.A (Italy), BAE System (U.K), Huntington Ingalls Industries Ltd. (U.S.), Navantia (Spain), Wincanton Plc (U.K), Leonardo S.p.A (Italy), Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.), General Atomics (U.S.), Babcock International Group Plc (U.K), and United Shipbuilding Corporation (Russia).Segments and Geographic OverviewOn the basis of type, the aircraft carrier market has been segmented into conventional-powered and nuclear-powered. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier market segment is estimated to dominate the market during the forecast period, as they can carry over twice the volume of aircraft fuel as compared to their conventional-powered counterparts. This advantage of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will drive the growth for this market segment. Moreover, over 60 power reactors are being developed in 13 countries, including China, India, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and UAE, which will propel the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier market during the forecast period.However, the maintenance of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is one of the significant challenges for the market. As a result, smaller countries, such as Thailand, have decommissioned their aircraft carrier because of the high maintenance costs. Due to the ongoing advancements in automation, the industry is expected to lower the cost of maintenance.The vendors in the aircraft carrier market are focusing on in-house manufacturing capabilities, newer technologies, research and development investments, and various product offerings, to have an advantage over their competitors. Likewise, the vendors compete based on factors, such as the reliability, cost, product quality, and aftermarket service. The growth for the market vendors is dependent on factors, such as government support, market conditions, and industry development.Increased focus on maritime security and the usage of nuclear energy are the drivers of aircraft carrier market. However, the high costs of procurement of aircraft carrier, limited combat capabilities, and long duration of the development process are the major challenges for the market growth.Globally, the aircraft carrier market has been estimated to witness steady growth; presently the U.S. is the dominating region in this market. Concurrently, China is an emerging country in the market and is expected to be the major contributor to the global market growth. The recent industry trend is to develop aircraft carrier with a higher capacity than the conventional aircraft carrier. Recently, in May 2018, it was reported that China was looking forward to launching its first domestically manufactured 'Type 001A' aircraft carrier, by 2020. This carrier is expected to be larger than the Liaoning aircraft carrier and feature improvements in its design and engines. The new vessels will have an overall length of 320m and a planned displacement of 85,000 tons. At present, this aircraft carrier is under a sea trial, and it is expected to finish the sea trial by 2019. Moreover, China is also constructing another aircraft carrier in Shanghai. It is expected that China would develop 4 to 5 aircraft carriers by 2020. The country is aggressively building on its sea power because of the ongoing conflicts in the South China Sea.Therefore, the aircraft carrier market is estimated to witness a CAGR of approximately 3% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2023.Get Attractive Discount @Scope Of ReportThe report for Global Aircraft Carrier Market by Market Research Future covers extensive primary research. This is accompanied by a detailed analysis of qualitative and quantitative aspects by various industry experts and key opinion leaders to gain deeper insights into the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of the current market scenario, which includes the historical and forecasted market size, in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macroeconomic, and governing factors of the market. The report provides comprehensive information about the strategies of the top companies in the industry, along with a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Table of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Scope of the Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Definition2.2.2 Research Objective2.2.3 Assumptions2.2.4 Limitations2.3 Research Process2.3.1 Primary Research2.3.2 Secondary Research2.4 Market Size Estimation2.5 Forecast Model3 Market Landscape3.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis3.1.1 Threat of New Entrants3.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers3.1.3 Threat of Substitutes3.1.4 Segment Rivalry3.1.5 Bargaining Power of Buyers3.2 Value Chain/supply Chain AnalysisContinues...Ask for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.Browse Full Report with Complete TOC @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Automotive Air Conditioning Compressor Market Recent Study Including Growth Factors, Applications, Regional Analysis, Key Players and Forecasts 2018 to 2025 Automotive Air Conditioning Compressor Market https://www.reportsmonitor.com/request_sample/3522 https://www.reportsmonitor.com/report/3522/Automotive-Air-Conditioning-Compressor-Market The belt-driven pump fastened to the engine, responsible for transferring and compressing the refrigerant gas is the compressor, otherwise known as the heart of the system. Cabin space in automobiles is turning out to be more aesthetic, sophisticated, advanced, and comfort-focused. Air conditioning systems have evolved from comfort feature to necessary feature nowadays. Mounting vehicle production, fleet on road, in addition, to increasing installation of comfort features in the economic segment like cars, is seen currently. This increase leads to the demand of automotive air conditioning compressors in the market. The rise in growth of the market is anticipated with more organizations opting for automotive air conditioning compressors in the coming future.The emerging use of different refrigerants to replace the more usual R134a, multi-zone air conditioning systems and the use of physiologically controlled air conditioning are observed nowadays. The long-term prospects for R134a are not very good, due to its greenhouse effect. The most excellent contender to substitute R134a as a refrigerant in automobile air conditioning is carbon dioxide. Presently, the abundance of completely automatic air conditioning equipment used in automobiles regulates themselves on the basis of temperature measurements in the area near the driver. Increasing car ownership all over the world is driving the global automotive AC compressor market. Ultimately, the budding necessity of consumers related to comfort in the vehicle is creating the demand for automotive air conditioning for automotive AC compressors.Download PDF Sample with Popular Trends @High prices of luxury vehicles, maintenance issues, and several technical limitations are anticipated to affect the rapid growth of global automotive AC compressor market over the forecast period. The market players in this market hold the significant opportunity for the launch of the new compact as well as efficient AC compressor at competitive prices. The market is predicted to register a considerable growth over the forecast period, owing to the technological advancements to provide superior products at low price. Moreover, rising implementation of AC systems in automobiles air conditioning systems have turn out to be an essential feature in buses and passenger cars nowadays. Several automakers are making efforts to create these systems economical along with small budget without compromising of overall vehicle performance. The automotive AC compressor is considered as the principal part of overall air conditioning system which plays a significant role in the efficient performance. It maintains compulsory flow and pressure of the refrigerant in the system to enable heat rejection from the confined space.Regional Analysis:The global automotive air conditioning compressor market is divided into various regions covering North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and LAMEA. Asia-Pacific is one of the growing regions that have been showing remarkable growth in the market, owing to the factors covering increasing individual's purchasing power in addition to the establishments of the automotive industry in this region caused by the availability of resources at a low cost. Both the regions like Eastern Europe and Western Europe are also considered as the prominent markets for automotive AC compressor as they are finely covered with several auto industries. Japan also has a considerable base of automotive industries, which is anticipated to generate a demand for automotive AC compressors.Key Players:ZHEJIANG SANTIAN A/C COMPRESSOR CO., LTDSANDEN HOLDINGS CORPORATIONOMEGA Environmental TechnologiesYantai Shougang TD Automotive Compressor Co., Ltd.HELLA KGaAHueck& CoMichigan Automotive Compressor Inc.Calsonic Kansei CorporationDenso CorporationTD Automotive Compressor Georgia, LLC.Dunair Smiths Manufacturing PTY Ltd. and othersBusiness Intelligence:Along with DENSO Corporation, Toyota Industries Corporation have established a new company, named Yantai Shougang TD Automotive Compressor Co., Ltd. in Yantai City.Full Report Link @Moreover, in June 2014, DENSO Corporation has acquired 34 percent stake of Hefei Dyne Auto Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. that manufactures the compressors in China. It might assist to give a rise in an automotive aftermarket compressor business worldwide.Automotive air conditioning compressor market segmentation:By Applications:Passenger CarsHeavy Commercial VehicleLight Commercial VehicleBy Product Type:Scroll Type CompressorRotary Vane CompressorSwash Plate CompressorBy Region:North AmericaU.SCanadaMexicoEuropeU.KGermanyFranceItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaRest of Asia PacificLAMEABrazilUAESaudi AfricaSouth AfricaRest of LAMEAAbout Us:Reports Monitor is a market research and consulting company that provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries including Healthcare, Technology, Chemicals, Materials, and Energy. With an intrinsic understanding of many business environments, Reports Monitor provides strategic objective insights.We periodically update our market research studies to ensure our clients get the most recent, relevant, and valuable information. Reports Monitor has a strong base of analysts and consultants from assorted areas of expertise. Our industry experience and ability to zero-in on the crux of any challenge gives you and your organization the ability to secure a competitive advantage.Contact Us:Mr. Jay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911 (U.S.)+44 203 318 2846 (U.K.)Email: sales@reportsmonitor.com Hazardous Waste Material Management Market to make huge impact in near future basic influencing factors driving the industry 2018 - 2025 https://bit.ly/2LIYAuo https://bit.ly/2LWmPEN https://bit.ly/2AxSh85 Hazardous Waste Material Management MarketAccording to a new market research report titled, Hazardous Waste Material Management Market, added on Garner Insights. The report has been processed on the basis of a comprehensive analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report presents the market scenario and its potential growth prospects during the forecast period. In addition, the report consists of the list of the leading players operating in the market.Request a Sample Report @Based on the Hazardous Waste Material Management industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Hazardous Waste Material Management market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2013-2018), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2025), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Hazardous Waste Material Management market.Scope of the Report:Major Players in Hazardous Waste Material Management market are:Clean Harbors Inc, Daniels Sharpsmart Inc, Republic Services Inc, Stericycle Inc, Suez Environnement SA, Veolia Environment SA, Biomedical Waste Solutions, Waste Management Inc, Remondis Medison, Sharps Compliance Inc.Major Regions play vital role in Hazardous Waste Material Management market are:United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India.Check Discount for Hazardous Waste Material Management market report @The Hazardous Waste Material Management Market consists of data accumulated from numerous primary and secondary sources. This information has been verified and validated by the industry analysts, thus providing significant insights to the researchers, analysts, managers, and other industry professionals.Most important types of Hazardous Waste Material Management products covered in this report are:Sharps, Pharmaceutical Waste, E-waste, Other.Most widely used downstream fields of Hazardous Waste Material Management market covered in this report are:Onsite, Offsite.The Hazardous Waste Material Management market report is a collection of the first-hand data, subjective, and quantitative assessment by industry experts and professionals, contributions from industry specialists and industry participants over the value chain. The report consists of a detailed analysis of the industry growth trends, micro- and macroeconomic components, and governing factors, along with the market attractiveness, within the market segments. The report likewise maps the subjective impact of the different market factors on the market segments, sub-segments, and geographies.There are 13 Chapters to thoroughly display the Hazardous Waste Material Management market. This report included the analysis of market overview, market characteristics, industry chain, competition landscape, historical and future data by types, applications and regions.Chapter 1: Hazardous Waste Material Management Market Overview, Product Overview, Market Segmentation, Market Overview of Regions, Market Dynamics, Limitations, Opportunities and Industry News and Policies.Chapter 2: Hazardous Waste Material Management Industry Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Material Suppliers, Major Players, Production Process Analysis, Cost Analysis, Market Channels and Major Downstream Buyers.Chapter 3: Value Analysis, Production, Growth Rate and Price Analysis by Type of Hazardous Waste Material Management.Chapter 4: Downstream Characteristics, Consumption and Market Share by Application of Hazardous Waste Material Management.Chapter 5: Production Volume, Price, Gross Margin, and Revenue ($) of Hazardous Waste Material Management by Regions (2013-2018).Chapter 6: Hazardous Waste Material Management Production, Consumption, Export and Import by Regions (2013-2018).Chapter 7: Hazardous Waste Material Management Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions.Chapter 8: Competitive Landscape, Product Introduction, Company Profiles, Market Distribution Status by Players of Hazardous Waste Material Management.Chapter 9: Hazardous Waste Material Management Market Analysis and Forecast by Type and Application (2018-2025).Chapter 10: Market Analysis and Forecast by Regions (2018-2025).Chapter 11: Industry Characteristics, Key Factors, New Entrants SWOT Analysis, Investment Feasibility Analysis.Chapter 12: Market Conclusion of the Whole Report.Chapter 13: Appendix Such as Methodology and Data Resources of This Research.Browse Complete Report with TOC of Hazardous Waste Material Management Market Report, Visit:In the end, Hazardous Waste Material Management Industry report specifics the major regions, market scenarios with the product price, volume, supply, revenue, production, market growth rate, demand, forecast and so on. This report also presents SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.About Garner Insights:Garner Insights is a Market Intelligence and consulting firm with an all-inclusive experience and vast knowledge of the market research industry.Our vast storage of research reports across various categories, gives you a complete view of the ever changing and developing trends and current topics worldwide. Our constant endeavor is to keep on improving our storage information by providing rich market reports and constantly improving them.Contact Us:Kevin ThomasContact No: +1 513 549 5911 (US)+44 203 318 2846 (UK)Email: sales@garnerinsights.com Wireless Communication Technologies 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Softbank , Deutsche Telekom , Nippon Telegraph & Tel , Telstra Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3272005-global-wireless-communication-technologies-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3272005-global-wireless-communication-technologies-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 Global Wireless Communication Technologies MarketThis report studies the global Wireless Communication Technologies market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Wireless Communication Technologies market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Request a Sample Report @This report focuses on the global top players, coveredSoftbankDeutsche TelekomNippon Telegraph & TelTelstraTelefonicaAmerica MovilVodafoneVerizon CommunicationsAT&TChina MobileMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoRadio and Television BroadcastingRadar CommunicationSatellite communicationCellular CommunicationGlobal Positioning SystemWiFiBluetoothRadio Frequency IdentificationMarket segment by Application, split intoCordless TelephonesMobilesGPS UnitsWireless Computer PartsSatellite TelevisionMilitaryOthersThe study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Wireless Communication Technologies in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Wireless Communication Technologies are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersWireless Communication Technologies ManufacturersWireless Communication Technologies Distributors/Traders/WholesalersWireless Communication Technologies Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, Research offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Wireless Communication Technologies market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Table of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Wireless Communication Technologies Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Wireless Communication Technologies1.1 Wireless Communication Technologies Market Overview1.1.1 Wireless Communication Technologies Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Wireless Communication Technologies Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 Europe1.2.3 China1.2.4 Japan1.2.5 Southeast Asia1.2.6 India1.3 Wireless Communication Technologies Market by Type1.3.1 Radio and Television Broadcasting1.3.2 Radar Communication1.3.3 Satellite communication1.3.4 Cellular Communication1.3.5 Global Positioning System1.3.6 WiFi1.3.7 Bluetooth1.3.8 Radio Frequency Identification1.4 Wireless Communication Technologies Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Cordless Telephones1.4.2 Mobiles1.4.3 GPS Units1.4.4 Wireless Computer Parts1.4.5 Satellite Television1.4.6 Military1.4.7 Others2 Global Wireless Communication Technologies Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Wireless Communication Technologies Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Softbank3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Wireless Communication Technologies Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2 Deutsche Telekom3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Wireless Communication Technologies Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3 Nippon Telegraph & Tel3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Wireless Communication Technologies Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4 Telstra3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Wireless Communication Technologies Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5 Telefonica3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business OverviewContinued.Complete Report Details @Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Nanosensors Market 2018 Global Key Players: Nanodevices, OMRON Corporation, Agilent, Oxonica, Texas Instruments, Analog devices, Samsung Electronics https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1117 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/nanosensors-market-1117 Market Research Future published a research report on Global Nanosensors Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2027 Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.Nano Sensors Market Global Market - OverviewThe nano sensors are minute sensors which is used to detect and sense the nanoparticles generally found in the environment are implemented in the industrial application. These nano sensors are used in various ways such as to monitor and detect the different chemical composition in pollution, to supervise the physical factors such as displacement, flow and temperature and many more. Generally, the nano sensors are manufactured by three processes mainly, top-down lithography, bottom-up assembly, and molecular self-assembly With advancement of technology, the nano sensors has been developed in many forms such as electrochemical, biosensors and extensively used in many applications.. Additionally, increase in investment to innovate new techniques to facilitate to for the detection of harmful gases is expected to drive the Nano Sensor Market over the forecast period. However, the conventional approach of the consumer to implement the nano-based technology is anticipated to hinder the growth of the market over the review period.Get Sample of Report @Industry NewsJuly 2017, Nano device Solution had unveiled NDSolns 2.0. In the process of providing the information to the end users, Nano device solution, based in Canada, had introduced the NDSolns2.0. The services would be beneficial as the content would be organized which enable end user to get the clear information about their products.October 2017, Nano sensor unveiled MSS-8RM module In order to operate the 8 sensors simultaneously, Nano sensor, the leading provider of Nano sensor based in Switzerland, had evolved Membrane-type Surface-stress Sensor (MSS) module equipped with 8 sensors simultaneously to detect the minute component in gaseous state with the increased sensitivity by using Piezo resistive Nano mechanical sensor.Key PlayersThe key players in the Nanosensors Market are- OMRON Corporation (Japan), Oxonica (U.S.), Texas Instruments Inc. (U.S.), Analog devices Inc. (U.S.), Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (Japan), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Nanodevices Inc. (Finland), Micro-Tech Scientific Inc. (U.S.), Agilent (U.S.) among others.Nano Sensors Market Global Market - Segmentation Segmentation by Product Type: Optical Nano sensors, Electrochemical Nano sensors Electromagnetic Nano sensors, Biomedical Nano sensors and Electrical Nano sensors Segmentation by Production Methods: Top-Down Lithography, Bottom-Up Assembly, and Molecular Self-Assembly Segmentation by Application: Defence & Military, Biomedical & Healthcare, Environmental Monitoring, Food Management, Automotive & Aerospace, Industrial Robotics, and Others. Segmentation by Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Rest of the WorldStudy Objective of Nanosensors MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Nanosensors Market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the Nanosensors market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by technology, by type, by applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Nanosensors MarketGet complete Report @Nano Sensors Market Global Market-Regional AnalysisNorth America is expected to dominate the global nano sensors market with the largest market share in the region. The U.S and Canada are the leading countries in the region. This is due to increased investment in in medical sector to produce the innovative devices which create the huge demand for the nano sensor in healthcare and medical sector. Additionally, the presence of large number of big corporation such as Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), Texas Instruments Inc. (U.S.), Analog devices Inc. (U.S.), which constantly invest to develop innovative sensors for industrial and commercial applications are expected to drive the nano sensors market over the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to have a substantial growth rate of the nano sensors market. China, India, and Japan are the prominent countries leading in the region attributed to rising awareness of the nano sensor which surge the demand for nano sensor.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Hot Foil Stamping Machine Global Market 2018 Analysis By Key Players BOBST, Gietz, IIJIMA MFG., KURZ, Grafisk Maskinfabrik, Masterwork Machinery, YOCO Hot Foil Stamping Machine https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2628122-2015-2023-world-hot-foil-stamping-machine-market-research-report-by https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2628122-2015-2023-world-hot-foil-stamping-machine-market-research-report-by SummaryWiseGuyReports.com adds Hot Foil Stamping Machine Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023 reports to its database.This report provides in depth study of Hot Foil Stamping Machine Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Hot Foil Stamping Machine Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.Foil stamping, typically a commercial printing process, is the application of metallic or pigmented foil on to a solid surface by application of a heated die onto foil, making it permanently adhere to the surface below leaving the design of the die. And hot foil stamping machine is the tool we used to complete the foil stamping process. Owing to small and medium sized equipment is low-tech, and manufacturers of that are too much. In this report, we focus on precision high-tech large-scale equipment.This report includes market status and forecast of global and major regions, with introduction of vendors, regions, product types and end industries; and this report counts product types and end industries in global and major regions.Global Hot Foil Stamping Machine market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBOBSTGietzIIJIMA MFG.KURZGrafisk MaskinfabrikMasterwork MachineryYOCOZhejiang Guangya MachineryHigherSBL GroupGuowang GroupRuian Zhongyin MachineMarket Segment as follows:By Region / CountriesNorth America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc)South America (Brazil, Argentina etc)Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc)By TypeFlat-flat Foil Stamping MachineRound-round Foil Stamping MachineRound-flat Foil Stamping MachineBy End-User / ApplicationFood PackagingPharm PackagingTobacco PackagingCosmetic PackagingOthersRequest a Sample Report @Major Key Points in Table of Content1 Market Definition1.1 Market Segment Overview1.2 by Type1.3 by End-Use / Application2 Global Market by Vendors2.1 Market Share2.2 Vendor Profile2.3 Dynamic of Vendors3 Global Market by Type3.1 Market Share3.2 Introduction of End-Use by Different Products4 Global Market by End-Use / Application4.1 Market Share4.2 Overview of Consumption Characteristics4.2.1 Preference Driven4.2.2 Substitutability4.2.3 Influence by Strategy4.2.4 Professional Needs5 Global Market by Regions5.1 Market Share5.2 Regional Market Growth5.2.1 North America5.2.2 Europe5.2.3 Asia-Pacific5.2.4 South America5.2.5 Middle East & Africa.12 Key Manufacturers12.1 BOBST12.1.2 Company Overview12.1.2 Product and End-User / Application12.1.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.2 Gietz12.2.1 Company Overview12.2.2 Product and End-User / Application12.2.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.3 IIJIMA MFG.12.3.1 Company Overview12.3.2 Product and End-User / Application12.3.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.4 KURZ12.4.1 Company Overview12.4.2 Product and End-User / Application12.4.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.5 Grafisk Maskinfabrik12.5.1 Company Overview12.5.2 Product and End-User / Application12.5.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.6 Masterwork Machinery12.12.1 Company Overview12.12.2 Product and End-User / Application12.12.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.7 YOCO12.7.1 Company Overview12.7.2 Product and End-User / Application12.7.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.8 Zhejiang Guangya Machinery12.8.1 Company Overview12.8.2 Product and End-User / Application12.8.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.9 Higher12.9.1 Company Overview12.9.2 Product and End-User / Application12.9.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.10 SBL Group12.10.1 Company Overview12.10.2 Product and End-User / Application12.10.3 Business Data (Capacity, Sales Revenue, Volume, Price, Cost and Margin)12.11 Guowang Group12.12 Ruian Zhongyin MachineAt any Query @Continued....Contact Us: sales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US) ; Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Address:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune 411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Global Automotive Door Lock Market 2018 - Magna International Inc, Kiekert AG, Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd. Global Automotive Door Lock Market https://goo.gl/wvecFz https://goo.gl/zAqwYH www.accordmarket.com Accord Market, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Automotive Door Lock Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Automotive Door Lock Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Automotive Door Lock on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Automotive Door Lock performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Automotive Door Lock Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Automotive Door Lock Market. The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Automotive Door Lock Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Automotive Door Lock. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Automotive Door Lock Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportMagna International Inc.Kiekert AGAisin Seiki Co., Ltd.Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd.Strattec Security CorporationU-Shin Ltd.Shivani Locks Pvt. Ltd.Inteva Products, LLCBrose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co.Minda Vast Access SystemsThe competitive landscape of the global market for Automotive Door Lock is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Automotive Door Lock Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Automotive Door Lock Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Automotive Door Lock Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Automotive Door Lock production volume, data pertaining to demand and Automotive Door Lock supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Automotive Door Lock along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Automotive Door Lock across the world.About UsAccord Market offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Accord Market provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezS no. 72/1/A/6, Floor No. 1,Harikrishna Building, Samarth Nagar,New Sanghvi, Pune-411027 India.Phone: +91-8149441100Email id - sales@accordmarket.comWebsite - Strategic Analysis Of Polycarbonate Diols Market https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/polycarbonate-diols-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3903 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Polycarbonate diols are chemically studied to be thermoplastic building blocks for polyurethane dispersions and polyurethane compounds such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). They offer better compatibility with several polyols and solvents and easy handling with their viscous nature at room temperature. Oxidative degradation resistance, intrinsic flexibility, and hydrolytic stability are key properties possessed by polycarbonate diols. Other properties such as optical, temperature resistance, and impact resistance could help polycarbonate diols to play the role of engineering or commodity plastics.Read this Sample Report at:The global polycarbonate diols market could be classified according to type and application. With a broad study of each segment of the market, the authors of the report have unveiled some crucial opportunities for industry players. Besides this, the segmentation study will allow readers to gain a good insight into key segments likely to attract demand in the coming years.Request to view PDF Brochure at:The report offered herewith is an ideal evaluation of the global polycarbonate diols market that facilitates easy but informed decision making while assessing key trends, opportunities, competitive landscape, and important market figures. Players could be able to evaluate the profiles of their competitors in order to achieve a competitive edge in the global polycarbonate diols market.Global Polycarbonate Diols Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe growth of the world polycarbonate diols market is prognosticated to be propelled by the increasing demand for data storage devices, including Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs, and other types of consumer electronics. Participants operating in the world polycarbonate diols market could be advantaged with a high demand resting on the back of flame-retardant and heat-resistance properties of the product. These properties are expected to increase the usage of polycarbonate diols as a choice material in the manufacture of electronic gadgets.Apart from covering greenhouses, the world polycarbonate diols market could invite other vital applications in the construction and building sector, such as the construction of dome lights and curved or flat glazing systems. Cockpit canopies and automotive headlights also require polycarbonate diols, owing to their high-impact resistance and lightweight properties. As a result, vendors in the world polycarbonate diols market are expected to cash in on the growing demand from the aerospace and automotive sector.One of the factors that could hamper the growth of the world polycarbonate diols market is the presence of ecologically harmful compound bisphenol A in the product. However, the rising GDPs of developing economies are predicted to offer new avenues of growth in the world polycarbonate diols market.Global Polycarbonate Diols Market: Geographical StudyAsia Pacific is prophesied by the analysts to cling onto a significant share in the international polycarbonate diols market on account of the favorable growth of its automobile and electronics sectors. China could be a larger exporter of polycarbonate diols apart from being a giant consumer and producer in the international polycarbonate diols market. Consequently, the Asia Pacific country is foretold to showcase a telling dominance in the international polycarbonate diols market. Other regions such as Europe and countries such as the U.S. could also considerably contribute toward the growth of the international polycarbonate diols market while riding on their flourishing aerospace industryGlobal Polycarbonate Diols Market: Companies MentionedOf all the leading players in the worldwide polycarbonate diols market, Haiyan Huashuaite Plastics Electric Appliances Co., Ishii Chemicals Co., Ltd., Jinan Haohua Industry Co., Ltd., ICC Industries, Inc., and Hangzhou Dayangchem Co., Ltd. could make their presence known.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Organic Food & Beverages Analysis 2018, Regional Trend, Industry Demand, Current and Future Plans by Forecast to 2022 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2524 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/organic-food-beverages-market-2524 Market Overview:The growing demand for organically produced foods is growing rapidly. Evolving consumer buying habits, growing consumers concerns regarding health, the environment, and animal welfare, along with their willingness to pay premium price for healthy food is fuelling the demand of organic food market in Asia-Pacific region. Even at the global level, market is driven by factors such as increasing consumer awareness towards benefits associated with its consumption, adoption of organic farming methods, and implementation of organic regulations. The presence of organic foods & beverages has increased over the years in conventional food supply chains due to the development of private labels and growing interest of large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco to sell organic products.The market players have increased their levels of investment in research to identify right formulation and to improve product functionality in order to capture lions share and create brand recognition in organic foods & beverages market. Also, government authorities, NGOs, and farmer organizations in developing countries are promoting organic farming by financial support, market information, and trends in organic food market. Developing countries are providing subsidies to small farmers for organic farming. NGOs, farmer organizations, traders are conducting training programs to encourage farmers for adopting organic farming. Government and non-government organizations such as FiBL (Switzerland), APEDA (India), and USDA (U.S.) support conventional farmers to switch to organic farming. All these efforts from government and NGOs are boosting the consumption of organic foods & beverages.Request a Sample Report @Latest Industry Updates:July 2017 General Mills, Inc. launched their new organic yogurt under the brand name of OuiMarch 2017 Hain Celestial launched organic bread productsJune 2016 General Mills, Inc. made a partnership with Organic Valley. The partnership will aid the organization to source organic dairy productsMarch 2016 General Mills, Inc. introduced a line of organic whole milk yogurt, available in three varieties: berry, strawberry and vanilla.Leading Key Players:Global organic food market is undergoing a massive technological innovation over the last couple of years. Manufacturers invest in research and technical development and investigative activities to improve existing products and procedures in order to develop new products. Research and development will lead to development of new product to improve the quality and functionality by including better formulations. Key players have been developing better-for-you products to accommodate the healthy food movement in convenient packaging, with clean labels ensuring food safety.The key players profiled in organic food & beverages are Amys Kitchen Inc., Dean Food Company, General Mills Inc., Hain Celestial Group, Inc., SpartanNash Company, Kraft Foods Group Inc., The Kroger Co., and Whole Foods Market, Inc. among many others.The Organic Food & Beverages market is segmented under the following regions mentioned below:North America US Canada EuropeEurope Germany France Italy Spain UK Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific China India Australia Singapore Rest of Asia PacificRest of the world Brazil Argentina Saudi Arabia South Africa OthersAccess Report Details @Regional Analysis:The global Organic Food & Beverages market is segmented into Europe, North America, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe is estimated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period of 2017-2023. The growth of the Europe is anticipated to be driven by the increasing busy lifestyles of the consumers coupled with the increasing launches of new products by the key players in Europe. Also, increasing awareness among the consumers related to the adverse effect of synthetic ingredients is propelling the sales of organic foods & beverages.However, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth as compared to the other regions. Increasing demand for clean label products, huge investments in R&D, and new product development by market players along with government initiatives and funds to support farmers to shift from conventional farming to organic farming has created lucrative opportunities for the growth of organic food & beverages market in Asia-Pacific region.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com China IUCD Market Size Estimation by Top Manufacturer, Latest Trends and Industry Forecast 2018 to 2023 IUCD Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1306 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1306 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1306 China IUCD Market was about is expected to reach US$ 250 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 12.7% during forecast period 2017 to 2023.Get Sample Report @IUCD stands for Intra-Uterine Contraceptive Devices. It is a device inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. The device is T-shaped made up of flexible plastic with a coating of thin copper wire. China, ICUD was the most important tool to limit the couples to have one child. One child policy of China was introduced in 1979 favored the growth of this market till 2015. But in January 2016, a new law named Two-child policy become effective, which was passed by standing committee of National Peoples Congress in December 2016. According to census 2010, the population change in is 7.39 per year. The market for IUCD is showing a steady rise in China because most of the women still do not want to have a second child even after the passage of second child policy. China market of IUCD is expected to reach USD 20 billion in 2023 from USD 14 billion in 2016 with a CAGR of approximately 8.72% during the forecast period 2017-2023.China IUCD Market Key PlayersKey players in IUCD market are: SMB Corporation Of India, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. (US), Mona Lisa (Belgium), Teva Womens Health, DKT International (US).SMB Corporation of India manufacturer of intrauterine device, copper T intrauterine device, copper IUDs. Products by the company are are Copper T 380A, TCu 380Ag, TCu 380 Plus and Cu 375. The company also manufactures IUD kits.Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals manufactures a product cal;led Skyla which is a ultra-uterine system. Another Product named Minera IUD is also a product manufacture by the company for controlling pregnancy.Mona Lisa is manufactures Cu375 / 375 SL, CuT 380A, CuT 380A QL, NT Cu380 / 380 Mini and ST Cu300 IUDs.China IUCD Market SegmentationThe market for IUCD in China is segmented into types which include hormonal IUD, copper IUD and other types. The end users are hospitals, Clinics and others.Get Discount on Report @China IUCD Market Regional AnalysisOn the basis of regions market for IUCD in China is segmented into North China, Northeast China, East China, South Central China, Southwest China and Northwest China. East China account for the largest market share. It has the highest population and largest population density. The market in China is showing steady growth due to an increase in the population in all the regions.China IUCD Market Intended AudienceHealthcare IT companiesHealthcare companiesContract Research Organizations (CROs)Research and Development (R&D) CompaniesAcademic Medical Institutes and UniversitiesThe report for IUCD of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsMajor Table of ContentChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market DynamicsContinued.To Know More Enquire @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com Incredible Possibilities in Global Blockchain in Retail Market with +91% CAGR, Key Findings, Regional analysis, Key Players Profiles, Current Trends, Business Development and Upcoming Prospects 2018-2023 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=2784 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=2784 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=2784 The rise and fall of the bit coin were made up of a technique to consider the block chain. In other industries, technology is now ready to strengthen retail to protect consumers and increase transparency. Retailers can control costs by limiting losses and damages, identifying the source of the problem, and isolating products affected by rapid containment.Global Blockchain in Retail Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of +91% during the forecast period 2018-2023. The growth of the global blockchain in retail market is driven by growth in demand for transparency related to product origin or processes and rise in need to reduce duplicative record keeping. Other factors that fuel the market growth include rapid digitalization and reduced total cost of ownership.The objective of the Blockchain in Retail Market report is to gather important market data and offer insights about the trends and opportunities of the market to its readers. The report categorizes the market in an accurate manner to offer thorough insights into the aspects accountable for enhancing as well as confining market growthAsk for PDF Sample Copy:Top Key Players included in Global Blockchain in Retail Market report:IBM (US), SAP (Germany), Microsoft (US), Oracle (US), AWS (US), Bitfury (the Netherlands), Auxesis Group (India), Cegeka (the Netherlands), BTL (Canada), Guardtime (Estonia), CoinBase (US), loyyal (US), Sofocle (India), BigchainDB (Germany), RecordsKeeper (Spain), BitPay (US), Abra, othersMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States, EU, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia. By Application, this report covers Compliance Management, Identity Management, Loyalty and Rewards Management, Payments, Smart Contracts, Supply Chain Management, Others.Based on current market developments, the readers are further offered an assessment of how the activities, such as strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions, will share the future of this market. The report further studies the impact of porters five forces on the progress of this market. Readers will be benefitted from the references and case studies given in the research study.Avail 20% Discount and Customization On This Premium Report@Table of Contents:Global Blockchain in Retail Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Global Blockchain in Retail Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Blockchain in Retail Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global Blockchain in Retail Market ForecastFor more enquiry @About Company:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Name: Vijay TannaCompany: IT Intelligence MarketsAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044Mail Id: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700 Quosphere honoured with Qlik Innovation Award at Qlik India Partner Conference 2018 Innovation Always Qliks! www.quosphere.com Bangkok, July 2018 Quosphere, an end-to-end analytics solution provider focusing on Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots and RPA won the Qlik Innovation Award, 2018 under the Solution, Technology category for its remarkable application of Qlik Services. The award was presented by Arun Balasubhramanian, MD, Qlik India at Qlik India Partner Executive Summit 2018 held at Windsor Suites and Convention, Bangkok.Quosphere earned this prestigious award for innovation on Qlik platform for driving true self-service using a conversational approach and helping customers derive insights by extending the capabilities of the platforms open APIs to build its custom solutions using BOTS and Alexa based voice-driven analytics backed by AI and machine learning.We are delighted to have received this award. This recognition is a proof of our continuous focus on providing best-in-class solutions to our clients through the innovative application of Qlik products and services. This reinforces our commitment to further strengthen our Qlik service portfolio with the help of AI and machine learning., said Quosphere CEO, Manish Parmar, a leader of the firms BI practice.To double the celebration, Ankush Shah, Practice Head at Quosphere bagged the Qlik Pre-Sales Person of the year, 2018 award for demonstrating exceptional solution knowledge and technical selling expertise.Quosphere is committed to continue its partnership with Qlik and make it stronger. Combined with Qlik technology, Quosphere is focused on expanding the market by innovating and developing new age solutions that companies of all sizes can consider the centerpiece of their analytics strategy.About Qlik:Qlik is a leader in data discovery delivering intuitive solutions for self-service data visualization and guided analytics. Approximately 36,000 customers rely on Qlik solutions to gain meaning out of information from varied sources, exploring the hidden relationships within data that lead to insights that ignite good ideas. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Qlik has offices around the world with more than 1,700 partners covering more than 100 countries.About Quosphere:Quosphere is an integrated Advanced Analytics Solutions Provider. Our expertise is in the areas of analytics, right from Data Management to Visualizations and Predictive Analytics all the way to Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence possibilities. We also partner for RPA for streamlining existing processes with chatbots. Quosphere brings together advanced technology, robust infrastructure, and a proven global delivery model to provide a wide range of IT services across industries to help solve real-world problems.For more information, visitQuosphere Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd.,1004, Rupa Solitaire,Millennium Business Park,Mhape, Navi Mumbai - 400710Trisha Jaiswaltrisha.j@quosphere.com7710005016 Home Automation: Patent, Business Opportunity, and Brand Strength Analysis & Forecast 2021 HOME AUTOMATION , HOME AUTOMATION Market, HOME AUTOMATION Market Growth, Presses Release, HOME AUTOMATION Manufacturers, HOME AUTO http://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3253635-home-automation-patent-business-opportunity-and-brand-strength-analysis https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3253635-home-automation-patent-business-opportunity-and-brand-strength-analysis http://www.wiseguyreports.com Description:Home automation involves automated home management systems and intelligent control systems. Leading international vendors have aggressively rolled out control systems combining sensor modules and service platforms for home automation such as Googles Google Brillo and Apples HomeKit. This report will discuss the main applications of home automation, major countries holding home automation patents, distribution of the patents by sector and field, and key patented technologies such as data processing, network communications, control system, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence; examines the strategic planning and challenges of leading home automation companies including Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Google and Honeywell. Also included are the insights about market opportunities of home automation solutions for newcomers.Request For sample Report @Table of Contents1.Introduction to Technology2. Patent Mining2.1 Patent Search2.1.1 Selecting a Patent Database2.1.2 Identifying Search Keywords2.1.3 Data Selection2.1.4 Data Analysis3. Trends Analysis3.1 Data Mining3.1.1 Analysis of Trends by Country3.1.2 Analysis of Trends by Sector and Field3.1.3 Analysis of Trends by Key Technology Field3.2 Key Patents3.2.1 Intelligent Controller for Environmental Control System in Smart Home Environment3.3 R&D Readiness Analysis3.3.1 Relative R&D Intensity4. Patent Portfolio Analysis4.1 International Assignees4.2 Development of Major Companies4.2.1 Samsung4.2.2 Sony4.2.3 Microsoft4.2.4 Google4.2.5 Honeywell5. ConclusionsAppendixGlossary of TermsList of CompaniesContinued . . .For Detail Report :About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Life Science Analytics Market, Top Players are Cognizant, Maxisit, Scio Health Analytics, Take Solutions, Wipro, Sas Institute, IBM, Oracle, Quintiles and Accenture Life Science Analytics https://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-life-science-analytics-sales-market-127950 https://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-life-science-analytics-sales-market-127950 https://www.researchformarkets.com/buy-now/global-life-science-analytics-sales-market-127950/one Life Science Analytics Market report provides an outlook for current market value as well as the expected growth of Life Science Analytics during 2018-2025. The whole supply chain of Life Science Analytics has been explained with statistical details with a special emphasis on various upstream and downstream components. The current trends pertaining to the demand, supply, and sales of Life Science Analytics, together with the recent developments have been given here to provide an exhaustive picture of this market.This report studies the global Life Science Analytics market status and forecast, categorizes the global Life Science Analytics market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America). Major factors contributing to the growth of the global life science analytics market include technological advancements, availability of big data in the life science industry, growing adoption of analytics solutions for clinical trials.Get Free Sample Copy of Report atThe major players covered in this report Cognizant, Maxisit, Scio Health Analytics, Take Solutions, Wipro, Sas Institute, IBM, Oracle, Quintiles and Accenture.Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Descriptive Analysis Predictive Analysis Prescriptive AnalysisOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including Biotech Companies Medical Equipment Enterprise Research Center The Third PartyBrowse Complete Report atReason to Buy- Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the global Life Science Analytics market- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Life Science Analytics market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Place Direct Purchase Order of Life Science Analytics Market atNote: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Contact Info:Name: Research For MarketsEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comPhone: +44 8000-4182-37Research For Markets indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East And Africa.Level 21, Dashwood House69 Old Broad StreetLondon EC2M 1QS, United Kingdom Bioimplants Market Research Report 2018-2023| Cardiovascular, Dental, Orthopedic, Spinal and Ophthalmology Bioimplants Forecast 2023 Bioimplants Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/bioimplants-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4652 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4652 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com "Bioimplants Market by Type, and Material: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the market was valued at $77,738 million in 2016, and is estimated to reach $124,154 million by 2023, with a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period.Access Full Report Summary:Bioimplant are devices of human or animal origin used to replace a missing natural body structure, support an injured biological part, or improve an existing biological structure. The major factors that contribute to the market growth include increase in geriatric population, rapid technological advancements, rise in incidence of chronic diseases, surge in adoption of advanced treatment devices, and growth in awareness regarding both the disease and treatment devices available in the market. However, the stringent approval procedure of the bioimplant is expected to impede the market growth. In addition, significant unmet need in the emerging nations provides a lucrative opportunity for the market.The orthopedic bioimplant segment generated the maximum revenue, accounting for nearly 40% of the global digital bioimplant market in 2016. On the other hand, dental bioimplant segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period.By material, the metallic biomaterial segment is expected to dominate the market, accounting for nearly two-thirds share in 2023. On the other hand, the polymeric biomaterials segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Key Findings of the Bioimplants Market:The cardiovascular bioimplant segment contributed for nearly one-fourth share of the global bioimplant market in 2016.The spinal bioimplant segment is projected to grow at a significant CAGR from 2017 to 2023.The natural biomaterial segment is projected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period.Germany and France are the major shareholders, which collectively accounted for more than one-third share of the Europe bioimplant market in 2016.Japan is the major shareholder, accounting for more than one-third share of the Asia-Pacific bioimplant market in 2016.Download Full Sample Copy:Bioimplants Market Key Segments:By TypeCardiovascular bioimplanto Stent Coronary stent Drug-eluting stent (DES) Bare-metal coronary stent Bioabsorbable stent Peripheral stent Iliac Femoral-popliteal Renal Carotid Stent-related bioimplant Synthetic graft Vena Cava filtero Pacing device Cardiac resynchronization therapy device (CRTs) Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs) Implantable cardiac pacemaker (ICPs)o Structural Cardiac Implant Mechanical heart valve Implantable ventricular-assist deviceDental bioimplanto Plate form dental implanto Root form dental implantOrthopedic bioimplanto Reconstructive joint replacemento Knee replacement implanto Hip replacement implanto Extremitieso Orthobiologicso Trauma & craniomaxillofacialSpinal bioimplanto Spinal fusion implanto Spinal bone stimulatoro Vertebral compression fracture (VCF) deviceo Motion preservation devices/non-fusion deviceo Spine biologicsOphthalmology bioimplanto Glaucoma implanto Intraocular implantOthersBy materialMetallic biomaterialCeramic biomaterialPolymers biomaterialNatural biomaterialBy RegionNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificLAMEAThe North America market is projected to dominate the global bioimplant market in terms of revenue during the forecast period. This is majorly due to the increase in technological development and rise in incidence of cardiac, neuro, and spinal disorders. The Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period, owing to rise in awareness about the use of bio implants in the healthcare industry and surge in expenditures in emerging markets (such as India and China) to cater to the unmet medical needs.The major companies profiled in the report are Abbott Laboratories (St. Jude Medical, Inc.), Boston Scientific Corporation, Dentsply Sirona Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Ethicon, Inc.), Medtronic Plc, Smith & Nephew Plc, Stryker Corporation, Victrex Plc. (Invibio Ltd.), Wright Medical Group N.V., and Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc.Enquiry and Purchase Report:Allied Market Research, a market research and advisory company of Allied Analytics LLP, provides business insights and market research reports to large as well as small & medium enterprises. The company assists its clients to strategize business policies and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Allied Market Research provides one stop solution from the beginning of data collection to investment advice. The analysts at Allied Market Research dig out factors that help clients to understand the significance and impact of market dynamics. The company implies the clients insight into the factors, such as strategies, future estimations, growth or fall forecasting, opportunity analysis, and consumer surveys among others. As follows, the company offers consistent business intelligence support to aid the clients to turn into the prominent business firm.Contact:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855-550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Body Worn Insect Repellent Market 2018 Top Key Players S. C. Johnson & Son, Avon products, Sawyer Products Inc. and 3M Body Worn Insect Repellent Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1807 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1807 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1807 https://www.gminsights.com http://algosonline.com/news Market Overview:-Increasing arthropod borne disease occurrences along with rising outdoor recreational activities will drive the body worn insect repellent market growth. Proliferating number of health awareness programs and development of innovative products will further escalate the demand.Request for a sample of this research report @Numerous advantages including protecting people from bugs while working in forest and agricultural field will drive penetration. Relief from itching, discomfort and irritation caused by bug bites will remain key factors strengthening product demand.Top Key Players:-Avon Products, The 3M Company, Sawyer Products, S. C. Johnson, and Reckitt Benckiser Group are among the major players in body worn insect repellent market. BASF, Omega Pharma, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Spectrum Brands and ExOfficio LLC are among other notable players. Acquisitions and product innovation are among the key strategies adopted by the companies. For instance, in July 2016, Exofficio expanded its insect repellent travel clothing category to enhance its market share in apparel insect repellent category.Market share calculation in this report is not done based on companies covered in it. The calculation of Body Worn Insect Repellent market share is done based on a regional approach and countries covered. On request, additional companies can be covered as well as regional data for particular country / countries can be provided.Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @In 2017, oils and creams products generated more than USD 215 million. Rising health awareness along with the easy product usage will enhance the demand. Oil and creams are further classified into synthetic based and plant based on ingredient content. Synthetic oil and creams products dominates the market share and has witnessed the revenue share of over 60% in 2017. The demand for synthetic based products is expected to decrease in the future, as there is a shifting preference towards plant-based products due to the increasing consumer awareness of natural products and its minimal side-effects.Product Segmentations :-The growing number of distribution channel platforms is a major driving factor for the industry demand. Selling bug repellent products through online platform will witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. The online distribution channel of insect repellent oil and creams market generated over USD 24 million revenue in 2017. Easy product availability through various websites along with freedom to compare product will enhance the product penetration.Stringent government regulations concerning consumers safety for the use of specific ingredients may act as a challenge for the industry participants. Also, the availability of traditional natural substitutes such as neem oil, lemongrass extract or eucalyptus oil is expected to hamper the market growth. The fluctuating raw material cost will have a direct impact on the body worn insect repellent market price trend.Body worn insect repellent industry from Asia Pacific dominates the overall demand and is expected to witness more than 7.5% CAGR up to 2024. Latin America industry growth is mainly contributed by Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Over 2.3 million Latin Americans are affected by mosquito born illness. Yellow fever, Chikungunya, west Nile virus, dengue, malaria and Zika fever cases are mostly seen in Latin American countries.Make an inquiry before buying this report @Regional Segmentations:-North America body worn insect repellent market generated a market revenue over USD 210 million in 2017. Increasing occurrences of vector-borne diseases, including Chikungunya, West Nile, Malaria, and Dengue along with adventure tourism penetration will drive product demand.Major Points of Table Of Content:-Chapter 3 Body Worn Insect Repellent Industry Insights3.1 Industry segmentation3.2 Industry landscape, 2013- 20243.3 Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1 Raw material suppliers3.3.2 Manufacturers3.3.3 Profit margin trends3.3.4 Distribution channel analysis3.3.4.1 Supermarkets3.3.4.2 Retail Pharmacy Stores3.3.4.3 Online portals3.3.4.4 Convenience Stores3.3.5 Vendor matrix3.4 Technology landscape3.4.1 Textile/Apparel3.4.2 Oil and creams, Spray3.4.3 Stickers and patches3.4.4 Key patents3.5 Regulatory landscape3.5.1 U.S.3.5.1.1 Introduction3.5.1.2 Background3.5.1.3 New Animal Drug3.5.1.4 Guidance for Sponsors/Manufacturers of product Intended use in Mosquitoes.3.5.2 Europe3.5.2.1 Introduction3.5.2.2 Background3.5.2.3 Definition3.5.2.4 Authorization3.5.3 China3.5.4 IndiaAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog: High Performance Computing (HPC) 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 5.05% and Forecast to 2022 High Performance Computing (HPC) Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3035688-global-high-performance-computing-hpc-market-2018-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3035688-global-high-performance-computing-hpc-market-2018-2022 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On High Performance Computing (HPC) 2018 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 5.05% and Forecast to 2022.The analysts forecast the global high performance computing (HPC) market to grow at a CAGR of 5.05% during the period 2018-2022.An HPC system is a computer with higher level of computing performance than a general-purpose computer. Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS).Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global high performance computing (HPC) market for 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global High Performance Computing (HPC) Market 2018-2022, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Cray Dell Fujitsu Hewlett Packard EnterpriseMarket driver Increasing adoption of HPC systems by businesses and enterprises For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge High investments and associated costs For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increasing interest toward quantum computing For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space?Ask Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Advantages of HPC Types of HPC systems based on deployment Market characteristics Market segmentation analysisPART 05: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2017 Market size and forecast 2017-2022PART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market conditionPART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY DEPLOYMENT Segmentation by deployment Comparison by deployment On-premise Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Cloud Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by deploymentPART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPEPART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY COMPONENT Segmentation by component Comparison by component Server Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Storage Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Application Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Services Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Middleware Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by componentPART 10: REGIONAL LANDSCAPE Geographical segmentation Regional comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Americas Market size and forecast 2017-2022 EMEA Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Key leading countries Market opportunityPART 11: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 12: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challengesContinuedFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Telecom Consulting Market, Top Players are Dimension Data, Logica, Tellabs, BCG, PwC, CSG, Toil, Detecon , Accenture, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Deloitte, Mckinsey and Gartner Telecom Consulting Market https://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-telecom-consulting-sales-market-127956 https://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-telecom-consulting-sales-market-127956 https://www.researchformarkets.com/buy-now/global-telecom-consulting-sales-market-127956/one Telecom Consulting Market report provides an outlook for current market value as well as the expected growth of Telecom Consulting during 2018-2025. The whole supply chain of Telecom Consulting has been explained with statistical details with a special emphasis on various upstream and downstream components. The current trends pertaining to the demand, supply, and sales of Telecom Consulting, together with the recent developments have been given here to provide an exhaustive picture of this market.This report studies the global Telecom Consulting market status and forecast, categorizes the global Telecom Consulting market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).Get Free Sample Copy of Report atThe major players covered in this report Dimension Data, Logica, Tellabs, BCG, PwC, CSG, Toil, Detecon , Accenture, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Deloitte, Mckinsey and Gartner.Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, covering North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Type 1 Type 2 Type 3On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including 4G/LTE/TTH Mobile Broadband Cloud services Smart grid OtherBrowse Complete Report atTable of Content1 Telecom Consulting Market Overview2 Global Telecom Consulting Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application3 United States Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 Europe Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 China Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)7 Southeast Asia Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)8 India Telecom Consulting (Volume, Value and Sales Price)9 Global Telecom Consulting Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data9.1 Accenture9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Telecom Consulting Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Accenture Telecom Consulting Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Ericsson9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Telecom Consulting Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Ericsson Telecom Consulting Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 Alcatel-Lucent9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Telecom Consulting Product Category, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 Alcatel-Lucent Telecom Consulting Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview10 Telecom Consulting Maufacturing Cost Analysis11 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers12 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Global Telecom Consulting Market Forecast (2018-2025)15 Research Findings and ConclusionKey Reasons to Purchase To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the global market and its commercial landscape. Assess the production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk. To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the market and its impact in the global market. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for the market. Besides the standard structure reports, we also provide custom research according to specific requirements.Place Direct Purchase Order of Telecom Consulting Market atNote: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Contact Info:Name: Research For MarketsEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comPhone: +44 8000-4182-37Research For Markets indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East And Africa.Level 21, Dashwood House69 Old Broad StreetLondon EC2M 1QS, United Kingdom Flight Inspection Market: Industry Segmentation, Growth Rate, Share, Statistics, Revenue, Future Trend, Top Companies (SAFRAN, Saab, Cobham ,Enav, Isavia, Textron, Bombardier, FCSL, Aerodata, NSM) Global Analysis Forecast 2028-2025 Flight Inspection (FI) Market https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/590428 https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/590428 https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/590428 www.orianresearch.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ Flight Inspection (FI) Industry 2018 Global Market Research report provides information regarding market size, share, trends, growth, cost structure, capacity, and revenue and forecast 2025. Market Insights Reports new study, Global Flight Inspection (FI) Sales Market Research Report 2018, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years.Get Sample Copy @Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study of market growth, trend, share, industry overview, size, trend, outlook, top player and forecast to 2025 on the current state of the Flight Inspection (FI) industry. The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Flight Inspection (FI) Market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions' development status.Complete report on Flight Inspection (FI) Market spread across 104 pages, top 20 key manufacturers and list of tables and figures. Enquire more @Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa.)Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market competition by TOP MANUFACTURERS, with production, price, revenue (value) and each Companies including: SAFRAN Saab Cobham Enav Isavia Textron Bombardier FCSL Aerodata NSM .The report also focuses on Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Flight Inspection (FI) industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered. In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Place a Direct Order Of this Report @Key benefits for stakeholders: The report provides a comprehensive analysis of current & future market trends, key market challenges and emerging avenues for the growth of this market globally. The report offers an insight into competitive landscape in terms of new technological developments, untapped segments, and value chain analysis. The report offers latest technological innovations and the recent R&D developments. This report entails the detailed quantitative analysis of the current market and estimations through 2018 and 2025, which assists in identifying the prevailing market opportunities. The report offers strategic analysis of financial status of key market players, and highlights market share of key vendors. The report offers information on the status of new projects along with offering investment feasibility analysis of the same. The report offers detailed segmentation and analyzes the key segments in terms of market size by value and volume and country-level analysis to provide an in-depth understanding of the market.Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market Segment by Product Type: Air Type Airport TypeGlobal Flight Inspection (FI) Market Segment by Application: Civil MilitaryMajor Points Covered in Table of Contents:Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Flight Inspection (FI)2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Flight Inspection (FI)3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Flight Inspection (FI)4 Global Flight Inspection (FI) Overall Market Overview5 Flight Inspection (FI) Regional Market Analysis6 Global 2013-2018E Flight Inspection (FI) Segment Market Analysis (by Type)7 Global 2013-2018E Flight Inspection (FI) Segment Market Analysis (by Application)8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Flight Inspection (FI)9 Development Trend of Analysis of Flight Inspection (FI) Market10 Flight Inspection (FI) Marketing Type Analyses11 Consumers Analysis of Flight Inspection (FI)12 Conclusion of the Global Flight Inspection (FI) Market Professional Survey Report 2017About UsOrian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact UsRuwin MendezVice President Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS: +1 (832) 380-8827 | UK: +44 0161-818-8027Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn: Packaging Automation Market Analysis by Product Type (Packagers, Packaging Automation, and Automated Conveyors), By End User Industry, By Application, By Region &Segment Forecast, 2017 2025 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Request-Sample/105841 https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Packaging-Automation-Market In this report, the global packaging automation market was estimated as USD 28.24 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow significantly with a CAGR of over 9% over the forecast period."Packaging Automation Market ", published by Xpodence Research, provides extensive insight and analysis of the Packaging Automation Market over the next eight years (2015-2025) and acts as a vital point of reference for operators or suppliers.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Packaging is considered to be one of the vital aspects in productmanufacturing process for protecting the products from dust, physical damage, and other environmental factors. Packaging process are carried out via different packaging automation ICs, and machineries which further assists in completing the tasks effectively and efficiently. Safety rules & regulations are major concerns for manufacturers specifically in the food & beverage industry and healthcare sector of emerging nations such as China, India, and Latin America.Rising rate of industrialization and manufacturing activities owing to the increasing population, reduction in labor cost is projected to enhance the market growth. Additionally, technological advancements such as autonomous control, wireless technology, and wearable devices are also anticipated to spur the global packaging automation market. Increasing industrial innovations and technological advancements such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, automation & Automation ICs have become more conventional for small and medium-scale manufacturers.The report includes -Segmentation: On the basis of product, this report displays the revenue, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Automated Packagers Packaging Robots Automated ConveyorsOn the basis of software & services, this report includes the revenue, market share and growth rate of each type, majorly segregated into Software ServicesOn the basis on the applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications, market share and growth rate for each application, including Filling Labeling Palletizing Wrapping Bagging Capping Case Packaging OthersBased on the end-users, this report inculcates the revenue, market share and growth rate of each type, majorly bifurcated into Food & Beverages Semiconductor & Electronics Retail Automotive Aerospace & Defense Chemicals Healthcare Logistics & Warehousing OthersGeographic Segmentation: This report split global market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America, with revenue (Billion USD), market share and growth rate of packaging automation market for these regions, from 2015 to 2025 (forecast) North America: U.S., Rest of North America Europe: Germany, France, UK, rest of Europe Asia Pacific: China, Japan, India and Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa: GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of MEA Latin America: Brazil and Rest of Latin AmericaObtain Report Details @Key players: Overview of market leaders in packaging automation market by top manufacturers/players, with packaging automation market revenue (Billion USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including ABB Ltd., Rockwell Automation, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Automated Packaging Systems, Inc., Emerson Electric Co., Kollmorgen, Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG, and Swisslog Holding AG.About Us-Xpodence Research is a U.S. based Market Research Company and offers the most extensive collection of progressive surveying syndicated and customized research reports of various categories for private and public industries across the globe.We offer the comprehensive market research solution for all the industries by performing the in-depth study of industry trends, verticals globally. We believe in building an eternal bond with our customers through providing them inclusive research study both customized and syndicated based on their specific requirements.The organizations in every industry such as Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Consumable Goods, Food & Beverage and others demands a market-based solutions for various significant decisions based on productivity and output globally. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.com Global Transfection Technologies Market is Scheduled to Expand at a Considerable CAGR Between 2018-2025 QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1865406&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-transfection-technologies-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Transfection Technologies Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.The situations prevailing in the global market for Transfection Technologies have been mentioned and explained in the report. For the purpose of clarity, the report divides the entire thesis into several segments such as drivers, geographical outlook, and strategies of market vendors. It is essential to understand the foundation of the global market for Transfection Technologies, and hence, the report also presents a succinct account about the inception of this market. The connection between the drivers of demand to the external forces that have aided the market has also been clearly explained within the report. The report lays the foundation to understand the current fettle of the global market for Transfection Technologies.KNOW MORE WITH FREE SAMPLE STUDY @This report studies the global Transfection Technologies market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Transfection Technologies market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.In 2017, the global Transfection Technologies market size was million US$ and it is expected to reach million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of during 2018-2025.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredBio-RadPolyplus TransfectionMaxCytePromega CorporationThermo Fisher ScientificAffymetrixAgilent TechnologiesAltogen BiosystemsBoca ScientificChemicell...Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoLipofectionElectroporationNucleofectionOthersMarket segment by Application, split intoResearch Centers & Academic/Government InstitutesHospitals & ClinicsPharmaceutical & Biotechnology CompaniesOthersInterested in report: Please follow the below the links to meet your requirements;The study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Transfection Technologies in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Transfection Technologies are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersTransfection Technologies ManufacturersTransfection Technologies Distributors/Traders/WholesalersTransfection Technologies Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web: Anticonvulsants for Neuropathic Pain Market 2017-2025 : Cephalon Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., AbbVie Inc., and XenoPort Inc. https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=32 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=32 https://www.tmrresearch.com/anticonvulsants-for-neuropathic-pain-market Global Anticonvulsants for Neuropathic Pain Market: SnapshotNeuropathic pain, which refers to kind of chronic pain resulting from an injury to or disease of the central or peripheral nervous system, remains a therapeutic challenge to clinicians as it does not respond well to conventional pain therapies. Although the clinical knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of the condition has significantly increased over the past few decades, the actual mode of action of most popular treatment mechanisms and the pathogenesis of neuropathic pain remain somewhat unclear.Owing to the several similarities between the pathophysiological symptoms observed in neuropathic pain models and in some epilepsy models, anticonvulsants are finding increased usage in the symptomatic management of neuropathic pain conditions. Carbamazepine, the worlds first anticonvulsant examined in clinical trials, continues to remain one of the key choices of healthcare practitioners for neuropathic pain conditions. Apart from carbamazepine, a number of new anticonvulsants in the market or in high quality clinical trials represent a new era in the treatment of neuropathic pain.The overall role of anticonvulsants in the treatment of neuropathic pain continues to evolve. Further advances in the overall understanding of the mechanisms of neuropathic pain conditions and well-designed clinical trials are expected to further improve the opportunities to make anticonvulsants an established course of action in the treatment of neuropathic pain. This report examines the current state of development of the global market for anticonvulsants, with applications in the treatment of neuropathic pain at the center of focus. Recent developments and future scope of development of the market are also analyzed.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Anticonvulsants for Neuropathic Pain Market: OverviewNeurapthic pain (NP) is a severe pain associated with a number of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and herpes zoster. This pain affects almost 1% of the worlds total population and is aggravated as a result of dysfunction, lesion, or transitory perturbation in the peripheral and central nervous system. Some other causes of neuropathic pain include trigeminal neuralgia, peripheral and entrapment neuropathy, brachial plexus avulsion pain, spinal cord injury pain, post-herpetic neuralgia, arachnoiditis, phantom limb pain, and post-stroke pain.The report presents a definitive analysis of market drivers, market restraints, and trends that will impact progression of the global anticonvulsants for neuropathic pain market until the end of 2025. The report charts the developmental growth map in the future by analyzing the past performance of the market.The research report analyzes the global anticonvulsants for neuropathic pain market from a competitive viewpoint as well. The report finds out how innovations and product development will present growth opportunities to market players to serve niche patient areas. The analysis of changing competitive hierarchy is presented through graphs and pictorial representations. The report is compiled after collecting data from industry-centric databases and scrutinized using validated analytical tools.Global Anticonvulsants for Neuropathic Pain Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe increasing incidence of people with neuropathic pain is one of the major factors driving the anticonvulsants for neuropathic pain market. In addition, a high number of patients refractory to alternate treatment methods, increasing use of generic drugs compared to branded drugs, and a high rate of polypharmacy are some other factors driving the growth of this market.The development of novel drug molecules for neuropathic drug indications is also propelling the growth of this market. This is because less than 50% of the patients respond to existing drugs that are available for neuropathic drug indications. Moreover, these drugs are associated with a number of side effects, particularly when administered systemically. Hence, new drug variants that can provide convincing action mechanism will be a game changer in the global neuropathic pain market.Request TOC of the Report @Some of the newer anticonvulsant drugs for neuropathic pain include Depomeds Gralise (gabapentin gastric-retention), which is available since 2011 and is a once daily formulation. XenoPorts Horizant (gabapentin encarbil) was introduced in 2012 and is a twice-daily formulation.Global Anticonvulsants for Neuropathic Pain Market: Advantages of AnticonvulsantsNeuropathic pain can be managed by opioids such as morphine, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and anticonvulsant drugs. Anticonvulsants are normally used to control epileptic seizures but may also be used for treating neuropathic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and postherpetic neuralgia. Anticonvulsants impede seizures through multiple mechanisms such as:Functional obstruction of voltage-gated-calcium channelsImpediment of glutamergic neurotransmissionFunctional obstruction of voltage-sodium channelsDirect or indirect enhancement of hindering GABAergic neurotransmissionCompanies Mentioned in reportThe report provides a detailed vendor landscape of the global anticonvulsants for neuropathic pain market with a business profile of major companies that operate in this market. These are Teva Pharmaceuticals, Depomed Inc., Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc., Cephalon Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., AbbVie Inc., and XenoPort Inc.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Global Network Monitoring by 2023: Industry by Component (Solutions and Services), Deployment (Cloud and On-premises), Organization Size (SMEs and Enterprises), Vertical, and Region https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=460 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=460 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=460 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ This market research report on the Global Workforce Management Software Market is an all-inclusive study of the business sectors up-to-date outlines, industry enhancement drivers, and manacles. Workforce management software provide solutions to streamline human resource functions such as workforce analytics, time & attendance, performance management, workforce scheduling, and others. Increase in adoption of cloud-based workforce management software due to its benefits such as remote access, lower cost of deployment, and unlimited storage capacity is expected to fuel the market growth during forecast period.The Workforce Management Software Market is expected to grow at USD +7 Billion and CAGR of +10% over the forecast period to 2023.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Companies Profiled in this report includes:Kronos, Inc., SumTotal Systems, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, ADP LLC, IBM Corporation, Infor IncorporationThis intelligent study examines and inspects the Workforce Management Software market and reveals a far-reaching estimate of its progressions and its determinations. Another angle that was all around organized is the cost analysis of the key products driving in the market taking into consideration the overall revenue of the manufacturers. Another key feature of this report is a comprehensive analysis of the global market revenue forecast in terms of absolute dollar opportunity, critical in assessing the level of opportunity that a provider can look to achieve, as well as to identify potential resources from a sales perspective in the global market.For enquiry before buying:The final section of the global Workforce Management Software market report includes a comprehensive competitive landscape to provide a dashboard view of key market players and company analysis based on categories of providers across the global mobile application market value chain, their presence in the global Workforce Management Software portfolio, and key differentiators.Get Discount on this Report @Table of Content:Global Workforce Management Software Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Global Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic ImpactChapter 3: Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5: Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions(2018-2023)Chapter 6: Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Workforce Management Software Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13: AppendixAbout IT Intelligence Markets:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact info:Contact Name: Vijay TannaAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044 Website:Email: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comPhone: +91 976-460-7607 Automotive Communication Protocols 2018 Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, key Players Analysis, Applications, Forecasts to 2022 Automotive Communication Protocols 2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3035652-global-automotive-communication-protocols-market-2018-2022 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3035652-global-automotive-communication-protocols-market-2018-2022 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Automotive Communication Protocols 2018 Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, key Players Analysis, Applications, Forecasts to 2022.The analysts forecast the Automotive communication protocols market to grow at a CAGR of 7.60% during the period 2017-2022.Automotive communication protocols are used to transfer data among different electronic modules in a vehicle through a serial data bus or by wireless technologies.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global automotive communication protocols Market 2018-2022. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles (CVs).Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Automotive Communication Protocols Market 2018-2022, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Bosch NXP Semiconductors Infineon Technologies Texas Instruments XILINXMarket driver Rising demand for advanced driver assistance systems For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Managing rough operating conditions of automotive networks - An added cost For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Adoption of high bandwidth automotive networks For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2022 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market outline Automotive networking technologies Comparison of automotive network technologies Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysisPART 05: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2017 Market size and forecast 2017-2022PART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market conditionPART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Segmentation by application Comparison by application Passenger cars Market size and forecast 2017-2022 CVs Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by applicationPART 08: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY TECHNOLOGY (QUALITATIVE) Market segmentation by technology (qualitative)PART 09: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPEPART 10: REGIONAL LANDSCAPE Geographical segmentation Regional comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2017-2022 EMEA Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Americas Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Key leading countries Market opportunityPART 11: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 12: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challengesPART 13: MARKET TRENDS Development of CAN FD - An improvement for CAN Adoption of high bandwidth automotive networks Use of Ethernet to lay the backbone network of vehicles Shifting focus of OEMs toward autonomous vehicles Induction of high-end optical fibers into the automobile sectorContinuedFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) Market 2018 By Key Players : PCC, VSMPO-AVISMA, Carpenter, Alcoa, BAOTAI QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1866022&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-titanium-metal-titanium-alloy-sales-market-report-2018.htm http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) market status and forecast, categorizes the global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).Titanium alloys are metals that contain a mixture of titanium and other chemical elements. Titanium is considered to be one of the strongest metals. Its strength, heat, water and salt resistance, and its light weight make it the ideal metal for a variety of applications. These applications range from jewelry and dental implants to airplanes and ships. Pure titanium is strong and corrosive resistant. Titanium alloys retain the same strength and corrosion resistance, but takes on the greater flexibility and malleability of the metal it is combined with. Titanium alloys, therefore, have more applications than pure titanium.Enter your information below to receive a free sample copy of this report @In the last several years, global market of Titanium Alloy developed rapidly, with an average growth rate of 4.5%. In 2016, global revenue of Titanium Alloy is nearly 4300 M USD; the actual production is about 207691 MT.The global average price of Titanium Alloy is in the decreasing trend, from 22.7 K USD/MT in 2012 to 21 K USD/MT in 2016. With the situation of global economy, prices will be in decreasing trend in the following five years.The classification of Titanium Alloy includes Plate, Bar, Tube, Others, and the proportion of Classical Plate in 2016 is about 42%, and the proportion is in decreasing trend from 2012 to 2016.The global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) market is valued at 4470 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 5890 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 3.5% during 2018-2025.The major players covered in this reportPCCVSMPO-AVISMAATICarpenterAlcoaBAOTAIWestern SuperconductingWestern MetalTGAdvanced MetallurgicalGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPlateBarTubeOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingAero & AviationIndustrialMedicalOthersTo Browse a Full Report with TOC:The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);To analyze the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, to study the sales, value and market share of top players in these regions.Focuses on the key Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) players, to study the sales, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Titanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersTitanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) ManufacturersTitanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) Distributors/Traders/WholesalersTitanium Metal (Titanium Alloy) Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web: Mobile Financial Services in Latin America: Telco Service Portfolios and Positioning Strategies http://www.arcognizance.com/report/mobile-financial-services-in-latin-america-telco-service-portfolios-and-positioning-strategies http://www.arcognizance.com/enquiry-sample/82094 http://www.arcognizance.com/purchase/82094 www.arcognizance.com Latest Report Available at Analytical Research Cognizance Construction Mobile Financial Services Market provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics and a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining industry growth.Mobile Financial Services in Latin America: Telco Service Portfolios and Positioning StrategiesSummary"Mobile Financial Services in Latin America: Telco Service Portfolios and Positioning Strategies", is a new Telecom Insider Report by GlobalData, provides an executive-level overview of mobile financial services (MFS) in Latin America. It delivers deep qualitative insight into the telco service portfolios and positioning strategies in the region, analyzing key trends on telcos' mobile financial offers, business models to foster their position in the mobile financial space, and case studies.Browse the full report @After more than a decade since the first mobile financial service was launched in Latin America, the number of telco-based MFS offers in the region increased significantly, but most of them have not yet reached the desired scale for telcos to monetize from the MFS opportunity.It provides in-depth analysis of the following -- Section 1: Mobile Financial Services Market Context; this section provides the taxonomy and categories within the mobile financial services space.- Section 2: Mobile Financial Services in Latin America; This section provides an overview of the core portfolio of mobile network operators' mobile financial services.It also looks at the recent development and the current state of MFS in Latin America, while also providing a closer look at the differences and similarities of mobile person-to-person payments.- Section 3: Case studies; this section looks at a total of three difference case studies from Latin America giving insight into mobile network operators' portfolios, strategies, and positioning in mobile financial services.- Section 4: Key Findings and Recommendations; it consists of a summary of key findings and growth opportunities for telcos in the Latin America mobile financial services market.Request a sample of this report @Scope- MNOs are partnering with financial institutions in order to enhance their m-P2P/B solutions, streamlining the process of transferring and receiving money.- In Latin America, mobile digital wallets is the most popular type of MFS solution, enabling transactions from connected devices and a variety of providers to offer branded m-wallet services.- Smartphone penetration of population reached nearly 70% in Latin America at year-end 2017, proving that more people have access to a mobile device than to banking services in the region.Reasons to buy- Offers a comprehensive and detailed understanding of mobile financial services (MFS) portfolios and positioning in the Latin America markets.- The report investigates MFS trends, milestones, and competitive attributes, looking in particular at the various drivers and inhibitors in the Latin America region.- To study Latin Americas most competitive MNO MFS provisions, in order to inform strategic decision-making.- The report discusses commercial and technical developments in the wider mobile money market and what these developments might mean for the future.Companies Mentioned:TelefonicaAmerica MovilTelcelCitibankTigoMillicomTransferVivo BrazilWorld RemitMoney GramWestern UnionPaypalBanamexMastercardVisaPurchase copy of this Report @Some Points from Toc:Executive Summary 5Section 1: Mobile Financial Services Market Context 6Mobile financial services portfolio 7Section 2: Mobile Financial Services in Latin America 8Taking a closer look at M-P2P - service comparison 10Drivers and inhibitors in Latin America 11Key milestones 12Section 3: Case studies 13Zuum from Vivo 14Transfer from Telcel 16Tigo Money from Tigo 18Section 4: Key Findings and Recommendations 20Key findings and recommendation 21Appendix 22Acronyms and definitions 23Companies mentioned 24About the authors 25About GlobalData 26Contact information 27About US:is an initiation in this new era of analysis @ thought. We are on a mission to replace the conventional research programs and give way to the latest methods and information for the organizations. We have created this hub of analytical research papers where you can get an access to the latest and the best research papers coming out from some reliable and budding research houses. After the advent of new analytics" based on the data collection facilities of big data, the face of "business research facilities" has changed drastically. With ARC our experts have created a bookshelf where you can check out the research reports that are an outcome of the progression of knowledge in various industry sectors. Alongside you can also check some research papers, market reports, and forecasts that are talking about the "out of the box" developments in the market.Contact US:Name: Analytical research cognizanceAddress: 100 Church Street,8th floor, Manhattan,New York 10007Phone: +1 (646) 434-7969 +91 90967 44448Email: enquiry@arcognizance.com The annual Scenic City Mud Run is just one month away, and will once again support the Southeast Tennessee Veterans Coalition. CHI Memorial partnered with the event last year as title sponsor and is continuing again this year.The obstacle course race will take place on Saturday, Sept. 1 at Greenway Farms in Hixson and includes warrior style obstacles, multiple mud pits and an "epic slip and slide." Participants can choose to run individually or as a team, competitive or non-competitive and have the ability to select their preferred race time.New this year, all finishers will receive a medal in addition to the t-shirt.An after-party to support the Coalition will be on-site with games and refreshments and several local military installations will be in attendance.Each year more than 1,000 racers participate in the event, and this year Scenic City Mud Run is hoping to set record numbers of attendees to help the Coalition with their new building downtown, as well as to continue to provide resources for local Veterans who need assistance.Register at https://chattanoogamudrun.squarespace.com/landing Product Engineering Services Market Global Leaders- Altran, Alten Group, AVL, HCL Technologies Limited, Akka Technologies, IBM, Capgemini, TCS, etc. | Business Opportunity During 2018-2025 Product Engineering Services Market https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/508768 https://www.orianresearch.com/enquiry-before-buying/508768 https://www.orianresearch.com/checkout/508768 www.orianresearch.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ Product Engineering Services Market Global Research Report 2018 is a professional and in-depth study of market growth, trends, share, size, manufactures analysis and forecast to 2025. The report also provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. A segmented view of Product Engineering Services Market based on demand, development Scenario, historical data and application will help the market aspirants in planning their business.Get Sample Copy atDevelopment policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions.Complete report on Product Engineering Services Market spread across 103 pages, top 11 key manufacturers and list of tables and figures.Enquire More @Key Companies Analyzed in this Report are: Altran Alten Group AVL HCL Technologies Limited Akka Technologies International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation Capgemini Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Limited Wipro Limited Accenture PLC Happiest Minds TechnologiesThe report focuses on Global Product Engineering Services Market major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. What's more, the Product Engineering Services industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered. In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Place a Direct Order Of this Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split into Product and component design Process engineering Maintenance, repair, and operations OthersMarket segment by Application, Product Engineering Services can be split into Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) EnterprisesMajor Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Global Product Engineering Services Market Size, Status and Forecast 20252 Global Product Engineering Services Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Product Engineering Services Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook6 Europe Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook8 China Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook9 India Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Product Engineering Services Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Product Engineering Services Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixAbout UsOrian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact UsRuwin MendezVice President Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS: +1 (832) 380-8827 | UK: +44 0161-818-8027Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn: Future For Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline Market...By 2024 https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/568811/ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/568811/ http://www.openpr.com/news/archive/144590/marketstudyreport-com.html https://www.marketstudyreport.com https://www.marketstudyreport.com/blog/ This global Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline market report studies the industry based on one or more segments covering key players, types, applications, products, technology, end-users, and regions for historical data as well as provides forecasts for next few years.Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline Market is estimated to surpass USD 19 billion by 2024; according to a new research report.According to product, the industry is segmented into bio-based and synthetic types. Bio-based aniline will be commercialized in 2017 and will gain in market share in the later stage of the forecast timespan. Synthetic segment will grow by around 6% CAGR throughout the forecast timespan.High growth in Asia Pacific packaging industry will augment the synthetic & bio-based aniline demand throughout the forecast years as the product is a precursor to MDI, which in turn is used in manufacturing polyurethane foams. Polyurethane is extensively used to manufacture rigid as well as flexible plastic packaging materials and their rising demand for interstate to transcontinental transportation of substances boosted by the growing logistics industry will supplement the synthetic & bio-based aniline market up to 2024. The global plastic packaging market was valued at around USD 285 billion in 2016 and is set to exceed 400 billion in 2024.Request a sample of this premium Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline market Research Report @Robust growth in Asia Pacific FMCG industry will boost demand for plastic packaging materials, which will drive the synthetic & bio-based aniline market throughout the forecast timespan. The Indian FMCG sector was valued over USD 45 billion in 2016 and is likely to cross USD 100 billion in 2024. Fast growth in Chinese consumer goods industry, valued over USD 4.6 trillion in 2016, will also boost demand for plastic packaging materials which will eventually influence the industry development. Rising demand for packaged food & beverage products in the U.S. and developing countries of Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East will also contribute towards synthetic & bio-based aniline market growth.The health hazards associated with aniline may hamper the industry growth as stringent government regulations and guidelines associated with its handling will make the production process more expensive. NIOSH has recommended that aniline be declared as a potential carcinogen, while OSHA has set the permitted exposure limit of the product at 2 ppm as an 8-hour time weighted average concentration. The product must be stored in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area in sealed containers with labels in accordance with OSHA?s hazard communication standard. These factors will increase the storage and handling cost which may affect the synthetic & bio-based aniline market growth.The synthetic & bio-based aniline market is categorized into two processes which are substitution of chlorobenzene and reduction of nitrobenzene. Reduction of nitrobenzene is a more popular process accounting for most of the market in 2016. This segment will generate beyond USD 18 billion by 2024.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium Synthetic & Bio-based Aniline market Research Report atRubber processing chemical is a significant application segment for the synthetic & bio-based aniline market which will generate a revenue beyond USD 1.5 billion in 2024. Increasing tire demand from the rapidly growing automotive industry in Asia Pacific and North America will drive aniline usage as rubber processing chemicals.Among the end-users, product demand for transportation will exceed USD 2.5 billion by 2024, gaining by about 6.5% CAGR. Rising automotive production in Asia Pacific will augment the segment?s growth throughout the forecast spell. By 2024, adhesives & sealants segment will account for around 10% of the total market in terms of volume, gaining the synthetic & bio-based aniline market by above 6% CAGR.Asia Pacific is a significant regional market which will account for around 40% of the global industry in 2024. Rising polyurethane packaging material production in China along with the fast-developing automobile and construction industries will significantly contribute to the regional synthetic & bio-based aniline market development.Major manufacturers in the synthetic & bio-based aniline market include Chemours, BASF, Dow Chemicals, Huntsman, Sinopec, Sumitomo Chemical, Tosoh Corporation, Covestro, Hindustan Organic Chemicals, Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane Company, BorsodChem, Jilin Connell Chemical Industry, Volzhsky Orgsintez, Shandong Jinling Group, SP Chemicals, etc.More Report At:Report ContentChapter 1. Methodology and Scope1.1. Methodology1.1.1. Initial data exploration1.1.2. Statistical model and forecast1.1.3. Industry insights and validation1.1.4. Definitions & forecast parameters1.2. Data sources1.2.1. Secondary1.2.2. PrimaryChapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Synthetic & bio-based aniline industry 360 degree synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Process trends2.1.3. Product trends2.1.4. Application trends2.1.5. End-user trends2.1.6. Regional trendsAbout Us:Contact Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:Connect with us:Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter Stem Cell Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2022 Stem Cell Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3035673-stem-cell-therapy-for-multiple-sclerosis-a-pipeline-analysis-report https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3035673-stem-cell-therapy-for-multiple-sclerosis-a-pipeline-analysis-report WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Stem Cell Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis 2018 Global Market Outlook,Research,Trends and Forecast to 2022.This pipeline analysis report offers detailed insights into the clinical trials landscape of the stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis including molecules at different development stages. Moreover, the report also offers information about the therapeutic assessment of the pipeline molecules based on various segmentations including route of administration.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comKey questions answered in the report include What are the stem cell molecules in the various development stages for multiple sclerosis? What are the companies that are currently involved in the development of stem cell therapy molecules for multiple sclerosis? Insight into discontinued/inactive molecules with appropriate reasoning? What are the major regulatory authorities approving drugs in various regions? Detailed profiling of each active molecule.Ask Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: STEM CELL THERAPY FOR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: AN INSIGHT IntroductionPART 05: MAJOR REGULATORY AUTHORITIES US Europe Japan Australia ChinaPART 06: PIPELINE LANDSCAPEPART 07: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Mid-stage molecules (Phase I/II), 2017 Early-stage molecule (Phase I), 2017 Pre-clinical and discovery stage molecules, 2017 Inactive (status unknown and terminated) molecules, 2017PART 08: INDICATION ANALYSISPART 09: THERAPEUTIC ASSESSMENT BY ROAPART 10: KEY COMPANIES Active companies: Category and parametersPART 11: APPENDIX List of abbreviationsContinuedFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Blue Biotechnology Market 2023 Top Key Players are Aker BioMarine, Marinova, New England Biolabs, PML Applications Ltd., Sea Run Holdings, Inc., PICES, Donald Danforth Plant Science Blue Biotechnology Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/713 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/713 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/713 Market Synopsis:Blue biotechnology deals with the application of biotechnology to marine or aquatic sources at a molecular level to extract active new ingredients for development of new drugs and other purposes. Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a report asserting that the Global Blue Biotechnology Market is anticipated to expand at a strong CAGR of 10.2% during the forecast period of 2017-2023.Competitive Analysis:The major players of the Global Blue Biotechnology Market that are profiled in the report by MRFR are Aker BioMarine (Norway), Marinova (Australia), New England Biolabs (the U.S), PML Applications Ltd. (the U.K), Sea Run Holdings, Inc.(the U.S), PICES (Canada), Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (the U.S), Shell Marine Products (the U.S), GeoMarine Biotechnologies (India), GlycoMar (Scotland), Cellgen Biologicals Pvt Ltd. (India), Nurture Aqua Technology Pvt. Ltd. (India), Samudra Biopharma Pvt.Ltd (India) and Sanosil Biotech (India).Get PDF Sample Copy @Market Latest Update:The rapidly increasing research and development expenditure by the players for innovative product launch in medical, cosmetics, food and other industries is triggering competition in the global blue biotechnology market. The nascent stage of blue biotechnology has created huge opportunities for the product manufacturers and research institutes to explore higher verticals in the global blue biotechnology market.In June 2018, Hilton Lifestyle, LLC, a skincare manufacturer in the U.S., has announced the launch of its first full skincare line under the Paris Hilton brand called ProD.N.A. These skin care products are manufactured with the use of enzymes sourced from marine microalgae.Market Driver and Restraints:Oceans and Seas consist of large biodiversity and the development in the field of biotechnology has made it possible to utilize the marine and aquatic sources for obtaining various products that are useful for mankind. The availability of large market for blue biotech products in the various sectors is majorly driving the Global Blue Biotechnology Market.The increasing demand for blue biotech products in the pharmaceutical industry for production of various medicines and drugs is fueling the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. The flexibility, adaptivity and constant development of blue biotechnology are widening its application range in various industries.The vital application of blue biotech products in cosmetics, food and feed industries is impacting positively on the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. The increasing consumer demand for biologics over the conventional synthetic products is one of the major factors driving the growth of the global blue biotechnology market.The rapid development in the field of biotechnology owing to the increasing research and development expenditure is resulting in the significant expansion of the global blue biotechnology market. However, the strict regulatory framework for conservation of marine ecosystem is likely to act as a restraint on the expansion of the global blue biotechnology market.Market Segmentation:The global blue biotechnology market has been segmented on the basis of product, application and end-users. Based on products, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into enzymes, pharma products, bulk chemicals, biopolymers and other products. Based on application, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into bio-engineering, genomics, vaccine development, drug discovery and others. Based on end-users, the blue biotechnology market is segmented into hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, research institutes, laboratories, and others.Get Discount @Regional Analysis:The global blue biotechnology market has been segmented into five major regions such as North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and Africa. The North America region is dominating the global blue biotechnology market owing to the rapid development in the field of biotechnology and large number of players focusing on development of blue biotechnology in this region. The Europe region is the second largest market in the global blue biotechnology market due to the increasing consumer demand for biotech products in this region. The Asia Pacific region accounts for the steady growth in global blue biotechnology market as the blue biotechnology is still at a nascent stage in this region. Lack of awareness and less technological penetration in the underdeveloped area is resulting in the slow growth of blue biotechnology market in the Middle East and Africa region.Table of Content1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4 Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Threats4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsContinuedEnquiry Form @Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Hadoop-as-a-Service (HaaS) Market to make Massive Moves by 2020 Mobile Payment Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/hadoop-as-a-service-market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/489 Hadoop-as-a-Service (HaaS) Market report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $16.1 Billion Globally by 2020, registering a CAGR of 70.8% during the forecast period 2014 to 2020. In the current business scenario, HaaS market is majorly constricted to North America. Amazon Elastic Map Reduce was the most prominent service, accounting to nearly 85% of the global market revenue in 2013.Get Full Summary of this report @Hadoop-as-a-Service market has witnessed a tremendous growth in 2013 and has doubled from the Hadoop-as-a-Service (HaaS) market size in 2012. Hadoop-as-a-Service market is evolving and current users include SaaS providers, social media companies, and gaming companies. The technology is yet to enter into the mainstream commercial market. However, it is expected to witness a tremendous growth in the next 7 years, expanding its horizon into the end user industries of conventional hadoop."Hadoop in the Cloud" (HaaS/HDaaS) holds numerous benefits over conventional Hadoop. Low upfront cost (for both run it yourself and pure play HaaS) and non-technical interface (in case of pure play) are the crucial dynamics propelling the market. Many providers are coming up with graphic and excel based interfaces, which makes Hadoop operations easier than ever. HaaS adds flow to business operations as providers take sole responsibility of running and managing Hadoop jobs. SMEs, social media firms, SaaS providers. Gaming companies are largely contributing to HaaS revenue, and the growing demand for HaaS by these business entities is further fueling the market.Get PDF Brochure of this report @Persisting security concerns and lack of awareness among end users are the only pullbacks for the market growth. Information technology is acting as a boon in creating HaaS awareness among target customers. Persisting security concerns are also anticipated to die down to an extent due to the adoption of private clouds and high security cloud storages. AWS has already made a move in this direction with "AWS GovCloud (U.S. region)" that complies with the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) requirements.The evolution of smaller pure play/managed HaaS players, despite the presence of giants such as IBM and Microsoft, has grabbed the attention as these smaller players are making strong inroads to the market. However, AWS has been a common storage platform for most of these HaaS providers. Cloudera, one of the leaders in Hadoop, offers CDH3 as a HaaS offering. Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corp., Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, Inc., Datameer, Inc., Hortonworks, MAPR Technologies, Emc Corp., Mortar Data Inc. and Altiscale are among key market participants analyzed in this report.About Allied Market Research:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Contact Us:5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220,United States.Int'l: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285Fax: +1-800-792-5285 Microbiology Testing Market 2023 Top Key Players are Alere, BD, Beckman Coulter, Inc., Biomerieux SA, Cepheid, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Microbiology Testing Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/697 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/697 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/697 The report for Global Microbiology testing Market of Market Research Future comprises extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performanceKey Players for Global Microbiology testing Market:Alere (US), BD (US), Beckman Coulter, Inc. (US), Biomerieux SA (France), Cepheid (US), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US)Get Premium Sample Copy @Market Scenario:Microbiology testing has emerged as one of the rapidly changing segment of healthcare over the past few years. Microbiology testing deals with the study of microbial germs and their clinical applications for the improvement of health. Increasing prevalence of various infectious diseases are driving the growth for global microbiology testing market.Considering the global scenario of the Microbiology testing market, this market is one of the fastest growing market and expected to continue its growth near future. The total market for Microbiology testing was US$ 2706.1 million in 2016 and expected to reach US$ 5409.1 million by 2023. While considering the segments, Chemicals & Reagents was holding largest market share that was about 42.1% in 2016.Segments:Global Microbiology Testing Market has been segmented on the basis of type which comprise Instruments, Chemicals & Reagents, Consumables & Accessories, and others. On the basis of application, it is segmented into, Gastrointestinal Infections, Respiratory Infections, Urinary tract Infections, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Others. On the basis of end user, it is segmented into, Hospital based laboratory, Independent laboratory, and Academics & Research Institutes.Get Quality Discount @Regional Analysis of Global Microbiology testing Market:Considering the global scenario of the market, North America was holding largest market share of 37.9% in global Microbiology testing market in 2016. Asia-Pacific is second largest and fastest growing market in global Microbiology testing market. APAC is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.1% during 2017-2023. Europe was second largest microbiology testing market and is expected to grow at a significantly during the forecast period. On the other hand. Middle East and Africa (ME&A) microbiology testing market was growing lower than global average and expected to grow at steady pace.TABLE OF CONTENTS1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Scope of Study2.2 Research Objective2.3 Assumptions & Limitations2.3.1 Assumptions2.3.2 Limitations3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research4 Market Dynamics4.1 Introduction4.2 Drivers4.2.1 Technological Advancements4.2.2 Rising Cases Of Infectious Diseases4.2.3 Surveillance Programs For Disease Control4.2.4 Rising Stringency Of Standards4.2.5 Weakness Of Traditional Laboratory Techniques4.3 Restraints4.3.1 Erroneous Results4.3.2 High Cost Of Reagents And Instruments4.4 Opportunities4.4.1 Research And Development4.4.2 Rising Grants, Collaborations And Partnerships4.5 Challenges4.5.1 Government Regulations And PoliciesContinued!Reports Enquiry @Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com RF over Glass Market: Arris Group, Cisco Systems, Alloptic (CTDI), Adtran, WISI https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1865670 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1865670/global-rf-over-glass-professional-market-research-reports/toc https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ MarketResearchReports.Biz has recently announced the Latest industry research report on: "Global RF over Glass Market" : Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, Forecasts.This report studies the global RF over Glass market status and forecast, categorizes the global RF over Glass market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).RFoG is a type of passive optical networking that proposes to transport RF signals that are now transported over copper (principally over hybrid fiber and coax cable), over a Passive Optical Network.Request Sample Copy of the Report @In the forward direction RFoG is either a stand-alone Point to Multi-Point system or an optical overlay for existing Passive Optical Network (PON) such as Gigabyte Passive Optical Network (GPON). Reverse RF support is provided by transporting the upstream or return path into on a separate return path or wavelength.As the downstream consumption usually follows with developed and rapid economic growth areas, such as BRICS, the developed areas company prefers investing to underdevelopment regions these years.Facing today's competition from incumbent operators there is no better way for cable TV network operators than optical fibers for fast broadband connection. An important milestone is radio frequency over glass (RFoG) which allows cable TV network operators to adhere to the well-known and popular DOCSIS broadcasting method while at the same time fiber can be used instead of coaxial cable to access subscribers.The industry is relatively concentration, the key brand include Arris Group, Cisco Systems, Alloptic (CTDI), Adtran, WISI, Bktel, Teleste, Lootom, Enablence and so on. Among them, Arris Group is the leader.The leading companies own the advantages on better performance, more abundant products types, better technical and impeccable after-sales service. Consequently, they take the majority of the market share of high-end market. The industry is expected to remain innovation-led, with frequent acquisitions and strategic alliances adopted as the key strategies by the players to increase their industry presence. Meanwhile, optimize product mix and further develop value-added capabilities to maximize margins.Significant and lasting barriers make entry into this market difficult. These barriers include, but are not limited to: (i) product development costs; (ii) capital requirements; (iii) intellectual property rights; (iv) regulatory requirement; and (v) Transitions unfair methods of competition.Despite the presence of competition problems, due to the global recovery trend is clear, investors are still optimistic about this area, the future will still have more new investment enter the field. Even so, the market is intensely competitive .The study group recommends the new entrants just having money but without technical advantage and upstream and downstream support do not to enter into this field.The global RF over Glass market is valued at 980 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 1940 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.9% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportArris GroupCisco SystemsAlloptic (CTDI)AdtranWISIBktelTelesteLootomEnablenceGeographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)We can also provide the customized separate regional or country-level reports, for the following regions:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoHardwareServiceBy Application, the market can be split intoIndustrialResearchRequest For TOC Report @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global RF over Glass capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key RF over Glass manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of RF over Glass are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersRF over Glass ManufacturersRF over Glass Distributors/Traders/WholesalersRF over Glass Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, QYResearch offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the RF over Glass market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Indian Doors Market 2024 Key Players KONE Corporation, Dormakaba Americas, Fenesta, D.S. India, Welltech and Duroplast. Indian Doors Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2071 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/indian-doors-market https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2071 https://www.gminsights.com Residential application contributes more than 60% of Indian Doors Market in 2016. Increasing infrastructural spending is a key factor driving the industry outlook. Social development along with subsidies available for housing construction will further boost the product demand. Renovations in households have witnessed a strong upsurge in the past and are expected to continue over the forecast timeframe.Indian Doors Market size is estimated to exceed over USD 2,800 million by 2024. Growing urbanization coupled with increasing infrastructure spending is anticipated to drive Indian doors market growth. Up surge in government spending in residential projects, commercial & building renovation, along with rise in tourism industry has positively influenced the product demand.Sample copy of this Report @Increasing central and state government finances for infrastructure development projects, public funding, and a decline in the construction material prices will boost the industry growth. As per IBEF, Indian real estate industry is expected to reach USD 180 billion by 2020. Private equity investment in real estate reached over USD 6 billion in 2016.Hinged doors are projected to surpass 2 million units by 2024. High application scope in residential and commercial building due to its easy fitting, lesser space consumption features, improved durability is expected to boost market growth over the forecast period.Sliding doors will observe a growth rate of over 6% up to 2024. Requiring less area for opening and closing as compared to hinged ones is among the key benefit driving demand in compact building structures.uPVC will witness over 8% CAGR up to 2024. Better insulation, energy saving, excellent sound and thermal insulation, availability of choice of colors, laminates and patterns are the factors driving the product penetration.Maharashtra accounted over 12% of Indian doors market. As per the national population and housing census of 2011, out of 3.36 crore registered houses, 2.98 crores were in the Maharashtra. In addition, the state government proposed a draft notification in 2017, which will allow developers to offer housing stock or pay a premium to the authority for projects spread over 2,000 sq. meters.Browse Report Summery @West Bengal generated over USD 90 million revenue in 2016. Rise in the number of commercial projects in the area, including Rajarhat and Newton will also influence the product market demand positively.Delhi will witness a significant growth due to rapid urbanization coupled with the proliferation of nuclear families which has created a culture of moving into apartments, propelling the construction industry of the union territory.Century, KONE, DORMA, Fenesta, D.S. India, Welltech and Duroplast are among the key manufacturers of Indian doors market share. Presence of numerous regional, national and local producers makes the industry highly competitive in nature.Other prominent participants include Lumani Schuco, Reynaers Aluminum, Sapa Building System and Beautex. Mergers & acquisitions, expansion and development of the product portfolio are among the significant strategies.Some of major chapters from Table of Contents:Chapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Indian doors industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Product trends2.1.3. Material trends2.1.4. Application trends2.1.5. State trendsChapter 3. Indian Doors Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2013 - 20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Raw material supplier3.3.2. Manufactures3.3.3. Profit margin trends3.3.4. Distribution channel analysis3.3.5. Vendor matrix3.3.5.1. Role3.3.5.2. Product portfolio3.4. Technology & innovation landscape3.5. Regulatory landscape3.6. Raw material landscape3.6.1. Glass3.6.2. Aluminum3.6.3. Steel3.6.4. Wood3.6.5. WPC3.6.6. UPVCMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @3.7. Pricing trends3.7.1. States analysis3.7.1.1. Uttar Pradesh3.7.1.2. West Bengal3.7.1.3. Karnataka3.7.1.4. Rajasthan3.7.1.5. Kerala3.7.1.6. Haryana3.7.1.7. Madhya Pradesh3.7.1.8. Maharashtra3.7.1.9. Tamil Nadu3.7.1.10. Andhra Pradesh3.7.1.11. Bihar3.7.1.12. Jharkhand3.7.1.13. Orissa3.7.1.14. North East3.7.1.15. Gujarat3.7.1.16. Chhattisgarh3.7.1.17. Delhi NCR3.7.1.18. Uttar Pradesh3.7.1.19. Punjab3.7.2. Cost structure analysis3.8. Industry impact forces3.8.1. Growth drivers, by states3.8.1.1. Uttar Pradesh3.8.1.2. West Bengal3.8.1.3. Karnataka3.8.1.4. Rajasthan3.8.1.5. Kerala3.8.1.6. Haryana3.8.1.7. Madhya Pradesh3.8.1.8. Maharashtra3.8.1.9. Tamil Nadu3.8.1.10. Andhra Pradesh3.8.1.11. Bihar3.8.1.12. Jharkhand3.8.1.13. Orissa3.8.1.14. North East3.8.1.15. Gujarat3.8.1.16. Chhattisgarh3.8.1.17. Delhi NCR3.8.1.18. Uttar Pradesh3.8.1.19. Punjab3.8.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.9. Growth potential analysis3.10. Best practices & key buying criteria3.10.1. Buying criteria3.10.2. Consumer buying behavior analysis3.10.2.1. Buying Processes (Retail & Project)3.10.2.2. Key decision drivers3.10.2.3. Customers pain points and expectation from doors market3.10.3. Micro & macro-economic factors influencing demand3.10.3.1. Massive/upcoming housing projects3.10.3.2. Infrastructure development3.11. Competitive landscape, 20163.11.1. Major players3.11.2. Market share analysis3.11.3. Key stakeholders3.11.4. Customer profile & media consumption habits, brand Perception3.11.5. Strategy dashboard3.12. Porter's analysis3.13. PESTEL analysisAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: Structural Biology & Molecular Modeling Techniques Market Is Expected To Reach $13.1 Billion By 2025: Grand View Research, Inc. http://bit.ly/2MbswLQ www.grandviewresearch.com The STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY & MOLECULAR MODELING TECHNIQUES MARKET is expected to reach USD 13.1 billion by 2025, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. An unprecedented rise in the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles has led to an upsurge in the prevalence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, which is presumed to propel the structural biology & molecular modeling techniques market during the forecast period.Moreover, increasing drug resistance coupled with the high drug attrition rate is engendering the requirement for extensive R&D activities, which is presumed to boost the adoption of structural biology & molecular modeling techniques in the drug discovery and development process. This is expected to serve as an efficient approach in fast tracking the development of drugs with high potency.The heightening demand for molecular modeling techniques is predominantly attributable to the significant cost reduction enabled. This is due to the fact that prediction software identifies possible adverse reactions and determines drug efficacy and toxicity in the pre-clinical stages, thereby reducing the probability of drug failure at the later stages. Consequentially, the aforementioned factors serve as prominent reasons responsible for the widened market demand.Browse Research Report on Structural Biology & Molecular Modeling Techniques Market:Further key findings from the study suggest: SaaS & standalone modeling held the largest share of the tools segment in 2015 owing to extensive utilization of computer-assisted structuring and modeling techniques in R&D The drug discovery segment is anticipated to grow at a lucrative CAGR owing to continual introduction of software modifications with focus on enhanced drug designing aimed to accelerate the process in identifying novel therapeutic agents In 2015, North America dominated the global structural biology & molecular modeling techniques market owing to the presence of a wide number of established pharmaceutical companies extensively involved in the commercialization of in silico tools to promote their usage Asia Pacific is expected to grow at an exponential CAGR owing to favorable government initiatives supporting research activities and the increasing trend of outsourcing drug development by the developed economies The key participants are employing clinical and research collaborative strategies promoting the adoption of structural prediction software and databases to gain a competitive advantageGrand View Research has segmented the structural biology & molecular modeling techniques market on the basis of tools, applications, and region:Tools Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) SaaS & standalone modelingo Homology modelingo Threadingo Molecular dynamicso Ab Initioo Hybrido Others Visualization & analysis Databases OthersApplication Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025) Drug development Drug discovery OthersGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials, and healthcare.Sherry JamesCorporate Sales Specialist, USAGrand View Research, Inc.Phone: 1-415-349-0058Toll-Free: 1-888-202-9519Email: sales@grandviewresearch.comFor More Info: Cheese Ingredients Market - Global Trends, Industry Size, Growth, Opportunities, and Forecast 2018 - 2024 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/sample/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3197 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/customize/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3197 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/enquiry/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3197/ https://www.qurateresearch.com/ Global Cheese Ingredients MarketCheese is derived from milk and it is available in various flavours, forms, and textures. It is produced by coagulating the casein, which is a protein present in milk. Cheese is a very rich source of protein, calcium, sodium, phosphorous and saturated fat.The rapid increase in the fast food industry is expected to increase demand for cheese and cheese ingredients. Furthermore, wide range of benefits of cheese, high consumption of bakery and confectionery products, rising awareness regarding the natural cheese, rapid inclination towards Chinese and continental dishes are few factors expected to fuel the growth of Cheese Ingredients Market. However, unfavorable regulatory frameworks, like ban on milk powder and condensed milk usage in Italy in manufacturing of cheese, ban on sales and production of artisan cheese by U.S. FDA, regulations on the additives, high cost associated with production of cheese expected to hinder the growth of cheese ingredients market.Get Free Sample Report@The Cheese Ingredients Market is classified on the basis of type and ingredientsBased on type, Global Cheese Ingredients Market is segmented asNaturalProcessedBased on ingredients, Global Cheese Ingredients Market is segmented asEnzymesMilkCulturesAdditivesCheese ingredients market is expected to offer lucrative growth across the globe. There are around 400 cheese varieties which can be produced from various sources of milk. Stringent regulatory framework such as ban on various milk and cheese products and unfavorable conditions is expected to hamper the growth of cheese ingredients market. High complex nature of cheese, its production involves different chemicals, biochemical and microbiological process to get an expected aroma, flavour, colour, and texture. Market players are focused on the new product launches with different flavours and collaborations in order to strengthen product portfolio and market presence in cheese ingredients market.Get Customize Report@Geographically, cheese ingredients market is segmented five regions i.e., Latin America, North America, Asia-Pacific, The Middle East & Africa and Europe. Cheese ingredients market is dominated by North America, as it is the largest cheese exporter and producer. Europe holds a significant position in the cheese ingredients market owing to high consumption of cheese products, the presence of various food industries in the region. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for cheese ingredients due to favorable support by governments, adoption of modern lifestyles, increase consumption of milk products, high adoption towards western food styles and Chinese food, high growth of fast food industry are providing enormous opportunities for cheese manufacturers in APAC region.Notable players in cheese ingredients market include Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Netherlands) Fonterra Co-operative Group (New Zealand), Chr. Hansen Holding A/S (Denmark), Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), and Arla Foods (Denmark) to name some few.Enquiry about Report@In October 2017, Dupont Nutrition and health launched their new CHOOZIT cultures of cheeseIn 2014, Arla Foods has expanded its product portfolio with launch of fat-free cheese range Quark in the UKAbout Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Runwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.com Intellias Scored in Top 15 Largest Ukrainian IT Companies https://www.intellias.com/ On July 30, 2018, DOU.ua, the biggest community of IT professionals in Ukraine, announced its quarterly list of the largest IT companies in Ukraine. Intellias has grown to hold one of the top positions, currently sitting at 13th place on the list. The company jumped up three positions, from 16th place, since the previous listing.Remarkably, Intellias has kept its position as one of the top five fastest-growing companies among those in the top 50 IT companies list. Intellias added 200 engineers between January and July and continues growing its engineering capacity in Ukraine. By keeping this tempo, Intellias plans to reach one of the top 10 positions this year.Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, boasts offices for 43 of the countrys largest IT companies. Lviv, home to Intellias headquarters, ranks second with 21 large IT companies. Intellias has offices in both Kyiv and Lviv, helping the company to access a wider talent market for stable growth. The company continues to grow further by adding up to 50 developers every month.About DOU.uaDOU.ua (Developers.Org.UA) is the largest IT community in Ukraine and is a powerful influencer in the software engineering industry. The platform benchmarks Ukrainian software development companies, publishes regular ratings of the leading IT employers in Ukraine, and is the most important national media hub for tech news and industry updates.Intellias () is a software engineering company with nearshore development centers in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Kyiv, and Odessa. Intellias has 15 years of experience in the DACH and Benelux countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. KPMG has highlighted Intellias as one of the leading IT-BPO providers in Lviv. The company has also been recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in Europe.IntelliasNaukova Street 7DLvivUkraine79060For sales enquiries:+380 322 90 36 90info@intellias.comFor media enquiries:nbubniuk@intellias.com Autoimmune Disease Diagnostics Market : Precise Analysis on Business Overview, Product Scope And Ongoing Market Development 2015 - 2023 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=5351 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=5351 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The leading four players in the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market hold almost half the share in it. This makes the competitive landscape consolidated. Nevertheless, the competition is stiff among the existing few players who are pulling out all stops to come up with more advanced and effective procedures in response to the pressing demand. A recent report on the market published by Transparency Market Research finds that it holds out a lot of promise for new comers who can tap into the demand for unique, better products. However, they might still have to contend with a few challenges resulting from competitive pricing, lessening product lifecycles, and costly research and development.Request a Brochure of the Report @The report by TMR projects the market for autoimmune disease diagnostics to attain a value of US$17.06 bn by 2023 by rising at a steady 3.8% CAGR from 2015 and 2023.Among the various kinds of autoimmune diseases, the rheumatoid arthritis is surpassing all others when it comes to growing its share in the market for autoimmune disease diagnostic. The burgeoning geriatric population and better diagnostics of rheumatoid arthritis developed at state-of-the-art laboratories has led to the impressive growth in this segment. North America, from a geographical standpoint, at present leads the market. Canada and the U.S., which have superior healthcare infrastructure and laboratories equipped with latest equipment, are mainly driving the regions market. The high degree of awareness about various health conditions along with the increasing spends have also served to catalyze growth in the region.Rise in Autoimmune Diseases, alongside Growing Awareness about Them, Stokes MarketAt the forefront of fuelling the global market for autoimmune disease diagnostics is the increasing instances of autoimmune diseases millions are afflicted by it every year making it extremely necessary to diagnose those accurately. Adds the analyst our report, Worldwide, people have become more aware about the occurrence of various kinds of autoimmune diseases and this has not just egged them to go for preventive measures, but also autoimmune disease diagnostics if need be.Governments of various nations are increasing their spends on healthcare owing to the rise in such diseases. They are also upping their allocations on research and development of improved diagnostics, alongside private bodies, and this is another major catalyst for the market.Competitive Pricing Strategies by Bigger Players Crimps Revenue GrowthHowever, a few headwinds are crimping the pace of growth of the market for autoimmune disease diagnostics. One of them is the solid competition from numerous regional players which has forced their bigger counterparts to adopt competitive pricing. This has had a negative impact on the revenue generation in the market. Another factor hampering the market is the inadequate number of skilled professionals which create operational bottlenecks in clinical laboratories.To overcome such bottlenecks in revenue growth, keen players in the market for autoimmune disease diagnostics are seen focusing on the upcoming economies in Asia Pacific and Latin America which are still relatively under-tapped. They are also seen focusing on automating laboratories so as to do away with conventional technologies.Enquiry for Discount on this Report @This review is based on the findings of a TMR report, titled, Autoimmune Disease Diagnostics Market (Test Type Antinuclear Antibody Tests, Autoantibody Tests, Complete Blood Count (CBC), Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, C-reactive Protein (CRP), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), and Urinalysis; Disease Type Graves Disease, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus), and Type 1 Diabetes) Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 20152023.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Western Europe, Japan and MEA Regional Casein and Caseinate Market to Witness Decline in Revenue Share by 2025 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1834474 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-market-study-on-casein-and-caseinate-western-europe-japan-and-mea-regional-markets-to-witness-decline-in-revenue-share-by-2025-report.html Market Research Hub (MRH) has recently broadcasted a new study to its broad research portfolio, which is titled as Global Market Study on Casein and Caseinate: Western Europe, Japan and MEA Regional Markets to Witness Decline in Revenue Share by 2025 provides an in-depth analysis of the Casein and Caseinate with the forecast of market size and growth. The analysis includes addressable market, market by volume, and market share by business type and by segment (external and in-house).The research study examines the Casein and Caseinate on the basis of a number of criteria, such as the product type, application, and its geographical presence.Request Free Sample Report:The report on the casein and caseinate market delivers valuable insights on how the said market will progress in the near future, with the period of evaluation being 2017 and 2025. The report is a useful instrument for casein and caseinate manufacturers globally as the projections shared in the study can help them make informed business decisions with respect to investing in novel production techniques, cost-effective procurement of raw materials, and penetration into new markets beyond domestic market.Comprehensive Research Methodology Offers a Multitude of Valuable InformationThe making of the report involved collaborative research methodology to obtain data from multiple sources. The data obtained has been scrutinized employing a multidisciplinary approach that traces the evolution of casein and caseinates, links consumer requirements to demand for casein and caseinates, and offers presumptions on how this demand will evolve in the upcoming years. Supply chain of the global market for casein and caseinates has been split and examined to identify the challenges. In addition, analysis of the casein and caseinate market with respect to consumers reveals the impact of micro, macro, and socio-economic factors on the demand for casein and caseinate.The research process involved two extensive phases, namely primary and secondary. Secondary research phase involved gathering data to obtain a high level of intelligence of the market. Following this, the data collected in secondary phase is used in primary research to validate the credibility of the data. Thereafter, the data undergoes several rounds of accuracy validation until the research concludes. The final data related to market segments reflects close to 100 percent accuracy that depicts an accurate market scenario.In-depth Analysis of Market Segments Serves to Make Informed Business DecisionsThe expansion of the global casein and caseinate market has been predicted across multiple geographies. The section throws light on distinct buying trends between consumers in developed economies and developing economies. The report provides projections on the lucrativeness of a region, which has been obtained by identifying their value with respect to sales, outsourcing, product development, and production. Regions that exhibit high profits for manufacturers of casein and caseinate have also been identified. The report also contains a multicultural regional analysis of the casein and caseinate market.Key players in the global casein and caseinate market have been profiled to assess the competitive landscape. Details on competitive outlook is of great value for casein and caseinate manufacturers vying to outperform their rivals. The competitive landscape covers established market players, industry leaders as well as new market entrants. The objective of the report is to provide manufacturers with first-hand information on key competitive strategies that can help them gain competitive advantage. The report aspires to serve as a credible business document that can help casein and caseinate manufacturers plan their future growth strategies.Browse Full Report with Table of Content:Table of Content:Global Casein and Caseinate Market- Executive Summary2. Research Methodology3. Assumptions and Acronyms Used4. Casein and Caseinate Market Overview4.1. Introduction4.1.1. Market Definition4.1.2. Market Taxonomy4.1.3. Global Casein and Caseinate Value Forecast 201420254.1.4. Global Casein and Caseinate Volume Forecast 201420254.2. Global Casein and Caseinate Laws and Regulations4.3. Global Casein and Caseinate Market Dynamics4.3.1.1. Drivers4.3.1.1.1. Supply Side Driver4.3.1.1.2. Demand Side Driver4.3.1.2. Restraints5. Global Casein and Caseinate Supply and Demand Scenario By Region5.1. North America Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.2. Latin America Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.3. Western Europe Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.4. The rest of Europe Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.5. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.6. Japan Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)5.7. The Middle East and Africa Production Vs. Consumption Analysis (%) and (Net Trade%)6. Global Casein and Caseinate Market Analysis and Forecast, By Type6.1. Introduction6.2. Global Casein and Caseinate Market Size & Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth, By Type6.2.1. Casein and Caseinate Market Analysis6.2.1.1. Market Size and Forecast 2014, 2015, 2020 & 20256.2.1.2. Market Y-o-Y Growth Forecast 2014, 2015, 2020 & 20256.2.1.3. Global Casein Sub-segment Analysis6.2.1.3.1. Edible6.2.1.3.1.1. Market Size & Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth 201420256.2.1.3.1.2. Absolute $ Opportunity, 201320206.2.1.3.2. Industrial Casein6.2.1.3.2.1. Market Size & Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth 201420256.2.1.3.2.2. Absolute $ Opportunity, 201320206.2.1.4. Global Caseinate Sub-segment Analysis6.2.1.4.1. Sodium Caseinate6.2.1.4.1.1. Market Size & Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth 201420256.2.1.4.1.2. Global Sodium Caseinate Absolute $ Opportunity, 201320206.2.1.4.2. Calcium Caseinate6.2.1.4.2.1. Market Size & Forecast and Y-o-Y Growth 201420256.2.1.4.2.2. Absolute $ Opportunity, 201320206.2.1.4.3. Potassium Caseinate.. @@ ContinuedAbout Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of food market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.com Global Industrial PROFINET Market 2018 Key Players: Belden, CISCO, HMS, Moxa, Siemens, ABB. Industrial PROFINET Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3308238-global-industrial-profinet-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3308238-global-industrial-profinet-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 Industrial PROFINET Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Industrial PROFINET Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025 reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies the global Industrial PROFINET market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Industrial PROFINET market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.PROFINET (acronym for Process Field Net) is an industry technical standard for data communication over Industrial Ethernet, designed for collecting data from, and controlling, equipment in industrial systems, with a particular strength in delivering data under tight time constraints (on the order of 1ms or less). The standard is maintained and supported by Profibus & Profinet International, an umbrella organization headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.Interfacing to peripherals is implemented by PROFINET IO. It defines the communication with field connected peripheral devices. Its basis is a cascading real-time concept. PROFINET IO defines the entire data exchange between controllers (devices called "IO-Controller") and the devices (devices called "IO-Devices"), as well as parameter setting and diagnosis.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredBeldenCISCOHMSMoxaSiemensABBB&R AutomationBeckhoff AutomationInnovasicProSoft TechnologySchneider ElectricMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoPROFINET CBAPROFINET IOMarket segment by Application, split intoWeb serviceIndustrial automationRequest Sample Report @The study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Industrial PROFINET in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Industrial PROFINET are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersIndustrial PROFINET ManufacturersIndustrial PROFINET Distributors/Traders/WholesalersIndustrial PROFINET Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, We offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Industrial PROFINET market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Table of ContentsGlobal Industrial PROFINET Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Industrial PROFINET2 Global Industrial PROFINET Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Industrial PROFINET Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook6 Europe Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook7 China Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook8 Japan Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook9 Southeast Asia Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook10 India Industrial PROFINET Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Industrial PROFINET Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042 Electric Toothbrush Market Growth Reviews 2025| Colgate-Palmolive, Panasonic https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=3575 https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=3575 https://www.tmrresearch.com/electric-toothbrush-market Global Electric Toothbrush Market: SnapshotThe global market for electric toothbrush has been expanding alongside developments in the field of dentistry and oral healthcare. Several dental organizations have seconded the ability of electric toothbrushes to facilitate better cleaning of the teeth, and this has been a key driver of demand within the global electric toothbrush market. Several types of electric toothbrushes including the ones powered by battery cells are available in the market, and are gradually gaining popularity across the globe. Furthermore, the ineffectiveness of regular toothbrushes in cleaning the obscure areas of the denture has also brought electric toothbrushes to the fore. It is anticipated that the demand within the global market for electric toothbrush would escalate alongside the increasing focus on oral health.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The rotational movement of electric toothbrush is the key selling point of this product, as it helps in brushing off the food particles that are accumulated in and around the gums. Furthermore, electric toothbrushes are hassle free because their motion is automated, and users are relieved of the to-and-fro motion of their hands. Special types of electric toothbrushes meant for teeth whitening, brushing sensitive teeth, and for massaging the gums are available in the market. This further enhances the growth prospects of the global electric toothbrush market. However, the high cost and low battery life of electric toothbrush is expected to hamper the growth of the global market.The demand for electric toothbrush has been the highest in North America due to the sophisticated nature of the dental industry of the region. Furthermore, the market for electric toothbrush is gathering momentum in Asia Pacific and Europe due to significant investments in dentistry across these regions.Request TOC of the Report @Global Electric Toothbrush Market: OverviewElectric toothbrush is essentially a battery powered toothbrush that automatically brushes your teeth. On account of its rotational and side-by-side movement, it is way more capable in rooting out plaque and lessening gingivitis than an ordinary toothbrush operated manually. There are even specialized versions meant for sensitive teeth, for whitening of teeth, and for massaging of gums.Quite a few companies operate in the global market for electric toothbrush. This makes the competitive landscape fragmented and tough. In order to thrive in such a market, players are seen banking upon advanced technologies to come up with better products. Such efforts by players is expected to further intensify competition in the near term.Global Electric Toothbrush Market: Drivers and RestraintsNumerous factors are serving to stoke the market for electric toothbrush. Foremost among them are the rising awareness about such products on account of proactive advertising strategies of companies and increasing concern about oral hygiene. The rising disposable incomes of people and the surging spends on product development by companies is also having a positive impact on sales. However, owing to their slightly higher costs, their sales are yet to gather pace in cost conscious under developed nations. Another hurdle for the market is the high cost of replacing the bristles mounted on the head of the toothbrush every five six months as this serves to dampen sales.A noticeable trend is the emergence of smart electronic toothbrush with added features. Those, for example, come with features such as Bluetooth, camera, and Wi-fi, among others. They can connect with smartphones with the help of Bluetooth and Wi-fi to provide feedback on the condition of ones teeth and brushing habits. While such premium products are meant for high net worth consumers willing to splurge on cutting-edge day to day products, manufacturers are also coming up with a wide range of electric toothbrushes to suit budgets of all kinds.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Electric Toothbrush Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSales of electric toothbrushes are picking up through both online and offline platforms. The latter includes supermarkets and hypermarkets and convenience stores. As far as the product is concerned, the bristles can be broadly categorized into nanometer and soft. Similarly, the head movement is of two types rotation or oscillation and sonic or side-by-side.Global Electric Toothbrush Market: Regional AnalysisFrom a geographical perspective, key segments in the global market for electric toothbrush are North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Currently North America accounts for a considerable share in the overall market owing to the increased spending capacity of the people in the region, particularly in the U.S. and Canada, and also because of the early adoption of latest technologies in the two nations. Besides, presence of key players, who are seen pouring money into product development, is also serving to catalyze growth in North America market. Europe is another major market and Asia Pacific is an upcoming one which most keen players are looking to tap into. This is because of the large consumer base in Asia Pacific, particularly in the large and populous economies of India and China that are developing fast.Global Electric Toothbrush Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the key players in the global market for electric toothbrush that have been profiled in the report are Church & Dwight, Koninklijke Philips, Colgate-Palmolive, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, and OMRON. The report throws light on their product offerings, sales and revenues, and growth prospects in the upcoming years after a thorough primary and secondary research.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market Report, Industry Scope, Telecommunication Infrastructure, Statistics and Analyses in Austria https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1866937 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/austria-telecoms-mobile-and-broadband-statistics-and-analyses-report.html A newly compiled business intelligent report, titled Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Market has been publicized to the vast archive of Market Research Hub (MRH) online repository. The study revolves around the analysis of Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband market, covering key industry developments and market opportunity map during the mentioned forecast period. This report further conveys quantitative & qualitative analysis on the concerned market, providing a 360 view on current and future market prospects. As the report proceeds, information regarding the prominent trends as well as opportunities in the key geographical segments have also been explained, thus enabling companies to be able to make region-specific strategies for gaining competitive lead.Click Here to Get the Sample Copy of the Report@Austrias telcos looking forward to major spectrum auctions for 5GAustrias telecom market is dominated by the incumbent Telekom Austria and the cableco UPC Austria, though there has been greater competitive pressure in the fixed-line broadband and mobile sectors in recent years. In common with operators elsewhere in Europe, those in Austria are focussed on the provision of bundled services as a measure to attract and retain customers. To compete more effectively with Telekom Austria, by far the main player in this segment, T-Mobile Austria in late 2017 acquired UPC Austria. The deal was approved by competition authorities in July 2018, on the basis that their service offerings are complementary.Austrias competitive mobile market is dominated by the three network operators 3 Austria, T-Mobile Austria and Telekom Austrias own unit A1. However, the market also benefits from a growing number of new entrants in the MVNO sector, which by early 2018 collectively had about 6.8% of the market by subscribers. The growth in the MVNO sector is partly due to regulatory concessions by which 3 Austria, as a condition of its take-over of Orange Austria, was obliged to provide a third of its network capacity to support up to 16 MVNOs.The competitive environment has led to relatively low ARPU for operators, as well as some of the regions lowest tariffs for consumers. The operators LTE networks have benefited from regulatory measures which have allowed operators to refarm existing 2G and 3G spectrum for LTE, while spectrum in the 700MHz has also been set aside for mobile broadband use once this band is released from broadcasters. The regulator is planning to auction 390MHz in the 3410MHz-3600MHz range and 200MHz in the 3600MHz-3800MHz range, in line with European measures, to be assigned for 5G technologies. The regulator has also set aside spectrum in the 700MHz band for 5G services, which should be made available from 2020.The Austrian fixed-line broadband market is dominated by the DSL sector, while the cable broadband sector has held a steady share of about a third of connections. The fibre sector was slow to develop, but in recent years there has been greater effort among telcos to develop infrastructure and promote the take-up of bundled services.UPC Austria continues to invest in DOCSIS3.1 technology, while Telekom Austria has invested in G.fast technology to improve connectivity in areas where it has not prioritized fiber. Although fiber penetration remains low, with the platform having less than 2% market share of subscribers, there is considerable vigor among operators to build out network infrastructure: Telekom Austria is in the process of extending its fiber infrastructure to additional 300,000 premises, affecting some 500 towns. Ongoing investment in the sector suggests stronger growth in coming years, and as a result the number of DSL lines is expected to fall as customers are migrated to fibre.This report presents key aspects of the Austrian telecom and ICT markets, including statistical data on the country, the fixed network services sector and telecom infrastructure. It presents an overview of recent regulatory developments affecting broadband access and mobile spectrum.Key developments:Telekom Austria launches 100Gb/s network across the CEE region, switches domestic fixed-line traffic to VoIP;Regulator making progress with 3.4-3.6GHz auction for 5G services;T-Mobile Austria expands Narrowband IoT capabilities, trials 5G in Innsbruck, launches VoLTE service, acquires UPC Austria;ZTE and 3 Austria set up Innovation Lab to trial 5G;MVNOs secure 6.7% market share of subscribers;700MHz spectrum to be assigned for 5G use from 2020;Telekom Austria adds M2M platforms;T-Mobile Austria acquires UPC Austria;Telekom Austria trials XG-Fast technology providing data at over 11Gb/s, prepares to expand fibre infrastructure to an additional 300,000 premises;Regulator proposes framework to expand broadband services nationally;Government pledges 1 billion to upgrade national broadband availability;Xlink launches 1Gb/s FttP broadband offer;Report update includes the regulators market data to Q4 2017, telcos financial and operating data to Q2 2018, recent market developmentsReport update includes the regulators market data to Q4 2017, telcos financial and operating data to Q2 2018, recent market developments.View Full Report with Table and Content@Table of Contents1. Key statisticsTelecommunications market2.1 Market analysis3. Regulatory environment3.1 Historical overview3.2 Regulatory authorities3.2.1 Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications3.2.2 Telekom Control Commission3.2.3 Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria)3.3 Privatisation of Telekom Austria3.4 Interconnect3.5 Access3.5.1 Fibre access3.6 Number Portability (NP)3.7 Carrier PreSelection (CPS)Fixed network operators4.1 Introduction4.2 Telekom Austria4.2.1 Consolidating European markets4.3 Tele24.4 tele.ring4.5 UPC Austria4.6 eTel AustriaTelecommunications infrastructure5.1 Overview of the national telecom network5.2 Next Generation Network (NGN)5.3 Structural separation5.4 International infrastructure5.4.1 Submarine cable networks5.4.2 Satellite networks5.5 Smart infrastructure5.6 WholesalingContinued.. @@About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like Telecommunication market research and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.com Crane Market 2024 Key Players Liebherr Group, Konecranes, Terex Corporation, Welbilt Inc, XCMG Group, Komatsu Ltd., PALFINGER Group. Crane Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2398 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/crane-market https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2398 https://www.gminsights.com Europe Crane Market accounted for around 33% of the global revenue for cranes owing to the rise in investments in renewable energy and the rental market. Ongoing large construction projects in Europe are anticipated to drive the crane market over the coming years. The construction industry in Europe, has been recovering over the last few years after it tumbled post-recession. Several regional government administrations of countries such as UK, Germany, France and Italy are planning on undertaking construction projects, which include construction of railway tunnels, underwater tunnels connecting major European countries, and port extension, among others, which are using several types of cranes. In addition, the Russian crane market is also in state of revival, which is aiding the industry growth.Sample copy of this Report @Crane Market size is set to exceed USD 20 billion by 2024. Rise in construction spending is the major factor escalating the crane market growth. Shifting government focus on infrastructure development along with increasing consumer preference for luxurious and aesthetic constructions will provide an impetus to the industry growth. Rising necessity for houses along with investment regarding infrastructure development such as smart city projects and increased construction expenditure particularly in economically stabilizing countries is expected to propel the crane market size. Population growth, environmental impacts and urbanization has up surged the need for smart and sustainable infrastructure solutions. Providing efficient building methods coupled with ability to offer effective integration, planning and designing, are major factors driving the crane market growth.Developed markets are set towards a more positive outlook for construction industry as fallout from global fiscal crisis recedes, public finances and household incomes improve. In the developed countries including North America and Europe, aging infrastructure and the process for restructuring and maintaining these aged infrastructure is unable to match the pace of deterioration. Rising awareness among people about the major link between infrastructure and quality of life has resulted in a major public policy shift, favoring the overall construction industry thereby providing an impetus to the crane market.High investments and maintenance costs for the equipment is a key factor challenging the crane market growth. The cost of cranes is relatively high, which is discouraging manufacturers, businesses, and OEMs from procuring high-end systems. Companies are considering investments for automated equipment to meet the international quality standards. Development of infrastructure in emerging economies demands an increase in the number of cranes which are manufactured and hired for construction purposes. Rental companies are providing the equipment which incorporate the latest technological advancements, owing to which there is a rise in the demand for rental crane services.The mobile crane market is the fastest growing segment in the global industry owing to the increase in residential construction and urban infrastructure projects. The industry is being primarily driven by the rise in investments for the development of smart cities in countries such as China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.Browse Report Summery @Growing population and migration of people to urban areas has led to an increase in demand for efficient transport infrastructure facilities, causing a significant rise in the number of urban infrastructure projects and escalating demand for mobile cranes. The region has also witnessed a rise in investments for power plants, which is aiding the global mobile crane market growth.Prominent players in the crane market include Manitowoc, Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries Construction Crane Co., Ltd., XCMG Group, Tadano, Ltd., Liebherr Group, Konecranes PLC, Komatsu Ltd., Terex Corporation, and Palfinger AG among others. The industry dynamics are characterized by high competition with the presence of several regional and international players. As many of the companies have a longer operating history, brand recognition, established customer base, and supplier relationships and greater financial resources, it has become difficult for the new companies to compete with them. However, several companies are ensuring new product development initiatives to foster the crane market growth.Some of major chapters from Table of Contents:Chapter 2 Executive Summary2.1 Crane industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1 Business trends2.1.2 Regional trends2.1.3 Product trends2.1.3.1 Mobile crane trends2.1.3.2 Fixed crane trends2.1.4 Application trends2.1.4.1 Utility trendsChapter 3 Crane Industry Insights3.1 Industry segmentation3.2 Industry landscape, 2013 20243.2.1 Rental landscape3.2.1.1 Pros and cons rent vs purchase cranes3.2.1.2 Cost calculator rent vs purchase cranes3.3 Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1 Distribution channel analysis3.3.2 Vendor matrix3.4 Technological and innovation landscape3.5 Regulatory landscape3.5.1 ISO 43103.5.2 ISO 86863.5.3 ISO 10245-1:20083.5.4 ISO 12480-13.5.5 ISO 23815-13.5.6 ISO 124823.5.7 ISO 238143Make an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @3.5.8 OSHA 29 CFR 1926.213.6 Industry impact forces3.6.1 Growth drivers3.6.1.1 Global increase in construction spending3.6.1.2 Rising demand for telematics cranes in the U.S.3.6.1.3 Rapid urbanization in the U.S.3.6.1.4 Growing demand for cranes in the utility sector in Europe and Asia Pacific3.6.1.5 Rapid infrastructure development in BRIC countries3.6.1.6 Growing urbanization and safety concerns in India3.6.1.7 Growth in transportation and logistics industry in MEA3.6.2 Industry pitfalls and challenges3.6.2.1 High initial costs3.6.2.2 Lack of skilled and qualified crane operators3.7 Growth potential analysis3.8 Porters analysis3.9 Company market share analysis, by application, 20163.9.1 Construction & mining3.9.2 Utility3.9.3 Manufacturing3.9.4 Transport/Shipping3.9.5 Oil & gas3.9.6 Strategy dashboard3.10 PESTEL analysisAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: NetDimensions wins Partner of the Year at Humentum annual conference NetDimensions' Bill Mastin accepts the award for Partner of the Year at Humentum annual conference http://www.netdimensions.com/company/about-netdimensions/request-live-demo.php www.NetDimensions.com http://www.netdimensions.com/ NetDimensions, the global supplier of learning, knowledge and performance management systems for high-consequence industries, has been awarded Partner of the Year at Humentums annual conference.The award recognizes NetDimensions and Humentums five-year partnership, which has helped several organizations in the non-for-profit sector deliver eLearning solutions to people in over 160 countries.With offices in the US and UK, as well as regional hubs in Latin America and Africa, Humentum helps aid organizations and charities by providing training, consulting, convening, and insights to their members and clients with the aim of advancing the social sector and strengthening the capacity of the organizations they work with.Their members, who benefit from NetDimensions LMS technology, include WWF, Relief International, Rise Against Hunger, Oxfam, Habitat for Humanity, Save The Children and The Salvation Army World Service Office, amongst many others.Partnerships such as the one we have with NetDimensions help us make a real difference in the world. They allow us to build and develop the skills of people working in some of the world's most challenging and hardest to reach places, said Ross Coxon, Director, Learning Collaborative at Humentum. Helping these workers access professional development opportunities allows them to do their jobs to the best of their ability which ultimately improves aid delivery and the lives of the some of the most marginalised communities across the world.We are pleased to recognize NetDimensions as Humentums Partner of the Year said President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Dente. Their many contributions in support of organizations in our global community helps strengthen overall capacity and the ability to deliver and sustain results. We appreciate NetDimensions generosity and many efforts in creating a more thriving social sector.The ceremony, which took place on July 27, 2018 at the Washington Convention Center, saw NetDimensions Bill Mastin, Senior Vice President - Global Sales, accept the award in person.Were extremely honoured to be accepting the award for Partner of the Year for Operational Excellence from Humentum, said Bill Mastin. Weve been partnered with Humentum for five years, delivering services, learning management system technologies and the supporting infrastructure to allow Humentum to push its training out into the world. In the last year, weve helped Humentum with over 1,000 courses that have gone out to 164 countries and to over 30,000 learners. Were proud to be one small part of the mission and vision that Humentum and their partners have. We look forward to a long and continued partnership.If youd like to see NetDimensions award-winning capabilities for yourself, schedule a demo atAbout NetDimensionsEstablished in 1999, NetDimensions is a global provider of performance, knowledge and learning management solutions to highly regulated industries.NetDimensions provides companies, government agencies and other organizations with talent management solutions to personalize learning, share knowledge, enhance performance, foster collaboration and manage compliance programs for employees, customers, partners and suppliers.NetDimensions' solutions also include custom content and learning portal development services, as well as off-the-shelf course libraries and regulatory compliance courseware developed by NetDimensions' subject matter experts and content partners.NetDimensions' award-winning solutions have been chosen by leading organizations worldwide including ING, Cathay Pacific, Chicago Police Department, Geely Automotive, Norton Healthcare, and Fresenius Medical Care.NetDimensions is ISO 9001 certified and NetDimensions hosted services are ISO 27001 certified.NetDimensions is part of Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG).For more information, visitor follow @netdimensions on Twitter.NetDimensions52 Old SteineBrightonEast SussexBN1 1NHUKJared OrlinContent and Press Managerjared.orlin@netdimensions.com Food Preservatives Market 2018 Size, Share, Trend, Key Vendor Analysis and Outlook to 2024 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/sample/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3191 https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/enquiry/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3191/ https://www.qurateresearch.com/report/customize/FnB/QBI-PBI-FnB-3191 https://www.qurateresearch.com/ Global Food Preservatives Market: Global Food Preservatives Market is one of the oldest technologies to prevent the food from deterioration. There are several ways to preserve food such as boiling, pasteurizing, freezing, pickling and dehydrating. In conventional methods, sugar, salt and mineral salts are used as preservatives to preserve food. Preservatives play a vital role in seafood, poultry and meat industry. Addition of preservatives to the food enables eradicate the growth of microorganisms and prevents the food from decomposing and provides long shelf life.Dramatic changes in the lifestyle of people, changing trend towards consumption of processed food and canned food, inclination towards ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook food expected to trigger demand for preservatives across the globe. A rapid increase in demand for alcohol beverage products such as beer, wine is expected accelerates the significance of preservatives. However, a surge in the awareness about the adverse effects of preservatives and stringent government regulations pertaining to the preservatives are few challenges expected to restrain the food preservatives market. For instance, Russia has banned benzoate group of preservatives due to adverse effects like asthma, skin allergies, and brain damage. In June 2017, Indian Governments Food safety and standards authority of India banned the use of potassium bromate and potassium cyclamates in food and in May 2015, National food safety standards for food additive use was introduced in China by National and Family Planning Committee of China.Get Free Sample Report@The Food Preservatives Market is classified on the basis of function, type, source, application, form and geographical regions.Based on function, Food Preservatives Market is segmented asAntimicrobialsAnti-oxidantsChelating agentsBased on type, Food Preservatives Market is segmented asBenzoatesSorbatesNitratesSulphitesVitamin E&CPolyphosphatesDisodium EDTAOthersBased on Source, Food Preservatives Market is segmented asChemicalsMicroorganismsPlantsBased on application, Food Preservatives Market is segmented asBakeryBeveragesOils and fatsDairy productsSeafood, poultry and meat industrySnacksConfectioneryOthersEnquiry about Report@Market players are focused on the developments of natural preservative due to the growing preference for the natural preservatives. For instance, Carbionspurac Company has a wide range of natural preservative products lines such as Verdad powder N6, N8 and N9. Moreover, huge support from the governments is expected to witness growth in the market for food preservatives. For example, in 2015 July, Indian Government setup 13 mega food parks in various states Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh etc. to promote the benefits of food and the additives used in them.Geographically Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Latin America, North America, Asia- Pacific, The Middle East & Africa and Europe. North America accounts for significant market share in food preservatives market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific, owing to the rise in demand for the natural preservatives, high consumption of meat and poultry products. In Europe, growing health concerns and high consumption of bakery products and processed food are expected to accelerate the market growth for food preservatives owing to high demand for the convenience food, changing the lifestyle in developing countries, presence of large number of untapped markets are propelling the market growth for the Food Preservatives Market in Asia Pacific region.Some of the players in Food Preservatives Market are Danisco A/S (Denmark), Akzo Nobel N.V. (Netherlands), Cargill, Incorporated (U.S.), DSM (Netherlands). Univar Inc. (U.S.), Tate & Lyle (U.K.), Brenntag Solutions Group, Inc. (Germany), Kemin Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Hawkins Watts Limited (New Zealand) and Galactic (Belgium) to name some few.Get Customize Report@In 2018 January, Arjuna Natural Extracts Ltd. an Indian based company has launched X-tend a natural formulation specific preservative used to increase the shelf life of the frozen meat products.About Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Runwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.com Pocket Door Market 2024 Key Players FerreroLegno S.p.A, JB Kind Doors, JAP, Allgood, SCRIGNO SPA, Eclisse UK S.R.L. Pocket Door Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2752 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/pocket-door-market https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2752 https://www.gminsights.com Asia Pacific Pocket Door Market is anticipated to witness growth over 5% up to 2024. Countries such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia are expected to witness significant growth in population which will bolster the increase in average size of housing. This will indirectly impact the product sales in the residential sector and outpace its applications in the non-residential segment.Pocket Door Market size is estimated to surpass USD 10 billion by 2024. Rapid growth in construction & renovation of the residential & commercial buildings is the key factor fueling pocket door market size. Increasing demand from infrastructure and real estate projects will drive the product demand. In 2017, according to National Association of Home Builders, the U.S. remodeling and home building investment accounts for 3% share of GDP.Sample copy of this Report @Increase in public, as well as private infrastructure expenditure is anticipated to propel the industry growth. Rising modular and stylish lifestyle owing to rising disposable income will provide strong business outlook for the manufactures, thus supporting industry expansion. In addition, shift in consumer preference towards premium quality products with aesthetic in their homes likely to fuel product sales.Technological advancement and innovations for conserving energy in buildings will positively enhance the industry growth. Stringent government norms to enhance the utilization of energy efficient products for reducing carbon emissions in Canada and UK fueling product sales. Increasing demand for automated entrances in the commercial and industrial sector will further propel the industry growth in coming years.Single pocket door market is projected to witness CAGR over 5.5% in terms of revenue up to 2024, owing to its ease of installation, sound & thermal insulation, and modular appeal. A variety of materials such as glass, aluminum, steel, etc. can be used for the product development depending upon the purpose for which it is being installed. This level of diversity of features and its ease of operations likely to propel product adoption rate.Wood accounted for more than 45% of the industry share in 2017. Apart from the aesthetic appeal, wooden material tends to have a long life especially when good quality timber is used. Also, wood is not prone to rust, it does not crack or chip and is highly customizable to fit any opening size. These factors make wood an ideal option for product development in the long run thereby increasing the segment growth over the projected timeframe.European pocket door accounted for over 20% of the global revenue share in 2017. Increasing urbanization rate and rising demand for aesthetic customization will further boost industry growth in this region. Rising income level coupled with affordable housing schemes launched by the government will augment regional demand over the projected timeframe.Browse Report Summery @Some of the key industry players in the market include Ferrero Legno, JAP, Allgood, Scrigno, Eclisse UK S.R.L, JB Kind, and Ghizzi & Benatti. Other notable players include Portman, LPD, Raydoor, Selo, Fleetwood, Slidesystems, Linvisible, Bertolotto Porte, Casali, FOA Porte etc. Manufacturers are anticipated to adopt mergers & acquisition strategy to gain competitive advantage. The company players practice integrations across various levels of the value chain to increase their presence in the industry. The manufacturing companies are entering strategic alliances with multinational home decor brands to further increase their profitability.Some of major chapters from Table of Contents:Chapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Pocket door industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Material trends2.1.3. Product trends2.1.4. End-use trends2.1.5. Regional trendsChapter 3. Pocket Door Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2013 - 20243.3. Industry ecosystem analysis3.3.1. Manufacturers3.3.2. Profit margin analysis3.3.3. Distribution channel analysis3.3.4. End-users3.3.5. Vendor matrix3.3.5.1. Key manufacturers3.3.5.2. Product portfolio3.3.5.3. Global presence3.4. Technology landscapeMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @3.4.1. Production process3.5. Consumer buying behavior3.5.1. Unmet needs3.5.2. Information search3.5.3. Evaluation of alternatives3.5.4. Purchase decision3.5.5. Post purchase behavior3.6. Regulatory landscape3.6.1. U.S.3.6.2. Europe3.6.3. China3.7. Pricing analysis, by region3.7.1. North America3.7.2. Europe3.7.3. Asia Pacific3.7.4. Latin America3.7.5. MEA3.7.6. Cost structure analysis, 20173.8. Industry impact forces3.8.1. Growth drivers, by region3.8.1.1. North America3.8.1.2. Europe3.8.1.3. Asia Pacific3.8.1.4. Latin America3.8.1.5. MEA3.8.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.9. Innovation & sustainability3.10. Growth potential analysis, 20173.11. Competitive landscape, 20173.11.1. Top players overview3.11.2. Market share analysis, 20173.11.3. Key stake holders3.11.4. Strategy dashboard3.12. Porters analysis3.13. PESTLE analysisAbout Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: BOOM was mandated to review English language news stories flagged on Facebook, check facts, and rate their accuracy. Social networking giant Facebook on Thursday said it has expanded its partnership with BOOM Live to provide fact-checking capabilities in Hindi and Bengali as well as fact-check photos and videos. (Photo: AP) New Delhi: Social networking giant Facebook on Thursday said it has expanded its partnership with BOOM Live to provide fact-checking capabilities in Hindi and Bengali as well as fact-check photos and videos. In April, the US-based company had introduced a third-party fact-checking programme in India with BOOM Live to combat the spread of "false news" on its platform with a pilot in Karnataka ahead of elections in the state. "Following fact-checking in English during the Karnataka pilot stage, BOOM Live will now also provide fact-checking capabilities in Hindi and Bengali, and will also fact-check photos and videos, in addition to article links," Facebook said in a statement. BOOM was mandated to review English language news stories flagged on Facebook, check facts, and rate their accuracy, it said. Facebook is running similar initiatives in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and the US. In the recent past, Facebook has drawn intense criticism from users and governments globally over a number of issues, ranging from false news on the platform to information of over 80 million users being mined by data analytics and political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has committed to continue strengthening its work and partnerships around news literacy in India and extend it across local languages, partner newsrooms, journalists and fact checkers to build a more informed community, the statement issued today said. "Through our partnership with BOOM Live we hope to encourage the systemic growth of fact-checking on all platforms," Campbell Brown, Facebook's Global Head of News Partnerships, said. Besides, Facebook has collaborated with the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) to establish a Facebook Journalism Project Scholarship programme in India. "We believe our students will benefit from this powerful initiative. It will provide valuable hands-on experience and the expertise to distinguish informative and trust-worthy news," Sashi Kumar, Chairperson of ACJ, said. This scholarship programme will support five students from ACJ across four chosen career specialisations: Print, New Media, Radio and Television, the statement said. "Just as the business of news is constantly changing, the skills and capabilities of our future journalists must also evolve," Brown said. Taken together, these two initiatives represent a step towards supporting the future of reliable journalism around the world, he added. Global ZigBee Home Automation Market 2018 By Key Players : Atmel, Autani, Computime, Energate, Itron QYResearchReports https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=920384&type=S https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-zigbee-home-automation-market-professional-survey-report-2017.htm/toc http://www.qyresearchreports.com Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global ZigBee Home Automation Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The report presents a thorough overview of the current state of the global ZigBee Home Automation market. The report analyzes the overall growth of the global ZigBee Home Automation market and examines the industry chain in details, analyzing the past, present, and the potential future growth prospects of the market.The report also presents detailed data about the production of ZigBee Home Automation according to a region-wise segmentation. The key applications and product types of the global ZigBee Home Automation market have also been examined from a geographic standpoint. The report examines the development of the global ZigBee Home Automation market over the years and presents a detailed analysis of the various trends, drivers, and restraints on the markets current state. The report also studies how these factors will have an impact on the market over the reports forecast period. The report gives the reader an overview of the marketing channels in the global ZigBee Home Automation market and includes details about the distributors and traders of ZigBee Home Automation.Have Any Query? Ask Our Expert @This report studies ZigBee Home Automation in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2011 to 2015, and forecast to 2021.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringAtmelDigi InternationalFreescale SemiconductorGreenPeak TechnologiesNXP SemiconductorsSilicon LaboratoriesSTMicroelectronicsTexas InstrumentsAAC TechnologiesAclara TechnologiesAutaniComputimeEnergateHPL Electric and PowerItronLegrandMelange SystemsMicrochip TechnologyMMB NetworksOKI SemiconductorProfile SystemsSENA TechnologiesTendril NetworksTimeLoxTrilliantTelegesisBy Regions, this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaAccess the Report and full TOC @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of ZigBee Home Automation1.1 Definition and Specifications of ZigBee Home Automation1.1.1 Definition of ZigBee Home Automation1.1.2 Specifications of ZigBee Home Automation1.2 Classification of ZigBee Home Automation1.3 Applications of ZigBee Home Automation1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of ZigBee Home Automation2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of ZigBee Home Automation2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of ZigBee Home Automation2.4 Industry Chain Structure of ZigBee Home AutomationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of ZigBee Home AutomationTable Product Specifications of ZigBee Home AutomationTable Classification of ZigBee Home AutomationFigure Global Production Market Share of ZigBee Home Automation by Type in 2015Figure North America ZigBee Home Automation Market Size (2011-2021)Figure China ZigBee Home Automation Market Size (2011-2021)Figure Europe ZigBee Home Automation Market Size (2011-2021)Figure Southeast Asia ZigBee Home Automation Market Size (2011-2021)Figure Japan ZigBee Home Automation Market Size (2011-2021)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web: Global Vascular grafts Research Scope, Research methodology, Competitive Analysis, Growth Factors, market key Trends, Industry chain Analysis & Opportunities 2018-2023 Global Vascular graft Industry Historical and current Market 2018 https://www.researchreportsinc.com/sample-request?id=17973 https://researchreportsinc.com/enquiry?id=17973 https://www.researchreportsinc.com/check-discount?id=17973 https://researchreportsinc.com/checkout/?add-to-cart=17973&&attribute_pa_choose-license=single-user&&quantity=1 Introduction: Vascular grafts are used to replace, bypass or maintain function of damaged, occluded or diseased blood vessels in small, medium and large diameter.A vascular bypass (or vascular graft) is a surgical procedure performed to redirect blood flow from one area to another by reconnecting blood vessels. Often, this is done to bypass around a diseased artery, from an area of normal blood flow to another relatively normal area.Get free Sample@It is commonly performed due to inadequate blood flow (ischemia) caused by atherosclerosis, as a part of organ transplantation, or for vascular access in hemodialysis. In general, someone's own vein (autograft) is the preferred graft material (or conduit) for a vascular bypass, but other types of grafts such as polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polyethylene terephthalate (Dacron), or a different person's vein (allograft) are also commonly used. Arteries can also serve as vascular grafts. A surgeon sews the graft to the source and target vessels by hand using surgical suture, creating a surgical anastomosis.Key factors attributing to its rapid growth include rising prevalence of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and cardiac aneurysms. Meanwhile, aneurysum, vascular occlusion and some other diseases are all drive the demand of vascular graft. However, the technology of some special material vascular graft is not mature.Ask for Customization@At present, in the foreign industrial developed countries the vascular graft industry on a higher level than other countries, the worlds large enterprises are mainly concentrated in USA. Meanwhile, foreign companies have more advanced equipment, strong R & D capability, the technical level is in a leading position.Over the next five years, LPI(LP Information) projects that Vascular Graft will register a 4.3% CAGR in terms of revenue, reach US$ 1070 million by 2023, from US$ 830 million in 2017.This report studies the global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top 5 players in each region, with sales, price, revenue and market share from 2013 to 2018, the top players:Getinge GroupBardTerumoW. L. GoreJUNKEN MEDICALB.BraunLeMaitreShanghai SuokangShanghai Chest MedicalAsk for discount@Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales, revenue, market share of top players in these regions, from 2013 to 2018 (forecast), likeNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Korea)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia etc.)South America (Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina)Middle East and Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Saudi Arabia)Split by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type, can be divided intoePTFE Vascular GraftPolyester Vascular GraftPTFE Vascular GraftOthersSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate in each application, can be divided intoCardiovascular diseasesAneurysmVascular occlusionOthersBuy Report now@Table of Content1. Vascular Graft Market Overview2. Global Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Players3 .Global Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue (Value) by Regions, Type and Application (2013-2018)4. North America Top 5 Players Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue and Price5. Europe Top 5 Players Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue and Price6. Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue and Price7. South America Top 5 Players Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue and Price8. Middle East & Africa Top 5 Players Vascular Graft Sales, Revenue and Price9. Global Vascular Graft Players Profiles/Analysis10. Global Vascular Graft Market Forecast (2018-2023)11. Vascular Graft Manufacturing Cost Analysis12. Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers13. Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders14. Market Effect Factors Analysis15. Research Findings and Conclusion16. AppendixResearch Reports Inc. is one of the leading destinations for market research reports across all industries, companies, and technologies. Our repository features an exhaustive list of market research reports from thousands of publishers worldwide. We take pride in curating a database covering virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories. We are one of the premier sources for such reports & report customization services.Contact usDavid,Sales Manager,#766, 99 Wall Street, New YorkNY 10005, United StatesUS/Canada: +1-855-419-2424UK: +4403308087577Email: sales@reseasrchreportsinc.com Biometric Authentication & Identification 2018 Global Market Challenge, Driver, Trends & Forecast to 2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/748676-global-biometric-authentication-identification-market-forecast-to-2020 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/748676-global-biometric-authentication-identification-market-forecast-to-2020 www.linkedin.com/company/4828928 https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts IntroductionGlobal Biometric Authentication & Identification has emerged as one of the fastest growing market around the globe. As the population and organizations are becoming more concerned towards the cyber security and safety, biometric authentication and identification provides a secure terminal which helps to keep place and data safe from unauthorized access. In fast couple of years, the physical security breaches have increased and due to this the global market of Biometric Authentication & Identification has rose sharply. The global market of Biometric Authentication & Identification has been valued at US $11.76 billion in the year 2015 which is expected to grow at US $25.31 billion by end of forecasted period with CAGR of 16.56%.GET SAMPLE REPORT @By Geography, The market is dominated by North America which has been valued at US $3.78 billion in year 2015 and expected to become the second largest by the end of forecast period. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at rapid CAGR of 19.92% during the forecast period and also APAC region is expected to become market leader by the end of forecast period as the demand for Consumer Electronics is increasing in these regions. Asia-Pacific is expected to reach at market size of US $7.65 billion by 2020 from US $3.09 in 2015.Key PlayersThe Key Players in the market of are- 3M, Anviz Global Apple, Inc., Aware Inc., Bio-Key International, Inc., Cognitec Systems, Crossmatch Technologies, Diamond Fortress Technologies, Fingerprint cards AB, Fujitsu Global, Fulcrum Biometrics, HID Global, Iris ID Systems, Inc., Kaba Group, M2SYS Technology, Morpho S.A., NEC Corporation, Precise Biometrics AB, Sensory, Inc., S.I.C. Biometrics Inc., Synaptics Inc. and Tyco International Ltd. among others.Global Biometric Authentication & Identification Market Analysis & Forecast, From 2016 To 2022 To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Biometric Authentication & Identification market Upcoming technologies, high growth geographies and countries were identified Regional and country specific demand and forecast for Biometric Authentication & Identification were studied Key segments covered in the report are: Modality, Motility, Application and Geography. Unit breakdown for all different classification was finalized; and same was referred for forecasting, keeping few assumptions into factor For all the regions: forecast demand for all applications were identified and then with historical figure, data collected through primary and annual reports were triangulated to derive the regional market size Historical trend is identified to forecast and estimate the future value dataTarget Audience Biometric Device Manufacturers Biometric Device Suppliers Software Developers Government Private Institutions Security Service ProvidersKey Findings The Global Authentication & Identification Market is expected to grow at CAGR of 16.56% from 2015 to 2020. The fingerprint modality dominated the market in 2014 and is expected to grow over $10.90 billion by the end of the forecast period By Applications, The Government segment accounted for $5.1 billion in 2015 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.79% from 2015 to 2020 By Region, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the market by end of forecast period.Regional and Country Analysis of Biometric Authentication & Identification Market Estimation and ForecastNorth America has been the largest contributor to the revenue in the global market and is expected to grow over $7.20 billion by 2020. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.92% from 2015 to 2020 and dominate the market. The demand of biometrics product in this region is due to the government initiative of nationwide enrolment and ID issuance in countries such as India and China. Also, in Japan a huge number of biometrics ATMS have been deployed and still the process is going on.Table of Content: Key Points1 MARKET INTRODUCTION1.1 INTRODUCTION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.3 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:1.3.1 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET: BY MODALITY1.3.2 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET: BY MOTILITY1.3.3 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET: BY APPLICATION1.3.4 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET: BY GEOGRAPHY2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH TYPE2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH2.4 FORECAST MODEL2.4.1 MARKET DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS & FORECAST2.4.2 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION2.4.3 MARKET CRACKDOWN & DATA TRIANGULATION3 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET: OVERVIEW3.1 INTRODUCTION3.1.1 DEFINITION3.1.2 MARKET SEGMENTATION OF BIOMETRIC MARKET4 GLOBAL BIOMETRIC MARKET, COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE4.1 KEY STRATEGIES AND DEVELOPMENTS4.1.1 ACQUISITIONS4.1.2 PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS4.1.3 PRODUCT LAUNCH4.1.4 BUSINESS EXPANSION4.1.5 OTHERS4.2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS4.2.1 THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS4.2.2 BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS4.2.3 BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS4.2.4 THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES4.2.5 INTENSITY OF COMPETITIVE RIVALRY5 MARKET OVERVIEWContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India Global Mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market Cost Analysis, Strategy and Growth Factor 2018 http://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/requestsample.aspx?name=1590274 http://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/inquirybeforebuy.aspx?name=1590274 http://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=1590274 http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/1590274-mobile-artificial-intelligence-ai-market-by-application-smartphones-cameras-drones-automotive-ar-vr-robotics-smart-boards-and-pcs-technology-node-10nm-20-to-28nm-7nm-and-others-and-geography-globa-st-to-2023.html Trending leaders of Mobile Artificial Intelligence market (AI) are Apple (US), NVIDIA (US), Huawei (China), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), Qualcomm (US), Intel (US), IBM (US), Microsoft (US), MediaTek (Taiwan), and Google (US)are the major players in the mobile AImarket.The mobile AI market is expected to reach USD 17.83 billion by2023 from USD 5.11 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 28.41% during the forecast period.Download Brochure of Mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market spread across 119 Pages, Profiling 10 Companies and Supported with 46 Tables and 35 Figures is now available atTarget Audience: Raw material and manufacturing equipment suppliers Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Research institutes Market research and consulting firms Forums, alliances, and associations Technology investors Governments and financial institutions Analysts and strategic business planners End users willing to know more about the technology and the latest technological developments in the mobile AI industryGet More Information on Mobile Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market with Forecast, Analysis, Trends and Company Profiles atMarket, by Application Smartphones Cameras Drones Automotive Robotics Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual reality (VR) Others (Smart Boards and PCs)Get purchase atIncreasing demand for AI-capable processors for use in mobile devices, rise in cognitive computing, and growing number of AI applications are some of the major factors driving the growth of the mobile AI market. However, factors such as premium pricing of AI processors and limited number of AI experts are restraining market growth.The market for AR/VR applications is expected to grow at a high CAGR during the forecast period.Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are rapidly evolving technologies. Large tech companies such as Qualcomm (US), Google, Microsoft (US), and Apple (US) have shown their interests in contributing to the growth of augmented technology by adopting strategies such as product launches, acquisitions, or funding. AR and VR, coupled with AI, will provide smarter, more relevant, and personalized experience. For instance, in July 2017, Microsoft announced the next generation of its mixed reality HoloLens headsetHoloLens 2which will have a dedicated AI coprocessor known as the Holographic Processing Unit (HPU). Qualcomm, in February 2018, announced its Snapdragon 845 VR headset reference design to fuel next-generation VR experience. Thus, the growing interest of these large tech companies in emerging technologies, such as augmented reality and virtual reality, is a major factor driving the growth of the mobile AI market for AR/VR applications.Read more onThe mobile AI market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.In APAC, China is the largest market for artificial intelligence. Applications such as smart phones, industrial robots, and automotive provide huge growth potential for the mobile AI market in APAC. The region is becoming the center of attraction for major investments as it holds significant business expansion opportunities. Various AI processor start-ups in China are raising funds to grow in the mobile AI market. For example, Think Force (China) raised around USD 68million, and DeePhi (China) raised around USD 40 million. Along with this, increasing government spending to boost the AI network in China is expected to further contribute to market growth during the forecast period. All these factors, coupled with the increasing number of start-ups in the mobile AI ecosystem, are driving the growth of the mobile AI market in APAC.Breakdown of profile of primary participants: By Company Type: Tier 1 =27%, Tier 2 =41%, and Tier 3 =32% By Designation: C-Level Executives =26%, Directors =40%, and Others =34% By Region: North America = 47%, Europe = 28%, APAC =19%, and RoW =6%Research Coverage: The market by application covers smart phones, cameras, drones, robotics, augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR), and automotive. The market by technology node covers10nm, 2028nm, and 7nm &others. The geographic analysis is done with regard to 4 major regionsNorth America, Europe, APAC, and RoW. (RoW comprises South America, and the Middle East and Africa).About Us:ReportsnReports.com is your single source for all market research needs. Our database includes 100,000+ market research reports from over 95 leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over 5000 micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports.Corporate HeadquartersTower B5, office 101,Magarpatta SEZ,Hadapsar, Pune-411013, India+ 1 888 391 5441sales@reportsandreports.com Access Control Market Analysis by Leading Key Players: Gemalto, NEC Corporation, Allegion, Honeywell Security, Gunnebo Security Group https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1089 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/access-control-market-1089 Access Control Industry 2018 Global Market research report provide detailed analysis of growth factors of the Access Control industry as well as it gives analysis the market share, trends, size, Business Methodologies, Financial Overview, Growth Prospects and forecast till 2023. The Access Control industry report has studied key Strategies in the market and Emerging and Manipulating factor which is useful to the Sales revenue and business Generation.Major Key playersThe key players in the market of Access Control are- Gemalto (Netherlands), Allegion (Ireland), Assa Abloy (Sweden), Gunnebo Security Group (Sweden) Tyco International Plc (Ireland) Crossmatch Technologies, Inc.(U.S.), NEC Corporation (Japan), Oberthur Technologies (France), Allegion, Plc (Ireland), Honeywell Security Group (U.S.) among others.Request a Sample report @Market Highlights:At present, businesses across the world are experiencing an augmented need for safety and security. This is one of the major reasons for the progression of the global access control market. Owing to its rising demand across various verticals, Market Research Future an expert in the art of providing research reports decided to offer a study report on this market. The report on access control market states that this market will expand enormously during the forecast period of 2017-2027.Access control is basically a form of security tool that enables people to design the security measures according to their individualistic requirements. In simpler terms, it allows the owner to control which individual can access and utilize his or her companys resources.Comprehensive Regional AnalysisThe access control market has very efficiently established its hold across various verticals of the global map. Some of the major areas where the presence of this market can be predominantly observed are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.North America dominates the market in terms of region suggests the report titled Access control market by Market Research Future. This region grabs the largest chunk of the market share for itself and the chief reason for its lead is considered to be the higher proliferation rate in internet security measures.Asia Pacific comes second in line and accounts for the second largest market share. This region will witness growth at an exceptional CAGR throughout the forecast period.Market SegmentationThe research report distributed by Market Research Future on Access Control Market provides an in-depth evaluation of all the segments of this market. Here are some of the major aspects of the segmental analysis.By system type Intruder alarm systems, authentication systems (biometric & card based authentication) and perimeter security systems (Free standing, buried cable). Out of the mentioned segments, card based authentication systems govern the market and account for the largest number of shares. The card is employed as a credential in an access control system to verify a persons position in an organization. This is a fact that gives card based authentication an upper hand over the other segments.By applications Commerical, BFSI, Military & defense, residential, government, industrial and telecommunication. The commercial segment is anticipated to develop at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. It is because the commercial sector observes an immense demand to protect their assets from various threats like accidents, theft and vandalism.Browse Complete Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Liver Biopsy Market Shows Huge Demand | A new Industry Report illustrates how Becton, Dickinson and Company, MDxHealth, Veran medical & Medtronic market is Expanding Three Fold Forecast till 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5534 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5534 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5534 Liver biopsy is a diagnostic procedure for liver diseases, recommended when blood tests or diagnostic imaging might suggest a liver problem. It is of three major types namely percutaneous, transjugular, and laparoscopic. It is also used to monitor the liver condition during liver transplant and to determine complications if any. The healthcare provider may recommend liver biopsy if the patient is diagnosed with liver disease or identifies the presence of blood in the urine.As per the Health Survey for England 2014, Hepatitis B is one of the worlds most common liver infection in the world, affecting huge population across the globe.Increasing awareness about early diagnosis of liver diseases and upsurge in demand for technologically advanced medical devices for diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases including liver failure drive the global liver biopsy market.The global liver biopsy market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~4.2% during the forecast period 2017-2023.Get Exclusive Sample Copy @Liver Biopsy Market: Top PlayersBecton, Dickinson and Company, MDxHealth, Veran medical, Medtronic, Argon Medical Devices, Inc., Mauna Kea Technologies, Boston Scientific Corporation, Intact Medical Corp., C. R. Bard, Inc., Leica Biosystems, Cook Medical, RI.MOS., Hologic, Inc., Sterylab, INRAD Inc., Fujifilm Medical Systems, and others.Liver Biopsy Market: SegmentationThe global liver biopsy market is segmented on the basis of type, indication, and end user. On the basis of the diagnosis, it is segmented into percutaneous, transjugular, and laparoscopic biopsy. On the basis of indication, it is segmented into nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic hepatitis B or C, autoimmune hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, and others. Based on the end user, it is segmented into hospitals & clinics, tertiary care centers, urology centers, and others.Liver Biopsy Market: Regional AnalysisGlobally, the Americas is the largest market for liver biopsy due to increasing awareness about the importance of biopsy for the diagnosis of liver disease. In the Americas, North America is the largest market with the U.S. capturing major share followed by Canada. Additionally, extensive use of technologically advanced medical devices for diagnosis and treatment of chronic liver disease, support from the government for research & development, and high health care spending drives the market growth. Additionally, increasing patient population with liver disease, diabetes, and other risk factors for renal failure is fuelling the market growth.Europe is the second largest market for liver biopsy whose growth is attributed to an increasing emphasis on the development of new diagnostic devices, favorable reimbursement policies, and investments in the development of new technologies for the treatment of chronic disease. Rising number of specialty services offered by various healthcare providers in Europe also accelerate the growth of the market. Additionally, rising government support for research & development, and availability of funds for research will fuel the market growth during the forecast period. As per the Lancet Liver Campaign report on liver diseases in the U.K., liver disease is the only major cause of death, which is expected to increase shortly. It also stated that use of alcohol is one of the major cause of various liver diseases among the adults. Furthermore, there is an increase in the hospital admissions for alcohol-related disease such as alcohol-related liver disease in various European nations also accelerates the market growth.The Asia Pacific is the fastest growing liver biopsy market owing to the ever-increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and rising number of liver biopsy procedures in the hospital and surgical centers.The Middle East & Africa exhibit steady growth in the liver biopsy market due to lack of funds, unavailability of technologically advanced medical devices, and limited medical facilities. In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) is the largest market owing to the progress of healthcare industry.Get Amazing Discount @Major Table of Content for Liver Biopsy Market:Chapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restrains4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsTOC Continued.!Have a Question Ask to our Experts @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Interactive Residential Security Market 2018 - CenturyLink, Comcast, Honeywell, Interlogix Global Interactive Residential Security Market https://bit.ly/2KlXvDc https://bit.ly/2McZaNf www.accordmarket.com Accord Market, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the Interactive Residential Security Market across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of Interactive Residential Security Market from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global PP Pipe industry, and estimates the future trend of Interactive Residential Security Market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares Interactive Residential Security Market performance both in terms of volume and revenue.The market research report explores the Interactive Residential Security Market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of Interactive Residential Security Market. The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Interactive Residential Security Market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Interactive Residential Security Market. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Interactive Residential Security Market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportADTATTCenturyLinkComcastHoneywellInterlogixProtect AmericaThe competitive landscape of the global market for Interactive Residential Security Market is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Interactive Residential Security Markets production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Interactive Residential Security Market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Interactive Residential Security Market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Interactive Residential Security Market production volume, data pertaining to demand and Interactive Residential Security Market supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Interactive Residential Security Market along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Interactive Residential Security Market across the world.About UsAccord Market offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Accord Market provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezS no. 72/1/A/6, Floor No. 1,Harikrishna Building, Samarth Nagar,New Sanghvi, Pune-411027 India.Phone: +91-8149441100Email id - sales@accordmarket.comWebsite - Test Preparation Market in the US 2017-2021 | ArborBridge, Pearson Education, Club Z!, The Princeton Review, Kaplan https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1180518 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1180518/test-preparation-in-the-us-market-research-reports/toc http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Latest Research Report Test Preparation Market in the US 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Test preparation is an educational course, tutoring service, educational material, or a learning tool designed to increase students' performance on standardized tests. Examples of these tests include entrance examinations used for admissions to institutions of higher education, such as college, business school, law school, medical school, BMAT, UKCAT and GAMSAT and graduate school and qualifying examinations for admission to gifted education programs.Technavios analysts forecast the test preparation market in US to grow at a CAGR of 5.51% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the test preparation market in US for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated by test preparation service providers.Get Sample Copy of this report @The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Test Preparation Market In US 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsArborBridgePearson EducationClub Z!The Princeton ReviewKaplanOther prominent vendorsBenchPrepHuntington Learning CenterManhattan ReviewRevolution PrepSylvan LearningKnewtonUSATestprepMarket driverRising incorporation of AI in tutoring servicesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHighly fragmented nature of marketFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendRising popularity of benchmark testingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Request For TOC Report @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeTest preparation market in USFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by productTest preparation market in US by productTest preparation market in US by university examsTest preparation market in US by certification examsTest preparation market in US by high school examsTest preparation market in US by elementary examsTest preparation market in US by other examsPART 07: Market segmentation by end-userMarket overviewTest preparation market in US by K-12Test preparation market in US by higher educationPART 08: Market segmentation by learning modelTest preparation market in US by learning modelTest preparation market in US by online learningTest preparation market in US by blended learningPART 09: Decision frameworkPART 10: Drivers and challengesMarket driversMarket challengesPART 11: Market trendsIncreasing emphasis on private tutoringRising popularity of benchmark testingGrowing m-learningPART 12: Vendor landscapeCompetitive landscapeCompetitive benchmarkingPART 13: Key vendor analysisArborBridgePearson EducationClub Z!The Princeton ReviewKaplanAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Yachts Charter Market Projected To Expand At A CAGR of 7.2% From 2017 - 2025 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1339671 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1339671/yachts-charter-global-industry-market-research-reports/toc http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ "The Latest Research Report Yachts Charter Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Yachts are motor-driven or sail-driven vessels that are used for primarily for recreational purposes. Yachts available for chartering can be privately owned or can be owned by the companies that lend yachts for chartering. Generally, yachts are big enough to contain a cabin. They can be multihulled or monohulled vessels. Yacht charter is basically renting a yacht for recreation. Yacht owners usually charter their yachts when these are not being used by them. There is a basic difference between a boat and a yacht, the length and expense of the vessels. However, the primary difference is that a boat is essentially a watercraft used for residential, commercial, or recreational purposes whereas a yacht is only associated with recreation and luxury.This report on the global yacht charter market highpoints the present scenario of the market coupled with expected growth of the global yacht charter market during the forecast period. Various social, political, technological and economic factors have been analyzed which are likely to impact the demand of yacht charter in the coming years. An exhaustive study of the market dynamics i.e. global market drivers, restraints and opportunities has been included under the purview of the report.Global Yacht Charter Market: SegmentationThe global yacht charter market has been segmented on the basis of yacht type into sailing yachts, motor yachts and catamarans yachts. These types are further divided into classic yachts, open yachts and others. Sailing yacht accounted for a maximum share in the global yacht charter market. However, motor yachts are likely to grow at a significant pace owing to many reasons including high occupancy space, ease of use, and availability. On the other hand, open yachts are likely to increase their market share in the coming years.Get Sample Copy of this report @Global Yacht Charter Market: Drivers and TrendsTravelling has become one of the key trends in the recent times. Consumers looking for holidaying nowadays choose their destinations very wisely. As the number of destinations for yacht chartering is increasing at a steady pace, so is the demand for yacht chartering. As consumer preference towards yacht chartering is rising, there is an increasing popularity of charter destinations especially among the young population. Moreover, the growing inclination of corporate consumers for yacht chartering is also on the rise. As businesses and corporate houses look for destinations that are serene and peaceful, yet happening, therefore, they prefer yacht chartering for spending their vacations.Additionally, owing to a shift in lifestyle, sailing destinations have also been observed to break off from the traditional Caribbean and Mediterranean waters to less familiar destinations of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Antarctic. Thus, growing inclination of consumers to explore new destinations and rising number of destinations globally is likely to consequently increase the number of yachts available for charter, thereby boosting the overall yacht charter market.Global Yacht Charter Market: Competitive AnalysisAdditionally, the key players that are operating the yacht charter market have been thoroughly profiled and the competitive landscape is comprehensive of these companies recent developments associated to yacht charters and the divergent business strategies followed by them. To analyze their market positioning further, SWOT analysis for each of the players has been provided. Furthermore, the report includes market attractiveness analysis of the segmentation, by yacht size, for offering a deep insight into the major yacht size that is governing the global yacht charter market.Some of the major players operating in the global yacht charter market include Yachtico, Inc. (U.S.), Zizooboats GmbH (Germany), Boat International Media Ltd.(U.K.) and Charterworld Limited (U.K.). Other players operating in the global market are Burgess (U.K.), Incrediblue Limited (U.K.), Boatbound Inc. (U.S.), Martello Yachting and Company (China), Northrop & Johnson (U.S.), Fairline Yachts Ltd. (U.K.), SuperYacht Logistics (Japan), Fraser Yachts (U.S.) and West Coast Marine Yacht Services Pvt. Ltd. (India) among others.The global yacht charter market has been segmented into:Yacht Charter Market, by Yacht Type Sailing Yachts Classic Yachts Open Yachts Others Motor Yachts Classic Yachts Open Yachts Others Catamaran Yachts Classic Yachts Open Yachts OthersYacht Charter Market, by Yacht Size Small Medium LargeYacht Charter Market, by Consumer Type Corporate Retail OthersYacht Charter Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into: North America U.S. Rest of North America Europe U.K. Croatia Greece France Spain Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan Thailand Malaysia Australia Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa Qatar Dubai Oman Africa Rest of Middle East and Africa Latin America Brazil Rest of Latin AmericaRequest For TOC Report @Table of ContentChapter 1 Preface1.1 Research Scope1.2 Market Segmentation1.3 Research Objectives1.4 Key Questions AnsweredChapter 2 Assumptions and Research Methodology2.1 Report Assumptions2.2 Acronyms Used2.3 Research MethodologyChapter 3 Executive Summary3.1 Global Yacht Charter Market Forecast3.2 Key Trend AnalysisChapter 4 Global Yacht Charter Market: Market Overview4.1 Introduction4.2 Yacht Charter Market Overview4.3 Key Trends Analysis4.4 Drivers and Restraints Snapshot Analysis4.4.1 Drivers4.4.1.1 Ease of Booking Yachts4.4.1.2 Shift in Lifestyle and Growing Number of Yacht Charter Destinations4.4.1.3 Technological Advancements4.4.1.4 Growing Demand for Luxury Yachts4.4.2 Restraints4.4.2.1 High Taxation Rates4.4.2.2 High Pricing During Peak Seasons4.4.2.3 Cyber Security Threats4.4.3 Opportunity Analysis4.4.4 Opportunities4.5 Yacht Charter Market: Competitive Landscape4.6 Market Attractiveness AnalysisAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices Market Poised to Garner Maximum Revenues During 2016 to 2024 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cardiac-rhythm-management-devices-batteries-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=17678 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=17678 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Transparency Market Research states that the competitive landscape in the global cardiac rhythm management devices batteries market is mildly fragmented. The leading players such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Greatbatch, Inc. (Integer), and EaglePicher Technologies, LLC are focusing on developing unmatched quality of batteries through state-of-art technological development. Furthermore, companies are also expected to strengthen their position across the globe through geographical expansion. In the coming years, these players are expected to increase their investments to develop products that are aimed toward increasing streamlining clinical workflow, therapy efficacy, and improving quality of life, states the lead author of this research report.According to the research report, the global CRM devices batteries market is expected to worth US$518.4 mn by the end of 2024 as compared to US$397.3 mn in 2015. During the forecast years of 2016 and 2024, the global market is estimated to progress at a CAGR of 3.0%.Obtain Report Details @High Prevalence of Chronic Conditions across Asia Pacific Boosts Regional DemandThe various products available in the global CRM devices batteries market are implantable cardiac pacemakers (ICPs), implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices (CRT-Ds). Of these, the CRT-Ds are expected to show the maximum growth in the forecast period as the segment surges at a CAGR of 4.1%. The ability of these devices to manage heart failure cases and reduce the number of risks associated with irregular heartbeats are expected to boost their demand in the forecast period. Analysts projected that ICD will also be a lucrative segment for the global market in the coming years.In terms geography, the global CRM devices batteries market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Of these, North America is the most attractive market for CRM batteries as the region is slated to acquire a share of 38.2% by the end of 2024. Analysts estimate that Asia Pacific is also expected to gain a significant share in the overall market due to high prevalence of health conditions such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension that have spiked the number of cardiovascular disease cases in recent years.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Aging Population Triggers Demand for CRM Devices Batteries for Disease ManagementThe demand for CRM devices batteries has grown to a significantly in the past few decades as power sources have graduated from nickel-cadmium batteries to lithium ones. These sophisticated batteries are capable of powering complicated pacing devices such as CRT devices and ICDs. These batteries are known to be light weight, highly predictable and reliable, high energy density, small in size, and come with a long service life. Owing to these regions, several CRM devices manufacturers are using them in ICD, CRT devices, and pacemakers. The demand for CRM devices batteries is also being fueled by the increasing need for data logging, biventricular pacing, and telemetry.Product Recalls Lead to Declining Sales of CRM Devices BatteriesThe report indicates that growing pool of geriatrics is also likely to boost the demand for ICD, CRT devices, and pacemakers, which, in turn, is expected to reflect positively on the sales of CRM devices batteries. These devices will be extensively used for managing diseases such as bradycardia, tachycardia, and congestive heart failure amongst the ageing population.Though the batteries have gained popularity and demand over the past few years, the growing number of product recalls have resulted in decline of sales of these devices. Failure of device batteries have been the predominant reason for recalls in recent past. The market is also likely to suffer due to the changes in purchasing patterns. These are attributable to the declining reimbursements, lower patient volumes, and a significant drop in capital expenditure since the economic recession of 2008.Enquiry for Discount on this Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Sardesai had recently appealed to farmers to chant Vedic mantra in their fields and adopt 'cosmic farming' techniques to increase the yield. The minister was responding to the Demands for Grants for Agriculture department in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI) Panaji: Goa Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai is in favour of holding beauty contests in paddy fields if that serves the purpose of attracting the youth to farming. The minister was responding to the Demands for Grants for Agriculture department in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. He said all attempts should be made to make agriculture an attractive profession. "Today agriculture does not appeal the young generation. They feel that it is a profession of the old people. The need of the hour is to incentivise agriculture," he said. Stressing his point, the minister said, "If you want, you can even host beauty contests in paddy fields. Let the youth come. You can do that. Do everything possible to get the young generation to the fields". Sardesai had recently appealed to the farmers to chant a Vedic mantra in their fields and adopt "cosmic farming" techniques to increase the yield. He said one should adopt traditional methods of farming. "This is required for the food safety," he said. Underlining the importance of community farming, Sardesai said, "The Goa government will remain the guarantor of land to ensure that no one will grab the land in question once it is brought under the contract farming scheme," he said. Responding to Cut Motions moved by the Opposition during Demands for Grants for the Town and Country Planning department, the minister took a veiled dig at AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) workers. "Some people just want to sensationalise the issues, but don't come up with the proof when given an opportunity," he said referring to various allegations levelled by the AAP against state ministers while holding protests on various issues. "The Chief Town Planner had written a letter to them, but they didn't turn up," the Town and Country Planning minister said. He was referring to the allegations of illegal conversion of land levelled against him by an NGO a couple of months back. "These people had appeared during elections wearing topis (caps). They flopped and now they are back as activists. When they are asked to prove their allegations, they disappear. This is anarchy. The leader of these people is an anarchist, so what can you expect?" he questioned. The AAP had drawn a blank in the Goa Assembly polls held last year. Turning at the Congress MLAs, the minister said, "they are pointing fingers at us today but tomorrow they will do it to you". The Congress had extended support to the NGO which had held a protest against the government. The minister said Goa needs planned development and to achieve that goal things need to be put in place. Ophthalmic Lasers Market to Expand at a 4.60% of CAGR from 2016 to 2024 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ophthalmic-lasers-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=20864 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=20864 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global ophthalmic lasers market is fragmented in nature, with top five vendors accounting for a modest 35.0% share in it in 2015. The market is characterized by moderate competition. However, in the foreseeable future, competition in the market is likely to heat up on the back of pharmaceutical companies entering it sensing an opportunity in the rising demand for effective surgical products because of the increasing number of ophthalmic conditions. This is also likely to lead to new product launches.Some of the key players in the global market for ophthalmic lasers are Alcon, Ellex Medical Laser Ltd., Quantel Group, Lumenis Ltd., and Carl Zeiss.Obtain Report Details @A research study by Transparency Market Research predicts the global market for ophthalmic lasers to grow at a steady 4.60% CAGR during the period between 2016 and 2024. Rising at this pace, the market which was worth US$0.97 bn in 2015, will likely pull in value of US$1.44 bn by 2024-end.Depending upon end users, the market for ophthalmic lasers can be classified into ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), ophthalmic clinics, and hospitals. At present, ophthalmic clinics are generating maximum demand in the market and in the years ahead too would continue doing so.Geography-wise, the main segments of the global market for ophthalmic lasers are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. North America, among them, contributes the most to the revenue and going forward will retain its dominant contribution. In 2016, its share in the revenue was a substantial 40.0%. The market in the region is being majorly fuelled by the presence of numerous prominent ophthalmic laser companies, superior healthcare infrastructure, and supportive policies related to medical devices industry.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Rising Eye Disorders Worldwide Drives Demand in MarketOne of the primary growth drivers, resulting in swift uptake of niche medical devices such as ophthalmic lasers, is the increasing instances of eye disorders worldwide. Various studies reveal that the occurrence of partial and complete blindness has substantially risen in the past couple of years and could rise twice as much by 2020. Increasing cases of diabetes, cataract, and glaucoma is expected to result in alarming rise in eyesight problems or loss in the next couple of years. However, the increasing knowledge that timely diagnosis and effective medical intervention in the form of laser surgeries could avoid these conditions is a key factor augmenting the global demand for ophthalmic lasers. Rising awareness among global population regarding the effectiveness of available treatment methods could also boost adoption of ophthalmic lasers globally.Underserved Developing Nations, With Bettering Healthcare Facilities, Hold Massive OpportunitiesYet another factor fuelling demand in the market for ophthalmic lasers is the growing pool of elderly who are at a much higher risk of ophthalmic disorders and vision defects. A noticeable trend in the market is players trying to tap into the relatively underserved markets of Latin America and Asia Pacific with vast population of elderly and an improving healthcare infrastructure.Enquiry for Discount on this Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Genomics Biomarkers Market 2018 Key Players: Roche Diagnostics, Myriad Genetics, QIAGEN, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bio-Rad Laboratories,. Genomics Biomarkers Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3308158-global-genomics-biomarkers-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3308158-global-genomics-biomarkers-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025 Genomics Biomarkers Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Genomics Biomarkers Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025 reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies the global Genomics Biomarkers market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Genomics Biomarkers market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.A measurable DNA and/or RNA characteristic is an indicator of normal biologic processes, pathogenic processes, and/or response to a therapeutic or other interventions. A genomic biomarker can be used for measuring the expression, function, and regulation of a gene. These biomarkers have characteristics of one or more deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and/or ribonucleic acid (RNA).The increasing instances of low-cost clinical trials in developing countries will drive the growth prospects for the global genomics biomarkers market until the end of 2021. This globalization of clinical trials has been credited to numerous components that include organized trials, the willingness of members facilitating the enrollment, accessibility of qualified local investigators, enhanced opportunities in various Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries, and lower expenses of clinical trials in developing nations. Some of the other factors responsible for the increasing preference for disease-based genomic biomarkers such as cancer biomarkers testing includes the faster and precise analysis of diseases and potential lowering in volume and time involved in clinical trials.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredRoche DiagnosticsMyriad GeneticsQIAGENThermo Fisher ScientificBio-Rad Laboratories...Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoOncologyCardiovascular DiseasesNeurological DiseasesMarket segment by Application, split intoDiagnostic and Research LaboratoriesHospitalsRequest Sample Report @The study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Genomics Biomarkers in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Genomics Biomarkers are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersGenomics Biomarkers ManufacturersGenomics Biomarkers Distributors/Traders/WholesalersGenomics Biomarkers Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, We offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Genomics Biomarkers market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Table of ContentsGlobal Genomics Biomarkers Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Genomics Biomarkers2 Global Genomics Biomarkers Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Genomics Biomarkers Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook6 Europe Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook7 China Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook8 Japan Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook9 Southeast Asia Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook10 India Genomics Biomarkers Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Genomics Biomarkers Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042 Myasthenia Gravis Market is Exploding in Developing Nations | 3 Companies to bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Novartis Pharmaceuticals & GlaxoSmithKline https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5843 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5843 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/5843 Global Myasthenia Gravis Market OverviewMyasthenia gravis is a neuromuscular disorder that leads to the weakening of skeletal muscles, which are responsible for the movement of the body. This condition occurs due to the impairment of communication between muscles and nerve cells. This impairment causes difficulties in the contraction and relaxation of muscles which are crucial for carrying out daily activities, resulting in muscle weakness. It mostly affects the muscles that control the eyes and eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, and speaking. As per a study conducted by the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, myasthenia gravis is the most common type of neuromuscular disorder. It is a rare condition with a prevalence of 14 to 20 cases per 100,000 people in the United States.Numerous organizations are undertaking global initiatives and spreading awareness about this disease. Some of these are as follows: Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc., American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and others.The prognosis of the patients of myasthenia gravis is usually good and the quality of treatment can subside the disease if treated at early stages.This condition can occur both in males and females and all ethnic groups. It usually affects women under 40 and the geriatric population from 50 to 70 years old. Younger patients are rarely diagnosed with the myasthenia gravis disease also known as thymus tumor (thymoma). According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) about 60,000 Americans suffer from neuromuscular disorders each year in the U.S.Factors such as increasing cases of neuromuscular disorders, growing awareness regarding the treatment line, and increasing number of clinical facilities across the region are driving the market growth. However, the high cost of treatment and ignorance of signs and symptoms are constraining the growth of the market.The global market for the myasthenia gravis disease is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 7.5% during 2017 to 2023.Get Premium Sample Copy of Myasthenia Gravis Market: @Myasthenia Gravis Market: Key PlayersValeant Pharmaceuticals International (U.S.), Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (India), Piramal Healthcare (India), Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Switzerland), Apotex Corporation (Canada), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), RPG Life Sciences (India), Cipla (India), F. Hoffmann Roche La Ltd. (Switzerland), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (U.S.), Biogen Inc. (U.S.), and AbbVie Inc. (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK), Fresenius Kabi (Germany), and othersIntended Audience: Myasthenia gravis drug manufacturers Myasthenia gravis drug suppliers Biotechnology companies Government institutes Research and development companies Academic medical centers and universities Research and consulting firms Venture capital firmsGlobal Myasthenia Gravis Market Regional AnalysisThe global myasthenia gravis disease market consists of four regions, namely, the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa.The Americas accounted for the largest market share of the global myasthenia gravis disease market owing to the growing number of drug manufacturers, increasing awareness about the long-term effects of muscle dystrophy, and rising government funding for the treatment of this disease in the region. Moreover, the U.S. contributes to a significant market share in the global pharmaceutical industry.The European myasthenia gravis disease market is the second largest market followed by the Asia Pacific region.The Asia Pacific region is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market for the global myasthenia gravis disease market due to the growing awareness about neuromuscular disorders and vast improvement in health care reforms in countries such as Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and China.The Middle Eastern region is expected to grow at a steady pace owing to factors such as the extensive development of the healthcare infrastructure and rising R&D activities in the healthcare sector.Global Myasthenia Gravis Market: Segmentation:The global myasthenia gravis disease market has been segmented on the basis of diagnosis, treatment, and end-user.On the basis of diagnosis, the global myasthenia gravis disease market can be segmented into imaging, blood tests, electrodiagnostic, edrophonium tests, pulmonary function tests, and others. The imaging segment is classified into X-ray, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and others.On the basis of treatment, the global myasthenia gravis disease market can be segmented into medication, surgery, autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), plasmapheresis and intravenous immunoglobulin, and others.The medication segment is divided into acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, immunosuppressant drugs, steroids, and others. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are classified into atropine, neostigmine, pyridostigmine, and others. The immunosuppressant drugs are further divided into azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, tacrolimus, and rituximab. The steroids are further divided into prednisone, and others. Surgery is finally divided into thymectomy and others.On the basis of end-user, the global myasthenia gravis disease market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, academic research institutes, and others.Avail Premium Discount @TOC of Myasthenia Gravis Market Research Report Global Forecast to 20231. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Threats4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsTOC CONTINUEDAsk any Queries to Experts about Niche Segments, Requires Regional Data and Top Players @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Anti-Aging Market 2018 - Cynosure Inc., L'Oreal SA, Allergan Inc. Global Anti-Aging Market https://bit.ly/2LUqSBz https://bit.ly/2naRUXz www.apexmarketsresearch.com Apex Market Research, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Anti-Aging Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Anti-Aging Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Anti-Aging industry, and estimates the future trend of Anti-Aging market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Anti-Aging Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportPhotomedex Inc.Lumenis Ltd.Personal Microderm Coty Inc.Beiersdorf AGSolta Medical Inc.Alma Lasers Ltd.Cynosure Inc.L'Oreal SAAllergan Inc.The market research report explores the Anti-Aging market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Anti-Aging Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Anti-Aging market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Anti-Aging. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Anti-Aging market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Anti-Aging is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Anti-Aging market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Anti-Aging market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Anti-Aging market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Anti-Aging production volume, data pertaining to demand and Anti-Aging supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Anti-Aging along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Anti-Aging across the world.About Us:Apex Market Research offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Research provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market. We are committed to ensuring that fair dealing is vital to each and everything. We are providing relevant and comprehensible information that will help to our client makes informed financial decision. Our research team also has deeply knowledge of the different syndicated and publishers reports by which we can provide customize report as per customer requirement.Contact UsFrank ValadezS no. 72/1/A/6, Floor No. 1,Harikrishna Building, Samarth Nagar,New Sanghvi, Pune-411027 India.Phone: + 8149441100Email id - sales@apexmarketsresearch.comWebsite - Anemia Drugs Market Worldwide Overview 2018 to 2022 | Healthy Evolving Growth Rate with Leading Players Like GlaxoSmithKline, Regen biopharma, Bayer, Acceleron Pharma and More Anemia Drugs Market https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2499 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/anemia-drugs-market-2499 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2499 Market Research Future Present the Premium Report Global Anemia Drugs Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022 Provide detail analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global anemia drugs marketGlobal Anemia Drugs Market - Market ScenarioAnemia is a set of conditions characterized by weakness, shortness of breath and a general tiredness due to a decrease in the total amount of red blood cells (RBCs) or hemoglobin in the blood. The lowered hemoglobin results in a lowered ability of the blood to carry oxygen.Premium Sample Report Available @The market constraints are poor absorption of drugs especially intravenous iron and the side effects associated with the treatment. Better nutrition due to rising per capita income is also a market limiting factor for anemic drugs.The global market for Anemia Drugs is expected to be around US$21.4 billion and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% to reach US$34.7 billion by the end of forecast period.Global Anemia Drugs Market - SegmentsGlobal anemia drugs market has been segmented on the basis of anemia type which comprises iron deficiency anemia, sickle cell anemia, aplastic anemia, hemolytic anemia pernicious anemia and others. On the basis of route of administration; market is segmented into oral and injectable. On the basis of gender; market is segmented into male and female. On the basis of product type; market is segmented into biologics and non-biologics. On the basis of end users; market is segmented into hospitals, self-administered and others.Global Anemia Drugs Market - Key PlayersSome of the key players in this market are: Amgen Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Bluebird bio, Biocon, GlycoMimetics Inc., Regen biopharma Inc., Bayer AG, Acceleron Pharma, Eli Lilly and company and others.Global Anemia Drugs Market - Competitive AnalysisIn April-2017, Amgen Inc. expanded their commercial collaboration with Novartis for erenumab, which is being investigated for the prevention of migraine. This expanded commercial collaboration was built on a global neuroscience collaboration in Alzheimer's disease and migraine established in 2015 between Novartis and Amgen. This expanded collaboration leveraged Novartis' strong and established presence in neuroscience to more effectively reach people with migraine.Browse Complete Report @In December-2015, GlaxoSmithKline plc. announced that its global HIV business, ViiV Healthcare, has reached two separate agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb, to acquire its late-stage HIV R&D assets; and to acquire Bristol-Myers Squibbs portfolio of preclinical and discovery stage HIV research assets.In October-2016, Elanco U.S., Inc., a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company acquired Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.'s (BIVI) U.S. feline, canine and rabies vaccines portfolio - as well as a fully integrated manufacturing and R&D site - for USD 885 million, including the estimated cost of acquired inventory.Global Anemia Drugs Market - Regional AnalysisOn the regional backgrounds the Americas leads the global market for anemia drugs owing to huge patient population, increasing healthcare expenditures and presence of the developed economies like U.S. and Canada within the region. Following, the same trends Europe is second in the market. The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region due to the developing economies like India and China. Middle East and Africa have the least market share, especially due to the presence of poor economies within the African region. Moreover, stringent government policies within the region are restraining the market growth within the region. On the hand, Middle East leads the regional market due to the presence of developed economies like Kuwait, Qatar, and others within the region and rising healthcare expenses.Table Of Contents1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope Of Study1.3 Research Objective1.4 Assumptions & Limitations1.5 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Challenges3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters Five Forces Model4.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers4.1.2 Bargaining Power Of CustomerMajor TOC Continued!Get Exclusive Discount @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com New Market Research Report of Global Military Power Solutions Market 2018 : Concorde Battery, Energy Technologies, Sfc Energy, Saft Groupe, Raytheon, Arotech https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1865989 https://www.researchmoz.us/global-military-power-solutions-market-research-report-2018-report.html/toc https://www.researchmoz.us/global-military-power-solutions-market-research-report-2018-report.html http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG https://marketreserch1.blogspot.com Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Military Power Solutions Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Military Power Solutions market status and forecast, categorizes the global Military Power Solutions market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, and other regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).Increasing defense electronics budget is expected to be one of the key factors expected to drive the market.North America is expected to be the largest market for military power solutions, owing to the high defense spending by the U.S.The global Military Power Solutions market is valued at xx million US$ in 2017 and will reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportRaytheonSaft GroupeEnersysArotechSfc EnergyEaglepicher TechnologiesDenchi PowerAdvanced Conversion TechnologyConcorde BatteryEnergy TechnologiesTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaWe can also provide the customized separate regional or country-level reports, for the following regions:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPortableNon-PortableOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingAirLandNavalView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Military Power Solutions capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Military Power Solutions manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Military Power Solutions are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersMilitary Power Solutions ManufacturersMilitary Power Solutions Distributors/Traders/WholesalersMilitary Power Solutions Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsBrowse Report @Available CustomizationsWith the given market data, QYResearch offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Military Power Solutions market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Table of ContentsGlobal Military Power Solutions Market Research Report 20181 Military Power Solutions Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Military Power Solutions1.2 Military Power Solutions Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Military Power Solutions Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Military Power Solutions Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Portable1.2.4 Non-Portable1.3 Global Military Power Solutions Segment by Application1.3.1 Military Power Solutions Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Air1.3.3 Land2 Global Military Power Solutions Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Military Power Solutions Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Military Power Solutions Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Military Power Solutions Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Military Power Solutions Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Military Power Solutions Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Military Power Solutions Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Military Power Solutions Market Competitive Situation and Trends3 Global Military Power Solutions Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Military Power Solutions Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Military Power Solutions Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Military Power Solutions Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Military Power Solutions Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on Blogger at: Prefinished Panels Global Market 2018: Key Players James Hardie, Timber Products, BIG River Group, Cemintel, Roseburg Prefinished Panels Industry Description Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Prefinished Panels -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2023 To Its Research Database The global Prefinished Panels market will reach xxx Million USD in 2017 and CAGR xx% 2011-2017. The report begins from overview of Industry Chain structure, and describes industry environment, then analyses market size and forecast of Prefinished Panels by product, region and application, in addition, this report introduces market competition situation among the vendors and company profile, besides, market price analysis and value chain features are covered in this report. Company Coverage (Sales Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Main Products etc.): James Hardie Timber Products BIG River Group Cemintel Roseburg VitraGroup KD Panels Bandec States Industries Citadel Architectural Products Columbia Forest Products Request for Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3032567-global-prefinished-panels-market-analysis-2012-2017-and-forecast-2018-2023 Product Type Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Major Company of Product Type etc.): Hardwood Plywood Softwood Others Application Coverage (Market Size & Forecast, Different Demand Market by Region, Main Consumer Profile etc.): Walls Decorative Materials Roofs Floors Others Region Coverage (Regional Output, Demand & Forecast by Countries etc.): North America Europe Asia-Pacific South America Middle East & Africa Leave a Query @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3032567-global-prefinished-panels-market-analysis-2012-2017-and-forecast-2018-2023 Table of Content 1 Industry Overview 1.1 Prefinished Panels Industry 1.1.1 Overview 1.1.2 Development of Prefinished Panels 1.2 Market Segment 1.2.1 Upstream 1.2.2 Downstream 1.3 Cost Analysis 2 Industry Environment 2.1 Policy 2.2 Economics 2.3 Sociology 2.4 Technology 3 Prefinished Panels Market by Type 3.1 By Type 3.1.1 Hardwood Plywood 3.1.2 Softwood 3.1.3 Others 3.2 Market Size 3.3 Market Forecast 4 Major Companies List 4.1 James Hardie (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.2 Timber Products (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.3 BIG River Group (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.4 Cemintel (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.5 Roseburg (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.6 VitraGroup (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.7 KD Panels Bandec (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.8 States Industries (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.9 Citadel Architectural Products (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 4.10 Columbia Forest Products (Company Profile, Sales Data etc.) 5 Market Competition 5.1 Company Competition 5.2 Regional Market by Company 6 Market Demand 6.1 Demand Situation 6.1.1 Demand in Walls 6.1.2 Demand in Decorative Materials 6.1.3 Demand in Roofs 6.1.4 Demand in Floors 6.1.5 Demand in Others 6.2 Regional Demand Comparison 6.3 Demand Forecast 7 Region Operation 7.1 Regional Output 7.2 Regional Market 7.3 by Region 7.3.1 North America 7.3.1.1 Overview 7.3.1.2 by Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico) 7.3.2 Europe 7.3.2.1 Overview 7.3.2.2 by Country (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Russia, Spain etc.) 7.3.3 Asia-Pacific 7.3.3.1 Overview 7.3.3.2 by Country (China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia etc.) 7.3.4 South America 7.3.4.1 Overview 7.3.4.2 by Country (Brazil, Argentina etc.) 7.3.5 Middle East & Africa 7.3.5.1 Overview 7.3.5.2 by Country (Saudi Arabia, South Africa etc.) 7.4 Regional Forecast 8 Marketing & Price 8.1 Price and Margin 8.1.1 Price Trends 8.1.2 Factors of Price Change 8.1.3 Manufacturers Gross Margin Analysis 8.2 Value Chain 8.3 Marketing Channel 9 Research Conclusion Buy Now @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=3032567 Continued... Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk) About Us: Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories. Addres: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd Pune 411028 Maharashtra, Global Ph: +91 841 198 5042 https://www.wiseguyreports.com This release was published on openPR. Permanent link to this press release: Copy Please set a link in the press area of your homepage to this press release on openPR. openPR disclaims liability for any content contained in this release. Bare Metal Cloud Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Centurylink Incorporation, Rackspace Hosting, Incorporation, Packet Bare Metal Cloud Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3317312-bare-metal-cloud-global-market-status-and-trend-report-2013-2023 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3317312-bare-metal-cloud-global-market-status-and-trend-report-2013-2023 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Bare Metal Cloud Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Centurylink Incorporation, Rackspace Hosting, Incorporation, Packet.Bare Metal Cloud-Global Market Status and Trend Report 2013-2023 offers a comprehensive analysis on Bare Metal Cloud industry, standing on the readers perspective, delivering detailed market data and penetrating insights. No matter the client is industry insider, potential entrant or investor, the report will provides useful data and information.Key questions answered by this report include:Worldwide and Regional Market Size of Bare Metal Cloud 2013-2017, and development forecast 2018-2023Main manufacturers/suppliers of Bare Metal Cloud worldwide, with company and product introduction, position in the Bare Metal Cloud marketMarket status and development trend of Bare Metal Cloud by types and applicationsCost and profit status of Bare Metal Cloud, and marketing statusMarket growth drivers and challengesGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe report segments the global Bare Metal Cloud market as:Global Bare Metal Cloud Market: Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Production Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023):North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanRest APACLatin AmericaGlobal Bare Metal Cloud Market: Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023):Networking ServicesDatabase ServicesIdentity and Access Management ServicesVolume and Object Storage ServicesProfessional ServicesManaged ServicesGlobal Bare Metal Cloud Market: Application Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis)Banking, Financial Services, and InsuranceGovernmentHealthcareRetailManufacturingIT and TelecomOthersGlobal Bare Metal Cloud Market: Manufacturers Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Bare Metal Cloud Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin):IBM CorporationOracle CorporationCenturylink IncorporationRackspace Hosting, IncorporationInternap CorporationPacketAsk Query @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsChapter 1 Overview of Bare Metal Cloud1.1 Definition of Bare Metal Cloud in This Report1.2 Commercial Types of Bare Metal Cloud1.2.1 Networking Services1.2.2 Database Services1.2.3 Identity and Access Management Services1.2.4 Volume and Object Storage Services1.2.5 Professional Services1.2.6 Managed Services1.3 Downstream Application of Bare Metal Cloud1.3.1 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance1.3.2 Government1.3.3 Healthcare1.3.4 Retail1.3.5 Manufacturing1.3.6 IT and Telecom1.3.7 Others1.4 Development History of Bare Metal Cloud1.5 Market Status and Trend of Bare Metal Cloud 2013-20231.5.1 Global Bare Metal Cloud Market Status and Trend 2013-20231.5.2 Regional Bare Metal Cloud Market Status and Trend 2013-2023Chapter 2 Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions2.1 Market Development of Bare Metal Cloud 2013-20172.2 Production Market of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions2.2.1 Production Volume of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions2.2.2 Production Value of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions2.3 Demand Market of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions2.4 Production and Demand Status of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions2.4.1 Production and Demand Status of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions 2013-20172.4.2 Import and Export Status of Bare Metal Cloud by Regions 2013-2017Chapter 3 Global Market Status and Forecast by Types3.1 Production Volume of Bare Metal Cloud by Types3.2 Production Value of Bare Metal Cloud by Types3.3 Market Forecast of Bare Metal Cloud by TypesChapter 4 Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry4.1 Demand Volume of Bare Metal Cloud by Downstream Industry4.2 Market Forecast of Bare Metal Cloud by Downstream IndustryChapter 5 Market Driving Factor Analysis of Bare Metal Cloud5.1 Global Economy Situation and Trend Overview5.2 Bare Metal Cloud Downstream Industry Situation and Trend OverviewChapter 6 Bare Metal Cloud Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers6.1 Production Volume of Bare Metal Cloud by Major Manufacturers6.2 Production Value of Bare Metal Cloud by Major Manufacturers6.3 Basic Information of Bare Metal Cloud by Major Manufacturers6.3.1 Headquarters Location and Established Time of Bare Metal Cloud Major Manufacturer6.3.2 Employees and Revenue Level of Bare Metal Cloud Major Manufacturer6.4 Market Competition News and Trend6.4.1 Merger, Consolidation or Acquisition News6.4.2 Investment or Disinvestment News6.4.3 New Product Development and LaunchChapter 7 Bare Metal Cloud Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data7.1 IBM Corporation7.1.1 Company profile7.1.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.1.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of IBM Corporation7.2 Oracle Corporation7.2.1 Company profile7.2.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.2.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Oracle Corporation7.3 Centurylink Incorporation7.3.1 Company profile7.3.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.3.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Centurylink Incorporation7.4 Rackspace Hosting, Incorporation7.4.1 Company profile7.4.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.4.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Rackspace Hosting, Incorporation7.5 Internap Corporation7.5.1 Company profile7.5.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.5.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of Internap Corporation7.6 Packet7.6.1 Company profile7.6.2 Representative Bare Metal Cloud Product7.6.3 Bare Metal Cloud Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin of PacketContinuedFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Baby Diapers Market to register high revenue growth at 5.9% CAGR during 2017 to 2026 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=676 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=676 https://www.factmr.com/ A recently compiled Fact.MR report foresees the global baby diapers market to record a stable 5.3% volume CAGR over the period of forecast, 2017 to 2026. Revenues from worldwide sales of baby diapers are estimated to exceed US$ 86,000 Mn by 2026-end. In terms of both value and volume, North America is envisaged to remain the largest market for baby diapers, with demand driven by a plethora of factors including robust working population and high literacy rate.Pre-fold diapers have substituted use of pin by Snappies, thereby offering higher convenience to users. Biodegradable diapers are witnessed increased penetration in the region, as they are produced by using natural, eco-friendly, and baby skin-friendly materials. Environmental challenges and relevant government regulations have further supported the use of eco-friendly products in North America, thereby influencing demand and sales of biodegradable baby diapers significantly.Smart Baby Diapers Development to Influence Demand & Drive SalesThe baby diapers market has perceived a spate of novel product launches over the past couple of years, such as baby diapers featuring wearable sensor technology. Such technologies have enabled caretakers to identify the need to change diaper of a baby beforehand, thereby preventing skin issues, and saving time & spending on clinics. Development of smart diapers is another major trend that is addressing issues related timing of changing diapers of babies.Request Report Sample @Jahangir Ahmed, B-Tech student at the University of Kashmir, has developed a smart diaper, tentatively called Baby Pee Sensor, which comprises four layers inner fabric, absorbent material, cover layer, and outer layer that is embedded with devices and sensors. This diaper offers the convenience of washing by detaching the outer layer, and reusing, and is expected to be cost-effective. Such products, with proper marketing and advertisements, have high future market penetration potential, particular in developed and developing nations.Overcapacity in Developed Markets to Intensify Competition Between PlayersBusiness of baby diaper is rather capital intensive with long investment and payback cycle. Volume sales of baby diapers in developed markets are expected to decline on account of declining fertility rate. This declined fertility rate can be highly attributed to myriad commercially available birth control options coinciding with major societal shifts. Emancipation of women along with their increased participation in occupational fields, in combination with mounting costs of education and childcare, are further affecting birth rates in developed economies.With low volumes of baby diaper sales, their unit cost is gaining an uptick, thereby leading to deteriorating margin, and marginal cost pricing by manufacturers. These instances point at a rise in price war among players in the baby diaper market until challenges appertaining to overcapacity is addressed.Request Report Methodology @Key Takeaways from Fact.MRs Report on Baby Diapers MarketDisposable underwear will continue to be the dominant product type in the market, in terms of value. Demand for disposable underwear is primarily driven by their convenience and ease of use.Based on diaper style, pull on baby diapers are estimated to account for the bulk revenue shares of the market during the forecast period. Pull on baby diapers are also expected to record the fastest volume sales through 2026.Sales of baby diapers will remain the highest for use in babies with less than 12 lbs weight. Babies with a weight of less than 12 lbs will account for approximately one-third market revenue share by 2026-end.Modern trade channel are anticipated to remain dominant distribution channels for baby diapers, and are estimated to latch onto nearly two-fifth market revenue share by 2026-end.Fujian Shuangheng Group Co., Ltd., Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA, Johnson & Johnson Private Ltd., and several other prominent market participants have been profiled and analyzed in detail in this report.About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Fact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb: Hybrid Inverters Market Size, Demand, Shares, Insights and Forecasts 2018-2028 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1073 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1073 www.factmr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/factmr/ Stringent governmental regulations and the go green factor are increasing the adoption of hybrid inverters. Hybrid inverters are multi-functional inverters that incorporate the function of the inverter, solar charger and battery charger to provide power supply. The compact size of the hybrid inverters with uninterruptible power supply is one of the major reasons of the increasing inclination towards hybrid inverters. Vendors offer hybrid inverters with user-friendly features such as LCD display, easy configuration, easily accessible operation buttons such as AC and solar charger, battery charging current and acceptable input voltage based on applications.The major features of hybrid inverters are generating pure sine waves, installed MPPT charging control, configurable input voltage range for different applications at home and offices, LCD interface configurable battery charging current, configurable AC and solar charging, highly compatible to main voltage and power, protection against short circuit, overload and over temperature, smart battery charger for optimized battery performance and to save energythe hybrid inverters come in power saving mode.The growing adoption of solar inverters is creating a huge demand for hybrid inverters. Hybrid inverters are the mix of grid-tied inverters and off-grid inverters. Generally, hybrid inverters are independent of the grid, but they synchronize with the grid in case of consumption of low solar energy. Hybrid inverters have huge adoption in rural areas due to the less availability of power supply. Hybrid inverter is a cost-effective and seamless solution compared to the other inverters. Most of the hybrid inverters can be installed without a battery. It provides an option to install battery in later circumstances. Several developments in hybrid inverters with reference to technology is the major factor expected to drive the growth of the global hybrid inverter market during the forecast period.Hybrid Inverters Market: Drivers and ChallengesThe governmental initiatives to increase the adoption of hybrid inverters are expected to drive the growth of the global hybrid inverters market during the forecast period. The investment tax credit (ITC) or federal solar tax credit enables to deduct 30% of the cost of installation of solar energy system from federal taxes. This applies to both commercial and residential system. Similarly, Germany in 2011 initiated the Renewable Energy Sources Act to encourage the citizens to use renewable energy generation utilities. All these factors are expected to have a significant impact on the growth for global hybrid inverters market.The technical factors restraining the growth of the global hybrid inverters market are less design flexibility when compared to other battery and PV inverters, less efficiency than the solar inverters. However, manufacturers are focusing on the improvement of the performance of hybrid inverters and are expected to overcome these challenges during the forecast period.Get Brochure of The Report @Hybrid Inverters Market: SegmentationSegmentation Based on the Type of Application:The hybrid inverter market is segmented based on the type of application i.e. commercial sector, residential sector, government sector and others.Hybrid Inverter Market: Recent DevelopmentsIn July 2018, Schneider Electric, a leading player in energy management and automation successfully patented the new smart charge technology, i.e., Conext SW inverter. It initiates automatic battery charging and monitors excess power flow.Key PlayersExamples of some of the key players in the hybrid inverters market are Schneider Electric, Advanced Energy, ABB, Growatt New Energy Technology, Delta Energy Systems, Redback Technologies, TABUCHI ELECTRIC, SOLAX POWER, Lavancha Renewable Energy, and SolarEdge Technologies, among others.Regional OverviewThe hybrid inverters market is segmented into regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, CIS & Russia, Japan, APEJ and Middle East & Africa. The APEJ market is expected to hold a large share in the global market. The high adoption of solar technologies and initiatives from governments drive the demand for hybrid inverters in the region.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Hybrid Inverters Market SegmentsMarket DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2013 - 2017Market Size & Forecast 2018 to 2028Value ChainMarket Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedMarket Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for hybrid inverters market includes development in the following regions:North America Hybrid Inverters MarketU.S.CanadaLatin America Hybrid Inverters MarketBrazilMexicoArgentinaChilePeruRest of LAEurope Hybrid Inverters MarketEU 4 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain)U.K.BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg)NORDIC (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden)Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Rep., etc.)Rest of EuropeCIS & Russia Hybrid Inverters MarketJapan Hybrid Inverters MarketAPEJ Hybrid Inverters MarketGreater ChinaIndiaKoreaASEAN CountriesRest of APEJMiddle East & Africa Hybrid Inverters MarketGCC CountriesTurkeyIranIsraelSouth AfricaRest of MEAThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Report TOC@Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow Us on Linkedin: India has joined select club of countries to have capability to produce aircraft which can operate from an aircraft carrier. An official said a series of further tests to check landing and refuelling of the aircraft will be carried out in the next few months. (Photo: File) Bengaluru/New Delhi: The naval version of the indigenously built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft on Thursday underwent a series of successful tests to check its capability to land on an aircraft carrier, officials said. "India has joined a select club of countries including US, Europe, Russia and China to have the capability to produce aircraft which can operate from an aircraft carrier," an official said. He said a series of tests including "taxi-ins" of the jet was carried out on a naval platform in Goa, in a significant milestone for the development of the naval version of the jet. The official said a series of further tests to check landing and refuelling of the aircraft will be carried out in the next few months. Tejas is a four-and-half generation light combat aircraft developed by state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). Initially, the Indian Air Force placed an order with the HAL for 40 Tejas aircraft. In December last year, the IAF began the process to procure another batch of 83 Tejas aircraft at a cost of over Rs 50,000 crore. About Thursday's tests, the offical said the LCA naval prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Capt Shivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of the "arrestor hook system" at moderate taxi-in speeds at a shore based test facility in Goa. "This is the first of a series of engagement planned at proving the arrestor hook capability," said Chief Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd T Suvarna Raju. The exercise was monitored closely by the Landing Signal Officer commodore J A Maolankar and Test director Group Capt A Kabadwal (Retd), the Bengaluru-based HAL said in a release. HAL said its design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre, has designed and developed the arrestor hooksystem for ship deck operations of LCA's Naval version. The aircraft had been operating at INS Hansa Goa since July 28 after verification of the in-air operation of the system here earlier this month, the release said. Teams of HAL, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), Regional Director Aeronautical Quality Assurance (RDAQA), Navy and National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) have worked synergistically to achieve this "flawless result", the release added. Another official said detailed carrier compatibility trials (CCT) of naval aircraft are slated to be carried out at shore based test facility soon. A/V Senders Market Growing Trends,Analysis and Demand to 2018-2028 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1170 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1170 www.factmr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/factmr/ A/V Senders Market: OverviewWith infrared remote control operation and a wide range of video sender technologies, A/V senders have undergone significant changes, over the past few years. Furthermore, technological advancement and adoption of spread-spectrum technology in wireless A/V senders have encouraged consumers to operate television within the home without moving VCR or laser disc player and eliminate running inconvenient cables throughout the home. A/V senders system consist of a transmitter, receiver, and remote control relay. This A/V sender transmits audio & video signals wirelessly from one location to another and also offers an alternative to cable installations. This A/V sender is most widely used in the transmission of television audio and video signals from CCTV camera, and other source devices. A/V sender also increases the listening quality of the stereo receiver connected to any speaker in the home. The A/V senders come in a wide range of video sender technologies such as analog wireless, digital wireless, and power-line communication. Also, the digital A/V senders are the most widely used video sender solution that uses the system on chip to transmit the signal such as spread-spectrum, Wi-Fi, and ultra-wideband. Due to the change in connectivity standards in the television and audio & video markets, there is a change in the A/V sender market. Moreover, A/V sender vendors are currently advancing their offerings by integrating spread spectrum technologies in A/V senders and offers a wide range of A/V senders in order to compete in the A/V senders market.A/V Senders Market: DynamicsThe low manufacturing cost of analog A/V senders as the audio & video signals are modulated on 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz range, and a clear line of sight from the transmitter are the primary factors expected to increase the growth of A/V senders market. Also, these A/V senders features include effective power source adapter that offers a wide range of transmission to the source device.However, the high cost of A/V senders and change in wireless connectivity standards can hamper the growth of the A/V senders market.Get Brochure of The Report @Global A/V Senders Market: SegmentationSegmentation OverviewThe A/V senders market can be segmented on the basis of component, type, application, and regions. On the basis of component, the A/V senders market can be segmented into transmitter, receiver, and remote control relay. On the basis of type, the A/V senders market can be segmented as digital A/V sender, analog A/V sender, and wireless A/V sender. On the basis of application, the A/V senders market can be segmented into satellite & cable receivers, camcorders/CCTV camera, stereo systems, televisions, and laser disc players & VCRs.By ComponentTransmitterReceiverRemote Control RelayBy TypeDigital A/V SenderAnalog A/V SenderWireless A/V SenderBy ApplicationSatellite And Cable ReceiversCamcorders/CCTV CameraStereo SystemsTelevisionsLaser Disc Players & VCRsGlobal A/V Senders Market: Competition LandscapeExamples of some of the key players in the global A/V senders market are Ambery, Crest, DivineXt, Tewtross, SainSonic, Tradico, SLB Works, Galexbit, Artek, Measy, Signstek, Gemgoo, Rishil World, SODIAL, iKKEGOL, Souq, etc.A/V Senders Market: Regional OutlookThe A/V senders market is dominated by the Asia Pacific followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific is dominating the market due to the wide presence of key A/V sender providers in China. On the other hand, North America, Europe, and Japan are expected to grow significantly as compared to the other regions in the A/V senders market in the upcoming years. A primary growth factor is the introduction of spread spectrum technologies in A/V senders by the players operating in the A/V senders market. Latin America and MEA are expected to see a moderate growth rate in the A/V senders market.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Global A/V Senders Market SegmentsGlobal A/V Senders Market DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2013-2017Global A/V Senders Market Size & Forecast 2017 to 2028Supply & Demand Value Chain for A/V Senders MarketGlobal A/V Senders Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involved in A/V Senders MarketA/V Senders TechnologyValue Chain of A/V SendersGlobal A/V Senders Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis of Global A/V Senders Market includesNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoArgentinaChilePeruRest of Latin AmericaEuropeEU 4 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain)UKBENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg)NORDIC (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden)Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic etc.)Rest of EuropeCIS & RussiaJapanAPEJGreater ChinaIndiaKoreaASEAN CountriesRest of APEJMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyIranIsraelSouth AfricaRest of MEAThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Report TOC@Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow Us on Linkedin: Remote Control Holder Market Highlights of Business Opportunities 2018-2028 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1179 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1179 www.factmr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/factmr/ Remote Control Holder Market: IntroductionIt was back in 1950 that the first ever remote for controlling a television was introduced. Technological advancements further led to the introduction of wireless remote controllers. With further technological progressions and introduction of various other consumer electronic devices, an increase in the adoption of multiple types of remote controllers was witnessed. Of late, a demand for holding these remotes and eliminating issues, such as misplacement of remotes, has been witnessed, which has led to the invention of remote control holders.Basic electronic devices controlled using a wireless remote include televisions, DVD/CD players, air conditioners, stereo/audio players, etc. Hence, the increasing adoption of these devices is resulting in increasing demand for remote control holders.The Remote Control Holder market has witnessed significant traction in the past four years and, is furthermore, expected to witness a considerable growth rate during the forecast period.Remote Control Holder Market: Market DynamicsThe primary application of a remote control holder lies across the residential sector owing to the demand for storing/holding remotes to avoid issues, such as misplacement of various types of remotes, time delays in finding remotes, etc. This demand is being further complimented by increasing installation of consumer electronic devices, such as televisions, DVD players, stereo players, air conditioners etc. Thus, growing economies of developing countries in conjunction with the increasing adoption of consumer electronic devices controlled via a remote is contributing significantly to the growth of remote control holders market, especially in terms of revenue. In addition to this, increasing adoption of and demand for wireless technologies, especially in developing countries lacking in terms of penetration of advanced technologies, will act as a major driver for both remote controlled electronic devices market and remote control holders market.Transition towards smart cities and increasing accessibility offered by smartphones (for controlling smart devices remotely) is the recent trend being witnessed in the market.However, introduction of smart devices has allowed users to access everything with a smartphone. Increasing adoption of smart devices and smart phones, thus, is posing a challenge to the adoption of remote controllers, which as a result, is restraining the global remote control holders market. In addition to this, introduction of remote controls that allow users to control multiple electronic devices has further reduced the need of for multiple remotes and thus, remote control holders. This factor is also expected to hamper the growth of the remote control holders market.Get Brochure of The Report @Remote Control Holder Market: SegmentationThe global remote control holder market can be segmented on the basis of material type, sales channel, end-user and region.Segmentation for Remote Control Holder market by material type:On the basis of material type, the remote control holder market can be segmented as:PlasticPolymer (PU coated for instance)Leather/velvet fabricWoodenMetalOthersMaximum adoption of plastic remote control holders was witnessed in 2017 owing to the economic cost associated with these remote control holders and high volume manufacturing of the same in the global remote control holder market.Segmentation for Remote Control Holder market by sales channel:On the basis of sales channel, the remote control holder market can be segmented as:Online/e-CommerceRetailersThe latter segment held a larger share in the market in 2017. However, owing to the increasing penetration of internet, the e-Commerce/online sales channel segment is expected to witness higher growth rate during the forecast period.Segmentation for Remote Control Holder market by end-user:On the basis of end-user, the remote control holder market can be segmented as:CommercialIndustrialResidentialIn terms of value, in 2017, residential segment held the majority of remote control holder market share. The same segment is also expected to dominate the market throughout the forecast period.Remote Control Holder Market: Key PlayersVendors offering remote control holders are basically regional players present in the unorganized market. Some of the vendors present in the remote control holder market are Vmore, Teniux, Meliconi Italia, Winomo and others.Remote Control Holder Market: Regional OverviewBy geography, the Remote Control Holder market can be segmented across North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Japan, SEA and others in Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Among these regions, Asia Pacific (including China and Japan) is expected to dominate the global remote control holder market during the forecast period owing to high adoption of remote controlled consumer electronic devices (due to high population density of the region) in the region. North America and Europe are expected to follow Asia Pacific (including China and Japan) in the global remote control holder market. China is, however, expected to exhibit highest growth rate during the forecast period owing to the presence of various remote control holder providers in the unorganized market. Latin America and MEA are also expected to witness significantly high growth rates during the forecast period.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Global Remote Control Holder market segmentsGlobal Remote Control Holder market dynamicsHistorical actual market size, 2012 - 2016Global Remote Control Holder market size & forecast 2017 to 2027Supply & demand value chain for Remote Control Holder marketGlobal Remote Control Holder market current trends/issues/challengesCompetition & companies involved in Remote Control Holder marketRemote Control Holder technologyValue Chain of Remote Control HolderGlobal Remote Control Holder market drivers and restraintsRegional analysis for global Remote Control Holder market includesNorth AmericaUSCanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoArgentinaChilePeruRest of LatAmEuropeEU 4 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain)UKBENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg)NORDIC (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden)Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Rep. etc.)Rest of EuropeCIS & RussiaJapanAPEJGreater ChinaIndiaKoreaASEAN CountriesRest of APEJMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyIranIsraelSouth AfricaRest of MEAThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Report TOC@Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow Us on Linkedin: Air Conditioner Remote Control Market Applications, Key Players, Regions 2018-2028 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1228 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1228 www.factmr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/factmr/ Air Conditioner Remote Control Market: OverviewOver the last two decades, the technology in the electronic industry has made an impressive progress and consumer preferences toward energy efficient electronic products have undergone a considerable shift. These days consumers demand built-in consumer electronics and home appliances to save floor space. Besides, the air conditioner market has witnessed significant growth in the last couple of years. This growth of the air conditioner market is expected to positively impact the growth of the global air conditioner remote control market in the forthcoming years. Moreover, the construction industry is growing worldwide along with the growing demand for energy-efficient air conditioners, which in turn has increased the need of air conditioner remote controls. In addition to this, rapid urbanization in developing countries is likely to propel the construction activities, specifically in India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico and gulf countries, contributing to the growth of the global air conditioner remote control market.An air conditioner remote control is a small hand-held electronic device for controlling any type of air conditioners, such as widow air conditioners, and slit air conditioners, among others. The air conditioner remote control performs various functions such as switching it On/Off, temperature change, mode change (dry/cool/fan), swing, and timer. Presently, most of the OEMs of air conditioner remote control are offering radio frequency-based remote controls for multidirectional and one directional use.Air Conditioner Remote Control Market: Drivers and ChallengesDriversThe major growth drivers of the global air conditioner remote control market include the penetration of air conditioners in countries where temperature goes high in summer. In addition, the growing construction activities in developing economies coupled with rising population and per capita income are also expected to be the strong factors for the growth of the market over the forecast period. Moreover, the proliferation of new air conditioner systems in commercial and industrial premises is increasing the demand for the air conditioner remote controls across the world.ChallengesIn the present scenario, fluctuating requirements in the electrical and utility industries is the challenging factor in the market growth. Furthermore, competition from local players in developing countries is disrupting the growth of the air conditioner remote control market.Get Brochure of The Report @Air Conditioner Remote Control Market: SegmentationSegmentation of the air conditioner remote control market on the basis of use in air conditioner type:In Slit Air ConditionerIn Window Air ConditionerIn Centralized Air ConditionerIn Packaged Air ConditionerIn 2017, the largest market share was accumulated by the in split air conditioner segment and it is expected to grow with a high CAGR during the forecast period. The high growth of this segment is attributed by the increasing proliferation of slit air conditioners in new real estate spaces, both residential and commercial.Segmentation of the air conditioner remote control market on the basis of end users:ResidentialCommercialThe residential segment accounted for major market share of the global air conditioner remote control market in 2017. The growth of residential segment is attributed to the adoption of air conditioners in developing countries such as India, China, Brazil, and Russia. Moreover, the commercial segment is projected to register a CAGR of more than 6.5% during the forecast period.Segmentation of the air conditioner remote control market on the basis of sales channel:E-Commerce/OnlineOrganized Retail StoresUnorganized Retail StoresDue to double digit growth of the e-commerce market in developed and developing economies, the e-commerce/online segment is projected to grow with a high CAGR during the forecast period.Air Conditioner Remote Control Market: Competition LandscapeKey PlayersExamples of some of the major players in the global air conditioner remote control market are Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hitachi, Voltas, Onida, LipiWorld, LG Electronics, Sansui, SKYTECH, LLOYD, Philips, etc.Air Conditioner Remote Control Market: Regional OverviewAsia Pacific is expected to capture a large market share in terms of value and volume, owing to the increasing construction activities and growing per capita income in India and China. North America is expected to exhibit high growth rate in terms of value and volume in the global air conditioner remote control market due to urbanization and technological advancements in the electronic industry, and increasing adaptation in the residential and commercial sites. Europe and Latin America are also expected have potential growth opportunities in the global air conditioner remote control market due to the increasing demand from the construction industry. Moreover, the air conditioner remote control market in the MEA region is expected to grow at a considerably fast rate during the forecast period owning to increasing urbanization in the region.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Air Conditioner Remote Control market SegmentsMarket Dynamics of Air Conditioner Remote Control marketHistorical Actual Market Size, 2013 - 2017Market Size & Forecast 2018 to 2028Value Chain of Air Conditioner Remote Control marketMarket Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedMarket Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for the air conditioner remote control market includes development of these air conditioner remote control in the following regions:North America Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketU.S.CanadaLatin America Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketBrazilMexicoArgentinaChilePeruRest of Latin AmericaEurope Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketEU 4 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain)UKBENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg)NORDIC (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden)Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Rep. etc.)Rest of EuropeCIS & Russia Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketJapan Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketAPEJ Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketGreater ChinaIndiaKoreaASEAN CountriesRest of APEJMiddle East and Africa Air Conditioner Remote Control MarketGCC CountriesTurkeyIranIsraelSouth AfricaRest of MEAThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Report TOC@Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentation of Air Conditioner Remote Control marketRecent industry trends and developments in Air Conditioner Remote Control marketCompetitive landscape of Air Conditioner Remote Control marketStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow Us on Linkedin: Air Springs Market Expected to Behold a CAGR of 8.1% through 2017 to 2026 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=716 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=716 https://www.factmr.com/ According to the latest market report published by Fact.MR, growing penetration of air springs in luxury passenger vehicles continues to open new growth opportunities for manufacturers. Traditionally limited to heavy commercial vehicles, end-user preference for comfort, glide ride, and suspension adjustment are impacting where the revenue is going in the air springs landscape. Stakeholders in the air springs marketmust consider the evolutions in this marketplace if they are to rapidly adapt to the new status quo.Fact.MR Survey Finds Weight Reduction and Flex Cracking Mitigation as Key Focus Areas for ManufacturersThe air springs market remains fragmentally consolidated, with a large number of America, Chinese, and Indian suppliers/distributors vying for increasing their market penetration and share. A majority of market participants covered in the market have a sizeable presence in APEJ and North America two key air springs markets globally. Sensing the untapped opportunities in this marketplace, leading manufacturers, including BWI Group, Continental AG, Dunloop Systems and Components, Firestone Industrial LLC, Hendrickson LLC, Mando Corporation, Tata AutoComp Systems, ThyssenKrupp AG, VB AirSuspension, and Wabco Holdings Inc. are focusing on reducing weight and mitigating flex cracking as key focus areas.Although air springs offer a better ride quality than steel and coil springs, vulnerability to wear and tear, and high maintenance costs continue to impede widespread adoption. Manufacturers who are able to scale up without compromising on quality will have a better shot at market consolidation. Whereas luxury car manufacturers equip air springs as an additional feature, these are steadily gaining traction as standard features in heavy vehicles, says lead automotive analyst at Fact.MR.Request Report Sample @End-Users List High Upfront Cost and Relatively Lower Lifecycle as Key Barriers to AdoptionAccording to the analysis carried out by Fact.MRs automotive research team, high upfront costs and relatively lower lifecycles remain the key barriers to widespread adoption of air springs for end-users. Although the analysts have a bullish long-term outlook, the mantra for success is to mitigate high OEM upfront costs when compared to the aftermarket.OEMs Accounted for 52% Volume Sales in 2017, Aftermarket to Reign Supreme by 2026Sales of air springs are evenly spread out in both OEM and aftermarket channels, however the former accounted for a higher volume and lower revenue share in 2017. The prevailing scenario in the sales channel is likely to be transformed during the assessment period on account of competitive offerings by aftermarket players. By 2026, aftermarket is likely to reign supreme both in terms of value and volume.Global Air Springs Market Suspending on the Performance of Asian MarketsA direct correlation of vehicle production, sales, vehicle parc and demand for air spring is evident. Its apparent that the Asian economies are leading in terms of vehicle production as well sales, thus equating to preeminence in the global air springs market during the assessment period 2017-2026, according to a new business intelligence study by Fact.MR. Manufacturers must prioritize ASEAN and GCC in their long-term strategic plans to consolidate their position.Request Report Methodology @Fact.MRs research study projects the global air springs market to surpass US$ 4 Bn in revenues by 2026. In terms of volume, over 33,000000 units of air springs are likely to be sold by the end of the forecast period.About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Fact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb: WiFi Kiosks Market Growth and Changes Influencing the Industry 2018-2028 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1285 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1285 www.factmr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/factmr/ Global WiFi Kiosks Market: IntroductionA kiosk is a small free standing physical structure or a small open front end hut that provides information or services. Kiosks can be manned or unmanned and digital as well as non-digital. So kiosks are often used to sell newspapers, tickets, refreshments or some other services. So the WiFi kiosks are unmanned and digital kiosks. So, the WiFi kiosks comes equipped with big high definition screens for marketing and advertising or for art. The kiosks are also equipped with charging ports, encrypted WiFi networks, and a tablet for calls. So these WiFi Kiosks are replacing the traditional telephone booths. These kiosks come with cameras which will record the passersby, and protect the kiosks from vandalism. Moreover, the users can activate these cameras for video calls. The kiosks are also enabled with sensors which are used to test the traffic and the air quality. Moreover, users will also be able to browse the data on the web.Global WiFi Kiosks Market: DynamicsAn evolution has been witnessed in WiFi kiosks as a result of the advancements in the technology. So WiFi kiosks performs a wide range of functions such as bill payments and show directions on map etc. So, with continuous development in various technologies such as touch displays and glass technology usability of the kiosk improves, which is one of the key factors driving the growth of the WiFi kiosks market. Increasing use of kiosks as a tracking device in several hospitals and many other organizations to keep track and record of the visitors is also a major factor fueling the growth of the WiFi kiosks market. Moreover, some of the kiosks are integrated with knowledge navigator technology or an intelligent personal assistant such as Siri or Cortana, which also acts as one of the factors driving the growth of the WiFi kiosks market. The interactive kiosks are also helpful in avoiding queues at several places such as banks, airports, malls and many other for making bill payments or filling forms. This is another factor which is anticipated to boost the growth of the market.The increasing use of tablets and smartphones can make the use of the WiFi kiosks redundant thereby hampering the growth or demand of the WiFi kiosks market. Moreover, the telecom providers have started providing services such as 3G and 4G LTE, which is also a key challenge and can hinder the growth of the WiFi kiosks market.Get Brochure of The Report @Global WiFi kiosks Market: SegmentationThe global WiFi kiosks market can be segmented on the basis of type, vertical and region.WiFi kiosks Market by typeBank KiosksSelf-Service KiosksVending KiosksWiFi kiosks Market by verticalRetailHealthcareFinancial servicesGovernmentTransportationHospitalityGlobal WiFi kiosks Market: Competition LandscapeKey DevelopmentsIn February 2017, SlabbKiosks acquired both Phoenix Kiosk and RedDotNet. Phoenix Kiosk is known for its extensive line of American-made modern kiosks while RedDotNet specializes in more compact commercial grade units. With these acquisition the three companies will be able to provide a wide range of kiosk products and services to their clients.Key VendorsThe key vendors in WiFi kiosks market are NCR Corporation, Fujitsu, Ltd., Olea Kiosks Inc., Diebold, Inc., GRGBanking, Acrelec, Meridian Kiosks, Kiosk Information Systems, ZIVELO, Kontron AG, Glory Ltd. and Nautilus Hyosung.Global WiFi kiosks Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the WiFi kiosks market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Latin America, CIS & Russia, Japan, APEJ, and Middle East and Africa (MEA).North America WiFi kiosk market is expected to exhibit high growth owing to increasing use of kiosk at airports and rising demand for general vending machine.With advancements in technology and emergence of new business models the WiFi kiosks market is expected to grow significantly. The emerging infrastructure and booming retail sector would also facilitate the growth of the WiFi kiosks market in the APAC region.The report covers an exhaustive analysis on:Global WiFi kiosks Market SegmentsGlobal WiFi kiosks Market DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2013 - 2017Global WiFi kiosks Market Size and Forecast, 2018 to 2028Supply and Demand Value ChainGlobal WiFi kiosks Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition and Companies involvedTechnologyValue ChainGlobal WiFi kiosks Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for Global WiFi kiosks Market includesNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoArgentinaChilePeruRest of Latin AmericaEuropeEU 4 (Germany, France, Italy, Spain)UKBENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)NORDIC (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden)Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Rep. etc.)Rest of EuropeCIS & RussiaJapanAPEJGreater ChinaIndiaKoreaASEAN CountriesRest of APEJMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesTurkeyIranIsraelSouth AfricaRest of MEAThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. It provides an in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. It also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Request Report TOC@Report Highlights:Detailed overview of parent marketChanging market dynamics of the industryIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and valueRecent industry trends and developmentsCompetitive landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceMust-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Follow Us on Linkedin: Medical Superabsorbent Polymers Market Will hit at a CAGR of 7.3% from 2018 to 2027 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=739 https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=739 https://www.factmr.com/ High exudate- and liquid-absorption capacity of superabsorbent polymers have swelled their adoption for applications in the medical industry. The industrys inclination toward sustainability and use of green products has led scientists to put efforts for developing eco-friendly medical superabsorbent polymers, thereby paving new growth avenues for stakeholders. With the GHDI in developing nations on the rise, expensive medical treatments and surgeries have gained interest of consumers, which in turn has augured well for sales of medical products including bandages, surgical pads and wound dressings.Request Report Sample @Excellent water retention and absorbency of superabsorbent polymers have been leveraged for product development in the medical sector, particularly in wound management. Efficient exudate absorption, and faster healing process are key attributes of medical superabsorbent polymers that have driven their popularity. This Fact.MR report foresees the market for medical superabsorbent polymers to record a splendid CAGR between the forecast period 2018 and 2027. Worldwide sales of medical superabsorbent polymers are poised to bring in nearly US$ 8,300 Mn revenues by 2027-end.Medical Superabsorbent Polymers: Hospitals Contribute Significantly to Demand as Medical Waste Management Gains Higher EmphasisEnd-use of medical superabsorbent polymers continues to remain high in hospitals. Operation theatres (OTs) form an integral part of hospitals, wherein the consistent flow of patients entail the requirement for a wide range of surgical procedures. This makes it imperative for hospitals to keep their OTs clean and hygienic. Minimizing the clean-up time prevails as a major concern among hospitals worldwide. Time-effective and safe management & disposition of suction canister waste is a primary task linked with surgery clean-ups.Traditional suction canister solidifier take over 30 minutes for proper handling and disposing of waste. New technologies are therefore being developed using superabsorbent polymers, which remarkably trim the time taken for complete solidification and disposal of liquid medical waste. These technologies are demonstrating high penetration into hospitals worldwide, thereby complementing their dominance in the medical superabsorbent polymers market.Innovation Remains a Cornerstone for Nonwoven Medical Superabsorbent Polymer ManufacturersNon-woven medical superabsorbent polymers will remain preferred by end-users over their woven counterparts, as they offer relatively higher absorbency and flexibility. The report projects a robust increase in sales of non-woven superabsorbent polymers, with manufacturers making heavy investments in the development of innovative products and technologies such as P&Gs new line of bladder leak undergarments that offer maximum protection. Call of softer diapers has further led to technological innovations such as thermal-bonded non-woven superabsorbent polymers. Such innovations will rub off on demand and supply of non-woven superabsorbent polymers in the near future.Advanced Wound Care Continues to hold Bulk Shares of the Market, Report SaysThe report projects revenues from medical superabsorbent polymers application in advanced would care to hold bulk shares of the market in the period of forecast. Faster healing process and recovery time coupled with high liquid absorption capacity of medical superabsorbent polymers bode well for enhanced therapeutic efficiency requirement in advanced wound care.Led by the United States, North America is envisaged to spearhead the medical superabsorbent polymers market, driven by inflating Baby Boomers population that creates the need for adult incontinence products in hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers. Immense focus on hygiene factor, and robust expenditure on medical products will remain key demand determinants for medical superabsorbent polymers in North America.Request Report Methodology @Airlaid technology is primarily preferred by medical superabsorbent polymers manufacturers, as it imparts the materials with better mechanical properties and reduced weight. Various technologies such as laminate and wet laid technology for manufacturing of these polymers, with an aim of delivering better results pertaining to quantity and quality.About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Fact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb: Vehicle Analytics Market Growth On outstanding 20.9% CAGR rise to US$10,215.5 by 2022 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=34688 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/34688 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/vehicle-analytics-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com http://www.techyounme.com/ Vehicle analytics can be categorized as solutions implemented on vehicles that helps to gain insights about the vehicles. Vehicle analytics application range from the farmers to large scale fleet operators as these help them with a number of benefits like increased safety, faster threat detection, vehicle tracking, and monitoring the driving behavior among othersThe advancement in technologies and enhanced safety provided by vehicle analytics are expected to be major drivers of the markets growth. The market is also expected to receive significant push from the increasing research & development activities relating to the technology. Migration towards cloud is also expected to boost the markets growth and open new doors for innovation. However, the market growth is expected to be hindered by the concerns over network coverage and interoperability. Moreover, the market is expected to face restraint due to the high initial investment associated with the technology.Get PDF Sample of Report @Market to Witness Considerably High Contribution from On-premise Deployment SegmentThe global vehicle analytics market is segmented on the basis of deployment type, end-user, application and geography. On the basis of deployment type, the market is segmented into cloud and on-premises. On-Premise deployment segment would refer to the computation that is located within the physical confines of an organization while the cloud based deployment refers to delivery of hosted services over the internet. In 2016, the On-premises deployment type is expected to hold the major revenue share owing to their wide adoption across industry vertical. Cloud sub-segment, owing to their increasing adoption is expected to grow at a rapid pace while also capturing considerable market share during the forecast period.On the basis of end-user, the global vehicle analytics market is segmented into Tier 1 suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), service providers, automotive dealers, fleet owners, regulatory bodies and insurers. Based on the end-user, Tier 1 suppliers sub-segment is expected to hold the major share of the market, primarily their critical role as suppliers of hardware and software to other industries.On the basis of application, the market is segmented into predictive maintenance, warranty analytics, traffic management, safety and security management, driver and user behavior analysis, dealer performance analysis, infotainment, usage-based insurance and road charging. The market, based on application is expected to be dominated by predictive maintenance sub-segment and is projected to grow at rapid pace.Download TOC@Europe Likely to Exhibit Lucrative Prospects through Forecast PeriodThe global vehicle analytics market is expected to be driven by the Europe region. Europe is estimated to contribute a major share throughout the forecast period to the overall vehicle analytics market with the U.K. and Germany contributing most to the regions revenue.The region is expected to hold about one third of the global markets revenue in 2025. The presence of major industry players along with high adoption of car analytics solutions and advanced electric cars across many countries in the region is expected to drive the market growth. Also, the presence of necessary internet and communication infrastructure is also expected to bolster the market growth. Europe is also helped by the favorable regulatory environment and governments encouraging the developments in the field.Preview Report @Asia-Pacific region is expected to be among the fastest growing regions for the car analytics market. The region is also anticipated to emerge as the second largest market in terms of market revenue. This growth is accountable from the countries such as China, Japan and South Korea while South East Asian countries with their superior communication infrastructure and increasing research & development activities.The global vehicle analytics market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 20.9% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2025 and reach US$ 10,215.5 Mn in 2025.Major players in the vehicle analytics market include Agnik LLC, Amodo, Automotive Rentals, Inc., Harman International Industries, Inc., IBM, Inquiron, INRIX, SAS Institute Inc., Teletrac Navman and Xevo Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Research Blog: 3D Printing Materials Market Growth and Industry Analysis - 2022 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/193 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/get-discount/193 www.alliedmarketresearch.com 3D Printing Materials Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market is expected to garner $1,871 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 18.3% during the period 2016-2022. Polymers segment is expected to remain the highest revenue-generating segment throughout the forecast period. U.S. held the leading position in the global market in 2015, and is expected to maintain its lead throughout the study period.Request sample copy of this report at:The demand for 3D printing materials has witnessed tremendous growth, driven by the growth in sales of 3D printers (especially desktop printers), increased penetration in automotive, consumer products, aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial sector, and others. 3D printing material market is in its development stage. All the industry players are investing immensely to find new commercial avenues for their product segments via strategic partnership and collaborations. Some of the major factors that drive the demand for 3D printing material includes expiration of key patents for 3D printers, availability of cheaper 3D printers, ease in prototype development, core and mold manufacturing, along with reduced complexities in manufacturing products or parts. However, factors such as toxicity to human beings and flora and fauna coupled with high cost of materials are expected to hamper the market growth during the forecast period. Growth in research and development, increasing industry collaboration, and increase in number of end-user industry will provide significant opportunities to the industry players across the value chain.In 2015, Polymers was the largest material segment in the global 3D printing materials market. However, metals segment is expected to witness highest CAGR of 24.4% during the forecast period owing to growing penetration in industries such as aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial sector, and others. Growth in investment towards research and development, towards material innovation and development of low cost printers is expected to fuel the demand phase of the 3D printing materials marketIn 2015, automotive was the leading end-user segment with around one-fifth revenue share followed by healthcare and industrial sector. In automotive industry 3D printing material is primarily used for prototype development along with core and mold manufacturing.Key Findings of the 3D Printing Materials Market:1. Aerospace & defense market revenues are expected to witness highest CAGR of 19.6% during the forecast period.2. Automotive and consumer product end-user segments together accounted for 40% of the global market in 20153. Polymers and metals segments together accounted for more than 90% market share in 2015.4. Automotive is the largest end user segment with around one-fifth market share in 2015.5. U.S. was the largest market in terms of demand for 3D printing materials in 2015.6. Powder form materials are expected to grow at a high CAGR of 19.7% during the forecast periodIn 2015, North America accounted for almost half of the global demand for 3D printing material and is expected to maintain its lead position throughout the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region, with a CAGR of 19.1% during the forecast period owing to the economic and industrial developments happening in the emerging economies.Major players in the industry are investing significantly on research and development to launch new materials for commercial applications at low cost. Key companies profiled in this report include 3D Systems Corp., Arcam AB, Arkema S.A., Royal DSM N.V., Exone GmbH, Stratasys Ltd., CRP Group, Envisiontec GmbH, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, and LPW Technology Ltd.Check offers and discount on this report at:About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Flat-rolled Aluminum Products Market Economic, Consumer and Industry Trends for 2018 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=45849 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=45849 Aluminum is a highly conductive, lightweight, non-toxic, and reflective metal that can be easily machined. It is used in a variety of products including foils, cans, window frames, kitchen utensils, aeroplane parts, and beer kegs because of its favorable properties. Aluminum is durable, and non-toxic and offers low density and excellent corrosion resistance. It provides high thermal conductivity and can be easily machined, cast, and formed. It is also non-sparking and non-magnetic. It is the sixth most ductile and second most malleable metal.Get Brochure For More Information@Aluminum is a good electrical conductor and is often used in electrical transmission lines. Flat-rolled aluminum products can be categorized into three types: sheet, plate, and foil. Aluminum sheets are a versatile material because of their suitability for a wide range of joining, fabrication, and finishing processes. Aluminum plates can serve as a blank from which complex large area parts, such as the ribbed wing plates of advanced aircraft, can be machined. Aluminum can also be formed directly into strong shapes with constant thickness. It can be welded into large, strong, durable structures. Aluminum foil is familiar to most people in the popular form of soft, very thin household kitchen foil. It is easy to fold, impenetrable by water and vapor, fire resistant, both heat-reflective and heat-conductive, and inhospitable to molds.The flat-rolled aluminum products market is expected to expand at a significant rate in the coming years. Rapid industrialization, increase in usage of aluminum in various industries such as foil & packaging and construction & building, development in the transport industry, and technological advancements in aluminum manufacturing technologies and processing equipment are the key trends propelling the market. The environmentally friendly nature of flat-rolled aluminum products in terms of more recyclability and low waste generation is a driving factor for the adoption of flat-rolled aluminum products. Demand for manufactured industrial products with high precision finish in end-use industries is likely to boost sales of flat-rolled aluminum products. Moreover, robust expansion in the construction sector worldwide is expected to fuel the market. In addition, continuous advancements in ongoing R&D activities to develop effective, innovative, and cheaper aluminum products is expected to propel the market. However, fluctuations in prices of raw materials such as alumina and increase in competition from substitutes are some of the factors that are anticipated to limit the expansion of the market. Asia Pacific is expected to be a prominent region of the flat-rolled aluminum products market due to rise in income of people living in urban areas, rapid urbanization, and significant rise in industrial applications in the last few years. Moreover, the flat-rolled aluminum products market in North America and Europe is expanding rapidly.The flat-rolled aluminum products market can be segmented based on type, thickness, application, and region. Based on type, the market can be classified into sheets, plates, foils, and others. In terms of thickness, the market can be categorized into 0.002 mm0.09 mm, 0.091 mm0.20 mm, 0.21 mm0.40 mm, 0.41 mm6.0 mm, and above 6.0 mm. Based on application, the market can be segmented into automotive & transport, building & construction, defense, electrical & electronics, pharmaceuticals & packaging, white goods, and other industrial applications. In terms of region, the flat-rolled aluminum products market can be divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.Some of the key operating players in the flat-rolled aluminum products market are Aleris Corporation, Alcoa Corporation, Metenere Limited, AMD, JW Aluminum, Constellium, Hulamin, ElvalHalcor, Novelis, Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Co., Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd, Norsk Hydro ASA, RUSAL, Kaiser Aluminum, and Chalco. Key players in the market focus on mergers & acquisitions and business alliances. Manufacturers also focus on advancements in technology. Furthermore, companies adopt innovative marketing strategies to attract customers.Download ToC Of Research Report@About Us:-We are leaders in analytics, research, and advisory services for Fortune 500 companies, scores of high potential startups, and financial institutions. Our success stories have proven why we are a preeminent provider of cutting-edge syndicated and customized research services. Leverage the best of our seasoned research analysts who hold a keen interest and enviable expertise of almost 4 million hours in global, regional, and local market intelligence.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Ceramic Ball Valve Market Size & Share | Industry Survey Report 2026 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ceramic-ball-valve-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20192 www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ Ceramic ball valve is primarily used to regulate or cut-off the fluid movement. It consists of a perforated pivoting ball to control the flow. The flow is accessed by pivoting the valve such that the hole is aligned in direction of the flow. Manufacture of ceramic ball valve entails the use of advanced ceramics along with various metals such as alumina. The performance of ceramic ball valve is better than that of metal ball valve. Ceramic ball valves are designed to offer long life and resistance against corrosion & wear. They can be used in high temperature and high pressure conditions and have wide range of applications. For instance, ceramic ball valves can be used in handling various acidic & alkaline media.View Report Preview:Based on type, the ceramic ball valve market can be segmented into electric operated ceramic ball valve, manual operated ceramic ball valve, and pneumatic operated ceramic ball valve. In terms of application, the market for ceramic ball valve can be divided into flue gas desulfurization unit, water treatment unit, and pneumatic refuse conveying system. Based on end-user, the market for ceramic ball valve can be segregated into iron & steel plants, chemical industry, power plants, petroleum industry, paper industry, and other industries.Ceramic Ball Valve Market: TrendsThe ceramic ball valve market is gaining momentum; it is anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period considering the unique characteristics and performance of ceramic ball valves over other types of ball valves. Electric operated ceramic ball valve is projected to be one of the highly lucrative types of valve segments of the ceramic ball valve market in the near future. Rapid growth in technology and efficiency of electric operated valves in terms of time saving are the factors driving the segment.In terms of end-use, the ceramic ball valve market is anticipated to expand at a significant rate due to the rise in usage of these valves in industries such as wastewater, oil & gas, and chemical. Governments across the globe are investing significantly in the development of pipeline infrastructure in developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil. Fluctuation in prices of raw materials over the last few years is one of the major factors hampering the ceramic ball valve market. Additionally, contraction in the oil & gas industry can also adversely affect the ceramic ball valve market.Ceramic Ball Valve Market: Regional AnalysisEurope and North America dominate the ceramic ball valve market due to the implementation of stringent government policies regarding wastewater treatment in these regions. The need to upgrade existing power plants as per the established standards is also estimated to boost market growth. The ceramic ball valve market on Latin America is projected to expand owing to the development of the power plants and chemicals industryThe market for ceramic ball valve in Middle East & Africa is expanding at a significant pace due to the expansion of the manufacturing industry, ascending demand for energy, and growth of the oil & gas industry. Rise in demand for energy, industrial development in major countries such as India and China, and development of oil & gas pipeline infrastructure are anticipated to fuel the demand for ceramic ball valves in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.Ceramic Ball Valve Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players operating in the ceramic ball valve market include Nil-Cor LLC, SamsoN Group Of Companies, YFL Industrial Supply Corp. Ltd., FUVALVE (Xiamen) Co. Ltd., and Samuel Industries.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Jawahar Subhash Chandra is resident of Kochi whose photo was used by the Jaipur police to warn people about the KiKi challenge. Under the picture of a man with a garland around it was written, In loving memory of KK Loving boyfriend of Kiki, died while doing the Shiggy. (Photo: Jaipur Police/ Twitter) Jaipur: A young man who is well and truly alive was shown as dead by Rajasthan police in its social media campaign to caution people against KiKi challenge. However, the police have been justifying its act saying that the photograph of the man was purchased from a website. Jawahar Subhash Chandra is resident of Kochi whose photo was used by the Jaipur police. His picture is displayed on the social media account in a photo frame with a garland below which is the message: Dont challenge death. Be wise - keep away from silly stunts & advise your friends as well to stay safe. Under the picture of a man with a garland around it was written, In loving memory of KK Loving boyfriend of Kiki, died while doing the Shiggy. Since then Jawahars phone has not stopped ringing. The first phone call was from his wife after spotting the social media post of Jaipur police. Even after being told that Jawahar is alive Jaipur Police justified itself. Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal acknowledged that Jawahar is alive but defended use of his photo in the campaign in which he has been shown dead saying, It is not illegal. Our social media team has bought the photo from a website. The photo is said to be a decade old when Jawahar used to do modelling. When he passed out from college, this photo was used by a website from which the Jaipur police bought it. Jawahar has faced what South African author Shubnum Khan went through. Recently, Shubnum posted a thread on her twitter handle saying that her photo is being used across the world in different campaign and advertisements without seeking her consent. Initially, she was surprised but after some digging, she came to know that she agreed for a free photo shoot in lieu of some professional portraits. She had signed a form thinking that it was to allow him to use the photographs for his portfolio but didnt read the fine print that allowed him to sell them to anyone. Hydrogen Storage Market Competitive Landscape and Industry Expansion Strategies By 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/hydrogen-storage-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=24425 www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ The worldwide rise in energy consumption along with the increase in demand for primary energy sources, primarily crude oil and natural gas, is causing depletion of these naturally occurring and limited sources rapidly. The consumption of these sources hampers the environment and causes pollution, which is adversely affecting the flora and fauna on the planet. The global warming effect caused by greenhouse gases emitted from the consumption of these fossil fuels is also a major concern for the world. Thus, energy security and environmental protection are two of the major worldwide concerns today. Today world is compelled to shift towards alternate energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and other carbon-neutral technologies. Hydrogen has been recognized and accepted as an alternative source of energy. Hydrogen is the third most common element present on the earth, generally as a part of chemical compounds. Hydrogen is a cleaner and zero-emission source of energy. Its byproduct is pure water. Currently, natural gas accounts for a major share of the global hydrogen production followed by oil, coal, and electrolyzed water.View Report Preview:However, hydrogen storage is an essential technology for the advancement of hydrogen usage as an alternate energy source. Hydrogen contains the maximum energy per mass among all fuels. However, its low ambient temperature density generates low energy per unit volume. This necessitates the development of storage methods that have potential for high energy density.Based on type, the hydrogen storage market can be segmented into physical-based storage and material-based storage. Hydrogen can be stored as either a liquid or a gas in physical-based storage. Hydrogen storage in the gaseous form requires high-pressure storage tanks with 350700 bar tank pressure. Storing hydrogen in the liquid form requires cryogenic temperatures, as the boiling point of hydrogen is 252.8C at 1 atmospheric pressure. The material-based hydrogen storage is based on metal hydrides, chemical hydrogen storage materials, and sorbent materials. Metal hydrides are denoted as MHx. They are the most technologically relevant hydrogen storage materials, as they can be easily employed in a varied range of applications such as heat pumps, thermal storages, and for neutron moderation. The chemical hydrogen storage materials are generally the compounds with high density of covalent-bond hydrogen in them either in a solid or liquid form. The sorbent materials store hydrogen by adsorption of hydrogen.Based on application, the hydrogen storage market can be classified into stationary power, portable power, and transportation. The stationary power segment comprises power generation, thermal systems, and energy systems. The portable power segment consists of fuel cells for off-road usage, consumer electronic devices, and auxiliary power generation. The transportation segment includes usage of fuel cells in the transportation sector.Based on region, the hydrogen storage market can be divided into North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the global hydrogen storage market, expanding at a significant rate during the forecast period. The developing markets in China and India is the key reason for the dominance of Asia Pacific over the global market. The market in North America is expected to follow Asia Pacific, expanding at a moderate pace during the forecast period. Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa are expected to follow North America during the forecast period.Some of the key players in the global hydrogen storage market are H Bank Technology Inc., Air Liquide, Hexagon Composites ASA, The Linde Group, Cella Energy Limited, Praxair Technology, Inc., VRV S.P.A, Pragma Industries, Eutectix LLC, and McPhy Energy S.A.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Global Robotic Process Automation Market by Top Key Players IBM, NICE Ltd, Pegasystems, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, IPsoft, Xerox and Forecast to 2025 http://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-robotic-process-automation-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-robotic-process-automation-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-robotic-process-automation-market/ http://databridgemarketresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/?dbmr=global-robotic-process-automation-market http://databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/fitness-equipment-market/ Robotic Process Automation Industry 2018 Global Market research report provide detailed analysis of growth factors of the Robotic Process Automation industry as well as it gives analysis the market share, trends, size and forecast until 2025 . The Robotic Process Automation industry report has studied key opportunities in the market and influencing factor which is useful to the business.Global Robotic Process Automation Market accounted for USD 698.5 million in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 28.6% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request for Free Sample Report @Global Robotic Process Automation Market, By Geography, Process (Automated Solution, Decision Support & Management Solution, Interaction Solution), Operation (Rule Based, Knowledge Based), Type (Tool Based, Service Based), Industry (BFSI, Telecom & IT Industry, Travel & Hospitality, Retail & Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & Logistics Industry, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals) Industry Trends and Forecasts 2024Complete report on Global Robotic Process Automation Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresKey Questions Answered in Global Robotic Process Automation Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Robotic Process Automation Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Robotic Process Automation Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Robotic Process Automation Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Robotic Process Automation Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Robotic Process Automation Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Robotic Process Automation Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Major market drivers: Global Robotic Process Automation Market Increased demand for reduced operational costs and increased efficiency Growing incorporation of automation in business processes Increasing awareness about achieving break even outputs through automation Less potential in knowledge-based business processes Integration with existing equipmentsRequest for Detaild TOC:Top Key Players: Nice Systems Ltd. Pegasystems Inc. Automation Anywhere Inc. Blue Prism PLC Ipsoft, Inc. Celaton Ltd. Redwood Software Uipath SRL Verint System Inc. Xerox Corporation Arago US Inc. IBM Thoughtonomy Ltd. Jacada Inc. Kofax Ltd Kryon Systems OpenConnect Systems Inc. Sutherland Global Services Genfour Cicero Inc. Atos SECustomize report of "Global Robotic Process Automation Market" as per customers requirement also available.For more insightful information visit @Global Robotic Process Automation Market Company Share Analysis:The report for global robotic process automation market include detailed vendor level analysis for market shares in 2016 for Global, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America specifically. Also impact and development analysis of key vendors is registered in the market and factored on the basis of Vendor Positioning Grid Analysis which measures the vendors strengths and opportunities against present market challenges, measure providers ability to identify or satisfy present market needs, map providers market vision to current and upcoming market dynamics among others. The report also measures technology life line curve and market time line to analyze and do more affective investments.Market Segmentations:Global Robotic Process Automation Market is segmented on the basis of Process Operation Type Industry Geography.Market Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Process into automated solution, decision support & management solution, and interaction solution.On the basis of Operation, the global robotic process automation market is segmented into rule based, and knowledge based.On the basis of Type, the global robotic process automation market is segmented into tool based, and service based. The tool based segment is further segmented into model-based application tools, and process-based application tools. The service based segment is further segmented into consulting, integration and development, and training.On the basis of Industry, the global robotic process automation market is segmented into BFSI, telecom & IT industry, travel & hospitality, retail & consumer goods, manufacturing & logistics industry, healthcare & pharmaceuticals, and others.On the basis of geography North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaSpeak to Author of the Report @Other ReportGlobal Fitness Equipment Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Fitness Equipment Market, By Type (Cardiovascular Training Equipment (Treadmills, Elliptical Trainers, Stationary Cycles, Rowing Machines, Stair Steppers, Others), Strength Training Equipment (Single Stations, Plate Loaded Equipment, Free Weights, Benches and Racks, Multistations, Accessories), Body Composition Analyzers (Bioimpedance Analyzer, Skinfold Caliper, Dual Emission X-Ray Absorptiometry (Dexa), Hydrostatic Weighing, Air Displacement Plethysmography), Fitness Monitoring Equipment), By End-User (Health Clubs, Gyms, Home Settings, Corporate Settings, Apartments, Hotels, Hospitals, Clinics), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, Rest of the World) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024.Report Access:About Data Bridge Market ResearchData Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Oncology Biosimilars Global Market 2018: Key Players Celltrion Inc., Pfizer Inc., Biocon, BIOCAD, Apotex Inc. https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2802894-global-oncology-biosimilars-market-research-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2802894-global-oncology-biosimilars-market-research-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2802894 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Oncology Biosimilars IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Oncology Biosimilars -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2023 To Its Research DatabaseGlobal Oncology Biosimilars market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingCelltrion Inc.Pfizer Inc.BioconBIOCADApotex Inc.Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd.Sandoz International GmbHIntas Pharmaceuticals Ltd.STADA Arzneimittel AGTeva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.Request for Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Oncology Biosimilars in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoG-CSFHematopoietic AgentsMonoclonal AntibodiesOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingRetail PharmaciesHospital PharmaciesOnline PharmaciesLeave a Query @Table of ContentsGlobal Oncology Biosimilars Market Research Report 20181 Oncology Biosimilars Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Oncology Biosimilars1.2 Oncology Biosimilars Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Oncology Biosimilars Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Oncology Biosimilars Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 G-CSF1.2.4 Hematopoietic Agents1.2.5 Monoclonal Antibodies1.3 Global Oncology Biosimilars Segment by Application1.3.1 Oncology Biosimilars Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Retail Pharmacies1.3.3 Hospital Pharmacies1.3.4 Online Pharmacies1.4 Global Oncology Biosimilars Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Oncology Biosimilars Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Oncology Biosimilars (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Oncology Biosimilars Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)...7 Global Oncology Biosimilars Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Celltrion Inc.7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Celltrion Inc. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Pfizer Inc.7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Pfizer Inc. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Biocon7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Biocon Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 BIOCAD7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 BIOCAD Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Apotex Inc.7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Apotex Inc. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd.7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Dr. Reddys Laboratories Ltd. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Sandoz International GmbH7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Sandoz International GmbH Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd.7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 STADA Arzneimittel AG7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 STADA Arzneimittel AG Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Oncology Biosimilars Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Oncology Biosimilars Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business OverviewBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune 411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042 Grinding Media Global Market 2018: Key Players Grinding Media, AIA ENGINEERING LIMITED, Estanda, Christian Pfeiffer, TOYO Grinding Ball Co https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2776942-global-grinding-media-market-research-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2776942-global-grinding-media-market-research-report-2018 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2776942 https://www.wiseguyreports.com Grinding Media IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Grinding Media -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2023 To Its Research DatabaseThis report studies the global Grinding Media market status and forecast, categorizes the global Grinding Media market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China and other regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).The major manufacturers covered in this reportMagotteauxAIA ENGINEERING LIMITEDEstandaChristian PfeifferTOYO Grinding Ball CoMetsoScawFengXingRuitaiQingzhou DazhongZhangqiu TaitouJinchi Steel BallNingGuoXinMaDongTaiZhiyouUnion ProcessKemcoreRequest for Sample Report @Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanOther Regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRods TypeBalls TypeOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingCementDry GrindingOthersLeave a Query @Table of ContentsGlobal Grinding Media Market Research Report 20181 Grinding Media Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Grinding Media1.2 Grinding Media Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Grinding Media Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Grinding Media Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Rods Type1.2.4 Balls Type1.3 Global Grinding Media Segment by Application1.3.1 Grinding Media Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Cement1.3.3 Dry Grinding1.3.4 Others1.4 Global Grinding Media Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Grinding Media Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Grinding Media (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Grinding Media Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Grinding Media Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)...7 Global Grinding Media Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Magotteaux7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Magotteaux Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 AIA ENGINEERING LIMITED7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 AIA ENGINEERING LIMITED Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Estanda7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Estanda Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Christian Pfeiffer7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Christian Pfeiffer Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 TOYO Grinding Ball Co7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 TOYO Grinding Ball Co Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Metso7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Metso Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Scaw7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Scaw Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 FengXing7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 FengXing Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Ruitai7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Ruitai Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 Qingzhou Dazhong7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Grinding Media Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 Qingzhou Dazhong Grinding Media Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 Zhangqiu Taitou7.12 Jinchi Steel Ball7.13 NingGuoXinMa7.14 DongTai7.15 Zhiyou7.16 Union Process7.17 KemcoreBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune 411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042 Super Capacitor Market to Accumulate Sizable Gains at a 19.88% CAGR till 2023 | by MAXWELL TECHNOLOGIES, PANASONIC CORPORATION, NESSCAP, NEC-TOKIN CORPORATION, SKELETON TECHNOLOGIES Etc Industry Vendors https://marketprognosis.com/sample-request/15683 https://marketprognosis.com/discount-request/15683 https://marketprognosis.com/enquiry/15683 The super capacitor market was valued at USD 0.76 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach a value of USD 2.25 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 19.88%, over the forecast period (2018 - 2023). The scope of the report is limited to segmentation by type, including double layer, pseudo, and hybrid, by end users, like aerospace & defense, industrial, utilities, consumer electronics, healthcare, and transportation. The regions considered in the scope of the report include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World.Key Developments in the MarketJune 2017: Panasonic Corporation bridged the gap between batteries and super-capacitors with its newly developed Energy Polymer Capacitor reaching energy densities comparable to lead acid batteries while keeping the high power density of super capacitors. Panasonic Energy Polymer Capacitor will enable new solutions for backup power, peak power assist and regenerative storage applications.February 2017: Maxwell technologies announced that it has entered into an agreement with Nesscap Energy Inc to acquire the whole business assets of the company. The company expects to capitalize on synergies between the two companies that will accelerate growth, increase the innovation rate, and create an expanded and strengthened product portfolio. With a strengthened sales channel, increased R&D capabilities, and improved manufacturing efficiencies, Maxwell is expecting to be able to deliver more products, faster into target markets thereby benefitting customers and other technology adopters.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Major players:MAXWELL TECHNOLOGIES, PANASONIC CORPORATION, NESSCAP CO LTD, NEC-TOKIN CORPORATION, SKELETON TECHNOLOGIES amongst others.Growing Adoption of Hybrid Electric Vehicles is Driving the MarketAlternative energy storage solutions are imperative for reducing dependency on depleting natural resources. Despite government support for alternative energy storage solutions, lithium batteries are widely used for a variety of hybrid vehicles. However, trying to achieve high power density in an energy-dense battery, like lithium-ion, results in shortened life and increased stress. The super capacitor is a perfect fit for a range of vehicles from light to heavy hybrids, in which it can process the power of start-stop operations and braking which drives the market in the coming years.Request Discount on this repots @Pseudo Capacitor has A Major Market Share among Others Types of Super CapacitorsPseudo capacitor was estimated to dominate the market in terms of market share in 2016, as it found many applications in portable and handheld products. The consumer electronics industry registered a very high rate of adoption of pseudo capacitors, substituting typical batteries. The use of pseudo capacitors to optimize power usage and recently developed fast-charging concepts has further augmented the growth of the pseudo capacitors in the market. Pseudo capacitors have been identified as the ideal charge storage device in less heavy-duty products, such as the laptops, devices, and others.China Has the Largest Market Share over the Forecast PeriodIn annual sales of electric vehicles, China overtook both the European and the US markets. China is already using super capacitors in hybrid buses; these buses are equipped with stop-start engines where the super capacitors reduce the load on the battery itself, which will likely increase the lifetime of the batteries. When it comes to the consumer electronics industry, China is racing first in the sales of smart gadgets and other devices. These are few dynamics that are boosting the growth of the super capacitors market in China.Enquiry Before Buying @About Market PrognosisWe at Market Prognosis believe in giving a crystal clear view of market dynamics for achieving success in todays complex and competitive marketplace through our quantitative & qualitative research methods.We help our clients identify the best market insights and analysis required for their business thus enabling them to take strategic and intelligent decision.We believe in delivering actionable insights for your business growth and success.Contact us:ProgMark Pvt Ltd,Thane - 421501India.Contact No: +1 973 241 5193Email: sales@marketprognosis.com Asia-Pacific Power Transformer Market Expected to Reach $8,990 Million By 2023 Asia-Pacific Power Transformer (100 MVA) Market https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4548 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4548 https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/asia-pacific-power-transformer-100-MVA-market www.alliedmarketresearch.com Utilization of renewable and non-conventional energy sources, and need for up-gradation of transmission networks boosts the Asia-Pacific power transformer market.The Asia-Pacific Power Transformer Market was valued at $5,210 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at $8,990 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 8.1% from 2017 to 2023.Get PDF Sample of this Report @Power transformers, critical part of power infrastructure, are expected to witness significant growth in the coming years. This is due to the demand for electricity throughout the Asia-Pacific is on a consistent increase. Moreover, the region is moving toward green energy as there is an increase in utilization of renewable and non-conventional energy resources, such as wind, solar, and hydel energy. To meet the growth in demand for electricity, widening of transmission networks is taking place.These factors are expected to contribute significantly to the growth of the Asia-Pacific power transformer market. Some of the restraints associated with the Asia-Pacific power transformer market are high price of power transformers as well as associated costs, such as land, infrastructure, logistics, and protective instruments. Also, there is lack of consistent demand for high rating segment of power transformers. These costs can be mitigated with lenient government regulations and innovations in manufacturing of power transformers.Based on country, the market is analyzed across China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and rest of Asia-Pacific. China was the highest revenue contributor, valued at $1,532 million in 2016. This country is further expected to attain a market value of $2,534 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 7.5%. Moreover, China is expected to maintain its dominant position during the forecast period. India and Thailand are the second and third leading country for Asia-Pacific power transformer market, respectively.In 2016, the China accounted for the highest share, and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period, owing to the enhancement of grid infrastructure, and increasing investments for installation of renewable energy-based power projects in the country.Make a Purchase Enquiry for this Report @Key Findings of the Asia-pacific Power Transformer Market: China is expected to continue to lead the market throughout 2016 to 2023, followed by India The power transformer (100 MVA) market in Australia is projected to register the highest growth from 2016 to 2023 The Asia-Pacific power transformer (100 MVA) market is projected at a CAGR of 8.1% from 2017 to 2023 Japan was the fourth largest revenue contributor of the Asia-Pacific power transformer (100 MVA) market in 2016 Hong Kong is projected to register the second highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023Key Market Players: ASEA Brown Boveri Group Crompton Greaves Ltd. General Electric Company Siemens AG Schneider Electric SA Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Tebian Electric Apparatus Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Toshiba Corporation.Access Full Summary at :About us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact us:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb: Global Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market 2018 Marel, Buhler AG, GEA Group, Par-Way Tryson Company, Mallet & Company, Inc., JBT Corporate, Alfa Laval, TNA Australia Solutions Pty Ltd., Bucher Industries Global Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025 https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-food-beverage-processing-equipment-market https://databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-food-beverage-processing-equipment-market The report Global Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market by key players highlights the essential market dynamics of Information and Technology sector. The efficiency of this segment has been studied deeply along with the noteworthy challenges and forthcoming growth opportunities and prospective. The report focuses in decision making abilities and supports to make effective counter strategies in order to achieve competitive advantage.The Global Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market is expected to reach USD 75.8 million by 2025 from USD 62.71 million in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9 % in the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025.Download PDF Sample Copy of Report@Global Food & Beverage Processing Equipment Market By Type (Processing, Pre-Processing), Application (Bakery & Confectionery, Meat & Poultry, Dairy, Alcoholic & Non-Alcoholic Beverages) End Product Form (Solid, Liquid and Semi-Solid) Mode of Operation(Semi-Automatic, Automatic) Geographical Segments(North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa)- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025The renowned players in Food & Beverage Processing Equipment market are:-Marel,Buhler AG,GEA Group,Par-Way Tryson Company,Mallet & Company, Inc.,JBT Corporate,Alfa Laval,TNA Australia Solutions Pty Ltd.,Bucher Industries,Clextral,Bigtem,Makine A.S. SPX Flow Group B.V.,Equipamientos Carnicos,L. Krones AG,Fenco Food Machinery,Krones Group,Among others.Market Drivers and Restraints:Increasing demand for meat, poultry, dairy, bakery and confectionery productsGrowing demand for processed and convenience food.Increased focus on production efficiency, processing time and quality of food products.Rising demand for innovative food & beverage products due to changing consumer trendsInternational regulations governing the use of Food & Beverage Processing Equipment in food.Rising demand for organic and fresh food products.Market Segmentation:The market is based on type, application, end product form, mode of operation and geographical segments.Based on type, the market is segmented into processing and pre-processing.Based on application, the market is segmented into bakery & confectionery, meat & poultry, dairy, alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages.Based on end product form, the market is segmented into solid, liquid and semi-solidBased on mode of operation, the market is segmented into semi-automatic, automatic.Based on geography, the market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa.Competitive Analysis:The global food & beverage processing equipment market is fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market in order to sustain in long run. The report includes market shares of Food & Beverage Processing Equipment market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.In 2017, TNA Australia Solutions Pty Ltd launched Roflo VMCS3, a first chip size packaging equipment, which is use in vibratory motion to separate large chips from small ones .It helps in maximizing packaging efficiency and speeds.Inquire before Buying @About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.com Cloud Monitoring as a Service Market: Understanding The Key Product Segments And Their Future https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25175 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cloud-monitoring-as-a-service-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Cloud monitoring involves the process of reviewing, monitoring as well as managing the operational workflow processes present within a cloud-based IT infrastructure. The cloud monitoring falls under cloud security and management processes and is generally implemented using automated monitoring software providing central access and control over the whole cloud infrastructure. In addition to monitoring and providing solutions, the cloud monitoring data further helps in evaluation of performance for entire infrastructure on a modular level. These services are a powerful and proactive IT monitoring platform encompassing all the essential monitoring and management capabilities required for cloud services and modern data center. Cloud monitoring as a service is a type of IT service that provides both cloud monitoring and management tools for checking the cloud based platforms, servers, websites and IT Infrastructure etc. This provides a complete managed service especially helpful for cloud and virtualization environments in organizations. It is typically seen that all these services are delivered through a SaaS (software as a service) based cloud software for detecting performance issues across cloud infrastructure.The global market for cloud monitoring as a service has been segmented on the basis of deployment model, applications and geography. Based on the deployment model, this market has been segmented into public, private and hybrid cloud. Enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resource management (HRM), supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) among others form the various applications areas for this market globally. Global cloud monitoring as a service market on the basis of geography has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.Get PDF Sample of This Report @It is the overall power of monitoring the complete IT based infrastructure forms one of the major drivers for this market. In addition to this, the application of cloud based monitoring services further provides benefits such as keeping a check over the server uptime as well as the response rate that also helps the organization in evaluation of customer/user experience. This allows the company to keep a track over the exact demands of customers along with monitoring what the organization is able to provide to its customers through the database using well defined customized software. Post monitoring all the statistics, issues if found are reported to the cloud administrators within a central dashboard through different notifications in the form of sms, e-mails etc. This allows professionals working on it to unplug from constantly watching the dashboards knowing they will be informed about the situation accordingly. With all these drivers that have a positive impact over Cloud Monitoring as a Service Market, it is the presence of certain restraints such as high costs associated with its application along with the technological expertise required for the proper functioning of these cloud based monitoring services that limits the growth of this market. Besides all these, it is the growing demand for Internet of things (IoT) technology that is expected to provide more opportunities for this market in the coming years.Geographically, it is North America followed by Europe that forms some of the major regions for this market. The rise in application of IoT technology along with growing complexities in monitoring organizational databases has been some of the major drivers to positively impact Cloud Monitoring as a Service Market. Asia Pacific further contributed as another important region for this market along with being one of the fastest growing regions globally. China and India among others are some major countries pushing the growth of this market. Application of cloud based technology along with technological advancement has been a few major drivers for this market in Asia Pacific region.View Our Report @Some of the key companies present in the global cloud monitoring as a service market include Amazon.com, Inc. (The U.S.), Cisco Systems (The U.S.), Google (The U.S.), IBM Corporation (The U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (The U.S.), Oracle Corporation (The U.S.), CA Technologies (The U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), YAHOO! Inc. (The U.S.), and Hewlett-Packard (The U.S.) among others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Excimer Laser Market: Industry Analysis And Detailed Profiles Of Top Industry Players https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=23537 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/excimer-laser-market.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com An excimer laser, also known as exciplex laser, is one of the form of ultraviolet laser which is has major applications in the production of microelectronic equipment and devices, eye surgery, semiconductor based integrated chips or circuits and micromachining. An excimer laser primarily consists of reactive gas, for instance chlorine or fluorine along with noble gas, for example, krypton, argon, xenon. The excimer laser market has been segmented into by emission wavelength which includes less than 200 nm, 200 nm 300 nm and more than 300 nm. The market has been segmented into by end use industry which includes industrial equipment, aerospace and military, automotive, healthcare among others. The excimer laser market by region has been segmented into, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, South America and MEA (Middle East and Africa).The major industrial end use of excimer lasers has been in microelectronic equipment and devices along ultraviolet photolithography. Moreover, excimer lasers have high-power ultraviolet output which is making it useful for surgery, which is one of the driving factors which fuel the application of excimer lasers in medical devices. Furthermore, excimer lasers have major applications in research laboratory equipment. Major end use of excimer lasers include laser ablation, photolithography for semiconductor chips, pulsed laser deposition, the microstructuring of transparent media, laser marking, eye surgery, dye-laser pumping and psoriasis treatment.Get PDF Sample of This Report @With the growing technological advancement and research activities in the field of excimer lasers, the advanced and upgraded excimer lasers are having a positive impact on the market. Advanced excimer lasers primarily offers combination of short pulse duration and high pulse energy in the UV wavelengths. These prime attributes combine to offer a unique photonics tool primarily for the commercialization of novel end uses which include LTPS (low temperature poly-Si) annealing in FPD (flat panel display), pulsed laser deposition in thin-film manufacturing, direct patterning in advanced packaging markets and surface hardening in automotive sector. The lifetime of an excimer laser is limited by gas contamination, dust created by the electric discharge, corrosion processes, apart from problems with the high-voltage electronics. These challenges may inhibit the application of excimer laser in different end use industries which is considered as one of the restraining factor for the market. Cyclical nature of semiconductor industry may be considered as one of the challenging factor which may inhibit the growth of the excimer laser market. However, application of excimer laser for different end use industries which include manufacturing, construction and power generation is one of the prime opportunities for the market.In 2016, North America accounted for the largest market share in terms of revenue for the excimer laser market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The U.S. is leading the market for excimer laser in North America. Germany, the U.K., Italy, France among others are contributing positive share in the excimer lasers market. In Asia Pacific, China, Japan, and India, South Korea among others are some of the major market contributing in the positive development of the market for excimer lasers. In Middle East and Africa, there has been considerable advancement and development in the field of electronics and other industries for example; automotive sector is fueling the demand for excimer lasers market. In South America, Brazil and Argentina are anticipated to contribute positive growth over the forecast period from 2017 to 2025.View Our Report @Coherent, Inc. (The U.S.), Alcon Inc. (The U.S.), Wavelength Opto-Electronic (S) Pte Ltd. (Singapore), NIDEK CO., LTD. (Japan), AMS Technologies AG (Germany), Laser 2000 GmbH (Germany), Radiant Dyes Laser & Accessoires GmbH (Germany), Ziemer Ophthalmic Systems AG (Switzerland) among others are some of the prime companies operating in the excimer laser market globally.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Wearable Medical Devices Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2023 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1733 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1733 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wearable-medical-devices.html http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com The global Wearable Medical Devices Market is demonstrating a moderately fragmented structure, states a new research study by Transparency Market Research (TMR). In 2014, the top five vendors of wearable medical devices across the world, namely, Polar Electro, OMRON Corp., Fitbit Inc., and Medtronic, could hold only a share of 47.0% in the overall market. OMRON Corp. emerged the market leader with a share of 11%, the same year. The increasing focus of these vendors on producing technologically advanced home-healthcare products is likely to support the growth of this market in the years to come. The global market, at present, is highly competitive and the scenario is projected to remain so over the next few years, notes the market study.According to the research report, the global market for wearable medical devices is expected to proliferate at an exponential CAGR of 18.0% during the period from 2015 to 2023 and increase from US$2.7 bn in 2014 to US$10 bn by the end of the forecast period. Home healthcare has emerged as the key application area of wearable medical devices. Researchers anticipate this scenario to remain so over the next few years, states the research report.Request to View Sample of Report -Early Uptake of Wearable Technology Reflect Positively on North America MarketIn terms of the geography, the worldwide market for wearable medical devices is classified into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World in this research report. Currently, North America lead the global market and is anticipated to retain its position over the forthcoming years. The dominance of this region is mainly attributed to the early adoption of wearable technology, the presence of a large pool of mid-sized and large players, and the rising number of new players in the market. The North America market for wearable medical devices is likely to reach US$4.5 bn by the end of the forecast period.The U.S. and Canada are the key domestic wearable medical devices in North America. According to CDC, more than 29 million people in the U.S. are suffering from diabetes, which, consequently, is fueling the demand for glucose monitors, heart rate monitors, and activity monitors, translating in significant rise of the market for wearable medical devices in North America, notes the market study.Request to View Brochure of Report -Increasing Product Innovation to Support GrowthThe global market for wearable medical devices is gaining considerably from the augmenting demand for these devices to monitor the health of the patients and for assistance in the diagnosis of a number of diseases, says an analyst of TMR. Going forward, the increasing pace of product innovations and the escalating demand of portable and high-end devices from athletes and the young adults, who are tech-savvy and fitness-conscious both, are expected to support the global market, substantially, in the years to come, reports the research study.View Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite: Venkaiah Naidu's counterpart in Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan has already received one such rejoinder this Monsoon Session. Opposition parties led by Congress has prepared draft letter to protest certain actions of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and complain against him of what they allege, is his partisan role in conducting the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha. (Photo: File | PTI) New Delhi: Opposition parties led by the Congress has prepared a draft letter to protest certain actions of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and complain against him of what they allege, is his partisan role in conducting the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha. The parties are waiting for an appropriate time to hand over the letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman. This is the first time that such a letter will be sent to the Rajya Sabha chairman. Venkaiah Naidu's counterpart in the Lok Sabha, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has already received one such rejoinder this Monsoon Session. In the letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, eight opposition leaders had questioned how she had dealt with their attempt to move a no-trust motion against the government in the last session (Budget Session). According to NDTV sources, apart from the Congress, leaders from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had agreed to the move. "Some more parties are expected to join in," a senior opposition leader told NDTV. A Congress leader said the parties had been discussing how to clearly convey their anguish to the presiding officer for some time, had debated harsher steps, but for now, had settled for a letter to send its message. The list of allegations against Venkaiah Naidu includes that he doesnt allow opposition parties any space for debate, favours ruling party (BJP) members and adjourns the house according to his whims and fancies, Hindustan Times quoted an opposition leader saying. Sources to NDTV said that the letter by the opposition parties is broadly expected to underline three points One, is the growing perception among opposition that television channel run by the Rajya Sabha secretariat was being used to run down the opposition and propagate the ruling party's view. Opposition said they were also annoyed with the suspicious manner in which two questions asked in parliament and the government's response recently disappeared from the Rajya Sabha website. They returned only after media reports about the omission. These two related to the amount of demonetised currency notes received by cooperative banks including one in which, the Congress said, BJP president Amit Shah was on the board. Inside the house, the opposition has repeatedly questioned the conduct of the House when BJP president Amit Shah was speaking this week. When opposition members objected to a disparaging comment Amit Shah made to former prime ministers in his speech on the row over Assam citizens' list on Tuesday, the Rajya Sabha chairman had adjourned the house. What opposition members found curious was that the House was adjourned at 1 pm for just 10 minutes rather than break for lunch as has been the tradition. According to reports, the 10-minute adjournment happened for the first time in the history of Rajya Sabha. They said it looked as if it was done to allow the BJP president Amit Shah to complete his speech. "Sir, why are you calling a break like this? It is ten past one," Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien asked about the unusually short break when the house resumed. "First you answer, why is this disturbance?" Venkaiah Naidu shot back. The house had to be adjourned for the day a few minutes later. On Wednesday, opposition leaders again found it odd that the chairman invited Amit Shah to complete his speech that he had not been able to conclude due to disruptions rather than straightaway ask Home Minister Rajnath Singh to respond. Naidu is supposed to be the umpire but at times he acts like a player, Hindustan Times quoted an opposition leader as saying. There is, however, no clarity when the opposition leaders would submit their letter. Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Mobile Crane Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports. A mobile crane is a lifting device, which incorporates a cable-controlled crane mounted on rubber-tired carriers or crawlers or a hydraulic-powered crane with a telescoping boom. It is designed for easy transportation between the various operating locations by road. It is designed to be used with different types of loads and cargo, with Majchrzak touts experience in race for town supervisor Councilman Eugene Majchrzak is a familiar face to town residents. Hes been a member of the town board for 12 years and has spent more than 20 years in town... School background critical to Tepleskys supervisor run Daniel Teplesky loves to talk about his school background. Hes quick to tell supporters and voters about his time as a school superintendent from 2004-2014 and how it helped to... Town Democrats, Republicans gather for meet the candidates night For the first time during the 2021 election season, all of the candidates for town races were in the same place at the same time for a meet the candidates... Four years into cannabis legalization, the illegal market persists, production has proliferated unchecked and prices have plummeted, posing an economic threat to segments of the industry, according to a new report. The Oregon High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, known as HIDTA, this week issued a deep and wide-ranging analysis of the marijuana market, casting the state's program in a harsh light. The report is the first such examination since legalization was approved by voters in 2014. A comprehensive marijuana analysis has been a touchy political subject in Oregon. A draft report by Oregon State Police obtained last year by The Oregonian/OregonLive came under sharp criticism from the agency's brass and Gov. Kate Brown. The governor's staff characterized the draft as flawed, inaccurate and incomplete. State officials dropped efforts to revise or finalize the document; it was revived by the anti-trafficking organization, a federally funded outfit that helps manage law enforcement resources in high-intensity drug trafficking areas throughout the state. The report issued this week was written by the same analyst behind last year's state police report. The new report's findings echo those in the draft rejected by the governor: Oregon's rampant overproduction far outpaces consumer demand and legalization has done little to tamp down the export of cannabis to states where the drug remains illegal. It examined trends related to butane hash oil production and noted the "acute hydrologic strain" the industry has created in southern Oregon's Rogue River Basin. It concluded that the glut of cannabis in Oregon isn't only fueling the illegal trade, but also driving down prices. Since 2016, the market has seen a 50 percent price drop -- a trend that has hit Jackson, Josephine and Lane counties particularly hard. Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said the findings confirm concerns he has talked about in numerous contacts with top state officials. Williams, who has pressed state leaders to do more to contain the black market, called Oregon's cannabis market a "woefully under-regulated industry." "These are genuine issues that just absolutely have to be addressed and so far they haven't been," he said. "It's yet another reminder for the state that they need to be looking at these issues in a responsive and comprehensive manner." Added Williams: "I hope this is a wake-up call for leadership in the state of Oregon. I hope they take it seriously." HIDTA sent a copy of the report to Brown's office. The governor's spokesman Chris Pair didn't respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment. The report lays out Oregon's stubborn role in the illicit market, noting that between July 2015 and January 2018, nearly 15,000 pounds of cannabis worth an estimated $48 million was trafficked to 37 states. The majority came from Jackson and Josephine counties, the heart of outdoor production in Oregon, as well as Multnomah, Lane, Deschutes and Washington counties. Between July 2017 and March 2018, law enforcement seized nearly $1.7 million in proceeds coming into Portland International Airport from the illegal cannabis trade. Police also seized another $861,000 in marijuana moving through the airport during that period. The report highlights the stark disparity between production and demand, concluding that there's one grow site for every 19 cannabis consumers in Oregon. Oregon doesn't limit the number of cannabis licenses it issues. According to the report, the state's legal market has the capacity to churn out 2 million pounds of legal marijuana annually. Meanwhile, according to HIDTA's estimates, consumer demand ranges from 186,000 pounds to 372,600 pounds a year. To underscore the imbalance, it noted that nearly 70 percent of cannabis produced in the legal market hadn't been sold as of this year. -- Noelle Crombie ncrombie@oregonian.com 503-276-7184 @noellecrombie By Theresa Vargas The Washington Post Opinion Isata Jalloh didn't stop to take off the yellow rubber glove she used for cleaning. The Dulles International Airport maintenance worker had heard children were flying in from Sierra Leone, the country she had left years earlier, and she needed to see them. When they arrived, their bodies spoke of the brutality she had escaped: A 4-year-old girl was missing her right arm below the elbow. A 4-year-old boy had lost his left leg beyond his knee. A 15-year-old girl's left arm stopped at her wrist. Jalloh didn't know any of them, but she rushed in their direction, pulled them into a hug and sobbed. That emotional embrace was captured by a Washington Post reporter and photographer who were at the airport to cover the children's arrival in 2000. Jalloh's impromptu reaction is detailed in the last few paragraphs of the article, and a photo shows her pained face. Jalloh never saw either. Not that she needed a newspaper clip to remind her of that day. Nearly 18 years later, she recalls in vivid detail what airline brought the group, Air France, and why she cried so hard when she saw them. The tears were for the children in front of her, she said. But they were also for four children who weren't there - her own. She had left them in Sierra Leone and during the country's civil war, she couldn't easily reach them by phone. "Where are my kids?" she recalled thinking often. "At that time, I felt so confused, crying and crying." Jalloh came to the United States in 1996 when her children were 14, 12, 10 and 9, with the promise that she would send her mother enough money to give them a better life until Jalloh could secure visas for them to join her in the United States. For nearly two decades, her work at Dulles Airport helped her keep that promise, and in recent years, she has sent them as much as $500 a month. Then last month, she had to tell them she couldn't send anything. This month, she will also have nothing to spare. For the last 14 years, Jalloh had held two jobs at Dulles, cleaning the airport at night and pushing people in wheelchairs through its terminals during the day. Both jobs have meant spending all but 7-1/2 hours most days at the airport. But it also meant she could afford to pay the rent for an apartment in Herndon she shares with three people and still send money to Sierra Leone. That changed in May, when she was fired from the wheelchair job. Her supposed offense: Asking for a tip. Jalloh denies doing so but said it doesn't matter because she was not allowed to defend herself and no investigation was done. She showed up to work one day, she said, and was told she no longer had a job. The ease in which that happened speaks to the vulnerability of low-wage immigrant workers who can stand on seemingly steady ground for years, or even decades, and with the slightest kick, feel it crumble beneath them. Wheelchair agents, unknown to many in the public, are paid based on the assumption that they will earn tips, and yet they are not allowed to let passengers know that. Many of these workers were earning as little as $7.25 an hour before the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority's board in January started requiring companies that do business at the Dulles and Reagan National airports to pay contract workers a base hourly wage of $11.55. Jalloh said even so, she was earning $10.45 an hour, with the understanding that $1.10 was being deducted because of tips. These workers are also not protected by a union, despite a nearly three-year push to organize and multiple worker strikes, the most recent occurring in December. Jalloh believes her activism in support of a union is the real reason for her firing. At least four immigrant women have been fired at the airport in recent months, according to union organizers. They all worked for the same Texas-based company, Huntleigh USA, and they all claim they were not given a chance to defend themselves. One woman was left unable to pay her rent in the D.C. area or her mother's hospital fees in her native Ethiopia. She and her mother were both facing eviction when co-workers pulled together funds to help, one union organizer said. "Immigrant women already struggle more than most to support their families," said Jaime Contreras, a vice president for 32BJ SEIU, which has been working to negotiate on behalf of the airport workers. "We will not stand by idly as Huntleigh cuts a lifeline to these women who are barely hanging on." A call to Huntleigh, which employs hundreds of workers at Dulles and Reagan, was not returned. The company as of Wednesday also had not responded to a letter sent to it by clergy members, elected officials and others on behalf of Jalloh and other women. "We believe that the circumstances under which these women were fired are arbitrary and unfair," the letter reads. "Today community members, clergy men and women, and elected officials are all joining together in asking that your company do the right thing and give these women their jobs back." That's the only right move in this situation. By discarding these employees for such petty violations - if there is even proof they asked for tips - the company is hurting some of region's most vulnerable workers, some with long histories at an airport that serves as the first introduction for many visitors to the nation's capital. The company is also severing crucial lifelines, because we know this: When these women lose their footing, their fall is felt not only in the Washington region but also in countries with long histories of brutal acts taken against the defenseless. "They have nothing," Jalloh, 54, said of her children, crying. They are now grown but can't find employment in their country that will allow them to even afford the $800 a year they need to pay rent, she said. She filed the paperwork years ago for them to receive U.S. visas, but none have yet come through. She said she needs to find a way to send them money again. "Nobody helps them," she said. "Only I help them." Jalloh insists that she has never asked for a tip, even when she has been handed nothing, or a single quarter, which happens. The tip that led to her firing she said came from a couple from Saudi Arabia flying first class. She said her managers never spoke to them or they would have known that the only discussion that occurred about money took place between the couple and in Arabic. Jalloh said she and another wheelchair worker had taken the couple to where they needed to go and once they stopped, the man pulled out a $20 bill for them to split. Jalloh said she would have been grateful for that amount but that the man's wife then said something to him in Arabic, and he pulled out two $20 bills, one for each worker. Jalloh said she walked away from the encounter happy, thinking it was a lucky day. -- Theresa Vargas is a local columnist for The Washington Post. Before coming to The Post, she worked at Newsday in New York. She has degrees from Stanford University and Columbia University School of Journalism. @byTheresaVargas By Karen Tumulty The Washington Post Opinion Give President Donald Trump's most loathsome supporters this much: They don't hide who they are. A year ago, it was the white supremacists marching in Charlottesville. Now, just look for people wearing shirts and carrying signs with the letter "Q" at Trump rallies. They were all over the place in the crowd that showed up for the president's speech Tuesday night at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa. Most sane people had probably never heard of the QAnon until recently, though its theories would occasionally surface when spread by people such as actress Roseanne Barr and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Its information supposedly comes from "Q," an anonymous poster on several image boards who claims to be a government agent with top-secret clearance. It is what a Post headline accurately described as a "deranged conspiracy cult," one that has crawled out of the malodorous crevices of the Internet where decent people don't go. That it would announce its presence in public is both horrifying and perfectly predictable, given how racist lies that Barack Obama was born in Africa helped launch Trump on his path to the White House. The movement, if you care to dignify it by calling it one, is Birtherism 2.0. QAnon followers have a delusional fixation on pedophilia, an outgrowth of the #Pizzagate lie that went viral shortly before the 2016 election. That one, you might recall, ended up with a gunman opening fire in a D.C. pizza restaurant as he searched for children he thought were being trafficked from the establishment's nonexistent basement by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta. But those sick theories are only one book in QAnon's Canon of Crazy, as my colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker reports: "But viewing their message boards, it's clear that QAnon crosses a new frontier. In the black hole of conspiracy in which 'Q' has plunged its followers, Trump only feigned collusion to create a pretense for the hiring of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is actually working as a 'white hat,' or hero, to expose the Democrats. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros are planning a coup - and traffic children in their spare time. J.P. Morgan, the American financier, sunk the Titanic. "In the world in which QAnon believers live, Trump's detractors, such as Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, wear ankle monitors that track their whereabouts. Press reports are dismissed as 'Operation Mockingbird,' the name given to the alleged midcentury infiltration of the American media by the CIA. The Illuminati looms large in QAnon, as do the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish family vilified by the conspiracy theorists as the leaders of a satanic cult. Among the world leaders wise to satanic influences, the theory holds, is Russian President Vladimir Putin." Only slightly less offensive than the QAnon presence - and really, the bar is getting pretty low here - was the contingent of Trump supporters at the Tampa rally captured on video by one of their favorite targets, CNN's Jim Acosta. "Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa," Costa wrote on Twitter, describing the video. "I'm very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy." Many of these middle-finger-waving, F-bomb-hurling people probably think of themselves as pillars of their community, guardians of fundamental values. This kind of behavior, in their view, is just an expression of their patriotism. Surely, people such as these do not represent the majority of those who voted for Trump, or who continue to support him. And we have had other periods in our history when conspiracy theories - that the moon landing was a hoax, for example, or that John F. Kennedy's assassination was an inside job - have gained semi-wide circulation. But with the internet, sick minds can find and reinforce one other in ways they never have before. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame." But what happens when human beings lose their ability to feel shame? There is a real possibility that the forces Trump has unleashed may not go away when he does. And that may be the saddest, scariest thing of all. -- Karen Tumulty is a Washington Post columnist covering national politics. She joined The Post in 2010 from Time magazine and has also worked at the Los Angeles Times. @ktumulty As the summer heat temperatures increase in and around Oregon, I grow increasingly concerned for our more vulnerable residents. The high temperatures have recently drawn the attention of organizations, like Meals on Wheels, who put out a call for box fans to help the elderly populations beat the heat. After an outpouring of donations, volunteers were able to add something special to their food deliveries. Simple as it may seem, many seniors are on a fixed, limited income and it may be too much to provide a cooling method to their living spaces. Volunteers from Meals on Wheels are making a difference for those in need. They are always accepting donations and looking for volunteers. Organizations like this provide help and give meaning to older individuals' lives. Before stumbling across this information, I thought all Meals on Wheels did was deliver meals. I was surprised and pleased to find they do much more. They also take the time to talk, check on and listen to the people they make deliveries to. It is a great example of how we can do good for our community members. We can come together to take care of one another in small ways that make a big impact. Even if we can't volunteer our time, we can donate goods or write letters, make phone calls and raise awareness. There is always something that can be done to contribute to uplifting others. -- Bonnie Fisher, Eugene Share your opinion Fired up? ! Submit 250 words or less and please include your first and last name, hometown and a phone number for verification. For 2 1/2 years, Oregon State Police successfully concealed the names of the two SWAT officers who fatally shot Robert "LaVoy" Finicum as authorities arrested leaders of the armed takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. But that ended this week when one of the names slipped out in court. From the beginning, investigators moved to keep the officers' identities secret, citing threats to their safety. On the night of the 2016 shooting, the officers held paper bags in front of their heads to conceal their faces when detectives photographed them and their gear as evidence. State lawmakers within the month tried to rush through a bill in the Legislature aimed at protecting them. Police wanted to pave the way for a judge to shield names of officers for 90 days at a time if they face credible and imminent threats. The bill faltered in the Senate. For the trial of indicted FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita that began last week, prospective jurors weren't given the names of the two officers during the selection process; they were shown only photos to see if they knew the men. The judge instructed lawyers to identify the two as "Officer 1'' and "Officer 2,'' citing concerns about threats from militias, though defense attorneys argued authorities had identified no specific threats. Prosecutors also reminded witnesses at trial to consult a special placard placed on the witness stand that provided the pseudonyms they were to use for the two SWAT officers who shot and killed Finicum. But then Tuesday, another state police SWAT officer, Bob Olson, slipped and referred to Officer 1 by his last name and lieutenant's rank at the time. Officer 1 already had spent hours on the witness stand with no name slip-ups the day before. By Tuesday night, some people who were involved in or supported the refuge occupation posted the officer's name on Facebook and other social media. Others who had attended the trial confirmed online that the photo posted, found on the Internet from a prior award ceremony, matched the Officer 1 they had seen in court. "NEVER forget that name,'' B.J. Soper, a founding member of the Pacific Patriots Network, wrote on his Facebook page. He noted that the officer has been involved in three fatal officer-involved shootings and that he'd been promoted to captain since he shot and killed Finicum. "He is the man that murdered LaVoy Finicum.'' By Wednesday afternoon, Soper's post had more than 1,500 shares. Another person commented on Soper's post: "Burn baby burn." Jeanette Finicum, Finicum's widow, said she wasn't aware that Officer 1's name was circulating and said she didn't approve of it. "That's not good,'' she said, noting it takes just one loose cannon to harm someone. Jeanette Finicum said she has relatives in law enforcement and four sons in the military and understands the security concerns of state police. She said, however, that she doesn't like getting lumped in with people making threats. Government officials, she said, "are acting like I'm going to do something inappropriate'' against the officers or witnesses. "But then you see this,'' she said, referring to the social media backlash against the officer. Jeanette Finicum is attending Astarita's trial and has a separate federal wrongful death lawsuit pending against state police and the FBI in her husband's death. Ammon Bundy, the occupation's lead organizer, also got into the fray on Facebook. He urged supporters to consider several things "before someone goes and hangs this guy." He said the officer was following orders and had been briefed by federal officials that the refuge occupiers were dangerous. "I pray for him and hope he can see what he is doing," Bundy wrote. "He is a brainwashed man who has been fed lies his entire adult life about what it really is to defend freedom." Bundy used the officer's name. The Oregonian/OregonLive is not publishing the name because of safety concerns. Officer 1 and Officer 2, whose name so far hasn't slipped out, shot Finicum after he walked away from his truck at a roadblock on U.S. 395 outside of Burns on Jan. 26, 2016. Oregon law enforcement officials ruled the shooting justified. Finicum was reaching inside his jacket pocket where he had a loaded handgun, investigators said. Moments earlier, Astarita is accused of shooting twice at Finicum's truck and then lying when he denied taking the shots. One of the bullets hit the roof of Finicum's truck and the other missed. He has pleaded not guilty to making false statements and obstruction of justice. At two points in the trial, the judge summoned lawyers from both sides to his chambers, citing a security concern. After Officer 1 testified, he was escorted out the side jury door of the courtroom, then down the stairs of the courthouse, as were some of the FBI agents who testified. On Wednesday, court security began dumping out people's bags to examine their contents, instead of just opening them and looking inside. For trial, everyone must check all of their electronics with court security and pass through a metal detector set up outside the courtroom before entry. The only other law enforcement officer to testify under a pseudonym is an FBI Hostage Rescue Team agent identified only as B.M., though his last name slipped out at least two times in open court. Prosecutors said they're protecting him because of his special assignment with the U.S. Army Reserve. After that agent's name was revealed in court, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones issued a written order, ensuring the court transcript doesn't contain the names that he ordered be withheld. Before the trial, the judge directed the U.S. Marshals Service to "provide for the safety and security'' of Astarita and all witnesses, and authorized marshals to take "precautions'' they deem necessary to accomplish that. Capt. Timothy Fox, a state police spokesman, declined to comment on the outing of Officer 1. "I feel it is inappropriate for OSP to comment on any circumstances related to the trial or witnesses, while the trial is ongoing,'' he said. -- Maxine Bernstein mbernstein@oregonian.com 503-221-8212 @maxoregonian TMC leader Derek O'Brien said this is a matter on which all opposition parties agreed and they would meet next week to discuss the plan. The TMC had staged protests outside Parliament, questioning the neutrality of EVMs and demanded that ballot papers be brought back for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. (Representational Image) New Delhi: Seventeen opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, are planning to approach the Election Commission, demanding that ballot papers be used to conduct the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The 17 parties would meet next week to discuss the plan. "This is a matter on which all opposition parties agreed. We are planning to meet next week. We plan to go to Election Commission and demand that the EC conduct the coming Lok Sabha elections using ballot papers," TMC leader Derek O'Brien told reporters. The initiative to solicit the support of all opposition parties on the matter was taken by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, when she visited Parliament to meet opposition leaders and invite them for her planned rally in Kolkata on January 19. Banerjee was heard appealing to opposition party leaders who visited her in the TMC office in Parliament, to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission over reports of EVM tampering and to demand that the 2019 general election be held on ballots. "All opposition parties should go to EC on this matter. There should be a joint delegation of opposition parties to EC," Banerjee was heard telling opposition party leaders, including from the Congress. The TMC had staged protests outside Parliament, questioning the neutrality of electronic voting machines, and demanded that ballot papers be brought back for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party in West Bengal said it is a "common programme" that will unite all opposition parties. Interestingly, Banerjee had also urged the Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, to be a part of the delegation. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray previously demanded that the 2019 Lok Sabha election be conducted using ballot papers instead of EVMs. A wildland fire in north-central Oregon south of the Dalles has grown to an estimated 20,000 acres and is threatening dozens of homes and forcing hundreds to evacuate the area, officials said Thursday morning. Strong winds from the northwest helped fuel the blaze, known as the South Valley fire, as it carved a path of destruction across wheat fields and stands of oak and ponderosa pine, the officials said during a press conference held in Dufur. At one point Wednesday, as gusts reached 45 miles per hour, the fire managed to expand more than five miles in a matter of hours, the officials said. Structures have been burned or badly damaged, though a precise figure is not known, said Stefan Myers with the Oregon State Fire Marshal's Office. Over 170 homes are threatened, Myers said at another press conference later Thursday, and over 500 people have been affected by evacuations. The fire erupted Wednesday southwest of Dufur and was called in about 1:30 p.m. Officials believe the fire was likely human-caused, though the precise cause remains under investigation. Governor Kate Brown Wednesday evening declared the blaze a conflagration, allowing the state fire marshal to order statewide firefighters and equipment to be used to assist in battling the fire. Roughly 150 firefighters are currently battling the blaze, officials said. More than 100 local ranchers have also pitched in to help. Officials said the fire is 5 percent contained. A section of U.S. 197 that was closed south of Dufur on Wednesday has since re-opened, according to TripCheck. The latest evacuation information can be found on the Wasco County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. A Red Cross shelter has been opened at The Dalles Middle School, said Christie Shaw, a spokeswoman with the Oregon Department of Forestry. The South Valley fire is the third major wildfire in recent weeks to erupt in the area, which includes parts of Wasco and Sherman counties. The 80,000-acre Substation fire ravaged fields, farms and families east of the Dalles last month and killed one rancher. The Long Hollow fire near Dufur began last week and charred more than 30,000 acres, though it is now almost entirely contained. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh skavanaugh@oregonian.com 503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh Jim Ryan of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report At least 79 migrants locked up in Oregon the past two month have legitimate asylum claims, immigration officials concluded over the past two weeks, possibly paving the way for their release from federal prison. The detainees represented by the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab were judged to have "credible fear" of violence or reprisals if returned to their home country, said Leland Baxter-Neal, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who's been instrumental in the effort to provide the detainees with legal representation. The 74 can now ask a federal immigration judge to release them. "It's absolutely great news," Baxter-Neal said. "What it says is that all of these detainees are legitimate asylum seekers." After a crackdown last spring ordered by the Trump administration, thousands of migrants trying to cross into the country illegally even asylum seekers -- were taken into custody. Children were separated from their parents and sent to separate detention centers, fueling a firestorm of criticism from rival politicians and immigration advocates. President Trump stood by his zero-tolerance policy saying "criminals" were using kids as cover to get into the U.S. "Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country ," Trump complained on Twitter in June. "Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S. " U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley was in the middle of the scrum after he showed up at migrant detention centers in Texas. Oregon's junior senator was denied entry to one facility, which was captured on video. The incident drew millions of views on social media. He also helped make the issue an international controversy after reporting seeing children in "cages." More than 120 of the migrants were transported to the Federal Correctional Institution at Sheridan in rural Yamhill County. They were a diverse group, more of them from India, Nepal and elsewhere in South Asia than Mexico or Central America. Many spoke no English and had no idea why they were being held or even where they were. Lisa Hay, federal public defender in Portland, swiftly filed 74 habeas corpus petitions on the detainees' behalf claiming the conditions were unconstitutional. They were held three to a cell with a common toilet and, for the first weeks at least, were restricted to their cells as much as 23 hours a day. Most of the Sheridan immigrants arrived there in late May or early June. Lawyers said Sheridan prison officials got 24 hours notice of the new arrivals, which doubled the prison's population. After being denied access to the prisoners a number of times, a cadre of volunteer immigration lawyers got into Sheridan and started the asylum process. One of the first steps in that process is a "credible fear" interview with an asylum officer from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. To get asylum, they must show they have a credible fear of persecution or harm if returned to their home country "on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion." At least 79 Sheridan detainees have been through their interviews and all were successful. All 79 were represented by the Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon non-profit. The other approximately 40 migrants held at Sheridan are represented by other lawyers. Their status is unclear. Lawyers for the detainees hailed the rulings. "After a very robust process that involved several layers of review, asylum officers found that all 79 individuals had credible or reasonable fears of persecution and torture," said Stephen Manning, head of the Innovation Law Lab. "It underscores the misguided nature of our immigration detention policies." Getting a favorable credible fear ruling does not mean the immigrants are home free. They still must persuade an immigration judge they deserve asylum. But a favorable credible fear determination does get the immigrant off the expedited removal list. Additionally, those with favorable credible fear determinations who can prove they're not flight risks and do not pose a danger to the community may be paroled from detention. The controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes the call on parole requests. It's unclear when those parole hearings could take place, though it's clear some expected the first detainees to be released this week. "I don't know that any are scheduled," Baxter-Neal said. "But the release hearings are coming soon." Advocacy groups are seeking sponsors, short-term housing, drivers, interpreters and other help for the prisoners. The Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon issued a plea for help on its Facebook page to form a "post-detention respite network." -- Jeff Manning Update: 8 a.m. Aug. 2 The Oregon Department of Justice is looking into a complaint that an agreement struck by Gov. Kate Brown, Nike and public employee unions in late June to keep an initiative off the ballot violated state elections law. The union-backed proposal, Initiative Petition 25, would have required Nike and other large companies to disclose tax payments and other closely held business details. The unions said they collected more than enough signatures to get it on the ballot but decided not to proceed. Around the same time, Nike donated $100,000 to the Common Good Fund, a political action committee which is expected to campaign against two tax initiatives on the November ballot opposed by Brown and the public employee unions. The committee was formed by Nike's senior director of government and public affairs Julia Brim-Edwards, who is also on the Portland Public Schools board. In a letter dated July 24, Portland resident Richard Leonetti says the arrangement violated the prohibition in state law against paying to "sell, hinder or delay any part of an initiative, referendum or recall petition." Leonetti's letter, which he said was prepared by an unidentified lawyer, states that the Legislature passed the election law in question "to prohibit the payment of money in exchange for withdrawing initiatives, and if this practice is allowed then surely there will be a flood of initiatives filed with the sole motivation of securing payments to certain PACs or organizations in exchange for withdrawing initiatives." Leonetti named the governor, Brim-Edwards, AFSCME executive director Stacy Chamberlain and SEIU Local 503 president Steven Demarest in the complaint filed with the Secretary of State's office. Staffers there referred it to the Oregon Department of Justice to investigate, which is standard protocol for such complaints. Last month, Brown's re-election campaign revealed to OPB that she had brokered a deal with Nike and the public employee unions to keep the corporate transparency initiative off the ballot. The news organization also reported Leonetti's complaint on Tuesday. It's a characterization the unions, which support Brown's campaign, disagreed with on Wednesday. "It was an internal decision," said Joe Baessler, political director for AFSCME. "We didn't withdraw the measure because of Nike." Baessler said the union did not anticipate how many initiatives it opposed would wind up on the November ballot, raising the prospective of an expensive campaign to defeat them. "It's just a question of resources," Baessler said. Demarest, with SEIU Local 503, said in an emailed statement that the complaint "has no merit." He agreed with Baessler that unions dropped their initiative in order to focus on defeating the two anti-tax initiatives. Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Nike, declined to comment on the complaint. Brown's communications director Chris Pair declined to comment on the elections complaint, saying that it was a question for the governor's re-election campaign. Brown's campaign spokesman, Christian Gaston, wrote in an email that the complaint was "baseless." This story has been updated to reflect the following corrections: an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Brim-Edwards was chair of the Portland Public Schools board and that the Oregon Department of Justice was investigating the complaint. DOJ is reviewing the complaint before deciding whether to open an investigation. -- Hillary Borrud 503-294-4034; @hborrud A Beaverton man has been arrested for the second time in four months on allegations of sex crimes against minors, bringing the number of victims to five, police said. Reachana Chan, 24, was arrested Wednesday, accused of rape and abuse, this time with 30 sex crimes involving three minors. Similar allegations were made against him earlier in the year, Beaverton police said in a news release. The three victims were between the ages of 12 and 13 at the time of the crimes, police said. They came forward after Chan was arrested by Beaverton police in March following a Washington County Grand Jury indictment on numerous sex abuse charges involving two minors. Chan posted bail after his March arrest and was awaiting trial when he was arrested Wednesday, said Officer Jeremy Shaw, a Beaverton police spokesman. Chan's current bail has been set at $5.25 million. Chan met his victims online, Shaw said, adding that more victims are likely because of the access social media sites provide. The three most recent victims, whom Chan met through social media sites like MeetMe, Facebook and KIK, knew him by the name Brandon, police said. In July, a Washington County Grand Jury indicted Chan on 30 additional sex crimes in 2013 and 2014, including: Three counts of rape in the second degree Eight counts of sexual abuse in the first degree One count of sodomy in the first degree Three counts of sodomy in the second degree Thirteen counts of using a child in display of sexual explicit conduct One count of unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree One count of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree In March, he was indicted on the following involving two incidents between November 2014 and April 2015 with two 16-year-old victims: One count of sex abuse in the second degree One count of luring a minor Four counts of sex abuse in the third degree. Police urge any additional victims to contact Detective Maggie Brown at 503-526-2538. Shaw encouraged parents to check their children's social media accounts regularly. --Anna Spoerre @annaspoerre Updated at 9:15 a.m. Police are searching for a man who sneaked into a Beaverton home and assaulted a 10-year-old. The man came in through an open, screened first floor window and cut a young girl in the neck while she was sleeping, said Officer Jeremy Shaw, a Beaverton police spokesman. The suspect was a stranger to the child, Shaw said. Police arrived to the scene in the 13700 block of Southwest Sixth Street around 3:45 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release. The child, who suffered non-life threatening injuries, alerted family in the house and the intruder fled, authorities said. A multitool, which included a knife, was found at the scene. The suspect, a slim male in his early 20s, had short dark hair, was wearing a white tank top, black shorts and smelled of marijuana, police said. A witness told police the man sprinted west on Southwest Sixth Street toward Southwest Murray Boulevard. Shortly after, a silver two-door Honda Civic with a loud muffler was seen speeding away from the scene. Authorities are asking anyone with information on the incident to call 503-526-2538 and ask for Detective Maggie Brown. As the summer days become warm nights, many people without air conditioning look for ways to stay cool. Shaw advised leaving windows only partially opened and secured in such a way that limits a person's ability to crawl through. --Anna Spoerre By Deborah Bloom, Special to The Oregonian/OregonLive What had been a fun-filled vacation turned into a scene of terror for a Portland family of six aboard the Aeromexico plane that crashed Tuesday. Donald Hudson, his wife, and their four children were heading back to their home in Northeast Portland after 13 days in Mexico - a trip filled with adventures to Mayan ruins, fresh seafood, and family friends. Once the plane reached the runway, a deluge of rain, wind and hail hit the tarmac. "We all thought, 'Sure, they're just going to delay the plane for 20 minutes,'" Hudson recalled. Instead, the engine powered up, and the plane rolled forward. Next to him, Hudson's daughter remarked: "Maybe they're just used to flying in this kind of weather?" The plane gained momentum, lifting off the ground in a terrifyingly bumpy takeoff. Seconds later, it plummeted, then bumped violently up and down the runway before crashing into a field of brambles next to the Durango airport. "It was bone-jarring," Hudson said. He saw flames blow into the plane, incinerating a part of the bulkhead and engulfing several passengers. Hudson shot out of his seat. "I turned to my boys and said, 'Run!'" All 103 passengers on board the plane survived, the Associated Press reports. Hudson's sons, 5 and 7, were the first two passengers to skid down the evacuation slide. Their older sister followed. As he was trying to reach his wife, Colleen, Hudson was instead jostled out of the plane by a stampede of frightened passengers. He stood at the bottom of the slide, helping other passengers disembark, when his wife finally emerged from the plane with their terrified 3-year-old daughter in her arms. "She was a bloody mess," Hudson recalled of his wife. Their daughter, Aela, was uninjured. The Hudson family, alongside other passengers, ran from the aircraft just as it began to explode. "We just kept hearing explosions, one after the other," Hudson said. "We were running through the field, just praying that debris wouldn't rain down on us." Once the explosions stopped, Hudson and his family returned to the tarmac to meet the cadre of emergency vehicles that had arrived. Hudson and his children were relatively unscathed, but his wife had a deep puncture wound on her face, a broken nose, and a concussion. "They were offering us an ambulance, but there were people far worse than she was," Hudson said. "There were people with smoke inhalation, burn victims, broken bones - far worse than we are, and we wanted to save the ambulances and the immediate medication attention for the people that needed it." A family friend took the Hudsons to the emergency room where Colleen could get medical help. It was chaos, Hudson recalled. In a cordoned-off section of the hospital where many waited for news of their loved ones, people were panicking. There were language barriers - some patients couldn't speak Spanish, whereas some hospital staff couldn't speak English. Some crash victims stepped in to act as translators, Hudson said. "It's an itty-bitty hospital in an itty-bitty town. They weren't prepared to take care of 100 people all at once." Terrified, soaked, and shivering, Hudson's children waited for news of their mother, when small random acts of kindness began to start softening the horror of the day's events. Noticing Aela shivering, a woman removed her jacket and wrapped it around the freezing child. Another woman gave Hudson's older daughter a pair of flip-flops to replace her soaked shoes. A man took off his shirt and gave it to 7-year-old son, Declan, to keep warm. "These were amazing people," Hudson said. Colleen was wheeled into the trauma room, and Hudson breathed a sigh of relief. "That was the first time I knew she was going to be okay," he said through tears. "I was more in love with her in that moment than the day I married her." Hudson and his family will return to Portland on Thursday. Though his children made it out of the crash with a couple of scratches, "They're fine ... obviously mentally and emotionally traumatized, but they'll be OK." Eager to put a positive spin of things, young Declan even made a surprising suggestion: "He told us, 'Let's not be scared on this day, July 31,'" Hudson recalled. "'Let's make it a family holiday instead.'" VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has decreed that the death penalty is "inadmissible" under all circumstances and that the Catholic Church must work to abolish it, changing official church teaching to reflect his view that all life is sacred and there is no justification for state-sponsored executions. The Vatican said Francis had approved a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church -- the compilation of official Catholic teaching -- to say that capital punishment constitutes an "attack" on the dignity of human beings. Previously, the catechism said the church didn't exclude recourse to capital punishment "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." Previous popes have upheld that position, while urging an end to the practice. The new teaching, contained in Catechism No. 2267, says the previous policy is outdated, that there are other ways to protect the common good, and that the church should instead commit itself to working to end capital punishment. "Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme means of safeguarding the common good," the new text reads. It said today "there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes." New systems of detention and sanctions have been developed that don't deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption, it added. "Consequently, the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide," reads the new text, which was approved in May but only published Thursday. Francis has long railed against the death penalty, insisting it can never be justified, no matter how heinous the crime. He has also long made prison ministry a mainstay of his vocation and even opposes life sentences, which he has called "hidden" death sentences. On nearly every foreign trip, Francis has visited with inmates to offer words of solidarity and hope, and he still stays in touch with a group of Argentine inmates he ministered to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires. The death penalty has been abolished in most of Europe and South America, but it is still in use in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Just this week Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could soon move to reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union. In an accompanying letter explaining the change, the head of the Vatican's doctrine office said the development of Catholic doctrine on capital punishment didn't contradict prior teaching but rather was an evolution of it -- a defense to fend off critics who have already accused the pope of heresy for challenging past doctrine on capital punishment. Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the change aims to "give energy" to the anti-death penalty movement and "to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect." Francis is not alone. Perhaps the most famous Roman Catholic anti-death penalty campaigner is Sister Helen Prejean, whose book "Dead Man Walking" -- about her spiritual ministry to a man on death row -- helped fuel opposition in the U.S. to capital punishment. In addition, plenty of Catholic organizations are active in the anti-death penalty campaign, including the Sant'Egidio Community, which together with Italian authorities always lights up Rome's Colosseum whenever a country abolishes capital punishment. In a statement Thursday, Sant'Egidio said the change served "as another push to the church and Catholics, based on the Gospel, to respect the sacredness of human life and to work at all levels and on every continent to abolish this inhuman practice." It was precisely Francis' citation of the Gospel, however, that sparked criticism from some on the Catholic right, who cited Scripture in arguing that Francis had no authority to change what previous popes taught. "He is in open violation of the authority recognized to him. And no Catholic has any obligation of obedience to abuse of authority," tweeted the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli. Some on social media questioned the timing of the announcement, given that the Vatican and the Catholic Church is under extraordinary fire once again over clerical sex abuse and how bishops around the world covered it up for decades. The U.S. church, in particular, is reeling from accusations that one of the most prominent U.S. cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, allegedly abused minors as well as adult seminarians. "Coming in the midst of the sex abuse revelations, the timing is curious... and more fury is not what the Church needs at this moment," noted Raymond Arroyo, host of the Catholic broadcaster EWTN. Francis announced his intention to change church teaching on capital punishment in October, when he marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catechism itself. The catechism, first promulgated by St. John Paul II, gives Catholics an easy, go-to guide for church teaching on everything from the sacraments to sex. At that 2017 ceremony, Francis said the death penalty violates the Gospel and amounts to the voluntary killing of a human life, which "is always sacred in the eyes of the creator." He acknowledged that in the past even the Papal States had allowed this "extreme and inhuman recourse." But he said the Holy See had erred in allowing a mentality that was "more legalistic than Christian" and now knew better. Amnesty International, which has long campaigned for a worldwide ban on the death penalty, welcomed the development as an "important step forward." "Already in the past, the church had expressed its aversion to the death penalty, but with words that did not exclude ambiguities," said Riccardo Noury, Amnesty Italia spokesman. "Today they are saying it in an even clearer way." In addition, he praised the clear indication of the church's commitment to the cause beyond doctrine. "There seems to be also a desire to see the Catholic Church take an active role in the global abolitionist movement," he added. -- The Associated Press BEVERLY HILLS, California -- Though reporters asked about the political leanings of Tim Allen's character in the "Last Man Standing" revival coming to Fox, the star and producers emphasized that the show is a family comedy, not a vehicle for conservative viewpoints. The plan isn't to address whether the character of Mike Baxter (Allen) is a Donald Trump supporter, said the executive producers. Mike has conservative views, but that's not what the show is about. "We just want people to give it a fair shake," said Matt Berry, a writer and executive producer, adding that "Last Man Standing" is a good family show. Baxter is kind of a centrist, Allen said of his character. "If it's helping his business, he's probably pro-Trump." "I'm not the character I play," Allen said adding that if people really want to see him in action, they should go to one of his stand-up comedy shows. It was inevitable that journalists gathered for the Television Critics Association 2018 summer press tour would ask some politically themed questions about "Last Man Standing." The comedy, in which Allen plays a married father of three daughters who works as marketing manager for an outdoor store in Colorado, was canceled by ABC in 2017. Since the comedy's Friday night ratings were good, fans blamed the cancellation on the conservative beliefs of Allen, and of his character on "Last Man Standing." Others reported that since ABC didn't own the show, which was produced by 20th Century Fox, the network was looking more at the bottom line than at politics when it canceled "Last Man Standing." Allen said he thinks the cancellation was "a financial decision on ABC's part." When Fox announced it was picking up the show a year after Fox canceled it, the move seemed obviously inspired by ABC's success in reviving "Roseanne." Before it imploded following Roseanne Barr's offensive posts on Twitter, "Roseanne" was a ratings smash, and the Trump-supporting character of Roseanne Conner, along with Barr's own Trump support, were considered part of the reason why "Roseanne" scored such strong ratings. Kevin Abbott, executive producer/writer/showrunner for "Last Man Standing" said that the "Roseanne" revival took on different issues each week. "We don't do issues of the week," Abbott said of "Last Man Standing." What makes the show relevant, Berry added, is that it reflects that even though there may be disagreements within families, they're still a family. "You're allowed to disagree in this family," Berry said. The panel also included Nancy Travis, who returns in the role of Vanessa Baxter, Mike's wife, and cast members Amanda Fuller, Jordan Masterson, Jonathan Adams and Christoph Sanders. The role of Mandy, one of the Baxters' daughters, is being recast, because Molly Ephraim isn't returning to the show. Though some changes will be made, "Last Man Standing" will still feel like the same show fans enjoyed, the producer said. "The first scene of the first show is a little present" for fans, Berry said. "Last Man Standing" returns for a seventh season at 8 p.m. Sept. 28 on Fox. Stay tuned for more news and notes from the TCA 2018 summer press tour. -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist Shiver me timbers. A man in a pirate mask -- complete with a fake eye patch, beard and parrot -- is suspected of stealing a safe from a Cornelius business last month, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. More than $4,000 in cash was believed to be inside. Now deputies serving the small city are asking for help finding the costumed suspect, dubbed the "Masked Pirate" burglar. The sheriff's office said deputies responded on the morning of July 23 to an overnight burglary at the Last Lap, a pub at 1515 N. Adair St. Employees showed up and learned a safe, which was believed to have held over $4,000 in cash, had been stolen, the agency said. Deputies reviewed surveillance footage and saw the man -- clad in the kooky mask -- enter the business after hours. He wore a T-shirt only across his shoulders and held a fire extinguisher, the sheriff's office said in a news release. The agency said he disabled the interior security camera after examining the safe and that deputies think he took the safe using a hand truck and fled in a stolen pickup truck. The agency said the truck was later found abandoned, license plates stripped, in western Washington County. The sheriff's office asks anyone who has information to contact Cornelius deputies at 503-629-0111. There's no word on whether authorities plan to make him walk the plank if he's apprehended. -- Jim Ryan Dear Carolyn: I don't know how to help my troubled sister. She has been fighting the world since she was a little girl. She is so unhappy and stops speaking to friends and family members, including me, on a rotating basis because we have disappointed her or stood up to her. It is always someone else's fault and she doesn't see herself as the common denominator. I have learned I can't fix this for her and any advice I provide puts me in the hot seat for an hour or so of verbal beating. I love her because she is my sister and I won't abandon her as several of her close friends and family have. I know it is hard to be her and I am sad this is her life. I think the only thing I can offer is to listen to her problems, which are many and daily. I would tell her to go see a therapist, as this isn't what I want to do anymore, but she has chased them or bullied them all away. I have set boundaries and don't always answer the phone but feel occasionally I should reach out and call -- but then it is another hour of saying "uh-huh" as she tells me her current troubles. When I cut her off and say I have to go, I feel guilty, even though I am so often on the receiving end of her venom. I guess my question is, how do I stop feeling so sorry for her? And is there anything I could do to support her better? She is married with grown children, but that is another story I can't fix. -- Broken Sister's Little Sister Standing by her is a thoughtful gift you're giving your sister. Note: Gift. You are not making good on an obligation or repaying a debt. Unless, that is, you see kindness to the afflicted as a cosmic debt we all would do well to pay -- there I'd agree, within limits. But even if that's the source of your guilt, please know you can be kind and boundaried both. They're not contradictory. In fact, listening without limit isn't support, it's enabling; unloading on you satisfies any need she has to talk, thereby rewarding her choice to reject the much harder work of therapy. Columnist Carolyn Hax dishes out advice daily. Email Carolyn at Read the Email Carolyn at tellme@washpost.com , follow her on Facebook or chat with her online at noon Eastern time each Friday at www.washingtonpost.com Read the daily Carolyn Hax columns at https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/advice/ That your sister has been -- and bless you for this phrasing, it's perfect -- "fighting the world since she was a little girl" does aptly convey your sense of futility, but it also suggests you're in over your head in trying to help. To support her at this point, consider a session or three of professional help for yourself. It's unrealistic to expect families to both diagnose and respond helpfully as laypeople to someone's mental and emotional challenges. So while you can certainly tweak your current approach -- consult your conscience and patience, make a sparser call schedule, set shorter time limits, follow meticulously -- there's no substitute for an informed understanding of what you and she are up against. A call to the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline (1-800-950-6264 or nami.org) is free and might be all you need. Your guilt feelings, though, hint at deeper entanglement, in which case your family doctor can likely start you off with some therapists' names. Venkaiah Naidu said he felt embarrassed when children in the visitors' gallery witness disruptions in the house. The Vice President, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, said in democracy, everyone must have tolerance towards the mandate of the people and the majority should be tolerant towards the minority. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday that parliamentary democracy will flourish if the government is responsive and the Opposition responsible, while underlining that no one can "dictate" to the House. Addressing members in the central hall of Parliament after 'Outstanding Parliamentarian awards' were given away, Naidu said he felt embarrassed when children in the visitors' gallery witness disruptions in the house. Such disruptions were not good for democracy in the country, he said. "Let the government propose, the opposition oppose and the House dispose, you cannot dictate to the House...that is the spirit of parliamentary democracy. It will flourish if the government is responsive and the opposition responsible. If you follow this, parliamentary democracy will definitely succeed," he said. The Vice President, who is also the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, said in democracy, everyone must have tolerance towards the mandate of the people and the majority should be tolerant towards the minority. "The opposition must have its say and the government must have its way...that's the only way...If you are agitated, concerned, you can raise any issue in parliament. What you can do...effectively articulate... not happy, walkout, but no breakout, otherwise democracy will be all out," he said. Naidu said parliamentarians need to conduct themselves in such a manner that the prestige, decency and decorum of Parliament is maintained, adding "people respect us because of our calibre, talent, and conduct and not because of anything else". "Sometimes, when I sit in the House and some discussion takes place, I look towards visitors gallery and I find children, who come to Parliament, and sometimes, I fell shy. I do not raise my head...This situation is not good for our democracy. We have to conduct ourselves in such a manner that the prestige, decency and decorum of Parliament is maintained and see to it that people respect us because of our calibre, talent, and conduct and not because of anything else," he noted. Naidu said parliamentarians have been elected, selected and sent here to serve the cause of the people of the respective constituency and the state. "We must remember that we have a great responsibility to set some standards." He said children in schools, colleges and universities and people from various walks of life look towards parliament for guidance, for inspiration. "We should always remember before doing anything, saying anything which is against parliamentary traditions," he said. Naidu congratulated the MPs who won the 'Outstanding Parliamentarian award' and expressed the hope that they inspire others. "We owe the richness and vibrancy of parliamentary democracy to these parliamentarians," he said, adding that parliamentarians are proud of the rich and shining legacy of people like Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Azad, B R Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Atal Behari Vjpayee, L K Advani, Sharad Pawar. "We must remember the great contribution made by these great parliamentarians to strengthen parliamentary democracy... to serve the people... I am confident that our great nation will continue to produce equally great parliamentarians to serve our revered mother land," he said. Naidu also had a word of praise for Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, noting that with him around, the job of the chair becomes easier comparatively as he has always banked upon him in resolving any deadlock in the house. A visit by dignitaries to a local child care center served to highlight the importance of keeping families strong and kids out of the criminal justice system, with the added bonus of a reading session with some children. The Wednesday morning visit to Michigan Child Care Centers Inc. (Kinder Kare) at 1184 James Savage Road, included Congressman John Moolenaar, Midland County Sheriff Scott Stephenson and New Life Vineyard Church Pastor Don Milton. Madeline Shepherd, Council for a Strong America associate director of federal policy, welcomed the group and pointed out Moolenaar's leadership has resulted in $147 million in 2018 in federal discretionary funding for childcare. That is up from $84 million in 2017, she said. "Where children are concerned, the work is never truly finished," she said of the effect of the funding -- keeping kids off the streets in safe, supervised environments where they are learning life skills, rather than become victims of crime or becoming involved in the justice system themselves. Stephenson, a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an organization that promotes solutions to steer kids away from crime, said the hours after school are a prime time for unsupervised children to get into trouble. Having a safe place to go that reinforces skills learned in school - such as afterschool programming - helps prevent crime from occurring. He also said afterschool programs are cost-effective, saving at least $3 for each $1 invested by increasing children's future earning potential and improving their performance in school. "I have seen the effects of different programs," he said, adding it takes partnerships to keep positive results. Milton, who participates in the Shepherding the Next Generation program focusing on strengthening families, pointed out his ministry has visited some of the areas of poverty within Midland County, citing one mobile home park in particular. "Our goal is to help the children grow and become productive citizens and not repeat the situation," he said, adding education and people who care are necessary to reach that goal. Moolenaar said mentoring the next generation is key to a strong America, and that he looks at the issue as a former school administrator as well as a parent. In the first role, he saw the importance of kids in school, curious to learn, with people to encourage them in their strengths. In the second, he said he appreciated a learning environment that helped his children grow and mentors to help them along the way. "We want to invest in those areas," Moolenaar said. "I consider this a wise investment." Shepherd encouraged lawmakers to continue making investments to high-quality early childhood care and education programs. "We know that high quality is what makes a difference in the lives of children," said Kristin Nowak, Kinder Kare administrative director. The event closed with Moolenaar, Stephenson and Milton taking turns reading a book to a room of 4-year-old children. The Supreme Court has also issued notice to Bihar government and the Centre and sought reply from them. Over 30 minor girls were sedated, tortured and raped at a government funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district, from where 42 girls were rescued late last month. (Photo: YouTube | Screengrab) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the media from showing, even in morphed form, images of the alleged victims of rape and sexual assault at a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, observing they cannot be compelled to "relive the trauma" again and again. The apex court ban in which the media was also asked not to interview the victims came on a day when a state-wide bandh was called by the Left parties in Bihar in protest against the alleged sex abuse at the shelter home run by a state-funded NGO. Expressing concern over the alleged victims being subjected to media interviews, a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta ordered the ban after taking cognizance of the letter received from one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna regarding the shocking incident. The court while restraining the media from telecasting or publishing the images of the victims even in morphed form also asked them not to interview the girls. "They (victims) cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again," the court said, as it issued notices to the Bihar government and the Centre seeking their response on the incident. "The investigating agency will take the assistance of professional counsellors and qualified child psychiatrist in questioning the victims," it added. The court then posted the matter for further hearing on August 7. Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by one Brajesh Thakur, the chief of the state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the state's social welfare department in April. An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur on May 31. The probe has now been taken over by the CBI. In all, sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 was confirmed in their medical examination, while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests. The TISS audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the local police in connection with the case. The White House has confirmed that Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday. Trump proceeded to thank Kim for the nice letter and pointed out his kind actions after Kim returned the remains of 55 alleged U.S. soldiers. Yet, while Trump is busy thanking him, Kim is building nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter l look forward to seeing you soon! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018 While the White House hasn't disclosed the contents of the letter, Sarah Sanders said in a statement, The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK joint statement. The White House did not comment on whether or not another meeting between the leaders will be scheduled, despite Trump's tweet to Kim that said, l look forward to seeing you soon! While we all know that Trump and Kim are pen pals, Trump seems to be ignoring the fact that Kim is going against the agreement they made at the June summit in Singapore. At the summit, Kim vowed to work toward denuclearization in an agreement that was criticized for being extremely vague. Less than a month after the summit, satellite images revealed that North Korea was continuing to expand a key nuclear missile manufacturing facility. On Monday, U.S. spy agencies revealed they found signs that North Korea is building the country's first intercontinental ballistic missile that could be capable of reaching the U.S. However, Trump doesn't seem concerned about it in his tweet thanking Kim for the letter. A few hours before Trump sent out the tweet, Kim possibly came through on a different promise he made at the June summit returning the remains of U.S. soldiers that died in North Korea during the Korean War. Vice President Mike Pence was in Hawaii to receive the alleged remains of 55 U.S. soldiers from North Korea. We don't know this yet. Remains returns from North Korea to the US and Japan have been problematic in the past. But by the time the forensics are done, the news cycle will have moved on. God forbid Trump restrain himself on something this emotional and wait till we actually know. https://t.co/vAq2ClwpWG Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) August 2, 2018 Political scientist at the London School of Economics Brian Klass said, President Trump's presidency is yet again showing a smoke and mirrors foreign policy, aimed at securing the illusion of a win for his self-interest, while American national interest is dealt a major loss. He went on to say: It's not hyperbole to note that Trump's bizarre adoration of dictators who falsely flatter him is a national security risk. He continues to praise Kim Jong-un even as North Korea is reportedly accelerating its nuclear program, making new missiles, and continuing to pose an existential threat to several major American cities. I was wrongas were most folks in both major and minor media. I have been covering this Trump-Russia madness from the very start, and I have lamented the term collusion used by major media to describe an emerging criminal conspiracy. Credit to former special counsel of the Department of Defense, Ryan Goodman, for helping me realize my error. Goodman highlighted this portion from a secret Justice Department memo publicly released back in April: Allegations that Paul Manafort: Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian governments efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for the President of the United States, in violation of United States law. A big reason why collusion emerged as the catchall term for this mess is because the media is loath to use the word conspiracy (which appears in several indictments)likely thanks to the lighting rod that is the phrase conspiracy theory. The trepidation to report this harrowing story as the special counsel describes it in their indictments showed up again last night in ABCs simultaneously informative and misleading report. Per ABC (emphasis mine): Special Counsel Robert Muellers office wants to ask President Donald Trump about obstruction of justice, among other topics, sources close to the White House tell ABC News. According to sources, the president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to. The problem with ABCs report is that they framed Muellers interview as being solely focused on obstruction of justice, and the story is supposedly that Robert Mueller is willing to decrease the questions surrounding obstruction. Further reporting proved that while yes, Mueller is reducing the number of questions around obstruction in his latest offer, but thats not the main thrust of the story. Per The Washington Post (emphasis mine): For months, Mueller has been seeking to question the president as part of his investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 campaign, which is also examining whether Trump has sought to block that probe. In a letter sent Monday, Muellers team suggested that investigators would reduce the number of questions about potential obstruction of justice they would ask in person and instead seek some answers in written form, according to one person. The primary story here is not that Mueller is dropping questions related to obstruction. The primary story is that Mueller is focused on team Trumps overtures to the KremlinAKA collusion or conspiracy. Ill let lawyer/national security reporter/former Russiagate skeptic, Marcy Wheeler, explain whats really going on: Do you really think Mueller would put Donald Trump right there on page 8 of the GRU indictment and be focused primarily on obstruction? Do you really think Mueller doesnt have the conspiracy to defraud the US (and conspiracy to commit CFAA) indictment that has been clear since February planned out, where even without an interview he could include Trump as Male 1 to indicate how he communicated acceptance of a Russian deal over and over? Do you really think people with a significant role in the conspiracy would know that Trump was moving within 14 hours of the polls closing to pay off his debts to Russia if there werent more evidence that Donald J Trump willingly joined a conspiracy with Russia? I even got asked the other day, by a self-described expert on this case, why so many witnesses are talking about being asked questions about obstruction. I noted that the only witnesses weve heard from recently close associates of Roger Stone were instead describing questions about meetings attended and Russian deals floated and social media campaigns launched. That is, they were asked about conspiracy, not obstruction. We dont even know what Jared Kushner was asked in his lengthy April questioning, but I assure you it wasnt focused primarily on obstruction. This is a perfect example of how the mainstream media struggles when a story falls outside of its preferred narrative. For years, we have been told that both parties respect the legal process and while politics can be ugly, everything that happens is done to help America. The idea that an entire political party could be aiding and abetting an adversarial foreign regime for personal gain is anathema to the Sorkinesque lie we have been sold for decades. I mean, look at this extraordinary e-mail the special counsel obtained from an American, saying that they were setting up a Republican backchannel to the Kremlin through the NRA. Between this and Don Jr.s I love crime with the Crown Prosecutor of Russia! e-mails, intent to collude has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Obstruction is the focus in the media because its something were familiar with. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were both impeached over obstruction of justice. Trump basically admitted to obstructing justice to NBCs Lester Holt when he said he fired James Comey over the Russia investigation. Its really an easy narrative to report on. Conspiracy to defraud the United States is a much more difficult sell, and because major medias primary motive is profit, not truth, there is an inherent fear to essentially accuse an entire party of treason. Even if profit wasnt the primary motivation in the media, this would still be a tough story to report. However, the media is partially failing at their duty. Conspiracy is what Paul Manafort is charged with. The indictment of Maria Butina highlighted an array of communications with members of the Republican Party. Robert Muellers indictments paint a much more harrowing picture than the overall reporting on those indictments. For my entire 31 year life, the GOP has preached that liberalism is the greatest threat to America. Viewed in that context, colluding with Vladimir Putin to defeat the Democratic Party is simply a logical next step for a party who has spent my entire life working against the broader interests of the American people in order to stuff the pockets of a small cabal of rich folks unmoored from loyalty to any citizenry. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. It was punishment day for a disgraced Pennsylvania cop, who would learn how long she would spend behind bars for a fatal DUI crash. As ErieNewsNow.com reports, the former Erie officer, Cheryl Frey, 47, was sentenced Wednesday to 36 to 72 months in prison. She was convicted June 18 on charges including homicide by vehicle while DUI, aggravated assault while DUI, involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence - all stemming from a Feb. 2017 crash that killed Wade Schulze, 57. Details from ErieNewsNow: Surveillance video from two bars showed Frey, who was off-duty, consuming 13 drinks over a five-hour span before the crash. Blood tests showed she was more twice the legal limit at the time. State Police said Frey was driving 57 miles per hour when she crossed the centerline and crashed into Schulze on Route 99. Frey originally pleaded guilty to charges of homicide by vehicle while DUI and DUI. However, she withdrew the plea in March as her defense attempted to blame the victim, who also was legally under the influence at the time of the crash. When a young couple were watching a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old for six days, the babysitting turned to torture, state police in Bradford County say. The pair, identified as Shyann Hills and Jayako Frye of Rome, Pa., are accused of beating, starving and forcing the two children to drink their own urine, WNEP-TV reports, citing state police: During the six days supposedly caring for the two kids, the pair are accused of tying up the children and not allowing them to eat, sleep, or even use the bathroom - instead making the kids drink their urine. State police said the couple forced the young kids to lie down in a planking position with sharp nails underneath them, so if the kids went down, they would fall onto the nails. Troopers said Hills and Frye also tied the kids to a dog cage and a cabinet. The couple also forced other children to hit the victims while they were restrained. Hills and Frye face multiple charges, including aggravated assault. At last report, both were lodged in the Bradford County jail, with Hills on a $500,000 bail and Frye on $750,000. The two children required hospitalization in wake of the abuse but were expected to recover physically. No word on their emotional recovery, however. The artwork of Marcel Duchamp is getting ready to leave Philadelphia -- temporarily. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is bringing together its collection of work by the acclaimed French-American artist for a new traveling exhibition: "The Essential Duchamp." The exhibition will enjoy extended stays at Tokyo National Museum in Japan, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. The traveling Duchamp exhibition will have 150 pieces by and related to Marcel Duchamp, including his 1912 painting "Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2" and the provocative "Fountain" (a 1950-made replica of the 1917 original). Many of the pieces will be on display for the first time in Japan, Korea and Australia. The downside is that much of the museum's signature Duchamp collection will be away from Philadelphia starting on Aug. 10, 2018 through August 2019. But there is good news for Pennsylvania-based Duchamp fans. Not all of the museum's Duchamp pieces will be on tour -- "The Large Glass" and "Etant Donnes" will remain. The Philadelphia Museum of Art will also host a new exhibition, "The Duchamp Family," in place of the usually displayed Marcel Duchamp collection. In "The Duchamp Family," viewers will be able to view pieces created by Duchamp's siblings: cubist painter Jacques Villon, sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Dadaist painter Suzanne Duchamp. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located at 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Admission is $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $14 for students and free for children 12 and under. Learn more at philamuseum.org. Want more stories about Philly and the surrounding areas? Click here for all our coverage of the City of Brotherly Love. Following in the footsteps of the Harrisburg Diocese, the Allentown Diocese announced it will release a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse the day the grand jury report is release. The Morning Call reports an Allentown Diocese spokesman confirmed the release would occur when the redacted report is issued, due before Aug. 14. Wednesday, the Harrisburg Diocese released a list identifying 71 clergy members accused of sexual abuse. The release came as the battle over publication of the grand jury report continues. The report is expected to discuss sex abuse claims and suspected cover-ups across six Catholic dioceses, Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Sometimes letters to the White House really do pay off. Just ask Lebanon County's Mary College. The niece of a Korean War MIA soldier, College saw her opportunity to shape history when she heard about President Donald Trump's decision to meet with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month. College, 71, dashed off an email reminding Trump of the plight of the MIAs and their families, and expressing hope that he would put that issue on the agenda for the talks. "I just felt it was important to bring this matter up if he (Trump) was meeting with the president of North Korea," College said. "I know that this is an important issue for our family, and I knew other families would be feeling the same way." It worked. We know this because of the return of the suspected remains of 55 American servicemen from the North this week. The bones and other material will undergo DNA and other testing this week to see if they can be matched to specific soldiers on a list of about 7,700 Korean War fighters who are still unaccounted for. One of them, College noted in her message to Trump, was Andrew P. Boyer, a house painter from Jonestown who joined the Army in 1950. He was a younger brother to College's mother, Anna Albert. Boyer has been missing and presumed dead since Sept. 7, 1951. He would have been 23. The closest thing the family has had to confirmation of his death came in June 2000, College said Thursday, when a fellow veteran saw a picture of Albert pointing to Boyer's name on a public monument and reached out to the family, telling them that he was there when Boyer died. So now, the North Annville Township woman said, the family's abiding interest is in seeing if Boyer's remains can be located and brought home so that he can be laid to rest with his family, preferably while his 94-year-old sister still lives. That hope got a fresh start with the June 12 summit. In addition to the 55 sets of remains transferred back to the U.S. this week, North Korean and American officials are now actively talking about resuming searches of battlefields for more of the missing Americans. Such searches have mostly been in a deep freeze - along with overall American / North Korean relations - for most of the last 65 years. College, who keeps a picture of her lost uncle in her living room, said news coverage of the return of the remains to the states this week was both incredibly moving for her, and a source of hope for the future. "It certainly gives you more hope when there's talk about it (the repatriation of missing Americans)," College said. "What good does it do the North Koreans to have these dead people in their country?" The return of the fallen troops has been portrayed as a trust-building measure in the larger dynamic of U.S. / North Korean relations, with the major goal being the Koreans agreement to eliminate their nuclear weapons. But to these families, this sidebar story is everything. According to a Washington Post story on Wednesday's transfer, most of the American missing are believed to have died on the battlefield and were buried in shallow graves or in cemeteries that were intended to be temporary, but some also perished in POW camps run by North Korea or China, experts say. Officials with the U.S. Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency said this week they believe there's a good chance the remains received are in fact U.S. soldiers, and that North Korea provided enough information about where the bodies were found to allow officials to match them to battles fought in 1950 and 1951. College noted her family has done what it can to help the process - both she and her mother provided the Accounting Agency with DNA samples several years ago to help build the agency's database. If Boyer is among those identified, College said, her family will have closure. But, she added, this is bigger than them. It's about honoring that whole generation that served in what some have termed "The Forgotten War." "If it's not our family," College said, "it's somebody's family, and we'll be thankful for the families that did benefit." Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday, convened a hearing on nominations for Director of the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs (PM). The committee heard testimony from John Richmond, the nominee for the TIP office, and R. Clarke Cooper, the nominee for the PM bureau. We cannot forget that modern slavery exists because people profit from exploiting others, said Senator Corker. The victimization of the more than 27 million people suffering in forms of bonded labor and sexual servitude around the world will not end until the impunity of exploiters ends. We hope Mr. Richmond will speak to how he will lead the State Departments efforts to address that challenge. And I think hes got an extraordinary background to be able to do that. In questioning Mr. Richmond, Senator Corker asked about the importance of leveraging resources from around the world to combat slavery through U.S. investment in the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) that was established through legislation authored by Corker. Senator, I am familiar with the Program to End Modern Slavery at the State Department and am grateful for your leadership and the leadership of this committee in getting that through Congress to establish that program, said Mr. Richmond. The leverage piece is an incredibly significant aspect of that. And I have been encouraged by the Global Fund, the first recipient of the Program to End Modern Slavery, and that it has in its first year commitments to more than double the first $25 million tranche that has been extended is encouraging and powerful. The idea that there could be a PEPFAR-like fund to help combat trafficking is incredibly encouraging. Im also impressed by the focus on metrics and measurement within the Program to End Modern SlaveryFar too often, I think this movement has been motivated by anecdote and emotion, which can be quite powerful, but to have research and scholarship and metrics apply as well is very encouraging as we work to end impunity. In 2015, Mr. Corker proposed a bipartisan initiative to end modern slavery worldwide that became law in 2016 and now operates as the GFEMS. GFEMS is designed to leverage limited foreign aid dollars and galvanize tremendous support and investment from the public sector, philanthropic organizations and the private sector to fund projects and organizations around the world working to end modern slavery where it is most prevalent. With support from the administration, the U.S. made a $25 million contribution to the fund in 2017, which was soon after matched by the United Kingdom. Senator Corkers full remarks follow. Today we will consider the nominations of individuals to serve our country in two vital roles at the State Department. We welcome both of you, and thank you for your willingness to serve. First, we have Clark Cooper, who has had a distinguished career in the U.S. Army and currently holds the rank of major. Major Cooper has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs, or PM. He currently serves as the Director of Intelligence Planning for the Joint Interagency Task Force-National Capital Region for the Joint Special Operations Command. Thats a long title. I hope you dont have to give that much. He has served in the Army on active duty since 2013 and in a variety of reserve assignments since 2001. He has also worked in the State Department in Near Eastern Affairs, in Legislative Affairs in Baghdad, and at the United Nations. In addition to other responsibilities, such as defense trade controls and security agreement negotiations, the Assistant Secretary for PM directly manages approximately $260 million in foreign assistance through grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements, while indirectly overseeing an additional $7 billion in foreign assistance. Major Cooper has demonstrated that he has the capacity to fulfill important responsibilities and manage others in a variety of high-pressure environments. He also understands the important role that Congress plays in authorizing and having the oversight of this portfolio. I believe he has the experience and ability to successfully direct the PM bureau. Again, thank you for being here. Our second nominee is Mr. John Richmond. Mr. Richmond is a seasoned prosecutor and practitioner in the fight against modern slavery. If confirmed, Mr. Richmond would bring with him 10 years of experience as a federal prosecutor. During his time at the Justice Department, he helped to found the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. He also spent four years in India working on human trafficking issues with International Justice Mission. Senator Menendez and I wrote the bill that established the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery. In order to win this fight, we have to leverage investments by other governments with the private sector to fund projects that will eliminate modern slavery. We appreciate the administrations significant contribution to a fund that attracted other significant investments, including from the United Kingdom. We cannot forget that modern slavery exists because people profit from exploiting others. The victimization of the more than 27 million people suffering in forms of bonded labor and sexual servitude around the world will not end until the impunity of exploiters ends. We hope Mr. Richmond will speak to how he will lead the State Departments efforts to address that challenge. And I think hes got an extraordinary background to be able to do that. I want to thank you both, again, for being here today. I look forward to your testimony and our discussion of these important issues. When cops found shelter home locked, a police team on Wednesday broke the lock and found condoms, sedatives, and empty liquor bottles. According to report, the disappearance of the women was flagged on March 20 but was confirmed on June 9. (Photo: File) Patna: Police took nearly two months to file a complaint of 11 women missing from shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, main accused in Bihars Muzaffarpur shelter rape case. According to report, the disappearance of the women was flagged on March 20 but was confirmed on June 9. According to NDTV, the local child protection officer refused to file a complaint with the police unless he was directed to do so by his bosses in social welfare department despite the uproar over child rapes at Balika Grih. The delay wasnt on my part but at secretariat level in Patna. The order came on July 20, said Devesh Kumar Sharma, Assistant Director of the district child protection unit. The police case was filed on July 30 after being pressurised by a senior police officer. Swadhar Kendra, a place for women older 18 who did not have a family. At Kendra, they were meant to be given professional training. It is located just 2 km from Balika Grih. During a regular inspection routine by district social welfare committee, on March 20, a dozen of the 27 women, who had their names written in the register, was missing. In spite of finding out that women were missing, no one raised an alarm, and the police werent informed either. Read: Bihar: 11 women missing from second shelter home run by main accused After the Balika Grih scandal, another inspection was conducted on June 9 by the police and committee. When they found the shelter home locked, a police team on Wednesday broke the lock and found condoms, sedatives, and empty liquor bottles. Sources said the local child protection officer refused to take action in the case because of the power and influence wielded by Thakur. Thakur was not only the owner of Balika Grih but ran a local daily called Pratah Kamal. He was also a member of state-level media committee which includes Press Information Bureau and Bihar assembly press committee. 55-yr-old Thakur was grinning when he was being led away by the police on June 1. The minor girls living at the shelter home revealed shocking details like rape, torture, drugging, and beating. More than 30 out of 42 girls have been subjected to sexual abuse. Millersville police on Thursday charged Wayne R. Rhodes, 49, with felony counts of promoting prostitution of a minor and giving obscene materials to a minor. Police also charged him with a misdemeanor count of corruption of minors. Police allege that Rhodes communicated with a 17-year-old girl between January and June, using a messenger app to send lewd messages, offer money for sex and send a lewd photo. Police said they began investigating after the 17-year-old and a relative contacted police about inappropriate messages. Police said Rhodes was arrested Thursday and didn't immediately post bail. The Diocese of Harrisburg's decision to name 71 priests and personnel accused of child sexual abuse since 1940 goes a long way toward reconciling the actions and statements on treatment of both clergy and victims, according to a state leader in child abuse prevention. "Despite the cost, the Church now must focus on being an example of zero tolerance for the maltreatment of children and that requires a level of honesty and transparency not before demonstrated by this institution," Angela M. Liddle, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, said in a statement Wednesday. Diocese naming clergy accused of sex abuse is 'long past due': Pa. attorney general The group also called for other Pennsylvania dioceses to take steps toward transparency. "PFSA views the release of names today, along with a public apology to those who were sexually abused as children, and those who have been faithful to the Catholic Church, as one step in realigning the Church's behavior with their verbal commitment of care and concern for children and families. "PFSA calls upon each diocese in Pennsylvania to be vigilant with obtaining child abuse clearance on staff and volunteers, establishing strong child protection policies that limit one adult with one child, and comprehensive training for leadership, staff, and volunteers on child abuse identification and reporting," Liddle said. The diocese published a list of clergy, seminarians and church personnel accused of sexual abuse of a child since the 1940s, making sure to stipulate that "the term 'accused' is emphasized to note that the list includes summations of accusations; the list does not include assessments of credibility or guilt.'" The list includes 37 Diocese of Harrisburg priests, three deacons of the diocese, six seminarians, nine priests from other dioceses and 16 from religious communities. None of the individuals on the list are currently in ministry or in service in the diocese. An alarming number of juveniles have been arrested in Dauphin County with guns this year, according to statistics obtained by PennLive. The rate of gun charges against youths is putting the county on pace for a 50-percent increase compared to last year. Prosecutors first noticed a rise in youth gun charges in 2016. Last year, the figure nearly doubled. The troubling trend is continuing this year with the number of juvenile gun charges through mid-July nearly surpassing last year's total, wth five months left in the year. County officials filed 54 charges in 2016, 98 charges in 2017 and 83 charges through July 20. "The jump in statistics from 2016 to 2017 was shocking to a lot of people," said Deputy District Attorney Andrea Sherman, who works in the juvenile unit. "And now we're on track to be even higher." In an odd twist, however, the overall number of juveniles getting arrested has decreased in recent years, from 931 youths in 2015 to 880 last year. The statistics indicate that more kids and teens are carrying guns even if they aren't using them to commit crimes beyond the illegal gun possession. Police aren't sure what's behind the gun-toting trend because the arrested juveniles typically won't tell police where they got the gun, why or what they planned to do with it. Sherman said she believes the spiking statistics are due to a combination of more juveniles carrying guns, targeted enforcement by police and easier access to firearms. "It's kind of like bragging rights, to carry a gun," she said. "It's a sense of status for the kids who are carrying." Police said youths involved in the illegal drug trade in the city have traditionally carried guns. But now, it seems bigger than that. "We're seeing a lot of juveniles have guns just to have the guns," said police Capt. Gabriel Olivera. "We're not sure if it's for protection or drugs or what. Unfortunately, the kids aren't very forthcoming." It seems as if the kids are carrying guns for protection, Olivera said, but protection from what exactly? Bullying? Street crimes? Police don't know because the youths won't say. Olivera said he has noticed a comeback in photos and videos posted on social media where young people show off guns, money and drugs. "We're seeing that more and more," he said. "But we're not getting a clear indication of why." It's also unclear where the youths are getting the guns, but four teens from Harrisburg were charged earlier this year in a smash-and-grab burglary at a gun store in Lancaster County where 16 guns were stolen. Two of the suspects were ages 14 and 15. Kevin Dolphin, who regular speaks to youths as part of his work as founder of the nonprofit Breaking the Chainz, said a gun-carrying culture has been passed down to the juveniles, who often eagerly join in without fully understanding the consequences. "It's sad when you catch a youth with a gun who really doesn't know any better," he said. "They're drawn to it and later get to find out that it's not all they thought it was." Fear could be driving some of the demand for guns, Dolphin said. "The students we work with don't tell us that they have guns, but some of them talk about fighting and bullying," he said. "If you're weak, sometimes to prevent being picked on you can get associated with the wrong crowd." But it's not an increase in gangs that are driving the increase in youths with guns, Dolphin said. In Harrisburg, the "gangs" are more like neighborhood cliques or affiliations as opposed to well-organized criminal enterprises, but either way, he wasn't aware of any ballooning membership. Instead, it could simply be peer pressure, he said. "It's like a popularity contest and if you don't carry a gun, then you're the outcast and you get picked on," he said. "These kids are getting into things, they have no idea. They're experimenting." Dolphin said his group tries to encourage young people to think about the dire consequences of getting arrested with a gun and how it could derail their futures. And their chances of getting caught could be higher after an effort launched last year by Harrisburg police to focus on finding illegally-possessed guns. City officers confiscated 82 guns within less than five months last year. So far this year, officers have seized 109 guns, mostly handguns. The confiscation-rate per-capita in Harrisburg is the same or slightly higher than the per-capita rate for Philadelphia police in recent years. Police Commissioner Thomas Carter himself confiscated an AK47 with a 100-round drum, and three 30-round magazines last month. Residents provided Carter information that led him to the items, but Carter said he could not provide more details until charges were filed. It's unclear whether surrounding counties with similar cities such as York and Lancaster are seeing similar spikes in juvenile gun-possession. York County doesn't track gun crimes specifically for juveniles and Lancaster County wasn't able to provide any statistics. York's overall juvenile statistics, however, showed an increase in youths charged with crimes from 992 youths in 2014 to 1526 youths last year. Cumberland County officials said their caseload is notably smaller than Dauphin County's and they generally see few gun cases involving juveniles. The county charged five minors in 2016 for gun possession, two in 2017 and none so far this year. As far as crimes by juveniles with guns beyond gun possession, the county logged zero in 2016, six cases in 2017 and none so far this year. Instead, the most common referrals in Cumberland County were simple assault, theft, harassment, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief, said Sam Miller, the chief juvenile probation officer. The one trend they are seeing this year, he said, is an increase in sexual assault cases. On Wednesday, the Diocese of Harrisburg released the names of 71 people who have been accused of allegations of child sex crimes. Bishop Ronald Gainer spoke one day after state authorities leveled their first conviction of a priest as a result of the 40th Statewide Grand Jury investigation. Gainer said "anyone accused of sexual misconduct will have his name removed from any place of honor" throughout the diocese. He also stated that all names of bishops dating back to 1947 will be removed from buildings, halls and rooms. "The decision to remove names of bishops and clerics may prove to be controversial, but as bishops, I strongly believe that leaders of the diocese must hold themselves to a higher standard and must yield honorary symbols in the interest of healing," Gainer said. You can watch the key moments from Gainer's statement in the video above. A Lebanon County family was spotlighted by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wednesday, in a reference to that day's return of potential remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War. Sanders, in highlighting the "Honorable Carry" ceremony, noted two messages that President Trump had received from families of Korean War vets in advance of his June summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un. One of the communications was from Mary College, of Annville, who asked Trump to raise the subject of missing-in-action soldiers during his trip. Noting the arrival of the unidentified remains at Pearl Harbor later in the day, Sanders said she hoped the identification of the remains will help families like College's find peace. College's message to Trump was forwarded to PennLive today. It reads as follows: Mr. President, My mother is 94 and has a brother that is MIA in Korea. He was Corporal Andrew P. Boyer, U.S. Army, and presumed dead Sept 7, 1951. She received his last letter before he went to that hill. My grandmother was a Gold Star Mother and would ride in the Memorial Day parades in her hometown of Jonestown, Pa. I barely remember my uncle, but have his picture in my living room as a reminder of his service to our country. I hope that the topic of MIA's from the Korean War will come up as you attend this summit with the President of North Korea. Praying for you as our president and the tough decisions that you have and will continue to make. North Korea transferred the remains last week, the first tangible moves from agreements reached between President Trump and Kim Jong Un at their meeting in Singapore on June 12. The 55 boxes of remains are now at a military laboratory in Hawaii for analysis and identification. Initial forensic analysis has suggested that the remains were likely to be those of American service members, the U.S. military said. But experts say positive identification of all the remains could take years. Of just as much importance to the families of the missing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month the two sides have also agreed to renew searches in North Korea to try to locate more of the missing Americans. According to The Washington Post's report on the transfer Wednesday, the Pentagon estimates that nearly 7,700 U.S. troops are unaccounted for from the war, which ended in 1953. Most died on the battlefield and were buried in shallow graves or in cemeteries that were intended to be temporary, but some also perished in POW camps run by North Korea or China, experts say. The process of finding and repatriating their remains has long been hampered by North Korea's reluctance to allow U.S. military investigators unrestricted access to battle sites and by the North's desire to wring as much political capital and money out of the process of returning the remains as possible, The Post reported. Over the past decade, the Cardinal Keeler Conference Center, named after the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, has been the site of youth council dinners, seminarian family picnics, World Youth Day events, even funerals. Now the legacy of Cardinal William H. Keeler, who went on to become Archbishop of Baltimore, is coming to an abrupt end. On Wednesday, Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer ordered the names of all bishops who preceeded him since 1947 be removed from all diocesan properties, saying they had failed to protect children from sexual predators. "That is a gutsy move," said Charles Zech, director of Villanova University's Center for Church Management and Business Ethics. "I commend him for stepping forward and showing that the responsibility, the real problem lies with church leadership. "This is unprecedented. You hear it here and there when someone has been found to not have lived the perfect life, but to remove all of the names is is unprecedented. I applaud him for recognizing that they all have been culpable." Gainer also released the names of 71 people who have been accused of child sex crimes. The diocese has turned over all names to local authorities, he said. Both moves came just ahead of the release of what is expected to be a scathing, 900-page report into clergy sex abuse in six dioceses, including Harrisburg. The report contains the names of more than 300 clergy and other individuals accused of criminally or morally reprehensible conduct. Victims advocates are predicting that former bishops will be implicated in the report. The Commonwealth has been ordered by the state Supreme Court to release the report to the public as early as next week, but no later than Aug. 14. On Tuesday, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office led the investigation, announced the first conviction of a priest as a result of the 18-month probe. The Keeler Center arguably is the most notable property that will be affected by Gainer's decision. Others include the Bishop Dattilo Retirement Residence, which is named after Nicholas C. Dattilo, the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg. Dattilo served from 1990 to 2004; Keeler served from 1983 to 1989. Former bishops of the Diocese of Harrisburg 5 Gallery: Former bishops of the Diocese of Harrisburg Staff from the diocese on Wednesday learned of Gainer's decision just moments before he announced it at a press conference held at the diocese headquarters in Harrisburg. The Keeler Center is part of the sprawling complex. Mike Barley said that diocesan officials are scrambling to take inventory of all diocesan properties -- conference rooms, auditoriums, buildings and more -- affected by the bishop's decision. "There are a lot of little rooms and halls in some of these parishes," he said. Barley said that as difficult as the news may seem to some Catholics, the focus must remain on survivors of abuse. "It's not just staff but all the faithful Catholics...it's the same reaction," Barley said. "It's disappointing and hurtful that these actions have occurred. Some may not have done enough in their position of power to address these issues. Also it's one of sorrow and also apologies to folks that were hurt by these actions. There are many emotions today. This is not an easy thing." Gainer's decision arguably signals that the grand jury report is going to be scathing and implicate a roster of church officials. Throughout his career, Keeler, as bishop and archbishop, fended off accusations that he had protected predatory priests. A 2002 report by The Dallas Morning News, for example, noted that Keeler, who was appointed archbishop of Baltimore in 1989 by Pope John Paul II, had returned the Rev. Maurice Blackwell to the ministry in 1993 after police dropped a molestation investigation. Blackwell was suspended again in 1998 after admitting sexual abuse of a minor that predated the 1993 case. Keeler acknowledged that the 1993 accusation had been credible, saying he regretted his earlier decision and apologized to victims of clergymen. "I take full responsibility for the decision I made in 1993 given the facts and circumstances before me," Keeler wrote in an opinion piece published in The Baltimore Sun on May 17, 2002. "In light of what has occurred and of what was revealed in 1998, I would not make the same decision today." Keeler went on to strengthened youth protection policies and in 2002 became one of only a handful of bishops in the nation to release the names of 57 clergy, living and dead, who had been "credibly accused" of the sexual abuse of children. He died at the age of 86 on March 23, 2017 and was given a cardinal's funeral attended by dignitaries and power brokers. Investigative reporter Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, likens Keeler's evolution to that of historic U.S. figures embroiled in dark chapters of American history. "There is a group here in New Orleans that wants to take down a statute of Andrew Jackson at Jackson Square because he owned slaves," said Berry from his Louisiana home. "The counter was that he was a military leader who saved the city from being taken by the British. Sometimes these decisions can be fraught with with nuances." Berry stressed that he was not defending the decisions of bishops. He noted, however, that Keeler, as archbishop, released the names of perpetrators. "It is an intriguing standard to say he concealed all these men," Berry said. "He participated in some way and yet later in life he appears to have done the right thing. How do you strike a balance towards someone like that in the public square? I think it's important for people to understand the degree to which he evolved." One of the most outspoken advocacy groups for survivors on Wednesday assailed Gainer for the timing of his decisions, coming just two weeks ahead of the court-ordered deadline for release of the grand jury report. "Church authorities responded only because they were compelled by the public release of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury next week," said Judy Jones, an official with the Survivors Network for those Abuse by Priests. "The Church hierarchy knew about the systematic sexual abuse of children and did nothing. While the public has previously known of only ten publicly identified predators in the Harrisburg diocese, the Church hierarchy knew, maybe for decades, of sixty other credibly accused clergy. This demonstrates that for Church hierarchy, the reputation of the Church and the Church hierarchy was more important that the safety of children." Other advocates welcomed the bishop's actions. "I've never heard of a bishop removing the names of predecessors from properties belonging to the diocese," said Nick Ingala, a spokesman of Voice of the Faithful, a Boston-based group of devoted Catholics formed in response to the child sexual abuse crisis in the Archdiocese of Boston. "I think it's an incredibly important symbolic gesture on the part of the bishop to recognize by this action the culpability of previous administration in the covering up of abuse." At most, he said, he was aware of dioceses removing the name of a school or a building, or as in the latest scandal surrounding Archbishops Theodore McCarrick, the revocation of an honorary degree. Pope Francis this past weekend accepted McCarrick's resignation from the College of Cardinals, and suspended him from the exercise of any public ministry. McCarrick faces allegations of sexually abusing, assaulting, or coercing seminarians and young priests during his time as a bishop; as well as sexually molesting a teenager in the Archdiocese of New York. Ingala points to the grand jury report - which Gainer like his five other counterparts - has read. "They know what's in it," Ingala said. "I wonder what this indicates about what is in the report." Indeed, almost all major investigations into clergy sex abuse in this country over the last decade - from probes into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and the Archdiocese of Boston - have found that church officials knowingly failed to protect minors from predators, and protected the latter from law enforcement. Berry reflected on a related sobering reality of the leadership of Catholic Church. "Most bishops over 60 at least have second-hand knowledge through their administrative backgrounds of this," he said. "That's not to say they are all guilty of moving people around, but when you are dealing with a history of systemic behavior that was embedded in the governance of the church, at some point, when men begin to change it's not necessarily surprising that they would have great chapters of their own back in the day. Change has to start somewhere." Former bishops of the Diocese of Harrisburg include: Bishop Joseph P. McFadden 2010-213 Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades 2004-2010 Bishop 1990-2004 Bishop 1983-1989 Bishop Joseph T. Daley 1971-1983 Bishop George L. Leech 1935-1971 Bishop Phillip R. McDevitt, who served until 1935, is not included in Gainer's decision. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- After a week of heavy rain, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has a message for states upstream of the Chesapeake Bay: step up and take responsibility for the sediment and debris pouring into the nation's largest estuary. The Republican governor described the situation as "an economic and ecological crisis" in remarks before a state board meeting on Wednesday, where other state officials decried the trees, tires and garbage floating in the bay. Comptroller Peter Franchot, one of three members of the Maryland Board of Public Works, said the debris is creating a safety hazard for watermen and ships bound for the Port of Baltimore. Franchot, a Democrat, called it "an absolute disgrace." "To be blunt, we're literally drowning in Pennsylvania's trash, and I have a huge problem with that," Franchot said. Patrick McDonnell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said "we are disappointed at these careless and insensitive remarks." He said they undermine the strides Pennsylvania has made in improving water quality in the Susquehanna and Potomac waters and "insult the many Pennsylvanians still recovering from the record floods we just experienced, where at least two of our residents lost their lives." "The 'trash and debris' that Maryland politicians are complaining about represent devastated communities, damaged businesses and lives ruined," McDonnell said, adding that it is "hypocritical to place all the blame on Pennsylvania and New York while Maryland has missed its own goals including nitrogen runoff reductions." Since before he was elected governor in 2014, Hogan has cited pollution flowing from upstream states like Pennsylvania and New York from the Susquehanna River over the Conowingo Dam and into the bay. During a major storm, he said up to 80 percent of all debris, sediment and pollutants like phosphorus and nitrogen, come over the dam and end up in the bay. Last week, engineers opened the dam gates, sending tons of water and debris downstream. The dam is located in Maryland, a few miles south of the Pennsylvania line The governor said Maryland environmental and emergency management officials were working to remove the trees and tires that have washed into Maryland waters. He also said he will be highlighting concerns during a meeting next week of the Chesapeake Executive Council, which Hogan chairs. "I can assure you that they will leave that meeting with a crystal clear understanding of their role and their responsibilities in addressing this issue," Hogan said. The council includes the governors of the six bay watershed states, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and the mayor of the District of Columbia. The watershed covers 64,000 square miles and includes Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The council is the governing body for a multi-state and federal partnership known as the Chesapeake Bay Program. It is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Baltimore. Blocks away from the Maryland State House, Norman Sharps was spending his second day clearing away tree branches and trash. The heavy equipment operator for the city of Annapolis said he has never seen so much debris in his 30 years with the department. "We get some but not like this at all," Sharps said. As President Donald Trump is set to host a rally in Wilkes-Barre Township today, the Pennsylvania man accused of threatening to kill him is still on the run, and authorities now believe he stole a school van in Luzerne County. This latest report of a burglary and vehicle theft had the U.S. Marshals, FBI and Secret Service rushing to Rohrer bus depot in Butler Township Wednesday morning, Fox 56 is reporting. This van was stolen as Shawn Christy, 26, of McAdoo, remains on the run after two months after authorities say he posted social media threats against Trump and other government officials. Authorities say the school van is similar to another one stolen Sunday night by a man who appears in surveillance footage to be Christy, according to reports. The latest stolen vehicle is a silver 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan with the words "School Students" on the front and back, according to reports. Christy is considered to be armed and dangerous. Anyone with information should call 911, or call the FBI at 610-433-6488 or 215-418-4000, or the U.S. Marshals Service at 1-877-926-8332. A Philadelphia toddler has died after authorities say he was attacked by five pit bulls inside a home in the city's Port Richmond neighborhood. Police were called to the scene around 5:15 pm. Wednesday after several 911 calls came in, reporting a person screaming and dogs attacking a child, NBC 10 of Philadelphia is reporting. When police arrived, they saw the child on the floor, under attack, and at least two of the dogs attacked the officers, prompting them to open fire, killing one dog and injuring two others, according to reports. The NBC 10 obtained video of officers responding to the scene and firing upon the dogs: The 2-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. According to reports, two of the three adults inside the home have been taken into custody for questioning. Animal control removed all of the pit bull from the home, and the case remains under investigation. The victim's name has not yet been released. Regarding the 2016 election and Russia's tampering with it, there is a difference between collusion and meddling. The Trump campaign may not have colluded with Putin's Plan to defeat Hillary Clinton at the voting box. Yet more than a dozen Russian agents have been indicted for interference in our electric by planting fake news through social media especially targeting three states, our own Pennsylvania included. Consider this: If anyone says the flood of negative propaganda (innuendoes, outright lies) had no effect on the psyche of voters, you must say constant positive advertisement of merchandise does not persuade consumers to buy. Really?? If so, companies are wasting a lot of money. Forty-eight percent of the voters rejected the fake news and voted for the most qualified candidate! Yet 47 percent believed the lies and innuendo. My hope is their eyes will be opened by the Mueller Report and join efforts to oppose Russian interference in future elections. Hopefully our President will accept he doesn't have a mandate to continue to do as he pleases and begin to preside over all Americans as we continue to grow into the vision our ancestors wrote into the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. PHYLLIS SCHELL, Harrisburg The Opposition, however, put the blame on the ruling party for the disruptions and alleged that it is using its friendly parties to cause the din. New Delhi: Stressing on the effective functioning of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the government has the least to lose due to disruptions in the temple of democracy and it is the country which loses the most. He also said it is the duty of each parliamentarian to lend voice to the problems of the common man in Parliament and force the government to take steps for their welfare. The Prime Minister was speaking at an event in the Central Hall of Parliament to confer the best parliamentarian awards for the years 2014 to 2017. It is important for MPs to express the voice of the poor and the marginalised. Sadly, when there is noise and chaos in the House, MPs are not able to speak and the loss is of the entire nation, he said. Mr Modi further added that the government has the least to lose due to the din in Parliament. It is the country which loses the most. Parliament is a forum to debate and even criticise the government, the Prime Minister said, stressing upon the need for Parliament to function effectively. The words spoken in Parliament are on record and they will be a part of the history books. That is why it is important for Parliament to function effectively, he emphasised. The Prime Ministers remarks came in the backdrop of frequent disruptions in Parliament due to the uproar by the Opposition on various issues. In a such a big nation, the MPs bring with them the dreams and aspirations of their constituents, he said. The budget session of the Parliament saw a near washout because of protests by a united opposition on a variety of issues including demand for granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh. The Opposition, however, put the blame on the ruling party for the disruptions and alleged that it is using its friendly parties to cause the din. Among those who received the awards include Najma Heptullah, Hukmdev Narayan Yadav, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Dinesh Trivedi and Bhartruhari Mahtab. Speaking on the occasion, vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu called upon the Opposition to be responsible and for the government to become more responsive. By JONATHAN LEMIRE, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump swiped Pennsylvania from the Democrats in 2016. Now he is trying to help Republicans take a Senate seat there. With several hours to go before President Donald Trump's appearance Thursday night, hundreds of supporters were already lined up outside the Mohegan Sun Arena, the Citizens Voice in Wilkes-Barre reported. Trump is holding a rally Thursday evening in Wilkes-Barre to back Rep. Lou Barletta, who's running to unseat two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Barletta is a fervent Trump supporter who shares his hard-line views on immigration. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania since 1988. Trump has accelerated his campaign schedule in recent weeks to help Republicans he favors both in primaries and November's midterms. The rally comes at a tumultuous time for Trump, who lashed out this week at the Russia probe that threatens his presidency. It also comes during a period of heightened antagonism from Trump and his supporters toward the media. A capacity crowd of about 10,000 people is expected for the rally, the Citizens Voice reported. In addition to supporters, protestors also plan to converge at the area to voice their opposition to Trump's policies. Planned Parenthood issued a statement saying organizers are planning a rally against a proposed rule change over federal family planning funding that the group asserts is a "backdoor approach to defund Planned Parenthood." Enve are best known for their American made carbon wheels, but they also manufacture carbon bars, stems, forks, and other accessories at their Ogden, Utah, facility. The M7 series handlebar and stem are new additions to the lineup, the first components from Enve with a 35mm clamp diameter. Just like with their wheels, Enve make several different carbon bars, each with a different construction that is engineered and tuned for an intended application. With the M7, the objective was to create a 35mm bar for aggressive all-mountain/enduro riding that has the same flex tune as the M9 - Enve's DH bar. The M7 bar is 800mm wide and can be cut down to 780mm and is available with 10mm, 25mm, or 40mm of rise. The M7 carbon stem is designed to be lightweight, strong, and appropriate for gravity applications. It's made to pair with the M7 bar for the all-mountain/enduro rider looking for the "best in class cockpit" - at least according to Enve. The stem comes in 35mm, 50mm, and 65mm lengths. The 230g handlebar sells for $170 USD and the 92g stem (50mm) sells for $280 USD. Enve M7 Handlebar Details Construction: carbon Clamp: 35mm Rise: 10mm, 25mm, 40mm Sweep: 8-deg Tip: 4-deg Colors: black Weight: 240g MSRP: $170 USD Enve M7 Stem Details Construction: carbon with titanium hardware and alloy faceplate Clamp: 35mm Lengths: 35mm, 50mm, 65mm Weight: 85g, 92g, 99g (respectively) Rise: 0-deg Colors: black MSRP: $280 USD www.enve.com Construction: carbon with titanium hardware and alloy faceplate Clamp: 35mm Lengths: 35mm, 50mm, 65mm Weight: 85g, 92g, 99g (respectively) Rise: 0-deg Colors: black MSRP: $280 USD The M7 handlebar and 50mm stem. The carbon stem has titanium hardware and an aluminum faceplate. Construction A Deeper Look The M7 bars are designed to be stiff, but Enve don't recommended cutting the bar any shorter than 780mm because it will further increase its stiffness and create a poor ride quality. Therefore, Enve argues that the M7 bar may not be for everyone, especially "lighter riders who don't need an 800mm wide bar and super high levels of strength." For those riders, the M6, at 780mm and with their smaller, 31.8 clamp may be a better choice.Enve's carbon M7 is their only 35mm-clamp stem. They say that it was challenging to make a stem from carbon, and then making one for all-mountain / enduro applications made it even more challenging. The carbon stem is a one-piece construction with titanium hardware and a cold-forged aluminum faceplate. The carbon layup is designed to mute out more vibration than an aluminum stem would.I'm sure there are plenty of people wondering exactly why they should even consider spending $450 on a bar and stem, among other things. So, I reached out to Jake Pantone, Enve's VP of Product and Consumer Experience, with a few questions that may be helpful and clarifying. What is involved in Enve's engineering process? What about it is unique to Enve? Jake Pantone: Enve's development process always involves riders. The main reason we sponsor athletes is to collect feedback and validate the paths we are taking with product development. For example, the M9 handlebars were developed initially with the Syndicate and then with our current WC DH team, Intense Factory Racing. So, initial testing happens in the lab, of course. We'll have several different laminate designs/stiffnesses and after they pass safety requirements, we'll send them out to our teams and other test riders for feedback. When we were developing our first line of DH bars, we took delivery of 200 bars that met our weight and safety/impact requirements, but through the test riding process, we collectively decided they rode awfully and proceeded to cut them all up and go back to the drawing board.We always take the approach of, "How do we get the absolute, no holds barred, best combination of characteristics that we want from the product," which ultimately results in a component that is more expensive to produce. Why? Time, materials, and labor. For example, let's say you want to produce a handlebar. You can say it needs to be 800mm wide, 6-degree sweep, 250g...whatever you want. You can send a drawing to the factory and they'll produce you a bar that meets those requirements. They'll test it for strength, tell you how stiff it is, and say that it's good to go. You can take some samples for testing where you may ride them and love them, if you do, you go to production. If you hate them, then it will cost you time and money to change them. You could also knowingly hate them and go to market anyways with them.We never have to deliberate what path we'll take. We always will do what's best for the product and ultimately, the end rider. In developing a handlebar, what is Enve's ideal balance between weight, stiffness, strength, and ride quality? There are always tradeoffs, so it is our job as a design team to prioritize the goals and make those decisions. For example: you want an 810mm bar with "X" stiffness profile and strength rating at 225g? You'll either have to make it less strong, more narrow, or add weight and sacrifice the 225g goal for, say, 250g. In terms of ride quality, we're looking for a bar that is both compliant, but also sharp and responsive in terms of handling and reacting to rider inputs. This is where the art of designing carbon fiber laminates comes into play and also why carbon is a superior material for handlebars. Enve has both "trail-rated" and "DH-rated" handlebars. Is there a specific metric used to determine what makes one different from the other, or is it more of a general "recommended use" for each bar? The differences are all-encompassing. The intended use dictates the flex tune and stiffness profile, ultimate strength, and weight. For example: the M5 is our XC race rated bar. It remains a 31.8mm clamp to ensure we could achieve the flex profile and weight we targeted. The M5 and M6 are going to be far better bars for light riders, less aggressive terrain, or short travel bikes. These bars have a specific tune, strength, and stiffness profile which is optimized for the widths they come in . The gravity rated bars are for hard chargers on big bikes and terrain. They are for riders who ride more over the front of their bikes and need more control through bigger hits. The M7 are 35mm clamp bars and M9 are 31.8 - both the M7 and M9 have the same ultimate strength and flex tune. The gravity bars are ride tuned for bar widths of 780-810 so cutting one of those bars down to 760mm will adversely impact the ride quality by making it feel harsher and overly stiff, causing rider fatigue. What were the biggest challenges in constructing the new M Series bars? There was a lot of pre-work to determine the geometries we would target with the handlebar lineup. We did trips to team training camps and collected feedback, face to face, with our pro riders. For example, the M9x50mm rise is the bar that Jack Moir wanted. The rise options available in the M7 lineup were based on the direct feedback from the Orbea and Alchemy EWS teams. The biggest challenge of course, is making everyone happy. Is carbon the best material for a handlebar or is it just another option for someone looking for a specific feel? In short, yes. Carbon is the best/ultimate material for a handlebar. Aluminum simply isn't as tunable, it fatigues, and the ride quality of aluminum pales in comparison to a properly constructed carbon handlebar. Sure, aluminum is less expensive, but carbon, when done right, is lighter, stronger, more durable, and more compliant without sacrificing response and control. What makes a stem cost $280? What really sets it apart? First, a stem is a no-compromise component. It can't break catastrophically and therefore every measure is taken to ensure that it is up to the task. This means cost isn't a consideration for Enve when we're designing the laminate. Given that it's a small part with a lot of small pieces, the bulk of the cost is associated with the manufacturing process. To give context, there are over 50 different pieces that go into each mountain stem. Each piece needs to be cut, plied, and laid in the mold. After it's molded, it needs to be finished. That means a fair amount of sanding to clear the parting lines caused by the molding process off of the stem in order to prep for paint.When you compare the process to that of a forged or machined alloy, you can see how much more complexity is involved in a carbon part vs. alloy. Dispelling or confirming some myths about carbon bars - What considerations need to be taken when putting controls on the bars? There is a lot of misinformation on the internet as well as bad experience as related to carbon bars on the internet. Some warranted, some not. There have been many questionable products produced over the years, but that was then and this is now. The bike industry has learned a lot and reputable carbon manufacturers are making great products. Like any product, special care specific to the construction material of the product should be considered. When installing a carbon handlebar and controls on the bar, USE A TORQUE WRENCH. At Enve, I can count the number of broken handlebars I've seen in my 10+ years here on two hands with fingers to spare. Of those broken bars, 100% were related to controls being over clamped or a bar being damaged in a crash and not replaced. So, what if someone crashes and damages the bars? If you're the original owner and you happen to damage or break a bar while riding/crashing, we'll replace it. If you overtightened your controls and didn't follow the installation instructions, we have a 50% off replacement option. We don't want people jeopardizing their safety by riding a bar they've crashed on because they can't afford to replace it. When does a carbon bar get to the point where you say, "okay, don't use this, it's unsafe" from a crash, abuse, etc? Performance Issues Pinkbike's Take The ride quality of the new M7 and stem combo is excellent, especially if stiffness is high on your priority list. While this setup may be too much for some riders when it comes to the overall ride feel or cost, those looking for a seriously solid feeling cockpit without suffering a weight penalty won't be disappointed. Daniel Sapp Anytime a bar has been scratched to levels beneath the paint, we suggest the rider consult with Enve or a local Enve retailer or distributor. A sure indicator that your bar is unsafe and damaged beyond safe usage would be if the impact creates a soft spot (you can push in on the bar and feel it give with your finger) or if you tap on the bar at a point of impact and the resonance changes to a dead tone. This means you likely have compromised the laminate. In general, if you have a question, just ask us.I mounted up a 25mm rise M7 bar with a 50mm M7 stem on my Rocky Mountain Instinct test mule. It's the bike I ride the most and therefore have established a great baseline as to how specific parts behave on it. It previously had a 35mm-clamp, 780mm-wide aluminum RaceFace Turbine R handlebar, and an aluminum stem. I've been riding a mix of carbon and aluminum bars on all of the test bikes I've had lately, with the carbon bars ranging from Specialized's 31.8mm S-Works DH handlebar to RaceFace's 35mm SixC. I typically run my bars at 785mm, and I weigh 150-155 lbs (68-70kg) and ride fairly light on trail, rather than straight-line smashing and plowing.There are a lot of products that are hard to tell a difference between, especially when we're talking stiffness and compliance, but this handlebar and stem combo is an exception. It is noticeable right away how much more stiff it is than the RaceFace bar that I previously had on the Instinct, and every other bar I've ridden in recent memory. From standing up and pedaling to turning, to riding full gas down rough and technical sections of trail, this bar is incredibly stout. The first ride I did with the M7 duo was a mix of high-speed chunky hits, roots, and erosion on Pisgah's Bennett Gap trail, which is one of my "go-to" testing rides. At the bottom of that first ride, I felt that I had been worked over by the front end of the bike. Noticeably stiffer than most any other bar out there, no doubt.As I continued to put more and more time in on the M7, I became accustomed to the ride. What seemed harsh at first translated into my being able to pick up on little trail nuances that I don't typically feel with other setups. Every input that I made was immediate and responsive. Even though I wasn't initially a fan of the increased feedback, I've come to appreciate and like the way it rides.Now, the bar at $170 is by no means inexpensive, but the $280 stem is three times the price of Race Face's nicest alloy stem and close to half the price of a season pass for the Whistler Bike Park, all for a few dozen grams. I don't believe that it will offer near the difference in performance that the M7 bar does, however, it is an upgrade over most other stems available. It's handcrafted in Ogden, Utah, and as Enve claim, "It's maybe not for everyone but for those looking for the absolute best cockpit they can put on their bike, pair the M Series bar and stem" - a statement with which I agree.This isn't as much of an issue as it is a word of caution to anyone considering buying the M7 bar/stem. The M7 combo isn't for everyone, and even Enve will attest to that. It's made to be really stiff and strong, and if you want to cut the bars down, it's only going to increase that characteristic. Aggressive riders who weigh at or above 150lbs (68kg) and who are looking for a very stiff, responsive, well-made and matched combination won't be disappointed with the performance. The price is another story... A lot of riders, however, would be better served by going with Enve's M5 or M6 handlebar/stem that's going to be a little more compliant. Personally, I am on the line. While I've grown to really like the M7, I also think I could be very happy with the slightly more compliant ride of the M6. When New York City Ballet principal Daniel Ulbricht and Manhattan Youth Ballet programming director Erin Fogarty first produced Dance Against Cancer: An Evening to Benefit the American Cancer Society back in 2010, they likely had no idea how big it would become. Now a highly anticipated annual event, Dance Against Cancer has raised almost $1 million for cancer research and has expanded to include THE YOUTH MOVEMENT, a performance featuring local dance students. DAC has even outgrown its venuethis years one-night-only performance, held on Monday, May 8, at the AXA Equitable Theater, has long been sold out. The evening features star dancers and choreographers, who all donate their time to create a memorable and heartfelt performance. Many have been touched personally by cancer (Ulbricht and Fogarty have both lost a parent to the disease). In an interview with Pointe last year, Ulbricht noted that so many ask to participate that they have to turn dancers away. As their own family or friends or mentors suffer, he said, I think they feel compelled to ask, What can I do? This years lineup includes American Ballet Theatres Gillian Murphy, James Whiteside, Gabe Stone Shayer and Cassandra Trenary; NYCBs Maria Kowroski, Jared Angle, Megan Fairchild and Harrison Coll; Orlando Ballets principal guest artist Joseph Gatti; former Miami City ballet principal Patricia Delgado; Alvin Aileys Matthew Rushing; Dance Theatre of Harlem; Ballet Met; and Josh Princes Broadway Dance Lab. If thats not glamorous enough, there are five world premieres specifically created for DAC. Daniel Ulbricht performing at the 2016 Dance Against Cancer benefit. Photo by Christopher Duggan, Courtesy DAC. Even though the show is sold out, you can still get involved. Donations to the American Cancer Society can be made here, and Ulbricht has started a fun #TourforaCure social media campaign to spread awareness. And stay tuned Pointe will be offering live coverage on our Instagram page during Mondays dress rehearsal. For more news on all things ballet, dont miss a single issue. While Donald Trumps latest legal defense is to claim that collusion which looks increasingly likely is not illegal, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons gave them a lesson on the actual laws they did break while potentially colluding with the Russians. In an interview with MSNBCs Ari Melber, Coons said the process by which the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia consists of several potential crimes. After explaining the violations, Melber quipped: To paraphrase, it sounds like they were right to say collusion is not a crime, because collusion is like four crimes. Video: Sen. Coons dropped a legal reality check on Trump: What we are commonly referring to as collusion is a complex series of violations of federal election law, of truthfulness to investigators and the commonly known crime of conspiracy, which is I think 18 USC 371 and thats just working with more than one other person to break federal law. Thats simple conspiracy. Team Trump is playing word games to cover for their crimes While special counsel Robert Mueller is viewing his investigation through a stone-cold legal perspective, the presidents defense team is hoping lies and word games will help them survive. Unfortunately for the White House, this strategy may play well in front of a crowd of MAGA-hat-wearing Fox viewers, but it will mean nothing to the ongoing special counsel investigation which is clearly spooking the president and his team. At the end of the day, crimes are crimes. Thats not going to change, no matter how many cable news meltdowns Rudy Giuliani has in the coming weeks. 296 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) U.S. prosecutors raised the possibility on Wednesday that an expected star witness may not testify against President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort even as the judge tried to rein in their portrayal of Manaforts lavish lifestyle. Testimony in the second day of Manaforts trial, the first stemming from Special Counsel Robert Muellers 14-month investigation of Russias role in the 2016 U.S. election, was overshadowed by Trumps call for an end to the probe. Some Democrats accused Trump of obstruction of justice. Manaforts consulting work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine that earned him $60 million also took the spotlight in testimony in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Prosecutors questioned veteran political consultant Daniel Rabin about the work he did for Manafort. The prosecution said in court it is moving ahead of schedule and intends to rest its case sometime next week. Manafort, 69, is charged with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Rick Gates, Manaforts former business partner who pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mueller, was expected to be a star government witness. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis asked the prosecution whether they planned to have Gates testify. He may testify in this case, he may not, said prosecutor Uzo Asonye, a day after the defense made clear in opening statements to jurors that its strategy centered on discrediting Gates as an untruthful embezzler. When the judge asked Asonye for a clarification, Asonye said prosecutors are constantly evaluating the need to call a particular witness and his comments were not to suggest we are not calling him. Prosecutors have portrayed Manafort as a tax cheat who hid money in offshore accounts, and lied to borrow millions more against real estate in a bid to maintain an extravagant lifestyle once the work dried up. The prosecution called witnesses to hammer home the point. Maximillian Katzman, of New Yorks elite custom clothier Alan Couture, said Manafort was one of his top customers and, unlike any other customer, paid with international wire transfers. Prosecution lawyer Greg Andres reviewed how much Manafort spent each year on clothing, including $440,160 in 2013 alone. Ellis interrupted Andres to say, The government doesnt want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, right? With the jury out of the room, the judge complained about prosecutors efforts to show that Manaforts life was luxurious and blocked them from showing one document on home renovations. Mr. Manafort is not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle, Ellis said. When questioning witnesses who provided services to Manafort, prosecutors showed invoices that appeared to have been falsified as they sought to document the fraud charges. Ellis chastised both sides for using the word oligarch, saying it has negative connotations and could give jurors the impression Manafort was consorting and being paid by people who are criminals. Of course, there will be no evidence about that, the judge said, adding that oligarchs are merely rich people. FBI Special Agent Matthew Mikuska, who executed a search warrant on Manaforts Alexandria condominium last year, told jurors about the documents that were seized, describing loan agreements and applications, invoices and wire transfers. Mikuska said agents arrived at around 6 a.m. and knocked three times before entering the condominium with a key. TERRIBLE SITUATION Trump repeatedly has sought to discredit Muellers investigation, which is also looking into whether Trumps campaign coordinated with Moscow and whether the president has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. The Republican president wrote on Twitter, This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, adding that Muellers team is a disgrace to USA. In another tweet referring to 1920s Chicago mobster Alphonse Al Capone, Trump wrote, Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One, or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing? Russia has denied interfering in the election. Trump denies any collusion by his campaign. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Moscow directed the hacking of political groups and disinformation on social media to undermine Trumps presidential election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and aid Trumps candidacy. The question of collusion with Russia is not at the heart of the case against Manafort. The charges largely pre-date the five months he worked for Trump during a pivotal period in the 2016 race for the White House, some of them as campaign chairman. Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies, including 12 people court documents described as Russian intelligence agents who hacked into Democratic Party computer networks. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Virginia; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool) 769 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance blasted Donald Trump on Wednesday for being complicit in Russias effort to create chaos and deepen political divisions ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. In an interview with MSNBCs Chris Matthews, Nance said Trumps ludicrous claim that Russia will try to help the Democrats in this years campaign is just the latest evidence that the president is essentially helping the Kremlin cause chaos ahead of the election. The best thing the Russians can do is introduce mayhem into the system, he said. The president himself is going to be responsible. Video: Nance said: For the president himself, this is classic misdirection. To tell you the truth, I was quite alarmed when he made that statement, he is tough on Russia, the Russians are going to assist the Democrats. It almost sounded like he was sending orders to the Kremlin to now go after and make it appear that the Democrats are going to do something. Look, if there is a blue wave this fall, even if its a small one, the best thing the Russians can do is introduce mayhem into the system, to make it look like they were supporting the Democrats. Go out and hack a few voting machines. Go out and turn over a few precinct ballots and then the other side, the opposition, can use this to either call for the invalidation of the election itself or to create mayhem just short of civil war. The president himself is going to be responsible. Russias election interference didnt end in 2016 Its clear that Russias interference in American elections didnt end with their successful 2016 operation to make Donald Trump president. That was demonstrated in recent days as the Kremlin attempted to infiltrate Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskills campaign. Facebook also shut down a series of Russian-connected pages that were trying to stir up political divisions ahead of the elections. This active threat to U.S. democracy is compounded by the fact that the president is unwilling to acknowledge the problem and act on it. In fact, his rhetoric only further advances Russias overall goal of causing a political civil war in the United States. Ultimately, Donald Trump is turning a blind eye while Russia continues to attack American democracy. If the Kremlin is again successful in causing mayhem in 2018, it will be the President of the United States who is responsible. 1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Director Of National Intelligence was asked during the White House press briefing about Trump and Putin discussing Russias attacks on the United States during their summit, and he said that he wasnt in a position to know what they talked about. Video: Transcript: Q: Perhaps ambassador Bolton can weigh in as well. In the run-up to the Helsinki summit, officials, ambassadors to Nato, to Russia, said that the president would raise the issue of malign activity with president Putin. He didnt discuss that, at least at the press conference. Youre saying today the president has directed you to make the issue of election meddle ago priority. How do you explain the disconnect between what you are saying, his advisers, and what the president has said about this issue? DNI Dan Coats: Im not in a position to either understand fully or talk about what happened in Helsinki. Ill turn it over to the national security director here to address that question. John Bolton followed up and gave the now standard White House answer that Trump has made it clear who is responsible for the election attack. (He hasnt.) The Director of National Intelligence doesnt know what Trump is saying to an enemy who has been attacking the United States. Instead of guiding the president on national security issues, the intelligence community has been frozen out as Trump is holding secret meetings and phone calls with Putin. The president has gone out of his way not to blame Russia for the attacks on American democracy. The fact that man running the US intelligence community doesnt know what Trump is doing is a major problem that should alarm and concern every American. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. 136 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard According to lawmakers and independent analysts interviewed by the Washington Post the United States has done little to protect itself against a renewed effort to influence voters in the coming congressional midterm elections. Its been over two years since Russia first interfered in the American presidential campaign and although some changes have been made in voting systems, many vulnerabilities still exist, and some have even grown worse. Experts say that state voting systems are more protected than they were two years ago due to efforts by state and federal authorities. However, they also say that Russian efforts to manipulate U.S. voters through misleading social media postings are likely to have grown more sophisticated and harder to detect, and there is not a sufficiently strong government strategy to combat information warfare against the United States. It is certainly good news that voting systems are not being targeted for hacking by Russians to the extent they were in 2016. But technology companies in general have struggled to curb the flow of disinformation and hacking and have received little guidance from the U.S. government on how to do so. Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) said Wednesday: Twenty-one months after the 2016 election, and only three months before the 2018 elections, Russian-backed operatives continue to infiltrate and manipulate social media to hijack the national conversation and set Americans against each other. They were doing it in 2016; they are still doing it today. Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and disinformation expert for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the lack of presidential leadership on the issue means the efforts of agencies to mount a coordinated government action will not be effective. If you cant talk about Russia around the president, I dont see how you get out in front of this, given that theyre the ones doing most of the foreign influence, Watts said. President Trump questioning the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community about Russias disinformation and hacking campaign has set back government efforts to take steps to combat Russian influence. With the midterm elections looming, U.S. officials say the overall Russian effort is comprehensive and includes efforts to hack into the emails of politicians and creating fake social media account to exploit racial, social, cultural and religious divisions in society. U.S. officials have expressed the most worry about foreign disinformation and about Russias determination to again seek to influence American voters through social media. This issue goes far beyond elections, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday. Were fighting for the integrity of our society. And we need to enlist every single person. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Russians to try to deter future influence campaigns and cyberattacks, but those actions have seemingly had little effect. Some senators have also proposed new sanctions, hoping to stop Russias growing influence. Another factor complicating their efforts is that the battleground is in the private sector an area that is off-limits to intelligence agencies. What the Russians are doing is called information war. What the Americans are doing is called free speech. And you cant square those circles very well, said Steven Livingston, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. On Tuesday, at a cybersecurity conference in New York, Vice President Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen both warned Russia not to interfere in this years elections. The United States will not tolerate any foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state not from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea or anyone else, Pence said. Nielsen said: Let me be clear. Our intelligence community had it right. It was the Russians. They know that. We know that. And we cannot let it happen again. Trump administration officials are now talking tough about Russia, but unless more is done very quickly, all of their talk will have little impact. Our democracy is still at risk and our governments at all levels need to do much more than they are doing now. Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) said that Donald Trump is a coward who will never sit down with Robert Mueller because he is afraid. Video: Holtzman said, I happen to think Donald Trump has no intention whatsoever of going before the special prosecutor because Donald Trump happens to be-be a coward. You saw him right next to Putin. This is the great tough man? This is America? No, he was a wimp. Hes not going in there. He doesnt want to be prosecuted. Hes very concerned that he might not tell the truth because he hasnt and we know he falsified a statement about the trump tower meeting. So I think that aga however you pronounce his name. Or others are likely to come forward here. Muellers not finished with this investigation. I think one of the really outrageous things is we have a trial. The president is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. His comments could be affecting the trial. The attack on the special prosecutor. The attack on his investigations. Trump ran as some sort of a big tough who would stand up to people, but all the country has seen is Trump caving, bowing, and flip-flopping. Trump caves to the special interests. The president bows to Americas enemies like Putin, and he flip-flops daily on the issues. Donald Trump has no spine, so, of course, he is never going to sit down and go one on one with Mueller for an interview because he is afraid. Trump fears getting impeached, removed from office and thrown into prison. Trump is a bully who threatens those who has power over, but he is a wimp who wont stand up to threats or have the back of his own country. Trumps fear of Mueller is showing the country that this he is a coward who will do anything to protect himself. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. TMC, Cong decided to chalk out floor strategies against government. New Delhi: In political optics that bode well for Opposition unity, Trinamul Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the first time since he took over as the head of his party. Mr Gandhi met the West Bengal chief minister along with his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Having earlier indicated that she was best suited for the job of the Prime Minister in case an Opposition alliance came to power at the Centre in 2019, Ms Banerjee had refused to meet with Mr Gandhi until now except briefly sharing a stage with him during the swearing-in of H.D. Kumaraswamy as the Karnataka chief minister. During the last budget session, she had met Mrs Gandhi but not the Congress president. While sources said the meeting came about after the Congress made it clear that Mrs Gandhi would not meet anybody alone, it was clear that the Congress had itself also conceded a lot of ground when leaders of the stature of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel walked into the TMC office in Parliament and met Ms Banerjee in the morning. The three leaders discussed a host of issues including how to coordinate among themselves to corner the Modi-led BJP. A senior Congress leader said the two parties decided to chalk out floor strategies against the government. In a statement after meeting the Gandhis, Ms Banerjee said: BJP is politically nervous. They know they wont come back to power in 2019. So they are not speaking responsibly. We wont respond to abuse with abuse. It is not our culture. We believe in the politics of courtesy. In 2019 it will be a collective leadership. The first priority is to remove the BJP. We will fight together. Whichever party is strong, will fight in respective states. We are strong in our State. We can fight on our own. The TMC chief also spent her day meeting and visiting political leaders of various hue which included TDP, YSR (Congress), DMK, RJD, SP and JD(S). She also invited them to her rally on January 19 in Kolkata. In a move which caught everybody off-guard, the she also met veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani at his chamber in Parliament. It might be recalled that Ms Banerjee had said not all BJP leaders were bad. and had singled out external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and home minister Rajnath Singh as being people who are not bad. I am not for any post. I am interested in seeing that all parties should work together. All political parties will sit together and decide, she said. She also appealed to all the opposition parties to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission against EVM tampering and holding polls on ballots. All Opposition parties should go to EC on this matter, she said. 1.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard The Texas Senate race between incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Representative Beto ORourke has grown extremely close and is within the statistical margin of error, according to a new poll released Wednesday. Poll: Beto ORourke within 2 points of Cruz in Texas Senate race Poll: Beto O'Rourke within 2 points of Cruz in Texas Senate race https://t.co/auacUNzwzJ pic.twitter.com/X9oGtjA10v The Hill (@thehill) August 1, 2018 According to the Texas Lyceum Poll Cruz is leading ORourke by just 41-39 percent among likely voters in the November election. Since the surveys margin of error is 4.7 percentage points, a difference of just two points is considered a statistical tie or a dead heat. Observers say that for a Democratic senate candidate to be this close just three months before the election is a major accomplishment since Texas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in thirty years. ORourke has done a tremendous job of fundraising also. In the most recent reporting quarter he raised an incredible $10.4 million, compared to just $4.1 million for Cruz. His war chest is impressive since he has $5 million more cash on hand than does the incumbent Republican. Just three weeks ago another poll showed ORourke close to Cruz in this senate race which is not only very high profile but has national implications. Both polls have confirmed that it is ORourkes support among young voters, women and minorities that is keeping the margin so close and gives him a realistic chance to pull off a major upset. Texas supported Donald Trump by a margin of 9 percentage points, and is considered a red state, but as voter turnout and demographics change, it is becoming more purple and is trending toward blue. As we wrote three weeks ago: While pulling off an upset in deep-red Texas is still a longshot for the Democrats, the poll numbers are the latest indication that the Lone Star State isnt completely out of reach for the blue team. Something is catching here. Fueled by millions in small-dollar donations, ORourke is outraising Cruz. President Donald Trumps policy of separating migrant families detained at the border has given his campaign a jolt of moral clarity. And voters are responding in a way that Texas Democrats say they have not seen before in modern times. At the end of the day, the fact that Democrats are making Republicans nervous in Texas should worry the GOP about their chances elsewhere even if Beto ORourke doesnt pull off the ultimate upset. Other polls have also shown ORourke very close to Cruz, so this latest survey is not just a blip but is confirmation that something very special is happening in Texas. 327 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he still wants to shut down the United States government over his immigration and border security demands. Although almost everyone in his party thinks its a bad idea, he said, I think its a good thing, politically. To justify this misguided action which would harm the country and millions of people Trump once again spewed forth a series of lies which have always been proven false. He did say, however, that he might delay a government shutdown until after Novembers midterm elections because he has been approached by members of his party who warned him that a shutdown would be catastrophic for Republican chances in the 2018 midterms. Trump made his comments to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh after the president called into Limbaughs show, saying: I say, Hey, if you have a shutdown, have a shutdown. Now, the shutdown could also take place after the election. I happen to think its a great political thing, because people want border security. Trump has been demanding $25 billion more in congressional funding to build his beloved Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, which was his #1 campaign promise to his supporters. Even though he blames Democrats for failure to reach agreement, it is actually Republicans who control Congress and who cannot agree among themselves on either Wall funding or broader immigration proposals. Trump told Limbaugh he doesnt like the catch and release program that had been used by administrations before him, and would rather stick with his controversial zero tolerance program. Under catch and release the detained immigrants without proper documentation are detained but after processing by immigration authorities are released until their immigration proceedings can be concluded and a decision is made on their status. Under zero tolerance these same individuals are arrested and incarcerated and are not released, resulting in them spending many months in jail. In addition, they have been separated from their children while in jail, a policy which has been condemned globally. Trump said said on the radio that the catch and release policy meant that criminals of the highest order were being released, which has never been true. Trump then lied again, saying that New York City truck attack suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov has 22 members of his family in the United States because of chain migration. Trump has claimed this before. Then as now, hes lying about Saipov using family reunification laws to bring over nearly two dozen family members. Finally, Trump said that, as a result of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, countries arent giving us their best people, theyre giving us people they dont want. Thats not true. Visa recipients through that program must still meet all eligibility requirements to come into the country, including a criminal background check. What the call-in to Rush Limbaugh by Trump proved is that he is still telling the same old lies about immigration that he has always told. It is these lies that got him elected president, because his supporters are both ignorant and racist. He also knows that continuing to tell falsehoods that are believed by his supporters gives him a chance to stay in power and perhaps be reelected as president in 2020. This is what he means when he says that a shutdown of the U.S. government is a good thing, politically. He thinks it helps him personally even though it will create havoc for the entire country, harm millions of peoples lives, and be disastrous for candidates in his own party. Donald Trump is both a sociopath and a narcissist who once again has proven without a doubt that he doesnt care about anyone but himself. 322 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) Two witnesses in the trial of President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified on Wednesday that invoices purporting to bill a company tied to Manafort appeared to be fake. It was the first time that prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Muellers office disclosed the invoices, which contained spelling and address errors, missing information and in one case, contained information about services that were never rendered. It is unclear who created the invoices or how they were used. Prosecutors have charged Manafort, 69, with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Eight witnesses testified during the second day of Manaforts federal court trial in Alexandria, Virginia, the first stemming from Muellers 14-month investigation of Russias role in the 2016 U.S. election. The details of the trial were largely overshadowed by Trumps call on Wednesday for an end to Muellers probe, leading some Democrats to repeat accusations that the president is obstructing justice. Many of the witnesses work for vendors who over the years provided luxury goods and services to the Manafort family, including designer suits, Land Rovers and home improvements. All said they were paid by Manafort through international wire transfers, a method of payment they agreed was unusual. At the center of Manaforts trial is whether he hid a significant portion of the approximately $60 million that prosecutors say he earned for the consulting work he did for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government. Prosecutors have portrayed Manafort as a tax cheat who hid money in offshore accounts, and lied to borrow millions more against real estate in a bid to maintain an extravagant lifestyle once the work dried up. None of the charges relate to the question of whether Russia and Trumps campaign colluded during the 2016 presidential election. Both Trump and Russia have denied any collusion occurred. The president has repeatedly sought to discredit Muellers investigation, which he calls a witch hunt. In one tweet on Wednesday referring to 1920s Chicago mobster Alphonse Al Capone, Trump wrote: Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and Public Enemy Number One, or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement although convicted of nothing? The prosecution said on Wednesday it was moving ahead of schedule and intended to rest its case sometime next week. NOT A BILL FROM MY COMPANY The two most crucial witnesses on Wednesday appeared to be Maximillian Katzman, of New Yorks elite custom clothier Alan Couture, and Stephen Jacobsen, a retired general contractor who completed multiple home renovation projects at Manaforts various houses. Between 2010 and 2014, Jacobsen confirmed he billed Manafort more than $3 million for projects from kitchen renovations to the construction of a pool house. Prosecutors then displayed a copy of an invoice on the screen that was different from the others Jacobsen had sent Manafort over the years. It contained an imprint of his companys logo but billed for architectural services and listed as the client a company called Global Endeavor, which court records say is tied to Manafort. That is not a bill from my company, he testified, adding that Global Endeavor was never a client nor did his firm provide architectural services. Katzman provided similar testimony about two invoices he was shown by prosecutors that contained small mistakes in the spelling of Alan Coutures name and address. There are errors again with our company name and zip code, he said. NOT ON TRIAL FOR LAVISH LIFESTYLE Throughout the day, prosecutors repeatedly clashed with U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis about the kinds of evidence they sought to introduce. On multiple occasions, Ellis chastised the government for trying to display evidence of Manaforts wealth. Examples prosecutors have cited include a $15,000 jacket made from an ostrich, a $21,000 Bijan watch and a $1.9 million wire transfer to buy his daughter a home in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Manafort is not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle, Ellis said. Out of the jurys earshot, he also criticized both sides for using the word oligarch, saying it had negative connotations and could give jurors the impression Manafort was consorting and being paid by people who are criminals. Of course, there will be no evidence about that, the judge said, adding that oligarchs were merely rich people. Prosecutors said on Wednesday they planned to wrap up with testimony from two more vendors on Thursday before calling people who worked as bookkeepers and accountants for Manafort. One big question is the role Manaforts former business partner Rick Gates will play in the trial. Gates, who pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mueller, has been expected to be a star government witness. Defense lawyers have painted Gates as an untrustworthy business partner who embezzled funds from Manaforts consulting firm. But prosecutor Uzo Asonye caused a stir on Wednesday, after Ellis asked him about Gates taking the stand. He may testify in this case, he may not, Asonye said. When the judge asked him for a clarification, Asonye said prosecutors constantly evaluated the need to call a particular witness and his comments were not to suggest we are not calling him. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Virginia; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool and Peter Cooney) 1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Sarah Sanders had a full self-pitying meltdown and refused when asked to state that the press is not the enemy of the people. Video: Transcript: Jim Acosta: I wanted to follow up on Sarahs question from NPR. She asked you about Ivanka Trumps statement that the press is not the enemy of the people, and she asked you whether or not the press is the enemy of the people. You read off a laundry list of your concerns about the press and things that you feel like are misreported, but you did not say that the press is not the enemy of the people. I think it would be a good thing if you were to say right here at this briefing that the press, the people who are gathered in this room right now, doing their jobs every day, asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier, are not the enemy of the people. I think we deserve that. Sanders: If the president has made his position known, I also think its ironic Acosta: Reporter: Would you mind telling us Sanders: Im trying to answer your question. I politely waited. I said its ironic Acosta: Which is why I interrupted. If you finish if you would not mind letting me have a follow-up, its fine. Sanders: Its ironic, Jim, not only you and the media attack the president for his rhetoric when they frequently lower the level of conversation in this country repeatedly. Repeatedly the media resorts to personal attacks without any content other than to incite anger. The media has attacked me personally on a number of occasions, including your own said I should be harassed as a life sentence, that I should be choked. I.C.E. Officials are not welcomed and personal information is shared on the internet. When I was hosted by the correspondents association, you brought a comedian up to attack my appearance and called me a traitor to my own gender. In fact, as I know as far as I know, I am the first press secretary in the history of the United States that required secret service protection. The media ratchets up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration and certainly we have a role to play, but the media has a role to play for the discourse in this country as well. Acosta: If I may follow up, excuse me, you did not say in the course of those remarks that you just made that the press is not the enemy of the people. Are we to take it from what you just said, we all get put through the ringer, we all get put in the meat grinder in this town, and you are no exception. I am sorry that happened to you. I wish that had not happened. But for the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all of the people around the world are watching what you are saying, Sarah, and the white house for the United States of America, the president of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. His own daughter acknowledges that and all Im asking you to do, Sarah, is to acknowledge that right now and right here. Sanders: I appreciate your passion. I share it. I have addressed this question. I have addressed my personal feelings. Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on this self-pity rant against the media, with zero care that her boss and she both are responsible for the violent hatred aimed at the the press. The Trump administration is full of self-pitying, persecution complex-oriented people who feel being denied a cheese platter is the worst thing in the world as they take basic rights away from other people, jail babies, and encourage violence against a basic tenet of a free country, the free press. Not everyone can get secret service help when they are being targeted. This is the fortune of the elite. Regular people dont have the secret service to protect them from Trumps angry cult. Sarah Huckabee Sanders could still not say that the press is not the enemy of the people. All she can say is how she has been harassed. She refused to say the press is not the enemy of the people. This is the same Sarah Huckabee Sanders that so many in the media defended after a comedienne did what comedians do at the Nerd Prom, but because Sanders was actually lying to the press every day it stung. President Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days, according to the Washington Post. This is why the press and comedians take aim at this White House, but Sanders is not special all people in politics get attacked, harassed, and mocked. But not all people are the spokesperson for someone who is stirring up a cult of resentful, angry people with little relationship to reality, and aiming them at hard-working journalists and reporters, as well as people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ, women, and really any vulnerable group of people who are speaking out because they are being attacked by this administration. The truth is that Trumps rhetoric has required other journalists to require secret service help, and has resulted in many journalists being targeted by harassment and hate. For some reason Sanders thinks she is entitled to not be harassed as she lies for her boss as Trump betrays his country, but regular, hard-working journalists deserve to be treated as enemy of the people hated, targeted and afraid to do their jobs but doing them anyway because, unlike Sanders and her boss, they value the freedoms of their country. The reason Sanders and Trump want to make the press the enemy of the people is because they cant handle the facts getting out. They cant deal with reality. They make up lies and expect people to believe them even when their own eyes and ears saw and heard differently. They cant deal with reality because Donald Trump is hiding something. This is the language of totalitarian dictators. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. 1.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas on Wednesday took a stand in support of the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers when he said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not have the legal authority to stop the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Sessions doesnt have the authority to end the probe but added the President is entitled to speak his mind. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said Sessions doesn't have the authority to end the probe but added the "President is entitled to speak his mind."https://t.co/hGviIQ3WeU Tony Locksmiths #WATON #FBPE #Remain #StopBrexit (@Tony_Locksmiths) August 2, 2018 Cornyns comments are given great weight in Washington because not only is he the Senate Majority Whip but he is also the former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Cornyns comments came after yesterdays shocking tweet from President Donald Trump telling Sessions to stop the federal Russia investigation. At this point, I dont think the attorney general has any authority to do that, Cornyn told reporters shortly after Trump fired off his tweet where he told Sessions to stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now. Cornyn and other senators were clearly taken aback by the presidents comments, which were totally unexpected. Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning: This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, the president wrote. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Cornyn mentioned that Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation last year, which led to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein being put in charge of the Russia probe. After former FBI Director James Comey was fired by Trump, Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel. Sessions has been out of the picture ever since that time. But from the very beginning Trump has criticized the special counsel investigation. He attacked Mueller and the probe again on Wednesday, the second day of the criminal trial of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Cornyn told reporters that he understands Trumps frustration, saying: The president feels like the media has missed a lot of what he considers to be the real collusion, that is between law enforcement agencies and people showing bias at the FBI and investigating people at the Trump campaign, and the focus has been all on him and his campaign where theres no evidence of collusion. Still, Cornyn said that Sessions, a former GOP senator from Alabama, really doesnt have any power to stop the Manafort prosecution its in court, the jurys been selected, so its going forward. GOP Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah also gave his opinion that Sessions has no power to stop Muellers investigation. I dont think Sessions has the authority to do that, he said. I dont fully get what the president is trying to do. He then said that ending the probe is not a wise thing to do. GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he thinks Muellers investigation should be completed. I dont think the Mueller probe ought to be ended, he told reporters. I think it ought to be completed. At the end of the day Donald Trumps tweets have no effect other than to create publicity for himself and to distract from his bigger legal and political problems, and yesterdays shocking tweets were no exception. 342 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard By Nathan Layne and Sarah N. Lynch ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) Prosecutors in the trial of U.S. President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort hammered away on Thursday at his lavish spending as they sought to prove fraud charges, while they also confirmed plans to call a key witness to testify. The prosecution has spent the first 2-1/2 days of the trial attempting to portray Manafort as a tax cheat and a liar who hid much of the $60 million he earned from political work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine by stashing it in undisclosed overseas accounts. A day after the prosecution raised the possibility that Manaforts former business partner Rick Gates expected to be a star government witness would not be called to testify, Greg Andres, a member of Special Counsel Robert Muellers team, made clear on Thursday that he would. We have every intention of calling him as a witness, Andres said in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Gates pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mueller. Defense lawyers have painted Gates as an untrustworthy business partner who embezzled funds from Manaforts consulting firm. Manaforts trial is the first stemming from Muellers 14-month investigation of Russias role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow, though none of the charges against Manafort involve this issue. Manafort, 69, is charged with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Manafort routed millions of dollars to the United States by putting it in real estate, and spending it on expensive suits, cars and home renovations, according to prosecution witnesses. Prosecutors said Manafort evaded taxes through this scheme. Five of the 18 counts he faces relate to filing false tax returns. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Thursday, the jury heard from Joel Maxwell of a Florida-based company that installs lighting, audio visual equipment and automation systems for homes that did work for Manafort. Maxwell testified that some of the Manafort invoices shown to him from prosecutors appeared to be have been forged. Michael Regolizio, of a landscaping firm in the Hamptons on New Yorks Long Island, also testified that a Manafort invoice was phony, listing an incorrect address and an altered version of his companys name. Regolizio said he was paid about $450,000 between 2010 and 2014 for work for Manafort, and that the money was paid via a money transfer from Cyprus. Two witnesses an executive at an upscale clothier and a retired general contractor testified on Wednesday that invoices purporting to be bills from their companies to a company tied to Manafort appeared to be fake. It was unclear who created the invoices or how they were used. RESENTMENT AGAINST RICH PEOPLE As he did on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis warned prosecutors against focusing too much on Manaforts lifestyle. It kind of engenders some resentment against rich people, Ellis said, expressing concern about displaying photos exhibiting Manaforts wealth. Later on Thursday, prosecutors are expected to call to the witness stand accountants and a series of tax preparers in an effort to convince the jury Manafort cheated on his taxes and failed to report foreign bank accounts. Heather Washkuhn, managing director of the accounting firm Nigro Karlin Segal Feldstein & Bolno, will be one of the witnesses to be called on Thursday, Andres said. In a court filing on Thursday, Muellers team asked for an opportunity to further explain why Manaforts spending was directly relevant to the charges and would not unfairly prejudice the jurors. In a separate motion, prosecutors also asked the judge to prevent Manafort from raising the issue of an Internal Revenue Service audit, saying any potential civil action was irrelevant to the criminal charges and could confuse or mislead the jury As part of his guilty plea, Gates acknowledged routinely dealing with accountants in the preparation of Manaforts tax returns and misleading them with false information, although he said he did so with Manaforts knowledge. It is critical for the government to show that the returns were prepared based on information of which Manafort was personally aware, said David Axelrod, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Ohio-based law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick and is unaffiliated with the trial. The government must prove that Manafort was complicit in whatever Gates said or did, Axelrod said. Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies. Trump has called Muellers investigation a witch hunt and on Tuesday called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end it. (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Alexandria, Virginia; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Karen Freifeld; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Will Dunham) 1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard GENEVA (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trumps verbal attacks on the media run the risk of triggering real violence against journalists, the U.N. rapporteur for freedom of expression said on Thursday. In a joint statement with Edison Lanza, who holds the same post at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, David Kaye said Trumps tirades against the media violated the basic norms of press freedom. These attacks run counter to the countrys obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law, they said. We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence. Trump frequently brands stories and outlets he dislikes as fake news. Last week CNN said one of its White House correspondents was excluded from a Trump event, prompting a complaint from the White House Correspondents Association. The freedom of expression experts said Trumps attacks on the press were designed to raise doubts about verifiable facts, and that he and his administration had sought to undermine reporting on potential illegal conduct. But he has failed to show even once that specific reporting has been driven by any untoward motivations, Kaye and Lanza said. They also urged the administration to stop suing journalists to discover their sources and to stop using the Espionage Act to pursue whistle-blowers. There have been at least two prosecutions of people leaking to journalists under that law. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) On July 31, three Russian journalists, Orkhan Jemal, Kirill Radchenko, and Alexander Rastorguev, were killed in the Central African Republican (CAR) when their vehicle was ambushed by unknown assailants near the town of Sibut. Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky later confirmed that the three journalists had been working for one of his projects, the Center for Investigation, on a probe into the activities of a so-called private military company called Wagner or the Wagner Group. That company has previously been involved in the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. On August 1, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted a statement on Facebook in which she dismissed talk about a PMC (private military company) and claimed that her ministry had been completely open about Russian government involvement in the CAR. She linked to a Foreign Ministry statement that mentioned Russian military and civilian cooperation with the countrys government. However, neither Zakharova nor the statement she provided mentions anything about Wagner or private military companies. In fact, private military companies are still not legal under Russian law, so the confirmed involvement of Wagner in the CAR raises many questions. Zakharovas Facebook post also contained a questionable claim about the slain journalists. What they were actually doing in the CAR, what were their goals and objectives were, remains an open question, she wrote. However, that question had already been answered the day before, both by the journalists colleagues and their employer: they were investigating the presence and activity of Wagner in CAR. This past February, Wagner became the focus of international media attention when mercenaries it employed were soundly defeated in a clash with U.S. military forces and their local allies in Syria. In February, Polygraph.info conducted a fact check of Zakharovas denial of Russian involvement in the battle, pointing to a series of such denials. Polygraph.info also tackled Russian denials about Wagners apparent ties to the Russian military. Russia in Africa, and PMCs If Russia is suppling CAR with small arms and instructors, as Zakharovas statement indicates, the Russian government is also clear about its own aims. Following an October meeting between Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov and President Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central Africa Republic, the foreign ministry stated the leaders reaffirmed practical cooperation in a number of areas, pointing to mineral resource exploration." A thread from the Conflict Intelligence Team about the killing and Russian involvement in the Central African Republic As to Wagners presence, cooperation between the government and private military companies represents the new Russian hybrid approach, Kiril Avramov of the University of Texas Intelligence Studies Project tells Polygraph.info. He describes the "hybrid model, where one does not know where the state ends and private interest begins. Sergey Sukhankin, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC says another company, PMC Patriot, is also said to be operating in the area. The Wagner group is said to be in charge of military operations, while the Patriot group is in charge of protection of VIPs," Sukhanin tells Polygraph.info, though he says the Russian government will not acknowledge their presence because theyre illegal under Russian law and operating as a mercenary is a crime. While no motive for the killing has been confirmed and the area where the journalists vehicle was ambushed is known for armed attacks along the highway, the killing has aroused suspicion due to Wagners involvement in the region. In April, a Russian reporter who had covered the companys involvement in Syria died after allegedly falling off his apartment balcony or out of his window. A number of other opposition and media figures have also died in this same manner over the years. Some of these deaths have been ruled accidental, though they were not criminally investigated. We have had cases in which suspects managed to jump out of completely sealed, barred windows, and even cases in which the suspects suffered multiple lethal injuries from falling out of first floor windows, a Russian investigative journalist said on the topic. That comment was made by Orkhan Jemal, one of the three journalists killed in CAR on July 31. It's OK. The error is fixable and not intentional Terrible lack of due diligence I am not sure I don't care Vote View Results Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell The regulator seeks directions for a thorough probe. Kolkata: Seeking directions for a thorough probe, capital market regulator Sebi has told the Calcutta high court that Alchemist Groups chairman K.D. Singh was allegedly trying to siphon off around $100 million from the money deposited by gullible investors to tax havens, including for buying strip clubs and vacation homes abroad. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday approached a division bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Joymalyo Bagchi with a plea that it was not legally competent to conduct such a probe and the court should direct competed agencies to investigate the matter. The regulator alleged that Mr Singh was trying to siphon off investors deposits worth hundreds of crores of rupees from Alchemist group, which has been under Sebis scanner for garnering funds from public investors in violation of rules. In its application, Sebi said that K.D. Singh is in the process of siphoning off around $100 million, earned by way of duping the innocent public in the guise of fake deposit scheme, in buying companies abroad via tax havens. It also prayed for an order by the bench directing competent agencies to recover the money from Singh and hand over to a one-man committee as directed by the high court on December 21, 2017. The bench decided to hear the matter further on August 6.Sebi further said that the one-man committee of Justice (retd) S P Talukdar has started making payments to investors from July 2. The regulator said that Singh was allegedly trying to siphon off the money in association with the business head of a Mumbai-based family owned group with international presence, whose name it would disclose during hearings. Sebi alleged that Singh, through this business man, has entered into a deal with a Greek business owner whereby a new entity is being created in Cyprus and 10 million euro has been kept in an escrow account till the Greek companys ownership is transferred to Cyprus. The regulator also alleged that Singh was is in process of buying real estate in Mykonos Island of Greece to construct safe vacation homes and was also acquiring pubs, restaurants and strip clubs in Athens which he is planning to combine with his vacation homes to create a private party club worth 5 million euro. The Sebi application further stated that shares of a Kolkata-based private company were recently acquired as benami from one minority shareholder and process of acquiring shares of another minority shareholder worth `250 crore is on through a similar route. Also, in December, a benami property was sold in India and funds were received in the UAE as an operating income from a customer on fake invoices, Sebi said. It also said around 10 entities located in various jurisdictions are being used for moving funds around through different banks. Sebi said it has been informed of all these assets and the nature of their dealings, but it (the regulator) is neither authorised nor legally competent to make investigation in this regard and also not competent to recover assets as it involves flow of funds abroad and assets in foreign jurisdictions, if the information is correct. It said that the volume of assets of the company as enumerated is such that the amount if received from it could possibly satisfy the claim of a substantial portion of depositors of the Alchemist Group. Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Hugh Hewitt today that there almost certainly will be no confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh until September. Hugh asked Grassley whether there is even a 10 percent chance that his committee will hold hearings on Kavanaugh in August. I dont think so, Grassley replied. He said it appears early September would be the earliest the hearings will take place. The question becomes whether Kananaugh can be confirmed in time to take his place on the Supreme Court when its new term begins on the first Monday in October October 1 of this year. Grassley told Hugh that this would be ideal, but I think we can get it done soon after that if we dont get it done by October 1st. Im told that John Roberts hearing began on September 12, 2005 and that he was confirmed and appointed on September 29. Thus, even if Kavanaughs hearing doesnt occur in early September, theres still a chance he could be confirmed by the end of the month, and thus ready to hear cases when the Courts term begins. Kavanaughs confirmation process will be even more contentious than Roberts was. But Senate leadership might still be able to steer it on a similar timetable. UPDATE: Going back further in history, Im informed that Justice Souters hearing started September 17 and he was confirmed October 2. Justice OConnors hearing started September 9 and she was confirmed September 21. The National Archives said today it wont be able to produce the full cache of documents regarding Brett Kavanaugh that Senate Republicans have requested. The documents in question are all of those from Kavanaughs time as an associate White House counsel under George W. Bush. Apparently there are at least 900,000 such documents that need to be reviewed. The Archives says it will be able to review only about one-third of them by mid-August, the time by which Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley said he wanted to receive the entire load. Presumably, the hearing on the Kavanaugh nomination cannot commence until all documents are produced. Senators will also need time to review the documents in advance of the hearing. However, I imagine the documents can be produced in batches, so that hearings can commence in early November. This would give the Senate enough time to confirm Kavanaugh by the end of the year, but would mean that he could not participate in a large chunk of the Supreme Courts docket next term. It would also give Democratic Senators in red states an excuse for not taking a position on the Kavanaugh nomination before they are up for reelection in early November. Before President Trump selected his nominee, Majority Leader McConnell Senate Majority Leader reportedly warned the White House that Kavanaughs massive paper trail would slow down his confirmation process. McConnell was right. However, it should be possible to get the documents to Senators much more quickly than the Archives review process permits. According to the Washington Post, President Bush has authorized making the Kavanaugh documents available, and a group of lawyers, led by Bushs presidential records representative, is reviewing them. More than 50 lawyers from three different firms are participating. The Bush records review team has already reviewed 125,000 pages and handed them over to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Chuck Schumer objects that the Bush records team might withhold documents the Archives would be willing to produce. However, there is no reason to assume bad faith by the review team. And even if one is concerned about this possibility, one solution would be to have the Archives folks review any documents the Bush team says should be withheld. Presumably, that would be a small batch of papers. Schumers goal is obstruction, and the massive amount of documents Grassley has asked for gives him an opening. However, it should be possible to close it. Reaction to President Trumps rally in Florida last night continues to reverberate. Some time before the event got underway, CNNs Jim Acosta, who has made a career out of being a Resister, was reporting from a visible position in the hall when he was heckled by Trump supporters who chanted, among other things, CNN sucks and fake news. Acosta tweeted this video along with an expression of concern about possible violence: Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. Im very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018 Acostas tweet has occasioned a fair amount of reaction, some of which you can read about here. What is striking to me is how unself-aware Acosta is. He is very worried that hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. But what about the violent, anti-Trump hysteria that is whipped up by many on the left, including Acosta himself? Someone already has gotten hurt, badly, as a result of that anti-Trump and anti-Republican frenzy, namely Steve Scalise. It is a miracle that he and other Republican Congressmen werent killed by Bernie Sanders volunteer and Republican hater James Hodgkinson. That was only the most dramatic example of violence from the left, whipped up by reporters like Acosta. Many people have been assaulted because they were wearing Make America Great Again hats. See, e.g., here, here, here, here and here for a few samples. This is nothing new. Anti-Trump violence has been going on for two years. Have Jim Acosta and his fellow Democratic Party reporters really not noticed? I wrote just after the 2016 election: In America, political violence is pretty much exclusively a phenomenon of the Left. The election of Donald Trump has precipitated a wave of violence, which the New York Times acknowledges rather grudgingly: Thousands of people across the country marched, shut down highways, burned effigies and shouted angry slogans on Wednesday night to protest the election of Donald J. Trump as president. *** British readers of the Daily Mail got a far more accurate picture of what went on: Violence has broken out at anti-Trump rallies across America overnight as tens of thousands marched against the President-elect before angry mobs attacked police, started fires and shut down highways. The streets of downtown Oakland in California were choked with smoke Thursday as police launched tear gas and protesters lit fires, in what became by some distance the most violent of the many protests against the election of Donald Trump. More than 6,000 protesters were seen on the streets of Oakland with an initially peaceful march down a cop-lined street turning nasty after some protesters threw bottles at officers and torched a police car. An office block was also attacked, daubed with f*** Trump and kill Trump graffiti and then set alight. Many liberals apparently yearn to murder President Trump; or, at any event, they like to talk about it and create images of his violent death. Kill Trump is a sentiment commonly expressed by liberals. Follow the link above for photos of violence by anti-Trump Democrats. Also here. It is possible that an extreme right-winger could try to harm a Democratic Party politician or reporter, or a Democrat wearing a Bernie Sanders t-shirt. But political violence exists pretty much exclusively on the left, and it has been going on for the last two years, at least. Ive seen no sign that such violence concerns Jim Acostaor, for that matter, any other liberal reporter or politician. Ramesh Ponnuru checks in the trade war. He disagrees with President Trump that America is winning. Ponnuru doesnt see victory in the EUs promise to talk with the U.S. about eliminating tariffs: Trump episodically claims that he wants zero trade barriers all around, and its a good thing that were going to have talks with the EU about liberalization. But we didnt need to place tariffs on steel and aluminum, in the process inflicting damage on the many American companies that use steel and aluminum in making their own products, to get Europe to the table. Negotiations with Europe to bring trade barriers down were further along before Trump took office than they are now. Trump is the one who froze those negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, in order to launch his trade war. Many other trade agreements have been concluded over the last few years without any need for self-destructive tariffs. The EU and Japan just made a deal. Neither had to restrict imports from the other first. The EU has promised to buy more soybeans and liquefied natural gas from America. But Ponnuru doesnt see victory here, either: European soybean imports from the U.S. were likely to increase naturally. China is buying fewer soybeans from the U.S. as part of the fallout from our trade war with it. That means it will buy more soybeans from Brazil, and so Europe will have to buy more from us. All the EU is saying about gas is that it will import more from America as it builds its capacity to do so. Thats something that was going to happen anyway, with or without any agreement with Trump and with or without his tariffs and tariff threats. I dont know enough about the soybean market to agree or disagree with Ramesh here. Im willing to assume that we will be selling Europe more soybeans thanks to the promise the EU has made, even given that Europeans would have had to increase purchases from us due to China buying all those beans from Brazil But will the U.S. be selling more soybeans to the world than we would absent the trade war with China? Or will the increased European purchases just offset, partially or in whole, the lost soybean trade with China? I dont know. Ponnuru concludes: It is of course always possible that tariffs or the threat of tariffs will lead other countries to drop their own trade barriers or reduce their use of abusive practices such as the theft of intellectual property. So far Trumps tactics his tariffs on washing machines, solar panels, steel and aluminum, and Chinese imports have yielded almost no such reform. The one exception: South Korea has raised the number of cars it will allow American companies to sell. But that is a fairly theoretical gain, since American companies have not been hitting todays lower caps. What isnt theoretical are the higher costs for American consumers and companies Trumps tariffs have imposed, or the retaliatory tariffs they have provoked. It seems quite premature to claim victory for the U.S. in the Trump trade wars. Blood Banking Devices Market, by Product Type, Method of Collection, End User and Region - Size, Share, trends, and Forecast to 2026 Blood Banking Devices Market PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-02 12:20:36 Press Information Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave, #3200 Seattle, WA 98154 Mr. Shah CEO 2067016702 email https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/blood-banking-devices-market-1980 # 898 Words 1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154CEO2067016702 The Global Blood Banking Devices Market, by Product Type (Blood Collection Devices (Blood Collection Needles, Blood Collection Tubes (Serum Collection Tubes, Plasma Collection Tubes, Heparin Tubes, and Other Tubes), Needles & Syringes, Lancets, Vacuum Blood Collection System, Blood Bags, and Accessories), Blood Processing Devices (Blood Grouping Analyzers, Blood Cell Processors, Blood Filters, Centrifuges, and Others), and Blood Storage Devices (Blood Bank Refrigerators and Blood Bank Freezers)), by Method of Collection (Manual Blood Collection and Automated Blood Collection), End User (Blood Banks, Hospitals and Other End Users), and Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa) was valued US$ 28.1 billion in 2018 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period (2018 - 2026), as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.Key players operating in the market are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions to gain competitive edge in the blood banking devices market. For instance, in January 2017, Hologic, Inc. completed the divestiture of its blood screening business to Grifols for deal value of US$ 1.85 billion. This divestment will help Hologic to significantly accelerate their financial flexibility.Download And Get Sample PDF File Of Blood Banking Devices Industry: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1980 In January 2017, Werfen and its subsidiary Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) announced the acquisition of Accriva Diagnostics, a company engaged in in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) blood testing at the point-of-care (POC), including their innovative product portfolio spanning coagulation, platelet aggregation, CO-Oximetry, and incision devices. Furthermore, in September 2016, Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) announced the acquisition of CA Casyso AG and its Tem subsidiaries, a company engaged in in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) testing for Patient Blood Management (PBM) with their ROTEM testing systems.Key players in the blood banking devices market are engaged in developing innovative strategies such as mobile van blood banking, robotic blood collection system, and blood banking mobile app to enable easy access to donors, which is expected to show lucrative revenue growth over the forecast period. For instance, in May 2017, Poly Medicure Ltd., manufacturer of medical devices in India, launched their blood banking products in the Indian local market (Haryana), thereby expanding their geographical presence in the local market.Moreover, in January 2017, Social Capital, an NGO from Coimbatore, India launched an android app for blood donation, with support from the Coimbatore Corporation and Sri Ramakrishna Multi-specialty Hospital. Furthermore, this app will help hospitals and blood banks to connect with donors. In September 2014, the American Red Cross launched a blood donor app, which made it easier for people to track their blood donations and schedule for new ones. In April 2018, Immucor, Inc., a leader in transfusion and transplantation diagnostics, received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for their fully automated Echo instrument called as Echo Lumena. Echo Lumena is Immucors fifth generation immunohematology instrument, which offers faster and clearer blood compatibility result. Browse 30 Market Data Tables and 35 Figures spread through 182 Pages and in-depth TOC on Blood Banking Devices Market, by Product Type (Blood Collection Devices (Blood Collection Needles, Blood Collection Tubes (Serum Collection Tubes, Plasma Collection Tubes, Heparin Tubes, and Other Tubes), Needles & Syringes, Lancets, Vacuum Blood Collection System, Blood Bags, Accessories), Blood Processing Devices (Blood Grouping Analyzers, Blood Cell Processors, Blood Filters, Centrifuges, and Others), and Blood Storage Devices (Blood Bank Refrigerators and Blood Bank Freezers)), by Method of Collection (Manual Blood Collection and Automated Blood Collection), End User (Blood Banks, Hospitals and Other End Users), and Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa - Global Forecast to 2026To know the latest trends and insights related to blood banking devices market, click the link below: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/blood-banking-devices-market-1980 Key takeaways of the Blood Banking Devices Market:The global blood banking devices market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period (2018 2026), owing to increasing demand for blood and blood related componentsAmong product type, blood collection devices segment accounted to register largest market share in product type segment, owing to increasing demand for these devices and necessity of these devices in blood component analysis at fully automated blood banks and large blood donation centersAmong method of collection, manual blood collection segment holds a major market share. Manual blood collection systems are an easily accessible way for blood collection, which augment the market share during the forecast period. However, due to continuous advancements in blood banking associated devices, automated blood collection is expected to show higher growth rate in the near future.Among the End User segment, blood banks accounted to hold higher market share during forecast period, owing to their increased ability to offer large variety of blood units to associated hospitals and clinics and their ability to handle extensive amount of blood derived components, further processing and storage, for an extended period.Some of the major players operating in the global blood banking devices market include Becton, Dickinson and Company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Fresenius Kabi AG, Beckman Coulter Inc. (Danaher Corporation), bioMerieux, Inc., China Biologic Products Holdings, Inc., Immucor, Inc.(IVD Holdings, Inc.), Instrumentation Laboratory Company, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Roche Molecular Systems Inc.).About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity. PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-02 08:03:01 On 31 July 2018, Terveystalo Group has entered into an agreement with Eugin Group, Europe's second largest group fully dedicated to human reproduction, whereby Terveystalo sells to Eugin Group the entire operation of Ava Clinic in Riga. Ava Clinic provides gynecological services, obstetrician services, as well as infertility treatment. In 2017, the company employed an average of 13 employees and the unit's revenue in 2017 was approximately EUR 3 million. "We continue to focus on our core business in Finland according to our strategy and with this transaction we are able to release capital for the development of our business. The transaction will also contribute to improving Terveystalo Group's solvency," says Terveystalo's CFO Ilkka Laurila. Terveystalo Plc For more information, please contact: Kati Kaksonen, Director, Investor Relations and Financial Communications Tel. +358 10 345 2034 Kati.kaksonen@terveystalo.com Terveystalo in brief Terveystalo is a listed company on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Terveystalo is the largest healthcare service company in Finland with net sales and network. The company offers versatile primary and secondary health care services for corporate and private customers and the public sector. The nationwide network covers approximately 180 locations across Finland, complemented by 24/7 digital services. In 2017, the Company had approximately 1.2 million individual customers and approximately 3.3 million doctor visits. Nearly 9,000 healthcare professionals work in Terveystalo, about half of whom are private practitioners. Terveystalo is a member of Association for Finnish Work. www.terveystalo.com This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients. The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Terveystalo Oyj via Globenewswire PR-Inside.com: 2018-08-02 10:58:01 News release from Vestas-American Wind Technology Portland, 02 August 2018 Vestas has received an order for 184 MW of V120-2.2 MW turbines delivered in 2.0 operating mode from Xcel Energy Inc., a national leader in wind energy, for the 200 MW Blazing Star Wind Project in Minnesota. The full project size includes previously purchased 2 MW Vestas PTC components. The Blazing Star Wind Project is part of Xcel Energys proposed multi-state wind expansion to add 3,680 MW of new wind generation to its system, across 12 projects located in seven states throughout its territory. This expansion will increase Xcel Energys wind capacity to more than 10,000 MW by the end of 2021. We look forward to working with Vestas on the first phase of the Blazing Star wind project. By investing in low-cost wind energy, we provide the benefits of clean, affordable energy to our customers while creating jobs and value for the local economy, said Chris Clark, president, Xcel Energy Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. These projects will help keep energy costs low while contributing to our vision of achieving 85 percent carbon-free energy by 2030 in the Upper Midwest. We are pleased to expand our portfolio with Xcel Energy as part of their ambitious wind expansion, said Chris Brown, President of Vestas sales and service division in the United States and Canada. The V120-2.2 MW is an increasingly important part of our North American fleet of customisable, flexible products that unlock previously untouched wind resources. The V120-2.2 MW is the latest extension to Vestas trusted 2 MW platform, and is built on the more than 40 GW of 2 MW turbines installed globally. With 19 percent larger swept area than the previous 2.0 MW model, the V120-2.2 MW will be vital in expanding wind projects into new low and medium wind speed regions, harnessing previously uneconomical wind resources. The order includes supply and commissioning of the turbines as well as a 10-year service agreement, designed to ensure optimised performance for the lifetime of the project. Turbine delivery will begin in the third quarter of 2019. For updated Vestas photographs and videos, please visit our media images page on: https://www.vestas.com/en/media/images. For more information, please contact: Chante Condit-Pottol, Communications Specialist, Media & External Relations Tel: +1 (503) 708-6668 Mail: CHCPO@vestas.com About Vestas Vestas is the energy industrys global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and with 92 GW of wind turbines in 79 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled 78 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas more than 23,900 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels: Attachment The Acting Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Victor Muruako, said over N1.4 trillion accrued into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the Federal Government between 2007 and 2017. He said this on Thursday in Abuja at a technical workshop on the implementation of the operating surplus template for scheduled corporations under the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007. Mr Muruako said the accrued amount was only made possible through the implementation of the FRA which was implemented in 2007. He said the act placed the responsibility of monitoring the determination and remittance of operating surplus for the 122 listed corporations under it on the commission and was therefore instrumental to bringing in the funds. He said it had been observed that many scheduled corporations avoided declaring operating surplus by indulging in creative accounting and incurring expenditures not included or above their annual appropriation. According to him, though the act did not define what constitutes or determines operating surplus, it is the difference between the income and expenditure of a scheduled corporation or Ministry, Department and Agency (MDAs) as derived from its audited financial statements. He said this prompted the development of a template for calculating operating surplus in line with international best practices. Where the difference is positive, then it is a must that a surplus must be paid, but if it is a negative it is a deficit. The FRA in Sections 22 to 24 requires scheduled corporations/MDAs to remit 80 per cent of their surplus into the CRF of the Federal Government and keep 20 per cent in their general reserve fund, said Mr Muruako. He added that the template was developed with inputs from the Budget Office of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and other stakeholders. He said the template would help rake in a lot of funds for the federal government if all 122 corporations under it complied with the regulations. I urge all of them to please adhere strictly to it because it will be one of the cardinal efforts to increase and generate revenue for the Federal Government, he said. Mr Muruako also said that the template was approved by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in 2016. Mr Muruako said the template would be launched on Wednesday followed by a technical workshop to enlighten account officers of the corporations for better implementation. On sanctions for erring MDAs, he said the template as a financial rule should actually come with implied sanction, but that it was impossible presently because the Act had not been amended. He added that amendment of the act was instrumental to ensuring that sanctions were implied. He added that the bill to amend it was still at the committee stage at the National Assembly and would suffer greatly at the expiration of the eight National Assembly. He also said the commission was looking forward to a time when all the Federal Government agencies including the military and police would come under the act and remit surpluses. FRC was established to promote prudent management of the nations resources. (NAN) Art lovers are in for a treat as the Eko Theatre Festival enters its fifth day with dance and drama taking center stage. The weeklong carnival, which kicked off on Sunday with a media parley at the Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos, has so far featured top-notch performances from local and international artistes including the African Israeli Stage group. The latter will be performing The Trials of Brother Jero in Hebrew for the first time in Nigeria at the festival. Guests at the media parley included the Alayemore of Ido-Osun, Adeen Adedapo; Director, MTN Foundation, Dennis Okoro; Executive Secretary of MTN Foundation, Nonny Ugboma, and many other arts enthusiasts. Now in its third year, The Theatre Carnival, formerly known as the Bariga Open Air Theatre (B.O.A.T) Festival is a performance-based carnival that celebrates the belief in performing arts as a viable tool for social engineering and empowerment. Theatre artist, Segun Adefila, started Eko Theatre Carnival over two decades ago and the MTN Foundation supports this years edition. Crown Troupe of Africa introduced the carnival to mark more than two decades of creative theatrical performance. The arts fiesta, which comes to a close on Sunday, has so far incorporated several activities across different venues in Lagos. Monday was loaded with so many activities including a lecture by Peju Layiwola as well as the screening of two films, Oriki and Bariga Boy, by Zulu 24 Media Production. On Tuesday, the train headed to the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, where Tunde Adegbola delivered lecture. The Israel-based African Israeli Stage headed by Yaffa Schuster, also staged Wole Soyinkas A Dance of the Forests to the delight of the audience. The National Theatre hosted the screening of Ibadan and Makoko, a Zuri 24 Media Production on Wednesday. Both shows were well attended and professionally executed. Mr Adefila told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday, that the African Israeli Stage would take their performance of A Dance of the Forests to Freedom Park, Lagos Island, on Thursday. A visibly excited Mr Adefila also said it felt great to finally have direct funding for his initiative after over two decades. Dance, drama takes center stage at Eko Theatre Festival Dance, drama takes center stage at Eko Theatre Festival He said, For the first time ever in 22 years of training, young people in the ghetto of Bariga, we are getting a grant, a funding directly from MTN. This is a good sign for art practitioners and enthusiasts alike. It means a lot to the Nigerian arts scene. Meanwhile on Friday, there will be Drums Invocations and the performance of Punctuation, written and directed by Joshua Alabi by Kininso Koncept at Ameckors Dream Orchard. The next day, IM NOT WOLE FOR HEAVENS SAKE!, a site specific comedy of errors devised by Toyin Oshinakes One Six Productions would be performed by Crown Troupe Band at Ameckors Dream Orchard. The grand finale of Eko Theatre Carnival, which takes place on Sunday at Freedom Park, will see a dance performance of Ijo Agba by DGDG. The Crown Troupe will interpret The Trials of Brother Jero on stage. Popular Afro musician, Buga, will also perform at the closing concert. The incident took place at Turchi Phata area where the couple had been to meet the accused pertaining to work. Mumbai: The Sangli Police registered a gang-rape case after eight men raped an eight months pregnant woman on Wednesday. The preliminary probe in the incident revealed that the main accused and the couple were allegedly embroiled in a monetary dispute. The incident took place at Turchi Phata area where the couple had been to meet the accused pertaining to work. The Maharashtra Womens Commission has shot a letter to the Sangli police, seeking details of the action taken, following the gruesome incident. The police said that the accused were identified as Mukund Mane, Javed Khan, Vinod, Sagar and four of their accomplices who raped the woman, by taking turns, over the alleged monetary dispute. Police investigators said that the key accused, Mane, knew the couple as he had previously worked at their hotel for long time as a cook. The couple was looking for another couple to work in their eatery and had spread the word. Mane was one of those who were asked to look for a couple. He info- rmed the victim's husband about having found a couple for the work and asked the couple to meet at Turchi Phata, said Ajay Sindhkar, inspector of Tasgaon police station. The accused then allegedly assaulted the couple and hurled abuses at them and later gagged and tied the victim's husband and bundled him inside a vehicle. The accused then took the woman to a room nearby and sexually assaulted the woman turn by turn. The couple was then asked to leave after being threatened not to reveal this to anybody and to avoid complaining the police. The gang also robbed the victim of her mangalsutra, gold chain and cash that they were carrying. "We have identified the accused and are in the process of apprehending them. The identity of the remaining accused and motive is being probed further," added Sindhkar. The women's commission has also sought for official report from Sangli police on the incident. A letter written by Vijaya Rahatkar to the Sangli police chief sought for the details of the incident, case registered and action initiated by the police in the gang-rape. A case of rape, criminal intimidation, assault, forceful confinement and robbery, as per sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against all accused and further probe is underway. The late legendary Nigerian Reggae artist, Ras Kimono, who passed on at the age of 60, will be buried in his home town, Onitsha Olona, Delta State, on August 25. Ras Kimono died in a Lagos hospital on June 10, after a brief illness. The family of the late reggae legend revealed this at a briefing in Surulere, Lagos. Theophilus Ehizibue, who spoke on behalf of the family at the briefing said, Kimonos journey to eternity will commence on August 17, with a social wake keep at his residence in Magodo, Lagos on August 22. Thereafter, his former record label, Premier Music, will hold a night of tributes in his honour at Freedom Park on Monday, August 20, while a reggae dancehall party comes up at his Magodo residence. Mr. Ehizubue also added that the Association of Music Band Organisation of Nigeria would equally hold a night of tributes at Freedom Park on August 21. The Copyright Society of Nigerias night of tributes holding at COSON House, Ikeja, Lagos holds on August 22. His lying-in-state will take place at the Lagos Television Blue Roof Arena, Agidingbi, Ikeja, from 9a.m. to 12noon on August 24. His body leaves for Asaba, Delta State on the same day. While in Asaba, there will be a procession by the Rasta community on August 24 and this will be followed by a brief lying-in-state between 1p.m. and 3 p.m. Then wake-keep holds at home town, Olona. Saturday, August 25, he would be lying-in-state in his compound in Olona, followed by interment. A the thanksgiving service will hold on August 26. Born on May 9, 1958, Ras Kimono rose to fame in 1989 with his album, Under pressure which launched him to stardom. It set the tone as he released more songs and started touring Africa, Europe and the U.S. He also won several awards, including the Nigerian Music Awards, and Fame Music Awards. The reggae star, who was known for hit songs like We No Want and Rum-Bar Stylee had reportedly concluded plans to travel to the United States. Sadly, he was rushed to a hospital in Lagos where he passed on. Born in Delta State, he celebrated his 60th birthday amidst fanfare in Lagos in May. In October 2017, he dropped a new single after many years of hiatus from the music scene. The organisers of the Multichoice Talent Factory say they received over 3,100 entries for the inaugural edition. They disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos. They also added that the regional interviews and the screening process to select twenty of the most noteworthy candidates have begun. The shortlisted candidates will receive the opportunity to hone their television and film production skills during the yearlong funded program. The Talent Academy, which would be based in Lagos, will admit and train deserving, young, talented filmmakers practising and prospective from across the continent in the various aspects of filmmaking. The West African Director, MultiChoice Talent Factory, Femi Odugbemi, said, The next generation must understand that as filmmakers, they are the historians of the modern age. Weve got to have great filmmakers who are willing to take on big themes and unearth untold stories and all of that requires us to be deliberate about how we mentor the next generation. [We] have to be very deliberate that the next generation will simply not tell stories uneducated. The Talent Academy is a first in the three touch points that MTF will deliver over the course of the year. These include MTF academies, Master classes and the MTF Portal. The yearlong training will begin on October 1. About 103 persons aboard at an Embraer 190 jetliner, Aeromexico Flight 2431,Tuesday survived a crash as the plane tried to take off from Durango, in North-west Mexico. According to CBS reports, the plane appeared to have struggled to climb above land before the engines caught fire and eventually crashed. Mexican officials said the plane descended abruptly as it attempted take off, possibly due to a severe gust of wind. The left wing appeared to hit the ground, but the plane came to a stop more than 300 yards from the runway, somehow still upright, allowing exit slides to deploy, the report added. In a video shot presented by one Ashley Garcia, it showed passengers fleeing to safety. I got off the plane, I saw people, their face gushing blood, they had cut lips, Ms Garcia said. I know some kids got like burns, like actual burns, she said. Though many remain hospitalised with burns, including the pilot, a survivor, Alberto Herrera from the Chicago area, said the incident is still hard to believe. First thing I did was drink a big, big, big shot of tequila, Im not going to lie, he said. Because, I just fell from the sky and I am here to live and talk about it. The United States of America has imposed sanctions on Turkey over the detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson. BBC reports that Mr Brunson is a long-term resident in Turkey. He lived with his wife and three children while working as the pastor of the small Izmir Resurrection Church. He is being accused by authorities of having links with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a Turkish-Kurdish rebel group fighting for sovereignty since 1980s. The group is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the U.S. Mr Brunson has denied charges of espionage, but faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty. The pastor has been held for nearly two years over alleged links to political groups. BBC also reported that he was placed under house arrest last month for health reasons. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted We have seen no credible evidence against Mr Brunson. We believe hes a victim of unfair and unjust detention, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Turkey has said U.S. demands for Mr Brunsons release are unacceptable. The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday: we call on the US administration to row back from this wrong decision. Without delay, there will be a response to this aggressive attitude that will not serve any purpose, it said. President Donald Trump also tweeted The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long-time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly, this innocent man of faith should be released immediately. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Malaysia late on Thursday, kicking off a five-day, three-country visit to South-East Asia amid growing Chinese influence in the region. Mr Pompeo is set to discuss regional security and economic interests with recently elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and other senior officials in Kuala Lumpur. North Korea will also be high on the agenda as Mr Pompeo seeks to shore up support among U.S. allies in the region for President Donald Trumps plan to denuclearise the reclusive country. Mr Pompeo is under pressure to deliver progress following the historic summit in June between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He travels on to Singapore on Friday to attend a meeting of South-East Asian nations, where he is expected to talk with several counterparts on the sidelines. He then moves on Jakarta on Saturday. Ahead of the trip, Mr Pompeo announced that the U.S. will invest $113 million towards technology, energy and infrastructure into the region. The plan is aimed at confronting Chinas aggressive development strategy and growing influence in the Indo-Pacific through the controversial construction of militarised islands in the South China Sea. Mr Pompeo said Monday that the investments represent just a down payment on a new era in U.S. economic commitment to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. He said the U.S. will never seek domination in the Indo-Pacific, and we will oppose any country that does, in an apparent reference to China. (dpa/NAN) President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has sworn into office a new chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC). The president said on Wednesday night that the chair, Jean Mensa, and her two deputies, together with a member of the commission who was also sworn in, took office at a time when there was a considerable anxiety in the nation about the work of the EC. He said it was the quality of their work that would reassure Ghanaians that the the countrys democratic system of government would be properly nurtured by an electoral system that allowed the voices to be plainly and loudly heard. The swearing-in of the top EC officials comes one month after the president removed from office Charlotte Osei as the EC chair, two Deputies, Amadu Sulley (in charge of Operations) and Georgina Amankwa (in charge of Corporate Services) on grounds of stated misconduct and incompetence as found by a committee. The committee was set up by the chief justice to investigate petitions levelled against them. NAN reports that the petition against her alleged among others the funneling of GHc3.9 million to partition an office, the receipt of a Toyota Land Cruiser from the Mahama government, and the use of about 14 million dollars when the Public Procurement Authority had authorised her to use only 7.5 million dollars. Ms Osei also responded by making allegations of corruption against her deputies. She claimed she was only being hounded because she sought to introduce systems to curb mismanagement. Ms Osei accused a deputy chairperson of the commission of illegally signing contracts worth over GHc 40 million without her approval. President Akufo-Addo in accordance with the constitution forwarded both petitions to the Chief Justice to look into the matter. (Xinhua/NAN) An Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos on Thursday granted John Abebe, the younger brother of the late Stella Obasanjo, spouse of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo bail over alleged four million dollars fraud. Mr Abebe is facing a four-count charge of forgery, fabricating evidence, using fabricated evidence and attempt to pervert the cause of justice slammed on him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He, however, denied the charges during his arraignment on July 26 and was remanded for a week at the Ikoyi Prisons by Justice Mojisola Dada. At Thursdays bail proceedings, Kanu Agabi, Mr Abebes lawyer, via a bail application dated July 25 and supported by an 11-paragraph affidavit, asked the court to grant Mr Abebe bail. Mr Agabi said the judge should take cognizance of Mr Abebes high status in the society and that the defendant in a bid to absolve himself of the charges had hired the services of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria. My Lord, the fact that the defendant has taken the trouble to hire the services of the calibre of counsel here shows that he is not interested in jumping bail. He is anxious because his reputation is at stake, the granting of bail is in your discretion and it is not at all a formality. Lastly, My Lord, there is a principle that applies during sentencing particularly when Your Lordship wants to apply a fine in terms of imprisonment. This applies to bail, the bail should be affordable, if not the bail would be an illusion. Merely looking at the defendant, you will see he is a man of rank and position. Our law permits bail to the defendant and that provision will be useless if he cannot avail himself of the bail, Agabi said. Responding, Babatunde Sonoiki, the EFCC counsel, in an application supported by an 8-paragraph affidavit, said Mr Abebe should face justice irrespective of his status. He told the court : Every citizen of Nigeria is being called before the law and before the law there is no high profile or low profile person, justice is blind. If the court is minded to give bail, we want the bail to be such that it would compel his attendance in court as these are serious allegations against him. Granting Mr Abebe bail, Justice Dada noted that documents before her revealed that investigations had been concluded in the case, adding that the chances of interference in the proceedings from the defendant were low. In view of the facts before the court, I hereby grant the defendant bail upon the submission of his international passport to the court registrar with one substantial surety. The surety must own property in a choice area of Lagos and must provide proof of ownership, she said. Following the ruling, it was brought to the judges attention by the defence that Mr Abebes passport was still in the possession of the EFCC. Justice Dada said: Since the passport of the defendant is with the EFCC, he is hereby granted bail on fulfillment of other conditions. According to Rotimi Oyedepo, the EFCC prosecutor present at Mr Abebes arraignment on July 26, the defendant committed the offence on June 22, 2010 in Lagos. Abebe knowingly forged BP Exploration Nigeria Ltds letter dated Nov. 30, 1995 to Inducon (Nigeria) Ltd. He committed the forgery by inserting in page two of the said letter the following words: Also note that the Buy-Out Option only applies to the pre-production stage of the NPIA. The $4 million buy-out is thus irrelevant from production of oil in any of our fields. He purported same to have been issued by BP Exploration Nigeria Limited, the EFCC prosecutor said. The prosecution claimed that the defendant used the said forged letter as evidence in suit: FHC/L/CS/224/2010 between Abebe, Inducon Nigeria Ltd and Statoil Nigeria Ltd at the Federal High Court. The evidence was admitted and marked exhibit BB in the suit. According to the EFCC, the defendant through his actions attempted to pervert the course of justice. The offences violated Sections 120(1), 120(2), 126(2) and 467 of the Criminal Code Law of 2003. Justice Dada adjourned the case until October 23, October 24 and October 25 for trial. (NAN) Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on Wednesday night said President Muhammadu Buhari is not disturbed about the gale of defections currently ongoing in the ruling party, APC. Mr Okorocha stated this Wednesday night while speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting of APC governors with the president. The meeting held inside the conference room in the office of the wife of the president at the State House Villa, Abuja. Three governors, Senate President Bukola Saraki as well as several senators and members of the House of Representatives have left the APC for the PDP in the past two weeks. Mr Okorocha said the governors met with Mr Buhari to assure him that the APC still has 22 governors and are comfortable. We came to assure him that his foot soldiers are ready, and the president is in high spirits. In fact, he says nowadays, he has to sleep with his alarm clock if not he will pass the time of his sleep, he said. Mr Okorocha also said the APC is much more stronger now than before. We have 22 states, 53 senators. We are still the majority, and we are hoping to get more into our party. So we are here to let Mr President know that we are with him. Nobody is leaving the party anymore, he said. The Imo governor also said the party has for some years been aware that those who left were going to defect from the party. Mr Okorocha, who is the chairman of APC governors forum, said it was unfortunate that the party could not give those who left what they were looking for. He also said it is good that Nigerians now know the truth, no deceit anymore. He said the defection by APC members is another form of corruption fighting back against Mr Buhari over his decision to tackle the menace. He said with the coming of APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, into office, the party is poised to win the 2019 elections. Mr Buhari had earlier met with senators elected on the APC platform. Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus of the House of Representatives say they will keep vigil at the National Assembly all night today over alleged plot by some All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to invade the senate chamber and remove Senate President Bukola Saraki. The lawmakers were led by the acting Minority Leader of the House, Chukwudi Onyema. They said they were going to keep vigil to make sure the alleged plans were thwarted. Checks by PREMIUM TIMES after rumour of the alleged plot filtered in showed normal security presence at the National Assembly on Wednesday night. An APC senator who was at a meeting APC senators had with President Muhammadu Buhari also denied any such plan to forcefully remove Mr Saraki was discussed. The rumour, however, remained till late on Wednesday. Speaking to journalists, Mr. Onyema said that the PDP caucus had information that three senators, Abdullahi Adamu, Ovie Omo-Agege and Ali Ndume, were planning to forcefully invade the senate chamber while the Senate is on recess. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are on recess till September. The aim of their invasion of the senate while senators are on recess, to come and sit illegally when everybody is out on recess, is to impeach the senate president, Mr Onyema said. We also have it on good authority that they are planning to come back this night and tomorrow morning aided by security forces; our own security forces whose job is to protect the lives of Nigerians. They are the ones leading these dissident senators to come and truncate our democracy. We might think they want to take over the senate; thats not what they want to do. They want to truncate this democracy of ours. But we the PDP caucus have decided to stay here to keep vigil and wait to see whats going to happen tonight and tomorrow night, the deputy minority leader stated. He charged Nigerians to stay awake with the caucus because this is not a rape on the National Assembly, its a rape on democracy which concerns all of us. If we allow this to happen, then we can as well go back to when we use to have a military junta. We also have some information that some policemen have arrived. We want to find out what they are doing here. Mr Saraki on Tuesday after months of speculations dumped the APC for the PDP. Senate President, Bukola Saraki. He left the APC alongside his Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, and other loyalists. The governors of Benue and Sokoto states as well as lawmakers ferom those states also left the PDP for the APC. The National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, earlier on Wednesday advised Mr. Saraki to resign his position as senate president having left the APC. Mr Oshiomhole spoke after the APC senators meeting with Mr Buhari in Abuja. President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe said on Thursday he has been talking to opposition leader Nelson Chamisa to try to defuse tension over the Monday presidential election after violent clashes on the streets of Harare. Writing on Twitter, Mr Mnangagwa also called for an independent investigation into the violence, in which three people were killed after soldiers were deployed to the streets of the capital. Zimbabwe police said three people were killed in Harare on Wednesday as soldiers dispersed stone-throwing opposition supporters who accused the ruling party of trying to rig Mondays presidential election. The deployment of soldiers and their beating of unarmed protesters set back Mr Mnangagwas efforts to shed Zimbabwes pariah status after decades of repression under Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in November. Even before the violence, European Union observers questioned the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary vote, the first since Mr Mugabes forced resignation after nearly 40 years in charge of the southern African nation. Zimbabwes electoral commission had said it would start announcing results for the presidential race from 10.30 GMT on Wednesday but that was then pushed back at least 24 hours. EU monitors said the delay was undermining the votes credibility. Commonwealth observers also on Thursday accused the Zimbabwe security forces of using excessive force on protesters. Police spokesperson Charity Charamba told state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) that the three people killed in the clashes had yet to be identified. Gunfire crackled as troops, backed by armoured vehicles and a military helicopter and some with their faces masked, cleared the streets of opposition protesters. The unrest started soon after Mr Chamisa, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), declared that he had won the popular vote. After burning tyres in the streets, scores of his supporters attacked riot police near the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) headquarters. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannon. I was making a peaceful protest. I was beaten by soldiers, said Norest Kemvo, who had gashes to his face and right hand. This is our government. This is exactly why we wanted change. They are stealing our election. Mr Mnangagwa said the violence was meant to disrupt the election and blamed the MDC leadership. We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process, Mnangagwa said, according to ZBC. Mr Chamisas spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, told journalists that the armys reaction was unjustified. Today we saw the deployment of military tanks and firing of live ammunition on civilians for no apparent reason. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Zimbabwes political leaders and people to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence. Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the army had been called in to ensure peace and tranquillity. Mr Charamba said the troops were deployed at the request of police who could not cope with the violence, and will remain under police command. As gunfire reverberated through downtown Harare, Mr Mnangagwa called for calm and urged patience while results were collated. Many protesters accused the army of unprovoked brutality. We had no weapons. Why are the army here beating us? shooting us? This is not an election it is a disgrace on our country, one young man, Colbert Mugwenhi, said. A Reuters witness saw soldiers with sticks beat two people and counted at least five trucks full of soldiers. We are tired of them stealing our votes. This time we will not allow it, we will fight, said a protester who wore a red MDC beret in central Harare. (Reuters/NAN) Agitation to be held across state from August 6. Mumbai: As many multiplexes in Maharashtra have not yet implemented the state government order, allowing people to carry personal food in cinema halls, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has declared that its workers would keep a vigil in the state multiplexes to ascertain whether the rates of eatables sold there are inflated or not. The partys spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande announced its reality check agitation from August 6 on the issue. Multiplexes have reduced rates of food items after MNS workers in June staged a violent agitation in Pune. From August 6, MNS workers will visit all multiplexes in the state and check whether government order is being implemented or not, tweeted Mr Deshpande on Thursday. In June, MNS workers from Pune ransacked a multiplex for charging high price on food items. The video of MNS workers assaulting the counter manager at the multiplex had gone viral. Later, Maharashtra multiplex owners associations members reached out to MNS chief Raj Thackeray and requested him to intervene. In a meeting, the association had agreed to reduce the price of items like vada pav, popcorns and sandwiches to around `50. The state government too has come up with regulatory guidelines about fair prices as well as permission to people to take their personal food in theatres. Minister of state for food and civil supply, Ravindra Chavan, had cleared the stand of state government on the floor of the Legislative Council. There is no such ban on taking personal food in multiplexes. If multiplex authorities prohibit it then they will have to face the action, said Mr Chavan. Meanwhile, MNS workers from Kalyan, Dombivali on Thursday visited SM5 multiplex to check whether government order was in implementation. The MNS workers alleged that this particular multiplex was not following government orders. Later, the multiplex manager agreed to follow the orders. Nigerias former president, Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday played host to another former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, at his country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State. Mr Obasanjo was in Bayelsa for medical check-up as a guest of the Bayelsa government which launched a new health programme. He made a stop-over at Mr Jonathans home. Mr Jonathan, apparently delighted with the visit, later wrote on Facebook, I am firmly of the view that Nigeria will progress faster when great leaders, like President Obasanjo and other statesmen, plant trees whose shade they know they may never enjoy. He posted on the social media site photos of himself and his guest, Mr Obasanjo, beaming with smiles. The governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson, was present when the two former leaders met. Mr Obasanjo, once a military ruler, was elected president in 1999 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), during a return to civilian rule in Nigeria. He led the country for eight years and was succeeded in May 2007 by Umaru YarAdua, who later died while still serving as president. Mr Jonathan, who was vice president under Mr YarAdua, succeeded the late president in 2010. The Obasanjo-Jonathan meeting is largely seen as part of the ongoing political alignment in the country, which is targeted at defeating President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections. Apart from members of the APC decamping in droves to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the PDP has been holding talks with Mr Obasanjos African Democratic Congress (ADC) and other parties on forming a grand alliance that could help them dislodge the APC in the forthcoming elections. The Obasanjo-Jonathan meeting highlights the popular notion of no permanent friend, but permanent interest in the countrys politics. Mr Obasanjo has played a big role in Mr Jonathans rise and fall in politics; first, it was during the Obasanjo administration that the then governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, was impeached, paving the way for Mr Jonathan, then a deputy governor, to become governor. Mr Jonathans election as president had the backing of Mr Obasanjo, who later threw his weight behind Mr Buhari, an opposition candidate, to defeat Mr Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. Mr Obasanjo had tore his PDP card and said he had quit partisan politics. Today, Mr Obasanjo has parted ways with President Buharis government. He is working hard to stop the presidents re-election, and interestingly, both Mr Obasanjo and Mr Jonathan are now political allies who see Mr Buhari as their common political enemy. Mr Obasanjo issued a public statement January this year in which he asked the president not to seek re-election. President Buhari needs a dignified and honourable dismount from the horse. He needs to have time to reflect, refurbish physically and recoup and after appropriate rest, once again, join the stock of Nigerian leaders whose experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the sideline for the good of the country, the former president said in the 13-page statement. Mr Obasanjo blamed the president for not doing much to tackle hunger, poverty, and insecurity in the country, He said, Wherever I go, I hear Nigerians complaining, murmuring in anguish and anger. But our anger should not be like the anger of the cripple. We can collectively save ourselves from the position we find ourselves. It will not come through self-pity, fruitless complaint or protest but through constructive and positive engagement and collective action for the good of our nation and ourselves and our children and their children. In his characteristic bluntness, the former president said in the same statement that he didnt regret stopping Mr Jonathans re-election in 2015. As it has been revealed in the last three years or so, that decision and the subsequent collective decision of Nigerians to vote for a change was the right decision for the nation. For me, there was nothing personal, it was all in the best interest of Nigeria and, indeed, in the best interest of Africa and humanity at large. Even the horse rider then, with whom I maintain very cordial, happy and social relationship today has come to realise his mistakes and regretted it publicly and I admire his courage and forthrightness in this regard. He has a role to play on the sideline for the good of Nigeria, Africa and humanity and I will see him as a partner in playing such a role nationally and internationally, but not as a horse rider in Nigeria again, Mr Obasanjo said. President Buhari has since declared his re-election plan and has accused Mr Obasanjo of corruption. President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja held a closed-door meeting with security chiefs and the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Buhari, who presided over the meeting which lasted for about four hours, immediately departed for Bauchi, Bauchi state, on official engagement. In a statement at the end of the meeting, Mr Dan-Ali said he updated the National Security Council on security situation in the country. The minister said that he also reminded the council that the nations armed forces in collaboration with other security agencies were doing all they could to address the turbulent security situation across the country. He said: In order to forestall future security incidences in Zamfara, Sokoto and Birnin-Gwari axis Operation SHARAN DAJI has been extended to cover up to the fringes of Niger boarder. The operation has recently been reinforced witlh more troops from the Nigerian Armed Forces, Nigeria Police and Department of State Services and is supported by the Intelligence, Surveillance and Recognisance Wing of 207 Quick Response Group of the Nigerian Air Force. Mr Dan-Ali noted that the joint operation had successfully arrested some suspected armed bandits and recovered arms and ammunition. He announced that security agencies had been directed to checkmate the criminal activities along Abuja-Kaduna highway through increased patrols along the axis to address cases of attacks and kidnappings. The minister also reiterated the need for the deployment of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in all areas liberated by the military in the North-East. He said this had become imperative in order to consolidate on the gains of military operations as well as to enable the military push forward in its clearance operations. Mr Dan-Ali stated that he informed the council that Operation DELTA SAFE had sustained its operations against illegal activities in the Niger Delta region with resultant reduction in illegal oil bunkering, militancy and pipeline vandalism. The minister, however, requested for provision of more equipment for the armed forces in order to sustain the tempo in the fight against insurgency and other security challenges across the country. Other members of the National Security Council include Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonishakin; the Chief of Army State, Tukur Buratai; Chief Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar; and Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas. Others are the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; the National Security Adviser, retired Babagana Monguno; the Director General of the State Security Service, Lawal Daura ; and the Director of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar. (NAN) The Kano State Deputy Governor, Hafiz Abubakar, has denied defecting from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr Abubakar made the denial in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his media aide, Abdulwahab Ahmad. The attention of the office of His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Kano State, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar MFR. Dsc. has been drawn to a story circulating in the social media to the effect that the deputy governor has defected from APC to PDP. It is important to inform all supporters, well-wishers, Associates and the General Public that such a very important decision is not taken on the pages of Social Media. The Deputy Governor is right now attending a very important national assignment in Abuja. The general public should note that whatever the future political direction of His Excellency Prof Hafiz Abubakar the state deputy governor and his teeming supporters and political associates would be, (it would be) in the public domain at the appropriate time after due consultations with all concerned elders, political Associates and relevant stakeholders, the statement added. Mr Abubakar is a known associate of Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former Kano governor and current senator who last week defected to the PDP from the APC. Mr Kwankwaso was among scores of federal and state lawmakers as well as three state governors who left the APC for the PDP in the past two weeks. Mr Kwankwaso, who enjoys a wide following in Kano, is expected to vie for the PDP presidential ticket. He has argued that he believes he is the best candidate to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, especially considering Kano is the state the president secured his largest votes in 2015. Mr Abubakar had earlier petitioned the police and State Security Service (SSS) over alleged threat to his life and plans to remove him by state lawmakers. In a petition addressed to Kano State Police Commissioner and copied to the Assistant Inspector General in charge of Zone 1 and the state director of SSS, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, the deputy governor called on Kano State Police Command to strengthen security around him and his residence to forestall security breach. Mr. Abubakar alleged that the state government has released funds to mobilise youth from the 44 local government areas of the state to call for his impeachment or resignation. My attention has been drawn to orchestrated plots to frame me up on non-existing allegations to pave way for my impeachment from office by the State House of Assembly, he wrote in the petition. Secondly, the state government was also alleged to have made funds available to the 44 Local Government Councils to raise groups and organise a protest in the state capital to call for either my resignation or impeachment from office. The concern here is that the protest, no matter how peaceful it was intended to be, could be hijacked by miscreants and turn it into violent one, thereby posing security threat not only to my person but to the state at large. Another worry is the fact that, I am residing in my private residence not the official residence that is located in the secure environment within the Government House, as Government is yet to provide me with the Statutory Official Residence. I travel no less than 40km to and from my residence to the office on daily basis. In view of the foregoing realities, I am calling on the State Police Command to strengthen security around me and particularly at my residence in order to forestall any unpleasant security breach. In reaction, the Kano State Government expressed dismay over the petition. In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Youth and Culture, Muhammad Garba, and issued to journalists on Tuesday, the state government said the petition was unwarranted and unfair. Mr Garba said even though the government holds the office of the deputy governor with high esteem, it sees Mr Abubakar as too insignificant for government to commit state resources to orchestrate plan to remove him from office, talk less of any attempt on his life. According the statement, to prove that the allegations made by the deputy governor were false, he was at Tuesdays state Executive Council Meeting, and he came with fewer security aides. At the meeting, when His Excellency had to excuse himself to embark on a trip, he directed the deputy governor to preside over as usual, and that all the resolutions reached at the meeting are binding, something that would not have been accorded him by his political godfather, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the commissioner said. Mr Garba pointed out that despite several unguarded comments by the deputy governor, the government continues to accord respect and support for his office both morally and otherwise. The statement also debunked allegation that Mr Abubakar has not been provided with a statutory official residence, saying it was his choice to remain in the private residence as he personally brought the contractor that is handling the construction of his official residence. It also advised the deputy governor to make a choice of quitting or remaining in the government. The police spokesperson in Kano, Magaji Majia, also told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that security has been beefed up in the office, convoy and personal residence of Mr Abubakar. Mr. Majia who acknowledged that the police has received the deputy governors petition said the command has since acted upon the letter. Mr. Majia added that the deputy commissioner of police in charge of operations has met with the deputy governor where Mr Abubakar expressed satisfaction with the security arrangement provided by the police. The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan, says she has not resigned her position as a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Mrs Alhassan disclosed this while speaking in a phone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday. Contrary to insinuations especially in the social media, I only sought for permission from President Muhammdu Buhari to begin consultations. This is preparatory to my seeking nomination from our great party the All Progressive Congress (APC) to contest for the office of the governor of Taraba State in 2019, which he has graciously accepted, she said. Mrs Alhassan added: The letter in circulation in the social media does not in any way mean or suggest resignation. The letter is straight forward and unambiguous. Our esteemed supporters and loyal party men and women in Taraba should please disregard any rumour of my resignation. When the time comes for me to resign, I will do so in accordance with the laid down procedure and regulations. Mrs Alhassan said she is presently preoccupied with the task given to her by Mr Buhari as Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development. I am also helping in mobilising support for him and the APC for the 2019 election, she said. (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday likened defectors from his party, APC, to bad eggs saying God will continue to fish out the bad eggs among us. Mr Buhari, speaking in Bauchi, also told supporters not to be perturbed by the recent defections in the party. Over two scores of federal and state lawmakers as well as three state governors have defected from the APC in the past two weeks. The states where the defections occurred include Benue, Kwara, Kano, and Sokoto. To stop further defections, PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Buhari on Wednesday met with APC senators and governors separately to douse the tension among both groups. Many of the federal lawmakers who defected did so mainly because of the problems they have with their state governors. More federal lawmakers are still expected to defect. APC leaders have, however, repeatedly insisted that the defections would not affect the partys fortunes in the 2019 general elections. On Thursday, Mr Buhari, who is set to travel to London for a 10-day vacation, spoke at the commencement of the campaign rally for the Bauchi South Senatorial District bye-elections and the formal presentation of APC candidate for the August 11 poll, Gumau Yahaya. According to a press statement by his office, President Buhari told the rally that the APC-led government had remained faithful in implementing its campaign promise of improving the economy, securing the country, and the fight against corruption. The work we are doing is because of God, our country and you. I want to inform you that the knowledge we have garnered over the years, we wont allow you to be cheated. Like we promised, what will determine a good future for the country are security, strong economy and to stop corruption. We campaigned on these things, you voted for us and we will never forget, the president said to a thunderous applause by party supporters at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi. Endorsing the APC candidate for the senatorial bye-election, the president who was accompanied by the party chairman Adams Oshiomhole, Governors of Bauchi, Plateau, Kano and Imo States, and other party officials declared: we have confidence in him and we trust him. He, therefore, urged the people of Bauchi South Senatorial District to vote Mr Yahaya in the upcoming election. The president also thanked the people of Bauchi for defying the heavy rainfall and coming out en masse to welcome him and show solidarity to the partys candidate in the senatorial election. He assured APC supporters in Bauchi that his administration will continue to work hard to surpass its campaign promises for a better Nigeria. The Nigerian presidency has said that claims by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that President Muhammadu Buhari had taken a 10-day leave in order to leave the stage for illegal and unconstitutional actions by the administration are both ridiculous and a hollow narrative to garner cheap sympathy. Mr Buhari said he will travel to London Friday to spend his ten day vacation. The PDP, Thursday evening, issued a statement alleging that Mr Buharis two-week vacation in London was designed as an alibi to exonerate him from planned political illegalities, forceful invasion and mayhem about to be visited on the polity and particularly, the National Assembly. The opposition party said it is aware of plots already perfected in a meeting, Wednesday night, between the presidency and some All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to forcefully reconvene the Senate with protection from security agencies, with a view to removing Senate President Bukola Saraki and his Deputy Ike Ekweremadu. Mr Saraki defected from the APC to the PDP on Tuesday and attended a meeting at the PDP headquarters on Thursday. PREMIUM TIMES reported two ingenious roles of security agencies to forcefully remove Mr Saraki from office. One of such was the incident last month where security agencies, mainly led by the police, laid siege on Mr Saraki and Mr Ekweremadus house ostensibly to prevent them from getting to the Senate that day. It is such moves that the PDP alleges was being planned by the Buhari administration again. The presidency in a counter statement by Garba Shehu said Mr Buhari had handed power to his deputy without compulsion. He said that decision is itself exemplary and innovative, something that the PDP failed to produce in their sixteen years of monumental mismanagement and sadistic plunder. Mr Shehu said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who acts in the absence of the president, is a lawyer of the highest rank and a social rights crusader who had received local and international acclaim before he took the present office. It is inconceivable that this is the team to copy the bad manners cast in stone in the PDP, the statement said. The Nigerian presidency said it welcomes objective criticism and takes them seriously and humbly. But Nigerians, it said, must by now be tired of a party (PDP) which cries wolf where there is none, ostensibly to spread negativity and distract the presidents attention from his duties. The president is carrying out difficult reforms for the future growth of the country, such as the implementation of the ease of doing business, the Treasury Single Account, TSA, the whistleblower process, and hundreds of others, including the massive investment in rail, roads and power. If such reforms had happened in 16 years of the PDP, it would have made things much better for the country, Mr Shehu said. Instead, he said, the PDP seem to be fixated with a desperate quest for power, nothing but power for its own sake because they have nothing to offer. They draw a sadistic pleasure when things appear to be going wrongly, yet they offer nothing by way of remedy or solutions, he said. He also said the whole country is fighting corruption and the ordinary citizen is happy about all that is happening. He said the economic parameters have changed for the better, a clear indication that the administrations political and economic strategies are working but the opposition is not interested. If the PDP doesnt have anything that would help our farmers, women, the common man and the youth, they should just keep quiet. In the end, one thing Nigerians should take away from the cacophonous falsehoods from the PDP and the tenants back in their tent is that they all fear one thing, that their old records will be reopened, Mr Shehu said. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has approved the appointment of Yekini Nabena as acting National Publicity of the party. Mr Nabena was the deputy publicity secretary of the party prior to the defection of the national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi. Mr Abdullahi resigned and defected to the PDP earlier today. Mr Nabenas new position was revealed in a letter of appointment signed by the National Secretary of the APC, Mala Buni, addressed to him. I write to convey the resolution of the National Working Committee reached at its 34th Regular Meeting of 1st August, 2018, mandating you to resume duty as the Acting National Publicity Secretary with immediate effect. This development is sequel to the resignation from the party by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi as the National Publicity Secretary. The Conference of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretaries (CAPS) has urged the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to step down from his position. The senate president, formerly the third most powerful official in the APC administration, on Tuesday evening announced his defection from the party to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his former party. His defection is believed to have led to that of the APCs publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, Mr Sarakis known loyalist. CAPS said it believes Mr Saraki, now a member of the minority political party can no longer act in the capacity as senate president. It made this known in a statement made available by APCs assistant director of publicity, Edegbe Odemwingie, on Thursday. It equally hailed the appointment of the new Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, who has taken over from Mr Abdullahi in acting capacity. Considering the recent movements of politicians across the different political parties and particularly the defection of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki from APC to PDP, CAPS observes that it is within the rights of Saraki to choose where to pitch his political tent. However, CAPS calls on the Senate President to resign from the position immediately. We believe that Bukola Saraki, as a member of the minority PDP, has lost the moral ground to continue as the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the group said. CAPS while wishing Mr Abdullahi well, also said Mr Nabena is a good fit for the slot of the partys spokesperson. The statement was signed by members of CAPS from different zones. These include Yahaya Bashir (North-west), Taiwo Olatunbosun (South-west), Usman Adaji (North-central), Senibo Chris Finebone (South-south), Sule Garba (North-east), Okelo Madukaife (South-east) and Joe Igbokwe (Chairman). The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) plans to hold a conference to address the rise of fake news in Nigeria ahead of the 2019 general election. Themed: Democracy and Disinformation: How Fake News Threatens our Freedom and Democracy in Nigeria, the two-day conference is scheduled to hold between August 7 and 8 in Abuja. The timing of this conference is crucial especially as our elections are fast approaching and it is essential to prevent the circulation of fake news and disinformation, CDD Director, Idayat Hassan explained in a statement Thursday. Nigerias political landscape is tense, and given the increasing security threats in different parts of the country, perceived marginalization, anger, confusion and economic challenges, there is a tendency that political actors can take advantage of these gaps either to misinform, disinform, promote apathy or skew voting choices for the forthcoming elections This conference will facilitate discussion around fake news, misinformation and disinformation, their effects on Nigerias democracy, and how it could be mitigated. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), experts, renowned journalists, civil society actors, academia and government officials are all expected to participate in the conference supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and MacArthur Foundation. Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media according to Wikipedia. Recently, the federal government launched a campaign against fake news. Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, who is championing the cause likened the effects of fake news to a time bomb waiting to explode. He attributed the escalation of the farmers and herders crisis to misinformation. Mr Mohammed said the decision of the government to launch a campaign against fake news was linked to the possible effects of rumours towards the escalation of related crisis across the country. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was shocked to learn of the tragic death of six Nigerian asylum-seekers, among them three children, who were killed in a blast in the far north of Cameroon. The UN refugee agency, said it had learnt that on July 29, 12 asylum-seekers were being forcibly returned to Banki, Nigeria, in a Cameroonian army truck, which drove over an improvised explosive device that exploded. UNHCR added that six Cameroonian soldiers and six other asylum-seekers were also injured in the incident, which took place in Homaka, Mayo Sava Division. Director of UNHCRs Regional Bureau for Africa, Valentin Tapsoba, condemned the forcible return of Nigerian asylum-seekers from Cameroon. This tragic incident is a disappointing testament of continuing forced returns (refoulements) of refugees and asylum-seekers from Cameroon, despite numerous appeals by UNHCR to the Government of Cameroon to respect its obligations. The forced return of refugees and asylum-seekers is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law to which the Cameroonian State is party, Mr Tapsoba said. No fewer than 800 Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers in Cameroon had been forcibly returned to Nigeria since the beginning of 2018, the UN refugee agency said. Mr Tapsoba further said: UNHCR once again calls upon the government of Cameroon to refrain from carrying out further forced returns of Nigerian refugees and asylum-seekers. It also reminds Cameroon of its obligations under international law relating to the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers and the commitments it made by signing the Tripartite Agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon in March 2017. UNHCR reiterates its appeal to authorities to provide Nigerian refugees with unhindered access to asylum and stands ready to support Cameroon to ensure all individuals seeking safety have access to efficient screening, registration and documentation procedures. Some 96,000 Nigerian refugees had sought safety in the Far North region of Cameroon, with more than 8,000 new refugees registered since the beginning of 2018, UNHCR said. According to the UN refugee agency, Cameroon currently hosts more than 367,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. (NAN) Bhushan Kumar is now all set to produce a much-awaited costume drama, Taanaji along with Ajay Devgn. Mumbai: In the past few years Bhushan Kumar has emerged as one of the most sought-after film producers having given some of the most successful films such as Hindi Medium, Tumhari Sulu, Raid, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety among others. The music baron turned film producer is aiming to gather varied genre of films under his banner. He is all set to now produce a much-awaited costume drama, Taanaji along with Ajay Devgn. Both Bhushan Kumar and Ajay Devgn have had a very successful association in the past, Raid being their most recent blockbuster. Bhushan Kumar had recently flown to London to meet Ajay Devgn for a discussion over Taanaji. Taanaji will mark Bhushan Kumars first venture into costume drama space. The film is set to go on floors on 25th September, after Ajay Devgn finishes the shoot of Akiv Alis next which is being produced by Bhushan Kumar & Luv Ranjan and Indra Kumars Total Dhamaal. Speaking about the association Bhushan Kumar says, Ajay is one of the finest actors that we have today. The intensity that he brings to his performance is unparalleled. After the success of our recent film Raid, I am super excited to be part of a costume drama, a first for our banner T-Series. The movie Taanaji will showcase the life of this unsung warrior of glorious Indian history, who fought for his people, his soil and his King, Chhatrapati Shivaji. The film will be directed by Om Raut, who has to his credit Lokmanya Ek Yugpurush (2015), the Marathi biopic on Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, on Wednesday led some PDP governors and senators on a solidarity visit to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue following recent threats to impeach him. In a brief speech when they met Mr Ortom at the Government House, Makurdi, Mr Secondus described the removal plot initiated by eight members of the Benue legislature as an act of illegality, and urged Nigerians to rise against it. The House has 30 members; eight members cannot form a quorum to seat, much less plot an impeachment process, he said. The PDP chairman said that they were in Benue to support the governor and welcome him back to the PDP family. He assured him that the PDP would stand by him, urging him to ignore recent allegations hurled at him by people angry that he had left the All Progressives Congress. Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa, who spoke on behalf of the governors, assured Mr Ortom of his colleaguess support in his trying times. Mr Dickson described the impeachment notice to Mr Ortom by a minority group at the Benue State House of Assembly as nonsense, vowing that the governors would never allow it. Democracy and the rule of law must be given the proper respect in Nigeria, he said. He decried the spate of killings of innocent Nigerians in different parts of the country, and urged the federal government to tackle the phenomenon. Mr Dickson called on the people of Benue to stand by their governor, especially now that he was passing through a trying moment. Responding, Mr Ortom described himself as a prodigal son, and pleaded that PDP should fully receive him back into its fold. He described PDP as his home, saying that he had returned to his family, given that he was no longer comfortable in APC. He charged the federal government to respect democratic norms and principle, saying that he would resist any attempt by any agency of government or persons to intimidate him. The governor decried the withdrawal of police personnel from the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the state, and described the action as very dangerous. Also speaking, the state chairman of PDP, John Ngbede, admonished the governor to remain firm and not be intimated, saying that the PDP family was solidly behind him in his travails. (NAN) The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a Freedom of Information request to Sule Kazaure, Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) asking him to urgently provide information on specific details and documents on the Exemption Certificate granted to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. The organisation also asked Mr Kazaure to provide information and documents on whether Mrs Adeosun applied for NYSC Exemption Certificate, and if she did, to clarify whether the NYSC actually granted her the Exemption Certificate, the circumstances and the provisions of the NYSC Act under which the Exemption Certificate was granted. The organisation said it needs the information to determine if the crime of forgery has been committed, and if so, to consider possible action in the circumstances, including but not limited to asking the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr Abubakar Malami SAN to pursue prosecution or in the absence of that, for us to consider the option of a private prosecution. Its statement signed by Timothy Adewale, deputy director and released on Thursday reads in part: In the FOI request dated 2 August 2018 and signed by SERAP deputy director Timothy Adewale, the organization said, By providing information and documents on the Exemption Certificate, the NYSC would help put an end to any insinuation of complicity and show that the institution can embrace transparency and accountability in the discharge of its statutory mandates. This would in turn contribute to improved integrity and public image of the NYSC. According to the organisation, Mrs Adeosun remains innocent until the allegations against her are properly tested and proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of competent jurisdiction based on relevant admissible evidence. But the continuing silence by the NYSC management on the matter may create an impression that an offence may have been committed, and lead to accusation that the management has something to hide. The letter read in part: We urge you and the entire NYSC management and leadership to open-up on the matter and provide information and documents as requested. This will be one step in the right direction. If the information is not provided to us within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter, the Registered Trustees of SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions under the Freedom of Information Act to compel you to comply with our request. SERAP is concerned about the perceived lack of transparency and accountability of the NYSC management and leadership in this matter, which has seriously undermined public trust and confidence in the NYSC as a public institution established to serve the public interests. SERAP notes that following allegations of NYSC Exemption Certificate forgery against Mrs Adeosun, the NYSC management issued a statement confirming that she did apply for an Exemption Certificate and promising to investigate the origin of the purported Exemption Certificate in question. However, we are concerned that the statement lacks specificity as to whether Mrs Adeosun was issued the Exemption Certificate. Further, although the statement was issued on 9 July 2018, the NYSC management has so far failed and/or neglected to publish the outcome of the investigation it promised. Nigerians are also entitled to the right to truth derived from the obligations of the government and its institutions to carry out an investigation into allegations of issues like forgery that have been levelled against Mrs Adeosun. By Section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011, SERAP is entitled as of right to request for or gain access to information, including information on the circumstances and the provisions of the NYSC Act under which any NYSC Exemption Certificate was granted to Mrs Adeosun. By Section 4 (a) of the FOI Act when a person makes a request for information from a public official, institution or agency, the public official, institution or urgency to whom the application is directed is under a binding legal obligation to provide the applicant with the information requested for, except as otherwise provided by the Act, within 7 days after the application is received. By Sections 2(3)(d)(V) & (4) of the FOI Act, there is a binding legal duty to ensure that documents containing information relating to the granting of any NYSC Exemption Certificate are widely disseminated and made readily available to members of the public through various means. The information being requested does not come within the purview of the types of information exempted from disclosure by the provisions of the FOI Act. The information requested for bothers on an issue of national interest, public concern, good governance, transparency and accountability. The Buhari-led administration is yet to address the forgery allegations against Mr Adeosun, weeks after PREMIUM TIMES first broke the story on how the finance minister avoided the mandatory one year youth service and thereafter obtained a forged exemption certificate to cover her tracks. An Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday nullified the April 25 judgment of the Federal High Court which struck out the National Assemblys election re-ordering provision of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018. A five-member panel of the court headed by the courts president, Zainab Bulkachuwa, also made a definite pronouncement to the effect that a bill could not be challenged in court until it becomes an Act. According to a report in The Punch newspaper, Ms Bulkachuwa ruled that the Federal High Court wrongly assumed jurisdiction to entertain the suit and erroneously struck down the provision. The National Assembly had removed the controversial section after the furore it generated. It resent the revised edition of the bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent. The judgment of the Court of Appeal has cleared the way for a possible re-introduction of the provision in the future. The lower court operated under the erroneous impression that the bill had become an act, Ms Bulkachuwa said in her lead judgment which was consented to by the four other members of the panel. A bill does not become an Act until it has been assented to by the President after it has been passed by the two Houses of the National Assembly, she ruled. She also said, The bill, which is Exhibit 1, remains a bill and it is inchoate, noting that the National Assembly has not completed its legislative duty as far as the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018, is concerned. She said a court could only nullify a law if it violated a provision of the Nigerian Constitution noting a court could not do such at the embryonic stage of a legislative process. She said the bill has no binding force and cannot have any legal effect of the law since the bill had not become an Act. The bill has no legal effect and cannot create a cause of action, the court added. The court did not bother to pronounce on the constitutionality of Section 25 of the bill since it declared that the suit which was originally filed by the Accord Party at the Federal High Court was premature, coming ahead of the maturity of the bill into an Act. It ruled that the suit was a mere academic exercise as it was not justiciable (decided by a court). The court also said the Accord Party, who is the plaintiff at the Federal High Court in Abuja, lacked the locus standi (the legal right) to institute the action as it was unable to show which of its rights or obligations that would suffer if the bill was assented to by the president. PREMIUM TIMES reported how a judgement on April 25 in Abuja by the federal high court presided by Ahmed Mohammed ruled that only the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had the powers to create an election template for the country. Mr Mohammed also ruled that any attempt by the National Assembly to amend Section 25, as done by the legislature, would first require an amendment of the constitution. The Federal High Courts judgment subsequently voided the elections sequence provision of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The appeal ruled upon by the Court of Appeal was filed by the National Assembly against the April 25 judgment despite its soft pedalling. The controversial provision in the said bill sought to alter the sequence in which the presidential, governorship, the federal and state legislative houses elections will be conducted. Meanwhile, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who recently defected from the ruling APC has praised the judgment. Mr Saraki, in a statement by his special adviser, Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, on Wednesday said it is essential to test the laws in court by seeking judicial interpretations on contentious issues. By doing so, we will be expanding the scope of our laws, sharpening the rough edges of legislation and asserting our faith in the judiciary as a fundamental arbiter, he said. It is not yet clear what further legal steps the presidency will take in light of the new development. The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has told its new members who recently defected from the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), to get ready to fight a (political) war. Mr Secondus, who stated this on Wednesday night at a dinner in honour of the defectors, according to the party, said the battle to wrest power from the ruling party would be fierce as the APC would not want to relinquish power easily. He described the defectors as courageous men and women, whom he said refused to keep quiet in the face of flagrant disobedience of rules in the country. This event is organised in honour of those who took bold steps to join others to rescue the nation. They are heroes. They could have chosen to remain where they were and even return to their seats (in the National Assembly), but because they could not see what is going on in the country and keep quiet; that is why they are here. They cannot see the killings, the frame-ups, the unemployment and the kind of military democracy that cannot even be described, that they are foisting on us and keep quiet. If we are in the military government, we would know. Rule of law and court orders are no longer obeyed These heroes of democracy who have decided to move from the ruling party are unusual men. We need to honour them. Their decision is in defence of democracy. But let remind you that we are very far from getting there. Be ready to fight both real and proxy wars. It is going to be a very long walk to freedom. There is no longer freedom in Nigeria. No freedom of the press. If you tell them the truth, they say it is hate speech. When you tell them the whole truth, they say it is fake news. He described the day the defection took place in both chambers of the National Assembly as the days of freedom. He condemned the federal government for always claiming not to know what happened in the country, adding that the defections that took place in states such as Kwara, Sokoto, Kogi, Kano and others were because Nigerians are in pains. When things happen, the government will say they dont know. They are always not aware and are never bothered. When Nigerians are hungry, they dont lose sleep. The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, will lock down government houses and the federal government would say it was not aware or not bothered. We are expecting more states to join us and we pray that they will not be bothered. When we win in 2019, they will not be bothered as well. We are not here to rejoice but to welcome our members and also encourage them to talk to others like them to join us. About 50 members of the National Assembly have defected from the ruling APC to other parties. Most of them moved to the PDP. A week after, Senate President Bukola Saraki also dumped the party for the PDP. Three other governors have also moved to the PDP. They are Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto. Some lawmakers have also claimed that more of their colleagues will move over to the PDP in the coming weeks. A Kaduna High Court on Thursday fixed October 4 to rule on the bail application of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim Zakzaky, and his wife Zinat. The presiding judge, Gideon Kurada, adjourned the matter after counsel to the defendants, Maxwell Kyon, moved the application for the bail of the first and second defendants. Mr Kyon told reporters the prosecution had served the 3rd and 4th defendants, Yakubu Yahaya, and Sanusi Abdulqadir, respectively, standing trial with the Shiites leader. Mr Kyon said the defense counsel had filed their bail application to the court and the prosecution had also filed their response. He said that October 4 had been fixed for ruling of the bail application. Meanwhile, the prosecution counsel, Chris Umar, confirmed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the court session that the 3rd and 4th respondents had been served through publications in the Daily Trust and The Nation newspapers. NAN reports that the Kaduna State Government had brought an eight-count charge against the IMN leader, his wife and the two other IMN leaders based in Katsina and Kano. The IMN leader, his wife, Yahaya and Abdulqadir were charged for alleged conspiracy, abating culpable homicide among other related offences. Mr El-Zakzaky has been detained for over two years by the State Security Service since over 300 members were killed by soldiers in December 2015. For the first two years, he was detained without trial and despite a court order for his release. He was earlier this year finally tried by the Kaduna government for his alleged roles in the December 2015 violence which occurred after IMN members blocked a road being used by Nigerias Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai. No soldier involved in the mass murder of IMN members is being prosecuted. As a signatory to the International Health Regulations (IHR), Nigeria has begun the final process towards the development of a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS). This process has been coordinated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners. The NCDC Director, Chikwe Ihekweazu, who disclosed this in a statement he signed on Thursday, said the agency last month hosted a final five-day workshop in Abuja to complete the development of the plan. This is the first time Nigeria will have a multi-sectoral action plan that defines roles and timelines of stakeholders across the country in ensuring health security, Mr Ihekweazu said in his remark at the event as quoted in the statement. Notably, over a year after this process, several gaps identified from the evaluation have already been addressed; given the strong political commitment to strengthening health security in Nigeria. For the first time we are bringing key stakeholders from different agencies and sectors including agriculture, uniformed services and others to develop a plan on how Nigeria can better protect its populace against outbreaks of infectious diseases. According to the World Health Agency, Planning for Health Security is an activity of Member States to develop their National Action Plan for Health Security with the support of WHO. The activity includes acknowledging, coordinating and collaborating on different areas of health security, defining national stakeholders roles and responsibilities, and consolidating the information into a single comprehensive national action plan. The plan will help minimise the consequences associated with significant health incidents. The purpose of the plan is to provide coordination between separate organisations in order to reduce the social and economic cost in the case of a significant health incident. The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has warned Nigerians against delivering babies at home and circumcision by unqualified hands. He said such acts are some of the major causes of Hepatitis. According to Punch Newspaper, Mr Adewole said this in Abuja on Tuesday at a briefing held to mark the 2018 World Hepatitis Day. About 20 million Nigerians have at least one form of hepatitis, says health experts. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, commonly caused by a viral infection. The most common forms are hepatitis A, B, and C. The disease could cause chronic liver disease, liver cancer and death without manifesting any weighty symptoms. The minister noted that Hepatitis killed 1.3 million people across the world every year. While Hepatitis C could be cured, Hepatitis B has no known remedy but it could be prevented by taking a vaccine. In our clime, the risk factors include local circumcision, local uvulectomy and scarification on the body. Other predisposing factors include surgical procedures, deliveries that occur at home and blood transfusion to mention a few. May I inform you that our target is to eliminate Viral Hepatitis by the year 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals:, Adewole said. He noted that some of the common symptoms included poor appetite, tiredness, vomiting, yellow discolouration of the skin and the white portion of the eye. Permit me to add that viral hepatitis is a global infectious disease and, worldwide, one in 12 persons is estimated to be living with the infection. This translates to approximately 292 million people who are actively infected with Hepatitis B virus, while 71 million are actively infected with Hepatitis C virus. It is very disheartening that globally, an estimated 1.8 million children under five years have Hepatitis B infection despite the availability of a potent vaccine that could be used to protect children against the virus. Mr Adewole urged Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the ongoing Nigeria AIDS Indicators and Impact Survey to know their status or simply walk into any health facility to do a blood test, which would not take more than 15 minutes to verify ones status. It is estimated that about 300 million people are living with viral hepatitis across the world, most of whom are not aware of their status. An executive council member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and governorship aspirant in Kwara State, Issa Aremu, has called for what he called quality control of the countrys democratic process through the inculcation of ethics of discipline and integrity in politics. He made the observation while submitting his formal Expression of Interest at the Labour Party headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday. The Labour leader said notwithstanding the ongoing political discordant voices, Nigeria remains the largest democracy destination in Sub-Sahara Africa with as many as 80 million voters and 68 political parties registered by INEC. Mr Aremu, however, lamented that political entrepreneurs had since replaced genuine politicians of the first and second democratic republic adding that with defections, most todays politicians stood for nothing but fell for anything. According to him, the urgent need for quality control of democratic process motivated him to contest for the governorship of Kwara State. It is now time to have quality democratic process. And we need quality people to drive the process. One step is to bring back ethics to politics and politics to ethics. We must therefore encourage a new Democratic culture that serves the people. he said. Mr Aremu also called for the enforcement of section 23 of the 1999 constitution dealing with critical national ethics such as Discipline, Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social, Justice, Religious Tolerance, Self-reliance and Patriotism within the ranks of the political class. He said what Nigeria needs urgently was healthy contest of ideas not conquest of posts however juicy adding that Nigeria needed certain level of discipline among the political participants for sustainable democracy. He hailed the achievements of Labour Party in the last 14 years of its existence having produced a two term governor, a number of federal and state legislators with a promise that if elected as the governor of Kwara, he would further mainstream LP in Nigerian and African politics. Political parties are the major institutions of a functioning democracy. Nigeria has the highest number of political parties in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria has possibly conducted elections in quick successions than the norm in some other African countries. Nigeria is certainly positioned to teach others about how to conduct elections. he said. On hand to receive him and his entourage at the Labour Party office in Abuja were the National Chairman of the Party, A.A. Salam, Ag. National Secretary, Julius Abure, and National Vice Chairman, North Central, Adi Shirsha Adi The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Nigeria, has expressed sadness over the death of eight Cameroonian refugees in Ikom, Cross River. Elizabeth Mpimbiza, Senior External Relations Officer, UNHCR, Nigeria, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja. She said that the information communicated to UNCHR in Ikom showed that the refugees died of fumes from a generator in their room. Ms Mpimbiza quoted Boubacar Bamba, UNHCR Assistant Representative, Operations in Nigeria, as describing the incidence as a tragedy. Mr Bamba said that the UNHCR was saddened by the loss of lives. Any loss of life is a tragedy, and it is heart-breaking when it happens to those who are fleeing for safety, Mr Bamba said. Ms Mpimbiza said that UNHCR, through its office in Ikom, was working with the authorities to assist those who survived the incident. The refugees were those fleeing Cameroon in the wake of violence in September 2017 and sought refuge in Nigerias Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states. Ms Mpimbiza said that 21,291 refugees had so far been registered in the four states, adding that women and children accounted for 80 per cent of the refugees. (NAN) Zimbabwes main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, said on Thursday that he had won the presidential election, and President Emmerson Mnangagwa knew he had lost otherwise the results would have been announced by now. In his first public appearance since the vote on Monday, Mr Chamisa, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), urged his supporters to be calm and await massive celebrations for his victory. Mr Chamisa said he could not give any figures because he would be breaking the law. Earlier, police sealed off the headquarters of Zimbabwes main opposition party and troops cleared the streets of the capital, day after protests over a disputed presidential election ended in deadly violence. The security forces acted despite calls from foreign governments and international organizations for calm and for political leaders to show restraint. The result of Mondays presidential election, the first since the army ousted Robert Mugabe in November 2017 to end four decades of authoritarian rule, had still not been announced by Thursday afternoon although the electoral commission said it would do so very soon. On Wednesday, Mr Chamisa accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of rigging the poll, although he offered no evidence. Opposition supporters took to the streets to demonstrate and three were shot dead by soldiers amid clashes. The army crackdown has punctured the euphoria that followed its removal of Mugabe, and fueled suspicions that the generals who launched the coup remain Zimbabwes de facto rulers. In Harare, the contrast could not be stronger with November, when hundreds of thousands filled the streets, hugging soldiers and celebrating their role in ousting 94-year-old Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe had known since independence in 1980. They are showing their true colors now. We thought they were our savior in November but they fooled us, said newspaper vendor Farai Dzengera, saying that the brief dream of an end to decades of repression was over. What can we doThey run this country. MDC Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora said 27 party workers carrying out voter tabulation were locked inside its offices as police sealed them off on Thursday. He said he suspected police wanted to plant evidence to incriminate officials. We will not recognise that search warrant because they want to plant evidence. They want to disrupt our results tabulation process thats all, he said. Police denied the allegation. The police are there to do their job, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said. Nearly all shops in downtown Harare were shuttered and the normally bustling pavements quiet the day after the bloodshed. President Emmerson Mnangagwas spokesman, George Charamba, insisted that Thursday was a normal working day. They must go about their business as always, he said on state television. Wednesdays violence, which followed a relatively orderly election, dashes Mr Mnangagwas hopes of repairing the image of a country that had become synonymous with corruption and economic collapse under Mugabe. In particular, the use of soldiers to control the capital confirms suspicions that the generals who ousted Mugabe including army chief-turned vice-president Constantino Chiwenga are firmly in charge, analysts said. Deployment of troops reveals the uncomfortable truth that, eight months after Mugabe was ousted, the army remains the pre-eminent political force, said Piers Pigou, a Zimbabwe expert at the International Crisis Group think-tank. The election, which pitched 75-year-old Mnangagwa against the 40-year-old Chamisa, was supposed to confirm the legitimacy of the post-Mugabe government and allow Harare to renew ties with the international community. This in turn would have allowed it to start unlocking the billions of dollars of donor funding and investment needed to get its economy at independence, one of Africas most vibrant back on its feet. Instead, observers from the Commonwealth, the group of mainly former British colonies that Mr Mnangagwa had been hoping to rejoin, did not mince their words in condemning the conduct of the military. We categorically denounce the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians, former Ghanaian president John Mahama said in a statement on behalf of the Commonwealth. He also urged the electoral commission to speed up the announcement of the results of the presidential vote. The observers had on Wednesday reported a number of problems with the poll, including voter intimidation. The United Nations and European Union both called for restraint, while Britain, an unashamed cheerleader of the new post-Mugabe Zimbabwe, said it was deeply concerned by the violence. China, an important source of funding under Mugabe and Mnangagwa, said however it believed the election had generally proceeded in an orderly fashion. A foreign ministry spokesman noted reports of Wednesdays unrest. Mr Mnangagwa, a former security chief nicknamed The Crocodile, offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the crackdown and said those responsible would be brought to justice. He said he had been talking to Mr Chamisa to try to defuse tensions.(Reuters/NAN) You can avail a hefty discount of as much as Rs 30,800 on the upcoming Samsung flagship. The discount is offered on an exchange of your older smartphone which needs to be a Google, LG, Apple or Samsung-branded device. (Representational Image: Galaxy Note 8) Samsung has been failing to grab the desired number of sales for a year now due to players such as OnePlus hopping into the tussle with potent devices. Well, despite the disappointment faced, the South Korean manufacturer has high hopes with its upcoming flagship the Galaxy Note 9 which is a much-hyped smartphone currently. Well, in case you are planning to bring home the Samsung flagship, which is expected to be officially announced on August 9, you can avail a hefty discount of as much as Rs 30,800! The discount is offered on an exchange of your older smartphone which needs to be a Google, LG, Apple or Samsung-branded device. The catch is, Samsung's official website reads 'eligible device' which means it should be a premium smartphone and the discount amount lowers down depending on the model. However, looking at the features Note 9 is expected to be offered with, exchanging even a high-end device with this shouldn't be a bad deal. On exchanging a smartphone, you can avail price cut of up to $450 (approx Rs 31,000) on the Galaxy Note 9. Customers who are interested in pre-booking their device, Samsung's official website or app lets you reserve the phone in advance. Doing so, you can be one of the early owners of the much-talked-about smartphone. The delivery is guaranteed by August 24, as mentioned on the official portal. Rumours have doing rounds about the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 for a while which suggest various possible features such as the availability of Fortnite game by default. Other anticipated elements are the Bixby 2.0, rumoured Bixby speaker and the Galaxy watch. (Via) Nigerian journalist Jones Abiri has been taken to a federal prison in Nasarawa State after appearing in court on Thursday for the continuation of his trial. The State Security Service charged Mr Abiri for alleged militancy on July 27, two years after arresting him. The trial resumed Thursday at the Chief Magistrates Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, during which Mr Abiri told of his experience at the secret polices facility in Abuja. He was arraigned alongside Collins Opume, said to be a student and aide to Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson. The two had been granted bail since July 27, but Mr Abiris lawyers said the conditions were too stringent and are prevailing on the court to relax the demands. He was initially sent back to the SSS custody last week. But at the resumed hearing Thursday, the court said Mr Abiri should be taken to the federal prisons in Keffi, about 45 kilometres southeast of Abuja. Mr Abiri, publisher of Weekly Source magazine, was arrested on July 21, 2016 at his office in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on allegations that he was a key militant terrorising locals and expatriates in the restive oil-rich region. His arrest and continued detention elicited outrage from journalists and other media rights groups. After keeping mum for several months, the SSS later disclosed that Mr Abiri wrote a confessional statement of his involvement in the crime while in custody. This claim, alongside several similar allegations propagated against Mr Abiri by the SSS and other government officials was rejected by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Although Mr Abiri said he had no complaints about the detention environment, he found his long-drawn detention pathetic. It is a pathetic situation for me to be facing this kind of persecution, Mr Abiri said, expressing his resolve to persevere through and come out from this case. He also denied ties to Mr Opume, with whom the SSS said the alleged militancy activities, including threats to shakedown multinational oil companies for up to N500 million, were perpetrated. The magistrate, Chukwuemeka Nweke, has fixed August 8 for a possible revision of the bail conditions, following demands from the defense lawyers. An official of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resigned from the party and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC). Ahmed Aluko was reportedly the only PDP national officer from Kwara State and a member of its National Executive Committee. Mr Aluko, who was the PDP deputy governorship candidate in Kwara in the 2015 elections resigned his membership of the party during its NEC meeting Thursday. Mr Aluko said he was irked by decision of PDP national leadership to hand over the structure of PDP to the Senate President Bukola Saraki who defected on Tuesday to the party and attended its NEC meeting Thursday. It is, therefore, shocking that the party at the national level has resolved to hand over the party structures and all electable positions to defectors without any regards for those who stood by the party and built it Into a strong winning machine in Kwara. It is even more shocking that as the only national officer from Kwara State and NEC member from Kwara (I) was not consulted. Mr Aluko said he was leaving PDP for more democratic platform. PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how the state executives of the PDP in Kwara all resigned and joined the APC after Mr Sarakis defection to the PDP. Ahmed Aluko The second batch of 382 Nigerian pilgrims from Nasarawa State on Wednesday joined their Kogi counterparts to formally begin this years Hajj rites in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The pilgrims, comprising 245 males, left Madinah after spending eight days of worship in the Holy Prophets Mosque and visits to historical sites. They joined the first batch of 446 pilgrims from Kogi which left Madinah on Tuesday. Meanwhile, security guards at a hotel that accommodated the Nasarawa pilgrims in Madinah rescued one of the pilgrims from the top roof of a 10-storey building shortly before their departure to Makkah. A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who witnessed the incident reports that the pilgrim, who strayed onto the top roof, surprised many others who had assembled outside waiting to be transported to Makkah. After wandering aimlessly on the roof floor without assistance, the pilgrim threw a bag down to the street outside to attract attention of passersby and his colleagues. The incident attracted a huge crowd, including officials of the state pilgrims agency who looked helpless, before security guards immediately rushed to his rescue. The state officials declined comments when contacted by newsmen However, an official of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), who alerted the guards after watching the helpless pilgrim, said the incident was unfortunate. The official, who spoke on condition anonymity, said the pilgrim might have failed to adhere to advice by officials on how to operate the hotel elevators. All pilgrims were shown how to use the elevator and there are people he could approach to use the facility but he chose to ignore advice. The pilgrim (name withheld) later told NAN that he used the staircase but met some hotel workers who were also going up. It was in the process that I found myself on the last roof floor and could not come down because they had locked the door. (NAN) The Niger State Environmental Protection Agency (NISEPA) says rural people in the state were felling trees indiscriminately to make charcoal for export. Lucky Barau, General Manger, NISEPA, disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna. He said that the people engaged in the act to satisfy their pecuniary need, adding that this endangers the environment. Our recent findings in the state reveal that our local people cut down timbers and other trees indiscriminately to make wood for local use and charcoal for export. According to local sources, they make a lot of money from exporting the charcoal to neighbouring countries like Benin, Niger and Mali. It is lucrative for them, so they concentrate on the business, he said. Mr Barau said that recently the agency concluded sensitisation visit to the eight emirates in the state to let the people know the negative effect of deforestation to the society. Government at all levels is looking for a way of fighting desert encroachment as a result of exposing the environment to harsh weather condition, then some people are contributing to it. We will not fold our arms and watch some people endanger the environment out of ignorance, he said. Governor Umaru Al-Makura on Thursday expressed confidence that the gale of defections sweeping across various state chapters of the All Progressive Congress (APC), would not reach Nasarawa State. The gale of defections rocking the APC will not reach Nasarawa; I am very confident of that, Al-Makura declared in Lafia, during an expanded stakeholders meeting of the party. He commended APC members of the National Assembly from the state for remaining resolute in support of the party, and urged them to remain loyal party members. Mr Al-Makura particularly thanked Senator Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West) and the two APC members of the House of Representatives for their commitment, seriousness and dedication to effective service delivery. He said that Nasarawa State would always support President Buhari, and assured the President of bloc votes in 2019. The governor said the stakeholders meeting was convened to reaffirm commitment to the vision, mission and aspiration of the party, and lauded the stakeholders for their doggedness over time. The governor urged stakeholders to disregard speculations by people seeking to break the ranks of APC in the state, saying that the party was fully intact. The stakeholders, at the meeting, endorsed President Muhammadu Buharis re-election bid following a motion by Mr Al-Makura which was seconded by Mr Adamu. (NAN) Some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the political ward of Shehu Sani, a senator from Kaduna State, have insisted that the controversial suspension placed on the senator still subsists. In a resolution issued at the end of a meeting of the executive committee, the officials warned the senator that being in the good books of party leaders in Abuja will not invalidate his suspension until his submits himself to the party at the local level. The statement which was signed by the factional chairman of Kawo Ward 6, Ibrahim Togo, said the initial decision to suspend the senator was taken based on the provisions of the constitution of our great party. Mr Sani who was widely expected to leave the APC, along with Senate President Bukola Saraki, explained that he decided to remain in the APC based on his own ideology and intercessions of some personalities, including a former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, and a leader of APC, Bola Tinubu. Mr Sanis initial plan to exit the ruling party was in connection with the sour relationship between him and Governor Nasir El-Rufai. The senators co-traveller in opposition against Mr El-Rufai, Kaduna North senator, Suleiman Hunkuyi, is among senators who left for the PDP in July. But the ward leadership of the party insisted that the the only pre-condition for lifting the suspension it earlier placed on the senator is for him to openly apologise to the leadership of our great party for his various acts of misconduct and disrespectful attitudes towards both his constituents, party leadership and his vicious media attacks on our amiable President Muhammadu Buhari. The statement also asked the senator to tender apology for opposition to a $350 million loan sought by the Kaduna State Government from the World Bank. Mr Sani, who is the chairman of Senate Committee on Foreign and Loacal Loan was vehement in his opposition of the facility sought by the state government. His opposition and that of the two other senators from Kaduna contributed significantly to the Senate rejecting the request. SHEHU SANI REACTS In reaction, Mr Sani described the author of the letter as faceless and unknown persons parading themselves as executives. Signed by Abdulsamad Amadi, his media aide, the lawmaker said there was no congress held before the individuals made such decision. My attention has been drawn to a statement by some unscrupulous elements illegally parading themselves as the executives of APC Tudun Wada north ward 6 in Kaduna south local government area of Kaduna state, claiming to have suspended Senator Shehu Sani from the All Progressive Congress APC. Ordinarily statements like these by faceless and unknown persons wouldnt have attracted any response from the office of the distinguished Senator. However, we find it imperative to say something so as to expose these crooks for whom they really are. First and foremost it is important to note that no congress was held, nether was any consensus reached to put in place any form of leadership structure in the said council. Consequently, anybody parading himself as an exco in the ward is doing so illegally. We were reliably informed that the people spreading this falsehood were handpicked by an aide to the state governor whose ill motivated and desperate ambition of becoming a senator seem to be driving insane, the statement reads in part. Mr Sani said the move was sponsored by Mr El-Rufais media aide. He did not mention which aide it is. Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai He added that his decision to remain in the party has been appreciated by the party leadership. It is rather unfortunate that these people are allowing themselves to be used by this desperate governors aide, to frustrate the efforts of the new APC National Leadership and President Buhari to bring sanity to the party. We are not totally surprised by this despicable act as it was an open secret that the Kaduna state government was never in support of Comrade Oshiomholes ascension to the leadership of our great party. The decision by Sen Shehu Sani to remain in the APC amidst the mass defections is a decision that has been highly appreciated by the President and the National Leadership of the APC. Also President Buhari and the entire Leadership of the APC have on numerous occasions openly affirmed their confidence and trust in Senator Shehu Sani as a high-profile stakeholder and bonafide member of the APC whom they hold in very high esteem. Therefore it is not only self contradictory, but also an act of disrespect to President Buhari and the National Chairman, for people who are claiming allegiance to them to be acting otherwise. WE ARE NOT AWARE STATE APC Meanwhile, the chairman of Kaduna APC told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday evening he is not aware of the latest move. No. Im not aware of that and the party has a procedure of doing things, Emmanuel Jakada said on phone. While noting that such letter needs to pass through the state structure of the party to gain legitimacy, Mr Jakada said he has already set up a committee to reconcile aggrieved members. As far as Im concerned, Ive not seen that letter. If there is anything of that nature, it should come from to the party, not from the newspaper. Meanwhile, I have set up a committee to liaise with aggrieved members of the party to ensure that they return to the party or we reconcile with them. So, if there is anything of that nature, I expected them to see the committee. They have the power but the party should be notified. The party should give the final verdict. We have not been notified, he said. ITs A GIMMICK FACTIONAL CHAIRMAN A factional chairman of the ward, Abba Anni, described the latest move as political gimmick which should be ignored. In a letter dated August 2, sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Anni expressed his support for Mr Sani. The statement reads in part, The attention of the substantive APC Executives in Ward (6) and the general public are hereby drawn to the new political gimmick issued by some stooges purporting to be re-affirming the suspension of the so-called Senator Shehu Sani from the All Progressives Congress (APC). Ordinarily, we would not have glorified these brainless characters with a response because it is common knowledge that the elephant footprints obliterates that of the camel. However, it become imperative to dispel this facade based the request made by out teeming supporters across the Senatorial District. In this regard, the members of APC in Ward Six (6) and the general public are hereby notified to ignore in strong terms such black mail and intimidation in the name of suspension as it is completely with neither basis nor authority. Conversely, we wish to affirm our unflinching support and solidarity to Senator Shehu Sani for continuity in the forthcoming 2019 elections. For over three years that the senator has been in the senate, he has and is still performing outstandingly in legislation and oversight function which has endeared him to the Nigerian public. The chairman of Kaduna State All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Jekada, has backtracked on his earlier stance on indefinite suspension of Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani. Mr Jekada in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES Thursday evening said the lawmaker remains on suspension. The statement is a direct negation of his initial stance. Mr Jekada speaking with PREMIUM TIMES hours earlier had said he is not aware of a latest statement by the APC in Mr Sanis ward that he is still on suspension. No. Im not aware of that and the party has a procedure of doing things, he said on phone. As far as Im concerned, Ive not seen that letter. If there is anything of that nature, it should come from to the party, not from the newspaper, he added. The chairman then said he had set up a committee to reconcile aggrieved members of the party. In the evening statement however, Mr Jekada, said his latest record has shown that Mr Sani is on indefinite suspension. As the newly elected chairman of the party in Kaduna State, records available to me has confirmed, that Senator Shehu Sani has been on indefinite suspension since 2017 by the party leadership of Tudun Wada Ward 6, Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State. His indefinite suspension is still on and valid. A media campaign cannot change the valid position of duly constituted party organs, the statement said. Mr Sani had refused to leave the APC as widely expected, saying he was prevailed upon by leaders such as APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole and ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu not to defect. Mr Sani was among APC senators that met President Buhari on Tuesday. He has been having a running battle with the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, also an ally of Mr Buhari in the APC. The senator had earlier rejected the suspension by APC in his ward saying it was illegal. The Akwa Ibom government has accused the federal government of withholding billions of naira belonging to the state. Akwa Ibom and other oil-rich states are constitutionally entitled to 13 per cent of revenue which Nigeria derives from petroleum oil. Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, said President Muhammadu Buhari-led government apart from deducting money meant for the state, is withholding its oil derivation money. As at today, theyve withheld all our derivation funds, we have not gotten anything out of the derivation for last month. Within two months, they have dropped the allocation of Akwa Ibom State by N6.8 billion, Mr Emmanuel said Monday when he received a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, Kabiru Turaki, who visited him in Uyo. The proceeding of the meeting is contained in a press statement issued by Government House, Uyo. PREMIUM TIMES received the statement on Thursday. The governor said the federal government was playing politics with revenue allocation to states. You can imagine how much I was able to get, all in the name of politics, he said. Im still trying to pay salaries for July. Mr Emmanuel told the visiting presidential aspirant, I want to believe that if you come into power, you would never do that to the opposition. You need opposition to govern well because if you dont have constructive criticisms on what you are doing, you are heading towards destruction. Mr Emmanuel, on June 2, during a press briefing in Uyo to mark the third anniversary of his administration, had pressed on journalists to speak up on the alleged shortfall in the money accruing to the state from the federation account. Even the oil money you are reporting, you dont report that I dont even get 20 per cent of what I should be getting. While our oil prices are going up, our revenue is coming down. And this is where you should shout to the whole world, but nobody is shouting, the governor told journalists. Since the news of the alleged deduction and withholding of the states money became public, there has been apprehension in the state over its economic impact on the people. The Commissioner for Finance in the state, Linus Nkan, in a live telephone conversation with a local radio station in the state, on Tuesday, tried to explain to the people what was going on. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak to Akwa Ibom people concerning the allocation from the federation accountWhat Akwa Ibom state got for the month of July was just last week. After the FAAC meeting, there was this public announcement made that the highest amount of money ever shared this year was over N800 billion. Actually, it was expected that all the states would have had a whole lot of money more than what they have ever had since the beginning of this year. The essence of talking to you is to clear the air. While generally the amount of money that was shared to all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja was the highest, but the share to Akwa Ibom state was not as high as expected. In fact, what we had for Akwa Ibom state was almost the least in the last six months. Our revenue was down by over 30 per cent, compared to what we received the previous months. We and other oil-producing states were denied the derivation money, the finance commissioner said. Apart from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa state has also accused the federal government of not paying full 13 per cent derivation money to oil-producing states in the country. We practice in this country, a very funny federal system and these are the reasons some of us are passionate about the call for a restructured Nigeria so that we can address these challenges and imbalances. Even within the existing constitutional framework that has made provisions for 13 percent derivation, the implementation of it does not really come to 13 percent. It is unfortunate, the Governor of Bayelsa, Seriake Dickson, reportedly said in April this year. The University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Thursday administered physicians oath on 28 medical doctors, who recently completed their training in the institutions college of health sciences. The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Enefiok Essien, said that the ceremony (Sponsio Academica) marked 13th of its kind, having inducted 53 doctors in 2018. Mr Essien, a professor, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Inyang Udofot, urged the young doctors to be guided by the ethics of the profession. He tasked them to uphold secrets of their patients and maintain the patient-doctor confidentiality. He equally expressed concern over the challenges posed by the social media to many ethical ideals in the field of medicine. He said, The advent of social media today poses a great challenge to many ethical ideals in medicine. The secrets of patients and their autonomy risk being violated by just a chat or tweet. Hence, you are therefore reminded that the patient-doctor confidentiality is sacrosanct and must never be breached. On the part of the university, we shall continually strive to provide appropriate infrastructure and environment conducive for training to the best of our ability. The university has so far complied with requirement of the council in terms of infrastructure, equipment and manpower. We believe that with this in place, our request for increase in student quota will be granted. He charged the inductees to be good ambassadors of the institution and advised them to remain in Nigeria to practise their profession instead of seeking for greener pastures abroad. He said that the institution had complied with the requirement of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) in the area of training, manpower and infrastructure. Earlier, the provost of the college of health sciences, Augustine Umoh, described the medical practice as tortuous and encouraged them to be compassionate to their patients. He said, Compassion to your patients is not negotiable. Show compassion to the sick and you have done a huge part of the care. Remember too that what goes around comes around and that you also could be a beneficiary of such compassion as we are all but humans. Many physicians forget about themselves as they toil to save humanity but it is important to note that it is only a healthy doctor that can provide patient care. Ekpenyong Edet, who responded on behalf of the doctors promised to uphold the ethics of the medical profession. The future of the world rests on us, let us give our very best, he said. (NAN) Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State on Thursday signed ten bills, including the Public Service Records and Documentation Centre Bill 2018, into law. A statement by the Governors Chief Press Secretary, Francis Ottah-Agbo, listed the bills to include; the Niger Delta University (Amendment) Bill, Media Corporation Bill, Directorate for Project Monitoring and Evaluation (Amendment) Bill and the Teaching of Indigenous Language Bill. Also signed into law are the Heritage Control, Biodiversity and Archaeological Sites Preservation Bill, Polytechnic (Amendment) Bill, Special Matters Court (Education) Bill, Community Safety Corps Bill and Registration of Neighbourhood Watch Bill. Speaking shortly after appending his signature on the bills in Government House, Yenagoa, Governor Dickson underscored the importance of the laws and expressed determination to implement them for the overall benefit of the state. He thanked the leadership and members of the state House of Assembly for their hard work and effective collaboration with the executive arm of the government in moving the state forward. While urging the House to give expeditious consideration to other pending bills, before proceeding on their annual vacation, Mr Dickson said the government would further enlighten the public on the significance of the laws, through its Ministry of Information and Orientation. His words, Im highly delighted at the hard work, dedication, synergy and the way the Assembly easily relate with the vision of the Restoration Government for a new Bayelsa. We dont take this for granted. I hope that this collaboration will continue in the interest of our state. Today, Im signing the highest number of bills. Ive not had ten bills at a go before. These are bills touching on different important aspects of the life of our state and the Ministry of Information will give further highlights on the substance of these legislations. Presenting the bills for assent, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Konbowei Benson, said out of the ten bills, five were sponsored by private members, while the rest were executive bills. Commenting on the bills, the Speaker noted that the Teaching of Indigenous Language Law (2018) is aimed at promoting the development of the Ijaw language. According to him, while the law encourages the teaching and learning of various local dialects in schools, it also recognises the Kolokuma dialect as the general language for all the Ijaw people. The Galaxy Tab S4 features Samsung DeX available on-demand and comes with the S Pen. The Tab S4 is built around a Snapdragon 835 chip accompanied by 4GB of RAM and at least 64GB of storage. When it comes to tablets, Apple really knows a trick or two to lure the customers in its favour. That said, Samsung has had a pretty impressive tablet lineup over the last couple of years and the Galaxy Tab S4 is their latest attempt to showcase the best of what the Android universe has to offer. Starting at $649 (approximately Rs 44,300), the Tab S4 just undercuts the Apple iPad Pro. In keeping up with the times, the Tab S4 goes for a modern narrow-bezel display. Theres no Galaxy S9-esque Infinity Display here, but the new 10.5-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio ensures that the most of the face is used by the display. And since its a Super AMOLED panel, you can expect vibrant colours and contrasts. Narrow-bezels also mean that the home button-mounted fingerprint sensor is also gone Facial Recognition and Iris Scanner now take care of biometric verification. The Tab S4 carries forward the glass-metal build from the old Galaxy Tab S3. However, there are now four speakers two on the top and two on the bottom. Samsung claims that these AKG-tunes speakers can deliver an impressive audio experience. Additionally, the 3.5mm headphone jack also stays. The Tab S4 is built around a Snapdragon 835 chip accompanied by 4GB of RAM and at least 64GB of storage, which is expandable via a micro SD card slot. Android Oreo takes care of the daily errands. Samsung has now made the DeX Mode available onboard, which means users can summon the DeX interface on their tablet anytime. Combined with S Pen, Samsung aims to offer a PC-like software experience, including a Windows-like ToolBar and a desktop interface. The S Pen brings with itself all the goodies that we last saw on the Galaxy Note 8. If you factor in the additional magnetically-attaching Book Keyboard Cover worth $149, you have got yourself an Android-powered 2-in-1 convertible. Theres also a Daily Board mode that displays date, time and weather on one easy-to-access screen. The Tab S4 is kept alive by a 7300mAh battery, which Samsung claims can deliver up to 16 hours of stamina. The battery can be topped up by a fats charger via the USB-C port. Samsung will make the tablet available for sale in the US shortly. However, the company is tight-lipped about its availability in global markets, including India. (source) The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), says no fewer than 71,462 registered voters in Ebonyi State are yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in spite of the sustained enlightenment campaigns in the state. Godswill Obioma, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abakaliki, the state capital at the INECs 2018 second quarterly meeting with the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and Civil Society Organisations. He noted that of the 77,487 PVCs released by the commissions national headquarters of the 2017 voter registration, only 6,025 of the registered voters had collected their PVCs. Mr Obioma, however, added that only 400 registered voters had collected their PVCs, out of the total 47,117 unclaimed PVCs from the pre-2017 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). The commissioner, who described the development as worrisome, hoped that the meeting would come up with strategies to speed up distribution and collection of PVCs before the 2019 general elections. He urged all registered voters in the state yet to collect their PVCs to quickly do so and pledged the commissions readiness to partner IPAC and CSOs to ensure that all unclaimed PVCs were collected. He said: The rate of PVCs collection in the state from 2011, 2014 and 2016 registration has been very low. Out of the 47,117 unclaimed voter cards before 2017, only 400 PVCs have been collected. INEC national headquarters recently released a total of 77,487 from the 2017 and 2018 registrations, and out of this figure, only 6,025 PVCs have been so far collected, he said. Mr Obioma said the commission had registered no fewer than 315,175 voters between 2017 and first phase of the second quarter of 2018. He explained that the ongoing CVR would be temporarily suspended in the state on August 17, in line with the directive from the national headquarters. He said that the rotation of the registration machines in wards ended on July, 31. He, however, added that voter registration would continue in all INEC local government area offices across the 13 local government areas and six centres earlier approved by INEC. The commissioner said that collection of PVCs would continue until one week to the general elections. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 26 registered political parties attended the second quarterly meeting of the stakeholders. (NAN) A former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, on Thursday said that President Muhammadu Buhari would win over 75 per cent of votes in the South-East in 2019 general elections, as a reward for the landmark projects he had executed in the zone. Mr Kalu said this at an expanded meeting of the executive members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the ward, local government and state levels in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area of the state. He said that Buhari had done for the zone what previous leaders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, could not do, especially on roads. Mr Kalu cited the ongoing rehabilitation of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Enugu-Onitsha Expressway and the construction of the second Niger Bridge as some of Buharis major projects in the South-East. The former governor, however, said the major challenge facing the zone include the deplorable state of roads and the issue of the second Niger Bridge. He recalled as the governor then, he had to dismantle all the toll gates in the state to protest federal governments neglect of the roads in the state, but expressed joy that Mr Buhari had been able to address the problem. He, however, decried the poor state of the Abia economy, citing the irregular payment of workers salaries and infrastructural deficit. He said most of the ongoing road projects in the state were being done by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Mr Kalu expressed optimism that APC would record landslide victory in Abia during the 2019 general elections. The party has the antidote against rigging and what it takes to win the polls at all levels in 2019. We will never allow anybody to rig us out of elections in Abia again. We shall match them force by force and money for money, he said. He urged APC leadership not to be weighed down by the gale of defections from the party, saying that defection is a personal decision. It is their decision to defect to other parties, but it is also our choice to remain in APC. Mr Kalu stressed the need for APC to nominate credible candidates that would dislodge any opponent of its governorship candidates, in State and National Assemblies. The power to elect the party flag bearers is in your hands. Give us good candidates and we will match the powers-that-be in the state, any how they want it. You should not vote for aspirants on sentiments. Vote for aspirants based on their track record and proven competence. In their separate speeches at the meeting, other stakeholders of the party commended Mr Kalu for convening the meeting, saying it had boosted unity and love within the party. They underscored the need for everybody member to be courageous and committed to deliver the party during the general elections. The participants stressed the need for the party to remain resolute and committed to achieve a landslide in 2019. No fewer than 3,000 party members and supporters attended the meeting from across the state. They include: a former senator, Chris Adighije, a former banker, Mack Wabara, a former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, Sampson Ogah and Donatus Nwamkpa. (NAN) Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo State, says 60.1 per cent of the total number of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs) in the state belong to residents of Ibadan. Mr Agboke made the disclosure on Wednesday in Ibadan at a stakeholders forum organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to him, 452, 811 out of the 753,450 unclaimed PVCs in the custody of the commission are owned by residents in the 11 local government areas of Ibadanland. The figure represents 60.1 per cent of the total number of uncollected PVCs in Oyo State. It is a task that requires the cooperation of all the community heads, traditional rulers, politicians and chairmen of the 11 local government areas. They should assist the commission to reach out to owners of the unclaimed PVCs; let them know the importance of the card in a democratic society. Let us sensitise them and that it is their civic responsibility to participate in elections and that PVC is their voting power, he stated. He reiterated the commitment of the commission to conducting free, fair and credible elections in 2019. Mr Agboke, however, solicited the cooperation of political parties in prevailing on their supporters to abstain from thuggery and hooliganism. He further admonished politicians and the electorate against vote buying and selling, saying it contravenes the electoral law. Lekan Balogun, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, in his remarks, commended INEC over the efforts made so far on voters education. Mr Balogun urged the commission to sustain the tempo of effective electoral processes ahead of the 2019 general elections. He promised that Ibadan monarchs and other stakeholders would intensify efforts to prevail on owners of unclaimed PVCs to collect them. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 11 local government areas in Ibadan land are Ido, Egbeda, Akinyele and Ona-Ara. Others are Lagelu, Oluyole, Ibadan North, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North West, Ibadan South East and Ibadan South West, NAN also reports that the council chairmen of all the local government areas attended the meeting and expressed their readiness to work with the electoral body in sensitising residents on need to collect their PVCs.(NAN) The management of the Lagos State University, Ojo, has given update on the probe panel set up over the allegation of sexual abuse involving a lecturer in the university. The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Adekoya Martins, spoke with PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview on Thursday. About three weeks ago, the university said it had issued a query to an Associate Professor in its Department of Economics over alleged sexual assault of a student, and the case was already before a Joint Action Disciplinary Committee The lecturer, Sunkanmi Odubunmi, was involved in sexual harassment allegations. He allegedly sexually harassed a yet-to-be-identified female student in his office when he invited her into his office to rewrite the paper she failed. The victim then involved an NGO to help track the lecturer before proceeding to his office. A surveillance gadget was reportedly placed on the student while the NGO stationed the laptops connected to the spy cameras to monitor what would happen between the lecturer and the student. Mr Odubunmi reportedly fell for the trap as he was said to have removed his shirt and started cuddling the student after giving her papers to rewrite the exam he invited her for. He was thereafter arrested by the university security officials and the NGO representatives. On Thursday, Mr Martins told PREMIUM TIMES that investigation is almost at the final stage. The case has gone beyond issuing a query to him (accused lecturer). It is now before the joint committee of Senate and Council Disciplinary Committee. When they give their final verdict, the council will look at it and release the final thing. Just give us a little time, it is almost at the final stage. When PREMIUM TIMES asked about when the council will be meeting next, Mr. Martins told our correspondent that he could not confirm that except he finds out. Since April, three Nigerian universities; Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos and Lagos State University, have become objects of public spotlight, after their lecturers got involved in sexual harassment scandals. Recently, the Obafemi Awolowo University dismissed a lecturer, Richard Akindele, after he was exposed for soliciting sex from a student, Monica Osagie, in order to improve her grades. The 7th Quarterly Meeting of the Secretaries to the Governments of the All Progressive Congress- controlled states commenced in Abeokuta on Thursday with a focus on enhancing policy implementation. Governors Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, who declared the event open, said the meeting was the brain-child of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF). Mr Amosun said the meeting had since become a veritable platform for peer review among the APC-led states. He added that it had also continued to provide an opportunity for brainstorming, networking and sharing of experiences to enhance oversight and implementation of decisions and policies among the APC- led states. Since the inaugural Quarterly Meeting in Lagos State on 16th and 17th March, 2017, the focus has been on the critical objective of facilitating the adoption and implementation of policy initiatives across all APC states in line with the social democratic philosophy of our great party, he said. The meeting, according to Mr Amosun, is expected to focus on setting enabling framework for implementation of PGFs policy briefs on education, security, Internally-Generated Revenue and health sector. He expressed hope that the meeting would provide an opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas and create synergies for improved and workable solutions to the challenges of the sectors. It is my sincere belief that you, our guests, will have a few tips to take home from our success story here in Ogun. As you continue in your deliberations at this meeting, I urge all of you to avail yourselves of the opportunity to share with one another lessons, ideas, experiences and challenges from our respective states, he said. A former Secretary to Ogun government, Sarafa Ishola, who attended the opening ceremony, described the role of SSGs as pivotal to their respective governments. Mr Ishola, who noted that there was no such platform during his tenure, urged the SSGs to ensure sustenance of the platform for the benefits of the APC- controlled states. The meeting is expected to end on Friday with the issuance of a communique. (NAN) The EU did not understand why the release of the presidential result was taking so long, he said. Harare: European Union observers on Wednesday listed several problems in Zimbabwes presidential and parliamentary election, including voter intimidation and mistrust in the electoral commission, as the main opposition leader accused the ruling party of trying to rig the result. The observers also questioned delays in releasing the results of the presidential contest in Zimbabwes first election since Robert Mugabe was forced to resign following a de facto coup in November after nearly 40 years in power. The EUs assessment is critical in determining whether Zimbabwe can shed its pariah status as it could help attract investors and trigger an economic revival. Mugabes successor Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling ZANU-PF and Nelson Chamisa of the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change were the main contenders in Mondays election. The EUs chief observer, Elmar Brok, said that he did not yet know if the shortcomings would have a material effect on the outcome of the vote, and he criticised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for being at times one-sided. The EU did not understand why the release of the presidential result was taking so long, he said. The longer it lasts that the results of the presidential election is not known, the more lack of credibility it provides, Brok said. I would like to ask for as fast as possible the release of the presidential election, he said. The presidential results were counted first in the polling stations therefore I have still to learn why it will be published last. The electoral commission had said it would start announcing results for the presidential race from 10.30 GMT, but this was delayed as commissioners read out more parliamentary results. With three seats yet to be declared, ZANU-PF had 144 seats compared to 61 for the MDC, meaning the ruling party achieved a two-thirds majority which would allow it to change the constitution at will. Opposition leader Chamisa accused the ZANU-PF of trying to steal the election. He accused the commission of releasing the parliamentary results first to prepare Zimbabweans for a Mnangagwa victory. The strategy is meant to prepare Zimbabwe mentally to accept fake presidential results. Weve more votes than ED (Emmerson Dambudzo). We won the popular vote (and) will defend it, Mr Chamisa said on Twitter. AFP For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. Ninety Hamilton County high school students traveled to Sewanee: The University of the South on Thursday, July 19 for PEFs Camp College, a three day pre-college workshop that offered intensive, hands-on help navigating the complicated college application process.Students from Brainerd High, Center for Creative Arts, Central High, Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, Collegiate High, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, East Hamilton, East Ridge, Hixson High, Howard School, Ivy Academy, Lookout Valley Middle High, Ooltewah High, Red Bank High, Sale Creek Middle High, Sequoyah High, Soddy Daisy High, STEM School Chattanooga and Tyner Academy attended the 20th year.Camp College is designed to help first-generation students with all the ins and outs of finding the right college, then applying and paying for it, says Stacy Lightfoot, PEF vice president of College and Career Success.It can be a daunting process and we often find that very talented students dont enroll in college because they just dont know where to begin or whats required. Visiting a beautiful campus like Sewanee is an eye-opening experience for many students. We are thrilled that our 1,000th student completed Camp College this year."Sewanee: The University of the South, has hosted Camp College for two decades.The University of the South is proud to partner with PEF for the annual Camp College program. The opportunity to welcome high school students eager to learn about the college search process is a highlight of the year for all of us at Sewanee, said Lisa Burns, the Sewanee associate dean of Admission for Recruitment. We feel our 13,000 acre campus is just the right spot for the students and advisors to engage in conversations and activities that will set the path toward college. This year we celebrated the 20th year, and are committed to hosting for many years to come.The faculty at Camp College included 42 admissions counselors and college advisors from around the country who volunteered their time and expertise to help Hamilton County public school students. Workshop sessions included mock interviews, admissions role playing, essay writing, one-on-one transcript review, understanding financial aid, a college fair and building your own professional brand.Before Camp College I was lost. I really wasnt sure what I was going to do, although I knew I wanted to attend college, said Lookout Valley Middle High student Jacob Hale. I learned more in three days than Ive learned in three years. I now know what I need to improve my chances at certain schools and what I can do as a person to improve myself. Camp College is without a doubt the best thing anyone could attend to prepare for college.Longtime PEF supporter Susan Street was also honored at Camp College. PEF will offer a $500 book scholarship to a 2019 Camp College graduate in her name. Ms. Street's vision helped PEF create Camp College two decades ago, officials said.College access work is life-changing, and I consider it my great fortune to have played a part in helping young people realize their dreams, said Ms. Street. That Camp College is still going strong 20 years later is due to the work of many people, but I am so honored to have been recognized as its founder in such a meaningful way.Ninety-five percent of Camp College graduates enroll in college and 65 percent complete a degree within six years, which well exceeds the national average of 26 percent for students from low-income backgrounds across the country, officials said.It amazes me how much information students absorb at Camp College about finding the best fit school and financial aid. They are challenged to find their voice and complete their college essays and are exposed to a variety of colleges while at Sewanee, said Ms. Lightfoot. Camp College helps students see their post-secondary possibilities. Past Camp College participants attend colleges across the country from Emory University to Wake Forest to Columbia College Chicago and of course many enroll in colleges in Tennessee and receive more than two million dollars in scholarships and financial aid.Camp College is part of PEFs College and Career Success initiative, which strives to increase the number of Hamilton County Schools students who enroll in and complete post-secondary education. Funding for Camp College is provided by Sewanee: The University of the South, Chegg, NACAC, SACAC, UBS Financial Services and various individual donors. Under CAATSA, sanctions will kick off on countries that purchase significant military equipment from Russia. The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system. (Photo: PIB) Washington: The United States Congress has passed the conference report on National Defense Authorization Act-2019 (NDAA-19), which paves the way for waiver to India from punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, under which sanctions kick off on countries that purchase significant military equipment from Russia. The Senate passed the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 87 to 10. Passed by the House last week, the bill, named after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, would provide USD 716 billion support in funding for national defense for fiscal year 2019. The bill, which now moves to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign it into law, among other things, provides a modified waiver to section 231 of CAATSA. Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations and sensitive technology. "The CAATSA waiver that the Congress has made available to India in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act should provide ample flexibility for New Delhi to proceed with the purchase of the Russian S-400 system," Joshua White, a former senior official of the National Security Council in the White House, told PTI. "The legislative language is designed to look very tough, as though the Congress is tightening its secondary sanctions on countries that procure Russian equipment. In reality, the language contains multiple loopholes that benefit India," he said. "The most significant (such) loophole allows the President to certify that a country is "cooperating with the United States Government on other matters that are critical to United States strategic national security interests". As certifications go, this one is relatively easy to justify in the case of India," White said. At the same time, it is important to remember that even "easy" waivers can have unpredictable political effects, he cautioned, adding this legislation will require that the administration track and report the degree to which India "is taking or will take steps" to reduce its inventory of Russian equipment. "This means that neither Washington nor New Delhi can simply point to a long-term, historical decline in India's inventory of Russian equipment, but have to identify specific and forward-looking efforts to do so. These kind of reporting requirements can become political irritants and can be used by future legislators to exert leverage in unexpected ways," White said. Anish Goel, a former senior administration official in Barack Obama's White House, and till recently a senior professional staff member in the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Congress should be commended for providing the CAATSA waiver authority for strategic partners such as India. "By doing so, the Congress has avoided putting serious strain on the bilateral relationship, put additional pressure on the Russian defense industry, and fulfilled the original objective of the CAATSA legislation. The waiver authority is a strong signal that the United States greatly values its partnership with India," Goel told PTI. The John McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce the inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber-attacks. Last month, US Defense Secretary James Mattis, in a letter, asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority. Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment, he had said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining an once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis had said. Audio Dice Network awards Podbean.com for its unconditional support of the LatinX / Hispanic community with the Latin Podcast "Global Diversity" Award. This Award is a podcasting industry award recognizing ambassodors of diversity in podcasting. By: Latin Podcast Awards Podbean image Contact Felix A. Montelara ***@latinpodcastawards.com Felix A. Montelara End -- Audio Dice Network (ADN) participated of Podcast Movement, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. ADN bestowed the first Latin Podcast "Global Diversity" Award to the audio industry giant Podbean, for its tireless and disinterested support of the LatinX | Hispanic podcasting community.Podbean, the world leader in podcasts hosting, has teamed up with ADN (an independent podcast network) and Bitextuales.com (a provider of editorial and translation services) to honor and recognize Hispanic-LatinX podcasts of all the world and the United States.The Latin Podcast Awards (LPA) are the only podcast awards in the world that honor Ibero-American podcasts (Spanish and English). These podcasts are originated in the United States and around the world. the LPA is the first and only podcast competition in the bilingual world.In this new edition, the LPAs will recognize podcast nominees from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Switzerland and Puerto Rico.About this accoladesaid, "I am proud, Podbean supports the Latin Podcast Awards, once again it is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate content creators and highlight the diversity of voices that the world of podcast has to offer."The International Podcast Association, which is the entity that issues the certificates to the nominees for the Latin Podcast Awards, will have new projects. If you want to know more about these initiatives, visit Latin Podcast Awards.com.How will the winners be decided?A panel of international judges will be in charge of selecting the winners. Podcasts are selected as finalists by their respective countries and categories. Last year this prominent panel of judges was tasked with naming the finalists and the eventual winner of the coveted Podcast of the year.The winners of their respective categories and countries, along with the international prize and the podcast of the year 2018 will receive a "statuette microphone" in recognition of their excellence, which they can show the world and, most importantly, their listeners.About Podbean:As an industry leader for more than ten years, Podbean has been providing innovative podcasting services. This platform offers an easy-to-use interface that integrates publishing tools, administration, distribution, monetization and user friendly analysis. Currently, the podbean community is composed of a base of more than 140 thousand podcasters. Podbean apps for Android and iOS have reached more than 1 million downloads, and have more than 300 thousand active monthly users. For more information, visit https://www.podbean.com About Audio Dice Network:Audio Dice is a digital audio network serving listeners in Spanish and English. Audio Dice Network serves the Ibero-American audience of podcast listeners. Audio Dice Network is based in the United States, but it is for the world. Audio Dice Network is a division of Potential Millionaire Media Group (PMMG), a leading media company serving Latin America through a collection of independent podcasts from around the world. Audio Dice offers digital audio content that addresses the shared values of the audience and the passion for all genres of podcasting. Please do not hesitate to contact Audiodice.net.About Bitextuales.comThe mission of Bitextuales is to respond to the public relations needs of individuals and companies by providing translation, transcription , content editing and corporate communication services. Bitextuals will help you gain a trustworthy reputation in any media. If you or your company are expanding internationally, we can help you communicate with your audience in a better way and increase brand reach.latinpodcastawards.com New solar project made possible through a public-private partnership By: Connections Marketing & Communications McCarthy Building Companies, EPC Contractor End -- McCarthy Building Companies Inc. has begun construction on the 53 MW Millington Solar Farm project in Millington, Tenn., which represents a public-private partnership between Nashville-based renewable energy provider Silicon Ranch Corporation, the U.S. Navy, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW), and the Millington Industrial Development Board (MIDB).The 402-acre utility-scale solar energy plant will host 580,000 single-axis photovoltaic panels and represents the largest solar energy project in Tennessee. Construction is scheduled to complete at the end of 2018, at which time the facility is expected to generate enough power for 7,500 homes.Silicon Ranch Corporation, one of the nation's largest independent solar power producers, selected McCarthy's Renewable Energy team as the Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) contractor. McCarthy is responsible for the design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the facility. Developer Silicon Ranch is funding the installation and will own and operate the array for the long-term.McCarthy is seeking to hire local subcontractors and craftsmen to provide the bulk of on-site work for the construction project in Millington, just as it has done for all other Silicon Ranch facilities it has built. The solar facility's construction is expected to support more than 300 jobs, and McCarthy will provide local workers seeking utility-scale solar construction experience with on-site training in pile driving, tracker assembly, and panel installation. Area residents interested in working on the project should visit www.McCarthy.com/ careers/search , and enter "solar" to find job postings for Millington, TN positions, which include laborer, operator, apprentice electrician and journeyman electrician.Silicon Ranch Chief Technology Officer Pete Candelaria said, "At Silicon Ranch we take a long-term view of our relationships and responsibilities in the communities we serve, and we are committed to using local service providers and hiring from the local labor pool as much as possible. We are proud to work with McCarthy to execute this vision, and we thank our partners at the U.S. Navy, TVA, MLGW, and the MIDB for making this project possible.""TVA cares about Shelby County and this project will bring jobs that will allow us to deliver reliable, low-cost, carbon-free electricity to the 9 million people of the Tennessee Valley," said Jay Stowe, senior vice president of Distributed Energy Resources for TVA. "Over the next 20 years TVA will invest about $8 billion to support our renewable energy portfolio to help our customers meet their carbon reduction goals."As part of the public-private partnership, the U.S. Navy provided a long-term lease of 72 acres of base land at the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Mid-South to accommodate part of the array, while the remainder of the land was purchased from the Millington Industrial Development Board."Our Renewable Energy team has been working closely with our Southeast operations and we've recently completed or are currently constructing more than 12 solar projects throughout the region, which includes Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia and Georgia," said Scott Canada, senior vice president of the Renewable Energy team at McCarthy. "Solar owners like Silicon Ranch understand the value of this infrastructure to local communities, which will provide clean energy for decades to come."In recent years, McCarthy's Renewable Energy Team has completed or is in the process of constructing more than 30 utility-scale clean energy projects in communities from coast to coast, representing a combined capacity of more than 1.3 Gigawatts (GW) of clean energy production. McCarthy earned a 7place ranking for EPC utility-scale solar installations in the U.S. by2018 Top 500 Solar Contractors.McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. ( http://www.mccarthy.com/ ) is the oldest privately held national construction company in the country with more than 150 years spent collaborating with partners to solve complex building challenges on behalf of its clients. With an unrelenting focus on safety and a comprehensive quality program that span all phases of every project, McCarthy utilizes industry-leading design phase and construction techniques combined with value-add technology to maximize outcomes. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work and Healthiest Employer, McCarthy is ranked the 20th largest domestic general contractor (, May 2017). With approximately 1,700 salaried employees and offices in St. Louis, Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Portage, Ind.; Kansas City, Kan.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Denver; Dallas, Houston; Albuquerque;and San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, Calif. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned (http://www.mccarthy.com/about/employee-owners/). More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com or by following the company on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mccarthybuilding), Twitter (https://twitter.com/McCarthyBuild), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/119184?trk=tyah), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mccarthybuild/)and Google+ (http://www.google.com/+MccarthyBuilding)About Silicon Ranch CorporationSilicon Ranch is the U.S. solar platform for Shell and one of the largest independent solar power producers in the country. Silicon Ranch develops to own all of its projects for the long-term, a distinction that means the company is deeply committed to its partners and communities and stands behind the performance of its facilities day in and day out. The company's operating portfolio includes more than 120 facilities across 14 states from New York to California, including the first large-scale solar projects in Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. To learn more, please visit www.siliconranch.com and follow on Twitter @SiliconRanchCo. WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World, affirming that the production, marketing and sale of tobacco products is incompatible with basic human rights, has been adopted by over 150 organizations and prominent public health leaders from around the globe. The evidence is irrefutable, cigarettes kill more than five million people every year, yet the tobacco industry continues to produce, market, sell and profit from products that they know will kill when used as intended and that they have engineered to be highly addictive, preventing smokers from quitting. The Cape Town Declaration was adopted in March at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), a triennial meeting of scientists, government officials and advocates, held in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to hundreds of groups and individuals, the Declaration was also formally adopted by the annual meeting of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) in June representing hundreds of participants from 44 countries. "The Cape Town Declaration is a historic joint statement reaffirming that the tobacco industry infringes on human rights," said Dr. Flavia Senkubuge, President of the 17th World Conference. "We have it in our power to prevent millions of deaths, but governments must act now." This means governments must accelerate the full implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). And, they must remember that the FCTC is the floor and not the ceiling regarding regulations needed to fully protect the right of their citizens to the highest attainable standard of physical health, recognized in numerous human rights treaties and national constitutions. Watch our video here. Governments must implement regulatory and legal responses to harmful tobacco products that are proportional to the magnitude of harm they cause. The tobacco industry made claims over the past 70 years that if cigarettes were found to damage health, they would stop selling them "immediately." While the tobacco industry no longer disputes the insurmountable evidence that their products kill over half of their long-term customers, the sale of cigarettes continues. "Governments have a duty to protect and enforce human rights, even against abuses perpetrated by corporations," said Laurent Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). "They cannot sit idly by but must instead work to phase cigarettes out of the market and hold the responsible industries criminally liable for their actions." In addition to public health groups, the Cape Town Declaration has been embraced by organizations and individuals working in human rights, development, environmental protection, corporate accountability, and investment. ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH Founded in 1967, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is America's oldest anti-tobacco organization, dedicated to a world with ZERO tobacco deaths. Because tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, ASH supports bold solutions proportionate to the magnitude of the problem. ash.org Contact: Megan Arendt, (202) 659 4310 SOURCE Action on Smoking and Health Related Links http://www.ash.org Prior to the latest Abbott approval, people new to deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy or those living with older systems from other manufacturers may have experienced barriers in accessing the most advanced DBS therapy options because of the potential need for an MRI in the future. With its updated labeling, Abbott has addressed this challenge with the Infinity DBS system's improved therapy platform the first and only FDA-approved MR-conditional directional DBS system. "With this software upgrade, Abbott delivers on a promise to develop powerful features that strengthen the Infinity DBS system's already patient-centric platform, which uses familiar Apple technology and frees the patient from recharging their device," said Binith Cheeran, M.D., medical director of movement disorders at Abbott. "We are committed to continued innovation in neuromodulation, developing ongoing advancements and efficiencies for physicians and, most importantly, helping thousands of people who are battling movement disorders live fuller lives." This new approval allows existing implanted Infinity DBS systems to be upgraded via secure Bluetooth wireless technology without the need for surgery, giving full-body MRI conditional labeling to the entire Infinity DBS system, along with the suite of system upgrades. "Today's announcement of the newly released MRI-compatibility of the Infinity DBS system reflects Abbott's continued commitment to patient-centric, cutting-edge care where the patient's options are expanded by the therapy instead of limited by it," said Brian Kopell, M.D., a neurosurgeon and director of the Center for Neuromodulation at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Parkinson's disease and essential tremor are neurologic conditions known as movement disorders, which are caused by a communication breakdown throughout the central nervous system. This can result in a debilitating loss of muscle control, involuntary movement and reduced coordination. At present there are no proven cures for movement disorders. Treatment options like Abbott's DBS system focus on alleviating symptoms to improve quality of life. Abbott is Driving DBS Innovation Abbott's Infinity DBS system with directional leads is designed to direct stimulation toward targeted areas of the brain to maximize patient outcomes and limit side effects. The platform's future-ready technology is built with the ability to significantly upgrade the capabilities and new therapy features of the Infinity DBS system through simple, over-the-air updates. Abbott's Infinity DBS system is the world's first and only DBS system operating on an iOS software platform with Bluetooth wireless technology. Clinicians can streamline the programming process with an iPad mini device using Abbott's new Informity Programming Software to become more efficient in their practice and achieve optimal outcomes with directional leads. Patients can discreetly manage their symptoms with their Infinity DBS System iPod touch controller. Data continues to show that patients gravitate toward medical devices that are intuitive and low maintenance, such as with the Infinity DBS system's dual channel recharge-free device. Using an approach with patients at the center of their therapy experience, Abbott's neuromodulation portfolio is driven by science, data and patient input to help people suffering from movement disorders feel as normal as possible. "Our patients and our clinical team are seeing clear clinical benefits with Abbott's directional lead DBS therapy," said Craig van Horne, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Deep Brain Stimulator Center at the University of Kentucky's Neuroscience Institute. "The combination of directional lead therapy, MRI capability and simplicity in optimized programming could lead to a new standard of care for DBS therapy." Abbott's Infinity DBS system is also CE Mark approved and has been used in nearly 30 countries, most recently in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. For U.S. important safety information, visit: https://abbo.tt/2JSxXBC. Note: Apple, iPod touch and iPad mini are trademarks of Apple, Inc. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc., iOS is a trademark of Cisco Technology, Inc. About Abbott: At Abbott, we're committed to helping people live their best possible life through the power of health. For more than 125 years, we've brought new products and technologies to the world in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals that create more possibilities for more people at all stages of life. Today, 99,000 of us are working to help people live not just longer, but better, in the more than 150 countries we serve. Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and www.facebook.com/AbbottParkinsons on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal. SOURCE Abbott Related Links http://www.abbott.com "AGS grew both the top and bottom line by more than 40% in the second quarter, marking the most successful quarter in our company's history. Our strong results reflect record highs in our EGM and Tables Products revenue, average selling prices, revenue per day, and recurring revenue. We continue to reap the benefits of our Orion and Bonus Spin product launches, our steady ramp into key markets like Nevada, California and New Jersey, and strong performance from both our optimized and new product footprint. In addition to a strong pipeline of new product launches and our initial entry into markets such as Canada to accelerate our growth, our recent acquisition of content-aggregator Gameiom creates a new channel to exploit our industry-leading game content in online real-money gaming markets. Because of the potential upside from these exciting opportunities in our EGM business and our strong first half of the year, we are raising our Adjusted EBITDA guidance to reflect a new range of $132 million to $136 million." Summary of the quarter ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (In thousands, except per-share and unit data) Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 % Change Revenues EGM $ 69,319 $ 47,404 46.2 % Table Products 1,792 711 152.0 % Interactive 1,711 1,965 (12.9) % Total revenue $ 72,822 $ 50,080 45.4 % Operating income $ 11,024 $ 2,322 374.8 % Net loss $ (5,310) $ (20,110) 73.6 % Loss per share $ (0.15) $ (0.87) 82.8 % Adjusted EBITDA EGM $ 36,867 $ 26,495 39.1 % Table Products 70 (312) 122.4 % Interactive (355) (97) (266.0) % Total Adjusted EBITDA(1) $ 36,582 $ 26,086 40.2 % EGM units sold 1,058 574 84.3 % EGM total installed base, end of period 24,523 21,479 14.2 % (1) Total Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure, see non-GAAP reconciliation below. Second Quarter Financial Highlights Total revenue increased 45% to $72.8 million , a company record, driven by continued growth of our EGMs in the Class III marketplace, led by demand for our premium Orion Portrait cabinet. , a company record, driven by continued growth of our EGMs in the Class III marketplace, led by demand for our premium Orion Portrait cabinet. Recurring revenue grew to $52.6 million or 26% year-over-year. In addition to the contribution from the EGMs purchased from Rocket Gaming and Table Products purchased from In Bet in the Fall of 2017, the increase was driven by our strong Domestic revenue per day ("RPD") of $27.79 , up $1.90 year-over-year. or 26% year-over-year. In addition to the contribution from the EGMs purchased from Rocket Gaming and Table Products purchased from In Bet in the Fall of 2017, the increase was driven by our strong Domestic revenue per day ("RPD") of , up year-over-year. EGM equipment sales increased 144% to $20.2 million , another Company record, due to the sale of 1,058 units, of which approximately 60% and 12% were Orion Portrait and Orion Slant cabinets, respectively. , another Company record, due to the sale of 1,058 units, of which approximately 60% and 12% were Orion Portrait and Orion Slant cabinets, respectively. Net loss improved to $5.3 million from $20.1 million in the prior year, primarily due to increased revenue described above. from in the prior year, primarily due to increased revenue described above. Total Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) increased to $36.6 million , or 40%, driven by the significant increase in revenue, partially offset by increased adjusted operating expenses of $3.9 million primarily due to increased headcount in SG&A and R&D. (1) , or 40%, driven by the significant increase in revenue, partially offset by increased adjusted operating expenses of primarily due to increased headcount in SG&A and R&D. Total Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased to 50% in the second quarter 2018 compared to 52% in the prior year driven by several different factors, most notably due to the increased proportion of equipment sales to total revenues. SG&A expenses increased $5.0 million in the second quarter of 2018 primarily due to $2.3 million in increased professional fees driven by costs associated with the acquisition of online content-aggregator Gameiom as well as costs associated with our previous offerings. Salary and benefit costs increased $1.8 million due to higher headcount and non-cash stock based compensation expense increased $0.3 million . in the second quarter of 2018 primarily due to in increased professional fees driven by costs associated with the acquisition of online content-aggregator Gameiom as well as costs associated with our previous offerings. Salary and benefit costs increased due to higher headcount and non-cash stock based compensation expense increased . R&D expenses increased $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 driven by higher salary and benefit costs related to additional headcount. (1) Total Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure, see non-GAAP reconciliation below. Second Quarter Business Highlights Domestic EGM installed base increased by more than 2,400 units year-over-year driven by the purchase of approximately 1,500 EGMs from Rocket Gaming in December 2017 and the popularity of our Orion Portrait and ICON cabinets. and the popularity of our Orion Portrait and ICON cabinets. Domestic EGM RPD increased 7% to $27.79 driven by our new product offerings and the optimization of our installed base by installing our newer higher performing EGMs. driven by our new product offerings and the optimization of our installed base by installing our newer higher performing EGMs. EGM units sold increased to 1,058 in the current quarter compared to 574 in the prior year led by sales of the Orion Portrait cabinet in early entry markets such as California , Nevada and New Jersey . , and . EGM average selling price (ASP) increased 18% to $18,728 , a quarterly company record, driven by record sales of the premium-priced Orion Portrait cabinet and our newly introduced core-plus cabinet, Orion Slant. , a quarterly company record, driven by record sales of the premium-priced Orion Portrait cabinet and our newly introduced core-plus cabinet, Orion Slant. On a trailing twelve months basis, approximately $8.3 million of our recurring revenue came from our yield optimization efforts. of our recurring revenue came from our yield optimization efforts. Table Products increased 983 units, or 56%, to 2,737 units driven by both organic growth, most notably in Buster Blackjack and Bonus Spin progressive units, and the purchase of approximately 500 In Bet units in the third quarter of 2017. Our ICON cabinet footprint grew 108% to over 6,417 total units in the field including our first placements of nearly 200 cabinets into Mexico . . Introduced to the market in Q1 of 2017, our Orion Portrait cabinet ended Q2 2018 with a footprint of over 3,600 total units as compared to 463 units in second quarter of 2017, up 90% from year-end and 680% year-over-year. Balance Sheet Review Capital expenditures decreased $4.8 million to $13.1 million in the second quarter, compared to $17.9 million in the prior year period. As of June 30, 2018, we had $28.2 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to $19.2 million at December 31, 2017. Total net debt, which is the principal amount of debt outstanding less cash and cash equivalents, as of June 30, 2018, was approximately $483.7 million compared to $648.7 million at December 31, 2017. This substantial reduction was driven by the IPO and related redemption of our HoldCo PIK notes during the first quarter. In the second quarter, net debt decreased by over $3.0 million due to mandatory principal payments on our term loans and a higher balance of cash and cash equivalents. As a result of the above transactions and our strong operational performance, our total net debt leverage ratio, which is total net debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing twelve-month period, decreased from 6.1 times at December 31, 2017, to 4.2 times at March 31, 2018, and now 3.8 times at June 30, 2018. 2018 Outlook Based on our year-to-date progress and due to our current momentum, we now expect our total Adjusted EBITDA in 2018 to be between $132.0 and $136.0 million. This is an upward revision to the guidance we previously released and is based on greater visibility that we now have for the installation and performance of Orion Portrait, Orion Slant, STAX, and other products for the remainder of the year, in addition to accelerated efforts to increase our footprint in sizable new markets, such as Canada. We maintain our capital expenditures range of $55.0 to $60.0 million. We have not provided a reconciliation of forward looking total Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, Net income (loss), due primarily to the variability and difficulty in making accurate forecasts and projections of the variable and individual adjustments for a reconciliation to Net income (loss), as not all of the information necessary for a quantitative reconciliation is available to us without unreasonable effort. We expect that the main components of Net income (loss) for fiscal year 2018 shall consist of operating expenses, interest expenses as well as other expenses (income) and income tax expenses, which are inherently difficult to forecast and quantify with reasonable accuracy without unreasonable efforts. The amounts associated with these items have historically and may continue to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and material changes to these items could have a significant effect on our future GAAP results. Conference Call and Webcast Today, at 5:00 p.m. ET, management will host a conference call to present the second quarter 2018 results. Listeners may access a live webcast of the conference call along with accompanying slides at AGS' Investor Relations website at http://investors.playags.com/. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website following the live event. To listen by telephone, the US/Canada toll-free dial-in number is +1 (866) 270-1533 and the dial-in number for participants outside the US/Canada is +1 (412) 317-0797. The conference ID/confirmation code is AGS Q2 2018 Earnings Call. Company Overview AGS is a global company focused on creating a diverse mix of entertaining gaming experiences for every kind of player. Our roots are firmly planted in the Class II Native American gaming market, but our customer-centric culture and remarkable growth have helped us branch out to become one of the most all-inclusive commercial gaming suppliers in the world. Powered by high-performing Class II and Class III slot products, an expansive table products portfolio, highly-rated social casino solutions for players and operators, and best-in-class service, we offer an unmatched value proposition for our casino partners. Learn more about us at www.playags.com . Forward-looking Statements This release contains, and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives may contain, forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations and projections, which are intended to qualify for the safe harbor of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the proposed public offering and other statements identified by words such as "believe," "will," "may," "might," "likely," "expect," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "believes," "continues," "projects" and similar references to future periods, or by the inclusion of forecasts or projections. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections of future events. These forward-looking statements reflect the current views, models, and assumptions of AGS, and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or qualified and could cause actual results in AGS's performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of AGS to maintain strategic alliances, unit placements or installations, grow revenue, garner new market share, secure new licenses in new jurisdictions, successfully develop or place proprietary product, comply with regulations, have its games approved by relevant jurisdictions and other factors set forth under Item 1. "Business," Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in AGS's Annual Report on Form 10-K/A, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2018. All forward-looking statements made herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results, events or developments referenced herein will occur or be realized. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements speak only to the facts and circumstances present as of the date of this press release. AGS expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. PLAYAGS, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) (unaudited) June 30, December 31, 2018 2017 Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents $ 28,151 $ 19,242 Restricted cash 78 100 Accounts receivable, net of allowance of $1,247 and $1,462, respectively 44,518 32,776 Inventories 29,706 24,455 Prepaid expenses 4,368 2,675 Deposits and other 4,233 3,460 Total current assets 111,054 82,708 Property and equipment, net 81,202 77,982 Goodwill 281,553 278,337 Intangible assets 214,202 232,287 Deferred tax asset 919 1,115 Other assets 13,661 24,813 Total assets $ 702,591 $ 697,242 Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity Current liabilities Accounts payable $ 12,395 $ 11,407 Accrued liabilities 21,441 24,954 Current maturities of long-term debt 6,649 7,359 Total current liabilities 40,485 43,720 Long-term debt 493,112 644,158 Deferred tax liability - noncurrent 3,892 1,016 Other long-term liabilities 26,074 36,283 Total liabilities 563,563 725,177 Commitments and contingencies Stockholders' equity Preferred stock at $0.01 par value; 100,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding Common stock at $0.01 par value; 450,000,000 shares authorized at June 30, 2018 and 46,629,155 at December 31, 2017; and 35,261,519 and 23,208,076 shares issued and outstanding at June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively. 353 149 Additional paid-in capital 358,829 177,276 Accumulated deficit (216,405) (201,557) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (3,749) (3,803) Total stockholders' equity 139,028 (27,935) Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 702,591 $ 697,242 PLAYAGS, INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (amounts in thousands, except per share data) (unaudited) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenues Gaming operations $ 52,554 $ 41,758 $ 102,186 $ 82,191 Equipment sales 20,268 8,322 35,492 15,663 Total revenues 72,822 50,080 137,678 97,854 Operating expenses Cost of gaming operations(1) 9,710 6,979 18,568 14,450 Cost of equipment sales(1) 9,411 4,144 16,810 7,996 Selling, general and administrative 15,350 10,345 32,127 20,626 Research and development 6,855 6,141 15,480 11,445 Write downs and other charges 1,005 1,933 2,615 2,165 Depreciation and amortization 19,467 18,216 38,816 36,667 Total operating expenses 61,798 47,758 124,416 93,349 Income from operations 11,024 2,322 13,262 4,505 Other expense (income) Interest expense 8,873 14,554 19,297 29,714 Interest income (21) (40) (73) (55) Loss on extinguishment and modification of debt 8,129 4,608 8,129 Other (income) expense 455 (1,529) 9,687 (4,338) Income (loss) before income taxes 1,717 (18,792) (20,257) (28,945) Income tax benefit (expense) (7,027) (1,318) 5,409 (3,551) Net income (loss) (5,310) (20,110) (14,848) (32,496) Foreign currency translation adjustment (2,883) 330 54 1,205 Total comprehensive loss $ (8,193) $ (19,780) $ (14,794) $ (31,291) Basic and diluted loss per common share: Basic $ (0.15) $ (0.87) $ (0.44) $ (1.40) Diluted $ (0.15) $ (0.87) $ (0.44) $ (1.40) Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 35,233 23,208 33,494 23,208 Diluted 35,233 23,208 33,494 23,208 (1) exclusive of depreciation and amortization PLAYAGS, INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands) (unaudited) Six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities Net loss $ (14,848) $ (32,496) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 38,816 36,667 Accretion of contract rights under development agreements and placement fees 2,206 2,365 Amortization of deferred loan costs and discount 914 1,709 Payment-in-kind interest capitalized 7,807 Payment-in-kind interest payments (37,624) (2,698) Write off of deferred loan cost and discount 3,410 3,294 Stock based compensation expense 8,629 (Benefit) provision for bad debts (148) 396 Loss on disposition of assets 1,020 2,510 Impairment of assets 995 285 Fair value adjustment of contingent consideration 600 Provision for deferred income tax 3,090 2,021 Changes in assets and liabilities that relate to operations: Accounts receivable (11,552) 192 Inventories (2,440) 3,035 Prepaid expenses (1,685) (699) Deposits and other (758) (466) Other assets, non-current 11,138 (2,221) Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (12,082) (3,803) Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (10,319) 17,898 Cash flows from investing activities Business acquisitions, net of cash acquired (4,452) Purchase of intangible assets (594) (420) Software development (5,168) (4,208) Proceeds from disposition of assets 21 93 Purchases of property and equipment (22,314) (27,729) Net cash used in investing activities (32,507) (32,264) Cash flows from financing activities Proceeds from issuance of first lien credit facilities 448,725 Proceeds from stock option exercise 279 Repayment of senior secured credit facilities (115,000) (410,655) Payments on first lien credit facilities (2,576) Payment of financed placement fee obligations (1,772) (2,135) Payments on deferred loan costs (3,127) Repayment of seller notes (12,401) Payments on equipment long term note payable and capital leases (1,405) (1,295) Initial public offering cost (4,160) Proceeds from issuance of common stock 176,341 Proceeds from employees in advance of common stock issuance 25 Net cash provided by financing activities 51,707 19,137 Effect of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash 6 4 Increase in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash 8,887 4,775 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 19,342 18,077 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 28,229 $ 22,852 Supplemental cash flow information: Cash paid during the period for interest $ 16,767 $ 16,869 Cash paid during the period for taxes $ 494 $ 574 Non-cash investing and financing activities: Financed purchase of property and equipment $ 256 $ 116 Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release and accompanying schedules provide certain information regarding total Adjusted EBITDA, which is considered a non-GAAP financial measures under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission. We believe that the presentation of total Adjusted EBITDA is appropriate to provide additional information to investors about certain material non-cash items that we do not expect to continue at the same level in the future, as well as other items we do not consider indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Further, we believe total Adjusted EBITDA provides a meaningful measure of operating profitability because we use it for evaluating our business performance, making budgeting decisions, and comparing our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures. It also provides management and investors with additional information to estimate our value. Total Adjusted EBITDA is not a presentation made in accordance with GAAP. Our use of the term total Adjusted EBITDA may vary from others in our industry. Total Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as an alternative to operating income or net income. Total Adjusted EBITDA has important limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for the analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Our definition of total Adjusted EBITDA allows us to add back certain non-cash charges or expenses that are deducted in calculating net income and to deduct certain gains that are included in calculating net income. However, these charges and expenses and gains vary greatly, and are difficult to predict. They can represent the effect of long-term strategies as opposed to short-term results. In addition, in the case of charges or expenses, these items can represent the reduction of cash that could be used for other corporate purposes. Due to these limitations, we rely primarily on our GAAP results, such as net loss, (loss) income from operations, EGM Adjusted EBITDA, Table Products Adjusted EBITDA or Interactive Adjusted EBITDA and use total Adjusted EBITDA only supplementally. The following table presents a reconciliation of total Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, which is the most comparable GAAP measure: Total Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 compared to the Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 Three months ended June 30, $ % 2018 2017 Change Change Net loss $ (5,310) $ (20,110) $ 14,800 73.6 % Income tax expense 7,027 1,318 5,709 433.2 % Depreciation and amortization 19,467 18,216 1,251 6.9 % Other (income) expense 455 (1,529) 1,984 129.8 % Interest income (21) (40) 19 47.5 % Interest expense 8,873 14,554 (5,681) (39.0) % Write downs and other(1) 1,005 1,933 (928) (48.0) % Loss on extinguishment and modification of debt(2) 8,129 (8,129) (100.0) % Other adjustments(3) 929 946 (17) (1.8) % Other non-cash charges(4) 1,616 1,800 (184) (10.2) % New jurisdictions and regulatory licensing costs(5) 502 (502) (100.0) % Legal & litigation expenses including settlement payments(6) 834 186 648 348.4 % Acquisitions & integration related costs including restructuring & severance(7) 1,231 181 1,050 580.1 % Non-cash stock based compensation(8) 476 476 100.0 % Total Adjusted EBITDA $ 36,582 $ 26,086 $ 10,496 40.2 % (1) Write downs and other include items related to loss on disposal or impairment of long lived assets, fair value adjustments to contingent consideration and acquisition costs (2) Loss on extinguishment and modification of debt primarily relates to the refinancing of long-term debt, in which deferred loan costs and discounts related to old senior secured credit facilities were written off (3) Other adjustments are primarily composed of professional fees incurred for projects, corporate and public filing compliance, contract cancellation fees and other transaction costs deemed to be non-operating in nature (4) Other non-cash charges are costs related to non-cash charges and losses on the disposition of assets, non-cash charges on capitalized installation and delivery, which primarily includes the costs to acquire contracts that are expensed over the estimated life of each contract and non-cash charges related to accretion of contract rights under development agreements (5) New jurisdiction and regulatory license costs relates primarily to one-time non-operating costs incurred to obtain new licenses and develop products for new jurisdictions (6) Legal & litigation expenses include payments to law firms and settlements for matters that are outside the normal course of business (7) Acquisition and integration costs include restructuring and severance and are related to costs incurred after the purchase of businesses, such as the acquisitions of Rocket and Gameiom, to integrate operations (8) Non-cash stock based compensation includes non-cash compensation expense related to grants of options, restricted stock, and other equity awards Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 compared to the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 Six months ended June 30, $ % 2018 2017 Change Change Net loss $ (14,848) $ (32,496) $ 17,648 54.3 % Income tax expense (benefit) (5,409) (3,551) (1,858) (52.3) % Depreciation and amortization 38,816 36,667 2,149 5.9 % Other (income) expense 9,687 (4,338) 14,025 323.3 % Interest income (73) (55) (18) (32.7) % Interest expense 19,297 29,714 (10,417) (35.1) % Write downs and other(1) 2,615 2,165 450 20.8 % Loss on extinguishment and modification of debt(2) 4,608 8,129 (3,521) (43.3) % Other adjustments(3) 1,325 1,593 (268) (16.8) % Other non-cash charges(4) 3,190 3,912 (722) (18.5) % New jurisdictions and regulatory licensing costs(5) 737 (737) (100.0) % Legal & litigation expenses including settlement payments(6) 834 585 249 42.6 % Acquisitions & integration related costs including restructuring & severance(7) 2,410 828 1,582 191.1 % Non-cash stock based compensation(8) 8,629 8,629 100.0 % Total Adjusted EBITDA $ 71,081 $ 50,992 $ 20,089 39.4 % (1) Write downs and other includes items related to loss on disposal or impairment of long lived assets, fair value adjustments to contingent consideration and acquisition costs (2) Loss on extinguishment and modification of debt primarily relates to the refinancing of long-term debt, in which deferred loan costs and discounts related to old senior secured credit facilities were written off (3) Other adjustments are primarily composed of professional fees incurred for projects, corporate and public filing compliance, contract cancellation fees and other transaction costs deemed to be non-operating in nature (4) Other non-cash charges are costs related to non-cash charges and losses on the disposition of assets, non-cash charges on capitalized installation and delivery, which primarily includes the costs to acquire contracts that are expensed over the estimated life of each contract and non-cash charges related to accretion of contract rights under development agreements (5) New jurisdiction and regulatory license costs relates primarily to one-time non-operating costs incurred to obtain new licenses and develop products for new jurisdictions (6) Legal & litigation expenses include payments to law firms and settlements for matters that are outside the normal course of business (7) Acquisition and integration costs include restructuring and severance and are related to costs incurred after the purchase of businesses, such as the acquisitions of Rocket and Gameiom, to integrate operations (8) Non-cash stock based compensation includes non-cash compensation expense related to grants of options, restricted stock, and other equity awards For information contact: Julia Boguslawski, Chief Marketing Officer & EVP of Investor Relations PlayAGS, Inc. 702-724-1125 [email protected] Or Steven Kopjo, Director of SEC Reporting & Investor Relations PlayAGS, Inc. 702-724-1155 [email protected] SOURCE AGS Related Links http://www.playags.com SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AirMap, the world's leading airspace management platform for drones, announced that its UTM services are being deployed by Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR) to deliver situational awareness and authorization capabilities to the country's growing community of drone operators. ANS CR is deploying AirMap UTM to manage authorizations for drone flights in the controlled airspace around Vaclav Havel Airport Prague. Operators using the AirMap for Drones mobile application can view up-to-date airspace conditions, advisories, and regulatory information; create flight plans; and very soon will also be able to request authorization to fly in controlled airspace for fast and safe access to controlled airspace. ANS CR administrators manage authorization requests from the AirMap UTM Dashboard. "Detection and integration of drones is a challenge," said Jan Klas, ANS CR Director General. "We are pleased to deploy UTM services through the AirMap mobile application. ANS CR wants to build an open system that provides comprehensive information to all partners involved." ANS CR and AirMap are working with local partner UpVision to drive local awareness of the UTM capabilities among the Czech Republic's thriving drone ecosystem. UpVision is providing customization of the AirMap for Drones application for use in Czech Republic. The Czech Republic-based company will also provide operators with technical support for UTM services in the Czech Republic. This is AirMap's second nationwide adoption in Europe. Earlier this year, Swiss aviation authority skyguide, deployed AirMap as part of Europe's first national drone traffic management system. AirMap also powers UTM services in the United States, New Zealand, and Japan. "By opening up more airspace we are helping give rise to a new drone economy," said Ben Marcus, AirMap co-founder and Chairman. "The Czech Republic is among the global first movers in the race to capture a share of the tremendous opportunity that drones represent as they become more and more a part of our everyday lives." About AirMap AirMap is the world's leading airspace management platform for drones. Millions of drones, hundreds of industry developers, and hundreds of airspace managers and stakeholders rely on AirMap's airspace intelligence and services to fly safely and communicate with others in low-altitude airspace. AirMap connects the majority of the world's drones to airspace authorities through integrations with major drone manufacturers such as DJI, Intel, senseFly, Matternet, 3DR, DroneDeploy, and more. Deployed in Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States, AirMap leads the industry in delivering technology solutions for Unmanned aerial system (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) and U-space to enable safe and responsible drone operations at scale. About Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic The mission of ANS CR is to take part in the provision of cost effective, long-term sustainable aviation navigation services in an environment of evolving functional airspace blocks. In the dynamic air transportation environment, its services are designed to meet the expectations of all users with regard to current and future demand at both the national level and that of the European ATM development context. One of the key foundations of air navigation services provision is to ensure safety. For this reason ANS CR strives to maintain exceptional safety standards of services provided regardless of the air traffic volume. Safety is a top priority for the company, which takes precedence over commercial, operational and other goals. About UpVision UpVision is the European UAS service provider and leader on the Czech market in UAS services. UpVision co-founded the Czech Unmanned Aerial Alliance (UAVA) and has been actively developing the Unmanned Traffic Management community in Czech Republic by introducing their UTM application for more than 3 years. Since the early stages of the company, UpVision has been very active in UAS education and research field by running joint programs with number of universities and research institutes across Europe. There is number of innovative UAS applications of drones, publications and awards as a result of these activities, such as recognition by European Satellite Navigation Competition. Contact: Megan Anderson Mighty for AirMap [email protected] +1-626-243-3194 SOURCE AirMap Related Links https://www.airmap.io/ SEGUIN, Texas, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alamo Group Inc. (NYSE: ALG) today reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018. Highlights for the Quarter Record net income for a second quarter of $18.8 million , up 52.4% , up 52.4% Record net sales for a second quarter of $257.1 million , up 20.6% , up 20.6% Industrial Division net sales of $150.0 million , up 27.9% , up 27.9% Agricultural Division net sales of $59.1 million , up 8.9% , up 8.9% European Division net sales of $48.0 million , up 15.1% , up 15.1% Record net income for the first six months of $33.4 million , up 36.2% , up 36.2% Record net sales for the first six months of $495.2 million , up 15.5% , up 15.5% Backlog remains strong at $220.2 million , up 40% compared to the previous year's second quarter , up 40% compared to the previous year's second quarter Total effective income tax rate for the second quarter at 25.8% compared to 31.9% in the second quarter of 2017 resulting in a savings of approximately $1.5 million Summary of Results Alamo Group's net sales for the second quarter of 2018 were $257.1 million compared to $213.3 million, in the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 20.6%. Net income for the second quarter was $18.8 million, or $1.60 per diluted share, compared to net income of $12.3 million, or $1.05 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2017. This is an increase of 52.4% in both net income and earnings per share. For the first six months of 2018 net sales were $495.2 million compared to $428.7 million in the six month period of the previous year, an increase of 15.5%. Net income for the first half of 2018 was $33.4 million, or $2.84 per diluted share, versus $24.5 million, or $2.10 per diluted share, for the same period in 2017. This is an increase of 36.2% in net income and 35.2% in earnings per share. Net sales, net income and earnings per share for both the second quarter and first six months of 2018 were all at record levels for Alamo Group. The results for the second quarter and first six months of 2018 benefited from the changes in the U.S. corporate tax rates following implementation of the U.S. tax reform measures. These changes contributed approximately $1.5 million to Alamo's second quarter net income and $3.1 million for the first six months of 2018, as the overall effective income rate was 25.8% in the second quarter and 26.4% for the first six months compared to 31.9% in the prior year second quarter and 33.3% for the first six months of 2017. The results for the second quarter and first six months of 2018 also included the effects of the acquisitions of Santa Izabel and Old Dominion Brush Company which were both completed in June 2017 and R.P.M. Tech which was completed in August 2017. Together, these three additions contributed $15.0 million in net sales and $0.8 million in net income to Alamo's second quarter results and $29.5 million in net sales and $1.5 million in net income in the first half of 2018.(1) Results by Division Alamo Group's Industrial Division net sales in the second quarter of 2018 were $150.0 million compared to $117.3 million in the prior year, an increase of 27.9%. The Division's income from operations for the quarter was $16.2 million compared to $11.1 million in the previous year, an increase of 46.3%. For the first six months of 2018 the Industrial Division's net sales were $282.2 million versus $243.2 million in 2017, an increase of 16.1%. Income from operations in the Division were $28.0 million for the first six months of 2018 versus $23.6 million in the same period of the prior year, an increase of 18.4%. The Industrial Division's results include the effects of the acquisitions of Old Dominion Brush Company and R.P.M. Tech which combined contributed $10.3 million in net sales and $0.7 million in income from operations in the second quarter of 2018 and $19.8 million in net sales and $0.9 million in income from operations in the first six months of the year. (1) The Company's Agricultural Division net sales in the second quarter of 2018 were $59.1 million, an increase of 8.9% versus net sales of $54.2 million in the prior year. The Division's income from operations for the quarter was $6.2 million compared to $5.9 million in 2017, an increase of 5.6%. For the first six months of 2018, the Agricultural Division's net sales were $117.7 million versus $106.0 million in the prior year, an increase of 11.1%. Income from operations was $11.4 million in the first half of 2018 compared to $10.7 million in the first half of 2017, an increase of 6.7%. The Division's results include the effects of the acquisition of Santa Izabel which contributed $4.7 million in net sales and $0.3 million in income from operations in the second quarter of 2018 and $9.7 million in net sales and $0.8 million in income from operations in the first six months of the year. (1) Alamo's European Division net sales were $48.0 million in the second quarter of 2018, a 15.1% increase compared to net sales of $41.7 million in the second quarter of 2017. Income from operations for the quarter was $4.4 million compared to $3.4 million in the second quarter of the prior year, an increase of 30.6%. For the first six months of 2018 net sales in the European Division were $95.3 million compared to $79.5 million in 2017, an increase of 19.9%. Income from operations for the first half of 2018 was $8.7 million versus $6.2 million in 2017, an increase of 40.6%. Comments on Results Ron Robinson, Alamo Group's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are very pleased with Alamo's record second quarter results which added nicely to our strong first quarter showing. While we continued to benefit from U.S. tax reform measures and the acquisitions we completed in 2017, we were able to produce record results even before these contributions as our core business continued to strengthen. This was evident in both our top line sales, where organic growth was nearly 9 percent, as well as operating income levels, where our margins showed continued improvement. We are particularly pleased with the growth in margin percentage given the cost increases we have experienced this year, which are above the pace of the last several years. We feel we have been able to lessen the effects of these cost increases by reacting quickly, however this has been, and will continue to be, challenging given the magnitude and timing of some of these changes, particularly new tariffs recently imposed on imported components. Our margin percentage was also helped by favorable production efficiencies and fixed cost leveraging which more than offset unfavorable mix effect which occurs when whole goods sales growth outpaces growth of aftermarket parts sales. "Equally challenging has been the longer lead times we have experienced in obtaining certain input components, such as truck chassis. So far this has not materially delayed our deliveries, but it remains a challenge. Even arranging trucking for the transport of our products has gotten tighter. Again, we have been able to manage this situation effectively so far, but we see no signs of relief in the near future. "Alamo's Industrial Division has held up the strongest with growing sales, a strong backlog and the outlook remains positive. In the first quarter of this year the Division was somewhat impacted by the strike at our Gradall facility in Ohio which was resolved early in the second quarter. Since then Gradall has more than made up the shortfall of the first quarter and was a leading performer for us in the second quarter, though in general the whole Division had a good second quarter. While we are concerned about longer lead times on input components and cost increases, including the effects of new tariffs, we feel good about the outlook for this part of our business. "Our Agricultural Division has continued to perform well, though the market in general remains weak with farm incomes well below the peak levels of several years ago. Some products in this sector have shown growth this year, particularly high horsepower tractors and combines, though this growth is coming off very low prior year comparables, and overall market demand remains significantly below the 2013 peak as well as levels seen as recently as 2015. For Alamo, sales and margins have held up well, though our backlog in this Division is down and the product mix is a little less favorable due to softness in aftermarket spare and wear parts. "Some of these same conditions are evident in our European operations. While our results continue to improve in Europe and our backlog remains strong, lower farm incomes and higher input costs are creating some soft spots in the market. Currency exchange rates are also an area of concern in our international operations. Our results benefited by a weaker U.S. dollar in the translation of our international earnings during the second quarter of 2018 compared to the previous year, though this has been moving in an unfavorable direction as of late. "Overall, we feel Alamo Group is in a good position and we remain optimistic about our outlook for the remainder of 2018. Good markets, effective cost control measures, a strong backlog, the benefits of U.S. tax reform and the results from recent acquisitions should all contribute to another successful year for our Company." Earnings Conference Call Alamo Group will host a conference call to discuss the second quarter results on Thursday August 2, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Central, 9:00 a.m. Mountain and 8:00 a.m. Pacific). Hosting the call will be members of senior management. Individuals wishing to participate in the conference call should dial 877-260-1479 (domestic) or 334-323-0522 (international). For interested individuals unable to join the call, a replay will be available until Tuesday, August 7, 2018 by dialing 888-203-1112 (domestic) or 719-457-0820 (internationally), passcode 5765996. The live broadcast of Alamo Group Inc.'s quarterly conference call will be available online at the Company's website, www.alamo-group.com (under "Investor Relations/Events & Presentations") on Thursday, August 2, 2018, beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. The online replay will follow shortly after the call ends and will be archived on the Company's website for 60 days. About Alamo Group Alamo Group is a leader in the design, manufacture, distribution and service of high quality equipment for infrastructure maintenance, agriculture and other applications. Our products include truck and tractor mounted mowing and other vegetation maintenance equipment, street sweepers, snow removal equipment, excavators, vacuum trucks, other industrial equipment, agricultural implements and related after-market parts and services. The Company, founded in 1969, has approximately 3,400 employees and operates 26 plants in North America, Europe, Australia and Brazil as of June 30, 2018. The corporate offices of Alamo Group Inc. are located in Seguin, Texas and the headquarters for the Company's European operations are located in Salford Priors, England. Forward Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: market demand, competition, weather, seasonality, currency-related issues, acquisition integration issues and other risk factors listed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein, which speaks only as of this date. (Tables Follow) (1) This is a non-GAAP financial measure or other information relating to our GAAP financial measures that we have provided to investors in order to allow greater transparency and a deeper understanding of our financial condition and operating results. For a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure or for a more detailed explanation of financial results, refer to "Non-GAAP Financial Measure Reconciliation" below and the Attachments thereto. Alamo Group Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands) (Unaudited) June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 43,602 $ 74,637 Accounts receivable, net 238,126 200,223 Inventories 174,836 153,150 Other current assets 12,116 9,980 Total current assets 468,680 437,990 Rental equipment, net 37,057 31,441 Property, plant and equipment 79,737 71,233 Goodwill 83,972 82,430 Intangible assets 50,636 55,353 Other non-current assets 5,297 2,417 Total assets $ 725,379 $ 680,864 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Trade accounts payable $ 63,322 $ 57,164 Income taxes payable 2,210 Accrued liabilities 37,312 35,994 Current maturities of long-term debt and capital lease obligations 17 80 Total current liabilities 100,651 95,448 Long-term debt, net of current maturities 119,000 146,017 Long-term tax liability 12,316 Deferred pension liability 879 2,409 Other long-term liabilities 7,415 7,407 Deferred income taxes 10,671 6,672 Total stockholders' equity 474,447 422,911 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 725,379 $ 680,864 Alamo Group Inc. and Subsidiaries Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (in thousands, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Second Quarter Ended Six Months Ended 6/30/2018 6/30/2017 6/30/2018 6/30/2017 Industrial $ 150,031 $ 117,342 $ 282,198 $ 243,158 Agricultural 59,071 54,221 117,718 105,998 European 48,023 41,713 95,296 79,509 Total net sales 257,125 213,276 495,212 428,665 Cost of sales 190,671 158,597 368,501 319,822 Gross margin 66,454 54,679 126,711 108,843 25.8 % 25.6 % 25.6 % 25.4 % Operating expenses 39,668 34,372 78,564 68,285 Income from operations 26,786 20,307 48,147 40,558 10.4 % 9.5 % 9.7 % 9.5 % Interest expense (1,497) (1,500) (2,834) (2,827) Interest income 109 81 209 157 Other income (expense) (92) (815) (226) (1,173) Income before income taxes 25,306 18,073 45,296 36,715 Provision for income taxes 6,535 5,757 11,942 12,232 Net Income $ 18,771 $ 12,316 $ 33,354 $ 24,483 Net income per common share: Basic $ 1.61 $ 1.07 $ 2.87 $ 2.13 Diluted $ 1.60 $ 1.05 $ 2.84 $ 2.10 Average common shares: Basic 11,652 11,547 11,629 11,509 Diluted 11,759 11,671 11,749 11,646 Alamo Group Inc. Non-GAAP Financial Measures Reconciliation From time to time, Alamo Group Inc. may disclose certain "non-GAAP financial measures" in the course of its earnings releases, earnings conference calls, financial presentations and otherwise. For these purposes, "GAAP" refers to generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines a "non-GAAP financial measure" as a numerical measure of historical or future financial performance, financial positions, or cash flows that is subject to adjustments that effectively exclude or include amounts from the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by Alamo Group are provided as additional information to investors in order to provide them with greater transparency about, or an alternative method for assessing, our financial condition and operating results. These measures are not in accordance with, or a substitute for, GAAP and may be different from, or inconsistent with, non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Whenever we refer to a non-GAAP financial measure, we will also generally present the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP, along with a reconciliation of the differences between the non-GAAP financial measure we reference and such comparable GAAP financial measure. Attachment 1 discloses the impact of the Company's recently completed acquisitions upon Sales, Operating Income and Net Income all of which are non-GAAP financial measures. Attachment 2 discloses a non-GAAP financial presentation related to the impact of currency translation on net sales by division. Attachment 3 shows the net change in our total debt, net of cash, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA"), both of which are non-GAAP financial measures. The Company considers this information useful to investors to allow better comparability of period-to-period operating performance. Attachment 1 Alamo Group Inc. Non-GAAP Financial Reconciliation (in thousands) (Unaudited) Impact of Acquisitions Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Sales (consolidated) - GAAP $ 257,125 $ 213,276 $ 495,212 $ 428,665 (less: net sales attributable to acquisitions) (14,951) (642) (29,493) (642) Net Sales less acquisitions (consolidated) - non-GAAP $ 242,174 $ 212,634 $ 465,719 $ 428,023 Net Sales (Industrial Division) - GAAP $ 150,031 $ 117,342 $ 282,198 $ 243,158 (less: net sales attributable to acquisition) (10,263) (19,830) Net Sales less acquisitions (N.A. Industrial Division) - non-GAAP $ 139,768 $ 117,342 $ 262,368 $ 243,158 Net Sales (Agricultural Division) - GAAP $ 59,071 $ 54,221 $ 117,718 $ 105,998 (less: net sales attributable to acquisitions) (4,688) (642) (9,663) (642) Net Sales less acquisitions (N.A. Agricultural Division) - non-GAAP $ 54,383 $ 53,579 $ 108,055 $ 105,356 Net Sales (European Division) - GAAP $ 48,023 $ 41,713 $ 95,296 $ 79,509 (less: net sales attributable to acquisition) Net Sales less acquisitions (European Division) - non-GAAP $ 48,023 $ 41,713 $ 95,296 $ 79,509 Operating Income (consolidated) - GAAP $ 26,786 $ 20,307 $ 48,147 $ 40,558 (less: operating income attributable to Industrial acquisitions) (670) (948) (less: operating income attributable to Agricultural acquisitions) (279) 63 (836) 63 Operating Income less acquisitions (consolidated) - non-GAAP $ 25,837 $ 20,370 $ 46,363 $ 40,621 Net Income (consolidated) - GAAP $ 18,771 $ 12,316 $ 33,354 $ 24,483 (less: net income attributable to acquisitions) (815) 65 (1,482) 65 Net Income less acquisitions (consolidated) - non-GAAP $ 17,956 $ 12,381 $ 31,872 $ 24,548 Attachment 2 Alamo Group Inc. Non-GAAP Financial Reconciliation (in thousands) (Unaudited) Impact of Currency Translation on Net Sales by Division Three Months Ended June 30, Change due to currency translation 2018 2017 % change from 2017 $ % Industrial $ 150,031 $ 117,342 27.9 % $ 659 0.6 % Agricultural 59,071 54,221 8.9 % (267) (0.5) % European 48,023 41,713 15.1 % 3,212 7.7 % Total net sales $ 257,125 $ 213,276 20.6 % $ 3,604 1.7 % Six Months Ended June 30, Change due to currency translation 2018 2017 % change from 2017 $ % Industrial $ 282,198 $ 243,158 16.1 % $ 1,276 0.5 % Agricultural 117,718 105,998 11.1 % (146) (0.1) % European 95,296 79,509 19.9 % 8,938 11.2 % Total net sales $ 495,212 $ 428,665 15.5 % $ 10,068 2.3 % Attachment 3 Alamo Group Inc. Non-GAAP Financial Reconciliation (in thousands) (Unaudited) Consolidated Net Change of Total Debt, Net of Cash June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Net Change Current maturities $ 17 $ 80 Long-term debt, net of current 119,000 146,017 Total debt $ 119,017 $ 146,097 Total cash 43,602 74,637 Total debt net of cash $ 75,415 $ 71,460 $ 3,955 EBITDA Six Months Ended Trailing Twelve Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Income from operations $ 48,147 $ 40,558 $ 96,927 $ 89,338 Depreciation 9,225 8,364 18,008 17,147 Amortization 1,866 1,664 3,722 3,520 EBITDA $ 59,238 $ 50,586 $ 118,657 $ 110,005 SOURCE Alamo Group Inc. Related Links http://alamo-group.com Both countries, Mr Modi was quoted as saying, should evolve a joint strategy to develop and strengthen better ties. A portrait of Imran Khan is on display near his home in Islamabad on Tuesday. (Photo: AP) Islamabad: Pakistans Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan is hoping to resolve issues with India during his five-year term, his aides said. A close aide told this newspaper that Mr Khan was not against India, but Indian policies. As the PM he wants to talk to the Indian counterpart and try to resolve the issues. He believes the bilateral issues can be resolved in his five-year term, the aide, a senior leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), said. Another PTI leader said Mr Khan may invite Indian PM Narendra Modi to his inauguration. This proposal is under consideration, he added. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi, spoke to Mr Khan over the telephone and congratulated him on the PTI victory in the July 25 elections. A PTI statement said: The most significant aspect of the conversation was Modis unambiguous willingness to improve his countrys ties with Pakistan. India desires progressive relations with Pakistan. Both countries, Mr Modi was quoted as saying, should evolve a joint strategy to develop and strengthen better ties. In response, Imran Khan said that both neighbours should move towards conflict resolution through dialogue. Wars can breed tragedies instead of facilitating resolution of conflicts, Mr Khan was quoted as telling the Indian Prime Minister. Appreciating Mr Modis positive gesture, Mr Khan said that both countries should invest in poverty reduction, pulling millions out of the poverty trap. The telephonic conversation immediately spar-ked a debate on social media with some reminding the incoming PM of how he used to mock the jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his friendship with Mr Modi. Over the past few years, ties between Pakistan and India remained tense despite Mr Modis overtures in May 2014. There were occasions when two sides were close to the resumption of a fully-fledged dialogue. ENGLEWOOD, Colo., August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: AMPE) a clinical trial stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of therapies to treat prevalent inflammatory conditions for which there are limited treatment options, today announced it will be featured as a presenting company at the 38th Annual Canaccord Genuity Growth Conference. The conference is being held on August 8-9, 2018 at InterContinental Boston in Boston, Massachusetts. Tom Chilcott, Chief Financial Officer, Michael Macaluso, Chief Executive Officer, and Holli Cherevka, Chief Operating Officer will provide an overview of the Company's business during the presentation scheduled Wednesday, August 8, 2018, at 1:00 pm EDT. Management will also be meeting with members of the investment community during one-on-one meetings. Event: Canaccord Genuity Growth Conference Date: August 8, 2018 Time: 1:00pm 1:25 pm (Eastern Time) Location: InterContinental Boston About Ampio Pharmaceuticals Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a development stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of therapies to treat prevalent inflammatory conditions for which there are limited treatment options. We are developing compounds that decrease inflammation by (i) inhibiting specific pro-inflammatory compounds by affecting specific pathways at the protein expression and the transcription level; (ii) activating specific phosphatase or depletion of the available phosphate needed for the inflammation process; and (iii) decreasing vascular permeability. Forward-Looking Statements Ampio's statements in this press release that are not historical fact, and that relate to future plans or events, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ampio's expectations with respect to Ampion, as well as those associated with clinical trials, expected results, regulatory approvals, the ability of Ampio to enter into partnering arrangements, the Biological License Application (BLA) and decisions and changes in business conditions and similar events, all of which are inherently subject to various risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties involved include those detailed from time to time in Ampio's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation, under Ampio's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ampio undertakes no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Company Contact Tom Chilcott Chief Financial Officer [email protected] Phone: (720) 437-6500 SOURCE Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Related Links http://www.ampiopharma.com STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlantic Street Capital, a private equity firm targeting entrepreneurial businesses poised for the next level of growth, announced today that its portfolio company Lombart Instrument (Lombart), the leading U.S. distributor of ophthalmic instruments to ophthalmologists and optometrists, has acquired Enhanced Medical Services (EMS), the leading distributor of pre-owned ophthalmic instruments in the U.S. Founded in 2007 by CEO Tony Genovese, EMS provides pre-owned eye care equipment and offers an array of diagnostic, laser, and classical solutions to the eye care industry. EMS also carries a wide selection of new equipment from the top manufacturers in the industry and offers comprehensive customer service. EMS is headquartered in St. Louis. For more information, visit www.emseye.com. Scott Lombart, Chief Commercial Officer of Lombart, said, "The addition of EMS increases our product offering and our customer base but, most valuably, it gives our organization the opportunity to work more aggressively within a doctor's budget. EMS's relationships, expertise, and inventory provide us additional solutions for practices with different instrumentation needs." Mr. Genovese joins Lombart in a dual role as EVP of Lombart's National Accounts and as the EVP of the pre-owned business and his team of professionals will supplement Lombart's existing team. Mr. Genovese, commented, "As founder of the company, I was determined to find a partner that would strengthen our operations and have an immediate impact on our ability to better service clients and patients. Lombart is an exclusive eye care instrument provider and is that ideal fit for us as we look to deliver even better service to our customers. I look forward to working with this premier organization to deliver quality and affordable eyecare products." Andy Wilkins, Managing Partner of Atlantic Street Capital, said, "Since our acquisition of Lombart in 2016 we have steadily built the business through organic growth, as well as expanded into Canada with the earlier acquisition of INNOVA. The addition of EMS is another significant investment to strengthen Lombart's position as a key partner for its customers, further extending our ability to deliver a breadth of clinical solutions." About Lombart Lombart is the largest independent, valueadded distributor of ophthalmic instruments to ophthalmologist and optometrist practices in the United States. Products offered include chairs, stands, slit lamps, refractors, tonometers, keratometers, eye projectors, perimeters, and replacement bulbs and batteries. Lombart sells these products to ophthalmology and optometry practices and clinics, teaching institutions and hospitals, and government hospitals. Lombart is headquartered in Norfolk, VA. For more information, visit www.lombartinstrument.com. About Atlantic Street Capital Atlantic Street Capital is a private equity firm that invests in middle market companies with between $4 million and $15 million in EBITDA. The firm invests in fundamentally sound companies that will benefit from capital investment and value-adding strategic and operational initiatives. Atlantic Street Capital's investment team are hands-on investors who work closely with management to unlock their business' underlying value and help them succeed. The firm is currently making investments in Atlantic Street Capital III, LP. For more information, visit www.atlanticstreetcapital.com. Contact: Chris Tofalli Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC 914-834-4334 SOURCE Atlantic Street Capital Related Links http://www.atlanticstreetcapital.com BASEL, Switzerland, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Axalta is increasing its prices for one of its refinish coatings technologies in Europe. The price increases come into effect from Q3 2018. This new technology applies specifically to Cromax CC6700 Ultra Performance Energy Clear, Spies Hecker Permasolid HS Speed Clear Coat 8800 and Standox Standocryl VOC Xtreme Clear K9580 and their related ancillary products. "In order to continue to invest in this revolutionary technology, Axalta has decided to increase prices by about 10%. The technology helps bodyshops to improve their overall profitability significantly as well as to reduce their energy consumption," says Adrien Schrobiltgen, Vice President for Axalta's refinish business in the EMEA region. Axalta will also bring forward price adjustments on its other paint products in Europe, originally planned for the end of 2018 due to significant rises in raw material costs. "Despite working closely with our suppliers to minimise the effect of the raw material price rises, Axalta is no longer able to absorb these cost increases without affecting our high level of services and superior product quality that our customers expect from us and that we are committed to deliver. It is therefore necessary to pass along some of these increases to our customers," Schrobiltgen says. Customers will be contacted by Axalta to discuss how the product price increases will affect them. About Axalta Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colourful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With more than 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the 13,300 people of Axalta continue to find ways to serve our more than 100,000 customers in 130 countries better every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axalta.co.uk and follow us @Axalta on Twitter and on LinkedIn. Axalta Coating Systems GmbH Uferstrasse 90 4057 Basel Switzerland axalta.com Contact Chantal Bachelier-Moore DA Public Relations Ltd D +44 207 692 4964 [email protected] SOURCE Axalta Related Links http://www.axaltacs.com/gb/en_GB.html NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BKCM LLC announced today that Derek Kim and Kevin Lu have been named Head of Research and Head of Systematic Strategies, respectively. BKCM is an independent investment firm specializing in cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused investment opportunity. "Crypto-blockchain technologies are an emerging global asset class that demands a combination of deep insight and strong executionDerek and Kevin bring both," said Brian Kelly, founder and CEO of the firm. "They are both multi-disciplined, adept at systematic investing, research and trading, and they are committed entrepreneurs. Everything a firm needs to be successful in this space." Derek Kim, Head of Research, has extensive experience in investment analysis, start-up entrepreneurship, and cryptocurrency trading. He leads the firm's primary research and trading for the top 100 tokens by market capitalization. Prior to joining BKCM, Derek launched the Northeast operations for Ritual Technologies, a Series C company with over $110mn in total funding to date. Before his time at Ritual, Derek spent three years at Goldman Sachs, in both their London and New York offices, as an analyst focused on opportunistic and hedge fund strategies. He is also a fluent Korean speaker with venture investing and hedge fund experience in Silicon Valley. Kevin Lu is a researcher and trader, who was previously at AQR, one of the world's premier quantitative investing firms. Currently, Kevin develops stand-alone systematic trading strategies and provides quantitative analytics to assist BKCM's discretionary trading team. At AQR, his quant work supported both the equity and credit teams. Prior to that, he worked on quantitative alpha equity strategies and smart tax-aware passive strategies at Goldman Sachs, and on equity statistical arbitrage at Cubist Systematic Strategies. As the cryptocurrency and blockchain space continues its rapid growth and evolution, BKCM believes that these promotions ideally position the firm for a growing leadership role in both retail and hedge fund management. SOURCE BKCM LLC Related Links http://www.bkcm.co Corporate Culture Built on Kickbacks When Dr. Felten joined Beaumont as Vice President of Research in 2005, he discovered a system riddled with kickbacks to referring physicians. "My findings raised a deeply troubling question," said Dr. Felten. "If someone demonstrates a lack of integrity in their financial dealings, why should I believe that they will show integrity in clinical practice or research?" When internal reporting failed, Dr. Felten felt his only option was to file a False Claims Act lawsuit, which he did in 2010. Three more soon followed, and Dr. Felten and his co-relators will receive between 15%-25% of the $84.5 million recovery. Protecting Patients at Personal Cost "It is truly an honor to represent Dr. Felten," said Julie Bracker. "At the apex of an incredible career, he acted with integrity and was rebuffed, threatened, forced out, and blackballed. Despite these staggering personal costs, he protected patients and put a stop to kickback schemes that raise the costs of healthcare for everyone." Dr. Felten's retaliation claims are still being litigated. "Dr. Felten's courage in reporting unlawful conduct to the government subjected him to retaliation and significant reputational harm," said Michael Caplan. "We intend to aggressively pursue Dr. Felten's rights and obtain a full recovery on his behalf." Public-Private Partnership "This case is a testament to the FCA's public-private partnership," said Jason Marcus. "DOJ attorney Laurie Oberembt and the Eastern District of Michigan USAOin particular Peter Caplan, Leslie Wizner, and Carolyn Bell-Harbinworked tirelessly to reach this stellar result." "The government attorneys were extremely helpful and supportive," said Dr. Felten. "Thanks to Julie Bracker and the DOJ attorneys for having the courage and fortitude to bring this to light." False Claims Act lawyers Julie Bracker and Jason Marcus have a combined 22 years of experience representing whistleblowers nationwide. Since 2015, when they founded Bracker & Marcus LLC, they have recovered more than $100 million for the taxpayers. Caplan Cobb LLP is a complex trial and litigation firm in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of his career, Mike Caplan has recovered over $250 million in business tort cases, class actions, and whistleblower actions. The case is captioned United States ex rel. Felten v. William Beaumont Hospitals, 2:10-cv-13440 (E.D. Mich.). For more information about Bracker & Marcus LLC, visit www.FCAcounsel.com or call (770) 988-5035. For more information about Caplan Cobb LLP, visit www.caplancobb.com or call (404) 596-5600. SOURCE Bracker & Marcus LLC Related Links fcacounsel.com OMAHA, Neb., Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgepoint Investment Banking, a leading full-service Midwest investment bank, announces and welcomes Mr. Subhash Marineni as Vice President of Investment Banking. The addition of Mr. Marineni will support Bridgepoint's continued growth and unparalleled results-oriented M&A advisory and capital raising services to Midwest and national companies. Previously, he spent more than eight years at New York-based investment bank Mid-Market Securities. His breadth of experience involves mergers and acquisitions, including sell-side/buy-side assignments; strategic relationships; joint ventures and licensing and royalty agreements; as well as equity and debt capital raising assignments. Mr. Marineni has advised on more than twenty completed transactions across a broad range of industry sectors including healthcare, energy, technology, business services, industrials, agriculture and media and telecommunications. Mr. Marineni also holds FINRA Series 79 and 63 licenses. "Subhash brings his deep track record of success in M&A and capital raising at a leading New York investment bank to Bridgepoint. Subhash's addition to the firm reflects our ongoing commitment to deliver a real, institutional investment banking option and institutional capital reach to Midwest companies," said Bridgepoint Managing Principal Matt Plooster. He further adds, "Bridgepoint provides a unique platform for top-performing Wall Street investment bankers to leverage their skills in an entrepreneurial environment and growth culture while making a real difference for privately-held companies and their owners." Mr. Marineni received a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to honor societies Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi. About Bridgepoint Investment Banking Bridgepoint Investment Banking, a division of Bridgepoint Holdings, LLC, is a middle market investment banking firm with offices in Omaha, Lincoln, Des Moines and Denver. The Bridgepoint team, through their broker-dealer relationship with M&A Securities Group, an unaffiliated entity, serves clients over their corporate lifecycles by providing merger and acquisition and corporate finance advisory services. Bridgepoint Principals have completed more than $156 billion of M&A and corporate finance transactions over their careers. To learn more about Bridgepoint Investment Banking, please visit www.bridgepointib.com. Media Contact: Natasha Plooster Phone: 402.817.7900 Email: [email protected] Related Files BP Expands IB Staff (Marineni).pdf SOURCE Omaha Media Group EDINBURGH, Scotland, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Proceeds will also be used to drive sales and optimise the commercial model for this novel imaging system in the UK CALCIVIS, a medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of tooth decay and enabling preventive dentistry, announces it has closed a 3.15 million equity funding round from existing investors Archangel Investors, Julz and the Scottish Investment Bank. The proceeds will be used to support the completion of the FDA's Pre-Market Approval (PMA) review process for the CALCIVIS Imaging System in the United States (US), the world's largest dentistry market. The filing of the PMA application to the FDA was made in October 2017. The Company plans the launch of the CALCIVIS imaging system in the US in 2019, subject to the PMA being approved. The PMA submission contained positive data from the pivotal clinical study, which evaluated the CALCIVIS imaging system in the assessment of active dental demineralisation. Results showed a highly significant level of agreement between the original dentist doing the clinical assessment and the independent dentist's assessment using the CALCIVIS imaging system for teeth with active lesions (90.7%; p<0.0001) and sound (healthy) teeth (97.8%; p<0.0001). The results of the User and Patient Questionnaires showed high levels of usability and acceptance of the CALCIVIS system with patients reporting the procedure to be "quick and painless". The proceeds will also be used to drive the commercialisation of the imaging system in the UK. The CALCIVIS imaging system was launched in the UK in March this year and there has been a high level of interest following its introduction. CALCIVIS also intends to further optimize the commercial model for the system to maximise its uptake and use by the UK dental community. The CALCIVIS imaging system is a sophisticated medical device and consumable combination designed to transform the assessment and management of demineralisation associated with dental caries and erosion. The CALCIVIS imaging system, for the first time, allows the real-time visualisation of calcium ions released from demineralising tooth surfaces, in routine dental practice. The resulting images provide a focus for discussion with patients and enables the development of a preventive treatment plan in line with dental best practice. Adam Christie, CEO of CALCIVIS, said: "We are delighted by the continuing commitment of our existing investors in this financing round. This new investment positions us to gain PMA approval for our CALCIVIS Imaging System in the US ahead of a launch planned for the second half of 2019. We also plan to use the funds to drive sales and optimize the commercial model for the system in the UK where it has received a positive reception from both dentists and patients since its first launch earlier this year." Dr Sarah Hardy, Chief Investment Officer at Archangels, said: "This funding round will enable CALCIVIS to generate significant shareholder value by gaining FDA approval for its unique CALCIVIS Imaging System paving the way for the product US launch in 2019. We believe the system will bring significant benefits both to patients and dental practitioners by catalysing the adoption of preventive dentistry. We are proud to contribute to the growth of such an innovative company." Dr Zishan Haroon, Chairman and General Partner of Julz, said: "The CALCIVIS Imaging System is a breakthrough innovation in an industry that has for long been using visual inspection and X-ray images as the main detection and diagnostic aids for caries. The CALCIVIS Imaging System is designed to revolutionise the assessment and management of dental caries by paving the way for the adoption of preventive dentistry. We believe this approach will dramatically change care planning and intervention for patients leading to preservation of their original teeth and better oral hygiene. We are delighted to support such an innovative company providing dentists and patients with next-generation dentistry care." Kerry Sharp, Head of Scottish Investment Bank, said: "We're pleased to be co-investing with Archangels and Julz Co to help CALCIVIS gain FDA approval and launch the product in the US. We've assisted the company on its growth journey and it's now showing promising commercial development with the launch of its imaging system in the UK earlier this year a significant event for preventive dentistry. We look forward to working alongside CALCIVIS to help it continue to achieve its potential, both in Scotland and internationally." About CALCIVIS CALCIVIS is an innovative medical devices company focused on revolutionising the management of dental caries or 'tooth decay'. CALCIVIS brings together novel biotechnology approaches and world-class device development expertise and is at the forefront of applying biotechnology to dentistry. The CALCIVIS imaging system will, for the first time, allow the real-time detection and visualisation of calcium ions released by demineralising caries lesions in routine dental practice. CALCIVIS began operations in 2012 and is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Company has been funded by Archangel Investors Limited and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise and Julz, a US-based healthcare fund. The Company has raised equity and grant funding totalling over 12m since its inception. CALCIVIS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 666440 and Innovate UK's Biomedical Catalyst. www.calcivis.com About Julz Co Julz Co is a venture capital firm focused on investments in the health care industry with an emphasis on therapeutics, medical devices, digital healthcare and services. Julz invests globally in companies that have novel and proprietary technology addressing a vital market need and are driven by experienced management teams. The company has offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and Suzhou, China. www.julzco.com About Archangels Archangels is a prominent business angel syndicate which has been at the forefront of early stage investing in Scotland for more than two decades. Its members invest in, and mentor, promising start-up and early stage companies from Scotland's vibrant technology and life sciences sectors. Originally formed in 1992 and based in Edinburgh, the syndicate now comprises over 80 investor members and leads investment of around 15m per year in early stage Scottish companies, including leverage from partners, the largest being the Scottish Investment Bank. Archangels is interested in Scottish technology companies, which are looking for initial funding of 50,000 to 2m. In addition, Archangels is keen to welcome new investors to its syndicate. www.archangelsonline.com About Scottish Investment Bank The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) is the investment arm of Scotland's main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, operating Scotland-wide in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It manages a suite of co- investment funds including the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Venture Fund, which are partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Renewable Energy Investment Fund. SIB is also an investor in Epidarex Capital's life sciences fund and is a participant in the Scottish European Growth Co-Investment Programme alongside the European Investment Fund. SIB's investment funds support Scotland's SME funding market to ensure businesses with growth and export potential have adequate access to growth capital. SIB also provides a team of Financial Readiness specialists to help companies prepare for new investment and access appropriate finance. Contacts: CALCIVIS Adam Christie, CEO Tel: +44-(0)-7795-600571 E-mail: [email protected] Media relations Citigate Dewe Rogerson David Dible, Marine Perrier Tel: +44-(0)-207-638-9571 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Calcivis LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) International announced that a ban of electroshock treatment the practice of up to 460 volts of electricity to the brain to "treat mental disorder" should be imminent in light of increasing reports of patients being damaged and deaths. Texas, the only state to record deaths within 14 days of electroshock being administered, reported a death rate in recent years that represents an estimated 300 deaths nationally each year. The most frequent causes of death have been cardiac events and suicide, according to one study.[1] Electroshock's brutal and sordid history ranges from its use to help slaughter pigs, to punishment, painful "aversion therapy" on homosexuals, inflicting brain damage on children and others, and to torture humans. Watchdog finds electroshock causes brain damage, memory loss, death and 'mental euthanasia' The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never obtained a single clinical trial from the manufacturers of the electroshock devices proving their safety and efficacy. Under Section 516 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, the FDA has a duty to ban devices that present "substantial deception or unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury." Electroshock, also called electroconvulsive therapy or ECT, can cause brain damage, long-term memory loss and death, constituting more than a "substantial risk" and is far from safe and effective, according to thousands of survivors' complaints.[2] Ignoring these dangers, the FDA has instead limited bans under this Section to prohibiting the use of powdered gloves in medical or surgical procedures and prosthetic hair fiber implants that may trigger inflammation and hypersensitivity reactions, the latter, the FDA says, were misrepresented in marketing as "safe, effective and causing little or no discomfort." While the FDA allows the ECT device to remain on the market, it doesn't regulate how it is used, giving psychiatrists a free-for-all to administer it to whomever they choose. This has meant that children younger than five and toddlers have been subjected to the violence of this shock procedure in at least five states that CCHR has established through Freedom of Information Act requests. Despite a report from the United Nations committee on Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that warns electroshock without consent constitutes torture, ECT continues to be given to involuntary patients without consent.[3] Pregnant women and their unborn babies are also not protected from ECT, despite the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiology saying that ECT is "absolutely contraindicated" in pregnancy.[4] Researchers of Maine Medical Center have found brain damage in a baby whose mother had undergone ECT while pregnant.[5] The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine also warns of potential spontaneous abortion, placental abruption, cardiac arrhythmias, fetal burn and intrauterine fetal death when a pregnant woman experiences general electrical shock.[6] Yet, the APA claims that it's safe during all trimesters.[7] Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International, said: "Electroshock is mental euthanasia, with a long history of being used for torture and abuse. Electric shock eradicates memory. It should never be condoned or permitted because quite apart from its inhuman aspects, patients consider it bluntly criminal, especially when forced on them. Psychiatrists and the FDA pass off electric shock machines as wonderful, even though they can kill patients." Sign CCHR's Petition to Ban the Electroshock (ECT) Device. The impact of any electrical shock upon a body for any purpose is very dangerous. Researchers from the University of Montreal have shown that any electric shock above 120 volts can "cause neurologic and neuropsychological symptoms in humans. Following an electrical injury, some patients may show various emotional and behavioral aftereffects, such as memory loss and symptoms of depression."[8] ECT uses up to 460 volts, deliberately inducing a grand mal seizure that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) says can last up to 30 minutes. ECT: Slaughters Pigs and Tortures ECT was invented in fascist Italy in 1937 by psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti. Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Modernity, wrote of Cerletti "having killed a few dogs by experimentation" and then "discovered that Roman slaughterhouses used electrocution to slaughter pigs." Cerletti "discovered that pigs could be shocked several times and would revive after a few minutes." He then applied ECT to humans, his first victim screaming that it was "deadly." "The torture and 'treatments' of the insane" historically has derived from the "application to animals in abattoirs," Rejali stated.[9] Cerletti's device very rapidly pressed into political service, Rejali said. In August 2017, a paper published in History of Psychiatry documented how "The Nazi political and medical establishment" regarded ECT as a means "to empty psychiatric institutions, thereby relieving the state of the burden" Psychiatrist Emil Gelny "added four extra electrodes to existing ECT machines, which were attached to patients' wrists and ankles to deliver the lethal shocks after patients were knocked unconscious by the initial current applied to the head."[10] In the 1950s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) expressed considerable interest in ECT devices. In 1951, Project Artichoke, then MK-ULTRA under Deputy CIA Director Richard Helms in 1953, aimed to control human behavior through hallucinogenic drugs and electroshock.[11] Dr. Ewen Cameron, the first president of the World Psychiatric Association, while professor of psychiatry at McGill University in Canada in the 1950s and 60s, developed his own version of shock treatment, using the UK Page-Russell electroshock device invented in 1948. Cameron called his shock technique "de-patterning" deliberately wiping out patient memories by the use of intensive ECT. The CIA funded his work.[12] He described the procedure on a patient to the 2nd World Congress of Psychiatry in 1957, stating: "There is complete amnesia for all events of his life."[13] Electroshock 'took away her soul' In 2017, 60 years after Cameron's experiments left her mother damaged for life, Alison Steel obtained a $100,000 settlement from the Canadian government over Cameron's experiments. "She was never able to really function as a healthy human being because of what they did to her," Steel stated. "Her emotions were stripped. It took away her soul."[14] Electroshock is also used for torture, including on prisoners of the French during the 1954-62 Algerian War.[15] Journalist Gordon Thomas reported that in 1961, Moroccan king Hassan II's security service was fully staffed with doctors who supervised a wide range of tortures of political detainees using several Page-Russell electroshock machines.[16] Chinese dissidents and members of the religious group The Falun Gong are still subjected to electroshock and "other barbaric forms of torture designed by prison guards to humiliate and inflict maximum pain."[17] Until 1973, when the APA de-classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, electroshock treatment was used in an effort to prevent or eliminate homosexual behavior.[18] Other forms of shock included jolts of electricity administered to the skin and body, sometimes directly to the genitals.[19] Voltage of such devices ranged anywhere from 150-200 volts and on children for behavioral control, 300-400 volts.[20] Allegations that psychiatrists and any others recommending ECT to treat the LGBT community today are homophobic and cruel, CCHR says.[21] Brain Damage and Memory Loss Yet the FDA and APA continue to ignore the perils of ECT. In March 2016 , a coroner from Sunderland County in the UK determined Elsie Tindle died after electroshock triggered an epileptic fit which caused irreparable brain damage.[22] A 2012 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported a considerable "decrease in functional connectivity" between the prefrontal lobes of the brain and other parts of the brain after ECT. The most extensive long-term follow-up study indicates that "most ECT patients will never recover from the damage in the form of persistent severe mental deficits."[23] Austin, Texas , psychologist John Breeding , who heads the Coalition for the Abolition of Electroshock, said, "The bottom line is that ECT 'works' to the extent that it damages and disables the brain."[24] Breeding dispels psychiatric theories that the procedure is safer today than its "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" days in the 60s. He says that ECT has more potential for harm than ever. Much higher voltages are employed in the modern procedure because muscle relaxants and anesthetics raise the seizure threshold, with more electricity required to produce a seizure. The greater heat and electricity themselves cause more brain cell death, he says. He concludes "Given what we know about the resulting brain damage, I think this is a form of assault"[25] Leading ECT researcher and advocate, psychologist Harold Sackeim admitted in an editorial in The Journal of ECT that "virtually all patients experience some degree of persistent and, likely, permanent retrograde amnesia."[26] In a January 2007 study published in Neuropsychopharmacology, Sackeim and colleagues acknowledged that ECT may cause permanent amnesia and permanent deficits in cognitive abilities, which affect ability to function.[27] In 2005, Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Denise de Bellefeuille ruled that a psychiatrist and Santa Barbara psychiatric facility deceived its patients by failing to tell them that ECT causes irreversible memory loss. The psychiatrist (who had performed shock treatment for over 20 years), admitted that neither he nor anyone else understands how shock treatment works, and that the consent form Johnson provided to patients was "decidedly misleading in a critical regard," concerning the permanency of memory loss.[28] Last year, psychologist John Read, professor of clinical psychology at the University of East London concluded from a comprehensive review of 91 studies on ECT that "Given the well-documented high risk of persistent memory dysfunction, the cost-benefit analysis for ECT remains so poor that its use cannot be scientifically, or ethically, justified."[29] Eastgate says, "To treat mental problems by electric shocks is brutality in the name of mental health care. The high death rate, severe memory loss and the brain atrophy and damage ECT causes warrants it being banned under existing FDA law." CCHR is a non-profit mental health watchdog group dedicated to eliminating abuses committed under the guise of mental health. CCHR works to ensure patient and consumer protections are enacted and upheld as there is rampant abuse in the field of mental health. In this role, CCHR has helped to enact more than 180 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive mental health practices since it was formed over 49 years ago, including a ban on electroshock use on children in four U.S. states and in Western Australia. Contact: Amber Rauscher, [email protected] or (323) 467-4242. References: [1] "An Analysis of Reported Deaths Following Electroconvulsive Therapy in Texas, 1993-1998," 1 Aug 2001, https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.52.8.1095. [2] Jonathan Emord & Associates, Citizens Petition filed with the FDA Commissioner, 14 Aug. 2016, pp. 14, 27 and 42, http://emord.com/blawg/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1-ECT-Citizen-Petition.pdf. [3] A/HRC/22/53, "Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Mendez," United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Twenty-second Session, Agenda Item 3, 1 Feb. 2013, p. 1, Summary. [4] https://www.wfsahq.org/documents/306%20Anaesthesia%20for%20Electro-convulsive%20Therapy%20ECT.pdf. [5] http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-abuse/electroshock/pregnancy-study, citing Jacquelyn Blackstone, Michael G. Pinette, Camille Santarpio, Joseph R. Wax, "Electroconvulsive Therapy in Pregnancy." Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2007, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, http://greenjournal.org/cgi/content/short/110/2/465. [6] "Electric shock in pregnancy: a review," The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, Vol. 29, 2014, Issue 2, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14767058.2014.1000295?journalCode=ijmf20. [7] https://www.healthyplace.com/depression/articles/electroconvulsive-therapy-during-pregnancy. [8] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080515113311.htm; University of Montreal. "Electric Shocks Can Cause Neurologic And Neuropsychological Symptoms." ScienceDaily, 16 May 2008, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080515113311.htm. [9] Darius Rejali, "Electricity: The Global History Of A Torture Technology," http://www.reed.edu/poli_sci/faculty/rejali/articles/History_of_Electric_Torture.html; Petr Skrabanek, PhD., "Convulsive Therapy - A Critical Appraisal of its Origins and Value," Irish f'.'lcdicaIJourIlo,, June 1986, Volume 79, No. 6. [10] https://psmag.com/news/nazis-ruin-everything; G Gazdag, GS Ungvari, and H Czech, "Mass killing under the guise of ECT: the darkest chapter in the history of biological psychiatry," History of Psychiatry, Sage Publications, 2017. [11] Stephen Lendman, "Meet Maryam Ruhullah: A Victim of MK-ULTRA," Countercurrents.org, 16 Feb. 2010, https://www.countercurrents.org/lendman160210.htm. [12] Leonard Roy Frank, "Electroshock: Death, Brain Damage, Memory Loss, and Brainwashing," The Journal of Mind and Behaviour, Summer and Autumn 1990; Leonard Roy Frank, Editor, "The Electroshock Quotationary," June 2006, http://www.endofshock.com/102C_ECT.pdf, http://www.brown.uk.com/brownlibrary/FRANK.htm. [13] Op. cit., Leonard Roy Frank, "The Electroshock Quotationary." [14] https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2017/11/canadian-government-quietly-compensates-daughter-of-mkultra-victi/. [15] Leonard Roy Frank, Editor, The History of Shock Treatment, 1978. [16] Gordon Thomas, Journey Into Madness, The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medical Abuse, (Bantam Books) 1989. [17] https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/extreme-torture-inside-chinas-correctional-facilities/news-story/7e4a796bc1401d593f5cc58d7fd32ecb. [18] Patrick Strudwick, "This Gay Man Was Given Repeated Electric Shocks By British Doctors to Make Him Straight," Buzz Feed, 30 Sept 2017, https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-gay-man-was-given-repeated-electric-shocks-by-british?utm_term=.orlQxe4JR#.coV1dRZOn. [19] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-scot/shock-the-gay-away-secrets-of-early-gay-aversion-therapy-revealed_b_3497435.html; https://www.madinamerica.com/2014/09/fda-panel-rejects-aversive-therapy-shock-devices/; https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/inside_judge_rotenberg_center.html. [20] https://www.madinamerica.com/2014/09/fda-panel-rejects-aversive-therapy-shock-devices/; https://books.google.com/books?id=qpcuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT137&lpg=PT137&dq=aversion+therapy+electroshock+used+70+volts+of+electricity&source=bl&ots=3dqOdCCa7X&sig=-ddCLbjl6FUOI6LspJdjZEBm4-M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiawZX-p8fcAhWWFjQIHf8ACNk4ChDoATADegQIAxAB#v=onepage&q=aversion%20therapy%20electroshock%20used%2070%20volts%20of%20electricity&f=false. [21] Emily Reynolds, "The cruel, dangerous reality of gay conversion therapy," Wired, 7 July 2018, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gay-conversion-therapy. [22] Petra Silfverskiold, "Electric shock therapy led to Sunderland patient having permanent fit," Daily Mail (UK), 10 Mar. 2016, http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/electric-shock-therapy-led-to-sunderland-patient-having-permanent-fit-1-7786233. [23] Peter Breggin, "New Study Confirms Electroshock (ECT) Causes Brain Damage," Huffington Post, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/electroshock-treatment_b_1373619.html. [24] John Breeding, Ph.D., "Electroshocking Children: Why It Should Be Stopped," Mad in America, 11 Feb. 2014, https://www.madinamerica.com/2014/02/electroshocking-children-stopped/. [25] Op. cit., John Breeding, Ph.D., "Electroshocking Children: Why It Should Be Stopped"; John Breeding, Ph.D., "Chapter 9: Electroshock," http://www.wildestcolts.com/psych_opp/d-electroshock/1-shock.html. [26] Ibid, John Breeding, Ph.D., "Electroshocking Children: Why It Should Be Stopped." [27] Ibid., citing, Sackeim et al., "The Cognitive Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy in Community Settings" Neuropsychopharmacology, Volume 32, Number 1, 2007. [28] Charles D. Morgan, "Milestone case: Hospital ordered to cease shocking patients," https://suemypsychiatrist.wordpress.com/category/ect/. [29] John Read, Chelsea Arnold, "Is Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression More Effective Than Placebo? A Systematic Review of Studies Since 2009," Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry Volume 19, Number 1, 2017, pp. 5-23(19), http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/springer/ehpp/2017/00000019/00000001/art00002. Related Links Documented Facts & Statistics About Modern Electroshock (ECT) Petition to Ban Electroshock (ECT) Device Being Used on Children, the Elderly and Vulnerable Patients SOURCE Citizens Commission on Human Rights International CARMEL, Ind., Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bankers Life and Casualty Company ("Bankers Life"), has entered into an agreement with Wilton Reassurance Company ("Wilton Re") to cede all of its legacy (prior to 2003) comprehensive and nursing home long-term care policies (with statutory reserves of approximately $2.7 billion) through 100% indemnity coinsurance. Bankers Life will pay a ceding commission of $825 million to reinsure the block, funded through excess capital in the insurance subsidiaries and at the holding company. "Completion of this reinsurance transaction achieves our stated objective to reduce our exposure to the long-term care business," said Gary Bhojwani, chief executive officer. "We expect this transaction to improve return on equity and cash flows in future periods and to materially reduce the risk profile of the Company. More importantly, this allows management to focus its time on accelerating profitable growth and serving the needs of the fast-growing middle-income market. Wilton Re is a highly-rated and well-capitalized counterparty and CNO has a strong relationship with its management team, having previously executed three other important transactions together." The transaction is subject to customary and other closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals and is expected to close no later than the end of 2018. In anticipation of the reinsurance agreement, the Company will reorganize its business segments to move the block to be ceded from the "Bankers Life segment" to the "Long-term care in run-off segment" in the third quarter of 2018. Prior to the end of 2018, CNO expects to recognize a charge related to the transaction of approximately $650 million, net of taxes and the gain recognized on the assets transferred to Wilton Re. The charge is primarily attributable to loss recognition on the block due to the ceding commission. In addition to the reinsurance agreement, Bankers Life or another CNO company will enter into certain other agreements with Wilton Re, including a trust agreement, an administrative services agreement and a transition services agreement. Wilton Re will establish and maintain a trust account for the benefit of Bankers Life to secure its obligations under the coinsurance agreement. The trust account will be required to hold qualified assets with book values equal to the statutory liabilities of the block plus an additional amount, initially $500 million, which declines over time. CNO also announced that in the third quarter of 2018, its insurance subsidiaries will cease sales of home health care only long-term care policies, and comprehensive and nursing home long-term care policies with benefit periods exceeding three years. CNO remains committed to long-term care insurance and will continue to offer short-term care and long-term care policies with benefits that reflect prudent risk management and the insurance needs of the middle-income market. Wilton Re is a Minnesota domiciled insurance company, substantially wholly owned by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPPIB"). CPPIB is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds of the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of its 20 million contributors and beneficiaries. For more information about Wilton Re, please refer to www.wiltonre.com . Barclays Capital serves as financial advisor and Willkie Farr & Gallagher serves as legal counsel to CNO in this transaction. The Company also reported its second quarter 2018 results today in a separate news release and will host a conference call to discuss this announcement and second quarter results at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, August 2, 2018. There will be a live webcast of the presentation, including presentation materials, available on the Investors section of the Company's website http://ir.CNOinc.com. Participants should go to the website at least 15 minutes before the event to register and download any necessary software. The call-in numbers for the conference call are as follows: Live Call (866) 393-4306 (Domestic) (734) 385-2616 (International) Conference ID: 4655299 About CNO Financial Group CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) is a holding company. Our insurance companies - principally Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company and Washington National Insurance Company - primarily serve middle-income pre-retiree and retired Americans by helping them protect against financial adversity and provide for a more secure retirement. For more information, visit CNO online at www.CNOinc.com . Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements. Our statements, trend analyses and other information contained in this press release relative to markets for CNO Financial's products and trends in CNO Financial's operations or financial results, as well as other statements, contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements typically are identified by the use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "may," "will," "would," "contemplate," "possible," "attempt," "seek," "should," "could," "goal," "target," "on track," "comfortable with," "optimistic," "guidance," "outlook" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. You should consider statements that contain these words carefully because they describe our expectations, plans, strategies and goals and our beliefs concerning future business conditions, our results of operations, financial position, and our business outlook or they state other ''forward-looking'' information based on currently available information. Assumptions and other important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements include, among other things: (i) changes in or sustained low interest rates causing reductions in investment income, the margins of our fixed annuity and life insurance businesses, and sales of, and demand for, our products; (ii) expectations of lower future investment earnings may cause us to accelerate amortization, write down the balance of insurance acquisition costs or establish additional liabilities for insurance products; (iii) general economic, market and political conditions and uncertainties, including the performance and fluctuations of the financial markets which may affect the value of our investments as well as our ability to raise capital or refinance existing indebtedness and the cost of doing so; (iv) the ultimate outcome of lawsuits filed against us and other legal and regulatory proceedings to which we are subject; (v) our ability to make anticipated changes to certain non-guaranteed elements of our life insurance products; (vi) our ability to obtain adequate and timely rate increases on our health products, including our long-term care business; (vii) the receipt of any required regulatory approvals for dividend and surplus debenture interest payments from our insurance subsidiaries; (viii) mortality, morbidity, the increased cost and usage of health care services, persistency, the adequacy of our previous reserve estimates, changes in the health care market and other factors which may affect the profitability of our insurance products; (ix) changes in our assumptions related to deferred acquisition costs or the present value of future profits; (x) the recoverability of our deferred tax assets and the effect of potential ownership changes and tax rate changes on their value; (xi) changes to our estimates of the impact of comprehensive federal tax legislation related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; (xii) our assumption that the positions we take on our tax return filings will not be successfully challenged by the Internal Revenue Service; (xiii) changes in accounting principles and the interpretation thereof; (xiv) our ability to continue to satisfy the financial ratio and balance requirements and other covenants of our debt agreements; (xv) our ability to achieve anticipated expense reductions and levels of operational efficiencies including improvements in claims adjudication and continued automation and rationalization of operating systems; (xvi) performance and valuation of our investments, including the impact of realized losses (including other-than-temporary impairment charges); (xvii) our ability to identify products and markets in which we can compete effectively against competitors with greater market share, higher ratings, greater financial resources and stronger brand recognition; (xviii) our ability to generate sufficient liquidity to meet our debt service obligations and other cash needs; (xix) changes in capital deployment opportunities; (xx) our ability to maintain effective controls over financial reporting; (xxi) our ability to continue to recruit and retain productive agents and distribution partners; (xxii) customer response to new products, distribution channels and marketing initiatives; (xxiii) our ability to achieve additional upgrades of the financial strength ratings of CNO Financial and our insurance company subsidiaries as well as the impact of our ratings on our business, our ability to access capital and the cost of capital; (xxiv) regulatory changes or actions, including: those relating to regulation of the financial affairs of our insurance companies, such as the calculation of risk-based capital and minimum capital requirements, and payment of dividends and surplus debenture interest to us; regulation of the sale, underwriting and pricing of products; and health care regulation affecting health insurance products; (xxv) changes in the Federal income tax laws and regulations which may affect or eliminate the relative tax advantages of some of our products or affect the value of our deferred tax assets; (xxvi) availability and effectiveness of reinsurance arrangements, as well as the impact of any defaults or failure of reinsurers to perform; (xxvii) the amount we may need to pay to a reinsurer and the earnings charge we may incur in connection with a long-term care reinsurance transaction; (xxviii) the performance of third party service providers and potential difficulties arising from outsourcing arrangements; (xxix) the growth rate of sales, collected premiums, annuity deposits and assets; (xxx) interruption in telecommunication, information technology or other operational systems or failure to maintain the security, confidentiality or privacy of sensitive data on such systems; (xxxi) events of terrorism, cyber attacks, natural disasters or other catastrophic events, including losses from a disease pandemic; (xxxii) ineffectiveness of risk management policies and procedures in identifying, monitoring and managing risks; and (xxxiii) the risk factors or uncertainties listed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other factors and assumptions not identified above are also relevant to the forward-looking statements, and if they prove incorrect, could also cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statement. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made. We assume no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. SOURCE CNO Financial Group, Inc. Related Links http://www.cnoinc.com by Choi Pio Sang Soon South Korea is moving towards a low or no growth future. The countrys fertility rate could dip below one child per woman. The economic impact includes closed clinics and lower powder milk production. Young people face hardship and societal inequalities. The Moon government plans reforms whilst the Church highlights its commitment. The director of the diocesan centre in Daejeon speaks for the family. Daejeon (AsiaNews) South Korean women will soon have less than one child each. Such a crisis will touch the entire society. The Catholic Church in South Korea is called to rediscover the family as a tool of evangelisation. Fr Choi Pio Sang Soon, director of the John Paul II Diocesan Centre for Marriage and the family in Daejeon spoke to AsiaNews about the issues, challenges and possible solutions to the problem of low fertility in South Korea. Less than one child per woman in 2018 Some 357,000 children were born in South Korea in 2017, 12 per cent less than in 2016 (406,200). Figures for the first months of 2018 are even more worrying. Between January and April, there were 117,300 births, a further drop of 9,1 per cent. If this trend continues, the total fertility rate for this year will be less than one child per woman. This is reality, not theory. The total fertility rate in South Korea has been extremely low since 2001, but now it has reached an embarrassing low, less than one child. In 2016, Statistics Korea, South Koreas national statistical office, forecast that the population would start to decline in 2031, but if the existing trend is maintained, this might begin as early as 2023. South Korea moving towards low or no growth Low fertility does not only reduce the overall vitality of a society but also reduces its productivity, consumption levels and economic activities. It also increases social charges. Population decline leads to labour shortages, the collapse of the domestic market and higher taxes. Our country will become a nation with chronic low or no growth. If in this day and age the size of the population does not make a country a major power, its decline nevertheless affects the overall economy; above all in terms of the financial burden of pensions and health insurance, which in the future will weigh heavily on younger South Koreans. Low fertility has already cast a wider shadow: schools and academies like those of Taekwondo and piano have seen a drastic reduction in the number of students; fewer nuptials have shaken the marriage industry and reduced the number of wedding halls, from 1,038 to 862; the number of mother and child clinics has fallen by 30.7 per cent in 12 years, from 1,907 in 2005 to 1,320 in 2017; the powder milk market has gone from 500 billion won a year (US$ 445 million) to 350 billion won (US$ 312 million). Meanwhile, youth unemployment is up, which makes it even harder to get married and start a family. Furthermore, active support for irregular and temporary workers is lacking. People who have a temporary job ask themselves "what to do" when their contract ends. They are also paid low wages, 50 per cent lower than regular or permanent work. For this reason, young people cannot marry, start a family, and feed and educate their children. Because of low wages, young people get married later and later. In 2017, the average age for marriage was 32.9 years for men and 30.2 for women. In 2010, it was 29.5 and 26.8. A problem that affects everyone, Catholics included Low fertility is a problem that affects everyone, including the Christian community, even if it is hard to see the crisis. Many people know about the extremely low birth rate. Even Catholics are aware of this. But not everyone perceives its true gravity. The mind knows, but the heart doesnt. According to Catholic Church data, in 2017 11 per cent of the South Korean population was Catholic. Those in the 10-19 age group are 6.6 per cent. Since 2012, the number of the faithful between 30 and 40 years has been constantly dropping. Every year, those over 60 increase. In particular, 65-year-old believers are now 18.4 per cent; in 2016 they were 17.4 per cent. The Korean Catholic Church too is aging. Except for those aged 75 to 79, the number of faithful in all other age groups has dropped compared to the previous year. Church marriages are also down, both between Catholics and mixed ones. In 2008, 26,182 couples got married in church. In 2017, only 15,842 did. Only 5 per cent of Koreans are against marriage More than half of all young South Koreans want to marry, as evidenced by the survey on youth status published by the Korea National Youth Policy Institute in 2017. Only 5.3 per cent of young people think they do not need marriage whilst 4.3 per cent think they do not need children. For about 53.9 per cent marriage is a duty, and for 40.7 per cent it is a choice. As for the children, 54.1 per cent answered that they must have them, whilst 41.4 per cent said that they might or might not have them. Negative answers about marriage and raising a child are only 4-5 per cent of the total. Yet the decline in marriages and births is quite real. The Korea National Youth Policy Institute asked young people why they hesitated. The latter said that getting married is too expensive, especially when it comes to housing: renting a house or flat is expensive. If you include the price of a house, the total cost for a wedding on average is around US$ 190,000. Housing represents 70 per cent of the total cost. In 2017, the government came up with a specific plan to tackle this problem, but this is not enough. We have to create jobs for young people and reduce the wage gap between irregular and permanent workers, and between women and men. In South Korea, women earn 36.7 per cent less than men, the lowest figure among OECD countries. We need to reflect about society Economic reasons are not the only factor for fewer marriages and births. One must reflect on the "empty formality and vanity" of South Koreas marriage culture. It is necessary to reflect on the immature social atmosphere and free it from the "tendency towards materialism". Our society has developed into a social, cultural and economic structure in which young people find it difficult to get married and to have and raise children. Society ignores human dignity, using the person as a tool for its purposes, to accumulate more money. The final result of all this is low fertility. The Church must announce to young people "teachings on human love and life, accompany them with gentleness and tenderness, helping them to come out of their selfishness and the secular values that reject marriage, family and life. It does so through some programmes like Choice, where unmarried young people can find themselves by talking to others, recognising the importance of the family to which they belong. Another programme is the "fiances weekend", open to couples that are married or engaged to be married. Through this, couples recognise that their spouse is a gift from God and learn true love and the importance of life. It is a time of grace, during which one hears the voice of God, unplugging every other noise. Another project is the "Wedding at Cana" course, which prepares couples for the wedding, imparting information about their bodies in addition to theological notions. Politics must look to the "human person" In 2005, demographic policies were adopted to increase the number of births, without considering the place of people. For this reason, they did not solve the problem, which indeed got bigger. Last December, the current government changed the paradigm by establishing a new commission, oriented "towards the human person". In this context, on 5 July 2018 the authorities announced a key objective: "A happy country in which to work and raise children". Realising such a goal with individual policies in specific fields is difficult. A comprehensive policy covering the whole cycle of life is needed. Above all, we need to consider young people, women's work, housing, jobs, medical care, the education system and respect for all births, ensuring equal treatment for single mothers. "Public care in childcare" emphasises that giving birth should not be an individual sacrifice, especially for women. Diocese of Daejeon: preparing young people The Department of Family Pastoral Care of the Diocese of Daejeon includes training programmes for families. For example, the World-Wide Marriage Encounter (WWME) is designed to help couples to renew and deepen the love that unites them, through dialogue. Started in 1958 by Spanish priest, Fr Gabriel Calvo, the WWME can be found all over the world. In South Korea, it started in 1984 in Daejeon. So far, 8,700 couples have had this experience. For the diocese, it is crucial to prepare fathers. Many do not know their role and lose their place in the family. This programme helps participants rediscover their identity as a man and a father, and to reconcile family relationships. It teaches a fathers true vocation, which comes from Our Father. Mothers too take part in the programme, learning to perform a different role in the family. They are helped to find their identity, solve family problems, and meet their true vocation, which comes from the Lord. The Familiaris Consortio teaches believers how to practise the magisterium of the Church in everyday life, through concrete examples. It is based on texts by Pope John Paul II (Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body; Familiaris Consortio) and on the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia by Pope Francis. Evangelising families, the first place to welcome human life The demographic crisis means the crisis of the family. In all this, the Korean Church must recognise that the Christian family is an agent of evangelisation. To evangelise means to recognise a gift of God among us, and this gift is to give oneself in relationships with others. An effective method of evangelisation is not an oppressive or rude one; it is not forcing, preaching or judging. It must begin with accompanying, discerning, integrating. Since God loves us, so we must insert Gods love in the hearts of others. Thus, evangelisation is not giving something to others that they did not have before but helping them to know "who I am" and to find Gods love in the journey of life. The first starting point of all this is the family: the first place to welcome human life. CANONSBURG, Pa., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CONSOL Coal Resources LP (NYSE: CCR) today reported financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2018. Second Quarter 2018 Results Highlights of the CCR second quarter 2018 results include: Cash distribution of $0.5125 per limited partner unit for the second quarter; Net income of $19.4 million ; Adjusted EBITDA 1 of $33.6 million ; Distribution coverage ratio 1 of 1.6x; Net leverage ratio 1 of 1.5x; Record quarter for coal production and sales volumes; Secured new end-users in China , Europe and Africa ; Secured new commitment in the domestic metallurgical coal market. Management Comments "Strong domestic and international demand for our product coupled with outstanding performance at the Pennsylvania Mining Complex (PAMC) allowed us to deliver a record sales and production quarter," said Jimmy Brock, Chief Executive Officer of CONSOL Coal Resources GP LLC. "This year is shaping up to be a record year for CCR. While strong coal prices powered our first quarter results, record production and cost performance drove the solid second quarter results. Our second quarter sales volume of 2.0 million tons represented an annual run rate of more than 7.1 million tons for CCR, the highest in the 35+ year history of the PAMC. This was made possible due to the tireless efforts of our employees, well-synchronized logistics with our customers and transportation providers, modest initial benefits from our debottlenecking projects and strong demand for our product. I am also very pleased with the improving safety performance at the PAMC, which resulted in a 9% reduction in employee safety incidents in the first half of 2018 compared to the year-ago period. We continue to target further improvements on the safety front with our goal of zero life-altering incidents." "The demand outlook for the second half of 2018 remains robust with low coal stockpiles domestically, attractive BTU value of our coal relative to other fuels globally and our ability to capture market share. This confidence in demand and in our execution capabilities, allows us to increase our 2018 guidance for the second consecutive quarter. Given the strong cash generation during the quarter, we further strengthened our balance sheet, and the sustainability of our robust quarterly distribution for our unitholders." Sales & Marketing CCR had a record quarter in terms of volume as it sold 2.0 million tons of coal during the second quarter of 2018 at an average revenue per ton of $47.34 compared to 1.7 million tons at an average revenue per ton of $44.75 in the year-ago period. The average revenue per ton benefited from stronger pricing on our export sales and our domestic netback contracts. Our logistics team did an excellent job synchronizing shipments with our logistics partners at the rails and ports to move record volumes through the system. On the domestic front, customer inventories remain low. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), inventories at domestic utilities stood at approximately 128 million tons at the end of May, down by approximately 21% from the same period a year ago. Furthermore, inventories at several of our key customers' Northern Appalachian (NAPP) rail-served power plants continue to average around 20 days. As mines, plants and railroads return from their annual maintenance shutdown period and with summer weather now upon us, CCR expects demand to remain strong. We believe low inventories at domestic utilities coupled with continued strong international pull for our product should bode well as we enter the fall contracting season. CCR is 74% contracted for 2019 and 32% contracted for 2020, assuming a 6.75 million ton annual run rate. We believe, as global coal demand is expected to continue to grow over the next several years, global supply will be challenged to keep pace due to several years of underinvestment and the time required to bring new brownfield or greenfield production online. A major competitive advantage of the PAMC is production sustainability based on its diversified longwalls, capital invested and long-life reserves. We will continue to benefit both domestically and abroad where many coal mines face normal depletion impacts and a lack of investment. New Market Developments During the second quarter, CCR entered into a coal supply contract with a domestic coke producer, representing its first multi-shipment deal in the domestic metallurgical coal market since 2013. As previously disclosed, the sulfur levels at the PAMC have begun to decline. The lower sulfur, coupled with high fluidity and low cost, makes our product a better fit in the domestic metallurgical market and improves its competitiveness in the international crossover metallurgical markets as well. In the long term, we believe that this domestic market development will allow us to maximize our revenue potential and expand into the domestic metallurgical coal market. Our other five addressable markets where we are currently present include - export thermal, export industrial, export metallurgical, domestic thermal, and domestic industrial. CCR was also successful in expanding its sales portfolio by entering into an 18-month agreement with a domestic utility customer in the Midwest. This customer fits well with our domestic strategy of targeting top-performing power plants that are well-positioned to compete with natural gas and grow market share as other coal-fired plants retire. During the quarter, we successfully completed a contract to remarket PAMC coal to new end-users in China, Europe and Africa. We continue to pursue coal sales in other potential international markets, including Turkey. While there continues to be uncertainty around the relaxation of sulfur restrictions for imported coal in Turkey, we believe the PAMC is well positioned, due to its product quality and cost structure, to enter the Turkish market should the opportunity arise. Operations Summary CCR achieved strong second quarter production of 1.9 million tons, which compares to 1.7 million tons in the second quarter of 2017. During the quarter, we benefited from increased production at all three of our mines at the PAMC. Enlow Fork finished off the F27 panel, which was geologically very challenging, and has now transitioned to F28, which we believe will provide some operational relief as we improve our ability to manage these conditions. Our team continues to look forward to mid-2019, when the F side wall at the Enlow Fork mine will move to a different district, which we believe will provide much better mining conditions. Productivity at the PAMC, as measured by tons per employee-hour, improved 14% during the second quarter compared to the year-ago period and reached a level not seen since the first quarter of 2004. CCR shipped 2.0 million tons of coal during the second quarter, compared to 1.7 million tons in the year-ago quarter. The improvement in coal sales volume was driven by strong production and continued robust demand from our customers. Total coal revenue for the second quarter came in at $92.7 million and improved by $16.7 million compared to the year-ago quarter, primarily driven by $2.59 per ton higher revenue and 261 thousand more tons of coal sold. Our average revenue per ton increased to $47.34 from $44.75 in the year-ago quarter, as pricing improved on our export and domestic netback contracts. Total costs during the second quarter were $78.7 million compared to $71.0 million in the year-ago quarter. Average cash cost of coal sold per ton1 was $26.99 compared to $29.08 in the year-ago quarter. This improvement was largely driven by a $1.02 per ton reduction in lease/rental expense and a $0.58 per ton improvement from labor productivity as discussed earlier. Average cash margin per ton sold1 for the second quarter of 2018 expanded by $4.68, or 30%, to $20.35 per ton compared to the year-ago period, driven by higher average revenue per ton and lower average cash cost of coal sold per ton. Other costs increased by $3.3 million compared to the year-ago quarter, due to an increase in discretionary employee benefit expenses and demurrage charges. Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Coal Production million tons 1.9 1.7 Coal Sales million tons 2.0 1.7 Average Revenue Per Ton per ton $47.34 $44.75 Average Cash Cost of Coal Sold1 per ton $26.99 $29.08 Average Cash Margin Per Ton Sold1 per ton $20.35 $15.67 Quarterly Distribution During the second quarter of 2018, CCR generated net cash provided by operating activities of $48.9 million and distributable cash flow1 of $22.3 million, yielding a distribution coverage ratio of 1.6x1. During the quarter, our net cash provided by operating activities benefited from an approximately $17.2 million reduction in working capital. Our distribution coverage ratio calculation is based on estimated maintenance capital expenditures of $9.1 million, while our actual cash maintenance capital expenditures for the second quarter were $7.3 million. Based on our current outlook for the coal markets and a strong distribution coverage ratio, the board of directors of the general partner has elected to pay a cash distribution of $0.5125 per unit to all limited partner unitholders and the holder of the general partner interest. As previously announced on July 25, 2018, the distribution to all unitholders of the Partnership will be made on August 15, 2018, to such holders of record at the close of business on August 8, 2018. 2018 Guidance and Outlook Based on our strong year-to-date results, robust coal demand and production expectations, we are improving several items of our financial and operating performance guidance for 2018. Coal sales volumes - 6.60-6.85 million tons Coal average revenue per ton - $47.75 - $48.75 - Cash cost of coal sold per ton 2 - $28.50 - $29.50 - - Adjusted EBITDA 2 - $100 - $120 million - - Capital expenditures - $31 - $36 million Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call A joint conference call and webcast with CONSOL Energy Inc., during which management will discuss the second quarter 2018 financial and operational results, is scheduled for August 2, 2018 at 11:00 AM ET. Prepared remarks by members of management will be followed by a question and answer session. Interested parties may listen via webcast on the Events page of our website, www.ccrlp.com. An archive of the webcast will be available for 30 days after the event. Participant dial in (toll free) 1-877-870-4263 Participant international dial in 1-412-317-0790 Availability of Additional Information Prior to the earnings conference call, we will make available additional information in a presentation slide deck to provide investors with further insights into our financial and operating performance. This material can be accessed through the "Events and Presentations" page of our website, www.ccrlp.com. We have also filed our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in conjunction with this earnings release. Investors seeking our detailed financial statements can refer to the Form 10-Q. 1 "adjusted EBITDA", "distribution coverage ratio", "distributable cash flow", "total cost of coal sold", "average cash cost of coal sold per ton", "average cash margin per ton sold" and "net leverage ratio" are non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to most directly comparable GAAP financial measures under the caption "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures". 2 CCR is unable to provide a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA guidance to net income or cash cost of coal sold per ton guidance to total costs, the most comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, due to the unknown effect, timing and potential significance of certain income statement items. About CONSOL Coal Resources LP CONSOL Coal Resources (NYSE:CCR) is a master limited partnership formed in 2015 to manage and further develop all of CONSOL Energy Inc.'s (NYSE:CEIX) active coal operations in Pennsylvania. CCR's assets include a 25% undivided interest in, and operational control over, the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, which consists of three underground mines - Bailey, Enlow Fork and Harvey - and related infrastructure. For its ownership interest, CCR has an effective annual production capacity of 7.1 million tons of high-Btu North Appalachian thermal and crossover metallurgical coal. More information is available on our website www.ccrlp.com. Contacts: Investor: Mitesh Thakkar, (724) 485-3133 [email protected] Media: Zach Smith, (724) 485-4017 [email protected] Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures We evaluate our cost of coal sold and cash cost of coal sold on a cost per ton basis. Our cost of coal sold per ton represents our costs of coal sold divided by the tons of coal we sell. We define cost of coal sold as operating and other production costs related to produced tons sold, along with changes in coal inventory, both in volumes and carrying values. The cost of coal sold per ton includes items such as direct operating costs, royalty and production taxes, direct administration, and depreciation, depletion and amortization costs on production assets. Our costs exclude any indirect costs such as selling, general and administrative costs, freight expenses, interest expenses and other costs not directly attributable to the production of coal. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to cost of coal sold is total costs. The cash cost of coal sold includes cost of coal sold less depreciation, depletion and amortization cost on production assets. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to cash cost of coal sold is total costs. We define average cash margin per ton as average coal revenue per ton, net of average cash cost of coal sold per ton. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to average cash margin per ton is total coal revenue. We define adjusted EBITDA as (i) net income (loss) before net interest expense, depreciation, depletion and amortization, as adjusted for (ii) certain non-cash items, such as long-term incentive awards including phantom units under the CONSOL Coal Resources LP 2015 Long-Term Incentive Plan ("unit-based compensation"). The GAAP measure most directly comparable to adjusted EBITDA is net income. We define distributable cash flow as (i) net income (loss) before net interest expense, depreciation, depletion and amortization, as adjusted for (ii) certain non-cash items, such as unit-based compensation, less net cash interest paid and estimated maintenance capital expenditures, which is defined as those forecasted average capital expenditures required to maintain, over the long-term, the operating capacity of our capital assets. These estimated capital expenditures do not reflect the actual cash capital expenditures incurred in the period presented. Distributable cash flow will not reflect changes in working capital balances. The GAAP measures most directly comparable to distributable cash flow are net income and net cash provided by operating activities. We define net leverage ratio as the ratio of net debt to last twelve month (LTM) earnings before interest expense, depreciation, depletion and amortization, adjusted for certain non-cash items, such as long-term incentive awards, amortization of debt issuance and capitalized interest. The following table presents a reconciliation of total costs to cost of coal sold and cash cost of coal sold, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, on a historical basis for each of the periods indicated (in thousands). Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 Total Costs $ 78,681 $ 70,998 Freight Expense (4,361) (4,441) Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (3,341) (3,652) Interest Expense (1,784) (2,396) Other Costs (Non-Production) (4,239) (934) Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (Non-Production) (543) (550) Total Cost of Coal Sold $ 64,413 $ 59,025 Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (Production) (11,353) (9,727) Total Cash Cost of Coal Sold $ 53,060 $ 49,298 The following table presents a reconciliation of average cash margin per ton sold to coal revenue, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, on a historical basis, for each of the periods indicated (in thousands, except per ton information). Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 Coal Revenue $ 92,674 $ 75,927 Operating and Other Costs 57,299 50,232 Less: Other Costs (Non-Production) (4,239) (934) Cash Cost of Coal Sold 53,060 49,298 Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization 11,896 10,277 Less: Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (Non-Production) (543) (550) Cost of Coal Sold $ 64,413 $ 59,025 Total Tons Sold 1,958 1,697 Average Revenue Per Ton Sold $ 47.34 $ 44.75 Average Cash Cost Per Ton Sold 26.99 29.08 Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization Per Ton Sold 5.91 5.71 Average Cost Per Ton Sold 32.90 34.79 Average Margin Per Ton Sold 14.44 9.96 Add: Total Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization Costs Per Ton Sold 5.91 5.71 Average Cash Margin Per Ton Sold $ 20.35 $ 15.67 The following table presents a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, on a historical basis for each of the periods indicated. The table also presents a reconciliation of distributable cash flow to net income and operating cash flows, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, on a historical basis for each of the periods indicated (in thousands). Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 Net Income $ 19,376 $ 11,474 Plus: Interest Expense 1,784 2,396 Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization 11,896 10,277 Unit Based Compensation 508 841 Adjusted EBITDA $ 33,564 $ 24,988 Less: Cash Interest 2,130 2,539 Distributions to Preferred Units3 1,851 Estimated Maintenance Capital Expenditures 9,085 8,976 Distributable Cash Flow $ 22,349 $ 11,622 Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities $ 48,949 $ 23,092 Plus: Interest Expense 1,784 2,396 Other, Including Working Capital (17,169) (500) Adjusted EBITDA $ 33,564 $ 24,988 Less: Cash Interest 2,130 2,539 Distributions to Preferred Units3 1,851 Estimated Maintenance Capital Expenditures 9,085 8,976 Distributable Cash Flow $ 22,349 $ 11,622 Distributions $ 14,348 $ 12,228 Distribution Coverage 1.6 1.0 3Distributions to Preferred Units represents income attributable to preferred units prior to conversion. The following table presents a reconciliation of the net leverage ratio to net income (in thousands, except per ton information). Twelve Months Ended June 30, 2018 Net Income $ 56,257 Plus: Interest Expense 8,191 Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization 43,349 Unit Based Compensation 5,033 Cash Payments for Legacy Employee Liabilities, Net of Non-Cash Expense 1,424 Loss on Extinguishment of Debt 2,468 Other Adjustments to Net Income 1,079 EBITDA Per Affiliated Company Credit Agreement $ 117,801 Borrowings under Affiliated Company Credit Agreement $ 160,500 Capitalized Leases 10,373 Total Debt 170,873 Less: Cash on Hand 646 Net Debt Per Affiliated Company Credit Agreement $ 170,227 Net Leverage Ratio (Net Debt/EBITDA) 1.5 Cautionary Statements We are including the following cautionary statement in this press release to make applicable and take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for any forward-looking statements made by us. With the exception of historical matters, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements (as defined in Section 21E of the Exchange Act) that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. The forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success of specific projects and our future production, revenues, income and capital spending. When we use the words "believe," "continue," "intend," "expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "estimate," "plan," "predict," "project," "will," or their negatives, or other similar expressions, the statements which include those words are usually forward-looking statements. When we describe strategy that involves risks or uncertainties, we are making forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release; we disclaim any obligation to update these statements unless required by securities law, and we caution you not to rely on them unduly. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and assumptions about future events. While our management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. These risks, contingencies and uncertainties relate to, among other matters, the following: changes in coal prices or the costs of mining or transporting coal; uncertainty in estimating economically recoverable coal reserves and replacement of reserves; our ability to develop our existing coal reserves, acquire additional reserves and successfully execute our mining plans; changes in general economic conditions, both domestically and globally; competitive conditions within the coal industry; changes in the consumption patterns of coal-fired power plants and steelmakers and other factors affecting the demand for coal by coal-fired power plants and steelmakers; the availability and price of coal to the consumer compared to the price of alternative and competing fuels; competition from the same and alternative energy sources; energy efficiency and technology trends; our ability to successfully implement our business plan; the price and availability of debt and equity financing; operating hazards and other risks incidental to coal mining; major equipment failures and difficulties in obtaining equipment, parts and raw materials; availability, reliability and costs of transporting coal; adverse or abnormal geologic conditions, which may be unforeseen; natural disasters, weather-related delays, casualty losses and other matters beyond our control; operating in a single geographic area; interest rates; our reliance on a few major customers; labor availability, relations and other workforce factors; defaults by our sponsor under our operating agreement, employee services agreement and Affiliated Company Credit Agreement; restrictions in our Affiliated Company Credit Agreement that may adversely affect our business; changes in our tax status; delays in the receipt of, failure to receive or revocation of necessary governmental permits; the effect of existing and future laws and government regulations, including the enforcement and interpretation of environmental laws thereof; the effect of new or expanded greenhouse gas regulations; the effects of litigation; adverse effect of cybersecurity threats; conflicts of interest that may cause our general partner or our sponsor to favor their own interests to our detriment; the requirement that we distribute all of our available cash; and other factors discussed in our 2017 Annual Report Form 10-K under "Risk Factors," as updated by any subsequent Forms 10-Q, which are on file at the Securities and Exchange Commission. SOURCE CONSOL Coal Resources LP Related Links http://www.ccrlp.com NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) ("DHI" or the "Company"), today announced the following results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018: Revenues of $41.6 million ; Adjusted Revenues 1 (excluding the effect of divested businesses) of $39.7 million ; Adjusted Revenues (excluding the effect of divested businesses) of Net loss of $0.2 million , or $0.00 per share, which includes $2.6 million , or $0.05 per diluted share, from disposition related and other costs, a loss on the sale of Hcareers, and higher discrete tax expense related to the vesting of stock based compensation , or per share, which includes , or per diluted share, from disposition related and other costs, a loss on the sale of Hcareers, and higher discrete tax expense related to the vesting of stock based compensation Adjusted EBITDA1 of $7.5 million and Adjusted EBITDA margin1 of 19% "I have completed my 100-day review and I am genuinely excited about the prospects for our business," said Art Zeile, President and Chief Executive Officer of DHI Group, Inc. "What I have learned over the last three months has confirmed that our strategy for growth is the right one. Although competitive pressures are high, market conditions support a business model based on a specialized offering for technology professionals, which plays to our strengths. We are moving aggressively to streamline our business in order to capitalize on this opportunity. We are also carefully managing our profitability and have a strong balance sheet. We are confident that the combination of these factors will enable DHI to deliver superior value to its shareholders over the long-term." Quarterly Financial Highlights Tech-focused revenues were $38.3 million , 2% lower year over year, including a 2 percentage point benefit from foreign exchange, but a 1% increase sequentially , 2% lower year over year, including a 2 percentage point benefit from foreign exchange, but a 1% increase sequentially Dice 2 revenues were $23.5 million , an 8% decline year over year but a 1% increase sequentially revenues were , an 8% decline year over year but a 1% increase sequentially eFinancialCareers revenues were $8.5 million , up 6% year over year, including a 5 percentage point benefit from foreign exchange , up 6% year over year, including a 5 percentage point benefit from foreign exchange ClearanceJobs revenues were $5.1 million , 23% higher year over year, the tenth consecutive quarter of greater than 20% year over year revenue growth , 23% higher year over year, the tenth consecutive quarter of greater than 20% year over year revenue growth Divested Hcareers for $16.5 million , substantially completing the disposition of non-tech businesses , substantially completing the disposition of non-tech businesses Improved metrics for Dice 2 recruitment package customers recruitment package customers Increased quarterly revenue renewal rate to 78%, up 4 percentage points year over year and the highest rate since the third quarter of 2016 6,200 customers in the 2018 second quarter, an 8% decrease year over year but unchanged sequentially Debt outstanding of $19 million as of June 30, 2018 , down by 73% year over year 1 See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" later in this press release. 2 Includes Targeted Job Fairs. Quarterly Business Highlights Dice Initiated beta testing of Talent Search 4.0, one of the most innovative enhancements to Dice's search capabilities in years. This new platform is scheduled for launch in September 2018 . It incorporates Intellisearch and brings significant new workflow and candidate interaction features to recruiters in order to drive greater efficiencies in the time they spend searching for candidates. ClearanceJobs Reached a record of 37,000 jobs posted on the site during the 2018 second quarter, reflecting the industry-leading relevance of ClearanceJobs to sourcing candidates with government clearance. eFinancialCareers Launched new Job Search platform in 18 countries, offering candidates a better job search and match experience on both desktop and mobile devices. Published the Ideal Employer rankings for the third consecutive year through Ideal Employer Live, reinforcing eFinancialCareers as a source of highly relevant content on employment trends among leading financial institutions. Summary Financial Results ($ in millions, except per share data) Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Change Fx Impact Revenues Tech-focused $ 38.3 $ 39.3 (2)% $ 0.5 Healthcare (1) 6.6 n.m. Corporate & Other (1) 3.3 6.6 (50)% Total Revenues $ 41.6 $ 52.4 (21)% $ 0.5 Net Income (Loss) $ (0.2) $ 1.8 n.m. Diluted earnings per share $ $ 0.04 n.m. YTD 2018 YTD 2017 Change Fx Impact Revenues Tech-focused $ 76.3 $ 78.8 (3)% $ 1.4 Healthcare (1) 13.3 n.m. Corporate & Other (1) 8.4 12.5 (33)% Total Revenues $ 84.7 $ 104.6 (19)% $ 1.4 Net Income $ 3.3 $ 3.2 4% Diluted earnings per share $ 0.07 $ 0.07 % Adjusted Revenues (2) (3) Adjusted EBITDA (2) (3) Margin Non-GAAP (2) (3) Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Change Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Tech-focused $ 38.3 $ 39.3 (2) % $ 10.3 $ 13.5 27 % 34 % Corporate and other 1.4 1.3 (3) % (2.8) (4.2) n.m. n.m. Total $ 39.7 $ 40.6 (2) % $ 7.5 $ 9.3 19 % 23 % Adjusted Revenues (2) (3) Adjusted EBITDA (2) (3) Margin Non-GAAP (2) (3) YTD 2018 YTD 2017 Change YTD 2018 YTD 2017 YTD 2018 YTD 2017 Tech-focused $ 76.3 $ 78.8 (3) % $ 21.1 $ 27.3 28 % 35 % Corporate and other 2.6 2.6 1 % (5.7) (8.5) n.m. n.m. Total $ 78.9 $ 81.4 (3) % $ 15.4 $ 18.8 20 % 23 % (1) The Company sold Health eCareers on December 4, 2017, the RigLogix portion of the Rigzone business on February 20, 2018, and Hcareers on May 22, 2018. Transferred majority ownership of BioSpace to BioSpace management on January 31, 2018. (2) See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" later in this press release. (3) Reconciliations of Revenues to Adjusted Revenues and Net Income, Operating Income, and Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted EBITDA are included toward the end of this press release. Revenues Revenues were $41.6 million for the 2018 second quarter, 21% lower year over year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the divestitures of the Company's non-tech businesses, including the sale of Hcareers for $16.5 million in the 2018 second quarter. This sale substantially completed the Company's divestiture process, consistent with its strategy to focus on bringing relevant career opportunities to technology professionals and qualified technology talent to employers. The decrease was also due to an 8% year over year decline in Dice2 revenues, resulting from a decrease in recruitment package customers during the same period. Partially offsetting the year -over-year revenue decline was a 23% increase in ClearanceJobs revenues and a 6% increase in eFinancialCareers revenues, which included a 5 percentage point benefit from foreign exchange. Operating Expenses Operating expenses were $39.7 million for the 2018 second quarter, 18% lower year over year. The decrease was primarily attributable to a $10.5 million reduction from the divestitures of the Company's non-tech businesses and $0.8 million related to the ongoing Rigzone business. The decrease was partially offset by $3.1 million of increased operating costs in the Company's tech-focused business, primarily related to increased marketing, product development, professional fees (which are included in general and administrative expenses) and disposition related and other costs. Income Tax Expense The effective income tax rate for the 2018 second quarter was 137%. The increase above the Company's expected effective tax rate of 25% was primarily caused by the vesting of stock based compensation during the quarter. Net Loss The Company recorded a net loss of $0.2 million for the 2018 second quarter, or $0.00 per share, due to lower revenues and increased expenses in its tech-focused business. Also contributing to the net loss were $2.6 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, of disposition related and other costs, a loss on the sale of Hcareers, and higher discrete tax expense related to the vesting of stock-based compensation. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin 1 Adjusted EBITDA1 excludes the effects of the Company's divested businesses, disposition related and other costs, and loss on sale of businesses from both the current and prior year periods. This presentation provides for better comparability of results. Adjusted EBITDA1 was $7.5 million for the 2018 second quarter, declining 20% year over year. This decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenues and higher operating expenses for the tech-focused business, and resulted in an Adjusted EBITDA margin1 of 19%. 1 See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" later in this press release. 2 Includes Targeted Job Fairs. Operating Net Cash Flows Operating net cash flows were $1.4 million for the 2018 second quarter, a decrease of $7.8 million year over year. The decline was attributable to lower net earnings of approximately $2 million and working capital changes of $5 million. These changes resulted from an adjustment in the Company's billing terms to bring them in line with market standards. This change did not impact the average length of our contract commitments, which remain slightly over one year. Capital Weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the 2018 second quarter was 49.9 million. In May 2018 the Company's Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program that permits the purchase of up to $7 million of the Company's common stock. Under the plan, management has discretion in determining the conditions under which shares may be purchased. During the 2018 second quarter, the Company repurchased approximately 55,000 shares under this authorization. The authorization will remain in effect until May 2019, unless terminated earlier by the Company. Repurchases will be made in accordance with applicable securities laws in the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or through other means. Depending on acquisition opportunities, market conditions and other factors, these repurchases may commence or cease from time to time without prior notice. Business Outlook The Company believes that the high demand for technology professionals and current competitive dynamics will continue. The Company expects a gradual abatement in the rate of revenue decline for Dice2 if current revenue renewal rates are maintained, and slightly slower top-line growth for ClearanceJobs due to higher year-over-year comparatives and the extremely tight labor market for cleared professionals. eFinancialCareers revenue trends are expected to continue for the near term. Expense management will remain an important focus, as will maintaining a 20% Adjusted EBITDA margin1 for the 2018 full year. Recent Developments The Company announced the closure of its Dice Europe operations effective August 31, 2018 to focus efforts on eFinancialCareers, where the Company has a strong competitive opportunity to serve professionals in the financial services industry globally. The closure of Dice Europe is not expected to have an adverse impact on DHI's results of operations in the 2018 third quarter or in future periods. 1 See "Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" later in this press release. 2 Includes Targeted Job Fairs. Conference Call Information Art Zeile, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Luc Gregoire, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call today, August 2, 2018, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the Company's financial results, recent developments, and progress on its tech-focused strategy. The call can be accessed by dialing +1-844-890-1790 (in the U.S.) or +1-412-380-7407. (outside the U.S.). Please ask to join the DHI Group, Inc. call. The call will also be available as a webcast through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, http://www.dhigroupinc.com . For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available one hour after the call and can be accessed by dialing +1-877-344-7529 (in the U.S.) or +1-412-317-0088 (outside the U.S.), passcode 10122512. The replay will be available until August 9, 2018. Investor Contact Arbor Advisory Group 212-448-4181 [email protected] Media Contact Rachel Ceccarelli Director of Corporate Communications 212-448-8288 [email protected] About DHI Group, Inc. DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE:DHX) is a leading provider of data, insights and employment connections through our specialized services for technology professionals and other select online communities. Our mission is to empower tech professionals and organizations to compete and win through expert insights and relevant employment connections. Employers and recruiters use our websites and services to source, hire and connect with the most qualified and highly-skilled tech professionals, while professionals use our websites and services to find ideal employment opportunities, relevant job advice and tailored career-related data. For over 25 years, we have built our Company on providing employers and professionals with career connections, news, tools and information. Today, we serve multiple markets located throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region. Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company has provided certain non-GAAP financial information as additional information for its operating results. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measurements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures reported by other companies. The Company believes that its presentation of non-GAAP measures, such as Adjusted Revenues, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash stock based compensation expense, other non-recurring income or expense ("Adjusted EBITDA") and Adjusted EBITDA margin provides useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the Company's management uses these measures for reviewing the financial results of the Company and for budgeting and planning purposes. The non-GAAP measures apply to consolidated results and results by segment or other measure as shown within this document. The Company has provided required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures elsewhere in the document. Adjusted Revenues Adjusted Revenues is a non-GAAP metric used by management to measure operating performance. Adjusted Revenues represents Revenues less the revenues of divested businesses. We consider Adjusted Revenues to be an important measure to evaluate the performance of our ongoing businesses and provide comparable results excluding our divestitures. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are non-GAAP metrics used by management to measure operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure for internal monitoring and planning, including preparation of annual budgets, analyzing investment decisions and evaluating profitability and performance comparisons between us and our competitors. The Company also uses this measure to calculate amounts of performance based compensation under the senior management incentive bonus program. Adjusted EBITDA represents net income plus (to the extent deducted in calculating such net income) interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock based compensation, losses resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business including prior negative operating results of those businesses, certain writeoffs in connection with indebtedness, impairment charges with respect to long-lived assets, expenses incurred in connection with an equity offering or any other offering of securities by the Company, extraordinary or non-recurring non-cash expenses or losses, transaction costs in connection with the credit agreement, deferred revenues written off in connection with acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, writeoff of non-cash stock compensation expense, severance and retention costs related to dispositions and reorganizations of the Company, losses related to legal claims and fees that are unusual in nature or infrequent, minus (to the extent included in calculating such net income) non-cash income or gains, interest income, business interruption insurance proceeds, and any income or gain resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business, including prior positive operating results of those divested businesses, and gains related to legal claims that are unusual in nature or infrequent. The Company modified its definition of Adjusted EBITDA during the first quarter of 2018 to also exclude severance and retention costs related to dispositions or reorganizations of the Company, the prior operating results of divested businesses, and losses related to legal claims and fees that are unusual in nature or infrequent. The Company changed its definition of Adjusted EBITDA to provide a more transparent and comparable view of its financial performance. Accordingly, all prior periods presented have been recast to reflect the current definition. We also consider Adjusted EBITDA, as defined above, to be an important indicator to investors because it provides information related to our ability to provide cash flows to meet future debt service, capital expenditures and working capital requirements and to fund future growth. We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental performance measure because we believe that this measure provides our board of directors, management and investors with additional information to measure our performance, provide comparisons from period to period and company to company by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense) and tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), and to estimate our value. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is computed as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Adjusted Revenues. Adjusted Revenues, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not measurements of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income, revenue or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP as a measure of our profitability. Forward-Looking Statements This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. These statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our experience in the industry as well as our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute our tech-focused strategy, the review of potential dispositions of certain of our businesses and the terms and timing of any such transactions, competition from existing and future competitors in the highly competitive market in which we operate, failure to adapt our business model to keep pace with rapid changes in the recruiting and career services business, failure to maintain and develop our reputation and brand recognition, failure to increase or maintain the number of customers who purchase recruitment packages, cyclicality or downturns in the economy or industries we serve, the uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom's future departure from the European Union, including uncertainty in respect of the regulation of data protection and data privacy, failure to attract qualified professionals to our websites or grow the number of qualified professionals who use our websites, failure to successfully identify or integrate acquisitions, U.S. and foreign government regulation of the Internet and taxation, our ability to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility or refinance our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations under such indebtedness. These factors and others are discussed in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on the Investors page of our website at www.dhigroupinc.com, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by the Company or its representatives herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible to predict these events or how they may affect us. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by federal securities laws. DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited) (in thousands except per share amounts) For the three months ended June 30, For the six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenues $ 41,595 $ 52,400 $ 84,666 $ 104,590 Operating expenses: Cost of revenues 4,749 7,668 9,906 15,065 Product development 5,129 6,356 10,592 12,807 Sales and marketing 16,387 19,751 32,654 39,650 General and administrative 8,787 10,046 19,169 21,325 Depreciation 2,325 2,819 4,615 5,127 Amortization of intangible assets 191 571 482 1,132 Disposition related and other costs 2,118 1,187 3,129 1,187 Total operating expenses 39,686 48,398 80,547 96,293 Gain (loss) on sale of businesses (839) 3,800 Operating income 1,070 4,002 7,919 8,297 Interest expense (489) (814) (1,035) (1,604) Other expense (24) 9 (33) (7) Income before income taxes 557 3,197 6,851 6,686 Income tax expense 762 1,375 3,553 3,524 Net income (loss) $ (205) $ 1,822 $ 3,298 $ 3,162 Basic earnings per share $ $ 0.04 $ 0.07 $ 0.07 Diluted earnings per share $ $ 0.04 $ 0.07 $ 0.07 Weighted average basic shares outstanding 48,722 47,953 48,491 47,775 Weighted average diluted shares outstanding 48,722 48,268 49,406 48,308 DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (in thousands) For the three months ended June 30, For the six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income (loss) $ (205) $ 1,822 $ 3,298 $ 3,162 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows from operating activities: Depreciation 2,325 2,819 4,615 5,127 Amortization of intangible assets 191 571 482 1,132 Deferred income taxes 458 426 540 648 Amortization of deferred financing costs 48 81 97 162 Stock based compensation 1,580 2,086 4,089 4,588 Impairment of fixed and intangible assets 168 168 Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 100 35 320 70 Net (gain) loss on sale of businesses 839 (3,800) Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 2,526 6,205 13,482 11,231 Prepaid expenses and other assets (275) 412 795 (1,082) Capitalized contract costs (360) (1,758) Accounts payable and accrued expenses 2,162 1,342 (3,845) (1,007) Income taxes receivable/payable (1,109) (2,883) 567 (1,465) Deferred revenue (6,947) (3,750) (10,692) 1,101 Other, net (122) 27 (61) 45 Net cash flows from operating activities 1,379 9,193 8,297 23,712 Cash flows from (used in) investing activities: Net cash received from sale of businesses 14,022 17,542 Purchases of fixed assets (2,411) (3,535) (4,236) (7,730) Net cash flows from (used in) investing activities 11,611 (3,535) 13,306 (7,730) Cash flows used in financing activities: Payments on long-term debt (22,000) (7,000) (28,000) (15,000) Proceeds from long-term debt 3,000 5,000 Payments under stock repurchase plan (95) (95) Proceeds from stock option exercises 403 Purchase of treasury stock related to vested restricted stock (142) (17) (467) (1,109) Net cash flows used in financing activities (19,237) (7,017) (23,562) (15,706) Effect of exchange rate changes (411) 150 (560) 193 Net change in cash for the period (6,658) (1,209) (2,519) 469 Cash, beginning of period 16,207 24,665 12,068 22,987 Cash, end of period $ 9,549 $ 23,456 $ 9,549 $ 23,456 DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (in thousands) ASSETS June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Current assets Cash $ 9,549 $ 12,068 Accounts receivable, net 21,980 38,769 Income taxes receivable 2,248 2,617 Prepaid and other current assets 7,709 5,086 Total current assets 41,486 58,540 Fixed assets, net 15,259 16,147 Acquired intangible assets, net 39,000 45,737 Capitalized contract costs 6,806 Goodwill 156,174 170,791 Deferred income taxes 307 469 Other assets 2,501 4,034 Total assets $ 261,533 $ 295,718 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 18,244 $ 22,196 Deferred revenue 64,194 83,646 Income taxes payable 1,268 1,129 Total current liabilities 83,706 106,971 Long-term debt, net 18,547 41,450 Deferred income taxes 8,434 8,245 Deferred revenue 1,737 Income taxes payable 1,489 1,489 Accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 3,179 2,859 Other long-term liabilities 1,996 2,063 Total liabilities 119,088 163,077 Total stockholders' equity 142,445 132,641 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 261,533 $ 295,718 Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations On the pages that follow, the Company has provided certain supplemental information that we believe will assist the reader in assessing our business operations and performance, including certain non-GAAP financial information and required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure. A statement of operations and statement of cash flows for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 and a balance sheet as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 are provided elsewhere in this press release. DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (Unaudited) (dollars in thousands except per customer data) For the three months ended June 30, For the six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA: Net income (loss) $ (205) $ 1,822 $ 3,298 $ 3,162 Interest expense 489 814 1,035 1,604 Income tax expense 762 1,375 3,553 3,524 Depreciation 2,325 2,819 4,615 5,127 Amortization of intangible assets 191 571 482 1,132 Non-cash stock based compensation 1,580 2,086 4,089 4,588 (Gain) loss on sale of businesses 839 (3,800) Costs related to strategic alternatives process (23) 807 Disposition related and other costs 2,118 1,187 3,129 1,187 Legal contingencies and fees 232 325 1,620 475 Divested businesses (887) (1,646) (2,609) (2,857) Other 24 (9) 34 7 Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,468 $ 9,321 $ 15,446 $ 18,756 Reconciliation of Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted EBITDA: Net cash provided by operating activities $ 1,379 $ 9,193 $ 8,297 $ 23,712 Interest expense 489 814 1,035 1,604 Amortization of deferred financing costs (48) (81) (97) (162) Income tax expense 762 1,375 3,553 3,524 Deferred income taxes (458) (426) (540) (648) Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits (100) (35) (320) (70) Change in accounts receivable (2,526) (6,205) (13,482) (11,231) Change in deferred revenue 6,947 3,750 10,692 (1,101) Costs related to strategic alternatives process (23) 807 Disposition related and other costs 2,118 1,187 3,129 1,187 Legal contingencies and fees 232 325 1,620 475 Divested businesses (887) (1,646) (2,609) (2,857) Changes in working capital and other (440) 1,093 4,168 3,516 Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,468 $ 9,321 $ 15,446 $ 18,756 Dice Recruitment Package Customers Beginning of period 6,200 6,800 6,450 7,050 End of period 6,200 6,750 6,200 6,750 Average for the period (1) 6,200 6,750 6,250 6,800 Dice Average Monthly Revenue per Recruitment Package Customer (2) $ 1,110 $ 1,108 $ 1,111 $ 1,109 (1) Reflects the daily average of recruitment package customers during the period. (2) Reflects the simple average of each period presented. DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (CONTINUED) (Unaudited) (in thousands) For the three months ended June 30, 2018 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Operating income (loss) $ 6,330 $ $ (5,260) $ 1,070 Depreciation 2,210 115 2,325 Amortization of intangible assets 191 191 Non-cash stock based compensation expense 610 970 1,580 Disposition related and other costs 1,103 1,015 2,118 Legal contingencies and fees 232 232 Divested businesses (887) (887) Loss on sale of businesses 839 839 Adjusted EBITDA $ 10,253 $ $ (2,785) $ 7,468 For the three months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Operating income (loss) $ 10,117 $ (642) $ (5,473) $ 4,002 Depreciation 1,792 537 490 2,819 Amortization of intangible assets 45 163 363 571 Non-cash stock based compensation expense 696 141 1,249 2,086 Disposition related and other costs 838 123 226 1,187 Legal contingencies and fees 325 325 Divested businesses (322) (1,324) (1,646) Other (23) (23) Adjusted EBITDA $ 13,488 $ $ (4,167) $ 9,321 For the six months ended June 30, 2018 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Operating income (loss) $ 13,413 $ $ (5,494) $ 7,919 Depreciation 4,351 264 4,615 Amortization of intangible assets 482 482 Non-cash stock based compensation expense 1,126 2,963 4,089 Disposition related and other costs 1,233 1,896 3,129 Legal contingencies and fees 1,000 620 1,620 Divested businesses (2,609) (2,609) Gain on sale of businesses (3,800) (3,800) Other 1 1 Adjusted EBITDA $ 21,123 $ $ (5,677) $ 15,446 For the six months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Operating income (loss) $ 21,215 $ (1,092) $ (11,826) $ 8,297 Depreciation 3,355 1,045 727 5,127 Amortization of intangible assets 80 325 727 1,132 Non-cash stock based compensation expense 1,768 273 2,547 4,588 Costs related to strategic alternative process 807 807 Disposition related and other costs 838 123 226 1,187 Legal contingencies and fees 475 475 Divested businesses (674) (2,183) (2,857) Adjusted EBITDA $ 27,256 $ $ (8,500) $ 18,756 For the three months ended June 30, 2018 Reconciliation of Revenues to Adjusted Revenues Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Revenues $ 38,344 $ $ 3,251 $ 41,595 Divested businesses (1,936) (1,936) Adjusted Revenues $ 38,344 $ $ 1,315 $ 39,659 For the three months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Revenues to Adjusted Revenues Tech Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Revenues $ 39,276 $ 6,565 $ 6,559 $ 52,400 Divested businesses (6,565) (5,205) (11,770) Adjusted Revenues $ 39,276 $ $ 1,354 $ 40,630 For the six months ended June 30, 2018 Reconciliation of Revenues to Adjusted Revenues Tech-focused Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Revenues $ 76,285 $ $ 8,381 $ 84,666 Divested businesses (5,814) (5,814) Adjusted Revenues $ 76,285 $ $ 2,567 $ 78,852 For the six months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Revenues to Adjusted Revenues Tech Healthcare Corporate & Other Total Revenues $ 78,825 $ 13,279 $ 12,486 $ 104,590 Divested businesses (13,279) (9,949) (23,228) Adjusted Revenues $ 78,825 $ $ 2,537 $ 81,362 Segment Definitions: Tech-focused: Dice, Dice Europe, eFinancialCareers, ClearanceJobs, and Targeted Job Fairs. Healthcare: Health eCareers Corporate & Other: Hcareers, Rigzone, BioSpace, getTalent, and Corporate. DHI GROUP, INC. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA - REVENUE DETAIL (Unaudited) (in thousands) Revenue Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Change $ Fx Impact Dice (1) $ 23,489 $ 25,425 (8)% $ eFinancialCareers 8,467 7,978 6% 410 ClearanceJobs 5,133 4,185 23% Dice Europe 1,255 1,688 (26)% 85 Tech-focused 38,344 39,276 (2)% 495 Healthcare (2) 6,565 n.m. Hcareers (2) 1,936 3,791 (49)% Rigzone (2) 1,315 1,785 (26)% 15 BioSpace (2) 950 n.m. getTalent 33 n.m. Corporate & Other 3,251 6,559 (50)% 15 Total $ 41,595 $ 52,400 (21)% $ 510 Revenue YTD 2018 YTD 2017 Change $ Fx Impact Dice (1) $ 46,771 $ 51,304 (9)% $ eFinancialCareers 17,030 15,836 8% 1,156 ClearanceJobs 9,937 8,178 22% Dice Europe 2,547 3,507 (27)% 240 Tech-focused 76,285 78,825 (3)% 1,396 Healthcare (2) 13,279 n.m. Hcareers (2) 5,329 7,361 (28)% Rigzone (2) 2,840 3,446 (18)% 54 BioSpace (2) 212 1,619 n.m. getTalent 60 n.m. Corporate & Other 8,381 12,486 (33)% 54 Total $ 84,666 $ 104,590 (19)% $ 1,450 (1) Includes Dice U.S. and Targeted Job Fairs (2) Health eCareers was sold on December 4, 2017, BioSpace business was transferred to BioSpace management on January 31, 2018, the RigLogix portion of the Rigzone business was sold on February 20, 2018, and Hcareers was sold on May 22, 2018. SOURCE DHI Group, Inc. Related Links http://www.dhigroupinc.com MILFORD, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DNV GL Healthcare has applied to become the second accreditation organization in the United States to accredit psychiatric hospitals to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) program. Psychiatric hospitals must not only meet the same requirements as acute care hospitals to satisfy the Conditions of Participation mandated by (CMS), but must also meet special requirements pertaining to the delivery of psychiatric services, medical record requirements for psychiatric hospitals, and special staff requirements for psychiatric hospitals. "We expect to have deeming authority for psychiatric hospitals no later than the first quarter of 2019," said Patrick Horine, President of DNV GL Healthcare. "Having deeming authority will give psychiatric hospitals not only a choice of accrediting bodies, but an opportunity to establish a collaborative relationship with DNV GL that will lead to a higher quality of care and improved outcomes." In order to receive deeming authority from CMS, DNV GL Healthcare must first conduct five demonstration surveys free of charge, and a sixth observation survey with CMS officials observing. Two surveys have been conducted to date, with a third scheduled. DNV GL Healthcare is seeking two more psychiatric hospitals to perform on-site demonstration surveys. Participation in the demonstration survey process offers the psychiatric hospital the opportunity to: Receive an onsite audit of their psychiatric hospital without cost to the organization Validate current practice Identify opportunities for improvement Gain exposure to the NIAHO integrated accreditation process If your psychiatric hospital is interested in participating in the DNV GL- HC demonstration survey process, please contact our Director of Program Development, Maureen Washburn, at 513-609-1292 or [email protected]. As the nation's second-largest healthcare accreditation body, Gary Davis, DNV GL Business Assurance North American Regional Manager, cites its "kinder and gentler" approach and its year-round partnership strategy as some of the keys to successfully accrediting hospitals and boosting quality improvement at a rate of 20% growth year over year. The majority of hospitals choose accreditation in order to receive federal funds and reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid programs. Hundreds of hospitals across the United States have switched to DNV GL Healthcare over the past decade. The organization accredits nearly 500 hospitals in 49 states. About DNV GL Healthcare DNV GL Business Assurance is a world-leading certification body. We help businesses assure the performance of their organizations, products, people, facilities and supply chains through certification, verification, assessment, and training services. Within healthcare we help our customers achieve excellence by improving quality and patient safety through hospital accreditation, managing infection risk, management system certification and training. The DNV GL Group operates in more than 100 countries. Our 12,500 professionals are dedicated to helping our customers make the world safer, smarter and greener. www.dnvglcert.com/healthcare. Media Contact: Joy Scott President Scott Public Relations [email protected] (818) 610-0270 SOURCE DNV GL Healthcare KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- From Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist whose acclaimed Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump blew up the bestseller list, comes the sequel millions prayed would be unnecessary. #SAD!: Doonesbury in the Time of Trump (Andrews McMeel Publishing, September 2018, $16.99) tracks the shocking victory, the inept transition, and the tumultuous eternity of POTUS's First 500 Days. #SAD! Doonesbury in the Time of Trump available September 2018 Featuring Doonesbury Sunday cartoons selected from the past three years, #SAD! chronicles the before, the after, and the now of Trump's presidency. As with Yuge!, Trudeau's signature on-target satire is eerily accurate and hauntingly relevant. From ceaseless Twitter rants, bullying tirades, hyperbolic self-raves, and cringe-worthy misspellings, #SAD! presents a remarkably precise depiction of POTUS behavior and the unfortunate current political climate. How to respond? As Trudeau notes in the preface: " . . . just because two-fifths of the country are still in the thrall of a humungous con 'like no one's ever seen before,' doesn't mean that the rest of usappalled, disenfranchised, writhing in embarrassment for our countryshould forgo the comfort of laughter. At this benighted moment, it's all we have." We may not have imagined we'd be in this moment, but thankfully Trudeau provides a respite for the remaining three-fifths stunned, dismayed, but vastly entertained. #SAD: Doonesbury in the Time of Trump by G. B. Trudeau Andrews McMeel Publishing; ISBN: 978-1-4494-8997-7 Price: $16.99 ($22.99 Canada) Paperback: 8.5 x 9, 128 pages; On sale September 18, 2018 Available wherever books are sold Contact: Kathy Hilliard, [email protected] SOURCE Andrews McMeel Publishing Related Links http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) has posted its second-quarter 2018 financial results in a news release available on the company's website at the following link: www.duke-energy.com/our-company/investors/financial-news. Lynn Good, chairman, president and chief executive officer, and Steve Young, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the company's financial results and other business and financial updates during an investor presentation at 10 a.m. ET today. The call can be accessed via the investors' section (www.duke-energy.com/our-company/investors/financial-news) of Duke Energy's website or by dialing 888-778-8913 in the U.S. or 719-325-4773 outside the U.S. The confirmation code is 5013212. Please call in 10 to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. A replay of the conference call will be available until 1 p.m. ET, Aug. 12, 2018, by calling 888-203-1112 in the U.S. or 719-457-0820 outside the U.S. and using the code 5013212. An audio replay and transcript will also be available by accessing the investors' section of the company's website. About Duke Energy Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) is one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S., with approximately 29,000 employees and a generating capacity of 49,500 megawatts. The company is transforming its customers' experience, modernizing its energy grid, generating cleaner energy and expanding its natural gas infrastructure to create a smarter energy future for the people and communities it serves. The company's Electric Utilities and Infrastructure unit serves approximately 7.6 million retail electric customers in six states North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Gas Utilities and Infrastructure unit distributes natural gas to approximately 1.6 million customers in five states North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. Its Commercial Renewables unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the U.S. A Fortune 125 company, Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2018 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' 2018 "America's Best Employers" list. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center includes news releases, fact sheets, photos, videos and other materials. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. Media Contact: Catherine Butler 24-Hour: 800.559.3853 Analysts: Mike Callahan Office: 704.382.0459 SOURCE Duke Energy Related Links http://www.duke-energy.com DALLAS, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The second in a series of meetings presented by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Honorable Ron Price, "Breaking Through the Soundproof Glass" will take place Aug. 8, 2018, at 2:00 p.m. at the New Days Community Church in Tyler, Texas. Governor Abbott has long championed the improvement of all parishioners and their communities. Ron Price states, "It's time we focus on things that unite us; the greatness of humanity cannot be overlooked." The first round-table meeting, which took place in Mesquite, Texas on May 10, was a highly successful event that included the mayor of Mesquite coupled with 41 area pastors and the Dallas County District Attorney. Ron Price Price says, "First I'm an American, second I'm a Texan, and third I'm an African American." Governor Abbott will help moderate the meeting in his desire to meet with local African American pastors. The event will address a wide range of topics; and, will specifically focus on the needs of the parishioners and their ideas for the future. Host Pastor Reginald Garrett says, "I'm honored to host this historic meeting for Governor Greg Abbott and the Honorable Ron Price as they send the message that we are all God's children, regardless of race or political party." Over 200 children from the Journeys of the Heart After School Program will attend the event and some will lead the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Joining Governor Abbott and Ron Price will be a host of East Texas leaders including Mayor Hines of Tyler, Tyler City Manager Edward Broussard, Tyler City Councilman McGee, Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Crawford, Longview ISD Superintendent Dr. Wilcox, Longview ISD School Board Member Ted Beard, Texarkana School Board Member James Keaton and many East Texas African American Pastors and leaders. Media Contact: Patricia Almand Phone: 855-8100UMG Email: [email protected] SOURCE Ron Price INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced that its subsidiary, Elanco Animal Health, has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock. The offering is expected to represent an ownership stake of less than 20 percent in Elanco. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. The company expects to complete the IPO process before the end of 2018. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. 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 these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley will act as the joint book-running managers for the proposed IPO. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the proposed IPO may be obtained from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, by telephone at (866) 471-2526, by facsimile at (212) 902-9316 or by email at [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717 or by telephone at (866) 803-9204; and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014. About Eli Lilly and Company Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. C-LLY About Elanco Animal Health Founded in 1954, Elanco provides comprehensive products and knowledge services to improve animal health and food-animal production in more than 90 countries around the world. We value innovation, both in scientific research and daily operations, and strive to cultivate a collaborative work environment for more than 5,800 employees worldwide. Together with our customers, we are committed to raising awareness about global food security, and celebrating and supporting the human-animal bond. Our worldwide headquarters and research facilities are located in Greenfield, Indiana. This press release does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to various factors. There are significant risks and uncertainties relating to the potential IPO of Elanco. There can be no guarantees that the IPO will be consummated on the timeline anticipated or at all or that Lilly will achieve the anticipated benefits of the IPO. Lilly's ability to consummate and achieve the anticipated benefits of the potential IPO may be materially affected by such factors as changes to the business, results of operation or financial condition of Elanco or Lilly, changes in the animal health or pharmaceutical industries, adverse market or macroeconomic conditions and other factors outside Lilly's control that could affect the advisability, pricing and timing of the potential Elanco IPO. For additional information about the factors that affect Lilly's business, please see its latest Form 10-Q and Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law. SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company Related Links http://www.lilly.com ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced that Chief Executive Officer Mark Begor, Chief Financial Officer John Gamble, and Trevor Burns of Investor Relations will attend the Wells Fargo 2018 Technology Services Forum on Thursday, August 9th in Newport, R.I. They will also meet with investors in New York City on Monday, August 13th. An archive of the Equifax Investor Relations presentation is available at investor.equifax.com. About Equifax Equifax is a global information solutions company that uses unique data, innovative analytics, technology and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs 10,800 employees worldwide. FOR MORE INFORMATION 1550 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30309 Marisa Salcines Media Relations [email protected] Investor Relations SOURCE Equifax Inc. Related Links http://www.equifax.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) has declared a third quarter dividend of $0.58 per share for each of Farmer Mac's three classes of common stock Class A Voting Common Stock (NYSE: AGM.A), Class B Voting Common Stock (not listed on any exchange), and Class C Non-Voting Common Stock (NYSE: AGM). The quarterly dividend will be payable on September 28, 2018 to holders of record of common stock as of September 14, 2018. Farmer Mac's board of directors has also declared a dividend on each of Farmer Mac's three classes of preferred stock. The quarterly dividend of $0.3672 per share of 5.875% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series A (NYSE: AGM.PR.A), $0.4297 per share of 6.875% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series B (NYSE: AGM.PR.B), and $0.375 per share of 6.000% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series C (NYSE: AGM.PR.C), is for the period from but not including July 17, 2018 to and including October 17, 2018. The preferred stock dividends will be payable on October 17, 2018 to holders of record of preferred stock as of October 2, 2018. Additionally, Farmer Mac announced today that it will release its financial results for the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2018, on Thursday, August 9, 2018, prior to the opening of equity markets. A conference call to discuss the results will be held that day at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. The conference call can be accessed by telephone or webcast as follows: Dial-In (Domestic): (888) 346-2616 Dial-In (International): (412) 902-4254 Webcast: https://www.farmermac.com/investors/events-presentations/ Presentation materials to be referenced during the call will be posted on the webpage that can be accessed by clicking on the link noted above. When dialing in to the call, please ask for the "Farmer Mac Earnings Conference Call." This call can be heard live and will also be available for replay on Farmer Mac's website at the link noted above following the conclusion of the conference call. About Farmer Mac Farmer Mac is a vital part of the agricultural credit markets and was created to increase access to and reduce the cost of capital for the benefit of American agricultural and rural communities. As the nation's premier secondary market for agricultural credit, we provide financial solutions to a broad spectrum of the agricultural community, including agricultural lenders, agribusinesses, and other institutions that can benefit from access to flexible, low-cost financing and risk management tools. Farmer Mac's customers benefit from our low cost of funds, low overhead costs, and high operational efficiency. In fact, we are often able to provide the lowest cost of borrowing to agricultural and rural borrowers. For more than a quarter-century, Farmer Mac has been delivering the capital and commitment rural America deserves. Additional information about Farmer Mac is available on Farmer Mac's website at www.farmermac.com. SOURCE Farmer Mac Related Links http://www.farmermac.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Farm Technologies Inc. (the "Company" or "Future Farm") (CSE: FFT) (OTCQX: FFRMF) is pleased to announce that on July 31, 2018 the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued its final order approving a plan of arrangement among Future Farm, the Future Farm shareholders and Nextech AR Solutions Corp. ("Nextech "). Under the Plan of Arrangement, Future Farm will spin-out 11,000,000 common shares of Nextech now owned by Future Farm to the Future Farm shareholders on a pro rata basis. Future Farm shareholders will then own approximately 25.86% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Nextech. On a per share basis, Future Farm shareholders will be entitled to receive, for every one common share of Future Farm held by them, a fraction of a Nextech common share equal to the quotient of 11,000,000 Nextech common shares divided by the number of Future Farm common shares outstanding on the close of business on the last trading day on the CSE immediately prior to the effective date of the plan of arrangement (the "Effective Date"). The last trading day on the CSE immediately prior to the Effective Date will be the record date for the distribution of Nextech shares (the "Share Distribution Record Date"). Notice of the actual Share Distribution Record Date and the Effective Date will be given to the Future Farm Shareholders through one or more press releases. "We are glad that the majority of our shareholders agreed with our plan to spin-out Nextech, and that the court issued its approval," comments William Gildea, CEO of Future Farm. "Nextech occupies a valuable niche in the cannabis market, and now shareholders of Future Farm will enjoy its success as well." According to a market intelligence report by BIS Research, titled "Global Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality Market - Analysis and Forecast, 2018-2025", the augmented reality market was estimated to be $3.48 billion in 2017 and is estimated to reach $198.17 billion by 2025. Future Farm also announces that, further to the Company's press release dated August 15, 2017 with respect to the equipment lease financing with Veterans Capital Corp., the Company issued 1,250,000 warrants with a five-year term exercisable at $0.20 per warrant, each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share in the capital stock of the Company. The closing price of the Company's common shares on August 14, 2017 was $0.175. The securities referenced in this news release have not 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. For further information, contact William Gildea, Director, at (888)387-3761. On behalf of the Board, Future Farm Technologies Inc. William Gildea, Chairman and CEO About Future Farm Technologies Inc. Future Farm is a Canadian company with holdings throughout North America including California, Massachusetts, Florida, Maine, Puerto Rico and Newfoundland. The Company's mission is to advance sustainable agriculture through production of wholesale and retail cannabis products, including hemp. As a leader in its field, Future Farm is committed to using only the highest quality processes and products. Towards this goal, the Company acquires or partners with licensed cannabis operators, and acquires or develops leading technologies in cannabis production, breeding, genetics, and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Future Farm's scalable, indoor CEA systems utilize minimal land, water and energy resources. The Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to use a patented vertical farming technology that, when compared to traditional plant production methods, generates yields up to 10 times greater per square foot of land. About Nextech AR Solutions Nextech AR Solutions is bringing augmented reality to the Cannabis market by turning 2D products into exciting 3D consumer experiences. Nextech is currently developing a proprietary and disruptive Augmented Reality (AR) advertising and education platform that uniquely engages by connecting brands and retailers through a fully immersive 3D AR experience called Native AR. Nextech is launching its ARitize app in August 2018, which will host many brands 3D objects and augmented reality experiences. Nextech believes it has the first mover advantage in pursuing the Cannabis market which is the fastest growing economy in the world. Nextech AR Solutions Corp. also owns a large and diverse revenue generating App Portfolio that is deployed on the iTunes and Google plays store which it intends to ARitize. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. 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 forward-looking statements. There is no guarantee that the Company will complete the Arrangement, or if completed, will be listed on a stock exchange. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws. For further information, contact: William Gildea Director +1-(888)-387-3761 SOURCE Future Farm Technologies Inc. by Nirmala Carvalho The new converts belong to the Hindu Agrawal community, which does not tolerate religious conversions. Village emergency meeting called to decide how to treat the "disobedient". In the State, Christians represent 0.17% of the population. Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A group of Haryana families in northern India has embraced the Christian religion and therefore risk marginalization and exclusion from society. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), tells AsiaNews, as soon as the news of their conversion spread in the village, an emergency meeting was convened to decide how to deal with the issue and treat Christians. The message spread after the meeting was clear: "We will not allow anyone to [do] evil, that is, change religion". The case emerged in the Sonepat district, where the Hindu Agrawal community lives, a tribe that is especially widespread in the northern Indian states. Yesterday, the Christian leader explains, "a committee of 11 members was convened to investigate the reasons that led families to conversion". In all, "four families have presented the necessary documents [a declaration by the priest and countersigned by the individual faithful who certifies that the conversion was a free choice and not imposed - ed], while other families are preparing them". The village chiefs, continues Sajan K George, "did not appreciate the choice of families and call it 'evil'. They also claim that members of society are not allowed to convert to other religions and that those who have decided to change their religion will have to retrace their steps and explain their reasons. Then they said that the conversions carried out in secret will not be tolerated ". According to the president of the GCIC, these village meetings are intimidating for residents who dare to break the rules. "Often - he explains - the community imposes them to maintain the discipline of those who transgress tradition. This has the effect of weakening vulnerable Christian families who want to embrace Christ as our Lord and Savior ". Those who "challenge the diktats of the community are eventually subjected to marginalization and social boycott. The same happens in the states of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, where Christians are forced to face the agony of exclusion. The trauma of ostracism by the family is difficult to cope with and even the protection of civil laws does not provide adequate support for the victims ". Sajan George points out a paradox: "The 2011 census on religion records that Christians make up just 0.17% of the Haryana population. In this way the government data reveal that the accusation of [forced] conversion is constructed and false. India is a secular country with constitutional guarantees ". ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP) announced today that Ronald McNeill has been named GCAPP's next president and CEO. McNeill comes to GCAPP after a long tenure in senior executive positions at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and brings a wealth of experience in advocacy, fundraising, government relations, and nonprofit and association management. McNeill, who succeeds Kim Nolte, will begin his role as chief executive on August 6. Cheryl King, board member and finance executive, who has filled the role as interim president will return to the GCAPP board. "After an extensive and thorough search, the board is excited to have Ronald lead GCAPP. He brings an impressive combination of strong executive leadership, stellar development experience, and a clear understanding of GCAPP's work," said Carol Saul, chair of the Board of Directors. "His Boys & Girls Clubs background aligns well with GCAPP's programs and services in overall health and wellness including adolescent sexual health and we couldn't be more energized to have Ronald lead GCAPP through its next level of expansion," she said. McNeill shares GCAPP's enthusiasm: "I am excited to lead GCAPP as we build upon its 23 years of providing transformative services to help eliminate health concerns and disparities for young people throughout our state. It is an honor to be a part of an organization that empowers young people to make healthy choices that can change their lives and the trajectory of Georgia's future." McNeill joins GCAPP at a time of significant success in expanding comprehensive sex ed services to public schools throughout the state, working to keep teen pregnancy is at historic lows, and addressing STD and HIV rates among Georgia's teens and young adults which are some of the highest in the country. GCAPP also is piloting services for partnering schools for the new Georgia law that now requires public schools to teach age appropriate sexual abuse education kindergarten through 9th grade. A longtime proponent of sex ed in public schools and teen pregnancy prevention programs, Jane Fonda founded GCAPP in 1995 when Georgia had the highest teen birth rate in the country. Today, the teen birth rate has declined by 68 percent. A 16-year nonprofit sector veteran, McNeill most recently served as chief development officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County in Naples, FL, where he guided development, public affairs, and marketing programs. Previously, he served for five years as director of government relations for the Boys & Girls Club of America at its Atlanta headquarters. In that role he led numerous successful resource development initiatives for youth development programs and youth advocacy initiatives throughout the Southeast. McNeill began his long tenure with the organization at the Boys & Girls Club of Nash/Edgecombe Counties in North Carolina as director of operations. He also served as executive director of the Independent College Fund of North Carolina, leading fundraising and marketing campaigns to support student scholarships and enrichment programs at 36 colleges and universities throughout North Carolina. McNeill is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the American Society for Public Administration. Much of his volunteer service has focused on advocating for young people to ensure that out-of-school time and expanded learning opportunities are policy priorities at the state and local levels. His board service includes The Golden Leaf Foundation Scholars Program, The Foundation for Independent Higher Education, and Boys & Girls Club Alliances in 12 states. McNeill, a North Carolina native, holds a bachelor's from East Carolina University and a master's (MPA) from North Carolina Central University. About GCAPP GCAPP's top priority is to improve the overall health and well-being of young people in Georgia, particularly youth who are most vulnerable. Partnering with nearly 200 organizations we reach over 55,000 young people a year across the state through our programs in comprehensive sex ed, teen pregnancy prevention, youth empowerment, parent empowerment, and physical activity and nutrition. For more information, please contact Bev Jones, GCAPP Communications Director, at 404-475-6051, or [email protected] SOURCE Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP) DALLAS, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Generational Equity, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce that Samantha Cooper O'Kane is joining the Company as Associate General Counsel. Prior to joining Generational Equity, Ms. O'Kane spent seven years with Brown Fox PLLC where she participated in corporate legal transactions involving startup entities, capital raising strategies, private placements, and the negotiation and documentation of mergers and acquisitions. Heath Flock, Chief Operating Officer with Generational Equity stated, "We are very pleased to add Samantha to our team. We do business closings in all 50 States and Canada, and she will play an integral role with our deal teams providing advisory work in our contracts and transactions. Her professional experience and educational background are very impressive and we look forward to her contributions to our continued growth." Ms. O'Kane has a BA from Southern Methodist University where she was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society as well as the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Economics Honor Society. She also has a JD degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law where she was the Associate Editor of the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution. She also received the CALI Excellence Award for both Legal Writing and Analysis as well as for Fiduciary Responsibility. Ms. O'Kane is a member of the State Bar of Texas as well as the State Bar of Illinois. About Generational Equity Generational Equity, DealForce, and Generational Capital Markets, member FINRA/SIPC, are part of the Generational Group, which is headquartered in Dallas and is one of the leading M&A advisory firms in North America. With over 250 professionals located throughout North America, the companies help business owners release the wealth of their business by providing merger, acquisition and strategic growth advisory services. Their four-step approach features exit planning education, business valuation, value enhancement strategies, and M&A transactional services. The M&A Advisor named the company the 2016 and 2017 Investment Banking Firm of the Year. For more, visit https://www.genequityco.com/ or the Generational Equity press room. For more information: Carl Doerksen 972-232-1125 [email protected] SOURCE Generational Equity Related Links http://www.genequityco.com ATLANTA, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power is tapping new mobile technology from Purposity to empower employees and propel a social evolution of the company's 130-year commitment to Georgia communities. With Purposity, 7,000 employees now have access to the charitable giving platform which makes it easy to find and help a neighbor in need via mobile device, then share how they helped on social media. The digital tool complements the company's other longstanding employee citizenship options including the Georgia Power Club of Hearts, an employee-giving program, and in-person volunteer service through organizations such as the Citizens of Georgia Power. To launch the new program, Georgia Power is hosting a statewide backpack drive to benefit local Georgia schools. Employees across the company are using the Purposity platform to purchase backpacks for local students, which will be packed with school supplies and be delivered to start the 2018-2019 school year. Local districts benefiting from the program include Atlanta Public Schools; the Bibb County School System; the Brantley County School System; Richmond County Schools; the Lowndes County School District and the Valdosta City School District. "Our longstanding mission to be A Citizen Wherever We Serve has evolved and grown for more than century to now include more than 100,000 volunteer service hours from our employees each year and impactful corporate partnerships with leading non-profit organizations," said Chris D'Andrea, volunteer services manager for Georgia Power. "Purposity represents the next phase of our multifaceted charitable giving and community strategy, empowering our employees to give locally to causes that mean the most to them and amplify that impact on social media." Purposity brings local needs right to users' mobile phones via a weekly text featuring a need from a verified non-profit organization. The platform is based on a simple premise if you knew your neighbor was in need, you'd help them. Every story is submitted by someone working directly with the person in need and highlights a physical item that can assist that individual. It takes less than two minutes to meet a need and purchased items can typically be delivered to the recipient in two days. Learn more at www.purposity.com. For more than 130 years, Georgia Power has been dedicated to giving back to Georgia communities. In 2017, Georgia Power's total community impact including more than $21 million total invested by the company, The Georgia Power Foundation, Inc. and employees in Georgia communities and non-profit organizations throughout the year. Last year alone, 6,000 Georgia Power employees and retirees, including donated their time to help their neighbors and improve the quality of life in their communities by completing more than 147,000 volunteer hours. To learn more about Georgia Power's commitment to communities across the state, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com/Community. To keep up with Georgia Power's active volunteer and giving efforts every day, follow the company on Twitter @GeorgiaPower and #GaPowerfulService. About Georgia Power Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.5 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power). SOURCE Georgia Power Related Links http://www.georgiapower.com REDMOND, Wa., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) Board of Directors announced today at the Seattle Leadership Summit hosted by Microsoft Corp. at their Redmond headquarters, that Omar Duque will serve as the organization's next President. For the past 11 years Duque has served as the Chief Executive Officer for the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "Omar is an experienced, inspiring and transformational leader with a proven track record of success scaling non-profit organizations," said J. Alberto Yepez, HITEC's board chairman. "He is passionate about the role technology plays in building a better future for our community. Above all, Omar gets the core mission of HITEC, of building the pipeline of the next generation technology leaders that happen to be Hispanic by engaging all of our constituents." During his time at IHCC Duque helped shape the organization into an innovative and nationally recognized organization working to cultivate knowledge, connections and collaboration to effect transformational social change and achieve sustainable economic impact through entrepreneurship. "I am excited to join HITEC and look forward to working with the board and the team to advance the organization's mission of creating career development pathway for Hispanic technology executives and develop the next generation of leaders," Duque said. "I look forward to meeting one-on-one with the organization's members and supporters as we work together to drive the organization's next phase of growth." HITEC is the premier global executive leadership organization of senior business and technology executives who have built outstanding careers in information technology. HITEC's premiere network spans the Americas and is focused on building stronger technology and executive leaders, leadership teams, corporations, and role models in a rapidly changing, flatter, and information technology-centric world. The HITEC board started the Presidential selection process late in 2017. A Presidential Search Committee was established in early 2018 and numerous highly qualified candidates were considered for the role. Duque was selected because of his experience and passion for HITEC's mission and his commitment to service. Duque is a Chicago native whose parents immigrated to the United States from Guatemala. He received his Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He worked as a reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune, one of the last afternoon daily newspapers in the country. Duque is a board member for Loyola University Health System and Delta Dental of Illinois. He is the co-founder of the Latinx Founders Collective, an initiative to build a community of more than 100 venture -funded Latinx startups by 2020. Duque and his wife Clarisol live in Chicago's South Side with their two young children. He is an avid runner and loves to cook. SOURCE Hispanic IT Executive Council Related Links http://www.hitecglobal.org HUB to Establish New Canadian Service Center Operation CHICAGO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage, announced today that it has acquired the Property and Casualty insurance business of Cypher Systems Group Inc. and certain of its affiliates (CSG), an insurance broker servicing large Canadian Group and Affinity programs. The acquisition also establishes a new regional operation for Hub, Hub Customer Central (HCC), to be based in Windsor, Ontario. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. "Now more than ever, brokers need to understand where their clients really find value to spur investments in efficiencies and create a strategy to differentiate," said Tina Osen, President of Hub Canada. "Acquiring this best-in-class operation also brings us into the high-volume marketplace. CSG brings expertise in scaling and running operations for large insurance programs, and the capability for new opportunities to accelerate our growth and improve the services we offer our current and future clients." HCC will be led by the CSG Executive Team and report to Osen. The team includes Stephen Savage, John Savage, Brian Schwab and Dave Dyer. This team has pioneered and evolved the insurance contact center including the technology and analytics experience to leverage the ever-evolving digital platform of the internet. "This transition to Hub creates tremendous potential as our business philosophies align well and Hub brings the financial strength and resources to continue to enhance our platform and infrastructure to support even stronger customer service, growth and success," said Dyer. About Hub's M&A Activities Hub International Limited is committed to growing organically and through acquisitions to expand its geographic footprint and strengthen industry and product expertise. For more information on the Hub M&A experience, visit WeAreHub.com. About Hub International Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hub International Limited (Hub) is a leading full-service global insurance broker providing property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services. From offices located throughout North America, Hub's vast network of specialists provides peace of mind on what matters most by protecting clients through unrelenting advocacy and tailored insurance solutions. For more information, please visit hubinternational.com. CONTACT: Media: Marni Gordon Phone: 312-279-4601 [email protected] M&A: Clark Wormer Phone: 312.279.4848 [email protected] SOURCE Hub International Limited Related Links http://www.hubinternational.com VANCOUVER, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - INVICTUS MD STRATEGIES CORP. ("Invictus" or the "Company") (TSXV: GENE;OTCQX: IVITF; FRA: 8IS1) is pleased to announce that it has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. The OTCQX is the highest tier of OTC Markets, reserved for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies who are distinguished by the integrity of their operations and diligence with which they convey their qualifications. Investor-focused companies use the quality controlled OTCQX Market to offer investors transparent trading, superior information, and easy access to regulated U.S. broker-dealers. Invictus begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "IVITF" U.S. investors can find current stock quotes and Company information on www.otcmarkets.com. "Trading on the OTCQX Best Market is an important milestone for Invictus. This, together with our previously obtained DTC eligibility, allows Invictus to have greater visibility with U.S investors," said Dan Kriznic, Chairman and CEO of Invictus "We look forward to sharing our story with investors in the U.S. and across the globe as we realize our vision of driving sustainable long-term shareholder value through a diversified product portfolio and multifaceted distribution strategy." Invictus is also pleased to announce the signing of an investor relations agreement with Tycona Media Ltd. ("Tycona") to provide comprehensive investor relations services for the Company. Tycona will assist the Company in gaining exposure to investors through the dissemination of corporate information to a network of brokerage firms, financial institutions and private investors. This initiative reinforces the Company's commitment to improve communications and information flow to its shareholders and the investment community. Tycona has been engaged for $33,333 per month for a twelve-month period. In addition, this agreement may be terminated by either party upon providing written notice. Tycona has no interest, direct or indirect, in the Company or its securities, or any right or interest to acquire such an interest. For more information, please visit www.invictus-md.com. On Behalf of the Board, Dan Kriznic Chairman and CEO Jessica Martin Vice President, Public Relations and Regulatory Affairs (647) 828-9655 About Invictus Invictus is a global cannabis company offering a selection of products under a wide range of lifestyle brands. Our integrated sales approach is defined by five pillars of distribution including medical, wholesale, international, Licensed Producer to Licensed Producer and retail. Invictus has partnered with business leaders to convey our corporate vision, including KISS music legend and business mogul Gene Simmons as our Chief Evangelist Officer, and global branding agency Authentic Brands Group. Invictus is expanding its cultivation footprint, with two cannabis production facilities fully licensed under ACMPR in Canada and a third awaiting approval, featuring 100,000 square feet of available grow space today with 200,000 expected by the end of 2018 and 1 million by end of 2019. The Company will earmark 50 per cent of production to the medical and recreational markets, respectively. To ensure consistency in quality and supply, Invictus maintains all aspects of the growing process through its subsidiary, Future Harvest Development Ltd., a high-quality Fertilizer and Nutrients manufacturer. Invictus drives sustainable long-term shareholder value through a diversified product portfolio with over 69 Health Canada approved strains and a multifaceted distribution strategy including medial, recreational, international and retail. For more information visit www.invictus-md.com. 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 or forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, timing, assumptions or expectations of future performance, including the potential acquisition of OptionCo pursuant to the exercise of the Option, and the potential production capacity of OptionCo, AB Labs, AB Ventures and Acreage Pharms, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. 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" or "occur". Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this press release, including that the Company will be successful in exercising the Option and obtaining TSX Venture Exchange approval of the acquisition, that OptionCo and AB Labs will be successful in reaching their potential production capacity, OptionCo, AB Ventures and Acreage Pharms' production facilities will be completed as anticipated, regulatory approval will be granted as anticipated, OptionCo and AB Labs will reach full production capacity on the timeline anticipated by the Company, OptionCo will be granted its first and second licenses, AB Labs will be granted its secondary license on the terms and timeline anticipated by the Company, no unforeseen construction delays will be experienced, and OptionCo and Acreage Pharms will be granted its sales license under the ACMPR on the terms and timeline anticipated by the Company,. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Important factors that may cause actual results to vary, include, without limitation, the Company will not complete the acquisition of OptionCo, OptionCo and AB Labs will not be successful in reaching its potential production capacity, OptionCo, AB Ventures and Acreage Pharms' production facilities will not be completed as anticipated, construction delays, regulatory approval will not be granted as anticipated and therefore, the anticipated timing of OptionCo and AB Labs reaching full production capacity will be delayed, AB Labs will not be granted their secondary license, OptionCo will not be granted its first and second licenses and OptionCo and Acreage Pharms will not be granted its sales license under the ACMPR, and licenses or approvals being granted on terms or timelines that are materially worse than expected by the Company. 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. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. 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, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Invictus MD Strategies HOUSTON, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ION Geophysical Corporation (NYSE: IO) today reported revenues of $24.7 million in the second quarter 2018, a 46% decrease compared to revenues of $46.0 million one year ago. ION's net loss was $25.9 million, or $(1.86) per share, compared to a net loss of $10.4 million, or $(0.88) per share in the second quarter 2017. Excluding special items in the second quarter 2018, the Company reported an Adjusted net loss of $23.4 million, or $(1.68) per share. A reconciliation of special items to the financial results can be found in the tables of this press release. The Company reported Adjusted EBITDA of $(7.9) million for the second quarter 2018, a decrease from the Adjusted EBITDA of $13.6 million one year ago. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the closest comparable GAAP numbers can be found in the tables of this press release. Net cash flows from operations were $(0.8) million during the second quarter 2018, compared to $1.7 million in the second quarter 2017. Total net cash flows, including investing and financing activities, were $(6.4) million, which are comparable to one year ago. At June 30, 2018, the Company had $44.3 million of cash on hand, and nothing drawn from its $23.3 million of available borrowing capacity under its revolving credit facility. Brian Hanson, ION's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are disappointed with the quarterly results, where a number of deals in our pipeline did not close. The opportunities did not disappear; the timing of the decision slipped, setting the potential for a strong back half of the year. For example, we experienced a decrease in multi-client revenues partially due to a delayed license round that resulted in certain customers pushing their commitments to our program to the second half of 2018. For this reason, and based on heightened activity and momentum, we still believe that 2018 will be a significant improvement on 2017 on a full-year basis. All key leading indicators and metrics of our business are up including our multi-client sales pipeline, license round activity, imaging services tenders, Marlin deployments, the number of active ocean bottom crews and oil and gas reserve replenishment becoming a greater priority than capital efficiency for our oil and gas customers. I encourage you to join our earnings call for more details about the upward trajectory of our business." For the first half of 2018, the Company reported revenues of $58.3 million, a net loss of $44.3 million, or $(3.31) per share, compared revenues of $78.6 million, a net loss of $33.8 million, or $(2.85) per share in the first half of 2017. Excluding special items in both periods, the Company reported an Adjusted net loss of $40.6 million, or $(3.03) per share, compared to an Adjusted net loss of $28.8 million, or $(2.43) per share in the first half of 2017. First half of 2018 Adjusted EBITDA was $(7.8) million, compared to $13.6 million in the first half of 2017. Net cash flows from operations were $(0.2) million, compared to $3.5 million in the first half of 2017. Total net cash flows, including investing and financing activities, were $(7.7) million, compared to $(9.5) million in the first half of 2017. Net cash flows for the first half of 2018 reflect the $47.2 million of net proceeds received from the Company's first quarter equity offering. A portion of those proceeds were used to retire the $28.5 million of third lien notes. The Company also repaid the $10.0 million of outstanding indebtedness under its revolving credit facility during the first quarter. As a result of the Company's 2018 debt repayments, only $0.5 million of current debt remained outstanding at June 30, 2018, and the Company's remaining long-term debt is $120.6 million of second lien notes that mature in December 2021. SECOND QUARTER 2018 The Company's segment revenues for the second quarter were as follows (in thousands): Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 % Change E&P Technology & Services $ 15,188 $ 33,882 (55)% Operations Optimization 9,555 12,119 (21)% Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies Total $ 24,743 $ 46,001 (46)% Within the E&P Technology & Services segment, multi-client revenues were $9.9 million, a decrease of 67%, with both new venture and data library revenues experiencing significant declines compared to the second quarter 2017. The decrease in multi-client revenues was partially due to a delay in a key bid round announcement. The delayed announcement resulted in many customers pushing their commitments to the Company's program to the second half of 2018. Imaging Services revenues were $5.3 million, a 28% increase, due to an increase in proprietary ocean bottom nodal imaging projects. Within the Operations Optimization segment, Optimization Software & Services revenues were $4.8 million, an 8% increase from the second quarter 2017. The increase in Optimization Software & Services revenues was due to an increase in subscription-based software revenues and hardware sales of its Gator ocean bottom command and control software and from a positive impact due to changes in foreign currencies. Devices revenues were $4.8 million, a 38% decrease from the second quarter 2017. Devices continues to be impacted by reduced towed streamer seismic contractor activity, resulting in further declines in new system sales as well as repair and replacement revenues. The Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies segment contributed no revenues during the second quarter. Consolidated gross margin for the quarter was (6)%, compared to 34% in the second quarter 2017. Gross margin in E&P Technology & Services was (32)%, compared to 35% one year ago. The decrease in E&P Technology & Services gross margin was result of the decline in revenues. Operations Optimization gross margin was 52%, consistent with the second quarter 2017. Consolidated operating expenses, as adjusted, were $18.5 million, down 4% from $19.2 million in the second quarter 2017. Operating margin, as adjusted, was (81)%, compared to (8)% in the second quarter 2017. The decline in operating margin was the result of the decrease in revenues. YEAR-TO-DATE 2018 The Company's segment revenues for the first six months of the year were as follows (in thousands): Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 % Change E&P Technology & Services $ 39,756 $ 57,192 (30)% Operations Optimization 18,495 21,365 (13)% Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies Total $ 58,251 $ 78,557 (26)% Within the E&P Technology & Services segment, multi-client revenues were $29.5 million, a decrease of 38%, with new venture revenues decreasing 19% and data library revenues decreasing 62% from the first six months of 2017. Imaging Services revenues were $10.2 million, a 3% increase. The change in revenues during the first six months is fairly consistent with the changes described in the aforementioned section. Within the Operations Optimization segment, Optimization Software & Services revenues were $9.6 million, a 10% increase compared to the first six months of 2017. Devices revenues were $8.9 million, a 30% decrease from the first six months of 2017. The Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies segment contributed no revenues during the first six months of the year. Consolidated gross margin was 9%, compared to 28% in the first six months of 2017. Gross margin in E&P Technology & Services was (1)%, down from 28% in the first six months of 2017. The decrease in E&P Technology & Services gross margin was result of the decline in revenues. Operations Optimization gross margin was 50%, compared to 52% in the first six months of 2017. Consolidated operating expenses, as adjusted, were $36.8 million, down 6% from $39.2 million in the first six months of 2017. Operating margin, as adjusted, was (54)%, compared to (22)% in the first six months of 2017. The decrease in operating margin was due to the decline in revenues. CONFERENCE CALL The Company has scheduled a conference call for Thursday, August 2, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time that will include a slide presentation to be posted in the Investor Relations section of the ION website by 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. To participate in the conference call, dial (877) 407-0672 at least 10 minutes before the call begins and ask for the ION conference call. A replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after the live broadcast ends and will be accessible until August 16, 2018. To access the replay, dial (877) 660-6853 and use pass code 13681609#. Investors, analysts and the general public will also have the opportunity to listen to the conference call live over the Internet by visiting www.iongeo.com . An archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call on the Company's website. About ION ION develops and leverages innovative technologies, creating value through data capture, analysis and optimization to enhance critical decision-making, enabling superior returns. For more information, visit iongeo.com . Contact Steve Bate Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer +1.281.552.3011 The information herein contains certain 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. These forward-looking statements may include information and other statements that are not of historical fact. Actual results may vary materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include the risks associated with the timing and development of ION Geophysical Corporation's products and services; pricing pressure; decreased demand; changes in oil prices; and political, execution, regulatory, and currency risks. These risks and uncertainties also include risks associated with the WesternGeco litigation and other related proceedings. We cannot predict the outcome of this litigation or the related proceedings. For additional information regarding these various risks and uncertainties, including the WesternGeco litigation, see our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, filed on February 8, 2018. Additional risk factors, which could affect actual results, are disclosed by the Company in its fillings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its Form 10-K, Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks filed during the year. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements. Tables to follow ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Service revenues $ 15,752 $ 34,454 $ 40,838 $ 58,282 Product revenues 8,991 11,547 17,413 20,275 Total net revenues 24,743 46,001 58,251 78,557 Cost of services 22,033 24,827 44,362 47,126 Cost of products 4,227 5,556 8,553 9,712 Gross profit (loss) (1,517) 15,618 5,336 21,719 Operating expenses: Research, development and engineering 4,259 4,107 8,514 7,602 Marketing and sales 6,007 4,931 11,105 9,417 General, administrative and other operating expenses 10,736 10,152 20,876 22,184 Total operating expenses 21,002 19,190 40,495 39,203 Loss from operations (22,519) (3,572) (35,159) (17,484) Interest expense, net (2,911) (4,241) (6,747) (8,705) Other income (expense), net 84 192 (707) (4,876) Loss before income taxes (25,346) (7,621) (42,613) (31,065) Income tax expense 154 2,402 1,226 1,984 Net loss (25,500) (10,023) (43,839) (33,049) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest (366) (418) (453) (734) Net loss attributable to ION $ (25,866) $ (10,441) $ (44,292) $ (33,783) Net loss per share: Basic $ (1.86) $ (0.88) $ (3.31) $ (2.85) Diluted $ (1.86) $ (0.88) $ (3.31) $ (2.85) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: Basic 13,928 11,875 13,374 11,847 Diluted 13,928 11,875 13,374 11,847 ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands) (Unaudited) ASSETS June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 44,349 $ 52,056 Accounts receivable, net 15,375 19,478 Unbilled receivables 15,046 37,304 Inventories 14,925 14,508 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 5,961 7,643 Total current assets 95,656 130,989 Deferred income tax asset 3,614 1,753 Property, plant, equipment and seismic rental equipment, net 48,442 52,153 Multi-client data library, net 82,576 89,300 Goodwill 23,543 24,089 Intangible assets, net 1,082 1,666 Other assets 731 1,119 Total assets $ 255,644 $ 301,069 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities: Current maturities of long-term debt $ 459 $ 40,024 Accounts payable 26,173 24,951 Accrued expenses 28,936 38,697 Accrued multi-client data library royalties 27,988 27,035 Deferred revenue 8,402 8,910 Total current liabilities 91,958 139,617 Long-term debt, net of current maturities 117,159 116,720 Other long-term liabilities 12,606 13,926 Total liabilities 221,723 270,263 Equity: Common stock 140 120 Additional paid-in capital 951,349 903,247 Accumulated deficit (899,213) (854,921) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (19,634) (18,879) Total stockholders' equity 32,642 29,567 Noncontrolling interest 1,279 1,239 Total equity 33,921 30,806 Total liabilities and equity $ 255,644 $ 301,069 ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Net loss $ (25,500) $ (10,023) $ (43,839) $ (33,049) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization (other than multi-client data library) 2,255 4,353 4,778 9,030 Amortization of multi-client data library 9,764 12,675 19,557 21,933 Stock-based compensation expense 1,231 535 2,043 1,169 Accrual for loss contingency related to legal proceedings 5,000 Deferred income taxes (1,749) 977 (1,866) (932) Change in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 13,980 (2,681) 3,896 2,075 Unbilled receivables 3,094 (194) 24,013 (5,542) Inventories (281) 714 (445) 440 Accounts payable, accrued expenses and accrued royalties (474) (3,571) (10,629) (6,059) Deferred revenue (2,826) (1,672) (445) 5,521 Other assets and liabilities (306) 537 2,733 3,905 Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (812) 1,650 (204) 3,491 Cash flows from investing activities: Cash invested in multi-client data library (4,542) (5,119) (13,782) (8,482) Purchase of property, plant, equipment and seismic rental assets (363) (866) (424) (915) Net cash used in investing activities (4,905) (5,985) (14,206) (9,397) Cash flows from financing activities: Payments under revolving line of credit (10,000) Payments on notes payable and long-term debt (555) (1,451) (29,699) (3,157) Net proceeds from issuance of stock 47,219 Dividend payment to non-controlling interest (200) (200) Other financing activities (306) (10) (881) (296) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (1,061) (1,461) 6,439 (3,453) Effect of change in foreign currency exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 377 (578) 264 (169) Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (6,401) (6,374) (7,707) (9,528) Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 51,113 50,279 52,419 53,433 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 44,712 $ 43,905 $ 44,712 $ 43,905 The following table is a reconciliation of cash and cash equivalents to total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash: Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 44,349 $ 43,272 $ 44,349 $ 43,272 Restricted cash included in prepaid expenses and other current assets 60 330 60 330 Restricted cash included in other long-term assets 303 303 303 303 Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash shown in statement of cash flows $ 44,712 $ 43,905 $ 44,712 $ 43,905 ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES SUMMARY OF SEGMENT INFORMATION (In thousands) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net revenues: E&P Technology & Services: New Venture $ 8,125 $ 19,986 $ 21,851 $ 26,935 Data Library 1,725 9,710 7,673 20,316 Total multi-client revenues 9,850 29,696 29,524 47,251 Imaging Services 5,338 4,186 10,232 9,941 Total 15,188 33,882 39,756 57,192 Operations Optimization: Devices 4,761 7,679 8,919 12,669 Optimization Software & Services 4,794 4,440 9,576 8,696 Total 9,555 12,119 18,495 21,365 Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies Total $ 24,743 $ 46,001 $ 58,251 $ 78,557 Gross profit (loss): E&P Technology & Services $ (4,856) $ 11,921 $ (513) $ 15,931 Operations Optimization 4,933 6,258 9,244 11,045 Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies (1,594) (2,561) (3,395) (5,257) Total $ (1,517) $ 15,618 $ 5,336 $ 21,719 Gross margin: E&P Technology & Services (32) % 35 % (1) % 28 % Operations Optimization 52 % 52 % 50 % 52 % Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies % % % % Total (6) % 34 % 9 % 28 % Income (loss) from operations: E&P Technology & Services $ (10,206) $ 6,353 $ (11,000) $ 5,257 Operations Optimization 1,243 3,022 2,029 4,571 Ocean Bottom Integrated Technologies (2,926) (3,860) (5,755) (7,868) Support and other (10,630) (9,087) (20,433) (19,444) Loss from operations (22,519) (3,572) (35,159) (17,484) Interest expense, net (2,911) (4,241) (6,747) (8,705) Other income (expense), net 84 192 (707) (4,876) Loss before income taxes $ (25,346) $ (7,621) $ (42,613) $ (31,065) ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Loss (Non-GAAP Measure) (In thousands) (Unaudited) The term Adjusted EBITDA represents net loss before interest expense, interest income, income taxes, depreciation and amortization charges, and other charges including, without limitation, changes in the loss contingency reserve related to legal proceedings and stock appreciation rights expense. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of financial performance under generally accepted accounting principles and should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for net income (loss) or cash flow measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles or as a measure of profitability or liquidity. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. The Company has included Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental disclosure because its management believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides investors a helpful measure for comparing its operating performance with the performance of other companies that have different financing and capital structures or tax rates. Additionally, due to the recent increase in the Company's stock price and impact of reflecting its stock appreciation awards at their fair value, the Company is presenting Adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of stock appreciation awards, to assist in the comparability to its prior year results. Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net loss $ (25,500) $ (10,023) $ (43,839) $ (33,049) Interest expense, net 2,911 4,241 6,747 8,705 Income tax expense 154 2,402 1,226 1,984 Depreciation and amortization expense 12,019 17,028 24,335 30,963 Accrual for loss contingency related to legal proceedings 5,000 Stock appreciation rights expense 2,495 3,738 Adjusted EBITDA $ (7,921) $ 13,648 $ (7,793) $ 13,603 ION GEOPHYSICAL CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES Reconciliation of Special Items to Net Loss per Share (Non-GAAP Measure) (In thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited) The financial results are reported in accordance with GAAP. However, management believes that certain non-GAAP performance measures may provide users of this financial information, additional meaningful comparisons between current results and results in prior operating periods. One such non-GAAP financial measure is adjusted income (loss) from operations or adjusted net income (loss), which excludes certain charges or amounts. This adjusted income (loss) amount is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP. Accordingly, it should not be considered as a substitute for income (loss) from operations, net income (loss) or other income data prepared in accordance with GAAP. See the tables below for supplemental financial data and the corresponding reconciliation to GAAP financials for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017: Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 As Reported Special Items As Adjusted Net revenues $ 24,743 $ $ 24,743 Cost of sales 26,260 26,260 Gross profit (loss) (1,517) (1,517) Operating expenses 21,002 (2,495) (1) 18,507 Loss from operations (22,519) 2,495 (20,024) Interest expense, net (2,911) (2,911) Other income, net 84 84 Income tax expense 154 154 Net loss (25,500) 2,495 (23,005) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest (366) (366) Net loss attributable to ION $ (25,866) $ 2,495 $ (23,371) Net loss per share: Basic $ (1.86) $ (1.68) Diluted $ (1.86) $ (1.68) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: Basic 13,928 13,928 Diluted 13,928 13,928 Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 As Reported Special Items As Adjusted As Reported Special Items As Adjusted Net revenues $ 58,251 $ $ 58,251 $ 78,557 $ $ 78,557 Cost of sales 52,915 52,915 56,838 56,838 Gross profit 5,336 5,336 21,719 21,719 Operating expenses 40,495 (3,738) (1) 36,757 39,203 39,203 Loss from operations (35,159) 3,738 (31,421) (17,484) (17,484) Interest expense, net (6,747) (6,747) (8,705) (8,705) Other income (expense), net (707) (707) (4,876) 5,000 (2) 124 Income tax expense 1,226 1,226 1,984 1,984 Net loss (43,839) 3,738 (40,101) (33,049) 5,000 (28,049) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest (453) (453) (734) (734) Net loss attributable to ION $ (44,292) $ 3,738 $ (40,554) $ (33,783) $ 5,000 $ (28,783) Net loss per share: Basic $ (3.31) $ (3.03) $ (2.85) $ (2.43) Diluted $ (3.31) $ (3.03) $ (2.85) $ (2.43) Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: Basic 13,374 13,374 11,847 11,847 Diluted 13,374 13,374 11,847 11,847 (1) Represents stock appreciation right awards expense in the first and second quarters of 2018 (2) Represents an accrual related to the WesternGeco legal contingency during the first quarter 2017 SOURCE ION Geophysical Corporation Related Links http://www.iongeo.com ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global in vitro diagnostic vendors and the laboratory professionals that make up their customers made the fight against anti-microbial resistance (AMR) a key focus of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) meeting in Chicago, IL this week. With easy-to-grasp names like Zika and Ebola, viruses tend to get more headlines. But a great global risk to human health has arrived from the overuse of antibiotics and the resulting, nameless, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The use of antibiotics has reached the point where it is difficult to stay ahead of the mutation curve. Each year in the United States, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is responsible for 80,000 infections and 11,000 deaths. Close to 250,000 people are hospitalized every year for a Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection, and 14,000 of them die. "With payors scrutinizing the costs of labs in the U.S. and Europe in particular, it makes all the sense in the world that they would highlight an area where there is a cost to reducing testing, and that is anti-microbial resistance," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information which produces a regular market study on the IVD industry. Kalorama is at the Chicago meeting speaking with in vitro diagnostic vendors and has been noting significant developments. As an example, Becton Dickinson displayed the company's BD Veritor PLUS immunoassay test for respiratory diseases in the center of the overprescription issue. Orion Diagnostics touted its compact QuikRead go CRP test, a two-minute liver inflammation biomarker test that can assess the efficacy of antimicrobial therapy and the course of infection. Roche Diagnostics highlighted their Liat systems that can quickly assess flu or strep, and thus reduce unnecessary treatment. For bioMerieux, faster blood cultures and improved IT is the company's answer to AMR. The company, a member of the AMR Industry Alliance, displayed its BacT/Alert Virtuo at the meeting. BacT/Alert Virtuo is an advanced, automated blood culture system incorporating improved automation and an enhanced detection algorithm to shorten time to detection. BioMerieux's system allows the operator to merely place the sample in tray and the system reads labels, processes and sorts. These are techniques used on chemistry and immunoassay systems, adapted to microbiology. The company says the time saving features of the system can save three hours in the blood culture process, an important time period for a critically ill patient. The speed has not harmed accuracy apparently: A study last year in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology showed that the system earned results comparable to those produced by the long-established systems. In addition, other developments were noted by Kalorama Information: Biotin Resistance: Biotin supplements to promote healthy hair have become popular, but they also can interfere with some diagnostic results. While patients are advised to tell their doctor, this isn't always practical. This year's AACC saw vendors touting biotin free testing. Randox Laboratories uses a biotin-free Biochip Array Technology, which was highlighted at the meeting. Abbott and TOSOH also have biotin-free immunoassays promoted at the meeting. Biotin, also known as vitamin B7, is a water-soluble vitamin often found in multi-vitamins and supplements. Biotin supplements to promote healthy hair have become popular, but they also can interfere with some diagnostic results. While patients are advised to tell their doctor, this isn't always practical. This year's AACC saw vendors touting biotin free testing. Randox Laboratories uses a biotin-free Biochip Array Technology, which was highlighted at the meeting. Abbott and TOSOH also have biotin-free immunoassays promoted at the meeting. Biotin, also known as vitamin B7, is a water-soluble vitamin often found in multi-vitamins and supplements. Two Decades of CfDNA - Two decades has passed since the awareness of the existence of cell-free fetal DNA in the circulation of pregnant women. Since 2011, noninvasive prenatal screening of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies, such as Down syndrome, has been implemented for clinical use and supported by professional practice guidelines. Now each year, millions of women opt for this screening modality resulting in substantial reductions in the rates of amniocentesis. Beyond chromosome aneuploidy screening, cell-free fetal DNA testing approaches have been developed for the noninvasive assessment of fetal single gene diseases, fetal de novo mutations, and the monitoring of pregnancy-associated complications. Information from cell-free fetal DNA analysis continue to drive new insights into pregnancy physiology and pathologies. - Two decades has passed since the awareness of the existence of cell-free fetal DNA in the circulation of pregnant women. Since 2011, noninvasive prenatal screening of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies, such as Down syndrome, has been implemented for clinical use and supported by professional practice guidelines. Now each year, millions of women opt for this screening modality resulting in substantial reductions in the rates of amniocentesis. Beyond chromosome aneuploidy screening, cell-free fetal DNA testing approaches have been developed for the noninvasive assessment of fetal single gene diseases, fetal de novo mutations, and the monitoring of pregnancy-associated complications. Information from cell-free fetal DNA analysis continue to drive new insights into pregnancy physiology and pathologies. Testing and Transgender Patients : Novel findings unveiled at the 70th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo show that gender-affirming hormone therapy markedly impacts the results of common laboratory tests for transgender patients. This study underscores the need for transgender-specific reference intervals to ensure this underserved population receives accurate diagnoses and effective treatments. A research team led by Jeff SoRelle , MD, of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas , investigated whether transgender patients on hormone therapy exhibit altered results for laboratory tests ordered during yearly check-ups. The study authors recorded lab values for a complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, and lipid tests in 264 healthy transgender patients undergoing hormone therapy in transgender clinics from 2007 to 2017. Of these patients, 133 were taking estradiol to transition from male to female, and 89 were taking testosterone to transition from female to male. The scientists also gathered lab results for 149 transgender patients not undergoing hormone therapy to serve as a point of comparison. From this, the researchers determined that both transgender women and men taking hormones displayed altered values for measures of red blood cell, kidney, and liver health. : Novel findings unveiled at the 70th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo show that gender-affirming hormone therapy markedly impacts the results of common laboratory tests for transgender patients. This study underscores the need for transgender-specific reference intervals to ensure this underserved population receives accurate diagnoses and effective treatments. A research team led by , MD, of , investigated whether transgender patients on hormone therapy exhibit altered results for laboratory tests ordered during yearly check-ups. The study authors recorded lab values for a complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, and lipid tests in 264 healthy transgender patients undergoing hormone therapy in transgender clinics from 2007 to 2017. Of these patients, 133 were taking estradiol to transition from male to female, and 89 were taking testosterone to transition from female to male. The scientists also gathered lab results for 149 transgender patients not undergoing hormone therapy to serve as a point of comparison. From this, the researchers determined that both transgender women and men taking hormones displayed altered values for measures of red blood cell, kidney, and liver health. Paper-Sized C. diff. System: Meridian Biosciences highlighted its "size of a piece of paper" small footprint system, Alethia, featuring tests for C. diff., Group A Strep, Group B Strep, HSV 1&2, among other tests. The system uses LAMP molecular amplification technology which enables the smaller footprint. Meridian Biosciences highlighted its "size of a piece of paper" small footprint system, Alethia, featuring tests for C. diff., Group A Strep, Group B Strep, HSV 1&2, among other tests. The system uses LAMP molecular amplification technology which enables the smaller footprint. AI-Fueled Test Development: Seoul, Korea -based Seegene highlighted their SGDDS digitalized development system for high multiplex real PCR. The company says the AI-based system integrated with Seegene's technology allows for the automatic design of sets of oligonucleotides for high multiplex real time PCR assays. The company claimed the system can take less than a month to develop customize tests where human development would take over a year. -based Seegene highlighted their SGDDS digitalized development system for high multiplex real PCR. The company says the AI-based system integrated with Seegene's technology allows for the automatic design of sets of oligonucleotides for high multiplex real time PCR assays. The company claimed the system can take less than a month to develop customize tests where human development would take over a year. Reducing Confusion on TSH Tests - Thyroid function tests such as hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4), are cornerstones for disease diagnosis and monitoring. But the tests are confounded by biological and diurnal variation, severe illness, non-pathological states such as pregnancy, and inter-assay variability. Professional guidelines for diagnosing and managing thyroid illnesses offer direction on best practices for the use and interpretation of TFTs, but the evidence-based applicability of the tests is hampered by the wide variability of results across commercial immunoassays. In a scientific session on Monday, Joely Straseski , PhD, and Ann Gronowski , PhD, discussed how normal pregnancy affects the physiology and functions of the thyroid gland in a scientific session. - Thyroid function tests such as hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4), are cornerstones for disease diagnosis and monitoring. But the tests are confounded by biological and diurnal variation, severe illness, non-pathological states such as pregnancy, and inter-assay variability. Professional guidelines for diagnosing and managing thyroid illnesses offer direction on best practices for the use and interpretation of TFTs, but the evidence-based applicability of the tests is hampered by the wide variability of results across commercial immunoassays. In a scientific session on Monday, , PhD, and , PhD, discussed how normal pregnancy affects the physiology and functions of the thyroid gland in a scientific session. Taking on AKI - Acute Kidney Failure affects 3.2 million patients in U.S. hospitals each year, and is a danger rivaling sepsis. Patients with AKI may need to avoid certain medicines and avoid MRI contrast agents, necessitating testing. This was the one of the focus on bioMerieux's exhibit as well as that as OrthoClinical diagnostics. Both companies presented the Nephrocheck line of small-footprint rapid AKI testing. At a talk during the CLinical Expo, Dr. Eric H. Gluck from Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, IL demonstrated the use of PCT and Nephrocheck to benefit outcomes. - Acute Kidney Failure affects 3.2 million patients in U.S. hospitals each year, and is a danger rivaling sepsis. Patients with AKI may need to avoid certain medicines and avoid MRI contrast agents, necessitating testing. This was the one of the focus on bioMerieux's exhibit as well as that as OrthoClinical diagnostics. Both companies presented the Nephrocheck line of small-footprint rapid AKI testing. At a talk during the CLinical Expo, Dr. from Swedish Covenant Hospital in demonstrated the use of PCT and Nephrocheck to benefit outcomes. First-pass Accuracy Urinalysis: Sysmex displayed its first fully automated urine particle analyzer. The new analyzer reduces the need for manual slide review and delivers first-pass accuracy and unprecedented workflow efficiency. The UN series consists of three analyzer modules and is the first fully configurable urinalysis solution to offer expanded parameters. The innovative analyzer is awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for sale in the U.S. Sysmex also unveiled an enhanced hematology system, the FDA-cleared XN-20 complete blood count (CBC) analyzer, a complementary system to its XN-10 with additional reagents. Kalorama will publish its Worldwide Market for In Vitro Diagnostic Tests, now in eleven editions, on August 27th. About Kalorama Information Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare; as well as a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased through Kalorama's website and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com. We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog on our company website: https://www.kaloramainformation.com/. Press Contact: Bruce Carlson 212 807 2262 [email protected] SOURCE Kalorama Information Related Links https://www.kaloramainformation.com TORONTO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JLL (NYSE: JLL) today announced the acquisition of Northwest Atlantic (Canada) Inc. (NWA), the leading independent Canadian retail tenant representation and advisory firm headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The transaction enables JLL to expand its current retail advisory business in the market and provide an extensive range of real estate and leasing services to retailers seeking to enter, expand or operate in Canada. Within JLL, Northwest Atlantic will operate as a boutique practice team with the same hands-on client-centric approach that allowed the company to succeed in the past. Left to Right: Chris Wood, Tim Sanderson, Dianne Lemm, Lawrence Hildebrand, Scott Lee "Retailers' needs are changing dramatically as e-commerce impacts everything from site selection to store configuration and supply chain logistics. Our new partnership and combined operations with Northwest Atlantic enhance and broaden the scale and scope of our service offerings for retailers," said Brett Miller, CEO of Canada, JLL. NWA's seasoned retail experts have their pulse on the Canadian market. They currently represent more than 65 retailers. They have transacted in excess of 75 million square feet of retail real estate across Canada. NWA was founded in 1991 and privately owned by 11 shareholders, including CEO Tim Sanderson, and Principals Lawrence Hildebrand, Chris Wood, Scott Lee and Dianne Lemm. The firm represents leading global, national and local retailers across all categories, and specializes in the leasing of power center, street front and enclosed mall retail segments. "We joined JLL because of its Practice Team structure, which allows us to continue operating as a specialized unit and does not change our hands-on approach with our clients," said Sanderson, now Executive Vice President, JLL. "We are now able to add resources, technology, a deeper research platform and increased geographic coverage across Canada and globally. We can now give our clients access to a full suite of offerings from JLL that we didn't have on our own, such as office and industrial services, project management and capital markets expertise through JLL's National Retail Investment Group." A total of 45 employees, including 22 brokers across Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, will join JLL and integrate with JLL Canada's existing retail team. These experts specialize in supporting retailers with market penetration strategy, demographic analysis, trade area definition and delineation, roll-out strategy, site identification, selection and acquisition, transaction negotiation, corporate approval process support, renewals and dispositions, and relocation analysis. The new NWA executive team will report to and partner closely with Brett Miller, CEO of Canada for JLL and with Naveen Jaggi, President of Retail Advisory Services for JLL Americas. "We've been growing our retail advisory services throughout the United States since 2015, and looking for the right cultural fit to increase our presence in Canada. Northwest Atlantic's client-centric mentality and unwavering commitment to their clients' success made them the right group to add to our expanding global retail business," said Jaggi. "By joining forces with the Northwest Atlantic team, we've now created an opportunity for our clients worldwide to tap into a unified business across the United States and Canada for seamless, platinum advisory services." JLL is the largest third-party retail property manager in the United States and partners with retailers, investors and owner/operators through its extensive team of dedicated professionals around the world. They understand the inherent complexities and variability associated with both the retail industry and increasingly complex capital markets. JLL's specialists are recognized for their independent and expert advice to clients, backed by industry-leading research that delivers maximum value. With leading in-depth knowledge of the local, regional and global market dynamics, JLL aims to truly partner with its clients for the entire lifecycle of an asset or lease. Its experts deliver clients maximum value to support and shape their investment, site selection and brand strategies. About JLL JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. Our vision is to reimagine the world of real estate, creating rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces where people can achieve their ambitions. In doing so, we will build a better tomorrow for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with nearly 300 corporate offices, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of 83,500 as of March 31, 2018. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit ir.jll.com. Connect with us https://www.linkedin.com/company/jll https://www.facebook.com/jll/ https://twitter.com/jll https://plus.google.com/+joneslanglasalle SOURCE JLL Related Links http://www.jll.com PETALUMA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Without some sort of marketing tactics, most people wouldn't know that a business exists in the first place. All sorts of tricks go into marketing for a company, between advertisements, slogans and business design. A business owner will have to have some careful consideration put into deciding what might work best to get a positive reaction from a client base with marketing tactics. Brandon Frere, successful entrepreneur and CEO of Frere Enterprises, has some ideas for new small business owners or small business owners looking for inspiration to consider. A logo for a company is like an official stamp of completion on a business. It helps make a business more easily identifiable and, depending upon how a business owner decides to go design-wise, may lead to a more cohesive look for a business if there is a particular theme. It's important to keep in mind what the business is in the market of and attempting to brand itself as. For example, an all-American bakery that wants to place emphasis on the homegrown feel may have a lot of red, white and blue in the aesthetic design of the business, as well as more wood instead of heavy metals visible to the customers. The owner of a business like that may also make sure to incorporate that look into its advertisements, further adding to the cohesive feeling. "When planning out the branding for a business, it can start to feel a little repetitive, but that's usually a sign that you're on the right track. A business that has a consistent look and feel often comes across to people like it's got itself together and is capable of providing top-quality work," says Frere. A business that doesn't have a cohesive marketing and branding set may come across as lesser compared to others, even if it provides similar quality services. It's part of that idea about judging a book by its cover; people say not to do so, but it often ends up happening anyway. "You want people to feel comfortable coming to your business for their needs. The human brain is wired to make judgments based on what it sees and playing into that for the benefit of the company is just what marketing is. You want what is best for your business, clients want what is best for them and you're showing them in a way that your business is so polished that they could hardly think of going anywhere else," says Frere. About Frere Enterprises Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His company website, www.FrereEnterprises.com, is used as a means to communicate many of the lessons, fundamentals and information he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide. As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs. FrereEnterprises.com Related Images image1.png color-choices.jpg Color Choices REDPIXEL.PL/Bigstock.com Related Links Frere Enterprises SOURCE Frere Enterprises Related Links http://www.frereenterprises.com In a ruling, the judge accepts the asylum application of Sayragul Sauytbay, a Chinese of Kazakh ethnicity. Her testimony is essential to shed light on the concentration camps in the region, never recognized by Beijing. Lawyer: "If we send her back, this person will disappear". Almaty (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A Chinese woman of Kazakh ethnicity who fled the Xinjiang rehabilitation camps today received permission to stay in Kazakhstan, where she applied for asylum. A judge of Zharkent municipal court handed down a suspended suspension of a six-month sentence, with the obligation to register with police. The woman, Sayragul Sauytbay, was in danger of being repatriated to China for crossing the border with false documents last April. The Kazakh police arrested her on May 21st. Since the end of 2016, Chinese authorities have withdrawn passports from all members of Muslim minorities in the region. Her testimony is very important to shed light on the situation of re-education camps in the Uyghur region, never recognized by Beijing. Her lawyers state that if she is repatriated, she will be imprisoned and tortured. After the sentence, speakinf the crowd outside the court Sauytbay said: "When I arrived in Kazakhstan, I had the feeling of being alone. Now I'm confident. I have my people, my nation, my homeland that can stand with me ". It is the first time that Kazakhstan has opposed a ruling on a request for repatriation of China. There are about 12 million Muslims in the Xinjiang territories. Most of them are of Uyghur ethnicity; about 1.5 million are of Kazakh ethnicity. Muslims of Uyghur ethnicity are subjected to harsh repression because they are suspected of separatism and terrorism. For two years the Chinese police have increased surveillance and violence, with restrictions also on religious freedom. During the trial, Sauytbay spoke about a mountain rehabilitation camp where she was forced to work as a teacher. According to the woman's report there were about 2,500 people of Kazakh ethnicity in the camp. "In China they call it a political camp, but it was actually a mountain prison. I have worked in one of these camps and others have told me that there are two others "declared the woman. And she added: "The fact that I am talking about this camp in public means that I am already revealing state secrets". Several agencies report arrests and deportations to the concentration camps for tens of thousands of Uyghurs. The case of Sauytbay has put the Kazakh government in difficulty. China is one of Kazakhstan's main trading partners. However, public opinion is increasingly angry over the fate of the "compatriots" locked up in the Chinese camps. Many Kazakh families no longer have news of relatives and friends who disappeared across the border. Abzal Kuspanov, Sauytbay's lawyer, said in July that they did not contest the crime of illegal immigration with false documents, but that they were worried about the fate of the woman if she returned to China. "We are not saying that she did not commit a crime by violating the borders of the state using false documents. We admitted this to court and we are ready to accept the sentence. What we are saying is 'do not hand her back to China'. If we send her back, this person will disappear". SHARP is a U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) platform that recognizes small businesses who have used OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program services and operate exemplary facilities. The plant was accepted into SHARP in March 2018. The LIXIL plant personnel have worked in close partnership with the Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Division of Education and Training. Companies that achieve SHARP certification are exempt from programmed OSHA inspections for two years having demonstrated a high level of excellence in safety and health programs. "Attaining SHARP certification is a high barwe have worked very hard to ensure the safety of all our employees and are honored to receive this recognition," said Wade McNabb, vice president of manufacturing operations for LIXIL Americas. "Our safety philosophy is 'Accept Only Zero,' which means zero injuries, and is a reflection of our commitment to all employees." "The Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health staff worked in close partnership with the LIXIL plant personnel," said Acting Secretary David A. Dickerson. "Our goal each day is to enter partnerships with more Kentucky employers to help promote worker safety through high-quality education and technical assistance, at no cost. Receiving the SHARP Certification plaque is one example of the many ways we can increase awareness of promoting worker safety." "Three years with no recordable injury is an outstanding achievement," said Eric Vanover, LIXIL Somerset plant manager. "I commend our team for creating a safe and productive working environment for the Somerset community." Deputy Secretary of the Labor Cabinet in Kentucky Michael J. Nemes, presented the SHARP certificate today during a celebration recognizing both the SHARP attainment and the safety milestone at the LIXIL plant. Combining beauty and dependability, FIAT acrylic and terrazzo bathing and shower modules, mop basins, and laundry tubs have been an integral feature in homes, apartments, hotels, schools, hospitals, and commercial buildings for over 100 years. LIXIL through its American Standard brands has deep roots in Kentucky. The Standard Sanitary Company which eventually became American Standard had manufacturing operations in Louisville dating back to the 1800s. The Somerset plant has been operational since 1991, becoming part of American Standard in 2009 and subsequently part of LIXIL in 2013. The Somerset facility currently has 36 employees. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Nora DePalma, O'Reilly DePalma For LIXIL Americas - American Standard, DXV, GROHE (770) 772-4726 [email protected] About LIXIL LIXIL makes pioneering water and housing products that solve everyday, real-life challenges, making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. Drawing on our Japanese heritage, we create world-leading technology and innovate to make high quality products that transform homes. But the LIXIL difference is how we do this; through meaningful design, an entrepreneurial spirit, a dedication to improving accessibility for all, and responsible business growth. Our approach comes to life through industry leading brands, including LIXIL, GROHE, American Standard and FIAT. Over 70,000 colleagues operating in 150 countries are proud to make products that touch the lives of more than a billion people every day. Learn more at www.lixil.com, facebook.com/lixilgroup and www.linkedin.com/company/lixil-group. SOURCE LIXIL Americas Related Links http://www.lixil.com LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Enthusiast of self-balancing personal transporters have lots of products to choose from: electric skateboards, hoverboards, e-scooters and bikes. But all of these devices tether the feet and limit bipedal mobility. But that's not the case with the Hovershoes. From the team at Koowheel (creators of e-scooters, e-bikes, electric longboards and hoverboards) come the Hovershoes - two separate self-balancing hoverboards with inbuilt gravity sensors on each foot that give users the freedom of mobility no other rideable can. Koowheel They are so easy to drive anyone, adult or child, can learn to ride them in 5 minutes without any prior experience thanks to the precision sensors each shoe is built with. Just step on, lean the feet forward to accelerate, lean back to slow down and aim the feet in a direction to begin moving. When compared to traditional roller skates the Hovershoes allow users to reach top speeds and can easily be stepped off of in case of difficult terrain. Weighing only 3.3kg each (~7lbs) they can be carried easily and without hassle and are even safe to fly with. They don't require remote controls like electric longboards and aren't as heavy as e-scooters or hoverboards. Koowheel can reach speeds of 12 Km/H and cover a distance of 10KM on a single 1.5H charge. Aside from the fun maneuvers possible due to having freedom between the feet, riders won't run into issues where one foot is dominant and dictates the movement of the other. And they are even offering local support in the USA and Germany, and will be extending it to many other nations very soon. The Koowheel Hovershoes are now available for purchase at their official website http://www.koowheel.com/ and on http://www.roto-band.com/. Related Images meet-the-koowheel-hovershoes.jpg Meet the Koowheel Hovershoes meet-the-koowheel-hovershoes.jpg Meet the Koowheel Hovershoes meet-the-koowheel-hovershoes.jpg Meet the Koowheel Hovershoes meet-the-koowheel-hovershoes.jpg Meet the Koowheel Hovershoes Related Links Official Website YouTuber Unboxing Review Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obmb0lHjvtY SOURCE Koowheel Related Links http://www.koowheel.com MIAMI, August 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mining Power Group, Inc., (the "Company" or "RCGR"), announced today that it had recently filed its 10Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for the period ended March 31, 2018, and is preparing its filing of its 10Q for the period ended June 30, 2018 which it anticipates to be filed prior to filing deadline. For fiscal 2018, the Company has engaged new auditors, Haynie & Company, PC, Littleton, Colorado, who are responsible for the review of the filings. Separately, the Company has paid the fee and is in the process of submitting its application to OTC Markets in order to uplist to the OTCQB, which it plans to accomplish by September 1, 2018. Also, per the Company's filings, the Company has a new corporate headquarters address: Mining Power Group, Inc. 20200 Dixie Highway, Suite 906 Miami, FL 33180 Yaniv Nahon, stated, "We believe that we are building a strong 21st century technology company based on the cutting edge use of blockchain technology, and are confident that this new strategy will add to shareholder value." He added, "Moreover, we are continuing our search for new officers and directors skilled in this area, and opportunities that will expand this enterprise." He added, "Also we are awaiting completion of the corporate action with FINRA in order to update our trading name and stock symbol." About Mining Power Group, Inc. Mining Power Group, Inc. was originally formed as Rich Cigars, Inc. a Florida corporation, in order to distribute, brand and market tobacco products. As a result of the November 2017 change of control, it became a holding company for new subsidiary operations under a change of focus. Mining Power Group, Inc. is in the process of forming subsidiaries to invest in the development of unique cryptocurrency mining businesses which will operate on a 24/7 basis. Safe Harbor Statement: This release includes "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. Such statements include any that may predict, forecast, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words "estimate", "project", "intend", "forecast", "anticipate", "plan", "planning", "expect", "believe", "likely", "should", "could", "would", "may" or similar words or expressions. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results and financial position to differ materially from those in such statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Company's ability to grow. Actual results may differ materially from those predicted and any reported should not be considered an indication of future performance. Potential risks and uncertainties include the Company's operating history and resources, economic, competitive, and equity market conditions. Contact: Mining Power Group, Inc. (800)304-2657 SOURCE Mining Power Group, Inc. EMERYVILLE, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- There is no red student loan debt. There is no blue student loan debt. There is American student loan debt, and it grips the nation regardless of political party. Though party affiliation does affect ideas about the direction of policies dealing with the crisis, student loan debt is an equal opportunity obligation. Forty percent of all Republicans and 45 percent of all Democrats have someone in their household who currently has student loan debt, according to a recent Harvard Kennedy School study. American Financial Benefits Center (AFBC), a document preparation company that helps its clients apply for federal income-driven repayment plans (IDRs), reminds borrowers that no matter their political affiliation, nearly half of all Americans know someone battling with student loan debt. Credit: Michael Darcy Brown/Bigstock "Though it can feel like we are divided politically, it is important to remember our common, national experiences," said Sara Molina, manager at AFBC. "Unfortunately, student loan debt is one of those common experiences and we need to provide excellent solutions for borrowers who are struggling." Though borrowers from Republican states carried less debt, borrowers from Democratic states defaulted less. In states with two Democratic senators, borrowers carried 25 percent more student debt. Counterintuitively, borrowers were 55 percent more likely to go into default on their student loans if they lived in a state with two Republican senators. Though it is not definitively clear why there is this difference, overall, more debt signifies borrowers have worked toward, and hopefully earned, advanced degrees such as an engineering, medicine or law degree and may have an increased probability of earning a better income and staying clear of default. And in at least one state, Illinois, Democrats and Republicans banded together to override a governor's veto of a student loan bill of rights. Governor Bruce Rauner felt the bill, though "laudable," would impede the federal government and smaller loan companies. The two parties worked together to stand up for borrowers who were being provided insufficient information about their student loans. The bill requires servicers to inform borrowers about all of their options, including repayment and discharge options, and establishes an ombudsman to represent borrowers facing challenges with their servicers. As our clients know, at AFBC we aim to give borrowers overwhelmed by student loan debt a clear picture of their options and assist them in navigating the application and maintenance processes. "We help thousands of borrowers save millions of dollars in monthly payments per year, and that lets them get on with their lives," said Molina. "We may not get our news from the same sources, but we pour all of our energy into helping borrowers have the opportunity to live less-burdened by student loan debt." About American Financial Benefits Center American Financial Benefits Center is a document preparation company that helps clients apply for federal student loan repayment plans that fit their personal financial and student loan situation. Through its strict customer service guidelines, the company strives for the highest levels of honesty and integrity. Each AFBC telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA). American Financial Benefits Center Newsroom Contact To learn more about American Financial Benefits Center, please contact: American Financial Benefits Center 1900 Powell Street #600 Emeryville, CA 94608 1-800-488-1490 [email protected] Related Images red-and-blue-hands-shaking.jpg Red and Blue Hands Shaking Credit: Michael Darcy Brown/Bigstock image2.png Related Links AFBC home page SOURCE American Financial Benefits Center TOMS RIVER, N.J., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Examity, the leading provider of online proctoring and identity verification, today announced a new partnership to offer test security solutions for the 19 member institutions of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges. Selected as the online proctoring solution for public two-year institutions in the state, Examity will support New Jersey community colleges with live, record-and-review, and automated proctoring, for more than 400,000 students at more than 70 campuses. "Online learning has transformed the way we engage our students, enabling working learners to complete their degree on their own time and at their own pace," said Dr. Jack Kelnhofer, Dean of e-Learning at Ocean County College in Toms River, which led the partnership through the state's Joint Purchasing Consortium. "Ensuring quality in online higher ed depends on reliable, secure assessment, and Examity's approach to flexible proctoring made them the best fit for our students and faculty." The new partnership reflects the accelerating growth of online learning in higher education. According to this year's report from the Babson Survey Research Group, online courses saw increased enrollment for the fourteenth straight year, with the largest growth occurring at public institutions, including community colleges. Nearly one-third of all students now take at least one course online, fueling demand for solutions that can ensure security and integrity in online assessments. "As the worlds of education and work become increasingly interconnected, community colleges play a critical role in equipping students with in-demand skills," said Michael London, Founder and CEO of Examity. "Creating a secure online testing environment will support the efforts of New Jersey's community colleges to expand access to educational opportunities across the state." Examity, recently named the sixth fastest-growing company in Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal, works with a diverse cross-section of postsecondary institutions and online learning providers including Northeastern University, Indiana University, and Texas A&M, to provide customized online proctoring solutions driven by AI and machine learning technology. Founded in 2013, Examity was the first platform to provide live, record-and-review, and fully automated proctoring options. About Examity Examity was founded to meet the needs of the growing number of online education and certification programs looking to ensure integrity. Examity provides a cost effective and flexible test integrity solution including live, recorded and automated options. Since its founding five years ago, Examity has partnered with 500+ institutions and certification programs worldwide. For more information, visit Examity.com or follow the company on Twitter @examity. SOURCE Examity Related Links https://examity.com/ WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) Project Office (PPO), led by US Ignite, Inc. and Northeastern University, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a consortium of 28 companies and industry associations, has released a second Request for Proposals (RFP) to design, deploy, and operate a set of platforms for advancing next-generation wireless research across the United States. Adding to the two wireless testbeds announced earlier this year, the PPO will select up to two new proposals pursuant to this latest RFP, towards the goal of establishing four advanced research platforms supported by $100 million in cash and in-kind investments from both the public and private sectors. Over time, the PAWR program aims not only to launch these platforms as individual testbed sites, but to connect them virtually as a nationwide, shared innovation lab for wireless research. PAWR program participants are exploring the development of new wireless hardware, communications techniques, and networking architectures. As the first testbeds located in New York City and Salt Lake City mature, and as new testbeds are developed, academic and industry researchers will also use these platforms to trial new types of services enabled by ubiquitous, high-performance connectivity. The goal is to sustain U.S. leadership in the wireless industry and to boost economic competitiveness across a range of sectors that will benefit from next-generation networking technologies. Teams interested in applying to participate in this RFP should submit a preliminary proposal by September 28, 2018, and a final proposal by December 11, 2018. Teams should consist, at a minimum, of an interested city and an academic partner with specialists in wireless research. Finalists will be announced no later than March 2019, and each winner will receive an award of up to $9 million in cash plus up to $15 million worth of in-kind contributions to implement an at-scale wireless testbed. Although the second RFP for PAWR is broadly similar to the first, there is a distinction in focus. In this round, there is greater emphasis on vertical use cases for advanced wireless technologies, including but not limited to research in the areas of smart agriculture, transportation, energy, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and public safety. "The combination of academic, civic, and industry involvement in PAWR is creating a foundation for collaborative research unlike any other wireless or IoT effort in the country," said Joe Kochan, Principal Investigator and Project Director for the PPO. "We expect the technological and economic impact of this to be considerable, and we look forward to adding new partners with new ideas to the PAWR team." Among the major benefits of the PAWR program is the channel it creates between research institutions and the private sector. PAWR moves innovative work out of the lab and into a shared environment where both academics and industry representatives can learn from and collaborate with each other. "For wireless researchers, the opportunity to experiment at scale on emerging technologies and application verticals will spur innovation, enable repeatable results, and generate novel shared data repositories," said Kaushik Chowdhury, Director of Academic Outreach for the PPO. Host communities also play a critical role by informing research with civic priorities and practical deployment realities. "We are in many ways creating a city-scale laboratory," said Erwin Gianchandani, Deputy Assistant Director at NSF for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. "With its focus on fundamental, pre-commercial research, and combining civic aims with networking innovation, PAWR offers an unprecedented opportunity to impact people's daily lives, community well-being, and the nation's economy." Academic institutions, nonprofits and/or local governments interested in submitting a proposal should visit www.advancedwireless.org for additional information and deadlines. About the PAWR Project Office (PPO) The Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) program is jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and a PAWR Industry Consortium to create community-scale research platforms to accelerate fundamental research on wireless communication and networking technologies. The PAWR Project Office (PPO) manages this $100 million public-private partnership and will oversee these eventual research platforms. The PPO is run by US Ignite, Inc., and Northeastern University. The PPO collaborates closely with NSF, the wireless research community, local communities, and industry, in part through the Industry Consortium, in the design, development, deployment, and initial operations of the research platforms. US Ignite, Inc. is a non-profit organization accelerating the smart city movement by guiding communities into the connected future, creating a path for private sector growth, and advancing technology research that's at the heart of smart city development. Northeastern University is a global, experiential, and top-tier research university, with the world's most innovative cooperative education program. Research in the College of Engineering looks at critical issues in materials, processes, systems, and infrastructure at every scalenano to macro to globalgrounded in a translational approach that integrates the values of fundamental and applied research to meet societal needs. SOURCE Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research Related Links http://agencychief.com EAST HANOVER, N.J., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis announced today a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) in collaboration with Invenergy, North America's largest privately held renewable energy company. As part of the Novartis environmental strategy, the initiative aims to add 100 megawatts (MW) of wind power to the electrical grid. Under the agreement, the electricity will be generated from Invenergy's Santa Rita East wind farm, located 70 miles west of San Angelo, Texas and is expected to be online in 2019. During the construction phase, the wind farm could create up to 300 jobs and 12-15 permanent jobs once operational. "At Novartis, we take our responsibility toward environmental sustainability seriously and it is important for our organization to meet our sustainability goals," said Karen Coyne, Global Head of Environment at Novartis. "This agreement is in line with our sustainability strategy and is expected to help us reduce our carbon footprint, constrain costs and increase adoption of renewable energy." In line with its ongoing global sustainability strategy, Novartis collaborates to create virtual power purchase agreements, power purchase agreements and procurement options for green power solutions. Energy efficiency is the cornerstone of reducing the company's carbon footprint while also pursuing renewables initiatives in multiple markets. The VPPA is expected to deliver 100 MW of new wind power capacity to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75% of the state. The 12-year agreement is expected to reduce Novartis greenhouse gas emissions by more than 220,000 metric tons per year through the issuance of renewable energy attributes that Novartis will use to account and report on its greenhouse gas Scope 2 emissions. This equates to removing more than 48,000 passenger vehicles from the road on an annual basis1 and represents over 70% of the Novartis carbon footprint from purchased electricity in the US market. "We're excited to collaborate with Novartis and applaud their commitment to environmentally and economically responsible operations," said Jim Shield, Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer at Invenergy. Jay Zoellner, CEO of Edison Energy, commented that "we're proud to have collaborated with Novartis to find a project that supported their vision of improving their bottom line while supporting their sustainability goals." Edison Energy conducted a competitive project solicitation as the buyer's agent for Novartis and supported the financial analysis to support the project's long-term success. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "to reduce," "expected," "goals," "strategy," "aims," "vision," "excited," "commitment," "potential," "will," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential renewable energy production and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement, power purchase agreements and other initiatives for green power procurement described in this press release, or regarding potential future cost containment from such agreements and initiatives. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement, power purchase agreements and other initiatives for green power procurement described in this press release will in fact increase the use of renewable energy by Novartis or reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of Novartis, or in any particular time frame. Nor can there be any guarantee that such agreements and initiatives will be commercially successful or contain costs in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such agreements and initiatives could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in relevant energy markets, including the price and availability of renewable energy; the ability of Invenergy to complete its Santa Rita East wind farm on time, or at all; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; general political and economic conditions; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2017, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.1 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 125,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com. Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library For questions about the site or required registration, please contact [email protected] References 1. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle Novartis Media Relations Central media line: +41 61 324 2200 E-mail: [email protected]is.com Katerina Kontzalis Head, CR Communications & Advocacy +41 61 324 1631 (direct) +41 79 797 8393 (mobile) [email protected] Sofina Mirza-Reid Novartis Media Relations +1 862 778 0476 (direct) +1 201 396 4605 (mobile) [email protected] Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: [email protected] Central North America Samir Shah +41 61 324 7944 Richard Pulik +1 212 830 2448 Pierre-Michel Bringer +41 61 324 1065 Cory Twining +1 212 830 2417 Thomas Hungerbuehler +41 61 324 8425 Isabella Zinck +41 61 324 7188 SOURCE Novartis Related Links http://www.novartis.com ATLANTA, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ogletree Deakins , one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management, is pleased to announce that the firm has been included on the 2018 Working Mother and ABA Journal "Best Law Firms for Women" list. Ogletree Deakins is recognized on this list for the second time and is one of 60 firms recognized in 2018. The 2018 "Best Law Firms for Women" list highlights law firms where on average almost half of associates and more than a third of partners are women, while one-fifth of equity partners are women. These firms also increasingly offer extended parental-leave benefits and encourage more lawyers to work remotely and use flexible hours. "The law firms that make Working Mother's list are remarkable for their long-term commitment to retaining and promoting women lawyers," said Meredith Bodgas, editor-in-chief of Working Mother. "One hundred percent of these firms provide flexible work arrangements and 57 percent of them offer sponsorship programs for high-potential women lawyers. That's resulted in a jump in the number of women equity partners to 21 percent." "The ABA Journal has been exploring diversity issues in the profession for decades and is continually surprised to see how little progress women have made with pay equity and at top positions in law firms," said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal. "Collaborating with Working Mother gives us another way to explore what firms can do to bring gender parity to firm leadership." The Ogletree Deakins Women's Initiative (ODWIN) was established to support Ogletree Deakins' women attorneys in three key areas: Power (identification and attainment of leadership positions), Access (access to meaningful internal and external development opportunities), and Results (maximizing professional success and fulfillment). ODWIN's overall goal is to harness and spotlight the tremendous talent of Ogletree Deakins' nearly 400 female attorneys. About the Methodology The 2018 Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women application included more than 300 questions about attorney representation, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women. Profiles are culled from the applications and reflect 2017 data. The ABA Journal acts as a partner in recruiting participant firms and publicizing results. About Working Mother Media Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corporation, publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, workingmother.com. The Working Mother Research Institute, the National Association for Female Executives, and Diversity Best Practices are also units within WMM. WMM's mission is to serve as a champion of culture change and Working Mother magazine is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. About Ogletree Deakins Ogletree Deakins is one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management in all types of employment-related legal matters. Premier client service, as outlined in the firm's Client Pledge, is one of the firm's top priorities and a cornerstone of its core values. U.S. News Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" has named Ogletree Deakins a "Law Firm of the Year" for seven consecutive years. In 2018, the publication named Ogletree Deakins its "Law Firm of the Year" in the Litigation - Labor & Employment category. Ogletree Deakins has more than 850 attorneys located in 53 offices across the United States and in Europe, Canada, and Mexico. The firm represents a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to Fortune 50 companies. www.ogletree.com SOURCE Ogletree Deakins Related Links www.ogletreedeakins.com SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the lineup of co-located events and onsite activities for Open Source Summit, taking place August 29-31 in Vancouver, BC, including expanded pre-event lighting talks, workshops and tutorials on August 28. Open Source Summit is the leading conference for developers, SysAdmins, DevOps professionals, architects and other technologists along with open source community and industry leaders to collaborate, share information, learn about the latest technologies and gain a competitive advantage by using innovative open solutions. It covers cornerstone open source technologies like Linux and Kubernetes, along with other cloud infrastructure and cloud native applications, AI, blockchain, networking and more. Registration is discounted to $950 through August 4. Discounts are available for Open Source Summit alumni, hobbyists, academics, non-profit professionals and groups. Hall Passes, which grant access to all conference activities except conference sessions, are also available for $150. Visit the registration page for more information. Co-located events include: Linux Security Summit North America - August 27-28 * * mountpoint 2018 - August 27-28 * * LF Deep Learning Workshop - August 28 * * CHAOSScon North America - August 28 * * Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNF) Seminar - August 28 * * Egeria Open Metadata & Governance Workshop - August 28 * * OpenAPI Workshop - August 28 * * OpenChain Mini Summit - August 28 * * OpenHPC Workshop - August 28 * * LFCS & Linux on Azure Training Courses, presented by ITGilde and The Linux Foundation - August 29-30 * * Cloud & Container Apprentice Linux Engineer Tutorials - August 29-31 Event experiences include: All-Attendee Opening Reception at Vancouver Aquarium - August 29 Vancouver Sightseeing Bus Tour - August 29 * * Meet & Eat - August 29-31 * * 5K Fun Run - August 30 * Fun Run - * Onsite Attendee Reception & Sponsor Showcase - August 30 Invitation Only Partner Reception - August 30 Morning Meditation - August 31 * * Puppy Pawlooza - Date TBD Features and add-ons include: Other items: Child care is provided free of charge to all attendees* A networking app is provided to enable attendees to meet and network Attendees are encouraged to donate to #YesWeCode to help individuals from underrepresented backgrounds find success in the tech sector *Limited availability and/or requires pre-registration The full lineup of 250+ sessions including lighting talks, labs, tutorials, conference sessions and keynotes and activities can be viewed here. The Linux Foundation events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies. Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Dan Brown at [email protected]. Open Source Summit is made possible by Diamond Sponsors IBM, Intel and SUSE; Platinum Sponsor Red Hat; and Gold Sponsors Amazon Web Services, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Kenzan, Microsoft, SAP and VMware. Additional Resources YouTube: Why Attend Linux Foundation Events (https://youtu.be/X_rLxfmLlYY) Recap: Open Source Summit North America 2017 (https://events17.linuxfoundation.org/events/open-source-summit-north-america) About The Linux Foundation The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world's top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and industry adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Media Contact: Dan Brown The Linux Foundation 415-420-7880 [email protected] SOURCE The Linux Foundation Related Links http://www.linuxfoundation.org COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ParkMobile, the leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the US, will partner with Park Place Parking to allow customers to use their mobile devices to pay for parking. The service is available across 2,000 spaces at 20 lots across Columbus. The ParkMobile app has replaced the previous mobile parking provider across all Park Place Parking lots. New stickers and signage will provide information to drivers on how to pay for parking using the new app. To use ParkMobile, customers can register for free through the app for iPhone, Android or online at parkmobile.io. After setting up their account, customers can immediately begin using the system with their registered device. Users can choose to upgrade for $0.99/month to the ParkMobile Pro membership which includes Parking Availability, a feature that shows where the open on-street parking spots are in immediate area. Additionally, membership comes with special offers on automotive related services like oil changes, rental cars and more. ParkMobile is widely available in Columbus and surrounding areas in Ohio, including Cleveland, Athens, Bay Village, Cincinnati, Toledo and Lakewood. Additionally, ParkMobile will soon support Cleveland Browns parking at FirstEnergy Stadium. "Park Place is excited to partner with the ParkMobile team to improve customer service in the Columbus, Ohio market. Park Place prides itself on bringing ingenuity, resourcefulness and, vision to our customers and clients," stated Shawn Compton, General Manager at Park Place. "It is great to know that the ParkMobile team shares our values and we look forward to continued success." "We're thrilled to partner with Park Place Parking to offer users a smarter way to park," stated Jon Zigar, CEO of ParkMobile. "With more than 1 million parking spots across the country, we're excited to welcome Columbus to our wide network." As the most widely used mobile parking solution in the country with more than 10 million people using ParkMobile's services over 60 million times per year across 350 cities, ParkMobile is excited to make a difference leveraging our large network of users. About ParkMobile ParkMobile, LLC is the leading provider of parking solutions in North America, helping millions of people easily find and pay for parking on their mobile device. The company's technology is used in over 3000 locations across the country, including 7 of the top 10 cities as well as college campuses, airports and stadiums. People can use ParkMobile solutions to quickly pay for on-street and garage parking without having to use a meter or kiosk. Additionally, ParkMobile offers parking reservations at stadium venues for concerts and sporting events. Reservations are also available in metro areas, allowing people to drive into the city without having to worry about finding parking. ParkMobile was recently named by Deloitte as a Technology Fast 500 winner, recognizing the fastest growing technology companies in North America. For more information, visit Parkmobile.IO or @Parkmobile on Twitter. About Park Place Operating under the brand Park Place since 2017; formerly Parking Company of America, has locations in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dallas and Atlanta. Park Place is a dynamic parking management and real estate investment company that provides a full spectrum of parking-related services. Organized in 1967 and incorporated in 1974 in Atlanta, Park Place has over four and a half decades of experience in the parking industry. Park Place was started by Manuel Chavez, Sr. and his sons Manuel and Robert Chavez, when they consolidated their existing proprietorship and partnership entities into a single corporation. The integration of the Chavez's progressive management philosophy with their operational expertise spurred the development of Park Place into one of the largest, privately owned parking operations in the United States. Today Park Place continues to be owned and managed by the Chavez family as a 100% minority owned. SOURCE ParkMobile, LLC Related Links http://www.parkmobile.us by Osman Demir In probable first US issues sanctions against a NATO ally. The sanctions affect personalities of the ministries of justice and interior. A declaration on religious freedom in Turkey signed by the patriarch Bartholomew I, the Armenian vicar Aram Atesyan, the chief rabbi Ishak Haleva. Erdogan uses the pastor as "bargaining chip" to obtain the extradition of Feithullah Guelen. Istanbul (AsiaNews) - The United States has decided to impose sanctions on the Turkish justice and interior ministries for the continued detention of the American pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson, an Evangelical Christian from North Carolina, has been in prison for almost two years and is now under house arrest for health reasons. According to the Turkish justice system he is accused of having ties with the religious leader Fethullah Guelen, now in exile in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, believes Guelen is the mastermind behind the failed coup d'etat two years ago, which led to the arrest of tens of thousands of people from all walks of life. The pastor has always denied any involvement with Guelen. White House spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said the US demands that Pastor Brunson may return to his country because "we do not see evidence that he did something wrong" The sanctions foresee the blocking in the USA of all property or interests belonging to members of the two ministries responsible for the arrest, and a ban on all American citizens from doing business with them. It is perhaps the first time that US sanctions have hit a NATO ally. Threats of sanctions had come in recent days also from Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, who accused Turkey of violating religious freedom. Yesterday Erdogan criticized this "threatening" language and claimed that Turkey "does not have the slightest problem with religious minorities". Almost in support of his statements, not long before, some religious leaders in Turkey issued a common declaration denying that there are pressures against their followers in the country. According to the newspaper Hurriyet, which is close to the ruling party, the declaration was signed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, by the Armenian Patriarchal Vicar, Archbishop Aram Atesyan, by the Chief Rabbi in Turkey Ishak Haleva. Rejecting the US position, Erdogan defined it as coming from an "evangelist, Zionist" mentality. Two days ago, a court refused Brunson's request for release from his lawyer. The next trial hearing will be on October 12th. Many observers recognize that Pastor Brunson is being used as a "bargaining chip". Very often Erdogan himself said that he would exchange the Protestant pastor with "the priest", or Guelen, whom the US does not want to extradite. The Perfect Solution for Researchers and Early-Stage Biotechnology Companies Our SMARTmid vector design is our fully synthetic method for producing plasmid vector particles for mammalian cell transduction and is a powerful template in which to build a drug delivery and immuno-adjuvant platform. DNA-based delivery can directly enhance expression levels and enable easy manufacturing of protein-, DNA- and RNA-based treatments in vivo. Moreover, SMARTmid can be used as an immuno-adjuvant to enhance already developed drugs to work more effectively in patients requiring a strong immune response, like checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T treatments. SMARTmid can also be used as a diagnostic tool for certain cancers and infectious diseases. Efficiency and Simplicity That Just Works "Delivering drugs has always been a challenge for drug developers," said Mahesh Narayanan, CEO of PepVax. "Researchers and research companies looking to deliver their biologics intramuscularly or intravenously can use our SMARTmid platform to produce their drugs inside the patient or deliver it without worrying about degeneration or decreased potency." Focused on Continued Innovation PepVax is looking to license SMARTmid to established biopharmaceutical companies that are looking for efficient drug delivery in patients as well as developing novel cancer and infectious disease therapeutics. The Company is also looking to enter into research agreements with academia. About PepVax, Inc. PepVax, Inc. was founded in 2013 to develop a DNA-based drug delivery and development platform. The Company, is located in the Washington, DC and Philadelphia regions has developed a DNA plasmid delivery system that takes a simplified method to delivery and a "Trojan Horse" approach to drug production inside patients. The nucleic and amino acid drug market is expected to grow to $248 billion by 2020 to include siRNA delivery, vaccines, and antisense technologies as well as protein therapeutics. Learn more at www.pepvax.co. SOURCE PepVax, Inc. Related Links http://www.pepvax.co Pivot Naturals branded products to be distributed and sold in the EU by S.T.U. GmbH Hemplix branded products to be distributed and sold by Pivot in the Americas; Pivot expands its product offering, positioning itself as a rapidly growing, diversified bio-cannabis derivatives player Significant near-term revenue from premium, science-based products with patented formulations Hemplix CBD oil was developed in Switzerland by Swiss pharmacists, using organically cultivated cannabis plants. The CBD oil is extracted using a specialized ultrasonic process at low temperatures before being dissolved in organic hempseed oil, reducing the bitter taste often found in CBD oil solutions. The Hemplix "Classic Natural Line" ranges from 6% CBD to 24% CBD and "flavoured" Hemplix products are available in cassis, cherry, coconut and orange. Additional products include a 6% CBD ointment and pure CBD globules. A vegan 3% CBD oil, gluten and lactose free, is also available for dogs and cats. "We are pleased to partner with Pivot to develop, commercialize and co-market products across the globe. This Agreement represents a significant milestone for us," said Pascal Siegrist and Claudio Iannuzzi, Directors of S.T.U. GmbH and the owners of the Hemplix brand. "Our products are carefully produced in Switzerland using 100% organic raw materials. The extraction process allows us to retain all of the beneficial properties of the cannabis plant, such as CBD, CBDA, as well as CBG and many other secondary plant ingredients. Pivot's impressive product portfolio will be a welcome addition to the EU market. We look forward to introducing the "Pivot Naturals" brand of topical creams and lotions, oral solutions and capsules to our customers via our growing retail and online sales channels." "Claudio and Pascal have developed an outstanding portfolio of high-quality CBD-based products that are currently being sold in the EU with great consumer demand and customer satisfaction," said Dr. Patrick Frankham, CEO of Pivot Pharmaceuticals. "Hemplix is a recognized Swiss-made brand which we will launch in the Americas. This Agreement also provides Pivot with immediate access to hundreds of retail outlets and millions of online consumers, in the largest cannabis market in the world, for our basket of Pivot Naturals products." Dr. Frankham continued, "As we continue to execute on our business plan, Pivot has positioned itself to have the largest portfolio of bio-cannabis based health and wellness derivatives in the industry. To date, our team has secured a strong intellectual property portfolio; completed development of scientifically-based and patented product formulations; established manufacturing facilities in Canada and California; and solidified branding, marketing and distribution in major markets. Pivot is now well positioned to rapidly gain market share in the cannabis market resulting in significant revenue beginning in Q4 2018." With a market of over 742 million people, and total healthcare spend of 2.3T, Europe is the largest medical cannabis market in the world. The European medical cannabis market could be worth 55B by 2023 once all markets have implemented legislation and market infrastructure. The European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), nova-Institute and HempConsult estimate that the European market for CBD as a pharmaceutical product is already worth 2b alone.1 About S.T.U. GmbH Based in Liestal, Switzerland, S.T.U. GmbH develops and sells CBD oils produced using 100% organic raw materials, marketed under the "Hemplix" brand. Hemplix CBD is manufactured using proprietary ultrasound extraction methods starting with the highest quality hemp grown organically in Ticino. The production of the CBD oil takes place in a protected environment and is subject to strict quality regulations. When making the Hemplix CBD oil, only the best and purest quality of CBD oil is good enough. For further information please visit http://www.hemplix.ch/ About Pivot Pharmaceuticals Inc. Pivot Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of therapeutic pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals using innovative drug delivery platform technologies. Pivot's wholly-owned medical cannabis products division, Pivot Green Stream Health Solutions Inc. ("PGS" or "Pivot Green Stream"), conducts research, development and commercialization of cannabinoid-based nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Pivot's wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Pivot Naturals, LLC, based in Costa Mesa, California, will manufacture and supply finished powderized cannabis products such as food additives, capsules, bulk powder and stick packs to the California market. PGS has acquired worldwide rights to "RTIC" Ready-To-Infuse Cannabis oil-to-powder technology, BiPhasix Dermal Drug Delivery platform technology (topical), Solmic Solubilisation technology (oral) and Thrudermic Transdermal Nanotechnology (transdermal) for the delivery and commercialization of cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-based products. For more information please visit www.PivotPharma.com Cautionary Statement Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth above may be forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, intend, and similar expressions, as they relate to Pivot Pharmaceuticals Inc., Pivot Green Stream Health Solutions Inc., Pivot Naturals, LLC, S.T.U. GmbH, Hemplix, or its management, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, such as the failure to meet the conditions imposed by the CSE or other securities regulators, the level of business and consumer spending, the amount of sales of Pivot's products, statements with respect to internal expectations, the competitive environment within the industry, the ability of Pivot to continue to expand its operations, the level of costs incurred in connection with Pivot's expansion efforts, economic conditions in the industry, and the financial strength of Pivot's customers and suppliers. Pivot does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking statements. Investors are also directed to consider all other risks and uncertainties. __________________________ 1 Prohibition Partners July 2018 SOURCE Pivot Pharmaceuticals Inc. NESS-ZIONA, Israel, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Regenera Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the enrollment of the first patient in a United States (US) Phase 3 study of RPh201 in NAION (nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, a type of stroke of the optic nerve), supported by Fast Track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration. In addition, Regenera is dosing patients in a Phase 2a clinical trial of RPh201 in Alzheimer's disease in Canada. "Despite their growing prevalence in the aging population, neurodegenerative disorders remain largely untreated and patients are left with few if any treatment options today," said Jordan Rubinson, Chief Executive Officer of Regenera. "Based on our clinical and extensive preclinical data obtained to date, we believe that RPh201 has the potential to deliver meaningful benefit in multiple neurological disorders. Our data sets have been met with enthusiasm by investigators and regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada, as demonstrated by the US FDA granting RPh201 Fast Track designation, and we are excited to move efficiently through these two clinical studies." The multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial of RPh201 will enroll 234 patients diagnosed with NAION at least one year prior to enrollment into the study. Patients will be randomized and receive twice-weekly injections of RPh201 or placebo over a six-month period. The primary endpoint of the study is the proportion of patients with visual acuity improving by 3 lines or more from baseline to Week 26. The study will be conducted in 12 leading centers across the United States, with the final readout expected in Q4 2019. The Phase 3 study is based on the encouraging results from a Phase 2 study of RPh201 in NAION that was not powered for statistical significance. In the Phase 2 study, 36 percent of the group treated with RPh201 had vision improved by 3 lines or more, as compared to 12 percent in the placebo group. "Several thousand people have irreversible visual loss from NAION each year in the United States, and the likelihood of improvement after the first 6 months is very low," said Dr. Leonard Levin of McGill University, and chair of the Phase 3 trial. "This new study will help determine the potential for RPh201 to become the first drug shown to restore vision in these patients." In addition to the NAION study, Regenera is conducting a Phase 2a study in Canada of RPh201 in patients with moderate Alzheimer-related dementia. This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study is expected to enroll between 45 and 81 patients. Patients will be randomized 2:1 (drug to placebo) and will receive twice weekly subcutaneous injections over a six-month period. The study will measure cognitive changes from baseline to 6 months. Study participants are currently being dosed at five centers in Ontario and Quebec, with the readout expected by Q2 2019. Regenera's clinical trials are funded by a 2017 Series B led by aMoon I, a leading Israeli life sciences fund. Regenera has received the first $10 million of the $20 million round, and funds are expected to support Regenera through completion of both clinical programs and additional preclinical studies in stroke and cognition. "Our involvement with Regenera has given us recognition of the tremendous opportunity created by RPh201 in a wide array of neurological conditions, based on data obtained to date," said Dr. Yair Schindel M.D., Co-Founder & Managing Partner at aMoon. "Our continued investment is based on our steady confidence in Regenera's capital-efficient approach in obtaining further validation and approval in NAION, while evaluating potential in Alzheimer's disease, before moving into additional neurodegenerative indications." RPh201 was discovered by Dr. Zadik Hazan and is a well-defined extract from gum mastic, which is purified, formulated and stabilized in a proprietary process. Regenera has broad, global intellectual property protection for RPh201 related to formulation, composition of matter and use. About Regenera Pharma Regenera is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing a novel drug for neurological disorders. The company's lead product, RPh201, is a well-defined extract from gum mastic, purified, formulated, and stabilized in a proprietary process, with regenerative and functional recovery benefit observed in pre-clinical in clinical studies. The company intends to use its disease-modifying drug candidate to offer a treatment for a range of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders. For more information, visit https://www.regenerapharma.com About aMoon aMoon is a leading Israeli life sciences investment fund founded by Marius Nacht and Dr. Yair Schindel. The team is passionate about building successful businesses and helping Israeli biopharma, digital health and medical technology companies realize their potential. It partners with management teams dedicated to accelerating cures for the world's most life-threatening conditions and to providing solutions for global healthcare's biggest cost drivers. SOURCE Regenera Pharma Related Links http://www.regenerapharma.com PHOENIX, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Local Phoenix artist Tato Caraveo, known for his impressive and sizeable murals popping up throughout the Valley, has crafted his latest work of art - murals for the residents of Park View Apartments in Tempe, Ariz. "Art takes many forms and is interpreted in many ways by the person looking at it," said Joe Blackbourn of Everest Holdings, an owner of Park View Apartments. "We wanted these murals to give Park View a unique stamp in a sea of apartment sameness while bringing a taste of the local Phoenix art scene home to our residents." Residents of the community eagerly awaited the completion of the four murals, which are two to three-stories high and took multiple days to create, and witness the story unfold on the side of the community buildings. "I envisioned these murals as frames from a movie with each scene being different, but telling the same story," said Tato Caraveo, local Phoenix muralist. "In this case, the story of a guy and a girl floating through life and meeting in the sky and coming together, came to me while I was at the community and it was designed specifically for Park View." The overall whimsical inspired murals were free-hand designed using only spray paint and required ladders and a boom machine. The characters were also a first for the artist, who had not yet created characters of that size before. The 196-unit community offers spacious one-, two- and three-bedroom newly-renovated modern apartment homes ranging from 720 sq. ft to 1,500 sq. ft. In-home amenities include spacious walk-in closets, wood-burning fireplace, private balconies and patios, in home washer and dryer and more. Park View boasts impressive outdoor amenities including a bocce ball court, renovated pool, fenced-in pet park, modern clubhouse, state-of-the-art fitness center and more. Conveniently located near the I-10 and US-60 freeways, the Park View Apartment community proudly delivers residents exactly what they desire in an apartment at the right price. The community is close to outdoor recreation destinations, and easy access to Arizona State University, Mill Avenue and Old Town Scottsdale. Park View Apartments is owned by Everest Holdings and is professionally managed by Alliance Residential Company. To learn more about Park View Apartments, visit www.tempeparkview.com or call 855.208.6662. MEDIA CONTACT: Danielle Clark 602.522.5760 [email protected] SOURCE Alliance Residential Company Related Links http://www.allresco.com US $ Q2 GAAP net income of $72 million or $0.77 per diluted share Adjusted EBITDA of $172 million , up 59% from first quarter Debt repayment of $105 million ; liquidity at $517 million Supercalendered paper cash duty deposits of $60 million to be returned with interest MONTREAL, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) today reported net income for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, of $72 million, or $0.77 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $74 million, or $0.82 per share, in the same period in 2017. Sales were $976 million in the quarter, an increase of $118 million from the year-ago period. Excluding special items, the company reported net income of $66 million, or $0.71 per share, compared to a net loss, excluding special items, of $3 million, or $0.03 per share, in the second quarter of 2017. "Overall positive price momentum and improved operational performance led to record profitability this quarter. Our strong financial results allowed repayment of $105 million of debt during the quarter, significantly improving our balance sheet and leverage," said Yves Laflamme, president and chief executive officer. "We are also very pleased that the countervailing duty order on supercalendered paper has recently been revoked, resulting in a $60 million refund of duty deposits over the coming months." A new four-year collective agreement was also ratified, shortly after the end of the second quarter, with the company's largest Canadian union, Unifor, covering 1,000 employees at six of its sawmills. Earlier in the year, Resolute reached a new four-year collective agreement covering 1,100 employees at eight of the company's Canadian pulp and paper mills. Non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjustments for special items and adjusted EBITDA, are explained and reconciled below. Operating Income Variance Against Prior Period Consolidated The company recorded operating income of $121 million in the quarter, compared to $48 million in the first quarter of 2018. The $73 million improvement reflects higher prices realized across almost all of our product offerings ($58 million), a reduction in energy costs, largely seasonal, favorable fiber usage, and higher shipments following distribution constraints in the first quarter. The operating results also benefited from the effect of the weaker Canadian dollar. These favorable elements more than compensated for the 20% increase in market-based stumpage fees and a rise in recovered paper prices. Maintenance and labor costs were also higher this quarter, largely related to the scheduled outages at two of our pulp mills. Market Pulp Operating income in the market pulp segment was $41 million, $8 million higher than the first quarter. Positive pulp price momentum continued in the quarter, resulting in a $37 increase in the average transaction price to $747 per metric ton. While productivity improved at most mills, shipments were down 9,000 metric tons, largely due to scheduled maintenance outages at the Catawba (South Carolina) and Calhoun (Tennessee) mills, as well as the planned inventory buildup at Saint-Felicien (Quebec), ahead of the extended outage required for the previously announced strategic investment. As a result, inventory increased by 17,000 metric tons. The operating cost per unit (the "delivered cost") increased by $12 per metric ton due to planned maintenance outages and higher recovered paper prices, offset in part by lower wood and fuel expenses, mostly stemming from improved efficiency. Pricing gains outweighed lower volumes and higher costs, resulting in EBITDA of $49 million in the quarter, or $137 per metric ton, up from $110 per metric ton in the first quarter. Tissue The tissue segment incurred an operating loss of $10 million, compared to $1 million in the first quarter, largely attributable to the first time inclusion of Calhoun's results in the second quarter. When compared to the previous quarter, Calhoun's operating results improved by $3 million, mainly due to an increase in shipments. If Calhoun's first quarter sales, previously recorded as a reduction of start-up costs, were included in the tissue segment, overall tissue sales would have risen by 5%, as product mix shifted favorably towards more converted product volume. Finished goods inventory decreased by 3,000 short tons. The delivered cost remains elevated as we continue to optimize productivity. EBITDA for the segment was negative $5 million. Wood Products Compared to the first quarter, operating income in the wood products segment improved by $26 million, to $79 million. The increase is almost entirely attributable to the rise in average transaction price, up $55 to $514 per thousand board feet, as new highs were reached for most grades during the quarter. Shipments also increased by 39 million board feet as a result of improvements in rail car availability. Finished goods inventory dropped by 9% to 128 million board feet. Despite better fiber recovery, the delivered cost rose by $13 per thousand board feet to $355 due to higher market-based stumpage fees linked to lumber selling prices, a rise in diesel fuel cost, and an increase in maintenance activity. EBITDA for the segment was $86 million, compared to $61 million in the first quarter, reflecting a margin of 34%. Newsprint At $18 million in the second quarter, newsprint generated $22 million more operating income compared to the first quarter. Sales rose by 16% as the average transaction price improved by $26 per metric ton and shipments increased by 38,000 metric tons to 393,000, following freight constraints and timing of export sales in the first quarter. Finished goods inventory at the end of the quarter was 8,000 metric tons lower, at 85,000. The delivered cost also improved by $30 per metric ton, largely due to higher volumes and a seasonal reduction in energy costs, offset in part by higher planned maintenance. EBITDA improved by $54 per metric ton from the previous quarter, reaching $88 per metric ton, or $35 million. Specialty Papers The specialty papers segment generated operating income of $4 million in the second quarter, compared to an operating loss of $7 million in the first quarter. Realized pricing continued to strengthen, reaching $701 per short ton, an increase of $26, while the delivered cost decreased by $10 per short ton to $688, as improved efficiency led to lower fuel costs. EBITDA rose to $16 million, or $57 per short ton, compared to $5 million in the previous quarter. Consolidated Quarterly Operating Income Variance Against Year-Ago Period The company's operating income improved by $169 million, compared to the second quarter of 2017. The favorable pricing environment across almost all of our products added $145 million to our results compared to 2017, as the average transaction price increased by 33% for wood products, 18% for market pulp, 15% for newsprint and 8% for specialty papers. The improvement in operating income also included the elimination of fixed costs due to capacity closures in our paper segments ($20 million) in 2017. In addition, there were no significant closure and other related charges in the quarter, compared to $65 million in the same quarter of 2017. These favorable items were partially offset by an increase in manufacturing costs ($26 million), mainly resulting from scheduled maintenance and higher market-related fiber costs, a 15% rise in freight expenses ($16 million), and the unfavorable impact of the stronger Canadian dollar ($15 million). Corporate and Finance During the quarter, the company generated $158 million of cash from operations. After $28 million of capital expenditures and $37 million of cash duty deposits, $105 million of debt was repaid, and liquidity rose to $517 million. Following the revocation of the countervailing duty order on supercalendered paper by the U.S. Department of Commerce, all of the $60 million of cash deposits previously paid will be returned with interest. Including $67 million for softwood lumber and $6 million for uncoated groundwood papers, cumulative duty deposits of $133 million are recorded on our balance sheet. Standard & Poor's Global Ratings recently revised the company's outlook to stable and affirmed the BB- long-term corporate rating. Outlook "Our view on pulp markets remain optimistic through the third quarter, as supply and demand dynamics are expected to be strong in most markets. Despite extensive pulp downtime related to the major capital project in Saint-Felicien, which will increase pulp production in the long term, we expect our pulp performance to remain solid. We believe the underlying market fundamentals for lumber will support healthy operating results in the medium term, in spite of a recent pull back in lumber prices. Paper markets are expected to remain favorable in the third quarter, as we continue to benefit from rising prices across our product offering. For tissue, we have made progress in increasing sales and market penetration. Our operations are now focused on supporting our strengthening market position," added Mr. Laflamme. Earnings Conference Call The company will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results at 9:00 a.m. (ET) today. The public is invited to join the call at (877) 223-4471 at least fifteen minutes before its scheduled start time. A simultaneous webcast will also be available using the link provided under "Presentations and Webcasts" in the "Investors" section of www.resolutefp.com. A replay of the webcast will be archived on the company's website; a phone replay will also be available until August 16, 2018, by dialing (800) 585-8367, conference number 1689773. Description of Special Items Special items (in millions) Second quarter 2018 Second quarter 2017 Foreign currency translation loss (gain) $ 1 $ (3) Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 65 Inventory write-downs related to closures 9 Start-up costs 7 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) Non-operating pension and OPEB credits (12) (1) Other expense (income), net 2 (2) Income tax effect of special items 6 (4) Total $ (6) $ 71 Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information Statements in this press release and the earnings conference call and webcast referred to above that are not reported financial results or other historical information of Resolute Forest Products Inc. (with its subsidiaries and affiliates, "we," "our," "us" or the "company") are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They include, for example, statements included in the Outlook section of this press release and statements relating to our: efforts and initiatives to reduce costs and increase revenues and profitability; business and operating outlook; assessment of market conditions; growth strategies and prospects, and the growth potential of the company and the industry in which we operate; liquidity; future cash flows; and strategies for achieving our goals generally. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as the words "should," "would," "could," "will," "may," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "attempt," "project" and other terms with similar meaning indicating possible future events or potential impact on our business or our shareholders. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on management's current assumptions, beliefs and expectations, all of which involve a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future financial condition, results of operations and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release and the earnings conference call and webcast referred to above include, but are not limited to, the impact of: developments in non-print media, and the effectiveness of our responses to these developments; intense competition in the forest products industry; any inability to offer products certified to globally recognized forestry management and chain of custody standards; any inability to successfully implement our strategies to increase our earnings power; the possible failure to successfully integrate acquired businesses with ours or to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions, such as Atlas Paper Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries, or divestitures or other strategic transactions or projects, such as our Calhoun (Tennessee) tissue operations; uncertainty or changes in political or economic conditions in the United States, Canada or other countries in which we sell our products; global economic conditions; the highly cyclical nature of the forest products industry; any difficulties in obtaining timber or wood fiber at favorable prices, or at all; changes in the cost of purchased energy and other raw materials; physical and financial risks associated with global, regional and local weather conditions and climate change; any disruption in operations or increased labor costs due to labor disputes; difficulties in our employee relations or retention; disruptions to our supply chain, operations or the delivery of our products; cybersecurity risks; risks related to the operation and transition of legacy system applications; negative publicity, even if unjustified; currency fluctuations; any increase in the level of required contributions to our pension plans, including as a result of any increase in the amount by which they are underfunded; our ability to maintain adequate capital resources to provide for all of our substantial capital requirements; the terms of our outstanding indebtedness, which could restrict our current and future operations; losses that are not covered by insurance; any additional closure costs and long-lived asset or goodwill impairment or accelerated depreciation charges; any need to record additional valuation allowances against our recorded deferred income tax assets; our exports from one country to another country becoming or remaining subject to duties, cash deposit requirements, border taxes, quotas or other trade remedies or restrictions; countervailing or anti-dumping duties on imports to the U.S. of most of our paper products and substantially all of our softwood lumber products produced at our Canadian mills; any failure to comply with laws or regulations generally; any additional environmental or health and safety liabilities; any violation of trade laws, export controls or other laws relating to our international sales and operations; adverse outcomes of legal proceedings or disputes in which we are involved; the actions of holders of a significant percentage of our common stock; and the potential risks and uncertainties described under the heading "Risk Factors" in Part I, Item 1A of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. All forward-looking statements in this press release and in the conference call and webcast referred to above are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements contained or referred to above and in the company's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. About Resolute Forest Products Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in close to 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 manufacturing facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the United States and Canada. Resolute has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to internationally recognized sustainable forest management standards. The shares of Resolute Forest Products trade under the stock symbol RFP on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Resolute has received regional, North American and global recognition for its leadership in corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, as well as for its business practices. Visit resolutefp.com for more information. RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Unaudited, in millions except per share amounts) Three Months Six Months Ended June 30, Ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Sales $ 976 $ 858 $ 1,850 $ 1,730 Costs and expenses: Cost of sales, excluding depreciation, amortization and distribution costs 639 646 1,253 1,317 Depreciation and amortization 54 50 107 101 Distribution costs 123 108 239 218 Selling, general and administrative expenses 42 37 85 79 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 65 1 72 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) - (4) - Operating income (loss) 121 (48) 169 (57) Interest expense (11) (12) (24) (23) Non-operating pension and other postretirement benefit credits (2) 12 1 25 4 Other (expense) income, net (3) 5 (10) 5 Income (loss) before income taxes 119 (54) 160 (71) Income tax provision (47) (19) (78) (48) Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests 72 (73) 82 (119) Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests - (1) - (2) Net income (loss) attributable to Resolute Forest Products Inc. $ 72 $ (74) $ 82 $ (121) Net income (loss) per share attributable to Resolute Forest Products Inc. common shareholders: Basic $ 0.79 $ (0.82) $ 0.90 $ (1.34) Diluted 0.77 (0.82) 0.88 (1.34) Weighted-average number of Resolute Forest Products Inc. common shares outstanding: Basic 91.3 90.3 91.2 90.3 Diluted 93.2 90.3 93.1 90.3 See Notes to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statement Information RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited, in millions) June 30, December 31, 2018 2017 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 6 $ 6 Accounts receivable, net: Trade 387 399 Other (1) 129 80 Inventories, net 547 526 Other current assets 39 33 Total current assets 1,108 1,044 Fixed assets, net 1,669 1,716 Amortizable intangible assets, net 63 65 Goodwill 81 81 Deferred income tax assets 941 1,076 Other assets 163 165 Total assets $ 4,025 $ 4,147 Liabilities and equity Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 438 $ 420 Current portion of long-term debt 1 1 Total current liabilities 439 421 Long-term debt, net of current portion 674 788 Pension and other postretirement benefit obligations 1,148 1,257 Deferred income tax liabilities 1 13 Other liabilities 71 68 Total liabilities 2,333 2,547 Commitments and contingencies Equity: Resolute Forest Products Inc. shareholders' equity: Common stock - - Additional paid-in capital 3,797 3,793 Deficit (1,212) (1,294) Accumulated other comprehensive loss (774) (780) Treasury stock at cost (120) (120) Total Resolute Forest Products Inc. shareholders' equity 1,691 1,599 Noncontrolling interests 1 1 Total equity 1,692 1,600 Total liabilities and equity $ 4,025 $ 4,147 See Notes to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statement Information RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited, in millions) Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests $ 82 $ (119) Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests to net cash provided by operating activities: Share-based compensation 5 7 Depreciation and amortization 107 101 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges - 60 (Reversal of) inventory write-downs related to closures (1) 13 Deferred income taxes 75 46 Net pension contributions and other postretirement benefit payments (70) (57) Net gain on disposition of assets (4) - Loss (gain) on translation of foreign currency denominated deferred income taxes 44 (38) (Gain) loss on translation of foreign currency denominated pension and other postretirement benefit obligations (36) 32 Net planned major maintenance payments (3) (8) Changes in working capital: Accounts receivable 17 35 Inventories (20) 10 Other current assets (1) 2 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 18 (27) Other, net 7 3 Net cash provided by operating activities 220 60 Cash flows from investing activities: Cash invested in fixed assets (53) (116) Disposition of assets 2 - Increase in countervailing duty cash deposits on supercalendered paper (1) (11) (12) Increase in countervailing and anti-dumping duty cash deposits on softwood lumber (41) (4) Increase in countervailing duty cash deposits on uncoated groundwood paper (6) - Net cash used in investing activities (109) (132) Cash flows from financing activities: Net (repayments) borrowings under revolving credit facilities (114) 77 Payments of financing and credit facility fees (1) - Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities (115) 77 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash (2) 3 Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash (6) 8 Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash: Beginning of period 49 73 End of period $ 43 $ 81 Cash and cash equivalents, and restricted cash at period end: Cash and cash equivalents $ 6 $ 44 Restricted cash (included in "Other current assets" and "Other assets") 37 37 See Notes to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statement Information RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. RECONCILIATION OF OPERATING INCOME AND NET INCOME ADJUSTED FOR SPECIAL ITEMS A reconciliation of our operating income, net income and net income per share reported before special items is presented in the tables below. See Note 1 to the Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures regarding our use of non-GAAP measures. Three months ended June 30, 2018 Operating income (loss) Net income (loss) (unaudited, in millions, except per share amounts) EPS GAAP, as reported $ 121 $ 72 $ 0.77 Adjustments for special items: Foreign exchange loss - 1 0.01 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 1 0.01 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) (4) (0.04) Non-operating pension and OPEB credits - (12) (0.13) Other expense, net - 2 0.02 Income tax effect of special items - 6 0.07 Adjusted for special items $ 118 $ 66 $ 0.71 Three months ended June 30, 2017 Operating income (loss) Net income (loss) (unaudited, in millions, except per share amounts) EPS GAAP, as reported $ (48) $ (74) $ (0.82) Adjustments for special items: Foreign exchange gain - (3) (0.03) Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 65 65 0.72 Inventory write-downs related to closures 9 9 0.10 Start-up costs 7 7 0.08 Non-operating pension and OPEB credits - (1) (0.01) Other income, net - (2) (0.02) Income tax effect of special items - (4) (0.05) Adjusted for special items $ 33 $ (3) $ (0.03) Six months ended June 30, 2018 Operating income (loss) Net income (loss) (unaudited, in millions, except per share amounts) EPS GAAP, as reported $ 169 $ 82 $ 0.88 Adjustments for special items: Foreign exchange loss - 2 0.02 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 1 0.01 Reversal of inventory write-downs related to closures (1) (1) (0.01) Start-up costs 8 8 0.09 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) (4) (0.05) Non-operating pension and OPEB credits - (25) (0.27) Other expense, net - 8 0.09 Income tax effect of special items - 12 0.13 Adjusted for special items $ 173 $ 83 $ 0.89 Six months ended June 30, 2017 Operating income (loss) Net income (loss) (unaudited, in millions, except per share amounts) EPS GAAP, as reported $ (57) $ (121) $ (1.34) Adjustments for special items: Foreign exchange gain - (3) (0.03) Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 72 72 0.80 Inventory write-downs related to closures 13 13 0.14 Start-up costs 15 15 0.16 Non-operating pension and OPEB credits - (4) (0.05) Other income, net - (2) (0.02) Income tax effect of special items - (3) (0.03) Adjusted for special items $ 43 $ (33) $ (0.37) RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. RECONCILIATION OF EBITDA AND ADJUSTED EBITDA A reconciliation of our net income including noncontrolling interests to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is presented in the tables below. See Note 1 to the Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures regarding our use of the non-GAAP measures EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. Three months ended June 30, 2018 (unaudited, in millions) Market pulp Tissue (2) Wood products Newsprint Specialty papers Corporate and other Total Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests $ 41 $ (10) $ 79 $ 18 $ 4 $ (60) $ 72 Interest expense 11 11 Income tax provision 47 47 Depreciation and amortization 8 5 7 17 12 5 54 EBITDA $ 49 $ (5) $ 86 $ 35 $ 16 $ 3 $ 184 Foreign exchange loss 1 1 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 1 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) (4) Non-operating pension and OPEB credits (12) (12) Other expense, net 2 2 Adjusted EBITDA $ 49 $ (5) $ 86 $ 35 $ 16 $ (9) $ 172 Three months ended June 30, 2017 (unaudited, in millions) Market pulp Tissue Wood products Newsprint Specialty papers Corporate and other Total Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests $ 16 $ (1) $ 45 $ (7) $ (7) $ (119) $ (73) Interest expense 12 12 Income tax provision 19 19 Depreciation and amortization 8 1 7 17 11 6 50 EBITDA $ 24 $ - $ 52 $ 10 $ 4 $ (82) $ 8 Foreign exchange gain (3) (3) Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 65 65 Inventory write-downs related to closures 9 9 Start-up costs 7 7 Non-operating pension and OPEB credits (1) (1) Other income, net (2) (2) Adjusted EBITDA $ 24 $ - $ 52 $ 10 $ 4 $ (7) $ 83 Six months ended June 30, 2018 (unaudited, in millions) Market pulp Tissue (2) Wood products Newsprint Specialty papers Corporate and other Total Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests $ 74 $ (11) $ 132 $ 14 $ (3) $ (124) $ 82 Interest expense 24 24 Income tax provision 78 78 Depreciation and amortization 15 6 15 33 24 14 107 EBITDA $ 89 $ (5) $ 147 $ 47 $ 21 $ (8) $ 291 Foreign exchange loss 2 2 Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 1 1 Reversal of inventory write-downs related to closures (1) (1) Start-up costs 8 8 Net gain on disposition of assets (4) (4) Non-operating pension and OPEB credits (25) (25) Other expense, net 8 8 Adjusted EBITDA $ 89 $ (5) $ 147 $ 47 $ 21 $ (19) $ 280 Six months ended June 30, 2017 (unaudited, in millions) Market pulp Tissue Wood products Newsprint Specialty papers Corporate and other Total Net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests $ 23 $ (1) $ 65 $ (11) $ (3) $ (192) $ (119) Interest expense 23 23 Income tax provision 48 48 Depreciation and amortization 16 2 16 33 23 11 101 EBITDA $ 39 $ 1 $ 81 $ 22 $ 20 $ (110) $ 53 Foreign exchange gain (3) (3) Closure costs, impairment and other related charges 72 72 Inventory write-downs related to closures 13 13 Start-up costs 15 15 Non-operating pension and OPEB credits (4) (4) Other income, net (2) (2) Adjusted EBITDA $ 39 $ 1 $ 81 $ 22 $ 20 $ (19) $ 144 See Notes to the Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. Notes to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statement Information 1. On February 26, 2015, a countervailing duty petition was filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce (or "Commerce") and the U.S. International Trade Commission by certain U.S. supercalendered (or "SC") paper producers requesting that the U.S. government impose countervailing duties on Canadian-origin SC paper exported to the U.S. market. One of our subsidiaries was identified in the petition as being a Canadian exporting producer of SC paper to the U.S. and was selected as a mandatory respondent to be investigated by Commerce. As a result of that investigation, after August 3, 2015, we were required to pay cash deposits to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency for estimated countervailing duties on our U.S. imports of SC paper produced at our Canadian mills. Between August 3, 2015 and October 15, 2015, we were required to make cash deposits at a rate of 2.04%. On October 15, 2015, that rate increased to 17.87%, 17.10% of which was not based on any countervailable subsidy we received, but rather on a punitive application of "adverse facts available." On March 21, 2018, Verso Corporation, the sole remaining U.S. SC paper petitioner, filed a request with Commerce for a changed circumstances review to revoke the countervailing duty order, retroactive to August 3, 2015, and for Commerce to refund all countervailing duty deposits with interest. On May 8, 2018, Commerce announced the initiation of a changed circumstances review, and on July 6, 2018, Commerce signed the revocation order. As a result, we will receive a refund of all outstanding cash deposits made on our U.S. imports of SC paper produced at our Canadian mills, plus interest, and no further cash deposits will be required going forward. In addition, this resulted in the termination of all pending administrative reviews. Through June 30, 2018, our cumulative cash deposits, to be refunded, totaled $60 million. These cash deposits were recorded in "Accounts receivable, net Other" in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. 2. In March 2017, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (or the "FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update (or "ASU") 2017-07, "Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost," which requires employers that present a measure of operating income in their statements of earnings to disaggregate and present only the service cost component of net periodic pension cost and net periodic other postretirement benefit (or "OPEB") cost in operating expenses (together with other employee compensation costs arising during the period). The other components of the net periodic pension cost and net periodic OPEB cost (or "Non-operating pension and OPEB costs") are reported separately outside any subtotal of operating income. This update is effective retrospectively for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years. We adopted this ASU on January 1, 2018. The effect of this ASU on our Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was as follows: Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 (Unaudited, in millions) Before ASU Effect of Change As Reported As Previously Reported Effect of Change As Adjusted Cost of sales, excluding depreciation, amortization and distribution costs $ 627 $ 12 $ 639 $ 645 $ 1 $ 646 Operating income (loss) 133 (12) 121 (47) (1) (48) Non-operating pension and other postretirement benefit credits 12 12 1 1 The effect of this ASU on our Consolidated Statements of Operations for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was as follows: Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 (Unaudited, in millions) Before ASU Effect of Change As Reported As Previously Reported Effect of Change As Adjusted Cost of sales, excluding depreciation, amortization and distribution costs $ 1,227 $ 26 $ 1,253 $ 1,312 $ 5 $ 1,317 Selling, general and administrative expenses 86 (1) 85 80 (1) 79 Operating income (loss) 194 (25) 169 (53) (4) (57) Non-operating pension and other postretirement benefit credits 25 25 4 4 RESOLUTE FOREST PRODUCTS INC. Notes to the Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures 1. Operating income (loss), net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share (or "EPS"), in each case as adjusted for special items, as well as earnings before interest expense, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization (or "EBITDA"), and adjusted EBITDA, in each case by reportable segment (market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers) in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Codification 290, "Segment Reporting," are not financial measures recognized under generally accepted accounting principles (or "GAAP"). We calculate operating income (loss), as adjusted for special items, as operating income (loss) from our consolidated statements of operations, adjusted for items such as closure costs, impairment and other related charges, inventory write-downs related to closures, start-up costs, gains and losses on disposition of assets, and other charges or credits that are excluded from our segment's performance from GAAP operating income (loss). We calculate net income (loss), as adjusted for special items, as net income (loss) from our consolidated statements of operations, adjusted for the same special items applied to operating income (loss), in addition to foreign exchange gains and losses, non-operating pension and OPEB costs and credits, other income (expense), net, and the income tax effect of special items. EPS, as adjusted for special items, is calculated as net income (loss), as adjusted for special items, per diluted share. EBITDA by reportable segment is calculated as net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests from the consolidated statements of operations, allocated to each of our reportable segments, adjusted for depreciation and amortization. EBITDA for corporate and other is calculated as net income (loss) including noncontrolling interests from the consolidated statements of operations, after the allocation to reportable segments, adjusted for interest expense, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA means EBITDA, excluding the same special items applied to net income (loss). Liquidity is calculated as cash and cash equivalents from our consolidated balance sheets, and availability under our revolving credit facilities. We believe that using these non-GAAP measures is useful because they are consistent with the indicators management uses internally to measure the Company's performance, and it allows the reader to more easily compare our ongoing operations and financial performance from period to period. Operating income (loss), net income (loss) and EPS, in each case as adjusted for special items, as well as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, are internal measures, and therefore may not be comparable to those of other companies. These non-GAAP measures should not be viewed as substitutes to financial measures determined under GAAP in our consolidated statements of operations in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 2. The operating results of our Calhoun (Tennessee) tissue operations, previously recorded under corporate and other, have been recorded in our tissue segment since April 1, 2018. SOURCE Resolute Forest Products Inc. Related Links www.resolutefp.com For the first time since Women Writer's Week, Rogerebert.com will have reviews and articles by five women critics in its Friday line-up. "The #MeToo, #NeverAgain and #BlackLivesMatter movements underscore why diverse, critical voices and lived experiences in the arts not only affect how we see the world but influence how we begin to heal it," said Chaz Ebert, president of Ebert Digital. "We need a wide spectrum of voices to challenge the male-dominated narrative that drives much of Hollywood and the popular media." Ebert will assume the role of editor-in-chief of the premier film criticism site she co-founded with her late husband, beloved film critic Roger Ebert, in 2002. Brian Tallerico, managing editor, will continue to handle day-to-day operations, and Matt Zoller Seitz remains editor-at-large. They're joined by critics Henderson, Simon Abrams and Glenn Kenny. The remaining female critics are Sheila O'Malley and Christy Lemire. The site will also continue to spotlight other new and returning voices on its non-review content. Diversifying film criticism, a cause celebre for Ebert personally, has been buoyed by the #OscarsSoWhite movement that decried the lack of diverse talent recognized at the Academy Awards, and criticism from actors like Meryl Streep, who described the lack of female critics as infuriating. Ebert has championed the cause by cultivating experiences for young talent. Last year, three black males were selected for the distinguished Roger Ebert Fellowship at the Sundance Institute. A year earlier, Ebert chose four young women from diverse backgrounds. She has partnered with civic groups and colleges to provide mentorship and published reviews from diverse students on the website. Coming soon, Rogerebert.com will host Diversity in the Arts Week showcasing reviews and social commentary by writers of color. Send submissions to [email protected]. Media contact: Robin Beaman | [email protected] | 312-208-1212. SOURCE Rogerebert.com Related Links https://www.rogerebert.com/ SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- One Twenty Nine Films (OTNF), a San Francisco-based production company, today announced the completion of a one-year mission: to make the company the top source for filmmaking directorial and writing talent in San Francisco. With a roster of directors whose work includes Nike, Alpha Romeo, Infinity, Facebook, McDonald's, TAG Heuer and Haagen-Dazs, One Twenty Nine Films' focus is to provide top directorial talent to San Francisco and nationwide. "We see a need in San Francisco's advertising community for a production company with a wide selection of skilled, seasoned writers and directors," said Nick Seuser, founder and executive producer at One Twenty Nine Films. "We can provide that talent to produce only the most compelling advertising and branded content, serving San Francisco advertising agencies and leading brands." For more detail, please visit: https://onetwentyninefilms.com. OTNF Directors include: Adrian Elliot: Director and contributing writer of two comedy series currently in development, with releases expected in 2018. Adrian Elliot earned Winner, Best Narrative Short, NYLA International Film Festival in 2017, for his film, "DITCH." David Rosenbaum: Acclaimed commercial and music video director known for his storytelling ability and adept skill at blending live-action and CG seamlessly, for brands including Nike, Infiniti, Interscope, Adidas and Cisco. Ian Schiller: Winner of Best Narrative Short Film Awards from the Santa Cruz Film Festival and Sacramento Film Festival, for his film, "Kong's," Ian Schiller directs work for Apple, Intel, Specialized Bicycles, and the UFC. Mary Dauterman: Recognized as one of Business Insiders most creative women in advertising, Mary Dauterman has worked with brands such as Secret, Clearasil, and Old Spice. She's currently in post production on a Texas-based dark comedy, "White Rock Skate." Max Gutierrez: Recognized by AdWeek, the AICP, the One Club, The Addy's and the Young Director Awards at Cannes, Max Gutierrez directs for brands such as McDonald's, Wilson, Toyota, & Netflix. Nicholas Weigel: Award-winning animation director for 18+ years, creating design driven work for clients including TAG Heuer, Reebok and SeaWorld. Patrick Biesemans: A 2017 recipient of ScreenCraft's Orb Media Fellowship, and Musicbed's 2016 Film Fund Initiative, Patrick Biesemans is currently in development on both film and television projects. Rosie Haber: Winner of the Audience Award at Los Angeles Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival for the film "Instababy," Rosie Haber is a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient. Tony Benna: Intertwining stop-motion animation and live-action storytelling, Tony Benna creates distinctive heartfelt films, both in and out of the commercial world. Clients include Samsung, Pepsi, Ben and Jerry's and Google. About OTNF One Twenty Nine Films is a San Francisco based production company with a curated roster of exceptional writing and directing talent based on both coasts, directing commercials, documentaries, music videos, short films, animation, VR, and branded online content. Our long-term success is the result of establishing creative partnerships with our clients where ideas and execution thrive. For more information, please visit: https://onetwentyninefilms.com. SOURCE One Twenty Nine Films Related Links https://onetwentyninefilms.com DENVER, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SecureSet Academy today announced the creation of the SecureSet Foundation, a national non-profit organization that will serve to promote increased diversity in the cybersecurity profession through financial assistance to individuals to enhance and build their professional skills in the field of cybersecurity and help to fill the talent pipeline. The foundation has been formed in direct response to employers, collaborating with SecureSet, who have demonstrated an immediate and direct concern to solve the issue of a lack of diversity in the global cybersecurity field. According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, women comprise a mere 11 percent of the cybersecurity workforce and globally men are four times more likely to hold C- and executive-level positions and nine times more likely to hold managerial positions than women. Data from the latest (ISC)2 report, shows the disparity in representation is mirrored across cybersecurity professionals who identify as a racial or ethnic minorities. A separate 2017 ISC2 report cites that the vast majority of cybersecurity professionals (87%) did not come from security-related backgrounds. The need for non-traditional recruiting channels and a combination of skills like high accountability, complex problem-solving, and teamwork make military veterans ideal candidates, yet there are not enough of them taking advantage of pathways to transition into security roles. The SecureSet Foundation will work to address these disparities by providing increased access to cybersecurity education and lowering the financial burden, which in turn will enable more candidates to realize cybersecurity careers during a time of exceptionally high demand. "As it stands, the cybersecurity industry is in dire need of fresh faces and new perspectives, particularly at a time when the job market already has a negative unemployment rate," said Brad Davis, Executive Director of SecureSet Foundation. "Reaching new, previously untapped individuals and providing them with the skills and education to become part of the cybersecurity workforce is a critical piece of addressing the shortage of qualified professionals in this field." "A lack of diversity is a critical problem for any industry, and is particularly acute when it comes to cybersecurity," said Bret Fund, CEO and Founder of SecureSet. "By promoting a more diverse population of cybersecurity professionals and offering grants to underserved populations, we can tackle new threats with the best combination of creative, and technologically savvy, minds possible from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences." Students of the SecureSet Academy, including veterans, women, minorities, those with disabilities, members of the LGBT community, as well as those experiencing economic hardship, may qualify for support from the SecureSet Foundation in the form of immersive program tuition assistance, cost of living support, as well as industry certification prep / exam cost support. The launch of SecureSet Foundation will be managed by members of SecureSet's founding leadership at launch, with Brad Davis serving as Executive Director. Within the first year, this team will initiate a search for a permanent Executive Director, as well as a number of strong and independent directors to continue to grow the organization in support of this important mission. For more information, please contact Executive Director, Brad Davis [email protected]. About Us. SecureSet helps offset critical skills gaps in the cybersecurity field through immersive, comprehensive educations programs that rapidly produce highly trained, relevant, up-to-date professionals. Founded in the wake of an acute shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals, and increasingly sophisticated onslaught of threats worldwide, SecureSet provides hands-on experience through immersive education programs and workshops to ensure graduates have immediate, in-demand skills to protect against the latest threats. Offering compressed programs to quickly deliver skills and certifications in just months, SecureSet educates qualified professionals in an accelerated time frame. SecureSet has campuses in Denver, Colorado Springs, Tampa and will soon launch in the DC Metro area. For more information, visit: https://secureset.com/. SecureSet Contact: Lisette Rauwendaal Lumina Communications (408) 827-4363 [email protected] SOURCE SecureSet Academy Related Links https://secureset.com/ EDISON, N.J., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RAG-Stiftung (RAG Foundation), through its investment company RAG-Stiftung Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (RSBG), is acquiring a majority of the shares in SecurView. The shares being acquired are from the company's founders, Rajeev Khanolkar and Niten Ved, and the company's initial investor, Cisco Systems. The shareholdings include all subsidiary companies of SecurView, Inc. As a result of the new investment partnership, SecurView's management plans to open new business areas and markets, particularly in Europe, to build upon their successful international growth path. "We are extremely excited to have RSBG as a shareholder and look forward to working with the RSBG team to create a global footprint in cybersecurity," said Rajeev Khanolkar, President and Chief Executive Officer, SecurView. "SecurView has been successful with its current cybersecurity solutions in NAC (Network Access Control)/Segmentation, Datacenter, and SOC. We are planning to expand our solution offerings in the areas of Cloud, Compliance, and SDN (Software Defined Networking). This, in turn, will help our partners deepen their relationships as trusted cybersecurity advisors to their clients." "Cybersecurity is a very strategic area for RSBG and its portfolio companies," said Juergen Wild, CEO of RSBG. "We see big changes happening across all industry segments as digitization has started to show a significant impact on our portfolio companies and their clients. Cybersecurity has become a key driver for executing a successful digitization program. We feel that SecurView will offer unique value to our portfolio companies by sharing its deep relationships with security technology providers and by integrating those technologies into the clients' digital environment." The company will continue to be led by Rajeev Khanolkar as President and CEO of SecurView. Niten Ved will continue in his role as Chief Operating Officer. --- SecurView was founded in 2007, with a strategic investment from Cisco Systems, to deliver cybersecurity solutions to the Information Technology (IT) market. The company's security services focus on the following technology domains: datacenter, mobility, network identity policy, and network segmentation. The company also responds to client-specific security requirements by providing comprehensive plans to implement effective solutions. SecurView's suite of offerings includes both products and services. Further information about SecurView is available at: www.securview.com Contact SecurView: 1-732-393-7700, [email protected] The RAG-Stiftung is a private foundation that was established in 2007. The mission of the RAG-Stiftung is to accumulate sufficient assets by the end of 2018 to enable the permanent financing starting in 2019 of the inherited liabilities with unlimited duration related to German coal mining operations in the Ruhr and Saar region. The foundation has been making strategic investments since 2014 and has assembled an impressive list of portfolio companies. Further information about RAG-Stiftung is available at: www.rag-stiftung.de/en SOURCE SecurView, Inc. Related Links http://www.securview.com NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of CBS Corporation ("CBS" or the "Company") (NYSE: CBS). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980. The investigation concerns whether CBS and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here to join a class action] On July 27, 2018, media outlets reported that The New Yorker would shortly publish an article detailing allegations of sexual misconduct by CBS chairman and chief executive officer Leslie Moonves. That same day, CBS announced that it will investigate the allegations against Moonves, stating that "[a]ll [allegations] of personal misconduct are to be taken seriously." On this news, CBS's stock price fell $3.52, or 6.12%, to close at $54.01 on July 27, 2018. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP [email protected] 888-476-6529 ext. 9980 SOURCE Pomerantz LLP Related Links http://www.pomerantzlaw.com The SWAN North American Alliance webinar hosted by Frost & Sullivan will examine growth opportunities and case study outcomes in North America's wastewater and combined sewer overflow management SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's Energy & Environment team will host the SWAN North American Alliance for a live, complimentary briefingSmart Wastewater Solutions: Addressing Combined Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Challenges on Tuesday, August 7, at 2:00 PM CDT. The interactive briefing will offer moderation from Seth Cutler, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan, and expert insight from a panel of industry participants including Kyla Jacobsen, former utility director for the City of Elgin, Illinois, Jody Crabtree, conveyance supervisor at Columbia County Water Utility, GA., and Reese Johnson, principal engineer at the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati. To register for the complimentary webcast, please visit: http://frost.ly/2np A discussion of data-driven, smart wastewater solutions and the critical role they play in efforts to shrink the multi-billion dollar deficit in North America's wastewater and combined sewer overflow management needs will take center stage during the briefing. The conversation will also touch on EPA-issued consent decrees and how they single-handedly demand billions of dollars to correct current system flaws, while further billions are required to keep wastewater networks running and avoid violations. These challenges highlight how essential smart wastewater solutions are minimizing and optimizing compliance investment and reducing wastewater utility spend to operate the network today and in the future. "While the water supply network has seen great attention from smart water innovations, the possibilities of data-based solutions to alleviate and overcome the challenges to the wastewater and collections networks are even greater," said Cutler. "Whether facing formal EPA consent decrees or addressing a myriad of early-stage requirements in combined sewers, sanitary sewers and stormwater capacity management, smart wastewater solutions help utilities optimize their investments and operations to ensure sustainable wastewater systems in the face of massive rehabilitation requirements." Key takeaways of the webcast include: Identify how data-based technologies and solutions can tackle the multi-billion dollar wastewater network deficit and drive growth opportunities Understand how utilities transformed challenges into strengths Engage with industry thought leaders and participate in an interactive Q&A About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion For more information, visit ww2.frost.com or call +1 (877) 463-7678 Press Contact: Jaylon Brinkley Frost & Sullivan +1 (210) 247 2481 [email protected] SOURCE Frost & Sullivan Related Links http://www.frost.com SME PRIME Schools work with industry to tailor technological and manufacturing curricula offerings available to high school students to prepare them for manufacturing career pathways. The network of schools reaches 50,000 students in 46 schools across the country. The new partnership will make available to participating schools the equipment and tools, curriculum, and teacher training necessary for certification in precision measurement and quality control, as well as student credentials. "This important partnership will create opportunity for schools, teachers, and especially students through important training and hands on experiences in precision measurement a skill so necessary for manufacturers," said Roger Tadajewski, executive director of NC3. "We're pleased to partner with Snap-On and Starrett to make this opportunity available to the SME Education Foundation PRIME Schools network." Ira E. Friedman, education manager of Precision Tools for the L. S. Starrett Company, noted that "Precision measurement is the cornerstone of quality in the vast array of products and services many people rely upon each day." Schools in the SME PRIME Schools network will launch the program this fall. In partnership with manufacturing companies and partners, SME PRIME School teachers from Grand Haven (MI), Central Columbia (PA), Wadsworth (OH), Anna (OH), Romeo (MI) and Worcester Technical High School (MA) schools are already taking part in in the training and certification process. "Our goal with the SME PRIME Schools initiative is to prepare a qualified, competent, manufacturing workforce that contributes to sustainable communities that attract and retain manufacturers and provides bright young students a future in advanced manufacturing," said Josh Cramer, interim executive director and director of K-12 programs for the SME Education Foundation. "Working with great partners allows us to make those opportunities available." About SME For more than 85 years, SME has been committed to promoting manufacturing technology, developing a skilled workforce, and attracting future generations to advance manufacturing. Through events, its media publications, training and development programs, and membership activities, SME connects manufacturing professionals, academia and communities, sharing knowledge and resources to build inspired, educated and prosperous manufacturers and enterprises. The SME Education Foundation attracts, prepares, and enables the next generation of the manufacturing workforce through training and education programs, partnerships with manufacturers, scholarships, and academic partnerships. Learn more about the SME Education Foundation at smeef.org, and follow @mfgeducation on Twitter or facebook.com/SME.Education.Foundation. About National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) NC3 was established to address the need for strong industry partnerships with educational institutions to develop, implement and sustain industry-recognized portable certifications that have strong validation and assessment standards. NC3 is a network of education providers and corporations that supports, advances and validates new and emerging technology skills in the transportation, aviation, Manufacturing, Construction Trades and energy industry sectors. Visit www.nc3.net to review list of industry partners, member educational institutions and certification training offered. About Snap-on Industrial Snap-on Industrial is a division of Snap-on Incorporated, a leading global innovator, manufacturer and marketer of tools, diagnostics, equipment, software and service solutions for professional users. Products and services include hand and power tools, tool storage, diagnostics software, information and management systems, shop equipment and other solutions for vehicle dealerships and repair centers, as well as customers in industry, government, agriculture, aviation and natural resources. Products and services are sold through the company's franchisee, company-direct, distribution and Web-based channels. Founded in 1920, Snap-on is a $3.7 billion, S&P 500 Company headquartered in Kenosha, Wisconsin. About The L.S. Starrett Company Founded in 1880 and headquartered in Athol, MA U.S.A., The L.S. Starrett Company (www.starrett.com) is a leading global manufacturer of precision measuring tools and gages, optical comparators and vision systems and force and hardness testing solutions. Starrett also manufactures laser measurement systems, custom engineered granite solutions, custom gaging, band saw blades, power tool accessory saw blades, workshop tools and jobsite tools. The Starrett brand is recognized throughout the world for exceptional quality and precision. Skilled personnel, superior products, manufacturing expertise, innovation and excellent service and support have earned Starrett its reputation as the "World's Greatest Toolmakers." Starrett has over 1,600 employees worldwide and annual sales exceeding $200 million. The company has six manufacturing locations in the U.S.A., including facilities in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Minnesota and California. Starrett also has three international manufacturing facilities. Plants are located in Brazil, Scotland and China, in addition to distribution centers and offices located worldwide. SOURCE SME Education Foundation Related Links http://www.sme.org SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sparkcentral, the leading enterprise messaging customer service platform company, today announces official support for the new WhatsApp Business solution and invites enterprises to gain early access to the program that opens with limited availability. WhatsApp Business and Sparkcentral enable enterprises to improve customer experience, streamline customer care operations, and reduce the cost to serve by using asynchronous messaging -- rather than traditional voice, email, or live chat channels -- to communicate with the over 1.5 billion users of the highly popular messaging app. People in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends, family, and businesses, anytime and anywhere. KBC, a leading Belgian-based bank and insurance company serving over 11 million customers worldwide, is pleased to be one of the first financial institutions to offer this superior service experience to its customers. "Since 6 February this year, KBC customers have been able to message with KBC via WhatsApp," says Karin Van Hoecke, General Manager for Mass Retail at KBC's Belgium Business Unit. "Our customers make enthusiastic use of this opportunity and appreciate the fact that we help and speak to them through their favorite channel. To now scale and offer WhatsApp Business to all our customers, we are pleased to work with Sparkcentral and their enterprise messaging customer service platform. That WhatsApp welcomes us to be among the first to set up a pilot with WhatsApp Business demonstrates once again that we are a leader in our sector in terms of offering innovative and customer-focused solutions." "Leading the way by innovation in the hotel industry is an important part of the citizenM culture and this includes the way we communicate with our citizens," says Jeremy Walder, citizenConnect manager at citizenM. "WhatsApp is definitely the right channel to enable us to offer this type of intimate service. Together with our partner Sparkcentral we will be leading the way in how we manage conversations via Whatsapp and our other existing messaging channels at scale." Utility company ENGIE Electrabel agrees: "This extension of the Sparkcentral platform to WhatsApp Business will increase our contact channels to the benefit of our customers while reducing their effort and providing them quick and excellent service," says Jan De Smet, Head of Customer Service at ENGIE Electrabel. With changing consumer communications preferences, businesses now need mainstream messaging solutions to interact with their customers at scale. Sparkcentral leads the way by providing a centralized routing platform for all social and messaging channels, providing a consolidated messaging queue and agent dashboard that aggregates and consolidates data from any channel into one view with integrated reporting for workforce managers. WhatsApp Business helps companies and customers connect quickly and easily, yet businesses need an efficient messaging tool to communicate at scale. "More communication with customers is better -- there is no question about that," says Joe Gagnon, CEO at Sparkcentral, "and with the right strategy, this can be done without increasing cost. More engagement makes customers more 'sticky' and loyal and enables self-service. Customer engagement is a goldmine for businesses," he adds, "it just has to be executed properly." Use cases can span from simple outbound notifications (booking or purchase confirmations, order receipts, delivery notifications, payment or appointment reminders, two-factor authentication, ...) to customer service and support (billing inquiries, product updates, engagement with personal advisors, customer onboarding activities, handling of urgent issues, etc.) For more information or to sign up for early access you can visit our website, reach out to our team, or message us on WhatsApp at 1-866-559-6229. SOURCE Sparkcentral Related Links https://www.sparkcentral.com ST. LOUIS, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spire Inc. (NYSE: SR) today reported operating results for its fiscal 2018 third quarter ended June 30, 2018. Highlights include: Third quarter fiscal 2018 earnings per diluted share of $0.52 , compared to $0.45 a year ago , compared to a year ago Net economic earnings* (NEE) per share of $0.31 , down from $0.44 a year ago, reflecting the expected shift in the timing of utility earnings from the Missouri rate design change , down from a year ago, reflecting the expected shift in the timing of utility earnings from the rate design change Our FY18 NEE per share guidance of $3.65 - $3.75 and our $500 million capital spend target are affirmed; our long-term earnings growth target remains 4 - 7 percent "Our third quarter results reflect strong performance across our businesses including organic growth and upgrades to our infrastructure and technology," said Suzanne Sitherwood, president and chief executive officer of Spire. "These investments are enabling us to deliver greater service quality and reliability to the homes, businesses and communities we serve. We also strengthened our balance sheet and continued to advance our non-utility businesses. We are expanding and strengthening our Spire Marketing and Spire Storage businesses, while preparing to move forward with our Spire STL Pipeline once we receive FERC approval." Third Quarter Results Three months ended June 30, (Millions) (Per Diluted Share) 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Economic Earnings (Loss)* by Segment Gas Utility $ 16.9 $ 23.3 $ 0.34 $ 0.48 Gas Marketing 4.4 2.3 0.09 0.05 Other (6.1) (4.0) (0.12) (0.09) Total $ 15.2 $ 21.6 $ 0.31 $ 0.44 Fair value adjustments, pre-tax 16.0 2.2 0.32 0.05 Acquisition-related costs, pre-tax (3.3) (1.9) (0.07) (0.04) Income tax effect of pre-tax adjustments (2.0) (0.2) (0.04) Net Income $ 25.9 $ 21.7 $ 0.52 $ 0.45 Weighted Average Diluted Shares Outstanding 49.7 48.2 * Non-GAAP, see "Net Economic Earnings and Reconciliation to GAAP." Consolidated net income for the three months ended June 30, 2018, the third quarter of our fiscal year, was $25.9 million ($0.52 per diluted share), up from $21.7 million ($0.45 per share) in the prior year period. NEE for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were $15.2 million ($0.31 per share), down from $21.6 million ($0.44 per share) last year, reflecting improved Gas Marketing results more than offset by the outcome of the Missouri rate cases as discussed below. Current year per share amounts reflect our successful equity offering completed on May 10, 2018, of 2.3 million shares (or 4.7 percent of our then outstanding shares). NEE exclude from net income the impacts of fair value accounting and timing adjustments associated with energy-related transactions, the impacts of acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities, and the largely non-cash impacts of other non-recurring or unusual items such as certain regulatory, legislative, or GAAP standard-setting actions. In fiscal 2018, these impacts include the revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities due to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the write-off of assets related to pension costs and property sold that were disallowed in our recent Missouri rate proceedings. Gas Utility The Gas Utility segment includes the regulated distribution operations of our five gas utilities across Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri. Third quarter NEE were $16.9 million, down from $23.3 million in the prior year, reflecting a lower contribution margin and higher expenses. Contribution margin decreased by $4.1 million, driven by a change in seasonal rate design at the Missouri utilities effective April 19, and the timing of a reduction in customer rates at Spire Alabama to reflect the benefits of tax reform. These impacts were partially offset by higher usage volumes driven by favorable weather (particularly unseasonably cold temperatures in April), a smaller rate adjustment for Spire Alabama under the Rate Stabilization and Equalization (RSE) mechanism, and modest customer growth. Operation and maintenance (O&M) expenses of $105.6 million for the quarter were up $4.8 million, mainly due to an increase in the amount of pension expense recognized as a result of our recent Missouri rate cases. O&M also increased due to higher bad debt expense driven by colder weather. Depreciation and amortization expenses increased by $2.1 million from last year, reflecting higher capital investment. Taxes other than income increased $3.0 million reflecting higher volume-driven gross receipts taxes. Gas Marketing The Gas Marketing segment includes the results of Spire Marketing, which provides natural gas marketing and related services on a non-regulated basis across the country, with a core operating footprint in the central U.S. Gas Marketing reported third quarter NEE of $4.4 million, up from $2.3 million in the prior year, reflecting improved market conditions driven by favorable weather and widened basis differentials that contributed to increased trading value and storage optimization. Other Other non-utility operations and corporate costs on a NEE basis for the third quarter were $6.1 million in fiscal 2018, up from $4.0 million a year ago. The increase is largely due to higher after-tax interest and other corporate costs. Year-to-Date Results Nine Months Ended June 30, (Millions) (Per Diluted Share) 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Economic Earnings (Loss) by Segment Gas Utility $ 208.1 $ 187.3 $ 4.26 $ 4.02 Gas Marketing 18.2 3.7 0.37 0.08 Other (16.0) (12.9) (0.33) (0.28) Total $ 210.3 $ 178.1 $ 4.30 $ 3.82 Missouri regulatory adjustments, pre-tax (30.6) (0.63) Fair value adjustments, pre-tax 3.7 (3.0) 0.08 (0.07) Acquisition-related costs, pre-tax (7.0) (2.1) (0.14) (0.04) Income tax effect of pre-tax adjustments 9.7 1.9 0.20 0.04 Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 54.0 1.10 Net Income $ 240.1 $ 174.9 $ 4.91 $ 3.75 Weighted Average Diluted Shares Outstanding 48.8 46.6 For the first nine months of fiscal 2018, we reported consolidated net income of $240.1 million (or $4.91 per share) compared to $174.9 million (or $3.75 per share) for the prior year. NEE for the nine months ended June 30, 2018 were $210.3 million (or $4.30 per share) up from $178.1 million (or $3.82 per share) a year ago. The increase in NEE was driven by higher earnings from both our Gas Utility and Gas Marketing segments, and also reflects the benefits of federal income tax reform. Current year per share results reflect our May 2018 equity offering. Gas Utility Gas Utility reported NEE of $208.1 million, up from $187.3 million a year ago, reflecting a higher contribution margin and the benefits of lower federal income tax rates, partially offset by higher operating expenses. Year-to-date contribution margin increased by $18.3 million, with $28.7 million due to higher volumes. Contribution margin also benefited from a $5.8 million increase in Infrastructure System Replacement Surcharge (ISRS) revenues, modest customer growth and a smaller RSE rate adjustment for Spire Alabama. These positive factors were partially offset by a $9.8 million reduction due to the implementation of a new rate design at the Missouri utilities, effective in the third quarter, that concentrates more of our margin and earnings in the winter months (our fiscal first and second quarters). Margin was also impacted by a $9.7 million reduction in customer rates across our southeast gas utilities to reflect the lower federal income taxes. O&M expenses increased by $48.5 million, or by a net $11.9 million after removing the $36.6 million gross write-off of disallowed O&M recoveries in our Missouri rate cases that concluded in March. The net O&M increase is largely due to weather driven increases in employee-related costs and bad debt expense. Depreciation and amortization rose by $7.9 million reflecting increased capital investment across our utilities. Taxes other than income taxes were up $16.0 million due to an increase in gross receipts taxes on higher volumes. Gas Marketing NEE were $18.2 million, up from $3.7 million in the prior year. Higher earnings were driven by a $25.3 million increase in contribution margin due to improved market conditions leading to higher overall basis differentials (spreads), and storage and transport optimization. Other On a NEE basis, year-to-date costs were $16.0 million, up from $12.9 million in the prior-year period, reflecting higher after-tax interest and other corporate costs. Balance Sheets and Cash Flows We maintain a strong capital structure with ample liquidity. At June 30, 2018, our long-term capitalization was 51.5 percent equity, compared to 48.7 percent equity capitalization at September 30, 2017, the end of our prior fiscal year. The increase in equity capitalization reflects the May 2018 issuance of 2.3 million shares described earlier, which resulted in net proceeds of $153.0 million. Short-term borrowings outstanding at June 30, 2018 were $191.0 million, down from $450.7 million a year ago, reflecting an increase in long-term borrowing for our gas utilities over the last year and the repayment of short-term debt from the equity offering proceeds. We retain significant capacity in our $975 million revolving credit facility and related commercial paper program to meet our liquidity needs. Net cash provided by operating activities was $511.3 million for the nine months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $320.7 million for the prior-year period. The increase was due to higher net income, as adjusted for deferred tax balances tied to tax reform, the timing of purchased gas adjustments, and fluctuations in working capital items. Capital expenditures for the first nine months of fiscal 2018 were $334.3 million, up 12 percent from $298.6 million in the prior year, reflecting increased infrastructure upgrades, investment to support customer growth and new business development, and for the Spire STL Pipeline. For additional details on Spire's results for the third quarter of fiscal 2018, please see the accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income, unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, and unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Pipelines and Storage We continue to advance our non-utility businesses as part of our overall growth strategy, including the development of our Spire STL Pipeline project and investing in natural gas storage. Spire STL Pipeline Spire STL Pipeline is a planned 65-mile natural gas supply pipeline that will provide Spire Missouri East with access to lower-cost shale gas from the Marcellus/Utica producing regions, while enhancing reliability and the diversity of our physical transport portfolio. We anticipate that we will receive a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the near future, allowing us to complete the necessary land acquisitions and other pre-construction activities. Spire Storage As previously announced, in late December 2017, we acquired a majority interest in a large natural gas storage facility in Wyoming. The facility interconnects with five interstate pipes, has access to the Rockies Express Pipeline, and is strategically located near the Opal hub. It is positioned to serve multiple regions and customers including utilities, power generators, marketers and pipelines. In May 2018, we expanded our operations by acquiring a smaller adjacent storage facility. In early July, we submitted an application with FERC to combine the operations into one FERC certificate with a market-based tariff. We continue to work on the integration of our Spire Storage facilities including making planned investments in improving operating performance and expanding capacity. The operating results of Spire Storage, including integration costs, are included in Other, but are excluded from NEE in fiscal 2018. Earnings Guidance and Outlook We affirm our fiscal 2018 NEE guidance range of $3.65 - $3.75 per diluted share. This range reflects our year-to-date performance and incorporates the impacts of tax reform and our recently concluded Missouri rate cases. The Missouri rate cases increase the annualized run rate of expenses and change our rate design and, as a result, more of our margins and earnings are concentrated in the winter heating season, as noted earlier. Our longer-term NEE per share growth target remains 4 - 7 percent. This target uses run-rate 2018 earnings as the base, which removes an estimated $0.17 per share of performance from Spire Marketing in the first half of fiscal 2018 that benefited from significantly more favorable weather-driven market conditions that are not expected to recur next year. Our capital expenditures forecast for fiscal 2018 remains $500 million and our five-year capital spend outlook for the fiscal years 2018-2022 remains $2.5 billion. Dividends The Spire board of directors declared a quarterly common stock dividend of $0.5625 per share, payable October 2, 2018, to shareholders of record on September 11, 2018. We have continuously paid a cash dividend since 1946, with 2018 marking the 15th consecutive year of increasing dividends on an annualized basis. Regulatory Update Missouri On June 7, Spire Missouri filed with the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) to request ISRS revenues of $4.8 million for Spire Missouri East and $7.1 million for Spire Missouri West. The ISRS mechanism allows for more timely recovery of investments in infrastructure upgrades that improve the integrity and safety of our distribution system. The amounts requested through June 2018 are to recover ISRS-eligible investments not included in rates in the recent rate cases. On June 20, Spire Missouri filed with the MoPSC seeking financing authority for $5oo million for the three-year period October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2021 (fiscal years 2019 through 2021). The current three-year authority expires September 30, 2018, and has $130 million of the original $300 million authority remaining. Alabama The parameters of the RSE mechanism, used by the Alabama Public Service Commission (APSC) to annually set rates for Spire Alabama, are currently being reviewed for possible update. We anticipate that the parameters will be established later this year. They were last established effective for fiscal 2014 (year ended September 30, 2014), with the APSC having the right, but not the obligation, to revise them in four years. Conference Call and Webcast Spire will host a conference call and webcast today to discuss its fiscal 2018 third quarter financial results. To access the call, please dial the applicable number approximately 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. Date and Time: Thursday, August 2 12 p.m. CDT (1 p.m. EDT) Phone Numbers: U.S. and Canada: 844-824-3832 International: 412-317-5142 The call will also be webcast in a listen-only format for the media and general public. The webcast (and subsequent replay) can be accessed at Investors.SpireEnergy.com under the Events & presentations tab. A replay of the call will be available at 2 p.m. CDT (3 p.m. EDT) on August 2 until September 1 by dialing 877-344-7529 (U.S.), 855-669-9658 (Canada), or 412-317-0088 (international). The replay access code is 10121465. About Spire At Spire Inc. (NYSE: SR) we believe energy exists to help make people's lives better. It's a simple idea, but one that's at the heart of our company. Every day we serve 1.7 million customers making us the fifth largest publicly traded natural gas company in the country. We help families and business owners fuel their daily lives through our gas utilities serving Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri. Our non-utility operations include Spire Marketing which provides natural gas marketing and related services. We are committed to transforming our business and pursuing growth through 1) growing organically, 2) investing in infrastructure, 3) acquiring and integrating, and 4) innovation and technology. Learn more at SpireEnergy.com. Cautionary Statements on Forward-Looking Information and Non-GAAP Measures This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Spire's future operating results may be affected by various uncertainties and risk factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including weather conditions, economic factors, the competitive environment, governmental and regulatory policy and action, and risks associated with recent and pending acquisitions. For a more complete description of these uncertainties and risk factors, see the Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This news release includes the non-GAAP financial measures of "net economic earnings," "net economic earnings per share," and "contribution margin." Management also uses these non-GAAP measures internally when evaluating the Company's performance and results of operations. Net economic earnings exclude from net income the impacts of fair value accounting and timing adjustments associated with energy-related transactions, the impacts of acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities and the largely non-cash impacts of other non-recurring or unusual items such as certain regulatory, legislative, or GAAP standard-setting actions. In fiscal 2018, these items include the revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities due to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the write-off of certain long-standing assets related to pension costs and property sold as a result of disallowances in our Missouri rate proceedings. The fair value and timing adjustments, which primarily impact the Gas Marketing segment, include net unrealized gains and losses on energy-related derivatives resulting from the current changes in the fair value of financial and physical transactions prior to their completion and settlement, lower of cost or market inventory adjustments, and realized gains and losses on economic hedges prior to the sale of the physical commodity. Management believes that excluding these items provides a useful representation of the economic impact of actual settled transactions and overall results of ongoing operations. Contribution margin adjusts revenues to remove the costs that are directly passed on to customers and collected through revenues, which are the wholesale cost of natural gas and propane and gross receipts taxes. These internal non-GAAP operating metrics should not be considered as an alternative to, or more meaningful than, GAAP measures such as operating income, net income, or earnings per share. Investor Contact: Scott W. Dudley Jr. 314-342-0878 [email protected] Media Contact: Jessica B. Willingham 314-342-3300 [email protected] Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income - Unaudited (In Millions, except per share amounts) Three months ended June 30, Nine months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Operating Revenues: Gas Utility $ 334.8 $ 305.1 $ 1,667.3 $ 1,419.1 Gas Marketing and other 15.8 18.4 58.5 62.9 Total Operating Revenues 350.6 323.5 1,725.8 1,482.0 Operating Expenses: Gas Utility Natural and propane gas 107.2 76.7 731.7 524.8 Operation and maintenance 105.6 100.8 347.1 298.6 Depreciation and amortization 40.5 38.4 121.9 114.0 Taxes, other than income taxes 33.5 30.5 128.2 112.2 Total Gas Utility Operating Expenses 286.8 246.4 1,328.9 1,049.6 Gas Marketing and other 11.4 26.8 97.6 112.6 Total Operating Expenses 298.2 273.2 1,426.5 1,162.2 Operating Income 52.4 50.3 299.3 319.8 Other Income - Net 3.4 1.5 6.3 5.6 Interest Charges: Interest on long-term debt 20.8 19.0 62.5 57.3 Other interest charges 3.4 2.4 11.5 8.9 Total Interest Charges 24.2 21.4 74.0 66.2 Income Before Income Taxes 31.6 30.4 231.6 259.2 Income Tax Expense (Benefit) 5.7 8.7 (8.5) 84.3 Net Income $ 25.9 $ 21.7 $ 240.1 $ 174.9 Weighted Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding: Basic 49.6 48.1 48.7 46.4 Diluted 49.7 48.2 48.8 46.6 Basic Earnings Per Share of Common Stock $ 0.52 $ 0.45 $ 4.92 $ 3.76 Diluted Earnings Per Share of Common Stock $ 0.52 $ 0.45 $ 4.91 $ 3.75 Dividends Declared Per Share of Common Stock $ 0.5625 $ 0.525 $ 1.6875 $ 1.575 Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets - Unaudited (In Millions) June 30, September 30, June 30, 2018 2017 2017 ASSETS Utility Plant $ 5,501.6 $ 5,278.4 $ 5,071.4 Less: Accumulated depreciation and amortization 1,669.8 1,613.2 1,609.6 Net Utility Plant 3,831.8 3,665.2 3,461.8 Non-utility Property 143.5 52.0 39.9 Goodwill 1,171.6 1,171.6 1,163.9 Other Investments 71.0 64.2 63.8 Other Property and Investments 1,386.1 1,287.8 1,267.6 Current Assets: Cash and cash equivalents 6.9 7.4 8.3 Accounts receivable, net 246.7 271.4 248.2 Delayed customer billings 32.8 3.4 7.0 Inventories 153.2 225.8 174.8 Other 145.3 217.5 190.8 Total Current Assets 584.9 725.5 629.1 Regulatory Assets and Other Deferred Charges 782.1 868.2 939.7 Total Assets $ 6,584.9 $ 6,546.7 $ 6,298.2 CAPITALIZATION AND LIABILITIES Capitalization: Common stock and paid-in capital $ 1,530.9 $ 1,373.9 $ 1,371.9 Retained earnings 772.4 614.2 653.1 Accumulated other comprehensive income 4.4 3.2 3.2 Total Equity 2,307.7 1,991.3 2,028.2 Redeemable noncontrolling interest 6.5 Long-term debt (less current portion) 2,024.5 1,995.0 1,925.3 Total Capitalization 4,338.7 3,986.3 3,953.5 Current Liabilities: Current portion of long-term debt 155.5 100.0 Notes payable 191.0 477.3 450.7 Accounts payable 195.5 257.1 206.4 Advance customer billings 9.7 32.0 15.9 Accrued liabilities and other 262.4 231.5 236.8 Total Current Liabilities 814.1 1,097.9 909.8 Deferred Credits and Other Liabilities: Deferred income taxes 476.8 707.5 705.3 Pension and postretirement benefit costs 219.3 237.4 300.4 Asset retirement obligations 305.9 296.6 214.7 Regulatory liabilities 364.3 157.2 139.8 Other 65.8 63.8 74.7 Total Deferred Credits and Other Liabilities 1,432.1 1,462.5 1,434.9 Total Capitalization and Liabilities $ 6,584.9 $ 6,546.7 $ 6,298.2 Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows - Unaudited (In Millions) Nine months ended June 30, 2018 2017 Operating Activities: Net Income $ 240.1 $ 174.9 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 122.9 114.4 Deferred income taxes and investment tax credits (9.5) 84.1 Changes in assets and liabilities 113.3 (57.2) Other 44.5 4.5 Net cash provided by operating activities 511.3 320.7 Investing Activities: Capital expenditures (334.3) (298.6) Acquisition activity (28.1) 3.8 Other (8.9) 1.1 Net cash used in investing activities (371.3) (293.7) Financing Activities: Repayment of long-term debt (393.8) Issuance of long-term debt 75.0 250.0 (Repayment) issuance of short-term debt - net (286.3) 52.0 Issuance of common stock 154.2 146.4 Dividends paid (80.2) (70.9) Other (3.2) (7.6) Net cash used in financing activities (140.5) (23.9) Net (Decrease) Increase in Cash and Cash Equivalents (0.5) 3.1 Cash and Cash Equivalents at Beginning of Period 7.4 5.2 Cash and Cash Equivalents at End of Period $ 6.9 $ 8.3 Net Economic Earnings and Reconciliation to GAAP (In Millions, except per share amounts) Gas Utility Gas Marketing Other Total Per Diluted Share (2) Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 Net Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 18.5 $ 16.2 $ (8.8) $ 25.9 $ 0.52 Adjustments, pre-tax: Unrealized gain on energy-related derivatives (16.0) (16.0) (0.32) Acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities 3.3 3.3 0.07 Income tax effect of adjustments (1) (1.6) 4.2 (0.6) 2.0 0.04 Net Economic Earnings (Loss) (Non-GAAP) $ 16.9 $ 4.4 $ (6.1) $ 15.2 $ 0.31 Diluted EPS (GAAP) $ 0.37 $ 0.33 $ (0.18) $ 0.52 Net Economic EPS (Non-GAAP) (2) $ 0.34 $ 0.09 $ (0.12) $ 0.31 Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 Net Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 23.0 $ 3.7 $ (5.0) $ 21.7 $ 0.45 Adjustments, pre-tax: Unrealized loss (gain) on energy-related derivatives 0.1 (2.3) (2.2) (0.05) Acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities 0.2 1.7 1.9 0.04 Income tax effect of adjustments (1) 0.9 (0.7) 0.2 Net Economic Earnings (Loss) (Non-GAAP) $ 23.3 $ 2.3 $ (4.0) $ 21.6 $ 0.44 Diluted EPS (GAAP) $ 0.48 $ 0.08 $ (0.11) $ 0.45 Net Economic EPS (Non-GAAP) (2) $ 0.48 $ 0.05 $ (0.09) $ 0.44 (1) Income tax effect is calculated by applying federal, state, and local income tax rates applicable to ordinary income to the amounts of the pre-tax reconciling items and then adding any estimated effects of enacted state or local income tax laws for periods before the related effective date. (2) Net economic earnings per share is calculated by replacing consolidated net income with consolidated net economic earnings in the GAAP diluted EPS calculation. Note: EPS amounts by segment represent contributions to Spire's consolidated EPS. Net Economic Earnings and Reconciliation to GAAP - Year-to-Date (In Millions, except per share amounts) Gas Utility Gas Marketing Other Total Per Diluted Share (2) Nine Months Ended June 30, 2018 Net Income (GAAP) $ 166.2 $ 20.0 $ 53.9 $ 240.1 $ 4.91 Adjustments, pre-tax: Missouri regulatory adjustments 30.6 30.6 0.63 Unrealized gain on energy-related derivatives (3.4) (3.4) (0.07) Realized gain on economic hedges prior to the sale of the physical commodity (0.3) (0.3) (0.01) Acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities 0.2 6.8 7.0 0.14 Income tax effect of adjustments (1) (9.2) 1.0 (1.5) (9.7) (0.20) Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 20.3 0.9 (75.2) (54.0) (1.10) Net Economic Earnings (Loss) (Non-GAAP) $ 208.1 $ 18.2 $ (16.0) $ 210.3 $ 4.30 Diluted EPS (GAAP) $ 3.40 $ 0.41 $ 1.10 $ 4.91 Net Economic EPS (Non-GAAP) (2) $ 4.26 $ 0.37 $ (0.33) $ 4.30 Nine Months Ended June 30, 2017 Net Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 187.0 $ 1.9 $ (14.0) $ 174.9 $ 3.75 Adjustments, pre-tax: Unrealized loss on energy-related derivatives 0.1 3.1 3.2 0.07 Realized gain on economic hedges prior to the sale of the physical commodity (0.2) (0.2) Acquisition, divestiture and restructuring activities 0.3 1.8 2.1 0.04 Income tax effect of adjustments (1) (0.1) (1.1) (0.7) (1.9) (0.04) Net Economic Earnings (Loss) (Non-GAAP) $ 187.3 $ 3.7 $ (12.9) $ 178.1 $ 3.82 Diluted EPS (GAAP) $ 4.01 $ 0.04 $ (0.30) $ 3.75 Net Economic EPS (Non-GAAP) (2) $ 4.02 $ 0.08 $ (0.28) $ 3.82 (1) Income tax effect is calculated by applying federal, state, and local income tax rates applicable to ordinary income to the amounts of the pre-tax reconciling items and then adding any estimated effects of enacted state or local income tax laws for periods before the related effective date. (2) Net economic earnings per share is calculated by replacing consolidated net income with consolidated net economic earnings in the GAAP diluted EPS calculation. Note: EPS amounts by segment represent contributions to Spire's consolidated EPS. Contribution Margin and Reconciliation to GAAP (In Millions) Gas Utility Gas Marketing Other Eliminations Consolidated Three Months Ended June 30, 2018 Operating Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 35.0 $ 21.6 $ (4.2) $ $ 52.4 Operation and maintenance expenses 107.9 2.0 7.7 (2.6) 115.0 Depreciation and amortization 40.5 0.5 41.0 Taxes, other than income taxes 33.5 0.1 0.3 33.9 Less: Gross receipts tax expense (20.4) (20.4) Contribution Margin (Non-GAAP) 196.5 23.7 4.3 (2.6) 221.9 Natural and propane gas costs 117.9 (9.3) (0.3) 108.3 Gross receipts tax expense 20.4 20.4 Operating Revenues $ 334.8 $ 14.4 $ 4.3 $ (2.9) $ 350.6 Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 Operating Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 47.1 $ 5.9 $ (2.7) $ $ 50.3 Operation and maintenance expenses 101.9 1.5 4.5 (1.3) 106.6 Depreciation and amortization 38.4 0.1 0.1 38.6 Taxes, other than income taxes 30.5 0.1 0.1 30.7 Less: Gross receipts tax expense (17.3) (17.3) Contribution Margin (Non-GAAP) 200.6 7.6 2.0 (1.3) 208.9 Natural and propane gas costs 88.7 10.3 0.1 (1.8) 97.3 Gross receipts tax expense 17.3 17.3 Operating Revenues $ 306.6 $ 17.9 $ 2.1 $ (3.1) $ 323.5 Nine Months Ended June 30, 2018 Operating Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 279.5 $ 27.7 $ (7.9) $ $ 299.3 Operation and maintenance expenses 353.5 5.1 17.8 (7.5) 368.9 Depreciation and amortization 121.9 1.0 122.9 Taxes, other than income taxes 128.2 0.2 0.4 128.8 Less: Gross receipts tax expense (87.0) (0.1) (87.1) Contribution Margin (Non-GAAP) 796.1 32.9 11.3 (7.5) 832.8 Natural and propane gas costs 784.5 22.3 0.2 (1.1) 805.9 Gross receipts tax expense 87.0 0.1 87.1 Operating Revenues $ 1,667.6 $ 55.3 $ 11.5 $ (8.6) $ 1,725.8 Nine Months Ended June 30, 2017 Operating Income (Loss) (GAAP) $ 320.3 $ 2.9 $ (3.4) $ $ 319.8 Operation and maintenance expenses 301.7 4.4 8.4 (3.9) 310.6 Depreciation and amortization 114.0 0.1 0.3 114.4 Taxes, other than income taxes 112.2 0.3 0.2 112.7 Less: Gross receipts tax expense (70.4) (0.1) (70.5) Contribution Margin (Non-GAAP) 777.8 7.6 5.5 (3.9) 787.0 Natural and propane gas costs 578.8 54.1 0.2 (8.6) 624.5 Gross receipts tax expense 70.4 0.1 70.5 Operating Revenues $ 1,427.0 $ 61.8 $ 5.7 $ (12.5) $ 1,482.0 SOURCE Spire Inc. Related Links www.spireenergy.com WESTPORT, Conn., Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Maplewood Senior Living proudly announced today that it has named Stella Akopyants as Vice President of Nursing. Ms. Akopyants brings almost two decades of experience to the position and will assume her new role immediately. Maplewood Senior Living is dedicated to the health and wellness of its residents and provides on-site nursing care and services in 15 senior living communities across three states. The addition of Ms. Akopyants to Maplewood's robust nursing team ensures that residents are receiving the best care possible. "We take pride in providing enhanced daily life and a quality experience to our residents," said Gregory D. Smith, President and CEO of Maplewood Senior Living. "Stella's experience in clinical care, coupled with her capabilities as a leader will allow us to continue providing the superior care our residents deserve and expect." In her new role, Ms. Akopyants will oversee all aspects of resident care and clinical services for all Maplewood Senior Living communities. She is responsible for assessing resident, family, and staff needs across the organization and developing strategic operational plans for the delivery of all clinical services and programs. Ms. Akopyants will perform regular audits to ensure all communities are meeting Maplewood Senior Living's high-level of standards, as well as state standards and regulatory requirements. Ms. Akopyants attended the University of Connecticut where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She continued her education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford, CT, where she received a Master of Science degree in Health Care Management. Ms. Akopyants furthered her studies and attended Quinnipiac University where she became a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator. About Maplewood Senior Living Maplewood Senior Living is known for its upscale senior living residences, offering a broad range of premier services, amenities and care to its residents. Maplewood Senior Living, based in Westport, CT, owns and operates 15 senior living communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ohio. Future developments include Princeton, NJ and Southport, CT. An Upper East Side, Manhattan, NYC project falls within the company's newest brand, Inspir. This new, international lifestyle brand was launched to offer a luxurious option for seniors looking to join a residential community in major metropolitan areas. For more information, please call 203-557-4777 or visit maplewoodseniorliving.com. SOURCE Maplewood Senior Living Related Links http://maplewoodseniorliving.com ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Texan Allergy, LLC ("Texan"), a provider of management support services to affiliated allergy practices, is pleased to announce that Source Capital, LLC ("Source"), a private equity firm specializing in lower middle-market companies, has invested in and formed a partnership with Texan Allergy & Sinus Center ("TASC" or the "Company"), Texan's first practice affiliation. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the Company is a market leader in Central Texas with 20 locations throughout the region. The Company offers allergy and sinus care, including immunotherapy treatment for environmental and food allergies, as well as surgical treatment for chronic sinus and nasal issues. Source is proud to partner with Texan's founders, CEO Allie Thompson and Dr. Chris Thompson, who have established the Company's reputation for high-quality medical care and led impressive growth to date through the addition of new location openings and service line expansions. Source, Allie and Dr. Thompson plan to continue building upon Texan's market-leading presence across Central Texas, while also targeting expansion opportunities in key Texas and out-of-state markets. Texan will pursue new affiliations with independent allergy practices to continue to support clinicians while maintaining a patient-first culture. "The partnership with Source provides us with access to additional capital, operating resources and strategic guidance as we seek to expand our presence in Texas and beyond. Source is the right partner to help us as we enter our next phase of growth," said Allie Thompson, who will continue in her role as CEO. "Source's ability to support our identified growth initiatives by leveraging its proven experience in the multi-site healthcare services space will be key to our continued growth. Further, their emphasis on prioritizing the highest standards for quality of care was vital to the partnership," said Dr. Thompson, who will continue to lead the Company's clinical team as Chief Medical Officer. Tom Harbin, Managing Partner at Source Capital, stated, "We are thrilled to partner with Allie, Dr. Thompson and the rest of the Texan team, and we look forward to continuing to grow the business. The Company offers an excellent foundation to build a best-in-class organization." The Marwood Group, McGuireWoods LLP and Riveron assisted Source Capital with due diligence on the transaction. For more information about TASC, please visit: https://www.texanallergy.com About Source Capital: Source Capital is a private equity firm that invests in mature, lower middle-market companies across a range of industries. Source Capital's investment strategy targets growing companies with greater than $2 million in EBITDA seeking a growth-oriented partner. Since its founding in 2002, Source Capital has made 22 equity platform investments, 34 add-on acquisitions and 20 debt investments. Source Capital has offices in Atlanta and San Francisco. For more information, please visit: http://source-cap.com Media Contact: Kyle Caton Email: [email protected] Phone: 512-550-1800 Ext. 1101 Related Links TASC Website Source Website SOURCE Texan Allergy & Sinus Center SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Toda.Network Corp. an organization created to foster the growing ecosystem of blockchain companies built on the TODA protocol, is announcing a joint venture with Exponential, Inc. (XPO), a cause-related marketing platform that seeks to maximize the Net Social Impact of contributions by linking contributors with small- to mid-sized, vetted non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities from around the world. The joint venture, Donations.OT, will aim to ensure that there is accountability in the funding of charitable organizations. The platform will provide a white label product that can be customized to each organization's branding and also provide the ability to ensure that the funds collected from donors go where they are intended. "Donations.OT will help to ensure that there is more transparency in the nonprofit sector, so that it will be clear where money is being spent. By bringing accountability to these organizations at a granular level, we believe that more people will be encouraged to participate in these projects," said Saul Bowden, Co-Founder of Donations.OT. "Further, by offering a white label solution, we can enable more NGOs and charitable organizations to offer this kind of transparency to their donor bases seamlessly." The Guardian reported that in 2012, developing countries received a total of $1.3tn, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad, but in the same year, $3.3tn also flowed out of those countries. Net outflows since 1980 reach a total of $16.3tn. Interest payments alone make up more than $4.2tn of this total. "Many Blockchains can enable irrefutable traceability; however, On TODA, the ongoing transaction cost will no longer extract wealth out of the emerging market. Instead, it is powered by the things that those areas have: smartphones, people and a network, nothing else. This will preserve wealth and accelerate their trajectory towards prosperity," said Toufi Saliba, Co-Author of the TODA protocol and CEO of Toda.Network. The TODA protocol is a network protocol, referred to in blockchain terminology as a "layer-zero" protocol that works as a foundational layer and serves as an evolution of TCP/IP. In network topology, TODA would be layer 3 and 4 combined, the same as TCP/IP. "We chose to work with Toda.Network because the TODA protocol is the only fully-decentralized, distributed blockchain that is able to scale to billions of users, handle millions of transactions per second and costs just 0.1% per transaction, meaning that wealth remains in that economy and is not sent to power miners, the cloud, databases, insurance, servers or anyone outside of that intended market," added Bowden. "This is in contrast to ERC20-powered smart contracts that attempt to provide transparency. The problem with the ERC20 token is the transaction time as well as scalability problems that became very apparent during the crypto gold-rush. With TODA, we can reduce friction by over 99% and eliminate leakage of value, so building on TODA just made sense." The Donations.OT team plans to begin implementation with NGOs in Kenya, where they have completed previous work in the region. The team then plans to expand into other geographic areas. The entire round of financing for the joint venture formed between Toda.Network and XPO2 was raised in a single effort, during a demo on Toda.Day on May 21, where 11 companies showcased their products built On TODA. About Donations.OT Donations.OT ("On TODA" or "OT") is a joint venture between Toda.Network and XPO2 that is focused on providing improved transparency for charitable donors by leveraging decentralized technology. This benefits consumers, corporate donors and NGOs by providing accountability and efficiency. Donations.OT plans to offer a white label solution for existing charities and donation platforms to seamlessly integrate to their operations. Learn more: https://www.toda.network/donations-ot About Toda.Network Toda.Network is an organization that supports an ecosystem of companies that are built On TODA (OT). The TODA protocol is recognized as the next evolution of TCP/IP, effectively enabling value management and transfer over the communication layer and below the operating system. TODA enables businesses and blockchains to scale to billions of users and handle millions of on-chain transactions per second at a near-zero cost while benefiting from security, efficiency, confidentiality and scalability by design. It also enables interoperability via a P2P atomic swap exchange between any two blockchains without depending on third parties. Anyone can build on the TODA Protocol - for free. However, leveraging Toda.Network's "know how" is available only to businesses with significant potential by either licensing or creating a joint venture with Toda.Network. Learn more: Toda.Network About XPO2 Exponential, Inc. (XPO) is a cause related technology marketing company that develops and promotes a white label e-commerce platform to drive fundraising revenue on behalf of charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide. Via the platform, donors and supporters gain access to exclusive discounts and savings typically not available on the merchant site while helping raise incremental funds for their favorite cause with every purchase, at no extra cost to them. Safe Harbor Act: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE Toda.Network Corp. Related Links https://www.toda.network TPT will be launching a home base operation in San Diego that will allow a live three day training for partners so they are prepared to launch their business. Surfin Cycle works by selling Joint Venture opportunities to hotels, cruise ships and other proprietor led businesses who want to participate in the current electric scooter phenomenon. Stephen also believes, "The Surfin Cycle Joint Venture opportunity aligns perfectly with TPT Global Tech's focus on using technology to enhance the consumer experience by creating targeted content, utilizing innovative technology solutions and using the data received to continually improve our products. Through the launch of the Surfin Cycle Joint Venture opportunity, we continue to fuel TPT Global's growth and will enhance our ability to deliver unique and high-performing content while generating revenues and subscriber fees in a variety of unique ways unlike anyone else in the marketplace." TPT Global Tech maintains its commitment to invest in innovative, forward-thinking technology and content companies. About TPT Global Tech TPT Global Tech Inc. (OTC:TPTW) based in San Diego, California, is a Technology/Telecommunications Media Content Hub for Domestic and International syndication and also provides Technology solutions to businesses domestically and worldwide. TPT Global offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) and carrier-grade performance and support for businesses over its private IP MPLS fiber and wireless network in the United States. TPT's cloud-based UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy all the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cellphone services, Mobile phones Cellphone Accessories and Global Roaming Cellphones. SOURCE TPT Global Tech Inc. Related Links http://www.tptglobaltech.com SUGAR LAND, Texas, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Trecora Resources (NYSE: TREC) a leading provider of high purity specialty hydrocarbons and waxes, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018. "Second quarter results reflect improved execution and continued strong demand at Trecora Chemical while South Hampton Resources endured several customer-based production disruptions that impacted sales volume in the quarter," said Simon Upfill-Brown, president and CEO. "Reduced operating leverage resulting from lower volume, combined with higher operating expenses, including non-recurring expenses related to the commissioning of the Advanced Reformer, pressured reported margins in the quarter; however, we expect those headwinds to lessen over the balance of the year. In addition, we are continuing price leadership efforts to mitigate the pressures in many parts of our business, including higher feedstock costs. "We have taken many positive steps in recent months to enhance our production capabilities and improve our organizational structure as we focus on operational execution and build a platform for growth," continued Upfill-Brown. "We have taken a methodical approach to change with an emphasis on safety, and I am pleased with our progress, but we have more work to do. Recent executive appointments will help reinforce our operational transformation, and a renewed focus on driving value and volume will solidify our competitive position in the marketplace. "Having recently completed our multi-year capital building campaign with the safe and successful commissioning of our Advanced Reformer, we expect to leverage a strong competitive position, new, advanced production facilities and a supportive market to drive revenue and significantly grow adjusted EBITDA," concluded Upfill-Brown. "In addition, with no large capital projects on the horizon, we expect annual cash capital requirements to decline to a range of $6 - $8 million per year allowing incremental cash generated by the business to reduce leverage and strengthen our balance sheet. I am confident we are well positioned to deliver reliable production for customers and solid returns to shareholders." Subsequent Events On July 31, 2018, the Company took advantage of a strong credit market to amend and extend its Credit Facility. As a result, the Company extended its debt maturity to July 2023, increased the size of its Revolving Facility to $75 million from $60 million, lowered its borrowing costs and received less restrictive covenants from lenders. Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Total revenue in the second quarter was $68.1 million, compared with $62.1 million in the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 9.6%. The increase in reported revenue was driven by a 17.0% increase in the average sales price of petrochemical products, partially offset by a 5.3% decline in petrochemical sales volume, in each case, compared with the second quarter of 2017. The higher average sales price was offset by a 34% year-over-year increase in the average per-gallon cost of petrochemical feedstock, which is the basis for the formula pricing for about 65% of the Company's petrochemical product sales. Since formula pricing is based upon prior month feedstock averages, sales price increases tend to lag behind higher feedstock costs resulting in lower margins in the period. Gross profit in the second quarter was $8.1 million, or 12.0% of total revenues, compared with $11.1 million, or 17.9% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2017. Operating income for the second quarter was $3.4 million, compared with operating income of $5.2 million for the second quarter of 2017. Net income for the second quarter was $2.2 million, or $0.09 per diluted share1, compared with $0.8 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $2.0 million, or $0.08 per diluted share. Reported net income in the second quarter of 2018 reflected equity in earnings of AMAK of $0.2 million, or an estimated $0.01 per diluted share on an after-tax basis. Net income in the second quarter of 2017 reflected an equity in losses for AMAK of $3.3 million, or an estimated impact of $(0.09) per diluted share on an after-tax basis. Net income margin for the second quarter was 3.3% as compared to 1.3% for the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $6.2 million, representing a 9.1% margin, compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $8.4 million, representing a 13.5% margin for the same period a year ago. South Hampton Resources (Specialty Petrochemical Segment) Petrochemical volume in the second quarter was 19.7 million gallons, compared with 20.8 million gallons in the second quarter of 2017. Prime product volume in the second quarter of 2018 was 16.1 million gallons, compared with 16.3 million gallons in the second quarter of 2017. Byproduct volume, which is sold at significantly lower margins than prime products, decreased 35.4% sequentially and 19.8% year-over-year, to 3.6 million gallons. Margins were compressed due to higher feedstock costs and higher operating expenses including higher costs for labor, maintenance and freight. Some of the increase in costs were non-recurring expenses related to the commissioning of the Advanced Reformer. Byproduct margins were higher compared to the second quarter of 2017. Net income margin for the second quarter was 5.1% as compared to 8.5% for the second quarter of 2017. International volume represented 21.5% of total petrochemical volume during the quarter, down from 24.9% sequentially and 22.1% from the second quarter of 2017. ____________________________ 1 Based on 25.0 million shares outstanding. Dollar amounts in thousands/rounding may apply THREE MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 2017 % Change Product sales $56,135 $50,508 11% Processing fees 1,685 2,071 (19%) Gross revenues $57,820 $52,579 10% Operating profit before depreciation and amortization 6,095 8,761 (30%) Operating profit 4,440 7,217 (38%) Profit before taxes 3,859 6,598 (42%) Depreciation and amortization 1,655 1,544 7% EBITDA 6,125 8,755 (30%) Capital expenditures 3,529 9,021 (61%) Trecora Chemical (Specialty Wax Segment) In the second quarter, TC generated revenues of $10.3 million, up 7.9% from $9.5 million in the second quarter of 2017. TC revenue included $7.4 million of wax product sales, up 14.2%, and $2.9 million of custom processing fees, down 5.8%, when compared with the second quarter of 2017. Strong wax sales driven by enhanced sales mix as well as greater sales volume was partially offset by lower custom processing revenues. Net income margin for the second quarter was (4.9%) as compared to (2.8%) for the second quarter of 2017. EBITDA in the second quarter was $1.1 million, compared with $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2017. Dollar amounts in thousands/rounding may apply THREE MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 2017 % Change Product sales $7,434 $6,508 14% Processing fees 2,852 3,028 (6%) Gross revenues $10,286 $9,536 8% Operating profit before depreciation and amortization 1,164 810 44% Operating loss (201) (198) (2%) Profit (loss) before taxes (506) (269) (88%) Depreciation and amortization 1,365 1,008 35% EBITDA 1,140 802 42% Capital expenditures 877 4,931 (82%) Al Masane Al Kobra Mining Company (AMAK) Trecora reported equity in earnings of AMAK of approximately $0.2 million and AMAK net loss of approximately $0.3 million during the second quarter of 2018. AMAK generated net income before depreciation and amortization of $8.0 million compared to a net loss before depreciation and amortization of $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2017. Year-to-Date 2018 Results Total revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $139.8 million, compared with revenue of $117.7 million in the first six months of 2017. Gross profit for the first six months of 2018 was $18.3 million, compared with $21.7 million in the same period in 2017. Gross profit margin in the first six months of 2018 was 13.1%, compared with 18.5% in the same period in 2017. Net income for the first six months of 2018 was $4.6 million, compared with $2.3 million in the same period of 2017. Diluted EPS was $0.18, compared with $0.09 in the same period of 2017. Net income in the first half of 2018 was positively affected by equity in earnings of AMAK of $0.5 million, or $0.01 per diluted share on an after tax basis. In the first half of 2017, net income was negatively affected by equity in losses of AMAK of $4.3 million, or $(0.11) per diluted share on an after-tax basis. Net income margin for the first half of 2018 was 3.3% as compared to 2.0% for the first half of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA for the first six months of 2018 was $13.4 million, compared with $15.7 million in the same period in 2017. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the first six months of 2018 was 9.6%, compared with 13.4% in the same period of 2017. South Hampton Resources (Specialty Petrochemical Segment) Petrochemical volume in the first half was 43.0 million gallons, compared with 38.2 million gallons in the first half of 2017. Prime product volume in the first half of 2018 was 33.7 million gallons, compared with 30.2 million gallons in the first half of 2017. Byproduct volume, which is sold at lower margins, was up 16.4% year-over-year to 9.3 million gallons. Margins were compressed due to higher feedstock costs and higher operating expenses including higher costs for labor, maintenance and freight. Some of the increase in costs were non-recurring expenses related to the commissioning of the Advanced Reformer. Net income margin for the first half of 2018 was 6.6% as compared to 8.6% for the first half of 2017. International volume represented 23.4% of total petrochemical volume during the first half of 2018. Dollar amount in thousands rounding may apply SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 2017 % Change Product sales $ 116,420 $ 94,899 23% Processing fees 3,713 3,559 4% Net revenues 120,133 98,458 22% Operating profit before depreciation and amortization 14,488 16,975 (15%) Operating profit 11,119 13,875 (20%) Profit before taxes 9,913 12,601 (21%) Depreciation and amortization 3,369 3,100 9% EBITDA 14,515 16,949 (14%) Capital expenditures 13,812 17,777 (22%) Trecora Chemical (Specialty Wax Segment) In the first half of 2018, TC generated revenues of $19.9 million, up 3.6% from $19.2 million for the first half of 2017. Net income margin for the first half of 2018 was (8.5%) as compared to (2.9%) for the first half of 2017. Dollar amount in thousands rounding may apply SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 2017 % Change Product sales $ 13,817 $ 13,016 6% Processing fees 6,064 6,183 (2%) Net revenues 19,881 19,199 4% Operating profit before depreciation and amortization 1,554 1,555 (0%) Operating profit (loss) (1,115) (469) (138%) Profit (loss) before taxes (1,687) (559) (202%) Depreciation and amortization 2,669 2,024 32% EBITDA 1,519 1,528 (1%) Capital expenditures 1,622 10,056 (84%) Earnings Call Tomorrow's conference call and presentation slides will be simulcast live on the Internet, and can be accessed on the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://www.trecora.com or at http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=130127. A replay of the call will also be available through the same link. To participate via telephone, callers should dial in five to ten minutes prior to the 10:00 am Eastern start time; domestic callers (U.S. and Canada) should call 1-888-394-8218 or 1-323-794-2588 if calling internationally, using the conference ID 7223033. To listen to the playback, please call 1-844-512-2921 if calling within the United States or 1-412-317-6671 if calling internationally. Use pin number 7223033 for the replay. Use of Non-GAAP Measures The Company reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). This press release contains the non-GAAP measures: EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, and Adjusted Net Income. We define EBITDA as net income plus interest expense including derivative gains and losses, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. We define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus share-based compensation, plus or minus equity in AMAK's earnings and losses or gains from equity issuances and plus or minus gains or losses on acquisitions. We define Adjusted Net Income as net income plus or minus tax effected equity in AMAK's earnings and losses and plus or minus tax effected gains or losses on acquisitions. These measures are not measures of financial performance or liquidity under U.S. GAAP and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, net income (loss), nor as an indicator of cash flows reported in accordance with U.S. GAAP. These measures are used as supplemental financial measures by management and external users of our financial statements such as investors, banks, research analysts and others. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are useful as they exclude transactions not related to our core cash operating activities. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based upon our belief, as well as, assumptions made by and information currently available to us. Because such statements are based upon expectations as to future economic performance and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ from those projected. These risks, as well as others, are discussed in greater detail in Trecora Resources' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Trecora Resources' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and the Company's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to the Company as of the date of this press release. About Trecora Resources (TREC) TREC owns and operates a facility located in southeast Texas, just north of Beaumont, which specializes in high purity hydrocarbons and other petrochemical manufacturing. TREC also owns and operates a leading manufacturer of specialty polyethylene waxes and provider of custom processing services located in the heart of the Petrochemical complex in Pasadena, Texas. In addition, the Company is the original developer and a 33.4% owner of Al Masane Al Kobra Mining Co., a Saudi Arabian joint stock company. Investor Relations Contact: Jean Marie Young The Piacente Group, Inc. 212-481-2050 [email protected] TRECORA RESOURCES AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS JUNE 30, 2018 (unaudited) DECEMBER 31, 2017 ASSETS (thousands of dollars) Current Assets Cash $ 3,387 $ 3,028 Trade receivables, net 26,467 25,779 Insurance receivable 493 -- Inventories 17,003 18,450 Prepaid expenses and other assets 5,188 4,424 Taxes receivable 1,291 5,584 Total current assets 53,829 57,265 Plant, pipeline and equipment, net 192,084 181,742 Goodwill 21,798 21,798 Intangible assets, net 19,877 20,808 Investment in AMAK 45,452 45,125 Mineral properties in the United States 588 588 TOTAL ASSETS $ 333,628 $ 327,326 LIABILITIES Current Liabilities Accounts payable $ 11,927 $ 18,347 Accrued liabilities 5,638 3,961 Current portion of post-retirement benefit 28 305 Current portion of long-term debt 8,061 8,061 Current portion of other liabilities 916 870 Total current liabilities 26,570 31,544 Long-term debt, net of current portion 97,015 91,021 Post-retirement benefit, net of current portion 365 897 Other liabilities, net of current portion 1,297 1,611 Deferred income taxes 18,315 17,242 Total liabilities 143,562 142,315 EQUITY Common stockauthorized 40 million shares of $.10 par value; issued 24.5 million in 2018 and 2017 and outstanding 24.3 million shares in 2018 and 2017 2,451 2,451 Additional paid-in capital 56,365 56,012 Common stock in treasury, at cost (61) (196) Retained earnings 131,022 126,455 Total Trecora Resources Stockholders' Equity 189,777 184,722 Noncontrolling Interest 289 289 Total equity 190,066 185,011 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $ 333,628 $ 327,326 TRECORA RESOURCES AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (UNAUDITED) THREE MONTHS ENDED SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, JUNE 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 (thousands of dollars) (thousands of dollars) REVENUES Petrochemical and Product Sales $ 63,569 $ 57,016 $ 130,268 $ 107,915 Processing Fees 4,537 5,099 9,579 9,742 68,106 62,115 139,847 117,657 OPERATING COSTS AND EXPENSES Cost of Sales and Processing (including depreciation and amortization of $2,837, $2,363, $5,667, and $4,746, respectively) 59,964 51,008 121,565 95,932 GROSS PROFIT 8,142 11,107 18,282 21,725 GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES General and Administrative 4,554 5,740 10,889 11,961 Depreciation 191 205 387 410 4,745 5,945 11,276 12,371 OPERATING INCOME 3,397 5,162 7,006 9,354 OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) Interest Income 14 -- 21 -- Interest Expense (815) (678) (1,693) (1,314) Equity in Earnings (Losses) of AMAK 228 (3,298) 458 (4,264) Miscellaneous Expense (13) (22) (39) (64) (586) (3,998) (1,253) (5,642) INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 2,811 1,164 5,753 3,712 INCOME TAXES 596 332 1,186 1,393 NET INCOME 2,215 832 4,567 2,319 NET LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE TO NONCONTROLLING INTEREST -- -- -- -- NET INCOME ATTRIBUTABLE TO TRECORA RESOURCES $ 2,215 $ 832 $ 4,567 $ 2,319 Basic Earnings per Common Share Net Income Attributable to Trecora Resources (dollars) $ 0.09 $ 0.03 $ 0.19 $ 0.10 Basic Weighted Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding 24,370 24,256 24,354 24,248 Diluted Earnings per Common Share Net Income Attributable to Trecora Resources (dollars) $ 0.09 $ 0.03 $ 0.18 $ 0.09 Diluted Weighted Average Number of Common Shares Outstanding 25,014 25,034 25,119 25,044 TRECORA RESOURCES AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF SELECTED GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES(1) Adjusted EBITDA Margin (rounding may apply) THREE MONTHS ENDED 6/30/18 THREE MONTHS ENDED 6/30/17 TC SHR CORP TREC TC SHR CORP TREC NET INCOME (LOSS) $(506) $2,928 $(207) $2,215 $(269) $4,477 $(3,376) $832 Interest 281 612 (78) 815 63 613 2 678 Taxes - 930 (334) 596 - 2,121 (1,789) 332 Depreciation and amortization 22 161 8 191 21 168 16 205 Depreciation and amortization in cost of sales 1,343 1,494 - 2,837 987 1,376 - 2,363 EBITDA 1,140 6,125 (611) 6,654 802 8,755 (5,147) 4,410 Share based compensation - - (220) (220) - - 656 656 Equity in losses (earnings) of AMAK - - (228) (228) - - 3,298 3,298 Adjusted EBITDA $1,140 $6,125 $(1,059) $6,206 $802 $8,755 $(1,193) $8,364 Revenue 10,286 57,820 68,106 9,536 52,579 62,115 Adjusted EBITDA Margin 11.1% 10.6% 9.1% 9.8% 16.7% 13.5% (adjusted EBITDA/revenue) SIX MONTHS ENDED 6/30/18 SIX MONTHS ENDED 6/30/17 TC SHR CORP TREC TC SHR CORP TREC NET INCOME (LOSS) $(1,687) $7,898 $(1,644) $4,567 $(559) $8,459 $(5,581) $2,319 Interest 537 1,233 (77) 1,693 63 1,248 3 1,314 Taxes - 2,015 (829) 1,186 - 4,142 (2,749) 1,393 Depreciation and amortization 44 327 16 387 42 335 32 409 Depreciation and amortization in cost of sales 2,625 3,042 - 5,667 1,982 2,765 - 4,747 EBITDA 1,519 14,515 (2,534) 13,500 1,528 16,949 (8,295) 10,182 Share based compensation - - 372 372 - - 1,289 1,289 Equity in losses (earnings) of AMAK - - (458) (458) - - 4,264 4,264 Adjusted EBITDA $1,519 $14,515 $(2,620) $13,414 $1,528 $16,949 $(2,742) $15,735 Revenue 19,881 120,132 (166) 139,847 19,199 98,458 117,657 Adjusted EBITDA Margin 7.6% 12.1% 9.6% 8.0% 17.2% 13.4% (adjusted EBITDA/revenue) Adjusted Net Income and Estimated EPS Impact (rounding may apply) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Net Income $ 2,215 $ 832 $ 4,567 $ 2,319 Equity in losses (earnings) of AMAK $ (228) $ 3,298 $ (458) $ 4,264 Taxes at statutory rate of 21% and 35%, respectively 48 (1,154) 96 (1,492) Tax effected equity in losses (earnings) (180) 2,144 (362) 2,772 Adjusted Net Income $ 2,035 $ 2,976 $ 4,205 $ 5,091 Diluted weighted average number of shares 25,014 25,034 25,119 25,044 Estimated effect on diluted EPS (-tax effected equity in AMAK/diluted weighted average number of shares) $0.01 ($0.09) $0.01 ($0.11) (1)This press release includes non-GAAP measures. Our non-GAAP measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP measures and should be read only in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. SOURCE Trecora Resources Related Links http://www.trecora.com Our endorsements for Babylon Town, 2021 EDITORIAL Babylon Town Supervisor Richard Schaffer once said that while he has no children, he considers himself father to 220,000 residents of the Town of Babylon. And, indeed, he is. He... October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but are we really paying attention? PUBLIC COMMENTARY Why are we not paying closer attention to Domestic Violence? Domestic Violence is a term used when discussing real, harmful, highly impactful abuse in multiple forms that occurs within the... SAN RAMON, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Abdi Ibrahim, the Turkish pharmaceutical industry leader, has carefully selected rfxcel to implement and support new compliance management and serialisation processing software to ensure full compliance with current and future international legislative requirements ahead of the 2019 EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) deadline. Abdi Ibrahim, founded in 1912, began as a small pharmacy that has since grown into the leader of Turkey's pharmaceutical industry, holding the largest product portfolio within the sector and operating in 10 countries outside of Turkey. Today, Abdi Ibrahim's portfolio exceeds 180 brands and more than 350 products which it exports to 50 countries ranging from Canada to the European Union member states, from North Africa to Asia. With the February 2019 FMD deadline fast approaching, Abdi Ibrahim needed a solutions provider that would enable them to become compliant in time for the FMD deadline, but additionally would fulfil their need for new, modern technological operations with data integrity at their core. After an in depth review, analysing several industry products and providers, Adbi Ibrahim selected rfxcel due to the solution's rich functionality as well as the company's Single Tenant private cloud deployment, its full-service implementation methodology, flexibility and speed and competitive pricing. Rumeysa Tanrikulu, Information Systems Supervisor at Abdi Ibrahim explains, "It was really important for us to implement a software solution that was single-tenant rather than multi-tenant. rfxcel was one of the only single tenant providers that offered a bespoke service at a reasonable cost. What's more, the team at rfxcel was direct, clear and extremely helpful, answering all the questions we threw at them." She adds, "The team was friendly and driven not by the sale, but by the benefit they could bring to the business. For us, given the weight of responsibility we feel we carry in improving the health of the population we serve, their company ethos was very much aligned to ours. So far, our relationship has been honest, collaborative and we have full visibility of the implementation process that will help ensure not only regulatory compliance, but a future-proof supply chain that is built upon the foundation of data quality." Adbi Ibrahim is currently mid-implementation with aims for the compliance management and serialisation processing software to be live during October 2018. About rfxcel rfxcel is a supply chain track, and trace company within the Life Sciences industry, helping companies meet regulatory compliance requirements, protect the product and ascertain brand reputation. Thought leadership and experience since 2003, expansions to locations in the US, EU, India, Brazil, and Japan, and a leading stand-alone traceability solution, the company, enables people, businesses, and industries to protect end consumers and their products. This unique integrated software delivers better business outcomes and lowers overall costs. Find more information about how rfxcel is shaping the future of supply chain at https://www.rfxcel.com SOURCE Rfxcel Corporation Related Links http://www.rfxcel.com LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultramarine, a high-class French watch brand entirely manufactured in Switzerland, is launching its first "Morse" model through online subscription. Out of the 300 numbered pieces issued to the world, the first 100 are immediately available through subscription only on Ultramarine's website, at a preferential price. The Morse in its original box With a design inspired by famous navy chronometers, the Ultramarine Morse incorporates all the features of a high-quality watch: 100 percent Swiss manufactured, the strong Eterna Caliber 39 automatic GMT movement offering 65 hours of power reserve, a waterproof case up to 330 feet and a hand-sewn leather watchband. The Ultramarine Morse achieves its founder and designer Lionel Bruneau's vision: "I wanted to make Swiss timekeepers that are truly pleasant to wear and to look at, in limited quantities but at a fair price." What makes the Morse such a special watch and a great value for the money is its rarity: only 300 lucky people will own it. By cutting the distribution and marketing costs but, above all, by foregoing the industry's high margins, Ultramarine stands out for its exceptional but accessible products. Features : Entirely manufactured in Switzerland (in Neuchatel, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle and Grenchen) (in Neuchatel, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle and Grenchen) Stainless steel 316L case Eterna Caliber 3914A with 65h power reserve, date, GMT and small second 40mm diameter, 12mm thickness, 47mm lugs to lugs Hand-sewn leather strap 330 feet water resistance The first 100 Morse watches are priced at 1,300 (approx. $1,500) with a 10 percent deposit, only through the Ultramarine website: https://www.ultramarine-watches.com/morse. The next 200 pieces will be available at 1,600 (approx. $1,900). The Morse watches are scheduled to ship early 2019. Ultramarine will donate 10 percent of its profit to Non-Governmental Organizations committed to the conservation and protection of marine life. Press Contact: [email protected] Press Photos download: https://www.ultramarine-watches.com/press Subscription: https://www.ultramarine-watches.com/morse facebook.com/UltramarineWatches instagram.com/ultramarinewatches Related Links Ultramarine website Ultramarine subscription SOURCE Ultramarine Watches ESSEX, England, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Emergency water supplier Water Direct has issued a reminder to UK businesses of the importance of water supply contingency planning and making advance provision to meet increased demand, as it experiences its highest ever demand for water supply. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/720112/Water_Direct_Logo.jpg ) Video: https://youtu.be/Z4VqJ1HviuU In the first three weeks of July alone, Water Direct delivered 8.2 million litres of emergency drinking water by tanker, a significant increase compared to the summer months of previous years. Demand for the delivery of emergency pallets of bottled water has also increased by 39% in comparison to July 2017 and sales of Aqube have risen by 119%. It's great news for the company, which has invested heavily in emergency provision, including more than 2 million in its water tanker fleet over the last year, but with no end in sight to the heatwave, businesses need to be prepared and make plans in advance, explains Water Direct's Sven Parris. "We expect to be operating around the clock at this level as long as the heatwave continues," explains Sven. "The UK water infrastructure has seen exceptional challenges this year due to extreme weather conditions. "We have been lobbying for improved awareness of water contingency planning and we are seeing extreme examples of why it is so critical. At Water Direct we understand that regardless of the size or nature of your business premises, an interruption to water supply can have significant impact." Water Direct's business continuity planning service WaterTight includes access to unique alternative supply solutions, priority delivery of emergency quality-assured water supply and consultation from the company's team of contingency planning experts. "We often take water for granted until it's not there," says Sven. "So far during July we've provided support to prestigious sporting events for pitch irrigation, boosted supply to agricultural premises, hydrated construction sites and office blocks, and delivered additional drinking water for thirsty livestock among many others. Our commitment is to deliver quality assured water whenever and wherever it's needed, and the extreme heat has never made water supply more essential. We would urge water sensitive sites to get in touch with our team to talk about options in advance. Please don't turn a blind eye to the potential issues of a water supply interruption. Let's create open and transparent discussion around the subject of water as a critical business continuity theme." In 2018, Water Direct has been recognised for its investment in business continuity planning in the Water Industry Awards and CIR Business Continuity Awards. About Water Direct With nationwide coverage, 24/7 service and the UK's only Nationwide Bottled Water Bank, Water Direct provides planned and emergency temporary water wherever and whenever it's needed. Water Direct's services range from supporting utility companies experiencing an interruption due to a burst main or contamination to building sites in need of water for welfare or site processes or private individuals in need of a swimming pool fill. Water Direct has been operating for 22 years. In 2017 alone, they delivered over 50 million litres of water to their customers. Water Direct was one of the UK's earliest adopters of continuity planning, achieving ISO 22301:2012 by developing contingency planning for water loss. www.water-direct.co.uk SOURCE Water Direct LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WeeCare, a company revolutionizing early childcare access for families via a platform that helps caregivers start and manage successful curriculum-based home daycares, today announced $4.2M in funding. The seed round was led by Social Capital, with participation from Fuel Ventures. Funds will be used to support growth and deepen roots in the startup's native Southern California and assist with expansion into new regions - with two additional cities to be announced this year. "We've focused on building a seamless platform that allows home daycare providers to effortlessly run their business right from their phone," said Jessica Chang, CEO and co-founder of WeeCare. "With this fundraise, we now have the ability to truly affect the early childcare market and scale our solution to communities all over the U.S. that desperately need affordable and convenient childcare options." The licensed early childcare market has grown to roughly $50B, with home daycare making up 60 percent of this figure. WeeCare's turn-key services and platform helps caregivers and educators start curriculum-based, in-home daycares, offering a complete management solution. Via an easy-to-use mobile app, providers receive support and resources for opening a daycare including essentials such as licensing, home preparation, insurance and business training. In addition, the platform digitizes enrollment, automates the billing process, generates a website listing, offers comprehensive marketing tools and even creates curriculum to help providers offer world-class, education-based care. Caregivers using WeeCare also have access to a community of peers for support and knowledge-sharing. WeeCare created and established its curriculum in partnership with Esther Wojcicki, Ph.D, a renowned educator, author and advisor specifically focused on the importance of early childcare education and a unique blended learning approach. For every three children with parents seeking early childcare nationwide, only one spot is available within the existing care landscape. In states such as California and New York, the care gap worsens - specifically in the Los Angeles region, where the average ratio rises to six children in need of care for every open spot. Over the last 20 years, the amount of women in the workforce has more than doubled, growing from 30 to 69 percent, while the number of early childcare providers has remained stagnant. In addition to a limited supply and high demand in the childcare market, exacerbating the challenge for parents is the soaring cost of current options, which can reach thousands of dollars each month. WeeCare enables caregivers to offer convenient, quality childcare at 30 to 40 percent more affordable rates than the market standard - making it accessible to all families, no matter their income level. "We're thrilled to be partnering with the WeeCare team as they address the growing shortage of quality and affordable daycare," said Adam Nelson, Partner at Social Capital. "WeeCare will not only improve outcomes for children and their parents, but will also free up primary caregivers to pursue their career with peace of mind. At the same time, WeeCare's marketplace enables a new group of childcare entrepreneurs to build their own businesses." Previous investors including Fika Ventures, Amplify Partners and Wavemaker Partners also joined the funding round. The lead investment includes a seat on WeeCare's board, which will be held by Nelson of Social Capital, a partnership of philanthropists, technologists and capitalists utilizing venture capital as a force to create value and change on a global scale. After launching in the fall of 2017, WeeCare was recognized by OpenIDEO as a Top Idea in the New Early Innovator of its Early Childhood Innovation Prize. 15 breakthrough solutions with the greatest potential to positively impact the lives of young children were named the Prize's Top Ideas, all of which will share the $1 million in prize funding from Gary Community Investments (GCI) to help accelerate their impact. About WeeCare Founded in 2017 in Los Angeles, WeeCare empowers caregivers to create sustainable home daycare businesses, while making affordable, quality childcare accessible to all families. The WeeCare platform provides caregivers, educators and parentprenuers the tools and support needed to start a licensed home daycare, fill to capacity and effortlessly manage operations so they can focus on caregiving. Families using WeeCare have access to safe, affordable and curriculum-based daycare. For more information, visit https://weecare.co Contact: Emily Webb BAM Communications C: (858) 729-8483 [email protected] SOURCE WeeCare Related Links https://weecare.co NEW YORK, Aug. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- World Maker Faire New York, the east coast's biggest celebration of invention, creativity and curiosity, has announced several new features and attractions for its 9th annual showcase event, taking place September 22 & 23 at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing, Queens. Fans and DIY-lovers wanting to attend the weekend event are encouraged to visit makerfaire.com where discount Early Bird tickets are available through this Sunday at midnight EST. After that point tickets will increase to standard pricing until the event. This year, Faire attendees can look forward to a host of new attractions including: The Hand of Man : Creator Christian Ristow's 26 foot-long, hydraulically actuated human hand and forearm controlled by a glove device, which is capable of picking up and crushing cars, makes its NYC debut. : Creator Christian Ristow's 26 foot-long, hydraulically actuated human hand and forearm controlled by a glove device, which is capable of picking up and crushing cars, makes its NYC debut. Tapigami : Be floored by Tapigami, a contemporary art form created by artist Danny Scheible who uses masking tape to create entire cities. : Be floored by Tapigami, a contemporary art form created by artist who uses masking tape to create entire cities. Cosplay Contest : World Maker Faire will host its 1st-ever cosplay contest which promises to bring out creative DIY costumes you can't believe. : World Maker Faire will host its 1st-ever cosplay contest which promises to bring out creative DIY costumes you can't believe. The DIY Content Creators' Stage : a new stage and lounge devoted solely to the YouTubers of the Maker Movement : a new stage and lounge devoted solely to the YouTubers of the Maker Movement Startup Tent : featuring NYC hardware and maker startups, such as Looking Glass and Wazer. Come see the Maker projects that will soon have the business world buzzing. : featuring NYC hardware and maker startups, such as Looking Glass and Wazer. Come see the Maker projects that will soon have the business world buzzing. Gaming and Mixed Reality : new exhibit areas showcase experiments in the emerging landscape of AR, VR and game interfaces. : new exhibit areas showcase experiments in the emerging landscape of AR, VR and game interfaces. Sculptor Adrian Landon : The hand-hewn steel kinetic sculptures of this celebrated NYC Saatchi artist will be on display to wow attendees. : The hand-hewn steel kinetic sculptures of this celebrated NYC Saatchi artist will be on display to wow attendees. Tiny Homes Village : You thought NYC apartments were small? Wait until you see these innovative concepts in resourceful design and architecture. : You thought NYC apartments were small? Wait until you see these innovative concepts in resourceful design and architecture. The Dark Room : An entire exhibit hall devoted to light-driven, interactive projects, and immersive art. : An entire exhibit hall devoted to light-driven, interactive projects, and immersive art. Center Stage Talent: see Ayah Bdeir of LittleBits toy platform; Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens (the most funded game in Kickstarter history); YouTube phenom Backyard Scientist ( Kevin Kohler ), and many more! More than 800 Makers, presenters and exhibitors from the New York area and around the globe will be showing off their projects and creations at this year's Faire. The current list of exhibiting Makers can be seen here (expect more exciting projects to be added in the days and weeks ahead). "World Maker Faire is the east coast's biggest celebration for grassroots innovation and creativity. Walking around the Faire, attendees often report a sense of inspiration, but also empowerment," explained Sabrina Merlo, Managing Director for Maker Faire. "It's a feeling that it's possible to design solutions, to make change - to be a Maker. Often times, people leave the Faire inspired to go home and tackle that idea or project they've always wanted to try." Maker Faire has become a global movement with more than 1 million people attending Maker Faires annually across 44 countries. World Maker Faire in New York City is one of two flagship Faires that take place annually in the U.S. Early Bird tickets are on sale now until midnight Sunday, August 5th - single day passes ($20 - $30) or weekend passes ($30 - $50). Discounts are available for youths and students, and children 3 and under are free. Select VIP options and ticket packages are also available. Advance pricing goes into effect on Monday, August 6, 2018, at 12:00 am EDT and will be available through Friday, September 21 EDT. What: World Maker Faire New York 2018 Where: New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th Street, Queens, NY 11368 When: Saturday & Sunday, September 22 & 23, 2018, 10am - 6pm each day Buy Tickets: https://makerfaire.com/new-york/buy-tickets/ Event Website: http://makerfaire.com/new-york/ Sponsorship Opportunities: https://makerfaire.com/sponsors/ Press Room/Media Credential Requests: http://makerfaire.com/media-center/ Social Media: Facebook: /makerfaire Instagram: @makerfaire Twitter: @makerfaire Pinterest: /makemagazine/maker-faire Tweet / Post this: Ready to Make something? World #MakerFaire New York Sept 22 & 23 at @NYSCI! Get Tix now at makerfaire.com/new-york/ #makerfaire #wmf18 About Maker Faire Founded in 2006, Maker Faire inspires the future of makers with a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness. People of all ages and backgrounds gather to show what they are making and share what they are learning. With nearly 200 Maker Faires happening around the world, the global event engages more than 1.4 million annual attendees across 44 countries. In 2014, there was even a Maker Faire on the grounds of The White House. The two flagship events, the annual Bay Area Maker Faire and the World Maker Faire in New York welcome a combined 2,000 Makers and 250,000 attendees each year. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Make: has been widely credited with jumpstarting the worldwide Maker Movement, which is a transforming force in innovation, culture, and education. Contact: Maker Faire / Harmonica [email protected] / [email protected] +1 646-391-0453 SOURCE Maker Faire Related Links http://makerfaire.com WORTHINGTON, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Worthington, Ohio is joining with Plug Smart, an Ohio-based energy services company, to activate a local commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing program that will enable the city's commercial building owners to maximize improvements and modernize local buildings. PACE is a flexible financing mechanism for implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with no capital outlay. Commercial property owners use the energy conservation savings to pay for the projects over time while reaping the benefits of lower energy and building maintenance costs. Improvements can include measures such as LED lighting, HVAC, temperature controls, boilers/chillers, access/security controls, elevators and building envelope. "PACE is an innovative financial solution for building owners to implement retrofit, rehab, building additions or new construction without breaking the bank. Through off balance sheet, long-term financing, building owners can make their buildings more energy efficient and thus more attractive to new tenants," explains Plug Smart's President, Dave Zehala. "Our role is to make the implementation of PACE as seamless a process as possible, so commercial building owners can focus on running their business." Partnering with Plug Smart will provide commercial building owners in Worthington with PACE technical assessment, administration, design-build, and measurement and verification (M&V) services. The partnership will provide assistance to commercial building owners with identifying PACE eligible projects, obtaining PACE funding, providing turnkey design-build services from schematics to post-construction, and retaining PACE compliance throughout the M&V process. Additionally, Plug Smart has earmarked $60,000 in energy efficiency grants from the Ohio Development Services Agency to the first four eligible building owners to offset assessment costs and jumpstart Worthington's PACE market. The Ohio Development Services Agency administers funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to incentivize energy efficiency projects across Ohio. Plug Smart has successfully developed several PACE projects in Ohio including in or around Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland. As the top performing provider of these grants for the last three consecutive years in Ohio, Plug Smart has applied many of these grants toward commercial PACE projects. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to offer the PACE program to our city's commercial building owners, which will not only spur economic development, but also help to improve the environment for tenants who occupy our city's commercial buildings," says David McCorkle, Economic Development Manager for the City of Worthington. PACE is a public-private partnership between municipalities and private sector lenders. Lenders provide upfront financing to building improvement projects that qualify for PACE. Repayment is then collected through voluntary, annual municipal special assessments on property tax bills for up to 30 years. Commercial building owners interested in submitting a potential project to the new PACE program can refer to the program contact provided below to get the PACE process started. For more information and interview requests contact: Matt Kussman, Plug Smart Business Development Manager Phone: (937) 243-1117; Email: [email protected] David McCorkle, City of Worthington Economic Development Manager Phone: (614) 436-4518; Email: [email protected] About Plug Smart Plug Smart is a full-service, Ohio-based energy services company with offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida. Plug Smart offers turnkey and individual project services for commercial/industrial clients, school districts, government facilities and hospitals. SOURCE Plug Smart Microsoft, Mastercard and Dollar Shave among high achievers to be recognized at the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's CC Awards Program is excited to recognize world-class companies for their outstanding achievement in distinct areas of customer service. CC Awards high achievers will receive their award on Monday, October 22, 2018, at the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, Ariz. In addition, The Big Kahuna Award in each category will be announced at the CC Awards & Cocktail Bash. The CC Awards Program is pleased to announce this year's high achievers in six categories of customer service: THE ROSIE AWARD - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE This category recognizes companies for excellence in artificial intelligence. This includes the use of artificial intelligence to impact customer satisfaction and customer effort scores. Microsoft SYSPRO Optum Mastercard Welltok THE MONEYBALL AWARD - CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT ANALYTICS This category recognizes companies for excellence in leveraging analytics to deliver differentiated customer experiences, while driving improvements in operational KPIs for the organization. Microsoft Web.com Mayo Clinic - Mayo Medical Labs Mastercard ABB Welltok SYSPRO THE MATRIX AWARD - OMNI-CHANNEL CUSTOMER SERVICE This category recognizes companies for excellence in omni-channel customer service strategy and implementation. This takes into account current and future customer engagement capabilities in traditional and digital channels. SYSPRO Albridge North Western Mutual THE SELFIE AWARD - SOCIAL MEDIA CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT This category recognizes companies for excellence in social media customer service. This includes internal channels, customer communities and support forums, as well as external channels such as Facebook and other social media sites. Microsoft HGS Hayneedle AARP THE SPIDERMAN AWARD - WEB CUSTOMER CARE This category recognizes companies for excellence in web customer care. This includes web self-service, chat, and integrated customer collaboration and support capabilities. Web.com SYSPRO Dollar Shave Club THE WORK HARD PLAY HARD AWARD - CULTURE AND TEAM SPIRIT We asked companies to get creative and submit an innovative 60- to 90-second video highlighting what makes their culture unique and their people so special. Voting starts online now and will conclude with live voting on-site at the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange. Cast your vote today! Companies in the running for the Work Hard Play Hard Award include: HGS 24-7 Intouch Mastercard Microsoft Teleperformance Erie Insurance Sitel About The CC Awards Program The CC Awards Program, made possible through the coordination of the Frost & Sullivan Customer Engagement Digital Transformation practice, Frost & Sullivan Research Insights practice and the Frost & Sullivan Customer Contact Executive MindXchange, honors companies and individual leaders that are shaping the future of customer service. Honored recipients have demonstrated achievement in one or more of five categories: Omni-channel Customer Experience, Artificial Intelligence, Web Customer Care, Social Media Customer Engagement and Customer Engagement Analytics. Companies are vetted through a rigorous two-stage evaluation process. The initial stage involves the completion of a questionnaire application. Questions posed range from customer engagement capabilities to business outcomes. Entrants are free to apply in one or more categories, provided responses are complete for each section. Qualifying companies will then progress to the second stage for evaluation by a judging panel consisting of experts from the industry and Frost & Sullivan research analysts. High achievers will be celebrated and the top-scoring company in each category will be presented with The Big Kahuna award at the 14th Annual Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, taking place October 21-24, 2018, at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, Ariz. For more information about the CC Awards, please go to: https://www.customercontactwest.com/2018/ccawards About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion Contact: Nicole CoonsMarketing Vanguard T: 908.603.7207 E: [email protected] http://ww2.frost.com SOURCE Frost & Sullivan Related Links http://www.frost.com ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AAA Insurance has earned "Brand of the Year" status for its multi-line insurance offerings, according to the independent and prestigious 2018 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study. "AAA is honored to be recognized as the highest ranked multi-line insurance brand by American consumers," said AAA President and CEO Marshall L. Doney. "An independent evaluation of our brand validates what we've known for years quality products and exceptional customer service have created a brand that Americans trust to catch life's curveballs." Using an academically vetted brand equity model that examines familiarity, quality and purchase consideration, the annual Harris Poll EquiTrend survey captures and analyzes brand perceptions and measures and ranks them against key competitors in each category. In 2018, AAA Insurance ranked highest among leading competitors for its multi-line insurance products. AAA Insurance received the highest numerical Equity Score among multi-line insurance brands included in the 2018 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study, which is based on opinions of 77,031 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over surveyed online between Jan. 3, 2018 and Feb. 15, 2018. "Highest Ranked" was determined by a pure ranking of a sample of multi-line insurance brands. As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 58 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. Motorists can map a route, identify gas prices, find discounts, book a hotel and access AAA roadside assistance with the AAA Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Learn more at AAA.com/mobile. For more information about AAA Insurance, visit a local AAA club, or online at AAA.com. SOURCE AAA Related Links https://aaa.com SANTIAGO, Chile, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An AJC delegation has just concluded a three-day visit to Santiago. The delegation, led by AJC CEO David Harris, met with senior Chilean officials, including a private dinner with Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero, and separately with Minister of the Interior and Public Security Andres Chadwick; Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hernan Larrain; President of the Senate Carlos Montes; and Members of Parliament. The delegation also met with key diplomats stationed in Chile, including U.S. Ambassador Carol Perez and Israeli Ambassador Eldad Hayet. The visit featured numerous discussions with members of the Chilean Jewish Community, with which AJC has enjoyed a long-standing association agreement, along with the Federation of Jewish Students and Jewish business leaders, as well as with Chilean alumni of AJC Project Interchange and Dr. Ennio Vivaldi, President of the University of Chile. Among the principal topics discussed were: (i) the rise of anti-Israel attitudes in Chile; (ii) challenges in relations between the Jewish and Palestinian communities of Chile; (iii) Chilean-Israeli and Chilean-U.S bilateral ties; and (iii) legislative efforts to counter incitement and hate speech, as well as possible terror-related activities, in Chile. "We are always delighted to see our friends in the Chilean Jewish community," said Harris, who has paid regular working visits to Chile over the past 30 years. "While the community remains impressively vibrant, we are concerned that it feels increasingly vulnerable." Chile is home to approximately 350-400,000 people of Palestinian Arab descent, almost all of whom are Christians who immigrated over a century ago, as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing. The community is reportedly the largest outside of the Middle East. The once cordial ties between the Jewish and Palestinian populations have become increasingly discordant, as anti-Zionist, pro-BDS sentiment in the principal Palestinian organization has intensified. "In meetings with government officials, we conveyed the need to pay close attention to the impact of sometimes hostile, even intimidating, behavior on the lives of Chilean Jews, including on campuses," said Harris. "As a vital part of the fabric of Chile, the Jewish community should not be made to feel insecure for expressing its support for the State of Israel." In response to their growing concern, AJC initiated a petition calling on President Pinera to take action. The petition has gained more than 6,000 signatures. AJC partners with the Chilean Jewish Community regularly to bring Chilean political and media leaders to Israel through Project Interchange. In addition, AJC's Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs maintains close contact with Chilean diplomats serving abroad. The delegation was comprised of Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC's Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA); Mario Fleck, Chair of BILLA; and leaders of the Chilean Jewish Community. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org ASPEN, Colo., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergists attending last week's Aspen Allergy Conference had the opportunity to review evidence showing too much oral hygiene and antibiotic usage could be the culprit behind rising allergy rates--and that prebiotics may be the answer to permanent, drug-free allergy relief. A bee on Independence Pass near Aspen, CO. Honey is one of the 16 natural food ingredients for AllerPops. Cliff Shunsheng Han, Ph.D., founder of Knoze Jr. and creator of AllerPops prebiotic lollipops, presented the results of his study, "Prebiotics Induced Oral Microbiota Changes Accompany Long-lasting Allergy Relief," at the 2018 Aspen Allergy Conference. Dr. Han was one of a handful of physicians and researchers who displayed their findings related to allergies, asthma and immunology at this year's conference. The annual event, held at Aspen's Hotel Jerome, attracts allergists from around the world. "I was honored to share the results of my study with some of the foremost allergists in the field," Dr. Han stated. "My goal is to educate physicians on the role of prebiotics as a safe, effective, drug-free alternative for allergy relief." In conducting the study, Dr. Han acted as his own guinea pig. Suffering from year-round allergies that had been increasing in severity for years despite his best efforts, Dr. Han noticed allergy relief after having an unrelated fever and then sucking on the prebiotic lozenge he had been developing--a mix of sugars, amino acids and nutrients designed to help beneficial bacteria multiply. Han hypothesized that modern oral hygiene could be diminishing "good" bacteria in the mouth and throat, leaving power of immune system unchecked and become sensitive to allergens. For the three years between 2014-2017, Dr. Han documented the relationship between oral probiotics and his allergy symptoms. He found lower numbers of beneficial bacteria like Veillonella and Streptococcus in his own mouth when his symptom was worse and higher numbers in those of family members who did not suffer from allergic rhinitis. When Veillonella and Streptococcus numbers increased in his mouth and throat after simulating a fever by rinsing the tongue with hot water before introducing prebiotics to "feed" the bacteria, Dr. Han's allergies were eliminated. Han eventually patented his prebiotic mix and created AllerPops. But after experiencing such dramatic results in his own life, and with the data to back up his findings, he wanted to help get the information into the hands of physicians everywhere so more allergy sufferers could find relief without drugs or side effects. To that end, Dr. Han began traveling the country earlier this year, presenting at conferences like Aspen Allergy Conference. At last week's event, allergists had the opportunity to view Dr. Han's detailed study and ask questions about his findings. "These results could have significant implications not just for allergy sufferers but for others dealing with chronic conditions," said Dr. Han, who was a physician in China before working on the Human Genome Project and heading up a research team that completed hundreds of bacterial genomes during his 22-year career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. "Those suffering from autoimmune disease and inflammatory conditions in particular could benefit from the ability to release the power of the immune system or suppress it at will without drugs." AllerPops are available from Knoze Jr. and on Amazon. Learn more at http://knozejr.com. Contact: Cliff Shunsheng Han, Ph.D. Knoze Jr. Corp. 505-695-4236 [email protected] http://knozejr.com SOURCE AllerPops Related Links http://knozejr.com PLANO, Texas, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions, today announced that Charles Horn, chief financial officer, will present at a fireside chat at the KeyBanc 20th Annual Technology Leadership Forum at Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail, CO on Monday, August 13, 2018. The presentation will take place at 3:30 p.m. MST and will be broadcast live over the Internet at the following address: http://wsw.com/webcast/key7/ads/ or through the Company's website at www.alliancedata.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for 30 days following the presentation. About Alliance Data Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions, enhancing the critical customer marketing experience; the result is measurably changing consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today's most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its clients create and increase customer loyalty through solutions that engage millions of customers each day across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. An S&P 500, FORTUNE 500 and FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For company headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alliance Data consists of three businesses that together employ approximately 20,000 associates at more than 100 locations worldwide. Alliance Data's card services business is a provider of market-leading private label, co-brand, and business credit card programs. Epsilon is a leading provider of multichannel, data-driven technologies and marketing services, and also includes Conversant, a leader in personalized digital marketing. LoyaltyOne owns and operates the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada's most recognized loyalty program, and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty, a global provider of tailor-made loyalty programs for grocers. Follow Alliance Data on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. CONTACT: Tiffany Louder Investor Relations Alliance Data 214-494-3048 [email protected] SOURCE Alliance Data Systems Corporation Related Links http://www.alliancedata.com BOSTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Beacon Health Options (Beacon), the nation's leading behavioral health services company, announced today that Sherry Dubester, M.D., has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately. In this role, she sets the roadmap and vision for Beacon's clinical strategy and policy, as well as heads the company's quality management program. She brings nearly three decades of experience in clinical strategy development and opioid management and treatment to Beacon. Most recently, Dr. Dubester led Anthem BlueCross BlueShield's EAP and behavioral health and clinical programs. "Having been both a practicing psychiatrist and health plan medical director, Dr. Dubester has strong leadership skills, extensive clinical expertise and a deep understanding of the behavioral health consumer. This range of experience positions her well to advance Beacon's care services and lead our team of clinical experts," said Beacon President and CEO, Russell Petrella, Ph.D. "Dr. Dubester's work will be instrumental in guiding the programming, delivery, and coordination of quality mental health care and substance use disorder services for the company's 40 million members. Ultimately, her leadership will fundamentally contribute to our mission of helping our members live their lives to the fullest potential." Dr. Dubester joined Beacon from Anthem BlueCross BlueShield (Anthem) after an 18-year career with the national health plan. Her most recent role at Anthem was Vice President, Health Solutions, responsible for commercializing a range of health products. Previously she served as Vice President, Behavioral Health and Clinical Programs, overseeing end-to-end management of Behavioral Health and EAP for more than 19 million commercial members. Earlier roles at Anthem included Regional Vice President and Medical Director for National Accounts and Staff Vice President, Clinical Strategy and Product Development. Prior to joining Anthem, Dr. Dubester was Executive Medical Director of Behavioral Health Services for Glens Falls Hospital in upstate New York. She began her career at National Jewish Health in Denver, where she led inpatient psychosocial services. Dr. Dubester earned her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her psychiatry residency at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a master's degree in Administrative Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. About Beacon Health Options Beacon Health Options is a behavioral health services company that serves 40 million individuals across all 50 states. We work with employers, health plans and government agencies to provide robust mental health and addiction services through innovative programs and solutions that improve the health and wellness of people every day. Beacon is a national leader in the fields of mental and emotional well-being, addiction, recovery, and employee health. Collaborating with a network of providers in communities around the country, we help individuals live their lives to the fullest potential. For more information, visit www.beaconhealthoptions.com and connect with us on www.facebook.com/beaconhealthoptions, www.twitter.com/beaconhealthopt and www.linkedin.com/company/beacon-health-options. SOURCE Beacon Health Options Related Links http://www.beaconhealthoptions.com markB is a POCT (Point-of-Care-Testing) analyzer that detects biomarkers from a single drop of blood drawn from the fingertips. Once blood is loaded onto the cartridge, the analyzer immediately carries out immunoassay to draw a result in 10 minutes. This technology is based upon two of BBB's patented technologies: passive plasma separation technology and magnetic force-assisted electrochemical sandwich immunoassay. While the conventional approach of using centrifugation to separate plasma from whole blood takes more than 30 minutes, BBB's technology allows this to take place instantly. Once the reaction is filled with plasma, the immunoassay process is controlled by magnetic fields. Then, the device quantifies biomarkers by measuring the electrochemical signals from the magnetic nanoprobes. BBB has drastically improved precision of analysis in point-of-care testing with markB. Furthermore, markB reduces time and cost of analysis while demonstrating equivalent accuracy of hospital equipment. BBB's Vice President, Hyundoo Hwang stated: "We have already completed our research on three cancer biomarkers thus far, including that of prostate cancer (PSA), liver cancer (AFP) and colon cancer (CEA). Our research indicates that this technology is applicable to multiple biomarkers." Hwang also proposed a roadmap for an expansion plan towards cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's disease. Finally, Hwang stated that: "With this handheld device, diagnosis is not only possible in hospitals, but also in emergency situations and or in individuals' homes without the assistance of professionals -- making point-of-care-testing possible for everyone." Following the presentation at AACC, BBB is scheduled to demonstrate markB at MEDICA, World Forum for Medicine, at Dusseldorf, Germany this November. For more information about BBB, please click here. About BBB BBB is a Korean mobile healthcare startup founded in Oct 2014. The company develops and sells elemark, an Android-based blood testing device that enables personalized blood tests and biomarker monitoring. Its purview spans the U.S.A., France, South Africa, China, Malaysia, and the U.A.E., among others. with local partners in R&D, production, and sales. After introducing elemark dual check to the market in Nov 2017, BBB is developing various other IVD solutions such as a cholesterol testing device and lab-on-a-chip technology for cancer diagnosis and prognosis management. Contact: [email protected] +82-2-4407-8282 PDF - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnk/20180730/2198745-1 SOURCE BBB Inc. ROHNERT PARK, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- If a student loan borrower needs to choose between supporting their family and repaying their student loans, then family support is usually the clear winner. Borrowers are often unwilling to suddenly stop paying family bills in order to pay off their education, instead choosing to let their credit rating suffer to let their family thrive. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company, may be able to help a borrower find the way to better support themselves and the people they love most by finding them the student loan repayment plan that supports those lives best and assisting in applying for such plans. "Student loans can affect your ability to pay your bills or take care of your family," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. "Borrowers supporting their parents and children may find the solace they need in a different student loan repayment plan." The repayment plans that best support a person's livelihood and family wellbeing may be income-driven repayment plans (IDRs). IDRs may reduce borrowers' monthly repayment to better match their ability to pay based on income and family size. If a borrower keeps needing the help, then they can stay on an IDR and may receive student loan forgiveness in 20 to 25 years for their federal loans. With the money consistently saved through switching to an IDR a borrower may be able to live a higher quality of life while still supporting the people that they love. "No one should have to choose between family life and financial sense," said Knickerbocker. "At Ameritech Financial, one of our goals is to show borrowers that they have an advocate. We may be able to help borrowers find, and stay on, the right repayment plan to care for themselves as they care for their loved ones." About Ameritech Financial Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education. Each Ameritech Financial telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA). Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional Customer Service. Ameritech Financial Newsroom Contact To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact: Ameritech Financial 5789 State Farm Drive #265 Rohnert Park, CA 94928 1-800-792-8621 [email protected] Related Images happy-family.jpg Happy Family Credit: Rido81/Bigstock image2.png Related Links Ameritech Financial home page Related Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRza8MbLvuM SOURCE Ameritech Financial Related Links http://ameritechfinancial.com MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Braun Intertec, an engineering, consulting and testing firm with offices throughout the central United States, is pleased to announce Brian Conrad has joined our Kansas City office. Conrad joins the firm as a senior environmental scientist bringing nearly 20 years of field investigation and project management experience under state-led environmental programs and private consulting since 2004. "We are pleased to welcome Brian as a new employee-owner to Braun Intertec," says Jon Carlson, CEO of Braun Intertec. "Brian's blend of experience in environmental policy, private-sector due diligence and brownfield site redevelopment will be a major asset to our firm as we continue to grow in the greater Kansas City market." Conrad's broad experience allows him to support the needs of the business community and environmental regulation through innovative and risk-based strategies designed specifically for the property's end use. This experience includes the EPA Brownfields Redevelopment Initiative and the leveraged use of redevelopment grant funding in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. Conrad has managed hundreds of environmental site assessments, groundwater investigations and environmental cleanups as both a private consultant and state official. In addition to soil and groundwater remediation, his site redevelopment experience also includes the reclamation of historic structures affected by asbestos, lead paint and biological hazards. About Braun Intertec Based in Minneapolis, employee-owned Braun Intertec (www.braunintertec.com) is a premier engineering, environmental consulting and testing firm with nearly 1,000 employees located in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. Braun Intertec subsidiaries include Agile Frameworks, LLC, based in Minneapolis, as well as GME Consulting Services, Inc., based in Dallas. SOURCE Braun Intertec Related Links http://www.braunintertec.com TEL AVIV, Israel and BETHESDA, Maryland, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dear Fellow Shareholders, I am pleased to announce that we have entered the second half of 2018 with strong momentum. Now that we have officially moved into our new state-of-the-art Cancer Screening Laboratory located in Rehovot, Israel we are poised for symbiotic scientific partnerships. Both the company and our new Laboratory are broadly licensed by the Ministry of Health in Israel specifically for R&D on Cannabis. We see great potential in scientific collaborations with like-minded companies that are engaged in cannabinoid medicines and diagnostics. Currently, we are in the final stages of finalizing our agreement with a company engaged in ophthalmic disorders to develop a product to compete with Steroids in the ocular disease market. Our team of scientists are diligently working to develop and expand our intellectual property portfolio. As such we are waiting for numerous approvals from various national level registrations on our Cannabinoid Cancer screening patents. The company is anticipating the final report from Prof. Gil Bar-Sela of Rambam Hospital from its clinical trial on cancer patients of our SR capsule for Cachexia and Anorexia, which is expected to be presented in the coming weeks/months. Dr. Bar-Sela is the Deputy Director of the Division of Oncology at Rambam Health Care Campus, Head of the Palliative and Supportive Oncology Unit, and Head of the service for Melanoma and Sarcoma patients. Our Marketing PR/IR Team is in the process of rolling out new updated informational materials to give the public more insight into our current activities. An essential part of this effort is the process of revamping our website with much more detailed content and information alongside an extensive Investor Relations section. Some of these changes have already taken effect and we expect more to follow suit shortly. We are making a concerted effort to bring our message to light and tell our story to the world, as we are passionate about what we do, and want to spread that passion. In the recent months, we have received significant media coverage. Some select recent interviews: a. Scientific American Published on May 2, 2018 - Cannabis versus Cancer https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/cannabis-versus-cancer/ b. The Pot Network Published on July 11, 2018 - The Consumption of Cannabis As A Medicine For Cancer: An Exclusive Interview With Cannabics Pharmaceuticals CEO Eyal Barad https://www.potnetwork.com/news/consumption-cannabis-medicine-cancer-exclusive-interview-cannabics-pharmaceuticals-ceo-eyal c. Benzinga Online Published on July 13, 2018 - 4 Questions With Cannabics Pharmaceuticals CEO Eyal Barad https://www.benzinga.com/general/biotech/18/07/12001254/4-questions-with-cannabics-pharmaceuticals-ceo-eyal-barad We feel privileged to be able to do such important Government licensed R&D on Cannabinoids, where several years ago we would have been prevented from doing so by regulation. Look out for more news from us and sign up to our newsletter. Cannabics Pharmaceuticals prides itself as being at the forefront of integrating cannabinoids into modern precision medical care, creating disruptive, cannabinoid-based personalized medical technologies and introducing new ways of thinking of treatment to the world. Please sign up to join us. Sincerely, Eyal Barad, CEO (The company's updated presentation is now available on the website) About Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTC: CNBX) is a United States listed public company that is developing cannabinoid diagnostic tests for the personalized treatment of cancer. Cannabics is licensed by the Israeli Ministry of Health for Cannabinoid research, and is currently developing a blood test that allows practitioners to precisely tailor medical cannabinoid-based therapies to an individual patient's profile and cancer. Cannabics' approach can also be used to develop cannabinoid-based therapies as preventive or primary cancer treatments not just palliative. By developing tools to assess effectiveness on a personalized basis, Cannabics is helping to move medical cannabinoids into the mainstream of cancer therapies. Disclaimer: Certain statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and/or other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and/or regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our latest 10-Q Report filed on July 16th, 2018. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or in other public disclosures at any time. For Further Information, please contact: Cannabics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. +1-877-424-2429 [email protected] [email protected] https://www.Cannabics.com SOURCE Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. Drawing on their combined corporate, government, and legal experience in the international tax fraud arena, the Caplin team worked closely with Ms. Plazibat and Mr. Lonza to develop policies and procedures in order to enhance the functioning of the Croatian Independent Anti-Fraud Unit. " Our attorneys have assisted other countries in the development of their tax enforcement systems over the past thirty years, and we were delighted to volunteer our time and experience to work with Tina and Paulino ," said Mr. Michel. Caplin assisted the Unit in achieving two goals: Enabling the State Attorney's Office of the Republic of Croatia to have faster access to processed and analyzed information on the perpetrators of offenses related to economic, financial, and tax crimes. Creating efficient, analytical support to the Tax Administration, Customs Authority, and law enforcement bodies in order to detect high-risk taxpayers at the national level. IJET Program Director, Jessie Tannenbaum, said "The success of this particular initiative hinged heavily on the Caplin team's substantial commitment of time, effort, and experience." Over the span of 12 months, the Caplin team mentored Croatian officials on the organization and implementation of various tax enforcement initiatives in Croatia. Part of their IJET mentorship included the Croatian officials visiting the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice, as well as spending time with Caplin attorneys in the firm's Washington, D.C., office. Additionally, Caplin's team visited Zagreb, Croatia to meet with Croatia's Tax Administration Service and International Cooperation Service on information exchange issues; Tax Administration Managers to discuss the country's unit investigating complicated international transactions; officials in the Ministry of Finance unit who combat irregularities and fraud; lawyers in the Croatian State Attorney's Office who fight tax fraud and other financial fraud; Croatian customs officials and investigators from a special Interior Ministry unit fighting corruption; and members of the Croatian Bar Association to address cooperation with the private bar. For more information on the IJET Program, please visit the ABA's website. For more information on Caplin & Drysdale, please contact Sheryl Miller at [email protected] or visit our website at www.caplindrysdale.com. The links below offer additional coverage. About the ABA ROLI IJET Program The ABA ROLI's IJET Program empowers judges, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, and other justice sector professionals selected as IJET Fellows to effect sustainable, long-term change within their institutions and their home country's justice systems. The IJET Program is supported by a grant from the United States Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Office of Criminal Justice Assistance and Partnership (INL/CAP). For more information, please visit the ABA's website. About Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered Celebrating our 50th Anniversary in 2014, Caplin & Drysdale continues to be a leading provider of tax, tax controversy, and litigation legal services to corporations, individuals, and nonprofits throughout the United States and around the world. We are also privileged to serve as legal advisors to accounting firms, financial institutions, law firms, and other professional services organizations. The firm's reputation over the years has earned us the trust and respect of clients, industry peers, and government agencies. Our lawyers' strong tactical and problem-solving skills--combined with substantial experience handling a variety of complex, high stakes, matters in a boutique environment--make us one the nation's most distinctive law firms. Please visit us at www.caplindrysdale.com for more information. Disclaimer This communication neither provides legal advice, nor creates an attorney-client relationship with you or any other reader. If you require legal guidance in any specific situation, you should engage a qualified lawyer for that purpose. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Attorney Advertising It is possible that under the laws, rules, or regulations of certain jurisdictions, this may be construed as an advertisement or solicitation. 2018 Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered All Rights Reserved SOURCE Caplin & Drysdale Related Links http://www.caplindrysdale.com HOUSTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- alliantgroup is proud to announce the addition of Jim Redpath, CPA, CGMA and Partner at Redpath and Company, to the firm's Strategic Advisory Board. Redpath brings to the firm his decades of experience in public accounting and an extensive background in tax and business planning. In his new consultative position, Redpath will play an important role in advising alliantgroup on its future strategic initiatives. "It gives me great pride to be joining this prestigious board," said Redpath. "alliantgroup has done marvelous things on behalf of U.S. businesses and I look forward to offering my counsel and support as the firm continues to expand its horizons." Redpath is currently a partner and a member of the Board of Directors at Redpath and Company. Serving as a client manager with a primary focus on tax planning and consulting, he specializes in business structuring and ownership succession, as well as corporate, partnership and international consulting. Redpath also holds extensive experience in advising individuals, families and closely held businesses on tax matters. Redpath is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants (MNCPA) and an active member of the Employee Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), an organization that provides a voice for the Subchapter S Corp ESOP community in Washington, D.C. He is also a former Chairman of the Advisory Board for the S Corporation Association. "It is an honor to welcome Jim to our Strategic Advisory Board," said alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav. "During our partnership together, Jim has always been passionate about both the tax law and performing strategic planning for his clients. As a new member of our growing Strategic Advisory Board, I have no doubt that he will be a true asset to our clients." alliantgroup's mission is one of education and awarenesswe exist to help industry organizations, businesses and the accounting firms that advise them to take full advantage of all federal and state tax credits, incentives and deductions available. These powerful incentive programs are legislated by the government to help businesses grow and remain competitive locally as well as abroad. We are proud to have helped over 12,000 businesses claim more than $6 billion in tax incentives. alliantgroup's international headquarters is in Houston, Texas, with offices across the country and internationally including New York, Boston, Chicago, Orange County, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C. and London and Bristol in the U.K. For more information on alliantgroup, please follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. SOURCE alliantgroup Related Links http://www.alliantgroup.com MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CherryRoad Technologies Inc. today announced it has signed a NASPO ValuePoint Participating Addendum with the State of New Jersey, allowing the State to simplify its entire cloud procurement process. CherryRoad markets its cloud solutions and managed services to state and local governments through NASPO ValuePoint's Master Agreement awarded by the State of Utah. The State of New Jersey is the tenth state government to contract with CherryRoad to address its unique cloud-solution needs. Other states that use CherryRoad's services include Utah, South Dakota, Hawaii, Florida, Nebraska, Commonwealth of Virginia, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Illinois. Cloud solutions provided by CherryRoad include Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) which were developed specifically for state and local governments. "Utilizing a purchasing cooperative such as NASPO ValuePoint is one of the most strategic approaches states can take to reduce costs and improve quality," said Christopher Tilden, Director, Strategic Alliances, of CherryRoad Technologies. "State governments can leverage the immense benefits of cloud solutions to control bottom-line costs and streamline purchasing processes, and along the way, ensure they are meeting the needs of their constituents." NASPO ValuePoint is regarded as the nation's most significant public contract cooperative due to its unparalleled value for members as well as contractors, competitive pricing, and superior terms and conditions. NASPO ValuePoint Cloud Solutions Master Agreements are only awarded through a competitive RFP to a limited number of cloud solution providers whose offerings meet stringent security and data protection requirements. About CherryRoad Technologies Inc. At CherryRoad, our clients entrust us with the success of their IT solutions, whether we're delivering on-premise ERP, cloud-based application management, business intelligence, process optimization, or change management consulting. Throughout our 30-year history we've successfully partnered with hundreds of public sector and commercial clients to modernize, optimize and manage their back-office functions. Headquartered in Morris Plains, N.J. with offices across the U.S., we've earned a solid reputation for combining technology, organizational, functional, and vertical market expertise into practical solutions that deliver results on-time and on-budget. For more information, visit www.cherryroad.com About NASPO ValuePoint NASPO ValuePoint is a unified, nationally focused cooperative aggregating the demand of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the organized US territories, their political subdivisions and other eligible entities spurring best value, innovation and competition in the marketplace. The NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization (formerly WSCA-NASPO) provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting. By leveraging the leadership and expertise of all states with the purchasing power of their public entities, NASPO ValuePoint delivers best value, reliable, competitively sourced contracts. Since 1993 NASPO ValuePoint has been the cooperative purchasing arm of NASPO (the National Association of State Procurement Officials) encouraging, fostering and guiding the nation's most significant public contract cooperative. SOURCE CherryRoad Technologies Inc. Related Links http://www.cherryroad.com LONDON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Splash About, the leading British brand of baby and children's safety swimwear, which now retails in the USA, today commented on the latest CDC figures that show unintentional drowning is the leading cause of death in children under the age of four, after congenital defects. "The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends swimming lessons from the age of four; in the UK babies typically start swimming lessons from six months," comments Splash About CEO Bernadette Spofforth. Splash About FloatSuit with adjustable buoyancy (Flora Bimbi design) Splash About UV FloatSuit with adjustable buoyancy in Green Gecko design "Around one fifth of drowning deaths that's 700 every year involve children. Swimming is an important life skill, so starting teaching children to swim as early as possible is the best prevention against drowning and will help to reduce the most common preventable cause of child death," Bernadette added. Splash About designs and develops some of the most advanced swimming products for babies and children on the market today, the brand is synonymous with keeping children safe in and around water. It is credited with creating the first Float Jacket for children using an innovative system of adjustable floats which can be removed for maximum balance and control in the water. Splash About's multi award-winning range of learn to swim FloatSuits are suitable from 12 months to six years. Designed to specifically to support children in the water by ensuring that they are in the correct position for learning to swim, floats can gradually be removed over time, until children can swim confidently unaided. FloatSuits are ergonomically designed and are comfortable for all day wear around the pool. "Ensuring that children can swim strongly and confidently is key when playing in and around water," continues Bernadette. "Wearing the appropriate swimwear facilitates water safety and this is at the heart of the Splash About brand. Although stricter regulations for private pools were introduced earlier this year in California, this needs to be in conjunction with swimming lessons from an early age, the appropriate swimwear when playing in or near water and above all parental vigilance, to help prevent unnecessary child death from drowning." Splash About is a UK-based company that designs and retails globally, some of the most advanced safety swimwear for babies and young children. All Splash About products have been tested and approved for sale in the United States. Media contact for hi-res photography, samples or interview: Victoria McQuade [email protected] + 44 7800 764673 Please note Victoria is based in the UK 5 hours ahead of the East coast & 8 hours ahead of the west coast. https://us.splashabout.com/ Facebook.com/SplashAboutUSA Twitter @SplashAboutUK Instagram SplashaboutUK View our one minute You Tube video on Splash About's FloatSuits here SOURCE Splash About Related Links https://us.splashabout.com EDMONTON, Alberta, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Project PoSSUM announced today that it had successfully completed a high-altitude research campaign to study noctilucent clouds using a CT-155 'Hawk' training aircraft, thanks to CAE, located at the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) 15 Wing at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Noctilucent clouds form approximately 50 miles above the Earth's polar regions and are believed to be sensitive indicators of climate change and good proxies of low-density atmospheres, such as on Mars. PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut Candidate Capt. Theon Te Koeti (pilot, center), PoSSUM Executive Director Dr. Jason Reimuller (mission specialist, right), and PoSSUM Education Director Adrien Mauduit (canera specialist, left) conducted the high-altitude research using a CT-155 'Hawk' aircraft, thanks to CAE, as part of a recent collaboration between Project PoSSUM and the Royal Canadian Air Force 15 Wing at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. (projectpossum.org) Dr. Jason Reimuller images noctilucent clouds from a CT-155 'Hawk' aircraft as part of a recent collaboration between Project PoSSUM and the Royal Canadian Air Force 15 Wing at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Flying at night and at high altitudes, noctilucent clouds reveal fine signatures of mesospheric turbulence which can't be discerned from the ground. PoSSUM is a nonprofit citizen-science astronautics research organization (projectpossum.org). PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut Candidate Capt. Theon Te Koeti, PoSSUM Executive Director Dr. Jason Reimuller, and PoSSUM Education Director Adrien Mauduit conducted the high-altitude research from 29 June to 1 July, 2018 from the Edmonton International Airport. Three night flights were conducted to 45,000' altitudes to image fine structures of noctilucent clouds that the team hopes will reveal complex patterns of turbulence and instability in our upper atmosphere. The campaign extends upon research conducted by PoSSUM last July in High Level, Alberta where 17 PoSSUM members tested NASA-funded camera systems from a Mooney aircraft. This July, these cameras were successfully launched from Kiruna, Sweden as part of the NASA Science Mission Directorate's PMC Turbo balloon mission. Led by PoSSUM Chief Scientist Dr. Dave Fritts, PMC Turbo is the first dedicated mission exploring the small-scale dynamics of our mesosphere and the first balloon mission to employ balloon-borne lidar. PoSSUM will next analyze the imagery to determine if small-scale turbulence could be discernable from aircraft. Reimuller, a Co-Principal Investigator of PMC Turbo, served as Mission Specialist onboard the aircraft and operated a specialized camera system. Capt. Te Koeti, a NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) Instructor Pilot and the executive officer for 2 CFFTS at 15 Wing, served as Pilot in Command. Mauduit, a professional astrophotographer and science communicator, served as camera specialist. This October, PoSSUM will return to Canada to evaluate prototype space suits in microgravity with the National Research Council in Ottawa. Eventually, the team plans to use next-generation suborbital spacecraft to build tomographic (3D) models of the mesosphere. PoSSUM ('Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere') is a non-profit research and education organization conducting upper-atmospheric and space technology research while communicating the science through educational outreach programs held at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Interested individuals should apply online at www.projectpossum.org. MEDIA CONTACTS Dr. Jason Reimuller, Executive Director, Project PoSSUM, Boulder, Colo.; 720-352-3227; [email protected] Capt. Jenn Halliwell, Wing Public Affairs Officer, 15 Wing Moose Jaw, Canadian Armed Forces; 306-631-0509; [email protected] SOURCE Project PoSSUM, Inc. Related Links http://www.projectpossum.org ATLANTA, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the first half of 2018, Conisus, a strategic marketing and medical communications agency focused on brand strategy, business intelligence (BI), and peer-to-peer programming, announced several important accomplishments. In January, S Phase was invited to present its best-in-class BI solutions specifically created for pharmaceutical companies at the CBI Analytics Conference. The conference focused on leveraging visualization tools to manage healthcare provider interactions for the pharmaceutical industry. Blake Walter, Director of Analytics, and Dr. Rich Leff, Chief Medical Officer, introduced attendees to S Phase's unique ability to combine quantitative data sets with qualitative knowledge to optimize brand strategy for the pharmaceutical industry. "Many data analytics companies can integrate with external or internal data sources, compile these data and generate a list of names based on certain criteria," said Jeff Giampalmi, CEO of S Phase's parent company Conisus. "But at S Phase, we supplement quantitative data sets with unparalleled qualitative knowledge based on over 150 years of combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. This combination of quantitative and qualitative expertise is what differentiates S Phase from other data analytic companies." Deborah Prince, President of S Phase, explained that "S Phase's BI solutions are designed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry, unlike other platforms. We have a password-protected and firewalled solution for various pharmaceutical stakeholders including medical affairs, compliance, operations, marketing, thought leader liaisons, and sales. Many agencies outsource analytical services, but we have everything in-house and leverage our team's industry experience to augment key findings." In June, Conisus and its subsidiaries, Envision, E Squared and S Phase, collaborated with Oncology Business Review (OBR) for the second straight year to host a preview webinar for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting entitled: ASCO 2018: A Panel Discussion of Clinical Presentations With Practice-Changing Potential. Conisus leveraged its BI platform to analyze and segment over two thousand data abstracts by disease state, author institution, and geography. These subsets gave attendees an opportunity to view the abstracts from a global perspective. Conisus also provided a case study on challenges in clinical trial recruitment by illustrating the mismatch between open phase 2/3 metastatic pancreatic cancer trials and the number of eligible patients in the United States. "Conisus identified several pivotal presentations at ASCO that have the potential to significantly alter treatment paradigms in cancer care," said Don Smith, Chief Strategy Officer at Conisus. The ASCO 2018 Preview webinar featured an expert panel of physicians who discussed these presentations followed by a Q&A session. Over 600 professionals from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical education, consulting, and banking sectors attended the webinar. This number included 500 unique pharmaceutical and biotechnology participants from marketing, medical affairs, operations, clinical development, sales, and other disciplines, representing 200 distinct companies. In the first of half of 2018, Conisus and its subsidiaries executed over 1,500 educational events with more than 500 occurring on-site at the 2018 ASCO and European Hematology Association (EHA) meetings in Chicago, Illinois, and Stockholm, Sweden, respectively. These included peer-to-peer educational exchanges in a panoply of disease states among international, national, regional, and local hematologists/oncologists and allied healthcare providers. "We continue expanding both our client base and our reach with hematology and oncology professionals," explained Jeff Giampalmi, CEO of Conisus. "Few agencies can move with our speed and efficiency, and even fewer have the technological resources, industry relationships, and deep experience to provide a meaningful strategic partnership." About Conisus Based in Atlanta, Conisus and its subsidiaries, S Phase, Envision, and E Squared, are leading providers of strategic medical communications services to the biopharmaceutical industry. We are dedicated to improving the care of patients with serious or life-threatening conditions by delivering unparalleled medical education programs to healthcare professionals. Our goal is to provide best-in-class strategic services while demonstrating unrivaled service to healthcare professionals and clients, ensuring that all operations reflect the highest degree of integrity. SOURCE Conisus "Brad's reputation for success comes from his commitment to understanding the customers' most difficult challenges and building effective strategies to overcome them," said Mike Twyman, president of Cubic Mission Solutions. "His appointment is important to our continued growth in the C4ISR market as we expand our portfolio of innovative capabilities to satisfy the rapidly evolving demands of our customers." Prior to joining Cubic, Powell held a number of senior director positions at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems where he was most recently responsible for a portfolio of programs, including the Global Combat Support System Army and the U.S. Postal Service Biohazard Detection System programs. He was previously based in Saudi Arabia for three years, leading a joint venture where he directed Northrop Grumman's business execution and growth strategy for delivering critical infrastructure protection solutions to key middle eastern customers. Powell was also responsible for the successful pursuit and capture of multiple C4ISR franchise programs related to tactical airborne networking and senior leader communications. As an acquisition officer in the U.S. Air Force, Powell served as the program manager for a portfolio of tactical data link integration programs. During his service at Hanscom Air Force Base, he initiated the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) program and led the initial fielding of Link 16 on the F-15C/D/E fleet. Powell earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Iowa and a Master of Business Administration, with honors, from the University of Chicago. His military awards include an Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. About Cubic Corporation Cubic Corporation designs, integrates and operates systems, products and services focused in the transportation, defense training and secure communications markets. Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security and commercial missions. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services to create intelligent travel solutions for transportation authorities and operators. Cubic Global Defense Systems is a leading provider of live, virtual, constructive and game-based training solutions to the U.S. and allied forces. For more information about Cubic, please visit the company's website at www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp. SOURCE Cubic Corporation Related Links http://www.cubic.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTC Bulletin Board: FNMA) today reported its second quarter 2018 results and filed its second quarter 2018 Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing provides condensed consolidated financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2018. The following documents are now available on Fannie Mae's web site at www.fanniemae.com. Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit fanniemae.com and follow us on twitter.com/fanniemae. SOURCE Fannie Mae Related Links http://www.fanniemae.com STAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, today confirmed enrollment of the first patient in the company's Phase 2 study assessing the efficacy and safety of investigational drug MNK-1411 (cosyntropin, also known as tetracosactide) in patients ages four to eight with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). "We are very excited Mallinckrodt has chosen to study how this investigational drug, MNK-1411, might help in treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy," said Pat Furlong, President and CEO, Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy. "In the fight to end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, our community welcomes partners dedicated to this goal." The company also announced that MNK-1411 recently received the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Orphan Medicinal Product designation for the potential treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. "Mallinckrodt is focused on meeting the unmet medical needs of patients, particularly those with rare diseases like DMD," said Steven Romano, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt. "We are pleased to enroll the first patient in our Phase 2 clinical trial of investigational drug MNK-1411 in boys with DMD. We are also excited by the recent EMA designation of Orphan Drug status as confirmation of the potential benefit of this investigational therapy for European patients." About the Clinical Trial The Phase 2 clinical study is entitled: A Multicenter, Randomized, Parallel Group, Double Blind, Multiple Dose, Placebo Controlled Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of MNK-1411 in Male Subjects 4 to 8 Years of Age With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (the BRAVE study). The study will include patients who have a diagnosis of DMD confirmed by complete dystrophin deficiency, or an identifiable mutation in the DMD gene, or complete dystrophin gene sequencing consistent with DMD; patients must also have a typical clinical profile consistent with DMD to be included. Approximately 130 patients who meet eligibility criteria will be randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive one of two weight-based doses of MNK-1411, or they will receive volume-matched placebo, administered subcutaneously 2 times/week for 24 weeks. Study subjects who complete the 24-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled treatment period will be eligible to receive active treatment for an additional 24 weeks during an optional open-label extension. Key efficacy outcome measures for the study will include timed function tests, such as a 10-meter walk/run, 4-stair climb and rise from floor, and the NorthStar Ambulatory Assessment. Find more information about the U.S. trial here for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ClinicalTrials.gov website. Details can be found here for Belgium and here for Spain on the European Union Clinical Trial register website. About MNK-1411 MNK-1411 (cosyntropin), an investigational drug, is a depot formulation of cosyntropin acetate, a synthetic 24 amino acid melanocortin receptor agonist formulated for prolonged release. About Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) DMD is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. It is one of nine types of muscular dystrophy. DMD is caused by an absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact. Symptom onset is in early childhood, usually between ages 3 and 5. The disease primarily affects boys. Symptoms include muscle weakness, which can begin as early as age 3, first affecting the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs and shoulders, and later the skeletal (voluntary) muscles in the arms, legs and trunk.1 ABOUT MALLINCKRODT Mallinckrodt is a global business that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. Areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com. Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website. CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS RELATED TO FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This release includes forward-looking statements concerning the investigational drug MNK-1411 including expectations with regard to the study described in this release as well as its potential impact on patients. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law. CONTACTS Investor Relations Daniel J. Speciale, CPA Investor Relations and Strategy Officer 314-654-3638 [email protected] Media Rhonda Sciarra Senior Communications Manager 908-238-6765 [email protected] Meredith Fischer Chief Public Affairs Officer 908-997-9294 [email protected] Mallinckrodt, the "M" brandmark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. Other brands are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company or their respective owners. 2018 Mallinckrodt. US-1800213 08/18. 1 https://www.mda.org/disease/duchenne-muscular-dystrophy (Accessed July 24, 2018) SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc Related Links http://www.mallinckrodt.com NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Recent deaths and serious complications associated with the popular Brazilian Buttock Lift Procedure (BBL) have prompted five of the world's top plastic and cosmetic surgery-related organizations to come together to form an Inter-Society Gluteal Fat Grafting Task Force. The Task Force was formed to examine the causes behind these tragic incidences to try to prevent them from occurring through a variety of physician and patient safety education measures, including unprecedented research. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS/The Aesthetic Society), the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), the International Society of Plastic and Regenerative Surgeons (IPRES), and the International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science (IFATS), have all recognized that the death rate for BBL Procedures (approximately 1/3,000) is the highest for any aesthetic procedure and accordingly, action must be taken now in order to prevent further tragedies from occurring. "We believe that it is essential for our organizations to come together to address the complication and death rate associated with an increasingly popular aesthetic procedure in order to change the course of these adverse events as much as is possible in the name of patient safety," states W. Grant Stevens, MD, President of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. In 2017, there were three deaths in the state of Florida alone from the BBL procedure. Consequently, the Task Force is ramping up its efforts to conduct further research and spread the word about best practices for the procedure to all physicians worldwide, regardless of their area(s) of expertise. To-date, the societies have reviewed autopsy reports that have made it evident that all deceased BBL patients have had specific findings in common, including: Fat in the gluteal muscles Fat beneath the muscles Damage to the superior or inferior gluteal vein Massive fat emboli in the heart and/or lungs Further, the Task Force has identified factors that added additional risk to the procedure as well as those that proved to be protective and/or preventative. These findings have led to the adoption of the following recommendations: Avoid injecting fat into the deep muscle. No deaths have occurred with fat found only in the subcutaneous plane (under skin but over muscle). Avoid gluteal veins and the sciatic nerve. Fat should only be grafted into the superficial planes with the subcutaneous space considered safest. Use a >4.1 mm single hole injection cannula and instrumentation that offers control, avoiding bendable cannulas and mobile luer connections. Vibrating cannulas may provide additional tactile feedback. Avoid downward angulation of the cannula. Position patient and place incisions to create a path that will avoid deep muscle injections. Maintain constant three-dimensional awareness of the cannula tip. Only inject when the cannula is in motion to avoid high pressure bolus injections. Consider pulmonary fat embolism in unstable intra- and post-operative patients. Review gluteal vascular anatomy and draw landmarks to identify and avoid injection into the pedicle. Include risk of fat embolism and surgical alternatives in the informed consent process. "These guidelines should be adhered to by anyone performing the BBL procedure in order to curtail complications as much as is possible," states Dr. Stevens. Additional research is being conducted in the form of more anatomic studies via cadaver labs, injectable dye studies with ultrasound and fiberoptic equipment, cannula testing, injection depth testing and specific site injection testing. Once those results are finalized, a comprehensive set of guidelines for the procedure will be submitted for publication in the major clinical journals. For any patients interested in the procedure, they should be advised to research board-certified plastic surgeons in their area that specialize in BBL and should ask to see before-and-after photos and ask for patient references. About the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery: The Aesthetic Society is recognized as the world's leading organization devoted entirely to aesthetic plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine of the face and body. It is comprised of over 2,600 Plastic Surgeons; Active Members are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (USA) or by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and have extensive training in the complete spectrum of surgical and nonsurgical aesthetic procedures. International Active Members are certified by equivalent boards of their respective countries. All members worldwide adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and must meet stringent membership requirements. Visit our website: www.surgery.org Follow ASAPS on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ASAPS Become a fan of ASAPS on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AestheticSociety Check us out on Instagram: www.instagram.com/theaestheticsocietyasaps/ Read the latest news and learn about procedures: Smart Beauty Guide: www.smartbeautyguide.com Locate a plastic surgeon in your area: http://www.smartbeautyguide.com/select-surgeon Media contacts: Leigh Hope Fountain or Sarah Liburn (562) 799-2356 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] SOURCE American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Related Links http://www.surgery.org FAIRFAX, Va., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Missions Systems was awarded a contract for the Common Hardware Systems-5 (CHS-5) Program from the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract consists of a three-year base contract with two one-year options, for a maximum potential contract ceiling of $3.9 billion. "The CHS program is a great example of how the Army and industry can partner to ensure military services can rapidly acquire C4ISR solutions and other products that are not only cost-competitive with the commercial market, but logistically managed and supported for an extended period," said Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics Mission Systems. "More importantly, the ability of the CHS program to quickly adapt to the evolving challenges of today's battlefield plays a critical role in supporting the Army's tactical network modernization efforts." CHS is a "one stop shop" for tactical IT hardware solutions supporting more than 120 Army and U.S. Department of Defense program offices (including the Navy and the Marine Corps) for the rapid acquisition (orders typically on contract in 90 days or less) and delivery of commercial-off-the shelf IT hardware and services. Approximately 75,000 to 100,000 pieces of hardware are acquired through the contract from General Dynamics Mission Systems and its partners, which includes dozens of small and large businesses. The contract contains a robust technology-insertion process ensuring the CHS-5 hardware baseline leverages the most current commercial technology and industry investments. Additionally, the contract provides for technical assistance support services and logistics support for a wide range of services, from the rapid repair and replacement of equipment at strategically located Regional Support Centers to the deployment of field service personnel to CHS-5 user locations worldwide. General Dynamics Mission Systems is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). For more information about General Dynamics Mission Systems, please visit gdmissionsystems.com and follow us on Twitter @GDMS. SOURCE General Dynamics Mission Systems Related Links http://gdmissionsystems.com LONDON, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading National Markets, Submarkets (Systems Engineering, Solution Design & Support/COTS Software Solutions & Deployment/Analytical Services & Products), Digital Mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Cloud-Based Geo-Analytics & Geo-Data Exploitation for Defence & Homeland Security The latest report from business intelligence provider Visiongain offers comprehensive analysis of the global Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market. Visiongain assesses that this market will have generated revenues of $12bn in 2017. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523989/Visiongain_Logo.jpg ) Now: In March, 2018, Motorola Solutions announced it has completed the acquisition of Plant Holdings, Inc., which holds the Airbus DS Communications business, from Airbus Defence and Space, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Airbus SE. This is an example of the business critical headline that you need to know about - and more importantly, you need to read Visiongain's objective analysis of how this will impact your company and the industry more broadly. How are you and your company reacting to this news? Are you sufficiently informed? How this report will benefit you Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector. Visiongain's new study tells you and tells you NOW. In this brand new report you find 122 in-depth tables, 118 figures, charts, and graphs. The 325 page report provides clear detailed insight into the global Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market. By ordering and reading our brand new report today you stay better informed and ready to act. Report Scope Global Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market forecasts from 2018-2028 Country Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions forecasts from 2018-2028 covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, UK, US, and R.O.W. Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions submarket forecasts from 2018-2028 covering types (Systems Engineering, Solution Design & Support, COTS Software Solutions & Deployment, Analytical Services & Products) Analysis of the key factors driving growth in the global, regional and country level Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions markets from 2018-2028 20 detailed tables containing 300 contracts / projects and programmes in the Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions by country Profiles and market share of the leading Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions in 2018 at a global level and for leading countries Segmentation by: Geography (covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, UK, US, and R.O.W.) Type: Systems Engineering, Solution Design & Support, COTS Software Solutions & Deployment, Analytical Services & Products How will you benefit from this report? Keep your knowledge base up to speed. Don't get left behind Reinforce your strategic decision-making with definitive and reliable market data Learn how to exploit new technological trends Realise your company's full potential within the market Understand the competitive landscape and identify potential new business opportunities & partnerships Who should read this report? Anyone within the defence or intelligence value chains. Business development managers Marketing managers Technologists Suppliers Investors Banks Government agencies Contractors Visiongain's study is intended for anyone requiring commercial analyses for the Global Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions market and leading companies. You find data, trends and predictions. Buy our report today Global Governmental Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Solutions. Avoid missing out by staying informed - get our report now. To request a report overview of this report please contact Sara Peerun at [email protected] or refer to our website : https://www.visiongain.com/report/governmental-geospatial-intelligence-geoint-solutions-market-report-2018-2028/ 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) 66th Military Intelligence Brigade 777 Command 9900 Unit Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Air Force Intelligence Allied System for Geospatial-Intelligence Army Geospatial Center Army Intelligence Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE) Atomic Energy Research Establishment Australian Defence Force Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) Australian Government Australian Imagery Organisation Border Guard of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Boston Police Department Brazilian Armed Forces Brazilian Army Geographic Service (DSG) Brazilian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE) Brazilian Navy British Army British Government Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) Cabinet Intelligence & Research Office Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Canadian Air Force Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Canadian Coast Guard Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) Canadian Forces Intelligence Command (CFINTCOM) Canadian Forces Intelligence Group Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC) Canadian Forces National Counter-Intelligence Unit (CFNCIU) Canadian Government Canadian Ice Service Canadian Intelligence Command Canadian National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Canadian Office of the Prime Minister Canadian Polar Commission Cartographic and Photographic Center of the Air Force Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Civil Applications Committee Coast Guard Intelligence Combatant Command Defence Geographic Centre Defence HUMINT Organisation Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) Defence Intelligence Command (DIC) Defence Intelligence Headquarters Defence Topographic Agency Department of Building and Fire Department of Energy Department of Environment Department of State Department of the Air Force (US Air Force) Department of the Army (US Army) Department of the Navy (US Navy and US Marine Corps) Department of Treasury Direction Generale de L'Armament Directorate of Intelligence & Analysis Directorate of Strategic Military Geographic Information Drug Enforcement Administration Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) EU Commission European External Action Service (EEAS) European Union European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Federal Bureau of Investigation Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) French DGA - Direction Generale de L'Armament French MoD Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) Geographic Center of the Army GEOINT Agency of New Zealand (GNZ) Georgia Tech Research Institute Geospatial Information Agency (Badan Informasi Geospatial) Geospatial Information Management Defence Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre Geospatial Innovation Centre (GIC) German Armed Forces GIS Technology Industrial Parks Government of China Government of Japan Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) Hydrographic Institute of the Navy Imagery Division Indian Air Force Indian Army Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Indian Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) Indian Ministry of Defence Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Indian National Disaster Management Authority Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) Indian Navy Indonesian Armed Forces Indonesian Department of Building and Fire Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency (Badan Informasi Geospatial) Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBPF) Institute of Aeronautical Cartography (ICA) Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis of the National Council of Research International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) International Standards Organization (ISO) Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Israeli Air Force (IAF) Israeli Defence Force Israeli Military Intelligence (Aman). Italian Air Force Italian Army Italian Land Forces Japan Defence Agency Japanese Cabinet Intelligence & Research Office Japanese Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Japanese Defence Intelligence Headquarters (DIH) Japanese Defence Intelligence Headquarters Imagery Division Japanese Ministry of Defence Japanese Self Defence Forces (SDF) Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) Joint Aeronautical and Geospatial Organisation Joint Analysis Center (JAC) Joint Forces Intelligence Groups Joint Meteorological Centre (JMC) Joint Service Signals Organisation Joint Task Force North Joint Task Force X (JTF-X) KB Panorama Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) Korea Defence Intelligence Agency (KDIA) Korea Defence Intelligence Command (DIC) Korea's Defence Intelligence Agency (KDIA) Korean Ministry of Defence Korean National GEOINT Agency (NGIA) Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Liberal Government of Canada Mapping and Charting Establishment (MCE) Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Marine Corps Intelligence Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) Metropolitan Police Service Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China NASA National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China (NASG) National Air and Space Intelligence Center National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA) National Geospatial-Intelligence College National Informatics Center (NIC) National Maritime Coordination Centre National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) National Security Council National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) NATO NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre (NIFC ) Natural Environment Research Council Natural Resources Canada Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) Navy Intelligence New Zealand Customs New Zealand Defence Force New Zealand Fire New Zealand GEOINT Agency (GNZ) New Zealand LINZ New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) New Zealand MNZ New Zealand National Maritime Coordination Centre New Zealand Police NGA Support Teams (NSTs) No.1 Aeronautical Information and Documentation Unit (AIDU) Northern Development Canada Office for Geo Information of the Bundeswehr (AGeoBw) Office of Intelligence Office of Intelligence Support Office of National Security Intelligence Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Office of the Prime Minister Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Public Works and Government Service Canada (PWGSC). Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Royal School of Military Survey (RSMS) Russian Air Force Russian Armed Forces Russian Central Research Institute of Economics, Computer Science and Management Systems Russian Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) Russian Federation Russian Ground Forces Russian Ministry of Defence Russian Navy Russian Strategic Rocket Forces Saudi Arabian Border Guard Saxony Police Force Secretary of Defense South Korean Armed Forces Spanish Armed Forces (SAF) Spanish Cartographic and Photographic Center of the Air Force Spanish Geographic Center of the Army Spanish Hydrographic Institute of the Navy Survey of India The Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) UK Armed Forces UK Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE) UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment UK Defence Geographic Centre (DGC UK Defence Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre (DGIFC) UK Defence HUMINT Organisation (DHO) UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) UK Department of Environment UK Geospatial Exploitation (GE) Wing UK Geospatial Information Management (GIM) UK Joint Aeronautical and Geospatial Organisation (JAGO) UK Joint Forces Intelligence Group UK Joint Service Signals Organisation (JSSO) UK Metropolitan Police Service (MPS UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) UK Ministry of Justice's (MOJ) UK Natural Environment Research Council UK Other Government Departments UKHO (Hydrographic Office) Defence Maritime Geospatial Services (DMarGS). UKHO's Defence Maritime Geospatial Services University College London (UCL) University of Nottingham US AF/ Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Battle Management US Africa Command US Air Force US Air Force Intelligence US Army US Army Corps of Engineers US Army Geospatial Center (AGC) US Army Intelligence US Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) US Central Command (CENTCOM) US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) US Central Security Service (CSS) US Coast Guard Intelligence US Combatant Commands (COCOMs) US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) US Department of Agriculture US Department of Agriculture (USDA) US Forest Service US Department of Defense (DOD) US Department of Energy/ Office of Intelligence US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) US Department of Homeland Security/ Directorate of Intelligence & Analysis US Department of State/ Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) US Department of the Navy (US Navy and US Marine Corps) US Department of Treasury/ Office of Intelligence Support US DHS Office of Operations and Coordination (OPS) US Enforcement Administration/ Office of National Security Intelligence US European Command (EUCOM) US FAA US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation US Intelligence Community US JFCOM US Joint Staff US Joint Task Force Headquarters US Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF US Marine Corps US Marine Corps Intelligence US National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) US National Operations Center (NOC) US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) US National Security Agency (NSA) US National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southwest US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). US Navy US Navy Intelligence US NORTH COM US NSG US Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI US Office of the President of the United States US PACOM US SOCOM US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) US Special Operations Forces (SOF) US STRATCOM US TRANSCOM To see a report overview please e-mail Sara Peerun on [email protected] SOURCE Visiongain HENDERSON, Colo., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuka Enterprises announced today that former New Jersey Governor James Florio will join the company's advisory board and will be supporting Nuka's expansion initiatives into New Jersey through his law firm, Florio Perrucci Steinhardt & Capelli, LLC. The deal adds significant political and intellectual capital to Nuka's advisory board as the company brings its expertise, history of innovation, and market leadership to New Jersey. Nuka's 1906 brand cannabis edibles have been recognized for their great taste, fast onset time and use of plant medicines to deliver desired effects. "The people of New Jersey have recognized and acknowledged the importance of cannabis legalization as a medicinal, social justice and economic issue, and that the time for responsible change has come," said Governor James Florio. "I am proud to be partnering with Nuka who have been recognized for their safe, innovative and progressive approach to the cannabis edibles market. I also believe in Peter Barsoom, Nuka's founder and CEO, who is a New Jersey native and a thought leader in the industry, promoting responsible consumption of legal cannabis in a regulated market that protects the consumer." Governor Florio and his law firm will work with Nuka's leadership team in support of their New Jersey expansion initiatives. As the state moves rapidly toward adult use legalization and an expansion of medicinal programs, Governor Florio and Nuka will bring their insights, experience and resources to New Jersey legislators, organizations and businesses to ensure responsible development and implementation of new policies. "It is an honor to be working with Governor Florio, one of New Jersey's most celebrated leaders, and to have his experience, community, and support and shared values with Nuka and 1906," said Peter Barsoom, CEO of Nuka Enterprises. "This is an exciting time of economic growth in New Jersey, which has the potential to be totally transformative for cannabis legislation and regulation. New Jersey is the home of so many highly-regulated industries, including pharmaceutical and biotech, and robust research institutions. We've got incredible resources and models, and we have executive support across all branches of government--our governor and both leaders of the the legislative branch. This is our opportunity to get this right--to get social justice right, to get research right, to get the consumer experience right--and when we do, we will set best practices and standards for the entire world." About Nuka Enterprises and 1906 Nuka's 1906 cannabis edibles marry the benefits of low-dose cannabis and plant medicines to deliver distinct highs with functional benefits. 1906's proprietary, artisanal chocolate formulations include GO for energy, HIGH LOVE for arousal, MIDNIGHT for sleep, PAUSE for relaxation and BLISS for euphoria. All of 1906's products employ a rapid-delivery technology that eliminates the long wait typical of traditional edibles, ensuring safe, predictable and enjoyable experiences every time. Nuka Enterprises develops processes, IP, and services focused on disrupting the nascent and fast-emerging cannabis industry. Nuka's 1906 brand is creating a new category of premium edibles that marry the benefits of cannabis and ethnobotanical ingredients (specifically, plant medicines) to appeal to responsible, informed, health-conscious adults. 1906 products deliver distinct highs with functional benefits in a fast-acting edible of artisanal chocolate. 1906's product lineup delivers five unique experiences that are reported to promote sleep, energy, arousal, relaxation and a happy mood, all in a safe and predictable formulation. For more information, please visit www.1906newhighs.com. SOURCE Nuka Enterprises Related Links http://www.1906newhighs.com The Tennessee Chapter of the Health Care and Information Management Systems Society Chapter and the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University will once again partner with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to bring a 14-week certification program to health care information technology professionals in the Chattanooga region.Designed for health care professionals of all levels, backgrounds and career paths, the program teaches students how the blending of health care and IT can affect care outcomes.The curriculum also covers the future of health care and business processes in health care.The second class in the series will be held Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee headquarters. Individuals who are unable to attend the class in person may attend virtually via live remote broadcast.Improving the integration of technology in health care translates to improved outcomes, said Nick Coussoule, SVP and chief information officer of BlueCross. Were proud to support an endeavor that helps our industry become more responsive and effective at meeting community health needs.Throughout the course, students gain exposure to the health care provider, payer and vendor settings. Led by HIT professionals, the programs students experience real-life challenges and determine best practices to bring into their careers.Attending the TN HIMSS Workforce Accelerator class was invaluable to me, said Carolyn Miller, IT business analyst at BlueCross. It is an eye-opening deep-dive into important elements of the industry, such as Electronic Health Records, Smart Health devices, systems and applications.The training offers a detailed view of the U.S. health care system and policies, along with specialized knowledge about HIT systems and processes. Participants gain an understanding of vendor solutions using team-based skills.The accelerator program certifies workforce-ready professionals pursuing careers in the HIT sector through specialized training with industry professional and HIMSS member companies.Individuals interested in the program can register at https://form.jotform.com/53084471159155 . For more information, visit http://tnhimss.org/education/hit-accelerator-program/ MONTROSE, Colo., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenworks Lending, a national leader in Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing, announced today the successful closing with Mayfly Outdoors to support the construction of Mayfly's new headquarters and manufacturing center in Montrose. This marks one of the first ground-up new construction projects in Colorado to come through the state's C-PACE Program, which allows developers to use C-PACE funds for up to 20 percent of their construction budgets for property elements that meet or exceed the state's energy- and water-efficiency standards. It is also the second C-PACE investment in manufacturing for the state, and the second Montrose County project. Greenworks Lending Mayfly Outdoors, whose brands include fly fishing companies Abel and Ross Reels, envision its new 41,000-square-foot headquarters as an anchor point for Montrose's Colorado Outdoors Project, a new business park, river restoration and wildlife public access project. Greenworks' $1 million investment will help to upgrade the new building, which more than doubles Mayfly's current manufacturing floor space in Montrose and provides its employees and customers direct access to the Uncompahgre River. Greenworks provides C-PACE financing in 13 states and the District of Columbia and has funded several energy retrofits of commercial buildings in the greater Denver metro area. "We were thrilled to work with Mayfly on the construction of its headquarters," said Genevieve Sherman, head of new markets and partnerships at Greenworks Lending. "The Colorado C-PACE Program and its participating counties have shown real leadership in utilizing C-PACE as a tool to encourage developers to go above and beyond minimum efficiency standards when it comes to constructing new buildings." "It's great to find a partner in Greenworks who aligns well with our vision," said David Dragoo, president of Mayfly. "We are a leading manufacturer of outdoor products and our new world-class facility will reflect this standard, both inside and out." The Mayfly headquarters is currently under construction and is set to be completed by the end of 2018. The new building is designed entirely with LED lighting, energy-efficient low-emissivity glass (low-e) and is geothermal ready. "Every feature was carefully considered to make the building a clean, energy-efficient facility, but also attractive-looking," said Dragoo. C-PACE funding is designed to help building owners access private-sector financing to upgrade or build anew with energy-efficiency, clean-energy and water-efficiency infrastructure. "The C-PACE program is a great tool for economic development," said Sandy Head, executive director for the Montrose Economic Development Corporation. "One of the best incentives is that the program allows upfront funding for new construction and is considered owner equity. It allows businesses to invest their cash in growing the business. We are fortunate that Montrose County Commissioners opted into this program as it adds to the package we already have to offer to companies who are looking for that perfect location." "Not only is this project an excellent value for Mayfly, but it also helps protect our environment and create local jobs," said Tracy Phillips, director of the Colorado C-PACE program. "We're so pleased to see building owners across the state improve their properties through the C-PACE program, and are especially excited to see new buildings that are being built to be even more energy-efficient than originally planned thanks to the program." MEDIA CONTACT Adam Moskowitz Greenworks Lending Phone: 203.837.7816 Email: [email protected] ABOUT GREENWORKS LENDING Led by several of the C-PACE industry's founding policy developers, Greenworks Lending is a private capital provider uniquely dedicated to funding commercial property owner investment in renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects through state-legislated C-PACE programs on a national level. Greenworks utilizes C-PACE financing so building owners can access long-term, lower-cost capital to make smart, cost-saving improvements to commercial buildings. Greenworks also supports and partners with states, counties and municipalities interested in promoting economic development, creating jobs and reducing pollution. More information can be found at greenworkslending.com. ABOUT Colorado C-PACE A program of the Colorado New Energy Improvement District (NEID) administered by Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Colorado C-PACE provides financing for energy and water improvements, including new heating/cooling systems, lighting, water pumps, insulation and renewable energy projects for commercial properties. C-PACE offers long-term financing that covers 100 percent of the project cost and is repaid over a period of up to 20 years. The payments are structured as a regular line item on the property tax bill. When a property is sold, the C-PACE assessment can stay with the property and transfer to the new owner, who enjoys the ongoing utility cost savings associated with the project. Visit copace.com for more information. ABOUT MAYFLY OUTDOORS Mayfly Outdoors is a Colorado-based outdoor products company founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mayfly subsidiaries operate under various brand names including Abel and Ross Reels. Combined, these businesses are the recipients of more industry "Awards in Excellence" for innovation, dependability and performance than any other fly-fishing tackle manufacturers in the world. More information can be found at mayflyoutdoors.com. Related Images mayfly-outdoors-headquarters-and.jpg Mayfly Outdoors headquarters and manufacturing center in Montrose, CO mayfly-outdoors.png Mayfly Outdoors Corporate Logo greenworks-lending.jpg Greenworks Lending Corporate Logo colorado-c-pace.jpg Colorado C-PACE Program Logo SOURCE Greenworks Lending Related Links http://greenworkslending.com PHOENIX, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A $3 billion pipeline and pump station designed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will serve to take advantage of the unused renewable energy that's been generated by the Hoover Dam since its inception. Pep Solar is a leader in renewable energy and champions the further development and the production of hydro batteries that will be an asset to Arizona homeowners and the environment as a whole. Since the beginning of the renewable energy movement, one of the major hurdles has been establishing efficient and affordable methods of storing the generated power. Opponents to renewable energy particularly those on the side of traditional power giants - have long argued that natural occurrences like cloudy days make solar power a useless option. Being able to find a way to store the solar and wind energy for later use is the key to unlocking the limitless potential of renewable energy and the Hoover Dam project is proving exactly that. The pump station will serve as a method for regulating the water flow through the dam, utilizing solar and wind energy as its main power source. By sending the water back to the top to meet peak demand, the station will function as an energy storage facility essentially, a massive, solar-powered battery for California, Arizona and Nevada residents. This long-awaited project has been applauded by proponents of renewable energy solutions and labeled as an innovative method for maximizing the energy potential of the dam. Sean Monaghan, one of the founders of Arizona-based PEP Solar, is celebrating this break-through with other leaders of the renewable energy community. For more than four decades, he's championed the concept of solar power and renewable energy options, educating Arizona residents about the eco-friendly energy source that shines brightly in the desert sky year-round. He states that not only is renewable energy an incredibly smart way to protect the planet but is also a major money-saver for home and business owners. The Hoover Dam project is a major step towards a better world, opening up the public to what could very well be a game-changing solution for the American Southwest. Everything we do [is because] we believe in renewable energy the universe already shows us its perfect design. Not until all the laws of energy that are made by man are consistent with the laws of the universe will we live in a free world. Monaghan and his peers are thrilled at the announcement of the Hoover Dam project a concept he's been pushing for more than a decade. Hydro batteries such as this one serve numerous uses, including night-time energy use, desalination plants, automated planting systems and the use of excess energy to produce clean drinking water. It's "the perfect solution," he states, especially for the dry, thirsty states of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Since 1981, PEP Solar has played a major role in expanding the public's understanding of the potential of solar energy. As the first residential solar panel installer in America, PEP Solar has also become well-known for creating innovative products that much like the Hoover Dam project lengthen the reach of the renewable energy movement. The company has won a number of awards and earned national recognition for their leading position in the solar power community, consistently working towards their goal of connecting Arizonan residents to the valuable power asset of renewable energy. Now, with the advent of the Hoover Dam project, Monaghan is finally seeing the exciting unfolding of his dream for Arizona being a part of the major movement towards worldwide renewable energy innovation. Phoenix Energy Products, LLC DBA PEP Solar is a privately owned, Arizona-based company dedicated to providing our customers and neighbors with advanced energy product solutions designed to meet your energy solution requirements. With 41 years of history installing residential solar, PEP Solar is the first residential solar installer in the United States (operating since 1978 in Arizona). As a company, it has won over 50 awards. PEP Solar is a multiple winner of the Solar Power World's Top-500 national solar contractors. If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Sean Monaghan at 623-806-8806 or email at [email protected]. Contact Sean Monaghan Telephone 623-806-8806 Email [email protected] Website https://www.pepsolar.com/ SOURCE PEP Solar Related Links https://www.pepsolar.com NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Reuters, the world's largest international multimedia news provider, announced today the winners of two Reuters-National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) scholarships, awarded to Arriana McLymore and Akintunde Ahmad for graduate journalism programs at New York University and Columbia University, respectively. Each student will receive a value of more than $40,000 in tuition and credits for the 2018-2019 academic year funded by Reuters and the universities. In addition, both winners will receive on-site training in the Reuters New York newsroom and access to mentoring by Reuters editors. Upon graduation, they'll also each be offered a 10 week Reuters internship. Arriana McLymore, a recent graduate of Hampton University, served as editor-in-chief of the university's paper. Her past summer internships include CNBC, a local ABC affiliate, Edelman, and most recently, an editorial internship at DC Inno. McLymore will be attending the Business and Economic Reporting program at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute for graduate school. Akintunde Ahmad, from Oakland, California, graduated from Yale University in May with a degree in Sociology. Ahmad, who had a 5.0 GPA in high school and was accepted to several Ivy League colleges, announced his intention to attend Yale in a 2014 interview on The Ellen Show. He will attend the documentary film program at Columbia Journalism School. "Reuters sees high value in investing in young adults pursuing a career in journalism and in promoting diversity and inclusion throughout the industry," said Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler. "The Reuters-NABJ scholarships are an immense opportunity for Reuters to offer access to our resources and the experience of our journalists to help these young students develop into exceptional journalists." "The Reuters-NABJ Scholarship is an amazing opportunity for NABJ students to receive a graduate degree and hands-on experience working inside the cutting-edge Reuters newsroom. This program exposes our emerging journalists to a plethora of academic opportunities via their graduate degree program, the innovation happening in the Reuters newsroom, and real-work experience among top-notch reporters, editors and digital journalists. NABJ is very proud of Arriana McLymore and Akintunde Ahmad, our impressive Reuters-NABJ scholarship recipients," said NABJ President Sarah Glover. Reuters Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world's largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Follow news about Reuters at @ReutersPR. CONTACT Heather Carpenter PR Manager, Head of Special Projects Reuters [email protected] 646-223-8551 SOURCE Thomson Reuters Related Links http://www.reuters.com SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move that bolsters the global reach of its Intellectual Property practice, LeClairRyan has announced the addition of a patent prosecution group comprised of three attorneys and five professional staff to its Sacramento office, led by partners Charles Yang and John Yang. Charles Yang and John Yang were most recently partners at FisherBroyles LLP. Both were previously with boutique IP firm Ntellect Law founded by Charles Yang. Charles Yang John Yang Patricia Peden, LeClairRyan's Intellectual Property Department Leader, said the strategic addition of this group brings additional West Coast talent to an already deep bench. "We are excited to have Charles, John and their team join LeClairRyan," she said. "Having worked with them for years, we know the high caliber of services they can offer our clients. Their experience working with Chinese clients is a particularly important addition, as our firm continues to expand its global reach." Charles Yang focuses his patent attorney practice on patent prosecution and related practices before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Over the course of his decade-long careerwhich included positions with Baker & McKenzie in the U.S., Hong Kong and Chinahe has managed patent portfolios for a wide range of technologies, including optics, stereoscopic and holographic displays, semiconductor manufacturing, medical devices, telecommunication software, and consumer products. He is admitted in Texas and with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. John Yang focuses his practice on all aspects of intellectual property, primarily serving the chemical, electrical, mechanical and semiconductor industries. During his decade-long legal career that included positions at Greenberg Traurig and as Senior Director of Intellectual Property at a consumer products company, he has been providing business-oriented advice for developing, implementing and aligning intellectual property strategy with business objectives. Before joining the legal profession, he was an engineer in the semiconductor industry for nearly 10 years with Intel Corporation and TriQuint Semiconductor (now Qorvo). He is admitted in California and with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. About LeClairRyan As a trusted advisor, LeClairRyan provides business counsel and client representation in corporate law and litigation. In this role, the firm applies its knowledge, insight and skill to help clients achieve their business objectives while managing and minimizing their legal risks, difficulties and expenses. With offices from coast to coast, the firm represents a wide variety of clients nationwide. For more information about LeClairRyan, visit www.leclairryan.com. For More Information Christina Llames (804) 783-518 [email protected] SOURCE LeClairRyan Related Links http://www.leclairryan.com RESTON, Va., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, today announced it has been named to Forbes magazine's inaugural list of America's Best Employers for Women. Leidos ranked in the top 20 percent at No. 51 overall. The company was also ranked No. 4 out of 23 companies in the list's IT services category. "The Leidos culture is one where everyone can achieve and move forward," said Ann Addison, Leidos Chief Human Resources Officer. "Ranking in the top 20 percent of this inaugural list underscores our commitment to embracing talent with different perspectives and from various backgrounds. It's a win for our workforce, our business, and for our customers, who rely on us to deliver innovative solutions for their most complex problems." As part of its commitment to diversity and inclusion, Leidos supports several internal and external initiatives to advance women in the workplace. The company sponsors external partnerships with Women in Technology; March of Dimes Heroines of Washington; and the Society of Women Engineers. Internally, the Leidos Women's Network is an employee resource group (ERG) that provides a supportive forum that fosters personal and professional development and growth through mentoring, networking, and giving back to the community. The ERG's executive sponsors, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Michele Brown and Chief of Business Development and Strategy Gerry Fasano, were recognized by Diversity Best Practices as part of their 2018 Above and Beyond Awards program. Forbes, with data partner Statista, surveyed more than 40,000 employees, including 25,000 women, at companies across the country. The top 300 companies of those surveyed were named as The Best Employers for Women 2018. The ranking took into consideration general workplace factors, including diversity, development and working conditions in addition to topics particularly relevant for women, such as parental leave, flexibility, pay equity and family support. Forbes and Statista also examined diversity in top executive and board of director roles. Leidos was also recognized by Forbes as one of the 2018 Best Employers for Diversity and named to its list of the Most Just Companies. For access to the full list of America's Best Employers for Women, visit https://www.forbes.com/best-employers-for-women/list/. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 31,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.17 billion for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2017. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 29, 2017, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Leidos Related Links http://www.leidos.com ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: VAC) today reported second quarter financial results and provided updated guidance for the full year 2018. Second Quarter 2018 Results: Total company vacation ownership contract sales were $233 million , an increase of $18 million , or 8 percent, compared to the prior year period. North America vacation ownership contract sales were $211 million , an increase of $16 million , or 8 percent, compared to the prior year period. , an increase of , or 8 percent, compared to the prior year period. vacation ownership contract sales were , an increase of , or 8 percent, compared to the prior year period. The company estimates that the 2017 hurricanes negatively impacted contract sales in the 2018 second quarter by more than $3 million . Excluding that impact, the company estimates that total company and North America vacation ownership contract sales would have both grown 10 percent over the prior year period. . Excluding that impact, the company estimates that total company and vacation ownership contract sales would have both grown 10 percent over the prior year period. North America VPG totaled $3,672 , a 3 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017. North America tours increased 5 percent year-over-year. , a 3 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017. tours increased 5 percent year-over-year. Net income was $11 million , or $0.39 fully diluted earnings per share ("EPS"), compared to net income of $48 million , or $1.72 fully diluted EPS, in the second quarter of 2017. , or fully diluted earnings per share ("EPS"), compared to net income of , or fully diluted EPS, in the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted net income was $43 million compared to adjusted net income of $49 million in the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted fully diluted EPS was $1.59 , compared to adjusted fully diluted EPS of $1.74 in the second quarter of 2017. compared to adjusted net income of in the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted fully diluted EPS was , compared to adjusted fully diluted EPS of in the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $76 million , a decrease of $8 million year-over-year. , a decrease of year-over-year. Excluding the impact of nearly $10 million of unfavorable revenue reportability, Adjusted EBITDA increased $2 million year-over-year. of unfavorable revenue reportability, Adjusted EBITDA increased year-over-year. Development margin was $39 million compared to $52 million in the second quarter of 2017. Development margin percentage was 19.0 percent compared to 25.6 percent in the prior year quarter. compared to in the second quarter of 2017. Development margin percentage was 19.0 percent compared to 25.6 percent in the prior year quarter. Total company adjusted development margin percentage, which excludes the impact of revenue reportability and other charges, was 20.0 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 23.2 percent in the second quarter of 2017. North America adjusted development margin percentage, which excludes the impact of revenue reportability and other charges, was 23.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 25.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017. adjusted development margin percentage, which excludes the impact of revenue reportability and other charges, was 23.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 25.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017. Resort management and other services revenues totaled $78 million , a $6 million , or 8 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Resort management and other services revenues, net of expenses, totaled $37 million , a $4 million , or 12 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. , a , or 8 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Resort management and other services revenues, net of expenses, totaled , a , or 12 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Financing revenues totaled $36 million , a $3 million , or 10 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Financing revenues, net of expenses and consumer financing interest expense, were $26 million , a $2 million , or 11 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. , a , or 10 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Financing revenues, net of expenses and consumer financing interest expense, were , a , or 11 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Rental revenues totaled $75 million , a $5 million , or 8 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. Rental revenues net of expenses were $12 million , a 2 percent, increase from the second quarter of 2017. "In the second quarter, we saw a continuation of the momentum we gained at the end of the first quarter. Contract sales were $233 million, an increase of 8 percent year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA was strong at $76 million, both in line with our expectations," said Stephen P. Weisz, president and chief executive officer. "Our new sales locations continue to mature, our marketing programs are generating increasing tour flow, and our volume per guest continues to grow. Based on our performance for the first half of the year and our expectations for the remainder of the year, we are confident we can achieve our 2018 full year guidance of contract sales growth between 7 and 12 percent, adjusted net income of $184 million to $195 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $310 million to $325 million. Regarding the proposed transaction with ILG, I'm pleased to say that we've received the required regulatory approvals and, assuming all other remaining conditions are satisfied, including approval from shareholders of both MVW and ILG, we anticipate closing on the transaction on August 31, 2018." Non-GAAP Financial Information Certain financial measures included in this release are not calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), including adjusted net income, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted development margin, adjusted free cash flow, and adjusted fully diluted earnings per share. For descriptions of and a reconciliation of such measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, see pages A-1 through A-12 of the Financial Schedules that follow. Balance Sheet and Liquidity On June 30, 2018, cash and cash equivalents totaled $548 million. Since the beginning of the year, real estate inventory balances decreased $38 million to $685 million, including $325 million of finished goods and $360 million of land and infrastructure. The company had $1.3 billion in debt outstanding, net of unamortized debt issuance costs, at the end of the second quarter, an increase of $237 million from year-end 2017, consisting primarily of $1.1 billion of debt related to our securitized notes receivable and $196 million of convertible notes. During the second quarter of 2018, the company completed the securitization of $436 million of vacation ownership notes receivable at a blended borrowing rate of 3.52 percent and an advance rate of 97 percent. Approximately $327 million of the vacation ownership notes receivable were purchased on June 28, 2018 by the MVW Owner Trust 2018-1 (the "Trust"), and all or a portion of the remaining vacation ownership notes receivable may be purchased by the Trust prior to September 30, 2018. This transaction generated approximately $423 million of gross proceeds, of which $106 million will be held in restricted cash until the remaining vacation ownership notes receivable are purchased by the Trust. Approximately $10 million was used to pay transaction expenses and fund required reserves and the remainder will be used for general corporate purposes. As of June 30, 2018, the company had approximately $248 million in available capacity under its revolving credit facility after taking into account outstanding letters of credit, and approximately $40 million of gross vacation ownership notes receivable eligible for securitization. Acquisition of ILG, Inc. On April 30, 2018, the company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger under which the company agreed to acquire, in a series of transactions, all of the outstanding shares of ILG, Inc. ("ILG") in a cash and stock transaction with an implied equity value of approximately $4.7 billion as of that date. Subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including approval from shareholders of both MVW and ILG, as noted above, the company expects to close the transaction on August 31, 2018. Outlook Pages A-1 through A-12 of the Financial Schedules reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures set forth below to the following full year 2018 expected GAAP results: Net income $150 million to $161 million Fully diluted EPS $5.45 to $5.85 Net cash provided by operating activities $95 million to $120 million The company is updating guidance as reflected in the chart below for the full year 2018: Current Guidance Previous Guidance Adjusted free cash flow $200 million to $230 million $185 million to $215 million The company is reaffirming the following guidance for the full year 2018: Adjusted net income $184 million to $195 million Adjusted fully diluted EPS $6.69 to $7.09 Adjusted EBITDA $310 million to $325 million Contract sales growth 7 percent to 12 percent 2018 expected GAAP results and guidance above do not reflect the impact of future spending associated with the planned acquisition of ILG or any impact of the acquisition of ILG. Second Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call The company will hold a conference call at 10:00 a.m. ET today to discuss these results and the guidance for full year 2018. Participants may access the call by dialing 877-407-8289 or 201-689-8341 for international callers. A live webcast of the call will also be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com. An audio replay of the conference call will be available for seven days and can be accessed at 877-660-6853 or 201-612-7415 for international callers. The conference ID for the recording is 13681378. The webcast will also be available on the company's website. About Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation is a leading global pure-play vacation ownership company, offering a diverse portfolio of quality products, programs and management expertise with over 65 resorts. Its brands include Marriott Vacation Club, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Grand Residences by Marriott. Since entering the industry in 1984 as part of Marriott International, Inc., the company earned its position as a leader and innovator in vacation ownership products. The company preserves high standards of excellence in serving its customers, investors and associates while maintaining a long-term relationship with Marriott International. For more information, please visit www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com. Note on forward-looking statements: This press release and accompanying schedules contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of federal securities laws, including statements about future operating results, estimates, and assumptions, the company's pending acquisition of ILG, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events and expectations that are not historical facts. The company cautions you that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including volatility in the economy and the credit markets, supply and demand changes for vacation ownership and residential products, competitive conditions, the availability of capital to finance growth, and other matters referred to under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and in subsequent SEC filings, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied in this press release. These statements are made as of August 2, 2018 and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. No Offer or Solicitation This communication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to and does not constitute an offer to buy, nor a solicitation of an offer to sell, subscribe for or buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transactions or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and otherwise in accordance with applicable law. Important Information and Where to Find It The proposed transactions involving the company and ILG will be submitted to the company's stockholders and ILG's stockholders for their consideration. In connection with the proposed transaction, on July 19, 2018, the company filed with the SEC an amendment to the registration statement on Form S-4 that included a joint proxy statement/prospectus for the stockholders of the company and ILG and was filed with the SEC on June 6, 2018. The registration statement was declared effective by the SEC on July 23, 2018. The company and ILG mailed the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus to their respective stockholders on or about July 25, 2018 and each of the company and ILG intend to hold the special meeting of the stockholders of the company and ILG on August 28, 2018. This communication is not intended to be, and is not, a substitute for such filings or for any other document that the company or ILG may file with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, INCLUDING THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM S-4 AND THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS, CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. The registration statement, the joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials and any other documents filed or furnished by the company or ILG with the SEC may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. In addition, security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement and the joint proxy statement/prospectus from the company by going to its investor relations page on its corporate web site at www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com and from ILG by going to its investor relations page on its corporate web site at www.ilg.com. Participants in the Solicitation The company, ILG, their respective directors and certain of their respective executive officers and employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction. Information about the company's directors and executive officers is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, which was filed with the SEC on February 27, 2018 and in its definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC on April 3, 2018, and information about ILG's directors and executive officers is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, which was filed with the SEC on March 1, 2018, and in its definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC on May 7, 2018. These documents are available free of charge from the sources indicated above, and from the company by going to its investor relations page on its corporate web site at www.marriottvacationsworldwide.com and from ILG by going to its investor relations page on its corporate web site at www.ilg.com. Additional information regarding the interests of participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transactions is presented in the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus included in the registration statement on Form S-4 filed by the company with the SEC, and may be included in other relevant materials that the company and ILG file with the SEC. Financial Schedules Follow MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION FINANCIAL SCHEDULES QUARTER 2, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS Consolidated Statements of Income A-1 Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Earnings Per Share - Diluted, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA A-2 North America Segment Financial Results A-3 Asia Pacific Segment Financial Results A-4 Europe Segment Financial Results A-5 Corporate and Other Financial Results A-6 Consolidated Contract Sales to Sale of Vacation Ownership Products and Adjusted Development Margin (Adjusted Sale of Vacation Ownership Products Net of Expenses) A-7 North America Contract Sales to Sale of Vacation Ownership Products and Adjusted Development Margin (Adjusted Sale of Vacation Ownership Products Net of Expenses) A-8 2018 Outlook - Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Earnings Per Share - Diluted and Adjusted EBITDA A-9 2018 Outlook - Adjusted Free Cash Flow A-10 Non-GAAP Financial Measures A-11 Consolidated Balance Sheets A-13 Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows A-14 NOTE: Contract sales consist of the total amount of vacation ownership product sales under contract signed during the period where we have received a down payment of at least ten percent of the contract price, reduced by actual rescissions during the period, inclusive of contracts associated with sales of vacation ownership products on behalf of third parties, which we refer to as "resales contract sales." A-1 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (In thousands, except per share amounts) (Unaudited) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 REVENUES Sale of vacation ownership products $ 205,168 $ 201,856 $ 379,957 $ 365,733 Resort management and other services 77,642 71,940 147,822 139,359 Financing 35,851 32,530 71,333 64,641 Rental 74,561 69,290 148,771 136,969 Cost reimbursements 201,470 186,820 417,658 384,034 TOTAL REVENUES 594,692 562,436 1,165,541 1,090,736 EXPENSES Cost of vacation ownership products 56,863 51,025 103,226 94,796 Marketing and sales 109,315 99,168 215,249 196,666 Resort management and other services 41,079 39,413 78,857 76,884 Financing 3,788 3,449 8,036 7,466 Rental 62,739 57,756 118,638 111,464 General and administrative 32,992 29,534 62,427 57,073 Litigation settlement 16,312 183 16,209 183 Consumer financing interest 6,172 5,654 12,778 11,592 Royalty fee 16,198 16,307 31,022 32,377 Cost reimbursements 201,470 186,820 417,658 384,034 TOTAL EXPENSES 546,928 489,309 1,064,100 972,535 Losses and other expense, net (6,586) (166) (6,140) (225) Interest expense (4,112) (1,757) (8,429) (2,538) Other (19,686) (100) (22,802) (469) INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 17,380 71,104 64,070 114,969 Provision for income taxes (6,619) (22,918) (17,328) (38,893) NET INCOME $ 10,761 $ 48,186 $ 46,742 $ 76,076 Earnings per share - Basic $ 0.40 $ 1.76 $ 1.75 $ 2.79 Earnings per share - Diluted $ 0.39 $ 1.72 $ 1.71 $ 2.72 Basic Shares 26,728 27,319 26,707 27,285 Diluted Shares 27,253 27,965 27,281 27,929 Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 232,643 $ 214,985 $ 436,304 $ 414,603 NOTE: Earnings per share - Basic and Earnings per share - Diluted are calculated using whole dollars. A-2 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION (In thousands, except per share amounts) ADJUSTED NET INCOME AND ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE - DILUTED Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Net income $ 10,761 $ 48,186 $ 46,742 $ 76,076 Less certain items: Acquisition costs 19,775 199 22,935 611 Litigation settlement 16,312 183 16,209 183 Losses and other expense, net 6,586 166 6,140 225 Certain items before provision for income taxes 42,673 548 45,284 1,019 Provision for income taxes on certain items (9,984) (213) (10,613) (386) Adjusted net income ** $ 43,450 $ 48,521 $ 81,413 $ 76,709 Earnings per share - Diluted $ 0.39 $ 1.72 $ 1.71 $ 2.72 Adjusted earnings per share - Diluted ** $ 1.59 $ 1.74 $ 2.98 $ 2.75 Diluted Shares 27,253 27,965 27,281 27,929 EBITDA AND ADJUSTED EBITDA Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Net income $ 10,761 $ 48,186 $ 46,742 $ 76,076 Interest expense 1 4,112 1,757 8,429 2,538 Tax provision 6,619 22,918 17,328 38,893 Depreciation and amortization 5,770 5,001 11,371 10,192 EBITDA ** 27,262 77,862 83,870 127,699 Non-cash share-based compensation 6,117 5,175 9,718 8,451 Certain items before provision for income taxes 42,673 548 45,284 1,019 Adjusted EBITDA ** $ 76,052 $ 83,585 $ 138,872 $ 137,169 ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. 1 Interest expense excludes consumer financing interest expense. A-3 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA SEGMENT (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 REVENUES Sale of vacation ownership products $ 188,624 $ 184,880 $ 349,320 $ 336,589 Resort management and other services 68,429 63,916 131,960 125,989 Financing 33,912 30,719 67,441 60,958 Rental 67,083 62,021 135,158 124,506 Cost reimbursements 186,734 176,236 389,360 357,802 TOTAL REVENUES 544,782 517,772 1,073,239 1,005,844 EXPENSES Cost of vacation ownership products 50,123 45,808 91,108 84,731 Marketing and sales 95,519 87,373 188,902 174,795 Resort management and other services 33,881 33,355 66,164 66,324 Rental 53,283 49,220 100,466 95,274 Litigation settlement 15,199 14,988 Royalty fee 3,641 3,038 5,478 5,728 Cost reimbursements 186,734 176,236 389,360 357,802 TOTAL EXPENSES 438,380 395,030 856,466 784,654 Gains (losses) and other income (expense), net 17 (162) 3 (196) Other 26 74 (2,425) 125 SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ 106,445 $ 122,654 $ 214,351 $ 221,119 SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ 106,445 $ 122,654 $ 214,351 $ 221,119 Less certain items: Acquisition costs 68 27 2,568 27 Litigation settlement 15,199 14,988 (Gains) losses and other (income) expense, net (17) 162 (3) 196 Certain items 15,250 189 17,553 223 ADJUSTED SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS ** $ 121,695 $ 122,843 $ 231,904 $ 221,342 Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 211,469 $ 195,791 $ 398,613 $ 379,011 ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-4 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION ASIA PACIFIC SEGMENT (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 REVENUES Sale of vacation ownership products $ 11,654 $ 10,282 $ 22,900 $ 19,437 Resort management and other services 1,337 981 2,650 1,923 Financing 1,238 1,105 2,452 2,228 Rental 2,059 2,046 5,384 4,950 Cost reimbursements 1,931 1,607 3,697 2,717 TOTAL REVENUES 18,219 16,021 37,083 31,255 EXPENSES Cost of vacation ownership products 3,490 2,184 6,636 4,242 Marketing and sales 9,379 7,618 18,016 14,381 Resort management and other services 1,271 831 2,382 1,703 Rental 5,019 4,315 10,045 8,641 Royalty fee 268 221 521 449 Cost reimbursements 1,931 1,607 3,697 2,717 TOTAL EXPENSES 21,358 16,776 41,297 32,133 Gains (losses) and other income (expense), net 43 43 (20) Other (5) (2) (10) (10) SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ (3,101) $ (757) $ (4,181) $ (908) SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ (3,101) $ (757) $ (4,181) $ (908) Less certain items: (Gains) losses and other (income) expense, net (43) (43) 20 Certain items (43) (43) 20 ADJUSTED SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS ** $ (3,144) $ (757) $ (4,224) $ (888) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 13,784 $ 11,614 $ 26,127 $ 23,562 ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-5 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION EUROPE SEGMENT (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 REVENUES Sale of vacation ownership products $ 4,890 $ 6,694 $ 7,737 $ 9,707 Resort management and other services 7,876 7,043 13,212 11,447 Financing 701 706 1,440 1,455 Rental 5,419 5,223 8,229 7,513 Cost reimbursements 12,805 8,977 24,601 23,515 TOTAL REVENUES 31,691 28,643 55,219 53,637 EXPENSES Cost of vacation ownership products 823 1,137 1,233 1,692 Marketing and sales 4,417 4,177 8,331 7,490 Resort management and other services 5,927 5,227 10,311 8,857 Rental 4,437 4,221 8,127 7,549 Litigation settlement 1,100 1,208 Royalty fee 71 79 111 125 Cost reimbursements 12,805 8,977 24,601 23,515 TOTAL EXPENSES 29,580 23,818 53,922 49,228 SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ 2,111 $ 4,825 $ 1,297 $ 4,409 SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS $ 2,111 $ 4,825 $ 1,297 $ 4,409 Less certain items: Litigation settlement 1,100 1,208 Certain items 1,100 1,208 ADJUSTED SEGMENT FINANCIAL RESULTS ** $ 3,211 $ 4,825 $ 2,505 $ 4,409 Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 7,390 $ 7,580 $ 11,564 $ 12,030 ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-6 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION CORPORATE AND OTHER (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 EXPENSES Cost of vacation ownership products $ 2,427 $ 1,896 $ 4,249 $ 4,131 Financing 3,788 3,449 8,036 7,466 General and administrative 32,992 29,534 62,427 57,073 Litigation settlement 13 183 13 183 Consumer financing interest 6,172 5,654 12,778 11,592 Royalty fee 12,218 12,969 24,912 26,075 TOTAL EXPENSES 57,610 53,685 112,415 106,520 Losses and other expense, net (6,646) (4) (6,186) (9) Interest expense (4,112) (1,757) (8,429) (2,538) Other (19,707) (172) (20,367) (584) TOTAL FINANCIAL RESULTS $ (88,075) $ (55,618) $ (147,397) $ (109,651) TOTAL FINANCIAL RESULTS $ (88,075) $ (55,618) $ (147,397) $ (109,651) Less certain items: Acquisition costs 19,707 172 20,367 584 Losses and other expense, net 6,646 4 6,186 9 Certain items 26,353 176 26,553 593 ADJUSTED FINANCIAL RESULTS ** $ (61,722) $ (55,442) $ (120,844) $ (109,058) ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-7 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED CONTRACT SALES TO SALE OF VACATION OWNERSHIP PRODUCTS (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended ($ in thousands) June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 232,643 $ 214,985 $ 436,304 $ 414,603 Less resales contract sales (7,392) (5,093) (14,932) (10,876) Contract sales, net of resales 225,251 209,892 421,372 403,727 Plus: Settlement revenue 1 4,228 4,103 7,741 7,439 Resales revenue 1 2,740 2,561 4,946 4,146 Revenue recognition adjustments: Reportability (4,180) 9,862 (15,690) (4,288) Sales reserve (15,095) (14,337) (23,970) (27,059) Other 2 (7,776) (10,225) (14,442) (18,232) Sale of vacation ownership products $ 205,168 $ 201,856 $ 379,957 $ 365,733 1 Previously included in Resort management and other services revenue prior to the adoption of the Accounting Standards Update 2014-09 "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)" ("ASU 2014-09"), as Amended. 2 Adjustment for sales incentives that will not be recognized as Sale of vacation ownership products revenue and other adjustments to Sale of vacation ownership products revenue. MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION CONSOLIDATED ADJUSTED DEVELOPMENT MARGIN (ADJUSTED SALE OF VACATION OWNERSHIP PRODUCTS NET OF EXPENSES) (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Sale of vacation ownership products $ 205,168 $ 201,856 $ 379,957 $ 365,733 Less: Cost of vacation ownership products 56,863 51,025 103,226 94,796 Marketing and sales 109,315 99,168 215,249 196,666 Development margin 38,990 51,663 61,482 74,271 Revenue recognition reportability adjustment 2,807 (6,858) 10,755 2,948 Adjusted development margin ** $ 41,797 $ 44,805 $ 72,237 $ 77,219 Development margin percentage 1 19.0% 25.6% 16.2% 20.3% Adjusted development margin percentage 20.0% 23.2% 18.3% 20.9% ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. 1 Development margin percentage represents Development margin divided by Sale of vacation ownership products. A-8 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA CONTRACT SALES TO SALE OF VACATION OWNERSHIP PRODUCTS (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended ($ in thousands) June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Contract sales $ 211,469 $ 195,791 $ 398,613 $ 379,011 Less resales contract sales (7,392) (4,908) (14,604) (10,691) Contract sales, net of resales 204,077 190,883 384,009 368,320 Plus: Settlement revenue 1 3,920 4,051 7,412 7,337 Resales revenue 1 2,594 2,561 4,724 4,146 Revenue recognition adjustments: Reportability (1,560) 9,512 (12,465) (4,087) Sales reserve (13,250) (13,025) (21,224) (22,791) Other 2 (7,157) (9,102) (13,136) (16,336) Sale of vacation ownership products $ 188,624 $ 184,880 $ 349,320 $ 336,589 1 Previously included in Resort management and other services revenue prior to the adoption of the Accounting Standards Update 2014-09 "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)" ("ASU 2014-09"), as Amended. 2 Adjustment for sales incentives that will not be recognized as Sale of vacation ownership products revenue and other adjustments to Sale of vacation ownership products revenue. MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA ADJUSTED DEVELOPMENT MARGIN (ADJUSTED SALE OF VACATION OWNERSHIP PRODUCTS NET OF EXPENSES) (In thousands) Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 Sale of vacation ownership products $ 188,624 $ 184,880 $ 349,320 $ 336,589 Less: Cost of vacation ownership products 50,123 45,808 91,108 84,731 Marketing and sales 95,519 87,373 188,902 174,795 Development margin 42,982 51,699 69,310 77,063 Revenue recognition reportability adjustment 1,043 (6,586) 8,570 2,825 Adjusted development margin ** $ 44,025 $ 45,113 $ 77,880 $ 79,888 Development margin percentage 1 22.8% 28.0% 19.8% 22.9% Adjusted development margin percentage 23.2% 25.6% 21.6% 23.5% ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. 1 Development margin percentage represents Development margin divided by Sale of vacation ownership products. A-9 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION 2018 ADJUSTED NET INCOME AND ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE - DILUTED OUTLOOK (In millions, except per share amounts) Fiscal Year 2018 (low) Fiscal Year 2018 (high) Net income 1 $ 150 $ 161 Adjustments to reconcile Net income to Adjusted net income Certain items 2 45 45 Provision for income taxes on adjustments to net income (11) (11) Adjusted net income ** $ 184 $ 195 Earnings per share - Diluted 1, 3 $ 5.45 $ 5.85 Adjusted earnings per share - Diluted **, 3 $ 6.69 $ 7.09 Diluted shares 3 27.5 27.5 1 2018 expected GAAP results above do not reflect the impact of future spending associated with the planned acquisition of ILG or any impact of the acquisition of ILG. 2 Certain items adjustment includes $23 million of acquisition costs, $16 million of litigation settlements and $6 million of losses and other expense. 3 Earnings per share - Diluted, Adjusted earnings per share - Diluted, and Diluted shares outlook includes the impact of share repurchase activity only through July 31, 2018. ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION 2018 ADJUSTED EBITDA OUTLOOK (In millions) Fiscal Year 2018 (low) Fiscal Year 2018 (high) Net income 1 $ 150 $ 161 Interest expense 2 17 17 Tax provision 53 57 Depreciation and amortization 26 26 EBITDA ** 246 261 Non-cash share-based compensation 19 19 Certain items 3 45 45 Adjusted EBITDA ** $ 310 $ 325 1 2018 expected GAAP results above do not reflect the impact of future spending associated with the planned acquisition of ILG or any impact of the acquisition of ILG. 2 Interest expense excludes consumer financing interest expense. 3 Certain items adjustment includes $23 million of acquisition costs, $16 million of litigation settlements and $6 million of losses and other expense. ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-10 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION 2018 ADJUSTED FREE CASH FLOW OUTLOOK (In millions) Fiscal Year 2018 (low) Fiscal Year 2018 (high) Net cash provided by operating activities $ 95 $ 120 Capital expenditures for property and equipment (excluding inventory): New sales centers 1 (3) (5) Other (27) (32) Borrowings from securitization transactions 423 423 Repayment of debt related to securitizations (305) (295) Free cash flow ** 183 211 Adjustments: Net change in borrowings available from the securitization of eligible vacation ownership notes receivable through the warehouse credit facility 2 13 10 Inventory / other payments associated with capital efficient inventory arrangements (40) (40) Certain items 3 46 46 Change in restricted cash (2) 3 Adjusted free cash flow ** $ 200 $ 230 1 Represents the incremental investment in new sales centers. 2 Represents the net change in borrowings available from the securitization of eligible vacation ownership notes receivable through the warehouse credit facility between the 2017 and 2018 year ends. 3 Certain items adjustment includes $23 million of acquisition costs, $16 million of litigation settlements and $7 million of fraudulently induced electronic payment disbursements made to third parties. ** Denotes non-GAAP financial measures. Please see pages A-11 and A-12 for additional information about our reasons for providing these alternative financial measures and limitations on their use. A-11 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES In our press release and schedules, and on the related conference call, we report certain financial measures that are not prescribed by GAAP. We discuss our reasons for reporting these non-GAAP financial measures below, and the financial schedules included herein reconcile the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to each non-GAAP financial measure that we report (identified by a double asterisk ("**") on the preceding pages). Although we evaluate and present these non-GAAP financial measures for the reasons described below, please be aware that these non-GAAP financial measures have limitations and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for revenues, net income, earnings per share or any other comparable operating measure prescribed by GAAP. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures may be calculated and / or presented differently than measures with the same or similar names that are reported by other companies, and as a result, the non-GAAP financial measures we report may not be comparable to those reported by others. Adjusted Net Income We evaluate non-GAAP financial measures, including Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EBITDA, and Adjusted Development Margin, that exclude certain items in the quarters and first halves ended June 30, 2018 and June 30, 2017, because these non-GAAP financial measures allow for period-over-period comparisons of our on-going core operations before the impact of these items. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate our comparison of results from our on-going core operations before these items with results from other vacation ownership companies. Certain items - Quarter and First Half Ended June 30, 2018 In our Statement of Income for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, we recorded $42.7 million of net pre-tax items, which included $19.8 million of acquisition costs associated with the pending acquisition of ILG, $16.3 million of litigation settlement charges, including $10.6 million related to a project in San Francisco, $4.6 million related to a project in Lake Tahoe and $1.1 million related to projects in Europe, and $6.6 million of losses and other expenses primarily resulting from fraudulently induced electronic payment disbursements made to third parties. In our Statement of Income for the first half ended June 30, 2018, we recorded $45.3 million of net pre-tax items, which included $22.9 million of acquisition costs, including $20.4 million of costs associated with the pending acquisition of ILG and $2.5 million of costs associated with the anticipated future capital efficient acquisition of an operating property in San Francisco, California, $16.3 million of litigation settlement charges, including $10.6 million related to a project in San Francisco, $4.6 million related to a project in Lake Tahoe and $1.1 million related to projects in Europe and $6.6 million of losses and other expenses primarily resulting from fraudulently induced electronic payment disbursements made to third parties, partially offset by a $0.5 million favorable true up of previously recorded costs associated with the 2017 Hurricanes (recorded in losses and other expense) and a $0.1 million true up of previously recorded litigation settlement expenses. Certain items - Quarter and First Half Ended June 30, 2017 In our Statement of Income for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, we recorded $0.5 million of net pre-tax items, which included $0.2 million of acquisition costs, less than $0.2 million of litigation settlement expenses and less than $0.2 million of losses and other expense. In our Statement of Income for the first half ended June 30, 2017, we recorded $1.0 million of net pre-tax items, which included $0.6 million of acquisition costs, $0.2 million of litigation settlement expenses and $0.2 million of losses and other expense. Adjusted Development Margin (Adjusted Sale of Vacation Ownership Products Net of Expenses) We evaluate Adjusted Development Margin (Adjusted Sale of Vacation Ownership Products Net of Expenses) as an indicator of operating performance. Adjusted Development Margin adjusts Sale of vacation ownership products revenues for the impact of revenue reportability, includes corresponding adjustments to Cost of vacation ownership products expense and Marketing and sales expense associated with the change in revenues from the Sale of vacation ownership products, and may include adjustments for certain items as itemized in the discussion of Adjusted Net Income above. We evaluate Adjusted Development Margin because it allows for period-over-period comparisons of our on-going core operations before the impact of revenue reportability and certain items to our Development Margin. A-12 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES Earnings Before Interest Expense, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization ("EBITDA") and Adjusted EBITDA EBITDA is defined as earnings, or net income, before interest expense (excluding consumer financing interest expense), provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization. For purposes of our EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA calculations, we do not adjust for consumer financing interest expense because we consider it to be an operating expense of our business. We consider EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to be indicators of operating performance, which we use to measure our ability to service debt, fund capital expenditures and expand our business. We also use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, as do analysts, lenders, investors and others, because these measures exclude certain items that can vary widely across different industries or among companies within the same industry. For example, interest expense can be dependent on a company's capital structure, debt levels and credit ratings. Accordingly, the impact of interest expense on earnings can vary significantly among companies. The tax positions of companies can also vary because of their differing abilities to take advantage of tax benefits and because of the tax policies of the jurisdictions in which they operate. As a result, effective tax rates and provision for income taxes can vary considerably among companies. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA also exclude depreciation and amortization because companies utilize productive assets of different ages and use different methods of both acquiring and depreciating productive assets. These differences can result in considerable variability in the relative costs of productive assets and the depreciation and amortization expense among companies. Adjusted EBITDA reflects additional adjustments for certain items, as itemized in the discussion of Adjusted Net Income above, and excludes non-cash share-based compensation expense to address considerable variability among companies in recording compensation expense because companies use share-based payment awards differently, both in the type and quantity of awards granted. Prior period presentation has been recast for consistency. We evaluate Adjusted EBITDA as an indicator of operating performance because it allows for period-over-period comparisons of our on-going core operations before the impact of the excluded items. Together, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA facilitate our comparison of results from our on-going core operations before the impact of these items with results from other vacation ownership companies. Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow We evaluate Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow as liquidity measures that provide useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash provided by operating activities after capital expenditures for property and equipment, changes in restricted cash, and the borrowing and repayment activity related to our securitizations, which cash can be used for strategic opportunities, including acquisitions and strengthening the balance sheet. Adjusted Free Cash Flow, which reflects additional adjustments to Free Cash Flow for the impact of acquisition, litigation, and other cash charges, allows for period-over-period comparisons of the cash generated by our business before the impact of these items. Analysis of Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow also facilitates management's comparison of our results with our competitors' results. A-13 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION INTERIM CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands, except share and per share data) (Unaudited) June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents $ 547,667 $ 409,059 Restricted cash (including $144,816 and $32,321 from VIEs, respectively) 170,536 81,553 Accounts receivable, net (including $6,039 and $5,639 from VIEs, respectively) 67,619 91,659 Vacation ownership notes receivable, net (including $964,510 and $814,011 from VIEs, respectively) 1,167,779 1,114,552 Inventory 690,154 728,379 Property and equipment 246,940 252,727 Other (including $25,688 and $13,708 from VIEs, respectively) 166,875 166,653 TOTAL ASSETS $ 3,057,570 $ 2,844,582 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Accounts payable $ 84,331 $ 145,405 Advance deposits 95,816 84,087 Accrued liabilities (including $685 and $701 from VIEs, respectively) 99,469 119,810 Deferred revenue 98,500 69,058 Payroll and benefits liability 85,216 111,885 Deferred compensation liability 82,624 74,851 Debt, net (including $1,113,860 and $845,131 from VIEs, respectively) 1,332,276 1,095,213 Other 11,937 13,471 Deferred taxes 101,760 89,987 TOTAL LIABILITIES 1,991,929 1,803,767 Preferred stock $0.01 par value; 2,000,000 shares authorized; none issued or outstanding Common stock $0.01 par value; 100,000,000 shares authorized; 36,981,204 and 36,861,843 shares issued, respectively 370 369 Treasury stock at cost; 10,408,996 and 10,400,547 shares, respectively (695,746) (694,233) Additional paid-in capital 1,190,448 1,188,538 Accumulated other comprehensive income 15,774 16,745 Retained earnings 554,795 529,396 TOTAL EQUITY 1,065,641 1,040,815 TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $ 3,057,570 $ 2,844,582 The abbreviation VIEs above means Variable Interest Entities. A-14 MARRIOTT VACATIONS WORLDWIDE CORPORATION INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (In thousands) (Unaudited) Six Months Ended June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 OPERATING ACTIVITIES Net income $ 46,742 $ 76,076 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation 11,371 10,192 Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs 7,563 2,726 Vacation ownership notes receivable reserve 23,970 27,051 Share-based compensation 9,718 8,451 Deferred income taxes 12,199 12,810 Net change in assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 24,499 23,970 Vacation ownership notes receivable originations (233,061) (228,048) Vacation ownership notes receivable collections 155,257 136,731 Inventory 36,840 15,006 Purchase of vacation ownership units for future transfer to inventory (33,594) Other assets 11,523 4,475 Accounts payable, advance deposits and accrued liabilities (59,365) (68,228) Deferred revenue 29,493 25,163 Payroll and benefit liabilities (26,699) (8,698) Deferred compensation liability 7,773 7,053 Other liabilities (134) (292) Other, net 764 3,286 Net cash provided by operating activities 58,453 14,130 INVESTING ACTIVITIES Capital expenditures for property and equipment (excluding inventory) (7,490) (11,344) Purchase of company owned life insurance (11,562) (10,092) Dispositions, net 120 11 Net cash used in investing activities (18,932) (21,425) FINANCING ACTIVITIES Borrowings from securitization transactions 423,000 50,260 Repayment of debt related to securitization transactions (154,271) (117,400) Borrowings from Revolving Corporate Credit Facility 60,000 Repayment of Revolving Corporate Credit Facility (12,500) Repayment of non-interest bearing note payable (32,680) Debt issuance costs (6,578) (1,219) Repurchase of common stock (1,882) (3,868) Payment of dividends (31,927) (28,552) Payment of withholding taxes on vesting of restricted stock units (8,312) (9,962) Other, net 13 (624) Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 187,363 (63,865) Effect of changes in exchange rates on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 707 1,962 Increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 227,591 (69,198) Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 490,612 213,102 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $ 718,203 $ 143,904 SOURCE Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation LAKEWOOD, Colo., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural Grocers, a leading natural and organic retailer, will celebrate its 63rd Anniversary on Thursday, August 16, with a 1950's style party. All 147 stores in 19 states will host a free ice cream social, offer hourly prize giveaways and feature 33 to 60-percent-off deals on select items. Visit your local store to participate in the Anniversary festivities on August 16. Anniversary events: 12 to 2 p.m. Dairy-Free Chocolate Powerhouse Pudding recipe demonstration and sampling Dairy-Free Chocolate Powerhouse Pudding recipe demonstration and sampling 4 to 6 p.m . Free ice-cream social featuring dairy and non-dairy sundaes and root beer floats . Free ice-cream social featuring dairy and non-dairy sundaes and root beer floats All day Prize giveaways -- every hour one of the following prizes will be awarded 1 : : A copy of How Cows Save the Planet by Judith Schwartz ; by ; A Natural Grocers lunch bag; A Natural Grocers cooler bag; A Natural Grocers duffle bag; A Natural Grocers 28oz blender bottle; or A Natural Grocers 64oz growler Enter to win prize drawings 1 The grand prize is a trip for two to Thailand , including airfare (one winner, company-wide) Every Natural Grocers store will give away one Apple iWatch Series 3, one Fitbit Alta fitness wristband, one Jord Reece Series Wooden Watch, one NOW Foods Blender, one Patagonia Atom backpack, one $63 Natural Grocers gift card, one New Wave shower filter and more exciting prizes. 33 to 60 percent off Every Day Affordable Prices on a selection of popular items Free Natural Grocers reusable shopping bag with purchase Free Natural Grocers coloring book with purchase, while supplies last Double points for {N}power loyalty program members 1NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. OPEN ONLY TO LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 18 YEARS OR OLDER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes starts and ends on August 16, 2018. For Official Rules and complete details, visit: www.naturalgrocers.com/sweepstakes. Sponsor: Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Markets, Inc. The Natural Grocers story began in 1955. Philip and Margaret Isely started their business with $200 they borrowed and a dream of empowering people to take control of their health. Today, Natural Grocers is still family-run and maintains the same mission as when it started to provide access to nutrition education and quality, healthy products at prices anyone can afford. "You'll find that we have many more products on our shelves today than we did in the 1950s, but we've always stayed true to our roots," said Kemper Isely, Natural Grocers' Co-President. "Today we stock our shelves with thousands of products that meet our industry-leading quality standards, at affordable prices, and we consistently challenge and update our standards to reflect our five founding principles." Some of Natural Grocers' most impactful business decisions over the past 63 years have bucked the trends in the natural foods industry. Learn more. Natural Grocers offers 100-percent organic produce, all meat is humanely raised without antibiotics, added hormones or other growth promotors, 100-percent free-range eggs, 100-percent pasture-based dairy, non-GMO prepackaged bulk products, groceries that don't contain any artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives and more. About Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. (NYSE: NGVC; NaturalGrocers.com) is an expanding specialty retailer of organic and natural groceries, body care and dietary supplements. The company offers a flexible, neighborhood-store format, affordable prices and free, science-based nutrition education programs to help customers make informed health and nutrition choices. Founded in Colorado in 1955, Natural Grocers has more than 3,500 employees and operates 147 stores in 19 states. SOURCE Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc. Related Links https://www.naturalgrocers.com Episodes 1-3, available now on iTunes and other podcast platforms, have already unveiled the following new details: Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Homicide Detective Ralph Hernandez determines Natalie was the victim of assault on the night of her death, by analysing bruising patterns on her body. Sheriff Department Homicide Detective determines Natalie was the victim of assault on the night of her death, by analysing bruising patterns on her body. President Ronald Reagan possibly aided in protecting Robert Wagner after Natalie's death. possibly aided in protecting after Natalie's death. Natalie was raped at the age of sixteen during an "interview" at Chateau Marmont. 16-year-old Natalie had an affair with a director more than 20 years her senior, with speculation of it being to ensure the lead female role in "Rebel Without A Cause." Natalie went on her first date with Robert Wagner on her 18th birthday. on her 18th birthday. Wagner had an alleged affair with a man, leading to the break-up of his first marriage to Natalie. Wagner, fearing Natalie had fallen for Hollywood heartthrob Warren Beatty , showed up at Beatty's house with a gun intending to kill him. Burning questions still remain surrounding the almost four decades old case, and "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood" intends to address and answer them all in episodes still to be released, culminating in an explosive finale. Over the next nine chapters, host Dylan Howard and his team of investigators will be evaluating the following: The seemingly-unused condition of the dinghy, Natalie's clothes, rumours of an argument on board the Splendour, Wagner's delay in radioing for help and the calmness of his voice when he finally did. Given her morbid fear of water, why would Natalie ever leave the Splendour alone, in the middle of the night, drunk and unsteady, in the first place? Re-examining crucial evidence using new technology. Meticulously recreating Natalie's final minutes on board the Splendour. Conducting extensive and exclusive interviews, petitioning law enforcement to turn over never-before-seen evidence, introducing new scenarios, and uncovering explosive new evidence reaching into the very heart of their tumultuous marriage and the couple's relationship with Walken. Examines allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and witness coercion. The investigation examines what went wrong in the first probe and questions whether scientific advances over the past three decades have got us any closer to delivering the truth and justice for Natalie. Exclusive interviews with new witnesses and the boat captain, Dennis Davern , who provides a second-by-second account of what really happened. "The theorizing and new evidence will captivate those who lived through the mystery for the past three decades, as well as a younger generation discovering it for the first time, as the case takes horrifying real-life twists and turns," said Howard, who is also the Executive Producer. "The reaction to the podcast so far has been overwhelming," he added. "The public, as much as our team of investigators, want answers about what happened on board The Splendour. As we've said from the beginning, our goal is to attempt to find these answers. I'm confident we'll be able to do so in the remaining episodes." Episode 4: WHO WERE NATALIE & RJ premieres at 9am Friday, August 3rd, 2018. Episode 1 3 are available to download and listen now via iTunes, and everywhere podcasts are available. "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood" is currently the #1 ranked TV & Film Podcast on iTunes. ABOUT AMERICAN MEDIA INC. American Media, Inc. (AMI) owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and active lifestyle media brands in the United States. AMI's titles include Us Weekly, Star, OK!, In Touch, Life & Style, Closer, Men's Journal, Muscle & Fitness, Mr. Olympia Contest, National Enquirer and other celebrity and teen titles. AMI also manages eleven different digital sites including Usmagazine.com, OKmagazine.com, RadarOnline.com, Intouchweekly.com, Lifeandstylemag.com, Closerweekly.com, MensJournal.com, MuscleandFitness.com and other digital and social properties. AMI's magazines have a combined total circulation of 5.7+ million and reach approximately 65 million men and women each month. AMI's digital properties reach approximately 68 million unique visitors monthly. SOURCE American Media, Inc. WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study released by PRRI finds the public divided over whether business owners should be allowed to refuse to provide wedding-related services to same-sex couples if it violates their religious beliefs. Forty-six percent of Americans say they should be allowed to refuse services, and 48 percent say they should be required to provide them. Only one year ago, 41 percent said business owners should be allowed to refuse wedding-related services to gay and lesbian couples and 53 percent said they should be required to provide them. Black Americans have shifted the most in their views on this issue. Nearly half (45 percent) of black Americans say businesses should be allowed to refuse wedding-related services to gay and lesbian couples on religious grounds. That is a nine-point increase from August 2017, when just 36 percent agreed. "While support for same-sex marriage and broad rights for LGBT people continue to increase, opinions are less settled in specific areas such as religiously based service refusals, especially in the context of wedding service providers," said Robert P. Jones, PRRI CEO. "Given the court's narrow decision in the case involving the Colorado baker, the Supreme Court will likely have another say on this and other related issues, and Judge Kavanaugh, if confirmed, could end up being the deciding vote." Support for Same-Sex Marriage and the Supreme Court's Obergefell Decision Nearly two in three Americans (64 percent) now support same-sex marriage, and only 28 percent of Americans oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. Same-sex marriage garners strong support among Democrats (80 percent) and independents (67 percent), but 44 percent of Republicans also favor the policy. "The debate over same-sex marriage in the U.S. is quickly coming to an end," said Dan Cox, PRRI Research Director. "The breadth of support for same-sex marriage is striking. Support has reached a tipping point among older Americans, and among young people it has become the consensus view." Other Notable Findings Americans are more likely to believe the Trump Administration's actions are hurting rather than helping LGBT people, women, and immigrants. About seven in ten Americans favor broad nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. A majority of Americans see Trump unfavorably. More information, including methodology, can be found here. SOURCE PRRI Related Links http://www.prri.org LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Over one million men and women currently serve in the U.S. military and there are almost 22 million U.S. Veterans. The federal government has established a variety of educational programs to facilitate opportunities for Servicemembers and Veterans pursuing a higher education degree from an accredited institution. Many of these programs are offered by schools and colleges recognized for their commitment to the military community. "Coastline College Understands Military Education" For more than a decade, Coastline College in Southern California has been the recipient of numerous military program-related awards. Through innovation, technology, and education, Coastline has been at the forefront educating Servicemembers and Veterans for almost 40 years and boasts retention and persistence rates approximately 20% higher than typical online community college students in California. Coastline's 15 Military Site Advisors support students at more than 52 military installations across the nation, and host five National Test Centers (NTC) serving all active-duty military, their families, Veterans, and DoD civilians. The NTCs administer CLEP and DSST exams. Additionally, Coastline awards up to 40 Semester Hours/Credits for military training and experience. The National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security designated Coastline as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance and Cyber Defense for Two-Year Colleges (CAE2Y). Cybersecurity professionals can earn an average salary of $116,000, which is nearly three times the national average salary. Coastline offers 8-week online and 12-week non-Internet dependent distance learning courses in MOS-related majors with certificate, degree, and transfer options for better civilian employment opportunities, and these courses qualify for DoD tuition assistance and VA education benefits. Coastline was one of the first community colleges to offer distance learning courses and was a visionary in the development of the Mobile PocketEd Programcourses delivered on hand-held devices. PocketEd was originally developed for Coast Guard Members deployed on cutters. About Coastline College: Coastline College is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. For eight consecutive years, Coastline College has been selected as one of the top 150 colleges by The Aspen Institute for Community College Excellence which is considered the most prestigious prize for community colleges. For a higher rate of success in transitioning from the military to civilian life, Coastline College should be considered as a leading candidate as Coastline truly understands and respects military training, experience, deployment, and transition. Contact: Dawn Willson Marketing & Communications Director Coastline Community College [email protected] (o) 714-241-6186 SOURCE Coastline College BOSTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RISI, Inc., a leading information provider for the global forest products industry, announced today that its parent company, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, has acquired Random Lengths, a leading price reporting agency ("PRA") for the wood products industry. Founded in 1944, Random Lengths provides unbiased and consistent price assessments and market reporting for the global wood products industry, with a core focus on the North American lumber and panels markets, publishing over 1,500 prices each week. Random Lengths will compliment and expand RISI's existing wood products price reporting. "Random Lengths is a leading source for prices in the lumber and panel markets, with a rich history of delivering trusted, unbiased insights," said Daniel Klein, CEO of RISI. "We are excited for customers and the market to receive the most comprehensive offering of pricing data and information across the entire forest products supply chain, through the combination of RISI and Random Lengths, and as a core part of Euromoney's cross-commodity PRA division." "Combining Random Lengths with RISI and Euromoney's commodities price reporting organization is an exciting step," said Jon Anderson, President of Random Lengths. "It enables Random Lengths' customers and the market to continue relying on our price guides and market information, while enhancing Random Lengths' business with RISI's and Euromoney's extensive resources and worldwide footprint." RISI's Global Head of Price Reporting, Matt Graves, will relocate to Eugene, Oregon to lead the integration, working directly with Jon Anderson and the Random Lengths team. Both organizations plan to continue their market reporting and publishing schedules as normal. More information about the acquisition can be found here. About RISI (www.risi.com) RISI is a leading information provider for the global forest products industry. The company works with clients in the pulp and paper, packaging, wood products, timber, biomass, tissue and nonwovens industries to help them make better decisions. Headquartered in Boston, MA, RISI operates additional offices throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia and is a subsidiary of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, a global business-to-business price reporting & information group (www.euromoneyplc.com). For Press Inquiries, please contact: Daniel Klein CEO, RISI E: [email protected] Raju Daswani Divisional Director, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC E: [email protected] SOURCE RISI Related Links http://www.risi.com BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquisition of JEM Insurance Services, Inc, headquartered in Boca Raton, FL. JEM Insurance Services has been serving the South Florida area for over 13 years. They offer personal lines business services including auto, home, and personal property to protect individuals from the risks of everyday life. Led by Bryan Moura Santos and his team, JEM Insurance Services is one of Florida's fastest growing insurance agencies due to their commitment to excellence and dedication to customer care. This acquisition will strengthen Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty's foothold in their home state of Florida. Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. continues to target high-quality independent agencies for geographic expansion and continued growth throughout the United States. With the addition of JEM Insurance Services, Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. will continue to reach new and current clients by helping them protect their most important valuables with not only the right insurance but with the right service for each client. SHP&C offers: Homeowner's Policy Automobile Insurance Renter's Policy Private Client Umbrella Coverage Commercial and Employee Coverage Personal Liability Coverage Employee Benefits Human Resources Professional Liability Insurance Marshal Seeman, President of Seeman Holtz Property and Casualty, stated, "JEM Insurance Services is another example of a high-quality agency that we look to acquire. It's even more special because it happened to be around the corner from our corporate offices." Eric Holtz, Executive Vice President, and Chief Marketing Officer commented, "We are happy to have the JEM service team join our family and look forward to building upon their great work." About Our Company: The Seeman Holtz family of companies provides comprehensive financial and insurance advice to clients across the country. Contact: Eric Holtz Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty 844.255.6639 [email protected] SOURCE Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. Related Links http://seemanholtzpc.com MECHANICSBURG, Pa., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Select Medical Holdings Corporation ("Select Medical") (NYSE: SEM) today announced results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2018. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues increased 17.6% to $1,296.2 million, compared to $1,102.5 million for the same quarter, prior year. Income from operations increased 4.2% to $120.6 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $115.7 million for the same quarter, prior year. Net income increased 18.0% to $60.6 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $51.3 million for the same quarter, prior year. Net income for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 included pre-tax non-operating gains of $6.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 12.3% to $178.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $158.7 million for the same quarter, prior year. Income per common share increased to $0.35 on a fully diluted basis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $0.32 for the same quarter, prior year. Adjusted income per common share was $0.31 per diluted share for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $0.32 for the same quarter, prior year. Adjusted income per common share excludes the non-operating gains and their related tax effects for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018. The definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA are presented in table VIII of this release. A reconciliation of income per common share to adjusted income per common share is presented in table IX of this release. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues increased 16.2% to $2,549.2 million, compared to $2,194.0 million for the same period, prior year. Income from operations increased 10.5% to $229.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $207.4 million for the same period, prior year. Net income increased 39.8% to $104.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $74.8 million for the same period, prior year. Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 included a pre-tax loss on early retirement of debt of $10.3 million and pre-tax non-operating gains of $6.9 million. Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2017 included a pre-tax loss on early retirement of debt of $19.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 14.7% to $341.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $297.6 million for the same period, prior year. Income per common share increased to $0.60 on a fully diluted basis for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $0.44 for the same period, prior year. Adjusted income per common share was $0.60 per diluted share for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $0.53 for the same period, prior year. Adjusted income per common share excludes the loss on early retirement of debt, non-operating gains, and U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs and their related tax effects for the six months ended June 30, 2018. Adjusted income per common share excludes the loss on early retirement of debt and its related tax effects for the six months ended June 30, 2017. The definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA are presented in table VIII of this release. A reconciliation of income per common share to adjusted income per common share is presented in table IX of this release. Company Overview Select Medical is one of the largest operators of critical illness recovery hospitals (previously referred to as long term acute care hospitals), rehabilitation hospitals (previously referred to as inpatient rehabilitation facilities), outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and occupational health centers in the United States based on the number of facilities. Our reportable segments include the critical illness recovery hospital segment, rehabilitation hospital segment, outpatient rehabilitation segment, and Concentra segment. As of June 30, 2018, Select Medical operated 98 critical illness recovery hospitals in 27 states, 26 rehabilitation hospitals in 11 states, and 1,638 outpatient rehabilitation clinics in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Select Medical's joint venture subsidiary Concentra operated 527 occupational health centers in 41 states. Concentra also provides contract services at employer worksites and Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinics. At June 30, 2018, Select Medical had operations in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Information about Select Medical is available at www.selectmedical.com. Critical Illness Recovery Hospital Segment For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the critical illness recovery hospital segment (previously referred to as the long term acute care segment) increased 0.7% to $442.5 million, compared to $439.2 million for the same quarter, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the critical illness recovery hospital segment was $60.7 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $75.0 million for the same quarter, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the critical illness recovery hospital segment was 13.7% for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to 17.1% for the same quarter, prior year. Certain critical illness recovery hospital key statistics for both the second quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VI of this release. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the critical illness recovery hospital segment increased 2.6% to $907.1 million, compared to $884.3 million for the same period, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the critical illness recovery hospital segment was $133.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $147.4 million for the same period, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the critical illness recovery hospital segment was 14.7% for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to 16.7% for the same period, prior year. Certain critical illness recovery hospital key statistics for both the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VII of this release. Rehabilitation Hospital Segment For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the rehabilitation hospital segment (previously referred to as the inpatient rehabilitation segment) increased 14.8% to $173.8 million, compared to $151.4 million for the same quarter, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the rehabilitation hospital segment increased 21.9% to $28.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $23.1 million for the same quarter, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the rehabilitation hospital segment was 16.2% for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to 15.3% for the same quarter, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA results for the rehabilitation hospital segment include start-up losses of approximately $2.1 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to approximately $1.2 million for the same quarter, prior year. Certain rehabilitation hospital key statistics for both the second quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VI of this release. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the rehabilitation hospital segment increased 17.7% to $348.5 million, compared to $296.2 million for the same period, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the rehabilitation hospital segment increased 39.3% to $55.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $39.5 million for the same period, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the rehabilitation hospital segment was 15.8% for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to 13.3% for the same period, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA results for the rehabilitation hospital segment include start-up losses of approximately $3.0 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to approximately $3.2 million for the same period, prior year. Certain rehabilitation hospital key statistics for both the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VII of this release. Outpatient Rehabilitation Segment For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the outpatient rehabilitation segment increased 4.8% to $267.2 million, compared to $255.0 million for the same quarter, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the outpatient rehabilitation segment was $41.9 million for both the second quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the outpatient rehabilitation segment was 15.7% for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to 16.4% for the same quarter, prior year. Certain outpatient rehabilitation key statistics for both the second quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VI of this release. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the outpatient rehabilitation segment increased 3.8% to $524.6 million, compared to $505.4 million for the same period, prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the outpatient rehabilitation segment was $72.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $73.3 million for the same period, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the outpatient rehabilitation segment was 13.8% for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to 14.5% for the same period, prior year. Certain outpatient rehabilitation key statistics for both the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VII of this release. Concentra Segment The financial results of the Concentra segment include U.S. HealthWorks beginning February 1, 2018. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the Concentra segment increased 60.7% to $412.8 million, compared to $256.9 million for the same quarter, prior year. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, U.S. HealthWorks contributed net operating revenues of $139.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the Concentra segment increased 68.5% to $72.6 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to $43.1 million for the same quarter, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the Concentra segment was 17.6% for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018, compared to 16.8% for the same quarter, prior year. Certain Concentra key statistics for both the second quarters ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VI of this release. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, net operating revenues for the Concentra segment increased 51.5% to $768.9 million, compared to $507.5 million for the same period, prior year. For the period February 1, 2018 through June 30, 2018, U.S. HealthWorks contributed net operating revenues of $229.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the Concentra segment increased 52.2% to $130.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to $85.7 million for the same period, prior year. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the Concentra segment was 17.0% for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared to 16.9% for the same period, prior year. Certain Concentra key statistics for both the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 are presented in table VII of this release. Stock Repurchase Program Select Medical did not repurchase shares during the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 under its authorized $500.0 million stock repurchase program. The program has been extended until December 31, 2018, and will remain in effect until then, unless further extended or earlier terminated by the board of directors. Since the inception of the program through June 30, 2018, Select Medical has repurchased 35,924,128 shares at a cost of approximately $314.7 million, or $8.76 per share, which includes transaction costs. Business Outlook Select Medical reaffirms its 2018 business outlook, most recently provided in its May 3, 2018 first quarter earnings press release, for net operating revenues, Adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted income per common share. Select Medical continues to expect consolidated net operating revenues for the full year 2018 to be in the range of $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion. Select Medical continues to expect Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2018 to be in the range of $630.0 million to $660.0 million. Select Medical is adjusting its 2018 business outlook for fully diluted income per common share to include the second quarter 2018 non-operating gains and its related tax effects. Select Medical now expects fully diluted income per common share for the full year 2018 to be in the range of $0.97 to $1.12. Select Medical also continues to expect adjusted income per common share to be in the range of $0.97 to $1.12. Adjusted income per common share excludes the loss on early retirement of debt, U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs, and non-operating gain (loss) and their related tax effects. Conference Call Select Medical will host a conference call regarding its second quarter results, as well as its business outlook, on Friday, August 3, 2018, at 9:00am ET. The domestic dial in number for the call is 1-866-440-2669. The international dial in number is 1-409-220-9844. The conference ID for the call is 9372416. The conference call will be webcast simultaneously and can be accessed at Select Medical Holdings Corporation's website www.selectmedicalholdings.com. For those unable to participate in the conference call, a replay will be available until 11:59pm ET, August 10, 2018. The replay number is 1-855-859-2056 (domestic) or 1-404-537-3406 (international). The passcode for the replay will be 9372416. The replay can also be accessed at Select Medical Holdings Corporation's website, www.selectmedicalholdings.com. * * * * * Certain statements contained herein that are not descriptions of historical facts are "forward-looking" statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to factors including the following: changes in government reimbursement for our services and/or new payment policies (including, for example, the expiration of the moratorium limiting the full application of the 25 Percent Rule that would reduce our Medicare payments for those patients admitted to a Medicare-certified long term care hospital from a referring hospital in excess of an applicable percentage admissions threshold) may result in a reduction in net operating revenues, an increase in costs, and a reduction in profitability; the failure of our Medicare-certified long term care hospitals or inpatient rehabilitation facilities to maintain their Medicare certifications may cause our net operating revenues and profitability to decline; the failure of our Medicare-certified long term care hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities operated as "hospitals within hospitals" to qualify as hospitals separate from their host hospitals may cause our net operating revenues and profitability to decline; a government investigation or assertion that we have violated applicable regulations may result in sanctions or reputational harm and increased costs; acquisitions or joint ventures may prove difficult or unsuccessful, use significant resources or expose us to unforeseen liabilities; our plans and expectations related to the acquisition of U.S. HealthWorks by Concentra and our ability to realize anticipated synergies; private third-party payors for our services may adopt payment policies that could limit our future net operating revenues and profitability; the failure to maintain established relationships with the physicians in the areas we serve could reduce our net operating revenues and profitability; shortages in qualified nurses, therapists, physicians, or other licensed providers could increase our operating costs significantly or limit our ability to staff our facilities; competition may limit our ability to grow and result in a decrease in our net operating revenues and profitability; the loss of key members of our management team could significantly disrupt our operations; the effect of claims asserted against us could subject us to substantial uninsured liabilities; a security breach of our or our third-party vendors' information technology systems may subject us to potential legal and reputational harm and may result in a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; and other factors discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" of the quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and of the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 . Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the SEC, we are under no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events, or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results or performance. Investor inquiries: Joel T. Veit Senior Vice President and Treasurer 717-972-1100 [email protected] I. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, except per share amounts, unaudited) 2017(1) 2018 % Change Net operating revenues $ 1,102,465 $ 1,296,210 17.6 % Costs and expenses: Cost of services 920,194 1,094,731 19.0 General and administrative 28,275 29,194 3.3 Depreciation and amortization 38,333 51,724 34.9 Income from operations 115,663 120,561 4.2 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries 5,666 4,785 (15.5) Non-operating gain 6,478 N/M Interest expense (37,655) (50,159) 33.2 Income before income taxes 83,674 81,665 (2.4) Income tax expense 32,374 21,106 (34.8) Net income 51,300 60,559 18.0 Less: Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 9,245 14,048 52.0 Net income attributable to Select Medical $ 42,055 $ 46,511 10.6 % Weighted average shares outstanding(2): Basic 128,624 129,830 Diluted 128,777 129,924 Income per common share(2): Basic $ 0.32 $ 0.35 Diluted $ 0.32 $ 0.35 (1) The financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 were retrospectively conformed to reflect the adoption of Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. (2) Under the two-class method for calculating income per common share, unvested restricted stock is a separate, participating class. Income per common share and weighted average common shares outstanding exclude amounts attributed to the unvested restricted class of stockholders. Net income allocated to the unvested restricted stockholders was $1.5 million and $1.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Unvested restricted weighted average shares were 4,379 thousand and 4,235 thousand for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. N/M Not Meaningful II. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, except per share amounts, unaudited) 2017(1) 2018 % Change Net operating revenues $ 2,193,982 $ 2,549,174 16.2 % Costs and expenses: Cost of services 1,849,332 2,160,544 16.8 General and administrative 56,350 60,976 8.2 Depreciation and amortization 80,872 98,495 21.8 Income from operations 207,428 229,159 10.5 Loss on early retirement of debt (19,719) (10,255) N/M Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries 11,187 9,482 (15.2) Non-operating gain (loss) (49) 6,877 N/M Interest expense (78,508) (97,322) 24.0 Income before income taxes 120,339 137,941 14.6 Income tax expense 45,576 33,400 (26.7) Net income 74,763 104,541 39.8 Less: Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 16,838 24,291 44.3 Net income attributable to Select Medical $ 57,925 $ 80,250 38.5 % Weighted average shares outstanding(2): Basic 128,544 129,761 Diluted 128,703 129,871 Income per common share(2): Basic $ 0.44 $ 0.60 Diluted $ 0.44 $ 0.60 (1) The financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2017 were retrospectively conformed to reflect the adoption of Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. (2) Under the two-class method for calculating income per common share, unvested restricted stock is a separate, participating class. Income per common share and weighted average common shares outstanding exclude amounts attributed to the unvested restricted class of stockholders. Net income allocated to the unvested restricted stockholders was $2.6 million and $1.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Unvested restricted weighted average shares were 4,397 thousand and 4,238 thousand for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. N/M Not Meaningful III. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (In thousands, unaudited) December 31, 2017 June 30, 2018 Assets Cash $ 122,549 $ 141,029 Accounts receivable 691,732 775,610 Other current assets 106,545 102,703 Total Current Assets 920,826 1,019,342 Property and equipment, net 912,591 965,844 Goodwill 2,782,812 3,314,606 Identifiable intangible assets, net 326,519 451,932 Other assets 184,418 213,076 Total Assets $ 5,127,166 $ 5,964,800 Liabilities and Equity Payables and accruals $ 583,216 $ 602,832 Current portion of long-term debt and notes payable 22,187 24,479 Total Current Liabilities 605,403 627,311 Long-term debt, net of current portion 2,677,715 3,386,209 Non-current deferred tax liability 124,917 150,694 Other non-current liabilities 145,709 172,427 Total Liabilities 3,553,744 4,336,641 Redeemable non-controlling interests 640,818 616,232 Total equity 932,604 1,011,927 Total Liabilities and Equity $ 5,127,166 $ 5,964,800 IV. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, unaudited) 2017 2018 Operating activities Net income $ 51,300 $ 60,559 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Distributions from unconsolidated subsidiaries 6,022 6,466 Depreciation and amortization 38,333 51,724 Provision for bad debts (36) 17 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries (5,666) (4,785) Loss on extinguishment of debt 72 Gain on sale of assets and businesses (4,914) (6,467) Stock compensation expense 4,684 5,984 Amortization of debt discount, premium and issuance costs 2,552 3,350 Deferred income taxes 1,951 (1,769) Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of effects of business combinations: Accounts receivable (22,680) 40,037 Other current assets 2,064 5,934 Other assets 4,669 (9,949) Accounts payable and accrued expenses 13,943 14,278 Income taxes 3,979 772 Net cash provided by operating activities 96,201 166,223 Investing activities Business combinations, net of cash acquired (8,942) (2,345) Purchases of property and equipment (54,649) (42,031) Investment in businesses (9,374) (1,537) Proceeds from sale of assets and businesses 15,040 5,981 Net cash used in investing activities (57,925) (39,932) Financing activities Borrowings on revolving facilities 100,000 100,000 Payments on revolving facilities (135,000) (195,000) Payments on term loans (2,875) (2,875) Debt issuance costs (840) Borrowings of other debt 2,873 8,328 Principal payments on other debt (5,162) (5,612) Repurchase of common stock (444) (767) Proceeds from exercise of stock options 346 882 Increase in overdrafts 11,834 1,745 Proceeds from issuance of non-controlling interests 1,459 2,926 Distributions to non-controlling interests (1,879) (14,572) Net cash used in financing activities (29,688) (104,945) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 8,588 21,346 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 65,211 119,683 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 73,799 $ 141,029 Supplemental Information Cash paid for interest $ 38,085 $ 62,105 Cash paid for taxes $ 26,419 $ 22,104 V. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, unaudited) 2017 2018 Operating activities Net income $ 74,763 $ 104,541 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Distributions from unconsolidated subsidiaries 10,933 7,830 Depreciation and amortization 80,872 98,495 Provision for bad debts 745 102 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries (11,187) (9,482) Loss on extinguishment of debt 6,527 484 Gain on sale of assets and businesses (9,523) (6,980) Stock compensation expense 9,270 10,911 Amortization of debt discount, premium and issuance costs 5,974 6,486 Deferred income taxes (1,474) (1,691) Changes in operating assets and liabilities, net of effects of business combinations: Accounts receivable (140,949) (5,774) Other current assets (5,557) (3,011) Other assets 4,621 6,684 Accounts payable and accrued expenses (4,074) (4,255) Income taxes 19,399 12,610 Net cash provided by operating activities 40,340 216,950 Investing activities Business combinations, net of cash acquired (18,508) (517,704) Purchases of property and equipment (105,302) (81,648) Investment in businesses (9,874) (3,291) Proceeds from sale of assets and businesses 34,552 6,672 Net cash used in investing activities (99,132) (595,971) Financing activities Borrowings on revolving facilities 630,000 265,000 Payments on revolving facilities (550,000) (345,000) Proceeds from term loans 1,139,487 779,904 Payments on term loans (1,173,692) (5,750) Debt issuance costs (4,392) (1,333) Borrowings of other debt 9,444 19,928 Principal payments on other debt (10,437) (11,521) Repurchase of common stock (600) (889) Proceeds from exercise of stock options 963 1,620 Decrease in overdrafts (5,228) (6,171) Proceeds from issuance of non-controlling interests 3,553 2,926 Distributions to non-controlling interests (5,536) (301,213) Net cash provided by financing activities 33,562 397,501 Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (25,230) 18,480 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 99,029 122,549 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 73,799 $ 141,029 Supplemental Information Cash paid for interest $ 76,650 $ 97,338 Cash paid for taxes $ 27,626 $ 22,480 Non-cash equity exchange for acquisition of U.S. HealthWorks $ $ 238,000 VI. Key Statistics For the Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (unaudited) 2017(f) 2018 % Change Critical Illness Recovery Hospital(a) Number of hospitals end of period(b) 102 98 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 439,194 $ 442,452 0.7 % Number of patient days(c) 251,302 256,132 1.9 % Number of admissions(c) 8,901 9,121 2.5 % Net revenue per patient day(c)(d) $ 1,733 $ 1,710 (1.3) % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 75,043 $ 60,725 (19.1) % Adjusted EBITDA margin 17.1 % 13.7 % Rehabilitation Hospital(a) Number of hospitals end of period(b) 21 26 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 151,378 $ 173,769 14.8 % Number of patient days(c) 65,582 77,415 18.0 % Number of admissions(c) 4,570 5,455 19.4 % Net revenue per patient day(c)(d) $ 1,569 $ 1,608 2.5 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 23,129 $ 28,195 21.9 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 15.3 % 16.2 % Outpatient Rehabilitation Number of clinics end of period(b) 1,608 1,638 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 254,984 $ 267,183 4.8 % Number of visits(c) 2,106,760 2,144,655 1.8 % Revenue per visit(c)(e) $ 101 $ 103 2.0 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 41,926 $ 41,947 0.1 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 16.4 % 15.7 % Concentra Number of centers end of period(b) 315 527 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 256,887 $ 412,823 60.7 % Number of visits(c) 1,982,255 3,024,121 52.6 % Revenue per visit(c)(e) $ 114 $ 125 9.6 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 43,061 $ 72,568 68.5 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 16.8 % 17.6 % (a) The critical illness recovery hospital segment was previously referred to as the long term acute care segment. The rehabilitation hospital segment was previously referred to as the inpatient rehabilitation segment. (b) Includes managed locations. (c) Excludes managed locations. For purposes of our Concentra segment, onsite clinics and community-based outpatient clinics are excluded. (d) Net revenue per patient day is calculated by dividing direct patient service revenues by the total number of patient days. (e) Net revenue per visit is calculated by dividing direct patient service revenue by the total number of visits. For purposes of this computation for our outpatient rehabilitation segment, direct patient service revenue does not include managed clinics. For purposes of this computation for our Concentra segment, direct patient service revenue does not include onsite clinics and community-based outpatient clinics. (f) The financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017 have been recast to conform to the current segment reporting structure and to reflect the adoption of Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. VII. Key Statistics For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (unaudited) 2017(f) 2018 % Change Critical Illness Recovery Hospital(a) Number of hospitals end of period(b) 102 98 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 884,317 $ 907,128 2.6 % Number of patient days(c) 506,399 521,972 3.1 % Number of admissions(c) 18,210 18,954 4.1 % Net revenue per patient day(c)(d) $ 1,732 $ 1,721 (0.6) % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 147,380 $ 133,697 (9.3) % Adjusted EBITDA margin 16.7 % 14.7 % Rehabilitation Hospital(a) Number of hospitals end of period(b) 21 26 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 296,203 $ 348,543 17.7 % Number of patient days(c) 127,850 154,305 20.7 % Number of admissions(c) 8,946 10,849 21.3 % Net revenue per patient day(c)(d) $ 1,544 $ 1,615 4.6 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 39,457 $ 54,971 39.3 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 13.3 % 15.8 % Outpatient Rehabilitation Number of clinics end of period(b) 1,608 1,638 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 505,355 $ 524,564 3.8 % Number of visits(c) 4,182,550 4,212,120 0.7 % Revenue per visit(c)(e) $ 100 $ 103 3.0 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 73,277 $ 72,472 (1.1) % Adjusted EBITDA margin 14.5 % 13.8 % Concentra Number of centers end of period(b) 315 527 Net operating revenues (,000) $ 507,476 $ 768,939 51.5 % Number of visits(c) 3,869,070 5,620,180 45.3 % Revenue per visit(c)(e) $ 115 $ 125 8.7 % Adjusted EBITDA (,000) $ 85,653 $ 130,365 52.2 % Adjusted EBITDA margin 16.9 % 17.0 % (a) The critical illness recovery hospital segment was previously referred to as the long term acute care segment. The rehabilitation hospital segment was previously referred to as the inpatient rehabilitation segment. (b) Includes managed locations. (c) Excludes managed locations. For purposes of our Concentra segment, onsite clinics and community-based outpatient clinics are excluded. (d) Net revenue per patient day is calculated by dividing direct patient service revenues by the total number of patient days. (e) Net revenue per visit is calculated by dividing direct patient service revenue by the total number of visits. For purposes of this computation for our outpatient rehabilitation segment, direct patient service revenue does not include managed clinics. For purposes of this computation for our Concentra segment, direct patient service revenue does not include onsite clinics and community-based outpatient clinics. (f) The financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2017 have been recast to conform to the current segment reporting structure and to reflect the adoption of Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. VIII. Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation For the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, unaudited) The presentation of Adjusted EBITDA is important to investors because Adjusted EBITDA is commonly used as an analytical indicator of performance by investors within the healthcare industry. Adjusted EBITDA is used to evaluate financial performance and determine resource allocation for each of Select Medical's operating segments. Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of financial performance under generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Items excluded from Adjusted EBITDA are significant components in understanding and assessing financial performance. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to, or substitute for, net income, income from operations, cash flows generated by operations, investing or financing activities, or other financial statement data presented in the consolidated financial statements as indicators of financial performance or liquidity. Because Adjusted EBITDA is not a measurement determined in accordance with GAAP and is thus susceptible to varying definitions, Adjusted EBITDA as presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. The following table reconciles net income to Adjusted EBITDA for Select Medical. Adjusted EBITDA is used by Select Medical to report its segment performance. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings excluding interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, gain (loss) on early retirement of debt, stock compensation expense, acquisition costs associated with U.S. HealthWorks, non-operating gain (loss), and equity in earnings (losses) of unconsolidated subsidiaries. Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 2018 2017 2018 Net income $ 51,300 $ 60,559 $ 74,763 $ 104,541 Income tax expense 32,374 21,106 45,576 33,400 Interest expense 37,655 50,159 78,508 97,322 Non-operating loss (gain) (6,478) 49 (6,877) Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries (5,666) (4,785) (11,187) (9,482) Loss on early retirement of debt 19,719 10,255 Income from operations 115,663 120,561 207,428 229,159 Stock compensation expense: Included in general and administrative 3,775 4,047 7,524 8,037 Included in cost of services 909 1,937 1,746 2,874 Depreciation and amortization 38,333 51,724 80,872 98,495 U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs (41) 2,895 Adjusted EBITDA $ 158,680 $ 178,228 $ 297,570 $ 341,460 Critical illness recovery hospital(a) $ 75,043 $ 60,725 $ 147,380 $ 133,697 Rehabilitation hospital(a) 23,129 28,195 39,457 54,971 Outpatient rehabilitation 41,926 41,947 73,277 72,472 Concentra 43,061 72,568 85,653 130,365 Other(b) (24,479) (25,207) (48,197) (50,045) Adjusted EBITDA $ 158,680 $ 178,228 $ 297,570 $ 341,460 (a) The critical illness recovery hospital segment was previously referred to as the long term acute care segment. The rehabilitation hospital segment was previously referred to as the inpatient rehabilitation segment. (b) Other primarily includes general and administrative costs. IX. Reconciliation of Income per Common Share to Adjusted Income per Common Share For the Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018 (In thousands, except per share amounts, unaudited) Adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares are not measures of financial performance under GAAP. Items excluded from adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares are significant components in understanding and assessing financial performance. Select Medical believes that the presentation of adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares are important to investors because they are reflective of the financial performance of our ongoing operations and provide better comparability of our results of operations between periods. Adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to, or substitutes for, net income, cash flows generated by operations, investing or financing activities, or other financial statement data presented in the consolidated financial statements as indicators of financial performance or liquidity. Because adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares are not measurements determined in accordance with GAAP and are thus susceptible to varying calculations, adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares as presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. The following tables reconcile net income available to common stockholders and income per common share to adjusted net income available to common stockholders and adjusted income per common share diluted shares for Select Medical. Three Months Ended June 30, 2017 Per Share(a) 2018 Per Share(a) Net income attributable to Select Medical $ 42,055 $ 46,511 Earnings allocated to unvested restricted stockholders 1,341 1,517 Net income available to common stockholders $ 40,714 $ 0.32 $ 44,994 $ 0.35 Adjustments: Non-operating gain (6,478) U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs(b) (25) Estimated income tax expense(c) 1,749 Earnings allocated to unvested restricted stockholders 155 Adjusted net income available to common stockholders $ 40,714 $ 0.32 $ 40,395 $ 0.31 Adjustment for dilution 0.00 0.00 Adjusted income per common share diluted shares $ 0.32 $ 0.31 Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 128,624 129,830 Diluted 128,777 129,924 (a) Per share amounts for each period presented are basic weighted average common shares outstanding for all amounts except adjusted income per common share - diluted shares, which is based on diluted shares outstanding. (b) For the three months ended June 30, 2018, the U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs recognized by Concentra are net of non-controlling interest. (c) Represents the estimated income tax impacts on the adjustments to net income. Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 Per Share(a) 2018(b) Per Share(a) Net income attributable to Select Medical $ 57,925 $ 80,250 Earnings allocated to unvested restricted stockholders 1,849 2,630 Net income available to common stockholders $ 56,076 $ 0.44 $ 77,620 $ 0.60 Adjustments: Loss on early retirement of debt 19,719 7,324 Non-operating loss (gain) 49 (6,877) U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs(c) 1,720 Estimated income tax benefit(d) (7,796) (1,623) Earnings allocated to unvested restricted stockholders (381) (18) Adjusted net income available to common stockholders $ 67,667 $ 0.53 $ 78,146 $ 0.60 Adjustment for dilution 0.00 0.00 Adjusted income per common share diluted shares $ 0.53 $ 0.60 Weighted average common shares outstanding: Basic 128,544 129,761 Diluted 128,703 129,871 (a) Per share amounts for each period presented are basic weighted average common shares outstanding for all amounts except adjusted income per common share - diluted shares, which is based on diluted shares outstanding. (b) For the six months ended June 30, 2018, the loss on early retirement is comprised of losses related to both the Select credit facilities and Concentra credit facilities. The loss on early retirement of debt related to the Concentra credit facilities is net of non-controlling interest. (c) For the six months ended June 30, 2018, the U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs recognized by Concentra are net of non-controlling interest. (d) Represents the estimated income tax impacts on the adjustments to net income. X. Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA and Income per Common Share to Adjusted Income per Common Share Reconciliations Business Outlook for the Year Ending December 31, 2018 (In millions, unaudited) The following are reconciliations of full year 2018 Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted income per common share - diluted shares expectations as computed at the low and high points of the range to the closest comparable GAAP financial measure. Refer to table VIII and table IX for a discussion of Select Medical's use of Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted income per common share - diluted shares in evaluating financial performance. Refer to table VIII for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA. Each item presented in the below tables are estimations of full year 2018 expectations. Range Non-GAAP Measure Reconciliation Low High Net income attributable to Select Medical $ 130 $ 151 Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 41 43 Net income 171 194 Income tax expense 57 64 Interest expense 198 198 Equity in earnings of unconsolidated subsidiaries (21) (21) Loss on early retirement of debt 10 10 Non-operating loss (gain) (7) (7) Income from operations 408 438 Stock compensation expense 21 21 Depreciation and amortization 198 198 U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs 3 3 Adjusted EBITDA $ 630 $ 660 Range Non-GAAP Measure Reconciliation Low High Income per common share - diluted shares $ 0.97 $ 1.12 Adjustments: Loss on early retirement of debt 0.03 0.03 U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs 0.01 0.01 Non-operating loss (gain) (0.04) (0.04) Adjusted income per common share - diluted shares $ 0.97 $ 1.12 SOURCE Select Medical Holdings Corporation After more than four years as Worldwide Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby's, and a decade leading the New York department, Simon Shaw will assume the full-time role of Vice Chairman of our Global Fine Art Division. In this new capacity, Simon will lend his expertise to help key clients build their collections across the spectrum of 20th Century Art. Since joining the auction house in 1996, Simon's tenure has been distinguished by sales from the collections of some of the most notable names in the field and the auctions of the two highest-selling works in Sotheby's history: Edvard Munch's The Scream (2012), and Amedeo Modigliani's Nu couche (sur le cote gauche) (2018). Simon joins long-tenured colleagues leading Sotheby's business development efforts in the Americas, including: Benjamin Doller and Lisa Dennison as Chairman, Americas; Brooke Lampley, who joined the auction house as Vice Chairman of Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division earlier this year; Thomas Bompard who has relocated to Los Angeles as Chairman of Sotheby's West Coast; and Clarissa Post as head Sotheby's Private Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art. On a global basis, Sotheby's benefits from the leadership and expertise of Helena Newman, Worldwide Head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department & Chairman of Sotheby's Europe and one of the industry's most experienced specialists with 30 years in the field. Based in London, she is joined by key members of Sotheby's extensive network across Europe including Philip Hook, Senior Director, Impressionist & Modern Art, London; Sam Valette, Vice Chairman, Private Sales Worldwide; and James Mackie, Head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department, London; as well Sotheby's seasoned team in Asia, led by Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby's Asia and Kevin Ching, CEO of Sotheby's Asia. NEW YORK IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART DEPARTMENT August Uribe has been appointed Head of Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Department in New York. Augie has had a long and distinguished career at Sotheby's that began in 1991, when he joined as Director of the Latin American Art Department, followed by several years in Los Angeles as Managing Director of Fine Arts. He joined the Impressionist & Modern Art Department in 2002, first as head of the Day Sale and then for seven years with the Evening Sale team. After several years at Phillips expanding his experience in the field of Contemporary art, Augie returned to Sotheby's last fall. Augie is joined in leadership by Julian Dawes and Scott Niichel, Co-Deputy Heads of the New York Impressionist & Modern Art Department. Julian, who joined Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art department in 2008, has taken on the role of Head of Evening Sales, building upon the experience he gained as Co-Head of the Day Sale since 2016. Julian has also curated a number of private selling exhibitions for Sotheby's S|2 Gallery including Iconoplastic: 100 Years of De Stijl and Cherchez la Femme: Women and Surrealism. Scott Niichel will assume full responsibility for the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale in New York. Scott joined Sotheby's in 2006 and spent more than five years as a specialist in the Russian Art department before moving to the Impressionist & Modern Art team in 2012. With Julian, Scott was appointed Co-Head of the Day Sale in 2016, and together they organized bi-annual sales of nearly $200 million. Scott also led the 2017 "white glove" (100% sold) auction Picasso Man & Beast: Works from the Collection of Marina Picasso, a sale which more than doubled its high estimate. This expansion complements an already diverse group of talented specialists, who continue to propel Sotheby's strategy and growth in the category. Since joining the Impressionist & Modern Art team in 2006, Molly Ott Ambler has played an integral role in advising top-tier collectors and institutions both at auction and private sales in New York, London and Paris. In 2009, Molly became the Head of Day Sales in New York, where she and her team consistently achieved outstanding results, and she joined the Evening Sale team as a Senior Specialist in 2016. Liz Sterling joined the auction house in 2016 as the Head of American Art, and has since utilized her expertise to expand the category's collecting base through the integration of American works into Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art sales. Most recently she joined the department as Senior Specialist, and directed the sale of Georgia O'Keeffe's Lake George with White Birch, which sold for $11.3 million nearly double its high estimate of $6 million to a European Private collector this past May. NEW ROLES Furthering Sotheby's reach across the market, we are delighted to announce two newly-created roles within the Impressionist & Modern department: Lucian Simmons will join as Senior Specialist, in addition to his role as Vice Chairman, Worldwide Head of Worldwide Restitution, and Yin Zhao will join as Vice President, Specialist and Asia Business Development for the Global Fine Art Division. Both will bring their valuable relationships, experience and perspectives to the team. Lucian Simmons joined Sotheby's in 1995, and in his more than 20 years at the Company has been pivotal in sourcing and selling art across categories at the highest level. Throughout his career, Lucian has played a key role in the sale of some of the most significant restituted artworks to come to auction, including Gustav Klimt's Kirche In Cassone, Litzelberg am Attersee and Bildnis Gertha Felsovanyi, multiple of Kasimir Malevich's iconic Suprematist works, and Egon Schiele's Krumau Landschaft and Hauser mit bunter Wasche (Vorstadt II). Overall, Lucian has been involved in the resolution of claims to art works valued in excess of $800 million. Since joining the company's Private Client Group in 2011, where she works closely with specialists and implementing business development strategies worldwide, Yin Zhao has been an essential team member on all aspects of buying and selling. Fluent in Mandarin, Yin has also proven a key player in fostering the Company's extensive business development in Asia, particularly in China and Hong Kong and works closely with Sotheby's most senior business development leaders across Asia including Patti Wong, Jen Hua, Deputy Chairman, China, and Wendy Lin, Managing Director of Sotheby's Taiwan. About Sotheby's Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 11 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as the collection, artist, estate & foundation advisory services of its subsidiary, Art Agency, Partners. Sotheby's presents private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division, and three retail businesses: Sotheby's Wine, Sotheby's Diamonds, and Viyet, the online marketplace for interior design. Sotheby's has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID). Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Medium | Pinterest | Snapchat Weibo | WeChat | Youku New York | +1 212 606 7176 | Darrell Rocha | [email protected] | Alexandra Fizer | [email protected] SOURCE Sotheby's Related Links http://www.sothebys.com BOSTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An overwhelming majority of Americans who have received electrostimulation therapy as a drug-free alternative to treat pain have become firm believers, according to new research. A national survey of more than 1,000 consumers conducted by BewellConnect, a connected health company that is moving the industry to a new frontier of healthcare, found that approximately 60 percent of Americans have had to seek treatments for back pain, bad knees, and a host of other injuries. Upon receiving treatment, nearly half (47 percent) received some form of electrostimulation treatment such as Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) or Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) to manage pain and recovery. Perhaps the most surprising finding was that of those who received electrostimulation treatments, nearly 90 percent said the treatments were helpful in their recoveries. A TENS wearable medical device is designed to relieve pain with pulses that stimulate skin and nerve strands, blocking pain signals from the brain. EMS works by activating muscles through a comfortable stimulation and is typically used for muscle rebuilding and repair. While these devices have traditionally been in the domain of physical therapists and healthcare providers, the technology is now widely available to consumers for at-home use thanks to technological advances in portability. A new generation of electrostimulation devices is now giving users more freedom to move thanks to the built-in wireless communications and intelligences for use with smartphone apps. Growing awareness of pain medication addiction may contribute to the technology's popularity, the survey found. When asked why they would consider purchasing an electrostimulation device, reducing the need for pain medications was the second most cited reason across all demographics (27 percent) and the number one reason among women (32 percent). Similarly, affordability and the ability for consumers to practice self-care were major drivers of consumer adoption. Nearly 35 percent of respondents said that reducing visits to a healthcare provider would be their main motivation for acquiring a device. "People want to play a greater role in their own pain management with drug-free alternatives. Advances in mobile-connected health technologies are making it possible," said Olivier Hua, CEO of BewellConnect. "This study shows that, given the option, most patients would welcome the opportunity to manage their own pain relief and muscle stimulation with electrostimulation therapies." About BewellConnect Much like the industry they are designed to streamline, digital health devices often remain siloed, cumbersome to use, and do not provide clear, actionable paths to better health. BewellConnect has set out to solve these challenges not through the manufacturing of devices, but with a suite of healthcare services of which FDA-approved products are a component. The connected health devices are used to monitor patient progress and send the information back to the physician, resulting in patients who are more educated and empowered to take an active role in their healthcare. Additionally, the data-sharing helps to alleviate some of the strain on medical professionals' PCPs who are often overloaded and unable to gather or sort simple data from their patients. This allows both patients and physicians to monitor the data in one place, and work together to monitor and improve patient health. For more information, go to www.bewell-connect.us. SOURCE BewellConnect Related Links http://www.bewell-connect.us Sutton won the open point over dozens of candidates from a large field of dealer applicants from the Minneapolis metro area and Midwest. "I was honored to be considered and ecstatic to be selected," Sutton said. "I give all the credit to our outstanding group of current employees and our growing list of satisfied customers. Those positive shared experiences and our commitment to Honda will be the standard we bring to every working day in the Minneapolis community." Current plans call for more than 100 employees and an all-new $10 million facilityjust west of the McDonald's restaurant on Hanson Boulevard. The facility will open in early 2019 and will include a 61,000 square foot building with more than 800 vehicle parking spaces. The new dealership will be called Rapids Honda. A new automotive row is developing as Walser Auto Group is in the process of relocating a competing dealership just west of Sutton's all-new Honda Dealership. "Rapids Honda is honored to join the Honda community in Minneapolis. From Luther Brookdale Honda to Buerkle Honda to Walser Honda and all the other great Honda dealers in between--I know them and respect them all," Sutton said. Sutton also noted, "Rapids Honda, like all of the Honda dealers in Minneapolis, will be a part to the well-being of the city through job growth and by contributing to the community." One of Honda's top dealers, Sutton graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Engineering. He also attended Ford Motor Company's Dealer Academy. A 25-year veteran of the automotive industry he started his business on Chicago's south side. His unique combination of engineering skills and entrepreneurial spirit have served him well as he continues to grow his family business. Sutton's charitable endeavors include heavy involvement in the community as a board member for the Ingalls Hospital Board, the Village of Matteson Economic Development Commission, and the Board of Governors for Opportunity International among many others. Among other interests, Sutton presently owns Dealerships in Chicago (Sutton Lincoln-Ford), Kenosha (Honda of Kenosha) and now Minneapolis (Rapids Honda). Sutton's General Manager in the new dealership, Roy Lacey, has decades of automotive experience in each of the aforementioned locations. An advocate for employees, customers and autos Lacey's operational expertise helps bring Sutton's dreams to life. Mr. Sutton said, "Roy is like family in the truest sense of the word. Our dealership's stay connected via our family roots and through Roy's efforts. We will continue our traditions of excellence in customer service and product support as we continue to grow." An informational website is in development. Additional details about the dealership will be found on their web page or on soon to be released social media pages. About Rapids Honda Rapids Honda will be located at the Gateway Commerce Center at Highway 10 and Hanson Boulevard in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Rapids Honda is conveniently located in Anoka-Hennepin School District and proudly supports Anoka, Champlin and Coon Rapids, as well as Andover, Blaine, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Dayton, Fridley, Ham Lake, Nowthen, Oak Grove and Ramsey The dealership will service and sell one of the largest selections of new and used Honda cars and trucks in Minnesota. SOURCE Honda Rapids The product being recalled has Sweet Earth Aloha BBQ Quesadilla exterior packaging but incorrectly contains the Sweet Earth Mile High Quesadilla in an interior clear plastic wrapper that reads "MILE HIGH." The ingredient statement on the exterior package applies to the Aloha BBQ Quesadilla and does not identify eggs and milk, which are in the Mile High Quesadilla. For consumers not allergic to eggs or milk, there is no safety issue with this product. The company has received no reports of illnesses to date associated with this product. The product was produced on May 29, 2018. Sweet Earth determined the limited quantity of product with mismatched packaging was distributed only to Target stores nationally and Strack & Van Til Food Market in Indiana/Illinois. No other production dates or Sweet Earth products are impacted by this recall. Only product with the mismatched packaging is being recalled. Sweet Earth is investigating this incident while working with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to implement this voluntary recall. Sweet Earth was first notified of the mismatched packaging through a consumer contact. Consumers with egg and milk allergies who may have purchased the recalled product should not consume it. All consumers who have purchased the recalled product are eligible for a replacement by contacting Sweet Earth at [email protected] or (831) 375-8673. The phone line will be open 24 hours per day and staffed from 9 a.m. 5 p.m. PDT, Monday-Friday. The quality, safety and integrity of Sweet Earth products remain our number one priority. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this action represents to both our consumers and retail customers. Media Contact: Bob Connolly [email protected] 310-613-4751 SOURCE Sweet Earth Foods CHICAGO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The top 10 companies in the Power 50 ranking continued to grow market share in 2017, adding another percentage point of sales share and now accounting for 90.5% of the Power 50's total sales volume of $128 billion. While major players may still have interest in acquiring direct competitors, companies are also motivated to complete smaller acquisitions to create efficiencies. These findings and more can be found in Technomic's recently released Power 50 U.S. Broadline Distributor Report, now available for purchase. The 2018 report can be purchased at https://www.technomic.com/available-studies/industry-reports/power-50. "Consolidation has been a long-standing theme in foodservice distribution, and 2017 was no different," said David Henkes, Technomic senior principal. "We're seeing a lot of merger and acquisition activity happening as distributors try to strengthen their regional foothold or penetrate specialty categories, and we expect to see more in the near future." Key themes from the report include: Annual sales growth for the Power 50 distributors registered at 2.9% in 2017 As chain traffic declines, local chains and independents are picking up the slack and growing at the expense of their major chain counterparts Rising labor costs and a shrinking pool of available workers are issues challenging the distribution channel Leading-edge distributorsthrough their DSRsare taking the lead in helping operators understand the various nuances of delivery Technomic's 2018 Power 50 U.S. Broadline Distributor Report focuses on broadline distributors that function as a one-stop shop for foodservice customers. Sales figures are representative of total U.S. annual sales volume and are collected using a combination of public filing analysis, direct company surveying and Technomic's proprietary estimations, when necessary. Sales figures may also include any specialty distribution businesses operated by each company, such as Sysco's SYGMA and Performance Food Group's VISTAR divisions. Rankings are determined by total U.S. sales volume from the prior year. To purchase or learn more about this and other industry reports from Technomic, please visit Technomic.com or contact one of the individuals listed below. Contacts: Press inquiries: Dave Henkes, (312) 506-3927, [email protected] Purchasing details: Patrick Noone, (312) 506-3852, [email protected] About Technomic Technomic Inc., a Winsight company, delivers a 360-degree view of the food industry. It impacts growth and profitability for clients by providing consumer-grounded vision and channel-relevant strategic insights. Its services range from major research studies and management consulting solutions to online databases and simple fact-finding assignments. Its clients include food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants and retailers, other foodservice organizations, and various institutions aligned with the food industry. Visit Technomic at www.technomic.com. About Winsight LLC Winsight LLC is a recognized leader in business-to-business media and information services for the convenience-retailing, foodservice and grocery industries. Winsight has an extensive media portfolio, including five publications: CSP, Restaurant Business, FoodService Director, Convenience Store Products and Winsight Grocery Business. Winsight also offers a suite of digital products, including websites, e-newsletters, webinars, video products, mobile and tablet apps, and custom marketing solutions. In addition to more than 12 major EduNetworking conferences and advisory meetings, Winsight also produces seven exclusive, large-scale executive-level conferences: Restaurant Leadership Conference, Global Restaurant Leadership Conference, Outlook Leadership Conference, Convenience Retailing University, FSTEC, MenuDirections and Restaurant Directions. In 2015, Winsight acquired Technomic Inc., a provider of primary and secondary market information and advisory services for the food industry. For more information on Winsight and its brands, go to www.winsightmedia.com. SOURCE Technomic Inc. Related Links https://www.technomic.com PUNE, India, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Viral Vector Manufacturing Market by Type (Retrovirus, Gammaretrovirus, AAV), Disease (Cancer, Infectious Disease, Genetic Disorders), Application (Gene Therapy, Vaccinology), End User (Biotech companies, Research Institutes) - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to reach USD 815.8 million by 2023 from an estimated USD 327.8 million in 2018, at a CAGR of 20.0%. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg ) Browse 50 market data Tables and 22 Figures spread through 107 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Viral Vector Manufacturing Market" https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/viral-vector-manufacturing-market-89341986.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report The key factors driving the growth of this market include rising prevalence of cancer and genetic disorders, funding for the development of novel therapies, effectiveness of viral vectors in gene therapy delivery, and ongoing research into viral vector-based gene and cell therapies. "The retroviral vectors segment is expected to account for the largest share of the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market by type in 2018" On the basis of type, the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market is segmented into retroviral vectors, adenoviral vectors, adeno-associated viral vectors, and other viral vectors. Retroviral vectors are expected to hold the largest share in this market in 2018. The large share of these vectors can be attributed to their ease of application in major target diseases such as cancer, and genetic disorders. "The genetic disorders segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period" Based on diseases, the global Viral Vector Manufacturing Market is segmented into cancer, genetic disorders, infectious diseases, and other diseases. During the forecast period, the genetic disorders segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the market. The accelerated research activities on various genetic disorders such as hemophilia A and B, sickle cell anemia, and Huntington's disease and a robust gene therapy pipeline in the last phase of drug development is fueling the growth of this segment. The gene therapy segment is expected to account for the largest share of Viral Vector Manufacturing Market in 2018" Based on application, the global Viral Vector Manufacturing Market is segmented into gene therapy and vaccinology. In 2018, the gene therapy segment is expected to hold the largest share in this market and this segment is also expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. The large share and fast growth of this segment can be attributed to the large number of clinical trials conducted for gene therapy on target diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases globally. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=89341986 "North America is expected to dominate the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market in 2018" In 2018, North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market. Factors such as a large number of regenerative medicine companies (including gene and cell therapy companies), increasing research activities, rising prevalence of target diseases, and availability of funds are supporting the growth of the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market in North America. The major players in the global Viral Vector Manufacturing Market are Lonza (Switzerland), Merck (Germany), Oxford BioMedica (UK), CGT Catapult (UK), Cobra Biologics (UK), uniQure (Netherlands), FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies (US), Kaneka Eurogentec (Japan), and Spark Therapeutics (US). Know more about the Viral Vector Manufacturing Market: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/viral-vector-manufacturing-market-89341986.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Shelly Singh MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/viral-vector-manufacturing-market.asp Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, Martin Sheen, Paula Abdul, Sofia Carson and the Scott Brothers offer personal experiences to give 100,000 students the tools they need to better their communities and their own lives TORONTO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Today WE, a family of organizations that makes doing good doable, announced a partnership with Omaze and a star-studded lineup of celebrities to help raise funds for WE Schools a year long service-learning curriculum that empowers young people, including underserved youth, to create meaningful impact locally and globally. In a series of video announcements, top stars including Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, Martin Sheen, Paula Abdul, Sofia Carson and Drew and Jonathan Scott, stars of HGTV's Property Brothers, are offering fans the chance to live their dream celebrity experiences, all in a bid to empower 100,000 students to engage in service. "We believe that these youth are the leaders of tomorrow," said co-founder of WE, Craig Kielburger. "We're so excited to have partnered with Omaze and some incredible celebrities who have offered their time to raise funds that will help give students the inspiration, mentorship, educational resources, tools and support they need to realize their potential and become the change-makers of their generation." To help get fans excited about these experiences, all of the stars participating created video announcements, letting fans know exactly what they can expect if they're the lucky winner. These experiences include: These campaigns will also be featured in the fourth annual WE Day Special, airing on ABC, Friday, August 17, 2018 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. The Special is a celebration of doing good, honoring youth and families across the country who are making a real impact in their communities and around the world, with the help of A-list celebrities and global thought leaders. A $10 donation on Omaze.com/WE provides fans the chance to win one of these epic experiences and supports this important cause. These campaigns close on September 20, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. PST. For more information on the partnership and to enter for your chance to win a celebrity experience that gives back to WE visit Omaze.com/WE. About the WE Day Special The WE Day Special is a national broadcast airing on ABC on August 17, 2018, at 8P ET/7P CT. WE makes doing good doable by supporting Americans who want to make a real impact in their communities and around the world. The WE Day Special is a celebration of next-level doing good, honoring youth and families across the country who prove that when they harness their belief, their passion and their energy, they are an unstoppable force for good. It features a star-studded lineup of chart-topping performers, iconic celebrities and inspiring young Americans, including host John Stamos, Jennifer Aniston, Dierks Bentley, The Chainsmokers, Will Ferrell, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, Cyndi Lauper, JD McCrary, Dr. Phil, Martin Sheen, Lilly Singh, Founders of the #NeverAgain movement and organizers of The March for our Lives Jaclyn Corin and Cameron Kasky, and more. The WE Day Special is sponsored by title partner Allstate Foundation Good Starts Young, and is also sponsored by presenting partners Walgreens and Microsoft. Learn more at WE.org About WE WE Day is part of WE a family of organizations making doing good, doable. WE is made up of WE Charity, empowering domestic and international change, ME to WE, a social enterprise that creates socially conscious products and experiences to help support the charity, and WE Day, filling stadiums around the world with the greatest celebration of social good. WE enables youth and families to better the world supporting 7,200+ local and global causes by volunteering millions of hours of service, shopping daily with an impact, and raising millions of dollars that directly benefit their local communities and the world. Globally, WE teams in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have provided more than 1 million people with clean water, built 1,000 schools and schoolrooms overseas, and empowered more than 200,000 children with access to education. WE was founded more than 20 years ago by social entrepreneurs, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger. Join the movement today at WE.org. About Omaze Omaze is an online fundraising platform that makes giving fun and easy by offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences and exclusive merchandise in support of critical causes. Our campaigns connect influencers, nonprofits and donors to create lasting impact, and have raised funds and awareness for over 350 charities with donations from over 180 countries. For more information, please visit omaze.com. SOURCE WE Charity FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, Clean PACE, a Florida-based non-profit created to independently review and assess Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) providers for consumer protections, announced Ygrene, a national leader in energy efficiency and resiliency financing in Florida, as the organization's first and only "Clean PACE Certified Partner." Since launching PACE in Florida in 2013, Ygrene's positive impact has been felt in over 150 Florida communities. Across the state, elected officials, realtors, research institutions and consumer groups are acknowledging that PACE is protecting consumers and improving communities across the state: Jeff Jones, Chairman, Clean PACE Board of Directors and President-Elect, Naples Area Board of Realtors: "We are pleased to award the first Clean PACE Certified Partner designation to Ygrene. In addition to meeting audit requirements, we found a culture of customer service and attention to detail that exceeded our expectations. Ygrene provides Floridians with an extremely valuable and reliable option for funding critical home improvements." Read more Adam Hasner, former Majority Leader of the Florida House of Representatives: "There will continue to be endless conversation and political debate about how to deal with hurricanes and severe storms. But one thing is certain: Florida leaders must empower our residents by providing options to affordably rebuild and strengthen their homes and businesses. Policymakers can do this by continuing to protect consumer choice and expanding access to PACE financing." Read more Jay Neal, President, Florida Association for Insurance Reform: "I applaud Ygrene for driving a program that is critical to how homeowners respond to extreme weather conditions and for adopting policies that protect consumers, hold contractors accountable, and provide communities with confidence to invest in their homes." Read more Martha Campbell, Manager, Rocky Mountain Institute: "We applaud the efforts of PACE industry stakeholders in developing robust program guidelines and independent audit processes, and support the industry's goal for these guidelines to be the standard across state and local governments." Read more Stephanie K. Mah, Director of Strategy and Research, and Phoebe Xu, Senior Vice President, Morningstar: "consumer advocacy remains at the forefront for residential PACE, and originators have been taking steps to address concerns. In some instances, originators have allowed modifications to the original terms of a PACE assessment, including changes to the coupon rate, term, and outstanding balance, as well as prepayment penalties." "Despite increased concerns over consumer protections, Morningstar believes recent initiatives aimed at improving such safeguards will help improve underwriting practices and result in a healthier industry overall for residential PACE." Read more Kroll Bond Rating Agency: "Over its ten years of existence, the PACE industry has undergone significant transformation. Greater focus on the consumer's ability to pay and improving consumer protection practices are also viewed as positive developments for the industry." Read more Kristine Isnardi, Vice Chair, Brevard County Commission: "[PACE is] giving people the power to assess themselves. I'm excited about this program. I think it's a great idea, and I think it gives more power to the homeowner. I've heard great things about this across the state." Read more Larry Sinewitz, Executive Vice President of BrandSmart USA upgraded the HVAC and lighting systems at Palmetto Bay, FL location: "PACE's credibility and proven track record make it the clear choice to upgrade our stores from both a business and an environmental perspective." Read more Nick Brousse, Project Manager, U.S. Green Building Council, on Journal of Structured Finance PACE study: "Although it has been widely understood that energy renovations add value to a property, this study confirms the added value of these projects often exceeds their total financing costs. As many in the green building industry have been proselytizing for years, going green delivers as many economic benefits as it does environmental." Read more Ygrene's ability to successfully navigate regulatory changes and leverage their strengths while growing their presence across Florida has contributed substantially to their progress. Ygrene is more committed than ever to expanding its PACE program to help more property owners meet their energy efficiency and resiliency goals. The full list of jurisdictions where Ygrene's PACE program has been approved can be found here. About Ygrene Ygrene is a national leader in residential and commercial energy efficiency and resiliency project financing. Founded in 2010, Ygrene's award-winning, privately funded Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program is revolutionizing the home improvement industry, making it easier for property owners to invest in their futures and a healthier environment. Ygrene is delivering greater choice for home and business owners by providing accessible and affordable financing for energy efficiency, renewables, water conservation, storm protection and seismic upgrades. Recognized as one of the fastest growing asset classes in the country, PACE has proven to be a successful tool for supporting public policy initiatives, all without the use of public tax dollars or credits. To date, Ygrene has provided over $1 billion of private capital to more than 69,000 property owners in over 600 communities, creating thousands of jobs and investing millions into local economies across the U.S. While PACE programs are enabled by state legislation and must be approved by local governments, Ygrene is not a government program. Learn more at ygrene.com. SOURCE Ygrene Related Links http://ygrene.com IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- What if someone invited you to attend a 2-day training session and said, "We don't want you to listen"? What would your reaction be? Puzzled or intrigued? As the team at First Financial Resources puts the final details in place for its 2018 FFR University on August 6 8, 2018, they hope "intrigue" is top of mind when attendees arrive for the 27th FFR University at the Pendry San Diego. "We all are very familiar with being 'talked at' during a training session. This is more about an experiential, fun learning event," explains Jud Imhoff, Chief Executive Officer, FFR. Research shows that we learn better when two or more of our senses are tapped. The FFR University starts with a "scavenger hunt" through San Diego's Gaslight District. The hunt stimulates attendees' focus, creativity in problem-solving, encourages teamwork and uses a smart phone app to accumulate points. Would You Trade Typical Training for Experiential? Yes, Says First Financial Resources Staff members from FFR offices across the country will attend the event. Within the FFR model, support is localized and closest to the client. FFR's training motto is "You're only as good as your staff". FFR puts the motto to practice when it designs the curriculum for this annual event. Today's world offers so much data, information and choices. It is easy to get lost or distracted. The 2018 curriculum is designed around "targeted focus". Ron White, author, speaker and top memory expert helps attendees learn how to use enhanced memory to prioritize their day, ignore information clutter and grow professionally. Attendees can raise their "emotional intelligence", too. With tips and exercises from Jacque Leonard, Pryor Learning Solutions, they open a window into what compels people to act the way they do. "An FFR advisor's staff needs to understand what makes a client feel special and important. We hope our attendees come away with added insights and techniques to defuse tense situations and improve relationships," explains CEO Imhoff. FFR also taps its core carriers' experts and combines them with its own internal staff to provide attendees with insights, updates, lively discussion, success story exchanges, and practical advice to help you be "really good at what you do." Topics covered will include: product features and niches, underwriting specialties, and using technology to gain business efficiencies. Focus is not solely targeted on business and professional development. "Build a Better Backpack" is a team event that gives back to a charity, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR.org). The charitable group works to rescue child sex slaves and bring the perpetrators to justice. FFR University attendees will work in teams building backpacks for survivors that O.U.R. has rescued. Taking time away from the day-to-day operations of the office to attend the FFR University, FFR office staff members share experiences and gain new insights. "Having an experiential training session is not something an individual advisor can do alone. As an organization, FFR brings the resource power to staff training while the advisor keeps his/her business independence," adds Imhoff. About First Financial Resources First Financial Resources (FFR) is a producer group founded in 1987 and solely owned by its member advisors and based in Irvine, California. FFR provides its member advisors with access to insurance-based products, tools and resources for the high net-worth and/or business client. FFR also focuses expertise, resources and training to elevate the professional knowledge of the advisor's staff. To learn more about FFR, please visit www.ffrmembers.com. For Press Inquiries, contact Susan Hart, (949)223-2169 or [email protected] SOURCE First Financial Resources Related Links http://www.ffrmembers.com CHICAGO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yippie Fest returns August 17-19, 2018 for its second annual celebration of theatre, comedy, music, short film, and more. The festivities span three days on two stages at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave, Chicago. This year, more than 90 acts will perform, including award-winning musician/song-writer Mike Felten, BBC-featured comedian Sam Rhodes, and the critically-acclaimed fire-eating spectacular Freakshow & Tell. Yippie Fest Opening Ceremonies 2017 Yippie Fest joined the Chicago fringe scene in 2017, borne of a collaboration of artists whose passion drove them to carry on the spirit of the beloved cult classic Abbie Hoffman Died for Our Sins theatre festival (1989-2016). This year's fest also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Democratic Convention. Politics, music, performance and humor fueled the original Yippie counterculture. Today's Yippie Fest is a joyful celebration of that spirit. "What does Yippie! mean? Energy -- fun -- fierceness -- exclamation point." ---Abbie Hoffman Tickets, schedule and more at www.yippiefest.com Media Contact: Frank Carr | 773-206-4552 | [email protected] Media Sizzle Reel: https://youtu.be/jnqDYt3WHH8 SOURCE Yippie Fest Related Links http://www.yippiefest.com Jerusalem, Aug 2 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Iran of blocking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. "If Iran tries to block the Bab-el-Mandeb, I am convinced that it will find itself facing a determined international coalition to prevent this," Netanyahu said at the navy base in Haifa city during the navy officers' course graduation ceremony, Xinhua reported. "This coalition would also include the State of Israel and all its arms," he warned. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman also attended the ceremony. "Israel has recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea," he said in a separate speech, without elaborating. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a major sea channel for cargo ships and oil tankers, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Last week, Saudi Arabia halted oil shipments after Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militants reportedly attacked two tankers in the Red Sea. Washington, Aug 2 : President Donald Trump is weighing the idea of increasing from 10 percent to 25 percent the tariffs imposed on some $200 billion of Chinese products, mainly consumer goods, the Office of the US Trade Representative reported Wednesday. "This week, the President has directed that I consider increasing the proposed level of the additional duty from 10 per cent to 25 percent," Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement, Efe reported. In the coming weeks, the USTR will analyze the president's proposal and will open a public consultation period in late August so that US companies can offer their opinions on the measure. Despite the fact that some US media have linked the proposal to hike tariffs to a sharp drop in the Chinese currency, senior US officials downplayed that idea in a telephone call with reporters. Washington wants China to open its market more to US products and stop harming American workers, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The proposed tariff hike would - for the first time - affect a large number of consumer goods, including furniture, lamps, food and computers. Before Trump's proposal was made public, the Chinese government claimed on Wednesday that US "blackmail" and pressure on its exports are "not going to work." The trade talks between Washington and Beijing have bogged down in recent weeks, a period in which the two nations have imposed reciprocal tariff hikes on various products. The first wave of US tariffs included a punishing 25 percent levy on Chinese imports valued at some $34 billion, a measure to which Beijing responded in like manner. A few days later, the Trump government imposed more tariffs on Chinese imports, spurring the government of Xi Jinping to implement similar countermeasures. Washington, Aug 2 : Remains of what are believed to be 55 US soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War arrived on Wednesday in the US after North Korea returned them a few days ago under agreements reached between the leaders of both countries. Resting inside coffins wrapped in US flags, the remains arrived from South korea at the US Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where a ceremony presided over by the country's Vice President, Mike Pence, was held. When North Korea delivered the remains to members of the United Nations Command in Korea on Jul. 27, the coffins were wrapped in UN flags, Efe reported. Pence, whose father fought in the Korean War, said the US "will never stop striving until every hero lost in the Korean War is home" and hence keep its promise "to leave no man behind." "Today, our boys are coming home," Pence said, adding that the 55 remains arriving in the US on Wednesday "are the heroes who will lead the way to many homecomings in the future." The US will now try to identify the remains through DNA testing and will resume the joint efforts with Pyongyang to continue searching for the 5,300 US servicemen believed to have been killed north of the 38th parallel during the Korean War. Jammu, Aug 2 : A batch of 603 Amarnath pilgrims left Jammu on Thursday for the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley, police said. Since it started on June 28, a total of 265,937 pilgrims have already performed the annual pilgrimage. "An escorted convoy of 16 vehicles carrying the 603 Yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here for the Valley," the police added. The 60-day long Yatra will end on August 26 coinciding with the Shravan Purnima festival. Washington, Aug 2 : A Roman Catholic diocese of the US state of Pennsylvaniaunveiled a list of 71 clergy members and seminarians, some of them deceased, "accused" of sexual abuse of minors since 1940. The list was posted on Wednesday on the Harrisburg diocese's website. It includes 37 priests, three deacons and six seminarians of that diocese, as well as nine clerics from other Catholic districts and 16 members of "religious communities", reports Efe news. The list features cases linked to allegations of indecent and inappropriate behaviour, including kissing, child pornography and "inappropriate communications" with minors, among others. The diocese of Harrisburg covers most of central Pennsylvania. None of the men on the list are currently teaching or in the ministry. Harrisburg Bishop Ronald W. Gainer said in a letter that the church was releasing a list of all allegations made against clergy members from the diocese since 1940 that had not been proven false. He also said that the diocese had wanted to make the list public in 2016, but the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office had asked them not to do so, so as not to disrupt its own grand jury investigation of abuses by Pennsylvania Catholic clergy. Gainer said that abuses by clergy members constitute a "dark (and) ... very sad chapter", and apologised in the name of the diocese, also noting that clergy members are doing good work for many "in a very tough environment" and adding that Catholic Charities spent $8.4 million on programs to help those in need in 2017. On June 27, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the release of a report by a grand jury regarding alleged abuse by clergy in six of the state's Catholic dioceses, including Harrisburg, and it is expected that it will be published this month. The US scandal coincides with a crisis within the Chilean Catholic Church, where 158 people linked to the clergy have been accused of sexual abuse. Washington, Aug 2 : US President Donald Trump has escalated his trade war with China, ordering his administration to consider more than doubling proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent, as talks between Washington and Beijing remain at a standstill. Trump on Wednesday instructed the US Trade Representative to look into increasing tariffs on Chinese imports including fish, petroleum, chemicals, refrigerators, handbags and other goods to 25 per cent, reports The New York Times. However, a final decision on the size and scope of the tariffs is not expected before September. "The increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is intended to provide the administration with additional options to encourage China to change its harmful policies and behaviour and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of our citizens," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. "China has illegally retaliated against US workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses." In response to the announcement, Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing was standing its ground in the trade dispute, reports CNN. "China's position is firm and clear cut," the spokesman said. "It remains unchanged. The blackmailing and pressure by the US will never work on China if the US take measures to further escalate the situation we will surely take countermeasures to firmly uphold our legitimate rights and interests." The 25 per cent tariffs on $200 billion worth of imports would come on top of the existing penalties on $34 billion worth of products and an additional $16 billion that are scheduled to go into effect soon, The New York Times reported. China has vowed to respond to any trade measures in kind, and it has already imposed its own tariffs on $34 billion worth of American soybeans, pork, electric vehicles and other goods. The administration's trade moves are aimed at forcing China to end what it calls unfair trade practices, including improperly obtaining American intellectual property. Earlier on Wednesday, Congress passed legislation that will strengthen national security-related checks on Chinese investment in the US, a move that is also aimed at curbing China's ability to capture valuable American technology. Meanwhile, the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents major IT users like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, immediately called the move by the administration "irresponsible, counterproductive", and said it would "only do more harm to Americans across the country". "American consumers and businesses are now feeling the pinch of increased costs," said Jose Castaneda, a spokesman for the council. "Instead of escalating this trade war, the president should have serious negotiations with the Chinese to create lasting change." Washington, Aug 2 : Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is expected to soon begin a major naval exercise in the Persian Gulf that could demonstrate its ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial conduit for global energy supplies, US officials have said. According to the officials, the exercise could begin as soon as the next two days. "We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. We are monitoring it closely and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Captain William Urban, chief spokesman for US Central Command, told CNN on Wednesday. The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration calls it "the world's most important oil transit chokepoint", with 20 per cent of oil traded worldwide moving through the waterway, which is about 30 miles wide at its narrowest point. As of now, the US assesses that the IRGC has assembled a fleet of more than 100 boats, many of them small, fast-moving vessels. It is expected that Iranian air and ground assets including coastal defensive missile batteries could also be involved, the officials told CNN. The IRGC exercise comes as the US has only one major warship, the guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans, inside the Persian Gulf, several officials say. Other US warships are nearby, and there are numerous combat aircraft in the region. San Francisco, Aug 2 : Facebook's Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, who was a key figure in the fight against the spread of fake news and misinformation, on Thursday officially announced to quit and join Stanford University as a full-time teacher and researcher. The announcement came as Facebook investigation, under Stamos, revealed on July 31 that it discovered and banned 26 bad actors who were using the platform to manipulate political discourse as US mid-term elections approach. "I have had the pleasure of lecturing at Stanford for several years, and now I will have the honour of guiding new generations of students as an Adjunct Professor at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies," Stamos said in a Facebook post. His last day at Facebook will be August 17. "It is critical that we as an industry live up to our collective responsibility to consider the impact of what we build, and I look forward to continued collaboration and partnership with the security and safety teams at Facebook," he noted. Inside Facebook, Stamos had been strongly advocating for investigating and disclosing Russian activity on the social media platform. Facebook's reputation is already under attack over Russia's alleged use of Facebook tools to sway US voters with divisive and false news posts before and after the 2016 election. According to The Verge, Stamos, who joined Facebook in 2015, won't be replaced after he leaves, "meaning no one will hold the title of 'Chief Security Officer' at Facebook". Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said that the company "looks forward to collaborating with him in his new role". Washington, Aug 2 : The US Senate has passed a massive $716 billion defence authorization bill. The Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed 87 to 10 on Wednesday a week after it was approved by the House, reports Xinhua news agency. Now the bill will now go to the White House, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law. The bill provides about $616.9 billion for the base Pentagon budget, $21.9 billion for nuclear weapons and $69 billion in war funding. It also authorises a 2.6 per cent pay raise for members of the military, boosts the ranks of the US military services by 15,600 active troops and approves the purchase of 13 new Navy warships and 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets. Congress has passed the NDAA for 57 consecutive years. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif set the ramp on fire with their dazzling chemistry when both of them walked together for Manish Malhotra's Haute Couture 2018 as show-stoppers at the JW Marriot here. The latest collection that was showcased on Wednesday night was titled "Zweena", featuring classic as well as contemporary Manish Malhotra signature shimmery and embellished ensembles for men and women. The show was also a celebration of 13 years of Manish's illustrious design label, deriving inspiration from the old-world magic of the Indo-Persian era. At the fashion show, Salman sported a black embroidered 'sherwani' amidst the backdrop of an eagle taking flight on the large screens at the venue. Well groomed hair gave a final touch to his appearance. Katrina was an epitome of elegance and grace as she shimmied and sizzled in an embellished ensemble replete with a cape. Wavy hair and subtle makeup perfectly complimented her ethereal avatar. The actors were all smiles as they walked the ramp and the chemistry was palpable. There was a certain aura of comfort between the two which reflects well in their equation, on-screen as well as off-screen. With the pair, a befitting muse for the maverick Manish Malhotra, the night certainly ended on a high note with other industry and Bollywood celebrities cheering on the couple and the designer. Having worked together in many films, including "Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya", "Yuvraj", "Ek Tha Tiger" and "Tiger Zinda Hai", the actors have recently signed another film together which will be their fifth collaboration as lead actors. "Bharat" is a remake of the 2014 South Korean film "Ode to My Father" and will reportedly feature Salman in five different looks over 60 years. He will also be seen recreating his look from the film "Karan-Arjun". In the film, Katrina will play Salman's love interest. It also stars Tabu, Sunil Grover and Nora Fatehi in pivotal roles. The film will be shot in Malta and Abu Dhabi, besides Punjab and Delhi. Produced by Atul Agnihotri's Reel Life Productions and Bhushan Kumar's T-Series, "Bharat" will release on Eid 2019. Patna, Aug 2 : A shutdown called by the Left parties in Bihar on Thursday against the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district has hit rail and road traffic, police said. The state-wide shutdown is backed by opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) (RJD), Congress, Hindustani Swam Morcha, Samajwadi Party and Lokrantrik Janata Dal. Left party workers and supporters blocked railway tracks thereby affecting over a dozen trains since early Thursday morning. According to reports reaching here, trains were stopped in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Jahanabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Patna and Bhojpur districts. Protesters have also blocked several roads in Siwan, Bhojpur, Nawada, Patna, Arwal, Jagabad districts. The case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The CBI on Sunday took over case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. New Delhi : India seems to be in a space where technology is a big favourite. Digital marketing and digital automation are among the top-searched words. This is making organisations look for and adapt smart technology-aided training interventions to rationalise training costs while enhancing effectiveness and saving time. New technologies like Cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and similar such innovations are constantly changing and evolving the workplace environment. Leveraging this technology is the appropriate approach to enable flexibility in learning. Corporate training need not be delivered entirely based on traditional methods. It can be merged with e-learning methods to make a great L&D (learning and development) tool. Technology-enabled Blended Learning (TeBL) is an appropriate solution for imparting customised training programmes which save time. When blended with instructor-led training programmes, e-training solutions produce remarkable results in terms of training retention, overall productivity enhancement and a better training ROI (return on investment). Corporates are quickly realising that if they want to stay competitive in business, it's time to get serious about customised training solutions. Customised smart solutions are also lithe because they have the added benefit of learners being able to access content anytime, anywhere and even specify the extent to which they need it. This also allows facilitators to impart training specifically aimed at every individual's needs. A blended learning approach maximises the effectiveness of instructor-led and virtual training programmes in a format that is highly scalable and measurable. These types of technology-enabled blended learning models cater to the needs of employees stationed in remote areas. With this, an organisation gets the best out of each employee that they retain. Corporate training sessions can be attended on Cloud-based frameworks on all devices, including tablets and smartphones. The training has now become engaging as both the parties contribute equally to the session. There are several features to facilitate communication with groups and individuals. Pre-workshop online material can be shared with the learners even before the training session. The trainer and participants have ongoing access to training materials both during and after the workshop. The option of observing one's learning through performance assessments make these sessions more fruitful. AI-enabled chatbots play a crucial role here, as they take on the job of the trainer when he or she is not around to lead the training-related FAQs. In addition to this, Augmented Reality (AR)- and Virtual reality (VR)-based training simulators are also being used to deliver training at various levels. For example, VR is widely being used by manufacturing-based companies to train workers on shopfloor safety. AR and simulation-based trainings have been employed by auto companies to explain off-road functionalities of SUVs inside the showroom itself so that the sales staff can understand key features without spending on out-bound training interventions. Through VR, an employee can easily learn how to use complex machinery in a non-physical environment resembling real life. The mistakes made in the virtual environment cause no harm to the employee or the equipment. AR can also be used for specialised training like full-scale visualisation of machines and products without physically building them. Digital transformation is also happening in training for the retail, tourism and hospitality, FMCG, apparel and furnishing sectors, as it is easy to upskill and scale the employees' performance by assessing them on their actions to a virtual sales floor. So, it is evident that technology allows flexibility in learning and gives a collaborative environment to work in, irrespective of the sector and the geography. (Sanjay Bahl is CEO and MD of Centum Learning. The views expressed are personal) New Delhi, Aug 2 : The Supreme Court on Thursday told the electronic and print media not to publish or telecast any image of the rape victims from Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home. A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, taking suo motu cognisance of the issue after a man from Bihar wrote a letter to the court, sought a response from the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Bihar government. The court sought assistance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The bench expressed concern over the identity of child rape victims being revealed by print and electronic media and said that even a morphed picture should not be made public. The Muzaffarpur horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by TISS. The CBI on Sunday took over the case following a recommendation by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has described it as a heinous crime. Srinagar, Aug 2 : A ceremonial border personnel meeting has taken place between the Indian and Chinese armies on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh region, an official said on Thursday. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told IANS that the meeting on the occasion of China's Peoples Liberation Army Day took place on Wednesday at a Chinese camp, Chu shul-Moldo. The event was marked by saluting of the national flags by the delegation members. "This was followed by ceremonial addresses by the delegation leaders which included exchange of greetings and both expressed a desire to maintain and improve relations at functional level at the border," the spokesman said. Thereafter, a programme showcasing Chinese culture was held. "Both the delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment. The delegations parted amidst feeling of friendship and commitment towards enhancing the existing cordial relations and maintaining peace along the LAC," the official said. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Oscar-winning Indian music director A.R. Rahman, who is coming up with Amazon Prime Video's new show "Harmony With A.R. Rahman" -- which celebrates the musical diversity of the country -- says the current trend of having multiple composers in one film dilutes the impact of music in a Bollywood film. Asked about his opinion on the current Bollywood music scene, the "Roja" fame composer told the media here: "There are some very good music composers working very well but the upper zone of film music has gone to a strange zone. I think Bollywood movie soundtracks are like a motherless child where several music composers are coming on board for one film and composing each song of the film." "What they are concerned is if his/her song is there or not. They are not bothered about the whole story and how all the songs are working in that," he added. Elucidating on this, Rahman said: "There is no internal commitment towards the whole film or the story, where one artiste is coming on board with his dream, investing his soul and pledging to execute his art through the storytelling. That is missing, I guess. When we look at the overall impact of the music of the film, one would say, 'Oh that's not my song, I just composed one song in the film and that is doing well'. You know what I mean?"" While the 'Mozart of Madras' -- as he is lovingly called -- is constantly striving to find the meaning of life through music and spreading the joy of music to the new generation, Rahman says some of his young students keep him on his toes creatively. Mentioning his music school K.M. College of Music and Technology, he said: "Apart from educating the new generation musically, now we have some new talents stepping into the world of Bollywood. We have our Shashwat Singh, Poorvi Koutish, Nikhita Gandhi. All of them worked in 'Sanju'. When I listen to them, they bring new energy to me and I feel like doing better music now. "I think that is how I want this to continue. I want them to become a better musician, and then I want to do much better than them," he said, breaking into laughter. His "Harmony With A.R. Rahman", which features musicians from four parts of India - Maharashtra, Kerala, Sikkim and Manipur -- is starting from August 15 on Amazon Prime Video. It is a curated exploration of the past and future of Indian music through the eyes of Rahman. The five episodic series will see the Indian musical heritage being viewed through the prism of specially curated instruments - Rudra Veena, Mizhavu, PanthongPalith and Khuilang Eshei vocal traditions. Kabul, Aug 2 : An Indian national and two others were killed here on Thursday after they were kidnapped by gunmen. All three men, including a Malaysian and Macedonian, were believed to be working for a logistics company in the Afghan capital. They were abducted early morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi district of Kabul province, TOLO News reported. Police confirmed the incident but did not give further details. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident. Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 2 : Senior Congress leader and the party's former Kerala President V.M. Sudheeran on Thursday announced that he was quitting the United Democratic Front's (UDF) high power committee. The committee is the UDF's highest decision making body where every ally has its representative. "I have informed the Leader of opposition and others about my decision. This is it for the time being and do not wish to say anything more," Sudheeran told media persons following his announcement. Sudheeran has been upset with the Congress for a while after the party decided to re-admit estranged former ally Kerala Congress (Mani) led by former Minister K.M. Mani back into the UDF after almost a two-year hiatus in June. He was also angered when the lone Rajya Sabha seat which would have gone to the Congress was given to Mani's party for its return to the UDF. Sudheeran's elevation as state party president in 2015 came as a shocking decision for many of the senior colleagues. He often took strong positions against his own government led by then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. A few months after the 2016 Assembly elections, Sudheeran made a hasty exit as party president on the grounds of ill-health. New Delhi, Aug 2 : At a time when at least 26 well known writers have written a letter to the Sahitya Akademi President Chandrashekhar Kambar, urging the National Academy of Letters to condemn the attacks against writers like S. Hareesh and Damodar Mauzo, the Akademi president, speaking to IANS, vociferously expressed that the Akademi was on a cusp of revival and that it will not hesitate to speak for the fraternity. "I must make it clear that the Akademi condemns all attacks against writers and I am saddened by the news of Mauzo and Hareesh. I condemn these threats in strongest of words. I wrote a letter to the people and sent it to my office yesterday," Kambar, a recipient of the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri told IANS over telephone from Bangalore. The 81-year-old said that he will be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and draw his attention to the "pressures and attacks" writers like Hareesh are facing. "I am also trying to speak to the concerned minister (Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma) but he is not available. I have already written a letter to my secretary in Delhi as well and I will do everything possible to protect the rights of writers. "The Akademi is meant to uphold free speech and I will not hesitate. I will talk," he said. On being reminded that the same body took as many as 54 days to publicly condemn the killings of rational thinkers and writers M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar that had triggered massive protests by writers bringing the Akademi to a standstill in 2015, Kambar said that the past should be left behind as the Akademi was on a cusp of revival. "Forget the past, we are doing everything in our capacity and we have taken a stand already, that we condemn these attacks against S. Hareesh and Damodar Mauzo," he said. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Akademi said that it "condemns all attacks on writers, thinkers and poets, not only in India but all over the world". It said that the Akademi received "the news of threat" to writers with "great pain". "Sahitya Akademi strongly condemns these attacks and stand behind the writers' community of India," read the one-paragraph press statement from the Sahitya Akademi, signed by Kambar. In what seems to be a reminder of the awardwapsi campaign in 2015, a collegium of heavyweight and multiple award winning writers such as Nayantara Sahgal, Keki Daruwalla, K. Satchidanandan, Ritu Menon, Jerry Pinto and, among several others, Meena Alexander have written to the akademi, urging it to condemn such instances. "It is with a sense of considerable anxiety and dismay that we who belong to the community of writers, a community which holds fast to democratic and secular values enshrined in our constitution, have noticed recent developments relating to writers," said the letter to Akademi president under the banner of Indian Writers' Forum. The writers' forum pointed out that the Akademi failed to take a "bold, public stand" in 2015. "We hope this would not happen in your dispensation and that this big literary institution will take a brave stand now," the letter read. Malayalam novelist S. Hareesh and his publisher DC Books have received numerous threats and messages of intimidation from some right wing outfits in the wake of his novel "Meesha". Mauzo, a Goa-based Konkani novelist and short story writer, has been provided with police security in the wake of threats to his life from the Sanathan Sanstha, a right-wing organisation. (Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in) New Delhi, Aug 2 : A student was stabbed at a government school here on Thursday by a fellow student following a fight, police said. The incident occurred at around 8 a.m inside the Government Sarvodaya Boys Senior Secondary School in east Delhi's Krishna Nagar. "During investigation it was found that the students belonged to class 11 and 10. They indulged in a fight after the morning assembly. The class 10 student took out a knife and launched an attack. The injured student suffered three to four stab wounds," Deputy Commissioner of Police Meghna Yadav said. "The victim was hospitalised where he was declared out of danger and is undergoing treatment." The police have detained the accused student. Islamabad, Aug 2 : The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has decided to join Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to form the federal government, the media reported. MQM-P convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui confirmed the news on a Geo TV programme on Wednesday. "Yes, we have agreed to cooperate with them (the PTI) for the formation of (a coalition) government at the Centre," he said. On Thursday, the PTI also sought the support of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M). MQM-P's Siddiqui added that after a series of past experiences, the party does not want to side with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). "The PPP does not need anyone in Sindh. The MQM-P will sit alongside the PTI on government benches." "We have decided to sit on treasury benches instead of the opposition. Sitting with the opposition would have created doubts about our stance and because of this, the MQM-P has arrived at a consensus on this move." "We respect everyone's mandate and want everyone to respect ours," said the MQM-P convener. He also said that the MQM-P will not be attending the All Parties' Conference on Thursday. It will be a meeting of opposition parties led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to hold talks on alleged rigging in the July 25 general election. MQM-P MNA and coordination committee member Aminul Haq said though MQM decided to support Khan for the Prime Minister slot, they were yet to decide if they will take any ministries. The final decision in this regard will be taken in a few days, he added. Meanwhile, a PTI delegation led by leaders Naeemul Haque and Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind met BNP-M chief Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal in Islamabad to seek their backing. After the meeting, Mengal said: "I am thankful to the PTI leadership for extending us an invite to be part of the federal government." Talking about the demands he put forth, the leader said that "we want missing persons to be recovered as well as implementation of China Pakistan Economic Corridor". "If we are given a satisfactory response to our demands then we are ready to support the party," he said. Geo News quoted sources as saying that the PTI also invited Mengal for a one-on-one meeting with Khan. The BNP-M secured three seats in the National Assembly during the polls while the MQM-P won six seats -- four in Karachi and two in Hyderabad. The PTI needs support of smaller parties as it is short of numbers to form its government independently. Ranchi, Aug 2 : Eleven people were sentenced to life term by a Ranchi district court on Thursday for killing five women on the suspicion of practising black magic. According to the lawyer, Special Judge (SC/ST) S.S. Prasad convicted the 11 accused persons and awarded them life Imprisonment. There were 45 accused in the case. The special court acquitted 28 people, while six died during the trial. The five women had been killed in Kanijia village on the outskirts of Ranchi following the death of two children. The accused had believed the children were victims of witchcraft. Panaji, Aug 2 : The Goa Police on Thursday arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in crimes related to the Maratha reservation strike, from a hotel in the beach village of Calangute in Goa. They were absconding from Maharashtra and were wanted by the Navi Mumbai police for their alleged involvement in crimes related to the Maratha Arakshan Morcha earlier last week. Police inspector in-charge of the Calangute Police Station Jivda Dalvi said that the three accused, Bhushan Bhagwan Agaskar, Ashish Kale and Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Patil, all residents of Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai, were wanted for attacking civilians during the strike that was called by leaders of the Maratha community on July 25. "A First Information Report has been registered against the trio under sections 326, 302, 143, 147, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code at the Koparkhairane Police Station, Navi Mumbai," Dalvi said, adding that the request for the arrest of the trio was made by the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch officials. Chandigarh, Aug 2 : In an open challenge to the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) central leadership, ousted Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira organised a party convention in Punjab's Bathinda town on Thursday. Addressing the gathering, Khaira said the convention had been organised to show that the AAP leadership and activists in Punjab had the freedom to express their opinion. Reports said that 11 out of the 20 AAP legislators in the Punjab Assembly were in Delhi while the others turned up for the convention. "My fight is for the interests of Punjab. I am not after any post. I will speak for all Punjabis. This state has been ruined by the misrule of the Badal family and Amarinder Singh. This is not my fight but the fight for Punjab," Khaira said. The convention passed resolutions disbanding the party's Punjab unit's organisational structure and announcing that it had the right to take its own decisions in the interest of the state. One of the resolutions questioned Khaira's sudden removal as the Leader of Opposition last week and demanded a meeting of the party legislators in Chandigarh on the issue. The AAP central leadership has dubbed the event as an "anti-party" activity. With its Punjab unit facing a crisis, the AAP on Tuesday blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bains brothers for trying to split the party. The AAP central leadership had picked up Dalit leader Harpal Singh Cheema as leader of the Opposition after Khaira's removal. The AAP emerged as the main opposition in Punjab in the assembly election in March last year, winning 20 seats in the 117-member assembly. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Global cab-hailing major Uber on Thursday brought "Safety Toolkit" to India -- a comprehensive set of features in the app for riders -- after rolling it out first in the US. Riders can access the "Safety Toolkit" on the home screen of the app from the moment the driver accepts the trip through when the trip ends. Riders can also find safety tips built in partnership with law enforcement and learn about driver screening processes, insurance protections and community guidelines. "At Uber, safety is a top priority and we look towards harnessing technology to solve rider and driver safety concerns in more innovative ways. The roll-out of 'Safety Toolkit' to millions of riders across India is an extension of this commitment to the community," Sachin Kansal, Director, Product Management, Uber, said in a statement. Launched in the US in May, the design and features have been determined largely based on feedback from thousands of riders. India was the first market where Uber launched the emergency button, which will now be part of the "Safety Toolkit" in the app. "A key feature is 'Trusted Contacts' which offers riders the option to automatically share all or select late night trips with their family," Kansal added. This feature allows riders to designate up to five near and dear ones with whom they can be regularly prompted to share trip. Riders can modify the settings to share all trips, night-time only trips, or none at all. Panaji, Aug 2 : Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar on Thursday told the state legislative assembly that the bidder selected for the amphibious bus service project has backed out due to the inordinate delay in obtaining the requisite permissions. "As the process of obtaining the permissions took a considerable amount of time, the selected bidder lost the confidence in the project and backed out from the said project," Ajgaonkar said in a written reply . Two agencies had applied for the tender to operate the amphibian buses in the coastal state known for tourism and M/s. Amphibious Tours Private Limited eventually won the bid to design,as a new tourism service, he added. "As per the tender, Goa Tourism Development Corporation has provided assistance to the service provider in obtaining necessary clearances and permissions for this venture," Ajgaonkar said, adding that the introduction of the amphibian vessels would have boosted tourism potential in the state apart from creating employment opportunities to locals. "However, in order to commence the commercial operations the successful bidder had to obtain permissions from the Captain of Ports, Road Transport Office and Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways. Further, Automotive Research Association of India, had approved the vehicle and test trials were conducted in Goa. The agreement executed with the Amphibious Tours Private Limited was terminated by GTDC and the performance security deposit of Rs 10 lakh has been forfeited, Ajgaonkar said, adding that the project would be re-tendered and a new bidder would be selected. Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 : The Odisha government on Thursday assured Taiwanese investors of its cooperation for the proposed Rs 43,000 crore petrochemical cracker unit project in Paradip. Taiwan's state-owned firm "CPC Corporation" proposes to invest $6.6 billion (Rs 43,000 crore) in the petrochemical project in Paradip using feedstock from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). A Taiwanese delegation led by CPC Corporation President Shun-Chin Lee on Thursday met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here. Patnaik said that a high-level task force headed by the Chief Secretary will be formed to provide necessary assistance for the proposed project, which will help in setting up petroleum downstream industries in Paradip. "CPC Corporation is a prominent petroleum and petrochemical company of Taiwan like our Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL). The delegation has come to India for inspecting various sites for establishing their naphtha cracker unit," said Chief Secretary A.P. Padhi. The delegation had on Wednesday visited Paradip to inspect the infrastructure facilities at the site for the proposed investment following a meeting with Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday in New Delhi. "The state government has assured them that the required infrastructure including land, water, and electricity will be provided," said Padhi. Lee said, "We propose to invest in India for which we are exploring various sites. This mega project is estimated at $6.6 billion, equivalent to Rs 43,000 crore. We hope the state government here will help us." Patna, Aug 2 : Prashanti Tiwari, the activist and architect of globally acknowledged Bandhan Tod strategy against child marriage, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help her in getting justice in her complaint against UNFPA India Representative Diego Palacios. Tiwari ,a former United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) contractor in Bihar, has accused Diego Palacios of sexual harassment and abuse. The Bihar police registered a criminal case against the accused in February 2018. However, the police investigation has not progressed much as Tiwari has alleged that UNFPA is stalling the case. Tiwari told IANS on Thursday that she has pleaded with PM to help her in ensuring a fair criminal trial, which she alleges is continuously being influenced by senior UN officials in India and in New York. "Senior UN officials still use their influence to seek confidential information on her case from Bihar police officials," she said, alleging that they are trying to quash her criminal complaint. Frankfurt, Aug 2 : The first comprehensive overview for more than a decade of the state of knowledge about global biodiversity and the contributions of nature to people is nearing completion with a final meeting of authors this week at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre here, it was announced on Thursday. Under the leadership of Josef Settele (Germany), Sandra Diaz (Argentina) and Eduardo S. Brondizio (Brazil and the US), 150 expert authors from over 50 countries around the world have contributed for almost three years to a massive interdisciplinary collaboration under the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The resulting Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services will be considered by representatives of 130 governments in May next year in Paris at the seventh session of the IPBES Plenary. The research covers land-based ecosystems, inland waters and oceans, looking back 50 years to evaluate changes, and forward to consider scenarios, possible pathways and policy options. Once published, it is expected to inform policy and action on biodiversity to 2030 and beyond. Speaking about the importance of research, Senckenberg Centre Director Katrin Bohning-Gaese said: "Biodiversity loss is a major threat to human wellbeing, and there is a growing need for better scientific evidence in policy and decision making." "This is the major goal of IPBES, and it is also why Senckenberg is pleased to host this third and final author meeting of the global assessment. Research on biodiversity loss and its causes is a major focus of the more than 300 Senckenberg scientists, some of whom also contribute to the IPBES assessments." "The IPBES Global Assessment is, in many ways, a successor to the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005," Josef Settele told journalists. "Since then, the world has agreed to a range of key commitments -- such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Global Assessment will help decision-makers, at every level, to assess progress, identify major gaps and consider a range of policy options to meet these key undertakings." IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising 130 member-governments. Established by governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet's biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Infinix Mobile, the online smartphone brand of China-based Transsion Holdings, on Thursday launched an affordable "SMART 2" smartphone for Rs 5,999 that comes with 18:9 "Full View" display. "As India is undergoing rapid technology changes with 4G LTE expected to be adopted by 85 per cent of the Indian market by 2018, hence, there is a pressing need for Dual-VoLTE smartphones in the budget segment," Anish Kapoor, CEO Infinix India, said in a statement. "Infinix SMART 2 can enable two 4G VoLTE SIM cards active in your phone simultaneously," Kapoor added. The device offers 8MP low light selfie camera with dual LED flash and f/2.0 aperture and 13MP PDAF, f/2.0 main camera with LED flash. The device houses MediaTek 6739 processor and a 3050mAh battery. The device will be available in 2GB RAM + 16GB storage variant for Rs 5,999 and 3GB RAM + 32GB storage version for Rs 6,999 on Flipkart. New Delhi/Guwahati, Aug 2 : Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Saugata Roy on Thursday said a delegation of party leaders, including MPs, which was on its way to Assam to assess the situation after release of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), was "detained" at Silchar airport. Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Roy said the issue pertained to the rights of the members, as it was a breach of their privilege. He was supported by other Trinamool Congress members. Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, who was in the chair, said that he would convey their sentiments to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Roy later said that the "freedom of MPs has been eroded by Assam government" and that he would give a privilege notice on the issue. The party also issued a statement saying the delegation comprising six MPs, one state Minister and one MLA was "illegally detained" at the Silichar airport and termed it "super emergency". "They had not gone there to break law. Yet they were beaten up. Senior MPs were pushed and shoved. Female MPs were manhandled. Is this democracy?" the statement said. Earlier in the day, the TMC delegation was prevented at Kumbhirgram Airport in Silchar by the district administration from going out of the airport and interacting with the people. The delegation was confined to a room at the airport on the ground that Section 144 Cr.PC was in force in the entire Cachar district. "We were supposed to interact with some people in Silchar. However, when we landed, the district administration and police officials stopped us from getting out of the airport and later were confined to a room," said a TMC member who was a part of the delegation. The TMC delegation reportedly told the administration that they would go out in four groups of two persons each, which will not violate Section 144, but the district administration officials refused. The Assam government published the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30 which included names of 2.89 crore people but kept over 40 lakh people out of the document due to some discrepancies. Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government on the NRC list and alleged that it was "a global issue and not just an issue of Assam or India". New Delhi, Aug 2 : A mechanic hailing from Uttar Pradesh was electrocuted on Thursday while repairing an air-conditioner in a mall here, police said. "Sarwar Ali suffered an electric shock at DLF South Square Mall in Sarojini Nagar. He was declared brought dead at the Safdarjung Hospital," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Romil Baaniya said. Ali hailed from Amroha. A case of death due to negligence has been registered under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code. Chennai, Aug 2 : DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Thursday visited a restaurant whose owner and employees were attacked by party members and offered to pay for the damages, an act that won the heart of the proprietor. Stalin went to the R.R. Anbu Biryani restaurant here and comforted the owner and employees for the weekend incident. He was accompanied by former Union Telecom Minister and Propaganda Secretary A. Raja and other colleagues. On Sunday night, a group of DMK members led by Yuvaraj went to R.R. Anbu Biryani and demanded free biryani. The hotel employees told them that business had ended for the day, said police. Enraged at this, Yuvaraj assaulted the cashier and other employees. He was joined by another party member, Diwakar. The video of the attack went viral on the social media, following which the DMK on Wednesday suspended Yuvaraj and Diwakar for bringing disrepute to the party. Stalin also condemned the violence on the hotel staff. On Thursday, after Stalin comforted owner R.R. Tamilselvan, the latter praised the DMK leader whose father and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is warded in hospital battling major health related issues. "I don't have any words to say. Even when his father, a great leader, is admitted in hospital, Stalin came to our restaurant and comforted us all," Tamilselvan said. "Earlier he had called us to the DMK headquarters and enquired about the incident and the damages. He said he would want to visit the outlet." He pledged to make good the losses. Tamilselvam said Stalin had asked the local party leaders as to how and why such persons were admitted to the DMK. Tamilselvan said Yuvaraj always used to come to the restaurant and demand discount on food. He also expected not be billed for the food consumed. Tamilselvan said he started his food business on a cartwheel and eventually grew into a 21-outlet chain. Meanwhile, the police have arrested five persons while Yuvaraj and Diwakar are absconding. According to the hotel staff, Yuvaraj had come to the hotel a week earlier and had parked his vehicle blocking the entrance, resulting in an argument with the hotel staff. Bengaluru, Aug 2 : The Light Combat Aircraft's (LCA) naval variant landed on the deck of warship INS Hansa in Goa, said its maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) on Thursday. "LCA Navy (NP2) undertakes maiden taxi-in engagement to prove arrestor hook system of aircraft at sea-bed test facility Goa," tweeted Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "This is the first of a series of engagements planned to prove the arrestor hook capability of the combat fighter," said HAL Chairman T. Suvarna Raju. The achievement pushes India into a select club of the US, Europe, Russia and China in having the capability of deck-landing by a fighter aircraft. "Piloted by Captain Shivnath Dahiya, the LCA naval prototype (NP-2) landed safely on the deck of INS Hansa at the naval shore-based test facility in Goa," said state-run defence behemoth HAL. The maiden feat involved the pilot making contact of the arrester hook system with the arresting wire at moderate taxi-in speed on the location at the test facility. The first taxi-in engagement was monitored by the landing signal officer Commodore J.A. Maolankar and test director Group Captain A. Kabadwal (Retd). The city-based aerospace major's design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre, developed the arrestor hook system for ship-deck operations of LCA naval version. The LCA naval prototype was integrated with the hook system and has been operating at INS Hansa since July 28 after the landing system was verified in-air operation in Bengaluru on July 23. The naval air station has a 14-degree ramp along with testing sensors and other equipment to monitor the flights. The prototype's carrier compatibility trials are slated at shore-based test facilities, built at the Indian naval base in Goa on the West Coast. The evaluation involves shore-based trials before embarking on actual deck of an aircraft carrier like INS Vikramaditya for LCA Navy next year. State-run Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the military aircraft's airworthiness certifying agency Cemilac and the Indian Navy worked together for the maiden deck landing. A series of trials are planned which will involve landing, refuelling and take-off from an aircraft carrier near the West Coast after a slew of ground tests at higher speeds. The single-jet engine Tejas is the smallest and lightest multirole supersonic fighter aircraft of its class. The tandem twin-seater aircraft is integrated with avionics and flight controls for ground runs and taxi trials. The naval variant can also be deployed on the second indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, being built at the Cochin Shipyard. Tokyo, Aug 2 : A group of citizens including the 2008 Nobel laureate Toshihide Masukawa sued the Japanese government on Thursday over the controversial security laws that were forcibly enacted in 2015 despite public opposition. The 143 plaintiffs filed the suit in the Nagoya District Court, saying the controversial legislation that allows Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defence or coming to the aid of an ally under attack violates the country's pacifist Constitution, Xinhua news agency reported. They said the controversial laws violated their right to live in peace and caused emotional sufferings as they increased Japan's risks of being involved in wars or terrorist attacks. They sought 100,000 yen ($895) in damages for each person. Masukawa, a Nagoya native, shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with two other physicists for "the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature". He was also one of the founders of the Association of Scholars Opposed to the Security-Related Laws which was set up in 2013. The 78-year-old professor at Kyoto Sangyo University was a witness of the war himself when a firebomb dropped by a US fighter plane landed in front of him in March 1945 and would have killed him. However, the bomb didn't explode. Masukawa has told reporters that he didn't want to be involved in wars again and that he felt obligated to speak out on behalf of the public on this issue. Thursday's suit was just one of a series of lawsuits filed at 21 district courts across Japan, involving thousands of plaintiffs. Japan abandoned its 70-year pacifism since the end of World War II as its Parliament enacted a controversial legislation pushed by the government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2015. The controversial security laws, including amendments to 10 existing laws, took force in 2016 and allow Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defence, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack even if Japan itself is not attacked. Chandigarh, Aug 2 : Upset over a purported sleaze video of his wife and her 'illicit' relations, a man from Punjab's Kapurthala district torched himself and his family, including two minor children, hours after his return from abroad, police said on Thursday. Kulwinder Singh, 35, his wife Mandeep, and two children, Sonal (8) and Abhi (5), died on Thursday following burns. The incident took place on Thursday in Kala Singhian village of Kapurthala district, around 180 km from Chandigarh. Police said Kulwinder returned to his village from Jordon, where he works, late on Wednesday night. He was sent a sleaze video of his wife with a man from the village following which he brought petrol and poured on himself and his family. The matter came to light early on Thursday when other family members got up. While Kulwinder had died, the others were rushed to a hospital in Jalandhar city where they succumbed to burns. Police said that they arrested villager Gurpreet Singh who allegedly had illicit relations with Mandeep. Kapurthala district police chief Satinder Singh said a case had been registered against four people belonging of the same village. New Delhi, Aug 2 : The government on Thursday expressed "deep anguish" at the killing of an Indian national, along with two of his colleagues working in an international company in Afghanistan, and condemned the incident in the strongest terms. "It is a matter of deep anguish that an Indian national, working for an international company, was kidnapped along with two of his colleagues from Malaysia and Macedonia in Kabul today," External Affairs Ministery spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries. "The local authorities later informed that the three kidnapped, including the Indian national have been killed by the kidnappers," Kumar said. "The government condemns this incident in the strongest terms." All the three, working for international food company Sodexo in Afghanistan, were kidnapped and killed by gunmen in the Afghna capital. The Indian national is said to be 39, the Malaysian 64 and the Macedonian 37, according to the BBC . Investigators said that the trio, believed to be working as cooks for Sodexo, were taken from their Toyota Corolla car on their way to the airport. Their bodies were found later in the Mussahi district of Kabul province, Afghan media reported. Police were treating it as "a terrorist incident", the BBC reported citing an Afghan government official. Kumar said that the Indian Embassy in Kabul is in touch with the Afghan authorities and the company concerned in the matter. "The embassy is rendering all assistance in the repatriation of the mortal remains," he said. Tehran, Aug 2 : The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ratified Iran's membership in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) on Thursday, the media reported. In a ceremony on the sidelines of the 51st Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore, Iran officially joined the TAC treaty in the presence of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Tasnim news agency reported. According to official IRNA news agency, there was a consensus among southeast Asian countries to accept Iran as a party to the treaty. This indicated the significance of interaction with Iran as an important and influential country in regional and international equations, the report said. On Wednesday, Zarif met Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for talks on the bilateral ties, major regional and international issues, as well as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral nuclear agreement from which the US government withdrew in May. In separate meetings, Zarif held talks with his Japanese, Filipino and Turkish counterparts on the sidelines of the Asean meeting to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues. Beijing, Aug 2 : After reports surfaced that Google is planning a censored Search engine for China, more reports claimed on Thursday that the tech giant is also developing a "government-friendly news app for the country". According to The Information, Google is developing a news-aggregation app for use in China that will comply with the country's censorship laws. "Google has been working on the app since last year and had been meeting with Chinese regulators to discuss the project," said the report, citing sources. "It is also preparing a mobile app for Internet search in China that will comply with local censorship laws, an effort first reported by The Intercept," the report added. The state-owned China Securities Daily, however, refuted the report on Google's Search engine for China. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), China is home to 772 million Internet users -- the biggest online community in the world. China has also seen increased affluence among its consumers, which are quick to embrace innovative new technologies and services. "That has also allowed Internet companies led by Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings to expand beyond their initial businesses, building vast online platforms that offer a range of products and services to their users. The trio now commands a combined market valuation exceeding US$1 trillion," reported SCMP. Tech Crunch reported that Google is essentially cloning Toutiao, a popular app in China. "Like Toutiao, the app would apparently use AI and algorithms to serve stories to readers - as opposed to real-life human editors - while it too would be designed to work within the bounds of Chinese internet censorship," claimed the report. Google, which has hundreds of people working in China, recently launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab in the country. Facebook has set up a subsidiary in China to build an "innovation hub" focused on helping local developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow. Facebook's application for the China subsidiary in the Zhejiang province was approved on July 18, CNBC reported. "We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. Chandigarh, Aug 2 : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to grant citizenship to all Afghan Sikh and Hindu families who have taken refuge in India after fleeing persecution in Afghanistan. While demanding that the country must come to the aid of all these displaced persons, a SAD delegation met the Minister in New Delhi on Thursday. The delegation, which included union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Naresh Gujral and other senior SAD leaders, said there were around 35,000 Afghan Sikh and Hindu families currently living in India. The delegation apprised the Home Minister that these people had fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control in 1989. They pointed out that these families faced harassment and persecution in the war-torn country due to forced conversions and danger to their womenfolk. Harsimrat Badal urged Rajnath Singh to grant passports to all these displaced persons besides rehabilitating them by offering a comprehensive package to them as was done in the case of Kashmiri Pandits and Sri Lankan Tamils. The Home Minister promised to form a committee comprising Sikh representatives to examine the entire matter and make recommendations for resolving it. New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram/Panaji, Aug 2 : In a major development that has averted a possible return of the 2015 awardwapsi protest, the Sahitya Akademi has vociferously expressed solidarity with writers after at least 26 heavyweight authors urged Indias National Academy of Letters to condemn repeated ongoing threats to Goa's award winning writer Damodar Mauzo and Malayalam novelist S. Hareesh. "I must make it clear that the Akademi condemns all attacks against writers and I am saddened by the news of Mauzo and Hareesh. I condemn these threats in strongest of words," Sahitya Akademi President Chandrashekhar Kambar told IANS over telephone from Bangalore. The 81-year-old said that he will be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and draw his attention to the "pressures and attacks" writers like Hareesh are facing. I am also trying to speak to the concerned minister (Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma) but he is not available," he said. "The Akademi is meant to uphold free speech and I will not hesitate. I will talk," Kambar asserted. On being reminded that the same body took as many as 54 days to publicly condemn the killings of rational thinkers and writers M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar that had triggered massive protests by writers bringing the Akademi to a standstill in 2015, Kambar said that the past should be left behind as the Akademi was on the cusp of revival. "Forget the past, we are doing everything in our capacity and we have taken a stand already, that we condemn these attacks against S. Hareesh and Damodar Mauzo," he said. In an official statement released Thursday afternoon, the Akademi reiterated that it "condemns all attacks on writers, thinkers and poets, not only in India but all over the world". It said that the Akademi received "the news of threat" to writers with "great pain". "Sahitya Akademi strongly condemns these attacks and stand behind the writers' community of India," read the one-paragraph press statement from the Sahitya Akademi, signed by Kambar. A collegium of heavyweight and multiple award winning writers such as Nayantara Sahgal, Keki Daruwalla, K. Satchidanandan, Ritu Menon, Jerry Pinto and Meena Alexander, among several others, had written to the Akademi under the banner of Indian Writers' Forum, urging it to condemn such instances. The writers' forum pointed out that the Akademi had failed to take a "bold, public stand" in 2015. "We hope this would not happen in your dispensation and that this big literary institution will take a brave stand now," the letter read. Reacting to Akademi's statement, writer and poet Keki Daruwalla, who had returned his Sahitya Akademi award in 2015 and was among the writers who urged the Akademi to condemn threats on Wednesday, said that it was "excellent news". "I am happy that the same scenario (like 2015) has not been repeated. We have done our part and I complement the Akademi for having spoken out, and particularly Mr Kambar, for taking immediate cognisance of the matter, instead of sitting silent like the Akademi did in 2015," Daruwalla told IANS. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that the culture of banning books impacts the free flow of ideas and should not be taken recourse to unless they are hit by Section 292 of the IPC that prohibits obscenity. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud reserved its order on a plea seeking to omit certain excerpts from "Meesha" by Hareesh. "You are giving undue importance to this kind of stuff. In the age of Internet, you are making this an issue. It is best forgotten," said Justice Chandrachud. But even as top writers express their solidarity, the vitriol against Malayalam novelist S. Hareesh and his publisher DC Books have continued as they received numerous threats and messages of intimidation from some right wing outfits. The Kerala state government has assured the publisher of their support. An officer of the Cantonment Police station in Thiruvananthapuram said a case has been registered on Thursday against four acitivists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party) who took part in a protest before the DC Books office on Wednesday. "The case has been registered against four people who have been identified. They burned the book, that has now become controversial. However, today also there was a protest, but no case has been registered," said the police officer who did not wish to be identified. Mauzo has been provided police security following threats to his life in view of revelations made by those arrested in the murder case of activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru. The award-winning Konkani writer and progressive thinker Mauzo had earlier confirmed to IANS that round-the-clock security was provided to him after he was informed by a central intelligence agency about threat to his life. Vatican City, Aug 2 : Pope Francis has decided to change the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on death penalty, by declaring it as "inadmissible" and encouraging his Bishops across the world to push for its abolition, the Vatican said on Thursday. The Catechism of the Church, which sums up the teachings, previously stated that death penalty could be used in some cases. But it now called the death term "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", the BBC reported. The Holy See communicated the Pope's revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty to Bishops worldwide in an official letter. The church previously viewed the death penalty, carried out by a legitimate authority after a fair trial, as an "appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good", according to the Vatican statement. "This development centres principally on the clearer awareness of the Church for the respect due to every human life," it said. Pope Francis has previously spoken out against the death penalty, saying last year it "heavily wounds human dignity" and is an inhuman measure. Capital punishment was "in itself, contrary to the Gospel", he had said. But on Thursday the Pope went further by making a formal change to the universal catechism. The move puts the Pope at odds with US President Donald Trump, who in March advocated the death penalty for drug dealers. Trump had also called for terrorists and "perverts" to be put to death. According to Amnesty International, 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries in 2016. Four countries account for 87 per cent of global executions: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Reliance Industries on Thursday said that its telecom subsidiary Jio has entered into an MoU with State Bank of India (SBI) to deepen their digital partnership. According to a company statement, the MoU is about the larger digital partnership which looks beyond the Jio Payments Bank which is a joint venture between RIL and SBI. Further, it aims to increase the lending major's digital customer base multi-fold. Accordingly, the omni channel platform SBI YONO's digital banking features and solutions will be enabled through the MyJio platform for a seamless, integrated and superior customer experience. Besides, MyJio, one of India's largest over-the-top (OTT) mobile applications will bring in financial services capabilities of SBI and Jio Payments Bank. "Jio and SBI customers will benefit from Jio Prime, a consumer engagement and commerce platform from Reliance," the statement said. "Jio Prime will offer exclusive deals from Reliance Retail, Jio, partner brands and merchants. In addition, with an integration between SBI Rewardz and Jio Prime, customers of SBI will be offered additional loyalty reward earning opportunities as well as broader redemption within Reliance, Jio and other online and physical partner ecosystems." As per the statement, SBI will be engaging Jio as one of its preferred partners for designing and providing network and connectivity solutions. "Jio's highest quality network in urban and rural regions will allow SBI to launch customer centric services such as video banking and other on-demand services," the statement said. "Additionally, Jio Phones will be available on special offers for SBI customers." Speaking on the partnership, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh D. Ambani was quoted as saying in the statement: "The scale of the SBI customer base is unmatched globally." "Jio is committed to using its superior network and platforms combined with the Retail ecosystem to accelerate digital adoption serving all the needs for SBI's and Jio's customers." On the bank's part, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said: "As India's largest Bank with leadership in digital banking, we are delighted to partner with Jio the world's largest network." "All the areas of co-operation are mutually beneficial enhancing the digital foot-print for SBI customers with superior and rewarding customer experiences." New Delhi, Aug 2 : At least a dozen MPs on Thursday expressed concern in the Rajya Sabha over the unabated attacks on journalists in different parts of the country. The issue was raised by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member Jharna Das Baidya during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha. A number of MPs including Derek O'Brien of the Trinammol Congress; P.L. Punia, Raj Babbar and Hussain Dalwai of the Congress; Tiruchi Siva of the DMK; Manoj Kumar Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Independent member Ritabrata Banerjee among others seconded Baidya. "Over the years, several journalists have lost their lives while reporting about human rights violations, corruption and for doing their job," Baidya said in the House. "In 2018, three journalists have lost their lives, the latest of them being veteran Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari. This is one short of the four journalists who were killed in 2017," she said. "If it's his work that led to the killing, Bukhari may become the 48th journalist who has been killed because of his work in India since 1992, the year when the Committee to Protect Journalists started keeping records of journalist deaths. "Bukhari's murder is the second high-profile killing in the last two years, the last one being Gauri Lankesh," she added. She added that in Tripura, Sudip Dutta was murdered. "What are the steps taken by the government for the prevention of attack and killing of journalists," the MP demanded to know. She further said that after the election in 2018 in Tripura, many publications have been stopped particularly "Daily Desher Kotha", which earlier circulated 52,000 copies but now it has come down to only 6,000 copies. Kochi, August 02 : The Kerala high court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking to ban the Christian sacrament of confession. Rejecting the plea, a division bench headed by acting chief justice Hrishikesh Roy observed that confession was neither unconstitutional nor a violation of right to privacy. The court pointed out that the constitution guaranteed individuals the freedom to leave a religion whenever they wanted and that those against the sacrament of confession enjoyed the liberty to quit the religion. The petition filed by Ernakulam native C S Chacko had contended that the sacrament of confession encroached on the right to privacy of individuals by requiring them to reveal their sins before a priest or any other person. The non-performance of the confession would instil fear of undeclared sanction by the church and isolation from society in the minds of members, the petitioner argued. The plea was filed against the backdrop of a woman accusing four priests of the Malankara orthodox syrian church of sexually abusing her by blackmailing her with the threat of revealing her confessional statements. Beijing, Aug 2 : The US is playing hard and soft tactics with China on the trade issue, but such a two-faced approach is doomed to be futile and will disappoint countries and regions opposing the trade war, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday. The comments came after the US threatened to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10 per cent to 25 per cent and later spread the news that it wants to restart negotiations with China. The US act set aside the interests of its own farmers, business owners, consumers and the interests of the world, the ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. "Facing such an escalating trade war threat, China has made full preparations and will be forced to take countermeasures in order to defend national dignity, the interests of its people, free trade and the multilateral system, as well as the common interests of all countries," the spokesperson said. He said that China believes in solving differences through dialogue, but that should come with the prerequisite of equal treatment and honouring commitments. The ultimate purpose of the US' baseless accusations against China is to suppress the latter's peaceful development, according to the spokesperson. "We always believe that bad things can be turned into good things and challenges can be converted into opportunities. We have full confidence in achieving the high-quality economic development target," he said. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Paints and coatings maker Akzo Nobel India on Thursday posted a standalone net profit of Rs 43.51 crore, up 5.86 per cent year-on-year, for the quarter ended June 30. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 41.1 crore in the April-June quarter previous fiscal, it said in a BSE filing. According to the filing, the firm's total income from continuing operations stood at Rs 724.83 crore for the quarter ended June 30 while it was Rs 728.61 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. AkzoNobel India Managing Director Jayakumar Krishnaswamy said business continued to progress well during the quarter, despite significant raw material headwinds. "Reduction in GST rate for paints from 28 per cent to 18 per cent is expected to drive demand. Benefits arising from rate reduction are being passed on to the customers," he said in a statement. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged the students of an engineering university to not just get a job but also become a job creator. "I hope that you people will not only get a job but will become a job maker. Each one of you has to create at least 10 jobs," Kejriwal said while addressing the students at the orientation programme of the Delhi Technological University (DTU) here. He also emphasised on the potential of the youth and why they should not just support one political party but critically analyse politics in the country. "Democracy is about people and for that democracy to run, our youth should take interest in politics," Kejriwal said. "Don't join a party but observe, read and understand whose politics is right and whose is wrong. Be critical in your choices," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener said. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who accompanied Kejriwal at the programme, assured the students at DTU that all their education loans or any other education-related financial problems will be taken care of by the government. "If the child is below poverty line (BPL) or even slightly above BPL, the government has arranged a scholarship of 25 to 100 per cent for that student," he said. Sisodia further assured that if a student requires any kind of loan for his/her studies, then the "government will arrange for that too". "You do not worry, the government will guarantee your education. You will get a loan of up to Rs 10 lakh, which you can pay after 15 years of job," he said. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Nayantara Sahgal, who kickstarted the awardwapsi protest in 2015 by returning her Sahitya Akademi award, has welcomed the official statement by Indias National Academy of Letters that condemned threats against writers and, speaking to IANS, said that the centre must "act responsibly" too. "I am very glad to hear the statement from the Sahitya Akademi because their strong support is crucial for writers at this juncture when they are facing so much of trouble. We hope that the Sahitya Akademi gets a positive reply from the Prime Minister too," the 91-year-old Sahgal said. A member of the Nehru-Gandhi family and a constant face in the protest against the alleged intolerance in the country, Sahgal is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1986), Britain's Sinclair Prize for fiction (1985) and the Commonwealth Writers Award (Eurasia/1987). She said that writers and artists are often "alone" in their journey and therefore the role of institutions such as the Sahitya Akademi in "protecting their rights" is of "utmost importance". "If these kinds of threats go on, writers will not be able to write anything. The central government should do so (condemn threats against writers) because they have not. Maybe this is encouraging those who threaten them (writers)," she said. Expressing dismay at the manner in which Goa's award winning writer Damodar Mauzo and Malayalam novelist S. Hareesh have been threatened, the much acclaimed writer of "Rich Like Us" hoped that the writing fraternity would be able to "speak in one voice". "I hope we are able to return to a society where the power of words is respected and writers are able to live and write freely," the veteran writer said. Sahgal is the second of the three daughters born to Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. She was also a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington, from 1981 to 1982. Her last novel "When The Moon Shines By The Day" is a dystopian satire that draws a telling portrait of our times. Imphal, Aug 2 : Amid demands for the last over two months for his ouster, Manipur University Vice Chancellor Prof A.P. Pandey on Thursday went on leave for a month. Manipur University Teachers Association (MUTA), Manipur University Students Union (MUSU) and Manipur University Staffs Association (MUSA) have been demanding his removal on various charges for the last 65 days. Reacting to Pandey's action in going on leave, MUTA General Secretary L. Sanjeevkumar said: "It is a ploy to mislead the people." He said that the university community will continue with its agitation for his removal. Similar sentiments were expressed by MUSA leader K. Jibankumar. He said that the order to grant leave to the VcC does not mention the ongoing inquiry into charges against him. A committee with officials from the Human Resource Development Ministry and University Grants Commission was set up in July to probe the charges against Pandey and was slated to submit its report within a month. Former Minister O. Joy, who had resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party, said that those demanding Pandey's removal will take out a procession here on Friday. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig. (Dr.) B.D. Mishra (Retd.) on Thursday called on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and discussed recruitment of more youth from the frontier states bordering China in the Indian armed forces. During the meeting, the Governor expressed his gratitude to the Defence Minister for addressing the basic needs of the local communities living in the border areas through Army units located in the frontiers. He also conveyed the goodwill of the people of the State for the new Arunachal Scout Battalion. Mishra, who has been spearheading an initiative with the serving armed forces officers of Arunachal Pradesh, called, 'Pay Back to Society Group' (PBSG), informed the minister that under PBSG, the officers will be coming to their home state and visit various schools and colleges to motivate the youth to join the Indian armed forces. Promising the Governor that she would visit Arunachal Pradesh, Sitharaman said she has a close affiliation with Mishmi Tribe. Hyderabad, Aug 2 : A Kuwait-Hyderabad Jazeera Airways flight reported a brief 'tailpipe flare' in the right engine after landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here in the early hours on Thursday, the airline said. Jazeera Airways India spokesperson said the flare was quickly extinguished. All 145 passengers were unharmed and disembarked the aircraft normally. The flight J9 608 from Kuwait to Hyderabad landed at 1.29 a.m. "What took place was what the airline industry commonly refers to as a tailpipe flare. Our pilot immediately followed standard operating procedure by switching off fuel and ignition. All safety procedures were followed, and all passengers disembarked normally." The flight was operated by an Airbus A320ceo single-aisle aircraft. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Public sector undertaking NBCC has bagged a Rs 400 crore project to construct the India Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo 2020. According to the state-run firm, the contract was awarded by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. "The scope of work of the project includes conceptualisation, design and construction of 4,614 square meters India Pavilion and other utilities," the firm said in a statement. "Apart from showcasing India's path breaking programmes like 'Make in India', Smart Cities, 'Digital India', the aim of India Pavilion will also be to showcase India's strength in innovation and start-ups which are pushing the boundaries in high technology areas like artificial intelligence, fin-tech, space and green energy." As per the statement, the immense cultural diversity of India will also be on display at the pavilion. The Dubai World Expo 2020, which will remain open for six months, is expected to have footfalls of more than 10 million visitors from 200 countries. New Delhi, Aug 2 : In all, 1971 children were tracked and recovered in Uttar Pradesh between June 2015 and July 2018 using the facility of "Khoya-Paya" -- a citizen corner of Trackchild, a Union Minister told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The Khoya-Paya portal is a citizen-based website to exchange information on missing and found children. It has been developed jointly by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY). According to Minister of State for WCD Virendra Kumar, over 5,000 children (5427) have been recovered through the portal across the country, to date. Delhi stands second in terms of number of recovered children (360) followed by Karnataka (265). As reported by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 68,874, 60,443 and 63,407 children were reported missing during the year 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively. The Khoya-Paya website is an enabling platform, where citizens can report missing children, as well as any other relevant information about their whereabouts without loss of much time. The "Found" children can also be reported on this portal. The reporting can be done through text, photographs, videos and other means of transmitting and uploading information in the portal. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Noting that the availability of water is going to be a major issue for the country in future, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday urged corporates to provide new technology and management expertise to address the crises in availability of portable water during a CSR event here. According to the minister, by 2035, India will become a $10 trillion economy, the third largest in the world and availability of water is going to be a major issue. "It should be ensured that India, the third largest economy by then, is not water stressed," a statement quoted the minister as saying. Prabhu called for joint efforts by the government and the corporates by pulling all resources such as financial, managerial, policy framework and local resources, to address the critical challenges in sectors of water, education and healthcare. The minister described CSR as an exemplary model in the country for companies "who have realised that their financial success is incomplete without support of the society". He added that CSR is a reality and it makes commercial sense for corporates to invest in society. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Bollywood filmmaker-producer J.P. Dutta, gearing up for the release of his movie 'Paltan', on Thursday said that he does not consider the 1962 India-China war as sich but a "betrayal". "China fought us only in 1962. But if you study that war, you will realise that it wasn't a war. They attacked Indian borders at 5 a.m. and massacred 600 Indian soldiers in two hours. So, it's not a war where you give equal chance to the other person to fight back. Therefore, I don't consider it was war... it was kind of betrayal," Dutta said when asked why Indian filmmakers don't make movies on the India-China war as they do with India-Pakistan wars. Dutta was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of 'Paltan' along with actors Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshwardhan Rane, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Sidhhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Monica Gill, Anu Sonal Chauhan, Dipika Kakar, music composer Anu Malik and producer Nidhi Dutta on Thursday in Mumbai. "It was kind of betrayal because India was the first country to acknowledge the People's Republic of China when Mao Zedong became the Chairman of the Communist Party of China. India was the first country which told the United Nations to make China a part of the world body. "Western countries were not ready to recognise China, but (then Indian Prime Minister) Jawaharlal Nehru made the first move to make China a part of the United Nations." The director-producer said that maybe Nehru did so because he never felt that they will ever do anything wrong to us (India). "But as they say 'life is unfair and the world is unfair'". Dutta, who launched Abhishek Bachchan in Hindi film industry with 'Refugee' (2000) and worked with him again in Umrao Jaan (2006). When Dutta was doing casting for 'Paltan', he again roped in Abhishek to play a soldier, but after reportedly committing for the film, the Bachchan junior opted out. Queried on the issue, a visibly upset Dutta said: "Please go ahead and speak to Bachchan and let me know because even I don't know." Based on the Nathu La military clashes along the Sikkim border in 1967, 'Paltan' showcases an untold story of the Indian forces facing off in an intense battle to ward off Chinese infiltration. With 'Paltan', Dutta is returning to the director's chair after a gap of 12 years -- Umrao Jaan was his last directed film. Dutta is best known for helming war movies like 'Refugee', 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil'. 'Paltan' is set to hit the screens on September 7. Bengaluru, Aug 2 : Karnataka on Thursday launched a pilot project using drones for providing better governance, primarily in agriculture, urban development and police civic operations. "As we are keen to use drone technology for better governance, we will soon have a policy to design and make them (drones) locally so that more can be used in implementing various programmes and schemes for the welfare of the people," said the state's Information Technology and Biotechnology Minister K.J. George on the occasion. The state has provided a grant of Rs 2.5 crore for implementation of the pilot project. A pilot drone project in agriculture will be taken up in Haveri district's Kosaba-Hobli village over a 200 square kilometre area to assess the crop health, yield estimation and crop types suitable. Drone operations over the crop are to be carried out for three months in the ongoing Kharif season. For testing the use of drones in urban development, a project will be taken up in Bantwal town in Dakshina Kannada district in October to prepare a detailed map for systematic and scientific town planning. "Property tax estimation will also be carried in the town through the use of drones," an official statement said. The drone project for police civic operations would be carried out in Bengaluru for three months through real-time crowd monitoring and surveillance, as well vehicular traffic surveillance in the city. Satya Pal Singh takes charge as the Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) in New Delhi on Sept 4, 2017. Image Source: IANS : New Delhi: Satya Pal Singh takes charge as the Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) in New Delhi on Sept 4, 2017. (Photo: IANS/PIB). Image Source: IANS New Delhi, Aug 2 : University Grants Commission (UGC) has added 150 universities in its list in the last three years, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. According to the information provided, most number of universities (19) were set up in Gujarat during 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18. The other states which established most universities were Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Rajasthan with 16, 12, 11, and 10 universities, respectively, in the last three years. During the same period, more than 1,500 colleges were set up across the country the Minister said. "The Colleges are established by State Government/Trust/Registered Societies and Private Management, and are included under Section 2(f) and 12(B) of UGC Act, 1956," read his answer. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Filmmaker J.P. Dutta, who has made several films on India-Pakistan wars, feels that ever-recurring Kashmir issue between both neighbouring countries is like a child of a broken marriage. Dutta was interacting with media at the trailer launch of 'Paltan' along with actors Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshvardhan Rane, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Sidhhant Kapoor, Luv Sinha, Monica Gill, Sonal Chauhan, Dipika Kakar, music composer Anu Malik and producer Nidhi Dutta on Thursday in Mumbai. Asked for a comment on the relations between India and Pakistan, Dutta, who has made films like 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil', said: "They (Pakistan) will not forget Bangladesh and they will always try to take revenge of the 1971 war (where India was instrumental in creating Bangladesh as a separate country which was earlier part of Pakistan)." Dutta said Kashmir is a very emotional issue for both India and Pakistan and both the countries are not ready to keep their egos aside. "I feel Kashmir is like a child of a broken marriage and, therefore, continuously that topic recurs from both sides." Dutta returned to direction with 'Paltan' almost after 12 years when he last directed 'Umrao Jaan', which was released in 2006. "I was born to do this job. For me, happiness lies in making films. When I am not making films, I feel sad," he said. He added "the Almighty has sent him to make films on sacrifice of soldiers for the country". "When you are born, when you come into this world, and when you are growing up, you realize you have been sent by the Almighty to do a certain job and I think I have been sent to make my soldiers immortal," Dutta said. About his experience of directing multiple actors in 'Paltan', Dutta said: "I have earlier made multi-starrer films like 'Border' and 'LOC Kargil'. I have worked with Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra ji and Sunil Dutt saab in my earlier films. I got immense amount of love, support and respect from those actors. So, I truly feel blessed." Produced by Zee Studios and J.P. Films, 'Paltan' is all set to hit screens on September 7. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Fugitive Indian diamond trader Mehul Choksi, wanted by Indian authorities in Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, is in Antigua and Berbuda, CBI sources said on Thursday. "The Antiguan authorities confirmed his presence in Antigua," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) source said. He said the Antiguan authroties' reply came after CBI wrote to them seeking details of Choksi's whereabouts in the fraud case. On July 24, it was revealed that Choksi had moved to Antigua from the US several weeks ago using an Antiguan passport. The revelation came from Antiguan authorities in response to a CBI diffusion notice (a request to Interpol for the arrest of a specific person) circulated to foreign countries through Interpol. The red corner notice (RCN) request from the CBI to the Interpol against Choksi is still pending. On July 11, the ED asked a special court in Mumbai to declare both diamond merchants -- Choksi and Nirav Modi -- as 'fugitives' under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018 because they had fled India a month before they were named in the fraud case on January 31. The ED has been probing two cases of money laundering against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI. In these cases, the ED had on May 24 and May 26 filed prosecution complaints or charge-sheets against Choksi and Nirav Modi. The court has taken cognisance of the charge-sheets and issued non-bailable warrant against both of them. On the request of the ED and the CBI, the Interpol had earlier issued RCN against Nirav Modi. New Delhi, Aug 2 : A man from Haryana was arrested for harassing over 200 women by sending them nude pictures after creating their fake accounts on social networking site facebook, police said on Thursday. Police said Vijay is a resident of Gurugram and was arrested on Tuesday from his residence. "During investigation, it was found that Vijay would create many fake facebook accounts of girls and send them 'friend requests'. He befriended many women and later obtained their photos from their profiles without their consent," Deputy Commissioner of Police Anyesh Roy said. Police said Vijay worked at IGIA as a helper. He later made various fake accounts of girls and men on facebook. Many women accepted his request on the false belief that those accounts belonged to a girl," Roy said. He later stole their photos and sent them a friend request from his account. "When a victim accepted his 'friend request', he would send her vulgar messages. If a woman resisted, he would send a morphed nude picture of hers. He also sent the nudes pics to their friends ," Roy said. "He harassed and threatened them if they did not respond to his vulgar chats," the officer said, adding he admitted he was in touch with more than 200 girls and was harassing them. "A Delhi-based woman had complained to Delhi Police's Cyber Cell last year," The DCP said, adding the investigation was under way. New Delhi, Aug 2 : Days after two eminent journalists of a TV channel quit their jobs, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday alleged the Modi government was behind their resignation and that the Centre was killing independent media in the country. In a tweet, Kejriwal said: "Free media is life-line of democracy. But Modi government is hell-bent to kill independent media. The resignation of two eminent TV journalists from ABP News in two days is another proof. Media should rise now, otherwise it will be too late." Within two days, ABP's editorial head Milind Khandekar and anchor Punya Prasun Bajpai have resigned from the channel and the ABP's flagship show, 'Masterstroke' is taken off. In one of its shows, it had covered Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interaction with a Chhattisgarh woman who claimed her agricultural income had doubled after she switched from paddy to 'sitafal' farming. A report broadcast by Masterstroke later interviewed the same woman, who claimed that officials from Delhi had 'tutored' her before her interaction with the Prime Minister to falsely claim that her income had doubled. As the news spread widely on Twitter, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore slammed the media organisation and questioned its journalistic ethics. Days later, viewers complained that they were facing difficulties in watching the programme because of 'disturbance and blackouts.' Patna, Aug 2 : Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said he would stage a dharna at Jantar Manrar in Delhi on Saturday to protest rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. "Against heinous institutional mass rape in Muzaffarpur... sponsored and protected by Nitish Kumar government, we will stage a dharna on Saturday," Tejashwi tweeted. Earlier on Thursday, Tejashwi questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 'silence' on the rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home. Tejashwi is younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He said Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik has written two letters to Nitish Kumar on the crime, asking him to take strict action against the culprits. "Indirectly the Governor has questioned Chief Minister's criminal silence...I will awake Nitish Kumar's inner voice and expose his fake morality," Tejashwi said. The CBI on Sunday took over the shelter home rape case after a recommendation by the Bihar Chief Minister who described it as "a heinous crime." New Delhi, Aug 2 : Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Thursday said the Narendra Modi government will succeed in getting reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as these are central universities. Replying to a debate on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, which seeks to give constitutional status to the OBC Commission, Gehlot said the Central government is presenting its viewpoint before the court. "We assure that these are central universities and we will succeed in getting reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs)," he said. The Minister said the two universities were declared minority institutions during the rule of Congress governments. Gehlot said the Modi government has taken a bold decision to set up a panel for sub-categorisation of backward classes and will act swiftly on getting the report. "The categorisation will be done actively to undo the injustice done to them." He said the government has set up the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes (NCDNT) and sought comments from states on its report. The Minister said once the process is completed, the government will bring a bill for their empowerment. He said facilities given to weaker sections are being given to them. Gehlot said the government had pursued the matter of promotion for the weaker sections in courts, and the Department of Personnel has already issued relevant orders. Besides, an advisory has also been sent to the states. He also referred to the review petition filed by the government in the Supreme Court over the perceived dilution of SC/ST Act and said that a bill would be brought in the monsoon session itself to restore its original provisions. He said the Modi government had announced that it will work for the poor and it has lived up to its promise. "We have done what we had promised," he added. Hyderabad, Aug 2 : Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will leave for Delhi on Friday to get the Centre's approval for the new zonal system aimed at government employment in the state. "The CM will himself monitor the whole process of obtaining clearance and approval for the zonal system," said a statement from the Chief Minister's office. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, feels that the new zonal system is required to ensure fruits of achieving the statehood reach the local people. "The CM feels that the Telangana youth will get more opportunities because of formation of 31 new districts and implementation of 95% reservations to locals," the statement said. The state government created the new zonal system to enable 95% reservations in all employment opportunities to the locals. The Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Home Affairs have positively responded to the proposal. The state cabinet had approved the new zonal system in May this year. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief had taken up the issue with Modi during a meeting on June 15. Gurugram, Aug 2 : The police on Thursday arrested three persons, including a barber, for forcibly trimming beard of a Muslim man, describing him a 'Pakistani.' The three were identified as Gaurav alias Tedha (a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshehr district), Nitin (Rohtak, Haryana) and Iklas from Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh). Police said the three were arrested under various IPC sections dealing with outraging religious feelings, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation. The accused were on Thursday produced before a district court and sent in judicial custody. The victim, identified as Jaffrudin, along with others had met Gurugram Commissioner of Police KK Rao and alleged that the victim's beard was forcibly cut because he "looked like a Pakistani." "We have arrested the three on the charges of hurting religious feelings," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Sumit Kuhar. New Delhi, Aug 2 : A shooter of the Neeraj Bawana and Naveen Bhanja gang was arrested on Thursday after a brief shootout in south Delhi, apart from three accomplices that included a juvenile elsewhere, police said. Main accused Saddam Hussain, 24, suffered a bullet injury in his leg when he tried to escape after opening fire on a police team near Millennium Park at Sarai Kale Khan. "A trap was laid in the area on a tip-off. When police signalled Saddam, who was riding a two-wheeler, to stop around 6 a.m., he tried to escape after firing at police. He was hit in the leg while policemen were saved by bulletproof jackets they were wearing," Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said. Srivastava identified the other arrested accused as Sunny, 30, who was arrested from Aliganj in Kotla Mubarakpur on Wednesday. Subeg, 26, was arrested from Mussoorie in Uttarakhand. The officer said the gang was in police cross-hairs after two men fired four shots outside Vijay Singh's house in Aliganj on July 25. "The gang also called up Vijay, threatened him and demanded protection money," the officer said. "Technical and human surveillance on suspects was mounted on Vijay's complaint and the arrests made thereafter," he added. Police said a pistol, two cartridges, and a stolen motorcycle were seized from Saddam. The JCP said that the arrests in the case indicated that despite a majority of gang members in jail, they were running their extortion business in Delhi. Meanwhile, a video clipping on the shootout was doing the rounds, wherein Saddam is seen lying unattended in a pool of blood on a footpath for quite some time and police officials present at the spot recording videos instead of taking him to hospital. Mumbai, Aug 2 : Airline major Jet Airways on Thursday said it is in talks with employees and key stakeholders to implement cost reduction measures like pay cuts. According to the airline, the ongoing talks with employees, including pilots, is in line with its stated focus of creating a "healthier and a more resilient business". "Jet Airways has been implementing several measures to help it reduce cost as well as realise higher revenues for desired business efficiencies," the airline said in a statement. "Some of these include sales and distribution, payroll and maintenance, among many others. As part of this approach, the airline management is in dialogue with key stakeholders to enlist their full support and cooperation for realising necessary savings across all parts of the business." The company said that it is committed to create a growth-oriented and sustainable future. Currently, the airline is in the process of adding 225 B737 MAX aircraft which will be inducted into its fleet over the next decade, of which 11 are slated to join within this financial year. Bengaluru, Aug 3 : Turning into a Samaritan, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy helped an estranged Mysuru woman return to the state from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, said an official statement on Thursday. "The 40-year-old ailing woman, traced in a Shimla rehab hospital recently, was brought to Bengaluru on Thursday by a team of state health officials," said the Chief Minister's office in a statement here. The woman, whose identity has been kept confidential for safety and security, met Kumaraswamy at his home-office in the city centre along with the health officials who rescued and escorted her to the city safely. "Kumaraswamy has assured the woman of medical treatment and rehabilitation," noted the statement. When the woman urged the Chief Minister to provide her a house and trace her husband, Kumaraswamy directed Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar to do the needful on priority. Kumaraswamy also thanked his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jai Ram Thakur and his wife Sadhana Thakur, who hails from Karnataka, for helping the state in rescuing the woman. The rescue team comprised Deputy Health Director Rajani, Mysuru District Mental Health Officer Manu Prasad and woman police constable Nageena. "The woman will be sheltered at 'Our Home' run by the Women and Child Welfare Department in the city and send her to mother's place in Mysuru district on recovery," reiterated the statement. Abandoned by husband at Mysuru, about 150 km from here, the woman went missing from the state and reached Kangra in Himachal and subsequently got admitted to a hospital in Shimla for depression. On learning about the woman's plight when he was in New Delhi in mid-July on official work from news channels and media reports, Kumaraswamy directed the officials to rescue her at the earliest. According to reports in the local media, the middle-aged woman, who hails from Makanahalli in Mysuru district, went missing 2 years ago when she came to Bengaluru to work in a garment factory. "The woman, who lost her way and landed at Kangra, was admitted in the state-run Himachal Hospital for Mental Health and Rehabilitation in Shimla for treatment in June 2016," recalled an official statement on July 23. "The woman could not contact her family facing language issues in Himachal and was unable to recall how she reached there," the statement added. The first half of 2018 has seen a major shift in Adelaide's retail environment, according to the latest report from Herron Todd White (HTW). The financial valuers stated that for the first time in 16 years South Australia has a Liberal Government, who have long advocated for extended trading hours. Currently, shops in the Adelaide CBD or tourist precinct are allowed to trade during public holidays and these factors among others may assist brick and mortar retail to compete with the online space. Infrastructure spending has also continued in South Australia following the change of Government, noted the report. The Torrens to Torrens, Darlington Upgrade and Northern Connector, which all form part of the governments North South Corridor are still undergoing construction and are a combined expenditure of $2.3 billion. There has also been the approval of the current construction of a new Bunnings Warehouse on South Road in Edwardstown, creating a 17,008 square metre super store. The $45 million Bunnings outlet will be completed early next year. The report notes that "a part of the infrastructure spending taking place is a planned $174 million upgrade of the Oaklands Crossing (rail/road grade separation), which surrounds the Westfield Marion Shopping Centre". "True to form, the bulk of the retail development is occurring in the Adelaide CBD, which has seen a sharp increase in the amount of residential accommodation under construction." In January, it was announced that the $40 million redevelopment of Rundle Mall Plaza will house the new tenant, H&M, across four storeys, Rundle Plaza was constructed in the 1960s for David Jones. "In respect to Retail growth, the story over the last few years has been heavily weighted toward supermarkets such as Aldi who have opened 23 stores since entering the market in 2015," stated the valuers. The 23rd was a centre at 209 Port Road, Aldinga, anchored by Aldi which was completed in January 2018. There are more on the way with Aldi recently securing another site in Adelaides South East suburb of Blackwood, with the purchase of the Blackwood Village Shopping Centre for $5.5 million. The Westfield Tea Tree Plaza Shopping Centre is also being extended and there are upgrades planned for Westfield Marion, which will take place in 2019. Despite this, research undertaken by numerous outlets is positive and the retail trading environment seems to be improving in South Australia with retail spending being the second highest in the country in February 2018, reaching 3.7% compared to the national average of 2.7%, the report concluded. GUEST OBSERVATION The Great Barrier Reef has experienced extensive coral bleaching over the past two years. Faced with this reality, scientists are proposing a range of options to save the reef. A recent conference showcased new possibilities for enhancing Reef resilience, including boosting coral abundance and geoengineering techniques that would manipulate local conditions to reduce ocean temperatures. These geoengineering approaches carry their own risks, and require careful management, even at the research and field testing stages. Technology is needed to buy the reef time Climate change is affecting the reef through bleaching events, species redistribution, and ocean acidification. Stabilising environmental conditions to protect current reef biodiversity requires that global temperatures stay below 1.2. Yet modelling of the global communitys current commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement suggests that global warming between 2.6-3.2 will occur by 2100. This would destroy the Great Barrier Reef as we know it. Liam Gumley, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison It is not surprising, then, that scientists are looking to buy the reef some time, while the international community works to stabilise and then reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The Commonwealth and Queensland governments have announced funding for feasibility projects aimed at manipulating surface water temperatures using three different techniques: Creating a reflective surface film that would float on the surface of the water. Made from calcium carbonate (the same mineral as coral), the film would reflect sunlight, thereby lowering water temperatures and ultraviolet radiation exposure. Marine cloud brightening to also reflect more sunlight away from the reef. The plan is to spray microscopic salt particles into clouds using customised vessels or modified snow machines. This increases the concentration of droplets in clouds and encourages smaller, more reflective droplets to form. Water-mixing units with large, slow moving fans that will draw cool water from 10-30 metres deep and deliver it to surface areas to limit coral heat stress. In 2017 this proposal received A$2.2 million in Commonwealth funding, to test eight water-mixing units over a 1 kilometre square area of Moore Reef, off the coast of Cairns. Engineering the climate of Australias most iconic natural system carries obvious risks. Indeed, Australia has a history of well-intended attempts to manage nature that have backfired because the risks were not fully understood. We must be confident that such technological interventions will protect the reef, not contribute to its destruction. This is a problem because scientific trials are supposed to identify and assess risks, so we wont fully understand what impacts they have until such trials are undertaken. Governance necessary for public confidence Building public confidence that potential risks have been identified and addressed is essential to the long-term success of reef geoengineering proposals. Even feasibility studies can be derailed if they lack public support. The legitimacy and ultimate acceptability of reef geoengineering technologies therefore demands robust and transparent processes for funding, research, field testing and eventual deployment. Drawing on the Oxford Principles for Geoengineering Governance, the minimum governance standards should include: criteria and clear processes for research funding decisions public access to information about planned field testing demonstrated compliance with Australias environmental laws. Current environmental laws do not make special exemptions for scientific research or testing in areas of national environmental significance, such as the Great Barrier Reef. Any geoengineering trial that might have a significant impact on those areas is illegal without a permit from the Commonwealth Environment Minister. The Minister is guided by the precautionary principle and World Heritage obligations in issuing such permits. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act imposes separate approval requirements and makes protection of the reef the highest priority. This would suggest that the standard for environmental assessment for any proposal to run geoengineering trials on the Reef should be high. It is unclear how the federal environment minister and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority will evaluate whether the risks of field testing are small enough to justify granting their approval. The position is made more uncertain by the fact that the authority is directly involved in at least one of the projects. This uncertainty risks poor environmental outcomes and erosion of public confidence. We need a strong framework for assessing and managing the risks of geoengineering, to address legitimate public concerns. As the stewards of the reef, the Marine Park Authority is ideally placed to take the lead on developing this framework, to ensure we have the best possible chance of saving our most important natural wonder. Kerryn Brent, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania Brendan Gogarty, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Tasmania Jan McDonald, Professor of Environmental Law, University of Tasmania Jeff McGee, Senior Lecturer in Climate Change, Marine and Antarctic Law Faculty of Law and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Main photo: Oregon State University/Flickr, CC BY-SA Join Us at Our Back to School Events! Nothing is more important to a childs bright future than a good education. A proper education can open doors in a childs life that would otherwise go unnoticed. Access to necessary supplies can make all the difference in the quality of a childs schooling. Its almost time for the kids to make their way back to the classroom. Back to school is usually a time of excitement for parents and loathing for kids. However, at Glen Lerner Injury Attorneys we want to give the kids a few more days of fun before they head back to the books. We know the importance of a proper education. And we all know a proper education requires the proper supplies. Back to School Events and Giveaways Glen Lerner Gives Back is excited to announce our support of local youth with our Back to School Events in Illinois! On August 12th, you can join us in Elgin, IL, from 4pm to 7pm at our office located at 239 Dundee Ave, 60120. Then, come see us in Chicago on August 25th, at the Chicagoland Christian Center located at E. 103rd St., 60628. The party starts at 10am and will last until to 2pm. We will be partnering with Chicago Cares to provide backpacks filled with school supplies to community children during both events. But, youll want to show up early as there is a limited supply available. Additional items will be available to give away while supplies last. *Children must be present and accompanied by an adult to participate in giveaways.* Nothing is more important to a childs bright future than a good education. A proper education can open doors in a childs life that would otherwise go unnoticed. Access to necessary supplies can make all the difference in the quality of a childs schooling. We want to do our part to ensure that the future of our community has all the tools they need to achieve their maximum potential and brightest future, says personal injury lawyer Glen Lerner. Join us and take part in our efforts to supply the future. More Info on Glen Lerner For over two decades, Glen Lerner has been a powerhouse in personal injury claims. He and his team know how to put passion into every case they handle. Glen Lerner and his team of personal injury attorneys have become one of the largest personal injury firms in the country, with over 50 attorneys and nearly three hundred employees located in Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hurt outside one of those states? Weve got you covered with an established network of attorneys across the country that are ready to help. When youve been injured due to someone else's negligence, a personal injury attorney can make the difference between whether you receive a fair amount of compensation for your suffering. Our team is also well versed in social security claims, dangerous product lawsuits, and claims for injuries due to dangerous drugs, such as the diabetes drug Invokana. To find additional information, visit glenlerner.com, or call (702) 877-1500. For current updates regarding legal topics and their community involvement and contributions, follow the law firm on Twitter (twitter.com/glenlerner) and like their Facebook page (facebook.com/glenlernerinjuryattorneys). Alan Morelli, an Illinois native who is retired after thirty-seven years of service in the US Coast Guard and currently lives with his wife in Havasu City, Arizona, has completed his book Whats Wrong with Me?: a story affirming that different abilities make people unique- not less than. Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Alan Morellis book is a comforting resource for children with physical, learning, and developmental disabilities. Readers who wish to experience this heartwarming work can purchase Whats Wrong with Me? at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional New York-based full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, shipping, taxes, and the like. Its roster of accomplished authors and publishing professionals allows writers to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. From left, Sara Lapp as Hermia, James Lanier as Lysander, Micheal Lynn as Demetrius, Kelsey Jordan as Helena - photo by Christopher Smith Award-winning theater company Back Alley Productions will present William Shakespeares comedy Midsummer Nights Dream as part of its fifth annual Shakespeare Summer Series, a free public program that performs in outdoor venues across the area. The show runs approximately two hours and 30 minutes. BAP will perform free to the public at the following locations and dates: The Northwest Georgia Amphitheater, 220 Catoosa Circle, Ringgold, on Friday, Aug. 3, and Saturday, Aug. 4, at 8 p.m. The Chatsworth City Park Amphitheater, 400 North Second Ave., Chatsworth, on Aug 11 at 8 p.m. The Coolidge Park Open Air Stage in Coolidge Park, Chattanooga, on Friday, Aug 17, at 8 p.m. The new Burr Amphitheater, 101 South Hamilton Street, Dalton, on Saturday, Aug. 18, at 8 p.m. Weve been performing a traveling Shakespeare show for five years now, said Kaylee Smith, executive director of Back Alley. Its entirely different from our regular lineup. Our traveling troupe performs outside at various parks in August, free to the public, as a way to give back to the community that has shown us so much support and love over the years. Review for A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Midsummer Nights Dream is one of Shakespeares most beloved plays. Lysander (James Lanier) loves Hermia (Sara Lapp). Hermia loves Lysander. Demetrius (Michael Lynn) loves Hermia. Helena (Kelsey Jordan) loves Demetrius. But no one loves Helena poor Helena. These foolish lovers lives get even more outrageous when, lost in the woods on a midsummers eve, the love-sick quartet find themselves in the middle of a fairys feud between Oberon the Fairy King (Alex Drennon) and his Fairy Queen Titania (Maryssa Plant). Armed with a potent love potion,Robin Goodfellow often referred to as Puck (Harlie Davis) causes more chaos than one forest can handle. With magic and mayhem, a donkeys head, and a troupe of rude mechanicals, youll be laughing in agreement with the fairies: what fools these mortals be! Weve done a lot of the tragedies, and last year we switched over to comedy and had a blast getting everyone to laugh with Shakespeare, said Ms. Smith. And usually no matter who you are, you have heard of Midsummer Nights Dream. I think the audience will find that, even if theyre not Shakespeare buffs, that the story is accessible, magical and a lot of fun for everyone. The production will be staged in traditional Elizabethan. While Shakespearean plays usually take time to adjust to because of the language, there is so much physical comedy to the show that it translates into any period, said Ms. Smith. Though the show is free, Back Alley is accepting donations to help support the program. These donations go towards continuing the effort to offer quality Shakespeare free to the public each summer. Donations can be made online at www.BAPshows.com or during the show. Audience members are advised to bring water, snacks, chairs, a blanket for grass venues, bug spray, and umbrellas in case of rain. The show will be performed unless weather conditions are dangerous. Midsummer nights dream is great for families to experience the arts together and provide an all-around fun event, said officials. The show will include a talkback at the end at each venue where the cast will stay after to answer questions and discuss the show. Our annual Shakespeare Summer Series, has become so much of our identity, said Ms. Smith. Weve seen such positive growth over the last five years. Its very rewarding experience for the actors and audience members alike. Making Shakespeare fully accessible to the public comes with a lot of challenges, but once you get on stage and show people the magic of Shakespeare and theatre, you wouldnt have it any other way. Back Alley Productions is housed at the Mars Theater in Lafayette. For a full list of upcoming events, including auditions and performances, visit www.BAPshows.com or call (706) 621-2870. "Todays announcement of updating our brand and logo as ACP is the culmination of months of strategic work to define our future vision, products, and services. We look forward to a bright future as a leading office technology company. All Copy Products, a respected copier dealership and office technology company, is proud to announce the launch of a new corporate name, brand identity, and tagline. The company will now be known as ACP, as reflected in the new logo, accompanied by the tagline Complete Office Technology Solutions The ACP rebranding is part of the organizations strategy to create growth and new opportunities related to document management, workflow software, facilities management, digital signage, interactive displays, and more. Verticomm, the I.T. division of ACP, will now be positioned as the leading solutions provider for services related to cloud solutions, network management, phone systems, and other managed I.T. services. Continued Growth The new branding and logo is a reflection of the evolution and growth that All Copy Products has experienced over the past decade. Under the new ACP banner, the company plans to grow a wide range of technology-focused products and services that are not strictly focused on existing copier technologies. We are excited to rebrand All Copy Products into ACP, a complete office technology company, said Brad Knepper, Owner & CEO of ACP. Over the past decade, All Copy Products experienced tremendous growth and evolved our products and services resulting in a strong reputation for quality and service. As our technology expanded, we moved into new product areas and realized that we have grown far beyond being a copier dealership only. Todays announcement of updating our brand and logo as ACP is the culmination of months of strategic work to define our future vision, products, and services. We look forward to a bright future as a leading office technology company. The new company logo has some similarities to our previous branding while adding the new ACP name and tagline. The combined technology feel and representation will give All Copy Products employees and customers a firm understanding of our future direction and service offerings. The end goal is to grow into one of the largest private office technology solutions providers in the country. As part of ACPs growth, construction is now underway on a new corporate headquarters in downtown Denver. It is expected to be fully operational in the summer of 2019. Teams from ACP and Verticomm will work together in a state-of-the-art work environment, specially designed to support and accommodate a rapidly growing organization. About ACP ACP (formerly All Copy Products), is a complete office technology company based in Denver, CO. ACP offers a wide range of technology products for businesses ranging from copier products, document management services, facilities management, digital signage, interactive displays, managed I.T. services, cloud solutions, and telephony. For more information, visit http://www.allcopyproducts.com/ "With the introduction of A-List, were expanding our offerings to create a unique beauty club experience for all beauty lovers to enjoy, featuring handpicked items, exclusive perks, surprise gifts and more, said Shellie Sullivan, Vice President, Business Development & Field Innovation at Aloette. Aloette Cosmetics, North Americas premier age-defying beauty brand, has announced the launch of Aloette A-Lista membership-based program that offers a unique beauty experience with bi-monthly subscription boxes, exclusive product discounts and offers, and insider news. Valued up to $150, each subscription box is filled with full-sized Aloette products, as well as a surprise gift for just $19.95 US | $22.50 CDN each month. Aloettes community is built on home-based business owners that are really passionate about makeup and skincare products. With the introduction of A-List, were expanding our offerings to create a unique beauty club experience for all beauty lovers to enjoy, featuring handpicked items, exclusive perks, surprise gifts and more, said Shellie Sullivan, Vice President, Business Development & Field Innovation at Aloette. Whether youre an Aloette Beauty Consultant, longtime Aloette customer or simply looking to get your hands on new products, this subscription box is the perfect way to indulge in something you love every other month. The first A-List box features the Little Black Book of Glam, a limited-edition 12-piece eyeshadow palette full of neutral hues and pops of berry tones; the Aloette Pro Tools 5-Piece Brush Set with five essential brushes including a Liquid Foundation Brush, Allover Powder Brush, Precision Blush Brush, Airbush Eyesilk Brush and Precision Liner Brush; and Look Alive Eye Base, a dual-functioning eyeshadow base and brightening powder. The inaugural box is in partnership with Luca + Danni, a U.S.-based jewelry brand with timeless, handcrafted pieces. A-List members will receive a unique piece from the Luca + Danni collection. In addition to the bi-monthly beauty box, all A-Listers receive a 15% discount on all full-priced items on the Aloette website, exclusive support from an Aloette Beauty Consultant, plus much more. While A-List boxes feature some of our must-have products, the real point of difference is our partnership with other like-minded brands that have an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for womens empowerment, said Sullivan. Aloettes A-List program has a Get to Give message, as each purchase of an A-List box supports programs that help women around the globe through Heifer International. This organization works directly with communities to generate income, empower women, care for the Earth and ultimately end world hunger and poverty. Money raised from Aloette A-List will aid in their initiatives from training people in sustainable farming to helping women develop leadership skills. A-List boxes are now available in select regions. Interested customers can check area availability by visiting http://www.aloette.com/a-list.asp. August boxes are available to order through August 27th, while supplies last. ABOUT ALOETTE COSMETICS Aloette is America's premier age-defying beauty brand, providing women of all ages and origins with the highest quality skincare and cosmetic products available, as well as the most rewarding home-based business opportunities in the health and beauty industry. Incorporating cutting-edge cosmetic ingredients and technology, Aloette offers an array of innovative makeup and skin solution lines designed to deliver superior results. Aloette Cosmetics is an Astral Brands company. For more information, visit https://www.aloette.com/index.asp. ABOUT LUCA + DANNI Luca + Danni is an American-made jewelry designer and manufacturer headquartered in Rhode Island. The signature top of the wrist bracelets are among a variety of handcrafted pieces quickly becoming sought after across the country. CEO, Fred Magnanimi, left a career on Wall Street to reconnect with his roots at his familys Rhode Island-based jewelry manufacturing business. In 2013, Freds younger brother, Danny, lost a difficult battle with cancer. Dannys dream was to create a unique line of handcrafted, American-made jewelry that inspired others through the journey of life. With Fred at the helm, fueled by Dannys passion and a burning desire to carry forth his vision, Luca + Danni was born. Named after Freds two young children, Luca + Danni believes that through love, inspiration, and passion, we should all boldly embrace the journey of life. Luca + Danni is sold in more than 800 retailers and online at http://www.lucadanni.com ABOUT HEIFER INTERNATIONAL Heifers mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 25 countries, including the United States, to help communities become more self-reliant and lift farming families to a living income. For information, visit Heifer.org, read our blog, follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @Heifer and @HeiferCEO or call 888.5HUNGER (888.548.6437). Bass Boat on Lake Champlain 2018 brings the largest B.A.S.S. field to ever fish Lake Champlain with over 400 anglers from 39 different states and countries, which is not only an impressive number, but a true testament to the fishery. The Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, a division of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, along with the City of Plattsburgh welcomes the Bassmaster Eastern Open back to Lake Champlain Thursday, August 2 Saturday, August 4. The competition heats up at 2:00pm each day as anglers weigh-in their catch at the Plattsburgh City Marina in hopes of taking home a chunk of the $290,000 payout that is on the line. 2018 brings the largest B.A.S.S. field to ever fish Lake Champlain with over 400 anglers from 39 different states and countries, which is not only an impressive number, but a true testament to the fishery. This is literally my favorite place in the world, says Sam George, a professional angler from Alabama with a history on Lake Champlain. You see more people from around the country do well here because it has a little bit of everything. It has grass, rock, offshore fishing, shallow fishing, boat docks. Whatever you like to do, you can find it here. Three local anglers will also be participating in the upcoming Bassmaster Eastern Open. Anglers Ryan Latinville and Brett Carnright, as well as co-angler Alec Morrsion will be taking to their home lake each day to reel in the big one. So grab your foam fingers and come on down to catch the excitement August 2-4 at the Plattsburgh City Marina! Helping Heroes, Inc. As with most professional bass fishing organizations, Bassmaster likes to give back to the communities they visit. This year, the Helping Heroes foundation is joining Bassmaster and saying thank you to two of our local responders that recently saved a life by providing help and comfort to someone who was in a negative mental state. By making sound decisions and acting quickly and professionally, Officer Tucker and Officer Kasprzak were able to prevent a potentially tragic event. Their actions are highly commendable, states Chief Levi Ritter of the Plattsburgh Police Department. Officers Richie Tucker and Nate Kasprzak from the Plattsburgh Police Department will each be given some professional fishing gear to use out on Lake Champlain! Thank you to all first responders for the work that you do to keep our community a better one! Finishing up 2018 Bass fishing season on the #adkcoast continues with the following event: August 18: Ram Open Series Each year, the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau proudly partners with The City of Plattsburgh to host professional bass fishing tournaments on Lake Champlain, named one of the top 25 best bass fishing lakes in the Northeast by Bassmaster Magazine. Attracting roughly 2,000 anglers from around the globe annually and having an approximate $3.2 million economic impact on the region, the Adirondack Coast offers world-class fishing and that down-to-earth Adirondack hospitality visitors crave. Interested in learning more about any of these upcoming fishing tournaments sponsored by the Adirondack Coast Visitors Bureau, the City of Plattsburgh, Eagle Country 97.5 and the Press Republican? Visit goadirondack.com/bass. It is exciting to increase employment opportunities and develop our workforce to provide quality care for our patients while giving them a career pathway in healthcare. Career Step, an online provider of career-focused education and professional training, has partnered with Grace Health to provide online training to employees who would like to become medical assistants. We are very pleased to bring our Medical Assistant program to Grace Health to provide quality training for their employees, said Glade Tidwell, Career Step vice president of academic partnerships. This opportunity to train as a medical assistant will allow those who enroll to advance their career and move toward a more secure future. Career Step has established relationships with healthcare systems across the country, including Parallon HCA (Hospital Corporation of America), the University of Utah and Mercy Health. Grace Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center located in Battle Creek, Michigan, is Career Steps newest partner. This Medical Assistant program will give our employees the knowledge, skills and hands-on experience to prepare them to sit for the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) national certification exam, said Peter Chang, M.D., Grace Health president and CEO. It is exciting to increase employment opportunities and develop our workforce to provide quality care for our patients while giving them a career pathway in healthcare. Career Step has provided industry-leading career training in the healthcare industry for over 25 years. For more information about Career Steps Medical Assistant or other healthcare training programs, or to learn more about its partnership program, please call 877-255-7151. About Career Step Career Step is an online provider of career-focused education and professional training. The company has trained over 100,000 students for new careers as well as more than 100,000 healthcare professionals through its various continuing education courses. More than 150 colleges and universities nationwide have partnered with Career Step, and the company provides training for several of the largest and most respected healthcare employers in the nation. Career Step is committed to helping students and practicing healthcare professionals alike gain the skills they need to be successful in the workplaceimproving lives, advancing careers and driving business results through education. More information can be found at http://www.careerstep.com or 1-800-246-7837. Forty percent of our nation's food supply is wasted and we must confront this issue at farms, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, and every step in between. The Iowa Waste Reduction Center (IWRC) at the University of Northern Iowa has announced that Congressman David Young, who represents the 3rd District of Iowa, will be the opening keynote for the 2018 Midwest Food Recovery Summit. The congressman will be highlighting strategies to address food waste. Earlier this year, Representative Young was part of the team that launched the bipartisan House Food Waste Caucus to focus on reducing food waste reduction and recovery. Here at the IWRC, we were excited to have someone in the Midwest at Congressman Youngs level be involved in the discussion nationally and are looking forward to having him share his insight with everyone at the Midwest Food Recovery Summit, says Dan Nickey, Interim Director at the IWRC. Along with launching the caucus in April, Representative Young was also involved in the food waste round table discussion held by Agriculture Secretary Perdue in May 2018. In a press release from the congressman, he says, "Today's discussion was the next step in working to stop food loss and waste at every step in the food chain. Forty percent of our nation's food supply is wasted and we must confront this issue at farms, grocery stores, restaurants, schools, and every step in between. I don't just want something to do, I want to do something which will create a meaningful change which reduces food waste and combats hunger." The congressman's opening keynote address will take place on September 11, 2018, in Des Moines, IA. The Midwest Food Recovery Summit will occur on September 11-13. For more information, visit mwfoodsummit.com. Sensato Cybersecurity Solution Provider Webinar to Include Full Attack Details, Indicators of Compromise Top 500 healthcare and critical infrastructure cybersecurity solution provider Sensato Cybersecurity, co-founder of the Medical Device Cybersecurity Task Force, will provide a threat intelligence briefing Tuesday, Aug. 7 at 3 p.m. Eastern about a new Russian cyberattack on critical U.S. infrastructure organizations. To attend, email info(at)sensato.co for further details. Attendance is limited to those who have a critical need to understand and apply the information presented in this briefing. Cybersecurity experts at Sensato have been briefed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and have conducted their own investigation of the threat. They will share their findings during the webinar, along with security recommendations and indicators of compromise related to this attack. Weve known for a long time that critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattack, and weve already seen evidence of breaches in the energy sector as well as the Orangeworm and SamSam infiltrations of the healthcare sector, says Sensato CEO John Gomez. Whats new and disconcerting here is that, while we dont know the end game of this attack, we do know that this type of organized effort to catalogue systems and assets is usually conducted before a military action. Briefing Background: This attack uses the supply chain as the attack vector (partners, business associates, vendors, etc.), meaning that businesses outside of critical infrastructure are also at risk. The attackers have employed social engineering, open source intelligence, phishing, and core system services to bypass traditional security controls and systems, instead of relying on known vulnerabilities. This makes defending against this attack difficult and yields strong returns for the actors. The rationale for the attack is believed to be intelligence gathering. Victims of the attack have not reported exfiltration of data or impact to the normal operation of their systems, to date. The attack employs an APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) approach, which means that attackers may be operating in systems for an extended period of time without detection. Russian actors have successfully breached several hundred U.S-based public and private firms in the critical infrastructure sector (as defined by the DHS) over the past year, possibly longer. Its not time to panic, but its important for all organizations, especially those that supply healthcare, energy, aviation, and other critical infrastructure entities to be aware of this attack and take the proper precautions, says Gomez. No organization is too small to be a target for this attack, since the attackers are using trusted suppliers and business partners to gain entry to the true targets in critical infrastructure. Recommendations and Indicators of Compromise: Because the attackers are using the supply chain, business partners, and vendors to gain entry to the targeted organizations in critical infrastructure, all organizations should conduct thorough risk assessment. The briefing will review all indicators of compromise and best practices every organization should be following. About Sensato: Sensato is top-500 cybersecurity innovator located in Red Bank, New Jersey. Founded in 2013, Sensato provides risk assessment, penetration testing, security operations, executive guidance, and software. CEO and founder John Gomez is an internationally-known cybersecurity expert, author, and speaker. Sensatos programs, systems, services, training, and intelligence gathering are the product of designing the highest level of security for those who provide critical services that impact human health and safety: healthcare, medical, pharmacological, and related organizations; law enforcement, fire, and emergency services; clean water, power, and heat providers. Visit http://www.sensato.co. "Dominion VUE is built with years of DMS experience, using modern tools that I believe will result in a very intuitive, easy-to-use interface for our employees. The automotive business is complicated. We need a simple solution." said Joe Munson, CFO of Hubler Automotive Group. Dominion VUE, the new-to-market DMS, offers a suite of built-in communication features that will allow dealers to work more efficiently and in alignment with todays consumer expectations. "Dominion VUE is built with years of DMS experience, using modern tools that I believe will result in a very intuitive, easy-to-use interface for our employees. The automotive business is complicated. We need a simple solution," said Joe Munson, CFO of Hubler Automotive Group. The first of its kind, Dominion VUE is the only DMS in the industry that features compliant texting capabilities, employee messaging capabilities, mobile pay and exception to policy alerts, all of which are built directly into the DMS. Powered by UpdatePromises communication and payment tools, VUE offers dealers and their customers a single user interface to increase usage and satisfaction of both. Dominion VUEs compliant texting capabilities ensure that dealers never communicate with a customer who has opted out of mobile-based communication. Automatic texting allows service advisors to communicate the status of each vehicle on the go from the advisors mobile tablet. By giving advisors the ability to securely text from the DMS, customers can be contacted and informed more quickly, resulting in faster approvals and repairs. Communication history is stored within the customers profile and the RO as you would expect. The mobile pay feature allows customers to conveniently pay for their repairs via their mobile app. This process expedites pick-up either onsite or via concierge-style delivery. With Dominion VUE, dealers have the ability to send internal messages to one another, allowing for an easy way to communicate to large groups or individuals without leaving the DMS. Users have the ability to attach reports, Excel documents, company newsletters and much more to manage day-to-day business. Users in a management role have the ability to set up system-generated alerts based on selected criteria. These alerts allow users to stay knowledgeable about any exceptions to policy such as purchase order approvals, financing, and new appointments. Users can quickly and seamlessly solve problems and keep their teams moving forward. These built-in communications features are a major win for a dealer's CSI by increasing system utilization through ease of use and more clearly defined processes. Service advisors and technicians can, or will, get more done in the DMS than ever before, says Van Koppersmith, president of Dominion VUE DMS. Dominion VUE is completing beta roll out with a few multi store groups with a timed roll out to dealers in the U.S. through 2018 and 2019. For more information, please visit http://www.transformyourvue.com to schedule a presentation. About Dominion Dealer Solutions Dominion Dealer Solutions improves dealers lives by developing advanced technologies including: reputation and social media management, responsive websites, digital advertising, SEO, SEM, multi-channel marketing, and custom market reports. Coupled with award-winning lead management, inventory merchandising, equity mining, customer relationship (CRM) and dealer management (DMS) solutions, Dominion redefines automotive retail by delivering first-class customer experiences for todays automotive dealerships. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, every OEM and more than 10,000 U.S. dealers depend on Dominions foundation of innovation, integrity, excellence and teamwork to provide them with results at every turn. For more information, visit our website, like us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Youtube, or follow us on Twitter. About Dominion Dominion Enterprises (DE) is a leading digital marketing and software services company offering client solutions across multiple business verticals. DE customers rely on our B2B cloud SaaS solutions to establish their online and mobile brands, generate leads, and manage customer relationships through our Homes.com, Dominion Dealer Solutions, Dominion Business Solutions / DX1, Travel Media and Franchise and Business Opportunity divisions. DEs B2C web and mobile applications include Homes.com, HotelCoupons.com, FranchiseOpportunities.com, FranchiseGator.com, Franchise.com, and BusinessBroker.net. DE has approximately 2,000 employees who reside and work in their Norfolk, VA home office and in offices across the U.S. Employees will tell you about a collaborative, innovative, team-oriented work environment, excellent career enrichment opportunities, community service opportunities, competitive earnings, and a comprehensive benefits package that includes a generous 401(k). DE is an equal opportunity employer and supports a diverse workforce. DE is a drug-testing employer. We applaud Almis legendary dedication to customers, security, and service quality. eMazzanti Technologies, a New York City area IT consultant and managed services provider, today announced the creation of a dedicated IT security practice. In an internal reorganization, the company has assembled a highly skilled cyber-security team of experienced professionals. The firm also promoted Almi Dumi to the position of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to lead the cyber-security practice and direct the team. According to sources within the company, the creation of the now operational cyber-security team and practice is a strategic move intended to meet increasing market demand for cyber-security services and to enhance the level of IT security afforded the IT firms numerous U.S. and international clients. The appointment of Almi Dumi as CISO to lead eMazzantis security practice demonstrates eMazzantis commitment to combat increasing cyber-security threats with best-in-the-world leadership, training and service-delivery excellence, stated Jennifer Mazzanti, CEO, eMazzanti Technologies. We applaud Almis legendary dedication to customers, security, and service quality. Cyber-Security Team a Logical Step The organization of a discrete cyber-security team at eMazzanti is a logical step in the evolution of eMazzantis IT services business. As cyber-security threats continue to increase, and many cyber-criminals go largely unchecked, improving the companys cyber-security posture makes sense to company insiders and is welcome news to customers. In similar moves, the company has also recently stepped up strategic partnerships to acquire new and strengthen existing cyber-security services. In a brief interview, Mr. Dumi pointed out that, considering todays cyber-security landscape, a dedicated cyber-security team with specialized skills is an excellent way to meet customers needs and exceed expectations. He said that the team aims to keep clients always up to date with advanced security technology and controls. He plans to implement additional eMazzantis cyber-security services such as: Dark Web and intellectual property (IP) protection, among others. Effective cyber-security is essential to business survival and efficiency, stated Dumi. Our goal is to provide the highest quality cyber-security technology, services and actionable information to protect our customers valuable business assets. Almi Dumi Background Almi Dumi has been with eMazzanti Technologies for 11 years, previously serving as Senior Network Architect and Team Lead. He currently holds numerous professional certifications, including ITIL IT Service Management, Qualys Guard Certified Specialist, PCI-QIR, WatchGuard Certified System Professional, Lean Six Sigma, Effective Leadership and several Microsoft Professional certifications. Prior to joining eMazzanti, he studied at Drexel University and attended the DPT Business School. He currently serves as a volunteer for the Hoboken Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and is a firefighter for the Little Ferry Hook & Ladder Co. #1. In addition to his deep technical knowledge, he speaks Albanian, Greek, Italian and English fluently. 24/7 Cyber Security eMazzanti urges business leaders to keep their most sensitive data safe with expert consultation, management, and crisis control from eMazzanti Technologies. Its expert cyber-security team ensures that all security software is comprehensive and up-to-date, emails are protected, and data encrypted while monitoring critical business networks round the clock for suspicious activity. Related resource information: 3 Ways to Protect Your Wallet from Cryptojacking Zacinlo: The Cyber Menace Slipping Through Windows About eMazzanti Technologies eMazzantis team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver retail and payment technology, digital marketing services, cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring and support to increase productivity, data security and revenue growth for clients ranging from law firms to high-end global retailers. eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list eight years running, is a 2015, 2013 and 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year, 2016 NJ Business of the Year, 5X WatchGuard Partner of the Year and one of the TOP 200 U.S. Microsoft Partners! Contact: 1-866-362-9926, info@emazzanti.net or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies. If you have wild dreams or a vivid imagination to make something beautiful, hypnotic, entrancing, sensuous, or delicious, you can do it here in Las Vegas. That type of energy and creativity is reflective of the EPURI brand," says Maziar Modares, Managing Director, EPURI Energy EPURI Energy, an energy drink celebrating the creativity, imagination, expression, and passion of those with the artistic spirit everywhere, is hosting its global launch event at Drais Beach Nightclub at the Cromwell Hotel in Las Vegas at 10:00 p.m. on August 1st, 2018. Our event is much more than a party; its a celebration of talent, culture, and artistry that will touch every one of your senses, says Maziar Modares, Managing Director, EPURI Energy. We have incredible DJs, including one of the worlds biggest names, a runway show featuring a celebrated red carpet designer, experiential acts that will dazzle the eyes and mind, as well as culinary creations and sophisticated EPURI cocktails from some of the hottest Las Vegas chefs and mixologists to tantalize your taste buds. EPURI chose Las Vegas for its initial launch because of the city's culture, glamour, and unique ability to offer visitors from all over the world a chance to experience the unimaginable. Las Vegas is a thriving center of expression for artists and creators of all genres and mediums, says Modares. If you have wild dreams or a vivid imagination to make something beautiful, hypnotic, entrancing, sensuous, or delicious, you can do it here in Las Vegas. That type of energy and creativity is reflective of the EPURI brand." Other launch parties will take place over the next 12 months include Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Ibiza, and Dubai. EPURI Energys initial launch includes three flavors: PURE: Possessing a sensuous and smooth taste that compliments your cocktail without overpowering it, Pure features a subtle sweetness, with floral notes, and a seductive hint of vanilla. This is EPURI. CRANBERRY: Made with real cranberry juice, this tart and tangy drink positively encourages experimentation. Serve it straight on ice, as a fruity base for a wide range of cocktails, or mixed with prosecco to produce a refreshing result of energetic effervescence. COLA: A cocktail companion with a rich history dating back to the Cuba Libre and the turn of the 20th century, the Cola flavor remains a popular option for clubgoers or sophisticated connoisseurs of spirits who like a milder mixture. With minimal carbonation, you enjoy the flavor without all the fizz. Additional flavors will soon be available. EPURI is primarily offered in nightclubs and lounges, with limited in-store purchasing ability. Enthusiasts of the energy drink can purchase the 4, 6, and 12 packs through the brands online shop. Contact: Media Inquiries: Katie Wagner KWSM Phone: (949) 436-5173 Email: Katie@KatieWagnerSocialMedia.com Sales and Retail Inquires: Chris Shifflet EPURI Energy Phone: (714) 420-1998 Email: Shifflet.Chris@EPURI-energy.us About EPURI: Like many of todays artists, EPURI started underground. Today, EPURI aims to be the choice energy drink among creators and collaborators and to live on the cutting edge of our culture. Like art, music, and fashion, EPURI aspires to expand minds, push boundaries, and help deliver an unparalleled experience in everything you do. EPURI can be the driver of your defining artistic moment, encouraging you to enjoy your own freedom, and providing you with an excuse to let your imagination to run wild. LGBT Tech staff and guests video chat with TCC staff and clients during Tuesday's launch event. Knowing that I will have access to technology at TCC motivates me to stay in school because I know I will have a place to get my work done. PowerOn and LGBT Tech have made it possible for me and other LGBT youth to achieve greatness.-Emmett Burns On Tuesday afternoon, Triangle Community Center launched its partnership with PowerOn, the national program to put life-saving technology into the hands of Americas housing-insecure and at-risk LBGTQ youth. The PowerOn program strives to meet LGBTQ individuals where they are by working nationally to upcycle lightly used donated technology from individuals and companies, explained Christopher Wood, Executive Director of the LGBT Technology Institute, one of three organizations that operates PowerOn. Beginning with a certified wipe of all devices, we offer a complete refurbishment and distribution of life-saving technology to homeless and housing-insecure LGBTQ youth through a network of partner LGBTQ community centers and homeless shelters such as Triangle Community Center. Each night, as many as 1.6 million children and teens sleep on Americas streets. Over 40 percent of these homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, which is equivalent to the population of our nations capital, or about 650,000 people. In the 2018 Youth Point in Time Count conducted by the CT Coalition to End Homelessness found that on average there are more than 5000 housing insecure young adults in Connecticut on any given night. One-quarter of the state's population lives in Fairfield County. Triangle Community Center serves over 300 individuals who utilize its programs and services on a regular basis as well as over 5000 members of the Fairfield County community who attend a TCC program or event at least once a year. Technology is important because LGBT youth are at a higher risk for things like dropping out of school, suicide, and homelessness, and having technological resources can help us reach out for help. Having access to computers and phones means that we can apply for jobs, apply to schools, stay in touch with our support network, and so much more, said Emmett Burns, a client of TCC. Technology can help us succeed and thrive, and it very well may save someone's life. Knowing that I will have access to technology at TCC motivates me to stay in school because I know I will have a place to get my work done. PowerOn and LGBT Tech have made it possible for me and other LGBT youth to achieve greatness. The PowerOn program provided five computers for the youth drop-in center, 14 cell phones, and a printer to launch the partnership. These devices will allow youth to complete schoolwork, apply for jobs, find housing, and explore interests like graphic design and coding, which will complement the Centers existing programs. The cell phone program is so important because a lot of our youth and young adults dont have access to phones, said Claude Louis, Program Coordinator for TCC. I had a trans young adult who was homeless, living in a park who I couldnt find because he didnt have a cell phone. With a cell phone I can get in contact with him, make sure that hes safe, and I can get him somewhere safe and make sure hes successful. The expansion of Triangle Community Centers drop-in center and programs is thanks in large part to the support of Circle Care Center in Norwalk and the Young Adult Services Program at the CT State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services in addition to office furniture from SPI Marketing in New York City, and support of the PowerOn program through the Verizon Foundation and Comcast Foundation. With the launch of Triangle Community Center, PowerOn partners are now serving LGBTQ youth in ten different cities across the country. PowerOn hopes to add seven more centers to the program by this time next year, bringing the national total to 17 partner centers. For more information about PowerOn, or to donate your old technology, please visit http://www.poweronlgbt.org. Founder, Pete Mora While we had a certain sentimental attachment to our very first restaurant, werecelebrating a momentous day in our brands history as we open this beautiful newlocation, said Mora. Im so proud of my entire team for all their hard work over thelast ten years... Dont panic if you notice the original Fajita Petes store is closed. You can still get Houstons favorite fajitas at a brand-new, bigger and better location just around the corner! Fajita Petes Founder, Pete Mora, unveiled the new restaurant today, located at 6719 Weslayan St. in Houston, on the opposite side of Whole Foods from the previous, original store that first opened in 2008. While we had a certain sentimental attachment to our very first restaurant, were celebrating a momentous day in our brands history as we open this beautiful new location, said Mora. Im so proud of my entire team for all their hard work over the last ten years, and Im so grateful to our loyal customers who have helped us expand not only here at our original location but across Houston and even to Dallas. We take great pride in preparing the best fajitas in the business and we look forward to sharing them with even more fajita lovers in the years ahead. The new restaurant measuring 1,650 square feet compared to the original stores 1,200 features a more spacious dining area that matches the look and feel of the brands newer locations, such as Tomball and Katy. Mora also noted that the bigger footprint allows us to get your food from our kitchen to your table in a more efficient manner, reducing your wait time for your meal. Best known for its fresh, made-from-scratch fajitas and thirst-quenching Margaritas TO-GO, Fajita Petes is distinguished by its focus on catering, pickup and delivery, in addition to serving its dine-in guests. The rapidly growing brand now has ten locations across Texas. Next to open will be Fajita Petes Firethorn, located in the suburban neighborhood of Katy, just beyond Houstons west side. Another restaurant in Midtown (Houston) is set to open later this year. Passionate franchisees are the driving force behind Fajita Petes continued expansion. The Fajita Petes Franchise Program offers a unique business model, including assistance with site selection, lease negotiations, restaurant design, construction, training and operations, as well as quality control and ongoing support through mentorship and marketing. To inquire about a franchise, please visit fajitapetes.com/franchises/. For a complete menu and list of current locations, visit fajitapetes.com/locations/. Fides has a strong product base, having received several awards for multi-banking solutions within the past years. Thomas will continue to increase the value of our products and help Fides market position through customer-centric innovations. - Roman Muller, Fides COO Fides Treasury Services Ltd., the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and communications, has announced the hire of Thomas Berndt as senior product manager. Berndt brings 25 years of banking expertise to the role, spanning both global banks and core banking software providers. His wide range of industry experience includes sales, project management and business analysis as well as product management. Most recently, Berndt was senior product manager for payments at finnova AG Bankware, where he was responsible for the companys product strategy for payments and business banking. We are pleased to have Thomas onboard to lead product strategy, said Roman Muller, Fides COO. Fides has a strong product base, having received several awards for multi-banking solutions within the past years. Thomas will continue to increase the value of our products and help Fides market position through customer-centric innovations. Berndt will drive the vision and strategy for the industry-leading Fides multi-banking product portfolio, continuing to deliver unique value based around market needs. Last October, Fides released the Web-based version of its electronic file transfer product, Fides EFT. Since that time, the company has continued to refine and enhance both Fides EFT and its account reporting system, Fides ARS. I am excited to be part of the Fides team, said Berndt. It is important to me to work for an organization that cares about the needs of its customers as well as delivering innovative, market-leading payments and messaging solutions and I look forward to contributing to the success of the company by leading the product direction. Fides will be showcasing its award-winning innovative products and solutions, along with content from industry leaders and customers, at its annual Fides Conference which will be held on August 24, 2018. ABOUT FIDES Fides is the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and transaction communications. With the industrys largest bank connectivity network, Fides helps over 3,000 active clients communicate with more than 10,000 banks globally. Our geographic reach spans 170 countries across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. Committed to helping corporations optimally connect and interact with their banks for over a century, Fides solutions deliver critical multi-bank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities that allow treasury and finance teams to easily, accurately and securely communicate with their banks through any possible channel such as SWIFT, EBICS, SFTP or any alternative network. Press Contact: Please email marketing@fides.ch for all press inquiries First Choice Health is pleased to welcome Ron Cornell as the director of product innovation and James Cassel as the director of Oregon sales. Announced today, these positions follow the recent appointment of Jaja Okigwe as the companys new president and CEO. Both directors join First Choice Health with an array of departmental expertise and were strategically hired to drive forward Okigwes vision for innovation at the company. Ron Cornell: 20 Years of Cutting Edge Product Innovation With more than 20 years of experience leading initiatives in product research, design, testing and development for various healthcare markets, Cornell has the proven ability to influence, engage and work directly with C-suite customers from government, managed care, pharmaceutical and technology sectors. Cornell has a knack for understanding what customers want and quickly developing products that will delight them, said Okigwe. He is really good at engaging organizations and working with teams to reach new heights of performance. Hes a strategic thinker and is well connected to the health innovation eco-system. I am confident hell bring a tremendous value to all aspects of our product development apparatus. Cornell graduated from Northwestern University in 1996 and received his MBA from the University of Washington in 2013. He served as a strategy and marketing consultant for numerous healthcare startups in New York City before transitioning to Premera Blue Cross, where he started in 2013 as a senior manager in marketing and worked closely with the employer strategy team to launch consumer-directed health plan solutions. In 2015, he was promoted to lead consultant for innovation and strategic development where he focused on delivering one of the first conversational UI platforms for the health insurance industry as well as a provider scheduling platform in Alaska. Im always exploring new ways to solve existing problems with innovative, out-of-the-box concepts and ideas, said Cornell. Im eager to create unforeseen opportunities for the customers, employers and providers of First Choice Health in the coming months. I decided to join forces with First Choice Health because of the tremendous opportunity that exists here. James Cassel: An Expert in Strategic Sales and Market Development Cassel joins First Choice Health as the director of Oregon sales with more than 14 years of experience in strategic sales and market development. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2001 and received his masters in computer information systems from the University of Phoenix in 2004. Before transitioning to First Choice Health, he served as the lead account executive in sales at Providence Health Plan, where he developed an enhanced reporting process that saved close to 1,000 payroll hours during the highest volume period in company history. Cassel is well known in the Oregon market and extremely knowledgeable about employee benefits, said Curtis Taylor, chief marketing officer at First Choice Health. He is particularly attuned to new business opportunities and has the creativity to help us develop ways to address those opportunities. As I have progressed through my career, Ive always focused on making contributions to the success of the organization beyond my role description, Cassel said. At First Choice Health, Ill have the creative freedom to test and iterate my sales strategy within a unique, evolving work structure, driving progress and getting results. Uniquely positioned to meet the growing need for better products and services in an ever-changing healthcare landscape, First Choice Health continues to develop tailor-made solutions for its clients. Guided by Okigwes vision for the companys future with an emphasis on innovation, Cornell and Cassel will be integral in ushering in an era of change that will lead to strategic, long-term growth. My focus is on developing new creative products and services that respond to our customers evolving needs, said Okigwe. Cornell and Cassel bring an exceptional and diverse set of skills to First Choice Health and I am excited to have them join our team. They represent our immediate goal of driving growth by creating value for our current and future customers. About First Choice Health First Choice Health, headquartered in Seattle, Wash., is a dynamic leader in the Northwest health services community. Originating as a PPO Network in 1985, First Choice eventually grew to serve all of Washington and the Northwestern U.S., including Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and select areas of North Dakota and South Dakota. As part of that growth, First Choice began offering third party administration, medical management and employee assistance program services. Today, First Choice has approx. 560,000 members utilizing its PPO network. The organization supports more than 80,000 lives with its third-party administration services. As a hospital and physician-owned provider who services the medium to large group regional market, First Choice continues to be well positioned to adapt to the changing healthcare landscape. With a flexible systems architecture, First Choice develops custom solutions and integrated services tailored to meet the needs of all clients. For more information, visit First Choice online at http://www.fchn.com. On July 28, representatives from EarQ, a network of independent hearing healthcare providers, provided services in Bourbonnais, Illinois, for students in need. This took place at the Bears Care Back to School Health Fair, a collaborative effort by organizations passionate about making a difference for the students of Kankakee and Iroquois counties as they face a new school year. This was the sixth consecutive year representatives from EarQ attended this health fair sponsored by Catholic Charities and Bears Care. At the event, children and their families can receive services such as hearing and dental care, school physicals, nutritional information, child development education, financial support, school supplies, haircuts, and more. The EarQ team, including representatives from Loyola University Medical Center, The Hearing Rehabilitation Center, and North Shore Audio Vestibular Lab provided free hearing screenings, free cleanings, and hearing health education to attendees. Over the years, EarQ and its representatives have had the opportunity to work with thousands of children and their family members through this event. It is rewarding to be able to make a difference, says Andrew Hebert, Senior VP of EarQ. "Hearing loss is becoming a more prevalent issue for children and teens, and events such as the Back-to-School Health Fair allow EarQ to educate this generation on the importance of their hearing health. For more information on EarQs services, please contact 866-432-7500 or info(at)earq(dot)com About EarQ: A prestigious nationwide network of independent hearing healthcare providers, EarQ utilizes innovative business and marketing practices as well as national public awareness efforts to advocate for excellence in the industry and patient care. Through its 1,400 hearing healthcare provider locations nationwide, EarQ helps provide greater access to quality hearing healthcare services and products. On July 25, 2018 a lawsuit, case 18-cv-1732, was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the American Lending Center (an EB-5 regional center and a member of IIUSA) and EB-5 investors whose children have fallen victim to aging out. The lawsuit seeks relief for their children who may not receive a U.S. visa due to the method that the Department of State (DOS) uses to count visas. Instead of counting an entire family as one visa, DOS uses a visa for each person in the family. As a result, the number of visas available for investors is approximately one-third of the 10,000 visas a year that are allocated for EB-5 investors. Due to this, there is an extreme backlog, leaving investors and their families with an estimated 15 year wait to receive their EB-5 visa. Because of this lengthy retrogression, many children of investors age out and are ineligible to receive a U.S. visa as a derivative of their parents investment, despite being well within the age requirements upon filing the I-526 petition and making the investment. IIUSA has long supported numerous equitable and reasonable efforts to relieve the visa backlog and retrogression. One of the leading solutions is for the EB-5 visa allocation to return to the original intent of the law which would allocate 10,000 visas for the actual investors, with spouses and children eligible to immigrate as derivatives of the investors themselves. The derivative visas, or visas issued to dependent spouses and children, would not count against the 10,000 visas per year limit. As the lawsuit states, this was the original intent of the EB-5 legislation. American Lending Center, an EB-5 Regional Center and IIUSA member, joined the lawsuit due to their own damages suffered as a result of retrogression and counting derivatives against the 10,000 investor visa cap. The lawsuit was filed by Kurzban, Kurzban, Weinger, Tetzeli and Pratt, P.A., a Florida law firm. The firm is an IIUSA member with extensive experience in civil litigation and immigration law. We support the efforts of many groups and individuals who are working to provide relief to the crushing retrogression period which is harming innocent investors and the EB-5 industry as a whole. There are numerous short and long-term solutions to return the EB-5 program to the original legislative intent and thereby provide visa relief to families currently mired in the visa backlog, said Robert Kraft, IIUSA President. He went on to say, IIUSA strongly supports those efforts. The visa backlog is having a devastating effect on the EB-5 programs ability to create new U.S. jobs. Bill Gresser, IIUSA Vice President and President of EB-5 New York State Regional Center said, The EB-5 immigrant investor program is a proven job-creating engine. The U.S. Department of Commerce in its 2017 study found that in just over a 2-year period, EB-5 investments created over 174,000 U.S. jobs and contributed nearly $6 billion into the American economy. Additionally, a recent study conducted by IIUSA and the Western Washington University Center for Economic Business Research found that from FY2010-FY2017, over $16.5 billion in EB-5 capital was invested in the U.S. and created over 267,000 American jobs. The EB-5 program as a job-creation engine is at risk due to the visa backlog. IIUSA therefore supports this lawsuit with the hope that it will deliver relief to the thousands of investor families and their children and will help solve the debilitating problem which stymies EB-5 investment and the creation of new U.S. jobs, all at no cost to taxpayers. More information on this suit can be found on IIUSAs blog at http://www.iiusa.org/blog Founded in 2005, IIUSA is the national not-for-profit trade association for the EB-5 Regional Center industry with a mission of advocacy, education, industry development, and research. The organization represents more than 240 Regional Centers and 180 Associate members, collectively representing big and small projects, urban and rural economic development, and industry sectors ranging from real estate and manufacturing to energy and infrastructure. IIUSAs members are engines of economic growth and job creation, accounting for a vast majority of capital flowing through the Program. Learn more at IIUSA.org The new Action Gator Tire store in Lakeland, FL. "We're proud to become a member of this community and we know that starts with giving back. Our business is only as good as the community around it, and we want to show how much we value the people of Lakeland." says Action Gator Tire Vice President & COO Freddy Christensen. Action Gator Tire has been a highly regarded tire dealer in Florida during its more than 50 years in business thanks to its exceptional selection of tires. Not content to rest on its laurels, the company believed it needed to do more for its community beyond its trusted auto services. Now, the third-generation, family-owned company will extend its services to Lakeland, FL, kicking things off with an initiative dedicated to giving back to the local community along with its brand new location. "Lakeland is a wonderful community filled with terrific small businesses," says Action Gator Tire vice president and COO Freddy Christensen. "We're proud to become a member of this community, and we know that starts with giving back. Our business is only as good as the community around it, and we want to show how much we value the people of Lakeland." No stranger to community involvement through its long-standing support of A Cause for Paws, Libby's Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation, and other worthy causes, Action Gator Tire has taken things to the next level with the announcement of its charitable outreach initiative, Gator Gives. The Gator Gives program is built to provide much-needed support to the less fortunate by providing them with the assistance they deserve. The program will provide a free set of tires and a year of auto maintenance valued up to $2,500 to a deserving member of the Lakeland community. In an effort to further engage the population, Action Gator Tire encourages people to nominate someone they think could benefit from Gator Gives. Nominations for the contest will be accepted through September 10, 2018, and can be submitted online at http://www.gatorgives.com. Action Gator Tire will announce the winners of Gator Gives on September 24, 2018. In celebration of the Gator Gives program and the new Lakeland location, Action Gator Tire is throwing a massive grand opening party. The family event will feature free food and fun attractions for kids including a bounce house and face painting. Local Lakeland radio station WPCV 97.5 FM will bring the hits with a live broadcast during the event. "It's going to be a blast for everybody," says Christensen. "We've got food, prizes, music, and a lot more. We want to give families around Lakeland a great time and show them that we're here for them. We're more than a great place for tires and oil changes. We're community members." The event is free and open to the public with a variety of door prizes and giveaways for attendees. Prizes include a set of Michelin tires, a NAPA tool cart, concert tickets, and much more. "We see it as a small way of giving back," Christensen says. "Action Gator Tire is just so happy to be in Lakeland, and we want to show people how much it means to us." The grand opening event for the new location of Action Gator Tire will be held on August 4, 2018, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 4516 Florida Avenue South in Lakeland, FL. Customers are encouraged to learn more about the tires and services available from Action Gator Tire and enter their nomination for the Gator Gives program before September 10th. "We're really excited about Gator Gives," Christensen says. "The Lakeland community has already done so much for us, and it's important for us as a small business to return the favor. Everyone at Action Gator Tire is really looking forward to announcing the winners on September 24, and we can't wait to see who the lucky person will be." About Action Gator Tire: Action Gator Tire was founded in 1964 in Orlando, Florida, as a tire dealer offering full-service automobile repair. Since its founding, Action Gator Tire has expanded to nearly 30 locations throughout central and south Florida. Action Gator Tire remains committed to the utmost in professionalism, high-quality services, and friendly and efficient workmanship. The company can be contacted online at https://www.actiongatortire.com/ where customers can schedule their next tire or auto service. Customers may contact the new Lakeland, FL location at (863) 777-4994. Usecrypt, the worlds most secure encrypted communication technology and European based privacy movement, which has recently announced its global expansion with the opening of its U.S. office in New York City and second European office in Brussels, Belgium, has signed a major partnership with top Israeli security experts. Mr. Israel Levinson, ex-military security officer and consultant, who has a leading private security firm with offices in Israel, London, and the Unites States, together with Mr. Michael Ifargan, ex-lieutenant colonel of the IDF data security agency, who has over 25 years of experience in military data security, joined the Supervisory Board of Usecrypt in the capacity of non-executive members. Data theft, on a personal level and company level, is the major threat today. Information and personal data is being stolen and misused in an ever growing rate, said Mr. Levinson. We found Usecrypt and were amazed with the practicalities of the system they built. Using our experience and Usecrypt technology, we are developing the most innovative and correct way in the world to securely communicate today. Mr. Levinson has a long history and vast experience providing projects for large customers from different industries as well as personal dignitary protection and security. This system completes the security needs of personal privacy and security, he added. We believe Usecrypt has the opportunity to be the next Unicorn with huge global potential, so we decided to join the project and also use our experience to help develop the most secure mass-used encrypted technology that exists today, said Mr. Ifargan. Whether governmental or corporate, data is the main concern today. According to HubSpot, messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Signal, have more than 5 billion monthly users worldwide. Mobile users have been led to believe that their communication, both personal and business, has been secure and kept private, but recent events have uncovered a starkly different reality. "Inviting the best Israeli experts to join our team expands our presence across the globe, and it enables Usecrypt to move at a more rapid pace of achieving its mission of creating a global society connected, and protected, by true privacy, said Jakub Kokoszka, co-founder of Usecrypt. The company has experienced rapid user-base growth in 17 countries, and Usecrypt Messenger recently ranked as the top paid social networking app in Poland on Apples App Store. Usecrypt Safe, the file encryption and transfer desktop product launched last year, was recently awarded "Best in Cloud 2018" by Computerworld. Most recently, EYs EYnovation Polska, the acceleration program in Poland for the most innovative and fastest growing tech ventures, has partnered with Usecrypt Messenger. Our EYnovation Team uses Usecrypt Messenger to communicate critical strategic, operational and compliance matters concerning our projects. said Krzysztof Witkowski, Associate Partner at EY and Head of EYnovation. ABOUT USECRYPT Usecrypt, headquartered in Warsaw Poland, with offices in Brussels, Belgium, and New York City, is a global privacy movement offering fully secured and truly private communication through its desktop and mobile messenger applications, Usecrypt Safe and Usecrypt Messenger. Usecrypt uses a patented method of encrypting digital data called Hybrid Virtual Key Management (HVKM), in which one unique half of the users encryption key is stored on his or her device, and the other half is stored on the Usecrypt server. In addition to HVKM, Usecrypt has additional layers of protection that ensure the highest level of security for its users. Unlike competitors, Usecrypt never shares nor stores user data, and ensures that only the user sees his or her personal messages and files. Usecrypt is committed to helping people around the globe make the choice to bring privacy back. Bronze sponsor, Mobiveil Inc., a fast-growing supplier of silicon intellectual property (IP), platforms and IP-enabled solutions will sponsor the FMS Theater, will present PCIGen 4 based Configurable NVMe SSD Platform, and will exhibit in booth 610. WHAT: The 17th annual Flash Memory Summit August 7 to 9, 2018 WHO: Ravi Thummarukudy CEO & Amit Saxena Vice President of Engineering WHY: Todays new data centers are migrating to PCI express-based NAND Flash Storage as well as NVDIMM-based cache to accelerate data center data analysis and storage. Mobiveil will present PCIGen 4 based Configurable NVMe SSD Platform. It will describe how to reduce time to market in building PCI express-based NAND Flash Storage systems. WHEN: Amit Saxena Vice President of Engineering, will present in the following sessions: NVME-202-2: PCIe/NVMe Storage; Ravi Thummarukudy CEO will present at the FMS Theater: August 7, 5:35-5:50PM WHERE: Santa Clara Convention Center 5001 Great America Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95054 ATTEND: To register for the event, visit: https://www.flashmemorysummit.com. To schedule a meeting with Mobiveil email info(at)mobiveil.com To stay up to date on event activities and all Mobiveil Company news, follow us on Twitter: @Mobiveil; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/2725746/ and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mobiveil. About Mobiveil Mobiveil is a fast-growing technology company that specializes in the development of Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP), platforms and solutions for the storage, IoT and networking markets. It leverages decades of experience in delivering high quality, production proven, high-speed serial interconnect SIP cores, and custom and standard form factor hardware boards to leading semiconductor companies worldwide. For the PCI Express-based Flash Storage market, Mobiveil developed an FPGA based NVMe SSD board (NVMStor-UltraTM) comprised of GPEX, the PCI Express Controller, NVM Express Controller (UNEX), Universal Memory Controller (UMMC), Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Encoder/Decoder and Flash Memory Controller. Mobiveil is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., with engineering development centers located in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore, India, and sales offices and representatives located in U.S., Europe, Israel, Japan, Taiwan and China. Engage with Mobiveil at: Website: http://www.mobiveil.com Email: info@mobiveil.com Twitter: @Mobiveil LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/2725746/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mobiveil Contacts Jonah McLeod Public Relations for Mobiveil (510) 449-8634 jonah(at)mobiveil.com The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) announces its first Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics. This marks the first visiting professorship in the United States dedicated to raising public awareness of math. MoMath has named renowned Fields Medal winner and Princeton professor Manjul Bhargava as the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Professor. The finest mathematicians often share their passion in academic and research settings, but their inspiration and excitement are largely inaccessible to the general public in the United States, said Cindy Lawrence, Executive Director of MoMath. MoMaths first Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics will employ that same rigorous level of math but present the subject in a way that has broad popular appeal and connects with math lovers of all ages and abilities. We hope that the creation of the distinguished visiting professorship will create a paradigm shift in the United States, to more publicly demonstrate the value of providing world class mathematics outreach to the public. Dr. Bhargava, who specializes in number theory, will give lectures at MoMath, teach mini-courses in his areas of expertise, and participate in various MoMath events and initiatives. In addition to the prestigious Fields Medal, which is awarded for outstanding mathematical achievement by the International Mathematical Union, Dr. Bhargava was named one of Popular Science Magazines Brilliant 10 in 2002, and has received many top mathematics honors and awards. Dr. Manjul Bhargavas first eight-week course, appropriate for ages 13 and up, which will be held at MoMath, September 12 - December 12, will focus on Math and Magic. Dr. Bhargava will discuss mathematical concepts such as number theory, coding theory, and cryptography, and how they reveal secrets behind some of the most puzzling and well-known magic tricks. He will also discuss how recent discoveries in math have had important applications in areas beyond magic. More information, including registration information, for Math and Magic is available here. The Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics is expected to be an annual program. The Simons Foundation has pledged support for the first two years of the program; MoMath plans to name its second Distinguished Chair holder soon. About the National Museum of Mathematics The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) strives to enhance public understanding, and perception of mathematics in daily life. Currently celebrating its fifth year of operation, MoMath has reached more than 1.5 million New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. The only math museum in North America, MoMath fills a critical demand around the country and worldwide for hands-on math programming, offering a space where the math-challenged, as well as math enthusiasts of all backgrounds and levels of understanding can enjoy the infinite and beautiful world of mathematics through more than 40 unique, state-of-the-art, interactive exhibits. In addition to MoMaths home in New York City, Museum exhibitions and content are currently featured in Singapore, Brazil, Germany, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. MoMath received the 2016 Communications Award for Public Outreach from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. The Museum was awarded the bronze 2013 MUSE Award for Education and Outreach by the American Alliance of Museums. MoMath has been recognized as the Most Fascinating Museum in New York State by the TripAdvisor vacation site, and hailed as Best Museum for Kids by New York Magazine. MoMath, located at 11 East 26th Street on the north side of popular Madison Square Park in Manhattan, is open seven days a week, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. For more information, visit momath.org. People speak of a war on talent, and what I tell our clients is that the talent is winning About three-quarters of organizations say that candidate experience is essential or critical to their business, according to Brandon Hall Groups 2018 Candidate Experience Study. However, only 48% of organizations said their candidate experience the collective result of all interactions with job candidates during the recruitment marketing and hiring process is effective or very effective. By a large margin, the most serious challenges to managing candidate experience are lengthy time-to-hire and being able to move quickly enough to secure top talent before the competition, the survey revealed. Organizations must pay attention to candidate experience because they are losing, on average, nearly two in five candidates from the time they start the online application process through the job offer, said Daria Friedman, Brandon Hall Groups Principal Analyst, Talent Acquisition. That data does not even include those candidates who visit the career site and fail to complete the application. Having an exceptional candidate experience improves organizations ability to attract and hire quality talent. There are many steps organizations can take to improve candidate experience. Here are those that organizations said they are most ready to take within the next 18 months: 29% said they would be ready to improve the pre-boarding experience (activities from the offer letter to the first day of work). 27% said they would be ready to improve career site content. 27% said they would be ready to improve the interviewing experience. 26% said they could improve or adjust employer brand messaging based on their Employee Value Proposition. 25% said they would be ready to improve candidate communications of all types and for all purposes. And 25% said they would be ready to improve the assessment experience. People speak of a war on talent, and what I tell our clients is that the talent is winning, Brandon Hall Group CEO Mike Cooke said. There are so many available solutions for improving the candidate experience; organizations really need to re-evaluate their hiring practices. But first, they must recognize the problem and want to do something about it. Only 6% of organizations said they are ready to improve job candidates experience related to securing a job offer or being rejected for a job. And only 14 percent said they are ready to provide candidates better feedback about their progress during the hiring process. Download a complimentary snapshot of the Candidate Experience Survey results http://go.brandonhall.com/DataNow_Snapshot_cadidate_experience_PR_2018 . The survey, conducted April-July 2018, received 348 valid responses; 46% came from organizations with more than 5,000 employees; 63% from the U.S. About Brandon Hall Group Inc. Brandon Hall Group is a HCM research and advisory services firm that provides insights around key performance areas, including Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition and HR/Workforce Management. With more than 10,000 clients globally and 25 years of delivering world-class research and advisory services, Brandon Hall Group is focused on developing research that drives performance in emerging and large organizations, and provides strategic insights for executives and practitioners responsible for growth and business results. At the core of our offerings is a Membership Program that combines research, benchmarking and unlimited access to data and analysts. The Membership Program offers insights and best practices to enable executives and practitioners to make the right decisions about people, processes, and systems, coalesced with analyst advisory services which aim to put the research into action in a way that is practical and efficient. (http://www.brandonhall.com) For additional information about our organization please contact Mike Cooke via mike.cooke(at)brandonhall(dot)com or via phone at (561) 306-3576. As managing a restaurant grows increasingly complex with ever-changing labor laws, high employee turnover, and slim margins, operators are turning to technology to increase profitability, manage their workforce, and drive efficiency. Compeat is pleased to announce more restaurants than ever are choosing Compeat technology to help make running a restaurant a little easier and put more dollars to their bottom line. Dairy Queen of Tyler, Thunderdome, Inspire Concepts, and Oreganos Pizza Bistro are just a few of the hundreds of new customers that have partnered with Compeat in 2018. Our new customer growth has doubled in the first half of 2018, states Jeff Stone, CEO of Compeat. From our conversations with customers it is driven by the ever-increasing complexity of running a restaurant. Technology is becoming an essential component of success for any restaurant. According to The NCR Restaurant Technology Survey Pulse, 67 percent of restaurant owners and managers said technology has increased their revenues. A recent report published by Small Business Trends revealed that 63% of restaurant owners and managers say they would invest in technology if it made their day-to-day operations more efficient and 58% said theyd invest in technology if it helped them reduce costs and overhead. Restaurant operations are chaotic, continues Stone. Management cannot fix what they cant see. So, we first give our customers the business intelligence they need to see their data - sales, labor, food and beverage costs, compliance issues, financials - all in one place. Then, we give them the tools to optimize their labor and food costs, hire smarter, and manage their workforce. Our customers tell us all the time that they want their data integrated and accessible through a single log-in, with fewer technology vendors to manage. Therefore, that is our goal. Compeat offers integrated Accounting, Back Office, Workforce, and Intelligence solutions for restaurants. However, they design the purchasing by module to ensure that each customer receives only the solutions that they need or want at the time that they want them. Here are just a few new customers and their unique Compeat product selections: Dairy Queens of Tyler, LLC., who operates 15 family friendly locations in North Texas with downhome service paired with high-quality ingredients, has chosen Compeats Accounting, Inventory, Labor, Schedule, Intelligence, and Logbook solutions. Thunderdome Restaurant Group, who owns and operates seven urban casual dining restaurants concepts with over 35 locations nationwide under brand names like Bakersfield, The Eagle, Krueger's Tavern, and Maplewood Kitchen as well as fast casual brands like Currito, SoHi, and CityBird, have chosen Compeats Labor and Schedule solutions. Inspired Concepts, LLC owns and manages over 24 restaurant locations throughout Michigan and Indiana, including Bennigan's, The Italian Oven, Pixie, Smashburger, Ponderosa Steakhouse, Big Apple Bagels, Noodles & Company, Old Chicago, and Cracked: An A.M. Addiction. They have incorporated Polling, GL Sales, Accounts Payable, Labor Scheduling, COGS with Inventory, Recipes, and Prep Sheet Management to streamline their operations. Oreganos Pizza Bistros award-winning dishes are a mix of old world classics and cool new recipes, served up in big portions. The family owned restaurant operates 22 locations in Arizona and are set to expand to Fort Collins, Colorado soon. They have selected one of Compeats Intelligences products, Ctuit RADAR with GL Sales. Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Benoit Lavigne has joined the firms London office as a partner in its Finance practice. Mr. Lavigne brings to the firm a wealth of experience in complex, cross-border finance matters. He comes to Morrison & Foerster from Ropes & Gray, making him the third partner to join the firms London office in 2018, following the additions of Caroline Jury, also a highly experienced finance partner who joined from Clifford Chance, and Dan Coppel, a corporate partner who joined from Jones Day. Benoit is highly regarded in finance circles in London, and his cross-border experience will continue to enhance our ability to support our clients with their growing global finance needs, said Paul Friedman, Morrison & Foersters managing partner for Europe. I am delighted with the continued robust growth in our London practices, with a steady stream of market-leading partners, counsel and associates joining us from U.S. and magic circle firms since the start of 2018. Mr. Lavignes practice focuses primarily on leveraged finance, acquisition finance and special situations lending. He advises lenders, including some of the worlds largest investment banks, as well as issuers/borrowers. Mr. Lavigne also has significant experience in refinancing, margin lending and IPO financing. Mr. Lavignes recent notable transactions include advising a global investment bank in connection with the financing of a sale and leaseback transaction for the purposes of a liability management exercise undertaken by a London-based private equity sponsor; advising an EU-headquartered multinational TMT company on its cross-border equity and debt financings for the acquisition of various portfolio companies; acting for a UK PLC on its c.1.5 billion refinancing; and representing the steering committee of mezzanine lenders in connection with the restructuring of the c.1 billion debt facilities of an EU-headquartered cable group. Mr. Lavigne is the latest Finance partner to join Morrison & Foerster, following the additions of Dario Avram in San Francisco/New York, Susan Gault-Brown in Washington, D.C., Ms. Jury in London, Angela Kerek in Germany, and Yemi Tepe in Singapore over the past two years. MoFos reputation in technology and finance, as well as its collaborative approach, were all compelling reasons for me to come to the firm, said Mr. Lavigne. I am very pleased to join the growing London office and to further supplement the truly cross-border finance platform that the firm offers to its clients. Mr. Lavigne earned his LL.L (Civil Law), cum laude, from the University of Ottawa, Canada and his LL.B. (Common Law) from the University of Victoria, Canada. He is qualified as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and is also admitted to the Quebec bar (Avocat au Barreau du Quebec). Mr. Lavigne is fluent in French. ABOUT MOFO We are Morrison & Foerster a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, Fortune 100, and technology and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its lists of most innovative law firms in Northern America and Asia every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in those regions. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFos Privacy and Data Security, Bankruptcy, and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education for poor children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, winning asylum for the persecuted, and safeguarding the environment. David Mather, CEO of MTPV Power Corporation, receives the Global Technology Leadership Award from Jeff Frigstad, Global Senior Vice President, Frost & Sullivan MTPV is honored to receive Frost & Sullivans Global Technology Leadership Award for waste heat recovery solutions on behalf of our dedicated team of engineers and innovators MTPV Power Corporation (https://www.mtpv.com), a clean energy company that coverts heat to electricity using semiconductor chips, accepted Frost & Sullivans Global Technology Leadership Award for waste heat recovery solutions at Frost & Sullivans Excellence in Best Practices Awards Gala on July 18th in Nashville, Tennessee. This award acknowledges the advances that MTPVs EBLADE Power Platform enables in the industrial waste heat-to-power market segment. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the Technology Leadership Award to the company that demonstrates uniqueness in developing and leveraging new technologies that deliver significant customer value. The award recognizes outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. MTPV has revolutionized the waste heat recovery market by introducing its core technology, micron-gap thermophotovoltaics, into its EBLADE Power Platform, which converts waste heat directly into electricity and provides end users with energy savings, emissions reductions, and clean, reliable power generation, said Chirag Rathi, Consulting Director at Frost & Sullivan. MTPV is honored to receive Frost & Sullivans Global Technology Leadership Award for waste heat recovery solutions on behalf of our dedicated team of engineers and innovators, said David Mather, President & CEO of MTPV Power Corporation. Two-thirds of the worlds energy usage today is lost as waste heat, and MTPVs unique approach to recovering that energy as clean electric power has compelling economic and environmental benefits. About MTPV Power Corporation (https://www.mtpv.com) MTPV is a clean energy semiconductor company using its breakthrough technology to harness the worlds heat and convert it to electricity. For more information visit http://www.mtpv.com and connect with MTPV on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. About Frost & Sullivan (https://www.frost.com/) Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion. MEDIA CONTACT: Colin Lacey Phone: 512.246.1988 Email: communication@mtpv.com Samantha Park Phone: 210.348.1001 Email: Samantha.Park@frost.com The WordPress project has done a fantastic job with Gutenberg, creating a modern, intuitive, and elegant writing interface for WordPresss millions of users... However, we want to make sure that every business that depends on WordPress is prepared for the change." Nexcess, a leading provider of performance-optimized WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, has advised WordPress hosting clients to prepare for the forthcoming release of WordPress 5, which will include the brand-new Gutenberg editor. Gutenberg, which has been under development for several years as a feature plugin, is a modern block-based editing interface. Gutenberg introduces numerous innovative features and user experience improvements. In WordPress 5, Gutenberg will become the default editor. Sites that update to WordPress 5 will be transitioned to the new editor. Gutenberg is a necessary step in WordPresss evolution, but it is possible that the transition to WordPress 5 will bring challenges for businesses that rely on WordPress. Many plugins and themes will not be updated for compatibility, so businesses that use WordPress should test their site with Gutenberg to ensure a trouble-free upgrade. We host thousands of WordPress and WooCommerce sites, and were excited for the upcoming release of WordPress 5. The WordPress project has done a fantastic job with Gutenberg, creating a modern, intuitive, and elegant writing interface for WordPresss millions of users, commented Chris Wells, President and CEO of Nexcess, However, we want to make sure that every business that depends on WordPress is prepared for the change and doesnt experience any issues when updating to WordPress 5. Gutenberg will not cause compatibility issues with most WordPress plugins, but plugins that modify the editor or that use shortcodes may cause issues. The best way to test for Gutenberg compatibility is to create a staging site that is identical to the businesss production site. Once Gutenberg has been installed on the staging site, any compatibility issues should be evident. The majority of popular WordPress plugins have been updated for Gutenberg compatibility, but unmaintained plugins have not and are unlikely to be updated in the future. Businesses that rely on the functionality provided by those plugins should consider alternative options. Businesses that would prefer to remain with the current WordPress editor can use the Classic Editor plugin, but that is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. ### About Nexcess Nexcess is a Southfield, Michigan-based WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento hosting company founded in 2000, with data centers distributed throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. Nexcess offers a variety of managed application hosting services, from entry-level packages to cloud hosting and custom clustered/complex hosting configurations, with an emphasis on achieving maximum performance for high-traffic sites. For more information, visit http://www.nexcess.net. With the introduction of WooCommerce cloud hosting earlier this year, we have seen even more interest from retailers who plan to use our platform to increase the performance and reliability of their eCommerce store and to offer an enhanced retail experience to shoppers. Nexcess, a leading provider of performance-optimized WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, this month celebrates the one-year anniversary of the introduction of managed WooCommerce hosting to its global eCommerce platform. Last year, WooCommerce joined Nexcess line-up of premium managed application hosting plans, which also includes Magento, WordPress, CraftCMS, and OroCRM. Site performance is critically important to eCommerce revenues, and WooCommerce retailers on the Nexcess platform benefit from the companys commitment to low-latency hosting, which is supported by an environment specifically engineered for WooCommerce. In the year since Nexcess introduced WooCommerce hosting, the companys platform has evolved. The brand-new Nexcess Cloud provides on-demand WooCommerce instances with automatic scaling, comprehensive performance optimization, and a range of developer friendly features. The reaction to our WooCommerce hosting platform has been amazing, and were proud of the growth we have experienced in just a year, commented Chris Wells, President and CEO of Nexcess, With the introduction of WooCommerce cloud hosting earlier this year, we have seen even more interest from retailers who plan to use our platform to increase the performance and reliability of their eCommerce store and to offer an enhanced retail experience to shoppers. Nexcess is among the most experienced eCommerce hosting providers in the world, with almost two decades as a trusted partner of retailers of all sizes. Nexcess' shared, dedicated, and custom clustered hosting solutions are trusted by thousands of retailers, who rely on Nexcess' stability and expert support. Nexcess provides WooCommerce and Magento hosting for eCommerce retailers of all sizes, from solo retailers and small businesses to the largest enterprise stores. With data center locations in the USA, Australia, and Europe, WooCommerce stores hosted on Nexcess benefit from low-latency connectivity to the most important international eCommerce markets. ### About Nexcess Nexcess is a Southfield, Michigan-based eCommerce hosting company founded in 2000, with data centers distributed throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. Nexcess offers a variety of cloud, dedicated, and clustered eCommerce hosting services for Magento and WooCommerce, with an emphasis on achieving maximum performance for high-traffic sites. For more information, visit [http://www.nexcess.net. Computational storage represents a paradigm shift in analytics for petabyte-scale data sets. Our next-generation Newport platform enables computational storage to cross the chasm from a niche use case to broad market adoption." - Nader Salessi, CEO, NGD Systems. NGD Systems, Inc., the leader in computational storage, today announced the launch of its Newport platform for next-generation computational storage devices. Balancing maximum capacity with low power consumption, optimized physical footprint, and matched performance in storage controllers has always been difficult. The NGD Systems Newport platform represents the first 16 flash channel ASIC-based computational storage solution that provides In-Situ Processing with NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 storage performance in a variety of form factors including M.2 and EDSFF that do not suffer from performance due to power throttling like other architectures. Dr. Jae Young Do, Researcher at Microsoft Research said, Enabling computational storage for the mass market while still meeting storage and computing performance requirements mandates fitting it into the latest storage device form factors and power envelopes. NGD Systems Newport 64-bit Linux platform with computational storage will accelerate scale-out image similarity search applications thanks to its complete software stack and support for container virtualization. This promises a new level of density for computational storage that will be important for a variety of markets, beyond just AI, like IoT, edge and fog computing, and big data. While computational storage solutions have been developed in other forms and products, these platforms almost always represented tradeoffs, often between storage performance and computational storage implementation. The NGD Systems Newport platform provides a seamless programming model that eliminates these tradeoffs, allowing computational storage to cross the chasm and enter mainstream market use cases. Computational storage represents a paradigm shift in analytics for petabyte-scale data sets, said Nader Salessi, CEO, NGD Systems. Our next-generation Newport platform enables computational storage to cross the chasm from a niche use case to broad market adoption. In doing so, the Newport platform further enables near-data processing for real-time analytics on large-scale data sets with improved power and density, both in watts per terabyte and terabytes per cubic inch. The Newport platform builds upon NGD Systems already-successful Catalina-2 family of computational storage devices. Applications developed for Catalina-2 are fully compatible with the Newport platform, allowing existing customers to take advantage of Newports capabilities with zero risk. The Newport platform will be productized with the only NVMe SSD available to support 16 flash channels in the M.2 and EDSFF form factors, providing these devices with the same bandwidth that U.2 and add-in cards currently provide, eliminating the power/performance trade-off faced by currently available solutions. NGD Systems will be showcasing the Newport platform and computational storage solutions at Flash Memory Summit, Aug 7-9, in Santa Clara at the Santa Clara Convention Center. These solutions can be found on the show floor in booth 618. NGD Systems will also showcase their solutions in session on Wednesday August 8th (CTRL-202-1) and Thursday August 9th (COMP-301-1), as well as NGD Systems CTO, Dr. Vladimir Alves, in an Emerging Technology Keynote with special guest, Dr. Jae Young Do highlighting the results of the partnership with Microsoft Research, on Thursday August 9th at 11:40am. About NGD Systems Founded in 2013 with its headquarters in Irvine, California, NGD Systems is a venture-funded company focused on creation of new category of storage devices that brings computation to data. NGD has designed its advanced proprietary NVMe controller technology which deploys patented Elastic FTL algorithm and Advanced LDPC Engines to provide industry leading capacity and scalability. The platform also deploys the patented In-Situ Processing technology to enable Computational Storage capability. The company is led by an executive team that helped drive and shape the flash storage industry, with decades in leadership positions with storage companies such as Western Digital, STEC, Memtech, and Micron. For more information please visit https://www.ngdsystems.com. John Owens, CEO of LifeShield As consumer interest in new home security and automation capabilities grows, LifeShield is set up for success by offering the option of professional installation from a proven, recognized, service industry leader," said John Owens, LifeShields new CEO. After adding automation to its home security offerings earlier this month, LifeShield, a pioneer in advanced wireless home security systems, announced today that it has named John Owens to the role of Chief Executive Officer and it has expanded its partnership with MasTec Advanced Technologies to offer professional installation services to LifeShield customers. New Chief Owens will immediately assume the role of CEO with LifeShield investor and outgoing CEO, Mike Hagan, continuing in his role as Chairman. An accomplished senior marketing executive who has worked with some of the worlds best-known brands, Owens brings to LifeShield more than 25 years of sales and marketing experience. Prior to joining LifeShield, Owens was Chief Marketing Officer with financial services firm, J.G. Wentworth, where he managed a $70 million marketing budget and led efforts in digital marketing, direct response advertising and customer management. He was previously Head of Marketing for ING DIRECT, one of the nations largest digital banks, and he became Managing VP of Bank Marketing for Capital One when Capital One bought ING DIRECT. At Capital One, Owens helped grow its national consumer and small business bank portfolio of nine million customers and $165 billion in deposits. Im energized by the opportunity to join LifeShield at such an exciting time in its lifecycle, said Owens, LifeShields new CEO. The home security industry is dynamic and growing and Im humbled by the opportunity to lead a very accomplished group of professionals. Many of LifeShields early employees have returned to the company since Mike and Hawk Capital re-acquired the business. Thats a testament to the teams passion for the brand and a great foundation for growth. New Pro Installation Option for LifeShield Customers LifeShield has expanded its partnership with MasTec Advanced Technologies whereby MasTec will serve as LifeShields main professional installation provider. MasTec works with many of the nations most trusted brands to enhance their operations, and previously served as LIfeShields installation partner when LifeShield was part of DIRECTV. In 2017, MasTec completed three million customer appointments deploying a network of over 4,000 technicians. Its experienced team of expert technicians pride themselves on helping homeowners install security, video, and home automation solutions that fit the needs of their home. Following the recent launch of LifeShields automation services, our expanded partnership with MasTec will provide a turnkey solution for our customers who prefer a high touch, white-glove installation experience, said Owens. As consumer interest in new home security and automation capabilities grows, LifeShield is set up for success by offering the option of professional installation from a proven, recognized, service industry leader. About MasTec Advanced Technologies MasTec Advanced Technologies, a division of MasTec, Inc. (NYSE:MTZ), is a network of service professionals installing technology solutions to residential and commercial customers throughout the United States. In 2017, MasTec Advanced Technologies served three million customers on behalf of its client companies. It has over 75 offices throughout the United States and operates one of the largest fleets in the nation. From satellite and security installations to energy management and national project deployment, its team is united under one common goal: provide an exceptional customer experience. About LifeShield LifeShield was the first national, professional grade and professionally monitored wireless home security system to use an easy to set up plug and protect process, providing superior home protection and the best value in total home security. LifeShields exclusive design incorporates multiple layers of protection through high-speed Internet, cellular signal, text and landline phone that delivers faster response times, reaching the monitoring station in seconds. To learn more about LifeShield, visit http://www.LifeShield.com, or call us at 1-877-529-1765. Park Cities Pet Sitter Now Offers Pawtree Pet Products ....(our clients) want the best for their pets, and Pawtree pet products are clearly outstanding in both nutrition and taste, with the added convenience of delivery straight to their front door. Joette White, President of Park Cities Pet Sitter Dallas and Plano dog walking and pet sitting company, Park Cities Pet Sitter, has partnered with Pawtree to sell and promote the Pawtree line of pet products. Southlake, Texas-based Pawtree manufactures premium natural dog and cat food, treats, seasonings and supplements, in addition to distributing a number of pet hard goods like toys and collars. Pawtrees real-food products are developed by veterinarians and PhD animal nutritionists, and are delivered straight to a customers door, versus being sold in traditional brick and mortar stores. Joette White, President of Park Cities Pet Sitter, initially learned about the health benefits of Pawtree products at a pet sitting industry conference in 2017, when numerous attendees talked about how Pawtree pet food and supplements had made noticeable differences in their own pets lives. It was pretty incredible to hear several of my peers talk about how simply switching their pet to Pawtree products improved their pets health issues, said White. One woman spoke about how her dogs inflamed and itchy skin went away, another spoke about how her dogs irritable bowel issues were reduced significantly, and a third remarked about how her cats hair loss issues improved. It makes perfect sense that real food nutrition will lead to healthier and happier pets, and that is something that resonates with our company mission as well. Feeding your pet the best quality food, treats and supplements can only lengthen the amount of time we have with them, whether they are young and healthy, or a bit older with health concerns. Pawtree clearly has mastered this, so selling their products is something my company can really get behind. Park Cities Pet Sitter is also a fan of how Pawtree chooses to address the perplexing question What Should I Feed My Pet? When a new customer first logs in to set up a Pawtree account, they create a profile for each of their pets that includes, species, age, and any health concerns. Pawtree developed an algorithm that takes this information, and then provides a detailed recommendation of the Pawtree products best suited for that pet. When owners receive their list, they can choose their products and go straight to checkout to have the products delivered, all without ever having to leave the comfort of their couch. EZ Ship orders can also be set up, so that a pets food is automatically shipped on a predetermined schedule, so customers dont have to worry about running out of their pets food, treats and seasonings when life gets busy. We are very excited to share Pawtree products with our clients, said White. We know they want the best for their pets, and Pawtree pet products are clearly outstanding in both nutrition and taste, with the added convenience of delivery straight to their front door. To learn more about purchasing Pawtree pet products, visit https://www.pcpsi.com/pawtree/. About Park Cities Pet Sitter: PCPSI has served the Dallas, Richardson and Plano areas 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1992, and was recently named the 2017 Business of the Year by the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters. Dog walking, pet sitting, pet taxis, overnight sitting, pet supply shopping, and dog training are some of the many services PCPSI offers. Park Cities Pet Sitter is bonded and insured, and all sitters are employees--not independent contractors. A manager is on-call 24 hours a day to handle any emergencies. Go to http://www.pcpsi.com to learn more. https://geothermal.org/meet-new.html This is the premier gathering to learn about the latest developments in geothermal energy. Registration is now open for the biggest annual geothermal energy event of the year. The GRC Annual Meeting & Expo will bring together geothermal companies, academics, financiers, policy leaders, students, and other individuals to attend or exhibit at the event, to be held from October 14-17 at the Peppermill Resort Spa & Casino, Reno, Nevada, USA. Early birds who register before September 30 pay only $880 as Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) members or $1,080 if non-members. The non-member registration includes GRC membership through 2019. Students with a current identification card from an accredited institution pay just $150 which also includes GRC membership through 2019. In addition to the Technical Program, the three-day registration to the GRC Annual Meeting & Expo includes an Opening Reception on Sunday evening, the Opening Session on Monday morning, a Network Reception on Tuesday, the GRC Expo and lunch on all three days. Registration is available from the GRC website at http://www.geothermal.org. A Program complete with a Registration Form is available to view and download. However, the GRC recommends online registration through a secured connection. The link is available on the front page of the GRC website at http://www.geothermal.org. This is the premier gathering to learn about the latest developments in geothermal energy. Last year, the GRC Annual Meeting & Expo hosted nearly 1,000 attendees from 35 different countries. The GRC Annual Meeting will offer technical, policy, and market conference sessions, educational seminars, tours of local geothermal and renewable energy projects, and numerous networking opportunities. The Expo features a unique opportunity for leaders in the geothermal energy sector to showcase their projects, equipment, services and state of the art technology to the geothermal community. Reserve your booth now! There were more than 100 exhibitors at last years trade show. For more information about the GRC Annual Meeting & Expo at the Peppermill Resort Spa & Casino, Reno, Nevada, USA visit http://www.geothermal.org or call (530) 758-2360. For information on how to sponsor this event, contact Anh Lay, GRC at (530) 758-2360 X100 or alay@geothermal.org. About the Geothermal Resources Council: The Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) will be celebrating 50 years of service to the global geothermal energy community in 2021. The GRC is dedicated to advancing geothermal development around the world through education, research, and outreach. For more information, please visit http://www.geothermal.org. Get your daily geothermal news at Global Geothermal News [http://www.geothermalresourcescouncil.blogspot.com . Become a fan on Facebook [http://www. facebook.com/GeothermalResourcesCouncil]. Follow GRC on Twitter [@GRC2001 and #GRCAM2018]. Check out GRCs YouTube Channel [http://www.youtube.com/GeothermalCouncil . See geothermal photos on GRCs Flicker page. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/geothermalresourcescouncil Shift4 Payments and protel North America Announce New Partnership That Brings Integrated Solution to Hotels Our hotelier customers already have access to the best hospitality software, and now secure payment processing from this innovative industry leader. Shift4 Payments, the leader in secure payment processing solutions, and protel North America, a division of the Germany-based provider of cloud-based and on-premise hospitality solutions, today announced a new strategic partnership. This will deliver hoteliers a comprehensive hospitality offering that combines advanced property management software, highly secure payment processing, and full merchant services. Shift4s complete payment solution is fully integrated with protels hotel management software including protel Air and protel On-Premise to provide hospitality businesses with everything they need to process payments and operate their property securely and efficiently. This includes a secure payment gateway, tokenization, point-to-point encrypted EMV devices, merchant services, support for traditional and new payment types and more. This all-in-one solution combines each piece of the payment process into a single, all-inclusive program for a superior payment experience for staff and guests alike. Our revolutionary offering secures and streamlines payments for businesses of all kinds, said Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments. This new partnership allows protel North America users to take advantage of these benefits. Were proud to partner with Shift4 Payments, said Manfred Osthues, Founder and Managing Partner at protel. Our hotelier customers already have access to the best hospitality software, and now secure payment processing from this innovative industry leader. To learn more about Shift4s secure payment processing solutions, call 800.265.5795 or email sales(at)shift4.com. For more information about protels hotel management software, visit protel.net or email info(at)protel.net. About Shift4 Payments Shift4 Payments is the leader in secure payment processing solutions, powering the top point-of-sale and software providers across numerous verticals, including Food & Beverage, Hospitality, Lodging, Gaming, Retail, and e-Commerce. This includes the companys Harbortouch, Restaurant Manager, POSitouch, and Future POS brands, as well as over 300 additional software integrations in virtually every industry. With eight offices across the U.S. and Europe, 7,000 sales partners, and three state-of-the-art data centers, the company securely processes over 1 billion transactions annually for nearly 200,000 businesses, representing over $100 billion in payments each year. For additional information, visit shift4.com. About protel protel is the hotel PMS and platform pioneer with over 14,000 hotel customers in 90+ countries. protel's new enterprise hospitality platform consisting of an enterprise service bus called protel.I/O and a multi-hotel solution called protel CENTRAL is a breakthrough for the industry. It's the only technology that allows hotels with multiple integrations to aggregate all specialist technology behavior to a central level, thus creating a secure, vendor-neutral, open infrastructure to store, access, integrate and use their data from any guest touchpoint in real time. As a result, hotel CEOs, CIOs and CMOs can take control of their technology infrastructure and create best of breed ecosystems that deliver best-in-class guest experiences. protel's global headquarters were established in 1994 in Dortmund, Germany and U.S. headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Smiles for Everyone! The Smiles for Everyone Foundation announced the successful completion of its international outreach trip to Paraguay to deliver dental care, supplies and training in some of the most impoverished communities surrounding the capital, Asuncion, as part of their continuing International Smile Project. In partnership with Diaconia, a local NGO with the mission to empower those living in poverty to live with dignity and freedom, the Smiles for Everyone Foundation has supported year-round dental outreaches in Paraguay since 2011. During this trip, Smile Brands Inc. affiliated dental providers and support staff provided care to over 550 individuals at orphanages, community centers and schools. Local Paraguayan dentists partnered with the team throughout the week, working side by side with the Foundation dentists to learn complex dental procedures. During the six days of outreaches, the local dentists were also trained on working with the portable dental equipment so they can continue to deliver smiles in their communities throughout the year. Employees of Smile Brands Inc. and the affiliated dental groups included: Dr. Bobby Afrooz, Lead Dentist, Bright Now! Dental, Burbank, CA; Steven C. Bilt, Co-Founder & CEO, Smile Brands Inc., and Founder & CEO, Smiles for Everyone Foundation; Laura Dailey, VP, Revenue Management, Smile Brands Inc. business support; Dr. Siv Eftekhari, Oral Surgeon, Monarch Dental, Grapevine, TX; Dr. Edgardo Gonzales, Lead Dentist, Monarch Dental, San Antonio, TX; Dr. Tim Herman, Lead Dentist, A+ Dental Care, Roseville, CA; Jeana Janik, Office Manager, Bright Now! Dental, Sandusky, OH; Dr. Wilner Loiseau, Lead Dentist and Periodontist, Monarch Dental, Plano, TX; Jody Ritson, Dental Assistant, Bright Now! Dental, Vancouver, WA; Jacqueline Rocamora, Hygienist, Newport Dental, Norwalk, CA; Carlos Rojas, Executive Office Manager, Bright Now! Dental, Palm Harbor, FL; Angie Sotelo, Market Specialty Manager, Smile Brands Inc., San Antonio, TX; and Crystal Strait, Executive Director, Smiles for Everyone Foundation. Smiles for Everyone Foundation would like to thank the following organizations for providing equipment and supplies for the international outreach: Aseptico Inc., Colgate, Henry Schein Cares Foundation and KaVo Kerr Group, LLC. Without the support of their partners and sponsors, the Foundation would not be able to provide dental care for people in need in seven countries and continue to deliver Smiles for Everyone! For further information on the Paraguay trip and other outreach efforts, please visit the Foundations blog at https://www.smilesforeveryone.org/smile-stories/. About the Smiles For Everyone Foundation The Smiles for Everyone Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of delivering smiles for everyone by providing free dental care for those in need, both at home in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2011, the Smiles for Everyone Foundation has delivered over 16,000 smiles and $12.5 million in donated dentistry. The foundation currently supports programs which provide free dental care to those in need in Cambodia, Ghana, Laos, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Thailand and the United States. For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.smilesforeveryone.org. About Smile Brands Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long-term agreements with affiliated dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands supports approximately 400 Bright Now! Dental, Monarch Dental, Castle Dental, A+ Dental Care, OneSmile Dental, Johnson Family Dental and P3 Dental Group offices in 16 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit http://www.smilebrands.com. Contact: Smiles for Everyone Foundation Crystal Strait crystal.strait(at)smilesforeveryone.org 714.824.5037 We are excited to announce DOZR as the winner of the Stanley Black & Decker VentureClash Innovation Prize in recognition of their efforts to improve the lives of those who make the world. Connecticut Innovations (CI) today announced that Stanley Black & Decker has awarded its $25,000 VentureClash Innovation Prize to DOZR, a company that has created an innovative new marketplace for the rental of heavy equipment. Managed by Connecticut Innovations, VentureClash is a $5 million global venture challenge for early-stage companies in digital health, financial technology, insurance technology and the Internet of Things. To award its prize, Stanley Black & Decker evaluated VentureClash semifinalists to identify new technologies and business models that could accelerate solutions for those who make the world. We are excited to announce DOZR as the winner of the Stanley Black & Decker VentureClash Innovation Prize in recognition of their efforts to improve the lives of those who make the world, said Mark Maybury, Stanley Black & Deckers chief technology officer. Heavy equipment is a large capital expense for contractors who face real challenges with quickly identifying the availability, location and costs of rental equipment. Their solution leverages technology to benefit both contractors as well as heavy equipment owners who often have underutilized machines. Founded in 2015, DOZR facilitates the short- and long-term rental of heavy equipment across North America. The DOZR platform enables business owners to earn additional revenue from their idle equipment and allows contractors to rent equipment at lower rates than traditional rental companies. Stanley Black & Decker is committed to the development of innovation within the organization, said Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations. Were thrilled that they joined our VentureClash efforts this year through the Innovation Prize and excited to see that they selected DOZR as the winner. The Stanley Black & Decker Innovation Prize was announced at the VentureClash semifinalist pitch event at Upward Hartford on Thursday, August 2, 2018. If DOZR establishes a Connecticut presence, the company will be eligible for an additional $25,000 in grant funding from Connecticut Innovations. The finals event, which will feature 10 competitors, will be on Thursday, October 18, at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut. For more information and to register to attend the finals event, visit http://www.ventureclash.com. About VentureClash Managed by Connecticut Innovations, VentureClash is Connecticuts global venture challenge focused on early-stage companies. The challenge identifies high-potential companies in digital health, fintech, insurtech and the Internet of Things that will receive investments from a $5 million investment award pool. Learn more at http://www.ventureclash.com. About Connecticut Innovations Inc. Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticuts strategic venture capital arm and is the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies. CI provides venture capital and strategic guidance for early-stage technology companies, and connections to its well-established network of partners and professionals. For more information, please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com. About Stanley Black & Decker Stanley Black & Decker, an S&P 500 company, is a diversified global provider of hand tools, power tools and related accessories; electronic security solutions; healthcare solutions; engineered fastening systems; and more. Learn more at http://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com. Emsculpt goes beyond waistline reduction to address abdominal contouring through muscle tone. Dr. Steven L Ringler of the Center for Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery in Grand Rapids, Michigan introduces a groundbreaking new approach to sculpting the abdomen with Emsculpt the first and only non-invasive body shaping procedure that simultaneously addresses both Muscle and Fat. Bringing an entirely new technology to the category, Emsculpt utilizes HIFEM energy to induce powerful muscle contractions which builds muscles and burns fat. FDA-cleared for the improvement of abdominal tone and strengthening of the abdominal muscles, Emsculpt helps patients achieve next-level, body contouring results . The current approach to body shaping is through circumferential reduction; however, overall body contour is affected by muscle structure as well, shared Dr. Ringler, Emsculpt goes beyond waistline reduction to address abdominal contouring through muscle tone, so Im thrilled to now offer this combination to my patients added Dr. Ringler. Muscles represent about 35% of the human body, but existing aesthetic treatments only address fat. Emsculpt introduces a first of its kind application of a unique magnetic field. HIFEM technology penetrates through skin to impact fat, as well as muscle tissues. Once penetrated, the energy induces 20,000 supramaximal muscle contractions that are accompanied by a rapid metabolic reaction in fat cells to not only strengthen and build muscle, but also reduce fat. This is the ONLY technology that builds muscle and burns fat simultaneously, all while leaving the surrounding tissues unaffected. Tested in five unique abdominal clinical studies utilizing all four established methods of evaluation including MRI, CT, Ultrasound, and Histology, Emsculpt delivered consistent results in muscle gain and fat loss: 19% reduction in subcutaneous abdominal fat -16% increase in muscle mass Average waist reduction of 4.4cm 96% satisfaction with treatment results Dr. Ringler offers patients the latest advances in safe, effective, FDA cleared non-surgical body contouring. The Center for Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery in Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first to offer CoolSculpting in West Michigan as well as BTL Vanquish ME, Exilis Ultra and Cellutone, Dr. Ringler is excited to be the first plastic surgery office in Michigan to be able to offer Emsculpt to help patients build muscle in addition to burning fat. For optimal results, Dr. Ringler recommends four 30-minute treatment sessions over the course of a two- week period. Results will be seen 2-4 weeks following treatments with continued improvement over a 6- month time period. Treatment pricing is $750 per treatment. Almost anyone can benefit from Emsculpt, which is safely performed as an office procedure with no downtime. More About Dr. Ringler: Dr. Steven L. Ringler is a board-certified plastic surgeon at the Center for Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who performs a wide range of cosmetic plastic surgery procedures including: facelift, breast augmentation and reduction, liposuction and body contouring. In addition to non-surgical body contouring devices, Dr. Ringler offers many minimally and non-invasive procedures such as; Botox, facial fillers, Halo Laser, Broad Band Light (BBL), Ultherapy, hair restoration and skin care services. Dr. Ringler received his medical degree from Michigan State University, and completed his plastic surgery residency program in Grand Rapids, Michigan, followed by a microsurgery fellowship at Southern Illinois University. Dr. Ringler has held many leadership positions throughout his career and has been listed among the Best Doctors in America in plastic surgery since 1996. Now anyone can easily send their favorite gift card from their mobile phone to their loved ones mobile phone in India. The process takes less than 30 seconds, the gift is delivered instantly and is guaranteed to be perfect because the recipient can swych it for another retailer they prefer. Following its recent acquisition of GiftCardsIndia, digital gifting platform Swych has launched the trusted and widely used gift card service in the United States for instant cross border gifting to India. Swych users in the U.S. are now able to send personal digital gift cards instantly to friends and family across India and choose from hundreds of well-known and popular, locally relevant retailers such as Big Bazaar, Flipkart, Myntra, and more. This expansion significantly increases Swychs mobile gifting capabilities on an international scale and marks the first step in the companys global plan to facilitate mobile gifting for users across borders worldwide. CEO and Founder of Swych, Deepak Jain, said By launching GiftCardsIndia.com in the U.S., we are addressing a large market demand from the Indian diaspora here. Now anyone can easily send their favorite gift card from their mobile phone to their loved ones mobile phone in India. The process takes less than 30 seconds, the gift is delivered instantly and is guaranteed to be perfect because the recipient can swych it for another retailer they prefer, making sure they can always get exactly what they want, when they want it. The global gifting market is estimated to be worth USD $698 billion with India expected to be one of the largest markets by 2024. Swych endeavors to tackle the existing issues within this growing market, allowing users not only the convenience of digital gift cards, but also the freedom to swych or select an alternate gift card from an extensive list of brand options. The current cross-border gifting options for consumers are limited, including direct money transfer, plastic gift cards from limited brands, or sending perishables or flowers from local gifting firms that may or may not arrive on time. With Swych, gifting is instant. With a growing list of nearly 500 retailers from Big Bazaar to Zappos todays launch of Swych GiftCardsIndia adds even more retailers to the Swych network. Swych gifts can also be split into multiple gifts, or re-gifted to another recipient. Transactions are highly secure and free of fees; users only need a valid mobile number in order to send gifts, making the process of gifting seamless and accessible. Jain added, Existing cross-border gifting options are either costly or inefficient. When sending cross-border gifts, consumers and businesses need to manage liability, foreign exchange and customs, as well as regulatory and compliance issues which are complex and time consuming. Were proud to offer our users a convenient, secure, and fee-free alternative to this emerging ecosystem, all while simultaneously working to facilitate ease of accordance with changing regulatory and compliance requirements. Swych has pioneered the creation of globally swychable digital gifts that integrate seamlessly within mobile banking, messaging, conversational commerce, rebate, check disbursement, and loyalty platforms to drive customer acquisition and increase engagement. Swych is focused on fostering global connections between retailers, customers, and businesses in order to create an autonomous global gifting network. Swych also offers a gifting app within the U.S. domestic market which is available for download on iOS and Android. GiftCardsIndia also offers a gifting service within the Indian domestic market which is available at http://www.giftcardsindia.in. For more information, please visit http://www.goswych.com. About Swych: Swychs patent pending mobile gifting platform enables users to send swychable gifts from their mobile device that can be instantly redeemed for electronic gift cards from more than 600+ popular brands. Swych users can instantly buy, send, re-gift, upload, swych and redeem gift cards conveniently from their mobile device. Swych is a private company funded by seasoned angel investors from banking, financial services, payments, gifting, telecom and enterprise computing space. About GiftCardsIndia: GiftCardsIndia, recently acquired by Swych, provides consumers and businesses with a reliable, efficient and high-quality source of the widest selection of gift products from the top brands in India. GCI has successfully operated a robust aggregation and distribution network for gift cards and has been serving millions of consumers, enterprises, loyalty platforms and wallet operators in the Indian market. EBCI Team: Tina Hoffman, Patient Liaison & Navigator; Claire Tinker, Program Support; Dellann Elliott Mydland, Founder & President; Riley Elliott, Vice-President; DeEtta Snyder, Program Coordinator CITI certification will help EBCI further its mission and work towards providing immediate access to advanced treatments/clinical trials & attract more clinical trials nationally & within the Puget Sound region and advance its collaborative work with other Brain Tumor Centers of Excellence. The EndBrainCancer Initiative (EBCI, formerly the Chris Elliott Fund) received CITI certification to recruit caregivers to participate in brain cancer caregiver and patient clinical trials at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute and John Wayne Cancer Institute in conjunction with Providence Health Services of Southern California. At the Pacific Neuroscience Institute and John Wayne Cancer Institute, EBCI is collaborating with Dr. Santosh Kesari, Chair and Professor, Department of Translational Neurosciences and Neurotherapeutics, and Director, Neuro-oncology. Dr. Kesari's clinical team conducts leading-edge clinical trials of immunotherapy, stem cells and biomarker-based therapies. Dr. Kesari says of this partnership with EBCI: We enlisted the support of EBCI for patient recruitment because of their expertise and proven effectiveness, and especially because of the trust they have earned with patients as an advocacy organization. For years EBCI has been doing the work of placement with clinical trials. Now with their CITI certification we have formalized our relationship as an official recruiter for this new clinical trial. CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) is an international training organization which certifies those involved in medical research utilizing human subjects in ethics, compliance, federal (and institutional) requirements and accepted scientific standards. Institutions around the world, including all of the academic medical centers in the U.S., utilize the CITI Program. In addition, the CITI program is used by the U.S. military, government agencies, and many companies involved in research. To achieve certification, EBCI staff went through rigorous training on Human Subjects Research (HSR), Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and Conflict of Interest. These trainings delineate the key principles for conducting recruitment and research, consistent with federal (and institutional) requirements and accepted scientific standards. In the area of patient recruitment, topics include informed consent, ethical standards for communicating treatments, principles for correct communication, HIPPA compliance and confidentiality, and other current regulatory guidelines. Dellann Elliott Mydland, President and Founder of the EndBrainCancer Initiative, commented, We are proud to receive CITI certification. Since 2002, EBCI has been dedicated to advocating for the rights of patients for immediate access to brain tumor specialists, Centers of Excellence, cutting edge treatments, and promising clinical trials. EBCI addresses the need for immediate access through its "Direct Connect" Patient Services program by educating and "pre-qualifying" brain cancer patients for clinical trials, and directly connecting them to the Principal Investigator (PI) or Medical Center hosting this trial within the patients geography. EBCI also creates education and awareness for the brain tumor patient community through its Brain Tumor Disease Education, Awareness, and Outreach Program and advocates for on behalf of brain tumor patients for increased access and reimbursement of therapies of benefit to brain cancer patients and for changes in WHO and NCCN Guidelines to include genomic testing as part of Standard of Care (SOC) for all cancer patients. Now with CITI certification, we can deepen our partnership with research institutions and principal investigators to be able to place qualified patients quickly and seamlessly. It will also help us further our goal of attracting and supporting more brain cancer clinical trials in our Puget Sound region at the Alvord Brain Tumor Center at UW Medicine, the Ben & Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish Neuroscience Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, etc., and other brain tumor centers across the U.S. The CITI Program has been a leading research ethics and compliance training since its founding in 2000. Federal law requires Institutional Review Boards (IRB) ensure that specific ethical and procedural standards are followed in all aspects of the clinical trial including formulation, recruitment, conducting of the trial, communications, reporting and research conclusions. This program is recognized by the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Human Research Protections as meeting the educational requirements of 45 CFR 46 and is a must for professionals working in clinical research. Having achieved CITI certification, EBCI is poised to serve as a recruiting site for clinical trials across the U.S. starting with the clinical trial, An Exploratory Study of Caregiver Burden Among Family Caregivers of Patients With Cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03069105), which explores the caregiver burden among family caregivers of patients with cancer. Marlon Garzo Saria, PhD, RN, AOCNS, FAAN, Nurse Scientist and Director, Center for Quality and Outcomes Research at Pacific Neuroscience Institute and John Wayne Cancer Institute has this to say of EBCIs work: The role of EBCI in the development and conduct of research is not only important, it is necessary. There is a growing consensus to advance the role of patients and the public in research. In fact, it is now more common to see patient and public involvement as a requirement to receive funding in many countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and the USA. EBCI serves as the perfect liaison between researchers and patients. EBCI serves as the voice of patients and their families and also helps advocate and support research. I believe that the partnership we have with EBCI will be a model of academic-public collaboration in advancing the science of caregiving. Brain cancer research faces unique challenges. Currently, only approximately 3% of brain cancer patients nationwide enroll in clinical trials. This low number of enrollees, coupled with the lack of patients relative to other cancers, the short life expectancy of brain tumor patients, and patients often not brought to clinical trials soon enough, presents a major challenge for researchers. The EndBrainCancer Initiative receives thousands of inquiries from brain cancer patients, caregivers and families every year. The EBCI team pre-qualifies them for clinical trials and then Directly Connects them to the hosting medical center or principal investigator. The organization envisions seeing clinical trial enrollment increased to 15% by 2025. Achieving CITI certification is a major step in achieving this goal. EBCI interacts intensively with patient caregivers. The initial clinical study EBCI is recruiting for focuses on the role and burden of the caregiver. Tina Emerson-Hoffman, CITI Certified Patient Liaison & Navigator at EBCI, had this to say about the importance of better understanding the role of the caregiver: A brain cancer diagnosis is a devastating experience for everyone involved. Non-professional caregivers and long-term care providers of cancer patients receive little preparation, information, or support to perform their vital role, although we know that patients with a strong, experienced caregiver have greater outcomes. A family is often so focused on the patient, that many caregivers find themselves overwhelmed and at a loss on where to turn or what to do next. In our day to day work, EBCI is in the position to offer caregivers and families just the support they need to navigate this journey, and to help ease that burden. In my role at EBCI, Im really excited to participate in this family caregiver-focused trial, and others. It is a great opportunity to have a positive impact, as the caregiver burden can negatively impact patient outcomes. My hope is that we can increase enrollment for this trial, which can inform treatment for all brain and other cancer patients. Brain cancer patients and their families are in need of a helping hand, as few are prepared to seek out clinical trials on their own. Because of the weight of a brain cancer diagnosis and the often related cognitive impairment, patients are not often at full capacity to make these decisions in a very short timeframe. The EndBrainCancer Initiative is very experienced with these dynamics and has always sought to be a patient-centric advocate helping patients find the right treatment or trial for them. In order to advance patients outcomes through our work, more direct involvement in clinical trials is the next step, added Dellann Elliott Mydland. Currently, EBCI is also proud to serve as the patient voice in development of two clinical trials around the needs of patients and caregivers in the Pacific Northwest as well as SPORE Clinical Projects at the Thomas K. Hearn, Jr. Brain Tumor Research Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center in Winston-Salem, NC. We are excited to further our goal of fueling research and clinical trial enrollment with new CITI credentials. We welcome collaboration inquiries from other clinical research organizations, pharma, biomed, device and diagnostic companies, and clinical research organizations (CROs) on partnership opportunities to increase outcomes and enrollment. About the EndBrainCancer Initiative The EndBrainCancer Initiative (EBCI, formerly the Chris Elliott Fund) is a national brain cancer and brain tumor patient advocacy and services organization and 501(c) 3 social enterprise with offices in Redmond, Washington. Established in 2002 and now celebrating 16 years of service, EBCI is committed to finding a cure for brain cancer and bringing HOPE to the lives of patients and their families through its three programs: -Direct Connect Patient Support and Services Program -Brain Tumor Disease Education, Awareness, and Outreach Program -Brain Tumor Patient Advocacy and Access Since its founding, EBCI has helped thousands of patients, caregivers, and their families and has become a credible and trusted resource at all levels in the brain cancer treatment community from patients to research institutions to pharmaceutical and regulatory entities advocating on the National and State level for the approval and reimbursement of new therapies for cancer patients. EBCI also participates as the Patient Voice in clinical trial design, an example can be seen in CNS Oncology (Link to Article). EBCI supports about 900+ patients, caregivers and families, free of charge annually through its Direct Connect Program, and provide Education/Awareness/Outreach to over 8.7 million annually, including members of the Brain Tumor Community. EBCI is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO), American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, American Association for Cancer Research, and Life Sciences Washington, among other organizations. If we can help, please contact us at WeCare@EndBrainCancer.org or 425.444.2215. To support EBCIs efforts, programs, and services, provide a gift today at http://www.endbraincancer.org. Follow us on Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/EndBrainCancer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EndBrainCancer/ Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChrisElliottfundOrg LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chris-elliott-fund/ The Innovation Prize was a way for corporate partners like Travelers to dive deeper into the semifinalist pool and identify those that could help to resolve a potential issue for their organization. Connecticut Innovations (CI) today announced that Travelers, one of the largest property casualty insurers with major operations in Hartford, has awarded RozieAI the $25,000 VentureClash Innovation Prize. Managed by Connecticut Innovations, VentureClash is a $5 million global venture challenge for early-stage companies in digital health, financial technology, insurance technology and the Internet of Things. We are constantly evaluating new technologies that will benefit our customers, agents and employees, said Michael Klein, Executive Vice President and President of Personal Insurance at Travelers. RozieAIs innovative natural language understanding and machine learning solutions have the potential to help us to continue building long-lasting relationships with customers. We are pleased to award RozieAI with the Innovation Prize, and we look forward to further collaboration to drive meaningful customer engagement. RozieAI is a state-of-the-art language comprehension and context management solution that helps brands offer personalized customer care at scale. This week, we were able to meet and engage with so many promising companies, said Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations. The Innovation Prize was a way for corporate partners like Travelers to dive deeper into the semifinalist pool and identify those that could help to resolve a potential issue for their organization. The Innovation Prize was announced at the VentureClash semifinalist pitch event at Upward Hartford on Thursday, August 2, 2018. If RozieAI establishes a Connecticut presence, the company will be eligible for an additional $25,000 in grant funding from Connecticut Innovations. The finals event, which will feature 10 companies, will be on Thursday, October 18, at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Conn. For more information and to register to attend the VentureClash finals, visit http://www.ventureclash.com. About VentureClash Managed by Connecticut Innovations, VentureClash is Connecticuts global venture challenge focused on early-stage companies. The challenge identifies high-potential companies in digital health, fintech, insurtech and the Internet of Things that will receive investments from a $5 million investment award pool. Learn more at http://www.ventureclash.com. About Connecticut Innovations Inc. Connecticut Innovations (CI) is Connecticuts strategic venture capital arm and is the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies. CI provides venture capital and strategic guidance for early-stage technology companies, and connections to its well-established network of partners and professionals. For more information, please visit http://www.ctinnovations.com. If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity. PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move. Cookies What are cookies ? How do we use cookies? How to control cookies? 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Since Smith emailed a letter to her clients on July 24, confessing that recently she had not handled a situation as well as I should have and thus was dissolving the agency effective immediately, 19 former clients have reached out to PW, sharing tales of a pattern of malfeasance that has shaken their confidence and adversely affected their careers. According to some former clients, she claimed to have had offers in hand that didnt exist, such as, one author requesting anonymity disclosed, a $50,000 two-book deal. She informed others that editors had expressed interest in their submissions, but subsequently told them that either the editors had then lost interest or had outright rejected those submissions. Clients also complained about Smiths refusal to communicate with them honestly and in a timely fashion, as well as the lack of transparency, including a reluctance to render submission lists to them upon request. Several clients allege that she even forged emails from editors and passed this correspondence along to them. Since this began, I and others have kept asking why, and looking for some rational explanation, a well-known author who is knowledgeable about the situation told PW. As more and more levels of deception are uncovered, you think, wouldnt it have been easier to just to do the work? And of course it would have been. And the more you learn, the more all rational explanations fall away. So then Im left wondering if the deception itself wasnt the end game. Just the sheer thrill of getting away with it. The negative experiences with Smith, according to these sources, go as far back as five years, when Smith was a newly minted agent at Foreword Literary. She moved to Red Fox Literary in 2014. Smith, who was named a PW Star Watch Honoree in 2016, launched Lupine Grove in Shell Beach (San Luis Obispo County), Calif., in January 2017. Agent Jennie Kendrick joined Smith at Lupine Grove this past January. After complaints about her surfaced on social media in the wake of that letter, Smith shut down the Lupine Grove website and deleted her social media accounts. PW has reached out to Smith for comment on the allegations, but has not received a response. More than 60 writers whom Smith has represented at some point between 2013 and 2018 have joined a private Facebook group, where they are sharing information and commiserating with one another. While there is much speculation as to why Smith treated her clients the way she did, and the extent of the deceptions, nobody really has any answersincluding Kendrick, who worked remotely from San Francisco. Kendrick says she was taken completely by surprise by Smiths letter and has spent her time since finding a new home for my clients. She added, As far as my working relationship with Danielle goes, it was professional and helpful, and she was always responsive to me and my clients, so this was just a shock all around. According to the former client who is referred to in Smiths July 24 letter, who spoke with PW on condition of anonymity, Smith represented her for two years, until June. Almost a year ago, Smith claimed that she had scored at auction a lucrative two-book deal with a major house for this debut author of a middle-grade novel. I never heard from the editor after [I] accepted the offer, she said. Danielle always had excuses. Eight months passed, and I saw a lawyer. After the client fired Smith, even though she believed that she thus was negating the deal, she signed on with a new agentwho discovered that there was no such deal with that editor. No one knew who I was and no one had read my book in two years, she said. Danielle broke my heart. You think someone is taking care of you, taking care of your art. Theyre taking the most vulnerable part of you and exposing it in such a dark way. The writer says that the absolute love expressed by the industry this past week has been a light during such a dark time, thus renewing her faith in the publishing process and her hopes that her novel will find a home. This deceit has been ongoing for her entire career, maintains writer Jason Rust, who signed with Smith in 2013 as her third or fourth client. I've heard that shes sticking hard to the story that it was just one series of mistakes made during a time of some personal stress. That's simply not the case, and were all tired of letting her set the narrative. She did wrong by all of us, all this time. This was not an isolated, recent incident. Its the nuclear bomb sitting on top of the pile of dynamite she built up over five years. PWs research into Lupine Groves track record and conversations with knowledgeable sources appears to confirm former clients allegations that Smith did not actively play a role in selling books, especially since leaving Red Fox. Several authors PW spoke with maintained that they initiated the contacts with editors at conferences and other professional events that resulted in deals, while other deals were due to long-standing relationships. One prominent author claims that she successfully connected one Lupine Grove author with a publisher. And while picture book author Julie Falatko, Smiths first client, says Smith brokered five picture book deals since 2013, there have been none from her submissions in the past two years. Rust says that he has written four middle grade science fiction novels, and collaborated on a graphic novel for young readers. Hes also written two adult novels. He has yet to be published. Recalling that he followed Smith from Foreword to Red Fox and then to Lupine Grove, he said, I thought we were friends, and that she really believed in my work. Rust disclosed that last fall, he tried to fire Smith, but that she begged him to give her a second chance. Since then, he says, he has spent less time writing, because in the back of my head, I was thinking, shes already got five books to sell. During the last week, Rust contacted an editor whom Smith had told him several years ago was interested in making an offer but then had stopped responding to Smiths overtures; the editor denied ever receiving a submission. She also told him she was not interested in the genre, so if Smith had submitted anything of his, it would have been for naught. Kristina Martin says that she met Smith at an SCBWI conference in 2014, and that there was an immediate rapport as they discussed Martins YA historical novel. They later talked on the phone as friends about the novel, after which Smith offered to represent her. Like most of the others PW spoke with, Smith was Martins first agent. Submissions began to be sent out, Martin believed, in 2016, while Smith still worked at Red Fox; after Smith launched Lupine Grove, she told Martin that she had queried four more editors. After months of no responses from editors and empty promises from Danielle for copies of her follow-ups on those submissions, I fired her in May 2017, Martin said, From the editors weve heard back from [since], they never received a submission. Danielle is like a bad romance: she totally groomed me to think she was the perfect agent because she understood me so well. When I complained about anything, I just misunderstood her or what shed said, or things must have gotten lost but shed be sure to send them right away. I dont want my experience with Danielle to be the reason I fail as a writer, she added. But I have to admit that her gaslighting has had that effect. Thats the worst thing of having been Danielle Smiths client: the emotional games didnt just keep me from selling my novel. They made me question what to believe. David Pierce, who has created picture books and a graphic novel, says that he signed on with Smith a year ago, on the recommendation of an industry insider whom he declined to name. He said that he quickly felt that somethings not right, due to the lack of communication on submissions and her stalling when he asked for a list. After he had a conversation with her in May about his concerns, she told him that DreamWorks was interested in one of his projects (she told several other clients the same thing at about the same time). There never was this DreamWorks thing, he told PW. We all have the same stories. Disclosing that he has this past week been in contact with an editor interested in his work whom Smith claimed to have submitted to but never did, as well as two agents sympathetic to his plight, Pierce says that while both his confidence in his work and in his ability to judge character have been shaken by Smiths deceptions, he hopes not to lose the child-like view of the world that has made me go towards childrens stuff in the first place. As for Kristi Romo, who creates picture books, and who signed with Smith in 2015, she felt a massive weight lifted after firing Smith in January, following a discussion about Smith with author Anne Ursu, who told Romo that it was not a normal agent-client relationship. I gave her the benefit of the doubt over and over again, Romo said, recalling that Smith once blew off Romos request for updates by claiming she was busy participating in three auctions. I [felt] bad for suspecting her of bad behavior. No more. When PW spoke with Romo, she disclosed that she had been wary of querying agents since firing Smith, as they dont respond anyway, and that perhaps there simply wasnt a market for her work. I doubt Ill ever be published, she said. In a subsequent email, however, she reported that she has since realized that since her work had never been sent to any editors, I have nothing on which to base that impression. She has since queried eight agents who had offered Smiths former clients their sympathies and indicated that they were open to submissions from themalthough Romo concedes that she still fears being fooled again. Its scarier to query than it was three years ago, she wrote. But Im determined to rise up and not berate myself for being duped. I have since felt vindicated for having the doubts that I had. I was right on, but had been told by the whole writing world to trust my agent. So I did. But if I dont trust her[I cant] say anything critical or Ill never get another agent. So I didnt. Many of the other authors interviewed for this story echoed Romos fears of risking being blacklisted in the industry if they expressed displeasure with Smith. One, the author of picture books and middle grade novels, who was represented by Smith for a year before switching to another agent, told PW that perhaps the industry should speculate less about why Smith deceived her clients and focus more on the larger issues of communication and transparency between industry professionals and authors. Recalling her own frustration with Smiths lack of timely responses to emails, and frequent lack of response, this authorwho requested anonymitytold PW that Smiths behavior towards her clients, while extreme, is not an isolated case in terms of some agents not keeping lines of communication open. For a long time, I didnt suspect that anything was amiss, because I had experienced that kind of erratic communication with agents and editors before, she wrote in an email. I cant think of another industry where this level of communication would be acceptable. But when working with agents and editors, it's commonplace. I wonder if the fact that many agents and editors overlook common business communication etiquette (i.e., reply within a few business days), and the fact that we authors and illustrators are used to this and fear being shunned if we complainI wonder if this created the ideal breeding ground for Danielles underhanded practices to go on as long as they did. Heres hoping that the whole Danielle debacle opens a larger conversation about improving communication and transparency. Correction: An earlier version of this story stated Danielle Smith launched her agent career at Fuse Literary. Smith worked at Foreword Literary from March 2013 to March 2014. The company rebranded to become Fuse Literary in October 2014. The BoG claims some of affected banks procured their operational licences through dubious means. Dr Ernest Addison, Bank of Ghana governor, who disclosed this at a press conference in Accra, said it has appointed Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as the receiver for the five banks. He stated, All deposits of the five banks are safe and have been transferred to the Consolidated Bank. Customers can carry out their business as usual at their respective banks which will now become branches of the Consolidated Bank. According to Dr Addison, all staff of the collapsed banks, totalling about 2,000, would become staff of the Consolidated Bank, adding that boards and shareholders of the five banks would no longer have any role in the new bank. The governor explained that efforts by the banks to overcome financial difficulties proved futile, resulting in the worsening of their plight, hence the decision to merge them. He said Unibank and Royal Bank were identified during the asset quality review update in a 2016 exercise to be significantly undercapitalised. Kenya has enlisted the help of a British firm to spy on drivers in a move meant to put a stop to reckless driving on Kenyan roads and car theft as well as drastically lower claims payout by insurers which crossed Sh200 billion last year. All cars in the country will soon be fitted with speed tracking gadgets located in the most obvious locations but where drivers will have no power to control or tamper with, electronic stickers expected to be launched soon and mandatory for every car to have one. A London Stock Exchange listed firm, Starcom Plc spilled the beans after it disclosed to UK regulators its plans to begin supplying the devices to Kenya within the next few months. A new opportunity in Kenya, where all vehicles will soon be required to have telematic devices fitted, has been presented to the company, Starcom said in a trading note to investors. The leading global provider of digital vehicle tracking headquartered in Jersey, said in a regulatory disclosure on Monday it expects to start getting orders from Nairobi within the next five months. We are incorporating our technology inside a portable handheld printer which will be used by local police to inspect suspicious vehicles. The disclosure comes ahead of the imminent rollout of electronic stickers for Kenyan vehicles which will instantly give law enforcers traffic information such as vehicle ownership, insurance and history of offences. The rollout of Third Licence Sticker, which will be mandatory for Sh700 ($7) a piece has been delayed from the initial target of July 2017. The stickers will use radio-frequency technology to transmit information to the NTSA via handheld readers or overhead street cameras. Details on the telematics record however remain sketchy. The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) director-general Francis Meja on Monday, when quizzed by a local business daily on the same said he was not aware of the Starcom contract, but reiterated moving towards digital storage and retrieval of motor vehicle data. Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! His response comes after the youth of Kasoa in the Central Region formed a self-financed movement to help get him elected as the Member of Parliament in the area. The youth recently launched a campaign to get the millionaire, a native of Kasoa, elected for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Reports said a delegation is being put together by the movement to convince the man popularly known as NAM 1 to contest the next parliamentary elections. But, Nana Appiah Mensah, in a quick response has shot down the campaign, claiming he appreciates the efforts but 'not enthused' about a parliamentary status now. He further revealed that he is 'committed to creating one million decent jobs in Ghana within 5 years'. The reigning queen has shared the shocking and horrible ordeals they were put through by Inna Patty and her Exclusive Events Ghana. According to Margaret Dery, she was asked to raise money towards projects and the Miss World competition since it is not cheap. However, the beauty queen disclosed finding sponsorship for these project was not an easy task with a few helping her and others slamming doors in her face. Even 'good friends' of Inna Patty she was sent to for support denied her because they did not trust Inna for 'her love for money and stories for past Queens.' In a long post, resigned Miss Ghana 2017 wrote: "I moved from one office to the other and one individual to the other, some were kind enough to give, others either slammed the door in my face or made empty promises but the most prominent reason from most people for not wanting to give money was the fear of Inna Patty spending it, even people she directed me to go to claiming they were her good friends would give such reasons saying they didnt trust her because of her love for money and stories for past Queens complaining about her attitude of embezzling funds," She said. READ MORE: BEAUTY AND HEALTHMagaret Dery tells the full story behind her Miss Ghana resignation "With all these, I was still able to raise an amount of $4,074.11 which I handed over to her and have to receipts to prove and I raised an additional $5000 from various individuals and companies, therefore an amount of $9074.11 has been raised by me and it remains an amount of $925.89 which Im working tirelessly every day to raise but not that she or anyone in her company cares, after all, she makes it look to people as if shes the one paying for the surgery when the only thing she dies is to stand for pictures when its time to make the donation. Inna Patty doesnt really care about how the money is raised, so long as it comes in and makes her foundation look good shes fine with that," she added. The beauty queen, who was crowned on Saturday, October 7, 2017, at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra, resigned a few days ago after labelling the pageantry a scam. The beauty queen, who was crowned on Saturday, October 7, 2017, at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra, resigned a few days ago after labeling the pageantry a scam. Margaret Derys resignation is not the first of its kind in the history of the competition. Other former winners of the pageant including 3 Former Beauty Queens-Miss Ghana 2010-Stephanie Karikari, Miss Ghana 2015-Antoinette Delali Kemavor and Miss Ghana 2013-Giuseppina Nana Akua Baafi and 1 first-runner up-Margaret Kuma-Mintah did same. Before Margaret Derys resignation, she documented her Miss Ghana ordeals and here is what it contained: On the 7 of October 2017,the grand finale of the miss Ghana 60 years on pageant was organized and I(Margaret Mwintuur Dery) was crowned as the ultimate winner. During the grooming period it took weeks of training for long hours and spending money on various items. We were told by the organizers to put in as much as we could since in the end we would reap the benefits of the labor but that was just one of their favorite lies they had repeated just to make us feel there was light at the end of the tunnel, but trust me, this tunnel is never ending and there is certainly no light at the end of it. It all began with the signing of the contract on. I vividly remember that myself and some of the other girls asked to call our parents or at least seek legal counsel, we were then 20,since we had been picked out of the top 60 but we were told by one of the team members(Kadijah Patty) that if we did not want to sign the contract we should get up and leave because there were other girls who were willing to come and take our places. After struggling to make it to even that stage, who would not want to quickly sign and move on even if they did not fully understand what had been scripted down in that contract. On that same day, we were told we assemble in the reception area of the office since Inna Patty wanted to meet us. I realized that even before she came, everyone was running in order to impress her. The Alpha and Omega as they addressed her as they said what she said was always final and that no one had the guts to speak back to her even if she was wrong. She sat with us and introduced herself as Inna Patty, THE CEO of Exclusive Events Ghana and the organizer of the miss Ghana pageant. She asked if we had gone through the contract and had signed and we said yes in unison. She went through some of the parts of the contract with us but not the rest because she claimed that those parts were similar to what had already been gone through. The problems started from the camping period but we never spoke about them because the one or two times that we did we were assured that things would get better but to this day nothing has gotten better. The schedule was usually gym, rehearsals and then back home. I would leave home as early as 5;30 am to get to the gym at 6;00am, the sessions there were usually for about an hour and then off to the rehearsal grounds. Rehearsals would usually end around 11pm and then we would have to find our way back home and pay with our own monies when all this while we were supposed to be camped in a place so that right after rehearsals we would all move together for safety purposes, but that was the opposite of it. We were only camped a week or less to the grand finale. Right after the grand finale, even a car to take the winner and runner ups back to the hotel was an issues. We were all squeezed in the smallish car of one Archibald Acquae (Mr.Ghana) and taken back to the hotel and when I asked him where the prize car was and why it had not been displayed for everyone to see as is normal with all beauty pageants, he had no proper answer to give me. I kept asking about the prize car day in and out but I was never given any proper answers, on some occasions, I was told by some members of the Miss Ghana team that the car was now being shipped from one country to Ghana and that they couldnt find that particular color (white)of the car in Ghana. I was required to go to the miss Ghana office everyday even on Saturdays when my presence was required and how I got there or got back home was none of their business, whilst other pageant queens were cruising around in their prize cars, I was busily entering either trotros or ubers to reach my destination. Even on days where we were required to meet at programs, we would be made to find our ways to spintex and then all be taken from there so as not to raise any supisions. All this while, I was on a salary of 500 cedis (the prize money) which I was supposed to use to take care of my transportation and other needs. Imagine going in and out of spintex from cantonments every day for one week, that would cost about 105 cedes not to talk about going there every day for one month. The pressure from friends and family concerning the whereabouts of the car became intense. The very first time I had seen the monster in Inna Patty was when she called me to her office one evening and said she had seen on social media and had heard that a lot of people were asking about the car and she suspected I was behind it, she raised her voice the whole time saying that if myself or anyone dared her she was going to sue and that she doesnt owe anyone a car. She also stated that its out of the goodness of her heart that shes thinking of providing the cars and if she doesnt no one can hold her responsible because for that year she was only advertising a role and not prizes. She included that if in future she sees any of my friends or family posting about the car on social media she was going to use the person as a scape goat to teach the others a lesson. Out of fear I didnt mention it to anyone but just to save myself and others, when anyone asked of the car I would just reply by saying its coming even though I was always ignored in the office or told I was disturbing every time I asked about it. I was called to the office by Inna one day and told that because the car was not in yet she would want to give me one of the old cars in the office to be using, but there was a catch, I was to get a guarantor to sign that should damage occur to the vehicle during my use, they are prepared to take full responsibility for all liabilities, cost of repairs or replacement, and persons are to have a minimum of 20 years working experience. Knowing who Inna patty is, she was just trying to be sly as always, first of all, everyone in that office knew the car had issues and if for instance I had started using it and after a week or two it would develop faults, that would be my guarantors problem and not hers and she will just get more time to give more stories about the car she was to give to me. More staling tactics included asking me to get a driver that had 10 years experience which she had no intention of paying, asking for a copy of my drivers license which lay in her office for months and continuously urging me to take the old car which I continuously refused to take. The car was finally given to me on 22/03/18 but as usual inna Patty gave me only one key, saying that she still has some things to sort out with the people who sponsored the car so they have not given her all the keys and as soon as she gets the keys she will give them to me but to this day shes not said anything about it. With regards to my CSR project, before being picked as part of the top 20 contestants, you are to work on a project to help them pick miss beauty with a purpose. My project was based on women empowerment with regards to land rights in the Upper West region. I felt that after winning the crown, the platform would be used to expand the project and bring more light to it especially considering the fact that it was in the Upper West region but after reminding Inna and her team constantly about my project and my willingness to go back and expand on it, I was told that Innas foundation already has uncompleted projects by past Queens and needed to be completed by me who was the current queen. I asked them so what then happens to mine and I was told that only when I would be able to finish theirs then I could do the project of my choice. I have only a year to reign and they had projects which needed serous funding and all these were left on my shoulders as the runner ups werent as bothered as I was. For example project to raise $15,000 was given to myself and my runner ups to work on. Where was I or the other two supposed to raise this kind of money from? Raising the first $5000, which I raised about a $1000 of was not easy and Inna kept making it look like a challenge between the three of us. At the end of the day, I ended up raising the most of the first $5000. After that everything was left for me to do, that is raising the rest of the $10,000. I moved from one office to the other and one individual to the other, some were kind enough to give, others either slammed the door in my face or made empty promises but the most prominent reason from most people for not wanting to give money was the fear of Inna Patty spending it, even people she directed me to go to claiming they were her good friends would give such reasons saying they didnt trust her because of her love dor money and stories for past Queens complaining about her attitude of embezzling funds. With all these, I was still able to raise an amount of $4,074.11 which I handed over to her and have to receipts to prove and and I raised an additional $5000 from various individuals and companies, therefore an amount of $9074.11 has been raised by me and it remains an amount of $925.89 which Im working tirelessly every day to raise but not that she or anyone in her company cares after all she makes it look to people as if shes the one paying for the surgery when the only thing she dies is to stand for pictures when its time to make the donation. Inna Patty doesnt really care about how the money is raised, so long as it comes in and makes her foundation look good shes fine with that. Another event that was held to help raise funds for the scoliosis project was the kiddie bazaar where myself and the other two ladies were to look for sponsors to provide in cash or kind to help make the program a success,Kasapreko company ltd was one I helped get on board to help provide water and drinks to help cater for the invited orphanages and yummy noodles as well. The blood drive was also a project I worked on by acquiring food and drinks for all donors to help raise awareness on the importance of blood donations. I have also been present to give speeches at various events such as the launch of the Crystal capital initiative at Lancaster university and also the GNUTS annual conference. I have gone for programs ranging from going for dinners to funerals of people who I do not even know. None of these efforts were ever appreciated. In the beginning, when we were usually taken for programs and people gave us business cards, they would either take the business cards from us on the spot or demand that we bring them to the office. A recent event I expressed interest in going for was the VGMA where because of an incident between she and I she made the bearer of the tickets hide them from me and only made him inform me about them when it was too late for me to go, but fortunately I managed to acquire tickets from an aunt of mine and therefore did not see it as necessary to go with my sash and crown since Inna and her people had hidden tickets given by the organizer of the show for Miss Ghana. My most recent issue with her was from a birthday photoshoot which she claims I used a competing modelling agency for which I have explained to her time without number that they are not and that it was a group of friends who rallied together to help me make my birthday shoot a success. If indeed it was a competing modelling agency, why then didnt they demand for payment. Inna Patty has also accused me time without number about being in contact with various bloggers to make her look bad which I do not appreciate because it is untrue. With regards to the fabrics shes supposed to provide, she demands that we appear for all occasions wearing only ATL which is supposed to be the sponsor for Miss Ghana and her runner ups, but the fabric they provide, or at least what she says they provide is so scanty that after they give us two and three yards of the fabric and then expect us to use magic to come out with elegant outfits. These ATL fabrics are to be given to me every month but since I have only received these fabrics twice, once last year and once at the beginning of 2018. A lady paid 500 cedes a month should not be expected to use it to buy ATL fabrics which are supposed to be sponsored . According to the Miss Ghana contract, Inna Patty is supposed to house the winner and her runner ups for a year, but since I won, nothing has been said of the house or even plans of it, she only keeps saying theyre still putting up the foundation. With regards to representing the country at this years Miss World competition, I have been told by Inna Patty to start raising money towards it since it is not cheap, approach various sponsors and start training. She tends to threaten me with not going for the world competition every time she asks me to do something and I dont, she tends to say she will tell the organizers of Miss World that she has crowned me and I do not cooperate with her. With regards to passport issues, after my runner ups and I returned from Hungary on 28 Nov 2017, Inna Patty asked us to leave our passports with her for no reason, I asked her later and she said it was for travel opportunities, she did not hand over the passports until my parents and the parents of the runner ups put some pressure on her. There have been various times when I receive invitations by certain NGOs to partake in their programs and for one reason or another she makes it difficult for them to meet with her or even for me to work with them even after I express interest. One of such is the Eco school project I kept pushing but she kept ignoring. She goes round spoiling my name to so many people and pretending shes the victim of the whole situation. Also, she and her team never stick to their side of an agreement whenever one is made between another individual or group of individuals and themselves. On 18 April 2018, Chief Hafiz called a meeting between she and myself, it was agreed that it would only be between the three of us (Myself, Inna and Chief) but she invited two more people (Senam Penu and Audrey) which left me outnumbered. After several arguments at the meeting we agreed to let bygones be bygones but the 24April, I received an email from the contestants manager demanding for an apology letter for issues raised by them that I had not done and also for me to sign a bond of good behavior. After receiving this letter, I was truly shocked and so was chief Hafiz because that was not what we had all agreed on. These are just some of the issues of concern I can remember. Reports say President Akufo-Addo was misled into granting executive approval for the deal under the guise of there being an urgent need to have a bill laid in Parliament before its rising. READ ALSO: VRA senior staff kick against revised AMERI power deal Despite the protest against the re-negotiation of the AMERI deal, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has approved the new deal pending parliamentary approval. On his return to Accra on Tuesday from the 53rd session of the ECOWAS Heads of State meeting in Togo, the President quickly requested and received a further briefing on the new deal. This revealed that the agreement to which he had given approval on July 31 lacked the requisite input from the Attorney General and the Ministry of Finance. The President had been misled to believe that both departments had assessed the deal thoroughly. A source form Glo Ghana told Pulse.com.gh that the debt issue resulted in a legal tussle. The court ruled that Glo Ghana stops providing the service to Surfline. According to him, Glo did its best to ensure the situation did not get out of hand but Surfline did not help matters. He added that officials of the two entities are now in meetings over the way forward. Some customers of Surfline Ghana Limited have expressed their frustration over the internet blackout by the company. According to some of the Surfline customers they have not had internet access for the past 3 days. In a Facebook post, on July 31, 2018, Surfline apologised for the internet blackout attributing it to technical challenges. Dear Customer, we apologize for your inability to access our network at the moment due to some technical challenges. Our Team is working to restore service. There are no specific timelines as at now. Our team is working around the clock to restore connectivity as soon as possible. We will communicate with you via SMS & Social Media when our services are fully restored. Thank you for your patience, it added. READ ALSO: Here are the reasons BoG revoked licenses of 5 indigenous banks Surfline added that the said technical challenges affected all its call centres hence their inability to effectively communicate the internet blackout to customers. These explanations have not gone down well with customers of Surfline on social media. Most of them argue that Surfline has shut down its call centre to avoid the pressure from customers who were going to call for explanations. The internet service provider was established in 2011 but was officially launched in August 2014. It was adjudged the Best 4G LTE internet service provider of the Year in 2015. The Governor, Dr Ernest Addison explained that they consolidated the banks because some of them were licensed through false means by fake presenting documents which showed they could meet the new capital requirement. Others also had liquidity challenges and were also not in good standing to meet the BoGs recapitalized amount of Ghc400 million. Here the Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors of the 5 banks that have been merged by the Bank of Ghana. uniBank Dr. Kwabena Duffour II (CEO) Duffuor II replaced Felix Nyarko-Pong as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of uniBank on June 1, 2017. Until that elevation, he served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the bank a position he had held since June 2013. The son of the former Bank of Ghana Governor holds a Ph.D. in Finance, an MSc Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, City of London, UK, and a degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Southampton. He has over 9 years of banking experience both locally and internationally. He worked with Ghana International Bank Plc, uniBank (Ghana) Limited and Standard Chartered Bank in various departments including, Retail Banking, Treasury Operations, and Credit Risk Management. Beige Bank Mike Nyinaku (CEO) Mike Nyinaku found the BEIGE Group (TBG) in 2008 after he worked for 10 years as an accountant. The professional accountant prefers to be referred to as a student of entrepreneurship. He also set up the BEIGE Foundation to promote youth and social development through some sponsored programs implemented across Ghana. Before he started BEIGE, he was Chief Finance Officer of OICI-GH, a US-based NGO. The Royal Bank Osei Asafo-Adjei (Managing Director/CEO) Mr Asafo-Adjei started his banking career as a credit officer of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) in 1993. He worked with the Trust Bank as General Manager, Business Development, Head of Corporate Banking and Head of Corporate and Commercial Banking from 2004 to 2012. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana accused of deliberately collapsing local banks Until June 2016, he was the executive director of the Corporate Banking Division of HFC Bank Ltd. He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Glasgow, England and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The Construction Bank Stephen Kpordzih (CEO) Stephen Kpordzih has over 30 years industry experience in credit risk, corporate finance, treasury and debt structuring. He worked as the CEO of Agricultural Development Bank (adb) before his appointment as head of the Construction Bank. He also worked as the Head of Wholesale Banking of Stanbic Bank. He has also worked with the Ghana Commercial Bank. At Barclays Bank Ghana, he is said to have been appointed as the then youngest Business Development Manager, after he was trained at the Barclays Bank Plc (UK). Mr. Kpordzih is a chartered banker, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana, and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, United Kingdom. Sovereign Bank Johan Rheeder (Managing Director/ CEO) John Rheeder has three decades of experience in banking. Prior to his appointment at the Sovereign Bank, he was the CEO of Charter One Bank, Juba, South Sudan. He joined that institution from the Barclays African Group in Johannesburg where he was the head of Branchless Banking Delivery. BoG explained that shareholders, related and connected parties took a total amount of GH3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the banks loan portfolio. uniBank had also given to shareholders, related and connected parties GH1.6 billion in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930. Due to this development, The Official Administrator appointed for uniBank in March 2018 said that the bank was beyond rehabilitation. In 2016, the BoG identified UniBank and Royal Bank to be significantly undercapitalized during the Asset Quality Review update. The two banks subsequently submitted capital restoration plans to the Bank of Ghana. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana accused of deliberately collapsing local banks The plans of the banks yielded no results in returning the banks to solvency and compliance with prudential requirements. According to him, the situation, where judges proffer judgements on the basis of decisions from lower courts and cite them as law, is not acceptable, and even less so, when judges cite no authority at all for their rulings, and give orders without reasons. "You must be learned, know your case law and ensure your judgements are properly motivated. The principle of stare decisis, the ancient common law doctrine of precedent, has been, and continues to be the time-honoured foundation for the coherent development of the law, and should not be lightly discarded," he said. He made this known on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, when he swore into office seven new High Court judges, at a brief ceremony at Jubilee House, Accra. The judges are Her Honour Afia Nyarko Adu-Amankwa, His Honour John Ekow Mensah, Her Honour Janet Anima Maafo, His Honour Matthew Kyeremateng, Her Honour Joan Eyi King, His Honour Frederick Tetteh, and Mr. John Eugene Nyante Nyadu. Describing the High Court as "the focal point for justice delivery in our judicial structure", the President indicated that much of the work of the Judiciary begins and ends there. "It is, therefore, critical for the growth of our nation that the High Court commands the respect of the people by the quality of its justice, as well as by the comportment of its judges," he added. "Despite the expose of Anas Aremeyaw Anas into judicial corruption, President Akufo-Addo stated that news persists of perceived acts of corruption in the delivery of Justice, especially at the High Court. "This cannot, and must not be allowed to continue, and any judge, found to be misconducting himself or herself, should know that he or she will face the full rigours of the law," he said. The dispensation of justice, President Akufo-Addo said, requires that application of the laws of the land must occur, "in the hallowed words of the judicial oath, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, that is, without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any person the object of justice." He continued, "When a citizen falls foul of the law, any citizen, high or low, that citizen must be dealt with accordingly, and the law enforcement agencies, including you, our new judges, must ensure this is done. That is the true meaning of the concept of equality before the law." The decision is part of the associations commitment to give back to society and a show of their contribution to mitigate poverty within rural communities in poorest communities in Ghana. READ MORE: 11 things you need before applying for the Nation Builders Corps He said the project was intended to benefit communities and individuals to ease water challenges facing them. He added: "The boreholes will be constructed in deprived areas with the support of MMDCEs". "Water is actually a social amenity that should be readily available but we realize that when it comes to our part of the globe (rural Ghana), we do not get free water easily," he said. The association plans to start the construction in Upper West as soon as the Regional Minister helped them identify the community and the land area for the drilling. Asare said the funding for the boreholes would come from the contributions of members of the association. "The funding will come from us the service personnel, we had congress two months ago and agreed on a special levy of GH15.00 to be deducted from our June allowance. "The fifty MPs in question signed up believing they were signing an attendance book in Parliament," he said. Over ninety-four (94) MPs on the Minority side have declared Mahama as their preferred choice to lead the NDC in its quest to regain power in 2020. But the Yunyoo MP said the NDC will be doomed in the 2020 elections if it elects Mahama as its flagbearer again. Naabu speaking with the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said: "Myself I was tricked that it was a certain document that we were to sign with the attendance book." He explained that although he did not specifically signed the list that was circulating in the media because of his allegiance to the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin and MP for Nadowli West in the Upper West region, his name was included on that list. The Yunyoo MP and Richard Quashigah, Member for Keta made it abundantly clear to the signature hunters that their allegiance was elsewhere. He said political parties needs finance and has the ability to influence the giving of the licenses to the banks. His comments come at the back of the Bank of Ghana creating the Consolidated Bank Gh. Ltd to take over some struggling banks in the country. READ MORE: Bank of Ghana accused of deliberately collapsing local banks The government has made GH450m available for the Consolidated Bank as starting capital. According to the BoG, The BEIGE, Sovereign and the Construction banks obtained their banking licences under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, whereas the Royal Bank had non-performing loans which constitute 78.9 per cent and uniBank had a capital deficit of GH7.4 billion compared to the regulatory minimum of GH400 million. Toma Imihere in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM said "These banks were given license as political patronage. It was just political patronage." Below is his biography:Elikplim Lolormavor Agbemava is an astute lawyer of 15 years professional standing at the Ghana Bar and a grassroots politician who detests mediocrity. He is affectionately called Eli by his peers and close associates. The 41 year old subscribes to the principle and applications of the centre-left democratic ideals. These ideals must work for the betterment of the citizenry else there is no need following them religiously. Eli is passionate about collective nation-building to secure future generations.EARLY LIFE, EDUCATIONBorn on 3rd February, 1977 in the diamond mining town of Akwatia in the Eastern Region of Ghana, Elikplim Agbemava lived the rough edges of life and has come to the conclusion that it is time the youth of Ghana stood up to secure their destiny. According to him, the only way out for the youth is to adopt revolutionary ways of doing things by standing up to be counted in changing the current status quo of leadership where old men have continually been at the forefronts without innovation in their approach to nation building.Wilson and Florence, parents of Elikplim Agbemava hail from Anlo Sroegboe and Dzelukope, all in the Volta region respectively.Elikplim had his early childhood education at the Ghana Consolidated Diamond Ltd Primary School in Akwatia and moved on to Breman Asikuma Secondary School in the Central Region for the GCE O level Certificate between 1989-1994.Having passed brilliantly, Adisadel College was next for Elikplim Agbemava for his GCE A level certificate between 1994 and 1996. He then proceeded to the University of Ghana to read law as a first degree from 1998 to 2001. Elikplim entered the Ghana School of Law in 2001, completed the professional law course and was called to the Ghana Bar in 2003. He has since been in professional law practice.Mr. Agbemava is married to Mrs. Janet Agbemava, a Ga. The couple is blessed with three children -- two girls and a boy.CAREEREli is a lawyer and strategic thinker who applies thorough mental processes to achieve success in every endeavour. He has worked with leading law firms such as Shawbell Consulting, Lawfields Consulting, Ntrakwa & Co and Addison & Associates. He also worked with Bank of Africa (formerly AMAL Bank) before joining the Legal Service of Ghana as a State Attorney. During his public service, Elikplim served as Special Assistant to the Attorney General and the Minister of Education of the Republic of Ghana for 5 years.His professional association with the above-named corporate organizations and government agencies afforded him the opportunity to advise the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana on Credit Reporting legislation, the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) on the regulatory frameworks of Non-Bank Financial Institutions of the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria.He was a key part of the team that carried out an assessment of corporate governance regime in Ghana under the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Report on Standards and Codes. His expansive wealth of knowledge and experience on the banking and finance sector is obviously an add-on to solving the myriad of development challenges that confront our nation.Some international Conferences and Workshops Mr. Agbemava attended include the Workshop for Capital Market Operators organized by the United Nations Economic Commission on Africa in Nigeria, the 8th Session of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at the Hague and the Administrative Council and Council of Ministers of ARIPO meeting in Botswana. Others are the WIPO Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of the Protocol on Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore in Swakopmund, Namibia, the OECD Informal Meeting on the Global Efforts Against Corruption in Paris, France, the Australian Universities, Research Institutions, AusAid and DFAT Roundtable Discussion on Australia-Africa Strategic Engagement in Sydney, Australia and the World Bank/IMF Spring meeting in Washington U.S.A in 2011.Currently, Elikplim Agbemava is Managing Partner at Fidelity Law Group, a law firm he co-founded. He has taken up cases for the underprivileged and the poor in society in his avowed aim to make justice available to everybody. He is carving a niche for himself as a Constitutional Law expert. He is currently before the Supreme Court challenging the huge expense in ex gratia and other retirement benefit payments to all 275 parliamentarians every 4 years.POLITICAL LIFEThough Mr. Agbemava loves to share quality time with friends and family, he is also a very active political animal. His interest in politics has always been nascent until 2004 when he joined the late Nii Adjei Boye Sekan to campaign meetings towards the election of late President Mills as flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).This participation continued in 2008 when he joined a team of lawyers to prepare strategies on educating NDC polling agents on the proper collation of the electoral results for both the parliamentary and presidential elections. This took him to Kumasi as an election monitor for the NDC party. During the tenure of Betty Mould-Iddrisu as Attorney-General, Mr. Agbemava worked with the Solicitor General and the Chief Director of the Ministry in charting and planning towards government cases in courts and other legal assignments.He also served as the Special Assistant to His Excellency Ambassador Lee Ocran (former Ghana Ambassador to South Africa) when the latter was appointed to take over from Hon. Betty Mould Iddrisu as the Minister for Education.Elikplim insists he has always been a member of the NDC and will always work to guarantee a stable party organisation for generations yet unborn.VISIONARTICLE 1(1) of the 1992 Constitution provides that the Sovereignty of Ghana resides in the PEOPLE of Ghana in whose name and for whose WELFARE the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in the Constitution.The vision of Elikplim is to give power back to the people and ensure that every government policy, intervention or initiative is made fundamentally for their WELFARE.Your governments must make life comfortable for you, exist for you and sacrifice for you. When I become the new leader of the NDC I will fight for every member in the same way. THERE WILL BE NO DISCRIMINATION. I will resist every temptation to take advantage of the vulnerable and I will lead you to a better promised land Lawyer Elikplim Lorlormavor Agbemava writes to the NDC rank and file as well as all Ghanaians.Elikplim is a firm believer in the ideals of probity and accountability and the integrity that is needed to carry these values. There is no gainsaying the fact that these ideals gave the NDC party a solid base and an aura of believability, reliability and hope and we must by all means reinstate them.He holds the view that we have indeed lost track for mainly two reasons. First the passage of time means that the current generation who did not experience those glorious days cannot speak to it and dont share the nostalgia we have. Second is the agenda to do away with the principles and the leader and spiritual symbol of those principles. The pace setters of this political tradition must be accorded all the respect and recognition they deserve. Dealing with these problems or reasons calls for education, managerial tactfulness and redemptive measures like law enforcement.PRESIDENTIAL AMBITION, POLICY WONKAfter a deep self-introspection and doing several consultations, Mr. Elikplim Agbemava has decided to contest the presidential flagbearership of the NDC when the party hierarchy opens nominations. He is in it for the long haul.The current trajectory that Ghana is treading is disastrous: unbridled borrowing, no properly packaged medium to long development plan, haphazard and banal public service policy and no deliberate policy towards increasing productivity.Eli represents the epitome of a youth desirous for change. It must be emphasized that there is a growing silent concern and disquiet among the youth of Ghana on the general levels of unemployment and inadequacy of opportunities. We are sitting on a time-bomb, ready to explode. The democracy revolution of Elikplim is to be the vanguard for the forward march of the youth and offer a credible alternative to solving Ghanas problems.This radical approach will see a clear departure from the current way of governance to laying the foundation for Ghana to deploy renewable and other cheap sources of energy to make electricity cheaper. The current mechanism of running gas turbines is unsustainable. An ELI-GOVERNMENT will galvanise the people of Ghana into action to establish Commercial Farms across every nook and cranny. With a special private sector partnership, we hope to deploy mechanized agriculture techniques to produce food. Affordable housing will be repackaged and implemented. There are successful models around the world. Ghana fails to adopt the right strategies often because of leadership. With Elikplim as President of Ghana in 2021, the current law which provides for the deregulation of the petroleum sector will be flashed in the dustbin in less than two months. The current law gives too much power to private players to import finished products and charge consumers exorbitantly. The state must take an active part in the petroleum sector as the issue of fuel is an issue of national economic security.It is important for Ghana to pursue an interests-based foreign policy other than the current laissez faire regime where our ambassadors and foreign envoys are only enmeshed in rendering mundane consular services. South-South Cooperation will be high on the agenda of Elikplim as President. Economic diplomacy is the new format in todays world and is paying off bountifully.As Elikplim continues to hold wide-ranging consultations, the refreshing news is that people are ready for the new path. His COMPREHENSIVE AGENDA TO CHANGE GHANA document has electrifying magnetism and will soon be out-doored.We are a generation that cannot afford to wait. The future began yesterday and we are already late, John Legend.The work ahead is an enervating one and TEAM ELI will leave no stone unturned.#Eli2020#ItIsPossible#NewLeader#NewHope#DoingThingsDifferently#InitToWinItAll volunteers, well-wishers and sympathisers can join the movement through the following:Whatsapp: 233263158606Email: eliagbemava@icloud.comHotline: 233236842033Facebook:Elikplim Lorlormavor AgbemavaTwitter:Instagram:elikplim_l._agbemava He said Ghanaians have lost confidence in the banking sector as a result of recent happenings. On Wednesday, August 1, the Bank of Ghana has announced it is creating the Consolidated Bank Gh. Ltd to take over some struggling banks in the country. The government has made GH450m available for the Consolidated Bank as starting capital. READ MORE: Bank of Ghana accused of deliberately collapsing local banks According to the BoG, The BEIGE, Sovereign and the Construction banks obtained their banking licences under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, whereas the Royal Bank had non-performing loans which constitute 78.9 per cent and uniBank had a capital deficit of GH7.4 billion compared to the regulatory minimum of GH400 million. Theophilus Tettteh-Chaie said the developments will only collapse the banking sector if care is not taken. He said "I blame BOG for all this mess happening in the banking sector. I see the banking sector collapsing because Ghanaians have lost confidence in the sector. People will be scared to go to a bank and deposit their monies. People will soon save under their beds because that will be even safer for them." Meanwhile, a Financial Analyst, Toma Imihere has said some of the collapsed banks were only established for political purposes. He said political parties needs finance and has the ability to influence the giving of the licenses to the banks. Toma Imihere in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM said "These banks were given license as political patronage. It was just political patronage." He said the NPP will have a huge advantage should that happen. Given the history of our dispensation, the cycle of 8 years and all that, I think that it will be a disadvantage to the NDC. If I were, although I will never be a Member of the NDC, I wouldnt have supported that bid, but I think he is the one they think should lead", he said. According to him, John Mahama will not be the best candidate for the party considering many factors including his performance when he served as president. It emerged on Tuesday that some 94 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament, out of the 106, had endorsed former President John Dramani Mahama to lead the party in the 2020 elections.According to the leader of the 94 MPs, Edwin Nii Lantey Vandapuye, who spoke on the sidelines of an event to rally support behind Sammy Gyamfi as NDC National Communications Officer, John Mahama was the only candidate who can lead the party to victory in the next polls in 2020. Nana Kwabena Amponsah I, Kontihene of Obenimasi in the Asante Akim Central Municipality said the cause of the continued delay in the passage of the Bill by Parliament, was the Bill's inherent potential to enlighten and empower the Ghanaian citizenry to seek answers and probe the activities of politicians at all levels of governance, saying this was causing some trepidation among the political class. He said it was time politicians opened up and ensured transparency and accountability in the discharge of their duties. He insisted that the passage of the bill would not only make it easy for the public to seek critical information on various issues affecting them, but would also help them to participate and actively contribute to national development. He made this known when he spoke at a forum on the RTI Bill at Konongo in the Asante-Akim Central Municipality organised by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) in collaboration with Abak Foundation, under the Accountable Democratic Institutions Systems Strengthening (ADISS) Project. The right to information is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the countrys 1992 Constitution and recognized as a right under International Conventions on Human rights. The bill will give substance to Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution which states that "All persons shall have the right to information subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society". It was first drafted 22 years ago under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs, IEA. The draft Executive Bill was subsequently reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007 but was never laid in Parliament until February 5, 2010. It was subsequently withdrawn to review some clauses. Since then, efforts by several advocacy groups to put pressure on the duty bearers to have the Bill passed have also not yielded any positive results until now. [The] stringent and desperate efforts being made by my political opponents to tarnish me and my family with corruption will simply not wash, Nana Addo said Wednesday at the annual Internal Audit Conference in Accra. The President said his critics cannot hang him because he is clean and incorruptible. I am aware that you give a dog a bad name in order to hang it, but this dog will not be hanged, he continued. I did not come to public life to make money out of public service, and members of my family know fully well they have to behave and are not involved in anything untoward. President Akufo-Addo reiterated his commitment to protecting the public purse, which he described as a sacred vow to the public. He further called on all internal auditors to help fight against corruption in the country. Reports indicate that some youth in the Kasoa Municipality are behind these posters and are urging the business mogul to run for office in 2020. READ MORE: Bank of Ghana accused of deliberately collapsing local banks However, Nana Appiah Mensah swiftly debunked the calls in a post on Instagram. He said, "I appreciate the call but, I am not enthused about a legislative house member status now. I am committed to creating one million decent jobs in Ghana within five years. Let's keep our gaze on that and that only. The Zylofon kinpin is championing a lot developmental projects in Kasoa recently and he is believed to be constructing a new palace for the chief of Kasoa and also training some of the youth to be able to take up jobs in factories he wants to construct in the area. "That was a low point for me as well," Trump, 36, told a conference organized by website Axios, referring to the "zero tolerance" immigration policy of Donald Trump's administration. "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children, so I would agree with that sentiment," added the businesswoman, who is a senior advisor to the president. Trump also distanced herself from her father's brutal condemnation of the media -- attacks that have raised the levels of anti-press antagonism at the president's recent rallies. "No, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people," Ivanka said when pressed on the issue. The immigration crisis, which swelled further when audio emerged of detained toddlers crying out for their mothers, caused a domestic and international firestorm, and in June the president reversed course. He ordered an end to the separations, but as of last week's deadline, some 711 of the roughly 2,500 separated children were still not reunited with their parents, and officials were unable to clarify when they would be. Trump noted that her mother, Donald Trump's first wife Ivana Trump, came to the United States legally. "So we have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone," she said. "These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country I experience them in a very emotional way." The coalition, however, will not include Idlib's dominant force -- the jihadist alliance of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate. The alliance was announced Wednesday by Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki, who are already merged under the name of the Syrian Liberation Front. One of the new coalition's objectives will be to "block all attempts by the regime to advance" towards opposition areas, its spokesman Naji Abu Hazifa told AFP. Strategically important Idlib province shares a border with rebel-backer Turkey and is adjacent to Latakia, a regime stronghold on the Mediterranean. "Turkey cements its influence in Idlib yet further - as non-HTS armed opposition groups seek to deter regime," tweeted Syria expert Charles Lister. Idlib is the last of four "de-escalation" zones agreed by world powers in 2017 where the rebels still have a major presence. Rebels and civilians bussed out of the other three zones when they fell to the government were taken to Idlib, increasing its population to around 2.5 million people. In an interview last week with Russian media, Assad said Idlib was the government's next priority. But on Tuesday Moscow, the regime's strongest ally, ruled out the possibility of a major assault on the province. "There's currently no question and can be no question of an operation, of a major assault on Idlib," Russia's Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev said in remarks reported by Russian agencies. In an interview last week with AFP, the Syrian opposition's chief negotiator, Nasr al-Hariri, said Turkish "guarantees" over Idlib would likely bar a regime assault on the area. The war in Syria has killed more than 350,000 people since it began in 2011 with a brutal government crackdown on protesters. He was jailed for contempt of court and breaching a previous suspended sentence, having used social media to live-stream outside a court in Leeds in northern England in breach of reporting restrictions around a trial. Since his imprisonment, supporters of US President Donald Trump, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, have taken up his cause. Street protests have demanded the release of Robinson, who has previous convictions for assault, drug possession and fraud. A panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal in London quashed the finding of contempt, citing technical flaws, and freed him on conditional bail pending a new hearing. "The appellant is granted bail and the matter of contempt at Leeds Crown Court is remitted to be heard again," said Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett, the head of the English judiciary, reading the judgement. "We are satisfied that the decision at Leeds Crown Court to proceed to committal to prison so promptly... gave rise to unfairness." Robinson's case will be re-heard at England's Old Bailey central criminal court in London "as soon as reasonably possible", the judges said. The 35-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was not in court for the hearing. Around 20 supporters, outnumbered two to one by police officers, chanted his name outside court. "I'm very very happy, he's going home to his family," said supporter Dean Henry, 53. Around 20 or so counter-protesters were also present, chanting "Nazi scum, off our streets". "We want to stop Tommy Robinson, I'd like to see him in prison for life for what he is and what he does,.. there is no free speech for fascists," said anti-racist campaigner Mary. "The danger is that the fascists, who are the hardcore of all this, will spread their venom to the right wing who don't like migrants." Judge reveals case background In the decision read out in court, the judges revealed background to the case, much of which had previously been subject to reporting restrictions. Burnett said Robinson had filmed inside a court building -- an offence -- during a rape trial in Canterbury, southeast England, in May 2017. Robinson was accused of using pejorative language, referring to it as a trial of "Muslim child rapists". He was given a suspended jail sentence and told he would face immediate imprisonment if he embarks on similar conduct within 18 months. In May 2018, Robinson broadcast on Facebook outside Leeds Crown Court about a trial which was under reporting restrictions imposed to avoid prejudicing that case and other related ones. "During his live-streaming the appellant had referred to the supposed religion of the defendants, the ethnicity of the alleged victims, the costs of the prosecutions, and (he) questioned why publication was prohibited," Burnett said. Pursuing immediate proceedings against Robinson, the judge in the Leeds trial, Geoffrey Marson, "explained that he was conducting the second of three trials involving a total of 28 Asian men," Burnett said. Marson told Robinson: "The vast majority of what you were saying... was reference to cases like this, to Asian men, to the grooming of 11-year-old girls and the number of cases like this. "No one could possibly conclude that that was likely to be anything other than highly prejudicial to the defendants in the present trial." Speaking at a conference organized by the group "Uniting Methodists" in Dallas, he caused a major stir by calling on believers to stop hating on same-sex couples. Pastor speaks against Christians who hate same-sex couples In his address, he spoke strongly about people who accuse gay-affirming Christians of abandoning the "historic essentials of the Christian faith." He said, "It's interesting it doesn't show up in any of the creeds, anything about same-gender marriage or even a particular doctrine on scripture doesn't show up in any of the creeds, but that's now become how some have looked at orthodoxy. "We feel like we can't be around people like that who believe these things that are different from what I believe or practice something different or interpret the Scripture differently. Then we start calling them names. We pick the good names for us and we pick the bad names for them. We're the orthodox, that must mean you're the heretics." In the video below, Hamilton advises United Methodist churches to unite in spite of this sensitive theological issue, adding that this is why he helped set up the group "Uniting Methodists." "We call for disciplinary changes so that clergy are neither compelled to officiate at same-sex weddings, nor prohibited from doing so. Resuming his Wednesday general audiences after a one-month break, Catholic News Agency reports that he preached on the topic of idolatry. Referring to the first commandment: "You shall not have other gods beside me" (Ex 20:3), the Catholic leader warned against putting anything above God as it human beings including Christians "tend to create idols." On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, he started by defining the term 'idol'. He said, "The word 'idol' in Greek comes from the verb 'to see.' An idol is a 'vision' that becomes a fixation, an obsession for something that might fulfill our needs, and consequently, we seek it and do everything possible to acquire it, thinking that happiness lies therein." The Pontiff also explained the danger of idols saying, "Attachment to an object or an idea makes us blind to love. Carry this in your heart: idols rob us of love, idols make us blind to love; and to truly love we must be free from every idol "In fact, love is incompatible with idolatry: if something becomes absolute and untouchable, then it is more important than a spouse, a child, or a friendship." 3 steps of idolatry The pope went on to describe the three phases of idolatry. According to him, the first step is obsessing over something as a means of "achieving my essential needs." In the second phase, "we prostrate ourselves and sacrifice everything," before finally becoming enslaved. ALSO READ: How to know if you worship money over God Different kinds of idols Pointing out on the modern day idols - palm reading, vanity, money, and drugs, Pope Francis asked, "We Christians can ask ourselves: what is really my God? How many young people ruin their health, even their lives, adoring this idol of drugs." Concerning the idolatry of wanting to know the future, he asked, "How many of you have gone to have someone read tarot cards to know the future? How many of you have gone to have your palm read and see the future, instead of praying to the Lord?" He encouraged listeners to turn away from this idol and rely instead on prayer and trust in the providence of God. "The true God teaches us to live in the reality of every day, concretely, not with illusions about the future. This is the difference: the Lord is alive, the rest are idols, idolatries that are useless," he said. Pope Francis also talked about the idols of beauty, fame, material things and other people's expectations. Referring to the excessive cultivation of beauty, he said, "Beauty asks for human sacrifices. How many hours in front of the mirror! () It's not bad to put on makeup; but within a normal range, not trying to become a goddess." He noted that idols ask for sacrifices saying, "In antiquity, human sacrifices were made to the idols, but today as well: for a career, people sacrifice their children, neglecting them or simply not having them. "Fame asks for self-immolation, sacrifice of one's own innocence and authenticity. Idols ask for blood. Money steals life, and pleasure leads to solitude. Economic structures sacrifice human lives for higher profits." "Idols,"the Holy Father continued, "demand worship, rituals; people prostrate themselves before them and sacrifice everything. People live in hypocrisy, doing and saying what other people expect because the god of self-affirmation imposes it. And lives are ruined, families are destroyed, and young people are abandoned to destructive models - this too, in order to increase profits." Pope Francis concluded by advising everyone to search themselves in order to eradicate their idols and return God to His rightful place. The student union congratulate the president in a statement signed by NANS National Public Relations Officer, Bestman Okereafor, on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, in Enugu. NANS in the statement said the president's appointment as a victory for all Nigerians. The statement reads in part: We have no doubt that President Buhari will bring about positive changes in West African states. We believe he will promote freedom, equity and social justice, which will bring about the much-anticipated peaceful co-existence among member states. Once again from all Nigerian students schooling both at home and in the Diaspora, we say congratulations to our beloved President, Muhammadu Buhari. NANS will no longer be partisan- President Meanwhile, the newly elected president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Obande Gideon Obande, says his tenure would bring an end to partisanship among student unions in the country. ALSO READ: 5 mistakes that can stop you from gaining university admission in Nigeria Addressing journalists in Abuja, Obande noted that he would work to ensure an increase in the budgetary allocation to higher institutions of learning in the country. According to Daily Post, Kazaure said the NYSC received a letter from the Presidency through the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development that the process to review the allowance of corps members had started. The DG added that the Presidency also copied the Ministry of Finance in the letter. Kazaure announced this on Thursday, August 2, 2018, during a tour of the NYSC orientation camp in Abuja. Kazaure said, the federal government is working to increase your monthly allowance, therefore, wherever you find yourselves conduct yourself well, be good ambassador of your family, the scheme and the nation. We received a letter from the presidency, that is, Ministry of Youth and Sport, copied the ministry of finance that shows that the corps allowance will be reviewed upward, it is in the pipeline, ALSO READ:5 ways to have an exciting experience in NYSC camps Recall that the DG on Monday, April 23, 2018, said the increase in corps members allowance will be determined by the Federal Government's new national minimum wage. Two weeks after, the NYSC Director of Press and Publications Mrs Adenike Adeyemi announced an increase in the corps members' transportation and local allowances in a statement. The American music star took to her Instagram page on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, where she shared photos of her visit to a Kenyan school for girls. According to her, she inspired the girls while taking part in some traditional activities. "Day 1 in Kenya was AWESOME!!! I inspired 1,000 girls, made bracelets with @kiberacreativearts that provides a living & opportunity for the underdeveloped community, learned the Kenyan Odi dance (& some Swahili), & received welcome gifts from young locals. Nairobi #Kenya #Africa #TerminalMusicWeekend #TrademarkKenya #love #inspire #kericares #thekerihilsonfoundation #beautifulplace " she captioned the photos. Keri Hilson is one African-American celebrity whose undying love for Africa is always obvious. From eating some African delicacies to dancing to a number of hit songs from this part of the world, she indeed has a very deep connection with the beautiful continent. We also can't forget the time Lupita Nyong'o visited Nigeria and nobody had an idea she was in town. ALSO READ:Sienna Miller visits IDP camp in Maiduguri Lupita Nyong'o shares photos of her experience as she visits Nigeria It might shock you that Lupita Nyong'O was in Nigeria a few months ago even though there wasn't any media buzz but she sure did have fun with since she shared these photos. The award-winning actress took to her Instagram page on Monday, April 30, 2018, where she posted a number of photos from her recent trip to Nigeria. It is not clear if it was a business or leisure trip but Lupita had some really nice photos to share. At the height of the modern pop evolution in the late 90s, the Plantashun Boiz, featuring the trio of Ahmedu Augustine Obiabo (Blackface), Innocent Idibia (2face) and Chibuzor Oji (Faze) stood at its apex as one of the biggest music groups of the decade. In 2007 when the idea of a Plantashun Boiz reunion album was first mooted, the objective was to record an album filled with big hits, an album so regal, so brilliant and one that will shake the very foundation of the Nigerian music industry. 2008 was the year, they reunited for what was to be one final bang in the discography of the boy group, but a moment meant to deliver a closure to their breakup ended up leaving more questions than bangers. Happy endings are more fairy tales than reality so unfortunately, when groups do make an effort to come back together, it mostly never turns out to be the second coming their fans might have dreamt of, as seen with rock groups like All Saints and Limp Bizkik. No matter how great they once were, a combination of bad timing, lack of sonic unity and difference in direction can ruin any group's shot at reclaiming their former glories, and that was the case with the Plantashun Boiz. The bands signature style, an infusion of pop, rap and reggae, helped introduce a generation of young music fans to the world of three talented boys, who were emerging as leading voices of the new school. The name, Plantashun Boiz is edged firmly in the annals of Nigerian music history as not just leaders of a new wave of pop talents but a young, vibrant and talented assemble of three individuals. ALSO READ:Here are the 15 biggest songs of 2018 In the Beginning 'Body and Soul', the groups debut album released in 2000 supposedly sold over 600,000 physical copies, if numbers put out by the group members and their producer, Nelson Brown, are to be believed. While these numbers at the time were outstanding, considering how vibrant piracy thrived, it was the influence they had in shaping the contemporary sound of pop music that was released that spread their fame. The debut album witnessed the rise of the boys becoming men, a springboard to the high ranks of music greats. Plantashun Boiz inspired a number of young talents taking to music, more groups sprung up in twos and threes, attempting a replica of what they offered, their impact saw them feature on the list of major concerts. Their songs topped charts nationwide, shifted attention from the old genres prevailing at the time and took the Nigerian pop sound to gaining major airplay on radio stations like never before, practically becoming a blueprint in making the music as commercially viable as possible. With breakout singles like You And I, Knock Mi Off, Dont You Know and If Life, Plantashun Boiz became the gateway acts for the new sound of Nigerian music. Following the success of their debut album, their sophomore album 'Sold Out' was released three years later. 'Sold Out' was a testament to the commercial success of their debut album and packed some power singles like One And Only and Only You. Just after the album was released in 2003, what began as baseless rumours soon started to gain weight. Time, like they say, reveals all things as 2face Idibia, the MVP of the group soon penned a solo deal with Kennis Music, the biggest music label in the land at the time, and before their fans could come to terms with the situation, there was already a printed promo CD copy with the inscription; ''Kennis Music proudly presents 2face Idibia'' in circulation. 2face went on to release the classic solo debut album, Face2Face, with the hit song, African Queen, activating his journey into becoming one of the greatest artists of his generation. For Faze, he grew into more than just the guy in the background, who is only known for his falsettos, he became a successful solo artist, proving to many that he could make it, even as Faze Alone. As according to the label, Westsyde Music, his debut album 'Faze Alone' which was released in 2004 sold over 1.2million units few months after it was released with the lead single, Faze Alone reaching the peak of music charts nationwide. The song also won him the Best Male vocal performance at the 2006 Headies. Blackface may have deviated from the smooth RnB/Rapper character he portrayed as a member of the band, but his music was niche, one in a lane of his own and he was not just building a legion of new fans. Blackface was championing a family of Ghetto kids with his brand of Ragga music and despite the initial shock to his fans, it was all finally making sense. The Reunion In 2007, news filtered in that the boys were coming together for one final album, brokered by the infamous Alaba music distributor Tochukwu Okoye, popularly known as TJoe, owner of TJoe Records. Alaba market at the time was an electronics market, that capitalised on a failed system by creating a system where they bought original music or sourced mixes from popular local DJs and were re-duplicating for sale. It was a period where cassette decks, CD players and recordable media were the only source of promoting the music and armed with the right network, Alaba became the nationwide distributors of Nigerian music with TJoe playing a lead role. It was his vision that saw the coming together of three talented acts who started out as a group but have since plied the individual route in the last four years and have grown wiser, more confident, each fully finding his artistic direction and sound. There is no disputing the fact that Plantashun Boiz offered timeless music. For a Nigerian boy group that remains one of the most loved pop groups, backed by a fan base that trickles into unquantifiable numbers, many were looking up to the project with pumped up expectation and euphoria for what was termed the biggest reunion party of 2008. So it was almost a given that a project featuring these three who shot it down even when they were still rookies will cause a uproar on the soundscape, but somehow Plan B was not what the doctor recommended. Parading eight original tracks, one remix and two instrumentals, Plantashun Boiz delivered the Plan B album in 2008, but it was an album that had crashed even before take-off, promising much yet offering very little. Individually, the songs on the album were not exactly bad songs, but they lived more in the past than point a way into the future. But despite their individual successes, the break brought unforeseen issues that the separation had failed to heal. It had cast a dark cloud of acrimony that became visible when they came together to work on the album. Inside story leading to the outcome of the album Set in the heart of Festac, in the studio of top producer, Spankie, the man who produced Fazes hit single, Kolomental. Recording for the project was estimated to last over a period of three months, advances had been sorted, touring and merchandising was laid on the schedule and the album was to be marketed and distributed by Tjoe. Whatever the outcome of the album is now, was what I think they set out for it to be, the big loser here is TJoe, who made sure they got everything they wanted, the boys said they wanted a certain sum of money, he gave them, says Obinna Agwu, renowned artist manager, who worked on the project as a consultant for TJoe Records at the time. But there had to be a certain type of chemistry and commitment from the guys towards this project, but it wasnt there. I know everyone had an individual schedule at the time for them to meet, but sitting in through some of their sessions, I dont feel like there was actually that conscious effort, that genuine commitment to create time for this album. 'It was just another windfall of free money for themThe Boiz did not even make themselves available for the major press conference at Oceanview to announce the album, he concluded. In 2017, Blackface was a guest on pop culture Podcast, LooseTalk, where he narrated his own perspective on events that happened during the reunion; ''On the Plan B album, Plan B was just because of the fact that there was money on the table... That would have been great if everybody had the mindset of togetherness, of teamwork. I started hearing that my friend, 2face will take Sound Sultan to the studio behind my back, and it was a Plantashun Boiz project... artistes vibe together you get into the music and people start to think about what to write, but you didn't vibe with anybody... I was angry that the album came out. We were in the studio recording... but there was no vibe, I no like the album, I no tell you lie. Asked if he could ever work with 2face again, he replied, ''Naa, we never gon do that'' Faze on his part agrees that the Plan B album was not what a Plantashun Boiz reunion should have been, in an interview granted to Saturday Beats in 2015, he says To me, I dont think that was our best, we were just playing around. If we sit down to write a song, people would be surprised because I know what Blackface can write. He has the knowledge and he is very good at writing. Tuface has the rhythm and melody; I also know how to write and I have my melody. It is just for us to put our minds to it and we would have one of the best albums of all times.'' Pulse tried to get 2face's reaction but his team informed us that he would rather not comment on the topic. Outside the members of the group, there was the major actor Tjoe, the marketer who put money on the table to make the reunion happen and even imported merch. (branded shirts and wrist-brands) as promotion materials. In an exclusive interview with Pulse, TJoe looks back at the entire period with regret as he opens up, ''I didn't make up-to 10Million out of the project, it was a total loss... I still have some merchandise at home, even the first set of copies of the album were produced outside the country, I gained nothing.'' Refusing to state exactly how much he paid each member of the group, TJoe however said,''To be precise, the entire project cost 65Million including the recording, the videos, press conferences, album launch and payment of the artistes''. Speaking further on what he felt went wrong with the project, ''There was this issue of, 'I am the songwriter of the group', which Blackface brought into play and it didn't go down well with everybody... The major factor that worked against the success of the album was friction between them and I will say there was this complex issue, in a room where you will see 2face doing his thing, Faze will not be comfortable writing or recording in the presence of everybody, especially 2face.'' Remembering incidents that almost boiled over during one of the recording sessions, ''There was this particular song, we had two versions of it, it didn't make the album. I didn't actually approve it because Blackface was going with one beat that was produced by , and 2face and Faze went with another beat that was produced by . And at the end of the day, because I paid for the studio for a length of two months plus, anybody can come in and record at anytime, Faze and 2face recorded on one of the beats and Blackface went and recorded on the other one, so that was one.'' ''There was another day, there was this argument, it was so elaborate that very day that everybody busted, especially 2face that was usually calm. Blackface was insisting on doing the lead and 2face was telling him, 'No', that Faze had a better voice to take it, but Black disagreed, and 2face angrily walked out of the studio, and didn't record again that very day, he later came back and did his own verse. He, however, admitted to some failings on his own part, ''I never knew it was going to happen this way, even though 2face had warned me ahead that these issues may come up and gave me the guidelines to help things work out but I never listened to him, I went and did it my way. I thought I was going to be able to manage the personalities instead of handing it over to the management, it was a total mistake.'' At the end of the day, this was a reunion built on money and not an opportunity to create a moment and further seal the place of Plantashun Boiz in the legacy of groups who scored a successful reunion. Outside the names and star power, the album offered nothing, it was a forgettable project, one that failed to leave any impact on the scene. When groups break up, particularly at the peak of their careers, there's always a feeling of thwarted potential. Fans will cry for the days when a new song could be just around the corner, and speculate wildly on what magical new music could happen if everyone involved would just let bygones be bygones and take to the stage once more. According to a report on IG, the victim who is 18 years old was shot dead by the policemen in Ilepo located in Satellite Town. The incident is a sad one but not the first in Nigeria dealing with the headache of police brutality. Policeman shoots man in the face and drives away The discussion concerning police brutality in Nigeria has developed into the shooting of a man around the airport in Ikeja, Lagos. While waiting to be allowed passage at the airport tollgate, a security expert Tunde Adeparusi, had no idea he had been shot until an attendant at the tollbar directed attention to his vehicle. When he was interviewed by Punch News, he stated that a group of policemen who were chasing some suspects started shooting in the air when the tollgate officials challenged them. ALSO READ: Nursing mum mercilessly beaten by policeman she scolded According to reports, the outlaws being chased broke the barricade mounted at the facility while trying to get away from the cops. The workers at the tollgate blamed the police as a result. This reportedly produced an angry response from the cops who accused the attendants of letting the suspects escape. I was at the airport tollgate on Friday around 12.35pm, waiting to be attended to. I noticed that on the exit side of the tollgate, one vehicle sped past, while another speeding vehicle broke the barrier. After occupants of the vehicle noticed that they have broken the barrier, they stopped. Argument ensued between workers at the tollgate and the occupants of the vehicle who were apparently policemen; and before we know what happened we heard gunshots. They started shooting when the workers at the tollgate challenged them. "The officer who shot was inside the car shouting that the workers allowed the suspects they were chasing to escape, threatening that he would shoot, and he eventually released some shots. At first, I did not know it was a gunshot, but I noticed that something pierced through my window side and the glass shattered on my face. One of the tollgate attendants shouted, They have shot this man, not knowing that it was me they were referring to until I saw blood on my face. The policemen thought I was dead, one of them came out of the vehicle to pick up the empty shell and they drove off. They also made use of other drug substances according to the caption of an IG video which shows them leaving the camp. Other corps members lined up in their platoons as they watched the process make their exit with their bags on their heads. The NYSC's intolerance for misconduct has been resounded following the dismissal. ALSO READ: Bright CU dropout laments miserable life after smoking marijuana Mixed reactions on IG over OOU students captured smoking weed A dark room has offered the perfect veil of secrecy for a pair of students of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), who were captured smoking weed in a video. The clip, shared via Instablog9ja's IG, showed the duo exchange smoke during a session accompanied with light music. According to a report by The Star, the lawmakers are identified as Nakuru Members of County Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya. Their identities, according to the report, were given as Honourables Joyce Anyiso and Honourable Jacqueline Manyara. The two female lawmakers were reportedly having lunch at the county assembly cafeteria before the incident. The lawmakers reportedly caused drama at the House precincts on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 when they resorted to exchanging blows over a man. Before the fight, the lawmakers had reportedly engaged in a war of words and bitter verbal exchange. ALSO READ: Nigerian lady strips to just bra while fighting in Dubai Assembly orderlies assisted by other female MCAs intervened in the fight which generated so much media attention. The real cause of the drama in Nakuru's County Assembly Reports say one of the lawmakers was overheard warning the other keep off her boyfriend. The two lawmakers had refused to give details of their fight but their verbal exchange inside the Assembly had given them away. The aim of the medical outreach programme is to distribute medication that will improve the health of children and pregnant women. The medication to be distributed is Albendazol, a critical drug in the treatment and prevention of various parasitic worm infestations in children aged six months to five years, and prenatal vitamins for pregnant women. According to Princess Modupe Ozolua, the medical outreach programmes will run for one month in Owan West, Owan East, Etsako and Akoko-Edo Local Government Areas of Edo state. She is embarking on this initiative because of her passion for the health of children and also in line with the objective of the Federal Government healthcare project focused on the poor, especially women and children under five years. The monarchs in partnership with Princess Modupe Ozolua include the Olososo of Ososo, Oyan Ososo, Oba Anselm Adeloro Obaitan, Ichama II; the Arah of Evbiobe, Prof Joshua Oje Aisiku; and the Ogbachi of Auchi, Princess Hajiya Zuletu Momoh. Other partners include the Edo State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Jimoh Ijebai; the Chairman of Akoko Edo Local Government Area, Hon. Oteh Omoru; the Chairman of Owan West Local Government Area, Hon. Frank Ilaboya; and his counterpart at Etsako West Local Government Area, Hon. Musa Yakubu. Others are Vitamin Angels and the Edo State Ministry of Health. Empower 54, Princess Modupe Ozolua's non-profit organisation has been providing humanitarian assistance since 2003 through initiatives in health, education, and empowerment programmes for internally displaced persons (IDPs)/refugee and underprivileged Africans. About Princess Modupe Ozolua Princess Modupe Ozolua was born in Benin City, Edo state on October 10th 1973 into the Royal House of the Benin Kingdom. She is the great grand daughter of the legendary Benin warrior King, Oba Ozolua. In 1989, she left to study in Southwestern College, San Diego (California), and Devry International University, Los Angeles, California. In 2001, at the age of 27, PrincessOzolua pioneered Cosmetic Surgery to Nigeria, West Africa through her business, Body Enhancement Ltd. The first business princess modupe owned was a communication business in Los Angeles prior to bringing cosmetic surgery to West Africa at the age of 27. As pioneer of this specialty in West Africa, it became her responsibility to educate a country of over 170 Million Nigerians about the safety of plastic surgery. This meant breaking the norms and negative myths people had about plastic surgery. Despite all the challenges of pioneering a controversial service in a very traditional African country, Body Enhancement Ltd revolutionized the beauty and health sectors in Nigeria. The company has been credited for encouraging the feminist movement in Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world. Her focus, discipline and achievements at such a young age also challenged the traditional African norms about independent women. In 2003, she founded Empower 54, formerly known as Body Enhancement Foundation (BEARS, Body Enhancement Annual Reconstructive Surgery) an international humanitarian organization dedicated to providing desperately needed humanitarian assistance such as medical missions, hunger eradication, educational, women/girl empowerment and refugee programs to underprivileged Africans. His Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu is the Patron. Despite running several businesses, Princess Ozolua prioritizes Empower 54 over her businesses and contributes significant personal funds towards each program. She is very involved in Empower 54s humanitarian programs to the extent she stays in the operating room during surgeries and works with doctors to manage post operative care of patients. ALL humanitarian aid rendered through Empower 54 are FREE to the beneficiaries. Under the leadership of Princess Ozolua, Empower 54 is active in rehabilitating women and children survivors of the terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, through self-employment and education for the children at the IDP (Internally displaced persons) camps. Despite grave dangers, Princess Modupe Ozolua personally leads the Empower 54 team into communities attacked by Boko Haram in remote parts of North East Nigeria to help survivors of terrorist attacks. During one of those trips, she discovered the extremely malnourished children rescued from Boko Harams captivity and facilitated the collaboration between Empower 54 and the Borno State Government in evacuating them to Maiduguri for urgent CMAM treatment. There was the evacuation of 1, 500 extremely malnourished children rescued from Boko Harams captivity and their families from Bama.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lulo5hkb0Fg To tackle the issue of malnutrition, Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic-Foods (RUTF) has been medically proven to save lives of malnourished children and with extremely limited funds, She had to come up with a solution. Princess Modupe just successfully established a small-scale RUTF (Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic-Foods) production facility in Nigeria to produce FREE RUTF for malnourished children that is sponsored by the Australian Government and IMF. With donations received, she and her team will produce and distribute to malnourished children all over the country for FREE. The incident happened in Muzaffarnagar district, northern part of India, Police revealed. The Area Police Chief, Anil Kaparwan, said Ahmed has been admitted to a hospital in Uttar Pradesh states Muzaffarnagar district. The police chief also said Ahmed's first wife has been arrested on Thursday, August 2, 2018 after Ahmed's relatives filed a complaint with police. According to local media reports, Ahmed got married to his second time with the consent of his wife in 2017 over his first wife failure to give birth to a son. ALSO READ: Woman cuts off ex-husbands penis for demanding sex How Ahmed lost his manhood to his wife's rage Kaparwan told local media that Ahmed and his first wife often had quarrels over his staying at the second wifes residence. On Wednesday, their fight flared up and the woman, who repeatedly accused him of not spending time with her and ignoring her, cut his genitals using a knife. He was rushed to the hospital in a serious condition and is receiving medical treatment, Kaparwan said. During a time Africa was either struggling with effects of colonialism or conflicts from post-colonialism, she needed heroes to publicly canvass the views only a few had the power to canvass. Post-colonialism, Nigeria was caught up in the volatile nature of governance from the Wild West, military coups and the Civil War. It was against this backdrop that the son of a clergyman and feminist came up with a new sound that will shock Nigeria, make Africa vibrate and make the World shiver. The sounds of Afrobeat- sweaty, lusty, strong, jungle fever that spoke power to truth. Asides making distinct music with a unique sound,a fusion of rebellious jazz with African percussion, Fela became the face of activism against the oppressive military governments of Nigeria. Apart from bringing about a new sound to the mainstream, Fela brought a counter-culture, he introduced an anti-establishment that would challenge the conservative post-colonial Nigerian society. ALSO READ:Beyonce pays homage to Fela during Coachella performance What is counter culture? Counter culture simply refers to a largely controlled or outlawed number of behaviours, but generally adopted by several people. An example within the Nigerian context is marijuana consumption. Through all of Fela's changing personalities and alter egos, a quick glance Abami Eda during a stage performance offers insights into his embodiment of counter culture. The reason is simple; Fela lived by his own rules and dictates of his conscience. He never pretended, nor did he misrepresent facts. His honesty was why his messages permeated the Nigerian airwaves while he got western attention and became a target for many in the military governments. This is notably exemplified by how he was sent to London in 1958 to study medicine, but chose to study music at the Trinity College of Music. His ideals were centered around his truth, he's famously quoted as saying "To be honest and truthful in all endeavours is an experience, not a regret." In the 60s, spilling into the 70s, Nigerian counter culture took centre stage; alternative rock became a Southeastern Nigerian mainstay and rebellious sounds made High life and Nigerian folk music hide a bit in the bushes. At the forefront of the rebellious 70s was Fela in a cause that transcended his entire life and legacy, influencing present day practices. The counter culture in Fela's music While Fela started with started off playing music across Nigerian night clubs, he was unknown. Randy Weston famously branded him "laughably overqualified and effete" for. The problem was that he was playing Jazz music to a Nigerian audience, weary of colonialism and later, suffering the brunt of the military rule. Upon frustration, Fela took his Koola Lobitos band to the US in 1969. But after he got entangled in the Civil rights movement as documented for New York Times by John Danton in 1977, Fela returned home to headline the Nigerian counter culture movement. While subtle imitations of Afrobeat already existed in Ghana, Fela infused Nigerian Highlife music with what Trevor Schoonmaker, writing for Robert Sharp on March 3, 2005 called "Yoruba percussion and American funk - the hard guitar riffs - and Jazz into one infectious groove". Currently, Nigerians keep scrambling for newer ways to make music and the audience are hungry for same. The Nigerian alte movement prides itself on a fusion of soulful, emo grooves with African percussion. While they might not have channelled Fela intentionally, Fela lives in everybody. The freedom with which Fela chronicled his lyrics, at his own pace and with his own style represents contemporary liberalism Nigerian millennial music makers hope to portray. A watered down Afrobeat sound (and content) has been largely channeled by new school cats, most notably Wizkid and Burna Boy. ALSO READ:5 foreign artists influenced by Fela Kuti His legacy is what a lot of them aspire to. His influences are palpable in the sounds of D'banj,Wizkid, Burna Boy and others. They also do not deny such influences. The beauty of it his style is that, with evolution, his style has birthed offsprings. Even the tenets of his activism are being channeled, albeit to a lesser extent by contemporary acts. Even the idea of channelling the beauty of womanhood and femininity to the overt attraction of adding motion to music can be traced back to Fela's stage dancers. The counter culture in Fela's lifestyle and Pan-Africanism Fela places premium on freedom and fearlessness. He famously said, "the secret to life is to not live in fear." His quest for freedom and truth, affirming his statement that, "I must identity myself with Africa. Then I will have an Identity" led him to change the "Ransome" in his name to the more African "Anikulapo". He reportedly felt Ransome was a slave name. As a theme to his life, Fela, the son of a seasoned Anglican Clergyman brandished Christianity as a product of colonial subjugation and embraced the Ifa religion. This led Fela to marrying 27 wives on February 20, 1978 with 12 traditional Priests presided over the wedding. Currently, Nigerians proudly claim the status of "Yoruba demon" and its overall influence on their lives to represent the pan-African truth Fela highlighted by marrying 27 wives in one day. At the time Fela pulled the counter cultural, traditionalist swerve through his Pan-African living, he was highlighted as eccentric. These days, more Nigerians emulate the Fela truth. While the lines remain unclear, the distrust for religion is palpable across the cyberspace amongst millennials who want to live untamed by the chains of norms. Fela was a pioneer of free living. His legacy was the rude awakening to the current realities millennials aim to adopt. Arguably, millennials have channeled Fela the most. The tenets Fela abided are arguably more relevant to this current generation, probably because documentation is easier due to the Internet and social media. The influential counter culture in Fela's fashion and style The Nigerian alte movement places premium on rebellious aesthetics. Before them, there was D'Banj who could wear singlets to video shoots or go shirtless on stage. During Fela's rebrand to his alter ego, Abami Eda, he brought his entire Pan-African beliefs to the fore in his music and gimmick. Fela began painting his face as that of his supporting acts. His focus on leaving more than anything else, without rules birthed his expression. He was also slightly extreme, but equally unique with his donning of oversized underwear. The total history of his fashion choices and what they represented were a shift from the rather more elegant and measured tone of his time. He was not wearing bootlegged pants or Afro hair. He was bringing attention to our faces. The inroads made by his gimmick and the attraction it got from the audience laid a blueprint. His entire style and aura is being channeled by the entire Nigerian alte movement with the freedom and rebellious of their tone. The counter culture in Fela's vanity Fela had a thing for Marijuana. While weed consumption has always been an undertone to every Nigerian generation, it's legalization, though a bit far from reality has become an ongoing conversation. The reason is simple; the growing generations are getting more liberal and weed is being perceived with far lesser disdain by the average 20-30 somethings. It is arguably perceived more as a rite of passage, even without peer pressure. Arguably, the most significant, Nigerian icon for weed consumption is Fela, though he was criticized for it during his time. Aided by the legalization of weed in California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Canada, and the support for decriminalisation of weed by ex Nigerian President, Chief , Fela's truth is about to become an ideal. Earlier in the year, Chief Obasanjo told BBC News that, "it is essentially a cal for what we call decriminalisation. If a young man tries to experiment with a wrap of marijuana for instance and because of thy we put him in jail?" The openness of Fela to weed consumption, and his quest to demystify it as a mystical plan that cannot be touched is slowly being actualized. Speaking at the event at Ikeja Cantonment, Lagos, General Officer Commanding (GOC), 81 Division, Maj.-Gen. Enobong Udoh, said combat training was the bedrock of the military. The GOC was represented by the, 81 Division Garrison Commander, Brig.-Gen. K. Muktah. He said constant training and retraining of officers was to prepare soldiers for leadership qualities, including defending the countrys territorial integrity and tackling internal security challenges. As the Nigerian Army continues to forge ahead in its drive toward professionalism, we will continue to train. This competition has therefore proved the benefits of training, new skills will continue to be acquired and areas of weakness will be strengthened, he said. Udoh congratulated the winner and urged other formations to train well in order to do well and showcase their talents in future competitions. The president's personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmad, disclosed that the service chiefs gave the president security briefings with other heads of security agencies also present. Shortly after the meeting, the president also met with Jigawa State governor, Muhammad Badaru, and Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu. Ahmad also disclosed that the president left Abuja for Bauchi State on a one-day visit, just a day before he leaves the country for a 10-day vacation in London. Buhari's London vacation The president's special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, announced on Wednesday, August 1, that the president will leave for a 10-day vacation in London on Friday, August 3, and vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, will assume his executive role as Acting President. The last time the president was in London was on a medical trip on May 8, 2018, to meet with his doctor before he returned three days later. In 2017, President Buhari spent a combined 154 days in London on two separate medical visits to treat an undisclosed illness, prompting concerns about how fit he is for duty. The lawmaker had turned himself in for questioning at the Abuja office of the anti-graft agency on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, over allegations of money laundering, conspiracy and abuse of office. According to a report by The Nation, the lawmaker was being questioned, on Wednesday, August 1, over his numerous assets in Nigeria and in foreign countries when he complained of what is suspected to be high blood pressure. Ekweremadu was questioned over how he acquired 60 assets in Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE). A source told The Nation, "The grilling started smoothly until he complained of discomfort and he was unable to continue to answer our questions. His sudden illness might have arise from high blood pressure. "Since he needed urgent medical attention, we allowed him to go to the hospital of his choice for treatment." The interrogation of the senator took place just a week after EFCC operatives laid siege to his residence at Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja, in the early hours of Tuesday, July 24. In the anti-graft agency's letter of invitation, dated July 24, the EFCC said, "The commission is investigating the above mentioned case in which your name featured prominently and the need to obtain clarifications from you became imperative. "This request is made pursuant to section 38 (1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes (Establishment) Act, 2004." It was reported that the crashed helicopter is suspected to be for surveillance operations by the Nigerian Army. There is no official confirmation of the number of those on board, take off point and destination of the helicopter. ALSO READ: NAF disagree with AIs report on Numan killings NAF Helicopter crashes during a mission against Boko Haram An Mi-17 helicopter used bythe Nigerian Air Force in combating members of the Boko Haram sect has crashed during a mission. The NAF confirmed the crash of the helicopter, which currently being used in the fight against insurgency in the northeastern part of Nigeria, in a statement by Olatokunbo Adesanya, director of public relations and information. Abiri, publisher of the Weekly Source, a newspaper based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, was arrested in 2016 for allegedly being the leader of the joint revolutionary council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, a separatist group. He was alleged to have planned to bomb oil installations as claimed by the government. On Friday, July 28, 2018, Magistrate Chukwuemeka Nweke, granted bail to the defendants after their first arraignment since July 2016. The magistrate approved August 8, 2018 as date to vary the bail conditions. However, Abiri's counsel, Bala Dakum had described the bail conditions granted on Friday, July 28, 2018 as too stringent for his client. ALSO READ: Delta invites NDA militants to talk about bombing threat I am innocent of the charges - Abiri While speaking with reporters after he was arraigned in court on Thursday, Abiri also denied demanding money from oil companies. The alleged offence was that I sent a threat message to Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Shell, demanding the sum of N250 million from them I dont know of this, the journalist said. EiE Nigeria reacts to Abiri's arraignment Ortom and 13 Local Government chairmen in the state recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the PDP. The chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, who led the delegation, told Channels TV that the visit was to show support for the Governor following his travails after his defection. Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State; Darius Ishaku of Taraba; and Dickson Seriake of Bayelsa and Senator Ben Bruce accompanied the PDP chairman. The Benue Governor was served a notice of impeachment by eight out of 30 members of the Benue state Assembly. ALSO READ: David Mark says move to impeach Gov Ortom is unconstitutional The lawmakers accused Ortom of not paying salaries and diverting funds to meant for the development of the state. On the heels of the impeachment notice came an investigation into an alleged N22b fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). DSP Uchenna Itinyi, the Divisional Marine Officer (DMO), Badagry, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Badagry. Itinyi said the men were coming from Cotonou, Benin Republic, and the boat was loaded with different goods when it capsized. He said the police officers, who were on 24 hours water patrol when the incident occurred, immediately moved to the scene and rescued the passengers. We were able to save them before sinking, but unfortunately, we were unable to save their goods as everything went down. I asked them to sit down for few minutes to see if the incident had affected them, so that we could take them to the hospital for treatment. When I discovered that they were in good condition, I told them to write an entry and released them. I urged them to come back the following day to check if we would be lucky to find any of their goods, he said. The DMO implored travelers on boat to always put on life jackets. NAN reports that the Marine Police, established in 1891 in Lagos, was then known as Night Water Patrol, with initial personnel of 12 headed by a sergeant. The governor's call comes just days after reports emerged that the anti-graft agency has been investigating him over how he has spent on Benue's security since 2015. While speaking during a statewide broadcast on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, the governor said it's a case of persecution that he's the only governor being investigated over the spending on security. According to him, the presidency itself has been secretive about how the government spends on security, leading him to direct EFCC to investigate the presidency and all state governors for a fair approach. He said, "As I earlier alerted the people, EFCC is now probing the state security vote. So far, I am the only governor in Nigeria whose security vote is being investigated by EFCC. Recently, the presidential spokesman Mr. Femi Adesina, said on Channels Television and I quote 'I doubt, world over, if any government would come to say this is how much we have spent on security, because can you quantify the amount of one life? It is not something that any government will begin to disclose'. "Why should Benue's case be different if not persecution? If the EFCC wanted a genuine investigation of security vote spending they should have started from the Presidency right across the 36 States. If their focus was on Benue State they should have started from 1999. But this is not the case. "With the enormous security challenges in the state since my assumption of office, it is surprising that any one would expect me to do nothing but keep the security vote in the safe. The security vote spending being investigated spans from 2015 to 2018, a period of grave security challenges in the state. "I reiterate that the investigation is a clear case of persecution. I have not misappropriated, diverted or stolen any money. I have nothing to hide. I assure that the investigators can find nothing incriminating against me." Ortom's alleged mismanagement of N21.3 billion According to a report by The Punch, the investigation into the governor's handling of N21.3 billion started in 2016, but wasn't made public until Monday, July 30, 2018, barely a week after Ortom dumped the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC) for the People's Democratic Party (PDP). According to the report, Ortom ordered the withdrawal of N21.3bn from four government accounts between June 30, 2015 and March 2018. Even though about N19 billion was earmarked to be paid to six security agencies that had been deployed to address the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the state, the EFCC disclosed that only N3 billion was paid with the rest unaccounted for. The Senate went on recess after some Senators dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to Frank, no other person can reconvene the Senate except its principal officers. Daily Post reports that the former APC spokesman said Only today (Wednesday), the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang was caught on video leading about 10 APC Senators, led by the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan to meet with the President and to urge on the President to provide them security to enable forcefully open the doors of the Senate Chambers and conduct an illegal sitting. This, if allowed to happen, will not only represent a clear breach of the Constitution but the height of illegality and impunity in this country. They APC Senators are only interested in gaining access to the chambers to carry out a sinister motive against the presiding officers of the Senate and not anywhere near considering Mr. Presidents fund request for INEC. Besides, available records show that INEC has enough funds to commence preparing for the upcoming elections in the 2018 budget even as additional budgetary allocation would be made for the Agency in the 2019 budget. Let me add that the Senate alone cannot approve funds for INEC without the concurrence of the House of Representatives. So the attempt to illegally reopen the Senate by a handful of APC Senators therefore becomes suspect and must not be allowed to happen. I want to call on President Buhari not to accede to the illegal request of these Senators who are only out to gain underserved relevance and political patronage in the buildup to the primaries of the party soon. I also want Nigerians to be aware of this illegal plot and I call on them to rise to save the institution of the National Assembly which is the only defining characteristics of the nations democracy. Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House of Representatives that Senators Ali Ndume, Abdullahi Adamu and Ovie Omo-Agege tried to break into the Senate chambers on Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Governor Bello says he defection of APC members to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)would not affect President Muhammadu Buharis victory at the 2019 Presidential election. In a statement by his spokesman, Kingsley Fanwo, on Thursday, August 2, 2018, Bello said the ruling party was getting rid of the bad eggs within its rank. The Governor maintained that the party would remain stronger in the aftermath of the sieving process. President Muhammadu Buhari is a man of honor, respected home and abroad; a leader who has gone beyond the possibility of compromising the ideals that have won him respect globally, Bello said. The All Progressives Congress is built on the solid foundation of progressive change and protection of the interests of the poor in the society. Our commitment to mass transportation ease and social investment are testimonies of our commitment to deploy the resources of the nation for the Service of the masses. ALSO READ: Sokoto Governor officially dumps APC for PDP The 2019 election will be determined by the masses of Nigeria and they are solidly behind Mr President. Buhari will win again in 2019. The masses know that the defections were informed by selfish desires for self-aggrandizement. The leaders defected but the people refused to defect. Bello urged party members to continue to support Mr President and the All Progressives Congress in order to shame the enemies of the nation in 2019, he added. Alhassan, popularly called Mama Taraba, finished second (275,984 votes) to current Taraba governor, Darius Ishaku (369,318 votes), in the 2015 gubernatorial election and has publicly expressed her wish to contest again several times. In a letter dated July 27, 2018, President Buhari thanked her for her services to the All Progressives' Congress (APC) and wished her well for the election. The letter read, "I have today received your letter notifying me of your intention to contest for the governorship of Taraba State in the 2019 election. "Let me thank you on behalf of the Federal Executive Council and Nigerians for your services as minister under this administration. I note with passion your past contribution to our great party APC during and after the 2015 elections. "As you are aware I am totally committed to free and fair elections. Our policy is to support all APC candidates. I wish you well in your ambition to be governor of your state. "Rest assured that all security agencies as well as INEC will have my full support to conduct free, fair and transparent elections in 2019." Mama Taraba's 2015 battle Alhassan came close to becoming Nigeria's first democratically-elected female governor after a tribunal court briefly nullified Ishaku's victory at the 2015 polls. The court reached the judgement based on Alhassan's argument that Ishaku could not have been eligible for the election since he allegedly did not partake in any primary election by his party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Alhassan's hopes were cut short when the Court of Appeal in Abuja overruled the tribunal's judgement, ruling that it's a gross misdirection in law. The five-man panel unanimously ruled that Alhassan and the APC had no right or capacity to question the decision of the PDP who decided to field Ishaku to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The work we are doing is because of God, our country and you. I want to inform you that the knowledge we have garnered over the years, we wont allow you to be cheated, Buhari said. Buhari made this known while addressing supporters of the All Progressive Congress, APC, at the commencement of the campaign rally for the Bauchi south senatorial district bye-election scheduled for August 11, 2018. The President also expressed confidence in Gumau Yahaya, the APC candidate in the election, saying, we have confidence in him and we trust him. Buhari also told the people, who trooped out for the campaign rally said his government had remained faithful in implementing its campaign promise. Like we promised, what will determine a good future for the country are security, strong economy and to stop corruption. We campaigned on these things, you voted for us and we will never forget, Buhari said. The president was was accompanied by Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the APC, governors of Bauchi, Plateau, Kano and Imo states. Buhari campaigns for Fayemi at Ekiti campaign rally President Buhari was at the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally which held in Ekiti state on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. The rally was organised to rally support for the APC guber candidate in the July 14, 2018 Ekiti governorship election, Kayode Fayemi. Fayemi won the election. Meanwhile, Governor Yahaya Bello has described the gale of defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) as an auto-correct system. Ahmad expressed his delight with a tweet on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 saying he is the happiest of all public office holders that dumped the ruling party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. "Today, as I and other members of the Kwara State House of Assembly dump the APC for good, I heaved a sigh of relief. In 2014, I was terribly sad leaving PDP reluctantly with 36 other members of the House of Representatives. Today, I am the happiest leaving the APC for good," Ahmad tweeted. Ahmad defected to the PDP along with the Kwara state governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed and Senate president, Bukola Saraki. The politicians announced their exit from the APC to PDP on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 amidst crises in the ruling party. ALSO READ: Kwara PDP members defect to APC, describe Saraki as anathema 23 Kwara APC lawmakers defect to PDP 23 members of the 24-member Kwara House of Assembly, including all principal officers on Wednesday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The defection, according to Speaker of the assembly, Dr Ali Ahmad, during plenary was conveyed in a letter written to the House by the Majority Leader, Mr Hassan Oyeleke, on behalf of concerned members. All the defected members were in the APC and the only member remaining in the party is Saheed Popoola, representing Ojomu-Balogun Constituency in Offa Local Government Area. The nation's Number 3 citizenleft the governing APC for the opposition PDP on July 31. A gale of defections have also hit the APC since July 24, 2018, amid claims that the governing party now faces the prospect of being kicked from the center in the 2019 elections. Akabuwa says this is a pointer that President Buhari and the APC have failed to deliver on their 2015 campaign promises. Akabuwa's opinion piece is reproduced in full below: ____ There is perhaps no gainsaying the fact that the political cauldron that metamorphosed into the behemoth called All Progressives Congress (APC) was a hastily conceived incongruous amalgam aimed at securing power by all means possible. In the face of a bitter, acerbic campaign, the then opposition party, APC, made a lot of promises to the people during the 2015 electioneering campaigns, but it has failed to fulfil those promises. They had promised that if they won, they will revive the economy and address the problems of insecurity and corruption. Sadly, the party has failed woefully on those cardinal promises. Today presents perhaps the exact opposite of what the APC promised. Nigerians have continued to witness despair across the length and breadth of the country. In just over three years, it has become quite clear that both the APC and President Buhari have demonstrated that they were not prepared to rule because they had nothing to offer. Messianic complex The goodwill and the messianic perception that brought President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to power has waned because of the party's obvious inability to keep its promises. The good side is that the ongoing implosion within the APC is at best a political "hara-kiri" as the party is unravelling from within. Evidently, the recent wave of defections which started at the national assembly has shown no sign of abating as it has now spread to Benue, Kwara and Kano states. It is expected that more defections will follow in the coming weeks. While we cannot deny the gradual descent from glory to infamy occasioned by the glaring failure of the Buhari administration over the last three years, it is glaring that the new national chairman of the party might just be an unwitting undertaker destined by fate to send the party to berth in a 'disastrous and pestilential aqua' (credits to Patrick Obahiagbon). Oshiomole's impulsive flippancy, loquaciousness and high-handedness have exacerbated the current crisis within the party. Saraki has led the legislature well Despite the ignominy that has characterised the APC leadership, one cannot deny that the national assembly especially the Bukola Saraki led Senate has carried itself creditably well and is above board. Under Saraki's leadership, the 8th assembly has been one of the most stable, peaceful and result-driven senates in recent times. In terms of legislative duties, the senate has made over 200 legislations (bills and constitutional amendments) including the Not Too Young To Run Bill. Other bills passed include the Anti-Torture Bill (2016), National Child Protection and Enforcement (2016), Corrupt Practice and other Related Offences Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016, National Road Funds (Est, etc.) Bill, 2018, Digital rights and freedom bill, 2018(HB490) and the New Company and Allied Matters Act 2018, to mention but a few. As a lawyer, I am excited that the new CAMA will help legal practitioners experience new frontiers in the art of corporate practice. In addition, the Saraki led Senate, has in the discharge of its investigative and oversight functions, uncovered the infamous grass cutting scandal that eventually led to the removal of the erstwhile Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. On the political front, the senate president was able to provide political stability and resisted the pressure to commence impeachment proceedings against President Buhari when he travelled to London for medical care and spent about 50 days and 105 days respectively. He also maintained a dignified silence throughout his travails at the Code of Conduct Tribunal until a vindication of his innocence was given in a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. He ensured that through it all, the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature remained harmonious and demonstrated respect for the Judiciary even in the face of persecution. Respect for Saraki's choices As Dr. Bukola Saraki crosses over to the threshold to the Peoples Democratic Party for reasons he has so lucidly articulated, we must respect his inalienable right to freedom of association. We must continue to work our democratic system with respect for the rule of law and the tenets of constitutional democracy. As Dr. Saraki himself puts it: I have tarried for so long and did all that was humanly possible, even in the face of great provocation, ridicule and flagrant persecution, to give opportunity for peace, reconciliation and harmonious existence. Again, he notes: All governance principles which were required for a healthy functioning of the party and the government were deliberately violated or undermined. And all entreaties for justice, equity and fairness as basic precondition for peace and unity, not only within the party, but also the country at large, were simply ignored, or employed as additional pretext for further exclusion. Sadly, this is the sorry state that our democracy has sunk to under President Buhari. Nigeria can clearly not survive another four years of this kind of high-handed and draconian tyranny masquerading as a democracy. We must give Nigeria back to the people. We must pull back our democracy from the verge of relegation and place it on top of the elite league of advanced democracies. --Ebubedike Akabuwa, a legal practitioner, sent this piece from Abuja. ____ 16 senators and 3 state governors began dumping the APC on July 24; with political pundits positing that the defections portend grave danger for a governing party whose leader, Buhari, faces a major re-election battle in 2019. Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara have since dumped the APC for the PDP. On July 31, Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is the 3rd most powerful politician in Nigerias leadership hierarchy, also left the APC for the PDP. No cause for alarm After the APC governors who are yet to defect, held a meeting with President Buhari on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, Okorocha assured that there is no more cause for alarm within the governing party. This is politics, it is unfortunate that they have to go, Okorocha said, while disclosing to State House correspondents that the mass defections was top of the agenda during the meeting with the president. Okorocha also said the defections are indicative of corruption fighting back. We have 22 states, 53 senators now. Nobody is leaving the party anymore. Those who have left, we were aware that they will leave long ago. President Buhari means well and he is willing to fight corruption and you all know if you are fighting corruption, it will fight back. This is whats happening, he said. Roll call Among the governors who attended the meeting were Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos and Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi. Others were Gov. Jubril Bindow of Adamawa, Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state. Others were Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano and Niger State Governor, Sani Bello. Gov. Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state, Gov. Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa, Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo and Osun Deputy Governor, Grace Laoye-Tomori were also in attendance. On July 9, 2018, dozens of political parties had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to oust the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 presidential election. The coalition finally opened its secretariat at 13, Thaba Tseka Street, Wuse II, Abuja, on Thursday, August 2, 2018. PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus, and R-APC chairman, Buba Galadima, were two of the most prominent actors at the official opening. While speaking earlier on Wednesday, August 1, Secondus disclosed that the secretariat will be a rallying point for all the parties in the coalition to deal with issues. At the Thursday opening, the CUPP inaugurated a 17-member steering committee to coordinate the activities of the grand alliance. Galadima, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Tunde Adeniran, Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, Ben Obi, Peter Ameh, Sam Eke, Jeff Ojinka are members of the committee. Others are Igwe Emeka Benjamin, Hon. Razak Eyiowuawi, Odion Okpebholo, Abduljalili Tafawa Balewa, Tanko Yunusa, Olusegun Peters, Georgina Danagogo, Ikenga Ugochinyere and Mark Adebayo. The governor reassured leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party saying he will resist any move to remove the leadership of the 8th National Assembly - Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Speaking at the PDP national executive council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Thursday, August 2, 2018, Tambuwal said: "When I hear that some people are trying to break into the chambers of the senate to steal the mace and install a pseudo president of the senate, I wonder whether they actually know the rules of our democratic engagement. Its not a Gestapo, we are in democracy. If the senators have confidence in Bukola Saraki, they should continue to sustain him as president of the senate. And so be it with Mr. Speaker, Dogara. So, nobody should be afraid. There is a process. And we must respect due process and rule of law. And Nigeria is not a banana republic. We will not take it from anybody. Let them hear it very clear. If you try it, we will march out our forces in this country and jam you. The constitution of this country is very clear that members of the senate and the house of representatives can choose from among themselves their own president of the senate or speaker without leaning to any political party, Tambuwal said. Reiterating his words that Nigerians will not accept prison-yard democracy, Tambuwal said, Only about three days ago, I did say that Nigerians will not accept prison-yard democracy. And we cannot afford to allow our country to drift further. It is not about any interest, it is about this country. This country is on a cliff. We must retrieve it. Oshiomhole says Saraki should vacate his seat The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has called on Senate President Bukola Saraki to vacate his seat. Oshiomhole said this while speaking to newsmen after APC Senators met with President Buhari behind closed doors on Wednesday, July 31, 2018. He said But whatever is the reason, we can decamp from party, but we cant decamp from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through. I mean, you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family. It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to. As it stands even now, APC is still the largest party in the Senate. We have 53 senators, that is much more than PDP or APGA has. Questions have been asked about whether Saraki will remain senate president even though he now belongs to the PDPthe minority political party in the senateat least going by the last count. How many senators do the APC and PDP have now? After the gale of defections in the Senate and House of Representatives on July 24, 2018, the governing APC maintained a slight majority over the opposition PDP. There are 109 senators in the upper legislative chamber. After last weeks defections, the APC had 53 senators while the PDP had 50. ADC has 3 senators and APGA has 2. With Sarakis defection, the APC now has 52 senators while the PDPs ranks have swollen to 51. What this means is that when the senate resumes plenary in September, the APC will still be the majority party in the upper legislative chamberalbeit a very slim majority. Will Saraki remain senate president from a minority party? There is nothing constitutionally wrong with Saraki keeping his position as senate president even though hell now belong to the minority party in the red chamber. According to Section 50 (1) (a) of the 1999 constitution as amended: A President and Deputy President of the Senate, shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves. The above section doesnt bar lawmakers from the minority political party in parliament from seeking the position of senate president. The law also doesnt say that a senate president who becomes a member of the minority party should relinquish that position. Section 50 (2) of the Constitution reads that: The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office: a) If he ceases to be a member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives; or b) When the House of which he was a member first sits after any dissolution of that House; or c) If removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of the House. In simpler language, Saraki can remain president of the senate when the house reconvenes, unless hes impeached by two thirds majority of lawmakers. And the APC can only attain two thirds majority of lawmakers required to impeach Saraki, if senators from the PDP lend the governing party a chunk of senators. Saraki wont be the first leader of parliament from the minority party In the 2nd Republic, the Speaker of the House of Representatives was Edwin Ume-Ezeoke of the Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP). NPP wasnt the governing party at the time. The governing party was Alhaji Shehu ShagarisNPN. In the 7th assembly, Aminu Tambuwal continued to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives even after dumping the PDP for the APC. Fifor later blamed "a misunderstanding or an error of communication". "No one could ever say that there are ballistic missiles at Deveselu. I said that the base is a defence against ballistic missiles, not that it has any of them," Fifor told another news channel. Russia sees the missile shield as a security threat on its doorstep, despite the US and NATO insisting it is not aimed at undermining Moscow's defences. According to NATO, the shield is a purely defensive system equipped with interceptors, which can protect NATO members against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Romania's main opposition parties, the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, have called on Fifor to quit. Former president Traian Basescu of the People's Movement Party also condemned Fifor. "Mihai Fifor has no place in the government... He confirmed statements made by Putin and other officials who try to undermine the reality, which is that Deveselu is a defensive missile system, not on offensive one," Basescu wrote on Facebook. Fifor's comments follow two other gaffes. Prime Minister Viorica Dancila declared last week she was "happy to be in Pristina" while visiting Montenegro's capital Podgorica. Pristina is the capital of Kosovo, which Romania does not recognise. At the same time, the tower now sets aside half of daily tickets for internet customers, up from just 20 percent previously. Workers say the changes have resulted in lopsided queues that can extend to three hours for those waiting to pay for tickets, and up to an hour for internet customers who are supposed to have reserved time slots. They want more flexibility in managing the thousands hoping to reach the top of the "Iron Lady" each day during the peak summer tourist season. The tower's operator counters that queues are no worse than before, even as visitor numbers have risen, with more than 6.2 million tickets sold last year. But many tourists arriving on Thursday morning had no idea what the strike was about, with signs saying only that the monument was closed. "I'm annoyed, I'm not going to lie," said Robin Frye of Birmingham, England, who was visiting Paris for the first time. "It's going to throw off our whole trip if I'm honest," she said. "We got up at 6:00 am and were among the first people here, but it's closed," said Adele Liliane, who arrived this week from Montreal, Canada. 'Apologies' Negotiations broke off on Thursday afternoon but were due to resume later, possibly in the evening. Earlier workers held a general assembly to discuss a proposal offered by the site's operator SETE, which is majority owned by the city of Paris. "The SETE is well aware of the disappointment for visitors because of the monument's closure, and its negative impact on the image of both the city and country," the company said in a statement. "It offers its apologies to everyone -- Parisians and French as well as foreign tourists." The tower's 300-strong staff has staged strikes repeatedly in recent years over issues including pickpocketing and maintenance work. "It's unfortunate to end up here, with visitors being penalised, but we did everything to avoid it," said Denis Vavassori of the CGT union. He said directing people to the elevator with the shortest waits regardless of the type of ticket they bought, as they used to do, would ease the congestion. The SETE has indicated it may be willing to try out the unions' plan. Speaking in the Senate, Mr Moi argued that the ongoing investigations being conducted by the Senate ad hoc Committee led by Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo were unlawful. According to the Baringo Senator, since the matter was already in court, the Senate ought to suspend the probe noting that it will prejudice the courts decision. Also Read: First Photo of Patel dam owner after arrest emerges He quoted Senates standing orders which restricts lawmakers from probing a matter that is sub judice. Sub judice means that the matter is under judicial consideration and therefore prohibited from public discussion elsewhere. "The subject matter is actively in court and in our standing orders number 92, it says that we cannot refer to any matter that is sub judice in which by the expression of any written law is secret. "A matter shall be considered to be sub judice when it refers to active criminal or civil proceeding and its discussion is likely to prejudice its third determination. "Can we really continue with this matter in light that it is sub judice and in court?" Moi questioned. Also Read: Owner of Killer Patel Dam charged However, Senator Mutula, who has been actively involved in the investigations, dismissed the claims stating that the Solai tragedy was a matter of public interest. "The matter of public interest in the Solai dam tragedy which is actually being investigated by both Houses is in the interest of the Senate to get into the bottom of this matter as quickly as possible even before the trial of the accused person. We might help the court and this country," Mutula Jr said. The session speaker Meru Senator Mithika Linturi directed that the matter is deliberated on Thursday afternoon. "I direct that this motion be deferred to tomorrow 2.30pm. Also, I recommend that this matter be given high priority during the Senate session," Linturi said. This comes at a time when Patel farm owner Perry Mansukh through his lawyer told the Senate that they were uncomfortable to answer any questions because the matter was still in court. Red Bank United Methodist Church, 3800 Dayton Blvd., will host the sixth annual Chattanooga Big Latch On, a global event celebrating breastfeeding as a regular, everyday activity this coming Saturday.The event is presented by the Chattanooga Area Breastfeeding Connection; registration is from 9:30-10:15 a.m., with the Latch On starting at 10:30 a.m., and will be a part of the attempt to break the world record for breastfeeding simultaneously around the world, currently at 17,992 children.The event will also feature vendors, raffles, goody bags and activities for kids, as well as a free mini-session presented by Benchmark Physical Therapy called "Restore Your Core" at 10:45 a.m., which will discuss postpartum abdominal separation and other matters of the pelvic floor.For more information, email the Chattanooga Area Breastfeeding Connection at info@chattanoogabreastfeeds.org. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. When Purdue Extension heads to Indianapolis for the Indiana State Fair's Aug. 3-19 run, educators will be showcasing exhibits that make it fun to learn about health, conservation and the animals around us. The exhibits at the 2018 Indiana State Fair represent the breadth of beneficial work that Purdue Extension does across the state, said Jason Henderson, director of Purdue Extension and associate dean of Purdue College of Agriculture. From a full arcade of fast-paced, educational games kids will love to interactive activities for all ages that promote health, conservation and civic leadership, fairgoers will see how Purdue Extension makes Indiana a better place for all of us. The exhibits are: * Light the Night Say's Firefly recently became the official state insect. At this exhibit, visitors can learn facts about how and why fireflies light up and about Purdue's early basic research into firefly bioluminescence, which eventually helped lead to the creation of glow sticks. "There is so much to learn from the animal kingdom by studying the biological adaptations certain species have developed to survive and thrive," said Purdue entomology professor emeritus Tom Turpin. "Purdue entomologists, in the early 1980s, were on the leading edge of learning the chemical processes by which fireflies produce light. It's just one example of how understanding and appreciating the insects we share the planet with can also lead to benefits for humans." * Pixel Play Arcade This new exhibit features eight of the best educational games developed by Purdue Extension, including: * Hot Plate, which teaches about nutritional health. * Don't Be a Zombie, which shows how to prepare for emergency situations. * Hellbender Havoc, which teaches about the Hellbender, an aquatic salamander that is an endangered species. "For the past 10 years, Purdue Extension has created fun and educational video games to share important information, particularly with young people, in a way that resonates with them," said Jeff Rollins, Purdue Agriculture's manager for exhibits and events. "The Pixel Play Arcade provides fairgoers with the 'greatest hits' from past exhibits and cover a range of topics from wildlife conservation to everyday health." * H2Whoa! Visitors will learn how they can contribute to water conservations efforts. The exhibit shows how certain "indicator species" are used to help determine environmental health, demonstrates the important role of mussels in North America's ecosystem and history, and show how things like trash, soil erosion and chemical waste threaten water systems. * Be Heart Smart In this interactive exhibit, visitors will learn about the circulatory system and heart-healthy choices they can make in their daily lives. The exhibit features seven interactive stations including turning a wheel, pulling levers or taking a sit-up challenge that will get the blood pumping and show how exercise can be enjoyable. A relaxation station will provide a quiet space where visitors can listen to audio tracks with guided imagery to help them rest and slow their heart rate. * Lifestyles of the Feathered and Furry Animal well-being is about more than just health, and this exhibit will show visitors how to recognize contentment in animals and understand if an animal can perform natural behaviors, such as grooming and stretching. The exhibit also offers information on how to provide for an animal's health while preventing injuries and diseases. Purdue Extension will host other events throughout the fair: * The annual discussion of the U.S. Department of Agricultures August Crop Production report will be at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 10 in the Farm Bureau Building Ballroom. * Purdues Women in Agriculture awards will be presented on Aug. 16 in the Normandy Barn at the fairgrounds. The program begins at 3:30 p.m. * At 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. every day from Aug. 3-18, Purdues College of Veterinary Medicine will present animal surgery demonstrations and interactive displays in a tent on the north side of the fairgrounds near the Farm Bureau Building. In addition to being able to see live surgeries, other presentations offered during the fair include sessions on dog physical therapy, dairy calves and veterinary dentistry. The tent also houses the Indiana State Fair Vet Camp. For the fifth consecutive year, Purdue vet med faculty and students will be providing veterinary care for all of the fairs exhibit animals, including most of the 4-H animals, under the coordination of Dr. Jonathan Townsend, assistant professor of dairy production medicine and Purdue Veterinary Medicines director of Extension. The Indiana State Fairgrounds is located at 1202 E. 38th St., Indianapolis. Purdue Extension exhibits are located in the Purdue Extension Ag/Hort Building, located on the west side of the fairgrounds near the midway. Sources: Jeff Rollins, 765-337-6492, jeffrollins@purdue.edu Maureen Manier, 765-494-8403, mmanier@purdue.edu Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415; Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu Agriculture News Page A Christchurch mother who called police on her son after finding stolen items in her home is being praised for her actions. After asking her 14-year-old son where the items came from, the mother dobbed him in when he refused to answer. Police found a bike, scooter and shoes at the home, which are believed to have been stolen from properties in the suburbs of Wigram and Hornby. The 14-year-old will now be charged with burglary. Natasha, the teens mother, told RadioLIVE Drive it was a hard choice to make calling police on her son. That was probably one of the most difficult decisions Ive had to make, she says. I have no other choice than to report what hes doing. But Natasha says, unfortunately, her sons behaviour has worsened since calling police. She told RadioLIVE she fears that he will hurt other people, or himself. For my son to continuously threaten the other kids and my husband makes it really [scaring] for me. Police are urging residents to call police and report any missing items from their homes. Parents whose teenagers return home with items that don't belong to them are also urged to call police. Listen to the full interview with Natasha above. Drive with Ryan Bridge and Lisa Owen, 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. A self-proclaimed anti-feminist has organised a March for Men in Melbourne, saying there is a collective assault on the male population. YouTuber Sydney Watson says the event is to show the men in our lives that we care, and is not about taking away womens rights of making negative statements about women. A lot of the politicians, media and talking heads often have a lot of things to say about men in relation to the crimes that happen against women. And often when they talk about it, they talk about men collectively, Ms Watson told RadioLIVEs Wendyl Nissen. And it comes across as them saying all men are negative, all men are criminals, and all men are rapists, and I just took exception to that. I just thought this is ridiculous; we shouldnt be about people like this because ultimately there are criminals that are males and females. Collectively talking about men in this way only makes them feel more alienated and unwanted. Ms Watson says both genders have their own unique issues, but need to work together on fighting these issues. If we want to have an equal society, and we want to have a functional society, it comes down to treating each other better. I think men are taking this hostility towards them that as that is being perpetuated and turning it inward, which is why I think we have such high suicide rates among men, she said. Ms Watsons self-titled YouTube channel has nearly 30,000 subscribers and her other videos include provocative titles like 'White privilege doesn't exist', 'Why you aren't racist for hating multiculturalism' and '#MeToo ruined workplaces'. In a video promoting the event, she states the march is "about men and women standing shoulder to shoulder to demonstrate that we're here for one another". When we checked, almost 400 people had suggested they will attend the march on Facebook. Listen to full interview with Sydney Watson above. The Long Lunch with Wendyl Nissen, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. It has been revealed that between 40 and 45 people have likely died from synthetic drugs since last June, according the Coroners office. This is an absolutely appalling and unbelievable situation, said Max Abbott, professor of psychology and public health at Auckland University of Technology. The deaths illustrate a massive spike compared to previous years, causing a resurgence of pressure on the Government to address the issue. Prof Abbott, whos an advocate for decriminalising all drugs, believes the Government should take immediate steps in addressing the spike in deaths. Should the Government decriminalise cannabis, fewer people would be driven to seek out synthetic substances, argues Prof Abbott. People know that its dangerous but they are still using it at the moment, partly because its difficult to get cannabis at the moment. Prof Abbott says decriminalisation will also help those in chronic pain who are still unable to access medicinal cannabis, which he predicts has a long way to go before becoming legal. The law is damaging people, he told RadioLIVE. But while the law should loosen in some areas, Prof Abbott argues that people caught distributing dangerous synthetic drugs should be charged with manslaughter. We need to toughen up, actually in some areas, he said. Prof Abbott conducts research on mental health and addictions, and frequently advocates for policies that he believes will enhance health outcomes. He is also a board member of Waitemata District Health Board. Listen to full interview with Max Abbott above. The Long Lunch with Wendyl Nissen, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE. A psychologist says Winston Peters "throw fatty out" comment in Parliament was nothing less than bullying. In one of his final moments as Acting Prime Minister, Mr Peters called on the Speaker to "throw fatty out" of Parliament. It is not certain who the comment was directed at, though the preceding dialogue indicates National's Gerry Brownlee was likely the intended target. Psychologist Sarah Chatwin told RadioLIVEs Mark Sainsbury that bullying doesnt stop at school. Its very petty, very childlike, except when children say stuff like that, they dont know the implications of what theyre saying often, so its not quite as bad as an adult saying it. Mr Peters' comment was made while tensions were high at Parliament - New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin had just announced the head of an inquiry was stepping down after scrutiny over her endorsements on LinkedIn. It's very petty, very childlike. The jeering from Opposition benches was so loud the Speaker said he couldn't hear Ms Martin, despite the microphone. "I'm first of all going to have the Shadow Leader of the House withdraw and apologise," the Speaker was saying, when Mr Peters' voice was heard through the microphone. The Shadow Leader of the House is Gerry Brownlee. The comment is far from the first time offensive comments have been made in Parliament. Last month, Kelvin Davis called National MP Jacqui Dean "hysterical" during a select committee. In May, the Speaker Trevor Mallard says he heard someone in National call the Prime Minister a "stupid little girl." Sarah Chatwin says making a comments like these at any time is simply bad manners. With all due respect, Gerry Brownlee would probably realise that he is overweight and he has probably had conversations with friends and family members. After a six-week stint as Acting Prime Minister, Winston Peters has handed responsibility back to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Mr Peters is travelling to Singapore to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Summit Ministerial Meetings. Listen to the full interview call with Sarah Chatwin above. Morning Talk with Mark Sainsbury, 9am - 12pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone. RadioLIVE/Newshub. FRANCE: SNCF Mobilites confirmed an order for Alstom to supply 100 high speed trainsets under the TGV of the Future programme at a board meeting on July 26. CZECH REPUBLIC: LEO Express announced on August 2 that it had secured a portfolio of 15 Alstom Lint diesel multiple-units for use from December 2019 or earlier on routes which it hopes to operate under public service contracts with local authorities. LEO Express said it was in negotiations to agree ... The Zambian government has confirmed that it will roll out a China-funded digital television project across the country following its official launch in June. The project, part of Access to Satellite TV for 10,000 African Villages, is being undertaken by Chinese media group StarTimes as part of its plan to provide digital TV services to 10,000 villages in 25 African countries. It was officially launched by President Edgar Lungu in the eastern district of Vubwi, and will see 500 villages be able to access satellite television services by the end of the year.Dora Siliya, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services, said her ministry will soon start going to various parts of the country to establish sites for the project.She said the ministry was looking at having six sites each in various districts of the country as a way of ensuring that as many people as possible have access to satellite television services. Similar projects have already been rolled out in Mozambique, Guinea, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It was hulking, it was orange, and its name was Trump. Randy Johnson looked on as his new 220-ton excavator carved up the ground, clearing the field of rocks to help unearth the coal underneath. Four weeks earlier, the central Alabama mine's 22 employees had gathered to christen the $2.7 million purchase, painting TRUMP in white block letters along the excavator's side. The day I visited, a recent Friday in July, those letters gleamed under the punishing southern sun, the machine's every moveevery swivel at the base, every curl of the clawan implicit tribute to the 45th president. At the OPEC meeting held in Vienna on 22 June, Saudi Arabia successfully pushed for an increase in oil production, despite opposition from Iran, Iraq and other smaller producers within the organization. But this victory may yet prove hollow, as the kingdom's biggest challenge when it comes to balancing production and prices is domestic. On the one hand, keeping oil prices low helps secure Saudi Arabia's market share, satisfy the US and increase pressure on Iran. On the other, it is in its interests to keep potential revenues at a level that will maximize the value of its intended initial public offering (IPO) of a stake in Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, as well as boost the prospects of Vision 2030 the wide-ranging economic diversification plan closely associated with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. President Trump has been criticized for politicizing the intelligence community by threatening to strip the security clearances of former top officials including John Brennan and James Clapper. But numerous past and present senior intelligence officials say that the Obama administration started the politicization -- and that revoking the clearances of those who abuse the privilege for partisan purposes may help right the ship. As is often the case with the Trump administration, the rollout of the policy is bad, but the idea driving the policy is sound, said one senior intelligence official who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke to RealClearInvestigations only on condition of anonymity. Under some Obama-era intelligence chiefs, intelligence was used as a political weapon. We need to root that out, not reward it. It is not clear if the White House is moving forward on Trumps threats last month to revoke those clearances. After Brennans continued media attacks on Trump following the Helsinki summit with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Sen. Rand Paul advised the president to strip him of his clearance. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Michael Flynn: Unmasked. Some sources say former CIA director Brennan, ex-director of national intelligence Clapper and others with security clearances were emboldened to pursue political agendas through the anti-Trump media, in a climate of impunity created by the Justice Departments failure to prosecute leaks attending Donald Trumps election. Notable among the leaks, they said, was a top unnamed officials unmasking of Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn in a January 2017 Washington Post column by David Ignatius, sourced to classified intercepts of Flynns contacts with the Russian ambassador. Leaking such classified information is a felony. "The very people who are now talking the most know the details of how the Flynn intercept was leaked," a senior U.S. official told RealClearInvestigations. "They wouldn't be out talking like that if they'd been interviewed by the FBI." The Department of Justice declined to comment. In February, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department is aggressively investigating the Flynn leak as one of 27 open investigations into unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence. But to date none of those have brought indictments. Brennan has used his current position as contributor to NBC News and MSNBC, as well as his social media presence, to wage a rhetorical assault on Trump. He described Trumps meeting with Putin in Helsinki last month as nothing short of treasonous. From his perch at CNN, Clapper has launched like-minded barrages against the White House. The networks did not respond to requests for comment from or about Brennan or Clapper. Security clearances are commonly extended for the top leaders of the intelligence community after they leave their jobs, on the rare chance that they should be called upon to consult with their successors. The Trump administration is not going to call in Susan Rice for advice, never mind John Brennan, said one active intelligence officer. And if someone does get called in from a previous administration they can get a temporary clearance, akin to a one-day non-disclosure agreement. Trumps threatened break with the tradition has been characterized by critics as a muzzling of free speech and open public debate. Politicizing security clearances to retaliate against former national security officials who criticize the President would set a terrible new precedent, the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, California Rep. Adam Schiff, tweeted last month. Sen. Rand Paul: Revoke clearances. Revoking security clearances would curtail the ex-officials ability to use for partisan ends the resources and institutions of the federal government, including classified intelligence. Published reports show that Obama-era intelligence officials embarked on this course even while they were in government. Brennan and Clappers government records are tarnished by improprieties and abuses that they have been reluctant to acknowledge. Brennan was compelled to apologize to the Senate Intelligence Committee after it was discovered the CIA searched the computers of Senate staffers. The Obama administration used the foreign intelligence surveillance system to spy on congressional critics of the Iran nuclear deal as well as pro-Israel activists. Clapper has denied that he misled Congress in 2013 when he said the National Security Agency does not collect data on American citizens. According to the House Intelligence Committees March 2018 Russia report, Clapper also gave inconsistent testimony about his contacts with the press, including his future employer CNN, regarding the Clinton campaign-funded dossier alleging Trumps ties to Russian officials. Clapper at first denied discussing it with the media and then admitted that he had. With Clappers subsequent hiring as a national security consultant at CNN, Senator Paul and other conservatives argued that the media was effectively monetizing access to classified intelligence. If they still have clearances, former colleagues still active may be passing them information, says an acting intelligence official. Another concern is that the emerging relationship between the press and the intelligence community may inspire active intelligence officers to leak to preferred news organizations with an eye to a job after retirement. The situation, says the official, is ripe for abuse. Television contracts are status-enhancing and generous, but hardly more lucrative than the fees former top-level national security officials earn lobbying, consulting, or simply sitting on the boards of major financial, defense, or technology firms. The issue, according to RCIs sources, is that the growing alignment between anti-Trump media and former spy chiefs will further politicize intelligence, thereby compromising national security while continuing to fragment an already divided American public. All the while, the intelligence community is squandering the confidence of those they are sworn to serve. Brennan and Clapper and others certainly have the right to say what they like, former CIA case officer Daniel Hoffman told RCI. And their statements protected by the freedom of speech we enjoy in the U.S. are a measure of how concerned they are about this president. But while they get a favorable response from the Amen chorus of Trump opponents, we should also consider the risk they are taking of feeding Trump's speculation they were partisan officials who sought to do him harm. Brennan claims not to have seen the infamous dossier alleging Trumps ties to Russia until after the 2016 election, but circumstantial evidence suggests he disseminated reports on it to congressional leaders in August of that year. Numerous Obama-era agencies, including the FBI and Justice and State departments, handled the dossier. Even though former FBI director James Comey called the documents unverified and salacious, his bureau and the DOJ used it to obtain a warrant to monitor the electronic communications of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Leon Panetta: Tempered criticism. Hoffman, a Fox News analyst himself, has written critically of Brennan and Clappers media posture. As a former CIA station chief in Moscow, Hoffman said he is especially concerned about Brennans speculation that Trump could be compromised by the Russians. Brennan and Clapper are doing Putin's bidding when they speculate without facts, Hoffman told RCI, in Brennan's case that Putin could blackmail Trump, and in Clapper's that the Kremlin's interference swung the election to Trump. Senior intelligence officers should know we speculate at our own peril." In contrast with Brennan and Clapper, other recent former CIA directors have demonstrated the kind of circumspection once standard in former intelligence chiefs. Robert Gates has balanced public criticisms of Trump with praise. Longtime Clinton ally Leon Panettas rebukes are, compared with Brennan and Clappers, temperate. David Petraeus, Obamas third CIA director, lost his security clearance after he was charged with leaking classified intelligence to his biographer and then-mistress Paula Broadwell. Petraeus was replaced by Brennan. The Obama administration is notable for having aggressively prosecuted leaks that it perceived as dangerous to national security. Reporters Sharyl Attkisson, James Rosen, and a team at the Associated Press were among those the previous White House put under surveillance. It was a different matter when leaking served the Obama administrations political interests. The Washington press corps is dependent on leaks, including classified intelligence, for stories. The Obama administration tweaked the ecosystem and encouraged officials to leak against the incoming Trump administration. As the Obama team left office, it spread intelligence products regarding the Trump administrations alleged ties to Russia to ensure that reports proliferated throughout the government. Multiplying the number of potential media sources increased the likelihood that intelligence would be leaked to the press. It appears thats what happened with the Flynn leak. As a veteran reporter on the national security beat told RCI: After the Washington Post broke the Flynn story, a colleague called an Obama administration source and got an explosive story like that confirmed in 15 minutes. Even reporters at second-tier publications got the story confirmed, and quickly, because so many people in the administration knew about it. But where that leak started is a different issue. "There are only a few people the leak could have come from, one senior U.S. official told RCI. The Flynn intercept doesn't go to rank-and-file FBI agents. It goes through the top rungs up to Comey, and from there it can only go across. To top DOJ personnel, and the White House. It could also go to John Brennan and James Clapper." A second judge in as many months has tossed a climate lawsuit brought by cities against major energy companies. In dismissing the New York City lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge John F. Keenan wrote, Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government. " Judge Keenan, like his fellow federal jurist William Alsup in California, sees the courtroom as the wrong venue for solving a societal concern such as climate change. Both recent dismissals should serve as a flashing red light to other municipalities who are working with climate activists and their opportunistic plaintiffs lawyers pursuing similar litigation. This is not to suggest that there isnt a proper use of the law when challenging the actions of energy firms. No other litigation during my tenure as Attorney General of Alabama was as consequential as the case against BP over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The harm to my state and its people was real and measurable. That why I tried the case myself, after being appointed by the court as coordinating counsel for the five Gulf Coast states party to the suit. We won more than $2 billion in a landmark settlement on behalf of Alabamans. In our case, clear and measurable economic damage was done to Gulf Coast fishing outfits and shrimpers, as well as to small businesses that depend on tourism. It was the real-world, combined impact on everyone in our statesand municipalitiesthat justified the large verdict. In contrast, today a number of cities including Santa Cruz, Oakland, San Francisco, Boulder, and New York and one state are bring lawsuits against energy companies alleging future harm from the effects of climate change brought on by the products these companies sell. They are seeking awardsoften in the hundreds of millions of dollarsfor events they outline in detail, but that have not yet happened. And by their own admission, these events may never happen. But it gets better: some of these California cities have directly contradicted themselves by issuing precise projections about the future costs of climate change in their lawsuit, while indicating in their statements to the buyers of their municipal bonds that they know of no climate-related risks. They state in their bond issuance documents that it is impossible to predict whether flooding and other damage will occur, if it all. In many cases, it was the same city officials who made both sworn statements. Its not surprising that this public nuisance legal theory being pursued by municipalities is generating skepticism from Judges Keenan, Alsup and others, even while the movement continues to sign up new plaintiff cites. Last month, Judge Alsup in California dismissed climate change lawsuits mounted by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against the oil companies. Our industrial revolution and the development of our modern world has literally been fueled by oil and coal, Judge Alsup wrote. Having reaped the benefit of that historic progress, would it really be fair to now ignore our own responsibility in the use of fossil fuels and place the blame for global warming on those who supplied what we demanded? Jurists are recognizing that empowering courts to determine national policy is dangerous precedent and counterproductive. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg summed up this skepticism in a similar case in 2011 involving climate change by pointing out that the relief youre seeking seems to me to set up a district judge, who does not have the resources, the expertise, as a kind of super-EPA. Climate change is a serious issue that impacts every person, deserving a serious public-policy debate through our democratic process. Keenan wrote in this weeks opinion, Climate change is a fact of life, as is not contested by Defendants. But the serious problems caused thereby are not for the judiciary to ameliorate. Allowing courts to usurp the place of Congress and regulators is a recipe for incoherence. It takes power out of the hands of the peoples representatives. It pushes experts out of the process. It is likely to serve only to enrich trial lawyers. Lawsuits will not develop sound public policy, and they will certainly not halt climate change. And the reality that two federal judges have now dismissed city climate cases should send a strong message to other local leaders: the courts are not the proper place to make climate policy. Obama Endorses; Jordan vs. McCarthy; Going to the Wall; Security Clearances Good morning, it's Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Im away for a few days this week, so my daily history lesson is on brief hiatus. But, as always, I'd direct you to RealClearPolitics' front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following: * * * Obama Issues Endorsements in 81 Midterm Races. Senior RCP political writer Caitlin Huey-Burns has the story. Speaker Race: If Trump Endorses, Will It Matter? RCP White House correspondent Sally Persons explores the possible match-up between Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan should Republicans maintain control of the House. Mr. President, Go to the Wall Over Border Security. Guest columnist Steve Cortes urges President Trump to risk shutting down the government in pursuit of his foundational promise of the 2016 election. Trump Haters Are Gaslighting America on the Economy. In an op-ed, former Trump campaign aide Corey Lewandowski takes aim at Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans. Intel Officials Back Shutting Out Clapper, Brennan. In RealClearInvestigations, contributor Lee Smith reports on reactions to the presidents threat to strip the security clearances of former top officials who have been critical of him. Afghanistan Strategy: Few Tough Questions, Few Details. In RealClearDefense, retired U.S. Army Col. Robert Cassidy laments the content-free Senate confirmation hearing for the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Trumps Warning to Iran. Also in RCD, Mideast intelligence expert J. Robert Kane advises the president to focus on the Iranian regimes funneling of money to foment instability in Latin America. From California Exceptionalism to Statewide Gentrification. In RealClearPolicy, Pete Peterson & Sam Blakeslee spotlight data showing that the Golden State is growing older, richer, and less family-friendly -- and call for policies to counter these trends. Wage Growth Is Not the Problem -- It's Youth Unemployment. Brooklyn College economics professor Robert Cherry explains, also in RCPolicy. Flexibility Needed to Protect Endangered Species. In RealClearEnergy, Ross Marchand, director of policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, praises the Interior Department's proposed reforms. Smart Card Would Slash Medicare Fraud, Improve Care. In an op-ed in RealClearHealth, Liam Sigaud highlights a new bill in Congress that would address problems with the existing Medicare card. * * * Carl M. Cannon Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday that there are ongoing threats -- primarily coming from Russian sources -- to election security in the upcoming midterms. Speaking at the daily White House briefing, they emphasized that President Trump wants to address this concern as a top priority. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and FBI Director Christopher Wray took questions during the briefing, along with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Gen. Paul Nakasone, who heads U.S. Cyber Command. The president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority, said Coats. He said the focus remains on Russia but that the government is monitoring other countries that have similar capabilities and interest in election meddling. In regards to Russian involvement in the midterm elections, we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign to try to weaken and divide the United States, he said. When asked if the new threats are more sophisticated than those in 2016 or aimed at a specific party, Coats said the intelligence agencies have not seen evidence of that: They stepped up their game big time in 2016. We have not seen that kind of robust effort from them so far. The officials said the main goal of the briefing was to acknowledge the threats and let the American people know they are being addressed. They said agencies learned their lesson from the 2016 election but said responding is an ongoing effort as new threats pop up. Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs, said Nielsen. She explained that DHS is focused on election infrastructure and is working with state and local election officials to help identify weakness in their systems, describing the effort as tailored support. She said that all 50 states and the District of Columbia have partnered with the agency to strengthen their systems. Wray said that private companies like Facebook and other social media sites have a very important role to play in protecting Americans from these threats. He said much of the bureaus strategy in addressing attempted meddling is working with social media and technology companies and sharing information in a team effort. We have to have a public-private partnership in this particular threat, said Wray, adding that these companies need to be active in policing their own sites. He said that there is currently more shared information between the government and these private companies, calling the cooperation much more robust than it was before. Wray was also asked about the presidents questioning of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into his campaign, which led last month to the indictment of 12 Russians. Trump has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the probe and as recently as this week again called for it to end. I can assure the American people that the men and women at the FBI starting from the director all the way on down are going to follow our oaths and do our jobs, Wray responded. Officials were asked if a possible government shutdown would derail their efforts. On Sunday, the president indicated he is willing to shut down the government if Congress does not agree to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Nielsen replied that election protections are a priority and states would continue to receive requested aid from her department. Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans are making every excuse in the book to spin Trump-inspired economic growth as bad. They accuse Trump supporters of gaslighting the news all the time, yet they are the ones gaslighting America into believing that the great news about the economy is horrible. Gaslighting is when a person manipulates other people into questioning their own perception of reality. In other words the recent great economic numbers are catastrophic financial news for middle-class Americans. The Trump haters are rooting for a depression and they spin great GDP numbers, low unemployment and a general good feeling about the economy as bad news. How many times have you heard a liberal say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts? Liberals are rewriting the laws of economics to lead the American people to believe that all the fact-based good economic news we hear on a daily basis indicates bad things to come. The hard left has trotted out the new face of the Democratic Party, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who is pushing socialism. She complained on the July 13 edition of PBS Firing Line that unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs. Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their family." In addition to PolitiFact giving her a well-earned Pants on Fire for being so wrong about simple economic theory, she showed that the left will spin good news as bad. The left and its allies in the media will lie about the economy in an attempt to trick the American people into voting for the party of Democratic Socialists this fall. A Trump-hating Republican has also taken to gaslighting the rosy economic numbers. New York Times columnist David Brooks told a PBS audience on July 30 that his liberal pals in the business community believe that the U.S. is becoming like this black hole for investment and that overseas investors just dont want to be involved with Trump. This is a fact-free opinion by the Times version of a Republican. The important fact that socialist Ocasio-Cortez and Never-Trumper Brooks cant explain away is that the presidents policies have made the American economy great again. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board nailed it a few days ago when they made the case that for eight years Barack Obama told Americans that inequality was a bigger problem than slow economic growth, that stagnant wages were the fault of the rich, and that government through regulation and politically directed credit could create prosperity. The result was slow growth, and secular stagnation was the intellectual attempt to explain that policy failure. The fact that deregulation and tax reform served to supercharge risk-taking and investment makes liberals heads hurt. When Brooks claims that the U.S. is a black hole for investment, this is a classic example of gaslighting. The WSJ reported that the [GDP] acceleration has been driven by business investment, which increased 6.3 percent in 2017 and has averaged 9.4 percent in the first half of 2018. A massive increase in business investment is a fact, yet Brooks uses his emotional hatred of Trump and his small circle of lefty business executives as authority to ignore widely accepted economic numbers. A healthy stock market shows that investors are not fleeing from investments in the U.S. The recently reported GDP number of 4.1 percent for the last quarter shows overall economic strength. Yet, Brooks ignored all of these data points to push a narrative that is false and a provable economic lie. Ocasio-Cortez claims that what we have now is this no-holds-barred, wild west, hyper-capitalism that has led to the people who create value in our society not experiencing any of the value they are creating. Again, this is an example of a person saying what they want to be true not what is actually true. The Wall Street Journal cited a sharp increase in the personal savings rate that was due to an upward revision in wages and salaries and jumped to 6.7 percent from 3.4 percent for 2017 and averaged 7 percent in the first half of this year. They calculate that $500 billion more in cash is in the pockets of Americans than previously estimated. Cortez would have a hard time explaining why consumer spending is so strong when nobody has any money to spend. The gaslighting of the Trump economy has commenced and it will continue through the fall elections. Every bit of good news will be met with spin as to why it is bad news. Brooks' claim that investors would rather invest in China or Africa when they are not investor-friendly areas of the world shows his lack of objectivity. Socialist calls for a higher minimum wage, Medicare-for-all and free college are ideas that belong in the slow-growth Obama years. Time to give credit where credit is due and stop the gaslighting about the economy. It is a fact that President Donald J. Trumps policies have made the economy much better than during the Obama years full stop. WASHINGTON -- President Trump's outrageous tweets are testing, once again, our capacity for outrage. They are not harmless venting. Rather, they pose a threat to the rule of law. Consider: Trump unhinged, Wednesday edition. He launched another unfounded attack against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as being "totally conflicted." He slandered the prosecutors ("17 Angry Democrats") doing Mueller's "dirty work" as a "disgrace to USA." And, most alarmingly, Trump called on his attorney general to "stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further." A measure of how alarming was the scrambling by Trump's team of enablers to explain that the president was not, in fact, ordering Attorney General Jeff Sessions to kill the investigation. Rather, in this soft-core retelling, Trump was merely expressing his opinion about what should happen -- as if that is much better, when the opinionizer is the president. Note to the president: "Our country" is doing just fine with the Mueller probe. Actually, the United States is benefiting from it. The country being stained by the investigation is the one that tried to interfere with our election on Trump's behalf. One of the indictments that Mueller has produced alleged that Russian individuals and companies engaged in a sophisticated social-media campaign to help swing the election to Trump. Another accused Russian military intelligence agents of hacking into the emails of Democratic campaigns and operatives. Someone needs to ask -- or would ask, if the president ever took more than a few shouted questions from a few favored reporters -- how bringing such cases is a "stain" on the United States. Rather, it is a defense of the country and its electoral system, which is more than we have seen from the Trump administration. Leave aside the matter of whether Trump's attacks on the Russia "hoax" represent potential evidence in an obstruction case against him. That is worth considering, but the focus on his tweets as obstruction in plain sight has obscured the even more concerning fact that the tweets offer incontrovertible evidence of a president who cares nothing about the well-being of his country and the integrity of its elections. A president who cared about this would be insisting that Mueller get to the bottom of what happened, not doing his best to undermine the special counsel's legitimacy. He would not be ordering, or even suggesting, that his attorney general -- his properly recused attorney general -- shut it all down. The same is true of the just-begun trial of Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who is accused of bank and tax fraud charges involving laundering more than $30 million in income. A responsible president would allow the Manafort case to proceed without comment, for fear of tainting it, but would privately seethe over the alleged misconduct of a man who once sat at the helm of his campaign. Not Trump. He managed, simultaneously, to vouch for Manafort's political bona fides ("worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders"); distance himself from Manafort ("he worked for me for a very short time"); and portray himself as the victim of government malfeasance ("Why didn't government tell me that he was under investigation"). Then came even worse -- a tweet suggesting that, far from wanting to see Manafort brought to justice, we should somehow feel pity for him. "Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement -- although convicted of nothing?" Trump wrote, misspelling the first name (Alphonse) of the notorious Chicago mobster. How nice that Trump, channeling his previously hidden civil libertarian, cares so much about due process for those not convicted of crimes. Maybe there are some detained families and separated children he could worry about instead of Manafort? Recall, Manafort was jailed before trial only after prosecutors accused him of trying to tamper with the witnesses in the case against him. A federal judge agreed, telling Manafort, "You've abused the trust placed in you six months ago." In fact, the Capone-Manafort comparison doesn't exactly benefit Manafort. Capone was convicted of failing to pay taxes on his illicit income, a case federal prosecutors made by showing evidence of Capone's copious spending. Manafort is similarly accused of filing false tax returns -- and as the indictment put it, "used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." Future generations looking back on history, to use Trump's phrase, are not likely to feel pity for either Capone or Manafort. Or anything but contempt for Trump and the way he besmirched his office daily. (c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate Bristol Palin says she's "freshly divorced" from Dakota Meyer. ADVERTISEMENT The 27-year-old new "Teen Mom OG" star confirmed her split from Meyer in a Q&A with fans Wednesday on Instagram Stories after appearing to reconcile with the Marines veteran in the spring. "freshly divorced & single forever lezzbereal (I am not ready to date)," she wrote in response to a fan inquiry. Palin, the daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, later said "life is good" after a fan expressed sympathy over her divorce. "Thank you, I try to be a decent person.. I'm a work in progress! Nothing to be sorry about a divorce - it's life! God cleans our slates, forgives our sins and covers us with His grace! Life is good!! My kids are happy and healthy and that's all I can ask for!" she responded. Palin is parent to two daughters, 2-year-old Sailor and 14-month-old Atlee, with Meyer, and to 9-year-old son Tripp with ex-fiance Levi Johnston She shared her advice for other single moms during the Q&A. "try your hardest, work hard, don't search for someone to fill the emptiness you might feel by not being married, it gets easier, read good books, don't dwell on the past, try get along with your ex, just look at your kids and be THANKFUL!" the star wrote. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Meyer filed for divorce from Palin in January after less than two years of marriage. The pair fueled reconciliation rumors with a series of Instagram posts in May, including a congratulatory message from Meyer to Palin. "Couldn't be prouder of @bsmp2 for passing her real estate exam today! Congratulations I love you," Meyer wrote. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Saturday, Aug. 4 is a special day for lovers of sweetsit's National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. In anticipation of this special "holiday," Connecticut Cookie Company in Fairfeld is offering customers a chance to win a pint of edible chocolate chip cookie dough or a baker's dozen chocolate chip cookies. All you have to do is tag a friend on their Instagram photo or stop into the store. The winner will be announced Sunday. But in the meantime, click through the slideshow above to see where else you can get your cookie fix on August 4. The story of one of America's favorite desserts dates back to 1930 in the kitchen of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Mass. One of the owners, Ruth Graves Wakefield, baked a batch of cookies with Nestle's semisweet chocolate after running out of baker's chocolate. Her impromptu recipe was a success and the chocolate chip cookie was born. TORRINGTON A volunteer has to start at quite a young age to reach the hallmark of 50 years of service. Thats exactly what Drakeville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Maccalous did, joining at 14 as a junior explorer. In the ensuing years, hes moved up through the ranks from firefighter to lieutenant and on up the ladder to the chiefs position, which hes held for 18 years. Maccalous was recognized for his five decades of service Wednesday at the Board of Safety meeting in the City Hall Auditorium. Mayor Elinor Carbone presented him with a certificate and read the commendation. Your commitment to the department and public safety for half a century is to be commended... Our community is strengthened by the hard work of volunteers such as you, Carbone read. (The city appreciates your efforts to safeguard the lives and property of others through your time with the Drakeville Fire Department. Its unbelievable how much has changed (since 1968), Maccalous said Thursday. The requirements now are so much more than they used to be. He said when he joined, new firefighters learned while they were at the scene of fires. Now, qualifying for a Firefighter I certification requires 200 hours of classes. The Drakeville volunteers supported the Torrington Fire Department on July 21 in response to a three-alarm fire at a Lakeridge home. Maccalous said a tanker from his department supplied additional water because the supply from water hydrants in the area was not sufficient. Im proud of our department, Maccalous said. They responded with engines, he said, and helped move hoses, operated a rapid attack nozzle and did a bit of everything. More for you Making Strides walk kickoff scheduled in Litchfield Maccalous noted that the volunteers worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the career firefighters. The tanker used to respond to the Lakeridge fire, known as Tanker 38, is the first vehicle to be purchased by the city for the volunteers. The two other vehicles owned by the department, Engine 35, built in 1989, and a brush truck, were purchased with donations collected from residents in the district, Maccalous said. Given his seniority, Maccalous tenure far exceeds other members of the department. The second-longest serving member, Tom Harmon, has 15 years with Drakeville. He is good at leading a group of guys, Harmon said. He tells us things we dont know about and learn it though everyday activities. Everybody just gets along. You know what to expect and what everybody needs to do, Harmon added. Although hes reached the half-century mark, Maccalous said he doesnt plan to retire from the department anytime soon. He does, however, expect to retire in the next few years from his day job as the owner of HandyMac Services, a home contracting and handyman company. When Maccalous does retire, the department will still have his surname on their roster, connected with David, the elder firefighters son. If there were one thing Maccalous would like the public to know about the volunteer department. it is the urgent need for more volunteers. Id be happy to have 20 members, he said. Its very, very hard to find volunteers. Its the biggest problem we have. To learn more about becoming a volunteer firefighter in the Drakeville department, check for the application online. Or, interested residents or employees in Torrington can call 860-482-6694 for more information. The department also has a Facebook page that provides updates on recent responses and upcoming events. Internet giant Google is working on a version of its search engine that will comply with Chinese government censorship requirements, according to The Intercept. The new search engine will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, the news site reported. The company has been working on the project since the spring of 2017, and fast-tracked it following a meeting between Google CEO Sundar Pichai and a high-ranking government official last December, the report said. "Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app [that] has already been demonstrated to the Chinese government," the report said. Google left China in 2010 after a showdown with China's ruling Communist Party over internet censorship, and currently redirects Chinese language users from the mainland to a search site run from its Hong Kong-based servers. China has blocked access to Google search, YouTube, and Picasa photographs continually since 2009, according to Google's Transparency Report. The country's complex network of blocks, filters and human censorship known collectively as the Great Firewall already ensures that popular foreign websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are hard to access for the majority of Chinese users. Government censors currently prevent keyword searches linked to politically sensitive topics, including the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, dissidents and any form of political opposition. The proposed new Google app will comply with current restrictions, removing banned websites from the first page of results. Examples cited by The Intercept based on confidential leaked Google documents include U.K. public broadcaster the BBC and the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. For some blacklisted queries, no results will be shown at all, and the blacklists will extend to image searches, spell checks and search suggestions, the report said. 'Attack on freedom' Patrick Poon, a Hong Kong-based researcher with London-based rights group Amnesty International, called the news "a dark day for internet freedom." "For the worlds biggest search engine to adopt such extreme measures would be a gross attack on freedom of information and internet freedom," Poon said in a statement on Amnesty International's website. "In putting profits before human rights, Google would be setting a chilling precedent and handing the Chinese government a victory," he said. "It is impossible to see how such a move is compatible with Googles ... motto, and we are calling on the company to change course," he said. Poon also asked whether Google would hand over personal data to the authorities if requested, potentially putting peaceful critics of the government at risk. In an interview with RFA, he reminded the company that it had left China in 2010 in order to get away from censorship. "And now they seem to be deserting their former principles in order to get a foothold in the China market," Poon said. "I really think they should reconsider this decision." The Intercept said Google's renewed interest in China had been led by Pichai, who became CEO in October 2015. It cited sources as saying that Pichai had met with Wang Huning, Chinese President Xi Jinping's right-hand man and policy adviser, during a visit to China in December 2017. However, a report in China's Securities Daily newspaper quoted official sources as denying the report that Google is planning to return to China. The paper also quoted analysts as saying that such a move would be unlikely in the current international context, a possible reference to the trade war with the United States. An employee who answered the phone at Google's Beijing office on Thursday said they had received no information of any new products aimed at the China market. "We haven't received any notification of new products here," the employee said. "All of our existing products are running normally." No public listing was available for the Cyberspace Administration of China. Banning keywords Sang Young, an information security expert at the Hong Kong Internet Society, said Google would have no problem meeting China's requirements. "It's pretty simple; you just load in the keywords [you want to ban] ... they could even enable China to enter those keywords directly," Young said. "Then they just ensure that results relating to the keywords provided by China don't show up in search results." "I would imagine China has already provided them with a list of those keywords." An internet user in the southern province of Guangdong surnamed Fan told RFA that Google had clearly been swayed by the sheer size of the potential China market. "There are more than a billion people in China, and more internet users here than anywhere else in the world," he said. "I am guessing that they don't want to relinquish such a huge market." But Fan said Google wouldn't be offering unfettered searches to those internet users, as it had done in the past. "From the point of view of Chinese internet users, it'll be no different from Baidu; there'll just be one more of them," he said, in a reference to China's homegrown, censored search engine. Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. A harsh review by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) of Laos rights record should prompt the international community to press the one-party state to make major political and legal reforms, human rights groups said on Thursday. The Geneva-based UNHRC held talks with Laos on July 11-12 in that Swiss city and on July 26 issued a tough review of the Southeast Asian countrys compliance with its legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It was the first review since Laos became a state party to the Covenant in 2009. The outcome of the United Nations assessment of the human rights situation in Laos highlighted the countrys highly repressive environment and the governments failure to respect virtually all civil and political rights, said a statement by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the affiliated Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR). The UNHCR found shortcomings across the board and in particular criticized Lao government performance in enforced disappearances, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, arbitrary arrests, prison conditions, right to vote and treatment of minorities. The outcome of the UN review should be an eye-opener for foreign governments, which have too often looked the other way whenever human rights violations were committed in Laos. There are no more excuses for the international community to refuse to pressure the Lao government to address key human rights issues, said FIDH Secretary-General Debbie Stothard. The head of the FIDHs Lao affiliate likewise urged the international community to press Laos to reform. Encouraged by the growing financial assistance received from the international community, the Lao government has repeatedly showed its lack of political will to respect human rights. Its time for foreign governments to tell Vientiane that without the urgent implementation of necessary legislative and political reforms, their support will no longer be guaranteed, said LMHR President Vanida Thephsouvanh. Top aid donors or lenders to Laos in recent years have been Japan, Australia and Germany as well as the Asian Development Bank and the World Banks International Development Association. China has played a growing role, especially in funding large infrastructure projects like railroads and highways. Last month during the review, rights groups criticized the Lao delegation for evading tough questioning on issues including the dislocation of people evicted from land for development projects and the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, an agricultural expert who vanished at a police checkpoint outside the Lao capital Vientiane in 2012. Laos sweeping denials criticized In many cases during the July 11-12 session, Lao delegate Bounkeut Sangsomsak refused to answer detailed questions and tried to change the subject, accusing the highly regarded Sombath of having $1-2 million in unreported assets. He also attacked Sombaths wife Ng Shui Meng, who has embarrassed the Lao government by campaigning tirelessly for answers to her husbands disappearance. In its July 26 review, the UNHRC said it regrets the paucity of relevant information provided by (Laos) regarding the measures taken, and the progress achieved, in investigating the enforced disappearance of civil society leader Sombath Somphone. The report mentions more than a dozen other forced disappearances that Laos had failed to address satisfactorily and took issue with the Lao delegations handling of those cases during the July 11-12 session. It cited the cases of Bounthanh Thammavong, a Polish citizen of Lao heritage who was sentenced in September 2015 to nearly five years in prison under Article 65 of the penal code for disseminating propaganda against the government with the intention of undermining the state in a Facebook posting, and three Lao workers who were given long prison terms in a secret trial in April for criticizing their government in Facebook postings while working in Thailand. Somphone Phimmasone, Lodkham Thammavong, and Soukan Chaithad disappeared in March 2016 after returning to Laos to renew their passports. Charged with criticizing the Lao government online while working abroad, the three were handed prison terms ranging from 12 to 20 years in sentences described as harsh and unjust by rights groups worldwide. The Committee notes with concern the delegations sweeping denial of such allegations and its criticism of the sources of allegations about enforced disappearances during the dialogue with the Committee, said the review. In the areas of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, the UNHRC condemned severe restrictions on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to peaceful assembly. The Committee regrets the existence of severe restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression and the right to peaceful assembly, which hinder the development of a civic space in which individuals can meaningfully exercise their human rights and promote human rights without fear of sanctions and reprisals, said the review. The UNHRC said it was concerned about consistent reports of torture and ill-treatment in prisons, deaths in custody, harsh prison conditions due to severe overcrowding, inadequate food supply and medical care, and the use of prolonged solitary confinement. Land grabs in ethnic minority areas, a major source of social tension in Laos, was also a focus of the UN review. The Committee is concerned about reports of forced relocation of a number of ethnic minority communities as a result of land grabbing and land concessions to development projects such as the building of hydropower stations, extractive activities or the establishment of economic special zones, it said. The Committee is concerned that many of the traditional lands were reportedly converted into development projects without adequate consultation with the affected communities or provision of adequate compensation or relocation sites and at reports of arbitrary arrest and detention of farmers and villagers protesting against land leases and concessions, it said. The Lao government is required to follow up and provide information by July 27, 2020 on implementing UNHRC recommendations on enforced disappearances, the right to vote and minority rights. Around 300 villagers in northern Myanmars Shan state fled their homes on Thursday, fearing renewed fighting between the national military and ethnic armed groups seen approaching Namtu township, according to local sources. Northern Alliance troops had taken up positions around Mangche village, where farmers saw them, Mi Lenda, chief of Namtus Panglon village, told RFAs Myanmar Service. These farmers told other villagers, and they fled their homes, he said. The Northern Alliance, a military coalition of four ethnic armies, has been engaged in recent fighting with government troops in Shan and neighboring Kachin state. One armed group, the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), had joined in July with another, the Shan State Progress Party, in fighting against rival ethnic army the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army South (RCSS/SSA-S), sources said in earlier reports. The TNLA and SSPP are fighting with the RCSS, Ta Phone Kyaw, a TNLA spokesperson said on Thursday. We havent seen any fighting for the last three days, but the local villagers got worried and fled from their homes, he said. The RCSS has threatened and arrested villagers, so they have legitimate fears, he said. We heard that four villagers were arrested and taken from Namtu townships Pangkut village on July 31, and that one villager was shot by the RCSS in Hsipaw townships Sanphe village as well. The TNLA has been fighting the Myanmar army and the RCSS in Shan state since late November 2015, about six weeks after the signing of a nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) between the government and some of the countrys more than 20 ethnic armed groups. The RCSS is one of 10 signatories of the NCA, while the TNLA has been excluded from signing the accord because of its ongoing hostilities with Myanmars armed forces. Township residents are now sheltering in Buddhist monasteries in Hsipaw and at Mangsan village, with another 13 staying at relatives homes, sources said, adding that local residents and government departments are providing aid to those displaced. About 20 returned home as Northern Alliance troops near Mangche began to withdraw, sources said. The armies are fighting only because they want to grab more territory, one Namtu resident told RFA on Thursday. But the local people are the ones who suffer, he said. Reported by Kan Thar and Tin Aung Khine for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Richard Finney. State-sanctioned religious associations in China have proposed a measure that would require all places of worship to fly the national flag, according to state media, in an expansion of a similar policy enforced on mosques in the largely Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) last year that drew strong criticism from the main Uyghur exile group as at attack on freedom of belief. The report, published on Tuesday by the official Global Times newspaper, followed an earlier article detailing a new pilot program through which the Islamic Association of China (IAC) will outfit Muslim Chinese nationals making the holy hajj pilgrimage with GPS tracking devices, ostensibly to ensure their safety during the trip. All religious venues should raise China's national flag to strengthen awareness of respect to the flag and preserve the flag's dignity, the Global Times reported of the measure, which it said was proposed by representatives of national religious groups, including the IAC, the Buddhist Association of China, the Taoist Association of China, and the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church in China. According to the measure, which was proposed by the representatives at a conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the flag should be raised at religious venues during national holidays and important festivals and celebrations of each religion while simultaneously raising religious flags and placed before religious flags in the row. It also includes the raising of national flag as an evaluation index in the activities of selecting harmonious temples or churches, the report said, suggesting that places of worship which do not follow the practice could face official scrutiny. Dolkun Isa, the president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) exile group, told RFA Thursday that requiring places of worship to raise Chinas atheist flag is an attack on all religions in the country. This is an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to place atheism above all religions and turn religious venues into communist propaganda centers, he said. This tramples the religious freedom of all believers and violates Chinas Constitution, which guarantees that freedom. Earlier on Tuesday, the Global Times published an article noting that more than 11,000 Chinese Muslims are heading to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia as part of official groups for a month-long hajj pilgrimage this year, and that their organizers from the IAC will provide them with special GPS devices that will make the trip better and safer. If the pilgrim gets lost or encounters an emergency situation, organizers from the association will receive an alarm from an app installed on their mobile phone, the report said, citing a staffer with the IAC who asked to remain anonymous, and is accompanying a group of 500 pilgrims this year. Using the GPS, the app can also help Chinese organizers see the real-time location of the pilgrims, which organizers say will help facilitate management of the activity, the Global Times quoted her as saying. While only 3,300 pilgrims will be wearing the card, and no residents from the XUAR will take part in the pilot program this year, the report said, it quoted IAC staffer Ma Mingyue as saying that new functions for the device are under development and the card will be used by more pilgrims in the future. Eva Pils, a China human rights expert at Kings College London, told the Wall Street Journal in a recent article that the GPS devices are another example of Chinas efforts to monitor its Muslim population using modern surveillance tools. This is yet-another way of persecuting Muslims for practicing their religion, by suggesting that they require to be monitored rather like criminal suspects or persons serving a suspended prison sentence, Pils told the Journal. Harsh policies The two reports appear to expand on an existing string of harsh policies attacking the rights and freedoms of ethnic Uyghur Muslim residents of the XUAR enacted since Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo was appointed to run the region in August 2016. Beginning in April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule. Previous reporting by RFAs Uyghur Service found that in June last year authorities enacted a policy in the mostly Uyghur-populated Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture as part of a bid to assimilate members of the ethnic group in the area, requiring caretakers of mosques to fly the national flag of China atop the buildings. The caretakers were also ordered to remove inscriptions of Islams holiest verse, There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God, from mosque walls and replace them with large red banners that read Love the [Communist] Party, Love the Country in yellow writing. Other policies implemented last year included orders for ethnic minority Muslim families to hand in religious items including prayer mats and copies of the Quran to the authorities, and an updated set of guidelines to detain Muslim Uyghurs on charges of religious extremism that include their postures while at prayer, the color of their hair, and even how they wear their watches. The proposed flag measure and the GPS pilot program also appear in line with an anti-religion propaganda drive launched earlier this year in Kashgar through police stations and the establishment of burial management centers in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture as part of what the Uyghur exile community say is a bid to control all aspects of life for members of their ethnic groupeven the act of dying. Camp network Last week, an editorial in the Global Times, dismissed international coverage of the re-education camps in the XUAR, which it labeled training institutes, saying western media outlets were incorrectly labeling them as detention sites and baselessly criticizing Chinas human rights. Aside from the brief mention in the article, China's central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in the XUAR, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret. But local officials in many parts of the region have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities. Citing credible reports, U.S. lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said recently that as many as 500,000 to a million people are or have been detained in the re-education camps, calling it the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today. Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, said the number could be closer to 1.1 million, which equates to 10-11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region. Reported by RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A U.S. citizen of Vietnamese ethnicity missing since earlier this month has been confirmed held by Vietnams government, a member of his family said Thursday, calling his detention a violation of international law and demanding his immediate release. Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, a 54-year-old father of four from California, disappeared on July 6 while visiting friends and relatives in Vietnam, and his whereabouts and condition were unknown for more than three weeks. On July 31, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City Franc Shelton confirmed that Nguyen had been arrested and was being held at a detention center in the city while under investigation for activity against the Peoples government, according to Article 109 of Vietnams Penal Code, his brother-in-law Robert Mark told reporters Thursday at a press conference in Orange County, California. We spoke to Franc Shelton ... he advised us that Michael is in Ho Chi Minh City, that he is alive and appears to be in good health, Mark said. The investigation could last three to five months and could be extended, should the Vietnamese authorities choose to do so. Mark said that during the investigation, Nguyen is not allowed any family visits or access to a lawyer, and cannot receive any letters or other written communication, even from his children. Nguyen will only be allowed a visit from a representative of the U.S. consulate once a month, he added. According to Mark, Nguyen will be provided with one basic meal per day and will be permitted to spend a maximum of U.S. $80 per monthor U.S. $2.67 dailyon food and other necessities. That amount of money in Vietnam today will buy a person about one bowl of soup that is mostly broth and some noodles, he said. Mark stressed that no formal charges have been filed against or brought against Nguyen. During this three- to five-month investigative stage, they do not have to bring any charges against him ... allowing them, according to their legal system, to deny Michael Nguyen the access to due process and legal justice that we so value here in the United States, he said. We hope that this absence of any formal charges clears any suspicions that Michael was involved in any form of anti-government activities. Mark, speaking on behalf of Nguyens family, asked Vietnams government to release him immediately, adding that detaining anyone without charging them with a crime, without probable cause, is a violation of human rights and international law. He called the confirmation that Nguyen is alive a positive sign, and said his family will now work to obtain Michael's release and safe return to the United States. Nguyens family recently posted a petition on Change.org which had received nearly 7,000 signatures as of Thursday, urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to intervene on his behalf in talks with Vietnamese counterparts and calling for assistance from U.S. lawmakers. Local Congresswoman Mimi Walters, who has been working to support Nguyens family since his disappearance, said during Thursdays press conference that her highest priority is to secure Mr. Nguyen's freedom and to ensure his safety. She said that she plans to speak with Vietnams ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc in Washington on Friday to let him know that it is unacceptable to detain American citizens in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government needs to know that there will be consequences if they don't treat American citizens with respect, she added. Recent protests A statement recently released by the family did not address where Michael Nguyen was traveling or what he was doing on the day he disappeared, but noted that Vietnam had seen large-scale protests in recent months over government plans to grant long-term leases to foreign companies operating in special economic zones (SEZs) and against a controversial new cybersecurity law seen as restrictive by the countrys netizens. William Nguyen, a 32-year-old graduate student of Vietnamese descent from Houston, Texas, was beaten by police and detained along with other protesters on June 10 in Ho Chi Minh City after attending what began the day before as a peaceful demonstration over the concession proposal, which had stirred public fears that the leases would go to Chinese-owned firms. Following a half-day trial at the Peoples Court of Ho Chi Minh City on July 20, Will Nguyen was found guilty of disturbing public order under penal code article 318 and ordered to leave Vietnam, weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had traveled to Vietnam and urged government officials to find a quick resolution to his case. After demonstrations against the land concession proposal spread to several cities throughout Vietnam in June, authorities arrested dozens of protesters and have sentenced several to prison. The government eventually tabled the proposal, pending further research. Rights group Amnesty International estimates that at least 97 prisoners of conscience are currently held in Vietnams prisons, where many are subjected to torture or other ill-treatment. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Dozens of Islamic State (IS) militants who surrendered to Afghan forces on July 31 have been moved to a compound in Shibirghan, in the northern province of Jowzjan, where they are now being held. RFE/RL filmed inside the compound on August 2. Rights group Amnesty International says it has been denied access to Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison term in Russia and has been on a hunger strike the past 81 days. Oksana Pokalchuk, Amnesty Internationals Ukraine director, on August 2 said the effort by Russian authorities denying us the right to visit Oleh Sentsov is indefensible. Amnesty said it was given no reason for the rejection. Sentsov, a vocal opponent of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, was sentenced in 2015 for conspiracy to commit terrorism, charges he and human rights groups say were politically motivated. He has been on a hunger strike since mid-May in a penal colony in Russia's northern region of Yamalo-Nenets and has demanded that Russia release 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners Sentsov's lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, on July 27 said Sentsov was pale and lies down constantly because he has difficulty moving. Russian authorities have insisted Sentsov's condition is stable with no negative dynamic. After almost three months on hunger strike, there are grave concerns for his health, Amnesty's Pokalchuk said. She said Amnesty representatives were planning to visit Sentsov accompanied by an independent medical expert to help evaluate his condition. Amnesty International calls for Sentsovs immediate release and demands that, while detained, he has access to qualified health professionals," Pokalchuk added. Several groups have called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to pardon Sentsov, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Ukrainian film director would have to ask for a pardon himself before it could be considered. Sentsov has so far said he would not ask for a pardon. France has awarded detained Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov the Order of Arts and Letters. Serebrennikov is under house arrest awaiting trial on embezzlement charges that his supporters say are politically motivated. French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen on August 2 signed a decree awarding Serebrennikov with the order, which is given in recognition of significant contributions to the arts and literature in France and the world, French media reported. Serebrennikov, who is the director of Moscow's famed Gogol Theater and has staged productions at the Bolshoi Theater, was detained in August 2017 and accused of embezzling the equivalent of some $1 million in state funds. His case has drawn international attention and prompted accusations that Russian authorities are targeting cultural figures who are at odds with President Vladimir Putin's government. Serebrennikov had taken part in antigovernment protests and voiced concern about the increasing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the state. He has called the charges against him absurd. With reporting by Le Figaro and RFI WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the U.S. intelligence and security community told a briefing at the White House that Russia is continuing to use pervasive methods to exploit and intensify differences in U.S. society and that they remain concerned about U.S. election security. "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said on August 2. Our focus here today is to simply tell the American people we acknowledge the threat, it is real, it is continuing, and we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the American people can have trust in. "The intelligence community continues to be concerned about the threats of upcoming U.S. elections, both the midterms and the presidential elections of 2020," Coats added. Coats comments came during an unannounced joint briefing with other intelligence agency leaders, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and national security adviser John Bolton. U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently played down reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has repeatedly rejected conclusions of the intelligence community that the Kremlins efforts were done to benefit him during the election. Most Democrats and even some Republicans have accused Trump and his administration of not doing enough to prevent Kremlin interference in the upcoming November midterm elections. Bolton, however, praised Trumps efforts, saying the president has directed a "vast, government-wide effort" to protect U.S. elections from interference, whether by Russia or any other country. "We're throwing everything at it," Coats added. "The president has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority." The briefing came hours after an influential bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a package of measures designed to protect American security from Kremlin aggression" amid concerns about the integrity of upcoming U.S. elections. The bill introduced on August 2 represents at least the fourth piece of legislation circulating in Congress that would punish Russia for its alleged interference in U.S. elections, along with its aggression in Ukraine and Syria, and other "malign" activities. According to a statement issued by the senators, new sanctions in the legislation would target political figures, oligarchs, and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. With reporting by CNN, AP, Reuters, The New York Daily News, and AFP The Iranian government has summoned the Tajik ambassador to Tehran to protest allegations linking Iran to an attack that killed four foreign cyclists in Tajikistan. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned Ambassador Nematullo Emomzoda on August 1 to convey Iran's "strong" protest over "false and unfounded" claims made by the Tajik government. The attack on a group of foreign cyclists on a remote mountain road on July 29 claimed the lives of two Americans, a Dutchman, and a Swiss citizen. Three other foreigners -- one Dutch, one Swiss, and one French -- were injured. The Islamic State (IS) has released a video of what it said were the attackers pledging allegiance to the extremist organization. However, the Tajik Interior Ministry on July 31 accused the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) of being behind an attack. The group denied the allegation as "baseless and irrational." The ministry also said that the attackers were led by an "active member" of the IRPT who "underwent training in Iran." The authorities offered no immediate proof of the claims. Iranian officials told the Tajik envoy in Tehran that showing "indifference" to and "tolerance" of Sunni extremists would undermine peace, stability, and security in the region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on August 1. Human rights groups have condemned Tajikistan's treatment of the IRPT, which was branded a "terrorist organization" and banned in 2015 after the government accused it of plotting a failed coup. Relations with Tehran are tense. A Kurdish-Iranian refugee who became a Cambridge University professor was among four winners of the prestigious Fields prize for mathematics, but his gold medal was stolen minutes after he received it. Caucher Birkar, a 40-year-old specialist in algebraic geometry, reported his briefcase missing less than an hour after he was handed his 14-karat gold medal on August 1 in Rio de Janeiro. The International Congress of Mathematics, the organizer of the event that for mathematicians is like getting a Nobel Prize and takes place every four years, said it "profoundly regrets" the incident. Birkar celebrated the award -- alongside co-winners Alessio Figalli, Peter Scholze, and Akshay Venkatesh -- as a dream come true for Kurds, a sometimes downtrodden minority group in Iran as well as Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. "I'm hoping this news will put a smile on the faces of those 40 million people," he said. Born to a farming family in the ethnic Kurdish province of Marivan, near the Iran-Iraq border, Birkar said his hometown "was an unlikely place for a kid to develop an interest in mathematics." After studying mathematics at Tehran University, the turmoil caused by the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s prompted Birkar to seek political asylum and citizenship in Britain, where he established himself as a prodigy in mathematics. "I just couldn't imagine that this would come true," Birkar told Quanta Magazine. The Fields Medal recognizes the outstanding mathematical achievements of candidates who were under 40 years old at the start of the year. At least two and as many as four people are honored each time. In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani, also from Iran, became the award's first and so far only female winner. She died in 2017. Based on reporting by AFP and The Guardian ALEXANDRIA, Virginia -- U.S. prosecutors drilled deep into Paul Manaforts lavish lifestyle and spending habits, as they continued building their case that President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman committed bank fraud and tax evasion. Prosecutors spent the second day of Manafort's trial presenting more invoices and witness testimony as they detailed wire transfers from Cypriot shell companies that, officials allege, were used to hide millions of dollars of income from his lobbying work in Ukraine. The trial, being held in U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is the first to grow out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation into the interactions between Trump associates and Russian officials. The 18 charges against Manafort predate his time managing Trumps presidential election campaign in 2016. Though the charges concern the work he did in Ukraine for former President Viktor Yanukovych, they dont directly deal with Russia, nor with questions of Trump officials' interactions with Russian officials. In the August 1 proceedings, U.S. prosecutors called a series of witnesses -- including a suit tailor, a home renovator, a real-estate agent, and a landscape designer -- to testify how Manafort paid them using wire transfers from offshore accounts. The transfers allegedly came from various shell companies -- mainly based in Cyprus -- that authorities say Manafort used to hide his income. Dressed in a suit and tie, Manafort sat quietly throughout the proceedings, nodding occasionally as he listened to testimony. Maximillian Katzman, who worked at a high-end New York tailor, testified that Manafort spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on bespoke suits between 2010-2014. In 2013, according to prosecutors, he spent more than $440,000. Katzman said Manafort was his only client who paid via international wire transfer. Another witness, Doug DeLuca, described how Manafort hired him to design an outdoor space, including a custom-made pergola, for a suburban Washington home for his daughter, Andrea -- a home that cost nearly $1.9 million. The testimony on August 1 followed the pattern that prosecutors began to sketch a day earlier, where they described a $21,000 watch he had purchased and a $15,000 ostrich jacket. U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors as they made their case, including to make the point that being wealthy and having an extravagant lifestyle were not crimes. "I understand this effort that he lived lavishly, but that's beside the point," he told prosecutors. "The government doesn't want to prosecute someone because they wear nice clothing, do they?" he said at another point. Earlier in the day, Ellis warned against using the pejorative term "oligarchs" to describe wealthy Ukrainians, and criticized prosecutors for spending so much time listing Manafort's wealth and lavish lifestyle. In addition to highlighting how Manafort paid for his clothing and cars, prosecutors also repeatedly mentioned Manafort's former deputy, Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty to related charges and may testify for the prosecution later. They also several times mentioned Konstantin Kilimnik, a shadowy Russian-Ukrainian who was Manafort's key interlocutor in Ukraine for years and is believed to have ties to Russian military intelligence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye, meanwhile, told the judge that the prosecution was running "ahead of schedule" and was expected to complete its case next week. Once that happens, Manafort's defense team will present its case to try and persuade the 12-member jury of his innocence. If the trial continues quickly, it could wrap up before a second, more consequential, trial against Manafort begins in September. That trial, in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., focuses on allegations that Manafort failed to register as a foreign agent when he was working for Yanukovych and his Ukrainian political party. While Manafort's case is the first that Mueller has brought to trial, Mueller has indicted 31 other people on dozens of charges, including conspiracy, failure to register as foreign agents, and lying to federal law enforcement. That includes 12 Russian military intelligence officers who were charged with hacking and leaking Democratic Party documents to sway the election in favor of Trump, a Republican. Others who have pleaded guilty to Mueller charges include Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Trump has repeatedly attacked Muellers investigation, denying any effort by him or his associates to collude with Russian officials to sway the election. On August 1, Trump renewed his criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from overseeing Muellers probe because of his role as an adviser to Trump's election campaign. "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump wrote in a Twitter post. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Russian soldiers and veterans gathered with their families in Moscow's Gorky Park on August 2 to mark national Paratroopers Day. The paratroopers, wearing their signature berets and striped tank tops, repeated their tradition of swimming in public fountains. The U.S. Senate has approved legislation allowing the president to waive penalties against countries that purchase weapons from sanctioned Russian defense companies if they are seeking closer ties with Washington. The Senate's 87-10 vote sends the bill, which was passed last week by the House of Representatives, to the White House, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought the Russian-sanction-waiver authority, which was approved as part of a massive defense bill, saying it would help countries like India that had close ties with Moscow in the past but were now trying to "pull away from the Russian orbit." Mattis in a letter to Congress last month claimed that waiver authority would not benefit Russia, a major arms exporter, contending that "it will only benefit the U.S. and countries willing to pursue a security relationship with us." Under the Russian-sanctions legislation that Trump signed a year ago, any country purchasing weapons from sanctioned Russian defense and intelligence organizations faces potential penalties from the United States. The law is designed to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for his 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, involvement in the Syrian civil war, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. During debate on the Senate bill, Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was concerned that the waiver provision will undermine U.S. efforts to crack down on Russia. Besides India, Vietnam and Indonesia are other countries media have said might receive waivers from Russian sanctions under the provision. Mattis has argued that sanctions waivers are needed so such countries can continue to purchase spare parts needed to maintain arsenals of Russian-made aircraft, tanks, and other weapons that they purchased in the past, even as they develop closer defense ties with the United States. Under the waiver provision, the president must certify that a country is both reducing arms imports from Russia and is expanding defense cooperation with the United States. India is one country that has historically used Russian military equipment, from combat planes to ships and submarines. It is in the final stages of negotiating a $6 billion deal to buy S-400 surface-to-air-missile systems from Russia. But New Delhi has in recent years been diversifying its arms purchases, turning to the United States and Israel for modern equipment. It has ordered $15 billion of weapons from the United States over the past 10 years, and U.S. companies are currently bidding for contracts for fighter planes and helicopters worth billions of dollars. While the sanctions-waiver provision in the $716 billion defense bill is expected to particularly help India, another provision of the bill is aimed at punishing Turkey for its recent move to buy the S-400 missile-defense system from Russia. Washington has repeatedly warned Turkey, a longtime U.S. and NATO ally, that the Russian missile systems cannot be integrated into NATO's air and missile defenses. The Senate-passed bill would prohibit delivery of advanced U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jets that Turkey has purchased unless it cancels the S-400 purchases and meets other conditions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that Turkey will seek international arbitration if the United States refuses to deliver F-35 fighter jets that Ankara has already purchased. With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters A Russian nongovernmental rights group says it has filed an official complaint over the alleged torture of inmates at a penal colony in the Siberian region of Zabaikalye. The move comes in the wake of a scandal over a video showing guards severely beating an inmate at a prison northeast of Moscow. Lawyers with the Zona Prava (Law Zone) rights watchdog said on August 1 that two inmates at the Zabaikalye region's Corrective Colony No. 5 testified that several prisoners had recently been beaten and tortured with electric shocks. The lawyers said one of the inmates, Aleksandr Nokhrin, claimed that he and several other prisoners were beaten and tortured on July 8 by at least five guards who were allegedly "in a state of alcoholic intoxication." Another inmate, Yevgeny Afanasyev, said he heard the prisoners being beaten and begging guards to stop. When other prisoners asked about what was happening, the guards used tear gas against them, according to Afanasyev's testimony. The lawyers said they met with the inmates on July 11, after which they filed an official complaint with local prosecutors, who they said had not formally responded yet. The torture allegations follow the release of a video showing at least 17 guards severely beating an inmate at a prison in Yaroslavl that caused an outcry. Last week, a local court ordered the arrest of seven prison guards at Corrective Colony No. 1 and put one guard under house arrest for alleged involvement in the beating of Yevgeny Makarov. Authorities said four other guards were detained on August 1. Video of the abuse of Makarov was published online last week by Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper and circulated widely on social media and other websites. The Public Verdict rights organization said it was shot at the penitentiary last year. Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service on July 24 announced that it will investigate all complaints from 2017 of violence by authorities at prisons across Russia. United Nations human rights experts have urged the Russian authorities to prosecute cases of torture in prisons and labor camps -- including beatings, electric shocks, and suffocation. With reporting by Mediazona, Interfax, and TASS Days after a deadly attack on a group of foreign cyclists in a remote region of Tajikistan, information remains scarce on the possible road to radicalization of the suspects -- at least some of whom were said to have died in a shootout with security police and subsequently turned up in a video pledging loyalty to the militant group Islamic State (IS). And Tajik authorities, who have publicly blamed not IS but a banned Islamic political party, appear eager to keep it that way. An RFE/RL correspondent was detained by security forces on August 1 during a reporting trip to the southern town of Norak, the hometown of two of the suspects, and interrogated before having his electronic materials deleted and being forcibly taken to the capital, Dushanbe. No legal grounds were given for the erasing of the materials, which included audio recordings of relatives and a former teacher of the suspects. In the brutal July 29 attack on the foreigners, a car rammed into the group of cyclists before multiple attackers emerged from the vehicle and stabbed survivors, killing two Americans, a Swiss, and a Dutch national. Three other foreigners were injured in the attack before the assailants sped off. WATCH: Amateur Video Said To Show Attack On Foreign Cyclists In Tajikistan (WARNING: Disturbing content) IS claimed responsibility for the deadly incident and released a video showing five men -- at least some of whom appeared to resemble four men identified by Tajik officials as suspects killed in a confrontation with security forces -- pledging allegiance to IS's leader. But the government has clung to its assertion that the ringleader was an "active member" of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), which was Central Asia's only registered Islamic political party until the Tajik government banned it in 2015. It had tens of thousands of members when it was outlawed, and has since been labeled a "terrorist" organization by Dushanbe. The RFE/RL correspondent, Orzu Karim, had conducted interviews with relatives of two of the government suspects and a former teacher in Norak before being stopped by security officials on August 1. Karim identified himself as a reporter before the nearly two-hour police questioning. After his video camera and audio recorder were confiscated, police erased Karim's interviews and drove him the 90 or so minutes to Dushanbe without letting him gather up his belongings at a nearby hotel. Neither would they allow Karim to be taken to his hometown, which lies the opposite direction from Norak. Karim reported seeing one foreign journalist and two Tajik reporters being similarly questioned at the police station, although he was initially unable to contact them to hear their accounts of being in custody. Authorities there have waged numerous campaigns to discourage young people from turning to radicalism, particularly in the face of figures suggesting that hundreds of young Tajiks were joining IS to help wage war in Syria and Iraq. But the attack this week on the cyclists on a road near the Pamir Highway was the first of its kind on foreigners in Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, China, and fellow post-Soviet republics Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Post-Soviet Central Asia's poorest country, Tajikistan's politics have been dominated since 1992 by President Emomali Rahmon. Rahmon's administration on August 1 announced the creation of a "tourist police" corps to ensure "public order and the security accompaniment of tourists" as well as to "prevent crime" generally. Official Tajik statements have all but ignored any IS component in the attack in favor of initial suggestions that members of the technically defunct IRPT were involved. Some IRPT leaders have been jailed on charges that rights groups have publicly questioned, while others have fled to exile and continue to urge international support for removal of Tajikistan's ban on the party's activities. With reporting by RFE/RL Tajik Service correspondent Khiromon Bakoeva. Police in Kabul have recovered the bodies of three foreign nationals who were abducted and killed in the Afghan capital, local officials say. The victims were an Indian national, a Malaysian, and a citizen of Macedonia, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told RFE/RL on August 2. Officials said the three men were working as cooks for Sodexo, the world's second-largest food and catering services company They were kidnapped near their company premises in an industrial area of eastern Kabul in the morning of August 2. Their bodies were later found in Musayi, a volatile area of the city. Rahimi said the trio was "shot dead and their bodies were found inside a car." "At this stage we think it is a terrorist incident," the Kabul police chief's spokesman, Hashmat Stanekzai, said. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the abductions and killing. Kabul is plagued by criminal gangs who stage abductions for ransom, often targeting foreigners and wealthy Afghans. Kidnapping is also common across Afghanistan, where the Western-backed government has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014. With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa Three Ukrainian men have been arrested for allegedly hacking more than 100 U.S. companies and stealing millions of customer records, U.S. officials say. The Justice Department on August 1 alleged that the men are associated with the hacking group FIN7 and that they were arrested earlier this year in Europe. The suspects, Fedir Hladyr, 33, Dmytro Fedorov, 44, and Andriy Kolpakov, 30, were arrested between January and June, said the Justice Department, which accused them of being members of a "sophisticated international cybercrime group" called FIN7. It added that Hladyr was arrested in Dresden, Germany, and is being held in Seattle, Washington, ahead of trial. Fedorov was arrested in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, while Kopakov is being detained in Spain, both pending extradition procedures initiated by the United States. The FIN7 group has been linked to data breaches that hit, among others, Whole Foods, Chipotle, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Lord & Taylor, according to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro. It said Trump-branded hotels were also victims of hacks and data breaches by the group. "Since at least 2015, FIN7 members engaged in a highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting more than 100 U.S. companies, predominantly in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries," the State Department said. "FIN7 hacked into thousands of computer systems and stole millions of customer credit- and debit-card numbers, which the group used or sold for profit," it added. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop an investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 election campaign "right now," in a tweet that set off a firestorm of criticism in Washington. Trump's demand on August 1 that Sessions end Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation drew a rebuke from fellow Republicans in Congress, who said the probe must go on, while Democrats charged it was Trump's latest attempt to obstruct justice -- a possible crime that Mueller is reportedly investigating. In a series of early morning tweets, Trump called Mueller's investigation into whether there was collusion between Russia and his campaign a "TOTAL HOAX" and said, "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further." Democratic Representative Adam Schiff was one of many who seized on the tweet, saying Trump "just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the president, his family, and campaign may be implicated." He called the tweet "an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight." When pressed whether Trump was ordering Sessions to fire Mueller, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders insisted that the tweet was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. "It's the president's opinion," she said, adding that Trump had been frustrated that the investigation has continued this year despite hopes among Trump's attorneys that it would end early in 2018. "The president's not obstructing, he's fighting back," Sanders said. Media have reported, however, that Mueller, who was appointed by the Justice Department a year ago, has been investigating whether Trump's frequent tweets attacking his investigation and rebuking Sessions and other Justice Department officials for allowing it to continue provide evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Trump in May tweeted that he might take action on his own against the probe if the Justice Department didn't intervene. "At some point I will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the Presidency and get involved!" he said at the time. "There is now highly credible evidence that the president of the United States is committing obstruction of justice in real time, right before our eyes," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said on August 1 after Trump's latest tweets. Sessions has faced frequent criticism from Trump since he recused himself from the Mueller investigation last year, citing his role as an adviser to Trump's election campaign. As a result of Sessions' recusal, he no longer has authority to stop the investigation. He ceded that power to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has also been the target of Trump attacks and an impeachment resolution in Congress. But Mueller, a Republican and former FBI director, has broad support in Congress, where Republicans control both chambers. Several Republican senators on August 1 rejected Trump's call to end Mueller's probe. "They ought to let them conclude their work. What theyre doing is something that is important and we support and I dont think any effort to truncate that or somehow shut it down early is in the public's best interest," said Senator John Thune, the Senate's No. 3 Republican. Senator Orrin Hatch said he did not think Sessions had the power to end the probe and it would be unwise to do so. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said after Trump's tweet, "It's clear to me he's very worried about it and he wants to prevent it any way he can." In April, the committee approved legislation to protect Mueller from firing, but Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said there was no need to advance the bill because he did not believe Trump would fire Mueller. Some legal analysts said Trump's latest tweet, on its own, is not proof enough to bring an obstruction-of-justice charge, but they said it could be used to establish a pattern of conduct revealing Trump's intentions. "It is a piece of evidence. It is part and parcel with the other 94 things the man has done that show obstruction of justice," Paul Rosenzweig, a former U.S. prosecutor who was part of a team that investigated former President Bill Clinton, told Reuters. With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters The trial has opened in Sevastopol of two Ukrainian nationals, Volodymyr Dudka and Oleksiy Bessarabov, who are charged with plotting sabotage in Russia-annexed Crimea. The defendants' lawyer, Sergei Legostov, told RFE/RL that the trial started on August 2 and is being held behind closed doors. Dudka, Bessarabov, and a third Ukrainian man, Dmytro Shtyblykov, were arrested in Crimea in November 2016 and charged with attempted sabotage. At the time of the arrests, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the three of being members of a Ukrainian "saboteur group from the main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry." Ukraines Defense Ministry rejected the FSB's allegations, calling them "another fabrication of the Russian secret services aimed at justifying its own repressive measures against local residents and discrediting Ukraine in the international arena." Shtyblykov was tried separately. In November, the Sevastopol City Court found him guilty of attempted sabotage and illegally possessing weapons and sentenced him to five years in prison. Rights activists say Russia has jailed several Ukrainians on politically motivated charges since Russian military forces occupied Crimea in early 2014 and, less than a month later, annexed the territory from Ukraine after a referendum widely condemned as illegitimate. WASHINGTON -- An influential bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a package of measures designed to protect American security from Kremlin aggression, including new financial sanctions and a strong statement of support for NATO. The bill introduced on August 2 represents at least the fourth piece of legislation circulating in Congress to punish Russia for its alleged interference in U.S. elections, its aggression in Ukraine and Syria, and other "malign" activities. The current sanctions regime has failed to deter Russia from meddling in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement introducing the bill. Our goal is to change the status quo and impose crushing sanctions and other measures against [President Vladimir] Putins Russia until he ceases and desists meddling in the U.S. electoral process, halts cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, removes Russia from Ukraine, and ceases efforts to create chaos in Syria, Graham said. While Congress overwhelmingly passed a strong set of countermeasures last year, unfortunately the [Trump] administration has not fully complied with that legislation." According to a statement issued by the senators, new sanctions would target political figures, oligarchs, and family members and other persons that facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of Vladimir Putin. The bill would also require a report to be assembled on the personal net worth and assets of Putin, who many say has amassed great amounts of wealth as the Russia leader. U.S. President Donald Trump has faced widespread criticism over his handling of a summit last month with Putin, with critics charging he did not challenge the Russian leader over alleged election meddling and other global issues. Throughout his presidency, Trump has expressed his desire for better relations with Russia, and with Putin in particular, despite criticism that he has been too quick to go along with Kremlin policies. Trump has denied the allegations and said he has been tougher on Russia than any previous president. Since the summit, Democrats and Republicans alike have pushed forward with tough new measures against Russia. "Just as Vladimir Putin has made clear his intention to challenge American power, influence, and security interests at home and abroad, the United States must make it abundantly clear that we will defend our nation and not waver in our rejection of his effort to erode Western democracy as a strategic imperative for Russias future," Graham and Democrat Robert Menendez said in a joint statement on July 24 as they disclosed initial plans for the legislation. Along with Graham and Menendez, Democrats Ben Cardin and Jeanne Shaheen and Republicans Cory Gardner and John McCain introduced the legislation on August 2. Called the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2018, it includes comprehensive legislation that will increase economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Russia in response to its malign activities. The sanctions and other measures contained in this bill are the most hard-hitting ever imposed -- and a direct result of Putins continued desire to undermine American democracy, Graham said. The senator said he agreed with recent comments by Trumps director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, that warning lights are blinking red when it comes to Russian meddling in the 2018 election. Menendez said Putin continues to pose a growing threat to our country and allies and criticized the White House for lack of action. While Congress overwhelmingly passed a strong set of countermeasures last year, unfortunately, the administration has not fully complied with that legislation, he added. He said the legislation is aimed at "tightening the screws on the Kremlin and will bring to bear the full condemnation of the United States Congress so that Putin finally understands that the U.S. will not tolerate his behavior any longer." The legislation also declares a strong statement of support for NATO that would include a requirement of a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate before the United States could leave the Western military alliance. Many U.S. political and military leaders, along with foreign allies, have criticized Trumps tough stance toward NATO allies and have expressed fears he might move to pull the country out of the alliance. The bill would also increase U.S. defenses against illegal cyberactivities and secure U.S. voting systems amid allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and fears it will meddle in the upcoming November midterm vote. It is not certain if the legislation will pass the Senate and House in its current form. However, the Senate has passed similar tough measures against Russia with overwhelming support. The White House did not immediately comment specifically on the proposed legislation. But hours later, the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, told a briefing at the White House that Russia is continuing to use pervasive methods to exploit and intensify differences in U.S. society and that the intelligence community remains concerned about U.S. election security. "We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," Coats told the joint briefing with other intelligence agency leaders, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and national security adviser John Bolton. Coats said he would support any type of measure, including sanctions, to send a message to Russia to get them to change their behavior. An immigration sweep for illegal workers in Cancun sees 6 detained Cancun, Q.R. An immigration sweep by the National Institute of Migration in Cancun has resulted in the detention and deportation of six women. The women were discovered as workers in dance clubs after a mega-operation of 150 officers in 35 vehicles inspected Cancun bars in search of illegal workers. Both federal and immigration authorities toured Cancun bars looking for foreign dancers who are without the legal documents needed to live and or work in the country. Photo: The National Institute of Migration As a result of their efforts, six women who were found to be working as dancers in Cancun bars along Lopez Portillo Avenue between Uxmal and Torcasitas, were taken into INM custody after they were deemed unable to prove their legal status in Mexico. All six were detained and transferred to the National Institute of Migration for processing. Fonatur says ideas welcome, but Maya train route firm Cancun, Q.R. As interest increases and proposals pour in, the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur) says the Maya train project route is firm and will not be modified. Proposals for the upcoming Maya Train project will be considered, but the project route itself will not be modified says the man in charge, Rogelio Jimenez Pons of Fonatur. He says the route is firm and will take passengers to the southern areas of the country to promote tourism. While route proposals to include the Yucatan are welcome, he explained that president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador designed the line of the railway to give the south of the peninsula an alternative to boost the economic and social growth that these regions of the country lack. He said that the suggestions by those who now want the train to have another route to the neighboring state of Yucatan are welcome, but only as a way to join the original course, which he reiterates, will not be modified. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has a clear vision which acknowledges that the south of the Yucatan Peninsula requires infrastructure to promote its great Mayan cultural wealth with Kalakmul and Xcabal at the head. These are the spearheads of the tourist route that will help the growth of that area which remains economically depressed and abandoned by the governments up until now. He added that it is a large project which is expected to have the backing of private investment, especially in the most profitable and complex section, which is the Cancun-Tulum route. This is the first section that will be constructed before carrying on to other areas with stations in Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Bacalar, Kalakmul and Palenque. To date, several foreign companies have expressed interest in funding the Maya train. Companies from China, France, Korea and Canada, to name a few, have already made contact with the Strategic Projects Agency of Quintana Roo since the tender was released publicly. An aerial view of the stately home to be seen on the new TV series ONE of Rotherhams finest buildings will be appearing on TV this weekend but from an unusual angle! Wentworth Woodhouse will be seen from the air via a drone in a new TV series hosted by history buff Sir Tony Robinson. The stately home, which is being restored, will appear in Hidden Britain by Drone on Channel 4 at 8pm on Sunday (August 5). Former Time Team presenter Sir Tony will use the latest aerial filming technology in the series to offer up new views of historic sites. A spokesperson for production company Windfall Films said: Once one of the most important, politically powerful and ostentatious places on earth - Wentworths glittering life came to an end in the 20th century. Years of neglect have seen the house spiral into disrepair. Today, only our drone can see its true majesty. Sarah McLeod, CEO of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, said: The house has starred in numerous TV programmes in its own right and has been the backdrop to many a blockbuster movie but never before have the cameras been able to convey its huge size and majesty and its rich architectural features. The drones give us incredible insight a real birds-eye view. Glyn Leedell A PROLIFIC offender who held a knife to a womans throat and threatened to kill her has been told to expect jail if he steps out of line again. Glyn Leedell (39), of Victoria Road, Mexborough, threatened to kill the woman he met on a night out in June last year after she invited him and his partner to her home. Leedell, who has 44 previous convictions for 66 offences, admitted one count of affray and was sentenced on Monday at Sheffield Crown Court. Sentencing him, Judge Jeremy Richardson said: I want to make it very clear to you that if you step out of line once - jail. Any more of this and there will be real trouble. This was a disgrace and you should be ashamed of yourself. Ms Laura Marshall, prosecuting, said the complainant had been out drinking with her partner and her friend on June 10. Shortly after 12.30am, they went to a pub in Mexborough and began talking to Leedell and his partner. The complainant invited the couple back to her house for drinks. The woman was sat in the living room of the house, talking and drinking, and went into the kitchen with Leedell, Ms Marshall said. Leedell asked her to come and stay with him for two weeks and she told him: Dont be daft, Im not leaving my home. When she sat back in the living room she saw a knife on the sofa between her and Leedell. She tried to discreetly pass the knife to her partner but when Leedell saw her do this he produced another knife from his trousers, which was estimated to be around five inches long, Ms Marshall added. Leedell held the knife to her throat and said: Im going to f***ing kill you. Im going to slit your throat. Leedells partner then threatened the complainant, who punched the guest in the face and told the couple to get out of her house. Ms Marshall said the incident could have been significantly worse than it was. Judge Richardson said Leedell came from a troubled background but he appeared to have begun tackling the problems he had. He handed Leedell an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Judge Richardson said Leedell was suffering as a result of something that happened to him many years ago. You cant let that govern your life and you need to step away from it, otherwise you will lead a miserable life, he said. He ordered him to complete up to 35 days of rehabilitation, an alcohol treatment programme and 200 hours of unpaid work. He also ordered him to attend the court again in three months so he could check on his progress. Scott Crowley A ROWDY punter who damaged a monitor at a pub he was barred from has been fined and ordered to pay compensation. Scott Crowley (29), of Victoria Street, Maltby, pleaded guilty at Sheffield Magistrates Court last Tuesday (24) to criminal damage. The court heard Crowley went to The Joker pub on Blackthorn Avenue in May despite being banned from the premises for a previous incident. Mr Mark Hughes, prosecuting, said: He grabbed hold of a monitor, causing damage to it, and the landlord says he has been quoted 200 to replace it. The pubs landlord said in a statement read out in court that Crowley was a rowdy individual who was often laughing and smiling while carrying out aggressive acts which tells me he doesnt take them very seriously. Crowley chose not to comment when he was interviewed by the police, Mr Hughes said. He has previous convictions for robbery, burglary and failing to complete a community order. Crowley, who represented himself, said: I just want this really out of the way so I can start back at work. I work as a renderer. Chairman of the bench, Mr Stephen Bellamy, fined Crowley 266 and ordered him to pay 200 compensation to the pub and 85 costs. Peregrine Diamonds has been granted an interim order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia, which paves way for the holding of a special meeting of its security holders to consider plans by De Beers to acquire the company for C$107 million ($81 million). The special meeting would be held on August 31. Peregrine, which owns the Chidliak diamond resource in Canadas Nunavut Territory, said shareholders would be asked to approve a reduction in the capital of the common shares of the company. It said its directors had unanimously recommended that security holders vote for the arrangement and that shareholders vote for the stated capital reduction. De Beers said last month that the transaction would be executed via a plan of arrangement, which was set for September. The Chidliak resource was discovered in 2008 and 74 kimberlite pipes had been identified at the project, including the CH-6 and CH-7 pipes, which are the current focus of the mines first phase diamond development programme. The diamond development programme had a total inferred mineral resource in excess of 22 million carats. Mathew Nyaungwa, Rough&Polished Lucapa Diamond, which operates and owns the Lulo diamond project in Angola in partnership with Endiama and Rosas & Petalas, said a new policy regarding the marketing of the countrys diamond production has been formally enacted.Angolan President Joao Lourenco issued a decree last month to launch new marketing policies for the countrys diamond production.Lucapa said it was advised Wednesday that the decree had been formally gazetted, thus bringing Angolas new diamond marketing policies into law.The fact that President Lourenco and his Government have enacted the new diamond marketing laws so expeditiously is further proof that the Angolan diamond sector is open for business, said Lucapa managing director Stephen Wetherall.As a company which has operated successfully in Angola for a decade, Lucapa congratulates President Lourenco and his Government and we look forward to implementation of the new policy as the Lulo partners continue to develop the Lulo concession.The new laws were central to Luandas drive to double the countrys diamond production by implementing more favourable investment and marketing policies designed to increase foreign investment in the diamond sector and grow its contribution to government fiscus. The research published by Gemmological Institute of America says that blue diamonds may get their attractive blue colour due to boron atoms that ancient oceans floors contained. Blue diamond with inclusions Image credit: GIA GIA has been examining 46 type IIb diamonds with inclusions submitted to the lab over two years. According to the research, after studying the inclusions the scientists were able to find the original stone and conclude that such diamonds were formed very deep in the earth at extremely high pressures. The minimal depth for formation of such diamonds was at 410 km. The diamonds are said to be grown in the ocean crust. Borum is believed to be brought to the lower mantle, where it helped to form diamonds, because of the movements of Earths tectonic plates. The study is of importance to the industry as it was believed that there were no large gem quality diamonds deep in the earth. This research shows that most large and relatively pure diamonds are superdeep. The study will be presented at GIAs International Gemological Symposium in October. Victoria Quiri, Rough&Polished According to RAPAPORT, diamond prices saw a tiny decline during a seasonal vacation period. US suppliers were reluctant to give big discounts after a positive first half of the year. After having returned from vacations, US retailers had difficulties restocking their supplies as they released their goods during the second quarter whin prices were up. Prices for rough and polished diamonds remain relatively stable. Rough prices increased an estimated 4% in the first half of 2018. US and China show steady interest in 0.50-carat, D to G, VS to SI diamonds and rising interest in 0.70-carat, G to J, VS to SI. There is a weak demand for small stones, says the note from the agency. Currency exchange rates have negatively influenced Chinese and Indian local retailers budgets, who became interested in lower quality products. Yet, Hong Kong diamond sector has enjoyed a steady growth which is very encouraging before the September Hong Kong show and the October 1 Golden Week retail season. The optimistic mood, which is prevailing in the US and Chinese diamond sector, supports the market for the second half of the year. Victoria Quiri, Rough&Polished Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said she was not vying to be the prime minister and that the first priority was to defeat the BJP which is "scared and nervous" to face the 2019 polls because of opposition unity. Banerjee, who has been at the forefront of efforts to rally opposition parties for an anti-BJP front, spent the second day of her Delhi visit meeting leaders of various parties including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Besides leaders of the Congress, TDP, YSR(Congress), DMK, RJD, SP and JD(S), she also met BJP veteran L K Advani, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and dissident BJP leaders. "The opposition is united.... In 2019 BJP will be finished," Banerjee, who invited the leaders of the opposition parties as well as Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to her January 19 rally in Kolkata, told reporters. The rally is seen as not just a show of opposition unity but also an attempt to catapult Banerjee to the centrestage. Advertisement "We are all for all. We will take a decision on collective leadership. If all opposition political parties can join hands and work together in Parliament, then why not fight unitedly outside," the TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister told reporters after her nearly half-an-hour long meeting with the Gandhis at 10, Janpath, the residence of Sonia Gandhi. On the Congress' indication of its willingness to accept her candidature as opposition's PM face, she said, "I am not for any chair, our aim is to defeat the BJP." UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi Almost all the opposition parties are holding preliminary talks to put a united fight against the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls next year. Banerjee said she met both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and discussed the NRC issue as 40 lakh people have not been included in it and genuine voters had been kept out. "We discussed the political situation. We discussed how the opposition can together take on the BJP because it knows that it will not come back to power," she said. Advertisement Asked about the prime ministerial candidate of the proposed anti-BJP front, she said, "it will be decided later. The first priority is to defeat the BJP. The BJP has to be defeated first." To a query on Amit Shah's criticism of her on the NRC issue, she said, "I am not his servant. Why should I reply to his comments." "Gali ka jawaab hum gaali se nahin denge. Yeh hamari parampara hai. (We will not reply to an abuse with an abuse, that is our tradition)," she said. "The BJP is scared and nervous politically due to the unity of opposition parties. The BJP knows what will happen to them in 2019 as they will not come back to power. That is why they are trying to create such an atmosphere and doing all this," she said. On her meeting with leaders of various political parties, she said, "We know every political leader. I am happy to meet all of them." Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Advertisement Attacking the Centre on Assam's National Register of Citizens final draft, she said, "People whose names have been kept out are from Bihar, UP, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal. We want them to live peacefully. Some of them are living for 100 ears for five generations in Assam. How can you do this to them?" Banerjee yesterday warned of a civil war and blood bath in the country in case 40 lakh people of Assam are left out of the NRC. "I do not know what the BJP wants -- a civil water or a blood bath. But we do not want it," she said. On a tie-up with the Congress in West Bengal, she said every party will take their own decision. "I cannot interfere in the Congress' decisions. We believe that the strongest in a state should take on the BJP," she said. The TMC office in Parliament was abuzz with meetings after Banerjee arrived there. The TMC chief met Congress leaders Gulam Nabi Azad, and Ahmed Patel, Samajwadi Party leaders Ram Gopal Yadav and Jaya Bachchan, DMK leader Tiruchi Siva, YSR Congress leader Vijaysai Reddy, RJD leaders Misa Bharti, Jayprakash Narayan Yadav among others. Banerjee met JD(S) leader Deve Gowda at Karnataka Bhavan and invited him to the rally. She also met Advani at his chamber in Parliament House ."I went to meet him and enquired about his health," she told reporters. Advertisement Rahul Gandhi Suspended BJP member of parliament Kirti Azad hailed her as a great leader and said that her efforts to consolidate all opposition parties are "commendable". The TMC chief later went to the Central Hall of the Parliament to meet other opposition leaders and invited them to the rally. Banerjee also appealed to all the opposition parties to send a joint delegation to the Election Commission against EVM tampering and to press for holding polls on ballots. "All opposition parties should go to EC on this matter," Banerjee told the leaders. Interestingly, Banerjee extended an invitation for the rally to the Shiv Sena chief through Raut who said the party would take a decision on it. Though a constituent of the NDA, the Sena has been openly critical of the Modi government. She also appealed to the leaders to send an all-opposition-party delegation to Assam stating that though TMC delegation would be visiting the state on Thursday, other parties should also exert pressure on the government. Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he has accepted the invitation extended by Imran Khan for attending his swearing-in ceremony as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. "It is (a) great honour, I accept the invitation. Men of genius are admired, men of power are feared, but men of character are trusted. Khan Sahab is a man of character. He can be trusted. Sportsmen build bridges, break barriers, unite people," Sidhu said in a statement issued here. Navjot Singh to attend Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony Advertisement Sidhu was among other personalities who had reportedly been invited by Khan to attend his oath-taking ceremony. Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has emerged as the single-largest party in the National Assembly after last week's general election in the neighbouring country. Khan had said he would take oath as Pakistan's prime minister on August 11. No Deaths, 49 Hospitalized in Aeromexico Plane Crash Durango, Mexico - An Aeromexico jetliner carrying 103 people crashed in stormy weather shortly after takeoff on Tuesday in Mexico's north-central state of Durango, skidding to a halt in a nearby field. Fortunately, all 103 passengers and crew managed a miraculous escape before flames consumed the plane. Officials said 85 of the survivors who got out of the burning Aeromexico Embraer E190 suffered injuries in the crash. The Associated Press, citing a Durango state Health Ministry spokesman, said 49 people were hospitalized, most with minor injuries. "The pilot suffered the most serious injury, a cervical lesion that required surgery. Some people had burns on a quarter of their bodies," the AP report said. Shaken passengers expressed gratitude for being alive. "It was really, really ugly," Lorenzo Nunez, a passenger from Chicago who fled the plane with his two sons and wife told reporters, according to the AP. "We felt the flames coming quickly... there was a lot of smoke," passenger Jaquelin Flores told the newspaper El Sol. Flight AM2431 took off in a heavy hailstorm from Guadalupe Victoria International Airport bound for Mexico City. The airport operator, Grupo Aeroportuario Centro Norte, said initial indications are that the weather was the cause of the crash, according to the BBC. Durango state Gov. Jose Aispuro said passengers reported a loud bang as the plane's left wing hit the ground and the engines tore loose. The accident occurred at about 4 pm local time. He said it was too soon to speculate on the cause of the crash. "Many managed to leave the plane on foot," Civil defense spokesperson Alejandro Cardoza was quoted by the BBC as saying. Passengers and crew members evacuated the plane using emergency slides before fire engulfed the aircraft, officials said. Last week, representatives from Chattanooga Jersey Mikes locations presented the YMCA of Metropolitan Chattanooga with an $11,034 check as part of the restaurant chains annual Month of Giving.The campaign culminated on March 28 of this year, when 1,360 Jersey Mikes restaurants, including those locally in the Chattanooga area, donated 100 percent of sales, not just profits, to more than 170 different charities across the nation.The partnership between the YMCA and Jersey Mikes is in its third year.Both organizations mission involves bettering the communities in which we live and positively impacting lives.We are very grateful for community partners like Jersey Mikes, said Rosemary Dworak, Branch Executive at the YMCA Healthy Living Center at North River. They share our vision for creating a culture of giving.The money presented by Jersey Mikes to the YMCA will go towards the associations annual Community Support Campaign, which raises nearly $1 million annually. AMLO Puts Million-hectare Reforestation Plan in Motion Mexico City - Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) put one of his campaign promises - to plant a million hectares of fruit and timber trees throughout the country during his six-year administration - into motion last weekend by conducting field tests in the Lacandona jungle in Chiapas and the Usumacinta basin in Tabasco. Lopez Obrador's reforestation program will be divided into two stages: 500 thousand hectares in 2019 and 500 thousand more in 2020, which will improve the environment and create a total of 400,000 jobs, among other benefits. On June 27, the future president of the Republic traveled to Chiapas, where he promised to reactivate the Mexican countryside. To do this, he said, six billion pesos will be invested to plant 200,000 hectares of fruit and timber trees, among which citrus, coffee and cocoa stand out. This program will generate 80 thousand permanent - not temporary - jobs, and support will also be given to small landowners and ejidatarios to ensure that a fair wage is paid so that Chiapanecans and their children can work planting those fruit and timber trees, he added. "In Chiapas alone, six billion pesos will be invested for this program, so there will be work, so the Chiapanecans can take root, can work and be happy where they were born, where their family members are, where their customs and culture are," AMLO pointed out. "And those who want to leave can do so because they want to, not because they have to," he said, "because there will be work in the towns, in the communities and in all of the ejidos in Chiapas." This support also includes livestock, and all ejidos with suitable conditions can take delivery of 10, 20 and up to 100 heifers and stallions, on credit and without interest, to be paid for in three or four years with the offspring, he explained. According to Lopez Obrador, for more than 20 years, cattle from Central America has been imported to the north, while cattle ranching in Chiapas and Tabasco has been failing. And this program, he said, is intended to repopulate the pastures of Chiapas. He also pledged to support corn producers in the state with "compensation" and to set "guarantee prices" for that grain. And he assured that this will make the La Frailesca region of Chiapas the corn-producing region it once was. Contrary to stereotypes, women scientists often fare better in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) than they do in other parts of the world, says Rana Dajani, a biologist from Hashemite University in Jordan. Statistics from the OECD, from UNESCO and elsewhere show high percentages of women in scientific fields. The picture of gender inequality is complex and has deep historical roots globally, she says. Dajani, who recounts how she came to carve a niche in world-class science in an article published this week in Nature Middle East, has won multiple international honours, both for her contributions to genome-wide association analyses of disease and for her broader influence as an Arab woman in science and education advocate. A book she wrote about gender equality and notions of success, which charts her personal journey, was published earlier this summer. SciDev.Net spoke to her about misconceptions around gender inequality, and how measures to boost the numbers of women in science are missing a key piece of the puzzle. You believe that gender inequality in science isn't a problem specific to MENA or the developing world, though it's often assumed to be. Can you explain that? In general people look at [regional] statistics in isolation from the world statistics. They see that you have less women in academia [in MENA] for example; and they say this is because they're oppressed, it's because of religion, it's because of culture and so on. However, if we compare the statistics in MENA to the statistics for women in science in the whole world, or specifically for developed countries, we find that our numbers are not worse if not even better. In the Arab Jordanian context I teach in the faculty of science, pharmacy, and allied health sciences all of them [are] over 70 per cent female. And in biology it's 90 per cent. The way we look at success is only one version how much you earn, how senior you are. And this is a very masculine way of looking at the world. Rana Dajani This [inequality] is a more fundamental problem, much deeper historically, and didn't happen in the MENA region in isolation of other [countries]. So thats what the figures say. What about attitudes between colleagues for example? In Arab countries the attitudes, the complaints [from women] are similar to [what] you hear in the US and Britain and Europe. It's in terms of competition, not equal opportunity, men's clubs. On top of that, many female scientists have said that although they feel there [are] sometimes not equal opportunities in the Arab world, they did not feel oppressed by their colleagues until they went to the West. There's some kind of respect for women in the Arab countries and I'm speaking [about attitudes] in the workplace. It's very subtle things there's more respect for a female as she is, and I think even more of her role in society. So for example, even at MIT I was there a month ago [women] were complaining that if they wanted to breastfeed there was no place to go [at the workplace]. In Jordan, if a woman is pregnant and she needs time off, all her male colleagues will respect that. Let's talk about the more general obstacles that any woman might face. Do you think that lack of retention is one of them? Yes and no Many reports [show] that even after you introduce [measures such as maternity leave or flexible hours], that doesn't necessarily translate into increased retention in the workplace. So there's something else going on. I think that we're asking the wrong question. Rather than asking how can we retain even more women?, let's first ask what women want. Not every woman necessarily wants to be a senior leader or a full professor. So although [its] very important to make sure there's equity, there's good opportunities, I'm arguing that traditionally, there has been only one definition of success. To me, the way we, as a society, look at success is only one version, [a] kind of capitalistic versionwhich is how much you earn, how senior you are. And this is a very masculine [way] of looking at the world. There could be other definitions of success that women may see. But even men themselves who said they're all the same? It's more about helping humans identify their passions, giving them the right training, the freedom to pursue what they want. This may not translate [to] more women in science. It's about having the right people, in the right place, with equal opportunity. I don't want to be misunderstood [as saying] companies don't have to do anything about equal opportunity. It's [about] working on both sides. How should we go about promoting this different definition of success? One, you have to educate for people to really know what they want, you have to expose them to everything. You have to make sure they have the skills to pursue [it]; to have the courage, the identity and the confidence to say 'this is what I want regardless [of society]'. Second, [you have] to work on societys respect [of] others for whatever they choose. How do we actually do this in practice? Two ways: one is having more role models of different versions of what success looks like the only role model we see is a successful business person who earns a lot of money. There's no role model that puts value on, say, social [contribution]. And two, mentoring I help empower [young people] to think on their own.I would tell her to find out where her passion lies, and to trust herself and have confidence in herself to pursue that passion regardless of the society around her. And that nothing's impossible; you will achieve what you want if you really want it in the long run; to be patient.I wanted to be a scientist and didn't get the chance until I was 30 to go towards my PhD. The dream was there, cooking slowly, until the right time. Just find your passion, and follow it, and things will work out.And my advice to scientists, to the whole community, is to trust women. Society doesn't trust women enough they always assume that they know better what is good for a woman. The more we trust women, the better we'll be.This Q&A was edited for brevity and clarity. Using an array of coffee-can sized geophones deployed for about a month in backyards, golf courses and public parks, researchers collected enough data to allow them to map the depth and shape of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino sedimentary basins of Los Angeles, California. Seismologists think these sedimentary basins may act a "waveguide" to focus and trap energy from an earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault, so understanding their structure is important to help predict how well they might channel the energy from such an earthquake into downtown Los Angeles. The research team, led by Patricia Persaud of Louisiana State University and Robert Clayton from the California Institute of Technology, was able to map the two basins in greater detail than previous studies, showing that the San Gabriel basin is deeper than the San Bernardino basin and that the San Bernardino basin has an irregular shape. Persaud and colleagues also uncovered signs of deep offsets in layers of the earth's crust that could be related to two faults -- the Red Hill and Raymond faults -- that have been previously mapped in nearby areas at the surface. "It is currently too early to say how our results will change how we might think of these basins' ability to channel seismic energy," Persaud said. "However, we are collecting more data in the area that will be used to further refine the basin structure." Geophones are instruments that convert the velocity of ground motion into voltage which can be used to determine the geometry of structures beneath the earth's surface. Visualizing the details of sedimentary basin structure requires a large number of seismic stations that are closely spaced in order to capture important changes in structure laterally across the basin. Geophone arrays offer an inexpensive and feasible way to collect this data in a densely-populated urban area, compared to the complications and expense of deploying broadband seismometers, Persaud noted. Each of the 202 nodes deployed in the study, in three lines spanning the northern basins, are about the size of a coffee can. "They weigh about six pounds and have a data logger, battery and recorder all in one container," Persaud explained. "To place them in the ground we dig a small hole that will allow the nodes to be covered with about two inches of soil once they are firmly planted. Most Los Angeles area residents tell us to put them wherever we want, some even help us dig the holes; so we choose a site in their yards and in about five minutes we have the node in place and recording." In most cases, property owners were "extremely friendly and accommodating" during the current study, said Persaud. "What's interesting is when we got a positive response it was almost immediate. Los Angeles residents are very much aware of the elevated seismic hazard in this region, and are often curious about our study and the nodes, and they want to find out more. Some offer to spread the word about our study through social media and encourage their friends and neighbors to participate as well." The nodes collected data continuously for 35 days. In this time, they detected ground motion from magnitude 6 and greater earthquakes that occurred thousands of kilometers away from Los Angeles. Seismic waveform data from these teleseismic earthquakes can be used with a method called the receiver function technique to map the thickness of the crust and shallow crustal structures below a seismic station. The receiver functions calculated from the nodal arrays are similar to those calculated from broadband data, the researchers concluded, but the nodal array offers a higher-resolution look at crustal structures such as the boundary between the earth's crust and mantle and the interface between sediments and basement rock across the basins. This summer, the research team is back in California placing nodes "along new lines that are intended to fill in any areas where there might be a change in basin shape," said Persaud. "We have just deployed three new profiles and will then compile the results from all of our profiles to produce an updated structural model for the basins." Climate change has accelerated sea-ice retreat in the Arctic Ocean. This has various negative impacts including acidification of ocean water and potential contribution to severe winters in mid-latitude regions. However, it has also opened up new opportunities for commercial maritime navigation in summer. The Northern Sea Route could reduce the navigational distance between Europe and Asia by about 40%, and accurate forecasting of sea-ice conditions has become a major research topic. A team of researchers led by National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) and Hokkaido University, Japan, have now investigated an operational system in Norwegian Meteorological Institute for medium-range forecasting (up to 10 days ahead) of sea-ice thickness (SIT) in early summer in the East Siberian Sea, which is located on the Northern Sea Route. They reported on their work in The Cryosphere. The team studied the ability of the TOPAZ4 ice-ocean data system to help us to predict the distribution of SIT in this region. Since precise information is crucial for the operation of icebreaker vessels, it is needed to determine the lead time and accuracy of the forecast, and to assess how we could improve predictions in the future. Comparisons between TOPAZ4, other hindcast models, and sea-ice observations showed the system could reproduce the early-summer SIT distribution in the East Siberian Sea. The time-scale for accurate prediction of the SIT in this area was up to 3 days, with skill abruptly decreasing thereafter. The difficulties in predicting large-scale weather features could be a major factor in this decreased skill after 3 days. This unpredictability arises from the amplification of forecast error for features such as Arctic cyclones, so further work to improve the forecast skill for SIT in this region should focus on understanding the formation and development of these phenomena. Despite this unpredictability, the TOPAZ4 system was found to be reliable for early summer SIT prediction. We examined the model performance for a situation in July 2014, in which two vessels were blocked in the East Siberian Sea for about a week. Based on the vessel tracking data from AIS data, it was found that the vessel speed drastically decreases in the coastal area where thick sea ice (> 150 cm) is simulated, and the speed of the vessel was clearly negatively correlated with the simulated SIT during the entire passage. These results indirectly support the reliability of the daily mean SIT data from our simulation. More comprehensive analysis is needed based on the speed for a greater range of vessels. This will help to improve the potential of the method to help guide ships along the Northern Sea Route. A team of engineers and physicians in San Diego have developed a device that diffuses potent disinfectants for airborne delivery. Notably, the device works on a range of disinfectants that have never been atomized before, such as Triethylene glycol, or TEG. In a study published in the August issue of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, the team used the device to atomize disinfectants onto environmental surfaces contaminated with bacteria and showed that it effectively eliminated 100 percent of bacteria that commonly cause hospital-acquired infections. In addition, atomized bleach solution, ethanol and TEG completely eliminated highly multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria including K. pneumoniae. "Cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces in healthcare facilities is a critical infection prevention and control practice," said Dr. Monika Kumaraswamy, a physician scientist at the University of California San Diego, hospital epidemiologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and corresponding author on the paper. "This device will make it much easier to keep hospital rooms clean." Researchers point out that one in 25 patients who checked into hospitals in 2011 (the last year for which data was available) had to prolong their stay because of healthcare-related infections developed within the hospital. The technology has broader potential applications too. It could be used to deliver a whole new class of medicines to patients via inhalers. "Our goal is to make injectable treatments inhalable," said James Friend, a professor of mechanical engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and one of the paper's authors. advertisement Researchers built the device using off-the-shelf smartphone components that produce acoustic waves. In phones, these parts are used mainly to filter wireless cellular signals and identify and filter voice and data information. In this study, researchers used the smartphone components to generate sound waves at extremely high frequencies -- ranging from 100 million to 10 billion hertz -- in order to create fluid capillary waves, which in turn emit droplets and generate mist. This process is called atomization. Currently, fluids can be atomized by mechanical means like in perfume and cologne sprayers, or by using ultrasound. But these methods either don't work well with viscous fluids, require too much power, or break down some of the fluids' active ingredients. They also require expensive equipment. The technology used in this paper doesn't have these drawbacks. That's because the smart phone components use Lithium Niobate, or LN, a material that produces more energy efficient and more reliable ultrasonic vibrations. As a result, the device can atomize even the most viscous fluids into a fine mist that can drift in the air for more than an hour. The device was built by Friend's research group and tested in the laboratory of Dr. Victor Nizet at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, in experiments led by Kumaraswamy. Although the device worked well on pneumonia-causing bacteria and on various multi-drug resistant strains of other pathogens, atomized TEG did not eliminate MRSA, much to the researchers' surprise. "People told us TEG kills everything," Friend said. "Well that's just not true: in atomized droplet form, it was not all that effective at doing away with MRSA." Researchers are now working on building an updated prototype to use in a hospital setting, a process that they expect to take one or two years. The device also could be used in airports, airplanes and in public transportation during flu season, for example. The rufa subspecies of Red Knot travels from its breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic to its winter habitat in South America and back each year, an incredible 15,000 kilometers each way. Its numbers have fallen precipitously in recent decades, and with such a broad range, determining what's behind the shorebird's decline is a huge challenge. A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications examines Red Knot nesting habitat preferences across the Arctic and determines that while there is plenty of breeding habitat to support today's population, climate change could pose a threat in the future. Rutgers University's Richard Lathrop, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey's Larry Niles, and their colleagues attached radio tags to 365 knots captured while migrating through Delaware Bay in 1999-2006. To learn where and in what sort of habitat the tagged birds nested, they then conducted surveys via small airplane across the south and central Canadian Arctic, a vast study area spanning from Victoria Island in the west to Baffin Island in the east. They also carried out detailed ground-based surveys on Nunavut's Southampton Island. Across both scales, knots preferred to nest in sparsely vegetated areas on sedimentary bedrock, near but not directly adjacent to the coast or interior wetlands, to which they commute in order to forage. The study shows that there are more than 74,000 square kilometers of suitable rufa Red Knot habitat across their Central Arctic breeding range -- enough space for at least that many breeding pairs, assuming one square kilometer of territory per nest. Since the entire population currently numbers only around 42,000 individuals, it's unlikely that a lack of available breeding habitat is contributing to the species' decline; knots' problems must lie elsewhere. However, suitable breeding conditions for a number of Arctic shorebirds, including knots, are predicted to shift and decline in coming decades due to climate change. An understanding of species-habitat relationships will be crucial for present and future conservation efforts. "It took many person-hours over many years of intensive field surveys to find the several dozen occupied Red Knot nests that we located and documented. The area we aerially searched for radio-tagged birds spanned over 1700 km in length, the same distance as from Georgia to Maine," says Niles. Lathrop adds, "Using the power of satellite remote sensing, data mining analysis, and geospatial modeling, we were able to extrapolate from the field and radio-telemetry surveys to map potential nesting habitat for these birds across wide expanses of the Canadian Arctic. These same tools and techniques could be applied to advance our knowledge about other Arctic-nesting shorebirds." "Implementing effective conservation actions for long-distance migrant birds often involves the systematic elimination of insignificant factors to identify important biotic and abiotic contributors to population dynamics," according to Brad Andres, National Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Shorebird Conservation Plan, who was not involved in the study. "For the first time, Lathrop and his colleagues have described environmental conditions conducive for nesting by rufa Red Knots and provide evidence that breeding ground habitats are likely not limiting the recovery of the population. Their work also furnishes a baseline to evaluate the ability of a changing Arctic climate to provide breeding habitat for this shorebird of high conservation concern." A study led by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health has found that letters targeting high prescribers of Seroquel (quetiapine), an antipsychotic with potentially harmful side effects in the elderly, significantly reduced the number of prescriptions for patients in Medicare. The results showed that peer comparison letters led to statistically meaningful, persistent decreases in quetiapine prescribing, with no detected negative effects on patients. The findings are online in JAMA Psychiatry. "Compared with existing work on prescribing quality, our study provides a unique example of a large-scale, low-cost intervention yielding clinically meaningful and long-lasting effects," said Adam Sacarny, PhD, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health and first author. The work was conducted with the Office of Evaluation Sciences in the General Services Administration, which promotes evaluation and testing in the federal government; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the Medicare program; and researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was a randomized controlled trial targeting the 5,055 highest Seroquel-prescribing primary care physicians nationwide in the Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage) program in 2013 and 2014. A random half of the doctors were assigned to the treatment arm and received 3 letters comparing their prescribing practices to their peers; the other half received placebo letters about an unrelated Medicare regulation. The treatment arm's letter stated that the physician's prescribing of quetiapine high relative to their peers was under review. The text also discussed that high quetiapine prescribing could be appropriate but was concerning for medically unjustified use. The letter encouraged primary care physicians to review their prescribing patterns. The physicians who got the peer comparison letters dropped their overall Seroquel prescribing by 11 percent over the next 9 months and 16 percent over the next 2 years. New initiations of Seroquel dropped even more: 24 percent over 2 years. "Our findings show that for health care organizations and clinicians aiming to improve the quality of prescribing, peer comparison messages could be useful and effective tools, particularly when they are paired with a review of previous prescribing activity," said Sacarny. "Similar messages could address over-prescribing of other drugs, like opioids, or they could target care that goes against clinical guidelines." The researchers also followed patients who had been treated by the physicians in the study. On average, patients of the treatment group physicians received 6 percent fewer days of Seroquel from all prescribers over 2 years. Patients with a history of dementia, where guidelines discourage Seroquel prescribing, experienced a larger reduction of 8 percent fewer days of Seroquel. There was no evidence of adverse effects on patients due to the letters: use of the emergency department, hospitalizations, and mortality were similar for patients of treatment and control physicians. Seroquel is frequently prescribed "off-label," or outside its FDA-approved indications, for patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease despite a large body of evidence that it is associated with significant harm in these populations. Guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association and the American Geriatrics Society discourage this overuse of antipsychotics including Seroquel. This off-label use against guidelines has attracted the attention of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and federal oversight agencies. "Overprescribing of antipsychotic drugs is a huge and persistent problem, particularly in the elderly. We think our results are striking for something as simple and cheap as sending letters," said Dr. Michael Barnett of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the second author on the study. "Beyond the benefit in reducing anti-psychotic use, the intervention could also have implications for how we can nudge physician behavior more broadly." Sacarny and colleagues showed that with the increasing need to address the dangers of inappropriate prescribing, peer comparison letters targeted at high-risk medications provide one way to efficiently create lasting changes in prescribing patterns. The summer monsoon in the deserts of the southwestern U.S. is known for bringing torrents of water, often filling dry stream beds and flooding urban streets. A common misconception when observing the fast moving water generated by monsoon storms is that most of the water is swept away into large rivers, with very little of it percolating into underground aquifers. Using a combination of field instrumentation, unmanned aerial vehicles and a hydrologic model, a team of researchers from Arizona State University and the Jornada Long Term Ecological Research Program of the National Science Foundation has been studying the fate of monsoon rainfall and its impact on groundwater recharge in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico. Their findings, recently published in the journal Water Resources Research, explain how a surprising amount of rainfall, nearly 25 percent, from monsoon storms is absorbed into small stream beds and percolates into the groundwater system. The researchers identified factors affecting the percolation process through the use of a numerical model that reproduced the long-term observations obtained at a highly instrumented research site. "The results of this study show that monsoon storms serve an important role in recharging groundwater aquifers near the point of runoff generation," says ASU hydrologist Enrique Vivoni of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Sustainable Engineering and Built Environment. "This is an essential process that banks renewable surface water for future use as a ground water resource in the arid Southwest and throughout the world." Eight Years of Field Work Leads to Novel Insights From 2010 to 2018, the team, which included several undergraduate and graduate students from ASU and collaborators from New Mexico State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, collected data from a watershed monitoring network established at the Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico. They focused specifically on measuring hydrologic and ecologic conditions on piedmont slopes, locally known as "bajadas," which connect mountain ranges to river valleys, but have often been ignored as sources of groundwater recharge. advertisement Adam Schreiner-McGraw, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Riverside and lead author of the study, was a graduate student at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration when the published research was conducted. Dr. Schreiner-McGraw visited the watershed site every three weeks for over six years to collect hydrologic data, maintain the extensive instrument network, and carry out the site sampling needed to setup and test the hydrologic model intended to gain further understanding of the field conditions. "In hydrology," says Vivoni, "you have to wait for certain conditions to happen. In this study, we benefitted from having a sequence of wet summer monsoons deliver above-average rainfall." During this time, the team collected high-resolution data on rainfall, streamflow, soil moisture and evapotranspiration using a variety of instruments operating in a coordinated manner. Using long-term data from these sensors, Schreiner-McGraw identified that large amounts of the incoming rainfall, especially during wet monsoons, was not being lost to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration nor from the channel system as streamflow. Instead, runoff was being lost as percolation in small channels not more than two feet in width -- an unexpected finding. Simulating Where the Water Was Going -- An Improved Hydrological Model By tracking the fate of monsoon rainfall, the research team set out to explain how hillslopes and channels of the piedmont slope might lead to groundwater recharge. "Soils on hillslopes are very different than those in the channels," explains Schreiner-McGraw. "They are compact and do not absorb water very quickly, and they also have calcium carbonate layers about 12 to 20 inches below the surface that limit infiltration. Channels, on the other hand, have coarse and permeable sediments that can absorb water much more quickly." This information was used to modify a hydrological model of the instrumented watershed, originally developed during Vivoni's graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on their field work, the research team tested the model against a suite of long-term data, including evapotranspiration, soil moisture, streamflow and percolation. "It is uncommon to have a hydrologic model tested so thoroughly," says Vivoni. "By performing iterations of field observations and model developments, we demonstrated the value of long-term research." advertisement The research team then used the numerical model to isolate two important factors affecting the percolation process: the infiltration properties of hillslopes and of channel reaches. Simulations indicated diverging effects of these factors on the proportion of rainfall that recharges groundwater systems. These findings are applicable to arid piedmont slopes anywhere on Earth. "Understanding the groundwater recharge process in arid regions can help us sustainably manage groundwater use in these climate settings," says Schreiner-McGraw. With water becoming an increasingly precious resource, a better understanding of how groundwater is recharged could help communities across the globe. "Groundwater is much like a bank account," explains Vivoni. "Underground aquifers can store water delivered from surface systems which can be subsequently extracted under periods of water scarcity." Effects of Vegetation Change through the Land-Water Connection The Chihuahuan Desert, like many areas in the southwestern U.S., has experienced a transition in vegetation communities from grasslands to shrub lands. "We have historically used large open areas of the western U.S. and northern Mexico for livestock grazing," states Vivoni. "As a result, many grasslands have disappeared and been replaced by desert shrubs." In addition, drought and fire suppression have contributed to the conversion of grasses to shrub lands. An open question remains as to whether this transition has impacted the groundwater recharge process in piedmont slopes. "We have examined how the instrumented watershed contributes to groundwater recharge under current conditions," says Schreiner-McGraw. "The next step in the research is to determine how these contributions would be altered under different plant communities." Here, the hydrological model will be employed as a numerical laboratory to determine how vegetation changes alter groundwater recharge, for instance under a historical grassland scenario or a case with desertification and the absence of vegetation. "The future of water resources for humans and wildlife is uncertain," adds John Schade, director of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research program, which funded the research. "Studies like this are essential to proper water management in the face of rapid environmental change, especially in arid lands where water is scarce. This study is an example of the critical role long-term research plays in uncovering what controls the availability of freshwater. It advances our ability to forecast how freshwater availability will change in the years and decades to come." More than 90 percent of people caring for a family member with dementia experience poor sleep, according to new research by the University at Buffalo School of Nursing. The study found that most participants got less than six hours of sleep each night, accompanied by frequent awakenings as often as four times per hour. These disruptions can lead to chronic sleep deprivation and place caregivers at risk for depression, weight gain, heart disease and premature death, says lead author Yu-Ping Chang, PhD, Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Endowed Professor in the UB School of Nursing. "Though memory loss is the best-known symptom of dementia, more than 80 percent of people with dementia will also experience sleep disturbances, anxiety and wandering" says Chang, also the associate dean for research and scholarship in the School of Nursing. "These disruptions have negative effects on caregivers' health, which in turn will diminish their ability to provide optimal care." Nearly 6 million people are living with Alzheimer's disease. However, the effects are felt by the more than 16 million people, often family members, providing unpaid care, according to the Alzheimer's Association. advertisement Past research has found that between 50 and 70 percent of caregivers have sleep complaints, but the data used in those studies was self-reported. Few researchers have taken objective measurements to gain a more accurate picture of caregiver sleep quality, says Chang. The study, published in July in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, analyzed the sleep of 43 people serving as the primary caregiver for a family member with dementia. All participants were over the age of 50 and lived in the Western New York region. Participants were given an actigraphy watch (a sensor worn on the wrist) to measure sleep time, efficiency, and awakenings in their home over seven days. Caregivers were also required to complete a sleep diary for themselves and their care recipients, and self-assessments on depression, burden of care, sleep quality and sleep hygiene -- behaviors that may interfere with sleep such as daytime naps, exercise and watching television before bed. The researchers found that nearly 92 percent of participants experienced poor sleep quality, awoke frequently and slept less than six hours per night -- below the recommended total of seven or eight hours per night. Poor sleep hygiene was found to increase sleep latency, or the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. Although caregivers self-reported taking an average of 30 minutes to fall asleep, data collected from the actigraphy watches showed a longer sleep latency of 40 minutes. The results, says Chang, highlight the gap between caregivers' subjective perception and objective measurements of their sleep quality. "Understanding how well caregivers are sleeping and the variables that affect them is an important first step toward the development of tailored and effective treatment," says Chang. "This would help the millions of caregivers receive the optimum sleep needed to protect their health and continue to provide quality care." Additional investigators include Rebecca Lorenz, PhD, associate professor in the UB School of Nursing; and Hsi-Ling Peng, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at Cardinal Tien College of Healthcare and Management in Taiwan. As biologists have probed deeper into the molecular and genetic underpinnings of life, K-12 schools have struggled to provide a curriculum that reflects those advances. Hands-on learning is known to be more engaging and effective for teaching science to students, but even the most basic molecular and synthetic biology experiments require equipment far beyond an average classroom's budget, and often involve the use of bacteria and other substances that can be difficult to manage outside a controlled lab setting. Now, a collaboration between the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, MIT, and Northwestern University has developed BioBits, new educational biology kits that use freeze-dried cell-free (FD-CF) reactions to enable students to perform a range of simple, hands-on biological experiments. The BioBits kits introduce molecular and synthetic biology concepts without the need for specialized lab equipment, at a fraction of the cost of current standard experimental designs. The kits are described in two papers published in Science Advances. "The main motivation in developing these kits was to give students fun activities that allow them to actually see, smell, and touch the outcomes of the biological reactions they're doing at the molecular level," said Ally Huang, a co-first author on both papers who is an MIT graduate student in the lab of Wyss Founding Core Faculty member Jim Collins, Ph.D. "My hope is that they will inspire more kids to consider a career in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] and, more generally, give all students a basic understanding of how biology works, because they may one day have to make personal or policy decisions based on modern science." Synthetic and molecular biology frequently make use of the cellular machinery found in E. coli bacteria to produce a desired protein. But this system requires that the bacteria be kept alive and contained for an extended period of time, and involves several complicated preparation and processing steps. The FD-CF reactions pioneered in Collins' lab for molecular manufacturing, when combined with innovations from the lab of Michael Jewett, Ph.D. at Northwestern University, offer a solution to this problem by removing bacteria from the equation altogether. "You can think of it like opening the hood of a car and taking the engine out: we've taken the 'engine' that drives protein production out of a bacterial cell and given it the fuel it needs, including ribosomes and amino acids, to create proteins from DNA outside of the bacteria itself," explained Jewett, who is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and co-director of Northwestern's Center for Synthetic Biology, and co-corresponding author of both papers. This collection of molecular machinery is then freeze-dried into pellets so that it becomes shelf-stable at room temperature. To initiate the transcription of DNA into RNA and the translation of that RNA into a protein, a student just needs to add the desired DNA and water to the freeze-dried pellets. The researchers designed a range of molecular experiments that can be performed using this system, and coupled each of them to a signal that the students can easily detect with their sense of sight, smell, or touch. The first, called BioBits Bright, contains six different freeze-dried DNA templates that each encode a protein that fluoresces a different color when illuminated with blue light. To produce the proteins, students simply add these DNA templates and water to the FD-CF machinery and put the reactions in an inexpensive incubator (~$30) for several hours, and then view them with a blue light illuminator (~$15). The students can also design their own experiments to produce a desired collection of colors that they can then arrange into a visual image, a bit like using a Light Brite?. "Challenging the students to build their own in vitro synthetic programs also allows educators to start to talk about how synthetic biologists might control biology to make important products, such as medicines or chemicals," explained Jessica Stark, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Jewett lab at Northwestern University who is co-first author on both papers. An expansion of the BioBits Bright kit, called BioBits Explorer, includes experiments that engage the senses of smell and touch and allow students to probe their environment using designer synthetic biosensors. In the first experiment, the FD-CF reaction pellets contain a gene that drives the conversion of isoamyl alcohol to isoamyl acetate, a compound that produces a strong banana odor. In the second experiment, the FD-CF reactions contain a gene coding for the enzyme sortase, which recognizes and links specific segments of proteins in a liquid solution together to form a squishy, semi-solid hydrogel, which the students can touch and manipulate. The third module uses another Wyss technology, the toehold switch sensor, to identify DNA extracted from a banana or a kiwi. The sensors are hairpin-shaped RNA molecules designed such that when they bind to a "trigger" RNA, they spring open and reveal a genetic sequence that produces a fluorescent protein. When fruit DNA is added to the sensor-containing FD-CF pellets, only the sensors that are designed to open in the presence of each fruit's RNA will produce the fluorescent protein. The researchers tested their BioBits kits in the Chicago Public School system, and demonstrated that students and teachers were able to perform the experiments in the kits with the same success as trained synthetic biology researchers. In addition to refining the kits' design so that they can one day provide them to classrooms around the world, the authors hope to create an open-source online database where teachers and students can share their results and ideas for ways to modify the kits to explore different biological questions. "Synthetic biology is going to be one of the defining technologies of the century, and yet it has been challenging to teach the fundamental concepts of the field in K-12 classrooms given that such efforts often require expensive, complicated equipment," said Collins, who is a co-corresponding author of both papers and also the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science at MIT. "We show that it is possible to use freeze-dried, cell-free extracts along with freeze-dried synthetic biology components to conduct innovative educational experiments in classrooms and other low-resource settings. The BioBits kits enable us to expose young kids, older kids, and even adults to the wonders of synthetic biology and, as a result, are poised to transform science education and society. "All scientists are passionate about what they do, and we are frustrated by the difficulty our educational system has had in inciting a similar level of passion in young people. This BioBits project demonstrates the kind of out-of-the-box thinking and refusal to accept the status quo that we value and cultivate at the Wyss Institute, and we all hope it will stimulate young people to be intrigued by science," said Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, as well as Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "It's exciting to see this project move forward and become available to biology classrooms worldwide and, hopefully some of these students will pursue a path in science because of their experience." Additional authors of the papers include Peter Nguyen, Ph.D., Nina Donghia, and Tom Ferrante from the Wyss Institute; Melissa Takahashi, Ph.D. and Aaron Dy from MIT; Karen Hsu and Rachel Dubner from Northwestern University; Keith Pardee, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto; and a number of teachers and students in the Chicago school system including: Mary Anderson, Ada Kanapskyte, Quinn Mucha, Jessica Packett, Palak Patel, Richa Patel, Deema Qaq, Tyler Zondor, Julie Burke, Tom Martinez, Ashlee Miller-Berry, Aparna Puppala, Kara Reichert, Miriam Schmid, Lance Brand, Lander Hill, Jemima Chellaswamy, Nuhie Faheem, Suzanne Fetherling, Elissa Gong, Eddie Marie Gonzales, Teresa Granito, Jenna Koritsaris, Binh Nguyen, Sujud Ottman, Christina Palffy, Angela Patel, Sheila Skweres, Adriane Slaton, and TaRhonda Woods. A group of data scientists conducted an in-depth analysis of major innovations and stock market bubbles from 1825 through 2000 and came away with novel takeaways of their own as they found some very distinctive patterns in the occurrence of bubbles over 175 years. The study to be published in the August edition of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science is titled "Two Centuries of Innovations and Stock Market Bubbles," and is authored by Alina and Sorin Sorescu of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University; Will Armstrong of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University; and Bart Devoldere from the Vlerick Business School in The Hague, The Netherlands. The authors detected bubbles in approximately 73 percent of the innovations they studied, revealing the close relationship between innovation and stock market bubbles. Further, they found that the magnitude of the bubbles is tied to the awareness levels or visibility of each innovation. In other words, the more broadly known the innovation, the more likely the presence of a stock market bubble in the industry where the innovation is introduced. But awareness and innovation aren't the only drivers for the stock market bubbles. The higher degree of "radicalness" for innovations is more likely to bolster the clout of the specific innovation in the marketplace, otherwise known as an "indirect network effect." This enables companies to raise more equity capital during bubble periods as compared to non-bubble periods, and that new capital is tied to faster and stronger increased awareness of the innovation even after the bubble bursts. In the end, the authors found that the stocks of innovating companies outperform the market from the start to the end of the bubble, which suggests that the innovations add value to both the company and to the large economy, in spite of the presence of bubbles. "While some of our findings provide a retrospective look at stock market activity over 175 years, and prior to the continued innovations we've seen the past 18 years, one realization for us has been that traditional financial economics may not have viewed innovation with enough specificity," said Sorin Sorescu. "A good deal of literature in financial economics on stock market bubble activity tends to view innovation as an something generated by an aggregate production function," said Alina Sorescu. "What it doesn't do is approach innovation as a collection of products with distinct characteristics. Studies in this area rarely incorporate a formal statistical measurement of market bubbles. Instead they rely on hindsight analysis of stock price fluctuations with little attempt to link those movements to specific innovations. "Our study is the first to look at the occurrence of bubbles in association with a large set of specific innovations introduced across two centuries, and to measure bubbles using statistical tests. We are also the first to show that firms can benefit from bubbles driven by innovation. This is in contrast to the conventional thinking that that bubbles are detrimental that have few, if any, positive effects." About 200,000 working days are lost in Germany every year due to insufficient sleep, with an economic loss of $60bln, or about 1.6% of its GDP, according to a 2016 Report of the RAND Corporation. Francesco Billari and Luca Stella (Bocconi University), with Osea Giuntella (University of Pittsburgh), in a study just published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, find that access to broadband Internet is one of the causes of such sleep deprivation. Exploiting the fact that the deployment of broadband in Germany over the years was dependent on technical and historical reasons, they link data on broadband to surveys where individuals report their sleep duration. The researchers conclude that access to high-speed Internet reduces sleep duration and sleep satisfaction in individuals that face time constraints in the morning for work or family reasons. "Individuals with DSL access tend to sleep 25 minutes less than their counterparts without DSL Internet. They are significantly less likely to sleep between 7 and 9 hours, the amount recommended by the scientific community, and are less likely to be satisfied with their sleep," Francesco Billari, a Full Professor of Demography at Bocconi University, Milan, and the Principal Investigator of the project DisCont, funded by the European Research Council, within which this research was conducted. The effect that the authors find is largely driven by individuals that face time constraints in the morning and by the use of electronic devices in the evening (not by their use throughout the day). "Digital temptations may lead to a delay in bedtime, which ultimately decreases sleep duration for individuals who are not able to compensate for later bedtime by waking up later in the morning," Prof. Billari says. The temptations individuals are prone to vary according to age, the scholars find. Among teenagers and young adults (aged 13-30), there is a significant association between insufficient sleep and time spent on computer games or watching TV or videos in the evening, while for older adults (31-59) the correlation is with the use of PCs and smartphones. A UCLA-led study found that many people with heart failure do not receive the medications recommended for them under guidelines set by the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association and Heart Failure Society of America. The research also found that doctors frequently prescribe medications at doses lower than those recommended by the guidelines, especially for older people, those with kidney disease, those with worsening symptoms or those who were recently hospitalized for heart failure. Further study is needed to determine why people in those four groups specifically were prescribed lower-than-recommended doses. The study, which looked at the three categories of heart failure medications, found that between 27 percent and 67 percent of patients were not prescribed the recommended drugs. And when patients did receive the medications, they were generally at a lower-than-recommended dose. Less than 25 percent of patients simultaneously received all three medication types, and only 1 percent received the target doses of all three medication types. About 5.7 million people in the United States have heart failure, according to a 2016 report by the American Heart Association. Heart failure is associated with a lower quality of life and frequent hospitalizations, and it contributes to more than 300,000 deaths each year in the U.S. In half of people with heart failure, the disease is caused by a weak heart muscle that prevents the heart from ejecting a normal amount of blood with each heartbeat, a condition called reduced ejection fraction. Several medications have been proven in large clinical trials to help people with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction live longer and feel better. Research conducted between 2007 and 2009 showed that many patients were not receiving the recommended doses of these medications. The new study sought to determine if there have been improvements in prescribing practice as well as which patients are most likely to receive less medication than recommended. The study included 3,518 patients from 150 primary care and cardiology practices who were enrolled in the Change the Management of Patients with Heart Failure registry, or CHAMP-HF, a study of adult outpatients who were diagnosed with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The results suggest that use and dosing of heart failure medications has not improved over the past decade. The report says new strategies are needed to more effectively achieve and maintain recommended doses of heart failure medications and that there is a substantial opportunity to improve dosing of heart failure medications, which would improve the care and outcomes for people with heart failure. The study's senior author is Dr. Gregg Fonarow of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The first author is Dr. Stephen Greene of Duke University. Other authors are listed in the journal article. The study appears in the July 24 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study was supported by Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Greene has received funding from Novartis. Fonarow has consulted for Amgen, Bayer and Novartis. (Amgen, Bayer and Novartis either market heart failure medications or are developing such drugs.) Other authors' disclosures are listed in the journal article. N. Oregon Coast's River Inn at Seaside a Multifaceted Hotel Experience Published 08/01/2018 at 8:41 PM PDT - Update 08/01/2018 at 9:21 PM PDT By Andre' GW Hagestedt (Seaside, Oregon) It is still Seasides newest hotel, having only been built a few years ago. Yet its already become an Oregon coast must-see. The River Inn at Seaside is a stately and slightly wowing bit of architecture that sits right on the Necanicum River, in an area slightly off the beaten path from all the crazy energy of the town. Yet its close enough to be a short walk from all the action. Even so, its a mere two blocks from the beach. Owned by the Seaside Lodging, LLC group which also owns the Coast River Inn, City Center Motel and the Inn at Seaside the hotel was the largest addition to the groups roster, opening its doors in 2014 after about a year of construction. A lovely but aged motel sat in that spot for many years: the Royale Motel. It was razed to make way for the new building, which quickly gained popularity in a number of circles. Its design has caught the eye of many, and the fact its windows can glow in a remarkable manner at sunset doesnt hurt. The Staicoff Design Company from Portland was the architect, putting together the unique look that sometimes gets applied to the companys other lodgings. The interior of the River Inn at Seaside is a new concept in select service hotels, cleverly nicknamed Boutique Lite, said a spokesman for Staicoff. Its a hybrid of the best parts about resort hotels, blended with a boutique attitude and aesthetic. The River Inn interior looks both forward and backward: it references Old Seaside with vintage detailing in the furniture, graphics, wallpaper, casework, decorative ceilings, and artwork, which easily melds with the best elements of boutique hotel design in service, amenities, and elevated architectural experience. All lighting, furniture, and finishes are thought-provoking and on-trend. Last year, the River Inn at Seaside won Independent Hotel of the Year by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, in honor of company owner Masudur Khan who is a Bangladesh native. To most people, however, its what they find during their stay that grabs them. All kinds of amenities abound, with features attractive to adventurers and even business guests. Some of the most popular amenities are in the form of the hearty continental breakfast in the morning or the river views. The pet friendly aspect is another huge draw, as taking your wee beastie to the beach is almost a kind of prerequisite these days. It's all just a block from Broadway Avenue, and a mere two blocks from the beaches themselves. The fire pits are an exceptional attraction. Few things beat that cool, early evening Oregon coast breeze, right along the lazy river, as you roast a smore or two. It can get even more exceptional if things are a tad chilly, as this spot allows you to soak in the world while warming up. Taking a swim sound like the ticket? Indeed the River Inn at Seaside provides that as well, but an historical nod. The heated pool is saltwater, which is a dazzling experience all its own, but it also harkens back to the days (about 100 years ago) when natatoriums were all the rage on the turn-of-the-century coastline. Seaside had two up until the 20s. The kidlets have their own playground on the hotel property, and theres a game room full of fun features for all ages. You have access to free bike rentals, meaning you can borrow them and then go zipping around Seaside. Also for the fitness-minded: theres a fitness room and in-room yoga mats should you decide to get your zen on during your stay. Even weddings can get a royal treatment here. They have a large space thats good for wedding receptions (although they dont offer specific wedding services themselves), and they offer group rates. Seaside, Oregon. 531 Avenue A, Seaside, Oregon. www.riverinnatseaside.com. 503-717-5744. More photos of the River Inn at Seaside below: Lodging in Seaside - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted After publishing two books of photographs of Bay Area jazz and blues musicians, Jessica Levant got the impulse to elevate her documentary pictures into fine art. Working with one of her standard color digital images of electric bassist Tom Lander, she replaced the musicians in the background with fake leaves. Then she changed it from color to black-and-white. That image took honorable mention in an international art contest, so Levant began a series of jazz silhouettes that are making their framed debut in the gallery at Noise, a jazz-centric record store on Balboa Street in San Francisco. The exhibit opens Saturday, Aug. 4, to coincide with Playland-on-Balboa, a first-ever street fair that will block off the Outer Richmond street, between 35th and 38th avenues. There will be bands on a stage playing live music outdoors, and the Balboa Theatre will screen several films, including a documentary about Playland-at-the-Beach, the midcentury amusement park located at the western end of Balboa until 1972. Levant plans to be at a table in front of Noise all afternoon to discuss both Playland and the evolving jazz scene, which shes watched change firsthand as a born-and-bred San Franciscan. More Information Playland-on-Balboa: Photography. Noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 4. Free. Balboa Street between 35th Avenue and 38th Avenue. Music continues until 9 p.m. at Noise, 3427 Balboa St., S.F. 415-702-6006. www.sanfrancisconoise.com See More Collapse The books and prints she will be selling represent the three nights a week she has spent in the bars and dive clubs where jazz manages to hang on in the Bay Area. She brings her small Sony RX100, good for shooting in dark places without a flash. When she sees something she likes she stands up and moves in close to the band which is not an imposition because by now every front player in town knows her. Im looking for expression, passion and posture, she says. I try not to get bass players looking bored. Only later, when she clicks through her nights work, will she find maybe one out of 30 that would work as a silhouette. Then she will manipulate it with filters to reduce it to a noirish mood. I dont do too much thinking, she says. Its a gut reaction. One of the places Levant shoots is the Balboa Theater, which screens jazz classics. Before each show, a combo plays in the ornate lobby. An image Levant made of a man with a standup bass at the Balboa is in the show at Noise. These photographs capture the essence of both the musician and the music, says Sara Johnson, who curates the gallery at Noise. Looking at each of these silhouettes, you can hear the instrument that the musician is known for. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com. Instagram: sfchronicle_art Mayor London Breed signed San Franciscos two-year, $11.1 billion budget Wednesday morning, putting into motion a spending plan meant to address many of the citys most protracted problems homelessness, street-cleanliness and public safety. What we see on our streets is unacceptable, and these budget investments are a key step to ensuring that San Franciscans see and feel a difference in all of our neighborhoods, Breed said in a statement. The budget the largest in the citys history includes tens of millions of dollars over the next two fiscal years to hire more street cleaners, open new Navigation Centers and homeless shelters, and substantially grow the ranks of the police department. Around $13 million has been set aside to hire 44 new street cleaners four in each of the 11 supervisorial districts. That money will also be used to extend hours at public Pit Stop bathrooms and to expand efforts to clean up used needles. It also includes $12 million for rapid rehousing programs meant to keep vulnerable people from becoming homeless and $5.8 million for a new, voter-approved program to provide free legal counsel to anyone facing eviction. Breed signed the budget at the Bishop Swing Community House, a permanent, supportive housing location, a gesture meant to underscore her administrations commitment to confronting homelessness. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Breeds budget-signing ceremony caps off a months-long process that began with then-Mayor Ed Lee, who issued budget instructions to department heads last year. Breed stuck to his course when she took over as acting mayor following Lees death in December. Former Mayor Mark Farrells administration then crafted the bulk of the budget during his brief tenure in office. He and Breed negotiated jointly with Budget Committee Chairwoman Malia Cohen after the budget was handed to the Board of Supervisors on June 1. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa Two years ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set a bold goal for the upstart automaker reach a production rate of 1 million cars per year in 2020. That was before the difficult roll-out of the companys latest electric car, the Model 3. On Wednesday, Musk acknowledged that the company may not hit its 2020 goal. But he insisted Tesla wouldnt be far off. I think we have a shot at a million, but 700,000 seems pretty likely, given where we are today, Musk said on a conference call to discuss the companys second-quarter earnings. Although the company has a battery factory in Nevada, Teslas Fremont plant, so far, remains its only auto factory. The company recently announced plans for a factory in Shanghai that would make batteries and cars, and Tesla reported Wednesday that the new factory could begin building cars in three years, with an initial production of 250,000 per year. Musk said Wednesday that Tesla also hopes to announce the location of a European factory by the end of this year. Tesla, based in Palo Alto, currently builds about 7,000 cars per week, although that rate is increasing. Last year, the company built 101,027 vehicles. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Tesla has largely run out of room in the Fremont facility, so the company plans to expand it. Musk said Wednesday that the plant, working in tandem with the Nevada Gigafactory, could produce about 600,000 cars per year. The facility, which has a long history with several automakers, has never hit that level before. Under its previous owner New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a joint venture of General Motors and Toyota production peaked at 428,632 vehicles in 2006. David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF Despite the efforts of more than 10,000 firefighters, Northern Californias four big wildfires are still growing and resisting containment and even forcing new evacuations. The evacuation area for the raging Mendocino Complex, which has burned more than 120,000 acres and consists of the Ranch Fire and River Fire, was enlarged by the Lake County Sheriffs Office and Cal Fire on Thursday. The River Fire, near Hopland, has consumed 41,278 acres and was about 50 percent contained by Thursday night, officials said. The Ranch Fire, outside Ukiah, has burned 83,890 acres and is 33 percent contained. Flames from the Mendocino Complex have destroyed 16 residences and 17 other buildings, and the two blazes are being fought by 3,069 firefighters. Early Thursday, the Lake County Sheriff Fire moved to clear everyone from Blue Lakes, Upper Lake, Nice, Lakeport, Witter Springs, Bachelor Valley, Scotts Valley, Saratoga Springs. Most of those areas had been ordered evacuated Saturday, but some residents were allowed to linger. Cal Fire expanded evacuations late Thursday to include areas throughout Lake County and the Mendocino National Forest. Meanwhile, the Carr Fire west of Redding and the Ferguson Fire outside Yosemite National Park continued to grow Thursday. Two firefighters were killed last month while battling the blaze near Yosemite. The Carr fire has claimed six lives, including those of two firefighters. Even as most evacuations in Redding were lifted, the Carr Fire continued to spread into rural and wilderness areas. The conflagration has destroyed 125,842 acres and is 35 percent contained. More than 4,200 firefighters are battling the inferno. So far, 1,060 homes, 18 commercial buildings and 477 other structures have been destroyed. Just west of Yosemite, some of the 3,344 firefighters battling the Ferguson blaze worked through the night to contain spot fires outside of Wawona, a small town inside the park that was evacuated Wednesday night. The historic community inside the parks southern boundary is home to the Big Trees Lodge, formerly the famed Wawona Hotel. The area features Park Service housing, a golf course, post office, library, two markets and private cabins. Along with the evacuation of Wawona, the Mariposa Grove and the southern entrance to the park on Highway 41 have been closed. The Ferguson Fire grew by 6,557 from Wednesday, reaching 69,440 acres by 6 p.m Thursday. Containment was at 41 percent Thursday night. The inferno has destroyed 10 structures, including nine abandoned houses found along a washed-out road. The numbers reflect newly discovered homes that burned prior to Wednesday, officials said. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California Damage assessment teams cant get out there until the fire is out, said Michelle Eidam, a Ferguson Fire spokeswoman. While Yosemite National Park remains open, its most popular areas Yosemite Valley, Wawona and the Mariposa Grove have been evacuated at the peak of the tourist season due to fire danger and unhealthy levels of smoke. The valley closure, which started July 25, has twice been extended and the area isnt expected to reopen until Sunday, air quality permitting. No estimate has been made for the reopening of the southern entrance, Wawona and Mariposa Grove. With the closure of the park entrances, only the Highway 120 entrance through Big Oak Flat remains open to Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass. Several popular camps have also closed as a result of the Ferguson Fire, including the San Francisco-operated Camp Mather, which announced it wont open until at least Aug. 12. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan Its a wonder when someone can write or paint into very old age, given the challenges of holding a steady pen or a steady thought in the course of the bodys winding down. Stanley Kunitz won the National Book Award in Poetry at 90 and was named U.S. poet laureate at 95, and the muckraking journalist George Seldes published a best-selling memoir, Witness to a Century, at 97. Picasso was painting into his 90s, and the folk artist Grandma Moses broke exhibition attendance records in the decade before her death at 101. But a new book by a 95-year-old Chinese man who experienced firsthand the ideological and cultural upheaval of the worlds most populous country showcases both the storytelling and visual art of surely one of the most late-blooming and extraordinary talents in memory. Rao Pingru had dabbled in watercolors after his retirement from a Shanghai gear factory, but when his wife of 60 years, Meitang, died in 2008, he began to paint, at age 87, picture after picture of their lives together, as a way to capture his recollections and cope with his loss. He and his wifes families had been old friends, so he had known her since she was 10, a clever, mischievous girl who stole coins from her father, because a young gentleman has ways and means to get money but what was a young lady to do? We follow Rao from a carefree childhood in Nancheng marked by games and festivals and sumptuously described and illustrated meals to the outbreak of war and the Japanese occupation that would drive Raos family out of their home and Meitangs into the extortionate French Concession. Rao would join cadet school and the 100th Army, enduring battles and pursuing the Japanese invaders through rough terrain and brutal conditions, witnessing horrors that he recalls without drama or sentiment. After Hiroshima and the defeat of Japan, his family arranges his engagement to Meitang. While the dowry is gathered, he rises to lieutenant in Jiangsu province, where he narrowly escapes the bullets of the Peoples Liberation Army. Soon he is appointed company commander and gains a reputation as one of the few leaders whose troops dont desert him in a period of abject conditions and poor morale. In 1948 he is granted a wedding leave, and marries Meitang in the Jiangxi Grand Hotel. The following year, the Communists take over, marking the end of the old society. Rao burns all photographs of himself wearing the Kuomintang Nationalist uniform, but in the end he cant outrun his past. He tries to assimilate into the new order, opening a noodle shop, and when that fails becoming a surveyor, then an accountant and editor at a hospital in Shanghai. But the Communists discover him and send him alone to Anhui province to do re-education through labor. So begins the books darkest chapters, Raos 22 years of forced separation from his wife and five children. His work in river containment is primitive and exhausting, and his family is plunged into poverty, forced to do backbreaking labor to survive. By the time theyre reunited, their children are grown and the kidney problems that will eventually kill Meitang have begun to deplete her. More Information Our Story A Memoir of Love and Life in China By Rao Pingru (Pantheon; 363 pages; $30) See More Collapse For all of their suffering, however, this couple represents an exemplar of lifelong companionship. Meitangs letters to her husband, which serve as a coda to the book, are quotidian treasures. Raos plain, charming stories, and especially his witty, evocative, beautiful illustrations handmade by a nonagenarian are testament to the resilience and endurance of love. Porter Shreve is the author of four novels, including The End of the Book. Email: books@sfchronicle.com NUIQSUT, Alaska The Arctic landscape is devoid of color during the frozen days of winter. Theres the white of the tundra, the white of sea ice and often the sky, and the darkness of cold, long nights. So when a wall of coffee-colored smoke rolled toward the village of Nuiqsut in February, 2012, there was no mistaking that something was wrong. Martha Itta, of the native Inupiaq village government, was at her desk when a colleague shouted Check Facebook! A worker on an oil well site 18 miles away, owned by the Spanish company Repsol, had posted a video. Rigs having a blowout here. Theyre evacuating the rig, the worker said as drilling mud and smoke spewed into the air and onto the tundra. Aint fg looking so good. Itta scrambled, dialing any authority she could think ofthe North Slope Bureau, the EPAto ask if Nuiqsut should be evacuated. We werent getting any answers, she said. Nuiqsuts air is monitored by ConocoPhillips Alaska, which owns major drilling sites on the outskirts of the village. But the monitor was down for routine maintenance at that time. Our community was pretty much in panic mode. We didnt have any datano air monitoring to show us what was out there in the air, Itta said. For many in Nuiqsut, a small, predominantly Native Alaskan village of single-family homes, government offices, a grocery store and a few schools for some 400 inhabitants, the Repsol blowout underscored a fundamental fear about life in the middle of an oil-drilling boom: Many residents say they got sick. And the explosion exposed a gap between their fear and the official response from state and oil-industry officials that there's no clear link between the growing number of wells and what residents say is a rise in respiratory illness. Natalie Lowman, a spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips Alaska, says decades of the companys air monitoring has shown that the air quality of the North Slope (the northernmost municipality on the North American continent) ... is consistently better than national ambient air quality standards. Moreover, studies done by state and regional agencies, based largely on ConocoPhillips data, attribute respiratory health issues in the area to spikes in viruses, smoking, poor indoor ventilation and cars left idling for hours in freezing temperatures. Those reasons surely contribute, but Itta and other residents believe they are red herrings. Itta wants a third partysomeone without direct ties to the oil industryto monitor the air in Nuiqsut. For the tribal administrator and mother of seven, its become personal. A few months after the Repsol blowout, her 2-year-old son, Gerald, showed signs of respiratory distress. As his oxygen levels dropped, Itta rushed to get him more advanced medical care. He ended up having seizures and was on a ventilator, she said. Several times, she and Gerald flew from the gravel airstrip in Nuiqsut to Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow, Alaska). Once there, she recalled, his symptoms would clear up. Hed get really good, Itta said. They would send us back home, and then it would start all over again. Her doctor told her: Its something in the air hes breathing. Itta isnt just worried about oil explosions now. She fears every-day airborne pollutants from vast drilling operations that occasionally turns the sky a hazy green and leave black soot on snow. When that happens, noses run and asthma flares up, she and other villagers say. Nuiqsut is a whaling community located in the midst of Alaskas most prolific oil region along the states North Slope, a region poised for another drilling boom. Just 8 miles from town, more than 50,000 barrels of oilroughly a tenth of the states oil production is pumped daily from oil fields owned by ConocoPhillips. Repsol, Armstrong and Oil Search also have oil fields near Nuiqsut. As the Trump administration clears the way for more Arctic drilling, major companies have made new discoveries of oil the state hopes will revitalize its struggling economy. Around Nuiqsut, three projects will come online, including one targeting an estimated 500 million to 3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Another oil boom worries residents, who say fossil fuel burning has already brought climate change to Nuiqsuts doorstep. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice as fast as the global average, changing the sea ice and impacting species that residents rely on for hunting. And its not just carbon dioxide. Emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, like black carbon, methane and ozone also exacerbate global warming. The resulting tension, between oil development and local fears about public health, is similar to conflicts in pockets of the United States, from the Permian Basin in Texas to Pennsylvanias Marcellus Shale. But here 250 miles above the Arctic Circle, with no year-round road access the situation is very different. Many basic services are hundreds of miles away, and more than three-quarters of residents still live off the fish they catch, the whales they harvest and the caribou they hunt. Resident Rosemary Ahtuangaruak says numbers reveal the communitys health problems. As a health aid in Nuiqsut from 1986 to 2000, she saw the number of people treated for respiratory illness rise from one to 75 an increase that far outpaced population growth at the same time oil wells were established closer to the towns inhabitants . One person would have trouble breathing, and another would be in before I had finished the first Next thing you know its 7 a.m. and I havent gone home for the night, she said. To be sure, oil companies have made strides in decreasing emissions, but air pollution remains a byproduct of drilling. Stacks that flare off gas like 24/7 pilot lights can emit volatile organic compounds. Larger flares spew black carbon, a short-lived pollutant. Methane can leak from equipment throughout the production process, and can cause headaches and dizziness, according to health researchers. Volatile organic compounds are linked to kidney and nervous system damage, respiratory problems and even some cancers. How emissions and other pollutants interact in the Arctics extreme environmentand their precise impact on healthis only now beginning to be understood by scientists. There is a huge gap of knowledge, said atmospheric scientist Julia Schmale. State officials acknowledge residents concerns, but when it comes to industrial pollutants and health, drawing connections between symptoms and causes is difficult. Last summer, Barbara Trost, who manages air monitoring for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, attended a public meeting and recalls being stunned by the fear being expressed. I get it, she said.I dont think any one of us would want to live in an environment where were surrounded by industry. The financially strapped state cant afford its own monitoring in Nuiqsut, Trost said, but she occasionally sees ConocoPhillips air monitoring data, showing pollutant levels of pollutants far below EPA standards. She knows the community doesnt trust air monitoring by ConocoPhillips, but she says there is no reason to believe the data is inaccurate. After the Repsol blowout, Sam Kunuknana said his then-wife and young daughter arrived home after a short walk from the town center. It was a cold, day33 below zero, with wind coming from the direction of the well, which still hadnt been fully plugged. Both became sick, he said. His daughters temperature spiked, her ears hurt and she was in a lot of pain. The couple raced her to the local clinic and received a diagnosis of the flu or a cold. ConocoPhillips monitor began taking continuous measurements after the blowout, following its scheduled maintenance. The pollutants monitored were at near-normal levels, the state reported. Kunuknana said It took more than a month for his family to recover. To this day, I think my ex still has that cough, he said. He blames the blowout, and these days, he added, gas flaring and haze that settles over town some days makes it harder to breathe. When you talk about environmental justice, you talk about human rights, about future generations that will be dealing with industry as they move forward, Kunaknana said recently at a forum where Nuiqsuts concerns were discussed. I dont have a degree in anything, but I do understand whats going on. Sabrina Shankman is an InsideClimate News writer. www.insideclimatenews.org The massive wildfires burning across California have highlighted long-standing strains on the states mutual-aid system, which is designed to quickly rally support from nearby fire agencies to help protect homes and save lives. From Tuesday through Saturday last week, requests for more than 900 fire engines from commanders around California went unfilled, according to state officials, leaving emergency responders in many communities with far less help than they had hoped for. During that five-day period, the Carr Fire swept into the outskirts of Redding, destroying hundreds of homes; the Ferguson Fire continued its march toward Yosemite, prompting a rare closure of parts of the national park; and multiple blazes erupted in Mendocino and Lake counties, burning more than 90,000 acres so far. People have to be comfortable sending resources and still being able to take care of their day-to-day 911 calls at home, said California Fire and Rescue Chief Kim Zagaris, who oversees the states fire mutual-aid program. But if everybody decided they arent going to send anyone help, then wed have a lot more houses on the ground and a lot more issues to deal with. Californias mutual-aid system is designed to move firefighters and equipment into disaster zones when local first responders find themselves overwhelmed. Calls for assistance first go to nearby counties, then to other agencies across the state. Many experts consider the system one of the best in the country, but there are signs that its faltering. As wildfires have become more intense and dangerous, the number of unfilled requests for fire engines and water tenders sharply increased, from just 134 in the 2012 fire season to 3,029 in the 2016 season. Officials at the state Office of Emergency Services, which runs the program, did not provide the total number of calls for aid in that time period. The shortage of resources was acutely felt in Wine Country last October, when commanders requested hundreds of engines during the early hours of the two most devastating blazes: the Tubbs and Atlas fires. Less than half of those sought would arrive. That initially left local firefighters largely on their own to combat a situation that would ultimately require an international effort to extinguish, with thousands of firefighters eventually converging on the area. Experts have attributed the mutual-aid systems growing gap between supply and demand to dwindling resources, local budget cuts and a ballooning number of calls for service. Meanwhile, the increasing severity of wildfires has created a troubling feedback loop: As fires become more damaging, local agencies are hesitant to send help to other jurisdictions, fearing theyll be caught flat-footed should a disaster unfold in their own backyard. This issue were dealing with has been going on the last five years, Zagaris said, referring to the lack of mutual aid during large wildfires. The size of the fires, the magnitude of the fires, the complexities of the fires are really taxing us. When a series of fires start in short succession across the state, as happened in July, it can also create logistical problems, as crews find themselves jumping from one incident to another. Last week, firefighters drove from Northern California to help fight fires in Southern California, only to be turned around shortly after arriving, Zagaris said. Other crews traveled to the conflagration near Redding, and then were rerouted to deal with large fires that had erupted in their own regions. When two blazes ignited in Mendocino and Lake counties Friday, Californias firefighting resources had already largely been depleted, state officials said, forcing local commanders to work with less than they would have liked. As far as stretched thin, we were and we are, said Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. You only have a certain amount of resources in the state of California. Help has begun to arrive from as far away as Maine and Florida. State officials are considering asking for ground troops from the Marines or Army to help clear brush to stop fires from spreading. Commanders at the major fires that started last week in Northern California were not immediately available for comment. A spokeswoman said responders did not have issues getting help when the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite broke out in mid-July. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California While no amount of mutual aid can stop powerful, wind-driven wildfires like those that hit Redding this year and Santa Rosa last year it can help save homes and get people evacuated. Early assistance is crucial, said Carroll Wills, spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters, a lobbying group that represents thousands of firefighters. Obviously it takes time to roll engines from other parts of the state, but its in those first few hours when the people on the line feel it, he said. In those early hours, when something really nasty is happening, theyre alone. The Legislature recently approved the budgeting of $50 million that can be used to send firefighters to high-risk areas before blazes break out and when conditions are considered prime for wildfires. The money, which became available this summer, will also fund upgrades to fire engines and other equipment. The budget request was in response to the growing number of unfilled calls for aid, which peaked in 2017 at 11,000 nearly one-third of all requests, according to state figures. The funds are intended to put responders in a position to stop fires before they can grow and make the system more proactive. One of the main lawmakers who pushed for the improvements, state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, did not know whether the money was used in the recent Northern California blazes. Despite the improvements, he said, more needs to be done. Out mutual-aid system, built off a neighbor-helping-neighbor approach, was established in the 1950s; its underfunded, antiquated and we have to make improvements, McGuire said. This is not hyperbole we desperately need more resources. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report Joaquin Palomino is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jpalomino@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoaquinPalomino Having all but exploded the painstaking multilateral agreement keeping an Iranian bomb at bay, President Trump said this week that he would meet with the Islamic Republics leaders without preconditions any time they want to. He added, in as close an approximation of The Donald Doctrine as were likely to get, Ill meet with anybody. ... I believe in meeting. The president approached his recent summits with two other dangerous U.S. adversaries, North Koreas Kim Jong Un and Russias Vladimir Putin, with much the same nonchalance. And he has a point about the value of talking to our enemies. But his supreme confidence in his ability to achieve something beyond talk, particularly without the preparation or care typically applied to such high-stakes diplomacy, has not been borne out. There is evidence that North Korea, for instance, is building more intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to U.S. intelligence findings reported by the Washington Post this week. The revelation came soon after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Kims regime continues to enrich fissile material for nuclear weapons. Granted, the Democratic Peoples Republic has made modest concessions since the Trump-Kim summit, repatriating what are said to be remains of U.S. war dead and moving to dismantle a missile engine test site. And few expected the regime to proceed quickly or decisively to cease nuclear arms development, especially given that the Singapore meeting in June produced only a vague promise to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But the recent reports nevertheless belie Trumps claim that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. Nor does Russias cyberwar footing appear to have abated since Trumps obsequious performance alongside Putin in Finland last month. Facebook announced Tuesday that it was removing 32 fake accounts and pages aiming to influence the coming elections using tactics similar to those associated with Russia in 2016. Earlier, a Microsoft executive revealed Russian attempts to hack three 2018 congressional campaigns, and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, one of the Senates most vulnerable Democrats, confirmed such an attack on her re-election effort. Again, no one should have expected a friendly meeting with the president to alter the Russian strongmans determination to sabotage U.S. and other Western democracies. But thats the point: Merely pantomiming improved relations with the likes of Putin and Kim does little to curb their hostile activities. Similarly, even if Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hadnt dismissed Trumps offer to meet any time, one more such summit would be a long way from the diplomatic achievement the administration undermined by withdrawing from an accord that actually and verifiably suspended Tehrans nuclear weapons program. Pompeo explained this week that the president wants to meet with folks to solve problems. Trump certainly has proposed and participated in plenty of meetings, but his enthusiasm for diplomatic theater has yet to solve any substantial problems. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. I have a different perspective about the July 22 murder at the MacArthur BART Station because I am the mother of a seriously mentally ill young adult. People are rightly terrified and upset by this shocking murder of an African American woman in a public place. They are looking for relief and a solution. But I dont think executing John Cowell, jailing him for life, or classifying the crime as a hate crime will do anything to relieve peoples fears, make people safer or combat racism. To me, this murder seems less about racism or BART procedures than about brain illness. I believe this because I have family experience with disabling brain illness, and I know what it does to people. Evidently Cowell is seriously mentally ill, like my daughter and like my friends children. Cowells family said he was diagnosed with bipolar illness and schizophrenia, and that he had nowhere to go after being released from the Atascadero State Mental Facility in May because of the lack of mental institutions. That he has been in and out of jail and has not had the proper treatment. Most people dont know that many, perhaps most, of our mentally ill children have no place to go. Serious mental illness is a disease that can be identified and diagnosed and often treated. Nevertheless, the United States, as a rule, since the 60s, has not treated the seriously mentally ill, or taken care of them, or given them any place to live other than jail. Very many of the sickest, perhaps half a million nationwide, are in jail or homeless, without any meds or treatment or support. In Alameda County, there are no more than a few hundred beds in locked hospitals mostly only available for a night or two and no more than a few hundred beds in licensed board-and-cares (unlocked places where people too sick to live with relatives might find a permanent home). Most people also probably arent aware how totally disabling untreated brain illnesses like schizophrenia and serious bipolar disorder can be. These diseases dont just take away peoples mental health; they take away peoples ability to make choices and care for themselves. Half of people with schizophrenia and many bipolar people have no idea they are mentally ill. People with untreated mental illness may have delusions or hallucinations. Because of that, they are often victims of violence by police or by people they antagonize. Or they can be violent themselves; sometimes they kill strangers with whom they have delusional issues, or they kill their own family members or neighbors. It seems to me that delusions, not the content of the delusions, were the cause of this tragedy. Its true society is racist, and its true African Americans are in danger in public from the police and others, and its true our seriously mentally ill children often pick up and amplify the racist, sexist and xenophobic ideas of society. Nevertheless if they have gotten arrested and hospitalized over and over again, and they have been barred from their own homes, and they been found in need of medication but are not getting any, they almost certainly have a brain illness as well as unacceptable thinking. The details of their thinking, if you had access to them, wouldnt make sense, e.g., they might say harmless things are dangerous, and dangerous things are harmless; food is poison or methamphetamine is essential to life. Our adult children deserve to be kept safe and healthy and kept from being the victims or perpetrators of violence. That we ask them to take care of themselves on the streets is disgraceful. Alison Monroe is the mom of a young person with schizoaffective disorder. As candidates for San Francisco supervisor vigorously raise and spend money ahead of the November election from working the phones and holding fundraising events to, in one case, spending thousands of dollars on honey newly filed financial disclosure forms provide a window into who the serious contenders are. The supervisors seat is up for election in the citys five even-numbered districts, and the disclosure forms recorded at the citys Ethics Commission cover the latest filing period, from Jan. 1 to June 30. Here is a look at the field so far: District Two As of the latest filing deadline, Nick Josefowitz had raised the most money of any candidate in any district race at $320,533, according to the Ethics Commission. Since announcing his candidacy last year, Josefowitz, a BART director and Pacific Heights resident, had spent $324,638. Candidates typically spend the bulk of their money on employee salaries, office space and campaign ads. Josefowitzs expenditures also included about $6,550 for thousands of small jars of honey that say Pick Nick above a picture of a bee. Sometimes political campaigns can be really sour, and we just wanted to make it a little sweet, he said. Josefowitz is running against current District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who had raised $115,288 by June 30. Stefani, who was appointed to the seat by former Mayor Mark Farrell as his replacement on the Board of Supervisors, took office Jan. 30 and was not fundraising before then. She had spent $80,497. This will be a tough campaign and a lot of money is going to be spent, Stefanis campaign manager, Daniel Herzstein said in a statement. But our campaign will continue to fundraise aggressively. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Also in the race is Schuyler Hudak, founder of media start-up Cor, who had raised $71,953 and spent $51,227. A fourth candidate, John Dennis, had raised $6,501. District Four District Four candidates had to scramble to ramp up their campaigns after current Supervisor Katy Tang announced in July she would not run for re-election. Tang endorsed her legislative aide, Jessica Ho, who moved back to San Francisco from Los Angeles just a few months ago. Ho was the fundraising leader as of the latest filing deadline, with $31,221 total money raised, and has the endorsement of Tang and Mayor London Breed. But not far behind was Gordon Mar, with $27,260. I feel like we are off to a really strong start and our fundraising report is an indication of that, said Mar, brother of former Supervisor Eric Mar. We are competitive with the other viable candidates. Ho had spent $5,086 as of the latest filing deadline, while Mar had spent $1,255. The two others in the race are grassroots candidates Art Tom and Trevor McNeil, who each had both raised less than $6,000 as of June 30. District Six School board member Matt Haney leads District Six with $245,211 as of the filing deadline, the second-highest level of campaign contributions among supervisorial candidates. He had spent $183,571. Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle Trailing him was Sonja Trauss with $165,281. Trauss was denied matching public campaign funds this year, but she said that has not hindered her ability to stay competitive in the race. There are a lot of D6 voters that are unhappy with the way that things are going, and our job is to make sure they know there is an alternative and they dont have to vote for the same type of person that weve had for years, she said, referring to Haney. She had spent $113,409. Far behind both was Christine Johnson with $50,166. Johnson said she is proud of what she has raised since announcing her candidacy, and plans to be fully funded by the next deadline. District Eight In District Eight, the only candidate who qualified to run against Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is Lawrence Stark Dagesse, who says he is a theatrical technician. He had not raised any money by the deadline. District 10 School board President Shamann Walton leads in District 10, with $174,738 raised by the filing deadline. Walton had spent $125,776. Santiago Mejia / Special to The Chronicle But the candidate behind him, Theo Ellington, board president of the Bayview Opera House, had raised $131,921 and said he is confident about his place in the race. Ive been able to tap into the folks that I grew up with here in the neighborhood, he said. Thats really the people who are fueling the campaign. ... Im not receiving a whole lot of big money from executives. Ellington had spent $54,750 by June 30. Meanwhile, Tony Kelly, who had raised $91,121, said the campaign feels like he is on a sociopathic hamster wheel. Were trying to knock on thousands of doors every week, and you need to make sure that you are doing it with love and care, he said. He had spent $25,847. Two other candidates in District 10, Uzuri Pease-Greene and Neo Veavea had each raised less than $4,000. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani JIM WILSON / NYT A San Francisco-owned family camp near Yosemite National Park has extended its closure more than a week as the Ferguson Fire continues, officials announced Thursday. Camp Mather, one of two popular Yosemite camps that evacuated Tuesday due to hazardous and smoky weather conditions, was originally scheduled to reopen Sunday but extended the closure until Sunday, Aug. 12. "It was always my worst fear, 'What if we had a fire?'" said Sandra Dodge-Streich, the proprietor of Redding Reptiles on Lake Boulevard in Redding, home to hundreds of reptiles and snakes, "because I'd never leave them." Then the Carr Fire came. At first, it seemed like they'd be able to stay put. The store even took in another 30 animals from fellow locals who had to flee their homes, opening early on Friday morning to take in reptiles with nowhere to go. But it soon became clear it was time to get out, and leaving the store's non-mammalian inhabitants behind wasn't an option. So instead, Dodge-Streich and her family, and co-owner Ryan Allinger went to Home Depot to load up on containers to transport the 200-plus snakes, lizards, tarantulas, scorpions, bugs and amphibians of Redding Reptiles, plus the 30 more they'd taken in that morning. There were Burmese pythons and bearded geckos and an anaconda, and all of them needed to be moved. As the hours passed, the process of packing up quickly took on a frightening urgency. "It took us five hours, we were trying to do it in an organized fashion,"Dodge-Streich recalled. "But then the sky became orange, and literally we saw flames behind us." An hour and a half after they'd gotten all the animals to a friend's place, they learned that their own home, too, was being evacuated. They moved again so that they'd have more space for the reptiles and other critters, this time to Tortoise Acres Rescue and Sanctuary in Anderson. But the evacuation zone shifted and they had to move again. By Saturday night, they'd moved four times. Then, on Sunday morning, Allinger made a horrifying discovery: A 14-foot lavender albino reticulated python named Eres had somehow escaped from her tub the biggest that Home Depot had had for sale despite its lid being taped and weighed down by what Dodge-Streich described as "at least two hundred pounds worth of snakes." "She was stressed, and they're all muscle," said Dodge-Streich. "She obviously felt the need to get out with all her might." "It became a pure panic, because this was a regular neighborhood with small pets and kids just fear at what potentially could happen," she said. They frantically searched the neighborhood, posting photos on social media and hunting through houses and yards. They eventually received a call on Monday morning from a woman who'd found Eres curled up on a milk crate on her back porch, not far from where she'd made her escape, according to Dodge-Streich's daughter Cassie. There's been some backlash, because news of the escaped snake scared people. Redding Reptiles doesn't sell big snakes like Eres the python, but it does accept owner surrenders of such animals and sometimes takes in strays, like a Burmese python that was found in someone's driveway; They're kept in the store so that visitors and scout troops can learn about them and see they're not so scary. Now the store is open again. Dodge-Streich wanted to reopen in case people needed supplies for their pets. The big snakes are contentedly back in their enclosures, many of them curled up in balls in darkened corners, but some of the lizards show signs of stress from all the upheaval. One of the black monitor lizards got stressed and ripped out a few of his toenails, but he's since been bandaged up. While the snakes have settled down, a return to normalcy still feels very far away. Dodge-Streich estimates that of the 30 reptiles the store took in, 10 to 15 belong to people who won't be able to take them back anytime soon because they lost everything in the fire. And others aren't likely to want to buy a reptile any time soon. But her priority right now, she said, is supporting the community and showing up for others. "There's a huge relief that we are all safe, but we have so many friends who have lost their homes so there's the guilt as well," she said. "Something like this, it's devastating." "We're gonna show everybody that we're gonna make it. Redding is gonna be strong." Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter Police arrested a man Wednesday after he allegedly snapped up-skirt photos of women in a California Target store. The Cypress Police Department shared security camera footage of the Tuesday incident that shows the suspect, 29-year-old Jorge A. Ibarra, Jr., surreptitiously taking photos up the skirts of women shopping at the Cypress store. Ismael Duarte was at the store with his wife and 15-year-old daughter when he says he noticed Ibarra following his daughter with his phone camera. Per the security footage, Duarte pushed Ibarra to the ground and kicked his phone from his hands. Duarte said he later chased Ibarra from the store and tackled him, then snapped photos as he fled in a vehicle, which later helped police identify him. "I'm pissed off that I didn't do more than I did. I wish I would have," Duarte told KTTV. "I'm so angry." Cypress police arrested Ibarra Wednesday. He was booked into the Orange County Jail on misdemeanor invasion of privacy charges. According to the police report, Ibarra had allegedly committed the same crime at another Target in Cerritos earlier that day. In a statement sent to KTTV, Target officials said: "The safety and security of our guests is very important ... We have no tolerance for this behavior in our stores ... We will help law enforcement in any way." Anyone with information about additional victims are asked to contact Detective Cassie Miller at (714) 229-6631. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. They covered their tracks, using software to camouflage their internet traffic. They created Facebook pages for anti-Trump culture warriors, Hispanic activists and fans of alternative medicine. And they organized protests in coordination with real-world political groups. The people behind an influence campaign ahead of this years elections, which Facebook disclosed on Tuesday, copied enough of the tactics used by Russians in the 2016 races to raise suspicion that Russia was at it again. But the new efforts also revealed signs of a maturing adversary, adapting and evolving to better disguise itself, while also better imitating real activists. The coordinated activity a collection of memes, photos and posts on issues like feminist empowerment, indigenous rights and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency show the enormity of the challenge ahead of Facebook, as it tries to weed out impersonators. As the forces behind the accounts become harder to detect, the company is left to separate the ordinary rants and raves of legitimate users from coordinated, possibly state-backed attempts to sway public opinion. This is not a one-time event limited to the 2016 election, said Michael Posner, director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York Universitys Stern School of Business, which recently published a report about Russian influence campaigns. Its a daily drumbeat. These are entities trying to disrupt our democratic process by pushing various forms of disinformation into the system. Facebook said it had shut down 32 accounts or pages that were collectively followed by 290,000 users. Many of the accounts had few followers, and the overall scope of the operation was smaller than the 2016 Russian campaign. The announcement from the company reinforced concerns in Washington that the federal government and social media companies would not be able to keep foreign actors out of this years election. Facebook said it found enough evidence to shut down the accounts, pull the pages and remove the events they organized. But it did not immediately say who was behind the campaign, or where it was based, even as some lawmakers immediately pointed the finger at Russia. In some ways, there were similarities with the earlier Russian efforts, including those by the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm that meddled in the 2016 election. Pages posted on Facebook were often written in broken English, for example. But there were significant differences, too. According to Facebook, the recently revealed operation used virtual private networks to obscure its location. It also used internet telephone services, and routed Facebook ad purchases through third parties. The content evolved, too, to better match the current debates in the United States. According to a report about past meddling released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, the IRAs most successful Facebook posts in 2016 focused on conventional conservative themes: posts supporting hard-line immigration policies tended to do well, as did posts denouncing gun control and Hillary Clinton. The new operation focused on issues like feminist empowerment, anti-racist activism and liberal outrage over the actions of ICE, according to information released by Facebook on Tuesday, and additional data it shared with the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab. Specific groups were targeted with narrow messages that would appeal to them, such as a wellness-focused page that posted a graphic about the dangers of genetically modified food. It shows a level of sophistication in retail politics, said Graham Brookie, director of the Digital Forensic Lab, which published a report about the material this week. The recent operation also appears to have been more focused on creating offline chaos, by setting up and promoting Facebook events, such as a counterprotest to a planned white nationalist rally that was co-hosted by one of the suspicious pages, which also had real groups behind it. The event attracted interest from more than 3,000 users. Theyre better integrated into groups and events, said Jonathan Albright, director of the Digital Forensics Initiative at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. The new groups goal, Albright said, appeared to be pushing real-life events and connecting the online and offline together in some type of activism that results in conflict. One of the biggest suspicious accounts disclosed by Facebook was Resisters, a page that appeared to be run by feminist activists. The pages description stated its mission: Online and offline feminist activism against fascism. Widespread public education and direct action, amplifying the voices from targeted communities. The Resisters page, created in March 2017, accumulated thousands of followers with a mix of posts about gender equality and other progressive ideals. Its most popular post was about an anti-rape device invented in South Africa, with the caption, What do you think about this? Many of the campaigns posts were similar in tone to ones found in 2016, when the IRA used issues like the Black Lives Matter movement to inflame racial tension. A page called Aztlan Warriors was set up in March 2017, a day before the Resisters page. Its description read We empower our gente, using the Spanish word for people. With a mixture of memes and photos, the page promoted the mistreatment of Native Americans and indigenous Hispanic people by white people. A typical post, made on June 28, showed a protester carrying a sign that read In 1492 Native Americans Discovered Columbus Lost at Sea. Another page created by the group, Ancestral Wisdom, posted an image of a dark-skinned girl with the caption, Black girls dont have to be mixed to be beautiful. Many of these posts were stolen from other websites and accounts. But they showed that influence campaigns have become increasingly adept at mimicking the tenor of social media activists of all stripes, and turning online outrage into real-world action. None of this is rocket science, exactly. Any Facebook user could tell you that outrage performs better than calm equanimity on social media, and that heated discussions of issues like womens rights and the persecution of indigenous people are pervasive on the American left. And experts have suggested that trolls may be trying to build a large and hyper-engaged audience, with the intent of weaponizing the account for more strategic purposes later on. The people behind the Facebook campaign may have tested more advanced techniques. Several of the pages that were taken down contained links to a Facebook Messenger account, suggesting that the influence operators may have used messages to connect with individual followers. A Facebook spokesman declined to comment on whether pages connected with the campaign used Facebook Messenger, citing the companys continuing investigation. A side effect of the disinformation campaigns is that they make social media as a whole seem inherently untrustworthy, and give fodder to those who want to cast doubt on the legitimacy of authentic movements. Already, some partisans have adopted the tactic of sowing doubt about internet-based movements by painting their opponents as Russian trolls or agents of a foreign-influence campaign. This type of suspicion appears likely to grow, as influence campaigns get harder and harder to distinguish from authentic activity. Facebooks rules do not forbid people from suggesting, as the new influence campaign did on its network of pages, that electromagnetic radiation from cell phones causes life-threatening illness, or that ICE should be abolished. The campaigns sin, in Facebooks eyes, was conducting inauthentic activity using fake accounts. Artificially stoked outrage is permissible, as long as you use your real name. In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Facebooks chief security officer, Alex Stamos who is leaving the company this month sounded a determined note, saying that Facebook would do everything in its power to sniff out fake accounts and coordinated influence campaigns. We should not assume that increased complexity in attributing actors means that were not going to be able to stop this activity, Stamos said. Posner of NYU said the disclosure of the new information operation should prompt all social media companies to take the threat of information warfare more seriously. He said the company should build teams of Russian-speaking analysts who are familiar with the methods employed by these groups, and specifically focus on threats originating from IRA-type campaigns. Theyre looking for ways to divide our society, he said. Theyre not limiting themselves to siding with one political candidate or another. Its a much deeper and more pernicious kind of activity. Kevin Roose is a New York Times writer. Atlantic Media owner David Bradley announced Friday that he will sell the anchor of his sprawling media empire the 160-year-old monthly magazine to Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs widow and one of the richest people in the world. Bradley, 64, announced the sale in a morning memo to his staff. He will initially retain a minority stake. I want to let you know that I am entering into a partnership with Emerson Collective, the business and philanthropic venture of Laurene Powell Jobs, Bradley said in the memo. For a time, Emerson Collective and I will own jointly, and then Emerson Collective alone, the Atlantic magazine, websites and affiliated businesses. Bradley said the sale would be a slow transition from his leadership to that of the new owners. The price was not disclosed. Laurene and I have settled on a plan that, as I approach 70, Emerson Collective will take full ownership of the Atlantic and she serve in my stead as leader of the enterprise, Bradley said. Atlantic Media is an amalgam of disparate businesses employing 730. It brings in around $135 million in revenue and is profitable. Bradley made his fortune by founding two companies, the Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board, which he took public and sold. It gave him hundreds of millions of dollars to pursue his journalism interests. In his memo, he said he began the search for possible owners a year ago, when he asked a small group of researchers to identify would-be successors. The list came to 600. He narrowed the list to the top 50 remarkable names. And, for me, he said, from the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list. Journalist Leon Wieseltier formerly of the New Republic first put me onto the possibility that Laurene might come to love the Atlantic as I have. Bradley and Jobs first met in Washington in January, where they discussed the possibility of her taking over. Jobs has a net worth of about $11.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. She inherited her husbands fortune. Apple founder Steve Jobs was one of the most respected names in business when he died of cancer in October 2011. Bradley and his wife, Katherine, are a big presence around Washington. They are also investors in Axios, the news company started by Washington journalists Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, as is Powell Jobs. The recent sale of his Watergate headquarters for $135 million to a Washington REIT may have been part of a succession plan. Atlantic has endured a rough road, largely because of the digital revolution. Bradley has said he has lost more than $100 million over the past decade. In addition to the magazine, which is one of the most respected publications in the world, Atlantic Media includes the National Journal, the Quartz online news site and an events business. The company includes a repertoire of profitable divisions under a revamped National Journal, once a must-read for the elite across the country. Bradley famously closed the print National Journal at the end of 2015 after years of trying to turn a profit. Thomas Heath is a Washington Post writer. An American woman was forcibly removed from a business-class seat on a Korean Air flight bound for San Francisco International Airport this week, according to various sources. A video of the incident has been posted on the Korea JoongAng Daily YouTube page. (Note: The original video, now disabled, was not pixelated, and was more dramatic because it showed facial expressions. But you can still get a good idea of the incident from the pixelated version.) Korean website AllKPop.com reports: "The woman, who originally booked an economy seat, sat down in the business class seating instead. The woman refused to move and caused a disturbance when the flight attendant told her, 'You have to sit in your designated seat.'" In the video, you can see the woman seated in the last row of business class in an aisle seat in which she reportedly upgraded herself to, then refused to move. A cadre of female security officers began the removal process as the video begins. She's chanting something about U.S. marshals, then dragged down the aisle, David Dao style, screaming that Korean Air has stolen her passport. It ends with the woman restrained in a wheelchair at the door of the plane for removal saying, "Meanwhile at SpaceX." In polite Korean fashion, the team that removed the woman from the plane offered her a blanket as she rolled away. Korean Air confirms that the incident occurred on its 8 p.m. departure from Seoul to SFO on July 27, resulting in a delay of about an hour and 40 minutes. (Korean Air flight 25; a Boeing 777) While an investigation is underway, Korean Air provided the following information to SFGate: -The passenger is a female US citizen and was assigned to seat 40D in economy class. She moved to seat 14B in business class. - Cabin crews and a purser tried to convince her to return her original seat, but she continued unruly behavior. - After discussion, crews and a captain decided to remove the passenger to avoid further delay and for the sake of the flight safety. Crews then contacted National Intelligence Service as well as Airport Police immediately. - The passenger ignored police officers' request and became violent during the deboarding process. - When the passenger checked in, she was accompanied by a staff from the US Embassy in Korea. - Korean Air has no clue about her behavior onboard, and expects more information when the investigation is completed. AllKpop.com reports that police transported the woman to a hospital to assess her mental health condition. My guess is that she, like others in similarly crazy inflight situations, will "blame the Ambien." More still images from the original video here. Did Korean Air do the right thing? What's your reaction to this video? Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis. WASHINGTON In negotiations over a possible interview by prosecutors, special counsel Robert Muellers team has offered the White House format changes, perhaps willing to limit some questions asked of President Trump or accept some answers in writing, according to a person briefed on the proposal. Talks between Trumps lawyers and the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election have restarted in recent days, and it is not clear a deal will be struck, according to the person, who spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations. Trump has publicly expressed a desire to be interviewed, but his lawyers have repeatedly objected to the investigators proposals. Trump attorneys say both sides have exchanged proposals for conditions for such a Trump interview. The negotiations come amid a backdrop of Trumps escalating attacks on the probe, including his blunt declaration that his attorney general should terminate right now the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just under way, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsels team White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trumps tweet Wednesday was not an order and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything. Its the presidents opinion, she said. But Trumps early morning tweetstorm again raised the specter that he could try to more directly bring special counsel Robert Muellers Russia-Trump election-collusion probe to a premature end. And it revived the idea that the presidents tweets themselves might be used as evidence that he is attempting to obstruct justice. Trump has raged privately in recent days that both the forces of government and the media are trying to undermine him. That includes trumped-up charges against his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and distorting the outcome of the Helsinki summit to make it appear he was beholden to Russia, according to two Republicans close to the White House not authorized to speak about private conversations. Trump was closely monitoring news coverage of the Manafort proceedings, which provoked the spate of incendiary tweets, according to the two Republicans and two White House officials. The presidents anger came the day after the start of the trial of Manafort, who is facing federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion. And while Mueller did not bring any election-related charges against Manafort, the specter of the Russian investigation is hanging over the Alexandria, Va., courthouse. And Trumps White House. Jonathan Lemire and Zeke Miller are Associated Press writers. The Sinner, USA Networks sleeper hit starring Jessica Biel as an amnesia-prone murderess and victim, was intended as a limited series when it premiered last summer. A psychological thriller wrapped in a murder mystery dipped in a detective drama, the show was a critical success, garnering top Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. The shows surprise success was followed by another surprise announcement of a season two. The series returned Wednesday, Aug. 1, with a new plot and a new lead, Carrie Coon. The Leftovers star plays enigmatic and menacing cult leader Vera Walker, a character whose intensity permeates every corner of this story. Returning is Bill Pullman, once again excellent as the dysfunctional and empathetic detective Harry Ambrose, a man whose rumpled emotional baggage has proliferated between seasons. In the first three episodes available for review, Season 2 continues to pull viewers in with a balance of talent and story. Included here is the same kind of dark intrigue and twisted storytelling that initially made The Sinner stand out among other lauded dramas like The Handmaids Tale and The Crown. Like its predecessor, season two of The Sinner kicks off with a deadly crime perpetrated by an unlikely suspect who has no discernible motive. The mystery here is not how he did it, but why. Middle-schooler Julian (Elisha Henig) poisoned and killed his parents at a roadside motel in the small town of Keller when the family stopped for the night on their way to Niagara Falls. Except they werent really on vacation, and they werent really his parents, and that licorice taste in their morning coffee wasnt a Starbucks flavor of the month. Keller detective Heather Novack (Natalie Paul) is in over her head on this one, so she requests the help of her fathers old friend, Detective Ambrose. The investigator, who grew up in the region, returns to help solve the puzzle. Dealing with the boy, however, causes Ambrose to face his own haunted inner child. Something bad happened way back when, and it probably explains why hes such a mess as an adult. His disturbing flashbacks curtains (or perhaps a nightgown) ablaze, bubbling oil, creeping shadows and the concern of childhood friends who know more than we do are early clues. Both seasons are produced by Biel and are rife with images of devout spirituality, or perhaps its blind faith. Biels character, Cora, was the product of a fanatical Catholic zealot who raised her to believe that even something as innocuous as eating a chocolate bar was a devilish indulgence that might result in the death of her sick sister. In Season 2, it appears that Vera is Julians mother and that shes brought him up to believe that his adherence to their faith (whatever it is) also has life-and-death implications for others. The result is two perpetrators, seasons apart, informed by the warped religious teachings of their guardians. Then again, this is The Sinner, a show with so many twists and turns that its hard to pin down any one characters background or motives until presented all the facts, during the finale, which is months from now. But if the first few episodes are any indication, this is another disturbing/thought-provoking mystery worth unraveling. Lorraine Ali is a Los Angeles Times writer. GRAHAM, N.C. Keith Sellars and his daughters were driving home from dinner at a Mexican restaurant last December when he was pulled over for running a red light. The officer ran a background check and came back with bad news for Sellars. There was a warrant out for his arrest. As his girls cried in the back seat, Sellars was handcuffed and taken to jail. His crime: Illegal voting. I didnt know, said Sellars, who spent the night in jail before his family paid his $2,500 bond. I thought I was practicing my right. Sellars, 44, is one of a dozen people in Alamance County in North Carolina who have been charged with voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election. All were on probation or parole for felony convictions, which in North Carolina and many other states disqualifies a person from voting. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison. While election experts and public officials across the country say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, local prosecutors and state officials in North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Idaho and other states have sought to send a tough message by filing criminal charges against the tiny fraction of people who are caught voting illegally. Thats the law, said Pat Nadolski, the Republican district attorney in Alamance County. You cant do it. If we have clear cases, were going to prosecute. The cases are rare compared with the tens of millions of votes cast in state and national elections. In 2017, at least 11 people nationwide were convicted of illegal voting because they were felons or noncitizens, according to a database of voting prosecutions compiled by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Others have been convicted of voting twice, filing false registrations or casting a ballot for a family member. The case against the 12 voters in Alamance County a patchwork of small towns about an hour west of the states booming Research Triangle is unusual for the sheer number of people charged at once. And because nine of the defendants are black, the case has touched a nerve in a state with a history of suppressing Africa American votes. Local civil-rights groups and black leaders have urged the district attorney to drop the prosecution, saying that black voters were being disproportionately punished for an unwitting mistake. African Americans in North Carolina are more likely to be disqualified from voting because of felony convictions; their rate of incarceration is more than four times that of white residents, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization. It smacks of Jim Crow, said Barrett Brown, head of the Alamance County NAACP. Referring to the district attorney, he added, I dont think he targeted black people. But if you cast that net, youre going to catch more African Americans. Nadolski said that race and ethnicity are not a factor in any case he prosecutes. The case has become part of a partisan war over voting rights before this Novembers midterm elections. At a rally Tuesday, President Donald Trump who has made baseless claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016 renewed his calls for laws requiring voters to show photo identification. Jack Healy is a New York Times writer. Patna, Aug 1 (IANS) Vulnerable communities in four South Asian countries across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region are hopeful and confident of fighting floods this monsoon, thanks to community-based flood early warning systems (CBFEWS). They have joined hands with an international organisation that set up CBFEWS in flood-prone Assam and Bihar in India, Mahotrati in Nepal, Baghlan in Afghanistan and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan. CBFEWS is part of an international drive to boost resilience and adaptation to climate change. It aims to save lives and support sustainable development by enabling the most vulnerable to benefit from effective early warning systems ahead of floods and flash floods. This is seen as a powerful and effective tool to reduce risks and to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities. At the onset of the monsoon this year, funds were raised to repair a community-based flood early warning system that had been damaged along the Ratu River near the Nepal-India border. The funds were raised by Yuganter, a local NGO, and community representatives led by the Mukhiya (village head) of Shrikhandi, Purnima Mishra. "We have come together as a community to take ahead an initiative to alert and warn us before flash floods," Purnima told IANS on the telephone. The system was repaired by Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Sustainable Eco Engineering (SEE), in partnership with Yuganter. "CBFEWS provides that extra time to the communities, which helps them prepare to save their lives and livelihoods. Timely preparedness is the key for a successful CBFEWS," Neera Shrestha Pradhan of the ICIMOD told IANS. She said communities are the first to both bear the brunt and respond to floods and flash floods. "However, we have rarely been able to provide early warning messages on time to the people who are most vulnerable." Pradhan, a water and adaptation specialist, explained how the system works. Its mechanics begin with a sensor rod that is calibrated in consultation with the local communities to the specific conditions of the landscape and river and installed in an upstream section of a flood-prone river. When water levels begin to rise during the monsoon, the sensor sends a message in the form of a light and a loud buzzing noise to a receiver located at the nearby house of a resident who has volunteered to be the system's local caretaker. "When the water is rising to dangerous levels, the caretaker calls or sends a text message to the numbers on a contact list of individuals downstream as well as the adjacent community and government institutions to inform them of the potential flood," said Pradhan. A CBFEWS provides at least four hours of lead time for vulnerable communities to respond to approaching floods. The systems, which rely on technology and human operators, have saved lives and property and established goodwill between upstream and downstream communities otherwise unknown to each other. During the 2017 monsoon floods, CBFEWS helped save 17 children along the Koshi River, in Nepal and India. ICIMOD provided flood monitoring devices and established CBFEWS with its partners. It will establish another CBFEWS in the Kabul river basin in Afghanistan and provide technical support to Oxfam Nepal to establish a CBFEWS in the Mahakali River basin of Nepal Till date ICIMOD, partners, and local governments have come together to save lives from flash floods by installing 11 such community-based flood early warning systems in nine tributaries of the Bramhaputra, Indus and Koshi rivers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. With climate change a reality now and the HKH region witnessing an increase in disaster-like extreme weather such as floods and flash floods, a community-based flood early warning system is the cheapest and easy way to adapt to the change. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus There will be a grand opening/ribbon cutting on Friday at 10 a.m. for the Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary is reopening as a regional tourism destination in Morgan County. The site will feature behind-the-wall tours, the Warden's Table Restaurant, End of the Line Tennessee Moonshine and Distillery, museum, gift shop, concerts and more. Brushy Mountain officially opened in 1896 and began operations as a convict-lease prison. The stone wall surrounding the prison was built in 1934. Standing at 18 feet high, it is constructed entirely from hand-carved stone. In 1969, Brushy Mountain was reclassified primarily as a maximum-security prison. One prisoner of notoriety was James Earl Ray, convicted in the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Flickr/Tom Albinson Oil, change and insecurity Tough time for women women face disproportionate risks in their engagements with extractive industries operations including: harassment, gender-based violence, HIV, and extreme levels of violence in resource-based conflicts. Legal and policy considerations The discovery of oil has indeed had major implications for communities in the area. But not all the changes have been positive.We have been conducting research in Turkana over the past four years with the aim of understanding how the extractive industry affects communities and triggers conflict. We have done interviews and had group discussions with key decision makers, civil society groups and community members.The research identified some key challenges. That women werent properly represented in decisions made between the oil company and community. And that they were particularly vulnerable to problems brought about by displacement, due to the oil extraction. Also, the extractive industry has brought a migration of workers, transformed the local economy from livestock-based to cash-based and blocks access to traditional grazing lands.This matters hugely for the welfare of all Turkana people, the fabric of Turkana society, and, ultimately, the security of the country.Some local people have benefited from the new opportunities. The oil company has brought a demand for manual labour, local raw materials and developed a small hospitality industry. It has also provided a few bursaries and classrooms. But many local people face economic exclusion, as well ongoing uncertainty over their land and livelihoods.The industry is set to expand in the coming years with the construction of a total of 25 wellpads areas cleared for a drilling rig which will need pipelines, roads, rail and a central processing facility.Despite this, the local community have no guarantee that they will benefit from the development of the oil sites. Current legal, policy and institutional frameworks are too weak to protect pastoralists and other indigenous rural communities from losing land to investment and developmenTurkana pastoralists have been showing their frustration by staging a number of demonstrations and have even put down some road blocks. There have been at least two large-scale demonstrations which resulted in the major destruction of property and disruption of the oil companys operations Turkana are well armed and there is a significant threat that the unrest could escalate into banditry and violence. Earlier research points to the importance of relative deprivation mixed with extraction commodities in causing turmoil a situation already witnessed in the notorious Niger Delta.But the impact of the extractive industry is felt particularly acutely by women.A report by the United Nations notes that There is gender bias at all stages of project activities. Limited by illiteracy, workloads, resources and position, women are even less involved than men in the initial stages of impact assessment and consultation by companies. Men are the biggest beneficiaries when it comes to salaried jobs and are usually more likely to be the ones compensated for any disturbances.Women also often lack the capacity to negotiate for better contractual deals and are sometimes subjected to sexual exploitation.In Lokichar, Turkana, local women have been employed by the oil company as community liaison officers or traffic marshals, while others are in camp and catering services. But some of these women are staying in camps for several weeks without going home, putting a strain on families. Another challenge is that theyre paid in cash which could lead to domestic conflict, given the patriarchal nature of the community.Women have turned to other sources of income. With new roads and migrant workers, the sex industry is growing. In times of drought in particular, adolescent girls are forced to help their families in this way. This has led to an inevitable rise in HIV/AIDS cases in Turkana towns like Lokichar and Lodwar, placing enormous burdens on poor families. And in a society which has polygamy, low condom use and high breastfeeding rates, HIV can easily spread to other family members.Finally, if the tensions continue to rise, conflict and displacement will make it more challenging for women to run and provide food for their households.In recent years, there have been major improvements to the legal and policy framework which deal with gender discrimination in Kenya. This includes the adoption of the 2010 Constitution which focuses on equality and protection from discrimination.But theres a gap in the law legislation relating to the extractive industry is not gender specific.This is a problem for the country as a whole. Gender equity in every sphere is critical to sustainable development as no society can develop economically, politically, or socially when half of its population is marginalised. As the Turkana case highlights, there must be investment in women and ensure their access to information and participation in decision-making, if the social fabric is to be preserved.Yunia Atieno, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and employee of Kituo Cha Sheria , contributed to the writing of this articleThis article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article Analysis of Zimbabwe's "online propaganda war" Fake news is on the upsurge as Zimbabwe geared up for its watershed elections on 30 July. Mobile internet and social media have become vehicles for spreading a mix of fake news, rumour, hatred, disinformation and misinformation. This has happened because there are no explicit official rules on the use of social media in an election. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump pushed his lawyers in recent days to try once again to reach an agreement with the special counsels office about him sitting for an interview, flouting their advice that he should not answer investigators questions, three people briefed on the matter said Wednesday. Trump has told advisers he is eager to meet with investigators to clear himself of wrongdoing, the people said. In effect, he believes he can convince the investigators for the special counsel, Robert Mueller, of his belief that their own inquiry is a witch hunt. Mueller, whose team has negotiated the parameters of an interview with Trumps lawyers for eight months, sent his latest proposal in a letter Tuesday night, the three people said. Investigators stood firm on the scope of and topics for their questions for Trump: possible coordination between his associates and Russias election interference and whether he tried to obstruct the investigation. They did shift slightly on format, agreeing to accept some written answers, including matters in which they want to preserve the ability to have Trump answer follow-ups in person. In doing so, they firmed up a previously expressed willingness to allow certain answers in writing. The presidents lawyers are unwilling to concede to follow-ups in person, citing concerns that Trump will increase his legal exposure, the people said. They have been prepared to tell Muellers office there will be no interview, risking a court fight over a subpoena that could drag into Novembers midterm elections, but Trump pushed them to continue negotiating. The lawyers are likely to counter Muellers proposal in the coming days, according to the three people. Were in the process of responding to their proposal, the presidents lead lawyer for the investigation, Rudy Giuliani, told reporters after an event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. The special counsels office declined to comment. The monthslong back and forth among the special counsels office, Trumps lawyers and the president himself demonstrates the significant obstacles that still stand in the way of an interview. Trump has put his lawyers in the vexing position of trying to follow the desires of their client while seeking to protect him from legal jeopardy at the same time. Trumps belief that an interview would bring the investigation to a swift end ignores several realities: that the investigation sprawls into areas well beyond his behavior; the possibility that Justice Department officials will hand over the results of the investigation to lawmakers to decide whether to proceed, thus prolonging the inquiry; and the lack of any public indication from the special counsel about how much work he has ahead of him. If Trump ultimately decides to refuse to voluntarily be interviewed, he could sustain some political damage as he would be forced to explain to the public why he cannot answer the special counsels questions if he did nothing wrong. Trump believes he needs a daily drumbeat of criticisms against the investigation to sway public opinion in his favor. His lawyers have told him he has no personal legal exposure and the only threat to him would be impeachment proceedings if the Democrats win control of the House in November. But Mueller remains interested in key areas that Trumps lawyers worry will prove problematic for him, particularly whether he obstructed justice when he fired James Comey as the FBI director. Comey has testified the president pressured him to drop an investigation into his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Legal experts and law enforcement officials who have worked with Mueller have said they believe he would pursue all available avenues to get Trump to answer questions about his conduct and try to determine his intent. Trumps lawyers, however, remain unconvinced that Mueller would risk losing a subpoena fight in court. For the past week, Trump has expressed frustration about the confluences of investigations that have dogged him. The president told his advisers that the Russia inquiry and a separate federal investigation in Manhattan into his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, have undermined him for too long and need to be brought to an end. The presidents concerns were reignited by both the start of the money fraud trial of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and the release last week of a recording on which he and Cohen are heard discussing hush money payments during the campaign to a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump. He denies the affair. On Wednesday morning, those frustrations burst into public view. Trump fired off a string of tweets, including a call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end Muellers investigation. This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, Trump wrote. He ignored the fact that Sessions has recused himself from the investigation, which is overseen by the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is not hiding his feelings about Trump administration plans to roll back fuel standard benchmarks over the objections of many Californians. "For 48 years - since one of my heroes, then-governor Ronald Reagan, requested it- California has had a waiver from the federal government to clean our own air. "If the President thinks he can win this fight, he's out of his mind," Schwarzenegger tweeted Thursday. The Trump administration is proposing to roll back Obama-era mileage standards that were designed to make cars more fuel efficient and reduce pollution. The administration also filed notice Thursday that it wants to revoke the authority of California and other states to set their own, stricter mileage standards independent of federal ones. The proposal would freeze an effort by the Obama administration intended to promote auto fuel efficiency and curb tailpipe emissions of climate-changing pollutants. Those rules were to take effect after 2020. More for you Gov. Brown blasts Trump, EPA on plans to roll back vehicle emission laws The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement that relaxing mileage standards in the years ahead would give "the American people greater access to safer, more affordable vehicles that are cleaner for the environment." The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the administration supports freezing the mileage standards after 2020, but would seek public comment now on that proposal and a range of others, including leaving the tighter, Obama administration fuel standards in place. Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, called the proposed rule "a massive pileup of bad ideas" that would increase pollution and raise fuel costs for consumers. He said in a statement that the organization would challenge the administration's action "in the court of public opinion and the court of law." Schwarzenegger tweeted, "I hope some conservatives with a conscience will act in Washington to defend California's waiver...But if not, I'd remind them that California has won this battle before. We will win again." California and 16 other states sued in the administration over the fuel efficiency standards in May, anticipating the new regulation. Governor Jerry Brown called the planned rollback an "assault on the health of Americans." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Despite broad research supporting the negative implications of long survey design in market research - order bias, respondent fatigue, interviewer bias and poor survey design is still very common in South Africa. Caitlin Noonan and Marguerite Steyn from Kantar discussed this in their research paper, "Win by design", at the recent Southern African Market Research Association Conference. Short is best - Keep your surveys to 15 minutes or less to avoid respondent fatigue and poor data quality. Rotate Remember to randomly or reverse rotate option lists. Think - Think carefully when to include Dont know or Neutral answer options. Engage Keep surveys engaging for respondents and use gamification techniques to make questions visually impactful and engaging to prevent respondent fatigue and low response rates. Less is more - Use fewer words to describe attributes, descriptions or market factors. Be concise with your question wording. Simple - Use clear and simple language to avoid confusing respondents, especially as English might not be the respondents home language. Honesty - If sensitive type questions or honest brand ratings are required, then mobile should be the preferred data collection tool, as this leads to more honest answers with the elimination of an interviewer. Limit - Limit screening questions to a minimum, as numerous screeners on a mobile survey could lead to fatigue, resulting in respondents dropping off before they even start with the main survey. Think small - Design surveys with a smallest screen device in mind, so the survey renders appropriately across all types of digital devices. Be considerate - Consider the type of person you want to complete the survey and show respect for their time, as we are fighting for a small piece of a persons attention. If the trend in long surveys continues, say Noonan and Steyn, surveys will eventually become obsolete, so a drastic change in design needs to happen to ensure that surveys remain relevant and provide guidance to answer marketers core questions and objectives.The market research industry is in a state of technological transformation where new tech tools are causing disruptions, and with the data collection pool broadening to mobile and online research, the need to become device and data agnostic is becoming more prevalent. Even more crucial is the need to design properly for mobile and online research.To really reveal key insights, they say surveys should be more concise and smartly designed, regardless of the data collection tool used. Noonan and Steyn evaluated mobile and face-to-face data to identify their top 10 tips to help reduce order bias, respondent fatigue and interviewer bias, while making the surveys engaging.The top 10 tips:By using these 10 guidelines when designing a survey, the results from their study prove that you will get better quality data, as it eliminates some of the negative human behavioural traits evident in respondents during interviewing. And improved data leads to valuable and actionable insights to guide business decisions and ultimately ensures the relevancy of surveys.Caitlin Noonan is a Consultant for the Mobile Practice for Kantars Insights Division in Sub-Saharan Africa.Marguerite Steyn is a Senior Research Executive at Kantar TNS. Amazon Inc. and 23 county district attorney's offices in California have resolved a consumer protection complaint alleging Amazon misleadingly labeled its plastic products as "biodegradable" or "compostable," Napa County prosecutors said today. Amazon agreed to pay $1,512,400 in civil penalties and investigative costs and agreed to pay CalRecycle $50,000 to test plastic products marketed to consumers as compostable or degradable, prosecutors said. The judgment prohibits Amazon from selling plastic products labeled compostable, degradable, biodegradable or decompostable without scientific proof that the products can be composted. Marketers seek to promote the sale of plastic products using misleading claims of biodegradability, and consumers are willing to pay a premium for products based on those claims, according to the district attorney's office. The ability of plastic to decompose depends on the environment in which it's placed, and plastics can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills. Biodegradable claims have been found by the state legislature to be inherently misleading, and California law bans the sale of plastics labeled biodegradable or similar language without disclaimers about how quickly they will biodegrade, prosecutors said. Plastic products labeled compostable also are prohibited from sale unless they meet certain standards to ensure they will break down in municipal compost. Compostable plastic products have an "ASTM D6400" certification. Napa County prosecutors said Amazon took immediate steps to stop sales of allegedly biodegradable plastic products and worked with prosecutors on the settlement. "Given the increased focus on reducing plastic waste, this judgment will help ensure that customers are not misled about which plastic products will actually break down in the landfill or compost," Napa County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Collins said. Alameda County was one of the 23 counties involved in the settlement and its district attorney, Nancy O'Malley, called the settlement "a win for environmentally conscious consumers and our environment." Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. San Francisco Fire Department crews are at the scene of a 1-alarm fire at 579 Ivy Street this morning, fire officials said. The blaze was first reported at 6:52 a.m. Residents are advised to avoid the area. No further information is immediately available. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BERKELEY (BCN) Five South Carolina men were charged today with kidnapping and second-degree robbery for allegedly abducting a 21-year-old man during a botched marijuana deal at a Berkeley motel on Saturday night and threatening to kill him unless they were paid $30,000 in ransom money. The five men were arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court this afternoon and are scheduled to return to court on Thursday to be assigned attorneys and possibly enter pleas. Authorities have identified the five South Carolina men as Jamikaco Tyrone Thompson, 27, of Greenville, Vacenta Rakey Rice, 27, of Fountain Inn, Antravious Marquis Evans, 19, of Fountain Inn, Racal Jamikaco Thompson, 24, of Greenville, and Rodquavious Mikeon Whitehurst, 20, of Greenville. Berkeley police Sgt. Frank Landrum wrote in a probable cause statement that the victim admitted that a friend had dropped him off at the Knights Inn Motel at 1512 University Ave. at Sacramento Street at about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and his plan was to sell one pound of marijuana to a buyer named "Chris" for $1,700. At about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday the victim met "Chris," who later was identified as Racal Thompson, in the motel's driveway and Thompson walked the victim into a room where the other four suspects were waiting, according to Landrum. The victim, who told police he feared that he would be killed, said Evans pointed a rifle at him and he was pushed onto the bed, had his hands tied together with rope and tape and was punched numerous times, Landrum wrote. The victim said the suspects told him that they expected to have more money than the amount he brought and demanded that they be brought nine pounds of marijuana and $30,000 in cash before he could be released, according to Landrum. The suspects then put a blanket-like cloth over the victim's head, placed him in a rented 2009 Toyota Highlander with Florida license plates and drove off, Landrum said. Berkeley patrol officers were able to get the cellphone number of one of the suspects and determined that the phone was in Patterson in Stanislaus County, about 68 miles from Berkeley, Landrum wrote. Berkeley police contacted Patterson police and around midnight on Saturday they were able to arrest the suspects and rescue the victim, according to Landrum. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found in the rental car's spare tire well along with a loaded magazine, Landrum said. The victim had a swollen eye and other visible injuries to his face, police said. Racal Thompson "admitted to many aspects of the crime" and said he and the other suspects decided to kidnap the victim when he didn't bring the right amount of marijuana, Landrum wrote. Thompson also admitted to owning the AR-15 rifle, he said. Whitehurst admitted that when he found out that the victim couldn't swim he threatened the man by saying he would drown him in the ocean, although Whitehurst said he didn't intend to carry out that threat, according to Landrum. Rice admitted that "the real reason that he and the group met the seller at the hotel was to steal the victim's marijuana," Landrum said. All five men are charged with kidnapping and second-degree robbery and Evans and Racal Thompson are also charged with possession of an assault weapon. Prosecutors say Racal Thompson was convicted on April 4 of a felony count of being an habitual traffic offender in South Carolina and Rice has previously been convicted of a felony count of manufacturing and possessing a scheduled substance in South Carolina. Authorities haven't disclosed why the five South Carolina men came to Berkeley. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. MILL VALLEY (BCN) San Rafael police arrested a Mill Valley man Wednesday on suspicion of stealing merchandise from four supermarkets and drug stores in Marin County. Two of the thefts occurred in San Rafael, one in Mill Valley and one in Strawberry between May 31 and early July. The stolen merchandise was valued at $17,000, San Rafael and Mill Valley police said. The Marin County Sheriff's Office and Mill Valley and San Rafael police departments investigated the thefts. The stolen merchandise in San Rafael were items that could be resold, including $2,000 of Nicorette gum, according to San Rafael police Sgt. Lisa Holton. Mill Valley police Lt. Lindsay Haynes said $5,000 of household and personal items were taken from a Safeway store in Mill Valley. Police served a search warrant Wednesday at a residence on Meadow Drive in Mill Valley and arrested 27-year-old Hank Alexander Mulholland. He was booked in Marin County Jail on suspicion of two counts of burglary and one count of grand theft. A quantity of suspected fentanyl was found in the Meadow Drive residence, Mill Valley police said, and officers and detectives put on protective equipment to prevent accidental exposure to the drug that is lethal even in minute doses. Mill Valley police also found that a portion of the residence was being used as a child day care service, "Cozy Kid Care," without the knowledge, approval or proper permits of the city of Mill Valley. Police contacted the California Department of Social Services and the Mill Valley code enforcement department, which led to the immediate closure of the business. Mulholland was not running or in charge of the day care service that is now under investigation, Haynes said. The owner of Cozy Kid Care, Mulholland's mother Betsy Mulholland, said this afternoon she has had a state license for the day care center for 30 years, and was unaware she needed a city license. She said she applied for a city license Wednesday. She also said she had no idea about the alleged thefts, and her son was not living with her during the time they allegedly occurred. Mulholland said her son was living in San Francisco and working as a restaurant server until April. He moved into her home about two and a half weeks ago, and he planned to move to Seattle, Mulholland said. She said her son was living in a back room of her house, and the day care center is located in the front of the residence. "There were no drugs in the house. They were found in a car down the street," Mulholland said. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BERKELEY (BCN) A 22-year-old unemployed ex-con who was recently convicted of felony assault has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing another man at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park near Berkeley City Hall on Sunday evening. Kendall Joe Yazzie, of Berkeley, who is being held without bail, was arraigned on the attempted murder charge on Tuesday and is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 10 to enter a plea. Berkeley police Officer Aaron Gasper wrote in a probable cause statement that officers who responded to reports of a stabbing at the park at 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at about 6:50 p.m. Sunday found the victim nearby close to the back steps of City Hall at 2180 Milvia St. The victim had multiple stab wounds to his chest, a laceration on his right arm and one stab wound on his face, according to Gasper. Witnesses flagged down officers and directed them toward Yazzie, who they found nearby at Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Gasper wrote. Two witnesses identified Yazzie as the person who attacked and stabbed the victim, Gasper wrote. Officers later found the knife that Yazzie allegedly used on the roof of a building on the southeast corner of the park's parking lot. Investigators believe he threw it there, according to Gasper. Prosecutors allege that Yazzie was on felony probation at the time of the stabbing because he was convicted of felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury only two months earlier, on May 31. At a hearing on June 26, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Northridge elected not to sentence Yazzie to state prison, even though he had multiple prior convictions for misdemeanor offenses, and instead placed him on three years' probation. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Mike Joubert, founder of the Billybo group - not to be confused with Australian surf apparel brand Billabong - spoke on the first day of CEM Africa about the link between the core emotional connection created by great storytelling, which in turn builds relevance and authenticity to the emotional drivers in the customer journey. The reality of doing business in a pull economy People dont consume advertising, but rather what informs, educates, educates and empowers them. Life is tough; wouldnt it be sad if we didnt believe the message we convey could break through and give that spark of hope? Deliver the message as a story. A formula for smarter storytelling Get someone good at storytelling on your team, even as a freelancer. The story must have heart and relevance from proper insights. Do your best to personalise it as much as you can, as everything lives on our cellphones - the most personal medium. Hardwire the analytics into the content so it can be measured. Before getting stuck in all the jargon, don't forget to look in the mirror and ask yourself how you would talk about your brand at a social event. Read more Joubert certainly knows his stuff and has a way of sharing stories himself that make you wish you were really huddled around a campfire with him, mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows at hand with an endless, night-dreamy sky above.MC Leeanda Reddy herself said in introducing Joubert that he inspires her to "...wear those ripped jeans and drink that brandy. Never stop learning and you will own the market." Nuff said.On the topic of emotional storytelling, which Joubert admits is an overused concept in marketing today, he said the relevance to customer experience or CX lies in the emotions you evoke in telling those stories.But not one to flog a dead horse, Joubert had looked through the list of attendees as was satisfied that we already understand the basics.So instead of trying to convince us of the power of storytelling, he instead aimed to inspire us to be great at emotional storytelling, having himself stood in the shadows of marketing storytellers for decades, with reams of tales to share.First up was an example of just 60 seconds in the art of telling good stories, through the Guinness 'here's to waiting' video.Joubert said, "Not too shabby for a product born in 1759 in Dublin." He explained that over the course of both world wars, Guinness had been advertised as a drink that was good for you; it was 'healthy for men who worked too hard'.Fast forward to 2009 when this short film was created, and today's woke consumers may well ask, "What does it have to do with drinking a Guinness?" To which Joubert responds it's actually everything about how people consume brands.Just think of shopping behaviour, which is the research and interest evoked before you visit the store, as opposed to purchasing behaviour, which is when youre in that transaction space.Joubert says the emotion required for both is different, but the underlying theme is the same - you need to feel good to make that purchase, hence the importance ofNext, Joubert shared examples of brands on social media. Two recent posts by the big four banks explained their support of local sport and the reasoning for their rebrand. But customers don't comment in that.Instead, they share their poor experience with the brands for all to see. The nub of this story is that brands dont go out of their way to upset consumers, it's more the case that consumers expect more today from brands than ever before.That's why Joubert says to put yourself in your target audience's shoes. It starts with you, so test those big, 'brave' ideas on yourself first.We used to do business in a push economy, but today, its all about the pull. And that pull economy started with the first ever televised piece of advertising content for Bulova, which simply stated: "America runs on Bulova time."The ad itself took just ten seconds, and the rest is history.Honing in on the fact that we now live in a pull economy, Joubert said the knowledge economy is undoubtedly the biggest economy in the world.We use Google and Wikipedia to hunt down information, even with fake news constantly looming on the horizon, but Joubert says not to underestimate how intelligent we all are in navigating fake news.The end result of this?With the ever-shortening attention span and rise of attention spam, we need to make sure our spheres of intelligence includes people who challenge us to be our most creative, as we have just eight seconds to make that convincing and compelling argument before we lose those consumers to the next flashing screen.As a caveat, Joubert pointed out that consumers "dont speak boardroom," so we need to change the way we make those arguments.Joubert showed a clip of the ultimate 'Mad Man' Don Draper, who said advertising is all about the new, in creating a product to soothe the itch of a problem, but not to discount the potency of nostalgia in your storytelling, because when we watch something on screen, we tend to put ourselves in the characters shoes.Joubert said to show not tell, as consumers' intelligence is vastly underrated.For example...In conclusion, Joubert said not to focus on 'millennials' as they're simply the young people of today, looking to be entertained SAN JOSE (BCN) A 46-year-old Oceanside man was arrested for allegedly robbing a bank in downtown San Jose on Wednesday, police said. Brian Edward Austin was arrested in connection with a robbery happened at 12:45 p.m. in a City National Bank at 1 Almaden Blvd. Police said the suspect demanded money and handed a note to the teller claiming he had a gun. No one saw the suspect with a weapon, and the man then fled the bank with the stolen money, according to police. Police helicopter crews responded to reports that the suspect was near the Mineta San Jose International Airport and located his car. Police saw the suspect park in Terminal B, get out of the car and change his clothes. The suspect then boarded an airport shuttle bus, according to police. He was arrested when he exited the shuttle bus at Terminal A. Austin was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of robbery. Police did not confirm whether Austin had a weapon, but said he may have been involved in bank robberies in other cities. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jason Park at (408) 277-4166. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. SAN RAFAEL (BCN) San Rafael police arrested a man on Tuesday on suspicion of vandalism at nine businesses throughout the city. The suspect used spray paint to tag the businesses from the Miracle Mile to Loch Lomond. The vandalism damage is estimated at more than $6,500, Sgt. Lisa Holton said. Officers located video that captured the suspect committing the vandalism and a vehicle with which he was associated, Holton said. Police identified the vehicle's registered owner and located the suspect. Timothy Goetze, 20, of San Rafael was positively identified as the suspect, Holton said. Goetze was booked in the Marin County Jail for vandalism exceeding $400. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Residents are being evacuated tonight from the area around the 1200 block of Eighth Street in Monterey because police found more possible explosive devices after serving a search warrant there. The evacuations were underway as of 9:40 p.m. Earlier today, officers found a possible explosive device on the same block and found it to be safe. Police said a bomb squad and firefighters have been called to respond tonight and the area is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. AMERICAN CANYON (BCN) The Napa Special Investigations Bureau has arrested two East Bay men on suspicion of possession of heroin for sale. The bureau alleged someone was offering black tar heroin for sale on craigslist during the week of July 26, and an undercover detective began negotiating a purchase of the drug in American Canyon. The dealer agreed to meet in a parking lot in the 7000 block of Main Street in American Canyon and said he would arrive in a silver Audi, bureau officials said. According to the bureau, the Audi with three occupants arrived and parked next to the undercover detective's car, and detectives detained the occupants without incident. Detectives searched the occupants and vehicle and found heroin, a digital scale and additional evidence of sales, according to bureau officials. Deion Gilman, 27, of Oakland and Nathan Jones, 29, of Concord were arrested on suspicion of drug possession and transportation and conspiracy. They were booked in the Napa County Jail but a judge released them on their own recognizance, the NSIB said. The Audi driver was not arrested, but the investigation into his role will be sent to the Napa County District Attorney's Office to determine if he will be charged with heroin possession. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. BCN18) SAN FRANCISCO (BCN A federal appeals court today upheld an injunction protecting San Francisco and Santa Clara County from a presidential executive order that threatened to withhold federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said by a 2-1 vote that the 2017 order by President Donald Trump was unconstitutional because it intruded on Congress's power to determine federal spending. Chief Circuit Judge Sidney Thomas wrote, "The United States Constitution exclusively grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the president.... "There is no reasonable argument that the president has not exceeded his authority," the court majority said. Trump issued the order on Jan. 25, 2017, five days after his inauguration. It said that cities and counties that allegedly illegally shield undocumented immigrants were not eligible for federal funding. The court upheld the reasoning of an injunction issued last year by U.S. District Judge William Orrick in lawsuits filed by San Francisco and Santa Clara County. But the panel said it was affirming the injunction only as applied to the two local governments. It said more evidence was needed as to whether a nationwide injunction was justified, and sent the case back to Orrick's court for further proceedings. Orrick had issued a nationwide order, in a preliminary injunction in April 2017 and a permanent injunction in November. The use of nationwide injunctions by district judges was challenged by the Trump administration in the sanctuary cities case as well as in several other cases concerning opposition to presidential orders. The appeals court majority said nationwide injunctions are sometimes justified. As an example, it specifically cited the circuit court's own rulings upholding nationwide injunctions issued in lawsuits by Hawaii and Washington state challenging various versions of Trump's travel ban on visitors from certain Muslim-majority countries. Ultimately, the third revised version of the travel ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in June. Thomas wrote, "We are unpersuaded by the administration's arguments in favor of a blanket restriction on all nationwide injunctions." But he said more evidence was needed on whether a broad order was justified in the sanctuary cities case. Circuit Judge Ferdinand Fernandez said in a dissent that he believed the executive order should be upheld because it contained a qualifying clause directing implementation "to the extent consistent with law." U.S. Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley declined to comment on whether the government will appeal. The decision could be appealed to an expanded 9th Circuit panel or to the Supreme Court. But O'Malley called today's ruling "a victory for criminal aliens in California, who can continue to commit crimes knowing that the state's leadership will protect them from federal immigration officers whose job it is to hold them accountable and remove them from the country." The Justice Department continues to maintain that Trump "exercised his lawful authority when he issued the sanctuary city executive order," O'Malley said. O'Malley praised the part of the decision that set aside the nationwide scope of the injunction for the time being. "When courts issue nationwide injunctions and order relief beyond the scope of a particular lawsuit, they overstep their role and improperly limit the government from functioning," he said. The decision was lauded in statements by San Francisco, Santa Clara County and Oakland officials. Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said, "The 9th Circuit decision is a victory for the separation of powers principles at the core of our nation's Constitution. "Put simply: the president cannot use the threat of defunding as weapon to force local governments to abandon policies that make their communities safer," Williams said. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, "When a president overreaches and tries to assert authority he doesn't have under the Constitution, there needs to be a check on that power grab. The courts did that today." Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who was criticized by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for announcing an impending federal immigration sweep in February, said, "Once again, the courts have intervened to stop President Trump's overreach. "Oakland, and all sanctuary cities, have a constitutional right to exist free from punishment by the federal government. Sanctuary cities are safer cities," Schaaf said. The local governments contend they are not violating any federal laws, but shouldn't be required to use their resources to enforce federal measures. They also say their communities are safer when undocumented immigrants feel free to report crimes. According to the ruling, about $1.2 billion of San Francisco's annual budget of $9.6 billion is federal funds, and Santa Clara received $1.7 billion, about 35 percent of its budget, in the 2015-16 fiscal year. Copyright 2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Online food delivery service, Mr D Food, reached one million app downloads last week. Rapid growth in online delivery expected Mobile App Market Share Graph (Android App Daily Active Users) Source: SimilarWeb click to enlarge With an increasing number of consumers ordering their food online for delivery, Mr D Food reports to having processed over R500 million in orders through its mobile app in the last 12 months.Mr D Food in numbers:- The Mr D Food app has now been downloaded over 1 million times;- Over 335,000 orders are delivered monthly;- Order growth of 210% per year;- 270,000 active users per month on the app;- 2.6 deliveries per customer per month.The online food delivery space is highly competitive all over the world and South Africa is no different.Market share information indicates that Naspers-backed Mr D Food and Uber Eats account for nearly 90% of the South African market.Observations from other countries show that customer retention and loyalty metrics for market leaders operating at scale are excellent, and that customer frequency of the leaders increases over time.Food delivery in South Africa is still underpenetrated and growing rapidly, as is the case in many markets across the globe," Naspers Ventures CEO, Larry Illg said."We believe the potential for online food delivery businesses could be even greater in high-growth markets like South Africa, versus what has been observed in the West, he added.Naspers has invested more than $1.5 billion (R20 bn) over the past 18 months into online food delivery, by investing in companies with leading businesses in 40 countries around the world. This includes Delivery Hero, an online food ordering and delivery platform in 36 countries; iFood, a food delivery business in Brazil and Mexico; and Swiggy, a food delivery business in India.Were proud to have grown Mr D Food from the legacy phone ordering business to the leading online food ordering and delivery service in South Africa. We were able to successfully build the business by always putting our customers first, with the continued backing of a globally-reputed food delivery investor, Naspers, said Devin Sinclair, Mr D Food CEO.Mr D Food services the majority of South Africas major cities and secondary towns, delivering to over 1,900 suburbs. DUO Marketing + Communications launches new Advisory Services Division to help tech companies optimise the gap between marketing activities and return on investment from their spend. What marketing elements to prioritise to support your business objectives effectively. What to prioritise on a small budget. How to measure the impact of your investment and who to hold accountable at critical milestones. What critical elements are required to elevate your brand effectively. What tools, platforms and messaging to use to truly differentiate from your competitors. Timing; when is the best time to launch a product or solution. Reporting to the board and shareholders such that they understand the value of your marketing investment. Over the last 15 years, DUO, a niche tech PR and Digital marketing agency, has expanded its services offering, aiming at each point, to deliver value and exceptional results for its existing customers.It is this commitment to progress and a strong desire to prove the return on investment from marketing budgets that has led to the creation of our Advisory Services, says Judith Middleton, founder and lead advisor at DUO.Middleton, who has recently completed a course at Harvard Business School Executive Education on Scaling Entrepreneurial Businesses alongside 66 other global entrepreneurs believes that there is a critical role for a service of this nature.The DUO Advisory Services team will pressure test aspects of the business, analysing the solution, the fundamental operations of the business strategy, leverage past experiences and determine how to successfully take products or services to market.Our Advisory Services pricing will be outcomes-based, much like our PR and digital marketing pricing model. The services will initially include product- market testing, roadmap conceptualisation, sales and marketing strategy development, and a go-to-market action plan creation for businesses. Other solutions include:Margaret OConnor, Adventure CapitalistThe Centre for Disruptive TechnologiesJudith Middleton will lead a team of advisors to provide commercially orientated consulting to tech companies wanting advice on best practice, tools and methodologies.To find out about the DUO Advisory Services click here Judith is the founder of DUO Marketing + Communications, a South African PR and digital agency servicing the B2B tech industry, which has expanded into Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya to support the growing tech boom into Africa. She has extensive experience in strategic marketing, media and business development.Formerly the Marketing Director for the Cape Information Technology Initiative (CITI) and member of the founding team that conceptualised and built Cape Towns first tech incubator, Bandwidth Barn, she subsequently became a Director of CITI and Calling the Cape (now BPeSA), as well as a member of the Board of Advisors to the Cape Manufacturing Advisory Committee.In 2017 she attended a course at Harvard Business School on Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures alongside 66 other global entrepreneurs. Judith is also a proud mentor to the Global Endeavor Community in South Africa; an advisor to Wyzetalk and an investor in a few budding rockstars. From township entrepreneurs to corporate leaders, this Women's Month, the UCT Graduate School of Business will be hosting several prominent events focussed on empowering and promoting women in business at all levels in the economy. In tough economic times, gender diversity could make the difference between success and failure, says Dr Linda Ronnie, Associate Professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB).Gender diversity has been linked with creativity as well as increases in productivity and the bottom line. It helps organisations maintain a competitive edge, she says. Its puzzling therefore that only 29% of senior roles in South Africa are held by women.Dr Ronnie, a long time champion of women empowerment, is one of several individuals at the GSB who are committed to advancing women in business. And this Womens Month, the school is dialling up its efforts, hosting several events to support women at all levels in the economy.First off, the GSB Solution Space in Philippi will host women leaders and entrepreneurs working in the surrounding communities of Philippi, Nyanga, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, along with GSB students, alumni and the schools broader network, for a Learning Lunch on 8 August.Ndileka Zantsi, Solution Space-Philippi Programme Coordinator, comments that it is a fitting event to kickstart the GSBs Womens Month activities, because it speaks to the schools ambition to spark transformative impact.Established two years ago, the GSB Solution Space is the first official university site in a township community. It offers students and stakeholders a place to meet and engage beyond the traditional spaces of the university.The vision of the GSB Solution Space in Philippi is to be a catalyst in enabling an ecosystem for inclusive development across sectors, to be a bridge across the divides in our country, so it is appropriate that we kick off womens month with this focus on the empowerment of women working on the margins of the economy, who have a great deal to offer in terms of creativity, innovation and unique insights, says Zantsi.Dr Judy Dlamini, founder of the Mbekani Group, will be sharing insights from her recent book on female leadership, Equal but Different and, as part of the event, two scholarships for the GSBs Developing Women in Leadership programme, running at the school in August, will be awarded.The GSB has always led change in African business and was one of the first business schools in the country to launch a leadership development programme targeted exclusively at women - more than a decade ago. Today it has two short courses catering for women at various stages in their career: the Executive Women in Leadership Programme; and the Developing Women in Leadership Programme.These courses are transformative, and seek to give women the tools to build confidence, develop a leadership presence, and build relationships to help them better manage their various roles and responsibilities, says Kumeshnee West, Director of Executive Education at the GSB.We are thrilled to offer two women from the community of Philippi and surrounds a chance to join us on this years programme. Not just because we believe we have things to share with them but because their presence will add immeasurable value to the class as a whole in terms of facilitating rich and authentic discussions and that give birth to new ideas and identities, she says.Other GSB events planned for Womens Month include the Prominent Womens Speaker Series in Johannesburg on 14 August and a discussion in Cape Town on 22 August headlined Womens Perspective: Business Disruption and the 4th Industrial Revolution, where GSB alumni will share their experiences.A highlight of the month is the annual, student-led Women in Business Conference on 17 August. All profits from this event are channelled towards a scholarship for a woman to study at the GSB.High-level speakers including Professor Shirley Zinn, former Group Head of Human Resources at Woolworths, Mimi Kalinda, Co-founder and MD of Africommunications Group, Makoma Lekalakala, Director of Earthlife Africa, Dr Gaby Prinsloo and Naadiya Moosajee, Co-founder of WomEng, will address the theme: From passion to action: Changing the world we live in.Newly inaugurated UCT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, will also be speaking at the conference.We believe it is symbolic that UCTs new Vice-Chancellor a woman at the top of her game - will be joining us at this special event, comments West.Womens Month provides us with an opportunity to celebrate the success of women but also to hold each other accountable to push for more women in top roles throughout the economy so that we can break through the 29% mark, says West. And while we know that there are many systemic issues to change, there is also much that we can change at a personal and interpersonal level to accelerate this shift.As Dr Makgathi Mokwena, a therapist and leadership development expert who co-convenes the Developing Women in Leadership programme at the UCT GSB, says, it is important that women dont feel they need to wait until the system changes before they can advance.We dont need to settle for being on the receiving end of a system that doesnt serve us well. We need to advocate for change, take steps to develop our skills and support each other. We need to be the change we want to see in the workplace. After months of collecting the stories of South African women at the forefront of some of the biggest impacts in the science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) sector, the #InspiringFiftySA winners have been announced. The winners are... NAME TITLE Alysia Silberg founder at Global FiresideChat and general partner at Street Global Venture Capital Anita Nel senior director at Innovation of Stellenbosch University and CEO of Innovus Annu Augustine founder at NedRock and product management consultant Anri van der Spuy manager at Africa Digital Policy Project Anujah Bosman CEO at Chillisoft Solution Services (Pty) Ltd Benedicta Mahlangu-Durcan executive at Ease of Doing Business and co-founder and CEO of Afrobodies Pty Ltd Dr. Denisha Jairam-Owthar ICT manager at Projects, Governance & Assets Dr. Fanelwa Ngece Ajayi founder at AmaQawe Ngemfundo Dr. Imogen Wright chief scientific officer at Hyrax Biosciences Dr. Rethabile Mashale Sonibare director and founder at Molo Mhlaba School for Girls & Thope Foundation Genevieve Mannel head of BI and EKM at TFG (The Foschini Group) Heloise Greeff co-inventor and machine learning engineer at Oxford Smart Handpump Kholeka Tsotsotso CIO at Development Bank of South Africa Kiara Nirghin student at Stanford University Laura Ilunga helicopter and airplane pilot at Starlite Aviation Operations and Crew Resources International Leah Molatseli founder and MD at Lenoma Legal Lebo Mokgabudi managing director at EagleQuest Africa Lehlogonolo Moseri founding director at Mosa Environmental Consulting and Educate-A-Girl Foundation Lerato Motsamai founder and CEO at Petrolink and Girlignite Africa Academy Lesley Donna Williams CEO at Tshimologong Precinct Lianne du Toit business director at YPO, CareDirect, Future Females Lorraine steyn director at Khanyisa real systems Lungile Maile founder and managing director at Nubian Smarts Mamokgethi Phakeng vice chancellor at University of Cape Town Marilyn Radebe CEO at Soma Solutions Maureen Ann Grosvenor director and head of custom applications at Appsolve Mmabatho Mokiti founder and CEO at Mathemaniacs Nadia Karrim ENT/Head and Neck Surgical Registrar; South African National Point of Contact at Department of Health; Space Generation Advisory Council Nandi Zama commander pilot at South African Air Force Noletu Moti chief inspector: Nuclear Power Plant at National Nuclear Regulator Nomsa Nteleko managing director at OS Holdings (Pty) Ltd Palesa Sibeko commercialisation young professional and MSc Astrophysics student at South African Radio Astronomy Observatory/University of the Western Cape Pam Mkhize head of sub-Saharan Africa Digital Satellite at Enel Phuti Ragophala Microsoft Innovative educator trainer at Phuti Training and motivational speaking Professor Keolebogile Shirley Motaung assistant dean: Research and Entrepreneur at Tshwane University of Technology/Global Health Biotech (PTY) LTD Professor Glenda Gray president and CEO at South African Medical Research Council Refilwe Ledwaba founder and executive director at Women and Aviation/Girls fly programme in Africa Ridhwana Khan co-founder of Zero One Bespoke Software Development at Zero One Bespoke Software Development, Kasi Maths, Women in Tech JHB, Ladies that UX JHB Rivonia Pillay water Engineer at department of Water and Sanitation Samantha N. Ngcolomba founder and manager at Lady Liberty SA Sandiso Sibisi Open Innovation Africa Africa manager at Accenture Shana Derman CEO and co-founder at IntelliCred Sonya Kuhnel managing director at Blockchain Academy Sorene Assefa founder and managing director at Cyber Czar (Pty) Ltd Veronica Motloutsi chief executive and founder at SmartDigital Solution Yolisa Skwintshi head of technology at Absa Bank Zandile Keebine chairperson at GirlCode Zarina Ebrahim managing director and founder at Nebula Designs Zimkhita Buwa chief operating officer at Britehouse Zinhle Mpungose managing director at Digi Change Guru Bonnie Horbach, consul general for the Netherlands, exclaimed, The judges had a hard time selecting the final fifty based on the high calibre of the nominees. These groundbreaking women will not only be recognised in South Africa but will form part of a global network of women. Imagine the possibilities when connecting women through this platform to: be recognised in their respective fields, share their stories and make a difference by inspiring tomorrows female leaders.This year marks the second edition of the global initiative, in collaboration with #cocreateSA, which welcomed 276 nominees at the closing of the nomination period on 9 July 2018.In order to have met the criteria, the nominee had to be a founder of a technology company; or hold a position in a C-Level position in a technology company; or be an influencer, academic or politician in the technology or innovation space.As we honour the winners of Inspiring Fifty for 2018, I think it would be opportune also to honour the woman who upon learning of this campaign, not only brought it to us but also championed it in South Africa! Bonnie Horbach leaves a country filled with gratitude, she leaves a sisterhood of women who are not only affirmed but are able to affirm one another, secure in their excellence and secure that recognising others does not dim their own light! said Carol Bouwer, Inspiring Fifty 2018 judge, businesswoman and UNICEF SA Advocate for Women and Children.I hope in 50 years to come we celebrate this campaign as a relic of the past because women will have attained the kind of equality and respect that makes recognition organic! We will miss you Bonnie but thank you for your light- heres to our Fifty Inspiring women and the generations of women who draw inspiration from them, said Bouwer.These fifty women will go on to inspire and encourage both young girls and boys in this country and showcase the opportunities that they may not have realised were available to them. It is an exciting time for women in STEM in South Africa, concluded Horbach. Vega, a brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), will host its next open day on Saturday, 4 August 2018. Vega invites learners, parents and working professionals to attend its next open day for the year, taking place at Vega campuses nationwide on Saturday, 4 August 2018. The open day will give prospective students and their parents an overview of what campus life is all about, as well as valuable insight into the many higher education qualifications available to study at Vega.Open days at Vega are structured to make it easier for parents and students to meet with lecturers, principals and current students to ask questions and get a feel for the Vega way of life.Vega is a learning environment quite unlike any other in South Africa. We pride ourselves in providing students with challenges that allow them to showcase their acumen, creativity and ingenuity on engaging real-world campaigns, such as our famous annual Vega Brand Challenge, says Nicky Stanley, National Marketing Manager at Vega School.These open days allow prospective students to experience first-hand what our campuses have to offer, while providing context into the various IIE qualifications available to study at Vega, and allowing them to engage with lecturers at Vega on a one-on-one basis.Popular afternoon drive radio hosts Greg & Lucky from 947 will be visiting the Vega Johannesburg campus on Saturday. For anyone interested in this and any other upcoming Vega events, like Vega School on Facebook or visit their website 4 August 201809:00am - 13:00pmVega Campuses nationwideFreeVega is an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE). The IIE is South Africas leading and largest private higher education institution and is internationally accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC).Vegas teaching philosophy is built on the mantra of wisdommagic, creating an academic environment that is based on experiential learning where creatives are trained in strategy and strategists in design-thinking. As South Africas only brand-focused school, Vega aims to inspire a new breed of thinkers with the expertise to generate meaningful brand ideas that link business profit to adding value to peoples lives.The IIE Vega students graduate at a work-ready level, with 95% of 2016 graduates employed within six months of completing their qualification. Vega was also ranked first in the national Loerie Awards Top Educational Institutions in 2017, maintaining its reputation as a leader in the South African higher education arena.Students can enrol for IIE undergraduate and post graduate degrees, diplomas, higher certificates and short courses in design, brand communication and brand management, at The IIE Vega campuses across South Africa. During fiscal year 2017, the DEO Clinic a not-for-profit 501(C)3, was able to provide With nearly 14 years of service to the community, the DEO Clinic originally began as an 1,378 patient visits through the combined efforts of approximately 64 medical and non-medical volunteers.outreach program of St. Marks Episcopal Church in Dalton in the fall of 2005. In 2012 the clinic became an independent non-profit corporation in Georgia. For additional information about the DEO Clinic, visit www.deoclinic.org or call 706 581-2009. Anga Makubalo steps up as Soviet Denim's male brand ambassador Soviet Denim has appointed artist and actor Anga Makubalo - also known as NaakMusiQ - as its male brand ambassador. Managing executive at Soviet Denim, Caroline Hardman, says that the brand has identified a gap in the market when marketing to its male consumer, hence the appointment of Makubalo. The identified gap is the connection between music and the brand's target market due to the country's passion for dance and music. SINGAPORE Chinas top diplomat said Thursday that an initial draft of a proposed pact with Southeast Asia aimed at preventing fighting in the disputed South China Sea was a breakthrough, and that talks can accelerate without outside interference. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes four rival claimants to territories in the sea, have been holding sporadic talks for years on a code of conduct, a set of regional norms and rules aimed at preventing a shooting war in the disputed waters. Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan announced at the start of an annual meeting of top diplomats from China and the 10-nation bloc that both sides have agreed on an initial draft that will be the basis of future negotiations. He called the development a milestone. This is a breakthrough for the COC (code of conduct) negotiation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the ASEAN ministers At a news conference, Wang later said: We believe that without any disturbances from the outside, COC (code of conduct) consultations will accelerate. Wang did not elaborate, but in the past, China has accused Washington of meddling in what it calls an Asian dispute. The U.S. has deployed ships and jets to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight. It has often raised alarm over Chinas assertive actions, including its construction of islands where it has placed weapons including surface-to-air missiles. Despite the draft pact, some concerns were raised on the land reclamations and activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region, the ministers said, reflecting divisions on the issue. Vietnam, for one, has been vocal in expressing concerns over Chinas transformation of seven disputed reefs into man-made islands, including three with runways, which now resemble small cities armed with weapons systems. China has come under intense criticism for militarization of the strategic waterway, but says it has the right to build on its territories and defend them at all costs. Annabelle Liang and Jim Gomez are Associated Press writers. Andrew Medichini / Associated Press ROME Pope Francis has declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases because it is an attack on the dignity of the person, the Vatican announced Thursday, in a definitive shift in Roman Catholic teaching that could put enormous pressure on lawmakers and politicians around the world. Francis, who has spoken out against capital punishment before including in 2015 in an address to Congress added the change to the Catechism, the collection of beliefs for the worlds 1.2 billion Catholics. BEIRUT From the very first day 31-year-old Salma Barakati got behind the wheel of her car after Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on women driving, the men in her village near Mecca would gather around her and unleash a torrent of insults. The insults soon turned to threats. Then, less than 10 days after women were allowed to drive, a neighbor woke up Barakati in the middle of the night: Her car was on fire. The men of the neighborhood burned the car because they are all against (women) driving, they dont agree with it, she said in a video shared on Twitter, her voice shaking as flames engulfed her vehicle. Save me from them, take back my rights from them, she pleads with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, thought to be the primary force behind a modernization drive that included the bans overturn. Despite months of an intensely orchestrated feel-good campaign by the government, the smoldering remains of Barakatis car offered the starkest illustration that not all are on board with women in the drivers seat. Grumbling about the ban also hints at the resistance facing Salman and his son as they upend decades-old social mores and bring changes to Saudi society that much of the world has long taken for granted. It was last September when the government decreed it would allow women t o drive, reversing a policy in place since 1957 and which had become a potent symbol of womens oppression in the kingdom. That Riyadh was eager to reap a public relations win from the decree was clear from the preparations around the announcement: a reading of the decree on live television was accompanied by a lavish media event in Washington. It was reported to have used Cambridge Analytica, the British firm notorious for social media manipulation, to massage the blow to the countrys ultraconservatives. Car companies, eager for new customers, quickly joined in with a raft of ads. Some featured abaya-clad women walking in a desert, their robes flowing in the dusk breeze as they look into the distance. Others urged women to dare greatly or assured them the road is yours. But the reversal, which took effect June 24, flies against years of cultural and religious justifications trotted out by the countrys religious clerics. Allowing women to drive, they declared, would invite promiscuity. One cleric insisted driving could damage womens ovaries, while another justified the ban on the grounds that women possessed only half a brain and half of that was used for shopping, he claimed. Despite the government stripping religious authorities of much of their power this year a move that included rounding up 30 high-profile clerics those attitudes lingered. A YouGov survey conducted before the ban was lifted found that nearly a quarter of Saudis opposed its reversal. A video posted on Twitter featured a man swearing he would burn a woman and her car if it broke down. Others tweeted under the hashtag You will not drive, suggested creating a women-only lane so they could crash into each other. Although the driving ban was lifted, the kingdom has far from abandoned tradition and the government maintains strict control on life in the kingdom. Riyadh continues in what the rights group Amnesty International called an unrelenting crackdown that has ensnared activists who for decades had fought for the right to drive. On Wednesday, Amnesty International reported the arrest of human rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima Sada. These brave women represented the last vestiges of the human rights community in the country, and now they too have been detained, said Lynn Maalouf, the groups Middle East research director in a statement. Nabih Bulos is a Los Angeles Times writer. BAGHDAD Qassim Sabaan Ali has spent the past 15 years tending to orchards in southern Iraq, only to see them wither or die as saltwater has seeped into the once-lush soil. The southern city of Basra was once known as the Venice of the East because of its freshwater canals, and Iraq itself is still known as the Land Between the Two Rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates which have nourished civilizations since antiquity. But upstream dams in Turkey, Syria and Iran have shrunk the rivers and their tributaries, seasonal rainfall has dropped and infrastructure has fallen into disrepair. The result is an acute lack of freshwater that has allowed a salty tide from the nearby Persian Gulf to advance north from the Shatt al-Arab waterway the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates that Basra residents depend on and seep into once-lush farmland. Alis fig, apple and palm trees are dying off, and the water from the taps is so salty and polluted it cannot even be used for cooking or washing. Its an aching feeling when you see the hard work of years withering away and slipping through your fingers, Ali, who lives in the Siba district south of Basra, said by phone. Im left to watch the destruction and feel desperate, as Im unable to do more than pray to God. The water woes, along with a lingering electricity crisis in the oil-rich region, contributed to last months violent demonstrations in Basra and other southern provinces, in which protesters attacked and burned government and political party offices, prompting security forces to open fire. Several protesters were killed or wounded, while others were arrested. Iraqs government has scrambled to meet the growing demands for public services and jobs, but has been hindered by years of endemic corruption and a financial crisis fueled by diminished oil revenues and the costly war against the Islamic State group. The water crisis has affected the entire country, but Basra, at the mouth of the two rivers, has been hit the hardest. The rising salinity has shut down water purification systems, turned once-fertile areas to desert and killed off fish and livestock. Agriculture is the second largest economic sector in Iraq after oil. But the country is only able to farm 7-10 million acres about a third of its cultivable land because of water shortages, soil salinity and political instability, according to the U.N.s Food and Agriculture Organization. Sinan Salaheddin is an Associated Press writer. HARARE, Zimbabwe Zimbabwes President Emmerson Mnangagwa won election Friday with just over 50 percent of the ballots as the ruling party maintained control of the government in the first vote since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent. The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets. While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe. Zimbabwes president says he is humbled by his win. Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams, Mnangagwa said on Twitter. This is a new beginning. Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all! Mnangagwa tweeted, after a week that began with peaceful voting Monday but spiraled into deadly violence in the capital Wednesday as the military fired on protesters. Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the militarys excessive force in the capital, Harare. Their assessments of the election are crucial to the lifting of international sanctions on a country whose economy collapsed years ago. Shortly before the election commissions announcement, Morgen Komichi, the chief agent for Chamisas opposition alliance, took the stage and said his party totally rejects the results and said he had not signed the election results. Police escorted him from the room. Later Komichi said the elections were fraudulent and everything has been done illegally. The signs that Mnangagwas election will be disputed appears to deepen a political crisis that was worsened by Wednesdays violence in Harare as the military swept in with gunfire to disperse opposition supporters alleging vote-rigging. The death toll rose to six, with 14 injured, police said, and 18 people were arrested at the offices of the main opposition party amid tensions over a vote that was supposed to restore trust in after decades of Mugabes rule. Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka are Associated Press writers. Page Content Not long after the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation, California became the first state to introduce its own suite of consumer privacy rules. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was signed into law June 28 by Gov. Jerry Brown, includes many provisions aimed at bolstering consumers' privacy rights. Here's an overview of the law and what it means for employers. Consumer Rights The new law is "complex and includes drafting errors and ambiguities that are byproducts of the speed with which the legislation made its way to the governor's desk," noted Morrison Foerster attorneys in a memo. Messy though it may be, the CCPA is now the law in California, so it is important to understand the act as it is written to better prepare for its implementation on Jan. 1, 2020. Consumers have a right to: Know about all data a business collects about them. Consumers may ask a company to disclose: Specific pieces and categories of personal information collected. Categories of third-party entities that have received personal information. Categories of sources where the personal information was found. The purposes for which the information was collected. Consumers can expect to receive the information within 45 daysunless a 45- or 90-day extension has been granted. The requested data must be supplied by the business in a ready-to-use format and at no additional cost to the consumer. Say no to the sale of their information. Consumers may choose to opt out of having their personal information sold to third-party vendors, and businesses must inform consumers of this option before any information can be sold. Delete their data. Consumers can request that their personal information be removed from a database. After such a request is submitted, businesses may continue to use a consumer's personal information under certain exceptional circumstances. For instance, the CCPA may not apply if the information is used to: Finalize a transaction. Conduct business that is ordinarily expected "within the context of a business's ongoing business relationship with the consumer." Protect against fraud or other unlawful behavior. Be free from discrimination. Consumers can expect to not be discriminated against when they choose to exercise their rights under the act. For instance, if a consumer elects to delete personal information, the business cannot choose to charge that person more money for a product or service. Bring a lawsuit. The law sets up a framework allowing consumers to seek legal action. The private right to action allows consumers to file a civil complaint against a company if the consumer's (nonencrypted or nonredacted) data has been copied, transferred, stolen, disclosed or accessed without prior consent. Penalties. If successful, a person seeking compensation under the act can expect to receive between $100 and $750 per incident, depending on the severity of the violation. However, the consumer must supply written notice 30 days prior to filing suit. If, within the 30-day period, the business "cures the noticed violation" and offers written assurances that no more violations will occur, the civil action may not continue. Moreover, a business that "intentionally violates" the act may be made to pay civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation. Who Will Be Affected? The act will directly affect for-profit companies that sell their products or services in California. Businesses must satisfy at least one of three criteria to be covered under the CCPA: Bring in more than $25 million in annual gross revenues. Derive half of their annual gross revenues from selling personal information. Handle, buy, share or sell personal information belonging to at least 50,000 California residents. Given that the act applies to all covered entities conducting business in the state, and considering that California has the world's fifth-largest economy, the law's effects will likely be felt outside of California and even outside the U.S. Employment Standards Though the CCPA refers to consumer privacy, it has direct implications for employment-related data, and thus for HR professionals. Expanding on existing statutes, the act broadly defines personal information as "information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household." This may include commercial information, biometric data, geolocation data and employment-related information. Moreover, the law defines "consumer" as "a natural person who is a California resident." The act, therefore, has a much wider purview than other privacy laws and, according to Morrison Foerster's memo, covers business relationships with customers, vendors and employees. In short, the term "consumer" can be replaced with the term "employee" for the purposes of the CCPA. Thus, employers covered under the act should ensure that information capable of being associated with their employees is handled in accordance with the CCPA. The Future of the CCPA It isn't yet clear how the act will be implemented. For instance, the new privacy law states that businesses must respond to requests only if they can be "reasonably verified." But since the CCPA identifies only one concrete example of reasonable verification, it isn't entirely clear what this standard means, and there may be other ambiguities that emerge over time. To address these issues, the law requires the state attorney general to solicit public participation in drafting new rules and regulations to help facilitate the act. Employers should take stock of their data-collection practices. This is especially true if a business satisfies one of the three aforementioned criteria. Businesses that are not covered by the CCPA might do well to follow the lead of companies like Microsoft and implement privacy measures before the tide turns. Dan Goldstein, J.D., is the president of Denver-area-based Page 1 Solutions, a website marketing company that represents doctors, dentists and attorneys. Sean Lally is a staff writer at Denver-area-based American Legal News, which focuses on news and information about law and the legal industry. India's digital integrated healthcare technology platform, MyHealthcare, has raised its Series A funding of $2 million, a company statement said on Tuesday. The round of funding was led by Hunch Ventures. Ajay Nanavati, Angel Investor and Retired Managing Director of 3M India and Israel also participated in the round. MyHealthcare, is a mobile healthcare ecosystem operated by Gurugram-based InnoCirc Ventures that enhances patient engagement and empowers them with their healthcare needs, through offerings such as health trackers, emergency services, video consult and 24x7 health monitoring. The platform helps connect healthcare givers, hospitals, diagnostics, patients and their family and brings them into a digital ecosystem. "With a widening gap between the availability of doctors, specialists and the demand for such care givers, we believe this gap can be bridged with data driven healthcare solutions. Our platform works with hospitals in enhancing their care solutions by transitioning the care process from paper to digital form. "In the next phase we are working towards the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for predictive analysis, to aid care givers in the diagnosis process," said Shyatto Raha, founder and director of InnoCirc Ventures. Read more news: US-China trade war: Qualcomm officially scraps $44-bn NXP deal The global provider of engineering, manufacturing, geospatial, networks, and operations management services to global industry leaders, Cyient announced that, BVR Mohan Reddy, the Founder & Executive chairman, Cyient, received Lifetime Achievement Award at the 26th edition of the Hyderabad Software Enterprise Association (HYSEA) Annual Industry Awards 2018. The award was present by the Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, who attended the event as the chief guest. Added to it, Cyient also received the Top IT/ITES Exporter Award in the 1000 crore export category. Immensely happy on receiving the award, Mohan Reddy speaks, I am honored to receive this prestigious award from HYSEA. Over the past three decades, HYSEA has played a key role in fostering the IT and ITES industry. The industry is entering a phase of great transformation brought about by rapid advancements in technology and is at a tipping point of unprecedented growth. To grab this opportunity and fuel the transformation, our industry should become a hub for innovation, talent, and entrepreneurship. Being the founder of a largest IT/ ITES company from the telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Mohan Reddy was the first recipient of the award and was praised for his innumerable contributions to the industry over the last three decades. A self-made entrepreneur, visionary leader, and innovator, Mohan Reddy has worked with all the determination to make Cyient, a large, Sustainable, global enterprise. As the forefront, Mohan Reddy has been strongly advocating and driving the need for a convenient policy environment apart from being the voice of the industry for diverse platforms, globally. Three decades back, Mohan Reddy led the foundation of ER & D services which has been the driving force for Cyient since then. His burning desire to make a positive impact on the society and his able guidance, has done phenomenal work for Cyient Foundation in providing education, digital literacy and innovative and affordable healthcare to the underserved sections of the society. Leveraging the power of digital technology and advanced analytics capabilities, along with the domain knowledge, Cyient help clients to solve complex business problems with its technical expertise and empowers them to focus on their core, innovate and stay ahead of the curve. Relationships form the core of how Cyient works. With a client-centric approach, Cyient has the workforce of 15,000 in 21 countries & combines global delivery with proximity to its clients to function as their extended team. Cyients industry focus includes aerospace and defense, medical, telecommunications, rail transportation, semiconductor, utilities, industrial, energy and natural resources. Read more news: Remains of US soldiers killed in Korean War arrive at Pearl Harbor Indian-origin academic wins maths 'Nobel' Fields Medal This column is written by the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com collegiate correspondent. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you were given the chance to transform an entire room into anything you'd like, what would you choose? A few teenage interns at American & International Designs, Inc., an interior design and space planning company on Staten Island, were given the chance and impressed me this week with their creation: "Lollipop World." Hana Kassem and Sadhana Pakala, interns from Staten Island Technical High School, and Jessica Kukin, an intern from Tottenville High School, collaborated to redecorate the office space using only recycled materials, such as FedEx boxes, old fabric samples, lighting finishes, and Sherwin Williams paint chips. The masterpiece of a pop-up office at 1110 South Ave. in Bloomfield features a lollipop stand to raise money for the American Cancer Society from 9 a.m. to 5 Thursday and Friday, Aug. 2-3. Susan Arann, the principal of American & International Designs, Inc. is one of six exclusively selected Business Ambassadors for the NY Small Business Next Generation of Talent who will continue the 25+ year long tradition of mentorship. "The principal, Susan Arann, had the idea for us to create a lollipop themed pop-up office and to sell lollipops to raise money for a charity. I enjoyed seeing how it developed," shared Jessica Kukin, an intern from Tottenville High School. Sadhana Pakala, an intern from Staten Island Technical High School, added, "Since we are high school interns, Susan Arann had the idea to use lollipops as inspiration because of lollipops something that we generally associate with children and happiness." Arann is participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program and Ladders for Leaders, which are both nationally recognized programs that offer high school and college students the opportunity to participate in paid professional summer internships with leading corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies in New York City. "I used the experience to teach our interns about the essence of sustainability, design, and time sensitivity," Susan Arann said after she renamed the program's project to 'Ladders For Leaders to Lollipops.' A former intern from Notre Dame Academy, Meenu Selvan, shared that she interned at American & International Designs, Inc. to "home my business skills and communication skills. I wanted to receive mentorship from a professional." Hana Kassem, an intern from Staten Island Technical High School, shared, "Being that this is now my third week interning, everything we had done took an entirety of two weeks, which when you think about it isn't really much time. After getting into the entire theme of lollipops, ideas just started to pop into my head and somehow someway we were able to put together this amazing lollipop pop-up office." Sadhana Pakala, an intern from Staten Island Technical High School, explained that they found their inspiration in anything and everything colorful. "I remember every time I would look through a catalog trying to find a piece of wall art or a vase for a client, I would come across something vibrant and eye-catching and immediately say 'hey guys this is perfect for the office makeover.' Whether it was something we found in a catalog or a sign we saw on the street, we would all immediately take a picture and text each other saying 'we could totally use this as inspiration,' shared Pakala. This new design will be known as the Lollipops- the Millennial Munchkins- because of their mission to restore happiness to children. The Lollipops kicked off their pop-up office with a fundraiser that benefits the American Cancer Society. Susan believes that the Lollipops project will show how young adults can "unite in solidarity to shed light on the community." The entire lollipop project was created under the supervision of Meenu Selvan, a former intern from Notre Dame Academy, who will be leaving for the University of Notre Dame in two weeks to pursue her dream of becoming an architect. She will participate in the 5-year accredited architecture program. For more information, please visit DesignAmericaNYC.com or email info@designamericanyc.com. -S.I. native Charista Mroczek is a freshman at Barnard College of Columbia University. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Dozens of borough-based musicians, filmmakers, poets, visual artists and everything in between are in for a windfall: New York City has tripled the amount of regrant funding allocated to Staten Island artists for 2019. Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl and Staten Island Arts Executive Director Elizabeth Bennett announced Wednesday that $238,000 is allocated for the local arts council's regrant program next year. The increase -- a 50 percent jump from fiscal year 2018, and three times the amount of 2017 funding -- aligns with the CreateNYC cultural plan to amp up support of artists who live and work in New York City. "Individual artists and small arts groups are the heart and soul of New York's cultural life, and Staten Island Arts does a tremendous job of connecting city support to the vibrant creative communities across the borough," Commissioner Finkelpearl said. "We appreciate the partnership of City Council in enabling us to dramatically increase the stream of funding over the last two years ... Staten Island Arts is a champion of the many artistic voices of this diverse borough, and we applaud their commitment to supporting local talent." HOW TO APPLY FOR GRANTS: Last year, Staten Island Arts' City-funded regrant program disbursed $158,000 to support 38 projects from individual artists, creative collectives and cultural organizations across the borough. Bennett said she's flat-out thrilled by the City's increased "investment" in our cultural community for 2019. "[The] regrant program is a tangible and direct means of making public funding available to artists working at all levels and in all areas of the Island," Bennett said. "The increased funding will make [our] program more accessible than ever before. We look forward to working deeper in our existing community and to expanding our engagement with people who might have thought city funding was not available to them until now." Applications for 2019 projects will be available online starting Tuesday, Sept. 4, at StatenIslandArts.org. Got questions? A "DCA Summer Info Session" meeting takes place from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2, at Staten Island Arts headquarters, 23 Navy Pier Court in the Urby Complex, Stapleton. THE NYC CULTURAL PLAN: Released by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017, CreateNYC outlined strategies for supporting artists and cultural organizations amid increasing affordability challenges across the city. Working with the City Council, DCLA increased funding for local arts councils in 2018 and for 2019. Borough President James Oddo emphasized the impact these "much-needed funds" have on Staten Island Arts' "extremely successful" regrant program. "This increase shows that the Mayor and Commissioner Finkelpearl believe in this program and the impact the arts are having on the borough," BP Oddo said. "I am pleased that even more artists and non-profit organizations will benefit from this program." Council Member Joseph Borelli expressed hopes that part of this "significant increase" will make its way to his district. "Artists on the South Shore are going to be excited about it," Borelli said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the great work of local artists and the development of new ones continue through the grants." STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- All 95 children displaced from Gingerbread Learning Center -- a special needs preschool -- have been offered seats at different Staten Island school sites, according to the Department of Education (DOE). "We've offered new, high-quality placements to all families with children who attended Gingerbread Learning Center," said Will Mantell, a spokesman for the DOE. "We are grateful for the collaboration of Staten Island communities and elected officials throughout this process." The average distance families will travel to their new school sites is approximately the same as the average distance families traveled to Gingerbread, according to the DOE. Gingerbread Learning Center's owner sent a letter to parents in May that the preschool's 4410 Board of Education Preschool program would close on Aug. 10. Gingerbread has two locations -- on North Gannon Avenue, in Willowbrook, and Woodrow Road, in Annadale. Both sites are scheduled to shut their doors in August. The early intervention program will continue at the school in September, according to the owner's letter. Following the closing announcement, parents rallied and signed a petition to keep the school open. Parents then held a town hall meeting in mid-July with various city officials and representatives from the Department of Education to discuss their children's futures. The owner of the preschool, Dennis Mosesman, was indicted along with his wife for allegedly siphoning $771,000 in taxpayer funds. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New York State regulators are kicking Charter Communications -- the telecommunications company that offers services under the brand of Spectrum -- out of the state, leaving customers wondering what will happen to their services. The New York State Public Service Commission revoked the approval of Charter's merger with Time Warner Cable last week, and claimed the company is not meeting public benefit conditions it agreed to in 2016. Charter has 60 days to find another cable, internet and phone service provider for its 2 million customers in the state. The company has 30 days to contest the order. Charter plans to fight the decision and said it "extended the reach of our advanced broadband network to more than 86,000 New York homes and businesses" since its merger agreement. "We believe we're in compliance with the plain reading of the build-out requirements that the State imposed on us in merger conditions and we have a very strong legal case and ability to defend ourselves and it could play out over a lengthy period of time if required," said Tom Rutledge, Charter chairman and CEO. So what does that mean for customers who use Spectrum cable, internet and phone services? Here's what you need to know if you're a Spectrum customer. Will customers still have service? Spectrum customers will not lose their cable, internet and phone services. State regulators are demanding Charter continue to maintain all the services it currently provides until a transition to a new provider occurs. "To ensure that Charter's customers are not negatively affected during that process, the commission further ordered the company to maintain service to the company's more than 2 million customers in New York until an orderly transition occurs," a commission press release stated. Why is Spectrum being kicked out? The commission cited several reasons it rescinded the approval of the merger agreement: The company's repeated failures to meet deadlines. Charter's attempts to skirt obligations to serve rural communities. Unsafe practices in the field. Its failure to fully commit to its obligations under the 2016 merger agreement. The company's "purposeful obfuscation of its performance and compliance obligations to the Commission and its customers." How many customers will it affect? Spectrum offers services to more than 2 million people in New York State. A Charter spokesman would not comment on how many Staten Islanders are Spectrum customers, citing the competitive information it may offer to other providers. Union workers to rally Monday International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 (IBEW) members and local elected officials are planning to rally outside the Spectrum store, in New Springville, on Monday, Aug. 6, at noon. The store is located at 2845 Richmond Ave. Members have been striking against Charter Communications/Spectrum since March 2017, when they walked off the job after breakdowns in contract negotiations. Main reasons for the strike include the elimination of contributions into workers' pension, wage benefits and medical plans. Workers also claimed they were disciplined over repeated service calls from customers expecting unobtainable Wi-Fi speeds the company promotes. A compensation package was offered by Spectrum, but IBEW told the Advance in March 2018 that it feels the pay increase does not equate to the loss of medical and retirement plans. The video below shows workers and supporters rallying outside of Spectrum's Staten Island office in Mariners Harbor. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD is asking the public's assistance identifying a woman sought for questioning in connection with a credit card theft. On July 6, an unidentified female entered the CVS at 1654 Richmond Ave. in Bulls Head around 6:18 p.m. and used a credit card belonging to a 20-year-old female to make unauthorized purchases totaling about $75, according to a written statement from the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. Prior to the purchase, surveillance images of a woman sought for questioning were captured inside L.A. Fitness, located at 3231 Richmond Avenue, according to a source with the knowledge of the investigation. The woman is described as being about 24 years old, 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 115 pounds. She was seen wearing a white head band, black camisole shirt, gray sweatpants with a black stripe on the side, and black sneakers. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Reddit announced its website suffered a data breach that could potentially expose identities of its users. In a post on its website, Reddit said a hacker broke into some of Reddit's systems and accessed some user data, including email addresses and user names. This could be linked to determine Reddit users' identities that mostly post on the site anonymously. Data accessed involved account credentials, such as usernames, passwords, email addresses, content and private messages. The information was accessed after hackers breached several employee accounts in mid-June. "On June 19, we learned that between June 14 and June 18, an attacker compromised a few of our employees' accounts with our cloud and source code hosting providers," the company said in an announcement to users. The company said it's sending messages to affected users and resetting passwords on accounts where credentials might still be valid. It affects every user who created an account from 2005 to 2007, and anyone who subscribed to Reddit's newsletter from June 3-17. Reddit has not revealed the number of accounts compromised. "Although this was a serious attack, the attacker did not gain write access to Reddit systems; they gained read-only access to some systems that contained backup data, source code and other logs," Reddit said in the announcement. "They were not able to alter Reddit information." Reddit has also reported the issue to law enforcement, which is conducting an investigation, and is taking measures to guarantee its systems are more secure. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Growing up in Great Kills in the 1960s, Sarah Yuster spent days romping through woods and frolicking about the lush greenery that existed on the South Shore before builders began rapid development. A self-proclaimed "tomboy" she looked to occupy her time enjoying nature. "I spent my time in the woods, in the marsh, stepping on nails on construction sites," said Yuster. "My greatest loves were the outdoors and the natural sciences. I always thought I'd go into that [the sciences] field." But soon, the schoolgirl learned she had talents -- she could paint, draw and write. "But to pursue art as a career seemed impossible at the time," she said. However, she began to depict on canvas those landscapes outside her front door for which she was so fond. In fact, since the age of 12, she was creating "art." Honing her skills as a youngster, she now can't remember a time when she didn't want to be an artist. Yuster, now a long-time West Brighton resident, is largely responsible for putting Staten Island on the map through her artwork. Perhaps the most renowned piece is her haunting "Victory Boulevard at Dawn" landscape depicting a vista of the Twin Towers from Silver Lake. Her landscapes of Staten Island scenes and streets provoke a sense of home -- a place that is special to her. Now, after living the dream for more than three decades, Yuster is on the forefront of the Staten Island arts scene by selling her work online through her new website. She began several years ago selling her art via Facebook, and soon learned that an online presence greatly grew her audience and the number of people who wanted to purchase her artwork. "I had people writing to me on Facebook about their feelings about the work, their opinion, and sometimes wanting to buy them," she said. WHEN THE TOWERS WENT DOWN Her first big in-demand artwork was her iconic painting of the Manhattan skyline before Sept. 11, 2001. "When the towers went down I was getting phone calls and emails for the painting [Victory Boulevard at Dawn]," she said, noting this then inspired her to paint several renditions of this scene. All of Yuster's work has been described as subtle and intimate. She takes you to a place close to her heart, whether it's the Staten Island Ferry, a frosty Forest Avenue or the skyline under a bloody sky. "There's composition and layout. But there are moments of discovery -- brush stroke, by brush stroke you see your initial enthusiasm realized because you never know how it's going to turn out," said Yuster, describing how she creates her paintings. "While artists', writers' and musicians' work can be lonely and frustrating, there's always an excitement component," added the mother of two grown children, who is married to a musician. Yuster said her artwork can be summed up in the artist's statement on her website, a portion of which reads: "Armed with the tenet that small, ordinary truths often illuminate larger fields, I paint with an eye towards the tension and beauty that can occur when man, technology and the natural world convene at random points." A GLOBAL AUDIENCE Over the years, she has acquired a global audience. Her portraits of Nobel laureate Saul Bellow and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reside in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and the National Air & Space Museum, respectively. Yuster's paintings also live in permanent collections at Harvard, Yale, the Thai Royal Family Compound, and hang in institutions and corporate headquarters throughout the metropolitan area. CURRENT GALLERY Her most recent gallery exhibit runs through Sept. 23 at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art on the grounds of Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Livingston. "Native Soil: Incidence & Homescapes," a career retrospective spanning the mid-1980s through 2017 is a collection of her best works. A FILMMAKER When she's not painting, she's making documentaries or teaching art to youngsters. After collaborating on a visual project titled "Twenty-Nine Years (of Painting the New York Skyline)," Yuster and Stapleton photographer Michael McWeeney teamed up again for a series of short films produced by the pair's Eye Tooth Productions. The duo's second project, 2014's haunting "Small Truths," was born in Yuster's art classes at PS 20 in Port Richmond. SARAH YUSTER AT A GLANCE Website: www.sarahyuster.com Social Media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/sarahyusterART/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahyuster/ New Businesses in Focus is a weekly column that relates the stories of new Staten Island businesses owners. If you have a new business on Staten Island, e-mail porpora@siadvance.com. FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- State Sen. Diane Savino's primary challenger, Jasmine Robinson, can be seen in a video posted on NO IDC NY's Facebook page making a surprising remark to supporters Tuesday that she wanted to drag the North Shore incumbent "by the hair real good." Robinson, a Port Richmond activist and legal secretary, made the remarks at a fundraiser hosted by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. "I grew up in the boogie-down Bronx," Robinson said. "And when we see a bully, we take them, grab them by the hair real good and drag them." Robinson, to raucous cheers and applause, continued: "But I can't put my hands on her like I want to, but I'm going to do it another way, I'm going to shame her every chance I get." The political newcomer, who also referred to her opponent as "Lyin'" Savino, made the comments at the Brass Monkey restaurant in Manhattan alongside other challengers to former Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) members. The IDC was a group of state Senate Democrats who formed a power-sharing alliance with Senate Republicans. The group disbanded earlier this year. Savino's campaign told the Advance that Robinson's statements went too far. "This kind of hateful rhetoric is what we've come to expect from the president, not from someone running as a Democrat in New York," said Thomas Musich, a spokesperson for Savino's re-election campaign. "This mob mentality that has formed around these candidates has clearly gone too far." Musich continued, "Anyone present at this event should condemn these threats of violence. They have no place in our political discourse." Robinson told the Advance Wednesday that her comments were "in jest" and apologized to Savino. "I do not advocate for violence on anyone on any levels," said Robinson. "It was in jest, but, however, in no way shape or form was this meant as violence against Senator Savino." Robinson continued, "I feel like she's using this opportunity to deflect from what she hasn't done for the district. The fact that our public schools don't have the resources they need to help our kids prepare for the future. She doesn't want to address that bail reform wasn't included in the budget." Robinson told the Advance that her comments were a "release" for her and the culmination of hateful comments sent to her online and in-person confrontations by individuals she said opposed her campaign. "This was a way for me to be able to share my truth to speak out and to finally get over the hurdles that have been thrown at me," Robinson said. Savino told to the Advance that no one from her campaign ever made offensive comments to Robinson and said that she offered to go to law enforcement when Robinson brought up her concerns to to the North Shore lawmaker earlier this year. "No one from my campaign or directed by me has ever made hateful comments towards Ms. Robinson in person or through any other platform," said Savino. "I have told her personally that I would join her in contacting the police to hold any person accountable if anything had occurred. Not once has she requested that of me." The Democratic primary is on Sept. 13. FOLLOW CLIFFORD MICHEL ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. Free cash flow was negative $US739 million ($998 million) for the three months ended in June, Musk wrote in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday. Analysts were projecting Tesla would go through about $US900 million during the period, after burning more than $US1 billion in three of the previous four quarters. Tesla ended June with about $US2.2 billion in cash on its balance sheet. Musk has insisted the company won't need to raise more capital this year, a view Wall Street has doubted after the company repeatedly pushed back manufacturing targets for its new Model 3. Tesla has burnt through less cash than in previous quarters. Credit:Bloomberg The sedan that was central to the company's mission when it was founded in 2003 -- to bring electric vehicles to the masses -- has been picking up the pace in recent months, with the company now expecting to build as many as 55,000 units this quarter. "It took 15 years to execute on our initial goal to produce an affordable, long-range electric vehicle that can also be highly profitable," Musk and Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja wrote in the letter. "In the second half of 2018, we expect, for the first time in our history, to become both sustainably profitable and cash flow positive." A single personal electronic device that overheats and catches fire in checked luggage on an airliner can overpower the aircraft's fire suppression system, potentially creating a fire that could rage uncontrolled, according to new government research. Regulators had thought that single lithium battery fires would be knocked down by the flame-retardant gas required in passenger airliner cargo holds. But tests conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration found the suppression systems can't extinguish a battery fire that combines with other highly flammable material, such as the gas in an aerosol can or cosmetics commonly carried by travellers. Laptops in checked in luggage could be a fire danger for airliners, the new study has found. Credit:Louie Douvis "That could then cause an issue that would compromise the aircraft," said Duane Pfund, international program coordinator at the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, speaking on Wednesday at an aviation safety forum in Washington. PHMSA regulates hazardous materials on airliners along with FAA. The research highlights the growing risks of lithium batteries, which are increasingly used to power everything from mobile phones to gaming devices. Bulk shipments of rechargeable lithium batteries have been banned on passenger planes. AMP is not the only financial shop looking to an unconventional chairman to steady the ship. The UKs recently impoverished sub-prime lender Provident Financial has called in former British tank commander and Suncorp CEO Patrick Snowball as chairman to put a bit more discipline in its turnaround plans. Illustration: John Shakespeare Provident, which is quaintly described as a doorstep lender, shredded most of its market value last year after a botched revamp of its home credit business triggered a series of profit downgrades and smothered its dividend. So it was time to call in the former army officer who had named his tanks Chaos, Calamity and Catastrophe. Darryl Lodge was planning a holiday to New Zealand when he decided to get travel insurance. Around the same time, the 35-year-old went "down in a very bad spiral" after a personal tragedy and was diagnosed with PTSD. "I rang the travel insurance company and told them [about the PTSD diagnosis], and they said 'no mate were not even going to do it for you'," Mr Lodge said. Darryl Lodge had his travel insurance denied after declaring his PTSD diagnosis. Credit:Nick Moir Mr Lodge is not the only Australian to experience discrimination because of mental illness. New research from comparison site Mozo.com.au found more than half of Australian travel insurers do not cover people with mental health conditions. Jo Ann Corkran, a partner in Golden Seeds in the United States which funds women led startups, said just because you are starting a business doesn't mean you are starting a startup. At a lunch in Melbourne last week, hosted by startup body Launch Vic, a hot topic of conversation was the confusion between small businesses and startups. A leading US expert has warned the hype around startup firms means that many people want to be an entrepreneur for no other reason than "it sounds good". "We have somehow idolised and iconised entrepreneurs so there are people who want to be an entrepreneur for no reason other than it sounds good," she told a lunch. "So we have those people mixed up with a lot of people who are starting businesses that are really lifestyle businesses that you can make a fantastic living from but these are not businesses that should ever take in capital or that capital should ever come out of." She said startups and small businesses were very different beasts with different needs. "We have this proliferation of accelerators and incubators and within that curriculum there has to be some discussion of, 'this is a great business idea, but this is not a business that raises capital'," she said. The threat of gas import terminals is forcing the market to increase supply but wont lower prices as much as lifting state gas bans, the consumer watchdog says. The latest gas inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found there will be enough domestic gas for the east coast in the coming years, after predictions of major shortfalls, but more gas needs to be developed in Victoria and NSW if prices are to fall substantially. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said gas supply levels had been boosted by the main pipeline companies which have been discounting rates to maintain market share under the threat of import terminals. However, he said it would have little impact on long-term gas pricing, which the ACCC expects to increase in all states except Queensland. Imagine windows that could act as solar panels, with their own built-in batteries, powering your home day and night. Or how about a gym t-shirt that records your workout? Printable batteries are technology that could enable these futuristic devices and are being pioneered by Australian researchers. Energy leader: Australia has installed more lithium-ion batteries, per capita, than any other country, says Chief Scientist Alan Finkel. Now the government is backing research into new technologies. Credit:Bloomberg Printable batteries are super thin energy storage and power devices that can be adhered to a range of different materials such as metals, ceramics or glass, University of NSW Professor Joe Dong said. As companies' profit reporting season is upon us, it's worth asking: Does business create value these days the way it once did? In the US, one sign it doesn't is a significant decline in the formation rate of firms over the past few decades. Economists Peter Orszag and Jason Furman have argued that investment and innovation have taken a backseat to profits derived from economic rents. Political factors also increasingly appear to play a major role in driving corporate profits, as new regulations help incumbent firms, another strike against economic efficiency. The prevailing myths about the efficiency of capitalism blind us to the fact that much of economic reality serves no economic function at all. Credit:AP What's going on? Surprisingly, one of the more convincing explanations comes from an anthropologist who has looked beyond narrow economic reasoning to examine the actual social or psychological functions served by many of the jobs in today's service and knowledge economy. David Graeber of the London School of Economics argues in a recent book "Bullshit jobs: A theory" that the prevailing myths about the efficiency of capitalism blind us to the fact that much of economic reality is shaped by jockeying for power and status and serves no economic function at all. Of course, the idea that business might be wasteful isn't new. Thirty years ago, economist William Baumol suggested that the future of capitalism might well belong to unproductive businesses, which use power and influence to profit without necessarily benefiting society. He worried about the rise of "unproductive entrepreneurs" who buy up rivals or use regulations to stifle competition, thriving as parasites on productive parts of the economy. Recently, economists Robert Litan and Ian Hathaway reviewed evidence documenting such a trend, especially over the last 30 years. Foodora, the food delivery service fighting a landmark test case on the rights of workers, will exit the Australian market at the end of the month. In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, Foodora said it would stop operating in Australia by August 20. Foodora has decided to exit the market in Australia. Credit:Jason South Jeroen Willems, country manager at Foodora Australia, said he wanted to express his gratitude to all customers, contractors and employees for their dedication to Foodora Australia, "and for allowing us to be a part of their everyday". "It has been a privilege to bring the food you love right to your door, he said. Sydney may soon be home to a world-first Centre of Baroque Excellence if discussions between the founders of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and NSW government come to fruition. The orchestra, which plays the works of masters such as Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi and JS Bach on replicas of the instruments they are composed for, has never had its own rehearsal space since being formed in 1989. ABO veteran Monique O'Dea and her young colleague Natalia Harvey would relish a permanent home for the ensemble. Credit:Steven Siewert "We've been homeless for 30 years," says Paul Dyer, co-founder and artistic director of the ABO, which is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary. "We have to leave our rented administrative offices because we've outgrown the building. But the orchestra has had to rehearse wherever it can, including school halls. "We are vagabonds, travelling from place to place, with very rare instruments." Systems introduced to halt the spread of one superbug in Australian hospitals may have accidentally encouraged the spread of another, a new study suggests. They think the superbug, which can cause blood infections, is spreading because it is growing tolerant to the alcohol-based antibacterial soap used by doctors, nurses and surgeons. Standard precautions arent that effective any more. Cleaning your hands with alcohol is not reliable enough, says Professor Paul Johnson, deputy director of infectious diseases at Austin Health. A scanning electron micrograph of vancomycin resistant enterococci. Credit:CDC/Janice Haney Carr Remarkably, Professor Johnson was part of the team that first introduced alcohol-based handwash to the nations hospitals in the early 2000s. A local frog watching group is in negotiations with the ACT government over core funding to its programs. ACT and Region Frogwatch lost $80,000 in core funding from the government at the last budget, while receiving funding grants for specialist projects. Anke Maria Hoefer of Frogwatch, which just had its core funding cut by the ACT government. Credit:Jamila Toderas Coordinator Anke Maria Hoefer said they were grateful for the grants for special projects but core funding was needed to help conduct the annual frog census in the Canberra region. "Even if we don't have funding to run a full census as in the previous years these projects will contribute to our census," Ms Hoefer said. Chef Sean McConnell is leaving Monster Kitchen and Bar to set out on his own. He wont be going very far however, taking over the space formerly occupied by TwentyOne Cafe and Grocery to head up new venture Rebel Rebel. Hes presided over the menus in the precinct for seven years now, at Monster, and Mocan and Green Grout, and said it feels great to be sticking around. Chef Sean McConnell is leaving Monster Kitchen and Bar to head up his own, Rebel Rebel. Credit:Andrew Meares I've forged some pretty good connections and relationships here, he says. I think I know what the precinct wants and expects and needs. An attempt by the NSW Police to inject humour into a sexual violence PSA has backfired, with the Facebook post going viral for all the wrong reasons. The post, inspired by Beyonce's song Single Ladies, landed with a thud at 4.23pm Wednesday on the force's official Facebook page. It's been shared almost 2000 times and received more than 3600 comments, but many of those who commented and shared took umbrage at the implication that women using dating apps are reckless and need to be told to "keep yourself safe". One commenter, Kathleen Black, wrote: "So tax payers are paying some cop to write a little poem to warn women how to stay safe. What a joke, shows they have to much time on their hands and victim blaming is the name of these cops game [sic]." The twin 30-storey public housing buildings in Waterloo will remain standing for at least another decade under the Berejiklian government's plans to redevelop the site. The Matavai and Turanga unit blocks will be among the last buildings demolished to make way for higher-density apartments that could top 40 storeys and the underground Waterloo metro station. The Matavai and Turanga buildings. Credit:Cole Bennetts Thousands of people who live in the estate's 30-storey Phillip Street towers, smaller apartment blocks, and several flats will be relocated during the revamp, which will happen in stages over 15 to 20 years. The new development, which will be a mix of social, affordable and private housing with more than 6000 dwellings, has drawn criticism from its existing 2500 residents. The Queensland government will meet with koala experts and vets later this month to review a "translocation" policy that led to more than 100 koalas dying after being shifted from Coomera on the Gold Coast. The top-level talks at the Department of Science office on George Street in Brisbane will develop a discussion paper on the future of the policy. Koala Beach near Pottsville Credit:Tony Moore The failings of the policy were exposed on Wednesday in a Queensland government estimates hearing where government policy is scrutinised as being responsible for killing half of the 180 koalas shifted from Coomera to let the giant Coomera Town Centre. Conservationist Sue Arnold, who last week said a parliamentary inquiry was necessary to learn the truth, repeated her call on Thursday. In his own words Rohan Arnold is a white collar, successful businessman. But the Murrumbateman man sported only prison greens on Thursday, when he failed in his bid for release from jail, where he is awaiting trial over the alleged importation of 1.28 tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container in April last year. Rohan Arnold has been charged with five counts related to the importation of a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs. Credit:radfordcollegians.com.au The Supreme Court heard extraordinary details about how the shipping container arrived in Australia, its covert seizure by authorities and an undercover operative who led the syndicate to believe the missing container had ended up in New Zealand. The operative said it could only be retrieved by way of a $3 million payment to be handed over at a meeting in Serbia. But when the 44-year-old and two other Australian men travelled to Serbia in January this year, they walked blindly into the trap. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has made good on her threat to sue Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm for defamation over a series of comments she says held her up to public shame and disgrace by accusing her of hypocrisy and misandry. Late on Wednesday Senator Hanson-Young became the first sitting Australian politician to file defamation proceedings against a fellow parliamentarian under substantially uniform national defamation laws, which commenced in the states and territories in early 2006. Senator Leyonhjelm said he would "strenuously" defend the claim. Sarah Hanson-Young filed defamation proceedings against David Leyonhjelm in the Federal Court on Wednesday. Credit:AAP The Greens senator is suing Senator Leyonhjelm over a series of comments made between June 28 and July 2 on Sky News, the ABC's 7.30 program and Melbourne radio station 3AW, along with a media statement posted on Medium.com. The comments followed a heated Senate debate about violence against women, during which Senator Leyonhjelm told Senator Hanson-Young she should "stop shagging men". A Perth man has been banned from fishing for two years and hit with a hefty fine after he was caught with 255 abalone in his possession during a random vehicle stop on the West Coast Highway two years ago. Dat Duc Luu, 47, appeared in Joondalup Magistrates Court earlier this week charged with illegal fishing offences dating back to 2016. The court was told fisheries and marine officers conducting a targeted operation off the coast of Marmion on December 30, 2016, when Luu was seen fishing in a restricted area of the Marmion Marine Park. As he left the Marmion car park just after 5am, officers stopped his vehicle for a roadside inspection and found 255 abalone in his possession. Companies that want to tender for ACT government work will need to be audited to prove they have not ripped off their workers, under a new local jobs code industry critics say will price small business out of the market. Workplace relations minister Rachel Stephen-Smith was the target of a CFMEU letterbox blitz. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos Draft legislation was introduced into the ACT Legislative Assembly on Thursday that will prevent companies getting government work unless they have a local jobs code certificate. The bill formalises the Barr government's memorandum of understanding with Unions ACT, in which the territory agreed not to award tenders to companies that did not comply with workplace safety laws, had underpaid workers or did not have cooperative industrial relations practices. Workplace relations minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that MoU would be phased out as the jobs code came into effect gradually from next January. The Turnbull government will open up a new battlefront with the big four banks, accuse them of exploiting loyal customers and warn change is set to sweep through the industry when it releases a year-long report into the industry on Friday. Declaring "power needs to be put back in the hands of the consumer," Treasurer Scott Morrison will tell a business audience that "too often we have also become willing participants in a game where the deck is stacked against us". The release of the Productivity Commission's final report into competition in financial services on Friday is expected to call the "four pillars" policy a relic and warn stability has come at the cost of competition for consumers. US computer game giant Electronic Arts announced Monday that it is tailoring a new Harry Potter game and other titles for Apple's Macintosh computers. "The only thing better than living on a Mac is living in Hogwarts," EA's chief creative officer Bing Gordon said as he demonstrated the Potter game at the opening of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. "Harry Potter is Electronic Art's best wizard and he needs a wand; unlike Steve Jobs who needs just imagination." On a large screen behind the stage where Gordon stood with Jobs, an animated Potter cast spells and made candles float in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry made famous in the best-selling series of books by J.K. Rowling. "A little later Steve is going to wave his hand and candles are going to float in this room," Gordon quipped, getting laughs from the software developers packing the room. Harare, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's election commission has declared President Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner of the presidential election having gained 50.8 per cent of the vote, with opposition leader Nelson Chamisa at 44.3 per cent. A Reuters tally of provincial results showed Mnangaga from the ruling ZANU-PF party had received 2.46 million votes compared to Chamisa's 2.15 million. But minutes before the election winner was officially declared, Morgen Komichi, the chairman of Chamisa's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected the result. Komichi made the impromptu televised statement at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, where the results were being announced. He said the MDC could not verify the results before being removed by police. Beijing: A top Chinese government diplomat says foreigners should not interfere in Cambodia's internal affairs after an election was broadly criticised as being neither free nor fair. China is Cambodia's most important diplomatic and economic backer. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen Credit:AP Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party on Monday said it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier, a vote heavily criticised by rights groups, the United States and other Western countries. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi offered his congratulations for what he said was a "smooth" election, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday after Wang met Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon on the sidelines of a regional forum in Singapore. Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government for the first time has vetoed a possible Chinese takeover of a German company, signalling increasing disquiet about China's desire to acquire sensitive technology. Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday voted to block the potential purchase of German machine tool manufacturer Leifeld Metal Spinning by a Chinese investor. The government took the precautionary measure even though the Yantai Taihai Group indicated at the last minute it would withdraw. People wait for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang outside the German chancellery in Berlin last month. Credit:AP The decision follows a government review examining possible negative impacts of the sale that concluded a purchase would raise national security concerns. Leifeld, based in the city of Ahlen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is one of the leading producers of high-strength metals for the car, space and nuclear industries. "Leifeld produces some really top-notch machinery," said Mikko Huotari, deputy director at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. Vatican City: Pope Francis has changed church teaching about the death penalty, saying in a new policy published Thursday that it is always "inadmissible" because it "attacks" the inherent dignity of all humans. The Vatican said Francis had approved a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the compilation of official Catholic Church teaching. Previously, the catechism said the church didn't exclude recourse to capital punishment "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." The new teaching, contained in Catechism No. 2267, says the previous policy is outdated and that there are other ways to protect the common good. "Consequently the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide," reads the new text, which was approved in May but only published Thursday. Geneva: US President Donald Trump's verbal attacks on the media run the risk of triggering real violence against journalists, the UN rapporteur for freedom of expression said on Thursday. In a joint statement with Edison Lanza, who holds the same post at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, David Kaye said Trump's tirades against the media violated the basic norms of press freedom. These attacks run counter to the countrys obligations to respect press freedom and international human rights law," they said. "We are especially concerned that these attacks increase the risk of journalists being targeted with violence." A US judge has blocked the planned release of 3D-printed gun blueprints hours before they were set to hit the internet, siding with states that sued to halt publication of designs to make weapons that security screening may not detect. US District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle said the blueprints' publication could cause irreparable harm to US citizens. The decision blocked a settlement President Donald Trump's administration had reached with a Texas-based company, which initially said it planned to put files online on Wednesday. Cody Wilson holds a 3D-printed gun called the Liberator at his shop on Wednesday. Credit:AP Gun control proponents are concerned the weapons made from 3D printers are untraceable, undetectable "ghost" firearms that pose a threat to global security. Some gun rights groups say the technology is expensive, the guns are unreliable and the threat is being overblown. Josh Blackman, a lawyer for the company Defense Distributed, said during Tuesday's hearing that blueprints had already been uploaded to the firm's website on Friday. Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to work on Thursday just six weeks after delivering her first child, having become the first prime minister in the nation's history to take maternity leave while in office. The 38-year-old leader's pregnancy enthralled the New Zealand public and was seen by many as a symbol of progress for women in leadership roles as she became only the second elected leader, after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990, to have given birth in office. The country's Parliament has worked to become more baby-friendly in recent months and Ardern's daughter, Neve Te Aroha, will be allowed to cuddle with her mother during debates and swim in the pool alongside other legislators' children. ~ COM will now follow proper procedures to dismiss PJIAH board members.~ PHILIPSBURG:--- The Council of Ministers are continuing with their illegal tactics to remove members of Princess Juliana Airport Holding (PJIAH) board. On Wednesday the COM dispatched a letter to the board members informing them that they will follow procedures by seeking advice from the Corporate Governance Council to dismiss them but in the meantime the members of the board are placed on non-active duties for a period of two months commencing August 1st, 2018. Ever since Ministers from the UD/ SMCP government took office on January 15th 2018 they begin with their illegal and or desperate moves to remove persons from boards to install their own families and friends to key positions. The Council of Ministers chose to relieve the members of the Supervisory Board of GEBE whose term came to an end on May 31st 2018 while they were not in a position to install new board members as an Interim Government, thus leaving a major government owned company in jeopardy. The former members of GEBE Supervisory Board could have remained in their position as it stipulates in the Corporate Governance law which allows stability and continuity. At the moment GEBE Supervisory Board has one member while it is clear that there should be a minimum of three members. At the moment the Council of Ministers are seeking to remove the members of PJIAH even though the team managed to win a major court case that will grant the airport sufficient funds to finalize the rebuilding the countrys main port of entry. Persons that worked with the former government and were working in various cabinets still cannot receive their last month salary and vacation pay, while new persons are brought into the various cabinets and are receiving exorbitant salaries as positions that do not even exists in the governmental structure were created. It is clear that every government that takes office do so in order to hire new people in their cabinets and to also remove those on boards to put their own. This action taken by politicians have placed an enormous overhead on governments budget at a time when St. Maarten and its residents are trying to bounce back from an almost total devastation since the passing of hurricane Irma on September 6th 2017. The current coalition approved a meagre budget that had a huge deficit and instead of working on rebuilding the country decisions are taken on expenditures that will forever jeopardize St. Maarten instead of rebuilding while waiting on the Dutch Government on the much needed recovery funds. PHILIPSBURG:---The Board of the Bureau for Intellectual Property BIP met with Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication TEATT Stuart Johnson to provide updates on the organization, Monday, July 30. The meeting was held at the Ministers cabinet during which the BIP Director Vincentia Rosen-Sandiford provided updates along with a brief history on the inner workings of the Bureau. Amongst the matters discussed was the working relationship with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property and services rendered by the Bureau. Minister Johnson encouraged the board to raise awareness within the community about the services the bureau provides. He also urged the Bureau to increase its efforts to provide education on the services and their benefits/advantages. These measures if adequately executed will only serve to benefit the relatively new organization. He said the government is working towards creating an environment that fully embraces entrepreneurialism and creativity and while competition is healthy, it is essential that everyone be aware that the BIP is a means of protecting his or her inspirations. The BIPs services include the registration of national and international trademarks, Recordal of Ideas, along with concepts and creations, in an I-Envelope, patent registration via the Patent Bureau in the Netherlands. In general, it provides several other services including information on intellectual property rights, such as copyright information. Minister Johnson said many challenges were identified during the meeting with BIP which are very concerning. Some issues date back to previous administrations and must be addressed post-haste. As such, I have already made arrangements for follow-up meetings with the Board of BIP so that we can tackle these challenges and move forward productively, Johnson said. PHILIPSBURG:---In addressing the intention of the Shareholder to terminate the service of the Supervisory Board of the Princess Juliana International Airport Holding (PJIAH) Company, Shareholder Representative, and Tourism Minister Stuart Johnson stated it was essential to address the precarious situation at the airport. On Tuesday this week, the Council of Ministers held an urgent decision-making session that was attended by members of the Supervisory Board of Directors of Princess Juliana International Holding Company NV (PJIA Holding Company). The main subjects of discussion were the existing bond loan of the 100% subsidiary of PJIA Holding Company, (the Operating Company) and undertaken/ necessary measures to safeguard the well-being of both companies. While the Council of Ministers initially decided to dismiss the Supervisory Board Members of PJIA Holding Company, with immediate effect, in further deliberations and considering all interest at hand, it amended that decision. The amended decision states, The Members of the Supervisory Board of the Holding Company are placed on notice of the intention of the Shareholder to terminate their function, as soon as possible. The Shareholder will further seek the advice of the Corporate Governance Council on this subject, forthwith. Meanwhile, the Members of the Supervisory Board of the Holding Company are placed on nonactive duty for a period of up to two months, starting August 1, 2018. The shareholder decided that the interest of PJIA Holding Company, the Operating Company, and Country Sint Maarten will be protected by immediately and in any case expeditiously replacing the entire Supervisory Board of PJIA Holding Company. In case of immediate dismissal, logically no advice can be requested and as such obtained beforehand from the Corporate Governance Council. In the interim, the Managing Board of the PJIA remains in place, and three individuals have been appointed to temporary positions as Supervisory Board Members, to ensure that urgent work needed for the return of the airport to full function, can be done. The Shareholder has identified these individuals as Michel Hodge, Patricia Lourens, and Cleveland Beresford. Johnson stated that returning the Airport to full operation, will curb the rise in unemployment and prevent airlines from cancelling flights to our destination. It will also bolster confidence in the hoteliers, who have already committed millions of dollars to rebuild their properties in anticipation of the return of a robust tourism economy. Johnson said, In understanding the urgency of our airport's reconstruction and its significance to St. Maartens economic revitalization, and securing our hub function in the region, the Council of Ministers carried out its principal duty which is to protect St. Maartens interest. He said, The reality St. Maarten faces today on the reconstruction of the airport almost a year after it was devastated by hurricane Irma on September 6th, 2017, just cannot be ignored. PHILIPSBURG:--- The Central Committee meeting to be held tomorrow Friday, August 3, 2018 at 10:00 hrs. with agenda points 1. PJIA reconstruction Status (IS/159/2017-2018 dated November 27, 2017) (This meeting was requested by MP C.E. Brownbill, MP F.A. Meyers and MP S.M. Bijlani) 2. Invitation for one Member of Parliament of Sint Maarten to participate in a delegation to attend the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations on September 18, 2018 in New York (IS/759/2017-2018 dated July 3, 2018) Has been postponed until further notice upon the request of the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (Shareholder representative PJIA). PHILIPSBURG:--- During the afternoon hours of Friday July 27th 2018, F.O.M.B. (47) originally from the Dominican Republic, attempted to board a flight at the Princess Juliana International Airport. At the Immigration Check point F.O.M.B. handed a passport of the Dominican Republic to an Immigration officer. During the inspection of the passport, the immigration officer noticed that the passport that was handed to her was false. The Immigration Officer immediately alerted other officers of the Alpha Team, who also inspected the passport and confirmed that the passport was indeed false. F.O.M.B. was arrested and his documents were confiscated for further investigation. FO.M.B. was immediately transported to the main police station in Philipsburg where he remained in police custody for further investigation. KPSM Press Release. Four members of New Horizons' South African observation team scan the sky on June 3, 2017, while waiting for the distant object 2014 MU69 to pass in front of a background star. New Horizons team members will travel to Colombia and Senegal to observe another such "occultation" on Aug. 4, 2018. The handlers of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are gearing up for one last shadow-chasing adventure. On Saturday (Aug. 4), the tiny, far-flung object 2014 MU69 will pass in front of (or "occult") a distant star, casting a dim shadow on two slivers of Earth in Senegal and Colombia. New Horizons team members will be ready, camped out in those slivers with their telescopes. The goal is to learn as much as possible about 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, which New Horizons will zoom past on Jan. 1, 2019. [Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures] "This occultation will give us hints about what to expect at Ultima Thule and help us refine our flyby plans," New Horizons occultation-event leader Marc Buie, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement. This is not the mission team's first shadow rodeo. Last summer, scientists traveled to Argentina and South Africa for occultation observations; the Argentina crew hit the jackpot, gathering data that helped set the planned flyby distance at 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers). Last year's observations also suggested that Ultima Thule may actually be two co-orbiting objects, and that it might even have a moon. There are no occultation-observation plans beyond this weekend's campaign, mission team members said. An artist's illustration of New Horizons flying by the small object 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, on Jan. 1, 2019. Recent occultation observations suggest that Ultima Thule may actually be two co-orbiting bodies. (Image credit: Steve Gribben/JHUAPL/SwRI) Ultima Thule lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto, which New Horizons famously flew by in July 2015. Scientists think Ultima Thule is about 20 miles (32 km) across if it's a single object; if it's two bodies, each component is probably 9 miles to 12 miles (15 to 21 km) long. The object's small size and extreme distance from Earth explain why occultations are so prized: It takes a special set of circumstances to get any kind of a look at Ultima Thule, even an indirect one. "Gathering occultation data is an incredibly difficult task," Buie said. "We are literally at the limit of what we can detect with Hubble, and the amount of computer processing needed to resolve the data is staggering." NASAs New Horizons team trained mobile telescopes on an unnamed star (center) from rural Argentina on July 17, 2017. The Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, which is 4.1 billion miles from Earth, briefly blocked the light from the background star, as seen in this GIF. New Horizons will fly by 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. (Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) The Ultima Thule encounter is the centerpiece of New Horizons' extended mission. The upcoming flyby will provide an up-close look at a frigid relic from the solar system's early days and help astronomers better understand the diversity and complexity of the Kuiper Belt, the distant realm beyond Neptune's orbit. Buie was referring to the Hubble Space Telescope, whose observations along with those of the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft allowed the New Horizons team to pinpoint the Senegal and Colombia shadow slivers. The Kuiper Belt includes the 1,477-mile-wide (2,377 km) Pluto, which is a very different object than Ultima Thule. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. A launch abort engine, developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, fires during a 2016 test. A problem with engine valve sin a recent test is pushing back the schedule for uncrewed and crewed test flights, as well as a pad abort test. WASHINGTON Boeing now plans to carry out an uncrewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle late this year or early next year as it addresses a problem found during a recent test of the spacecraft's abort engines. That revised schedule will push back a crewed test flight of the vehicle to the middle of 2019, said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager of Boeing's commercial crew program, during a call Aug. 1 with selected members of the media. A recording of the call was later obtained by SpaceNews. The problem with Starliner's abort engines took place during a test in June at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, where the engines, integrated into a spacecraft service module, were being tested in preparation for a pad abort test then scheduled for later in the summer. [Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi (Photos)] "During the startup of that test, all engines responded nominally," Mulholland said. "At approximately one and a half seconds, we issued shutdown commands to the engines, and several of the abort engine valves failed to fully close." That caused hypergolic propellant to leak from the engines, but did not damage the test article, he added. "We are confident we identified the root cause and are implementing corrective actions now," he said, not specifying what that root cause was. The corrective actions include both "minor design changes" and operational changes, he said, "that we believe will allow those valves to fully close with significant margin in all potential operational scenarios." Mulholland didn't state by how much this specific problem delayed the schedule of test flights. Previous official schedules, publicly released by NASA early this year, called for an uncrewed Starliner test flight in August and a crewed test flight in November, dates that were already in doubt before this problem. Boeing has also rearranged the schedule of key tests "to optimize the program flow," he said. Originally the pad abort test was scheduled for this summer, ahead of both the uncrewed and crewed test flights. Now, he said, that pad abort test will take place in the spring of 2019, between the uncrewed and crewed flight tests. "One of the things that is not required for the uncrewed flight test is the abort capability," he said, allowing the company to push back the pad abort test until after the uncrewed flight. Mulholland said he believed the revised schedule was realistic, but acknowledged there could be further delays. "There certainly are potential risks in front of us as we move through the remaining test program," he said. The revised schedule comes ahead of a planned Aug. 3 announcement by NASA of the astronauts who will fly on the crewed test flights of both Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon, as well as on the first post-certification missions by both vehicles. SpaceX has not released its own updated schedule, but is also facing delays from that previously released NASA schedule that listed an uncrewed flight test in August and a crewed flight test in December. Mulholland said in the call that other aspects of the Starliner program are going well. A structural test article is nearing the end of a year-long campaign of tests, with a final test series planned for September. The spacecraft that will be used on the crewed flight test is nearly complete and will soon be shipped to a Boeing facility in El Segundo, California, for a "multi-month" series of environmental tests. The uncrewed flight test spacecraft is "well into buildup" and recently powered up for the first time. The Atlas V launch vehicle that will launch the first Starliner is also complete, he said, and ready to ship from United Launch Alliance's factory in Decatur, Alabama, to Florida. That will be the first Atlas 5 to use a dual-engine Centaur upper stage. While Boeing plans to use the Atlas V for Starliner missions for the foreseeable future, the company is looking at the option of eventually shifting those launches to ULA's next-generation Vulcan rocket. ULA expects to phase out the Atlas 5 later in the 2020s as the Vulcan enters service and wins certification for launching U.S. government payloads. "We're working closely with ULA and we plan to work in parallel with them to ensure that the Vulcan is human-rated," Mulholland said. "We have a lot of confidence in ULA and their processes, systems and mission assurance focus." Mulholland notes that the tower built at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to support crewed Atlas 5 launches was "augmented" so that it can be more easily modified to be used for the Vulcan rocket, which will require the tower's height to be increased. "We also are paying very close attention to other potential providers," he added, not naming the other vehicles under consideration for launching Starliner. "But as of this moment, we have no definitive plan to move from the Atlas 5 in the near-term." This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry. Four scientists made the case yesterday (Aug. 1) to a panel of senators that Congress should continue to fund NASA's search for life beyond Earth. Only one of those scientists was affiliated directly with NASA, and the hearing touched on a broader range of scientific priorities for the agency and how to balance those with a limited budget. After opening statements, the hearing began with subcommittee chair Sen. Ted Cruz asking the panel flat out why we should search for life on other worlds. "I believe it's one of the big questions of all of humanity. This is how great nations make a mark it's by what they do for their citizens but also how they move history forward," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said. "This will be one of those questions, if answered, that will be remembered forever, because it will be a leap in not only understanding more about nature but a leap in understanding ourselves at a level we've never had in the past." [9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why We Haven't Found Aliens Yet] Other panelists echoed the emphasis on symbolism and inspiration rather than science directly. Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pointed out that most of the current senior researchers came of age during the moon landings. "Today, the equivalent of that is the search for life, and that public search and when we do discover it will inspire that next generation to go into technology," she said. But she was also careful to point to more-tangible benefits that could come from searching for life, regardless of whether we ever find it. She didn't promise specific technologies, but asserted that the scientific research would inevitably lead to benefits not yet expected. "It takes a ton of pure science research to come up with anything practical, things you could never invent if you set out to find something practical," Seager said, pointing to GPS technology, which began as a way to track satellites and was only later used for ground navigation, as an example. That emphasis on spin-off technology was a clear theme in the hearing, with senators pushing the scientists to explain how searching for life on other worlds could benefit humans on Earth. Meanwhile, the scientists offered an economic justification for the search as well as an intellectual one. "When we try to do things that are really hard, like we did at the time of Apollo, when you push yourself to answer the really tough questions, that's when you really push technology forward," Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and former chief scientist at NASA, said. "I would argue that when you push technology forward, you push your society forward, you push the economy forward." The panel also tried to convince the senators that the United States, specifically, is in a position to tackle the search for life and to welcome that search. "Thanks to decades of NASA spacecraft missions, we know how to take the next steps in the search for life at Europa, Enceladus and of course Mars, and eventually Titan," Stofan said. Seager quoted a passage by John Adams in which he expressed belief in life on other worlds long before science could prove such worlds existed. "Although we don't have evidence for life beyond Earth, we are the first generation with the capability to find it," Seager said, describing how the new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the much-delayed James Webb Space Telescope will work together to identify planets around small, faint M dwarf stars. [NASA's New Planet Hunter Begins Its Search for Alien Worlds] Even admitting that such technology was still in the works, Seager emphasized that NASA is on track to develop those tools and shouldn't be distracted from that effort. She was talking about technologies meant to help scientists find what she called "a true Earth twin," a planet with a bright sun and an environment like our own. While most of the hearing's conversation focused on microbial life, the discussion did touch briefly on technologically advanced civilizations beyond our solar system. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan referenced the theoretical possibility of billion-year-old civilizations and asked whether we are even searching for life in the right way. Stofan elegantly directed the conversation back to exoplanet science and surveying our own neighborhood first. And, of course, the James Webb Space Telescope showed up in the discussion, with senators expressing the usual horror at the instrument's cost overruns and launch delays. The scientists all made the case, however, that the telescope was worth it. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.comor follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Certification of both Boeing's CST-100 Starliner (right) and SpaceX's Crew Dragon could slip into 2020, the GAO warned in a new report, raising the risk of a gap in NASA access to the ISS. SpaceX and Boeing won't be flying crewed test flights of their new astronaut taxis until well into 2019, according to a new schedule NASA released today (Aug. 2). The new launch schedule comes just a day before the agency will announce which astronauts will be aboard which company's test and maiden crewed flights as the space community continues its quest to bring human spaceflight back to the U.S. Before today's announcement, NASA had officially planned for both SpaceX and Boeing to fly uncrewed test flights of their capsules known as Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner, respectively this month. Boeing was scheduled to launch its first crewed test mission in November 2018, with SpaceX's equivalent flight coming the next month. Now, however, the SpaceX uncrewed flight is scheduled for November 2018 and its crewed successor for April 2019 edging in front of Boeing's planned launches. Boeing's uncrewed test flight is now targeted for "late 2018/early 2019," and the crewed debut is planned for "mid-2019." That news from NASA follows after Boeing announced yesterday (Aug. 1) that it would delay the launches on a similar schedule, which came in the wake of recent troubles with its launch abort engines during a static fire test. Boeing did not specify whether the delay was due to that issue, however. Less than a month ago, a government report raised concerns that the slow progress of commercial human spaceflight systems would leave U.S. astronauts stranded on Earth, without a way to reach the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronauts have relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get to and from the ISS since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.comor follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. A mediator outside the judicial system will decide whether the gender-discrimination lawsuit against Point72 Asset Management will stay in court, a move that will resolve an ongoing disagreement between the sides lawyers. Based on an order last month by the federal judge overseeing the case, the American Arbitration Association will rule whether arbitration proceedings a common framework that uses third-party officials to settle employment disputes out of court should be enacted to hear the complaint filed last February by Point72 Associate Director Lauren Bonner. We look forward to aggressively litigating our clients claims, regardless of the venue, Jeanne Christensen, one of Bonners attorneys and a partner at Manhattan-based Wigdor LLP, told Hearst Connecticut Media on Thursday. In a statement provided by a spokesperson, Point72 officials said they were pleased Judge (Analisa) Torres agreed with our argument and that this case will proceed in arbitration, as required by Ms. Bonners agreement with the firm. The timeline for the AAAs decision is undetermined. Bonners and Point72s lawyers have to update Torres every 60 days and notify her no later than seven days after the AAA reaches a decision. Since Bonner filed her lawsuit, Point72 has sought to move the case to arbitration. They argue her allegations fall under the purview of arbitration provisions in her contract. She does not dispute the validity of the agreement in general or ... the arbitration clause specifically, said part of a court filing by the firms lawyers in March. She does not challenge the confidential nature of arbitration and in fact suggests repeatedly and accurately in her opposition that the arbitration process she agreed to is a confidential proceeding. Bonners lawyers have countered that her claims are instead covered by the federal Equal Pay Act, New York state labor law, New York state human rights law and New York City human rights law. In a March filing that opposed a move to arbitration, they said Bonner wanted to shed light on pervasive structural sexism at Point72 and hold accountable the firm, founder Steven Cohen, former president Doug Haynes and other executives. Arbitration gives corporate many advantages, harming the cases of victims and silencing them, said Lisa Mainiero, a professor of management at Fairfield University. I am proud to see that Lauren is continuing to fight the good fight despite long odds. Personnel changes A series of management changes at Point72 have followed the filing of the lawsuit, whose allegations Point72 officials deny. Haynes, who had served as president since Point72s 2014 founding, resigned in March. Female employees openly shared the view that as long as Haynes served as president, women will be paid less, the complaint said. Women at times earn 50 cents for every dollar made by their male colleagues, according to the lawsuit. In a March memo to employees, Cohen said the firms transitional period marked a natural point to make way for a new, different type of leader. Point 72 is moving into hedge fund management after a two-year federal ban linked to 2013 insider-trading violations at Cohens previous firm, SAC Capital Advisors. Around the same time as Haynes departure, Cohen hired law firm WilmerHale to conduct an independent assessment and provide advice aimed at improving Point72s policies and procedures. A few weeks after Hayes left, Mike Butler, the firms HR head since 2014, announced his retirement. He plans to serve as a consultant through the fall. The lawsuit alleges Butler and Point72 Chief Legal Officer Kevin OConnor told an unnamed female employee during compensation negotiations that she was getting too aggressive and emotional, and that she could take the offer or leave the company. Mike led the modernization of the human capital team at Point72, the firm said in a statement when Butlers retirement was announced. He has been a person of high integrity who has been passionate about improving the firm. pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott STAMFORD Homeowners seeking to overturn a Zoning Board ruling that would allow a large fitness center in their neighborhood are a step closer to succeeding. Turn of River residents appealed the zoning decision to the Board of Representatives, whose Land Use Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the full board reject it. The board will decide it Monday night. Residents filled seats in the government centers legislative chambers and applauded after a meeting that lasted just minutes. They thanked the committee members, Annie Summerville, D-6; Anzelmo Graziosi, R-13; Nina Sherwood, D-8; Benjamin Lee, D-15; Megan Cottrell, D-4; Bob Lion, D-19; Charles Pia Jr., R-18; and Virgil de la Cruz, D-2. One member, Bradley Michelson, R-1, was out of town and could not attend the meeting. Residents have been fighting a proposal to build a high-end, 100,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor health club, one of a national chain called Life Time Fitness, in High Ridge Office Park for more than a year. Three months ago the Zoning Board approved a change in zoning rules that would allow such a facility to be built in that office park and five others along High Ridge and Long Ridge roads. Office parks are increasingly hurting for tenants and city officials are seeking ways to repurpose them. Representatives on the Land Use Committee decided Wednesday the rule change isnt the way. Lion said his concern is that the change does not fit the description of adaptive re-use of office parks called for in the citys Master Plan. Outdoor pools were never in any of the C-D zones and therefore it was added, in my view, and not adapting an existing building, Lion said. Having said that, an indoor gym would be an amenity many of my constituents would like to see. But this text change went beyond that. Lee said the zoning change needs further review. I share the residents concerns that, as drafted, noise would not be effectively controlled, Lee said. While I understand the concern for seeing that office parks are viable, there were no practical measures for protecting the character of the community. A savior? Cottrell said the developer did not make a case for such a facility. We were told that this is a great savior for office parks but we didnt have the data showing a demand for luxury fitness, she said. She is concerned about the number of added cars such a facility would draw to an area congested with traffic coming on and off Merritt Parkway Exit 35, Cottrell said. We were told there would be no effect on traffic, which I think is disingenuous, she said. They told us traffic would not be bad because 35 percent of the Life Time membership would be people who work in High Ridge Office Park. I think that number is really high, given the price point for Life Time Fitness. De la Cruz said he rejected the Zoning Board decision on its merits. I evaluated all the testimony and I felt the residents and their representatives have made a good case, de la Cruz said. The city needs to grow, but residents depend on the protections that Zoning affords. Graziosi agreed. Peoples houses are their biggest investment, and this would clearly impact their quality of life, Graziosi said. They didnt bargain for this when they bought their homes. When you purchase a home near an airport, you cant complain about the noise. Thats not the case here. He is concerned that the rule change would affect future proposals for the other corporate campuses, Graziosi said. It can have collateral damage, he said. Its not something that should be taken lightly. Just wrong Sherwood said the rule change does not conform with the Master Plan. The concept is adaptive re-use. This is not that, Sherwood said. Im happy this board listened to the people, because that is our job. Im glad we were able to provide a check and balance. The Zoning Board was just wrong on this. Summerville said she voted against the change because of the outcry of constituents in Turn of River and other neighborhoods. I have never seen such an outcry, said Summerville, who has been a representative for more than 40 years. People have a right to make themselves heard. They did that. There were mistakes with the Zoning Board that highly concern me. I think this is a signal to look at things a little more carefully in the future. The issue began to heat up in February, when the Planning Board, which advises the Zoning Board, rejected a proposal to change a zoning rule governing office parks to allow stand-alone fitness centers. Planning vs. zoning The Planning Board helped rewrite the Master Plan to allow corporate parks to be adapted for new uses so owners can attract tenants. But neighborhoods must be protected, Planning Board members decided. In May, however, the Zoning Board, which does not have to act on the Planning Boards advice, approved the rule change. Residents of the Sterling Lake condominiums near High Ridge Office Park pooled their money and hired an attorney to do battle with attorneys for the owner, George Comfort & Sons. Joined by other residents who said they are worried about development in their neighborhoods, Turn of River residents gathered signatures to petition the Board of Representatives to review the Zoning Board ruling, as the city Charter allows. They gathered 700 signatures. But city attorneys rejected 560, saying condominium owners cant be counted because they are not landowners. City attorneys also said a signature is invalid unless all inhabitants of a co-owned home also sign a husbands signature, for example, cant count unless his wife also signs. That left residents short of the number of signatures needed for the Board of Representatives to review the zoning decision. They then asked the board to determine whether the signatures were valid. The board accepted their petition last month, then agreed to review the Zoning Board ruling. acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296 Nobody told me thered be days like these. Strange days indeedthe most dangerously Orwellian days I can remember. Absolutist authoritarians dominate both the Trump and anti-Trump camps inside and outside Congress, and both are committed to the new McCarthyism. Devin Nunes, head of the House Intelligence Committee, insists that Trump didn't collude with Russians, but that he, Nunes, repeatedly warned of Russian interference in US elections during Obamas second term. I suppose that the rival accusations of the Democratic and Republican parties make this a little better than a monolithic, absolutist authoritarianism, but not much since both claim that the Russian Bear is everywhere. Whichever party is in power will bait the Bear, then say we have to expand domestic surveillance, the military budget, and the empire of bases, despite enormous potential for shared abundance. We can look forward to more murder, poison, and privation within our own borders and beyond. Former CIA Director John Brennan called for a military coup if Trump fires Robert Mueller, and my otherwise affable neighbor called for a military coup because Trump traveled to Helsinki for a summit with Vladimir Putin. At least a few prominent Republicans are likely to call for a coup if a Democrat becomes the next US president, especially if that Democrat is Black. #KounterfeitKamala and #BoughtBooker are both in the running, so hold onto your hat and your civil liberties. Midterm Mayhem Once again, the rivalry of the duopoly parties seems to be the one thing saving us from full blown totalitarianism. But Dems are so taxed trying to outdo Republicans in baiting the Russian Bear that theyve got little energy left for fighting Trumps ever more aggressive privatization and austerity measures. But then again, why would they? Theyve been down with the program ever since Bill Clinton took the White House, and Trump is just speeding it along. Theyre all rich stockholders, and the markets been booming ever since Trump took office. Theyre now a lot richer. If Republicans hold onto their control of the House in the midterms, Nunes will continue as House Intelligence Committee Chair and keep investigating Democrats for fabricating Russiagate. If Democrats take the House, Ranking Member Adam Schiff will assume the Chair and investigate Republicans for Russiagate. As it is now, Nunes has declared the Democrats Russiagate investigations over and denied them funds to bring witnesses to Washington and hold hearings. Someone is footing the Dems witness travel bills anyway, and theyre holding their own hearings in Nancy Pelosis office. Genius in Peril Now Ecuador is close to handing Julian Assange over to UK authorities, who will no doubt extradite him to the US to stand trial, but for what? Neither Assange nor Wikileaks are named in Muellers latest indictment for the alleged hacking and theft of DNC and Podesta emails. Mueller blames instead Guccifer 2.0, a dubious identity, and DCLeaks, a dubious website, both allegedly created by Russian spooks. Last year Wikileaks Vault 7 release revealed CIA cyber tools that could hide the origins of its own hacking attacks and disguise them as Russian. In December 2017, Julian Assange appeared at the Holberg Debate in Oslo by video conference from his cell in Ecuadors London Embassy, where he called the claims that he did it a very interesting form of fake news: On the one hand, we dont speak about our sources in general, but we have said our source is not a state in this case. Theres been no presentation of evidence that that claim is not a correct claim. But what are the allegations, the formal allegations by US intelligence agencies? They obviously cant be trusted. Their businessthe CIAs businessis both stealing information and fabricating information. Thats its business. Its statements obviously cant be trusted. But what are its statements at their strongest? Its statements at their strongest are that there were hacks of the DNC. They provide no evidence. Its their assessment. There were hacks of the DNC that they believe were somehow sponsored by Russia, and this information then flowed through some third party [Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks] and came to us. And we published it. Thats the US intelligence allegation at its strongest. They say explicitly that theres not an allegation that Wikileaks conspired with Russia or conspired with the Trump campaign. Thats not the allegation from the US intelligence services. But are their allegations that Wikileaks did conspire with [Russian] intelligence services and the Trump campaign? Yes. Every day. Those are made every day in the US press, fabricating even the strongest allegation of the US intelligence services. So here we have an interesting example where the statements of the CIA are more moderate than the statements of the US mainstream press. Its very interesting. You would think that the CIA would be making outlandish allegations and then the press would be checking those allegations and somehow producing a less strident form of them. Its exactly the opposite. Assange thus demonstrated once again that he is reason incarnate whether applying his genius to advanced mathematics, computer wizardry, or ordinary language, even in extreme circumstances. Reminds me of Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, who turned his execution by guillotine in 1794the bloodiest year of the French Revolutioninto his final science experiment. He promised to blink as many times as he could after his head was severed from his body while a fellow scientist counted. Were not going to see Assanges head roll, although some, including Donald Trump, have called for his execution. The more likely outcome will be that his persecutors lock him up and throw away the key. A grim prospect for him and for the rest of us who care about truth, transparency, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. I cant imagine that even Jefferson Beauregard Sessions IIIs DOJ plans to prosecute Assange over the DNC and Podesta emails since neither he nor Wikileaks are named in the Mueller indictment that blames all that on Guccifer 2.0, DCLeaks, and 13 Russian spooks. They couldnt prove it if they did. This week Glenn Greenwald explained the consequences of the alternative, prosecuting Assange for espionage because he published classified documents, a crime he could not and would not deny: The U.S. Justice Department has never wanted to indict and prosecute anyone for the crime of publishing such [classified] material, contenting themselves instead with prosecuting the government sources who leak it. Their reluctance has been due to two reasons: First, media outlets would argue that any attempts to criminalize the mere publication of classified or stolen documents is barred by the press freedom guarantee of the First Amendment, a proposition the Justice Department has never wanted to test; second, no Justice Department has wanted as part of its legacy the creation of a precedent that allows the U.S. government to criminally prosecute journalists and media outlets for reporting classified documents. But the Trump administration has made clear that they have no such concerns. Quite the contrary: Last April, Trumps then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, now his secretary of state, delivered a deranged, rambling, highly threatening broadside against WikiLeaks. Without citing any evidence, Pompeo decreed that WikiLeaks is a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia, and thus declared, We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. Got that? Prosecuting Assange could establish a precedent for prosecuting any media outlet that publishes classified material. Will that mean the original publisher and/or ensuing republishers? What about journalists who quote classified materials? What about their outlets? Its a slippery slope. I wish Theresa May's Tory government would hurry up and collapse, so Julian Assange could find safe harbor in the UK, but the US is no doubt rushing to get him out of there before that happens. So we have to keep writing, talking, broadcasting, and protesting before and after Ecuador hands him over, however futile that may seem. Hes not only shared troves of documents that reveal the workings of the worlds power elites, but also shared his genius to help us understand advancing technologys implications for privacy and information control. A friend of his just told me, Julian is a genius, and geniuses have a way of winning in these situations that the rest of us would never imagine. Amen to that. I wish he could upload his astonishing brain into hyperspace and vanish for the time being, but Ecuador has taken his computer away. Strange days indeed. Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann@anngarrison.com. The Most Extensive and Reliable Source of Information Related to the Mexican Drugs Cartels. You will not find this level of coverage anywhere else, join us! Send information, pictures or videos, you remain 100% anonymous. Envia fotos, videos, notas, enlaces o informacion todo 100% Anonimo. Want to be a contributor or citizen reporter for Borderland Beat? We love to have you in our team, send Sol Prendido or HEARST an email! WARNING: Posts may contain strong violent material, discretion is advised. COMMENTS: We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. B arclays chief executive Jes Staley on Thursday admitted that Britains banks are being punished by the vote to leave the EU and warned that a hard Brexit could be a disaster. The American banker was talking as Barclays revealed a 20% jump in half-year profits to 3.7 billion, a sign, said Staley, that the bank is clean and ready to keep stealing business from Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are all paying a steep price for Brexit said Staley, with share prices failing to reflect the firms value. British banks are on the lowest multiples of any banks, he said. It is very important to get an agreement, to continue in the customs union. While a hard Brexit might have benefits in the long term, the short term impact would be huge, he warned. Barclays is under fire from activist investor Ed Bramson, who thinks the bank has billions of dollars in capital it could return to investors immediately. Staley admits Barclays could soon have cash to play with, but ruled out a big merger deal. The bank is clean. All the major legacy issues are dealt with. This is a bank that is functioning. We are going to be generating excess capital going forward, but I dont believe we should be going into another restructuring, he said. All youve got to do is look at Deutsche Bank. Barclays paid out 1.4 billion to the US Justice Department, knocking results, but the investment banking arm had record returns from advising clients on takeovers. Overall revenue was flat at 10.9 billion. Staley admitted Barclays has a history of creating self-inflicted wounds and said we want to be boring. There was another 400 million pay-out for PPI claims, aside from which the UK arm is doing well. Barclays shares were flat at 191p, which values the bank at 33 billion. Bramson has built up a 5% stake and has told his own backers he wants Barclays to ditch its trading arm. E ngineering giant Rolls-Royce will spend more than 1 billion to fix rotor blades that have grounded hundreds of flights around the world. The blue-chip plane engine maker booked a 550 million charge today due to ongoing problems with the Trent 1000 engine, which is used on Boeings 787 jet, sending it into the red. Rolls expects to spend 1.3 billion between now and 2022 to fix the issue. The money will be spent on redesigning and manufacturing new rotor blades, engineers for extra shop visits to inspect the planes and paying claims from airline customers who cant fly. The 550 million represents around 40% of the 1.3 billion, which was booked as an accounting charge today. The rest will flow through the accounts over the next few years. The charge pushed the engineering giant 1.3 billion into the red for the six months on a reported basis. Underlying figures were better and shares rose. Rolls has faced problems on the Trent 1000 for the past six months after it found the rotor blades were running out quicker than expected. The moves to fix the problem has caused havoc for airline customers. Japanese airline ANA cancelled more than 200 international flights scheduled for September and October today to allow for inspection of the engines. Cash costs will be 450 million this year and next and then 350 million in 2020. East was upbeat about the underlying prospects for the group, which saw revenue up 14% to 7 billion and operating profits up 200% to 141 million. Ophelia Brown, the founder of Blossom Capital, discusses investing in the tech sector and once applying for a job at MI6... What do you do? Im the founder of Blossom Capital, an early stage venture capital fund that invests in the most ambitious founders in Europe, in the tech world. There are four of us, with backgrounds including Uber, Deliveroo, and Facebook; weve all built or invested in world-changing tech companies and now want to help founders who are starting out in Europe to do the same. What does that involve? Its not just about the money we help founders to build products, hire staff, bring products to market, and expand internationally to world domination. I cycle into the office, by Cannon Street, from my house near Columbia Road, then spend most of the day on my bike going to founders offices it saves them time and means were in their environment so its easier to solve any problems. Most weeks Im flying somewhere in Europe or the US, where I visit at least once a month. A lot of our businesses are looking to expand there, plus Im hunting for new opportunities. What do you enjoy? Meeting really inspirational, driven people it sounds grandiose but the founders we invest in really are trying to change the world. One of our investments is Fat Llama, a consumer marketplace to rent almost anything. The three founders believe theres far too much waste and we shouldnt buy and own so much. I also love constantly learning about new markets, industries and approaches. What dont you enjoy? I hate being cut off, facing dead time when youre not able to do things. Like long-haul travel without wifi. When the plane takes off, Im thinking nooo! What was your biggest break? Getting my job at Index Ventures in 2012. They were investing both in Europe and the US, so I wanted to work there to get exposure to the Valley. They said mine was the CV they kept throwing out the window but it kept coming back I applied again and again, to different people. Eventually, one of the partners said he was keen to see how Id apply my persistence at finding a job to the task of chasing a founder for investment. And I got a job. Biggest setback? I applied for a job at MI6 but I got stuck on a question asking me about the future of Britains defence in five years time. I think it made me realise I wasnt the best applicant to be a spy... And I didnt get through the first round. Then I decided to start a peer-to-peer car sharing start-up called Carmunity. Id bought the domain, and sorted out insurance for 50 cars around London, but was beaten to market by easyCar. I figured [Sir] Stelios [Haji-Ioannou] had more money than me, and decided to think about venture instead to give me a better idea of the start-up landscape. How do you handle your-work life balance? Its a struggle. I think of it as, you have to work hard now to buy your freedom in the future. But if I do have a spare evening, I love the theatre, and art thats why Ive stayed in London rather than moving to the West Coast [of the US]. I run every morning with my husband, who works in in private equity he walks next to me, though, making the (annoying) point that Im going too slow! Any tips? Believe in yourself when I started building Blossom, so many people told me I was crazy. W e never make mistakes: so says an unnamed Soviet security investigator when asked about the fate of an arrested individual in Alexander Solzhenitsyns novella An Incident at Krechetovka Station. For months, a similar principle governed the Labour Partys official response to the anti-Semitism scandal coursing through its ranks. No matter how great the concerns of the Jewish community; no matter how many instances of anti-Semitic behaviour by party members were disclosed; no matter how wanting Labours new code on anti-Semitism was found by those it is meant to protect: the response stayed the same. Jeremy Corbyn is a lifelong champion of the oppressed and an anti-racist campaigner. Ergo, it is axiomatically impossible for him to be anti-Semitic, or to lead a party in which anti-Semitism is a structural problem. As he finally conceded in March, there may be pockets of anti-Jewish prejudice in the party but no more. How could there be? We never make mistakes. That position was never remotely tenable and now it is crumbling in the most ignominious fashion. Matthew d'Ancona The latest humiliation visited upon Corbyn is the revelation that, at a rally in 2010 , he compared Israels actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany at Leningrad and Stalingrad. On Monday he was forced to apologise after it was disclosed that he had hosted an event at the House of Commons on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010 at which the Israeli government was compared to the Nazis. Views were expressed at the meeting which I do not accept or condone, the Labour leader said. If that is so, one has to ask: why did Labour, when drawing up its new code, conspicuously omit the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances specific reference to drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis as a standard example of anti-Semitic behaviour? Why is Corbyn now denouncing views expressed in 2010 which his party has legitimised in 2018? Meanwhile, Peter Willsman , a member of Labours ruling National Executive Committee, has also issued an apology for an extraordinary outburst at an NEC meeting in which he attacked Jewish Trump fanatics and vehemently questioned the claims of the 70 rabbis about anti-Semitism in the party. The partys general secretary, Jennie Formby, has ruled that no inquiry into Willsmans behaviour is required. Contrast this with the treatment meted out to the Labour MPs, Dame Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, both of whom face disciplinary action for criticising the leadership over anti-Semitism. As Corbyn flails, some of his most senior colleagues are trying to salvage some of Labours dignity. Tom Watson, Labours deputy leader, tweeted: For the avoidance of doubt: Peter Willsman is and always has been a loud-mouthed bully. He disgusts me. More alarmingly for Corbyn, John McDonnell , the shadow chancellor, has let it be known that he is deeply unhappy with the manner in which his boss has handled this deplorable mess, telling The Independent that he is cut to the core. Yet McDonnell himself has questions to answer: in 2008 he signed a Commons early-day motion welcoming the launch of a hardline anti-Zionist group that called for the destruction of Israel and alleged collaboration between Zionists and the Nazis. Two questions of the highest importance are posed by this deepening scandal. First: why is the Labour leader so apparently blind to this systemic problem? "If Corbyn cannot handle this crisis, how can he possibly handle Brexit? Or law and order and national security?" The answer is that, for many on the far-Left, Jewish people are a minority only in the numerical sense. They do not conform to the narratives of oppression associated with modern identity politics. They are categorised instead as powerful, white and nationalistic in their creation of Israel and unforgivably aligned with US imperialism. Corbyn does not approach anti-Semitism as he would other forms of racism because he does not believe it falls into the same ideological category. Second: what does Corbyns conduct have to tell us about the sort of Prime Minister he might be? In December he informed Grazia magazine that he was ready to assume the office tomorrow. The listing galleon of Brexit and the shaky parliamentary arithmetic propping up the Government could force a general election at any time. So the Labour leaders insistence that he is match-fit needs to be tested relentlessly. In his handling of the anti-Semitism furore Corbyn has revealed himself to be captious, resentful, weak, easily-fazed, constrained by ideology, indifferent to evidence, slow to spot political peril, unmoved by anxieties that he regards as inconsistent with his political worldview, sectarian rather than statesmanlike, incapable of focus, relaxed about double standards, and spectacularly ill-suited to crisis management. The proliferation of anti-Semitism is a problem of the greatest seriousness but it should not have been difficult to solve. A true leader would have taken action as swift as it was unambiguous, leaving no room for doubt that this toxin would be drained from his party without compromise or delay. Ask yourself this: if Corbyn cannot handle this crisis, how can he possibly handle Brexit? Or the renationalisation of the utilities and rail? Or law and order and national security? W e WELCOME the figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) highlighting the significant health benefits of trees [How trees and plans help save UK 1 billion a year on health, July 30]. There is a lot of developing science showing how the environment could improve our lives, and recognising the direct health benefits of trees is a positive step in our understanding of this area. Put simply, more trees could lead to fewer visits to hospital. Much of our knowledge about the health benefits from trees actually comes from outside the UK, so it is important that we catch up with this research. This is the sort of evidence that supports the new National Tree Champion, Sir William Worsley, in his role delivering Conservative Party manifesto pledges (one million more trees in towns and cities and improved protection for urban trees). Research underlines the case for better tree protection and increased planting in our cities where air quality is poor. Planting new trees and protecting existing ones should be seen as a key policy priority for government at all levels. Trees can contribute to the economy in many ways health savings are just one, but they make it difficult not to justify investment in the future of urban forestry. Joe Coles Woodland Trust EDITOR'S REPLY Dear Joe Im STILL baffled why this argument hasnt won out yet. Sadiq Khan promised two million new trees for London when he became Mayor then cancelled the pledge. And up in Sheffield they are being cut down. Yet the value of trees is increasingly obvious. From cleaning the air and absorbing heat to carbon storage, they have environmental benefits. There is also an aesthetic and social value which can be seen in house prices and pride in an area. It is no accident that Holland Park Avenue, lined with trees, is one of Londons most expensive streets. I agree that it should be policy and there is a real opportunity right now in London for us to become the city of trees. As car use falls, parking permits are restricted and car-sharing becomes more popular, we can reclaim our streets little by little and build pavements out into what once was parking or driving space. This would create new locations for urban trees, further away from buildings. It would also be signal a deep-rooted investment in the environment and public health. Shall we get planting? Joy Lo Dico, Executive Editor, Projects Build homes but make them affordable and community-led We wholeheartedlY agree with your leader [Targets are just the start to get London building, July 30]. Londoners desperately need more homes, and fast. But what our city requires most is homes Londoners can afford, and communities which thrive. Our 15 London members will build at least 12,000 affordable homes in the capital by 2022 and with more money and access to land, could build even more. Some members have already modelled and planned how they can increase their building programme over that. Our local expertise means we build on hard to tackle sites which deter private developers. We also provide additional services which help create communities in Fulham we are building affordable homes with a new base for a local charity supporting disabled people. More support for housing associations, especially community-based ones, is crucial if we are to get beyond setting targets to delivering the homes Londoners need. Matt Campion CEO, Shepherds Bush Housing Group Imran is just best of a bad bunch I WAS surprised at Muddassar Ahmeds comments [Many British Pakistanis will welcome Imran Khans victory, July 27]. The reality is that most Pakistanis, including those living in Britain, have been forced to accept Mr Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), as the best of a bad bunch. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif became mired in allegations of corruption, following the Panama Papers revelations. The alternative, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was always at a disadvantage because of his inexperience and his relation to former President Asif Ali Zardari, who received vast kickbacks during the premiership of his wife Benazir Bhutto, herself assassinated after a political rally in Rawalpindi in 2007. Mr Khans background is no less colourful, if only for different reasons. Salim Bhimji Pros and cons of a second referendum John McFarlane treads the Remainer path but curiously does not provide any cogent argument on why we should stay in the EU [Mrs May should call a referendum, The Reader, July 31]. It can be argued, similarly, that Remainers were uninformed and, besides voting for the status quo, had no idea or preferred to be oblivious to the risks that lay ahead by staying in the EU. Another referendum would be a disaster. The die is cast. This fog of self-doubt needs to lift. David Caillard I wholeheartedly concur with John McFarlane. Better still, senior Conservatives should agree to announce a moratorium on the entire process for, say, five years. If we use the time wisely we can sort out real issues and forget crazy ones. Robert Boston Working together against knife crime We welcome the Evening Standards knife crime investigation, which calls for a truly London-wide approach, inspired by what has worked elsewhere in the UK. Fresh ideas are needed. Areas of high crime do not respect bureaucratic boundaries. I am proud to announce we have established a network of six London boroughs (Westminster City Council, ourselves, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Brent and Harrow) who are working to tackle knife and violent crime. Most celebrities exclusively wear high fashion. A little bit of high street might creep in during the school run, perhaps, but for small independent labels to break into the wardrobes of the A-list is tough. Apparently not for 21-year-old student Teni Adeola. The Nigerian-born, London-raised and New York-based creative is about to go into her final year of university, but instead of spending her spare time on nights out or napping, Teni (better known as Tia) is focussing all of her time on her ever-growing fashion brand, Slashed By Tia. Tia started the label when she was just 18 during her first year of university. Much like many girls embarking on the newand often nerve-rackingfreshers experience, the budding designer felt self-conscious, so started making clothes for herself that she felt comfortable in. Her designs didn't stay in her own wardrobe for long. Thanks to social media, her brand quickly grew, going from just another account on Instagram to having 37.1k followers and fielding DMs from the stylists to the stars. Slashed By Tia's ruffled pink sets / Sophia Wilson/ Slashed By Tia Slashed by Tia is now known for its signature ruffle sets, which merge brightly coloured sheer materials with OTT ruffles. It may sound outlandish, but the feminine frills coupled with the rebellious 'free the nipple' silhouette exudes a certain enchantment, which has the rare ability to actually make you stop scrolling through your fashion-filled Instagram feed. Describing her aesthetic as "whimsical but still badass", Tia says the inspiration behind her designs is the renaissance period. And, much like a painting, she wants women to feel like "all eyes are on them when they walk into the room". Indeed, that's exactly the effect her eye-catching ensembles have had when celebrity wearers have stepped out in her often see-through styles. Tia's already created custom pieces for Sza, Kali Uchis, Lorde, Dua Lipa, Little Mix and, most recently, Gigi Hadid. Talking about how Gigi recently came to wear one of her reflective yellow designs, she explained: "Her stylist just sent me an email. It felt really good and fulfilling, not to add to the fact that she looked amazing!" Gigi Hadid wearing Slashed By Tia / Jackson Lee / SplashNews.com But having celebrities wearing her clothes isn't top of Tia's accomplishments. Having first debuted her ruffle designs on the catwalk in her hometown of Lagos, Nigeria in 2016, by March 2018 Tia's head-turning designs were hitting the runway of none other than Paris Fashion Week. "I was just asked to take part and only showed up two days before with the clothes because I had school," she explains. "It was an amazing experience, one particular piecethe pearl one-legged jumpsuitwent viral on Instagram and since then Kali Uchis has worn it for her editorial in King Kong magazine." Slashed By Tia's Paris Fashion Week debut also highlighted to the young designer the ongoing lack of diversity within the fashion industry. "I want every girl no matter where shes from to be able to wear Slashed by Tia. Growing up in London and now living in New York, diversity to me is so important," says Tia, whose images always champion inclusivity and are often created by an all-female team. Paris Fashion Week, she explains, was different: "I received my cast list and there were no models of colour. "I sent a pretty feisty email expressing that I could not have a runway with no models of colour and they responded and gave me two models of colour out of a cast of 13. Since then I have taken it upon myself to always make sure my models are as diverse as possible." Slashed By Tia's latest collection / Sophia Wilson/ Slashed By Tia As for what the future holds for the stylish student? "When I have the budget and infrastructure I want to have a couture line and make one-off pieces. But, I definitely still want to keep the more affordable clothes that the everyday girl like myself can afford," says Tia. T he Marvel franchise has brought more joy to millions of fans around the world than any series since the heyday of the Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies. Over the course of 20 films, enormous star power, staggering earnings and some of the most imaginative and gripping blockbuster cinema in recent years has made the franchise a global institution. While DC struggles to cement its place in Hollywood, producing equally inspired (Wonder Woman) and woeful (Suicide Squad) movies, Marvel is a model of consistency, turning out huge spectacles time after time. Ever since Iron Man launched the modern Marvel franchise in 2008, the series has been stuffed with unforgettable scenes and set-pieces. With Captain Marvel out in cinemas, take the perfect opportunity to revisit them. Ant-Man And The Wasp - Trailer From epic superhero scraps to emotional payoffs, these are the 10 greatest Marvel moments. 10. Nick Fury's offer This was the moment that proved Marvel fans should never walk out of the cinema until the very final credits have rolled Samuel L Jackson appears in one final scene in 2008s Iron Man, proving an indication of what was to come in the franchise. You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet, Fury says, hinting at the universe Stark and the viewer were about to enter into. Its one of the shortest but most significant scenes in the series. 9. Thor vs Hulk Director Taika Waititi brought great energy, humour and vivacity to Thor: Ragnarok, creating one of the most enjoyable Marvel releases to date and proving the age old theory that a little Jeff Goldblum goes a long, long way. Its most compelling moment came during the arena clash between Thor and the Hulk. "We know each other. He's a friend from work," Thor says, before the pair proceed to smash seven shades out of each other. All you need to know about the movies humour, flair and epic scale is contained within the scene. Unmissable stuff. 8. Puny God The biggest mic-drop moment in the series comes from Mark Ruffalos Hulk, who silences Loki with incredible style during the Avengers. You are all of you beneath me. I am a god, you dull creature! Loki screams, before being picked up and flung to the ground. Puny god, Hulk says. Seeing Tom Hiddlestons villainous character thrown around like a rag doll was one of the most satisfying shots in the movie and one that fans arent likely to forget in a hurry. 7. Groot's sacrifice Marvel might be known for its action and superhero bad-assery, but it knows how to deliver a knockout emotional blow too. The moment Groot selflessly sacrifices himself to shelter his friends in Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the most hard-hitting the studio has ever produced. The shot of smouldering ash and burned out twigs in the aftermath of the explosion is one of the most touching in all of the Marvel movies too. Many viewers found themselves welling up over the demise of a CGI tree voiced by Vin Diesel something surely no other franchise could ever dream of achieving. 6. Killmonger vs T-Challa This, the main showdown in Black Panther, helped make the film such a success, mixing gripping, claustrophobic combat with emotive performances. The sheer physicality of Michael B Jordans Erik Killmonger is pretty staggering, while Chadwick Bosemans T-Challa hides behind a shield and cannot hope to match him. Forest Whitakers sacrifice allows Boseman to eventually survive, take leadership of Wakanda and fulfil his destiny as Black Panther. 5. Elevator escape While most of the Marvel series is epic in its scale, bringing expansive set piece after expansive set piece to life on screen, one of the best moments actually happened in the most constricted of spaces. This incredible scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier sees Chris Evans hero take down assailants surrounding him in an elevator. The tension builds as the elevator descends, before Hydra members attempt to capture him to no avail. The tightly-choreographed sequence remains one of Evans finest moments. 4. Air Force One rescue This thrilling sequence from Iron Man 3 is a perfect example of the grand action sequences that Marvel does so well. Iron Man pulls of this incredible mid air rescue operation after 13 passengers are flung out of Air Force One following an explosion. Using his "barrel of monkeys" technique, Robert Downey Jrs hero plucks them out of the air one by one, forming one of the highlights of the film. The scene showcases not only the filmmaker's vast creativity to conceive such thrilling set pieces, but also the execution to do them justice. 3. Avengers assemble Comic enthusiasts across the world let out a collective, involuntary squeal of joy back in 2012, when some of the most high-profile superheroes of all time came together to fight the Chitauri in Avengers Assemble. Black Widow, the Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Hawkeye gather together in one incredible, sweeping shot, leaving an indelible image in fans memories forever. 2. Captain America vs Iron Man The showdown of all showdowns takes place in 2016s Captain America: Civil War. Friends become sworn enemies as the group splinters, leaving Captain America, Iron Man and Bucky to slug it out in one of the franchises most gripping sequences. Every punch is loaded with pathos and everything is seen with the knowledge of the heroes past experiences together, elevating this far above the majority of fight sequences in the series. 1. Airport battle Fans were bombarded with action in Captain America: Civil War, which brought together a huge group of superheroes more coherently than ever before. Captain America, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther, Vision and Spider-Man all take part in the incredible series of set-pieces, proving that more is more, when done correctly. Team Cap and Team Tony go head to head in the breathtaking sequence, which delivered unforgettable moments, managed to do all characters on screen justice and form the highlight of the franchise to date. D aisy Johnson, 28, is a writer drawn to pagan myth and the mysteries of the natural world. Her first story collection, Fen, was set in East Anglia amid river-dwelling creatures and marshland sprites, who morphed into temptress figures from local folklore. Beneath the fenland magic ran discomfiting themes of anorexia, domestic violence and marital discord. Two years later comes Johnsons debut novel, Everything Under, with oedipal themes of incest, cross-dressing and gender-swapping. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the novel is a modish, heady brew but hard-going at times. At first glance, Everything Under appears to be in narrative disarray, the plot scissoring backwards and forwards bewilderingly in time. Gretel Whiting, the narrator, warns early on that there are more beginnings than there endings to contain them. As a child she had lived a rackety and directionless life on a houseboat with her mother Sarah. When not drinking alcoholically, Sarah would go off for casual sex with men on the canal towpath. At the age of 16, Gretel was finally abandoned and, wretchedly unhappy, put in foster homes. Set partly on the River Isis in modern-day Oxfordshire, Gretels is a troubled story of mother-daughter estrangement, which cleverly re-configures the Oedipus myth as a feminist morality tale. The father-killing, mother-marrying Oedipus becomes a gender-fluid person called Margot (or Marcus, depending), who appears to have supernatural insight into Gretels abandonment. What exactly happened between Gretel and Sarah on the Oxfordshire houseboat? It must have been something terrible, Gretel is dimly aware of that: but what exactly? Driven to find out, she quits her job as a lexicographer in Oxford (updating dictionary entries) and sets out to piece together her past. She visits loca l morgues, hospitals and boatyards in search of her mother. The sleuthing ends mostly in dead ends, but there is one clue. During their houseboat days Gretel and Sarah had been haunted by a spectral creature called the Bonak, which seemed to sow discord among the moored boats and their owners. The Bonak may or may not have caused Margot herself (or himself) to be abandoned in a canalside dustbin as a child, Sophocles-style, and later to commit murder while in the grip of some sort of madness. All this is prophesied by yet another gender-fluid (possibly transgender) clairvoyant called Fiona, who blows into the narrative unexpectedly. A hybrid of Alexander Trocchis 1954 murder-on-a-canal novel Young Adam and Angela Carter at her most witchy and far-out, Everything Under is creative writing of distinction. Lovely descriptions of the Oxfordshire countryside alternate with consciously poetic formulations You shouted my name and it twangs forward through the ancient years, bruising as it comes, tinged with just-born blood. Johnsons novel conforms to a current trend for classical Greek literature to be re-written from a womans (or a gender-odd) point of view. Madeleine Millers The Song of Achilles and Kamila Shamsies Home Fire are each works for our confused and disenchanted times. Some may like them, others not; Johnsons, for all its surface brilliance, left me disappointed. B efore The Plus One, Sophia Money-Coutts spent five years at Tatler writing hilarious articles about the foibles of the aristocracy (one of her last hurrahs was interviewing the man who inseminates the falcons of Middle Eastern oligarchs). Her debut novel, therefore, functions partly as a thinly veiled memoir. Single 32-year-old Polly works for Posh!, a society magazine with an MO of Castles. Labradors. That sort of thing, as Polly tells a prospective one-night stand. An early journalistic expedition sees her visit a Norfolk castle to interview the dashing Jasper, Marquess of Milton. He makes a move and they end up dating, which means much soul-searching on Pollys part as to whether she fits in, or not, with the posh set. Meanwhile, her best friend Lex gets engaged and Polly worries on and off about who to take as a plus one to her wedding, while dealing with her curtain-shop-running mothers illness and the mad requests of her red-faced editor, Peregrine. Bridget Jones is an obvious influence, from the description of Pollys M&S knickers (size sixteen because I liked pants to be roomy) to the ludicrous media job that requires her to go to sex parties with Cabinet ministers. Not to mention the Mr Darcy-like character of Jasper (although a musing on Jane Austens second most famous novel, Sense and Sensibility, at the start of the book, should give you a steer on The Plus Ones narrative arc). The sex scenes are bracingly well-written but Im not sure theres quite enough depth to Polly to make her a 21st- century Bridget. She seems mostly to be living the absolute dream, and its difficult to feel empathetic angst. And while there are sheikhs trying to wangle dukedoms, articles on whippets are the new black and press trips to luxury Spanish spas, it feels as though, given Money-Couttss Tatler experience, there should be more upper-class barminess on show. It could use a professional falcon inseminator or two. As it is, this is perfectly jolly chick-lit: similar to Sophie Kinsellas Shopaholic novels, with a 2018 update of Ubers and Instagram. Polly is not going to be a generation-defining heroine of the genre. But as a light, fizzy rom-com to kick back with after a bottle of rose this summer, The Plus One does the trick nicely. E arlier this year the future of Bibendum, a wine merchant supplying the majority of Londons restaurants, was cast into doubt. Parent company, Conviviality, which also oversaw Bargain Booze and Wine Rack, had received profit warnings and then an unanticipated 30m bill for alcohol duty and VAT. Blaming human error, it promptly entered administration. Fortunately, Dublin-based C&C, the makers of Magners cider, saw virtues in Bibendum and saved it, bringing back popular wine figure Michael Saunders as chief executive. Saunders, who says he would bleed Bibendum if cut, has a long history with the merchant, joining in 1983 and building it up until Conviviality bought it in 2016. I caught up with energetic Saunders after his return to the helm, at bijou restaurant Odettes, metres from Bibendums Primrose Hill HQ. Coincidentally, it was the merchants first restaurant account. Saunders poured inky, violet-scented Malbec from long-standing Argentinian producer, Catena, as he mentioned he initially wanted to play professional polo rather than go into wine. Indeed, he apprenticed with one of the highest-rated female polo players, Claire Tomlinson in Argentina, escaping as the Falkands war broke to New York via Uruguay. Being under 21, I couldnt sell wine, he recalls of his first job in the Big Apple. However, because of his English accent, Saunders was let loose on the phone, advising customers on vintage port. I thought, I can do this N ine oclock in the morning, Luton airport, and Im in The Shakespeare having a pint. Kidding. Anyone who does 9am drinking in an airport pub is 100 per cent legit weird. Really, Im decanting some teeny-tiny bottles of lotion from a clear plastic washbag into a clear plastic bag whose transparency is in no way inferior to the first, apart from in the eyes of the man on airport security. Plastic bags only, he barks, with characteristic Man On Airport Security charm. One sealed bag per passenger. Alas, the bag is too small for the 243 x 100ml bottles I have packed. I give half of them to my eight year-old, who has no need for anti-wrinkle cream. But needs must. Take those through for me, I say, as though they are crack cocaine. Which they may as well be. No matter that the liquid ban has been in place for 12 years; still nobody really knows whether a tub of Philadelphia, a snow globe or a pot of Slime are contraband. Behind me a woman is crying because shes been told to throw away the five 1.5 litre bottles of water shes just purchased for a flight to Nigeria with her three kids. Why even sell large quantities of liquid pre-check-in? Its cynical, as is the ban, which was only meant to be a temporary measure until, presumably, the airport retailers realised what a cash cow they were on to by forcing millions of passengers into rebuying drinks and toiletries they already had at home. Trunk call: Dame Joan Collins travels in style / DENNIS STONE/REX/Shutterstock Happily for those who travel frequently, wretched at being forced to take a swig of Aptamil milk powder or just cant leave the house without packing the entire contents of Boots, someone has invented a new technology with automatic explosive detection capability that should allow x-ray scanners to produce a 3D image of the contents of passengers luggage. Soon to be trialled at the posh peoples airport, aka Heathrow, if it proves successful it will mean an end to 12 years of hurt that never stopped us dreaming of industrial-sized bottles of unguents that would prevent us from holidaying looking like wrinkled old hags. Fingers crossed. Midnight cowboys Some people say that nothing good ever happens after midnight. Who are these people? Nuns? Narcoleptics? The kind of fun-lovin folk who start yawning at 9pm and wondering whether if they have a mug of Kenco theyll manage to stay up for the first half of the News at Ten? Sorry, but all the best things happen after midnight. So what a crying shame that Hackney council has unanimously passed a licensing policy forcing all new venues to shut at 12am on weekends. Alamy Stock Photo Nightclubs taught me as much about life and culture as any university degree. Theyre the reason British music and fashion is world-class: without Londons club scene, Galliano and McQueen would probably have designed fewer jaw-dropping gowns and more terry-towelling lounge suits. Kill the nightlife and you kill the creativity. London is open? Only until 12am, it seems, and then it turns into a pumpkin. Or Luxembourg. Going swimmingly What to wear in a heatwave? Dunno: my clothes are all way too hot. What not to wear in a heatwave, I could write a thesis about. Denim. Black. Maxi dresses. Shirring. Shoes. Strapless bras. Make-up. Hair. In fact, lets all just shave off our body hair and get naked, traversing the city like giant babies, sweaty but free. H ome is I live with my sons, husband Dermott and our labradoodles, Olive and Ivy, in Clapham. Where would you recommend for a first date? Casse-Croute on Bermondsey Street. Its a very sweet French bistro and has brilliant kerb appeal. Small, cosy and the food is delicious. Where do you go to let your hair down? Bob Bob Ricard (below) is always fun. 'Press for champagne at Bob Bob Ricard (Bob Bob Ricard) / PR HANDOUT It has a great atmosphere and food. When staying close to home, I go to The Dairy or The Manor owned by Robin Gill; both are so good. I might go there before heading to my local cinema, Clapham Picturehouse, because it always has interesting independent films. Clapham Picturehouse / Alamy Stock Photo Who do you call when you want to have fun? The stylist Leith Clark. She has incredible taste. Leith Clark / Getty Images Whos your hero? My first job in fashion was at Esprit in Germany. My boss was the art director Marieke Muskens. She was an incredible graphic designer and saw my works potential early on. To this day we are good friends. If you could buy any building, which would it be? Erno Goldfingers 2 Willow Road, which is one of the best examples of a modernist house in London. I love that the three childrens bedrooms can be open plan during the day and closed off at night. Your London secret? 575 Wandsworth Road was left to the National Trust by the Kenyan poet and civil servant, Khadambi Asalache. He covered every surface over 20 years with beautiful hand-carved fretwork. Which shops do you rely on? Places and Spaces in Clapham Old Town for modern home design, Alfies Antique Market for vintage furniture and clothing, and Honey & Spice, a great Middle Eastern deli, for the best baba ganoush. Alamy Stock Photo What would you do if you were Mayor for the day? Having just been to Paris and seen the rainbow stripes for LGBT+ on every pedestrian crossing in the Marais, I would paint every lamp post a different colour. I would then pedestrianise. A rainbow of streetlights and no cars would surely make every Londoner smile. Alamy Stock Photo Best meal youve had? Kitchen Table behind a curtain in Bubbledogs on Charlotte Street: 15 delicious courses matched with perfect wine. I went with Dermott and our son and we chatted with the chef and other diners. It was a friendly experience with room for only 20. Biggest extravagance? I love the theatre. I treat myself to good seats, always in the front five rows of the stalls. I book dinner after, often at J Sheekeys, for a relaxing debrief on what we have seen. Most iconic Londoner in history? Mary Quant. She changed the course of fashion, seizing the moment that was the Sixties, creating a look that embraced the attitude of the time when women wore what they wanted free of conservatism and restriction. Mary Quant / Bettmann Archive Iam standing in white cotton pyjamas, balanced on one leg, looking out over a lagoon. The air is humid, full of birdsong and distant chanting. On the grass causeway an egret walks between the legs of a grazing cow, straight-backed and slender as if it, too, has been to yoga with Sonali Sibal. I had known of Sonali as a mysterious Indian yoga teacher based in Oxford about whom friends talked with proprietorial restraint like a secret they wanted to keep to themselves. About wellness in general I had the ignorant scepticism of a stereotypical Englishman towards Goop-infused Ayurvedic practices. Coconut Lagoon Im here in Kerala in Indias south-west with Sonali at the instigation of my wife, Gillian. Our group of six is divided evenly into three devotees, like Gillian, and two fellow sceptics like me: Sheru, an Indian-born dermatologist from Beaconsfield, and Alketa, a doctor from Milan. Before arriving at our base, Coconut Lagoon, Sheru summed up his preconception of yoga and its sister science Ayurveda as basically stretching exercises and perfumed massages. We land in Kochi, the spice capital of the world. Not until I see a cargo boat steam past our waterfront hotel, with Malabar 2 on its prow, do I realise we are on the Malabar Coast, the title of a briefly famous poem by my grandfather, which begins: I remember a great sea breaking on grey sands / And cocoanut palms that came down nearly to the water. We spend the next three days exploring Kochi through the informed lens of Sonali, sampling alternative examples, as it were, of the spiritual and the restorative. We visit the oldest synagogue in India. We go to St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was originally buried; and we visit a tea plantation in the Cardamon Hills, the camellia assamica bushes forming a jigsaw of vibrant green mattresses laid out in a vertical crazy paving. With infusions of white tea, these offerings pave the way for our wellness yoga retreat on Vembanad Lake. St Francis Church in Kochi / Getty Images Like Venice, the resort of Coconut Lagoon lies in a setting approachable only from the water. Surrounded by tall palms, the 50 bungalows are built on reclaimed land divided by a network of small canals. I watch two men up to their waists clearing silt and packing the banks to let the water flow in one of them. The image captures the treatment were shortly to receive, which aims, in Sonalis words, to clear our energy channels. As unique in her way as the setting and an invisible spirit behind everything, Sonali is the reason were here: an authentic bridge between the Western mind and the culture in which she grew up living yoga from the age of seven. Her great-uncle was the legendary Bengali guru, Sri Aurobindo, and her paternal grandfather in Delhi gave Sonali her first lessons. Later in Rishikesh by the Ganges she met a guru who recognised that she was born to teach. She has been doing so for the past 15 years in London and Oxford. For me, its not only my gift; its a calling and a service, and I feel its my duty to share it. She explains her gift like this: When you see a child fall and graze themself, you run and touch their knee and the child gets up and runs off. In yoga, you are doing the same to yourself because your body has the power to heal. The guru is guiding you to yourself. Like Aurobindo who pioneered Integral Yoga as a path to transcend from lower emotions to your higher self she braids together yoga with massage, meditation, marma therapy and dance. This fusion is what makes her uncommon and sought-after. A Paris-based social entrepreneur in our group has been on five of Sonalis retreats and says Sonali only has to look at you to intuit where your body is weak then she assists you in mending it. Its a clean-up. Every nook and cranny is oiled, perfumed, dusted and you feel you have added several years to your life not any years, but good years. Youve got rid of your emotional and physical junk. Our 12-day treatment is a fusion of the spiritual and the physical. It begins over a teak bridge at the resorts Ayurvedic Centre. In order to determine my treatment, I must know my constitution. Thirty questions later Am I combative? How thick are my eyebrows? How fast do I walk? etc I am judged a kapha, or water-based personality. Im quite curious. I tell the Master, as the centres head is known, that my grandfather was a professional dowser in northern India, where Ayurveda began 5,000 years ago (and where my father was born), and as a child I had a small talent for water-divining. Might there be a connection to my kapha body type? Yes, he smiles inscrutably, though the evidence is not yet there. The Master, Suresh Pankajakshan, is widely known for his ability to cure old sporting injuries through marma therapy, a form of deep-pressure massage similar to acupuncture of our marma or vital points. The previous year, the Paris entrepreneur went to him with a knee injury. He played guitar on the back of my knee. I got down from the table and I put my leg down, braced for pain, and there was no pain. This time he cures the Italian doctor Alketa of a longstanding ache in her lower back caused by whiplash from a car accident. Before, I had to use my whole body to turn. Now if I move my neck have a look. Twice a day to release my toxins, two young masseurs, Agas and Nidhin, give me a kapha-based rejuvenation massage with oils. They begin with a chant I came across first in TS Eliots The Waste Land Shanti Shanti Shanti. They use medicated coconut oil for my head, sesame oil for my body. Halfway through each massage I drink a small glass of warm clarified butter. A steam bath follows a wooden cupboard with handles, like something to keep cheese in. Afterwards Agas smears me with herbal soap, washes me down with warm satinwood water and towels me dry. A new leaf: tea plantations in the hills of Kerala / Getty Images Sonali tops and tails these sessions with a yoga lesson for our group. I absorb her ancient wisdom as if its an oil. For the first time in years my poor body feels recognised, unignored, wakened. My mind, too, feels sharpened, connected, italicised. She says, It really is about oiling you from the inside out. Thats not all. After 12 days I have lost 14 pounds while Alketa has lost nine pounds. I can move my legs much better. It makes me positive in everything. Sheru, an insomniac, also is feeling lighter, fitter, more reflective. Guess what happened last night. I slept for five hours! Last time? Oh, 25 years ago. And I dont feel tired. He says of his unanticipated transformation: In the fusion of disparate elements, its as if two and two makes five. To the Paris entrepreneur, the last word. Its so healing. You would be foolish not to do everything in your power to come back. When was the last time anybody washed you? It makes you want to weep. Youre always taking care of people you love children, husband, dying parents. Its fine, its something I enjoy. She drops her voice to a whisper. But to have someone take care of you, its just heaven. Sonalis next wellness yoga retreat at Coconut Lagoon is 12-21 September. C herry Blossoms have captivated artists for centuries and continue to captivate the worlds attention through platforms like Instagram. In recent years, Japan has become synonymous with the Cherry Blossom, the tree that flowers from April through May each year. The iconic sea of pink washes through the country come spring where tourists flock to see the gorgeous hues first-hand. Known as Sakura, Japan has mastered the art of Cherry Blossom appreciation, with retailers decorating their stores in the pink florals months before the first flower emerges and they even have a dedicated Cherry Blossom forecast, where the trees are analysed to predict when they will bloom. When the blossoms finally arrive, this calls for the nation to indulge in hanami which translates to looking at flowers. This is where people will have picnics under the trees and appreciate the blooms. When is the best time of year to see the Cherry Blossom? The tricky part of seeing the Cherry Blossom is the timing. If the weather has been particularly warm that year, as it has this year, they might appear earlier than if there has been a cold winter. The best time to visit the blooms is early April as they generally last from late March through to early May. This year, as the winter has been unseasonably warm, the blossoms have already begun to appear, meaning full bloom will be earlier than usual. Shutterstock The first blossoms often appear in Okinawa, sometimes as early as January, and move north before reaching Hokkaido in early May. According to the Cherry Blossom Forecast, this year the blooms were expected to begin flowering in Tokyo on March 21 and the first full bloom day will be March 30. Where are the best places to see the Cherry Blossom? Mount Yoshino has been Japans most popular Cherry Blossom viewing spot for centuries as the mountain is covered in over 30,000 cherry trees. Crowds gather in the tree-covered slopes and you can also visit temples or hike up to the Hanayagura View Point. The blossoms here often last until May. For easy access, Tokyo is also home to a number of hanami nature spots like Ueno Park or Shinjuku Gyoen the latter which has 1,500 cherry trees. Early April is the best time to see these blooms. For a truly magical spot, you can visit Himeji Castle in Himeji, with its striking white walls contrasting with the pink hues of the blossoms. The best time to visit here is early April and its just a 60-minute train ride from Osaka. Mount Fujis Five Lakes region is the perfect spot to get a glimpse of two of Japans best-known natural wonders. Head to Chureito Pagoda in mid to late April to get the best view of the trees with Mouth Fuji in the background. Philosopher Nishida Kataro used to walk along a path on his way to Kyoto University every day, and thus is became known as the Philosophers Path. Now, each year around early April, the path is in full bloom which makes for one of the more beautiful walks you will ever take. O ne in 10 Britons has been a victim of stalking, shocking new statistics show. A YouGov poll commissioned by media outlet Broadly and anti-stalking charity Paladin, showed nine per cent of 1,150 adults asked said they had been stalked. A further one in five people (21 per cent) said they knew someone who had been stalked. The majority of Brits believe more could be done by UK authorities to tackle the issue, the survey showed. Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis was harassed by her stalker for years / Getty Fifty-six per cent of people polled said the government don't do enough to combat stalking while 53 per cent said police did not take reports of the issue seriously. Three out of five people said they didnt report stalking to police. Paladin has recently issued proposals for a new stalking register to be launched. It would allow people to find out if their partner has previous convictions for stalking or domestic violence. Billy Piper was also a victim of stalking / Getty Images Seventy-seven per cent of people asked would support a register being introduced, the report showed. A second survey of 13 to 24-year-olds who follow website Vice on video and photo messaging app Snapchat suggested young people are particularly vulnerable to stalking. Of the 12,000 Snapchat respondents, 35 per cent said they had been victims of stalking while 56 per cent said they knew a victim of stalking. The shock results came just days after a man convicting of stalking TV presenter Christine Lampard was handed a nine-month suspended sentence after waging a hate campaign over Twitter. Christof King walked free from court despite stalking Christine Lampard / PA Christof King even turned up at Mrs Lampard's home in a two-and-a-half year campaign that left her too scared to leave the house. The 39-year-old was handed a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday. In May, the Met Police became the first force in the country to set up a specialised unit to tackle stalking. The Stalking Threat Assessment Centre (STAC) is a joint initiative in partnership with Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH) and victims advocacy service the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. The 1.4m project is part of Sadiq Khans bid to stop violence against women and girls in the capital. Cressida Dick has launched a task force to help combat stalking in the capital / Lucy Young It will aim to improve the police response to stalking, offer specialist advice to borough officers and protection to victims. The service, staffed by eight officers, two nurses, a nurse manager, a psychiatrist, psychologist and a victim advocate, will also offer rehabilitation services for offenders. There is no legal definition of stalking, however, it has been described as a pattern of unwanted and persistent behaviour that is motivated by a fixation or obsession that causes a victim to suffer alarm, distress or a fear of violence, according to the Met Police. Over 1,000 reports of stalking were recorded by police in London last year and there were 12,000 reports of harassment. Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said of the two-year pilot scheme: When we think of the impact on victims, violence is the most obvious concern that comes to mind, but, psychologically, stalking can also have a devastating impact that can leave victims feeling like they have no options but to alter their entire way of life. A rapper with a drill music group was stabbed to death yards from his front door amid fears of an escalation in a bloody gang feud. Sidique Kamara, the 23-year-old father of a four-year-old daughter, was found fatally injured outside a block of flats in Camberwell. He was attacked just yards from where 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, a fellow member of the drill group Moscow17 was shot dead in May. The pair were pictured alongside Capital XTRA DJ Tim Westwood in a promotional image released in April last year. Police, Forensics and Detectives at the scene in Camberwell / Nigel Howard Although wearing balaclavas and scarves, friends said Kamara - who performed under the name Incognito - is instantly recognisable from the trademark Arsenal medallion he wears in rap videos on YouTube. Two other men, age 16 and 31, suffered serious stab wounds and were rushed to hospital in the attack at 7.20pm last night. Rapper Sidique Kamara, aka Incognito, was stabbed to death in Camberwell The killing came just a day after Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said she believed the rate of violent crime in London was beginning to stabilise. Five people were killed as a result of violence in London last month, compared to 18 in both February and March. The Moscow17 groups music label tweeted last night: Today we have taken a very sad loss.. we ask for all prayers to be directed towards him and his family. Triple stabbing: A forensic tent was in place at the scene / Nigel Howard The death will raise further questions over drill musics role in glorifying and inciting violence. The genre, which originated in Chicago, has been criticised by police for its violent lyrics and the Met has successfully applied to ban some groups from performing on YouTube amid fears they are inflaming gang tensions. Forensic officers at the scene in Warham Street, Camberwell / PA Witnesses to last nights attack in Camberwell told how the men were ambushed by attackers who arrived at the scene in Warham Street on the Brandon estate on Boris bikes. Primrose Angelique, who saw the aftermath, told the Standard: I saw them cutting his clothes off him. He was on the ground, there was blood. As I watched there was surge of girls that came through. It looked like there was blood on their clothes. Everyone was screaming. Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton was shot dead in May in Kennington An off-duty nurse ran down to him with a jacket to stem the blood coming from his side. She said: Two young girls ran over to him and gave him CPR whilst I was on the phone to the ambulance. He was still breathing and there was no one else around. I tried to stop the blood gushing. He was dying, he couldnt say anything. Kamara, an Arsenal fan, was the youngest of three siblings and had a four-year-old daughter, a family friend revealed today. She told the Standard: He was like a son to me. I heard shouting and came down and saw him lying on the floor stabbed. His mother was in shock last night I still cant believe it. These boys never think of the mothers pain that is left behind. The killing is the 88th murder in London so far this year and brings the total number of young people aged 25 or under who have died violently to 33. Kamaras killing also comes exactly a week after 18-year-old Latwaan Griffiths, a rapper from the drill group Harlem Spartans, was stabbed to death less than a mile away in Denmark Road. On July 22, a 25-year-old man suffered non-life threatening injuries after being stabbed outside the Brandon Estate, where Moscow 17 are based. Detectives are investigating if the latest attack is part of an escalating gang feud in south London. The day before his death, Kamara tweeted: My Part Of My Hood Is Tragic Right Now ... I Walk With Allah Daily Im Blessed. In June, Kamara was interviewed about the influence of drill music on violence on Londons streets and admitted it is leading to violence - but said that young people in deprived areas of London have nothing else to turn to. He said: But people want to use an excuse now. The government cant solve the problem. They could bring out youth clubs, you could invest into many other things to help the community, but no you just dont want to do that - you want to use an excuse and blame drill. The rapper was cleared of murder at the Old Bailey in January after being accused of the gang murder of an alleged rival. Kamara and a co-defendant were alleged to have executed Abdirahman Mohamed for apparently laughing at one of their friends. Kamara claimed he had been deliberately misidentified and both were found not guilty. Last night residents spoke of their fear that the latest killing would lead to further violence. Marisa Clacey, 36, who works at the Golden Goose pub yards from the scene, said: This is not going to stop. There are a lot of gangs round here. Everyone is carrying knives, everyone is bound to use them. Everyone round here is scared. All the young boys I know are scared for their lives. T ommy Robinson has described his prison sentence as an attempt to "mentally destroy" him as he spoke publicly for the first time since being released. Robinson, who was released from HMP Onley in Rugby on Wednesday, said he was subject to "solitary confinement" and treatment that amounted to "mental torture". The former English Defence League leader was released after three leading judges quashed a contempt finding made at Leeds Crown Court in May. They granted Robinson conditional bail from a 13-month jail sentence pending proceedings in another case at the Old Bailey. Former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson leaves Onley Prison / PA Speaking to supporters in a video posted on Facebook, Robinson said he had been a "target". Supporters of Tommy Robinson outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London / PA "What they have attempted to do is mentally destroy me. That was not a prison sentence. That was mental torture," he said. "That solitary confinement, all of it, everything was orchestrated and organised to cause me maximum disruption." Robinson, 35, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed after he filmed people involved in a criminal trial and broadcast the footage on social media. Judges quashed a finding of contempt made against him at Leeds Crown Court in May / PA He said: "I could be bitter and angry about everything that's happened, but if I'm bitter and angry I'd accept my own victimhood. I'm their target, I'm not their victim." Robinson also accused the mainstream media of publishing "hit-piece after hit-piece after hit-piece" about him. The case earned international attention and became a cause celebrate for elements of the political right around the world. Tommy Robinson walks free after court challenge but could still face jail Right-wing media outlets including Fox News, Breitbart and Robinson's former employer, Rebel Media, also flocked to his cause, alongside high-profile figures including Donald Trump Jr and actress Roseanne Barr, and internet personalities associated with the so-called alt-right. Followers from as far afield as Istanbul and Washington sent him almost 20,000 worth of Bitcoin, including a payment of more than 5,500 which passed through his Bitcoin wallet on the day he was jailed. Thanking well-wishers from "all over the world," he said: "I did not expect to come home today." The video, which was viewed more than a million times in the hours after it was posted, showed his emotional reunion with his children. Robinson could still face jail over an allegation that he committed contempt of court by filming people in a criminal trial and broadcasting footage on social media. H ackney has seen a bigger leap in residents disposable income over the last two decades than anywhere else in Britain, a study has found. The amount of money locals have left to spend or save after mortgages or rent and taxes has nearly trebled from 6,448 in 1997 to 19,261 today more than double the UK average, according to data from accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young. It is yet another sign of the boroughs gentrification, from an area known for its poverty to a destination for hipsters and celebrities. Among the trendy businesses is foodie hub Mare Street Market , backed by TV chef Gizzi Erskine, and the Rio cinema, where actor Idris Elba proposed to Sabrina Dhowre at a screening this year. Hackney regulars Idris Elba with fiancee Sabrina Dhowre / Dave Benett/Getty Images London designer outlets in railway arches revamped by architect David Adjaye include Burberry , Pringle and Matches, while celebrities such as former Doctor Who actress Freema Agyeman, as well as Hackney-born Elba, have helped raise the areas profile. In the past two decades Hackney house prices have increased more than in any other local authority, including prime boroughs such as Kensington & Chelsea. Tech and finance workers at Old Streets Silicon Roundabout are partly behind the trend, while the extension of the late-night London Overground between New Cross Gate and Dalston Junction last year made nearby apartments even more popular with City bankers. Former Doctor Who actress Freema Agyeman has helped raise the areas profile / Getty Images The average cost of a flat in Hackney is now more than 515,000, making it the 11th most-expensive borough in London. Its a far cry from Lord Sugars adage about growing up in E8. When youre born in Hackney and you do well in life, you move to Chigwell, the star of The Apprentice said. Philip Waterfield, director at east London estate agents Strettons, said: When I started working in Hackney in the mid-1980s, a five-bedroom house in Clapton could be snapped up for 20,000, but buyers had to be brave because it was an area with a history of gang violence. Brougham Road in the 1980s / Photobucket Back then we had minor celebrities like Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers and Christopher Biggins living nearby, but now celebrities and professionals alike are flocking to what is really a large parish on the edge of the City. Values have soared. Martin Jones, a partner at UHY Hacker Young, said the statistics have shown Hackney has become one of the most gentrified places in the UK. Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s 1 /12 Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Bethnal Green Hospital Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Ridley Road Market Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Turkish clothing worker Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Lesney's Matchbox Factory Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Homeless Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Hackney Town Hall protest Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Hackney Town Hall Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Stoke Newington School Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Sally Army Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Lew Lessen barber Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Rachel Point Neil Martinson Another Time Another Place: Hackney in the 70s and 80s Bethnal Green Road Neil Martinson But he claimed the area is still cheap to some. Many are attracted to the property prices which can often be relatively cheaper than those in some neighbouring areas, most notably Islington, he said. T he young daughter of a restaurant owner found unconscious outside her pizzeria has not yet been told of her death, her family revealed today. A police investigation was launched after mother-of-one Lilia Djairine, 24, died near Italian restaurant LOro di Napoli in Hanwell two weeks ago. Paramedics fought to revive her but she could not be saved. A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as hanging, and an inquest is due to take place at a later date, with police treating her death as unexplained. Ms Djairines mother Izabela Szypulska, 46, today said her four-year-old granddaughter Yasmine had been shielded from the news of her mothers death, adding: She is with her father. She does not know anything. We will [tell her] but not in this moment. She is starting school in September, her first school. We dont want her to be sad. Yasmine stayed with family and friends in the days after her mothers death on July 19. She is now being looked after by her father, Rafik Bouteldja, who lives in Feltham. Police Officers and detectives at the scene in Hanwell (NIGEL HOWARD) / NIGEL HOWARD He has been keeping her occupied by taking her swimming and going to the cinema, he said. The 36-year-old added: She does not know anything about her mother. We are just going out every day, trying to keep her busy. I have not told her yet because I have not found the right time. How do you tell a four-and-a-half-year-old? It is shocking. The young mother, who was half-Polish and half-Algerian, was born in London and lived with Ms Szypulska in Islington until she was 1 Ms Djairine moved into the flat above the Hanwell branch of LOro di Napoli when it opened nearly two years ago. She lived there with her boyfriend, who is a waiter at the restaurant, and her daughter. Ms Szypulska said: I am trying to sort things out, pay wages, but as soon as I remember the tears are coming and coming. She is in my head every second. My heart is broken to pieces and Im missing Lilia terribly and Im praying to God to give me strength for my little granddaughter Yasmine. I lost my father in a car accident when I was 17 and my mum from cancer when I was 21, and now my daughter when Im 45 I dont know how Im going to survive. She added: [Lilia] had spent the day before with her daughter at the park She was a very giving person. She didnt care about money. All the customers would say how sweet she was. A suspected attempt to fly missile warhead components to Iran via Heathrow has been thwarted by the UK Border Force. At least two O rings which can be used to form seals in rockets were detected during an inspection of freight being flown out from the airport. They were supposedly being sent for use in the Iranian oil industry. But Border Force staff halted the shipment after becoming suspicious that the real intention was to use them in missiles. An investigation is now under way which could lead to criminal action against those responsible for sending the parts. Revealing the seizure, Monique Wrench, the UK Border Forces deputy director at Heathrow, told the Standard that the suspected illicit items had been confiscated as part of counter-proliferation work carried out by her staff. The rocket seals were intercepted by UK Border Force staff / PA Wire/PA Images We had a couple of O rings that we identified. O rings are pieces of rubber that go between tubes to stop leakage to seal them. They can be used in oil, but they can also be used for warheads and the like. Our staff stopped them from going to Iran. It is a component part. It looked like it was going to an oil refinery. But the dots dont quite join up here. The aim is to stop Tehran, which is a supporter of President Assads regime in Syria from improving its ability to destabilise the Middle East / Reuters Ms Wrench declined to say whether any arrests had taken place and added that HM Revenue and Customs had now taken over the investigation. The sale, supply, transfer or export of missile-related goods and technology to Iran is banned under sanctions enforced by Britain and other countries. "This equipment looked like it was going to an oil refinery. But the dots don't quite join up here." The aim is to stop Tehran, which is a supporter of President Assads regime in Syria as well as the banned military wing of the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation, from improving its ability to destabilise the Middle East. Prison sentences and large fines can be imposed on those who break the rules. Among those who have been punished for such activity was Andrew Faulkner, a former British Royal Marine. Faulkner, 42, was jailed for two and a half years in 2010 by a judge at Southwark crown court after he had admitted trying to send 100 hi-tech Schmidt and Bender sniper rifle sights to Iran in an illegal arms deal. New high-speed railway could cut journey between Gatwick and Heathrow to just 15 minutes He had claimed that the military-grade equipment was destined for a buyer in Dubai who wanted to use them for hunting, but was convicted after the shipment was intercepted at Heathrow. HM Revenue and Customs declined to give further details of the ongoing investigation into the latest alleged military sale for Iran, saying that it does not comment on identifiable businesses. T hree of Londons most historic food markets could be merged onto a single site under plans revealed by the City of London today. Billingsgate, Smithfield and New Spitalfields all face being moved to create a 100-acre wholesale venue. The City Corporations markets committee has agreed in principle to consolidate the markets but the proposals would need Parliamentary approval. The City said the plan has been developed in order to to secure their continued operational success. Plans: A vendor poses with his stock at Billingsgate Market Property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton has been appointed to undertake the search for a suitable new site. Ali Candan who owns Billingsgate Cafe, known among traders for its scallop and bacon sandwiches, said said: Lots of public come here. In a new market Im not sure if they will like it or not. Market Halls - in pictures 1 /6 Market Halls - in pictures Market Halls A render of how Market Hall Victoria will look Market Halls A render of how Market Hall Fulham will look Market Halls A render of how Market Hall Victoria will look Market Halls A render of how Market Hall Fulham will look from outside Market Halls The original ticket hall where Market Hall Fulham will open Market Halls The inside of the original ticket hall where Market Hall Fulham will open We dont know if it will be good or bad. If we dont get any public coming in who will we serve? They have said we have to go. I dont want to go for me its a risk. Billingsgate fish market first started on the bank of the Thames in the 16th century before moving out to Poplar in 1982. Keep smiling: Theresa May grins at a trip to Smithfield Market during a visit / Getty Images Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market was established by Charles 1 in 1638 and was moved close to Leyton, in the early 1990s and is now known New Spitalfields market. Smithfield is Londons last remaining wholesale market that has operated from the same site for almost 1,000 years. The Museum of London is to make its planned 70 million move from the Barbican to Smithfield Market The ancient meat market is located in a Grade II listed building in Farringdon by Victorian architect Sir Horace Jones who also designed Tower Bridge. Its butchers supply meat game and poultry including to Michelin starred London restaurants. Traders, customers and tenants will all be consulted on the proposal as well as lobby groups Historic England and the Victorian Society. A ndrew Murray, Jeremy Corbyns closest adviser, recommended that the Labour leader accept all of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definitions on anti-Semitism except one, which he argued should be put to a public consultation. Murray, chief of staff to Unites general secretary Len McCluskey, said Labour should endorse a much simpler and less contentious code of conduct than its ruling National Executive ultimately adopted, according to Robert Peston, ITVs political editor. Instead Labours high command has dropped four of the accepted IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, choosing instead to create its own illustrations of anti-Semitic language and conduct. Murrays view, shared by many in Labour, is that it was absurd for the party to imply that it had a more authentic view of anti-Semitism than the Jewish community itself. However, Murray did propose a public consultation over whether it was anti-Semitic, as IHRA asserts, to call the foundation of the Israeli state a racist endeavour. Some Palestinians regard the existence of Israel as a manifestation of racism or colonialism. For many years Corbyn and his director of strategy and communications, Seumas Milne, have expressed solidarity with that view. News that Murray, a former Communist Party member, is unhappy with how the leaders office has handled the row exposes how alienated Corbyn and Milne have become. Jon Lansman, co-founder of Momentum, has also been critical. Last night Politics Home editor Kevin Schofield drew attention to the stark difference in how Corbyn and John McDonnell have responded to questions on the issue. Corbyn issued a curt good morning, nice to see you, goodbye when doorstepped yesterday while McDonnell said the row had really shaken us to our core. He spoke of the members of the Jewish community out there really suffering. Two days ago McDonnell denied there was distance between himself and Corbyn after the FTs Sebastian Payne wrote a piece saying the greatest threat facing Jeremy Corbyn is John McDonnell, but privately Labour sources say he is frustrated by the row. Don't blame it on the sunshine... Official Rajar figures, released yesterday, show BBC Radio 4s Today has lost 800,000 listeners in the past year. But the programmes staffers are not disheartened, saying its a general news problem not just a Today problem. 5Lives figures are down significantly more than other news stations, a source points out, adding: We get singled out because we are more high-profile. Why the dip? Everyone is just sick of Brexit. They want to go out in the sunshine they will be back. Hows that for a literal case of blue-sky thinking? --- Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It and The Death of Stalin, supports the Peoples Vote campaign. People have been asking if Im going to make a Brexit Thick of It, he says. Id love to. Unfortunately, Im not laughing. This situation is now not just crazy, its catastrophic. --- Was Tony Blair behind David Bowies fascination with Gnosticism? When Bowie visited Blair at Chequers in 1998, he left with a gift: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. Bowie listed the book, which parallels ancient Christianity and Buddhism, in his top 100, telling NME he was interested in the Gnostics, and Blackstar, his last album, is heavy with Gnostic symbolism. Grant saddles up at a Hooves Who gathering for bespoke bookies In good spirits: Patrick Grant (Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images) / Getty Images for Bugatti Automobiles Tailor Patrick Grant got back in the saddle last night after packing up his his E.Tautz store in Mayfair owing to rising rents and more and more customers shopping online. The immaculately turned out Grant appeared to be in good spirits as he struggled to straddle a bucking horse in the grounds of Cowdray House in West Sussex at the Fitzdares Racing Futures Dinner. Grant, who made a name for himself as a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee and once told the Telegraph that he was a drink champagne and then get the bus home sort, was joined by a crowd of well-bred types including Tatler cover girl Sabrina Percy a distant cousin of the Duke of Northumberland and recently dubbed by the society bible as Babe of the Month. Milliner Lady Laura Cash channelled Jackie Kennedy in a colourful cocktail dress and pink pillbox hat as she posed with Balthazar Fabricius, the CEO of bespoke bookmakers Fitzdares. You dont see names like that every day. SW1A Twitter account Shit Parliament, arguably the most amusing thing to come out of Westminster lately, has been forcibly shut. The Londoner has learned that the anonymous poster was apprehended by estate officials. Feed photos included MPs in socks and sandals, ashtrays bristling with fag butts and air conditioning (opened windows). A source says the culprit was reprimanded and their employer informed. They also received advice on parliamentary rules. --- New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tripped over the nationality of his wife Lucia Gao in China on Monday, saying she was Japanese she is actually Chinese. Cue guffaws. Steerpike has unearthed a 2015 interview with Hunt in which he reveals: My first girlfriend was Japanese. She was another student at Oxford. And thanks to her I got quite interested in Japan and then I decided to go and learn Japanese. Quote of the day We are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and were also princesses Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice tell Vogue about their difficult juggling act Johnny blows cover on Operation Vote L abour MP Keith Vaz has been accused of bullying House of Commons clerks, allegedly telling one she was bad at her job because she was not a mother. Several clerks have also claimed that his overseas trips with the Commons committee would often deviate from the planned itinerary without explanation. Mr Vaz strenuously denied the allegations, reported on BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, including that he breached any rules of the House or bullied staff. Jenny McCullough, who worked as a clerk until 2011, alleged the Leicester MP told her she was incompetent because she was "not a mother". She told Newsnight: "He told me that I wasn't capable of serving the committee because I wasn't a mother. "All I knew was it wasn't normal to be harangued about my fertility status in the reception of a hotel room, at public expense in front of my colleague on the team." He subsequently sought to undermine her position, she claimed. Mr Vaz denied berating Ms McCullough and said he did not "at any time insult her maternal status". He added: "I find these allegations insulting and appalling." MP Keith Vaz has denied the allegations (file image) / John Stillwell/PA Wire Ms McCullough also spoke of one alleged episode when she joined the MP on a trip to Russia and Ukraine in 2008 and found they were taken to an "opulent" dinner thrown in his honour. It is unclear who paid for the meal, she claimed, and fell outside of the itinerary which had to be signed off before they left. Rules of the commons state that hospitality has to be arranged by the committee or appropriately declared. Mr Vaz responded: "The dinner... was hosted by the chair of the UK-Ukraine group in Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) or the chair of the Ukrainian equivalent of the Home Affairs Select Committee. "The dinner was approved by the committee as part of the programme for the visit before the committee departed. Keith Vaz denied berating Ms McCullough (file image) / PA The former clerk also accused Mr Vaz of making jokes about her Northern Irish background, claiming she was a security threat. She alleged he launched a "tirade" at her in a hotel lobby when she raised her concerns on the trip, explaining to her manager in an email: "He then demanded to know what age I was. "He told me that I didn't know how the House worked and that I didn't respect the authority of members, his authority in particular as a senior member of many years experience and chairman of the Committee, that I had an attitude problem." The MP was forced to step down as chairman of the influential committee in 2016 after becoming embroiled in a rent boy scandal. But Ms McCullough said she had alerted Commons' authorities to her concerns about his behaviour while he still held the role but no action was taken. She told Newsnight: "It was as though there was something wrong with me, that I was too sensitive, that this was normal. "I didn't feel able to complain about Keith Vaz because I was afraid of him. When I was on the home affairs committee I saw that he had friends in the police and friends in the law. "He said that one of the principal clerks was a friend and by the time I was leaving the house he had a friend in the Speaker. I thought it could only end badly for me." This was spelled out in her annual appraisal in 2008, obtained by the programme, which said she had "excellent relations" with officials, "apart from the Chairman, who chose to try to bully her". It continued: "Jenny understandably and properly stood her ground, which the Chairman resented." Mr Vaz said: "I had always believed Ms McCullough and myself had a good working relationship. "If she was unhappy on any committee visit (or more generally), neither Ms McCullough nor anyone else made me aware of it, either before, during or in the 10 years since the events are claimed to have taken place." Other anonymous clerks made allegations about Mr Vaz's behaviour on six trips, including sudden changes of plans and mystery over who was footing the bill for certain events. A House of Commons spokesman: "We are aware that in the past the House has not had a robust process in place to deal with instances of bullying and harassment. "However, we are confident that our new Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy will mean that allegations can be dealt with effectively and sensitively." An independent inquiry into the bullying and harassment of house staff was agreed in March which is now under way and expects to publish a report following the summer recess. The statement continued: "In addition the House has agreed to set up a new independent inquiry looking into historical allegations of bullying and harassment, which we expect to report in six months' time. The Standard has approached Mr Vaz for comment on the allegations. T he Labour party has denied Jeremy Corbyn compared the actions of Israelis to Nazis when he referred to the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during a speech on Gaza. The party issued the denial as shadow chancellor John McDonnell faced questions over his backing of the creation of a controversial anti-Zionist group in 2008. The incidents threatened to draw Labour's leader and his de facto deputy further into the escalating row over the handling of anti-Semitism in the party. Footage has emerged of a speech Mr Corbyn made at a rally outside Parliament in 2010 when he compared the blockade of Gaza to the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad in the Second World War. He told the crowd: "I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw the mortar shells that had gone through the school buildings, the destroyed UN establishments, the burnt-out schools, the ruined homes, the destroyed lives, the imprisoned people, the psychological damage to a whole generation who've been imprisoned for as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place." The speech came six months after Mr Corbyn hosted a Holocaust Memorial Day event at which speakers are said to have likened the actions of Israel in Gaza to Hitler's regime. He apologised for this on Wednesday. Jeremy Corbyn apologises for hosting 2010 Holocaust event The Labour leader acknowledged that he had appeared alongside people "whose views I completely reject" and apologised for the "concerns and anxiety" that caused. Mr McDonnell said today that he wanted the party's approach on anti-Semitism to be resolved soon, adding: "It's shaken us to the core." However, he also faced questions over his support for the controversial International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), the creation of which he backed in a 2008 Commons motion. The IJAN's charter asks prospective members if they "feel enraged and saddened that the holocaust against Jewish people is being used to perpetrate other atrocities?" John McDonnell has also come under fire over his support in 2008 for the controversial International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network ( Yui Mok/PA) / Yui Mok/PA A Labour spokesman said Mr McDonnell "was welcoming the creation of an organisation that represented an important strand of radical Jewish political campaigning". "Of course he didn't and doesn't endorse all of the language and views expressed in their charter," the spokesman added. Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has referred Labour to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The CAA has also made a complaint to the party about comments by Islington North MP Mr Corbyn and his hosting of the 2010 event. The campaign's chairman, Gideon Falter, said: "Jeremy Corbyn has spent his political career sharing stages with anti-Semites and honouring them. "This apology rings utterly hollow. Mr Corbyn did not merely attend the event, he chaired it, and in response to the criticism of the Jewish community in 2010 he did not apologise." D isciplinary moves against a senior Labour MP who branded Jeremy Corbyn a racist and an anti-Semite were a massive tactical mistake, the founder of the Left-wing Momentum organisation has warned. Jon Lansman opposed the action against Dame Margaret Hodge who launched the scathing attack on the Labour leader in a furious bust-up in the Commons last month. The revelation in the Left-leaning New Statesman highlighted growing divisions between the Momentum group, which played a key role in Mr Corbyn becoming Labour leader, and his inner circle which backed swift disciplinary steps against Dame Margaret. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has also called for the dispute between Mr Corbyn and Dame Margaret to be resolved amicably. Mr Corbyn has come under fire from centrist Labour MPs over his stance on anti-Semitism but Left-wingers are also dismayed over his handling of the row. Jon Lansman opposed the action against Dame Margaret Hodge who launched the scathing attack on Mr Corbyn / PA Archive/PA Images Momentum yesterday withdrew backing for one of Mr Corbyns close aides, Peter Willsman, as a candidate for Labours ruling National Executive Committee, after he blamed Jewish Trump fanatics for fuelling the row. Mr Willsman has apologised for the rant in which he also said rabbis should provide evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in the party. Dame Margaret today denied swearing at Mr Corbyn, when she confronted him after Labour refused to adopt the full definition of anti-Semitism as drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. She also criticised disciplinary moves against her but not Mr Willsman. I still dont know, three weeks on, what the allegations against me are, Ive no idea what the process that they are going to follow, this seems to me a very unfair practice, she told the BBCs Womans Hour. When you look at the member of the NEC, Peter Willsman, who I cant believe he spoke so awfully, horribly at the NEC meeting, there is no place in Britain, or in the Labour Party, for those kind of views and such abhorrent behaviour. When you hear what he actually said in front of the leader, in front of the General Secretary, in front of everybody when you hear that and think no action is being taken to him and yet they are taking action to me for confronting Jeremy to his face and expressing my anger and disapproval of what he was doing, I think it all beggars belief, its completely ridiculous. Labour has denied Mr Corbyn was comparing the actions of Israelis to Nazis when he referred to the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad in a speech on Gaza at a rally in 2010. T heresa Mays dash to Emmanuel Macrons holiday retreat for emergency talks to unlock the stalled Brexit negotiations tomorrow will be rebuffed, Britains former ambassador to France warned today. Lord Ricketts, who was also head of the Diplomatic Service, does not think that the Prime Minister will be able to sway the French president into breaking rank from Brussels. He also believes other EU capitals see the Governments threats over a No Deal Brexit as a bluff, given the slow level of preparations that have been made in the UK for such a chaotic exit. Mrs May is due to cut short her Italian holiday to visit Mr Macron at the Fort de Bregancon, on the Riviera, tomorrow. Mrs May recently said she would be taking control of the negotiations from now on / AP However, Lord Ricketts, who was also Britains national security adviser, was very pessimistic about the likelihood that she will succeed in softening Mr Macrons hard-line stance on Brexit. I dont see why there is any chance of that, he told BBCs Today. First of all, he does not believe in softening it. He is a passionate pro-European. Secondly, he is the last person to want to break ranks with what has been quite an impressively disciplined EU side. We have got to accept we have got to do the hard yards of negotiating in Brussels. Theresa May has visited Emmanuel Macron for talks / AP He believes EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is acting on the mandate from EU nations rather than freelancing. He also warned that ministers threatening No Deal is unlikely to work in gaining concessions. The problem with [No Deal is] these crafty foreigners also read our own media and they can see how little preparation has been done and how, in effect, its a bluff, he explained. Britain should instead be talking with France about security, fighting terrorism, borders and defence as it seeks good post-Brexit ties. Jeremy Hunt warns of 'messy divorce' if Brexit talks break down French MP Bruno Bonnell, from Mr Macrons En Marche party, raised the prospect of extra time for negotiations. He stressed that France was prepared to take an economic blow to protect the EUs single market and other institutions as the UK divorces the union. Love is gone. Hopefully we can restore it but it will take time. But now its time for power discussions, he said Thousands of anti-Brexit activists march to Parliament in protest 1 /12 Thousands of anti-Brexit activists march to Parliament in protest Demonstrators head towards Parliament Square. REUTERS Signs include 'I love EU' REUTERS The pro-EU march began in Hyde Park Corner. Si Carrington 'NHS? Brexit Wrexit' Oliver Day The march took protesters through the streets of London. Oliver Day One protester brought along a papier mache Queen, in reference to the blue and yellow hat she wore at the State Opening of Parliament. Peter Bailey 'Exit Brexit' Jonathan Hawley The September sun shone as activists marched through the streets. Martin Tod Roads were blocked during the protest. Maggie Jones The campaigners set off shortly after 11am from Hyde Park Corner. Maggie Jones The rally saw the activists march through the streets of central London. Johann Ketel EU colours of blue and yellow were seen throughout the march. Judi Conner Warning that Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was playing a dangerous game with the No Deal talk, he stressed: At the end of the day everything is going to happen in Brussels. Lets open the door to more time maybe. We could probably extend the discussion on Brexit. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is in Paris today for talks with the French government. A London "drill" rapper who was killed in a knife attack had recently spoken about the genre contributing to violence in the capital. Sidique Kamara, the 23-year-old father of a four-year-old daughter, was stabbed to death outside a block of flats in Camberwell on Wednesday amid fears of a bloody gang feud. He went by the rap name of Incognito as a member of Moscow17 and was the second member of the collective to be killed on the same street in three months. Rapper Sidique Kamara, aka Incognito, was stabbed to death in Camberwell In an interview with Link Up TV in June, Mr Kamara said that crime had long existed in London before drill rap, though the genre may have contributed. "You see with the crime that's happening right now, music does influence it. You've got to put your hands up and say drill music does influence it," he said. "But knife crime and gun crime has been going on way before drill music, so if you want to talk about 10 years, 20 years, people were still getting cheffed up (attacked with knifes)." He spoke about possible solutions to ending the violence, adding: "There (are) many ways to solve it - you can bring out youth clubs, you can bring out many other things, invest money in other things to help the community, but you don't want to do that - you just want to use an excuse with drill music." Earlier this year, Mr Kamara and another member of Moscow17 were cleared of murdering teenager Abdirahman Mohamed, a brother of a member of Zone 2, at the Old Bailey. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has called on social media platforms such as YouTube to take down videos that glamorise violence. In May, 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, a fellow member of the drill group, was shot dead in May just a few yards from where Mr Kamara was attacked. At the time of Mr Ainsworths death, his mother Pretana Morgan called for a halt to the wave of violence in the capital. "Let my son be the last and be an example to everyone. Just let it stop. What must be, must be, she said. Triple stabbing: A forensic tent was in place at the scene / Nigel Howard Moscow17s tracks have received hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Some feature references to other groups in the capital - including long-running rivals Zone 2 from Peckham. In one track, Moscow17 tells Zone 2 to check the scoreboard while another asks How you gonna make it even. Floral tributes are left in Warham Street in Camberwell, south London, where Moscow17 rapper Incognito was stabbed to death / PA In response, a Zone 2 lyric warns rivals they will roll up and burst them. Two other people were taken to hospital by air ambulance following Wednesday's stabbing. Scotland Yard said that two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested on suspicion of murder Speaking outside the family home on John Ruskin Street, close to the scene of the crime, latest stabbing victim Mr Kamaras father Lamin Kama, said: "Our family are in a lot of distress at the moment." A neighbour, who said his name was Andy, said: "My dog was going crazy and when I looked out there was this guy lying on the floor." He said he did not see his injuries clearly, but "there was blood". Another neighbour, Sidney Virgo, 80, said: "I knew this was going to happen. As soon as kids start gathering that's when something like this happens." A forensic tent was still in place at midday on Thursday at the spot where Mr Kamara died. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard, who is leading the latest investigation, said: "Another young man has tragically and needlessly lost his life through an act of violence. "We are keeping an open mind about the positive motive for this attack, but at this early stage one line of enquiry is this being gang-related. "I'd like to reassure the community that we have made two arrests and we are working around the clock to establish what happened and bring those responsible to justice. S adiq Khan has said he is stepping up his efforts to prepare London for a No Deal Brexit," and that the governments current plans for leaving the EU would cause Britain huge economic harm. In response to the Prime Ministers recent White Paper detailing proposals on trade with the EU after Brexit, Mr Khan said there was now a grave risk the country could crash out with no deal at all. The London mayor said he has instructed his officials to increase preparations to manage the potential chaos of a "no deal" situation. He urged Mrs May to change course immediately by agreeing to keep Britain within the Single Market and the customs union to protect jobs and growth in London and across the UK." Sadiq Khan urged Prime Minister Theresa May to keep Britain within the Single Market (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) / Getty Images The Mayor accused the Prime Minister of putting her own interests ahead of the nation's and her own narrow political interests, and her country ahead of her party. Were now running out of time and nearing the cliff edge, he said. Mr Khan said Londoners' jobs, livelihoods and the capital's 'future prosperity' is on the line / Luca Micheli/Unsplash Mr Khan called on the government to increase its dialogue with businesses as a matter of urgency, and claimed he was working with companies to press for this to happen more quickly. Mr Khan accused the Prime Minister of putting her own interests ahead of the nations / PA Archive/PA Images He described the Prime Ministers current Brexit plan as complex, untested and needlessly expensive for our businesses, and claimed the needs of the countrys service sectors were not met by the white paper. The kind of Brexit now being proposed by the government risks new trade barriers that would damage the ability of our world-leading creative, technology, legal, professional and financial services to do business across the EU, Mr Khan said. Service industries account for 92 per cent of Londons economy, but they are also vitally important to towns and cities across Britain. They account for around 82 per cent of Birminghams economy, 83 per cent in Leeds, 92 per cent in Manchester and 91 per cent in Edinburgh. The Mayor claimed that the governments current plans for Brexit would create barriers difficult for businesses to overcome. Theresa May is to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron for emergency talks at his holiday retreat tomorrow / AFP/Getty Images Increasing the UKs international trade around the world in services is difficult to accomplish. Barriers relating to regulation, the recognition of qualifications and the movement of workers from one country to another are hard to break down, he said. The government must change course immediately and accept that staying within the Single Market and the customs union is the only way to protect jobs and growth in London and across the UK," he said. The Prime Minister released a 98-page White Paper detailing how the government envisages the UKs future relationship with the EU to look last month. She said she was setting out pragmatic proposals that would allow frictionless trade but end free movement and the role of the European Court. The paper triggered fierce discussion with EU leaders who claimed it would not permit cherrypicking. It comes ahead of a meeting between Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron for emergency talks at his holiday retreat at the Fort de Bregancon, on the Riviera, tomorrow. Mrs May will bid to unlock the stalled Brexit negotiations, however Britain's former ambassador to France warned today that her efforts would likely be in vain. Lord Ricketts told BBC's Today: I dont see why there is any chance of that. First of all, he does not believe in softening it. He is a passionate pro-European. Secondly, he is the last person to want to break ranks with what has been quite an impressively disciplined EU side. We have got to accept we have got to do the hard yards of negotiating in Brussels." Elysee Palace official says tomorrow's meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Theresa May is not a negotiation and does not substitute for discussions led by EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. T wo sisters who claimed their late fathers grieving partner was merely one of his many girlfriends have been told to give her 325,000 after a judge ruled she was his wife in all but name. Jane Redmond and Lynn Leberknight denied that Carole Anne Taylor, 70, was due anything from their father James Redmonds near 1 million fortune after he died from cancer. Ms Taylor met Mr Redmond at a jive-dancing evening in Slough. But Judge Stephen Hockman at Central London county court ordered the sisters, who inherited their fathers estate, to pay 325,000 to Ms Taylor, and her legal costs. He said that Mr Redmond clearly loved Ms Taylor, with whom he lived for seven years and who cared for him during his illness, and regarded her as his partner. Ms Taylor was still married to her husband of 42 years when she met divorcee Mr Redmond at Slough Irish Club. Fortune bid: Jane Redmond outside Central London County Court They hit it off on the dancefloor and formed a friendship, and after her divorce she moved in with him in Langley, near Slough, in 2007. Mr Redmond died in 2014 after suffering for 15 years with prostate cancer. His daughters were the sole beneficiaries of his will, written 20 years before he and Ms Taylor met. After his death Mrs Leberknight told Ms Taylor that she must leave the flat, incorrectly saying that the sisters had not benefited from the will so they had to sell up. The judge said; Whilst it was not unlawful to take this stance, it could hardly be said that the matter was handled with sensitivity. Dancing partners: Carole Anne Taylor and James Redmond Ms Taylor went to live with her son in Lincolnshire, but began a claim for a share of Mr Redmonds estate. The sisters said their charismatic father did love Ms Taylor but that the relationship wasnt exclusive. They claimed he had distanced himself from Ms Taylor in the latter stages of his life, and had even asked her to move out. Ms Taylor said: We were very much in love, we didnt need to be married. I was his partner and he was mine. Judge Hockman said Mrs Leberknight had described Ms Taylor as her stepmother in a letter, while hospital records suggested Mr Redmond described her as his partner. I find it improbable in the extreme that Mr Redmond, in the final months of his life and in deteriorating health, chose to bring to an end a relationship, he said. Mr Redmond clearly had an obligation and responsibility towards Ms Taylor as well as towards his daughters, and his will, in making no provision for her, clearly failed to make reasonable financial provision. He ordered the sisters to pay 325,000 to Ms Taylor, but that 180,000 of that should be invested in a property for her to live in. Her interest in that property will revert to them on her death. Srinagar (PTI): The Indian Army and it's Chinese counterpart have expressed mutual desire to maintain peace and improve relations at the functional-level along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a defence official said on Thursday. The ceremonial Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) was held on Wednesday on the occasion of China's PLA Day at Chinese BPM hut of Chushul-Moldo meeting point in Eastern Ladakh, Srinagar-based defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said in a press statement here. He said the ceremonial BPM was marked by saluting of national flags by delegation members. The ceremonial address by both delegation leaders included exchange of greetings and vote of thanks and reflected the mutual desire for improving relations at functional-level at the border. Thereafter, a cultural programme showcasing Chinese culture and traditional grandeur was organised, the spokesman said. He said both the delegations interacted in a free and congenial environment. A New Jersey woman who rescued a one-year-old pitbull from drowning in a crate is planning to adopt the dog, according to reports. Jennifer Vaz was walking her dog in Memorial Park, Highlands, early on Monday when she spotted the small pup cowering in the cage, which was perched on a small area of sand near rising water. She quickly climbed over a wall to rescue the animal before the tide came in, and alerted Highlands Police Department. On Wednesday, Ms Vaz told CBS News she is planning to adopt the grey and white pup, who she named River, saying it "feels like he's part of our family". When animal control returned to the site, the crate was nearly submerged in water / Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Police alerted animal control and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office after Ms Vaz brought River in. In a statement on Facebook, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office estimated the dog was abandoned between 4am and 6am, based on the tide schedule. In a Facebook post, Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office announced a probe into the "potential" animal cruelty case. It said Ms Vaz discovered the dog at around 6.15am local time (11.15am BST) in a black wire cage on Bay Avenue in Highlands. When animal control arrived on the scene, the cage was almost submerged by the rising tide. Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said: "If not for the heroic rescue act of the good Samaritan, the dog could have potentially drowned." Monmouth County SPCA said while the dog "is a bit shaken up" he appears to be in good physical condition. Ms Vaz said she could not believe someone had left the dog. She told CBS: "I was in disbelief that this poor little creature was in this crate and the water coming up. D onald Trump has praised Kim Jong-uns kind act as dozens of coffins thought to contain the remains of American soldiers missing in action during the Korean War were returned to US soil. Vice President Mike Pence received the 55 caskets draped in US flags as they arrived at the Pearl Harbor-Hickman base in Hawaii on a flight from South Korea. Some have called the Korean War the forgotten war. But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten, Mr Pence said. Today our boys are coming home. Each container was carried off the aircraft by an honour guard of one marine, a sailor, soldier and airman. Mr Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart, as relatives of the missing wiped away tears. Military pallbearers carry what are believed to be the remains of US soldiers from the Korean War / AFP/Getty Images The homecoming coincides with the 65th anniversary of the armistice that ended the three-year conflict. The pledge to return the remains was made during a landmark summit between Mr Trump and Kim in Singapore in June, when North Korea also said it would work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. After the repatriation, Mr Trump praised Kim on Twitter. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action, he wrote. Donald Trump meets Kim Jong-Un - In pictures 1 /21 Donald Trump meets Kim Jong-Un - In pictures Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un during their first meeting AP Mr Trump and Kim sign a document acknowledging the progress of the talks Reuters AP AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Mr Trump and Kim shake hands for the cameras before sitting down to sign a document Reuters AP AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AP North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump share a 13-second handshake upon meeting AP AP AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images EPA AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AP REUTERS Reuters Also, thank you for your nice letter I look forward to seeing you soon! he added. Kim sent a letter to Mr Trump last month in which he raised hopes of a second meeting, but it was unclear if that was the nice letter to which Mr Trump referred. More than 7,700 US troops remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Britain, Australia and Canada also have troops missing from the conflict. I vanka Trump has said that the United States government's separation of families at the US border "was a low point" of her time at the White House. The daughter of President Trump, responded to questions on the policy on Thursday saying: "I felt very strongly about that and I am very vehemently against family separation of parents and children." The Trump administration's policy on forced separation at the US border caused outrage around the world. More than 2,300 children were separated from their parents at the border and placed in shelters hundreds of miles away. Ms Trump made the comments during an interview at the Newseum in Washington DC on Thursday / Getty Images Ms Trump said: "These are incredibly difficult issues and like the rest of the country, I experience them in a very emotional way." She added: "I am the daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in communist Czech Republic. But we are a country of laws. You know, she came to this country legally." Following criticism of the "zero tolerance" policy, Mr Trump was forced to sign an executive order ensuring that families entering the US illegally would stay together. After he made the decision to end the separations, Ms Trump tweeted her thanks to the president for ending the policy. Around 700 children are still separated from their parents. On June 27, a judge gave the government 30 days to reunite families. Judge Dana Sabraw, at the US District Court in San Diego, ordered the government to reunite children under five with their parents within 14 days. For children of five and older, the deadline is 30 days. M cDonald's was forced to apologise after a pregnant woman in Canada was served cleaning solution instead of the latte she ordered. Sarah Douglas, who is eight months pregnant, asked for the coffee at a drive-thru in Alberta and took a sip only to discover the liquid in her cup was not coffee. Ms Douglas pulled her car over and immediately spat out the substance, she told she told Lethbridge News Now following the ordeal on Sunday morning. She drove back to McDonald's and told one of the employees that she wanted to speak to the supervisor. "I showed him the coffee and he had asked if I wanted a new one, and I said, 'absolutely not, this is unacceptable,'" she told the news website. The restaurant franchisee told the publication in a statement, verified by the Standard, that he was sorry for the incident. The franchise owner Dan Brown said: Since learning about the complaint, our team has been in very close contact with the guest and apologized to her. The health inspector also visited my restaurant and is not investigating further. McDonalds is renowned for its food safety protocols and I am sorry that this happened in my restaurant here in Lethbridge. What happened is that the machine was being cleaned as it is every morning. Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guests drink was made. A n armed robber had his mouth taped shut in court after refusing to stop talking while the judge was sentencing him. Franklyn Williams, 32, repeatedly interrupted Judge John Russo during the hearing in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and was given repeated warnings to keep quiet Judge Russo, who was sentencing Williams over charges including aggravated robbery, kidnap and theft, eventually lost his patience with the defendant and ordered officers to gag him. He told Williams: Im gonna tape it and then Ill unzip it when I want you to talk. Williams would not stop talking during the case / Fox8 As officers surrounded him, the judge also warned: Spit on, and attempt to bite, or injure any of my deputies and youre gonna have a bad day. The Ohio branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said 'we cannot regard this as normal' / Fox8 But, the tape did not stop Williams who continued to protest with his voice still audible despite being gagged. The incident, on Tuesday, prompted outrage from the Ohio branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. Staff attorney Elizabeth Bonham said: We cannot regard this as normal. It is humiliating. It doesn't just deprive this person of the opportunity to speak before his life is taken away, it steals his dignity. Everything about this is wrong. A US lawmaker has resigned over allegations he used nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend to catfish other men. Republican Nick Sauer has been accused of populating a fake Instagram account with the explicit photos to trick men into graphic conversations of a sexual nature. His former girlfriend Kate Kelly filed an official complaint with the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, as well as the Chicago police. No charges have yet been filed, but Illinois has a revenge porn law that makes it a felony to non-consensually distribute private sexual messages. Catfishing is when someone creates a fake identity or social media presence for attention seeking, bullying or as a romance scam. People often use fake profile pictures, names and often genders to fabricate the life displayed. Mr Sauer, 35, who is a member of an Illinois House anti-sexual harassment task force, said in a statement that his duties would be affected by the distraction of addressing these allegations". "After speaking with my family, I feel it best to step away from my public responsibilities," he added. The first term lawmaker was elected in 2016 after serving more than a year on the Illinois Authority board as an appointee of Governor Bruce Rauner, and resigned from his post on Wednesday. Ms Kelly told US website Politico that she and Mr Sauer met on the dating app Tinder in 2016 but broke up earlier this year over claims he had been seeing other women. A man allegedly contacted her in July saying he had been speaking to a person pretending to be her for the past four months. In her complaint, Ms Kelly said Mr Sauer later came to my house and confessed to catfishing men with my photos for two years to at least eight men. U S President Donald Trump "will not tolerate interference" in upcoming elections, according to National Security Advisor John Bolton. In a note to Senate Democrats, Mr Bolton said in a letter that the president "has directed a vast, government-wide effort to protect electoral procedures and processes while investigation, prosecuting and holding accountable those who illegally attempt to interfere." Last week Senate Democrats called on the Trump administration to hold Russia accountable for alleged election interference. The comments come after homeland security officials said there were potential efforts to influence the upcoming 2018 and 2020 elections. Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said: "Our democracy is in the crosshairs." John Bolton said the president has "directed a government wide effort" / AFP/Getty Images Speaking at a cybersecurity summit in New York earlier this week, Ms Nielsen said that cyberthreat now exceeds the danger of a physical attack against the US by a hostile foreign group. The social media giant said it removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in "co-ordinated" behaviour and appeared to be fake. The company said it does not know is behind the efforts, but admitted there may be connections to Russia. The 72-year-old was mocked for being "out of touch" when it comes to everyday tasks, after speaking at a rally in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday night. Mr Trump was putting forward the idea of having an ID to vote in American elections when he made the claim. He said: We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections. Donald Trump says only American citizens should vote in American elections Which is why the time has come for voter ID, like everything else. Voter ID. You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture. Z imbabwe's main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa today claimed victory in the presidential election. Mr Chamisa said president Emmerson Mnangagwa knew he had lost, otherwise the results would have been announced by now. In his first public appearance since the vote on Monday, Mr Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), urged his supporters to be calm and await "massive celebrations" for his victory. Mr Chamisa said he could not give any figures because he would be breaking the law. Zimbabwe Elections - In pictures 1 /63 Zimbabwe Elections - In pictures Supporters of ZANU PF celebrate the results of the general election in the early hours AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's Justice Priscilla Chigumba addresses media representatives as she announces the results of presidential elections in Harare AFP/Getty Images Supporters of ZANU PF celebrate the results of the general election in the early hours AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairwoman Qhubani Moyo, center, announces the results of the presidential elections in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Supporters of the president elect Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate after the announcement of his reelection in Harare AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Opposition MDC party supporters protest in the streets of Harare during clashes with police AP A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators AFP/Getty Images Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa react as they block a street in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters Zimbabweans run from riot police firing tear gas during protests in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwean anti riot police officers stand guard and close the gate of the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images Military tanks in Harare AP A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man in a street of Harare on August 1, 2018 as protests erupted over alleged fraud in the country's election AFP/Getty Images A protester gestures toward police water cannons outside of the gates of the ZImbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during a protest against polling results in Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the party's headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters A protester is hit in the face with a water cannon outside of the gates of the ZImbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during a protest against polling results in Harare, Zimbabw EPA Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa carry stones as they block the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa burn an election banner with the face of Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare Reuters Zimbabwean anti riot police officers close the entrance to the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images Police patrol outside the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices as opposition supporters gather, in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwean anti riot police officers stand guard at the entrance of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) headquarters in Harare AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwean anti riot police officers close the gate of the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images An opposition party supporter throws a rock aimed at Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election campaign poster in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Opposition supporters gesture outside the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices in Harare, Zimbabw AP Supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), tear up ballot booths durinas they demand results of general election AFP/Getty Images Police and military are stationed outside parliament in Harare AP Supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, after the announcement of election's results, in the streets of Harare AFP/Getty Images MDC Alliance supporters protest the vote count outside the ZEC Offices in Harare EPA Supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party of President Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate Reuters supporter of the main opposition party claiming victory, celebrates outside the party headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Supporters of Zimbabwean opposition leader of the MDC Alliance party cheer as they gather at the MDC Alliance head quarter in Harare AFP/Getty Images Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarter Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party of Nelson Chamisa sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of MDC (Movement for Democratic Change Alliance) leader and opposition presidential candidate cheer outside the MDC headquarters in Harare AFP/Getty Images Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, his daughter Bona and wife Grace cast their votes at a polling station at a primary school in the Highfield district of Harare during the country's general elections AFP/Getty Images Police water cannons are seen in the capital, Harare, Zimbabwe AP Election posters in support of Zanu-PF's President Emmerson Mnangagwa are pasted over a mural of the former president Robert Mugabe Getty Images Zimbabweans check the results posted outside a polling station in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe AP People register and cast their ballots in the late afternoon as they vote at Efusini polling station in the township of Makokob AFP/Getty Images People wait in a queue to cast their vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwe's first lady Auxilia Mnangagwa casts her vote as she accompanies her husband at the Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe AFP/Getty Images Police water cannons are seen in the capital, Harare, Zimbabwe AP Electoral workers empty a presidential candidates ballot box onto a table during counting operations for Zimbabwe's general election at the David Livingston Primary school in central Harare AFP/Getty Images A long queue of women voters in rural Chinyenyetu, outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA An elderly woman shows her little finger being marked with an ink marker after she casted her vote at the Batsirai Primary school just outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Police officers queue outside St Patrick School polling station in the township of Makokoba AFP/Getty Images A Zimbabwean man points at a newspaper headline, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa casts his ballot as he votes in the general election at Sherwood Park Primary School in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe Reuters Observers check the tally of votes at a polling station for the general election in the suburb of Mbare of Zimbabwe's capital Harare AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa casts his vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabweans queue as they wait to vote at the Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe AP A woman walks after casting her ballot in the country's general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters A lady carrying a child in an election queue at a polling station where Zimbabwe President casts his ballot at Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe AFP/Getty Images A man casts his vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP MDC Party President Nelson Chamisa (C) leaves after having cast his vote at the Kuwadzana 2 Primary School just outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Voters queue to cast their ballots in the general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters An elections officer applies indelible ink to a voter finger during early morning voting in Kwekwe as Zimbabwe conducts a general election AFP/Getty Images A voter casts her ballot in the general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters People queue early in the morning outside a polling station located in the suburb of Mbare in Zimbabwe's capital Harare AFP/Getty Images Voters await the opening of a polling station during early morning voting in Kwekwe as Zimbabwe conducts a general election AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe is assisted during a press conference at his private residence Reuters The results are set to be announced at 10pm. Zimbabwes electoral commission has been urged to release the results as soon as possible to avoid further violence. Three people were killed on Wednesday in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters. Army take streets after Zimbabwe elections Mr Chamisa criticised the "violent government" after a military crackdown on his supporters, some of whom were rioting during protests. He was speaking during a visit to a hospital in the capital of Harare, where some of the injured and three dead were taken after Wednesday's violence. "We have unarmed civilians being attacked," Mr Chamisa said. "Is that normal even in a banana republic?" Mr Chamisa said he had not received any communication from Mr Mnangagwa, who claimed his government was in touch about calming tensions. Mr Mnangagwa earlier accused the opposition of inciting the violence to disrupt the electoral process. Mr Chamisa called for calm and again said he is "very confident we are forming the next government. Zimbabwean anti-riot police officers stand on guard in Harare / Getty Images Meanwhile, the British Embassy has demanded the military is removed from the streets of Harare. A statement said: We condemn the excessive use of force by the security forces towards demonstrators yesterday. Zimbabwe police outside opposition party headquarters in Harare / AP It added: All political leaders have a responsibility to ensure they do not raise tensions or issue statements that made violence more likely. Mnangagwa urges calm as he casts his vote Zimbabwe's president urged the country to remain peaceful, saying: "We are one people, with one dream and one destiny. We will sink or swim together." The 75-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over after longtime leader Robert Mugabe stepped down in November under military pressure. Mnangagwa casts his vote Mnangagwa's top challenger is 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, who took over the main opposition party after the death of longtime Mugabe challenger Morgan Tsvangirai in February. Mnangagwa has cast his vote in his constituency of Kwekwe, about 200 kilometers south of the capital, Harare. Mnangagwa wore a scarf with the country's national colors as he arrived at a primary school converted into a polling station, and chatted briefly with election workers after casting his ballot. D eadly clashes broke out in Zimbabwe after the country went to the polls in its historic first election since the fall of Robert Mugabe. Supporters of opposition party MDC took to the streets in protest after it was announced Mr Mugabes former party Zanu-PF had won a parliamentary majority. Demonstrators claimed the vote was rigged. At least three people were shot dead as soldiers, tanks and military helicopters descended on Harare, with the capital city left resembling a war zone. A tense calm returned the morning after the skirmishes as the country continued to wait for the full results of the presidential vote. How long was Robert Mugabe in power? Robert Mugabe, 93, was the only leader Zimbabwe had ever known in the 37 years since it became independent from white minority rule. Robert Mugabe, pictured with wife Grace Mugabe, was the country's leader for 37 years / AFP/Getty Images He became prime minister in 1980 and president in 1987 when the prime minister role was abolished. During his time in power he was criticised for repression of dissent, election rigging and causing the economic collapse of a country that was once one of Africas richest. What happened to him? Mr Mugabe, who was the oldest head of state in the world, triggered a fierce backlash within his party after firing vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa in a row over succession in November 2017. Mr Mnangagwa had previously been seen as a potential heir to the president, but this move left First Lady Grace Mugabe as the clear front-runner. The rivalry between Mr Mnangagwa and Mrs Mugabe left the ruling Zanu-PF party divided, and army commander Constantino Chiwenga decided to "step in" to calm political tensions. Demonstrators outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London call for Robert Mugabe to go / Getty Images Mr Mugabe was seized by troops at his home in Harare following a night of military action, but army chiefs refused to admit to a coup. A spokesman said it was targeting people close to the President who had caused "social and economic suffering". The army also took over the country's state TV channel, as well as government offices. On 19 November, Mr Mugabe agreed to step down as leader and ex-vice president Mnangagwa was made president in his place. Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia make their way to his inauguration ceremony / AP Who were the key candidates in the election? Zimbabwe went to the polls on Monday, 30 July in order to elect its new president. The main candidates were Mr Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alliance. There were 23 candidates on the ballot in total. Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition MDC alliance party / REUTERS Mr Mugabe announced that he would not be voting for his former party, saying: "I cannot vote for those who tormented me." For the first time in 16 years, EU and US election monitors were allowed in to the country to observe proceedings. Former president Robert Mugabe arrives to vote in Zimbabwe election How did the voting go? A turnout of 70 per cent was reported as millions of Zimbabweans embraced the opportunity to have a say in their countrys future. But as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission repeatedly delayed the publication of results, tensions began to rise. Officials of the opposition party claimed that they had won the presidential race, while also alleging that Zanu-PF had rigged the vote. But on Wednesday morning, it was announced that Zanu-PF had won a two-thirds majority in Parliament effectively allowing the party to change the constitution at will. Why did clashes break out? After the parliamentary results were announced, opposition supporters took to the streets in protest. They reportedly marched towards the headquarters of the electoral commission in anger at what they claimed was a rigged vote. Police, who invoked a strict security act that forbids public gatherings, said they requested the military's help because they were "unable to cope". Army take streets after Zimbabwe elections Tanks rolled into Harare city centre on Wednesday afternoon before soldiers shot at unarmed protesters and sprayed tear gas in a bid to clear the streets At least three people were killed in the clashes, leading to international appeals for peace. Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds / REUTERS What is the atmosphere like in the country now? A tense calm descended on Harare as troops continued to patrol the streets of the city centre on Thursday. The crackdown by the army has punctured the euphoria that followed its removal of long-time strongman Mr Mugabe eight months ago, and fuelled suspicions that the generals who launched the coup remain Zimbabwe's de facto rulers. Wednesday's violence, which followed a relatively orderly election, dashes President Mnangagwa's hopes of repairing the image of a country that had become synonymous with corruption and economic collapse under Mr Mugabe. Zimbabwe Elections - In pictures 1 /63 Zimbabwe Elections - In pictures Supporters of ZANU PF celebrate the results of the general election in the early hours AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's Justice Priscilla Chigumba addresses media representatives as she announces the results of presidential elections in Harare AFP/Getty Images Supporters of ZANU PF celebrate the results of the general election in the early hours AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairwoman Qhubani Moyo, center, announces the results of the presidential elections in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Supporters of the president elect Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate after the announcement of his reelection in Harare AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Opposition MDC party supporters protest in the streets of Harare during clashes with police AP A soldier fires shots towards demonstrators AFP/Getty Images Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa react as they block a street in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters Zimbabweans run from riot police firing tear gas during protests in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwean anti riot police officers stand guard and close the gate of the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images Military tanks in Harare AP A Zimbabwean soldier beats a man in a street of Harare on August 1, 2018 as protests erupted over alleged fraud in the country's election AFP/Getty Images A protester gestures toward police water cannons outside of the gates of the ZImbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during a protest against polling results in Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Soldiers open fire to disperse crowds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters outside the party's headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters A protester is hit in the face with a water cannon outside of the gates of the ZImbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during a protest against polling results in Harare, Zimbabw EPA Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa carry stones as they block the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa burn an election banner with the face of Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare Reuters Zimbabwean anti riot police officers close the entrance to the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images Police patrol outside the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices as opposition supporters gather, in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwean anti riot police officers stand guard at the entrance of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) headquarters in Harare AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwean anti riot police officers close the gate of the Rainbow Towers where the election's results were announced, as supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, in Harare AFP/Getty Images An opposition party supporter throws a rock aimed at Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's election campaign poster in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Opposition supporters gesture outside the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices in Harare, Zimbabw AP Supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), tear up ballot booths durinas they demand results of general election AFP/Getty Images Police and military are stationed outside parliament in Harare AP Supporters of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), protest against alleged widespread fraud by the election authority and ruling party, after the announcement of election's results, in the streets of Harare AFP/Getty Images MDC Alliance supporters protest the vote count outside the ZEC Offices in Harare EPA Supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party of President Emmerson Mnangagwa celebrate Reuters supporter of the main opposition party claiming victory, celebrates outside the party headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Supporters of Zimbabwean opposition leader of the MDC Alliance party cheer as they gather at the MDC Alliance head quarter in Harare AFP/Getty Images Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarter Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party of Nelson Chamisa sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa, sing and dance in the street outside the party's headquarters following general elections in Harare Reuters Supporters of MDC (Movement for Democratic Change Alliance) leader and opposition presidential candidate cheer outside the MDC headquarters in Harare AFP/Getty Images Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, his daughter Bona and wife Grace cast their votes at a polling station at a primary school in the Highfield district of Harare during the country's general elections AFP/Getty Images Police water cannons are seen in the capital, Harare, Zimbabwe AP Election posters in support of Zanu-PF's President Emmerson Mnangagwa are pasted over a mural of the former president Robert Mugabe Getty Images Zimbabweans check the results posted outside a polling station in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe AP People register and cast their ballots in the late afternoon as they vote at Efusini polling station in the township of Makokob AFP/Getty Images People wait in a queue to cast their vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwe's first lady Auxilia Mnangagwa casts her vote as she accompanies her husband at the Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe AFP/Getty Images Police water cannons are seen in the capital, Harare, Zimbabwe AP Electoral workers empty a presidential candidates ballot box onto a table during counting operations for Zimbabwe's general election at the David Livingston Primary school in central Harare AFP/Getty Images A long queue of women voters in rural Chinyenyetu, outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA An elderly woman shows her little finger being marked with an ink marker after she casted her vote at the Batsirai Primary school just outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Police officers queue outside St Patrick School polling station in the township of Makokoba AFP/Getty Images A Zimbabwean man points at a newspaper headline, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa casts his ballot as he votes in the general election at Sherwood Park Primary School in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe Reuters Observers check the tally of votes at a polling station for the general election in the suburb of Mbare of Zimbabwe's capital Harare AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa casts his vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP Zimbabweans queue as they wait to vote at the Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe AP A woman walks after casting her ballot in the country's general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters A lady carrying a child in an election queue at a polling station where Zimbabwe President casts his ballot at Sherwood Primary School in Kwekwe AFP/Getty Images A man casts his vote at a polling station in Harare, Zimbabwe AP MDC Party President Nelson Chamisa (C) leaves after having cast his vote at the Kuwadzana 2 Primary School just outside Harare, Zimbabwe EPA Voters queue to cast their ballots in the general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters An elections officer applies indelible ink to a voter finger during early morning voting in Kwekwe as Zimbabwe conducts a general election AFP/Getty Images A voter casts her ballot in the general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe Reuters People queue early in the morning outside a polling station located in the suburb of Mbare in Zimbabwe's capital Harare AFP/Getty Images Voters await the opening of a polling station during early morning voting in Kwekwe as Zimbabwe conducts a general election AFP/Getty Images Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe is assisted during a press conference at his private residence Reuters When is the presidential result due? The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which says the vote was free and fair, has until Saturday by law to release the final election tally. Western observers have urged the commission to release the results as soon as possible to avoid further volatility. What have EU monitors said about the election? D anny Dyer could enter politics after his daughter revealed he has a secret passion for political issues. Dani, who claimed the Love Island crown alongside boyfriend Jack Fincham, told how her father had been glued to the movements at Westminster. Speaking to the Sun, she said: Hes into all the politics. Whats the one with all the people on a panel? Question Time, he loves it. He watches it every time on his own. Good on him. She added that he had previously vowed to sort this mess out in relation to Brexit. When quizzed on the possibility of the EastEnders hard man stepping through the doors at Westminster, Dani said: I think he will when hes a bit older. I dont know anything about politics, if Im honest. I dont even know anything about David Cameron. Danny has previously hinted at his interest, wading in on big issues such as Donald Trumps election. Danny Dyer talks a lot of sense in Brexit analysis Dyer, 40, got political with Piers Morgan as he joined the TV presenter on Good Evening Britain a one off special of ITV flagship breakfast show Good Morning Britain. Addressing Brexit he said: No one has got a f****** clue what Brexit is, yeah. You watch Question Time, its comedy. No one knows what it is, its like this mad riddle. No one knows what it is, right. Dyer turned his attention to former prime minister David Cameron, slating him for stepping down ahead of Brexit negotiations. How come he can scuttle off? He called this on, he said. A first look at the brand new Terminator film has been released, showing a fearless Linda Hamilton in the role of powerhouse Sarah Connor. Paramount Pictures has teased a glimpse of the eagerly-awaited new sequel, which will see Arnold Schwarzenegger reprise one of his most iconic roles. The films first look focuses on the leading ladies, with Hamilton appearing alongside Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis and Columbian actress Natalia Reyes. An image was shared online by the official Terminator twitter account. They wrote: Official first look at the new #Terminator featuring Natalia Reyes, Mackenzie Davis and Linda Hamilton. Directed by Tim Miller (DEADPOOL). Produced by James Cameron and David Ellison. In theatres 11.22.19. In the snap, Hamilton can be seen sporting a deadly glare hidden behind black aviators, with a machine gun in hand. Return: Schwarzenegger is set to return to his lead role / Getty Images Meanwhile her co-stars are seen opting for their own choice of weapons as a war-torn scene is seen behind them. Hamilton will return to the series for the first time since Terminator 2: Judgement Day alongside producer James Cameron, while Deadpools Tim Miller takes on the role of director. The Terminator (1984) Official Trailer The 67-year-old appeared in both the original 1984 film and the 1991 sequel until Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke took over her role in the 2015 Terminator Genisys. The latest addition to the series will not be titled Terminator 6 adn will instead follow on from the 1991 Judgement Day flick. The new Terminator sequel will hit UK cinemas in November 2019. H eatwave fever is spreading across Europe, and hot on the tail of the UK's scorching weather last week, Spain and Portugal are preparing for record-breaking temperatures. The hot weather comes as thousands of Brits head off abroad for their summer holidays. But how hot is it in Spain and Portugal and what are the Met Office advising Brits planning to holiday there? Here's everything you need to know: How hot is it in Spain and Portugal? Today in Spain's capital Madrid and Portugal's capital Lisbon, highs of 39 C are expected with temperatures due to rise over the weekend. Forecaster Marco Petagna told the Standard that the Iberian region of Spain and the Algarve, in Portugal, could be hit by the hottest temperatures in 41 years by Friday. The hottest temperatures will be in Iberia, near Portugal, where temperatures are expected to peak at 48C. The current heat record for Europe is 48C recorded in Athens, Greece, in July 1977. What heat warnings are in place? Spains meteorological office, Aemet, have issued multiple heat warnings for regions across the country. Madrid is currently on an amber warning and Badajoz, a city in southwest Spain is on a red extreme heat alert. The Met Office has advised tourists to take extra care when holidaying in these hot temperatures. Aidan McGivern of the Met Office said: [The] exceptional heat over the Iberian peninsula could have serious consequences on people there, and on transport, and on tourists who arent used to that heat and of course locals wont be used to these kinds of extreme so certainly something to keep an eye on." Where else in Europe is seeing hot weather? Countries across Europe will be battling some sizzling temperatures over the next week. On Friday, Rome and Paris are expected to reach highs of 34C, while Berlin will peak at 31C. UK heatwave 1 /17 UK heatwave Scorcher: beach-goers enjoy the hot weather in Cornwall Getty Images Kayakers at Portobello beach PA People enjoy the fine weather as they gather on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives Getty Images Norman the puggle takes a dip in the sea at Portobello beach PA People relax in the sun at St Paul's Cathedral AP Beachgoers at Portobello beach, Edinburgh PA People wander around the harbour at low tide in St Ives Getty Images Brits were enjoying the third successive day of hot weather today Getty Images A woman applies sun lotion to a man's back as they enjoy the fine weather on Porthmeor Beach Getty Images People enjoy the fine weather as they sunbathe on Porthmeor Beach Getty Images Temperatures hit 32C in parts of the UK Getty Images A seagull sits on a boat as people gather around the harbour at low tide in St Ives Getty Images Beachgoers in Edinburgh PA Chloe Precious serves ice cream on a boat converted into an ice cream shop called the Full Moos, on the River Ouse in York REUTERS Customers line up for ice cream in York REUTERS The hottest temperature in the UK was recorded in Wales REUTERS Millions of Brits were out enjoying the sunshine today REUTERS Increasingly high temperatures in Greece have also caused concern over the potential risk for more wildfires following those that ravaged through the country last week. Will the heatwave return to the UK? The weather is already starting to heat up again following the weekend washout that saw heavy downpours and thunderstorms batter the UK. On Thursday, temperatures will climb back up to 28 C in London and the southeast. A ndy Serkis is set to direct a performance-capture adaptation of George Orwell classic Animal Farm for Netflix. Serkis will reunite with Matt Reeves, having worked together on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. According to Deadline, the adaptation has been described as [being] in a thoroughly contemporary fashion, which will highlight the staggering relevance today of the satirical and dramatic power of Orwells re-imagined classic. Serkis said in a statement, seen by the publication: We are incredibly excited to have finally found the perfect creative home in Netflix for this extraordinarily zeitgeist work by George Orwell. Reunited: Andy Serkis will work with Matt Reeves / Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images On top of that, to be re-united with my great friend Matt Reeves with his acute sensitivity, storytelling intelligence and honesty and command in this realm is to have the very best scenario for our long-held passion to bring this fable alive. It is thought that Serkis first became keen on an adaptation back in 2012 when his company Imaginarium first made a deal with the George Orwell Estate. The classic 1945 novel - and allegory of Stalinist Russia - featured a group of animals who rebelled against humans to take over the farm and establish their independence. They create their own environment and world but there is a hierarchy, with Napoleon a pig slowly eliminating his rivals and introducing his own commandments. R ichard Arnold left his Good Morning Britain colleagues in stitches as he recreated Rihannas Vogue cover shoot complete with those eyebrows. The Barbadian superstar appears on the September edition of the iconic magazine, styled by Edward Enninful and shot by Nick Knight. While Rihanna is the first black woman to star on the cover of British Vogue, something else about the shoot got everybody talking the retro eyebrows thinly drawn on with pen and ITV were keen to jump in on the discussion. GMB presenter Kate Garraway was left in hysterics as her colleague Arnold decided to recreate the look, smouldering for the camera. New look: Richard Arnold recreated Rihanna's thinly-browed look (Ken McKay/ITV/REX ) / Ken McKay/ITV/REX The showbiz reporter sighed: You know when you say I just want to get off early today because Im going on holiday Then you get the phone call from the voice of god on production saying were going to drag you up a little bit with an eyebrow trend thats breaking news overnight. Star: Rihanna on the cover of British Vogue's September issue / Nick Knight courtesy of Vogue "Rihannas all across it and we need to be. Ben Shephard, co-presenting with Garraway, then joked: Did you wear this outfit when you got your degree? To which Arnold quipped back: Oh please, I wore this outfit when we first met sunshine. Mocked up: Kate Garraway was shocked by what she would look like with Rihanna's look / ITV "She looks absolutely sensational but the eyebrows have divided fans." However, Garraway and Shephard soon had even more to laugh about as mocked up pictures of them with the drawn-on eyebrow look flashed up on screen. Garraway joked that her co-presenter still looked handsome while she worried over the fact that she didnt appear to look any different with thinner brows. 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At the end of his meeting on Thursday with the Romanian Minister of Defense, Mihai Fifor, the British official said that Romania is crucial and plays a very important role for the Alliance, while coordinating joint training exercises, hosting the NATO missile defense system and also the Multinational Brigade South East. He also wanted to announce that the British Army is going to support Romania leading the Multinational Brigade South East during the Scorpion Fury exercise and also that UK is going to hold a memorandum on a future defense cooperation. Williamson specified that Romania is right to be concerned about the intensification of the Russian activity in the Black Sea area, while saying that Romania is not alone in dealing with this type of tensions. Romania is right to be concerned about the intensification of the Russian activity in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Black Sea and Azov Sea, he said, while adding that Romania is not facing alone this increasing tensions. NATO deals with dangerous and unpredictable challenges coming from all directions. Over the past year, the UK witnessed an increasing activity of the Russian submarines in the Northern Atlantic, said the British Minister, so that it is essential to stay united, for Romania and Great Britain are two nations that have a lot in common. Both countries play an important role in the North Atlantic Alliance and maintain security not only for themselves, but also for their friends and allies, said the British official. Ministers Fifor and Williamson also went to the 57 Air Base "Mihail Kogalniceanu," where they met the pilots and the technical staff ensuring the service at the four Typhoon aircraft of the British Air Forces, alongside the Romanian staff from this military base. A British detachment of approximately 160 troops (pilots and the technical personnel) are carrying out air police missions until August 31, backed by four Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, alongside the MiG-21 LanceR aircraft and troops of the Romanian Air Forces. This is the second time when a British detachment is being deployed to the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base for enhanced air police missions, together with the Romanian Air Forces, the first such detachment having been deployed here in May 1- August 31 2017. The enhanced Air Policing under NATO command is the first collective peacetime defense mission meant to ensure the integrity of the air space of the Alliance. The joint air police missions contribute to the development and adjustment of the reaction and deterrence capacities, as well as to the consolidation of inter-operability between Romania and British air forces. The deployment of the aircraft of the British Royal Air Forces to Romania proves the NATO unity and determination, as a reaction to the security challenges, says MApN. The Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) firmly condemns any racist act and on the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day brings a pious homage to all the Roma victims that suffered throughout the entire period of World War II, a MAE press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday informs. "Fighting racism, intolerance, xenophobia, populism and antisemitism represents one of the themes of interest for Romania in preparation for the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2019", reads the press release. MAE reminds that this year it is the commemoration of 74 years since the events of 2 August 1944, when approximately 3,000 Roma citizens from the Auschwitz-Birkenau fell victims to the Nazi regime. In the memory of this tragic event, the day of August 2 has become known as the International Memorial Day of the Roma Genocide."In the context of the multilateral diplomatic actions, Romania gives special attention to the the memory of the Roma citizens victims of the genocide during the Holocaust period and the need to educate younger generations about this tragic chapter in the European history. In this sense, during Romania's mandate as President of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Romania encouraged international efforts in the fields of education concerning the problematic of the Roma genocide during the Holocaust period. As a result of these actions, with the financial support from the IHRA, the online educational platform http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home has become available, which contains teaching material in 11 European languages, including Romanian," the press release further mentions.MAE supports the consolidation of efforts to include in the educational programs the topic of the Roma citizens' genocide during World War II and to ensure some decent social conditions for the last Roma survivors of deportation in Transnistria. MAE also reminds that within IHRA activates the Committee for Roma genocide, whose line of work is aimed at raising awareness of the Roma genocide during the national-socialist regime and including in the school curriculum a chapter dedicated to this topic. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Wednesday evening that a "continuous assessment" of Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar is conducted. Present at Antena 3, the justice minister was asked when he will assess Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar. "The assessment is continuous. There is the concept of continuous training, we all need to learn during our professional activity, to know the law and scientific developments. It is about ongoing professional training and ongoing professional assessment. When we draw the line, then we will see," said Tudorel Toader. OMV Petrom anticipates CAPEX (including capitalized exploration and appraisal) to be around 3.7 bln lei this year, of which around 75 percent will be in the Upstream exploitation and production segment; the company reported investments of 2.1 billion lei in H1 2018, up 130 percent compared to the same period last year, as per the Group's consolidated financial statements (unaudited), released on Thursday. The increase in investments is mainly due to a ramp-up in drilling of development and exploration wells, and intensified works in facilities projects in the Upstream segment. Upstream investments over January - June 2018 amounted to 1.44 billion lei, compared to 797 million lei in the same period last year. For the entire year, the company estimates 2.8 bln lei worth of investments in this segment, including more than 100 new wells and sidetracks, about 1,000 workovers and the Neptun Deep project."We are aiming a final investment decision this year [regarding Neptun Deep], depending on a stable fiscal regime, gas market liberalization and gas infrastructure development," the company document states.The company also plans divesting another 50 - 60 fields, as it focuses on the most profitable barrels.In Downstream Oil, the increase was mainly due to investments directed to the Petrobrazi refinery turnaround, tie-in projects and the Polyfuel growth project. Downstream investments amounted to 661 mln lei in H1, as to 115 mln in the same period of the year before; thereof, 635 mln lei were in Downstream Oil (105 mln lei in H1 2017).Investments in the Corporate and Other were nil, compared to one million lei in the first six months of 2017.The Group's total hydrocarbon production in the first half of this year was 29.18 million boe (barrels of oil equivalent). In Romania, total oil and gas production was 27.90 mln boe, 5 percent lower compared to 29.39 mln boe in H1 2017. Crude oil and NGL production in Romania was 12.20 mln bbl, 3 percent lower compared to H1 2017, mainly due to the natural decline. Gas production in Romania decreased by 7 percent to 15.70 mln boe, due to the natural decline in the main gas fields (Totea Deep and Lebada East), the one-time effect of works and equipment replacement in the Totea-Hurezani area, and maintenance activities.Oil and gas production in Kazakhstan decreased by 4 percent to 1.28 mln boe.According to OMV Petrom Group's latest risk assessment exercise conducted in February 2018, the main uncertainties that can influence the company's results remain those related to the commodity price risk, operational risks, and political and regulatory risk."In terms of regulatory risk, the company is in dialogue with the Romanian authorities on topics of relevance for the industry. In recent months, we have seen a number of fiscal and regulatory initiatives discussed and/or implemented. This increases legislative volatility and influences the overall business environment," the company said. President Klaus Iohannis sent Parliament on Thursday for re-examination a bill comprising measures necessary for the implementation of oil operations by holders of oil agreements regarding off-shore oil blocks. "We believe that the law subject to re-examination needs to be reviewed by Parliament in light of the long-term stability and predictability of the legal framework applicable to the sector and to avoid potential negative effects. We also believe that the provisions of the law subject to the review should contain clear provision with a view to ensuring the necessary framework for the development of the government-investor partnership, in order to secure the necessary predictability, so that the Romanian economy may benefit from the long-term exploitation of the Black Sea natural resources," reads the re-examination application submitted to Senate Chairman Calin Popescu-Tariceanu. Romania's Defence Minister Mihai Fifor said on Thursday he agreed with British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson to continue bilateral consultations and strategic dialogue on topics of mutual interest for the implementation of bilateral projects and the development of defence co-operation. "I have unveiled Romania's priorities for the time it holds the presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019 that will focus on a follow-up to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) initiatives such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) and the European Defense Fund (EDF)," Fifor said after a meeting with his British counterpart. Fifor pointed out that he and Williamson identified common positions on the long-term military, political and organisational adaptation of NATO and also on strengthening an effective deterrence and defence posture to counter threats to NATO security, irrespective of their source, in line with the agreements at the latest NATO summit. "Thus, we have reconfirmed our commitment to implementing a consistent approach to [NATO's enhanced forward] position in terms of planning, command and control, capabilities and exercises, while preserving the nature of the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) and the tailored Forward Presence (tFP). At the same time, following the recognition at the recent summit of Romania's offer to host a land component command, I have requested our partners to build on the experience gained by the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) which headquarters are hosted by the UK to provide us with support in the process of commissioning this future capability to contribute to the architecture of a coherent command and control structure for NATO's south-east flank," said Fifor. He expressed his gratitude for UK's support and for the British Armed Forces participation in the implementation of the tailored Forward Presence. "Thank you once again, Mr Secretary of Defense, for securing support for making operational the two NATO command and control bodies on Romania's soil by taking up positions in the Multinational Division South-East (MND-SE) and the NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU)," Fifor said. He underscored the excellent navy collaboration between Romania and the UK, and praised the UK for the presence of British vessels in the Black Sea as part of the "Standing NATO Maritime Group" - SNMG. "I believe that the presence of our strategic allies sends a very strong signal, a message of solidarity, and it is also a guarantee of security in the region," said Fifor. He noted that ways to strengthen co-operation in international organisations were also discussed to ensure a security climate in the wider Black Sea area taking into account the developments on the southern flank generated by the crisis in Syria and the refugee crisis. "With an emphasis on the security situation in the vicinity of Romania, we mentioned the political and military aggression of the Russian Federation and its intention to militarise the Black Sea by increasing the military forces in the region and deploying new capabilities, potentially predominantly offensive ones of all types of army branches. The Russian Federation's efforts are focused on hybrid tactics and actions to undermine the internal stability of both the ex-soviet states and the neighbouring NATO states, fueling the so-called 'frozen conflicts.' Having outlined such a picture, there is a clear need for a consistent, co-ordinated and unitary approach in political and operational terms to deter any escalation of potential conflicts and to maintain a security climate in the Black Sea region," Fifor said. He reiterated his appreciation for the presence of the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the British Royal Air Force and of approximately 160 troops deployed at the military base of Mihail Kogalniceanu performing enhanced air policing missions May 1- August 31. "Today, we will visit together the British contingent at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base, and I will use the occasion to thank the British military personally for their professionalism and dedication to fulfilling their missions," said Fifor. The ambassador of the Swiss Confederation to Romania, Urs Herren, on Wednesday night said in the opening of the Academy Sighisoara that he is fascinated with this initiative that has reached its 25th celebration, on the very day when the Swiss modern state celebrates 170 years. "It is a pleasure and an honour to be here tonight, I'm fascinated with this initiative that has reached 25 years of existence. We celebrate today two events, the National Day of Switzerland, in 1848 the Swiss modern state came into being, and 25 years today the first edition of the Academy Sighisoara took place. It is an extraordinary event because it prepares young musicians, it inspires the teachers to work with the young, so it is not a one-way exercise. It brings together musicians from different cultures, from various countries to work together. It also offers 15 days of concerts and not only concerts, but also innovating concerts which put Sighisoara on Romania's cultural map," the Swiss ambassador asserted. Urs Herren emphasized that 25 years of Academy Sighisoara and 170 years of the Swiss modern state is a long time and because of this he gave a review of why the Academy Sighisoara was a success, what is its connection with Switzerland and with the collaboration between Romania and Switzerland."Firstly, education and innovation are genuine Swiss concepts, we are a small country, with poor resources, we have learned for a long time that we cannot be successful without education, which is the very foundation of innovation. Switzerland lays among the first countries worldwide as regards its innovation index and this is owed to a very good education system, from the very first classes. Secondly, participating in events such as the Academy Sighisoara is the very essence of our democracy and of many other things we have managed to do. They say that if three Swiss meet, they set up an organisation and this initiative is typical. It has been started by an association, which is an organisation where people get together because they have found a joint project, common values and wish to build together. They don't do it for the money they do it because they have a common goal and the will to work together. One cannot uphold the enthusiasm and dedication for 25 years without this voluntary association of the people," Urs Herren asserted.The Swiss diplomat said that as regards the Academy Sighisoara it is also about integration and national cooperation, because "Switzerland is an open country, with several international collaborations, with very many foreigners residing in Switzerland and representing a force - one third of the citizens living there are foreigners.""As ambassador, I am very happy that not only the Academy Sighisoara exists here, but also dozens of initiatives of the kind, that contribute to the Romanian-Swiss collaboration. We thank those who have made this event possible, the Cultura Viva Sighisoara Association that came with this initiative, the Sighisoara City Hall, the county and the sponsors who helped, including the Swiss companies operating in Transylvania. And a huge thank you to all of the professors and musicians because after all it is about them, about them being educated and about the pleasure they feel when performing," Urs Herren concluded.Alongside the Swiss ambassador in the festive opening of the 25th edition of Academia Sighisoara participated the vice president of the Mures County Council Alexandru Cimpianu, the deputy prefect of the County of Mures Nagy Zsigmond, the mayor of Sighisoara Ovidiu Malancravean, as well as the event's main organizer violonist Alexandru Gavrilovici, founder of this festival-school.The opening concert of the event called "Jubilee Claude Debussy, Frank Martin and Gyorgy Kurtag!" was performed by Gerardo Vila (piano), Alexandru Gavrilovici (violin) and Alexandre Foster (cello).Academy Sighisoara, that is to span until 14 August, is a festival-school which offers the young musicians from Romania and from abroad the possibility to study, to exchange ideas, information and improve themselves by the side of several internationally noted maestros.As many as 58 young musicians have signed up at this edition of Academy Sighisoara. The musicians will partake in the refresher courses delivered by over 20 internationally reputed professors from Austria, Germany, Greece, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina and Venezuela, within 15 master-classes. The apparent assassination of a highly regarded public figure has rocked Ethiopia to its core. Simegnew Bekele, the architect overseeing a prestigious hydroelectric project in Ethiopia, was shot dead last week in the capital Addis Ababa by an unknown attacker. Many people in the Horn of Africa country are now suspecting a foreign hand behind his brutal slaying. Bekele (53) was a much-loved public figure. He was seen as embodying a vision for Ethiopias political independence and economic development. The hydroelectric dam he oversaw was his lifes work and he was revered by the wider population for his dedication. Now what appears to be his cold-blooded murder has shocked the nation. The killing comes amid concern that a newly appointed prime minister is part of a geopolitical shakeup of Ethiopia to bring the country under the geopolitical sway of Washington and its Arab regional clients, away from Ethiopias recent strategic alignment with China. In African security matters, Ethiopia may have been an ally of the United States for the past three decades. But in terms of its more important economic development, the country has relied on China. Chinas growing stature in Africa much to the chagrin of the US has been largely prefigured by its close strategic partnership with Ethiopia. Ethiopia is long seen as the spiritual and diplomatic leader of the 54 nations of the continent, proudly standing as being the one nation never historically colonized by European powers. Through its economic partnership with Beijing, Ethiopia was in many ways Chinas gateway to the rest of Africa. Political Shift The coming into office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali by parliamentary selection nearly four months ago has signaled a shift in the internal and international politics of Ethiopia. That change appears to be giving the US a greater role in the economic development of the country in a way that relegates Chinas erstwhile dominant role. The murder of chief engineer Bekele last Thursday casts a foreboding shadow over the future of Ethiopia. It also casts a shadow over the new prime minister and his much-vaunted leadership. Youthful premier Abiy Ahmed (41) has up to now won glowing praise in Western news media as a reformer. He has promised to open up key sectors of the economy to foreign capital and to broaden its multiparty democracy. Since Ethiopias revolutionary war against the Derg dictatorship nearly 30 years ago, the country has been ruled by a coalition government largely dominated by the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). The Tigray are a minority ethnic group from the north of Ethiopia which led the revolutionary war against the despotic Derg regime. Premier Ahmed was previously part of the ruling coalition government, having served as a minister, and in military intelligence. But he comes from the Oromo ethnic group, which is the most populous in Ethiopias nation of 100 million, comprising some 84 different ethnic groups. The Oromo are associated with supporting the former Derg regime. For the past three decades there have been ongoing acrimonious tensions between the Oromo and Tigray people. Since Ahmed came to office, there are fears among the Tigray especially that he is stealthily rehabilitating remnants of the old regime. He has released hundreds of political prisoners in the name of reforms, but several of these figures are accused by the Tigray of having committed past acts of grave violence against the state. Courted by Washington Internationally, premier Abiy Ahmed has been courted by Washington. Upon gaining office, the US has gone out of its way to patronize the new leader, saying that the shift in Ethiopias politics heralds a closer partnership between the two countries. What the US is seeking to do is oust China from its role as the pivotal foreign partner in Ethiopias development. Ethiopia has been the African model of Chinese-assisted development for the entire continent. In recent years, it is China and its massive financial and technological investment that is the main driver for the continents prodigious potential, overtaking the Americans and Europeans as foreign players. Ethiopia, situated on the eastern Horn of Africa, has been a vital link to Chinas ambitions for integrating Africa into its global plans for reviving the ancient Silk Roads from Asia. Since taking office, Abiy Ahmed has made some rather discordant public announcements. He has reportedly criticized flagship infrastructure projects overseen by China, such as the mammoth railway system linking the capital Addis Ababa to the neighboring coastal state of Djibouti. Ethiopia has been landlocked since its 1998-2001 border war with Eritrea to its north. The recent opening of a rail line to Djibouti to the northeast of Ethiopia was seen as a breakthrough strategic link for access to the Red Sea and international trade. It was a vital corridor too for Chinas access to East Africa. Premier Ahmed has also taken a strangely dim view of Ethiopias Grand Renaissance Dam project which aims to harness the water of the Blue Nile for hydroelectric power. Under construction for the past seven years, the dam was slated to begin production by the end of this decade. The project was the innovation of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who was the leader of the revolutionary war against the Derg regime. Zenawi died in 2012 at the age of 57 from a rare brain illness. He was replaced by Haile Mariam Desalgn who resigned earlier this year, in March, over Oromo civil strife, paving the way for Abiy Ahmed. Dam Delayed, Engineer Killed The new prime minister made an unexpected announcement last month that the dams construction could be delayed by 10 years. That announcement caused much public consternation. Shortly before his killing last week, the chief engineer Simegnew Bekele, who was appointed in 2011 to lead the project, also hinted in media interviews that his work was being undermined by certain government figures. Prior to that, in early June, premier Ahmeds first overseas official visit was to Egypt where he was warmly greeted in Cairo by President al-Sisi. Egypt has long protested the construction of Ethiopias dam out of apprehension that it would drastically reduce the flow of water to the Nile Valley, essential for Egyptian agriculture. During his visit to Cairo, both leaders talked about a new beginning in friendly relations. It is believed that Ethiopias Ahmed privately gave al-Sisi concessions on the future of the Blue Nile dam. Subsequent talk about an unprecedented delay in the construction seems to be part of the concession. Surprise Peace Initiative The next major international development came last month, mid-July, when premier Ahmed finalized a sudden peace initiative with Eritrea. The two countries were gripped by a border war nearly two decades years ago. That conflict followed the overthrow of the Derg regime which resulted in the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia. Ethiopia became landlocked, cut off from the Red Sea. The feting of Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki in Addis Ababa was hailed by international media as another sweeping progressive reform under premier Ahmed. But many people in Ethiopia are not so approving, especially among the northern Tigray population who lost up to 150,000 people during the bitter three-year civil war with Eritrea. The Oromo prime minister is proposing to hand over disputed border lands to Eritrea as part of the peace settlement. That is being viewed as a betrayal by the Tigray. Geopolitically, it is also suspected that the peace initiative with Eritrea is being driven by a US-led plan to carve out a new trading route for Ethiopia through Eritrea to the Red Sea. In that way, the importance of neighboring Djibouti and the Chinese-led trade route to East Africa would be sidelined. US Move To Sideline China The surprise peace opening between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed the visit to East Africa by former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March. During his trip, Tillerson made some provocative statements demeaning China as a partner to Africa. That was only three weeks before Abiy Ahmeds accession to power on April 2. There then followed, according to Ethiopian sources, low-key visits by US State Department officials to Addis Ababa and the Eritrean capital, Asmara. The US contact with Asmara was particularly remarkable because for years Washington has been sanctioning and isolating Eritrea over alleged human rights abuses under its longtime leader Afwerki. Eritreas tiny economy has largely subsisted in recent years under the patronage of the Gulf Arab states. As well as Washingtons bidding, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also played a behind-the-scenes role in facilitating the rapprochement between Eritrea and Ethiopia. A week after the peace deal was sealed in mid-July, the two leaders were afforded a congratulations ceremony in the UAE during which they were presented with ornate gold medallions by the Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Two days later, on July 26, Ethiopians were shocked to hear that the chief engineer of the Grand Renaissance Dam was found dead in his car in the main public square of Addis Ababa. Simegnew Bekele had been shot behind his right ear at close range. A handgun was found in the car, with its engine still running. Few believe it was suicide. Bekele was the public face of the dam project, which many Ethiopians were hoping would promote the development of their country. The engineer was highly regarded by the public for his dedication to the flagship project. He was widely seen as being free from corruption. His death has raised concerns that the hydroelectric dam will be disrupted with long delay, or that the financing of it will be radically overhauled. Political Assassination There seems little doubt that the killing of the master-engineer was a political assassination. In the days before his fatal encounter, CCTV cameras were inexplicably disabled in the area. His personal security detail was also relieved from duty to accompany him. On the morning of the shooting, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed flew to the US. In an unseemly response, Ahmed ignored a public outcry for him to return to the country on the appalling news of the engineers death. His absence from the high-profile funeral on July 29, which was mourned by the nation, was seen as unbecoming. Moreover, Ahmeds perceived lack of civic duty has sparked widespread public anger especially among the Tigray people. For the past week, the country has witnessed mass demonstrations, with many people suspecting the new ruling faction around Ahmed of having sanctioned the murder of engineer Bekele. During his US tour, the prime minister has been hosted by the large Ethiopian diaspora. Some of the rallies, including one on the day of Bekeles funeral in Addis Ababa last Sunday, have featured prominent members associated with the outcast Derg regime sharing the stage with Ahmed. People in Ethiopia have been aggrieved by what they see as insensitive behavior by the prime minister in not immediately returning to the country to share in the nations sorrow over the renowned engineers death. Greeted by Pence & IMFs Lagarde While in the US over the past week, premier Ahmed also had a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, during which Pence talked effusively about future economic ties with Ethiopia. Another engagement was with Christine Lagarde, the head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF). Up to now, the IMF and Western finance capital have been kept at bay in Ethiopias development. Projects like the Grand Renaissance Dam have been either self-financed or have relied on China for investment. Lagarde, like Pence, hailed a new future of tighter partnership with Ethiopia. With the killing of engineer Bekele, the $4 billion dam project in the northwestern region of Ethiopia near the border with Sudan has been thrown into disarray. The unprecedented delay in construction that premier Ahmed controversially announced last month now seems a certainty. If and when it goes ahead, the financing arrangement may require the IMF to step in. The involvement of Western capital is what the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi strenuously sought to avoid. His vision of independent financing was shared by the deceased engineer. To sum up, Ethiopia appears to be undergoing a deep geopolitical realignment. However, the realignment seems to be going ahead without national consensus, albeit praised on the surface by Western media as reforms under the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The United States is assuming a greater role in the countrys economic future in place of China. As a strategically important African nation the African Unions headquarters are in Addis Ababa, built in 2012 by China with a $200 million grant an increased influence of Washington in Ethiopia will have repercussions across the continent. The apparent US-led rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea is key to the intended ouster of Chinas foothold on the continent via the Djibouti port, where China last year opened up its first overseas military base. This shifting geopolitical rearrangement also gives the US and the Gulf Arab states greater dominion over the Red Sea chokepoint in global trade, especially for seaborne oil. That may account for the US-backed Saudi war to control Yemen, which sits opposite to Eritrea astride the Red Sea on the Arabian Peninsula. New Geopolitical Configuration In this new geopolitical configuration, Ethiopia under Abiy Ahmed Ali appears to be moving away from its strategic partnership with China to align with the US and its Arab regional allies, Egypt and the Gulf oil sheikhdoms. Abiys Muslim heritage is thought to make him amenable to embrace Americas Arab client regimes. The apparent assassination of engineer Simegnew Bekele is given significance by this strategic power play. But this US-led orchestration against China, or as Washington would say great power competition, is unleashing dangerous political tensions within Ethiopia. The federal Ethiopian state formed after the revolutionary war against the former Derg regime is severely straining because of premier Ahmeds perceived favor of sectarian interests under the guise of reforms. His premiership appears to be more weighted by Oromo political figures. Given the large Christian-Muslim composition of Ethiopia, there are also fears that the country could be incited into religious conflict. There is simmering anger that the hallowed public figure of engineer Simegnew Bekele may have been a sacrificial victim in order to assist the US geopolitical power play. Across Ethiopia there is growing trepidation about the future direction of the country. The dark days of political murder and sectarian persecution, which previously abated after the overthrow of the Derg regime, are haunting Ethiopia once again. Poignantly, the murder of Simegnew Bekele, whose Christian name means hope in his native language, has grievously struck the countrys sense of nationhood and its once bright aspirations for independent development. Photo: Africanews Patrick Ekema, left, preparing March Past W. Musa The people of Buea Subdivision in particular and Fako Division in general have massively boycotted a march-past organized by the controversial Mayor of Buea Council, Patrick Ekema Esunge. The protest according to the Mayor was to demand the release of some 7 Chiefs abducted by suspected Ambazonia fighters , reject calls for secession but beneath it, call for strangers referred to by Bakwerians as graffi, from the North West region. Calls for return-to-your-region had intensified recently with mainly Bakwerians championing the course which has failed woefully. That is why Tuesdays protest registered low turn-out. Majority of those who took part in the xenophobic scheme were mostly Council workers who had been threatened to do so or lose their jobs. This reporter also gathered that even contractors of the Council were told to take part and could bring their relatives. But no matter the huge mobilization and radio announcements, only about 164 people attended the parade from Clerks Quarter to the South West Governors office.Despite this low turnout, Mr Ekema boasted that it was a success because he was expecting less than 10 persons. The protesters, some hiding their faces, held placards denouncing the planned All Anglophone Conference in Buea, where Ekema said the initiator, Cardinal Tumi should take it to his own region, North West region insisting that Buea is not ready to host the meeting and not even an approval from the Presidency will make him allow that happen. After the march, a message was read at the governors office and transmitted to the President of the republic through South West governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai. Shortly after the march, the Mayor unsealed shops which remained closed for about a week following a respect of ghost town spearheaded by pro-independence fighters. The Mayor said it was a sign of good faith. On July 30, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera announced a plan to deploy the Aegis Ashore missile-defense system by 2023. The military training grounds in the Akita and Yamaguchi prefectures are prospective sites. This decision is a big-ticket purchase that could also help Tokyo smooth trade friction with Washington, amidst the Trump administrations threats to hit Japans auto imports with new tariffs. Reuters cited Japanese media reports that have put the cost of the two sites, which will include the Aegis air-defense system, missile launchers, and interceptors, at around $6 billion. Japan has chosen the Lockheed Martin Corps SSR radar, with a far greater range than the Aegis radars currently operated by the US Navy. Officially, the move is being justified by pointing to the threat from North Korea. Japan has purchased F-35 fighter aircraft, V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft, and AAV-7 amphibious vehicles, which will ensure a steady paycheck for US defense contractors. In fiscal 2021, Japan will fly the US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to monitor security situations, including military moves by Russia, China, and North Korea. It will be based at the Misawa Air Base in the Aomori Prefecture, close to Russias shores. Japan currently operates four destroyers equipped with US Aegis missile-defense systems carrying SM-3 intercept missiles capable of intercepting a ballistic missile at altitudes above 310 miles. There are plans to build four more missile-defense-capable ships by the early 2020s. Two Atago-class destroyers are being modified to operate the Aegis, and there are plans to add one of those to the arsenal later this year. Aegis-equipped ships in and around Japan, as well as Patriot batteries, offer another layer of defense. Its important to build and maintain an infrastructure that will serve as a basis for further enhancement of ones operational capabilities. The introduction of the land-based Aegis will inevitably entail the acquisition of extensive supporting systems. With the new type of SM3 Block 2A missile, boasting almost three times the range of the SM3, the countrys missile defense will be significantly strengthened, posing a threat to Russias and Chinas strategic nuclear potentials. In its tests, the Aegis has also proven effective against low-flying satellites, making it an element of space warfare. The Aegis can intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) upon reentry. Based in Japan, they will be fitted with information-exchange systems enabling them to operate as a link in the US global ballistic missile-defense (BMD) system, by sending data to Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) based in Alaska and California. The invaluable cuing information sent to the American mainland facilities will significantly enhance the overall ability of the US military to intercept Russian and Chinese missiles. The foreign and defense ministers of Russia and Japan held 2+2 talks July 30-August 1. This was the third meeting in such a format, with the previous two taking place in 2013 and 2017. The planned Aegis deployment was a controversial issue. Russia views the deployment as a threat to its national security, dismissing Japans claims that the move is being made solely to counter Pyongyangs nuclear program. Moscow believes this argument is no more than a pretext, and the Aegis Ashore deployment is a disproportionate response to the North Korean missile threat. Japans reassurances that the system would remain under its independent control ring hollow, as the US and Japan are both involved in an effort to create a global BMD system. Besides, there is no way to verify this claim. Japan is working with the United States to undermine Russias strategic deterrent and this fact cannot be denied. The US National Security Strategy states that Washington will cooperate on missile defense with Japan and South Korea to move toward an area defense capability. The Aegis Ashore uses the same Mk-41 vertical launch systems as the US warships that are capable of launching intermediate-range cruise missiles. This makes Japan complicit in a violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Putting US F-35Bs on Izumo-class helicopter destroyers, which are actually aircraft carriers, will also pose a threat to Russia. F-35s are nuclear-capable strike aircraft. Toyko will soon own 40 of the F-35A jets, with the first one built right there in Japan becoming operational in February. There will be 10 of them by the end of the year stationed at Misawa Air Base. According to China Military, Japan could go nuclear overnight with its current stash of 47 tons of plutonium, enough for about 6,000 nuclear bombs. Minor modifications are enough to turn the Epsilon solid-fuel carrier rocket into a potential nuclear-tipped ICBM with a range of 12,000 kilometers. Japans 22 submarines can be modified to launch cruise missiles fitted with nuclear warheads, and Japan's F-15J military aircraft could become nuclear with some modification. The Aegis Ashore deployment is a reality Russia cannot ignore. It will adapt its military planning accordingly. In January, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order authorizing the Ministry of Defense to station military aircraft at the civilian airport on Iturup (known in Japan as Etorofu) Island. Other steps will follow. This move will cloud the two countries bilateral relations and hinder any effort to reach an agreement on the Kuril Islands or a peace treaty. President Donald Trump is threatening to take away the security clearances of a number of former senior intelligence and security officers who have been extremely critical of him. Most Americans were unaware that any ex-officials continued to hold clearances after they retired and the controversy has inevitably raised the question why that should be so. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. A security clearance is granted to a person but it is also linked to need to know in terms of what kind of information should or could be accessed, which means that when you are no longer working as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency you dont necessarily need to know anything about Chinas spying on the United States. Or do you? If you transition into a directorship or staff position of a major intelligence or security contractor, which many retirees do, you might need to retain the qualification for your job, which makes the clearance an essential component in the notorious revolving door whereby government officials transit to the private sector and then directly lobby their former colleagues to keep the flow of cash coming. At top levels among the beltway bandit companies, where little work is actually done, some make the case that you have to remain well informed to function properly. The fact is that many top-level bureaucrats do retain their clearances for those nebulous reasons and also sometimes as a courtesy. Some have even received regular briefings from the CIA and the office of the Director of National intelligence even though they hold no government positions. A few very senior ex-officials have also been recalled by congress or the White House to provide testimony on particular areas of expertise or on past operations, which can legitimately require a clearance, though it such cases one can be granted on a temporary basis to cover a specific issue. The problem arises when former officials use their clearances as bona fides to enhance their marketability for non-clearance jobs in the media or corporate world, particularly when those individuals are criticizing current government policies and behaving in a partisan fashion regarding specific candidates for office. Donald Trump was especially assailed by former officials John Brennan, James Clapper, Michael Hayden and Michael Morell before the 2016 election, all of whom continue to attack him currently, most particularly for the recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the 2016 campaign, Morell, who openly supported Hillary Clinton and is the designated intelligence on-air contributor for CBS news, deliberately linked the fact that he was ex-CIA Acting Director to his assertion that Trump was somehow an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation to establish his credibility. That type of activity should be considered abusive and an exploitation of ones former office. Morell left CIA in June 2013 and by November was a senior counselor with Beacon Global Strategies. According to the firm's website, Beacon Global Strategies is a government and private sector consulting group that specializes in matters of international policy, foreign affairs, national defense, cyber, intelligence, and homeland security. Morell may know little about those issues as they have evolved in the past five years, but citing his clearance gives him credibility for knowledge that he might not really possess and also gives him direct access to former colleagues that he can lobby to obtain government contracts. Former CIA Director John Brennan, who famously voted for the Communist Party candidate for US president in 1976, has also profited greatly from his government service, becoming rich from his board memberships. He sits on the board of directors of SecureAuth + CORE Security and also on the board of The Analysis Corporation. More important in terms of his public profile, he is the Intelligence Consultant for NBC News and MSNBC and appears regularly. Last week Senator Rand Paul met with President Trump and recommended that Brennans security clearance be revoked. He argued that Brennan, Trumps most aggressive critic, has been using his credentials to provide credibility when he calls meeting with Russias president treasonous and describes the president as wholly in the pocket of Putin. Clearance holders also more generally use their privileged access to secret information to leverage speaking and television network pundit fees. In other words, Brennan and the others are using their security clearances to enhance their incomes, monetizing their access to classified information to enhance their value. It is by no means clear whether Trump will revoke the clearances of Clapper, Brennan, Morell and Hayden. As he is the legal source of all government clearances he has the power to do so. An equitable solution on the clearance issue more generally speaking would be to cancel all security clearances on the day when one leaves government service unless there is a direct and immediate transition to a private sector position that absolutely requires such a qualification. That would be fair to lower level employees seeking a second source of income and it would also eliminate many of those who are merely cashing in on their presumed access. As it is a rational solution it is very unlikely that it will be entertained by either the White House or by Congress. by Austin Bay August 2, 2018 Since April, 1992, an international peacekeeping or monitoring force of some type has attempted to reduce the mayhem in war-wracked Somalia. Subtract 1992 from 2018: you get 26 years. Prepare to add more. This week the UN Security Council voted to maintain the UN and African Union Somali peacekeeping operation (African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM) through at least 2020. Troops from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Ethiopia man AMISOM and do the brunt of the fighting and security work in southern Somalia. AMISOM soldiers battle Al Shabaab Islamist terrorists, protect the national government in Mogadishu, the capital, and attempt to separate warring Somali clans. Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti have immediate security interests in Somalia. Al Shabaab has struck Uganda with several terrible terror attacks. It makes sense their troops serve with AMISOM. American special operations forces also conduct raids, drone attacks and surveillance missions against Al Shabaab. Why are Americans involved? Al Shabaab has ties to al-Qaida and the Islamic State. In 2006, the group managed to seize Mogadishu. 2006 pre-dates the Islamic State but Al Shabaab envisioned establishing a militant terrorist state. To be succinct, Somalia in 2006, like Afghanistan in 2001, was an anarchic nowhere apocalyptic terrorists could use to launch global attacks. Somalia in 1994 connects to Afghanistan in 2001. Recall that the U.S. military has previously visited Somalia in force. Operation Restore Hope (December, 1992) deployed to help the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM I) feed and protect five million people. The Blackhawk Down debacle in Mogadishu (October, 1993) where Army Rangers fought hand to hand with militants led to America's 1994 withdrawal. Declassified al-Qaida documents (Letter 3 to al-Qaida's "Africa Corps") revealed the U.S. withdrawal fed militant fantasies. Al-Qaida's correspondent wrote: "The Somali experience confirmed the spurious nature of American power and that it has not recovered from the Vietnam complex. It fears getting bogged down in a real war that would reveal its psychological collapse at the level of personnel and leader." Subsequent combat, raids, suffering, death and injury demonstrated al-Qaida's "American collapse" narrative was murderous agit-prop spewed by idiot zealots seeking disciples -- but that also describes a lot of dreadful human history the last hundred years has witnessed. In 1992, Somalia was a failed state, as was Afghanistan. After the Russian withdrawal, it fell to civil war. The Taliban didn't emerge until 1994. 2018's list of failed states includes Somalia and Afghanistan. Congo, the Central African Republic and near-to-Somalia South Sudan are on it. So is Yemen, a short boat ride from Somalia. Syria is a mess, but two major powers are on the ground, the U.S. and Russia. Libya and Venezuela are major messes but they have oil to sell. Haiti is on the list; it is only one hurricane or earthquake from mega-disaster. Are all of these 2018 failed states potential Islamist terrorist bases? With the possible exception of Haiti, the answer is yes. From an American perspective, this argues for continued close intelligence surveillance operations, special operations raids and drone strikes in these chaotic places. In other words, a call for smart guard duty, not peacekeeping missions and nation building. However, nation "re-organization" might be beneficial, at least in Somalia's case. Julius Caesar said Gaul split into three parts. Somalia has three parts: Somalia (the south), Puntland and the Somaliland Republic. Somaliland occupies northwestern Somalia and in the early 1990s declared independence. It is far more stable than the rest of Somalia. Egyptian Queen Hapshetsut sent an expedition to the Land of Punt in the 15th century B.C. 21st century Puntland is the Horn of Africa's elbow. For several years it was called Pirate Land. It may be time to separate comparatively stable Somaliland from the rest of Somalia's problem. I am not predicting peace. Since January 2018 Somaliland and Puntland have revived a border war. Hey, it's one of Earth's hardest corners. | BY Ricki Green | Data science led digital marketing agency Jaywing has made 13 hires across the business following a string of major local and international wins. The Australian team has now increased to 44 and the new hires come as Jaywing reports revenue growth of 42%. Among the hires are Ed Raine, who previously worked at Melbourne digital agency Evolution 7 and joins Jaywing as senior strategist; Heath Edwards becomes group account director, formerly co-founder and managing director of Sydney-based brand consultancy Vibrandt Media; and senior account manager Joey Twynholm-Mason arrives from the UK, where she worked at Bloom Agency, which was acquired by Jaywing plc in 2016. Last month Sugar CRM consolidated its digital marketing and creative duties, including PR, data, brand and creative services, with Jaywing across key international markets including the US, Europe and APAC region. Jaywing is also the lead agency for the Sydney-based Collective Wellness Group, which includes brands Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness and Xtend Barre. The new faces include a number of PPC hires to bolster Jaywings search team. Senior search analyst Jordan Mulder joins from Atomic 212, Nathan Ma joins from Bohemia, and search analyst Jason Baldi and digital media analyst Troy Mulder both come from Mindshare. Says Chris Pittham, managing director, Jaywing: In the past six months we have added a number of new clients and expanded our relationships with existing clients, many of which were working with globally, which has led us to make a significant number of new hires across the business. Weve been leading the way in our creative and data offering and strategic thinking that brings those disciplines together is crucial, which is why the appointment of the likes of Ed, Heath and Joey are important for the global challenger brands we work with. Weve also bolstered our PPC, online media, account management and design teams to meet the growing demand of our clients and I want to welcome them all to the Jaywing team. Jaywing also recently expanded its presence and capabilities in Australia with the purchase of Frank Digital, which works with clients including Merivale, Bauer Media, City of Sydney and CanTeen. Bay of Plenty We are looking for a storeman with an OSH forklift license. You will need to be physically for as the job is about 70% forklift... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Angry and emotional scenes have erupted outside Parliament as Hauraki iwi arrived to sign their treaty settlement. The government is signing the Pare Hauraki collective redress deed despite fierce opposition from several iwi. Two bus loads of people from 12 iwi, stretching from North Auckland to the Coromandel, arrived just after 9am for the signing ceremony. They were met by a group of 30 Tauranga Moana iwi members, who are opposed to the settlement. Parliamentary security had to hold back people from each other, as they got face to face, screaming, crying and chanting. Tauranga Moana descendant Mere Maihi cried out "traitor" as she held a banner alongside other women. She said earlier they wanted to make it known that they did not support the Hauraki settlement. "We are at a loss here. "Today, our moana is being signed off and we are not okay about that. We are here to oppose that. "We have tried to have korero with them through tikanga and they have refused at every turn." The Tauranga Moana iwi say the redress will give Hauraki iwi rights to Tauranga Harbour, and they oppose that. When they arrived this morning, they were refused access to Parliament, because of concerns that they were there to protest. Waikato-Waiariki MP Tamati Coffey told the group that there were seats set up outside for them and that they would not be let in. The group waited peacefully at the entrance for about 20 minutes, forcing staff to open a different entry point for others to access Parliament. Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhiao says the settlement will give Hauraki iwi mana whenua status in Tauranga where they don't traditionally come from. He said a tikanga approach needs to be used to sort through issues of overlapping iwi interest. A last minute request for an injunction from John Tamihere of Ngati Porou ki Hauraki was declined by the High Court. John says Ngati Porou ki Hauraki had faced prejudice at the hands of the Crown during the Treaty settlement process. He argues the Crown had colluded with its preferred group, effectively excluding all other claimants. -RNZ | BY Ricki Green | Sasha Rainbow, winner of Voice of a Woman 2018, is joining Curious Films already solid roster. Managing director and executive producer Kate Roydhouse says when she saw her work at Cannes she knew she had to sign her immediately. Says Roydhouse: Shes bold, strong, and alluring her work really hits you. Shes creating some amazing stuff on the global scene, a true talent and were thrilled to bring her into the fold. Lifes what you make it screened at VOWSS at Cannes Lion, a showcase dedicated to the best films and advertising created by women. Rainbow is a Kiwi filmmaker whose passion for the craft and social causes has taken her to places such as Africa, Romania and throughout Asia. Her work is vivid and bold. Its soulful nature will imprint in your mind long after the fact. Rainbow nails authentic storytelling, captivating her audiences with a finesse for both the visual and the emotive. Says Rainbow: Since I first started directing it has been a dream to be repped in Australia and New Zealand, and I cant think of a cooler place than Curious. Highly sought after globally, Rainbow is represented by Academy in the United Kingdom, Reset in the United States and Boogie Nights in France. Read more about Rainbows many accolades here. View her recent filmography. Bay of Plenty Labour MP Angie Warren-Clark has today requested that the Environment Select Committee initiate a targeted briefing process to investigate the current state of food waste in New Zealand. This request received cross-party support from the Committee. Every year Kiwis send over 122,500 tonnes of food to landfill, all of which could have been eaten. This is enough to feed the whole of Dunedin for two years. Wasting this food also costs the average household $563 a year." Before coming to Parliament, Angie Warren-Clark managed Tauranga Womens Refuge, which worked closely with its local food rescue organisation to reduce both waste and food insecurity for the women and families it helped. Since I became an MP in 2017, I have spoken with a number of waste minimisation organisations and food rescue groups. I have been impressed by the passion and work occurring in this space. But it is clear to me we need to start engaging with this problem using a nation-wide approach. The Committee will be contacting a list of over 100 organisations and individuals over the coming weeks to submit. The Committee plans to appoint a specialist advisor and will report back to the Government with recommendations in early 2019. Our Committee believes that a targeted approach, focusing on the prevention and redistribution of food, is the best way to address the issue." The Committee will use a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework for its investigation. Food waste relates to at least six of the 17 SDGs that New Zealand signed up to in 2015. Target 12.3 commits us to halving global food waste by 2030 the Environment Committee wants to play our part in helping with this. Angie hopes that looking into the problem will benefit more than just New Zealands environment. Food waste covers social, economic and environmental issues. By tackling food waste, it will be a triple win. Click the image above to watch the video Monique Corbett from Teawanui won a $4000 diamond from Peet Jewellers; and new dishes, flavours, and dining events were launched on Wednesday night at Taurangas Art Gallery. Taste Tauranga is a culinary takeover of downtown Tauranga for the whole month of August, with over 25 restaurants, bars and cafes offering taste bud experiences. Theres also the chance to win Peet Jewellers diamond earrings. The launch event featured 2014 Masterchef NZ winners Karena and Kasey Bird, who have travelled to over 50 global destinations creating their award-winning television show Karena and Kaseys Kitchen Diplomacy; and have published two cookbooks. The first cookbook For the Love of went straight to number one on the Best Sellers List, and their second cookbook Hungry won an award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. They are both delighted to be involved in Taste Tauranga, and have created their own bespoke dinner to be held on August 31. We just really want to be a part of this, says Kasey. We love the hospitality sector and want to support and encourage the downtown Tauranga restaurants, cafes and bars. After our extensive travels around the world, at the end of the day, we realise in every country, food means family, food means love, and food is important to everybody, says Karena. Our idea is to do a degustation of all of the underground cooking methods, similar to our hangi. So youll see dishes from Peru, New Caledonia, Fiji and everywhere weve been were weve cooked in the ground, there will be some kind of fancy fine dining dish. Well take you on a journey. Everyone is connected and thats what I really think food is. It connects people. Taste Tauranga for August is about us saying lets honour those passionate, clever, dedicated people that run those establishments, says Mainstreet Tauranga manager Sally Cooke. They open their doors to us, they put food in their cabinets, they put drinks out, they make us coffee. And we run in and we dash out again. Lets not stop doing that, but lets make August the month where we celebrate and experience that part of our city centre culture that makes it so rich. Its the first time that four restaurants have collaborated to create a Tapas Trail which happens on Tuesdays in August. Picture this if you will, says Sally. If you buy a ticket to the Tapas Trail, this is what you get to do you arrive at Brooklyn Patio & Bar and get served crispy chicken with apple and ginger slaw, a selection of wood-fired pizzas and a margarita to match, move on to Macau for steamed bao bun and ginger prawn dumplings gyoza with fruity sake. Next stop Nomad Food + Wine for a mouth-watering ginger and lime cheesecake with turmeric curd and coconut sherbet, paired with a whiskey sour cocktail. Finish your Tapas Trail at The Barrel Room with a selection of finely aged Port and Cheese served with walnut crackers and quince jelly. This event is going gangbusters. The great thing about the Tapas Trail is you get to choose a 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm or 7.30pm session. Get with your friends and do it. The event is selling out so quickly that Sally is hoping it may be run an extra night. On Wednesday August 8 is meet the locals at The Barrel Room, says Mainstreet Taurangas Millie Newitt. Your opportunity to try local artisan food as well as local wine by Mills Reef Winery. If you like whisky and cheese the Top Shelf Tasting Room will be doing a Midwinters Dram, pairing whisky and cheese. Also there is Bare Essentials, at The Barrel Room, a beer tasting experience for ladies only, presenting a wide selection of craft beer, with nibbles included. An event thats already sold out is a wine tasting with gourmet banquet at Brooklyn Patio & Eatery, says Sally. Weve asked them to see if they can fit in their schedule another evening for this for Taste Tauranga. If they cant they will next year. Its another example of a great event, youve got to get in quickly to get your tickets. Winner of the $4000 diamond Monique Corbett from Teawanui with Harry van Heerden from Peet Jewellers Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout, his wife Kathryn, and Tauranga City Councillors Larry Baldock, Leanne Brown, Terry Molloy and Catherine Stewart all attended the Taste Tauranga launch. This is an event that weve wanted to put together and have worked on for such a long time to showcase our city centre, says Sally. To showcase those amazing bars, cafes and restaurants that make up our city centre. To celebrate everything thats good in food and also to support our hospitality sector because they work so hard. Sally plans the event to be held annually. Already at the start of August, some of the events featured for 2018 have sold out. Millie Newitt Other events planned during August include A tour of NZ Pinot Noir presented by Snapper Rock at the Topshelf Tasting Room, which will take participants on an exploration of different Pinot Noir from Malbrough, Martinbrough and Central Otago. The wines will be served with antipasto and there will be spot prizes and discounted prices. Lone Star will be providing All you can eat Redneck ribs on Wednesdays through August. Taste Mediterranean at The Barrel Room is an event that will feature a selection of Mediterranean wines to taste, and nibbles from Vetro. A Wild Degustation sounds fantastic, says Sally. The team at Crown and Badger have put this together. Its five courses with each course paired with a cocktail. Over 25 restaurants have set menus planned for August, which are priced at $20, $30, $45, and $60. The set menus are also amazing and the restaurants and cafes have done an awesome job of putting together new flavours and dishes, says Millie. Its a great way to spend your lunch or dinner, you can choose your price, your flavours and your location. Set menus is the foundation of Taste Tauranga, says Sally, and has been put together by us and by the cafes, bars and restaurants because we wanted to encourage people to spend a bit more time in August, and maybe dine out or grab lunch, and be out and about more than you often would. Were trying to break peoples habits by tempting them with some set menus that are at great value prices. Taste Tauranga runs through August, and more information can be found on the Downtown Tauranga website - https://www.downtowntauranga.co.nz/taste-tauranga Natalie Baker and Andrea Meredith Kasey and Karena Bird Amy Rice from Kex Kitchen Joe Brownless and Wendy Oswald from Comvita The diamond was hidden inside an ice cube Kathryn Clout and Aimee Driscoll LaFayette, N.Y. -- Drug researcher Ichor Therapeutics Inc. is expanding into a second building in LaFayette and creating 14 new full-time jobs. Company founder and CEO Kelsey Moody said Thursday the company recently closed on $2 million in "infrastructure" funding from its founding investor, Roger Bagg, founder of U.K. biotech company BioSenex Ltd. The company will use the new investment to acquire the former LaFayette Family Health Center building at 2561 Route 11, a short distance north of its headquarters, and turn it into a second research facility, he said. The health center closed in 2017. The 5,400-square-foot building has been vacant since then. Ichor expects to move into the building in the spring of 2019 and hire 14 more researchers, scientists, technicians and support personnel, he said. Ichor employs 20 people at an 8,400-square-foot building at 2521 Route 11, where the company provides pre-clinical research services and conducts research into the cells that cause age-related diseases such as macular degeneration and certain cancers. "Our goal is to be able to partner with higher-education institutions and other early-stage companies to help them move promising technologies from a discovery stage and into an actual product pipeline and get that to the clinic," Moody said during a press conference with Onondaga County and LaFayette officials and U.S. Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus. Moody also announced a collaborative initiative with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry to train graduate students in researching drugs that could combat age-related illnesses. The students will receive the educational component of their training at the college, where they will study biochemistry, chemistry or bioprocess engineering. They will conduct their laboratory research primarily at Ichor's facilities in LaFayette. "We think through this initiative we're going to be able to break down these barriers to entry, break down these silos and really leverage the skill sets and capacities of both higher-ed institutions and startup companies," Moody said. Moody said the initiative will not only benefit students at the college, but also help Ichor recruit and retain workers. In a third announcement, he said Ichor was creating a strategic investment fund, named Grapeseed Bio, to support other early-stage biotechnology companies. The fund's first investment is a $75,000 placement with Repair Biotechnologies, a startup in Texas that is conducting research into gene therapies. Moody said the company will relocate to Ichor's facilities in LaFayette, bringing two or three full-time jobs with it to start. Ichor announced last month that Antoxerene Inc., one of its portfolio companies, has received $10 million in funding from Juvenescence Ltd., a U.K. firm that invests in companies with therapies for aging and age-related diseases. The two companies have launched a joint venture, FoxBio Inc., to develop Antoxerene's collection of small molecules that target cells that cause diseases as people age. Ichor Chief Operations Officer Aaron Wolfe said the $10 million in funding from Juvenescence is unrelated to the $2 million funding from Bagg. Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148 Syracuse, NY -- An accused Syracuse pimp, whose plea to sex trafficking was tossed out on appeal, still faces trial for his 2013 arrest. Assistant Attorney General James Mindell says a "treasure trove" of evidence remains against him. Eric Oliver, now 34, pleaded guilty in April 2014 to sex trafficking in exchange for a six to 12 year prison sentence. Oliver used physical force and drugs to coerce girls as young as 15 years old into prostitution, prosecutors said. But Oliver's original lawyer, Ken Moynihan, acknowledged later that he'd given the defendant bad advice, including overestimating by decades his total possible prison sentence if convicted after trial. An appellate court this summer reversed Oliver's plea and ordered a new trial. Today, Oliver's new lawyer, Graeme Spicer, asked a judge to reduce bail from $250,000 down to $25,000. Mindell responded by arguing the case against Oliver remained strong. Front and center were recorded conversations Oliver had with others while in local jails in which he allegedly directed the prostitution ring from a jail cell. Mindell noted that Oliver had been warned that his jailhouse calls were monitored. "He disregarded that," Mindell said. "There was incriminating call after incriminating call. He was his own worst enemy here. There's a treasure trove of evidence to use against him." Others had testified against Oliver in the past and were expected to do so again, Mindell added. State Supreme Court Justice Gordon Cuffy kept bail at $250,000. The state AG's office saw this case in 2013 as an example of using the state's sex trafficking law to combat organized prostitution. Under existing laws, Oliver would have faced a maximum of 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison. But by charging sex trafficking -- which is a much harsher crime -- prosecutors secured the 6- to 12-year sentence. The actual maximum penalty is 15 years in prison, the appellate court said. That's far lower than the 75 years in prison that Moynihan, the original lawyer, had told Oliver he faced after trial. Oliver's case is in its early stages. He remains jailed. He is a Level II sex offender after a 2003 crime involving a 14-year-old girl, according to the state's sex offender registry. ITHACA, NY -- The Ithaca Ale House, a fixture on North Aurora Street's "restaurant row" for the last 12 years, plans to expand and relocate to new downtown development. The restaurant and bar will more than double its space with a move a few blocks away to the City Centre Ithaca, now under construction at 301 East State St. "We are extremely eager and excited to make this move," owner John O'Leary said in a news release. "More space for customers, staff and storage has been needed for years. This opportunity lets us remedy all of those things and also allows us to correct some design flaws from our current location." Build out of the Ithaca Ale House space should start in January, with the relocation happening later in the year. The move will boost the restaurant's space from the current 2,220 square feet to 5,400 square feet. There will be more seating, including an outdoor patio and provate banquet room, plus a bigger kitchen and food prep area. The Ithaca Ale House was a finalist in the 2017 "Best Upstate NY Burger" contest at NYup.com. From our write-up: "This casual restaurant just off the Ithaca Commons serves some of the biggest and tallest 8-ounce burgers we've ever seen. That's because most of the sandwiches - and there are a page full of them on the menu - come with what could be another meal. There's pulled pork on one, two grilled cheese sandwiches on another. The Ale House is a busy, bustling place most of the year, and still had a good crowd on a weekday in the summer when the students from Cornell and Ithaca College are gone." The bar has 20 taps, and supports local and regional craft brands like Ithaca Beer Co., Cortland Beer Co., Southern Tier Brewing Co. and Brewery Ommegang and national brewers like Bells, Founder and New Belgium. Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook. A million years ago, television was black and white with just three channels and TV Guide was how you knew what was on when. Back then, the weekly periodical's brief descriptions of movies and shows helped viewers decide what to watch. Every year come November and December, a handful of holiday movies would appear on the schedule: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), "A Christmas Carol" (the 1951 version starring the incomparable Alastair Sim) and "Holiday Inn" (1942). The latter remains one of my top comfort films, so well-loved that I still recall the TV Guide description: "A Connecticut roadhouse open only on holidays is the setting for this Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire musical." That's how much of a fan I am. That's how much I anticipated "Holiday Inn: The New Irving Berlin Musical" now onstage at Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. Of course "new" is an oxymoron. Irving Berlin's been dead almost 30 years. The original film itself was just shy of its 75th anniversary when the Broadway version -- with book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge -- opened the first week of October 2016. It didn't stick around long enough to get "old" -- the show closed just over three months later in January 2017. But in the musical theater world, the Auburn theater company has scored a coup. As Producing Artistic Director Brett Smock revealed in his opening night curtain speech, FLMTF is "only the second company in the U.S. to launch the regional premiere." Viewed purely as a piece of nostalgia, "Holiday Inn" as a musical theater show is a winner. But as a possible addition to the canon of Great American Musical Theater, if it earns a mention longer than that TV Guide entry, well, bless its heart. This is a well-intentioned but unremarkable show -- entertaining and sweet, a 1940s musical period piece stuffed with fluff. FLMTF does the best it can with what it's got: essentially the movie colorized and made 3D by a newfangled technology called 'live onstage.' Bless their heart. Expanding on the TV Guide one-sentence plot, the musical opens with song and dance trio Jim Hardy, Ted Hanover and Lila Dixon performing onstage; Jim's the crooner, Ted's the dancer, and Lila swings both ways. Afterwards backstage, Jim proposes to Lila; he's done performing, he's retiring to a farm in Midville, Connecticut he just bought, and he wants her by his side. It's clear Lila's not interested, but she puts him off with a promise: after she and Ted complete a six-week tour their agent Danny has already booked, she'll join him. Once in tiny Midville Jim meets Linda Mason, a young, attractive local schoolteacher -- it's her family farm Jim now owns -- and he takes on a capable sidekick, Louise -- not so young, not so attractive, but the brains of the operation -- who moves in to help out as farmhand / handywoman. If you're a fan of the film, you'll likely enjoy the theatrical version of "Holiday Inn" -- but I offer one strenuously-voiced caveat: the two male leads are unspectacular, falling far short of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire who starred in the film. The iconic duo's relationship dynamic is absent, and the performances are merely adequate. One could argue this is to be expected. Realistically speaking, who could come close to Crosby and/or Astaire? Even director Mark Sandrich realized what a perfect storm of talent had converged in his film. The Turner Classic Movie website notes, "As soon as Astaire, Berlin and Crosby signed on...Sandrich told the press, 'I call this picture the A B C of American musical comedy. Astaire, Berlin, Crosby. Get it?'" (Actually, one individual already in the FLMTF production could come close -- and he's onstage throughout the show. The reveal near the end of this review.) The three female leads, on the other hand, are genuinely spectacular. As Linda Mason, Jennifer Evans delivers a fresh, winning performance in her turn from farmgirl to schoolteacher to Hollywood star, with a delicious, divine voice that overcomes the often too-loud orchestra (an ongoing problem at FLMTF every show, every season). Julie Kavanagh's Lila Dixon plays dumb at the surface while conniving her way to success, and right from the get-go alongside Jim and Ted she's the dominant partner onstage. And as Louise, Kate Chapman is the audience favorite with an earthy room-quaking voice and a lively, take-control presence half motherly, half CEO. As Jim, Ben Mayne is a bit too boyish, more a lanky adult Macauley Culkin than a debonair crooner; his loose-fitting suit jackets accentuate his inability to fill out the character. His voice, while sufficient, isn't resonant, lacking the depth necessary to make anyone swoon or crumple at the knees. When he opens the show with "I'll capture her heart singing," his lyrical argument holds no weight. Similarly, Benjamin Mapp as Ted is also miscast; he has a juvenile shine when he needs high-gloss polish, and while he's a gifted dancer his baggy costuming also detracts from his man-about-town sophistication. One small but distracting detail: instead of wearing a wig, Mapp keeps his hair tucked into a discreet man bun. Once you notice it, the gig's up -- it's so not the 1940s. In their defense, the guys have the harder act to follow; the film's female leads were neither famous nor memorable. But paired with actresses far stronger and surer onstage, both actors are at a disadvantage even without the inevitable Crosby-Astaire comparisons. In all fairness, "Holiday Inn" is a good show wrapped around a radiant core -- the ensemble. Their talents enable director/choreographer Richard J. Hinds to create a handful of dazzling moments. Several group numbers are as magical as Christmas morning, among them "Blue Skies," "Shaking the Blues Away" with its effervescent 'gifted' package design, and the Victoria's-Secret-Fashion-Show-Circa-1946 "Easy to Dance With." While the entire ensemble moves flawlessly as a single cohesive unit, one ensemble member -- without stealing focus or sticking out like a sore thumb -- was consistently noticeable and is clearly Broadway bound. That's Crawford Horton, a Syracuse University rising senior whose lead turns in Syracuse Stage's "Wizard of Oz" and SU Drama's "Crazy For You" I've raved about in reviews over the past year. Horton's exemplary singing, dancing and acting make him an ideal choice to step in as either Jim or Ted, and at several points in the production, I desperately wish he had. If there's one area in which "Holiday Inn" onstage rivals its film counterpart, it's the pit orchestra. Under the musical direction of Corinne Aquilina, the eight-member orchestra brought beauty and poignance to the delicate solos "Be Careful, It's My Heart" and the classic "White Christmas," and bouncy energy to the big group numbers. "Holiday Inn" will never be a heart-stopping must-see musical -- it's not in the show's DNA. However, you don't need to be a theater reviewer to recognize that once it's widely licensed and available to all, "Holiday Inn" will become a staple of the holiday season for regional and local theater companies across the country, as many are tired of the limited variety of family-friendly holiday-themed musicals. Within five years, I bet that we'll be seeing it as the December show at Syracuse Stage. If that comes to pass, FLMTF's Brett Smock can always say, "We were there first." The Details What: "Holiday Inn: The New Irving Berlin Musical" produced by Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival Where: Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Emerson Park, Auburn When seen: Opening night August 1 Length of performance: 2 hours 5 minutes plus intermission Family guide: Suitable for all ages Runs through: August 22 Information: (315) 255-1785, 1-800-457-8897, Fingerlakesmtf.com. CNY Theater Guide People driving along Route 11 between Tully and Preble have been calling and emailing public officials to protest a Nazi flag hanging on a utility pole in a driveway. More than 450 people have signed a Change.org petition urging Preble town officials to take action against the flag. "The flag has a bold swastika placed just slightly off-centered on the red, black, and white fabric with an iron cross in the top left corner,'' reads the petition. "It's one of seven variations of the Reichskriegsflagge -- the official name of the war flag used by German armed forces from 1867-1945 -- which was a symbol of Nazi Germany. Preble Town Supervisor Jim Doring said he's well aware of the flag. Several weeks ago, he approached the resident - Jody Fish - about taking down the flag, but he refused. Doring said Fish told him he'd take it down someday - but not that day. Fish told him he was flying it because of a dispute with a neighbor and would remove it if Doring intervened. Doring said he told him that's not the town's role. Jody Fish, who owns the Nazi flag that hangs outside his home on Route 11 in Preble. Doring contacted National Grid because the flag is flying from a wire attached to the utility pole. National Grid officials later said the pole and wire don't belong to them and they are on private property. Doring said he was told the town's hands are tied legally, as it is a private resident's property. Fish, the homeowner, told a Syracuse.com| The Post-Standard reporter Thursday that he isn't a Nazi. He said he's being hacked electronically, and no one will help him. "It's a distress call,'' he said. "It's to get attention so I can tell people what's going on and that someone is hacking me." Fish said anyone who is upset about the flag can stop and talk to him. As soon as someone figures out who is hacking him and corrects it, he'll take down the flag, Fish said. Preble's Doring said he knows there is a petition out there and that people may show up demanding action at the next board meeting, but there's nothing the town can do. The meeting is at 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at the town hall, 1968 Preble Road. "It has all the neighbors and residents all riled up, as well as people who drive by,'' Doring said. '"People are just not accepting our answers that we can't do anything about it." Roy Gutterman, an associate professor in the newspaper and online journalism department at Syracuse University's Newhouse School, said the homeowner is within his rights. "This is private speech on private property, and it is certainly protected,'' he said. Gutterman said the issue has come up before with Confederate flags, but a Nazi flag is more unusual. Elaine Ou is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a blockchain engineer at Global Financial Access in San Francisco. Previously she was a lecturer in the electrical and information engineering department at the University of Sydney. By Elaine Ou | Bloomberg Opinion Those who were waiting to get their hands on some 3D-printable firearm schematics are in for a disappointment: After eight states and the District of Columbia filed a joint lawsuit in federal court, a nationwide temporary restraining order was granted to stop the files from being posted by a Texas nonprofit called Defense Distributed. The distribution of blueprints for 3D-printable guns had previously been classified as illegal munitions export, but this May, the State Department announced a plan to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations regime to move the regulation of certain technical data to the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department. In response, 21 state attorneys general sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying that the decision was "deeply dangerous and could have an unprecedented impact on public safety." Regardless, little will change. Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson first published blueprints for a printable gun called the Liberator more than five years ago. The files were removed after government demands, but a fundamental feature of the internet is that information never disappears. A search engine query can still surface copies of Wilson's design files on internet archives and piracy sites across the web. The whole episode mirrors the saga of cryptography, which was also once on the U.S. Munitions List. Prior to 1996, encryption software could not legally be exported or distributed. But software is just strings of text! Export controls on cryptography became such a joke that cryptographers printed a simple encryption script onto T-shirts and wore them in an act of defiance. Firearms are capable of a lot more damage than encryption, but this doesn't mean we're ushering in a dangerous new era in which nutjobs will be printing semiautomatic weapons from the comfort of their homes. There's a reason we haven't seen an uptick in the number of crimes committed using 3D-printed firearms since the Liberator plans became public five years ago: It's not actually that convenient. Legalizing distribution of the plans will make them more readily accessible to amateur gunsmiths, but won't transform 3D-printed guns into formidable weapons. Depending on the 3D printer, the parts would take most of a day to complete. This is assuming the operator even has access to a precision printer. Entry-level machines can't form parts with the tolerances and temperature control needed to produce a reliable firearm. Even if made using today's best 3D printing, the guns still aren't very good. Any material pliable enough to feed through a printer will have trouble surviving the pressure and temperature required to propel a bullet at thousands of feet per second. (The instructions accompanying the Liberator recommend discarding the barrel after each use.) 3D-printed firearms are a clever idea, but not a very practical one. The real purpose of Wilson's blueprints is to dramatize the futility of gun control, much like encryption T-shirts were intended to troll those who wanted to ban encryption. Every outrageous article warning of a future where anyone can print deadly weapons serves only to validate his point and increase the hype around printable guns. Wilson's Twitter account proudly retweets every terrifying headline. His organization couldn't have bought better advertising if they'd wanted to. Those headlines are overwrought. Yes, sufficiently-determined Americans can print a plastic firearm. But it'll be unreliable and quite likely to misfire and explode. (If you absolutely must proceed, consider taking a safety course while waiting for the gun pieces to print.) Even if the Supreme Court overturns the temporary injunction, 3D-printable firearms are unlikely to catch on anytime soon. It would help if fear-mongerers stopped providing free advertising. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday said it would make permanent, but also reduce, tariffs on Canadian paper used by the newspaper and publishing industry. The tariffs, which had been as high as 22.16 percent, will be capped at 16.88 percent, the Commerce Department said. The tariffs are intended to help U.S. paper mills compete against Canadian producers accused of receiving government subsidies and selling their paper at below-market prices to U.S. customers. Only one of the Canadian companies accused of selling their paper below cost in the U.S. will face the anti-dumping duty -- Catalyst Paper Corp. -- set at 16.88 percent. But all Canadian mills will be subject to a separate tariff of up to 9.81 percent for receiving unfair government subsidies, the Commerce Department said. The U.S. imposed the preliminary tariff in March on uncoated groundwood paper imported from Canadian mills and used as newsprint by the U.S. newspaper industry. The tariff was in response to a complaint from a single paper mill -- North Pacific Paper Co. in Washington state. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that the department would also revise downward its preliminary ruling that Canada provides unfair subsidies of between 4.42 and 9.93 percent to its mills that produce the paper. The new rates will be between 0.82 and 9.81 percent. "This was a complicated and unique case," Ross said in a statement. "The department worked hard to address the arguments raised, and I am satisfied that the final determinations appropriately targets bad actors." The U.S. newspaper industry, printers, publishers and members of Congress from both parties -- including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer -- opposed the tariffs. The tariff is also opposed by the association representing the American paper industry and other paper mill owners in the U.S. and Canada. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was encouraged by the Commerce Department's decision on Thursday. "Lowering these unwise and unjust tariffs is a very positive step in the right direction to support our already at-risk community newspapers and the American paper industry and the many jobs it supports," Schumer said. He added, "I will now use my influence as the Senate minority leader to push the United States International Trade Commission to lower these unfair tariffs even more." The International Trade Commission could still reduce or eliminate the tariff. Almost 20 members of Congress and representatives of the newspaper industry testified to the commission last month that the tariff posed a threat to the future of local newspapers across the nation. The independent federal agency is due to rule on the case in late August. Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 | BY Ricki Green | OMD has today announced the promotion of Sian Whitnall to chief digital officer, OMD Australia. Whitnall has over 11 years industry experience working across the UK and Australian markets. Having first started her career at MediaVest and Initiative, Whitnall re-located to Australia in 2013 to take her first role with OMD Sydney as interactive director, working across clients such as Qantas and Estee Lauder. Whitnall re-joined OMD as head of digital, Sydney 12 months ago, coming from Ikon Communications, where she was head of digital amplification and trading. Whitnalls appointment is reflective of her stellar contribution in growing OMDs digital product, driving new business success and great client work. In this promotion to chief digital officer, OMD Australia, Whitnall will be joining the national executive team, reporting directly into Aimee Buchanan, CEO, OMD Australia. Says Buchanan: Sian has made a significant impact to our clients work and our digital product. Sian embodies the OMD ambition of driving performance for our clients, always done with integrity. We are thrilled to see her step into the Chief Digital Officer role, continuing to elevate our capability in digital, data and technology. Says Whitnall: Im looking forward to building on the strong reputation that OMD has and continuing the positive momentum in the agency. Data and technology is at the core of everything we do at OMD and Im excited to take this to the next level for our clients, partners and people. Syracuse, N.Y. - A new taco restaurant with handmade tortillas, specialty cocktails, fresh pepper-salsas and hot-red neon lips is expected to open at the end of summer on East Fayette Street. XO Taco is a project backed by the partners at Original Grain and a mix of local entrepreneurs. "It's punk rock Mexican," said Chris Bily, a founder of Original Grain and one of the partners in XO Taco. "We're paying homage to traditional Mexican tacos with our crazy OG twist." The partners in XO Taco, a new restaurant coming to Syracuse. Clockwise from top left are: Chef Steve Samuels, Original Grain founder Chris Bily, Matthew Gardner, OG founder Eric Hinman, James Capparelli, Alex Bily, Chedy Hampson and Jeff Knauss. Images provided by Chris Bily. Original Grain opened in downtown Syracuse in 2016. At OG, partners Bily and Eric Hinman, along with chef Steve Samuels, have created a fast-casual menu based on smoothies, sandwiches, nori wraps and bowls. They plan to open a second OG in Rochester later this year. Like OG, XO Taco will make food for all, from omnivores to vegans. Like OG, the new restaurant's design will be part of the dining experience. XO also means hugs and kisses to many, Bily said, and the interior will play with that, from glowing red neon lips mounted on a vine wall to lipsticks encased as art. XO hired Staach, a Rochester firm that's created interiors for Shake Shack in New York City, to help design the taco restaurant, Bily said. But where OG is mostly about quicker, daytime eating, XO Taco will mostly focus on unwinding at night and on weekends. XO will have a full-service bar, servers to bring food to diners, and will open at 4 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays. Brunch, then dinner, will be available on the weekends. The idea for tacos came, in part, because of their popularity and potential for variety. "Who doesn't love tacos?" Samuels said. "Mexican food has become a form of comfort food." Bily said they also wanted to build a menu centered on one main item, the tortilla, in the same way a pizza restaurant focuses on dough. "It's about the craft of tortilla making," he said. At XO, the tortillas and masa flour will be house-made. The pico de gallo - usually a mix of chopped tomatoes, onions and peppers - will also include cucumbers. Whenever possible, fresh local peppers will season sauces and salsas. The cocktail menu will include "crazy takes on palomas and margaritas," Bily said. Food will be served family-style and come to the table when each dish is ready, similar to tapas. Customers will order by filling out cards. "It's a unique ordering system for Syracuse," Bily said. XO Taco partners include Hinman, Bily, his brother Alex Bily; Chedy Hampson of TCGplayer.com; Matthew Gardner and James Capparelli of Gardner & Capparelli CPAs; and Jeff Knauss of Digital Hyve. XO Taco is at 713 E. Fayette St., in the former Flame restaurant, which closed last year. The new restaurant will seat about 70; they plan to open at the end of August. Bily said the XO team bought the building, which is a block or two from the section of East Genesee Street home to Phoebe's Restaurant & Coffee Lounge, Syracuse Stage, Strong Hearts Cafe and the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The area is also about to be home to hundreds of Syracuse University students, who are filling up newly built apartments nearby. Bily said he hopes the restaurant will help further connect the university neighborhoods on the hill with downtown. "My vision is to create a connective corridor and the connection is Fayette Street," he said. Plus, he said, "I think there's always more room in this town for tacos." A former child star and Fox News host has apologized to a New York country club for her "juvenile" tweets. Melissa Francis caused a stir earlier this week when she claimed the Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y., was refusing to seat her and her family for dinner despite being members. She suggested on Twitter that the posh Westchester County establishment was discriminating against her because of President Donald Trump. "I want to apologize to Siwanoy management for what I am now convinced was a misunderstanding. It was juvenile of me to take to Twitter," she wrote Wednesday. "And I'm not just saying that because I've given my kids a get out of jail free card the next time they act like children."" The 45-year-old host of "After the Bell" on the Fox Business Network wrote on Sunday in since-deleted tweets that the Siwanoy had "shunned" her family because the staff "must prefer @CNN v @FoxNews." "We are member (sic) of Siwanoy Bronxville but somehow, they can't fit us in for dinner. Repeatedly," she claimed. "I'm sure it's a coincidence and not something more. Right? #NeverTrumpers #cnn #HillaryForever?" Francis was recently named co-host of "Outnumbered" on Fox News, which has been frequently praised by Trump while he calls other networks, including CNN, "fake news." Francis' Twitter account says she's "Not a member of any party," but her tweets suggested she thought she was being profiled as a Trump supporter. The posh country club, located "a short Lincoln Towncar-ride from Midtown Manhattan," did not comment on her alleged table-banning. Other restaurants have made national headlines for allegedly refusing to seat Trump supporters and members of the Trump administration over the president's politics. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was asked to leave a small restaurant in Virginia last month. Francis joined Fox in 2012. The mother-of-three, who is married to Sightway Capital's Chief Investment Officer Wray Thorn, was previously a co-anchor for financial news on CNBC She got her start as an actress, appearing in TV commercials when she was as young as 6 months old and playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on the "Little House on the Prairie." She also appeared on "Mork & Mindy" with Robin Williams and wrote two books about her acting career, "Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter" and "Lessons from the Prairie." Houston Police on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected to be responsible for the fatal shooting of former president George H.W. Bush's personal doctor. The shooting occurred the morning of July 20, according to police, while Mark Hausknecht biked to work. Houston Police said they searched the home of Joseph James Pappas, the suspected gunman and are actively looking for him. Police said the 62-year-old white male has for more than 20 years held a grudge against Hausknecht after his mother died during an operation, according to the Associated Press. "This man is dangerous, this man is capable, this man has some skills," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said at news conference, according to The Houston Chronicle, noting he likely had multiple firearms and had not been seen for nearly two days. The fatal shooting occurred on a hot Friday morning after the suspected gunman followed Hausknecht by bike to work at Houston Methodist Hospital, The Washington Post reported. The suspected gunman shot the cardiologist twice in his torso less than one mile from the hospital. "There was a lot of planning that went into this," Acevedo said. "There was a lot of planning and sadly some skill." The Associated Press reported Hausknecht treated Bush for heart problems in 2000. "Mark was a fantastic cardiologist and a good man," Bush said in a July statement. "I will always be grateful for his exceptional, compassionate care. His family is in our prayers." In brief: In exactly one week from today, Samsung will show off the Galaxy Note 9 at an Unpacked event in Brooklyn, New York. As is always the case during the runup to these unveilings, leaks surrounding the handset are arriving online. The latest suggests that the phone will launch two weeks after the debut, and it may not cost as much as we expect. In its recent quarterly earnings report, Samsung blamed falling revenue partly on slow sales of its Galaxy S9something it says is the result of more competition from new smartphone models. In the companys lengthy earnings statement, it writes: In response, Samsung will seek to expand sales by introducing a new Galaxy Note earlier than usual. Thanks to what is reportedly a poster in a Korean carrier store, it looks as if we now know the Note 9s release date: August 24. That matches some earlier rumors, and if preorders for the Note 9 go live on August 10, as expected, that launch will arrive exactly two weeks later, which makes sense. The poster also shows some of the preorder freebies available to those who buy a new Note 9 in advance, including wireless chargers, screen protectors, and cases. The other big question over the Note 9 is how much it will cost. Another reason why Samsung feels the S9 didnt perform as well as expected was due to its high price. With many excellent handsets now available for several hundred dollars less than its flagships, Samsung is feeling the effects of consumers opting for cheaper models. As such, the company say it "will be offering the Note 9 at reasonable prices in order to maximize sales." The term reasonable prices is open to interpretation. Earlier this month, we heard that the Note 9 might cost $960. Whether Samsung considers that to be reasonable remains to be seen. In context: As T-Mobile and Sprint attempt to complete a merger, T-Mobile is posting extremely strong growth and bringing more value than previously understood. Consistent growth and effective marketing techniques are drawing in millions of new customers regularly. Following the conclusion of the second quarter, T-Mobile has announced some of its best numbers yet. The company achieved a net gain of 1.6 million subscribers, marking 21 quarters of consecutive subscriber growth of at least one million users. After posting record high revenue of $7.9 billion for the quarter and $0.92 earnings per share, T-Mobile's executives shared some insights about upcoming promotional tactics. During a time where the term 'unlimited' has a very vague meaning and T-Mobile's three rivals are raising prices, T-Mobile has committed to keeping its unlimited data plan offerings available for current pricing. Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter hinted at aggressive promotions for phones supporting the 600 MHz spectrum. Apple's upcoming iPhone will also be a strong promotional tool for T-Mobile. However, Apple has been quiet about whether its next handsets will be able to use the specific frequencies in question. Unlimited data is a strong selling point for many consumers, but being able to actually have strong coverage everywhere you go is another concern. Considering that Samsung, LG, and Motorola all have multiple devices with support for the lower frequency, it would be an embarrassment for Apple to omit full support for a growing popular carrier. For those curious, Apple's flagship iPhone X tops out at LTE band 66. T-Mobile's 600 MHz network requires support for LTE band 71 in order to allow for full performance. Instead of trying to squeeze more money out of individual subscribers, T-Mobile is aiming to continue its trend of adding new customers each quarter for the foreseeable future. So far, the numbers show that this strategy is working out in T-Mobile's favor. Next year, LTE support will no longer be such a concern. Instead, 5G modems will be a defining feature of flagship smartphones. Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray warns that although some phones in 2019 will have 5G, there will be many that will not see the new technology until 2020 or later. Apple Pay will be available in CVS pharmacies and 7-Eleven convenience stores later this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a call with investors after the company's positive quarterly results. A survey from earlier this year revealed that more millennials are choosing Apple Pay as their digital payment platform, rather than Google Pay and Samsung Pay. This is just one of the signs of Apple Pay's growth, as it expands even into once hostile territories. Apple Pay Availability In CVS, 7-Eleven Outlets According to Cook, CVS and 7-Eleven will introduce support for tap-to-pay services within the year, starting with Apple Pay. There was no specific date on when the two retailers will start accepting Apple Pay transactions, but it shows a complete turnaround for what once was two opponents of Apple. CVS and 7-Eleven were members of the Merchant Customer Exchange, the alliance behind the CurrentC mobile payment format. It was supposed to reduce transaction fees and gather more data about customers, with some retailers even dropping tap-to-pay systems to support it. Merchant Customer Exchange, however, did not take off. The QR code system of the platform was clunky compared to simply tapping a smartphone on a reader, and its long development time allowed services such as Apple Pay to take the spotlight. CVS and 7-Eleven now find themselves agreeing to support tap-to-pay services to be able to keep with the times. With CVS and 7-Eleven signing up for mobile payments, Apple Pay further expands its availability in major retail stores across the United States. The Success Of Apple Pay In the same call with investors, Cook revealed the success that Apple Pay has reached compared to its rival services. According to Cook, Apple Pay handled over 1 billion transactions in the previous quarter, triple the number compared to the same quarter of 2017 and beating competitor Square. Apple Pay also handled more mobile transactions compared to PayPal. In addition to the arrival of Apple Pay to CVS and 7-Eleven outlets, it will also be launching soon in Germany. This will add to the over two dozen countries and regions where the service is available, with 4,900 banking partners. Apple Pay has continued to roll out improvements and new features to its service, such as Apple Pay Cash late last year. The feature allowed users to send and receive money directly through iMessage, challenging PayPal's Venmo service. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The PlayStation Plus free downloads for August 2018 have finally been revealed, headlined by the open-world crime drama Mafia III and the multiplayer survival horror game Dead by Daylight for the PlayStation 4. This month, PlayStation Plus subscribers will have eight free games to download. While none of them are as popular as Bloodborne, which was offered in March, the free PlayStation Plus games for August 2018 are still pretty good. Free PS Plus Games August 2018 For August 2018, the free PlayStation 4 games offered to PlayStation Plus subscribers are Mafia III and Dead by Daylight. In Mafia III, players will take on the role of Vietnam vet Lincoln Clay as he comes home after years in combat. He finds out that underworld crime organizations are struggling for power in his city of New Bordeaux, which resembles New Orleans, and his surrogate family was caught in the crossfire. Mafia III is Clay's tale of revenge. Meanwhile, Dead by Daylight is a 4-on-1 multiplayer game with four Survivors and one Killer. The Survivors try to escape the bloodthirsty rampage of the Killer, who has powerful abilities at his disposal. PlayStation 3 owners will be able to download RPG Bound by Flame and shooter Serious Sam 3: BFE, while PlayStation Vita owners will get touchscreen-controlled action game Draw Slasher and Warhammer 40,000 classic Space Hulk. Lastly, PlayStation VR users will also be able to download virtual reality horror experience Here They Lie and trivia game Knowledge Is Power, which requires a smartphone and Sony's PlayLink app to play. All eight free PlayStation Plus games will be available starting Aug. 7. This means that PlayStation Plus subscribers who have not yet downloaded the free games for July 2018 still have a few days left. The free PlayStation Plus games for July 2018 are psychological thriller Heavy Rain and customizable fighter Absolver. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was offered as a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers, but it was only available until July 11. PlayStation Hits Now Available Sony launched PlayStation Hits on June 28, offering classic PlayStation 4 games in a familiar red label and a permanent price tag of just $19.99. Gamers who are not satisfied with the free PlayStation Plus games for August 2018 may want to check out the titles offered under the promotion. Included in the PlayStation Hits collection are Bloodborne, The Last of Us: Remastered, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Definitive Experience, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An analysis of 20 years of spacecraft data from NASA dismisses the possibility of terraforming Mars, a hypothetical process of making the Red Planet hospitable like Earth. Ultimately, the study ruled that there is an inadequate supply of carbon dioxide on Mars to create an atmosphere that can sustain life. The team of scientists who worked on the analysis said the CO2 on the planet is not thick enough to produce liquid water on its surface. The team tallied all the possible scenarios of releasing enough CO2 on Mars, but it all leads to the conclusion that there is no available technology on Earth at present to make the terraforming possible. Elon Musk disagreed. In a tweet, he said Mars has massive CO2, and it can only take either an artificial or natural fusion to release them. Terraforming Mars Not Possible With Present-Day Technology For the study, published in Nature Astronomy on July 30, the team of scientists analyzed the quantity of carbon-bearing minerals and the presence of CO2 in polar ice using data from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and data on why ancient life forms did not survive on the Martian planet. The scientists found that Mars has enough water ice that can create water vapor, but low temperature prevents the water ice to vaporized and produce CO2. Releasing chlorofluorocarbons or other fluorine-based compounds may raise the atmospheric temperature, but that will require a large-scale manufacturing process that is, at present, impossible to do. The study noted that atmospheric pressure on Mars is less than one percent of the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere or only around 0.6 percent to that of Earth's. Raising temperatures on Mars requires a similar atmospheric pressure found on Earth. There is an accessible source of CO2 on Mars that can be found in the polar ice caps. Explosives can be used to vaporize it and absorb more solar radiation to increase temperatures. This process would, however, only double the Martian pressure to 1.2 percent of Earth's. Elon Musk Disagrees With NASA Musk argued that the Martian soil contained a massive amount of CO2 that can be released upon heating using either artificial or natural fusion. In fact, he said this process can terraform almost any large rocky body in the universe. The SpaceX CEO is referring to CO2 that may have been retained on Mars' rocks over time. Musk, in the past, also proposed exploding Mars with nuclear bombs to release sufficient CO2 that will make the planet habitable. NASA's paper had in fact already mentioned about the CO2 contained on Mars' soil. The scientists also considered heating the soil to release the needed gas, but they went back to the problem of how atmospheric pressure on Mars can reach a level similar to Earth's. The study has also looked into the carbon trapped in mineral deposits, but digging them up also requires amount of pressure close to Earth's. The same problem dismisses the likelihood of strip mining Mars to a depth of around 100 yards to harvest CO2 that is located close to the soil's surface. There is also the option of allowing the atmosphere to naturally build up from outgassing by geologic activity. This process would, however, take about 10 million years. The team had even calculated the possibility or redirecting comets and asteroids to collide with Mars. This process, however, requires thousands of asteroids and comets to be redirected toward Mars, but this is extremely impractical. "Our results suggest that there is not enough CO2 remaining on Mars to provide significant greenhouse warming were the gas to be put into the atmosphere. In addition, most of the CO2 gas is not accessible and could not be readily mobilized. As a result, terraforming Mars is not possible using present-day technology," concluded Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, the lead author of the study. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Lots of people don't know this, but Google is actually banned in China. Not just Google Search, by the way. Name it and it's blocked Maps, Gmail, Docs, Drive, everything and China doesn't seem to be easing up its policies anytime soon. So, it's up to Google to compromise, and it will. According to new reports, the Mountain View, California company is getting ready to make inroads into China by virtue of a search engine that complies with the country's censorship policies. In other words, it's developing a search app that will block certain sites and information from surfacing. Google Reportedly Working On Google Search App That'll Censor Certain Results Google originally shut down Search operations in China back in 2010, citing government attempts to "limit free speech on the web." A report from The Intercept suggests Google has turned a corner in that department, and that it now wants a triumphant return to China, which is possibly the largest single market for internet users in the world. The Intercept got hold of internal documents from a whistleblower, and they reveal that Google has been working on this search engine since last year, codenamed "Dragonfly." The engine will be built as an Android app and will allegedly "blacklist sensitive queries" and filter out websites that are blocked by the Chinese government, including Wikipedia and many others. All components of Search, including image search, spell check, and suggestions, will also be affected by censorship. Chinese internet is severely censored by the government, although many clever users turn to alternative methods, such as VPNs, in order to bypass such policies and access products and services that would otherwise be banned in the country. There's a nickname for China's aggressive censorship tactics: the Great Firewall of China. Information about certain topics, including religion, freedom of speech, police brutality, and democracy, are heavily filtered. Some highly sensitive topics, such as the Tiananmen Square protests, are blocked entirely as if they never happened. What Might Happen If Google Gives In To China's Censorship Laws The reason why the whistleblower provided the said internal documents to The Intercept is because they were "against large companies and governments collaborating in the oppression of their people." They added that "what is done in China will become a template for many other nations." Not only that, but suppose Google goes through with such plans, it will set a precedent for other companies and convince them to obey China's censorship policies instead of challenging them. When asked about the search engine in question, this is what a Google spokesperson said: "[W]e don't comment on speculation about future plans." 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela and the Carter Center of the United States signed a memorandum of understanding to guarantee the impartiality and objectivity of the... | Read More Locals Can Audit Classes for $11 Per Week at Calvary Chapel Bible College Contact: Hannah Cottage, Calvary Chapel Bible College, 951-696-5944 MURRIETA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Do you live near Murrieta, California? Calvary Chapel Bible College is inviting local Christians to take a class at CCBC as off-campus students for just $11 per week. Our students range in age from 17-65+ years old and come from a variety of protestant denominations. This fall semester CCBC has 35 classes to choose from which can be viewed at www.CCBC.info/off-campus. BIBLE CLASSES: Theology, Genesis, Revelation, Acts, Romans, John, Psalms, Mark, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Corinthians, 1,2,3 John & James, Daniel, Ephesians & Philippians, Exodus, 1&2 Thessalonians, Chapel. MINISTRY TRAINING CLASSES: Homiletics, Apologetics, Pastoral Ministry, Greek 1, Prison Ministry, Disciple-Making, Bible Study Methods, Intro to Islam, Musicianship, Worship Band. GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES: English Composition, Math for Life & Ministry, Intro to Marketing, American History, Physical Education & Lifetime Wellness. BASIC CLASS DETAILS: - Class Dates: Classes start Aug. 29th-Sept. 5th and go 14 weeks. - Tuition (for Audit): $150 / class ($11 a week). - Tuition (for Credit): $310 (2 credits) or $420 (3 credits). APPLICATION & REGISTRATION: Visit www.CCBC.info/off-campus to apply. Once accepted, you can register and pay for classes starting August 20th by phone at (951)696-5944 or by email at ccbc@calvarychapel.com and also in person August 24-29 8:30am 5pm by visiting the CCBC offices. CCBC is within driving distance from Murrieta, Temecula, Winchester, Wildomar, Menifee, Perris, LakeElsinore, Fallbrook, Hemet, Oceanside and even as far as San Diego. For those unable to travel there are online distance education classes available as well. ACCREDITATION: Calvary Chapel Bible College holds applicant status with the Association for Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation, located at 5850 T. G. Lee Blvd., Ste. 130, Orlando, Florida, 32822, (407) 207-0808. Applicant status is a pre-membership status granted to those institutions that meet the ABHE Conditions of Eligibility and that possess such qualities as may provide a basis for achieving candidate status within five years. Visit www.CCBC.info/off-campus or call (951)696-5944 to learn more about applying and registering for classes. A federal judge has swatted away former DEA agent Chad Scott's motions to have the case against him and a co-defendant dismissed and to force prosecutors to provide more details about the charges against him. Attorneys for Scott and his co-defendant, former Hammond police officer Rodney Gemar, had asked U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to toss out the case based on a claim of prosecutorial misconduct and, failing that, to overrule a magistrate judge's denial of their request for more specifics about the counts against them. The pair, who were part of an interagency north shore drug task force, were first indicted in September 2017; a superseding indictment was handed up in May. Scott faces counts of perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and falsifying government records. Gemar is charged with taking drug money and destroying evidence, among other crimes. In asking the judge to dismiss the case, Scott's lawyers claimed that federal prosecutors withheld evidence that a jailhouse informant may have contradicted testimony from a key witness against Scott. Prosecutors said they investigated the evidence and did not find it credible. Therefore, they argued, they were not required to turn it over. Milazzo agreed. "Defendants have not provided this court with any law suggesting that the government must immediately turn over potentially exculpatory evidence even before investigating its veracity," she wrote. Milazzo also refused a request for a "bill of particulars," or a more detailed account of the charges against Scott and Gemar. Defendants frequently request a bill of particulars because they hope it will give them more insight into the government's case. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Quoting at length from legal precedent, Milazzo said the defendants are not entitled to a bill of particulars and that the indictments in this case are sufficient. More evidence in Chad Scott case must go to defense, judge rules; trial set for January A federal judge presiding over the case of former federal drug enforcement agent Chad Scott has ordered prosecutors to turn over to defense at The lone defense victory from their various motions happened behind closed doors at a hearing July 12. The two sides were able to work out an agreement by which some evidence that is restricted to a single computer at the local FBI headquarters would be shared with defense attorneys in a form they can review in their own offices. Scott and Gemar's trial was scheduled for October but has been delayed until January to give both sides more time to prepare their cases from what has been termed "voluminous" evidence. Two other former members of the interagency drug task force headed by Scott have already pleaded guilty to federal charges and are in custody. Advocate staff writer Jim Mustian contributed to this report. Indicted DEA agent Chad Scott faces new misconduct charge, claims indictment too vague The defense attorney for indicted former narcotics agent Chad Scott told a federal magistrate Wednesday that he remains "completely in the dar Drought in Australia is sending local wheat on a rally that's beating gains in global prices, which are being driven by dryness and soaring temperatures in Europe and the Black Sea. Not only that, eastern Australian wheat's 20 per cent surge last month beat all 22 raw materials in the Bloomberg Commodity Index, as the southern hemisphere's biggest exporter had its driest July since 2002 and fifth-warmest on record. On the Chicago Board of Trade, hard-red winter wheat climbed 14 per cent and the soft-red variety rose 10 per cent. After consecutive years of bumper harvests, global wheat output is set to fall to a three-year low on smaller crops in Europe, the Black Sea and the first drop in Russian output in six years. Australia in June predicted wheat production at 21.9 million tonnes, about 3 per cent bigger than last year's harvest, which was the smallest in a decade. National Australia Bank warned last month that output could fall below 20 million tonnes due to "tough" conditions in many parts of the country. "The persistent dry weather in Australia's north-east cut summer grain production, and now that means the 2018 winter crops are likely to be modest at best," said Tobin Gorey, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "Adding to the tightness is the demand for feed in eastern Australia. The same dry weather means pasture and forage growth has also been poor." Foreign currency exchange business UAE Exchange Australia has been forced to back pay hundreds of workers more than $1.3 million after unauthorised deductions were made from their pay. The agreement was made after the Fair Work Ombudsman investigated complaints of underpayment over a seven-year period. A foreign currency exchange service will back-pay workers $1.3 million. Credit:Chris Ratcliffe UAE Exchange, which has global headquarters in the United Arab Emirates and 30 branches in Australia providing international money transfer services, signed an enforceable undertaking with the ombudsman requiring it to give backpay totalling $1,335,664 to 243 workers. The ombudsman found workers were underpaid wages or required to have their pay deducted between 2010 and 2017. The Fair Work Act prohibits unauthorised deductions from pay. Australian primary and high school students spend nearly 74 per cent more time in the classroom as Finnish students and have the most hours of instruction in the OECD, but are receiving far lower scores in international tests than students in similar countries. An Australian student receives a total of 11,000 hours of instruction throughout primary and high school, compared to the average of 7540 hours for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, curriculum comparisons released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority have revealed. ACARA's curriculum comparisons have identified major differences in the amount of autonomy given to teachers in other education systems. Credit:Louise Kennerley Finnish students, who perform among the top in the Program for International Student Assessment, have at least 200 fewer teaching hours every year in comparison to Australian students, and about 100 hours less each year than the OECD average. Finnish children also start school later, entering the first year of primary school at age seven, and pre-primary education for children aged six has been compulsory in Finland since mid-2015. I lived through a war, came as a refugee that is now a pop star what are the goal posts? When M.I.A., the British rapper and pop firebrand Mathangi Arulpragasam, talks about her life and work, and the way they inhibit, inform and enhance each other, the friction makes for a fascinating, constantly shifting story. The documentary that tells it Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., a title that recognises the multiple identities she embodies is just one part of the Music on Film program at this years Melbourne International Film Festival. Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. Credit:MIFF Stephen Loveridges film dives into the archives obsessively compiled by M.I.A., whose career since her emergence in 2005 with the electrifying breakthrough debut album Arular has been dogged by misunderstanding thats ended as controversy, to show the view from inside out. Her perspective is of a young woman, born in London, raised in Sri Lanka where her Tamil father was a political activist, and returned to a London council estate as an 11-year-old as Sri Lankas civil war escalated. As M.I.A., Arulpragasam knew how to draw attention to her underlying concerns about inequality, racism, and repression with songs that were blaring, beat-driven and often bedazzling. Hardened South Asian beats and London art college moxie were an intoxicating combination, even if fans didnt always connect that her 2007 hit single Paper Planes, with its gunshot-punctuated slow groove, was a commentary on the borders that hold refugees fleeing violence in a dangerous limbo. Regurgitators Quan Yeomans is, in his own words, doing the dad thing. Your grandmother will be here in a second! Do you mind? he scolds his one-year-old son Bowie, mid-conversation. He also has a four-year-old, Cassius. Ben Ely, the bands co-founder and bassist, is also a father to young children, for the second time with a new partner. After what Yeomans describes as their midlife crisis record Dirty Pop Fantasy, released in 2013, their ninth, Headroxx, finds them in a far more settled place. The Regurgitator crew found themselves in a good headspace for their ninth album Headroxx. Credit:Stephen Sloggett We were both in very weird headspaces, not as confident in our lives, and not in love, Yeomans says of Dirty Pop Fantasy. This record, were both married now, we both have young kids again, for Ben so its got that vibe about it. The exception is drummer Peter Kostic. Got my kids once a week, sometimes for sleepovers Take them to the zoo, maintenance not an issue, he sings on Weird Kind of Hard, before the song dissolves into a long, absurd scat section, the whole band cracking up laughing. In the ever expanding catalogue of Foo Fighters albums, 1995's self-titled release still contains some of Dave Grohl's mightiest post-Nirvana songs. Other work of note, particularly his drumming on the 2009 Them Crooked Vultures album with John Paul Jones and Josh Homme, plus various bits and pieces he's done with Homme's Queens of the Stone Age, forever hold Grohl in the upper echelon of rock 'n' roll soldiers. Dave Grohl Credit:ANDREW STUART He wrote and performed the Foo's first album himself, albeit with a minor guitar contribution from Greg Dulli, but now it seems the 49-year-old has has taken "going solo" to a whole new level and one has to wonder if he's taking the piss. Grohl's forthcoming two-part mini documentary featuring a 23-minute original composition "written, filmed and played on seven instruments by Grohl," is surprising, even by his standards. And this from the man who bought and relocated - to his own home - the original Neve mixing console from Sound City in Los Angeles - filming it all for his directorial debut. Break a leg, Dave. Sorry, he's already done that too. And kept playing, night after night in his kooky rock throne. Grohl's Play will be released August 10 on streaming platforms and digitally. Water levels at storages supplying the Sydney metropolitan area are sinking amid a lack of rain and rising consumption, bringing the prospect of a restart of the Sydney Desalination Plant. The total storage levels for the Sydney region are running at about two-thirds full, with the desalination plant set to be turned on to supplement the water supply when capacity drops to 60 per cent, according to WaterNSW. Cordeaux Reservoir's water levels have fallen by more than half in the past 12 months. Credit:Nick Moir "All Sydney storage levels have fallen as water is used to provide for Sydneys water supply, while record low rainfall in catchment areas [has resulted] in minimal replenishing inflows," a WaterNSW spokesman said. "The absence of significant rainfall forecast and the extremely dry catchments means, unfortunately, there is little prospect of respite statewide in the short term." A firearms expert said cartridges found at the scene of Colin Winchester's murder matched those found in Victoria and Captains Flat. The evidence links the murder to a Ruger 10/22 purchased and then sold on by Queanbeyan gun seller Louis Klarenbeek. Prosecutors say the murder weapon was the same Ruger 10/22 Mr Klarenbeek allegedly sold to accused killer, David Harold Eastman, on January 1, 1989, for $250. However, Mr Klarenbeek, now deceased, failed to identify Mr Eastman as the buyer. Mr Eastman, 72, is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court accused of shooting Mr Winchester twice in the head after he pulled into his neighbours Deakin driveway. The State Coroner, Judge Sara Hinchey, has made sensible suggestions to reduce the number of women being killed by their partner or a former partner. She is calling for Victoria Police to review all such deaths where there was a history of family violence, and for the Victorian government to conduct annual reviews of the effectiveness and resources of the family violence system. Judge Hincheys recommendations are contained in her report on an inquest into the 2011 strangulation of Rye mother Joy Maree Rowley by her former partner, James Martin Mulhall, who was later jailed over Ms Rowleys murder. Violence by a partner or former partner is the leading preventable contributor to death, illness and disability for women aged 15 to 44 in Australia. Credit:Gabriele Charotte The inquest heard that police knew of an extensive history of violence between Ms Rowley and Mulhall. Violence by a partner or former partner is the leading preventable contributor to death, illness and disability for women aged 15 to 44 in Australia. On average during recent years, a woman a week is killed in such circumstances. Efforts to stem the carnage have been insufficient. The killers of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi should be "feeling very uncomfortable" as investigators close the net on those responsible, police say. Detectives from the State Crime Commands Criminal Groups Squad seized four vehicles believed to have been involved in the planning of the deadly shooting after raids on six properties in Sydney's south-east and south-west on Thursday morning. Criminal Groups Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace, said police believed they have also established a motive for the killing, though would not reveal what it was. "It is my belief that those who were involved in the actual murder are aware of our information and how close we are, and I believe they are feeling very vulnerable and very uncomfortable, as they should be," Superintendent Wallace said. One of four males dramatically arrested after a series of inner-city robberies menaced one victim with a heavy-duty pruning saw, police allege. Greystanes man Dean Saunders, 22, briefly faced Parramatta Local Court via audiovisual link on several charges on Thursday morning. Police alleged in court documents Mr Saunders was brandishing the saw when he and two teenage boys robbed a man of his iPhone X in Haymarket just after 4am on July 30. A pedestrian and cyclist bridge connecting Kangaroo Point to Brisbane CBD, which was once an integral part of lord mayor Graham Quirk's platform, was first proposed in the 1800s. And although the Brisbane City Council supports a bridge, it has not budgeted the money to fund it. The Quirk administration scrapped its plans for a pedestrian bridge to Kangaroo Point. Credit:Richard Kirk Architect The council received two petitions with a total of 238 signatures from residents calling on the council to commit to a new pedestrian and cyclist bridge linking the Kangaroo Point peninsula to the Brisbane CBD. The bridge had previously had $32 million allocated in forward estimates and, in 2013, Cr Quirk said the council would go it alone in funding the bridge. For many of us, it is a well-earned aperitif enjoyed at the end of the day, but according to a Queensland academic, Italian winemakers could be set to declare war on Australian companies offering their own brand of prosecco. Queensland University of Technology professor in intellectual property and innovation law, Matthew Rimmer, says the light, dry, sparkling wine will be a major test for geographical indications, or GIs, for food and wine under the proposed new Australia-European Free Trade Agreement. An intellectual property battle is set to be waged over the name prosecco. Credit:File photo A GI is a name or sign on products that corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin, and certifies that the product possesses certain qualities or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin. Australia has provided special protection for champagne and other European wine regions in the past. But with Italian prosecco producers shifting the wines name from one of a grape variety to one of geographical location, the future of the prosecco label on Australia wines is uncertain. A 51-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman allegedly obtained more than $300,000 through fraudulent claims to the Queensland state government's 'Back to Work' grants. Police said the pair allegedly submitted and attempted to submit applications to the Queensland Treasury Department claiming more than $1 million worth of the grants over 12 months. After a complaint from the Treasury Department, detectives from the Financial and Cyber Crime Group investigated and arrested the man. The 51-year-old appeared before Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday, while the 43-year-old woman was issued a Notice to Appear for a later date, on charges of fraud and attempted fraud. Detective Superintendent Terry Lawrence said it was "disappointing" to find people were allegedly taking advantage of return-to-work schemes that were designed to support Queensland employers and jobseekers. A new website that comprehensively tracks and publishes data about deaths in custody across Australia has been launched by the University of Queensland. The website was created by staff and students in a bid to increase public awareness around deaths in custody and to provide up-to-date anonymised information. In 1987 the federal government held a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, investigating 99 deaths of people who had died in police custody. The new database collates 530 reported deaths, providing data to the community, researchers, lawyers, and journalists. Tracking whether recommendations were made after the death, if the person involved was Indigenous or not, and specific cause of death, the website can be searched for state-based information as well as national. A 75-year-old woman has been found dead at a home in a Moreton Bay suburb north of Brisbane. Queensland Police received a triple-zero call about 1pm alerting them to an incident at home on Topaz Drive in Mango Hill. Police closed part of Topaz Drive at Mango Hill following the death of a woman in her 70s. Credit:Nine News Queensland On arrival, police found the woman's body, and a 50-year-old man with serious injuries also at the scene. Police said the man was known to the woman. "Today was a combination of, 'Good they've got someone', but it's also meant people aren't fearful anymore," her friend Alice Bradley said. "It was a relief after a lot of anxiety. Hopefully justice will now be done." Another friend, Patrice, said that she felt a sense of relief when hearing the news that an arrest had been so swift. "I think for women in general it didn't matter if you knew her or not, it was about your freedom to walk in your community and know there was not a danger," she said. "I can't imagine how her parents are feeling right now." Samantha Fraser. The community have rallied around Ms Fraser's parents, Trevor and Janine, and her three young children who attended the local primary school. Messages of support for the Fraser family have piled up at a makeshift memorial in the centre of town, where dozens of bouquets of flowers lie surrounded by candles and ribbons. A white tape strung between two poles is emblazoned with the words: "End violence against women." "I always thought there would be more time to talk, to get to know you better," one note reads. "Our community stand as one in your honour. We will surround [your children] with love." "You raised the most beautiful children and we will look after them," another says. In a town of 4000 people, there were many who had a connection to Ms Fraser, who was active in the local school community and also worked casually as a psychologist at the local medical clinic. As news spread during the week and authorities appealed for CCTV and dashcam footage, police said locals were incredibly cooperative in providing information that furthered the investigation. One local said they felt police had gone "above and beyond" to catch the killer and left "no stone unturned". It is understood the death has also shaken local police, as some of the officers who attended the scene on July 23 knew Ms Fraser personally. The house in Cowes where Samantha Fraser lived. Credit:Eddie Jim On Thursday evening after Mr Basham's arrest, the town was quiet and still. At the home Ms Fraser had bought with Mr Basham in 2012 where she had most recently been living with her children and parents bunches of flowers sat outside the garage. Overgrown bushes obscure the view of the modern home, which appears secure and private. And though Mr Basham has been charged, friends and locals say there is more to do. A community vigil is planned for Saturday, which will see even more white ribbons pop up across Cowes. Ms Bradley says they will then push to ensure there is change on the small island to increase support for women in similar situations. "People are so angry this has happened and it's happened here," she said. "This is just not right, it shouldn't be happening, something needs to be done, and I suppose the fund-raising and white ribbon thing has been a focus for their anger and it's something they feel they can do. It's given them a voice to say we are not going to tolerate this anymore." What horror. The vivacious faces of four women beam from photographs at a moment striding along a beach, sipping bubbles at a party when they were full of joy, of life. And yet, these four Victorian women are now dead. Another day, another slew of grim stories about women who have been killed. The grind of the police hunts in each case, the incremental criminal trials and the coronial inquests. Samantha Fraser, 38, Karen Ristevski, 47, Joy Rowley, 60, mothers all. Their traumatised young and adult children left to grieve. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has voiced the conditions the territory wants included in the National Energy Guarantee, if the Commonwealth wants the jurisdiction on board for the deal at a COAG meeting next week. Mr Barr announced the specific conditions he wanted included during a speech in the territory's Legislative Assembly on Thursday, speaking to a motion on the deal put by Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has revealed the territory's demands for a deal on the national energy guarantee . Credit:Karleen Minney While some of the general aims of the ACT and Labor governments in Queensland and Victoria have previously been voiced, it was the first time any of the state or territory Labor leaders have specifically detailed the demands they will put to the Commonwealth. It comes ahead of an ACT Cabinet meeting next Monday, where it will finalise its position on the NEG ahead of next Friday's COAG energy minister's meeting where federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will seek all jurisdictions agreement. Christian schools with more than 160,000 students have joined the warnings against special deals in a new funding war over education, urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to avoid an unfair outcome to favour one sector over another. The Australian Association of Christian Schools entered the dispute to back the government for its policy while making it clear it did not want any departure from a sector-blind approach. The call comes after a renewed campaign from Catholic authorities to extract more concessions from the government, starting with a letter to parents on the eve of the Longman byelection last Saturday. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull faces the return of the schools' funding war. Credit:Jessica Hromas The letter claimed a $40 million disadvantage to Brisbane Catholic schools under the governments new funding model but the authorities would not say how this was calculated or how many years it covered. Nervous government backbenchers are being told they face a sliding doors moment in a looming vote on the National Energy Guarantee, as the Turnbull government faces duelling demands from Labor states and conservative Liberals on its climate and energy policy. Treasurer Scott Morrison declared the guarantee was the only plan on the table to reduce electricity prices, warning critics that dumping the plan would fuel uncertainty and drive up household bills. His comments came as another Labor leader toughened the objections to the plan ahead of a crucial vote on the scheme next Friday, when ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr demanded greater ambition on tackling climate change. Treasurer Scott Morrison. Credit:AAP The attack on the guarantee for doing too little to cut emissions came one day after former prime minister Tony Abbott rubbished the NEG for doing too much, saying pigs might fly when asked about claims the scheme would reduce prices. Dr Phelps said a complete redraft of the legislation was needed to properly enshrine patient privacy and data security, with concerns remaining about the way the My Health Record Act was drafted in 2012 - and the fact that nine data breaches had been recorded by the system in two years. Former AMA president Kerryn Phelps has called for a full parliamentary review of the My Health Record system, rejecting the minor concessions announced by Health Minister Greg Hunt this week as woefully inadequate. If this truly is about the wellbeing of patients, then there is absolutely no need for third party access to be in the legislation, she said, repeating her earlier warning that doctors who are tasked with uploading patient information to My Health Record may boycott the digital system. If GPs don't feel confident in the system, we will protect our patients' privacy, Dr Phelps said. Dr Phelps is particularly concerned by Section 98 of the My Health Record Act, which gives the "system operator" - currently the Australian Digital Health Agency - the power to delegate "any function" to any other person with consent of the minister. "This could include the disclosure of your health information," Dr Phelps said. And she said the fact that nine data breaches had been recorded showed the system could not be trusted to keep people's data safe. I need your help with something. Probably like you, I feel Ive been swamped with coverage of the weekends Super Saturday byelections, telling me they were all frightfully important, and highly instructive. So instructive, in fact, they apparently turned our political landscape upside down: within 24 hours, we went from Bill Shortens leadership being under threat, to Malcolm Turnbulls being the same; from a government resurgent to a government marooned and impotent. But heres the problem: I just dont see it. The more I looked at Super Saturday, the less it seemed to say. Except perhaps that us media types seem remarkably capable of moving from one confident pronouncement to its precise opposite without even pausing to blush. Labor candidate for Longman Susan Lamb and Bill Shorten claim victory. Credit:AAP Lets take the narrative that now has Turnbull in trouble. This boils down to the result in Longman where an optimistic LNP saw itself trounced by nearly 9 per cent, with its primary vote freefalling about the same amount to below 30 per cent. The argument goes that this is a disaster for three main reasons: 1) this seat is almost always a Coalition seat, which Labor only pinched in 2016 on the back of One Nation preferences; 2) this time, One Nation directed its preferences to the LNP which should have ruined Labors chances; and 3) the LNP had run a long, concerted campaign there. And sure, when lined up that way it looks ominous. But then I looked closer. NSW police officers have swooped on several properties in Sydney's south in relation to the daylight execution of former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi. Investigators have raided six properties looking for evidence relating to the death of Mr Hawi, who was gunned down outside a Rockdale gym on February 15. Blowing bubble gum at the camera, bikie boss Mick Hawi arrives at court for manslaughter over the Sydney Airport brawl in 2009. Credit:Edwina Pickles The former Comanchero president was treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken in a critical condition to St George Hospital, where he later died. Detectives from the State Crime Commands Criminal Groups Squad established Strike Force Amirs to investigate. The win in Darling Range was significant; it secured the opposition leaders position and for the first time he had stripped some political paint off the McGowan Government. But six weeks later Dr Nahan has an almost insurmountable political problem after he revealed he is in a dispute with the US Internal Revenue Service over how much tax he owes the US government. Dr Nahan who was WAs Treasurer for at least part of the disputes duration called the attempt by the US to tax income made on his Australian superannuation a tax grab. That might be fair enough there are about 200,000 US citizens in Australia in the same boat but its also a bit rich for Western Australians to stomach after they watched their own taxes, fees and charges disappear into Dr Nahans state coffers alongside a record debt and a sea of red ink. Since he became opposition leader, everyone from Labor strategists to his internal rivals have drawn the conclusion Dr Nahan is unelectable. But Australian political history is littered with unelectable leaders who find themselves elected. The last rites have been said over political corpses as diverse as a young and washed-up Robert Menzies, Lazarus-with-a-triple-bypass John Howard and Paul Keating, who won the unwinnable 1993 election. Not to mention Colin Barnett who was days away from retirement before becoming one of WAs longest serving Premiers. Mark McGowan himself was not taken seriously at first by his factional elders. But after years of proving himself they gave him the hard job of opposition leader and now he is a formidable political operator. Weve known all along Mike Nahans leadership has been far from perfect, but now its on life support. He told the ABC yesterday that he had been white-anted by some in his party room, but backed away from his comments after an already planned meeting of Liberal MPs in Joondalup. I got an iron-clad uniform commitment, committed to me as the leader and committed to us as a team, he said of his colleagues after the meeting. Again it seems none of Dr Nahans rivals want to take his job. Perhaps they are too enamoured by the fantasy scenario in which they steal his job only months out from a state election and ride the honeymoon effect and their innate greatness all the way into government. But first, someone has to do the hard, unpopular work of opposition. And when it comes time for hard, unpopular work, Dr Nahan's colleagues are far too thin on the ground. Not only was the Liberal party room reduced to a rump at the last election, it's as though some of the survivors are waiting for high office to drop into their laps. But none of this helps Dr Nahan as he heads into his party room this afternoon. Opposition leaders shouldn't expect gratitude from their colleagues for all their hard work. He still has questions to answer about his fight with the IRS and the strategy behind its public revelation. There's no doubt his colleagues are frustrated. Google withdrew from China eight years ago to protest the country's censorship and online hacking. Now the internet giant is working on a censored search engine for China that will filter websites and search terms that are blacklisted by the Chinese government, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. Google has teams of engineers working on a search app that restricts content banned by Beijing, said the people, who asked for anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the project. The company has demonstrated the service to Chinese government officials, they added. Google is rumoured to be bringing its search product back to China. Credit:Reuters Yet the existence of the project does not mean Google's return to China is imminent, the people cautioned. Google often builds and tests different services that never become publicly available. Google's reversal in China, which was earlier reported by The Intercept, is the latest example of how American tech companies are trying to tailor their products to enter the massive Chinese market, even if it means tamping down on free speech. LinkedIn censors content in China, for example. And Facebook developed software to suppress certain posts from appearing on the social network, with the aim of potentially deploying it in China, though there was no indication it was ultimately offered to Chinese authorities. Australian fire specialists prepare to board a fight to California on Friday. Credit:AAP The current US fire season has been exacerbated by excessively dry and hot weather conditions, resulting in intense fire fronts and dangerously low percentages of fire containment. More than 40,000 were under evacuation orders on Friday but - extraordinarily - just eight people have been killed. Some 24,000 remained displaced as of Friday. A firefighter rushes to save a home as the River Fire tears through Lakeport, California, on Tuesday. Credit:AP Among the dead are three firefighting personnel and a bulldozer operator working at a fire front; authorities say a number more are still missing. The two major fire fronts are the Carr fire, which has, as of Friday US time, burn through approximately 50,926 hectares and is approximately 35 per cent contained, and the Ranch fire, which now covers around 30,306 hectares are is approximately 33 per cent contained. In a marked shift from last weekend, when many of the fires were out of control and as little as five per cent contained, crews battling the key fire fronts are now reporting containment as high as 35 per cent, and in some cases, 50 per cent containment. More than 100 large fires were burning across 14 states and almost 582,000 hectares of ground has been lost, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre. In addition to California, there are currently major fires burning in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. A bulldozer operator builds containment lines while battling the River fire in Lakeport. Not all firefighters carry a hose or a shovel. The adrenaline junkies who steer heavy bulldozers across steep ridges face many dangers, from the flames themselves but also from unsteady dirt and rocky terrain. Credit:AP Of the firefighting force of 12,000 on the ground, around 3000 are prison inmates deployed as part of the Conservation Camps program which is jointly managed by CalFire and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). The inmate firefighters are paid $US2 per day plus $US1 per hour; that compares with the regular pay of CalFire firefighters which is $US10.50 or more per hour. Only approximately 3800 state prison inmates in California meet the minimum-custody and low-risk requirements for the firefighting assignment. (Sex offenders, past escapees and, understandably, arsonists are ineligible for the program.) Though the prominence of inmate firefighters is relatively low in media terms, their presence on the front lines is not new; CalFire says inmate firefighters have been deployed in California since World War II when much of the state's manpower was focused on the war effort. Inmate firefighters usually make up roughly one third of the states wildfire-fighting crews - that is closer to about a quarter at present as the total deployment includes crews from out of state and overseas - and, in addition to fighting fires, also work on park maintenance, reforestation, and fire and flood protection. A helicopter carries water to drop on an advancing wildfire near Finley, California. Credit:AP The fires have been fuelled by an excessively hot California summer, with low rainfall, low humidity and high temperatures; the resulting extreme heat creates unusual and unpredictable weather conditions for firefighters. The worst of that was the "rotation updraft" reported earlier this week at the Carr fire front in which a vortex of fire and smoke similar to a tornado is formed, pulling up and spraying out burning embers and other fire debris. CalFire's public information officer Jonathan Cox said the blazes were larger in scale and burning at speeds previously unseen. "What we're seeing in California right now is more destructive, larger fires burning at rates that we have historically never seen," Mr Cox said. The Carr fire began last Monday after a vehicle suffered mechanical failure, CalFire said; fuelled by high temperatures, low humidity and wind, the fire doubled in size over the weekend. California Governor Jerry Brown said the wildfire season was the "new normal" for the state. To illustrate his point, Brown told US media the state had already spent more than a quarter of the budget allocated for resources across the entire annual fire season in the month of July alone. "We're going to have more fire, more destructive fire, [and] more billions that will have to be spent on it," Brown said. "All that is the new normal that we will have to face." Weather agencies report that the current burst of fires came off the back of record-setting July temperatures; in northern California, for example, July temperatures were as much as 10 degree Fahrenheit higher than normal. TORONTO, Aug. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Mercedes-Benz Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Noye as Vice President, Sales, effective October 1, 2018. Noye will be responsible for overseeing the company's New Car and Pre-Owned divisions, as well as corporate sales and remarketing, and will report directly to Mercedes-Benz Canada's President and CEO, Brian D. Fulton. Noye joins Mercedes-Benz Canada from Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA), where he is currently the Regional General Manager (RGM) of the Southern Region. "I am very excited to be welcoming Andrew to Mercedes-Benz Canada. There is no doubt that we will benefit from his knowledge and expertise: most recently, he has overseen the activities of 118 dealers in MBUSA's largest region, with truly impressive results. Not only that, his extensive experience working with MBUSA's dealer network means he is well-positioned to make valuable contributions to our customer-centric culture," says Fulton. Noye started his career in the automotive sector in 1996, going on to join MBUSA as the Market Manager, Western Region, in his home state of California in 2003. Over the years, he has held a range of high-level management positions in different regions around the United States. Since 2013, he has been stationed in Jacksonville, FL, as the Regional General Manager (RGM) of the Southern Region at MBUSA, where he has been responsible for overseeing service, sales, marketing and franchising, along with dealer relations, for Mercedes-Benz dealer operations in the Southern United States. "I'm thrilled to be exploring a new market and to be joining the Canadian team, especially as my colleagues there have established such an impressive track record," says Andrew Noye. "I am confident this opportunity will allow me to leverage my own experience with the brand to build on the strong foundation that has been laid by my predecessors." About Mercedes-Benz Canada Mercedes-Benz Canada is responsible for the sales, marketing and service of the Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG passenger vehicles, Mercedes-Benz Vans and smart. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. employs approximately 1,700 people in 21 locations across Canada. Through a nationwide network of 11 Mercedes-Benz own retail operations and 48 authorized dealerships, Mercedes-Benz Canada sold 52,298 vehicles in 2017. This represents the best year ever for the company and has positioned Mercedes-Benz as the top luxury manufacturer in Canada for the fourth consecutive year. Further information from Mercedes-Benz Canada is available at media.mercedes-benz.ca. SOURCE Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. CONTACT: please contact: JoAnne Caza, 416-847-7550, joanne.caza@mercedes-benz.ca; Sinead Brown, 416-847-7588, sinead.brown@mercedes-benz.ca RELATED LINKShttp://www.mercedes-benz.ca RICHMOND HILL, ON, Aug. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - Mazda Canada Inc. (MCI) today reported July sales of 6,981 vehicles, representing an increase of 5.9 percent versus July 2017. Year-to-date (YTD) sales are 45,630, which is an increase of 5.9 percent compared to the same period in 2017. KEY JULY SALES NOTES: Mazda3 led sales for Mazda Canada in July and took the lead in YTD sales from the CX-5 for the first time in 2018. in July and took the lead in YTD sales from the CX-5 for the first time in 2018. CX-3 set a new record for July with 1,173 sales, which is a 26.5 percent increase compared to July 2017 . July was the twelfth consecutive record sales month for CX-3, which is up 37.5 percent YTD. . July was the twelfth consecutive record sales month for CX-3, which is up 37.5 percent YTD. CX-5 had its best July sales on record with 2,323 vehicles sold, which is an increase of 12.1 percent year-over-year (YOY). CX-9 also enjoyed record sales for July, tying its previous all-time best sales month. CX-9 sales were up 57.9 percent versus July 2017 . . Sales of Mazda's CX-line remain strong, with CX-3, CX-5 and CX-9 collectively reaching 3,927 vehicles sold in the month of July. This number represents an increase of 20.0 percent YOY, and 20.2 percent YTD, driving growth for Mazda. July July YOY YTD YTD YOY 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change Mazda3 2,801 2,819 -0.6% 16,195 16,941 -4.4% Mazda5 1 147 -99.3% 630 1,589 -60.4% Mazda6 181 250 -27.6% 1,612 1,494 7.9% MX-5 71 103 -31.1% 596 943 -36.8% Passenger Car 3,054 3,319 -8.0% 19,033 20,967 -9.2% CX-3 1,173 927 26.5% 7,976 5,800 37.5% CX-5 2,323 2,072 12.1% 16,109 14,139 13.9% CX-9 431 273 57.9% 2,512 2,192 14.6% Light Truck 3,927 3,272 20.0% 26,597 22,131 20.2% MAZDA TOTAL 6,981 6,591 5.9% 45,630 43,098 5.9% About Mazda Canada Inc. Mazda Canada Inc. is responsible for the sales and marketing, customer service and parts support of Mazda vehicles in Canada. Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Mazda Canada has a nationwide network of 164 dealerships. For additional information visit Mazda Canada's media website at www.media.mazda.ca. SOURCE Mazda Canada Inc. CONTACT: Chuck Reimer, Mazda Canada, (905) 787-7079; Sandra Lemaitre, Mazda Canada, (905) 787-7167 RELATED LINKShttp://www.mazda.ca Growth Energy Welcomes ELEMENT as 100th Plant Member WASHINGTON, DD - August 2, 2018: Growth Energy, the nations top ethanol advocate, is proud to welcome ELEMENT, LLC as its newest member. The addition of the new Colwich, Kansas-based bio-refinery marks the 100th plant member for Growth Energy. The Andersons, Inc. have partnered with ICM, a current Growth Energy member, to form ELEMENT, LLC, to build and operate a 70 million gallon per year facility that is expected to be the lowest environmental impact ethanol production facility in the United States. ELEMENT expects to commence production in the second quarter of 2019. Growth Energy, The Andersons, and ICM issued the following statements: We are so proud to welcome ELEMENT as the hundredth member of the Growth Energy family, said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy. ELEMENT is the result of an invaluable partnership between ICM and The Andersons, and we look forward to collaborating with these industry leaders to provide Americans with cleaner burning renewable biofuels at the pump. Were thrilled to team up with Growth Energy as ELEMENT builds the most technologically advanced and greenest dry mill ethanol plant in the world, said Mike Irmen, President of The Andersons Ethanol Group. Growth Energy has supported our industry for 10 years. Were looking forward to tapping their knowledge and supporting the ethanol promotion effort. ICM is extremely excited about working on this project. We are about a year away from launching the plant, but we look forward to working with Growth Energy as a strategic partner, said Dave Vander Griend, CEO of ICM. They are an excellent advocate for the industry and we are proud to be a part of their association. ### About The Andersons, Inc. Founded in Maumee, Ohio, in 1947, The Andersons is a diversified company rooted in agriculture, conducting business across North America in the grain, ethanol, plant nutrient and rail sectors. The Andersons Ethanol Group operates ethanol plants in Albion, Michigan; Clymers, Indiana; Greenville, Ohio; and Denison, Iowa. The four plants combined are capable of producing over 475 million gallons of ethanol annually. For additional information, please visit www.andersonsinc.com. About ICM, Inc. Established in 1995 and headquartered in Colwich, Kan., with a regional office in Brazil, ICM, Inc. provides innovative technologies, solutions, and services to sustain agriculture and to advance renewable energy, including ethanol and feed technologies that will increase the supply of world protein. By providing proprietary process technologies to over 100 facilities globally with a combined production capacity of approximately 8.8 billion gallons of annual ethanol production and 25 million tons of annual distillers grains, ICM has become a world leader in bio-refining technologies. For additional information, please visit www.icminc.com. ABOUT GROWTH ENERGY Growth Energy represents producers and supporters of ethanol working to bring consumers better choices at the fuel pump, grow Americas economy and improve the environment for future generations. Our organizations national campaign online at GetBiofuel.com serves as the leading source of information for consumers seeking cleaner, more affordable fueling options. For more information on our organization, visit us at GrowthEnergy.org, follow us on Twitter @GrowthEnergy, or connect with us on Facebook. Briefing sessions await Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen as he gets some schooling in how to handle new responsibilities as the provinces education minister. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/8/2018 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Briefing sessions await Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen as he gets some schooling in how to handle new responsibilities as the provinces education minister. Manitoba premier Brian Pallister shuffled his cabinet on Wednesday, moving Goertzen from the health portfolio which he has held since the Progressive Conservatives formed government in 2016. Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen takes over the health file from Goertzen, switching from his role in finance. "I have great confidence in Cam," Goertzen said yesterday. "I can hardly think of anybody better." "I recognize that health is an emotional job," he added. "I learned a lot and worked some fantastic people here." Goertzen spoke positively about his own move too, which was announced on Wednesday afternoon at the Manitoba Legislature. Goertzen himself learned of the move the previous day. The local MLA said the premier expressed confidence to him in how the government has begun implementing changes in the health care system, something that Goertzen will now be tasked with in the provinces education system. Plans for an education review have been in the works for some time. Goertzen wont be alone to take on the task, however. Former education minister Ian Wishart will now serve as legislative assistant to Goertzen and has been handed the responsibility of co-ordinating the review of kindergarten to Grade 12 education. He acknowledged that it is unusual for a former minister to remain connected to a particular department. While he surmised that type of scenario could prove contentious, he maintained that he expected a good working relationship with Wishart, knowing his colleagues personality. With a school-aged child of his own, Goertzen sees importance in the review process that lays ahead. In particular, he noted Manitobas standing in comparison to other areas of the country. "Part of the review is why are our children doing more poorly," he said. Direction will emerge through stakeholder feedback, he said, suggesting it was too early to comment on possible changes to the size of school divisions, education funding, and provincial curriculum. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Curriculum has been a contentious topic in Ontario in recent weeks as the Progressive Conservative government has proposed changes to the way sexual education is taught in schools. Goertzen said on that front that Manitoba does a good job already between allowing for opt out provisions for students, while also allowing for religious exercises and instruction in schools. "I think we strike the right balance in Manitoba and well look to maintain that," he said. St Vital MLA Colleen Mayer was a new addition to cabinet as the new minister of Crown services. No other Southeast MLAs were given responsibilities in cabinet in Wednesdays shuffle. In addition to his new education responsibilities, Goertzen will also serve as government house leader. Photo: Westend61/Getty Images You love each other. You live together. You share bills. You share a pet. You dont make long-term decisions without first consulting each other. You dont start a new Netflix show without first consulting each other. The spark might be gone, but in its place is a sort of warm, quiet comfort. Sometimes sex is exciting, sometimes its just something to do. You fart in front of each other. You support each others professional and personal endeavors. You pick at each others backs. Youve been on multiple road trips together. Sometimes, on these long road trips, you drive. Maybe its late, because both you and your partner agreed to leave after work on Wednesday and to drive through the night in order to get their familys house for Thanksgiving on time. Your partner is asleep in the passenger seat and snoring (they always insist they dont snore, but they sound like a wood chipper) and youre listening to an old episode of Fresh Air. Terry Grosss laugh is so relaxing You hear a huge THUNK and the car veers wildly and your partner screams, What the hell was that?! You both look behind you and see the lump in the middle of the road, and your partner asks, What happened? and you say, It must have been a deer. But when you both get out for a closer look, you see the bent cardboard sign for Sacramento, and the splayed limbs, and the blood. You both start screaming. Your partner starts crying. You say, We have to get rid of it. Your partner says, Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you? We have to call the cops. You say, We cant call the cops. Ill go to jail. And your partner says, No, you wont, its not like youve done this before, and you dont say anything, and they say, Right? RIGHT? and then they start crying more. Finally, they agree to help, and you drag the body off into the woods. We should probably burn it, you say. Who are you your partner whispers. You finish driving to Thanksgiving. When you pull into the driveway, your partner gets out and slams the door behind them. You wonder briefly whether theyll tell their family, but when you go in, their mother gives you a big hug and congratulates you on your promotion. You look past her to the kitchen and see your partner downing vodka. Its 10 a.m. That night, after all the food is put away and everyone has gone to sleep, you and your partner make love in their childhood bedroom. The sex is better than it has been in a long time. Afterward, they take your face in their hands and say, I love you. No matter what. No matter what, you say. You share an Amazon Prime account! Fernando Negrete. Photo: Maricopa County Sheriffs Office After receiving an alarming call at an immigrant detention center in Phoenix, police have arrested a 32-year-old employee for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl who is being detained at the center, and on one occasion, entering the girls bedroom multiple times in a single night. The suspect, Fernando Negrete, works at the Southwest Key detention center in Phoenix. According to Phoenixs KPOH, the alleged victims 16-year-old roommate was the first to raise the alarm: On July 25, she told officials at the facility she had witnessed Negrete kissing and inappropriately touching the girl in June. Later, police reviewed surveillance video that showed Negrete approaching the victims bedroom several times throughout the night of June 27, per their report. On July 31, Negrete admitted to police that he had kissed and inappropriately touched the immigrant girl over her clothes. In an interview with law enforcement, the 14-year-old said that Negrete intruded into her bedroom and kissed her on the lips, and that she pushed him away and got away from [him]. Her roommate told police she had seen Fernando enter the room and kiss the victim three or four times. Horrifying allegations of abuse both sexual and otherwise in immigrant detention centers are well-documented; there have been reports of facility guards doing everything from stripping minors of their clothes to strapping them to chairs with bags over their heads. Centers run by Southwest Key which the Department of Health and Human Services contracts to run more than 25 facilities for immigrant minors have in particular been the sites of many such human-rights abuses. Just last week, The Nation reported that a 6-year-old girl had been sexually abused in another Arizona center overseen by the privately run company. In a statement to KPOH, Southwest Key spokesman Jeff Eller said that Southwest Key will cooperate with outside police investigations, and is also conducting its own. When a child tells us of inappropriate behavior, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate. Thats what happened in this case, Eller said. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted. Negrete has been booked into jail on one count each of aggravated assault, molestation, and sexual abuse. His bond is reportedly set at $150,000. Photo: Ben Margot/AP/REX/Shutterstock My mother had strict rules. In high school, my curfews were earlier than all of my classmates. Sleepovers were rare. Road trips were a nonstarter. It wasnt until I got older that I realized she wasnt punishing me; she was protecting me. She knew the world isnt safe for black girls. Alicia Greyson knows this all too well. On July 22, her daughters, 18 year-old Nia and 26 year-old Letifah, boarded the BART train like they had many times before. What should have been a routine trip turned tragic the sisters were viciously attacked by John Cowell, a 27-year-old white man, as they waited to transfer trains at the MacArthur station in Oakland. Letifah survived, but Nia later died from her injuries. After Nias death, the outcry among black Americans was swift. Oakland community members held vigils and protests. Her family demanded that her story be told and her name be said. Black Twitter rallied to ensure that our victims arent put on trial, calling out a local media outlet for using a picture that made Nia look like the perpetrator, not the innocent 18-year-old she was. If youre white, chances are that you came across Nias story when Anne Hathaway posted an Instagram caption urging white people to focus on her death. White people including me, including you must take into the marrow of our privileged bones the truth that all black people fear for their lives daily in America and have done so for generations, she wrote. We must ask our (white)selves how decent are we really? Not in our intent, but in our actions? In our lack of action? This is how culture often swings: something trends among black people, and the mainstream notices the #InMyFeelings challenge, cornrows, and the word lit, are but a few examples. But this time, a white actress with 12.2 million followers took notice of our trauma and suffering and decided to use her privilege to say something. As Ive said before, white privilege isnt a curse word but rather a term that describes an unfair game. White privilege is a status afforded by a system designed by white people, with white people in mind. Like it or not, we are all born into that system. Race is not the only privilege one can have, but it is the most powerful. So if youre white, how can you help remedy that situation? Do as Anne did and begin to spend your privilege. You didnt earn it, so give it away. You didnt earn it, so give it away. Im sure Anne Hathaways followers did not expect to see her posting about Nia Wilson. Perhaps she made some of her fans uncomfortable, or even lost followers. Spending ones privilege can carry consequences, but nothing important comes without risk and its worth taking one in the name of justice. In the course of living their regular lives, Anne Hathaway lost some followers. Nia and Letifah lost a lot more. For black women, our risks are not the same. Our loss is not the same. Hathaway was not the only woman to use her platform to call attention to Nias murder. Black feminist Rachel Cargle also urged white women to stand up for her, but to a different result. Im waiting for your fave white feminists to post about #NiaWilson, she wrote. Some white feminists responded by pledging to act. But others, most notably an Instagram page under the name @25Park, became defensive. @25Park went on the attack: boasting about how much she had done for black people on her feed, and asking prominent black voices to come to back her up. If youre looking for a clear example of how not to spend your privilege, thats it. When a black woman asks for solidarity, dont react with defensiveness. Dont think about your own self-interest. All of us must be willing to be pushed by the people most affected by the issue we seek to help solve. I am not an ally for the LGBTQ community if I am above correction by actual LGBTQ people. The same goes for us all, my sisters. So, how can you spend your privilege, and invest it in something good? Using social media to spread awareness about underrepresented issues is a fine start. But as soon as you think youve spent enough privilege, thats a sign that its time to spend some more. Parkland students have spent their privilege by challenging the media on the imbalanced coverage gun violence victims of color receive. Terry Crews, himself a survivor of sexual harassment, has used the attention he has received as a man with a platform to stand with women survivors as well. Continue to speak Nia Wilsons name long after the news cycle has died down. Challenge the media when they put black victims on trial and excuse white murderers as lone wolves. Ask yourself and your police chief why black communities are simultaneously over- and under-policed? Read the work of black women as we discuss our tragedy and our triumphs, so that you can better understand and stand with your sisters. As you learn, share what you know with other people of privilege, unburdening those of us already oppressed from doing that work. As you do this, apply a similar series of actions to issues of injustice where you live, work, play, and worship. The most important step is this: Train yourself toward solidarity and not charity. You are no ones savior. You are a mutual partner in the pursuit of freedom. Lilla Watson, an Aboriginal activist and artist, once said: If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. I want to be free. I want you to be free. And you arent free until I am. Spend your privilege, and just when you think youve spent enough, spend some more. Thursday, August 2, 2018 at 8:43AM Amazon donates $525,000 to help Canada Learning Code and its computer science education initiatives in the country. Canada Learning Code is the leading national charity that champions digital literacy education. This donation will help support the development of a Canadian kindergarten-to-grade-12 computer science education framework. It will also help with other coding education programs, which includes a traveling mobile classroom and Canada Learning Code Week. This donation helps the charity create 275,000 learner experiences over three years. As Melissa Sariffodeen, CEO of Canada Learning Code, said, this donation will help kids learn the skills they need for the future. This donation by Amazon will have a transformative effect on Canadian skills development needed to prosper in the digital economy, she said. At the moment, only three out of the 13 Canadian provinces and territories offer formal opportunities in the curriculum to learn these skills. Updating the curriculum will help accelerate the entry of women and those from less advantaged backgrounds into more in-demand roles. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during an operation in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 11, 2018. Missouri officials detained more than a dozen people who were found in a vehicle near Eureka on Aug. 2, according to local reports.(John Moore/Getty Images) 14 People Found in Vehicle on Missouri Highway; ICE Contacted Missouri officials detained more than a dozen people who were found in a vehicle near Eureka on Aug. 2, according to local reports. KSDK reported that 13 people were seen in handcuffs near Interstate 44 near Six Flags Road at around 9 a.m. KMOV reported that 14 were detained in all. ICE called after 13 discovered in van on I-44 near Eureka; Police search for driver https://t.co/8TXeJRTC05 pic.twitter.com/KAjObV8UOz FOX2now (@FOX2now) August 2, 2018 #BREAKING: ICE contacted after 11 found in van without documents in Eureka. Officials said the driver & passenger are on the run. #KMOV Story: https://t.co/cv0LnimR9e pic.twitter.com/oBzmLpQyHw KMOV (@KMOV) August 2, 2018 The Missouri State Highway Patrol told KSDK that theyre illegal immigrants and couldnt provide paperwork. According to KMOV, 11 of the people10 men and one womanwho remained in the van were transported to the Eureka Police Department, and they were eventually taken to an undisclosed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. ICE now taking over investigation involving traffic stop in Eureka this morning. @stlcountypd #EurekaPD and @MSHPTrooperGHQ were originally handling scene. Update on @KMOV in minutes pic.twitter.com/HvE5GeMPAT Mark Griffin (@mgriffin_kmov) August 2, 2018 It is unclear why police initially stopped the vehicle. After police stopped the vehicle, two people fled the scene into a nearby forested area. Apple, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. At around 10 a.m., police found one of the men that fled, KSDK said. At 11:30 a.m., troopers were searching for the other person who fled the van, KMOV reported. While assisting Missouri State Highway Patrol on a traffic stop this morning two Hispanic males fled from officers. One male wearing a gray or light colored sweatshirt fled south from the area of I-44 and Six Flags Road, the second wearing a light blue sweatshirt fled north from the area. If you see someone matching these descriptions in the area contact the Eureka Police Department at 636-938-6600 or dispatch at 636-549-8210, said the Eureka Police Department on Facebook. Other details about the arrests are not clear. Cody Ramsay, who admitted to planning an attack on a police officer at the officer's home. (Beebe Police Department) Arkansas Man Says He Planned Botched Attack on Police Officer at His Home An Arkansas man admitted he planned a botched attack on a police officer at the officers house. Cody Ramsey, 22, told police officers that he planned to attack Beebe Police Department officer Andrew Napolitano when he parked outside Napolitanos home on July 18. The officer left his residence with his two children preparing to head into work when he noticed Ramsey sitting inside a parked pickup truck next to his police vehicle. Officer Napolitano asked Ramsey if he was waiting for someone, to which Ramsey replied no. The officer then informed Ramsey he was parked on private property and asked him to leave. Thats when, according to the department, Ramsey whipped out a semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at the officers face. Before he could do anything, though, the officer pulled out his gun and ordered Ramsey to drop the weapon, which Ramsey did. The officer ordered Ramsey out of the vehicle, but upon exiting the truck Ramsey attacked Napolitano. Ramsey hit Napolitano in the face multiple times before a witness rushed over to assist the officer. Ramsey was eventually subdued and arrested by backup officers responding to the scene. Ramsey was charged with three counts of Aggravated Assault, one count of Battery in the second degree on a law enforcement officer, and one count of carrying a weapon. Audience Members Defy Stereotypes at Death of a Nation Screening in Los Angeles A diverse audience attended a special prescreening of Death of a Nation by Indian-American filmmaker and bestselling author Dinesh DSouza in Los Angeles, California on July 30. The film is based on DSouzas book of the same name, which was just released on July 31. Local radio host and Los Angeles native Kathleen Wells from The Naked Truth Report on AM 870 immediately set the tone for the event. The Democrats have failed Black America. Theyve destroyed Black America, she said to applause. DSouzas movie builds on his other work by exposing some of the most shocking moments in the history of the Democratic Party, such as support of slavery, the southern Confederacy, the Klu Klux Klan, and segregation. But he said the main goal for this film was to show how these events of the past relate to Democratic policies today. The film also compares the situation that faced the nation while Abraham Lincoln was president with some of the issues facing President Donald Trump. Prior to the screening, DSouza said while he would welcome the opportunity to discuss the merits of his film in mainstream media or on a talk show, there has been little opportunity. This is a very abnormal society were living in now, he said. This means that those of you in the audience, youre actually one of the first people to see this movie. Youre in a very potent position, and I actually need your help in getting the word out. After the screening of Death of a Nation, Wells hosted a forum with four black conservative men who were very impressed with the film: Brandon Tatum, David J. Harris Jr., M. Adrian Norman, and The Amazing Lucas. Questions came from a vastly diverse ethnic audience. It touched on a lot of issues I was unclear about, Brandon Tatum, director of urban engagement at Turning Point USA, said about the movie. I think it was a great film. I think everyone in the world should look at that film. Tatum did not grow up conservative, but as a police officer in Tucson, he said he became appalled at how his profession was disrespected and began to look into conservative ideas. I decided to give the Republicans a try. I had never looked at a Republican candidate in my life. I thought they were racist, he said. M. Adrian Norman is the founder of the Right of Center Blog and a contributing writer at The Federalist and The Daily Caller. I thought it was an amazing film, said Norman. Dinesh has a really uncanny way of being able to take very high-level concepts and break it down to where the average person can really understand it. Norman said he felt he and other conservatives are in a battle to help people perceive reality instead of false assumptions, and the film is helping that happen. When you come across this information, you can look it up yourself, he said. Were speaking the truth, and all we have to do is continue speaking the truth. Chuck and Misha Vaughn, who organized the event, said they wanted to bring together a group of people that would defy peoples stereotypes of conservatives and encourage dialogue and discussion. We have been seeing Dineshs films for some time, and we always love them, said Misha. Theres so much in them, so much education, so much information that needs to be spread. Death of a Nation opens nationwide on Aug. 3. Death of a Nation. Greatest movie I have ever seen!! Posted by Brandon Tatum on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 (L-R) Indian-Australian mathematician, Akshay Venkatesh; German mathematician, Peter Scholze; and Italian mathematician, Alessio Figalli, three of the four winners of mathematics' prestigious Fields Medal, often known as the Nobel prize for math, pose at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 1, 2018. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images) Aussie genius wins Nobel Prize For Mathematics A 36-year-old Australian man from Perth has won the Fields Medal, also known as the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Akshay Venkatesh, a professor at Stanford University in California, won his prize for synthesising a range of mathematical theories to solve the sub-convexity problem, a well-known problem in the maths community. Former classmate Michael Giudici said that explaining his achievement to the general public is difficult. If it was easy for me to explain, then he wouldnt have received the Fields Medal, said Guidici, professor of mathematics of the University of Western Australia (WA). A Fields Medal is considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, the highest honour a mathematician can attain. Every four years, two to four mathematicians under the age of 40 are chosen to receive the award. Cheryl Praeger, an associate of the Australian Academy of Science, had always known that Venkatesh would achieve great things in the world of mathematics. I was sure that he would achieve a great deal mathematically, said Praeger and Im thrilled at his stunning success in being awarded a Fields Medal. When Venkatesh and Praeger first met he was 13, he was reading the blackboard in her office while his mother and Praeger were talking. The blackboard consisted of work that one of her doctoral students had completed. Curious about the work, Venkatesh asked Praeger what the problem was on the blackboard, and while explaining the details she found that Venkatesh was able to understand the research. Now, a father of two daughters, four and seven, the joy of his life has shifted from mathematics to his children. He is a terrific father, a wonderful father. And yes, they are the joy of his life. They are the absolute joys of my life, too, said his mother, Svetha Venkatesh who is a computing science major at Deakin University, ABC reported. The only other Australian to win the award is Terence Tao in 2006. Sen. Percy Mockler, chair of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance, speaks during a press conference on the committees report on the Phoenix pay system, in Ottawa on July 31, 2018. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang) Canada in Brief, Aug. 2-8 Phoenix pay advisers not being trained adequately: Report A new report says federal pay advisers have not been trained adequately, furthering the likelihood that fixing the failed Phoenix pay system will take years and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The report, from the Senate finance committee, warns that those costs are on track to hit $2.2 billion within the next five years. The committee blames the Phoenix debacle on a systemic cultural problem within government where senior civil servants play down bad news and avoid responsibility. The report notes that not a single person has been held to account for tens of thousands of civil servants being overpaid, underpaid, or not paid at all since the Phoenix system was launched more than two years ago. Feds ease carbon tax thresholds Bowing to concerns about international competitiveness, the Trudeau government is scaling back carbon pricing guidelines for some of the countrys heaviest energy users and signalling that more easing could come before the plan takes effect in 2019. Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued new guidelines that increase the emissions threshold at which polluters will have to pay a carbon tax. The revisions come as big industries face competitive threats from south of the border in the form of corporate tax cuts and protectionist tariffs, and as Ottawa prepares to replace Ontarios cap-and-trade system with its own carbon levy. Surviving Dionne quints to visit log cabin where they were born The two surviving Dionne quintuplets will be returning this week to the log cabin where they were born 84 years ago for a ceremony marking their birth as an event of national historic significance. Cecile Dionne and Annette Dionne will be visiting their birth home in North Bay, Ont., on Aug. 4, for the first time in 20 years. A commemorating plaque will be unveiled during the ceremony at the home, which has been turned into a museum. The five Dionne sisters became international sensations upon their birth on May 28, 1934, as they were the only known quintuplets at the time to survive for more than a few days. 130 ODs in one day: More needs to be done, says BC premier Premier John Horgan says more needs to be done in British Columbia to fight the ravages of illegal drug use after a report of 130 overdoses in one day last week. The premier says hes thankful there were no deaths from any of the overdoses, but the staggering number reveals the amount of work ahead to battle the crisis. BC Emergency Health Services says paramedics responded to 130 suspected overdose calls on July 27, a statistic only seen once before, in April of last year. With files from The Canadian Press Leslie Moonves, Chairman and CEO, CBS Corporation, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May 3, 2017. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson) CBS Hires Firms to Investigate Sexual Misconduct Claims Directed at CEO CBS has announced the hiring of two law firms that will conduct an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against CEO Les Moonves. Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton will also probe allegations that the company culture at CBS tolerated and even promoted abusive behavior, CBS said. Both sets of allegations were reported by The New Yorker on July 27. Author Ronan Farrow spoke with six women who accused Moonves of sexual misconduct or sexual assault, with the time of the alleged instances spanning from the 1980s to the 2000s. Actress and writer Illeana Douglas said that in 1997 Moonves arranged a one-on-one meeting with her while she was under a contract that paid her $300,000 to only appear on CBS shows. The meeting turned out to be planned for Moonves to make unwanted advances on her, Douglas alleged, saying that he was violently kissing her and pinning her arms above her head. What it feels like to have someone hold you downyou cant breathe, you cant move, she said. The physicality of it was horrendous. She said she made flattering jokes to disarm him and get away, but not long after that, she said Moonves arranged to have her fired. CBS acknowledged in a statement that Moonves acknowledges trying to kiss Douglas, but denies any characterization of sexual assault, intimidation, or retaliatory action, according to The New Yorker. A lawyer for Douglas, considering a lawsuit, called CBS and was able to secure a settlement. Another woman, writer Janet Jones, alleged that Moonves kissed her at a work meeting, necessitating her to shove him away. Thirty current and former CBS employees also asserted that the culture at the company tolerated harassment, gender discrimination, or retaliation at different parts of the company, including 60 Minutes. CBS and Moonves Respond CBS said that Moonves would not step down as CEO. Mr. Moonves will have no role in the investigation and is entirely recused from it, the CBS Corporation Board said in a statement. The Board took no further action at this meeting pending discussion with counsel as to appropriate next steps. Moonves, 68, said that he recognized hed made some women uncomfortable but denied any misconduct. I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely, he told The New Yorker. But I always understood and respectedand abided by the principlethat no means no, and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyones career. Moonvess wife, Julie Chen, who also works for CBS, said in a statement that she supports her husband. Leslie is a good man and a loving father, devoted husband, and inspiring corporate leader, she said. He has always been a kind, decent, and moral human being. I fully support my husband and stand behind him and his statement. How Farrow Got the Story Farrow said he was approached by Douglas after he published the first of his series of stories about Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual assault, rape, and misconduct and has been charged with sexually assaulting three women. She did an incredibly brave thing by getting the ball rolling on this. From there, it was a process of a lot of painstaking searching in dark corners where people had buried these stories, Farrow told Variety. Farrow noted that Moonves has been a public defender of the #MeToo movement, which followed the fall of Weinstein. A sexual assault, and then I was fired. 6 women accuse Les Moonves, CBS chief and titan of television, of sexual misconduct and retaliationand dozens more describe a culture of impunity across his company. My 8 month @newyorker investigation: https://t.co/QjBFXY3870 Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) July 27, 2018 He also said he didnt know if there were more stories but felt obligated to look into it. I never go into a reporting role with a preconception about what Im going to find. I think Illeana had a sense, as many of these women did, that there was something practiced in what they witnessed, he said. As it became clear this was a pattern, many of them felt there was an obligation on their part to try to speak to protect the next women who came along and walked into CBS. They felt this was not just about Mr. Moonves but a culture of impunity around Mr. Moonves. From NTD.tv Derek Scissors, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, at a forum on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the Hudson Institute in Washington on July 31, 2018. (Jennifer Zeng/Epoch Times) Congress Passes Bill Addressing Chinas Theft of Intellectual Property WASHINGTONThe Senate passed on Aug. 1 the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which had already been approved by the House by a vote of 35954 on July 26. Experts say one purpose of the mammoth $716 billion defense authorization bill is to rein in Chinas investments in the United States. The bill includes reforms to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Speaking at a Hudson Institute forum on reforming CFIUS on July 31, Michael Allen, managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, said that the House intelligence committee started to notice the threat from the communist regime in China as early as 2011. One of the first things that came at us was the National Security Agency briefing the committee on aggressive Chinese cyber attacks, he said, recalling his days working for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Gradually people came to understand what we now know, Allen said. It is sort of the intent, the design, to create a regime to systematically take intellectual property here in the U.S. Allen said that the systematic theft was not just done through cyber theft, but also through the deployment of students throughout the United States, as well as through venture capital. Allen sees the reform of the CFIUS as a response to the fear from both the Congress and the defense policymakers about the apparently narrowing edge of America in many areas, including artificial intelligence. Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, thinks that there is a three-dimensional threat from the Chinese regime: theft, which is considerable; exports and transfers outside the United States; and acquisitions in the United States. The White House praised the House passage of the legislation on July 26 in a statement. It also takes positive steps that are consistent with the Administrations commitment to maintaining a strong and resilient manufacturing and defense industrial base, it said. The CFIUS measures are among a series of proposals being considered by the White House and Congress to address what it sees as Chinas unfair trade and market access practices. Others include tariffs on goods ranging from aluminum to automobiles, and efforts to prevent the growth in the United States of Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE. Court Orders Halt to Download of Designs for 3-D Printable Guns A federal judge has prevented a Texas-based not-for-profit company from re-releasing designs for a 3-D printable pistol after a heated debate over the effects such a release would have on public security. The owner of the company, Defense Distributed, said in a tweet that his website, Defcad.com, is going dark after the Washington state-based judge ordered him to take down the files on July 31. By order of a federal judge in the Western District of Washington, https://t.co/ZEOYuTOs4a is going dark. Cody R. Wilson (@Radomysisky) August 1, 2018 Defense Distributed owner Cody Wilson first uploaded blueprints for a 3-D printable pistol he called The Liberator in 2013, along with nine other component parts. He got a letter from the State Department asking him to remove the files while it reviewed whether they complied with federal arms export laws. In essence, the State Department regarded publishing the gun designs as a potential weapons export. In 2015, Wilson sued the State Department on First, Second, and Fifth Amendment grounds. He was joined in the lawsuit by the pro-gun Second Amendment League. After years of the case winding through the courts, Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment league put forward a settlement proposal that the DOS accepted in an out-of-court deal in June. Eight states and the District of Colombia are part of the lawsuit that led to the temporary suspension of the settlement. Twenty-one state attorneys general have joined in a letter asking the State Department to reverse the settlement, among other demands. At issue is the ease of access people with expensive printers would have to guns. With the guns having no serial numbers for tracing them and no background checks required to make them, gun control advocates are worried about who will get their hands on them. The attorneys general argue that the distribution of the files violates their state gun control laws. In addition to helping arm terrorists and transnational criminals, the settlement and proposed rules would provide another path to gun ownership for people who are prohibited by federal and state law from possessing firearms, the attorneys general wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. However, the cat may be out of the bag, and likely has been for a while. There were reportedly thousands of downloads of the files when Wilson posted them in 2013, and as recently as July 27, he reportedly posted design files for AR-15-style rifles that have also been downloaded thousands of times. The files are in the public domain. You cannot take them back. You can adjust your politics to this reality. You will not ask me to adjust mine, Wilson said in an interview with CBS. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert echoed Wilsons sentiment on July 31 when asked about the State Departments decision to settle, which included payments of almost $40,000 to the plaintiffs. At least since the year 2013, these CAD files, these Computer Assisted Design files, have been available online. Theyve been legal for U.S. citizens to download these CAD designs for quite some time now, she said. The Epoch Times could not reach Wilson or the Second Amendment Foundation for comment. Changing Rules Since about 2010, the State Department has been working with the Department of Defense and the Commerce Department to update its list, formulated in the 1970s, of weapons that it bans for export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Currently, pistols are on the list. Under the proposed changes to ITAR, weapons like pistols that are available to American citizens would be taken out of the State Departments purview and put under that of the Commerce Department. The difference is pertinent to Wilsons case, as the Commerce Department is more concerned with intellectual property than national security. In defending the State Departments settlement, Nauert said the real issue that politicians and law enforcement officials have been protesting is a domestic and not a State Department issue. I think ultimately what this gets down to is a domestic case where its a domestic gun control issue that needs to be addressed, not just by Congress but by law enforcement, she said. I imagine there will be many conversations held here at the federal level about the next steps. President Trump weighed in on the debate, saying in a tweet on July 31 that he is reviewing laws on the issue. Already spoke to NRA, doesnt seem to make much sense! he wrote. I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesnt seem to make much sense! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018 His deputy press secretary, Hogan Gidley, told reporters later in response to questions about the presidents tweet that the president cares about the safety of Americans and considers this his highest responsibility. In the United States, it is currently illegal to own or make a wholly plastic gun of any kindincluding those made on a 3D printer, he said on July 31. The administration supports this nearly two-decade-old law. We will continue to look at all options available to us to do what is necessary to protect Americans, while also supporting the First and Second amendments. Undetectable The other issue critics have raised about the distribution of 3-D-printed guns is that they are undetectable, meaning they cannot be picked up by a metal detector. While the majority of the gun is plastic, a small portion of it is metal. The National Rifle Association (NRA) hasnt taken a stance on the issue, but said in a statement that these guns are only legal because they are detectable. Undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years, the pro-gun lobby group said in a statement. Federal law passed in 1988, crafted with the NRAs support, makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive an undetectable firearm. Pro-gun advocates have argued that these weapons are not going to become ubiquitous overnight because of the high cost of printers required to manufacture them. That doesnt seem to reassure opponents of such weapons, who point out that the if the guns get in the hands of just one bad actor, they could potentially be deadly. The other issue opponents see with the guns is that people can get them without background checks and they dont have serial numbers, meaning they cannot be tracked. Dave Workman, a senior editor for monthly magazine TheGunMag, owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, argues that criminals dont obey gun laws as it is, and that if someone is bent on getting a gun for illicit means, background checks and serial numbers are not going to stop them. What criminal is going to spend a whole bunch of money to buy a machine to print a 3-D gun that fires a single shot when they could actually go out and steal one, even from a police officer, that fires multiple shots and isnt going to cost him any money, he said in a phone interview. Were talking about pure economics here. After the judges order, Wilson agreed to take the CAD files down till September. A previous version of this article misstated the publication frequency of the magazine TheGunMag. The magazine is a monthly print publication. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Thirty Goliath grouper carcasses a species listed as critically endangered and two tarpon were among the thousands of dead fish collected on Sanibel beaches in the last two days. Yesterday, the City removed a total of 21 large carcasses from our shores (19 Goliath Groupers & 2 Tarpon) and thousands of smaller dead sea life from the impacted areas of the beaches. Thus far today, the City has removed an additional 11 Goliath Groupers from our beaches, a fish kill update report issued by the city Wednesday afternoon states. The worst area among the beaches was at Lighthouse Beach, where the wash-up was estimated at approximately 40 dead sea life every foot and the red tide was in very heavy presence with a strong odor detected. Additional labor and equipment was sent to the beaches on Wednesday, including two boats to remove dead fish from the canals, the city of Sanibel release states. Florida Fish and Wildlife has responded and is continuing its inspection of the dead Goliath groupers for research purposes. According to the release, the large carcasses inventory for Tuesday, July 31, (one day total; not cumulative) is : Goliath Grouper 19 2 @ 150 lbs. @ 175 lbs. 4 @ 200 lbs. 2 @ 80 lbs. 10 @ 40 lbs. Tarpon 2 1 @ 175 lbs. 1 @ 250 lbs. The first-light-of-day report by City of Sanibel Public Works staff reports the following conditions: Lighthouse Beach Current Conditions: Poor Red Tide: Very heavy presence Odor: Strong Deposits: Approximately 40 dead sea life every foot Sanibel Boat Ramp Current Conditions: Fair Red Tide: Present Odor: Slight Deposits: Approximately 10 dead sea life every 10 feet Algiers Beach (Gulfside City Park) Current Conditions: Fair Red Tide: Present Odor: Present Deposits: Approximately 20 dead sea life every 10 feet Tarpon Bay Beach Current Conditions: Fair Red Tide: Slight presence Odor: Moderate Deposits: Approximately 5 dead sea life every 10 feet Bowmans Beach Current Conditions: Fair to Good Red Tide: Slight presence Odor: Present Deposits: Approximately 10 dead sea life every 10 feet Blind Pass Current Conditions: Moderate Red Tide: Slight to Moderate presence Odor: Present Deposits: Approximately one dead sea life every foot Turner Beach Park Current Conditions: Good to Excellent Red Tide: Not present Odor: None Deposits: None Based on tides, winds and currents, these conditions may alter quickly and significantly, officials said. Anyone who encounters a dead sea life washed ashore on private property that is too large to be removed by hand, is asked to email address and location information to: j.zimomra@mysanibel.com with an attached, photo if possible. DOJ Arrests Hackers Connected to Breach of Over 100 US Companies Three members of an international cybercrime group known as FIN7 have been arrested for hacking a number of U.S. companies, according to charges filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle. The men, allegedly high-ranking members of the hacking group, were each charged with 26 felony counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, computer hacking, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft, according to three federal indictments unsealed on Aug. 1. The members, all Ukrainian nationals, were identified as Dmytro Fedorov, 44, Fedir Hladyr, 33, and Andrii Kopakov, 30. FIN7 members were engaged in highly sophisticated malware campaign targeting in over 100 U.S. companies, largely in the restaurant, gaming, and hospitality industries, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). In total, they managed to steal over 15 million customer card records from over 6,500 individual point-of-sale terminals at more than 3,600 separate business locations. Some of the affected restaurant chains in the United States were Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chilis, Arbys, Red Robin and Jasons Deli. Breaches also took place in other countries including in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France. Cybercriminals who believe that they can hide in faraway countries and operate from behind keyboards without getting caught are just plain wrong, said U.S. Attorney Hayes in a statement. The groups members targeted American companies and citizens by stealing valuable consumer data, including personal credit card information, that they then sold on the Darknet, Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski said. The darknet is an underground online marketplace accessible only via specialized software and used by cyber mercenaries to sell data. The marketplace contains a public market, invite-only submarkets, and hacker-for-hire services ready to breach any network in any country. Foreign authorities at the request of U.S. officials arrested Ukrainian Fedir Hladyr and a second FIN7 member, Dmytro Fedorov, separately, in January. Hladyr, who was arrested in Dresden, Germany, is currently being held in Seattle, pending trial. He allegedly was the groups systems administrator who maintained servers and communication channels and held a managerial role. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 22. The second member, Fedorov, was a high-level hacker and manager who allegedly supervised other hackers tasked with breaching the computer systems. He was arrested in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, and remains detained there, pending an extradition to the United States. The third FIN7 member, Ukrainian Andrii Kolpakov, was arrested in June by foreign authorities in Lepe, Spain. He was also allegedly supervising a group of hackers. Currently, he remains in custody in Spain, pending extradition to the United States. Special Agent in charge Jay S. Tabb Jr. said the naming of the FIN7 leaders signifies a major step towards dismantling this sophisticated criminal enterprise. FIN7, a group with dozens of members, would typically conduct a cyber attack with a phishing email to a company employee. Inside it would be an attached file, often an innocent looking Microsoft Word document with embedded malware, according to a fact sheet created by the DOJ. The emails text masqueraded as a legitimate business message to lead the recipient to open the attachment, activating the malware. In many cases, FIN7 would accompany the phishing emails with a telephone call to the victim company employee about the same topic, which was intended to legitimize the phishing email, the fact sheet said. As soon as a victims computer is breached it would be connected to one of FIN7s command and control servers located around the globe. FIN7 could then download more malware to the computer and remotely send commands to receive data. The group used the notorious Carbanak banking malware that has been used by other cybercriminals in wide-reaching attacks on the banking industry In order to provide a legitimate front, FIN7 created a fake company dubbed Combi Security, to recruit more hackers. DOJ: Wells Fargo Agrees to Pay $2.09 Billion Penalty for Role in Financial Crisis The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Aug. 1. that Wells Fargo agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion for their role in misrepresenting mortgage loans, which ultimately contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Company executives were well aware their residential mortgage loans contained misstated income information which led to investors suffering from billions of dollars in losses from investing in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). This settlement holds Wells Fargo accountable for actions that contributed to the financial crisis, Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio said in a statement. It sends a strong message that the Department is committed to protecting the nations economy and financial markets against fraud. Between the periods of 2005 to 2007, Wells Fargo sold at least 73,539 stated income loans that were included in RMBS. About half of the loans ended up defaulted, resulting in major losses to investors, according to the DOJ. Tim Sloan, the CEO of Wells Fargo, said he was content the company could finally move on. According to a July 13 report, the bank earned a net income of $5.2 billion in this years second quarter. We are pleased to put behind us these legacy issues regarding claims related to residential mortgage-backed securities activities that occurred more than a decade ago, Sloan said in a statement. Wells Fargo remains focused on our important role as one of the nations leading providers of mortgage financing and on our commitment to expanding sustainable homeownership opportunities for our customers. On June 30, the amount of the settlement was fully accrued, according to the bank. In the banks own testing, they found more than 70 percent of its loans had an unacceptable variance between what the borrowers income could afford and how much they had to pay. After further testing, they found that nearly half of the stated income loans had both an unacceptable variance and no plausible explanation for why. In 2014, the Bank Of America agreed to pay an even higher amount, a $5 billion penalty, as part of a $16.65 billion settlement. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at the Malacanang palace in Manila. Duterte has positioned the Philippines closer to China but needs the United States for security. (REUTERS/Ezra Acayan) Dutertes Geopolitical Gamble The president has moved Philippines closer to China, but relations with US remain strong Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to office In 2016 with a jarring vision for his countrys geopolitical orientation: He would distance Manila from Washington and align it with Beijing. This plan was never realistic for true realignment and would be a complex undertaking beyond the power of one president. However, Duterte has succeeded in repositioning the Philippines closer to neutral in the regions great power dynamic. At the same time, the United States has kept a strong pull on the Philippines in ways that Duterte cannot ignore. Where the Philippines goes from here depends on several key variableswith important consequences for the United States. The South China Sea The central bet that Duterte made was to set aside the South China Sea territorial dispute so that he could make the most of Chinese economic ties, while reducing the Philippines reliance on the United States for security. Duterte has made three visits to China. The first was in 2016, when he publicly announced his separation from the United States and garnered $24 billion in loan and investment pledges from the Chinese. In 2017, he attended Chinas high-profile Belt and Road Forum. Then, in April 2018, he visited the Boao economic forum, from which he brought home another $9.5 billion in investment pledges. Chinas promises, however, will take time to materializeif ever. There is some doubt about this in the Philippines. Through 2017, Japanese companies invested 13 times more than Chinese firms in the country, and that gap grew in the first quarter of 2018. U.S. investments in the Philippines were three times larger than Chinas over the same period; even Taiwan invests more. China is the Philippines biggest trading partner, but it exports far more to the Philippines than it imports. Japan and the United States are bigger export markets for Filipino goods. Beyond investment pledges, China has responded in other positive ways to Dutertes overtures. In June and October 2017, China made high-profile deliveries of armsmostly rifles to the Philippine policesomething the United States had refused to do out of concern for victims of Dutertes drug war. The Chinese navy also made its first port call to the Philippines in seven years. The three-ship flotilla, which included a guided missile destroyer, called on Davao, where Duterte boarded to greet them. This is an honor he has not yet granted to any American ship to visit the Philippines. However, for Dutertes China formula to succeed, the Chinese regime must not only deliver on promises of economic engagement, it must moderate its behavior toward the Philippines in the South China Sea. Without this, even with economic benefits, Duterte will face a domestic backlash that may cause political problems. Safeguarding the nations sovereignty is important to the Filipino electorate. Indeed, concerns regarding the South China Sea contributed to the troubled 20012010 presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Chinas actions there show a mixed picture. On one hand, it has permitted Filipino fishermen access to Scarborough Shoal, in accordancealthough not explicitly in compliancewith the Permanent Court of Arbitrations 2016 ruling. On the other hand, the Chinese remain in sole control of the shoal, and its coast guard regulates access, allegedly occasionally confiscating the catch of Filipino fishing boats. In May this year, the Philippine Navy was harassed by a Chinese helicopter during a routine replenishment mission at Second Thomas Shoal. More importantly, the Chinese installed missiles on three of the seven islands it has reclaimed in the South China Sea. Developments such as these attract attention and aggravate anti-Chinese feeling. They have led to a growing critique of Dutertes China policy. This, in turn, led the administration to publicly set red lines in the South China Sea that include reclamation or building at Scarborough Shoal, aggression against Filipino troops at Second Thomas Shoal or moving to unilaterally drill for resources in disputed areas. The threat to go to war over any of these red lines isnt credibleespecially outside of rigorous coordination with the United States. Yet they are very clear markers for evaluating Chinese behavior from which it would be difficult to retreat. War on Terror The most significant security development in the Philippines over the past two years was the battle against Islamic militants for control of the city of Marawi, on the southern island of Mindanao. The 2017 conflictwhich ended with Philippine national forces in controlclaimed the lives of 165 Filipino troops and left the city in ruins. The fighting was a stark reminder of the Philippines vulnerability to separatist violenceand just how bloody it can be. It was also a reminder of the importance of the U.S.Philippines security relationship. While the United States in 2015 ended a 13-year special operations train-and-assist mission in Mindanao, in response to the fighting in Marawi, a replacement called Operation Pacific EaglePhilippines was put in place. The new 200- to 300-person mission helped provide intelligence, surveillance, logistics, and advisers in the field. Deployed in the midst of the conflict, its objectives are now much broader. The operation is intended to halt and reverse the degradation of an already unstable area and prevent the southern Philippines from becoming a safe haven for terrorists. It has no stated end date. This represents a major change of course for Duterte, who only a year earlier had demanded the departure of what was then only a handful of U.S. Special Forces personnel. The United States donated counterterrorism equipment early in the conflict, including carbines, pistols, grenade launchers, and machine guns, as well as Cessna aircraft for surveillance. The Chinese contributed to the effort as well. There were the two arms shipments referenced above, which arrived during the fighting. Duterte embellished the importance of those shipments by making the dubious claim that one of the Chinese sniper rifles was used to kill the terrorist ringleader in Marawi. In addition, the Chinese made modest pledges of humanitarian assistance and donated 47 pieces of heavy construction equipment to assist with the rebuilding. Now, China is front-and-center in the $1 billion competition to reconstruct Marawi. A Chinese consortium actually won the first round of the bidding process, only to be disqualified later. Reconstruction will involve a new set of political challenges. There are initial signs of discontent among the local population about the Chinese approach. The Chinese, however, with Dutertes assistance, have made the most of their contributions, despite distrust from the Filipino public and awareness among the ruling class that the United States was a far more consequential contributor to the victory in Marawi. US Staying Power Even as Duterte continues his anti-American, pro-Chinese rhetoric, the U.S.Philippines relationship has continued without major change. In November 2017, Duterte reaffirmed Philippine support for a 2014 agreement to allow the United States to rotate its military initially through five Philippine military bases, as well as to pre-position equipment for humanitarian and disaster-relief missions. Called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), it also provides for the United States to upgrade Philippine base installations. While Duterte continues to publicly express misgivings about this specific aspect of the relationship, construction began at one of the facilitiesCesar Basa Air Base on the northern island of Luzonin April 2018. U.S.-Philippines joint military exercises continue as well, with some adjustments to placate Manilas new concerns regarding China. For instance, joint naval patrols in the South China Sea begun under the Obama administration have been halted. But new ones, without China-related overtones, were conducted in the Sulu Sea. Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) naval exercises were canceled, replaced by a new Maritime Training Activity called Sama Sama. A new exercise focused on counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance, designated as KAMANDAG, took the place of the PHILBEX amphibious landing exercises. The alliances biggest annual exercise, Balikatan, took place on schedule in each of the past two years. After scaling back the size and mission in 2017, the two sides committed a total of 8,000 troops and restored live-fire and amphibious exercises in 2018. These activities are among 261 interactions the United States will have with the Philippine armed forces in 2018. There have also been frequent U.S. Navy port calls, including visits by three different aircraft carriers. At the political level, there has been an improvement in bilateral relations. President Donald Trump and the current U.S. ambassador in Manila, Sung Kim, have gotten along much better with Duterte than their predecessors. Whether Duterte used the change of administration in Washington as an excuse to tone down some of his rhetoric, or whether it is because the U.S. government has been less publicly critical of him lately, there seems to be a new rapport at the head-of-state level. This has given Duterte room to moderate his positions regarding the alliance. The wild card in the relationship remains Dutertes war on drugs. The controversial policy has resulted in the deaths of 4,000 (according to Philippine police) to 12,000 (according to human-rights activists) people. The U.S. Congress has reacted by legislating restrictions on counternarcotics assistance and otherwise pressuring the Trump administration to limit contact with the Philippine police. Thus far, its concern has largely exempted the Philippine armed forces. Pro-American Neutrality The most likely scenario for the Philippines is what may be caled pro-American neutrality. Under this scenario, both the United States and China play their cards right. The Chinese avoid provoking Duterte into rethinking his gamble or providing fodder to his domestic opponents on matters of sovereignty. Duterte wins his bet to draw in China economically, even as security needsand pressure from the Philippine defense establishmentwill require a strong relationship with the United States. In this scenario, the Trump administration continues to refrain from high-profile public criticism of Dutertes drug war. However, this approach could be undermined by a newly activist U.S. Congress, especially if the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives or the Senate or new allegations surface of major abuses by the Philippine military. A possible change in the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines is another factor. Any transition will need to be managed very carefully, since Ambassador Kim has played a key stabilizing role. If China misplays its cards and crosses any of the Philippines red lines, Duterte would be forced to backtrack and cool his pro-Beijing rhetoric. An armed response from the Philippines is unlikely, because Manila lacks the military wherewithal. The Philippine armed forces are incapable of major operations without U.S. backing, which is doubtful unless the country were attacked and invoked the bilateral security treaty. Even in this case, the circumstances would shape the American reaction. Pressure will also build on Dutertes China policy, albeit more slowly, if Beijing does not deliver on its investment promises. Dutertes personal antipathy to the United States will make it harder to modulate his rhetoric to more traditional, pro-American positions. But military-to-military relations would quickly improve and reorient their missions to the previous focus on countering China. The government would also step up its engagement with Russia, Japan, and Australia. Either one of these Chinese blunders would destabilize Dutertes government. Today, he remains very popular in the Philippines. The South China Sea issue is not a central consideration for the electorate, but it is something that Filipinos care about, especially to the extent that it affects national sovereignty. Elite opinion in the Philippines has a way of filtering down to the larger public, then changing the whole thrust of domestic politics. Suddenly, a problem that involves disputed maritime claims could become a much bigger, multifaceted political crisis for Duterte. Walter Lohman is the director of the Heritage Foundations Asian Studies Center. He also is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University for American foreign-policy interests in Southeast Asia and an expert for Geopolitical Intelligence Services. This article was first published by GIS Reports Online. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Sara Nicole Resko was arrested on July 31, 2018, for allowing her six children to live in squalid conditions.(Marion County Sheriff's Office) Florida Woman Arrested After Lice-Infested Children Wandered Outside A Florida mother of six was arrested after two of her children wandered outside and were found by sheriffs deputies. Deputies later found that Sara Nicole Resko, 30, left all of her children without sufficient care, according to the Marion County Sheriffs Office. All six children were infested with lice and covered with open sores. Deputies who entered the home where the children lived said that their living conditions were some of the worst they had ever seen, the office stated. Deputies entered the home and found that there was no running water, no food, and no electricity in the house. The floor was covered in dog feces and the home was infested with flies. The home was in complete disarray and the children were only given mattresses on the floor with no linens to sleep on. All of the children had open sores and lice on them as well, the office went on to say. After about 90 minutes, Resko arrived home and told deputies shed been gone for only a few minutes. Apple, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. A review of the history of the family showed that deputies had reported twiceonce earlier this year and once in 2017that Resko had left the children unsupervised; she was told not to let the oldest, a 13-year-old, babysit the other children anymore. The Department of Children and Families took custody of the children after Resko was arrested and charged with six counts of child neglect. Shes being held on $12,000 bond, reported WESH. From NTD.tv Jessica Vogel, a chef who competed on Season 12 of "Hell's Kitchen," has died at age 34. (Instagram) Hells Kitchen Contestant Jessica Vogel Dies at Age 34 Jessica Vogel, a chef who competed on Season 12 of Hells Kitchen, has died at age 34. Vogel, of New Jersey, died after her heart gave out while receiving treatment for colitis at a hospital, Vogels fiance, John Michael Keyser, told NorthJersey.com on July 30. We were planning to open a restaurant together, Keyser told the news website. My heart is breaking. Vogel, who studied at Johnson & Wales, auditioned for the Gordon Ramsay cooking program while working at a bakery in California, NorthJersey.com reported. She knew more about the Bergen County dining scene than just about anyone, chef Christine Nunn told NorthJersey.com of Vogel. She was really a talented chef who never reached her potential. Its a shame. Vogel worked for Nunn at Grange in Westwood and at Picnic on the Square. In an obituary, Vogel was described as fearless when it came to work, and it added that she never backed down from a challenge. In these difficult times, there is immense pressure on young people to stand out in a world where the intimate details of our lives are made public in blogs and on Facebook. This took a toll on Jessica and over the years; she would escape to drugs and alcohol, the obituary said. Apple, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. It continued: She recently committed to living a better life and had graduated from an in-patient rehabilitation program with hopes of regaining control of her life. Unfortunately, the damage done over the years was too great, and she died, like she lived, a fighter. According to the obituary, she left behind a message about the importance of appreciating your talents, always working hard to improve, but to never forget that it is the loving heart that truly changes the world. Vogel leaves behind her mother, a sister, and her father. Mario Santos-Ochoa, an illegal alien facing deportation for a sixth, in a jail photo. (Image via Chesterfield County Jail) Illegal Alien Faces Sixth Deportation After Third DUI Conviction An illegal alien is facing his sixth deportation after a third conviction for driving under the influence. Mario Santos-Ochoa was pulled over on Nov. 4 after he made a sudden lane change in front of a Chesterfield County, Virginia, police officer. The officer had to slam the brakes to avoid a collision, Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Police discovered Santos-Ochoa was driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. Despite facing five years each for felony DUI, and felony identity fraud after showing a false I.D. to police, Santos-Ochoa was sentenced on July 30 to only nine months in prison and a $1,000 fine. He would be deported afterward due to an ICE detainer, according to the Times-Dispatch. Santos-Ochoa, 44, has lived in the United States illegally for 28 years. Every time he was deported he managed to come back illegally. Santos-Ochoas attorney tried to sway the court by mentioning the mild nature of Santos-Ochoas previous offenses. She also attempted to frame him as a hard-working family man. His record has to do with alcohol and illegal re-entry, said attorney Catherine Lawler, via Richmond Times-Dispatch. Lawler also said that Santos-Ochoa doesnt have an alcohol problem, and that his drinking can be attributed to differences in culture, Times-Dispatch reported. Besides the three DUI convictions, he was convicted three times in Texas for reentry after being deported, plus convictions for giving a false identity to police. Santos-Ochoa also has four children in the United States, all U.S. citizens ranging in age from 9 to 21. The judge warned Santos-Ochoa in court that if he enters the United States again, hell need to stay in prison for the remaining length of the sentence: nine years and three months. From NTD.tv Paul Manafort is shown in a court room sketch as he sits in federal court on the opening day of his trial on bank and tax fraud charges in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. on July 31, 2018. (Bill Hennessy/Reuters) Judge Lectures Mueller Team in Manafort Trial The judge presiding over the trial of Paul Manafort lectured prosecutors from special counsel Muellers team on August 1 for drawing undue focus on Manaforts lavish lifestyle. Manafort, 69, is charged with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. As a prosecution lawyer described how much Manafort spent on clothing, including $440,160 in 2013 alone, Judge T.S. Ellis interrupted to say, The government doesnt want to prosecute somebody because they wear nice clothes, right? The prosecution called witnesses to reinforce the point that Manafort has lived extravagantly on earnings he allegedly concealed to evade taxes. Maximillian Katzman, of New Yorks elite custom clothier Alan Couture, said Manafort was one of his top customers and, unlike any other customer, paid with international wire transfers. With the jury out of the room, the judge complained about prosecutors efforts to show that Manaforts life was luxurious and blocked them from showing one document on home renovations. Mr. Manafort is not on trial for having a lavish lifestyle, Ellis said. Ellis chastised both sides for using the term oligarch, saying the word has negative connotations and could give jurors the impression that Manafort was consorting and being paid by people who are criminals. Of course, there will be no evidence about that, the judge added and said that oligarchs are merely rich people. Mueller was appointed to investigate allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and claims of collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia. Manaforts trial is unrelated to either allegation. The prosecutors raised the possibility during the second day of the trial that an expected star witness may not testify against Manafort. Rick Gates, Manaforts former business partner who pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mueller, was expected to be a star government witness. Ellis asked the prosecution whether they planned to have Gates testify. He may testify in this case, he may not, said prosecutor Uzo Asonye, a day after the defense made clear in opening statements to jurors that its strategy centered on discrediting Gates as an untruthful embezzler. Reuters contributed to this report. Missing Mollie Tibbetts Possibly Sighted in Missouri The content is not available due to expiration. Mollie Tibbetts: Reward for Missing Iowa Student Reaches $172,000 Family members of missing Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts said that a reward for information leading to her whereabouts has increased to $172,000. Tibbetts, 20, has been missing since July 18 after she was seen jogging in Brooklyn, Iowa, where she was staying at her boyfriends house to watch his dogs. Dalton Jack, her boyfriend, and family reported Tibbetts missing on July 19 when she didnt show for work. Laura Calderwood, her mother, told Fox News on Aug. 2 that as of 10 this morning we have raised $172,000 that would be paid to you as soon as Mollie is safely home. The reward is being offered via a fund set up at a local bank in Iowa. Officials believe that the amount will rise as donations increase, Fox News reported. The first night she went missing, I was distraught, Calderwood told CBS News. I knew her phone was dead, but I sent her a text saying, I love you. Were looking for you. We will find you no matter what.' Initially, it was shock and then, you know, it gets harder day by day because shes still not here and you miss her, you miss her more than anything in the world, her boyfriend said in an interview on Aug. 2 with NBC News. Jack, who isnt a suspect in the case, added, Shes not going to run off. He said, I try not to speculate on it too much because the only thing that comes into your head whenever youre not investigating all the facts is that something bad happened and you dont, I personally dont want to believe that. Meanwhile, investigators said that they have concluded that a woman who was seen in northwest Missouri was not Tibbetts, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Mike Krapfl told CBS News. He said Aug. 2 that the sighting wasnt substantiated and was ruled out by officials. An employee at a truck stop said on July 29 that she was someone who looked like Tibbetts eating at a Taco Bell about 25 miles from Kansas City. On Aug. 1, a pig farmer in Iowa told Fox News that seven FBI investigators came to his home last week and asked to search it without a warrant. They searched his land for two hours, asked to take his cellphone for a night, and interviewed him. The man said he has nothing to hide as officials search for the student. Apple, iPhone, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. I dont know who those two [officials] were but they took me down to the fire station Tuesday and questioned me for two hours, the farmer told Fox. I dont remember what they asked me. He added: I just thought it was a waste of time, but, oh well. Officials pointed to Iowa court documents that the farmer pleaded guilty on two instances of stalking, one in 2009 and another in 2014. No suspects have been named in the case. A pumpjack sits on the outskirts of town in the Permian Basin oil field on January 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion in Texas Critically Injures Five HOUSTONA series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Midland County, Texas sent five people to hospital with critical burn injuries, and interrupted energy pipeline operations in the area, officials said. The region is the home to the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield, and is crisscrossed by oil and gas pipelines. The cause of the explosion and fire were not immediately known. Five workers with critical injuries were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, and were being treated at the centers burn unit, said University Medical Center spokesman Eric Finley. Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan said on Wednesday, Aug. 1, it had isolated a portion of its El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline (EPNG) as a precaution, after being alerted to the fire near its line. One of its employees was injured and taken to hospital, spokeswoman Sara Hughes said. There was a third-party pipeline involved that also experienced a failure, and preliminary indications are that the third-party line failure occurred before the EPNG line failure, Kinder Morgans Hughes said in an email. The company is investigating the cause of the fire and evaluating any damage to its property. Regulatory agencies and customers were notified of the incident, she added. Fire Department personnel suppressed the fire, however approximately one hour later a second and third small explosion followed, said Elana Ladd, public information officer for the city of Midland, in emailed comments. Multiple pipelines are located near the site, Ladd said, adding that first responders were focusing on shutting off pressure and flow to the pipelines at the site. The pipeline explosion occurred on a rural road, FM 1379, about five miles south of Highway 158 at around 11:30 a.m. local time, Ladd said, adding that the road had been closed. No further information on the injured was immediately available. Ladd identified one of the injured as a firefighter. Ohio Father Ran Over Child Twice While Texting: Police An Ohio father ran over his child twice in his own driveway, distracted while texting, according to police officers. Chad Daugherty, a Columbus police officer, said that Trenton Cook, 24, ran over his child twice earlier this year. Daugherty told the court during a preliminary hearing for Cook on July 31 that Cook was coming home from work on ay 8 when his car ran out of gas and he called a friend to bring some gas over. He then continued to his home and saw his girlfriends children playing outside in the driveway, so he paused to let them move out of the way. However, when he pulled in, he felt a bump. He put the car in reverse and backed up, feeling the bump again. After exiting the car, Cook realized that hed run over his 22-month old son Zakai Cook, who he rushed inside as he called for his girlfriend to dial 911. The toddler later died at the hospital. Police officers initially couldnt figure out how Cook hadnt seen the boy, but they then checked his cell phone data and saw hed sent a text at 2:04 p.m. The 911 call came in at 2:05 p.m. Cook admitted he was using his phone while driving but claimed he didnt recall sending a text at that time. He should have been a little more aware, Daugherty told Judge Mike Joyner during the hearing, reported The Sun Herald. Police found no evidence of intent, the officer added, noting that the father was certainly concerned for his child. Public defender Lindsey Brown noted that what happened was an accident and that her client had been erroneously booked into jail on a felony but that he was actually charged with a misdemeanor. Joyner agreed and set Cooks bond at $2,800. In a statement on GoFundMe, a family member said young Zakai was running toward the car to greet his father. My nephew Zakai heard/saw his Fathers truck pulling in the driveway after a long day at work, wrote Tahzma Wicker. Zakai loves his Daddy and is always excited to greet him. In an instant, he was darting to the truck, Im sure with open arms for his Father to pick him up and throw him in the air. Sadly, instead, he ran into the pathway of his Fathers truck without being seen. Neighbor Ty Qwon James told WTVM that the family is hurt by the death. I know the family is hurt. Really hurt. She didnt even get a chance to hold the baby or take care of the baby. I know shes hurt, he said. Im sorry that he was charged. Im sorry he was distracted. God bless them, and God be with them. We have to forgive him in order for us to get over it. We have to forgive him, he added. From NTD.tv President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with inner-city pastors in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Aug. 1, 2018. (Oliver Contreras - Pool/Getty Images) Pastor Calls Trump Most Pro-Black President Ever An African-American pastor praised President Donald Trump and his administrations efforts in communities of faith, particularly in the African-American community, at a roundtable at the White House on Aug. 1. This administration has taken a lot of people by surprise, Pastor Darrell Scott, from Ohio, told members of the roundtable in the White Houses Cabinet room. This is probably the most proactive administration regarding urban America and the faith-based community in my lifetime. Scott, the co-founder of the New Spirit Revival Center church, was among a number of religious leaders from around the country who met with the president to converse primarily on the topic of prison reform. Scott compared Trumps efforts with those of former President Barack Obama, the first African-American president elected to the White House. This is probably going to be the most pro-black president Ive seen in my lifetime, Scott said. This president actually wants to prove something to our community, our faith-based community, and our ethnic community. The last president didnt feel like he had to. He felt like he didnt have to prove it. He got a pass. In May, Trump scored one of his first major bipartisan wins in Congress after a House prison reform billthe Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, or FIRST STEP Actsuccessfully passed through the judiciary committee. The bill sets up a system of ranking prisoners based on their risk of recidivism. Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and adviser, led the effort. Kushner, who was also at the roundtable, told attendees that faith communities like theirs contributed greatly to getting the bill passed. You guys came to the White House. You all mobilized your communities, Kushner said. And we were able to get the bill through the House, and hopefully, well have the same results in the Senate. A woman holds flags during an anti-government protest in support of free courts in front of the Supreme Court building in Warsaw, Poland July 27, 2018. (Reuters/Kacper Pempel) Polands Supreme Court Says Judges Should Stay Pending ECJ Decision WARSAWPolands Supreme Court said on Aug. 2 that its judges who want to should stay in place until the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decides whether measures that will effectively allow the government to choose the courts staff breach EU law. Court spokesman Justice Michal Laskowski said President Andrzej Duda and the National Judiciary Council (KRS), which decides judicial appointments, should hold off from making any decisions about the courts members pending the ECJs verdict. The decision is being sent to the [presidential] Chancellery and the KRS and they both should stop actions until the ruling is made, he told a news conference. The justice ministry is expected to comment on the Supreme Courts statement later in the day. The ECJ, the European Unions top court, is assessing judicial reforms undertaken by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party since it came to power in Poland in 2015. Judges Refuse to Go Earlier this month, 22 Supreme Court judgesnearly one-third of the totalwere forced into early retirement, but some have refused to go. They include the courts chief judge Malgorzata Gersdorf, who says her constitutional term does not expire until 2020. A measure signed into law by president Duda a week ago, as street protests were held across Poland, effectively lets the government choose the next head of the Supreme Court. The law allows the president, a PiS ally, to grant an extension to judges terms, while KRS, whose members include politicians, can give an opinion on who is allowed to hold a judicial position. The European Union, human rights groups and opposition parties in Poland say these measures and other changes pushed by PiS undermine judicial independence and democracy. Protests in the Capital Crowds gathered outside the presidential palace in Warsaw, chanting shame on July 26. Many held candles and pens, referring to Dudas readiness to undersign the newly passed legislation. They shouted break the pen and you will go to prison. Since PiS won power in 2015, dozens of judges have been dismissed from the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Judiciary Council, which decides judicial appointments, and recently the Supreme Court. The European Commission is running an unprecedented rule of law probe that could lead to the suspension of Polands voting rights in the 28-member bloc. PiS, which combines left-leaning economics with nationalist and eurosceptic politics, says an overhaul is needed to make the courts more efficient and eradicate the influence of Polands communist past. The European Commission is running an unprecedented rule-of-law investigation that could lead to the suspension of Polands voting rights in the 28-member bloc. It has also opened several separate legal cases against Poland, the largest former communist EU state, including some over the Supreme Court. State news agency PAP said on Aug. 2 that Warsaw had sent its response in that case to the Commission, without giving details. Poland is the largest former communist state in the European Union. Epoch Times writer Tom Ozimek contributed to this report. School Teacher Out on Bail After 2 Sexual Assaults A 34-year-old maths teacher was convicted for the sexual assault of a Year 11 girl with an intellectual disability and a Year 12 girl at a high school in Sunshine, Melbourne. Grabski assaulted the intellectually disabled Year 11 girl after she sat next to him to work on her origami project. He attempted to contact her via email in the days following the assault. He assaulted the Year 12 girl in a separate incident while explaining a mathematical problem at a homework club after school in the library. He told her to keep it a secret, and attempted to contact her via email after the event, 9News reported. Grabski used both his private email account, wantondesecration@yahoo.com.au, and the school email system to attempt contact with his victims, 9News reported. When police used a warrant to search Grabskis home, they collected hard drives, a computer and a handwritten account of the sexual assault of one of the students, The Age reported. One of the victims said that she felt scared and violated after the assault, leading her to be absent from school and losing her friends in the process. Magistrate Jon Klenstadt found Richard Grabski guilty of committing two acts of indecent assault against children under his care after a three day trial at Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 31, The Age reported. Although the indecent acts themselves fall at the lower end of the scale, the matter has been aggravated first by your position as a teacher and the fact that you have shown no remorse for your behaviour, said Klenstadt, A term of imprisonment is appropriate. Grabski was sentenced to two four-month gaol terms, to be served concurrently. After serving his sentence, he will spend 18-months in community corrections and be placed on the sex offenders registry for 15 years. The 34-year-old immediately lodged an appeal against the conviction and sentence, and was released on appeal bail. A man runs as supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC) of Nelson Chamisa burn barricades in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Aug. 1, 2018. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko) 3 Killed as Zimbabwe Troops, Protesters Clash After Vote HARAREZimbabwe police said three people were killed in Harare on Wednesday, August 1, as soldiers dispersed stone-throwing opposition supporters who accused the ruling party of trying to rig Mondays presidential election. The deployment of soldiers and their beating of unarmed protesters set back President Emmerson Mnangagwas efforts to shed Zimbabwes pariah status after decades of repression under Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in November. Even before the violence, European Union observers questioned the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary vote, the first since Mugabes forced resignation after nearly 40 years in charge of the southern African nation. Zimbabwes electoral commission had said it would start announcing results for the presidential race on Wednesday but that was then pushed back at least 24 hours. EU monitors said the delay was undermining the votes credibility. Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) that the three people killed in the clashes had yet to be identified. Gunfire crackled as troops, backed by armored vehicles and a military helicopter and some with their faces masked, cleared the streets of opposition protesters. The unrest started soon after Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), declared that he had won the popular vote. After burning tires in the streets, scores of his supporters attacked riot police near the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) headquarters. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannon. I was making a peaceful protest. I was beaten by soldiers, said Norest Kemvo, who had gashes to his face and right hand. This is our government. This is exactly why we wanted change. They are stealing our election. Recriminations Mnangagwa said the violence was meant to disrupt the election and blamed the MDC leadership. We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process, Mnangagwa said, according to ZBC. Chamisas spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, told reporters the armys reaction was unjustified. Today we saw the deployment of military tanks and firing of live ammunition on civilians for no apparent reason. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Zimbabwes political leaders and people to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence. Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the army had been called in to ensure peace and tranquillity. Charamba said the troops were deployed at the request of police who could not cope with the violence, and will remain under police command. As gunfire reverberated through downtown Harare, Mnangagwa called for calm and urged patience while results were collated. Many protesters accused the army of unprovoked brutality. We had no weapons. Why are the army here beating us? shooting us? This is not an election it is a disgrace on our country, one young man, Colbert Mugwenhi, said. A Reuters witness saw soldiers with sticks beat two people and counted at least five trucks full of soldiers. We are tired of them stealing our votes. This time we will not allow it, we will fight, said a protester who wore a red MDC beret in central Harare. One-Sided EU observers voiced concern about delays in releasing the results of the presidential contest, a two-horse race between Chamisa and Mnangagwa, head of the ruling ZANU-PF party. Without the international communitys stamp of approval for the election, Zimbabwes next leader will struggle to unlock the billions of dollars of international donor finance needed to get the shattered economy back on its feet. With three seats yet to be declared in the parliamentary contest, ZANU-PF had 144 seats compared to 61 for the MDC, meaning the ruling party achieved the two-thirds majority that permits it to change the constitution at will. Chamisa said the early release of the parliamentary results was a deliberate ploy to prepare Zimbabweans for a victory by Mnangagwa, a former national security chief nicknamed The Crocodile and commonly referred to by the initials ED. The strategy is meant to prepare Zimbabwe mentally to accept fake presidential results. Weve more votes than ED. We won the popular vote (and) will defend it, Chamisa said on Twitter. Before the violence, EU Chief Observer Elmar Brok said he did not yet know if the shortcomings would have a material effect on the outcome of the vote, but criticized the electoral commission for being at times one-sided. The EU assessment is critical in determining whether Zimbabwe can repair its image and attract the foreign investors needed for an economic revival. The EU did not understand why the release of the presidential result was taking so long, Brok said. The longer it lasts that the results of the presidential election is not known, the more lack of credibility it provides, he said. Zimbabwe was once one of Africas most promising economies but descended into corruption, mismanagement and diplomatic isolation in the latter stages of Mugabes administration. Its population of 13 million is struggling amid shortages of foreign currency, unemployment above 80 percent and lack of foreign investment. President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally in Tampa, Fla., on July 31, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Trump Stumps for Republicans in Tampa, Formally Endorses DeSantis for Governor TAMPA, Fla.President Donald Trump spent almost an hour touting his record and urging support for Republicans Rep. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Rick Scott in upcoming primary elections, during a boisterous rally on July 31. Trump formally endorsed gubernatorial candidate DeSantis and invited him to the microphone. I appreciate your support, Mr. President, but I appreciate more the leadership youre showing for our great country, DeSantis said. DeSantis spoke against sanctuary cities, Common Core education standards, and judicial activism, while saying Florida is going in the right direction economically, if it continues to follow conservative principles. DeSantis is running for governor to replace Scott, who, in turn, is hoping to win the Republican primary and run for Senate against incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). Trump hit his usual notes during the rally: robust economic growth, bad trade deals, veterans, media, North Korea, and immigration. We want maximum border security and respect for our heroesICE, Border Patrol, and law enforcement, he said. Trump has threatened three times on Twitter on the past few days that he is willing to allow a government shutdown over border security. On July 29, he wrote on Twitter, I would be willing to shut down government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! At the rally, Trump also said: The time has come for Voter ID. We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, he said. He reiterated his America first policy, especially regarding trade. Now, after rebuilding foreign countries, its time to finally rebuild our country. Weve helped rebuild Chinawe cant do that anymore, he said. The days of plundering American jobs and American wealth, those days are over. It didnt take much prompting for the crowd to break out in familiar chants: USA, USA or Build the Wall. Early during Trumps speech, several protesters were swiftly removed, and throughout, CNN garnered a lot of attention from the audience, who expressed their unhappiness with the cable network. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Rep. Ron DeSantis in a photo caption. The Epoch Times regrets the error. File photo of a 17-year-old woman at a women's shelter and safe house in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. She was forced to marry at age 11, and ran away after five years. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) UK Blasted for Giving Visas to Men in Forced Marriages LONDONA new report alleges officials at a British government agency are failing to protect teenage girls forced into abusive marriages by handing visas to their foreign husbands, over the objections of victims and other concerned parties. The Home Officea department responsible for immigration, security, and law and orderprocessed 88 requests last year to block visas, data obtained by The London Times indicates. Yet in 42 of these cases, officials still issued visas to the husbands. Campaigners say this may open the door to horrific abuse. The Girls Are Physically, Sexually Abused Weve had a number of cases like this and they go unchallenged. The girls are physically and sexually abused by the men that come over, said Aneeta Prem, founder of Freedom, an organization that supports victims of forced marriage. The 88 cases included direct requests from victims, known as reluctant sponsors. Other requests came from third parties or instances where an official suspected a forced marriage. In 10 cases, appeals are being heard or reviews are still being conducted. There are a number of reasons why cases are referred to the forced marriage unit, not all of which are the result of a reluctant sponsor getting in contact, a Home Office spokeswoman said. In some cases, it will be decided, following enquiries, that no further action is necessary and a visa will be issued. They Are Turning a Blind Eye But campaigners and victims say theres something wrong with the system. Even when officials know its a forced marriage, they see tradition, culture, or religion and theyre reticent to deal with it, Jasvinder Sanghera, of the Karma Nirvana charity, told the paper. They are turning a blind eye. The victims who brought forward objections to visa issuance had been forced to marry men in such countries as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the United Arab Emirates. The Home Office spokeswoman told The Times that it categorically denies the allegations, adding that the UK was a world leader in tackling the horrendous crime of forced marriage. We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. If an individual refuses to act as the sponsor for a visa application then under the immigration rules, that visa should not be issued, she said. Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee at the UK Parliament, said the report represents a failure on the part of the department, and vowed to investigate. Despite being warned to do more to help victims of forced marriage, it looks as though the Home Office has failed and put victims at risk, Cooper said. Yet again, we are in a situation where repeated warnings have failed to translate into action from the Home Office. Calls for Systemic Change One systemic obstacle that may impact visa approval rates is that the only way the victim of a forced marriage can formally object to a visa being issued to her abuser is by signing a public statement. This means members of the womans or girls family have access to this information, putting her at potentially great risk. Some campaigners call for legislative changes that would allow women to register visa objections anonymously. But previous efforts to pass such laws have been unsuccessful, with the government taking the position that visa applicants are entitled to know the reasons for a refusal. Victims of forced marriage tell of threats against their lives, rape, violence, and domestic confinement tantamount to slavery. The UK enacted laws in 2014 that make forced marriage illegal. It is considered a form of domestic and child abuse, as well as a serious violation of human rights. An AI robot developed by Chinese company CloudMinds, at the Mobile World Conference in Shanghai on June 27, 2018. (AFP/Getty Images) US Government Report Reveals Business Sectors Under Siege From Chinese Cyber Espionage A recent U.S. government report shows that many key industrial sectors in the United States continue to be the target of foreign espionagemost notably from China. On July 26, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) released a report titled 2018 Foreign Economic Espionage in Cyberspace, which identified three countriesRussia, Iran, and Chinaas the most active cyber-actors posing a threat to U.S. industries. Our goal in releasing this document is simple: to provide U.S. industry and the public with the latest unclassified information on foreign efforts to steal U.S. trade secrets through cyberspace, William R. Evanina, director of the NCSC, said in a press release. The report identifies six key sectors that are of the highest interest to foreign attackers, such as biotechnology, alternative energy, and information technology (IT) and communications technology. In the biotechnology industry, biopharmaceuticals, biomaterials, and new vaccines and drugs are greatly sought-after targets. Meanwhile, in the realm of up-and-coming advanced technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), high-end computer chips, and the internet of things (appliances and devices that can be connected to the internet) are the focus. The theft of U.S. technology and know-how is one of Chinas national strategic development goals, in order to achieve its own advancements in science and technology, military militarization, and economy policy objectives, according to the report. This also was the primary critique by the U.S. administration of Chinas unfair trade practices, which have led to the United States planned tariffs on Chinese goods. In particular, the report indicates that Chinas 2017 cybersecurity law makes U.S. companies doing business in China extremely vulnerable to intellectual-property theft by Chinese entities. The law requires that all technology companies doing business in China pass the authorities national security reviews. In addition, companies data must be stored within China, and government approval is required before companies can transfer any data out of the country. Chinese cyberactivity especially poses a serious threat to U.S. defense contractors and IT and communication firms, according to the report. APT10, a China-associated cyberespionage group, has conducted operations against companies around the world, including the United States. In June, U.S. cybersecurity firm Symantec warned that sophisticated hacking campaigns carried out from computers in China have burrowed into defense contractors and satellite operations in the United States and throughout Southeast Asia, according to Reuters. Chinese companies with ties to the military often carry out the attacks. The report cites the case of Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao, and Xia Lei, Chinese nationals who were charged by U.S. prosecutors in November 2017 for cyber-crimes, including computer hacking and theft of trade secrets. They were employees of Guangzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company, a cybersecurity services firm with ties to the Army Unit 61398, according to Reuters. Siemens AG, Trimble, and Moodys Analytics were among the companies that were hacked between 2011 and May 2017. In addition, Chinese participants have taken advantage of popular applications such as CCleaner, a program that cleans up unwanted computer files. The report said that the British-built app is now unsafe because of a built-in backdoor that is found to have links to Chinese cyber-criminals. How China Acquires US Technology In addition to cyberattacks, the report described 10 different tactics that China uses to collect U.S. technology and realize its strategic goals. Three of these tactics involve first forming partnershipsbusiness joint ventures, research partnerships, and academic collaboration. The most prominent case in recent years, which involves Duke University, is described in the book Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit Americas Universities, authored by journalist Daniel Gordon. Liu Ruopeng, a Chinese student studying for a doctorate at Duke, brought back to China his professors invisibility coat technology and established KuangChi Science, a company valued at $2 billion when it went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2017. Another tactic is the recruitment of overseas talentsboth Chinese and foreignin order to make use of their knowledge of key technologies. Both the Chinese central government and local governments have their own versions of financial packages aimed at wooing talent to work in China, such as the Thousand Talent Plan established by the central government in 2008, which targets science and tech fields China wishes to further develop, as outlined in national policies such as Made in China 2025. Another chief strategy is through mergers and acquisitions with American firms. In recent months, the U.S. administration has become more alert about the potential for national security threats and has blocked several Chinese deals. For example, in September last year, the inter-governmental Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and U.S. President Donald Trump stopped a Chinese state-owned firm from acquiring Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, a maker of semiconductor chips based in Oregon. Restoring the Everglades is a multifaceted, multi-project undertaking. Even though the Everglades is south of Lake Okeechobee, part of the restoration effort is occurring north of the lake, too. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking public comment on a project north of Lake Okeechobee: the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project. This project is a part of the overall Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The Corps held a public meeting in Lehigh Acres Tuesday to explain the project and get feedback. The project is in its draft report now; a final report will be submitted to Congress to get authorization to do the project, and then it will have to be funded through a future Water Resources Development Act. Reaching the funding stage of this project is probably about two years away, said Corps spokesman John Campbell. Its a 50/50 cost share between the Corps and the South Florida Water Management District, but the Corps is taking the main lead on this project. The Lake Okeechobee project hones in on the water coming into the lake from the Kissimmee River. Estimated at $1.4 billion, it will establish a wetland attenuation feature, two restored and managed wetland areas, and 80 aquifer storage and recovery wells. This is above and below ground storage, plus treatment, said Lisa Aley, the Corps Planning Lead. It gives us more flexibility to not make some releases to the estuaries. The wetland attenuation feature works as a shallow reservoir, holding 1.5 to 3 feet of water depth. Its planned at about 12,500 acres. It would be build north of the lake and to the west of the Kissimmee River. It will mostly look like a wetland, Aley said. The Corps will be able to divert the Kissimmee River through the two planned wetland restoration areas, which will help clean the water and slow its arrival into Lake Okeechobee. Aley gave a history lesson on why this storage north is needed. In 1947, a series of bad floods prompted the government to start managing the states rivers and lakes to prevent homes and businesses from being flooded out year after year draining southwest Florida, she said. It caused the environmental issues the state faces today, but also allowed more development on dry land which was historically wet. The Kissimmee River also used to have a more winding, meandering path, which slowed the waters arrival to the lake. Weve lost a lot of natural storage north of the lake, she said. So, then theres the 80 wells. They will be clustered together in areas mostly north of the lake, with the exception of one cluster near the C-43 Canal and another near the C-44 Canal. Bob Verrastro, a hydrogeologist with SFWMD, said these wells will go down about 1,000 feet and span about 300 feet in width. Their surface footprint is relatively small. Water can be pulled from the canals and the attenuation feature into these wells to store and reduce the amount going into Lake Okeechobee. The water has to be treated before it enters the well, through both a filter and an ultraviolet blast to kill bacteria, Verrastro said. While in the well, the phosphates that may be in the water get reduced because the well will be made of limestone, which reacts and bonds with the phosphorous, he said. Limestone has an affinity for phosphorous, Verrastro said. The water must meet drinking water quality standards when it gets in the well; then, when more water is needed, its pumped back out and cleaned again. The Corps already has two pilot wells in operation to test the project. So far, one has retained 90 percent of the water put in it. The remaining 10 percent could be mixing with the groundwater flowing beneath the well, but Verrastro said the wells wont lose much: the groundwater moves, on average, 0.01 feet per day. After a year, youd maybe lose a foot (of water), he said. The Corps believes these well systems will be a more efficient way of storing water to the north, as it doesnt require tens of thousands of horizontal acres. The entire scope of the wetlands, attenuation feature, and wells will increase storage, cleaning mechanisms and wildlife habitat north of the lake according to the Corps study. The Corps held a similar meeting several weeks ago to collect input about a project south of Lake Okeechobee; however, recent water quality concerns brought a higher number of attendees to Tuesdays meeting. Many of those in attendance expressed concern about the red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and cyanobacteria in the Caloosahatachee. We are dealing with a very major disaster in our area. This all goes back to storing water and sending it south, said Kay Haering, a meeting attendee, during public comment. We dont want to see contaminated water sent down our Caloosahatachee. We may not have a choice in taking water, but we dont want the contaminants with it. Karl Deigert is a hotel owner, tour captain, and president of the Matlacha Civic Association in Matlacha. He said during public comment that he hasnt gotten a phone call for business in weeks. This week, he noticed for the first time small clusters of cyanobacteria in the canal behind his business. He said hes honest with people who want to book boat tours right now and he wont take them anywhere the water is questionable. Businesses will fail. Employees will go, he said. Were already thinking about selling. He said he was concerned about the 10 percent of water lost into the Florida aquifer in the wells proposed by the Corps. Its seeping to somewhere into our drinking aquifers, Deigert said. Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds outlined some of the actions the Corps is taking now to work on the water quality issues, but warned a long-term fix wasnt happening soon. From the Corps perspective, a significant portion of the long-term answer is the Everglades restoration. Storage and conveyance south, she said. There are a lot of projects, theyre going to take a long time. We know we cant wait. She said the Corps was working with SFWMD to identify all available storage, including finding out how much more water the lake can safely hold outside the 12.5-15.5 feet preferred range and how much water can be put into canals, cleaned, and sent south into the Everglades. And its still not enough, Reynolds said. And, we know that. More information and maps of the Lake Okeechobee project are available at saj.usace.army.mil/LOWRP. Public comment on the Lake Okeechobee project ends Aug. 20. To submit a question or comment about the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project to be included in the official report, email OkeechobeeWatershedRestoration@usace.army.mil A logo of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China, on Nov. 1, 2006. (Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images) US Places Chinese Companies on Export Ban, Citing National Security Concerns The U.S. government recently put export limits on 44 Chinese entities that all happen to have major roles in Chinas One Belt, One Road infrastructure project. The Bureau of Industry Security (BIS), an agency within the Department of Commerce, added the Chinese parties (8 entities and 35 subordinate institutions) to its export control list on Aug. 1, citing a significant risk to U.S. national-security and foreign-policy interests, according to an announcement published in the Federal Register. Companies on that list face tough restrictions if they wish to buy items, software, technology, or services that have dual military and civilian uses under U.S. Export Administration regulations. Two major state-run companies control most of the subordinate institutions identified by BIS: China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and China Electronics Technology Group (CETC). CASIC focuses on aerospace technology while CETC is a maker of radars, drones, and telecommunications equipment. Two other companies with ties to CASIC and CETC are also citedChina Volant Industry, a subsidiary of CASIC; and Hebei Far East Communication System Engineering, a subsidiary within a research institute under CETC. All 44 entities must obtain a license if they seek to export, re-export, or transfer items listed under federal export regulations. When applying for such a license, these entities are under the policy of presumption of denial, meaning that without a compelling reason, the United States would not offer a license. In a June 5 article, The Diplomat outlined in detail how the One Belt, One Road project could threaten the United States leadership established in the Eurasian continent since World War II. One potential outcome is that Chinas naval forces would be able to work with overland projects along the route, thus marginalizing the United States geostrategic influence in the region. CASICs involvement in One Belt, One Road is well-documented. The initiative started in 2017 as an ambitious investment project that would revive the ancient Silk Road trade route between China and Europe. Under the initiative, the regime would build infrastructure along the route, spanning countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. CASIC has taken on projects in many countries, including a self-checkout airport project in Hong Kong; a seaport security project in Pakistan; and electricity control projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Bhutan, according to a May 2017 article published on Chinas Ministry of Commerce website. In Kenya, the company helped expand the countrys electricity grid. And in Cameroon, CASIC developed a sewage-treatment project. On July 9, Pakistan saw the successful launch of its two remote-sensing satellites in China, using a rocket made by CASIC, according to the website of Chinas State Council. Meanwhile, CETCs presence along the OBOR route can be found in Egypt and Austria. CETE Electronics Equipment Group, which was founded and established by CETC, signed a partnership with Egypts Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, to build a joint renewable-energy laboratory, according to a March 2016 report published on the website of CETE Electronics Equipment Group. Then, in November 2016, CETC announced the creation of a company in Graz, Austria, for the purpose of reaching out to companies and schools in Europe, according to Chinese news portal Sina. CETCs subsidiary, Hebei Far East Communication System Engineering, reported on its website on July 21 that it was responsible for the construction of a national emergency command system in Ecuador, a railway communication system in Hanoi, Vietnam, and an electricity project in Congo. Veteran New Zealand Communist Mike Treen Arrested in Transit to Gaza A New Zealand union official has been detained in Israel with 21 other activists after he took part in an illegal aid convoy to the Gaza Strip in Israel. This is the latest incident in a career of left-wing activism. Far-Left Auckland-based Unite Union leader Mike Treen was arrested alongside other international campaigners on the ship Al Awda, which sailed under the Norwegian flag, on Monday July 30. The union claims Treen was there on a peaceful mission and is working on his behalf to convince the New Zealand Government to intervene. Mike was taking part in a peaceful mission to deliver aid to Gaza and was in international waters when attacked and detained. We understand he has been taken, kidnapped in reality, to the southern Israeli port of Ashod, says Unite Unions National Secretary Gerard Hehir. The Gaza Strip, a small parcel of land about twice the size of the District of Columbia straddles Israels Southern border with Egypt. The territory has been ruled since 2007 by U.S. designated terrorist organization HAMAS. Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the Strip since 2007 after repeated rocket and terrorist attacks on Israel originating from Gaza. The Embassy of Israel in New Zealand said in a statement regarding the arrests that the flotilla is a violation of international law and is a cynical publicity stunt designed to divert the attention from the fact that HAMAS, with its brutal ruling of Gaza since 2007, invested in terror instead of the welfare of its people.The Israeli military has explained that [T]he naval blockade is a necessary and legal security blockade that has been repeatedly recognized by the world. International leftist organizations have repeatedly tried to break the blockade over several years. In one attempt to break the blockade in 2010 fatalities resulted. Mike Treens participation was through an organization named Kia Ora Gaza, a New Zealand activist group which has sent several blockade runners to the area. One such trip included New Zealand Green Party Member of Parliament Marama Davidson, who was arrested by Israeli authorities in 2016. Kia Ora Gazas founder Grant Morgan was the former leader of the now-defunct Communist Party of New Zealand. His successor Roger Fowler is also a former Communist Party member. When chosen to travel to Gaza, Treen told Kia Ora Gaza it is a great honor to be asked to participate and a chance to deepen solidarity between workers in New Zealand and Palestine. He continued: We need an international campaign to isolate apartheid Israel in the same way we did against Apartheid South Africa. Mike Treen has been a communist activist since he organized Auckland high school students to protest the Vietnam War. By the early 1970s he was active in the Socialist Action League, then the New Zealand affiliate of the Trotskyist 4th International. Treen rose through the ranks to become editor of the groups newspaper Socialist Action. In September 1978, Treen spoke at a forum organized by the pro-Mao Progressive Students Alliance in Wellington in which he defended the Soviet Union saying that they had no imperialist tendencies. In 1980, Treen indicated on page 7 of the Feb. 1, 1980 issue of Socialist Action that he supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and opposed sanctions against the Soviet Union. While the Socialist Action League imploded in the late 1980s, Mike Treen stayed true to his radical principles. The group changed its name to the Communist League in 1988, and in 1990, Treen stood for the local council in Manurewa, Auckland, on the Communist League ticket. He won 8 votes. By the early 2000s Treen was foreign affairs spokesman of the New Zealand Alliance Party, a coalition of former Trotskyists, Maoists, and pro-Soviet communists, Maori activists, unionists, and peace activists, which was briefly a serious contender for political power at a national level. In May 2006 Mike Treen traveled to Venezuela and Bolivia, according to Australian Marxist newspaper Green Left Weekly: Australian trade unionists who were part of a solidarity brigade to Venezuela participated in Caracass huge May 1 demonstration and had an opportunity to address the crowd from the front stage near Miraflores, the presidential palace. Participants in the brigade, which kicked off on April 25, included four representatives from the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and one from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Mike Treen, senior organiser from New Zealands Unite union, also participated. The unionists marched as a contingent, complete with ETU and AMWU flags and a large banner expressing solidarity with the Venezuelan people. On December 14, 2009, the American-based far leftist group Labor for Palestine released an Open Letter from U.S. Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel. Signers of the letter included Mike Treen, National Director of Unite Union New Zealand. That same year Treen was a leader of the New Zealand Committee to Free the Cuban Five, an organization working to free five Cuban communist spies then imprisoned in the United States. So dedicated was Mike Treen to freeing Fidel Castros agents that he was given an award by Cuban ambassador to New Zealand Herrera Caseiro at a ceremony in Auckland Dec. 13, 2013. Ambassador Maria del Carmen awarded eight of the activists with the reproduction of the allegorical painting to the Five completed by Cuban painters and a thank you letter for Treens work in fighting to free the Cuban communists. Mike Treen has been on the wrong side of history his entire adult life. Will he ponder his choices as he sits in Givon Prison? Aerial view of containers at a loading terminal in the port of Hamburg, Germany August 1, 2018. (Fabian Bimmer/Reuters) White House Considers Raising China Tariffs to 25 Percent The White House is mulling whether to boost tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods to 25 percent, up from the 10 percent announced in early July, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. President Donald Trump directed Lighthizer to consider boosting the duties earlier this week, according to a statement from the trade representatives office. A senior official told reporters that Trump considered the previous 10 percent tariff weak. The trade representatives office will request feedback from businesses on both the 10 and 25 percent tariffs. A final decision is not expected earlier than September. The announcement came as trade talks between the two nations reached an impasse and Washington needed additional leverage to bring China to the table. It also followed a steady slide in the value of the yuan, which makes Chinese goods more competitive on the international market. The Trump administration continues to urge China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition. We have been very clear about the specific changes China should undertake, Lighthizer said in a statement. Regrettably, instead of changing its harmful behavior, China has illegally retaliated against U.S. workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. The increase in the possible rate of the additional duty is intended to provide the Administration with additional options to encourage China to change its harmful policies and behavior and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of our citizens. The Trump administration has already levied duties on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing responded with tit-for-tat tariffs on American products, including a list of farm goods. Washington demonstrated that it wont bend to the countermeasure and announced billions in aid for farmers and producers hit by the retaliatory duties. The White House believes that the United States has more ammunition in a trade fight with the American economy heating up while Chinas economy is cooling down. Trump is using tariffs to force China to lower trade barriers, stop intellectual property theft, and agree on a reciprocal trade agreement. Beijing has not officially budged on any front. China said on Aug. 1 that blackmail would not work and that it would hit back if the United States takes further steps to hinder trade, including applying the higher tariff rate. U.S. pressure and blackmail wont have an effect. If the United States takes further escalatory steps, China will inevitably take countermeasures and we will resolutely protect our legitimate rights, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. Washington is preparing to also impose tariffs on an extra $16 billion of goods in coming weeks, and Trump has warned he may ultimately put them on over half a trillion dollars of goods. Reuters contributed to this report. Steel is loaded onto a truck for shipping at the NLMK Indiana steel mill in Portage, Ind., on March 15, 2018. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Workers Pay Rises Most Since 2008 American workers over the past year enjoyed the biggest pay raise since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Employers total expenses on wages and salaries went up by 2.8 percent in the 12 months ending June. Excluding government employees, pay went up at the annual rate of 2.9 percent for second quarter straight. The fastest growing wages were in transportation (up 3.8-4 percent), finance, and insurance (up 3.8 percent). But administrative, sales, service, and retail workers did well too (up 3.6 percent). The slowest growth was in wholesale trade (1.8 percent), construction, and education services (both 2.1 percent). Benefits went up by 2.8 percent in the private sector, up from a 2.5 percent growth announced three months ago, in a sign that employers are luring talent by sweetening compensation packages. Benefits went up significantly in construction (3.4 percent) and manufacturing (3.3 percent). Government workers saw their pay increase by 1.9 percent over the past year and their benefits by 3.1 percent. While decent, the wage growth can still be expected to improve, commensurate with the red-hot job market. On Aug. 1, ADP and Moodys Analytics released their payroll report, showing the private sector adding an impressive 219,000 jobs in July, easily beating the expected 185,000. The labor market is on a roll with no signs of a slowdown in sight, said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, in a release. Nearly every industry posted strong gains and small business hiring picked up. The BLS is expected to release the official job numbers on Friday after posting a blockbuster growth of 213,000 jobs in June and 244,000 in May. The wage increases are being undercut by high gas and fuel oil prices (up about 24 percent and 31 percent respectively over 12 months). Aside from those, food prices inched up by 1.4 percent and all other consumer prices by 2.3 percent. The gas and fuel oil prices are tied to crude oil prices, which tend to fluctuate as oil-producing countries move production targets and face wars, natural disasters, and internal turmoil. Oil speculators then try to take advantage of the market shifts, exacerbating price swings. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for capping production, which pushes prices up. Also, Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal caused some market anxiety. However, the administration made clear it intends to cut Irana significant producerout of the market without disrupting it. With economic boom as the cornerstone of his platform, Trump has been on a continuous victory lap as the positive numbers stack up each month. Were setting records like never before. Since the election, we have added 3.7 million new jobs. They would not have believed it, Trump said at his July 31 rally in Tampa, Florida, pointing at the media pit. Were in the longest positive job growth streak in history. Think of that. He went on to mention the lowest levels of unemployment in recorded history for black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. Sorry about this, women, but [your] unemployment rate has reached the lowest level in only 65 years, he joked. It will be history soon. Give us about two more weeks. One of the biggest boons came last week when the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced the gross domestic product surged to an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter. In addition to celebrating his successes, Trump doubled down with yet a bolder prediction. I will say this right now. Ill say it strongly, as the trade deals come in one by one, were going to go a lot higher than these numbers and these are great numbers, he said on July 27, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House. A significant part of the growth (1.1 percent) was due to higher exports, which translated into a $52 billion drop in the U.S. trade deficit. The country exported $568.4 billion less in goods and services than it imported in 2017. Trump has decried the imbalance and imposed tariffs on steel, aluminum, and other imports in a bid to force other countriesnotably China, Mexico, and the European Unionto decrease barriers to American exports. On July 25, Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to work toward eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers on all industrial goods except cars. Both also agreed to cooperate against unfair Chinese trade practices and reform the World Trade Organization, which has proved ineffective in remedying Chinas infractions. Trump agreed to shelve any new tariffs, while the EU pledged to increase imports of American soybeans and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Now, after years of rebuilding foreign countries, its time to finally rebuild our country, Trump said at the Florida rally. Watch Next: Trump Moves to Protect American Intellectual Property Trump imposed the tariffs in response to years of unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft by the communist regime. BRIDGEPORT After a recent pursuit in the city, which briefly ventured into Stratford, two Bridgeport residents were charged and a gun was seized. Giovanni Candelario, 25, of Ezra Street in Bridgeport, was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit, illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, resisting arrest, assault on a public safety officer, criminal possession of a firearm, first-degree reckless endangerment and possession of a controlled substance. Candelario was also charged with failure to carry registration/insurance card, illegal operation of a motor vehicle under suspension, reckless driving, engaging police in a pursuit, evading responsibility, failure to drive right, failure to obey traffic control signals, failure to obey stop sign and operating a motor vehicle without a license. He was also given a littering violation. A 17-year-old, of Connecticut Avenue in Bridgeport, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, carrying a pistol without a permit, illegal possession of weapons in a motor vehicle and resisting arrest. Police Chief Armando Perez said a guy from Newtown told Bridgeport police on July 25 that someone stole a gun out of his car. But when police checked out video surveillance in the departments Fusion Center, they saw the truth of the story that the man withheld. He was trying to sell the gun, Perez said. It was taken from him and they pushed him away and left with the gun. Perez said the man was not legally selling the weapon. He said the man was likely trying to trade the gun for drugs. After police got a description of the car the suspects drove off in after the theft, a pick up and hold order was released on the police departments radio waves. A BOLO, which was issued around 3:50 pm., described the car the suspects fled in to be a red Toyota Camry. Police reports showed that officers were told there was a stolen gun in the car. Around 7:40 p.m., an officer spotted a car matching the description and tried to get the driver, later identified as Candelario, to pull over. Instead, he led police on a pursuit with the 17-year-old in the front passenger seat. The pursuit went throughout the East End, made its way into Stratford and then returned to the East End, where Candelario crashed into a porch attached to a home at the intersection of Newfield Avenue and Smith Street, police said. No one inside the home was injured. Candelario and the juvenile tried to run from the site of the crash. Police took Candelario into custody after a K9 handler helped apprehend him. He was treated at Bridgeport Hospital before he was taken to booking to be processed. The juvenile was arrested after a brief struggle. A gun wasnt found in the car, but it was found soon after. Someone called police and said they think they saw a gun near a gas station, Perez said. Stratford police immediately responded and talked to a gas station employee who said he watched a woman put the gun into a garbage near one of the gas pumps before leaving in her car. The employee said he didnt speak to the woman, but said other patrons told him she said she saw the passenger in the car being pursued by police toss the gun out of the car and threw it out. Police found the frame of a black 9mm Smith and Wesson in the trash can, a police report said. here were seven 9mm rounds loaded in the frame. The slide and barrel of the gun were found near the sidewalk on the grass, police said. Police got an arrest warrant for the Newtown man, Perez said. From his home, police seized an AR-15, a bulletproof vest and three other high-powered shotguns from his house, Perez said. The mans name and charges were not immediately available Wednesday. Connecticut activists are vowing to fight the Trump administrations plan to roll back auto emissions standards, a move they say will endanger the health of Connecticut residents and cost motorists money. The proposed change announced Thursday also eliminates the ability of states such as Connecticut and California to set their own gas mileage standards in an effort to reduce climate-harming Greenhouse gas pollution. "This president seems intent on leaving an environmental legacy that is aimed at doing irreparable harm our planet, rather than protecting it," said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. The proposed rule unveiled by the federal Environmental Protection Agency essentially scuttles auto emissions standards established by former President Barrack Obamas administration. Under the Trump plan, new cars and light trucks built between 2020 and 2026 would have to offer an average of 37 miles per gallon as opposed to the 54.5 miles per gallon standard set by the Obama administration. Paul Farrell, assistant director for air quality at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Connecticut and other states will sue to block the Trump proposal. California and New York are among the states preparing to sue. "This will be challenged," Farrell said. "People want the fuel efficiency they are getting from new cars. It matters to a great deal of consumers." Environmentalists and other activists said stricter fuel efficiency standards save money and foster better health. "Connecticut residents breathe easier, face lower health care costs and save money on gas thanks to our tailpipe pollution standards and electric vehicle sales mandates," said Claire Coleman, a climate and energy attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. Make America sick The proposed roll back of fuel efficiency standards is widely viewed as a nod to the gas and oil industry, which has never supported efforts to decrease use of its products. "This is the direct result of intense fossil fuel industry lobbying, and the absence of public input," said Louis Burch, program manager for the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Policies like these line the pockets of big oil and gas companies, while stifling innovation in the automotive industry," Burch said. The Trump administration has also proposed scuttling Obamas Clean Power Plan, which placed strict emissions limits on coal burning electric plants, and is working to purge Obamas clean water rules. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said the current auto emissions standards are critical to the health, safety and well-being of state residents. "My office will continue to work with our partners in other states to aggressively fight this administration's assault on clean air," said Jepsen, who has joined other legal challenges of Trump rules. Connecticut is one of 13 states that adopted stricter gas mileage standards first established by California. The Trump rule seeks to block the right of states to set higher gas mileage standards for new vehicles sold within their borders. Driving in reverse Robert Klee, the DEEP commissioner, said the Trump proposal will bring auto pollution protection to a standstill. "This action makes no sense on any level and Connecticut DEEP will continue to take appropriate action with our partners to protect the air we breathe," Klee said. Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the U.S. should be speeding up progress to reduce auto emissions, not slowing it down. "The Trump administration is driving our auto future in reverse," Suh said. "The clean car standards are already saving our families billions at the pump, supporting nearly 300,000 American jobs and cleaning up dangerous tailpipe pollution." A recent white paper by Energy Innovation predicted that freezing auto emission standards would cost the U.S. economy $450 billion through 2050, and the increased pollution would cause the death of over 13,000 Americans. bcummings@ctpost.com While attending college, I started working on a small family-owned medical cannabis cooperative in northern Oregon. I learned the basics of growing and working with the plant. With this knowledge and money saved from my years working in Oregon, I purchased a farm in Northern California. Once cannabis legalization went through, I knew I needed to build a brand. The days of shady, back room deals were coming to a close and the cannabis industry had a deficit of mature, upscale brands. I recruited the lead designer of Snoop Doggs Leafs by Snoop line and flew her out to the farm to capture the natural beauty for our packaging. Related: 5 Questions to Ask Before Picking Your Packaging Image credit: Stone Road Farms What is Stone Road Farms? We are a pre-roll company that puts an emphasis on transparency, consistent quality, and upscale branding. We use the highest possible quality, Grade-A flower in all of our products. We also hand-roll our joints ensuring each one is virtually perfect. A Stone Road joint goes through three stages of quality control and is lab-tested twice before reaching the consumer. What did you do to differentiate Stone Road from the competition? I knew I had to create a unique aspect to the brand so I recruited a childhood friend to build out the Stone Road rewards app -- available on IOS and Android. This platform allows us to offer our customers tickets to cannabis-friendly yoga classes in Venice, Hollywood Bowl tickets, even surf lessons. The updated app also now has a full product guide plus a find-a-store feature. The app saved the business -- being able to access the data from our biggest supporters allowed us to discover that 78 percent of all app scans were from women, and more importantly, they were from two shops! I altered Stone Roads brand identity to match the new information we gleaned from the app data. We started sponsoring every and any women-run, women-focused, or women-branded event. And soon this strategy worked. Our sales took off and now my biggest focus and challenge is rapid production, ramping without sacrificing the Stone Road quality. Related: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom What was one of the toughest challenges you faced in your business and how did you overcome it? Choosing business partners. Both of my former partners left the company within the first six months for various reasons. My advice to people starting a business: Be very cautious when choosing a partner . A start-up partnership means you are going to be with this person 12 to 16 hours a day every day. You not only have to get along, but you have to be sure you communicate well. Most major business disagreements I had stemmed from a lack of communication. I overcame this challenge by putting in a ridiculous amount of work. Eighteen-hour days for weeks on end. Doing literally every job myself from managing the farm, rolling the joints, producing digital and promo content, managing the social media, keeping all the books and all legal compliance, all the while spending every day trying to open new accounts! It was grueling, but when the noise of the world gets too loud you have to just lower your head and continue. Its supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would be their own boss. Related: How do you get people to buy into your mission? Transparency and trust. Be honest with investors about what you plan to do with their investment. The same group of 8 to 12 individuals in my life fund virtually all of my ventures. Some have been losers. But some are now incredibly successful. One of my good friends and another successful young entrepreneur always tells his investors, I will do whatever is best for the business. No matter what. And he is true to his word. He fired his best friend. Was it terrible? Im sure. But at the end of the day you have to stay true to your word and if someone isnt pulling their weight plus some, you have to find someone else. Also, most good investors invest in the team and not the product. A product can change. Its really hard to change a team. Also, you have to put in your own money. Money talks. I dont raise money for firms I dont personally have equity in. Related: How To Convince Cannabis Investors to Give You Money What trait do you depend on most when making decisions? While analytical thinking and collaborative decision making is super important, you have to trust your gut. Sometimes youre right. Most times youre not. But each experience and each failure is a learning opportunity. Each day I apply lessons I learn in one business to another one of my businesses. For example, everyone told me not to invest in Light Phone, a Brooklyn-based telecom startup that is creating a credit-card sized social-media free phone with a 5-day battery life. Even my mom, a full-blown iPhone addict, strongly suggested against investing. But I threw in a lot of money anyways and then raised far more for the company. Now weve built and sold our first 10,000 phones, and are working hard on creating a second-generation phone. Our manufacturing partner tasked us with raising $250k online in one month to show interest in the phone. We ended our Indiegogo with $1.71 million and over 7,000 pre-orders for a phone that is still a year away. What's the best advice u can give to people starting off in the cannabis industry? Be tough. People are mean and the business is very exclusive. It will be hard to break in. Be nimble, and know that the business changes constantly. You need to stay light on your feet to keep up. Even the biggest companies in the industry are constantly evolving and innovating. Lastly, tell us about how you created and auctioned off the worlds most expensive joint. I needed a PR stunt to get more press to my party to announce a state-wide sales campaign. I knew I wanted to create a giant, goofy, lavish joint and auction it off for charity. I couldn't get any organizations to take the money except the African Wildlife Foundation. I then enlisted Weavers, a famous joint artist, to create a giant elephant tusk rather than a normal joint. I reached out to the good people at Shine, and they donated enough 24 karat gold leaf to cover the tusk with four layers! The interior contents were all donated, too. Soilgrown Solventless donated some of their Cannabis Cup-winning Rosin, and Team Elite Genetics donated some of their 2018 Cannabis Cup-winning flower. Overall, we raised over $4,000 for the African Wildlife Foundations new anti-poaching campaign. Related: How An App Saved His Pre-Rolled Joint Business He Fought for Marijuana Legalization at Age 13. Now He's Reaping the Rewards. How Jeff The420Chef Baked His Way to Culinary Success Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The following excerpt is from Jessica Abos book Unfiltered: How to Be as Happy as You Look on Social Media. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound or click here to buy it directly from us and SAVE 60% on this book when you use code LEAD2021 through 4/10/21. Social media has become the 21st-century escape from our everyday lives, whether its to cure boredom when standing in the checkout line or to seek a sense of belonging when no ones talking to us at a party and we want to give the impression that were cool and connected. On the other hand, by plugging into our social networks, we can make meaningful connections. We can find long-lost friends, reconnect with relatives, discover community groups or find jobs and love. Our feeds enable us to remember peoples birthdays and learn new things from the articles our friends post. We can listen in on peoples conversations and debates without having to participate. With one click, we can promote our businesses or donate to a cause. Our social networks are great for content sharing, too. Whether its details for a local charity drive or suggesting tourist attractions for a friend heading to Greece, we can share a lot of useful information. Studies have shown people who are battling an illness benefit from the support they receive through social media, too. If youve ever had a friend send you the perfect inspirational quote, funny meme or viral video when youre having a bad day, you know how quickly that can raise your spirits. So, no, social media isnt the enemy. Loneliness is. Unfortunately, many people who log onto social media seeking a sense of community only find superficial support. No matter how much weight we put on the number of followers, subscribers or likes we get, that doesnt mean all those people would come to our birthday party or be there for us in the middle of the night. And we know we dont have to check our phones every five minutes and that life will go on if we dont post something. So its obvious social media isnt causing our pain points, but more times than not, being online doesnt help them, either. When people tell me theyre deleting a social media app from their phone, it usually lasts a day before the need to check what theyre missing kicks into high gear. Thank you, #FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). In a study done a few years ago, researchers found that when you take away someones phone, they reported feeling anxious and that anxiety continued until they got their phone back. One of the people behind that study is Larry Rosen, professor emeritus and past chair of the psychology department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Rosens been studying the psychology of technology for more than 30 years. For the study noted above, Rosen said the researchers studied more than 200 students to see how they used their phones. The students used an app called Instant, which tallied how many times they unlocked their phone each day and tracked how long the device remained unlocked. The 2016 study revealed students unlocked their phones 56 times a day for [a total of] 220 minutes. That means the students checked their phones about every 15 minutes for just shy of 4 minutes, Rosen explains. In 2017, we conducted the same study with a new, equivalent group of students and found the students unlocked their phones about 50 times but stayed on their phones longer. This time they spent a total of 262 minutes on their devices, which is 5.25 minutes per glance. The reason the students said they were spending more time on their phones when they unlocked them was because of social media. What Rosen found the most fascinating was why people logged onto social media in the first place. Half the time, participants said it was because they received an alert, so they unlocked their phone to see someones post, read a new comment or check a text. The other half of the time, there wasnt an update or alert, which means they had a slow accumulation of chemicals that signaled anxiety, Rosen says. When that reaches a critical level, people act on it and go back to their phones. The fear of missing out causes so many health issues that Rosen wrote an entire book about it: iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us. He defines this disorder as the negative psychological impact of the use of technology, which can manifest as stress, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, among other mental health issues. Simply put, FOMO has taken over our social media habits. So when did the very technology created to make our lives more efficient become the source of so much stress and distraction? It happened gradually over time and is only accelerating. Four ways to back yourself out of the need to check-in If you think youre too attached to your digital device -- if your phone goes everywhere you go -- and you want to rewire your brain, Rosen suggests trying the following: Move all your social icons from your first page into a folder so you have to make an effort to find them. Check your apps on a schedule, not on a whim. Let everyone know youre doing it so they dont get pissed off when you take too long to like one of their posts. Pay attention to which apps are open in the background because we tend to check them unconsciously. If youre not scheduled to check an app, make sure that tab is closed or the app is in its folder. Turn off all your alerts. You dont need to know every time someone posts something to your feed. It can wait. It may seem silly to follow these steps because it may feel like your social media is controlling you and not the other way around. However, Rosen says theyre often necessary because social comparison is a very real thing thats hurting a lot of people. Did you enjoy your book preview? Click here to grab a copy todaynow 60% off when you use code LEAD2021 through 4/10/21. Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivered an annual speech to ethnic Hungarians at a summer camp in Romania. He largely echoed the remarks he made last year, when he bemoaned European liberalism and championed the continent's Christian identity. But what seemed like boilerplate nationalist rhetoric then has more force now. --Backed by a hefty new electoral mandate, Orban has a broader mission in mind. He urged his right-wing comrades across Europe to "concentrate all our strength" on "important and decisive" 2019 elections for the European Parliament. He framed the challenge in grand historic terms, summoning his allies to cast out those in power still motivated by the values of "1968" - shorthand in Europe for liberal politics based on human rights, the rule of law and open, inclusive societies. "Next May we can wave goodbye not only to liberal democracy ... but also to the entire elite of '68," Orban said. The Hungarian leader emphatically drew the battle lines. "Let us confidently declare that Christian democracy is not liberal," he said. "Liberal democracy is liberal, while Christian democracy is, by definition, not liberal: it is, if you like, illiberal." In this goal, he joins former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who recently launched a Brussels-based initiative to boost the role of nationalists across the continent within the European Union. Bannon has hailed Orban in the past as a European counterpart to President Donald Trump, seeing the Hungarian leader's strident anti-immigrant and ultranationalist politics as "Trump before Trump." The similarities are obvious. Orban built a fortified barrier along his country's southern border to keep out Syrian refugees and other migrants. Like Trump, he extols blood-and-soil nationalism over democratic values. He and his allies growl about critical media coverage as "fake news" and indulge in tirades against "globalist" elites - attacks that can easily be, and often are, interpreted as anti-Semitic. Unlike Trump, though, Orban has had more concrete success in advancing his illiberal agenda. There has been a steady erosion of checks on his rule since he took office in 2010 (he also served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002 in his former guise as a liberal). After his April reelection, his government pushed through a law criminalizing any individual or organization that aided undocumented migrants - with cruel irony, it passed on World Refugee Day. There are now growing questions about the autonomy of Hungary's judiciary, while the country's media is disproportionately in Orban's camp. On Wednesday, an Orban loyalist completed a takeover of a prominent independent TV channel that had been run by the prime minister's opponents - a phenomenon familiar to anyone who has watched Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruthlessly consolidate power and subdue Turkey's independent media over the past decade. --For Europe, Orban is setting a new precedent. "Although Orban governs a small country, the movement he represents is of global importance," wrote Bulgarian political philosopher Ivan Krastev earlier this year. "In the West, where the will of the people remains the main source of political legitimacy, his style of illiberal democracy is likely to be the major alternative to liberalism in the coming decades." Unlike populists further to the west, Orban does not seek the European Union's dissolution. Indeed, the Hungarian economy has grown under his watch thanks in part to funds and assistance from Brussels. But he imagines co-opting the bloc and moving it closer in line with his and Trump's right-wing nationalism. "He has successfully positioned himself within the European center-right," wrote Bloomberg View's Leonid Bershidsky, referring to the continued membership of Fidesz, Orban's party, in the prominent European People's Party faction in the European Parliament. That bloc includes the parties of prominent conservative leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. While some moderates have called on the EPP to expel Fidesz, Orban remains in a comfortable position. "Better to keep them in so we can talk to them directly," said German conservative politician Manfred Weber, head of the EPP, to Politico last month. "He always listens at a certain point. He runs off and has to be told to stop, but he usually does." But that condescending view belies Orban's growing clout, especially among the continent's mainstream right-wing parties. "When Orban rails against the liberal EU elite," wrote Bershidsky, "he does that on behalf of the right-wingers in traditional parties ... To see if Europe goes in this direction, it's worth listening for echoes of Orban in the speeches of mainstream conservatives and watching the party platforms for the 2019 European Parliament election. The shift to the right, if it continues, will not be as one-dimensional as a shift in support to the protest parties. It'll happen from the inside of the conservative flank." It's alarming to contemplate what such a shift represents. "If the liberals who dominated in the 1990s were preoccupied with the rights of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, this new consensus is about the rights of the majority," wrote Krastev. Orban, meanwhile, is among a number of outspoken right-wing nationalists in Europe who support easing tensions with the Kremlin and dropping E.U. sanctions on Russia. --And while Trump may be the source of widespread derision among the European establishment, Orban expresses his admiration for the U.S. president. In his speech, Orban celebrated how Trump has "made good on his promises." He praised Trump's attacks on the multilateral international order, largely built through decades of U.S. cooperation with blocs like the European Union and the Group of Seven. While Trump's critics cast his actions as those of an impetuous and impatient demagogue, Orban said Trump was "making systematic progress with the precision of an engineer." The truth, though, may be closer to home: As Orban marshals the resurgent nationalist right, it's his project that is steadily coming into focus. In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome! EDWARDSVILLE Murder, Romance and Two Shootings provides an eyewitness account of being on the frontlines of tragedy. In my book, Murder, Romance and Two Shootings, I share the difficulties of covering the news after seeing someone murdered right before my eyes, said Todd Allen Smith, who will have a book signing from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3, at Afterwords Books, 441 E. Vandalia St., in his hometown of Edwardsville. As a reporter with the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, Smith was shot while covering a public council meeting of the city of Kirkwood, an inner-ring western suburb of St. Louis, on Feb. 7, 2008. Ultimately, Kirkwood resident Cookie Thornton shot six people; Smith is the only person shot that night who did not succumb to his wounds. In the book, I relate being a journalist and suddenly being part of the story and the long recovery afterwards from a bullet slicing through my hand, Smith said Tuesday to The Telegraph. This was not the first time I was shot, either. In July of 1997, Smith, 26 years old and living in Delaware at the time, was shot during a robbery attempt. Smith was looking for his first reporter position, at the time. It was the Year of Living Dangerously, not knowing that I was going to be shot again, quipped Smith, who suffered a gunshot wound in the back of his left leg, below the knee, the first time; the second time he sustained a gunshot wound, the bullet went through his right hand. I got physical therapy the first time. On the plus side, I already knew what physical therapy was like for the situation that came later, but thats not something you would want to have to know. The bullet lodged in his leg and had to be pulled out. When shooting started in the Kirkwood council chambers in 2008, Smiths mind immediately went into fight-or-flight mode. I stood up and thought, Oh, my God, Ive been shot again, he recalled. I headed back to the door on the left, automatically my mind goes, I got to get out of the situation, which I did the first time, too. Smith spent about a year recovering from the 2008 gunshot wound, returning to work full-time at Suburban Journals in the beginning of 2009; the company laid him off a few months later in April. Smith graduated from Highland High School, in Lewistown, Missouri, near Quincy, Illinois, where he worked at a pizza place as a teenager. He received a bachelors in journalism at the University of of Central Missouri and a masters in journalism from the University of Kansas. I liked to write, so it was an obvious field to go into, he said. You can write a lot of different things. I was a beat reporter, I wrote about a lot of different things in Kansas and enjoyed the occasional feature. After working at college newspapers, his first professional job was at the Coffeyville Journal, in Coffeyville, Kansas. Then he worked at the Skiatook Journal, in Skiatook, Oklahoma, before moving to St. Louis in 2006 and working at the Suburban Journals. In Kirkwood, I was covering a very routine city council meeting, Smith recalled. I think they were talking about construction of a gas station and people were there who were concerned about noise and traffic. Thats what I thought was going to be the major concern that night thats not what happened. As I wrote in the book, I had a strange feeling that I shouldnt go to the meeting, but on the meeting agenda, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I had just some weird feeling. Eventually Smith began working for the State Journal-Register, in Springfield, Illinois, commuting to and from St. Louis, before moving to Edwardsville. The company laid him off in 2011. That year he wrote the first draft of his memoir. I mention in the book doing a lot of online work at the time and describe where there was a shooting at a bar and I had to take photos. It was a little uncomfortable for me, to say the least. Crime stories became a little unnerving. After the second layoff, Smith opted to work at a nonprofit, Fathers Support Center, in St. Louis, where he worked from 2012 to 2014, when he and his husband, David Kaplan, adopted their son, Drew. I worked at Fathers Support Center helping fathers get back with their kids, as kind of a way to give back. I thought if kids had a father looking out for them, they wouldnt end up in the criminal element, Smith said. That was before I became a father myself. After I was able to put our son in preschool, I got back to the book. Smith has told his story and held signings at meetings of the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, both in Edwardsville and Fairview Heights, donating a book to the organization. People feel compelled to tell me how guns influenced their lives, Smith said. Murder, Romance and Two Shootings provides an eyewitness account of being on the frontlines of tragedy. The memoir was recently released by NineStar Press and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Afterwords Books and at NineStar Press. Smith also has an upcoming signing from 3 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 25, at The Novel Neighbor, 7905 Big Bend Blvd., in Webster Groves, Missouri. Visit www.toddallensmith.com for more information. Reach Jill Moon at 618-208-6448 and Twitter @jill_moon. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin says a GOP state lawmaker will resign amid allegations that he posted nude photos of an ex-girlfriend on social media. Durkin issued a statement saying Rep. Nick Sauer is resigning Wednesday after a published report alleging he set up an Instagram account under the Chicago womans name and posted explicit photos. 10 hours ago Logitech Is Still A Logical Choice For Dividend-Growth Portfolios Logitech Invests In The Future Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI) is one of the more appealing post-pandemic plays to us for many reasons. Not only is the company benefiting from COVID-related trends but it is also benefiting from strong secular trends, sustaining YOY growth in the face of double-digit comp, paying a very safe dividend, and investing in the future. Read Article Deadly link: Puppy factories and rabies The panic over rabies that erupted at the beginning of this year seems to have died down. Fourteen people are dead; dozens of dogs were poisoned and thousands more died after being incarcerated in government pounds as officials across the country stumbled to stamp out the spread of the disease. CommunityPets By Soi Dog Foundation Thursday 2 August 2018, 11:00AM Puppies displayed in a pet shop. Yet absolutely nothing was done about a potentially deadly contributor to the spread of the disease: puppy factories and the sale of their product puppies in markets and pet shops. There are well-run, well-meaning puppy factories in Thailand, whose operators are genuinely concerned for the welfare of the pups and look after them well. There are also families and individuals who breed their pets for a little extra income. They, too, look after the pups well. But there are many other much darker places where the owners regard puppies solely as product, produced at the minimum possible cost in order to maximise profit. Puppies from farms such as these are trucked all over the country for sale to pet shops or in markets. If the pups are not sold quickly, they are simply dumped. Why would anyone deliberately throw away product? John Dalley, founder and leader of the Phuket-based Soi Dog Foundation, explains, In a puppy factory, the dams, or producing mothers, are kept constantly pregnant until they can no longer produce, at which point they are useless to the factory owner, who dumps or kills them. The pups that have been taken to market but have not been sold, wont be brought back to the factory; their mother is already pregnant with a new litter and wont look after them. If you take a purely objective lowest possible cost business approach to breeding dogs, there is no point in taking them back to the factory, where you would have to pay to feed them, because the mother will not. So, you dump them. He says that Soi Dog also comes across litters of pups with birth defects that have been dumped. He believes that these, too, are often the products of puppy factories. The owners dont bother to bring in new blood until the increasingly excessive inbreeding between the mother dogs and their sons results in genetic disorders. Only then may they feel they have to bring in new bloodstock. But the defective pups have no value and are doomed to be thrown away. In addition, pure bred dogs often suffer from diseases caused by inbreeding. Breeds that are popular in Thailand because of their cuteness, such as Shi Tzus, French bulldogs and pugs, for example, are susceptible to breathing difficulties and eye diseases. As the veterinary bills mount, some owners may decide its better simply to get rid of the dog. Or the dog may die. Puppy factory owners dont care, Mr Dalley says, if the cute puppies they are selling are in poor health and die after being bought. Indeed, if a cute puppy dies, the buyer may go back to the market to buy a replacement for the vendor, thats a double sale to the same buyer. Also, thrown away or dumped in temples around the country are perfectly healthy pups that were sold to people who did not realise that puppies pee on carpets or sofas, or chew expensive shoes. They have no idea how to train their pup not to behave in such distinctly uncute ways. So, they throw them away. To dog lovers all of this may seem horribly distressing but others may ask, Why are you telling me this? How is it relevant to my life? The answer is that there is an added dimension to puppy factories: the connection mentioned above between rabies and factory puppies. Puppies need to be 12 weeks or older before they can be vaccinated against rabies. But most factory puppies sold in markets and pet shops are much younger than that as young as four weeks because they are cuter and cuddlier and therefore sell more easily. But none of them are vaccinated. They are too young. Thousands upon thousands of these very young pups are moved around the country every month, Dalley says. And given that many of the puppy factories are all about profit, they probably dont spend money on vaccinating the mothers. If a dam contracts rabies, she will pass it on to her pups. Rabies is endemic throughout Thailand except, according to the government, in Phuket. Some parts of the country, as we have seen, can become hotspots. Imagine if unvaccinated pups from close to a rabies hotspot are brought to a market near you. What few people understand, he says, is that humans do not usually contract rabies from some crazed foaming-at-the-mouth monster that attacks them in the street. The majority are bitten by their own pet, or licked on an open wound which transfers the virus just as effectively. Particularly effective at transferring rabies are playful puppies, with their needle-sharp baby teeth. Unvaccinated puppies such as the ones from puppy farms. There was a case 8 years ago that became a news headline when a pet shop owner of Take Care Pet Shop, located in the renowned JJ Market, in Bangkok, died of rabies after getting bitten by one of the dogs she was selling. The scare spread across the pet area of the market and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) had to warn customers from Take Care Pet Shop to monitor the puppies and dogs they bought from there. (news link https://news.mthai.com/general-news/68321.html) Dalley says, Given the rabies outbreak scare earlier this year, I am surprised that the government has done nothing to regulate and curb the trade in factory-bred puppies. We saw they were capable of controlling the movement of livestock when the H5N1 bird flu took a grip on Thailand from 2004 to 2006. Those Thai government actions were effective. Seventeen people died in Thailand in that period. But World Health Organisation figures show that there have been no deaths from bird flu in Thailand since then. That unvaccinated puppies can legally be transported from rabies-endemic areas to a rabies-free area such as Phuket is madness, Dalley says. He notes, In Thailand there are no regulations at present governing puppy factories which potentially are producing rabies-infected puppies and also adding to the stray dog problem. We would also like to see the government insist that dogs that are flown around the country must have proof of vaccination, and that police at check points be empowered to check that litters of puppies being transported by road also have proof of vaccination. And if you want a puppy, he adds, At Soi Dog, we have many looking for new homes. They are healthy, fully vaccinated and best of all they are free to a good home. Visit the Soi Dog Foundation web site HERE. He also said that his kidx are in urgent need of upgrading their luxury cars from 2021 to 2022 model...(Read More) Phuket fishing fleet operators protest ILO Convention PHUKET: More than 200 representatives of Phukets fishing industry gathered at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (Aug 1) to file a formal letter of protest against the ratification of International Labour Organization Convention No. 188 into Thai law. economicsimmigrationnatural-resources By The Phuket News Thursday 2 August 2018, 10:56AM Many of Phukets commercial fishing fleet operators oppose Thailand ratifying the ILO Convention. Photo: PR Dept The ILO adopted the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 on June 14 of that year and the articles in the convention have been under consideration by the Thai government since then, the representatives explained. The articles of the convention are expected to become law in Thailand in September this year, they added. Already known is that during the past 11 years copy of the draft law to be introduced has been sent to Office of the Phuket Governor for approval, and returned signed approved to lawmakers in Bangkok. The same process was conducted with 22 of Thailands 24 coastal provinces that have major fishing industries. At the handing over of the formal letter of protest yesterday leading representative Itsarapong Srisupawadee said that introducing the articles of the convention as law in Thailand will create problems that will seriously affect the fishing industry, especially in hiring workers. If the convention does become law, it would change the way of life of Thai fishermen, which would be controlled by foreigners, he said. Also, the new regulations would require a lot of money to improve our boats and equipment, which might result in us going out of business and no longer fishing because we cant afford the cost, he added. This will lead to many workers left unemployed because the fishing industry would be gone and just waiting to be taken over by foreigners, he noted. To this, the Phuket Fishermen Association would like to confirm our position and urge the government not to ratify International Labour Organization Convention 188 into Thai law, Mr Itsarapong said. Phuket Vice Governor Snith Sriwihok received the formal letter of protest, yet it was not reported what the next course of action would be or which office the letter would be forwarded to. To read the full Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 as adopted by the ILO, click here. In June 2017, a 4-month-old baby was rushed to the hospital suffering from heat-related symptoms following more than two hours aboard an increasingly hot United Airlines plane on the tarmac at Denver International Airport. The child recovered, but the incident represents a worst-case scenario of the sometimes extreme temperatures that can overtake an aircraft on a hot summers day, creating a cabin environment that can run from uncomfortable to potentially unsafe. Today there are no (federal) temperature standards that exist. Oftentimes, in a list of safety requirements, this becomes the last priority, said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents some 50,000 flight attendants working for 20 different airlines. Even when airlines have their own internal policies about heating and cooling aircraft ... theres not going to be a full solution here until theres a standard that everyone will have to meet. A spokesperson for CUPE, which represents 15,000 flight attendants at 11 airlines across Canada, said while the union is not aware of CUPE-affiliated flight attendant groups participating in the U.S. campaign, temperature is definitely an issue from time to time for our members working in airlines. He said there is no temperature range in federal regulations for airplanes sitting on the ground, but there are for operational planes requiring that if reasonably practicable, the air temperature on board an aircraft shall be maintained at a level of not less than 18 C and not more than 29 C. Read more: Pilot of Air Transat flight tells hearing that 6-hour tarmac delay was the lesser of two evils Advice | Ellen Roseman: Frosty Air Canada flight leaves passenger steaming Its so hot in Phoenix that American Airlines Bombardier jets cant fly Starting this month, thousands of flight attendants at airlines around the U.S. will be carrying thermometers to document instances of extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold, encountered during their shifts. The data collected will be used to further bolster the push by two of the industrys largest flight attendant unions to get the federal government to put standards in place for cabin temperatures, with a recommended range of 65 to 75 F. If approved, the rules could make temperature checks part of the standard pre-flight checklist, with passengers prevented from boarding planes unless the proper conditions are met. On Wednesday, the AFA along with Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents Southwest flight attendants, announced the launch of a smartphone app that flight crews and passengers can use to document extreme temperatures. It leads to fatigue for flight attendants. ... It can create incredible discomfort for customers, said Lyn Montgomery, president of the Southwest flight attendants union. Airlines have a number of tools to keep aircraft cool while on the ground, including auxiliary power units that drive the planes air conditioning systems and the use of preconditioned air pumped onto the plane. Passengers are also often advised to put down their shades and open their air vents when exiting a plane to help keep things cool. American Airlines said it wont board an aircraft if the cabin temperature is above 90 F, and while Southwest doesnt have a set limit, a spokesman said employees are empowered to make decisions whether the temperature is acceptable for boarding. Representatives for both airlines said monitoring and addressing aircraft temperatures is a team effort, with pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, dispatchers and ground crews all playing a role. Montgomery, who represents Southwest flight attendants, said the carrier has a process in place to report high cabin temperatures, but flight crews still sometimes resort to wearing cooling scarves or plugging portable fans into their smartphones. In an industry that includes major carriers as well as smaller regional operations and charter airlines, the attention paid to cabin temperature can vary widely, said Nelson, whose group represents flight attendants at United, Alaska, Frontier and three of American Airlines regional subsidiaries. It doesnt take long for a plane, especially smaller models, to heat up on the hottest of days, Nelson said, and the typical process can break down for any number of reasons equipment might malfunction, the proper staff arent in place, or the plane has simply been sitting exposed to the sun for several hours before re-entering service after a maintenance hangar visit. With crews juggling a number of responsibilities, including needing to get the plane out on time, the temperature of the cabin might not be a top concern, she said. The AFA filed a formal petition with the Department of Transportation in July recommending the target temperature range be set at 65 to 75 F, with a maximum allowed temperature of 80 degrees. On aircraft with heat-generating seatback entertainment systems, the recommended maximum would be 85 degrees. The temperature range recommended by the union is based on work done in 2007 by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers that involved aircraft manufacturers, airlines and crew member and passenger groups. This was an industry consensus but they have not been put into regulation, Nelson said. Without those standards and requirement, it gets prioritized last or is not considered. With files from Star staff CALGARYTwo men are facing a grand total of 23 charges after police seized an estimated $700,000 worth of drugs, cash and a Glock handgun in Calgary last week. The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team composed of officers from police forces across the province searched homes in the Copperfield and Douglasdale neighbourhoods on July 26, according to a statement. Officers allegedly found 4.5 kilograms of cocaine, 549 grams of heroin and 360 grams of cannabis, as well as $30,085 in cash. The homes were allegedly used to package and press cocaine for street-level drug sales in Calgary and the surrounding area. Officers also allegedly found a Glock handgun, various rounds of ammunition, two magazines prohibited in Canada, and body armour. ALERT alleges the gun was smuggled from the United States. Colton Darby, 21, faces two counts each of production of a controlled substance and possession of a prohibited device, three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, and one count each of possession of property obtained by crime, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm obtained by crime, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a weapon contrary to order, and breach of probation. Ricardo Martinez, also 21, faces two counts each of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of a prohibited device, as well as production of a controlled substance, possession of property obtained by crime, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm obtained by crime, possession of a firearm without a license, and possession of body armour. Read more about: CALGARYPolice are investigating after an argument between two groups of people in Kensington early Thursday morning ended with gunshots. Corwin Odland, a spokesperson for the Calgary Police Service, said officers were called to the 300 block of 10 St. NW at around 3:15 a.m., after multiple people called in a shooting. He said two groups of people were arguing in the area before the shots were fired. Its unclear if the gunfire originated from one or both groups, or from somewhere else entirely. The groups fled the scene by the time police arrived, Odland said. Police are investigating whether a person who took themselves to a Calgary hospital a short time later had been wounded during the shooting. The area is still closed while police investigate, but Odland said it should be re-opened within the next few hours. No arrests have been made. Read more about: EDMONTONMany words in the Cree language are buried under the cultural rubble of colonization, smothered by residential schools, where children werent allowed to speak their native tongue. Edward Lavallee-Meequaan can fluently speak Creeone of the countrys most widely-spoken Indigenous languages, along with Ojibway, and Innu/Montagnais. In fact, Cree is his first language. But hes noticed that many fluent speakers are older and few young people speak it. Now 77, he lives in Edmonton, where he can use Cree more often as there is a small community of people who grew up with it as their first language and love speaking it. When I lived in other Canadian cities, I didnt find too many good Cree speakers, he said. Born in 1940, he grew up on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation reserve in central Saskatchewan but went on to travel across Canada throughout his life. That language should be declared an official language ... (and) be treated by the government pouring a lot of money into Cree immersion in all the schools in the country, he said. That would be one of my dreams. Preserving and revitalizing Indigenous languages was one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action. In December 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government would work with Indigenous communities to develop an Indigenous Languages Act. Consultations began in June 2017 between the federal government and advocacy groups the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis Nation. By February, the federal government started talking to Indigenous leaders, organizations and self-governing nations across Canada to gather more ideas for what should be included in the legislation. Consultations are expected to wrap up by the end of the summer, and the legislation is expected to be tabled in the fall sitting of Parliament. Its a race against time for the federal government, since some of the Canadas 60 Indigenous languages have as few as a half dozen native speakers left. Khelsilem, who goes by one name, is one of about two dozen Squamish speakers left on the west coast of British Columbia. A Vancouver resident, he is the program director of arts and education organization Kwi Awt Stelmexw, and a councillor for the Squamish Nation. He learned Squamish as a second language from a mentor and now teaches it to people in an immersion program. He estimates there are just five native Squamish speakers left in the province. He says Indigenous languages in Canada are regarded as less than the value that is placed on English and French, and parents dont have the right to educate their children in their native tongue. I think it speaks to the colonial roots in Canada as an English and French country and not as a country that respects Indigenous rights. Khelsilem doesnt think its feasible to give all Indigenous languages official status in Canada a possibility most people interviewed for this story mentioned but details are scarce on whats going to be in the legislation. The sheer number of Indigenous languages and dialects makes legislation a challenge. Estimates on the number of speakers have been questioned, some languages are more robust and spoken by more people than others, and even the number of languages has been debated. While Statistics Canada counted a little more than 2,000 native Cree speakers in Edmonton in 2016, Reuben Quinn, who teaches a dialect called Nehiyaw at the citys Centre for Race and Culture, believes the number is much lower. Quinn said Nehiyaw, decimated by the bans on Indigenous languages at residential schools, has changed so much it will be a challenge to agree on what words are part of the original language and which are later additions, let alone to revive it. Some people know how to say simple little words, and theyre often wrong, he said. He called it linguicide, and blamed a lack of trained teachers within an educational framework and lack of funding for language programs. The Nehiyaw word for how has now changed to mean hello over time, for example. Without authorities on how to use the language, these changes become part of the vernacular. Theyll learn a word and theyll use it in all contexts, but thats not how, of course, a language works. Each word has to be contextualized, Quinn said. Quinn worries that the Indigenous Languages Act will rely on Stats Canada numbers for its implementation. He says this presents issues around funding since it could skew perceptions, such as the health of the Cree language in comparison with other languages. I think what Canada tries to do, in order to seem politically correct, is to offer statistics that are not all together accurate. Before first contact with colonizers, the Nehiyaw language had an estimated 600,000 words. Through his own independent research, Quinn estimates it has 15,000 now and bringing it back would require tons of funding. We Nehiyaw speakers are losing a syllable per generation, so its deteriorating as far as the language is concerned, said Quinn. Funding for the small Cree language program he teaches is dwindling with each passing year, and he said it is crucial the legislation is passed immediately to have any chance at saving Indigenous languages, including Cree. While Quinn supports including Cree as an official language, Khelsilem doesnt think the designation would help Squamish speakers. The problem with declaring Indigenous languages official languages is that it creates a whole bunch of requirements for Indigenous languages that are actually not that useful. It would create a linguistic nightmare when it comes to packaging, flight announcements, and would be a financial burden for governments who would have to produce policy, press releases and programs in all official languages. He does think the government needs to put the same emphasis on Indigenous languages as it does on French and English, and make learning them a right, backed by funding for immersion and other Indigenous language programs. If my grandmother, when she went to residential school, was guaranteed the right to be educated in Squamish, we would be having a different story in Canada today, Khelsilem said. As far as where government funding should go, he suggests it should ensure the young and the old are connected, support immersion programs and support Indigenous languages programs at every university in the country. Today, Khelsilem tells the story about how there used to be 90,000 Squamish people until they dropped down to 300 after colonization, but the population has rebounded to about 4,000. So were coming back, and I want the story to be in 100 years that, at one point there was only five people that spoke the language and today there are thousands. With files from Tessa Vickander StarMetro Vancouver Read more about: This is the fifth instalment of The Heretic, a series in which our writers express a wildly unpopular opinion. Lets make something really clear: This article is part of a summer series called The Heretic, in which, as the loose rubric goes, our writers express a wildly unpopular opinion. I know those words are perched just a few lines up on this very same page. Maybe you saw them. Maybe you didnt. But I couldnt risk you breezing past them and jumping right in, because what Im about to say will likely upset you. To be honest, I dont like saying it much myself. But here goes: I cant stand Nathan Phillips Square. Phew. That was awkward. But I feel better. Lest you think Im just playing along with the game, though, lets take it a step further. This wasnt handed to me as a position to be defended, an exercise in rhetoric, high-school-debate style. Nope. Over years of having to negotiate its 11-acre concrete desert on routine city-related chores, Ive come to loathe the experience of simply being there. Share your thoughts Youll argue, Im sure, that Im just anti-social. Its our great civic plaza, a Modernist iteration of age-old gathering spaces like those in ancient cities from Athens to Rome a democratic space where all are welcome, where we bathe in the glow of our grand ideals. That was the idea, sure. And sometimes, maybe, its even partly true, though Im unconvinced that a revolving door of one-day festivals quite lives up to those notions (overdrinking at Nuit Blanche, for one, sticks out). Summers busy, sure; this month, some of that idealism seems to hold with festivals paying tribute to the citys Japanese, Indian and Filipino communities. But on more days than not, even in summer, the square is a void, leaving us to the mercy of its natural state: an island of punishing emptiness and bleak disuse. It is outrageously, unforgivingly exposed. Setting out to cross it on a hot summer morning, as I recently did, risks heat exhaustion. I lingered in the shade of its elevated walkway (its only redeeming feature, serving mostly as a barricade to the city beyond), scoping alternative routes so as to avoid heatstroke. I wasnt the only one. Not a single human lingered in the square, and those brave enough to cross scurried to the shaded fringes. I often need to remind myself: This didnt happen as an accident of organic urban evolution (more on that in a bit). The square project gave itself carte blanche to fashion a civic focal point, and came up with this. An inhumane expanse of hard indifference, Im sure, wasnt the goal when Viljo Revell won a design competition for a new city hall with the spacey curves of his two-tower proposal. With the building, I have no quarrel. It has become a quirkily endearing icon of late-Modern architecture, occupying that oddly dissonant esthetic space of outdated futurism (for timelessness Modernism without the frills well always have Mies van der Rohes TD Centre). But Revells plan was in line not just with architecture of the day, but a prevailing notion of city building. Urban renewal, they called it, a sunny term for a dark interpretation of Modernisms blithe ideals. The movements most enduring lame-duck legacy is good intentions brutishly executed: High-minded ideas like the democratization of space, or healthy notions of work-life separation getting contorted, in the real world, to serve up housing projects, suburbs and elevated expressways all that worked out well, didnt it? that imposed a mechanical process of social erasure on an existing order. Forget all that messy history, it seemed to say. This is about the future. Brutish execution is what lies underneath the squares hard ground. To build this shining vision of progress, the city expropriated St. Johns Ward, the historic heart of the diverse city we all like to claim as our global brand. Vibrant, tumbledown and brimming with difference, it was a natural target for Toronto the Good; various efforts to raze it had fizzled (a Champs-Elysees-style promenade had been proposed as early as 1911), but the zeitgeist of urban renewal finally bolstered the effort. In true Toronto fashion of the day, there was a tagalong aspect to the effort: New York and Chicago had cratered whole neighbourhoods for expressways and housing projects. If everyone else is doing it, why cant we? (Chinatown was in the crosshairs, too; only tireless local activism saved it.) City planners, having drunk the urban-renewal Kool-Aid, saw The Ward as a blight of the past. We have a better way, they said. And so we have 11 acres of concrete and for the citys foundational neighbourhood, a sealed tomb. This likely wont be top of mind as you scurry for shelter from one side of the square to the next, whether from punishing heat in the summer or viciously icy winds that whip unimpeded across the shelterless expanse all winter long. The urge for self-preservation aside, how could it be? One of the things Nathan Phillips Square has done well since its beginnings is keep that story locked up tight. Skating rinks and fountains are fine, but is there any sense of history here, where likely stood an patchwork of immigrant businesses? Theres a little display inside just as well, maybe; whod want to stand out here anyway? (A deeper exploration of The Ward exists as a virtual museum with the Block by Block project). Theres a deep irony, to me at least, that this space, lauded as a gathering place for one and all, is fundamentally a bureaucratically convened version of what had evolved all on its own over a century preceding it. The squares revolving door of uses says something to me about the citys stance, back then, on non-mainstream cultures and their place downtown: Fine for a parade, but please move along. The citys efforts to either choke out The Ward or leave it to rot are well-documented; those festivals that take place on the square are, in a sense, an invitation to dance on its grave. So we have two problems: A vast, hard space made uninviting by a lack of human scale; and a dark history, where making way for the new meant the obliteration of the old. Maybe theres a way to kill two birds with one stone: Some discreet, human-scale interventions, maybe, that break up the squares stolid commitment to the plinth a bad, old idea from Modernism itself, aging poorly? And what if those interventions (some shade, a tree, maybe) had some lessons to teach, about what came before that the slate wasnt quite so clean as some might have you believe? The spatial ills of the squares indifference to human scale were addressed and well, if a little too reverentially in a $60-million 2015 revitalization effort that plopped a huge stage on the squares northwest corner, but then contented itself with decorations around its fringes: A facelift for the snack bar, green roofs and gardens for the elevated walkway. Curiously, a hard-won victory for the architects was to open the square back up and remove the clutter and encumbrances, Andrew Frontini, an architect on the team, told Canadian Architect magazine in 2015 (one encumbrance, the Peace Garden, was moved you guessed it to a far corner). Recessed fountains found their way into the main expanse, tucked beneath the surface and geysering up occasionally. A nice idea, but too subtle, that interrupts the nowhereness of the square almost not at all. There was an overriding sense on the team to not violate the designs original intentions, but thats too respectful by half. Nathan Phillips Square is predicated on a violation, of the ugliest and most inhuman kind. Clutter is a human. Cities are messy. Thats why we love them. Is a sanitized patch of concrete at our citys heart really the symbol we want, or deserve? Violate it, I say. Lets muddy things up. Read more about: TORONTOA frozen embryo sold to a divorced couple belongs to the ex-wife and can be implanted in her, an Ontario court has ruled in what appears to be a precedent-setting case. The decision as to ownership of the embryo created from donated sperm and eggs turned on clauses in contracts the couple signed when they embarked on the fertility process that resulted in a son. There is no law on point that has considered how to dispose of embryos when neither party has a biological connection to the embryos, Superior Court Justice Robert Del Frate wrote in his decision. (However), it would be contrary to contract law were I to decide that the wishes of the parties at the time of entering into this contract were other than what they agreed to. One cannot apply buyers remorse. Read more: Fertility clinic failures leave families heartbroken U.S. fertility doctor impregnated 6 patients with his own sperm, affidavit says Half of women who freeze their eggs feel regret afterwards, study finds The couple, identified only as D.H. and S.H., married in early 2009. In 2012, according to court records, they paid $11,500 (U.S.) to an American facility to buy donated eggs and sperm from which four embryos resulted. Two of the embryos proved viable and were sent to a fertility clinic in Mississauga, where one was successfully implanted in D.H. The other remained frozen in storage. The couple split up at about the same time their son was born in December 2012, leading to an acrimonious divorce and the dispute over the remaining embryo. D.H., now 48, asked the courts to award the embryo to her. Among other things, she argued the contract the couple signed included a stipulation the Ontario clinic would respect the patients wishes in the event of divorce, and defined her as the patient. She also said she would not seek child support from her ex and pointed out the embryo was of particular significance because it would potentially lead to the only connection to biological family her son would have. Her former husband objected to her request, saying he wanted the embryo donated instead. S.H. argued the contracts they signed with the facility in Georgia and the Canadian clinic indicated the embryos would be treated as property and that they were his because he had paid for them. He also argued his ex was barely employed and therefore unable to support their son, let alone another child, court documents show. Despite a lack of direct legal precedents, Del Frate leaned heavily on what the couple agreed to when they went down their chosen fertility road: The embryos would be treated as property. Both names were on the contracts, and it was clear they planned to jointly own the embryos regardless of who paid for them, the judge in Sudbury said in his ruling. Accordingly, they must be divided as such, however, there is only one embryo, Del Frate wrote. As it is not possible to simply split the embryo and it cannot be sold and the proceeds divided, ownership must be determined based on the agreements and the parties intentions. Del Frate ruled out taking into account whether D.H. had the financial ability to support her children, saying people have the right to make such decisions without interference. He also said the best interests of their son was irrelevant because it would be highly speculative to try to work out the implications of having a sibling or not. Ultimately, the judge ruled, the couple knew what they were agreeing to when they signed and that was essentially all he could go on. This court can only interpret the existing law, Del Frate wrote. Therefore, unless legislative changes are made, this court must decide disputes such as this one based upon the agreements signed and the parties intentions. Sara Cohen, a Toronto-based lawyer with expertise in fertility issues, said the ruling set a precedent. It is the first time, to the best of my knowledge, where a judge came out and explicitly stated that an embryo should be treated as property, Cohen said. (But) the decision were waiting for is what happens when people do have a genetic connection to the embryo is it still possible to treat an embryo like property. Based on the initial purchase price, the judge also decided each embryo was worth $2,875 (U.S.) and awarded S.H. $1,438 (U.S.) for his half share in the remaining one. As an aside, Del Frate noted that Canadian law prohibits buying or selling embryos, but said no one raised the legal conflict inherent in the contracts. FREDERICTONNew Brunswick is getting $39 million from Ottawa as it continues to recover from this springs historic floods. The province says the federal money will help cover response and recovery costs. In a news release, Deputy Premier Stephen Horsman said many people are still recovering from the flood. He says the money will cover costs like paying claims from the public and companies. The province said in June that about 12,000 properties were affected by flooding between late April and mid-May. Lisa Munn, recovery services manager with New Brunswick Emergency Measures, said that 50 to 60 homes are beyond repair. Read more: New Brunswick floods wreak havoc as rivers continue to swell Some New Brunswick residents facing tough choice after floods: clean up, or move New Brunswick says flood-hit homes may not get approval for rebuild Read more about: OTTAWAFederal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is formally asking the prime minister to immediately give cities the leeway to ban handguns. In a lengthy letter to Justin Trudeau outlining a long-term approach to tackling crime, Singh says simply adding more policing is not a solution to gun violence in cities. Thats because some measures, such as street checks and carding, have amplified distrust between police and racialized communities, Indigenous peoples and those struggling with mental illness. Instead, he says allowing cities to ban handguns would help municipal authorities deal with the fact that many gun crimes are committed with legal guns. The federal government should not stand in the way of municipal leaders who know their communities best, and want to ban these weapons to keep their residents safe, he wrote. Singh also wants the government to spend $100 million a year, starting next year, on efforts to combat gang violence a target the Trudeau government has pledged to reach after 2022. He says this funding should focus on prevention, especially looking at youth gangs, bullying and cyberbullying. Read more: New gun control bill doesnt go far enough to address disturbing trend of gun violence, critics charge Editorial | One more tragedy to prove need for tighter gun laws Opinion | Harper: Is a handgun ban legally or politically complicated for Liberals? He also wants more resources for the Canada Border Services Agency to curtail cross-border weapons smuggling. In the wake of a deadly shooting in Toronto last month, Toronto city council passed a motion urging the federal government to forbid the sale of handguns in the city and for the province to outlaw the sale of handgun ammunition in the city. The federal government has said its considering a number of different ways to crack down on handguns, including giving municipalities the ability to do so. A federal bill introduced late last winter would expand the scope of background checks on those who want to acquire a gun, strengthen record-keeping requirements for sales and require purchasers to present a firearms licence. But the government has said it is also actively exploring additional measures, including possibly changing some of the classifications of firearms that would effectively remove some of them from the commercial market. On Thursday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodales office said the government is looking at a broad range of ideas based on measures that have been most effective around the world. The recent shootings in Toronto are senseless tragedies and reminders of the devastating effects of gun violence and criminal activity in our communities. When it comes to keeping communities safe from gun violence, we are open to all options, said Scott Bardsley, Goodales spokesperson. The truth is theres a growing problem with gun crime, especially in Canadas largest cities. This is a dangerous trend, and we must stop it. The Liberals insists they have made this issue a priority, pointing to the national summit it hosted in March on guns and gangs and proposed legislative changes to gun ownership laws contained in Bill C-71, which has not yet been passed. Common-sense gun control that keeps assault weapons and illegal handguns off our streets can and will save lives, Bardsley said. Federal Conservatives are taking a wait-and-see approach to any move by the government toward banning handguns. In a statement issued last week, Conservative public safety critic Pierre Paul-Hus said his party would prefer to tackle gun violence through measures that target thugs and criminals, not taking away property from law- abiding sport shooters. As the Liberals themselves have suggested, a handgun ban would be a complex legal endeavour, Paul-Hus said. We know that whenever the Liberals attempt to curb crime with new gun laws, they always end up targeting law-abiding firearms owners instead of gang members and other criminals who use guns to commit violence. As for the NDP, Singh is urging Trudeau not only to look at short-term measures on gun control, but to also speak out more loudly against hate crimes and racist confrontations that have emerged because of misinformed reactions to gun violence. The root causes of violence such as poverty, racial discrimination, gaps in mental health services and a lack of affordable housing must also be addressed to reduce the prevalence of marginalized individuals and communities, he said. The primary reason Im writing to you today is to ask for your commitment to develop long-term and effective solutions to the root causes of gun violence by partnering with the communities affected. That is the only way we can truly tackle the issue of gun violence. OTTAWAA long-promised triage system aimed at redirecting irregular border crossers from crowded shelters in Montreal and Toronto will not be in place until as late as the end of September. The federal government says its working with individual municipalities across Ontario and must identify available housing capacity before it can roll out its triage program. Ottawa announced the so-called triage system in April following concerns raised by the province of Quebec over an influx of asylum seekers flooding temporary housing facilities in Montreal. Since then, Toronto has also seen a spike in refugee hopefuls converging on its homeless shelters and college dormitories. Both Quebec and Toronto have called on the feds for help. Ottawas response was the promised triage system, which would identify asylum seekers interested in settling in areas outside Montreal or Toronto to await the outcome of their refugee claims. But the system has not materialized and Ottawa says it is still working on it. Read more: Ontario formally requests $200 million from Ottawa to deal with asylum seekers Ottawa needs to fix operational problems at beleaguered refugee board, say frustrated staff Immigration minister criticizes Ontario Tories language on asylum seekers In May, government said it was delayed due to the Ontario provincial election. Now, Ottawa says the new Doug Ford administration is not playing ball so it has to go to municipalities to find shelter options. While this is being worked out, Ottawa is paying to house about 500 asylum seekers in hotels in the Toronto suburbs of Mississauga, Etobicoke and Markham, as the college dorms in Toronto currently housing them must be vacated by Aug. 9. The contract with these hotels extends until Sept. 30. Thats when the feds hope to be able to roll out their triage system five months after it was first announced. Our plan is to have a triage system in place by (Sept. 30) to allow us to better manage the flow of asylum seekers to different municipalities, said Mathieu Genest, press secretary for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen. The City of Toronto is co-ordinating the outreach to municipalities in Ontario to identify areas where housing capacity exists. The city is working closely with the federal government to secure accommodation for the approximately 3,053 refugees and asylum seekers currently living in the city, Toronto spokeswoman Daniela Magisano said Wednesday. Earlier this month, Toronto Mayor John Tory convened an urgent call with mayors from other large cities in Ontario, asking them to identify any sites or facilities that could be repurposed as temporary housing, as well as connections to employers for job opportunities. Mayors responded positively to Torontos call for help, including Frank Scarpitti, mayor of Markham. But not everyone in Markham is ready to welcome the refugees. A protest on the weekend denounced any plan to house illegal border crossers in the community. The demonstration came to fisticuffs, with some protesters waving signs saying, Markham say no to illegal border crossers, and Protect our city, protect our home, while counter-protesters fought them with their own signs and chants of Refugees are welcome here. Scarpitti says he believes the protest was organized by candidates running against him in the upcoming municipal elections and said rumours of 5,000 asylum seekers coming to Markham are false. The mayor went out of his way to stress that while he believes in welcoming refugees and wants to help Toronto with its housing crunch, he is not throwing the doors wide open to asylum seekers. All that I did was indicate that we would see, because we have very limited options as the City of Markham... if there was any ability to help out in some small way given the limited options that we had, Scarpitti said Wednesday in an interview. This notion that 5,000 are coming to the city of Markham is a gross exaggeration and meant to instill a reaction. And shame on these people, these candidates. NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan says she believes the backlash against irregular migrants is a result of tensions caused by a lack of forward planning and leadership from the federal government. It also doesnt help when you have politicians misrepresenting the situation. Calling asylum seekers illegals that really exasperates the situation and creates the negative sentiments and dehumanizes asylum seekers, she said, noting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hussen have referred at times to irregular migration as illegal. She questions why government is still trying to work out details of its triage plan five months after it was announced and well over a year since flows of refugee claimants began to cross irregularly across the U.S.-Canada border. By and large we knew that the numbers were going to go up because of the Trump administration, she said. Right from the get-go, the NDP (and) I have called for the government to come up with a strategy to deal with the situation. We knew that housing was going to be a critical component of this. A prominent Hamilton lawyer has been charged with bigamy after allegedly forging documents so he could divorce his justice of the peace wife and marry his law clerk. James Morton, a former president of the Ontario Bar Association, is also facing disciplinary proceedings before the Law Society of Ontario. A law student who was articling with Mortons firm is alleged to have submitted the false divorce documents at the Newmarket courthouse in April on the instructions of law clerk Jennifer Packwood, Mortons intended wife. A courthouse clerk was concerned about irregularities, according to an affidavit from law society investigator Brian Borg, which was filed as part of Mortons disciplinary proceedings. After the law student left the courthouse, the clerk called the police. Borg said the court clerk discovered that the file number on the divorce order was fictitious. The clerk also found out that the dockets for the two judges named on the order showed they had not presided over any case involving Morton and his wife, Justice of the Peace Rhonda Shousterman, who presides in Newmarket. Despite questions about the paperwork, Borgs affidavit said Morton was granted a certificate of divorce May 1, and he married Packwood at a ceremony in Niagara on May 12. Morton was arrested on June 26 on charges of bigamy, obstruction of justice and forgery-related offences. His first court appearance was on Thursday in Newmarket, and the case is back in court on Sept. 12. The maximum sentence for a bigamy conviction is five years in prison. The law society, which regulates the legal profession in Ontario, is asking its tribunal to temporarily suspend Mortons licence pending the outcome of his disciplinary proceedings. A hearing for the law societys motion to suspend or restrict Mortons licence is set for Aug. 13. Mortons lawyer, Stephen Bernstein, declined to comment to the Star. Called to the bar in 1988, Morton practises law in Ontario and Nunavut, and is a certified specialist in civil litigation. He is also former counsel to the Association of Justices of the Peace of Ontario. Morton unsuccessfully ran as the Liberal Party candidate in Oshawa in the 2011 federal election. According to a profile in the local newspaper at the time, Morton held leadership positions within both the provincial and federal Liberal parties. He and Shousterman had been married for more than 20 years by 2011. Listen, theres nothing tremendously wrong with me, Morton said to Borg, the law society investigator, during an interview in July, according to Borgs affidavit. I have a strong and supportive spouse, Ill call her that. If your head is spinning over Premier Doug Fords plan to chop Toronto city council almost in half, to just 25 councillors, youre not alone. The Star plans to investigate the most pressing questions and most dubious claims swirling around Fords surprise move. Star reporters will be updating this story over the coming days and weeks. Last updated Aug. 2, 2018. How much will it cost the city to redo ward boundaries in the middle of an election? Ford says cutting councils size will save the taxpayers $25 million, but Councillor Gord Perks insisted in council this week that the cost to the clerk of having to set up a second election will eat up all the savings. The Star has reached out to the city for a number on how much it will cost, and this fact check will be updated once they get back with response. We do know that $17.5 million was budgeted for the election, and the clerks office was already knee deep in planning. City clerk Ulli Watkiss described last week what would need to be redone, including numbering new voting subdivisions, recalculating spending limits for candidates, creating a new plan for communicating boundary changes and preparing new preliminary voters lists. Guelph city clerk Stephen OBrien said it would be very tough to even provide a ballpark figure on how much it will cost Toronto. But he said his own city budgets about half a million dollars for their municipal election, and if they had to redraw their ward boundaries at this point a significant portion of that budget would be affected. For example, vendors would have to be paid again in full to redo work theyd already done. Speaking generally, he said, When you make significant changes to the structure, like is being proposed, some of those costs may have to be incurred in whole again. Do more than half of Torontonians support Fords plan to reduce the size of council? In the legislature on Aug. 2, Ford said he read a poll in the Star that showed 68 per cent of the people are in favour of reducing the size and cost of government. Ford appears to be referring to a tweet from a Toronto Sun columnist, who on July 31 referenced results at that time from a reader survey on the Stars website. His tweet said that there was 68.77 per cent (3,711 votes) support for cutting the size of council, according to that survey. The Star surveys readers online to get their feedback and engage them in the stories. These surveys are not random, nor are they scientific, unlike those done by polling companies that independently gauge public opinion. Anyone can take the survey regardless of whether they live in or outside Toronto. The Stars surveys also arent weighted to be reflective of the makeup of Toronto, meaning they dont produce results that consider the age or other variables. Looking at the reader surveys the Star has posted about Fords plan to cut council, there have been widely varying results. The survey with the most participation, nearly 18,000 responses as of Aug. 2, was posted in a July 26 article, and found 46 per cent of votes were against cutting the size of council while 43 per cent were for it. Another embedded in a July 31 opinion piece supporting the cuts, which it appears the tweet referenced, saw 72 per cent of votes for the cut (out of more than 6,900 total votes). Another posted the same day in an opinion piece against the cuts saw 54 per cent of votes opposed the plan (out of more than 1,100 total votes). In total, the Star has posted five surveys on the topic of cutting the size of council since news of Fords plan broke. About 17,500 votes in total have been for the cuts, and nearly 15,000 have been against them but, again, the Stars surveys are not meant to be scientific. A recent scientific poll on the question found a plurality of Torontonians oppose Fords plan: Forum Research conducted an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,328 randomly selected Toronto voters on July 27. It found 47 per cent of those surveyed were strongly or somewhat opposed to the reduction in councils size and 35 per cent were strongly or somewhat in favour. Another 19 per cent were indifferent or didnt know. The results are considered accurate plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20 (a standard measure). The methodology for the survey notes: Where appropriate, the data has been statistically weighted by age, region, and other variables to ensure that the sample reflects the actual population according to the latest Census data. Did the PCs win more votes than the NDP in Toronto? On Monday, July 30, Ford said in the legislature that his PC party ended up getting 88,646 more votes than the NDP, all combined, in the city of Toronto in the election. Thats not true. The official results of the June election, posted by Elections Ontario for the 25 Toronto ridings, when tallied, show Ford was way off. The NDP actually received 40,534 more votes than the PC party. In total, irrespective of which party won the seat, the NDP received 400,443 votes in those 25 wards and the PC party got 359,909. What would other Ontario cities look like Torontos new councillor-to-citizen ratio? If each Ontario city or town had an equal number of municipal, provincial and federal representatives, as Ford says is best for Toronto, many would have a single councillor. These places include Waterloo, Guelph, Milton, Newmarket and Oshawa, all of which have one MP and MPP and populations exceeding 100,000. Currently, these municipalities have a total of 47 councillors plus mayors. Larger cities would see dramatic cuts to their city councils as well. Ottawa, with nearly one million residents, would see its 23 council seats reduced to eight. Hamiltons half a million residents would be represented by five councillors, down from 15. Further north, Muskoka and Parry Sound would have to share one councillor. Using the strict math of one councillor per MPP, the 38 municipalities in the Algoma-Manitoulin ridings 109,575 square kilometres would have a single municipal representative. Do the Toronto councillors who support Fords plan represent close to two million people? No. In Question Period on Monday, July 30, Ford made the claim that 12 Toronto councillors, representing close to two million people, were in support of his plan. He appears to have been be referring to a recent new conference in which 11 councillors came out in support of his cuts. According to 2016 census data, those 11 councillors represent a total of 661,510 constituents. The average Toronto ward has about 60,000 people, meaning a 12th councillor would likely bring the total to about 720,000 people. Torontos population is more than 2.7 million, also according to the latest census data. That means the portion of the city represented by the citys other 32 councillors is about two million people. Why are there more municipal wards than federal and provincial ridings in Toronto? Some make the argument that more councillors, and smaller wards, equals better access to government the logic being that councillors are able to pay more attention to their constituents and are able to get problems solved more easily. Municipalities are not the same kind of government as federal and provincial governments, says Alexandra Flynn, an assistant professor of human geography and city studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Because we call our councillor when we have a pothole. How does Torontos council compare to other cities? Ford used Los Angeles, where there are 15 councillors for almost 4 million people, as an example of a place where city government is small and streamlined. But the Southern California city also has almost 100 neighbourhood councils with 1,800 elected board members serving on them, according to their website. The councils, created in the late 90s to improve access to local government, act as grassroots advisory bodies. Theyre made up of people who live, work and own property in the area, who are not city councillors. Toronto also has community councils, but they are very different entities groupings of wards and made up of councillors in those wards. Under Fords proposed cuts, the ratio would be one councillor per 109,263 people in Toronto, much less representation from local government per individual than in L.A., taking neighbourhood councils into account. By comparison, Chicago, a city of 2.719 million according to 2014 U.S. census figures, has 50 aldermen a ratio of one alderman per 54,380 people. Ottawa has 23 councillors, but a ratio of one councillor per 38,408 people, according to a 2014 report on Torontos ward boundary review. How did we get to 47 councillors? Ford said repeatedly during his Thursday announcement that no one has ever told him they want more politicians. But, during extensive consultations for the ward boundary review the city did to get to the 47-ward plan, people did say they wanted to have more access to their councillors, said U of Ts Flynn. The city undertook the ward boundary review in 2014 to determine if all residents were being fairly represented. It took into account a Supreme Court decision that said all votes should have equal weight; meaning the vote from a person living in downtown Toronto should have as much influence as a vote from a person living in Scarborough. The logic behind the 47-ward model was to fix a ward-to-population imbalance, which was only going to get worse with rapid downtown growth. In November 2016, council voted 28-to-13 to approve consultant recommendations on the new ward boundaries, adding three wards downtown while taking one away there, and adding one in Willowdale. This structure was supposed to keep the councillor-to-person ratio at around one per 60,000. During this process, the idea of matching the federal electoral districts was considered and rejected, Flynn said, because it didnt ensure equal representation. It really comes down to how many people does that councillor represent and are the number of people that the councillor is representing roughly equal across the city, she said. Under the 25-wards model, looking at projected population for 2026 in the ward boundary review report, downtown wards Toronto Centre and Spadina-Fort York, and Etobicoke-Lakeshore would have the biggest populations with councillors there representing more than 150,000 people. For example, Spadina Fort-York would have 153,846 people compared to Don Valley East with 98,273. Would suburban voters really be under-represented under the 47-councillor plan? Yes, but not for long. Jim Karygiannis (Ward 39 Scarborough-Agincourt) told 680 News he supports Fords proposal because it will fix the unequal balance for the suburbs. In the ward boundary review process, the consultants hired by the city looked at the projected population for 2026, rather than past census data, Flynn said. The 47-ward model would have added councillors downtown, as that population is expected to grow at a faster rate than the suburbs. In the short term ... there will be fewer people downtown but more people in the suburbs so it will still be unequal but because of the projected population it will not be unequal for long, said Flynn. How much will the seat reduction save? Reducing the size of Toronto city council is estimated to save Toronto taxpayers $25.5 million over four years, the premiers office said in a statement. That breaks down to a savings of about $6.3 million a year. Last year, the salaries and expenses for Torontos city councillors totalled $17,349,526. That averages out to $394,307 per councillor. There will be 25 remaining city council positions. Using the 2017 numbers, the Star can project that the total remuneration and expenses would amount to $9,857,685 a year for the new city council. Thats a savings of $7,491,841 a year or $4.61 for every city of Toronto resident 15 or older. What can that kind of savings buy? $9.4 million: cost of land purchased for the George Street Revitalization, according to the City of Toronto website. $8.511 million: budget for the Toronto Public Library renovating and expanding Wychwood Branch, according to the 2018 preliminary operating budget. $6.5 million: cost of the Ravens Roost project at the Toronto Zoo, according to the 2018 2027 Preliminary Capital Budget and Plan. $10.32 million: cost of the King-Liberty Pedestrian and Cycling bridge, according to the 2018 Capital Budget for Transportation Services. $6.9 million: investment in 215 affordable rental homes in the East Bayfront district, according to a recent city council decision. $6 million: cost of 120 power stretchers for Toronto paramedics, according to the 2018 Capital Budget for Toronto Paramedic Services. $7.4 million: cost of increased enforcement and surveillance, including 40 new CCTV cameras, as part of the citys plan to combat gun violence. What do the changes mean for the Oct. 22 election? Theyre going to have to do a lot of adjustments with very little time, said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. At city council on Friday, the city clerk flagged potential difficulties with advance voting and ballot counting. Im not surprised at all that they would be projecting problems with meeting deadlines to actually implement this fully, Conacher said. He said the rejigging of city council wont necessarily increase the cost of the election, but its going to make the clerks office work double overtime for the next three months to try to adjust to this. Polling station locations will have to be reconsidered, Conacher said. Youre setting up this whole new system of boundaries, and that means a whole new system for identification of each voter and making sure theyre voting at the right polling station. Greg Albo, a professor at York Universitys politics department, said there will be little to no time for public consultation on the legislation to cut the number of seats. Its Ford and a range of unelected people around his office that are determining this, Albo said. The 2014 municipal election, which saw 991,754 votes cast in 44 wards, cost $8.39 million. That was a 21 per cent increase in cost from the 2010 municipal election, due to an expanded advance vote model, increase in the number of voting locations and additional staffing requirements. What could the change mean for council after the election? If theyre going to maintain the same service levels, then youre going to have to double the staff of each councillor, Conacher said. If youre doubling the staff of each councillor, then those costs will not be reduced. Greg Albo, professor at York Universitys politics department, agreed that staff may need to be expanded if the number of city councillors is reduced. At the level of representation we have, which is already on the low end, staff can barely handle the issues related to constituency issues: problems with the neighbour, problems with parking, problems getting Ontario hydro to respond, all those things. Read more about: Toronto has been here before. A judge once described the surprise restructuring of a city, not unlike what is now being considered at the urging of Premier Doug Ford, as megachutzpah. In a different time, under a different provincial government, the plan suddenly imposed on what is now the city of Toronto was amalgamating six municipalities into one. When former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris moved to form the megacity under Bill 103 the City of Toronto Act in 1997, there was little consultation. It had not been raised by the PC party in the preceding 1995 election. There was a call for a referendum (which later found three out of four Metro Toronto voters rejected the plans). Sound familiar? Now, more than two decades later, the newly elected PC government under Ford plans to thrust a 25-ward structure on Toronto, cutting the number of wards nearly in half, in the middle of an election. It has left the city and its citizens again considering their legal options. Read more: Slashing city council makes serving constituents the Rob Ford way seem impossible No, Fords PCs didnt win more Toronto votes than the NDP Slimmer Toronto council will be more nimble, says minister But the legal fight against amalgamation provides insight into the limited avenues the city itself and others have available, after council directed staff on Monday to outline options before Labour Day. In 1997, a court challenge was launched against Bill 103 by some of the affected governments, including the borough of East York, and a large group of organized citizens, led by former mayor John Sewell. They argued that the charter rights of many citizens would be violated by the creation of a megacity on several grounds, including that the ratio of politicians to electors would be decreased and result in worse representation. They also argued there had not been proper consultation. But in July 1997, Ontario Court Judge Stephen Borins dismissed the case. Yes, he found in his decision, the province had not specifically studied the need to restructure before introducing the bill, nor was anyone really consulted about it before it was introduced for first reading in the legislature later government committee hearings, he acknowledged, were too little, too late. And, he accepted, Bill 103 came as a surprise to most inhabitants since the idea of a megacity and how it would be governed was not included specifically in the government's 1995 election platform. Such, however, is the prerogative of government, Borins ruled. It may be that the government displayed megachutzpah in proceeding as it did, and in believing that the inhabitants of Metro Toronto would submit to the imposition of the megacity without being given an opportunity to have a real say in how they were to live and be governed, he wrote. However, the question for the court is not the governments political posture, but rather its legal and constitutional authority to proceed as it did. He continued: In any event, the charter does not guarantee an individual the right to live his or her life free from government chutzpah or imperiousness. Borins was clear that a case that the megacity infringed charter rights, as presented, did not exist, including that the charter does not guarantee the ratio of politicians to electors, nor did citizens and the city have a constitutionally protected right to be consulted with respect to proposed provincial legislation. And that was that. Though the applicants advanced their cases to the Court of Appeal and separately to the Supreme Court of Canada in late 1997, the Appeal Court upheld Borins decision, while the Supreme Court refused to hear the application. Two of the judges on the Court of Appeal panel who made that decision now sit on the Supreme Court bench. Since then, the City of Toronto Act has been amended to include language that the province endorses the principle that it is in the best interests of the city to work together in a relationship based on mutual respect, consultation and co-operation. That language stems from an agreement made between the city and the province, which the citys website notes has been renewed in recent years, including in 2011 by the Liberal minister of municipal affairs at the time and then mayor Rob Ford. The agreement outlines that the province will consult the city on any proposed change in legislation or regulation that, in Ontarios opinion, will have a significant financial or policy impact on the city. Peter Hogg, a leading constitutional law scholar currently in residence at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, said the Constitution Act gives the province an exclusive power over cities that cant be overruled, even by the federal government. The reality is that the provincial legislature has the power to do what Premier Ford proposes, Hogg said. The absence of advance notice to or consultation of the people of the province of such a radical move does not make the legislation invalid if it is duly enacted by the legislature. Municipal lawyer John Mascarin, who co-authored a legal guide to the City of Toronto Act published in 2008, explained the city wanted the obligation to consult enshrined in the amended act, as did other municipalities as it relates to the Municipal Act, which now includes the same principle about consultation. Constitutionally theres no requirement to consult, however the province agreed with Toronto that they would consult with them and co-operate and they havent done any of that, Mascarin said, adding the new language on consultation has not been tested in court, to his knowledge He added there may be an administrative argument to ask for an injunction if the city can make the case they may not be able to logistically carry out the election in the time allowed. Sewell, a lawyer, told the Star on Monday he doesnt think there are any legal options available to the city now. The legal actions not going to go anywhere, Sewell said. He also said a referendum is pointless unless there is an extraordinary public eduction campaign like the one Citizens for Local Democracy launched in 1997, which included meetings of thousands of people in places like St. James Cathedral and Massey Hall and handing out broadsheets on subway platforms to explain what was at stake. We had a meeting every Monday night. We didnt fool around. The best remedy now, he said, would be for ordinary citizens to pressure the province to scrap the proposed changes. He noted hundreds showed up to speak against the megacity at committee hearings on Bill 103. Jennifer Keesmaats harshest critics often complained about how directly she shared her opinion on what she saw as best for the city, even when it was in conflict with the mayors vision a light-rail line to serve more people when a subway was promised, razing the Gardiner Expressway instead of rebuilding it. That kind of talk was for politicians, not for a senior city bureaucrat, they said. Now here she is running for mayor, and putting forth her own vision of Torontos future. Keesmaat is calling for stronger autonomy for the city, committing to building excellent transit and giving Mayor John Tory a failing grade on making Toronto more affordable. It was Torys comments on Friday morning calling for a referendum in the face of Premier Doug Fords move to slash city council to 25 wards, which some called a meek response that pushed Keesmaat, the former chief city planner, into the mayors race. Read more: We need bold ideas in this city. Jennifer Keesmaat to run for mayor of Toronto Opinion | Why Jennifer Keesmaats mayoral run is good for Toronto Mayor John Tory pledges to keep property tax increases at or below inflation I think like a lot of Torontonians who woke up that morning, I was feeling that Toronto needed to stand up tall and needed to stand up together, Keesmaat said in an interview with the Star just five days after putting her name on the ballot. Shed biked down to city hall on Friday, with the needed identification in her backpack, to register just moments before a 2 p.m. deadline. I was pretty preoccupied with those thoughts that, OK, this is a moment where leadership is required in our city. This is it, she said. For months, Keesmaat had been pressured to run by actors across the political spectrum, community leaders and residents, she said. The number of calls escalated in the weeks leading up to the deadline, with no big-name challengers yet signed up to take on Tory. And then Friday morning happened, she said. Her calls for Torontos secession in the wake of Fords move and ahead of her entering the race have caused a stir among people in Torys camp and beyond. Though she told CP24 earlier that it was a response to the news and not a policy plank, she said she believes the largest cities in Canada need more autonomy. They need self-governance, she said. They need stronger tools from the government in order to be able to do more. I believe that strongly. Those tweets were really an expression of that. Tory himself has chastised the provincial government, under former premier Kathleen Wynne, for interfering in councils plans, such as a scuttled attempt to toll its own expressways, and has opposed the need to go to Queens Park in short pants to ask permission to drive the citys own destiny. Have your say Serving as chief planner for five years gave Keesmaat a front-row seat to the decisions being made in the council chamber and meeting rooms, she said. It fed her desire to run. On many of the issues that matter most, we have to ask the questions: Have things gotten better? she said. Has the commute gotten better? Because that was a pretty big promise Has transit gotten better or have we just continued doing it the way we were doing it before, still spinning our wheels? And on building affordable housing, on which Tory staked the early part of his re-election campaign, she said many still feel squeezed out. When we ask, are things getting better on the affordability front, I think the report card doesnt look so great. As for Torys campaign promise Wednesday to keep property taxes at or below inflation, Keesmaat said a bolder vision is needed. A slogan isnt a fiscal plan, she said. This city needs a fiscal plan. It needs a strategy. She promised her own in the days to come, with her policy platform not yet defined. Its not clear what to expect on several fronts from Keesmaat, a progressive, urban voice once considered a viable candidate for the Liberal party at the provincial and federal levels, surrounded now by several NDP strategists. Shes never run for political office anywhere. Her stance on some issues is clearly known from her time at city hall. She was unapologetic about her views on a boulevard option, rather than constructing a new elevated eastern stretch of the Gardiner Expressway, which drew sharp remarks from Tory in 2015. Her position on controversial issues like the Scarborough subway is more complicated. In 2013, she worked behind the scenes to try, unsuccessfully, to stop council under then mayor Rob Ford from scrapping a fully funded, seven-stop light-rail line to replace the aging Scarborough RT. They approved a three-stop subway instead. In 2016, it was Keesmaat who introduced what became known as a peace-in-the-land plan that, she claimed, could use the savings from deleting two subway stops to fund an extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT to the University of Torontos Scarborough campus. I believe in excellent transit for Scarborough. I also believe in excellent transit for this entire city, she said Wednesday, promising an approach to transit that is not project-based but about the entire system. She noted studies showed a large number of people who use transit in the suburb take trips that begin and end in Scarborough. It will be driven by what is in the best interests of Scarborough and what is in the best interest of this city. On issues like transit and housing, she said there are solutions Tory and council havent pursued yet and ideas that she couldnt explore within her limits as chief planner. Ive been on the other side of the glass saying, Hey, if I was over there, theres all these other tools that I would have at my disposal that I could use to really move the dial on the commute, on transit, on affordable housing, she said. Im aspirational, and I dont believe the way the city has been run is aspirational. I think its been about messaging. Its been about politicking. I believe its in our DNA to be aspirational as a city and that we can have aspirational leadership once again. Read more about: Alaska Airlines is under fire after a man said he and his boyfriend were told to sit apart on a California-bound plane because a straight couple wanted to sit together. David Cooley, owner of a popular gay bar in Los Angeles, said he and his partner had been in their assigned premium seats aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1407 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York when a flight attendant approached them. His partner, Cooley said, was asked to relinquish his premium seat and move to an economy-class seat so that another couple could sit next to each other. Cooley told the attendant that they, too, are a couple and they wanted to sit together. But still, he said, his partner was given a choice: Move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane, Cooley said in a Sunday Facebook post recounting the incident. I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave. Alaska Airlineshas since apologized and said it is investigating the incident. This unfortunate incident was caused by a seating error, compounded by a full flight and a crew seeking an on-time departure and nothing more than that, the airline said. Its our policy to keep all families together whenever possible; that didnt happen here and we are deeply sorry for the situation. Weve reached out to Mr. Cooley to offer our sincere apologies for what happened and we are seeking to make it right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, the airline added. A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a followup question about what caused the seating error, but the airline told CBS News that it had mistakenly booked two people in one seat. The airline also said it has a history of supporting LGBTQ rights. For example, the Human Rights Campaign gave Alaska Airlines a perfect rating in evaluating company policies that promote diversity and prevent discrimination against LGBTQ employees. The companys website also has a dedicated LGBT travel planning page, a one-stop shop for finding vacation spots, special events and Pride celebrations. Diversity and inclusion are part of the fabric of Alaska Airlines, the airline said, adding that it works with non-profit LGBTQ organizations. In his Facebook post, which has been shared about 1,600 times as of Tuesday, Cooley said he and his boyfriend flew home to Los Angeles aboard a Delta Air Lines flight. He vowed to never fly Alaska Airlines again and urged his friends to do the same. At least one advocacy group has spoken out about the incident. Good morning, @AlaskaAir. How is this investigation going? Inquiring #LGBTQ and #Ally minds would like to know! PFLAG National, a Washington-based LGBTQ group, tweeted Monday. Alaska Airlines is not the first carrier to face similar allegations of discrimination. Last year, a New York family said they were denied family boarding privileges on a Southwest Airlines flight because the parents are a same-sex couple. We approached the family boarding area as we have done many times, Grant Morse, who was flying from Buffalo to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his husband, three children and the childrens grandmother, told HuffPost. The boarding agent assertively approached and said, This is family boarding. My husband responded, We know, we are a family. She said, Not all can go. This is family boarding. Southwest Airlines denied that it discriminated against the couple and that the group wasnt allowed to board together because the grandmother was assigned in a different boarding group. AURORA, COLO.A decorated Vietnam War veteran woke up to the sound of his front door crashing in and saw a naked intruder attack his grandson, so he acted to protect his loved ones, according to his familys lawyer. As the man tried to choke and drown the boy in the bathroom, Richard Black and his son desperately tried to pull him off early Monday, even poking him in the eyes, before the 73-year-old grabbed his 9 mm handgun and shot the intruder twice in the chest, lawyer Siddhartha H. Rathod said. Soon after, police responding to 911 calls shot and killed Black in his house outside Denver. Mr. Black did everything right. His actions saved his grandsons life. He should be in the mayors office getting a commendation for his heroism. Instead hes in the morgue, Rathod said. Its the fourth police shooting in the city of Aurora in about a month. Police say the officer who killed Black also was involved in another fatal shooting on June 27 that is still being investigated. Police in Aurora Colorados third-largest city on the eastern edge of Denver so far have released only some details as they investigate the shooting in the racially mixed neighbourhood of mostly 1950s ranch homes, saying they need to balance transparency with ensuring a credible investigation. But they plan to release more information at a news conference Thursday. We know how important it is for our community to know and understand what occurred the night of this officer-involved shooting and making sure you have the best information possible, Chief Nick Metz said in a video posted online Wednesday. He expressed frustration with unspecified false information that has spread in the absence of more details from police. He said police know what happened based on evidence including 911 recordings, officer body camera footage and interviews. Metz also expressed his sympathy to members of Blacks family. This has been a very tragic situation and a very heartbreaking situation for everyone involved, and our hearts go out to the Black family, the chief said. Police have previously said officers responded to a very chaotic and violent scene and one 911 call said an intruder was breaking in to the home. Blacks wife, Jeanette, called authorities from outside, describing her husband and son, who are white, and the intruder, who was black, Rathod said. Police said officers heard gunshots fired inside and encountered an armed male. An officer opened fire, striking the man, who police say turned out to be the homeowner. They said a juvenile was found with serious injuries in the homes bathroom along with the dead intruder, identified by the Adams County coroners office as 26-year-old Dajon Harper. The boy, whose age wasnt released, was expected to recover. Blacks neighbourhood is not far from the new, desirable Stapleton community built at Denvers former airport. The houses are smaller in the older area and some are not kept up as well as Blacks home, where he was known for watering flowers and vegetables in raised beds and building a zip line for his grandchildren. Neighbours say crime mainly robberies, shootings and drugs is a problem and back Blacks actions to defend his family, which is allowed under Colorado law. The state was one of the first to adopt a Make My Day law allowing people to shoot and kill intruders in self-defence in their homes. But neighbours feelings about police vary. Last month, a woman was stabbed during an attempted robbery at her home nine blocks away. Neighbour Troy Jones said the ice cream man was robbed at gunpoint across the street from his home a few weeks ago. Jones said crime became more of a problem after many longtime residents died and their homes were turned into rentals. Jones, who owns his home, said he has a good relationship with the police officer assigned to the neighbourhood and sometimes talks to officers who stop in the parking lot of the church next door. But he is concerned about police shootings in the city. If theyre scared in their jobs, they need to be in different jobs, he said. Mike Montgomery, a neighbour and retired Marine, said he tries to give police the benefit of the doubt during investigations and wonders what the officer who killed Black must be going through. He said anyone who is not armed in the neighbourhood is crazy and that he would have done the same thing as Black to protect his family. He was put in a bad situation, a situation he shouldnt have been put into. Nobody should, he said. DAYTON, OHIOA 911 call at a sprawling Ohio Air Force base on Thursday sent armoured vehicles and unmarked police cars rushing to a medical centre where people hid behind locked doors until authorities determined there was no threat. During an extensive search after the call, a security team member shot through a locked door while checking rooms throughout the hospital, according to officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The call came during a training exercise that included an active shooter scenario in another area of the base at least a half-mile away, said Daryl Mayer, a base spokesperson. So far, it's not clear why the 911 call was made from inside the base or whether it was prompted by the training exercise, he said. Security team members involved in the training don't fire blanks and use guns that clearly aren't real, Mayer said. Initial tweets from the base and authorities saying security forces were responding to an active shooter report set off a scare at Wright-Patterson, which is Ohio's largest single-site employer with more than 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. Some workers said via Twitter that they were locked down and hiding in their offices. Within about two hours, service members and medical workers began leaving the hospital with their hands in the air and stood outside the building. The base's commander, Col. Thomas Sherman, said security forces stopped their training exercise and responded to the hospital after the 911 call. After security searched the hospital, which had been on lockdown, they determined there had been no active shooter. "I wouldn't say anything went wrong in this case," Sherman said, adding that there will be an investigation into the entire response. Wright-Patterson first tweeted that emergency units responded to a "reported incident" around 12:40 p.m. An hour later, they said it was a reported active shooter incident and personnel were instructed to shelter in place. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives along with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police sent crews to the base, which was the site where the Dayton Peace Accords were finalized in 1995, an international peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. In June 2017, a mistaken report of a shooter prompted the lockdown of Travis Air Force Base in California in the midst of an emergency training exercise. The base ordered people to shelter in place and lock their doors and windows. Gates were closed for more than an hour before the all-clear was given at the site 45 miles (72 kilometres) northeast of San Francisco. An employee at a shelter for immigrant children in Phoenix has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl housed at the facility, according to court records in Maricopa County, Arizona. Fernando Magaz Negrete, a 32-year-old employee of federal contractor Southwest Key Programs, is accused of slipping into the girls room late at night and forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching her, according to court documents. He was arrested and charged Tuesday with molestation of a child, sexual abuse and aggravated assault. A spokesperson for Southwest Key Programs, which operates dozens of shelters across the country for migrant children, said the employee has been terminated. When a child tells us of inappropriate behaviour, we immediately call law enforcement and start an internal investigation as appropriate, the spokesperson, Jeff Eller, said in a statement to The Washington Post. Thats what happened in this case. Southwest Key always works with law enforcement to bring the full force of the law to bear when it is warranted. The statement did not address questions about whether the girl was an immigrant previously separated from her parents at the border. The Arizona Republic reported that the specific facility where she was held which is not specified in court documents is intended to house separated children. Police documents in Magaz Negretes case describe it as a juvenile facility for refugee children. Read more: Trump administration reunites 364 children with their families, leaving hundreds still to go Migrant toddler reportedly dies after leaving ICE facility How a community that backed Trump said no to an immigration detention centre and won Melania Trump, in fact, visited this same facility in June, Phoenixs ABC15 reported. According to a probable cause statement, a teenage girl sharing the room with the 14-year-old victim witnessed the alleged June 27 incident and sparked the investigation when she reported it to authorities July 25. In interviews with investigators, the 14-year-old girl said Magaz Negrete entered her room and began kissing her on the lips. She then pushed him away, got away from him and went to her bed angry, police said in the probable cause statement. The two teenage witnesses sharing the bedroom with her told authorities they observed Magaz Negrete touching the 14-year-olds breasts and crotch over her clothes. Surveillance footage captured Magaz Negrete approaching the girls bedroom several times between 9 and 10:30 on the night of June 27, according to the probable cause statement. The girls doorway and bedroom, however, were out of the cameras view. Police said Magaz Negrete admitted to kissing the girl and touching her vagina over her clothing when police questioned him at his residence. Since the Trump administration ended its policy of family separation at the border in response to bipartisan outcry, the government has scrambled to reunite the families, including more than 2,500 children, under court-ordered deadlines. While the federal government said last week it had reunited most of the separated families, more than 700 children remained in shelters for various reasons, including because their parents have criminal records or are no longer in the United States, as The Post reported then. Thousands of other children are in shelters after arriving as unaccompanied minors. Conditions of those shelters have invited scrutiny as reports of the childrens experiences have trickled out from immigration attorneys and families. For example, one boy The Post spoke with who spent time at a Chicago shelter said he felt like a prisoner and spent three weeks in isolation after getting chickenpox, while a girl said she had come down with conjunctivitis and had been placed in a room by herself at a shelter in Harlingen, Texas. Last week, a federal judge ordered a facility in Manvel, Texas, to stop giving children psychotropic drugs without their parents consent. Complaints of sexual abuse at immigrant shelters for children, which are overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Departments Office of Refugee Resettlement and operated by contractors, are not uncommon. A recent ProPublica investigation found that police responded to at least 125 calls reporting sex offences in the last five years at shelters primarily housing immigrant children. The investigation had analyzed incidents at more than 70 out of approximately 100 such shelters nationwide. If youre a predator, its a gold mine, Lisa Fortuna, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Boston Medical Center, told ProPublica. You have full access and then you have kids that have already had this history of being victimized. Magaz Negrete is currently being held in the Maricopa County Jail on $150,000 (U.S.) bond. He made his first appearance in court Wednesday, where a judge pledged to appoint a lawyer for him. Magaz Negrete asked in Spanish whether he could hire his own. No attorney could be located for him in court records as of Wednesday night. Read more about: VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has decreed that the death penalty is inadmissible under all circumstances and that the Catholic Church must work to abolish it, changing official church teaching to reflect his view that all life is sacred and there is no justification for state-sponsored executions. The Vatican said Francis had approved a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church the compilation of official Catholic teaching to say that capital punishment constitutes an attack on the dignity of human beings. Previously, the catechism said the church didnt exclude recourse to capital punishment if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. Previous popes have upheld that position, while urging an end to the practice. The new teaching, contained in Catechism No. 2267, says the previous policy is outdated, that there are other ways to protect the common good, and that the church should instead commit itself to working to end capital punishment. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme means of safeguarding the common good, the new text reads. It said today there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. New systems of detention and sanctions have been developed that dont deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption, it added. Consequently, the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide, reads the new text, which was approved in May but only published Thursday. Francis has long railed against the death penalty, insisting it can never be justified, no matter how heinous the crime. He has also long made prison ministry a mainstay of his vocation and even opposes life sentences, which he has called hidden death sentences. On nearly every foreign trip, Francis has visited with inmates to offer words of solidarity and hope, and he still stays in touch with a group of Argentine inmates he ministered to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires. The death penalty has been abolished in most of Europe and South America, but it is still in use in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Just this week Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could soon move to reinstate the death penalty, which it had abolished in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union. In an accompanying letter explaining the change, the head of the Vaticans doctrine office said the development of Catholic doctrine on capital punishment didnt contradict prior teaching but rather was an evolution of it a defence to fend off critics who have already accused the pope of heresy for challenging past doctrine on capital punishment. Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the change aims to give energy to the anti-death penalty movement and to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect. Francis is not alone. Perhaps the most famous Roman Catholic anti-death penalty campaigner is Sister Helen Prejean, whose book Dead Man Walking about her spiritual ministry to a man on death row helped fuel opposition in the United States to capital punishment. In addition, plenty of Catholic organizations are active in the anti-death penalty campaign, including the SantEgidio Community, which together with Italian authorities always lights up Romes Colosseum whenever a country abolishes capital punishment. In a statement Thursday, SantEgidio said the change served as another push to the church and Catholics, based on the Gospel, to respect the sacredness of human life and to work at all levels and on every continent to abolish this inhuman practice. It was precisely Francis citation of the Gospel, however, that sparked criticism from some on the Catholic right, who cited Scripture in arguing that Francis had no authority to change what previous popes taught. He is in open violation of the authority recognized to him. And no Catholic has any obligation of obedience to abuse of authority, tweeted the traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli. Some on social media questioned the timing of the announcement, given that the Vatican and the Catholic Church is under extraordinary fire once again over clerical sex abuse and how bishops around the world covered it up for decades. The U.S. church, in particular, is reeling from accusations that one of the most prominent U.S. cardinals, Theodore McCarrick, allegedly abused minors as well as adult seminarians. Coming in the midst of the sex-abuse revelations, the timing is curious... and more fury is not what the Church needs at this moment, noted Raymond Arroyo, host of the Catholic broadcaster EWTN. Francis announced his intention to change church teaching on capital punishment in October, when he marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catechism itself. The catechism, first promulgated by St. John Paul II, gives Catholics an easy, go-to guide for church teaching on everything from the sacraments to sex. At that 2017 ceremony, Francis said the death penalty violates the Gospel and amounts to the voluntary killing of a human life, which is always sacred in the eyes of the creator. He acknowledged that in the past even the Papal States had allowed this extreme and inhuman recourse. But he said the Holy See had erred in allowing a mentality that was more legalistic than Christian and now knew better. Amnesty International, which has long campaigned for a worldwide ban on the death penalty, welcomed the development as an important step forward. Already in the past, the church had expressed its aversion to the death penalty, but with words that did not exclude ambiguities, said Riccardo Noury, Amnesty Italia spokesman. Today they are saying it in an even clearer way. In addition, he praised the clear indication of the churchs commitment to the cause beyond doctrine. There seems to be also a desire to see the Catholic Church take an active role in the global abolitionist movement, he added. WASHINGTONThe White House said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence, following up on their Singapore summit, came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyangs commitment to denuclearization. Trump early Thursday tweeted his thanks to the North Korean leader for your nice letter I look forward to seeing you soon! The White House did not provide details on the specific content of the letter from Kim, received Wednesday, or of Trumps reply. White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the letters addressed their commitment to work toward North Koreas complete denuclearization. Sanders said no second meeting is locked in as a followup to the Singapore summit in June, but they remain open to discussions. Trump in his tweet expressed gratitude to Kim for keeping your word on the return of the remains of more than 50 American service members killed during the Korean War. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and American military leaders received the remains in Hawaii during a sombre ceremony on Wednesday. The latest letter from Kim arrived on the heels of concerns over North Koreas ballistic missile program and commitment to denuclearization. Senior Trump administration officials have urged patience, cautioning that the process of denuclearizing North Korea and removing the threat of its long-range missiles will take time. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was headed to an Asian security meeting in Singapore, where a meeting this weekend with North Koreas foreign minister was possible. Trump has sought to show progress from his June 12 summit with Kim. He said during a Tuesday rally in Tampa, Florida, that the U.S. was doing well with North Korea and noted the return of detained Americans and Pyongyangs ceasing of nuclear testing and missile tests. A lot of good things are happening. No tests. No rockets flying. But well see what happens, Trump said. U.S. officials have been closely watching North Koreas willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that U.S. intelligence officials suspect that North Korea is continuing to build new missiles in the same research facility that manufactured the countrys ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. The Post also reported that North Korean officials have talked about how they plan to deceive the U.S. about the size of their arsenal of missiles and nuclear warheads and facilities. Read more about: HONOLULUThe U.S. military is beginning the painstaking process of analyzing remains from the Korean War now that they are back on American soil after having been handed over by North Korea last week. U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and the top commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, formally received the remains contained in 55 caskets during an emotional and solemn ceremony Wednesday after they arrived by military cargo jets from South Korea. They were husbands and fathers, brothers and neighbours long gone, but never lost to the memory of their loved ones, Pence said during the ceremony at a military base in Hawaii. Each container was covered in an American flag and carried off the aircraft by one Marine, one sailor, one soldier and one airman. The troops carefully set each box on risers inside a hangar as Pence stood watching with his hand over his heart. Davidson saluted. Some of the invited guests wiped tears from their eyes during the procession. The homecoming comes 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency will take the remains to a lab on the base where forensic anthropologists will study bones and teeth to identify their race, gender and age. Scientists will extract DNA and compare it to DNA samples collected from families of troops still missing from the war. Flag draped transfer cases with the remains of American soldiers repatriated from North Korea are seen during a repatriation ceremony after arriving to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii, on Wednesday. North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. Read more: Presumed U.S. war remains from Korean War begin journey home from South Korea North Korea returns remains of 55 U.S. servicemen killed during Korean War Generals from the rival Koreas end talks with no agreement The agency usually also relies on any items that may have been found with remains like uniforms, dog tags and wedding rings to identify remains. But North Korea only provided one dog tag with the 55 boxes it handed over last week. It could take months or years to determine their identities. Some have called the Korean War the forgotten war. But today, we prove these heroes were never forgotten, Pence said. Today, our boys are coming home. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. Australia, Belgium, France and the Philippines have yet to recover some of their war dead from North Korea. Whosoever emerges from these aircraft today begins a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen, Pence said. Hope that those who are lost will yet be found. Hope that after so many years of questions, they will have closure. There are 7,699 U.S. service members listed as unaccounted for from the 1950-53 Korean War, of which about 5,300 are believed to have died on North Korean soil. The remainder are those who died in South Korea but have not been recovered; those who died in air crashes at sea or on ships at sea, as well as a number who are believed to have been taken to China. The bones return was part of an agreement reached during a June summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Pence said Trump was grateful Kim kept his word. We see today as tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula, Pence said at the ceremony. During the summit, Kim also agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in return for Trumps promise of security guarantees. Trump later suspended annual military drills with South Korea which North Korea had long called an invasion rehearsal. But Trump now faces criticism at home and elsewhere that North Korea hasnt taken any serious steps toward disarmament and may be trying to buy time to weaken international sanctions against it. North Korea halted nuclear and missile tests, shut down its nuclear testing site and began dismantling facilities at its rocket launch site. But many experts say those are neither irrevocable nor serious steps that could show the country is sincere about denuclearization. North Korea may want to use the remains return to keep diplomacy with the United States alive and win a reciprocal U.S. concession. Experts say the North likely wants a declaration of the end of the Korean War as part of U.S. security assurances. An armistice that ended the Korean War has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in a technical state of war. North Korea has steadfastly argued its nuclear weapons are meant to neutralize alleged U.S. plans to attack it. ___ Kim Yong-Ho reported from Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. Read more about: So now we know there are no limits to how low Doug Fords government will go to find his promised $6 billion in savings. On Tuesday, it found $150 million toward that total on the backs of the poorest among us by cutting next months planned 3 per cent welfare increase in half. It also scrapped a $50-million-a-year basic income pilot program midway into its three-year run. The programs aim was to discover a better way to help people get back on their feet. In lines seemingly straight out of Alice in Wonderland, Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod described these moves as compassionate. She said the system is hurting the very people it is supposed to help and they simply cant let that go on. Were to believe, then, that giving individuals on welfare about $10 a month more instead of the $20 they were supposed to get will somehow help them? MacLeod went on to claim that the pilot program of 4,000 people seeking answers to the question of whether more government money upfront would lead to better outcomes wasnt working. She offered no data to prove that. These are ideologically driven, deplorable reductions that will create more suffering for the poor, and surely lead to higher costs in the long run as the price of poverty inevitably falls to health care, shelter and justice systems. This was supposed to be a government for the people, said 61-year-old Patricia Smiley, who has a master's degree but depends on disability support because of mental illness. Are we not people too? Indeed, one can only wonder which people Fords actions will help. It wont help nearly one million Ontarians who already cant afford to house and feed themselves. Welfare currently pays a maximum of $721 a month, while disability support tops out at $1,151. And it wont put money back into the pockets of taxpayers, as the premier is so fond of saying. The savings from these changes are paltry compared to the billions in ongoing costs associated with poverty, and ultimately borne by taxpayers. But weve seen this short-sighted strategy before. In fact, those who depend on social assistance have never recovered from the 21.6 per cent cuts the last Progressive Conservative government made to welfare rates. Even if the rates had been raised by the 3 per cent budgeted by the previous Liberal government, they would still be lower in real dollars today than they were when former premier Mike Harris cut them back in 1995. MacLeod even used a line right out of the Harris playbook to defend her actions saying, Let me be clear: the best social program is a job. So why, then, cut a basic income program that was helping people go back to school to train for jobs, giving them enough money to use transit to get to a job interview, and helping them pay rent so they have an address to put on a job application? During the election campaign, the Progressive Conservatives had even promised to keep the pilot going. But now that theyve changed their mind, years of public investments into the study and its implementation will go down the drain. Now, we will never know if this basic income program improved health, employment and social outcomes for the poor. MacLeod has also promised to deliver a full set of social-assistance reforms something governments spend years on within the next 100 days. None of this makes sense; at least not when judged from a good policy standpoint. But when judged by a different measuring stick politics it is easier to see the motivation. As Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner warned on Wednesday, these reforms further demonstrates that the Ford government intends to govern by ideology rather than evidence. And that is bad for everyone, not just the poor. Read more about: The federal Liberals may be taking a pragmatic approach to their carbon tax plan by softening the blow to heavy emitters. We are, after all, living beside a U.S. president who once believed global warming was a plot hatched by the Chinese to hurt American business and is already wreaking economic havoc in some key Canadian competitive sectors with punitive tariffs and ongoing trade uncertainty. On Thursday, Donald Trump moved to roll back a measure that was meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Yes, this all threatens the competitive position of Canadian industries particularly those who export and the Trudeau government cannot risk the flight of business. The reality is this is a different continent than the one in 2015 when a newly-elected Justin Trudeau had an environmental ally in Barack Obama. But pragmatism is one thing. Politics is another. The Liberal carbon tax has become one of the countrys political hot buttons and on the political front the government dropped the ball. Read more: We are starving them: Grieving orca mother belongs to endangered population facing grim future More than 1,000 homes torched in California wildfires Its no mystery: Science says record heat, fires worsened by climate change The Trudeau government ceded ground this week on both sides of the climate debate and most remarkably ceded ground to conservative opponents who are focused solely on killing a tax while offering nothing on the environment themselves. The Doug Ford government at Queens Park, its ally, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and their federal cousin, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, tripped all over themselves in their haste to pronounce this was a victory for their content-free, bumper sticker claim that a carbon tax is nothing more than a cash grab. Ontario Environment Minister Rod Phillips Thursday dug deep in the hyperbole bag, referring to the Trudeau plan as job-killing, that invites economic catastrophe and would be devastating. Consultation with industry had always been a component of the Liberal plan and those involved say that consultation had been formal, open and constructive. But the decision to deliver higher rebates to heavy emitters was merely posted to the government website on a sluggish late July Friday afternoon, a move that even those who support the initiative agreed was ham-handed. There was no ministerial statement, no media availability, certainly no press conference at the National Press Theatre followed by media appearances by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. Nothing, until it was revealed by The Globe and Mail, allowing critics on both sides to fill the information void until the government held a technical briefing Thursday six days after it posted the information on its website. The impression was that Ottawa quietly changed the rules five months before the regulations take effect. And once again that celebrated Liberal marriage between the economy and the environment looked like a dysfunctional union in which the economy got all the attention and the environment was in the kitchen getting dinner ready on time. David McLaughlin, the director of climate change for the International Institute for Sustainable Development and an adviser to the Manitoba government says since industry does not want a carbon tax, its only alternative is to lower the threshold at which they must pay for emissions. Their message is that their only certainty was more taxes. Give us a break, McLaughlin said. But this will mean more emissions. There will be further opportunity for business to make a case for further breaks before the federal plan is implemented. Right now this change, described as fine-tuning by a department official, only applies to Ontario and Saskatchewan who will not play by Ottawas carbon tax rules. A change in government in Alberta would add another huge player to that list. That, McLaughlin says, means the pan-Canadian framework envisioned by Ottawa no longer works because it was predicated on provincial co-operation. On cue, Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney announced her government will challenge the constitutionality of the federal carbon tax at the Ontario Court of Appeal. There is a danger that voters might choose Ford-style thought bubbles over the technicalities of an output-based pricing system. But that wont come from the courts. The Liberals bent on this file in the face of opposition this week, but they cant break. They have an ace to play. Essentially Mulroney will spend up to $30 million of taxpayers money in a futile court challenge that will be dead on arrival. Ottawa will impose a carbon tax, but the revenue that comes back from the tax will be delivered directly to Ontario residents by Trudeau, not Ford. Its hard to see Scheer campaigning in Ontario in 2019 vowing to take away rebate cheques. That would be an unprecedented cash grab back. Tim Harper is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @nutgraf1 Read more about: VANCOUVERAs the Ontario government deepens its feud with Ottawa over refugees the latest development are an un-Canadian epithet and demands for an apology British Columbia is garnering praise from newcomer-serving organizations historically at odds over funding levels. But although the western province has boosted its settlement funding by 50 per cent, up to $6 million a year, B.C.s most prominent refugee and immigrant charity says its time for a fundamental rethink one that appears at odds with years of careful distinction between asylum-seekers and economic immigrants. Under the previous provincial government, the focus has been primarily on economic immigration, and not on humanitarian migration, said Chris Friesen, executive director of Immigrant Services Society of B.C., in a phone interview Monday. Operation Syrian Refugee changed all that dramatically. Syrians ended up living in 69 different communities in B.C. Suddenly you had other provincial ministries looking at refugees in a new light. That created impetus for change and brought to the forefront the need for a new strategy. Friesen spoke days ahead of the release of the newest data on irregular border-crossings into B.C. which, though far below the levels in Quebec from the U.S., send a steady flow north hoping for asylum. According to unreleased figures obtained by StarMetro, arrivals over the last three months rose to 110 people, up from 80. Continually high, Friesen said, were talking about 110 new people largely walking across the border as irregular crossings. In B.C., immigration falls under the portfolio of the Jobs and Trade minister, Bruce Ralston. In a phone interview, he said he met with federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, July 13 in Winnipeg to discuss the file alongside his provincial counterparts. Now, with the Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments at loggerheads with Ottawa on immigration and Alberta heading into an election with its NDP on the ropes B.C. increasingly appears to be isolated amongst its peers. We want to continue to welcome newcomers, Ralston said. The federal minister made it clear that, for example the numbers that were being talked about in Ontario, they will not leave people to hang out to dry. I have the same assurances from the minister for here. The July 16 meetings of the Forum of Ministers Responsible for Immigration coincided with an ongoing exchange of barbs between Hussen and Ontario Premier Doug Fords social services appointment, Lisa MacLeod, who accused Hussen of calling her un-Canadian after she criticized his government for encouraging refugees to come, leaving Ontario on the hook for $200 million. Communities across Ontario have been straining to support a high number of illegal border crossers, she wrote to Hussen in a letter last Thursday, and the approach of the Federal Government is now testing the patience and generosity of Ontarians. Asked about the new Ontario administrations fight over the issue, Ralston said it only reinforced the need for provinces to work collaboratively with Ottawa. Clearly the Government of Ontario has a point of view, he said. I dont share it. I dont use the term illegal, factually thats incorrect. Canada is signatory to the International Convention on Refugees. Theres a process there, so that term is not accurate. Friesen, with ISSofBC, has been in talks with the province about the need for a multi-year provincial immigration strategy. The time has come now. But he argued that ultimately the best way to effectively co-ordinate what he says is needed an all-of-government approach, not just annual top-ups is to remove refugee and immigrant settlement from its silo on the edge of the jobs and trade ministry desk, as it is in most provinces. The time has come for an all-of-government approach to immigration, Friesen argued. The government also needs to consider a designated minister of immigration and multiculturalism. Because nothing is going to impact this province more than immigration is and will continue to. We need to reorganize certain resources in order to prepare for the higher immigration levels that will be needed here to sustain our current economy and social safety benefits. The skyrocketing cost of rental housing has pushed many refugee claimants out of Vancouver into the Fraser Valley even though many were initially designated for Surrey, where numerous service agencies operate said Katie Rosenberger, executive director of the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of B.C. We need to ensure organizations are ready to help people when they arrive, especially if there is another sudden, drastic increase in refugee claimants, Rosenberger said in an earlier interview. The cost of living out here is astronomical, the geography of Vancouver is very challenging, and with the Syrian crisis we felt those impacts very strongly. Provincial funding is in place it was $4 million a year, its gone up to $6 million but thats still not enough. And she said organizations in places inland such as Chilliwack and Maple Ridge are beginning to see settlement in their communities way beyond what theyre funding provides, adding that you have the challenge of people wanting to be where the services are, or where they have community ties. Ralston said while his governments February budget already increased settlement supports if we need to revise that for next years budget, then well consider that. Rosenberger said the biggest change isnt the one-time funding increase. Its a new tone from the province since the NDP took office one year ago. Theres now much more progressive rhetoric in B.C. towards refugees, she said. Here in B.C. we are going to have 925,000 jobs available in the next 10 years, and 25 per cent of those will need to be filled by immigrants. When people come to seek protection, they eventually settle, have children here, and become taxpayers. We need them. Whether the proposal for a provincial citizenship and immigration ministry takes root in B.C. or other provinces, advocates said its the co-ordinated, long-term and cross-departmental approach that is key. Alberta has an associate minister of the economy, who holds the immigration portfolio alongside trade, tourism, innovation and immigration. Quebec is the only such province with a dedicated cabinet post: a minister of immigration, diversity and inclusiveness, and according to a federal release July 13 sets its own standards and quotas for the number of newcomers it accepts annually. Ontario once had a citizenship ministry for decades, with immigration formally added to its mandate in 2003. But it was dissolved in newly-elected Premier Fords cabinet leaving the file on the desk of Lisa McLeod, minister of children, community and social services, whos also responsible for womens issues. Friesen lamented Ontarios rhetoric over illegal border-crossers and remarks by McLeod, Ford and the federal Conservatives blaming the refugee influx on Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus Jan. 27, 2017 tweet: To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you. According the Friesen, there was no correlation between asylum claims and any one specific tweet or political stripe in Ottawa. What an oversimplification of a complex global crisis, Friesen said. Its far, far, far more complicated than that. We hope that other parts of Canada can better understand and help inform the public on this particular population. Read more about: VANCOUVERMetro Vancouver residents believe the region is in a major housing crisis and blame foreign buyers, population growth, shadow flipping and money laundering as the primary causes, according to a poll released Thursday. Insights West found that 90 per cent of Metro Vancouverites believe the region is in a housing crisis. That conviction is even higher among renters (97 per cent) and people who make less than $40,000 a year (98 per cent). The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation recently released an analysis that showed the perception of foreign buyers influenced the buying and selling decisions of local homeowners, who believed prices would continue to rise because of the presence of wealthy overseas investors. Steve Moscrop, president of Insights West, believes that population growth and limited housing supply are the main factors in rising home prices. He said he was a bit surprised to see the strong belief in demand-side factors such as overseas investment. We know that foreign buyers represent a small fraction, like less than five per cent of Metro Vancouver, a little bit higher in the city, a little bit higher with condos, he said. So to just pick that as the culprit maybe is a bit misguided. Read more: Vancouvers homes may be costly to buy, but theyre cheap to own Vancouvers bubbly real estate market is deflating, say realtors In one of West Vancouvers nicest neighbourhoods, nobodys home except dust bunnies and raccoons Both the provincial government and Vancouvers city council have put extra taxes in place designed to slow demand: B.C.s foreign buyer tax has been in place since 2016 and was increased this year, while the NDP government has added an extra tax on homes worth over $3 million and second homes in some areas of the province. In 2017, Vancouver was the first city in Canada to introduce an empty homes tax. The province also tightened rules around shadow flipping: a practice that allowed for a contract to buy a home to be flipped between several people before the final sale, driving up prices and allowing people to avoid B.C.s property transfer tax. B.C. is now looking at collecting more data on presale condo buyers to ensure people who flip pre-sales are not evading taxes. And while a recent government report showed the extent of money laundering in B.C. casinos, there are indications real estate may have also been used to launder the proceeds of crime. Following the introduction of the foreign buyer tax, prices and sales for single-family homes in Vancouver declined, and realtors say a general slowdown is now happening in both the single-family and condo market across the region. Insights West regularly conducts polls to gauge the top issues for British Columbians and in the last couple of years has seen housing supplant every other issue. Civic elections are coming up in October, and housing is a key factor in most of the campaigns developing throughout Vancouver and the suburban municipalities. However, Moscrop thinks politicians should focus even more on the issue, given the public interest. When you look at how overwhelming this issue is, its surprising how few politicians, both municipal and provincial to some extent, are not putting this higher on their radar and saying were going to come up with concrete plans, he said. The poll also found that, of the homeowners surveyed who have a secondary suite in their home, just over half are renting out the suite, while 46 per cent said they arent. Read more about: EDWARDSVILLE In his final appeal for leniency Wednesday, convicted child rapist Michael Burgund turned his back to the judge, delivering a scripture-filled diatribe to the court, defending himself, and blaming his accusers. The jury rendered their verdict based on emotion, he said. An earthly jury has convicted me, but one day a heavenly court will acquit me. One day God will prove my innocence. Me and my family will be fully vindicated. The speech apparently did little to impress Circuit Judge Kyle Napp, who noted that victim testimony was believable and so was the confession hed given an Alton police officer. The judge offered a stern response to Burgunds words, before sentencing him to spend the rest of his life behind bars. The evidence shows that you have violated those girls in the most horrible way, and two juries have found you guilty, she said. The judge noted that Burgund took the unusual step of keeping his back to her, and facing the audience when he was given a chance to speak. The life sentence is mandatory, but the judge also imposed a sentence of $71,000 in restitution to offset the psychological treatment for the two young victims, who were 1 and 3 at the time of the crimes, and their mother. During both trials, Burgund testified that the confession was implanted in his brain by his accusers. He revived his claim Wednesday. He said he turned down a generous plea agreement because he is not guilty. The judge imposed the sentence after the victims grandmother, Mary Buttry said that she formerly loved and trusted Burgund, but, had she known the pain the two trials caused, she would have taken much less time bringing the case to the attention of the authorities. The stories that you and your family have created and changed several times, in the attempt to damage mine and Melissas names, in effort to bluff a jury, are not only false, but they were plastered in front page media daily, Mary Buttry said in part. I am asking you and your family to have enough heart to finally think of these children and now stop this crime. The childrens mother, Melissa Burgund, said the pain of dealing with the crimes was extended by the additional trial. Instead of being able to begin picking up the pieces, rebuilding and seeking healing, we were thrown into defending ourselves and seeking justice, she said. She said Burgunds family and friends, who have backed him since he was charged, are just as guilty as he is. Burgund said his parents and friends did no wrong in defending him. The children also submitted statements, which were read in court. You made me feel like I was nothing. You made me feel like I was dumb. I dont remember a day without crying. You told me that I should hate my sister, but I love my sister so, so much. Every day I felt scared because of you. Because of you, you make my mom feel horrible, one of the victims wrote. You hurt me and my sister. You made our lives a living nightmare. I never get any sleep because I live in fear of you. I couldnt have a normal childhood because of you. You made me feel so bad that I didnt even want to be on this earth, the other victim wrote. Assistant States Attorney Kerri Davis called Burgund, the worst of the worst. She said the children were broken emotionally and psychologically. There is no cure for child sexual abuse, Davis said. Assistant States Attorney Crystal Uhe said the child who testified is a warrior. She came here, not once, but twice. She was able to sit hear and face her father and tell what happened. Gibbons said it was sad to see Burgund invoke the name of God as an excuse to avoid the consequences of what he did. This is the worst kind of evil, he said. The Citizens of Madison County can rest assured, knowing that their States Attorneys Office and the men and women of our local law enforcement never give up in our quest for justice for victims and our community, Gibbons said. This evil man has now been convicted of these horrible crimes by two separate juries. Hopefully for the victims and their families, the nightmare of being forced to relive the abuse through the trial process can now come to an end, so they can heal and move forward in their lives. Fortunately, the two young victims have the love and support of their family who can help them continue on the lifelong path of recovery from the abuse they suffered. We will keep them in our prayers. Normally, the maximum penalty for a Class X felony is 6-30 years; however, because of the number of predatory criminal sexual assault counts filed, as well as the fact he committed the crime against two victims, Burgund faced a mandatory natural life sentence, according to Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons. On May 17, a Madison County jury convicted Burgund, 35, of five counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child after the second trial in the case. Burgund was charged April 5, 2011 after he walked into the Alton Police Department and admitted he committed the crimes. He was convicted by a jury Dec. 10, 2012 of five counts of predatory criminal sexual of a child and sentenced to life in prison. He appealed on March 11, 2013 and was given another trial on Nov. 22, 2012. His mother, Donna Burgund, posted $100,000 cash bond, and the defendant was released until May 17. Advocates are seeking changes to proposed lead water-testing rules, saying they dont go far enough for child care facilities. Even in small doses, lead is a harmful element to consume. The effects can be drastic for children still developing, which is why Illinois has proposed rules for childcare facilities on testing for lead in water. But some environmental advocates believe that the rules need to be adjusted before finalization this fall, starting with the removal of the leads main source. Lindsay McCormick, project manager for the Environmental Defense Fund, says lead service lines are to blame for much of the water contamination. They contribute the most lead in drinking water, and that theyre present in up to 50 to 75 percent of the lead in drinking water is coming from those lead service lines, she notes. Lead service lines connect the main sources of water from the streets to connecting buildings and businesses. The current rules proposed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services require licensed child care facilities to test for lead and have a mitigation plan in place if its found. The Environmental Defense Fund applauds the use of a low action level, and is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to lower its recommended action level, which is at 20 parts per billion, down to 5 parts per billion. Most importantly, McCormick says childcare facilities should first identify lead service lines for removal. Before doing any testing, [they] would look through historical records, they would do a physical inspection to identify whether or not they have a lead service line and replace it, before going through the process of testing to see if there are other sources of lead, she explains. Continued consumption of lead can contribute to more effects than just brain development in kids, as the chronic toxicity allows it to distribute throughout the body, causing harm wherever it settles. ALTON Police on Thursday continued investigating an exchange of gunfire from a passing vehicle toward a house, and return fire from someone inside the home. No one reportedly was injured in the exchange Wednesday evening, and Alton police were releasing no new information regarding the incident on Thursday. EDWARDSVILLE An agreement between Madison County and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is expected to make it easier for local businesses to take advantage of apprenticeship programs. The agreement allows Madison County Employment and Training and the Madison-Bond Workforce Innovation Board to become a registered apprenticeship intermediary sponsor. The agreement was signed by Gerry Schuetzenhofer, chairman of the Madison-Bond Workforce Innovation Board, and Kim Jones, the state director for the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship. It allows the local workforce area, which includes Madison and Bond counties, to be a part of the National Apprenticeship Program in accordance with the basic Standards of Apprenticeship established by the U.S. Secretary of Labor. Apprenticeship programs are where things seem to be moving, and were able to get people hands-on training through the employer, rather than just use our money for classroom training, Schuetzenhofer said. Madison-Bond local workforce is the second in Illinois to receive certification by the Department of Labor as a Registered Apprenticeship Program Intermediary/Sponsor. We really appreciate Madison County coming on board and supporting apprenticeships, Jones said. She noted that apprenticeships have always been important, but there seems to be an increased emphasis on those types of programs. The U.S. Department of Labor defines an apprenticeship as an arrangement that includes a paid-work component and an educational or instructional component where an individual obtains workplace-relevant knowledge and skills. Registered apprenticeships are high-quality, work-based learning, and post-secondary earn-and-learn models that meet national standards for registration with the DOL. There are five core components in a Registered Apprenticeship Program classroom training, on the job training, work mentorship, progressive wages, and national occupational credentialing. What that does is allow us to set up apprenticeships with local businesses to bring people in for a combination of on the job training and classroom training or skills training, said Tony Fuhrmann, director of MCET. This removes the need for businesses to deal with the Department of Labor either at the state or federal level, to set up these apprenticeships. It takes some steps out for businesses and makes it much easier for them to participate, he said. Funding for the agreement will come through part of MCETs $2.3 million job training funding through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Fifty percent of that funding has to go to training programs. This is one component of that training, he said, adding they have a number of other training programs. Were excited about whats happening today, and the possibilities that it provides for local businesses. He said implementation can start almost immediately. All we need are businesses to contact us, Fuhrman said. The employer is the driver of the internship. For information call Sarah Ray Lorio, work-based coordinator for MCET, at 618-296-4306. Schuetzenhofer noted there are a lot of jobs available in manufacturing and vocational trades. He added that many high schools curtailed vocational programs over the years in favor of college prep courses, and some of the schools are reconsidering that. That might be a good thing, he said. Employers we have here would like to expand and they need a trained workforce, and the ones that are looking at our area will make their decisions on our trained workforce. Youre hearing more and more about vocations being important. ALTON Alton police responded to the report of shots fired Wednesday evening about 6 p.m. in the 1900 block of Washington Avenue. According to police radio traffic, the shots were fired from a vehicle into a targeted house, and gunfire was returned from the home. There were no reported injuries. The vehicle fled the area. Police extensively searched the immediate area of the incident for an armed suspect who fled on foot. SPRINGFIELD Unemployment rates remained steady statewide, but the Metro East saw a jump in jobless numbers. Junes payroll gain is the largest in 12 months and the third largest in 24 months, said IDES Director Jeff Mays. Illinois unemployment rate held steady in June and stands at its lowest point in 12 years. He also noted that there were local increases in a number of metropolitan areas. An increase in the number of people looking for work has been cited as the reason for the increase, both locally and in other areas of the state. The increase in the unemployment rate in seven of the metros was largely due to an increase in the overall labor force brought on by renewed confidence in the local economy, Mays said. Many people that were unemployed are now out looking for work as more jobs are available. Tony Fuhrmann, director of Madison County Employment and Training, agreed, adding there are several other factors impacting the local rates. The number of people in the labor force went up because of new college graduates, and kids out of high school entering the labor force, he said. Theres a churning of people in the warehouse industry and the construction industry. Im not sure that its jobs not available, I think its people leaving those jobs for various reasons. Theres just a lot of turnover in those industries. From May to June, the number of employed people in the Metro East rose by 164, to 336,068. The number of people in the labor force grew 2,799, to 341,631. The positive thing we see is the increase in the labor market, the people who are actually looking for work, Fuhrmann added. There is a definite correlation to jobs being out there. He also noted that U.S. Steel has brought back all of the laid-off workers available, and is hiring additional workers. Fuhrmann also said there are a number of jobs available in manufacturing and warehousing, but the issue is matching those jobs to people with the correct skills. According to recently released figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the states unemployment rate in June held at 4.3 percent, compared to May. Locally, rates in what is called the St. Louis MSA jumped .8 percent, to 4.6 from 3.8 percent. The St. Louis MSA includes Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties. There are some discrepancies in the rates, because statewide figures are seasonally adjusted, meaning they are manipulated to remove seasonal variations. Local figures are not seasonally adjusted. There are also revisions from month to month as data from the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics becomes clearer. Job growth accelerated statewide in the April to June period posting average monthly gains of 9,500 jobs over this three-month period, more than the 6-month average monthly gain of 7,500 jobs between January and June 2018. According to IDES figures, industries showing increases for the year were wholesale trade (1,000); manufacturing (500); retail trade (400); transportation, warehousing and utilities (300); and professional and business services (300). Decreases were seen in educational and health services (-400), financial activities (-200), mining and construction (-100), other services (-100) and government (-100). There was no change in information, or leisure and hospitality. Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447. ALTON The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be halting first interments at Alton National Cemetery soon, the agency announced Wednesday. The National Cemetery Administration (NCA) does not own land within adjoining Alton Cemetery, and the remaining available gravesites at the historic half-acre site (Alton National Cemetery) are expected to deplete before March 2019, a VA press release says. The National Cemetery Administration is a VA agency. First interments are a veteran or a spouse, said John Daniels, cemetery representative at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in South St. Louis County, which oversees and maintains Alton National Cemetery under auspices of the NCA. Subsequent burials are for the second person who dies, whether it is the veteran, spouse or minor child. Because the half-acre cemetery, 600 Pearl St. in Alton, was getting full, a number of years ago the VA restricted burials to cremated remains, called cremains, to conserve space. Once first interments of cremains stop, the cemetery will continue to allow subsequent burials. It will remain open for visitation and commemoration purposes, including the Wreaths Across America ceremony every December. Volunteers place wreaths on 560 veterans graves as part of the program, which Altonian Margaret Hopkins organizes each fall. The site will remain under the administration of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, under contract, and is open to visitors from dusk to dawn. Eligible veterans and family members will continue to have access to burial options at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, located approximately 40 miles away. Additionally, VA provides memorial benefits to veterans who choose burial in a private cemetery. According to the VA website (https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/alton.asp), Alton National Cemetery originally was a soldiers lot in the Alton Cemetery, also called Alton City Cemetery over the years. Despite the existence of the lot as early as 1870, the government did not own the tract until July 1, 1940, when the Alton Cemetery Association donated the land, the website says. An estimated 163 Union soldiers and 12 unknowns initially were buried there, according to an inspection report of 1870. The men died at the Alton hospital and onboard steamboats passing up the Mississippi River. The VA website says the U.S. government paid cemetery administrators $30 a year to care for the plot. After the Civil War, there were plans to move the 163 Alton soldiers to Springfield National Cemetery, but the community protested and exerted sufficient influence to prevent the removal. In 1938, the Alton Cemetery Association made an initial offer to donate land for a national cemetery with a proviso that the government build a rostrum or permanent speakers stand for use on Memorial Day. Once the offer was accepted, Works Progress Administration laborers constructed a permanent rostrum, the website says. Between 1941 and 1942, remains of 49 Union soldiers were removed from a nearby, but separate, section of Alton Cemetery, and were reinterred on the federal land. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 2011. Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda N. Weller Fed up with rants against him by the globalist Charles Koch, President Trump tweeted back that the Koch brothers have become a total joke in real Republican circles. I dont need their money or bad ideas, he added, or their political baggage. Republican politicians who have fallen for the Koch agenda of weak borders, phony free trade and a toxic image have often lost as a result. Trickles of money given by the Koch network are insufficient to offset the immense radioactive political effect. Yet Koch allies just slipped three open-border provisions into the Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations Bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS) inserted these pro-immigration amendments, as approved by a voice vote to avoid political accountability, whereupon the House Appropriations Committee recommended the entire bill by a 29-22 vote on July 25. The pro-immigration provisions include blocking Attorney General Jeff Sessions from tightening the requirements for illegal aliens who seek asylum. The last-minute changes also seek to expand the limit of visas for foreign workers and lift the per-country cap, which would open the floodgates to thousands of guest workers from India. Kochs recent semiannual conference of ineffective muckety-mucks turned into an unhelpful bashing of President Trump a mere 100 days from the midterms. A top spokesman for Koch accused Trump, and not his opponents, of being too divisive. At the conclusion of the conference, the Koch network declared they would not support the Republican Senate candidate in North Dakota, Kevin Cramer, who has a chance to oust a Democratic incumbent and preserve GOP control of that chamber. A Koch organization has already run ads promoting the pro-abortion Democratic incumbent, to the dismay of conservatives. In Pennsylvania, Koch money is funding ads against the pro-life Republican Lou Barletta, who is challenging the entrenched liberal Democrat Bob Casey, Jr., for the Senate. As Republicans struggle to hold the Senate, this shocking betrayal by the Koch network should cause all conservatives to disassociate from it. Rep. Yoders fellow Kansas congressman Tim Huelskamp was a rising conservative star until he went for the Kochs peculiar resistance to farmers, whereupon he was defeated in his own primary in 2016. Huelskamp was even outspent by his opponent despite how the Koch network brags about having so much money. Jim Ryun, a good man who has held the American record for more than 50 years for a teenager in running the fastest mile (and 1,500 meters), was ousted in 2006 from his congressional seat in Kansas by a Democrat who then sponsored a bill to crack down on Mexican trucks. A Republican cannot win if he allows a Democrat to get to the right of him on an issue people care about, Phyllis Schlafly wrote in Spring 2010, lamenting how Ryuns political comeback in 2008 fell short of the finish line. Far from any border, one might think that Kansas would be immune from immigration controversies that rage in Arizona, Texas, and Florida. But shocking crimes have been committed by illegal aliens in the otherwise safe Kansas, such as the reckless murder last year of a Johnson County sheriffs deputy by a badly intoxicated illegal alien who drove a pickup truck into his police car. Kansas is also on high alert for the West Nile virus, a deadly disease that was first imported into our country in 1999. This mosquito-transmitted virus of Africa and the Middle East made it all the way from Queens, New York, where it was first discovered in America, to the middle of Kansas. Pushing the Koch agenda might boost a candidates campaign coffers, and Rep. Yoders has swelled to $2 million for his reelection. But a candidate still needs a base to win, and all the money in the world may not salvage a Republican who crosses Trump on immigration or trade, as some Republicans are doing. Criticism of President Trump by the Koch network is publicized widely by the liberal media, due to the false perception by some that the Koch mega-donors are conservative. In fact, Trump disavowed support from the Kochs during his own campaign for president, and spectacular success for Trumps campaign followed. Trump was then free of all the negative baggage among many voters that is associated with the Koch network. Current candidates should pause before pandering to the Koch network, because embracing the Koch agenda will bring out the Democratic base against them while doing nothing to energize conservative voters needed to win. The Kochs were the first people to put the knife in [Trumps] back, Steve Bannon observed in a recent interview with POLITICO. He added that the Koch network should shut up and get with the program, which is the necessary ground game to support Trumps presidency in order to enable victory on Nov. 6. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work. Established in 1783, ED&F Man is an employee-owned agricultural commodities merchant with 7,000 people in 60 countries and annual revenue in excess of $10bn. We trade sugar, coffee, molasses, animal feed, grains and pulses. We help our counterparts manage price risk through hedging and provide access to commodity and capital markets through our brokerage business. ED&F Mans coffee business, Volcafe, is one of the worlds largest traders of arabica and robusta coffees and provides beans for 50 billion cups of coffee each year. Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd is part of the Volcafe group and one of the leading exporters in Uganda. Blathnaid Treacy has touched down in Dublin after her trip to Mexico with a sparkly engagement ring on her finger. The RTE presenter (29) announced today that she is engaged to her musician boyfriend Charlie Moon after their four-week holiday. The pair headed to Mexico to celebrate the wedding of 2fm DJ Blathnaid's brother Fiachra before taking off together to take in all that the South American country had to offer. "Mexico really was a trip we will never forget," said the host of Dancing With The Stars spin-off show, Can't Stop Dancing. "So great to be home and celebrate with friends," she added, alongside photos of herself and her fiance, and a close-up of her elegant engagement ring. Other Dancing With the Stars cast members Aoibhin Garrihy and Erin McGregor were among those wishing the newly-engaged couple well, as well as model and former Xpose host Ruth O'Neill. As Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses posed the puzzle - can you cross Dublin without passing a pub? - a more modern version would perhaps be: can you make it through Temple Bar without encountering a stag party? Chances are on the weekend anyway you'll be hard pushed to make it from Ha'penny Bridge to the Central Bank without spotting at least one pre-wedding party taking in the sites and sounds of Dublin's most popular location to indulge an old fashioned pub crawl. But did you know that twenty years ago, Temple Bar was to be a hen and stag free zone? "Every weekend thousands fly in to Dublin from Britain for short breaks, many on the cheap fares offered by Ryanair. Many are young parties of English, Scots and Welsh on stag and hen weekends," the Independent.ie article dating back to November 13th 1998 reads. "However, instead of enjoying the usual craic in the 34 pubs and bars on the stag/hen circuit in Dublin's Temple Bar, as of tonight they will be greeted by signs saying 'No hen or stag parties catered for in these premises'." According to the article, the dramatic decision to ban the groups came after a study by Temple Bar Properties (TBP) showed that the 'unruly element' was discouraging 13% of potential tourists, which amounted to a potential revenue worth 57m per year." At the time the study estimated the total spend by hen and stag party attendees to be 100 per day (including accommodation!) and suggested that "Bord Failte and other marketing agencies should think again about highlighting 'Dublin pubs' and 'Dublin as a party capital' in the UK". Of course the exile didn't last long, with pubs the weekend after the 'ban' was put in place continuing to sport an open door policy towards pre-wedding parties. Video of the Day Delhi-headquartered logistics major Safexpress has set up its largest logistics park in Karnataka at Bengaluru. The park, set up with an investment of around Rs 100 crores, is the second largest for Safexpress in India after its facility at Manesar near Delhi. The park is spread across an area of 1.25 million square feet and can simultaneously enable loading and unloading of over 260 vehicles. This logistics park is expected to help in the development of different industries in Karnataka. In order to enable all weather loading and unloading of goods, the park has a 16-feet wide cantilever shed. The company is planning to create seven more logistic parks with an investment of around Rs 350 crores at places such as Jaipur, Ludhiana, Siliguri, Chennai, Pune and Mangalore. Rubal Jain, Managing Director, Safexpress, explained that the GST in the logistics space has really streamlined the logistics industry and in the future this industry can see much more consolidation. Post GST, we are helping companies in enhancing their business growth and most of them are now choosing to outsource their supply chain and logistics needs to us while keeping their own warehousing and hub infrastructure to minimal levels. Jain further observed that the logistics space in India that is largely unorganised is expected to see more consolidation. When we started our company almost two decades ago, the organised logistics market was almost nil. Today organised logistics forms around 2-3 percent of the overall logistics market in the country. The market then was dominated by largely unorganised players who usually use to have 5-6 trucks in their company. There was also no uniformity in the types of trucks that were there in the market and every truck looked different. So India has progressed a lot from then. One of the major logistic reforms by the government will aim at uniformity in truck sizes,said Jain. He further said that Indian market presented complex challenges for logistic players as Indian highways are prone to flooding and sometimes there are festivals that affecs truck movement. He pointed out that that truckers' strikes also affected the business in a big way and upset schedules. Interestingly, Safexpress that began its operations in 1997 has a total warehousing area of over 14 million square feet, and provides supply chain and logistics services to more than 5,000 corporate clients that include Tata Motors, Glenmark, Bosch, Volvo etc. Broadly the firm provides logistics services for eight different business verticals including apparel and lifestyle, healthcare, hi-tech, publishing, automotive, engineering and electrical hardware, FMCG and consumer electronics and institutional. Safexpress also has over 6,000 GPS-enabled vehicles and has a distribution network spanning over 620 destinations in the country. At present the company is delivering goods to all the 22,125 pin codes of India. The West Bengal BJP took out a march here on Thursday to demand the publication of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state also to drive out "infiltrators from Bangladesh" from the eastern state. The march from south Kolkata's Deshapriyo Park to Maidan area was led by state Bharatiya Janata Party president Dilip Ghosh, national secretary Rahul Sinha, and state general secretary Sayantan Basu. "We demand the publication of the NRC in West Bengal as well. Infiltration from Bangladesh is rampant here. These infiltrators are involved in all sorts of illegal activities like bomb-making, smuggling, rioting and running syndicates. They must be deported to Bangladesh," state BJP women's wing President Locket Chatterjee said while addressing party workers. Accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of letting the Rohingya refugees (from Bangladesh) settle in certain West Bengal districts, the BJP leader claimed that the "NRC is a must" in the state to check infiltration and conduct fair elections. "... Banerjee is allowing even the Rohingyas to settle in the state. She has too much compassion for illegal settlers from Bangladesh. She should first give peace to her own people," she said. Ghosh also flayed Banerjee, claiming she was politicising the NRC issue in Assam, deliberately trying to malign the BJP and provoke the Bengalis by spreading falsehood. "The NRC draft has been published in Assam on Supreme Court orders and has left out 40 lakh persons. If the process has some shortcomings, the state government and the court will look into it. But the way they (Trinamool) are politicising the issue and trying to provoke the Bengalis, both in Bengal and Assam, is condemnable," Ghosh said. "Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress are trying to malign the BJP, but our party has no role in the publication of the NRC draft. They are blocking roads and railways here and creating a ruckus while there are no problems in Assam where the draft list has been published," he added. The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite... Minister of water resource, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari has appealed to corporates to undertake more projects under the Ganga rejuvenation programme as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity. He said corporates play a critical role in this project, and they can contribute majorly to river front development. The minister assured easy clearances of the paperwork. Ganga rejuvenation projects are notified as CSR activity. Several projects under the programme have already been undertaken by corporates, such as the development of ghats at Gangotri and Badrinath at Rs 25.65 crore by Indorama industries. IndusInd Bank has undertaken a project for treatment of nine drains in Allahabad and Farrukhabad at a cost of Rs 9.5 crore, while the Shiping Corporation of India proposes to develop Katwa Ghat in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 35 lakh. Yes Bank has proposed to develop ghats at Rishikesh and undertake plantation drives in Uttarakhand. The Hinduja Group will also help develop ghats at Rishikesh and Haridwar. Bajaj Electircals is undertaking plantations on the riverfront across Uttar Pradesh, while HCL plans to focus on ghat development in Varanasi, as well as work on bio-remediation, tree plantation, community development and Ganga Gram (villages) development. Reliance Industries is also taking up ghat development in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Clean Ganga fund has already received Rs 255.02 crore as donations from corporates and individuals, including NRIs and PIOs. Out of this amount, Rs 205.14 crore has been approved by the board of trustees for afforestation interventions in five of the main stem of the Ganga states, treatment of drains for in situ bio-remediation and development of ghats and crematoria. Namami Gange is a flagship programme of the NDA government which is keen to show some visible action before the next hustings. The challenges are huge, with the 2,525 km long river being polluted in a myriad ways. The main focus is to stop untreated water and sewage from entering the river, and the ministry has expended most effort in establishing sewage and effluent treatment plants. The river gets a daily discharge of 2,953 million litres of sewage from 97 towns and cities. Till November 2017, the available treatment capacity was just 1,584 million litres daily in 46 towns and cities. Of the 105 sewage infrastructure projects commissioned, 26 are completed, 44 are underway and 35 are in the tendering process. A delegation of eight Trinamool Congress leaders was detained at the Silchar Airport in Assam on Thursday. The party had announced that the eight leadersthought to be two MLAs and six MPswould visit Assam to assess the condition of Bengalis who have been allegedly excluded from the recently released draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). TMC MP Derek O'Brien described the detention of the delegation visiting Assam as a super emergency-like situation. O'Brien claimed delegation members were manhandled. The Assam government had stepped up security outside the Silchar Airport; the delegation was expected to hold a public meeting on the NRC in Silchar on Thursday evening, before going to Guwahati the next day. TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the delegation, told reporters that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival, saying their visit might create trouble. The TMC delegation was kept in the VIP lounge of the airport. The Cachar district administration on Wednesday night issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had announced on the day the NRC was released that a party delegation would be visiting Assam. Banerjee alleged the NRC was an attempt to evict Bengalis from Assam and polarise the electorate. The TMC had announced that the delegation would comprise six MPs (Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur) and two MLAs (MLA Mohua Moitra and West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim). Banerjee has emerged as a prominent critic of the NRC, which she alleges is being used by the BJP to make inroads in West Bengal also. On Tuesday, the West Bengal BJP chief announced the party would compile an NRC in the state if voted to power. (With agency inputs) Even if External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday declared that the standoff between India and China at Doklam in 2017 was resolved through diplomatic maturity without losing any ground", Congress chief Rahul Gandhi doesn't seem too impressed. Gandhi tweeted on Thursday that Swaraj had buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. His tweet also added, Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border. The 'leader' term appears to be a veiled reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi attached an article from a website that quoted a US official as saying China had resumed its activities at Doklam and neither India or Bhutan had acted to dissuade Beijing. Gandhi had used the Doklam issue and reports that China was resuming its activities in the region to target Modi on national security previously. Doklam came up in Gandhi's speech during the no-confidence motion against the Modi government on July 20. Amazing how a lady like Sushma ji has buckled and prostrated herself in front of Chinese power. Absolute subservience to the leader means our brave jawan has been betrayed on the border. #Doklamhttps://t.co/UALkmH0jZ1 Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 2, 2018 On Wednesday, Swaraj told the Lok Sabha there has been no change in the status quo at Doklam. India and China were locked in a face-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector for over 50 days from June to August 2017 after Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area. China claimed it was constructing the road within their territory in Doklam, which India had objected to, saying the territory does not belong to China. (With PTI inputs) That the #MeToo movement is making inroads in Chinese society has become more evident with the recent allegations of sexual harassment against a prominent Buddhist monk. Allegations of sexual harassment were raised against Abbot Xuecheng of a Beijing-based temple, who is also a national political adviser. He allegedly "controlled the minds" of the temple's nuns to force them into sexual relations. Xuecheng is the head of the Buddhist Association of China. He has a huge social media following and is the youngest person to head the Buddhist Association. Two monks from the Longquan temple, where Abbot Xuecheng is based, sent a detailed report to the government officials. The monks, who were approached by a nun for help in the matter, seem to have obtained a record of Xuecheng's cell phone messages, which showed the nature of the messages he sent to the nuns. Xuecheng tempted or threatened at least six nuns to have sex with him, four of whom capitulated to his requests. But the temple has accused the monks of "distorting facts". Xuecheng has denied the charges, and the temple has put out a statement on Weibo, the Chinese social media site, that it would call for an investigation. Shi Xianjia and Shi Xianqi, the monks, said in the report that Xuecheng send sexually explicit messages to the nun. He allegedly forced them to have sexual relations with him. The monks claimed in the report that Xuecheng used text messages to exercise mind control over the nuns to tempt them into having sex, claiming that it was part of their study of Buddhist doctrines. The 95-page report also stated that one of the nuns had approached the police in June. The document has leaked online and is being circulated on Chinese social media. Accusations of sexual assault spread across Chinas social media over the last week as the #MeToo movement took aim at prominent activists, intellectuals and a television personality. In a country where issues like sexual assault have traditionally been brushed under the carpet, Chinas fledging #MeToo movement speaks of a changing mindset among the younger generation. Human rights non-profits have begun a campaign for the release of a 15-year-old Indonesian girl raped by her brother, after she was given a six-month prison sentence for having an abortion, an activist said on Wednesday. The campaign is being run by a number of Indonesian and international organizations, which also demanded that courts consider the age of the accused and the fact that the girl was a rape survivor while deciding the abortion case, a spokesperson of non-profit LBH Apik (Association of Indonesian Women for Justice) told Efe news. The girl was given the sentence in July by a municipal court in Jambi province of Sumatra for aborting her six-month old foetus, as Indonesian law allows abortion in special cases but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy. Her 18-year-old brother was given a two-year prison term for rape while the mother is facing charges for allegedly assisting in the abortion. Seven Indonesian organizations participating in the campaign filed a complaint about the verdict to the Judicial Commission of Indonesia, which agreed to examine if there were irregularities in the trial. Aquino Hayunta, a representative of parents' association Pasukan Jarik, said that the commission should investigate the fact that the siblings had the same court-appointed lawyer and if the judge was qualified to decide on cases related to minors. LBH APIK activist Dian Novita said that her organisation demanded that sexual violence should be included as a mitigating factor in such cases. According to Novita, this was not an isolated case and the NGO had come across 39 cases of child sexual abuse in 2017, with three of the survivors facing legal problems after becoming pregnant. Amnesty International joined the campaign and flagged lack of knowledge about exceptions to the Indonesian anti-abortion law and the stigma attached to survivors in the country, which increases when the victim undergoes a secret abortion. BECKET, Mass. At Jacobs Pillow, this has been the summer of Ohad Naharin. In his final months as the director of Israels internationally renowned Batsheva Dance Company, Naharin brought the companys young ensemble to the festival last month, and personally taught a community workshop on his Gaga technique, along with giving a PillowTalk. In addition, the School at Jacobs Pillow offered a rare two-week program in Gaga, which included an open rehearsal on the Inside/Out stage. And this week, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performs Naharins Decadance/Chicago as part of a rich and varied 40th-anniversary program for the company. A collection of excerpts from work the choreographer has made over the past 10 years, Decadance is a gorgeous, glowing patchwork of dance, with each section more inventive and surprising than the last. Sometimes the dancers confine all of their movement to their torsos, arms and hands; sometimes they explode in a dozen directions like fireworks, or wiggle as if theyd just stuck a finger in a socket; sometimes they snicker or guffaw or paste huge smiles on their faces. Even when all theyre doing is jumping up and down, theyre electrifying. In one riveting section, a group of women perform a series of repeated patterns over and over again, set to a poem-like litany of instructions for living (make money but dont work too hard, stay off the streets, etc.). Both the text and the movement sequence get longer with each go-round. Its bizarre, hypnotic and unforgettable. Crystal Pites Grace Engine is powerfully cinematic, a futuristic film noir of a dance. Its suffused with eerie, enigmatic urgencyechoing footsteps, the metallic rhythm of train wheels on tracks, fluorescent bulbs flashing on and off, bodies limned with light. The movement is theatrical as wellbig bends and glides, whirling arms, lines of dancers facing off. Theres a constant tension between the loner and the collective, as a solitary figure is subsumed and then released by an encroaching crowd. Three couples (Rena Butler and Myles Lavallee, Alicia Delgadillo and Elliot Hammans, and Alice Klock and Florian Lochner) flow with velvety grace through Lickety-Split, choreographed by Alejandro Cerrudo to a selection of heart-lifting Devendra Banhart songs. The music and movement blend into something purely and utterly romantic, with each couple showing the love in their own waythrough shy gestures, sensual interconnections or a flirtatious push-and-pull. The mood shifted yet again with The 40s, Lou Contes energetic and endearing homage to jazz. Trussed up in vests and bow ties, the dancers shrug, kick, flip and do their version of jazz hands, all to the melodies of Sy Oliver. As she often is, the diminutive Delgadillo is the never-still center of their turning world. Tresca Weinstein is a frequent contributor to the Times Union. *** Dance review Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. When: 8 p.m. Wednesday Program: Decadance/Chicago, Grace Engine, Lickety-Split, The 40s Length: Two hours, 20 minutes; one intermission Repeats: 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday; 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday Where: Jacobs Pillow, 358 George Carter Rd., Becket, Mass. Tickets: $45$78; for ages 1835, a limited number of $35 tickets available Info: 413-243-0745 or http://www.jacobspillow.org ALBANY Gov. Andrew Cuomo took another step toward the legalization of recreational marijuana on Thursday with the announcement of a working group convened to draft legislation to allow "a regulated adult-use marijuana program." A Cuomo-commissioned report, led by the state Health Department, recently concluded that the positive impacts of a regulated marijuana market in New York outweigh the potential negative impacts. "As we work to implement the report's recommendations through legislation, we must thoroughly consider all aspects of a regulated marijuana program, including its impact on public health, criminal justice and state revenue, and mitigate any potential risks associated with it," Cuomo said in a statement Thursday. The new working group will be overseen by Cuomo's counsel Alphonso David, and includes academics (including David Holtgrave, dean of the University at Albany's School of Public Health), members of law enforcement (including former Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox and State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II) and commissioners state agencies including Health, Mental Health, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Children and Family Services, the Department of Transportation, Taxation and Finance, and Agriculture & Markets. Cuomo's Budget Director Robert Mujica and Empire State Development Corp. chief Howard Zemsky will also serve on the panel. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The group's proposals could be taken up by the newly elected Legislature in the session slated to begin in January. Even as other states including California and Colorado moved forward with various forms of legalization for recreational use, Cuomo has proceeded far more deliberately. He approved a narrow medical marijuana program in 2014 and has gradually expanded it to cover more maladies. For years, the Democrat who is facing a primary challenge from Cynthia Nixon, a strong advocate for legalization of recreational use said he considered marijuana to be "a gateway drug." ALBANY A day after his arrest by the FBI, an engineer employed by General Electric appeared before a federal judge Thursday and was released on $100,000 bond. Xiaoqing Zheng, 55, was taken into custody Wednesday at his Niskayuna home and charged with using sophisticated techniques to steal digital files on the company's turbine technology possibly to benefit his interest in Chinese firms that compete with GE. At a detention hearing Thursday afternoon, Zheng's attorney, Kevin A. Luibrand, said his client's reputation had been unnecessarily "destroyed" and offered a forceful defense against many of the government's arguments. Luibrand said there is no evidence that Zheng colluded with the Chinese government or that he sold or used the GE data. Luibrand told U.S. Magistrate Christian F. Hummel that the data his client copied were programs of patented information that he had created. The charges do not allege Zheng sold the data or used it in furtherance of several technology businesses he is involved with in China. "This is not state secrets," Luibrand said. "This is not espionage. ... GE fully knew that he had another business." The attorney said the patented data technology relates to steam-turbine engineering and there are no export controls that would prohibit transfer of that type of information between China and the United States. Federal prosecutors said the Chinese government had provided grant money to at least one of Zheng's businesses overseas, but made no suggestions that China was involved in any alleged theft of GE information. Luibrand also disputed the assertion that Zheng was a flight risk and said that he had relinquished his Chinese citizenship when he became a U.S. citizen in 2001. The attorney said that the government's contention that Zheng was likely to flee to China was no different from arguing that a person of Irish descent was likely to flee to Ireland. Prosecutors, who asked that Zheng be released on $200,000 secured bond and remain confined to his residence, revealed that Wednesday's search of Zheng's home uncovered a knapsack carrying the family's passports, immunization records and $20,000 in cash a package investigators described as a "go-bag" meant to aid in a hasty escape. The FBI also found $30,000 hidden in the home's basement. Luibrand said that the cash belonged to Zheng's wife, Hui Jin, and that the preference to keep large sums of cash was cultural, not an indication of criminal activity. Jin, a realtor, sat in the second row of the courtroom for the brief proceeding with the couple's two daughters, ages 21 and 28. The couple's 15-year-old son was not at the hearing. Zheng and Jin have been married 31 years. On her real estate business website, Jin's profile states: "I left my job and home in China with my daughter, two suitcases, and a big dream to (come to) the United States ... with my husband. We found happiness in this heavenly country. Fast-forward a few years: we applied for a green card and bought our dream house." Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Bellis told the judge the government considers Zheng a flight risk, but Luibrand countered that federal sentencing guidelines would give Zheng, a first-time offender if he is convicted, a prison term of less than a year in prison, and possibly probation. "No one's going to run from that," Luibrand said. "They're just trying to jack up suspicion." Luibrand suggested the case should have been handled as a civil patent-infringement matter "on a different floor of this courthouse." Prosecutors, in a statement Wednesday, said that Zheng "used an elaborate and sophisticated means to remove electronic files containing GE's trade secrets involving its turbine technologies. ... Zheng is alleged to have used (encrypted technology) to hide data files belonging to GE into an innocuous looking digital picture of a sunset, and then to have emailed the digital picture, which contained the stolen GE data files, to Zheng's (private) email account." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The federal complaint indicates the email containing the stolen trade secrets that Zheng sent to himself included the subject line "Nice view to keep." Prosecutors said the single criminal count filed against Zheng theft of trade secrets relates to an incident that took place on July 5 when he moved 40 encrypted files to a digital folder on his laptop. But the federal criminal complaint indicates Zheng is also suspected of stealing the data files "on multiple occasions" dating back years. The complaint says that in 2014, Zheng "downloaded more than 19,000 files from GE's computer network onto an external storage device, believed by GE investigators to have been a personal thumb drive." GE was aware of that incident at the time and investigated it internally but took no action against Zheng, according to the complaint. Zheng was hired by GE in 2008 and holds master's and doctorate degrees in aero-engineering from Northwestern Polytechnic University. Federal prosecutors, in their complaint, said Zheng also has a degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but a school spokesman said he holds an executive certificate in Technology, Operations, and Value Chain Management from a non-degree executive program. Zheng previously told GE officials that he and his brothers own a technology company in Nanjing, China, that supplies parts for civil aviation engines, according to the federal complaint. GE officials had reviewed Zheng's interest in that company and determined it may conflict with his employment here, but allowed him to continue working for GE. Zheng had been held in federal custody at the Rensselaer County jail and was scheduled to be released late Thursday afternoon. The couple's house in Niskayuna will be used as collateral to secure the bond. Hummel, who addressed Zheng as "doctor" because of his educational accomplishments, cut the government's bond request in half and declined the prosecutor's request to have Zheng remain confined to his residence. The judge agreed to the government's request that Zheng wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet on his ankle and remain under the supervision of U.S. probation officials.A condition of his release which is standard in federal court requires that he maintain or seek employment. "I suspect he's lost his job at GE," Luibrand told the court. Root With corn growing across the street and a field of cattle out back, the municipal office building in the town of Root sits amid Montgomery County's rural splendor. It was here that Dylan Toften and Thomas Hurd tried to get a marriage license. And it was here that Town Clerk Laurel "Sherrie" Eriksen denied them the license because Toften and Hurd are gay. Toften posted a complaint Monday on Facebook. It reverberated around New York. Gay marriage has been legal in this state since 2011 and nationally since 2015. The most dire predictions about what legalization would bring seem silly now, and controversy has largely faded. Polls show that a solid majority of Americans approve of it being legal, but Eriksen isn't among them. "She has a religious objection and has referred the matter to her deputy clerk, who has no such objection and will issue the license when they make an appointment," Town Attorney Robert Subik said in an email to The Daily Gazette, which first reported this story. Subik said Eriksen had another reason for rejecting Toften and Hurd's application: They didn't first make an appointment. Would a straight couple have been denied a license for showing up unannounced? I tend to doubt it. On Facebook, Toften said he and Hurd, who have not spoken publicly about their experience, went to Cobleskill to get their license. They shouldn't have needed to do that. Eriksen is required to abide by the law. She is paid by taxpayers to issue marriage licenses to straight and gay couples alike. In a country that cherishes freedom of religion, everybody is entitled to have a religious objection to gay marriage. But it is not OK for a public employee to impose her religious beliefs on others. "I've lived in this region for awhile and I know how people are," Toften wrote on Facebook. "But when you take an oath you are surrendering your views to fulfill that oath." It isn't even accurate to conflate Eriksen's stance with the one taken by the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, who also had a religious objection to gay marriage. Owner Jack Phillips argued that making a custom-designed cake is protected expression under the First Amendment, and that he could not be compelled to exercise that expression for a gay couple. The Supreme Court, in a recent ruling, essentially ducked the question. Eriksen, though, is not a private business owner. She is a government employee and issuing marriage licenses is part of her job. This is not a religious liberty case. Look at it another way: Could a town clerk who is an animal-rights activist cite moral objections to deny a hunting or fishing license? Of course not. On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the state's Division of Human Rights to investigate what he called "an unconscionable act of discrimination." A few hours later I drove to Root, population 1,700, to get Eriksen's side of the story, but she wasn't talking. She wouldn't even open the door to the town office building. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Visitors were required to ring a doorbell, and Eriksen communicated with me and a couple of television reporters on the scene only via an intercom. "I'm not talking to the press at this time," she said. "Please leave the premises." More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse Residents arriving in the midafternoon heat were confused by the locked door and assumed the office was closed. When a woman hoping to pay a bill rang the bell, Eriksen asked why she was there before saying, "I'm going to unlock the door. I'm asking that you close it immediately and do not let anybody in." In my nearly two decades of journalism, I've never seen anything like it. Eriksen wasn't the only person hiding. Supervisor Gary Kamp, all four members of the Town Council and Subik, the attorney, did not return requests for comment. That makes sense, in a way. When something is indefensible, nobody wants to defend it. But this isn't going away. Eventually, Eriksen and other town officials will have to answer questions, such as: Were town officials aware that Eriksen would refuse to issue a marriage license to gay couples? And if so, do they condone this discrimination? Now that Eriksen's failure to uphold the law has been exposed, she has two choices. She can agree to treat gay couples equally from here on out, or she can resign. cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill 3 1 of 3 State Police Show More Show Less 2 of 3 State Police Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A Clifton Park woman and a Duanesburg man were charged with grand larceny after they allegedly rented a $55,000 excavator and did not return it, State Police said. Arrest warrants were issued after H&M Equipment on Route 30 in Perth, Fulton County, reported the theft of a Yanmar excavator that had been rented by Matthew and Amber Burke. ALBANY With Pope Francis decreeing capital punishment "inadmissible" in all cases Wednesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he would advance legislation to erase the death penalty from state law. The governor invoked his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who blocked the reinstatement of the death penalty a dozen times during his 12 years in office. "He did this because he believed the death penalty was wrong and he had the courage to stand firm in his beliefs -- so much so that he was willing to lose his office rather than capitulate," Cuomo said in a statement. "Pop was right then, and he is right now." The last execution in New York took place in 1963. The state's death penalty law has been abolished and reinstated several times since then. The law was reinstated under the Pataki administration in 1995, but a 2004 state Court of Appeals ruling deemed it unconstitutional as it was written. Legislative efforts to fix the law have failed. Gov. David Paterson effectively ended "death row" in 2008 by striking language from the law books designating the location of the cell where doomed felons awaited execution. But language for the death sentence remains in New York's penal code. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, endorsed the governor's legislation Wednesday, noting that the murder rate in New York has fallen almost 40 percent since 2004. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "The death penalty is flawed, discriminatory and outdated. The evidence that the death penalty is ineffective and imposed in a disproportionate manner is overwhelming," Heastie said. "People, and our court systems, are fallible." Since 1973, more than 100 people on death row have been exonerated after other evidence came to light, according to the New York Civil Liberty Union, he added. The pope's declaration and call for the church to work to abolish the death penalty marks a significant shift in Catholic teachings which is expected to have implications for elected officials and judges who have long argued that the church does not always oppose the death penalty. Previously the Catholic church permitted capital punishment "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." ALBANY An Albany County prosecutor's side work for a high-profile defense attorney was an apparent violation of office policy. "Our attorneys are not permitted to engage in outside criminal work," Cecilia Walsh, a spokeswoman for District Attorney David Soares, said in an email Thursday. The Times Union reported Tuesday that Assistant District Attorney Steven Sharp, who makes $112,164 a year as bureau chief of the General Felony Unit, admitted in an recent affidavit that over a four-year period he handled freelance work for prominent Albany attorney Cheryl Coleman, even as he faced off against her in several high-profile cases. Sharp said he drew up briefs for Coleman in appeals for criminal cases outside Albany County. Walsh said the matter is "under review." She said no other employees had done similar side work, and that Sharp had not worked for any other private attorneys. On Thursday, Coleman told the Times Union that Sharp's work was a "limited-in-scope business relationship to a specific end" that included no more than five appeals. She said such legal "ghostwriting" is common, and ethical as long as attorneys disclose the other lawyer's involvement to their client. The arrangement between Sharp and Coleman came to light in a June 21 letter that an appellate lawyer, Matthew Hug, sent to acting state Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough. Hug's client, Jordan Prusinski of Latham, was convicted in April of attempted murder for firing 11 shots and striking two people at the corner of Lark and Hamilton streets last summer. Sharp prosecuted the case. Coleman was Prusinski's defense attorney at trial. In light of their freelance work, Hug asked McDonough to toss the case and appoint a special prosecutor. "The selection of ADA Sharp to provide appellate services to attorney Coleman's firm is alarming in and of itself," Hug wrote to the judge on July 15. "There are dozens of local lawyers in the criminal defense bar that provide appellate services, many of whom would undoubtedly accept an offer to assist in the writing of appeals. But, instead of choosing any of these available attorneys, attorney Coleman decided to secretly retain ADA Sharp." In his affidavit, Sharp said Hug's argument "goes beyond the pale in casting aspersions about my character and conduct. At no time did Ms. Coleman gain any advantage during a criminal trial or negotiations or vice-versa. The notion that Ms. Coleman aided me in furtherance of my career is, quite frankly, laughable." The judge rejected Hug's argument and last week sentenced the 26-year-old Prusinski to 22 years to life in prison. Sharp's side work would also be prohibited in three other Capital Region counties. District Attorneys Karen Heggen in Saratoga, Joel Abelove in Rensselaer and Robert Carney in Schenectady all said they do not allow prosecutors to do any freelance legal work for defense lawyers. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. They said no member of their staffs does such work. "It has the potential to create conflicts, in my opinion," Heggen told the Times Union Thursday. Carney recalled an instance from more than two decades ago when he learned that a part-time prosecutor was planning to be part of a defense case in Albany. He said they spoke, and the prosecutor left the case. "They don't do criminal defense work," Carney said of his prosecutors. Jonathan Desso, a spokesman for Abelove, told the Times Union in an email that no assistant district attorneys or staff members "have worked for pay on the side with other attorneys." "The policy is that they are not permitted to do so when employed by our office," Desso said. Soares was not aware of Sharp's side work for Coleman until Hug brought it to light, according to Sharp's own affidavit. It remains to be seen if Sharp will face any sanction for his freelancing, but Hug's letter to the judge suggested the prosecutor was aware he might wind up in trouble with his boss: "I guess I better get my resume ready," Sharp told Hug, according to the defense lawyer's letter. ALBANY - The engineer believed to have stolen proprietary information on GE's turbine program is due back in federal court Thursday afternoon. Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, has a detention hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Federal agents raided Zheng's Niskayuna home early Wednesday morning. Prosecutors said that Zheng used "elaborate and sophisticated" methods to remove electronic files containing GE trade secrets from his office, emailing them to himself in a digital picture. The federal complaint indicates Zheng is also suspected of stealing the data files "on multiple occasions" dating back years. Zheng holds citizenship in the U.S. and China. Zheng was hired by GE in 2008 and holds master's and doctorate degrees in aero-engineering from Northwestern Polytechnic University. Federal prosecutors, in their complaint, said Zheng also has a degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but a school spokesman said he holds an executive certificate in Technology, Operations, and Value Chain Management from a non-degree executive program. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Zheng previously told GE officials that he and his brothers own a technology company in Nanjing, China, that supplies parts for civil aviation engines, according to the federal complaint. GE officials had reviewed Zheng's interest in that company and determined it may conflict with his employment here, but allowed him to continue working for GE. ALBANY - A 25-year-old city man pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in connection with the June 7 stabbing of Elijah Smith, a city man who died after more than a week in the hospital. As part of a plea bargain, Joseph Sanchez faces a sentence of 3 to 9 years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Washington President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly into the president. He wrote on Twitter: "...This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" The order immediately raised questions from some lawyers about whether it was an attempt to obstruct justice. The special counsel, appointed last year to oversee the government's Russia investigation, is already looking into some of the president's previous Twitter posts and public statements to determine whether they were intended to obstruct the inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and any ties to the Trump campaign. Trump's lawyers quickly moved to contain the fallout, saying it was not an order to a member of his Cabinet, but merely an opinion. An hour and a half after the tweet was posted, Trump's lawyers contacted a reporter for The New York Times. In a subsequent telephone conversation, one of his lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, dismissed the obstruction of justice concerns, calling it a "bizarre and novel theory of obstruction by tweet," adding that it was "idiotic." Presidents typically do not weigh in on active Justice Department investigations, but Trump has been outspoken about his anger and frustration with the Russia inquiry. Trump has also said that he never would have made Sessions his attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the inquiry. The Justice Department declined to comment. Sessions recused himself in early 2017 in part to avoid the kind of conflicts Trump proposed. Later, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was appointed to carry out the inquiry. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The president's lawyers, Jay A. Sekulow and Giuliani, said in a telephone interview that Trump was not ordering the inquiry closed but simply expressing his opinion. "It's not a call to action," Giuliani said, adding that it was a sentiment that Trump and his lawyers had previously expressed publicly and that it was a statement protected by the president's constitutional right to free speech. "He doesn't feel that he has to intervene in the process, nor is he intervening," Sekulow said. The president wanted the legal process to play out, his lawyers said. "He's expressing his opinion, but he's not talking of his special powers he has" as president, Giuliani said. TROY City police are drawing closer to deploying body cameras in the 130-member department department, and a draft policy on the use of the cameras is nearly complete, Chief Brian Owens said. The union representing the patrol officers and sergeants has looked at body cameras available from two vendors, but the city cannot launch a pilot program for the equipment until agreement is reached with the Troy Police Benevolent Association. Officer Nick Laviano, the PBA president, said the union wants to ensure the cameras selected will be sturdy enough to withstand the daily use and sometimes physical confrontations officers may face in an altercation with a suspect. The body camera policy would have to address whether the camera footage could be used in disciplinary actions. Retired Chief John Tedesco told the City Council Public Safety Committee in 2016 that it would cost $75,000 to outfit 25 police officers with the body cameras and put dashboard cameras in four patrol vehicles. On Friday, Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced the creation of a $2 million CAMS (Capture an Account of a Material Situation) program to provide grants for local police departments with a minimum strength of 130 officers and a maximum of 3,000 officers. Troy is right at the minimum size for a police department to obtain grant funding. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Troy would be eligible to receive $70,000 from CAMS as long as a cash match of $23,333 is provided. The funding comes from money seized in organized crime cases. A report by the attorney general's office on the fatal April 2016 shooting of a DWI suspect by a city police sergeant recommended that the city outfit its officers with body cameras. There was no city video of the shooting. City Council President Carmella Mantello wrote Mayor Patrick Madden Friday urging his administration to apply for the new state grant by Sept. 7, saying, "the use of body cams will benefit both our residents and our police department." TROY The chiefs leading the Troy Police Department are weighing the option of reverting to the rank of captain after going nearly six months without a contract, which Mayor Patrick Madden had said would be reached within a month of their promotions, according to police officers and people with knowledge of the department. Chief Brian Owens, Assistant Chief Daniel DeWolf and Captain Christopher Kehn, who has been promoted but not sworn in as assistant chief, remain circumspect in talking about working without an agreement on salary and benefits. Weve met with the city administration. At this point, we still dont have a contract. I would not discuss my options publicly at this point, Owens said. The Troy Police Benevolent Associations 118 members the departments patrol officers and sergeants are watching the interaction between Madden and the chiefs as the union seeks a new contract. Discussion of the switch back to captain came out during a farewell ceremony Monday for retired Capt. Richard Sprague, who commanded the detective bureau. Theres a possibility they could do that, Officer Nick Laviano, president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, said Wednesday about the chiefs dropping back to captain. If you cant settle a contract with three guys who are doing an unbelievable job, how are you going to settle a contract with 118 guys? Since Owens and DeWolf took command, they have moved the department toward increased community policing, taken steps to provide opportunities to officers and seen grievances filed by the PBA decline. "Morale is at an all-time high," Laviano said. Madden last week said Owens and DeWolf have improved the department along the lines he envisioned when they were promoted. The drawn-out negotiations come as Albany raised the salary of its next police chief by $22,855 to $145,000 to get Eric Hawkins, who led the department in Southfield, Mich., to take the job. The Troy police chiefs salary has remained $113,651 since 2014. The last time an employment agreement was approved by the City Council for the police chiefs was in 2008. It covered then Chief Nicholas Kaiser and Assistant Chiefs John Tedesco and Richard Buddy McAvoy. That agreement, which included benefits tied to those received by the union representing the departments captains, was only for Kaiser, Tedesco and McAvoy. Owens, DeWolf and Kehn are facing a situation where their proposed employment and retirement benefits would be less than they received as captains or as PBA members. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. We have to keep our options open. Im hopeful, DeWolf said. I need to see what my benefits are. Taking a promotion has to be a logical decision, not an emotional decision, Kehn said about not being sworn in to command the patrol division. The Madden administration is not discussing the situation involving the top police commanders. It remains city policy to withhold comment on specific personnel matters. The administration is currently engaged in drafting final contract language to provide a fair and responsible outcome for police leadership and the city, John Salka, a Madden spokesman, said Wednesday. Councilman Mark McGrath, a member of the City Council Public Safety Committee, said the Madden administration has not shared any information on the contract with the committee. Transparency is not one of their strengths," McGrath said. "Everything is hidden. A federal judge on Monday found that U.S. government officials have been giving psychotropic medication to migrant children at a Texas facility without first seeking the consent of their parents or guardians, in violation of state child welfare laws. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ordered the Trump administration to obtain consent or a court order before administering any psychotropic medications to migrant children, except in cases of dire emergencies. It also ordered that the government move all children out of the Texas facility, Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Manvel, except for children deemed by a licensed professional to pose a "risk of harm" to themselves or others. Staff members at Shiloh admitted to signing off on medications in lieu of a parent, relative or legal guardian, according to Gee's ruling. Government officials defended this practice, saying they provided these drugs only on "an emergency basis" when a child's "extreme psychiatric symptoms" became dangerous. The judge didn't buy this explanation, pointing to testimony from children who said they were given pills "every morning and every night." Officials "could not have possibly" administered medications to children on an emergency basis every day, Gee wrote. The Shiloh Residential Treatment Center, the judge ruled, violated a long-standing settlement that set strict standards for detaining immigrant children, including those who crossed the border unaccompanied and those who were separated from their parents. The 1997 Flores agreement requires the government to place children in the "least restrictive" setting appropriate to their age and any special needs. Plaintiffs on behalf of immigrant children argued Shiloh violated this standard because it is a locked facility with 24-hour surveillance and monitoring and engages in practices that are "not necessary for the protection of minors or others." Shiloh is one of many shelters contracted by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to house immigrant children. There is evidence that several children were not allowed to have any private telephone calls at Shiloh, the judge wrote. One child, identified as Julio Z., said Shiloh staff refused to let him and other children leave their living areas to get drinking water. When Julio tried to step out to get water on one occasion, a staff member allegedly threw the boy to the ground, injuring his elbow. The judge ordered Shiloh to stop using any unessential security measures, such as denying children drinking water. It demanded that officials allow children at Shiloh to speak privately over the phone. Gee also said the government must explain to children in writing, in a language they understand and in a reasonable amount of time, why they are being transferred to a secure facility, staff-secure facility or a residential treatment center. The judge also ruled that officials cannot place children in a secure facility solely because they were allegedly affiliated with gangs. Most immigrant children in U.S. custody are in nonsecure facilities. But others are in a range of higher-security facilities. A secure facility is the most restrictive option, with a physically secure structure and staff trained to control violent behavior - much like a juvenile detention center. A "staff-secure" facility may have a secure perimeter, such as a fence, and a higher staff-to-child ratio, but is not equipped with locked cells. Residential treatment centers are assigned to children who are determined to pose a danger to themselves or others. Shiloh is a collection of trailers and small buildings that can house up to 44 children, 32 of them immigrants, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting, which has reported extensively on the facility. It has been contracted to house immigrant children deemed unaccompanied minors since 2013, and was also set to receive children separated from their parents under the Trump administration. The facility also has a history of troubling practices, including allegations of child abuse, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting. A local congresswoman called for Shiloh to be shut down four years ago after the Houston Chronicle reported on long-running allegations of physical violence, excessive use of physical restraints and several deaths of children in custody. A doctor at Shiloh who has signed off on many prescriptions for psychotropic drugs to immigrant children has practiced without board certification to treat children and adolescents for nearly a decade, the Center for Investigative Reporting found. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. In a statement currently on its website, Shiloh said it has been visited, audited or investigated by authorities at the state and federal level in recent weeks. "All of the widely distributed allegations about Shiloh were found to be without merit," the center wrote. "The children have been found to be properly cared for and treated. Shiloh Treatment Center has a specific treatment purpose within the federal system. It does not participate in border actions." Numerous sworn testimonies in court affidavits indicated that children at Shiloh were regularly given psychotropic medication without the proper parental consent. Sometimes they were told these were vitamins, and recalled feeling drowsy, dizzy or particularly hungry after taking the medication. Other children recalled being held down and forcibly injected with drugs. One child at Shiloh, identified as Isabella M, was prescribed multiple psychotropic medications at Shiloh, including topiramate, without her mother's consent. "Nobody asked me for permission to give medications to my daughter, even though the staff at Shiloh has always had my telephone number and address," the mother said in court documents. One 17-year-old unaccompanied minor from El Salvador, Gabriela N., said Shiloh staff gave her psychotropic medications such as Gabapentin, Prozac, and Bupropion, according to a court affidavit. She said she did not believe the medications were helping her, and did not want to take them, but felt that she had to in order to be released from detention. Lucas R., a 12-year-old boy from Guatemala who was detained in February, was transferred to Shiloh after he refused to take antidepressant Zoloft, which was causing him stomach pain. Shiloh medical staff diagnosed Lucas with major depressive disorder and told him that officials would not release him until Shiloh medical personnel declared him psychologically sound. His depression was in large part triggered by "being kept from family," which had entered the country before him, according to court documents. In 2016, Earth reached its highest temperature on record. We're losing the fight against global warming because we refuse to acknowledge that the principal culprit, CO2 emissions, is a function not only of per capita emissions, but of population. The campaign to reduce world CO2 output totally ignores the latter. But consider how human numbers work against us. In 1950, there were 2.5 billion people in the world; total annual world CO2 emissions were 6 billion metric tons. Population is now 7.6 billion, and if average world per capita emissions had just stayed the same, tripling population would have tripled total emissions disastrous enough. But the reality was even worse. Total emissions increased six-fold, to 36 billion tons, because large population cohorts including 1.3 billion Chinese changed almost overnight from an agrarian lifestyle to an industrialized one. China's per capita emissions jumped from 1.8 tons in 1999 to 7.6 in 2014, making it the world's largest total emitter of CO2, 10 billion tons annually. How much CO2 should the world emit annually, if there's to be any hope of reversing global warming? One report, in Scientific American in 2009, held that, "Global greenhouse gas emissions will need to be at least 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050" that is, 12 billion tons of CO2 a year. How many people would it take to produce such a total? It would depend on what percentage of the world's population has become industrialized, and where the world's average per capita emissions level stands. A simple hypothetical is illustrative: Assume half the world's population is still agrarian; the other half, industrialized. For convenience, use China's "before" and "after" per capita emission numbers. The world's agrarians would emit 1.8 tons, the industrialized 7.6. Average world per capita emissions, then, would be 4.7 tons. Dividing that into a world total emissions of 12 billion tons gives a world population of only 2.55 billion people. Whatever CO2 goal we choose, we must find some combination of 1) reducing average world per capita emissions, and 2) reducing world population. Do both, experts say. A 2009 study from the London School of Economics "recommended that an optimum mix of carbon-reducing methods includes family planning as one of the primary methods." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2014 stated, "CO2 emissions could be lower by 30 percent by 2100 if access to contraception was provided to women expressing a need for it ... not only in poor countries, but rich ones like the U.S., where there's unmet need for reproductive health services and high CO2 emissions per capita." Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Then why is mainstream thinking so resistant to the idea of reducing population? Because, I'd argue, of our obsession with economic growth, which too often depends on population growth. A Sarasota, Fla., economist, Henry "Hank" Fishkind, put it succinctly in a talk on real estate sales last year: "Population growth is a key factor in keeping the economy humming." No public voice dares suggest reducing growth. For example, the mission statement of a project called Transportation America speaks of "building capacity for sustainable population and economic growth in the future." But that premise is irrational; growth without end-point is unsustainable. Yet when reporting to the project, the Northern California "megaregion" estimated its population would grow 50.7 percent from 2010 to 2050; and Florida predicted its would increase 80.2 percent; neither of them, nor any of the other nine megaregions reporting, suggested that preventing population growth might be one strategy to pursue. Economists face an existential challenge: They must teach the world how to run a healthy economy with a stable, even smaller, number of people or the battle to save the planet from global warming will be lost. The organisers of this year's North Tipperary Agricultural Show at the Showgrounds in Nenagh will be hoping that the sun will come out for the day. The show, which is in its 143rd year, takes place this August Bank Holiday Monday. This long standing tradition in Tipperary can hardly be rivalled. Although essentially an agricultural show with the reliable stalwarts remaining unchanged the show has evolved to become a special day out. It is not just for country cousins as the townies will also find it a worthwhile and exciting day out. Among the attractions again this year will be the display of vintage cars from Nenagh Classic Car Club. This year's display will feature classic German cars, providing show goers with plenty of Mercs and perks. All the usual attractions will be featured, with cattle shows, a dog show, a pet farm and plenty for the kiddies with amusements and bouncy castles. Due to an expanded pony section, with additional qualifiers in the showjumping section, the horse section will not go ahead this year as extra space is needed in the arena. Judging will be keen again in the arts and crafts section and the Premier County's best bakers and cake makers will be vying for the top spot in the baking classes. The county's best dressed fashionistas will be hoping to catch the judge's eye in the Best Dress section for women, men and children. With the ununually dry summer, it's is hoped the flower section as well as the fruit and vegetable sections will not be too hard hit. With plenty of trade stands on offer, there will be lots to do and see and the show and punters are being asked to keep an eye out for the North Tipperary IFA stand, which, this year, hosts a fundraiser for Farm EMBRACE, the support network that looks after those who have suffered a farm death or injury. Among the demonstrations on the day will be one on farm safety, a reminder that farming is among the most dangerous occupations in the country. Providing the music will be Celtic rock band Tradstone, whose members Noreen Ryan, Anthony Slevin, Jonathan Fahy and Colm Glennon hail from Lorrha and Portumna. Through tough times and good times the North Tipperary Agricultural Show has survived, and this year, despite the difficulties facing farmers, it is expected that the show will once again attract a huge attendance. Photo: Wayne Moore - File Photo Kelowna's political rumour mill has been working overtime these past few weeks. The subject is the political future of Coun. Tracy Gray. Gray is winding down her first term on city council, but has yet to officially declare whether she will seek re-election. There are some suggestions she is exploring a possible run for the federal Conservative party nomination in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding. Ron Cannan held that riding for the Conservatives for three terms before being ousted by first-year candidate Stephen Fuhr during the Liberal wave in 2015. Cannan is not seeking to reclaim the seat. Speaking with Castanet Wednesday, Gray said little about her plans. She did say she has made a decision, and will make that known in the not-too-distant future. Her husband, Larry Gray, is a prominent member of the federal Conservatives. He worked on the Team B.C. portion of Kevin O'Leary's leadership bid, and helped organize O'Leary's stop in Kelowna. In the meantime, Gray says she is still a city councillor, and there is a lot of work left to do. The current council still has five meetings remaining until voters go to the polls on Oct. 20. And, judging from the past several meetings, the agendas will likely be packed. Gray is one of three councillors who have yet to formally announce their intentions. Councillors Charlie Hodge and Brad Sieben have also yet to declare. Independent TD Mattie McGrath has launched a scathing attack on leaked proposals to close 112 rural Post Offices that includes the post offices in the Tipperary locations of Ballingarry, Templetuohy, Gortnahoe, Littleton and Clogheen. Deputy McGrath went on to say that the closures which are part of the agreement reached between The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) and An Post is just another aspect of the unembarrassed contempt for rural Ireland that is poisoning all levels of central government policy: In April of this year the IPU hyped up the outcome of its negotiations with An Post, an outcome that was allegedly all about maintaining the delivery of local post office services throughout the state. Today we know that those words were absolutely meaningless. That so called agreement included a 50m investment in the Post Office Network and negotiated redundancy settlements and was sold as snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Well if success involves the closure of five Tipperary post offices, then it is clear that the IPU have been totally outmanoeuvred. Investment in the Network should have been a given and not a concession that had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the top brass in an Post and in the Department. The same can be said of the retirement or redundancy packages. Everyone who has given a lifetime of service as Post masters and mistresses have should be entitled to those by right and again, not as some concession that could be denied. It looks very much like the IPU were suckered into signing their own members death warrants, a move that is being facilitated by the refusal to comprehensively transfer services to existing rural post offices. If you cut off the oxygen supply of services from any business then it is only a matter time before a voluntary surrender occurs. That is what seems to be happening here. The government and An Post have been cutting off the oxygen supply for years while at the same time they want to blame rural communities for not using their post office. Ultimately however, this list of proposed closures is a damning indictment of the utter ruthlessness that kicks in when it comes to rural Ireland. "It demonstrates yet again, that the effect of their policies is ultimately to have us on our knees begging for services; services that should be ours by right, concluded Deputy McGrath. Three young people from Tipperary, Bernadette Simpson, Halal Musse and Ashling Dunphy, joined 250 other teenagers from India, the USA and Ireland in Kildare this week for Foroiges Leadership for Life Youth Conference. The conference, takes place throughout this week, 30th July 3rd Aug, on the grounds of NUI Maynooth, and brings together teenagers to empower them to become leaders in their own lives. Paul OConnell gave a talk to the young people today (01/08/18), as part of the Aldi guest lecture series, where he highlighted the importance of staying positive. Paul OConnell, Aldi Play Rugby Ambassador said God given talent is a myth, successful people work harder and smarter and thats how they achieve their goals. Its really important to keep positive. Dont let anyone say you cant do something. You have the capacity to work, train and do anything you put your mind to. It doesnt matter what it is, stay the course and be the person you want to be. Sean Campbell, CEO of Foroige, said These young people have come to this conference because someone in their lives saw their potential to lead, grow, develop and influence, whether that was a parent, Foroige youth worker, or teacher. Amongst other things, these teens will learn about resilience and perseverance this week, and further develop their ability to believe in themselves. Its more important than ever for these young people to realise that leadership is not about ego or personal advancement, its about showing the way and inspiring those around you to be the best that they can be. The conference offers these young people the fantastic opportunity of exploring their own unique set of leadership skills, whilst encouraging them to believe in their own ability to make real and powerful positive change in the world. The 250 delegates, aged 15 to 18, will graduate on Friday morning (August 3rd) having completed various stages of the leadership programme. As part of the week-long conference, the delegates also met inspirational guest speakers Louise Foody, Director of Digital & Brand at Kingspan Group and Maria Walsh, former Rose of Tralee, entrepreneur, and broadcaster The Russian embassy in the Republic of Belarus has held talks on the terms and timing of completing plant construction for the new Omsk Carbon Group (OCG) plant, as well as international prospects for implementing this project. During a meeting with OCG management, Aleksander Surikov, a Russian ambassador, highlighted several important factors that must be considered when building the factory in the Mogilev Free Economic Zone. Surikov stressed how important it is to make the plant as an essential element of a technological chain within the system of manufacturing facilities operating in Belarus including oil refineries, high-tech raw materials production facilities for carbon black, and other consumer products such as tires and mechanical rubber goods. ') } // --> ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> ') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write(' ') } // --> ') } else if (width >= 425) { console.log ('largescreen'); document.write('') } else { console.log ('nompuad'); document.write('') } // --> Maximum capacity at the plant (currently 200 KTPY) is now being ramped up. Plans include delivering around a half of the products to Belshina JSC, a Belarusian tire manufacturer, while the remainder will be supplied to Poland, Sweden, Germany, Romania and Finland. Nikolay Krivitsky, director Omsk Carbon in Mogilev, said, We have encountered some construction difficulties in implementing this large-scale project. However, supported by Belarusian local and republican authorities, we will launch the first production line in September. They have already expressed the willingness to provide such support. In October, the Belarus and Russia Regions Forum will discuss priority areas in regional cooperation as the key factor for integration and union building. August 02, 2018 The most successful companies and businesses function like well-oiled machines. Every part has a role to fulfill, and when you put them all together, you get a perfect synergy of elements that keep everything rolling. However, people often fail to realize that this type of synchronization doesnt just happen overnight. It takes quite a bit of time and energy, not to mention that you have to build a perfect internal cooperation between different teams and departments. So, how does one exactly accomplish such a challenging feat? With the use of file-sharing tools in modern business, of course. But then another question arises how does a company keep all that data safe? Why are file-sharing tools in modern business so important? In the corporate dog-eat-dog world we live in today, time is everything. Who will be the first to explore that ground-breaking idea? Have all the deadlines been met? When is the perfect time to sell or buy? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg that can make or break a small business trying to make a name for itself. And one of the founding principles on which you can make sure that youre the first to have all the answers is with proper and well-protected internal communication. So, whether we talk about your typical file-sharing needs, downloading multimedia files or optimizing a website for search engines, it all comes down to having the right file-sharing tools in modern business and making sure they dont fall in the wrong hands. After all, just consider how influential a shared database is for a company in terms of: internal communication regarding changes and project updates, team collaboration on a larger scale and information accessibility from any company device. Digital marketing companies have a clear understanding of how sensitive client information is and how important it is for all departments to be able to commit to a project. But in addition to that, serious thought needs to go into the aspect of cybersecurity and its importance in B2B projects. After all, nobody will trust any single aspect of their business to a company that is unable to guarantee discretion and data protection. What are some interesting file-sharing apps worth exploring? What is it that you should seek in any software? That they are free to download (or affordable) and simple to learn and use. And this is the criteria on which I based my search, along with the overall grade of positive reviews. But before all else, you need to make sure to find software that would fit the needs of your moving company. However, I would like to take this opportunity to mention that most of these tools have several versions, depending on your will to cash out. Free and trial versions usually have a limitation in terms of storage space. That limit borders in-between 2GB and 15 GB. On the other hand, you can always invest financially and easily gain much larger amounts of data. Top 5 choices that you might wish to explore So, without further delay, here are my top choices of file-sharing tools in modern business that you should seriously consider: Wimi - extremely easy (and fun) to use, works up to 10 GB and can be shared between two users and eight projects. Monthly subscriptions can grant you 250 GB of storage, unlimited projects, as well as phone support. Dropbox (News - Alert) currently, one of the absolute leaders among storage services. And with more than 10 years-worth of investments into the development of it, you can be sure why it is so highly regarded among file-sharing tools in modern business. Although you are initially limited to 2GB of space, a paid subscription can easily change this to up to 1 TB of space. Google Drive the optimal solution for all those that practice and respect the use of Gmail accounts. And since we are talking about a Google product, you can rest assured that it is well synchronized. And with initial storage of 15 GB at no charge, and the option to convert any file into PDF with ease, you can imagine why it is so popular. Paid (News - Alert) subscription comes easy and offers up to 1 TB of space. One Drive you can imagine that every big IT company wants to be part of this battle for supremacy. So, no reason why Microsoft (News - Alert) shouldnt participate with its initial 5 GB of user space. Although the paid plans are a bit more expensive in comparison to others, the fact is that the ease of use is by far the best. Zoho (News - Alert) Drive offers 5 GB of space for each of up to 25 users in a single group. Chat, group sharing, tasks, and notifications are all built in and incorporated. You can email files directly into storage and with a monthly subscription, you can get more space, bigger upload, improved analytical options etc. File-sharing is just the first step data backup and protection is the next one The U.S. Small Business Administration teaches us that you can contribute over half of jobs in the US to small businesses. And when you consider the fact that the number of small businesses has increased 49 percent since the early 1980s, you pretty much get how essential their role is. Now, consider this fact almost one third of small companies fail to backup and protect their data. And from the ones that do backup their data, half only make a single copy! Wow, how fragile and up for grabs is that? At that point, it matters little how much time you invest in file sharing tools in modern business, because it can all disappear in a matter of minutes. This is why you should never put all your eggs in one basket. If youre running a small business, there is little that can be more catastrophic than losing data. Moreover, studies have shown that over 60 percent of companies will shut down within six months after losing their data to hacks. This is why you, as a business-owner, need to ensure to take some time to encrypt and protect your essential data before calling it a day. There are plenty of ways for you to accomplish this, and you should definitely rely on more than one. Just to offer some ideas: USB drive External hard drive Cloud NAS device Burn it on a CD What should you backup? You can already guess that anything confidential when it comes to your business operations should be backed up, and even encrypted. So, what does this mean, in particular? Easy financial and sales records, tax forms, client information, and basically anything that might jeopardize your operations in the wrong hands. When should you backup? The safest and most commonly practiced approach is to make a general backup of most of your data all at once. After that, its just a matter of making updates from time to time. Another idea to consider is to have a backup of your backup, so if one were to fail, you would have the other to take its place. To be honest, it all comes down to how much time, money, and energy you are willing to invest in all of it. But one thing is certain you can never be too careful today. Why is cybersecurity so important nowadays? With the ever-growing influence and dominance of the Internet and all things online, companies cant help but invest in data protection tools and measures. Just consider the alternative you can either invest thousands into cybersecurity measures and employee training or you could risk losing millions on malware incidents. It comes down to you but I think that the smart choice is obvious. So, what are some steps you should consider implementing: Have a cybersecurity travel policy in place. Mandatory VPN use when using Wi-Fi. Install the application of Multi-Factor Authentication to access and use any company apps, resources, tools, or data. Device and User Authentication for all departments. Scheduled seminars and courses on the importance of cybersecurity both in and out of the office Training. Training. Training. Now, Im not saying these measures will 100 percent safeguard your business from any possible security breach but they will contribute to minimizing the chances of it occurring. And this is something you always have to take into consideration as your business and number of employees grow. About the Author Betty White is an independent writer with years of experience behind her. Positioned in San Diego, CA (News - Alert) she constantly takes on new and challenging projects in covering topics for diverse niches and industries. So far, her work has covered topics related to the moving and transportation industry, IT solutions and software innovations, business growth and development etc. [August 01, 2018] Silk Contract Logistics Partners with One Network to Create Virtual Distribution Network in Australia Real-time cloud-based platform offers enhanced services and delivers savings to Silk and its customers MELBOURNE, Australia, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Silk Contract Logistics (Silk), one of the fastest growing third party logistics providers in Australia, today announced that they have partnered with One Network Enterprises (ONE) in order to create a virtual retail network for Australia. Silk will be ONE's primary go to market partner in Australia. Silk will use One Network's Real Time Value Network to provide a single network for customers and carriers with a single version of the truth for all parties, enhancing visibility and collaboration across the supply chain. With the Real Time Value Network, Silk will be able to provide customers with end-to-end Control Tower visibility through information management services on the network. The network uses real-time data and a single version of the truth, so information is more accurate and timely, and is easily shared. With One Network's Intelligent Logistics solution (TMS), Silk will be able to better manage the transportation demands of its cutomers. Silk will also be able to offer to customers enhanced and integrated services that are available on the network, such as Order and Replenishment Management. "With the visibility that One Network's Control Tower capability provides, we will be able to better anticipate issues and resolve them in real-time," says SILK's Managing Director, Brendan Boyd. With One Network's Studio and Software Developers Kit, Silk will have the flexibility to adapt existing modules to their needs and to create new functional modules. The platform also includes Intelligent Agents which optimize, make and execute decisions, so that the supply chain network is coordinated to better serve demand at the lowest available cost. Chris Edwards, One Network Enterprises' Vice President of Asia Pacific said, "We are excited to be partnering with Silk, a leading 3PL in Australia and a company that understands the importance of being customer-driven. Silk will be bringing a platform of powerful solutions and building an ecosystem of trading partners in Australia. With full visibility and integrated real-time solutions, Silk will be able to deliver complete visibility and higher service to customers." About Silk Logistics Silk Contract Logistics prides itself on a customer-centric focus that is nimble, agile and personalised to your business goals. Across Australia, Silk has become one of the emerging stars of the third-party logistics sector, helping customers access new opportunities through the application of tier one technologies such as One Network. Learn more at www.silklogistics.com.au About One Network Enterprises One Network is the Intelligent Business Platform. One Network is a multi-party digital platform solution powered by AI and Blockchain that delivers rapid results at a fraction of the cost of legacy solutions. One Network offers modular, adaptable solutions for multi-party business; and helps companies realize value and run more efficiently, with less waste. One Network's cloud platform, the Real Time Value Network, uses intelligent agents that predict consumer demand, optimize and operate your supply chain at near-theoretical limits. Additionally, One Network offers a PaaS solution and developer tools that allow organizations to design, build and run multi-party applications. Leading global organizations have joined One Network, helping to transform industries like Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, Logistics, Public Sector and Defense. Headquartered in Dallas, One Network also has offices in Japan, Europe, and India. For more information, please visit www.onenetwork.com. Media Contacts Chris Edwards One Network Mobile + 61 (0)401 990 435 cedwards@onenetwork.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/725922/one_logo_square_horizontal_1113x250_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 01, 2018] Moelis & Company Prices Public Offering of Class A Common Stock Moelis & Company (the "Company") (NYSE:MC), a leading global independent investment bank, today announced the pricing of the previously announced public offering of 5,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock, which is expected to yield gross proceeds of approximately $302 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. The offering is expected to close on August 6, 2018 subject to customary closing conditions. The proceeds of the sale of shares of Class A common stock being offered will be used to repurchase the same number of shares of Class A common stock or partnership or other equity interests that are exchangeable or convertible into shares of Class A common stock from certain of the Company's Managing Directors and former employees. Accordingly, the number of fully diluted shares of Class A common stock outstanding, which includes all outstanding shares of Class A common stock and partnership and other equity interests exchangeable into shares of Class A common stock, will not increase as a result of the offering. Moelis & Company will not retain any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock. The Company is conducting the offering to facilitate organized liquidity in its Class A common stock and to increase the public float of its Class A common stock. The underwriters propose to offer the shares of Class A common stock from time to time to purchasers directly or through agents, or through brokers in brokerage transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, or to dealers in negotiated transactions or in a combination of such methods of sale, at market prices prevailing at the time of sale, at prices related to such prevailing market prices or at negotiated prices, subject to the right to reject any order in whole or in part. J.P. Morgan and BofA Merrill Lynch are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. The offering is being made pursuant to an effectiv shelf registration statement filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 24, 2017, prospectus and prospectus supplement filed by the Company. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained, when available, from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, telephone: (866) 803-9204; or BofA Merrill Lynch, NC1-004-03-43, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte NC 28255-0001 or e-mail dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a leading global independent investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base, including corporations, governments and financial sponsors. The Firm assists its clients in achieving their strategic goals by offering comprehensive integrated financial advisory services across all major industry sectors. Moelis & Company's experienced professionals advise clients on their most critical decisions, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters. The Firm serves its clients from 19 geographic locations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect the Company's current views with respect to, among other things, its operations and financial performance. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "seeks," "approximately," "predicts," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates," or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. These documents and subsequent filings are available online at www.sec.gov or on request from the Company. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180801006119/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 01, 2018] Genome Editing Biotech EdiGene Names Dong Wei, Ph.D., MBA as its Chief Executive Officer EdiGene Inc., which develops genome editing technologies into novel therapeutics for a broad range of diseases and into creative solutions to advance drug discovery, today announced that it has named Dong Wei, Ph.D., MBA, an experienced biopharmaceutical executive, as its chief executive officer. Dr. Dong Wei brings extensive experiences in strategic planning and execution across various stages of biopharmaceutical development, from discovery to clinical development and registration. Dr. Dong Wei joins EdiGene as it is accelerating its therapeutic development pipeline in genetic diseases and cancer, and drug discovery services including proprietary CRISPR/Cas 9-based proprietary high-throughput screening platforms. "I am thrilled at joining EdiGene at this exciting time," said Dr. Dong Wei, "Genome editing is revolutionizing drug development in multiple aspects. With its deep science and proprietary platforms, EdiGene is uniquely positioned in this rapid advancing field. It is a privilege to work with such an excellent team to develop innovative options for patients in China and the world." "As EdiGene is growing into the next stage, we are excited to have Dong join us at this significant point of our company's development," said Dr. Wensheng Wei, founder of EdiGen. "Dong's strong leadership and extensive experiences from working at top biopharmaceutical companies and strategic partnerships will help drive us forward, as we continue to advance our therapeutic pipelines and broaden our drug discovery services, by ourselves and with potential partners." Most recently, Dr. Dong Wei was Chief Operating Officer at Treos Bio. Prior to that, he was Global Development Leader of late-stage development programs at Shire, Senior Director of Business Operation and Program Management at Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center at California, and held various R&D and business positions with increasing responsibilities at global biopharmaceutical companies including BioMarin, Elan, and Janssen. He has successfully led a number of clinical-stage programs across therapeutic areas including oncology, immunology, neurodegenerative diseases, and orphan genetic diseases. Before that, he worked at Deloitte (News - Alert) Consulting in Strategy and Operation Practice advising life science and biopharma clients and conducted discovery research at academics and biotech companies. He has an MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Michigan State University and a B.S. in Genetics from Peking University. About EdiGene, Inc EdiGene Inc is founded in 2015, and now headquartered in Beijing, with operational subsidiaries in Guangzhou, China and Cambridge, USA. Our mission is to translate the cutting-edge genome editing technologies into novel therapeutics for genetic diseases and cancer, and into creative solutions to advance drug discovery. We leverage our proprietary platforms to develop gene-editing therapies for a wide range of diseases, and to conduct high-throughput genome screening to enable dissection of functional big data in biological contexts. More information can be found at www.edigene.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180801006128/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] ATTOM Data Solutions Ranks Best Neighborhoods For Real Estate Buying And Investing In 2018 IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's premier property database, today released its 2018 Neighborhood Housing Index, which uses new neighborhood boundary data to rank more than 10,000 neighborhood housing markets nationwide based on six factors impacting the hyperlocal housing market: affordability, home price appreciation, school scores, crime rates, unemployment rates and property taxes (see more in the methodology enclosed below). The top five U.S. neighborhood housing markets based on the index were the Pine Ridge neighborhood in the Naples, Florida, metro ($632,871 median price); Westlake neighborhood in the Mobile, Alabama, metro ($196,179); Union neighborhood in the San Jose, California, metro ($795,000); Westmoreland neighborhood in the Charlotte, North Carolina, metro ($326,000); and Hunters Hill neighborhood in the Denver, Colorado, metro ($271,000). Embeddable interactive heat map of all 10,950 ranked neighborhoods "While home prices are typically higher in higher-ranked neighborhoods with better schools and lower crime, there are still many top-notch neighborhoods with more reasonably priced homes," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. "The top five neighborhoods in this ranking represent a diverse set of markets across the country, illustrating that great neighborhoods come in many different forms." Housing trends by neighborhood grade ATTOM divided the 10,950 ranked neighborhoods into quintiles, assigning each of the five groups a letter grade from A to F, and then analyzed housing characteristics and trends by group. Median Prices Annual Home Price Appreciation Average of Price to Income Ratio (Affordability) Average Property Taxes Avg Fair Market Rent for 3- Bedroom Annual Rent Appreciation Gross Annual Rental Yield Gross Flipping Return A $513,968 21.0% 5.27 $4,702 $2,132 9.2% 7.9% 48.2% B $409,225 11.0% 5.05 $4,145 $1,991 9.8% 8.6% 52.0% C $351,756 9.8% 5.09 $3,644 $1,830 10.3% 9.2% 56.3% D $321,778 7.5% 5.24 $3,407 $1,748 10.6% 9.5% 61.6% F $299,934 -0.4% 5.59 $3,273 $1,712 12.7% 10.1% 71.9% *Rental rates and returns, and home flipping returns are calculated at the zip code level based on the zip code in which each neighborhood is located. "It's somewhat surprising that the worst affordability is in neighborhoods with an F grade, even though those markets also posted the lowest home prices and negative price appreciation," Blomquist noted. "Meanwhile, rents are rising the fastest in these neighborhoods, illustrating why the path to homeownership can be so difficult in these areas." Embeddable charts of housing trends by neighborhood grade A-rated neighborhoods with home prices of $100,000 or less There were 136 neighborhoods with an A rating and with median home prices of $100,000 or less, led by the Devonshire neighborhood in the Mobile, Alabama, metro ($78,038 median price); the Park Central neighborhood in the Orlando, Florida, metro ($91,750); the East English Village neighborhood in the Detroit, Michigan, metro area ($66,750); the Cypress Shores neighborhood in the Mobile, Alabama, metro ($85,000); and the Hathaway Manor neighborhood in the St. Louis, Missouri, metro ($69,190). Best neighborhoods for buying rental homes ATTOM analyzed potential rental returns for homes purchased as rentals in 10,895 neighborhoods with sufficient rental return data. Among 2,188 neighborhoods with an A rating, there were 494 with a potential annual gross rental yield of at least 10 percent, led by the Westover neighborhood in Fayetteville, North Carolina (41.7 potential gross annual rental yield); the Terminal Park neighborhood in Sarasota, Florida (41.5 percent); the Southwest York neighborhood in York, Pennsylvania (35.8 percent); the Griffin Park neighborhood in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida (35.8 percent); and the Portland neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky (33.6 percent). Embeddable charts of rental investing opportunities by neighborhood grade Best neighborhoods for flipping homes ATTOM also analyzed potential home flipping returns in 3,573 neighborhoods with sufficient home flipping data. There were 209 neighborhoods with an A rating and with an average gross flipping return on investment of 50 percent or more, led by the Cottage Grove Heights neighborhood in the Chicago, Illinois, metro (309.2 percent ROI); the Woodmere and Dolfield neighborhoods in the Baltimore, Maryland, metro (both with 250.0 percent ROI); the West Chesterfield neighborhood in the Chicago, metro (247.8 percent ROI); and the Westside neighborhood in the Memphis, Tennessee, metro (221.9 percent ROI). Embeddable charts of home flipping opportunities by neighborhood grade Methodology The ATTOM Data Solutions 2018 Neighborhood Housing Index ranked 10,950 neighborhood housing markets nationwide based on six factors: affordability, home price appreciation, school scores, crime rates, unemployment rates and property taxes. Neighborhoods are based on neighborhood boundaries integrated into the ATTOM Data Warehouse. The points plotted on the interactive heat map represent the centroid latitude and longitude within each neighborhood boundary. Affordability is based on the home price-to-income ratio for each neighborhood using median home prices for the first half of 2018 from the ATTOM Data Warehouse and the 2017 median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau. Home price appreciation is based on the median home price for the first half of 2018 compared to the median home price in the first half of 2017 for each neighborhood. School scores represent the average school scores for all schools located within each neighborhood. The rating is based purely on the test score performance of each school. Scores are on a scale of 0 to 5, 5 being best. Crime rates are based on a score that represents the combined risks of rape, murder, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny and vehicle theft compared to the national average of 100. A score of 200 indicates twice the national average total crime risk, while 50 indicates half the national risk. The different types of crime are given equal weight in this score. Unemployment rates were calculated for each neighborhood using the total number of people employed and dividing that by the total population age 18 to 65 based on 2017 U.S. Census data. Property taxes were calculated using county tax assessor data from the ATTOM Data Warehouse, and the average property tax rate for each neighborhood was the average property tax bill divided by the median home sales price in the first half of 2018. About ATTOM Data Solutions ATTOM Data Solutions provides premium property data to power products that improve transparency, innovation, efficiency and disruption in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes and enhances the data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID the ATTOM ID. The 9TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include bulk file licenses, APIs, market trends, marketing lists, match & append and more. Media Contact: Christine Stricker 949.748.8428 christine.stricker@attomdata.com Data and Report Licensing: 949.502.8313 datareports@attomdata.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/attom-data-solutions-ranks-best-neighborhoods-for-real-estate-buying-and-investing-in-2018-300690764.html SOURCE ATTOM Data Solutions [August 02, 2018] New WatchGuard Firebox M270 Processes Traffic up to 82% Faster than Competitors SEATTLE, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WatchGuard Technologies, a leader in advanced network security solutions, today announced the Firebox M270 Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliance. The M270 replaces the M200 as WatchGuard's smallest rack-mounted Firebox. New Intel Atom processors with QuickAssist Technology (QAT) give the M270 significant performance, which enables it to run all the security services offered in WatchGuard's Total Security Suite. This includes the new IntelligentAV AI-based antivirus service just released in Fireware version 12.2, as well as DNSWatch and Access Portal, which were introduced in the last year. According to independent testing by Miercom, the M270 becomes the industry's fastest entry-level rack-mounted appliance when running full UTM services, outperforming competitive products by up to 82%. "Organizations of all sizes need enterprise-grade security solutions like the M270 capable of processing the ever-rising tide of encrypted HTTPS traffic with industry-leading throughput," said Brendan Patterson, vice president of product management at WatchGuard Technologies. "With 58% of data breach victims in 2017 classified as small businesses by the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, security is as much of a business imperative for small and midsize organizations as it is for larger enterprises. The M270 offers the protection of the most advanced security services for our customers, no matter their size." Like all WatchGuard appliances, the M270 comes with WatchGuard Dimension, which provides a suite of big data visibility and reporting tools that instantly identify and distill key network security threats, issues and trends so you can take immediate preventive or corrective action. Predefined reports for HIPAA and PCI compliance are included. VALIDATED BY MIERCOM: The M270 was confirmed by Miercom, a leading independent network testing and certification lab, to be te fastest entry-level rack-mounted appliance when running full UTM services for both encrypted and unencrypted traffic, allowing users to rest easy knowing they won't need to choose between network speed and enterprise-grade security. When identifying competitive equipment for this report, Miercom selected rack-mount appliances that were closest in price (MSRP) to the Firebox M270, but due to lack of strong competition, in many cases this required choosing a model that was a closer equivalent price to the WatchGuard Firebox M370. The M270 offered the highest throughput of unencrypted traffic with all UTM services enabled at 1.2 Gbps, outperforming competitive products by at least 28% The M270 offered the fastest inspection of encrypted traffic with full UTM services enabled, outperforming the closest competitive product by 11% and farthest by 82% PRODUCT DETAILS: Intel 4 core Atom processor with QuickAssist Technology 4 Gb RAM Memory 8 1 Gb Ethernet ports Runs the newly-released Fireware OS version 12.2 Appropriate for networks with up to 60 users The Firebox M270 is available now. Find more information on the M270 here. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Miercom Report Firebox M270 Web page Firebox M270 Datasheet About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security, secure Wi-Fi, multi-factor authentication, and network intelligence. The company's award-winning products and services are trusted around the world by nearly 10,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 80,000 customers. The company's mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for distributed enterprises and SMBs. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com. For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter, @WatchGuard on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them at www.secplicity.org. Subscribe to The 443 Security Simplified podcast at Secplicity.org, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Media Contacts: Chris Warfield WatchGuard Technologies 206.876.8380 chris.warfield@watchguard.com Anthony Cogswell Voxus PR 253.444.5980 ajcogswell@voxuspr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-watchguard-firebox-m270-processes-traffic-up-to-82-faster-than-competitors-300690732.html SOURCE WatchGuard Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Photo: Chelsea Powrie Tracy Franklin knows what it's like to be homeless what she calls the "hidden" type of homelessness. When her two children were one and two years old, they found themselves in a dangerous living situation, and bounced from transition houses, to unsafe, unsanitary rentals, to campgrounds for 18 long months. "Then we ended up in another rental that was super mouldy, our first utility bill was over $700, It just ended up being this series of unfortunate events and it just kept going and kept going and kept going," Franklin said. They weren't on the streets, but they weren't stable. After many years of being unsure how she would pay bills and keep a roof over her head, Franklin was lucky enough to get some help from her parents to move to Penticton, where she promptly reached out to the Penticton Access Centre for resources, and ended up returning to help out. "I really wanted to be able to give back a little bit to agencies like the ones that helped me when things were really bad for us," she said. "I started volunteering here and eventually it moved into a paid position." Now, Franklin is an advocacy assistant, helping connect struggling community members with services and aid. She said that although she has now been in Penticton with a stable living condition for two-and-a-half years with her now eight and nine-year-old daughters, the scars and stresses of her past are still very real. "There's always still that fear. Right now I have a vehicle, and I have disabilities, and my kids both have disabilities, and what if that vehicle goes? Am I going to be able to get to work, get my kids to school, do the basic things that because of our unique issues, having a vehicle is imperative for?" she said. She hopes her work at the Access Centre will help people suffering from similar financial and housing worries to get back on their feet, and wants to raise awareness about the hidden homeless that the average citizen may not realize exist. "It's happening to people you know. And because of the stigma, and because of the shame surrounding it, people don't want to talk about it," Franklin said. "It's not all just what you see on the street. It's seniors, it's people with kids, it's people you know." She said her own outlook has changed vastly since her struggles. "I was a lot more judgmental about things until my life kind of fell apart. I'm not a drug addict, I'm not an alcoholic, I don't make stupid decisions about things, I have a college education. And it still happened to me." The Penticton Access Centre accepts donations at any time, and welcomes volunteers. Franklin added that even if you can't donate but want to help, there are plenty of options. "Put that energy you're using to complain about homeless people into doing a shift every week at the soup kitchen, or gathering donations for SOWINS. There are so many things people can do to make things better." [August 02, 2018] WatchGuard Technologies Launches Artificial Intelligence-Based Antivirus to Help Defend Against Zero Day Malware SEATTLE, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WatchGuard Technologies, Inc., a leader in advanced network security solutions, today announced version 12.2 of its Fireware operating system for its Firebox Unified Security Platform appliances. Key to the update is IntelligentAV, a new antivirus scan service that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) engine to predict, detect and block constantly evolving zero day malware. IntelligentAV joins Threat Detection and Response (TDR), Gateway AntiVirus, and APT Blocker as an additional layer of industry-leading malware defense on the Firebox platform. "Data from our quarterly Internet Security Report shows that nearly half of all malware targeting our customers is zero day. Traditional signature-based antivirus, while still an important part of one's overall security posture, no longer provides adequate protection against modern malware, which is often obfuscated to evade detection," said Brendan Patterson, vice president of product management at WatchGuard Technologies. "That's why WatchGuard believes that layering multiple advanced security solutions is the best way for businesses to protect their assets and their customer's data. IntelligentAV is the latest example of how we use best-in-class technologies to deliver high-performance layered security for customers." IntelligentAV uses Cylance's malware detection engine based on machine learning technology, which can accurately predict and detect future malware samples even without access to the latest threat intelligence and signature databases. For example, in a third-party test by SE Labs, a 2015 version of this AI detection engine correctly identified and blocked major threats 33 months before they appeared in the wild. This means that IntelligentAV accurately contiues to detect and block malware without relying on signatures. "The threat of zero day malware is a big issue for our clients, and IntelligentAV is an important part of a strong 'defense in-depth' strategy," said Tony Petrella, vice president of engineering at Advanced Network Systems, Inc. "Having an AI component provides a more robust, proactive defense against new forms of malware and ransomware that legacy AV would typically miss." Along with IntelligentAV, Fireware version 12.2 also includes many other significant upgrades. Highlights include: Firebox Cloud Management Upgrades : WatchGuard System Manager for management of multiple Firebox Cloud instances hosted on Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. : WatchGuard System Manager for management of multiple Firebox Cloud instances hosted on Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Geo-Blocking by Policy : Users can now set granular policies to restrict certain traffic types to or from specific countries. : Users can now set granular policies to restrict certain traffic types to or from specific countries. TLS Proxy Protocols : Enables proxy and malware inspection for the POP3S and SMTPS (or POP3 and SMTP over TLS) mail retrieval protocols. : Enables proxy and malware inspection for the POP3S and SMTPS (or POP3 and SMTP over TLS) mail retrieval protocols. WebBlocker Updates : Adds the ability to generate alerts by categories (for example, weapons, militancy, or mental health issues). : Adds the ability to generate alerts by categories (for example, weapons, militancy, or mental health issues). Multiple Server Certificates: Users can now host multiple different servers and applications behind a single Firebox, each with their own proxy certificate. IntelligentAV is available only as part of WatchGuard's Total Security Suite and can be used now for all WatchGuard customers with a Total Security Suite license on M270 or higher Firebox appliances, and on all Cloud and virtual appliances. More information is available about IntelligentAV click here. About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in network security, secure Wi-Fi, multi-factor authentication, and network intelligence. The company's award-winning products and services are trusted around the world by nearly 10,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 80,000 customers. The company's mission is to make enterprise-grade security accessible to companies of all types and sizes through simplicity, making WatchGuard an ideal solution for distributed enterprises and SMBs. WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com. For additional information, promotions and updates, follow WatchGuard on Twitter, @WatchGuard on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn Company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them at www.secplicity.org. Subscribe to The 443 Security Simplified podcast at Secplicity.org, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Media Contacts: Chris Warfield WatchGuard Technologies 206.876.8380 chris.warfield@watchguard.com Anthony Cogswell Voxus PR 253.444.5980 ajcogswell@voxuspr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/watchguard-technologies-launches-artificial-intelligence-based-antivirus-to-help-defend-against-zero-day-malware-300690752.html SOURCE WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Parade Technologies Reports Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Parade Technologies, Ltd. (Taipei Exchange: 4966.TWO), a leading high-speed interface IC supplier, today announced financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2018 ended June 30, 2018, and provided guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 2018. Consolidated revenue was US$75.67 million and consolidated net income was US$12.32 million. Basic and fully diluted after-tax earnings per share ("EPS") were US$0.16 (NT$4.80) and US$0.16 (NT$4.63), respectively. These results compared to consolidated revenue US$85.92 million and consolidated net income of US$14.83 million, or US$0.20 (NT$5.95) and US$0.19 (NT$5.74) per basic and fully diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. In US dollars, the second quarter of 2018 consolidated revenue decreased 6.18% sequentially and was down 11.92% year-over-year. The gross profit in the second quarter of 2018 was US$31.05 million, representing a decrease of 5.73% from the previous quarter and a decrease of 9.97% compared to the same quarter of last year. On May 1, 2018, Parade announced a new generation DisplayPort to HDMI protocol converter PS186. The PS186 accepts DisplayPort version 1.4a audio/video data and outputs HDMI 2.0b with the ability to support HDR (News - Alert) at 4K. The PS186 is ideal for DisplayPort to HDMI protocol converters or "dongles", as well as docking stations, particularly those supporting the USB-C interface that is seeing wide adoption across notebook PCs and smart phones. On May 8, 2018, Parade introduces industry's first highly-integrated eDP Tcon embedded driver (TED) IC that supports VESA eDP 1.4b panel self-refresh developed for thin-profile LCD display panels. The TC3210 provides a single chip display driver solution to replace the traditional eDP Tcon mated up with separate source driver chips. The TC3210 is designed for Chip-on-Glass (COG) application on both slim LTPS and Oxide TFT panels. On May 16, 2018, Parade also announced the DP667V, a new automotive grade selection of the company's popular DP667 eDP Tcon. The DP667V meets the rigorous automotive AEC-Q100 stress test qualification requirements and operates over an ambient temperature range of -40 to +105 deg C. The DP667V is ideally suited for larger, high-resolution displays typically used for automotive infotainment and navigation display applications including center console placement. The device is designed to enable LCD panels with a resolution up to 4Kx2K, and two devices can be used for panel resolutions up to 8Kx2K. And up to 30-bit color is supported enabling superior image quality. Based on current business outlook, Parade is providing the following guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2018: Revenue: US$81.0 ~89.0 Million Gross Margin: 40% ~43% Operating Expense: US$18.75 ~19.75 Million The financial figures detailed above for the second quarter of 2018 have been reviewed by independent accountants. About Parade Technologies, Ltd. Parade Technologies, Ltd. is a leading supplier of mixed-signal ICs for a variety of popular display and high-speed interface standards used in computers, consumer electronics and display panels. The fabless semiconductor company was founded in 2005 and publicly listed on Taipei Exchange ("TPEx") in 2011 (stock code: 4966). Parade's portfolio of IC products serves the growing demand for HDMI, DisplayPort, SATA, and USB ICs for display, storage and interface applications. In addition to being a technology innovator, Parade is an active participant and leader in industry standards-setting organizations. Parade Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned US-based subsidiary of Parade Technologies, Ltd., is a member of VESA (Video Electronics Standard Association). Parade Technologies, Inc. has made key contributions to the development of VESA's DisplayPort digital video interface standard. Parade leverages its close relationships with market leading Tier-1 OEMs to develop ICs that provide unique system capabilities. Many of the company's devices integrate proprietary technologies that offer superior system signal integrity, advanced system integration and enhanced power efficiency. As a result of the company's "standards-plus" design philosophy, Parade ICs have been designed into products offered by nearly every leading computer and display vendor worldwide. Parade Technologies, Ltd. and Subsidiaries. The reader is advised that these consolidated financial statements have been prepared originally in NT$ and conformed with the adoption of IFRSs. In the event of any differences between NT$ and US$ version, the NT$ version shall prevail. UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME USD in Thousands NTD in Thousands Sequential Quarter Three Months ended Six Months ended Sequential Quarter Three Months ended Six Months ended Jun 30, Mar 31, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Mar 31, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, 2018 2018 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018 2018 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue 75,671 80,653 75,671 85,915 156,324 161,556 2,252,718 2,363,141 2,252,718 2,599,780 4,615,859 4,951,467 Cost of goods sold 44,621 47,715 44,621 51,426 92,336 96,810 1,328,378 1,398,037 1,328,378 1,556,152 2,726,415 2,967,147 Gross profit 31,050 32,939 31,050 34,489 63,988 64,746 924,340 965,104 924,340 1,043,628 1,889,444 1,984,320 Research & development expenses 12,851 12,202 12,851 11,278 25,053 22,311 382,557 357,526 382,557 341,279 740,083 684,282 Sales & marketing expenses 3,621 4,126 3,621 4,124 7,747 8,016 107,788 120,892 107,788 124,787 228,680 245,802 General & administrative expenses 2,703 2,752 2,703 2,541 5,455 4,899 80,474 80,621 80,474 76,886 161,095 150,194 Total operating expenses 19,175 19,080 19,175 17,943 38,255 35,226 570,819 559,039 570,819 542,952 1,129,858 1,080,278 Operating income 11,875 13,859 11,875 16,546 25,733 29,520 353,521 406,065 353,521 500,676 759,586 904,042 Non-operating income and expenses 86 (58 ) 86 1 28 16 2,559 (1,700 ) 2,559 44 859 501 Income before income taxes 11,961 13,800 11,961 16,547 25,761 29,536 356,080 404,365 356,080 500,720 760,445 904,543 Income tax (benefit) expense (361 ) (10 ) (361 ) 1,722 (371 ) 2,760 (10,738 ) (283 ) (10,738 ) 52,117 (11,021 ) 84,373 Net income 12,322 13,810 12,322 14,825 26,132 26,776 366,818 404,648 366,818 448,603 771,466 820,170 EPS - Basic (In Dollar) $ 0.16 $ 0.18 $ 0.16 $ 0.20 $ 0.34 $ 0.35 $ 4.80 $ 5.30 $ 4.80 $ 5.95 $ 10.10 $ 10.87 Shares used in computing EPS-Basic (In thousands) 76,418 76,287 76,418 75,444 76,386 75,480 76,418 76,287 76,418 75,444 76,386 75,480 EPS - Diluted (In Dollar) $ 0.16 $ 0.17 $ 0.16 $ 0.19 $ 0.33 $ 0.34 $ 4.63 $ 5.08 $ 4.63 $ 5.74 $ 9.72 $ 10.47 Shares used in computing EPS-Diluted (In thousands) 79,243 79,653 79,243 78,103 79,396 78,366 79,243 79,653 79,243 78,103 79,396 78,366 UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS USD in Thousands NTD in Thousands As of June 30, 2018 and 2017 Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Current assets Cash & cash equivalents 175,166 146,676 5,335,542 4,461,882 Accounts receivable, net 44,437 41,249 1,353,561 1,254,785 Inventories, net 41,909 41,300 1,276,542 1,256,354 Other current assets 15,281 10,047 465,472 305,636 Total current assets 276,793 239,272 8,431,117 7,278,657 Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment, net 8,054 5,235 245,336 159,254 Intangible assets 85,612 89,454 2,607,748 2,721,191 Deferred income tax assets 1,564 1,941 47,626 59,036 Other non-current assets 832 1,000 25,323 30,426 Total non-current assets 96,062 97,630 2,926,033 2,969,907 Total Assets 372,855 336,902 11,357,150 10,248,564 Current Liabilities Accounts payable 20,877 30,999 635,915 942,994 Other payables 52,343 40,432 1,549,249 1,227,186 Current income tax liabilities 18,971 18,838 577,845 573,065 Other current liabilities 5,050 8,818 153,816 268,238 Total current liabilities 97,241 99,087 2,916,825 3,011,483 Equity Ordinary shares 25,840 25,487 784,606 773,946 Capital reserves 85,884 71,479 2,601,913 2,169,037 Retained earnings 183,887 154,303 5,680,908 4,762,763 Other equity (17,237 ) (11,456 ) (546,414 ) (407,821 ) Treasury shares (2,760 ) (1,998 ) (80,688 ) (60,844 ) Total equity 275,614 237,815 8,440,325 7,237,081 Total liabilities and equity 372,855 336,902 11,357,150 10,248,564 UNAUDITED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS USD in Thousands NTD in Thousands For six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, Jun 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities Income before income tax for the period 25,761 29,536 760,445 904,543 Depreciation and amortization 5,615 4,710 165,878 144,494 Share-based compensation cost 3,737 2,561 110,404 78,577 Interest income (41 ) (26 ) (1,212 ) (811 ) Income and expenses having no effect on cash flows 9,312 7,245 275,070 222,260 Accounts receivable 7,835 6,309 238,655 191,934 Inventories (7,634 ) (14,971 ) (232,535 ) (455,416 ) Other current assets (5,591 ) (2,552 ) (170,322 ) (77,662 ) Net changes in assets relating to operating activities (5,390 ) (11,214 ) (164,202 ) (341,144 ) Accounts payable (4,911 ) 974 (149,577 ) 29,617 Other payables (1,472 ) 575 (44,842 ) 17,501 Other current liabilities (3,231 ) (895 ) (98,402 ) (27,214 ) Net changes in liabilities relating to operating activities (9,613 ) 654 (292,821 ) 19,904 Cash provided by operations 20,070 26,221 578,492 805,563 Interest received 29 23 855 694 Income taxes paid (580 ) (625 ) (17,135 ) (19,163 ) Net cash provided by operating activities 19,519 25,619 562,212 787,094 Cash flows from investing activities Acquisition of equipment (860 ) (1,798 ) (25,407 ) (55,177 ) Acquisition of intangible assets (953 ) (721 ) (28,157 ) (22,111 ) Increase in refundable deposits (13 ) (155 ) (407 ) (4,726 ) Net cash used in investing activities (1,826 ) (2,674 ) (53,971 ) (82,014 ) Cash flows from financing activities Proceeds from exercise of employee stock options 367 490 10,835 15,043 Purchase of treasury shares (2,760 ) (1,998 ) (80,688 ) (60,844 ) Cash dividend regain from canceled share-based compensation 16 4 494 127 Net cash used in financing activities (2,377 ) (1,504 ) (69,359 ) (45,674 ) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (205 ) 248 133,433 (228,363 ) Increase in cash and cash equivalents 15,111 21,689 572,315 431,043 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 160,055 124,987 4,763,227 4,030,839 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 175,166 146,676 5,335,542 4,461,882 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180801006070/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] novomind Launches WhatsApp Business Solution with novomind iAGENT HAMBURG, Germany, August 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- novomind iAGENT's omni-channel customer service software can now service WhatsApp for two-way customer communications novomind AG a provider of comprehensive omni-channel commerce and customer communication software, today announced its participation as one of the first WhatsApp Business solution providers. As the new WhatsApp Business solution for businesses and institutions is launched on 1 August, the Hamburg-based novomind AG offer the official Business interface (API) of the successful global messaging service allowing businesses of all sectors to connect to their customers. The WhatsApp channel is integrated into the novomind iAGENT omni-channel customer service software and thus complements all the other channels already present as one single unified platform. "novomind iAGENT is used by Europe's leading brands ranging from Axel Springer to Sixt," stated Sylvia Feja, General Manager of customer service software at novomind. "These brands are constantly looking to ensure that they can communicate with their clients efficiently based on their client's preferences. Integrating WhatsApp as a dedicated channel is a wish frequently expressed by companies from all segments." Being among the early users of the WhatsApp Business solution, novomind iGENT now provides businesses access to the official and secure WhatsApp interface their customers are familiar with, as an additional alternative to their existing two-way contact and communications channel for customer service. More than 1.5 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and families. WhatsApp Business solution now adds a professional customer service function with limited access to the messenger service. WhatsApp Business therefore plays an important role in the context of a centralized communications platform delivered by novomind iAGENT, thereby making it easier for customers to get customer service from a contact center across multiple channels effortlessly. "The more channels available, the greater the perceived customer-friendliness of a customer service department," says Sylvia Feja. The diversity offered by novomind iAGENT fulfils two key requirements - flexibility and efficiency of customer service across a variety of customer friendly touch points. "novomind iAGENT is an essential omni-channel customer service platform," stated Grit Langhof, Senior Director International Reservation & Global SCC Support at Sixt, one of the leading mobility service provider worldwide. "The flexibility of communication channels provided by novomind iAGENT has helped us keep in touch with our customers based on their needs including the increasing need to support channels like WhatsApp for business needs." Please contact novomind for WhatsApp's early access. About novomind novomind AG has developed innovative commerce and customer service solutions for global use for the past 18 years and is among the technology leaders in Europe. The portfolio in the fields of contact centers, shop software, PIM (Product Information Management) and marketplace integration covers the full value chain of digital customer communications and digital commerce. The owner-managed company, whose team of over 300 employees currently serves more than 220 companies, is growing steadily. Customers include, for instance, C&A, Gortz, OTTO, Ernsting's family, EnBW, babywalz and Sixt. For many years, these companies have relied on novomind's experience and the excellent cooperation and partnership. http://www.novomind.com Press Contact: Christof Kaplanek HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN Public Relations GmbH Tel.: +49-040-36-90-50-38 Mail: c.kaplanek@hoschke.de [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Everise/C3 Wins Three Awards for Outsourcing Excellence SINGAPORE, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Everise/C3 won three awards at Asia's Outsourcing Excellence Awards: BPO Innovation of the Year, Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year and CEO of the Year. Received by William Foo, Everise/C3's Chief Financial Officer, the awards recognize Everise/C3's technological innovations including its Artificial Intelligence capabilities developed in its C3 Lab following Everise/C3's partnership with Microsoft. "Winning not one but three awards for outsourcing thought leadership is a testament to our team's mindset, capabilities and sense of differentiation and our ability to help clients improve their business outcomes as we continue to create solutions that enable them to become more successful," shared William Foo. Everise is led by CEO Sudhir Agarwal who received the CEO of the Year award. Recognising the need for product and service diversification and technology incorporation, Sudhir versaw key partnerships and pushed towards providing more omnichannel and multilingual solutions for clients. Under his leadership, multiple C3 Labs were launched worldwide. The products incubated in these Labs earned Everise the BPO Innovation of the Year award. "Our innovations in digital transformation are helping businesses worldwide deliver exceedingly better customer interactions and achieve greater retention rates, at much lower costs," shared Sudhir Agarwal. "We look forward to providing award-winning offerings to the industry with our clients and CMO ASIA affirming Everise/C3's high level of service," he added. The CMO ASIA Awards recognize companies for their best practices, case studies, innovation and client engagement. Organized by CMO ASIA, the Asia's Outsourcing Excellence Awards aim to identify and reward exceptional achievements in the BPO and outsourcing field. About Everise Everise is the only Asia-based global experience company that provides a full range of customer contact management services for corporate clients, from U.S. and international locations. The company's vision is to create an Experience Company, meeting the need for innovation and disruption in the BPO industry. Everise owns C3 and co-owns Globee, a Global Business Service centre in Malaysia, focusing on global clients looking for multi-lingual solutions. Visit www.everiseholdings.com About C3|CustomerContactChannels C3|CustomerContactChannels provides a full range of customer contact management services for corporate clients in various industries, both in U.S. and globally. With over 10,000 employees worldwide, C3 goes beyond traditional customer service, leveraging Artificial Intelligence and providing multi-lingual omnichannel support, while maintaining one simple goal, "We'll make a FAN out of you." Visit www.c3connect.com SOURCE Everise/C3 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] AirMap UTM Deployed in Czech Republic to Manage the Country's Busiest Airspace SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AirMap, the world's leading airspace management platform for drones, announced that its UTM services are being deployed by Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR) to deliver situational awareness and authorization capabilities to the country's growing community of drone operators. ANS CR is deploying AirMap UTM to manage authorizations for drone flights in the controlled airspace around Vaclav Havel Airport Prague. Operators using the AirMap for Drones mobile application can view up-to-date airspace conditions, advisories, and regulatory information; create flight plans; and very soon will also be able to request authorization to fly in controlled airspace for fast and safe access to controlled airspace. ANS CR administrators manage authorization requests from the AirMap UTM Dashboard. "Detection and integration of drones is a challenge," said Jan Klas, ANS CR Director General. "We are pleased to deploy UTM services through the AirMap mobile application. ANS CR wants to build an open system that provides comprehensive information to all partners involved." ANS CR and AirMap are working with local partner UpVision to drive local awareness of the UTM capabilities among the Czech Republic's thriving drone ecosystem. UpVision is providing customization of the AirMap for Drones application for use in Czech Republic. The Czech Republic-based company will also provide operators with technical support for UTM services in the Czech Republic. This is AirMap's second nationwide adoption in Europe. Earlier this year, Swiss aviation authority skguide, deployed AirMap as part of Europe's first national drone traffic management system. AirMap also powers UTM services in the United States, New Zealand, and Japan. "By opening up more airspace we are helping give rise to a new drone economy," said Ben Marcus, AirMap co-founder and Chairman. "The Czech Republic is among the global first movers in the race to capture a share of the tremendous opportunity that drones represent as they become more and more a part of our everyday lives." About AirMap AirMap is the world's leading airspace management platform for drones. Millions of drones, hundreds of industry developers, and hundreds of airspace managers and stakeholders rely on AirMap's airspace intelligence and services to fly safely and communicate with others in low-altitude airspace. AirMap connects the majority of the world's drones to airspace authorities through integrations with major drone manufacturers such as DJI, Intel, senseFly, Matternet, 3DR, DroneDeploy, and more. Deployed in Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States, AirMap leads the industry in delivering technology solutions for Unmanned aerial system (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) and U-space to enable safe and responsible drone operations at scale. About Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic The mission of ANS CR is to take part in the provision of cost effective, long-term sustainable aviation navigation services in an environment of evolving functional airspace blocks. In the dynamic air transportation environment, its services are designed to meet the expectations of all users with regard to current and future demand at both the national level and that of the European ATM development context. One of the key foundations of air navigation services provision is to ensure safety. For this reason ANS CR strives to maintain exceptional safety standards of services provided regardless of the air traffic volume. Safety is a top priority for the company, which takes precedence over commercial, operational and other goals. About UpVision UpVision is the European UAS service provider and leader on the Czech market in UAS services. UpVision co-founded the Czech Unmanned Aerial Alliance (UAVA) and has been actively developing the Unmanned Traffic Management community in Czech Republic by introducing their UTM application for more than 3 years. Since the early stages of the company, UpVision has been very active in UAS education and research field by running joint programs with number of universities and research institutes across Europe. There is number of innovative UAS applications of drones, publications and awards as a result of these activities, such as recognition by European Satellite Navigation Competition. Contact: Megan Anderson Mighty for AirMap airmap@mightypr.com +1-626-243-3194 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airmap-utm-deployed-in-czech-republic-to-manage-the-countrys-busiest-airspace-300690743.html SOURCE AirMap [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Boehringer Ingelheim launches the initiative In Reach Africa to address key healthcare infrastructure and access priorities across Africa Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, announced recently the launch of the 'In Reach Africa' program, an initiative aimed at facilitating quality and innovative human and animal healthcare access across the African continent. The program is set to kick off in Kenya and to expand throughout major African markets including Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. It comprises a range of key elements that aim at adding more value to overall health systems, in an effort to drive access to care, support with the development of innovative health solutions, creating community based partnerships and raising awareness around key disease areas as well as prevention mechanisms. A series of activities and workshops that are the building blocks of the newly launched program already started in July as for example the 'Making More Health (MMH) Accelerator program. This program supports social health entrepreneurs to strengthen and scale their work, by bringing some of the best experiences in social and health innovation as well as global health to improve access across Sub-Saharan Africa. Empowering individuals is a core part of the initiative's strategy and the fundamental element throughout 'In Reach Africa'. MMH is a long-term global initiative driven by Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with Ashoka, a global non-governmental organizaion. Through MMH in Kenya, Boehringer Ingelheim and Askoka supported iSikCure, an application developed to improve access to quality care and safe medicine. In 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim, in partnership with Access Afya and PharmAccess, launched Akiba Ya Roho, a micro-savings program geared towards driving more healthcare awareness and overall understanding and management of non-communicable disease in some rural areas within Kenya. "'In Reach Africa' shares a vision of driving accessibility, sustainability and innovation through enhancing health systems in Africa by providing an accessible range of medication and healthcare solutions, increasing awareness of key disease priorities through reach and enriching knowledge and education initiatives. In doing so, it is designed to add more value to the socioeconomic structure by working with and supporting low income families on multiple fronts," said Yew Looi Liew, Head of Corporate Division Prescription Medicine Emerging Markets at Boehringer Ingelheim. Reducing the avoidable burden caused by Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is central to the initiative. (NCDs) are a silent epidemic in low and middle-income countries, which account for 75 per cent of global NCDs deaths. Africa is expected to experience 3.9 million NCD-related deaths a year by 2020, a rise of more than 20 per cent.1 "Accordingly, we need to commit ourselves as an organization to working together with all other healthcare players to build an infrastructure that is sustainable, and one, which can ensure needed therapies are available in even the most remote areas. At Boehringer Ingelheim, we believe that everyone should have access to good health, no matter where they live," commented Enrique Manzoni, Regional Managing Director - Middle East, Turkey, Africa (META) at Boehringer Ingelheim. Please click on the following link for 'Notes to Editors' and 'References': http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/boehringer-ingelheim-launches-initiative-inreachafrica View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005275/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] CBIZ Reports Second-Quarter And First-Half 2018 Results CLEVELAND, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SECOND-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS: TOTAL REVENUE +10.2% SAME-UNIT REVENUE +5.9% EPS FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS OF $0.23 ,+15.0% FIRST-HALF HIGHLIGHTS: TOTAL REVENUE +10.2% SAME-UNIT REVENUE +5.8% EPS FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS OF $0.87 , +31.8% CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE: CBZ) (the "Company") today announced second-quarter and first-half results for the period ended June 30, 2018. For the 2018 second quarter, CBIZ reported revenue of $232.6 million, an increase of $21.6 million, or 10.2%, over the $211.0 million reported in 2017. Same-unit revenue increased by $12.4 million, or 5.9%, for the quarter, compared with the same period a year ago. Newly acquired operations contributed $9.2 million, or 4.3%, to revenue in the quarter. CBIZ reported income from continuing operations of $13.1 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, in the 2018 second quarter, compared with $11.4 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $24.1 million, compared with $23.1 million for the second quarter of 2017. For the first half of 2018, CBIZ reported revenue of $498.7 million, an increase of $46.3 million, or 10.2%, over the $452.4 million recorded for 2017. Same-unit revenue increased by $26.4 million, or 5.8%, compared with the same period a year ago. Acquisitions contributed $19.9 million, or 4.4%, to revenue growth in the first six months. Income from continuing operations was $48.9 million, or $0.87 per diluted share, for the first half of 2018, compared with $36.4 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $79.9 million, compared with $71.4 million for 2017. During the second quarter and first half of 2018, the Company incurred expenses of $1.9 million and $2.8 million, respectively, due to the increase in share price from $18.25 at March 30, 2018 to $23.00 at June 30, 2018. The Company is required to mark-to-market potential future share issuances related to contingent acquisition earnout liabilities, as well as share equivalents in the Company's non-executive equity aligned cash bonus plan. These items are primarily reflected in Other (expense) income, net, with a small portion reflected in Operating expense. Jerry Grisko, CBIZ President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Our strong performance in the second-quarter and first-half is a result of a healthy level of optimism among our clients, favorable business conditions and the unique value proposition CBIZ brings to our clients. We are pleased to continue to see strong demand for our core services, for advice and planning in connection with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and for our advisory services." Grisko continued, "We have closed two acquisitions to date in 2018 that are expected to contribute approximately $9.1 million of annual revenue. Since June of 2017, we have acquired five businesses that are expected to contribute approximately $33.4 million of annualized revenue. We are pleased with the performance of our acquired businesses, and with $200 million of unused financing capacity on our unsecured credit facility, we have sufficient funding to continue to pursue additional acquisition opportunities that will further position and strengthen our core business and enhance future growth." 2018 Outlook The Company expects growth in total revenue to be near the high end of a range of 5% to 8%. The Company expects to report an effective tax rate of approximately 25% as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, although a number of factors may impact the tax rate. The Company expects a weighted average fully diluted share count of approximately 56.0 million shares for full-year 2018. The Company expects to achieve growth in fully diluted earnings per share within a range of 13% to 17% over the $0.92 reported for 2017. Adjusted for the one-time 2017 impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Company expects to achieve growth within a range of 20% to 24% over the adjusted $0.87 reported for 2017. Conference Call CBIZ will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. (ET) today to discuss its results. The call will be webcast live for the media and the public, and can be accessed at www.cbiz.com . Shareholders and analysts who would like to participate in the call can register at http://dpregister.com/10122606 to receive the dial-in number and unique personal identification number. Participants may register at any time, including up to and after the call start time. A replay of the webcast will be made available approximately two hours following the call on the Company's web site at www.cbiz.com . For those without internet access, a replay of the call will also be available starting at approximately 1:00 p.m. (ET), August 2, through 5:00 p.m. (ET), August 6, 2018. The toll-free dial-in number for the replay is 1-877-344-7529. If you are listening from outside the United States, dial 1-412-317-0088. The access code for the replay is 10122606. About CBIZ CBIZ, Inc. provides professional business services that help clients better manage their finances, employees and insurance needs. CBIZ provides its clients with financial services including accounting, tax, financial advisory, government healthcare consulting, risk advisory and valuation services. Benefits and insurance services include group health benefits consulting, property and casualty insurance, retirement plan consulting, payroll and HR consulting. As one of the largest accounting, insurance brokerage and valuation companies in the United States, the Company's services are provided through more than 100 Company offices in 33 states. For more information, please visit www.cbiz.com. Forward-Looking Statements Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to adequately manage and sustain its growth; the Company's dependence on the current trend of outsourcing business services; the Company's dependence on the services of its CEO and other key employees; competitive pricing pressures; general business and economic conditions; and changes in governmental regulation and tax laws affecting the Company's insurance business or its business services operations. A more detailed description of such risks and uncertainties may be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. CBIZ, INC. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (UNAUDITED) THREE MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 AND 2017 (In thousands, except percentages and per share data) THREE MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 % 2017 % Revenue $ 232,641 100.0 % $ 211,016 100.0 % Operating expenses (1) 205,102 88.2 % 188,120 89.1 % Gross margin 27,539 11.8 % 22,896 10.9 % Corporate general and administrative expenses (1) 9,993 4.3 % 9,232 4.4 % Operating income 17,546 7.5 % 13,664 6.5 % Other (expense) income: Interest expense (1,817) -0.8 % (1,692) -0.8 % Gain on sale of operations, net - 0.0 % 23 0.0 % Other income, net (1) (2) 630 0.3 % 3,764 1.8 % Total other (expense) income, net (1,187) -0.5 % 2,095 1.0 % Income from continuing operations before income tax expense 16,359 7.0 % 15,759 7.5 % Income tax expense 3,238 4,343 Income from continuing operations 13,121 5.6 % 11,416 5.4 % Loss from operations of discontinued businesses, net of tax (15) (418) Net income $ 13,106 5.6 % $ 10,998 5.2 % Diluted earnings (loss) per share: Continuing operations $ 0.23 $ 0.20 Discontinued operations - (0.01) Net income $ 0.23 $ 0.19 Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 56,437 55,831 Other data from continuing operations: Adjusted EBITDA (3) $ 24,077 $ 23,066 (1) CBIZ sponsors a deferred compensation plan, under which a CBIZ employee's compensation deferral is held in a rabbi trust and invested accordingly as directed by the employee. Income and expenses related to the deferred compensation plan are included in "Operating expenses" ($1.8 million expense in 2018 and $2 million expense in 2017, or (0.8%) and (0.9%) of revenue, respectively) and "Corporate general and administrative expenses" ($0.2 million expense in 2018 and 2017, respectively, or (0.1%) and (0.1%) of revenue, respectively) and are directly offset by deferred compensation gains or losses in "Other income, net" ($2 million income in 2018 and $2.2 million income in 2017, or 0.9% and 1.0% of revenue, respectively). The deferred compensation plan has no impact on "Income from continuing operations before income tax expense". (2) Included in "Other income, net" for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, is expense of $1.4 million and income of $1.4 million, respectively, related to net changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to CBIZ's prior acquisitions. (3) Refer to the financial highlights tables for a reconciliation of Non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") financial measure, and for additional information as to the usefulness of the Non-GAAP financial measures to shareholders and investors. CBIZ, INC. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (UNAUDITED) SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 AND 2017 (In thousands, except percentages and per share data) SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 % 2017 % Revenue $ 498,731 100.0 % $ 452,475 100.0 % Operating expenses (1) 409,852 82.2 % 380,886 84.2 % Gross margin 88,879 17.8 % 71,589 15.8 % Corporate general and administrative expenses (1) 20,021 4.0 % 18,000 4.0 % Operating income 68,858 13.8 % 53,589 11.8 % Other (expense) income: Interest expense (3,597) -0.7 % (3,209) -0.7 % Gain on sale of operations, net 663 0.1 % 45 0.0 % Other (expense) income, net (1) (2) (599) -0.1 % 6,501 1.5 % Total other (expense) income, net (3,533) -0.7 % 3,337 0.8 % Income from continuing operations before income tax expense 65,325 13.1 % 56,926 12.6 % Income tax expense 16,394 20,484 Income from continuing operations 48,931 9.8 % 36,442 8.1 % Gain (loss) from operations of discontinued businesses, net of tax 26 (570) Net income $ 48,957 9.8 % $ 35,872 7.9 % Diluted earnings (loss) per share: Continuing operations $ 0.87 $ 0.66 Discontinued operations - (0.01) Net income $ 0.87 $ 0.65 Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 56,166 55,530 Other data from continuing operations: Adjusted EBITDA (3) $ 79,935 $ 71,369 (1) CBIZ sponsors a deferred compensation plan, under which a CBIZ employee's compensation deferral is held in a rabbi trust and invested accordingly as directed by the employee. Income and expenses related to the deferred compensation plan are included in "Operating expenses" ($1.7 million expense in 2018 and $4.9 million expense in 2017, or (0.3%) and (1.1%) of revenue, respectively) and "Corporate general and administrative expenses" ($0.2 million expense in 2018 and $0.5 million expense in 2017, or (0.0%) and (0.1%) of revenue for both 2018 and 2017) and are directly offset by deferred compensation gains or losses in "Other (expense) income, net" ($1.9 million income in 2018 and $5.4 million income in 2017, or 0.4% and 1.2% of revenue, respectively). The deferred compensation plan has no impact on "Income from continuing operations before income tax expense". (2) Included in "Other (expense) income, net" for the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, is expense of $3.1 million and income $0.8 million, respectively, related to net changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to CBIZ's prior acquisitions. (3) Refer to the financial highlights tables for a reconciliation of Non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP financial measure, and for additional information as to the usefulness of the Non-GAAP financial measures to shareholders and investors. CBIZ, INC. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (UNAUDITED) (In thousands) SELECT SEGMENT DATA THREE MONTHS ENDED SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, JUNE 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue Financial Services $ 151,737 $ 132,591 $ 332,340 $ 291,224 Benefits and Insurance Services 72,753 70,559 150,083 145,723 National Practices 8,151 7,866 16,308 15,528 Total $ 232,641 $ 211,016 $ 498,731 $ 452,475 Gross Margin Financial Services $ 22,667 $ 16,740 $ 70,237 $ 55,984 Benefits and Insurance Services 11,588 10,682 27,785 25,704 National Practices 584 631 1,466 1,286 Operating expenses - unallocated (1): Other (5,461) (3,167) (8,884) (6,441) Deferred compensation (1,839) (1,990) (1,725) (4,944) Total $ 27,539 $ 22,896 $ 88,879 $ 71,589 (1) Represents operating expenses not directly allocated to individual businesses, including stock-based compensation, consolidation and integration charges, and certain advertising expenses. "Operating expenses - unallocated" also include gains or losses attributable to the assets held in the Company's deferred compensation plan. These gains or losses do not impact "Income from continuing operations before income tax expense" as they are directly offset by the same adjustment to "Other income (expense), net" in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income. Net gains/losses recognized from adjustments to the fair value of the assets held in the deferred compensation plan are recorded as compensation expense in "Operating expenses" and as income in "Other income (expense), net". CBIZ, INC. SELECT CASH FLOW DATA (In thousands) SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2018 2017 Net income $ 48,957 $ 35,872 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization expense 11,676 11,279 Bad debt expense, net of recoveries 3,172 2,439 Adjustments to contingent earnout liability 3,050 (756) Stock-based compensation expense 3,850 2,790 Other noncash adjustments (2,840) (1,115) Net income, after adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities 67,865 50,509 Changes in assets and liabilities, net of acquisitions and divestitures (26,607) (25,731) Operating cash flows provided by continuing operations 41,258 24,778 Operating cash used in discontinued operations (152) (540) Net cash provided by operating activities 41,106 24,238 Net cash provided by investing activities 42,471 31,757 Net cash used in financing activities (75,530) (51,284) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents $ 8,047 $ 4,711 CBIZ, INC. SELECT FINANCIAL DATA AND RATIOS (In thousands) JUNE 30, DECEMBER 31, 2018 2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,921 $ 424 Restricted cash 39,535 32,985 Accounts receivable, net 245,639 188,300 Current assets before funds held for clients 314,968 245,061 Funds held for clients - current and non-current 131,304 203,112 Goodwill and other intangible assets, net 640,312 613,206 Total assets $ 1,210,124 $ 1,176,231 Notes payable - current $ 1,632 $ 1,861 Current liabilities before client fund obligations $ 173,123 $ 130,664 Client fund obligations 132,289 203,582 Notes payable - long-term 1,653 2,164 Bank debt 178,493 177,672 Total liabilities $ 621,298 $ 645,352 Treasury stock $ (495,455) $ (491,046) Total stockholders' equity $ 588,826 $ 530,879 Debt to equity 30.9 % 34.2 % Days sales outstanding (DSO) - continuing operations (1) 82 75 Shares outstanding 55,429 54,592 Basic weighted average common shares outstanding 54,334 53,862 Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 56,166 55,689 (1) DSO is provided for continuing operations and represents accounts receivable, net, at the end of the period, divided by trailing twelve month daily revenue. The Company has included DSO data because such data is commonly used as a performance measure by analysts and investors and as a measure of the Company's ability to collect on receivables in a timely manner. DSO should not be regarded as an alternative or replacement to any measurement of performance under GAAP. DSO at June 30, 2017 was 83. CBIZ, INC. GAAP RECONCILIATION Income from Continuing Operations to Non-GAAP Financial Measures (1) (In thousands) THREE MONTHS ENDED SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, JUNE 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Income from continuing operations $ 13,121 $ 11,416 $ 48,931 $ 36,442 Interest expense 1,817 1,692 3,597 3,209 Income tax expense 3,238 4,343 16,394 20,484 Gain on sale of operations, net - (23) (663) (45) Depreciation 1,514 1,215 2,918 2,462 Amortization 4,387 4,423 8,758 8,817 Adjusted EBITDA $ 24,077 $ 23,066 $ 79,935 $ 71,369 (1) CBIZ reports its financial results in accordance with GAAP. This table reconciles Non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP financial measure, "Income from continuing operations". Adjusted EBITDA is not defined by GAAP and should not be regarded as an alternative or replacement to any measurement of performance or cash flow under GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA is commonly used by the Company, its shareholders and debt holders to evaluate, assess and benchmark the Company's operational results and to provide an additional measure with respect to the Company's ability to meet future debt obligations. Guidance on 2018 Earnings Per Diluted Share from Continuing Operations Low High 2018 outlook growth in earnings per share 13% 17% 2018 outlook earnings per share $ 1.04 $ 1.08 2018 outlook growth in earnings per diluted share, excluding impact of Tax Reform Act 20% 24% View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cbiz-reports-second-quarter-and-first-half-2018-results-300690546.html SOURCE CBIZ, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] BluVector Expands Real-Time Detection of Fileless Malware on the Network BluVector, a leader in AI-driven network security technology, today announced the latest version of BluVector Cortex, the company's flagship platform, capable of sensing and responding to the world's most sophisticated threats in real-time. This latest upgrade focuses on further innovation within the platform's network-based fileless malware detection, offering the ability to detect the greatest range of fileless attacks and automatically block these threats through its rich partner ecosystem. "BluVector Cortex continues to evolve ahead of the industry with the expansion of its real-time detection of zero-day fileless malware on the network, providing the greatest breadth of fileless coverage and the only solution that empowers threat analysts with targeted logging surrounding a fileless event," said Kris Lovejoy, CEO, BluVector. "We're excited to return to Black Hat to show how these new capabilities can help organizations overcome one of the biggest security challenges of 2018 - detecting and responding to fileless malware." The company also leverages its strong partner alliances, including a partnership with Carbon Black, to offer a unique solution on the market, capable of providing automated protection from fileless malware. Enhancements to BluVector Cortex includes new features that expand detection coverage, improve the investigation and response workflow and further scalability. Major new features and enhancements include: PowerShell Detection - In addition to its existing coverage of JavaScript- and VBScript-based attacks, BluVector now also supports the analysis of PowerShell scripts in network traffic, identifying potential zero-day attacks before they have the chance to cause damage. - In addition to its existing coverage of JavaScript- and VBScript-based attacks, BluVector now also supports the analysis of PowerShell scripts in network traffic, identifying potential zero-day attacks before they have the chance to cause damage. Fileless Script Capture and Context - Access to the actual scripts and related network traffic from a fileless attack all in one place enables an organization to easily investigate and even reverse-engineer a threat without the need for expensive full packet capture. - Access to the actual scripts and related network traffic from a fileless attack all in one place enables an organization to easily investigate and even reverse-engineer a threat without the need for expensive full packet capture. Advanced Threat Investigation - Today's threats often make use of multiple stages and threat vectors, which can make investigation a very manual process. Enhanced search capabilities and new filters simplify and automate this correlation process, allowing analysts to quickly understand if an event was a standalone incident or part of a larger attack. - Today's threats often make use of multiple stages and threat vectors, which can make investigation a very manual process. Enhanced search capabilities and new filters simplify and automate this correlation process, allowing analysts to quickly understand if an event was a standalone incident or part of a larger attack. 20G Form Factor - Support for very large environments makes BluVector Cortex the only solution capable of detecting never-before-seen file-based and fileless malware in real-time on enterprise- and data center-grade networks. BluVector will demonstrate its new capabilities at Black Hat USA 2018, Booth #2504, from Aug. 4-9, 2018 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. You can follow BluVector's activity at Black Hat on Twitter and LinkedIn. About BluVector BluVector is revolutionizing network security with state-of-the-art AI, sensing and responding to the world's most sophisticated threats in real-time. With the unmatched advantage of eight years of work with the US Intel (News - Alert) Community and their threat data, only BluVector has the proven ability to protect against emerging threats on average 13 months in advance. Stop waiting for breaches to happen. Get ahead of the threat. Visit www.bluvector.io. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005118/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Kaplan Test Prep Survey: A Majority of Pre-Law Students Want Law Schools to Require a Standardized Admissions Test As the American Bar Association prepares to announce if it will lift the rule mandating all accredited law schools require applicants to submit a score from a standardized test like the LSAT or GRE, pre-law students are rendering their own verdict. According to a Kaplan Test Prep survey, 58 percent of aspiring lawyers say the ABA should keep the standardized testing requirement in place, 36 percent want it lifted, and 6 percent are not sure.* One student who favored keeping the requirement shared, "The LSAT puts all students on a level playing field. GPAs vary tremendously based on school and major so the LSAT is a good way to score all students," while another said, "The LSAT is an important indicator of how students perform under pressure and timed. It also is a good equalizer." An opponent of the requirement said, "I don't think standardized tests are really measuring a student's ability to excel at a law school. It's just measuring how good you are at taking standardized tests." The origin of the ABA's pending decision came two and a half years ago, when, during the tail end of an unprecedented application drought affecting law schools nationwide, the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law announced that it would begin allowing applicants to submit GRE scores in lieu of LSAT scores for admissions. Since that February 2016 move, more than 20 other law schools across the country (including many of the top-ranked programs like Harvard, Columbia, and UCLA) adopted this policy too, in an effort to expand and diversify their applicant pool. Most recently, Cornell and UPenn not only began to accept the GRE, but also the GMAT, which has long been the admissions test used by business schools. The decision, expected to be announced within the next week at the 2018 Chicago ABA Annual Meeting, may go one of two ways: The ABA House of Delegates could concur with the decision the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar made in May to drop the requirement, thus leaving it up to the individual law schools to decide if they want to require a test or not, or; The ABA House of Delegates could refer the decision back to the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar for further consideration, at which point the latter group would reconvene, taking the full House of Delegates' recommendations into account, but not obligated to act on them. After further discussion between the two bodies, their original ruling could still go into effect, lifting the requirement. recent Kaplan research shows that pre-law students would submit an LSAT score anyway to gain a competitive advantage over those who do not." To schedule an interview about Kaplan's survey results, please contact Mike Tague at michael.tague@kaplan.com or 212-974-2785. *Based on the results of a Kaplan Test Prep survey conducted by email in July 2018 of 127 pre-law students who took a Kaplan LSAT preparation course. Test names and other trademarks are the property of the respective trademark holders. None of the trademark holders are endorsed by nor affiliated with Kaplan or this survey. About Kaplan Test Prep Kaplan Test Prep (www.kaptest.com) is a premier provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses. Established in 1938, Kaplan is the world leader in the test prep industry. With a comprehensive menu of online offerings as well as a complete array of print books and digital products, Kaplan offers preparation for more than 100 standardized tests, including entrance exams for secondary school, college and graduate school, as well as professional licensing exams for attorneys, physicians and nurses. Kaplan also provides private tutoring and graduate admissions consulting services. Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005101/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Governor Rick Scott Denies Healthcare Coverage to Puerto Ricans and Other Vulnerable Populations Living with HIV/AIDS Over 100 HIV/AIDS advocates from across the region will join AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world's largest, non-profit HIV/AIDS service organization, today at 1:30pm in front of the City of Orlando Hispanic Office for Local Assistance (HOLA), 595 N. Primrose Drive, Orlando, FL, to protest against Governor Rick Scott's denial of a Medicaid managed healthcare plan that provides critical coverage to Puerto Ricans and other vulnerable populations living with HIV/AIDS. Since 1999, the plan, managed by Positive Healthcare (PHC), which is administered by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has provided for the sensitive medical needs of over 2,000 individuals in Florida, living with HIV/AIDS. In late April, Florida Medicaid officials announced the awarding of Medicaid contracts, worth up to $90 billion, to five for-profit managed care plans, excluding several other companies, including Positive Healthcare (PHC), the only non-profit healthcare provider that offers insurance coverage for the critical, sensitive healthcare needs of those living with HIV. As a result of the initial decision, several of the denied agencies, including PHC, filed formal protests with Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA), which manages the state's Medicaid program, all challenging the state's decision, citing severe defects in the RFP and decision making process. Following the submitted protests, state Medicaid officials met with each of the denied agencies, and subsequently have provided settlements with a select list of the for-profit providers, while continuing to shut out PHC, the only non-profit agency whose focus is on providing care to thousands of clients living with HIV in Florida, that have relied on this critical coverage to get the necessary care they need, by the doctors of their choice, to live a healthy life. "As the epicenter of HIV/AIDS in this country, it is deplorable that Governor Scott is playing with the lives of Puerto Ricans and other vulnerable populations living with HIV/AIDS in Florida," stated Michael Kahane, AHF Southern Bureau Chief. "Rick Scott has not been transparent with the Puerto Rican community or anyone that he was elected to serve, on what he is doing to address this epidemic that has exploded under his watch. If he truly cares about the Puerto Rican community or anyone dealing with healthcare challenges, we implore him to put people over politics and let Puerto Ricans and all people choose who to provide their healthcare, as one choice is no choice." While Scott and his cronies continue to play "business as usual" politics, the 2,000 HIV patients currently covered by PHC have become vulnerable to maintaining the care they critically need to stay alive, as they will be forced to choose for-profit companies that don't cover the doctors they have come to rely on and trust for over a decade of quality, life-saving care. As well, the rate of new HIV/AIDS diagnosis continues to increase across the state, with Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics and Latinos being disproportionately impacted. AHF and the numerous community supporters across the region that have come out in support of PHC implore Governor Scott to understand that one choice is no choice and to put people first and not big for-profit businesses and give this vulnerable population a choice. Coinciding with today's protest, AHF is also running radio ads on local Orlando and Miami stations to bring awareness to the Puerto Rican community of the devastating impact of Rick Scott's actions of denying them and other vulnerable populations the choice for healthcare that can be life-saving for those within their community living with HIV/AIDS. Stations currently running the awareness spots are: Market Station Orlando WRUM-FM Orlando WURF-AM Orlando WONQ-AM Miami WAMR-FM WHAT: Protest against Governor Rick Scott's denial of healthcare coverage to those living with HIV/AIDS WHO: Over 100 HIV/AIDS activists from across the region WHEN: TODAY, Thursday, August 2, 2018 - 1:30pm WHERE: In front of the Offices of Hispanic Office for Local Assistance (HOLA) - 595 N. Primrose Drive, Orlando NOTE: Given heavy thunderstorms, the protest event will take place at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Orlando Downtown, 60 South Ivanhoe Blvd., Orlando According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): HIV and Hispanics/Latinos: Hispanics/Latinos account for about one quarter of all new diagnoses of HIV in the United States, despite representing about 18% of the total US population; An estimated 235,600 Hispanics/Latinos were living with HIV in the United States. Of these, an estimated 17% were living with undiagnosed HIV; In Florida, the rate of Hispanic/Latino males living with an HIV diagnosis is 1.9 times that of White males, the rate of Hispanic/Latina females living with an HIV diagnosis is 2.5 times that of White females. HIV/AIDS in Florida: In Orlando, the rate of Hispanic/Latino males living with an HIV diagnosis is 1.8 times that of White males, the rate of Hispanic/Latina females living with an HIV diagnosis is 4.8 times that of White females; Florida ranked 1st among the 50 states in the number of HIV diagnoses; Three Florida cities made the top 15 cities nationally, when it comes to number of people with HIV. Miami is at the top of the list, with Jacksonville and Orlando at the tenth and 11th spots, respectively; and Miami-Dade and Broward counties ranked top in the nation of new HIV diagnosis. About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 940,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook (News - Alert) : www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) : @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005373/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Photo: Nicholas Johansen Traffic backed up on Drought Hill after a crash on Monday. A number of recent crashes in the Drought Hill area of Highway 97 have some concerned about the lack of lines on the highway, as paving continues in the area. The most recent crash happened on Monday, when two cars collided head on Drought Hill. The crash stalled traffic in both directions, south to Peachland and north past Gorman's mill. The condition of those involved is unknown, but the vehicles sustained significant damage. Just two days prior, a three-vehicle crash near Trepanier Road caused extensive delays, and the day before that, a crash involving a motorcycle near 13th Street backed up traffic in both directions. As repaving continues along a 13-kilometre stretch of Highway 97 from Deep Creek to Glenrosa, temporary lane markers are in place until permanent lines can be painted. The line paint crew needs to get the new blacktop painted as soon as possible, said Doug MacElhinney in a letter to Castanet. There will be more accidents if it isn't done soon. This sentiment was echoed by many on Castanet's forums. We drove out to Peachland on Sunday, wrote one woman. The road lines were not completed, and there were dots to mark the lines. They had yellow dots on one side and white on the other. I told my husband I was sure there would be a head-on crash there. I drove that stretch at least a week ago at night, wrote another. Let me tell you, it was brutal to see where you were driving when an oncoming vehicle approached. I can't believe it's not painted yet. James Weiss, public affairs officer with the Ministry of Transportation, says the project has been delayed by wildfires in the area, and permanent lines are still several weeks away. The project includes application of a sealant next week that requires two weeks of curing time before permanent lines can be painted, Weiss said in an email. Line painting will be taking place prior to the end of August, once the sealant has cured and paving is completed. [August 02, 2018] Ostendio Announces Partnership with Nixon Law Group to Provide Deep Healthcare Regulatory Compliance Expertise ARLINGTON, Va. and WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ostendio, a leading provider of cybersecurity and risk management solutions, today announced that they have partnered with Nixon Law Group, a boutique healthcare law firm headquartered in Virginia, to make it easier for organizations to comply with the ever-changing healthcare privacy regulatory requirements. This partnership brings together a leading-edge software platform with top-tier healthcare attorneys to help organizations better navigate the highly regulated healthcare industry. "We are thrilled to partner with Nixon Law Group," said Grant Elliott, President and CEO of Ostendio. "Healthcare data is highly sensitive, and companies are under a lot of pressure to meet compliance objectives. Nixon Law Group is a thought-leader in this space. By combining our software with their industry knowledge, clients can streamline and operationalize their compliance and security workflows." Every healthcare organization which handles Personal Health Information (PHI) needs to comply with regulations such as HIPAA. However, many organizations don't know where to begin, or how to maintain compliance. This unique partnership between Ostendio and Nixon Law Group will help organizations tackle these problems in a cost-effective and practical manner. "Our partnership with Ostendio will reduce the regulatory burden organizations are faced with when they have to navigate the complex framework of healthcare rules and regulations," aid Rebecca E. Gwilt, Esq. Partner at Nixon Law Group. "As a future-focused company, we are constantly incorporating technology to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in health law, policy, and technology. We wanted to partner with Ostendio to make it easier for our clients to build, manage and demonstrate their security and compliance programs." With many similar clients in the healthcare space, Ostendio and Nixon Law Group look forward to helping their clients effectively cut through the complexities of the healthcare industry. About Nixon Law Group, LLC Nixon Law Group, LLC is a nationally known healthcare law firm representing clients in the healthcare industry exclusively. Our attorneys are experts in how to navigate the complex framework of healthcare laws and regulations affecting every area of the healthcare industry. We help you to reduce your exposure to risk, and to thrive in the new era of healthcare. Nixon Law Group serves clients nationwide, with offices in Fairfax, VA, Richmond, VA, and Washington, DC. Web: www.nixonlawgroup.com Phone: +1 703 795 9763 About Ostendio Ostendio's MyVCM streamlines the way companies build, manage and demonstrate their information security framework. The MyVCM platform provides an enterprise view of an organization's cybersecurity program. MyVCM's unique bottom-up security approach provides a workflow solution which engages every employee and manages all aspects of security and compliance which allows organizations to easily report their security posture to internal and external stake-holders. With MyVCM, customers can ensure they are secure and compliant. Web: www.ostendio.com Email: info@ostendio.com Phone: +1 877 668 5658 Press Contact: Niamh Bennett Director of Marketing Ostendio 199441@email4pr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ostendio-announces-partnership-with-nixon-law-group-to-provide-deep-healthcare-regulatory-compliance-expertise-300690961.html SOURCE Ostendio [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Marshall Heilman, Chris Roberts, Lawrence Pingree, and Bill Ender Join Attivo Networks Advisory Board FREMONT, Calif., Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attivo Networks, the award-winning leader in deception for cybersecurity threat detection, announced today that four widely acknowledged cybersecurity industry experts, Marshall Heilman, Chris Roberts, Lawrence Pingree, and Bill Ender have joined the companys Advisory Board. The Attivo Networks Advisory Board is designed to further enhance the companys deep expertise in addressing the ever-evolving global cyberthreat challenges. Attivo Networks has forged relationships with several advisors with highly specialized backgrounds and unique perspectives. These experts regularly study cyberattackers, understand their tactics thoroughly, and provide insights that drive continuous innovation of the companys deception technology portfolio to effectively counter modern cyberthreats. The fact that we have been able to attract four highly respected cybersecurity experts of the caliber of Marshall Heilman, Chris Roberts, Lawrence Pingree, and Bill Ender to our Advisory Board is additional validation of Attivo Networks' market leadership in deception technology, said Attivo Networks CEO Tushar Kothari. Their deep level of red-team strategy, adversarial knowledge, and in-depth investigative techniques will be an instrumental asset in continually informing and steering product strategy. Heilman, currently a Vice President at FireEye and running the Managed Defense and Technical Operations & Reverse Engineering (TORE) teams, brings more than 16 years of cybersecurity experience to the Attivo Networks Advisory Board. He oversees the global Managed Defense team responsible for protecting FireEye customers and the TORE team responsible for empowering the company to find evil and solve crime more efficiently. Heilman joined Mandiant in 2006, which was acquired by FireEye in 2013. Prior to joining Mandiant, he was in the United States Marine Corps, specializing in information security. Other areas of expertise include enterprise-wide incident response strategies, cybercrime investigations, and general security architecture. Heilman has extensive experience working with government organizations and businesses across a broad range of industriesglobally. Roberts, currently Chief of Adversarial Research and Engineering for LARES, LLC., is considered one of the worlds foremost experts on counter threat intelligence. With increasingly sophisticated attacks on targets of opportunity, Roberts unique methods of addressing the evolving threat matrix and experience with all information systems make him an indispensable partner to clients and industries that demand protection of financials, intellectual property, customer data, and other protected information from attack. He was previously Chief Security Architect for Acalvio Technologies, where he drove deception technology innovation, directing a portfolio of services designed to improve the physical and digital security posture of clients. Collectively, Roberts has more than 20 years security experience working in enterprise, industrial, and government segments. Pingree previously served as Research Vice President at Gartner, Inc., and is currently Vice President of Product Management at SonicWall. He has more than 23 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry where he has consulted for large financial institutions, corporations, and government entities on strategies for strengthening their overall cybersecurity practices. He has held information security roles at Safeway, Williams-Sonoma, and Peoplesoft (Oracle). At Gartner, Inc., Pingree was a pivotal resource in researching, comparing and evaluating products, services, and related technology in the cybersecurity industry. In this role he specialized in deception technology and other information security trends and competitive market analysis. Additionally, he is a member of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), and is a founding board member of the Digital Forensics Association. Ender is an innovative security and technology leader and early adopter of deceptive defense, having successfully led two large-scale deployments of Attivo Networks technology. He is the former CISO of Vyaire Medical and CareFusion (now part of Becton Dickinson), previously served as SVP of Corporate Information Security for Wells Fargo and is the founder of RightBrainCISO, an advisory service provider to leading-edge security startups and investors. At both Vyaire and CareFusion he also led the foundation of Product Security programs to integrate Security into the design and development of medical devices. Ender brings more than 35 years of experience in entrepreneurial start-ups, small businesses, and multinational corporate security leadership roles across multiple industry sectors, including manufacturing, financial services, high-tech, and healthcare. About Attivo Networks Attivo Networks is the leader in dynamic deception technology for the real-time detection, analysis and forensics of cyber-attacks. The Attivo Deception Platform provides inside-the-network threat detection for user networks, data centers, clouds, and ICS-SCADA environments. Not reliant on known signatures or attack patterns, Attivo uses high-interaction deception techniques based on Attivo BOTsink engagement servers to lure attackers into revealing themselves. Combined with the Attivo End-Point Deception Suite, advanced luring technology is deployed to detect the use of stolen credentials, ransomware, and targeted attacks. Comprehensive attack analysis and forensics provide actionable alerts and can be set to automatically block and quarantine attacks for accelerated incident response. For more information, visit www.attivonetworks.com. Contacts: Christina Adams Attivo Networks christina@attivonetworks.com 510.623.1000 Jenna Buraczenski/Pete Johnson Matter Communications for Attivo Networks jburaczenski@matternow.com 401.351.9509 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Power of Knowledge Management Systems and Its Benefits For Your Business | Infiniti Research Infiniti Research, a world-renowned market intelligence solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest article on the power of the knowledge management systems and its benefits for your business. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005433/en/ Harnessing the Power of Knowledge Management System for Your Business. (Graphic: Business Wire) An application that is built to capture important and pertinent information inside an organization and make it accessible to the employees at any time and location is known as a knowledge management system (KMS). In simpler words, a knowledge management system is an information hub that helps in content creation, organization, and relocation through search tools and lets users find answers to their queries rapidly. To know more about the scope of our engagement, request a proposal KMS includes many software modules, served by a central user interface. Some of these features let data mining on customer input and histories and are also used for the distribution of electronic documents. "A knowledge management system can help firms with staff training and orientation,support better sales, or help business leaders arrive at critical decisions," says an industry expert from Infiniti. Power of knowledge management system and its benefits in your business: Information accuracy and consistency: Every person in a company can attain equal access and contribute to a complete internal knowledge base by using KMS. This ensures improved quality of information. Also, a knowledge management system guarantees that employees are provided with information that is useful, targeted, and timely without drowning in a sea of data. To know more about our solutions , get in touch Every person in a company can attain equal access and contribute to a complete internal knowledge base by using KMS. This ensures improved quality of information. Also, a knowledge management system guarantees that employees are provided with information that is useful, targeted, and timely without drowning in a sea of data. , Faster decision making: A good KMS offers the basis for making good decisions through search, structure, subscription, syndication, and support. Similarly, by reusing knowledge in the repositories, employees can make decisions based on real experiences and practical lessons learned from bigger sample sizes. This, in turn, allows them to guarantee that no mistake that has been committed earlier is repeated. To know more about our solutions for knowledge management system , request a proposal A good KMS offers the basis for making good decisions through search, structure, subscription, syndication, and support. Similarly, by reusing knowledge in the repositories, employees can make decisions based on real experiences and practical lessons learned from bigger sample sizes. This, in turn, allows them to guarantee that no mistake that has been committed earlier is repeated. , Facilitate project management: Knowledge and lessons learned from previous projects, such cost estimating, risk management, and problem-solving help several aspects of project management. When organizations use a KMS to collect project information, it helps new project managers to study their craft more proficiently. KMS also simplifies the communication of appropriate information among project team members, particularly in the case where the teams work in multiple geographic locations. Knowledge and lessons learned from previous projects, such cost estimating, risk management, and problem-solving help several aspects of project management. When organizations use a KMS to collect project information, it helps new project managers to study their craft more proficiently. KMS also simplifies the communication of appropriate information among project team members, particularly in the case where the teams work in multiple geographic locations. Get in touch, to know more about how we can help you boost business profits Infiniti Research is a global market intelligence company offering strategic insights to help look beyond market disruptions, study competitive activity, and develop intelligent business strategies. Listed below are the importance of a market analysis to improve business growth. View the complete list of the power of knowledge management system and its benefits in your business: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/thoughts/harnessing-power-knowledge-management-system-business About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. With 15+ years of experience and offices across three continents, Infiniti Research has been instrumental in providing a complete range of competitive intelligence, strategy, and research services for over 550 companies across the globe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005433/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Mirantis Partners with Fujitsu to Build Supercomputer and Wide-Area Distributed Cloud System for High Performance Computing at Hokkaido University SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mirantis and Fujitsu announced today that they have partnered to create the Information Initiative Center of Hokkaido University for an interdisciplinary, large-scale computing system with a theoretical peak performance of 4.0 petaflops, consisting of a supercomputer system and a cloud system. The system is expected to begin operations in December 2018. Hokkaido University is a Japanese university that is extending the boundaries of education and research. The Information Initiative Center of Hokkaido University provides an academic information platform as a national joint-use facility for academic research by university faculty members, graduate students, and researchers throughout Japan. OpenStack, due to its flexible software-defined infrastructure and robust APIs is perfectly suited for High Performance Computing (HPC), said Boris Renski, CMO and co-founder, Mirantis. Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP), specifically tuned for the HPC use case, enables data science, advanced simulations, artificial intelligence and machine learning, IoT, Blockchain, and more, making it the perfect solution for Hokkaido University. The Information Initiative Center of Hokkaido University currently operates the Hokkaido University Academic Cloud, which is comprised of an interdisciplinary large-scale computing system that includes a supercomputer system and a cloud system, and petabyte-class data science unified cloud storage. To upgrade its interdisciplinary large-scale computing system to the Hokkaido University High-Performance Inter-Cloud, it is building both a supercomputer system that will improve the processing performance of the existing system by 2k%, and a nationwide wide-area distributed clod system that can also be used for research on clouds and networks. It will further advance uses and research in such existing areas as scientific and technological simulations, AI, big data, and data science, and will provide an environment that can meet an even broader range of needs as people are trained to use the large-scale computing system for groundbreaking research. The Hokkaido University High-Performance Inter-Cloud is a transformational research promotion platform for advanced research that organically integrates the super computer system and Inter-cloud system deployed nationwide, and accelerates various types of research projects such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, as well as large-scale computational science simulations from universities, research institutions, and private sectors throughout Japan. For this very exciting and important project, we needed partners with track records to provide the best opportunity for success -- Mirantis and Fujitsu, said Dr. Masaharu Munetomo, Director, Information Initiative Center, Hokkaido University. MCP delivers a flexible, tunable platform based on OpenStack and Kubernetes, with continuously delivered infrastructure-as-code to enable ongoing, rapid and reliable access to continued innovations by Mirantis and Fujitsu. "The Mirantis Cloud Platform, selected as Hokkaido University's High-Performance Inter-Cloud, comes with Infrastructure-as-code to enable the safe and easy life cycle management of cloud infrastructure," said Masahide Abe, head of the Mission Critical System Support Division, Platform Software Business Unit, Fujitsu Limited. I am confident that the full Open Source cloud infrastructure software is the best choice for customers who expect agility and reliability from their system infrastructure. Fujitsu and Mirantis are together providing evolving cloud infrastructure software that incorporates advanced Open Source technologies, in combination with high quality services and support. We are working to realize customer growth, together with customers. The new system will include: Supercomputer system The new supercomputer system is a massively parallel computer system consisting of subsystem A, which is comprised of 1,004 PRIMERGY CX2550 M4 x86 servers that are equipped with the Intel Xeon Scalable family of processors, and subsystem B, which is comprised of 288 Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY CX1640 M1 x86 servers that are equipped with Intel Xeon Phi processors. Each compute node is connected with Intel Omni-Path Architecture, the latest high-speed interconnect), for highly parallel computing performance. Cloud system The new cloud system has 64 x86 servers, including the Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY RX2540 M4 with NVIDIA Tesla V100, the latest GPU computing card, deployed to Hokkaido University and seven more in remote sites in the Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu regions of Japan. Connecting these servers to the SINET5 academic backbone network makes it a nationwide wide-area distributed cloud system that extends from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The cloud platform uses MCP, with the OpenStack Pike release at its core, delivering the latest research environment. Designed to flexibly meet a wide variety of needs. With Fujitsu Software Technical Computing Suite, Fujitsu's HPC middleware for large-scale systems, the system offers optimal controls and node occupancy for jobs, improving the convenience of a wide variety of anticipated operations. It also provides flexible electric power controls to conserve power by limiting the maximum electric power consumed by each user and turning the power for nodes on or off. About Fujitsu Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 140,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.1 trillion yen (US $39 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018. For more information, please see www.fujitsu.com. About Mirantis Mirantis is a managed open cloud company focused on harnessing open source innovation to help enterprise application owners become free of infrastructure and operations concerns. The company employs a unique build-operate-transfer approach to deliver two distinct products: Mirantis Application Platform based on Spinnaker that helps enterprises adopt cloud native continuous delivery to realize cloud ROI at scale. Mirantis Cloud Platform based on Kubernetes and OpenStack that helps services providers and enterprises run highly tunable private clouds powered by infrastructure-as-code and based on open standards. To date, Mirantis has helped more than 200 enterprises and service providers build and operate some of the largest open clouds in the world. Its customers include iconic brands such as Adobe, AT&T, Comcast, Reliance Jio, State Farm, STC, Vodafone, Volkswagen, and Wells Fargo. Learn more at www.mirantis.com. Contact information: Joseph Eckert for Mirantis jeckertflak@gmail.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Carr Fire Victims Can Rely on AAA Northern California for Help In response to the widespread damage caused by the Carr Fire, AAA Northern California is taking continued action to assist its members. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005183/en/ (Photo: Business Wire) The AAA emergency response trailer is in the parking lot of the Shasta College evacuation center, located at 11555 Old Oregon Trail, Redding, California, 96003. The trailer is open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and is fully staffed with employees to assist AAA insurance customers with auto and home claims and to provide additional help as needed. As many as 300 people have come by the trailer for help since it openedat the college July 27. AAA Northern California will also be at the county's Local Assistance Center at Shasta High School, 2500 Eureka Way in Redding. The temporary center is being set up to provide residents recovery assistance from multiple agencies at a centralized location. It opens today at 9 a.m., and will remain open daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., through Wednesday, Aug. 8. AAA Northern California insurance customers who have suffered damage to their homes or vehicles can also call AAA Northern California at 800-922-8228 for assistance. "Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered losses from this devastating fire," said Danielle Cagan, spokesperson for AAA insurance in Northern California. "We are awed by the resilience and hope demonstrated by the Redding community. We're available and ready to respond to AAA members' insurance needs during this challenging time." Among the services being provided by AAA Northern California: Debit cards are available to those with covered homeowners losses insured through AAA Northern California who have been displaced from their homes to help with immediate living expenses. Emergency road service is available to AAA members who have cars damaged by the Carr fire. CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA insurer, is working with local Hertz offices to provide rental vehicles to those who have lost or damaged cars. Packages with personal care items and teddy bears for children are also available. AAA Northern California offers a wide array of automotive, travel, insurance, DMV, financial services and consumer discounts to over 4 million members. AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers since it was founded more than 100 years ago. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005183/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Significant Gap Still Exists Between Canadians' Desire And Ability To Access Digital Health Services TORONTO, Aug. 2, 2018 /CNW/ - Canadians increasingly want access to digital health services, but there is a significant gap between this desire and their ability to access various services online. Connecting Patients for Better Health 2018 draws on four public opinion surveys conducted for Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) between February 2014 and March 2018 and provides a picture of Canadians' attitudes about and ability to access digital health services. Currently, 22 per cent of Canadians have access to their health information online, while 73 per cent do not, and would like this access. The main digital services Canadians want are the ability to: renew prescriptions, view their health information, book appointments with their family doctor, and confirm specialist referrals and receive confirmations of specialist appointments, all online and preferably from the device of their choice. Canadians who have access to digital health services say it is more convenient and improves their ability to manage their care. It also improves the timeliness of the care they receive, results in better communication with their health care provider, and makes them feel like partner with their care team. Virtual visits the ability to talk with their health care providers by video is another digital service that interests Canadians. Forty-one per cent say they would like to access this service, while only six per cent can do so currently. "Canadians deserve to be able to access their health information and services in the same way they access their financial services online, at their convenience, and with assurance that the highest standards of privacy and security are in place," said Michael Green, President and CEO of Infoway. "Infoway's bold new ACCESS Health initiative will make it quicker and easier for Canadians to access digital health services," he said. "Our goal is to provide all Canadians with access to a modern, 21st century health system that is sustainable, efficient, and, above all, improves their care experiences and health outcomes." Download: Connecting Patients for Better Health 2018 . See also: Valuing Canadians' Secure Access to Their Health Information and Digital Health e-Services. About Canada Health Infoway Infoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Media Inquiries: Karen Schmidt Director, Corporate Communications, Canada Health Infoway 416.595.3167 kschmidt@infoway-inforoute.ca SOURCE Canada Health Infoway [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Wireless Telecom Group Announces Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Will Be Released August 9, 2018 Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (NYSE American: WTT), a leader in wireless communications and radio frequency instrumentation, announced today it will release its second quarter 2018 financial results on Thursday August 9th, 2018, before the market opens. The Company will host a conference call on Thursday August 9th, 2018 at 8:30 am EDT in which management will discuss second quarter results. To participate in the conference call, dial 800-346-7359 or 973-528-0008. The conference identification number is 740345. The call will also be webcast over the internet at the following URL: https://www.webcastr4.com/Webcast/Page/1690/26930 A replay will be made available on the Wireless Telecom website for a limited period of time following the conference call. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc., comprised of Boonton Electronics, CommAgility, Microlab and Noisecom, is a global designer and manufacturer of advanced RF and microwave components, modules, systems and instruments. Serving the wireless, telecommunication, satellite, military, aerospace, semiconductor and medical industries, Wireless Telecom Group products enable innovation across a wide range of traditional and emerging wireless technologies. With a unique set of high-performance products including peak power meters, signal analyzers, signal processing modules, LTE (News - Alert) PHY and stack software, power splitters and combiners, GPS repeaters, public safety monitors, noise sources, and programmable noise generators, Wireless Telecom Group supports the development, testing, and deployment of wireless technologies around the globe. Wireless Telecom Group is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, and maintains a global network of Sales and Service offices for excellent product service and support. Wireless Telecom Group's website address is http://www.wtcom.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005518/en/ [August 02, 2018] Fleetsmith to Give Technical Deep Dive on macOS DEP and MDM at Black Hat 2018 SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fleetsmith, the provider of secure, automated Apple device management, today announced that its CSO, CPO, and co-founder, Jesse Endahl is presenting a deep dive session on macOS MDM and DEP system internals and protocols at this year's Black Hat USA 2018. DEP and MDM are technologies created by Apple that allow for powerful device management and automation of IT and security configurations in the enterprise. The session, co-presented with Dropbox engineer Max Belanger, will focus on exploring the way the bootstrapping process works with Apple's DEP and MDM technologies. Specifically, they will walk through each step of the process, from interprocess communication within the operating system, to network calls made to/from remote servers. They will also reveal a vulnerability found in the bootstrapping process. This year's Black Hat USA event runs from August 49 and will take place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. "The introduction of User-Approved MDM and continued enhancements to security technologies such as SIP, Gatekeeper, and others, demonstrate that Apple is committed to long-term, comprehensive, platform security for macOS, and for mobile device management. However, under the hood, the DEP and MDM implementations involve many moving parts, and the bootstrapping process exposes vulnerabilities when a device is brought to a fully-provisioned state," said Jesse Endahl, CSO, CPO, and co-founder of Fleetsmith. "My session with Max will walk attendees through the stages of device bootstrapping via DEP and MDM in macOS, and demonstrate how an attacker can exploit a part of this process to compromise a brand new device as it boots up and the user logs in for the first time." Offering a next-gen SaaS solution for Apple fleet device management, Fleetsmith provides IT, ops, security, and office managers, with an easy, full-featured way to manage and secure macOS devices. The company recently announced Fleetsmith Intelligence, the industry's first free product that provides real-time visibility into a company's entire device fleet, surfacing business and security risks before it is too late. If issues are found, admins can fix them with a single click by upgrading devices to Fleetsmith Managed, Fleetsmith's subscription-based device management product. Fleetsmith Managed provides customers with an automated, zero-touch process of provisioning computers for new employees, which increases onboarding speed without compromising on security capabilities. With Fleetsmith Managed, users can easily provision and keep track of all devices, while deploying, installing, and maintaining software on every managed device, as well as allowing for enforcement of security features and policies necessary for security and compliance. Session details: Who: Jesse Endahl, CSO, CPO, and co-founder, Fleetsmith Max Belanger, Staff Engineer, Dropbox What: A Deep Dive into macOS MDM (and How it can be Compromised) When: Thursday, August 9, at 11:00am PT Where: Lagoon GHI, South Convention Center, Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, Nevada Black Hat is one of the most popular and technical information security events in the world. Over the last 20 years, this event series has provided its attendees with the most cutting-edge research, development, and security industry trends in a strictly vendor-neutral environment. The information and training, available through the Black Hat program addresses the biggest issues and demands in the information security industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors. About Fleetsmith Fleetsmith automates device setup, fleet intelligence, app and OS updates, and security across a company's Apple device fleet. Founded by former IT and security leaders from Dropbox and Fandom, Fleetsmith combines world-class product and security engineering with a powerful, intuitive interface that makes advanced Apple device management available for everyone. Fleetsmith is based in San Francisco and backed by Index Ventures, Harrison Metal, and Upfront Ventures. Try it for free at fleetsmith.com. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fleetsmith-to-give-technical-deep-dive-on-macos-dep-and-mdm-at-black-hat-2018-300691012.html SOURCE Fleetsmith [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Brentwood Associates Acquires MD Now Urgent Care Brentwood Associates ("Brentwood"), a leading middle-market private equity investment firm, announced it has acquired MD Now Holdings, Inc. ("MD Now Urgent Care" or the "Company") from Brockway Moran & Partners, Inc. ("Brockway Moran & Partners"). MD Now Urgent Care is a leading urgent care operator with clinics located throughout Southeast Florida. Founded in 2005, MD Now Urgent Care is the largest independent urgent care provider in Florida and offers a broad range of high quality medical care, including urgent care services, diagnostics and testing, occupational medicine, and physical therapy services. The Company's physician-led model allows clinics to provide patients with high acuity medical services in an affordable, timely manner. Over the last thirteen years, MD Now Urgent Care has grown from a single clinic into an established platform across Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Indian River counties, becoming an integral part of the communities it serves and developing a loyal patient base and extraordinary reputation. Commenting on the new partnership, CEO Michael Holton said, "We are excited to join Brentwood in this partnership. Brentwood's deep expertise in growing multi-unit businesses, along with their ability to bring exceptional resources to bear, will be great assets as we seek to expand into new geographies while continuing to drive robust growth in our core markets. Our team is committed to providing best-in-class care for our patients and maintaining the outstanding reputation and customer loyalty we share within our communities today." Steve Moore, partner at Brentwood, commented, "MD Now Urgent Care has become a trusted brand in the South Florida market by delivering high quality care and an exceptional in-clinic experience to its loyal patient base. The company's data-driven approach to operations, strategic footprint, and investments in infrastructure have created an extraordinary platform for future growth, hrough both de novo clinic openings and strategic acquisitions." Bill Barnum, partner at Brentwood, added, "We are thrilled to partner with the MD Now Urgent Care leadership team and look forward to supporting their patient-first focus, growing the Company's geographic footprint rapidly, and building upon the tremendous success they have achieved to date." MD Now Urgent Care was advised by Houlihan Lokey, and its legal counsel was Peter W. Klein, P.A. and Jones Day. Brentwood was advised by Financo, and its legal counsel was Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Golub Capital provided the debt financing supporting the acquisition. ABOUT MD NOW Urgent Care MD Now Urgent Care is the largest and fastest growing independent provider of urgent care services in South Florida with locations conveniently located across Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The Company's clinics are open 8am - 8pm, 365 days per year, with a licensed doctor onsite at all times ensuring easy access and quality care patients can trust. For more information about MD Now Urgent Care, please visit www.mymdnow.com. ABOUT BRENTWOOD ASSOCIATES Brentwood Associates is a leading middle-market private equity investment firm with a 30+ year history of investing in leading growth companies. Brentwood focuses on investments in growing businesses where it can leverage its extensive experience in areas such as: consumer products and services; multi-location growth strategies, including specialty retail and restaurants; direct marketing, including direct mail and e-commerce; health and wellness; education; and business services. Since 1984, Brentwood's dedicated private equity team has invested in over 50 portfolio companies with an aggregate transaction value of over $6 billion. With significant experience in both investing and brand building, Brentwood is a value-added partner with entrepreneurs and senior management teams building world-class companies. For more information about Brentwood, please visit www.brentwood.com. ABOUT BROCKWAY MORAN & PARTNERS Since 1998, Brockway Moran & Partners has partnered with numerous dynamic middle market companies and their management teams to build their companies through both organic growth strategies and add-on acquisitions that are tightly integrated. Brockway Moran has completed approximately 100 acquisitions over this time and has, in active concert with management teams, created numerous sector leading companies, while positioning its portfolio companies for long term success. The firm has raised over $1.3 billion of committed equity capital. For more information, visit www.brockwaymoran.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005525/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Rural and remote communities in northern Ontario will benefit from faster Internet Residents in six communities to get new or faster Internet access thanks to Government of Canada investment SIOUX LOOKOUT, ON, Aug. 2, 2018 /CNW/ - Internet access is more than just a convenience: communities, businesses and institutions need it to offer new services and create new opportunities. That's why the Government of Canada is helping six Indigenous communities and up to 58 institutions in northern Ontario get online with new or improved high-speed Internet access. David Lametti, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the Honourable Bob Nault, Member of Parliament for Kenora, were at the Kuhkenah Network (K-Net) office, a First Nationsowned and -operated Internet service provider in Sioux Lookout, to announce an investment of $7.03 million in high-speed Internet. This investment will help residents of these communities connect with family and friends, do business online, access telemedicine, participate in distance education and take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the digital age. To date, the Government of Canada has invested $61 million to bring high-speed Internet to Ontario's rural and remote communities under Connect to Innovate. The Government of Canada's $500-million Connect to Innovate program is investing in building the digital backbone of high-speed Internet networks. Backbone networks are the digital highways that move data in and out of communities. These highways carry large amounts of data that are essential for schools, hospitals, libraries and businesses to function in a digital world. Quotes "Access to high-speed Internet is not a luxury; it's essential. High-speed Internet service is a basic tool that all Canadians should have access to, regardless of where they live. Our communities need this service to do business, upgrade their education and build stronger communities. Thanks to our Connect to Innovate program, more people will be able to participate fully in the digital economy." The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development "For northern Ontario communities, digital investment through the Connect to Innovate program enhances opportunities for residents of all ages. Ths important investment will support industries like mining and forestry in data collection and observation, students and youth in learning, and residents in day-to-day life with connected devices. It's all part of our government's plan to help create opportunity in all communities, including rural communities in the North." David Lametti , Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development "This federal funding will be used to upgrade the networks' transport capacity and to provide enhanced fibre Internet service to the many anchor institutions and residential Internet subscribers in our region. Since 2015, the demand for Internet transport has outstripped our capacity to supply. This has caused gaps in telecommunications service delivery, which has created health and safety concerns in our communities. We will now be able to offer more transport capacity to our hospitals, ambulance bases, schools, band offices and health centres, as well as an affordable fibre-to-the-home Internet package to residential clients. Our youth have embraced this technology, and they will be at the forefront of developing the digital economy on the James Bay coast." Rebecca Friday, President, Western James Bay Telecom Network, and Deputy Grand Chief, Mushkegowuk Council Fort Severn First Nation is the most northern community in Ontario, located along the Hudson Bay coast. Fort Severn currently uses satellite bandwidth, but the current limit does not meet the demands of the community. Visiting doctors need to open their electronic medical records to support health services, school classrooms are limited in their use of 21st-century learning technologies, and in our band office it takes hours to open any document or up to two days to update software. This greatly reduces our capabilities in an age when everything is electronically transmitted. We are thrilled to receive this funding and are looking forward to accessing high-speed Internet comparable to that in the rest of Canada. This will assist our community in being more connected, it will help with service delivery, and our young people can take advantage of the technology for work and education." Paul Burke, Chief, Fort Severn First Nation Quick facts In addition to the $7.03 million invested today under the Connect to Innovate program: invested today under the Connect to Innovate program: applicants will contribute $1.76 million ; and ; and other contributors will provide $100,000 The organizations receiving federal funding are: K-Net $6.59 million to provide three Indigenous communities and up to 16 institutions with new or increased capacity to access high-speed Internet; and to provide three Indigenous communities and up to 16 institutions with new or increased capacity to access high-speed Internet; and Western James Bay Telecom Network $441,000 to provide three Indigenous communities and up to 42 institutions with new or improved access to high-speed Internet services. to provide three Indigenous communities and up to 42 institutions with new or improved access to high-speed Internet services. Connect to Innovate is one of several Government of Canada measures to improve telecommunications services for Canadians. Others are a $100-million investment to improve coverage and connectivity in rural areas with low-earth-orbit satellites; Connecting Families, an initiative that will provide many low-income Canadians with low-cost Internet and up to 50,000 computers to eligible households through the Computer for Schools program; a five-year plan for wireless spectrum release to promote competition and help drive down prices for Canadians and deliver better quality and coverage; and consultations to prepare Canada for 5G, the next generation of high-quality wireless systems that will enable e-health, connected cars and smart cities. measures to improve telecommunications services for Canadians. Others are a investment to improve coverage and connectivity in rural areas with low-earth-orbit satellites; Connecting Families, an initiative that will provide many low-income Canadians with low-cost Internet and up to 50,000 computers to eligible households through the Computer for Schools program; a five-year plan for wireless spectrum release to promote competition and help drive down prices for Canadians and deliver better quality and coverage; and consultations to prepare for 5G, the next generation of high-quality wireless systems that will enable e-health, connected cars and smart cities. Connect to Innovate is part of the Government of Canada's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year strategy to create well-paying jobs for the middle class. Associated links Connect to Innovate Announced Connect to Innovate projects Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Photo: Facebook Kelowna resident Ashley Riphagen is doing everything she can to help find a kidney donor for her father. "My dad (John Boksteyn) has polycystic kidney disease and has been on dialysis for three years with five per cent kidney function. He has had many potential donors screened for him, but unfortunately all of them have been denied in the final stages of screening," Ripghagen says. The disease is hereditary. Riphagen, along with her grandmother and Boksteyn's brothers, all have the condition. Several family members and friends have gone through testing, but so far no ones been a match to donate. The screening process can take up to eight months. "Unfortunately, my dads last potential kidney donor ... was denied. We are still desperately searching for a kidney donor. I know its a lot to ask, but if anybody has the O+ blood type, is in good health and is interested in being screened as a donor, please pm me. Our family would be forever grateful," Riphagen posted to Facebook. Her father lives in Medicine Hat, Alta., but it's too difficult for him to travel, and he can't go without dialysis for longer than three days, Riphagen says. "He has a one and a half year-old grandson here and one on the way, so we are hoping to find him a new kidney so he can enjoy the rest of his life with his family, free of dialysis," she added. His common blood type also makes the search more difficult, as there is more demand for donor kidneys. If you are interested in beginning the screening process, call the Living Donor Service Centre at 1-403-944-4280. For more information, click here. [August 02, 2018] Intelledox Named a Leader in Aragon Research Tech Spectrum for Workflow and Content Automation, 2018 Analyst firm Aragon Research has recognized Intelledox as a Leader among technology vendors that enable enterprises to speed up and digitize document processes and transactions in its new report: Aragon Research Tech Spectrum for Workflow and Content Automation, 2018. Intelledox's solution-ready Infiniti platform was noted in the report as having an "adaptive, journey-based interface" and the "ability to support complex applications"1 among other capabilities. "Today, many companies rely on unwieldy enterprise software applications that are difficult to configure, maintain, and update as business processes evolve," said Jim Lundy, CEO of Aragon Research and primary author of the report. "We expect others to follow suit with the Workflow and Content Automation journey approach that Intelledox has pioneered." The Workflow and Content Automation (WCA) category as defined by Aragon Research is a subset of Digital Transaction Management (DTM) and reflects a convergence of previous software categories, including Customer Communications Management ( CCM (News - Alert) ), workflow, and forms software. Aragon predicts that the market for WCA will grow from $1 billion in 2017 to $6 billion by 2023. As enterprises race toward digital transformation, and by 2020, the report says 65 percent will have re-architected their document processes with a focus on automated creation nd routing. "WCA solutions accelerate how quickly information flows between enterprises, people, and important business systems to accelerate process cycle times and increase accuracy," the authors note. "WCA is the future of content." With more than 15 million users across the globe, the Intelledox Infiniti Platform enables organizations to replace static forms with adaptive interviews that collect information and then automatically generate personalized digital content and documents on demand. With a flexible, low-code architecture, Intelledox also easily connects data with core systems such as CRM and ERP to support seamless end-to-end digital transactions. The Tech Spectrum (News - Alert) defines Leaders like Intelledox as providers with comprehensive strategies and offerings that align with industry direction and market demand, and who effectively perform against that strategic backdrop. They also offer a vision for the future. "We're happy to gain this kind of recognition and believe it validates what we are hearing from our customers," said North America president Rodney Frye. "Across industries like insurance, banking, and government, enterprises are looking for ways to speed up and simplify customer acquisition, onboarding, and servicing. Organizations that are stuck with legacy print-based tools or static forms risk being left behind in this age of digital disruption." "To us, being recognized as a Leader is a significant achievement for Intelledox," said Intelledox CEO Ray Kiley. "Aragon has the most advanced thinking on the next generation of Business Process and Customer Communication Management, and their research helps us understand where the market is headed and continue focusing on innovation." Free Download of Aragon Research Report Intelledox has licensed this new report and made it available for download. Learn more about the emergence of Workflow and Content Automation and get your copy of the report here. About Aragon Research Aragon Research is the newest technology research and advisory firm. Aragon delivers high impact advisory, interactive research, and consulting services to provide enterprises the insight they need to help them make better technology and strategy decisions. Aragon Research serves business and IT leaders and has a proven team of veteran analysts. For more information, visit http://www.aragonresearch.com. Aragon Research Disclaimer: Aragon Research does not endorse vendors, or their products or services that are referenced in its research publications, and does not advise users to select those vendors that are rated the highest. Aragon Research publications consist of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Aragon Research provides its research publications and the information contained in them "AS IS," without warranty of any kind. About Intelledox Today's customers demand efficient and intuitive digital experiences and Intelledox delivers. Through its solution-ready Infiniti platform, Intelledox enables customer-focused businesses and governments to transform customer interactions into adaptive digital journeys, from acquisition to onboarding to service. With North American Headquarters located in Dallas, Texas, Intelledox has offices in New York, Toronto, London, Singapore, Sydney, and global headquarters in Canberra, Australia. More than 200+ global customers and millions of users trust the Infiniti platform. Learn how Intelledox Infiniti uniquely combines next-generation forms, experience-driven workflow, and on-demand, customer communications management at http://www.intelledox.com. 1 Aragon Research "The Aragon Research Tech Spectrum for Workflow and Content Automation, 2018" by Jim Lundy, August 2018. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005151/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] VIPKid Announces Expansion of Curricula, Product Lines, and Overseas Operations Across 100 Countries VIPKid, one of the world's largest education technology companies, launched V+ today, a comprehensive upgrade and expansion of the company's curriculum, technology, and global reach. The V+ initiative expands VIPKid's education offerings to now include four distinct sets of curricula, comprising six separate product lines that deliver quality content to PreK-12 students. In addition, VIPKid announced today a new strategic partnership with Microsoft (News - Alert) China to develop smart classroom technology as well as the launch of a new initiative to expand international operations to 100 countries within the next three years. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005606/en/ VIPKid Founder and CEO Cindy Mi announces VIPKid's expansion of curricula, product lines, and overseas operations across 100 countries (Photo: Business Wire) Through these initiatives, VIPKid is even better positioned to become the world's largest online education company for children. "With the support of our teachers and the pedagogical expertise of our curriculum team, we have taken several monumental steps in service of our mission to inspire and empower every child for the future," said Cindy Mi, Founder and CEO of VIPKid. International expansion and the addition of new product lines will enable VIPKid to reach more children and will mean even greater opportunities for teachers to pursue their passion through teaching. A comprehensive PreK-12 education program to inspire children to become global citizens VIPKid's education product team, in partnership with 11 highly-regarded international education institutions, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and Oxford University Press, as developed an unprecedented digital education ecosystem for PreK-12 students globally. Cindy Mi said, "With over 60,000 teachers in the U.S. and Canada, VIPKid is the largest community of online English language teachers in the world, and the V+ initiative will complement cutting-edge teaching practices to help foster the next generation of global citizens." New product lines to provide a comprehensive suite of content for PreK-12 students VIPKid announced today the launch of four new product lines that will complement the existing VIPKid and Lingo Bus brands to provide a comprehensive suite of content for all ages up to 18 years old. New product lines include: ???? ("Freedom Planet") for children ages 0-4 focusing on the parent-child relationship; Big Bear English for children ages 3-6 providing English courses and tools for Chinese families to prepare children for future language learning; SayABC for children ages 5-12 providing English courses through a one-on-four digital classroom to over 300,000 registered users; and VIP Bee School, an online dual-teacher English learning platform for large classes of students ages 9-15. International expansion of operations to 100 countries in the next three years VIPKid also announced its plan to open seven offices in cities outside of China (bringing the total number of overseas offices to ten) and to expand services to 100 countries in the next three years. VIPKid currently has over 500,000 paying students located in 63 countries, including Japan, France, and Brazil. VIPKid recently launched operations in Korea and entered into a strategic content partnership with SMARTSTUDY, a popular Korea children's education content company well-known for their PINKFONG franchise. "We are confident that the unparalleled quality of the learning experience that we offer through our teachers and education products will resonate with children around the world. We are proud to continue providing personalized learning to the next generation of global citizens, bridging cultures and countries around the world," said Cindy Mi. Strategic research and development partnership with Microsoft China VIPKid is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Microsoft China to conduct research and development on the application of smart classroom technology to help analyze student behavior and enable personalized learning. Regarding the partnership between the two companies, Qi Zhang, Distinguished Engineer and Senior Deputy Director of Microsoft Search Technology Center Asia, said, "At Microsoft, we believe there is great potential in bringing smart technology to the online classroom and we look forward to working with VIPKid on exploring how we can improve learning outcomes in the field of education." About VIPKid VIPKid is a global education technology company that connects children with the world's best teachers for real-time online English immersion learning. VIPKid's mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future. VIPKid believes that education is not one-size-fits-all, rather all students are unique and the world is within their reach when connected with great teachers capable of personalizing learning and sparking curiosity. Founded in 2013 and formally launched in 2014, VIPKid has become China's market-leading online education startup, attracting investment from Tencent, Sequoia Capital (News - Alert) , Yunfeng Capital, Coatue Management, Matrix Partners, Sinovation Ventures, Learn Capital, Northern Light VC, Bryant Stibel, among others. The VIPKid platform currently connects over 500,000 paying students with over 60,000 teachers in the US and Canada. For more information, please visit: www.vipkid.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005606/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] TAL EDUCATION SHAREHOLDER ALERT by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess OF $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against TAL Education Group - TAL Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 17, 2018 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against TAL Education Group (NYSE: TAL), if they purchased the Company's securities between April 26, 2018 and June 13, 2018, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased securities of TAL 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-tal/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 17, 2018. About the Lawsuit TAL and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On June 13, 2018, a report by Muddy Waters Research alleged a wide range of illicit activity by TAL, including that it "has been fraudulently overstating its profits since at least FY2016," and that "TAL combines the old school China fraud playbook of simply penciling in more favorable numbers with the more sophisticated asset parking fraud of Enron." On this news, the price of TAL's shares plummeted $4.54 per share, or over 9%, to close at $41.11 on June 13, 2018. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005619/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Music Festival for Brain Health Featuring GRAMMY and ACADEMY AWARD Winner Jennifer Hudson September 15, 2018 in the Napa Valley The 24th Annual Music Festival for Brain Health will be held on Saturday, September 15, 2018 at Staglin Family Vineyard in Rutherford, Napa Valley, California. This year's festival features legendary OSCAR and two-time GRAMMY award winning artist Jennifer Hudson. The Music Festival for Brain Health is one of America's most important fund-raising events focusing on brain disorders, with an historical total, including leveraged grants from U.S. government agencies and private organizations, approaching $300 million. Last year alone, the event and ongoing efforts raised nearly $6 million to support the research to find cures for brain disorders. The 24th Annual Music Festival for Brain Health benefits One Mind, supporting research, education, treatment, and to eliminate discrimination surrounding brain disorders. The Festival begins with the scientific symposium, featuring keynote speaker Tom Insel, MD, co-founder and President of Mindstrong Health and former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Following the keynote will be a presentation by Beth Stevens, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School. Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scintific Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will moderate the symposium. The world's greatest cult wine tasting follows paired with hors d'oeuvres prepared by Chef Victor Scargle, Culinary Director of The Boisset Collection. The day continues with an intimate concert performance by Jennifer Hudson. An exclusive gourmet culinary experience under the stars at the VIP post-concert dinner created by 3-Star Michelin Chef Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant at Meadowood and The Charter Oak in St. Helena, paired with Staglin Family Vineyard wines closes the day. Scheduled to appear at this year's festival are Congressman Mike Thompson, Congressman John Garamendi, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy and other celebrity guests. Early bird festival passes purchased prior to August 15, 2018 begin at $750. Individual Sponsor passes including the post concert VIP dinner begin at $5,000, and VIP sponsor tables of ten, including the post concert VIP dinner begin at $50,000. Donation levels for all passes increase on August 15, 2018 and are available at www.music-festival.org. For sponsor opportunities please call Cindy Dyar at (707) 963-4038 or email cindy@onemind.org, or visit www.music-festival.org. Admission to the symposium only is free with prior registration. Proceeds will benefit brain health research projects throughout the nation. For more information, please call Cindy Dyar at (707) 963-4038 or email cindy@onemind.org, or visit music-festival.org, #Music4BrainHealth. 300 DPI IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005711/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Consumer-driven Healthcare Company Bright Health Selects Messagepoint to Enhance its Customer Communications Strategy Messagepoint, a leader in developing and delivering innovative software and services within the Customer Communications Management ( CCM (News - Alert) ) market, announced today that Bright Health, a consumer-driven healthcare company, has chosen Messagepoint to enhance and futureproof its customer communications strategy through the use of the Medicare Touchpoint Exchange, a purpose-built solution for the creation of government required member materials. Bright Health is committed to offering affordable and higher quality healthcare to individuals and their families. The company was looking to work with an innovative partner to help streamline its processes around the creation of its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required materials, including the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), Evidence of Coverage (EOC), and Summary of Benefits (SB). A key driver in the decision process was to find a solution that could automate the materials creation process. Other key drivers in the vendor selection process included Messagepoint's extensive expertise in the healthcare space, the platform's intuitive business-user interface, and its purpose-built solution for Medicare required materials. "Bright Health engaged Messagepoint to support our significant health plan expansion," said Alexa Wahr, senior director, Constituent Services at Bright Health. "To hit our growth targets, we knew that a best-in-class materials automation process was critical. After a thorough review of the market, we feel confident that Messagepoint can not only meet our needs to produce compliant documents quickly and easily, but can also be a great partner for our growth" Messagepoint has integrated its solution with the CMS software which every health plan uses to submit Medicare benefits to the government for approval, named the Plan Benefits Package (PBP) software. This integration ensures the benefits the government approves and the benefits shown in the health plan documents match-a factor that, if missed, can result in significant fines to correct. By partnering with Messagepoint, Bright Health is now able to quickly scale their health plan material creation process year after year through the Messagepoint Touchpoint Exchange-which, given that in 2019 Bright Health intends to expand the number of Medicare plans it offers by as much as four-fold, will be essential for growth. "This growth would have been difficult to support without an automated approach," said Wahr. "The Messagepoint Touchpoint Exchange will not only make it so Bright Health is positioned to handle this year's Medicare growth, but will also help prepare the company for future expansion." Messagepoint also provides Bright Health with the ability to generate translated materials much faster through an agile translations approach. This approach will shift the turnaround time for Bright Health's translated documents from a six-week period to just 48 hours. About Bright Health Bright Health provides affordable health insurance for everyday individuals. Through its exclusive Care Partnerships in local communities, Bright Health is reshaping how people and providers achieve better health together by making healthcare simpler, more affordable and personal. Bright Health currently offers a range of individual, family and Medicare Advantage plans in Arizona, Colorado and Alabama via its website, call center, broker partners and through government websites as well as public health insurance exchanges. Bright Health co-founders include Bob Sheehy, former CEO of UnitedHealthcare; Kyle Rolfing, co-founder and former CEO of Definity Health and RedBrick Health; and Tom Valdivia, MD, MS, former chief health consumer officer of Definity Health. Learn more at www.brighthealthplan.com. About Messagepoint Messagepoint Inc. is a leader in developing and delivering innovative software and services within the Customer Communications Management market. The Messagepoint cloud-based platform helps companies strengthen their customer communications by enabling business users to control the entire messaging lifecycle for all print or digital communications without burdening IT. Messagepoint has recently strengthened its commitment to the healthcare vertical by building a dedicated healthcare practice. This practice is comprised of industry experts to address the needs of the Medicare, Medicaid, and Commercial member communications needs. For more information, visit Messagepoint Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005891/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. Information Regarding Second Quarter Earnings Release Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A; BRK.B) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s second quarter earnings release and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, August 4, 2018, at approximately 7:00 a.m. Central time where it can be accessed at www.berksirehathaway.com. About Berkshire Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, finance, manufacturing, retailing and services. Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B. Cautionary Statement Certain statements contained in this press release are "forward looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Berkshire assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005877/en/ Eagle Life Announces New Five-Year Product Eagle Life Insurance Company, a leading annuity provider that specializes in safe, innovative retirement options, announces the addition of a five-year fixed index annuity product. The all-new Eagle Select Focus 5 is a safe-money alternative designed for clients who desire both safety of principal and growth potential. The new product joins a robust Eagle Select series of fixed index annuities. "People have unique and individual goals with their retirement plans, and we strive for excellence in helping them achieve them," said Kirby Wood, Chief Distribution Officer of Eagle Life. "The products we provide reflect our superior customer service, conservative investment approach and principal protection of hard-earned dollars." Eagle Select Focus 5 - available now - offers clients a 5 or 10 percent liquidity option. It also offers flexible premiums that don't extend the surrener period, a five year surrender charge schedule, terminal illness and nursing care riders included at no cost and transparent crediting methods. Plus, Eagle Select Focus 5 is the exclusive home of the brand-new allocation option: The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Daily Risk Control 5% Excess Return with Participation Rate. "With Focus 5, we're excited to offer a fixed index annuity that is simple, easy to understand and utilizes proven crediting methods," said Ron Grensteiner, President of Eagle Life. "As more and more people approach retirement age, we look forward to helping them with their financial security concerns." ABOUT EAGLE LIFE Eagle Life Insurance Company is a provider of fixed and fixed index annuities marketed through broker-dealers and banks. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. Eagle Life is committed to providing products with integrity as well as superior service to the representatives it partners with and their clients. For more information, please visit www.eagle-lifeco.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005909/en/ [August 02, 2018] JoyUp Launches Square Integration to Offer Facebook Messenger Ordering Support for Food Brands SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JoyUp, the AI Marketing assistant for food brands, announced an integration with Square, increasing the social media presence that most brick and mortar food brands must achieve to be successful. Integration with Square When JoyUp is integrated into Square Point Of Sale, merchants can receive their Facebook Messenger orders directly in their POS, allowing them to track the best selling items or the slowest moving ones so they can pivot their marketing as necessary. JoyUp can also track customer product affinities and allow sellers to leverage the insights into targeted, conversational and personalized marketing. Customers will also find the joy with Joy! Joy interacts with customers on sellers' behalf to provide them with conversational menu information, allowing customers to skip the line, instantly order through Facebook Messenger, and complete the purchase with payments like Apple Pay. Once submited, the order pops up in their respective Square POS for the restaurant to acknowledge. JoyUp's technology is geared towards pushing conversational orders to sellers for processing. With Square's involvement, restaurants who may not have had the budget or expertise to build messenger ordering into their own website, Facebook page or app, will be able to use this option through JoyUp and Square. JoyUp can also supercharge transaction volume for food brands by leveraging AI and Square Data. "Facebook Messenger ordering delivers an exciting, new, frictionless experience for consumers and a new revenue opportunity for food brands," said Abhinav Kuru, CEO at JoyUp. "No apps need to be downloaded or installedcustomers search their beloved business on messenger and order." About JoyUp JoyUp has been helping food brands tackle tricky social media marketing issues easily and affordably by offering them Joy, in-house AI assistant. Joy is working with multiple small business owners and marketing managers, as a virtual sidekick on their team. Social Media is essential for increasing foot traffic to a business, marketing online, answering questions, and now for fielding mobile orders. Also Facebook Messenger is a leading platform through which patrons can reach you personally and vice-versa. Contact: contact@joyup.me, https://www.joyup.me View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joyup-launches-square-integration-to-offer-facebook-messenger-ordering-support-for-food-brands-300691369.html SOURCE JoyUp [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Kinaxis Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2018 Results Reports 24% growth in subscription revenue, and Adjusted EBITDA(2) of 27% of revenue (1) OTTAWA, Aug. 2, 2018 /CNW/ - Kinaxis (TSX: KXS), provider of RapidResponse, the leading cloud-based supply chain management solution based on concurrent planning, today reported results for its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2018. Kinaxis has adopted IFRS 15 and 16(1) (or "the Standards") with an initial date of application of January 1, 2018. The information for Q2 2018 has been presented both before and after adoption of the Standards, while the information presented for 2017 has not been restated. Prior to the effect of the Standards, Q2 2018 total revenue was up 22% to $40.0 million, subscription services revenue grew by 24% to $30.1 million, Adjusted EBITDA(2) was up 12% to $10.7 million (27% of revenue), and profit declined to $4.4 million from $5.6 million, all compared to Q2 2017. Giving effect to the Standards, Q2 2018 total revenue was $39.0 million, total subscription revenue was $29.1 million, Adjusted EBITDA(2) was $11.2 million (29% of revenue) and profit was $4.3 million. All amounts are in U.S. dollars. All figures are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), unless otherwise indicated. "Q2 represented another strong quarter for Kinaxisboth the top and bottom line. We had record revenue from Europe, which reaffirms our decision to invest significant sales and operations resources in the region. We see even greater opportunity ahead as the expanded European team continues to engage with prospective accounts across all market verticals, but particularly Consumer Packaged Goods, Automotive, and Life Sciences," said John Sicard, Chief Executive Officer of Kinaxis. "During the quarter we launched our Self-Healing Supply Chain application applying advanced machine learning algorithms to detect key supply chain design gaps and automatically take corrective action before they impact performance. We also announced a number of new customers across regions and verticals, including top-tier brands such as Volvo, Ipsen and Extreme Networks, and provided some insight into the success we have been having at our existing customer, BASF. There is no greater testament to the proven transformative value of our unique concurrent planning technique than its ability to serve leaders in such different industries, all from the same cloud-based platform." Q2 2018 Highlights Under IFRS 15/16(1) Prior to IFRS 15/16(1) $ USD millions, except as otherwise indicated Q2 2018 Q2 2018 Q2 2017 Change Total Revenue 39.0 40.0 32.9 22% Subscription services 26.5 30.1 24.2 24% Subscription term licenses 2.5 - - - Total subscription revenue 29.1 30.1 24.2 24% Gross profit 26.5 (68%) 27.5 (69%) 22.9 (70%) 20% Profit 4.3 ($0.16/diluted share) 4.4 ($0.17/diluted share) 5.6 ($0.21/diluted share) (22%) Adjusted EBITDA(2) 11.2 (29%) 10.7 (27%) 9.6 (29%) 12% Cash from operating activities 9.3 9.3 7.5 23% (1) Kinaxis has adopted IFRS 15, using the cumulative effect method, and IFRS 16, using the modified retrospective approach, and an initial date of application of January 1, 2018. Accordingly, the information presented for 2017 has not been restated. The impact of the adoption of IFRS 15 relates primarily to accounting for Kinaxis' revenue from on-premise, fixed term subscription arrangements and capitalization of contract acquisition costs. IFRS 16 specifies how to recognize, measure, present and disclose leases. The standard provides a single lessee accounting model, requiring lessees to recognize assets and liabilities for all major leases. See the Kinaxis' financial statements and MD&A for the three and six months ended Jun 30, 2018 for further information. (2) "Adjusted EBITDA" is a non-IFRS measure and is not a recognized, defined or a standardized measure under IFRS. This measure as well as other non-IFRS financial measures reported by Kinaxis are defined in the "Non-IFRS Measures" section of this news release. Analysis of Q2 2018 vs Q2 2017 Financial Highlights As noted in our financial statements and management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, Kinaxis adopted the Standards on January 1, 2018. We have not restated the 2017 comparative information but have also presented the 2018 results prior to giving effect to the Standards, to create a basis for this comparative analysis. Prior to the effect of the Standards, in the second quarter of 2018 subscription services revenue grew by 24% to $30.1 million, due to contracts secured with new customers, as well as expansion of existing customer subscriptions. Total revenue grew 22%, to $40.0 million. After applying the Standards, subscription services revenue was $26.5 million, subscription term license revenue was $2.5 million (for total subscription revenue of $29.1 million), and total revenue was $39.0 million. Prior to the effect of the Standards, in the second quarter of 2018 gross profit grew 20% to $27.5 million and gross profit margin was 69% compared to 70%. The slightly lower gross profit margin reflects increases in headcount and related compensation costs and higher depreciation costs associated with the expansion of data center capacity, including new data centers in Europe and Japan, to support new and ongoing customer engagements, and global expansion. Prior to the effect of the Standards, Profit for the second quarter of 2018 was $4.4 million ($0.17 per diluted share), compared to $5.6 million ($0.21 per diluted share). The decrease in profit reflects an increase in operating expenses made to support our global expansion and ongoing product innovation, net of increases in revenue and gross profit. After applying the Standards, gross profit was $26.5 million, or 68% of revenue, and profit was $4.3 million ($0.16 per diluted share). Prior to the effect of the Standards, Adjusted EBITDA(2) for the second quarter of 2018 grew 12%, to $10.7 million, or 27% of revenue, which reflects the growth in revenue and gross profit in the period. After applying the Standards, Adjusted EBITDA(2) was $11.2 million, or 29% of revenue. Cash generated by operating activities was $9.3 million for the second quarter of 2018, up from $7.5 million. Cash and cash equivalents were $174.6 million at June 30, 2018, compared to $158.4 million at December 31, 2017. Financial Guidance Kinaxis is updating the guidance it previously provided for certain key financial targets, both prior to and after adoption of the Standards. The following are the updated financial targets for FY 2018: $ in USD millions, except as otherwise indicated Under IFRS 15/16 FY 2018 Prior to IFRS 15/16 FY 2018 Total revenue $152-156 $158-163 Subscription services revenue $109-111 23-26% growth Subscription term licenses $8-9 - Adjusted EBITDA margin 25-28% of revenue 24-27% of revenue This guidance is provided to enhance visibility into Kinaxis' expectations for financial targets for the periods indicated. Please refer to the section regarding forward-looking statements which forms an integral part of this release. This press release, along with the financial statements and Kinaxis' MD&A for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, are available on Kinaxis' website and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Conference Call Kinaxis will host a conference call tomorrow, August 3, 2018, to discuss these results. John Sicard, Chief Executive Officer, and Richard Monkman, Chief Financial Officer, will host the call starting at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. A question and answer session will follow management's presentation. Date: Friday, August 3rd, 2018 Time: 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time Webcast: https://bit.ly/2LeO4XC Dial-in Number: (647) 427-7450 or (888) 231-8191 Taped Replay: (416) 849-0833 or (855) 859-2056 Available until 12:00 midnight Eastern Time Friday August 10, 2018 Reference Number: 4696696 Please call the conference telephone number 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. About Kinaxis Inc. Offering the industry's only concurrent planning solution, Kinaxis is helping organizations around the world revolutionize their supply chain planning. Kinaxis RapidResponse, our cloud-based supply chain management software, connects your data, processes and people into a single harmonious environment. With a consolidated view of the entire supply chain, you can plan expected performance, monitor progress and respond to disconnects when reality hits. RapidResponse lets you know sooner and act faster, leading to reduced decision latency, and improved operational and financial performance. We can prove it. From implementation to expansion, we're here to help our customers with every step of their supply chain journey. Non-IFRS Measures This news release contains non-IFRS measures, specifically, Adjusted profit, Adjusted diluted earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA. We use Adjusted profit and Adjusted diluted earnings per share, which remove the impact of our redeemable preferred shares and share based compensation plans, to measure our performance as these measurements better align the reporting of our results and improve comparability against our peers. We use Adjusted EBITDA to provide investors with a supplemental measure of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. We believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of issuers. Management also uses non-IFRS measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, prepare annual operating budgets and assess our ability to meet our capital expenditure and work capital requirements. Adjusted profit, Adjusted diluted earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA are not recognized, defined or standardized measures under IFRS. Our definition of Adjusted profit, Adjusted diluted earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA will likely differ from that used by other companies (including our peers) and therefore comparability may be limited. Non-IFRS measures should not be considered a substitute for or in isolation from measures prepared in accordance with IFRS. Investors are encouraged to review our financial statements and disclosures in their entirety and are cautioned not to put undue reliance on non-IFRS measures and view them in conjunction with the most comparable IFRS financial measures. Kinaxis has reconciled Adjusted profit and Adjusted EBITDA to the most comparable IFRS financial measure as follows: Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, Pre-IFRS 15/16 Pre-IFRS 15/16 2018 2018 2017 2018 2018 2017 (In thousands of U.S. dollars) Profit $4,265 $4,425 $5,640 $8,818 $7,635 $8,866 Share-based compensation 2,527 2,527 2,397 5,685 5,685 5,113 Adjusted profit $6,792 $6,952 $8,037 $14,503 $13,320 $13,979 Income tax expense 1,809 2,127 1,043 4,939 3,995 2,974 Depreciation 2,564 1,720 818 4,550 3,025 1,606 Foreign exchange loss 222 371 12 26 349 23 Net finance income (193) (446) (310) (338) (807) (477) 4,402 3,772 1,563 9,177 6,562 4,126 Adjusted EBITDA $11,194 $10,724 $9,600 $23,680 $19,882 $18,105 Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue 29% 27% 29% 31% 26% 28% Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements as to our expectations for growth of annual total revenue, annual subscription services and term license revenue, and our expectations for Adjusted EBITDA achievement, in each case looking forward for the balance of our fiscal year ending December 31, 2018, as well as statements as to Kinaxis' growth opportunities and the potential benefits of, and markets and demand for, Kinaxis' products and services. These statements are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including our view of the relative position of Kinaxis' products and services compared to competitive offerings in the industry. In particular, our guidance for 2018 annual total revenue, annual subscription services and term license revenue and annual Adjusted EBITDA, is subject to certain assumptions, including: our ability to win business from new customers and expand business from existing customers; the timing of new customer wins and expansion decisions by our existing customers; maintaining our current customer retention levels; and with respect to Adjusted EBITDA, our ability to contain expense levels while expanding our business. These and other assumptions, risks and uncertainties may cause Kinaxis' actual results, performance, achievements and developments to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Material risks and uncertainties relating to our business are described under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risks and Uncertainties" in our annual MD&A dated February 28, 2018, under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Information Form dated March 29, 2018, and in our other public documents filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities, which are available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are provided to help readers understand management's expectations as at the date of this release and may not be suitable for other purposes. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Kinaxis assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by law. Kinaxis Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Financial Position As at June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (Expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars) (Unaudited) June 30, 2018 December 31, 2017 Assets Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 174,577 $ 158,398 Trade and other receivables 40,133 31,783 Investment tax credits recoverable 911 Prepaid expenses 5,901 4,196 220,611 195,288 Non-current assets: Property and equipment 23,576 17,350 Right-of-use assets 13,342 Contract acquisition costs 13,722 Unbilled receivables 492 Deferred tax assets 12 55 $ 271,755 $ 212,693 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current liabilities: Trade payables and accrued liabilities $ 15,936 $ 11,176 Deferred revenue 58,635 67,040 Lease obligations 3,076 77,647 78,216 Non-current liabilities: Deferred revenue 3,983 7,745 Lease obligations 10,144 Deferred tax liabilities 9,761 1,944 23,888 9,689 Shareholders' equity: Share capital 118,688 108,253 Contributed surplus 21,683 19,294 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (327) (284) Retained earnings (deficit) 30,176 (2,475) 170,220 124,788 $ 271,755 $ 212,693 * The Company adopted IFRS 15 and 16 as described in Note 3. Under this adoption, the comparative information is not restated. Kinaxis Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Comprehensive Income For the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (Expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data) (Unaudited) For the three months For the six months ended June 30, ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Revenue $ 38,994 $ 32,866 $ 75,843 $ 65,408 Cost of revenue 12,493 9,985 22,628 20,362 Gross profit 26,501 22,881 53,215 45,046 Operating expenses: Selling and marketing 8,897 7,367 16,283 14,298 Research and development 7,357 5,874 14,106 12,097 General and administrative 4,144 3,255 9,381 7,265 20,398 16,496 39,770 33,660 6,103 6,385 13,445 11,386 Other income (expense): Foreign exchange loss (222) (12) (26) (23) Net finance income 193 310 338 477 (29) 298 312 454 Profit before income taxes 6,074 6,683 13,757 11,840 Income tax expense 1,809 1,043 4,939 2,974 Profit 4,265 5,640 8,818 8,866 Other comprehensive income (loss) Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Foreign currency translation differences - foreign operations (443) (17) (43) 129 Total comprehensive income $ 3,822 $ 5,623 $ 8,775 $ 8,995 Basic earnings per share $ 0.17 $ 0.22 $ 0.34 $ 0.35 Weighted average number of basic Common Shares 25,720,014 25,331,522 25,631,985 25,188,312 Diluted earnings per share $ 0.16 $ 0.21 $ 0.33 $ 0.34 Weighted average number of diluted Common Shares 26,749,364 26,523,749 26,733,546 26,427,595 * The Company adopted IFRS 15 and 16 as described in Note 3. Under this adoption, the comparative information is not restated. Kinaxis Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Changes in Shareholders' Equity For the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (Expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars) (Unaudited) Share capital Contributed surplus Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) Retained earnings (deficit) Total equity* Balance, December 31, 2016 $ 97,164 $ 13,924 $ (519) $ (22,858) $ 87,711 Profit 8,866 8,866 Other comprehensive income 129 129 Total comprehensive income 129 8,866 8,995 Share options exercised 8,360 (2,438) 5,922 Share based payments 5,113 5,113 Total shareholder transactions 8,360 2,675 11,035 Balance, June 30, 2017 $ 105,524 $ 16,599 $ (390) $ (13,992) $ 107,741 Balance, December 31, 2017 $ 108,253 $ 19,294 $ (284) $ (2,475) $ 124,788 Adjustment on initial application of IFRS 15 23,833 23,833 Adjusted balance, January 1, 2018 108,253 19,294 (284) 21,358 148,621 Profit 8,818 8,818 Other comprehensive loss (43) (43) Total comprehensive income (loss) (43) 8,818 8,775 Share options exercised 10,036 (2,897) 7,139 Deferred share units exercised 399 (399) Share based payments 5,685 5,685 Total shareholder transactions 10,435 2,389 12,824 Balance, June 30, 2018 $ 118,688 $ 21,683 $ (327) $ 30,176 $ 170,220 * The Company adopted IFRS 15 and 16 as described in Note 3. Under this adoption, the comparative information is not restated. Kinaxis Inc. Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Cash Flows For the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (Expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars) (Unaudited) For the three months For the six months ended June 30, ended June 30, 2018 2017 2018 2017 Cash flows from operating activities: Profit $ 4,265 $ 5,640 $ 8,818 $ 8,866 Items not affecting cash: Depreciation of property and equipment and right-of-use assets 2,564 818 4,550 1,606 Share-based payments 2,527 2,397 5,685 5,113 Amortization of lease inducement - (4) - (18) Investment tax credits recoverable - (1,051) 911 (842) Net finance income (193) - (338) - Income tax expense 1,809 1,043 4,939 2,974 Change in operating assets and liabilities (848) (168) (2,607) 3,166 Interest received 446 - 807 - Interest paid (321) - (469) - Income taxes paid (998) (1,156) (2,499) (3,087) 9,251 7,519 19,797 17,778 Cash flows used in investing activities: Purchase of property and equipment (4,529) (1,327) (9,350) (1,644) Cash flows from financing activities: Payment of lease obligations (534) - (1,282) - Common shares issued on exercise of stock options 4,361 1,952 7,139 5,922 3,827 1,952 5,857 5,922 Increase in cash and cash equivalents 8,549 8,144 16,304 22,056 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 166,631 141,989 158,398 127,910 Effects of exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents (603) 292 (125) 459 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 174,577 $ 150,425 $ 174,577 $ 150,425 * The Company adopted IFRS 15 and 16 as described in Note 3. Under this adoption, the comparative information is not restated. SOURCE Kinaxis Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [August 02, 2018] Western Asset Municipal Defined Opportunity Trust Inc. Portfolio Composition as of June 30, 2018 Western Asset Municipal Defined Opportunity Trust Inc. (NYSE: MTT) announces its portfolio composition as of June 30, 2018. Investment Objective: The Fund's primary investment objective is to provide high current income exempt from federal income tax and then to liquidate on or about April 30, 2021 and distribute all of the Fund's net assets to shareholders. As a secondary objective, the Fund will seek total return. Portfolio Composition*: Asset Allocation Municipals 99.8% Variable Rate Demand Notes 0.2% Top Ten Municipal Sectors Pre refunded / Escrowed to Maturity 30.8% Industrial Revenue 22.8% Water & Sewer 10.8% Transportation 9.1% Health Care 7.0% Special Tax Obligation 4.3% Education 3.4% Lease Backed 2.7% Local 2.5% Power 2.4% Credit Quality Allocation** AAA 10.0% AA 16.8% A 36.5% BBB 23.2% BB 1.6% CCC 1.4% Not Rated 10.6% Call Statistics Not Callable 20.6% 2018 2.7% 2019 33.8% 2020 5.7% 2021 0.2% 2022 2.8% 2023 4.5% 2024 5.3% 2025 2.7% 2026 3.9% 2027 11.3% 2028 6.6% Average Life (years) 6.2 Effective Duration (years) 5.0 Average Coupon (%) 5.5 Subject to AMT (News - Alert) (%) 11.1 Portfolio Statistics: Inception Date March 27, 2009 Inception Price $20.00 Total Assets $252,542,198 Market Price $21.17 NAV $20.75 (Daily NAV is available on market quotation systems using the symbol XMTTX.) Distribution Rate $0.0790 per share Frequency Monthly (Declared quarterly, paid monthly) * Portfolio holdings and weightings are historical and are presented here for informational purposes only. They are subject to change at any time. Negative allocations, if any, are primarily due to the Fund's unsettled trade activity. ** Credit quality is a measure of a bond issuer's ability to repay interest and principal in a timely manner. The credit ratings shown are based on each portfolio security's rating as provided by Standard and Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and/or Fitch Ratings, Ltd. and typically range from AAA (highest) to D (lowest), or an equivalent and/or similar rating. For this purpose, when two or more of the agencies have assigned differing ratings to a security, the highest rating is used. Securities that are unrated by all three agencies are reflected as such. The credit quality of the investments in the Fund's portfolio does not apply to the stability or safety of the Fund. These ratings are updated monthly and may change over time. Please note, the Fund itself has not been rated by an independent rating agency. Western Asset Municipal Defined Opportunity Trust Inc., a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company, is advised by Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Legg Mason, Inc., and is sub-advised by Western Asset Management Company, an affiliate of the advisor. An investment in the Fund involves risk, including loss of principal. Investment return and the value of shares will fluctuate. Data and commentary provided in this press release are for informational purposes only. Legg Mason and its affiliates do not engage in selling shares of the Fund. For more information, please call Fund Investor Services at 1-888-777-0102, or consult the Fund's web site at http://www.lmcef.com. Hard copies of the Fund's complete audited financial statements are available free of charge upon request. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005968/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Photo: Parks Canada View from East Chopaka area. Photo: Bruno Delesalle The Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce wants more information before it can decide if it supports the proposed national park in the South Okanagan. The group is calling on the provincial and federal governments to complete an updated feasibility study on the park. There have been studies carried out in the past, but Chamber president Cary Schneiderat said they believe those relied on old data or inaccurate comparisons to established parks like Banff and Jasper. We are not opposed to the park, we just feel we dont have enough information to make a decision yet, he said, explaining theyve received presentations from both supporters and opponents that each presented their own set of facts and conclusions. In a news release Wednesday, the Chamber said it recognizes the prospect of certain benefits a national park would bring, but is also aware of negative effects on farmers, miners, aviation companies and numerous other stakeholders. The appointment of Sarah Boyle as project manager for Parks Canada is a positive step, Schneiderat said, as she has a mandate to engage with all stakeholders. In maintaining its position, the PWCCC renews its request for a fully up to date feasibility study taking into consideration all of the effects any proposed park, he said. Without such a fulsome review we fear optimism will supplant prudence. Schneiderat said the announcement Wednesday was in response to recent questions from membership and the news of Boyles appointment. [August 02, 2018] William Lyon Homes Announces Registered Exchange Offer for 6.00% Senior Notes Due 2023 William Lyon Homes, Inc. (the "Company"), a wholly owned subsidiary of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH), today announced that it has commenced a registered exchange offer for the $350 million aggregate principal amount of outstanding 6.00% Senior Notes due 2023 (the "Private Notes") issued on March 9, 2018 in a private placement that was exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). Holders of the Private Notes may exchange them for an equal principal amount of newly issued 6.00% Senior Notes due 2023 (the "Exchange Notes") in an exchange offer that is registered under the Securities Act pursuant to an effective registration statement on Form S-4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) "). When it issued the Private Notes, the Company agreed to file with the SEC a registration statement relating to the exchange offer under which the Company would offer the Exchange Notes, containing substantially identical terms to the Private Notes, in exchange for Private Notes that are tendered by the holders of those notes. Private Notes not tendered for exchange in the exchange offer will remain outstanding and continue to accrue interest but will not retain any rights under the registration rights agreement, except in limited circumstances. The terms of the exchange offer are contained in the exchange offer prospectus and related letter of transmittal. The exchange offer will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the evening of September 5, 2018, unless extended or terminated. Tenders of the Private Notes must be properly made before the exchange offer expires. Private Notes tendered in the exchange offer may be withdrawn at any time before the expiration time by following the procedures set forth in the exchange offer prospectus. Documents describing the terms of the exchange offer, including the prospectus and transmittal materials for making tenders, can be obtained from the exchange agent, U.S. Bank National Association, 60 Livingston Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55107, Attention: Specialized Finance, (800) 934-6802. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell any securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. The exchange offer will be made only by means of a written prospectus and the related letter of transmittal. About William Lyon Homes William Lyon Homes is one of the largest Western U.S. regional homebuilders. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, the Company is primarily engaged in the design, construction, marketing and sale of single-family detached and attached homes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Texas. Its core markets include Orange (News - Alert) County, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Austin and San Antonio. The Company has a distinguished legacy of more than 60 years of homebuilding operations, over which time it has sold in excess of 104,000 homes. The Company markets and sells its homes under the William Lyon Homes brand in all of its markets except for Washington and Oregon, where the Company operates under the Polygon Northwest brand. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180802005980/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] How to disable the new Twitter font If you dont like Twitter's new Chirp font, heres how to get the old one back, and how to switch back if you change your mind. ONCE AGAIN WE NOTICE THAT SOFT PIANO IS THE SOUNDTRACK OF 2018 MIDTERMS!!! The minute-long video, which consists almost entirely of a passionate segment from one of Welders speeches, banks on voters appetites for unabashed economic populism. Through its super PAC, the PCCC has purchased $30,000 worth of airtime to play the spot on the local morning and evening news in the Kansas City media market, starting Thursday. Hottiewhich means that she's no longer as hot as the photo featured aboveoffers ainto an equally important observation about local mediocrity . . .We can pretend that we're talking about new ideas but very much like the music of Michael Buble . . . It's mostly just repackaged promises arranged in a slightly new presentation that's still comfortingly familiar.Take a look:Deets:You decide . . . Here's a look at 12th & Oak delaying accountability they've promised as tax fighters patiently wait for info on so much local subsidy granted to some of the most profitable businesses in town.Take a look: TONIGHT WE COUNT 9 VICTIMS SHOT AND TWO MURDERS IN KANSAS CITY WITHIN 8 HOURS!!! - Later in the day: Police investigating double shooting near 79th and Brooklyn; 1 in critical condition - One person suffered non-life threatening injuries in a shooting near 89th and Sleepy Hollow Dr. - Just now at around 10 in the PM -- Two people, a child and a man were shot near 414 Lawndale. Anyone with any further information about any of these shootings is encouraged to call the KCPD homicide unit at 816-234-5043 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477 The spate of deadly gunfire continues in Kansas City tonight as metro shooting becomes rampant to start August.To wit . . .That's 70 murders so far in 2018 compared to 86 at this time last year and 61 the year before that . . .Theso far tonight . . .That's nine people and the night really isn't started yet . . .Developing . . . Remember Kris Kobach? Trump's "voter fraud" hunter is just part of the big right-wing grift Kris Kobach, the former head of Donald Trump's swiftly discredited "voter fraud" commission, turns out to be not just a racist but a con man who exploits the bigotry of his fellow conservatives to line his own pockets with taxpayer money raided from small-town budgets. I know: Deeply shocking, right? Calling him a scammer and comparing him to Prez Trump is a tired liberal tactic that convinces nobody given that many voters are looking to Governor Colyer as the voice of reason and not somebody they're really excited about . . . What's more effective are the questions about his competence and his lackluster courtroom record.Here's mainstream comparison to Prez Trump which overstates the constant struggle of the aging lawyer desperately trying to achieve influence to remain relevant here in flyover country.Checkit: 'Twitter interfering in elections on Dems' side' - Republican candidate banned over Stalin gif Austin Petersen, a Republican candidate in the Missouri Senate primaries who was banned from Twitter after posting one of the social network's own images in an online debate, told RT that the site is a "threat to democracy." Here's the postscript on theand a glimpse at a contender desperately struggling to get attention whilst Missouri voters are locked into the constant struggle betwixt the moderately differing views of two establishment candidates representing different sides of the same coin.Read more: Driving the Indian Spirit of Munro 50th anniversary 2017 Indian Scout again, Lee Munro and the team is attempting to crack 200mph next week at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Spirit of Munro Scout bike will undergo small modifications to the intake and fueling while the streamlined body will have minor body adjustments. Half a century ago, one man from a small town in New Zealand dreamt of setting a land speed record on a 1920 Indian Scout . In 1962 at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Burt Munros dream finally came true at the age of 68 and 184.71 mph. This number was finally crossed by Indian on July 16 at the El Mirage 2017 by none other than Burts nephew who drove the 2017 Spirit of Munro Scout at 186.41 mph in the MPS-G (Modified Partial Streamliner) 1350 cc class. (Since Burts record was on an SA 1000cc class, his record still stands unbeaten in that class.) Lee Munro and the Spirit of Munro 50th anniversary 2017 Indian Scout The record run will be a part of the 70th annual Speed Week that is happening from August 11th to the 18th, 2018, the same time where speed junkies from all over the world will land on this 10 mile stretch in the pursuit of holding the title for the fastest man and machine. The motorcycle Lee will be attempting to hit the 200 mph barrier is the Spirit of Munro 50th anniversary 2017 Indian Scout - a motorcycle that is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Burt Munros SA 1000cc class record of 183.59mph on his Indian Scout Streamliner at the Bonneville Salt Flats. That class is now called S-AF (Streamliner special construction fuel) 1000cc. Burt Munro and his Indian Scout Streamliner The chaps at the Indian factory volunteered to be a part of this historic attempt, working on the project after hours. Lee gets a modern Indian Scout with the powertrain modified by the Indian Motorcycle engineering team. Last year, Lee recorded a speed of 191.286 mph at 2017 Speed Week that has officially now become the new record for the 1350cc class on the Spirit of Munro 50th anniversary 2017 Indian Scout. The 2017 Indian Scout was heavily modified having a stock frame and bottom end of the mill and a whole new top end. The need for major airflow needed the whole gas tank to be completely modified with a huge airbox. Narrower handlebar and streamlined body without any suspension are how they went by to hit the salt and reach 200 mph. The fairing had to have the rider visible from the sides and the top for which Indian picked up an aftermarket unit and made use of narrower triple clamps from another project to fit the narrow handlebars inside the fairings. The 15 modified exhaust unit jets right outside the bodywork making it clean and simple. The rear suspension strut was replaced with a solid aluminum strut with links to adjust rider height. There is another motorcycle manufacturer who is full burst into setting a new land-speed record - Triumph. Triumph is attempting to break the land speed record in a 1000 bhp rascal. A feat of engineering and guts that will see the machine break the 376.3 mph record in an attempt to set a new outright motorcycle Land Speed World Record in 2018, which will also happen on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Photo: Contributed A column of smoke is visible in Peachland, but BC Wildfire Service says it is coming from the Mount Eneas wildfire. Fire information officer Marla Catherall says it was expected the under-control fire might give off some smoke still. A BC Wildfire Service aircraft went to survey the area and reported back it was from inside the burned area on Mount Eneas. No issue with this, said Catherall. A concerned resident living in Naramata spotted the plume of smoke across the lake just before 6 p.m., and reached out to Castanet News. The team conducted research in their high school lab, even coming in on snow days to collect data. When you think of western medicine, you would not necessarily think of herbs or other plant sources. However, three high school students from rural Brevard believe there are novel sources of natural medicine in plants, specifically those next to waterfalls. Plants in these areas, called spray cliffs, are constantly misted by the spray of water, making them vulnerable to waterborne disease. Brevard High School senior students Matthew Bailey, John Nguyen and Nicole Rideout participate in T.I.M.E. 4 Real Science, a student-led science inquiry class. Recently, they explored Gorges State Park i... During the past three months, the Friends of Silvermont invested approximately $30,000 to improve the appearance and make repairs to the first floor of the historic mansion located at 364 E. Main St., Brevard. Silvermont Park is owned by the county, and the Silversteen Mansion is used primarily as a senior citizens center and community gathering place. Activities include Aging Gracefully, Zumba, bridge, Scrabble, woodcarving, crafts and old timey music on Thursday nights. The Silversteen family was fundamental to economic development and civic activities in the early 1900s. In the 197... About Marigot Bay Resort & Marina is a Caribbean resort in Saint Lucia that overlooks the beautiful Marigot Bay. This luxury resort offers stunning views and outstanding accommodations. Marigot Bay Resort & Marina is designed to provide visitors with the highest standard of personalized, detail-oriented service. Arguably the most beautiful Bay in the Caribbean, Marigot Bay is the vacation of your dreams. So book your stay today and come experience pure bliss in paradise. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Vijay C Roy Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 2 Punjab and Chandigarh excise departments have started sending notices to those who have not filed their summary returns since July last despite having GST registration numbers. The compliance rate related to filing of summary returns in Punjab is 87.5% in the first quarter of the current fiscal whereas in Chandigarh, it is 84%, government sources said. It is estimated that the number of non-compliant entities would be marginally higher in the first six months of the launch of GST, a source said. There are around 4.1 lakh GST-registered businesses in Punjab and 26,542 in Chandigarh. GST registration is mandatory for enterprises with an annual turnover of Rs 20 lakh and above. They are expected to file a summary return (GSTR-3B), a monthly self-declaration return which is mandatory even if the registered entity has not made any transaction in the particular period. The industry has confirmed receipt of taxman notices for the non-compliance with the instruction to file returns for the first six-months since July last year or face action. The authorities have given one week to the defaulters for compliance. Being a registered taxpayer, you are requested to furnish GSTR-3B return from July to December and to discharge the resultant tax liability for the aforesaid tax period by due date. But you failed to submit your return timely, read a notice sent to a Chandigarh-based dealer. The department in Punjab is, however, making calls in addition to sending notices. Non-compliance would ultimately lead to cancellation of the GST identification number (GSTIN). Such defaulters would also invite the taxmans scrutiny and could be asked to pay the tax liability after assessment, department sources said. If returns arent filed even after notices, the department can undertake tax liability assessment on the basis of sales record of a particular assessee and fix the tax liability, a tax official said. There are also defaults due to ignorance, industry experts said. There are some GSTINs that could not commence any business for various reasons. There are others who are victims of technical errors such as mismatch of PAN numbers. They are forced to opt for a new GSTIN in addition to old one. The tax department sources said in all such cases the old GSTIN is, however, treated as active entities and they are expected to file returns. There are many people who did not start any business venture and now wish to cancel their GSTINs. But they have been asked to file returns for the period of holding the GSTIN before the same could be cancelled, Chambers of Chandigarh Industries adviser Keshav R Garg said. In cases of GSTINs with no transactions, the assesses have been asked to pay over Rs 30,000 in lieu of late fee (Rs 20 per day for GSTR-3B and Rs 200 per day for GSTR-1) since July 2017. Earlier, such penalties did not exist. Return must even if no transaction vermaajay1968@gmail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 2 A city resident has been sentenced to seven-year jail for robbing a Panchkula resident of Rs 550 and a mobile phone. Sonu was found guilty under Sections 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the IPC and has been fined Rs 10,000. The victim in the case, Rajesh Kumar (49), worked as a beldar at the Haryana Public Works Department. According to his complaint, on February 10, Rajesh was returning home on an Activa scooter around 1.30 pm. When he reached near the Railway light point, he felt that the rear tyre was flat and stopped to check it. He then proceeded to answer natures call nearby. In the meantime, three men came out of bushes and one of them had a brick in his hand, while the other held an iron rod. While two of them held Rajesh, the other took out money and a mobile phone from his pocket. As he screamed for help, he was attacked with a brick by one of the accused while the other attacked him with a rod. As the accused fled from the spot, Rajesh reached the main road and with the help of passers-by called up the police. The police had initially registered a case against unknown accused, but later arrested Sonu. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Akash Ghai Tribune News Service Mohali, August 1 High drama was witnessed at Government High School (GHS) at Phase 6 when the Mohali District Education Officer (Secondary) arrived there and issued orders to shift the students of Class IX and X to the GHS at Phase 5 here. Evidently upset, students came out of their classes and started raising slogans against the education authorities. Parents of some students and local councillors RP Sharma and Arun Sharma also reached the spot and criticised the authorities over the decision in this regard. The education authorities have decided to shift senior students of the GHS, Phase 6, to the GHS, Phase 5, as the Phase 6 school is being downgraded to the middle level. Both headmistresses of the schools were told about the decision a few days ago following which there was unrest among the students, most of whom belong to families of migrants. On Wednesday, DEO (Secondary) Sharanjit Singh reached the school at Phase 6 and ordered the staff to call all students of Class IX and X out of their classrooms. The staff of the GHS, Phase 5, were also summoned. While the staff of the GHS, Phase 6, were asked to relieve 50 students (34 of Class IX and 16 of Class X), the teachers of the GHS, Phase 5, were asked to take them along with them to their school. The shocked students refused to adhere to the order and started raising slogans against the authorities. We will not leave our school and study here only. Its their (authorities) wish whether they want us to continue our studies or not, said all students in unison. Terming the decision mindless, area councilor RP Sharma said he was with the students. Our school has more facilities than the Phase 5 school. We have better rooms and neat and clean washrooms. Besides, the number of rooms and staff strength in both schools are almost equal. We are shocked and curious to know on what basis the authorities have taken the decision to downgrade the school, said Sharma. The school was elevated from the primary to the middle level in 2010 and then to the high school level in 2016. Early this year, Swaraj-Mahindra had adopted the school and had renovated all its rooms. Both RP Sharma and Arun Sharma said the DEO did not disclose who has issued the order in this regard. Despite repeated attempts, DEO Sharanjit Singh and the Secretary, School Education, Punjab, could not be contacted for comments. New school far off, our parents will ask us to leave studies Upset students, especially girls, fear that their parents will ask them to leave their studies if they have to go to the school at Phase 5. Sunita Kumari, a student of Class IX, and her elder sister Sarvesh Kumari, who studies in Class X, said their parents would make them sit at home instead of sending them to the school at Phase 5. We belong to a poor family and we cannot afford to go to the school, which is far away from our house, said the sister duo. The distance between the GHS, Phase 6, and the GHS, Phase 5, is at least 5 km. Echoing similar sentiments, Vineet Kumar, a student of Class IX, said he would not be allowed to go to the school at Phase 5. The school is very far from my house. My parents will definitely ask me to leave studies midway, said the student. All students said they would regularly visit the GHS, Phase 6, whether or not they are taught there. On the one hand, our government is stressing on the Beti Bachao, Beti Padao mission and on the other, we are spoiling the studies of our betis (daughters) with our mindless decisions, said a teacher on condition of anonymity. She said the decision would also affect the studies of younger siblings of these students. vinaymishra188@gmail.com Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 1 Two snatchers have been arrested by the Chandigarh Police. Their arrest led to the recovery of 11 mobile phones. The police claimed two cases registered at the Sector 36 police station had been solved with their arrest. A team of the Sector 36 police station, led by Inspector Ranjodh Singh, nabbed the two accused, Deepak, a resident of Sahi Majra village in Mohali, and Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Sector 52. The police said two snatching incidents that were reported from the area under the Sector 36 police station on July 25, in which mobile phones were snatched, had been solved with the arrest of the duo. The two mobiles phones that were snatched had also been recovered. The police said the Bajaj Discover motorcycle, which was used in the snatching incidents, had been recovered by the police. Besides these two mobile phones, we have also recovered nine other expensive mobile phones, which were snatched from various parts of the tricity, Inspector Ranjodh said. The police said Deepak was released from jail around two months ago and he was joined by Sandeep in the snatchings. Both accused are drug addicts and used to commit the crime to buy drugs. Used to sell phones to labourers The accused used to target pedestrians carrying expensive mobile phones. The duo used to stop them on the pretext of asking for a way and then snatch their mobile phones. Sources said the accused then used to sell the mobile phones to labourers in the Industrial Area, Phase VII, Mohali. The accused used to tell the buyers not to switch on the phones for at least two months so that they dont get traced. Criminal past Accused Deepak has a criminal past and he had three criminal cases registered against him in the city in 2016. Flavia Agnes Flavia Agnes IN a recent newspaper article titled, Why I pushed for passage of the anti-trafficking Bill, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi offered a justification for the haste with which the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, was pushed through in the Lok Sabha on July 26, 2018: Because our children and women cannot wait any longer. A child in sexual exploitation and a woman in sexual slavery are looking up to us and questioning us on what we are doing as a civilised society and a welfare State. She added, It was a matter of great urgency since every day thousands of children and women are trafficked and the society had a collective responsibility to respond to their desperate plea. The Bill is meant to go much further in its scope and reach than the prevailing Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) and will address the issue of trafficking from the point of view of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation. It has defined aggravated forms of trafficking, which includes trafficking for the purpose of forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substance or hormones on a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage, etc. She offered an olive branch to all groups working with sex workers collectives who had expressed serious concerns that the Bill, if enacted, would violate the basic rights of women who are in the sex work industry of their own volition, and invited them to work together with the government so that differences could be ironed out and together we can learn and work in collaboration to push the boundaries of justice and empower the most vulnerable persons in our society. The minister assured that the provisions of the Bill had been carefully synchronised with all existing and linked provisions of law and structures created thereunder. It aims to supplement existing criminal law provisions on trafficking under Section 370 of the IPC and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956. The definition of trafficking is drawn primarily from Section 370, IPC, which includes any act of physical exploitation, sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude. Trafficking under this Bill also includes begging, domestic work, farm or factory work. But activists have pointed various gaps which fail to address the core concerns of trafficking and the lapses which threaten free speech and the right to work under Article 19 and the basic human dignity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Meena Seshu of the National Network of Sex Workers, a strong and articulate voice in the movement to protect the dignity of sex workers and their right not just to work, but to survive, has been opposing this enactment in its current form for the past few years. According to her, the state administration has turned a deaf ear to their anguished pleas. She explains that framing trafficking as an issue of morality wrongly assumes that no woman would enter sex work of her own volition. The experiences of sex workers picked up during raid and rescue operations have brought out the stark reality that the approach of raid, rescue and rehabilitation rarely addresses the issue of trafficking, and instead results in large-scale rights violations of sex workers with the underlying presumption that only trafficked women need to be rescued and rehabilitated. The world over, anti-trafficking laws and policies have placed sex workers on the cusp of violence inflicted by law enforcers and anti-trafficking groups. The experiences of sex workers picked up during these operations reveal that this strategy rarely addresses the issue of trafficking. Anecdotal information gathered by sex worker rights activists in India as well as studies conducted have brought out the harsh reality that many women who are rescued and rehabilitated return to sex work. The ITPA, with immoral and traffic in its very title, suggests that trafficking is an issue of morality rather than a criminal offence. Its interpretation on the ground, therefore, adopts an anti-sex worker approach. On the presumption of lack of consent, Section 17(2) of the ITPA states that a woman who is rescued as a consequence of raid and rescue operations can be handed over into the safe custody of her husband or parents or guardian and this includes adult women who have consented to sex work. A magistrate satisfied about the antecedents and suitability of the husband, parents or guardians, may issue an order granting custody to them. This section, which infantilises adult women, is debilitating for women who are in sex work as adults living independent of parents or family. Many are heads of their households and primary providers for their families. In many cases, adult women do not inform their families that they are in sex work. When directed by the magistrate to produce a husband, parents and guardians in court, they are forced to contact family members in humiliating circumstances. Instead of addressing the core issue of prevention of trafficking, the approach of raid, rescue and rehabilitate increases vulnerabilities of sex workers as they get further trapped into debt bondage and other exploitative practices. Fees to lawyers, surety for bail, bribes to officials and mounting daily expenses in the absence of income due to incarceration, force women released from correction homes to incur huge debts. Ironically, getting trapped in a cycle of debt bondage is a consequence of a raid and rescue strategy which is purportedly designed to help these women. While this is the current situation, the Bill, when enacted, will make the situation far worse in the name of protection and prevention. It will lead to greater surveillance and adult victims will be sent to rehabilitation homes or repatriated to their places of origin. Aarthi Pai, another activist involved with Sangram, a sex worker collective, points out: There is no provision provided if victims do not want to go to rehabilitation or accept repatriation which is against Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution which guarantees the fundamental right to work. The key notions underlying Article 21 are dignity and autonomy. While admitting that trafficking is clearly a criminal offence that requires strict measures to combat unscrupulous persons and criminal networks, activists point out how all measures to deal with trafficking in the Bill focus on the victims rather than the perpetrators of the crime. Mumbai-based womens rights lawyer harinder@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 1 The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has busted a major human trafficking racket with the rescue of 39 Nepali women and girls from Hriday Inn hotel, in Paharganj area, making it the third such raid in the national Capital in a week. The raid was carried out by DCW with the help of the police based on a tip off by an NGO. Maliwal urged Home Minister Rajnath Singh to urgently hold a meeting of the LG, police commissioner and DCW on the issue and fix responsibility on the police. After being known for rapes, Delhi is moving towards becoming a human trafficking capital. The rescue of 73 survivors in a week points out at a big trafficking ring operating from Delhi. But, the police don't get to know anything about it. DCW and women are endangering their lives, but the police fails to take action, said Maliwal. She wonders about the beat officers being unaware about such illegal activities in the areas under their purview saying that this raises many questions regarding their complicity and if they are being paid for letting the rackets operate. She said after a tip off received from an NGO around 1 am, the DCW team called the police, with whose support 39 girls and women trafficked into Delhi from the earthquake-hit areas of Nepal on the pretext of jobs, were rescued. Maliwal said the raid lasted the entire night. The bills of hotels confined were being paid by their agents and later, they were to be sold to Gulf countries while some have already been trafficked to Sri Lanka, she noted. One among the survivors said her sister was sent to Sri Lanka and she has not been able to contact her since then. Maliwal thus indicated the vulnerability of Nepalese women and girls to the traps laid by international trafficking rings operating at a massive organised level. Cops pressuring survivors The DCW chief accused the police of pressurising and intimidating the rescued survivors not to disclose details about the traffickers and retract from their statements at the police station. It seems that with crackdown on traffickers the commission has laid hand on a big trafficking syndicate run by some biggie, pointed out Maliwal. She alleged that the police are trying to protect the boss by not registering an FIR. However, the police are understood to be maintaining that the matter is not related to trafficking claiming their medical examination, statements and enquiry conducted so far has indicated that 53 of these Nepalese women were staying in the hotel on their own and they had come to Delhi in search of job something which the DCW refused to believe sharing complaints from some among the rescued Nepalese girls received by the panel and the police during the raid. The Paharganj SHO is telling that the girls will not be shifted to shelter homes until order comes from the top, said Swati Maliwal. Those who were rescued were sent for medical examination and were taken to the areas police station at 11 am in Paharganj. But the girls have still not been shifted to shelter homes (till 8 pm), said a woman panel official. However, late in the night DCP (central) claimed that in the investigations dont hint at any cognisable offence committed against the women who were staying on their own. On verification, all were found to be adults and their statements were recorded in the presence of DCW and NGOs and 16 of them consented for medical examination.... Further enquiry is in progress and after due verification women have been shifted to shelter home, said the DCP in a tweet. rchopra@tribunemail.com Washington, August 2 Barack Obama has endorsed Aftab Pureval, an American of Indian-Tibetan descent, for the Congressional elections in November as the former US President released his first endorsement list of over 80 Democratic candidates. Pureval, 35, who is seeking to enter the House of Representatives from the first Congressional District of Ohio, is the only American of Indian-Tibetan descent in the list of 81 candidates running for various positions in the November mid-term elections. Im proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidatesleaders as diverse, patriotic and big-hearted as the America theyre running to represent, said Obama on Wednesday as he released his first list. One fourth of them are running for the US Congress. Pureval is seeking to unseat an 11-term incumbent Republican Congressman Steve Chabot, with local media reports describing it as a toss-up race. Pureval, whose campaign has gained momentum in recent weeks, said he was fired up and ready to go. President Obama inspired me to get involved in public service. It is surreal and incredible to have his endorsement, he said. As he told us, we are the ones who have been waiting for. Change starts with us. And in 100 days, were going to make it happen here, said Pureval. If elected, Pureval would be the first Tibetan-American to enter the US House of Representatives. He was the first Democrat to get elected as the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts in more than 100 years. Born and raised in Southwest Ohio, Pureval worked at a law firm and became a special assistant federal prosecutor where he worked with the FBI to prosecute crimes against children. Before that, he had worked at P&G as the global brand attorney for Olay, supporting a billion dollar business. As Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, he brought modern and professional reforms to the office, ended patronage and nepotism, launched a new website, cut fees for public records and put more services online. Pureval raised more than double what Chabot raised last quarter and is approaching the long-time incumbents cash-on-hand total, said Sabatos Crystal Ball, weekly online political newsletter. According to Dayton Daily news, Pureval raised USD 823,663 last quarter compared with USD 339,290 raised by Chabot. PTI sanjiv@tribunemail.com The horse may have bolted even before the Centre decided to restore the pre-March 20 status of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Union Governments sudden desire to introduce three amendments to undo a Supreme Court ruling stems from its view that it has reduced the BJPs appeal to this substantial vote bank. The announcement, after Parliament had been in session for over a week, is bound to be interpreted as a reflex action to take the sting out of the August 9 bandh call given by Dalit groups. The expected turnaround by the transitory rebel Ram Vilas Paswan and his full-throated endorsement of the Centres decision reflects the anxiety in the government camp not to allow this 25 per cent vote-bank to slip out of its reach. Much blood has been spilt by the Supreme Courts introduction of safeguards nine were killed in the April 2 Bharat Bandh. But this order alone has not strengthened the impression among Dalits that their hard-won rights and safeguards stand on the cusp of being eroded. The strengthening narrative over changing the criteria of reservations from social backwardness as the primary benchmark to a proportionate share has given rise to misgivings about a Damocles sword over this constitutional provision. This belief has been undergirded by the perception about a raw deal for Dalits in a series of incidents, from Una to Bhima-Koregaon. In a social environment tilted against the Dalits, the apex courts order may have been the last straw. The court order has now taken a life of its own. Radical Dalits have upped the ante by seeking the blackballing of the judge from a post-retirement sinecure. Accepting such a demand is a bridge too far for the Centre but Union Minister Paswans initial endorsement has lent it an air of legitimacy. Fighting several fires and keen to retain its upper and backward voters, the BJP has limited room for manoeuvre. The proposed Bill to undo the SC Act ruling could have pulled things back for it if the other acts of omission against the Dalits were not so overwhelming. gspannu7@gmail.com Kaithal, August 2 A resident of Haryanas Kaithal district, held hostage by a gang of human traffickers near Kuala Lumpur, has been rescued by Malaysian cops, the police said on Thursday. The Malaysian police busted the gang which had abducted Sanjeev (27) and arrested three Pakistani nationals. The gang had demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh from his family, Kaithal Superintendent of Police (SP) Astha Modi said. Sanjeev was rescued on Saturday from a house about 150 km from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur with the intervention of the Indian High Commission in Malaysia, she said. Sanjeev wanted to settle down in Australia and had contacted some agents in Patiala and Amritsar who promised to send him there via Thailand and Malaysia and a deal was finalised for Rs 8.5 lakh, Modi said. The agents were paid Rs 2 lakh by Sanjeevs family and they promised to pay the rest after receiving information about his safe landing in Australia, she added. Modi said Sanjeev left on July 19 and reached Malaysia the same day, following which the agents asked him to call his family and tell them to pay the remaining amount. However, the Kaithal-resident sent a message to his family containing a code word, that he had decided upon with his family in advance, indicating that he was not taken to his destination, she said. His family informed the police. The SP said the human trafficking gang used to lure youths on the pretext of sending them to Australia through Malaysia. It would then hold the youths hostage and demand ransom from their families, she said. Efforts are underway to nab the agents who sent Sanjeev to Malaysia, Modi said. PTI editorial@tribune.com Mukesh Tandon Tribune News Service Panipat, August 2 Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwars son, his friends and security guards allegedly thrashed people who reached his house in Madlauda on Wednesday night to complain about power outage in their colony. Enraged residents on Thursday protested in front of the ministers residence for an hour. The minister refuted the allegations and said it was a political conspiracy to defame him. According to information, some residents of Googa Madi Ram Nagar Colony reached Panwars residence in Housing Board Colony to complain about power cuts. The protesters, including Pankaj, Ashok, Pintu, Sumer and Sooraj, said there was no power in the colony on Wednesday till 6 pm and supply was disrupted again after two hours. Between 30 and 40 residents of the colony went to the ministers residence around 9:30 pm, but he was not at home at that time. His son Anil Panwar and his friends reportedly arrived in a vehicle and the irate residents complained to him. Anil allegedly got angry and started misbehaving with them. The visitors alleged that he beat up Ashok and when they intervened, he and his friends, along with security guards, started beating them up with belts and sticks. The visitors said they fled the spot after the incident. Police officials visited the colony twice in a bid to pacify the residents. Refuting the allegations, Anil termed the incident as a political ploy to defame him and his father. He claimed that he resolved the problems of the affected. Refuting the allegations, Panwar said some persons, including INLD workers, reached his residence. Some of them thrashed and misbehaved with members of his family, he claimed. No member of his family thrashed anyone in retaliation, he stated. The incident was a political conspiracy to defame him, Panwar asserted. editorial@tribune.com Our Correspondent Sonepat, August 2 Rakesh Gupta, Additional Principal Secretary to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Thursday ordered the suspension of sub-inspector Phool Kumar, SHO, Murthal police station, for adopting a negligent attitude in the investigation of a case registered in 2017. According to Vinay Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Sonepat, the orders were issued by the Additional Principal Secretary during video conferencing with the district officers on Thursday. The DC informed that in 2017, the then Commissioner of Sonepat Municipal Corporation had lodged a complaint at the Murthal police station against the Sarpanch of Murthal gram panchayat Promila and her husband Rameshwar. He had alleged that they had committed irregularities in the allotment of 100 square yards plots among the villagers before merger of Murthal village in the corporation. On his complaint, a case was registered at the Murthal police station and the investigation was handed over to Phool Kumar, SHO. However, not satisfied with the investigation, a complaint was lodged by the villagers on the CMs Window against the SHO for adopting a negligent attitude to the investigation. The matter was taken up in Thursdays video conference. Madison Erhardt UPDATE 7:20 a.m. Castanet has learned more about a truck fire which broke out in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Tyson Szabo tells Castanet he was driving past the Husky by Ross Road in West Kelowna at 3 a.m. when he noticed a glow coming from a side street. Further investigation revealed a truck with its hood opened on fire. "It looked like someone just dropped off the truck, lifted up the hood set it on fire and ran away." Szabo says the hood was up and it looked like it was sabotaged. "It was really close to a horse trailer and there was a metal shop close by and the guys inside didn't even know there was a fire." Szabo says West Kelowna fire department arrived on scene to douse the flames within minutes and there was another woman on scene as well who called emergency services. "I did my part, what I could." ORIGINAL 5:45 a.m. An early morning truck fire in West Kelowna had emergency response crews hopping Thursday morning. This photo was taken at 3 a.m. on Western Road in West Kelowna. No word on what caused the fire or if there were any injuries due to the blaze. editorial@tribune.com Ravinder Saini Tribune News Service Rewari, August 2 A high drama was witnessed outside the main gate of Indira Gandhi University (IGU) at Meerpur village here when HPCC chief Ashok Tanwar along with hundreds of supporters were not allowed to enter the university campus by police personal deputed in large numbers there. The situation became tense when Tanwars supporters resisted the police action and raised slogans against the BJP government and the university authority. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the police arrested Tanwar, state vice president Vandana Popli and youth Congress national secretary Chiranjeev Rao along with their supporters and took them to the Sadar police station in buses. All were released later. Talking to mediapersons in the police station, Tanwar described the university authoritys action as attack on democratic rights. The Congress leader said he came here just to interact with students about their problems and future plans but the authority tried to suppress his voice by not letting him enter the university campus. I have been a students leader and use to raise their issues at various platforms during past over two decades but it was for the first time when I was restricted from entering the campus exposing the dictatorial attitude of the university authority, said Tanwar, adding that the cops also used mild lathi-charge when they tried to enter the campus. Actually, Tanwar was to attend interaction with students programme organised by his supporters in the university premises on Thursday while the university authority issued a notice ahead of his visit disallowing political activities on the campus allegedly with an intention to restrict Tanwars entry to the university. Elaborate arrangements were made to check the entry of outsiders in the university premises. Identity cards of students and teaching faculty were being checked at the main entrance. Except the university employees, vehicles of others were not being allowed to enter the campus, said the sources. Rewari SP Rajesh Duggal said Tanwar and his supporters were arrested to avert any untoward incident as the ABVP workers had also threatened to show them black flags that might have led to chaos. Adequate numbers of police personnel were deployed in and outside the campus on the request of the university authority. The personnel handled the situation efficiently, said Duggal, adding that 119 persons, including Tanwar, were arrested and released after some time. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Shimla, August 2 The state government will provide all assistance to government-aided St Bedes College and ensure adequate staff and grant so that it could emerge as a premier educational institution in the region, said Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, while presiding over the investiture ceremony of the Students Council of the college here on Thursday. Thakur said the government was providing 95 per cent aid to colleges and a provision of Rs 7,044 crore had been made for the education sector during the financial year. Like our page on Facebook Expressing happiness that girls were excelling in almost every field and bringing laurels to their family, state and the country, he said girls had proved that if opportunities were given, they could achieve anything in their life. Alumni of St Bedes College had made a mark in different fields, be it films, industry, fashion, education, trade, etc, he added. The aim of education was not only to score high grades in examinations, but also empower persons and society all together. He said the college had ensured empowerment of women and that was its biggest strength. The college had maintained its old glory which, indeed, was a matter of pride for students and teachers. The state government was laying a special thrust on education and empowerment of girls and out of 10 residential schools being opened in the state for imparting quality education this year, five schools would exclusively cater to girl students, he added. He urged the students to come forward to eradicate drug menace from society. The Chief Minister also honoured Students Council members and wished them an eventful session and bright future. Jai Ram Thakur announced Rs 21,000 from his discretionary fund to the college students who presented a colourful cultural programme. Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said this college was known as one of the best colleges in humanities and over the year, it had emerged as the best college in the science stream. Principal of the college Sister Beena John administered oath to the students of the SCA. Rs 7,044 cr for education editorial@tribune.com Rajiv Mahajan NURPUR, AUGUST 2 A joint operation and police raids by Himachal Pradesh and the neighbouring Punjab during the past one fortnight at Bhadroya and Chhanni-Beli villages to seize narcotic and synthetic drugs and to nab drug peddlers having inter-state links has failed to detect any drugs. These two villages, believed to be den for drug trafficking, are situated on the borders of both states and Kangra and Pathankot district police have launched a special drive against drug trafficking in these border areas. The day-long raids conducted jointly by police teams comprising 85 police personnel from Punjab and 70 from Himachal on Wednesday failed to produce desired results as local drug peddlers probably got wind of the raids and left their houses early forcing police teams return empty hands. During the day-long raids the police teams searched as many as 50 houses but no detection could be made. Notably, Bhadroya and Channi-Beli villages are known as safe haven for the drug smugglers having their roots in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Phillaur in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Bodies of a large number of drug addicts had reportedly been found near these villages. The addicts had lost their lives due to overdose of synthetic drugs, especially chitta. Inter-state drug smugglers were being used to supply drugs to local drug peddlers and those involved in drug peddling were having a roaring business at the cost of the lives of youngsters. Though the anti-drug drive has so far failed to detect drugs or nab drug peddler, Himachal Pradesh police has claimed it a success. Santosh Patial, SP Kangra, while talking to The Tribune, said the coordination between police of both states and joint raids had brought the desired results as drug peddlers as well as anti-social elements were on the run in the border areas of lower Kangra district after joint police campaign. The joint police teams of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh will continue to mount pressure on drug peddlers by conducting raids and intensifying round the clock patrolling, he asserted. Twin villages safe haven for smugglers editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Srinagar/Anantnag, August 2 Security forces on Thursday gunned down two militants, who had two days ago overpowered a policeman and snatched his rifle in Kupwara district. The looted weapon was also recovered. The gunfight erupted this afternoon at Khumriyal, Lolab, nearly 100 km from Srinagar, when militants fired at a joint checkpoint set up by the security forces. While the checking at the naka was going on, terrorists fired on security personnel which was retaliated by the alert forces. In the brief encounter, two terrorists were eliminated by the security forces, a police spokesman said. The killed militants have been identified as Bilal Ahmad Shah and Zahoor Ahmad, both residents of Kupwara. Affiliated to the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, the duo had joined militant ranks this year. Both terrorists were involved in several attacks on the security establishments and civilian atrocities in the area. Besides one AK-47, one INSAS rifle was recovered from the terrorists which had been snatched from a policeman in the Kandhar area of Kupwara (on July 31), the spokesman said. There was no collateral damage during the encounter. The gunfight broke out close to the area where the rifle of a policeman was snatched on Tuesday. In a first such incident in Kupwara, militants had snatched a rifle from a policeman at Maidanpora area of Lolab on July 31. Incidents of rifle-snatching have earlier taken place in south and central Kashmir. Protester hurt in firing A protester was injured in the alleged firing by forces on Thursday in Lolab following the killing of two local Hizb militants. The injured has been identified as Mohammad Jamal Tantary. The forces allegedly opened fire on a group of protesters at the encounter site. The police said they were verifying the details. Ultras take away rifle from bank in Anantnag Militants on Thursday afternoon snatched a 12-bore rifle of a bank guard in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. The incident of weapon-snatching comes a day after militants robbed a branch of the SBI in the neighbouring Kulgam district and decamped with Rs 5.7 lakh. According to police reports, militants targeted a J&K Bank branch in the Brakpora area of Anantnag district. "We have reports that two people snatched the rifle from the bank guard about 3 pm," a senior police official said. "No cash has been looted from the bank." editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Jammu, August 2 In a significant decision, Governor NN Vohra, who is the chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, has approved a policy for providing 70 per cent refund to the pilgrims on cancellation of pre-booked online helicopter tickets, and rooms as well as dormitory in the accommodation of the board. The policy has become operational with effect from August 1, 2018. Earlier, there was no such provision at the shrine board accommodation at Jammu, Katra, Bhawan and other locations. In case of cancellation of online helicopter bookings for travel on the Katra-Sanjichhat-Katra sector, only 50 per cent amount was being refunded. This has been enhanced to 70 per cent now. The refund will only be available for the pilgrims who cancel their bookings online on the shrine boards website at least four days in advance of the scheduled date of travel or stay. Giving details, Dheeraj Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, shrine board, said the pilgrims would now be able to opt for cancellation of their advance bookings of helicopter tickets for travel on the Katra-Sanjichhat-Katra sector and accommodation of the board. Subsequently, on receipt of such requests, a refund of 70 per cent of the amount would be processed and amount credited through the same mode as used by a particular devotee for bookings. He said earlier the entire amount of booking for online accommodation was retained as processing charges to prevent en masse online blocking by miscreants. Now, the initiative has been approved by the Governor to provide relief to the yatris while retaining some amount as a deterrent to prevent mass bookings. editorial@tribune.com Sumit Hakhoo Tribune News Service Jammu, August 2 The ambitious skill development programme under the Prime Ministers employment package for the displaced Pandit youth from Kashmir has failed to take off due to political inference and non-serious approach of the officials concerned. According to sources,the Relief Organisation (Migrants) has received only 30 applications even after linking the programme with the Skill India scheme announced by the Central government in 2014-15. The total target was to train 9,000 militancy affected people registered with the Relief Organisation, which look after the affairs of 3.50 lakh Pandits who were forced to leave their homeland in 1989-90. The government was to provide soft loans to the youth to set up small units. Due to lack of awareness, people are not able to understand the scheme and how it will benefit them. Lack of publicity and failure to involve the youth are other reasons for the poor response to the scheme, said Sunil Pandita, a social activist who lives in Jagti camp. The scheme was first announced in 2008 when the then Congress-led UPA government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Rs 1,610-crore rehabilitation package for 3.50 lakh displaced Hindus from the Valley living in the camps of Jammu. However, Omar Abdullah-led NC-Congress coalition (2009-2014) didnt take much interest and failed to implement the project. It was only during the previous PDP-BJP coalition government, which linked the package with the Skill India scheme, that some steps were taken to spread the information about the programme. It has turned into another failed scheme that could have addressed the unemployment issue facing the displaced youth. It could have equipped them with skills to start small business units. Despite announcements, even the PDP-BJP government took the scheme casually, said PN Raina from Muthi camp. Ironically, a majority of the displaced Pandits who live in the camps at Muthi, Buta Nagar, Jagti and Nagrota, have little information about the benefits of the programme. However, when asked to comment on the issue, Relief Commissioner (Migrants) ML Raina said they were reviewing the scheme and a new approach was being adopted to attract the youth. We have urged the people to submit the applications directly to the relief office so that the data of interested candidates is collected, Raina added. editorial@tribune.com Azhar Qadri Tribune News Service Chattisinghpora, August 2 The mysterious abduction of two minor girls from the Sikh village of Chattisinghpora in south Kashmirs Anantnag district has drowned its residents in fear about security. The two girls neighbours and students of Class X were on their way to school on Tuesday when they were abducted, their families said. On Thursday morning, Sikh community members from Chattisinghpora and other villages of the district assembled at a gurdwara in Mattan township where they held a meeting with district administration officials, including the Deputy Commissioner, and the Senior Superintendent of Police, who assured them that the case would be properly investigated. The police have already registered a case of abduction and also conducted the medical examination of the two girls which found the girls were not injured or assaulted. A police officer in the district said it appeared to be a blind case but all possibilities were being probed. We will investigate all angles of the case, the officer said. Giani Rajinder Singh, a village elder, said the incident had terrified the Sikh community. We want the culprits to be identified and arrested. We want to know who did it and why it was done, he said. The terrified families of the two girls claimed that they had boarded a cab to their school but the driver sprayed something on their face which made them unconscious. The driver locked the cab and sprayed something, he had told them it was a (room) freshener and after that the two girls became unconscious, a cousin of one of the girls said. When the two minor girls regained their consciousness, almost five to six hours after leaving the home, they found themselves lying on a footpath in Srinagar, according to their family members. The girls then borrowed a phone from a vendor and one of them called her father who then went to Srinagar and brought them home, the relatives said. The relative of one of the girls said she had not been able to sleep properly after the incident. She is very scared and is reluctant to go back to school, the relative said. The quiet village of Chattisinghpora, part of the rural landscape of south Kashmirs Anantnag district, is home to 100-odd families of the Sikh community. The incident has terrified the residents of Chattisinghpora and its adjoining villages. Chattisinghpora has had a bloodied past as suspected militants massacred 35 Sikhs from the village in 2000 when the then US president Bill Clinton was on a visit to New Delhi. The latest incident of abduction has now opened the wounds of the past and Sikhs of this village are scared and demanding immediate action in the matter. Karan Singh, a resident of nearby Ranbirpora village, said the incident should be thoroughly probed and the culprits should be unmasked. We have stayed in Kashmir all these years in communal harmony, but now somebody is forcing us to migrate, he said. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Majid Jahangir Tribune News Service Srinagar, August 2 Two unidentified militants were killed in a gunfight in north Kashmirs frontier Kupwara district on Thursday, police said. The gunfight erupted at Khumriyal Lolab, over 110 km from Srinagar, when joint teams of forces launched a cordon and search after input about militants' presence. As joint teams approached the suspected area, the hiding militants opened fire triggering a gunfight. In the gunfight that followed two militants were killed, a police officer said. The identity of the slain militants is being ascertained. The operation is still under way in the area. Security forces have also recovered arms from the gunfight site. It could not be established whether the slain militants were fresh infiltrators or were hiding in the area. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Washington DC, August 2 'The Dark Knight Rises' star Glen Powell is all set be a part of Top Gun: Maverick,' a sequel to the 1986 Top Gun.' The 29-year-old is joining Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer from the original movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Earlier this year, Powell was passed over for a prominent role in the film, which ended up going to Miles Teller. "I'm taking down all the Tom Cruise posters in my bedroom. Maybe, I'll leave one. Two for symmetry. Okay, the posters are staying," he joked after the news broke. For now, his role is marked top secret. Meanwhile, it was announced last week that Jennifer Connelly had also been cast in the film. Cruise, according to Variety, confirmed the news while walking the red carpet for Mission: Impossible Fallout' in Washington, DC. Top Gun: Maverick' will be helmed by Joseph Kosinski - who directed Cruise in the sci-fi thriller Oblivion'. Jerry Bruckheimer will produce along with Cruise and Skydance CEO David Ellison. ANI monicakchauhan@gmail.com Sumedha Sharma Tribune News Service Gurugram, August 2 While the recent tension over the namaz row is yet to ebb, a new controversy has erupted in Gurugram. Three men allegedly went ahead and forcibly shaved off the beard of a local Muslim man following an altercation over their turn at a local barber shop. The victim, Zaffrudin, from Mewat, works at an eating joint at IFFCO Chowk. He had reportedly gone to buy vegetables in Khandsa area and decided to get a hair cut. I stood waiting but they came and tried to get their haircut out of turn. When I resisted, they started calling me a Pakistani and hurled religious abuses. I remained calm but then they asked me to shave off my beard to become human. I politely told them that it was forbidden in my religion and how can I do it. They laughed and said we will show you how and got my beard shaved forcibly pinning me to barbers chair while he shaved it. I was traumatised and rushed back home, said Jaffrudin. He alleged the accused even video-graphed the entire shaving and threatened to make it viral. The incident lead to tension in Mewat and in morning several local and religious leaders approached police and an FIR was registered and the three accused, Gaurav, Nitin and barber Eklash, were nabbed. The police, meanwhile, issued an appeal to people to not communalist the issue. Its a sensitive issue but understand that the accused barber himself is a Muslim. Please do not communalise it or flare up the sentiments. We have nabbed the accused and they will be dealt with sternly, said DCP Crime Sumit Kuhar. Meanwhile, police have been deployed in Khandsa village to maintain peace and owing to some unconfirmed reports of disruption of namaz prayers in city tomorrow security at sites has been beefed up. editorial@tribune.com Shahira Naim Tribune News Service Lucknow, August 2 The Uttar Pradesh Department of Estate has submitted a report to the state government estimating a damage of around Rs 10 lakh in the bungalow vacated by former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for which a recovery notice is likely to be issued, claim sources. The five-member committee was instituted after Governor Ram Naiks intervention in the matter. The committee submitted its 266-page report to the state government on Wednesday. While officials were unwilling to share details of the report, sources maintained that the damage claimed was mostly for broken tiles and missing taps and pipes. Following the Supreme Courts May 7 directive, former chief ministers ND Tiwari, Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, who were then occupying government bungalows were asked to vacate these within 15 days. After Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav vacated his bungalow in early June, videos showing massive damage to the property went viral amid accusation that he took away costly fittings. When the controversy refused to die down, Governor Naik asked the Public Works Department to video-record the state of all bungalows vacated by the former chief ministers. Naik had asked the estate department officials about the specific charges made to the bungalow vacated by Akhilesh and written to CM Yogi to investigate the matter. Following the Governors intervention, a five-member committee headed by PWD chief engineer (civil) Sudhanshu Kumar was set up on June19. According to officials of the estate department, the report would be studied and tallied with the video footage to get the true picture of the damage, following which a recovery notice under the law might be sent to Akhilesh. Reacting to the report, SP spokesperson and MLC Sunil Singh Saajan charged the CM Yogi government with targeting Akhilesh due to his growing popularity after the recent electoral victories. Seeking dues for damages was another BJP ploy to corner the former Chief Minister and create confusion ahead of the SP-BSP alliance, he said. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Shimla, August 2 After a span of 12 years, a teenage girl from Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor was found at a women's shelter home in Shimla and handed over to her parents. The girl, identified as Kajal, was seven-year-old when she went missing from a Dussehra fair in Bijnor's Chandpur. After she went missing, Kajal spent five years in Mumbai and was later taken to West Bengal's Durgapur in 2012, before she finally came to the shelter home in Shimla. "Earlier, I was in Mumbai and was shifted to Shimla later," Kajal said. The teenager was reunited with her family by the Anti-Human Trafficking cell of Haryana Police after Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Rajesh Kumar visited the shelter home in Shimla. Upon his arrival, Kajal requested him to find her parents. Following the conversation, Kumar made calls to Mumbai and Durgapur to track her family. "We were able to trace through communication at different levels. She was missing since 2007," he said. Kumar also added that Kajal's paper work at the shelter home in Shimla carried wrong information regarding her parents' names and address. Kajal, who was enrolled at a government school in Shimla, will continue her studies once she returns to her hometown Bijnor. She is a student of class 10. Her family expressed happiness upon reuniting with their daughter after a long hiatus of 12 years. ANI rchopra@tribunemail.com New Delhi, August 2 The government intends to pass a bill in the current Parliament session to restore the original provisions of a law on atrocities against SC/ST people, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday. As the Opposition criticised the government for not taking action to restore the provisions which were struck down by the Supreme Court, Singh told the Lok Sabha that the Union Cabinet had already cleared a bill in this regard. The bill to restore the original provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, acceding to a key demand of Dalit groups ahead of their call for a Bharat Bandh on August 9. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the Supreme Court judgment regarding the Act was very dangerous for the SC/ST people. In a ruling in March, the Supreme Court had introduced safeguards against arrests, which Dalit leaders and organisations said diluted the Act and rendered it toothless. The government, which has brought several ordinances in the past few months, could have come out with one to restore the provisions of the Act, Kharge said, adding that atrocities against SCs/STs were on the rise. MPs from various political parties had met President Ram Nath Kovind in March in this regard, he added. Responding to Kharge, the Home Minister said he was surprised and wondered what was the justification in raising the issue when the Cabinet had cleared the bill on Wednesday only. The government wanted to get the bill passed in the current Parliament session, Singh said. He also recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modis assurance that if necessary, a more stringent law to deal with atrocities against SC/ST people would be put in place. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is to end on August 10. Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy raised the issue of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. When Kharge and Roy were speaking on the issues, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan requested them to make it short since time was limited in Zero Hour. As the requests went unheeded, Mahajan remarked that if people like them were doing it, how come newcomers would understand things. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Kabul, August 2 An Indian man was among three foreigners killed by unidentified gunmen on Thursday after they were kidnapped from Afghanistans capital city Kabul, a media report said. An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian were kidnapped early on Thursday morning and their bodies were later found in Mussahi district in Kabul province, the Tolo News reported. They were kidnapped from Kabuls PD9 area. Police had confirmed the incident but had not given any further details although it is believed that the men worked for a logistics company, the report said. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, August 2 Political parties in Maharashtra, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, are demanding that a National Register for Citizens be implemented in the state on the lines of Assam so that immigrants living illegally in cities like Mumbai could be identified and deported. "There are many Bangladeshis living illegally in Mumbai and Colaba (in South Mumbai)," BJP MLA from the area Raj Purohit said. He told reporters on Wednesday that he has written to the Mumbai district collector asking for the illegal immigrants to be identified and deported. "Now it has been proved that there are 40 lakh illegal immigrants living in Assam. There are many more living illegally in every city of India," Purohit told reporters. Raj Thackeray's MNS also joined in the chorus against Bangladeshi immigrants. "Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are a big danger to the law and order situation in Mumbai," party leader Bala Nandgaonkar said in a statement demanding NRC in Maharashtra on the lines of Assam. The Shiv Sena too has joined in and sought the deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in Mumbai and other cities of Maharashtra. The party's mouthpiece Saamna has been regularly reporting on how Bangladeshis living illegally in Mumbai and other cities have obtained documents like ration, PAN and Aadhar cards and were even benefiting from the slum rehabilitation schemes in the city. sanjiv@tribunemail.com New Delhi, August 2 The CBI has registered a murder case against Army Major Vijay Singh Balhara and seven others for the killing of a 12-year-old boy in Manipur in an alleged encounter in 2009, the agency said on Thursday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Maj Balhara in an FIR filed on Tuesday against the accused in the death of Azad Khan, a Class VII student with no criminal record. Balhara was attached with Assam Rifles and was heading a team when the alleged encounter took place. The CBIs move comes after the Supreme Court on July 14 directed the agency to go through the records of the case, lodge necessary FIR and complete the investigation on the basis of a report submitted by the Justice Santosh Hegde Commission. Khans father Wahid Ali, a resident of Phoubakchao village in Manipur, had deposed before the commission that his son was killed by security personnel in a staged encounter after rounding him up from his home on March 4, 2009. Besides Balhara, Havildar Broason Thanga, then Havildar Suresh Meitei and driver Thangjapo Toithang are named along with four unidentified security persons in the CBI FIR. IANS monicakchauhan@gmail.com Jabalpur (MP), August 2 Enraged because she refused to talk to him, a 22-year-old man allegedly killed a minor girl at Tilgavan village in the district. Amit Burman (22), the accused, was allegedly in a relationship with the 16-year-old victim. Last night the girl, who lived on the outskirts of the village with her family, refused to talk to him on phone, police said. He then called the girl's sister and asked her to persuade the girl to speak to him, but the girl did not budge. Angered, Burman went to her house, said Rajaram Dube, Panagar police station in-charge. He first attacked the girl's sister, following which she and two other sisters of the victim ran out alongwith their mother to save themselves, the police officer said. The accused then allegedly stabbed and strangulated the 16-year-old girl, Dube said. The victim's father was not at home at the time of the incident. After being alerted about the incident, police rushed to the village and arrested Burman. A case of murder was registered against him, the police officer said. PTI rchopra@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes and issued notices to the Bihar government and the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. A Bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta also restrained the media from publishing photos, including morphed ones, of victims or interviews with them. The Bench, which is already seized of issues relating to jail and observation homes, took a suo motu cognisance of the issue after receiving a letter from Patna highlighting the plight of girls in Muzaffarpur shelter home for destitutes where dozens of inmates were sedated and raped. Many of the girls were missing and its alleged that those who resisted were killed. The shelter home is run by a local NGO, Seva Sankalp and Vikas Samiti. Brajesh Thakur who ran the NGO has since been arrested. The Nitish Kumar government has already handed over the probe to the CBI. The matter came to light after a social audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) alleged that 42 girl inmates of the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih had allegedly been sexually assaulted. The inmates were allegedly beaten up or drugged before being sexually abused. One of the victims alleged that those who resisted rape were killed. A girl was beaten up and killed and her body was buried on the stay-home premises, she had alleged. The girl inmates were shifted from Muzaffarpur to other homes. Medical tests confirmed that the girls had been raped. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Ravi S Singh & Bijay Sankar Bora Tribune News Service New Delhi/Guwahati, August 2 The ongoing BJP-TMC stand-off over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft in Assam refused to abate for the third consecutive day, with the issue echoing sharply in Parliament on Thursday. As vociferous TMC members forced adjournment of the Rajya Sabha post-lunch, protests were witnessed in the Lok Sabha after a team of party of leaders, including MPs and MLAs from West Bengal, was restricted inside the Silchar airport on arrival this afternoon and later taken into preventive detention by the Assam Police. The TMC team was there to hold meetings with a cross-section of people over the publication of the NRC final draft. The Assam Police further filed two FIRs against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her alleged instigating remarks that threatened unity and attempted to create unrest in the state. DGP Kuladhar Saikia said two cases were filed at Pan Bazar and Basistha police stations in Guwahati. A case was filed against her in Lakhimpur district on Wednesday. TMC members trooped into the well of House raising slogans soon after the House assembled to discuss farmers issue. They said their concerns over the NRC had not been addressed by the government in the House. They sought a reply from Home Minister Rajnath Singh amid sloganeering. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the minister was present in the House on Wednesday, but TMC members prevented him from giving a reply. A wrong message has gone and I feel as Chairman, injustice has been done to the Home Minister because after patiently hearing all views on important sensitive issue, he could not reply, Naidu said. When the members did not relent, the House was adjourned. When the LS was discussing the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2018, to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, TMC members were on their feet, protesting detention of parliamentarians at the Silchar airport. They pressed for a government response on the detention, describing it a breach of privilege. In the midst of BJP-TMC sparring, the CPI(M) took a dig at Banerjee accusing her of playing politics. It questioned the state governments delay in responding to certifying the identity details of people of the state settled in Assam on account of which their names could not find mention in the draft NRC. Meanwhile, Assam DGP Kuladhar Saikia said the TMC delegation was barred from coming out of the Silchar airport as Section 144, CrPC, was imposed in the town and that the team had been warned by the administration about the prohibition in force. The Trinamool Congress leaders will be held at Silchar for the night and they have agreed to leave tomorrow morning. It shall be arranged accordingly, he added. The team included six TMC MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghose, Mamata Thakur, Ratna Dey Nag and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar besides Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra, sources said. The DGP said two women constables were injured during scuffles with women members of the TMC inside the airport. The injured constables required medical treatment. Acting like Bunch of hooligans Why is the Assam Govt acting like this, along with the Centre? This is political vendetta. The BJP only has muscle power I think this is the beginning of their (BJPs) end. They are frustrated. That is why they are acting like a bunch of hooligans. Mamata Banerjee, TMC Supremo amansharma@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 Disapproving of the culture of banning books, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it affected "free flow of ideas". "We cannot make a virtue of banning those to ban this. Literary work is amenable to criticism. The culture of banning books directly impacts flow of ideas unless it hits Section 292 of Indian Penal Code (obscenity). The characters are fictional in the book and we have to see the context in which the paras were mentioned," said a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra while hearing a petition seeking a ban on certain paragraphs of Malayalam novel 'Meesha'. Delhi resident N Radhakrishnan has sought a direction to delete certain paragraphs of the novel by S Hareesh on the ground that it "defamed" temple going Hindu women. He particularly objected to a dialogue between two characters in the novel, which he contended, insulted Hindu women. He alleged the author's comments about Brahmins were tantamount to castiest slur. The NDA Government and the Kerala government opposed the petition and freedom of speech and expression. "Such kind of stuff should not be given undue importance in this age of the Internet. You are making this an issue. It is best forgotten," said Justice DY Chandrachud who was a part of the Bench. Petitioner's counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan contended that books such as "Polyester Prince" and "Satanic Verses" were still banned. A magazine published by a newspaper group had serialised the novel containing the objectionable portions but stopped it after protests. While reserving its order on the petition, the court asked the newspaper to file the English translation in five days of what was published by it. Photo: Road 13 Joe Luckhurst is thrilled by Road 13's Winery of the Year award. A family-owned winery in the South Okanagan has beaten out 256 other wineries to take the top spot in the 2018 National Wine Awards of Canada. Oliver's Road 13 Vineyards is the Winery of the Year, according to a panel of distinguished judges who tasted nearly 2,000 wines from across the country in Penticton in late June. Last year, the winery nabbed first place in the BC Wineries category, and was fourth place overall. Mick and Pam Luckhurst took over operations of what was then called Golden Mile Cellars in 2003, and now the next generation of Joe Luckhurst and his wife Lara oversee day-to-day operations. "We are so delighted with this win. Our team's tireless dedication to excellence has really paid off, as has following our passion for Rhone-style wines," Luckhurst said. The winery took home 15 medals total for their wines in addition to the top prize, including one platinum, eight gold, two silver and four bronze. An Okanagan Valley winery hasn't won the supreme title since 2015, when Mission Hill in West Kelowna claimed its fourth-ever first-place finish. In the B.C. category this year, Road 13 unsurprisingly took first place as well, followed by Nk'Mip Cellars and Cedar Creek Estate Winery. Of the top 25 wineries overall, 15 were from B.C. For a full list of winners, click here. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes and issued notices to the Bihar Government and the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. A Bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta also restrained the media from publishing images, including morphed ones, of victims or interviews with them. They (victims) cannot be compelled to relive the trauma again and again, the Bench said. It directed the investigating agency (CBI) to take assistance of professional counsellors and qualified child psychiatrists for questioning the victims. While appointing advocate Aparna Bhat as amicus curiae to assist it in the matter, the court posted the case for further hearing on August 7. The Bench, which is already seized of issues related to jail and observation homes, took suo motu cognisance after receiving a letter by one Ranvijay Kumar from Patna, highlighting the plight of girls in the Muzaffarpur shelter home for the destitute where dozens of inmates were allegedly sedated and raped. Many girls were found missing and its alleged that those who resisted rape were killed. The shelter home was run by a local NGO, Seva Sankalp and Vikas Samiti. NGO owner Brajesh Thakur has since been arrested. Initially, an FIR was lodged against 11 peorsons, including Thakur, on May 31. Later, the Nitish Kumar government handed over the probe to the CBI. editorial@tribune.com Ahmedabad, August 2 The Supreme Court-appointed SIT has told a special court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case that BJP chief Amit Shahs statement defending one of the main accused and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani is not believable and should not be considered. In September last year, Shah had appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani, who had requested the court to summon him to prove her alibithat she was present in the Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital on the day the 2002 riots broke out and not at Naroda Gam. Special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas told Justice MK Dave on Wednesday that Shahs statement defending Kodnani was irrelevant, as it was made after a long delay. Shahs statement is not believable, as none of the other accused mentioned about her presence at the Sola Civil Hospital, Vyas told the court here. The matter will now be heard on Friday. Shah had told the court that he met Kodnani in the Gujarat Assembly in Gandhinagar and later at the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad on the day the riots occurred. The Naroda Gam case is one of the nine major 2002 communal riot cases, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team. Eleven persons belonging to the Muslim community were killed in the Naroda Gam riots during a bandh call made to protest the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002. PTI monicakchauhan@gmail.com New Delhi, August 2 A student was stabbed at a government school here on Thursday by a fellow student following a fight, police said. The incident occurred at around 8 am inside the Government Sarvodaya Boys Senior Secondary School in east Delhi's Krishna Nagar. "During investigation it was found that the students belonged to class 11 and 10. They indulged in a fight after the morning assembly. The class 10 student took out a knife and launched an attack. The injured student suffered three to four stab wounds," Deputy Commissioner of Police Meghna Yadav said. "The victim was hospitalised where he was declared out of danger and is undergoing treatment." The police have detained the accused student. IANS amansharma@tribunemail.com Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) to submit a plan in 30 days on how to complete the projects of Amrapali Group which has failed to deliver flats to thousands of homebuyers despite having taken money from them. A Bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice UU Lalit asked NBCC to prepare and submit a "concrete proposal" with timeframe and cost involved by September 4 after the NBCC chairman told it that the public sector company was ready to take over the projects of the embattled realtor. The Bench made it clear that NBCC would be compensated for the entire exercise that would benefit thousands of homebuyers who have been left in lurch by the builder, accused of diverting money collected from innocent flat buyers. The top court also ordered Amrapali group statutory and internal auditors to audit the accounts of all the companies of the Amrapali Group to find out how Rs 2,765 crore was diverted by its directors. It directed the company to hand over all the relevant documents to the two auditors who told the Bench that no documents had been shared with them by Amrapali Group since 2015. On the request of the company, the Bench recalled its earlier order directing the group to deposit Rs 250 crore. However, the judges termed its conduct as "wholly unfair" and "absolutely improper". On Wednesday, it had ordered freezing of accounts of Amrapali Group companies and their directors for playing "dirty games" with the court and "defrauding" homebuyers. It had also sought details of all the bank accounts of 40 companies of the group and their directors. However, the company submitted the bank details of only 38 of them and nothing about their directors' accounts. While directing the court's Registry to send the details to the banks concerned to freeze their accounts, it asked the company to furnish the remaining bank details by Wednesday. The Bench warned Union Housing and Urban Development Secretary DS Mishra of contempt for having gone ahead with meeting to solve the problems faced by Amrapali homebuyers even as the matter was pending before the court. Mishra said a high-level committee was formed by the Uttar Pradesh government under the chairmanship of the secretary of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to redress the issues of home-buyers and affected parties of incomplete or stalled housing projects at Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway. "In simple words you have committed gross contempt of court," the Bench said but let him off after he tendered an apology. The Bench, however, said the committee set up under him by the UP government can go ahead with its efforts to solve the problems of homebuyers but it must seek courts' permission wherever the matter is pending in courts. On Wednesday, the Bench had directed the Amrapali group, which was yet to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 hassled home buyers, to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of all the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties. The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how the NBCC had issued advertisements inviting co-developers for doing the work related to the Amrapali group without taking its approval. The group had said it was in talks with the Centre for the construction of its pending, unsold and future projects by the NBCC and had already submitted a proposal in this regard. It had earlier told the court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 home buyers in a time-bound manner. rchopra@tribunemail.com Smita Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The White House has confirmed that an official invitation has been extended to US President Donald Trump to be the the chief guest at Indias Republic Day celebrations in 2019. Days after it was first reported, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the news, adding that the US response is yet to be finalised. I know that the invitation has been extended but I dont believe a final decision has been made. I do know that both Secretary Matis and Secretary Pompeo will be travelling to India next month and will begin the dialogue and process and potential discussion for a presidential visit later in the year, said Sanders during a regular press interaction. US Defence Secretary James Matis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in New Delhi on September 6 for the twice postponed inaugural 2+2 dialogue with their counterparts Nirmala Sitharaman and Sushma Swaraj. Discussions on a possible Trump visit are expected to take place among other pressing bilateral issues, including US sanctions on Iran as well as Russia. PM Modi had extended an invitation to Trump to visit India during his trip to Washington last year. Trumps predecessor Barack Obama was the first US President to be bestowed the honour of a January 26 invitation by Narendra Modi in 2015 in a move that surprised most, including critics. While President Sukarno of Indonesia was the first head of state to be invited as chief guest in 1950 for the parade, the invitation has been extended five times to France and the UK, and four times each to Russia and Bhutan so far among other countries. If Trump does accept the invitation, it will be for the first time that a head of state from a country is invited in close succession within four years. The Ministry of External Affairs has so far refused to comment on the subject. The US and India have a deep strategic partnership and we will continue to build on that partnership and advance cooperation. You will see that at the meeting that takes place with Secretary Matis and Pompeo next month, added Sanders. shalender@tribune.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 1 India has welcomed the US State Department and Treasury decision to designate three Lashkar operatives and terror financiers, including senior commander Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil, as global terrorists. The Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list of the US administration imposes sanctions on foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. Welcoming the revised notification issued on Tuesday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar underlined Pakistans duplicity on the war against terror. Dakhil, a longtime member of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was an operational leader for the attacks carried out in India by the banned terror outfit between 1997 and 2001. In 2004, Dakhil was captured in Iraq by British forces and held in the US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was transferred to Pakistan in 2014 and subsequently released. In 2016, Dakhil was LeT divisional commander for the Jammu region and remains a senior commander in the Lashkar rank and file till date. The recent General Election in Pakistan saw several extremists, including some facing UN sanctions, contest as candidates amid severe criticism of mainstreaming terror outfits. sanjiv@tribunemail.com Vishav Bharti Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 2 Ever thought what keeps sea fish fresh? It is formalin, a chemical used for preserving corpses in mortuaries. An investigation carried out by The Tribune has found large presence of the chemical in fish, sold in Chandigarh and Punjab. At least 10 varieties of sea fish are consumed in the region. The Tribune team purchased some popular varieties at one of the region's biggest fish markets in Chandigarhs Sector 21 and got these tested at the Punjab Food and Chemical Testing Laboratory in Kharar. Formalin was found in two most commonly consumed varieties Mackerel and Red Snapper. The test report, prepared by the Food Analyst Punjab, stated that in Mackerel a large amount of the chemical was found. In Red Snapper, traces of formalin were observed. A query with the Punjab Health Department reveals it is not for the first time that formalin has been found in fish in the region. In 2013, four samples were taken by the Civil Surgeon, Patiala, from the citys fish market and a huge amount of formalin was found in all four. Health experts say formalin, a derivative of formaldehyde, is a dangerous chemical and its consumption is linked to cancer. Dr Onkar Singh Baraich, Assistant Professor (Fish and Fisheries), Punjabi University, Patiala, said the chemical was so strong that a solution of 5 per cent formalin and 95 per cent water could preserve fish for 100 years. The moment it comes in contact with a living organism, it arrests it, which helps stop the organism decay, he explained. Formalin can cause severe stomach ailments, disturbing enzymes and paralysing the digestive system. Any food laced with the chemical loses its nutritional value. Formalin-laced food cannot be digested, it goes with faeces as it is. Both Mackerel and Red Snapper, that come from Mumbai, are widely consumed in the region. Transported by train, these reach Chandigarh and Punjab on the third or fourth day. Retailers and wholesalers deny any chemical is used for preservation locally. We receive consignments in thermocol boxes from Mumbai. We place the fish on ice and sell or supply within two days, claims the owner of Ashoka Fish Merchant in Chandigarh. Punjab officials say most of the fish sold in the state is of varieties found in local rivers. Formalin may be used in sea fish, but not in local varieties, that are consumed within 24 hours and need only ice to prevent rotting, says Dr Madan Mohan, Director Fisheries, Punjab. Sukhwinder Singh, Designated Officer, Department of Food Safety and Standards, Chandigarh Administration, did not respond to repeated calls. Supply route Sea fish sourced from Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal arrives at Gazipur hub in East Delhi. It is further supplied to parts of North India, including Chandigarh Deadly formalin It is a strong disinfectant and tissue hardener. It is used for preserving biological and anatomical specimens. It is also used to sterilise surgical intruments Mackerel & Red Snapper Mackerel is known by different names in different languages and regions like aiyla in Malayalam, bangdi in Gujarati and bangda in Marathi. It is widely found in the western coastal belt. Red Snapper is commonly found in Kerala. May Affect... Respiratory tract Lungs Liver Kidney Can Cause Allergies Bronchitis Pneumonia Cancer Consuming 30 ml of formalin a solution made of water, menthol and 37% formaldehyde can kill an adult editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service Kapurthala, August 2 Barely hours after returning from Dubai, a Kala Sanghian-based villager set himself, his wife and two minor children on fire in the early hours on Thursday. Kulwinder Singh (35) had returned home at 11 pm on Wednesday and the incident came to light at 4:30 am. Sources said Kulwinder Singh took the step after he learnt about the alleged illicit relations of his wife with a fellow villager. Infuriated at this, he set himself, his wife Mandeep Kaur, son Abhi (5) and daughter Sonal (8) on fire. Kulwinders mother Mohinder Kaur and sister Jaswinder Kaur, who were sleeping in another room, did not get to know about his return till his death. Mohinder Kaur got up after thick smoke started coming out of her sons room. As she and Jaswinder pushed open the door, they found Kulwinders burnt body. Mandeep and her two kids were rushed to Civil Hospital in Jalandhar. While the children died around noon, Mandeep passed away at 3 pm. Jaswinder too suffered burn injuries on her leg after she pushed open the door. The police have arrested Gurpreet Singh, a villager who reportedly had illicit relations with Mandeep. Gurpreets mother Satya, Balkar Singh and Tirath have also been booked. WhatsApp messages on the mobile phones of the accused and Kulwinder have also reportedly pointed to incitement for committing suicide. Satinder Singh, SSP, said a case had been registered under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC against the four accused. amansharma@tribunemail.com Ravi S. Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 Raising the issue in Rajya Sabha of "large-scale" human trafficking from Punjab to foreign countries, state BJP president Shwait Malik on Thursday sought the Centre's intervention to take effective action against unauthorised travel agents who are behind the problem. He batted for deputing a Central agency to monitor the human trafficking racket, aided and abetted by fake agents by duping innocent people. Like our page on Facebook Bringing up the issue during "Zero Hour", Malik charged the state government with not taking enough measures against the fake agents, who lure people in the name of getting them jobs abroad. The agents charge somewhere a package of Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per person to arrange for journey and job. "Although the number of authorised agents operating in Punjab is 11,000, there are thousands with doubtful credentials," Malik said, terming the situation as grave. The BJP leader added that since April 2017, criminals cases have been registered against only 700 persons (fake agents). "Youths are also cheated in the name of ensuring them education facilities in foreign countries. The victims meet fatal tragedies while on journey," he said, citing reports of drowning of youth from Hoshiarpur along the cost of Panama in a bid to cross over to US illegally. Before this were reports of six men form different villages of Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar missing in the Bahamas, while trying to enter US. "Several mothers have lost their children," Malik said. He also cited abduction and mass killing of 39 Indians, mostly from Punjab, by ISIS in Mosul in Iraq. The victims are held captive, exploited in all sorts of way, and treated as bonded labourers in foreign countries. Their passports are also taken away by employers to ensure that they cannot escape. editorial@tribune.com Perneet Singh Tribune News Service Bathinda, August 2 Not giving in to the AAP leaderships diktat that participation in MLA Sukhpal Khairas convention would be considered as anti-party, volunteers turned up in large numbers from different parts of the state to support the dissident AAP MLAs and their demand for autonomy to the state unit. Talking to The Tribune, Tarlok Singh, an AAP volunteer from Lalpura village in Tarn Taran, said: Punjab is the only state that sent four AAP MPs to Parliament, but the AAP leadership in Delhi kept on imposing its decisions on the state unit. The party would have won the 2017 Assembly elections had there been no interference of Delhi leaders. We support the Khaira group in their demand for autonomy. Subscribe to our Youtube channel: Resenting the party decision to change Leader of Opposition, Jarnail Singh from Tarn Taran said the leadership should know that the horses could not be replaced in the middle of the race. Pal Singh from Pitho village said Khaira was doing well by raising their issues in the Assembly. Rajinderpal Singh of Siriewala village said the state unit should be given a free hand for taking a decision in matters concerning Punjab. Balvinder Singh of Sangrur said people of Punjab were still looking for the third alternative and Khaira could do it. On the sidelines Khairas son Mehtab Singh Khaira also addressed the convention. He said he would always stand by the people of Punjab like his father. The organisers opened the pandal from various sides when there was no space left inside it. Many volunteers either sat on ground or stood all through the convention. A resolution was passed, lauding Khaira for playing the role of Leader of Opposition very well. An MLA showered lavish praise on him. Another resolution thanked the NRIs for their unflinching support to the partys Punjab unit, right from 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Dhadis (balladeers) also belted out ballads that suited the occasion like Dilli diye vairne hukumate, ik din lekhe dene painge. On Kejriwals apology to Bikram Majithia, Mansa MLA said: Kuchh to majboorian rahi hongi unki, koi yuhi to bewafa nahi hota. The banner on the dais didnt have any AAP leaders photograph and just had Aam Aadmi Party Convention written on it. Absentee leaders face wrath on FB Muktsar: AAP leaders, who boycotted the convention, are facing the wrath of party workers on social media. Kotkapura MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwa posted two Hindi couplets on his Facebook account, but a majority of people rebuked him. Some of them even termed him a traitor. Similarly, Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, who has nearly 20 lakh followers on Facebook, is facing the anger of his supporters. On July 31, Mann uploaded a post to pay tributes to Shaheed Udham Singh, but a majority of people advised him to support Khaira. Meanwhile, a few people even advised the AAP leaders to stay united and toe the party line. TNS editorial@tribune.com Our Correspondent Fazilka, August 2 With the allocation of Rs 16 crore to Baba Farid University of Health Science (BFUHS), Faridkot, the hope of completion of the Tertiary Cancer Care Centre (TCCC) in Fazilka has rekindled. The state government allotted the first instalment of Rs 16 crore to the BFUHS last week for the completion of the building. The centre would be managed by the BFUHS. The work on the centre had come to a standstill in January due to the paucity of funds. Official sources said about 36 per cent of the work had been completed at the cost of Rs 4 crore provided by the Punjab Health System Corporation. The Bathinda-based private company had stopped work as the government was reportedly yet to pay Rs 2 crore for the work done by the company. The foundation stone of the Tertiary Cancer Care Centre was laid by then Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on December 23, 2016. Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had announced a grant of Rs 45 crore for the centre in both budgets presented by the present government. monicakchauhan@gmail.com Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Kapurthala, August 2 Barely hours after returning home from Dubai, a Kala Sanghian-based villager poured petrol and set himself, his wife and two minor kids on fire in the wee hours on Thursday. While the man returned home at 11 pm on Wednesday, the incident came to light at 4:30 am on Thursday. The incident reportedly occurred after 35-year-old Kulwinder Singh got to know about the illicit relations of his wife from the villagers. Subscribe to our Youtube channel: Infuriated, he set himself, his wife Mandeep Kaur, his minor son Abhi (5) and daughter Sonal (8) on fire. Kulwinders mother Mohinder Kaur and sister Jaswinder Kaur, who were sleeping in another room in the same house, did not even get to know about his return till his death. Mohinder Kaur got woken up by the smoke that came out of his room. As she and Jaswinder pushed their door, they found that Kulwinder had already died. Mandeep and her two kids were immediately rushed to Civil Hospital in Jalandhar. While the kids died around noon, Mandeep passed away at 3 pm. Jaswinders leg too got partially burnt. The police have arrested Gurpreet Singh, a villager who reportedly had illicit relations with Mandeep that led to the incident. Gurpreets mother, Satya, Balkar Singh and Tirath have also been booked. Whatsapp messages on the phones of the accused and victim Kulwinder has pointed to incitement for committing suicide. SSP Satinder Singh said a case had been registered under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC against four persons belonging of the same village. editorial@tribune.com Hoshiarpur, August 2 Former Cabinet Minister Bikram Singh Majithia has demanded an inquiry into the incidents of sacrilege by a sitting Supreme Court judge. He was addressing a press conference here on Thursday after a workers meet. He termed the report of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission of Inquiry regarding the sacrilege incidents as a report written by a friendly commission sitting in the Congress Bhawan. He claimed that reports of inquiry commissions based on former judges were not trustworthy. Governments spend crores from the state exchequer on such investigations and commissions, he said. On the appointment of Justice Mehtab Singh Gill (retd) as the Lokpal of Punjab, Majithia said what could anyone expect from such a political Lokpal. On Referendum 2020, he said no Sikh in India wanted to be separated from the country. People crying for referendum are working at the behest of Pakistans intelligence agency ISI, which is providing funds to them for this, he said. OC shalender@tribune.com Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 1 A four-year-long delay in reimbursement of grant to colleges under the SC Post Matric Scholarship scheme a whopping Rs 1,600 crore has hit enrolment of Scheduled Caste students in colleges across Punjab. Any SC student whose parental income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh a year is eligible for the scholarship. Owing to monetary restraints, Monu, who has taken admission in BA, has opted to work in a restaurant after college hours. Another local student Gurjant Singh works as a plumber after classes. Keeping up with the rest in studies is not easy since we often work till late in the evening, they say. The joint action committee (JAC), representing 1,550 colleges and polytechnics in the state, claims a 25-50 per cent drop in SC admissions this academic session, with the figure more dismal for technical and management colleges. The JAC blames the Centres decision to credit the reimbursed amount in the students account, not that of the college, for it. College managements argue there is no way of knowing if the money has been transferred into a students account. We are yet to receive a grant of Rs 9.5 crore for SC students. Ten days ago, we had orders from the state as well as Guru Nanak Dev University to allow free admissions. As of now, we are taking Rs 3,000 from all SC students. Their eligibility under the scheme will be known only after the Department of Welfare opens its official portal, said GS Samra, Principal of Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar. DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology enrolled 80 SC students in BTech last year. This time their number has declined to 30, according to its principal Manoj Kumar. Deepinder Sekhon of Quest Infosys Foundation Institutions, Kharar, says SC admissions have been down by 20 per cent and so does Dr Tejinder Singh Sidhu of Beant College of Engineering, Gurdaspur. However, the actual figures will be known by mid-August when admissions close. Principal Sucharita of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar, says the High Court last year had ordered that colleges were free to charge SC students the admission fee. We acted accordingly. Now, they have stopped coming to us. Our fee for graduate courses is Rs 60,000 per annum. But we are told we will be refunded money as per the charges in government colleges, which are a mere Rs 8,000 a year. Surely, we cant fill the yawning gap. Ashwini Sekhri, chairman of a group of colleges in Batala, points out that admissions in the general category too have declined. Therefore, the fall in SC admissions comes as no surprise. editorial@tribune.com Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday urged the Centre to grant full citizenship rights to the minority Hindu and Sikh immigrants from Afghanistan who have been forced to flee to India. Also, it sought Central intervention for granting minority status to Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir. A delegation of SAD MPs, led by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh pressing for citizenship rights to the immigrants from Afghanistan. The delegation comprised SS Dhindsa, Naresh Gujral and Prem Singh Chandumajra. Former MP Tarlochan Singh, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Manjit Singh (GK), and representatives of Hindu and Sikh immigrants from Afghanistan accompanied the delegation. Like our page on Facebook Making a distinction between the immigrants in Assam, the delegation said the Hindus and Sikhs were forced to flee Afghanistan on account of religious persecution by the Taliban. They settled in India more than three decades back. Besides, their parents are from India. It is lamentable that even though the Government of Indias standing policy is to welcome people of Indian origin if they are forced to leave their adopted countries, the immigrants from Afghanistan are made to run from pillar to post to get citizenship rights, the delegation said. A memorandum was submitted to Rajnath Singh in the regard. Gujral said Rajnath Singhs attention was also drawn to Sikhs not given minority status in the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the state government. Rajnath Singh was urged to intervene to ensure safety of life and property of Sikhs residing in Meghalaya and in other north-eastern states. Raising the issue of Chandigarh Administration amending the Motor Vehicle Act making it mandatory for even the Sikh women to wear helmets, the SAD urged the Centre to intervene. Gujral said Rajnath Singh assured the delegation of giving a sympathetic consideration to the issues. With regard to granting citizenship rights to the immigrants from Afghanistan, he assured he would convene a meeting of officials, probably on August 14. gspannu7@gmail.com Ravi S Singh Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 2 The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday came on the front foot urging the Centre to grant full citizenship rights to the minority Hindu and Sikh immigrants from Afghanistan, which was forced to flee to India. Also, it sought Centres intervention for granting minority status to Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir. Subscribe to our Youtube channel: A delegation of SAD MPs led by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh pressing for citizenships right to the immigrants from Afghanistan. The delegation comprised of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Naresh Gujral and Prem Singh Chandumajra. Former MP Tarlochan Singh, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Manjit Singh GK and representatives of Hindu and Sikh immigrants from Afghanistan accompanied the delegation. Making a distinction between the immigrants in Assam, the delegation said Afghanistan Sikhs were forced to flee on account of religious persecution by Taliban. They settled in India, more than three decades back. Besides, their parents are from India. It is lamentable that even though the Government of Indias standing policy is to welcome people of India- origin if they are forced to leave their adopted countries, the immigrants from Afghanistan are made to run from pillar to post to get citizenship rights, the delegation said. A memorandum was submitted to Rajnath Singh in the regard. Gujral said Rajnath Singhs attention was also drawn to Sikhs not given minority status in Jammu and Kashmir by the state government. He was urged to intervene with the Meghalaya Government to ensure safety of life and property of Sikhs residing in the state, and in other north-eastern states. Raising the issue of Chandigarh Administration amending Motor Vehicle Act making it mandatory on even the Sikh women to wear helmets, SAD urged Centre to intervene. Gujral said Rajnath Singh assured the delegation to give a sympathetic consideration to the issues. With regard to granting citizenships rights to the immigrants from Afghanistan, he assured he will convene a meeting of officials, probably on August 14. sanjiv@tribunemail.com AT the war loan meeting held at Lucknow on Friday last, the Hon'ble Mirza Sami Ulla Beg made an eloquent and impressive speech in which he pointed out that the people should entertain no doubt as to the desirability and advantages of subscribing to the best of their ability to the war loan. In the course of his speech he said the money of the people was safe and would bear a handsome interest besides helping the Government to prosecute the war and keep the enemy out of India. At the end of the meeting a liberal amount was promised by those who had assembled. harinder@tribunemail.com Tribune News Service Dehradun, August 2 Former Congress MLA Ganesh Godiyal on Thursday alleged that the BJP was trying to harass him by sending him notices for tax evasion. Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, Godiyal asserted that he was being specifically targeted as he had been opposing the BJP tooth and nail. The former Congress MLA said he had been filing income tax returns for the past three decades and had never evaded tax. He alleged that he was being targeted by the Central government through the Income Tax Department. I was the one who had opposed the Union Governments motive to dismiss the democratically elected Congress government in Uttarkhand in 2016, he pointed out. Godiyal said he was also at the forefront in opposing the Centres much-hyped laser show in Kedarnath. It is all due to this that now I am being targeted, he said. He added that he had established himself as a successful businessman. Uttarkhand Congress president Pritam Singh was also present. Photo: Contributed Customers on the Silver Star Water System may want to stock up, as a planned outage is scheduled for August 8. The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) advises customers of the Silver Star Water Utility that a water outage is planned to occur between the hours of 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Wednesday, August 8, 2018 in order to facilitate a water system upgrade. "During this period, customers are encouraged to only use water for basic necessities. You may wish to store a short-term supply of water before the interruption for use while the water is off." Water quality may be affected after the water is turned back on. It is suggested to run a tap until the water clears before consuming water or doing laundry. For further information, please call 250-550-3688. rchopra@tribunemail.com Singapore, August 2 A Bangladeshi national disguised as a Sikh to rob a pawn shop here had been arrested, Singapore police said on Thursday. Sheikh Md Razan, 29, who was working as a construction worker previously and had overstayed since last December, was arrested on Wednesday evening. Razan, wearing a pink turban, entered a ValueMax pawn shop outside Boon Lay Mass Rapid Transit station at about 4.30 pm on July 28 armed with a knife and a replica of a gun, which later turned out to be made of plastic. Pawn shop is a shop or business common for exchanging jewellery for cash here. On barging in the shop, he demanded that the shops employee hand over to him all the cash and jewellery. When the employee refused, the man allegedly said he would blow up the shop, claiming he had an explosive device. He then allegedly threw the object onto the counter and fled without taking any items. The workers immediately threw the object out of the shop and called the police. No one was injured in the incident. The object contained electrical components. After the foiled robbery attempt, the suspect allegedly went to an apartment block in the industrial district of Jurong West, within the vicinity of the train station left his backpack, discarded his clothing and turban behind the potted plants outside a residence. The items, along with a chopper, were found in the backpack behind the plants. A few hours later, when a resident noticed the backpack, the police was alerted. This gave a clearer picture of what Razan looked like, the police said during a press conference. Deputy Commissioner of Police and Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Florence Chua said the suspect was quite surprised when he was caught. He didnt think we had caught on to his disguise, she said. The suspect is expected to be charged in court on Friday. PTI gspannu7@gmail.com Beijing, August 2 A prominent Beijing temple has denied allegations that its celebrity head abbot, a member of the Communist Party, coerced several nuns into having sex with him, one of Chinas most high-profile #MeToo cases. The allegations against Master Xuecheng and the Beijing Longquan Monastery burst into the public eye when a 95-page document written by two former monks, who also claimed that the temple is in financial trouble, emerged online earlier this week. He is accused of sending illicit text messages to at least six women, tempting or threatening them to have sex with him. Four gave in to Xuechengs demands, the report said, adding that he tried to assert mind control by claiming the sex was a part of their Buddhist studies. Xuecheng manipulated disciples to serve his Buddhist Empire... disciples under his control sacrificed their precious practices of Buddhist doctrines, the document said. But the monastery late Wednesday denounced the dossier, which it says falsified evidence, calling it an attempt to tarnish Xuecheng and the monasterys reputation. The falsified evidence is based on a deliberate attempt to frame Master Xuecheng, and can be considered a crime, the temple said in a statement posted on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. This incident has its roots in revenge, an operation motivated by malice. Beijing Longquan Monastery calls on the government and religious affairs authorities to form an investigative team to look into the matter. Beijing police and the religious affairs authorities could not be immediately reached for comment. The report and posts about it have been taken down or censored on social media. According to the state-run Global Times, Xuecheng had been brought in for questioning by authorities but later released. In a separate social media posting, one of the reports authors said he was forced to go public after the victims were ignored by authorities who said they could not investigate the matter. There is no legal definition of sexual harassment in China and no national regulations on how to handle sexual assault cases in schools and workplaces. Abbot Xuecheng is a prominent personality in Chinese Buddhist life with a social media following of millions. He heads the Buddhist Association of China and is also a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory board. Located on the outskirts of Beijing, Longquan Monastery has made headlines for combining Buddhism with modern technology, launching last year a two-foot high robot monk that dispenses mantras and karmic advice. The #MeToo movement ignited in China earlier this year with more women starting to open up about sexual assaults, especially on university campuses. Unlike in the West, where #MeToo has forced resignations and sparked widespread public debate, authorities in China have sought to control the discussion, sometimes allowing and at other times censoring social media commentary. AFP sanjiv@tribunemail.com Kabul, August 2 An Indian working for an international food services company in Afghanistan was among three foreign nationals killed by unidentified gunmen after being abducted from Kabul, the latest incident targeting foreigners in the war-torn country. The three menan Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonianwho were working as chefs for the French food services and facilities management giant Sodexo, were reportedly shot in the head. The Indian national was 39, the Macedonian was 37 and the Malaysian was 64. The victims were abducted on Thursday morning by four gunmen from the industrial park area of the 9th police district in Kabul city while they were on way to work in their official car. Their bodies were later found in Mussahi, a volatile remote and mountainous area of the Afghan capital, the report said. According to Afghan media reports, the armed men took out foreigners from their vehicle around 8.30 am (local time) and abducted them in a Toyota Corolla sedan. The driver of the car later reached the office and informed the staff about the abduction, the report said. PTI laxmi@tribune.com Islamabad, August 2 Pakistan said on Thursday that no foreign leader will be invited to the oath-taking ceremony of Imran Khan as the prime minister in-waiting wants to keep the event very simple and dignified. Imrans Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the single largest party in the elections held on July 25. The 65-year-old leader is expected to take oath on August 11. Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said a simple ceremony will be held at the President House for which no date has been fixed. Follow @thetribunechd No dignitary from abroad except a few close friends of Chairman PTI Imran Khan would attend the simple and dignified oath-taking at Aiwan-e-Sadar (President House), said Faisal. President Mamnoon Hussain will administer Khan the oath of the office. Imrans party had initially planned to invite several foreign leaders and personalities, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, in an apparent change of heart today, Khan has opted against a fancy ceremony. Faisal said that the PTI also announced that no foreign leaders would attend the oath-taking ceremony. In a tweet, the PTI announced that the oath taking will be a simple and dignified ceremony and it has been decided not to invite foreign dignitaries. PTI SC disqualifies PML-N leader pardeepdhull@gmail.com Mexico City, August 1 Shortly after boarding her flight in the northern Mexican state of Durango afternoon on Tuesday afternoon, Ashley Garcia had a premonition that something was wrong. The 17-year-old high school student from Northlake, a suburb of Chicago, was one of 65 U.S. citizens among the 103 passengers and crew aboard the Aeromexico passenger jet that crashed near the runway shortly after take-off. Settling into her seat, Garcia saw a storm was gathering fast in the distance, and by the time the aircraft began preparing for takeoff it was battered by strong winds, hail and rain. Garcia captured the scene through her window with her cellphone. I had a gut feeling: just record it, just record it, said Garcia. I was like, theres no way we are taking off, its too risky. The flight crashed moments after taking off, skidding to a halt in scrubland near the runway, a wing in flames. Passengers described how they followed escape procedures, enabling everyone to evacuate without any fatalities. We had been told so many times what to do, Garcia said of the safety protocol passengers around the world are taught every time they board a plane. No one ever thinks its going to happen until it happens to them. We were there for each other... Thats how we were able to get off safely. Investigators found the Embraer passenger jets recorders on Wednesday and have still to determine the cause of the crash. Aeromexico said 64 people have been released from hospitals. Two people, including the pilot, were more seriously injured. Garcia was returning to the United States with three cousins after a two-week trip to visit relatives, traveling from Durango to Mexico City to catch a connecting flight to Chicago. Liliana Gallarzo, Garcias cousin, thought the bumpy take-off was turbulence until the aircraft began skidding and panic set in. We were screaming, said Gallarzo, a 19-year-old college student from Chicago. Everyone was trying to get away from the plane, trying to get out. They smelled the smoke right away. But the cousins were seated in the middle of the cabin, and passengers were exiting from the front and rear doors, as the emergency exits in the middle of the plane were unused due to the fire near the wing, Garcia said. Filing behind fellow travelers, they made their way toward the rear as the aircraft filled with smoke. Garcia grabbed her phone but left her luggage behind, losing her glasses in the shuffle. When they reached the exit, there were no emergency slides, meaning they had to jump, Garcia said. A trampoline was there to cushion their fall, and fellow passengers helped them make the jump. Once off the plane, Garcia coughed and vomited, choking for air. A flight attendant directed the cousins to get as far away as possible from the plane, which was soon engulfed by the fire, leaving only smoldering wreckage after firefighters extinguished the blaze. They walked through the rain, their clothes soaked. After waiting for further direction, they headed closer to the runway, where firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel sprang into action, checking passengers for injuries. Suffering from minor scratches and bruises, Garcia was taken to the hospital, where she underwent X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before returning home that night. She said the compassion shown to her by emergency personnel affirmed her desire to be a police officer. She has a flight home booked for Friday. I didnt think I would be able to get back on a flight, but I have experienced the worst, Garcia said. So now whatever happens, its meant to happen. Reuters laxmi@tribune.com Paris/Moscow/Hamburg, August 2 Searing heat has devastated wheat fields across northern Europe while a combination of dry conditions and extreme rain in the Black Sea have hit output estimates, with prices soaring on fears of further crop damage. Evidence of serious harm to crops is growing as harvesting heads north in Germany, the European Unions second largest wheat producer, and in Scandinavia, prompting further cuts to estimates for the 28-member bloc. The situation is catastrophic in northern Europe, Strategie Grains head analyst Andree Defois said on Thursday. The consultancy last week cut its forecast for this years soft wheat harvest in the EU, collectively the worlds largest wheat grower, below 130 million tonnes, a six-year low, and Defois said it could revise the estimate again. Follow @thetribunechd France, the EUs top producer, has also experienced extreme weather, prompting forecasters to cut their estimates to around 34 million tonnes from 36.6 million harvested last year. Scandinavia and other Baltic states have also suffered, with Swedens wheat crop seen falling 40 per cent while in Britain, where wheat crops are expected to fall to a five-year low, farmers are anxiously awaiting results as the harvest moves north. Its far worse than we expected, Sebastien Poncelet, analyst at Agritel said. It has been months since it has rained in some parts of northern Europe and in Germany there should be no rain for at least another two weeks. As harvesting progressed north Agritel revised its estimate for the European all-wheat crop by 3 million tonnes in the past week to 136.6 million tonnes, down 15 million on year, Poncelet said. Reacting to the crisis, the European Commission said on Thursday it would speed up payments to farmers hit by extreme drought and allow them to use fallow land that normally would not be used for production to feed their livestock. Wheat prices have surged more than 20 per cent on European and US markets in the past three weeks on mounting worries over global wheat supplies. Prices were also supported by a severe drought hitting crops in Australia. Euronext milling wheat futures hit a more than five-year high of 214.50 euros ($249.36) per tonne on Thursday. Overall output is seen falling to five-year lows, the International Grains Council said last week after lowering its forecasts for the EUs top four producers, France, Germany, Britain and Poland. The damage could see one of Europes largest wheat exporters needing wheat imports in the coming year and has led to DBV calls for around 1 billion euros in drought aid. Crops have not been as badly damaged in France, where harvesting had already started as the heatwave hit, and its wheat exporters are now seen as the main beneficiary of their neighbours weather woes. US farmers could also benefit potentially toppling Russia as the worlds leading exporter, analysts said. Reuters Prices soar on fears of damage Wheat prices have surged more than 20 per cent on European and US markets in the past three weeks on mounting worries over global wheat supplies The wheat rally is reviving memories of 2007/08 when surging prices prompted a food crisis. But analysts say high stocks and other grain crops could compensate for part of the shortfall Germanys wheat crop, wilted by the highest May temperatures since 1881, is expected to shrink 25 per cent this year, farmers association DBV said Overall output is seen falling to five-year lows, the International Grains Council said last week after lowering its forecasts for the EUs top four producers Its pouring rain in Black Sea pardeepdhull@gmail.com Seoul, August 2 US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he looked forward to meeting Kim Jong Un soon and thanked the North Korean leader for sending the suspected remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War back to the United States. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action, Trump wrote in a Twitter message. Also, thank you for your nice letter - I look forward to seeing you soon!, Trump said, without elaborating. The pledge to return the remains of US soldiers was made during a landmark summit between Trump and Kim in June in Singapore, where North Korea committed to work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Kim sent a letter to Trump in mid-July in which the North Korean leader said he hoped there would be a second meeting between the two but it was unclear if that was the nice letter to which Trump referred on Thursday. Trump also took to Twitter earlier to praise an incredibly beautiful ceremony in Hawaii, where Vice President Mike Pence helped welcome the remains to the United States. The United States said during a solemn ceremony on Wednesday the human remains presumably included Americans killed in the Korean War and thanked North Korea for making good on its pledge to hand them over. The pledge to transfer war remains was seen as a goodwill gesture by Kim at the Singapore summit and was the most concrete agreement reached by the two sides so far. I know that President Trump is grateful that Chairman Kim has kept his word, and we see today this tangible progress in our efforts to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula, said Pence, whose father fought in the Korean War. More than 7,700 US troops remain unaccounted for from the Korea War. About 5,300 were lost in what is now North Korea. Other countries under the command of the United Nations also lost troops that are still unaccounted for, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Experts say positively identifying the decades-old remains could take anywhere from days to decades. Still, an initial field forensic review indicated the remains are what North Korea said they were, John Byrd, director of analysis for the US Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency, told reporters at an air base in South Korea before the remains were flown to Hawaii. Reuters 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. Hi all.... We are 2 senior, retired Canadians, who are active walkers & bikers, and enjoy slow travel. We used to travel to the USA as snowbirds to escape Canadian winters. This year we are planning to travel to NZ/OZ for 70 days (Jan 3 - Mar 14). We are committed to 17 days in NZ, followed by 41 days in Australia, finishing with another 12 days in NZ...(flights are booked and paid for). We were planning to spend 14 days in Sydney, where we arrive, 10 days in Adelaide, and finishing with 17 days in Melbourne, where we depart. We will rent apartments with kitchenettes etc., in all places. We hoped to do day trips from each of these cities, and did want to have a slower pace, as our NZ portion will be a lot of stop & go travel. We also plan this to be our first trip to Australia, returning in future years for more exploration. Any thoughts or suggestions would be really appreciated. I think those are all great beach locations. I havent been to the Caribbean side yet but Im sure I would like it. Looking at minor differences, Uvita/Dominical on average is more rainy than the others at the end of August, so that would be #4 on that list. Santa Teresa/Montezuma is a bit harder to get to than Nosara/Samara. Nosara / Samara gives you two different types of beach towns and beaches, with several other nice beaches around. Nosara is more of a rustic surf village/town and the beach is more wild than Samaras too. Samara has a walkable town with more paved roads and calmer waters at the beach for swimmers and beginning surfers. Samara is also known for having more good places to eat than you would expect for a small place. So I would put Santa Teresa/Montezuma at #3 and Samara/Nosara in a tie with the Caribbean side for a first time visitor at the end of August. At least I got it down to 2. In spite of it being the rainy season in Bali and dry season in Vietnam, I would, if your trip is anywhere near the Tet New Year opt for Bali. In general, while both places are great with welcoming and friendly people, Vietnam is cheaper and does have a lot of Vegetarian restaurants. Bali stands out as a place with stunning natural beauty concentrated in such a small area, the sights in Vietnam being spread out much more, so if your time is limited Bali is better. It would be worthwhile going to Travelfish.org for some in-depth research. If you're thinking of a cruise, consider Lan Ha bay (from Cat Ba island) rather than Ha Long. It's far less touristy than Ha Long, has the same beautiful karst scenery, and is much cleaner. Spend 2 full days in Cat Ba town; one for a cruise and the other for a full day's trekking in the national park. Don't book either online. Easy to do through your hotel and far cheaper. For example, I did a full day Lan Ha cruise, including kayaking and a good lunch on board for just 340,000VND. The same trip advertised on TA costs double that. I would look at the area around (including all of them) Manual Antonio to Dominical and Uvita, and explore the others from one location or move around if you prefer. Here is one place to look at in that area, both for activities and if you want to stay there (Hacienda Baru) Taking surfing lessons can be a lot of fun, if you can swim and stand up you can give it a try. I would suggest trying it on your first day there, because it's not expensive to rent a board after that. I mention that because I see there is a surf camp just down the street from Hacienda Baru in Dominical (Costa Rica Surf Camp). I've never enjoyed a sport the first time as much as surfing. Take a look at this area from Manuel Antonio to Uvita on Google maps, read up on that area in TripAdvisor etc. , look at photos (google image search) and even videos on Youtube. Dominical Manual Antonio Uvita Manuel Antonio video Uvita beach video Dominical video I decided to try out the Port Imperial ferry. I had to go to the Chinese Embassy to apply for a visa, which is diagonally across West Street from the ferry terminal. Approaching from the north, my left turn for the ferry in Weehawken was poorly marked. On a July, 2018 weekday, I had to drive to the top floor of the garage to find an empty space. The garage has no column numbers to locate your car when you return, so look around for remember-able landmarks after you park. You must exit at street level and use the crosswalk to the ferry terminal, where you buy your tickets. Midday, the ferry seemed to run every 20 minutes. At 11AM, the ferry was less than half full. It's a nice view, for a very short ride. You can see Heatherwick Studio's "Vessel" at Hudson Yards. They told me that the busses "meet" the ferry, so I planned to continue by city bus after I walked three blocks to the Chinese Embassy. (Also near the Intrepid and several Hudson River boat rides.) In fact, I walked down to 34th and West Street to take the M34 to the Morgan Library and Museum. I did take the Port Imperial Shuttle Bus back to the ferry at the end of the day. Note that the bus routes CHANGE between Rush Hours and Non-Rush Hours. They were low on folding maps, so I suggest you print them out at home. It wasn't clear from their own map that they have permission to stop at all MTA bus stops, so you just hail the NY Waterway bus and show your ferry ticket stub. Pricing: The parking garage is $6 for the first hour, and $20 for 4 to 24 Hours. The Early Bird special doesn't apply to most posters here, but it's By 9AM to 7PM, $14. The Night Special is After 4PM to 2AM, $10. My round-trip ferry fare was about $18. (Their website is down all morning today, so I can't check this.) For two people, that's $56 for a full day. The Hudson River toll is about $15, so that leaves you $41 for Manhattan parking if you are willing to drive into the city, and spend the same amount. It's a question of how you want to spend your time and money. Other factors include the many commuter lots, like North Bergen Park and Ride that a)often fill up b)prohibit overnight parking. Note that this is a subsidized private company, not a government operation. You can't beat that parking rate in Ramsey NJ, which I've never used. But it's a substantial train ride, and I believe it fills up on business days. There is insufficient parking at most rail stops in New Jersey, and the Ramsey garage is right by a major state highway. You dinner budget is quite modes - doable - but what DH and I would spend at a local neighborhood cafe. Remember that: Alcohol is going to be much more expensive than you are used to All prepared foods are taxed at 9% and the usual tip for waitstaff an bartenders is 20%, so the total price will be 30% more than listed on the menu. For perspective, when DH and I have dinner at a pleasant local cafe (but NOT an upscale restaurant) it costs about $90 for 2 for 1 shared appetizers, 2 main courses (but no high options like steak), 1 glass of wine each, coffee, tip and tax. If you also wanted a cocktail that would be an extra $36-$40 for the 2 of you. How do I get from the airport (JFK, LGA, or EWR) to Manhattan? What To Do During Layovers? Vacation Apartment Rentals Violate NYC Laws Hotels: Kitchenettes and kitchens in 100+ Manhattan Hotels Hotels: Two queen beds plus a kitchen/kitchenette Hotels: Guests under 21 years old (but at least 18) Hotels: Which ones charge an additional Resort or Facilities Fee Hotels: When is the best time to go for cheaper rates? What are the Must-See's and Must-Do's? How Do I Ride the Subway (UPDATED)? Tips, Hint and Suggestions for First Timers SCAMS to avoid in NYC What Will the Weather Be Like During My Trip? Any Good Websites for Researching My Trip? How Safe is New York? Where to Eat in NYC Where to eat in NYC - Part 2 Celiac in the City? (gluten free) Which Area Should I Stay In? Is There Cheaper Lodging Outside Manhattan? How Much Do I Tip People? Are the New York Pass, Explorer Pass or CityPass worth it? How Do I Hail a Taxi? Public restrooms/toilets. Where do you go when you GOTTA GO? Where are the best areas for shopping? How do I find Discount Tickets for Broadway Shows? What are the NYC Halloween events for 2021? Thanksgiving 2021 in NYC: What to Do & Where to Eat Christmastime in NYC 2021: Dates for the Trees-Windows-Markets-Ice Skating+MORE! Christmas Day 2021 in NYC: What to Do & Where to Eat What Should I Do on New Year's Eve? How Will I Survive the Cold Weather? Where are the Farmers Markets and Street Fairs? What is there to see and do near WTC/SOL/Brooklyn Bridge/SI ferry? What should I know about visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum? What Is There to See and Do in Brooklyn? How Do I Get to the Brooklyn Bridge? What Is There to See and Do in Queens? Exploring neighborhoods - where should I go and what should I see? Which is the best? ESB or TOTR or OWO? Which are the significant churches in Manhattan? Hidden Gems in the city - not so touristy How do I get from NYC to the Meadowlands and back? I'm Getting Married in NYC...what do I need to do? Should I Buy Knock-Off Purses? What to Do with Kids and How to Do It? What should we do at night -- especially with kids or under 21's? Places to eat (and drink) with a view Where is the Old FAQ? Trip Reports: Families with Young Kids - Add yours! Trip Reports: Groups of Friends - Add yours! Trip Reports: Couples - Add yours! Trip Reports: Families with Teenagers - Add yours! Trip Reports: Solo Travelers - Add yours! Trip Reports: Families of Adults - Add yours! - The government was not honest when it announced the cost of electricity would go down - Consumers of 10 KW/h and below per month now pay KSh 12 per unit from KSh 2.50 - Those using between 11 and 50 KWh/month have to part with KSh 15.80 from KSh 2.50 - Using between 51 and 1500 KWh/month would cost you KSh 15.80 per unit from KSh 12.75 - The only category of domestic consumers who will feel some sense of relief would be consumer of above 1500 KWh/month As was reported earlier by TUKO.co.ke, the cost of electricity was expected to spike after the revised power tariffs took effect on Wednesday, August 1, and that is what has happened. Kenyans are already feeling the pinch with many lamenting they are now paying more for tokens and receiving way less units. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Polisi wakamata wanafunzi wa darasa la 7 na 8 wakishiriki ngono, Kayole Kenya Power has been on the spot over inflated power bills and was taken to court to explain why its billing was not consistent. Photo: KPLC. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Government removes fixed power charges, lowers cost of electricity for Kenyans In response to the complains, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) told those with queries on the hiked power tariffs to channel their anger to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). "Hello. For tariff charges, levies and taxes queries kindly contact ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) on 020 2847000 or twitter handle @energy_ke," Kenya Power tweeted on Wednesday. READ ALSO: Kenya Power opens hotline after complaints over electricity bills And why would KPLC decline to answer questions on tariff charges, levies and taxes? TUKO.co.ke understands the regulator (ERC) had the final say on how much Kenyans should pay for electricity going forward after Kenya Power applied for review of energy tariffs. READ ALSO: High Court stops Kenya Power from billing consumers with inflated backdated bills The government initially announced the new tariffs and removal of fixed monthly charge of KSh 150 would lower the cost of electricity. Many were more than excited by the news but the excitement was short lived when fresh details on the fresh power charges emerged. A closer look at the newly unveiled tariffs revealed most Kenyans would in fact be forced to pay more for electricity than they previously did. The table below summarises the new rates. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. High school leaver builds own electricity power plant (Amazing Story) - On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - South Africa resisted Kenyan avocados as they were infested with pests but the the ban was lifted on Wednesday, August 1 - Farmers have for 10 years been facing KSh 2.8 billion in losses since the ban took effect in 2007 - The trade brings to Kenya at least KSh 5.4 billion in revenue - Worldwide, Kenya has a 15% share in avocado business - In 2016, Kenya exported avocados worth KSh 5.4 billion to various markets Avocado farmers in Kenya are set to reap huge benefits following a move by South Africa to re-open it doors and allow exportation of the fruit to the country. For at least 10 years now, avocado farmers in the country have been counting loses after SA stopped buying the the fruit from them following a deadly pest infestation in Kenyan farms. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: 2 cabinet secretaries on chopping board over costly sugar import saga For at least ten years now, avocado farmers in the country have been counting loses after SA stopped importing the fruit following deadly pest infestation in Kenyan farms. Photo:Jamii Avocados Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kenya Power tells distraught customer to channel anger to energy regulator as new tariffs bite A report by People Daily on Thursday, August 2, indicated the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis) said the development will go along way in broadening the fruit's market share both in SA and international market. We would like to report that the avocado export market has finally been reopened after long negotiations spearheaded by Kephis and other stakeholders, Kephis Managing Director Esther Kimani said in a statement. In 2016, Kenya exported avocados worth KSh 5.4 billion (38,702 tonnes) to various markets. Photo:Jamii Avocados Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Soaring prices of sugar, fuel push cost of living through the roof The two governments, Kimani said, had engaged in extensive negotiations and come up with guidelines set to be followed by Kenyan avocado farmers in an effort to sustain the partnership. Pest management is among the conditions set besides the creation of pest-free zones which are envisaged to go a long way in rounding-up fruit fly infestation. READ ALSO: JamboPay outwits defunct Nairobi county council in revenue collection, rakes KSh 70 million monthly Avocado farmers and pack houses are also expected to be registered and exposed to compliance auditing in a move to bring the product at parity with SA standard requirements. Only those exporters approved by Kephis and assigned special codes shall proceed to apply for an import permit, said Kimani. Kenya also trades in the fruit with Egypt, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Belgium, Spain, Qatar, Germany, France United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The trade brings to Kenya at least KSh 5.4 billion in revenue annually and worldwide, Kenya has a 15% share in the avocado business Kenyan farmers have for the last one decade been facing KSh 2.8 billion in losses since the ban by SA took effect in 2007. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Cecilia Mwangi Story: Meet 78-Year-old Sound System Master At Faces of Kenya | Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Waluke and Wakhungu are accused of fraudulently acquiring KSh 297,000,000 purporting to be the costs of maize storage - They were temporarily held at the EACC headquarters before being taken to Milimani anti-corruption court - Waluke and Wakhungu allegedly committed the offense on separate dates between 2009 and 2013 Detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on the morning of Thursday, August 2, picked up Sirisia MP John Waluke over suspected forgery, perjury and fraudulent acquisition of public property. Waluke together with Grace Sarapay Wakhungu who are both named as directors of Erad Supplies and General Contracts Limited, were temporarily held at the EACC headquarters before being taken to Milimani anti-corruption court. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: CEO, 5 top managers suspended over Ksh 1.9 billion heist at the cereals board Sirisia MP John Waluke when he was arraigned on Thursday, August 1. Photo: Ahmed Mohamed/Twitter. Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Names of Kenyans who irregularly supplied maize to National Cereals and Produce Board The court heard Waluke and Wakhungu uttered a false invoice for the sum of KSh 115 million as evidence to support a claim for storage of 40,000 metric tonnes of white maize incurred by Chelsea Freight at the National Cereal and Produce Board (NCPB). The two were jointly charged with fraudulently acquiring KSh 297,000,000 purporting to offer storage services to the freight company, loss of profits and interest. They also allegedly obtained a further KSh 13 million of public money on grounds of having offered storage services through Chelsea Freight and another KSh 24 million. READ ALSO: Cereals board officials conspired with traders to sell fake fertilizer to farmers National Cereals and Produce Board acting chief executive Albin Sang before the National Assembly Public Investment Committee. Photo: Mediamax. Source: UGC READ ALSO: Stolen NCPB KSh 1.9 billion meant for 2022 presidential campaigns - ODM Waluke and Wakhungu allegedly committed the offense on separate dates between 2009 and 2013. Though they denied the charges, the court resumes at 2 pm to rule on their bail application. In May 2018, the investigating authorities launched probe into the loss of KSh 1.9 billion from the produce board. Several senior officials were on Monday, May 21, sent on compulsory leave as probe into the costly and embarrassing scam at the NCPB kicked off . Among those suspended by the Agriculture Principal Secretary (PS) Richard Lesiyampe was the cereals board CEO Newton Terer who was replaced by Albin Sang. Also sent home were five senior managers drawn from Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret and Bungoma depots. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans React to Loss of Public Funds | Tuko TV- On Tuko TV Source: Tuko.co.ke Photo: Contributed UPDATE: 2:45 p.m. An Air Force base in Ohio said there was not an active shooter incident Thursday, just hours after authorities in armoured vehicles and unmarked cars swarmed the base amid reports of a shooter its medical centre. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said in a statement that someone called 911 during a training exercise that included an active shooter scenario at a separate location. The caller thought there was an incident occurring within the base hospital, sending security forces to the scene where they began searching the entire hospital, the statement said. While trying to get inside a locked door, a security team member shot his firearm to open the door, the statement said. Wright-Patterson tweeted that emergency units responded to a "reported incident" around 12:40 p.m. An hour later, they said it was a reported active shooter incident and personnel were instructed to shelter in place on the sprawling base. ORIGINAL: 11:20 a.m. Federal and state authorities in armoured vehicles and unmarked cars swarmed onto a sprawling Air Force base in Ohio on Thursday amid reports of an active shooter at a medical centre. Workers at the base were told to shelter in place on the sprawling base. WHIO-TV reported that an announcement was made at the medical centre telling some people inside the building to leave with their hands on their heads. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said via Twitter it was among several agencies responding to the active shooter reports. Wright-Patterson sent a tweet saying it was responding to "a reported incident." Stacey Geiger, with the base's public affairs office. said the base was on lockdown but she had no other information to release. Local police were directing traffic away from the base, which is Ohio's largest single-site employer with more than 27,000 civilian employees and military personnel. The Ohio State Highway Patrol and local police also had officers at the base. -Lamu County has not had an inch of tarmac since independence, with successive regimes ignoring residents pleas for better roads -But several tarmac roads are being constructed since the Jubilee government assumed power in 2013, Mokowe road being the first -A 135-kilometre highway from Lamu to Garsen is already under construction and will connect the island to the rest of the country Whenever President Uhuru Kenyatta visits any corner of the country, he is naturally held in high esteem as a result of the powerful office he holds. But he got more than that when he made an unexpected visit of Lamu County on Tuesday, July 31 to inspect ongoing projects. Local leaders and their supporters alike could not hide their admiration for the man who has finally heard their perennial cries, and changed the fortunes of the tropical island for the better. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mkenya Akuku Danger na wanaume 10 walioandikisha rekodi ya kuwa na watoto wengi zaidi duniani Uhuru visited Lamu on Tuesday, July 31 to inspect ongoing government projects. Photo: TUKO Source: Original READ ALSO: Do you know this lady? She stole her employer's baby in Kiambu Among the roads the president inspected on Tuesday was the Mokowe Urban Road, the first ever inch of tarmac road in the county since independence. The KSh 1.1 billion road, whose construction started in May last year and is expected to be complete by end of next year, arguably means much more to them than just a road. Many Lamu residents have never set foot on tarmac and all they have known is the dusty, muddy and potholed Lamu-Garsen road, which is the only road to and from Lamu on land. They have felt marginalized as their pleas to successive regimes since independence to build proper roads have fallen on deaf ears. A 135-kilometre highway from Lamu to Garsen is already under construction and will connect the island to the rest of the country. Photo: TUKO Source: Original READ ALSO: Kenyans left in disbelief over Mau devastation, call for evictions without negotiations Their problem was compounded with the onset of Al Shabaab attacks nine years ago as the poor roads made them easy targets to terrorisms as vehicles maneuvered it at extremely slow speeds. But wind of change started blowing after the Jubilee government assumed power in 2013 and earmarked all key roads in the county for upgrading. As a result, movement within the island will be a whole new experience when the Kenya Urban Roads Authority completes the 15 kilometer road that is expected to link all public facilities as well as improve security and access in the town and its environs. Mokowe houses the county headquarters and the road is expected to ease access to offices. Even more important to Lamu residents will be the ongoing tarmacking of the 135-kilometre Garsen-Lamu road, which the president personally launched last year and also inspected during his tour this week. The KSh10.8 billion highway, the main artery connecting Lamu to the rest of the country, is expected to be completed in 2020 and will have massive benefits to the region as restated by the president on Tuesday. "Construction of this road is not just for the benefit of Lamu but will go a long way in ensuring security in the entire coast region," he said while calling for the fast completion of the Hindi to Lamu Port (Lapsset) road that is also being upgraded," Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Faces of Kenya: Meet Kenyan Student Who Writes, Reads Upside Down | Tuko TV: Source: Breaking News - A Mombasa Court convicted the lawmaker after finding him guilty of nine out of 11 counts - Mwinyi was sentenced to four years behind bars with an alternative of paying a KSh 1 million fine - Mwinyi and his supporters attacked constables Dennis Nambisia and Agapio Ndwigain 2017 Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi will spend four years behind bars with an alternative of paying a KSh 1 million fine for assaulting two police officers in 2017 during ODM party nominations. A Mombasa Magistrate Court on Thursday, August 2, convicted the lawmaker after finding him guilty of nine out of 11 counts. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mkenya Akuku Danger na wanaume 10 walioandikisha rekodi ya kuwa na watoto wengi zaidi duniani Mombasa Magistrate Court on Thursday, August 2, convicted Changamwe MP Mwinyi (in the middle) after finding him guilty nine out 11 counts. Photo: Baraka FM/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: ODM MP says William Ruto is so desperate for political mileage that hes launching small projects Chief Magistrate Evans Makori observed the evidence presented before him proved beyond reasonable doubt that in deed Mwinyi and his supporters attacked constables Dennis Nambisia and Agapio Ndwiga. "Having carefully considered the evidence by the prosecution, I find the accused guilty as charged. It is clear the accused failed to restrain or stop his supporters from disrupting the polls therefore he is deemed to have participated in the fracas," he said. Medical reports showed Ndwiga and Nambisia sustained bodily injuries. The officers were providing security for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials at Social Hall, Bomu Primary and Al-Inshadi Nursery School polling stations on April 22. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenya's Sewage Food All You Need to Know About It | Tuko TV. Source: Kenya Breaking News Today - Manoah Esipisu was nominated as Kenya's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom - Esipisu included President Uhuru as a referee in his Curriculum Vitae - MPs wondered how they would reach out to the Head of State to probe Esipisu's conduct - The nominee said Uhuru was his primary supervisor for the past five years hence the reason he was his referee Former State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu surprised MPs after he listed President Uhuru Kenyatta among his referees in his Curriculum Vitae. Manoah who was nominated as Kenya's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom by Uhuru appeared before National Assembly Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations on Thursday, August 2, to be vetted by MPs on his suitability to hold the lucrative office. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens. READ ALSO: Mkenya Akuku Danger na wanaume 10 walioandikisha rekodi ya kuwa na watoto wengi zaidi duniani President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated his former spokesperson Manoah Esipisu to serve as Kenya's envoy in the United Kingdom. Photo: Manoah Esipisu/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Bungoma family dumps body of kin who died in Dubai at gate to governors office Esipisu being an experienced communicator, brilliantly and smoothly weaved through questions raised by committee members including South Mugirango MP Sylvanus Osoro, Peter Mwathi (Limuru) and Kamukunji's Yussuf Haji. The highlight of the session however, was when the legislators under the chairmanship of Kajiado South MP Judas Ole Metito found out the president was among Esipisu's referees and wondered how they would reach out to the Head of State to make clarifications over his conduct. "How are we going to contact the president to further get his comments on your conduct now that he is among your referees?" Osoro quipped. The MPs said Manoah Esipisu's choice citing the president among his referees would mmake it difficult for them to probe his conduct further. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Sirisia MP released on KSh 2 million bail after denying defrauding NCPB KSh 313 million The former State House spokesperson who was replaced by former Citizen TV news anchor Kanze Dena vehemently defended his choice saying Uhuru was among individuals he closely worked under in the past five years. "I cited the president as my referees simply because he was my primary supervisor for five years. The committee chairman must be able to assist you to get to him in case of any queries," Esipisu said. Manoah Esipisu told the MPs they could easily engage the vetting committee's chairperson to reach out to President Uhuru Kenyatta saying he was an approachable man. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook. Source: Facebook Osoro however insinuated Esipisu was a stingy person arguing that despite him indicating he was worth KSh 100 million, the only charity activity he had done was to give a motivational talk to Kenyatta University students. "I have participated in numerous community service activities without blowing a trumpet about them because it is never worthy to give and talk about it. I have also never solicited funds for state functions as alleged," the nominee defended himself. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news. Kenyans React to Loss of Public Funds | Tuko TV- On Tuko TV Source: Tuko - Duale vowed to reveal the identity of unnamed powerful individuals behind illegal logging in Mau forest - He further urged the media to spotlight big names who own farms in Mau - Rift Valley MPs had already secured a date with the Head of State to discuss the emotive Mau evictions The Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale on Thursday, August 2, vowed to reveal the identity of unnamed, faceless powerful individuals behind illegal logging in Mau forest. While making his submissions on a parliamentary report on the emotive Mau evictions, a tough-talking Duale said he would not be cowed into silence by people hell-bent on flattening hectares of forested water catchment areas. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mkenya Akuku Danger na wanaume 10 walioandikisha rekodi ya kuwa na watoto wengi zaidi duniani The Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale on has vowed to reveal the identity of powerful individuals behind illegal logging in Mau forest. Photo: Aden Duale/Facebook. Source: UGC READ ALSO: The Mau Forest destruction in pictures Without mincing his words, the Garissa Town legislator told MPs the only people who can intimidate him besides his wife and children were President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and Opposition leader Raila Odinga. :I wont be intimidated into silence, Madam Speaker. If anything, the only people who can intimidate me besides my wife and children are President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and former prime minister Raila Odinga, he said. The National Assembly Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources chairman Kereke Mbiuki proposed a visit to the Mau water tower which will inform humane ways to flush out illegal settlers. "Go to Mau and visit the big, not only the peasants. And I urge the media to spotlight big names who own farms in Mau not only the peasants, Duale said. While Rift Valley politicians drawn from the Kalenjin ethnic community have expressed reservations on the evictions, their Maasai colleagues have urged the government to carry on with the operation. As was previously reported by TUKO.co.ke, Konoin MP Brighton Yegon hinted his colleagues from Rift Valley had already secured a date with the Head of State. He said politicians who had been vocal about the controversial evictions deemed inhumane and had openly differed with governments position would meet Uhuru. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News: Kenyans Donate to Street Women | Tuko TV: Source: Tuko.co.ke - Ouda argued Ruto has served his two terms as deputy president under Uhuru - MPs however dismissed the motion as it is not anchored on principle - Speaker Muturi termed the motion a waste of MPs' time A motion seeking to bar Deputy President William Ruto from running for the presidency in 2022 General Election literally died on its arrival on the floor with MPs terming it a waste of time. It took Kisumu Central MP Fred Ouda seven minutes to propose the constitutional amendment arguing the deputy president has served his two terms alongside Uhuru hence he should not vie. Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens READ ALSO: Mkenya Akuku Danger na wanaume 10 walioandikisha rekodi ya kuwa na watoto wengi zaidi duniani It took Kisumu Central MP Fred Ouda seven minutes to propose the constitutional amendment arguing the deputy president has served his two terms alongside Uhuru. Photo: Fred Ouda/Facebook. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Kisumu Central first time MP excites local by washing peoples cars Ouda further sought necessary amendments which could also out deputy governors on similar grounds, stating they too are not entitled to run. The lawmakers led by Leader of Majority Aden Duale wasted no time dismissing the petitioner. "This is one of the petitions which I doubt you should commit to the committee. While there is a right to bring any petition, this is a petition which invites the interpretation of the constitution on a matter that is not before this House. "To that extent, it is unconstitutional. The petition goes beyond the question of the deputy presidency. I urge this petition be killed right now," Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo opposed. READ ALSO: MCA who stripped to protest harassment of Raila Odinga humiliated in ODM nominations In July 2015, as an MCA in Siaya county assembly, Ouda stripped in protest of what he said is disrespect for opposition leader Raila Odinga. Photo: Standard. Source: Facebook On his part, nominated MP David Ole Sangok warned Speaker Justin Muturi against allowing malicious motions meant to block a Kenyan from enjoying a constitutional right. "It not only malicious but also brought with intention with blocking one person from ascending to presidency. Ouda, I know you have not been active in this House and you have got airtime. "This petition requires a referendum. I know these are paid people to malign this House and we cannot allow that," he added. Muturi directed the motion not be referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee for lacking threshold. He however agreed it was within the controversial former MCA's right to make further proposals nonetheless. "It will be a waste of time because you are seeking for interpretation of various provisions," said the Speaker. In July 2015, as an MCA in Siaya County Assembly, Ouda shocked many when he stripped in protest of what he said was disrespect for Opposition leader Raila Odinga. Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news Kenya News: Kenyans Donate to Street Women | Tuko TV: Source: Kenyan Breaking News Three Ukrainians were arrested in Europe for allegedly stealing payment card numbers and interfering with the work of hundreds of U.S. companies, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses, Reuters has reported, with reference to the U.S. Department of Justice. "U.S. prosecutors alleged that the three Ukrainians, who were arrested in Europe between January and June, are members of FIN7, a notorious cybercrime gang," reads the report. According to Reuters, one of the three defendants, Fedir Hladyr, 33, has been transferred to Seattle from Dresden, Germany, where he was arrested. "Authorities said they are seeking the extradition of the other two: Dmytro Fedorov, 44, and Andrii Kolpakov, 30," the agency said. Reuters notes that FIN7 sent "phishing" emails to companies, sometimes following up with phone calls urging employees to open tainted attachments, the indictments said. op Photo: Coquitlam RCMP The scene of a fatal crash in Coquitlam that killed a motorcyclist, Wednesday evening. Two motorcyclists were killed in separate Lower Mainland crashes on Wednesday evening. A 54-year-old Coquitlam man died after his motorbike collided with an SUV, just after 5 p.m. The collision happened at Como Lake Avenue and Porter Street in Coquitlam. The two occupants of the SUV were unhurt, according to police. Coquitlam RCMP said the cause has not yet been determined, but said there's nothing to indicate impairment was a factor. The second fatal crash, in Burnaby, happened at about 6:30 p.m. A motorcyclist lost control and crashed into a tree on Griffiths Drive near 14 Avenue. The 34-year-old man died at the scene. Were asking everyone to be extra-cautious in these summer months. Car and truck drivers need to be mindful of seeing more motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians," Cpl. Michael McLaughlin said in a news release on Thursday. "Were also asking motorcyclists to ride as defensively as possible and wear the best helmet, protective gear, and high-visibility clothing that they can. Trying to avoid tragedy is a priority that we all share." Manufacturers of confectionery products from Ukraine have agreed with Canadian distributors on entering the Canadian market. President of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (CUCC) Zenon Potichny said this in an interview with Ukrinform. "Ukrainian suppliers of confectionery products managed to find distributors at exhibitions in Canada and began to supply products overseas," said Potichny. According to him, Ukrainian furniture manufacturers also successfully entered the Canadian market. "Several companies managed to conclude agreements and sold even those things that were brought specially for the exhibition," Potichny noted. He added that the Canadian side received several requests from companies that would like to come to Ukraine and inspect the capacity of enterprises before concluding contracts. "Therefore, there is a great deal of interest in the trade between Canada and Ukraine," said Potichny. As reported, the free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine came into force on August 1, 2017. The agreement cancels 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian goods that will be sold to Canada. Some 72% of tariffs are immediately canceled for Canadian goods, and in the next seven years duty free exports will grow to 98%. iy The investments from Canada to Ukraine are growing. "Since the entry into force of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement last year, we have been recording the growth of investment between Canada and Ukraine and increase in activity of both large and small companies. The trade growth entails an increase in investment and vice versa," Zenon Potichny, the President of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with Ukrinform. He added that a special event to attract Canadian investors would be held in Ukraine in autumn. "In October, CUTIS [Canada-Ukraine Trade and Investment Support project] will hold a special event to present various interesting projects and look for investors in Canada. We really hope that this will result in even greater investment growth," the CUCC president emphasized. The Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement came into force on August 1, 2017. ol Ambassador of Sweden to Ukraine Martin Hagstrom has got acquainted with the new ideas of creators of the Promprylad. Renovation innovation center in Ivano-Frankivsk. "The Ambassador of Sweden Martin Hagstrom visited the pilot floor and learned about the next stages of the project development. The Ambassador visited Ivano-Frankivsk during his program of visits to the regions of Ukraine, the Promprylad. Renovation posted on Facebook. According to the innovation center, Sweden supports Promprylad.Renovation from the first steps of implementation and is one of the largest grantees. Promprylad. Renovation is the innovation center, which operates on the basis of the Ivano-Frankivsk Promprylad plant. It creates opportunities at the crossroads of education, art, new economy and urban studies. Promprylad. Renovation works as a platform for testing and spreading knowledge. The project team aims to concentrate here the creative potential of the city and promote the development of the region. At the moment, $1.2 million was raised to launch the pilot floor. ol The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has issued a warning for critical fire weather conditions expected in Kyiv and Kyiv region on August 2-5. On August 2-5, high (4 class) fire hazard is expected in Kyiv region, the Emergency Service reported with a reference to the Ukrainian Meteorology Center. Also, on August 3-5, hot weather will raise high fire danger in the city of Kyiv. iy The environmental situation in the occupied Crimea is catastrophic. To date, 70% of vegetation in the Steppe area of Crimea has either totally disappeared or is in a worse condition than in 2013. I can say that it [the environmental situation in Crimea] is catastrophic. Our satellite-based picture show that to date, 70% of vegetation in the Steppe area of Crimea has either totally disappeared or is in a worse condition than in 2013. We compare the previous and latest pictures, and see that Crimea is returning to its original state before Ukraine started developing this area, i.e. to the state of the 1950s, Yuriy Hrymchak, the Deputy Minister of Ukraine for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, said in an interview with Crimea Inform. As noted, this concerns not the lands under crops only. Disappearing, or being on the verge of disappearing, are woodland belts, orchards, vineyards i.e. those plants that require a long period of time to be restored. However, rapid deterioration of the quality of soils is the major problem. The mineralization of the layers of fertile soil is progressing at great speed, the deputy minister said. According to Hrymchak, it is impossible to assess the total loss, as this requires a careful and comprehensive examination of the situation. Neither Ukrainian, nor international experts have this opportunity today. We can provide an estimate of the time and level of effort required, for instance, to restore the fertility of lands. It took nearly 10 years to wash the salts out of soils after the North Crimean channel was put into operation. I reckon that now a similar timeframe will be required to restore the fertility of Crimean lands. ol The U.S. Senate has passed the final National Defense Authorization Act, which foresees the allocation of $250 million in security assistance to Ukraine. "The U.S. Senate has passed the final National Defense Authorization Act that was earlier approved by the House of Representatives. The act provides for allocation of $250 million to the U.S. Department of Defense for providing security assistance to Ukraine, including $50 million for defensive weapons," Ukraine's Embassy in the United States announced on August 2. As noted, the document includes the main provisions of the draft law on cybersecurity cooperation with Ukraine. The act also confirms the commitment to the United States-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and support for Ukraine's cooperation with NATO. In addition, the U.S. State Department is instructed to report to the Congress on progress of cybersecurity cooperation with Ukraine. The National Defense Authorization Act will come into force after it is signed by US President Donald Trump. ol The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed a strong protest due to a number of unfriendly steps taken by Budapest and stressed the need to stop actions that have a negative effect on bilateral relations, the ministry's press service has reported. "Hungary's Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Laszlo Pop was summoned to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on July 31. A strong protest was expressed to the Hungarian diplomat due to a number of unfriendly steps taken by Budapest in relation to Ukraine and stressed the need to stop actions that negatively affect bilateral relations," reads the report. The ministry emphasized at the meeting the unacceptability of the latest statements made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban regarding the European integration and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine, which are substantially dissonant with the policy of the European Union and largely reflect the approaches of the aggressor country. The Hungarian diplomat was also given a note requesting official clarifications in connection with the decision of the Hungarian government to create the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Zakarpattia region and a program for the development of kindergartens in the Carpathian basin, since the minister's sphere of competence includes part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine. "Despite the constructive approach of the Ukrainian side in addressing the existing problems, Hungary's recent actions show a choice of confrontation instead of cooperation, as well as direct interference in Ukraine's internal affairs," the ministry said. As reported, Orban, speaking at the University of Romania on July 28, expressed doubt that Ukraine's aspirations to join the EU and NATO are realistic. According to him, Russia's desire to restore the old order will stand in the way. op Despite of the talkings about closer U.S. ties with the Kremlin, Washington's policy on Russia remains tough. Moreover, the United States has officially stated in recent weeks that it will "never" recognize Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea, reaffirmed firm support of Kyiv and increased the planned defense funding to assist Ukraine. Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Valeriy Chaly spoke in an exclusive interview to Ukrinform about why Washington enhanced its Ukraine policy and what efforts are being done for this purpose. Q: Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo personally approved Crimea Declaration. He firmly supported the Ukrainian position, but did so immediately before hearings in the Senate, which found out the unknown details of a meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia in Helsinki. Why was this declaration published exactly at this moment, and how important it is to Ukraine, since the U.S. position on Crimea has not actually changed? A: Our success in counteracting aggression, as well as in internal transformations, largely depends on the U.S. position. This is a reality, and the United States is now our number one strategic partner in the security sector. This also refers to Crimea. So, the embassy's task for more than a year has been to keep this issue in focus and to find mechanisms for de-occupation of Crimea. We coordinate this work on different levels particularly with the President, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among foreign diplomatic missions. I can open some "diplomatic secrets." The U.S. Crimea declaration was not an unexpected decision. At least it was not prepared for a particular moment and for us it was clear. The work on this declaration, as well as on the coordination of the positions of different countries, was conducted for a long time. I can say that we knew the content of this document in advance. There are two important points in the declaration. First of all, it clearly establishes in fact, and this is forever, that the attempted annexation of Crimea will not be recognized. And the comparison with the Welles Declaration just comes in the context of the emphasis "never." The State Department clearly underlined this to us, in particular, at a meeting with Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell. He emphasized this in the presence of the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev. Secondly, during the testimony of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the Senate, it was emphasized that all the points mentioned in the declaration had been agreed with the White House and were clearly in line with the policies of the U.S. President. That is, now we see a consolidated position that begins to be implemented in specific decisions of the Congress and the executive branch. In addition, a very clear position on Crimea was announced by many U.S. allies - by Canada and by European countries, even by Italy, from where we heard mixed signals, but even they clearly stated this position. This Declaration shows the position of the United States, although legally it does not have the status of a law, but as part of the American legal system it was practically proclaimed as a policy, and it will be used by executive structures in their decisions. Q: You have recently met Secretary of State Pompeo to thank him for the Crimea Declaration on behalf of the president of Ukraine, and you wrote on Facebook that you had also discussed with him "further joint steps." Can you tell in more detail about what was discussed during the conversation? A: The dialogue between Ukraine and the United States continues on different levels, on the highest level and as a part of implementation of the agreements reached. According to diplomatic practice, details of such conversations are not disclosed. But I can outline the topics that were raised. It is true that I passed the words of gratitude from the President of Ukraine and reiterated our common position with the United States on Crimea. In addition, we coordinated our positions and spoke about concrete steps to reestablish the U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Commission. In this regard, the role of the Secretary of State is crucial. Well, of course, there are purely working moments in planning high-level meetings. I am very pleased with this openness of Secretary of State Pompeo, although I have never had any problems with meetings the State Department's leadership. The opportunity to talk from time to time with the U.S. Secretary of State accelerates the implementation of bilateral agreements reached at the meetings of the Presidents of Ukraine and the United States. Q: Last week the State Department held the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom with the participation of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence. How much attention is paid to the situation in Crimea and occupied Donbas during such discussions in the United States, and how can this change the situation? A: The main topic of this forum was the freedom of religion as one of the fundamental components of human rights. But there is another point: if we talk about speeches by U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley at closed meetings, as well as previous statements by the U.S. Administration, there is a clear link between the theme of human rights violations and the threat to international security. In fact, there is an understanding that the real peace, including on the temporary occupied Ukrainian territories, cannot be achieved without securing the rights of the people who now stay there. We have done a lot of work at this forum, and it is clear that we, as well as the other countries, raised the topics that were important to us. Therefore, the head of the Ukrainian delegation (Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia) made a clear message that in order to ensure human rights it is necessary to put an end to the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine, to withdraw all Russian troops and out of the country and to de-occupy Crimea. The forum was attended by Mustafa Dzhemilev, who provided facts about the situation in Crimea and the White House pays a great attention to them. Obviously, all these violations have consequences and due reaction from Washington. We also raised the issue of the inalienable right of Ukraine to be granted the Tomos of Autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Q: Have you discussed with the U.S. side the issue of Autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? A: The question of religion and of the church is not an area where government agencies directly influence decisions. Religious organizations deal with this question. We have consolidated support of the Orthodox churches, in fact, throughout the Western Hemisphere. And I am very grateful for the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, for the leadership of Metropolitan Anthony and Bishop Daniel, for unity, which was demonstrated at the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the UOC in America. There were members of the Synod of Constantinople, representatives of autocephalous churches from different countries, and I had a very positive impression after communicating with them. Obviously, the UOC of the USA supports this issue, although there were discussions, but now they are over, and we have received full and powerful support. Q: In recent weeks, the U.S. Congress confirmed $200 million in security assistance to Ukraine for the current year and planned $250 million for the next year within the Pentagon's budget alone. What does this increase mean, and is this trend connected, for example, to the increased presence of Russian troops in Donbas and in Crimea? A: Indeed, assistance to Ukraine for security and defense is provided on several traks by the Pentagon, the State Department and within individual programs. In general, it is a big amount, and compared with other countries, we are indeed among the priorities of U.S. support. Regarding the dynamics, since the beginning of my work as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, I set the task for myself and my colleagues to constantly work on increasing the amount of assistance. On one hand, it is technical work, because it is necessary to work with all concerned committees in the Congress and hold personal meetings annually with dozens of congressmen and senators. But if you have the support of the Ukrainian community and understanding on the Capitol Hill, it is much easier to do so. However, it is not that easy to try to increase the amount of help each year. When legislators consider the budget for the next year, they take into account how to report to taxpayers, where last year's funds were spent. Therefore, such a positive dynamics for me is the evidence of the existing and growing confidence, the effective use by Ukraine of the resources provided in the form of direct assistance, provided equipment, weapons, including lethal weapons, training programs, etc. This assistance is needed and timely today, because our warriors continue to die and get injured. Modern technology, weapons and training significantly reduce human losses. Therefore, the reasons why we have growing support are related to the political and technical spheres. Part of this assistance is provided under certain conditions It means that they are ready to develop relations with us if we are successful enough in reforming the security and defense sector, if we guarantee that there will be no corruption in this sector, if we guarantee security of these samples that should not get into the hands of the enemy. And the fact that assistance is expanding is a good signal. It is important to stress that not only the amount of assistance has changed, but also the quality. The decision to provide Ukraine with Javelin antitank missile systems to Ukraine is another level of interaction. Along with a change in our internal conditions for arms procurement, which we also had to discuss, and along with increasing confidence, we are opening up opportunities for new types of defensive weapons. This is a clear signal that the United States stands with Ukraine and understands the importance of our strategic security partnership. This is a contribution to the future, and now we see the reason for talking about a real partnership for many years ahead to achieve common strategic goals. I would like to emphasize that in terms of providing weapons to Ukraine, we are opening over the new pages. For example, preparations are underway to send combat boats to Ukraine, because we have a lot of questions regarding control of the sea space. These will be direct deliveries without intermediaries. Future interaction plans are also being discussed. Q: The United States is actively opposed to the construction of the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline and is instead lobbying for the sale of U.S. liquefied natural gas on the European market in order to reduce its dependence on Russia. Is this issue more related to U.S. foreign policy or trade? A: The question is interesting and relevant. I have analyzed this for myself for a long time, and the answer is the following. It is very difficult to separate foreign policy from economic issues, trade interests. Everything is interconnected. Obviously, there is an interest in the U.S. in expanding LNG exports. For example, as of May 2018, only 31 out of 396 tankers with American liquefied gas were sent to Europe. Of course, the American side wants to increase these supplies. Perhaps, it is this issue that impels further actions. But I would say that the important thing is still an understanding of the security issue, as the U.S. president frankly said at meetings with European leaders. And I must admit that there are very few arguments against this position. There are direct gas supplies from Russia which Europeans are paying for, but they want more security. These pieces are difficult to put into a puzzle. In addition, there is an understanding in the United States of what new opportunities Russia can receive if gas transit bypasses Ukraine and now it will increase the threat of further aggression against Ukraine. This thesis is quite serious and it was made public, and the security of the whole region is considered in this regard. This issue is as follows: tactical economic objectives should not prevail over strategic security issues. And the position of the United States is stated quite clearly. I have no doubt about the understanding of the U.S. administration that none of the "guarantees" currently proposed by Moscow can be taken seriously, since Russia has already demonstrated that arguments are worthless. Therefore, our position and the position of the United States are the same. Q: If we sum up the results of the first half of this year, how would you assess the main achievements and progress in relations between Ukraine and the United States? A: It's not easy to answer this question briefly. For example, as far as Crimea is concerned, our activities have been aimed at consolidating international support for the non-recognition of its attempted annexation, as well as at further steps. This includes keeping in place and strengthening sanctions and preventing violations of the sanctions regime. You know the result - the U.S. position is clear and has been secured for many years to come. We also work in the Central American region, in the Caribbean, and when there is a vote in the UN, we also provide a lot of votes in support of Ukraine's position. Moreover, regarding the creation of the Platform of Friends of De-Occupation of Crimea, we held a number of meetings in Washington and created such a network. It is focused on perspectives of ensuring security and defense leading thinktanks are very helpful in making such analysis and forecasts for us. We also focused on the issue of ensuring the rights of Crimean Tatars, and the release of our hostages held in Russia. Another task is, of course, keeping our US partners informed about the situation in Crimea. Here are important visits of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people to the US. In other areas, we maintain a very intense dialogue at the high and highest levels. It is not just about official meetings, although they are of special significance. For example, this year we prepared a meeting of presidents in Brussels. Even under conditions when, due to changes in the schedule of the U.S. president, most of the bilateral meetings were canceled, an important meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States was held. Moreover, I received tasks on the issues discussed by the heads of state, and they are being implemented - in interaction with the U.S. National Security Council and with the State Department. In addition, the result and importance of contacts do not always depend on the level. Much depends on the substance of the issues. If you pay attention, the President of Ukraine accepted U.S. officials even without observing formal protocol procedures and despite his busy schedule. In particular, talks have recently been held in Kyiv with the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources. The participation of the President of Ukraine in the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly is being planned. We will use every opportunity to ensure a steady progress of bilateral meetings on the highest and high levels. There were also visits to the United States of Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy, ministers, members of Parliament of Ukraine, a number of delegations of business representatives and non-governmental organizations from Ukraine. The dialogue with American partners is constantly ongoing. The trust in our country, which has grown recently, also affects the work of the embassy. We are currently taking part in White House briefings, to which they previously invited only representatives of NATO member states, and we receive the first hand information. Following the efforts made last year, this year we have already achieved success in increasing investment in Ukraine from the United States, constantly growing trade turnover and increasing the pace of implementation of strategic projects. A lot of work is being done with the U.S. Congress. Consistent efforts are being undertaken to provide support in the field of security and defense, as well as in the reform area. Now the key issues are cybersecurity and energy security. And these areas are developing through the adoption of new legislative acts, respective programs, platforms. Separately, we should note the efforts aimed at recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Over the year, we have worked with governors, legislatures of all U.S. states, and now we have the result when a resolution in support of this decision is being adopted virtually every month by one of the states. I am grateful for support to the Ukrainian Caucus in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, to the Ukrainian diaspora, to activists from Ukraine, and to the U.S. State Department. And we are constantly moving towards the goal. I hope that the Congress will adopt the respective resolution this year. In general, there is now no doubt about Washington's official position in terms of supporting Ukraine, confronting Russia's aggression and conducting reform. Moreover, this is a consolidated position of both the President of the United States, the Congress, and executive bodies. A year ago it was not obvious. But we must also understand that Ukraine is not the only country in the world, and there are dozens of nations and regions to which the United States pays attention. Therefore, keeping the issue of interaction with Ukraine in the focus of attention of the United States is a very important thing. And I consider it not an easy task, which is now being successfully implemented thanks to the efforts of everyone - the President, government agencies and diplomats of the embassy, activists from Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. We value the unity of Ukrainians through the oceans that has been formed recently, the level of interaction between Ukraine and the United States that we have achieved. The key word is trust, trust at the highest level, trust between people. This is the main thing that we have managed to achieve and what we need to keep together. Yaroslav Dovgopol, Washington. Kyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko has unveiled the monument to folk hero of ancient Kyivan Rus Ilya Muromets, which was installed in the Muromets capital park. "Ilya Muromets was born near Cherhihiv, served in the armed force of Prince Volodymyr, defended the city of Kyiv, was buried in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery. This is our hero, our history, which someone tries to steal from us. Therefore, Muromets will stand here, in the historical place which was the outpost once upon a time," the press service of the Kyiv City State Administration quotes Klitschko as saying. As the mayor noted, no budget funds were spent on creation of the monument and arrangement of the parks first sector. Its a patronage project, and it's good that the Kyiv residents contribute to the development of our city," Klitschko said. ol The NDAA shall be enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's signature. The U.S. Senate on August 1 passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019, which, among other things, provides for the allocation of $250 million in security assistance to Ukraine. Read alsoU.S. Congress recommends Pentagon continue providing financial aid to Ukraine "The document includes major provisions of the draft 'Ukraine Cybersecurity Cooperation Act.' It also confirms Washington's commitment to the U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, and support for Ukraine's cooperation with NATO," the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States wrote on Facebook. In addition, the U.S. Department of State is instructed to report to the U.S. Congress on the state of cooperation with Ukraine in the field of cybersecurity. The NDAA shall be enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's signature. As UNIAN reported earlier, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress supported the allocation of $250 million to boost Ukraine's security and defenses, including $50 million for lethal weapons. Photo: The Canadian Press Apple has become the world's first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion, the financial fruit of stylish technology that has redefined what we expect from our gadgets. The milestone reached Thursday marks the latest triumph of a trend-setting company that two mavericks named Steve started in a Silicon Valley garage 42 years ago. The achievement seemed unimaginable in 1997 when Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, with its stock trading for less than $1, on a split-adjusted basis., and its market value dropping below $2 billion. To survive, Apple brought back its once-exiled co-founder, Steve Jobs, as interim CEO and turned to its archrival Microsoft for a $150 million cash infusion to help pay its bills. If someone had dared to buy $10,000 worth of stock at that point of desperation, the investment would now be worth about $2.6 million. Jobs eventually introduced popular products such as the iPod and iPhone that subsequently drove Apple's rise. The stock has been surging this week as anticipation mounts for the next generation of iPhone, expected to be released in September. Apple hit the $1 trillion mark when its shares reached $207.04 around midday in New York. They rose to an all-time high of $208.32 before falling back slightly. The shares are up around 23 per cent so far this year. Another company, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. could eclipse Apple if it goes through with plans for an initial public offering. Saudi officials have said the IPO would value Saudi Aramco, as the company is often called, at about $2 trillion. But until the IPO is completed, Saudi Aramco's actual value remains murky. Jobs' vision, showmanship and sense of style propelled Apple's comeback. But it might not have happened if he hadn't evolved into a more mature leader after his exit from the company in 1985. His ignominious departure came after losing a power struggle with John Sculley, a former Pepsico executive who he recruited to become Apple's CEO in 1983 seven years after he and his geeky friend Steve Wozniak teamed up to start the company with the administrative help of Ronald Wayne. The Hungarian minister's authority will cover part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has strongly protested against Hungary's decision to create the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Transcarpathia and develop kindergartens in the Carpathian basin. "Laszlo Csaba Pap, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Head of Mission in Ukraine, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on July 31, 2018. The Hungarian diplomat was notified about strong protest against a number of unfriendly steps by official Budapest toward Ukraine and the need to stop actions that affect the bilateral relations," the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement. Read alsoPoroshenko agrees with Hungary's PM Orban on ministerial dialogue on language provisions In particular, the Ukrainian side stresses that latest statements by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Ukraine's European integration and Euro-Atlantic aspirations are unacceptable as they significantly deviate from the policy of the European Union and largely resemble an aggressor country's approaches. "The Hungarian diplomat received a note demanding official explanations in connection with the decision of the Hungarian government to create the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Transcarpathia and a program for the development of kindergartens in the Carpathian basin, since the envoy's authority will cover part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine," the statement reads. "Despite the constructive approach of the Ukrainian side to the solution of existing problems, Hungary's recent actions demonstrate the country has chosen confrontation instead of cooperation and direct intervention in Ukraine's internal affairs," the ministry said. Orban has recently announced that he does not believe that Ukrainians' aspirations for joining the European Union and NATO are realistic. Meanwhile, a Slovak MP leaves on a previously announced trip to the annexed peninsula. Slovakias Foreign Affairs Ministry does not recognize the results of the illegal referendum in Crimea held in March 2014, in compliance with the common position of the EU member states and NATO. The annexation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation has violated the basic principles of international law and breached the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, reads the statement published on the Foreign Affairs Ministrys website, according to the Slovak Spectator. The Slovak Republic still considers Crimea to be Ukrainian territory within its internationally recognised borders. The ministry stressed that one of the priorities of its upcoming chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to focus on solving the conflicts in Ukraine. The publication of the statement coincided with the announced visit of Slovak MPs to Crimea. Although the initial reports suggested that deputies from the ruling parties Smer and the Slovak National Party (SNS) planned to attend the trip, in the end non-affiliated MP Peter Marcek was the only politician to leave Bratislava airport on July 31. Its up to them how they will decide, Marcek said prior to his departure, as quoted by the Sme daily. They will either come or not. He was accompanied by former head of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency, Igor Cibula, a group of about 10 entrepreneurs and two journalists: former cameraman of the public-service broadcaster RTVS and owner of the Sity radio station, Rastislav Lehotsky, Sme wrote. Read also"Disgrace": Ukraine envoy on British MEP's illegal visit to occupied Crimea Marcek, who made it to parliament on the slate of Boris Kollar's Sme Rodina party, has refused to say which politicians originally planned to visit. When speaking to the journalists before boarding the plane, he seemed disappointed. He told the media that they obviously won, as Sme reported. The announced visit to Crimea raised critical responses two weeks ago, also within the ruling coalition. Even though Marcek stressed it was a private trip, Most-Hid said that it was unacceptable for MPs to go. Neither Smer nor SNS officially knew about the plans of their members to participate, Sme wrote. The only way to Crimea leads through Moscow. The flights are operated by Pobeda airlines. It is necessary to spend one night in Russia and then travel to the annexed peninsula, Sme wrote. As UNIAN reported earlier, a 10-strong delegation of politicians and businessmen from Slovakia has arrived in Russian-occupied Crimea. According to Rambler, the delegates were to meet with the "head of Crimea," after which they were set to travel to the resort city of Yalta. The visit is scheduled to last until August 3. As was earlier reported, Ukraine's Ambassador to Slovakia Yuriy Mushka warned a group of lawmakers from that country against visiting the occupied peninsula in violation of Ukrainian laws, yet, they did not give up their plans. After Ukraine security agencies exposed Savchenko and Ruban's terror plot, Russia is trying new ways to split Ukraine. Attacks on pro-Ukrainian activists in the south of Ukraine are interrelated and, probably, part of another plan by Moscow aimed at destabilizing the country, says Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. "Given the recent events in the south of Ukraine, where we see a virtually linked chain of attacks against pro-Ukrainian civic activists, I don't rule out that after Plan B, neutralized by the SBU and the military prosecutor's office, I mean [Nadiia] Savchenko's plan, another plan for destabilizing the country has been turned on with the aim of sparking public outrage and hatred toward own state, under the influence of what the aggressor country is setting up," Lutsenko said at a joint PGO-SBU briefing on the completion of the pre-trial investigation into the case of MP Savchenko and head of the "Officers Corps" NGO Volodymyr Ruban on their plotting of terror attack in Kyiv, TSN reports. Lutsenko also noted that Russia was trying to conceal its involvement in the terrorist attack that Savchenko and Ruban had been preparing. Read alsoHunt for activists "Moscow, as always, is trying to cover tracks, but the military prosecutor's office keeps track of everything, so the judgment hour will come. There's nothing funny in this case, this is no political case, this is a case of a terrorist act against the Ukrainian state, with threads leading to the top Russian leadership," the prosecutor general said. According to Lutsenko, commanders and senior officers have been established of Russian military units from where a deadly load was supplied for Savchenko and Ruban. "After the information was published in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, these people were transferred to other places of service in hindsight," Lutsenko assured. Read alsoLocal deputy, Donbas volunteer survives car blast in Kamenske, Ukraine As reported earlier, on July 31 a Donbas veteran and activist Vitaly Oleshko aka "Sarmat" was shot dead in Berdyansk. According to eyewitnesses, the victim was shot in the back from a double-barreled rifle in front of his wife and friends. Police detained five suspects in the murder on the same day at a checkpoint in Vasilievka, Zaporizhia region. On the same day in Kherson, a local activist Kateryna Handzyuk was assaulted. The attacker poured sulphuric acid on her face, which resulted in the woman sustaining burns to 30% of her body. After receiving immediate assistance in the local intensive care unit, Handzyuk was rushed to Kyiv on a medical plane. Security agents express special interest in Muslims who have relatives living in Ukraine's southern regions of Odesa and Kherson, as well as in Kyiv The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people has received information that security and migration services in Belarus are actively surveying Crimean Tatars (Tatars of Belarus) and representatives of other ethnic communities practicing Islam. Security agents express special interest in Muslims who have relatives living in Ukraine's southern regions of Odesa and Kherson, as well as in Kyiv, one of the Crimean Tatar leaders, MP and head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, wrote on Facebook. Belarusian operatives claim the survey is aimed at "researching migration flows, kinship ties, level of religious and national relations in the individual and collective mentality of Muslim diasporas." Among the questions asked are: "Will you go to Kyiv on Ukraine's Independence Day?"; Read alsoVOA: Belarus grants refugee status to ex-Ukraine official sought by Kyiv "Do you visit Ukraine on holidays?"; "How often do you celebrate Ukrainian holidays and does this contradict the interpretations of the Quran?"; "Do you support the proclamation of Novooleksiyivka (Kherson region) as the capital of the Crimean Tatar autonomy within Ukraine?" At the same time, it is reported that representatives of the religious circles of Belarus are questioning the practice of conducting such research by law enforcers. Read alsoOpposition Bloc leader Novinsky warns of civil war if Ukrainian church granted autocephaly It is not ruled out that such "interest" can be a result of the task that could come from Russia. Moscow could in fact be boosting its intelligence and sabotage efforts via a third country with the aim of destabilizing interethnic and interreligious situation in Ukraine, for example, to try to accuse Ukraine of "persecuting" not only followers Orthodox church of the Moscow-controlled Patriarchate but also Muslim organizations... The state will not allow provocations in determining the right to ownership over the Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochayiv Lavras. The issue on who shall be the owner of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and other sites currently owned by the Moscow Patriarchate, once the Ukrainian local orthodox church is granted a Tomos on autocephaly, will be decided by communities on a purely voluntary basis, that's according to adviser to the President of Ukraine, director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, Rostyslav Pavlenko. "The state will ensure that there are no clashes, violence, and provocations," Pavlenko told LB.ua. "Any issues in the sphere of church-to-church relations or state -church relations will be decided solely in line with the law: based on voluntariness, dialogue, and respect for the rights of believers," Pavlenko said. Read alsoEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew "will not leave his Ukrainian sons unprotected and abandoned" representative He explained that the Ukrainian legislation provides that the communities will make decisions, themselves. There will be enough time for this, according to Pavlenko, who assured that "provocations, whoever initiates them, will be halted." "The state has enough knowledge, strength and resources to this end," the presidential adviser said. As reported earlier, the Ecumenical Patriarchate may consider the "Ukraine issue" in September during a meeting of all the high bishops of the Constantinople Orthodox Church. In case the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is granted the Tomos on autocephaly, the Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochayiv Lavras could be transferred under its control, as they are both property of the Ukrainian state transferred to Moscow Patriarchate for use. Parish churches, created for the funds of believers, are not Russian property, either. Read alsoPoroshenko: Autocephaly of UOC to complete consolidation of Ukraine's independence President Petro Poroshenko in April this year signed an appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to grant autocephaly to the UOC. Initially, it was Primate of the UOC-KP Filaret and that of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Makarios who addressed the president with such an appeal. At the same time, the move was supported by the Verkhovna Rada. During the celebration of the 1030th anniversary of the baptism of Ukraine-Rus, Poroshenko met with the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He received the address of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, where the latter confirmed the intention to grant the Ukrainian church autocephaly. The Hungarian official yet again referred to the Ukrainian law on education which allegedly puts "the already existing, acquired rights of minorities are in danger." Ukraine is unable to make progress in the process of accession to the European Union and NATO through its own fault; Hungary has nothing to do with it, the Minister of State for communication and Hungarys international image at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tamas Menczer, told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday. According to Menczer, statements made by Prime Minister Viktor Orban claiming that Ukraine's Euro_Atlantic aspirations were unrealistic reflect the "actual state of affairs." The Hungarian official yet again referred to the Ukrainian law on education which allegedly puts "the already existing, acquired rights of minorities are in danger." Read alsoPoroshenko agrees with Hungary's PM Orban on ministerial dialogue on language provisions Menczer observed that "despite the outright attack on the Hungarian community," Hungary continues to adopt "a fair approach" to Ukraine, and only recently it donated several tonnes of chlorine to the Zakarpattia region to ensure its continued supply of drinking water. We expect Ukraine to give back to national minorities the rights of which it has deprived them, and to put an end to their disenfranchised status, the Minister of State said. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Thursday strongly protested against Hungary's decision to create the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia) and develop kindergartens in the Carpathian basin. The letter tells of the state of health of the Ukrainian film director following Moskalkova's visit to him on June 28. Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, received a letter from Russian human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova, where the latter tells about the state of health of the illegally imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov. As Denisova wrote on her Facebook page, the letter received today says that the visit of the Russian ombudswoman to Sentsov took place on June 28. "And here, as they say, there are two nuances: the first one - it's been more than a month since that moment, so we can't talk about the letter's relevance, as Oleh continues his hunger strike. The second thing is that on the same day I was at the door of the colony, and her motorcade drove by without stopping," wrote Denisova. Also, the Ukrainian ombudswoman posted on her page a photo of the letter from Moskalkova, in which the latter calls Sentsov "a citizen of Russia." Moskalkova reports that the Ukrainian director is under a 24/7 monitoring of medical personnel. Read alsoUkraine's envoy calls on U.S. to continue efforts to free political prisoners in Russia "According to the results of the medical examination conducted on July 13, 2018, his health status is characterized as relatively satisfactory, there are no factors that threaten the life of the convict," Moskalkova wrote. According to the Russian ombudswoman, Sentsov does not complain about the conditions of detention or actions of the institution's staff. Also, Moskalkova assures us that Sentsov maintains communication with his relatives and lawyers. In her letter, Moskalkova also informs that on June 28 she visited Sentsov. "The state of his health can be estimated as satisfactory: pressure, body temperature, blood tests are normal. Every day, with his consent, he receives a dropper with a full set of all nutrients, proteins, vitamins," wrote Moskalkova. Read alsoECHR calls on Sentsov to stop hunger strike The Russian ombudswoman also reported that the Ukrainian director is in the hospital ward of the hospital's sanatorium with an area of about 16 meters. "Two windows, no bars on the windows, windows are open. He reads newspapers, said that he has the opportunity to engage in creative work. He did not complain about the conditions of detention," Moskalkova wrote. In her letter, she also said that the Ukrainian film director did not apply to the Russian president for pardon. "I hope for further cooperation in the protection of human rights," concluded Moskalkova. "These sanctions and other measures are designed to respond in the strongest possible fashion, Senator Graham said. U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham, Bob Menendez, Cory Gardner, Ben Cardin, John McCain and Jeanne Shaheen introduced the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2018, comprehensive legislation that will increase economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation in response to Russias continued interference in U.S. elections, malign influence in Syria, aggression in Crimea, and other activities. The current sanctions regime has failed to deter Russia from meddling in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, Senator Graham said in a statement. Our goal is to change the status quo and impose crushing sanctions and other measures against Putins Russia until he ceases and desists meddling in the U.S. electoral process, halts cyber-attacks on U.S. infrastructure, removes Russia from Ukraine, and ceases efforts to create chaos in Syria. The sanctions and other measures contained in this bill are the most hard-hitting ever imposed and a direct result of Putins continued desire to undermine American democracy," said Senator Graham. "These sanctions and other measures are designed to respond in the strongest possible fashion, the U.S. Senator said. Read alsoU.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations speaks up for Crimea resolution "The United States must continue to take strong actions against Vladimir Putins Russia for their global violations of international law and repeated attempts to undermine U.S. democratic institutions," said Senator Gardner. "Unless Russia fundamentally changes its behavior, we must not repeat the mistakes of past Administrations of trying to normalize relations with a nation that continues to pose a serious threat to the United States and our allies." It is once again up to Congress to strengthen Americas resolve against Vladimir Putins pattern of corroding democratic institutions and values around the world, a direct and growing threat to U.S. national security, said Senator Cardin, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the co-authors and lead negotiators of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Importantly, a number of the recommendations from the report on Russian interference I commissioned six months ago are included in this legislation. Im pleased to partner with my bipartisan colleagues to build on CAATSA and further protect ourselves and our allies from a Kremlin that shows no sign of abiding by or respecting international norms. Read alsoKlimkin welcomes EU sanctions against Russian companies for Crimean bridge We must stand arm-in-arm with our allies against the Kremlins hybrid attacks on the U.S. and democracies across the world, said Senator Shaheen. This bipartisan legislation sends a strong message of unity and deterrence against the Kremlin, while closing security gaps that leave our nation and its citizens vulnerable. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to advance this bill and harden our defenses against malign foreign influence. Representative of the Crimean Human Rights Protection Group Iryna Siedova in an interview with UNIAN told whether broadcasting across Crimea from the TV tower in Chongar is effective, how the invaders block the signal of Ukrainian radio stations in Crimea, and what to do in order to gain confidence of a Crimean audience that still does not know whom to trust - Ukraine or Russia. Four years into the occupation, residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular, Crimea, have been victims of information disorientation and have little faith in the reports of both Ukrainian and Russian media. However, the problem is also that the latter have much more presence, while occupation authorities do their best to drown Ukraine's signal. In July, the Crimean Human Rights Protection Group checked the effectiveness of four Ukrainian radio stations - "Ukrainian Radio", "Meydan", "Crimea.Realities," and " Kherson FM." These radio stations last year began broadcasting to Crimea from a TV tower installed in the village of Chongar of Kherson region. According to the initial idea, the signal was to cover both Kherson region and the entire northern part of Crimea. Monitoring was carried out in 13 settlements in the north of Crimea through car radios and portable FM radios. According to monitoring results, human rights activists conclude that, in recent years, the occupation authorities of Crimea have been jamming the signal of Ukrainian broadcasters by putting Russian radio stations on the same frequencies. UNIAN sat down with the representative of the Crimean HRPG, Iryna Siedova, to discuss this problem, as well as the ways to address it and win audience's confidence in Crimea. The launch of the Chongar TV tower for broadcasting to Crimea a year ago was presented as the largest joint project of the Ministry of Information Policy and the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting. Do you know how much this project cost? After our monitoring of FM stations' effectiveness in Crimea, I chatted on Facebook with Serhiy Kostynsky, who represents the National Council and deals with the issues of Crimea. Based on what he said, it turns out that the construction of the tower is the credit of a private investor (I don't remember the name) - not a penny of budget funds was spent to this end. In addition, all broadcasters who received licenses paid their own money for both licenses and transmitters. That is, it is not a state project. The state simply helped to get the frequencies. In your opinion, is it necessary for the state to join the effort and spend budget funds? That's a difficult question. In fact, if the tower brings a good effect, public money indeed can be spent on it. But to make sure it does, it is necessary to check and monitor the work not only of radio, but also of television stations. Maybe monitoring should not be public, but it must be systematic, for those who invested money in the tower to see that it brings some effect. Indeed, if there is an effect, it makes sense to build more such towers for budget funds, for example, in Kalanchak (the signal from Chongar tower does not physically cover some parts of Crimea). However, most likely, it will be necessary to "jump" between frequencies to respond whenever the occupation authorities block certain frequencies. And here everything is not so simple, it is necessary to fix the legislation. Our current legislation on the use of frequencies and licensing was adopted for peacetime. Now we need some measures that will take into account the challenges of the information war. This is a complex process. The fact that they managed, without rewriting the legislation, to put this tower in Chongar, to launch at least some broadcasting is, of course, a victory. Now the task of the state is not only to launch broadcasting, but also to make it work there. Please, clarify the nuances of your monitoring in Crimea. Who conducted it, were there any obstacles? All our monitoring is carried out by ordinary people living in Crimea. We do not tell who they are, as it's not safe for them. You mentioned the need for systematic monitoring, maybe even by the state, according to which one could judge the feasibility of building new towers. How do you see such monitoring, again, taking into account the security aspect. Do you also need to attract local people, or take risk and deploy experts from Kyiv? It is better, of course, to find some local residents willing to cooperate. Specialists from Kyiv still have to rent cars, and this information could be leaked to the FSB. Driving cars with Ukrainian plates across Crimea, doing some research, would mean drawing unnecessary attention. And this, in my opinion, is really unsafe. You see, we made this monitoring system, including to help our own authorities. If they wanted to cooperate with us, they could ask us to monitor for them, maybe not even publicly. But there have been no such appeals yet. There was only criticism of our last monitoring. They claimed that by presenting its results to the public, we're also informing the FSB. But this is not so! We inform our society, our citizens about how much access to Ukrainian information there is in Crimea. And, in fact, now this is a big problem. You once mentioned that the Russian signal makes its way to the Kherson region, creating obstacles for Ukrainian broadcasters. Can we somehow block it from our side? I'm not a technical specialist, but there is a scheme for jamming the signal. And this, too, of course, must be dealt with systematically there should be monitoring, to do everything so that their signal does not break through. I read your recent commentary in social networks about the real situation with broadcasting to Crimea: "... our politicians' statements that Ukrainian radio stations broadcast in Crimea, while they do not really broadcast there, affect Ukraine's ratings in the eyes of Crimeans much stronger than truth, however bitter it might be." Is this your subjective assessment, or perhaps those people from Crimea who helped you monitor, have paid attention to this nuance? Look, we had information that four Ukrainian radio stations were broadcasting in Crimea. Our monitoring showed that, in fact, they were not. And it makes no sense to tell even the citizens of Ukraine that there is broadcasting to Crimea. Doing PR on something that is not happening is populism that cannot be accepted. It is necessary to tell the truth to people, even if, from the point of view of pro-Ukrainian propaganda, it is not a good thing. If we really want to win the trust of Crimeans, we need to tell the truth, even if it is not always convenient for us. Since October this year, Ukrainian media that broadcast to the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as to the territory of the illegally annexed Crimea, will have a 75% share of Ukrainian language content. Do we need language quotas for the occupied territories? I believe we don't. You know, there is such a thing as "soft Ukrainization" ... Crimea has been taken away from us. For four years, people, in fact, have no access to Ukrainian information, to the media. Our attempts to launch radio broadcasting, as we see, have so far not been crowned with real success. People are physically unaccustomed to the Ukrainian language. And, of course, they will not be very comfortable listening to the Ukrainian language on the radio - they will switch to Russian stations. Ukrainian content should be in Russian with inclusions of the Ukrainian language, but gradual ones. First, 25 percent, then 30-40 percent. Or, for example, we could launch one station completely in Russian, and then another one, completely in Ukrainian. At the same time, our primary task today is to establish stable broadcasting. When we have a scheme of how to avoid blocking, when broadcasting works fine, we will need to make sure that our content is also "digested" by Crimeans without resistance. That's because Russian propaganda specifically speculates on the language issue. When we monitored the language of hostility in the Crimean media, one of the main points for speculation was precisely the language issue. If we include only Ukrainian-language stations, they say, they will say, you see, Bandera followers destroyed the Russian language in Ukraine, now they want to do this in Crimea. It is necessary to take into account the interests of the population that lives there. Ukraine needs to show that it can broadcast in the occupied territory in the language spoken by people there. After all, let's admit honestly, probably for 80% of Crimeans, Russian language is native. Why am I talking with you in Russian right now? I've been living in Kyiv for four years, I have learned Ukrainian, I write in it, but if I need to convey my idea very quickly and emotionally, it is still easier for me to speak Russian. Had these four stations, which had been operating for a year, until blockings began, been broadcasting mainly in Ukrainian? No, why? "Crimea. Realities" has Russian-language programs. Guests speak the language they are comfortable with. Radio "Meydan" should broadcast in Crimean Tatar language. In the context of the discussion on what should be the language of broadcasting in Crimea, the aspect of banal fear is also interesting. I mean that listening to Ukrainian-language content can be unsafe because once I switch on the radio and there is a show in Ukrainian, my neighbor might hear and report me to the FSB. We do know, that such reports in Crimea have become commonplace. I don't think that this will be a problem. There are still plenty of people in Crimea who sport vyshyvnkas. And those of our people who love Ukrainian-language content can get it - because "Ukrainian Radio", which received a license, broadcasts only in Ukrainian. There are practically no Russian-language programs. However, I repeat, we must take into account the interests of the population of Crimea. And the most important message in our information work with Crimea is that it's our citizens who live there. This is for some reason being forgotten. They propose to pay attention only to those who support Ukraine, those waiting for us to return Crimea. In fact, in my opinion, first of all, it is necessary to work with an audience that has not decided whom to trust - Ukraine or Russia. There are a lot of people who are in doubt. And our task is to make sure they trust us more. I read the post by Serhiy Kostynsky, where he writes the following: "When we say that for the occupied territories we need some special adapted language (Russian), we simply separate our fellow citizens who became hostages of the Russian occupation. If we choose the Russian as the language of communication with Crimea and Donbas, we agree with the Kremlin that Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as Crimea, are inhabited by people other than Ukrainians, and that this land has never historically and legally been part of Ukraine..." Could you comment on this? Many men, many minds I have been engaged in media operations in Crimea for ten years, and I know what's up. I know how hatred for everything Ukrainian had been imposed by Russian propaganda long before the occupation. To overcome this hatred, to overcome the language of enmity, we need to act more gently, rather than harshly. It's my opinion. In general, in your opinion, does the state approach to broadcasting in the occupied territories need any changes? If so, what changes are needed? There are at least some shifts in this direction, and it is already pleasing. I hope that they will be successful. Perhaps our monitoring will also help. They will be more aware of possible challenges and they will take this into account in the further development of broadcasting. I'm glad that there are people who launched the TV tower. This is a good initiative, so let them move on. We, on our part, will continue to do our work, carry out monitoring. After all, the task of civil society is just to monitor the work of state bodies. As we are in a state of armed conflict with Russia, we monitor the work on Crimea of state agencies of both Ukraine, and Russia. I hope that the monitoring of the efforts of Ukrainian state bodies will bring us only positive results. After all, monitoring the work of Russian ones, on the contrary, is only negative. When can we expect new research results? We hope that in a couple of months we will be able to do something like that. Maybe the situation will change. Will you check the same areas of Crimea? I don't know yet. I talked with one of our broadcasters, who received a license. They said that they have a list of cities which their radio stations previously covered. I want to see this list, so that we get to those very settlements, to clearly understand whether there is broadcasting or not. We also want to understand how the blocking system works. That is, we are talking about the overlay of frequencies or special jamming. We are not technical specialists, and this time we did not have a clear task to deal with this issue. But for our future efforts, if we record parts of broadcasting, we can show them to our broadcasters and technicians for them to see how our signals are being blocked. Iryna Shevchenko If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Today, official events are held in all Ukrainian air assault units. Ukraine on August 2 commemorates paratroopers killed in battles. It was Airborne Forces Day on August 2 inherited from the Soviet times (established in 1930) and still marked in Russia with notorious plunging into fountains, drinking vodka and street fighting beyond the official agenda, until Ukraine's Airborne Forces were renamed Air Assault Forces late in October 2017 and a new date for their professional holiday was set. Read alsoPoroshenko boasts of Ukrainian soldiers' success in Combined Resolve X drills in Germany However, August 2 remained the day when Ukrainians commemorate members of the airborne forces who have been killed in battles, the TSN news service reported. In particular, the 199th training center in the city of Zhytomyr decided not to celebrate the holiday the traditional way, as they want to bring up a new generation, who will remember that this is the day when paratroopers who died for Ukraine should be commemorated. Official events are held in all Ukrainian Air Assault units on this day. Air Assault Forces Day in Ukraine is marked on November 21. Army chief General Bipin Rawat met his Bangladeshi counterpart General Aziz Ahmed today, a statement said. The Army chiefs also exchanged mementos, it added. Army personnel of India and Bangladesh took part in a joint training exercise 'Sampriti-7' in Meghalaya and Mizoram in November last year, which was the seventh edition of such drill between the two sides. In a bilateral exercise that concluded last month, the navies of India and Bangladesh launched the first joint coordinated patrol (CORPAT) along their maritime boundaries against terrorism, piracy, human trafficking, smuggling and illegal fishing. The two sides also stepped their defence cooperation. It is also important that before the appointment to the post all candidates will have to pass more than one test for reliability. Why Roman Truba refused to revise the results of the competition for leadership positions in the SBI. Immediately after the Selection Board at the State Bureau of Investigation has selected the first 27 candidates for the positions of the Heads of the Bureaus Departments, a discussion arose in the Ukrainian mass media whether some of the most worthy people were selected for these positions? A number of public activists even demanded the Council of Public Control under the SBI to revise the results of the competition. On July 25, Roman Truba, the SBIs Director and the Council of Public Control discussed the candidatures proposed by the Selection Board. To their credit, they stood up against the activists and there was no any revision. Firstly, because it would be illegal - the decision of the Selection Board can be only canceled by the court decision. And secondly - because they understand it is not worth to shoot from the hip in such cases. In addition, tests for the selection of candidates for vacant positions in the SBI were developed by the Council of Europe, and the transparency of the very process was guaranteed by the representatives of the European Union, who were personally present at the competition. 5 thousand applicants were carefully selected, and the selection procedure included a polygraph testing. It is also important that before the appointment to the post all candidates will have to pass more than one test for reliability. It is thought that the results of this test will remove most of the questions to the candidates. And there is one more important aspect. Ukrainian media headlines that law enforcement agencies are not able to solve heinous crimes. However, if to take a closer look at the List 27, it becomes clear that people who have disclosed them have been selected as heads of Departments. Judge for yourself, though. Ruslan Marchuk is an applicant for the post of Director of the SBI Territorial Administration in Kiev. He took part in the disclosure of a number of heinous crimes. So, in March 2018 during a special operation led by him in Odessa, an employee of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship was arrested for organizing criminal schemes aimed at obtaining Ukrainian citizenship. At the end of the same month, two officials of Ukrzaliznytsia /Ukrainian Railroad/ were catch in the act of bribe. Moreover, in early April 2018, the Department headed by Mr. Marchuk, with his immediate participation, exposed 18 people suspected of extortion and obtaining undue benefits. Or Sergey Palatov, an applicant for the post of Director of Territorial Administration in Khmelnitskiy. At the moment, he is Deputy Head of the Department for Combating Illegal Traffic of Excisable Goods of the Interregional Operational Administration of the Office of Large Taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service /SFS/. In the first half of this year, he submitted 15 criminal cases to the courts, and it is twice as much as for the entire last year. So, an illegal network of gas-filling stations was liquidated in Lvov oblast, as a result thereof tax officers seized three refueling complexes and more than 19.3 tons of diesel fuel. Valuables totaling to UAH 880 thousand, including excisable goods totaling to UAH 580 thousand, were seized. The Department withdrew in Odessa oblast from trafficking and then seized the excisable goods totaling to UAH 25 million, such as: half a million tobacco products at the amount of UAH 10 million, distilled products at the amount of UAH 410 thousand, and alcohol at the total cost of UAH 9 million. Evgeniy Shevtsov now holds the post of Deputy Head of the Administration - Head of the Department of the Main Investigation Directorate of the National Police. During the period he had occupied the aforesaid position, he distinguished himself in the investigation of a number of high-profile cases under Article 115, paragraph 11, of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. And these, just think of it, include contract killings. The most heinous case being investigated by Shevtsov was the solving of the murder of the head of the board and the founder of the insurance company by the ex-head of the Security Service of Ukraine /SSU/ in the Fastov region, Kiev oblast. In addition, Shevtsov solved several crimes under Article 206 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, i.e. illegal seizure of the property of the enterprise, institution, organization. In other words, these crimes were classified as raider activity. And thanks to his work, enterprises with foreign investments were protected against raider seizures. The claims put forward by so-called fighters for the SBIs cleanness to Shevtsov are interesting. More precisely, the same were put forward not to him, but to his wife Alena Degryk. The activists claim against Shevtsov that all the property specified in his declaration is registered in his wifes name. The essence of the claim is not entirely clear - there is nothing illegal in this. The spouse company is a pioneer in the domestic payment acceptance market in favor of the most famous online games in the world and software developers. What was found about Alena Degryk in the vastness of Ukrainian news agencies: UNIT City and USAID have recognized LeoGaming to be one of the leading Ukrainian fintech companies (2018), LeoGaming became a laureate of Pay Space Magazine Awards 2017 LeoBot Payment Service took the second place in the nomination "Best money transfer service from card to card". Bogdan Chobitok is a candidate for the post of Head of the Internal Control Department. Thanks to his efforts during his work in the SSU, the heads of the SFS in Sumy and Vinnytsia oblast and the head of the Police Department in the Odessa were caught in bribes. And Nikolay Druziuk, Head of the local Prosecutor's Office in Radekhov region, the candidate for the post of the Head of the SBI Territorial Administration in the Lvov oblast, only in present year has submitted to the courts 20 cases related to corruption of officials of different ranks. As everybody knows, the actions done by person speak louder than words he or she says. And, judging by the cases of candidates for positions in the SBI, the choice of the Selection Board was correct. After all, it was choosing people based on their professional qualities and skills, but not on their wives beauty, their children education or the paucity of declarations. It is obvious that Roman Truba understands and welcomes this. After all, he should work with these people. And not just to work, but to show the evident result, i.e. to solve heinous crimes. That is why he stood up against the public activists, who demanded to reconsider the results of the competition. So much the more, these public activists are often a mouthpiece of people, who are aimed at gaining control over law enforcement agencies, not at effective work of the Bureau. The two officials also discussed the progress in the construction of infrastructure facilities for Ukrainian military units and housing for servicemen. Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has discussed with Zakarpattia Governor Hennadii Moskal the possibility of deploying a battalion of the 128th separate mountain assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the region. Read alsoHungary vows to block any decision of Ukraine-Georgia-NATO summit A working meeting between Poltorak and Moskal was held in Uzhgorod on August 1, as reported on the ministry's website. "During the meeting, the parties discussed the possibility of deploying a battalion of the 128th separate mountain assault brigade in the town of Berehove and developing the infrastructure of military units in the towns of Mukachevo and Uzhgorod," the report says. The two officials also discussed the progress in the construction of infrastructure facilities for Ukrainian military units and housing for servicemen. As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly protested against Hungary's decision to create the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Transcarpathia and develop kindergartens in the Carpathian basin. The victim, who has been hospitalized, managed to get out of the vehicle engulfed in flames. A Volkswagen van exploded in Kamenske, Dnipropetrovsk region, Thursday afternoon. The driver, who survived the incident but was injured, reportedly is a local deputy of the Kamensky city council, the press service of the regional Police Department has told UNIAN. The vehicle blew up as it drove at the intersection of Moskvoretska and Sachko streets. Read alsoHunt for activists The driver, who has been immediately hospitalized, managed to get out of the car engulfed in flames. The victim is in heavy condition, undergoing a surgery. The police have not yet named the victim, only saying the injured person is a male, born in 1969. A Read alsoNo breakthrough in Sheremet, Okueva murders probe, chief prosecutor admits At the same time, local media reported that the victim is a deputy of the Kamenske City Council, head of the local Batkivshchyna faction, Vitaly Chernyavsky, who is "known for his volunteering efforts in the zone of the Joint Forces Operation," says the local publication 5692.com.ua. The CIS team are working at the scene. According to intelligence reports, five enemy troops were killed and four others were wounded. Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 21 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with three Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA). "According to intelligence reports, five occupiers were killed and four others were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on August 2, 2018. Read alsoUkrainian Air Force gets modernized MiG-29MU1 fighter jets - Poroshenko One Ukrainian soldier is also reported missing. Searches are under way. The Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire mainly from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to attack the defenders of the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Krymske, Stanytsia Luhanska, Novoluhanske, Travneve, Novomykhailivka, Lebedynske, Talakivka, Pavlopil, Hnutove and Vodiane. In certain areas, the enemy engaged infantry fighting vehicles. "Since Thursday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted eight attacks on the Ukrainian positions near the villages of Krymske, Novoluhanske, Lebedynske, Hnutove and Shyrokyne. Along with this, the occupiers shelled our positions near Vodiane, using an 82mm mortar. Two our soldiers were wounded since then," the report says. Five terrorists of the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' were killed. Officer of the 53rd separate mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoliy Shtefan has disclosed the number of enemy losses in Donbas on the first day of August. Read alsoUkrainian officer estimates enemy losses in Donbas in July at 31 fighters (Photo) "Five terrorists of the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' were killed, while another four were wounded in the past day," he wrote on Facebook on August 2. "01.08.18: another soldier was 'demobilized', Yaroslav Komissarov from Yenakiieve," he said. The exact date a Polish team will head to Smolensk, western Russia, is still unknown. Russia's Investigative Committee has given Polish prosecutors the green light to visit the site of a plane crash which killed Poland's president eight years ago. Poland's prosecutors will also be allowed to see the wreck of the plane, as reported by Radio Poland. The exact date a Polish team will head to Smolensk, western Russia, is still unknown, but wPolityce.pl said it may be in the coming weeks. Read alsoRussia rejects Poland's crash reconstruction bid in Kaczynski probe On April 10, 2010, a Polish plane carrying then-President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others mostly political and military top brass crashed while trying to land at a military airport in Smolensk. According to a commission set up by Poland's governing Law and Justice (PiS) party to investigate the crash, the plane was probably destroyed by a mid-air explosion and Russian air traffic controllers deliberately misled Polish pilots about their location as the presidential plane was approaching the runway. The PiS party is headed by Jarosaw Kaczynski, twin brother of Poland's late President Lech Kaczynski. PiS has long challenged an official report into the crash issued by the previous Polish government which cited a catalogue of errors on the Polish side, while also pointing to errors made by Russian staff at the control tower of Smolensk Military Airport. A Russian report placed all the blame on the Poles. Despite repeated requests from Warsaw, Russia has refused to return the wreckage of the plane to Poland. At the same time, the Segodnya newspaper with reference to a Ukrainian military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko wrote that the killing of three Russian journalists in CAR could be a result of an ongoing fight between Russian top officials for control over private military companies, and hence significant cash flows. Russian companies are actively looking for the opportunity to develop mineral deposits in the Central African Republic. According to The Bell, companies owned by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin show active interest in a gold mine in the vicinity of Ndassima in the south of CAR. It was to this region that the murdered Russian journalists Orkhan Jemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko were heading before they got ambushed and killed on their way. The mine in Ndassim is located on the top of a hill in the forest area - about 60 km from the former military base of militants from the opposition Muslim group "Selek" in Bambari. In mid-July, Africa Intelligence publication reported that it was Russia which agreed with the CAR government on the development of the said deposit. Before the attack of the rebels 5 years ago, the site was being explored by a Canadian company Axmin. Now this territory is under threat from the militants of one of the local groups, "Union for Central Africa," and the condition for development is ensuring peace in the region. Read alsoNew Russian mercenary group reportedly fighting in Syria media According to local media, this is not the only field in the CAR, which is of interest to Russian structures. "In the vicinity of Ndassima, Birao, Bouar and Bria, the Russians are seeking opportunities to access natural resources, sometimes they have to negotiate directly with the rebels in order to get something bypassing the government," Alen Nzilo, editor of the African publication CNC, said. According to the African and French media, Russians are interested in gold, diamonds, uranium and oil. The French weekly L'Obs wrote that since October 2017, two companies associated with Russia - the mining company Lobaye Invest and the security company Sewa Security Service - have appeared in the CAR. Who is behind these companies is not officially known, but the diplomatic source told L'Obs the two firms are related. The publication suggested that behind both companies stand the structures of a St. Petersbur-based businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. Director of Lobaye Invest is allegedly Yevgeny Khodotov. He also worked as the head of the company "M-Finance," which is connected with the extraction of precious stones. In November last year, this low profile company, in the presence of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Sudanese President Omar Bashir, signed a concession agreement for exploration and production of gold in this country for several years. Fighters of Russian private military companies, including PMC Wagner, which is associated with Prigozhin, were deployed in Sudan, the country engulfed by a protracted civil war. At the same time, relations at the highest state level are built by the presidents. On October 7, 2017, the birthday of Vladimir Putin, President of CAR Fosten-Arkange Tuader visited in Russia. The official meeting of the two leaders took place in June 2018, when the leader of CAR became one of the few guests at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Read alsoRussian journalists killed in Central African Republic ambush In March, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially announced that for the "strengthening national security agencies in CAR", Russia deployed in the country five military and 170 civilian instructors, as well as a small batch of firearms - all at the request of Tuader and with the consent of the UN Security Council Committee. The same report said that in 2018, "exploration and mining concessions were launched." At the same time, the Segodnya newspaper with reference to a Ukrainian military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko wrote that the killing of three Russian journalists in CAR could be a result of an ongoing fight between Russian top officials for control over private military companies, and hence significant cash flows. In his opinion, Orhan Gemal and his colleagues intended to shoot in the interests of the Defense Forces of the Russian Federation a revealing and critical report regarding Wagner PMC in order to further discredit the organization. "At the same time, under the patronage of the Defense Forces of the Russian Federation, Patriot PMC is gaining momentum. It was created in contrast to the Wagner PMC. Defense Minister Shoigu, inspired by humiliation of Prigozhin's Wagner troops in Syria [as the group was destroyed by a massive U.S. strike] decided to gain complete control over the market of private military companies, but Putin's Chef will not surrender easily." Therefore, the author claims journalists who could have been working for the Russian Defense Ministry on their mission to CAR were "executed." Earlier UNIAN reported that three Russian nationals - journalist Orkhan Jemal, cameraman Kirill Radchenko and director Alexander Rastorguev were killed in the Central African Republic as their car was ambushed. The driver survived the incident. The city of Sibu, near which the group was ambushed, is a base to a CAR battalion armed by Moscow. There are Russian military instructors in the country. A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that Russian journalists who died in the Central African Republic (CAR) had stated "tourism" as the purpose of their travel to CAR. South Korea's exports have become less affected by a change in demand from advanced nations since the 2008 global financial crisis amid a structural shift in world trade, a report said Thursday. SEOUL, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :South Korea's exports have become less affected by a change in demand from advanced nations since the 2008 global financial crisis amid a structural shift in world trade, a report said Thursday. According to the findings published by the Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea's exports responded sensitively to economic cycles of the Group of Seven nations in the 2000-2008 period. A one percentage-point increase in aggregate demand in G7 countries -- the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan -- pushed up South Korea's outbound shipments to those countries by 2.2 percentage points. Exports to the seven nations account for some 25 percent of South Korea's total overseas sales. But after the financial crisis, the elasticity decreased by more than half as South Korea's exports rose by 0.9 percentage point when the demand of G7 countries expands by 1 percentage point. In particular, private consumption and investment in the seven countries have experienced diminishing influence on South Korea's exports before and after the financial crisis. Exports are the key economic driver of Asia's fourth-largest economy, with outbound shipments contributing to half of its gross domestic product. "The overall effect of changes in G7 countries' import demand on Korea's exports to them has weakened compared to the pre-crisis period," said Choi Moon-jung, one of the co-authors of the BOK paper. "The eased trade-to-income elasticity has been widely witnessed in world trade. South Korea is not the only country that experiences the weakened relationship between global trade and GDP."Cyclical factors and shifts in demand composition and global production chains throughout the world are believed to be major reasons for the decreasing elasticity, she added. (@rukhshanmir) ISLAMABAD, Aug 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :Federal board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday clarified that as per record available with the Board, Switzerland never, at any time, offered to return even a single Dollar of Pakistanis deposited in Swiss accounts. In a statement, it said there was a misconception being caused by a segment of print and electronic media regarding Switzerland offering to return $200 billion, in 2014, under an Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (ADTA) with Pakistan. It clarified that ADTAs were not meant for retrieval of assets. The Primary purpose of ADTAs was elimination of double taxation and exchange of information on request. It said the media had also attempted to raise questions regarding sending of junior officers for negotiations with the Pakistani delegation. The FBR clarified that the composition of the delegation was strictly in accordance with the delegations sent for negotiating ADTAs and the then Chairman Tariq Bajwa, could not accompany for administrative reasons and the fact that the officer leading the delegation from Swiss side was also of lower rank. It added, the impression conveyed in the media reports that non-implementation of the draft initialed in 2014 had caused loss to Pakistan as otherwise Pakistan would have been able to access the benefits thereof immediately was totally misconceived since ADTAs were not for retrieval of Dollars or assets. AJK Government would announce tourism policy in Azad Jammu Kashmir to attract maximum number of tourists in the most attractive liberated belt of the scenic Himalayan state. MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) ,:AJK Government would announce tourism policy in Azad Jammu Kashmir to attract maximum number of tourists in the most attractive liberated belt of the scenic Himalayan state. AJK with its matchless natural beauty and hospitable climate holds huge potential to attract international and domestic tourists and the tourism sector needs to be further developed," the Chief Secretary AJK told the media representatives in his office on Thursday. The AJK government is actively engaged to frame first ever tourism policy to be announced soon, he disclosed. The Chief Secretary told that 400 points on different roads across AJK have been identified to make them safe and secure to facilitate the visitors coming to Azad Kashmir from different parts of the country. He said over 100 new small and big tourist resorts would be constructed besides improving and expanding road networks across AJK in next two years. The Chief Secretary pledged to take several measures for preserving natural beauty of the by preventing illegal construction and encroachments in Neelum Valley and others parts of Azad Kashmir. Expressing his firm determination to promote culture of sustainable development compatible with the environment-friendly policy of the government, he said all possible measures would be taken to keep the River Neelum and River Jehlum free of pollution and sewage. He said places of religious, cultural and archaeological importance in the state are being identified to convert them into centers of tourist attraction. Besides tourism hydropower generation is another area that has great potential to exploit, he added. Talking about the other priorities of the government, he said education and health sectors would remain prime focus of the government to lay real foundation of the progress and prosperity in the liberated area. The Chief Secretary said it is matter of great satisfaction that AJK has extremely low crimes rate and the area is most suitable not only for sightseeing but also for investment in different sectors by potential investors. He said AJK is rich in art and culture and keeping its importance in view we have been working to chalk out a comprehensive plan to give special attention on promotion of Kashmiri art and culture. Answering various questions, the Chief Secretary said AJK is likely to get reasonable share in development under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in building new network roads, hydropower generation and other related projects. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday embarked on a three-nation visit to Central Asia region. Swaraj will be visiting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan from August 2 to August 5. It should be noted that it is her first trip to these countries as External Affairs Minister. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar took to Twitter and wrote,"Advancing our growing engagement with an extended neighborhood! EAM @SushmaSwaraj embarks on a visit to 3 Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz & Uzbekistan - from 2-5 August. This will be her first visit to these countries as EAM." During her visit to Astana, Kazakhstan, Swaraj will hold a bilateral meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kairat Abdrakhmanov.She is also scheduled to interact with the Indian community in the country. In the second leg of her visit, Swaraj will meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic Erlan Abdyldaev and also call on the leadership of the country. In the final segment of the trip, the Minister of External Affairs will visit Tashkent, Uzbekistan on August 4. The minister will also hold in-depth discussions with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Kamilov. Swaraj is also scheduled to address the ideologists and members of the Indian community in Uzbekistan. She will also offer tribute at the memorial of former Prime Minister of India late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. The visit to the three nations is aimed at enhancing engagement with this region which is India's extended neighbourhood. It will also provide an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with the political leadership on a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues and will advance India's growing engagement with the Central Asian Region. (ANI) (@ChaudhryMAli88) Etisalat completed the sale of its stake in Thuraya Telecommunications company for AED137 million (US$37 million) to Star Satellite Communications, the UAE-based telecom firm said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Thursday. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Aug, 2018) Etisalat completed the sale of its stake in Thuraya Telecommunications company for AED137 million (US$37 million) to Star Satellite Communications, the UAE-based telecom firm said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Thursday. The stake has been sold to Star, a subsidiary of Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), after the latter acquired no less than 75.001% in Thuraya. The final value of the share stood at $0.0553, accounting for $37 million of total AED 137 million, Etisalat indicated. Star, a special purpose vehicle owned by Al Yah Satellite Communications (Yahsat), acquired the stake after receiving regulatory approvals, and meeting condition of Yahsat "acquiring at least 75.001 percent ownership in Thuraya," Etisalat said. In April, Etisalat signed an agreement with Star to sell its 28.042 percent stake in Thuraya Telecommunications Company. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, said that Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, had established the legacy of tolerance that is unique in the region and the entire world. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 01st Aug, 2018) Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, said that Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, had established the legacy of tolerance that is unique in the region and the entire world. "This legacy enabled the country to host over 200 nationalities, who live with dignity and respect and work with appreciation and harmony," he said while taking part in a preparatory meeting between relevant government authorities and strategic partners on promoting tolerance in the community. He said that the legacy of tolerance has been strengthened by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai; His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and their brothers, Their Highnesses Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates. The meeting was convened to promote tolerance within the community in a sustainable way and transform it into integrated institutional work, to achieve the directives of the wise leadership and the goals of the UAE Vision 2021 and UAE Centennial 2071 to enrich and ingrain the values of tolerance, harmony, love and peace and make them a lifestyle among the UAEs diverse communities. The meeting was held at the Jumeirah At Etihad Towers Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where Sheikh Nahyan affirmed that the founder of the UAE and creator of its modern advancement, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, had established a legacy of tolerance that is unique in the region and the entire world. Sheikh Nahyan highlighted the importance of consolidating the countrys efforts to succeed in relevant national and global indicators, especially those related to tolerance, pluralism, acceptance of others and social cohesion, through serious national work and institutional integration, to promote the UAE as a country of tolerance, a symbol of coexistence and a beacon of social cohesion and communication. He also noted that tolerance, in its best form, is ones enlightened thinking towards every individual in the community, as well as performing ones social and humanitarian responsibilities to their family, nation and humanity. During the meeting, proposed initiatives and activities were discussed by the leaders and representatives of relevant strategic authorities, such as the Ministry of education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, the Ministry of Community Development, the National Media Council, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation, and the Hedayah International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations peace envoy for Syria said on Tuesday he plans to host Iran, Russia and Turkey for talks in September on finalising a committee to write a new Syrian constitution, the Gulf News said in an editorial, adding that he was asked to set up the committee during a congress held in Sochi, Russia, in January. ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Aug, 2018) Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations peace envoy for Syria said on Tuesday he plans to host Iran, Russia and Turkey for talks in September on finalising a committee to write a new Syrian constitution, the Gulf news said in an editorial, adding that he was asked to set up the committee during a congress held in Sochi, Russia, in January. "There is a problem with this approach. Syria is an Arab country, its an integral part of the Arab world. And Arab countries have been kept conspicuously absent from the process. Plus, the long-suffering people of Syria, who have been the target of a venal and brutal campaign of atrocities by the regime of Bashar Al Assad, seem to have no real voice in these talks, despite the oppositions move to send its list of delegates. "Theres no doubt that militarily, the Al Assad regime is on top. With the help of Russia, Iran and Tehrans proxy militant groups, the regime has managed to crush the opposition, especially the moderate opposition," the Dubai-based daily added. "In this, it has been helped by the failure of the international community, led by the western states, to come up with an inclusive plan for all Syrians. The United States and the European Union, in particular, have accepted a regime victory as fait accompli. Their Primary concern seems to be safeguarding the Israeli regimes 'interests' in Syria. "While Russia and Iran have put their weight behind the Al Assad regime 100 percent, Turkey continues to play a negative role in the conflict, acting increasingly as a colonial power and indulging in a land-grab in the guise of fighting Kurdish separatists militants. A case in point was its operation in the northern Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin, in which Turkish-backed rebels engaged in what amounted to an invasion and occupation of the city," the paper continued. The local paper said that all indications on the ground, including the military posts in Idlib province, which is still outside the control of the regime, suggests Turkish forces will continue their presence in these Syrian areas for the foreseeable future. "Any 'peace deal' imposed by the victors will be untenable in the long run. Clearly, Syria needs a regional and local solution, if it is to be stable in the long run. But the presence of foreign forces in Syria has become such an issue that no inter-Syrian dialogue is taken seriously anymore. Tragically, people look to what the foreign patrons of the so-called Syrian parties have to say," the English language daily concluded. (@mahnoorsheikh03) Earlier, the Bahria Town administration had announced to donate Rs 4.26 in the dams fund Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News 2nd August, 2018) The son of Bahria Town chairman Malik Riaz, Ahmed Ali Riaz has directed the Bahria Town contractors to donate Rs 5 crore to the dams fund started by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar for the construction of Daimer Basha and Mohmand Dam. Earlier, the Bahria Town administration had announced to donate Rs 4.26 in the dams fund. The statement issued by the Bahria Town administration said that they would make use of all the resources for countrys peace and prosperity. The Bahria Town administration had urged the people to donate for the dams so the country could grow green and could be saved from electricity and water crises. The Fund has been established by the SBP on the directions of the Supreme Court. The fund may receive donations from both domestic, international donors and contributions from abroad which will be received at all branches of above mentioned banks where such branches exist. The trend was started by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar who donated Rs 10 lac for the construction of dams. Following the chief justice, ISPR DG Major General Asif Ghafoor said that the officers of Pakistan Army, Navy and Air Force would contribute their two-day pay, while soldiers one-day pay for this national cause. Acting President Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani also announced a donation of Rs1.5 million in the funds meant for the construction of Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand dams. Meanwhile, Habib Bank Ltd has announced to donate Rs 10 crore for the construction of dams while the employees of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) announced to contribute their one-day salary in the construction of Bhasha and Mohmand dams. Officers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government will contribute their three-day salary to the fund for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams. Caretaker Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdullah Hussain Haroon has donated the entire salary of his tenure in the Fund-2018 meant for the construction of these dams. Allama Syed Iftikhar Hussain Naqvi, a renowned scholar and member Council of the Islamic Ideology (CII) has donated his one month salary for Dams Construction Fund. Judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC) have donated Rs 1 lac each while Veterans of Pakistan (formerly PESA) have also decided to contribute from their monthly pensions. The Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) also contributed Rs20 million to Chief Justices Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Damn Fund. Moreover, a student from Bannu also announced to donate the money prize he received upon getting a position in Matric exams to the dams fund, a nine-year-old Ali Sher donated Rs 10,000 for the dams fund by saving his pocket money and selling his toys while a fruit seller from Kamalia donated Rs 5000 for the construction of dams. Karachi University (KU) Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ajmal Khan Thursday said school level education plays a vital role in a person's development and character building. KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :Karachi University (KU) Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ajmal Khan Thursday said school level education plays a vital role in a person's development and character building. Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of the school sponsored by Sardar Yasin Malik at KU established for the children of faculty and staff members of the varsity, he said that the school level education was the seed of academic excellence in higher education, if one's schooling is not up to the mark then they would not be able to succeed in academic life. He said, "Education is the only power which could uplift the nations, we must educate and provide quality schooling to our children, their base must be strong in order to achieve higher education. " Dr. Muhammad Ajmal said inadequate system of schooling has affected the higher education system performance. He lauded the academic friendly efforts of Sardar Yasin Malik. The school would be functional by April 2019. Renowned industrialist Sardar Yasin Malik said that its my wish to see every children of the country getting free education and to achieve 100 percent literacy rate. The government must also increase the budget of Primary and secondary education. Spending on education is a great investment which results in formation of a strong and enlightened nation, he said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Belarus has discussed the export of services in education and healthcare with Ghana during the second round of the bilateral ministerial consultations MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :Belarus has discussed the export of services in education and healthcare with Ghana during the second round of the bilateral ministerial consultations, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Belarusian delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Dapkiunas. The Ghanaian delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Charles Owiredu. The parties talked over the most important issues on the bilateral agenda, the current state and prospects of the Belarusian-Ghanaian dialogue, including at a high level, the export of Belarusian services in education and healthcare, the possibilities of expanding the legal framework of bilateral relations. The focus was placed on the development of trade and investment cooperation. The parties discussed possible overriding steps in this direction. The heads of the Belarusian and Ghanaian delegations also exchanged opinions on the cooperation between the two states in the UN. The first round of the Belarusian-Ghanaian ministerial consultations took place in Accra in April 2016. Belarus and Germany have discussed the advancement of cooperation in the parliamentary dimension and economic affairs MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :Belarus and Germany have discussed the advancement of cooperation in the parliamentary dimension and economic affairs. These matters were discussed as Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Kravchenko met with a delegation of the Parliamentary Forum for Central and Eastern Europe of the Federal state of Saxony (Germany), the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BelTA. The delegation led by State Minister of Justice of Saxony, Chair of the Parliamentary Forum Sebastian Gemkow included more than 10 MPs of the Saxony parliament, representatives of the private sector and education institutions. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Belarus Peter Dettmar also took part in the meeting. The sides discussed prospects of further advancing Belarusian-German cooperation, including the parliamentary dimension and economic affairs, the expansion of Belarus-Saxony interaction. The main priorities of Belarus? foreign policy and topical items on the regional agenda were also aired. While in Belarus the Saxony delegation is expected to hold a number of meetings and visit Grodno and Nesvizh. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The death toll in violent protests in Nicaragua against the government of President Daniel Ortega stands at 317, a US-based regional rights group said Thursday. Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :The death toll in violent protests in Nicaragua against the government of President Daniel Ortega stands at 317, a US-based regional rights group said Thursday. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) said that the death toll since protests broke out on April 18 includes 21 police officers and 23 underage victims. The figures were confirmed by personnel in Nicaragua, the IACHR -- an autonomous branch of the Washington-based Organization of American States -- said in a statement. According to Nicaraguan rights groups, more than 300 people have been killed and 2,000 wounded in more than three months of unrest against the Ortega administration. Ortega puts the toll at 195. The IACHR called on Nicaragua to "fulfill its international obligations concerning human rights," and urged government officials to investigate "each one of these crimes." The United States, the OAS and the Vatican all support demands from protesters that Ortega -- in power since 2007 -- resign, or at least agree to hold early elections. Ortega claims that the country would plunge into "anarchy" if he left power before the end of his mandate in early 2022. Some 1,900 people have been arrested in the protests, of whom around a quarter remain locked up, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. And at least 98 people have been convicted of terrorism and other serious crimes carrying penalties of up to 20 years in prison, the group said. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Managua, Aug 1 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2018 ) :Thousands of Nicaraguans marched, prayed and danced in their capital Wednesday as they turned festivities for a Catholic holiday into a procession calling for peace in their country, gripped by deadly political unrest since April. This year's August 1 celebration of Saint Dominic, a 12th century Spaniard who founded the Dominican Order and is the patron saint of Managua, came as protesters demanding the ouster of President Daniel Ortega clashed with the government's brutal security forces. More than 300 people have died in the past three and a half months, according to rights groups. Ortega puts the toll at 195. "We want the Lord to grant us peace," said one woman, Jeanneth Sanchez, 55, as she followed the procession behind a tiny portrait of Saint Dominic. An unidentified young woman said she was taking part "to pray for peace in Nicaragua above all." Police, unusually, were absent from the march. In previous years they monitored it. - Clinging to power - Protesters -- students and youths particularly -- say they are determined to keep up demonstrations to force Ortega's resignation, or at least to hold early elections. The United States, the Organization of American States and the Vatican all support those demands. Ortega, though, has dismissed any suggestion he leave power before the end of his mandate in early 2022, saying that to do so would invite "anarchy." Last month he ordered police, backed by armed and masked paramilitaries, to violently crush protest hubs in Managua and the nearby city of Masaya. The measure imposed a degree of calm in the streets, but deepened resentment against his rule. On Tuesday, the president said he had taken the country back from "terrorists." In a series of interviews with foreign television networks since last week Ortega insists that "the turmoil is over" and things were getting back to "normal. " - Persecution - Some 1,900 people have been arrested in the protests, of whom around a quarter remain locked up. At least 98 people have been convicted of terrorism and other serious crimes carrying penalties of up to 20 years in prison, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. Dozens of medical staff have been fired from state-run hospitals for treating wounded protesters. And prosecutors said this week they were investigating 10 opposition figures, including student leaders, on suspicion of supporting the protests. Some of them took part in Church-mediated dialogue with the government that has stalled since mid-June. Ortega has accused the bishops taking part of collaborating with "coup-mongers" seeking to topple his government. - Fleeing Nicaragua - The UN refugee agency is appealing for neighboring countries to take in Nicaraguans who are fleeing the persecution and instability. Nearly 23,000 Nicaraguans have sought asylum in Costa Rica since April, UNHCR said, explaining that the southern neighbor was "overwhelmed." Panama, Mexico and the United States have also seen an increase in Nicaraguan arrivals, UNHCR said. Ortega, 72, headed a left-wing Sandinista government during the Cold War, and returned to power in 2007. The United States has stepped up criticism of the repression in Nicaragua, with the White House on Tuesday saying Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, "are ultimately responsible for the pro-government parapolice that have brutalized their own people."Ortega has alleged that the United States is fomenting the violence in his country by financing opposition militias. jr-mas/rmb/ch Washington, Aug 1 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Aug, 2018 ) :US investigators are probing claims AstraZeneca and other medical giants that worked with the Iraqi government between 2005 and 2009 provided drugs and supplies that would go on to be used to fund terror attacks. In a filing with US regulators last week, AstraZeneca said it had received a US Department of Justice inquiry "in connection with an anti-corruption investigation relating to activities in Iraq." The filing states that the probe is at least partly related to a Federal lawsuit filed in October on behalf of troops who were killed or wounded in Iraq in the 2005-2009 period. The plaintiffs allege the firms, hoping to win business in Iraq, violated the US Anti-Terrorism Act and other laws by giving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to the ministry of health when it was controlled by followers of Moqtada Sadr. The powerful Shiite cleric, whose populist coalition triumphed at May elections, at the time ran death squads against Sunnis and is blamed for many attacks on US forces. According to the New York Times, the lawsuit claims Sadr's followers sold the medical supplies on Iraq's black market to fund such attacks. In a statement, AstraZeneca said it "has a robust and dynamic compliance program, and we refuse to tolerate bribery or any other form of corruption."The other firms listed in the lawsuit are General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, as well as Roche Holding A.G. The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment. Syrian Ambassador to India Dr. Riad Abbas on Wednesday appealed to the Indian companies to come forward to help the Syrian government to rebuild the war-torn country. Addressing media here, Abbas invited Indian investors and business companies to invest in Syria. He said, "Our priority is that Indian companies come and help us rebuild Syria and we are open for Indian investors and businesses. The gates to Syria are open for Indian companies and all facilities will be provided there." Abbas informed that a high-level Indian business delegation, along with government officials would be visiting Syria in the first week of September. Asserting that the "gameplan" against Syria was over, Abbas asserted, "Syria was able to defeat terrorists and all the conspiracies against Syria. Now we are planning to rebuild Syria and we are looking for help from our friends especially India." Thanking the Indian government for standing with Syria during the conflict, he added, "The Syrian government appreciates India's stand on Syria. We are thankful to the Indian government for providing help during the crisis, especially in providing medical aids and food. We distributed all of them to the needy." Furthermore, he invited the Indian companies and investors to participate in the forthcoming 60th Damascus International Trade Fair. Abbas continued, "There will be chances of signing more agreements for ensuring stability in Syria. We will start giving incentives to Indian and international companies for participating in the fair. I invite all to come and cover the fair." The Syrian envoy also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of providing scholarships to 1,000 Syrian students to study in India. Delving into the bloody eight-year-old conflict, Abbas said that Syria was "now more open than never before" after eight years, while adding that government forces and Syrian Army collectively defeated the terrorists. Claiming that the Arab Spring was an attempt to destabilise Syria, Abbas said, "This was done to safeguard the security of Israel, control natural resources in Syria, extend pipelines from Qatar to Syria to Europe." He also recalled the commitment made by US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in their meeting at Helsinki last month, wherein the two leaders decided that the people of Syria should play a role in ending the crisis in the war-ravaged country. Clearing the air over Syrian President Bashar-al Assad's ouster by the international community, Abbas said that he will remain in power. He rejected claims of US' remarks on Syria training, supporting, arming and financing terrorists in Syria. Abbas noted that the southern part of Syria was liberated and now the focus was on freeing other places occupied by terrorists and foreign armies by whole means. The Syrian envoy also rebuffed "fake reports" of the White Helmets, a voluntary aide group accusing Syria of carrying out chemical attacks in its territory, and called it a "fake play." Hitting out at Turkey for not honouring the commitment of ensuring stability in Syria, Abbas further said, "They sent their own troops for their own objectives and are based where the terrorists are present. They are forcing Syrian people to use Turkish currency in our own territory." Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011. The war further aggravated by the entry of Islamic State (IS) capturing territories in the war-torn country and nearby Iraq. Subsequently, the US-led coalition started launching airstrikes against the terror group in the war-ravaged country since 2014, killing thousands of civilians and displacing several others. Although the IS has been driven out from various parts of Syria, it still holds a sizeable presence in remote parts of the country. (ANI) Continuing his mission to enlighten and inspire a new generation of art lovers with his own blend of conscious & visual storytelling, performance painter The Ricardo Arts aka Freak Sinatra will headline the August edition of Third Thursday on 3rd. (Photo credit: Tim Salaz) As an accomplished all-style dancer, Ricardo has made a name for himself by paying homage to pop music icons and politicians through his disruptive style of performance painting. With stage credits that include Jabbawockeez, Life is Beautiful Music Festival and Drais Nightclub, Ricardo Arts brings music & movement to life through his canvas in ways that few have seen. While Ricardo visually stimulates the crowd, the 3rd street soundtrack will be provided by DJEdoc and of course, some of the citys most beloved food trucks will line the streets including: Stripcheeze, The Cookie Bar, Cousins Maine Lobster,Treasure Ice Land,Montis Smokehouse BBQ and Churros 101.Food trucks will be joined by games, give-a-ways, and additional street food offerings from Freedom Beat PLUS all-you-can-drink beer for just $25 dollars. Third Thursday on 3rd is a FREE food truck and live art experience for all ages happening every third thursday of the month at the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. An E.U. Parliament official has called for the release of Kem Sokha, the jailed president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, as a fundamental requirement of Cambodia remaining in a lucrative preferential trade scheme with Europe. E.U. officials visited Cambodia ahead of Sundays general election, which saw Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party win a landslide victory, to assess its membership of the scheme. The CPP jailed Sokha in September on treason charges and banned the CNRP over allegations of a conspiracy to overthrow Hun Sen by force. Pier Antonio Panzeri, chair of the E.U. Parliaments human rights subcommittee, said in a statement on Monday that recent developments in Cambodia, including the use of violence and imprisonment of opposition main party Kem Sokha, testify to a severe trend towards the weakening of democracy and political rights, and the silencing of dissenting voices in the country. I call on the Cambodian government to reverse this trend by undertaking to respect democratic principles and by releasing Kem Sokha immediately. Panzeri added that he hoped the European Commission would promptly report the findings of its mission to Cambodia and propose an appropriate response to the worrisome deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. Sok Eysan, ruling Cambodian Peoples Party spokesman, said the statement was an insult to the independence and sovereignty of Cambodia It is merely an attempt to suppress Cambodia, to dominate the independence and integrity of Cambodia. There are no human rights violations in Cambodia, he said. Its up to the western countries whether or not to cut trade ties or impose economic sanctions on Cambodia, but it will not ... provide justice to Cambodians who are the owners of Cambodias democracy, he said. Along with the United States, Europe is Cambodias largest export market for garments, an industry supporting some 700,000 workers in the country. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said unionists were concerned at the possible exclusion of Cambodia from the trading scheme but said that labor rights in Cambodia remained poor. China has endorsed the Cambodian general election results, which saw Prime Minister Hun Sens Cambodian Peoples Party win a landslide victory and claim all seats in parliament amid reports of threats and voter intimidation. Japan, however, has remained silent in the aftermath of the election, has withdrawn its offer of election observation shortly before the vote. The CPP-dominated National Election Committee reported voter turnout at 82 percent, but a large number of voters spoiled their ballots. Western democracies have poured condemnation on the election, questioning the legitimacy of the results following the banning of the countrys main opposition party in November. China, however, has stood behind its Southeast Asian ally, offering its good neighbor and friend Hun Sen congratulations on his win. Geng Shuang, Chinas foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters on Monday: We hope that under the leadership of the forthcoming National Assembly and government, the Cambodian people will make greater achievements in their national development. The parliamentary election is Cambodia's internal affairs and a major event in the political life of Cambodians. While Cambodia has grown increasingly reliant on Chinese aid and loans for national development and on Beijing for political support, Hun Sen has grown more distant with western powers and Japan. Yoshihide Suga, Japans chief cabinet secretary, on Monday declined to comment on the election results when asked by reporters. Well, as the government of Japan we havent dispatched the monitor inspectors for the election; therefore, I am not going to give you any comment on this election in Cambodia, Yoshihide said. Also on Monday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was banned in November, told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia, that the election was a sham. However, the foreign ministry on Tuesday responded to the criticism from the west and former opposition, saying it regretted the politically motivated assessments of some foreign governments who refused to send observers and instead declared from the beginning until the end that the election was not free and fair. Such manner undermined the spirit of friendship and cooperation that have been enhanced thus far and cast (sic) doubt on the genuine sincerity to witness Cambodia further progressing in its irreversible democratization. The Trump Administration Tuesday called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stand by his commitment to denuclearize after a report on recent satellite imagery that revealed new activity at a factory outside Pyongyang where the North produced its intercontinental ballistic missiles. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes part this week in Singapore in a 26-nation Southeast Asian security summit at which North Korea is expected to attend. President Donald Trump has authorized sanctions for two top Turkish officials in connection with Ankaras refusal to release an American pastor detained in Turkey. Turkish authorities have arrested the evangelical pastor on allegations of espionage and connections to a terrorist group. The U.S. move Wednesday threatens to imperil already tense relations between the two NATO allies. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more. One day after Facebook shut down 32 fake social media accounts that spewed politically divisive messages, U.S. lawmakers were warned that Russian efforts to confuse and polarize the American people are as robust and pernicious as ever. VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman reports both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are concerned. President Donald Trump is justifying his call for voter ID cards by saying photo identification is a universal requirement in the marketplace. As anyone who frequents a grocery store knows, its not. A look at his comments on the subject Tuesday and his press secretarys attempt to explain them Wednesday: TRUMP: We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections, which is why the time has come for voter ID like everything else. If you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out, you want to buy anything, you need ID, you need your picture. remarks Tuesday at Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. THE FACTS: No photo is required to purchase items at retail stores with cash or to make routine purchases with credit or debit cards. Identifications are required to purchase limited items such as alcohol, cigarettes or cold medicine and in rapidly declining situations in which a customer opts to pay with a personal check. According to the National Grocers Associations most recent data, the use of checks as a percentage of total transactions dropped from 33 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2015, because in part to the popularity of debit cards, which use PIN codes. The groups members are independent food retailers, family-owned or privately held, both large and small. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY SARAH SANDERS: Hes not saying every time he went in; he said when you go to the grocery store. press briefing Wednesday. THE FACTS: Actually, Trump did claim, erroneously, that photo IDs are required whenever you want to buy anything, not only in limited cases. Asked when Trump last bought groceries, Sanders responded: Im not sure. Im not sure why that matters, either. SANDERS: The president wants to see the integrity of our election systems upheld, and thats the purpose of his comments. He wants to make sure that anybody thats voting is somebody that should be voting. THE FACTS: This concern, often voiced by Trump as well, stems from an unsupported theory that voter fraud has shaped election outcomes. The actual number of fraud cases is very small, and the type that voter IDs are designed to prevent voter impersonation at the ballot box is virtually nonexistent. In court cases that have invalidated some ID laws as having discriminatory effects, election officials could barely cite a case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud. Democrats have opposed voter-ID laws as unnecessarily restricting access for nonwhites and young people, who tend to vote Democratic. Republicans accuse Democrats of wanting noncitizens to be able to vote in U.S. elections. Neither Sanders nor Trump has offered evidence of consequential fraud. Sanders said Wednesday that even if there are 10 people that are voting illegally, it shouldnt happen. The National Archives and Records Administration warned lawmakers Thursday that it won't be able to fulfill a GOP request for documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh until October, throwing a potential wrench into Republicans' confirmation timeline. Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee have requested documents relating to Kavanaugh's service from 2001 to 2003, when he was a White House lawyer under former President George W. Bush. Gary Stern, general counsel for the National Archives, sent a letter to the chairman of the committee, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, that said although some records could be produced earlier, a complete review would be completed "by the end of October." A spokesman for Grassley said the committee will still be able to undertake its review along the same timeline set previously, which puts Kavanaugh on track for confirmation in early October. The chairman "intends to hold a hearing sometime in September,'' Taylor Foy said. Republicans had initially hoped to have Kavanaugh confirmed before the Supreme Court session starts in the first week of October, but they have since shifted their timeline to say he will be confirmed before the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Some senators want to scrutinize the paper trail of Kavanaugh's public record, to look at the Supreme Court nominee's views on gay marriage, abortion and executive power, fearing it could tip the nation's highest court to the conservative right for years to come. Britain's opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is under increasing pressure to expel far-left allies from his party in a worsening quarrel over anti-Semitism that's shaking up British politics and damaging the Labour Party's electoral prospects. One of his party allies has accused Jewish critics, including some Labour lawmakers, of being "Trump fanatics." A senior Labour lawmaker, John McDonnell, acknowledged this week that the long-running and bruising argument, with repeated clashes spanning several months between Jewish Labour lawmakers and Corbyn and his hard-core supporters, has "shaken us to the core." McDonnell was speaking after Corbyn apologized for a 2010 event he hosted, where a Holocaust survivor compared Israeli policy toward the Palestinians to the actions of Germany's Nazi regime. Corbyn, who is seen as the most far left leader the party has had since the 1930s, said he "completely rejects" the views of some people he had shared platforms with in the past. "In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel-Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject," Corbyn said in a statement. "I apologize for the concerns and anxiety that this has caused." But his critics say he has failed to denounce his historical support for Hamas and Hezbollah. He has spoken sympathetically of both groups in the past, embracing them as brothers. This includes Hamas operative Abdul Aziz Umar, who was given seven life sentences for aiding the preparation of a 2003 suicide bombing of a restaurant in Jerusalem that left seven dead. Unsettling pattern Accusations of anti-Semitism have mounted since 2015 when Corbyn won a surprise leadership contest largely thanks to backing from a well-organized Trotskyite youth group known as Momentum. The anti-Semitism dispute has settled into a grim pattern with frequent, ugly flare-ups and then pauses as the warring sides have sought accommodation. Corbyn backers say their critics conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. But their critics say their opposition to Israel and anti-Zionism bleeds all too easily into anti-Semitism. Britain's Board of Deputies, an elected representative body of Britain's Jewish community, has denounced "Jeremy Corbyn's failure to take strong action against" anti-Semitism. Earlier this year the outgoing president of the Board of Deputies, Jonathan Arkush, accused the Labour leader of holding "anti-Semitic views," which could drive Jewish people to leave Britain if he ever becomes prime minister. "Delegitimizing the state of Israel is anti-Semitic," he said. The latest clash was triggered this month when the Labour leadership failed to adopt, as it had appeared to promise to do following talks with British Jews, a new code of conduct on anti-Semitism based on the guidelines of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which is backed by 31 countries. The mainly Europe-based alliance was set up in 1998 to counter Holocaust denial and trivialization. Heated confrontations Last week, Britain's three main Jewish newspapers published the same front page, warning that a government led by Corbyn would represent an "existential threat to Jewish life." They say there are seams of anti-Semitism within the ranks of the party and have reported regularly on the social media slurs hurled by far-left rank-and-file members at Jewish Labour lawmakers. Jewish Labour lawmakers say the truncated code of conduct the Labour leadership adopted is not as comprehensive as the international guidelines, and it prompted a party stalwart and Labour lawmaker, Margaret Hodge, to confront Corbyn very publicly in the House of Commons, where she accused him loudly of being a racist and an anti-Semite. She denied reports she had sworn at him. Hodge is now facing disciplinary proceedings in marked contrast, say her supporters, to the more lenient and foot-dragging treatment of party members, especially those in the Momentum group, who are accused of expressing anti-Semitic remarks. Speaking on BBC Radio Thursday, Hodge said British Jews "feel our identity and our values are being challenged by this sudden surge in anti-Semitism, which is not only allowed by the leadership, but I've now come to the conclusion that may also be views held by the leadership themselves." Britain's ruling Conservatives and the tabloid newspapers, who have questioned the firebrand Labour leader's fitness for office, have pounced on the anti-Semitism claims, which have been front page news in London for several days. Rise of populism In 2016, Corbyn ordered an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the Labour Party. That came after the party suspended a lawmaker, Naz Shah, and the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for anti-Semitic remarks. Shah was suspended over historical social media posts, including one suggesting Israel should be moved to the United States. After being reinstated, she admitted her comments had been anti-Semitic and were made in ignorance. The inquiry concluded that while the Labour Party was not overrun by anti-Semitism, there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere." It made a series of recommendations, many of which have not been implemented. Jewish lawmakers say the inquiry's conclusions were not strong enough, that the toxic atmosphere is constant and not just occasional, and that it is ingrained, pointing to the slurs aimed at them on social media. The party has suspended dozens of local members for anti-Semitism. Among them is Damien Enticott, who trumpeted the view that "Hitler would have the solution to the Israeli problem." Historically, Labour has enjoyed strong electoral support from Britain's 300,000-member Jewish community. Their vote is especially important for the party in London. Britain isn't the only European country facing what Jewish leaders say is an upsurge in anti-Jewish sentiment, as well as Holocaust denial the result, they say, of the rise in far-right and far-left populism. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have approved a draft of a proposed agreement to prevent fighting in the disputed South China Sea. China and the 10-nation bloc, which includes four claimants involved in the territorial dispute, have been engaged in sporadic negotiations for years to craft a "code of conduct" aimed at preventing violent outbreaks in the region. Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Thursday, at the start of the annual meeting of top diplomats from China and the association's member nations, the development is a "milestone." Chinese counterpart Wang Yi said approval of the draft was "good news" and a "breakthrough." China has transformed seven disputed reefs into man-made islands replete with three runways, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons systems. Without naming China, ASIAN foreign ministers cited Beijing's actions, saying in a statement they "took note of the concerns expressed by some countries on the land reclamations in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.'' China has responded to criticism for militarizing the strategic waterway by claiming it has the right to build on its territory and defend them at all costs. In addition to China and Taiwan, ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have had claims in the South China Sea, a pathway for much of the commerce and oil that help bolster Asia's bustling economies. U.S. military ships and jets patrol the waters, a presence that Washington maintains is designed to promote freedom of navigation and overflight. China contends, however, the United States is meddling in Asian affairs. The U.S. Congress is sending President Donald Trump legislation that would force technology companies to disclose if they allowed countries like China and Russia to examine the inner workings of software sold to the U.S. military. The legislation, part of the Pentagon's spending bill, was drafted after a Reuters investigation last year found software makers allowed a Russian defense agency to hunt for vulnerabilities in software used by some agencies of the U.S. government, including the Pentagon and intelligence services. The final version of the bill was approved by the Senate in a 87-10 vote on Wednesday after passing the House last week. The spending bill is expected to be signed into law by Trump. Security experts said allowing Russian authorities to probe the internal workings of software, known as source code, could help Moscow discover vulnerabilities they could exploit to more easily attack U.S. government systems. The new rules were drafted by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. "This disclosure mandate is the first of its kind, and is necessary to close a critical security gap in our federal acquisition process," Shaheen said in an emailed statement. "The Department of Defense and other federal agencies must be aware of foreign source code exposure and other risky business practices that can make our national security systems vulnerable to adversaries," she said. Disclosure + database The law would force U.S. and foreign technology companies to reveal to the Pentagon if they allowed cyber adversaries, like China or Russia, to probe software sold to the U.S. military. Companies would be required to address any security risks posed by the foreign source code reviews to the satisfaction of the Pentagon, or lose the contract. The legislation also creates a database, searchable by other government agencies, of which software was examined by foreign states that the Pentagon considers a cyber security risk. It makes the database available to public records requests, an unusual step for a system likely to include proprietary company secrets. Tommy Ross, a senior director for policy at the industry group The Software Alliance, said software companies had concerns that such legislation could force companies to choose between selling to the U.S. and foreign markets. "We are seeing a worrying trend globally where companies are looking at cyber threats and deciding the best way to mitigate risk is to hunker down and close down to the outside world," Ross told Reuters last week. A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment on the legislation. Source code revealed In order to sell in the Russian market, technology companies including Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co, SAP SE and McAfee have allowed a Russian defense agency to scour software source code for vulnerabilities, the Reuters investigation found last year. In many cases, Reuters found that the software companies had not informed U.S. agencies that Russian authorities had been allowed to conduct the source code reviews. In most cases, the U.S. military does not require comparable source code reviews before it buys software, procurement experts have told Reuters. The companies had previously said the source code reviews were conducted by the Russians in company-controlled facilities, where the reviewer could not copy or alter the software. The companies said those steps ensured the process did not jeopardize the safety of their products. McAfee announced last year that it no longer allows government source code reviews. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has said none of its current software has gone through the process. SAP did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation. HPE and McAfee spokespeople declined further comment. A group of immigrant fathers, recently reunified with their sons and detained in Texas, have gone on a hunger strike to demand their release, an immigrant rights group representing them said Thursday. The immigrants said they were being held at a detention center in Karnes City, Texas, with no notification from U.S. authorities on their immigration status, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) said. It was not immediately clear how many fathers have joined the hunger strike, which began Wednesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not comment on whether a hunger strike was taking place. ICE said in a statement it respected the rights of detainees to voice their opinion and would not retaliate in any way. "We are desperate, we are tired of being incarcerated and we want to be released with our sons," read a letter to the media from a detainee named "Jorge," and read out on a conference call hosted by RAICES. The letter said it represented 400 families. U.S. President Donald Trump has made a hard-line stance on immigration an integral part of his presidency and has promised to keep immigrants targeted for deportation locked up "pending the outcome of their removal proceedings." Some 2,500 children were separated from their parents as part of a "zero tolerance" policy toward illegal immigration that began in early May. Many of them had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border illegally, while others had sought asylum. The U.S. government said last week it had reunited just over half of them. RAICES said some fathers were staging sit-ins at the Karnes County Residential Center, about 51 miles southeast of San Antonio, and children were refusing to take part in school activities. Nearly 600 people were involved in protests, it said. Private contractor GEO Group Inc, which runs the Karnes County Residential Center, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some fathers at the center said they were misled into agreeing to deportation as a condition of seeing their children again, RAICES said. Others said they had not been given the opportunity to apply for asylum. A federal judge in San Diego has placed an indefinite stay on deportations in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Male immigrants at Karnes, and women and girl immigrants detained in Dilley, Texas, are among migrants who were reunited last week and then detained, RAICES said. A little-known dispute over 3D-printed guns has morphed into a national legal debate in the last week, drawing attention to a technology that seems a bit of sci-fi fantasy and to gun-control advocates a dangerous way for criminals to get their hands on firearms that are easy to conceal and tough to detect. The gun industry calls the outcry an overreaction that preys on unwarranted fears about a firearm that can barely shoot a round or two without disintegrating. It also raises a host of constitutional questions involving First Amendment protections for free speech and Second Amendment rights to own guns. Here are some questions and answers about the debate. Q. What is behind the dispute? A. Cody Wilson, the founder of Texas-based Defense Distributed, first posted downloadable blueprints for a handgun called the Liberator that could be made using a 3D printer in 2013. Within days it had been downloaded about 100,000 times until the State Department ordered him to cease, contending it violated federal export laws since some of the blueprints were saved by people outside the United States. The dispute between Wilson and the federal government went on for years until this past June when they reached a settlement that paved the way for Wilson to resume posting the designs. The State Department decision came amid an obscure administrative change begun under the Obama administration in how the weapons are regulated and administered. Military grade weapons remain under the purview of the State Department, while commercially available firearms fall under the Commerce Department. The settlement with Wilson determined that 3D-printed firearms are akin to more traditional firearms that aren't subject to State Department regulations. Wilson resumed sharing his blueprints for the gun the day the settlement went into effect last week. Q. Why does Wilson want the authority to post the designs on his website? A. Wilson calls it a First Amendment issue. He believes the First Amendment gives him a constitutional right to disseminate the code to make a gun with a 3D printer. "This is a very, very, very easy First Amendment question that I think people might be hesitant to accept because it involves guns and people don't like guns," said his lawyer, Josh Blackman. And Wilson has a strong legal claim that distribution of the information is different than actually making an all-plastic firearm. While it is a violation of the federal Undetectable Firearms Act to make, sell or possess a firearm that can't be detected by magnetometers or metal detectors, what Wilson is doing is simply providing the information on how to make such a firearm. "What Defense Distributed was doing was not making and then shipping the weapons overseas," said Chuck James, a former federal prosecutor who is now a private lawyer with the Washington, D.C.-area firm of Williams Mullen. "They were making the data available on the web where it would be available to someone overseas." Q. What kind of gun designs are available on the website? A. Defense Distributed shows a variety of designs. The code for a 3D-printed gun is for what he calls the Liberator, which gets its name from a pistol American forces used during World War II. His design includes a metal firing pin and a metal block. His site also includes blueprints to make various AR-platform long guns and some other handguns using more traditional means and materials. Q. Are 3D-printed guns legal? A. In 1988, the U.S. enacted the Undetectable Firearms Act, making it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess a firearm that couldn't be detected by a metal detector. That law has been renewed several times by Congress and remains in effect. If 3D-printed guns contain enough metal to be flagged by a metal detector, they are considered legal under U.S. law. Gun-control advocates argue that the risks are too great to allow 3D-printed guns because even if they're designed to include metal, it's too easy for someone to not include those pieces or to remove them to skirt detection. "It's an absurdity. You can take the piece of metal out and put it back in at your own whims and you can take it out and walk through a metal detector undetected," said Jonas Oransky, legal director for Everytown for Gun Safety. Q. How well do 3D-printed guns work? A. Gun experts and enthusiasts recoil at the suggestion that a 3D-printed gun is a true threat, calling the firearms mere novelties. Unlike traditional firearms that can fire thousands of rounds in their lifetime, 3D-printed guns are notorious for usually lasting only a few rounds before they fall apart. They don't have magazines that allow the usual nine or 15 rounds to be carried; instead, they usually hold a bullet or two and then must be manually loaded afterward. And they're not usually very accurate either. A video posted of a test by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2013 showed one of the guns produced from Wilson's design the Liberator disintegrating into pieces after a single round was fired. "People have got this Star Trek view" of the guns being futuristic marvels, said Chris Knox, communications director for The Firearms Coalition, a gun-rights group. "We're not talking about exotic technology." Others are quick to point out that normal guns are readily available in the U.S. with little regulation, making 3D-printed guns a major hassle compared with regular weapons. Q. What's the status of the debate? A. A federal judge on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking Wilson from continuing to post the designs on his site. A hearing is to be held in that case next week. In the meantime, President Donald Trump criticized the Department of Justice advising the State Department to reach a settlement with Wilson without first consulting with him. Wilson's website currently displays a banner asking people to help "to uncensor the site." Clicking a link directs the person to a page to pay membership dues ranging from $5 a month to $1,000 for a lifetime. Come October, weeks after a new high-speed train hurtles down from mainland China, Hong Kongs High Court will be busy hearing challenges concerning the new station. Five petitioners say a new law gives China unconstitutional control over a slice of Hong Kong soil because it allows Chinese immigration and border agents to enforce mainland law in the territory for the first time since the handover from British rule in 1997. With such sweeping authority, critics say, the law means there is nothing to stop Beijing from grabbing more Hong Kong land, under the guise of protecting national security. The laws passage was a stinging defeat for pro-democracy activists and marked a major setback in their quest to establish Hong Kongs autonomy and ensure its civil rights. It was the latest blow in four years of frustrations and fury for pro-democracy activists. Legal challenges Earlier this year, many say they were enraged by what they say was pressure applied by Beijing on Hong Kong lawmakers to approve the so-called joint checkpoint plan for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail. Officials, including Hong Kong chief executive, Carrie Lam, defending the move by saying that granting mainland immigration and border agents the right to check passengers in Hong Kong would speed their travels. That opens the floodgates, definitely, to Beijings further encroachment to Hong Kongs higher degree of autonomy, said Alvin Leung, a Hong Kong lawmaker who, like his fellow democratic activists, voted against the law. It opens the floodgates for Beijing to sideline the local governments authority in the name of convenience. Members of the citys pro-democracy camp and the Hong Kong Bar Association said the law that gives mainland officials unconstitutional authority because it essentially ceded Hong Kong territory, in this case, a quarter of the terminal, to China, even though Article 18 of the territorys constitution bars Chinese law from being used in Hong Kong aside for laws requiring national security and emblems such as the national flag. The citys High Court is scheduled to hear five legal challenges to the law beginning in October, weeks after the rail link begins running. The petitions all argue the border plan is unconstitutional. But the challenges to overturn the law face a tough journey. Tian Feilong, a mainland legal scholar, argues that Hong Kong courts have no right to review a decision made by Chinas top legislature. Beijing pressure Hong Kong activists, lawyers and human rights workers say the citys civil freedoms have withered since 2014 when the National Peoples Congress Standing Committees white paper clarified that the special territory did not enjoy autonomy. The central government has the power of oversight over the exercise of a high degree of autonomy in the HKSAR, the paper reads. That paper, and a subsequent one that sharply restricted democratic elections granted by the regions constitution, triggered a 79-day street occupation when tens of thousands of demonstrators sought democratic elections. The government was not swayed. Indeed, through the courts, the legislature and the media, Beijing has wounded the pro-democracy camp, some activists say. Major protests in 2014, 2015 and 2016 galvanized residents, especially the young. But Beijing would not negotiate with them and then issued new rules that pushed candidates and lawmakers from office, while the Hong Kong government prosecuted more than 100 protesters and the courts created tough restrictions on protesters. This years annual July 1 march drew a defiant but much smaller contingent than in past years. Activist Leung Kwok-hung, a former lawmaker known as Long Hair, said that as more residents feel powerless to confront Beijings authority, a growing apathy endangers the prospect of the movements success. We are not entitled to ask any questions about the decision of the standing committee of the Peoples Congress of the PRC, he said. Leung was one of four legislators expelled from office last year by a judge after the national legislature set new standards that made his official oath illegal. Some residents feel you dont ask questions, since Hong Kong belongs to China. So, whatever Chinese authorities say, you have no more say, he added. Other developments also worry some lawyers and human rights activists. Old laws Judges have used interpretations of old colonial legislation to imprison former lawmakers and activists who have protested Beijings policies. At the same time, British officials were among those who criticized Hong Kong judges who sentenced two activists to prison last month. One of those activists, Edward Leung, a former legislative candidate who advocated for Hong Kongs independence, was sentenced for what police say was a riot in 2016. Although he pleaded guilty to what was his first offense, Leung received six years behind bars, a sentence that has been criticized by many lawyers, scholars and officials. More than 100 protesters face prosecution based on a British colonial-era law deployed after 1967 street riots. Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing have dispatched more messages to urge the citys residents to stop referring to the territory as a separate entity with an autonomous government, an image Beijing itself promoted especially before Britains 1997 handover. In recent years, however, China has asserted its role much more clearly. At a research conference in July, Wang Zhenmin, chief of Chinas legal department of the liaison office in the city, said that the nation will inevitably impose national laws and its constitutional system on Hong Kong. Any matters that the [Hong Kong] Basic Law did not regulate, the relevant regulations in the [Chinese] constitution will be applicable to Hong Kong automatically, Wang said. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wasnt in court Wednesday as his attorneys argued that the Infowars host who has called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax didnt defame one victims parents who say theyve been tormented by his followers and forced to move seven times. The hearing included more than a half-hour of an Infowars episode played for a Texas judge, who at one point told onlookers to remain silent after some gasped when a lawyer for the parents said Infowars showed maps to the home of Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner. Their 6-year-old son, Noah Pozner, was among the 20 children and six adults killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting. They have sued Jones for defamation in a case that centers on the host falsely claiming on Infowars that De La Rosa taped an interview with CNN in front of a studio green screen and not outside a town hall in Newtown. The lawsuit was filed in Travis County, Texas, where Jones media company is based. Conspiracy theory The parents contend that Jones had made them part of the Sandy Hook conspiracy in what is one of two defamation lawsuits that the Infowars host is trying to throw out this week. On Thursday, his attorneys will also ask for the dismissal of another case brought by a man falsely identified on the Infowars website as the gunman who killed 17 people at a Florida high school in February. Jones has since admitted the Sandy Hook shooting occurred and his attorney, Mark Enoch, began the hearing by saying that his client wanted to reiterate the fact that he is sorry for their loss. But Enoch said the lawsuit doesnt rise to the level of defamation. Maybe its fringe speech. Maybe its dangerous speech, Enoch said after playing portions of an Infowars episode. But its not defamation. That is rhetorical hyperbole at its core. State District Judge Scott Jenkins has a month to decide whether to let the lawsuit proceed. Parents threatened, harassed De La Rosa and Pozner also didnt attend the nearly three-hour hearing, in which their attorney called claims that the CNN interview was taped monstrously stupid and said the family has been exposed to threats. A similar lawsuit against Jones has also been filed in Connecticut. Several families in that suit say that Jones comments on Infowars have tormented them and subjected them to harassment and death threats by his followers, some of whom have accused them of being crisis actors. Jones has argued he was acting as a journalist. California fire captain Robert Veverka and his crew arrived in Redding, California, last Thursday night as gale-force winds whipped the Carr Fire into a flaming tornado. They spent the next 30 hours trying to save homes from the flames. Veverka and his team from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (Cal Fire) had just come from another wildfire, using part of their 24-hour break between shifts to travel to Redding. That is becoming the new normal for firefighters, said Veverka, "Right now, it's pretty much guaranteed we'll go from fire to fire to fire, until everything is out," the 34-year-old Veverka said in a phone interview. "Once you hit the three- or four-week mark, you're just constantly exhausted." The Carr Fire in Northern California, the largest and most destructive of 16 major blazes in the state, is exhausting firefighting resources in what authorities are calling one of the worst and earliest fire seasons in years. Severe, year-round fires have been trending the past decade across the U.S. West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. California in particular has experienced its worst start to the fire season in a decade, in terms of acreage burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Driving the wildfires are exceptional drought conditions in large areas of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, along with abnormally high temperatures. Nearly all of California faces abnormally dry or drought conditions, according to the Drought Monitor agency. "We are concerned about firefighter fatigue and making sure that our firefighters remain focused and try to get a break when they can," said Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant. "The peak of fire season is ahead of us and we still have many more months to go in this calendar year," Berlant said. Inmate firefighters Veverka overseas one of Cal Fire's team of prison inmates who are placed on the fire line, in exchange for about $25 a day and a reduction of their sentences. In the "off-season," he exercises every day to prepare for the demanding summer firefights. Some prison inmates are not as fit, and about five times a summer, a helicopter has to airlift prisoners suffering from heat exhaustion, he said. Crews typically work a 24-hour shift followed by a 24-hour rest period typically in a motel, Cal Fire officials said. After crews spend 14 days on alternating work and rest periods, authorities try to give them a two-day break, Berlant said. But sometimes crews must wait three weeks for their two-day break, he said. Veverka, from Alturas, California, and his crew have at times gone 40 or 50 days before receiving a two-day break, he said. Berlant acknowledged Cal Fire crews sometimes received such long assignments, but said it was rare. The Carr Fire, which has killed four civilians and two firefighters, has been particularly demanding for firefighters. The long shift Veverka and his crew worked when they arrived was typical of what other crews worked that day, according to the local fire chief. Shasta County Fire Chief Mike Hebrard told a news conference on Sunday that some were working 48 hours straight. "They were just going on pure adrenaline." December fire Veverka was activated to wildfire duty on July 1. In a typical year, his deployment winds down by the end of October. But California fire officials have repeatedly warned the fire season is getting longer and more intense. The Thomas Fire erupted in December in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and became the largest in state history. Higher temperatures have helped extend the period of wildfires by 60 to 80 days each year, National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Jennifer Jones said. The U.S. Forest Service has a different work shift structure from Cal Fire. Forest Service crews typically work 16-hour shifts, followed by eight hours of rest, with two days of rest after 14 days on assignment, officials said. Research has shown that, over time, it can take a long-term toll on the bodies of the men and women protecting homes, businesses and natural landmarks. "Over time, the body is not able to respond as well, and one of the things we typically see is firefighters get sick," Joseph Domitrovich, exercise physiologist with the Forest Service, said in a phone interview. "It's where their immune system, with repeated activity or fire work stress, they tend to get what we call 'camp crud,' which is an upper respiratory tract infection." Physical exhaustion has also been blamed for a number of safety mishaps that have killed firefighters. For instance, four firefighters died in 2001 when they were caught in the Thirtymile Fire in Washington state. The U.S. Forest Service, in a report, said fatigue was a factor in the poor decision-making that led up to the deaths. The night before their deaths, the firefighters had only slept for one to three hours while traveling to the fire, the report said. Residents in Kenya's informal settlements, also known as shantytowns or slums, are often wary of police and authorities because of their precarious legal status and past abuse. Local activists have started social justice centers as part of grass-roots efforts to give voice to victims. But justice for slum dwellers is often elusive. Ruth Mumbi grew up in Mathare, one of Kenyas informal settlements, commonly known as slums, where the poor and undocumented live, and where their legal status makes them vulnerable to abuse. Mumbis brother-in-law, Stephen Gichuru, paid the ultimate price. Stephen Gichuru was a 17-year-old boy who was an acrobat, and before he was profiled by some police officers stationed at Huruma police station as a gangster who had been robbing the community. So one early morning - 17 May 2015 - he came across the two police officers and he was shot without them even wanting to know what he was doing in Kiamaiko because they had already warned him to leave the community,to go far away," said Mumbi. Gichuru is one of hundreds of victims of alleged police violence in Kenyas slums. Rights activists say most police killings, as many as 800 in the past few years, have yet to see justice. Kenya government spokesperson Eric Kiraithe questions such high figures, but acknowledges police killings have occurred. It is a fact that suspects have died while in contact with the police. But each individual case should be dealt with in its own merit. ... figures like 800 I have not seen the individual cases they have listed and the grounds in which they list such. I would not want to dispute a figure that I have not been able to interrogate, but basically let every case of murder be dealt with in its own merit - that is our stand, he said. Social justice centers seek to fill the gap in data, said Gacheke Gachehe, a founder of Mathare Social Justice Center. We ask ourselves, if we do not do this, if we do not come here and station ourselves here, and put some poster there that says stop exclusion. What will happen? This will become permanent. If we do not do it, we will lose the whole generation, from Kayole, Mathare, Dandora, Kibera, said Gachehe. A 2017 Mathare Social Justice Center report indicates police killed 156 men between January 2013 and December 2016 in Mathare. Kiraithe said it is dangerous for police in slums where high unemployment, law-breaking, and violence are common. I can tell you as a police officer, the challenges of policing in such areas are very high. The unemployment rate, the lack of organized settlement, the environment itself exposes the youth to deviant behavior and what we train the police to do and ask them to do is however the challenges, police must remain professional, said Kiraithe. The more than 100 social justice centers in Kenyan slums pass along daily complains of harassment, abuse, and corruption. Communication and outreach officer Denis Oketch of Kenyas Independent Police Oversight Authority said they help investigations of police misconduct. What these groups also do, because they are at the grassroots level, when this complaint comes, because the people at the grassroots trust them they are able to direct witnesses to come and lodge their statements with us. They are able to report that this happened in our area of jurisdiction, but after we get that information from them we take up our investigations independent of any external factor, he said. But justice for Kenya's poor and undocumented is often elusive. In the Stephen Gichuru case, the Oversight Authority identified police officers it believed were responsible, but the case has been stalled at the Office of Public Prosecution and-three years later no court date has been set, and the two officers remain on active duty. As fighting and fiery rhetoric increase between the Somali region of Puntland and the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, some analysts fear that Islamist militant groups may try to exploit any instability to plant deeper roots in the area. Our concern is that were there to be a direct conflict between Somaliland and Puntland, the security forces will be preoccupied with that, and would not be in a position to contain Al-Shabab or the Islamic State, says E.J. Hogendoorn, deputy director of the Africa Program at the International Crisis Group. Obviously, this will give them the chance to expand their reach, he told VOA. Sool and Sanaag Somaliland and Puntland have had a long-running dispute over the provinces of Sool and Sanaag, which run from the Gulf of Aden all the way to the eastern borders of Ethiopia. Violence erupted again this January when Somaliland troops attacked and captured the town of Tukaraq, which headquartered a customs station for Puntland. The Somaliland attack on Tukaraq was carried out while President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo of Somalia was visiting Puntland, in what the ICG described as a warning from Somaliland to the Somali government against getting involved in the contested areas. Ali Ibrahim, a development expert working with an International NGO in Somalia, said it is hard to determine the strength of the sides in the disputed region. Both sides claim they are stronger, well-armed, and have the necessary skills to defend their land, Ibrahim said. Shabab, IS have toeholds Although Puntland and Somaliland have enjoyed relative peace and security compared to the rest of Somalia, there are pockets where al-Shabab and the IS faction are present and continue to threaten and attack security forces, mostly in Puntland. On July 20, al-Shabab seized the small town of Af Urur, 95 kilometers south of the coastal city of Bosaso, in Puntland. The town has been a scene of previous heavy fighting between the terror group and Puntland security forces, including the attack of June 10, 2017, described as the deadliest on security forces since Puntlands founding in 1998. Theres a mountain range that kind of basically spans this region, called the Galgala Mountains, in which theres been an al-Shabab faction for quite some time, said the ICG's Hogendoorn. As far as we know, they do operate within this region. And, depending on whether you consider it to be Somaliland or Puntland areas, this is an issue." The Islamic State in Somalia, which broke away from al-Shabab, is reported to have presence along the coastal region of Puntland. ISIS in Somalia doesn't control any territory, but maintains influence and a very small presence in northern Puntland, said U.S. Air Force Major Karl Wiest, spokesman of U.S. Africa Command. In May of this year, IS fighters attacked a Puntland army base near the town of Qandala on the Gulf of Aden. They had taken over Qandala twice in 2016 and 2017 before been driven out by Puntland forces. These groups [al Shabab and Islamic State] are a threat to peace and stability of Somaliland and Puntland, said Ibrahim. Direct Threat The United States has been actively working with the Somali government to try and degrade the terrorist threats from all parts of Somalia. These violent extremist organizations pose a direct threat to Americans, our allies, and interests in the region, Major Wiest told VOA in a written response. Over the past seven years, the U.S. has carried out many drone strikes against terrorist targets in Somalia, most notably killing al-Shabab emir Ahmed Godane in 2014. One of those targeted in Puntland last year was IS faction leader Sheikh Abdulkadir Mumin. Although regional leaders told VOA that Mumin escaped alive, several militants were killed. Over the weekend, a joint delegation of the East African bloc IGAD and the U.N. Mission in Somalia visited both Puntland and Somaliland in an effort to ease the tension around Tukaraq and prevent a full blown war between the two states. If that happens, the terror groups will get an upper hand to grow, peace and stability will be compromised [and] political and economic instability [will ensue], said Ibrahim. According to Crisis Groups Hogendoorn, involving the different clans in addressing the threat of jihadi expansion in the area, is a more durable solution.. What is necessary is for the governments, both federal and state level, to find more of an accommodation with different clans that currently support Al-Shabab and Islamic State, Hogendoorn said. And, were these clans to join with the government in opposing Al-Shabab and Islamic State, that will be a much more durable solutionthan any kind of foreign military operation. The special counsel in the Russia probe has referred investigations into possible unlawful foreign lobbying to federal prosecutors in New York, two people familiar with the inquiry said Wednesday. Three veteran Washington insiders Tony Podesta, Gregory Craig and Vin Weber are under scrutiny for allegedly failing to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department, the people said. None of the three has been charged with any crimes. Special counsel Robert Mueller turned over the investigations to the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan earlier this year, according to the people, who weren't authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The same prosecutors' office is conducting a separate investigation of Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, at the behest of the special counsel. Like the Cohen case, the lobbying inquiries appeared to fall outside the scope of Mueller's probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors and a lawyer for Podesta declined comment Wednesday about the referrals, which were first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Attempts to contact Craig and Weber weren't immediately successful. The three men in question cover the political spectrum in Washington: Podesta is a longtime Democratic operative whose brother, John Podesta, ran Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign; Weber is a former Republican congressman from Minnesota; and Craig was a White House counsel for President Barack Obama. They also all have ties to Paul Manafort, the one-time Trump campaign chairman currently on trial on charges he orchestrated a multimillion-dollar conspiracy to evade U.S. tax and banking laws. The three did work related to a lobbying effort on behalf of Ukraine's government directed by Manafort and longtime associate Rick Gates, who has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify at Manafort's trial. Two firms at which Podesta and Weber have held executive positions the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs were retained through a nonprofit group in Brussels that was directed by Manafort, according to prosecutors' court filings. Craig oversaw his law firm's report on behalf of Ukraine's government that defended the legitimacy of its prosecution of a former prime minister. Reports first surfaced in 2016 that Mueller was investigating whether Manafort secretly routed at least $2.2 million in payments to the Podesta Group and Mercury. At the time, the firms claimed they were under no obligation to disclose their activities to federal authorities. As the scrutiny intensified, Podesta stepped down last year as chairman of his firm; it shut down two weeks later. Craig left his law firm in April. Under federal law, U.S. lobbyists must declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties and provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Mercury said that in deciding it didn't need to register as a foreign agent, it relied on the opinion of its outside lobbying ethics counsel, another Skadden attorney named Kenneth Gross. Mercury and the Podesta Group both retroactively registered as lobbyists for foreign interests in 2017 after they first came under scrutiny. Though prosecutors' court filings in the Manafort case state both the Podesta Group and Mercury worked with Manafort, the firms have taken different and sometimes contradictory stances in public. In a 2016 interview with the AP, Tony Podesta acknowledged that Manafort's firm had been involved with the Ukraine lobbying work. But Vin Weber and Mercury steadfastly said no such collaboration took place. "They did not direct our work. We did not work under their direction," Mercury partner Mike McKeon said of Manafort's firm in an April 2017 email to the AP. He added that Manafort had "little involvement" with Mercury's Ukraine work. McKeon did not respond to phone calls or emailed questions from the AP on Wednesday about whether he and Mercury still stood by those statements, which conflict with allegations in Manafort's October 2017 indictment. "In fact," prosecutors wrote, Manafort and Gates selected Mercury and the Podesta Group and "engaged in weekly scheduled calls and frequent emails" with the companies "to provide them with directions as to specific lobbying steps that should be taken." A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has released a list of more than 70 of its clergy members accused of child abuse dating back decades. Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer also announced changes to confidentiality policies and said the names of anyone accused of abuse, as well as the bishops who led the church for the past 70 years, would be stripped from all church properties. Gainer also apologized to those who were abused, the parishioners and the community, and expressed his "profound sorrow.'' He said the diocese would release a list of every allegation made in recent decades that had not been proved false. He said no one on the list was currently in the ministry. Second diocese to release findings With its announcement, the Harrisburg diocese became the second of six dioceses under investigation by the state to get out in front of a pending grand jury report on clergy sex abuse. The Erie diocese released its own findings on clergy abuse in April. Gainer said the list includes 37 priests, three deacons and six seminarians from the diocese, nine clergy members from other dioceses and 16 from religious communities. Most of the allegations date from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. New procedures The church is adopting a series of new procedures to deal with complaints and to help protect against future abuses, the bishop said. All new complaints will be immediately forwarded to local authorities, and the church will require all workers, including volunteers, to undergo a background check. The other dioceses investigated are in Pittsburgh and Greensburg in the western part of the state, and Allentown and Scranton in the east. They collectively minister to more than 1.7 million Catholics. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Malaysia, the first stop of an Asia tour expected to focus on promoting free trade and pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. During his visit Pompeo will press countries to keep up pressure on North Korea via sanctions, according to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters during the flight to Kuala Lumpur. "We do have concerns about North Korea bypassing some of those sanctions, not adhering to its own obligations, so the secretary will use these opportunities to remind all of that obligation to stick to the sanctions as a means to get to the ultimate objective: the fully verified, finally fully verified denuclearization of North Korea," the official said. Since President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June, U.S. officials have been optimistic that Pyongyang will give up its nuclear weapons, though there is no evidence the North has begun that process. Concerns over ongoing nuclear and missile activity in North Korea surged after The Washington Post reported Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials believe Pyongyang is continuing to build new missiles in the same research facility it used to build intercontinental missiles capable of reaching the East Coast of the United States. During his meetings with ASEAN counterparts in Singapore later this week, Pompeo is also expected to discuss conflicts in the South China Sea, the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state in Myanmar, and cybersecurity. Pompeo landed Thursday in Malaysia. He is the first senior U.S. official to visit Malaysia since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was took office following a May election dubbed "quite historic" by a senior State Department official. "We take note of the fact that for the first time in Malaysia's history an election has gone to an opposition coalition. That says a lot for governance and democracy," the senior State Department official added. Ahead of his trip, Pompeo announced $113 million in new regional investments for the Indo-Pacific focused on technology, energy and infrastructure. It is seen by many as an attempt to reassure U.S. allies of Washington's commitment to the region, especially after pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. On his way back to Washington, Pompeo will stop in Jakarta, Indonesia, to meet with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to reaffirm the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with world's third-largest democracy. The Vatican said Thursday Pope Francis has asked the church to change its teachings to reflect his view that the death penalty should be inadmissible. The new language in the Catechism of the Catholic Church says the death penalty was long considered an appropriate response to certain crimes in order to protect the public, but that now there is "an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes." The text says there are more effective detention systems that "do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption." It further says the Catholic Church teaches the death penalty is an attack on a person's dignity, and that the church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide." A federal judge sentenced a New York man to nine months in prison Wednesday for trafficking in endangered African lion and tiger parts. Arongkron Malasukum pleaded guilty to charges of buying lion and tiger skulls, claws and other parts from undercover federal agents and shipping them to a buyer in Thailand. The Justice Department said the bones and other parts were worth more than $150,000. "Those who scheme and plot to criminally profit from the exploitation of these creatures will be brought to justice, as the defendant in this case has now learned," Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood said. Zimbabwe waited Thursday for the results of its presidential election, a day after security forces clashed with protesters who were demanding to know who will be the countrys next leader. The voting took place Monday and election officials were expected to have results by Wednesday, but they delayed the release at least one more day. In the capital, Harare, the clashes between protesters and police left three people dead and afterward authorities invoked a law formally calling on the army to help maintain order. President Emmerson Mnangagwa called Thursday for an independent investigation of the violence while stressing the need for the nation to move forward together. We believe in transparency and accountability, and those responsible should be identified and brought to justice, he wrote on Twitter. It is also more important than ever that we are united and commit to settling our differences peacefully and respectfully, and within the confines of the law. Mnangagwa said his government has been in communication with opposition leader Nelson Chamisa to discuss ways to immediately diffuse the situation. WATCH: Protesters, Security Forces Clash as Zimbabwe Election Results Delayed Chamisa and his opposition Movement for Democratic Change party have alleged cheating in the election and say Chamisa won the vote. Results from parliamentary races have been announced, with the ruling ZANU-PF party winning a majority in that body.ZANU-PF is the party of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe who stepped down under pressure from the military in November, and the parliamentary result could signal a strong showing for Mnangagwa. Election office protests Wednesdays violence happened after about 150 demonstrators gathered outside the offices of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Police tried to disperse the protesters using water cannon and tear gas. Protesters threw rocks in their direction and started fires in the street. Then the army appeared, in armored personnel carriers on Harares main boulevard, and overhead in a helicopter. VOA saw five armored vehicles with mounted high-caliber weapons, navigating around large rocks that littered the road. Gunfire echoed in the distance. VOA saw three soldiers beating a young man with batons; other witnesses reported seeing one man shot dead and a woman face-down on the pavement, a bullet hole in the middle of her back. Protesters did not give their names, but had plenty to say. You see, they are using military! How can a general be a president? That government is full of military personnel! shouted one young man. Chamisas spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, rejected an accusation from Mnangagwa that the opposition was responsible for the violence. President Nelson Chamisa has not ordered any guns on the street. So he cannot be accused of being violent, because he has put no guns on the street, Sibanda said. He said the opposition has serious doubts about official results that show the ruling ZANU-PF party is winning control of parliament and has suspicions about the delay in the presidential results. How do we have results from a place that has no telephone line first before we have results from Harare central? he said. Harare is an opposition stronghold. Inside the headquarters of ZEC, international observers aired their concerns, with the EU and American observer missions voicing worry over subtle intimidation ahead of the vote and noting that the longer the results take, the more tense this wounded nation will be. Former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn urged ZEC to conclude the electoral process in a speedy manner in accordance with the law. We also urge other stakeholders, particularly political party leaders and their supporters, to continue to maintain peace and refrain from acts that might undermine the integrity of the process or threaten the peace and stability of the country. Mnangagwa has promised to restore the nations fractured international relations. Difference for Zimbabwe U.S. Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, who is in Harare, says this election could make a difference in Zimbabwe. Shortly before coming here, we passed out of the House of Representatives a resolution really calling on the Zimbabwean people to have a peaceful, transparent and fair election, and raising the possibility of evaluating U.S. policy. So that hangs in the air, she said. The Rohingya minority members who fled a military campaign in Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh are now faced with the growing threat of heavy rains that have hammered refugee camps for weeks. Officials in the southeastern coastal town of Cox's Bazar told VOA they have moved about 40,000 Rohingya refugees from high-risk camps to safe shelters and plan to evacuate more as the monsoon floods continue. Heavy rains force evacuations Md Nikaruzzaman Chowdhury, the chief executive of Ukhia subdistrict, told VOA that the 200,000 refugees who settled on muddy hills of the Kutupalong refugee camp were most affected by the intensity and speed of the rain. The government and humanitarian agencies have already identified the Rohingyas who live on hills to evacuate them soon, said Chowdhury. Kutupalong is a hilly area with a fragile soil. It was a deep forest before, but we cut down the trees to make room for refugees. We discussed the vulnerability of Kutupalong to landslides with the local government and NGOs before the rain season, and have been working to address the issue since then, Chowdhury said. He said the refugee camps consisted of rudimentary tarpaulin-and-bamboo shanties, making them easily vulnerable to monsoon rains. Coxs Bazar officials say their town recorded over 500 millimeters (20 inches) of rainfall last week, with Kutupalong receiving nearly 350 millimeters (14 inches) in 24 hours last Wednesday. WATCH: Monsoon Rains Threaten Thousands Landslide causes damage to shelters Last week, authorities reported five deaths in nearby communities, including one child. Md Ali Kabir, the divisional forest officer for Coxs Bazar South Forest, said a landslide earlier this week in one Kutupalong hill camp demolished at least five shelters and damaged 30 more. No casualties were recorded from the incident. He estimated at least 600 settlements were affected and 500 Rohingya people were injured from landslides across Kutupalong. Refugees who were evacuated from the hill camps told VOA the new shelters provided them safety from the storms, but they reported shortages of basic services. Lack of utensils Shamsul Alam, a refugee, said he and his family were given food supplies but that the new Kutupalong extension camps lacked utensils. We get rice here but not any facility to cook it, said Alam, adding most refugees were tired of being moved to different camps. I feel I am in a kind of prison where life is very uncertain and does not point to any kind of light or hope, he said. Rights organizations warned that stagnant water from rainfall has also increased the risk of infectious diseases, particularly cholera among children. WATCH: Aid and Rights Organizations Worried About Rohingya 'We are not doing enough' Saikat Biswas, the spokesperson for the Inter Sector Coordination Group, told VOA that international organizations are trying to provide urgent aid for the affected people but cannot properly care for such a large concentration of Muslim Rohingya. We know that we are not doing enough. We are failing to provide the basic needs, said Biswas. He said members of the minority group should ultimately be allowed to safely return to Myanmar in order to end their suffering. The Rohingya represent the largest percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in the west coast state of Rakhine. Their population was estimated to be around 1 million at the beginning of 2017, but the United Nations says nearly 1 million have fled into neighboring Bangladesh because of a brutal crackdown by Myanmars army, which claimed it was targeting terrorists. State prosecutors who pre-emptively sued months ago to block anticipated efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken car fuel-efficiency standards blasted the Trump administration Thursday for doing so and vowed to continue their fight in the courts. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the rollback of Obama-era mileage standards would imperil the state's efforts to curb greenhouse gases and clean up some of the nation's most polluted air. Becerra also promised another lawsuit if the administration makes good on plans to revoke a longstanding waiver allowing California and other states to set their own stricter auto emissions standards. At least twelve other states and the District of Columbia follow California's rules. Becerra connected climate change to the deadly wildfires burning out of control throughout the state. "The Earth is not flat, and climate change is real," Becerra said at a news conference. "Can someone please inform the folks at the White House and our federal government of those facts?" Officials in the Trump administration said their actions would make autos more affordable and that would make roads safer because more motorists would be driving newer cars with the latest safety features. Becerra and attorneys general from 16 other states sued in May to stop the EPA from scrapping standards that would have required vehicles by 2025 to achieve 36 miles per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standards. The Trump proposal would freeze standards at 2020 levels when vehicles will be required to hit an average of 30 miles per gallon (48 kilometers per gallon) in real-world driving. States that joined the lawsuit said the change would end up costing more money at the pump because vehicles won't go as far on a gallon of gas, and more misery for those suffering pollution-exacerbated maladies such as asthma. "This has to be absolutely one of the most harmful and dumbest actions that the EPA has taken," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said. "It's going to cost drivers here and across the country hundreds of millions of dollars more at the pump." Pollution from cars, trucks and other on-road vehicles is California's single-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to state data. California has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. It met its 2020 goals four years early, but hitting the next target will be much harder without cleaner vehicles. The state has struggled to rein in vehicle pollution. Transportation accounts for the biggest chunk of the state's greenhouse gas emissions and is the only sector where emissions went up in 2016, the most recent data available. The lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia alleged the plan to dump the mileage standards violated the federal Clean Air Act and didn't follow the agency's own regulations. The lawsuit is proceeding, and Becerra said lawyers will now pore over the documents filed with the proposal to help make their case. Other states that joined in the lawsuit were: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. All have Democratic attorneys general. The International Organization for Migration reports thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshs Coxs Bazar are at risk of falling prey to human traffickers who exploit them sexually and for forced labor. Around one million Rohingya live in cramped, squalid camps in Coxs Bazar. More than 700,000 have fled there since August, escaping violence and persecution in Myanmar. In their haste to leave, most have arrived in Bangladesh with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. The International Organization for Migration says their destitution and lack of job opportunities make them extremely vulnerable to human traffickers. It says women and girls are at particular risk of being trafficked into the sex trade and of being violently abused. IOM spokesman Paul Dillon told VOA women and girls as young as 11 are vulnerable to being trafficked as domestics in slave-like conditions. There is a burgeoning cottage industry of manufacturing where you have many young men who are looking for work who are also very much at risk of being exploited in those kinds of work environments where they are under-paid, they are forced to endure long hours of work. In some cases, they are not allowed to return home with any regularity, he said. Because of the clandestine nature of the crime, IOM has identified only 78 victims of trafficking in the past 10 months. But the U.N. Migration agency notes this represents just a fraction of the true number. It says it has a lot of anecdotal evidence that thousands are at risk from all forms of trafficking. IOM is the lead agency coordinating the fight against human trafficking in Coxs Bazar. Dillon said the agency is scaling up its counter trafficking activities. These include protection, prevention, psychological and material aid to survivors, and legal assistance to victims. In this country, dogs have more rights than [you]. Those are the words a Los Angeles-based trafficker used to dehumanize Flor Molina, an immigrant from Puebla, Mexico, after locking her inside a sewing factory in January 2002. Nearly 17 years after her escape, Molinas story is one of survival and overcoming steep odds to become a champion for victims of labor trafficking. It also underscores the vulnerabilities migrants continue to face in 2018. Over the weekend, Free the Slaves, an advocacy organization dedicated to the eradication of global trafficking, honored Molina in New York City with the 2018 Fashion for Freedom Award, a tribute to her advocacy for labor trafficking victims and for the conscious consumerism movement in the ethical fashion industry, according to Free the Slaves special projects manager Allie Gardner. WATCH: Survivor Recounts Horror of Trafficking In an interview with VOA, Molina said the award was an opportunity to honor other survivors who cannot speak. Im able to speak, so Im here representing them, she said. Locked in the factory That first California winter, Molina endured verbal and physical abuse at the hands of her boss, a woman she described to VOA as old and manipulative. The "boss" coerced Molina to work for her to repay her for smuggling the then-26 year old into the U.S. Within the first week of Molinas duties, her trafficker decided that arranging for Molinas commute and housing was wasting her time, and that it would it be better if Molina slept in the factory. There was no shower there, and Molina was denied a change of clothing. She was forbidden from venturing outside or talking to anyone else in the building. With trafficking, they take away what makes you feel good about you, Molina said, describing her experience. She started pulling my hair, pinching me, slapping me making me feel bad about my origin all the time. Making me feel that I have no value. Disoriented and humiliated, Molinas first weeks in the United States consisted of one meal per day, 18-plus-hour shifts, and zero communication with her family back home. Atop a shared mattress in a small storage room, she slept beside finely crafted dresses worth seemingly more than her dignity. What [Molinas experience] reminds us is that slavery isnt something over there. Its something over here, said Maurice Middleberg, executive director of Free the Slaves. As long as it exists anywhere, we run the risk of having the slave next door, the slave whos serving us, the slave whos working for us. And I dont think any decent American wants to be party to that, Middleberg said. From survivor to advocate Before she ever left Mexico, Molina suffered from depression, due to her newborn childs death following a high-risk pregnancy. Unable to afford hospital expenses, she determined she would find a way to take care of her mother and remaining three children. She was lured into an opportunity, she thought, that would help her achieve her dream of owning a sewing business. But at the onset, she relinquished her identification documents to the trafficker, for [her] safety. When conditions worsened at the factory, the trafficker warned her that no one would believe her story. After all, she was an undocumented Spanish-speaker, and knew no one outside the factory. After incessantly pleading for permission to attend church, combined with hardworking gestures to prove she deserved the opportunity, Molina was allowed to go. She would never return. Following her escape, Molina cooperated with federal authorities who were already investigating the garment factory. They allowed her to remain in the United States under a T visa provided to certain victims of human trafficking and qualifying family members. She became involved with the Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Human Trafficking (CAST) and testified on behalf of two separate bills: the California Trafficking Victims Protection Act (AB 22), which made trafficking a crime in California in 2005, and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 (SB 659), which required large retailers and manufacturers to disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their direct supply chains. We, as consumers, have a bigger responsibility because we are the ones who are paying for the goods, Molina said. We have to make sure theres no slavery in the supply chain. In 2015, Molina was appointed by former President Barack Obama to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. Her efforts continue today. In the U.S., an estimated 403,000 people continue to live in modern slavery, or 1.3 of every 1,000 people, according to a 2018 report by the Global Slavery Index. Worldwide, an estimated 24.9 out of 40.3 million people living in modern slavery are victims of forced labor. Its the most impoverished, the most stigmatized, and marginalized the people who are most at-risk that traffickers then exploit, Middleberg said. Thats certainly the case here in the United States with undocumented immigrants right now, he added. They deserve special protection. The White House says President Donald Trump has received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, following up on the two leaders' June summit in Singapore. "A letter to President Trump from Chairman Kim was received on August 1. The ongoing correspondence between the two leaders is aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore and advancing the commitments made in the US-DPRK (North Korea) joint statement," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. At the summit, the two sides pledged to work toward toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But a document signed by Kim and Trump did not include details of how and when North Korea would denuclearize. Earlier Thursday, Trump had thanked Kim "for your nice letter," adding that "I look forward to seeing you soon." In the same tweet, the U.S. leader also thanked Kim for transferring presumed remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War His comments came hours after Vice President Mike Pence presided over a ceremony in the state of Hawaii marking the repatriation of the 55 sets of remains to U.S. soil. Pence said Trump secured a commitment from Kim during their June summit to return the remains of U.S. service members who were killed in the 1950-53 war. About 7,700 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the conflict, and 5,300 of the remains are believed to still be in North Korea. "Some have called the Korean War the forgotten war," Pence said. "But today we prove these heroes were never forgotten. Today our boys are coming home." The remains are being sent to Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency for forensic analysis in order to try to determine their identities. A U.S. defense official told VOA that North Korea has provided almost no information to help identify the individuals, and that the process could take months or years to complete. A total of 17 United Nations member countries fought on behalf of South Korea during the war. The U.S. Mission in Uganda has added more than $100 million in aid to the East African country with about half being injected into health, a sector analysts say is receiving little attention from the government. The United States Mission in Uganda says its assistance to the East African country has reached nearly $1 billion. U.S. aid to Uganda increased from $840 million in 2016 to $971 million in 2017. The funding is going into sectors ranging from agriculture to security and from trade to justice and democracy. But about half the aid money is marked for Ugandan healthcare and the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, said U.S. Ambassador Deborah Malac. "A significant portion of that about $400 million is in the PEPFAR program, which obviously is geared towards trying to bring an end to the AIDS epidemic in Uganda," she said. "Or whether we are trying to ensure that mothers do not die in child birth it is something that we feel strongly about and we try to help in ways that we can." Last year, the United States spent more than $500 million on the country's healthcare, coming close to the Ugandan government's $600 million healthcare budget. Uganda Debt Network policy officer Akello Juliet notes the support exposes Uganda's over-dependence on foreign aid in the health sector. "That means, just in case US Aid pulled out, it would be very difficult for the Ugandan government to cover up that gap," said Juliet. "And that means poor quality service delivery. Already the health sector is not doing enough to provide quality services. That means the citizens will be suffering." In 2016, Uganda's budget allocation for healthcare was about 8.7 percent, but it dropped by three percent in 2017. That is far below the African Union's Abuja declaration, which says governments should dedicate at least 15 percent of their budget to improving healthcare. Uganda is one of the 13 countries the United States selected last year for a comprehensive focus on epidemic control by 2020. Dr. Lisa Nelson, Country Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Uganda is in the Congo Basin "with a lot of emerging disease threats." "One of the things," she added, "as the U.S. government that our agencies are involved in, is also supporting Uganda to have the systems to detect disease outbreaks and be prepared to respond so that they do not spread and we contain the economic impact of those threats." U.S. support for Uganda is in line with the East African nation's national development plan and sustainable development goals. The United Nations special envoy to Yemen is planning to invite the warring parties to Geneva next month to discuss a framework for peace talks. Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that "a political solution" to end the war in Yemen was "available," and urged world powers to support the new push for peace negotiations. Griffiths said the Sept. 6 talks "will provide the opportunity for the parties, among other things, to discuss the framework for negotiations, relevant confidence-building measures and specific plans for moving the process forward." His announcement came just hours after the Saudi-led coalition conducted airstrikes Thursday in the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, killing at least 28 people and wounding at least 70. The airstrikes took place close to the city's main public hospital situated near a popular fish market, Yemeni medical officials said. The last attempt at peace talks for Yemen broke down in 2016. A proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran has been raging in Yemen since 2015, when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened to restore the internationally recognized government and push back the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The war has claimed more than 10,000 lives and left millions of people on the brink of starvation. The Trump administration has announced plans to freeze fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The administration also announced Thursday it wants to rescind the authority of California and other states to set more stringent vehicle mileage standards to address environmental issues like climate change and smog. New fuel-efficiency requirements, which were set to take effect in 2020, would be frozen through 2026. The freeze, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, would increase projected daily U.S. oil consumption by 500,000 barrels by the 2030's, the administration said.It also said the freeze would save up to 1,000 lives each year by cutting the price of new and safer vehicles. Environmental groups are condemning the proposal. Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp described the proposal as "a massive pileup of bad ideas" that would increase pollution and boost fuel costs. Krupp said the organization would challenge the administration's action "in the court of public opinion and the court of law." The advocacy group Earthjustice said the proposal "is the latest in a long list of gifts from the Trump administration to the oil industry given at the cost of the public health of Americans." Seventeen states, including California sued the administration over the freeze in May, in anticipation of the new regulation. California and 12 other states use more stringent standards than the EPA. Together they account for 40-percent of the American market for cars and light-duty trucks. A recent report confirms what Native Americans have always known: Most Americans know little, if anything, about American Indians, and what they do know is based on flawed narratives for which the mainstream media is largely to blame. At the same time, the report by the First Nations Development Institute and Echo Hawk Consulting (EHC) demonstrates media is poised to play an important role in dispelling misconceptions and helping to build new narratives. The two-year Reclaiming Native Truth project was designed to study prevailing attitudes about Native Americans and explore ways to dispel stereotypes that restrict Natives access to jobs, justice and sovereignty guaranteed by treaty. With help from Native American experts, researchers organized nearly 30 focus groups across 11 states and online, conducted in-depth interviews with political, judicial and business leaders, polled more than 13,000 Americans and analyzed social media. The resulting report, Reclaiming Native Truth: A Project to Dispel Americas Myths and Misconceptions, was released in June. Among its findings: Native Americans are largely invisible in contemporary society Non-Native media controls news about Native Americans Narratives about Native Americans focus on deficits, not strengths Stereotypes inform law, policy and decision-making Political elites dont understand tribal sovereignty or U.S. obligations to tribes Most people said they didnt know a Native American and had never interacted with one, said Sarah Dewees, director of First Nations research, policy and asset-building programs. And unfortunately, many people think that there arent many Native Americans left in America, which of course is not true. She points out that Americans juggle conflicting images of Indians, both positive and negative, with historic roots. The study shows Americans hold dual and conflicting stereotypes of Native Americans: Both impoverished and wealthy from gaming casino earnings; spiritual but struggling with addiction and violence; sovereign and non-tax-paying but dependent on federal government benefits. The latter, according to the report, is the most harmful because it alienates Native Americans from other communities by implying the government gives them preferential treatment. The researchers agree: News media bears a responsibility for generating and perpetuating these stereotypes. If it bleeds it leads, said Dewees, referencing medias focus on bad news. Most mainstream news stories about Native Americans focus on deficits, not positive developments in Indian Country. Its harder to find an audience for feel-good stories, but these are the stories that need to be told. The good news, say researchers, is that most Americans recognize Native Americans patriotism, high enrollment in the military, their commitment to family, community, culture and the environment. And they also admire tribes resilience in the face of adversity, specifically historic oppression and cultural genocide. The study says most Americans are willing to let go of misconceptions when given accurate facts, and thats where the media can make a difference. I think one of the most obvious ways that mainstream media can improve their coverage of Indian Country is in careful sourcing of information, said Bryan Pollard, president of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA). One of the things we see very consistently is that many non-Native journalists think that any Indian they talk to will be an expert on that community or that particular issue. He acknowledged that accessibility, particularly of remote rural tribes, may be a stumbling block, but insists this doesnt excuse journalists from an ethical responsibility to reach out. He also stresses the need for journalists to provide context in covering Native issues. Most people do not understand that each tribe has its unique history, its own culture, and its own story of what has brought that tribe to where it is today, Pollard said. It helps to frame those issues within a historical context and help people understand their struggles under the pressures of colonization. The American Society of News Editors has campaigned for decades to promote greater diversity in news media, but recent data show minorities remain underrepresented in newsrooms. Native American journalists make less than two-tenths of one percent of the mainstream media population, a statistic that Pollard calls egregious. As part of the Reclaiming Native Truth project, NAJA has published a guide to help non-Native journalists improve their coverage of Indian Country. It is also collaborating with EHC to develop a national campaign to increase awareness of and respect for Native Americans. The Reclaiming Native Youth project was funded by a $2.5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as well as several foundations and tribes. Just hours after top U.S. national security leaders made a rare joint appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday to express concern about efforts by Russia and potentially others to meddle in upcoming U.S. elections, U.S. President Donald Trump made an appearance at a rally where he seemed to be unable to come down hard on Russian President Vladimir Putin, even in the face of the mounting evidence of Russian election interference. "I got along great with Putin," Trump said at the rally. Trump again accused the media of writing fake news, calling media reports of Russian interference in U.S. elections a hoax. The presidents rally remarks conflicted with the statements the national security leaders made earlier in the day. WATCH: US National Security Team Concerned About Efforts to Meddle in 2018 Election "We continue to see a pervasive message campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States," said the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, adding that he is aware "Russia is not the only country that has an interest in trying to influence our domestic political environment." Coats said President Trump "has specifically directed us to make the matter of election meddling and securing our election process a top priority." FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Army General Paul Nakasone, who is head of the National Security Agency, also appeared at Thursday's briefing. As they spoke, a letter national security adviser John Bolton sent to five senators of the opposition Democratic Party was released outlining the Trump administration's "extensive, historic actions" taken to "ensure the integrity of our elections and defend against foreign malign influence." The letter specifically mentioned actions taken against the Russian government, companies and individuals. Russia "stepped up their game big time in 2016," said Coats, noting their activities currently were not at that level. Investigations continue Wray warned, however, "Any moment is just a moment before the dial can be turned up." He also revealed that FBI field offices across the country were investigating election interference, and he stated that adversaries were "manipulating news stories and spreading disinformation." The FBI director said "progress is being made" concerning foreign influence campaigns on social media networks, and that the bureau had partnered with the private sector in this effort. Top social media companies have received classified briefings so they can better monitor their own platforms, according to Wray. Nielsen, during her turn on the podium, warned, "Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs," noting that the U.S. government had seen a willingness and a capability on the part of the Russians to hack into voter rolls, voting machines and other elements of election infrastructure. Asked whether authorization had been granted by the president to take action to counter online attacks by foreign elements, Nakasone, who also heads the U.S. Cyber Command, declined to give a direct response, saying, "We're not going to accept meddling in the election." Intense scrutiny "Clearly, the White House and Trump are under heavy pressure on how seriously they are taking the whole issue," Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer now with Georgetown University, told VOA. But that criticism is likely to continue. "On an issue of central importance to American democracy, that's integral to American democracy, our leader, the president of the United States, is not out in front making these statements himself," Pillar said. "I think that is a very important and significant lack." While Trump repeatedly has wavered on clearly blaming Moscow for interference in the election that he won, those at the White House lectern on Thursday left no doubt about their conclusion on Russia's meddling. Trump has said he discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit in Helsinki last month. During a joint news conference following their talks, the U.S. president sided with the Russian president's denial that Moscow had meddled in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win. After returning to widespread criticism, Trump backtracked on the comments and said he accepted the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia did interfere in the election. "I think the president has made it abundantly clear to everybody" in the government who oversees election security, said Bolton, that "he cares deeply about it and that he expects them to do their jobs." Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating Russia's election meddling, as well as whether there were links between Moscow and Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump has repeatedly referred to the probe as a "witch hunt." VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. The World Health Organization says expert staff and equipment have been sent to northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo to quick-start the process of combating a new outbreak of Ebola.The last outbreak of this fatal virus in Congo was declared over just a week ago. Ebola is a constant threat in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the virus thrives in heavily forested areas. This latest outbreak is the 10th since the first one was discovered in 1976. The World Health Organization says this new outbreak in North Kivu province is 2,500 kilometers away from Equateur Province, the site of the previous outbreak, and there is no link between the two. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says the DRC Ministry of Health informed WHO Wednesday that four of six samples taken in North Kivu tested positive for Ebola virus. He says it is crucial to gain access to the area as quickly as possible.He says having people and material in the country from the outbreak in Equateur is very helpful in tackling the outbreak. "We really need to get into the area to do epidemiological investigations, try to find cases, try to work with health workers, to strengthen infection prevention and control measures and also to start with the contact tracing," he said. "It is, on the other hand, worrying that this area is a conflict zone.It is an area with lots of displacement, so the access can be hampered in that way." The virus was discovered in a village near the city of Beni in North Kivu, which hosts more than one million displaced people. The province shares borders with Rwanda and Uganda, with a lot of cross border movement due to brisk trade. Jasarevic says WHO will work with these neighboring countries to try to prevent the virus from crossing over. He says identifying the type of Ebola virus that is circulating is a priority, as that will tell scientists whether the vaccine used to help contain the outbreak in Equateur province can also be used in North Kivu. Zimbabwean human rights activists on Thursday condemned soldiers actions in post-election violence that killed at least three people in the capital, as the nations electoral commission promised delayed presidential poll results would be issued soon. "There's absolutely no skullduggery or anything untoward happening, said Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman Emmanuel Magade, when asked why the presidential results had yet to be announced. Legally, officials said, they have until August 4 to release results, and promised they would release them very soon. Opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa has claimed victory in Mondays election, and on Wednesday, hundreds of angry opposition supporters protested outside the election commission. Demonstrators threw rocks as police fired back with tear gas and water cannon. Later, army vehicles rolled through the streets, and soldiers were seen beating and shooting at pedestrians. The streets of central Harare, usually a hive of activity and a snarl of traffic, were eerily quiet Thursday morning as soldiers and police manned the streets and told shopkeepers to close early and go home. On Wednesday, the police announced that they had called in the army to assist in keeping order, invoking the controversial Public Order and Security Act. That act has been used during previous elections under the iron-fisted rule of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. Activist Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, described the soldiers response to protests as outrageous. Reports indicated that the [police] were in control of the situation when military vehicles were observed driving into the central business district, she said. Gunshots were fired randomly throughout the central business district, and forum observers witnessed soldiers randomly firing live bullets and beating up bystanders who were not involved in the protest. The militarys conduct fell short of internationally accepted standards in controlling protesting crowds. WATCH: Anita Powell's video report On Monday morning, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared to strike a conciliatory tone on Twitter, saying he would call for an investigation into the violence. He also said, We have been in communication with Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately defuse the situation, and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear. But Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said Zimbabwes leadership needs to do more than make statements. What is needed is a commitment that what happened yesterday will never happen again, he said. The statements may just be words loaded with promises, but the real issue is: what are they telling the soldiers that are on the street, what are they telling the police that are on the street in response to what is going to happen if citizens protest? What [are] the orders that are being given? Because responsibility lies entirely on the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that all Zimbabweans are being protected and that the sanctity of life is respected. Zimbabwean human rights activists on Thursday strongly condemned soldiers' actions in post-election violence that left at least six people dead and 14 wounded in Harare, the capital, as the nation's electoral commission promised that tensely awaited presidential poll results would be issued soon. "There's absolutely no skulduggery or anything untoward happening," said Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman Emmanuel Magade, when asked why the results had not yet been announced. Legally, officials said, they have until August 4 to release results, and promised they would do so "very soon." Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa held firm, just hours before the announcement was due. Chamisa maintained that he had won. "You can't rig an election, or manipulate an election, and then use that as a basis of engagement," he said. "That's deceitful." When asked what he would do if the results did not come out in his favor, he said, "We'll do a lot of things within the confines of legality and the constitution." When asked if he had had any contact with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as the president indicated on Twitter, Chamisa denied it. "There's no communication," Chamisa said. The president's side also claimed victory. "I know we have won the presidential election, but we will wait for the proper announcement of the results. Nevertheless, in the unlikely event that we do not win the presidential election, we will still request our supporters to accept the verdict of the people and allow Chamisa to take over," said Paul Mangwana, spokesman for the ruling ZANU-PF party led by President Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa appeared to strike a conciliatory tone on Twitter, saying he would call for an investigation into the violence. In contradicting Chamisa, Mnangagwa also said, "We have been in communication with (presidential challenger) Nelson Chamisa to discuss how to immediately defuse the situation, and we must maintain this dialogue in order to protect the peace we hold dear." On Wednesday, hundreds of angry Chamisa supporters thronged the election commission. Protesters threw rocks as police fired back with tear gas and water cannon. Later, army vehicles rolled through the streets, and soldiers were seen beating and shooting at pedestrians. The streets of central Harare, usually a hive of activity and a snarl of traffic, were eerily quiet Thursday morning as soldiers and police manned them and told shopkeepers to close early and go home. Police also surrounded opposition headquarters in central Harare, ratcheting up the tension even more. On Wednesday, police announced that they had called in the army to assist in keeping order, invoking the controversial Public Order and Security Act. That act was used during previous elections under the iron-fisted rule of President Robert Mugabe, who held power for close to 40 years before resigning late last year. Activist Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, described the soldiers' response to the protests as "outrageous." "Reports indicated that the police were in control of the situation when military vehicles were observed driving into the central business district," she said. "Gunshots were fired randomly throughout the central business district, and forum observers witnessed soldiers randomly firing live bullets and beating up bystanders who were not involved in the protest. The military's conduct fell short of internationally accepted standards in controlling protesting crowds." Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said the country's leadership needs to do more than make statements. "What is needed is a commitment that what happened yesterday will never happen again," he said. "The statements may just be words loaded with promises, but the real issue is: what are they telling the soldiers that are on the street, what are they telling the police that are on the street in response to what is going to happen if citizens protest? What are the orders that are being given?" The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Dead bodies and trails of blood is what Zimbabweans in Harare faced Monday, following clashes between the army and citizens, mostly supporters of opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, demanding release of presidential results. #voazimvotes The peace and calm referred to in Zimbabwe, right through to the long-awaited Election Day, Monday, ended abruptly Wednesday when opposition supporters demanding release of results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), clashed with the once beloved army, in the streets of Harare. By the end of the day, three people were dead, several injured, and visible blood pools stained the Capitals street, marking the end of a very bad day. "They shot him here, then everything comes from the front. And it was a sad situation, recounted one protestor of a gunshot victim. "Why are they killing us? What did we do? We didn't do anything, asked another. And from another proter, a mere plea to the countrys incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa. "Please, please, we are begging you, let's go with the constitution. We are civilians. We are fighting for our rights. We need our rights. Zanu-PF MDC Alliance Trade Blame on Violence The protestors had come out in large numbers to oppose the House of Assembly election results that gave the ruling Zanu-PF party a more than two-thirds majority, and were now demanding the release of the presidential results, which they accused ZEC of tampering with, to deprive opposition leader Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance, a clear victory. In response to the protests, the once loved army that citizens embraced back in November for forcing out longtime leader Robert Mugabe, came out in full gear to disperse the crowd using water cannons, baton sticks and live bullets that were fired indiscriminately into the crowd. President Mnangagwa blamed the MDC Alliance leadership for the violence and hooliganism, and ordered it to recall its protestors. We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace which was meant to disrupt the electoral process," said Mnangagwa. "Equally we hold the party and its leadership responsible for any loss of life, injury or damage to property that arise from these acts of political violence which they aided and abetted." The country's Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu announced a state of emergency throughout the country. DeVry University Professor of Business Administration, Elliot Masocha, said Mnangagwa was right to call out the MDC Alliance and its supporters, which he said gave Mnangagwa and his government no choice but respond as it did. For now its a right thing because of where things were going, Professor Masocha said. Masocha said the MDC Alliance supporters presumed victory for their leader based on false impression that Chamisa had countrywide support, when in reality, it was confined to the capital Harare, where it swept out the ruling Zanu-PF party. Masocha also said social media exaggerated Chamisa's popularity. Forget that you have numbers, but that does not translate into winning the whole country, said Masocha, adding that people are influenced by social media that they dont feel they need authentic information from a body like ZEC. But the MDC Alliance has pushed back, saying it has the numbers and it has the votes, and that it was Mnangagwas government and party that erred, by deploying the army and conspiring with ZEC to steal votes. Addressing journalists who challenged the MDC Alliance for sending out its supporters - some of whom threw stones and burned barricades and Zanu-PF regalia - to protest and declare victory for Chamisa before ZEC had released the presidential results, Chamisas Spokesperson, Dr. Nkululeko Sibanda, said Zanu-PF likely infiltrated the protesters to create chaos. Let me be brutally honest with you, Sibanda told journalists. My experience in this country and many other dictatorships it is that when you have peaceful demonstrations and the state wants to repress those demonstrations, they will send people who will pretend to be your supporters and start up the violence and give an excuse to react off handedly. And I think this is one of those things that we are experiencing. International Community: International observers who had initially given high praise for Zimbabwes peaceful elections, issued more cautiously worded preliminary post-election results, alluding to some inconsistencies that could legitimize the opposition and its supporters' concerns. Director Jennifer Cooke of the Institute of African Studies at George Washington Universitys Elliot School of International Affairs, who appeared on VOAs Straight Talk Africa, said the international observers have role to play in addressing discrepancies in the election. I think the observers need to call it as they see it, frankly and openly. I think SADC and the African Union and kind of key democratic leaders within Africa need to step up. They may be the ones that can pressure for some kind of accountability and what really happened here, Cooke said. Also speaking on VOAs Straight Talk Africa program, Den Moyo, chairman of the U.S. branch of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Dr. Thokozani Khupe, said Wednesdays developments and the questionable results that sparked the clashes, have taken Zimbabwe backwards. We have dead bodies in the streets. How can you then say the elections were free and fair? Moyo queried? So we are back to square zero. We are back to being looked at by the international community as a pariah state. So how does that help Zimbabwe? How does that move us forward, asked Moyo? As the spotlight remains on Zimbabwe as it awaits the announcement of the presidential results that will see either incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF or Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance become the countrys new leader, the United Nations has called for calm and restraint. Wed like to remind the incumbents and political parties of the commitments they made in the peace pledge, and the code of conduct to ensure peaceful electoral process, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, said at a press conference Wednesday. We call on the political leaders and the population as whole to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence while awaiting the resolution of the dispute and the announcement of the electoral results. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said it will announce the results of the presidential race, Thursday. Zimbabwe waited Thursday for the results of its presidential election, a day after security forces clashed with protesters who were demanding to know who will be the countrys next leader. The voting took place Monday and election officials were expected to have results by Wednesday, but they delayed the release at least one more day. In the capital, Harare, the clashes between protesters and police left three people dead and afterward authorities invoked a law formally calling on the army to help maintain order. Zimbabwe Police Spokeswoman Charity Charamba on Thursday said the number had risen to six, as three more died from injuries sustained during the clashes. President Emmerson Mnangagwa called Thursday for an independent investigation of the violence while stressing the need for the nation to move forward together. We believe in transparency and accountability, and those responsible should be identified and brought to justice, he wrote on Twitter. It is also more important than ever that we are united and commit to settling our differences peacefully and respectfully, and within the confines of the law. Mnangagwa said his government has been in communication with opposition leader Nelson Chamisa to discuss ways to immediately diffuse the situation. WATCH: Protesters, Security Forces Clash as Zimbabwe Election Results Delayed Chamisa and his opposition Movement for Democratic Change party have alleged cheating in the election and say Chamisa won the vote. Results from parliamentary races have been announced, with the ruling ZANU-PF party winning a majority in that body.ZANU-PF is the party of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe who stepped down under pressure from the military in November, and the parliamentary result could signal a strong showing for Mnangagwa. Election office protests Wednesdays violence happened after about 150 demonstrators gathered outside the offices of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Police tried to disperse the protesters using water cannon and tear gas. Protesters threw rocks in their direction and started fires in the street. Then the army appeared, in armored personnel carriers on Harares main boulevard, and overhead in a helicopter. VOA saw five armored vehicles with mounted high-caliber weapons, navigating around large rocks that littered the road. Gunfire echoed in the distance. VOA saw three soldiers beating a young man with batons; other witnesses reported seeing one man shot dead and a woman face-down on the pavement, a bullet hole in the middle of her back. Protesters did not give their names, but had plenty to say. You see, they are using military! How can a general be a president? That government is full of military personnel! shouted one young man. Chamisas spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, rejected an accusation from Mnangagwa that the opposition was responsible for the violence. President Nelson Chamisa has not ordered any guns on the street. So he cannot be accused of being violent, because he has put no guns on the street, Sibanda said. He said the opposition has serious doubts about official results that show the ruling ZANU-PF party is winning control of parliament and has suspicions about the delay in the presidential results. How do we have results from a place that has no telephone line first before we have results from Harare central? he said. Harare is an opposition stronghold. Inside the headquarters of ZEC, international observers aired their concerns, with the EU and American observer missions voicing worry over subtle intimidation ahead of the vote and noting that the longer the results take, the more tense this wounded nation will be. Former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn urged ZEC to conclude the electoral process in a speedy manner in accordance with the law. We also urge other stakeholders, particularly political party leaders and their supporters, to continue to maintain peace and refrain from acts that might undermine the integrity of the process or threaten the peace and stability of the country. Mnangagwa has promised to restore the nations fractured international relations. Difference for Zimbabwe U.S. Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, who is in Harare, says this election could make a difference in Zimbabwe. Shortly before coming here, we passed out of the House of Representatives a resolution really calling on the Zimbabwean people to have a peaceful, transparent and fair election, and raising the possibility of evaluating U.S. policy. So that hangs in the air, she said. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has blamed the opposition MDC Alliance leadership for Monday's "violence and hooliganism," demanding it takes responsibility for loss of life and injury. The opposition has in turn blamed the government. Zimbabwe is now in a sate of emergency. #voazimvotes Blessing Zulu Zimbabwes opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance is demanding the immediate release of presidential election results, amid fears of alleged voter fraud. Dr. Nkululeko Sibanda, presidential spokesperson of MDC-T leader Nelson Chamisa, says activists aligned to the political outfit wont allow any results that wont reflect the will of the people. Three MDC Alliance activists were shot dead in Harare on Wednesday following street protests over the outcome of parliamentary elections showing an outright majority for President Emmerson Mnangagwas ruling Zanu PF party. The protesters also demanded the release of presidential election results following harmonized national polls Monday. Police Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba confirmed the deaths though some civic society organizations put the number of deaths at five. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was not reachable for comment. Police have warned protesters of dire consequencies if they stage more street protests. Dr. Sibanda says Zimbabweans need to protect and guard their vote. Human rights groups, including the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged authorities in Harare to investigate the shooting of unarmed civilians by the Zimbabwe National Army. The lawyers group noted that the use of the army was unconstitutional. At the same time, the United Nations said political leaders and Zimbabweans in general to shun any form of violence. Responding to the protests in a televised address to the nation, incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa said the opposition MDC Alliance and its leadership were responsible for the disturbances that led to the death of some local people. Incidents of wanton violence and hooliganism which broke out this afternoon in the capital, come as a complete surprise. We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace which was meant to disrupt the electoral process. Equally we hold the party and its leadership responsible for any loss of life, injury or damage to property that arise from these acts of political violence which they aided and abated. The Alliance and its leadership has forthwith to remove its violent supporters so peace returns to our country. But Human Rights Watch director for Southern Africa Dewa Mavhinga said the use of deadly force was unjustified. If you havn't done it yet,to get one of the fastest volcano news online: We offer you private geology tours to get to know the extraordinary geology and natural history of the island, but also aspects of the deep connection with its cultural history and archaeology. How to watch volcanoes? Which volcano to choose? Some guidelines. Earthquakes often precede volcanic eruptions. Find out where the latest earthquakes in the vicinity of volcanoes have occurred. Support us - Help us upgrade our services! Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. Improved multilanguage support Tsunami alerts Faster responsiveness Earthquake archive from 1900 onwards Detailed quake stats Additional seismic data sources Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently: stratovolcano 1117 m / 3,665 ftKyushu, Japan, 31.59N / 130.66E(3 out of 5)1955-ongoing, 1954(?), 1950, 1948, 1946, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1939, 1938, 1935, 1914-15, 1899(?), 1860, 1799, 1797, 1794, 1792, 1791, 1790, 1785, 1783, 1782, 1779-81, 1756, 1749, 1742, 1706, 1678, 1670(?), 1642, 1478, 1471-76, 1468, 778, 766, 764, 716-18, 712(?), 708Explosive(5-day volcano expedition to observe Sakurajima volcano's activity from close) If you havn't done it yet,to get one of the fastest volcano news online: Photos from the Holuhraun fissure eruption: large lava fountains and lava flows from close! Dukono on Halmahera in Indonesia has been in permanent activity for years, often producing ash plumes that drift around the northern part of the island and have become normality. Updates and news about the volcanic unrest at El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands A total solar eclipse will occur on 14 Dec 2020 and pass over southern Chile and Argentina. Chile's most active volcano Villarrica is located exactly on the center line where the eclipse will be best to observe.We offer you the unique chance to combine the eclipse with a tour to one the world's most beautiful volcanic areas - the Lake District in Chile. Support us - Help us upgrade our services! Maintaining our website and our free apps does require, however, considerable time and resources. We're aiming to achieve uninterrupted service wherever an earthquake or volcano eruption unfolds, and your donations can make it happen! Every donation will be highly appreciated. Improved multilanguage support Tsunami alerts Faster responsiveness Earthquake archive from 1900 onwards Detailed quake stats Additional seismic data sources Download and Upgrade the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic and volcano alerts online: We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently: Kavanaugh was proud of his work on the Foster case. Whats important in these investigations, however, is that the American people, at the end of the day, have confidence that the person was dogged at getting at the truth; that the person was not restricted by a narrow mandate . . . but the person really went after it hard. And thats what Judge Starr did in his investigation, he said on CNN in 1999. Nancy P.: The wattage of your microwave should be found in your owners manual, or sometimes it is printed on the back of the unit. It typically is not found inside the door, which can be frustrating. Solomon: In writing about crime, I wanted to show that, while we think of crime as aberrant and different, the narrative of those families is in many ways like the narratives of the families coping with, say, disabilities. It was best summed up when I talked to Sue Klebold, and she said, I used to wish that I had never married, that I had never had children. If I had never gone to Ohio State, I would never have crossed paths with my husband, Tom, this child wouldnt had existed. But over time, Ive come to feel that I loved the children I had so much that I wouldnt want to imagine a life without them, even at the price of this pain. And when I say pain, Im speaking of my own pain, and not the pain of other people. While I know it would have been better for the world if Dylan had never been born, Ive decided that it would not have been better for me. Sites such as HomeAway (part of the Expedia family, along with VRBO and VacationRentals), Airbnb, TripAdvisor (also owns FlipKey) and Booking.com are the online heavy hitters for private rentals. There are also niche sites, including Onefinestay, which specializes in luxury rentals; Wimdu, for rentals in Europe; Homestay, for travelers who want to lodge with a family; and Misterb&b, which caters to gay travelers. Be aware of laws regulating short-term rentals, because some cities, including Miami Beach, New York City and Los Angeles, have launched crackdowns. To protect your vacation, read the reviews from other renters before committing and never, ever wire anyone money. In many resort communities, contacting a local real estate agency that handles private rentals is still the way to go. Reach out to the areas tourism office for a list of reputable agencies. In this world, when someone is facing a wall of fire and the building is coming down, every vulnerable firefighter has to wonder whether a colleague at the other end of the hose is the poster known as monkey fire department or Whoops! Burnt another one! Both openly pine for an all-white world. Those measures include an amendment similar to Cruzs repeal of the D.C. individual health insurance mandate, a provision that would block the citys assisted-suicide law, another that would allow employers to discriminate against workers based on their reproductive health decisions, and a measure that would repeal the Districts right to spend its own local tax dollars. Near the intersection of Loco School and Bell roads, troopers positioned themselves to stop the vehicle; someone in the car again fired at the troopers, and one of the bullets struck the police dog in one of the patrol vehicles, Virginia State Police said in a statement. The law allows women to seek abortions without interference from the state if the fetus is not viable outside the womb. A woman may also terminate a pregnancy at any point if the fetus has a genetic defect or serious anomaly or if an abortion is necessary to protect the health of the mother. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Sheehan was able to put his ideas into practice as the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and low-intensity conflict. In that role, he directed all Special Operations branches of the military, including the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, as well as the drone strikes that targeted terrorist leaders overseas. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Miller worked for Stone during the 2016 presidential campaign, handling duties such as setting up media interviews. He is one of at least a half-dozen of Stones associates to be called to testify. Others include his driver, John Kakanis, and a social media consultant, Jason Sullivan. And Kristin Davis, who gained notoriety in the 2000s as the Manhattan Madam when she ran a high-end prostitution ring, has said her attorney was told investigators want to question her. Ma was visiting from China as part of a tour group that was sightseeing and looking at schools in the United States since July 26, authorities said. At the airport, the child said she needed to use the restroom. She then met with an unknown middle-aged Asian woman, authorities said. The girl exited the restroom in different clothes, and walked with the woman toward the arrivals area of the airport, authorities said. Whatever the level, this has always been about a continuation of the service that inspired me to join the military, he said. A change in the countys zoning ordinance, approved Tuesday by the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, allows county residents to rent out their homes for up to 60 days a year, provided that they limit the number of occupants to six adults, have available parking and allow only one group at a time to use the property. Home gun manufacturing happens in various ways. Kits that have all the components to make a gun are available online, typically costing a few hundred dollars. It is also possible for a trained machinist to make a gun from scratch. One can buy a gun receiver, which is akin to buying a gun and requires a background check, and make it work by adding parts. Some kits contain what are known as 80 percent receivers, which is a block of aluminum in the shape of a lower receiver. It must be assembled and does not qualify as a firearm purchase under federal law. The delegation was cautious in its initial findings released Wednesday, mindful that a peaceful election day like Mondays is not the same as a fair and free process. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa ran a spirited campaign focused on the need for change, but it seemed clear to many Zimbabweans and invited observers that the ruling party put a heavy thumb on the scale, raising the question of whether the will of the people would be reflected in the final tally. The deadline for announcing the result is Saturday (as of this writing, a Thursday announcement had been promised), but frustration with the delay, and the Chamisa partys accusations of government vote-rigging, spawned Wednesdays protests by his supporters. Practically, this means photographers, bakers and tailors would agree to offer services to LGBTQ people, knowing their churches are still free to enforce policies that align with their convictions. It also means LGBTQ people wouldnt go after the tax-exempt status of Christian institutions that hire according to their beliefs, even when they have policies that insist community members hold theologically traditional views of marriage. And when possible, LGBTQ people would try to respect conservative business owners by seeking out vendors who fully support them. We can coexist in ways that honor and respect those who are different from us, but we cant do it if we always look for opportunities to provoke and offend. No surprise, then, but still disturbing that in the Clay Terrace community where Makiyah lived, there are residents who see, as one D.C. police official told Fox 5, gun violence in their neighborhood as normal and think that a 10-year-old would die in Washington, D.C., and we would take it lightly. Police say the shooting may have stemmed from a rivalry with another neighborhood, among the homicides seen as most challenging to solve, but they say there are a number of leads they are working day and night. And they are convinced that there are people who know something who can help them find the gunmen who shot into a crowd and ended up killing a little girl who was doing what 10-year-olds should be able to do in their neighborhoods. All of Washington is waiting with bated breath to find out whether the Mueller investigation will provide evidence proving that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. So far, Exhibit A against President Trump is the meeting Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort had with a group of Russians claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. That meeting should never have happened. When you get an email offering to provide very high level and sensitive information from the Crown prosecutor of Russia that could incriminate Hillary Clinton and is part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump you dont reply by saying I love it. You call the FBI. We have since learned a great deal from Comeys public testimony about the circumstances leading to his firing. Comey testified that Trump sought to extract a pledge of personal loyalty that Comey would not give, and that the president asked him to end the investigation of his fired national security adviser, Michael Flynn I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go, the president told Comey, according to Comeys notes of the meeting. Trumps lawyers argue, preposterously, that he did not break the law because he didnt know that Flynn was under FBI investigation. Then why did he make the request at all? Furthermore, according to investigative reporter Murray Waas, a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsels possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel [Donald] McGahn that Flynn was under criminal investigation. At the moment, you might be more inclined to worry about the weather, which has been weird and, in many places, brutal. Climate scientists have always been careful to say that no one weather event can be definitively blamed on climate change; after all, there were hurricanes and heat waves long before the Industrial Revolution. But now, with more data and better climate models at their disposal, some researchers are beginning to calculate the extent to which global warming is making freakish weather events more common and more intense. Uncle Bill passed away in 2008 at age 84, and it is a cosmic injustice that he did not live to see Donald Trump become president. He would be gratified that, finally, there has arrived a Republican who wont apologize, come hell or high water, for wanting to enforce immigration laws, for demanding that our allies pony up more for our common defense and most impressively, as far as the base is concerned for giving as good as he gets from the media. A formal declaration of the wars end would foster denuclearization by alleviating the worries of North Korea over the security of its regime, argues a fact sheet published by South Korea after the Panmunjom summit. Seoul believes that this declaration, perhaps co-signed by China, wouldnt affect the status of U.S. forces in South Korea. Indeed, Seoul argues that both North and South may privately agree on the utility of U.S. troops as a way of checking Chinese hegemony over the Korean Peninsula. The issue presented by this stay application is whether Virginia will be required to commence (and potentially conclude) the process of resentencing Malvo risking additional trauma to his numerous victims and their families and exposing the Commonwealth to significant cost before the Supreme Court can decide whether the 4th Circuit got it right. You see the Nazi platform in the early 1930s and what was actually put out there and you look at it, compared to the DNC platform of today, youre saying, Man, those things are awfully similar to a point where its actually scary, he said in an interview with One America News, a conservative outlet. And to me, that was one of the most striking things I took from the movie because its the exact opposite of what youve been told. Please note that we will not be able to complete our review of all of the records that you have requested by August 15, 2018, Stern wrote to Grassley. He wrote that the Archives would be able to review emails received from Kavanaugh about 49,000 emails, or 300,000 pages by roughly Aug. 20 and that the rest of the pages would be reviewed by the end of October. Thank you to Chairman Kim Jong Un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! said on Twitter. I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter - l look forward to seeing you soon! Landmark designation doesnt irrevocably prevent modification or demolition. But it does mean that altering or razing a registered historic landmark cannot be undertaken as a matter of right. To make such changes to a historic property, an owner or developer must seek legal authorization based on a lengthy, demanding entitlement process. Thus, decisions about a proposed transformative project affecting a historic landmark can be controversial and take years to resolve at great expense. He campaigned on a message of transformation despite being so closely associated with the only leader independent Zimbabwe has ever had. Much of the change he has promised is predicated on the international communitys stamp of approval. Zimbabwe desperately needs foreign investment, and flawed elections in the past have led to sanctions and reprieve. The revision to several sentences of the catechism, the compendium of Catholic beliefs, has the potential to recast debates around the world on how to handle those accused of the most heinous crimes. It adds a new wrinkle to the question of what it means to be pro-life particularly in the United States, where Catholics who support the death penalty sit on the Supreme Court and govern states that permit executions. At the same time, it will test the churchs ability to influence with a moral authority weakened by decades of sex abuse scandals. Nicaraguans have watched paramilitaries plainclothes militiamen who appear to be working in close coordination with government security forces fight pitched battles against protesters since an uprising against Ortegas government began three months ago. They have burned homes, businesses and university buildings. But there is a less visible side to the violence: These roving bands of masked gunmen have quietly kidnapped and tortured dissidents like Novoa. Some 600 people have been captured by armed groups and have disappeared, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. Alaska Airlines apologised this week after a flight attendant asked a gay man to give up his seat next to his partner so a straight couple could sit together, an exchange that put the airline on the defensive as it rebutted claims of discrimination. David Cooley, the owner of a gay bar in West Hollywood, California called the Abbey, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he and his partner had boarded a flight to Los Angeles from New York when a flight attendant asked if Cooley's partner would move from his seat "so a couple could sit together." Cooley said he told the attendant that the two men were a couple and that he wanted to sit with his partner. But the attendant gave Cooley's partner a choice: Move for the other couple or get off the plane. Alaska Airlines has apologised after the incident became public. Credit:AP "We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane," Cooley said. "I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask us to leave." The World Goes On, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Since winning the Man Booker International in 2015 for the beautiful Seiobo There Below, Laszlo Krasznahorkai has had a surge in readership in the Anglosphere, for which he is quick to credit the talent and creativity of his translators, George Szirtes, John Batki and Ottilie Mulzet. But there is no doubt the power of Krasznahorkai's work springs from its source in his Hungarian mother tongue, in which the performative and sidereal qualities of his prose have long flourished and out of which his mesmeric powers of entrainment have now spread around the globe. Krasznahorkai's renditions of the interior music of individual consciousness have been particularly welcomed by readers in English, due perhaps to the fact that, until the recent rise of neo-modernist writers such as Eimear McBride and our own Jack Cox, the work of most well-known contemporary prose stylists in English seemed to deal with externalised, imagistic, even positivist world views. This seems clear when a Julian Barnes or Zadie Smith, or even the selfie-lit of Karl Ove Knausgaard or Elena Ferrante in translation, is compared with Krasznahorkai's sinuous, reflexive, and truly phenomenological prose. Thus even among the theatrics of his preoccupations with apocalypse and spiritual alienation Krasznahorkai's brilliance has come on the scene like light itself. "Despite the affluence of many doing well in the Kimberley, despite affirmative actions and investments in infrastructure in the Kimberley, the reality is that the Kimberley also has the second highest homelessness rate in the nation. "More than six per cent of its total population is homeless and nearly 100 per cent of that are Aboriginal people which then translates to almost 12 per cent or one in eight of all Aboriginal people in the Kimberley living with some form of homelessness." Almost all Aboriginal suicides are committed by people living below the poverty line, Mr Georgatos said. "The elevated risk groups are people who've been incarcerated and come out of prison with little hope on the horizon who are Aboriginal, people who are homeless and Aboriginal, people who have been evicted from their public housing rentals who are Aboriginal," he said. "Within that poverty other sad factors become much more pronounced. "That's where you get the family violence, various sexual predations and that sort of behaviour that become tipping points." Coroner inquires into Aboriginal suicides in the Kimberley WA Coroner Ros Fogliani launched an inquest into the suicides of 13 young Aboriginal people in the Kimberley in 2017 (her findings are yet to be released). The children died between November 2012 and March 2016, roughly the same timeframe covered by the latest figures released by the government. Mr Georgatos said there had been six Aboriginal suicides last financial year in the Kimberley and, even though this was about half the number of the previous year, five were teenagers aged 15 to 17. "That's a disturbing and increasing trend, but despite the suicide toll decreasing in the last year and pray that continues that doesn't reflect in hospital admissions for self-harm, attempted suicide and police call-outs for aberrant behaviour, which have continued at the same rates," he said. The coroner heard harrowing details at inquest hearings in Perth and across the Kimberley, including the story of a 10-year-old girl her took her own life on the same day she was struck by a relative with a stick. She was last seen walking away in tears. She had been exposed to alcohol abuse and domestic violence and did not have any contact with mental health or counselling services, according to counsel assisting Philip Urquhart. Overall, there had been more than 700 recommendations arising from 40 inquiries into Aboriginal youth suicide and related factors since the early 2000s. Mr Georgatos said he wasn't hopeful another inquest would change things. "They all come back with a limited remit of responses and unless they come back actually focusing in on the crushing poverty, then you're going nowhere fast," he said. The Kimberley region of Western Australia. Credit:Fairfax Media "Everybody can argue 'mental health', everybody can argue 'more responders', everybody can argue everything they want under the sun. "Obviously, it all helps in some way to some extent, but how can you give people hope and ask them to adjust their behaviour, and for how long and how far, without a path leading to something better on the horizon?" Governments direct resources into North West suicide prevention Both the state and federal governments say they are concerned about suicide rates in the Kimberley. A 2016 WA parliamentary inquiry flayed WA governments of both political persuasions, finding they had "failed to respond to recommendations made by previous inquiries for more than 15 years". Commonwealth Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said he had been working closely with community and health groups from across the region since early last year. "I am saddened by the profound impact that suicide has on individuals, their families and communities," he said. "Through the Kimberley Suicide Prevention Trial, the Turnbull Government is committed to suicide prevention, with a focus on strong community engagement and respect for locally endorsed solutions. "In May and August 2017, and February 2018, I have chaired two meetings of the Kimberley Suicide Prevention Working Group and have another planned for October. Importantly, the initiative is being locally led, with strong youth involvement." Loading The trial will target suicide in Broome, Bidyadanga, Dampier Peninsula, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Kununurra, Wyndham and the Kutjunka region. More than 30 women were sexually abused by two men at a Perth natural therapy business over the past 10 years, police claim. The alleged assaults happened between 2008 and 2018. Credit:Cathryn Tremain Police allege a 36-year-old man from Edgewater indecently assaulted 25 women during consultations at the business between 2008 and 2017. He has been charged with two counts of sexual penetration without consent and 28 counts of indecent assault. A 40-year-old man from Palmyra is accused of indecently assaulting six women during consultations between 2012 and 2017. His charges include four counts of sexual penetration without consent and four counts of unlawful indecent assault. The NSW Labor Party is in turmoil after the leaking of an explosive letter purporting to be from the investigator examining allegations of misconduct against embattled federal MP Emma Husar. The letter, dated May 16, is said to have been written to Ms Husar by barrister John Whelan, who was appointed by the party late last year to conduct an inquiry into her behaviour. On leave: embattled Labor MP Emma Husar. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Among the fresh allegations it details is a claim Ms Husar exposed herself to Labor frontbencher and shadow trade minister Jason Clare in his parliamentary office. The claim has been flatly denied by both Mr Clare and Ms Husar, a single mother of three, who is on personal leave from her parliamentary position. US President Donald Trump's invitation to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was a surprising turnaround after a week-long exchange of hostile tweets, but Rouhani had no choice but to reject the offer. Since the Trump administration took over, bilateral tensions have been on the rise. Reports of an imminent US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by anonymous sources in Australia have pushed the risk of confrontation to a new high. In a speech delivered to Iranian Americans, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed solidarity with the Iranian people and condemned the leadership of the Islamic Republic as a bunch of hypocritical thieves. He pointed approvingly to public protests across the country as evidence of the ruling regimes incompetence, falling short of a call for a revolution. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with President Donald Trump. Credit:AP Pompeo made a public commitment to expanding Persian language broadcast into Iran to counter state censorship, in a strategy reminiscent of the US approach to the former Soviet Union, and subsequently the post-Soviet republics that went through Colour Revolutions in the first decade of the 21st Century. The outcome of that strategy in the post-Soviet space was the sidelining of the pro-Moscow elite and the ascendancy of a pro-US leadership. Given the tone of Trump and Pompeo on Iran and the pointed commitment to making US media accessible in Iran, it is hard to avoid drawing a parallel with that historical experience. This is a regime change strategy on the cheap. But, typical of Trumps haphazard approach to foreign policy, it is not clear who is being eyed as the replacement. Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter and senior adviser, called the administration's immigration enforcement policy that led to more than 2,500 family separations along the southern US border a "low point" that she felt "very strongly about". Trump has remained mostly silent on immigration issues throughout her father's presidency, only weighing in from time to time when asked about the topic during public appearances. That's what happened on Thursday when she was asked at an event run by news site Axios about the family separation crisis that prompted President Donald Trump to sign an executive order curtailing the practice and led a federal judge to order all the families to be reunited. Hundreds of Sikorsky employees in Florida are out of a job. The Stratford-based company, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary, announced plans to lay off 500 workers at its plant in Jupiter, Florida, with more expected to come company wide. Its too early to know how any individual site will be impacted, said Sikorsky spokesperson Paul Jackson in a press release. Sikorsky notified Florida employees Tuesday that the company would be consolidating operations due to lower aircraft demand from the U.S. Government. As a result, the aircraft manufacturers opted out of renewing its lease at the Florida Assembly and Flight Operations property with plans to leave the building by the end of the year. The Development Flight Center will remain on the property. Sikorsky is expected to cut another 150 salaried employees throughout the company. No word has been given on where additional job cuts will happen, but Jackson said it will not impact Connecticuts production of a new heavy lift helicopter. Jordan.grice@hearstmediact.com Connecticut does not have a state law that explicitly forbids ownership of plastic, untraceable ghost guns, but in the light of a recent federal settlement that could allow blueprints for 3-D printed guns to go online, Democrats are renewing calls to pass such a ban. A federal judge Tuesday night issued a temporary national injunction preventing a man from posting download-able blueprints for 3-D printing a gun on the internet. Democratic endorsed candidates Ned Lamont, running for governor, William Tong, running for attorney general, and Shawn Wooden, running for treasurer, stood next to a 3-D printer in Hartford Public Library Wednesday and urged the state legislature to prevent the machine from becoming a weapons manufacturer. What were seeing now with ghost guns and 3-D printing is the way were trying to enforce our existing laws and make them relevant to the 21st century, said Lamont. This is an enormous end run around what were trying to do in terms of protecting our streets. Meanwhile Lamonts opponent in this months Democratic gubernatorial primary, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, held his own press conference Wednesday to pledge that his city would pursue a local ghost gun ban until state legislators take action. The invisibility of it, the undetectability of it is of grave concern, said Ganim, flanked by a small group of state legislators, City Council members and police personnel. The General Assemblys Judiciary Committee considered a bill this spring that would have prohibited people from creating or assembling a gun whether by a DIY gun kit or 3-D printing without obtaining a serial number for it, regulated the amount of metal required in such a gun and forbade the transfer such a gun to others. That bill passed the Judiciary Committee, but was never called to the House floor, where Democrats have a majority. Were all here calling for immediate action as soon as the legislature goes back into session, Tong, a state representative from Stamford and Judiciary Committee co-chairman, said in Hartford Wednesday. We cant wait for the court. . Meanwhile in Bridgeport, Ganims staff handed out a draft municipal ordinance that the City Council is expected to take up in the coming weeks that would essentially make it illegal to assemble, possess or sell ghost guns within city limits. The Ganim administration is relying on a state statute that allows municipal governments to pass local laws addressing public nuisances, health and safety. But enforcement of the anti-ghost gun ordinance, if passed, would be limited to allowing police to confiscate the equipment and impose $100 daily civil fines. You cant be arrested for it, noted Tom Gaudett, a Ganim aide. Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, a co-chairman of the ordinance committee, pledged to move quickly on the proposal, calling it critical and very important. Ganim also urged the man he wants to succeed, retiring Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, to call a special session for the legislature to immediately pass anti-ghost gun legislation this summer. Connecticut has been a leader in common sense gun laws, Ganim said. emunson@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson The chance to see Mark Rylance return to Shakespeare after too long a break in film has set queues running around the block to see him as Iago. He used to run the Globe, and he still owns this space, understands it in his bones, and he owns Shakespeare's language too, living inside it so comfortably that he makes it as easy and effortless as breathing. But his interpretation of Iago is so idiosyncratic a performance that it all but unhinges the play. Under the direction of his wife Claire van Kampen, who is best known for her music direction, he plays the character for laughs, finding comic effect in the most unlikely places. To begin with this works rather well; this Iago is a character so bluff and affectless that people don't really notice what he is up to. He may be the life and soul of a party, leading the company in a mandolin sing-along when they arrive in Cyprus, but for the most part he is invisible. People think he is honest because they don't see him; he lurks on the balcony watching Othello (the American actor Andre Holland) explain to her distraught father (William Chubb) how he and Desdemona fell in love. No one seems to know he is there. Mark Rylance and Andre Holland in Othello Simon Annand When he reveals "I hate the Moor", the sudden calm revelation of loathing is dropped in conversationally, naturally. No big deal. From that point on his plotting whirrs at high speed but is as matter a fact as planning a military campaign. Rylance strongly hints that it is sexual jealousy that motivates him; you believe that he believes that Othello has slept with his wife Emilia (Sheila Atim). But he never raises his voice. All his loathing is impish, mercurial, low-key. The problems for me arise as the tragedy deepens. It's one thing to smile knowingly at the audience when he is referred to as "honest Iago" but it bothered me that Rylance can raise a laugh when he suggests Othello should strangle Desdemona rather than stab her. The stamp of murderous evil is never there. This leaves Holland's charismatic Othello stranded too. Best known for his performances in Moonlight and Selma, he's an interesting choice for the part, straight-forward and sexy, encompassing the crowd in his sense of his own good fortune. But faced with such an innocuous opponent, his descent from decency and love into madness and murder seems even more difficult to understand than usual. When he suddenly hits Desdemona, he raises gasps from the audience, so great is the contrast with the charming, urbane man that we have previously encountered. But he can't find the deeper register of tragedy; his rolling Southern tones are better with prose than poetry. The problem is that in a staging as plain as this, with minimal props and lighting, the actors are very exposed. They are not much helped by a disconcertingly eccentric array of costumes designed by Jonathan Fensom. While the troops seem to be somewhere in the 19th century, in bright turquoise and red berets, poor Emilia is dressed in a crazy sequence of cat suits. That Atim manages to rise above these to produce a performance that develops into one of subtlety and real sad power is an indication of just how good an actor she is. Jessica Warbeck, who is also saddled with a profoundly unattractive wardrobe, doesn't make much of Desdemona, beyond suggesting her sexual attraction to Othello, but the smaller characters thrive. Catherine Bailey makes a mark as Bianca, while Aaron Pierre is an impressive Cassio and Steffan Donnelly an unusually poignant and much put-upon Roderigo. In the end, for all the anticipation, this Othello is a disappointment, enjoyable moment to moment but never moving or revelatory. If it were up to the respective leaders of the Manitoba and Minnesota chambers of commerce, there likely would already be a trade deal in place. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/8/2018 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. If it were up to the respective leaders of the Manitoba and Minnesota chambers of commerce, there likely would already be a trade deal in place. Chuck Davidson, president of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce, met with Doug Loon, his Minnesota counterpart, in Minneapolis on Wednesday, and they both agreed that because of the integration of supply chains, trade between the Canadian and American jurisdictions needs to protected. "We both agreed that we need to do everything possible to get our lawmakers back to the table to hammer out a deal," Davidson said, referring to the stalled NAFTA negotiations. "The current reality does not do anything to benefit either side." With US$2.8 billion in annual two-way trade including critical hydroelectric power exports from Manitoba to Minnesota Minnesota represents about 13 per cent of Manitobas exports and overall, Canada is Minnesotas No. 1 export market. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Davidson said the phenomenon of goods and commodities passing back and forth across the border, sometimes several times before they become finished products, has been a hallmark of the value of open borders between the two countries. He said that while the business community might be very aware of that dynamic, the average citizen may not be. "As representatives of the business community, we need to do a better job highlighting just how integrated those economies are and why trade is important and that tariffs do not do anything to benefit either economy," he said. Meanwhile, he said there is a consensus on both sides of the border that modernizing and updating NAFTA to todays realities after 25 years makes sense. The meetings between chamber peers followed a similar one Davidson had last month with the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/8/2018 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. GIMLI Canada's environment minister lauded Manitoba's fight against climate change, while decrying neighbouring Ontario's lack of a green plan at a funding announcement Thursday. While in Gimli to announce funding for groups working to preserve the health of Lake Winnipeg, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna repeatedly veered off course to critique Ontario Premier Doug Ford. After taking office in June, Ford quashed his province's cap-and-trade carbon tax program. His government teamed up with Saskatchewan in July, vowing to challenge Canada's right to impose a carbon tax on provinces in court. On Thursday, Ontario attorney general Caroline Mulroney said her province has set aside $30 million for the legal battle. "Its extraordinarily disappointing. That money could be better spent working with schools, with hospitals, with cities, with Ontarians to actually invest money in energy efficiency programs that have the result of saving folks money," McKenna said. "Were absolutely clear that its well within our jurisdiction as a federal government to protect the environment, and were also going to do that while were creating good jobs, while were growing our economy, while were working with Canadians." MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Clean water is an essential resource for Canadians: Its critical for our health, the environment, and the economy, McKenna said in a prepared statement. Before arriving in Gimli, McKenna met with her provincial counterpart, Minister of Sustainable Development Rochelle Squires, in Winnipeg. She reported having a "great discussion" with Squires on a wide range of topics, including protecting Lake Winnipeg and tackling plastic pollution. McKenna praised Manitoba's green efforts, while disparaging Ontario's inaction. "Clearly, climate action is a priority for both our governments and its really great to see the government of Manitoba really stepping up, understanding that theres an opportunity to tackle climate change and, at the same time, saving folks money when theyre more energy-efficient and doing right by our kids. Its also great to see a Conservative government understanding that putting a price on pollution is a critically important part of a climate plan," the federal minister said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "You cannot have an economic plan if you dont have a plan for climate change. The real cost of climate change were seeing across the country... its costing Canadians when their basements flood, when their houses burn down, when communities are flooded. And so we need to take action and theres a huge economic opportunity its a $30-trillion opportunity of clean growth," she said. "Unfortunately, the federal Conservatives, the government of Doug Ford, they dont get it," McKenna added later. "They dont get that in the 21st century, the environment and the economy go squarely together." A spokesperson for Squires said her discussion with McKenna was "productive" and covered a variety of topics, including reductions on the use of plastics. "We await the recommendations of the recycling task force in terms of direct actions our government will be taking, but we remain committed to our Made in Manitoba Green Plan that works best for Manitobans," the spokesperson said by email, noting those recommendations are due "in the coming months." jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @_jessbu The federal government is investing $4 million into a freshwater research facility in Kenora, Ont., that nearly ceased operations two years ago due to funding cuts. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 2/8/2018 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The federal government is investing $4 million into a freshwater research facility in Kenora, Ont., that nearly ceased operations two years ago due to funding cuts. The latest funding for the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), which is operated by the International Institute of Sustainable Development, a Winnipeg-based non-profit organization, will support a program that monitors long-term trends and ecological changes of fisheries health and productivity in Canadian boreal lakes. Bob Nault, member of Parliament for the Kenora riding, made the announcement Wednesday evening, on behalf of Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. "The IISD-Experimental Lakes Area is a great source of pride for northerners, and we are extremely lucky to have this world-renowned facility in our own backyard," Nault said in a statement. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The natural laboratory, located 300 kilometres east of Winnipeg, in northwestern Ontario, consists of 58 small lakes used for scientific research. Its purpose is to allow scientists to undertake real-world experiments on small lakes to improve understanding about the impact people have on the environment. The research facility was in jeopardy before the Trudeau government revived its federal funding in 2016. The $4 million towards the ELA program is part of the governments 2016 commitment of $197.1 million for ocean and freshwater science. The announcement shows the feds are committed to turning ELA findings into science-based policies that protect freshwater resources, Nault said. This year marks 50 years of research at ELA, what the facilitys director, Matthew McCandless, called "Canadas incredible gift to the worlds freshwater research." McCandless added ELA is dedicated to sharing its data openly; research findings are available to the public on its website (iisd.org), so anyone can learn how human and environment stressors affect freshwater ecosystems. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @macintoshmaggie A woman who found more than a dozen dead birds near a Maples-area pond isn't buying the city's explanation that they died from people feeding them "mouldy bread." Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/8/2018 (1183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A woman who found more than a dozen dead birds near a Maples-area pond isn't buying the city's explanation that they died from people feeding them "mouldy bread." Albina Hurley said she and her seven-year-old daughter were walking Sunday at the corner of Dr. Jose Rizal Way and Adsum Drive when they discovered about eight dead birds scattered around the pond. She placed a 311 call to report it Monday. They returned to find even more. By Tuesday afternoon, she counted 13 dead birds -- mostly ducks and some geese -- and could see what looked like remains of more. "I just thought something's not right here. I don't know if they were poisoned or if something is wrong with the water," said Hurley. She said she spoke Wednesday morning with a worker from the city's water and waste department who told her there were five or six dead birds per day at that pond at some points last year, but tests showed their deaths were from things they ingested. By Tuesday afternoon, Hurley counted 13 dead birds and could see what looked like remains of more. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) "He (the city worker) said they'd go pick up the birds but that it's most likely not the water. It's from people feeding them stuff like mouldy bread," Hurley said, noting the worker brushed off her question about the birds being poisoned. "I said to the guy, 'Is that how they die when they eat mouldy bread?' Some of them were already decaying and had maggots on them, some of them looked like they just died and we saw a few birds that just didn't look well." She said she saw a bird on Tuesday that appeared to be a pigeon that was having trouble breathing as it sat on the grass. "I went up to him and touched him on the back but he didn't move but was breathing really heavy. We came back a few minutes later and he had fallen over, and he was gone (dead)," she said. "We saw a goose sitting beside another one (goose) because he passed away. That was just so heartbreaking. That must have been his mate and he wouldn't leave him." The dead birds had been removed on Wednesday morning. What appears to be construction garbage litters the shores of the pond. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) Ken Allen, a spokesman from the City of Winnipeg, said signs are posted at this pond and others to discourage feeding of waterfowl. "There have been issues of bird mortality around this pond and other retention ponds in the past and in some cases these may be related to feeding of the waterfowl and the types of food which are being left for waterfowl. The City reports large die-offs of birds at ponds to Manitoba Sustainable Development. The Province would be able to provide more information on how they investigate disease related to bird die-offs," he said in an emailed statement. A spokesman for Manitoba Sustainable Development said there was not yet enough information for a comment. "The province is aware of the situation and is investigating," the spokesman stated in an email. Hurley said she also discovered a Canada goose with a broken leg at the Keewatin-Adsum pond so she contacted Choo Rosenbloom, who operates the website www.lovecanadageese.com that she created with her late husband, Earl, to advocate for and protect Canada geese. The two women caught the injured goose on Tuesday afternoon -- it is now with Wildlife Haven where it is being treated -- and together counted all the dead birds they could see. "I just thought something's not right here. I don't know if they were poisoned or if something is wrong with the water," said Hurley. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press) "I'm very concerned because that's too many deaths in one pond," said Rosenbloom, who regularly visits ponds around the city to check on the geese. "Where I live, we have a pond about five times the size of that one and I've never seen 13 or 18 dead birds in one go. I walk the ponds a lot and it's quite common to see one or two dead birds but you get to 13, you have to wonder what's going on." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Rosenbloom said another concern is the numerous household waste items, such as milk cartons, food wrappers, plastics and construction waste such as bricks and wood planks, littering parts of the Keewatin-Adsum pond shoreline. "Water and waste is blaming people feeding mouldy bread and junk on the deaths of these birds. Mouldy bread isn't going to kill them this fast," said Rosenbloom. "The pond is filthy, so it's pointing the finger at the city. The city hasn't been cleaning up. It's always easy to blame the people. That's the trashiest pond I've seen in the city." Rosenbloom said she wants the province to test the water and perform a necropsy on one or more of the birds to find out what killed them. Hurley said she is worried about what caused the deaths of the birds from safety and humanitarian standpoints. "My daughter cried over the dead ones," Hurley said. "She wanted us to pick them up but I said we just couldn't. We don't know what happened to them." ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca When Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government gathered in the ornate ballroom on the north side of the legislative building Wednesday to mark a significant shuffling of cabinet responsibilities, there were three kinds of politicians in attendance. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/8/2018 (1183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. When Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government gathered in the ornate ballroom on the north side of the legislative building Wednesday to mark a significant shuffling of cabinet responsibilities, there were three kinds of politicians in attendance. There were the cabinet ministers, including those who were being shuffled or promoted. Then, there were the MLAs who were not tapped to serve in cabinet. And then there was Ian Wishart. When this week started, Wishart was the education minister in the Pallister government. When he arrived Wednesday for the cabinet shuffle, he had been stripped of his responsibilities and demoted back into the ranks of the caucus. And then, with the wound from the demotion still fresh, he joined his Tory colleagues to pay tribute to the shuffled and newly promoted ministers. Wishart was the picture of quiet calm as the cabinet appointments were made. Showing no emotion of any kind, he applauded as each minister was called forward. He even heartily applauded after St. Vital MLA Colleen Mayer, whose promotion into her first cabinet post precipitated Wishart's demotion, recited her ministerial oath. It's easy to demonstrate dignity when you're the one being applauded. It's a lot tougher to show that same dignity when you're being asked to applaud the person whose success came at your expense. But that's what Wishart did. Afterwards, Wishart could not have been more elegant in his comments to reporters. He talked about the strength of the Tory cabinet, and how he wished them nothing but success. He confirmed he will run again in the next election, while declining to elaborate on the reasons for his demotion. "(Pallister) has a great pool of talent to draw on," Wishart said. "He needs to do that." It's not clear why Wishart was demoted. Journalists and even critics in the education system know him as a knowledgeable, affable and otherwise capable politician. Certainly, he was considered to be among the better cabinet performers during a period in which many of Pallister's ministers struggled with the learning curve. It should be noted that outward performances do not always reveal the truth in politics. There could have been internal struggles that were kept out of public view, things that made it necessary to ask him to step aside. One can only hope the premier had good reasons for making this move because, at first blush, it's going to make more than a few diehard Tories uncomfortable. Wishart's demotion is just one of a number of moves that make this among the most unusual, and most perilous, cabinet shuffles in Manitoba political history. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Ian Wishart, former Minister of Education and Training, was considered to be among the better cabinet performers in the Pallister government. In a party that suffers from a profound rural-urban split, the decision to remove Wishart will not play well among the party's rural supporters. Despite that, inside the rarefied confines of the premier's office in Winnipeg, it may have made perfect sense to push out Wishart and replace him with Mayer, a rookie MLA who is considered a rising star in Tory ranks. Given that Winnipeg will decide the winner of the 2020 election, there is some logic to replacing a rural, 60-something man holding a safe Tory seat with a younger woman from what will be a hotly contested riding in south Winnipeg. But that logic doesn't mitigate the risks of dumping Wishart. A fourth-generation family farmer, before entering politics Wishart served as president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers and sat on the executive of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. All that makes him farming royalty in a party that holds agriculture and the families that depend upon it very close to its heart. And that is not his only point of vulnerability. Pallister reassigned the ministers for the four biggest and most complex departments: health, finance, justice and families. The premier runs the risk of derailing some of the progress he and his cabinet have made since being elected in 2016. Yes, it's certainly possible the transitions will go smoothly. Cameron Friesen's move to health from finance is not a quantum leap. The same could be said for Kelvin Goertzen's move to education from health. Less certain are the outcomes of other moves, including Heather Stefanson, who is going to families from justice, Scott Fielding (families to finance) and Cliff Cullen (Crown services to justice). Pallister may want to remember that his first year in government was marked by profound growing pains, as ministers tried to scale the steep learning curve that comes with governing, and staff struggled to manage issues and communications. Although many of those early problems have been ironed out, assigning ministers to new roles does start the learning process over again. Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Yes, Friesen likely gained valuable insight into health while overseeing finance. And there are few concerns that Goertzen, who was a quick study in health, will be able to get up to speed in education. But it's a lot of change, all at once. There is a reason why governments do not make a habit of regularly shuffling all of their top ministers at the same time. It is disruptive, not only to the management of individual departments but also to the inner dynamics of cabinet itself. Most successful governments have strong cabinet ministers that can provide checks and balances to the premier. Traditionally, the job of holding premiers to account has fallen to the finance minister, often seen as the second-most important role in cabinet. It's also why finance ministers tend to have long tenures; it takes time to build up the expertise and credibility necessary to challenge a premier. Whatever the working theory, Pallister has put his government in a challenging position. To ensure that his government is at least as strong, if not stronger than it was before, he's going to need a cabinet that can demonstrate a lot of dignity, courage and discretion. Ironically, the exact qualities that Wishart showed in spades as he was being shown the cabinet door. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca A dozen surgeries scheduled this week at St. Boniface Hospital are being postponed because a malfunction in the ventilation system closed several operating rooms, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/8/2018 (1183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A dozen surgeries scheduled this week at St. Boniface Hospital are being postponed because a malfunction in the ventilation system closed several operating rooms, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says. Twelve surgeries, including elective cardiac procedures, have to be rescheduled, according to a WRHA release Wednesday. Another 16 surgeries originally scheduled at the St. Boniface Hospital for Wednesday and Thursday are being moved to other sites across the city. "We recognize that delays of scheduled surgeries are stressful for patients and their families," said Krista Williams, WRHA chief health operations officer. "Repairs to the air-handling system are underway, any affected surgeries will be rescheduled as quickly as possible once repairs have been completed." The WRHA said the repairs are expected to be complete by the end of Friday. Meanwhile, Williams said emergency surgeries will continue to be available at St. Boniface throughout the remainder of the week. Of the 14 procedure rooms -- some of which are closed over the summer months -- five suites remain open. Patients and family members with questions about a scheduled procedure can contact their surgeon or physicians office directly, the WRHA release states. Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the organization is aware of this week's temporary closures and "monitoring the situation closely." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Surgical delays and rescheduling are unfortunate and cause patients anxiety, but we know St. Boniface nurses will do all they can to help put patients at ease and continue to deliver the best care possible," she wrote in a statement. The last time an issue of this magnitude closed operating rooms was in 2014, a WRHA spokeswoman said. The two-week-long operating room closures at St. Boniface Hospital in January and February 2014 were caused by "an entirely different issue," the spokeswoman said. Cold air from an open vent froze the hot-water coils that heat the rooms, and flooding caused by an issue with the building's water pumps forced 14 operating rooms to close. The 2014 closures caused hundreds of surgeries to be rescheduled and relocated. Tens of thousands of surgeries are done in the WRHA every year. Between 2016 and 2017, a total of 62,676 surgeries -- up from numbers recorded for the previous two years -- took place at various hospital sites across the city. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie Bunge Ltd. operates as a holding company, which engages in the supply and transportation of agricultural commodities. It operates through the following segments: Agribusiness, Edible Oil Products, Milling Products, Sugar and Bioenergy, and Fertilizer. The Agribusiness segment involves in the purchase, storage, transportation, processing, and sale of agricultural commodities and commodity products. The Edible Oil Products segment includes production and sale of vegetable oils, shortenings, margarines, and mayonnaise. The Milling Products segment consists of production and sale of wheat flours, bakery mixes, corn-based products, and rice. The Sugar and Bioenergy segment comprises manufacture and marketing of sugar and ethanol derived from sugarcane, as well as energy derived from the sugar and ethanol production process. The Fertilizer segment focuses on producing, blending, and distributing fertilizer products for the agricultural industry. The company was founded by Johann Peter Gottlieb Bunge in 1818 and is headquartered in Chesterfield, MO. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Colgate-Palmolive: 887357 Ontario Inc., COLGALIVE S.A., CP GABA GmbH, CP International Holding C.V., CP West East Investment Limited, Cleaning Dimensions Inc., Colgate (BVI) Limited, Colgate (Guangzhou) Company Limited, Colgate (U.K.) Limited, Colgate Business Services of the Americas S.C., Colgate Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Colgate Global Business Services Private Limited, Colgate Holdings, Colgate Inc., Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals Inc., Colgate Palmolive Ghana Limited, Colgate Palmolive Holding S.Com.P.A., Colgate Palmolive Nouvelle Caledonie Sarl, Colgate Palmolive Tanzania Limited, Colgate Sanxiao Company Limited, Colgate Venture Company Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Asia) Pte Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Blantyre) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Brunei) Sdn Bhn, Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc. y Compania Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive (Centro America) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (China) Co. Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Costa Rica) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominica) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominican Republic) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (East Africa) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Eastern) Pte. Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Egypt) S.A.E., Colgate-Palmolive (Far East) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Fiji) Pte Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Gabon) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Guyana) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (H.K.) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Hellas) S.A. I.C., Colgate-Palmolive (Hong Kong) Holding Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Kazakhstan) L.L.P., Colgate-Palmolive (Latvia) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Middle East Exports) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Myanmar) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (New York) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive (Proprietary) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Research & Development) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Romania) SRL, Colgate-Palmolive (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Uganda) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Vietnam) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Zambia) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Zimbabwe) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive A.B., Colgate-Palmolive A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Adria Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Treasury Services Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Belgium S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Bolivia Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Caricom Service Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Central European Management Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Chile S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cia., Colgate-Palmolive Comercial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Commercial (Hellas) SP LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Commerciale S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive Commericale S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive Compania Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive Company Distr. LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Cote dIvoire S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cyprus Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Development Corp., Colgate-Palmolive East West Africa Region (Pty) Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Enterprises Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Espana S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Europe (Holdings) Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Europe Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Finance (UK) plc, Colgate-Palmolive Global Trading Company, Colgate-Palmolive Holding Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Holding Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Hungary Kft Limited Liability Company, Colgate-Palmolive IHQ Services (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Inc. S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Industriel S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive International Holding LLC, Colgate-Palmolive International LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Investment Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (BVI) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (PNG) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Investments Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Israel Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Italia S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive JSC, Colgate-Palmolive Lanka (Private) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Latin America Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Marketing Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive Maroc S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Mocambique Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive NJ Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Nederland B.V., Colgate-Palmolive Norge A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Participacoes e Investimentos Imobiliarios Lda., Colgate-Palmolive Peru S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Pty Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Retirement Trustee Limited, Colgate-Palmolive S.A. de C.V., Colgate-Palmolive S.p.A., Colgate-Palmolive Senegal S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Services (Hellas) LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Services CEW GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Services S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Slovensko s.r.o., Colgate-Palmolive Support Services, Colgate-Palmolive Temizlik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticart S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Transnational Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Ukraine LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Unipessoal Lda, Colgate-Palmolive de Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive de Puerto Rico Inc., Colgate-Palmolive del Ecuador S.A.I.C., Colgate-Palmolive del Peru (Delaware) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Eeska republika spol. s r.o., Colpal CBS S de R. L. de C. V., Consumer Viewpoint Center Inc., Cotelle S.A., Dimac Development Corp., Dominica Coconut Products Limited, EKIB Inc., ELM Company Limited, Elta MD Holdings Inc., Elta MD Inc., EltaMD, Filorga Americas Inc., Filorga Asia Limited, Filorga Benelux SA, Filorga Cosmetiques Polska, Filorga Middle East DMCC, Filorga Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Filorga RU Limited Liability Company, GABA Europe Holding GmbH, GABA International, GABA International Holding LLC, GABA Schweiz AG, GABA Therwil GmbH, Gamma Development Co. Ltd., Global Trading and Supply LLC, Hamol Ltd., Hello Products, Hello Products LLC, Hills Funding Company, Hills Pet Nutrition (NZ) Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Asia Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Canada Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Denmark ApS, Hills Pet Nutrition Espana S.L., Hills Pet Nutrition GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Holding B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Indiana Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Italia S.r.l., Hills Pet Nutrition Korea Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing s.r.o, Hills Pet Nutrition Norway AS, Hills Pet Nutrition OOO, Hills Pet Nutrition Pty. Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition S.p.A., Hills Pet Nutrition SNC, Hills Pet Nutrition Sales Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition South Africa Proprietary Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition Sweden AB, Hills Pet Nutrition Switzerland GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Taiwan Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition Trading (GZ) Co. Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hills Pet Nutrition de Puerto Rico Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition s.r.o., Hills Pet Products (Benelux) S.A., Hills Pet Products Inc., Hills Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Hills-Colgate (Japan) Ltd., Hopro Liquidating Corp., Hygiene Systemes et Services SA, IES Enterprises Inc., Inmobiliaria Colpal S. de R.L. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Hills S.A. de C.V., Innovacion Creativa S.A. de C.V., Kolynos Corporation, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Espana S.L.U., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia S.R.L., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques S.A., Laser Brand Toothpaste, Lournay Sales Inc., Mennen Company, Mennen Interamerica Ltd., Mennen Limited, Mennen South Africa Ltd., Mennen de Chile Ltd., Mennen de Nicargua S.A., Mission Hills Property Corporation, Mission Hills S.A. de C.V., Norwood International Incorporated, Olive Music Publishing Corporation, PCA SKIN, Paramount Research Inc., Penny LLC, Pet Chemicals Inc., Physicians Care Alliance LLC, Productos Halogenados Copalven C.A., Purity Holding Company, Purity Music Publishing Corporation, Refresh Company Limited, Samuel Taylor Holdings B.V., Sanex, Sanxiao Company Limited, Services Development Co. Ltd., Societe Generale de Negoce et de Services (GENESE) S.A., The GDN - The Global Distributive Network SAS, The Lournay Company Inc., The MPDP - The Medical and Pharmaceutic Distributive Platform SAS, The Murphy-Phoenix Company, Tom's of Maine, Toms of Maine Holdings Inc., Toms of Maine Inc., Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Vipont Pharmaceutical Inc., and XEB Inc.. GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft engages in the development and production of systems and components for the food processing industry worldwide. It operates in five divisions, Separation and Flow Technologies, Liquid and Power Technologies, Food and Health Technologies, Farm Technologies, and Refrigeration Technologies. The company provides separators, decanters, valves, homogenizers, valves, pumps, and process related components and machineries; and process solutions for dairy, food, beverage, chemical, and other industries. It also offers solutions for food processing and pharmaceutical industries, which includes marinating, processing of meat, poultry, seafood, vegan products, pasta and confectionery, baking, slicing, packaging, frozen food processing, granulators, and tablet presses. In addition, the company provides integrated customer solutions for milk production and livestock farming, such as automatic milking, feeding systems, conventional milking solutions, manure handling, and digital herd management tools; and sustainable energy solutions in the field of industrial refrigeration and heating. It has a strategic partnership with SAP SE. The company was formerly known as mg technologies ag and changed its name to GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft in 2005. GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in DAsseldorf, Germany. Read More Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Read More Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Japan ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Japan ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys. View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. ICICI Bank Ltd. engages in the provision of banking and financial services, which includes retail banking, corporate banking, and treasury operations. It operates through the following segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Treasury, Other Banking, Life Insurance, General Insurance, and Others. The Retail Banking segment includes exposures of the bank, which satisfy the four qualifying criteria of regulatory retail portfolio as stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India guidelines on the Basel III framework. The Wholesale Banking segment deals with all advances to trusts, partnership firms, companies, and statutory bodies, by the Bank which are not included in the Retail Banking segment. The Treasury segment handles the entire investment portfolio of the bank. The Other Banking segment comprises leasing operations and other items not attributable to any particular business segment of the bank. The company was founded on January 5, 1994 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc.. BASF will extend its production capacities for isoindoline yellow pigments by around 70% by 2020, as the demand for high-performance pigments grows. Bright yellow tones that offer a high degree of weather resistance and temperature stability are sought after, particularly in demanding applications involving industrial coatings. Following our recently announced expansion to production capacities for Paliocrom effect pigments, this investment of around 10 million underscores our ambitions for growth as one of the leading manufacturers of high-performance pigments, said Dr. Alexander Haunschild, Managing Director and Senior Vice President for BASFs global pigments brand. Customers use isoindoline pigments, marketed under the Colors & Effects brand, to meet their steadily growing need for coatings for the automotive sector and to color plastics. An international team has made a breakthrough at BESSY II. For the first time, they succeeded in investigating electronic states of a transition metal in detail and drawing reliable conclusions on their catalytic effect from the data. These results are helpful for the development of future applications of catalytic transition-metal systems. Many important processes in nature depend on catalysts, which are atoms or molecules that facilitate a reaction, but emerge from it themselves unchanged. One example is photosynthesis in plants, which is only possible with the help of a protein complex comprising four manganese atom sites at its centre. Redox reactions, as they are referred to, often play a pivotal role in these types of processes. The reactants are reduced through uptake of electrons, or oxidized through their release. Catalytic redox processes in nature and industry often only succeed thanks to suitable catalysts, where transition metals supply an important function. Soft x-rays at BESSY II These transition metals and in particular their redox or oxidation state can be examined particularly well using soft X-rays, because electronic states can be precisely measured using X-ray spectroscopy. In what is known as L-edge absorption spectroscopy, electrons from the 2p shell of the transition metal are excited so that they occupy free d-orbitals. An energy difference can be determined from the X-ray absorption spectrum that reflects the oxidation state of the molecule or the catalyst in a known way. However, exactly where the electrons are absorbed or released by the catalyst during a redox reaction, i.e. exactly how the charge density in the catalyst varies with oxidation state, was previously difficult to verify. This was mainly due to the lack of reliable methods for the theoretical description of charge densities in catalyst molecules in ground and excited states, and to the difficulty in obtaining reliable experimental data. If the transition metals are located in larger complex organic molecule complexes, as they typically are for real redox catalysts, their study becomes extremely difficult because the X-rays lead to damage in the sample. Sample in solution examined in different oxidation states Now for the first time, an international team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Uppsala University (Sweden), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley (USA), Manchester University (Great Britain), and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University (USA) has succeeded in studying manganese atoms in different oxidation states i.e. during different stages of oxidation in various compounds through in operando measurements at BESSY II. To accomplish this, Philippe Wernet and his team introduced the samples into various solvents, examined jets of these liquids using X-rays, and compared their data against novel calculations from Marcus Lundberg's group at Uppsala University. We succeeded in determining how and above all why the X-ray absorption spectra shift with the oxidation states, says theoretician Marcus Lundberg. PhD students Markus Kubin (HZB) with his experimental expertise and Meiyuan Guo (Uppsala University) with his theoretical expertise reflect the interdisciplinary approach of the study and they contributed equally as first authors of the paper. Breakthrough through a combination of theory and experiment We combined a novel experimental setup with quantum chemical calculations. In our opinion, we have achieved a breakthrough in the understanding of organometallic catalysts, says Wernet. For the first time, we were able to empirically test and validate calculations for oxidation and reduction that do not take place locally on the metal, but instead on the entire molecule. These findings are a cornerstone for future work in more complex systems, like the tetra manganese cluster in photosynthesis. They will facilitate new understanding of redox processes for the manganese catalyst in the Photosystem II protein complex, says Junko Yano, Senior Scientist of Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division (MBIB) and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who is conducting detailed research of photosynthesis. After an overwhelming vote by its members to strike in July, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, with a membership of over 8,000 Washington, D.C. public transit workers, has sought to drag out discussions between it and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). On July 15, ninety-four percent of ATU Local 689 rank-and-file members voted to take strike action against the transit authority after the latter engaged in a series of provocations, including the summary firing of union workers and outsourcing positions to non-union contractors. Since the overwhelming Yes vote, the ATU has been in a crisis. The union immediately announced a cooling off period and regular closed-door meetings with WMATA officials. On Monday, after the fourth such ATU-WMATA meeting, the union announced that Metro officials had agreed to reverse its policy of filling custodial positions with non-unionized contractors, which had provoked mass opposition from workers earlier this month. At the same time, WMATA reserved the right to outsource such positions in the future. The minor concession was treated as an unalloyed victory by the union, with Local 689 spokesperson David Stephen declaring to the Washington Post that the transit authority has recognized its contractual violations. Seeking to project a veneer of toughness, the union spokesman also said the strike threat is unchanged until all the locals issues... are negotiated, which would be addressed after more closed-door meetings, the next being Friday, August 3. There is no reason to believe the unions hollow rhetoric. WMATAs temporary concession on custodial work can be just as easily reversed, as transit officials have previously declared. Workers in the ATU, Metros largest union, have been without a contract since 2016, when discussions broke down over pay cuts, job protections and privatization of services. Since then, WMATA has behaved with impunity toward its workers, enacting policies, such as privatization, which had been rejected in negotiations. The ATU, which is barred by contract from striking, has alleged that WMATAs continued intransigence and flouting of contract protocols have freed it from the no-strike clause. However, ATU officials have signaled their own willingness to abandon workers wages and benefits in return for symbolic concessions on Metros part. ATU Local 689 president Jackie Jeter explained to host Marc Fisher in a radio interview last week that during the dispute WMATA has tried ... to change the narrative of the conversation and make it about our pension or about our wages and thats not what this is. This has nothing to do with a dollar, this has something to do with how you treat workers. In other words, the ATU will do nothing to defend its members living standards, just their dignity. This empty moralism will do nothing for the workers who have been summarily fired by transit officials or those who will lose out in the eventual concessions deal which the ATU is negotiating with Metro. WMATA has faced an ongoing infrastructure and budget crisis, as breakdowns, faulty wiring and derailments have caused the transit system, the second largest in the United States, to lose a significant amount of ridership, leading to further budget problems. Earlier this year, WMATA struck a bargain with the governments of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, to receive a yearly subsidy of $500 million in exchange for placing a cap of 3 percent on its operating budgetforcing WMATA employees to face constant threat of wage and benefit cuts in exchange for funds. Exposing the hypocrisy of WMATA officials claims to be primarily concerned with promoting a culture of safety among the workforce, which workers supposedly excessive job protections hinder, several videos circulated this week by the union show non-union contractors using cell phones while operating dangerous equipmenta direct violation of WMATA safety protocols. Also on Monday, WMATA and the AFL-CIOs Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 2, representing 1,000 office employees, agreed to a contract which would allow the transit system to shed over $2.3 million in healthcare costs in exchange for paltry wage increases. As with any constructive negotiation, we didnt get everything we hoped for and neither did Local 2; however, this agreement fairly compensates employees while reducing Metros costs, WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld stated of the contract. Demonstrating the ATUs hostility to its members interests, the union has employed spokespeople to denounce the World Socialist Web Site. Responding to a previous WSWS article, (Washington, D.C. transit union conspires with Metro officials while keeping members in the dark), Jackie Jeter, president of Local 689, took to social media to declare: Hopefully someone will read this article and not just the header! Straight up propaganda and union busting, while failing to refute a single point raised in the article. In a reply to a comment asking if the ATU was ignoring the strike vote delivered by its members in mid-July and keeping them in the dark about the content of the negotiations, an ATU spokesperson cynically replied, Striking is a means to an end, not an end in itself, adding: The leadership is doing the will of the workforce. As if the will of the workforce was to have their votes ignored while being excluded from negotiations taking place behind closed doors, even as Metro officials openly flout meetings, citing scheduling conflicts and other phony pretexts for stringing workers along. As for the claims that the strike vote was not an end in itself, it is clear that ATU leaders are desperate to walk back the implications of a strike of transit workers in the nations capital, particularly as workers at United Parcel Service (UPS) package delivery and the US Postal Service are engaged in struggles against sell-out contracts being imposed on them by both their management and their unions. Rank-and-file members have reacted with increasing alarm and anger to the ATUs behavior. This is not acceptable in my opinion the whole uproar about striking just so WMATA can stall out and our Union look weak the whole country was/is watching us and we still are not showing our strength stated one typical comment on the ATUs social media account. [We are] being taken for a walk, he [General Manager of WMATA Paul J. Wiedefeld] is taking us for granted, stated another worker. If WMATA employees are to mount a successful struggle against the dictates of management, they will find no ally in the ATU, OPEIU or any other official labor representative. Workers must form rank-and-file committees, independent politically and organizationally from the bureaucratic trade unions, which function as arms of management. Metro workers must take their struggle directly into the working class, linking up with UPS and public sector workers to fight for the rehiring of all employees summarily fired by management, the full funding of wages and pensions and workers control of safety. Such a struggle must be politically independent from the Democrats and Republicans, both parties of big business intimately involved in the efforts to defund public transit and drive down workers living standards. The political warfare in Washington reached a new and even more explosive stage Wednesday with a series of early morning tweets by President Donald Trump denouncing Special Counsel Robert Mueller and declaring that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the USA! Trump wrote. The tweets included an attack on the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, which entered its second day on Wednesday, as a hoax. Manafort is one of five former Trump aides indicted by Mueller and the only one to refuse a plea deal and proceed to a trial, currently underway in the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Manafort was thrown into jail when his house arrest was revoked last month. He also faces a separate trial next month in Washington, D.C., on charges brought by Muellers prosecutors. The charges in the two trials involve bank fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and failing to register as a lobbyist for a foreign government. They concern activities that predate Manaforts five-month stint as adviser and then chairman of Trumps 2016 campaign and do not directly relate to alleged Russian interference in the election and Trump campaign collusion. However, they indirectly tie Trump to the Putin regime and Russia because they focus on Manaforts role as a political consultant and lobbyist for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukraine president who was ousted in 2014 in a US-backed and fascist-led putsch. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Mueller is heading up the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign, as well as obstruction of justice. The intelligence agencies have presented no serious evidence to back up their charges of Russian meddling, which the Democratic Party and most of the corporate media have been relentlessly promoting as the spearhead of a ferocious conflict within the American capitalist state and the ruling class. This is a struggle between reactionary factions that are equally committed to escalating war abroad and intensified attacks on the social and democratic rights of the working class at home. It centers on differences over US imperialist foreign policy, with the Democrats and the bulk of the national security apparatus lined up against Trumps efforts to ratchet down hostilities with Russia in order to focus first on attacking Iran and China. The Democrats, who speak for factions that consider the removal of Russia as an obstacle to US hegemony in Eurasia an urgent priority, have made the defense of Mueller and anti-Russia hysteria the center of their opposition to the Trump administration, labeling Trump himself as a Putin stooge or outright traitor. The Manafort trial is one of several recent developments pointing to an escalation by Mueller of his campaign against Trump. ABC News reported Wednesday evening that Trump learned on Tuesday that Mueller had rejected his legal teams terms for Trump to be interviewed by the special counsel. Trumps team had insisted that Trump not be questioned on issues relating to obstruction of justice. Mueller replied that Trump would have to submit to such questions and, in addition, agree to provide written answers as well as appear in person. This reportedly triggered an outburst of denunciations from Trump, leading to the barrage of tweets Wednesday morning. In addition, recent days have seen widespread media reports that Trumps former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, secretly recorded conversations with Trump that are now in the hands of US prosecutors, who raided Cohens office and residences in April as part of an investigation initiated at the behest of Mueller. One of these tapes reportedly indicates that, contrary to denials by Trump and his associates, he had foreknowledge of the June, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his top aides and a number of Russians who had promised to provide dirt on Trumps Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. That meeting was attended by Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr. and Trumps son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner. These reports come amid mounting media speculation that Cohen, who has intimate knowledge of Trumps personal business dealings, is about to flip and agree to cooperate with Mueller against his former boss. A further indication of increased pressure from Mueller is the report last week that Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg has been subpoenaed by US attorneys in New York to testify before the grand jury probing Cohen. Following Trumps morning Twitter barrage, his lawyers and press secretary sought to walk back the suggestion that Trump was ordering Sessions to fire Mueller or Muellers immediate superior, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as the first step in terminating the Mueller probe. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation last year after it emerged that he had lied to Congress about holding meetings with Russian officials while he was playing a prominent role in Trumps presidential campaign. At a conference in Arkansas on Wednesday, Sessions sought to make light of Trumps morning tweets. Trump attorney and spokesman regarding the Mueller investigation, Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Post: I think its very well established the president uses tweets to express his opinion. He very carefully used the word should. Giuliani also gave a TV interview in which he said, He [Trump] didnt direct him [Sessions] to do it and hes not going to direct him to do it. Another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, told the Post, The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this. At a White House press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Trump Press Secretary Sarah Sanders repeatedly denied that the tweet was an order for Sessions to act. Its not an order, its the presidents opinion, she told reporters. However, leading Democrats seized on Trumps tweets to defend Mueller and the FBI and accuse the president of obstruction of justice. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said: The president of the United States just called on his attorney general to put an end to an investigation in which the president, his family and campaign may be implicated. This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said, It seems even more vivid and serious evidence of criminal intent to obstruct justice Former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod tweeted: He wasnt just expressing his opinion We are moving toward a full Constitutional crisis. It is critical that the working class intervene independently into the political crisis in Washington to advance its own interests in opposition to both reactionary ruling class factions and both parties of the US financial elite. The Democratsincluding phony lefts such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezin no way represent a democratic or progressive opposition to the fascistic Trump. The Democratic Party is hostile to and fearful of the social anger and anti-war sentiment of masses of workers and young people. It appeals to the CIA, FBI, Pentagon and Wall Street in its conflict with Trump. For all the ferocity of the political warfare within the ruling class and its state apparatus, there is a basic agreement on moving toward authoritarian forms of rule and imposing Internet censorship to deal with popular opposition to war, austerity and social inequality. Impeaching Trump would only bring to power his vice president Mike Pence, a no less vicious enemy of the working class and warmonger, although perhaps more polished in his service to the ruling elite. Left to its own devices, the ruling class will use the crisis to shift the entire political system even further to the right. The Socialist Equality Party calls for the maximum mobilization and unity of the working class, both in the US and internationally, to halt the drive to world war and dictatorship and the ever greater impoverishment of the masses by fighting for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of workers democracy and socialism. UPDATED: Just one day into the trial of his former campaign chief Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to demand Attorney General Jeff Sessions immediately pull the plug on Robert Muellers Russian election-tamper probe. This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, Trump tweeted before Day 2 of Manaforts trial got underway. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the USA! Sessions, of course, recused himself from the Russia election probe, and Manafort is on trial for business dealings not directly related to Muellers Russia probe. Trump, however, connects the dots, via Twitter. This as the White House works hard to impress upon the press the distinction between the Russia election tamper probe and the Manafort trial. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is scheduled to hold a briefing today at around 10 AM PT, though shes often fashionably late. Trump complained that the government had not informed him Manafort was under investigation when the campaign hired him. Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders, Trump noted. He worked for me a very short time. Why didnt the government tell me he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax! Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX, Trump continued the most successful in history being a reference to his campaign, not Russian collusion. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful! Trump added. Story continues Trump threw in a little Alan Dershowitz, paraphrasing the lawyer/TV news talking head saying FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who participated in the Mueller probe until Mueller yanked him, should have recused himself on day one, and claiming Mueller will protect these guys because he has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation. Trumps tweets: FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election. He should never, ever been allowed to.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 ..remain in the FBI while he himself was being investigated. This is a real issue. It wont go into a Mueller Report because Mueller is going to protect these guys. Mueller has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation. ALAN DERSHOWITZ. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 ..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didnt government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion a Hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018 Related stories White House Won't Condemn Mob Jeering Of CNN's Jim Acosta At Florida Rally J.J. Abrams' First Tweet Addresses 'Star Wars: Episode IX', Carrie Fisher & George Lucas Donald Trump: Paul Manafort Being Treated Worse Than Al Capone Editors note: On Thursday, a spokesman for state authorities in Iowa confirmed that missing college student Mollie Tibbetts was not seen alive in Missouri, the Associated Press reports. (The spokesman did not immediately return PEOPLEs request for comment.) That possible sighting of Tibbetts was ruled out, according to the AP. The original article on this update in the case, published on Thursday, is below. Police responded last week to a possible sighting of missing Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts at a truck stop in western Missouri, PEOPLE confirms. According to KCCI-TV, police in Kearney, Missouri, said officers responded to a truck stop at Interstate 35 and Missouri 92 Highway on July 26 after someone reported spotting Tibbetts, who hasnt been seen since July 18 in Brooklyn, Iowa. Kearney is about 235 miles away from Brooklyn. KCRG-TV9 reports that the tip originated from a Facebook post from Omaha, Nebraska. In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, Kearney police said, The Kearney Missouri Police Department did respond to a possible sighting on 7-26-2018 at a truck stop within our jurisdiction. Officers conducted a thorough search of the area, spoke with all possible witnesses, and reviewed all available video footage. A report was sent to the investigating task force regarding this possible sighting. Sgt. Joe Kantola of the Kearney police told the outlet that one person identified someone who looked like Tibbetts, 20, at the truck stop. PEOPLEs calls to the Kearney Police Department or the Poweshiek County Sheriffs Office in Iowa were not immediately returned Thursday. Mollie Tibbetts Authorities have said that the last time anyone saw Tibbetts, reportedly a rising sophomore who was studying psychology, was when she went jogging in Brooklyn on July 18. She had been dog-sitting at her boyfriends house which he shares with his brother and the brothers fiancee, according to Fox News and after her run, she returned to the home to do homework, police have said. Story continues At some point, she vanished. Law enforcement agencies including the FBI are investigating foul play. Weve found nothing that sends us one way of the other, Mitch Mortvedt, a spokesman for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, previously told PEOPLE. But common sense would dictate that the longer this goes on, the more it is leaning toward something happening to her against her will. When she disappeared, Tibbetts was days away from traveling to the Dominican Republic with boyfriend Dalton Jack to attend Jacks brothers wedding, the Associated Press reported. Police have ruled Jack out as a suspect. He previously said to theDes Moines Register about his girlfriend, I miss you so much and I love you. On Monday, Tibbetts father Rob Tibbetts made a heartfelt plea to the public on Good Morning America. It doesnt matter what were going through, we just need people to think because somebody knows something and they dont even know its important, he said. We can get Mollie back. We just have to have somebody call [the tip line]. Tibbetts is described as 5-foot-3-inches tall, weighing about 120 lbs., with long brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about her is urged to contact the Poweshiek County Sheriffs Office at 641-623-5679 or email tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com. Related Video: Missing Iowa Student Possibly Spotted at Truck Stop President Trump isnt afraid to make enemies. Since he took down the Bush and Clinton dynastiesand many other opponentsin his upstart bid for the presidency in 2016, he seems to think theres no foe able to derail his crusade. But other Republicans arent as slippery, and Trump is making enemies on their behalf that could doom his own party dearly in the November midterm elections. Trump recently took aim at the huge political operation built by Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who flood millions of dollars into Republican election efforts. The Kochs are strong free-trade supporters, and Trump chided them for opposing his tariffs and other protectionist measures. Total joke, Trump tweeted on July 31. I dont need their money or bad ideas. Their network is overrated. Trump may not need Koch money, but a lot of other Republicans do. The Kochs didnt support Trump in the 2016 election, but they didnt oppose him either. And their network of donor organizations, including Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, spent nearly $250 million politicking for other candidates who support their agenda, almost all of them Republicans. That spending undoubtedly helped push some Republican Congressional candidates over the top in tight races, solidifying GOP control of Congress and allowing the Trump tax cuts and other legislation to get through. Dependent on the Koch network Republicans need more help in 2018 than they did in 2016and the Kochs are signaling theyre not likely to support Trump bandwagoners who back trade protectionism, tough restrictions on legal immigration and increased deficit spending. The group recently indicated it wouldnt back Republican Senate candidates in North Dakota, Indiana and Nevada, all of which political analyst Larry Sabato rates as toss-ups that could potentially swing control of the Senate to Democrats. If Trump further antagonizes the Koch network, their lack of support could be decisive in November. The Republican party has grown to be dependent on the Koch donor network for hundreds of millions of dollars in election support, says Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance watchdog. Its hard to downplay the impact their pullback would have on Republicans ability to make the case for their candidates in one of the most important midterms in a generation. Story continues Republicans hold the House by 23 seats, and theres a good chance they could lose that many, or more, in the midterms, allowing Democrats to take control of at least one chamber. The Senate is a tougher prize for the Dems, but controlling the House would be enough to block most Republican legislation, mount aggressive investigations into Trump controversies, and possibly vote to impeach Trump. The Kochs arent kingmakers, as Trumps victory in 2016 proves. Their favorites for president included Scott Walker, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Trump trounced them all. But the Koch network can target large sums of money in tight House or Senate races where a flurry of negative ads against an opponent might provide a crucial edge in the waning days of the campaign. Since most of the Koch spending takes place through so-called super PACs, theres no limit on how much they can spend. And some of that spending is by groups that dont have to report who the donors are. Democrats advantage Does Trump have a plan to provide an alternate source of funding for Republicans shunned by the Koch network? Not clear. There are super PACs that support Trumps agenda, such as America First, Great America and 45Committee. But they seem unlikely to raise as much money as the Kochs, who have a base group of 700 wealthy activists committed to donating a minimum of $100,000 each. The pro-Trump groups may not be as willing to share the bounty with other Republicans, and they may not be as nimble at the Congressional level as the Koch operations. Trump may also think his Twitter endorsement for favored candidates is the equivalent of a big, costly ad blitz but that hasnt proven out in general elections, so far. Trump endorsed Republican candidates who ended up losing in an Alabama Senate race last December and a Pennsylvania House race in March. He has endorsed other Republicans who won, but by smaller margins than in prior elections, suggesting the Trump stamp of approval may not stop a surge of Democratic voters. Trump seems to be giving Democrats another advantage by intensifying his trade protectionism, even as stories mount of Americans hurt by those policies. The latest tightening of the screw is a plan to raise the possible tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10% to 25%. Trump has already imposed tariffs on $91 billion of imports, which has triggered retaliatory tariffs of similar magnitude on U.S. exports. About 20% of all U.S. agricultural exports are now subject to higher tariffs, which is hurting farm income along with Trumps popularity in farm states. Trump seems to be ratcheting up the pressure on China in the hope theyll blink and give him a deal he can call a victory before the November midterms. But the Chinese could have another plan: They might stall until November, leaving Trumps tariffs in place along with various retaliations aimed at Americans. That way, theyd be giving American voters the chance to punish Trump for his tariffs, which would weaken Trumps hand in negotiations, while strengthening Chinas. Trumps enemies have many targets, and if they hurt Trumps enablers they will hurt Trump himself. Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Click here to get Ricks stories by email. Read more: Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn Photo credit: RJ Sangosti - Getty Images From Delish A pregnant woman in Alberta, Canada, said a McDonald's employee accidentally served her cleaning solution in her cup of coffee. Sarah Douglas, who is 32 weeks pregnant with her third child, told a local Canadian news outlet she didn't realize the employee got her order terribly wrong until she had already left the fast-food restaurant and was driving on the highway. "I immediately had to put my hazard lights on and pull over and spit it out and rinse my mouth out with...in the door of my vehicle I had some water," she told Lethbridge News Now. "I opened up the lid of the coffee and out pours this pungent smell of chemical." A #Lethbridge mom who is 32 weeks pregnant, says she was served a cleaning agent instead of a latte at a west side @McDonalds. #yql #health https://t.co/SRy1xKrLVd pic.twitter.com/Rizo6ydKHS - Lethbridge News Now (@lethnewsnow) July 30, 2018 Douglas said the liquid in the cup had a watery-brown color, but it "wasn't a latte at all." The expecting mother then immediately drove back to McDonald's to speak to a supervisor. "I showed him the coffee and he had asked if I wanted a new one, and I said, 'Absolutely not, this is unacceptable.' I said I need to speak to someone higher up and he said he was the only supervisor on at the time, and he gave me his manager's phone number," Douglas said. Alison Mackisey, the brand manager for McDonald's in Lethbridge, reportedly gave Douglas documents that said the cleaning agent found in her drink contained ingredients like methy-trimethyl-3 and 2-butoxyethanol. According to Global News, Douglas contacted poison control has since met with a doctor. She appears to not have any adverse health affects. Story continues A spokesperson for McDonald's issued a statement to Delish.com explaining why the mishap occurred. "The milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guests drink was made," it reads in part. "We have taken immediate action to review the proper cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an added reminder." Here is McDonald's statement in full: Since learning about the complaint, our team has been in very close contact with the guest and apologized to her. The health inspector also visited my restaurant and is not investigating further. McDonalds is renowned for its food safety protocols and I am sorry that this happened in my restaurant here in Lethbridge. What happened is that the machine was being cleaned as it is every morning. Unfortunately, the milk supply line was connected to the cleaning solution while this guests drink was made. We have taken immediate action to review the proper cleaning procedures with the team and have put additional signage up as an added reminder - Dan Brown, Franchisee, McDonalds Lethbridge ('You Might Also Like',) Following a good performance in the second quarter, specialty chemicals company LANXESS has specified its earnings forecast for 2018. The Group now expects an increase of the operating result at the upper end of the guidance of five to ten percent that was presented in May. In the previous year, comparable EBITDA pre exceptionals was around EUR 925 million. The contribution from ARLANXEO, the joint venture between LANXESS and Saudi Aramco for synthetic rubber, is not taken into account in the full-year forecast for 2018 and, with immediate effect, will no longer be reported in the Groups sales and operating result. In the second quarter, global sales of LANXESS increased by 6.8 percent to EUR 1.83 billion against EUR 1.71 billion in the prior-year quarter. EBITDA pre exceptionals improved by 3.6 percent to EUR 290 million compared with EUR 280 million in the prior-year quarter. The positive overall earnings performance was driven by three reasons primarily: firstly, the contribution of the former Chemtura businesses. They constitute a material part of the Specialty Additives segment, which recorded the best quarterly result since the acquisition of the U.S. company. Secondly, the adjustment of selling prices due to higher raw material costs and thirdly, the synergies achieved from the integration of Chemtura had a positive impact on earnings. In the second quarter of 2018, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was still on a solid level, at 15.9 percent, despite significantly adverse currency effects, compared with 16.4 percent a year ago. LANXESS is doing well in operational terms and our strategic decisions in recent years are visibly paying off. For instance, the acquired Chemtura businesses, which have now been included in our figures for a year, made a decisive contribution to the record result achieved by our Additives segment in the second quarter, said Matthias Zachert, Chairman of the LANXESS Board of Management. We are therefore specifying our full-year forecast and expect the increase of the EBITDA to be at the upper end of the guidance despite the headwind resulting from the weakness of the US dollar and geopolitical uncertainties. Net income improved significantly to EUR 126 million against EUR 3 million in the prior-year quarter in which substantial exceptional charges were posted. Of net income, EUR 97 million was attributable to the four LANXESS segments and EUR 29 million to the so-called discontinued ARLANXEO business. Business development in the segments Sales in the Advanced Intermediates segment were EUR 546 million in the second quarter of 2018, 8.1 percent higher than the figure for the prior-year quarter of EUR 505 million. At EUR 97 million, EBITDA pre exceptionals matched the figure of the prior year. Increases in procurement prices for raw materials and energy, which were significant in some cases, were passed on to customers by adjusting selling prices. The organometallics business acquired in the prior year with the Chemtura acquisition also made a positive contribution to earnings. Negative currency effects depressed earnings. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals came in at 17.8 percent, against 19.2 percent a year ago. In the Specialty Additives segment, sales increased by 15.2 percent to EUR 508 million, against EUR 441 million in the prior-year quarter. At EUR 91 million, EBITDA pre exceptionals was 21.3 percent up on the prior-years figure of EUR 75 million. The contribution of the acquired Chemtura businesses and the synergies associated with the acquisition were crucial to the positive development. At 17.9 percent, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was higher than the figure of 17.0 percent a year ago. In the Performance Chemicals segment, sales decreased by 3.0 percent compared with the strong previous year to EUR 356 million, after EUR 367 million. The sale of the Material Protection Products business units chlorine dioxide business in the previous year was reflected in the reduction in sales. At EUR 58 million, EBITDA pre exceptionals was 27.5 percent down on the prior years figure of EUR 80 million. Earnings were squeezed by the persistently weak chrome ore business in the business unit Leather, unfavorable exchange rates and higher procurement prices for raw materials. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals decreased accordingly from 21.8 percent to 16.3 percent. In the Engineering Materials segment, sales increased significantly by 10.5 percent to EUR 399 million, against EUR 361 million a year ago. EBITDA pre exceptionals increased by 12.5 percent to EUR 81 million after EUR 72 million. The improvement in earnings resulted from higher volumes, especially in high-performance plastics for lightweight construction, and the contribution from the urethane business acquired with the Chemtura takeover. Accordingly, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals came in at 20.3 percent, against 19.9 percent in the prior-year quarter. 2017 shattered various climate records, including the highest global temperature for a non-El Nino year, lowest Arctic sea ice extent, highest sea levels as well as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, according to the American Meteorological Society's 2017 State of the Climate report released on Aug. 1, 2018. Jeff Rosenfeld, the editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), said in a media conference that the report checks up on the same aspects of the planet's climate each year, like a doctor's appointment. Greenhouse gases were at their highest in 2017, according to a presentation of the report. In a measurement of long-lived greenhouse gases, the global average of carbon dioxide has increased by 2.2 ppm to a total of 405.0 ppm since 2016. State of Climate 2017 A second measurement observed was the ice in the Arctic. The Arctic ice naturally expands and recedes as the seasons follow their course. The report measures the sea ice at its maximum in March and its minimum in September. According to the report, the March 2017 sea ice maximum was the lowest on record over the past 36 years. Paleoclimate records show the patterns of sea ice extent for the past 1,500 years. Usually, the extent has ranged between 9 and 11 million square kilometers. However, between 1800 and 2000, that extent took a dive from above 10 million square kilometers to below 9 million, plunging under that range for the first time in the 1,500-year time span. Arctic Iceberg Melting The suns sets as an iceberg floats in the Nuup Kangerlua Fjord near Nuuk in southwestern Greenland, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman) According to the report, ocean heat content was also at a record high, as were global sea levels in 2017. The report lists 2017 as the sixth consecutive year to have the highest global sea level. The American Meteorological Society attributes a third of the higher ocean levels from to the ocean warming and the other two thirds from increasing ocean mass since 2005. Story continues The last three year's warmer ocean waters have contributed to devastating episodes of coral bleaching globally, the report notes. When comparing data sets, the report places 2017 as the second to third warmest year on record. The rank varies depending on the number of data sets used. So far, 2014-2017 have been some of the warmest years on record. This past year was also the warmest non-El Nino influenced year on record. El Nino is the warm phase of a routine sea surface temperature pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. La Nina is its counterpart as the cold phase. On top of extreme temperatures, the report highlighted the reoccurring theme of "extreme precipitation." This includes the three major hurricanes: Harvey, Irma and Maria. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumers who are struggling to afford health insurance will soon have less expensive optionsbut with fewer protections and benefits. On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced a long-expected rule that allows the sale of short-term health insurance plans that don't comply with the Affordable Care Act. These plans, which were originally designed to be temporary, lasting no more than three months, will provide coverage for up to one year and could be renewable for three. The plans are aimed at people who dont have employer insurance and make too much money to get subsidies for health insurance sold on the ACA exchanges. The rule goes into effect in 60 days, so insurers could start selling plans Oct. 1. The administration expects that these short-term policies will be an attractive alternative to insurance sold through the ACA exchanges. Premiums on ACA-compliant plans have risen sharply since this comprehensive insurance was first offered in 2014. The national average cost of an ACA plan in 2017 was $440 a month, vs. $110 a month for a short-term plan, according to eHealth, an online marketplace to compare and buy health insurance. Of course, short-term plans have lower premiums because they offer less. They typically dont provide maternity, prescription drug, mental health, and substance-abuse coverage. You can be denied this insurance if you have a pre-existing health condition, or you can be charged more for it based on your health status. Also, the plans can cap the annual dollar amount they will pay. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar acknowledges that short-term insurance plans have their drawbacks. But he says they are a viable option for people who can't afford more comprehensive insurance, and for those who are without insurance temporarily because they are, say, between jobs. These plans arent for everyone, but they can provide a much more affordable option for millions of people," he says. Story continues Affordable Plans, Limited Coverage Cynthia Cox, who studies health reform and private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that does healthcare policy analysis, agrees that "short term plans may be an affordable option for healthy people who are higher income, dont get subsidies, and have been priced out of the ACA market. But she says that in terms of protections, the plans fall far short of those that comprehensive insurance provides, especially for people who have health problems or who develop an unexpected medical issue. Unlike ACA-compliant insurance, if you have a chronic health condition, including minor issues like asthma or acne, you could be denied insurance. If you become sick, short-term insurance may exclude the treatment you need. And theres no guarantee that if you have a plan, youll be able to renew it. Moreover, Cox says making short-term plans more widely available could destabilize the individual insurance market, making comprehensive insurance even more expensive. Younger and healthier people would be attracted to the short-term plans, she says, leaving older, sicker, and more-expensive-to-insure people in the individual insurance market. HHS estimates that about 200,000 people will buy short-term policies in 2019, and as many as 1.6 million people could own them after five years. Patient advocates and health policy experts are also concerned that consumers may not fully understand how limited the short-term plans actually are, and what that could mean for them. If you get cancer, for instance, a short-term plan probably wont cover oncology drugs, which can cost an average of $10,000 per month. If youre hospitalized, you may find yourself owing thousands of dollars for services your plan doesn't cover, says Rachel Schwab, a research associate at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. HHS says it is addressing those concerns by requiring insurers and brokers who sell the plans to provide clear disclosures on what the plans do and do not cover. What to Know About Short-Term Health Insurance Plans Coverage is limited. According to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 43 percent of short-term plans do not cover mental health services, 62 percent do not cover substance abuse treatment, 71 percent do not cover outpatient prescription drugs, and no plans cover maternity care. Even when short-term plans do cover mental health, substance abuse, and prescription drugs, there are limits that would not be allowed under ACA-compliant plans. For example, six of the seven short-term plans looked at by KFF that offered prescription drug coverage max the amount covered at as little as $3,000 a year. Beware of marketing pitches. If you want a short-term policy, you can buy it only through an insurance broker or directly from an insurance company, not through ACA exchanges. And the short-term plans, which pay brokers an average commission of about 20 percent vs. 5 percent for an ACA-compliant plan according to eHealth, will now be even more attractive for them to sell. About three-quarters of insurers said they plan to offer short-term health insurance products next year, according a survey of major insurers earlier this month by eHealth. Make sure you work with a reputable local broker if youre going to buy a short-term plan, take time to understand any restrictions on coverage, and beware of hard sells you may get online or on the phone. Healthcare.gov and many state-run exchanges have lists of state-licensed brokers in your area. You wont be able to buy them everywhere. Its up to states whether to allow insurers to sell short-term plans and to set the terms of the plans. Some states, including Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, already ban the sale of short-term health insurance plans, and at least six others restrict the length of time consumers can be covered by them, according to an analysis by the Commonwealth Fund. You could be fined for not having health insurance. If you are without health insurance currently and buy a short-term health plan when they become available in the fall, you could be charged a penalty for not having ACA-compliant health insurance in 2018. Although the individual mandate fine for not having such health insurance was eliminated by Congress last year, that's not in effect until 2019. You can still buy ACA health insurance. If you decide that you want to buy comprehensive insurance sold on the ACA exchanges, you can do so during the next open enrollment period, which in most states generally runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15. You may, however, be able to do it sooner if you leave your job or age out off your parents plan. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2018, Consumer Reports, Inc. The Daily Beast DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo foreign female tourists were caught in a crossfire between rival crime groups and shot to death last Thursday in the high-end resort town of Tulum, Mexico. Three other people were also wounded when the firefight broke out in the popular restaurant, La Malquerida, not far from the beach. Of the two women who were killed, one was from Germany and the other India.They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got caught in an exchange of gunfire betwee No team whose season ended before the conference finals entered this summer with more promise than the Philadelphia 76ers, a franchise that had finally reached the fun side of the process and was suddenly focused on domination. But with most of the major offseason moves already settled and the gap between the dynastic Golden State Warriors and the rest of the league growing increasingly wider no team can look back on the past few months as more of a lost opportunity. Bryan Colangelo became the first NBA general manager to ever lose his job over burner Twitter accounts. Coach and interim general manager Brett Browns star hunting quest came up empty, although the 76ers had the potential superstar foundation in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, and the money and the trade chips to make a dynamic move. LeBron James said he thought long and hard about joining Philadelphia but only gave the organization a perfunctory free-agent meeting with his agent, Rich Paul, before choosing the Lakers. Paul George didnt bother engaging with the 76ers, making his announcement to stay in Oklahoma City under a cloud of cigar smoke before teams were allowed to even start wooing him. Kawhi Leonard was there to be had for almost a month, but the 76ers whiffed and watched him land in Toronto, a division rival whose ceiling appears much higher if the 2014 Finals MVP can return to full health. An offseason haul of Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala in salary dumps and re-signing J.J. Redick is far from inspiring, but Embiid wont wallow in what the 76ers didnt do this offseason. He still has domination on his mind. I dont think it matters, big free agent or not. My goal going into the offseason was to get better. I want to win the MVP, Embiid said Wednesday in a conference call from NBA Africa 2018. I feel like at the end of the day it might be an individual award, but when I play better, the team also does. I feel like if Im an MVP candidate or if I win the MVP, that means we are on another level. Story continues Embiid is coming off the first mostly healthy season of his career a season in which he was an imposing presence on both ends, made his first All-Star appearance, was a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, played in back-to-back games for the first time and more than doubled his career games played from his first three injury-plagued seasons. If not for a frightful, late-season collision with rookie Markelle Fultz that resulted in him fracturing his left orbital bone, Embiid possibly wouldve been able to contribute even more and been better conditioned for a deeper playoff run. The 76ers second-round exit against the Boston Celtics exposed some areas in which Embiid will have to improve and left him salivating for more. When my season ended, there was a lot of talk about adding guys. I literally did not really care because I want to get better, Embiid said. I want to be better than those guys that were mentioned, if Im not already better than them. That was my message, just going into the offseason, finally the first one healthy and able to do whatever I want. That was my goal regardless. Joel Embiid adjusts his mask in Game 4 of the 76ers second-round series against the Boston Celtics in May. (AP) With his winning personality and witty Twitter fingers, Embiid emerged as a star off the court as well, posting hilarious comments on situations that were both silly (J.R. Smiths blunder in Game 1 of the Finals) and serious (Colangelos social media embarrassment) in nature. Immediately after the Warriors completed a sweep of Cleveland in the NBA Finals, Embiid wrote, Trust The Process!!!! Find a new slant @KingJames. But Embiid stressed that his recruiting pitch to the best player of this generation didnt extend much beyond social media. I thought we had a chance, Embiid said. Im a player. I always felt like its not my job to be in the middle of all that. I dont like to be involved in front-office stuff. I always felt like [LeBron] didnt need my help if he was going to do it. It is whatever. We have a great group of guys. A lot of guys coming back. Last year, we won 52 games. This next year is going to be even much better with the addition of Wilson Chandler. I expect Markelle to be back to himself. Fultz has been working on restoring his fractured jump shot and confidence with Embiids longtime trainer, Drew Hanlen, and the 76ers will need the 2017 No. 1 overall pick to rebound from a forgettable rookie campaign in which he battled the yips and lost his feel for the game. The 76ers were reportedly unwilling to move Fultz in any deal for Leonard, which increases the pressure for him to perform. Simmons was, at times, more than promised as he became the first 76er since Allen Iverson to claim Rookie of the Year honors. That trio of remaining high draft picks from that tanking/Process era will need to improve in an Eastern Conference that looks dramatically different with James on the opposite coast. Its the same approach, Embiid said. Last year, we had a goal. Our goals throughout the season change. First, it was to make the playoffs. We had a run at the end of the year. We were like, We have a chance. We get to the first round, which was pretty, I would say, easy. Then I felt like we had a pretty good chance against Boston, too. They kind of caught us off-guard, but theyre a really good team. They have a lot of talent. From there after, our goal was to go to the Finals. I feel we had the right pieces. We kept telling each other, We can do this. Weve come a long way. We won 52 games, which nobody thought would happen. We won 16 games in a row. We just thought that we had a chance to go to the Finals. Doesnt change. The approach doesnt change. Still the same. Were just going to do our thing. Embiid has mixed in some fun with his offseason work, treating anyone in front of him with the same amount of dunking disrespect whether its an unsuspecting scrub on South Philadelphia outdoor courts, a Los Angeles gym with lottery pick Mo Bamba or one-on-one drills with Bismack Biyombo this week in South Africa. With the NBA set to play its third exhibition game in Africa on Saturday in Pretoria, Embiid a native of Cameroon who was discovered at a Basketball Without Borders camp in 2011 said he plans to be an annual participant. Far from the shy kid that he was when he began, Embiid is eager to take the next step in his career. I feel like I have everything. I just need to be more consistent, Embiid said. This is the first summer where Im actually healthy and able to play basketball. I was pretty excited. Ive already gotten so much better. Its just about working on everything, perfecting everything. Like when it comes to my 3-point shot or the ball-handling, which was a problem. I feel like I can do it. You can also say Im kind of new to the game. Im still learning a lot. I feel like I still have a lot of potential, a lot of stuff to show. More from Yahoo Sports: Report: Tristan Thompson reportedly attacked DraymondGreen at party MLBs trade deadline winners and losers Terez Paylor: QB Alex Smith landed in Washington at perfect time Preseason NFL power rankings: Vikings secure Yahoo Sports No. 1 spot Istanbul (AFP) - Amnesty International on Thursday accused Turkish forces of allowing Syrian armed groups to commit major rights abuses in the northern region of Afrin, urging Ankara to immediately end the violations. Turkey and allied Syrian rebels seized control of Afrin earlier this year after a military operation which ousted a Kurdish militia that is an ally of the United States but Ankara regards as a terror group. Amnesty said that, since the takeover, residents in Afrin had been "enduring a wide range of violations" which Turkish armed forces "turned a blind eye" to. "These violations include arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and confiscation of property and looting to which Turkey's armed forces have turned a blind eye," Amnesty said. Some of the Syrian groups as well as Turkish armed forces have taken over schools, Amnesty claimed, which it said disrupted education for thousands of children. Amnesty said residents told them that Afrin University was "completely shut down after it was destroyed and looted", adding only one school in Afrin city was accessible. The rights group said that when contacted for comment, the Turkish government questioned its impartiality for using the terminology of Kurdish-dominated forces to describe regions. Turkey says the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia it ousted from Afrin is an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency in Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the European Union. In the case of one woman, her uncle has been missing since an armed group escorted him to his house after he returned to his village three months earlier. "They wouldn't tell his wife where they took him," the unnamed woman told Amnesty, denying the man, head of a local committee, had any links to the YPG. Amnesty said some homes have been "occupied" by displaced families from the central Homs province and the southern area of Eastern Ghouta which was recently recaptured by the Syrian regime. Story continues Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's Middle East research director, said the Syrian armed groups continued to "wreak havoc on civilians, unchecked by Turkish forces". She argued Turkey was responsible for the welfare of civilians as well as maintaining law and order since it was the "occupying power" in Afrin. "Without further delay, Turkey must end violations by pro-Turkish armed groups, hold perpetrators accountable, and commit to helping Afrin residents rebuild their lives," she added. Turkish officials insist that the takeover has proved popular, with Afrin residents tired of YPG rule and Turkey able to improve utilities services after similar operations in towns like Jarabulus and Al-Bab east of Afrin. Sabina started wearing the niqab two years ago as a way to feel more connected to God. The face veila piece of fabric tied around the back of her head that only reveals her eyesis a reminder of her identity and beliefs, she says. I found it very beautiful, the 21-year-old education student explains, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the womens prayer room in Det Islamiske Trossamfund, a mosque in Copenhagen. In the beginning it was a very spiritual choice. But starting this month when she wears her niqab in public, her act of devotion will also be an act of civil disobedience. She will be one of the Danish citizens defying the countrys ban on face coverings in all public places, which came into effect on Wednesday. Now it has also become a political choice for me, says Sabina, who asked TIME not to disclose her last name out of concerns for her safety. It is also a sign of protest. Sabina is a founder of Kvinder i Dialog (Women in Dialogue), an organization started by niqabiswomen who wear the veilthat brings Muslim women affected by the ban into conversation with the larger Danish population through events, social media and public appearances. Their goal has been to dispel what they say are misconceptions about their choice to wear the veil: that niqabis are forced to wear the garment, dont go to school or work, and are radicalized and pose a threat. Now their aims have expanded to include standing their ground in Danish society. On the first day of the ban, the women led a public protest over their right to wear the veil. Hundreds of people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds congregated at Den Sorte Plads in Copenhagens Nrrebro neighborhood, donning niqabs, colorful scarves and flamboyant face coveringsa horse head, fake beards and lucha libre masks were spotted across the plazato challenge the enforcement of the ban. The crowd marched on local streets led by a sign that read My clothes, my choice and chanted No racists in our streets! as they locked arms around the Bellahj police station. At the same time, across the country a protest took place in Aarhus, Denmarks second biggest city. Story continues Many in the crowd said taking to the streets seemed to be the only way to bring attention to the problem. When I was a kid, no one talked about who you could be and how you could look and dress, said Line Schmidt, 33, wearing a black balaclava with yellow translucent heart-shaped glasses.Its not the Denmark I know. To protesters and women who wear the veil, the ban looks like another sign that Denmark is betraying its long-held value of tolerance. Its not just about us fighting for the right to wear our niqab, Sabina says. Its also about us fighting for right to live our lives as practicing Muslims in Denmark. We are saying to the government: we do not accept this form of racist, Islamophobic and oppressive politics. Thousands of people protest in Aarhus, Denmark, on August 1, 2018 in defiance of the Danish Governments ban on the burka and niqab. Denmarks new law, passed May 31 to take effect from August 1, does not specifically mention the niqab (a veil that covers the face except for the eyes) or burqa (more conservative headwear that covers the head and body and includes a mesh screen over the eyes). It is up to police to judge whether a face covering is in violation of the ban and to instruct the offender to go home. Fines range from 1,000 krone ($156) up to 10,000 krone ($1,568) for repeat offenses. But many of those in support of the ban have been clear that it is meant to target the Muslim face veil. We dont want the burqa and niqab in Denmark, Naser Khader, a parliament member with the Conservative Peoples Party and a Muslim who has long supported the ban, tells TIME. He says its about the principle of women not being oppressed, rather than the number of women who wear the veil. We want gender equality in Denmark, thats it. If you want to go with burqa and niqab, find another place to do it. The current number of women who wear the veil in Denmark is unknown, but the most recent research suggests it is very few. A 2009 study by Margit Warburg, a professor in sociology of religion at the University of Copenhagen, indicates less than 0.2% of Muslim women in the country wear the niqab or burqaan estimated 150 women out of a country of 5.7 million. It is really a very small minority out of a minority out of a minority, says Warburg. Human rights groups have slammed arguments like Khaders. While there might be some specific instances where the full-face veil ban might be legitimate in the interests of public safety, Amnesty International argues that the blanket ban is a violation of womens rights to freedom of expression and religion. If the intention of this law was to protect womens rights it fails abjectly. Instead, the law criminalizes women for their choice of clothingmaking a mockery of the freedoms Denmark purports to uphold. A Continent-Wide Debate Denmark follows France, Belgium and Austria with full bans on face coverings (Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Germany and other regions and cities across Europe have partial bans based on geographical area or type of space). In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights upheld Frances 2011 law, accepting that social cohesion was a valid argument for the ban, even though fewer than 2,000 women reportedly wore the veil in 2011, out of nearly 5 million Muslims in France. But enforcement and effectiveness of the ban have been mixed. In Austria, which implemented a similar law in October 2017, police fined people with scarves and a man in a shark costume because of confusion over the vague wording of the law. France, the first European country to introduce such a ban, has consistently enforced the lawbut surveys indicate niqabis continue to wear the veil but spend more time indoors (though there is little research on women who wear the veil after the ban). It divides society, says Sara Silvestri, professor of religion and politics at City, University of London, and an expert on Islam in Europe. It either withdraws women into the closely-knit community or empowers them to fight back and become even more religious and even more proud to wear the veil. In Denmark both the center-right government and center-left Social Democrat party voted in favor of the ban, passing the law 75-30. At the heart of the governments argument were concerns over the subjugation of women and a need to enforce Danish culture and values.We must be able to see each other and we must also be able to see each others facial expressions, Justice Minister Sren Pape Poulsen said when the ban was passed in May. Its a value in Denmark. A significant portion of the Danish population favored the ban: 62% supported a ban on the niqab and burqa according to an opinion poll from last September. Read more: Denmarks ghetto policies are an ominous sign that liberal Europe is starting to unravel at the seams Denmark is still a homogeneous country: 87.6% of the countrys population is ethnically Danish and 75% of the population is Protestant (based off membership in the state-funded National Church). In recent decades, the country has struggled to integrate immigrants and their new cultures. This year alone, significant debate has raged over policies that seem to target minorities. For example, the country has weighed a citizens proposal to outlaw circumcision (mainly practiced by the countrys Jews and Muslims) and the immigration minister suggested Muslims do not work during Ramadan because they pose a safety hazard. And more concretely, the government passed a series of laws to eradicate ghettos, neighborhoods with social problems where more than 50% of residents are non-Western immigrants. The parliament decides what it means to be Danish, says Garbi Schmidt, a Roskilde University professor who studies migration and cultural encounters. Right now, it is Muslims that fall out and minorities that fall out [of that definition]. But it is also problematic for societyhow xenophobic should it be when it comes to ethnic, religious and all kinds of diversity? Who has the right to live as a Dane? Women wearing niqabs to veil their faces take part in a demonstration on August 1, 2018, the first day of the implementation of the Danish face veil ban, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Fighting for the Right to Wear the Veil Asserting the right to live as a Dane while wearing the niqab has been the goal of Kvinder i Dialog since it officially launched in January. The group, which has grown to approximately 60 niqabis and allies, has hosted open houses, stood on the street handing out flyers, visited high school classrooms and participated in debates on the issue, all in the hopes of trying to help their fellow citizens understand their choice. We were saying to everyone, just ask us whatever you like, Sabina says. Lets talk about it. By becoming more visible, Kvinder i Dialog has been able to change some minds. If you are forced to wear it, I would not understand why you are fighting so much for it, Sabina recalls a woman telling her at an open house. But it hasnt always worked. Politicians have refused to take their meetings and theyve received hateful responses on their social media posts. Part of the problem is that many Danes have never seen, let alone met or talked to, a woman who wears the niqab, Sabina says. That fueled misconceptions about the background and motivations of the niqabis. Half of the women that Warburg found in her 2009 study were ethnic Danes, for example, as recent converts tend to be more devout in their religious expression. Further, women wear the niqab as a way to challenge and deepen their faith, Warburg says. She did not find evidence that there were women being forced to wear the veil in Denmark. Women who choose the niqab say oppression has not come from the veil itself, but from Denmarks opposition to it. Sarah, a gregarious 30-year-old student, mother of three and another founder of Kvinder i Dialog, said it was already difficult to wear her face covering in public. Once a man threatened to kill her at a train station in front of her then 3-year-old son. Despite this, Sarah, who was born in Denmark to a Muslim family and speaks Danish as her first language, grew up believing that the countrys tradition of tolerance would protect her religious choices and allow her to follow her dreams of studying engineering and starting her own business. Now Sarahwho asked TIME to only use her first name to protect her privacyis considering switching to e-learning to finish her courses, and her husband has agreed to take full responsibility of picking up their children from school and running errands. If I want to go somewhere, I really have to think about itis it worth getting a fine? she says, bouncing her curly-haired 7-month-old daughter on her lap during a preparation workshop for the protest on Wednesday. I have never felt like a victim before. This is the first time Ive felt oppressed. Still, she sees the veil as a source of power as she begins life after the ban. You have to be very strong to wear the niqab in Denmark, Sarah says. We are not going to lie down and let people kick us. We are going to fight to the end. At about 11:48 a.m. ET, Apple (AAPL) became the first U.S.-listed company to be worth $1,000,000,000,000.00. The price of a single share of Apple crossed $207.0425. Multiply that by 4,829,926,000 shares outstanding and you get a trillion bucks. Some might argue that $1 trillion is just a random round number. But whether its a trillion or $999 billion, the point is that Apple is an incredibly massive company, with an incredible reach, and with an incredible amount of profits (In 2017, Apple earned $48 billion on $229 billion in sales). In a press release earlier this year, CEO Tim Cook disclosed that Apples active installed base of devices reached 1.3 billion in January. While growth in its hardware like iPhones and iPads could be leveling off, the companys booming services offerings could fuel massive profits for years. The fact that you have a billion and a half people with Apple devices around the world in a sense gives them a user base that if they can figure out other ways to make money off that user base, NYU professor Aswath Damodaran said on CNBC. I think you could get a bonus on that growth rate. [ SEE ALSO: Apples tumultuous path to $1 trillion ] Is it really worth it? Apples prospects at this juncture are critical since stock prices are theoretically just the present value of all of a companys future cash flows. [I]ts still trading about 17 times next years earnings estimates, said Damodaran, who is also known as the Dean of Valuation. I mean, compare that to some of the other FAANG names Alphabet 53 times, Amazon 162 times. The Apple logo is pictured inside the newly opened Omotesando Apple store at a shopping district in Tokyo June 26, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino History is riddled with companies that saw outsized valuations on speculation that these businesses were the next big thing. During the dotcom bubble, companies with no profits but lots of prospects regularly saw billion-dollar valuations. But Apple is different because its actually earning a ton of money. You dont need a +20x price earnings multiple to get to $1 trillion valuation, Datatrek Researchs Jessica Rabe said in an email on Thursday. It would be logical, but wrong, to think a huge valuation must stem from a sky-high PE ratio. Apple trades for 17.3 times next years consensus estimate, even before you exclude cash. Thats barely above the market multiple of 16.7 times. Story continues You have to give credit to Tim Cook In August 2011, Cook had the daunting task of taking over the CEO role for visionary Steve Jobs in August 2011. (Jobs died two months later.) On the one hand, yes, Cook was teed up for success by a genius, once-in-lifetime CEO, Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy wrote in January. On the other hand, Cook had huge shoes to fill, and more to the point, has not rolled out any revolutionary new products a la Steve. Naysayers said that unless he did that Apples stock would falter. To the contrary, it has thrived. Why? In large part because the iPhones growth has mitigated that need. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, takes a selfie with a customer and her iPhone as he visits the Apple Store in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 27, 2018. REUTERS/John Gress Among other things, Cook has also navigated the company through the tumultuous Trump presidency brilliantly. While many big brands have drawn the ire of the commander-in-chief, Cook has been drawing attention to the many big investments Apple has been planning within the U.S. Though, Cook has not been shy about criticizing the administration either. In the companys quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, he went directly after Trumps use of tariffs in his tit-for-tat trade war. Our view on tariffs is that they show up as a tax on the consumer and end up resulting in lower economic growth, Cook said. And sometimes can bring about significant risk of unintended consequences. Trump never reacted to that comment, though we dont know if Trump heard it either. Apple is an American company that assembles its products in China, Datatreks Rabe said. It is so successful in each country that it has avoided the fate of many American transnational companies: being a pinata in the global trade/tariff debate. While this political hedge was clearly an accident of history, it works well today. (David Foster, Oath) Sam Ro is managing editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @bySamRo Read more: Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn A Chinese Naval officer stands guard beside a submarine at the Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base in Hong Kong April 30, 2004. China will expand the membership of the military's top decision-making body to Samuel Leiter Security, Asia America must scale down the size of its military involvement in East Asia to avoid ratcheting up tension with China. How to Avoid a South China Sea Showdown This essay was a runner up in the 2018 John Quincy Adams Society/TNI Student Foreign Policy Essay Contest. It is imperative that the United States reduce its military involvement in East Asia as China rises to relieve its overstretched military and avoid conflagration with this rising power capable of challenging American hegemony. Although this idea is counterintuitive to those who would argue that American leadership in the region is necessary to contain China, the economic and geopolitical realities mean that the American strategy towards the Soviet Union in the Cold War is not reproducible with China. While there are parallels between the two great power rivalries, there are key differences between China today and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century that will make containment dangerous and ineffective this time. Instead, the United States ought to reduce its military presence in East Asia and let its allies develop independent nuclear deterrents to keep the region stable. Critics would argue this would create incentives for China to attack its proliferating neighbors leading to war and chaos, but the historical evidence suggests such an attack is highly unlikely. The United States faces unique challenges in containing China that include an economic deficit, a discontinuous and non-united front, and other great powers. As a result, it cannot succeed with the strategy of containment used against the Soviet Union. Throughout the Cold War, the United States was well ahead of the Soviet Union in every relevant economic measure, and the gap only widened as the Cold War progressed. China today has already passed the United States in gross domestic product measured by purchasing power parity, and will continue to widen the gap in the decades to come. As time goes on, the United States current military advantage will erode making containment more and more difficult to maintain. American allies in the region will feel increasing pressure to bandwagon with China and there are already a number of countries dispersed throughout the region that have aligned themselves with China from Pakistan to Malaysia. This is not the united front of Western Europe, but a region divided in allegiance between the rising regional power and the declining global one. Whats more, the frontline of the Cold War in Western Europe was a narrow and clearly demarcated area, the border between East and West Germany. This small geographic land area that could be easily stationed by American troops. Containing China requires stationing troops from the 39th Parallel to the South China Sea and the disputed Chinese-Indian border. This poses serious strategic coordination problems and also increases military costs. Containing China would be a losing strategy that drains American resources, but if a withdrawal would create a vacuum and instability in the region, then it could be just as destructive to American foreign-policy goals. Story continues By encouraging its allies to develop independent nuclear deterrents, America can ensure that China cannot take advantage of its withdrawal and the region will continue to be stable. The period since World War II has been characterized by the longest period of great-power peace in modern history as a result of the advent of nuclear weapons. The American nuclear umbrella provides an effective deterrent for its Asian allies, but under the proposed withdrawal the nuclear umbrella would be gone or at least questioned making independent nuclear deterrents necessary. South Korea, Japan, and even Taiwan have the capability to acquire nuclear weapons, but have avoided doing so because the United States provided security for them and the United States discouraged proliferation. Were they to develop their own nuclear deterrents it would keep the region stable without an American presence. Well-known scholars of international relations, like Barry Posen, have advocated that such drawdowns are in the United States long-term interest. Posen envisions a world where U.S. allies would defend themselves without the United States through independent nuclear deterrents. Critics of this view point to the risk of preventive war arising during the transition period. This begs the very important question: is there a serious risk of China, the rising power in East Asia, attacking Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan if they attempt to acquire nuclear weapons? An examination of the history of preventive strikes against nuclear programs will show that such a scenario is unlikely. A carefully executed drawdown of U.S. commitments would not create incentives for preventive war against United States allies that would destabilize the region. The most well-documented case of a preventive strike against a nuclear program is Israels attack against the Osiraq nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. Israeli leaders worried that like Israel, Iraq would finish its nuclear weapons program faster than predicted. The Iraqi regime posed a special threat since it regularly threatened the destruction of Israel and seemed intent on becoming a regional hegemon. Since Israel is geographically small and very close to Iraq, a nuclear Iraq was an existential threat. Even still, the Israeli government was very conflicted in its decision to bomb the Osiraq reactor. International backlash from world powers and Arab neighbors was a grave concern. It was only Iraqs uniquely vulnerable position during the Iran-Iraq war and Israels alliance with the worlds foremost superpower, the United States, that gave Israeli leaders the confidence to eventually attack the reactor at Osiraq. When the United States chose not to attack Chinas nuclear program in the 1960s it was faced with less of a threat and higher potential costs when compared to Israels decision not to attack Iraq. The United States government was initially quite worried about Chinese proliferation, but quickly came to realize that it threatened only to limit freedom of action in East Asia and it would be decades before Chinese missiles could even reach the United States. In addition to the obvious distinction that the United States large land area makes it more resilient to nuclear attack, China would remain at a military disadvantage relative to the United States, making a first-strike highly unlikely in the minds of United States military leaders. Attacking Chinas nuclear program was not as simple as one bombing run against a sole nuclear reactor. There were numerous reactors and the location of them was not known within any very high degree of confidence. If they had been known, destruction was not guaranteed, and were they destroyed, it would at most delay Chinas nuclear program for a few years. Additionally, preventing Chinese retaliation after attacking its nuclear facilities would involve a huge force commitment to East Asia, and it was hard to conceive of a scenario in which the Soviet Union did not intervene. Altogether, this meant a strike could worsen the United States strategic position and at best delay Chinas nuclear ambitions. Between these two cases, Japan, South Korea and Taiwans position relative to China more closely resembles Chinas position relative to the United States in the early 1960s. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have no interest in, or chance of, establishing hegemony in East Asia. Although China is geographically close, its size and military advantages mean that if any one of Chinas regional adversaries acquired nuclear weapons it would limit freedom of action, not threaten its existence. China would also have to worry about a preventive strike bringing a withdrawn United States back into the region, much as the United States worried about its main rival, the Soviet Union, becoming involved in any attack against China. Finally, all three states have substantial civilian nuclear programs spread throughout the country, which makes stopping a nuclear program more difficult, costly, and prone to retaliation. The Israeli strike against Osiraq was an extraordinary case, which is unlikely to be repeated in Asia, especially since it revealed the impermanence of striking nuclear facilities when Iraq simply redoubled its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon in the following years. Whether American allies in East Asia will proliferate remains to be seen, but if they did, history suggests China would not opt for the military option. With the greatest threat to peace in an Asia absent the United States being highly unlikely to occur given the historical evidence a drawdown could be safely undertaken. This would give the United States much needed resources to invest in its own economy and would also give China the breathing room to rise peacefully, which reduces the risk of miscalculation or accidental war. Samuel Leiter is a senior at the University of Chicago studying political science with a focus on nuclear proliferation and preventive war. In July he will start working as an analyst for the Civic Consulting Alliance, a non-profit that helps Chicagos government govern better. Image: A Chinese Naval officer stands guard beside a submarine at the Ngong Shuen Chau Naval Base in Hong Kong April 30, 2004. China will expand the membership of the military's top decision-making body to "suit the needs of modern warfare" if Taiwan declares independence. China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy task group is visiting Hong Kong for a six day stop over. The group includes two guided missile destroyers, four guided missile frigates and two submarines in its biggest show of military force since the former colony's 1997 handover from Britain. REUTERS/Kin Cheung KC/CP Read full article SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Victoria Azarenka, a former world No. 1, eased past lucky-loser Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-0 on Wednesday night in the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic. Azarenka broke the Russian teenager's serve six times to advance to face American qualifier Danielle Collins, a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 winner over Vera Lapko of Belarus. Blinkova replaced Garbine Muguruza in the draw after the top-seeded Spaniard withdrew because of a right arm injury. "I've been feeling some pain in my right arm for a couple of days and realized I am not ready to play the match, so hopefully I can recover for the next tournaments," Muguruza said in a statement. Johanna Konta, the 2016 champion, followed her Tuesday upset of 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over American teenager Sofia Kenin 6-1, 6-4. Konta will play No. 4 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium. Mertens topped American wild-card Ashley Kratzer 6-2, 6-0. A street artist dressed as a Roman soldier outside the Colosseum in Rome - AFP As Britain and the rest of Europe swelter through a heat wave, a new study suggests that drought had bloody consequences for the rulers of the ancient world. Academics have found that prolonged periods of low rainfall in the Roman Empire led to more emperors being assassinated by restive legions. According to the thesis put forward by two Canadian scholars, drought led to food shortages on the far-flung frontiers of the empire, threatening soldiers with starvation and making them more likely to foment rebellion against Rome. Cornelius Christian of Brock University in Ontario and and Liam Elbourne from St Francis Xavier University in Novia Scotia found a correlation between rainfall patterns on the empires borders in Gaul and Germany and political turmoil in the imperial capital from 27BC to 476AD. During that period, 25 emperors were assassinated about one-fifth of the total. Drought and food shortages on the frontiers of the empire led the legions to rebel against Rome, a new study claims Credit: Getty Their research found that a 20 per cent fall in average rainfall led to an increase in the probability that an emperor would be bloodily dispatched the following year. The period between 235AD and 285AD was particularly murderous, with 14 out of 26 emperors being assassinated, the academics report in a paper published in the journal Economics Letters. "Lower precipitation increases the probability that Roman troops, who relied on local food supplies, starve. This pushes soldiers to mutiny, hence weakening the emperors support, and increasing the probability he is assassinated, they reported. While modern-day democracies may not be at risk from droughts and crop shortages, climate change is a factor in some conflicts in the developing world, particularly in parts of Africa. The wild fire that raced through the coastal town of Mati outside Athens last month has tested the Greek government, with survivors and relatives of the victims venting their fury against ministers and claiming that the evacuation was botched. The hot weather continued in much of Europe on Thursday, with a blast of hot air sweeping in from North Africa and Italy recording temperatures of up to 38C. In southern Portugal and parts of Spain, the mercury is expected to soar to 44C this weekend, while southern France is also likely to experience high temperatures. In the UK, London and the southeast were expected to bask in temperatures of 31C this weekend, although northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will be cooler and may see a few rain showers. The strange case of a young boy who had a large section of his brain removed shows just how good the human brain is at repairing itself or at least making the most of a tough situation. Beyond being just a lump of tissue that named itself, the brain is also a kind of wonderful, wet computer thats capable of rewiring itself in response to new experiences, like taking drugs, forming new memories, and making friends. In extreme cases, like that of a 6-year-old boy who had about one-sixth of his brain removed, the brain can even adapt to getting cut apart. Doctors documented the boys case in a paper published July 31 in the journal Cell Reports. They report that despite the boy having a significant portion of his brain removed, including the portion associated with visual processing, the boy has developed into a healthy 10-year-old. And while he still cant see in the left side of his field of vision, his brain has reconfigured some of the lost connections so that he is able to recognize peoples faces. All in all, the doctors see it as a successful procedure, as well as evidence of the brains plasticity its ability to adapt when it comes to higher-order functions. This image shows just how much of the boy's right hemisphere was removed. The black dotted lines show where there used to be brain matter. He is essentially blind to information on the left side of the world. Anything to the left of his nose is not transmitted to his brain, because the occipital lobe in his right hemisphere is missing and cannot receive this information, Marlene Behrmann, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and the corresponding author on the paper, tells New Scientist. In the case study, doctors explain how, starting at age 4, the boy suffered from debilitating epileptic seizures. They soon discovered that the culprit was a slow-growing tumor in his occipital and temporal lobes in the right hemisphere of his brain, but he didnt respond to any treatments to relieve him of his seizures. So nine months after his sixth birthday, doctors removed one-third of the right hemisphere of his brain, including some of his temporal lobe and his entire occipital lobe. While the occipital lobe is charged with visual processing, the temporal lobe also handles some degree of processing visual and auditory information, including, notably, facial recognition. Story continues And even though the boys brain has not and likely will not recover the ability to process visual information taken in by his left eye, a lower-order task, doctors found that the left hemisphere took over some of the higher-order tasks lost in the lobectomy, including facial processing. His visual behavior is excellent, absolutely normal, Behrmann tells Gizmodo. Even though he only has one visual system, its been reconfigured to do the work of both hemispheres. The fact that they followed the boy for three years after the surgery helped them get a sense of just how well his brain adapted to the changes. They observed that his left hemisphere, which doesnt usually handle visual processing in the way that the right hemisphere does, adapted to a region that usually processes words. We saw a kind of jostling in the left hemisphere between regions engaged in word and face recognition, which resolved and settled into a new organization, Behrmann tells New Scientist. Onder Albayram, Ph.D., a research fellow at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study but has done research on how cannabis induces plasticity changes in old mice, tells Inverse that the boys brain shows a remarkable ability to reorganize, one that may have been with us through our evolutionary history. This may be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism of how the brain evolved, he says. This is very interesting. Photos via Liu et al More From Inverse Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge University professor of Iranian Kurdish origin, on Wednesday was named one of four winners of the prestigious Fields medal, often known as the Nobel prize for mathematics. The laureates were announced at a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, which became the first Latin American city ever to host the event, staged once every four years. "I'm hoping that this news will put a smile on the faces of those 40 million people," Birkar, a 40-year-old specialist in algebraic geometry, said, referring to the Kurds. Born in the Kurdish province of Marivan near the Iran-Iraq border, Birkar graduated from Tehran University before getting British citizenship and building on his reputation as an exceptional mathematical mind, winning the 2010 Philip Leverhulme prize for most promising scholars. The other Fields winners were: -- Germany's Peter Scholze, who teaches at the University of Bonn and at just 30 is one of the world's most influential thinkers in arithmetic algebraic geometry. -- Alessio Figalli, a 34-year-old Italian mathematician at ETH Zurich who jokes that the one equation still baffling him is how to spend more time with his professor wife. "I have work for the next 30 or 40 years. But there is one problem I really hope to solve soon: that is me and my wife living in the same city," Figalli said. -- Akshay Venkatesh, an Indian-born, Australian-raised prodigy who began his undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia when he was just 13. Now 36 and at Stanford University in the United States, Venkatesh specializes in number theory and describes his work in terms more often associated with the artistic fields. "A lot of the time, when you do math, you're stuck. But you feel privileged to work with it: you have a feeling of transcendence and feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," Venkatesh said. The Fields medal recognizes the outstanding mathematical achievements of candidates who were under 40 years old at the start of the year. At least two and preferably four people are honored at each ceremony. Robert Beckhusen Security, Asia "Underdeveloped tactics and training regimens which discourage initiative among other problems means that, as a whole, Chinas top guns are less proficient than they could be." China's Air Force Has a Big Problem Chinese lead pilots often lack tactical skills, aerial maneuvers and changing flight plans without instructions from the ground. To make matters worse, they often defer to ground command and guidance personnel during confrontations, the RAND report quoted the Chinese air force newspaper Kongjun Bao. China has the third largest air force in the world and may surpass the United States within the next 15 years. But in an aerial shooting war with the U.S. Air Force, Beijing will need more than aircraft but fighter pilots with well-honed skills capable of facing off with some of the best jocks in the world. But right now, Chinese pilots struggle. Underdeveloped tactics and training regimens which discourage initiative among other problems means that, as a whole, Chinas top guns are less proficient than they could be. (This first appeared in 2016.) The Peoples Liberation Army Air Force is also well aware of this, and is changing the way it trains pilots, according to a recent report by the RAND Corporation, a think tank with close ties to the U.S. Air Force. These changes, over time, could do much to reduce the skill gap between the Chinese and American air forces. Chinas air force doesnt match the United States, because for most of recent history, it didnt need to. The traumatic experience of World War II, when 14 million Chinese lost their lives in a Japanese invasion and occupation, shaped Chinese strategy to favor large ground forces. For much of the Cold War, Beijings leaders viewed the risk of another invasion, particularly from the Soviet Union, as their number one military threat. To be sure, China has undertaken major military reforms since the 1980s aimed at extending presence into the South and East China Seas, thereby forcing the naval and air forces of an opponent namely the United States to operate from farther away. China is also shrinking its army but expanding its air force and navy, and rethinking how to fight war on different terms. Story continues But the PLAs highly centralized, top-down structure remains in place and stifles the skills of its fighter jocks. Unrealistic plans and by-the-book training regimens dont translate well in combat, when those plans can be blown away the moment they meet enemy contact. Training pilots to adapt to changing conditions and to make decisions on the spot remains new to many pilots accustomed to having most, if not all, of their tactical maneuvers dictated to them by PLAAF unit commanders in the control tower, the report stated. Take, for instance, the most important aircraft in a fighter formation the lead plane. Basically, the plane in front, manned by an experienced pilot responsible for commanding the formation and (usually) leading dogfights. Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan? Chinese lead pilots often lack tactical skills, aerial maneuvers and changing flight plans without instructions from the ground. To make matters worse, they often defer to ground command and guidance personnel during confrontations, the RAND report quoted the Chinese air force newspaperKongjun Bao. As such, there were many unfavorable factors that come about during air combat [training]. For example, ground commands often are not able to keep up with the complex and changeable air situation, Kongjun Bao added. Pilots relied too much on the commands and guidance from the ground, which was not conducive to enhancing the enthusiasm and initiative of airborne combatants. The same problems crop up during mock attacks on ground targets. In one exercise, commanders tested pilots by changing their targets on an ad-hoc basis, but the nervous aviators choked, flew too low and missed. Of course, the reason we know this is because China is deliberately pushing its pilots into unfamiliar territory and, in PLAAF terminology, forcing them to fight and win in actual combat conditions. Details are few, but RAND notes that the Chinese air force is making its pilots develop their own flight plans while giving them full autonomy over their sorties, from starting their engines to changing navigation routes and flying tactics in the air, RAND noted. Beijing is even shuffling pilots between different air bases to mix up the terrain. During mock air battles, commanders have restricted the amount of information shared between formations before they wage simulated duels. The PLAAF will even frequently remove safety restrictions, the report added. But even better pilots might not matter much, in the end. Beijing anticipates a potential conflict with the United States to take place in the Western Pacific, where China enjoys a numerical advantage. Over Taiwan, that advantage could be 3:1 just in aircraft, according to a separate RAND study published in 2008. The odds get even worse for the Pentagon if China can successfully knock out Americas nearest air bases, such as Kadena in Japan, with an onslaught of ballistic missiles. This first appeared in WarIsBoring here . Image: Creative Commons. Read full article Stockholm (AFP) - Researchers expressed concern Thursday about the rapid pace of climate change, after a glacier on Sweden's Kebnekaise mountain melted so much in sweltering Arctic temperatures that it is no longer the country's highest point. "It's quite scary," Gunhild Ninis Rosqvist, a Stockholm University geography professor who has been measuring the glacier for many years as part of climate change research, told AFP. "This glacier is a symbol for all the glaciers in the world. This whole environment is melting, the snow is melting, and it affects the entire ecosystem: the plants, the animals, the climate, everything," said Rosqvist, who is also the head of the Tarfala research station near Kebnekaise. "You see the effects of climate change so clearly here. And for Sweden, Kebnekaise's southern peak is such an iconic symbol." A popular tourist destination located in Sweden's far north, Kebnekaise has two main peaks -- a southern one covered by a glacier and a neighbouring, northern one free of ice. The southern peak lost four metres (13 feet) of snow between July 2 and July 31. "It looked different this year. The snow was melting, the glacier surface has never been as low as it is now. I saw meltwater trickling down the sides, I've never seen that before," Rosqvist said. When measured early Tuesday, the southern peak reached 2,097 metres above sea level, just 20 centimetres higher than the northern tip's 2096.8 metres. On a daily basis in July, the southern peak lost an average 14 centimetres of snow, as Sweden registered record hot temperatures that triggered dozens of wildfires across the country, even in the Arctic Circle. On Thursday Rosqvist said the southern peak was most certainly lower than the northern peak. "We haven't gone up today to measure it, but we've checked the temperature and it was really warm yesterday, it was over 20 degrees C (68 F) so it has surely melted", below the level of the northern peak, she said. Story continues Rosqvist and her team will measure the peak again around September 8, "when the summer is over." "It could easily be a metre under the northern peak by the end of summer." - 'Extreme heat more common' - The southern glacier, whose height has been registered since 1880, has been melting by one metre every year over the past two decades, according to Stockholm University. The glacier could grow this coming winter and the southern peak could even rise above the northern peak again, before some of it melts away next summer if the weather is warm. According to Martin Hedberg, meteorologist at the Swedish Weather and Climate Centre, "extreme heat is 100 times more common today than it was during the 1950s, 60s and 70s" globally. "The temperature differences between the Arctic and the Mediterranean are narrowing," he told AFP. Kebnekaise's two peaks may compete for the title of Sweden's highest point for the next few years, Rosqvist predicted. She lamented that political targets to combat climate change, including the Paris Agreement which calls for capping the global rise in temperature at 2 C, were not having enough of an impact. "With these targets, our glaciers are going to disappear." "It's an election this year in Sweden, and yet no one is talking about this," she bristled, referring to the country's general election on September 9. With the last three years being the hottest ever recorded on Earth, she said changes were needed "in the way our societies are structured" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She cited cuts in fossil fuel usage and more electric cars as examples. "Many people want these changes, and they're prepared to change their consumer habits," she added. For something thats supposed to be a natural process, breastfeeding can be surprisingly complicated and not only for new mothers literally struggling with the process. Breastfeeding debates can leave families feeling embattled from both sides, but controversy over who should breastfeed and for how long and where shows no signs of letting up. For example, in July, news broke that the United States had fought a seemingly uncontroversial resolution in support of breastfeeding at the World Health Assembly earlier this spring. But, though such controversies can seem like a distinctly modern problem, breastfeeding has long been fraught. When historian Jacqueline H. Wolf began researching the history of breastfeeding, the questions she found American women facing a century ago werent so different from those faced today: who gets to do it and how, and what everyone else thinks about that. With World Breastfeeding Week starting Wednesday, Wolf who is a professor of the history of medicine at Ohio University and the author of Dont Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breastfeeding in the 19th and 20th Centuries and, recently, Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology, and Consequence spoke to TIME about the historical baggage that makes breastfeeding such a controversial topic. How did you come to research the history of breastfeeding? I was a graduate student when I was pregnant. I was going to be an environmental historian, but I was sitting in my study beginning that dissertation and lying at my feet was a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, and I thought to myself, Breastfeeding! Now thats a topic historians havent looked at! Was there anything you found in your initial research that really surprised you? My central research question was at what point and why did American women begin to bottle feed as opposed to breastfeed. I assumed Id be writing a dissertation about probably the post-World War II era. I kept going back and back in time trying to find when the change happened, and it turned out it was the late 19th century, so I ended up writing a completely different dissertation and eventually book than I had anticipated. Story continues Was there ever a period when breastfeeding was not complicated? I was thinking there must have been one, but then on the other hand you have something like the idea of a wet nurse going way back. Wet nursing actually was a visible occupation until the 1920s in the United States. We know that from wanted ads in newspapers and from doctors papers. Hospitals in the U.S. had wings of wet nurses, who were usually impoverished desperate women. It was not a pleasant occupation. Wet nurses were usually single women whod been abandoned by their families or the father of their children, and you could see their desperation mainly because if they went to work for a private family, that private family would almost never allow them to bring [their own] baby with them, so the baby had to be relegated to a foundling home. Really, what it meant was that a wealthy baby lived and a poor baby died. That was the history of wet nursing in the U.S. Did this make it seem like breastfeeding was something that only poor women did? It was never that cut-and-dried. Theres evidence of wealthy women who were just heartbroken that for whatever reason they werent able to breastfeed. And theres other evidence of women who were just as happy to hand over their children to a wet nurse. Theres no one answer. Yes, theres evidence in some ways that it was class-based, especially as time went on, but on the other hand up, until the last 120 years in the United States, if you didnt supply your baby with your own milk, the chances of the baby dying were very, very great. When does formula enter the picture? Interestingly enough, the word formula stems from the 1890s and it literally was taken from mathematical formulas physicians were absolutely desperate to find a way to save babies lives. They thought that they could humanize cows milk if they could make it mimic the substances they could recognize, like the percentage of fat, the percentage of protein, the percentage of milk sugar. But they also wanted to gear the substance to specific babies, so they had very elaborate theories. When does formula start being produced by businesses rather than individual doctors and chemists? It was the Civil War that [widely] introduced canned milk, because that was given to the troops, and it was around that time in the 1860s that a lot of proprietary infant food companies first made an appearance as well. They didnt tout themselves as being superior in any way to mothers milk, quite the contrary; they would compare themselves to another infant food. It was around that time Nestles food came on the market, and they touted themselves as being powdered and so not requiring any mixing with cows milk, which could be spoiled in urban areas because there were no dairy farms nearby. Cows milk at the time was a scandal, which is why infant feeding could be so deadly. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter In many medical fields related to womens health, theres a moment where it switches from being something that laywomen and midwives worried about to something that doctors worry about. Is that what happens to breastfeeding? This goes back to how I ended up looking at the 1880s and the 1890s as a turning point. The U.S. was rapidly urbanizing and industrializing, and that changed everything for American culture. People were starting to work in factories and they had to pay more attention to time. We see the introduction in infant-care manuals of very detailed feeding schedules. The theory was that adults were having a hard time with scheduling, but if you can adapt a baby to scheduling, they wouldnt have that tough time. The reason thats really interesting is that anyone who knows anything about breastfeeding works knows that the more a baby sucks, thats what stimulates milk production. If you put a baby on a strict schedule, mothers milk supplies go down. So you see mothers beginning to complain that they didnt have enough milk and it was then that the medicalization began, because doctors became involved in what seemed to be a very serious problem of lactation failure. No one connected it to the change in culture and the change in infant feeding habits. The doctors came up with all these theories. One of them was that [lactation] was simply a disappearing function. There was a large group of doctors who feared that when girls were in school during the time they were going through puberty, their reproductive systems were competing with their brains for energy, and their brains were winning the over-education of girls. The medical community was really worried that they had to come up with a solution for infant health, because they feared that this inability to lactate was going to become a permanent problem. Thats interesting to think about in terms of what happens in the 20th century as women enter the workforce in greater numbers and need to be on a schedule thats not a babys. How does the history of breastfeeding intersect with the larger history of womens place in society? Its a big reason why any discussion of infant feeding creates so much emotion and controversy. Women who are mothers, that tends to be a big part of their identity. We want to perform well. We want to do the best for our children. It feels very threatening to be criticized. I should say that infant feeding absolutely is a womans choice and there are all kinds of reasons why women choose to feed their babies however they decide to feed their babies. But you cant talk about breastfeeding in the United States without pointing out that every other wealthy country has found a way to accommodate breastfeeding mothers, and usually in the form of lengthy paid maternity leave. Its very hard for American women to breastfeed, even according to our own medical guidelines, because the social supports are not in place. So would it be fair to say that the history and the social structure cant really be separated from those individual choices? Health choices are rarely truly voluntary, and certainly breastfeeding is a great example of how we may think were making a voluntary choice but theres so much baggage behind it. When does pumping become a thing? If you look at the Sears catalog from the 1890s youll find breast pumps, but they were for a different purpose. If a baby were born prematurely in that era, often theyd be born too weak to suck. So breast pumps were so they could pump the milk and feed the baby with a spoon or a cup. Pumping didnt become a major practice until really relatively recently. The women most likely to breastfeed are privileged women, women who are wealthier, who are college educated, who might have their own offices at work where they can close the door and have some privacy to pump. Pumping has become so common now because so many women work but its become a phenomenon of women who are privileged enough to be able to take time off in the middle of the day. Where do you think the history is leading us next? The effect of infant feeding habits on public health was very stark more than a century ago. You didnt breastfeed a baby, the chances were enormous that the baby was not going to survive infancy. Today, still, the ramifications for public health have been profound. The structure of human milk is largely unexplored territory and scientists are just beginning to look at this truly living substance. It has effects not only on the neonatal gut and immune system but on lifelong health the list is very long and were just beginning to understand the mechanism of action. Its really important that we be able to have a sane discussion not just about the public health ramifications of not supporting women who want to breastfeed, and that [in doing so] we also look at the formula companies. They have real clout. I am not anti-formula. Thank goodness formula is safe now, whereas it wasnt 120 years ago. Thank goodness if families and children and mothers need formula, we have it there. It should be there in case of emergencies, and thank goodness it is. Demi Lovato (Photo: Getty) As Demi Lovato possibly prepares to leave the hospital this week after her traumatic overdose, some close to the singer say that if she doesnt go to rehab, theyll be through with her. Its impossible to make another person go to rehab or live a sober life, but many of those close to Lovato are urging the Sober singer to seek help after her overdose on July 24. While Lovato is now in stable condition, a source told TMZ that she was close to dying, and that some people who work with her will sever ties with her if she does not seek treatment. Phil McIntyre, Lovatos longtime manager who participated in a recent intervention, allegedly parted ways with her after she relapsed after six years of sobriety and declined to get help. The 25-year-olds team has been so concerned about her that they want her to go to a residential facility for extended treatment, as opposed to outpatient rehab. Demi, who initially refused treatment, spent eight days in the hospital dealing with complications from her overdose. Lovatos family released a statement in July following her hospitalization. Demi is awake and with her family, who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support. Some of the information being reported is incorrect and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now, the statement read. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Dinesh DSouza at the premiere of his film Death of a Nation on July 31, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Blair Raughley/Invision for DSouza Films/AP Images) LOS ANGELES You got screwed. That is what the conservative author and documentarian Dinesh DSouza remembers President Trump telling him in a phone call in late May. In DSouzas recollection, Trump called him a great force for liberty and America. The phone call was followed by a presidential pardon for DSouza, who in 2014 pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws to help a Republican Senate candidate, his college friend Wendy Long. Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh DSouza today, Trump announced on Twitter on May 31. He was treated very unfairly by our government! DSouzas pardon had been championed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but it had also become something of a cause celebre for the right. DSouzas illegal contribution had totaled only $20,000, and many conservatives believed that the zealous prosecution by then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was evidence of a desire to punish a one-time think-tank scholar who had become one of President Obamas most outspoken detractors. Two months after Trump announced DSouzas pardon, the 57-year-old who now calls Houston home does not carry himself with the downtrodden demeanor of a man who has been screwed. The left had relished in hanging the felon label around my neck for the better part of two years, DSouza told me when we met in Los Angeles in late July, as he prepared to debut his latest documentary film, Death of a Nation. Filmmaking is a relatively new occupation for DSouza and also an immensely profitable one. 2016: Obamas America came out in 2012 and has grossed $33 million since then, making it the second most-profitable political documentary in cinematic history, after liberal firebrand Michael Moores Fahrenheit 9/11. DSouzas America: Imagine the World Without Her, from 2014, is sixth on that list, while Hillarys America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, which DSouza released ahead of the 2016 presidential election, is ninth. Story continues Death of a Nation is a frontal assault on Democratic principles (as those are imagined, not always accurately, by DSouza) that doubles as a muscular defense of American exceptionalism. Posters for the new film show a human face split evenly between that of Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln. In the two-hour documentary, DSouza depicts Trump as the savior of a United States that Democrats would have gladly given away to international bankers, moral relativists and vacuous celebrities, had they only prevailed. And, as a protracted segment that shows cable news pundits and anchors stunned on election night reminds us, they most definitely did not. A poster for Death of a Nation combines images of the faces of Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump. (Photo: DSouza Media) Does anyone in 2018 really need to see footage of Cenk Uygur, of the liberal Young Turks network, losing his stuff as Wisconsin turns red? Very much so, DSouza says. I am putting my finger on the anxieties and vulnerabilities of the left and I am pressing it there, he told me. Yet he counters the notion that he is an incendiary figure, arguing that he is only incendiary to the taboos and orthodoxies of the left. (Like many of his ideological allies, he never quite defines what the left is, though his vision of it seems to be much bigger than the progressive wing of the Democratic Party). There is admittedly nothing threatening about DSouza when he is sitting across the table from you. Dressed in a sports blazer, head turtled into neck, gesticulating as he chases one idea after another, he seems the embodiment of the public intellectual he was hailed as when he graduated from Dartmouth and joined the Reagan administration. His face retains its youthful roundness, suggesting something of the rumpled professor, the earnest young scholar whose serious tomes, including Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus and The End of Racism, seemed to position him as a second coming of William F. Buckley Jr., only with a compelling postcolonial personal history. But that was long ago. Now, there is gray hair at DSouzas temples and millions in his bank account. Life has been good, if not predictable. American politics was a gentlemans fight during the 1980s, DSouza says, with Reagan famously fostering a friendship with Tip ONeill, the liberal House speaker from Massachusetts. But that is not the era we live in now. So to pine for that is to show an unwillingness to face the world as it is. Eschewing comparisons between Trump and Reagan, DSouza instead likens the president to Lincoln. Both, in his estimation, are men thrust into leadership at a time when the nation was impossibly, bloodily fractured. Both were loathed by their political opponents. Both were forced to wage war: one at Antietam, the other on Twitter. And, of course, both happened to be Republicans. The film is based on DSouzas latest book, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, which he brought to the White House in August 2017. (Images of DSouza meeting with chief political strategist Steve Bannon and Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka spread over social media and were subsequently deleted from his accounts, for reasons never made clear). The argument, in essence, is that Democrats have no purchase when it comes to their appeals for inclusiveness, tolerance and diversity because they are the party of racism, fascism and eugenics. DSouza draws a straight, burning line between American progressivism and Nazism, arguing that Democrats are not, as many believe them to be, the party of emancipation, equality, and civil rights, but are instead the party of slavery and Indian removal, of segregation and Jim Crow, of racial terrorism and the Ku Klux Klan, and of opposition to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In DSouzas telling, Democrats are still tainted by policies that date back to the era of Andrew Jackson. They are what they accuse Republicans of being. A scene from Death of a Nation depicts Adolf Hitler in his bunker. (Photo: DSouza Media) Calling a film The Death of a Nation is an intentional provocation. The reference is to D.W. Griffiths racist, fawning portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan, The Birth of a Nation. Griffith screened the film in the White House for President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Its like writing history with lightning, Wilson said of the film. And in case you dont know, DSouza will happily tell you that Wilson was a Democrat, and a progressive one at that. Will The Death of a Nation also make its way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, I am not aware of POTUS plans to see it. But the film was screened earlier this week in Washington, D.C., by Donald Trump Jr. Once it becomes the subject of inevitable Fox News segments, a presidential tweet is likely to follow. A one-time scholar at beacons of conservative thought including the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution, DSouza, who was born in the Mumbai, India, does not seem as if he would fit easily into Trumpian circles. For a time, he circulated among mainstream intellectuals like Andrew Sullivan of the New Republic and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post. His books were taken seriously by commentators in the New York Times. Now, removed from Washington and New York, he dismisses the Eastern intellectuals with whom he once consorted. They were scratching their head when I met them, and theyre scratching their heads now, DSouza said. They are in a position of perpetual pondering. It goes unsaid that DSouza has a lot more Twitter followers than your average Washington think tanker, and surely a lot more money, if not the mainstream credibility he once sought. In many ways, DSouzas intellectual arc tracks closely with that of the Republican Party. Like many in todays GOP, he was radicalized by the election of Barack Obama. DSouza says he wanted Obama to succeed, only to find himself dismayed to find the nations first black president rejecting the notion of American exceptionalism. DSouza points in particular to a statement Obama made in the spring of 2009, about three months after taking office: I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. The notion that exceptionalism was a quality other nations could also credibly embrace was, to DSouza, tantamount to treason. The following year, he published a Forbes cover story, How Obama Thinks, that turned that suspicion into a full-blown indictment, with DSouza charging that Obama who, like himself, was a nonwhite kid with a funny name whod made it to the Ivy League, then made it big in Washington had learned from his Kenyan anti-colonialist father to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. The article was an excerpt from a 2010 book, The Roots of Obamas Rage, a somewhat strange title to describe a president famous for his aloofness. DSouza rejects any notion of race-baiting in his article, or the book that followed, but he does admit that he was struck by how many pages Obama devoted to his African roots in his autobiography Dreams from My Father and how few to his European ancestry. Hence, DSouza concluded, the American president harbored secret anti-American sympathies. I felt I had stumbled upon a big idea about Obama that was being missed. The article was praised by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, even as some conservatives found its intimations revolting: The Weekly Standard titled its review of DSouzas book The Roots of Lunacy. Two years later, DSouza turned The Roots of Obamas Rage into a documentary, 2016: Obamas America. Like the three films that have followed, it is melodramatic, contentious and utterly sure of itself. It never misses an opportunity to take a swing at Obama or the Clintons. But many of the swings failed to land. Despite what DSouza argued, Obama did not downsize the nations stature on the global stage. Some might say that Trump has done a better job of that. It was just as DSouza was promoting his documentary that Wendy Long announced her candidacy for Kirsten Gillibrands Senate seat in New York. Gillibrand had also gone to Dartmouth in the 1980s but had not been a member of the conservative crowd on a college campus that had been the epicenter of the college Republican movement. Once a relatively centrist Democratic U.S. representative from upstate New York, Gillibrand was quickly becoming one of the most liberal members of the Senate, not to mention one of the most well-funded. DSouza now says he thought it was foolish for Long to challenge Gillibrand, but because shed been part of almost a surrogate family at Dartmouth, he offered to contribute to her campaign. She kept asking me to do more, DSouza says, but he was busy with his movie and couldnt get more involved. So, DSouza says he thoughtlessly asked associates to contribute to Longs campaign, promising to reimburse them. This use of straw donors, as the practice is known, allowed DSouza to contribute $20,000 above his maximum allowed contribution. It did little good, however, and Long lost to Gillibrand by 46 percentage points. In January 2014, Preet Bharara, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged DSouza with violating the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. DSouza says he was not especially worried, given the relatively small sum of money involved, as well as his lack of a criminal record. He sought representation from Benjamin Brafman, one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Manhattan. Leaving Brafmans office after their first meeting, DSouza was confident that the case would result in a deferred prosecution. DSouza and his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, leave federal court in New York on May 20, 2014, after pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP) But the Justice Department decided to proceed with its case, and DSouza pleaded guilty that May to avoid a possible conviction at trial. He was now a convicted felon, sentenced to live in a halfway house in San Diego. And though hed apologized at the time of his guilty plea, any contrition over his illegal donations soon appeared to have quickly vanished. In May 2015, he cooperated with Vanity Fair on a lengthy profile that showed him walking on the beach in La Jolla in a scene out of a Banana Republic advertisement. He complained about life in the halfway house, essentially mocking the punishment hed accepted. Ill be on my bed. Ill hear four guys discussing the tits on the woman at Los Tacos, DSouza said. It will go on and on and on. Im just powerless to move. Thanks to Trumps pardon, DSouza is no longer a felon, which means he can own a gun (which he does not) and vote (which he looks forward to doing). And though his animosity toward liberals well predates the conviction, the silence of liberals he thought were his friends sharpened his dislike of the left. When my case erupted, even my friends on the left went into dead silence. They didnt attack me, but they refused to defend me. He says that he was the victim of a show trial and that the prosecution was motivated solely by Obamas desire for revenge. DSouza says that Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who saw DSouzas FBI file, confirmed that the case was motivated purely by politics. (DeSantis did not respond to questions about the contents of DSouzas FBI file or how that file came into his possession.) His broader charge is that liberals cant stomach his success. I was considered a smart but small-time operator when I was writing books and speaking, he says of his time at AEI and Hoover. The moment I started making movies, it changed. DSouza refuses to believe that criticisms of his work that it mixes facts and assertions, that it elides nuances, that it feeds into the rights rage are motivated by anything but jealousy. They are dismayed at my greater effectiveness and are pretending that the reason for it is because I have sold out my scholarly bona fides, DSouza told me. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher attends the premiere of Death of a Nation on July 31, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Blair Raughley/Invision for DSouza Films/AP Images) James Panero, who served as the editor of the Dartmouth Review in the late 1990s and was also close with William F. Buckley, says that among the Dartmouth Review set, Dinesh has been the one to watch. His movement from Ivy League conservative to populist filmmaker has presaged the recent development of the American Right. Like President Trump, Dinesh finds affinity in the many fringes of American culture. He may seem like an unlikely Heartland hero. But perhaps Dineshs own outsider-ness, as a brilliant kid from Bombay, has given him special access to lost America. He has burned through much of what we might call the conservative establishment in the process, but that means a lot less than it once did. Panero, now the executive editor of the New Criterion, a conservative cultural magazine, acknowledges that many saw [DSouzas] pardon by Trump as cynical. But then again, his prosecution by the Obama Justice Department was also cynical, with a public shaming that was in excess of what he would have received as an ordinary citizen. As far as detractors are concerned, DSouzas true expertise is trolling. Hes always been a huckster, Brooklyn College professor and columnist for the liberal Nation magazine Eric Alterman wrote in an email. Alterman says that Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus, published in 1991, gave the mistaken impression that he was to be taken seriously when, in fact, in his estimation, DSouza was coddling ignorant racists with books that are easier to read (and carry around) than Charles Murrays, a reference to the controversial Bell Curve co-author who has been labeled a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. DSouza sees such slights as evidence that liberals would rather dismiss him than engage with his ideas, even if trying to engage with the assertion that modern-day Democrats are kin to Hitler is bound to be an exercise in fruitlessness and frustration. He longs for the days when he and Christopher Hitchens could battle it out over Christian ethics, then head for the bar and polish off a couple of bottles of wine (Hitchens, unsurprisingly, would do most of the drinking). DSouza at the Death of a Nation premiere in L.A. (Photo: Greg Doherty/Getty Images) DSouza points to a recent Twitter spat with Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, who spurned DSouzas offer to debate the history of the Democratic Party in person. He says that was out of fear. Kruse disagrees. Weve already had extended public exchanges on Twitter, he told me. Ive refuted his ahistorical claims with evidence, sources and citations; his responses have involved little more than insults and denials. I dont see any reason to think an in-person debate would be any better; indeed, I assume itd be worse. Kruse came to the debate with facts. DSouza came with alternative ones. So it goes in the age of Trump. Auspiciously for DSouza, being a pariah from establishment circles makes him a perfect member of the Trumpian crowd, which has embraced him as one of its own. DSouzas new circle of friends was on full display the day after our interview, when Death of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles (it opens in theaters nationwide on Friday). Just as in Hollywood, there was a red carpet, though George Clooney and Tinseltowns other famous liberals were nowhere in sight. The left is afraid of this, said Lynnette Hardaway, one half of the social media duo known as Diamond and Silk, as the theater began to fill with guests. This, presumably, was the sight of two African-American women, as Diamond (Hardaway) and Silk (Rochelle Richardson) are, celebrating an Indian immigrants savaging of the Democratic Party, which has long assumed people of color and immigrants as natural constituencies. Hardaway called Democrats race-baiters who try to keep black Americans in line, suggesting that she would be highly receptive to DSouzas message, which was, well, pretty much exactly that. Tomi Lahren, the omnipresent provocateur, urged conservatives to be a little louder and a little more vocal, even if its difficult to imagine someone more vocal, or louder, than Trump. Conservatives continue to see themselves as a prosecuted, maligned sect. DSouza serves as a perfect representative of that mindset, in part because of his ability to own the libs that is, to provoke liberals and thereby achieve great mirth, though perhaps not anything approaching insight. A little lib-owning was what brought prominent conservative journalist and social media personality Mike Cernovich from his home in Orange County to the premiere in downtown Los Angeles. Im here just because a lot of people seem triggered by Dineshs memes that Democrats are the real racists, Democrats are the real Nazis. Initially I was skeptical of that, Cernovich admitted. But Ive seen how angry it makes the liberals. And I find that amusing. Mike Cernovich, right, and Shauna Cernovich arrive at the L.A. premiere of Death of a Nation. (Photo: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP) And though this may have been conservative Los Angeles, it was Los Angeles all the same. Andre Soriano, who designed the Make America Great Again dress that Trump-supporting performer Joy Villa wore to the 2017 Grammy Awards, stunned with an intricate, nestlike headpiece that towered a foot above his head. Inside the nest, a black bird was couched. This represented the death of the American project, or something. Villa wore a facsimile Revolutionary War-era dress. The birth of America is the birth of fashion, Villa said. One imagines that the French would disagree. It appeared that the only elected politician who attended was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, the Orange County conservative. Dressed like one of the Beach Boys, only with a red Make Surfing Great Again hat, Rohrabacher warned about the horrible politicization of our intelligence system and our criminal justice system that happened under Obama. As for the film itself, it opens with a scene depicting Adolf Hitler in his bunker, listening to the boom of Allied bombs falling on Berlin. From there, DSouza cuts to the protests that followed Trumps election. That is about as subtle as things get. In one segment, he outlines the admiration of some members of Franklin D. Roosevelts brain trust for the domestic policies of Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. Later, he reads from the platform of the National Socialist that is, Nazi party in Germany, which promised programs to benefit workers impoverished during the Weimar Republic. This, DSouza muses, reads like something jointly written by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Well, OK. The citations are genuine, but that doesnt make them meaningful. It is true, for example, that Democrats in the South were the party of segregation. But hasnt the party evolved just a little since then? Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Act, was a Democrat. Barry Goldwater, who voted against it, was a Republican in fact, a hero to the ideological faction of the party that DSouza represents. DSouza does not mention this; nor does he touch on any historical sins he cant hang around the Democrats necks. That strips his film of the nuance his writing once had. Who are the real fascists? DSouza wonders at one point in the film. Who are the real racists? Ill give you one guess. Italian fascist Benito Mussolini is depicted in a scene from Death of a Nation. (Photo: DSouza Media) Reviews from the mainstream media have been dismal: ultimately tedious and repetitive (Hollywood Reporter); angry nonsense (The Guardian); an ugly polemic (Arizona Republic). But as far as DSouza is concerned, they reflect not errors in his own logic but an unwillingness by the mainstream media to acknowledge uncomfortable truths. And it is precisely because mainstream media ignore conservative voices like his that those voices grow louder. I am not resembling the left. I am not wearing a black outfit and chasing speakers on the campus, DSouza told me, as if anyone could mistake him for a member of Antifa or an earnest protester shouting down the less woke in his midst. But I am also tougher than I was before. The situation warrants it. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: A health alert has been issued for two dozen types of salads and sandwich wraps that may contain lettuce infected with a fecal parasite. The beef, pork and poultry items were recently sold across the United States by retailers including Kroger, Trader Joes and Walgreens after being distributed by Caito Foods LLC of Indianapolis, the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Monday. The alert follows Caito Foods lettuce supplier, Fresh Express, issuing a recall of its chopped romaine which is used in Caito Foods products, the FSIS said. Health officials are advising the public to throw away dozens of salad and sandwich products like this one sold by Trader Joe's over a potential parasite. (Photo: fsisusdagov) The products were produced between July 15 to 18 and have Best By, Enjoy by, Best if Sold By or Sell By dates ranging from July 18 through July 23, 2018. A full list showing the products labels can be seen here. The products UPC codes can be seen here. The parasite, known as cyclospora cayetanenis, is spread by food or water thats contaminated with feces. It can cause intestinal distress that can last anywhere from a few days to a month or longer if not treated with antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The symptoms can take a week to appear after consumption. Cyclospora cayetanensis oocysts, which are shed by infected feces, are seen. The parasite becomes infective to others at the last stage (C) pictured. (Photo: CDC/DPDx) Symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times (relapse). Its common to feel very tired, the CDCs website states. The FDA is advising these products to be thrown away or returned to where they were purchased out of precaution. A similar recall was issued last month for salads sold at McDonalds restaurants after they were found tainted with cyclosporiasis. At least 163 people were sickened. Related... Cysticercosis: Worlds Most Serious Foodborne Parasitic Disease E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Romaine Lettuce Spreads To 29 States McDonald's Salads Are Making People Sick Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. The Robertses bought the low-slung, three-level building at 1314 W. Randolph St. for $240,000 in 1989, according to county records. About half of the 8,000-square-foot building became their home. The other half became Prairie Production, a photo and video studio that also has been used for product launches, weddings, receptions and other events. Draymond Green took to Instagram to deny reports that Tristan Thompson got the better of him in a fight at LeBron James ESPYs party. (AP) On Tuesday, multiple reports broke that Tristan Thompson and Draymond Green got into a fight at LeBron James ESPYs afterparty. On Wednesday, Draymond Green took to Instagram to deny the details, some of which painted a picture of Thompson landing the only punch in the alleged altercation. Not surprisingly, Green tabbed those reports as inaccurate. Green also suggested canceling the impromptu parade planned to honor Thompson. Since reports of the dust-up broke late Tuesday, more than 18,000 fans have responded as either interested or going to a Facebook event titled Tristan Thompson Parade Because He Punched Draymond Green scheduled for October 13 in downtown Cleveland. On second thought, Green, an accomplished Cavaliers-basher, decided that the parade was a chance to line up another shot at the Cavs and their fanbase. Green, who seems to constantly be mouthing off, concluded his Instagram story claiming hes tired of yall talking while claiming that I really didnt care. Sure you didnt, Draymond. More from Yahoo Sports: Pro golfer ends cancer treatment, will begin palliative care Dan Wetzel: If Urban Meyer knew of domestic violence allegations, he deserves to be fired Nats designate Shawn Kelley for assignment after tantrum on the mound Dak Prescott says his anthem comments were misunderstood Washington (AFP) - Former president Barack Obama announced his support Wednesday for several dozen Democratic candidates for Congress and state office, signalling he is "eager" to remain a political force through November's midterm elections. Amid obvious signs that President Donald Trump will hit the campaign trail for Republicans over the coming months, the nation's first African-American commander in chief is making it clear he too will campaign for several candidates ahead of the most anticipated midterm vote in years. "I'm eager to make the case for why Democratic candidates deserve our votes this fall," Obama said in a statement announcing his support for 81 Democrats from 14 states -- people he sees as the next generation of leaders. They include candidates in several high-profile battlegrounds, such as Harley Rouda, who is challenging vulnerable Republican incumbent congressman Dana Rohrabacher in a California race that is key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives. He also backed US Senate candidate Jacky Rosen of Nevada, running neck and neck against Senator Dean Heller; and Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams, who would be the first black woman ever elected as governor of a US state. "I'm confident that, together, they'll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity that's broadly shared, repairing our alliances and standing in the world, and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility, and the rule of law," Obama said. About half of the favored candidates are challengers for state assemblies, including nine Democrats running for seats in the State House in notorious political battleground Ohio, and nine candidates for swing-state Colorado's House and Senate. Georgia's Abrams said it was "a profound honor" to receive Obama's endorsement. Rouda and Rosen also thanked the former president. Story continues Obama's office said he expects to campaign "in several states this fall" and he will issue a second round of endorsements ahead of election day. Trump also is likely to be criss-crossing the country. The president is in his element on the campaign trail, where his fiery rallies allow him to pose as the outsider thumbing his nose at establishment politics. He did as much Tuesday night in Florida, where he campaigned for congressman Ron DeSantis, a Trump loyalist locked in a primary battle for governor against a long-established Florida Republican. "I don't do these endorsements easily," Trump said. "Although it seems to have an impact." Trump has indeed swayed recent races. In Georgia the candidate he endorsed in a nasty battle for governor won the Republican primary in a landslide. The same thing happened when he endorsed Alabama congresswoman Martha Roby. On Wednesday, Ohio State placed head football coach Urban Meyer on administrative leave while the school investigates what he knew about former assistant Zach Smiths allegedly abusing his wife repeatedly over the course of six years. Its the beginning of a process that could end with the firing of Meyer, a three-time national champion coach and titan of college football. Former Buckeye blames media for Urban Meyers problems This has incensed former Buckeyes fullback Zach Boren, who took to Twitter Wednesday to blame the media not Smith or Meyer for the problems engulfing the Ohio State football program. I can't stand when people/media talk about something that they are so clueless on. Before opening your mouth or "reporting" something, know the whole story and know what you are talking about. Big problem in our world now a days. #digforbigstory #keepcoachmeyeroutofit Zach Boren (@ZBoren44) August 1, 2018 He followed up his anti-media rant by calling the alleged spousal abuse no one elses problem but theirs because it happened in their home. This is a Zach and Courtney issue. No one else's. Everyone is trying to bring down the Meyer Family and the rest of the Ohio state staff/program based off of incidents that involved TWO people at their home. This issue will get settled in court between those TWO. END OF STORY! Zach Boren (@ZBoren44) August 1, 2018 Borens is another case of dangerous anti-media rhetoric that has infected dialogue in the United States that spits vitriol and seeks to discredit legitimate news reports because the critic doesnt like whats being reported. Story continues Boren takes cue from Donald Trump Its a play straight out of the Donald Trump playbook where the president repeatedly sows mistrust amongst his followers of media outlets reporting real news that shines a negative light on his administration and policies. As in many of those cases, its not a media bias here thats shining an ugly light. Its the actual news thats ugly. Boren is demonstrating a symptom here of a larger societal problem while standing one step away from shouting fake news. What we know about Urban Meyer and Zach Smith An ex-Buckeye looking to defend Urban Meyer and his former program has engaged in a dangerous anti-media tactic to try and make his point. (AP) Heres a brief synopsis of the real, live, legitimate and thorough reporting that has prompted Ohio State to investigate Meyer. Smith stands accused of abusing his then-wife Courtney Smith repeatedly from 2009-2015. Meyer admitted last week that he hired Smith at OSU fully aware of a 2009 abuse accusation Courtney levied against Zach while on Meyers staff at Florida. Courtney, pregnant at the time, accused Zach of shoving her against a wall. Early Wednesday, college football reporter Brett McMurphy revealed text messages that point to Meyers wife knowing about the ongoing alleged abuse, calling into question a statement Meyer made last week. I was never told about anything, anything never came to light, never had a conversation about it, so I know nothing about that, Meyer said last week of the 2015 abuse allegations. In whole, there are a slew of police reports, text messages and legitimate media reports that point to Smiths alleged abuse and Meyers alleged knowledge of the abuse as it was ongoing. There is real information out there that has led to a coaching giants job being in peril. These are not manifestations of media members out to get Ohio State. More from Yahoo Sports: Pro golfer ends cancer treatment, will begin palliative care Dan Wetzel: If Urban Meyer knew of domestic violence allegations, he deserves to be fired Nats designate Shawn Kelley for assignment after tantrum on the mound Dak Prescott says his anthem comments were misunderstood Tether, the Hong Kong-based company behind the cryptocurrency of the same name, has been the subject of fierce scrutiny in the crypto world all year. Tether, the digital token, is meant to be a 1-to-1 surrogate for the U.S. dollar, a stablecoin that bitcoin holders can trade into as a safer store of value. Thats why the price of tether has basically stayed at $1 for its lifetime, with the exception of a couple swings in 2017 to as low as 80 cents and as high as $1.80. Tether, the company, insists all tether tokens are backed by U.S. dollars that Tether holds in reserve. Regulators have been skeptical of that claim. In December 2017, the CFTC subpoenaed Tether and Bitfinex, a huge bitcoin exchange that began offering tether in 2015. Bitfinex CEO Jan Ludovicus is also CEO of Tether, but has insisted the two companies are completely separate. Major media outlets have pointed to the mystery of the relationship between Tether and Bitfinex, and questioned whether Tether has the reserves it claims to have. The heat led Tether to hire Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan (FSS), the Washington, D.C., law firm of former FBI director Louis Freeh, to conduct an investigation of its compliance and transparency, including a check of its bank balances. In June, Tether publicly posted the confidential report from FSS containing its findings. The crux of Freehs report: Tether indeed holds the balance it claims to hold. On June 1, without Tether or its two banks knowing the selected date ahead of time, FSS performed an account snapshot and found that Tether held a total of $2.545 billion, which indeed covered the 2.538 billion tether coins in circulation at the time, plus a cushion of about $7 million. Louis Freeh at a July 12, 2012 news conference in Philadelphia regarding Penn State Universitys handling of Jerry Sandusky. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Hiring Louis Freeh to handle a compliance investigation is akin to bringing in the big dogs. He has investigated Penn State University, FIFA, Daimler Chrysler, and others. When a large public company, small private company, government group or educational institution taps Freeh, it is an attempt to say: We are serious about this. The same is true of former FBI director Robert Mueller, currently special counsel for the Russia investigation. As Fortune wrote in 2013, There simply arent many former FBI directors out there. Story continues Nonetheless, skeptics have questioned Freehs report on Tether. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance, Freeh discussed the Tether investigation, which was his first ever cryptocurrency-related work. He says his firm expects to take on more crypto jobsand is staffing up to prepare for them. Background: Tether and Bitfinex The controversy over Tether went mainstream on June 13, when an academic paper out of the University of Texas concluded that bitcoins big price surge at the end of 2017 was partly due to market manipulation of tether on Bitfinex. The report was widely picked up by business media, and its likely what led Tether, on June 20, to announce that it had previously hired Freehs firm. (It hired FSS in March.) In a transparency update on its site, Tether wrote, Tether and related parties have been the subject of scrutiny over the course of the past several months It is our belief that much of the speculation and negative reporting has been the result of misunderstandings of how Tether functions. To address allegations head on, we wish to make a few things clear: All Tethers in circulation are fully backed by USD reserves Earlier this year Tether engaged Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan LLP (FSS) to review bank account documentation and to perform a randomized inspection of the number of Tethers in circulation and the corresponding currency reserves. Tether also posted the June 18 FSS report, thereby waiving its attorney-client privilege. Tether price over the past year (Yahoo Finance) FSS cautions that its investigation was not an official audit of the type that the big four accounting firms (Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, PWC) would conduct, since FSS is not an accounting firm. In fact, those firms have, for now, declined to take on any cryptocurrency-related work. This is why the Next Web calls it yet another phony audit. In addition, some bitcoin blogs have pointed to the fact that Judge Eugene Sullivan, a partner at FSS, is on the advisory board of one of Tethers banks, suggesting that relationship compromises the report. In his conversation with Yahoo Finance, Freeh addresses these claims. What follows is a condensed transcript. Freehs son Justin Freeh, a lawyer and former Navy SEAL who is now of counsel at FSS and worked on the Tether investigation, also joined the interview. Freeh talks Tether Yahoo Finance: This was your first-ever cryptocurrency work. Did it require an amount of general homework before you could even dive into Tether specifically? Does your firm understand cryptocurrency? Louis Freeh: We do. Luckily we have some in-house resources, people that have quite a bit of experience. One of our partner investigators, Walt Donaldson, has specialized in computer forensics and cryptocurrency examinations and inquiries. He was formerly the director of investigations for Bank of America. And we have another investigative partner, Mike Welch, who came out of the FBI, where he was an assistant director, ran their cyber programs. And Justin [Freeh] has quite a bit of knowledge and expertise in that area. [Justin Freeh spent two years as VP of operations and chief legal counsel to software company SAIFE.] The first challenge was really to size and understand the scope of what we were going to do. And we wanted to make sure the client understood that we were not going to do an audit. As you probably know, the Big Four have shied away from auditing these types of businesses. So it was not an audit, it was an examination and a due diligence. The most essential part was that on a given day of our choosing, unknown to the client, and unknown to the banks with which it is dealing, we would appear at the financial institutions and get a certified, verifiable declaration by the institutions with respect to how much cash and dollars they had on hand. So this was a due diligence structure and scope that we hadnt done before and we couldnt find anybody in the industry who had done it. Was that a turnoff for you, the fact that the big firms wont do it? Did you care? Certainly we care, and we took cognizance of that in terms of deciding whether we could perform a valuable and credible service for this client. We want to make sure were providing value, but we were also concerned about our own reputation. And we got comfortable with the idea that were not doing an audit, and therefore the fact that the Big Four had declined to enter the space was not a predominant factor for us. Was checking the account balance the main thrust of why Tether wanted this investigation done, as you understood it? Justin Freeh: I would say they were just as concerned with having a robust compliance program in place, and what that does for their credibility. A lot of the headlines focused on the account balance snapshots, but a lot of this was going in and interviewing key personnel and reviewing hundreds of pages of documentsto include Tethers anti-money-laundering procedures, their Bank Secrecy Act, their OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] policies, all those things we would regularly do in a compliance engagement. The account balance snapshots were very much of public interest, and thats prominently featured in our report, but a lot of the background is the due diligence we would do on any client throughout the course of a matter. Your report to Tether was confidential, which means they didnt have to publish it. But they chose to. Thats different from the Penn State investigation, where you publicly released the report. Louis Freeh: Yes. Penn State was very unusual, where upfront I said, Weve got to agree that this will become public right away, as is. Thats generally not the protocol. With Tether, it was the general practice where we gave them the report, and they waive the privilege if they want to make it public. Some are naturally skeptical of your report because the finding is what the company would hope for. That is: they hired you to check them on their claim, and you found that their claim is legitimate. When your work finds in favor of the company that engaged you, do you worry about the optics of that? Louis Freeh: Thats one of the occupational hazards of this type of practice. When I worked as the independent, court-appointed monitor for Daimler, I was paid by Daimler. And the DOJ and SEC of course take that into consideration when they allow a company to pay large amounts of funds to the monitor. We are always asked the question, Youre being paid by the client so how can you be independent? And our response to that is, Look, we have a reputation that were very proud of and very protective of. And we never want to be put in a position where were doing something to promote an image or facilitate a statement by a client thats not consistent with the facts. So its just innate with our work that thats always an issue for people. Another criticism some are making is the fact that Judge Eugene Sullivan, a partner at your firm, has a relationship with one of Tethers banks. Is that a conflict of interest? Louis Freeh: The judge was not on site to conduct any of the interviews with the banking partners. He supervised the engagement but did not participate in the drafting of the report. We did everything we could to minimize his engagement in this matter. Weve done things purposely to make sure this was done as objectively as we can. And the dealings with the bank that he has a relationship with were firewalled. Wells Fargo cut ties with Tether last year. Were you able to discern why, or anything else about the two banks Tether uses? Louis Freeh: We didnt talk to Wells Fargo. But the two banks, which we havent identified publicly, are very significant and, I would say, very, very well known. We spent a lot of time with them, with their internal compliance people, really kicking the tires and getting down into the weeds. Justin Freeh: I can tell you the banking relationships Tether has in place are very strong, and theyre with reputable players. How much time did FSS spend on this? Was it a major engagement for you, or smaller? Louis Freeh: It was a 90-day focus, with two and a half individuals working on it on a full-time basis for 90 days. In terms of our engagements thats a significant one, not a huge one. We had never done this before. We didnt have any examples or peer practice that we could look at. And we were really very pleased with the fact that we were able to engineer the process and carry it out ourselves. Do you expect to take on more cryptocurrency investigations as a result of doing Tether? Louis Freeh: Yes. Thats our hope. Were very comfortable with the procedure, and the scope of what we did, and the people who did it. We have a lot of experience in money-laundering protocols, looking at SEC guidance, FinCEN compliance requirements. So importing that into the crypto space, with maybe a little bit of innovation in terms of what we need to do to answer the essential questions investors have, were very excited and hopeful we can find some additional ways to perform a value service. Would you create a specific crypto group within the firm? Louis Freeh: Weve talked about this at a couple of meetings. We dont have it formally designated, but we are in the process of actively recruiting a couple of very prominent people in that area. There is one person who is super prominent. If were successful in that endeavor, I think we will actually form a sub-group. We are excited about this work, we have some very good expertise in-house, theres a lot more out there that wed like to tap into or acquire. And we could very well spin that into a separate group. Weve opened an office in Rome, were in the process of opening one in London, and that will help us market this particular service once we get our sea legs. Where do you see the cryptocurrency space heading? Many regulators as well as big names in finance are extremely dubious. What do you think of it? Louis Freeh: I think its exciting. Its the start of a whole new area of practice on our side. Its innovative, disruptive. But its going to require the basic ingredient of transparency. Whether youre dealing with gold commodities or cryptocurrencies, investors and government regulators want transparency, predictability, reliance. So I think a lot of regulatory rules and concepts will ultimately be imported here, because investors will be disappointed, some will charge that they were defrauded. The government, I predict, will get much more active here in terms of regulation and rule making. If we can zoom out: Any comment on the ongoing Mueller investigation? Hes a former FBI director, like yourself. Are you watching it closely? Louis Freeh: Bob Mueller is a friend, a colleague. Many years before either of us were FBI directors we worked together in the DOJ. I have a lot of respect for him and his integrity. There are many people who could perform that investigation, as well as the Penn State investigation and many of the things that Ive done. I was talking yesterday over email with Mary Jo White. [Note: White is now leading one of the two law firms investigating harassment allegations against CBS chairman Les Moonves.] There are many good, honest, reputable, competent people who can do those investigations. Bob is certainly one of them. As a former government person, what I like to see with these types of matters, whether theyre private or government, is that the person tasked with getting the facts is honest, smart, reliable, has the moral courage to see the job through. Daniel Roberts covers cryptocurrency and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @readDanwrite. Read more: Exclusive: Major League Baseball is going crypto Bitcoin VC: People are going to lose a lot of money on new coins Beware: An ICO is not like an IPO Coinlist wants to make investing in ICOs less risky OpenBazaar founder: Bitcoin can disrupt marketplaces like eBay and Etsy Coinbase exec: Adding new assets is a very big priority for us The 11 biggest names in crypto right now By Steve Gorman (Reuters) - Crews battling a deadly wildfire in California faced a resurgence of gusty winds on Thursday, hampering progress they were making this week to keep the blaze from spreading. After three days of light winds that had helped firefighters make significant headway, a "red flag" warning for heightened fire danger was set to go into effect from Thursday night through Saturday, with increasing winds in the forecast. Strong gusts began kicking up again on Wednesday night across upper ridge lines of the fire's mountainous western flank, where the blaze, sparked by a vehicle malfunction on July 23, was burning largely unchecked. Those gusts were slowing efforts in the steep, rugged terrain to carve out buffer zones in front of the fire's leading edge, said Gabriel Lauderdale, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). With high winds expected to worsen, throwing hot embers over containment lines, "we could continue to see those conditions pose difficulty for us into the night-time hours," he told Reuters by telephone. The 11-day-old Carr Fire, which has scorched nearly 126,000 acres (51,000 hectares) in the scenic Shasta-Trinity region north of Sacramento, remains the largest and most fearsome of 18 significant wildfires burning across California and more than 100 nationwide. The blaze, stoked by drought-parched vegetation and triple-digit temperatures, has killed six people and reduced 1,555 structures to smoldering ruins, including 10,600 homes. It ranks as the sixth most destructive California wildfire on record. Firefighters were fighting to keep flames from spilling over a ridge dividing Shasta and Trinity counties. Failure to hold that line would put the evacuated town of Lewiston, just 3 miles to the west, in harm's way, said Lauderdale at CalFire. Over 4,200 personnel assigned to the blaze have carved containment lines around 35 percent of the perimeter of the blaze. Lauderdale said 24,285 residents remained displaced as of Thursday morning - down from a peak of 38,000 - but the number was dwindling as more residents were allowed to return. Scott McLean, another CalFire spokesman, said roughly 40,000 people were under evacuation orders statewide, many from a pair of fires burning close together at the southern end of the Mendocino National Forest. More than 100 large wildfires were burning across 13 Western states, having consumed more than 1.4 million (582,000 hectares), according to the National Interagency Fire Center. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Grant McCool) The family of a man who died after choking on his meal is forever bonded with his organ recipient. (Photo: Facebook/Carrie Schnieders) A family who lost their hero husband and father says theyve gained a new family member: the man who received his liver through organ donation. On June 19, Cletus Schnieders III was eating a steak dinner with his family, wife Carrie and their three children sons Trenton, 9, and Cletie, 4, and daughter Samantha, 2 in their Cincinnati home when he started to choke. I was in the other room talking to Clete, and I was getting annoyed because he wasnt answering me, Carrie, 30, a stay-at-home mom, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. When I walked over to him, I realized he was choking. Then he collapsed. Carrie called 911 and began chest compressions until paramedics arrived, but after two days in the hospital, Cletus, 41, was declared brain dead. Cletus, who his wife of five years describes as a fantasy football guru, was an organ donor and his liver found its way to a lucky recipient: a father-of-four named John Mock who suffered from a genetic autoimmune disease called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and who registered as a potential patient only six hours before Cletuss liver was extracted. Out of 156 people waiting for Cletes liver, John was the only match, says Carrie. They told him, Can you be here in an hour?' Meanwhile, at Mercy West Hospital, Cletuss family prepared to say goodbye in a touching ceremony called The Honor Walk during which they lined the hallway to witness his body transported from the intensive care unit to the operating room. Clete coached baseball, so many team members attended the ceremony, says Carrie. It meant so much to Trent and me. Schnieder's family shared this breath taking photo w/ me. This was his Honor Walk. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when friends, family, staff & community members line the halls as your body makes its way to give the gift of life. It is no secret he was loved pic.twitter.com/rAz03maaCN Alexis Rogers (@AlexisWLWT) July 18, 2018 As Mock was wheeled into surgery on June 22, he instructed his daughter Becca to get in touch with Cletuss family. I wanted to thank this family for saving my life I would be dead without them and offer my condolences, Mock tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Story continues Carrie felt the same on the day of Cletuss June 27 funeral, she mailed a letter to LifeCenter, a Cincinnati organization that facilitates organ and tissue donation, and asked for help tracking down Mock. I really wanted to meet him, says Carrie. I was excited. On July 18, Mock and the Schnieders family (Cletuss parents, stepparents, and his wife and children) met at LifeCenter in a teary moment captured by local news station WLWT 5. Meeting John has helped tremendously with my grief, says Carrie. Adds Mock, After the first two minutes, it felt like we had known each other forever, just like a real family. Mock has undergone a physical transformation postsurgery: He now craves chili from a restaurant called Skyline Cletuss favorite meal and he jokes that because Cletus was a hairy guy, his own facial hair is now growing quickly. Today @LifeCenterCincy and these gracious families let us in on a life changing moment. Schneiders family met John Mock whos the recipient of his liver! #Donation #Cincinnati #Ohio pic.twitter.com/x8OddhaSFj Alexis Rogers (@AlexisWLWT) July 18, 2018 There were lots of hugs and ears. Understandably so. Both of these families have been through a lot. The day Cletus died, his liver was inside of Mock. All of this happened within 12 hours just A MONTH AGO. pic.twitter.com/X9ozb7NARc Alexis Rogers (@AlexisWLWT) July 18, 2018 The family previously relied on Cletuss salary as a grocery store clerk, and now the financial responsibilities belong to Carrie, who is also busy driving Samantha, who has Down syndrome, to therapy appointments. A family friend has established a GoFundMe page to help cover the familys bills, which has raised close to $18 thousand of its $15 thousand goal. Mock is now an honorary Schnieders and speaks to Carrie weekly, and the families are planning a potluck reunion in October. Mock will bring the chili. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Ever since, shes purchased all-in-one supply kits for her kids, now in fifth and second grades. Driscoll isnt alone. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers who have the option to purchase a kit from their childs school or parent-teacher organization have done so at least once, and most are repeat buyers, according to a 2017 report from market research firm The NPD Group. Shaheen missiles get cleaned before the start of the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad Daniel R. DePetris Security, Asia Could Pakistan be more of a nuclear security threat to Israel than Iran? Forget North Korea: Pakistan Might Be the Real Nuclear Threat Despite all of the attempts from the nuclear non-proliferation community, Pakistan will continue to develop and strengthen its nuclear deterrent as long as the high brass in the Pakistani military continues to have an India-centric mindset in its defense policy. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since Islamabads independence in 1947, and in each case, the Pakistanis were the either the losers are forced into a stalemate before acceding to a ceasefire (the 1971 breakaway of eastern Pakistan, which would later be named Bangladesh, was an especially embarrassing defeat for the Pakistanis). Islamabad hasnt forgotten these cases ever since. And for the Pakistanis, the lessons of these past conflicts are all the same: we cannot repeat history. Could Pakistan be more of a nuclear security threat to Israel than Iran? Conventional wisdom suggests that a nuclear-armed Iran is the most pressing potential nuclear threat to Israel. Its a country run by a Shia theocracy espousing invective for Israel on a daily basis. Indeed, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ranted about the possibility of Israels forthcoming destruction as recently as this week. However, Azriel Bermant, a research associate at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, offered a different take earlier this year in a column he wrote for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: the real threat might come from Pakistan. (This first appeared in 2015.) Bermant postulated that despite the worries of both Israeli and American policymakers alike, Iran may not be the nuclear threat that Israel should focus on. After all, Tehran doesnt have a single nuclear weapon at its disposal. Further, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed in July will forestall the Iranians from the nuclear threshold for the next fifteen to twenty-five years. Rather, Bermant argues, one could argue that Islamabad poses more of a threat to Israel than Tehran does. Story continues Its worth considering because the Pakistani government possesses a fairly large nuclear arsenal. Over the years, President Barack Obama has expressed reservations about the continuing growth and stability of Pakistans nuclear weapons program. Only three months into his first term in April 2009, President Obama voiced his concerns: We have hugenational-security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you dont end up having a nuclear-armed militant state. Here is why the United States likely continues to have those worries, nearly seven years later: 1. Pakistans Growing Arsenal There are thousands of nuclear weapons in the world today. According to the latest count from the Federation of American Scientists, the five original nuclear powers have a combined 15,465 nuclear weapons between them, most of which are divided amongst the United States and Russia. Yet the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world is not included in this number. While Pakistan has a range of 100-120 nuclear weapons in its possession a figure that pales in comparison to the United States or Russia Islamabad has devoted a tremendous amount of its military budget to growing its arsenal and procuring the associated delivery systems that are needed to launch them. More alarming than Pakistans current stockpile is the projected growth of its arsenal over the next decade. In a wide-ranging report for the Council on Foreign Relations, professor Gregory D. Koblentz of George Mason University assessed that Pakistan had enough highly enriched uranium to increase its stockpile to 200 nuclear weapons by 2020 if fully utilized. Percentage wise, this would mean that the Pakistani army would be projected to increase its nuclear weapons arsenal by roughly sixty-seven percent over the next five years. In other words, Pakistan could have as many nuclear weapons as the United Kingdom by 2020. Moreover, Pakistan falls outside the purview of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber To guarantee that they the ability to rapidly expand their stockpile, the Pakistani military is investing in reprocessing plutonium in addition to enriching uranium. In January 2015, the Institute for Science and International Security reported that the Pakistanis opened up their fourth plutonium facility at Khushab, which provides Islamabad with an additional channel to construct nuclear bomb material in a relatively short period of time. Its expansion appears to be part of an effort to increase the production of weapons-grade plutonium, the ISIS report (not to be confused with the terrorist group) reads. Allowing Pakistan to build a larger number of miniaturized plutonium-based nuclear weapons that can complement its existing highly enriched uranium nuclear weapons. 2. Pakistani Nukes a Major U.S. Intelligence Priority To say that the U.S. intelligence community is closely monitoring the development of Pakistans nuclear weapons program would be an understatement. The U.S. government is doing more than just monitoring: they are actively preparing for a terrible catastrophe and engaging Pakistani officials in the hopes that they will stop pouring resources into the expansion of their program. The last thing Washington wants or needs is a nuclear crisis flashpoint in a dangerous and unpredictable region filled with an alphabet soup of Islamist terrorist groups. The U.S. government under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama has been trying to prevent such a crisis scenario from occurring. Thanks to the 2010 Wikileaks disclosures, we can glean how seriously the State Department took the problem. In September 2009, on the margins of a nuclear security meeting among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Undersecretary for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher discussed with Chinas foreign minister about how intransigent Islamabad had been in implementing the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). In response to Tauschers concerns, Chinas representative agreed to discuss the treaty problems with Islamabad directly. The prospect of Pakistan losing control of its nuclear materials has been a persistent headache for the United States. It is a scenario that military planners and intelligence officials have been planning for even before the September 11, 2001 attacks. NBC News ran a long investigative piece on U.S. plans to unilaterally secure Pakistans nuclear arsenal if a situation erupted that would put U.S. interests at risk whether it included nuclear materials being stolen by a terrorist group; extremists infiltrating the ranks of the Pakistani army or a quick escalation of violence between Pakistan and India. The investigation found that Pakistans weaponry has been the subject of continuing discussions, scenarios, war games and possibly even military exercises by U.S. intelligence and special operations forces regarding so-called snatch-and-grab operations. The safety of Pakistans nuclear stockpile remains a key action item for the U.S. intelligence community today so much so that Pakistan-specific analytical cells were created in order to address the lack of information that Americas intelligence professionals were receiving about Islamabads proliferation activities. 3. Nukes Have Gotten Pakistan Into Trouble With the U.S. Pakistans high enrichment of uranium is not a new problem it has complicated the U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship since the mid 1970s, when U.S. lawmakers first enacted a strict set of economic sanctions on Islamabads nuclear weaponization activities. The 1977 Glenn amendment added to the Foreign Assistance Act was the first of many congressional efforts to pressure Pakistan (and any other non-nuclear weapons state not party to the NPT) to refrain from conducting a nuclear explosive test. That legislation came in handy in May 1998, when President Bill Clinton enacted sanctions on Pakistan in retaliation for a nuclear test that occurred two weeks after Indias own testing (New Delhi was also sanctioned at the time). Those sanctions prevented the U.S. from sending any foreign assistance to Pakistan a restriction that was eventually eased later in the year under a new statute. President Clintons predecessor also had his run-ins with the Pakistanis when it came to nuclear proliferation. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush was unable to certify to Congress that Pakistan did not possess a nuclear device. Because President Bush could not make the certification required under U.S. law, Washington was compelled to substantial cut off military and economic assistance to the Pakistani Government a provision that was in effect until 1996, when the Brown amendment relaxed the restrictions on economic aid. All of the country-wide sanctions were in addition to the numerous penalties on companies who violated U.S. arms control export policies, which forbid corporations around the world from delivering material, equipment, or technologyto be used by Pakistan in the manufacture of a nuclear explosive device. Dealings between Washington and Islamabad were very tense over the nuclear issue throughout the 1980s and 1990s. That all changed after 9/11, when Washington enlisted Pakistans support against Al-Qaeda. 4. Pakistan Needs Nukes for its Defense Pakistan likes to fancy itself as a peer competitor to its historical rival India in the South Asia region. But if were going to be perfectly honest, Islamabad cannot compete with India in conventional capabilities. By virtue of New Delhis large population, impressive economic growth, and potential to continue improving its GDP in the years ahead, Pakistan will always be second-fiddle to its principal adversary in terms of army strength, battle tanks and combat jets. India spent nearly $50 billion on modernizing and building up its armed forces in 2014; Pakistan spent slightly more than $10 billion. The figures are not even close. And that is why the Pakistani military views its nuclear weapons with such importance. For Islamabad, ensuring that nuclear weapons of all types from stand-alone strategic weapons to tactical battlefield nukes are primed and ready for use in a short period of time is a way to keep a vastly more powerful India in check. Unlike India, Islamabad has refused to accept a no first use doctrine, meaning that the Pakistani army is authorized to deploy nuclear weapons on the battlefield if the countrys national security is seriously at risk from an Indian incursion. Keeping the nuclear stockpile on stand-by is a way for the Pakistani Government to deter an India that is more populated, wealthier and has more men in uniform. 5. The Bottom Line Despite all of the attempts from the nuclear non-proliferation community, Pakistan will continue to develop and strengthen its nuclear deterrent as long as the high brass in the Pakistani military continues to have an India-centric mindset in its defense policy. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since Islamabads independence in 1947, and in each case, the Pakistanis were the either the losers are forced into a stalemate before acceding to a ceasefire (the 1971 breakaway of eastern Pakistan, which would later be named Bangladesh, was an especially embarrassing defeat for the Pakistanis). Islamabad hasnt forgotten these cases ever since. And for the Pakistanis, the lessons of these past conflicts are all the same: we cannot repeat history. India-Pakistan relations remain a sore spot for both nations, from the ongoing and never-ending Kashmir dispute to allegations of meddling in one anothers domestic affairs (India continues to strongly believe that the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate fosters a deep partnership with a number of anti-India terrorist groups, while Islamabad has levied accusations about Indias covert connections with the Pakistani Taliban). With so much bad blood between the two, its unfathomable to believe that Pakistan would voluntary cap the number of nuclear warheads or agree to put its entire nuclear program under IAEA supervision. President Obama recognized this dynamic early in his presidency, telling Joe Klein with Time magazine that the Kashmir conflict is a constant irritant to peace in South Asia and that a special U.S. envoy may need to be appointed in order to prod both sides to start negotiating a long-term solution in a serious way. Progress on that front, however, has been nonexistent: violence in Kashmir still flares up occasionally, and with every death, the Indo-Pakistani relationship suffers another blow. In the current environment, we all better get used to Pakistan becoming the third-largest nuclear weapons state in the world. Read full article BERLIN (AP) German authorities have arrested a Sri Lankan man suspected of involvement in killing captured government soldiers as a member of the Tamil Tigers rebel group a decade ago. Federal prosecutors said a judge ordered Thursday the 36-year-old, identified only as Sivatheeban B. because of German privacy rules, detained pending a potential indictment. He was arrested Wednesday in the Duesseldorf area, suspected of committing war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors say he belonged to the Tamil Tigers from 2006-2009. They allege that, in 2008, he tied up 16 soldiers and guarded them as they were driven to a site where they were shot. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 when government forces defeated the rebels, who fought to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils. LONDON (AP) One of Iceland's top whaling companies says it has stopped hunting minke whales this year, in response to a new government regulation that enlarged the protected area for baleen whales. The temporary halt to whaling comes about a month earlier than expected, Gunnar Jonsson, owner of whaling company IP-Utgerd Ltd said Thursday. Jonsson said obeying the new rule would require sailing out further than normal to harpoon the whales and that to do so wasn't economically viable. He said his company would now focus on improving its boats for next year's whaling season. "For next year, we will have to arrange something," he said, adding that they might hire more crew if needed. The International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, called the development "very good news for minke whales and for Iceland," but noted the country had simply imported minke whale meat from Norway. The temporary interruption to hunting minke whales comes about a month after another Icelandic whaling company, Hvalur HF, was condemned for killing a rare blue-fin whale hybrid. Last month, genetic testing at Iceland's Marine Research Institute confirmed the dead whale was indeed a hybrid blue-fin whale. Blue whales, the largest species of whales on the planet, have been protected under international law for decades. The trading of blue-fin hybrid whales or any of their parts is illegal. Kristjan Loftsson, Hvalur's owner, said the new regulation would have no impact on his company's whaling operations, which hunts fin whales. He said their company's boats regularly hunt whales beyond the protected sanctuary and would continue as normal. He acknowledged their inadvertent killing of a blue-fin whale hybrid but said there had been no way to tell the difference before genetic testing was done. IFAW said it would continue to campaign against whaling, calling it "cruel, wasteful and unnecessary." TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's parliament announced Wednesday it would hold a special session to question President Hassan Rouhani about the plummeting currency and struggling economy. In the announcement on the parliament's website, lawmakers said Rouhani must appear within a month in an open session to answer questions, but no specific date was announced. The rial has slipped since the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal in May and said it would restore sanctions that had been lifted in exchange for Iran curbing its atomic activities. The first of those renewed sanctions go into effect Monday. Iran is negotiating with other world powers that are parties to the deal China, Russia, Germany, France, Britain as well as the European Union in a bid to salvage it with new incentives. Lawmakers plan to separately question Labor Minister Ali Rabiei over the 12.5 percent unemployment rate. He already appeared before parliament in March, when they voted to keep him in office. Pressure is building on Rouhani as Iran's economic woes mount. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered Rouhani, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary to work together and find a way to resolve the problems. On Tuesday, 200 of 290 members of parliament signed a letter to Rouhani urging him to make changes to his economic team. Rouhani's administration has already replaced the central bank governor and taken other measures to shore up the currency, which hit a new low this week. Meanwhile, some hard-liners have called for new elections or for Rouhani's civilian government to be replaced by a military-led one. The Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran's hard-line elite Revolutionary Guard, in July distributed an op-ed from the Sobh-e No daily newspaper describing the government as too ready to "bow down to foreign threats." SANTA CLARA, Calif. If you track the San Francisco 49ers John Lynch through an entire practice, you might catch the general manager planting himself in a familiar place. Hell slide back behind the defensive secondary, park himself at his former free safety spot and open his ears. Making mental notes, hell listen to conversations or study eyes and body language. And now more than ever, hell dial in on his presumptive franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whose development will make or break this franchise for the next decade. I stand back there because thats where I saw the game for all these years, Lynch says. I stand back there not to hang out with those guys, but because thats where I can evaluate the best. Like most NFL general managers, Lynch likes to talk about evaluation in camp, predicting whose arrow is pointed up or noting which player has been a pleasant surprise. But unlike most GMs, Lynch has already earmarked $137 million to a player whose arc is still largely unknown although you wouldnt know it by the media coverage and gushing expectation lavished on Garoppolo. Among the things Jimmy Garoppolo says he needs to work on: his timing and general mechanics in running Kyle Shanahans offense. (AP) Arguably no player in the NFL has seen his star rise more quickly than Jimmy G in the past eight months. His mini legend, fueled by five wins in five starts last season, created a suddenly blinding light at the end of a dark tunnel of 49ers football history. All of which is great, except that the underpinnings of NFL history promise some difficult times ahead because if weve learned anything in this league, its that game film is an incorruptible snitch when it comes to quarterbacks. Sooner or later, its going to tell on Jimmy G. And thats when well find out whether hes worth the hype and lofty financial perch hes been gifted. That remains to be seen, Lynch said this week. Jimmys aware that hes early in his career. While we kind of showed a lot of faith in him by locking him up [with a franchise contract], I think you do that for a reason. We have every belief hes up to the task. So what do you do? You go to work. You try to surround him with real talented people. Story continues Make no mistake, this is the top of the 49ers agenda as it is with most franchises that are lucky enough to find a centerpiece quarterback. Find a guy, exploit that talent window as quickly and aggressively as possible. Thats what San Francisco is about right now: Adding and grooming the rest of the Jimmy G puzzle pieces, whether its along the offensive line or at the skill positions. Its why they drafted offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey with the ninth overall pick and signed center Weston Richburg after missing out on mega free-agent Andrew Norwell. And its why they started fine-tuning the skill positions with players fitting the scheme of head coach Kyle Shanahan with additions like running back Jerick McKinnon and second-round wideout Dante Pettis. Thats essentially four players added with Garoppolo in mind and it wont end there. If San Francisco doesnt have a wideout emerge as a consistent, impactful No. 1 in 2018, that will be a top priority in the 2019 offseason. Right alongside another running back to complement McKinnon and finish out a rotation predicated on matchup dominance. Look at the Atlanta Falcons offense. This will be the West Coast edition of that same blueprint. Our head coach is one of the most gifted play-callers in the league, Lynch says. Weve added pieces. You add a center and its not the sexiest thing in the world, but we think that will help Jimmy. You add Jerick McKinnon, who we think is a game-breaker, but also is kind of a matchup problem. The more guys we can surround Jimmy with, I think that plays to his talent. Of course, its on Garoppolo to take his own steps forward. While hes remarkably in tune with Shanahans personality both have a confidence flirting with cockiness its going to be on Garoppolo to grow and challenge his head coach as much as the other way around. The best tandems push each other and for now, the 49ers are still working toward that. The true pain has yet to present itself, particularly in a scenario where Garoppolo loses, struggles, misfires and then is forced to adjust in-game, in-season, under mounting pressure. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan appears to be using his Falcons blueprint in San Francisco. (AP) Thats something teams try to replicate in training camp, before the games matter often a faded facsimile at best. But San Francisco will at least settle for some day-to-day learning points, like Garoppolos pair of interceptions on Tuesday, which both appeared to result from wideouts getting pushed out of position on their routes. The result, they werent where they needed to be when Garoppolo expected them, triggering a pair of turnovers. Its almost something different each day, Shanahan said of Garoppolos continued learning curve. Theres lots of things Jimmy needs to work on. Theres lots of things were all working on right now. Theres a ton here. Were five days into our install [on offense]. Weve got a few more left. Once we get through our entire install itll be, I think, three more days then well start to reevaluate and see where we want to go. Pressed for where hes still failing, Garoppolo pointed to fine-tuning in timing and some general mechanics of running an efficient offense which are both high on the list of Shanahans expectations of him exiting this camp. [Learning on the fly] during last season, it was tough, Garoppolo said. We were studying defenses, learning offenses, a whirlwind of things. Just being able to slow down, these camp days were here for 12, 13 hours, so you get a lot of use out of it. I need to get better at being smooth in and out of the huddle. Getting the play called and everything. The transition up to the line of scrimmage and then stacking successful plays one after the other. Thats what its all about. There was an underlying theme in what Garoppolo and Shanahan kept spelling out: Its early. Theres little doubt about that. In spite of the attention and headlines and optimism not to mention a quarterback electricity the 49ers havent seen since Colin Kaepernicks Super Bowl peak theres a wealth of unknown ahead. Jimmy G is one of the leagues biggest and brightest question marks of 2018. Defensive coordinators have yet to throw everything they have at the answer. Soon enough, theyll have the film to do it. And thats when well find out if all of this buildup has been worth it. More from Yahoo Sports: Pro golfer ends cancer treatment, will begin palliative care Dan Wetzel: If Urban Meyer knew of domestic violence allegations, he deserves to be fired Nats designate Shawn Kelley for assignment after tantrum on the mound Dak Prescott says his anthem comments were misunderstood Lakeshore Beverage Co., the Chicago areas largest distributor of Budweiser among scores of other brands is buying the rights to distribute Old Style beer north of Armitage Avenue into Wrigleyville, which remains a stronghold for the aging brand. Lakeshore will also acquire the rights to more than 700,000 cases annually of LaCroix sparkling water, bringing its total to about 1.5 million cases. That will make Lakeshore the largest distributor of LaCroix in the U.S., according to Beer Marketers Insights, a trade publication. Kathy Griffin attending the 2014 Best in Drag Show at the Orpheum Theatre Oct. 5, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images) Its no secret that Kathy Griffin is not the biggest supporter of President Donald Trump and his family. Despite guest starring on Trumps reality show, The Apprentice, twice, the two have had plenty of choice words, given their very different political leanings. In fact, the comedian was the recipient of death threats and the loss of marketing deals and her spot as the host for CNNs New Years Eve special, after she tweeted a video holding a mask that looked like Trumps bloody severed head. At the time, before Griffin said she crossed the line, Donald Trump Jr. reacted to the video in a tweet. Disgusting but not surprising. This is the left today. They consider this acceptable. Imagine a conservative did this to Obama as POTUS? https://t.co/QdghcbIjS7 Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 30, 2017 However, while she is performing on her Laugh Your Head Off tour, it looks like Griffin is ready to go up against the Trump family again after reposting an image initially shared by Trump Jr.s new girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was allegedly under investigation for sexual misconduct before she left the network. The My Life on the D-List star quoted her father in a tweet: Honey, its always good when two assholes find each other. Takes them off the market for decent people. The comedian isnt the only person who poked fun at what appears to be a highly airbrushed picture. Model Chrissy Teigen described the couple looking like robots who were just learning how to smile. hello we are robots beedoo boop smiling is opening your lips and exposing your teeth until you feel a light tension on the outer corners of your mouth beep blurp we are smiling boop beep pic.twitter.com/2EXyyHXyZk christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 1, 2018 Social media also chimed in with their own quips about the new couples panache for FaceTune mainly that there is no wrinkle to be seen on the couple or, for that matter, lips on= Trump Jr. Story continues Yes, Id like to order your two cheapest sex dolls please. pic.twitter.com/ISmtj8koCa Tamara Yajia (@DancesWithTamis) July 19, 2018 Find someone who loves you as much as Donald Trump Jr. and his Fox News girlfriend love FaceTune pic.twitter.com/WuRpe3AEPD Gibson Johns (@gibsonoma) June 25, 2018 Regardless of your political standings, one thing is for certain: No one should ever be judged by the content of their personality, but rather by their ability to properly Photoshop their Instagram photo. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was the first senator to publicly call on her colleague, Al Franken, to resign after numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. (Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty Images) No one in Congress is more associated with the Me Too movement than Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Long before Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer became infamous creeps, Gillibrand was focusing her attention on sexual assault and harassment in the military, on college campuses and in the workplace. But the two-term senator cemented her prominence in the movement last year when she called out members of her own party. In November, she said that Bill Clinton should have resigned the presidency over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. And then the following month, she became the first Democratic senator to publicly call on then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to go after multiple women accused him of engaging in sexual misconduct. Franken announced his resignation the following day. Speaking out has consequences. Women who come forward about the abuse theyve faced are often barred from further job opportunities. And even someone in power like Gillibrand who tries to be an advocate for victims can find themselves facing a negative response from a previously friendly community. Eight women accused Franken of groping them. Yet he remains beloved by many Democrats, who say he was one of the partys strongest champions on progressive issues. His questioning in Senate hearings landed both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in hot water, and if he were still around, hed no doubt play a big role in taking on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. His defenders say he was pushed out too early for transgressions that, while unfortunate, didnt rise to the level of what some members of the GOP have done and didnt make him a threat who needed to leave immediately. Gillibrand wasnt the only senator to publicly call on Franken to step down, but she was the first (but only by minutes) in a wave of female senators who were eventually joined by many of their male colleagues on the same day, Dec. 6 to do so. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, reportedly told Franken in private that he needed to go beforehand. Story continues But Gillibrand has received the brunt of the blame for what happened, with many of her detractors saying the reason she came out against Franken was that shes an opportunist who was positioning herself for a presidential run in 2020. Some Democratic Party donors have been reconsidering whether they would support her in a primary. Most prominently, Gillibrand has attracted the ire of billionaire George Soros, who has long funded Democratic candidates and causes. Soros recently said he wasnt sure whom he was supporting for 2020, but that it absolutely wouldnt be Gillibrand. He accused her of going after Franken, whom I admire, to improve her chances for president. If standing up for women who have been wronged makes George Soros mad, thats on him, Gillibrand said in a statement to HuffPost. But I wont hesitate to always do what I think is right. For nearly a year, we have seen countless acts of courage as women and men have spoken hard truths about sexual assault and sexual harassment and demanded accountability. I stand with them in this new watershed moment of important change in our society on what we deem as acceptable, she added. It is clear that we must put our morals and the valuing of women ahead of party loyalty. When someone does something wrong, you have to speak up and be counted, whether its President Trump, or a Democratic colleague. I Think It Was A Big Mistake HuffPost spoke to dozens of elite donors who contributed significant amounts of money to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. Gillibrand, at one time, was part of the tight, loyal Clinton world. The Clintons were early supporters of hers and Hillary wrote the foreword to Gillibrands book. Many of these donors said that either they were unhappy with Gillibrand or knew plenty of people who were. The 2020 race is still years away, but as donors start to shop around, her comments on Clinton and Franken could be a factor. I viewed it as self-serving, as opportunistic unforgivable in my view, said Rosalind Fink, a New York donor. Since then, I have not purposely attended any fundraiser where she was there. And there is absolutely no way I will support her. Fink said she condemned Frankens behavior, but she believed the Senate should have investigated the allegations thoroughly before forcing him out. I think it was a big mistake, said Irene Finel Honigman, another Clinton donor from New York, adding, I was not that impressed with her to begin with. I think she certainly had potential, but as for many people, this kind of sealed the deal. Another donor, who like many others asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, called Gillibrand a ruthless opportunist. Thats the knock on her, and thats what this proved, he said. She saw an opportunity to be out front, and regardless of the ramifications, she took it. Susie Tompkins Buell, a major Democratic Party donor who has championed female politicians, also said she was reconsidering her support for senators who called for Franken to resign. On social media, its easy to find anti-Gillibrand posts. No matter the issue, Gillibrand has detractors who circle back to what she did to Franken. Hope Kirsten Gillibrand is happy with her handiwork. https://t.co/vg6Dmpko9B Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) July 31, 2018 Because of Al Franken, I will never in a million years vote for Kristen Gillibrand. Burke Omalley (@burke_omalley) June 17, 2018 So maybe all the women Senators who were so fucking threatened by Al Franken in the Senate need to God Damn find out where the thousand girls are ... like now Looking at you Gillibrand https://t.co/PZyveKjept NTXProgressive (@NTXProgressive) June 17, 2018 Theres also a theory, readily found on social media, that Franken was the target of a right-wing hit job centered around Leeann Tweeden, the first woman to accuse Franken of groping her without her consent, who appears to be conservative-leaning. But besides Tweeden, there were seven other women who said Franken harassed them, and four of them were on the record. Several of the incidents also occurred while he was either in office or running for office. Part of the reason Franken faced so much pressure to resign was that there was a heated campaign to win the U.S. Senate race in Alabama underway. Frankens problems were a distraction at a time the party was hammering Republican Roy Moore, who was facing allegations of pursuing teenage girls while he was an adult. The senator resigning without a fight was no doubt, in part, an acknowledgment to the politics of the moment. Jill Farber Bramson, a Democratic donor and activist in Michigan, said she knew a number of women who tended to be older who were deeply disappointed when Gillibrand spoke out against Franken. They had always really liked Kirsten Gillibrand very much, she said. They really respected her. ... They were just devastated that she pushed, they felt, all too hard and all too soon to have him resign. Why Are We Making This About Her? Gillibrand still has plenty of supporters including some former Clinton donors and many of them are standing by her even more fiercely since she faced the Franken attacks. They are deeply worried about the damage her principled stand may have done to her political future. Why are we blaming Sen. Gillibrand for what Sen. Franken did? asked Risa Levine, a New York donor who is friends with the senator. Why are we making this about her? Its not about her. Shes not the one who put her hand on all those womens asses and boobs. She didnt do that, added another donor. Why does she have to sacrifice her career, her brand, her authenticity, for the sake of Franken? Gillibrand, after all, isnt a newcomer on the issue of sexual misconduct. In addition to her work on women in the military and on college campuses, she has an organization devoted to promoting women running for office and introduced the Me Too Congress Act in the Senate, legislation devoted to combating sexual harassment in Congress. In fact, if she hadnt spoken out, she likely would have lost credibility with her core group of supporters for deciding to suddenly be silent when it came to one of her colleagues. It seemed like no matter what she did, she couldnt win. Shes either a shrew with no power whos just trying to make a name for herself, or shes so all-powerful that her saying one thing made a man who has made decisions for himself for 60 years crumble like a cheap suit, said a Democratic activist, summing up the way Gillibrand has been characterized. Theres a good chance Gillibrand would have been attacked if she had remained silent on Franken. In Minnesota, a GOP-aligned group sent out a mailer attacking state Rep. Melissa Hortman, the Democratic minority leader in the House, for signing a November statement expressing support for the senator after four women had come forward. Hortman, too, has been outspoken in her support for womens rights. A mailer by the GOP-aligned group Minnesota Jobs Coalition went after a Minnesota lawmaker for supporting Al Franken. (Photo: HuffPost) Gillibrand isnt the only woman to face a backlash for the Franken resignation. In November, Lindsey Port, then a Democratic candidate for the state legislature, accused state Sen. Dan Schoen (D) of sexual harassment. Schoen resigned, and Port initially received an outpouring of support. But after Franken announced he was leaving the Senate, the tide turned. Port lost financial support for her campaign and her nonprofit, with some people alleging that she softened the ground for Frankens resignation by speaking out about the sexual harassment she faced at the hands of a totally different man. Others even wondered if she was secretly a conservative operative. Many Democrats say they see the split on Gillibrand and Franken as generational, with younger voters both men and women more likely to support Gillibrand, or at least be sympathetic to what she did. In June, Gillibrand spoke at the Washington, D.C., chapter of The Wing, an all-female social club that attracts a younger crowd, and she addressed the reason she spoke out on Franken. An attendee said the audience was supportive of her answer and applauded her. Gillibrand has also had other discussions in the wake of the matter, including calling some other prominent Democratic women in the San Francisco area who are friends with Tompkins Buell. According to someone with knowledge of the situation, the senator reached out to them to explain why she believed Franken needed to go, and shes been willing to talk about her views with people who are skeptical and have questions. Times change, and this is time changing for the better. This is about sexual harassment and sexual assault. Are we for that? said a Democratic donor. People just have to get over it. They should expect people to speak up and take a position on it. Did she do it because she wanted to position herself for president? Gee, Im shocked. People do that all the time. Why is this issue a no-go? Is Bernie [Sanders] taking advantage of single-payer and putting people in an uncomfortable position by being so aggressive about that? We say its not the same, but it is the same. Its getting a different frame because its squeezing the old-boy network. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was the Senate Majority Leader instead of Minority Leader. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on the remains of dozens of presumed American war dead being brought to Hawaii for identification (all times local): 3:30 p.m. The remains of dozens of presumed casualties of the Korean War are back on U.S. soil following an emotional ceremony in Hawaii. Vice President Mike Pence presided over the return of the remains. Members of the U.S. military carried 55 boxes draped with American flags off C-17 aircraft and into a hangar at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The U.S. military will take the remains to a laboratory at the base for identification. The remains are expected to mostly be American, though may also include servicemen from other United Nations member nations who fought alongside the U.S. in support of South Korea during the war. The boxes are believed to hold the remains of servicemen from the U.S. and other United Nations member countries who fought to support South Korea during the war. North Korea handed over the remains last week. ___ 1:50 p.m. The remains of servicemen who are presumed American casualties killed in the Korean War more than 60 years ago have arrived in Hawaii. The remains are contained in 55 cases draped in American flags. Honor guards carried the cases off two military transport planes. They were flown to Pearl Harbor on Wednesday from South Korea after North Korea released the remains last week. The painstaking process of trying to identify the remains will take place at a Department of Defense lab at Pearl Harbor. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence oversaw the somber military ceremony. He said that while some call the Korean conflict the "forgotten war," today's repatriation proves the American soldiers were never forgotten. Pence said: "Today, our boys are coming home." He says the government pledges to families of the soldiers who didn't return that it will never stop until "every hero lost in the Korean War is home." ___ 12:30 p.m. Vice President Mike Pence is meeting with the top U.S. commander in Asia before he participates in a ceremony marking the arrival of remains believed to be of servicemen from the Korean War. Story continues Pence on Wednesday met with Adm. Phil Davidson at the headquarters of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. Davidson thanked Pence for coming to Hawaii for the ceremony. Pence is expected to speak at the ceremony, where he will formally receive 55 boxes of remains. The boxes are believed to hold the remains of servicemen from the U.S. and other United Nations member countries who fought to support South Korea during the war. North Korea handed over the remains last week. ___ 4 a.m. Dozens of boxes of remains from the Korean War are on their way to Hawaii for analysis and identification. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during the war. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and the commander of U.S. forces in Asia, Adm. Phil Davidson, are expected to speak at a ceremony on Wednesday. The event will mark the arrival of the remains on U.S. soil and the beginning of a long process to identify the bones. North Korea handed over the remains last week. A U.S. military plane made a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases. ___ 1 a.m. Decades after the end of the Korean War in 1953, the remains of dozens of presumed U.S. war dead began their journey home following a repatriation ceremony in South Korea on Wednesday. North Korea handed over the remains in 55 boxes last week and allowed a U.S. military transport plane to move them to the U.S. Osan Air Base near Seoul in South Korea. While it was an apparent goodwill gesture by North Korea toward the United States, the return comes amid growing skepticism about whether the North will follow through on its pledge of nuclear disarmament. Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops gathered at a hanger at the Osan base for the repatriation ceremony, which included a silent tribute, a rifle salute and the playing of the U.S. and South Korean national anthems and dirges in front of the U.N. flag-covered metal cases containing the remains. The remains were moved in vans to an airfield where U.S. and South Korean soldiers loaded them one by one into two transport planes. Four U.S. fighter jets flew low in a tribute. HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) The Latest on Zimbabwe's election (all times local): 1:40 a.m. The streets of Zimbabwe's capital are quiet with a heavy presence of military and police after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of Monday's election. While the vote was peaceful, a military crackdown on protesting opposition supporters on Wednesday has left a chill. Soldiers in the hours ahead of the announcement told people to clear the center of Harare. A few Mnangagwa supporters are noisily celebrating near the entrance to the conference center where results were announced. Charity Manyeruke, who teaches political science at the University of Zimbabwe, says she is delighted. "There is continuity, stability," she says. "Zimbabwe is poised for nation-building." Meanwhile the chair of the opposition MDC party, Morgen Komichi, is calling the elections "fraudulent" and says they will challenge the results in the courts. ___ 1:15 a.m. Zimbabwe's president says he is "humbled" by his win in Monday's election, the first after the fall of his former mentor Robert Mugabe. "Though we may have been divided at the polls, we are united in our dreams," President Emmerson Mnangagwa says on Twitter. The opposition has alleged vote-rigging and questioned why the presidential results were counted first but announced last. Main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent of the vote while Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent. "This is a new beginning," Mnangagwa says after a week that began with a peaceful election day but spiraled into deadly violence in the capital as the military broke up protests. "Let us join hands, in peace, unity & love, & together build a new Zimbabwe for all!" ___ 1:10 a.m. Zimbabwe's justice minister says "the majority of Zimbabweans are working with us, save for a few who want to incite violence." Ziyambi Ziyambi spoke shortly after the electoral commission announced that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had won Monday's election. Story continues The ruling party maintains control of the government in the first vote after the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. The opposition has alleged vote-rigging and vowed to hold peaceful protests to reject any vote they see as flawed. The justice minister says Mnangagwa has done a "fantastic" job since becoming president after longtime leader Robert Mugabe stepped down in November under military pressure amid a ruling party feud. "He gave freedoms to everyone," Ziyambi says. The minister also says an investigation will uncover "the culprits that caused the mayhem" in the capital on Wednesday and that they would be prosecuted. The opposition and international election observers have criticized the military's "excessive" force in breaking up protests. Six people died. ___ 12:50 a.m. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says President Emmerson Mnangagwa has won Monday's election as the ruling party maintains control of the government in the first vote after the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. The opposition is almost certain to challenge the results in the courts or in the streets. Mnangagwa received 50.8 percent of the vote while main opposition challenger Nelson Chamisa received 44.3 percent. While election day was peaceful in a break from the past, deadly violence on Wednesday against people protesting alleged vote-rigging reminded many Zimbabweans of the decades of military-backed repression under Mugabe. Western election observers who were banned in previous votes have expressed concern at the military's "excessive" force in the capital, Harare. Their assessments of the election are crucial to the lifting of international sanctions on a country whose economy collapsed years ago. Shortly before the announcement early Friday, a man who said he was the chief agent with Chamisa's opposition alliance claimed that they had not signed the election results and rejected them. Police asked him to step aside. ___ 11:25 p.m. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says President Emmerson Mnangagwa leads election returns with nine of 10 provinces announced, but it has requested an hour's break before the final announcement. Mnangagwa leads with 2.1 million votes to 1.9 million for his main challenger Nelson Chamisa, whose strongholds in the cities of Harare and Bulawayo have already been counted. Commission chair Priscilla Chigumba says officials will return to announce results from the 10th province, Mashonaland West. The province is considered a stronghold of the ruling ZANU-PF party. ___ 9:30 p.m. The streets of Zimbabwe's capital are unusually quiet as the electoral commission prepares to announce the first results of Monday's presidential election. Soldiers circulated in Harare earlier in the day telling vendors and others to clear the city center. Residents are uneasy after Wednesday's deadly violence as the military moved in and used gunfire to disperse protests over alleged vote-rigging. International observers have condemned the military's "excessive" force and warned that delays in announcing election results will only feed concerns about possible manipulation. ___ 8:30 p.m. Zimbabwe's president says international election observers have told him they are "disappointed with the events of yesterday" that left at least six people dead. President Emmerson Mnangagwa tells the state broadcaster the observers met with him and expressed their concerns about Wednesday's chaos in the capital when the military dispersed opposition supporters with gunfire. The observers have released a joint statement condemning the "excessive use of force" by the military and urging that the results of Monday's presidential election be released as soon as possible. The president stressed the observers' earlier assessment that the vote was peaceful. "I'm happy that they're very objective," Mnangagwa said. ___ 6:30 p.m. Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa says police have raided opposition headquarters in the capital and seized computers, while police say 18 people in the offices were arrested. The developments come a few hours before Zimbabwe's electoral commission is expected to start releasing the results of Monday's presidential election. Chamisa alleges that police were looking for what he called evidence of vote-rigging, but he says the evidence already had been moved to a "safe house." Both the opposition and ruling party have claimed victory in the presidential race, the first since the fall of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. ___ 6:15 p.m. Zimbabwe police say the death toll from Wednesday's election-related violence in the capital has risen to six after three people died from their injuries. Police tell reporters that at least 14 people were injured in the chaos. Zimbabweans and the international community have condemned the "excessive" force of the military as it swept in with gunfire to disperse opposition supporters. The police say 18 people have been arrested. They claim that about 4,000 opposition supporters were "besieging" the downtown, with some carrying iron bars and stones. The opposition says the demonstrators were not organized by their alliance but simply were citizens. ___ 6:05 p.m. Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa says the country's electoral commission has known the results of the presidential election since Monday night that that "announcing is just a formality." He is claiming victory. Chamisa tells reporters that the commission has undermined its credibility by delaying the announcement of the results of Monday's vote. The commission has said it will start announcing presidential results at 10 p.m. International election observers in a joint statement have called on the commission to release the results as soon as possible after some noted that the presidential results were the first to be counted but the last to be shared publicly. Chamisa also says he is shocked at President Emmerson Mnangagwa blaming the opposition for Wednesday's deadly violence in which the military fired on election-related protests. The opposition leader says the demonstrators were not organized by his alliance but simply were citizens. ___ 5 p.m. A lawyer in Zimbabwe says police are investigating opposition presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa and others for allegedly inciting violence. Kumbirai Mafunda confirms that a search warrant was issued on Wednesday, when soldiers in Harare fired live rounds to disperse opposition protesters, some of whom were rioting. A copy of the warrant, seen by The Associated Press, says Chamisa and several others including opposition politician Tendai Biti are suspected of the crimes of "possession of dangerous weapons" and "public violence." The warrant authorizes police to search for and confiscate any evidence as part of their investigation. President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party have accused the opposition of inciting the deadly violence as Zimbabwe awaits the results of Monday's election. The opposition, human rights activists and some election observers have condemned the "excessive" force in crushing the protests. ___ 4:40 p.m. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says it will start announcing the results of the presidential election "from 10 p.m." The announcement comes after international election observers urged the release of the results as soon as possible, saying delays will increase speculation that results were manipulated. The commission by law has five days from Monday's vote to announce the results. Both observers and the opposition have asked why presidential results were counted first but are being released last. ___ 4:25 p.m. Zimbabwean opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is harshly criticizing what he calls the "violent government" after a military crackdown on his supporters, some of whom were rioting during protests. Chamisa spoke during a visit to a Harare hospital where some of the injured and three dead were taken after Wednesday's election-related violence in the streets of the capital. "We have unarmed civilians being attacked," Chamisa said. "Is that normal even in a banana republic?" He said he has not received any communication from President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has said his government was in touch with Chamisa about calming tensions. Mnangagwa earlier accused the opposition of inciting the violence to disrupt the electoral process. Chamisa called for calm and again said he is "very confident we are forming the next government." ___ 4:15 p.m. Britain says its ambassador to Zimbabwe has met with government ministers and "made clear that the military should be removed from the streets of Harare." An embassy statement also condemns the "excessive use of force by the security forces towards demonstrators" in the capital on Wednesday. Zimbabwe's government has said three people were killed and the British statement says "many" were injured. The statement welcomes President Emmerson Mnangagwa's comments announcing an independent investigation into the violence in Harare. It says all political leaders have a responsibility to avoid raising tensions or inciting violence. ___ 3:25 p.m. Zimbabwe's ruling party is signaling victory in the presidential election and telling the opposition that "we should all lose graciously." Spokesman Paul Mangwana also tells reporters that opposition supporters were responsible for Wednesday's deadly violence in the capital in which the military swept in with gunfire to disperse protests over alleged rigging in Monday's vote. He says that "it is not entirely true protesters were not armed." Mangwana also urges supporters of the ZANU-PF ruling party to "celebrate our victory with restraint." Zimbabwe's electoral commission has said the results of the presidential election will be announced "very soon," while a new joint statement by international election observer missions urges the quick release of those results. ___ 3:05 p.m. A new joint statement by foreign election observers in Zimbabwe is expressing "grave concern" over deadly violence after Monday's vote and urging the electoral commission to release the full results "expeditiously" and in a transparent manner. The statement by European Union, U.S., Commonwealth, African Union and other observer missions denounces the "excessive use of force" used to calm Wednesday's protests in the capital and urges Zimbabwe's army and police to use restraint. The international observers call on political parties for peace and condemn vandalism. Zimbabwean authorities say the military will remain deployed until "this situation is over." ___ 1:20 p.m. Human rights activists in Zimbabwe are condemning the military crackdown on opposition protesters in the capital, saying it raises questions about whether the current government is any different from that of former leader Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum says member groups saw soldiers firing "randomly" in downtown Harare and beating up bystanders who were not involved in the protests on Wednesday. Three people were killed in the election-related violence. The activists are denouncing violent protests but calling the government's reaction illegal and "grossly disproportionate to the violence that it sought to contain." Some government supporters have accused opposition leaders of inciting violence by prematurely declaring victory in the presidential election. Official results have not yet been announced. ___ 1:05 p.m. Britain's minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, says she is "deeply concerned" about the deadly violence in Zimbabwe's capital and she calls on political leaders to ensure calm and restraint "at this critical moment." Her statement on Twitter also urges British citizens in Zimbabwe to check for travel alerts on the changing situation. The U.S. Embassy in Harare also has issued a statement urging Americans to avoid the central business district after Wednesday's chaos in which the military entered downtown Harare and opened fire to disperse opposition supporters. The U.S. statement says "the political situation in Zimbabwe remains uncertain." ___ 12:45 p.m. Zimbabwe's electoral commission has told reporters it will announce the results of Monday's presidential election "very soon." Zimbabwe's state broadcaster earlier tweeted that the commission said it would announce those results at 9 p.m. That tweet has been deleted. By law the commission has five days from Monday's election to release the results. ___ 12:10 p.m. China is calling Zimbabwe's election "orderly" and urges Zimbabweans to maintain peace and stability after Wednesday's violence in the capital left three people dead. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang says Zimbabwe invited China to send an election observer mission and the mission found Zimbabweans to be "well-engaged" in Monday's vote. China has had growing influence in the southern African nation. ___ 12:05 p.m. The European Union is appealing for calm in Zimbabwe a day after deadly violence linked to Monday's elections that the EU says were marred by "shortcomings." EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini's office says in a statement that "we appeal for calm and restraint on all sides and for protests to be conducted according to the law." The statement notes that "a number of shortcomings were observed, including the lack of a truly level playing field" surrounding the vote. It calls for the final election results to be "shared in a manner which provides for full transparency and accountability, including a breakdown by polling station." ___ 11:50 a.m. Zimbabwe's electoral commission says it will announce the results of the presidential election at 9 p.m., after Western election observers urged their immediate release to avoid further tensions. The commission is urging the public to remain calm and condemns the violence in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday that left three people dead. Both the opposition and Western election observers have questioned why the presidential results, which were the first counted, are the last to be shared publicly. The opposition has raised fears about possible vote-rigging of the kind that marked past elections under former leader Robert Mugabe. ___ 11:40 a.m. The head of the Commonwealth election observers in Zimbabwe is condemning what he calls the "excessive use of force against unarmed civilians" by security forces. John Dramani Mahama, former president of Ghana, urges all sides to exercise restraint a day after election-related violence killed three people in Harare, the capital. Soldiers fired live rounds to disperse opposition demonstrators, some of whom were throwing rocks and destroying property. Mahama urges the prompt release of presidential results from Monday's election, saying delays will increase speculation that results were manipulated. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission by law has until Saturday to release the final election tally. It says the vote was free and fair and that parliamentary results show that the ruling party won a majority. ___ 11:30 a.m. Zimbabwean soldiers are circulating in the capital, Harare, and telling vendors and other people to leave the city center by noon. It is not yet clear when the electoral commission will announce the next set of results from Monday's election. International observers from the Commonwealth and elsewhere are urging the release of the presidential results as soon as possible. There is a heavy police presence around the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party a day after the military swept into the city to disperse its supporters from protesting. Three people were killed. ___ 10:45 a.m. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his government has been in touch with the main opposition leader in an attempt to ease tensions after election-related violence in the country's capital. Mnangagwa on Thursday also tweeted that he wants an "independent investigation" into the clashes in Harare, saying those responsible "should be identified and brought to justice." Three people were killed after soldiers moved into Harare on Wednesday, firing live rounds and beating protesters. The government has condemned the opposition for the protesters who threw rocks and set fires after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the ruling ZANU-PF party had won a parliamentary majority in the election Monday. The opposition believes it was cheated of victory by a commission allegedly biased toward the government. The electoral commission says the vote was credible. A young mans story is going viral after a video of him letting a young customer with autism help stock shelves at a supermarket was shared on Facebook. Jordan Taylor, a 20-year-old who works at Rouses Market in Baton Rouge, La., was stocking the stores refrigerators when he noticed Jack Ryan, a 17-year-old with autism, watching him work. Sid Edwards, Ryans father, said that his son was so engrossed in Taylors work that he initially thought he wanted orange juice. However, even after grabbing a bottle of juice, Ryan was still watching Taylor work. Thats when Taylor asked if the teen wanted to help. Jordan Taylor is being praised after his treatment of an autistic teen goes viral. (Photo: Delaney Edwards Alwosaibi via Facebook) For half an hour, Taylor worked patiently alongside Ryan stocking the refrigerator together. Edwards, who took the video, shared it with his daughter, who posted it on Facebook. Talk about a stand up young man!!!! Delaney Edwards Alwosaibi wrote. We all know autism makes going out difficult, and sometimes grocery stores can be a challenge. [Taylor] could have ignored him. He could have made an excuse and said he couldnt allow him to help. Instead, he let him have his moment and in turn gave my family a moment we will never forget. It might seem like nothing to others, but as you can hear my dad say in the video, Im watching a miracle right now.' After the video started to gain attention, Alwosaibi set up a GoFundMe page to help send Taylor to college. The kind young man loves math and hopes to become a teacher someday, according to the page. I was just happy that I could make someone else happy and make their day, Taylor told WAFB. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. The Carr Fire burns along Highway 299 in Redding, Calif., on July 26, 2018. (Noah Berger/AP) The fire wasnt supposed to come to Hannah Hardys house. Though the Carr Fire had broken out a few days before in Shasta County, Calif., and her boss had given her time to gather her things in case of an evacuation order, she had only moved things closer to the door. Her father, who works at Cal Fire, said it probably wouldnt head her way. But then on Wednesday night, she realized he might have been wrong. It was hot and loud You can see over the city into where we live up in the mountains, and it was red the sky was red, everything was red, the 20-year-old student and assistant manager at Spencers gift shop tells Yahoo Lifestyle. I had the worst gut feeling. We went home, and it was even crazier over there. It was redder than it was in town, and hot. Redding gets hot, it gets 110, 115 here during the day and stays to 100 degrees at night. But it was too hot. Something wasnt right kind of hot. Still, she and girlfriend Bella Brace managed to go to sleep that night, only to be awakened an hour later by a neighbor theyd never met pounding on the door to tell them they were being evacuated. I said, How long do we have? And she said, Realistically, under five minutes,' Hardy recalls. The woman then took the time to wake up other neighbors, even as smoke began to fill their homes. All Hardy was able to grab was a bag shed never unpacked from a camping trip weeks earlier, her film camera, a couple of rolls of film, and her dog. Bella Brace and Hannah Hardy before they lost their home in the Carr Fire last week. (Photo: Courtesy of Bella and Hannah) I kind of had an idea of what I needed to grab, but in the moment of needing to grab it, it was a lot less mentally clear what I remembered to get, she says. Both Bella and I were just terrified. It was so much all at the same time. It was hot and loud. I didnt think about it until I saw video clips of the fire that what I was hearing the whole time was just fire. Chunks of fiery tree embers were falling as they got into their car and raced away. After pausing at a friends house in town, and nixing the idea of a shelter where they might be separated from their dog, Brace and Hardy drove all the way to Sacramento, more than 150 miles away, to stay in a hotel. Story continues Shelter and shock As of this writing, the Carr Fire has killed six people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes as it has raged through 196 square miles. It is only 35 percent contained. Reading those numbers, or watching the flames from the safety of a screen, doesnt do much to convey the experience of fleeing for your life from a fire or learning that your home is gone. Major Ivan Wild, Salvation Army divisional commander for the Del Oro Division in northern California, often witnesses what evacuees go through in the immediate aftermath of wildfires. Theyre of course glad to be safe, get a hot meal, and get hydrated, but then they start to process: I dont know if my home is there. I didnt have time to grab my pet,' Wild says. Theyre not sure if theyll be able to go back or when they can go back. Many people describe their first emotion after a fire as shock. What remains of Hannah Hardy and Bella Braces home after the Carr Fire. (Photo: Courtesy of Bella and Hannah) Its a feeling that this cant be real, says Doreen Van Leeuwen, a therapist and core committee member of the Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative in Sonoma County. Well use language like, I cant wrap my head around this. Its just too much for the brain to be able to process.' Survivors will also feel grief over what theyve lost and real, deep tiredness after their ordeal, she says. In addition to getting their basic needs of food, shelter, and water met, either in someone elses home or at a shelter, what they need most is psychological first aid reassurance from calm, logical people who can provide a sense of security. The trauma of fire Less than a year ago, Martin Ananias was definitely in need of some security. He too had been awakened in the middle of the night by a neighbor in the Santa Rosa, Calif., home he shared with his father. It was the first night of the Tubbs Fire, which became the most destructive in the states history, destroying 5,636 structures and killing 22 people. With a few documents and the clothes on their back, the men drove down the hill to a scene of complete chaos in town. There was a Hilton on the bottom of the hill, and people were just running outside the rooms, he recalls to Yahoo. What was really frightening was that no one had control of the situation. I dont think Ive ever been in a situation where people had lost control completely. Thats what makes it really scary. Nobody had any sense of protocol of what to do. Martin Ananias lost his Santa Rosa home in the Tubbs Fire in October 2017. (Photo courtesy of Martin Ananias) Hearing this description helps explain why, after a natural disaster such as this, around 30 to 40 percent of direct victims experience posttraumatic stress disorder. There are a lot of overlapping similarities between the different kinds of intense, life-threatening stressor experiences, like sexual assault, unexpected death of a loved one, fleeing for your life in a fire, combat, or interpersonal violence, [or] a terrorist assault, says Joe Ruzek, director of the Center for M2 Health at Palo Alto University and one of the developers of the self-help site MySonomaStrong.com. Survivors of a wildfire may be experiencing several extreme stressors at once: the fear involved in fleeing for their lives, death of a loved one, worry for their loved ones and pets, grief over the loss of their belongings and home, financial worries, and the sudden loss of their community. People may have intrusive thoughts or nightmares, and they may have high levels of bodily arousal, Ruzek says, adding that they may also experience depression and anxiety. Different people are differently vulnerable. In the days after the fire, Hardy is feeling some of those symptoms. Youll remember certain things, and it will instantly terrify you, she says. When we were getting back home last night from work, it was smoky outside, and I got super-anxious and nervous because of the smoke and not having an idea of where a fire might be at that moment. A community safety net When the fires start to be contained, and most people are out of harms way, the news headlines begin to fade away. But as Ananias puts it, surviving the fire is just the beginning of the battle. The only store open near where he was staying in Healdsburg, after being forced from his home in Santa Rosa, was a Walmart, where he was able to buy some clothes to wear. He counts himself lucky that he had money to buy such things. Many people, particularly undocumented workers who work in the surrounding vineyards, had so much less. Theyve lost absolutely everything, he says. Theyre completely lost. The remains of Martin Ananias home after the Tubbs Fire. (Photo courtesy of Martin Ananias) But what amazed Ananias amid this tragedy was watching how the community came together to help each other. There were pop-up stores where they would give out free stuff, he recalls. In that first month, there was so much support that it was somewhat overwhelming. Social support is another key to recovery from this kind of trauma, says Debbie Mason, CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County, which is also part of the Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative. One of the No. 1 indicators for people in having a healthy resiliency is being socially connected, she tells Yahoo. Hardy, whose mother started a GoFundMe page for her over the weekend, already recognizes what a difference the support of others can make. That tends to make it seem a little less crazy and a little less scary, knowing that [there are] so many people willing to help, she says. Even those who arent able to be in touch with their own family and friends can find that connection in others. When I was at the evacuation center at Shasta College, just seeing evacuees helping and supporting one another, theres that sense of community, the Salvation Armys Wild says. It is amazing, the human spirit, when these types of things happen. When people show up to help, then everybody starts rallying around that. From flight to fight In those early days, fire victims need both emotional support and practical help to navigate the bureaucracy of disaster relief. Some find distraction and motivation in being busy, but others can barely manage it. Theres just a lot of emotions [that people experience], and not knowing what theyre going to do or where theyre going to go, they kind of become disoriented, Wild explains. Having people sit down with them and go step by step, referring to the different agencies, it really does help. Ananias went back to his job in patient accounting at Healdsburg District Hospital two days after his house burned down. In a way, it helped to be at work, just to forget about what happened, he says. At the same time, he wishes he had taken more time off, just to fill out forms for insurance and FEMA assistance, all of which was complicated by the fact that so many of his documents were now ashes, along with his childhood photos. Van Leeuwen says people go through various phases, like the stages of grief, following a disaster. After shock and numbness comes anger. The anger is good when it mobilizes us, she says. It provides the needed energy to get on with life, to do what weve got to do and kick it into gear and get going, even though it hurts, even though it sucks. Weve got to find the energy to survive. The anger isnt a bad thing. Its worse when we internalize it or try to make it go away by drinking or doing other things we do to get rid of our feelings. The depression wall Next, people might experience a bargaining phase, in which they experience wishful thinking that the pain will go away, followed by depression. People in our community at this point are starting to hit that depression wall, Van Leeuwen says. They realize their neighborhoods are not going to be the same. Some of their neighbors are going to sell their property or move away. The trees are all gone. All of this is why the Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative keeps trying to inform their community about the resources they can use to take care of themselves as the first anniversary of the Tubbs Fire approaches. These resources range from free therapy and group counseling to yoga classes designed for trauma victims. The collaborative also encourages people to visit MySonomaStrong.com. Some people needed that help right away, while others might need it now, particularly as they hear the very triggering news of other fires around the state. Most people dont address [their mental health] until the period between nine months and two years after a trauma, Mason says. Thats when most people wake up out of that daze and say, Oh, Im not going to be able to power through this. I need some help.' Rebuilding home Hardy says she has considered seeking counseling once things settle down. For now, shes just relying on the support of friends and family, who are also giving her and Brace a place to live. Prior to living in that house, I stayed with some friends in their living room, and I was bouncing between houses and living in my car for part of it, she says. I worked up to having the money to have all that stuff and to have a stable life. Though Hardy didnt have renters insurance, she feels that because she was able to do it once, she can work and save all over again to get back to that sense of stability. Ananias says his coping method is to stay as busy as possible. He and his father are living in an apartment complex close to his old home, and they see daily reminders of how long the rebuilding process will take. Californias rising home prices mean that many homeowners insurance policies dont cover the true cost of building or buying a new home in the area. That means many people have moved elsewhere, but Ananias is determined to stay put. I fell in love with Santa Rosa after this, he says. The outpouring of support showed me what home is. There was no moment where I thought I was going to move from Santa Rosa. I think this just made my roots a little deeper. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. Its doing extremely well, Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane said of RXBar on a conference call with analysts Thursday after the release of the companys second-quarter results. Were very, very pleased with the acquisition and very, very pleased with the team and how we can grow it in such a special way. U.S. Air Force A-10 aircraft takes part in the urban fighting drill during the NATO Saber Strike exercise in the Soviet-time former military town near Skrunda, Latvia June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Sean T. Crowley Security, Eurasia NATO expansion has fueled some of Russia's worst fears . . . and impulses. What happens now? NATO 'Encirclement' May Be Creating a New Crisis with Russia This essay was a runner up in the 2018 John Quincy Adams Society/TNI Student Foreign Policy Essay Contest. Following the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States moved to fill the security vacuum left in the postcommunist space. It brought former Warsaw Pact states and Soviet republics into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and was public about its intentions to expand the Alliance even further to the east. American aid agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provided political and financial support to elements in Russias so-called near abroad not willing to follow Moscows lead. One can argue that the United States intentions were noble. American officials feared that if their country turned its back on Eastern Europe, then Russia would reemerge from its state of postCold War disarray and reassert its military might over its former satrapies. Almost thirty years later, Russia has largely recovered from the postSoviet economic depression that it endured and is looking to reestablish its traditional security mechanisms in Europe. The United States efforts to keep the peace in the former Soviet space were arguably a failure. American officials now look to compensate for their shortcomings by getting more involved in the region whether it be by levying economic sanctions on Russia or providing weapons to its neighbors. However, few in Washington would argue that these failures occurred because of the United States doing too much in Russias near abroad. Few American officials recognized the security concerns that would develop in Moscow if NATO expanded. Some outright dismissed Russias worries about NATO encirclement by correctly citing that the United States withdrew the majority of its military forces from Europe in the years following the Cold War. However, such thinking overlooks other concerns held by the Kremlin. As it withdrew conventional troops, the United States exited the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002 and promised the establishment of a ballistic-missile defense (BMD) system in Europe which would leave Russia vulnerable in the event of nuclear war. Story continues Alliance expansion into the near abroad also empowered some of the most historically anti-Russian elements in that regionUkrainian Banderites, Polish nationalists, Balkan Islamists. American-led regime change efforts against Middle Eastern governments in Iraq, Libya, and Syria greatly concerned Russia given their empowerment of jihadist forces, and, for the longest time, the Russian Empire and the USSR considered Western Asia to be in their sphere of influence as explained by British historian Christopher Andrew and KGB defector Vasiliy Mitrokhin in The World Was Going Our Way. Fear of foreign intervention is a longstanding Russian historical concern. At bottom of [the] Kremlins neurotic view of world affairs is [a] traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity, wrote George F. Kennan, father of the Cold War-era containment doctrine, in his famous Long Telegram. Whereas the West sees Russias fear of invasion as groundless, history has shown Russian leaders that foreign intentions are typically hidden or fluid. Each age brings a new existential threat; there would always be another Napoleon or Hitler, writes Benn Steil in Foreign Policy. Russia has historically sought a buffer to protect itself from foreign invaders. Stalin wanted territory from Turkey and Iran after World War II because of those states proximity to Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Neither he nor Mikhail Gorbachev would accept a unified Germany given that countrys role in invading Russia twice in the twentieth century. (Gorbachev also supported Russian military intervention in Georgia and Crimea.) After the Cold War, the United States ignored Russias historical insecurity about foreign encirclement by expanding NATO. As Andrew and Mitrokhin note, this came at a time when Russias territory was the smallest it had been since the reign of Catherine the Great. Those in the U.S. foreign-policy establishment well-versed in Russian history were able to foresee the consequences of American meddling in the former Soviet space. Strobe Talbott, President William Jefferson Clintons point man for all things Russia, cautioned, An expanded NATO that excludes Russia will not serve to contain Russias retrograde, expansionist impulses. Kennan argued that NATO expansion would inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western tendencies in Russian opinion, retard the development of Russian democracy, bring about a new cold war, and impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to [Americas] liking. While both Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin opposed NATO expansion, U.S. meddling in the near abroad also ensured that these men would not be the type of leaders Washington would deal with in future negotiations with Moscow. The USSRs dissolution brought about a decreased role for the vanguard of that empire, those serving in the armed forces and security/intelligence apparatus. After their aborted attempt to unseat President Gorbachev in August 1991, the security class was relegated to the wayside until American meddling in the former Soviet space gave them an excuse to claw their way back to power, a point lost on most Western observers. In their other major KGB expose, The Sword and the Shield: Thye Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Andrew and Mitrokhin largely attribute the resurgence of the security class to one man: Yevgeniy Primakov. A former KGB Arabist, Primakov headed Russias external intelligence agency, the SVR, until 1996 when he supplanted the largely pro-Western Andrey Kozyrev as foreign minister. In his previous capacity, Primakov wrote a report in 1993 attacking NATO expansion as a threat to Russia and warned the United States the following year not to impede Russias efforts at political and economic reintegration with the former Soviet republics. Primakov left the SVR in the care of his deputy, Vyacheslav Trubnikov. The agency authored reports for President Yeltsin reflecting its own view on world events and providing complementary policy options. As foreign minister, Primakov no doubt encouraged Yeltsin to adopt such views. During Trubnikovs tenure, the SVR also extended olive branches to regimes such as Saddam Husayns Iraq and Slobodan Milosevics Yugoslavia because, according to Andrew and Mitrokhin, the agency did not want to be defeated by the West. The East-West clash of civilizations view inherent in the security services did not depart from the Kremlin after Primakovs ouster from the Yeltsin administration in 1999. (He had become prime minister at that point.) Russias new president, Vladimir Putin, showed a considerable willingness to partner with the West on issues such as counterterrorism despite being a former KGB officer. It is unclear to what extent Putin initially embraced the clash of civilizations view held by many in the security class (commonly referred to as the siloviki throughout his tenure), but any suspicions he had were certainly warranted given the acceptance of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic into NATO and the Alliances bombing of Yugoslavia, both of which occurred the year before he was elected president. Upon Putins ascension to the presidency, the siloviki obtained key positions in what Amy Knight, author of Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder, calls Russias power ministries, the police and security agencies. (Additionally, KGB veteran Igor Sechin, Putins de facto second in command, became head of the state-owned Rosneft oil company.) Knight offers a profile of one of these men, Security Council head and former KGB officer Nikolay Patrushev, writing that, like Putin, he harbors a deep distrust of the West, repeatedly accusing Western governments of plans to undermine Russias political stability. American meddling is sure to only reinforce the worldview held by Patrushev, Putin, and the other siloviki, and the way that information flows through Putins administration can do nothing but fan the flames of the new cold war. According to The New Tsar, written by former New York Times correspondent Steven Lee Meyers, Putins office computer reportedly lacks an Internet connection, a purposeful design so that he can solicit information from only his most trusted advisers, many of whom are siloviki. Putin has even come to favor certain security officials over others. According to Mark Galeotti, he has politically isolated the SVR and military intelligence, ensuring his primary flow of information comes from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency he (and Patrushev) once headed and many of whose members share the view that the West is trying to encircle and bring down Russia. In short, provocative American actionsNATO expansion, support for the so-called color revolutions, regime change wars in the Middle Easthave triggered historical Russian suspicions of foreign intervention and empowered a jingoistic security class that operates in an information vacuum. Russo-American relations are at a historic impasse as any further Western intervention in the former Soviet space or efforts to punish Russia for its overseas meddling will only affirm the view of the siloviki that there exists a Western plot to keep Russia down (with much of the Russian public sharing this view). They will respond by further severing ties with the West. The United States must acknowledge the role that it has played in the Russian security classs consolidation of power, and it should consider decreasing its political-military presence in areas Russia traditionally considers to be in its sphere of influence (this would include both the former Soviet space and the Middle East). Doing so could weaken the narrative that the siloviki rely on to stay in power and restore Washingtons relations with Moscow to a healthy state. Sean T. Crowley is a graduate student at the University of Pittsburghs Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) where he is pursuing a Security and Intelligence Studies degree with a Russian Studies graduate certificate. Image: U.S. Air Force A-10 aircraft takes part in the urban fighting drill during the NATO Saber Strike exercise in the Soviet-time former military town near Skrunda, Latvia June 13, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins Read full article Paul Manafort is the first former Trump aide to face a criminal trial as a result of the Mueller probe: Reuters Prosecutors have raised the possibility that their expected star witness "may not" testify against Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, as they concentrated on Mr Manafort's lavish lifestyle during the second day of his bank fraud trial. The trial is the first courtroom test for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who was tasked last year with investigating Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and to determine whether any of President Trump's campaign team were involved. So far, Mr Manafort is the lone person to stand trial as a result of the ongoing probe, even though the charges of bank fraud and tax evasion are unrelated to possible collusion. Moscow has denied any interference. Mr Manafort, 69, is charged with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges he faces in the Virginia court. Rick Gates, Mr Manafort's former business partner pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mr Mueller, with an agreed plea deal expected to make him the star government witness. However, Judge TS Ellis appeared surprised to hear the prosecution - who said they were moving quicker through their case than expected - may not call him He may testify in this case, he may not, said prosecutor Uzo Asonye, a day after the defence made clear in opening statements to jurors that its strategy was centred on discrediting Mr Gates and blaming him for the fraud. When the judge asked Mr Asonye for a clarification, Mr Asonye said prosecutors are constantly evaluating the need to call a particular witness and his comments were not to suggest we are not calling him. With the defence centred on Mr Gates, the prosecution pushed ahead on day two with the main point of their case, painting a picture of Mr Manafort's lavish lifestyle that prosecutors allege was paid for by money from off-shore accounts containing money from political consultancy work carried out in Ukraine. Mr Manafort's consulting work for pro-Russian politicians is alleged to have earned him $60 million. Story continues Prosecutors have portrayed Mr Manafort as a tax cheat who hid money in offshore accounts, and lied to borrow millions more against real estate in a bid to maintain an extravagant lifestyle. Jurors heard details of Mr Manafort's acquisition of more than $1 million in clothing, expensive cars and more than $3 million in home improvement work nearly all paid for either in cash or by offshore wire transfers. An FBI agent present for the July 2017 raid on Mr Manafort's Virginia home, Matthew Mikuska, described finding expensively tailored suits and documents related to other luxury items allegedly bought by Manafort, including two silk rugs bought for $160,000 paid from offshore accounts. However, the push to show Mr Manafort's extravagance earned a rebuke from Judge Ellis, who had previously shown his distaste for the prosecutions push to criticise wealth. But when prosecutors introduced photos of Mr Manafort's high-end property and expensive suits, Mr Ellis interrupted so as to limit the growing list of evidence jurors would have to consider. All this document shows is that Mr Manafort had a lavish lifestyle, Judge Ellis said at one point. It isn't relevant. Prosecutor Greg Andres argued that Mr Manafort's spending was important to the government's case. Judge, this is not an effort to prove Mr. Manafort lived lavishly, Mr Andres said. It's evidence of his income. On the term oligarchs, used to describe the people Mr Manafort was said to have worked for in Ukraine, Mr Ellise said use of the word implied that Mr Manafort was associating with despicable people and therefore he's despicable. That's not the American way, the judge said. Outside the courtroom, Mr Trump used the Manafort case to again attack Mr Mueller and his investigation. Mr Trump has consistently labelled the investigation a "witch hunt" and insisted there was no collusion. In a bizarre tweet, he compared Mr Manafort to 1920s Chicago mobster Alphonse Al Capone. Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and 'Public Enemy Number One,' or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Mr Trump wrote. He also returned to his much-worn theme of mr Mueller. This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further, Mr Trump tweeted, adding that Mr Mueller's team is a disgrace to USA. Mr Manafort's trial in Virginia is expected to last about three weeks. He faces a further trial in Washington DC in September, Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report (HOUSTON ) Authorities on Wednesday identified a man who they believe gunned down one of former President George H.W. Bushs doctors last month as the son of a woman who died while the doctor was operating on her more than 20 years ago. Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference Wednesday that the suspect, 65-year-old Joseph James Pappas, should be considered armed, dangerous and possibly suicidal. There was a lot of planning that went into this. There was a lot of planning and, sadly, some skill, Acevedo said of the attack on Dr. Mark Hausknecht, who was gunned down July 20 while riding his bike to work. Authorities say the shooter rode past Hausknecht before turning around and firing. Acevedo said Pappas is white and very fit and that he likely has his 10-speed bicycle, which he rides extensively and almost exclusively. In 2000, Hausknecht treated Bush for an irregular heartbeat after the ex-president complained about lightheadedness. A: Iowa is better. Or the better ones in Iowa are better than the best ones in Indiana. In Iowa, they are so juicy. It's not as much about being the biggest one; it's more about the juiciness. They use great pork, and it's thicker. That said, it's still only a once- or twice-a-year thing for me. Former President Barack Obama made a rare post-presidency foray into the political arena Wednesday, releasing the first list of candidates he is planning on supporting in Novembers midterm elections. The list includes 81 candidates across 14 states running in both federal and state elections. Over half of the candidates who received endorsements are women, and over a quarter are non-white. Many also have ties to Obama; 20 worked in his administration or for his campaigns. Im proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America theyre running to represent, Obama said in a statement. Im confident that, together, theyll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity thats broadly shared, repairing our alliances and standing in the world, and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility, and the rule of law. When asked how Obama made his selections, an Obama aide told TIME that the candidates had been chosen in a way that would make the most of [Obamas] time and voice, and emphasized the importance of selecting Obama alumni and ensuring diversity. Obamas office said in a separate statement that the former President will campaign throughout the fall and will issue a second wave of endorsements before the midterms. Since he left office over a year and a half ago, Obama has only dabbled in the political arena, following a precedent set by other modern ex-Presidents. Hes attended a handful of Democratic fundraisers, and while hes endorsed several candidates, he has only ventured onto the campaign trail to stump for two: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. (Obama also recorded a robocall for Alabama Senator Doug Jones during Jones campaign in December.) Wednesdays announcement signals Obama is ready to jump back into campaigning. But his choice of endorsements, even if arguably representative of the diversity among Democratic candidates, is still relatively conservative in regards to the future of the party as a whole. Obama did not endorse anyone facing contested primaries, and all of candidates he endorsed are in states that have already held their primaries, with the exception of New York, which is holding its statewide primaries in September. But even in that instance, Obama declined to weigh in on the high-profile gubernatorial race, in which Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon is challenging Governor Andrew Cuomo, or the Attorney General race, in which several candidates are vying for the nomination. He only endorsed Antonio Delgado, a Congressional candidate who already won his primary, and Anna Kaplan, a New York State Senate candidate whose primary opponent dropped out in July. Story continues Also absent from the list is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old Democratic Socialist who shocked the country in June by defeating Congressman Joe Crowley the party caucus chairman who was considered a strong contender to challenge House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a Democratic primary. Her victory has been widely seen as a sign that some Democrats want the party to move more to the left to challenge President Donald Trump and Trump-aligned Republicans more broadly. Obama could always include Ocasio-Cortez, whose campaign did not immediately return TIMEs request for comment, in his second wave of endorsements. The Obama aide said the former President has received many requests for endorsements, and his team is releasing names in waves because they are still going through the list of potential candidates. Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America which endorsed Ocasio-Cortez before she defeated Crowley said Obama not including Ocasio-Cortez on his first list was a missed opportunity. An endorsement, he says, would have shown former President Obama recognizing the leadership she already has in the party, he said. But Sroka also applauded Obama for declining to issue endorsements in contested primaries, a move that could influence the vote. One of the major mistakes Democrats have made in primary campaigns is making endorsements before [the primary], he says. Its good to see President Obama understand that, especially when it comes to 2018 primaries, its very important that grassroots-based voters have their voice heard. CENTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) President Donald Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels could be on stage in Ohio at the same time, some 90 miles apart. The Republican president is leading a Saturday evening rally at the Delaware County Fairgrounds to shore up support for state Sen. Troy Balderson ahead of the Aug. 7 special election for U.S. House District 12. It's scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Meanwhile, Daniels is scheduled Saturday for her second straight two-set night at Diamonds Cabaret in Centerville. The strip club opens at 7 p.m. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had sex with Trump in 2006, when he was married. He denies that. Charges in Columbus, Ohio, were quickly dropped after her July 11 arrest at a strip club. A fan reportedly accused J.R. Smith of chucking his phone into a construction site after he took an unwanted photo of the Cavaliers guard. (AP) New York police are investigating Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. after a fan accused him of taking his mobile phone and tossing it after having his picture taken, according to multiple reports. TMZ first reported the alleged incident that occurred around 2:30 a.m. Sunday outside of a New York club. A fan approached Smith asking to take a photo. Fan says Smith got angry after he took his picture When Smith declined and the fan took a photo anyway, the fan says Smith approached him, grabbed his phone and threw it into a construction site, according to the report. The fan then filed a police report, claiming his $800 phone was damaged, TMZ reports. Smith has not been charged with a crime, according to the report. The New York Daily News adds that the 20-year-old fan claimed criminal mischief in his complaint. Not Smiths 1st alleged NYC incident This is not Smiths first alleged dust-up with a fan in the New York streets. A 19-year-old accused Smith of choking him outside a pizza shop in 2015 after heckling him about being traded from the Knicks to the Cavaliers. Smith was not charged in that incident. Smiths attorney Alex Spiro denied the latest accusation to TMZ. The claim is nonsense, and we do not have anything to say about nonsense. More from Yahoo Sports: Pro golfer ends cancer treatment, will begin palliative care Dan Wetzel: If Urban Meyer knew of domestic violence allegations, he deserves to be fired Nats designate Shawn Kelley for assignment after tantrum on the mound Dak Prescott says his anthem comments were misunderstood Sebastien Roblin Security, Europe In the last decade of the Cold War, the MiG-31, codenamed Foxhound by NATO, enjoyed a certain mystique in the West. The same grainy photos aerial photos of the high speed fighter would show up in aviation publications, along with ominous speculation over its capabilities. But unlike its peersthe MiG-29 and Su-27the Foxhound never fully emerged from obscurity after the Cold War. Russia's MiG-31 Fighter: Moscow's Old Mach 3 Monster The MiG-31 is emblematic of an older design paradigm envisioning super-fast interceptors traversing vast distances to knock out encroaching bombers and missiles before they can do any damage. While the rest of the world has largely moved on to multi-role fighters that are equally capable of tangling with enemy fighters or launching air strikes against insurgents, the Russian military still sees a need for heavy, high-speed interceptors to guard its expansive borders. In the last decade of the Cold War, the MiG-31, codenamed Foxhound by NATO, enjoyed a certain mystique in the West. The same grainy photos aerial photos of the high speed fighter would show up in aviation publications, along with ominous speculation over its capabilities. But unlike its peersthe MiG-29 and Su-27the Foxhound never fully emerged from obscurity after the Cold War. The reason is simplethe MiG-31 was built to be a home-defense interceptor, and was neither exported nor used in combat. But Moscow maintains hundreds of the fighters in its inventory as parts of its multi-layered air defense network, and will continue to do so for years to come. (This first appeared in 2016.) The Foxhound emerged as an attempt to improve on a somewhat disappointing predecessor, the MiG-25 Foxbat. The twin-engine Foxbat remains the fastest flying operational fighter, able to attain speeds over Mach 3 and fly up to 70 thousand feet in order to counter the U.S. XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber, which did not end up entering production. The Foxbat enjoyed an inflated reputation in Western aviation circles until Soviet defector Victor Belenko flew one over to Japan in 1976, allowing the Pentagon to discover what the Soviets had long been aware offor all of its speed, the Foxbat was a bit of a dog when it came to maneuverability and could not maintain supersonic speeds at low altitude. Furthermore, it could attain Mach 3 speeds only by burning its engines out beyond their heat tolerance. Story continues After the defection, the MiG-25 began to be sold for export, while the Soviet Union focused on building a better high-speed interceptor out of the Foxbat airframe. Moscow was no longer just concerned solely by high-altitude high-speed bombers, but also low-altitude cruise missiles zipping through gaps in its radar defenses. New design elements included a back seat Weapon Systems Officer to operate a powerful new radar, improved long range air-to-air missiles, and better engines. This much evolved super Foxbat, designated the MiG-31, was distinguished by the addition of a backseat Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) to operate its large Zaslon S-800 Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar. The heavy radar had a maximum range of 125 miles and featured look down, shoot down capability to detect and target low-flying aircraft, which was not widespread at the time. An infrared-red search and track system (IRST) further complimented it sensor suit. The centerpiece of the Foxhounds armament was its new R-33 long-range missiles, codenamed the AA-9 Amos by NATO. The R-33 are considered the Soviet equivalent to the AIM-54 Phoenix missiles used by U.S. Navy F-14sthe large radar-guided missiles were mounted under the MiG-31s belly for engaging opposing bombers at long ranges of up to 75 miles. The Foxhounds radar enabled it to launch at up to four aircraft simultaneously. Four to six additional medium- or short-range air-to-air missiles could be mounted under the wings. Unlike the Foxbat, the Foxhound was also armed with a 23-millimeter cannon. The MiG-31 retains the Foxbats high-altitude performance, though it is a bit slower at Mach 2.83still faster than any operation Western fighters today. More importantly, it can fly up to Mach 1.23 at low altitudewhich the MiG-25 cannot. This makes it ideal for hunting ground-skimming cruise missiles and fighter bombers. Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan? Nonetheless, the Foxhound is not highly maneuverable, and cannot safely pull more than 5Gs while flying supersonic. The MiG-31 would not fare well in air-to-air engagements against contemporary fighters such as the F-15but thats simply not what it was designed to do. The Foxhound is intended to close on intruders at high speeds, fire off its missiles and disengage. Bane of the Blackbird Production of the Foxhound began in 1979 and it entered service in 1981. Inspired by vague but glowing intelligence reports on its capabilities, the Foxhound acquired a sinister reputation in NATO intelligence reports. Reflecting this exaggerated reputation, the 1982 film Firefox, starring Clint Eastwood, imagined the MiG-31 as capable of flying at Mach 5, benefiting from stealth technology, and of being operated by thought alone! In the real world, the MiG-31 does appear to have been used to chase after the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, which could sustain speeds of Mach 3.3 or higher on its reconnaissance missions. The account of one Soviet pilot suggests that a Foxhound was able to lock on to a Blackbird with its missiles. Another report claims that six MiG-31 were able to box-in a Blackbird in a separate incident. However, the Blackbird was never employed to actually overfly Soviet airspace, contrary to what some sources imply. The Blackbirds instead flew alongside itwhich would explain why MiG-31 pilots never had reason to fire their R-33 missiles at the speedy spy planes. Moscow refined its Foxhounds over time, starting with producing 101 of the air-refueling capable MiG-31DZ variant starting in 1989. Following the 1985 revelation that Soviet aeronautical designer Adolf Tolkachev had exposed the secrets of the Foxhounds radar to the CIA, 69 MiG-31Bs and BSs were later developed with new radars and various hardware upgrades. Two MiG-31Ds were also developed to fire specialized anti-satellite missiles. A MiG-31E export version was also conceived, but never saw foreign salesthe Foxhound was just too specialized and expensive to appeal to foreign buyers. The only Foxhounds serving outside of Russia are thirty to fifty inherited after the collapse of the Soviet Union by the Kazakh Air Force. In 2015, there were rumors that Syria had purchased MiG-31s from Moscow. These did not prove to be true, probably to the good fortune of the Syrian government, which would have found little use for a high-performance air-to-air platform in its brutal civil war. Syrias fleet of MiG-25 interceptors have already proven very poorly adapted to the conflict, reduced to firing air-to-air missiles at targets on the ground with predictable results. Foxhounds of the Future According to one count, there are 252 MiG-31s in the inventory of the Russian Air Force. Moscow began modernizing its Foxhound fleet to the MiG-31BM and BSM variant starting in 2010, and plans to have 100 upgraded by 2020. The BM includes modernized cockpit displays, a hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS), and a new Zaslon-M radar with maximum detection range increased to 200 miles. It also is upgraded to employ the latest generation of long-range air-to-air missiles, including the R-33S, the R-77the Russian equivalent to the U.S. AIM-120and the super-long range R-37intended to be a tanker- and AWACs-killer. The new Foxhounds are also capable of mounting up to 18 thousand pounds of air-to-ground smart bombs and anti-radar missiles in case Moscow needs some additional strike planes. Finally, the BMs have new data-links integrating the MiG-31s sensors with ground-based radars and friendly fighter planes, allowing the Foxhound to coordinate the entire air defense system. A flight of four of the upgraded Foxhounds could patrol a swath of airspace over 400 miles across. At 35 years old, the MiG-31 is expected to serve on until 2030. Moscow claims that another dedicated Mach 4 interceptor, the MiG-41 or PAK-DP, will be developed to succeed the Foxhound in the air defense role. This is curious, as the Kremlin has only financed the production of 10 advanced PAK-FA stealth fighters so far, giving reason to wonder if it can afford to deploy a far more specialized platform as well. Already, the projects reported start date varies wildly in reports from 2013 to 2017 to 2019! Like other optimistic claims made by the Russian defense sector, it would be wiser to take a wait-and-see approach rather than accept such claims at face value. The MiG-31 is emblematic of an older design paradigm envisioning super-fast interceptors traversing vast distances to knock out encroaching bombers and missiles before they can do any damage. While the rest of the world has largely moved on to multi-role fighters that are equally capable of tangling with enemy fighters or launching air strikes against insurgents, the Russian military still sees a need for heavy, high-speed interceptors to guard its expansive borders. Sebastien Roblin holds a Masters Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. Image: Creative Commons. Read full article Russian servicemen in historical uniforms stand during military parade training in Red Square in Moscow November 5, 2009. The parade will take place on November 7 to mark the anniversary of a historical parade in 1941 when Soviet soldiers marched through George Getsos Security, Europe In 1944, Moscow unleashed a second D-Day that ended Nazi Germany. Today, that strategy of maskirovka is being used again. How Russia's World War II Military Strategy of Deception Is Alive and Well Today Operation Bagration, which was conducted in 1944 between June 22 and August 19, was perhaps the single most successful Soviet operation of World War II. The goal of the operation was ambitiousthe destruction of the German Army Group Center as well as the liberation of Belarus. The success of Bagration would also enable sequential operations across the entire theater to retake western Ukraine and enter the Baltics States and Poland. To do this, Russia used a strategy of deception and intelligence operations designed to disrupt Germanys center of gravity. After an elaborate maskirovka (deception) campaign, which ensured the bulk of German Panzer divisions remained in western Ukraine and northern Romania for the critical first week of the operation, the Soviets unleashed four fronts on German Army Group Center, catching the Germans by surprise. The defeat was devastating for Germany. Besides losing most of Army Group Center, the German front receded 240310 miles in depth and was broken in two, isolating Army Group North in the Baltic States. Bagration systematically reduced German armored formations and placed the Soviet Army in an excellent position to press the advantage into Poland and the Balkans. Operation Bagration can be used as a case study to illustrate critical lessons on the synergy between intelligence and maneuver at the operational level. Intelligence and deception should not be viewed merely as operational support, but rather as a cognitive maneuver. At the operational level, deception can be used to affect posturing and as a result, maneuver. By affecting posturing and the ability to maneuver, intelligence operations can be used to create operational level vulnerabilities in the enemy by setting the Clausewitzian Center of Gravity out of focus. Story continues This enables opportunities to pursue non-traditional avenues of attack, where intelligence and deception in combination with a coordinated and well-executed operational maneuver create a critical imbalance in the enemys correlation of forces. As Bagration shows, this is not just an asymmetric tool for the weaker side, but a critical advantage which should always be pursued. In our modern age of high tempo and highly destructive warfare, the lessons of Bagration resonate as strongly as ever. An off-balance center of gravity today creates vulnerabilities even greater than in 1944. For instance, reaction times are much shorter and destructive power is much more accurate and prompt. In addition, the ever-present specter of nuclear weapons presents combatants with the temptation to pursue short, decisive wars to quickly alter the situation on the ground and then dare their opponents to either escalate significantly or accept the changes in the status quo. Instances include the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the takeover of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of eastern Ukraine in 2014. These all demonstrate how a decisive and prompt aggressor power can use force to change de facto borders and escape retribution, at least militarily. It also does not take much effort to think of such a strategy being applied against Taiwan or the Baltic States. For example, where those states to be overrun in a short period of time, then the West might be unwilling to risk theater-wide war for something that is already lost. Furthermore, even if the West did, the correlation of forces may be too imbalanced to be able to meaningfully challenge the invasion immediately. All the aforementioned operations succeeded because the West, the enforcer of the status quo, was caught off guard. Therefore, despite the repeated emphasis on information dominance and stealth, contemporary Western military commentary does not pay sufficient attention to deception on a grand scale. To illuminate the potential of the synergy of operational combat and deception, one must outline how the operational level is of warfare different from the tactical and strategic levels. All three levels can be discussed based on the following constitutive principles; a) the contingent anticipation (i.e., what kind of activity is expected to occur); b) the plan of action and its goals; c) the allocation of resources; d) the orchestration of assets, and, ultimately; e) the social objective. Here, the meaning of social objective refers to the specific desired outcome of a project which requires the synergy among various social agents, and which underlines the complex nature of war. The operational level of war is critical in that it connects strategy and tactics. It is actually the manifestation of strategy. More explicitly: The contingent anticipation of the operational level is maneuvering, the employment of formations over multiple engagements. The plan of action aims to destabilize the enemys center of gravity and to produce collapse, encirclement, and annihilation. The drive against the Schwerpunkt (the main target/axis of advance) takes priority in resource allocation. Assets are used sequentially, one maneuver or engagement executed after another as part of a greater plan to control the center of gravity. Soviet doctrine, in particular, emphasized the timely sequential application of reserves. The final social goal is to generate momentum to constantly keep the enemy off balance. Operation Bagration and its follow-on operations are an exemplary case of the application of operational principles with excellent maneuver, large and properly committed reserves, and decisive generation of momentum to produce shock and awe. The Soviets were able to destabilize the German center of gravity, the armored reserve, before combat even began, by employing deception. The success of Operation Bagration depended on achieving operational surprise and keeping heavy German reinforcements away from the area of operations. The Soviet deception operation was clearly aimed at exploiting the biases of Hitler and the German High Command. The deception plan was simple. The Soviet General Staff would exploit the existing German expectation of a continuation of attacks in Ukraine, where they had already been conditioned to focus on after the successful Soviet winter campaign, to divert attention away from the main attack in Belarus. Through a combination of radio silence, strict planning secrecy, large-scale camouflage and cleverly keeping assault units in Western Ukraine and Romania for the Germans to see while building brand new ones in Belarus, the Soviets were able to keep the Germans completely blind to their plans. The Soviets were also able to apply the principles of operations discussed previously so successfully because of deception. In fact, the entire operational plan mainly relied on fixing the German center of gravitythe armored reservein Western Ukraine and Romania. Of particular importance was the redeployment of the LVI Panzer Corps from Belarus to Ukraine to face the expected Soviet offensive there. Maskirovka not only kept additional reinforcements away from the target area but succeeded in dramatically improving the correlation of forces with little cost and no risk to the Red Army. Since maskirovka was formulated and directly controlled at the highest levels of authority, the Soviets were able to augment the application of all previously discussed principles of operations. They were able to sequentially commit mobile reserves to drive deep inside Belarus along multiple axes of advance. The success of deception in Bagration caught the Germans off guard, and the subsequent breakout caused them to shift reserves to Belarus rapidly. This only exasperated the destabilization of the German center of gravity allowing the Lvov-Sandomierz and Romanian operations to enjoy the initial advantage Bagration did. At the theater level, the planned sequential operations masterfully exploited the use of Soviet reserves, while constantly striking were the German reserves were not. The social objective, both within Bagration itself and the theater level, was fulfilled completely, with Soviet forces gaining tremendous momentum. None of this extraordinary sequentiality could have been achieved however without successful maskirovka. By keeping the Germans continually blind, maskirovka prevented them from properly applying the principles of operations. Under contemporary conditions, camouflaging large concentrations of troops is harder given the advanced state of surveillance technology but not impossible. The Kosovo War clearly demonstrated that decoys can still be useful in misdirecting even modern systems. Moreover, surveillance technology has still not solved the problem of identifying an adversarys intent. In a modern context, repeated snap exercises, gradual force buildups, and constant provocative behavior short of aggression can serve to both induce complacency in a defender, wear down his alertness, as well as confuse him as to the direction and purpose of a possible attack. Russia and China are currently involved in generating such white noise. On the one hand, Russia grabs the headlines with its large-scale snap exercises, harassment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization warships, and strategic bomber probes against North America. On the other hand, the Chinese have also been active in conducting military exercises and desensitizing Western intelligence to large numbers of vessels in the South China Sea. This normalization of elevated military activity makes it easier to disguise an even greater buildup or misdirect observers as to the direction or manner of an upcoming attack. This potentially exposes the West to a Bagration style center of gravity destabilization, where the bulk of Western forces remains unaware of a changing adversarial buildup, aligned in the wrong direction, or expecting the wrong manner of attack. In other words, the technology and methods have evolved, but the underlying principles have not changed. George Getsos is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves and a masters candidate at the Georgetown University Security Studies Program. The viewpoints contained in the article are the authors own opinions and are not representative of the U.S. Army. Image: Russian servicemen in historical uniforms stand during military parade training in Red Square in Moscow November 5, 2009. The parade will take place on November 7 to mark the anniversary of a historical parade in 1941 when Soviet soldiers marched through Red Square to the front lines of World War II. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov (RUSSIA MILITARY IMAGES OF THE DAY) Read full article Using coupons seems straightforward when you first start to clip. Save $1 means save a buck how complicated is that? But once you've mastered the basics, you may notice that the serious couponers are saving more. They're out there applying coupons to clearance items, using competitor coupons and even expired coupons. Isn't that cheating? Not necessarily. Different stores have different coupon rules. Employees often give conflicting explanations of those rules. Fortunately, most chains have a document that can settle the confusion: an official coupon policy. Dominick's customers recently endured a worst-case-scenario for coupon confusion. In the past, Dominick's had accepted coupons up to one year past the expiration date. Then in early February, the store's registers started greeting expired coupons with a beep. At my store, the employees had no idea why this was happening, since they had been instructed to accept expired coupons. Legions of disgruntled customers reported beeping expired coupons on the Dominick's Facebook page. Many stores refused to accept the beeping coupons. Customers were confused did Dominick's still accept expired coupons or not? After several days of silence, a spokesperson posted on Facebook, "our corporate policy is NOT to accept expired manufacturer's coupons." A few days later, the store changed its official coupon policy to reflect that. Dominick's declined to comment. I share this episode not to rip Dominick's for its customer-relations fumble. Plenty of customers have already done that at facebook.com/dominicks. I bring it up to illustrate that there is no across-the-board right or wrong way to use coupons. Whether you can use a certain coupon is not dictated by common sense or morals. Acceptance can change from store to store and from time to time. The only way to really know right from wrong is to check the store's coupon policy. In the Dominick's case, customers had to endure a few days of confusion, but eventually the store's policy caught up to its new practice. Many stores have posted their coupon policies online, where you can print them and carry them while you shop. You'll find links to the policies of Walgreens, Target, Jewel-Osco and Dominick's on the Frugalista blog at su.pr/1wUfTY. If you present a valid coupon and the cashier says you can't use it, will it do any good to whip out your copy of the store's coupon policy? Or will you be laughed out of the store? Megan Stevenson, marketing coordinator for Jewel-Osco parent Supervalu, said that if employees doubt the authenticity of your printed policy, they can always check the copy they keep behind the service desk. That would be the ideal scenario. But on Frugalista shopping trips to various grocery chains, I have yet to see an employee consult an up-to-date corporate policy. I haven't tried showing them my own printouts of coupon policies, because I have been too disorganized to carry them in my coupon file. But if nothing else, read them. Coupon polices save you from wasting time trying a coupon that the store doesn't allow. And when you know you're right, you can confidently appeal to management or corporate customer service. Finally, knowing the coupon policy can tip you off to deals, including when it pertains to free or discounted items with alcohol purchases. Check out this line from Jewel's policy: "Illinois/Iowa: Liquor Coupons that state they are redeemable on a purchase of liquor and a non-alcoholic item are redeemed without the customer having to purchase the liquor item." Allison Radkay, of Homewood, read this line and wondered if it could be true. She had seen coupons for a free pizza with a 12-pack of beer, for example. "Do we have to buy the beer?" she asked me in an email. Jewel-Osco's Stevenson confirmed that Radkay's coupon would really get her a free pizza, no purchase required. "Due to state laws in Illinois, customers are not required to purchase any type of alcohol (beer, wine or liquor) when offered on a coupon (store or manufacturer) in conjunction with a non-alcoholic product," Stevenson wrote in an email. You often find this kind of coupon stuck to the sides of beer packages or hanging from wine bottle necks. Despite what the policy says, when I have tried this, the store staff didn't believe I was supposed to get the free item with no alcohol purchase. But Radkay recently got $3 off flowers with a coupon found on a wine bottle. I'm inspired to try again next time I find such a coupon. And I'll be sure to bring that printed-out coupon policy. Find Carrie Kirby's updates on Chicago deals and money-saving tips at chicagoshopping.com/frugalista. Write to her at ckirby@tribune.com. By Sheila Dang and Shariq Khan (Reuters) - Sprint Corp on Wednesday topped analysts' estimates for quarterly profit and new wireless subscribers, but said the higher prices for its revamped phone plans could affect future growth. The fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, which has faced high costs needed to invest in its network, is working to convince regulators to approve its merger with T-Mobile US Inc. The combined company would have more resources to build its next-generation wireless network, or 5G. Sprint added a net 87,000 new wireless subscribers who pay a monthly bill during the first quarter, more than double the average analyst estimate of 40,000 additions, according to research firm FactSet. Shares of the Overland Park, Kansas-based company, which have fallen 9.8 percent this year, were flat at $5.43 in morning trading. Sprint Chief Executive Michel Combes said during the conference call with analysts that higher prices for new unlimited wireless plans could affect customer additions as the company tries to balance growth and profitability. While Sprint has the best price for an unlimited plan in the industry, "these pricing changes could pressure growth ads as they are less promotional than previous offers," Combes said. Still, Combes said he expected Sprint to have positive customer additions on a net basis for the year. Net income attributable to Sprint fell to $176 million, or 4 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $206 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts expected the company to break even on a per-share basis, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Churn, or the rate of customer defections, was 1.55 percent during the quarter, up from 1.5 percent a year earlier. Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research, said in an investor note that he expected Sprint's average revenue per user to be higher, given an administration fee increase introduced early in the quarter, but noted Sprint's trends were generally improving. Story continues Sprint's average revenue per phone subscriber was $49.57 during the quarter, down from $53.92 a year earlier. In a bid to become the first company to bring 5G technology to major U.S. cities, Sprint has been targeting a first half 2019 launch in at least eight cities, including New York City and Kansas City. Total operating revenue fell to $8.13 billion from $8.16 billion a year earlier. (Reporting by Shariq Khan and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru and Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Nick Zieminski) STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will buy the Patriot air defense missile system from U.S. arms manufacturer Raytheon Co, the government said on Thursday, as it looks to boost its defenses amid growing tensions with Russia. Sweden's Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), which handles military logistics, began negotiations over Patriot in November last year aiming to replace the current air defense system which cannot shoot down ballistic missiles. Negotiations were concluded in April and the government was expected to go ahead with the purchase. "The government has decided to authorize the FMV ... to sign a contract with the United States to buy the American air defense system Patriot," the Defence Ministry said in a statement. The deal will include four firing systems and two types of missiles as well as other equipment and training, the government said, with delivery completed before 2025. In April, the FMV said the initial deal would be worth around 10 billion Swedish crowns ($1.13 billion). But that could triple if Sweden uses an option to increase the number of missiles it purchases to a maximum of 300. The government did not say how many missiles would be included initially or give its long term plans. The center-left government has the backing of the main, center-right opposition for the purchase, but there have been disagreements about whether to fund the deal separately, or include it in the current military budget, which could lead to defense cuts elsewhere. Russia's actions in Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula have pushed Sweden, which is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to start rebuilding its defenses after decades of neglect following the end of the Cold War. (Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) (Photo: Joe Raedle via Getty Images) The White House proposed dramatically weakening fuel economy standards on Thursday, reversing the only major federal policy to reduce planet-warming emissions from the nations top source of greenhouse gas pollution. The move would clear the way for vehicles to, by 2030, spew an addition 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere equivalent to the entire annual emissions of Canada. The widely anticipated proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation outlines what environmentalists see as a worst-case scenario for vehicle emissions. In April, thenEPA Administrator Scott Pruitt declared a landmark Obama-era regulation bringing U.S. fuel economy rules in line with the rest of the developed world wrong, calling the standards too high. The regulation, which automakers agreed to in 2012, required passenger vehicles to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 nearly double todays standard. If fully implemented, over the course of the program, that rule would have reduced oil consumption by 12 billion barrels, halved tailpipe emissions and doubled fuel efficiency, saving consumers $3,200 to $5,700 in gasoline costs over a vehicles lifetime. Instead, the new Trump administration standard aims to freeze 2020 standards through model year 2026. And in a break with the Republicans rhetorical reverence for states rights, the proposal would revoke a waiver allowing California to set its own vehicle standards, a long-standing provision in the Clean Air Act that grants special status to the Golden State, which is particularly prone to air quality problems. We are delivering on President Trumps promise to the American public that his administration would address and fix the current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards, EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. The 978-page proposal which accuses California of being disproportionately focused on greenhouse gas emissions marks a major victory for automakers, which profit handsomely from gas-guzzling vehicles, and oil producers, which risked losing trillions of dollars in revenue to the burgeoning electric car industry. Story continues Automakers had scrambled to distance themselves from the scandal-struck EPAs decision to reopen the emissions rules, insisting they supported stronger standards. Ford Motor Co.s top executives had even called for increasing clean car standards in a blog post titled A Measure of Progress. But executives from the auto industrys top three trade associations flanked Pruitt at a press conference in April, praising the decision. For them, the announcement capped more than a year of lobbying. President Donald Trump outside the White House in March 2017. Automakers heavily lobbied his administration to roll back passenger vehicle fuel economy standards. (Photo: Carlos Barria / Reuters) The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers began preparing to demand a break on fuel efficiency standards in the midst of the 2016 presidential election. Last year the group, commonly known as the Auto Alliance, spent $8.1 million on lobbying, a nearly 9 percent increase from the previous year, according to data collated by the Center for Responsive Politics. The other two trade groups that joined Pruitt in April similarly ramped up spending. The National Automobile Dealers Association shelled out a record $4.8 million on lobbying last year, and the Association of Global Automakers increased its lobbying expenditures by nearly 50 percent, to $3.5 million. The demands showed a marked shift from 2012, when automakers, two of which had just received massive taxpayer-funded federal bailouts, agreed to increase standards after months of negotiations with federal and California regulators. But by 2016, fuel prices had fallen from a record high national average of $3.60 per gallon four years earlier, and Americans were once again buying gas guzzlers. Automakers insisted the landscape had changed. In April the EPA agreed. In a 38-page finding, the agency repudiated the Obama administrations consideration of the social cost of carbon the health and environmental damage caused by emissions and energy security valuation. Trucks and SUVs are more profitable for automakers. General Motors earns $35,000 in profit for each $73,000 Cadillac Escalade it sells, according to The Detroit News. By contrast, electric vehicles are generally half as profitable as cars with combustion engines, a Daimler executive admitted last year. Three weeks after the EPA said it would revise fuel economy standards, Ford, reporting a $1.7 billion quarterly profit, announced plans to discontinue all but two car models in favor of SUVs and trucks. The intense focus on large, fuel-hungry vehicles comes amid a rapid shift toward electric and fuel-efficient cars in Japan, the European Union and China, the worlds largest auto market. Chinas electric vehicle market is growing twice as fast as the United States, and regulators in Beijing are considering banning combustion engines. The auto companies are whistling past the graveyard that is the Chinese auto industry when they cease making efficient cars and switch over to mostly gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks, said Daniel Becker, the director of the Washington-based Safe Climate Campaigns Center for Auto Safety. It will pose problems for them even in the United States when gas prices do eventually rise. He blamed low demand for electric vehicles (EVs) on the auto industry, which spends roughly $15 billion a year on marketing that promotes pickup trucks and SUVs, including coveted and costly Super Bowl time slots. A study published in December in the journal Nature Energy found dealerships were dismissive of EVs, misinformed shoppers on vehicle specifications, omitted EVs from the sales conversation and strongly oriented customers toward petrol and diesel vehicle options. But its the oil industry that may stand to gain most from the Trump administrations new fuel economy rules. Adding 540 million electric vehicles by 2040 would cause oil demand to peak in the mid-2020s, wiping out $19 trillion in possible revenue for oil producers, according to a report released in May by Aurora Energy Research, based in Oxford, England. This is one of the most destructive policies in terms of increasing emissions, said Luke Tonachel, the Natural Resources Defense Councils director of clean vehicles and fuels. Rolling back the standards is a giant giveaway to the oil industry at the expense of public health. The move comes six days after the EPA backed down in its first a major legal battle with environmental groups and 16 states over a loophole granted to manufacturers of super-polluting semitrucks. The rule, issued in Pruitts final hours before his controversial tenure as EPA chief ended in early July, lifts a 2016 requirement that truck makers dramatically reduce the number of glider trucks new truck bodies and cabs with salvaged engines and chassis to 300 per manufacturer per year. A single glider truck emits 30 times as much nitrogen oxide and 60 times as much particulate matter as a modern truck, according to the EPAs own tests from November 2017. A federal judge stayed the loophole in late July, but if the EPA ultimately wins in court, the trucks expected to be sold in the next year alone would release 13 times as much nitrogen oxide over the next decade as all the diesel cars Volkswagen sold with fraudulent emissions controls. Last week, Wheeler reversed the rule. But Thursdays proposal could instigate an even bigger legal fight. Thirteen states have now adopted Californias rules, representing nearly 40 percent of the U.S. vehicle market: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. California is among the 20 states that vowed Thursday to sue the administration to block the proposal. The Trump Administration has launched a brazen attack, no matter how it is cloaked, on our nations Clean Car Standards, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. The California Department of Justice will use every legal tool at its disposal to defend todays national standards and reaffirm the facts and science behind them. This has been updated. Related Coverage EPA To Gut The Only Major Federal Rule To Cut Climate Pollution From Vehicles Automakers Got Exactly What They Wanted From Scott Pruitts EPA The SEC Just Made The Case For Divesting From Fossil Fuel Companies Much Stronger Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. The Alps Alaska The Dead Sea Phoenix, Arizona This article originally appeared on HuffPost. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as the two continue to discuss Pyongyang's commitment at a recent Singapore summit to rid itself of nuclear weapons, but no second meeting is currently planned, the White House said on Thursday. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump had received a letter from Kim on Wednesday and had responded with a note that should be delivered shortly. Trump also posted a note on Twitter on Thursday thanking Kim for returning the remains of U.S. soldiers and saying he looked forward to seeing Kim again. "He did receive a letter," Sanders told a White House briefing. "There is not a second meeting that is currently locked in or finalized. (We're) certainly open to that discussion, but there isn't a meeting planned." "We have responded to Chairman Kim's letter - the president has - and that letter will be delivered shortly," Sanders told reporters. She declined to elaborate on the details of the exchange, saying only that the notes "addressed their commitment from their joint statement ... that was made at the Singapore summit." "They're going to continue working together towards complete and total denuclearization," Sanders added. Trump and Kim met in Singapore in June, where they announced an agreement in which Kim reaffirmed his "unwavering" commitment to denuclearize. Little progress on that front has been made in the weeks since. Trump's Twitter post on Thursday thanked Kim for returning the remains of some American war dead from the 1950-1953 Korean War. Trump said in that tweet to Kim: "I look forward to seeing you soon!" Trump has said repeatedly the deal he reached with Kim has been positive since North Korea has maintained a freeze on nuclear and missile tests and has begun returning U.S. war dead remains. "I think its going to work out very well," he told supporters at a rally in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday night. "No tests, no rockets flying. But well see what happens." Story continues Related Video: Remains of Service Members to Return to US Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish) COLUMBUS, Ohio A few Hail Mary heaves from the Horseshoe here at the Ohio State University sits Bricker Hall, which provides a grand view of the campus tree-lined Oval and houses the institutions top administrative offices, including that of president Michael V. Drake. On Wednesday morning, doors were routinely shut and conversations hushed as administrators tried, like everyone else in this football-obsessed campus, city and state, to figure out what head coach Urban Meyer knew and what he did with it concerning a 2015 domestic abuse allegation against assistant coach Zach Smith. A once-placid day rocked by a bombshell media report ended with Meyer on paid administrative leave, 39-year-old Ryan Day was the Buckeyes interim coach and the school saying it was conducting an investigation into everything. It was a development as swift as it was stunning. Meyer won 73 games and one national title in six seasons here but very well may have coached his last game in Columbus or anywhere else for that matter. The investigation should be thorough and comprehensive, although leaving it to Ohio State to conduct invites suspicions of competence. Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer looks on during a Buckeyes game. (Getty Images) While every rock should be turned, and every cell phone history examined, there are two key items that should be focused on in a scandal as disturbing as it is confounding. First, what did Shelley Meyer tell her husband? Second, if what Courtney Smith told the Stadium is true that nobody from the university came and asked me my side of the story, then why wasnt this incident ever investigated? Because any investigation that doesnt include, let alone begin with, speaking with the complainant isnt a real investigation. And if Ohio State conducted no real or honest investigation the first time, then why should it be trusted to do it this time? Lets start with Shelley Meyer. Urban acknowledges he was aware of Zach Smiths 2009 arrest for domestic abuse while Zach was working for him at the University of Florida. He said since Courtney dropped the charges he chalked it up to a volatile young couple that needed counseling and kept Zach employed. Story continues Urban said last week he didnt, however, know about the 2015 incident where Courtney said Zach choked her and threw her against a wall while their then-5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter clung to her legs. Zach was only dismissed from his job late last month because he violated a protective order Courtney, now his ex-wife, placed on him. I was never told about anything, anything never came to light, never had a conversation about it, so I know nothing about that, Meyer said last week of 2015. Reporting by Brett McMurphy on Wednesday however revealed extensive text messages between Courtney Smith and Shelley Meyer about the alleged 2015 incident. It included disturbing photos of Courtneys injuries. Shelley acknowledged seeing the photos, repeatedly expressed concern for Courtney and even declared of Zach that he scares me. Now, can anyone plausibly believe that Shelley Meyer never mentioned this to Urban Meyer? The two are famously close, with Urban calling Shelley his closest confidant and almost a co-head coach of his program. Yet Shelley wouldnt bring it up, not once in three years? Shed just let him continue to employ someone she believes beats his wife and has photos to prove it? This wasnt a fleeting story either. Shelley had counseled Courtney and Zach on their marriage after 2009 and she and Courtney discussed it via text on numerous occasions. I told Shelley, Courtney said in an interview with Stadium. I sent her some pictures. I spoke to her on the phone. She said she was going to have to tell Urban. I said, Thats fine. You should tell Urban. You cant have someone like this coaching young men. There are further texts between Courtney and Lindsey Voltolini, wife of Ohio State football staffer Brian Voltolini, that suggested that Urban did know and asked Zach Smith about it. That is secondhand information, but damning nonetheless in the court of public opinion. Perhaps Shelley and the others really did keep it to themselves and thus neither Urban, nor anyone else at Ohio State, was aware of the allegation and couldnt spark an investigation into it. Or perhaps Urban was aware of it on some level and just lied last week to the media? If he was aware, how aware was he? And what did he do about it? Did he investigate himself? Did he pass it up the chain of command within the Buckeyes athletic department? Under terms of his contract, he was obligated to do so. The same is true under Title IX statutes. If an investigation was conducted, either by Meyer or anyone at Ohio State, then what exactly did it entail? This, despite being the least sensational aspect of the case, is actually the most important. Nobody from the university came and asked me my side of the story, Smith told the Stadium. They know there was an investigation going on, and not once did anyone call me and ask me what happened. Thats a problem, and it needs to change. That is seismic problem and it needs more than change. If Ohio State, at any level, began any kind of investigation but never bothered to even ask the person who said they were abused to provide an initial story, then the entire investigation was either inexcusably incompetent or designed to be nothing but a cover-up. There is just no way you can investigate a domestic abuse situation without getting the aggrieved partys story. This apparently didnt boil down into a she said-he said. If you believe Lindsey Voltolini, it may have been nothing more than Urban Meyer running a he-denied-and-we-believe inquiry. The idea that such a thing could occur in 2015 on a college campus is part unfathomable and fully unforgivable. While Meyer remains the biggest name in this story thus far, a real investigation into why Courtney Smith was never spoken to could draw in any number of administrators and staffers, including athletic director Gene Smith. Its why Ohio State should hire an outside firm to conduct this investigation, which at least in part centers on how Ohio State does or doesnt begin or perhaps conduct investigations. This is all on just day one of a story that shook Columbus to its core. Dont expect Bricker Hall to be any less tense on Thursday. What comes next could be far worse. Meyer may be on his way out. Its quite possible he wont be alone. More from Yahoo Sports: Pro golfer ends cancer treatment, will begin palliative care Dan Wetzel: If Urban Meyer knew of DV allegations, he deserves to be fired Nats designate Shawn Kelley for assignment after tantrum on the mound Dak Prescott says his anthem comments were misunderstood U.S. President Donald Trump thrusts his fist after signing an executive order reversing Obama administration Cuba policies as Florida Governor Rick Scott (C-rear), Cuban dissident and former prisoner Cary Roque and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R) look on at Paul R. Pillar Security, Middle East To the extent Iranian leaders might be sounding a little testy these days, no one should be surprised. The Ugly Destination of Trumps Iran Policy It is no surprise that Iranian leaders have no interest in responding to President Donald Trumps offer to hold a meeting. What would there be to talk about, especially that there appears to be no normal working-level U.S.-Iranian diplomacy going on? Trumps credibility with the Iranians is near zero after trashing the one significant international agreement that both countries had signed in recent years. The Iranian leaders have no reason to play to Trumps theater in which he would portray a supplicant Iran as responding to his campaign of pressure. President Trumps all-caps tweet about Iran the previous week was hardly a natural response to anything the Iranians had been saying or doing lately. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani did make a speech on the same day in which he stated, America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars, while advising Trump that to play with the lions tail would become a source of regret. So, Rouhani was saying that he wants peace with America and that moving toward war would be a bad idea. Hardly the stuff that ordinarily would provoke a flaming riposte. To the extent Iranian leaders might be sounding a little testy these days, no one should be surprised. In response to Irans internationally certified compliance with an agreement in which Iran willingly subjected itself to some of the most severe restrictions and intrusive monitoring in the history of nuclear arms control, the Trump administrations response has been to renege on U.S. obligations under the same agreement, to swear hostility toward Iran, to wage economic warfare against it, and blatantly to attempt to destabilize it. Trumps now-familiar methods give rise to some possible motivations for his blast on Twitter. Trump is, of course, a master of commanding and diverting the attention of the media and the public. This stoking of the fire aimed at Iran helped to steal headlines from a miserable Russia-centered week that included the embarrassment at Helsinki. The week continued with a release of documents that knocked down a scenario that Trump and his partisan defenders have tried to spin about allegedly ignoble motives underlying the investigation into Russias election interference. Story continues Trumps threat in his tweet of consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before [all capitals in the original] brought to mind his earlier threat against North Korea of fire and fury like the world has never seen. This comparison in turn evoked another of Trumps now-familiar tactics, which he tried to use with the North Korean issue, which is to create a crisis as part of his contention that his predecessors left him a mess and then, after holding a meeting or signing something, claiming that he has achieved a wonderful improvement. The current tension with Iran, featuring the United States reneging on the nuclear agreement, certainly is a creation of the Trump administration. But there any similarity with the North Korean case ends. A critical difference between the two cases concerns the positions of other states in each region. Neighbors of North Korea have welcomed dialogue and detente with Pyongyang, with South Koreas President Moon Jae-in deserving most of the credit for moving things in that direction. By contrast, the principal regional rivals of Iranto whom Trump has subcontracted most of his Middle East policydont want any detente between Washington and Tehran. For Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, unending U.S.-Iranian hostility sustains their own privileged relationships with the United States, keeps a major regional rival isolated, and diverts attention from their own foibles and vulnerabilities worthy of international attention. The timing of Trumps all-caps blast most likely was related to Secretary of State Mike Pompeos speech the same day, which was a full-throated call to destabilize the Iranian government. The secretary and the president probably hope for some form of regime change in Iran as the one development that somewhere up the linesay, within about two years, before the U.S. election in 2020they will be able to point to as a foreign policy accomplishment in the absence of any other developments for which they can make that claim. Pompeo, at least, is smart enough to realize how implausible is a better deal with Iran on its nuclear program, despite the administration rhetoric on that theme. A nothing-but-pressure approach was tried before for years and failed, and now is even less likely to yield results when its only protagonist is not an international coalition but instead an isolated United States. In this regard, it is revealing that in his speech, Pompeo said almost nothing about nuclear mattersan issue that would have dominated any U.S. speech on Iran a few years ago. There was nothing to say, other than that the issue was resolved, in the best feasible way, by the multilateral agreement that was negotiated under the previous administration and that the Trump administration categorically rejected. On North Korea, it must be sinking in even with Trump that, despite his rhetoric after the Singapore summit meeting, the North Korean nuclear problem is nowhere near being solved. Solving it would be a genuine foreign-policy accomplishment, but this, too, may be out of reach during what would be a politically meaningful time frame for Trump. Regime change in Iran is itself an unlikely accomplishment, notwithstanding the administrations rhetoric and economic warfare intended to bring it about. Wishful thinking prevails. Street demonstrations in Iran that are far smaller than those that fizzled out in the time of the Green Movement several years ago are looked on with hope as harbingers of the regimes imminent collapse. (An interesting duality in Pompeos appearance was that, although he pointed to protests in Iran as evidence of what he portrayed as a population unhappy with the regime, his response to a protestor who interrupted his own speechshouting something about the migrant children controversywas if there were only so much freedom of expression in Iran.) Much of the administrations interference and economic warfare makes regime change in Iran less, not more, likely. The sanctions lend credibility to the regimes argument that Irans economic shortcomings are due more to the United States than to the regimes mismanagement. The sanctions hurt ordinary Iranians far more than privileged members of the regime. Moreover, a U.S. administration that is openly anti-Islamicas represented by the travel ban, which affects Iranians more than any other nationalityis hardly taken in Iran as a credible source of inspiration. Even if the regime in Iran were to change significantly in the next couple of years, that leaves the question of the direction of change. The bankruptcy of the administrations thinking on this subject is underscored by the role that the cult-cum-terrorist-group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK plays in that thinking. The MEK has American blood on its hands, and it lost almost all support it once had in Iran when it became an auxiliary to Saddam Husseins security apparatus during the Iran-Iraq War. Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, and his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, are among those close to the president who have sung the praises of the MEK in exchange for fat speaking fees. If significant political change were to occur in Tehran in the next couple of yearsespecially after everything the Trump administration has done, including reneging on the nuclear agreement, to discredit moderates such as Rouhanithat change would most likely be in a hardline direction. One possibility would be the Revolutionary Guard acquiring more extensive powers, even to the point of a military dictatorship. Change is unlikely to be in a more democratic direction. Indeed, the regional rivals of Iran with sway over the administrations policies do not want more democracy (or any democracy, for that matter), in Iran. Such a development could become a basis for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement that they definitely do not want, and that could lessen their own privileged positions with Washington. An Israeli intelligence officer told a visiting scholar when Irans Green Movement was active in 2009 that a victory by the movement would be Israels worst nightmare because it would mean less Iranian isolation and more resulting Iranian power. The Saudi regime needs to worry not only about a possible tilt by the United States toward a more democratic Iran but also the example that such a democracy would set for subjects of the Saudi regimes own highly autocratic rule. Herein lies another curiosity in Pompeos speech, which made a big deal about Iranian leaders enriching themselves, and this being a reason to look for regime change in Iran. Wouldnt there be similar political implications of the rake-offs of Saudi oil revenues that sustain the expensive tastes of the royal family? The best outcomeand it isnt good at all--that one can hope for from the administrations current course on Iran is endless tension, more antagonizing of Iranian citizens who see the United States as hostile to their own interests, and a constant risk of escalation to open warfare. If the remaining parties to the nuclear agreement cannot keep that accord going, and if the Trump administrations threats continue to revive thinking in Iran about the value of a nuclear deterrent, then a new nuclear crisis might be added to the mess. Armed conflict would, of course, be even worse. Donald Trump probably is not now seeking such a war, but one cannot rule out that someday he would as a way to escape from greater political troubles he encounters concerning the Russia investigation or anything else. The bigger worry in the meantime is Bolton, who has long yearned for such a war and in his current job is in position to increase the chance of something sparking one. Paul R. Pillar is a contributing editor at the National Interest and the author of Why America Misunderstands the World . Image: U.S. President Donald Trump thrusts his fist after signing an executive order reversing Obama administration Cuba policies as Florida Governor Rick Scott (C-rear), Cuban dissident and former prisoner Cary Roque and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R) look on at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Florida, U.S., June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Read full article A follow-up to Millers 2017 Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour, the one-night performance will be held on in late October just on the cusp of the midterm elections and will also star John Fugelsang and special guest Margaret Cho. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel who say they should receive a blanket exemption from military conscription staged a sit-down protest at a major Jerusalem junction on Thursday, prompting scuffles with police. Israel has long exempted many of its ultra-Orthodox men from the draft, on the understanding they are better suited for seminary studies. Political parties run by rabbis in the coalition government have helped preserve the arrangement in the face of criticism by secular Israelis. [nL8N1QV53J] But some ultra-Orthodox men do not secure exemptions and, should they avoid call-ups, face possible prosecution. Protesters taking part in Thursday's demonstration said they had turned out in solidarity with an ultra-Orthodox man who had been arrested for draft-dodging. Thirty-seven people were arrested, police said. The protesters had blocked traffic at the western entrance to Jerusalem, leading to the Tel Aviv highway. A police statement said it would "take determined, firm-handed action against extremist ultra-Orthodox Jews who disrupt public order". (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg) English: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation Kyle Mizokami Security, "In terms of weapons the two sides are fairly evenly matched, although Severodvinsk has the antisubmarine version of the Klub missile, allowing the Russian ship to quickly engage enemy submarines with a missile-delivered lightweight torpedo, much like the retired American SUBROC system." Underwater Deathmatch: What If America and Russia's Two Best Submarines Went to War? The Virginia class is quieter and has a better sonar rig than its Russian opponent. In the world of submarine warfare, thats an unbeatable combination. It can move and detect in ways that would give away Severodvinsk. One thing to be said for Severodvinsk is that it is more capable of quickly responding to a sudden target opportunity via her supersonic Klub ASW missiles. As for near term prospects, the usability of the Virginias sonar improves on a regular basis via software updates. Severodvinsk may not be able to update its sonar suite, and making the Russian submarines quieter may not be easily implemented. Overall, the edge has to be given to the Virginia class. The United States Navys submarine force emerged from the Cold War as the undisputed masters of the undersea realm. The elite, all-nuclear submarine force watched as its Soviet submarine force rivals rusted away pierside, the newly founded Russian Federation unable to maintain them. (This first appeared in 2016.) After more than twenty years of American submarine supremacy, a new challenger has arisen from the deep. Slightly familiar and almost two decades in the making, its an unusual challenge to U.S. naval superiority, but nevertheless one with a long, lethal pedigree. How does this new old upstart, Russias Yasen-class submarine, compare with the new backbone of the U.S. submarine force, the Virginia class? The Yasen (Ash Tree) class of submarines was conceived as early as the mid-1980s by the Malakhit Central Design Bureau, one of the Soviet Unions three main submarine bureaus. Construction of the first submarine, Severodvinsk, began in 1993 in Russia at the Sevmash Shipyards, but lack of funding delayed completion for more than a decade. Severodvinsk was finally launched in 2010, and commissioned into the fleet in 2013. Story continues The Yasen class measures 390 feet long and displaces 13,800 tons. It has a crew of just ninety, far fewer than its American equivalents, suggesting a high level of automation is built into the submarine. In shape it resembles the earlier Akula class, but much longer behind the conning tower and a hump to accommodate vertical launch tubes. According to the authoritative Combat Fleets of the World, Severodvinsk has a OK-650KPM two-hundred-megawatt nuclear reactor, good for the life of the boat, which drives it to speeds of up to sixteen knots surfaced and thirty-one knots submerged. Other reports peg it slightly faster, at thirty-five knots. It can run quiet underwater at twenty knots. Severodvinsks sensor suite consists of a Irtysh-Amfora sonar system, with a bow-mounted spherical sonar array, flank sonar arrays and a towed array for rearward detection. It has a MRK-50 Albatross (Snoop Pair) navigation/surface search radar and features a Rim Hat electronic support/countermeasures measures suite. Armament for the submarines consists of four standard-diameter 5,333-millimeter torpedo tubes and four 650-millimeter torpedo tubes. The torpedo tubes can accommodate homing torpedoes and 3M54 Klub missiles, which are available in both antiship, land attack and antisubmarine versions. For even more firepower, the Yasen boats are each equipped with twenty-four vertical launch missile tubes behind the conning tower, each capable of carrying P-800 Oniks ramjet-powered supersonic antiship missiles. The Virginia-class submarines were conceived as an affordable follow-on to the short-lived Seawolf class, which, although extremely capable, were also extremely expensive. In that sense, they have been highly successful, and Virginias are gradually becoming the mainstay of the U.S. Navys submarine force. At 377 feet, the Virginias are only thirteen feet shorter than the Yasen class, but displace only half as much water. They have crews of 113, and are powered by one General Electric SG9 nuclear reactor, driving a propulsor/pump-jet instead of a propeller. Speeds are reportedly twenty-five knots on the surface and thirty-five knots underwater, and the submarines are reportedly as quiet at twenty-five knots as the Los Angeles class is alongside the pier. Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan? Like its Russian counterpart, a Virginias main sonar is a spherical, bow-mounted type. However, starting with the Block III series of submarines, the BQQ-10 sonar is replaced with the U-shaped Large Aperture Bow sonar. Complementing them are arrays on the port and starboard flanks, also known as Light Weight Wide Aperture Arrays, comprising two banks of three fiber-optic acoustic sensors. LWWAA is particularly attuned to detecting diesel electric submarines. Rearward detection is covered by the TB-29(A) towed passive array. Finally, a high-frequency sonar array mounted on the sail and chin allows a Virginia to detect and avoid sea mines. The Virginia class has only four 533-millimeter torpedo tubes, capable of firing the Mk.48 Advanced Capability (ADCAP) heavyweight homing torpedo for use against surface ships and submarines and the UGM-84 Sub-Harpoon antiship missile. Early versions of the class carried twelve Tomahawk land-attack missiles in vertical launch tubes, replaced in Block III by two cylinder launchers carrying the same number of missiles. Block V Virginias will expand the number of launchers to carry up to forty Tomahawks per submarine. In a head-to-head confrontation between a Virginia Block IIIthe version under construction when Severodvinsk was commissionedwho would win? Both submarines are the pinnacle of their countrys submarine technology and, pitted against one another, would be fairly well matched. Severodvinsk may be slower, but it can dive deeper. The Virginia may be faster, but according to Combat Ships of the World, the hull has only been tested to 488 meters. Virginia likely has the edge in sonar detection, thanks to the new Large Aperture Bow sonar. In terms of weapons the two sides are fairly evenly matched, although Severodvinsk has the antisubmarine version of the Klub missile, allowing the Russian ship to quickly engage enemy submarines with a missile-delivered lightweight torpedo, much like the retired American SUBROC system. The Virginia class is quieter and has a better sonar rig than its Russian opponent. In the world of submarine warfare, thats an unbeatable combination. It can move and detect in ways that would give away Severodvinsk. One thing to be said for Severodvinsk is that it is more capable of quickly responding to a sudden target opportunity via her supersonic Klub ASW missiles. As for near term prospects, the usability of the Virginias sonar improves on a regular basis via software updates. Severodvinsk may not be able to update its sonar suite, and making the Russian submarines quieter may not be easily implemented. Overall, the edge has to be given to the Virginia class. In the long run, the rivalry between the two submarines will likely see the inclusion of unmanned underwater vehicles and a host of other new technologies. The United States has pursued submarine warfare halfheartedly since the end of the Cold War, and even less so since 9/11. As the United States turns its full attention back to big power warfare and submarine warfare in particular, American submarines will likely once again outsail their Russian rivals. Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. Image: Creative Commons. Read full article Washington (AFP) - The United States may jack up the tariff rate on the next $200 billion in Chinese imports it plans to target as it pressures Beijing to reform its trade practices, US officials said Wednesday. President Donald Trump asked the US Trade Representative to consider increasing the proposed tariffs to 25 percent from the announced 10 percent, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. "We have been very clear about the specific changes China should undertake. Regrettably, instead of changing its harmful behavior, China has illegally retaliated against US workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses," Lighthizer said in a statement. Officials however downplayed suggestions the move was intended to compensate for the recent decline in the value of the Chinese currency, which have threatened to take much of the sting out of Trump's tariffs by making the imports cheaper. Washington and Beijing are locked in battle over American accusations that China's export economy benefits from unfair policies and subsidies while stealing American technological know-how. Trump has threated to slap tariffs on virtually all of China's exports to the United States. On July 10, Washington unveiled a list of another $200 billion in Chinese goods, from areas as varied as electrical machinery, leather goods and seafood, that would be hit with 10 percent import duties. Increasing the rates to 25 percent could make them significantly more painful. "We will give people a chance obviously to comment on the substantial effects of a 25 percent duty as oppose to a 10 percent duty," a senior administration official told reporters. The comment period on the proposal, which includes public hearings on the tariffs due to take place later this month, would be extended into September, the officials said. The US already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods, with another $16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks. This is the terrifying first-person footage that shows the dramatic moment a jetliner crashed into a field in Mexico. The footage, captured inside the flight AM2431 Embraer 190 aircraft by passenger Ashley Garcia, 17, shows the outside wing of the aircraft as it travels through heavy rain. The camera then suddenly jolts and a bright, piercing flash can be seen. A teenager who survived the Mexico plane crash has revealed the heart-stopping moment the airliner hurtled into a field (Caters) High school student Ashleys video then suddenly stops before the aircraft can be seen crumpled in a field, smoke billowing out of its side as passengers run from the scene. In total, there were 97 passengers and four crew members on board with every person miraculously surviving the crash. Ashley, who lives in Durango, Mexico, said: I was on my way to Mexico City when my plane taking off from Durango crashed. MOST POPULAR STORIES ON YAHOO UK TODAY: Man loses all four limbs after dog lick leads to infection Euromillions couple win 58m after ticket was ripped up and thrown in the bin Tommy Robinson breaks his silence on mental torture of prison after being bailed McDonalds serves pregnant woman coffee mixed with cleaning fluid The experience was pretty indescribable, it felt surreal but all I could think about was getting out safely. Ashley said that after the plane had crashed, she and her fellow passengers were quickly evacuated from the aircraft by the flight attendants. She said that once safely out of the aircraft, the passengers tried to get as far away from the area as possible. The camera shows the wing of the plane on fire (Caters) Ashley added: I tried to remain calm and just followed where everyone was heading which was towards the exit at the back of the airplane. Afterwards we all tried getting as far away from the airplane and staying together until we got further information on what to do. Well there was a lot of people asking for our names and ages and just asking us what hurt or where we had gotten injured. Ashley Garcias video suddenly stops before the aircraft can be seen crumpled in a field (Caters) They treated the people who were the worst first and afterwards treated everyone the way they needed to. Story continues A spokesman for Aeromexico said: We are deeply sorry for this accident. The families of all those affected are in our thoughts and in our hearts. All passengers on board the plane survived the crash (Caters) We are focusing on addressing this situation and will do whatever is necessary to assist the families of our clients as well as our crew in these difficult times. The pilot of the plane aborted take off just as the wheels of the plane left the tarmac after a strong gust of wind hit the flight. On the evening of June 8, a 29 year-old sound engineer and a 30-year-old business man were on their way to a picnic spot in Indias northeastern Assam state when they stopped at a village to ask for directions. The villagers had been told, in a video circulating on the messaging app WhatsApp, that child kidnappers were roaming the country. Believing these strangers were the ones theyd been warned about, the villagers formed a large mob, and, before the men could convince them otherwise, beat them to death. The video they had seen was actually an instructional safety video made in Pakistan, but was shared with some text warning about kidnappers in the local area, causing fear and anger among the community. After the killings, police arrested 16 people and demonstrations took place in the victims hometown of Guwahati, the largest city in Assam. Similar incidents involving false news stories circulated on WhatsApp have reportedly led to the deaths of two dozen people in India since April. Now, both the app and the government are scrambling to prevent more mob lynchings. This is really happening at the frontier of technology, says Nandagopal Rajan, new media editor at the Indian Express newspaper. India has had a 4G revolution in the past 18 months and weve seen around 200 million new people start using the internet, mostly on phones. That means WhatsApp has suddenly ended up in the hands of a lot of first time internet users. India is WhatsApps largest market, with more than 200 million users at last count, in February 2017. The number today is likely much higher. While the app was designed as a messaging platform for one-on-one exchanges or small groups, in India it has taken on a life of its own. Many Indians use Whatsapp not as a messaging platform, Rajan says, but as a consumption platformpeople join lots of groups so they receive an endless flurry of video messages, memes and random jokes and stories, directly to their inbox. Story continues When those messages and stories contain false information, WhatsApps content-sharing function can have a more sinister effect. End-to-end encryption, which effectively locks messages and gives only senders and receiver the key to open them, makes it impossible for the company to see inside chats and regulate content on their platform in the same way Twitter or Facebook can. Groups are closed and limited to 256 people, making it impossible for journalists or police to get in and track where a rumor originated. A 2018 report from the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford shows WhatsApp is becoming an increasingly dominant news-sharing platform across Latin America and Asia. That means the problem is only growing. Indias technology ministry said in a statement on July 19 that the company would face legal action if it remained a mute spectator to the violent consequences of false stories circulating. When rumors and fake news get propagated, it said, the medium used for such propagation cannot evade responsibility. Since late June WhatsApp has been responding with a series of unprecedented interventions to curb sharing on the app. It added a setting that would allow only admins to send messages in a group. It reduced the number of people a message can be forwarded to from 100 to 5 in India (and to 20 in the rest of the world) and removed the quick forward button that appears next to messages containing photos, video or audio. It also introduced a suspicious link label, which will appear alongside links where WhatsApp detects an obvious problem, such as a strange combination of characters. Earlier in July the company took out newspaper ads in nine states warning people to question information that upsets you. WhatsApp is making an effort to understand [how people use its platform in India] but were in uncharted territory, Rajan says. Nobody has ever fathomed what happens when this kind of a platform, which is in encrypted code, starts working at scalethe kind of scale you have in India. While the forwarding limit has been reduced, Rajan points out that content can still spread very fast between groups. Often, all the members of a group are admins, and theyll all be admins of ten more groups too. All the groups are interconnected, so its really easy for content to go viral. WhatsApp did not respond to TIMEs request for further comment on the situation in India. WhatsApps new measures are a band-aid, not a solution, says Bal Krishn Birla, a tech entrepreneur from Bangalore. Two years ago, Birla and software engineer Mohammed Shammas launched volunteer service Check4Spam, in the hopes of curing their countrys burgeoning fake news epidemic. Now with a team of 15 volunteers, the pair painstakingly fact check false stories of all kinds, using lunch breaks, evenings and weekends to balance the task with their day jobs. They receive between 100 and 250 messages a day from people asking whether or not a story is true. We cant respond to all of them, but we try to get most, Birla says. The team will take a typical news story, such as a report of a young child being kidnapped, research the facts online and use tools like reverse image search to check if photos or videos included in the story come from the region or time that they claim to. Its pretty simple, he says, Were not reinventing the wheel. They then upload the fact-check to their website and encourage the sender to share it too, reversing the flow of fake news. Check4Spam isnt the only grassroots organization taking notice of the risks posed by news on WhatsApp. In Mexico, where 35% of people use WhatsApp as a primary news source according to the Reuters Institute, a group of journalists made the app the focus of their fact-checking site, Verificado 2018. In the run up to the countrys largest ever elections in July, they responded to thousands of requests from people wanting to check political stories. Alongside volunteer groups like these, Birla believes the lasting solution lies in media literacy education, something Check4Spam is keen to get involved in. On May 30, Facebook announced the company would team up with Indias National Commission for Women and the Cyber Peace Foundation, an NGO, to run digital literacy courses at universities in several major Indian cities. They will teach 60,000 women who are new to the internet to recognize false information online, helping to avoid both fake news and scams. But similar programs could take years to roll out across a country of 1.3 billion. These killings are very likely to continue, unfortunately, Birla says. To me it seems like its just the beginning. Birla questions whether social media companies are truly committed to stopping the spread of fake news. It amounts to getting people to share less, and that directly conflicts with their business model, he says. He believes Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, already has the technology to deal with much of the false information circulating on its platforms. They understand how to flag content that seems inappropriate or like it violates copyrightthey just havent done it yet for things that may seem suspicious. While the difference between truth and lie may be more difficult for technology to spot than an unlicensed music clip, tools like reverse image search, which can reveal if an image comes from where it claims to, are currently under-used by social media companies, he says. When people start leaving their platform, then I think theyll figure out the solution, says Birla, pointing to a trend in young people abandoning Facebook for Instagram and Snapchat where the lack of sharing function means theres less undesired spam content. Government pressure can only go so far, Birla says. The will to fight fake news has to come from consumers. It has to be a peoples movement. ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 27, 2011) Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) prepare to receive supplies from the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Rainier (T-AOE 7). Sebastien Roblin Security, "Todays supercarriers will likely serve on for decades. However, the new threats arrayed against them, combined with the limited range of the current generation of carrier-based aircraft, suggest they may prove too vulnerable to operate within striking distance of near-peer opponents." Why America's Aircraft Carriers May Never Wage War Against Russia or China If a carrier tasks forces defenses function properlynot something to take for granted when both the attacking and defensive systems have scant operational recordsthen they should be able to handle a few incoming missiles. However, an attacker would seek to saturate the defenders defenses by launching large volleys of the missiles all at once, and it may only take a few getting through to wreak considerable havoc. On May 31, 2017, the U.S. Navy accepted into service USS Gerald Ford, the first of up to four new fleet carriers. The massive 1,100-foot-long vessel will eventually embark around sixty aircraft, including twenty-four F-35 Lightning stealth fighters and another twenty to twenty-four FA-18 Super Hornets. It features a faster elevator for loading munitions, and new electromagnetic launch catapults (EMALS) and arresting hooks to increase the tempo of flight operations while reducing maintenance costs. All of these new perks come at roughly a $13 billion price tagmore than twice the cost of the preceding USS George H. W. Bush. (This first appeared in 2017.) The United States nuclear-powered fleet carriers are currently without rival in the world, and their onboard Carrier Air Wings can unleash tremendous sustained firepower. They serve as potent symbols of American military power, and floating air bases for campaigns in Libya, Iraq and the Balkans. But how would the supercarriers fare when taking on something tougher than a third-world despot? Advances in missile and submarine technology put in question whether such large and expensive ships are survivable when operating within striking distance of an enemy coastline. Story continues That striking distance is dictated by the roughly seven-hundred-mile combat radius of the carriers F-35C stealth fighters, with a shorter range for the Super Hornets. Inflight refueling may extend that distance a bit, though one should bear in mind that a carrier air wing has only a modest ability to refuel itself with its Super Hornet tankers without resorting to larger land-based tanker support. However, sailing a carrier strike group close enough for its fighters to attack coastal targets also places the carrier well within harms way of a variety of nasty new weapons. Long Littoral Reach One of the newer threats comes from ground-based ballistic missilesnormally a weapon we think of as exclusively used for striking land targets. However, the new Chinese DF-21D Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM) possess a high degree of accuracy and the capability to adjust course midflight. Both traits enable the rocket to hit a moving target like an aircraft carrier. The DF-21D East Wind IRBM has a range of nine hundred miles, and can adjust its flight path using targeting data fed to it by other platforms, including a series of Yaogan satellites put into space over the last several years. The U.S. Naval Institute claimed the massive kinetic energy of a descending DF-21D, combined with the explosive payload, could potentially destroy a carrier in one hit. Its important to note that the East Wind is a mobile weapons system, and could thus prove difficult to preemptively strike. On the other hand, while dozens of the missiles have been deployed to PLA units, it doesnt appear that the weapon has ever been tested against a moving naval target. Until recently IRBMs were nearly impossible to shoot down. Today, U.S. cruisers and destroyers carry SM-3 air-defense missiles, which supposedly might be able to swat down an incoming IRBMalthough its not expected to be easy. There also a number of potential methods for messing up an IRBMs guidance systems. Stealthy Submarinesor Subs with Big Missiles Torpedo-launching submarines sank several aircraft carriers during World War IIthough both land- and carrier-based aircraft played a major role in countering the submarine threat. At the time, submarines were especially vulnerable to patrol planes because they had to surface a couple of times a day to keep their batteries charged. Even when lurking underwater, they relied on noisy air-breathing diesel engines that made them easier to pick up on sonar. During the 1950s and 60s, new nuclear-powered submarines increased the underwater endurance of subs from hours or a few days at best to months at a time. Nuclear propulsion also enabled them to become far faster and quieter than diesel submarines. Other innovations, such as anechoic tiles and teardrop-shaped hulls reinforced the sonar stealth trend. The quieting technology had reached such a peak by the end of the Cold War that nuclear submarines obliviously collided with each other in 1992, 1993 and as recently as 2009, due to their inability to detect each other. Of course, carriers are always escorted by destroyers or frigates specialized in antisubmarine warfare. Furthermore, long-distance maritime patrol planes and shipboard helicopters also assist in sweeping the seas for enemy subs. However, while Russian submarines were initially much noisier than their Western counterparts during most of that period, later Cold War designs, such as the nuclear-powered Akula class, were nearly peers to their Western counterparts in quietness. Recommended: Forget the F-35: The Tempest Could Be the Future Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? Nuclear submarines, however, cost well over $2 billion apiece in modern times, so noisier diesel submarines remain more common across the world. However, in the 1990s Sweden deployed the first submarine to use Air Independent Propulsion (AIP), the Gotland. A variety of AIP technologies allow for a new generation of very quiet and very cheap ship-hunting submarines that cost as little as roughly one-sixth the price of a nuclear submarine, and can operate up to two to four weeks underwater, albeit at fairly slow speeds. China now possesses fifteen Type 41 submarines, employing the same Stirling AIP system as the Gotland, with another fifteen planned, while dozens of German-made Type 212, 214 and 218 AIP submarines are entering service across Europe and Asia. In fact, the Pacific in particular has become the site of a veritable submarine arms race. Both nuclear and AIP submarines, including the Gotland, have repeatedly succeeded in sinking aircraft carriers during NATO naval exercises. This is even more alarming considering how cheap the latter type of submarines are to build. In addition to being quiet, AIP submarines possess the range and endurance to hunt for carriers across regional waters, even if most arent suitable for deep-ocean operations. Another limitation is that they are significantly slower than the carriers they are hunting, especially while attempting to maximize battery life, forcing them to rely more on ambush tactics. Still, creeping up to within torpedo range of a carrier strike group is a risky business. Some submarines are designed to hunt their targets from afar. The Russian Oscar-class cruise missile submarine, for example, is not especially stealthy, but it does not have to get close to a carrier groups surface escorts, thanks to the four-hundred-mile range of its P-700 Granit missiles, which it can launch while underwater. The ten-meter-long missiles travel at supersonic speeds, and are designed to network together to overwhelm defensive countermeasures. Cruise Missile Defense This brings us into the realm of missile defense, a long-established threat that carrier strike groups have evolved to counter. While carriers carry short-range antiaircraft missiles and Phalanx CIWS guns for self-defense, their escorting Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burkeclass destroyers are armed with a diverse array of medium- and long-range air antiaircraft missiles, designed to thin out incoming missile barrages from hundreds of miles away. These defenses are backed up by networked radars and coordinated by the sophisticated Aegis defense system. The challenge facing carrier strike groups today is that new antiship missiles are becoming faster, longer-range and more widespread, and can be deployed from platforms including long-distance patrol planes and bombers, small and stealthy fast-attack boats, and even shipping containers concealed in a harbor. The greater range means new missiles can be more safely lobbed at the carrier without necessarily entering within range for easy retaliation. The greater speed means they are harder to shoot down. And the ability to deploy them from a variety of platforms means the missile-launching units might prove difficult to detect and comprehensively eradicate preemptively. Take, for example, the Russian Kalibr cruise missile, the Sizzler antiship variant of which can strike naval targets up to four hundred miles away. The missile skims just above the sea, making it difficult to detect at a distance, before leaping up to three times the speed of sound on the terminal approachoffering a challenging target for missile-defense systems. The Kalibr can be fired not only from underwater by submarines, but also by relatively small and cheap corvettes. The heavier but shorter-range BrahMos missile entering use on sea, land and air platforms in the Indian military approaches the target at Mach 2.8, and is designed to perform an L-shaped evasive maneuver to fool a ships missile defenses. And China, needless to say, has developed its own range of similar antiship missiles, including both clones of Russian weapons as well as truly indigenous designs. Even more troubling for a carriers air defenses are a new generation of hypersonic missilesweapons exceeding five times the speed of sound. On June 3, Russia claimed to have successfully tested the hypersonic Zircon missile, with a reported speed of 4,600 miles per hour. If a carrier tasks forces defenses function properlynot something to take for granted when both the attacking and defensive systems have scant operational recordsthen they should be able to handle a few incoming missiles. However, an attacker would seek to saturate the defenders defenses by launching large volleys of the missiles all at once, and it may only take a few getting through to wreak considerable havoc. This, however, brings us to the major critique common to all these carrier-killing tactics: they often require a high degree of coordination, operational planning and networking. Breaking the Kill Chain Set aside the air-defense missiles for a momenta carriers first defense is that its thousand-foot-long flight deck is still nothing more than a tiny pinprick measured against the millions of square miles that make up the ocean. A tiny moving pinprick. Not just locating but also tracking a carrier across all that space relies on having a maritime observation apparatus coordinating long-distance patrol planes, submarines, over-the-horizon radars and satellitesmany of which are vulnerable in turn to a carrier strike groups aircraft and missiles. Once that apparatus identifies a carriers position, the targeting data needs to make it back in a timely fashion to air, land or naval units to put them in position for an attack. This sort of cueing is also very important in submarine operations. In many cases, a separate platform will have to network targeting data on the carrier, as the launch platforms may be too far away to acquire them on their own radars. Of course, that targeting data may also be disrupted by electronic warfare and defensive countermeasures. Just as likely, the observers may lose track of the carrier task forces position before elements can get into place to make the strike. These considerations lead National Interest contributor Rob Farley to argue that China and Russia lack adequate the maritime intelligence assets and operational experience to mount a well-coordinated maritime search-and-destroy campaign against a carrier task force, even if they possess armaments that could theoretically prove effective against one. The Operational Track RecordSuch As It Is Its important to stress that nobody really knows how effective both the offensive and defensive naval technologies will prove against each other, as there have fortunately been no large-scale naval wars since World War II. However, the smaller-scale naval conflicts that have occurred in the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and the South Atlantic all suggest long-range antiship missiles pose a substantial threat. Consider the two British ships sunk by air-launched Exocet missiles in the Falkland War, with a third damaged by a ground-launched weapon. The first attack was not detected until seconds before the moment of impact. Argentinas possession of just a few of the missiles nearly led London to dispatch a suicidal commando raid on Argentine soil to negate the threat. During the same conflict, an Argentine diesel-electric submarine twice managed to launch torpedo attacks on British vessels without being detectedthough, fortunately for the Royal Navy, the torpedoes all malfunctioned! Meanwhile, Argentinas own carrier did not participate in the conflict due to the threat posed by British submarines, one of which had sunk cruiser General Belgrano. On the other hand, antiship missiles liberally employed during the Iran-Iraq War generally failed to sink large tanker vesselswhich may imply that supercarriers will also prove similarly resilient. Obviously, these decades-old incidents should not be over-extrapolated into applying to current technologybut their lessons shouldnt be dismissed out of hand. One should also recall how many navies continued to invest in battleships in between the world wars, skeptical that then-new aircraft carriers could seriously challenge them. Surely, early carrier-based aircraft must not have seemed nearly as dependable as the sixteen-inch guns on a battleship turret. But those primitive warplanes and the operational doctrine for their use matured to the point where their ability to search for and destroy targets across hundreds of miles rendered the battleship obsolete. Actual combat in World War II proved revelatory. In the December 7 raid on Pearl Harbor, Japanese warplanes sank three U.S. battleships and severely damaged several more. Shortly afterward, land-based bombers sank the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse in a few of frenetic hours of action. To cap it off, the subsequent decisive naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway were fought entirely by carrier air strikes and submarine attacks. It took these brutal encounters with reality to finally sweep away many navies long-held devotion to a weapon system that no longer provided results commensurate with the expense of building them. Todays supercarriers will likely serve on for decades. However, the new threats arrayed against them, combined with the limited range of the current generation of carrier-based aircraft, suggest they may prove too vulnerable to operate within striking distance of near-peer opponents. It would make sense to plan future naval strategy around these new adversary capabilities, rather than simply doubling down on the supercarrier model because it has worked so far in permissive environments. Solutions that have been suggested to meet the new challenges posed by operating in littoral waters include using long-range carrier-based drones that will allow carriers to operate further afield from dangerous coastlines, relying on stealthy submarines to deliver cruise-missile attacks and distributing firepower across a larger fleet of individually less expensive ships. Above all, planners should seriously consider whether supercarriers loaded with relatively short-range warplanes remain a survivable and cost-efficient linchpin of U.S. naval strategy. Sebastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. Read full article A: Im from New Hampshire, and my fellow filmmaker is from the West Coast. We met in Chicago and we started asking questions like: Why is this city still so segregated in some places, and whats the history behind that? We started asking questions that led to some uncomfortable truths. Its easy for somebody like me to think in the North, we didnt have segregation, we didnt have some of these problems. Its very easy to forget some of this history that is in many ways tragic and still impacts the shape of our city today. So learning about some of this history and really taking a deep dive really opens your eyes about the way neighborhoods are shaped today. Its a tragic history and one thats uncomfortable to talk about and think about, but I think its important history and to me as an outsider, it was a privilege to come in and gain trust with the local community residents and hear their stories from the ground level. Bronzeville is a neighborhood that has had lots of other people decide whats going to be best for it from the top down, so we wanted to give this neighborhood a voice that in some ways has been denied. Marine corps demonstrate martial arts during a military drill at navy base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu J. Michael Cole Security, Asia It would not exactly be easy. Why China Would Have Some Major Problems If It Invaded Taiwan Beyond kinetic strategies, several asymmetrical options are also available to Taiwan to maximize the pain of a PLA invasion, with the ultimate goal of deterring such action. On the political side, Taipei should redouble its efforts in political warfare. The first aim of this strategy should be to counter similar operations by China , which have succeeded in undermining morale in the Taiwanese military while encouraging the perception abroad that Taiwan is an unreliable security partner, or that unification is inevitable or even desirable. A consensus seems to have developed among a large number of defense analysts in recent years arguing that despite the balance of power having shifted in Chinas favor, Beijing has no intention to use its military to invade Taiwan and thus resolve the Taiwan question once and for all. Doing so would be too costly, some argue, while others contend that Beijing can accomplish unification by creating enough economic dependence and incentives to convince Taiwanese over time of the inevitability of a reunited China. (This first appeared in 2015.) Although these factors certainly militate against the desire to go to war over the island-nation, we cannot altogether discount the probability that the Chinese military would be called into action, especially if the rationale for launching an attack were framed in terms of a defensive warChina being forced to take action because of changing and untenable circumstances in its environment. Therefore, despite the relatively low probability of war in the Taiwan Strait in the immediate future, Taipei cannot afford to be complacent and must actively pursue an effective defense strategy. The first component of such a strategy is for Taipei to clearly define what the mission is, and just as importantly, what victory would look like. Given the quantitative and qualitative differences that exist between the two militaries, it is clear by now that victory for Taiwan can no longer be defined in maximalist terms: the total destruction of enemy forces. Story continues (Recommended: Japan's Master Plan to Defeat China in a War) Moreover, Taiwan does not have the means, nor does the intent, to take the fight to China to annihilate Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) forces stationed on Chinese territory. Therefore, with a fewand importantexceptions that will be discussed below, the military area of operations in a war scenario would be the Taiwan Strait, and in a full invasion, the Taiwan side of the median line that divides the Strait. Of course there are many different scenarios in which the PLA could be activated to pressure Taiwan, not all of them involving an all-out assault to invade the island. The PLA Navy (PLAN) and Air Force (PLAAF), for example, can be used to blockade Taiwan, while the Second Artillery Corps could be called upon to launch decapitation missile attacks against the Taiwanese leadership and other key targets across Taiwan, such as radar sites, airstrips, naval bases, and its C4ISR architecture. In all those scenarios, Taiwan would be forced to adopt a purely defensive posture. The hardening and dispersal of targets, as well as improved air defense capabilities, are part of that strategy and what the Taiwanese military has prepared for over the years. The key in such limited scenarios will be to lower the chances that China would achieve its objectives. Under current conditions, Taiwan arguably has sufficient resources and the right strategies in place to address those limited contingencies. If true, this would mean that those options are off the table for China, therefore forcing it to either abandon the idea that force can be used to coerce Taipei, or to escalate. The logic behind ensuring that Fortress Taiwan has the wherewithal to defend itself against limited attacks is that the more Beijing has to escalate, the greater the dilemma it faces as pressuresdomestic and internationalagainst such use of force, and therefore the potential costs of unleashing it, would be much more severe. Still, there are contexts in which the dynamics that militate against full invasion would lose momentum. Chinese military literature is replete with references to defensive war and variations on that theme. Such language would be critical if it became necessary for the Beijing leadership to rationalize a decision to use total force to achieve its objectives. In such scenarios, China would position itself not as the aggressor, but rather as the victim, forced by external circumstances to go on the offensive, however begrudgingly, to protect its vital or core interests. Recommended: Why No Commander Wants to Take On a Spike Missile Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? Recommended: Imagine a U.S. Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber In other words, a change in context would leave the leadership with only two choices: capitulation or battle to defend the integrity of the Chinese territory. A declaration of de jure independence by Taiwan would certainly prompt such a response, with lawsthe Anti-Secession Law forcing Beijing to respond. China could also feel compelled to act if it deemed that political instability on the island were such that it threatened the safety of Chinese compatriotsin other words, Beijing could use its own Crimea model to justify massive use of force (humanitarian in this case) to occupy Taiwan. It would therefore be incautious to rule out any possibility that China would use maximum force (short of the nuclear option) to attack Taiwan, to believe that rational calculations of costs versus benefits will prevail under any and all circumstances. Even if the probability is remote, it still exists. And given the trends within Taiwanese society which make unification with China less and less appealing, it is not entirely infeasible that a decade from now the Chinese leadership could decide it has to take military actionagain for purely defensive purposeslest splittists (of course aided by the CIA and other agencies bent on subjugating China) threaten to tear apart one China and inspire other groups within its territory to move in a similar direction. So what could Taiwan do to ward off a PLA invasion? Since the Taiwanese military cannot hope to defeat the PLA in a conventional battlefield, and given that Taipei has no assurances that allies such as the United States and Japan would intervene on its side, its best defense is to ensure that China does not launch such an aggression in the first place. In other words, Taiwan must substantially increase the costs of invasionreal and perceivedby promising unacceptable amounts of pain to the PLA, the leadership in Beijing, and the Chinese population. Logically, this implies building up its capabilities to counter an amphibious assault through a combination of naval and aerial assets, as well as anti-armor rockets, missile batteries, artillery, mobile special forces units, and a well-trained and equipped reserve, to saturate the beaches with lead and create a kill zone for advancing PLA forces. Ensuring the survival of its air force and navy assets following saturation bombing by the Second Artillery in the initial phase of major hostilities would also be important, as those would also be necessary to counter PLA transport vessels ferrying troops across the Taiwan Strait. However, such a passive, or porcupine defense strategy would probably not be enough to deter Beijing. Consequently, a second aspect of Taiwans plans to inflict unacceptable pain on China must explore more offensive options. It has already begun doing so, with the production and deployment of Land Attack Cruise Missiles (LACM), naval suppression kits, and standoff air-to-ground missiles (cluster bombs, anti-radiation) capable of disabling airfields as well as missile and radar sites in China. The deployment and dispersal of larger quantities of road-mobile or naval LACM launchers would also make it more difficult for the PLA to locate and destroy all of them and thus increase the potency of Taiwans counterstrike capabilities, especially if their range were increased (Taiwan should nevertheless keep the moral high ground by promising it would only use such assets against military targets). To maximize the impact of its counterforce capabilities, Taiwan would also have to improve its ability to pinpoint targets through greater investment in radar and satellite technologyand ensure redundancy, as those would also likely be targeted by the PLA in the initial phase of a conflict. Greater human intelligence assets inside China, as well as the ability to conduct sabotage against key military (and economic) sites, would complement the offensive aspect of Taiwans defense strategy. Other options include armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and a larger fleet of submarines with conventional LACM capability. All of this is contingent on a political decision to invest more on defense than Taiwan does at present. Beyond kinetic strategies, several asymmetrical options are also available to Taiwan to maximize the pain of a PLA invasion, with the ultimate goal of deterring such action. On the political side, Taipei should redouble its efforts in political warfare. The first aim of this strategy should be to counter similar operations by China , which have succeeded in undermining morale in the Taiwanese military while encouraging the perception abroad that Taiwan is an unreliable security partner, or that unification is inevitable or even desirable. The second leg of a more active political warfare strategy would be to convince Beijing that Taiwans alliesthe United States., and possibly Japanwould act quickly should the PLA attempt an invasion of Taiwan. In other words, Beijing should not longer be kept guessing whether the United States would enter a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, especially at a time when Washingtons commitment to the regionand to Taiwan more specificallyis in serious doubt. Strategic ambiguity, which has served as a cornerstone of Washingtons policy in the Taiwan Strait since the conclusion of the Korean War, should be abandoned and replaced by a series of well advertised tripwires or red lines that, if crossed, would prompt a response by the U.S. military. Tokyo is also ripe for closer cooperation with Taiwan, and as such, political warfare that plays up the possibility of joint efforts between the two countries could be of great assistance to Taiwan. The more Beijing is convinced that the United States., and possibly Japan, would intervene in the Taiwan Strait, the greater will be its reluctance to launch operations that would spark such a response, as their entry in a conflict would substantially increase the costs of an invasion while diminishing the likelihood of a quick low-cost resolution on Beijings terms. Elsewhere, Taiwanese lobbyists and the Taiwanese diaspora could make more effective use of the islands assetsa vibrant liberal democracy and an important economyto encourage the international community to adopt a more vocal line in its opposition to the resolution of the Taiwan question by military or coercive means. Convincing Beijing that the international community would not countenance use of forceand would slap painful economic sanctions should it decide to do sowould contribute to Taipeis deterrent. Helping visitors to Taiwan better understand the nature and preciousness of its unique society, and encouraging them to be more proactive in their home countries convincing their representatives to take a more principled stance on Taiwan could go a long way. Existing programs under Taiwans Ministry of Foreign Affairs could serve as a basis for such efforts; increasing contact via other departmentse.g., creating more exchange programs for foreign military personnel to undergo language training in Taiwanshould also be explored. Additionally, taishang, the Taiwanese who operate businesses in China and who played a crucial role in helping develop the Chinese economy over the decades, could also threaten to cease their operations or pull out altogether if the PLA were activated in the Strait. Though happy to make money in China, most taishang (including the many who vote for the KMT) remain proud Taiwanese who do not want to see their home country devastated by war. Their possible role as a pressure point against Beijing should not be underestimated. One last area where Taiwan could do more to deter Beijing is in cyber warfare, or electronic sabotage. Using intelligence assets in China (closer contact between the two societies works both ways and doesnt only create opportunities for China), Taiwan could identify and select civilian and military targets for retaliation, with the aim of severely disrupting Chinas ability to operate normally should it launch an attack against the island. The banking and high-tech sectors would be likely targets. On the military side, promising to degrade, or perhaps even disable, Chinas nuclear deterrenteven if momentarily or knocking out its air defense systems, thus exposing China to USAF bombing runs, would be enough to make Beijing think twice about launching an invasion. In all those efforts, Taiwan would need to strike a balance between signaling its intent and capability to launch disruptive attacks of that naturein other words, for deterrence to work, Beijing must be convinced that the threat is realand the need to protect itself against Chinese espionage which could undermine those efforts. In the end, absent a U.S. and Japanese commitment to intervene in the early stages of an attempted PLA invasion of Taiwan, there is only a slim likelihood that the Taiwanese military would be able to defeat its opponent in the conventional sense of the term. The force disparity between the two sides has simply become too wide. As such, under prevailing circumstances, the only way that Taiwan can defeat China is to make sure that the PLA is never used to attack Taiwan. Deterrence, therefore, is its most credible asset, and one which it can put to much better use. Read full article An emergency order by a federal judge Tuesday night blocked Codys Wilsons Defense Distributed from posting plans for 3D-printed guns online. Its the latest turn in a three-year legal battle that seemed to be near an end last month when the federal government settled with Wilson and said he could post plans online starting Wednesday. Gun control groups, 20 state attorneys general and even President Donald Trump quickly voiced concerns that the guns are unchecked, untraceable and could even be made undetectable touching off a new round of lawsuits. Why 3D-printed guns will be very hard to stop But University of California-Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh says the fight against 3D-printed gun blueprints may prove futile, no matter the outcome of Wilsons court battles. Volokh says that the government will have a hard time controlling the spread of information on the internet, especially since 3D-printed gun plans are already online from other sources. Lets assume Defense Distributed takes this stuff down, what about all the other sites? Volokh says. There are foreign sites that already have it up. How can the federal government regulate information? Whether its WikiLeaks or these kinds of blueprints. He adds that to truly block the spread of 3D-printed guns, its not enough for the government to just go after Wilson. They would have to go after Google, internet service providers. It would be a national-level blocking of sites that the federal government determines youre not able to access. Really the only way to sharply empower the federal government is to set up a list of sites that people cant access on internet. The federal government could also attempt to force 3D-printing manufacturers to create a feature on their printers that recognizes and blocks the printing of guns, but Volokh points out that the software on the machines can be modified to get around that. Ultimately, he says, a person determined enough to access 3D-printed gun plans and make a weapon in their home would likely to be able to get around government restrictions. Story continues You have to spend a lot of time, buy a printer then assemble. Anyone motivated to do that will get it, whatever prices available, he says. Are 3D-printed guns a First Amendment or Second Amendment issue? While gun safety advocates and politicians are focusing on the potential threat 3D-printed guns could pose, Wilson and his backers insist that the legal fight is about free speech, not gun control Wilsons attorney, Josh Blackman, tells TIME that Tuesday nights injunction to take down the gun blueprints is censorship of free speech on all Americans, not just my client. He points out that plans have been online since last Friday and have been downloaded thousands of times. We are disappointed in this ruling, which will result in a global injunction on the freedom of speech, he said in a statement. Volokh says that the legal battle over 3D-printed guns is likely to hinge on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, not the Second Amendment right to bear arms. I suppose you could order American service providers to block access or ask Google not to serve these sites in search results, but thats the way China does things. I think short of draconian efforts like that, practically speaking, the states are fighting a battle they cant win, stopping the spread of information is very difficult, he says. He says that companies like Google could potentially remove sites hosting 3D-printed gun plans from their indexes as they have done for sites that sell unregulated pharmaceuticals. In that case, Googles action came at the request of the Federal Drug Administration, which claimed doing so was in the interest of public safety. What is the status of the legal fight over 3D-printed guns? In his order on 3D-printed guns on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik temporarily blocked the U.S. State Departments settlement that allowed Defense Distributed to post the 3D-printed gun blueprints. He set a follow-up hearing to address the issue again for Aug. 10. There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made, Lasnik said. Lasnik said there were potentially First Amendment issues in blocking the plans from being posted and that those would have to be worked out. Wilson complied with Lasniks order and temporarily shut down his website. But he has vowed to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. By order of a federal judge in the Western District of Washington, https://t.co/ZEOYuTOs4a is going dark. Cody R. Wilson (@Radomysisky) August 1, 2018 The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence celebrated the last-minute decision, saying it will protect innocent lives across the U.S. and even worldwide. It is immediately obvious to anyone who looks at this issue that 3D-printed guns are nothing short of a menace to society, and we are thrilled that the court ruled in this manner, Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign, said in a statement Tuesday. The efforts of these Attorney Generals throughout the nation have helped strike a powerful blow against the scourge of 3D-printed guns, but we know this fight is not yet over. We will continue to do everything in our power to make sure that this temporary halt in publication becomes a permanent one. The National Rifle Association said in a statement that the availability of 3D-printed gun plans will not lead to widespread production of undetectable plastic firearms because of a 1988 law that makes it illegal to own or make a completely plastic gun of any kind. Regardless of what a person may be able to publish on the Internet, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years, the statement read. Federal law passed in 1988, crafted with the NRAs support, makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive an undetectable firearm. Wilsons legal battle began after he posted plans for his 3D-printed pistol The Liberator online in 2013. The State Department ordered Wilson to take down the plans, arguing that his post violated laws that regulate the export of firearms. The department said online distribution of gun designs was a form of international distribution of weapons which falls under the State Departments purview. Wilson sued the government in 2015, alleging that officials were violating his First Amendment right to free speech. In June, the State Department unexpectedly ended its legal battle with Wilson, allowing him to share any blueprints he has. According to the Second Amendment Foundation, which filed the suit on behalf of Wilson, the State Department settled because the Commerce Department is now in charge of firearm regulation and has jurisdiction over 3D printable gun blueprints. After his unexpected victory, Wilson announced he would post blueprints on his newly redesigned pistol on August 1. As that date approached, politicians became more vocal, expressing concern about the implications of widely available 3D-printed weapon plans. A multi-state lawsuit was filed on July 30 against the Trump Administration, arguing the actions resulting from the settlement violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the Tenth Amendment. The resulting injunction is only temporary and raises questions about what comes next in the legal fight over 3D-printed guns. What the White House is saying On Tuesday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he is looking in to 3D-printed guns after consulting with the NRA. I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesnt seem to make much sense! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018 On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Department of Justice gave the State Department the go-ahead to settle with Wilson without White House approval. The Department of Justice made a deal without the Presidents approval, Sanders said during Wednesdays press briefing. The president is glad these efforts were delayed to give more time to review the issue. This Administration supports the decades-old legislation already in the books that prohibits the ownership of a wholly plastic gun. Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev asserted Wednesday that the Palestinians don't have roots in east Jerusalem. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "No matter how deep they can dig, the Palestinians will not find a single Palestinian coin here," Regev said at a ceremony to launch a preservation project of an ancient Yemenite synagogue in Silwan (Kfar HaShiloach) in east Jerusalem, which was destroyed 80 years ago. "This region knew many occupiers and rulers, but no one has succeeded in cutting off the deep roots of the Jewish people. Its always exciting to walk these streets, where Jews walked 3000 years ago. Ministers Regev and Elkin at the ceremony (Photo: Gil Yohanan) Minister Regev was joined in the ceremony by the Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin (Likud), who is also running for Jerusalem mayor. "Our right to this land is a subject of constant discussion in recent days, in which we must explain the obviousthe State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people alone. Only the Jewish people are entitled to national rights between the river and the sea," she said, referring to the criticism over the controversial Nationality Law. "Our language will always be the Hebrew language, the flag will always be the Star of David, Jerusalem will always be our capital, and our anthem will always read the soul of a Jew yearns," Regev asserted. "Does this mean we are violating someones rights? On the contrary, the Jewish state knows how to ethically treat its minorities. Individual civil rights are enshrined in the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and other laws." Regev accused that "there are members of the media who, after failing at the ballot box, try to drive a wedge between us and our Druze brothers. We will not allow this to happen." "The Druze are our own flesh and blood, they serve in the IDFWe love you and want to share a peacful life with you, here, in our country," Regev added. A temple era coin found in Silwan (Photo: Ilan Shalmayev) Minister Elkin spoke about the Jewish settlements outside the Old City walls. We look at the Old City and to the West, and remember the story of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, and rightly so. But there was another Jewish neighborhood among the first in the regionthis neighborhood here, in eastern Jerusalem, which is unjustly excluded from the narrative." We are proud to be part of the Yemenite immigrants' settlement. This settelment is another chapter, a much later one but equally important chapter in the history of our people in Jerusalem," Elkin added. Among the participants at the event was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who is visiting Israel. Earlier, Huckabee took part in laying the cornerstone at a new neighborhood in the settlement of Efrat, located in the Judean Mountains of the West Bank. The foremer US governor said that one day he might buy a vacation home in the settlement. Huckabee, whose daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the press secretary for US President Donald Trump, said he is positive Trump would be happy to join him, "because he builds and likes to see construction sites." Israel will stop shipments of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip from Thursday in response to militants in the enclave launching incendiary balloons that have torched fields in Israel. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "The decision has been taken in view of the continued terror of incendiary balloons and friction along the (border) fence," a statement from Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's office said. The ban begins Thursday and will remain in place until further notice. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman at the Kerem Shalom border crossing (Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Ministry of Defense) About a month ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Lieberman accepted the IDF chief's recommendation to close the Kerem Shalom border crossing, allowing in only humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine. "Hamas uses the residents of Gaza and keeps launching kites and firebombs into Israel. Hamas does not allow the continuation of routine life in the area. If the incendiary balloon phenomenon persists, these steps will continue and will be intensified," the IDF said at the time. Hamas said at the time that "closing the crossing is a crime against humanity." Last week, after a relative drop in violence on the Gaza border, the defense minister ordered to partially reopen the crossing and allow fuel and gas in, but some restrictions remained: No other goods, including construction materials, will be allowed in, and there is also a ban on the export of goods from Gaza. According to a statement from the defense minister's office, the decision was made in light of not only the drop in incendiary balloons being flown from the strip but also due to a drop in violent, Hamas-organized activities along the border fence. The statement noted that the number of kites and balloons carrying firebombs into Israeli territory had been reduced but not totally eliminated. It said the crossing could return to full activity soon "conditioned on the full cessation of fire-balloon launches and friction on the fence." (Photo: Ariel Hermoni, Ministry of Defense) "We completed our assessment regarding the transfer of goods through Kerem Shalom," Lieberman said when the crossing was partially reopened. "The residents of Gaza must understand that as long as there are incendiary balloons and fires, things wont go back to normal for them the key is quiet, calm, zero rockets or, god forbid, gunfire." Four months of weekly Friday border protests that began on March 30 have calmed slightly but organizers have vowed they will continue until Israel lifts economic sanctions on the enclave. The country has lost tracts of farmland and forests to fires set by kites and helium balloons laden with incendiary material and flown over from Gaza. Senior representatives of the Druze community headed by Shaykh Mowafaq Tarif, MKs and other officials held a gathering on Thursday in order to discuss the outline of the proposed law that would commit Israel to recognize Druze contribution to the state. At the end of the discussion, it was decided to continue negotiations on the issue and to hold a rally in solidarity with the community at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. Senior representatives of the Druze community, headed by Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, decided not to accept an outline proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant to allay fears that the recently-passed Nationality Law will impinge on their equality and basic rights. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The proposed legislation would commit Israel to recognize the contribution of the Druze community to the state. During an urgent meeting held on Thursday in Kafr Yasif in northern Israel, Druze leaders decided to continue negotiations on the issue and not to withdraw a petition filed to the High Court of Justice against the Nationality Law. Meeting of the Druze community leaders (Photo: Al-Sadr) In addition, a rally in solidarity with the Druze community is expected to be held at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night. Most of the meetings participants, which included several MKs and local government officials, objected to Netanyahu's proposal and stressed their commitment to continue the fight for the communitys rights. "The government's duty is to provide the residents with services and to solve the housing and education problems, regardless of the Nationality Law," they said in a statement. Nevertheless, the Druze community leaders thanked the prime minister "for the tremendous efforts he invested to enshrine into law the Druze's status in the State of Israel. A window of opportunity for a historic precedent has been created to elevate the status of the Druze community." Meeting of the Druze community leaders (Photo: Al-Sadr) They also stressed their intention to continue the discussions on the matter with the prime minister's team in order to formulate an official document based on the principle elements of Netanyahus proposal and noted that the issue of Druze IDF service should not be part of the public debate. Brig. Gen. Amal Asad, one of the leaders of the current fight, addressed the prime ministers proposal, labeling it as humiliating. "The prime minister offered the Druze community to stop protesting against their humiliation last week. Instead, he proposes another humiliating offer the main purpose of which is to provide benefits to the community and to individuals serving in the IDF in return for their contribution. In other words, the outline proposed by the prime minister is essentially a contract for a professional army, with undefined benefits and promises, which are just as reliable as the prime ministers reputation, he vented. Meeting of the Druze community leaders (Photo: Al-Sadr) The proposal formulated by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team was initially described as historic. It reflects a change in the legal status of Israels minority communities serving in the IDF, especially the Druze, said an official statement. The components of the plan's outline are as follows: 1. Anchoring in law the status of the Druze and Circassian communities. The law will esteem the contribution of the Druze community to the State of Israel in building up the country, strengthening security and fashioning the face of Israeli society as an equal and varied society, and will include support for community religious, cultural and educational institutions; the strengthening of Druze towns and villages, including solutions for residential construction, and the establishment of new communities as necessary; and the preservation of the Druze heritage. 2. Anchoring in law the eligibility for benefits of minority community membersof all faiths and communitieswho serve in the security forces, to achieve social equality. 3. Anchoring in a basic law recognition of the contribution of thoseof all faiths and communities, including the Druzewho take part in the defense of the state. 4. The Deputy Director General of the Prime Minister's Office announced the establishment of a ministerial committee, chaired by Prime Minister Netanyahu, on the issue of the Druze community which will workinter aliato advance the outline and oversee its implementation. 5. The details of the outline will be formulated and written in 45 days, within the framework of a joint team that includes government officials and representatives of the Druze community, all subject to the provisions of the law, and to the approval of the Attorney General. Legislative actions will commence immediately upon the convening of the Knesset's in the next winter session. The High Court of Justice petition against the Nationality Law, was submitted by MK Akram Hasson (Kulanu) MK Salah Sa'ad (the Zionist Union) and MK Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu). MK Akram Hasson said on Wednesday that the outlined proposal is a historic move. We passed the proposal to our lawyer and he deemed it acceptable. For our point of view, this is a historic plan, said MK Akram Hasson. It removes the feeling of ranking citizens of class A and B citizens. It enables us to be proud and equal citizens with our people in our homeland. All we wanted was to be one nation in one state. The plan, Hasson continued, provides a solution to all the problems and we will begin to feel equal and we have no interest in continuing the protest. There is light at the end of this tunnel. MK Amar also praised the proposal, saying that for the first time, his Israeliness will be enshrined in law. The proposal is acceptable in my eyes. The only thing that motivates me is the good of the Druze. Since the passing of the contentious law, minority communities in Israel have been calling to amend several controversial articles in it. The Nationality Law also states that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and that Hebrew is the official language of the state. Arabic, spoken by the Druze community, was downgraded as an official language and defined as having a special status, with the official state use of Arabic to be determined in separate legislation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a trip to Colombia planned for next week due to the situation around the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not give further details. Netanyahu was due to travel to the Latin American country from Aug. 6-9. Tensions have been high in recent weeks along the border between Israel and Gaza, an Islamist-controlled Palestinian territory. Police arrested 46 Haredim activists following the ultra-Orthodox Jewish protest against the arrest of a defector on Thursday afternoon. The demonstration that blocked the junction of Jaffa-Sarei Yisrael streets in Jerusalem came to a close. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The demonstrators protested against the arrest of a defectora yeshiva studentby confronting the police, shouting "We will die before we enlist" and blocking the Jerusalem Light Rail's route. Police arrested 46 demonstrators. 400 ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrate in Jerusalem (Photo: Haredim demonstrate in Jerusaelm) In addition, another protest of ultra-Orthodox Jews is taking place in the northern city of Safed, with the attendance of a few dozen activists. The demonstrators protest at Ganei Hadar Square, at the lower entrance to Safed, and occasionally go down to road 89, disrupting traffic. The police arrested three ultra-Orthodox men who were involved in blocking the access road to Ziv Hospital in Safed. According to the police, a knife was found in the possession of one of the detainees who is a minor. The Committee to Save the Torah World declared a "huge protest" in Jerusalem and Safed following the arrest of an unruly yeshiva student who refused to attend the IDF Recruiting Center as part of his protest against the draft bill. The committee, who defines the current situation as a "spiritual holocaust," is affiliated with the Jerusalem-based Lithuanian faction According to a statement made by the committee, "the goals and quotas set out in the recent draconian recruitment laws are a terrible decree aimed at destroying and weakening the ultra-Orthodox public." The body of an Israeli woman was found in an abandoned car in Hebron on Thursday night along with the body of a Palestinian man. The body of the Israeli, a resident of East Jerusalem who holds a blue identity card, was transferred to the Israel Border police. The Palestinian police, who found the vehicle, gathered preliminary evidence at the scene, and, according to preliminary investigation, the murder of the two occurred in the context of a romantic quarrel. The Israel Border police opened an investigation into the incident and asked the Palestinian Police to transfer the abandoned vehicle in which the couple was found, for the collection of evidence. Most of the residents in my neighborhood have lived here for 50-plus years, and they are very happy about what I am doing because they get to meet people that stay in my home from all over the world, Blackamore says of her Airbnb space, which she opened last year. There is a couple of restaurants in the area that actually really benefit from the guests coming in, especially this weekend. Police discovered a body of a 40-year-old man, an employee of a rehabilitation center in Netanya who was murdered by one of the patients at the site on Thursday. The MDA team that arrived at the scene pronounced his death. Half an hour late, the police announced that another body was discovered near the rehabilitation center where the first body was found. It was announced on Thursday that the Security Cabinet will convene on Sunday in an underground bunker in the Jerusalem area in order to discuss a wide-scale arrangement on the Gaza Strip. The ministers will be briefed on the discussions held between UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov and the Egyptians. Israeli political sources say that soon well know whether well commit to the arrangement or to a potential escalation in the strip. Egypt is trying to broker a broad cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers that is to pave the way for Gaza's reconstruction and an eventual prisoner swap, senior Hamas officials said Thursday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Repeated cease-fire deals over the years collapsed, but there were signs of possible momentum toward a new agreement, after weeks of escalation along the Gaza-Israel frontier. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to put off a trip to Colombia to keep an eye on the situation in Gaza, a government official said Thursday. Hamas leadership meets with UN envoy Mladenov Israel's Security Cabinet is set to convene on Sunday in an underground bunker in the Jerusalem area in order to discuss a wide-scale arrangement on the Gaza Strip. The ministers will be briefed on the discussions held under the auspices of UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov and the Egyptians. Separately, a high-level Hamas delegation entered Gaza Thursday evening through the Rafah border crossing after holding talks in Cairo on the reconciliation agreement with Fatah as well as a possible ceasefire with Israel. Most of the Hamas leadership is based in Gaza but is being joined by exiled members of the group's political bureau, including Saleh al-Arouri, a founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank and a mastermind of violent attacks against Israelis in the past; Hamas's spokesman abroad Husam Badran; senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk; and Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq. Deputy Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, accompanied the delegation to Cairo and returned with it to Gaza on Thursday. Israel's Security Cabinet (Photo: Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry) "Permitting a delegation with this level to come to Gaza is a clear sign that there are first of all guarantees that the delegation will not be targeted by the Israelis, and a sign that there are serious meetings to be held in Gaza," said Bassem Naim, a Gaza-based Hamas official. He said Hamas officials would try to "conclude the progress that has been made on files such as the truce," as well as a UN-led rebuilding of Gaza and possible reconciliation between Hamas and its domestic political rival, West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Naim said the Hamas leaders would also talk about a possible prisoner swap with Israel. Two other senior Hamas officials confirmed the outlines of the deal proposed by Egypt. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details of closed-door negotiations. It's not clear what role Abbas would play in Gaza, if any. He has said in the past that he would only resume responsibility for Gaza if Hamas agrees to hand over all authority there, including over security. Hamas has been unwilling to do so. Kerem Shalom border crossing (Photo: Barel Efraim) Gaza has endured a crippling border blockade by Israel and Egypt, imposed after Hamas seized the territory in 2007. In recent months, Hamas has become more desperate amid mounting financial pressure, including from Abbas. Gaza's 2 million people have had to contend with electricity shortages, rising unemployment and growing poverty. Despite renewed cease-fire efforts, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that, starting Thursday, he is halting shipments of fuel and natural gas to Gaza in response to incendiary balloons that have targeted southern Israel. Israel also suspended fuel shipments to Gaza temporarily in July for similar reasons. Incendiary balloons and kites, many set off during border protests organized by Hamas, have caused fires that have devastated southern Israel's farmland and forests. Since late March, thousands of Gaza residents have participated in frequent protests along Israel's perimeter fence, in part to try to break the blockade. RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Egypt is trying to broker a broad cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers that is to pave the way for Gaza's reconstruction and an eventual prisoner swap, senior Hamas officials said Thursday. Repeated cease-fire deals over the years collapsed, but there were signs of possible momentum toward a new agreement, after weeks of escalation along the Gaza-Israel frontier. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to put off a trip to South America to keep an eye on the situation in Gaza, a government official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Separately, a high-level Hamas delegation planned to enter Gaza later Thursday after holding talks in Cairo, said the Palestine Information Center, a Hamas-linked website. The captain of a Norwegian boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists en route to Gaza has accused Israeli authorities of violating the law by boarding the vessel in international waters and using violent force against its crew, who were arrested. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Norway has asked Israel to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrests and "the allegations of excessive use of force," a Norwegian government spokesman told AFP on Thursday. Navy commandeers gaza bound boat (Photo: AFP) "We were arrested in international waters and we were closer to Egypt than Israel," the boat's captain Herman Reksten said early Thursday when he returned to Norway after being held for three days in an Israeli prison. "Israel has broken all the rules, it's horrific that they board a Norwegian ship in international waters and force it to moor in Israel," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. The IDF on Sunday announced the seizure of a boat off the Gaza Strip with activists who were denouncing the land and sea blockade imposed by Israeli on the Palestinian enclave for more than a decade. The Norwegian-flagged Karstein ship had 22 people on board. All of them have since been released and expelled from Israel or are in the process of being deported, according to Ship to Gaza Norway. The fate of one Canadian passenger with health problems was uncertain on Thursday. Arriving at Oslo International Airport, Karstein captain Reksten also accused Israeli soldiers of shocking the activists with tasers. "I still have a headache from being hit in prison," he added. The Israeli embassy in Oslo denied the accusations. "It's actually exactly the opposite: the ones that were acting against international law were those activists who were attempting to breach an internationally-recognized legal naval blockade over the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by an Islamic terror organization, Hamas," Dan Poraz, a diplomat at the embassy, told AFP. "There was definitely not a use of excessive violence. There was use of a minimal and reasonable amount of force simply because the crew members ... were reluctant to cooperate and to follow orders from the (Israeli) navy," he added. Meanwhile, Norway has yet to receive an answer from Israel to shed light on the incident. "We've asked the Israeli authorities to clarify the course of events and on what basis they think they are entitled to intervene on the ship," Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Frode Andersen told AFP in an e-mail. "We will also raise the allegations of excessive use of force," he added. Israel reimposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza on Thursday citing a resurgence in kites carrying firebombs over the border. More than 60 high school students from the Druze community signed a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding the annulment of the Nationality Law. "Like our forefathers, we also want to be full partners in the mission to secure the state and to ensure Israel's future as a secure, just and equal state," the letter reads. JERUSALEM/AMMAN - Israel and Jordan said on Thursday that their forces had killed Islamic State insurgents who approached their borders after being squeezed out of southwestern Syria by the army of President Bashar al-Assad. In a nod to his battlefield gains, Israel described victory by Assad, who is on a last push to restore his rule after more than seven years of civil war, as a fait accompli that could calm the Golan Heights. LONDON - The president of one of the UK's main Jewish groups called Thursday on the leader of the Labour Party to make an "abject apology" to British Jews for allowing anti-Semitism to fester in the left-of-center opposition party. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice within Labour have grown since veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015. Some in the party allege that Corbyn, a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, has allowed anti-Semitic abuse to go unchecked. Corbyn apologized this week for the "concerns and anxiety" caused before he became Labour's leader when, as a pro-Palestinian activist, he shared platforms with people "whose views I completely reject." Jeremy Corbyn (file photo) (Photo: AP) But Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl tweeted that Corbyn was "hiding behind a half-hearted 'apology' no doubt crafted by his spin-doctors." "Jeremy Corbyn needs to stop hiding & make an abject apology to UK Jews in his own voice," she wrote. The long-simmering dispute inside Labour recently boiled over after the party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differed from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The alliance says it is anti-Semitic to accuse Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than to their home countries, an example omitted from Labour's definition. The alliance also says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis, a view Labour did not endorse. Corbyn also has received personal criticism for his past appearances alongside alleged anti-Semites and for some of his statements, including a 2010 speech in which he compared Israel's blockade of Gaza to Nazi Germany's sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad during World War II. Labour's leadership is facing pressure to expel Peter Willsman, a party official who accused Jewish "Trump fanatics" of stirring up controversy around anti-Semitism. A falcon carrying what is suspected to be an incendiary device from Gaza was found dead Thursday evening in the Eshkol Regional Council, which borders the Gaza Strip. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The dead falcon was found hanging off an automatic irrigation line, with a wire tied to his leg affixed with the suspected incendiary device. Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel as well as a police sapper were called to the scene to neutralize the incendiary device. (Photo: Eshkol Regional Council) This is not the first time residents of the Gaza border area witness animal abuse in an effort to carry out a terror attack. A few weeks ago, a common kestrel, which is a type of falcon, was found dead hanging from a tree west of the Besor stream, not far from the strip's border. The kestrel was wearing a harness that was linked to a steel wire at the other end of which was the incendiary device, making it likely it came from the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting on the Nationality Law with Druze leaders after one of them, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad, called Israel an "apartheid state" in a Facebook post. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Netanyahu said he would not tolerate such an offense both to the prime minister Israel and to the State of Israel itself. Some Druze mayors refused to attend the meeting. Netanyahu meets with Druze leaders (file photo) (Photo: Koby Gideon/GPO) Asad accused Netanyahu of planning the incident. "He had no intention of listening us, the officers who have a position contradictory to his own," Asad claimed. "He planned to come and take photos with the dignitaries, and say he's establishing committees. We came to present our positions." Asad went on to say that "When he saw me, he said he didn't want to sit down with Amal, because I wrote that Israel is an apartheid state. If you didn't want to sit down with me, why did you invite me?" Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad He clarified he did not make his controversial accusation during the meeting itself, but in a Facebook post, where he also criticized the prime minister. "I guess anyone who criticizes Netanyahu is X'ed out. I'm sorry I've been x'ed out. I'm proud of what I represent," he added. "We want the Nationality Law to change and to include me as an Israeli by law." Zionist Union MK Saleh Saed, a Druze himself, criticized Asad's comment, saying it is "playing into the hands of the prime minister and hurts the Druze's fight. This is an unnecessary comment that should have not been said, and is in no way acceptable to me. The State of Israel is not an apartheid state." Elsewhere, during a scholarship ceremony for Druze students at the ORT Braude College of Engineering, several Druze activists against the Nationality Law ran onto the stage and interrupted remarks by Likud MK Avi Dichter, one of the legislation's sponsors. Druze protesters interrupt MK Dichter (: ) X The protesting activists were led by Dr. Amir Hanifes, who represented the Druze community in the Knesset discussions on the law. Another activist called Dichter "racist" and "Nazi." Dichter exclaimed in response: "I won't be called a 'Nazi!' Not by a Jew, an Arab, a Muslim or a Druze." "I lost my family because of the Nazis, who murdered my mother's family and my father's family," he added. Police officers who were called to the scene removed the two protesters from the ceremony. (Photo: Ahiya Raved) MK Dichter left the event from a side exit, accompanied by police officers from the Yasam Special Patrol Unit. After the event, he noted that the Druze's rage is a result of "a lot of disinformation," among other things. "I don't recommend dismissing a Basic Law that passed with a 62 MKs majority," Dichter added. (Photo: Ahiya Raved) Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which organized the event, tried to calm down the tensions. "The Nationality Law that passed in the Knesset left you, along with many thousands from among Israel's minorities who are seeking to integrate into Israeli society and become an integral part of the State of Israel, embarrassed and distressed," he said. "I'm sure my friend Avi Dichter, that I know the Druze community is close to his heart, did not expect or wish for this crisis. I'm sure no one thought this harm will happen and be so serious. I believe what's been done can be fixed," Eckstein continued. "I call on my friend Avi and all members of the Knesset and government to create a quick solution for this terrible situation we've found ourselves in," he concluded. Druze high-schoolers ask Netanyahu: Stop the law More than 60 Druze high school students sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday, demanding to cancel the Nationality Law. "We were raised looking up to our brothers, the IDF's Druze heroes, and on the legacy left to us by the 421 fallen Druze soldiers who were killed protecting the state. We, the future generation, are willing to give our lives to defend the homeland, just as the previous generations had done since the establishment of the state. The Druze community has always been and will always be alongside the Jewish people, facing any challenge. Like our fathers and their fathers before them, we too want to be full partners in the security of the state and in ensuring its future as a secure, just and equal nation," the students opened their letter. Turning to the Nationality Law, the wrote: "Mr. Prime Minister, the Nationality Law passed by the Israeli government causes a deep crisis for us, because it says we're not citizens with equal rights in our countrythe State of Israel. This is outrageous, because nowhere in the law is the principle of equality," they wrote. "Despite the great anger, the insult and the crisis, we will continue contributing to the State of Israel, as we've been taught by our parents and leaders. We will always be loyal to our country. We love it and are willing to serve it like our fathers before us," they noted. "We turn to you, Mr. Prime Minister: Stop the Nationality Law. Hear our cries. The courage you showed in battleplease show the same courage as prime minister. You can stop the law and send it back to discussions to make the necessary amendments." Woodlawn and the neighborhoods around it Kenwood, Hyde Park, Bronzeville people can speak about it in a very monolithic way because its majority African-American, but when you look at the other demographics in terms of education, economics, marital status, theres so much variety and culture right in this group of neighborhoods, LeFlore said. And its so great that you can see longtime residents that have been here for generations and then residents who are choosing to move here. They might have lived in other parts of the city, and then theyre choosing to come to this area to raise their families. And thats because of the cultural richness that we have in this area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Thursday with leaders of the Druze community, to discuss the controversial Nationality Law at his office in Jerusalem. The meeting was cut short after Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amal Asad interrupted and called Israel an apartheid state. The prime minister said that he will not accept the disrespecting of the prime minister and the state. United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov, 47, has become one of the most prominent diplomatic brokers the region has seen in recent years. His current mission is a critical one: preventing a war from breaking out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, as well as eventually rebuilding the strip. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Ever since the mass protests along the Gaza border fence began on March 30and with them the kite and balloon terrorism that has burnt large swaths of fields and woodlands in southern IsraelMladenov has been a central figure in efforts to prevent a violent confrontation between Israel and Hamas. Mladenov with PM Netanyahu (Photo: Gov. Press Office) At least twice, his intensive diplomatic worktogether with the Egyptianswas successful in preventing further escalation. The last time was on July 20, when a Palestinian sniper killed Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi from the Givati Brigade, the first Israeli casualty on the Gaza border since Operation Protective Edge, prompting the IDF to bomb dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip, and it seemed that a huge escalation was inevitable. Hamas made a phone call to Mladenov, who rushed to ask Israel for a ceasefire, which in the meantime seems to be holdinguntil next time. Israeli officials agree that Mladenov is the most active UN envoy the region has seen in recent years. That is considered a compliment, as Israel generally views UN personnel with suspicion for their generally pro-Palestinian views. Mladenov previously headed a UN mission to Iraq and served as the minister of defense and foreign affairs in his native Bulgaria. Sources familiar with Mladenov say he is very involved, ambitious and makes frequent trips to all the parties; all while presenting a pleasant demeanor, wisdom and a desire to delve into the depth of the issues. Meeting the PM and other officials (Photo: Gov. Press Office) He is very familiar with Israel and the Israelis and is deeply involved in politics. He lives in Jerusalem and travels often to Sofia, Bulgaria (where his family lives) and New York, to report back to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council. Prior to Mladenov, the post was filled by Dutch diplomat Robert Serry, who was seen as biased against Israel. He was caught up in many disagreements with his Israeli counterparts until Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman asked that the UN remove him from the region after learning he transferred funds from Qatar to Hamas behind Israels back. Serry was popular on the Palestinian side and worked closely with them for years, so Mladenov's starting point was not easy. Several critical factors paved the way for him, and he eventually earned the "approval" necessary for the right doors to be opened to him. Slowly but surely, Mladenov was able to restore trust and be seen as a fair mediator. Evidence to that is the fact Israel has agreed to have him serve as a "trustee" for the money sent to Gaza by donor countries, believing he will ensure the money is not funneled to terror purposes. Mladenov was also able to earn the trust of Hamas, and it is no wonder that in each of the recent escalations, the terrorist organization was quick to turn to him (in addition to Egypt, of course) to achieve a cease-fire. A hypocrite with a useless role Mladenov has often been the object of criticism from both sides. During his frequent visits to the UN Security Council, he often criticizes Israel for excessive use of force, for killing children and for expanding settlements. On the other hand, he does not hesitate to criticize Hamas for firing rockets and for its provocations along the border fence. During one of his speeches at the UN, he called on the international community to unequivocally condemn Hamas attacks on Israel. He is constantly warning that Gaza is on the brink of collapse and that every additional day of conflict brings us closer to a new war. Mladenov On more than one occasion, Mladenov has managed to anger Israelis, such as when he tweeted on April 20 about the killing of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy by IDF sniper fire: "Shooting children is outrageous! How does killing a child in Gaza today help achieve peace? It does not! It only feeds more anger and creates more killing," he wrote, demanding an investigation. The tweet caused uproar online and brought forth accusations of one-sidedness and criticism for swiftly attacking the IDF without clarifying the facts. Maldanov even responded to one of his critics, Peter Lerner, who was the IDF spokesman for the foreign media, and wrote to him: "Here's an idea for youstop shooting children." Minister Lieberman placed the responsibility for the boys death squarely on Hamas. His party members went even further tweeting: When will you tweet against Hamas, which is sending children to a dangerous border region? Israel uses all legal methods in defending its borders, while you are encouraging a terror organization to attack us. You are a hypocrite, and your job is useless. However, Lieberman and Mladenov actually have a good relationship. They were introduced by a mutual friend in 1999, the year Mladenov was elected to the European Parliament and Lieberman to the Knesset. The two also served their respective countries as foreign minister at the same time. During a 2011 visit to Anakara, Mladenov criticized Turkish policy towards Israel in the wake of the Mavi Marmara incident. Despite their differences, Mladenov and Lieberman maintain a close relationship. With Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: Getty Images) Fluctuations in relations were also recorded on the Palestinian side. At first, Mladenov was well received in Ramallah, but later on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas realized he was undermining their plans and goals with respect to Gaza. The harsh sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority president on the Gaza Strip led Mladenov to publicly criticize him. Recently, relations have been further cooled by Abbass refusal to cooperate with any tentative arrangement in Gaza. According to an inside source, officials in Ramallah they that Mladenov had marginalized them with regards to plans for Gaza. Some claim that the agreement that Mladenov is formulating is actually an attempt to bypass Abbas, who helped steer Gaza into the mess it is in. In closed conversations, he accused Abbas of being paralyzed, as one refusing to take civil responsibility over Gaza. The tensions subsided somewhat in a recent meeting between the two in Ramallah, but the suspicions remain. A welcome figure in Gaza In Gaza, Mladenov is popular among the Hamas leadership and often meets with Ismail Haniyeh and other senior members. They trust him. With hamas leadership in Gaza He developed an excellent relationship with the former Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yoav Mordechai, and often speaks with Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and other senior officials. Recently, he met twice with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett. Israel views Mladenov as the man who can find a solution to the Gaza mess, despite the difficulties. He has said that Hamas has become more pragmatic lately, despite recent incidents. His role as UN envoy is viewed very positively, he gives the civilian population of Gaza hope. The Americans also admire him, and President Donald Trumps senior advisor Jared Kushner is in touch with Mladenov regarding a tentative American peace initiative that will surely place an emphasis on Gaza. In the past year, he has managed to quietly formulate a mechanism that can take in the money coming from donor countries and use it to fund projects to rehabilitate the Gaza Stripprojects that Mahmoud Abbas did not agree to take responsibility forincluding housing, upgrading the electricity grid, construction of desalination plants, sewage treatment plants, gas pipeline upgrades and more. These are large-scale projects that the international community is prepared to finance, but so far there has been no way to implement them. Jared Kushner (Photo: EPA) Among the countries that have agreed to contribute large sums: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other Sunni countries. Together with the Egyptians and the civilian authorities in Gaza, Mladenov has developed an entrepreneurial program that will give young Gazans employment and pocket casha shortage of which is one of the essential problems in Gaza. The idea is that once the public in Gaza sees progress and improvement in their living conditionselectricity, clean water, sewage treatment, jobsthere will be change and hope for the future. Mladenov and the Egyptians are working on a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, in addition to a multi-stage process of transferring authority over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, and the internal Palestinian reconciliation. The ceasefire arrangement also includes the return of Israeli civilians and the bodies of IDF soldiers from Gaza, as well as a reference to the sea port in Limassol, Cyprus, as a port for goods headed for the Gaza Strip, at a later stage. Until that happens, the UN envoy recently reached understandings with the World Bank that the organization would increase its support for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to $90 million, compared to $55 million last year. Discreet, uses Whatsapp Incoming opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni worked with Mladenov when she was foreign minister. "I really respect him. (He is) smart, practical, focused, and fair," she says. Her predecessor Isaac Herzog, who was in charge of humanitarian aid during Operation Cast Lead, was well acquainted with Mladenov from his time as Bulgarian foreign minister. "I got to know a young man, energetic, captivating, who understands politics well. At the core, he greatly admires and respects the State of Israel," Herzog says. "He has developed a deep acquaintance with the entire Israeli leadership, with Netanyahu and Lieberman... He gained the full trust of all parties; he is discreet, very active, very well-formed, writes SMSs, (uses) Whatsapp, takes initiative and goes out to the field," he adds. Sources close to him say that Mladenov hopes that success here will be a springboard for him to play a key role in the international arena. Some say he is eyeing the position of EU foreign minister or another senior UN post. In the meantime, it appears he is establishing himself well, and Israeli sources say that currently, the whole world is willing to entrust to Mladenov the solution to the Gaza crisis: the Trump administration, Israel, Hamas, the Gulf states and above all the Egyptians, who are the most important player vis-a-vis Gaza. He is also highly regarded by the European Union. "The right person in the right place," they say about him in Israel. News Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission has charged a group of four auto dealers operating in Arizona and New Mexico, near the border of the Navajo Nation, with a range of illegal activities, including falsifying consumers income and down payment information on vehicle financing applications and misrepresenting important financial terms in vehicle advertisements. This is the FTCs first action alleging income falsification by auto dealers. The complaint also names the dealerships owner and manager, Richard Berry, as a defendant, and owner and president, Linda Tate, as a relief defendant. Buying a car is one of the biggest purchases consumers make. When consumers tell an auto dealer how much they make and how much they can pay upfront, the dealer cant turn those facts into fiction, said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. The FTC expects auto dealers to be honest with consumers from the first advertisement to the final purchase. Corporate Defendants According to the complaint, since at least 2014, Tates Auto has sought to increase its sales by falsifying consumers monthly income and down payments on financing applications and contracts submitted to third-party financing companies. The four dealerships named in the complaint are Tates Auto Center of Winslow, Tates Automotive, Tate Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, and Tates Auto Center of Gallup. The FTC charges that, during the sales process, Tates Auto asked consumers to provide personal informationincluding their name, address, and monthly incomeand told consumers they would submit the information to financing companies. According to the complaint, however, instead of using consumers actual information, in many cases Tates Auto falsely inflated the numbers, making it appear that consumers had higher monthly incomes than they really did. Tates Auto often inflated the amount of a consumers down payment as well, according to the complaint. The complaint also alleges that Tates Auto representatives often prevented consumers from reviewing the income and down payment information on the forms, such as by rushing consumers through the process of reviewing and signing the financing applications, having consumers fill out the forms over the phone, and failing to give them the income and down payment portion of the application before they signed. In other cases, Tates Auto allegedly altered financing documents after consumers signed them, without their knowledge. Such consumers, the FTC alleges, often were approved for financing based on the false information Tates Auto provided. As a result, financing companies extended credit to consumers who defaulted at a higher rate than qualified buyers. Many of the affected consumers are members of the Navajo Nation. The complaint also alleges that Tates Autos advertising deceived consumers about the nature and terms of financing or leasing offers. For example, Tates Auto allegedly advertised discounts and incentives to consumers without adequately disclosing limitations or restrictions that would prevent many customers from qualifying for them. Finally, the FTC alleges that Tates Autos social media ads violated federal law by failing to disclose required terms. The complaint charges Tates Auto with violating the FTC Act, the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The FTC is seeking an injunction barring the defendants from such practices in the future. Individual Defendants The complaint also names Richard Barry as a defendant and Linda Tate as a relief defendant. According to the FTC, acting as owner of the four dealerships, Barry formulated, directed, controlled, had the authority to control, or participated in Tates Autos allegedly illegal conduct. The FTC charges that Tate has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the other defendants, including funds directly connected to the alleged unlawful conduct. The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The FTC wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission during the investigation of this case. News Somerton, Arizona - On Tuesday, July 31st, 2018 at approximately 6:39 p.m., officers from the Somerton Police Department were called to the area of Hwy 95 at mile post 16 in response to a report of deceased person. Upon arrival, officers located an unresponsive male lying a short distance off the roadway in the desert area who had suffered at least one gunshot wound. The individual was pronounced deceased at the scene. Somerton Police detectives were summoned to the scene and assumed the investigation. At this time, the motive for the shooting is unknown and investigators have not identified a suspect. The deceased has been identified as Guillermo Sotelo of San Luis Mexico, Mr. Sotelo was reported missing early Monday morning to Yuma Police Department. He was a driver for Crazy 8s Taxi Company and last believed to be enroute to Somerton to pick-up a passenger. Mr. Sotelo was driving a turquoise color, 2001 Honda, Odyssey, Arizona license #BZT-8406, with 4 aces logo on both front doors. The vehicle has not been located. Detectives believe there are individuals out there that may have information that can help solve this case. They are asking for those individuals to come forward, and they are asking for the publics assistance in identifying the suspect(s) responsible for this shooting. If you have any information that might help detectives solve this case, please contact Somerton Police at (928) 722-7300 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - This morning, at approximately 5:16 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 300 block of S. 17th Avenue, in reference to shots fired. The initial investigation showed there were two vehicles involved and the victim vehicle had collided with a pole in the 300 block of 17th Avenue. The driver of the vehicle that collided with the pole fled the scene on foot. After the driver fled the scene, he pointed a handgun at a citizen who attempted to stop him. He discarded the handgun and illegally entered a residence in the 200 block of Magnolia Avenue. The driver left the residence and was taken into custody. He was later booked on multiple charges. The driver of the vehicle that collided with the pole is possibly the victim of the drive by shooting. The suspect vehicle in this case is still outstanding. This case is currently under investigation. There was no reported injuries reference to this case. The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at 928-373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous. Marco Rubio voted against the Freedom to Vote Act, proving once again that he will always put dark money special interests ahead of the peop... In recent times, a number of Ghanaian entertainers, musicians and actors specifically, have looked at ways to diversify their income. These individuals have also claimed their processes are way through which they look to create opportunities for the masses. The public has been surprised by the approach taken by some of these entertainers. However the case, it has been a surprise with some even hoping some of these entertainers could win national recognition for their efforts. YEN.com.gh brings you a list 4 actors and musicians who could perhaps win a national best farmer award. READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo swears in new EC chair and 7 High Court judges 1. Samini Samini is more than an award-winning music legend. He is also an onion farmer and he is not shy to let people know. The "Linda" hitmaker has touted the potential of farming to revolutionise the Ghanaian economy. He has on countless occasions viewed himself as a socially-conscious artiste giving back to the people. 2. John Dumelo READ ALSO: Mustapha Abdul-Hamid reacts to Ken Ofori Attas comment on Free SHS John Dumelo has been actor for over ten years. He has starred in both Ghanaian and Nigerian much to the plaudits of many. He has been a consistent investor in crop and animal farming. Dumelo has spoken of the need for young people to tap into agriculture's unfettered potential. 3. Trigmatic Enoch Nana Yaw Oduro-Adjei is the rapper known as Trigmatic. He started of a DJ and transitioned into full-time music a few years later. Trigmatic now invests into his farm where he looking to make ends meet from other sources. He has pleaded to Ghanaian youth to take to farming in hope of seeing it change their lives. 4. Lil Win Kwadwo "Lil Win" Nkansah is a very popular comedic actor. He has in recent years also delved into music and fashion. READ ALSO: Unibank, others merger deliberate to collapse local banks Adongo But currently, Nkansah has revealed that he is investing into pig farming. The actor has no intention of stopping there as there are plans of extending his interests in animal farming. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers Do you have a staory you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook. Source: Yen.com.gh You know what they say, if the original song was good the remix should be as good as the original or even better. Having said this, the question that comes to mind is whether you have heard the latest song by Ice Prince. The song by Ice Prince, Wish Me Well has been on the airwaves for almost three weeks now. The song featured two artists; Ice Prince and Kuami Eugene. The song was a remix to the song by Kuami Eugene, Wish Me Well. Kuami Eugene, the winner of the 2018 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards New Artiste of the Year has not disappointed so far and the fact that he has been able to bring Ice Prince in for a collabo says a lot about the future of the star. Source: ghanamotion.com So is this song better than the original? Let us look at aspects of the song and why it got a good reception in Ghana. 1. The song saw a fusion of rap and good vocals Music lovers will tell you that a good song is one which fuses two different styles of music to come up with one masterpiece. In the song, Ice Prince can be heard rapping in English and what shocked a lot of fans was the fact that he also rapped in Twi language. He also ad-libbed to some of the lyrics of the original song. 2. The Nigeria-Ghana partnership worked magic The two West African countries has some artists who can really produce good music. The fact that the two artists came from different countries with rich musical influence in Africa and all around th world is testament to the fact that the song was straight fire. However, we are not taking anything away from the original song. But the additions by Ice Prince did make a difference especially to the rap fans out there. Source: premiumtimesng.com Ice Prince Fans also acknowledged this, some were saying; There is something about Ghana GH and Nigeria NG", Ghana GH and Nigeria NG colabo's are always beautiful.... Do you agree with me.......... God bless me Africa ". READ ALSO: Sarkodie and Tracy Sarkcess white wedding pictures The song dispelled the rumor that Kuami Eugene lifted verses from Ice Prince songs Before the collabo, Kuami Eugene had been accused of lifting verses from some of Ice Prince songs and using them in his wish me well song. Some people took to twitter to criticize the artist even mentioning songs that he supposedly stole lines from. However, these accusations would later be put to sleep. Not only did the person he was accused of stealing lines from collabo with him, the accusations would later be thwarted. Looking closely at the songs, the artist never stole a verse from Ice Prince. The collabo was seen by some fans as a way of crushing the rumors of stolen verses. Source: empirefmonline.com Some fans commented on the song on YouTube saying; Kuami Eugene well done, don't mind them they always expect your downfall. But it will never comes true for them, Shame on you on all those that said he stole a song. Wish people well x", Witchcraft paa nie hmm now come n see they did music together,sorry Ice Prince I really insulted u when I heard the rumours. My boy to the top am happy u never respond to the allegations of the stolen song,they won't understand my dear u re already covered with grace,stars n etc.I wish i have the possibility to push u higher n higher but in God's own way i will see u where i have always wish to see u In Shaa Allah". READ ALSO: Can Ghana be proud of Kuami Eugene? Source: Yen - Nana Addo says claims of he being corrupt are false - The president says he is not in office to make money - Corruption remains one of the major challenges in Ghana today President Akufo Addo has stated that claims of his family being corrupt are untrue.The president has stated that some forces in the opposition NDC are conspiring to brand him as a corrupt president who uses family and friends to propagate his parochial interest. The president, at the Internal Audit Conference, argued that he is not in power to amass wealth for himself. "I want to say that the stringent and desperate efforts being made by my political opponents to tarnish me and members of my family with corruption will simply not wash," the president state: READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana to shut down or merge local banks struggling It will be called that the President during his inauguration ceremony in 2017 gave the assurance that his government would protect and manage the public purse to engender the necessary social and economic development. The Auditor General of Ghana Daniel Dormelevo swore during his officiating ceremony to serve the people of Ghana to the extent of his abilities. He also pledged to fight the rampant cases of graft that had rocked the ministries. Mr. Daniel Dormelevo His appointment has surely come as a relief to many who complained about the ill growth of corruption in the ministries. The auditor general recently unmasked a total of GHc 5.4 billion in overpaid contracts. This coming after concerns of graft in awarding contracts by the ministry. He also opened investigations in order to find the perpetrators. He said that all found guilty will be sacked and prosecuted in the Court of Justice. The graft was discovered pending an audit of the finances of different ministries, departments, and agencies where complaints had been raised in 2016. This discovery took the country by storm, it also acted as a warning to all officials involved in corruption in the different ministries. The Auditor Generals functions are enshrined in the constitution of Ghana, Section 16 of the Service Act. He is mandated to carry out an impromptu special audit of all ministries in the Government. He is later obligated to file a report to Parliament on the findings of the audit report. During an interview in one of the popular news channel in Ghana, he elaborated on his course and mission as Auditor General Ghana. He further commented on the plight of the ministries and their mode of operations. His push for activation of Section 16 of the Service Act was due to many complaints lodged against the process of contract processing. Auditor General, Mr. Daniel in a press briefing Many Ghanaians were shocked by the auditor general report that was submitted to the parliament for tabling. A staggering GHc 5.4 Billion was unaccounted for by the ministry. Upon further investigation on the contracts, it was discovered that the initial amount that was supposed to be paid had been multiplied excessively. Even after the liabilities of the contractors were contacted, they could not justify the payment. Also, there were no supporting documents both by the ministry and the liabilities. It was either the ministry conducted an off the table deal with the liabilities or the documents were hid to further investigation. There were even cases where the contractors showed up at the ministries headquarters demanding payment for work they had already been paid for. This raised speculations about the service the ministries offered. The ministries were offered time to respond to the allegations before the interim report was made public and pushed forward to parliament. The name of the corrupt official who was involved in the saga was not mentioned pending investigation. The auditor general stated that the prosecutions of the officials were recommended. Since it is not within the jurisdiction of the Auditor General Ghana to prescribe prosecution, he urged the Attorney General or any other law enforcement agency to open investigations into the report. His report was faced by criticism by the former Minister of Roads who has experience on the contract awarding process. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana to shut down or merge local banks struggling During his time, many contracts were officiated without any concerns of graft raised. He further argued that it was impossible for a contract work to be paid twice. He said that every contract awarded was recorded in documents which can be tracked. Source: Yen Im not worried about the final performance being good by the standards of other performing arts camps, she said. Its about the performance being powerful by the standards of the campers offering something of themselves and just going one step beyond what they came in here with. Its an opportunity for them to heal and grow through the power of opening themselves up and trying something new and experiencing that connectivity and community and expression that come through the arts. As the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) prepares to elect its flagbearer for the 2020 elections, John Dramani Mahama has once again come under the spotlight. Mahama led the NDC to its worst ever defeat in an election after managing just 44.4% of the total votes during the last polls. However, having recently given a hint that he will stand for president come 2020, the coming months will definitely prove key for the 59-year-old. John Dramani Mahama. Source: Supplied. READ ALSO: Top Ghanaian personalities who will suffer most from the Luxury Vehicle Tax But he can take delight in the fact that he is still very much loved among members of the NDC, at least from the early indications. From party executives to Members of Parliament and to the supporters; it appears that Mahama is held in high esteem. Below are four signs that prove the NDCs rank and file still love Mahama: 1. The attendance at Unity Walks If you doubt that Mahama strikes a very cordial cord with the grassroots of the NDC, you would only have to look at the huge crowds that greeted him during the partys numerous Unity Walks. From Accra to Kumasi to Tamale to Wa; the former president was always cheered whenever he mounted a podium to deliver a speech. Obviously there would be some fake fans but the passion with which some of the party faithful welcome Mahama proves they still love him. 2. 94 MPs endorsement There is no doubt that Mahama is the most popular face within the NDC currently. Although some key persons have also declared their intentions to represent the party as flagbearer, everything points to the fact that the hierarchy would still prefer Mahama. The biggest indication was Tuesdays endorsement of the former president to lead the party in the 2020 elections. Out of 106 NDC MPs, a whopping 96 of them threw their weight behind Mahama to be entrusted as the partys presidential candidate. READ ALSO: Ghanaians blast IGP for suggesting 'first degree' as minimum requirement for police recruitment 3. Continuous projection of his achievements Can you count the number of times officials of the opposition NDC have projected and touted that achievements of Mahama on radio or on television? If they didnt love him, they would not do that. There are a few of his own party members who hold that he massively disappointed, but on the whole, Mahama has the backing of the majority. In recent times, General Secretary Asiedu Nketia and other party executives have often sought to project Mahamas achievements whiles he was president. 4. Comparing his government to that of Nana Addo When a man is forgotten, he is let go for good. But that cannot be the case of Mahama when his party members continue to compare his government to that Nana Addos. To most NDC supporters, Mahama is still their best bet for the 2020 elections and that can be imagined as the main reason why they often bring up this comparison. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh: READ ALSO: Top university lecturers caught in audiovisual amorous affairs with students Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen.com.gh - Jean Mensa will replace Charlotte Osei as Ghana's 3rd EC boss under the fourth republic - She was sworn in along with three other at the Jubilee House Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo has on Wednesday evening sworn in Jean Mensa as the new Electoral Commissioner to take over from Charlotte Osei. The occasion took place at the Jubilee House Mensa was the Executive Director of Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). Her deputies at the Electoral Commission (EC) will be the former head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Eric Bossman and the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission, Mr Samuel Tettey. Mrs Adwoa Asuama Abrefa, a lawyer, was also been sworn in as a member of the commission. READ ALSO: Please dont bleach; we like you like this Fan begs Wendy Shay over her latest photo Charlotte Osei was the former EC boss until her removal about a month ago. Photo credit: Supplied In his message to them, the President asked of the appointees to endeavour to serve beyond reproach. He tasked them to abide by the laws of their duties. The four were nominated by the President and approved by the Council of State following the impeachment of Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, Georgina Opoku Amankwa and Amadu Sulley. READ ALSO: 4 reasons that prove the NDC rank and file still love Mahama Jean Mensa will be Ghana's 3rd electoral commisioner under the fourth republic. The previous two were Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and Mrs Charlotte Osei. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh: Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen News of the Bank of Ghanas decision to merge five indigenous banks has generated mixed reactions from the general public. On Wednesday, the Central Bank announced that The Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank, The Construction Bank and Beige Bank have been merged to form The Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited. The Central Bank said the five banks were merged in order to ensure that the banking sector maintains a strong indigenous presence. Dr Ernest Addison announced the consolidation of the five banks Wednesday. Source: Graphiconline.com READ ALSO: Top Ghanaian personalities who will suffer most from the Luxury Vehicle Tax Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Ernest Addison, has also explained that the newly established Consolidated Bank will act as a bridge bank pursuant to section 127 (11) of Act 930, to assume some of the assets and liabilities of the five banks. But do you know the big men who headed these merged banks? Below are the Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors of the aforementioned banks: 1. Stephen Kpordzih CEO of The Construction Bank Stephen Kpordzih joined the Construction Bank as CEO, having worked in numerous other high-profile banking firms. The banker has over 30 years industry experience in credit risk, corporate finance, treasury and debt structuring. Stephen Kpordzih CEO of The Construction Bank. Source: GHheadlines His previous positions include working as CEO of the Agricultural Development Bank (adb), Head of Wholesale Banking of Stanbic Bank, as well as having stints with the Ghana Commercial Bank and Barclays Bank Ghana. 2. Dr. Kwabena Duffour II CEO of uniBank Popular businessman, Dr. Kwabena Duffour served as CEO of the uniBank before its collapse. He is also very experienced in the banking sector with over nine years of experience. He holds a PhD in Finance, an MSc Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, and a degree in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Southampton. Dr. Kwabena Duffour II CEO of uniBank. Source: Starrfmonline.com Dr. Duffour previously worked with the Ghana International Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Bank, before joining uniBank, first as Chief Operating Officer, and later rising to become CEO of the bank. READ ALSO: 4 reasons that prove the NDC rank and file still love Mahama 3. Mike Nyinaku CEO of Beige Bank Mike Nyinaku is the founder BEIGE Group (TBG), which was started in the year 2008. As a professional accountant, he worked for over 10 years in the sector before establishing his own bank. Before the formation of the Beige Bank, Mike Nyinaku was Chief Finance Officer of a US-based NGO known as OICI-GH. Mike Nyinaku CEO of Beige Bank. Source: Fcaebook/ MikeNyinaku He is also an experienced entrepreneur. 4. Johan Rheeder Managing Director/CEO of Sovereign Bank CEO and Managing Director of the Sovereign Bank, John Rheeder, has worked in the banking sector for over 30 years. The banker also holds a Master of Business Administration from Business School Netherlands. Johan Rheeder Managing Director/CEO of Sovereign Bank. Source: Citinewsroom.com READ ALSO: Ghanaians blast IGP for suggesting 'first degree' as minimum requirement for police recruitment He previously served as CEO of Charter One Bank, Juba, South Sudan and Head of Branchless Banking Delivery at the Barclays African Group in Johannesburg. 5. Osei Asafo-Adjei Managing Director/CEO of Royal Bank Osei Asafo-Adjei started his career in the banking sector in 1993 and has since served at some of the most prestigious banks in the country. He previously worked with the Trust Bank, serving in the capacities of General Manager, Business Development, Head of Corporate Banking and Head of Corporate and Commercial Banking. Osei Asafo-Adjei Managing Director/CEO of Royal Bank. Source: Citi Business He has also worked with the Agricultural Development Bank (adb) in 1993, where he started as a credit officer. Osei Asafo-Adjei holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Glasgow, England, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh: READ ALSO: Free SHS will break "poverty trap" Akufo-Addo Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: Yen - Jean Mensa, has been sworn into office by President Akufo-Addo as the new Chairperson of the Electoral Commission - President Akufo-Addo also swore-in seven judges to the High Court President Akufo-Addo has officially sworn in Madam Jean Mensa as the new Chairperson of the Electoral Commission. The former Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) was sworn in on Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Two weeks ago, the President nominated Jean Mensa to replace Charlotte Osei who was axed from office last month. President Akufo-Addo swears in Jean Mensa and her two deputies. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: The CEOs/MDs behind the collapsed banks She was nominated together with three other persons, who are also set to replace Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah as deputy EC Chairs. Charlotte Osei and her deputies were dismissed from office for incompetence and breaching of procurement laws in the award of several contracts, prior to the 2016 elections. However, all four nominees for the vacant EC posts, led by Jean Mensa, have now been officially sworn in by President Akufo-Addo. This was despite strong rejection from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who accused the President of nominating a bias person to Chair the EC. Also, a Ghanaian citizen, Fafali Nyonatorto, headed to court in a bid to stop the President from continuing with the process of appointing a new Electoral Commission Chair. President Akufo-Addo and new EC chair, Jean Mensa. Source: Facebook/Jubilee House She held that Charlotte Osei was wrongly dismissed and was therefore seeking an injunction on the appointment of a new EC Chair. READ ALSO: Unibank, others merger deliberate to collapse local banks Adongo However, the Supreme Court dismissed the injunction suit, clearing the way for all nominees to be sworn in. The other members of the Commission sworn in were Samuel Tettey as deputy Chairperson, Dr. Eric Asare Bossman, also a deputy Chairperson, and Ms. Adwoa Asuama Abrefa as a Member of Commission. President Akufo-Addo also on Wednesday when he swore into office seven new High Court judges, at a brief ceremony at Jubilee House, Accra. Akufo-Addo swears in 7 High Court judges. Source: Fcaebook/Jubilee House The judges are Afia Nyarko Adu-Amankwa, John Ekow Mensah, Janet Anima Maafo, Matthew Kyeremateng, Joan Eyi King, Frederick Tetteh, and John Eugene Nyante Nyadu. Describing the High Court as the focal point for justice delivery in our judicial structure, the President indicated that much of the work of the Judiciary begins and ends there. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers READ ALSO: Top Ghanaian personalities who will suffer most from the Luxury Vehicle Tax Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: Yen Newspaper - Prophet Stephen Adom has predicted that Afia Schwar will die at the church of Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom aka Prophet - His prediction follows an attack by Afia Schwar on him over an earlier prophecy he disclosed about a month ago - Prophet Adom had stated that God had revealed to him Afia Schwar was going to die if she did not stop her occult ways YEN.com.gh recently reported that controversial on-air-personality, Afia Schwarzenegger had attacked a Kumasi-based prophet, Stephen Kwadwo Adom, for predicting that she was going to die soon. In the report, Prophet Adom disclosed that if Afia Schwar does not stop depending on other spirits for protection she was going to die. Incensed by the prophecy, Afia Schwar came out to attack him for his predictions. But it looks like Schwar's attack did not shake Prophet Adom who has come out with more details about the wild prophecy. READ ALSO: REVEALED: How the latest hot 'adult' video of SHS leaver and 3 guys got leaked In a new video sighted by YEN.com.gh, Prophet Adom said that Afia Schwarzenegger would get sick and be taken to the prayer camp of Prophet Ebenezer Adarkwa Opambour Yiadom the leader of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Center and that is where she would eventually die. Prophet Adom further stated that God revealed to him that Afia on March 3, 2000, went to sleep by the seashore to offer sacrifices so that she could be famous and further went on to challenge her to respond if what he is saying is a lie. In addition, the man of God stated that the controversial TV personality repeated the same thing 7 years later. This time she went to the seashore on the night of August 3, 2007, and offered sacrifice again and went home the next day. READ ALSO: Ayisha the St. Louis SHS girl in viral adult video seen in another video twerking 'wildly' After another 7 years, Afia went back to the same place on August 7, 2014, did her usual thing by offering sacrifices and sleeping over till the next day. The host of the show then asked the Prophet if she used blood or human for her sacrifices but he responded that God did not reveal what she used to offer the sacrifice to him and that God only showed him what he was supposed to see. Reacting to Afia Schwar's attack on him, he explained that God told him that Afia Schwar was not challenging him the prophet but was rather challenging him, God. Prophet Adom who is the founder and leader of Zion Miracle Worship Center (ZMWC) recently predicted that the marriage of Nana Ama McBrown and her husband, Maxwell Mensah will collapse. READ ALSO: Hot 'adult' video of beautiful SHS leaver and 3 guys hits social media and it's serious Prophet Adom who was preaching in his church minced no words as he cautioned McBrown to be careful and prayerful in order to avoid disgrace. Watch: Ghana News: Ghanaian pastor predicts Nana Ama McBrown's future: Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: Yen Ghana - Shatta Wale has touted himself as the richest musician in Ghana - In a new post he has indicated that God is his provider because he fears him - Wale quoted Psalm 34: 8-9 as his inspiration YEN.com.gh has sighted a post by controversial musician Shatta Wale indicating how he gets all his needs provided. Shatta Wale quoted Psalm 34:8-9 which says that God will provide the needs of all those who fear him. He wrote: Psalms 34:8-9 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Fear the Lord, you His godly people, for those who fear Him will have all they need. GM .. READ ALSO: 4 compelling examples that should guide Efia Odo on her love journey with Revloe Shatta Wale, by his post, seems to drive home the point that he is God-fearing and that he has tasted and seen that the Lord is good to him. His post also indicates that God is his provider who has given him all he needs. So given his affluence, Shatta Wale seems to disclose the source of his wealth as God who has provided him all he needs because he fears him. READ ALSO: Please dont bleach; we like you like this Fan begs Wendy Shay over her latest photo Shatta Wale has claimed on many occasions that he is the richest musician in Ghana. He has also been in the news lately following his on and off relationship with his long-time girlfriend and baby mama, Shatta Michy. Recently, Michy said Shatta Wale is suffering from a condition which he needs to be delivered from if he wants to have an affair with her. Michy claims Shatta Wale was suffering from what she described as community dick syndrome (CDS). READ ALSO: Efia Odo releases wild twerk in latest video Her comment came on the heels of reports that an adult video of Shatta Wale was leaked by one of his SM Militants, Natty Lee. In that video, Shatta Wale and another person alleged to be Pope Skinny, had their rods in the mouth of a young lady. They had reportedly gone to Nima to shoot a video for one of their songs when the act occurred. Shatta Wale was also said to have apologized to Michy when that video got leaked. Though their relationship has become shaky since they announced their breakup in April and allegedly reunited in June, Shatta Wale has said that his relationship with Michy is for life. READ ALSO: Ghanaians name their most trusted politicians Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh READ ALSO: We will arrest them - Mother of St. Louis lady caught in viral adult video reacts Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page Source: Yen.com.gh - The Central Bank has declared that it has no power to prosecute the CEOs of the 5 collapsed banks - It explained that EOCO has the powers to prosecute the CEOs - The Central Bank announced the consolidation of 5 local banks on August 1, 2018 The Head of the Research Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Benjamin Amoah, has revealed that the Central Bank has no right to prosecute the heads of the collapsed banks. According to him, it is the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) that has the prosecutorial powers to enforce such an action. The Central Bank, on Wednesday, 1 August 2018, announced the merger of five struggling local banks into a Consolidated Bank, since they cannot meet the minimum capital requirement of GHS400 million. Credit: Ghanaweb READ ALSO: Shatta Wale reveals why he isn't poor like other musicians The newly-established Consolidated Bank is fully owned by the Government of Ghana, with a start-up capital of GHS450 million. The banks that have been merged are The Royal Bank, The BIEGE Bank, Sovereign Bank, Construction Bank and uniBank. According to the BoG, The BEIGE, Sovereign and the Construction banks obtained their banking licences under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, whereas the Royal Bank had non-performing loans which constitute 78.9 per cent and uniBank which also had a capital of GHS7.4 billion compared to the regulatory minimum of GHS400 million. On the issue of whether employees of the affected banks will lose their jobs, he explained that such employees should report to their places of work, as there are no such plans. READ ALSO: Don't take Ofori Atta's Free SHS comment serious - Minister of Information Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is looking to elect a flagbearer for Election 2020 - Victor Gbeho believes that NDC is better placed to win with Joshua Alabi A senior member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), James Victor Gbeho, has called for the support of the members of the party and its grassroots, to support Prof. Joshua Alabi to become the next flag bearer of the party. Meeting a number of the party's supporters at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, the former ambassador said that upon deep contemplation and an understanding of the politics on the ground, Prof. Alabi looked like the best. The NDC is looking to elect a flagbearer for the 2020 general elections. Names have been put in put out both in suspicion and in certainty. READ ALSO: Samini and the 3 top entertainers who have ventured into agribusiness The former ambassador Victor Gbeho with a diplomat. Photo credit: Supplied Gbeho said: My brother (Hon Ken. Dzirasah) and I sat down one afternoon by the riverside in Sogakope. We thought a lot about our party. We thought a lot about the younger generation. And we asked ourselves who can lead us now? After consultation, we agreed that our best hope was in no other person than Professor Joshua Alabi. Dr Ekow Spio-Garbrah, Nandowli MP, Alban Bagbin and former health insurance authority boss Sly Mensah are among those who are interested in leading the NDC. But Mr Gbeho believes that Alabi had best shot among the lot. Gbeho continued in favour of Alabi: He is well known among the base of the party and represents a credible image for the NDC. He has served in many capacities, Minister, regional Chairman, Chairman of Boards, and so forth. READ ALSO: Mustapha Abdul-Hamid reacts to Ken Ofori Attas comment on Free SHS And he is in contact with people who know Ghana well abroad and who would cherish the opportunity to work with us on the Socialist International level. Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh: Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook. Source: Yen Newspaper - Some retailers in Kumasi have allegedly clash with Nigerians at the Suame Magazine - The local retailers have vowed to evict foreign retailers from Suame Magazine in Kumasi There is brewing tension at Suame Magazine in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region as local retailers have vowed to evict foreigners who operate within the enclave. According to Citinewsroom.com report, the leaders of the Nigerian retailers at the Suame Magazine say their members are living in fear following what they call incessant attacks on them. The Nigerians have accused the local retailers and the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), of targeting its members and forcefully evicting them from their shops. READ ALSO: Kasoa youth begin campaign to elect Zylofon boss as an MP The development comes days after the Ministry of Trade and Industry, suspended plans to evict foreigners engaged in the retail trade to allow for sensitization and education in the domestic retail trade sector. However, an executive member of the Nigerian retailers Association, Victor Moname, in media interview threatened reprisal attacks if local Ghanaian retailers continue to harass their members. Victor Moname said the Ashanti Regional Police Commander recently deployed some of his personnel to the area to forestall such occurrences but the attacks persist. READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana 'exposes' uniBank shareholders in a 'chop chop' report The [Ashanti] Regional [Police] Commander told us that the Nigeria High Commission had called him over the same issue. He said he had sent a police patrol team to Suame Magazine, Kumasi. But when some of our people open their shops, some boys jumped on them again including some of the GUTA executives, he said. The Nigerian added that, Some of their items got broken because when the boys come and ask you to close your shop, and you refuse, they destroy your things. So that was the reason why when they came to tell us to close the shops, we obliged because they are many. They are up to 50, and you cant identify all of them. They dont even have shops in Magazine. Victor Moname noted that all Nigerian retailers at Suame Magazine have currently closed their shops due to the fear of being attacked. READ ALSO: Shatta Wale reveals the special reason why he has not become poor like other musicians Watch: Ghana News: President Akufo-Addo Asks For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh Yen.com.gh is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident? Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: Yen Newspaper Clanging pans, hissing fryers, laughter and lively conversation echo through Narobia's Grits & Gravy (narobiasgrits.restaurantwebexpert.com; 912-231-0563; 2019 Habersham St.), an off-the-beaten-path, eight-table establishment where proprietor Renee Reid and the cooks on her sprawling line - mostly made up of family - happily welcome all every morning but Sunday. Early birds will avoid a wait. "I'm standing on the shoulders of giants," says Reid, "trying to listen and please, and just trying to use the simplest ingredients possible." If the menu overwhelms (there are 44 dishes for breakfast alone, some branching into your choice of grilled or fried), just consult the signage: You can't misstep with the headlining items, and a sign on the building's exterior proclaims the perfect maple-sweet French toast ($4.99) to be "so good it don't need syrup!" Generous, meat-and-three-style breakfast platters ($6.75 to $9.95) come with eggs any style, grits and a warm, buttery, sweet-salty biscuit. Shrimp and grits ($7.50) is one of Savannah's classic dishes and, thusly, subject to much judgment, but Narobia's passes the test: a healthy handful of petite peeled shrimp top a mound of light, creamy grits, crowned with onions, peppers and the much-discussed house gravy that's flavorful, peppery and, breaking from standards, pork free. For lighter fare, try the perfectly simple chicken biscuit ($2.25), a fried chicken patty - crispy, flavorful, light on the grease - in the middle of one of those perfect biscuits. Heres my response: Now that you see Trump is not only a politician but also a divisive demagogue, why do you continue to support him? Yes, Trump does have an agenda for immigration. Its to keep nonwhites and non-Christians from entering this country. And what about those tariffs? How are they working out for the working class? Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) Kris Aquino will head to Hollywood for the red carpet premiere of the movie Crazy Rich Asians. The former TV host took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that her doctor allowed her to attend the film's opening. "The 'tigas ulo/bawal sumuko/kakayanin lahat' in me hindi nagpatinag," she said. [Translation:The hard-headed/persistent/resilient in me did not give up] In an earlier post, Aquino said she suffered an allergic reaction during a shoot in Indonesia. Aquino, who plays a cameo role of a princess in the the upcoming movie, added she would be accompanied by her sons Josh and Bimby her team, and her doctor in the trip. "I couldn't allow that we PINOYS wouldn't be represented hangarin ng puso ko na mabitbit ang bandila ng [Pilipinas] in a movie highlighting Asian Culture. YES, let us always remember & uphold: WE FILIPINOS ARE WORLD CLASS!" she stressed. [Translation: I couldn't allow that we Filipinos wouldn't be represented-it is my heart's desire to bring the Philippine flag in a movie highlighting Asian culture. Yes, let us always remember and uphold: we Filipinos are world class.] In a separate post, Aquino said she has told her elder sister not to worry as she will not be flying alone. She also hinted at what she would wear on the red carpet. Aquino said she wouldn't let the opportunity pass despite health issues as it is her "[first] chance to represent our country [and] showcase Philippine designs proudly made in the [Philippines] for a Hollywood red carpet event.'' "I hoped they'd understand that if [Crazy Rich Asians] would be the last movie listed in my acting credits, their baby sister was given the best finale to something she dreamed of since she could talk [and] passionately loved for 31 years," she said. Mickelson portrayed the Uptown as a way to expand the concert business instead of stealing a piece of someone elses pie. He cited how main-floor seats will be removed for some events, making way for standees and raising total capacity to as high as 5,800. Because of that, he said, we anticipate we will get the biggest names in music to perform there. You gotta love Dr. Bateman, said Smith. who gave her lecture clad only in two 5-pound notes pasted to her top, and three 20-pound bills, uhm, below. Apparently, she did it because Economics needs to become intimately familiar with modern-day feminism. Weve all had nightmares about walking into our classes naked. But I never had one about a frumpy, nude, female professor. Hey Dr., Nah! Smog, also known as ground-level ozone, is formed by a reaction between sunlight and pollution from car tailpipes, power plants and factories, fumes from volatile solvents and gasoline vapors. After a scientific review required every five years by the federal Clean Air Act, the Obama EPA tightened the national smog standard in 2015 to 70 parts per billion, down from the 75 ppb limit set during the Bush administration. When an Aeromexico jetliner slicing through hail and turbulence was slammed to the ground moments after taking off from the airport in Durango, Mexico, on Tuesday, at least two passengers from the Chicago area and no doubt, many more thought they were going to die in the flaming aircraft that skidded to rest in a scrubby field. At a profound human level, we tend to believe that by executing a murderer, we are somehow helping rebalance the scales of justice, he added. But there is a flaw in that way of thinking, for the real tragedy of murder is that there is no way to rebalance the scales of justice, no way to bring life back to those who have been killed or to restore them to their grieving families. Mel Reynolds was elected to Congress in 1992, but his career sank after he was convicted in 1995 for having sex with an underage girl and in 1997 for fraud. He spent time in prison and was granted clemency by President Bill Clinton in 2001. He was indicted on tax evasion charges in 2015. Segura had grown up in a violent, turbulent, and chaotic household with an abusive father, according to a court filing submitted by Stone. But after his mother remarried, he gained stability from his stepfather, graduating from high school and earning the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts, the filing said. Augustus produced a wallet, opening it with his left hand. About the same time, he moved his right hand toward his right hip, near where he had the gun holstered. Two other officers approached from the side, at least one of whom had her hand on her holstered gun. The officer, 60, was in an alley when a man between 18 and 22 years old pulled a handgun and ordered the ground, police said, citing early reports. After the officer announced that he was a policeman, the two men engaged in a brief gun battle before the assailant escaped, police said. Authorities did not provide a detailed description of the gunman. Klahn said Milby now faces one count of attempted murder for allegedly firing at Dallas, a charge that carries a possible sentence of 20 to 80 years in prison. He also faces two counts of attempted murder for allegedly firing at McKay, both of which carry a possible sentence of six to 30 years in prison. Manila (CNN Philippines Life) So, when will you find a girlfriend? NBSB (No Boyfriend Since Birth) ka lang kasi. You just havent found the right person. Gusto ko ring magpaka-halaman. Buti ka pa, maraming time. These are some actual remarks directed at asexuals. They may strike you as playful banter, but to someone on the asexual spectrum, they may be dismissive, invalidating and downright absurd, showing how little-understood the sexual orientation is. The Philippines has made great strides in terms of LGBTQ+ awareness, with pride marches attended by an estimated 25,000 people and policy changes reaching well outside Metro Manila. But for people who identify as asexual, theirs is an entire group that has remained largely invisible, despite more and more people becoming vocal about the advocacy. Its of note that of our six interviewees who identify as asexual, five have opted to remain anonymous. Specific reasons vary, but the general sentiment is that they cannot come out because they anticipate the lack of understanding from family, friends, and most of all, internet strangers. Weve enlisted the help of Mac, Freya*, Space*, Leona*, May*, and Cole* to better understand asexuality. Many asexuals avoid talking openly about their sexual orientation because they find that people constantly invalidate it. Asexuality isn't just simply a trend, or us being pretentious and acting clean, says 18-year-old Freya*. We are also not asexual just because we haven't found the right person yet; we are asexual because we are asexual. Photo by JL JAVIER It isnt a passing fad For aces (a widely-used term for those who identify themselves as asexual), there is a point in which they encounter the concept for instance, from their friends or from the internet and then slowly realize that their experiences fit the bill. Asexuality is a sexual orientation, defined by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) as an individual who does not experience sexual attraction. As a concept, asexuality has been explored in academia ever since the 1940s, starting with Alfred Kinseys reports of human sexuality. in his 1948 research of the human male, Kinsey mentions a category for people who experienced no socio-sexual contacts or reactions. Freya* is an 18-year-old student who has opted to remain anonymous because people constantly invalidate her orientation. She says, Asexuality isn't just simply a trend, or us being pretentious and acting clean. We are also not asexual just because we haven't found the right person yet; we are asexual because we are asexual. It doesnt automatically mean zero romance Gender has moved from being viewed as a binary to a spectrum to give visibility and representation to those who do not conform to heteronormative gender roles. Asexuality, in turn, has its own spectrum, and this is the part where several misconceptions stem from. At this point, its important to grasp that attraction can be either romantic or sexual. People think we don't get romantic feelings, but we do, Freya explains. She identifies as a heteroromantic asexual, which means that she experiences romantic, but not sexual attraction. On the other end of the spectrum, 23-year-old artist Mac Arboleda identifies as asexual and aromantic, which means that he doesnt experience romantic attraction. It was a cumulative realization that he was always not interested in pursuing relationships, but he recalls identifying with the word celibate when he came across it, even if it is much different from asexuality. When I rethought the word [celibate], I kind of connected [with] it. I once had a girl confess to me at a pool party and my clumsy response was, Sorry, I'm a celibate! Later on, I would discover and fully understand asexuality while lurking random Wikipedia articles, seeing Tumblr posts about it, and eventually finding AVEN's website. Space*, a 21-year-old college fresh graduate, identifies as gray-asexual or gray-ace. Gray-asexuals are situated in between the spectrum of sexuality and asexuality. Space explains, People have different reasons why they identify in this part of the spectrum. In my case, I am someone who has weak and quickly passing sexual interests. It doesn't necessarily mean zero sex A persons actions do not dictate their sexual orientation; rather, who they are attracted to dictates their sexual orientation. Leona*, a 21-year-old university student, explains, A misconception [about] asexuals is that we hate sex. We dont necessarily hate it. We just dont see it as a need. Its just an optional thing, and we can continue living happily without it. One can abstain from sex, but still experience sexual attraction. Conversely, an asexual person may have sex but still feel zero sexual attraction. Cole*, a 26-year-old pharmacist, expresses their frustration at the misconceptions about this: One problem is the all or nothing mindset people have. Just because I have had sex with people and I have regular sexual encounters with my boyfriend, doesn't stop me from identifying myself as an asexual person. They identify as demisexual, a subset of gray-ace, which means that they dont start feeling sexual attraction to another person unless they have a deep connection with them. I think it's not that hard to be kinder to an ace. If we tell you that we're not looking for sex in our romantic relationship, we are not playing hard to get. We are being honest. Cole* Sexual orientations aren't set in stone As sexuality is fluid, one may have previously identified with another sexual orientation, but found that asexuality better articulated their truth. Leona used to consider herself as bisexual before slowly coming to the realization of her asexuality. Now she identifies as gray-ace. My friends are very open when it comes to discussions about sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, et cetera. Through our discussions, I realized that I may not be like them, says Leona. I wondered why I rarely have the same urges as them. I rarely thirst for sex. I hardly see it as a necessity. I wont mind engaging in sexual intercourse, but its not something I really have to do. On the other hand, one might also still be in the process of discovering themselves and thats perfectly okay. Even if your sexuality is an important part of you, there is no pressure to immediately identify or label yourself, nor any pressure to do so at all. It is clear to May*, a 27-year-old business analyst, that she is asexual but still needs time to explore where she is in the romantic spectrum. In terms of sexuality, I'm asexual and I don't experience sexual attraction to people, she says. I'm still figuring out where I am in the romantic spectrum, because sometimes I think I am aromantic due to how I have no interest in romantic relationships at all, or if I'm the complete opposite and I'm panromantic because sometimes I want to have a special connection with someone. It isnt a disorder Dr. Elizabeth Protacio-De Castro, a doctor of psychology, says that the basic assumption of Freud, and in general, is that everyone is a sexual being. Since asexuality is not the norm, it is often pathologized or confused as a symptom of dysfunction. But disorders need to meet the criteria of causing marked distress or interpersonal problems, which is worlds apart from conscious self-identification with a sexual orientation. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used by mental healthcare professionals to diagnose mental illnesses, confirms this: in entries relating to sexual dysfunction, it is stated that if a lifelong lack of sexual desire is better explained by ones self-identification as asexual, then a diagnosis would not be made. It isnt something that can be overcome by finding the right person I think it's not that hard to be kinder to an ace, says Cole. If we tell you that we're not looking for sex in our romantic relationship, we are not playing hard to get. We are being honest. There is a common misconception that ones asexuality can simply be changed. Some people even take it as a challenge to change ones mind about matters regarding sexuality. Imagine being told that you arent who you are, and being pressured into being something else completely. This is the toxic mindset most invalidating comments have, and at worst, the mindset that harassers use to justify persuading aces to do something that they dont want to do. Mac elaborates, I think one of the biggest challenges is that people don't understand yet one of the most important things to understand is that a person's sexual orientation shouldn't really matter, as long as there's full respect and consent. "You ask yourself if you belong in the LGBTQ+ community," says Mac. "If you should join the Pride March, when you see that one of their fiercest advocacies is sexual liberation. It's also difficult to not look like a conservative, in a country like the Philippines, just because you're not into sexual things. It's like, guys, I'm on the same side. Photo by JL JAVIER It isnt being halaman Halaman ang tawag sa mga taong walang feelings, landi or kalibog-libog sa katawan, explains comedian Ramon Bautista. An entire account is devoted to sharing relatable quotes on the topic. In the Philippines, the term halaman often gets conflated with asexuality. Its used often on social media, but there isnt much discussion on the term. Its usage is vague and doesnt delineate whether it is by choice or not (e.g. Magpaka-halaman na lang tayo, implying that its something that can be turned off at will). Though meant as a playful remark, this can be unintentionally insulting, and does not fully explain the nuances of asexuality. In the Western world, an ace being equated with a plant is an insult, says Space. What people need to note is that aces, unless they are aromantic, [can] still want to have romantic relationships because they still experience romantic attraction. So, halaman culture may not be a good thing to compare with asexuality. The Philippines does have a growing number of ace initiatives There are still very few avenues of discourse and representation for the local asexual agenda, but there are efforts slowly coming together for this heretofore silent part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. In fact, back in 2016, Metro Manila Pride hosted AceSpace, an event specifically for those who identify as asexual. There are also online groups based in the Philippines, such as Asexual Philippines, which Cole says promotes the asexual identity to the Facebook community. *** At the end of the day, whats important for people to remember about asexuality is that it varies from person to person: some engage in sex, while some dont; some would love to be part of an asexual community, while some dont feel the need to. Mac has pondered on where he stands in the broader group of minorities: You ask yourself if you belong in the LGBTQ+ community, if you should join the Pride March, when you see that one of their fiercest advocacies is sexual liberation. It's also difficult to not look like a conservative, in a country like the Philippines, just because you're not into sexual things. It's like, guys, I'm on the same side. Sometimes you try to disregard that feeling of alienation because when you're an aromantic asexual cismale, you're straight passing and therefore have no reason to feel different. Space says of having to constantly explain herself, I just want people to let this be. I don't want to have to explain and defend myself all the time, especially to people who aren't even my friends. My sexuality is an important part of me, but I don't want people to just equate my entire being with it. I'm me, you know? *** *Names have been changed upon the request of the interviewees. With reports from various administrators of the Asexual Philippines Facebook page. This is a headline. It was a state headline state headline that the governors staffer ordered, he said. And you know what? I had to come out and say, In America, we believe in freedom, freedom of choice. In Chicago we eat it with mustard and relish and pickles. But Americas built on freedom and if Lindsay wants ketchup, God bless her. All right? The name change officially takes effect 30 days after the publication of the ordinance, which is scheduled for Sept. 20, a city Department of Transportation spokeswoman said in an email. Workers will erect the street signs after the change is official, she said. Google Maps, however, already has relabeled it. "When you look at the movie, you'll see that there is a very distinct and clear difference between what actually happened and what is being sold to our youth today," he said. "You see the Nazi platform from the early 1930s ... and you look at it compared to the DNC platform of today, you're saying, 'Man, those things are awfully similar' to a point where it's actually scary. It's the exact opposite of what you've been told." Nicaraguans have watched paramilitaries - plainclothes militiamen who appear to be working in close coordination with government security forces - fight pitched battles against protesters since an uprising against Ortega's government began three months ago. They have burned homes, businesses and university buildings. But there is a less visible side to the violence: These roving bands of masked gunmen have quietly kidnapped and tortured dissidents like Novoa. Some 600 people have been captured by armed groups and have gone missing, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights. "They'd rather do it after. They don't agree on doing it before, and I accept their opinion, but I happen to think it would be a good thing to do before," Trump said. "I actually think we'd get more and there'd be more pressure on the other side because we're doing it because the Democrats are not giving us the votes." Yet Volokh, who tends to prefer very strong free-speech protections, cast serious doubt on most of the rationales that could be used to prohibit speech that tells people how to commit crimes. In particular, he pointed out that such information often has other, noncriminal uses. And he strongly emphasized that the internet changes the landscape for such regulation, because sources outside the reach of U.S. law could almost always post the same information, which would then be available to American users notwithstanding any ban. Meanwhile, what we did learn from Kelly's early months in the job is that things can get better. Not good, mind you, but better than they had been. Trump was, at least for a while, willing to abide by some of the norms other presidents established. So by remaining on the job, Kelly might be preventing Trump from hiring a disaster, but he's also preventing Trump from replacing him with someone who hasn't been worn down by the job and perhaps someone who has more political experience and better political skills. Madigan wants officers to record the circumstances of every such incident. Where were they? Why did they point the gun and at whom? What happened after that? Its important information. It can help identify an officer who points a gun in situations that others do not. It can expose gaps in training or supervision. It can prevent incidents in which a career is ruined or a life is lost. Or heres a thought: It could reassure us all that officers are not brandishing their guns indiscriminately. Manila (CNN Philippines Life) This weekend support local indie komikeros at a yearly fair, listen to designers and artists as they revisit unfinished works from the past, enjoy a night of music and art by women artists, head to Cinemalayas opening, and join a talk by an artist and fashion designer on her latest exhibit. ReVision Every creative knows the experience of putting a draft on hold. On Saturday, Aug. 4, listen to Dan Matutina, Everywhereweshoot, Jagnus Design Studio, and Leeroy New discuss their favorite projects that either never made it to the production stage or simply remained as proposals. The event is happening from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at FIRST Coworking Community, Unit 506, First United Building, Escolta, Manila. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Komikon Indieket 2018 Indieket is a yearly independent comics market organized by Komikon where local komikeros gather to sell and celebrate the local comics scene. This year, the fair is happening on Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Bayanihan Center, where guests can expect contests, games, and over 100 comics titles up for sale at the event. Tickets are available at Comic Odyssey for 100. Bayanihan Center is located at the Unilab Compound in Pasig City. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Kababae Mong Tao #2 For the second time this year, enjoy a night of live performances, live art, and goods and handicrafts made exclusively by local women artists. This time around, Kababae Mong Tao will have performances by classical guitar duo Pauline Mendoza and Marlee Pabico and avant-pop and electronica project Joee & I. Enjoy live art and installations by Christina Lopez, Molly Garcia, Hohana Flora Domanais, Mio Aseremo, and Gem Dungo, and merchandise from various sellers. Kababae Mong Tao is an independent multimedia platform and community that aims to empower creative women of all expressions and colors. The event is free and open to all genders, and will be held on Friday, Aug. 3, at Dulo MNL, 4992 P. Guanzon St., Brgy. Poblacion, Makati. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Cinemalaya 2018 Opening Since 2005, Cinemalaya has served as a platform for independent filmmakers to showcase their works to a broader audience. On Friday, Aug. 3, catch the opening of the 14th Cinemalaya Film Festival at the CCP Main Theater, where audiences can watch the Cinemalaya Opening Film, Erik Mattis Buy Bust. This is open to the public on a first come first served basis, and admission is free. The CCP Main Theater is located at the CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. DesignTalks: Anat Heifetz This Saturday, get to know Anat Heifetz, the artist behind Bamboo Road: Tel Aviv to Manila, one of the current changing exhibitions at the Ayala Museum. Anat Heifetz is a fashion designer who has worked with several international brands, and has found home in the Philippines since 2015. She currently lectures at DLS-CSB under fashion design. Her talk will be held at 3 p.m. at the Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. cor. Dela Rosa St., Makati City. For registration details and more information, visit the Facebook event page. Big tech companies have figured out a way to keep employees happy and keep them at the office toiling away. The trick is in-house cafeterias that offer an array of dining options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time. Best of all for their workers, the food is free. There are 51 of these cafeterias around San Francisco, with Twitter, Google and Square among the hosts. According to a story first reported by Politico, an ex-girlfriend of Sauers filed a complaint with the Chicago Police Department and the states legislative inspector general, accusing Sauer of creating a fake social media account where he posted nude photos of her. She said she sent the pictures to him during their two-year courtship, which ended earlier this summer, and did not know he had been posting them publicly. Yet even for those who give Trump latitude to rant, what he did Wednesday went far beyond the pale. Its unacceptable for him to rail recklessly to a populace that remembers another presidents meddling during Watergate. When Trump attacks his own government, he corrodes democratic norms, just as his ad hominem attacks on individuals tell Americans that its OK to bully and belittle. In these instances, Trump earns our scorn. Although his Wednesday tweets were quickly repudiated by his own lawyers, the president was threatening to take the law into his own hands. President Donald Trump is concerned about immigration. He addresses it by telling Mexico to pay for an impenetrable wall along our mutual border. A simple answer for a multifaceted problem. Sounds good clap, clap. But its the kind of problem requiring the focus of people with the intellectual and emotional capacity to understand and care about the impact of their solutions. Trump has no such capacity. He only wants results, and fast! He listens and hears little. Just look at the exaggerated expression on his face in meetings, designed cover up his profound ignorance. There's also quite a lot of filler and half-baked story lines and underdeveloped ideas that leave this whole exercise feeling stilted and not quite finished. We don't know very much about Ruby, but what we do know is the night she turned 10 and her parents gave her a Gudetama keychain, her eyes glowed orange and the next morning her mother didn't remember who she was. And yet at 16, when she escapes the camp, all she wants to do is to go home. It's a bizarre little diversion with no satisfying reveal did she forget that her mom forgot her? Did she think it changed? The English language is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people around the world but we dont all speak it exactly the same way, even within the same country. Put someone from Louisiana together with someone from Massachusetts, for instance, and they might not understand one another. That's because American English is so diverse. Accents and pronunciations vary between regions. For example, it's easy to tell you're from the South if you pronounce "caramel" with three syllables. Different states also have their own unique slang words that describe things that don't exist elsewhere or that come from languages spoken by people who settled there. Other English terms have spread across entire regions, dividing the country into sections based on different words people use for the same object and things can get heated when people argue that their region's term is superior. Whether you call it a "sofa" or a "couch," here are 26 word variations that are a dead giveaway of where you're from. (This story originally appeared on The Active Times .) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) For the first time since former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was ousted, he faced some of his colleagues who dropped him for Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Alvarez and other lawmakers met at the PDP-Laban leaders meeting in Quezon City on Thursday. Addressing his fellow solons in the meeting, Alvarez assured them that he perfectly understands what happened. He added some colleagues should separate politics from friendship. He said despite what happened, he will still remain friends with them. Alvarez seemed to be moving on after his ouster. "I'm good. Very good. Okay na... Tahimik, nakakatulog ng maayos," the former House Speaker told members of the media. He admitted the first 24 hours after the coup d'etat in the House against his leadership was painful, but he had to pick himself up the next day. "Siyempre human being din tayo. Pero okay na rin, okay na ako. Ganun talaga ang pulitika... Focus lang sa distrito, malapit na rin ang filing ng candidacy," he said. From enjoying the support of more than 200 congressmen when he was Speaker, Alvarez is down to 11 lawmakers who remain loyal to him. They have joined the minority group led by ABS Party-List Representative Eugene de Vera -- one of at least three factions vying to be recognized as the House minority bloc. "Para sa akin, nagpapasalamat din ako dahil nga yung values ng loyalty, nandoon parin," he said. Alvarez was ousted on July 23 from his post after 184 solons voted for Arroyo. Who's the real PDP-Laban leader? Meanwhile, PDP-Laban President Koko Pimentel said the party is open to a possible alliance with the regional party of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, Hugpong ng Pagbabago. "There is no problem with a dual membership in a national party and regional party. Kausapin na rin namin lahat ng forces, parties, movements allied to support the president kasi we should all be cooperating with each other, not competing with each other," he said. During the meeting, Pimentel said some PDP-Laban members expressed concern they may face partymates or other Duterte allies in next year's elections. When PDP-Laban expanded in the provinces, even rivals of current members joined the party. "Political mapping. We compare the viability of the candidacy of our respective candidates. Kung malayo naman, malakas kandidato namin, kanila token lang, symbolic lang, kung pwedeng huwag na," Pimentel said. The senator said there is only one PDP-Laban - and that is their group. He repeated this statement after the PDP-Laban National Council group met last week and elected a new set of officers. But the PDP-Laban President elected during that assembly, Vicvic Garcia, claimed they have submitted the list of the party's new officers to the Commission on Elections. Higher post for Arroyo? Alvarez said it's not a problem if his partymates want him to bereplaced by Arroyo as Secretary-General following his ouster. But he said the issue should be discussed by the party first. Quezon City Representative Winnie Castelo earlier said that some PDP-Laban congressmen want to recommend that Arroyo be given a higher post, such as Secretary-General of the party. For his part, PDP-Laban President Pimentel said their party need not be reorganized just because of the change in House leadership. He said doing so would give other political parties, which may have had an involvement in the ouster, an indirect control of their party. The Senator said if a member recommends Arroyo to a higher position, they will entertain the proposal. "We would like to see residents that live near the schools participate in the campaign. With the higher volume of school traffic, whether it is vehicular, pedestrians or kids on bikes it is our priority area." If a dealer was close and needed to punch a couple more cars as sold to get their dealer bonus cash, they could punch a car sold that wasnt technically sold (thereby starting the warranty), Morris said. If (Mark) is not satisfied with the offer theyve made him for this car (whose warranty has already started), then he needs to renegotiate the deal. He could not be reached for comment this week, but his chief of staff Nick Palmer said it is not about being for or against a development, but making sure it is in the right location, where it will not be a detriment to the community. That has been a featured item at the 11 restaurants hes owned and operated in the United Kingdom before coming to the United States, to which he moved in 2005. He wound up in the Fox Valley after getting married, lived for a time in St. Charles, divorced, became a U.S. citizen and now lives in Elburn, he said. Other school districts in the area ranked high in categories Niche reviewed. School District U46 was cited as the 14th most-diverse school district in the state, according to the 2019 list. Its A grade in the category comes largely from its student body, which is more than 70 percent Hispanic, African American, Asian, multi-racial and Native American. Since Donald J. Trump has become president of the great United States, we have had so many racial incidents it is on the verge of being pathetic. We have it on the news almost every day a white person calling the police on a black person about some little thing that shouldnt bother them in the least. You can be standing on the corner, and they call the police. You cant sell lemonade on the sidewalk. The latest is not being allowed to go into a pool. When and where is this going to stop? This is not what this country is about. So, I feel compelled to urge you that if you feel at all interested in going to the Hinsdale Public Librarys Book Club Party scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sept. 14, register as soon as possible. This years party is going to be more social, Schoo said, which is why it is being held on a Friday night. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) Malacanang on Thursday welcomed a United States federal grand jury indictment of Janet Lim-Napoles as it bolsters the case against the alleged pork barrel scam mastermind. "The charge of money laundering against Mrs. Napoles and her co-defendants shows that there is reason to believe that they attempted to retain the ill-gotten gains from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. Napoles and five members of her family were indicted for conspiring to funnel in and out of the United States around $20 million in Philippine public funds believed obtained through a bribery and fraud scheme. A U.S. Department of Justice statement on Tuesday said Napoles, Jo Christine Napoles, James Christopher Napoles, Jeane Catherine Napoles, Reynald Luy Lim, and Ana Marie Lim were charged in the indictment for conspiracy to commit domestic and international money laundering. "With the help of U.S. authorities, who have been in continuous coordination with our government, the funds that Mrs. Napoles and her co-defendants attempted to hide away will soon be returned for the benefit of the Filipino people," Roque added. The U.S. DOJ said it has been working with its counterpart in the Philippines, as well as the Office of the Ombudsman, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the Commission on Audit to resolve this case. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed the joint efforts on the case. She doesnt want customers to look at the tags of the items and feel everything is out of their price range. A lot of tops and dresses in the stores sell from $48 to $58. A: Our public is very visual and people really engage in videos more than in written words. I try to make my communications very visual. One of the videos, The Kindergarten Hurricane Giving Project, started the whole whirlwind activity during Hurricane Harvey in Houston in 2017. The Fremont teachers wanted to bring this to their students and make it real to them. We did this by bringing in supplies and packing it up for the Houston students, and this is what the two-minute video is all about. I also give book club tours, she said. When the book, Loving Frank, became popular, the Trust made a tour available for book clubs. The Loving Frank tour is a bit different than our regular public tour because it focuses more on some of the aspects of the book. At the end of the tour, we gather to have an actual book discussion, and the individuals who come to these tours and discussions seem to love being in the place where some of the book actually took place. Judy Jacobi, who serves on the board of the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, said Bernsteins songs and music from his classic West Side Story are some of the most anticipated works audiences are eager to hear during at this months special showcase concert. The devices for detecting weapons are slated to arrive in August, when most of Indiana's schoolchildren start the new school year. Schools that didn't place an order will be able to do so this fall, Holcomb's office said. Though its not known if the sketches were added to Bailly Howes book after she received it, one of them is attributed as the only known likeness of Joseph Bailly. Though there is no inscription or note, Berndt said, the Bailly family patriarch died in 1832, so if the sketch is of him, it was likely done from memory. And, most alarmingly, Trump called on his attorney general to "stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further." A measure of how alarming was the scrambling by Trump's team of enablers to explain that the president was not, in fact, ordering Attorney General Jeff Sessions to kill the investigation. Rather, in this soft-core retelling, Trump was merely expressing his opinion about what should happen -- as if that is much better, when the opinionizer is the president. Beijing's pharmaceutical industry seemed to have reached a crossroad four years ago, when the capital began to move non-essential functions out of the city under a central government plan to coordinate its development with that of neighboring Tianjin and Hebei. According to the plan, all producers of chemically-active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) were required to leave the city by 2017 in response to environmental and land constraints. Actually, the pharmaceuticals themselves already faced relocation because of Beijing's space and resource pressures; however, there was a policy barrier. According to Chinese regulations, pharmaceutical manufacturing activities have to be located and supervised by the authorities of the places in which they initially registered. Once relocated, they would have to reapply for approvals and certifications for their drugs in the new locations. This not only takes a long time (at least two to three years) but will also cost pharmaceuticals their valued "made in Beijing" status and the vibrancy of the vast Beijing market. Such a potential dilemma was solved when the Beijing-Cangzhou Bohai New Area Biomedicine Industry Park was set up in Cangzhou city, in neighboring Hebei province, early in 2015. The park, a cooperative project between the governments of Beijing and Hebei, forming part of the overall national plan for regional development, allows pharmaceuticals to relocate their production of designated drugs without having to alter their names and places of registration, the first such practice in China. The relevant authorities in Beijing will continue to issue licenses and certifications and exercise supervision, while a better part of the corporate taxes will go to Hebei. Located within the State-level Cangzhou Coastal Port Economic and Technological Development Zone Park, the biomedicine facility has a planned area of 28.29 square kilometers. So far, it has signed contracts for 132 projects with a total investment of 41.1 billion yuan. Among the enterprises already moving in, 80 percent are from Beijing. High-end APIs, medical preparations, modern traditional Chinese medicine, health industry and a pharmaceutical-themed town form the five distinctive prongs of the park. Compared with the overcrowded capital, the park has an ample supply of land available at a much lower price. Besides, it enjoys all the preferential policies to which a State-level development zone is entitled. Beijing Winsunny Harmony is among those establishing a Cangzhou subsidiary. The company has now finished trial production of eight kinds of APIs in the park, and has plans to relocate the remaining 12 by 2019 or 2020, according to Liu Zhidong, head of technology of Beijing Winsunny Harmony (Cangzhou). The company, like others in the sector, faced heavy environmental pressure in Beijing as they are considered polluting enterprises; however, the Beijing government had difficulty supervising them as they were scattered over the vast metropolis, Liu explained. In Cangzhou, since they are concentrated in one park, it is much easier for the government to guide and help them in their environmental protection efforts, he said. "Government environmental oversight has not loosened in any way since we moved to Cangzhou. As a matter of fact, it is even stricter than in Beijing," said Liu. Besides, being located adjacent to each other, the companies can achieve much better communication with each other than before on safety, environmental protection, production, GMP certification, etc. "Different companies have different advantages, and we can help each other improve through increased communication," added Liu. Cost reduction is another advantage compared with Beijing. "Steam used for pharmaceutical production costs less than 200 yuan per ton in the park, while it is 500 yuan in Beijing," said Liu. To better help enterprises settle and operate in the park, the coastal port economic and technological development zone has entrusted the park's pharmaceutical industry association with the task of setting up and running a service center, which offers a wide range of services relating to pre-entry inquiries and procedures, financing, recruitment, third-party services and training. However, there is a common problem facing enterprises in the park -- lack of research and development staff. Liu's company injects 40 percent of its annual revenue into research and development every year and has plans to locate its R&D activities in the park to better match production. To address staffing and other needs, the Cangzhou city government signed an agreement with Tianjin-based Nankai University in June to establish the Nankai University-Bohai New Area Green Chemical Engineering Research Institute. Relying on Nankai University's intellectual resources, the institute will gradually establish more than 10 branches covering separate areas of research including biomedicine in Cangzhou. Earlier in April, the development zone also signed a framework agreement with Hebei Chemical Engineering and Medicine Polytech on talent cultivation. As more and more pharmaceuticals move in, the park aims to increase its fixed asset investment to 50 billion yuan, output value to 100 billion yuan and tax revenue to 10 billion yuan by 2020. Hui Ka Yan, chairman of Evergrande Real Estate Group, holds the No 1 position on the 2018 Forbes China Philanthropy List, followed by He Xiangjian, founder of Midea Group, and Zhang Jianbin, chairman of Jiangsu Winfast Investment Holding Group, according to Forbes on July 26. Hui gave away 4.21 billion yuan ($617 million) targeting poverty reduction, including the poverty alleviation project in Bijie, Southwest China's Guizhou province. He Xiangjian and Zhang Jianbin have donated 1.09 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan respectively. The list, comprising 100 entrepreneurs, represented 17.31 billion yuan in cash donations, up 66 percent compared with last year. The minimum donation hit 13 million yuan, nearly three times the 5 million yuan of the year before. Education, poverty alleviation and medical care were the main focus of donations. Most entrepreneurs are generous in education by donating cash or setting up special education funds for their alma maters. The universities that received the most donations were Zhejiang University, Renmin University of China, Tsinghua University and Peking University. For companies on the list, real estate, finance and the internet occupy the top three industries for those charity givers. The real estate industry boasts not only the most billionaires, but also the most philanthropists: 32 companies have given 9.23 billion yuan, accounting for 53.3 percent of overall donations. Meanwhile financial and internet industries contributed 3.4 billion yuan, nearly 20 percent of total cash donations. Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai are the top three regions with the most philanthropic companies, while companies in Guangdong, Beijing and East China's Fujian province contribute more than 70 percent of the total donations. Chinese rocket scientists are devising ways to enable some of their products to be reusable, according to senior space scientists. Lu Yu, head of the science and technology committee at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that designers at the academy, the country's largest developer of launch vehicles, have begun making tests with some of China's in-service rockets to see whether they can be modified to be reusable, and whether their stages can be safely retrieved. "If we can control the descent process of the core stage of a rocket and recover it, we will be able to improve the economic performance of our launches, and also reduce risk and disturbance to residents living along the rocket's trajectory," he said. Lu noted the nation's new generation of launch vehicles will also adopt reusable technologies, and the Long March 8 will be the first to use such technologies among new rockets. The Long March 8 is now under development at the academy, and will eventually be tasked with providing commercial launch services to customers around the globe. "The need for space-based services from the government, the commercial sector and the public keeps increasing, thus generating huge demand for launch services," Lu said. "Making rockets recoverable and reusable is an ideal approach to reduce launch costs as well as boost mission efficiency." Lu made the remarks on the sidelines of a design competition for recoverable carrier rockets hosted by his academy. Reusable rockets are not easy to make as they require low-cost manufacturing techniques, lightweight materials and advanced autonomous landing technology with high accuracy, he added. "Therefore we are holding a competition to invite members of the public to display their creative and innovative ideas that can generate new ideas for our engineers," he said. According to Long Lehao, a top Chinese rocket scientist and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Long March 8 will have two stages and two boosters, and the first stage and boosters are expected to be retrieved through vertical landings. If research and development proceeds accordingly, the new rocket will make its maiden flight around 2021, Long said at a lecture in June at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Li Tongyu, head of carrier rocket development at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said the Long March 8 will be capable of sending 4.5-metric-ton payloads to a sun-synchronous orbit, or 2.5 tons to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. In another development, ChinaRocket Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, announced on Tuesday that it is designing a small, solid-fuel rocket to provide commercial launches for clients. The LD 1 will be able to place a 150-kilogram satellite, or multiple mini satellites, into a sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above Earth. Its prelaunch preparations will be much easier than those for large rockets and will take only 24 hours, the company said in a statement. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) Senate Constitutional Amendments Committee Chair Kiko Pangilinan is not very keen on inviting Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson to discuss federalism. Senator Nancy Binay made the suggestion on Wednesday, saying Uson should explain the proposal. Uson, who has been slammed for sharing misleading and wrong information, has been tapped to help spread awareness regarding charter change. When asked on CNN Philippines' The Source if he thought Uson could explain federalism to the public, Pangilinan said, "I'm sure there are more learned experts." "But we'll see. Pag nirequest ni [If requested by] Sen. Binay officially, then we will have to take it from there," he added. The senator said they would probably invite Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar. He said he was open to inviting Uson if she could discuss how the 90 million budget for the federalism campaign would be used. "If to clarify on the issue of 90 million being spent, puwede siguro. Apart from her, siguro yung pinaka-head ng PCOO," said Pangilinan. [Translation: If (it is) to clarify on the issue of 90 million being spent, we might. Apart from her, probably (we should invite) the head of PCOO.] The government already started its information drive through federalism roadshows organized by the Department of Interior and Local Government and Consultative Committee tasked to review the 1987 Constitution. DILG spokesperson and federalism campaign chief Jonathan Malaya previously pegged their budget at 100 million. However, the controversial roadshows were slammed after the Philippine News Agency reported thousands of attendees in Bicol supported charter change. It was also criticized as an early campaign platform for possible candidates like Special Assistant to the President Bong Go and presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino. Pangilinan noted that when the Senate visited Baguio, a participant said four seminars on federalism had already been held in the city each with a different proposal. The senator wanted to know how the budget was being allocated for this information drive. "Is this an education campaign, or is this a may-kumikita-dito campaign?" he said. [Translation: Is this an education campaign, or a campaign where somebody profits?] The Senate in general has been cold toward charter change, following public surveys that showed aversion to federalism and a lack of understanding of it. Senate President Tito Sotto said the upper house would not rush federalism, while Majority Leader Migz Zubiri said it was not within Senate priorities at all. Moreover, Senator Ping Lacson told The Source on Wednesday that charter change was "as good as dead" at least with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Speaker in the House of Representatives. As China looks to enhance its reputation as a world-class center for higher learning, education chiefs are putting the final touches on the nation's first quality standards for university programs aimed at international students. The standards will set basic requirements for institutions looking to enroll overseas students as well as for the people hoping to study there, according to a Ministry of Education statement provided to China Daily exclusively. Last year, the ministry issued guidelines that required universities to establish enrollment criteria and arrange courses for foreign students based on their own conditions, but there were no national standards. The new standards, expected before the end of the year, will provide guidance and norms for government management, school administration and social evaluation, according to the ministry. It added that third-party organizations will also be invited to participate in the evaluation of universities' enrollment, training and management of overseas students. In September and March, ministry supervisors looked at the enrollment and management problems of some universities and colleges, and those with problems were ordered to make prompt corrections, the ministry said. In 2014, China overtook France to become the third most popular destination for overseas students, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. More than 489,000 international students from 204 countries and regions were studying at 935 universities in China in 2017, up by more than 10 percent from a year earlier, according to the ministry. The nation is on course to meet its target of hosting 500,000 international students by 2020-a figure that, based on current numbers, would see it overtake the UK. Overseas students generate 20.3 billion pounds ($26.6 billion) for the UK, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute, a UK think tank. China, however, still generates more international students than it takes in and hopes to balance its books. Saman Pouyanmehr, an Iranian senior student at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said international students have also contributed a lot to the income of Chinese universities, as they generally pay full tuition and often pay three times what Chinese students pay. Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences under the Ministry of Education, said in an effort to appear more international, many Chinese colleges and universities have indiscriminately expanded the number of foreign students, with inadequate attention paid to their credentials. A small number of colleges and universities, solely focused on economic benefit, have lowered their recruitment thresholds by accepting a secondary-school graduation certificate as the only qualification, instead of entrance exams and language qualifications required by most universities in the US or UK, Chu said. That has caused the quality of the student body to fall short of the criteria and affected the reputation of China's higher education, he said. The quality of teaching at some colleges and universities is low due to shortages of teachers capable of delivering courses in English, he added. To address the shortage, the ministry opened two training centers and has trained almost 1,000 people who can teach courses in English since 2012. Madeleine Leewellyn, an Indonesian student at UIBE, said the standards will help Chinese universities do a better job selecting students and help guarantee international students receive a high-quality education. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has opened four of its major warships for members of the public to visit in Quanzhou, east China's Fujian Province. The event, from July 30 to Aug. 1 at Port Shihu, is the largest scale public opening of warships by the PLA Navy at the same location. The four warships are missile destroyer Changchun, corvette Quanzhou, tank landing ship Wuyishan, and amphibious dock landing ship Jinggangshan. The hot weather did not deter members of the public from traveling afar to take a look at the PLA Navy ships. During the first two days, 14,500 people visited the ships. The number had surpassed 20,000 by noon Wednesday. Despite huge crowds, the visits were orderly and enabled the public to experience breathtaking close-up views of the Chinese navy ships. Cai Kai, who will soon enter the National University of Defense Technology, visited Jinggangshan. He was delighted to discover that this amphibious dock landing ship was the same type of warship featured in the film Operation Red Sea, a Chinese anti-terrorism action film. Jinggangshan is the second largest battleship operated by the PLA Navy. In addition to landing operations, the vessel is capable of carrying marine corps, air forces, and medical units during non-combat military operations. Jinggangshan has taken part in Gulf of Aden escort missions and helped search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. "The Chinese navy has gone through more and more changes each year," said Wu Ying, who joined the PLA in 1978. Although retired, Wu still feels closely tied to China's armed forces. "We have gathered powerful strength on our march to fulfill the dream of making China and the military strong," said Wu. The predecessor of the corvette Quanzhou was built in July, 1958. During the past 60 years, it has accomplished victories in all previous combat missions and become known as the "maritime tiger." This was the first time Quanzhou has anchored at the city it was named after. The electronic screen on board displayed "a warm welcome to the people of Quanzhou." Le Bo, political commissar of Quanzhou, often joined the interpreters to introduce the ship to visitors. Le said this event will help the public know more about the national defense and showcase an open and confident navy. This event also welcomes family members of the Chinese serving armed forces so that they better understand the daily lives of their beloved. Huang Yating, born in the 1990's, is the first female student to graduate with honors from the PLA's naval academy in Dalian. Inspired by her uncle and grandfather, who both served in the PLA ground forces, she has dreamed of serving in the PLA since childhood. Huang, now a deputy observation and communications officer, has been serving aboard Jinggangshan for three years. "Being part of the navy, our duty, life, and future are on the sea. Only through hard work can we embrace our dreams in the future," she said. Livestreaming website Douyu has said it will provide patriotic education to its hosts after closing an account on Thursday because of a video that joked about the Nanjing Massacre and the occupation of Northeast China by the Japanese army. Footage of host Chen Yifa making fun of a painful moment in national history against the background music of a Japanese song spread rapidly via social media. Police ordered the website - which is based in Wuhan, Hubei province - to strengthen its management. Chen - who broadcasts under the name Chenyifaer - is a well-known song and video game streamer on Douyu. She has about 11 million followers on the livestreaming platform and about 5 million followers on Sina Weibo. Netizens found that Chen had also made extreme remarks on her Sina Weibo posts in 2010 and 2011, including insulting Chinese veterans. Chen apologized on Tuesday afternoon. She said in a statement that the video clip was a slip of the tongue when she was streaming in 2016 and pledged that she will fulfill the social responsibility of public figures in the future. Douyu banned Chen's account and reported it to related authorities for further treatment, the company said in a statement on Tuesday night. It added that it will organize visits for streamers to revolutionary sites and historical museums, and that such activities will become regular to help them remember and truly understand history. The company said the video was from 2016 and that in the past two years it has had the strictest content review in the industry and welcomes supervision from the public. Yuan Gang, deputy CEO of Douyu, told China Daily in May that livestreaming can be delayed for 20 seconds to allow for better reviewing, and the algorithm for content monitoring is being improved. Pi Yong, deputy head of the Cyberspace Governance Research Institute at Wuhan University, said that harmful or illegal content is a universal phenomenon on livestreaming sites, and content review remains no easy job for operators because there are a large numbers of streamers active at any moment. Zhang Xiaoqiang, a professor of journalism at Chongqing University, said the operators should at least ensure that the streamers are aware of the regulations that govern online content before they register, and pay close attention to the streamers who have large followings because they have greater influence. "A tip-off system may work well," he said. "Both the regulators and operators should encourage the public to report harmful content, because the number of users is rising quickly, making it extremely difficult to track everyone." It is also important to raise the media literacy of netizens, especially for minors, and schools should pay more attention to teaching them right and wrong. You are here: Opinion China has achieved unprecedented progress in the war against corruption in the armed forces, holding a number of high-ranking officers accountable over the past few years. At the beginning of March 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump began to take action on his threat of tariffs. He then tweeted that "when a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win." But is this really the case? Lessons on Sino-American trade relations learned only five months later do not necessarily vindicate the decision of the U.S. president to start a trade war. Imposing tariffs does not always lead the other side to surrender, despite Trump's desire for them to do so. From the very beginning, China warned the U.S. that it would respond with equal tariffs, and to no surprise, this is exactly what is happening now. While the U.S. targets imports of Chinese products with sanctions, China is doing the same with imports of American products. It is hard to assess which side will lose more during this trade war, as both are starting to feel the economic effects of the tariffs. But as far as the U.S. is concerned, Trump is taking a high risk as long as China retaliates. To start with, he has found little support for this trade war, even among Republicans. In the last few months, there was a huge Republican backlash in states with major farming industries. Now that the trade war has started, Trump recently signed a bill to help American farmers by delivering $12 billion in aid. Ironically, the U.S. president is doing exactly what he criticizes the Chinese for: offering subsidies. It is not surprising that Republican Senators remain skeptical because American farmers certainly prefer normal trade than economic assistance. Against this backdrop, the American business community does not generally consider tariffs to be the right answer, even if it pushes China to further open up its market. In addition, big companies such as General Motors already see a rise in costs due to sanctions while American enterprises operating in China might soon be under serious pressure, as reported by CNN Money. The American media also considers the aborted takeover of NXP semiconductors by Qualcomm as the victim of trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. More importantly, American media presents China as a country able to efficiently cope with the ongoing trade war. CNBC, for example, explains that although the U.S. market is significant for certain Chinese products, China's overall export sector is not highly dependent on the U.S. market, which accounts for 19 percent of its total exports. Among other things, the Beijing administration can strategically affect the planning of critical U.S. industries such as energy. American companies, for instance, do not want to lose Chinese clients who import liquefied natural gas. Reuters recently referred to the ability of China to influence the oil and natural gas market should its tariffs go beyond agricultural goods and automobiles. China has accused the U.S. of launching "the largest trade war in economic history." The scope of this trade war cannot yet be anticipated. Some analysts believe the U.S. will toughen its stance in the near future following the recent agreement with the EU on the subject of tariffs. Specifically, Trump and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker agreed in Washington to work towards zero tariffs. On these grounds, the EU is expected to import more liquefied natural gas and soybeans from the U.S. But this is a rather general framework as the European Commission does not have the power to define the choices of private companies. The Wall Street Journal's recently expressed optimism that the U.S. and the EU are building an alliance against third parties "unfair trading practices" write China is exaggerated. All in all, China does not fear Trump as other countries do. The use of threats as well as the ability to negotiate are not exclusive privileges of the U.S. president. So, Beijing will remain strong, irrespective of Washington's future decisions. The trade war does not distract China's principal policy of continuing the opening-up process. The National Development and Reform Commission announced a few weeks ago a reduced list of industries in which foreign investment is limited or prohibited. Instead of punitive tariffs generating retribution, attention should also focus on constructive economic measures. Foreign Policy magazine published an article titled: "Why China will win the trade war." This logic goes beyond China's interest because trade wars are not easy to win. The country wants to avoid this war and not be involved in order to have to win it. George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. Flash White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's tweet earlier this morning urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down the ongoing Russia probe is an "opinion," not an "order." The response came hours after Trump said in a tweet that Sessions should stop the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, marking an escalation of his attacks against the wide-ranging inquiry and raising speculation about his intention. "It's not an order. It's the President's opinion." Sanders told a White House briefing Wednesday afternoon. "The President wants to - has watched this process play out. But he also wants to see it come to an end as he stated many times." Trump's tweet is viewed as the most direct call that demands Sessions intervene to end the probe, which critics say amounts to an attempt to obstruct justice, a claim that Sanders rejected. Sessions infuriated the president by recusing himself from the Russia investigation last March before Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who's overseeing the inquiry and has defended the special counsel. Asked whether Trump is aware that Sessions can't stop the investigation, Sanders said, "The President's very well aware of how the process works, once again, he's stating his opinion." Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. Since beginning leading the probe from May 2017, Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people, including several former Trump campaign aides. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was indicted by Mueller last fall, is facing trial for bank and tax fraud in federal court in state of Virginia. Legal analysts say Mueller's primary aim in charging Manafort is to put pressure on him so that he would provide information about alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Reacting to the tweet about Sessions, Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president said "should," not "must" when talking about ending the Mueller investigation, and "no presidential order was issued or will be." The New York Times reported last month that Mueller is also investigating Trump's tweets criticizing Sessions as to whether the president has obstructed justice. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted Trump's tweets as "an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight." In other tweets, Trump repeated his attacks against the probe on Wednesday by calling it "a hoax," claiming that Mueller is "totally conflicted" and what' s his team is doing is "a disgrace" to the country. As the Russia probe continues, Trump and his political allies have ratcheted up pressure on Mueller and his team in recent months. Giuliani made headlines on Monday by saying that "collusion is not a crime," a claim reiterated by Trump a day later. Flash The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Wednesday slapped sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers citing their roles in the detention of a U.S. pastor. The Treasury said in a statement that Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu had "played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson." "Pastor Brunson's unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "President (Donald) Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately." Brunson, a 50-year-old Christian pastor, was detained two years ago in Turkey on spying charges, and faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty. He was indicted on charges of having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization, which Turkey accuses of being behind a coup attempt in 2016 to topple Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A Turkish court ruled last week agreeing to move Brunson from prison to house arrest over health concerns, but it still does not allow him to return to the United States. As a result of Wednesday's sanctions, any property or interest in property of both Turkish ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. On the same day, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said at a press briefing that Trump has discussed the matter on "several occasions" with his Turkish counterpart Erdogan, and that "he's not happy with Turkey's decision not to release Pastor Brunson." U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has said that the United States will slap significant sanctions on Turkey unless it releases Brunson "immediately." Turkey responded with a strongly worded statement. Its National Security Council said on Monday that the threatening language of the United States is "unacceptable and disrespectful." Flash U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his attacks against the ongoing Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shut down the wide-ranging inquiry. In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Trump said Sessions should stop the Mueller probe, which he again labelled as "Rigged Witch Hunt," in his most direct call that demands Sessions intervene. The attack also came as former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who was indicted by Mueller last fall, faces trial for bank and tax fraud for the second day in federal court in state of Virginia. Sessions infuriated the president by recusing himself from the Russia investigation last March before Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who's overseeing the inquiry and has defended the special counsel. Mueller is looking into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, among other matters that may arise from the investigation. The special counsel has so far indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people, including several former Trump campaign aides, and three Russian entities since he began leading the probe from May 2017. The New York Times reported last month that Mueller is also investigating Trump's tweets criticizing Sessions as to whether the president has obstructed justice. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted Trump's tweets as "an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight." Trump repeated his attacks against the probe on Wednesday by calling it "a hoax," claiming that Mueller is "totally conflicted" and what's his team is doing is "a disgrace" to the country. The president also tried again to distance himself from Manafort, who joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016 and spent about two months working as campaign chairman before resigning over exposure of his Ukrainian lobbying work. "Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders," Trump said in another tweet. "He worked for me for a very short time." Manafort, 69, went on trial on charges of bank and tax fraud Tuesday, becoming the first member of Trump's election team to face trial on charges arising from Mueller's investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud associated with his lobbying work for the Ukrainian government years before Trump declared his candidacy in 2015. Manafort's trial in Virginia is expected to last several weeks but prosecutors have said they will not present evidence of collusion this time. The veteran political operative is facing a separate trial in Washington, D.C. scheduled for mid-September on charges of money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent and witness tampering. He has also pleaded not guilty to those charges. Legal observers said Mueller's primary aim in charging Manafort is to put pressure on him so that he would provide information about alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. As the Russia probe continues, Trump and his political allies have ratcheted up pressure on Mueller and his team in recent months. Trump's attorney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, made headlines on Monday by saying that "collusion is not a crime," a claim reiterated by Trump a day later. Russia has denied allegations that it meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) A senator said Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio has what it takes to be the country's next leader. "If the next leader of our country would emerge from the young, fresh and new faces in national politics my top choice right now is Sara Duterte," Lacson said at a weekly media briefing Thursday. "She's strong-willed, stern, vibrant, progressive-minded and has obviously good leadership qualities," Lacson said of the 40-year-old mayor. Lacson said this is his personal opinion and clarified he is not in any way endorsing the presidential daughter. President Rodrigo Duterte has said his daughter is not interested in any national post, but Duterte-Carpio herself has not issued a final answer. A Pulse Asia survey in April showed many Filipinos back the younger Duterte for senator. The private pollster said she would be among the top six senators if the 2019 midterm polls were held the day the survey was conducted. The next presidential election is in 2022, but Duterte has made it clear he will step down from his post immediately if the proposed shift to a federal form of government is approved. In the same press briefing, Lacson called on Filipinos to reject any form of influence-peddling from presidential relatives as experienced during past administrations. He cited as examples Imelda Marcos, the wife of late President Ferdinand Marcos; Peping Cojuangco, the uncle of former President Benigno Aquino III; and Mike Arroyo, the husband of former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "It is not about them. It is about undue intrusion in some major state affairs in which they have no business interfering," Lacson said. His comment comes amid some lawmakers' confirmation that Duterte-Carpio was behind the controversial ouster of Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as House Speaker. They said the feisty mayor asked representatives for support in ousting Alvarez and electing Arroyo as House leader. This is a claim Duterte-Carpio has neither confirmed nor denied. Lacson earlier told CNN Philippines the presidential daughter's involvement in the House leadership change "doesn't speak well of the much touted strong leadership of the President." There are also talks of representatives leaving PDP-Laban for Lakas-CMD, Arroyo's political party before she pledged allegiance to PDP-Laban in October 2017. Lakas-CMD may then merge with Duterte-Carpio's regional party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Duterte-Carpio said her party is willing to forge alliances with other political groups, but added it is not ready to go national. CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario and Eimor Santos contributed to this report. You are here: World Flash Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy Li Xiaopeng, also the transport minister, will attend the Colombian presidential inauguration in Bogota, which is scheduled for Aug. 7. Li's attendance is at the invitation of the Colombian government, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Thursday. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) Government operatives have detained an Islamic cleric considered "a person of interest" in the Basilan car bomb attack that killed 10 people, officials said Thursday. Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the military's Western Mindanao Command, said Indalin Jainul was arrested after army scout rangers found a grenade in his possession as they were questioning him about Tuesday's blast. Besana said the military earlier received tips from informants that the cleric had knowledge about the blast and that he facilitated the entry of foreign fighters coming from Malaysia. Until investigation can determine his involvement in the bombing, however, Jainul is considered 'a person of interest,' Besana added. "There is a high probability (that he was involved) kaya person of interest nga," Besana said in a text message. "But to be fair, investigate pa muna." (Translation: There is a high probability (that he was involved), that's why he is a person of interest. But to be fair, we should investigate first.) The military turned over the cleric to the police on Wednesday, a day after they arrested the 58-year-old man from Lamitan's Barangay Tinambakan. The Lamitan City Police officer-in-charge, Supt. Christopher Panapan, in a report said his office has prepared a criminal case against Jainul for multiple murder, multiple serious physical injuries, and illegal possession of explosives. Jainul's family, however, denied the allegations. No compromise with terrorists Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim on Thursday said he had directed commanders in the island of Basilan to go on full alert following the bombing incident. The direction was done in order to prepare 'for more possible terrorist attacks,' per the MILF leader, who also issued a statement condemning the attack. "There will be no compromise with terrorists whose aims are to create chaos, destruction, and bloodshed," Murad said. "No quarters shall be given to them and they must be defeated at once. They must not be allowed to grow," he added. The Islamic State group (ISIS) earlier claimed responsibility for the Tuesday 'suicide bombing' attack, which happened at a security checkpoint in Lamitan. Philippine military however dismissed the claims, saying that "any terrorist group or organization can conveniently claim responsibility and ride on the incident for their own glorification." The blast prompted Metro Manila security to go on heightened alert, with police adding checkpoints and personnel in public places. CNN Philippines' David Santos contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 2) Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo needs to gain the confidence of senators to achieve the popularity she enjoys in the House of Representatives, Senator Koko Pimentel said today. "The new speaker must win the trust of my fellow senators kasi naramdaman ko rin yung mistrust or distrust of senators towards (her)," he said in an ambush interview at a meeting of the leaders of the ruling party, PDP-Laban. [Translation: The new speaker must win the trust of my fellow sentaors, as I also feel their mistrust or distrust towards (her).] Pimentel said some senators continue to believe the former president wants to become prime minister under a federal form of government, a view he does not share. "Pinopoint out ko nga na wala namang draft na may prime minister," he said. "Saan manggagaling yun? Still, they're insisting baka may hidden agenda." [Translation: I even pointed out there is no draft with a Prime Minister (position). Where did that come from? Still, they're insisting she might have a hidden agenda.] The proposed federal charter of the Consultative Committee does not provide for the position. Arroyo, who also pushed for charter change when she was president, had dismissed as black propaganda all speculation that she was after a prime minister post. However, some senators remain unconvinced -- particularly Senator Grace Poe. Poe's father, the late popular actor Fernando Poe, Jr., lost to Arroyo in the 2004 presidential elections amid allegations of poll fraud. "Sa ating mga kababayan, maghanda lang kayo," Poe warned when Arroyo rose to the House leadership. "Pagka-ang mga namuno sa Kongreso ay i-railroad itong (charter change) at gawing parliamentary form, maaaring magising na lang kayo, either patas ang kapangyarihan (niya) sa pangulong binoto ninyo, o siya na ang magte-take over bilang Prime Minister." [Translation: To our countrymen, be ready. If the heads of Congress railroad (charter change) and convert government to parliamentary form, you might wake up to (those people) holding equal powers as the President, or ready to take over as Prime Minister.] Other members of the Upper Chamber have issues with Arroyo, who assumed power when former president Joseph Estrada, father of Senator JV Ejercito, was forced to step down amid a popular revolt. Senators Gringo Honasan and Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes were jailed for trying to unseat Arroyo. READ: Lacson: Cha-cha 'good as dead' with Arroyo in the House Senator Panfilo Lacson, a strong critic of Arroyo, went into hiding in 2010 after murder charges were filed against him by her administration. While he said he had made peace with the Speaker he clarified that he lives by the rule: forgive your enemies, but don't forget their names. CNN Philippines correspondent Joyce Ilas contributed to this report. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. Fundatia Est-Europeana anunta lansarea Programului de granturi pentru sustinerea fondurilor de antreprenoriat pentru tineri, inclusiv unul in Gagauzia